Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • The Marketer’s Complete Guide to SEO Automation

    As marketers, we understand the importance of SEO in driving traffic and generating leads. But all too often, our efforts are hindered by a lack of resources or time.

    That’s why many marketers use automation to streamline their SEO processes and focus on other growth strategies.
    In this guide, you’ll explore what SEO tasks can be automated to save at least three hours daily. You’ll also find out which essential SEO tools you should have in your arsenal to create an effective SEO strategy quickly and efficiently.
    Let’s get started!
    What is SEO automation?
    What SEO tasks can be automated?
    12 Essential SEO Automation Tools

    SEO optimization tools help marketers save time and resources while building an effective SEO strategy.

    What SEO tasks can be automated?
    Say goodbye to manual labor and hello to efficiency with SEO automation! Here are just a few of the tasks that can be automated with the right toolkit in hand.

    Keyword research. Automation helps to quickly identify keywords relevant to your target audience for high-value traffic opportunities.
    Content creation. Generate quality blog posts and website content with AI-driven writing services and make sure you’ve sprinkled enough keywords throughout the piece. SurferSEO, for instance, will provide you with these suggestions as you write.
    Automated structured data markup. Generate and validate structured data for your site in a heartbeat.
    Technical optimization. Save time on page speed optimization and technical audits while avoiding mistakes thanks to automated checks. Tools for an SEO audit will crawl your website and generate a report on any issues they find.
    Reporting and analytics. Automatically generate reports to track SEO performance with analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, and others. Get instant insights into how much traffic you are getting, what content is performing the best, where your visitors are coming from, etc.
    Automated rank tracking. Monitor how you rank for target keywords in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Track competition and fluctuations in the SERPs and get alerted when a competitor’s content ranks higher than yours for a keyword.
    Automated image optimization. Automatically optimize images for SEO to improve page loading times without losing image quality.
    Backlink Analysis and Interlinking. Find backlink opportunities, monitor competitor links, and get suggestions for internal linking to create a natural-looking link profile for your website.

    With automation, marketers can create more effective SEO strategies faster and easier than ever. If you are ready to take your SEO efforts to the next level, keep reading and find awesome SEO automation software for different tasks.

    12 Essential SEO Automation Tools
    We’ve gathered the 12 best SEO automation platforms to help you eliminate painstaking SEO work. Although each tool has many features, we’ll focus on a few of the most notable.
    1. HubSpot Marketing Software
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    HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Software provides actionable recommendations on optimizing your website for SEO, ranked in order of priority, so you can target the areas that most need improvement.
    This tool can help you strategize your content to organize your website by topic, a critical component that search engines consider.
    It also offers suggestions for topics your audience is interested in so you can expand your blog and draw those people in.
    You can also get detailed reports on what terms and topics people are searching for, clickthrough rates, total impressions, and other vital metrics. See clearly what’s working for your site and where there’s room for improvement.
    Best for: HubSpot’s Marketing Hub users.
    Pricing: Included with Marketing Hub’s Professional plan.
    Alternative: SurferSEO.
    2. SurferSEO

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    SurferSEO is a content optimization tool that analyzes your page or content outline and compares it to competitors’ pages to find SEO opportunities.
    It gives you recommendations on keywords for headings and body text, word count, and the number of images and paragraphs.
    SurferSEO auto-suggests keywords to include as you write. You can also create an SEO-optimized outline in a matter of seconds. Altogether, these features save hours when outlining and clustering keywords.
    As a matter of fact, ClickUp revealed that SurferSEO has helped them publish 150+ articles and achieve blog traffic growth of 85% in one year.
    Best for: Writing SEO-optimized blog posts at scale for B2C and B2B alike.
    Pricing: Starts at $59 monthly for the basic plan.
    Alternatives: Clearscope, Frase.
    3. Looker Studio
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    Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) will help you quickly build custom SEO reports and analyze data from Google Analytics, Search Console, SEMrush, and other sources via API.
    You can also mine data, combine distinct datasets, and easily audit site performance.
    One of Looker’s most outstanding features is its ability to create automated and visually appealing SEO reports. With Looker, you can regularly get insights into key performance metrics and track keyword rankings daily, weekly, or monthly.
    Best for: Digital marketing agencies, ecommerce sites, and businesses looking for comprehensive SEO analytics.
    Pricing: Free.
    Alternatives: Databox, Tableau.
    4. Ahrefs
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    Ahrefs is an SEO automation platform that helps you identify keyword opportunities, monitor link-building efforts, and analyze competitor visibility in the SERPs.
    One of the features we like is Link intersect for a backlink gap analysis. It allows you to compare links between your domain and competitors’ websites to uncover link opportunities that you might have missed otherwise.
    Another epic feature is the “best by links” report. With it, you can easily uncover the most linked content on any website. Dig down to see what type of content lands thousands of links to find prospects and inspire link-building tactics.
    Finally, use Ahrefs Content Explorer to find unlinked brand mentions and reach out to the website owners to secure a link.
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    Best for: SEO professionals who need to monitor, discover, and scale link-building efforts.
    Pricing: Starts at $99 monthly for the lite plan.
    Alternatives: SEMrush, MajesticSEO.
    5. SEMRush
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    SEMRush is a suite of automated SEO tools that provide insights into competitor strategies and your domain’s online visibility.
    SEMRush also helps you identify keywords to target with its Keyword Magic Tool. This one is especially useful for finding long-tail phrases related to your main topic and organizing them into clusters within a minute.
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    We can’t stress enough how time-saving this feature is. Remember when SEO involved working on Excel and Google sheets to group keywords with super complex formulas?
    Breathe freely with the SEMRush clustering tool or its alternative Serpstat.
    SEMRush also offers a content marketing platform that helps you write SEO-friendly blog posts and optimize them for the SERPs. It even has an SEO writing assistant that suggests content ideas and provides readability scores for your copy.
    Best for: SEO professionals who need a comprehensive suite of tools to analyze competitor data, monitor keyword rankings, and optimize content.
    Pricing: Starts at $99.95 monthly for the pro plan.
    Alternatives: Ahrefs, KeywordTool, Jaaxy, Serpstat.
    6. Netpeak Spider
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    Netpeak Spider is a technical SEO crawler that audits your website’s structure and finds broken links, duplicate content, and other issues. It also provides insight into the indexability of your pages and can detect malware or malicious code.
    Moreover, Netpeak Spider has one of the most advanced filtering systems around. It allows you to customize reports for a more detailed analysis or generate an XML sitemap for submission to Google and other search engines.
    Netpeak Spider comes with a convenient integration with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, so you can easily access data within the same dashboard.
    On top of that, the tool supports white-label reports, making life easier for SEO agencies and consultants.
    Best for: Agencies and SEO professionals who need to audit website structure, detect issues quickly, and generate white-label reports.
    Pricing: Starts at $7 monthly for the starter plan, which allows one user.
    Alternatives: Screaming Frog, DeepCrawl.
    7. Google Search Console
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    Of course, we couldn’t pass by the most powerful and free toolkit for website performance analysis and technical audits.
    Google Search Console shares insights into how Google interprets your website. It helps you track and measure organic traffic, set up alerts for potential issues, and get data on clicks, impressions, and query positions.
    You can also use Search Console to submit a sitemap directly to Google, run URL inspection and parameters tests, and request re-indexing of pages.
    With its “Inspect URL” feature, you can check how Googlebot sees the page and troubleshoot potential problems.
    Best for: Everyone who wants to monitor their website’s performance and stay informed about potential issues.
    Pricing: Free.
    Alternatives: Screaming Frog, Netpeak Spider, AgencyAnalytics, Searchmetrics.
    8. Jasper
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    Jasper AI Writing Assistant is an AI-driven copywriting tool that generates high-converting content in minutes.
    Guide this tool with commands or use templates, like AIDA copies, for LinkedIn, blog posts, e-commerce listings, Google and Facebook ads templates, etc.
    Thanks to its AI technology, Jasper can adopt and mimic your tone of voice, cutting off hours on writing copies for different content needs.
    For SEO, Jasper AI Writing Assistant can generate creative and snappy meta descriptions, titles, etc. Integrated with SurferSEO, Jasper crafts copies enriched with target keywords.
    Use these tools combined to maximize your SEO performance with minimal effort.
    Best for: Companies and professionals looking for an AI-driven copywriting solution to quickly generate SEO-friendly content.
    Pricing: Starts at $49 monthly for 50,000 words generated.
    Alternatives: Writer, CopyAI, WriteSonic.
    9. AgencyAnalytics
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    AgencyAnalytics provides automated analytics for various platforms, including Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.
    This tool also integrates with over 40 marketing tools, like MailChimp and HubSpot, to offer a comprehensive view of campaign performance.
    The tool’s SEO suite includes rank tracking, backlink analysis, site audits, social media analytics, and much more.
    Best for: SEO agencies and consultants looking for an all-in-one tool to manage campaigns, and track analytics.
    Pricing: Starts at $29 per month for the pro plan.
    Alternatives: Searchmetrics, Kissmetrics.
    10. Technical SEO Automation Tools by Merkle
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    Merkle’s SEO tools are explicitly designed to automate various technical SEO tasks.
    For example, you can test and validate your robots.txt and generate and submit XML sitemaps to search engines. Or query the Knowledge Graph API to find entities, their MREID, and relevance scores.
    Merkel’s SEO automation tools also include a schema generator and SERP simulator. The best part? It’s all for free.
    Best for: SEO professionals who need to automate complex technical SEO tasks, like robots.txt validation and structured data markup.
    Pricing: Free.
    Alternative: Schemantra.
    11. Compress PNG
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    Compress PNG is an online tool that lets you quickly and easily compress PNG images. It’s a great way to speed up page load times and reduce file size, which can help improve SEO performance.
    Leverage Compress PNG to convert files from JPEG and GIF formats for better compatibility with browsers. Use this tool in tandem with another to improve your overall SEO strategy.
    Best for: Anyone looking for an easy and free way to compress PNG images.
    Pricing: Free.
    Alternatives: TinyPNG, Compressor.io.
    12. AccuRanker

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    AccuRanker is an advanced rank-tracking solution for SEOs and marketers. It offers real-time insights into how your website performs in organic search and helps you identify changes in ranking over time.
    The tool also provides detailed analytics, including accuracy scores, Share of Voice, and search engine position history. You can even set up automated alerts to stay on top of any changes in rankings or visibility.
    With its advanced keyword filtering, you can quickly create tailored reports for specific searches, locations, or devices.
    It also includes a drag-and-drop Master Filter, which allows you to group several keywords and track their performance simultaneously.
    Best for: Enterprises and SEO agencies; for rank tracking.
    Pricing: Starts at $130 monthly and offers 1,000 keywords to track. Get started with a 14-day free trial.
    Alternatives: SEMrush, Ahrefs, SERPWoo, Serpstat, SE Ranking.
    Making the Most of SEO Automation
    SEO automation is a game-changer for businesses looking to optimize their website and increase their online visibility. Companies can focus on higher-level strategy and creativity by streamlining SEO tasks.
    With the right tools, SEO automation can lead to more efficient, effective, and successful campaigns.
    So why wait? Embrace the power of SEO automation today and supercharge your online presence!

  • How to Use SumIf in Google Sheets

    When you’re managing spreadsheets, even a relatively small amount of data can become difficult to manage pretty quickly. But tools like Google Sheets have many functions that help you work with data more efficiently.

    A common challenge is figuring out how many instances you have of specific values within a large spreadsheet. That’s where the SumIf function in Google Sheets comes into play. Using this function, you can add up numbers in a spreadsheet based on certain conditions.
    Using a SumIf function in Google Sheets effectively can take some practice, especially in more complex situations. So here are step-by-step instructions and examples of using SumIf in Google Sheets to help you on your way.
    Table of Contents:

    What does SumIf do in Google Sheets?
    The Benefits of Using SumIf in Google Sheets
    How to Use SumIf in Google Sheets
    SumIf in Google Sheets Example
    Best Practices for Using SumIf

    What does SumIf do in Google Sheets?
    In Google Sheets, the SumIf function adds up the values in a range of cells that meet certain criteria. It allows you to add numbers in a specific range based on a given condition, such as values that meet a specified condition, fall within a certain range, or match a particular text string.
    The syntax of the SumIf function in Google Sheets is as follows:
    =SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])

    Range: The range of cells that you want to evaluate.
    Criteria: The criteria that you want to use to determine which cells to sum up.
    Sum_range: The range of cells that you want to sum up. If this argument is not provided, the cells in the range argument will be used.

    Let’s say you have a column of sales data, and you want to sum up a particular person’s sales. You could use the SumIf function.
    You would specify the range of cells that contain the sales data, the criteria that specify which salesperson’s sales you want to sum up, and the sum range (which, in this case, would be the same as the range argument).
    The function would then calculate the sum of all the sales that match your specified criteria.

    The Benefits of Using SumIf in Google Sheets
    Sometimes, you may need to sum up values in a range based on specific criteria or conditions. Without the SumIf function, you would need to manually sort, filter, and add up the values that meet your criteria, which can be time-consuming and result in many errors.
    You might also need to perform dynamic calculations that update automatically as your data changes. By using the SumIf function, you can create formulas that are linked to your data and update automatically whenever new data is added or existing data is changed.
    The SumIf function is also very flexible and easy to customize. It can be as straightforward or as complex as you need it to be. Google Sheets allows you to select a wide range of criteria and conditions for summing up values through the SumIf function.
    Plus, it’s compatible with plenty of other functions within Google Sheets if you need to extend your formula or create complex calculations. This includes AverageIf, CountIf, MaxIf, and more.

    How to Use SumIf in Google Sheets

    Open a new or existing Google Sheets document.
    Enter your data into the worksheet. For example, you might have a list of sales transactions with columns for date, product, quantity, and price.
    Decide what criteria you want to use to sum up your data. For example, you might want to sum up the sales for a particular product or for a specific date range.
    Click on the cell where you want to display the sum of your data.
    Type “=SUMIF(” into the cell. This will start the SUMIF formula.
    Select the range of cells that you want to search for the criteria. For example, if you want to sum up the sales for a particular product, you would select the column that contains the product names.
    Type a comma “,” after the range of cells.
    Enter the criteria that you want to use for summing up the data. For example, if you want to sum up the sales for a product named “Boots”, you would enter “Boots” in quotation marks.
    Type another comma “,” after the criteria.
    Select the range of cells that contains the values that you want to sum up. For example, to sum up the sales for the “Boots” product, you would select the column that contains the sales values.

     

    Close the formula by typing “)” and press Enter. The sum of the values that meet your criteria will be displayed in the cell. In this instance, the SumIf function shows us that 16 pairs of boots have been sold in total.

    You can also use the SumIf function to sum up values based on multiple criteria by using the “&” operator to combine the criteria. For example, to sum up the sales for the “Boots” product for 2023 so far, you would use the formula:
    “=SUMIF(B2:B11,”Boots”,C2:C11&A2:A11,”>=1/1/23″)”
    In this instance, B2:B11 contains the product names, C2:C11 contains the sales values, and A2:A11 contains the dates.

    SumIf in Google Sheets Example
    To get a sense of how useful SumIf can be with large data sets, let’s take a look at a more in-depth example. In this instance, you need the SumIf statement to use data from multiple sheets.
    Suppose you have a list of employees and their corresponding salaries on one sheet and a separate sheet containing each employee’s job title.
    In this instance, we’ll use the SumIf function to sum up the overall salary spent on employees with a specific job title.

    Select the cell where you want the final value to appear and begin your SumIf formula. First, select the data in Column C (“Job Titles”), as this is the range you want to evaluate.
    In this case, we’re trying to find out how many Occupational Therapists are on the payroll. So, “Occupational Therapist” has been entered into the formula as the criteria.
    Next, we need to tell the function the range of cells you want to sum up based on the criteria. We want to know about the salaries of occupational therapists, which means selecting the data under Column B (“Annual Salary”).
    When the Enter key is hit after closing the formula with “)”, we can see that the company spends $622,435 annually on salaries for Occupational Therapists.

    If you wanted to know this information about each job title in the company, you would simply create another table in a separate sheet with one instance of each job title and copy the formula down, replacing the criteria for each row to match the job title you want to reference.

    So, in just a couple of steps, you’d be left with a table that sums up all the information in one place rather than manually counting and adding up hundreds of cells.

    Best Practices for Using SumIf
    The SumIf function is fairly simple and easy to use. But like all spreadsheet functions, it’s easy to get an ERROR result if your formula isn’t formatted correctly or if you don’t stick to some key best practices.
    Use descriptive criteria.
    Using descriptive criteria can help make your formula more readable and understandable.
    For example, if you are summing sales data for a particular region, use the name of the region as your criteria, rather than a generic term like “Region A”.
    Use cell references.
    Using cell references instead of typing criteria directly into your formula makes it easier to update your criteria if needed.
    For example, if you need to change the name of the region you are summing, you can simply update the cell reference instead of editing the formula.
    Check your ranges.
    Make sure that the range you are summing and the range you are using for criteria are the same size and have the same layout. If the ranges are different, you may get unexpected results or errors.
    Use the correct syntax.
    The syntax of the SUMIF function is SUMIF(range, criteria, sum_range). Make sure that you are using the correct order of arguments and that each argument is separated by a comma.
    Test your formula.
    Testing your formula with a small subset of data can help you catch errors or unexpected results before applying it to a larger dataset. This is especially important if you are using more complex criteria or formulas.
    Use other functions for more complex criteria.
    If you need to sum data based on more complex criteria, consider using other functions such as SUMIFS, which allows you to specify multiple criteria.
    For example, you can use SUMIFS to sum sales data for a particular region and time period.
    Keep your data organized.
    Keeping your data organized and well-formatted can make it easier to use SUMIF and other functions in Google Sheets.
    Consider using tables or formatting your data as a named range to make it easier to reference in your formulas. You can also use filters or sorting to quickly find the data you need.
    Getting Started
    The SumIf function is a simple solution to summing up data based on specific criteria. By using cell references, descriptive criteria, and other best practices, you can make your formulas more readable, accurate, and efficient.
    Whether you are summing sales data, tracking expenses, or analyzing survey results, the SumIf function can help you quickly and easily calculate totals based on specific conditions. With a little practice, you’ll soon be using this function with ease.

  • The house painter and the architect

    We don’t design a book until after it’s written.

    Or cast the movie until the screenplay is complete.

    The house painter has an important job, but it makes no sense to plan for the painting before the house is designed.

    This makes a lot of sense because some parts of a project have high variability which can lead to very different outcomes.

    There are more than a billion ways to write a book, but fewer than 100 distinct categories of interior book design.

    We desperately need house painters, gaffers and book designers. If they don’t deliver on their work, the entire project falls apart. But they don’t go first.

    The job of the house painter is to amplify the architect’s vision, not vice versa.

    So there are a few questions worth asking:

    First, which one of the tasks is the dominant variable, the one where simply doing ‘a pretty good job’ is going to be insufficient (no one talks about the roofer on a Frank Lloyd Wright house–until it leaks).

    Second, which job do you want? We need both, but we should choose the path that suits our goals.

    [To be clear, it’s a role, not a job title. There are plenty of designers and painters who act as architects, and some architects that are not the pivot point for the project.]

  • The Future of Fundraising for Nonprofits

    The world of fundraising for nonprofits is evolving rapidly with the advent of new technologies and tools. In the past, most fundraising was done through direct mail and telephone calls, but now, nonprofits have a wide range of digital tools at their disposal. From digital giving platforms and crowdfunding to peer-to-peer fundraising and email marketing,…
    The post The Future of Fundraising for Nonprofits appeared first on Benchmark Email.

  • 10 New Salesforce Flow Features in Summer ‘23

    Every time the Salesforce release notes are published, I always jump straight to the Salesforce Flow section because, well, there’s always so much great content – content that will make the lives of Salesforce Admins a lot easier! Salesforce Flow is on a journey to… Read More

  • Why Pre-Sales Can Make You a Better Salesforce Architect

    Are you a Salesforce Architect looking for ways to level up your skills and become a more effective professional? If so, you’re in the right place! Salesforce Architects are the backbone of any organization’s CRM implementation, as they ensure the platform is tailored to the… Read More

  • Digital Marketer – AI Bootcamp

    Hi I have this new course : Digital Marketer – AI Bootcamp https://www.digitalmarketer.com/lp/ai-powered-marketer/ DM me for more informations https://preview.redd.it/z32tbow94fxa1.png?width=1741&format=png&auto=webp&s=dea673d721056a3db07efd9e53c339bd48f0cb3a submitted by /u/alaemaroc123 [link] [comments]

  • 4 Ways to Spring Clean Your Salesforce & Marketing Automation Systems

    Keeping databases clean requires continual upkeep from Salesforce and Marketing Automation Administrators. You all know the consequences of what a cluttered system with inaccurate data can mean for an organization, which is why admins use best practices like regularly scheduled maintenance and database cleaning.  To… Read More

  • 5 Reasons to Attend AppExchange Live

    Salesforce users know the importance of staying up to date on the latest trends, developments, and innovations within the ecosystem, which is why AppExchange Live is coming to London for the very first time.  Over 30 ISVs will be attending, with 19 customers sharing stories… Read More

  • From Self-Taught Creative to 7-Figure Art Business: Here’s How I Did It

    I taught my first online class on modern calligraphy only about one month after I began learning how to do it myself. It all started when I needed a new creative practice, a habit that I’ve learned is helpful for my mental health. I had seen people practicing modern calligraphy on social media and wanted to learn, so I looked for tutorials online. I struggled to find good resources, so I decided to teach myself by looking at modern calligraphy I liked and figuring out how to emulate it.Around this time, I discovered Skillshare—an online platform offering video courses for creative skills—and saw they were running a challenge to get new teachers on the platform. I already found myself regularly oversharing how I achieved a specific technique when someone complimented my work, so teaching felt like a natural evolution. I decided to give it a shot, spent about a week planning and recording my first class, and published it on the platform.When I got my first monthly payment for $2,200, I thought there was an extra zero on the check. The class was a hit, despite the fact that I still didn’t really consider myself “good” at calligraphy yet. I was shocked, and I was hooked.That first class kicked off the past seven years of my career. Since then I’ve taught over 50 classes on topics from hand lettering to painting to running a creative business, written eight books sharing creative techniques, launched my own line of art materials, and grown my brand, The Pigeon Letters, into a thriving seven-figure business that supports hundreds of thousands of students.I truly believe 80 percent of my success has been thanks to my mindset: how I see the value I have to offer, how I navigate hurdles, and how I build a business in a way that’s exciting to me and my audience. Here are four of the mindsets that have helped me build such a thriving business as a completely self-taught creator.1. I decided I only needed to be one step ahead to provide valueIt would have been so easy to hold myself back from starting my business until I considered myself a true “expert” in calligraphy. Many people feel too self-conscious about their skills to teach as a beginner, waiting months or years to gain more proficiency.Luckily, I’m such a bulldozer that it’s pretty hard to shake my confidence. But I also truly believed that I only needed to be one step ahead of someone else to have something to teach them. In fact, I saw this “weakness” as a strength I could lean into. By teaching as I was learning, I could connect with beginners more easily and encourage them that it’s totally possible to go from zero to creating beautiful art in a short amount of time. So, I showed up with confidence that I had something to offer students, and with full transparency about where I was. I didn’t pretend to be a master of calligraphy: I told my students that it was a new skill to me, but that I’d figured out a structure that could help other people.Students enjoyed coming on the journey with me, and soon, being a beginner became my niche that helped me stand out among more expert creators. When students asked when I was going to teach a watercolor class, I thought, “What makes you think I know how to watercolor?!” Then, I spent a couple of months learning so I could deliver—and it’s since become a huge passion of mine and a core part of my business. When AI came on the scene and all the creatives around me were unsure about it, I dove into ways I could integrate it into my workflow and immediately turned around and taught. It’s so empowering when you flip the switch and take ownership of whatever place you’re in. And if you’re authentic about it, other people will connect with that.2. I thoughtfully built up different revenue streams for stabilityEarly on, I knew that I wanted multiple revenue streams to be part of my business model so that I would feel more secure through economic ups and downs. But I also didn’t want to spread myself too thin, trying so many new things that none of them would become a solid foundation.So, to start, I chose to hyper-focus on teaching Skillshare courses until that felt established as my core. And then, I started thinking about what other branches I wanted to add that could be rooted in the work I was already doing. One by one, I’ve built different revenue streams, giving each one about four months of my focus to see if it gains traction before deciding whether to put it aside or put more energy there.Most of those new revenue streams came directly from listening to what my audience was asking me for and looking for ways to deliver. When students were constantly asking about what brushes, pens, and tools I used, I saw an opportunity to sell my favorites directly and even create my own line of brushes. When they asked for my teaching secrets, I launched my Creative Course Lab training and coaching program; when they wanted support on running a business, I created a membership community for creative entrepreneurs, Flock. I’ve also made money from licensing my art, selling on print-on-demand sites, hosting events and retreats, speaking and running corporate workshops, and teaching classes on other platforms.Some of these are larger branches, some are smaller, but they all contribute to my seven-figure business. As some income streams waned over the years, I was glad to have others to lean on. And they all came about organically from the mindset of looking for opportunities in the needs of my audience, thinking about which of them excited me, and then giving them a try.3. I rooted my marketing in excitement more than strategyIt’s wild to me how much working for yourself turns you into a full-time marketer. So many business owners let this bring them down, because marketing exhausts them or makes them feel slimy. To avoid that feeling, I’ve always kept my marketing organic—both in the sense that I’ve never paid for ads and also in the sense that I’ve always put myself out there in ways that feel authentic to me rather than trying to keep up with the latest trends. When I first started promoting my classes, I was shooting in the dark, impulsively sharing my excitement rather than building any kind of promotional plan. I also did a lot of cross-marketing with other artists to promote each others’ work, mostly because it sounded fun to collaborate with people I admired. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Peggy Dean | For Creatives 🎨 (@thepigeonletters) Eventually I did start to get more strategic, teaching myself about marketing best practices (and then, in true Peggy fashion, turning around and creating classes on those topics). But even then, I tried to make sure I felt enthusiastic about every promotional tactic I was implementing. For instance, when I decided to lean into growing my mailing list, I created lead magnets that provided a lot of value, like a whopping 52-page guide of my favorite supplies. Creating this offering excited me, making it easy for me to push it out to my audience.4. I look at failure as a growth opportunityLike every entrepreneur, I’ve gotten slapped in the face by failure. While some people get beat down and discouraged by that, it excites me because I know it means I’m being given an opportunity to learn and push myself (which, in case you couldn’t tell, is one of my favorite things to do).A great example: I’ve only had one item on my bucket list, ever, which is to write a book. About four months into teaching, I started writing a modern calligraphy how-to book and pitching it to publishers. Every single one of them said no, never responded, or said they already had something similar in the works. Instead of letting that stop me, I decided to self-publish my book—which ended up being a bestseller and landing in bookstores (which is rare for self-published books). View this post on Instagram A post shared by Peggy Dean | For Creatives 🎨 (@thepigeonletters) Nothing that I’ve achieved ever would have happened if I’d let fear of failure stop me. Yes, there’s always room to grow and improve, but that shouldn’t stop you from putting something valuable out in the world. By putting myself out there, no matter how imperfectly, I’ve helped hundreds of thousands of students tap into their creative potential—and helped myself build a thriving business that I love.