6 Time Management Tips for Naturally Disorganized People

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People who believe they thrive in chaos typically have to work alone.

September
4, 2018

7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

A big part of being successful at time management is being organized. But what if you happen to be a disorganized person? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. After all, you may have never been taught proper organizational skills or maybe you grapple with something beyond your control, like ADHD.

You might even be one of the few who thrive in chaos, but you still need to learn how to manage your time -- whether you’re organized by nature or not. When you don’t manage your time deadlines creep up on you, projects go unfinished and important tasks are forgotten. This make you stressed out and puts your company in jeopardy.

The good news is that by following these six tips you will get better at managing your time, no matter how disorganized you are.

1. Evaluate how you spend your time.

Do you always feel like there aren’t enough hours in a day? Are you frequently missing deadlines? Do you ever feel like you have time to do the things you enjoy?

Sure, there are times when you’re busy and unable to meet a friend for lunch. But we all have 24 hours in a day. Why can’t you meet a deadline or find 15 minutes to read when others can? It may be because your lifestyle is preventing you from properly managing your time.

For example, if you're working 12 hours a day, you need to determine why. Are you taking on too many responsibilities? If so, start saying no and begin delegating appropriate tasks to others.

You might be working 12 hours a day because you’re looking at your phone every five minutes. Experiment with turning off your phone when you’re working. You’ll get more done in less time.

The first step in time management is to evaluate how you spend your time on daily tasks. You can use a time-tracking app or the ol' pen-and-paper method to record what you're doing, when and for how long.

Related: 8 Great Time-Tracking Apps for Freelancers

2. Organize your time wisely.

Time management is hard. If you want to become successful at time management, you need to start using a planner. This can be either a weekly paper version or a computer software program -- whatever you’re comfortable with. Ideally, it should come with a calendar app function so you can schedule your time more effectively, as well as remind yourself of important events and tasks.

Coach Marie Forleo advises "If it’s not scheduled, it’s not real." In your planner, list every activity that involves scheduling. This includes appointments, project deadlines, exercise and social events. Don't schedule activities every hour of every day -- that leads to frustration. You need blocks of time for breaks and when the unexpected occurs.

Related: Why Marie Forleo Says This One Marketing Trick Is So Important

3. Plan, prioritize and follow through on tasks.

Many people fail at time management because they haven't planned, prioritized and followed through on tasks. The best way to correct this is by creating a routine.

To get started, create a weekly schedule comprised of essential tasks, such as responding to emails or doing laundry. Next, establish set block times for these essential tasks. Because you’ve already evaluated how your time is spent, you should have a ballpark estimate of how much time you should set aside for each task. Be consistent and keep the times the same throughout the week. For example, if you check your email at 8 a.m., schedule that at 8 a.m. every day.

For larger tasks, break them up into smaller chunks. This makes the task more manageable; you can set aside a realistic time to work on each chunk.

To prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed, follow the “Rule of 3.” Chris Bailey, author of the book "The Productivity Project," writes that “having just three items to focus on throughout the day and week will help you stay centered and accomplish more, even on days when everything hits the fan.”

4. Give everything a “home.”

The average American spends 2.5 days each year looking for lost items. Additionally, around a quarter of Americans misplace their house or car keys twice a week. That’s time that could have been better spent. And it can easily be avoided with this one trick: Give everything a “home.”

For example, you car keys should go on a hook next to the front door. Your financial records should be kept in a dedicated folder in a filing cabinet. You should use a password manager so your login information is in one location.

Also, whatever you’re not using should be thrown away or stored elsewhere. This way, it won’t distract you or eat up valuable space needed for essential items. You may want to use an open bookcase or transparent containers so you can avoid "out of sight, out of mind" thinking.

5. Drop bad habits.

One of the reasons you may be disorganized is because you've developed bad habits that are preventing you from being organized. If you want to get better at time management, you need to drop those bad habits, such as taking on more than you can handle. This happens frequently when you have just started your own business and are doing everything yourself. As a result, nothing gets done. Learn your limits and how to say no. Remember, it’s better to underpromise and overdeliver.

Another bad habit is relying on your memory. No matter how great your memory is, it can fail you. We often need a brain dump or get distracted by something else. Carry a notebook with you at all times to jot down everything from thoughts and ideas to meeting notes so you can refer to it when you need to

Multitasking, surprisingly, is also a bad habit. Doing several things at once isn't effective. Instead of helping us get more done at once, it takes us longer to complete tasks because our brains are switching back and forth between tasks. Focus on completing one task at a time.

6. Learn how to manage external time wasters.

There will be times when your time is affected by external factors, like unexpected visitors or meetings that drag on. There are a few ways you can learn how to manage these outside forces. One is by setting a specific time to respond to phone calls and emails. When you're working, turn your notifications off and use voicemail.

Another is establishing blocks of time when you’re free to meet. When you’re not available, you can keep your door closed, place a "do not disturb" sign outside or politely ask people to return at a more convenient time.

Only plan meetings that are absolutely necessary; make sure there’s an agenda in advance and a facilitator so the meeting stays on track and ends on time.

Being disorganized doesn't have to be a curse. Focus on finding a time management technique that works for you. Just because one person has had success using a certain technique doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for you. Don’t be afraid to try out several different ideas until you find the one that helps you manage your time best.

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Resell Titan 2 Review

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The post Resell Titan 2 Review appeared first on High Paying Affiliate Programs.

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To Shatter Glass Ceilings, Spread These Four Messages to Young Women

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To move the gender equity ball forward, here's what to communicate to our future female workforce.

September
3, 2018

5 min read

This story originally appeared on Ellevate

When I see young women making their way through school and starting their careers, I feel a variety of emotions. I’m excited for them. I’m hopeful for them. I’m angry for them.

I’m angry because most young women have not been adequately prepared for the challenges they are about to face. Colleges prepare men and women in a one-size-fits-all fashion to transition from school to work, but this approach is ineffective because the professional world is a different place for women than it is for men.

Related: Female-Founded Brands: How to Put Your Best Foot Forward

By the time young women start college, they have already formed beliefs about the work that is available to them. According to the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor, the top professions for women are teachers, nurses and secretaries, as they have been for generations. In order to increase the range of options, young women need exposure to varied role models, and they need their consciousness raised.

Another critical issue that must be addressed early is the gender gap. Before their first job search, young women need to be aware of the gap and equipped to combat it. The status quo slates women to be paid 20 percent less than men, and for young college graduates starting entry-level positions, the wage gap has actually gotten worse. The Economic Policy Institute found that young male college graduates now earn 5.4% percent more than they did in 2000, while young female college graduates now earn 2.2 percent less than they did then.

To move the gender equity ball forward, here are four messages to communicate to the young women in our lives to allow them to shatter glass walls and ceilings everywhere.

1. Break into male-dominated fields early and often.

Growing up, I internalized fixing cars, investing in the stock market, installing home appliances and playing sports as male skills. All of these skills are valuable because they increase autonomy and agency. Now I know that women can be equally or more competent than men in any skill.

We can encourage girls and young women to challenge male-domination wherever it occurs. Just because a space has historically been occupied by men does not mean it should remain that way. With resilience, awareness and a little cheerleading, young women can become confident participants in any male-dominated space.

2. Release yourself from the “good girl” mentality.

In school, girls are rewarded for being nice, compliant and patient. At work, women are not rewarded for these qualities. In fact, they are often held back by them.

Being a professional leader means taking risks and navigating conflict. It requires speaking up about opinions, asserting ideas and rendering your achievements visible. But the “good girl” has not practiced these skills. When we encourage young women to release themselves from the “good girl” mentality, we invite them to express their authentic selves. From this place, they will make their richest contributions to society.

Related: 7 Success Tips for Women in Tough Businesses

3. Claim your worth now.

Too many women have had the gut-wrenching moment of discovering that a man with either equal or lesser qualifications is being paid more than they are. I hope there comes a day when this practice is illegal in the United States, as it is in Iceland.

For so long, women have been told that others hold the power to evaluate their beauty, competence, likability and lovability. But true power lies in reclaiming the right to be one’s own evaluator. By encouraging young women to sing their own praises and believe that they are deserving of greatness, we better equip them to instruct others as to their worth.

4. Affirm other women.

Women are collectively owed centuries of overdue acknowledgement for their gifts. We can honor that historic deficit by affirming women widely today. We can challenge a “mean girl” culture that is rooted in insecurity in order to bring forward a world in which women are committed to each other’s growth.

When we tell women that they are amazing, impressive, brilliant and strong, we support them in seeing their own worth. The more we help each other make our talents and achievements visible, the more momentum we will gain as we rise up together. We can change the discourse for the next generation and model admiration over envy when speaking of other women.

Related: Why Powerful Professional Women Don't Compare Themselves

We are on the precipice of a changing world. Today’s girls are better educated, stronger and more vocal than ever. As they navigate their lives, we can ensure they have the tools they need to break through any barriers standing between them and their dreams. Can you imagine a world in which the potential of all women is truly unleashed?

(By Lianna Gomori-Ruben. Gomori-Ruben is an education management professional. She believes in cultivating green spaces and energizing young people to build thriving communities.)

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To PPC or Not to PPC

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Many marketers think SEO is better than PPC. Is it really? No. They’re just different. Each piece of your search marketing strategy should have a different goal. It should hit people in different parts of the sales funnel, as I’ve mentioned before. What I didn’t go into detail on was where in the funnel they would hit. So today, I’m going to clear this up. Let’s get started. PPC Search engine marketing usually refers to PPC. At least it does these days. Originally, it referred to both SEO and PPC together. So PPC + SEO = SEM. So anytime you

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8 Sneaky Sales Techniques to Try in Your Next Job Interview

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When you think about it, closing a sales deal and scoring a job offer really aren't that different from one another.

September
3, 2018

9 min read

This story originally appeared on Glassdoor

When you think about it, closing a sales deal and scoring a job offer really aren’t that different from one another. In both cases, you have to identify the right contacts, thoughtfully reach out to them and convince them that you, above all others, are the right person to help them solve their problems. The only difference is, while salespeople pitch prospects on a product or service, job seekers are pitching prospective companies on themselves as a candidate.

Related: 10 Resume Tips You Haven't Heard Before

Given the parallels between the two, job seekers can learn a lot from salespeople. In fact, there are a number tips, tricks and best practices that have emerged in the sales world over the years that those in the market for a new job should keep in mind as they start submitting applications.

We reached out to a handful of sales and career experts for their favorite examples of sales techniques that can also be applied to the job search -- try them out today to set yourself apart from the competition!

1. Do your homework

Whether you’re trying to sell a product or apply for a job, you need to take the time to do some research on the opportunity at hand first.

“No salesperson would ever call into a prospect without thoroughly researching the company and tailoring their approach. Your job search should be no different,” says Jeff Monaghan, Marketing Lead at staffing firm Akraya, Inc. “Your resume, cover letter and any emails you send should have content specific to the company and position you are applying for.”

Novice job seekers and salespeople often think this will take longer, but a generic mass blast will yield far less results than an informed, targeted approach.

“In my 20 years in the staffing business, I can tell you that you will get better results taking the time to customize 10 resumes and cover letters than submitting 30 that are generic. You might spend more time on the 10, but it will result in a shorter amount of overall time to land that perfect job,” Monaghan adds.

2. Go to the decision-maker

Salespeople often talk about prospects in terms of gatekeepers versus decision-makers. Decision-makers are those who will have the ultimate say in whether or not they will purchase a product or service, while a gatekeeper is somebody who serves as an obstacle in the path to the decision-maker (think: an Executive Assistant compared to a CEO). In order to streamline the process, salespeople often try to reach out to the decision-makers from the get-go.

For job seekers, “recruiters are gatekeepers,” Monaghan says. Sure, they source and screen candidates, but they rarely have the final say in the hiring process. For that, you need to reach out to the hiring manager (or above).

“Figure out who runs the department of the job you are applying for and email them directly. Can’t figure out who that person is? Go even higher. Are you applying for a marketing position? Check the website to see who the VP of Marketing is and email them directly,” Monaghan advises. “Chrome extensions like Hunter will help you find email addresses. Just make sure your email is short and to the point and really showcases why you’d be a great fit. The VP will likely refer you to the manager. You have now been referred to the decision maker and are on your way.”

Related: Good Negative Qualities to Say During an Interview

3. Use SPIN selling

One strategy savvy salespeople use is the SPIN technique: (Situation, Problem, Implication, Needs-payoff). This is a way of engaging a prospect by identifying what their pain points are, and discussing how you can address them.

“SPIN selling is a proven sales methodology and is based off a comprehensive study of over 35,000 sales calls,” says life and career coach Nick Hatter. Hatter recommends that job seekers wishing to leverage this technique “ask the company what the situation is with the role, what are their key problems as a company and how those problems affect the company (eg. time, money, stress, etc.). Then ask them how the company could benefit if those problems could be solved. Finally, ask them that if you could help solve those problems, what would stop them from hiring you.”

4. Mirror your interviewer

One thing the best salespeople and the most effective job seekers have in common: they both prioritize building relationships with others. As the old saying goes, it’s not about what you know -- it’s about who you know. One easy hack for developing an instant rapport with your interviewer is to “mirror” them.

“Mirroring is a technique in which one person actively adopts the behaviors and mannerisms of another person, attempting to become their mirror image. It is based on the premise that individuals subconsciously trust and like people that exhibit similar qualities,” says Mollie Moric, career advisor and hiring manager at ResumeGenius.

This isn’t to say you need to change your entire personality, but even something as small as mimicking an interviewer’s hand gesture or repeating a phrase you hear them say can earn you points.

“If done successfully, candidates form a bond with the interviewer that will make them more likely to be selected from a long list of interviewees. This is an especially helpful technique when candidates are looking for a way to stand out in a crowd of equally qualified and personable competitors,” Moric adds.

5. Compliment the company

Another classic way of endearing yourself to a sales prospect is complimenting them. After all, people do business with who they like, and it’s pretty hard not to like someone who makes you feel good about yourself. However, you need to make sure it comes from a genuine place.

“Flattery really can sell -- as long as it is sincere. Perhaps the company did an impressive project a few years ago, or maybe they have a high profile client or they have a prestigious award. Tell them how you’re really impressed by the company because of it, and what you loved about it,” Hatter recommends. “Directors, C-Level and founders love this kind of flattery, as they feel they can take some of the credit for it given they operate at such high levels. It also shows you’ve done your research on the company, and you’re not just applying for ‘yet another job,’ which makes them feel more special.”

6. Share your success stories

Many companies with an active sales presence will highlight case studies on their websites to show prospects how they’ve been able to help similar clients in the past, which in turn allows prospects to envision how the company might be able to help them. As a job seeker, you won’t be expected to produce case studies, but you can share anecdotes that illustrate your prior success.

“Just as salespeople tell of how their product or service has solved a problem for X number of customers, or how it saved them on average X dollars per year, show how you have advanced company objectives for your previous employers and clients,” recommends Christopher K. Lee, career consultant and founder of Purpose Redeemed. “Tell stories, and where possible, quantify them to show the scale of your work. At the end of the day, most employers (indeed, most people) are risk-averse. You want to make them feel confident that hiring you is undoubtedly the right decision.”

7. Make it a two-way conversation

Sure, companies want to get to know you -- but you should also show that you want to get to know them.

“Top sales pros listen to their prospects more than they do talk at their prospects. Creating this conversational attribute is unlocked by informed curiosity and asking questions,” says Zac Kerr, VP of Business Development at Sales Rabbit.

This is especially important to keep in mind when your interviewer inevitably asks if you have any questions for them.

“Use online research to arrive at a few questions that are from your heart and mind, so when asked they are felt, not just heard. Then, when the interviewer responds, be ready to ask another question that unfolds or unpacks more detail about what they just said,” Kerr adds. “An easy method to quickly formulate questions on the fly as to ask a what, why, when how question, i.e. ‘What caused that to happen? Why did you feel that way? What did you do about it? How long did that last?’”

8. Follow up

It might not be the most creative or fun task, but following up with a prospect can (and often does) mean the difference between radio silence and a successful sale -- and the same is true for job seekers.

“Follow-up emails offer an opportunity for candidates to ensure their application has been received, thank an interviewer for their time, reiterate their enthusiasm for the role and restate what makes them an ideal candidate for the position,” Moric explains.

Related: Everything You Need to Know About Writing the Perfect Resume

“There are two scenarios in which it is appropriate for a candidate to use follow-up correspondence to communicate with a hiring manager. The first is if a candidate has not received a response one week after a company has stopped accepting applications for the position. In this instance, the candidate should send a follow-up email confirming their application has been received and restating their interest in the position,” Moric continues. “Second, a candidate should send a follow-up correspondence within twenty-four hours of receiving an interview. In this instance, many hiring managers use follow-up correspondences after an interview (or lack thereof) as a way of actively assessing a candidate’s proactive work ethic.”

While there’s no universal way to guarantee that you get a job offer, there certainly are a number of things you can do to improve your odds. Who knows? Using these tried-and-true sales techniques might just help you get that much closer to your dream job.

(By Emily Moore)

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4 Tips to Improve Your Leadership Skills

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Leaders never stop growing and developing. Here's how you can improve by prioritizing your actions.

September
3, 2018

2 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner, Brian Tracy breaks down four ways you can improve as a leader, and it's all about prioritizing your actions. You can:

1. Do more of certain things.
2. Do less of certain things.
3. Start doing the things you aren't yet doing, but should be doing.
4. Stop doing the things you are doing, but shouldn't be.

Don't do things simply because you always have before. Examine what's working and what's not, and don't be afraid to make changes. Because, just as Brian Tracy says, a good leader never stops growing and developing.

Click play to hear more.

Related: Finally Start Adding Pages to Your Book With These Simple Tips

Entrepreneur Network is a premium video network providing entertainment, education and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders. We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre.

EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical. Watch video from our network partners on demand on Roku, Apple TV and the Entrepreneur App available on iOS and Android devices.

Click here to become a part of this growing video network.

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Here's How Ray J Defines Defines Entrepreneurship

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The founder of Raycon talks about the persistence and vision he needed to find success.

September
3, 2018

2 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Business Rockstars spotlights Ray J. The singer, personality and founder of Raycon talks about his definition of entrepreneurship, and how it's okay if others don't understand your vision right away. Often, an entrepreneur can see a path or more potential than anyone else can. 

In fact, Ray J says an entrepreneur is someone who can find value in something, then work out a way to make others see it, too. Whether the project requires funding, an audience or anything else, an entrepreneur can kick down doors to find a way to success.

Click play to learn more.

Related: Finding a Mentor Means Looking for Your Future Self With More Experience

Entrepreneur Network is a premium video network providing entertainment, education and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders. We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre.

EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical. Watch video from our network partners on demand on Roku, Apple TV and the Entrepreneur App available on iOS and Android devices.

Click here to become a part of this growing video network.

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6 Best WordPress Contact Form Plugins for Your Blog

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So you’ve designed your WordPress blog and it’s looking beautiful. You’ve got an awesome landing page, your about me is written to perfection and your first set of blog posts are all ready to go. But are you forgetting something? That’s right, you need a contact form.

A simple contact form is essential for your website. It’s how your visitors, subscribers and potential customers can reach you any time they have a quick question. There are a ton of contact form options for WordPress, so much so that it can be overwhelming to decide which one you should utilize and will work best for you. You want it to be simple to create, have the features you need and you want it to look snazzy too.

Don’t worry yourself over which contact form plugins are superior and which ones are duds. Here are the six best WordPress contact form plugins for your blog.

1. WPForms

WPForms is one of the most user-friendly contact form builder that offers a wide range of features, making it a great option for beginners and pros alike. They offer free and premium versions starting at only $49 per year and the drag-and-drop builder is super easy to use. The free version is perfect for smaller blogs but the premium version will offer you a number of valuable features including the ability to integrate your forms with email marketing services like MailChimp, AWeber and Campaign Monitor.

Another awesome feature is the ability to capture leads from abandoned forms with their Form Abandonment tool. That means when a user visits your site and fills out your contact form but changes their mind and doesn’t click send, you still get a notification with all their info so you won’t miss out on any leads.

2. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular, completely free WordPress contact form plugin available. This is a contact form for minimalists; it’s a very simple contact form that’s reliable but it doesn’t feature a ton of bells and whistles. But it does offer several unique contact fields such as CAPTCHA, quizzes, file submissions, drop-down menus and more.

Though the interface can be confusing for some WordPress beginners, if free is a big selling point for you as a smaller blogger then this plugin is your best bet. On the other hand if you’re looking for a more robust contact form that will allow you to do more, another one of these plugins would be a better option.

3. Formidable

Formidable is another great contact form plugin with free and premium versions. You can start with a pre-built contact form or build your own customized form. You can also use their awesome style editor to change the colors of successful submissions for instance to match the theme of your blog.

With the premium version of Formidable starting at $49 per year, you get a bunch of extra features like email marketing integration, user tracking and user registration. But since Formidable is a newer company, they don’t offer as many features as some other plugins that’ve been around for longer.

4. Gravity Forms

This powerful plugin allows you to easily create all types of forms for your blog. With Gravity Forms you get access to more than 30 form fields and support for a wide range of add-ons and external integrations including Dropbox, Freshbooks and PayPal Pro and the pricing at $49 per year is great for all the features you get. It’s also awesome if you’re planning on accepting guest posts on your blog because the plugin allows for user content submissions.

This plugin also offers a ton of support including a full ticketing system, FAQs, language translation and documents you can browse on topics like configuring notifications, embedding a form, how to build save & continue forms and much more.

5. Wufoo

Wufoo is an awesome online contact form builder developed by SurveyMonkey. Wufoo offers all the features you love in a contact form including over 400 customizable templates, reporting, custom rules and the ability to accept payments too. They offer a free plan as well as plans that start at $14 per month.

Wufoo also offers a cloud storage database to its users who are on paid plans. The cloud is used to hold files uploaded through the file upload field in a contact form which would really come in handy if you’re accepting guest post submissions or allowing other types of file uploads on your form.

6. Pirate Forms

Pirate Forms, developed by ThemeIsle, is a great plugin to easily create engaging contact forms for your blog. Their free version is easy to use, fully customizable and offers features like reCAPTCHA, custom SMTP and more.

If you want access to premium features like MailChimp integration and custom form fields you’ll have to upgrade to the pro version starting at $39 per year.

Now that you have a number of amazing and powerful contact form plugin options for your WordPress blog, you should have no problem creating a beautiful form that’s inviting to your visitors and you don’t even have to know a thing about code. Get ready to be more engaged with your audience and have a busier inbox than ever before.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

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New Accelerator Looks to Boost Cannabis Opportunities for Women

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The cannabis industry is not looking particularly progressive in terms of equal opportunity.

September 3, 2018

5 min read

Brought to you by Marijuana Business Daily

As the cannabis space rapidly evolves into a multibillion-dollar global industry, women are increasingly being left behind, says Amy Margolis, founder and program director of The Initiative, a newly launched, female-focused business accelerator.

Here are three things you should know about the project and the issues it’s tackling:

1. A declining number of women hold executive roles in the marijuana industry.

Through networking, mentoring, executive training and funding, the Oregon-based accelerator is on a mission to bolster opportunities and roles open to women in the fast-paced world of marijuana.

t’s a tall task to take on, considering the current landscape: The percentage of women in executive roles at cannabis firms fell 9 percentage points from 2015 to 2017, according to a Marijuana Business Daily survey.

Fueling the decline, Margolis believes, is the uptick in cannabis investments from more mainstream funding sources and increased interest from “corporate America,” where just 23 percent of women held executive roles in 2017 compared with 27 percent in the marijuana industry.

It’s a trajectory that Margolis, who also founded the Oregon Cannabis Association, “can’t stand” and is eager to turn around.

“This industry needs to push hard to make sure that businesses don’t get a pass on what their executive teams look like,” Margolis said. “We have this one short window to make sure that women are getting funded and taking the lead, but that window is closing quickly as more traditional capital and corporate America gets involved.”

Related: 5 Things I Learned In Fashion That I've Carried Into the Cannabis Business

2. How The Initiative works.

Starting Sept. 1, the organization will begin accepting applications for up to 10 slots in the first three-month program in January.

Chosen applicants will receive training and mentorship in:

• Strategic growth planning, pitch-deck creation and fundraising.
• Financial basics, budgets and the creation of financial reports.
• Team building and executive training aimed at preparing women to step into corporate leadership positions.
• Branding, marketing, social media and website creation and improvement.
• Deal negotiation, corporate structure and employment law.

At the end of the program, the businesses will have an opportunity to pitch to a group of investors who have made a commitment to fund female-founded businesses, Margolis said. Investments made will be based on each firm’s fundraising targets and needs.

Additionally, the top businesses in each class could be awarded additional financial support by the program’s top sponsors: New York-based iAnthus Capital, a multistate cannabis firm, and Oregon-based law firm Miller Nash Graham & Dunn.

The group has already received interest from prospective applicants from “all over the world,” including Brazil and Germany, Margolis noted. “I think it’s indicative of the real need for a supportive program like this,” she said. “We want to provide the tools, training and access to funding that women need to ensure their success in the cannabis space.”

After the program, participants will be teamed with a mentor to offer ongoing feedback on fundraising and growth strategies.

“We are doing something really unique with this and integrating the follow-on investors into the program, so the first time a company meets them will not be on pitch day,” Margolis said. “These will be the same people teaching them, mentoring them and coaching them throughout the accelerator program.”

Related: 5 Questions to Ask Before Picking Your Packaging

3. Rising leaders in cannabis have signed on to support The Initiative.

For now, The Initiative hasn’t disclosed how much it has raised to launch the new effort.

But the program has landed backing from a “who’s who” list of rising leaders in the cannabis industry and beyond, with board members who include:

• AC Braddock, CEO, Eden Labs
• Mowgli Holmes, CEO, Phylos Bioscience
• Katie Kiernan, co-founder, Twyla
• Janice Knox, co-founder, The American Cannabinoid Clinics
• Glynis Olson, founder, Finger Bang nail salon
• Emily Paxhia, founding partner, Poseidon Asset Management
• Carlos Perea, chief operating officer, iAnthus Capital
• April Pride, founder, Van der Pop
• Amanda Reiman, vice president of community relations, Flow Kana
• Rick Turoczy, general manager, Portland Incubator Experiment

Paxhia, whose firm has more than $25 million under management and has deployed about $20 million in nearly 30 cannabis companies, said programs such as The Initiative are critical to “help support and shine a light on female founders in the industry.”

“The Initiative is about action … about digging in and doing the work rather than just paying lip service to the movement,” she said.

Margolis hopes to strike a balance between offering support for women entrepreneurs and delivering executive training to prep women to climb into corporate leadership roles as she continues to build out the program. “The sometimes-forgotten piece of female leadership in the cannabis space is the positioning of women on boards and executive teams,” she said.

Earlier this year, Tilray -- a British Columbia-based cultivator owned by Privateer Holdings -- touted its move to create “one of the first majority-women-led boards in the cannabis industry.” Beyond that, few marijuana firms have women serving in board positions.

Nearly 40 percent of cannabis firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada had no female board members or executive officers in 2017, according to the Ontario Securities Commission. An analysis by MJBizDaily of regulatory filings by 25 of the top public cannabis companies in Canada found that only seven of the 139 people nominated to serve on their boards of directors are women.

“Encouraging and supporting female founders is crucial,” Margolis said, “but we also very much need to see women in positions of leadership in companies that they might not own and sitting on the boards of these publicly traded companies.”

This article originally appeared in Marijuana Business Daily. Lisa Bernard-Kuhn can be reached at lisabk@mjbizdaily.com

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How to Generate Recurring Sales by Implementing Subscriptions

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Every business needs to come up with creative ways to drive sales.

Sure, you may be doing well today, but how are you planning on making money tomorrow? What about next month or next year?

Whether your company sells a physical product or offers a service, the subscription business model is something that you should consider using to generate recurring sales.

Historically, implementing a subscription business model has proven to be highly profitable.

In the last five years, this model has grown by more than 100%.

Businesses that know how to offer valuable subscriptions end up with extremely loyal customers, which is why it’s such an effective customer retention strategy.

Even ecommerce brands have been using subscriptions to drive sales.

That’s because the consumer market has accepted this model, causing it to grow in popularity over the last year.

Once you’re able to get customers to pay for a subscription, you’ll get recurring sales on a monthly or annual basis.

As a result, your company will be in a great position for sustainable growth over time.

But if you’ve never implemented a subscription model to your business, it might be a little bit intimidating for you. Where do you start?

Some of you may have already set up a subscription model for your business. But unfortunately, it’s not working out as well as you thought it would.

That’s why I created this guide.

Whether you’re new to the subscription concept or you want to make adjustments to your existing subscription model, I’ll explain what you need to do to be successful in this space.

Don’t charge for your basic package

Offer your most basic package for free.

Now for some of you, this may not be realistic. For example, if you’re offering clothing or accessories delivered on a monthly basis to your customers, you can’t just give that away for free each month.

But for those of you who are offering an intangible service, it’s a great way to get people interested if you have multiple packages.

• games


• mobile apps


• streaming services

These are all great examples of how you can leverage a free package to eventually get your customers to pay for the service if you’re in these industries.

For those of you who have a mobile application, this strategy is a great way to improve the profitability of your small business mobile app.

Let’s look at the Pandora packages as an example.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this company, they offer a music streaming service.

As you can see from their website, they have three different listening packages. The basic package is free.

This introductory package gets people familiar with the service. If they had to pay from the beginning, they’d be less likely to try it out in the first place.

But if you offer something for free, there is no risk in people using it.

Now you’ll have a better chance of getting these free subscribers to upgrade their service for a fee.

Offer a free trial for your premium services

So you’ve offered your basic package for free. But customers still haven’t upgraded yet.

Why not?

Well, they don’t know what they’re missing.

If you offer them a free trial of a paid service, it will be harder for them to go back to the basic version. Let’s refer back to the Pandora example.

They offer a 30-day free trial for their $4.99 package. So for one month, customers on this trial will experience personalized content with no advertisements.

Once they go back to music that’s not personalized and are forced to listen to ads, they’ll be more inclined to pay the monthly fee for the enhanced experience.

Roughly 60% of all businesses are able to convert free trial users to customers.

Those conversion rates are outstanding.

For those of you who are offering physical products, such as a box of items mailed to customers on a monthly basis, you can use this strategy as well.

Even though you may not be able to do this long-term, you can still offer a month or two of your package for free.

Here’s something else to consider. The more expensive your subscription is, the longer you should offer the free trial for.

Again, we’ll continue to use Pandora as an example.

They offer a 60-day free trial for customers who want to try out their most expensive package at $9.99 per month.

It’s worth giving away two months for free if they’re able to generate $120 per year from each subscriber.

Set up different membership plans

Profitable subscription models have different plans. There are a few reasons for this.

First of all, not everyone can afford your most expensive membership, but you don’t necessarily want to exclude those people from being paying customers.

Second, you want to offer plans based on the needs of different customers.

People don’t want to pay for a feature or benefit that they won’t use. But if someone knows that they need something, they’ll gladly pay an additional fee.

Let’s look at the Netflix membership plans as an example.

All of their plans offer the first month for free and the ability to cancel anytime. Their customers can watch from their laptops, tablets, phones, and TVs.

But the basic membership doesn’t offer HD video and only lets you watch on one screen at a time.

So for someone who doesn’t have an HD television and doesn’t plan on sharing the account with anyone else, this is a suitable option.

But if you’ve got a family that’s going to be sharing the account and streaming simultaneously from multiple HD devices, this won’t be enough for you.

Those customers will need to subscribe to the most expensive option.

Allowing customers to select their plan gives them a personalized experience. Plus, we already know that personalizing your website boosts conversions.

So analyze your features and come up with a few different membership plans that target the needs of various customers.

Give discounts to customers who pay in advance

Obviously, you want your customers to be a subscriber for as long as possible. That’s how you make money with recurring sales.

But with that said, you don’t want to force your customers into a long-term contract.

This strategy can make people hesitate to sign up. Consumers like having the option to cancel at any time without having to pay a penalty.

That’s why monthly subscription plans are so common.

The problem with monthly subscriptions is that if a customer cancels after a couple of months, you didn’t really have a chance to generate high profits from them.

Who knows. Maybe in that short period of time they didn’t have a chance to fully experience everything that your subscription plan has to offer.

If you want people to commit for longer periods of time, you can offer discounts if they pay in advance. Take a look at this example from Constant Contact.

As you can see, they offer a 10% discount and 15% discount for subscribers who pay for six months and 12 months in advance, respectively.

Even though you’re making less off each customer per month, you’re locking them in for a longer term.

This is a much more effective strategy than forcing your customers to commit to a year contract that charges them on a monthly basis.

Giving them the option benefits both of you. They’ll get a discounted rate, and you’re guaranteed to make money.

Plus, it adds more of a personal touch, which we previously talked about and we’ll continue discussing in greater detail throughout this guide.

Provide added benefits to your customers

Depending on your business, offering subscriptions exclusively may not be in your best interest.

You can still have other business models that you use in addition to your subscription model.

So for those of you who fall into that category, you need to make sure that the subscription memberships come with benefits that justify the cost to your customers.

Otherwise, they won’t have any incentive to join.

A perfect example of what I’m talking about is the Amazon Prime membership.

You don’t need to pay a monthly or annual fee to buy something on Amazon. Anyone can use this ecommerce platform.

But for customers who shop frequently and want their items delivered as fast as possible, they may be more inclined to pay for the Amazon Prime subscription.

This membership offers two-day free shipping for subscribers.

In addition to the shipping benefits, Amazon Prime members also get access to music and video streaming services.

As I explained earlier, they have packages designed for everyone.

For customers who just want the video streaming service, they can pay $8.99 per month.

To get all of the membership benefits, including video streaming, two-day shipping, music streaming, photo storage, unlimited reading, and free same-day delivery for certain items, it costs $12.99 per month.

That totals just under $156 for the year, assuming that they keep the membership without canceling.

But if a customer wants to save money and knows that they’ll use the service for an entire year, they can pay $119 annually and save roughly 25% on their membership.

Amazon also offers a free trial for prospective members to try out their Prime service for 30 days at no cost.

Do you see how they incorporated most of the strategies that we talked about so far?

It’s always a good idea to follow the lead of successful companies and apply their concepts to your own business.

Set your subscriptions to renew automatically

Let’s say you get someone to sign up for one of your subscriptions. That’s great news!

You’ve got their credit card information, and you’re ready to start processing their account.

But you want to make sure that you set these memberships up to renew automatically.

Don’t worry, I’m not saying that you should do this to be deceiving or trick your customers. Just include this in the terms that they agree to when they’re signing up.

You don’t want to annoy them each month asking them for their credit card information again. So get their permission from the beginning to bill their card each month.

This is a great way to get recurring sales.

If you give the customer the option to opt-out each month, they may decide to cancel.

But if their card just gets charged without any contact or notification, they may just keep the service whether they’re using it or not.

For example, how many of you have a gym membership or have had a gym membership in the past? You get charged each month whether you’re there every day or never show up.

You don’t cancel it because it’s more of a pain to go through that process and then sign up again when you want to go.

So your customers will treat this membership the same way. Sure, you obviously want your customers to take advantage of the products and services that you’re offering.

But if they’re paying for it, either way, does it really matter if they do? Not really.

Allow your customers to customize their subscriptions

We’ve talked about personalization quite a bit in this guide.

You can take this concept to the next level by allowing your customers to fully customize their subscriptions. Take a look at this example from Sirius XM Radio.

They have membership options that allow customers to pick and choose which stations they want on their account.

You can find ways to apply this same concept to your business as well.

For example, let’s say that your brand sales beard grooming and shaving products for men.

You sell products directly from your website, and you also have subscription options to deliver a box of products on a monthly basis. Allow your membership subscribers to customize each order.

Some customers may want more razors, while others want more shaving cream and after shave lotion.

The membership prices will vary based on the type of products and quantity of items that the customer wants to be delivered each month.

Conclusion

The subscription business model is extremely profitable, and it’s growing in popularity.

Whether you’re adding subscriptions to your business for the first time or you’re making changes to your existing model, there are certain tips and tricks that will improve your chances of being successful.

Offer your basic package at no charge. Then, let customers try out the premium options with a free trial.

Create different membership plans to target a wider range of prospective customers.

Your standard memberships should be charged on a monthly basis and renew automatically. Encourage customers to pay in advance by offering discounted rates for an annual plan.

Provide added benefits to make sure that your subscriptions are worth the cost.

Focus on personalization and customization that entice consumers to sign up for your subscription service.

If you follow the advice that I’ve outlined in this guide, you’ll be able to achieve sustainable growth in the form of recurring sales through subscriptions.

How is your brand using the subscription business model to generate recurring sales?

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The 10 Mental Traps on Your Road to Success

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There are far too many real obstacles to success for you to waste time on what's in your head and nowhere else.

September
3, 2018

9 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

There are times when our perception of reality is distorted. Our beliefs and the way we process situations can lead to skewed perceptions. We become prone to making errors and misjudging ourselves and others.

These mental traps can be toxic thought patterns or cognitive biases that warp our viewpoint and thinking. Our ability to succeed can easily be thwarted by these altered ways of thinking. Coming to terms with these internal thinking errors will allow you to take control of your life and boost your ability to achieve.

Expand your mind by understanding how these 10 mental traps warp your reality and hold you back from being successful.

1. Self-limiting beliefs.

Nothing limits your potential and your ability to succeed like self-doubt and other limiting beliefs. You tell yourself you can’t or you mustn’t. These self-limiting beliefs will derail you and convince you that you don’t have what it takes to be successful.

Often these beliefs are formed through negative experiences. If you allow self-limiting beliefs to take hold, they will become toxic to your ability to achieve and reach your full potential. Instead of telling yourself you can’t, ask “How would I…?”

Related: Stop Listening to These 5 Self-Limiting Beliefs Stunting Your Business

2. Obsession with perfectionism.

Self-improvement and seeking to be the best you can be is a good thing -- it can motivate you to continue to learn and grow. But you also have to accept that you aren’t perfect. In fact, no one is perfect -- that’s part of being human. If you are obsessed with perfectionism, or if you’re unable to be content unless every single detail is perfect, you are allowing perfectionism to hold you back.

The truth is, your perfectionism is fueled by fear. Fear of criticism. Fear of rejection. Fear that everyone will see your flaws and judge you for them. Allowing perfectionism to rule your life will keep you from crossing the finish line and will make you miss deadlines. It will alienate you from others. Ultimately, being obsessed with perfectionism may rob you of appreciating and celebrating your achievements, because nothing will ever be good enough.

3. Only seeing what you want.

Have you ever read a report and interpreted the facts one way, while a colleague analyzes it a completely different way? Part of the reason this happens is that we all see things through our own lens. As it turns out, our perspective can be a major bias that holds us back. This mental trap is linked to having a confirmation bias, which is the tendency to see things in a way that confirms our own beliefs.

We often seek to expose ourselves only to viewpoints that are consistent with our own. We don’t push ourselves to see other points of view. Instead, we interpret information so it agrees with our perspective. This is especially true for issues we are emotionally attached to or have deeply entrenched beliefs in. It’s not hard to see how this can lead to flawed decision-making that can have serious ramifications on our ability to be successful.

4. Fear of change.

The old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a direct reflection of our fear of change. Even if it’s not evident on the surface, many of us feel it’s safer and easier to keep things the same. After all, if it’s working, why mess with it? However, change is inevitable, whether we like it or not. Success comes from innovation and creative problem solving, which is a reflection of our ability to embrace change and foster growth.

Part of the reason we prefer to keep things the same is because we have a status quo bias. We see the status quo as the baseline we want to maintain. This kind of mindset is going to stymie your growth, make it hard to embrace innovation and make you resistant to implementing necessary adjustments. Left unchecked, a status quo bias can keep you from taking risks and seizing opportunities.

5. Hanging on too long.

How often do we hear about a CEO or business leader pouring time and money into projects that are obviously never going work? What may have started off as a good idea just isn’t going to pan out. Instead of walking away, they double down on the plan and keep pumping resources into it, hoping they can make it work.

This is the pitfall of the sunk-cost fallacy. Sunk costs are the investments we put into something that we can’t get back out. When you realize something is doomed to fail, it’s time to cut your losses, no matter what you put into the initial investment. Otherwise, you’re just throwing good money, time, energy and resources after bad.

You’re continuing to waste your capital, either because you don’t want to admit you made a mistake or because you don’t have an alternative plan to take its place. You must let go and reset your course. This will allow you to find new opportunities and create true success.

Related: 6 Common Decision-Making Blunders That Could Kill Your Business

6. Thinking you’re a fraud.

No matter how much we achieve, how successful we are or how much others look up to us, many of us suffer from a deep-seated belief that we’re really frauds. We feel like actors, playing a part we don’t really live up to.

This pattern of thinking is called imposter syndrome, when you doubt the validity of your own accomplishments and have a fear of being exposed as a fraud. It’s often triggered by a new accomplishment, like getting a new job or completing a milestone. You begin to feel that you don’t deserve or didn’t really earn this achievement.

Imposter syndrome can be linked to anxiety, depression and self-doubt. It can cause you to procrastinate or avoid taking risks, and can impact your career and success as you feel you must continually prove yourself.

Related: One Simple Tip to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

7. Black-and-white thinking.

We all have a tendency to simplify things as being all good or all bad. We are either for something or against it. We’re often uncomfortable with ambiguity, and it can be difficult to see the middle ground. This type of polarized, black-and-white thinking can limit us from seeing things as they truly are. Reality usually lies somewhere in the middle. Life is not an either/or situation.

When we polarize our thinking, we limit our ability to be flexible and unbiased. Most of the time, there’s not one right answer, but a variety of answers that may work. Once you put aside black-and-white thinking, you can see that the world is really a complex rainbow. You just need to open your mind to different possibilities. 

8. Jumping to conclusions.

Have you ever totally misread a person, believing the worst in them or thinking they were up to no good, when the reality turned out to be very different? Have you ever misjudged or misinterpreted a situation based on your own perception?

This is what happens when we make assumptions and jump to conclusions without having all the information. The smart thing to do is to remain objective and gather all the information and details before making a decision. But so often we make presumptions or overgeneralize a situation because we fail to distinguish between what we actually observed and what we inferred.

When we do this in business, or make flawed decisions based on assumptions, we open ourselves up to a whole host of problems and impacts. You may be creating major hurdles for yourself that are holding you back from success.

9. Blaming others.

It’s human nature to want to blame others for problems we face, or to believe that our issues are produced by external causes -- surely we aren’t to blame! But scapegoating, or unfairly blaming others, is a destructive mechanism that creates hostility, shame and a toxic, adversarial atmosphere.

Those who are unfairly targeted feel betrayed and bullied. Those who do the blaming create unnecessary drama and are incapable of clearly seeing a problem. They flounder, never learning from their mistakes, never taking responsibility for their own actions. When you constantly blame others, you look petty and unprofessional, and those around you will lose the respect for you.

Related: How to Stop Being A Control Freak

10. Trying to control everything.

If you want it done right, you’d better do it yourself. That’s what we tell ourselves to justify micromanaging everything. But if you believe you have to do it all and refuse to allow anyone in to help, chances are you’re a control freak and are setting yourself up for failure.

High standards aren’t bad, but if they’re so high that they’re unattainable, you need to rethink your requirements. If you’re constantly intervening in everything around you, you’re slowing down productivity.

Control freaks often try to exert control over others as a way of avoiding confronting their own vulnerabilities. They believe their level of perfection will avoid exposing themselves to outside risk. But the truth is, we simply can’t control everything. The trick is to recognize what you do have control over -- you’re behavior, your thoughts, your feelings. Take pride in your work and always do your best. But feel empowered and have enough confidence in yourself and others to know when to let go.

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Happy Labor Day!

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5 Simple Adjustments That Bring In High-End Clients Consistently

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Don't settle for clients who pay late, ask for discounts and deals, waste your time and don't do the work.

September
3, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When you start a business, the goal is to build consistent revenue. In the beginning, entrepreneurs tend not to be too choosy about who becomes a client. As your business grows, you learn an invaluable business lesson: not all clients are worth the revenue.

You eventually get that first client who makes you want to dropkick a punching bag. They are demanding, always looking for more than they paid for, always complaining. If you handed them a result on a silver platter they would still have an issue.

These experiences teach you the value of higher-end clients who buy your highest tier offerings. They do their homework, show up on time and tell others about your business. They become great testimonials because their results are a walking billboard for you.

You can attract high-end clients even when you're just beginning your entrepreneurial journey. There are five tweaks that are simple to implement but require your best effort to fully integrate. These strategies can take you from dealing with bottom feeders to dealing with the clients that make you excited for what entrepreneurship has to offer. 

1. Have an established and polished foundation online and offline.

High-end clients won’t do business with entrepreneurs who have a bootleg platform. A website that looks cobbled-together will repel these potential clients. If you don’t have a real business structure, they will not feel comfortable spending higher amounts with you. Everything has to be legal and properly set up.

The good thing is we live in a time when it’s not hard or expensive to be professional and look bigger than you are. You can create a clean website on Squarespace or Wordpress. You can hire a local attorney and accountant to get the proper business and legal structure in place. You can use Square, Stripe and Freshbooks to handle payments, invoicing and contracts. 

The point being, it doesn’t take much to create a professional and polished foundation and a business structure that attracts high-end clients consistently. Don’t let your foundation turn away the kind of clients that scale your business quickly.

Released: The 10 Key Legal Documents for Your Business

2. Make your free content more valuable than others paid content. 

The free articles, videos, podcasts, newsletters, free local meetups, and your events are what show potential clients that you’re an expert. They help clients start the process of knowing, liking and trusting you. It adds value and creates a path to promote what you sell.

High-end clients will be attracted when you take the extra mile with your free content. Make it how-to more than inspirational. Give them content, strategies, and tactics that others would charge for.

If you have to hire freelancers to help you create that content, do what makes sense to produce the highest quality content you can put out. High-end clients will understand and absorb this content more than those looking for the get-rich-quick stuff.

Related: How Free Content Can Produce a Substantial Pay-Off

3. Price your products and services in the major leagues.

Pricing is an area that trips up many entrepreneurs. It ends up being more about a mindset than what someone would be willing to pay. If a high-end client comes to your platform and sees low prices, they’re gone. They’re going to think you don’t value your products and services enough. They’ll see the self-limiting beliefs shining through and it will repel them.

It doesn’t matter what anyone charges. Base your prices on the value you will provide. If you feel like you’re not there yet with your expertise, get more training and education on your topic. But, no matter what, charge more because you can get it.

Charging higher prices will weed out those who aren’t ready for what you offer. It’s good to have products and services at different price points, but make sure you have a “high-end” offering. That's what they'll look for when considering buying.

Related: 3 Lessons About Setting Your Price Learned From a Vegas Prostitute

4. Have video testimonials and references. 

We all have been trained about the need for testimonials. We get them in written form and put them on our websites. While those can be effective, video testimonials are more powerful. High-end clients (and others) can see and hear from a real-life person versus a few words of text that could be perceived as made up.

We live in the digital age. Use video testimonials and have references high-end clients can follow up. They will and that’s how you lock in five and six-figure deals. A text testimonial doesn’t have the same effect.

Related: 4 Better Ways to Showcase Testimonials for Your Business

5. Hire salespeople to close deals. 

One of the great things about the time we live in is that you can hire sales professionals on commission. A trained salesperson is skilled at the art of losing the deal. You can create a funnel within your business that takes clients to the point of getting on a phone conversation with your sales team. They close the deal. Having high-end clients on the hook and closing them are two different skillsets. If you aren’t a gifted closer, hire someone who is on commission. It takes more effort to close a high-end client.

Don’t settle for clients who pay late, ask for discounts and deals, waste your time and don’t do the work. Worldwide, 3.5 billion people use the Internet every day. There is opportunity all around you to attract and onboard high-end clients who understand your value and help grow your business.

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Internal Linking & Mobile First: Large Site Crawl Paths in 2018 & Beyond

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By now, you’ve probably heard as much as you can bear about mobile first indexing. For me, there’s been one topic that’s been conspicuously missing from all this discussion, though, and that’s the impact on internal linking and previous internal linking best practices.

In the past, there have been a few popular methods for providing crawl paths for search engines — bulky main navigations, HTML sitemap-style pages that exist purely for internal linking, or blocks of links at the bottom of indexed pages. Larger sites have typically used at least two or often three of these methods. I’ll explain in this post why all of these are now looking pretty shaky, and what I suggest you do about it.

Quick refresher: WTF are “internal linking” & “mobile-first,” Tom?

Internal linking is and always has been a vital component of SEO — it’s easy to forget in all the noise about external link building that some of our most powerful tools to affect the link graph are right under our noses. If you’re looking to brush up on internal linking in general, it’s a topic that gets pretty complex pretty quickly, but there are a couple of resources I can recommend to get started:

I’ve also written in the past that links may be mattering less and less as a ranking factor for the most competitive terms, and though that may be true, they’re still the primary way you qualify for that competition.

A great example I’ve seen recently of what happens if you don’t have comprehensive internal linking is eflorist.co.uk. (Disclaimer: eFlorist is not a client or prospective client of Distilled, nor are any other sites mentioned in this post)

eFlorist has local landing pages for all sorts of locations, targeting queries like “Flower delivery in [town].” However, even though these pages are indexed, they’re not linked to internally. As a result, if you search for something like “flower delivery in London,” despite eFlorist having a page targeted at this specific query (which can be found pretty much only through use of advanced search operators), they end up ranking on page 2 with their “flowers under £30” category page:

¯_(ツ)_/¯

If you’re looking for a reminder of what mobile-first indexing is and why it matters, these are a couple of good posts to bring you up to speed:

In short, though, Google is increasingly looking at pages as they appear on mobile for all the things it was previously using desktop pages for — namely, establishing ranking factors, the link graph, and SEO directives. You may well have already seen an alert from Google Search Console telling you your site has been moved over to primarily mobile indexing, but if not, it’s likely not far off.

Get to the point: What am I doing wrong?

If you have more than a handful of landing pages on your site, you’ve probably given some thought in the past to how Google can find them and how to make sure they get a good chunk of your site’s link equity. A rule of thumb often used by SEOs is how many clicks a landing page is from the homepage, also known as “crawl depth.”

Mobile-first indexing impacts this on two fronts:

1. Some of your links aren’t present on mobile (as is common), so your internal linking simply won’t work in a world where Google is going primarily with the mobile-version of your page
2. If your links are visible on mobile, they may be hideous or overwhelming to users, given the reduced on-screen real estate vs. desktop

If you don’t believe me on the first point, check out this Twitter conversation between Will Critchlow and John Mueller:

In particular, that section I’ve underlined in red should be of concern — it’s unclear how much time we have, but sooner or later, if your internal linking on the mobile version of your site doesn’t cut it from an SEO perspective, neither does your site.

And for the links that do remain visible, an internal linking structure that can be rationalized on desktop can quickly look overbearing on mobile. Check out this example from Expedia.co.uk’s “flights to London” landing page:

Many of these links are part of the site-wide footer, but they vary according to what page you’re on. For example, on the “flights to Australia” page, you get different links, allowing a tree-like structure of internal linking. This is a common tactic for larger sites.

In this example, there’s more unstructured linking both above and below the section screenshotted. For what it’s worth, although it isn’t pretty, I don’t think this is terrible, but it’s also not the sort of thing I can be particularly proud of when I go to explain to a client’s UX team why I’ve asked them to ruin their beautiful page design for SEO reasons.

I mentioned earlier that there are three main methods of establishing crawl paths on large sites: bulky main navigations, HTML-sitemap-style pages that exist purely for internal linking, or blocks of links at the bottom of indexed pages. I’ll now go through these in turn, and take a look at where they stand in 2018.

1. Bulky main navigations: Fail to scale

The most extreme example I was able to find of this is from Monoprice.com, with a huge 711 links in the sitewide top-nav:

Here’s how it looks on mobile:

This is actually fairly usable, but you have to consider the implications of having this many links on every page of your site — this isn’t going to concentrate equity where you need it most. In addition, you’re potentially asking customers to do a lot of work in terms of finding their way around such a comprehensive navigation.

I don’t think mobile-first indexing changes the picture here much; it’s more that this was never the answer in the first place for sites above a certain size. Many sites have tens of thousands (or more), not hundreds of landing pages to worry about. So simply using the main navigation is not a realistic option, let alone an optimal option, for creating crawl paths and distributing equity in a proportionate or targeted way.

2. HTML sitemaps: Ruined by the counterintuitive equivalence of noindex,follow & noindex,nofollow

This is a slightly less common technique these days, but still used reasonably widely. Take this example from Auto Trader UK:

This page isn’t mobile-friendly, although that doesn’t necessarily matter, as it isn’t supposed to be a landing page. The idea is that this page is linked to from Auto Trader’s footer, and allows link equity to flow through into deeper parts of the site.

However, there’s a complication: this page in an ideal world be “noindex,follow.” However, it turns out that over time, Google ends up treating “noindex,follow” like “noindex,nofollow.” It’s not 100% clear what John Mueller meant by this, but it does make sense that given the low crawl priority of “noindex” pages, Google could eventually stop crawling them altogether, causing them to behave in effect like “noindex,nofollow.” Anecdotally, this is also how third-party crawlers like Moz and Majestic behave, and it’s how I’ve seen Google behave with test pages on my personal site.

That means that at best, Google won’t discover new links you add to your HTML sitemaps, and at worst, it won’t pass equity through them either. The jury is still out on this worst case scenario, but it’s not an ideal situation in either case.

So, you have to index your HTML sitemaps. For a large site, this means you’re indexing potentially dozens or hundreds of pages that are just lists of links. It is a viable option, but if you care about the quality and quantity of pages you’re allowing into Google’s index, it might not be an option you’re so keen on.

3. Link blocks on landing pages: Good, bad, and ugly, all at the same time

I already mentioned that example from Expedia above, but here’s another extreme example from the Kayak.co.uk homepage:

Example 1

Example 2

It’s no coincidence that both these sites come from the travel search vertical, where having to sustain a massive number of indexed pages is a major challenge. Just like their competitor, Kayak have perhaps gone overboard in the sheer quantity here, but they’ve taken it an interesting step further — notice that the links are hidden behind dropdowns.

This is something that was mentioned in the post from Bridget Randolph I mentioned above, and I agree so much I’m just going to quote her verbatim:

Note that with mobile-first indexing, content which is collapsed or hidden in tabs, etc. due to space limitations will not be treated differently than visible content (as it may have been previously), since this type of screen real estate management is actually a mobile best practice.

Combined with a more sensible quantity of internal linking, and taking advantage of the significant height of many mobile landing pages (i.e., this needn’t be visible above the fold), this is probably the most broadly applicable method for deep internal linking at your disposal going forward. As always, though, we need to be careful as SEOs not to see a working tactic and rush to push it to its limits — usability and moderation are still important, just as with overburdened main navigations.

Summary: Bite the on-page linking bullet, but present it well

Overall, the most scalable method for getting large numbers of pages crawled, indexed, and ranking on your site is going to be on-page linking — simply because you already have a large number of pages to place the links on, and in all likelihood a natural “tree” structure, by very nature of the problem.

Top navigations and HTML sitemaps have their place, but lack the scalability or finesse to deal with this situation, especially given what we now know about Google’s treatment of “noindex,follow” tags.

However, the more we emphasize mobile experience, while simultaneously relying on this method, the more we need to be careful about how we present it. In the past, as SEOs, we might have been fairly nervous about placing on-page links behind tabs or dropdowns, just because it felt like deceiving Google. And on desktop, that might be true, but on mobile, this is increasingly going to become best practice, and we have to trust Google to understand that.

All that said, I’d love to hear your strategies for grappling with this — let me know in the comments below!

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