We all know what happened when video came along and killed the radio star, but did it do the same for written content across the Web? This is concerning news for any SEO company that offers content marketing services. This is a debate that can go on for many years, but the truth of the matter is this – video has caused a big splash on the Web. You’ll find marketers, brands and even the end users using video content on YouTube, Vine, Facebook and Twitch.
It has even made it as part of the SEO services packages that SEO companies offer to their customers. The uptick in video publishing is likely due to the major impact it has on prospective audiences. Video has shown to be an excellent way to interact with various types of audiences.
According to numbers, video content is highly shared and engaged with by users. Consumers are said to be 39 percent more likely to share video content. 36 percent more likely to comment on a video and 56 percent more likely to like a video.
But does this mean that it’s a done deal for text? One thing we know for sure is that text is still alive and well – it’s just a different type of format that is best used for different reasons. The best case scenario would be to implement both into your Internet marketing strategy.
What Data Shows
The numbers are staggering for video content – the average Internet user watches about 206 hours of video content each month and according to Nielson, 64 percent of marketers are planning to use more video in the near future. Sure, video content beats text when it comes to engagement, but there are situations where users would prefer to read text. An SEO company can help you determine the services that will work for your company and when to use video content and when it’s best to use text.
Videos Are Lazier
The one reason why video content is doing so well is because it doesn’t require much cognitive work. The brain is shown to process videos 60,000 times quicker than text. People today are more inclined to choose to do tasks that are less work. Reading articles and watching video involves two different brain processes. When you read an article, your mind is actively involved and requires a longer attention span. Again, video content can be used in certain scenarios that suit the topic and the user.
Video sounds truly amazing – it’s no wonder SEO company experts swear by them. But it’s also important to note that not all Website visitors will prefer to watch a video. Your Web design can implement video, but make sure that it does so in a strategic way.
To get new leads into your business you need a squeeze page. The primary objective of this page is to capture information for follow-up email marketing.
When you design a squeeze page you need to take into account who your audience are and what problem you are offering to solve for them when they provide you with their email address.
As a general rule, you would normally direct paid traffic to your squeeze page. But what about all the free traffic that Google and the other search engines can send you for free?
To get these leads, you need to optimize your squeeze page appropriately so that it gets seen by the search engines and gets ranked on their search listings.
Know Your Keywords
Study the keywords that your audience uses to find you. It doesn’t matter what other people think about your keywords, it only matters what your audience is using to find you. Look for high value, low competition keywords to use to attract your audience.
Use Keywords In Titles
Use keywords in the title of your squeeze page and make sure that they are in the proper heading style. If the search engine recognizes it as a header, it will place more importance on the words than if it’s body text.
Keywords In The URL
When you build a squeeze page use a keyword or keyword phrase in the URL. Don’t go too crazy with the keywords, though. You want the page URL to also look nice.
Use Descriptive Keywords In Alt Image Tags
Search bots can’t read images, provide descriptions to the images that you have in your squeeze page. Use more than ” pretty pink flower” to describe the image. Instead use words that are particular to your product or service
Write Awesome Headlines
Headlines are important because people don’t read horizontally on the internet; they read vertically. Bolding a headline using headers and making sure it’s an important keyword, will not only direct the search engines to rank you higher, but it will also help your target audience read your page better.
Keywords In Links
Make links within the squeeze page with words that are keywords and specific about the link. Don’t use words like “click here” – use words that describe what they’re clicking such as “100 Cookie Recipes” in its place. The majority of people recognize that underlined words are where you should click.
Responsive Design
A lot of people use their mobile devices to search the internet. Make sure your page can be viewed correctly on mobile devices like smart phones and tablets. The more responsive your design is, the more the search engines will like your page.
Traditional ways of investing would be going to shares, bonds, mainstream property, cash, and other traditional asset classes. But there are more unusual, yet highly rewarding opportunities called Alternative investment, usually embarked on by smart investors because of the risks involved in it.
Here are alternative investment ideas ranked from safest to riskiest, that are available in market:
1. Structured products
This is basically a contract with a financial institution to pay you a defined return at a defined time depending on the performance of the stock market. It’s the safest of all the other alternative investments. The only way you could lose money is when the stock market is performing catastrophically badly.
2. Bridging finance
These are short-term loans used by property buyers who are expecting to get a mortgage from the bank but cannot wait for the approval. For private investors, you can invest in funds that pool bridging loans, in order to spread the risk across several borrowers. The loan is secured against the property.
3. Peer-to-peer lending
Investors meet with individuals or businesses who want to borrow money. Borrowers can get lower rates than they would be charged by a bank, while lenders can earn more money on their savings than they could from a cash account. It can be quite risky for the investors because the individual or the small business might default or become bankrupt.
4. Forestry
Returns from investing in woodland come from any increase in the value of the land and the trees on it, and any income produced by felling trees for timber. But increase in the value of the land is only good if you can also sell the forest. There are some excellent tax breaks in the market, with no income or capital gains tax to pay and exemption from inheritance tax if you hold your investment for two years.
5. Buy-to-let property
The property will form a large part of your overall wealth. You need to have at least 25% of the value of the property to use as a deposit, plus extra to cover any refurbishments and legal fees. Investors will likely face competition from professional landlords and may have to deal with rogue tenants and maintenance issues.
6. Stamps
Rare stamps will have value as long as there are stamp collectors. The most valuable can fetch six- or even seven-figure sums. Stamp values can keep on going higher, and you can search for offers for private investors.
7. Coins
Rare coins are best bought through a reputable auction house, which will provide a money-back guarantee should the coin turn out to be a forgery. As with stamps, the value is underpinned by the popularity of coin collecting as a hobby.
8. Winery
The traditional way to invest is through established wine merchants. You must have knowledge on fine wine and their exact records. More recently, wine funds have been launched which offer an alternative way to access the market. Some of these qualify for the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).
9. Business Angels
When you become an angel, you invest in smaller companies that are not quoted on the stock market. Typically, you won’t see any return until the business is sold or floats on the stock market. It could take years, and you could either lose all your invested money, or reap triple returns.
10. Equity crowdfunding
This is very similar to business angels, but managed wholly online. Investors can either deal directly with the company and get your name on the shares, or let the crowdfunding website deal on behalf of hundreds or thousands of investors. However, if the business you invested in does well, a bigger investor may buy it.
11. Diamonds
Gemstone-grade diamonds have increased nearly tenfold in value since the 1960s. The diamond price is much less volatile than the price of gold. But it may be difficult to access for investors because diamonds are valued subjectively by experts.
12. Carbon credits
A carbon credit is essentially a permit to release one tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Companies that exceed their allowances are supposed to buy more credits, according to global cooperation. Private investors have been targeted by firms trying to sell them carbon credits. This is a highly specialist market and best left to professional traders.
13. Land banking
Land banking companies take a piece of land, parcel it up and sell it off to investors; hoping that once the land is earmarked for development, it will soar in value. However, there is often no development and investors are left holding a useless piece of land either in the market or overseas. A lot of land banking schemes have been stopped by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
When you’re hot on Wall Street, you are treated like a rock star. At a hedge fund investor conference in San Francisco, I was mobbed by people who wanted to speak to me. I was put up at the Fairmont Hotel, where suites go for $3,000 a night. At the fanciest restaurants in the capitals of the world – Geneva, Paris, Frankfurt – big-money investors would hang on my every word. Investors sent me $1,000 bottles of champagne, Tiffany vases, gold cufflinks and cases of wine as gifts.
Our hedge fund was up 20% for five years straight. Every big-money investor craves this kind of high-level, consistent performance. However, it’s rare. And when investors find it, they flood you with money.
Billions and billions of dollars. Our hedge fund grew from $1.5 billion in 2006 to over $5 billion by 2008. Our asset management company, which had about $5 billion under management in 2006, grew to over $25 billion in assets by 2008.
In our hedge fund, we took 20% of the profits we generated with investors’ money. On top of that, we charged investors for all expenses, as well as an annual fee of between 1% and 2%.
Yes, it’s obscene!
Now, the thing is, you really don’t have to have big money or pay these outrageous fees to get high-level, consistent performance. Sometimes you just need an expert like me to point you to how to get this on the cheap.
There is one investment in particular that generates high-level, consistent performance that big-money investors love. And it’s available to everyone. Unlike our hedge fund, you don’t have to give up 20% of your profits.
It’s an investment that I bet you’ve never heard about. Big-money investors like the ones that used to invest in my hedge fund know about it. And they put their money into it because it gives high-level performance consistently. So, what is this investment?
One of the best-performing assets over the last 27 years is timber, outperforming stocks, bonds and other commodities.
Not only does timber outperform all these assets, it’s consistent, too. In the last 27 years, there have been just three down years.
In some of the worst markets in history – deflation, inflation, crisis – timber holds up like a champ.
In 2008, when stocks crashed, timber was up.
The Great Depression, when stocks sank, timber was up.
From 1973 through 1981, when inflation was rampaging, timber kept chugging higher, gaining every year.
Timber is rock-solid in terms of delivering the thing that people want in investing. What’s that? High-level, consistent returns that you can count on year after year.
Profits 101 = More Demand, Less Supply
I’ve put my own money into timber. My investment is through a plot of timberland in North Carolina. The land is being used to grow a mix of hardwood trees such as oak and softwood trees such as pine. The forestry plan for the land is to harvest trees beginning 2018. So, my investment hasn’t generated cash yet. However, land prices are rising rapidly because people are moving to North Carolina. My timber investment can pay off for me either through income from selling the timber or selling the land.
Why did I put my own money into timber? Because its demand/supply balance is solidly in favor of me making money.
And because trees take time to grow. You can encourage your trees to healthy growth through good foresting practices. However, you can’t make them grow much faster than they grow naturally. On average, a tree takes 16 to 20 years to grow. So, supply can’t go up overnight. And demand grows steadily. We use timber to make houses, furniture and paper. Current estimates are for timber demand to rise over the next 15 years.
Land to grow timber on is shrinking. That’s because we keep using land for housing and commercial development. There are also huge amounts of land being set aside for environmental reasons.
Bottom line: Timber supply is limited by biology and land. Demand keeps rising as more people use wood in houses, furniture, etc.
How to Invest in Timber
Buying land with trees is one way to invest in timber.
Another way is to buy into companies that own forested land in the stock market. Most of these companies are too small to recommend here. Later this year, we will launch a research service to cover small-cap companies.