What Are Content Entrepreneurs In 2021?

What Are Content Entrepreneurs In 2021? 

Who Are They? Where Do They Live? How Do They Make Money? 

Do you remember what was happening on the internet at the turn of the century? Cast your mind back to the Dot.Com era when web blogging first became a thing. Initially named Weblog, it was a new avenue for many writers, aspiring or seasoned, that had opened up. The internet was hungry for content, and many who grasped the opportunity could mark their territory, gather a significant audience, and monetize their creative work—a virtual land of opportunity for anyone connected to the internet. 

These days, some would argue that the blogging gold rush has all but dried up in terms of monetization or even generating an audience. Given the enormous amount of content accessible today, it would seem much more difficult to reach a level of success as a prominent, self-sustaining writer in any niche. 

But the truth is, in today's climate, the art of the wordsmith has never been more critical, particularly in digital business and marketing. The art of writers and content creators puts ideas and information of any business into consumers’ eyes, ears, and hands. Without the nuances of this art, the best products and services won’t stand out, be discovered, or connect with the right customers and clients. 

 

Succeeding as a content entrepreneur takes time, patience, and a business mindset. The advantage of a platform with the technology and a community that supports the artists and their right to express themselves and facilitates the monetization aspect is a great place to start for aspiring content creators, B2C and B2B bloggers. 

Online business owners must be aware that failure to adjust to new trends will impede the likelihood of consumers ever seeing their content, resulting in loss of business or even collapse. What we see now is a rise of content entrepreneurs, culminating their art with a hybrid of creativity, strategy, and technology. Combining strategic, artistic vision with existing and emerging technologies helps people turn fleeting interactions into genuine connections.   

Food For Thought

If you’re a nervous newbie in the content marketing space and think that everything has already been said or written about, just perform your own research and add your point of view. Writing content that changes the world exists in the world, not in your mind.

In the words of Brian Clark,  

“The way you become a writer, and eventually a great writer, is to write. If the desire to write isn’t there, you’re going to have to learn to work well with creative writers to execute on your strategic vision.”

A good rule of thumb for when you’re choosing one of your many ideas to write about is; If it has even the slightest possibility of helping someone, give it a try.

 

I came across a recent study conducted by The Tilt. It’s the first of its kind regarding content entrepreneurs and looks at what defines them, how they grow their audience and monetize content, and what it takes to be successful. These people do not “hustle”; instead, they are serious entrepreneurs building niche audiences—a group of serious business owners who have found a new way to build a business.

What Are Content Entrepreneurs?

The Tilt quoted that content entrepreneurs (CEs) make money by turning valuable and interesting content into revenue streams. Some are solopreneurs making a comfortable income based on sharing their unique expertise with a niche audience. Others are powering high-growth content ventures that employ many. All are part of a new movement of professionals pursuing work on their own terms.

Content entrepreneurs span all age groups, industries, and channels, not just the viral young influencers on Tik Tok, which seems to be the stereotype. For the most part, a CEs success isn't based on a viral hit or a massive audience. Founder of The Tilt, and facilitator of the research, Joe Pulizzi, cites. “Just don’t call them influencers; content entrepreneurs are building businesses.”

Content entrepreneurs are the people driving the creator economy. Yet, few truly understand them.

Content entrepreneurs have a singular focus: growing their audience by filling a particular informational need. And by doing this well, they can “monetize” that audience. They are building something akin to a media company. 

A Unique Group Of People 

With over 1400 entrepreneurs surveyed, the research concluded that CEs fully supporting themselves are most likely Gen X or Boomers. The split between full-time and part-time was roughly 50:50. Younger entrepreneurs were more likely to treat content creation as a side gig. 

Full-time CEs are significantly more likely to be financially successful with a median investment of $10,000, and 75% are funding their content businesses with personal savings. Very few seek capital from venture capitalists or angel investors. 

Most content entrepreneurs use no single revenue tactic for monetization; the most common are advertising and sponsored content, membership fees, online courses, events, and speaking fees. Revenue is derived from a combination of these monetization channels and, more recently, cryptocurrency rewards by blockchain-driven platforms like;

• Markethive: An inbound marketing, social media hybrid, and broadcasting digital media platform for entrepreneurs - Content, B2B and B2C.
• Steemit: A blogging platform where writers are rewarded with upvotes by readers in the Steemit community. 
• The Tilt: An education, training, and news platform for content entrepreneurs. 

For those who operate their content business full time, the survey found that the median annual revenue was $50K. Experience is a factor in achieving higher income. The median revenue for content entrepreneurs in business four to seven years was $100K, while those in it for longer than seven years saw a median revenue of $125K.

How Do CEs Grow Their Audience?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the only audience-growth tactic cited by more than half (56%) of the content entrepreneurs. Hashtags came in second, cited by 48%. Partnerships with creators or entrepreneurs came in third (44%), followed closely by social media advertising (43%).

Freedom And Independence - The Top Motivator 

The assumption that content entrepreneurs turn a hobby into a business and pursue their passion while working does describe some. However, the overwhelming consensus of 86% of solopreneurs and 89% of micropreneurs is that CEs seek independence as the priority and can control their careers. They want to work on their terms at a time and place they determine. 

Almost nine out of ten of all content entrepreneurs agree they became content entrepreneurs “to achieve financial freedom on my own terms.” They are abandoning the traditional pathways to success and building an entirely new model for professional work. 

Content entrepreneurs are fierce independents, discarding the traditional college education in favor of on-the-job training. 85% of respondents believe a college degree is not required to succeed as a CE. 95% say they can operate their content business anywhere that has reliable internet. 

The study also revealed that Covid-19 generated a new cohort of content entrepreneurs. More than half (54%) of those who launched their business in the last year was influenced by the pandemic. 

Next Level Independence

The survey revealed a lack of awareness and appreciation among the respondents regarding issues that could thwart long-term content business success, like deplatforming and losing their audience. Many content entrepreneurs are relying on third-party platforms; the recent survey indicated that they use Facebook (76%), Instagram (66%), LinkedIn (60%), Twitter (51%), and YouTube (47%).

The above platforms mediate the relationship between creator and consumer and control at least some of the content entrepreneur’s business. Since these tech giants are for-profit businesses, their goal is to make money for their owners, not the creators. They can change the rules any time they want to make a more profitable business regardless of the impact on creators. They can even use insights from the CE’s audience to develop competing products and services. 

A new breed of CEs is eliminating or reducing the intermediary relationship with these platforms, finding ways to reach their audience directly rather than relying on third-party channels and ad revenues. They’re taking “independence” to the next level. 

As Amanda McLoughlin, creator and chief executive of the podcast collective Multitude, explains, 

“Audiences are powerful, and creators don’t need anyone’s permission to build one of their own or to ask them for support. As media companies continue to consolidate, our relationship with our audience and the autonomy of owning our work are more valuable than ever.” 

To view the full report, download the PDF here. 

Markethive - Giving CEs Back Their Freedom And Autonomy On One Comprehensive Platform

One platform that has addressed the issues of deplatforming and lack of control or autonomy over an entrepreneur’s livelihood is Markethive. A blockchain-driven ecosystem for entrepreneurs allows individuals to own their work autonomously and generate a substantial income without intermediaries.

It’s like having your own site with the advantages of Storefronts with POS shopping carts and access to the analytics and insights from your audience and customers. As a Markethive Entrepreneur, you are not beholden to the whims and rule changes of large social and tech platforms (e.g., algorithm changes, arbitrary blocking, and withholding of data). 

CEs at Markethive can leverage new monetization strategies and emerging opportunities such as digital media aggregation and curation, the press release, and sponsored article platform that offer more control and much healthier margins. 

Markethive has a built-in social media interface where you already have an engaged, interested audience and target market. The Blog Subscribe, and blogcasting feature that remotely broadcasts out to all other social media is a great way to expand your audience and increase reach. The unique combined news feed interface currently in development will make it that much more compelling.

Markethive has two engines (subscriber and traffic) driving it and simultaneously bringing millions of entrepreneurs into this safe haven, the central hub, and gateway to the internet universe. Alexa and WorthOfWeb measure both the subscriber and traffic engines’ speed and power, and in the case of Markethive, they are growing daily in an exponential fashion.

With its two major engines at the helm and secondary engines such as the Hivecoin and exchange and all cottage businesses within Markethive, reaching out to all other platforms is fundamentally the core; the epicenter where we all work in collaboration, ensuring everyone’s success. 

According to The Tilt, CEs are the most powerful engine fueling growth and change within the creator economy movement, and they’ve only just begun. Markethive nurtures the content entrepreneur and delivers a ‘state of the art platform’ to you, but it is your company. 

Markethive has been built for the community and brings self-sovereignty, privacy, autonomy to every individual with a genuine opportunity to be in control of your future, peace of mind, fulfilling your potential, creating wealth, and being able to prosper in so many ways. Markethive is its name; Entrepreneurialism is its game. 

Are You a Content Entrepreneur?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Are Content Entrepreneurs In 2021? : What Are Content Entrepreneurs In 2021

MARKETHIVE'S NEW INTERFACE - AN INITIAL OVERVIEW ILLUSTRATED

It is next-level Markethive Interface , delivering every function and aspect available, fitting for the entrepreneur, business, and corporation.

 

An innovation that is set to change the way we work and interact online. 

The Markethive Social Market Broadcasting Network becomes more prominent daily as the blockchain-driven ecosystem for entrepreneurs with a non-adversarial, bi-partisan free speech ethic and the collaborative culture we rarely see on social media platforms today. Even the newer acclaimed free speech platforms are partisan to the left or right and deal with deplatforming and boycotts from payment providers.

It’s widely notorious that the actions of the tech giants have divided nations and are the source of countless societal harms, including rampant censorship, promoting violent extremism, spreading false information, and unfairly stamping out its competition. 

Instead of improving the user experience to one that users would welcome, legacy big tech is somewhat distracted by its self-induced problems. It’s now under scrutiny by government policymakers with the overall consensus that something should be done to reign in the centralized power or structurally break up the technocracy. 

To circumvent this, Facebook is focused on updating the internet with new regulations to appease critics and leverage its new Oversight Board, while Twitter grapples at the idea of integrating a more decentralized approach to the platform, specifically giving users an algorithmic choice by opening up its news feed to third party algorithms selected by its users, which could undoubtedly customize the user experience, but still be under a central authority. 

 

Markethive Goes Next Level

Known for its evolutionary and innovative ethos, Markethive continues to expand its decentralized “all-in-one” platform with the development of a unique news feed interface that completely embodies the user experience (UX) in the framework of “don’t make me think.” A concept brought to light by author Steve Krug, a usability expert, cites that usability is fundamentally about human psychology. 

The book “Don’t Make Me Think” was first written in 2000 and revised in 2013. Since the turn of the century, technology has changed rapidly. Yet, the principles in the book remain the same because something is only considered usable if an average person can figure out how to use it to achieve an outcome without it being more trouble than it’s worth. Krug breaks this down into three laws as shown in this infographic below:

Key Quote

“Usability is about people and how they understand and use things, not about technology
...while technology often changes quickly, people change very slowly.”

Once it is understood how the human brain works, these same insights can continue to be applied even as technology and landscapes evolve. So usability is not just about technology; it’s about understanding how people think and behave to build better things, giving the user a more seamless and more straightforward experience when navigating.

Unlike the social media giants, which only have one primary news feed that is algorithmically set by the central authorities, Markethive is introducing four news feeds to accommodate the multi-functional platform within the Markethive ecosystem. The individual feeds are General, Video, Blogging, and Content Curation. They are all accessible from the main page and can be algorithmically set by the individual user. 

The scope that Markethive has is enormous as it integrates all the vertical systems of the other platforms under one roof. 

Social + Video + Blogging + Marketing + Curation + Broadcasting = Markethive. 

It’s a monumental project that can be overwhelming for the average person. It’s no wonder social media platforms are predominantly single-function and centralized. Technology has advanced with Blockchain, and Crypto is becoming ubiquitous and gives rise to the decentralized, privacy, and autonomy components of social media. Something that the established dinosaurs would find near impossible to integrate at its highest level.  

Enter Markethive, and although it has enjoyed longevity, it can integrate cutting-edge and unique systems. It is next-level, delivering every function and aspect available, fitting for the entrepreneur, business, and corporation. A clean design, not cluttered, intuitive for easy navigation, and simple to carry out tasks for all users on every level is crucial for website stickiness and the overall success of our entrepreneurial users.

 

The New Main Page Interface Explained

The following images are a basic mockup or draft, subject to enhancements, to give you an idea of how the new main page will look with the various news feeds and menus. It is definitely something to look forward to upon its integration. 

 As quoted by CEO and Founder of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast,

“We are making major changes right now to the entire layout and aspects of the system. New look, better navigation, rebuilt Page making system, improved alert system, all in preparation of the Wallet. 

Understand this major uplifting has been in the works for several months, and we are close to its completion. Along with this are new upgrades, The Boost, The Wheel Of Fortune, The Premium Upgrades, etc.”

The format is horizontal, not vertical, like many other websites making it more readable and less time-consuming in terms of navigation. The vertical side menus are gone, along with the busy text in the blue bar. 

At the top of the main page are the Super Banners. This is prime real estate and specifically for Markethive, the company. There are currently three banners to be displayed in this space;

1. The Wheel Of Fortune
2. The Entrepreneur One Upgrade (while they’re still available) 
3. Acquire Your Own Golden Goose - ILP

Anyone else inside or outside of Markethive wanting to place a banner there will pay top dollar.  
The real estate below the blue bar is for the markethive community and placement of their banners.

Compress Banner Real Estate

The X in the top right corner, when clicked, removes the Banners and tray, allowing the HTML editor and news feeds to move upwards. Clearing that real estate gives you more space to work, which can be very handy on a small screen like a mobile or tablet. 

This feature is for Entrepreneur one upgrades only, so the X will only be visible to upgraded accounts. The banners and tray will continue to be hidden while the user is active within Markethive. They will return and be visible once the user becomes inactive for 30 minutes or more or logs out. 

Floating Banner Ads

There will also be Markethive floating banner ads which can be closed for a thirty-minute period unless you’re an upgrade, in which case it stays closed for the duration of your stay. If clicked on, it will take you directly to the area any given banner stipulates. For example, the Wheel Of Fortune floating banner, shown in the image below, will take you directly to the shopping cart. 

There are numerous floating banners, as described below, that will sequentially be displayed, giving you easy access to wherever you choose to go with just a simple click on the banner. 

• Wheel Of Fortune. Every spin is a winner. 
• Banner Impressions Exchange. (BIX) It takes you to the exchange 
• Acquire Your Own Golden Goose - ILP. It takes you to the shopping cart. Payments in Hivecoin.
• Entrepreneur One Upgrade. It takes you to that dedicated shopping cart 
• Community Support. It takes you to the Telegram Markethive support channel until we integrate a customer support portal within the Markethive system.
• Markethive Tutorials Get Paid To Learn. Currently in development and will be covering the fundamentals of the Markethive system through setting up marketing campaigns, video, and influential marketing.

Multiple Pulldown Menus 

Multiple pull-down menus will be replacing the side menus on the main news feed page and the profile page. These are now all accessible on one page on the blue bar under Settings, Shopping Cart, and the Notifications bell icon also named Alerts Control. This allows you to configure the blue alerts bar and provides click menu navigation. In other words, you choose what icons you would like to display. 

All the settings displayed that could only be accessed on the left of the profile page are now accessed on the main interface, including general profile page settings, payments, Vault, ILP purchases, login account, social accounts, and hive ranking. This makes it a lot easier to navigate and is much more intuitive. 

There is also a pull-down menu under Shopping Cart that displays the status of your cart (whether it’s empty or has items pending in it). 

The shopping cart menu takes you to the Markethive store and the Advertising services, which are strictly for the Markethive Press Release program, the Boost, social network broadcasting, digital banner advertising, and video advertising. As these services are introduced, you will find them in this pull-down menu. 

A series of upgrades will also be displayed under the shopping cart. Currently, there is the E1 upgrade and soon to be added the Apprentice Upgrade, which will be renamed the Premium Upgrade. There will ultimately be multiple levels of premium upgrades which will all be located in the shopping cart pull-down menu. 

For the purpose of this article, the image below displays all pull-down menus opened and can be accessed by clicking on their respective icon. 

Combined News Feed - The New Innovation

Now for the pièce de résistance and Markethive’s claim to fame. The combined news feed interface is a first in the social media environment. It includes the four primary feeds being the general Newsfeed, Blog, Video, and Curation feed. 

So what’s the big deal about a news feed?

The news feed is the heart and lungs of Markethive. Everything around it is the bones or structure of Markethive. It all starts at the center, being the newsfeeds and works outwards and is the dashboard or control center, where every aspect of Markethive is easily accessible. 

The combined pulldown menu also includes the Groups feed, Campaigns, Games, Store, and Email feed which can also be set algorithmically by you. You choose what and who you want to see in your combined news feed. 

You can choose only to see what you’ve posted, select by geo-location, friends, Tube feed, Blog feed, Group feed, etc. You can access these configuration tools in the tray just above the HTML editor, housing the stats tools, tracking devices, posting tools, sorting and filtering tools, editing, and upload tools.  

Posting in a news feed has become a lot more exciting with the ability to stylize your text (bold, italics, text size, font type, hyperlinks) add embed videos and images, similar to the current blog editor. 

Whatever task you do, you will access it from the combined feed pull-down menu. For example, if you want to upload a video in the Tube Feed, it will open up the tool page for you to upload it. 

You do not leave the main page for any task you perform. This is where you access all your interfaces. E.g., The video upload interface, the blogging platform, the curation control panel, etc. You will be able to add, edit and monitor everything you do right from the main page. 

Whatever you choose to see in your combined feed will be displayed: Videos from the Tube Feed, Blogs, Capture Pages, Groups feed, General postings, everything will be displayed on the page.  

You will also be able to subscribe to any post in your news feed right from the main page. Each post generates a permalink that will show when the post is broadcasted to other social media sites, displaying the profile page with a summary of the post. Clicking on the Permalink below any post in the news feed will open up a lightbox of the post as illustrated in the image below.

A lightbox is a window overlay that appears over a webpage, blocking some of the content and dimming and disabling the rest of the background. This ensures a site visitor cannot interact with other content on the website until they take action — either by clicking a button, filling out the popup, or exiting out of it.

The comments are also displayed in the permalink lightbox. When clicked on to view or comment, it’ll forward the viewer to Markethive. If the viewer is not a member, a registration banner will pop up inviting them to join Markethive. 

Clicking on the permalink also allows the viewer to peruse your other posts. You can tip on the newsfeed post and on the permalink lightbox of the post. To comment, you click on Comments on the post which will open up the permalink lightbox. The timestamp displayed next to the permalink will show the hour, day, month, and year. No more wondering what year the post was posted! 

In Closing...

Everything is at your fingertips on this one page, making it very intuitive and mobile-friendly. The dynamics will change completely, and you won’t have to navigate to individual pages within the Markethive system. All configuration, filtering, and searching are done right from the combined news feed interface. 

Posting any of your content remotely, whether it be blogs, videos, or general newsfeed posts, will be made instantaneous and straightforward with the new interface. Markethive will be infiltrating every corner of the internet universe and become a household name.  

The whole interface is streamlined and purposely created in a horizontal fashion with minimal to no advertising, so it is not overwhelming for the average and new user. So many websites, blogs, and digital media articles are so cluttered up with vertical side columns and advertisements, making it annoying and virtually impossible to read or comment on the site. 

Markethive has always been a pioneer and ahead of the curve, initiating a social network before social media became a thing, starting with Veretekk in the nineties. It is a Divine inspiration, a vision that is coming to light. It’s one of integrity and can command authority with its clean, polished new look and navigation.  

So what we have here is an outline of just part of what’s coming in Markethive. There is much more to this monolithic concept and project, and all of this is discussed at the Markethive meetings every Sunday at 9 am Mountain Time. (MDT)  

So what time is it in your part of the world? Go here to find out. The doors to the meeting room are closed 5 minutes after commencement. Latecomers are denied access, so get there early. 

You can keep yourself up to date with the latest news and developments of Markethive as they happen. To access the meeting room, go to the Calendar and click on the link provided. See you there! 

A special thank you to the founders Thomas, Douglas, and Annette for their insights, inspiration, and dedication to bring the next generation social market broadcasting platform, far removed from the chaos of the legacy tech giants. A completely, decentralized ecosystem, impervious to the tyrannical forces that have subjugated humanity. Welcome aboard to all and be ready for an exciting transition and transformation of Markethive. 

 

 

Written by Deb Williams
Chief Editor and writer for Markethive.com, the social, market, broadcasting network. An avid supporter of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. I thrive on progress and champion freedom of speech and sovereignty.  I embrace "Change" with a passion, and my purpose in life is to enlighten people en masse, accept and move forward with enthusiasm.

MARKETHIVE'S NEW INTERFACE - AN INITIAL OVERVIEW ILLUSTRATED: I...

Integrate Markethive With Your Affiliate Programs For Optimum Results

 

We at Markethive pride ourselves in being entrepreneurial, and the fact that our logo says Ecosystem For Entrepreneurs is precisely what Markethive is. If you're an affiliate marketer, did you know you have a complete turnkey system in Markethive to achieve not only exceptional sales results but also long-lasting relationships you can build?

Everyone who joins Markethive either has their own business or is looking for a way to make money on the Markethive platform. Internally, we have the Markethive Vault, Loyalty program, MHV micropayment faucet, and referral program with its generous infinity airdrops; however, it's important to note, with the development of the turnkey system, Markethive is also the perfect platform for affiliate marketers. 

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is essentially the promotion of a business, company, or individual product. It is based on relationships in which one party (the Affiliate Party) sells another party's product and receives a commission to sell its product or service. This allows you to work with the brand to help them sell their product while earning commissions every time someone buys through your affiliate link.

Affiliate marketing became a concept in 1989 and took off in 1996 with Amazon Associates. Today, the affiliate marketing industry shows steady growth with an expected $6.8 billion spends in 2020.  

Considered a unique form of marketing, it is among the most popular approaches to drive sales and generate revenue. Affiliate marketing is beneficial for companies and affiliates alike and offers a convenient and cost-effective niche.  

Markethive BIX, Banners, And Impressions

The Banner Impressions Exchange (BIX), along with an ever-increasing amount of impressions, commands excellent organic traffic helped by Markethive's positioning, as shown on Alexa Rank, lends itself to a golden opportunity of any affiliate program one chooses to expedite.

The BIX allows you to sell your impressions on the exchange, which many Markethive entrepreneurs are doing. Alternatively, the affiliate marketers within Markethive are creating banners and using their impressions each month to promote their affiliate programs. 

Using your allocation of impressions is a great way to promote your business; however, many link their banner directly to their affiliate link, which points outside of Markethive to their affiliate website. This limits potential outcomes, resulting in missed opportunities.

Apart from the traffic stats you can access within Markethive's analytics for your banner, you don't know who they are, nor will you have the chance to build a relationship with them if they didn't take any further action on your website at that point. 

A Different Perspective

A solution would be to create a group or a storefront within Markethive. You can set up a landing page, paste information, tutorials, images, or videos from your affiliate website into the group's activity page. 

When a prospect clicks on your banner with the link now directed to your group, they will be able to join you in that affiliate program and Markethive. This allows you to keep in touch with them, provide them with reviews, updates, or new products. 

Inviting them to your group to purchase your affiliate product within Markethive can be seen as a support mechanism that includes a social aspect that would most likely be comforting to the new user, given they are now in a group of like-minded people.  

Almost 68% of affiliate marketers use social media to connect and display valuable content and offers in a specific group that allows them to build relationships and gain trust. This personal approach is expected to increase in the upcoming years, and Markethive is poised to play an integral part in this facilitation. 

Blogging And Affiliate Marketing

Did you know that nearly 65% of affiliate marketers rely on good content to enhance their campaigns? According to these statistics, there has been a 175% increase in content produced by affiliates and a whopping 240% increase in revenue created by content publishers over the last few years. 

Blogging has become an integrated sector of the overall affiliate marketing strategies as stats show that 47% of buyers read 3 to 5 pieces of content before deciding to purchase. 

This medium is where your storefront's blog section can be of service to the associates that have joined you in your group. Creating valuable content about your products and services can be a deciding factor and help build trust and integrity.

 

Make More Money While You Make Money 

The storefronts (groups) is designed to be a complete turnkey system for any independent business or affiliate program you promote. This includes capture pages, landing pages, autoresponders, broadcasting, co-op assignments, and campaigns with link rotators for those building a team. 

Automated tutorials on how to create and monetize any opportunity within the bounds of Markethive and its unique storefront system will be added. And you are not limited to one storefront. 

You can have as many storefronts to cater to the various affiliate niches you require. For you, it's central to managing all of your businesses. For the customer, it provides a platform of information and support and the added opportunity to be in a social environment to earn an income with Markethive if desired.   

Another benefit of using Markethive as your storefront to promote your business is your potential to increase your Hive Rank. As group numbers grow, it has a positive impact on your Hive Rank score, which increases your MHV earnings. It's the highest paying micropayment paid by Markethive, other than the airdrop received when you refer people to Markethive. 

A Collaborative Ecosystem  

As you evolve with your banner creations and promotions using your Markethive impressions, you may need to purchase more impressions from the BIX resellers. This increases the demand for the impressions, which increases the price, resulting in a very lucrative income from the Banner Impressions Exchange. 

So it's two-fold, the affiliate marketer makes money from their program gaining loyal customers in their groups, and the BIX resellers also profit. All this under the Markethive umbrella, making it a collaborative ecosystem, a marketplace, and a home for entrepreneurs and consumers. 

CEO and Marketing Director Thomas Prendergast presents the "Coffee withTom" weekly meetings, which is a hands-on approach. The sharing of new ideas, explaining the benefits of affiliate programs, outlining the best ones, and how you can integrate the Marketive tools to provide a better experience for your prospects and make your affiliate business more manageable for you to conduct. 

These meetings are live, held weekly, and not always recorded; however, they offer valuable information and direction covering the different aspects of the Markethive system and what it can do for you. (Check Calendar for details)

The Future Is Bright

Although affiliate marketing has been around for a while, there's a whole new generation rising up, proving that there is a legitimate way to earn a living online. Entrepreneur Adam Enfroy has done just that, starting as recently as 2019. Along with his outstanding success, he guides beginners, recommending the best affiliate programs and sound advice.

These affiliate marketing statistics indicate an overwhelming acceptance of this advertising model for just about anyone to make money online. 

• More than 80% of brands have affiliate programs. 
• America is the most significant player in the affiliate industry, with a 39% share.
• Nearly 65% of affiliate marketers generate traffic by blogging.
• 94% of publishers use multiple affiliate marketing networks.
• Advertisers generate between 15% and 30% of all sales from affiliate programs.
• Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of global ecommerce sales.

Surprisingly, affiliate marketing is far less time-consuming than other marketing methods, and there's little to no initial outlay. It's recognized as a great way to make some money just by promoting other businesses' products and services. The opportunity to tap into new markets and boost traffic is an added advantage. 

All you need is your blog or website, some writing skills, and a little advice to get started. The perfect scenario would be to have a platform to consolidate your affiliate niches, surround yourself in a social environment with all the SaaS tools you need to facilitate your business from start to finish. 

This is what Markethive gives you, along with a collaborative, stable learning environment for the entrepreneurial beginner. In 2020, it's clear that the future of affiliate marketing is a bright one, and with Markethive at the helm, it's a perfect match. 

 

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

 

SEO Strategy In 2020 - Focus On Content and Links 

Even with all of the SEO trends that have been introduced over the past 25 or so years since its inception in the last decade of the 1900s, SEO in 2020 is still all about content and links. Without amazing content, you’ll never get links, and without link building, you won’t rank on the SERPs, so quality content and links should still be the foundation of any SEO strategy. 

SEO is the acronym Search Engine Optimization however more to the point it should be referred to as Web Presence Optimization, after all, we are optimizing our business and web presence, not the search engine. 

Content marketing and inbound marketing are synonymous as its foundational approach is creating quality content tailored to any given audience thereby acquiring customers, building trust, and loyalty. This type of marketing is not separate from SEO at all and has become an integral part of today’s SEO.

The SEO pre-2011 was a totally different mindset and the tasks were generally farmed out to search engine optimization professionals at a price. The industry became notorious for gaming search engines, particularly Google with the one-upmanship game using tactics like dark link schemes, mass forum posting, comment backlinking, and content stuffed with keywords, etc.   

After one of many of Google's algorithm updates (Panda/Farmer update) in February 2011, things notably changed and Google started viewing content from a truly human perspective. Marketer’s changed the way they approached Google and no longer used the keyword density formula as stuffing keywords throughout every page was a big no-no. Marketers started focusing on content that correlated and that interested their target market. 

Google continues to stay ahead of the game. Today, with their latest algorithm named BERT, which is based on user intent rather than a focus on content/page to keyword matching. It’s a  user-focused optimization, using real people to evaluate websites. These Quality Raters are not SEO professionals but are trained to assess the pages according to the amount of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the page’s main content as well as the creator of that content. 

 

Two Factors Determine High-Quality Content In Google 

As we know Google’s algorithm changes constantly, but there are two human inputs that can affect how your content shows up in search results.

Behavioral Analysis: Google looks at user behavior factors like the dwell time and average time on page.

Quality Raters: Google hires humans who manually check their search results using quality rating guidelines.pdf

As it’s all about humans and how they consume content and their effect on search engine rankings, we need to ensure our content satisfies not only the technical but the human requirements also. 

The Human Touch Required For The Pillars

Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, otherwise known as E-A-T are the pillars of Google’s quality rater guidelines and are only used to help Google evaluate changes, and do not directly impact rankings. The guidelines exist to help raters assess “Page Quality” and “Needs Met”, so it is simply a term Google created to teach quality raters what to look for. 

Google emphasizes Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness -  EAT to ensure trust in their search results.

 

Page Quality

Jennifer Slegg, the editor for the SEM Post, explains how Google assesses E-A-T,

“They said that the best-known signal is PageRank — that means links.”

Google may count links from other authoritative sites in your sector as vouching for your page.

Slegg provided as a rule of thumb, 

“You want to make sure that you’re putting out content that other people will feel good about linking to. In addition to amassing backlinks, publishers can bolster their E-A-T by citing their sources, including author bios and credentials, hiring authors that are experts in their field, adding “about” info and contact details, and managing their reputation and reviews.”

Needs Met

“Needs Met” refers to how well your page satisfies the user’s query.

Slegg goes on to explain,

“If you want to get the ‘Fully Meets’ ranking for this, which is the highest-ranking you can possibly get, you need to ensure that your content is completely answered what searchers are looking for,” 

So how can we improve our Needs Met ranking? One way is to see what keywords are getting users to your site and assessing that against your landing page. Also by having all your content on a single page rather than spread across numerous pages that would cause users to have to click on subsequent pages, may lower the likelihood of users returning to the search results only to click on your competitors’ listing. 

Low-quality signals are considered to be pages that are not mobile-friendly, misleading or clickbait titles, ad-blocked content, and intrusive advertisements, so the quality raters are instructed to assign the lowest rating available. 

“Google knows that sites need to have ads to support revenue,” Slegg noted, “it’s more about the types of ads.”

These pieces of content are ranked by their order of usefulness and relevance to the user performing the search.

And that means, in order for your content to have any SEO value at all, it needs to be beneficial to searchers.

How do you make sure it’s beneficial? The infographic below gives you some guidelines recommended by Google.

 

Social Media Now Considered Backlinks

Social relationships are now considered the new backlinks. In other words, you begin following people who have similar topics to yours and when you start building relationships, they will share your content from their social media turf. The more influential content-related people who share your content, the more impact it has on rankings. SEO is becoming a social butterfly that creates a network of substance and purpose.

A Community That Comments Is A Good Thing

Do blog comments help your rankings? According to Google, the answer is YES! 
In fact, Google stated that the community on your site that comments on your blog or article can help “a lot” with ranking.

Subsequently, Gary Illyes from Google said that “Comments are better on-site for engagement signals for SEO than moving to social.” 

In other words, Google now wants to see that you have an active community on your site. 

It’s extremely worthwhile to share "the love" with other social media platforms in terms of creating a greater reach. This is where Markethive excels as fully explained in this article written by the CEO of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast, a master at the art of marketing. 

Markethive is the ecosystem for entrepreneurs from all walks of life that not only includes a comprehensive inbound marketing suite but a social media platform where like-minded individuals network focusing on collaboration, sharing content and ideas, with the added advantage of Blockchain security and financial sovereignty. 

It’s a platform that highlights the cottage industry with sovereign storefronts and oodles of content all pointing to and from the platform.  It’s the perfect umbrella for any business to improve their exposure and reach.

With the classification of the next generation Market Network, Markethive has advanced exponentially in terms of traffic and Alexa Ranking. Thanks to the Markethive community with its professional approach to mastering the basic techniques of SEO, facilitating their individual businesses while engaging on the social platform, there’s little wonder that Markethive is a force and showing all the signs of dominating the Social Inbound Marketing paradigm.

Statistics updated Sept. 29, 2020

Markethive is not totally dependent on Search Engines as an individual marketer going it alone might be. It has built its own society (and continues to do so) so its traffic is contingent to the Markethive membership driving more traffic in, due to the nature of its platform, what it has to offer, the viral aspect, and the rewards system in place. 

Having said that, there are simple things we can do to optimize our content with the Markethive blogging system and keep within the guidelines of what is accepted or frowned upon on major search engines. 

Adding to that it’s beneficial to be aware of the continuous changes and updates our beloved Google does to its search engine. 

 

How Can You Optimize Your Content In Markethive?

Content optimization doesn’t need to be difficult. It’s certainly one of the easier elements of SEO to understand and since Markethive is in essence an Inbound Marketing platform with content being of paramount importance it makes sense to understand how you can optimize your blogs to improve rankings.

You need to ensure you’re following a process and adhering to best-practice guidelines. However, you first need to understand why certain elements contribute toward an optimized page and also what to do to implement these into your content. 

Content remains one of Google’s strongest ranking signals, but it’s important to create content with a purpose. You should never just publish blog posts or other types of content just for the sake of doing so. 

Typically, you’ll be publishing content to meet one of a number of goals, including: 

• To rank on the SERPs. 
• To earn links. 
• To educate an audience. 
• To drive social engagement. 
• To generate leads. 

11 Elements To Optimize Your Blog

When it comes to creating the perfectly optimized page, there’s a simple checklist which you can follow: 

Be Keyword Targeted 

Keyword research should always be the starting point when writing. It’s important to align the content you create with your keyword research. 

Although search engines have been minimizing the importance of keywords signals for a while now, they still play a role in ranking your content in the SERPs. 

The focus is now more than ever on keyword phrases (long-tail phrases) and the skillful use of these phrases in a manner that is appropriate for the way search engine optimization works today. 

This guide will show you the importance of understanding the authority strategy that aligns with E-A-T.

Shorter URLs Are More Search Engine Friendly

As far back as 2008, Google’s Matt Cutts said that a 3 to 5 word URL is optimal and that, with those which are longer, “Google’s algorithms typically will just weight those words less and just not give you as much credit.” 

Specifically, URLs at position #1 on the first page of Google are on average 9.2 characters shorter than URLs that rank in position #10.

Short URLs may improve SEO in terms of a higher organic click-through rate (CTR) as shown in this study that short URLs have a higher CTR vs. long URLs. Also, short URLs may help Google understand what your page is all about.

So shorter URLs have a correlation with higher rankings. The average URL on Google’s first page is 66 characters long. Be sure to also include your main target keyword in the URL. 

 

Optimize Your Title Tag 

The title tag of a page is one of the most important on-page SEO elements, yet one which is so simple to get right. The best place to start when writing an optimized title tag is your target keyword. 

Most title tags on Google’s first page contain keywords that are an exact or partial match of any given search, so it makes sense to describe what your page is about in your title tag.

Because your title tag gives the people searching and search engines an overview of your content’s overall topic, it should presumably have a significant impact on rankings as pointed out in the Google SEO Guide.

It appears that a keyword-rich title tag may be a “ticket to entry” that can help you get to the first page. However, once you’re on the first page, using the exact keyword in your title doesn’t appear to help you climb the rankings. 

That’s where other factors like backlinks, Domain Authority, and user experience signals (like bounce rate, time on site, organic click-through-rate) appear to play a large role.

Optimize Your H1 Tag 

Your H1 tag is generally the same as the title or at least has the keywords pertaining to the title. When using the Markethive blogging platform this can be found in the editor at the top along with all the other formats available. 

As with title tag optimization, H1s may be a “ticket to entry” factor that can help you crack Google’s first page. But keyword-rich H1s may not be strong enough of a ranking signal to help a page move up the first page results. However, optimizing every aspect of your blog without going overboard can’t hurt.  

 

Target Keyword in the First Paragraph

There is no need to forcefully work your target keyword many times over throughout your entire content. Keyword stuffing is now considered “NOT COOL” and is frowned upon by search engines. 

It is important that you do use your primary keyword within the content, however, it needs to be done so in a natural fashion. It’s recommended that you include this within the first paragraph of content on the page. 

In the case of our Markethive TV article, this could be done easily by opening with something along the lines of what you see in the image above  Notice how it isn’t forced but fits nicely in the opening paragraph? That’s what you need to aim for. You will also notice I have included internal links using anchor text.

 

Optimize Your H2 Tags 

You’ve already wrapped your page heading in an H1 tag, but you need to also make sure you’re wrapping subheadings in H2 tags (or H3 – 6 if there are headings under other subheadings). 

Think of H tags as a hierarchy, where you’re wrapping the most important title in an H1 and work your way down the page. If all your subheadings contextually carry the same weight, use H2 tags for these. If there are clear sections within these, use H3 and so forth in a logical order. 

Don’t fall into the trap of stuffing your target keyword straight into an H2 tag but include variations that make sense to the content. In this example below, you may open the main body of content, after your H1 tag and introductory paragraph, with this variation.

Here, it’s highlighting clearly the overall theme and keyword focus - Markethive TV - however, there is an obvious variant describing what viewers can expect at present and in the future. Keep H2 tags concise and remember you don’t need to have a keyword variant every time as long as your content flows contextually. 

 

Use Of Images & Video 

The use of images and video within content has a positive impact upon dwell time, or how long someone stays on the page. Also, using video and images, which also includes the likes of infographics and charts, makes content easier to read and consume.

It’s a well-known fact that many of us are able to absorb and understand easier when content is visualized through an infographic or listened to via video. Furthermore, it nicely breaks up the text which can be seen as overwhelming to some readers, especially when it’s a comprehensively long article. 

Notably, writing comprehensive, in-depth content can help pages rank higher in Google, and according to this study when it comes to acquiring backlinks, long-form content significantly outperforms short blog posts and articles. Content longer than 3000 words gets an average of 77.2% more referring domains. 

From an SEO perspective, content that engages users more will have a positive impact upon dwell time. From the perspective of search engines, it makes sense that the longer a user spends consuming content on a site, the more useful it is in comparison to one with a much lower dwell time. 

Just be sure to fully optimize images and embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, or other video hosting and streaming platforms. 

 

Outbound Links Do Improve SEO

Not so long ago, SEO professionals were scared to link out to external content. Why? 
The worry of “leaking PageRank.” 

This was based upon a tendency to maintain as much PageRank as possible internally within a website and to avoid linking out. However, from an editorial perspective, that doesn’t make sense. 

Outbound links are one way that people and search engines discover useful content. They are important because they can improve organic traffic, build trust, and even facilitate relationships with other businesses.

Don’t be afraid to link out. If you’re citing a source, go ahead and link to it. It not only helps users to read further into a sub-topic but also allows search engines to better understand relevancy based upon content you’re linking to. 

Derek Gleason at CXL Institute explains how outbound links in your article align with a users-first approach to content, 

“If you really believe that your content marketing is there to benefit your users, I think you have to link to competitor content. They’re the other sites that are most likely to have created authoritative content on topics similar to those you cover. If you feel anxious about doing that, it’s a bit naive. Your users know that competitors exist. They’re going to find their websites one way or another. If anything, a willingness to link to others’ content may even reinforce why you’re the better resource as users know that you’ll give them full, honest answers.”

Just be mindful to link to authoritative sources. Don’t accept money from third-parties to link to their content from your own. Essentially, link to anything that adds value and makes the life of the user easier, so they don’t have to go search out resources themselves.

 

Balance Your Content With Internal Links 

Internally linking through to other key pages on your site is a must. Internal linking is a key way to navigate both users and search engines through your content and help to spread link equity to key pages. 

In the most simplistic form, if you’re mentioning a topic within your content which you have a page or post about, link to it. Don’t be afraid to link using anchor text, either. For example, if content talks about Backlinking and you have a previous relevant article that expands on your topic, by all means, link it, as I’ve done here. 

How many internal links should you add to your content? There’s no hard rule. Don’t go internally linking to anything and everything (and certainly don’t be forcing keywords in just to link), but link where it makes sense, and the target page adds value.

 

Page Speed

Although page speed can be an important factor for the user, and always considered to have a critical impact on digital marketing, and ranking, Backlinko recently analyzed 11.8 million search results to find no correlation between page loading speed (measured by Alexa) and first page Google rankings. However, it’s always best practice to strive for faster page speeds and when it comes to content, image size is a major contributing factor, so it’s important to optimize your images. 

Social Share Buttons 

Social shares are becoming more of an influence when it comes to search results, and social media profiles do rank in search engines. It’s also important that readers are able to share your content. 

Even if organic search is one of the reasons why you’re creating a piece of content, the end result is that you want eyeballs on it which create your reach and hopefully convert into business.

Social share buttons are located at the bottom of each of your blogs on the Markethive Blogging template which will appear as soon as you hit publish. 

 

In Conclusion

In 2020, it’s time to re-evaluate the quality of content and optimizing content for users rather than search engines. The key to staying successful in search marketing 2020 has been consistent throughout, publish good authoritative content, with consistent brand messaging, in all your channels. 

As the search engines adapt more to natural language understanding, the best-written content in all forms will win out. 

When you create content that is highly useful, engaging, or entertaining, and be seen as reliable enough to your audience that they would willingly return again to your site, or even seek you out above others, you’ve most certainly gained authority.

Users and customers are getting smarter and they expect more when it comes to marketing. The more they trust you, the more they are willing to share your content (links), talk about you (value), and buy your products (revenue).” 

Markethive has built a system on the Blockchain to empower the Entrepreneur, offering privacy, freedom of speech, and importantly, autonomy. Markethive with its numerous plugins, different domains, layouts, content, etc, all feeding from Markethive but feeding into them. 

We could literally have hundreds of thousands of websites all interconnected inside through the Blockchain from the outside having no possible connection, each one producing its own unique content. Some can be ranking really high, others not so much, but all feeding back into Markethive.

As Google evolves into a more humanistic search engine along with its updates, could and has resulted in a disruption of other sites’ and their standing in SEO. This will not affect Markethive, in fact, you could say it’s like trying to kill the Hydra.

Markethive, the company, is focused on providing a Universal type of income for aspiring entrepreneurs. We believe in sharing our resources with you as you build your business and seek to reach your goals. 

There is so much involved in the world of SEO, it can be very intimidating, however, Markethive has got you covered and committing to learn and carrying out the basics outlined here can lead to a fruitful association within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

 

Sources: 
https://searchengineland.com/ 
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/
https://backlinko.com/

 

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals.