Chloe Anagnos

Cultivating a career beyond borders

How I Save Money on Plane Tickets

· In: Travel, Travel Tips

Expensive airfare can be the largest hindrance preventing people from traveling. By utilizing technology, plane tickets can be more affordable. 

Here’s how I save money on plane tickets.

Book early

The sooner you book your travel, the lower the rate.

Traditionally, the target booking window is 50-70 days before your flight to find the best prices. The only exceptions are spring and summer breaks when the ideal time to book is 90 days out. 

Pick affordable days

It’s proven that Tuesday and Wednesday are the most inexpensive days to fly while Sunday is the most expensive. Holidays and other seasonal circumstances can also affect pricing, so it’s best to book around those periods when possible.

For example, it’s expensive to go to Paris from the United States during the summer and fall. I got a non-stop ticket from Chicago to Paris on United for about $350 in February 2018. It’s not the most popular time to travel and it was cold, but the ticket was very inexpensive and lines at attractions like the Eiffel Tour and Notre Dame were incredibly short.

Use Google Flights (but clear your data or use an incognito browser)

Google Flights is my favorite tool to compare airlines and rates. It will automatically calculate each leg of your journey and I like how you can sort flights by the number of layovers, etc.

If you use Google Flights or any other travel website, be sure to clear your data or use an incognito browser. Web pixels track purchasing behavior and are designed to slightly increase the price and show competitor flights at higher rates to incentivize a quick decision.

(Note: Southwest flight information doesn’t appear on Google Flights, however.) 

Fly from a major city

If you live in proximity to an airport like Chicago O’Hare, JFK, or LAX, flying from international airports can lower costs significantly.

Even connecting here can be more affordable than a direct flight in the U.S. from the airport closest to you.

Stay loyal to an airline and/or use a travel credit card

Choosing one airline will help you familiarize yourself with the best rates, times to fly, and allow you to accumulate rewards.

If you use a travel credit card like Southwest, Delta, or Capital One, points can accumulate pretty quickly.

To get to Europe and the Middle East, I use my Southwest points to fly from Chicago or Indianapolis into JFK in New York. From there, I’ve found one-ways to London as cheap as $100. 

Subscribe to Next Vacay

If you have a flexible schedule or want to travel but need some inspiration, I highly suggest you subscribe to Next Vacay.

Next Vacay is a database that scans for cheap flights based on your “home” airport. You set 3-4 airports that are closest to where you live and Next Vacay will email you with inexpensive deals to destinations around the world with links to actually buy tickets. It takes a lot of guesswork out of travel prep and in my opinion, pays for itself.

This is how I found my inexpensive roundtrips to Iceland and Paris in 2018!

In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten emails with deals from Columbus to Hong Kong for $575,  Cinncinati to Amsterdam for $450, and Chicago to Bali for $800 – and these are all-round trips!

Have an idea of standard ticket prices

The more I travel, the pickier I get about ticket prices.

For example, I’m not impressed by round trips to New York from Europe for $500+ when I know that I can probably find something cheaper from Chicago without having to use my flight points or spending the time to get from Indianapolis to NYC.

The way I see it, round trips from the Midwest to major cities in Europe like London, Paris, or Zurich are reasonable if priced $400-$600. It’s an incredible deal if you can find a round trip like this for $400 or less.

One ways to Europe from New York are reasonable for $200-$300 but are especially good deals if you can get $200 or less.

And any flight from the Midwest or East Coast to Asia for $1,000 or less is always a great deal IF they are nonstop or have one short layover.

Any more than one layover on a flight that’s more than 10 hours gets tiresome and it’s worth it to me to spend a bit extra to avoid sitting for hours in airports.

Why Your Lead Generation Isn’t Working

· In: Marketing, Technology

The success of most businesses hinges on lead generation.

If you don’t have people inquiring about your product or service, you won’t be in business – or for long, anyway. Even if you have a blog, work in retail, or volunteer with a nonprofit, understanding the process of acquiring leads is pertinent to gaining any kind of traction for your organization.

Essentially, lead generation is a process that finds the clients and customers you need to need to attract.

This is significant since your ultimate goal should be for prospects who are unfamiliar with your organization to become leads that eventually purchase from you, sign up for your offer, or volunteer with you. Lead generation is an ongoing process that provides your business with a steady pipeline you can scale and grow.

It’s important to develop a plan to ensure you have a sound process to not only generate quality leads but to keep them. Here’s why your lead generation process may not be working.

You aren’t qualifying your leads

Even though it may seem beneficial to have a large volume of leads coming in, those leads only to create more work if they don’t fall into the category of your ideal client. For instance, if you sell pacifiers and are targeting young moms, having 100 leads from mostly 50 + year old men won’t help you generate revenue.  Your lead generation process should be tailored toward your ideal client, and therefore should ask specific questions and offer the information that will convert your lead to a customer.

You don’t have an inbound marketing strategy

In an oversaturated market place with many competitors, it is no longer enough to simply sell to your audience. Furthermore, the most successful companies have found ways to serve their clients. Research the inbound methodology to learn more about ways to educate your audience and offer them value. Most people are skeptical of providing their information in fear of being spammed, so you’ll want to create content worth your ideal client’s time.

You don’t have automation sequences in place

When you create offers or lead magnets, most times your prospects want the information they inquired for immediately. Creating automation where sequences are enabled to send them to lead magnets and other relevant content will keep them engaged. Your audience also may not be ready to purchase from you immediately, so create a drip campaign to warm your audience. This will enable you to set up sequences to follow up with your audience and warm them to your product or service.

You don’t have a landing page

If you don’t have a landing page created, it may be challenging for you to generate leads. Having a page for this purpose will more clearly outline the purpose you’ve established for your leads. Different than just any normal page on your website, a landing page will better educate prospects on your offer clearly articulating the benefits for them, in addition to streamlining your marketing efforts for ads and retargeting.

You’re not running ads

SEM and social ads are great ways to better reach your audience. Using Facebook Pixel to target your existing traffic and creating ads is the best way to continue to engage leads. The rule of 7 explains it takes 7 times for your prospects to see your offer before they take action. 

Your offer isn’t good enough

Sometimes your end of the bargain and whatever lead magnet you provide to gain customer information simply isn’t as valuable to prospects as it may be to you. Focus on creating offers and lead magnets that your current client base already wants. Ensure that you are adding value, and allow that to shine through as you aspire to get more leads.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

· In: Marketing, Technology

Affiliate marketing is an excellent opportunity to generate additional revenue, specifically from products or services you’re passionate about.

In essence, affiliate marketing allows you to earn a small commission for recommending products you love to friends, family, and larger audiences. Typically, a person becomes an affiliate through a business by either applying or reaching out and receives a special link to direct all prospective purchasers. Once a purchase is made, the affiliate makes a commission.

Different from multi-level marketing, there is no incentive or pyramid structure to limit your earnings or one specific type of product you must sell. Though some may argue that it takes a certain follower account or industry to make an income, even having a small blog can allow you to start generating passive income through this method.

Create a website

The first step to generating traffic to gear toward specific products or services is by creating a website. Create a brand based on a specific audience and provide content like photos, a blog, a podcast, etc, that can help you promote products or services.

Find products you love

Begin to search for products that are not only relevant to the type of media you create. Search for products you truly love and enjoy. Choose products and services you have experience with and that improve your quality of life.

Initiate successful partnerships

An affiliate partnership ensures that both the affiliate and brand are benefitting from an agreed upon arrangement. Though starting out this may be a bit of a challenge, there are plenty of existing companies that have not yet created an affiliate program. If you have a local small business you frequent, consider it as an opportunity to develop a partnership.

Consider Amazon Affiliates

One of the original affiliate programs in existence, Amazon does offer an affiliate program with up to 10% commission. What’s great about this program is that it’s free to join and because Amazon is universal, there’s truly a product for every niche interest.

It’s easy to sign up, so begin to look for opportunities with this platform.

Use Pinterest, Facebook Ads, and Email Marketing to build your list

These marketing tactics ultimately will be the foundation for building your online audience. Based on the product or service you plan to offer, research which platforms your target audience spends the most time on, and create content for them there.

Creating and maintaining an email list is one of the most effective ways to continue to keep customers in the door.

How to Build Your Own Website (Without Code) From Scratch

· In: Marketing, Technology

With so many easy to use web development platforms in existence, building a website is easier than ever before. Since many web platforms offer more drag and drop features and e-commerce options for one price, many creatives and business owners have chosen these platforms for the sake of time and convenience.

However, when determining your website’s goals, it is important to consider that not every web development platform is created equally.

For instance, providers like Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.com (different from WordPress.org) may not be as ideal depending on your goals. For established businesses and brands, web ranking may not be as significant as an objective, but if you’re looking to generate traffic this way, you may want to reconsider.

If time is on your side and you’re looking to grow your traffic, here is a simple strategy to build your own website to increase your creative control, SEO, all while decreasing your spending.

Consider implementing your own domain and hosting strategy

More often than not, we are drawn towards an all-inclusive option that provides the domain, hosting, blog plugin, template, and many of the essential features of a website. Otherwise, we invest large amounts of capital into hiring a web developer and spend a fortune relying on them to update a website.

Both of these alternatives leave us without an understanding of how our website actually functions.

If you have the time, it’s worth it to buy a domain from a website like GoDaddy, and update the DNS, or domain name server, settings to send it to separate hosting – something that can also be done through GoDaddy. In my experience, they’re the easier provider to work with and will even set up your WordPress admin account if you call customer service.

Create a plan

Begin to write or type out the plan for your website.

What pages will you need? How do you want your site to appear? What type of theme or brand should it convey? Do some research, and write out your own sitemap and structure to ensure it includes all you’ll need. Look at other personal blogs, businesses, influencers, and consultants for examples.

Write out your content

Instead of writing your content while designing your website, do this beforehand so you aren’t developing directed attention fatigue (or exhausting yourself doing multiple tasks – in this case, tasks which are very different). Research content that will increase your SEO ranking, and explore other responsive websites that implement content features you enjoy.

Choose a responsive theme for desktop and mobile

Just because you’re hosting your own website doesn’t mean you have to learn code and become a Javascript or HTML expert. Instead, look for an easy to use, responsive theme. You’ll get a clean and optimized template while still being able to control many of the features of your website.

Build your site

Once you have everything in place, begin putting each piece together. If you’re using WordPress, you can install different drag and drop plugins that simplify the process for you and customize your website.

Include calls to action

An important rule of thumb to follow is ensuring each page and piece of content has a goal. That goal should include the call to action, or action step, you desire your target audience take. Whether it’s clicking a button, reading a blog post, learning more, or making a sale, always ensure that your website is calling your audience to do something.

Add the bells and whistles

Now that your website is almost complete, incorporate additional features such as analytics, shopping carts, and lead magnets. These tools will take your website to the next level, enabling you to gauge your traffic and generate more revenue over time.

Though this process may seem tedious, remember it will not only save additional revenue in the long run but also give you complete creative control and authority over your website.

Pro tip

Always, always, always have the technical side of your website created first before you design. This means hooking up your domain and hosting before you design.

If you need help with your website or need one quickly, let me help you.

Why Digital Will Replace Traditional Marketing

· In: Marketing, Technology

Digital marketing presents tangible ways to measure ROI through impressive data, brings more cost-effective strategies to the table, and allows for a more specific target audience range compared to traditional marketing. 

There’s no question that it is slowly but surely taking center stage in the marketing arena.

But will it replace traditional marketing in its entirety? Here are four reasons why it’s very possible.

More specific targeting

Taking into account traditional methods are more intrusive, digital strategies allow brands to connect and refine their target audience.

Think about it: Are you more likely to find a relevant ad in the newspaper going to everyone in your neighborhood, or on your Facebook feed based on a particular search you just conducted?

Digital marketing has established opportunities to create ads so specific based on online data that traditional marketing approaches will never be able to touch.

Inbound focused 

Essentially, inbound marketing is a strategy that brings clients in, whereas outbound efforts focus outward and use old school methods that tend to push out their product or service to prospects – whether a prospect is ready or not.

Inbound is focused entirely on providing value, further refining the audience and catering directly to customer need. With an inbound approach, prospects are more likely to opt-in based on their interest, instead of outbound methods that may not attract a company’s ideal target in the first place.

It’s more resourceful

Think about how much time and money traditional marketing approaches can exert. Traditional, promotional mail gets extremely expensive, while so much of it gets thrown away.

Cold calling leads take extensive time not only to call, but also to document, and typically has an extremely low ROI – or return on investment – compared to generating inbound leads based on interest. Digital efforts are resourceful and can be very quickly adapted at the click of a mouse, whereas traditional methods such as print can’t be modified quite so easily.

It’s data-driven

With digital marketing being, well, digital, everything is trackable and measurable. From clicks to time spent online, digital approaches make it easier than ever to monitor customer behavior and adjust according to that insight.

Whereas traditional efforts can be difficult to monitor and track, digital tactics allow for analytics that demonstrate when sales were made and where leads were driven. Such data makes it easier than ever for marketers to prove their indispensability.

Though traditional marketing won’t disappear overnight, it may with a generation. Knowing Generation Z and future generations will never know a world that isn’t digital, one may wonder if traditional methods will begin to significantly decrease in the years to come.

Chrome Plugins You Need to Be More Productive

· In: Technology

A plugin is an additional piece of software that can be added to a given program to enhance that program’s function.

If you’re not using plugins on Chrome, you’re missing opportunities to make your life even easier. No matter your industry, here are some universal plugins that can boost your productivity on a daily basis.

Block Site

If you’re spending too much time on social media or can’t seem to stay out of your inbox, then Block Site is the plugin for you.

To use this plugin, visit the websites you’re spending too much time on, and schedule times that you can’t access them. Block Site will work its magic and make sure you stay away from these websites and stay focused until the time you designate passes.

Facebook Pixel Helper

For all of you marketing junkies, this plugin will enable you to see any Pixel from Facebook installed on a given website. This plugin helps you check to see if the pixels on your websites are working and make sure they are collecting data.

For nonmarketing junkies, this plugin will help you to see which websites are gathering your information to remarket to you, and note the websites that are tracking you as you click on certain links. When you see a pixel detected, consider this plugin your friendly reminder to clear all your cookies, or forever be haunted by increasingly targeted ads.

Smallpdf

Smaller images enable your website to load more quickly, and with large file types, sometimes certain pages on your website may not load at all. Use this plugin to optimize your visual content and make sure your file sizes are up to par with the correct file format. This plugin can also come in handy if you’re emailing a photo or video content to your colleagues, and allow you to upload more content at a time to an email or file.

Loom

Loom is a plugin that allows you to record yourself and your screen in real time. It’s perfect for tutorials for YouTube, your employer, or for your colleagues to share skills and learn how to do something quickly and effectively.

Even if it’s something as simple as how and why you save a document in certain file format, this plugin quickly creates high-quality videos that can come in handy when you may least expect it.

Keywords Everywhere

Looking to boost your SEO? This plugin will allow you to see the cost per click of keywords on Google, YouTube, Etsy, and even Amazon. Instead of toggling back and forth from Keyword Planner, this plugin will help you stay up to date on what’s trending online, and allow you to adjust accordingly.

Even if you’re just looking to curate the perfect social media caption and see what’s trending, this plugin can help.

Todoist

Todoist makes staying on track with your to-do list easy. If you don’t need a comprehensive project management solution, Todoist serves as an excellent tool to keep track of everything you need to do during the day.

It easily syncs from your browser to your phone as well and can be used from anything as simple as chores and grocery lists you need to finish to complex projects you’d like to have on your radar.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

This plugin loads the LinkedIn profile of any contact you’re corresponding with via email directly onto your screen in a pop-up tab. No need to remember all their personal data if you’re not in a CRM platform because this plugin will quickly show you a given contact’s photo, company name, and location as you’re drafting an email from your inbox.

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