If you own your own business or are an entrepreneur, you can often be faced with challenges that strike down your motivation to go on. But here are a few ways you can reign in the troops and find the gumption to keep going.

1. Define your core values. Core values encapsulated in a mission statement will guide your company through times good and bad by helping you find direction and bringing you through turbulent times. “Making money” is not a goal that’s sure to keep you motivated when clients aren’t coming, but “delivering sustainable sources of energy” or something similarly specific will help you stay motivated towards a goal that forms the bigger picture.
2. Take a look at the checkpoints. There may be a gap between your desired results and the actual results of what’s happened so far because your goal is monolithic and too far into the future. Take a look at smaller components to get a more accurate picture of how things are progressing, which will also bolster your motivation to continue carrying the torch.
3. Surround yourself with friends. The people around you play a big role in your success. When it comes to running your own business, there are a lot of naysayers out there who will throw in their two cents, but take it all with a grain of salt. Instead, seek out like-minded visionaries and entrepreneurs, both at networking events and in casual contexts. Get inspiration and motivation from those in a similar station who also have an imaginative vision for the future.
4. Remember that the grass isn’t always greener. If you’re one of those business owners who have previous experience in the nine-to-five economy, remember what it was like to sign away your schedule and practically your soul to a corporate overlord. While running your business is tough, it sure beats being underpaid, underappreciated, and overworked by someone who can just flick you away at the drop of the hat. Do you really want to return to that kind of environment?
5. Figure out what you want. Desire is the motivating force behind almost anything, and business is no different. If you’ve pegged your desires as shallow goals like making more cash, it can be easy to get discouraged. But if you dig a little deeper and get to some core reasons for being inspired, it’s easier to stay the course—for example, a better home, providing for your family, or enjoying life to the fullest.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a picture or a diagram has nothing on a video. Seriously. If a picture can pack so much communication value, you can’t even imagine what a video can deliver.

Indeed, videos are worth thousands of pictures because they convey emotional connection. They communicate a sense of urgency. They efficiently explain concepts, and they reduce what could be confusing ideas into symbols or sequences most people can understand.

Videos are so powerful that more and more people are searching for them on the internet instead of text. Let’s face it, most people are in a hurry. They don’t have time to read through an article and piece everything together. This is especially true for articles that have absolutely no graphics. For too many people, text is simply too flat.

With video, you feel like you are dealing with a real person giving you information. It’s easier to get into the video emotionally. It’s easier to get engaged. In fact, if you think you missed something or if a concept kind of flew over your head, you can easily backtrack on a video and review that portion.

It is no surprise that more and more marketers are making a lot of money using videos.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

Here are the “secrets” to starting a wildly profitable Internet business in your spare time. 

If you’re serious about earning an extra income from a home based business, then you must learn and apply these secrets today. 

Secret #1: Leverage Your Time. 
You’ll never get rich trading dollars for hours. The wealthy let their money and other people work for them to produce a profit. 

Secret #2: Use an Automated Building System. 
Guess what? The number one reason people can’t make it in business is because they can’t or don’t like to sell. 
The solution is to simply set up an automatic selling system.

Secret #3: Don’t Re-Invent The Wheel. 
Don’t start from scratch. That’s the hardest way to do anything. Just do what already works. 

Secret #4: Recognize Timing
Have you heard the saying, “A rising tide raises all ships.” Millions of people are looking Right Now. 

It’s your time to win.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

Social Media is a great tool for content marketing, but there are some rules to the game. Check out these 10 suggestions for effective posting that gets engagement.

1. Use a great visuals. The visual content is what will stop people from scrolling through the endless parade of their feed and checking out your post. If you don’t have an image directly related to your business, use some stock imagery from a free site like Pixabay or Unsplash.
2. Write good copy. While the picture gets them to stop, the words get them to click. Use good grammar, flawless spelling, and appropriate punctuation with adequate spacing.
3. Don’t be self centered. Don’t promote your business and products directly every time. Post about topics in your industry, or repost items from other people to build your credibility and engagement with a wider audience.
4. Use hashtags. For the majority of social media sites, your post might as well be invisible if you’re not using hashtags. Hashtags tell people what category your post falls into, and draws in more engagement from people checking out what’s new in that topic.
5. Be brief. Don’t make your posts too long, because readers will get weary and move on. Use synonyms for longer words and keep your sentences short. Remember that your audience is very distracted.
6. Post at key times. This varies by social media type, but your post will get in front of a large audience. You can do a quick Google search to see what days and times are best for the social media platforms you’re using.
7. Involve the readers. Put engaging questions into your post that will elicit discussion and response. If people are building on the thread below you words, you know your post has been a success.
8. Be persistent. In today’s socially connected world, it’s not overkill to post, post, and post again. People may need to see something at least a dozen times before even clicking on it, so don’t be afraid to keep trying, and don’t give up.
9. Consider the pros and cons of auto-posting. You may think that auto-posting saves you time and energy, but an organic effort fueled by the inspiration of the moment might yield better results.
10. Remember the audience. Different social media platforms are geared towards different users, so while you might be fine throwing up pictures of your weekend on Instagram, that tactic could backfire on LinkedIn.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

You may have heard that content is king in this digitally connected age. Here are 6 simple steps to get the ball rolling with some excellent content marketing in your business.

1. Define your goals. You can’t go anywhere without a goal. Set concrete goals for your marketing attempt, such as fortifying your connection with a particular audience or branching out to new ones.

With all the analytic tools available today, you can easily be able to monitor your progress as you move along.

2. Define your audience. Who are you marketing your product or service to? If you don’t have a clear vision about this, you’ll be wasting your time and money trying to market to everyone—which is sort of like throwing pasta on the wall and hoping it sticks.

Instead, build a vision of your ideal crowd. Perhaps even make a storyboard about the “typical” person in this group to fill out your marketing attempts with genuine copy.

3. Define your style. What exactly is your brand all about, and what’s the accompanying style that best matches with your message?

If you bounce all over the place with your words and your appearance, you’re going to make your audience confused and lose potential customers. Solidify the details about your appearance—everything from color schemes to fonts to content topics.

4. Learn from the past. Chances are, if you’ve been in business for a few years already, that you have some extant content out there already.

Take a look at what did well, and what bombed, and try to figure out why. Build on your success, and stay away from failure as you move forward.

5. Assemble the team. If you’re a one-man band, that’s great, but once a business reaches a certain point, you’ll need multiple people on the team.

One person could be blogging and incorporating SEO keywords, while another is interacting with the fan base on social media, and yet another is crafting and implementing Google ads.

The more specialized each person can become, the more their expertise will increase the overall success of your business—but remember to keep everyone within a good loop of communication.

6. Make a plan. Set up checkpoints, goals, and deadlines. Use analytic software to track clicks and see what parts of the strategy are working.

Just like goals are crucial for creating a destination, a plan is crucial for getting to those goals.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

So you’ve decided to start a blog. Whether it’s to spread a personal message, get readers to click on affiliate links, or make money from advertisers, blogging can be a rewarded digital sport.

But if you’re like many bloggers, you’ve come to the frustrating realization that no one is reading your posts, and here’s why:

1. You’re not writing about something people find helpful. There are already a million blog posts out there on “different things to do in xyz place,” so—for example—if you’re writing a travel blog, you have to get more “niche” with it and provide some value. For example, “best places to find spicy food in Denver” is a much more specific post that carries some value for the readers who are putting that inquiry into Google.
2. You’re not opening doors. A big part of funneling readers to your blog is about building a network of back-links, which are essentially hyperlinks to your site on other people’s blogs or websites. A good way to do this is just to network and do guest posts for people on their blogs, with the stipulation that you can put some links to your site on there.
3. You’re not building relationships. You need to have a contact button of form on your website, and harvest some emails. Alternatively, by blogging consistently and alerting social media connections of your new posts, you can draw some steady streams of traffic to your site. The overall idea is to get recurring readers. Not only will they increase your readership with their own eyes, but over time, if they like your content they’ll share it with others.
4. Your site doesn’t look good. If people hop on to your blog and find that it looks like the screen from Pac Man, they probably will bounce off the page in less than a minute—unless of course, your blog post is dedicated to Pac Man aficionados…then that would be cool. Your website needs to look professional, and the architecture needs to be clean and well designed (for mobile users as well).
5. You think you are Shakespeare. Don’t try to get to literary with your posting, unless of course you’re catering to a high-brow audience. Use shorter sentences, small paragraphs, and lots of pictures to punctuate your words, otherwise people will find your blog too exhausting to read. While SEO experts tout the benefits of long-form posts (over 2,000 words) you still have to balance that out with reader experience—and most readers can’t tolerate more than half that word count.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

Social media is supposed to be the definitive content marketing channel solution, right? But many business owners are discovering it’s easier said than done. Here are a few reasons your social media strategy is not working.

1. You’re not advertising. Yes, social media is free, whereas traditional advertising can cost lots of money. But even so, you have to realize that social media engagement with organic posting is inherently weak—people are overly bombarded by the items in their feed. With social media ads, you can target specific users and secure a noticeable spot in the feed, yielding more click-through action.
2. You’re hacking too much. Despite the seductive words of internet gurus and content marketing professionals, there is no get-rich-quick solution to social media content marketing. Building a solid presence takes time, patience, and quality material. You can try all the backend hacks you want, but the social media venues have watchdogs to monitor that activity. If they deem it shady, it will reduce the health score of your profile, making it harder for you to market.
3. You’re not interacting. It’s called social media for a reason! Even monolithic mega-giants like Disney and Coca-Cola have social teams that interact with users making comments on their pages and forums. If you’re going to build brand loyalty on a social media platform, you have to interact with your followers by commenting on their posts and pictures, and responding to their comments and likes.
4. You’re not using data. There are plenty of programs out there that can help you mine user data, which can help you better refine your target audience. This type of software can help you understand who interacts with your brand, and what demographics are potentially most interested in what you have to offer. Without leveraging that info, you’re kind of just shooting in the dark.
5. You’re not making good content. From pictures to textual posts, what grabs attention on social media is good content. Learn about what will get eyes to stop and click on a link, and if you can’t figure it out, employ someone who can.
6. You’re doing all the work. You heard it right…the best social media marketing comes about when other people market your product or service. Your brand ambassadors can collectively reach out to a wider audience who is already in love with their posts and appreciates their unique style. Moreover, someone else touting your product or service gives it a seal of approval you just can’t fake on your own.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

When it comes down to the art of internet marketing, your sales headline is part and parcel of the thin line that separates a successful campaign and utter failure. More than ever before, the world is getting more competitive by the day, and it is up to the discerning online entrepreneur to come up with ingenious ways of staying at the top of his game. And the best way to do this is through funneling more sales with the aid of a solid converting headline that will even the most skeptical individuals into regular, loyal customers.

Speaking of which, where as they are numerous ideas of how to write, spin or fashion high-converting and persuasive sales headlines. But all of them have a few things in common. This includes but not limited to:

1. Promises ( albeit indirectly ), that the reader/user is going to benefit immensely from the product or service.
2. A good converting headline that can easily skyrocket your sales ought to prove that you are actually selling what you are promoting, producing or offering. This helps the reader know that they can purchase and start using your product as soon as the next minute.
3. It is very important to paint a clear picture of the benefits of taking up your product or enrolling in your service.
4. It needs to convey a sense of urgency or an element of it that your customers have to act now or as soon as possible. Make them feel that they have been missing out on a lot and it is time to turn their prospects around.

The bottom line is that it takes a skillful use of persuasive language, careful choice of words, and thoughtfulness to create a converting sales headline. But, unfortunately, you won’t know this unless you try. So what’s your headline of choice today?

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

Are you struggling to harness the power of Twitter for your blog? Tweeting the title for your blog post and a link to direct visitors to your site is not good enough. You actually need to be more creative, active as well as connect more with people. Below are 5 tips to help you get traffic from Twitter.

1. Use hashtags

Hashtags are crucial on Twitter because they allow you to label your content, making it searchable. It is one of the best ways to get your content seen by Twitter followers who are searching for specific keywords that you have used. Hashtags enhances your tweet’s visibility and engagement even with people who are not following you.

2. Share your updates often

On Twitter, updates can actually disappear in matter of seconds. It is therefore very important to share updates often to get your tweets discovered. It is not good enough to just post a tweet once, instead you need to post it several times to reach several people who are using this this social platform.

3. Engage with your audience more

Just like any other social network, the more you engage with your audience, the better your chances of increasing your traffic. By engaging with others through tweeting, sharing and retweeting, your influence on twitter will quickly grow. Addition to that, retweeting other people’s post will increase your chances of getting retweeted back, meaning that you will be able to reach more people.

4. Get visual

Most people usually think that Twitter is a text only social platform but that is not the case. Twitter now features visual content. This means that if you accompany your text with your visual content, you will increase the chances of it being viewed and shared by more people. Posting visuals that stand above others will go a long way in helping you get more traffic.

5. Use a call to action

Every aspect of marketing requires a well formulated call to action. Do you want your followers to download your new eBook or do you want them to read your latest blog post? It is important to let your followers know exactly what you want them to do.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

Internet traffic is one of the most essential commodities for a website. Web experts may say that you have to pay for traffic, but there’s so many ways to get them for free. Here’s 5 ways to get more traffic without paying a cent:

1. Build Up Your Social Media Sites

All web bloggers and owners should have an account with the most popular social networking sites. They should also use it to direct targeted traffic to their web site! It’s easy and it’s free. All you need are followers and friends. Take the time to know who your target audience is, and add them to your social media network accordingly. From there, you can send relevant content via status updates or tweets, all of which have your website’s URL.

2. Create Useful Content

When your friends and followers click on that social media link, they should be greeted with relevant, useful content. All the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing have an algorithm that sees how much relevant content you have on your site. These search engines will rank you higher for the niche you specialize in. Content is king when it comes to SEO.

3. Optimize For SEO

Speaking of which, it’s important to clean up your website for Search Engine Optimization purposes. The SEO game is simple- if you rank high up on search engines, traffic will come from those who search for you online. All of these can be done without spending a single cent!

4. Attach Your URL

Do you frequent forums and groups? There could be traffic lurking in there if you’re smart enough. Register for an account in the most popular forums and start posting relevant content. Remember that you can edit your signature- include your site’s URL in as well. People will get curious as they like your post and see what your website is all about.

5. Look For Free Site Promotions

There will always be free ways to promote your site, so keep an eye out for the latest ones on the web. Anything from being included in various listings, content submission in web directories and free classified ads are always good for generating traffic. Best of all, they are free and only take up a small portion of your time.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com