The beauty of starting a website or blog is that you often don’t know exactly where the journey takes you. You begin with registering a domain and writing about topics that you’re interested in and over time various categories emerge from your overall web content.
The most popular topics that people find your website for through their searches on search engines or social media, may establish your online presence as an expert niche publication in the industries you mainly cover.
This can attract enquiries from journalists, marketers and event organisers or press departments looking for influencers or digital publishers in their field to cover their events and news.
This is the journey I have been on since I started blogging on various websites, which I will share as examples of my editorial work that has led to such collaborations.
I will show you how I went about the whole process, from the enquiry stage to the execution stage of press and event coverage as I have noticed that there is a high demand in this field.
Consider your websites as web properties that people visit when searching for specific information. The more visitors your website attracts, the better of course as you can offer any content publication a wider audience exposure.
You have the opportunity to write about brands and organisations as well as established experts in your niche, you may also be able to conduct exclusive interviews and network, which is all positive ROI for your website.
Event and news coverage can also establish you as a writer, digital marketer, or influencer, especially if you can utilize your populated social media channels for more online exposure.
You can be creative with how you publish such content, and you’ll need to have guidelines set up that clarify the terms and conditions of your coverage of course. See the services I offer in more detail here:
If people are happy with how their events and news are published on your website, they will come back for more. As you can see, I offer press and news release publications, which I offer in two formats: a free plain-text version and a paid media version. I want to give everyone the opportunity to share their news, however, the more value a publication provides, the more work it requires which cannot be offered for free.
I explain this in more detail in my release enquiry response emails for example, which look like this:
Hi,
Thank you for your submission.
We can publish your release on the following relevant sites:
We offer a free plain text publication without any images/videos/hyperlinks or a paid publication with images/videos/hyperlinks for an admin fee of £40. The main difference is that the branding is much more effective with a media publication, and it offers SEO advantages.
I look forward to hearing back from you so that we can go ahead and publish your release within the next 3 working days.
Kind regards,
This can be a beneficial and lucrative option for a webmaster if they market and rank their website well to offer their clients the intended exposure and ROI.
How to cover Events & News as a Blogger & Publisher?
You will have established yourself as an expert in your niche and will therefore bring the necessary know-how to any news and event coverage in your industry.
Another plus is that you can be quite creative with your coverage on your website as you’re the webmaster and make all the rules. You should be up to date with the latest features your website can offer in terms of plugins for example for WordPress sites to offer the best web design and user experience for your clients and visitors.
If you’re not well-versed in this area, you can always speak with a web consultant to make your website extraordinary.
Depending on your website’s unique audience and focus, you can choose certain businesses, experts, or topics you want to cover that you find most suitable and promising. This can be determined by keyword searches with SEO tools and by the nature of enquiries you receive via your website.
The way you cover them can also be flexible if you don’t have to follow guidelines from your partners or if you negotiate these beforehand.
Make sure you have a clear vision of what you’d like to achieve with your event and news coverage and that you also take your partners’ goals and requirements into account. This will help you identify which features to offer, e.g., photography/videography, interviews, research, social media shares/posts, email marketing etc.
Ensure you have the resources to deliver what you offer, e.g., a professional photographer/videographer or required equipment for example.
Find below my examples of different events I have covered for some of the blogs I manage to get an idea:
Top Features of Event & News Coverage Publications
As you can see, the coverage I currently offer has the following features:
Exclusive and unique photographs taken by a professional photographer or provided by a client
Quotes from exhibitors
Information about exhibitors covered
Social media posts that were shared live
Hyperlinks that take readers to the exhibitors’ websites/channels
My own commentary with regards to my expert opinions on what is covered plus tips and recommendations I have enquired about or researched
Depending on the size of an event, it can be difficult to cover everything, so I’d recommend you focus on selected exhibitors, topics, workshops etc. that will be most interesting for your audience based on what you usually cover.
Preparation is key and you should always ask all entities you cover for permission to do so, perhaps even liaise with them prior to the event to discuss possible questions and angles that they’re satisfied with as I have done before conducting these interviews:
I then shared the drafts with the interviewees first before publishing them to get their consent and green light. This is important also with regard to data protection and general professionalism.
Many organisations will want to create awareness of an event before it happens, and they may ask you to publish a press or news release that they normally send you.
You can agree to make this part of your collaboration, or you can agree on a separate arrangement for this.
Here are some examples of how I publish media releases that offer the full range of benefits to my clients for SEO and marketing:
Partners also appreciate coverage on other channels such as social media or YouTube, which I additionally provide as you can see in the below examples:
What’s the future of Events & News Publications for Bloggers & Publishers?
Since the websites I manage have grown and increased their monthly organic web traffic, I receive news release enquiries daily and for events, it’s less frequent, but also on the rise.
Every business or organisation needs to be visible on the internet nowadays and it’s not sufficient to just publish a few posts on social media if you want to reach a wider and more diverse audience.
Crunching some numbers, there is a clear upward trend for higher demand in the online publishing industry:
63% of journalists said news announcements and press releases are what they want from their PR contacts, indicating that most reporters want to continue interacting with their PR professionals in the same way they have historically.
22% reported that original research on trends and market data was also important to them, offering a new opportunity for PR and comms pros to be a source.
44% of journalists say that press releases are their most trustworthy source of brand-related information.
And there is also growing profitability in this sector:
49% of brands are spending less than $10,000 per year on influencer marketing.
23% are spending between $10,000 and $50,000.
12% of marketers are devoting $50,000-$100,000,
5% $100,000-$500,000, and
6% are spending over $500,000.
And according to statista.com more than 2/3 of individuals in Great Britain were either reading or downloading online news, newspapers or magazines in 2020.
If you are intending to take your blog or website to the next level and perhaps also to make money online, you’ll need to find ways to offer partnerships, sponsorships, and collaborations to grow and expand. After all, what good is a website with nothing useful, intriguing, interesting and trending to share?
And to constantly produce content by yourself is extremely hard and time-consuming, plus may not be that diverse.
Consider your options with your website or blog, go through some website monetisation strategies that may be suitable for your web properties and invest in expanding your services and marketing your website.
If you need support with digital marketing, SEO, or web design, I can offer more support via digital marketing agency ClickDo and web host SeekaHost, where I work as an online media and PR strategist. We have various resources and an expert team at hand to help with anything around your web presence.
Simply contact me and I’ll respond to your enquiry in no time. Make the most of your website or blog today!
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Contributor to many Education, Business & Lifestyle Blogs in the United Kingdom & Germany | Summer Course Student at the London School of Journalism and Course Instructor at the SeekaHost University.
Ob Sie nun ein professioneller Fotograf sind oder einfach nur zum Spaß fotografieren, Bildbearbeitung ist schon fast ein Muss heutzutage, vor allem, wenn die Bilder online genutzt werden.
Allerdings gibt es auch Effekte, die man direkt während des Fotografierens erzielen kann und die eine nachträgliche Bearbeitung unnötig machen.
Es gibt eine Menge großartiger Optionen, sowohl online als auch offline und Influencer oder Blogger können diese nutzen, um keinen professionellen Fotografen buchen zu müssen, sondern ihre eigene Kamera effektiv zu nutzen.
In diesem Beitrag stellen wir Ihnen die besten Tools und Techniken vor, zur Bildbearbeitung und zur Fotografie selbst, um alle Blicke auf Ihrer Webseite oder Ihren Socials auf sich zu ziehen und mit Ihrem Blog mehr Geld zu verdienen.
Egal, ob Sie gerade erst anfangen oder auf der Suche nach einem Upgrade sind, in der Fotobearbeitung gibt es so gut wie keine Grenzen!
1. Effekte einfach einfügen bei der Bildbearbeitung
Es gibt viele verschiedene Effekte, die Sie mit Fotobearbeitung und Fotografie erzielen können – dadurch sehen Ihre Fotos realistischer oder künstlerischer aus. Sie können Ihre Fotos auch mit Spezialeffekten versehen, z. B. so, dass sie aussehen, als wären sie zu einer anderen Zeit oder an einem anderen Ort aufgenommen worden. Viele Blogger und Influencer benutzen einen Filter, den Sie vorher oder nachträglich über Ihr Bild legen, um es attraktiver zu machen und Instagram bietet diese zum Beispiel im Bildeditor.
Verwenden Sie beispielsweise das Kreativ-Tool von Adobe Express am PC, um einfach den Hintergrund Ihres Bildes zu entfernen und gegen einen anderen auszutauschen. Das Kreativ-Tool ist simpel und ohne Vorkenntnisse anzuwenden und Sie können mit verschiedenen Hintergründen experimentieren. Für Reiseblogger ist dieses Tool sehr gut geeignet.
2. Spielen Sie mit der Verschlusszeit Ihrer Kamera
Eine Möglichkeit, einen interessanten Effekt zu erzielen, besteht darin, mit der Verschlusszeit der Kamera zu spielen. Indem Sie die Verschlusszeit ändern, können Sie die Art und Weise ändern, wie die Bewegung auf Ihrem Foto erscheint.
Wenn Sie z. B. ein sich schnell bewegendes Objekt aufnehmen möchten, sollten Sie eine kürzere Verschlusszeit wählen, z.B. eine Verschlusszeit von mehr als einem Tausendstel einer Sekunde. Wenn Sie dagegen eher einen Unschärfeeffekt erzielen möchten, sollten Sie eine längere Verschlusszeit verwenden, z. B. eine, die ein paar Sekunden lang ist.
3. Veränderung der Blende für Licht und Unschärfe
Eine weitere Möglichkeit, einen interessanten Effekt zu erzielen, besteht darin, die Blende zu verändern. Die Blende ist die Einstellung, die bestimmt, wie viel Licht in die Kamera gelangt. Durch Ändern der Blende können Sie Ihr Foto heller oder dunkler erscheinen lassen.
Sie können auch eine andere Blende verwenden, um eine geringe Schärfentiefe zu erzeugen, was bedeutet, dass nur ein Teil Ihres Fotos scharf ist, während der Rest unscharf erscheint.
Solche Techniken werden gerne bei Events oder Aufnahmen im Freien eingesetzt.
4. Bewegung in Ihre Fotos bringen
Eine Möglichkeit, interessante Effekte zu erzielen, ist die Technik des “Schwenks”. Dabei wird ein sich bewegendes Objekt mit der Kamera verfolgt und bei offenem Verschluss fotografiert. Wenn Sie es richtig anstellen, kann dies einen Eindruck von Bewegung in Ihrem Foto vermitteln.
Vergessen Sie nicht, dass Sie auch interessante Effekte erzielen können, indem Sie die Kamera selbst bewegen. Versuchen Sie zum Beispiel, ein Bild zu machen, während Sie gehen oder laufen, oder indem Sie sich drehen.
5. Extra Fototipps
Es gibt unzählig viele verschiedene Möglichkeiten, Fotos zu bearbeiten, wie wir hier zeigen. Manche Blogger oder Influencer verwenden lieber voreingestellte Filter, wie wir sie von unserem Smartphone kennen, während andere die Farben und Farbtöne lieber manuell anpassen.
Wenn Sie eine Drohne besitzen, bietet diese Ihnen noch einmal ganz andere Möglichkeiten. Experimentieren Sie also mit den verschiedensten Techniken, so können Sie alle möglichen kreativen Möglichkeiten finden, um Ihre Fotos interessanter zu gestalten. Man weiß nie, was für coole Effekte man damit erzielen kann und es ist immer von Vorteil verschiedene Medien und Techniken einzusetzen, um mehr Webverkehr auf seine Webseite zu bekommen.
Nehmen Sie sich Zeit für Bildbearbeitungsprogramme
Auf dem Markt gibt es natürlich auch eine Reihe verschiedener Softwareprogramme, die Sie für die Fotobearbeitung verwenden können. Am bekanntesten ist heutzutage Adobe Photoshop, mit dem man Bilder besonders professionell bearbeiten kann – allerdings können Sie auch viele einzelne Tools kostenlos erhalten.
Für welches Programm Sie sich auch entscheiden, nehmen Sie sich auf jeden Fall die Zeit alle Funktionen auszuschöpfen. Auf diese Weise können Sie das Programm optimal nutzen und erfolgreiche Fotos erstellen, auf die Sie stolz sein können und die Ihre Follower gerne teilen und liken.
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Contributor to many Education, Business & Lifestyle Blogs in the United Kingdom & Germany | Summer Course Student at the London School of Journalism and Course Instructor at the SeekaHost University.
An online presence can either make or break the success of your blog as a copywriter, influencer, small business, or large corporation.
With Google’s latest search algorithm update promising a meaningful impact on search results for particularly helpful content, implementing such SEO tactics is essential for any online author looking to maximise their web presence.
Achieving soaring site success depends on many aspects of the course, which I cover here on my blog. However, through a common practice that bloggers and SEO experts refer to as ‘guest posting’, online stature and notability can form the foundation of establishing a brand in the online community.
Guest blogging is more than just link building. Placing strategically planned guest articles in relevant publications can lead to additional publicity from trusted or renowned sources and introduce you to a far-wider-reaching audience, which is partly considered digital PR nowadays.
Inviting you to explore the benefits of guest posting, I will be your guiding compass for producing effective guest content to reach the SEO goals set for your site or brand.
Hopefully, I will inspire you to develop an online presence, build your brand, and gain more exposure and virtual visibility as a business or a person.
What is Guest Posting & Why do Authors Value it?
In accumulating a frequently expanding online audience base, copywriters, bloggers and businesses often turn to top guest posting sites as vital platforms for attracting interested visitors to their websites/blogs.
Guest writing is a way of sharing your knowledge, skill, or expertise with other audiences apart from your own. It can happen in different forms such as blog posts, magazine articles, interviews, news releases or reports, opinion pieces, etc. and I will share examples here.
Guest blogging, also referred to as guest posting, is the closest form of online networking for writers and authors of any kind and is an important part of outreach work for more online exposure.
Encompassed by the act of writing content for another website as an independent writer or contributor, guest bloggers should aim to be featured on a higher-ranking website with solid web traffic in their niche. Consequently, you can soak up your site’s viewership potential by virtually piggybacking on a more prominent online entity with similar posting pillars of interest.
In the example illustrated below, data analytics show a substantial rise in site traffic, where the Digital Entrepreneurship Story I wrote for Home Business Magazine doubled my visitors and tripled average page views to my blog:
Credit: Seekahost App Hosting Control Panel
The Importance of Guest Articles
The collaborative cohesion between guest posting & blogger outreach services is what makes the pairing potential a mutual win-win for both the author and the online platform where pieces are published.
Guest posting is also valued by bloggers and businesses because, by keeping readers engaged, successful guest posts deliver new perspectives through fresh content crafted to cater to their audience.
Promotional boosts can also occur when guest bloggers share their written material with their networks.
My Top 6 Benefits of Guest Posting
I know. It seems counterproductive to spend time writing articles for other sites you may view as competitors when you could be using that time to create content for your site.
1. Trust: Online Authority, Reputation, and Credibility
Influencing the extent to which people trust your brand, guest posting can help you or your business build authority via the fluid and frequent publishing of quality content you set out to offer your worldwide online audience.
With the prevalence of ‘fake news rampant in the digital era, offering solid information people can trust is of utmost importance when relying on authority as a crucial element of an effective marketing strategy.
Perceptions of you by readers build trust in the brand you’re affiliated with, subsequently improving your value and online stature. By attaching your name to the written pieces you produce, your trustworthiness gets tested, giving way to guest blogging as a critical measure for managing online reputation through the quality of your custom content.
As an equally important factor in establishing authority, credibility delivers guest blog posts on popular high-ranking sites in your industry, enhancing your virtual visibility by vetting you accordingly. Due to this vetting process, site owners who may be exceptionally picky when posting content look for the most creative, unique, and authentic content from guest bloggers.
You can learn more in my articles about online media placements and how they can boost your brand awareness and visibility with high-profile publications:
Linkbuilding is an SEO technique used in guest posts to optimise a site’s ranking. Accumulating backlinks paves the way for SEO platforms like Google to assign higher domain ratings, resulting in higher site rankings in related keyword search results.
With relevance being a key driver in search engine algorithms, a guest post includes a relevant backlink when both ends provide similar information. For instance, if you’re creating a backlink in a guest post for a fashion website, directing it to your food blog wouldn’t serve your site and readers any favors.
With the emergence of ‘clickbait’ impacting the interconnectedness of the online community, context matters. As such, authors aim to minimise all mismatching material to ensure that their guest blogging makes sense for both them and site owners. This means that any backlinks added in guest content must provide the targeted reader with value first of all.
You can read my guide on effective link building to better understand what to look out for when you build links with your guest blogging, which does not only include written content by the way:
As an advanced version of gathering organic traffic for monetised blogs, high-quality traffic develops when sites begin to attract visitors who are most likely to benefit from their content or make a sale.
By publishing guest articles on other relevant websites, you’re already amassing a target audience interested in your posts. High-quality traffic takes this a few steps further by reaching readers willing to purchase sellable items featured on your blog.
If your website earnings are generated purely on advertisements or eCommerce, using compelling content to target those who are more likely to resonate with your material and hit ‘click’ will help you reach your quota.
This can be best achieved with a so-called CTA (call to action) that should invite the readers of your guest content to explore your website.
If you’re an influencer, you can check out my influencer marketing tips for higher conversions:
If you produce more visual content and are especially active on social media, then you can read my social media video tips guide to learn how to lead more traffic to your blog:
Online portfolios of work are vital for bloggers, writers, and businesses because consumers want a first-hand look at the impact a web brand has.
The more a brand thrives online often depends on how valuable the shared information is and via which sources it can be found. In terms of reputation and status, a guest publication in an esteemed magazine like we got published on Entrepreneur.com or Forbes.com can hugely impact your brand. And even search engines like Google will rank such high authority mentions well, giving your name far more online exposure.
Instead of limiting their online portfolios to their respective platforms, authors use guest blogging to branch out and engage with larger audiences, so they don’t have to promote their brand through less relevant advertisements like paid ads for example.
5. Driving Social Media Success
Gravitating toward appearing in as many places on the internet as possible, guest bloggers turn to social media as an additional online avenue for putting their brand on display to garner brand mentions.
With the potential for social media influencer marketing to meet favorable returns on investment, some guest bloggers swear by the practice as an effective tool for building brand awareness.
Plus, often the publications that publish your guest content will share it on their socials and tag you in it so that their followers also find you there. Or if you share your guest content and tag them, they may reshare it with their community as you can see below with a tagged Tweet for londonbusinessnews.com:
Credit: LbizNews
Are you a blogger with aspirations of becoming an online influencer?
Using your online persona and social media following as tools for sourcing wider audiences for your site is not a sure bet. However, turning to various social media video tips to drive traffic to your blog posts can make this goal attainable.
In addition to brand mentions and online influence, social media sharing is also considered a key motivator in driving online users to follow new accounts or visit prominent websites. Commonplace nowadays for readers to see Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn ‘share’ icons displayed on guest articles; we have site owners to thank, as guest blogging helps gain those shares.
Also falling under the social media umbrella, profile growth offers brands opportunities to feature in “who to follow” lists and suggestions with just a few simple guest posts.
The example below perfectly illustrates the potential to garner wider exposure when tagging businesses in social media posts:
Practice makes perfect and from one published post to the next, guest blogging develops and improves writing skills, directly influencing a writer’s ability to create more persuasive content for their website.
By consistently churning out captivating content through your guest articles, you will start to notice your grammar, spelling, and overall readability improve over time. Furthermore, by applying what you learn to the content on your website to make it stand out, your site will, in turn, perform better the more effective you become as a writer.
To give you a leg-up, my knowledge of using engaging content to create blog posts that Google sends many readers to will provide you with all the helpful hints needed to make for a full-proof SEO framework.
My Go-To Guide to Perfecting Your Guest
As a copywriter and online media strategist for ClickDo and SeekaHost, I am constantly trying to give other writers, bloggers, and businesses opportunities to align themselves with a credible content publishing source that is beneficial for their guest blogging agenda because digital news and media services can offer fantastic custom content marketing opportunities and you can find out more about what we currently offer via various platforms here:
Touching on various topics, digital press and news release publication services offer the faultless funneling of versatile information that covers different subject matter, which diversifies your outreach objectives.
Ready to boost your guest blogging game?
My proven tips include always remembering to:
Use your guest content to cater to your intended audience
Establish collaborative brand alignments
Follow editorial guidelines
Avoid submitting overtly self-promotional material
Include a call-to-action
Include internal SEO links strategically
Include added media strategically
Be original
Conclusion
Guest blogging is hands down one of the best ways to test new content marketing strategies and developments for the benefit of your blogs and websites.
Be bold and reach out to top publications with a tempting guest post pitch to test the ideal strategy that works best for guest content publications that boost your name or brand. While you are at it, avoid letting yourself get mystified by the myth that content featured on someone’s site doesn’t serve any purpose for yours because it does – and in a myriad of ways as highlighted here.
For guest bloggers, their blogs are their brand, and by offering a platform of opportunity to generate revenue online, guest posting has become one of the best SEO practices for any website, from everyday bloggers to large corporations. So, get involved now.
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Contributor to many Education, Business & Lifestyle Blogs in the United Kingdom & Germany | Summer Course Student at the London School of Journalism and Course Instructor at the SeekaHost University.
The concept of work from home or remote work was nearly unimaginable even a decade back and many couldn’t imagine doing online jobs in Germany. Now it is considered the new normal, especially since the lockdown due to the global pandemic.
The internet has opened up new vistas and working online means no more long commutes followed by longer working hours. I have decided to start the UK Education Blog in 2018 as a side hustle while working full-time as a teacher. It has enabled me to now work as a blogger and online media strategist for ClickDo Ltd. full-time while living a digital nomad lifestyle. And yes, I love it! Read all about my first digitally inspired summer in 2018.
You could start a profitable career from your kitchen table, work when you want, enjoy your free time, and make an impact. You could potentially become a digital nomad or digital entrepreneur even. It is easier than ever as long as you have gained some digital skills like SEO, digital marketing or simply how to use Microsoft Office and a web browser.
You can learn such easily with thousands of YouTube tutorials or the SeekaHost University where I teach a course about SEO copywriting. I will also soon release my first German course where I cover everything you need to know about WordPress Blogging.
What is the Best Online Job in Germany?
I have been working online from home as a copywriter and blogger for a few years now. I have written many guides about earning money online as you can see in this article.
And because I am German, I have compiled some research about the German online job and work market, so that you can see how easy it is to earn money online in Germany. Let me guide you through your options to inspire you if you live or intend to live in Germany, a country full of many online job opportunities.
Best Work From Home & Online Jobs in Germany
1. Translator
This is the perfect job if you are well versed in English and German or any other languages in combination with German. Translation has become a vital task as global trade has grown. Almost all business documents, deeds, affidavits, memorandums need translation into English for circulation among international clients. It helps if you have a diploma or degree in the English language or target language, but it is not mandatory. Of course, without certification, you would need to prove your grasp of English or the target language for translation in the first few bottom dollar projects. If your work is good enough, then with experience, a great case study portfolio, and positive client reviews, the need for certification fades. Some online job websites and search engines also give you the option to show your skills through tests they provide. This can increase trustworthiness.
Of utmost importance is understanding that a translator translates not only words but also the spirit of the content and message a company or client wants to convey. Your web content, for example, must be more than the sum of the different content parts and reflect the sentiment of the original, but with a matching cultural angle. German translation servicesaccommodate various sectors, such as law, health care, and finance, which you will need to research more on if you want to specialize in your translation skills. The mentioned industries above will require you to undergo training that’s tailored to the field you will specialize in before you can apply as a certified or sworn German translator to start a career in these industries. With over 130 million language speakers and about six countries considering German as their official language, you rest assured knowing that as a translator, there will always be a demand for your services. You can listen to the interview I conducted with my close friend Alexandra Bekavac, who is a sworn translator in Germany, to understand more about her journey and how she earns a living from translating:
Let me tell you that British and German humour is very different so if a client website were telling a joke or a funny slogan, your job would be to make it sound funny in both languages. When I helped translate contents and documents for a Swiss-German educational website called Bambino Learncare into English, it was challenging due to the differences in the national and regional public and political systems influencing education. So, translating from German means you don’t just speak for Germans, but also Austrians or Swiss in some cases, which is exciting and may open up many more online work opportunities.
2. Blogger
Creating your own domain and blog is exceptionally satisfying and can pay committed bloggers handsomely. The first step is to learn how to start a blog, just like I did through WordPress and I explain how you can get started in just a day with the new Blog Hosting Control Panel the SeekaHost App offers:
If you have a passion for something, share it with the world and get paid when others visit your blog. If you want to learn more about how to monetise a blog then read my extensive blogging monetization guide here:
Of course, it goes without saying that your blog posts must attract many readers to be engaging, easy to read, relatable, and show that you have adequate domain knowledge. You’ll also need to have some professional SEO and Blogging skills to get it ranked high on search engines so that people find it. You can take SeekaHost University online courses to get on top of that and I have been using WordPress Hosting to achieve fast loading speeds and a control panel that allows me to track and analyse my websites stats here with this blog, which now attracts over 1000 visitors monthly. Check my analysis out here:
Once you have built your blog successfully, which can take months including customizing it (tip: find many useful WordPress, SEO and blogging tutorials on the SeekaHost YouTube Channel), it is time to promote it through SEO, social media marketing und guest posting. This will ensure you attract enough readers so that your blog can be monetized in several ways. Affiliate marketing, selling ad space, e-courses, eBooks and many more avenues make this a lucrative field, which I explain in more depth in the Make Money Online ClickDo guide.
Alexandra Lapp and Leonie Hanne are two well-known German Bloggers who have turned fashion blogging into a multimillion-dollar enterprise, and you can also find out how the top 100 UK bloggers and influencers like Joe Wicks earn money with their blogs and social media channels. You will discover that blogging offers multiple avenues as many are also successful vloggers on YouTube and earn an income through various online sources.
3. Data Entry
The task itself is quite simple. You are required to input a large number of data into a prescribed format, usually from excel to a database website. There are two caveats:
You need enormous speed, at least 60 WPM (words per minute) though 90 is preferable.
Accuracy has to be 97.5% at 22500 keystrokes per hour.
The best way to prepare is to learn to type using any of the dozens of free typing software available online. Also, learn to use an ergonomic keyboard for better quality work. Otherwise, you would burn out in a year. This field also has a considerable number of fly-by-night operators who do not pay. Cater to a small and dependable clientele who regularly provide you with work. I provide more tips on highly rated online job sites in the Make Money Online Kindle Book, where I mainly cover international job sites many Germans also use such as Fiverr, Upwork and more.
4. Online Surveys
It is the most straightforward work from home jobs and also pays the least. Opinion polls and surveys help companies better understand the customer’s needs. The questions might be about buyer psychology (e.g., your feelings when purchasing/unboxing), taste (colour, material), or financial (what is too expensive/affordable) in nature. The information is rarely personally identifiable but rather an insight into a typical person’s mind from a marketer’s perspective. Several platforms offer surveys, and there is very little labour involved in filling up questionnaires.
This is one of the best WFH hustles while working full-time in your main job. Doing online surveys however, does not lead to a skillset that would enable you to build on for a career. Better options therefore are side hustles like working as a virtual assistant as it can be done in an hour while you earn some extra cash rather than rewards or tokens while you hone skills like admin tasks or email or social media marketing.
5. Content Writer/Copywriter
It is a writing job similar to a blogger. But apart from that, they share very little in common. As a copywriter you are not going to write about your passion but what your client wants and needs. It could be a sales letter, a website’s About Us page, a blog post with specific keywords inserted brilliantly into the text, and a myriad of the more similar tasks, which I describe in more detail in my portfolio section and my blog posts here about content writing jobs and business ideas. What is needed is a good grasp of language, extensive vocabulary, ability to research quickly, formulate thoughts, and pen them down in simple, lucid sentences that appeal to a reader. Besides, you would need innate curiosity because the topics you may write about could be as varied as travel to Serengeti to the best ten DSLR cameras under Euro 1000.
Read some of my articles about working online as a copywriter here:
SEO means search engine optimization. It is how a website climbs up the search engine page ranking algorithm. Several distinct tasks are performed by the SEO industry. Some of these include keywords analytics, traffic measurement, backlink monitoring, etc. No formal training is required, but an SEO certification or even a free MOOC course would help you understand the industry better. You obviously cannot handle the whole SEO process at first, and it is best to start off as an assistant who works from home. The sky is literally the limit for earning as your skills improve. SEO is a vital skill for many online jobs and if you want to be successful online in Germany, you will have to learn important keywords and how to implement them in your texts so that it attracts the right audience. This is why at SeekaHost University I and my ClickDo colleagues share their SEO skills and wisdom, which can be applied in any language with the right SEO tools. Fernando Raymond, the #1 SEO consultant at ClickDo, who is also a course instructor at SeekaHost University, shares many SEO tips on his blog. And you should read his latest guide about PBN SEO to understand the promising SEO strategies he uses to rank hundreds of websites.
7. Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants offer online administrative support to firms worldwide. With so many start-ups, there is a need for someone to maintain their books of accounts, prepare payroll, attend to the nitty-gritty of running an office. A virtual assistant works full-time for a company or part-time for several and assists with the management of all office tasks. From writing emails to drafting circulars and proofreading press releases – it is all in a day’s work for a virtual assistant and you can advertise your services in German or English via freelance platforms like Fiverr, Upwork or job sites like Indeed.
8. Social Media Analyst
If you cannot stay away from Instagram or Facebook, this is the perfect job for you. A significant part of marketing has moved online and into social media. There is a constant need to monitor the publishing calendar and find the perfect platform that offers high ROI for the marketing investment. It requires a degree of comfort with figures and statistics and the ability to objectively analyse and prepare a report based on which the company can tweak its marketing strategy.
You will be required to understand how to run paid ads on social media channels and how to gain more likes and shares for any social media campaign you manage. This will also involve a certain level of creative and converting social media copy and image or even video design to make each social media post as effective as possible. Many German businesses will look for assistance with their social media activities for perhaps just a few hours a week as they might already use marketing automation tools that just require some human input for post and ad creation and scheduling. It’s best to check online job platforms like Fiverr, Upwork and co. to see what the current expectations are for such gigs.
9. Video Gamer
Online gaming is another big money generator and in Germany video games like Minecraft attract a huge following on YouTube for example. For Minecraft fanatics there are many ways to cash in on their gaming passion and skill. If you want to start earning through online gaming, you need to have a Minecraft game server first. You need to invest time, skill and effort to maintain and build the server, a unique Minecraft world and a dedicated community for other Minecraft players. Beginners can buy a Minecraft server from a reliable hosting provider like SeekaHost and they can read more about how to get started with the SeekaHost Minecraft Server Guide. Try these money-generating avenues once your Minecraft server is up and running:
Earn by streaming your Minecraft gaming experience: Build a YouTube channel and add a variety of content related to your gaming like expert tips, behind the scenes, etc. You can earn a decent income through the YouTube monetization scheme which is covered in more detail in the above mentioned ClickDo Make Money Online Guide .
Charge players for using your server: Once you advertise your server and attract people to it, you can begin to charge players for the use of your server. You can charge a decent amount for an awesome world with great visual impact, expansions, mods and more. If users like your Minecraft world, you can charge membership fees, where you could offer different packages depending on the play duration, features etc.
Create a “task-based” virtual currency program for players: Set up your Minecraft server so that players use a virtual currency to play games. You can allocate a specific amount of virtual currency based on the tasks they complete. These tasks could be linked to your business affiliate schemes and advertising arrangements, encouraging players to download their products such as applications. You could also get your players to watch your advertiser’s latest ads or subscribing to their email lists for example.
The advantage of work from home jobs is that you could try out a few to find which suit your personality and needs most. If you want to be a blogger (and perhaps run a YouTube channel as well) you need full-time commitment. Jobs such as data entry and online surveys require less upfront commitment of time, energy, and creativity, but also pay less in the long run. One thing is for sure – that the trend is here to stay.
By getting in early and establishing yourself in the field, you surely have an unbeatable advantage in the German and international online job market. I also highly recommend starting a blog, which you can either use as a professional online presence and portfolio as I do here, or to share your passion, expertise and knowledge in your industry, as I do with some of these blogs:
You can publish content in various languages, but if you want to target the German market then you’d need to blog in perfect German. Any kind of online platform that resonates with your target audience can bring you the internet attention you need to build an online career. Watch the video below where I explain how you can create yourself online through several blogs, social media profiles and more so you establish your own unique online presence that represents you in your own way:
Infographic
Image Sharable Link For 8 Best Ways to Make Money Online in Germany
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Contributor to many Education, Business & Lifestyle Blogs in the United Kingdom & Germany | Summer Course Student at the London School of Journalism and Course Instructor at the SeekaHost University.
Irrespective of the distinct polarity surrounding the structural parameters involved in producing press releases and guest posts,
Who’s to say these outreach techniques will guarantee copywriters/bloggers, PR practitioners, small businesses, or large corporations effective and consistent online notoriety?
FACT: For content creators diving headfirst into a digitised sea saturated with infinite information sharing, simply publishing press releases and guest posts is not enough to penetrate today’s online arena and see your website and online presence thrive.
Want to see your site succeed?
You are in luck! Widely sought-after credibility, interconnected network expansion, and insurmountable website traffic are at the epicentre of any site’s SEO success.
Consequently, I will share communication and outreach strategies adopted by successful guest post and press release creators that you can incorporate into your content outreach methodology, ultimately awarding you the online stature your quality content truly deserves.
But before we go into that, let’s look at different content types first as the outreach campaign will vary.
How Different Content Types Meet Collective Outreach Objectives through Pitches?
While press releases and guest posts support differential functional frameworks, they exist to serve the same purpose: mounting visibility in the marketing and media arena.
Nevertheless, the contrasting factors between press releases and guest posts are critical when configuring your content outreach initiative to meet the best possible outcomes for your site.
Comparing Press Releases to Guest Posts
Although either communication outreach tactic is employed to build online brand awareness, harness exposure, and boost page views, successful copywriters, marketers, and businesses are effective because they can identify how press releases differ vastly from guest posts.
For example, guest articles are single processes for a single post in an ongoing two-way dialogue between writers and site owners.
In contrast, press releases are one-way broadcasts of information, where you can be open to returning conversation without an overall expectation for a response. In other words, if someone wants more information, they can reach out to you, but most people and most sites will not.
Due to the influx of outreach emails that editors and publishers receive daily, the all-encompassing distinction between outreach success and failure in your chosen strategy lies in your overall pitching potential.
Pitching Press Releases & Guest Posts
Since preparing the perfect pitch can make all the difference in measuring the effectiveness of your specific outreach agenda, distinguishing between pitches for guest posts and press releases is just as vital in the implementation of your chosen success-driven strategy.
Differences for Pitches to consider:
Example press release pitch sent to me via the londonbusinessnews.com blog
1. Press release pitches communicate happenings in the present tense, which focuses primarily on the newsworthiness of the business or organization that submits it.
2. A guest post pitch will often focus on trending topics that are relevant to the website/platform they are trying to get published on to make a valuable contribution to the editorial of the publication.
3. Issued for ‘Immediate Release’, the publishing window period in press release pitches is time-sensitive in contrast to guest post pitches, which have wider coverage timeframes. It is vital to never push for a publication date sooner than the editors have suggested as that comes across as extremely rude.
4. In guest post pitches, guest bloggers often confirm their compliance with website editorial guidelines to increase the likelihood of getting their pieces published. In comparison, press release pitches are more flexible, offering authors a self-promotional platform that endorses their content on different levels.
5. In contrast to press release pitches, guest bloggers must remain cognisant of the fees websites may charge to feature their written material on such platforms, with the terms and conditions surrounding this fee varying per site. Many will outline these via their media packs or dedicated service pages such as here on these example sites that accept both press releases and guest posts:
Example guest post pitch sent to me via clickdo.co.uk
Although there’s proven divergence in pitches for guest posts vs press releases, it’s also just as noteworthy to establish where similar structural frameworks for both converge to meet the same outreach outcomes.
Both content communication constructs, for example, share three components in common, namely:
Personalised Copy
Proofreading
A Clear and Concise CTA (call-to-action)
If you want to send a pitch my way you can go through the below pages, where I have listed different content publishing formats for guest contributions:
When following the basic principles of proper email etiquette, understand that quality trumps currency, so initially shift your focus more towards the value and credibility of the quality content you’re offering, with money matters eventually explored later in correspondence if a publication is interested.
Follow-up emails remind recipients who might have missed your first outreach attempt of the collaborative prospects you still have on the table. Although journalists and site owners generally respond to follow-up emails, always avoid inundating them with a flurry of follow-ups.
Depending on the type of outreach strategy you are employing, there is a difference in the number of necessary emails to send before your returns start to diminish, potentially redirecting your emails to receivers’ spam folders.
If you haven’t received a response within a few days of submitting your pitch and you’re considering sending a short, polite follow-up message to an outreach recipient, check out this cold email infographic as a benchmark that can help avoid landing you in the ‘heckler’ hot seat.
As illustrated in the statistics, response rates to follow-up emails do not drop off significantly compared to the first email, giving them value. However, your general politeness, coupled with the frequency of your follow-ups, must be taken in high regard.
3. Be Rude
When approaching prospective publishing channels with your pitched proposal, the last thing you want to be is offputting – this is simply counterproductive to your outreach objectives.
Being rude isn’t worth the risk!
Given the high number of pitches that publishers receive daily, drawing their attention through expressions of sincerity and genuine fondness for the publication goes a long way.
With your online reputation and credibility always on the line, don’t foil your chances of potentially publicising your impactful stories by leaving a bad taste in the emails you send to influential editors.
With your pitch offer them something rather than making demands.
4. Veer Off-Topic
Always avoid including unnecessary exaggerated information or connections to names and topics in your news/press release pitch:
As demonstrated in the old-school trick above, editors can easily get misguided by any insignificant information you provide, having the potential to completely overshadow your hard work.
How Both Outreach Initiatives Influence Online Notoriety
You’re probably wondering,
Which outreach option is better?
The answer is simple: both.
While guest posts should be your primary link-building method outside your usual network of sites, press releases serve as helpful tools for building an online hype, which could potentially lead to securing additional media coverage such as interviews.
Furthermore, both are instrumental in sparking social media cohesion and garnering site traffic to a landing page where additional information is accessible to readers and publishers alike and SEO copywriting skills are key here.
Guest posts and press releases are essential drivers in helping you gain an online reputation that mirrors your expertise in a field/area of interest. So, when setting out to get your name and face out there, if building long-standing relationships with specific sites is at the core of your outreach objective, guest posts are the way to go.
Conversely, if you want a lot of eyes to see one specific piece of information (i.e., a new product launch or event announcement, etc.), a press release is ideal.
How to Implement Guest Posts in Your Link Outreach Strategy?
Often incorporated in link-building practices carried out by guest bloggers, backlinks form the virtual backbone of any site’s success, acting as an effective SEO tactic adopted to meet overall outreach objectives.
Using Backlinks as Your Building Blocks
Backlinks are vital because top search engine optimisation platforms like Google give websites with more backlinks from other authority websites a higher domain rating, consequently resulting in higher rankings in their search results for related search terms.
By turning to various link-building services to help boost your SEO, you can accumulate backlinks to your work, further broadening your target audience.
When it comes to searching for the best guest posting sites to submit your written material to, ensure you’re looking in all the right places by adopting the below SEO criteria in your independent research accordingly:
Aside from adopting the expected yet effective link-building methods mentioned above, you can also build credible notoriety by having a go at more unique outreach tactics, which include:
Pitching requests to have your links added to published posts.
Fortifying relationships with site owners by sharing helpful updates on broken links.
Targeting high-ranking bloggers in addition to premium publications.
5 Steps to Executing Your Press Release Outreach Work
As a proven method for influencing a brand’s public perception, developing a full-proof media outreach plan is essential when conducting rewarding press release outreach work.
Although teaming up with top press release publication services like the ClickDo digital publishing services can offer you customised content publishing and marketing solutions via top-quality digital news channels, simply following my five steps to creating a full-proof media outreach plan is guaranteed to get you well on your way to widespread online notoriety:
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Knowing the audience allows you to connect with prospective customers, investors, business partners, and other stakeholders. By researching and understanding your target audience, you can identify the appropriate media outlets to approach with your pitch.
2. Create a Media List
After identifying your ideal audience of interest, the next step in your press release outreach work involves building a list of media sources and journalists who create content that appeals to your audience by conducting web searches for keywords related to your niche.
For example, imagine you’re the proud owner of an independent cosmetics startup company that develops herbal organic skincare products. You might start your search by looking for published articles involving herbal cosmetics, organic skincare, small businesses, startups, cosmetology clinics, and eco-friendly skincare topics.
Identifying popular sites, blogs, and online platforms where media influencers publish similar content to yours can also help you develop a list of networks and journalists to contact.
3. Gather Contact Information
While some publications may include instructions that describe how to contact them with a proposal, others may not. Worry not, however, because you can contact journalists directly via social media or a listed email address showcased on their platform. Many journalists work freelance and include their contact details on their professional platforms or digital portfolios.
Networking is another effective method for gathering contacts. The growing influence of networking through establishing relationships with media influencers is crucial for developing a database of contacts to leverage for future outreach initiatives. Since media heavyweights often host events (i.e. conferences, professional meetups, conventions, etc.), attending those events and developing an extensive network of media professionals may help you promote your online material via diverse channels.
4. Define Your Media Outreach Goals
By adopting the SMART method to set your outreach objectives in motion, you can work toward your goals and accurately measure your progress.
The SMART method involves setting goals that are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
An example of a SMART goal for a press release outreach campaign may include contacting 20 journalists and obtaining three or more responses within two weeks. This media outreach goal uses specific numbers, sets a realistic expectation that applies to the task, and establishes a timeframe to be met.
Based on the results of your outreach work, you can adjust goals that will help ensure future success for your site.
5. Execute & Monitor Your Plan
Once you’ve developed the perfect press release pitch that caters to top contactable publications, with a desired audience and goal in focus, the final step of your effective media outreach plan involves executing your outreach strategy to the highest degree.
As you contact journalists and publishers, consider creating a spreadsheet or another document to organise and monitor your plan. For example, you might be partial to creating a spreadsheet that lists your current, completed, and planned outreach campaigns.
Other items to incorporate in your spreadsheet might also include:
Despite the glaring differences between guest posts and press releases, the two outreach strategies share the common interest of limitless online notoriety for the betterment of your site’s or blog’s success.
Although both link outreach initiatives bear striking similarities in their pitch proposal frameworks, content creators and marketers must understand that they differ vastly, each with individualised defining factors separating them as outlined here.
Hopefully the above tips will help you with the best possible guest post or press release outreach campaign for your brand and online presence. If you’d like to ask some more specific questions about your unique outreach campaign, feel free to contact me and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Senior Online Media & PR Strategist at ClickDo Ltd. | Contributor to many Education, Business & Lifestyle Blogs in the United Kingdom & Germany | Summer Course Student at the London School of Journalism and Course Instructor at the SeekaHost University.