James McAllister Online

Category: Business

  • 25 Guaranteed Ways To Increase Your Email Opt-Ins

    If you’re not building your email list, you’re making a foolish mistake.

    For most bloggers, the real money isn’t made through your blog. It’s made by promoting products to those who have opted-in to your newsletter. Therefore, your main goal should be to get people onto your email list and into your sales funnel.

    However, this is easier said than done. Convincing readers to part with their email is harder than ever before and you’ve really got to go above and beyond your competitors if you want to win your visitor’s emails.

    Here are 25 guaranteed ways to increase email opt-ins from your blog. (more…)

  • How Interviewing A Major Celebrity Changed My Business Forever

    It was 9 AM on a Tuesday morning. Coffee in hand, I started my work day, checking my website’s email to see what sort of letters I get today. As usual, the majority of it is spam. “Your PayPal account has been limited”. “My husband died, and I’d like to transfer $3,999,999 to your bank account.” Sound familiar? 🙂

    I click over to the final email in my inbox, when my eyes shoot wide open.

    “Hello James! I’m a publicist on NBC’s upcoming show “The Million Second Quiz.” She then continues to discuss a little bit about the show.

    “Given iOS Universe’s emphasis on new apps and iOS technology, we would love to work with you on spreading the word about this exciting first for network television. Would you be interested in conducting an interview with “MSQ”‘s executive producer, Eli Holzman? He can talk about “Million Second Quiz” and its revolutionary format.” (For privacy reasons, I’m changing the emails around a little bit, but they are very similar to what’s written here.)

    What? WHAT? Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I had figured this had to be a fake letter. My blog is only receiving a few thousand visits a day, and NBC, a major television network are contacting me for business related activities? Is this real?

    Despite the fact that their email was from NBC’s domain, I was skeptical. I asked my close friends what they thought about this. They were also skeptical. I found the LinkedIn profile for the person who was emailing me, and sure enough, everything matched up.

    Nervously, I responded saying that I would be interested in the opportunity. We talked a bit about what the focal point of the interview would be, and who I would be talking to. Then we scheduled a date and time. Friday, 1 PM.

    “You’ll be speaking with Eli Holzman, one of the executive producers of the show, along with Michael Martin from the NBC Digital team who was instrumental in developing the app. Eli’s bio is attached. I can set up a conference line so that you can all chat.”

    The day came quicker than I thought. Here I am, a 17-year old high school student about to conduct a HUGE interview. I was nervous, shaking almost. Strangely, I get nervy talking on the phone to people I know, let alone a group of major celebrities!

    I wondered what the heck I had gotten myself into as I called in.

    “Hello?”

    “Hey, are you James McAllister?”

    “Yes I am.”

    “Great. Mr. Holzman is running late, he’ll be with us in a few moments.”

    Oh great, I thought to myself. What was I supposed to do in the mean time? Was I supposed to talk? Remain silent? My heart was thumping.

    Thankfully, the wait wasn’t too long. Within a few minutes, Eli Holzman entered the conference call. One of the other members answered,

    “Hello Mr. Holzman? Mr. McAllister from iOS Universe is here with us for the interview.” The entire time, they treated me like I was the celebrity.

    “Great, let’s get started.”

    Nervously, I began asking questions, notepad in front of me. You could tell I was very nervous. Fortunately, they were very laid back with their answers, telling stories and jokes as the interview went on. As I ran out of questions, I asked them if there was anything else they’d ask me to include in the article. I just wanted it to be over. The entire thing lasted about 15 minutes, but it felt like hounvrs. When it was over, we thanked each other and hung up.

    I had done it. I had just interviewed a major television producer, and several of the world’s top application developers. It was the scariest thing I had ever done, but I did it.

    I quickly and carefully wrote up an article. Then I edited it about 10 times. I wanted it to be perfect, but I wanted it released in a timely manner. Despite how scary it was, I wanted to get more opportunities like this, because it felt great.

    After about an hour and a half, the article was published. It was the best thing to ever happen to my website.

    Why?

    I added myself to the Wikipedia page along with some more information about the show. At the time, I was one of the first references on the page. I quickly began ranking very highly for several of the show’s main keywords. My website had exclusive information, that wasn’t published anywhere else. As a result, I got a TON of backlinks, and my traffic nearly doubled.

    On top of that, every time a commercial ran for the show (which became increasingly frequent as it got closer to the release date) I’d see a huge surge of traffic. I remember a commercial coming on once while I was working at my computer. Curiously, I checked Google Analytics to see hundreds of people beginning to read my article. This continued throughout the time the show was aired. I made a ton of money during that period, and all the extra backlinks kept my site ranking higher than ever before.

    It wasn’t long after that I started receiving invitations for sponsored posts paying several hundreds of dollars or more. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any huge opportunities like that since, but I know they will only become more and more frequent as my websites grow.

    I consider this the highest point in my business so far, and couldn’t think of one single event that has done for my business and me personally than that one. Take advantage of every opportunity you can, because you never know how beneficial they could be for you.

    Have you ever had any opportunities like this one? How did they go for you? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

  • Branding Success Comes From Sticking To The Basics

    You probably already know everything that you need to succeed.

    And if you’re like most people, there’s a chance you’re not actually doing it each day.

    I had an interesting realization the other day. When progress comes to us slower than we feel that it should, our natural inclination is to look for the reason why.

    We want to know what we’re doing wrong, and why the results are not showing up.

    By doing so, we jump on opportunity after opportunity, but never stick with any of them long enough to actually see them through.

    The funny thing is, there are no secrets. Chances are, you’ve already been told everything you need to find some initial success with your brand. I call these actions ‘The Basics’, and I’m going to share them with you here. (more…)

  • You Can’t Survive With A Website Alone

    The world has changed a lot in the last 10 years.

    Technology has evolved, and so has the way that we spend our time. For the majority of people today, the way we spend our day-to-day lives (at least, outside of work) is quite a bit different than they were in the very recent past.

    As our daily habits and actions change, so has the way we purchase products and services.

    Companies who have been in business for decades or longer are falling left and right, primarily for one core reason:

    They fail to adapt with the changing world.

    10 years ago, it was possible to make a killing online with only a simple WordPress blog. If your content was good enough, people would take the time to stay updated and read each and every post you published, almost religiously.

    If your goal is to achieve massive levels of success online, unfortunately this is no longer possible for most people.

    If you want to really form a connection with people, you have to go beyond your own site – publishing content for many platforms, rather than just one.

    Let’s look over this a little bit more deeply, and discuss some strategies you can utilize to build a larger, more engaged audience far more easily creating a strategy that will still be relevant throughout the 2020’s. (more…)

  • Content-Based Businesses – The Key To True Freedom

    It’s amazing how different two businesses can be, even if they’re within the same market, serving the same customers.

    The right business has the power to build your dream life, making you excited to get up and work each day. The wrong business can make you so miserable, you’d do anything to get rid of it – even if it’s making you a lot of money.

    You may have been told how you need to have a natural interest in the market you’re working in. What’s often neglected however is whether or not you’ll enjoy the day-to-day tasks involved with running your specific type of business.

    After all, the day-to-day work involved with manufacturing and selling saxophone accessories, vs. running a business teaching others to play saxophone online will be drastically different – even though these people will likely serve the same customers.

    If you’re planning to start a new business, I want to make the case for building something content-based – something like a blog, YouTube channel, or podcast (better yet, building a complete personal brand involving all of them.) While these business can take longer to build up, the numerous benefits I’m about to list more than make up for it! (more…)

  • What To Do When Your Family And Friends Do Not Support Your Business

    Starting a business is tough. Starting it without a strong support network in place? Even harder.

    It’s natural to feel that friends and family are supposed to be our biggest supporters – the ones believing in us when nobody else will. That they should back us up on whatever we set our minds and hearts to, because they love and care for us. Unfortunately, with any major life change, this isn’t always the case.

    It can be incredibly demoralizing when we reveal our entrepreneurial intentions to those closest to us, and they ultimately shut us down. For many aspiring entrepreneurs, it can cause them to withdrawal from their idea completely, shelving it off into the back of their minds forever.

    For your sake and for your family’s sake, do not let that be the case.

    This painful hardship can be overcome, and in fact, you may even be able to turn it into an advantage.

    Let’s look at what to do when your friends or family do not support your business. (more…)

  • Starting An Online Business – What To Buy, Broken Down By Budget

    We live in a beautiful time for entrepreneurship.

    The internet has leveled the playing field, and makes it easy for just about anyone to compete in a global marketplace, even without a very large budget. It is even possible to start an online business with no money whatsoever!

    However, although it’s possible to start an online business for free, it certainly becomes much easier if you have a little bit of money to work with.

    I was one of those people that started from nearly nothing – I remember having to beg my grandmother for $20 to buy web hosting and a domain name. I was only 14 at the time, and had no real income source to work with.

    Today, my brands have sold hundreds of thousands of units, and I’ve worked with entrepreneurs around the globe to help them achieve a similar level of success.

    Do not let your lack of money stop you from pursuing entrepreneurship – I promise you that it can be done without a large budget. However, if you do, there’s certainly opportunities to build success more quickly.

    In this article, I will recommend my best purchases based on your starting budget. This article will be aimed towards people who want to start online businesses – either eCommerce shops (selling physical or digital goods to customers), affiliate marketers, or other content-based entrepreneurs (such as bloggers, YouTubers, and podcasters.)

    Let’s get into it! (more…)

  • Multiple Failed Businesses? Here’s What To Do Differently Next Time

    There is only one thing more frustrating than pouring your heart and soul into a business, only to see it fail.

    Doing it several times.

    Launching one venture after another, truly giving it your all, only to ultimately realize that its going nowhere.

    Each time this happens, you begin to feel worse and worse about this whole entrepreneurship thing. It seems so far out of reach, and you have no idea what could possibly be going wrong so many times. Why it appears so easy to everyone else, but regardless of how hard you work, you just can’t seem to pull it off.

    Maybe, you even start believing that you’ve been lied to, and this is all a huge scam.

    Don’t worry.

    I know how this feels, because it’s something I went through myself. It took me years before I began attaining any success at all, and I have had a large number of failures between them.

    The fact of the matter is, even if you do everything right, and you have a solid strategy in place, things still may not work out.

    Other times, the shortcomings may be caused by your mindset – a lack of motivation, poor time management skills, or unconsciously setting mental hurdles that make your entrepreneurial journey more difficult.

    If any of this sounds like it applies to you, read on – this may be one of the most important articles you’ve come across. We’re going to analyze the root causes of business failures in more detail, and develop a plan that will ensure with absolute certainty that you will achieve success with future ventures.

    Let’s begin, with the first step. (more…)

  • 7 Tactics To Pull Off Your Side Hustle, While Working A Regular Job

    You’d never know it, but running my personal brand here is actually my side hustle.

    It’s 11:30 PM as I write this blog post – I spent the day at my main company’s offices, managing my team of employees and coordinating the next big import of goods from China.

    With only a few hours left before bed, I will get more done to build my personal brand than many people would if it was the only thing they were working on each day.

    There’s nothing special about me, or the way I do things, however. I’ve simply learned over the course of nearly a decade running online businesses that there are certain ‘tricks of the trade’, allowing you to get so much more done each day, in less time.

    In this article, I hope to share some of these with you. (more…)

  • Everybody Needs To Own A Business

    In today’s world, every single person needs to start a business, or have some sort of alternative income source that is separate from their job.

    I want you to get this thought into your head. I want you to keep it in there, circling around and around like a mantra:

    Owning your own business is the quickest ticket to freedom.  (more…)