Brian Meert's Blog, page 63

The Secret to Selling on Instagram without Spending a Cent

OCT. 21, 2020

Georgia de Lotz / Unsplash

If you delve a little deeper into statistics, you will see that Instagram is truly a priority channel for business development. According to Emarketer, 11% of US users buy products on Instagram. Every day 200 million users visit at least one business account. At the same time, 1 billion people use Instagram every month.

If you’re a start-up business owner, you may face a problem when advertising is needed for promotion: There’s no budget for it yet. You must start somewhere. Here, you’ll learn how to sell on Instagram without spending a cent.

To begin, you must first get a business profile. By converting your personal account into a business account, you will have access to reporting and sales tools, which you can access by clicking the Insights tab from the Settings menu. This will help you track the performance of your efforts, to see whether or not they work. 

You will have access to:

Reach, clicks, impressions and visits information (Activity tab)
Performance and engagement data for each post and Story (Content tab)
Information on the time of activity, gender, age, and location of followers (“Audience” tab)

Use Instagram Hashtags Wisely

Hashtags group posts by subject. Therefore, by adding relevant hashtags, you increase the visibility of your posts to your target audience. Although Instagram allows you to add up to 30, it’s optimal to use 10 to 15. Using too many hashtags gives followers a bad impression: It looks too desperate and needy.

Hashtags don’t have to be placed in your post. If they’re added to the first comment, they’re also taken into account by Instagram. It’s also a good idea to choose more niche hashtags that are sure to attract specific users. In the example below, NYX Cosmetics includes a “crueltyfree” hashtag to attract a niche audience: animal lovers.

@nyxcosmetics / Instagram

Add a Swipe-Up Link to Stories

Instagram Stories opens up more impressive capabilities, including clickable links that help you showcase your products and promote special offers. 

@mimles / Instagram

To add a link, you need a verified account or business profile with more than 10,000 subscribers. The “Swipe up” inscription appears at the bottom of your Story. After followers swipe up on your link, they will be taken to your web page. This feature is relevant for any business, regardless of whether you are a Spanish tutor or an online retailer.

The inscription “Swipe up” may not be noticeable, so it’s better to draw users’ attention to the link and encourage them to click on it. You can, for example, point to the inscription using an arrow emoji or simply tell them to “swipe on the link below.” Make sure to let them know where they’ll go after clicking on the link.

Stories allows you to showcase a product in action, present new products, or launch time-limited discounts, stored for 24 hours. Take advantage of this by offering a special price. Be sure to inform followers how much the price will rise after a day. This will serve as a stimulus for action.

Promote Products with Instagram Shopping

Instagram Shopping is a new feature that allows followers to click on a link in a post and purchase the featured item directly from the app. Shopping posts look the same as regular ones. However, when clicking on the image of a Shopping post, users see the products shown in the photo and their prices. Clicking on the tags redirects to the product page. There is a description and a CTA. The next click leads to the target page. 

To set up Shopping posts, you need to have a product catalog on Facebook and activate labeling. This will help you simplify the buying process for the customer and better sell products online. If you want your business to succeed on Instagram, consider using this tool.

@nyxcosmetics / Instagram

Process Payment on  WhatsApp

The disadvantage of Instagram Shopping is the need for an online store on Shopify. If you don’t have one, the problem can be solved in another way. All you need is WhatsApp.

WhatsApp can be used for payments. To do this, you just need to add the WhatsApp number to the profile header. After that, users will be able to view the products presented in your feed and send messages about payment and delivery.

Source: WhatsApp

Sell in the Comments Section

This is a great way to implement fast shopping without creating a Facebook product catalog. In this case, you only need one app.

How does it work?

Step 1: Post an image of your product.

Step 2: In your post, let followers know to DM you for more information.

Step 3: Once you and a customer agree on price via DM, write a note “SOLD” in the comments section.

Step 4: Send an invoice to the user to place an order. 

Selling in the comments section is a great way to make shopping easier on Instagram. For implementation, you need the Soldsie or Comment Sold app, which is linked to your Instagram or Facebook profile. An exhaustive and intuitive interface will allow you to fill in information about goods and the company: assortment, prices, and delivery terms. The invoice is sent automatically.

Conclusion

Sometimes ingenuity brings great results. Hopefully these recommendations will help turn Instagram from a user interaction tool into an effective sales tool.

How Facebook Is Working to Prevent Election Interference

OCT. 19, 2020

In 2016, Facebook came under fire for allowing fake and politically divisive Russian ads to overwhelm the social platform. It was suspected that this was done to disrupt and influence the election. 

For the 2020 election, Facebook is attempting to right these wrongs, and in addition to committing to only authoritative, clear information related to the election, they also want to encourage voting. 

Here are the changes that Facebook is making to prevent election interference this year.

Facebook’s Promise to Users

According to its website, Facebook’s goals are to “secure the integrity of the US elections by encouraging voting, connecting people to authoritative information, and reducing the risks of post-election confusion.” To do that, they have a four-part plan:

New political ads will not be accepted during the week leading up to the election because there isn’t enough time for fact-checkers or journalists to contest new claims during that last week before the election. Ads that have already been running can continue running, though, and targeting can be adjusted for those ads.
Any posts that say you’ll contract COVID-19 if you vote (presumably in public) will be removed. Furthermore, on posts that use COVID-19 scare tactics to discourage people from voting, Facebook will add links to authoritative sources.
On posts claiming that voting methods are illegitimate or fraudulent, Facebook will attach an informational label. The same goes for posts that say the outcome of the election may be illegitimate due to voting methods.
Should a campaign or candidate declare victory before the official results are in, Facebook will add a label that directs people to the National Election Pool and Reuters, where they can see official results. This is especially important for the 2020 election because the COVID-19 pandemic means a lot of voters will be mailing in their ballots, and the final result may come later than election night.

The way that Facebook can handle harmful content or misinformation in ads differs from how posts are handled. It’s possible that some ads won’t get approved or shown at all, but when it comes to posts, they may be adapted by Facebook after being posted, since there’s less control over posts than ads.

How Facebook Is Helping Voters Register

According to a Facebook post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Facebook is already running the largest voting information campaign in American history — with a goal of helping 4 million people to register and then vote. In just three days, we already drove almost 24 million clicks to voter registration websites.” To further encourage voting, Zuckerberg said that Facebook will “fight misinformation” and “connect people with authoritative information.” Now, when you log in to Facebook or Instagram, you’ll see information toward the top of the page that directs you to voting information.

According to Zuckerberg, “We will put authoritative information from our Voting Information Center at the top of Facebook and Instagram almost every day until the election. This will include video tutorials on how to vote by mail, and information on deadlines for registering and voting in your state.” Facebook is also removing misinformation about voting that would prevent someone from properly voting. For example, claims that you can mail in a ballot after election day, which isn’t true.

Stopping the Spread of Misinformation

That Facebook post from Zuckerberg also talked about their efforts in limiting the spread of harmful content and misinformation. Forwarding on Messenger is limited, which means that while a user can share election-related information, there’s a limit on the number of chats a message can be forwarded to at one time. (This strategy has already been used on WhatsApp in an “effective” way.) It also seems that this will limit how much one user can push their opinions and beliefs, whether legitimate or not, on others. 

What About Those Russian Ads from 2016, Though?

Zuckerberg didn’t shy away from referring to that situation in his post, saying, “…four years ago we encountered a new threat: coordinated online efforts by foreign governments and individuals to interfere in our elections. This threat hasn’t gone away.” He went on to say that, within just one week, Facebook took down 2 pages and 13 accounts that had intended to “mislead Americans and amplify division.” 

Aside from that, though, the rest of the statement was pretty vague, with just a blanket promise that Facebook’s security systems are more sophisticated than before. Since that was such a major issue in the past – and a huge concern in the present – it’s not altogether encouraging that little else was said about it. 

It seems that those informational labels Facebook will be attaching to potentially harmful content are intended to negate the influence those posts can have on viewers. And since COVID-19 is such a hot-button issue right now, it stands to reason that Facebook expects a lot of misinformation to surround the virus, and their new efforts will try to thwart that.

Getting Paid to Deactivate Your Account

One last thing: There have been a lot of reports about the $120 payment for deactivating (not permanently deleting) your Facebook account pre-election. Some users saw a survey that asked how much they would want to be paid to deactivate their Facebook or Instagram account for a few weeks leading up to the election. Some users were shocked, while others felt that this sort of deal was par for the course when it came to academic research experiments. Also, the price range went up to $120, but started at just $10, and compensation options, as well as deactivation time frames, were chosen by users. 

So Facebook is now going to pay people to deactivate their IG and FB accounts before Election Day. It’s part of the research experiment announced Monday but WOW. This notice went out this week. pic.twitter.com/tV7DAw8F5I

— Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin) September 3, 2020

This survey and research participation are part of Facebook’s overall look into how social media impacts elections. And it’s an interesting offer for people who are happy to steer clear of the abundance of political information on the platform right now.

By Lindsay Pietroluongo

6 Tips for Making Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out

OCT. 16, 2020

Marten Bjork /  Unsplash

Maintaining a professional social media account, such as an account with LinkedIn, is important in today’s modern hiring process. In fact, hiring managers continue to check applicants’ online presence. Moreover, there are organizations that require candidates in marketing, sales, or social media niches to have a concrete professional network base on LinkedIn.

In today’s market, a LinkedIn profile can put you miles ahead of the competition and significantly improve your job application. This guide shows you how to make your LinkedIn profile stand out in six easy tips. 

1. Go Beyond Your Job Title

By default, LinkedIn chooses your job title as your headline; for example, “sales manager,” “software engineer,” or “marketing director.” But there are instances where candidates use headlines like “looking for work” or “a great worker.” 

Even though there’s nothing wrong with choosing your job title as your headline, it does little to display your skills. Making your LinkedIn headline stand out is important, especially since it’s the first thing recruiters notice. To optimize your headline, add details regarding your expertise within 120 characters — that will get them to click on your profile. 

If you’re a marketing director, add details about your expertise. Here’s an example:

Here, Elon tells recruiters exactly the value he can bring: using social media to improve brands’ online presence.

2. Rethink Your Connection Strategy

Professionals often make the mistake of improving their LinkedIn networks by indiscriminately sending numerous connection requests without further thought or planning. This isn’t an ideal practice. Before you send connection requests, do the following:

Sync your email address with LinkedIn to connect with people you already know. 
Make sure your industry is updated. For instance, if you work in advertising,  your listed industry must be marketing or advertising.
Add a personalized note to your connection request to improve response rate. 

You can also use LinkedIn’s premium feature called InMail to send messages to people you are not connected with. It paved the way for a new sort of cold outreach, which is three times more effective than traditional email marketing. 

Finding the right audience and improving your connections is integral to each other. Keep these best practices in mind before sending requests to users on LinkedIn. 

3. Include Action-Oriented Experience and Achievements

You can optimize this part of your profile by treating it as the work experience section of your resume. Here you need to add action-oriented bullet points and work-related achievements. It’s important to note that if you’re adding a resume to your profile, make sure the content in the “Professional Experience” section is not a word-for-word copy-paste of your resume.

LinkedIn allows you to showcase your work achievements in three ways: professional experience, projects, and awards. Here’s how you can make the most out of each section:

Experience: Add a few points under each profile that display your expertise. Try to compose bulleted statements and quantify them. The idea is to keep these points restricted to a line or two to improve readability. 
Projects: In a separate section, you can add all your projects, work-related or otherwise. Avoid providing too much project details and focus on the results you were able to achieve. 
Awards: This section allows you to add all of your awards and achievements, such as your Salesman of the Year Award or Best Ad of the Year nomination. Make sure to fill this section, if applicable.  

Additionally, add all the certifications you possess. This will showcase the advanced skills you have acquired in your field.

4. Remain an Active User

Staying active on LinkedIn can be immensely beneficial because liking or commenting on the posts you come across bolsters your visibility. It will make your profile appear on the feeds of your connections. For example, check the notification below:

The idea is to keep your profile relevant among your connections. There is no shortcut for staying active, so you will have to invest the time to improve your user activity. 

LinkedIn works like any other social network, where you can post status updates, write articles, and engage with content. Since this is a professional networking platform, make sure your content is grammatically correct. You can utilize grammar checker tools to make sure your articles and posts are clean and error-free. 

5. Incorporate Keywords into Your Profile

If you wish to add value to your profile, don’t use buzzwords like “constructive thinking” or “hard working.” Instead, use keywords that are relevant to your industry and target audience. Let’s say you work in advertising. The idea is to add details that showcase your knowledge, like content marketing, content management system, lead generation, or brand presence. You can think of this as search engine optimization, where you add keywords to improve your online presence. If someone searches for the keyword “lead nurturing,” and added this to your profile, then your profile will be shown in search results. 

You can start by going through the important keywords in your target industry or job. Make sure that you add the keywords you can validate through your work experience, projects, certification, skills, or recommendations. 

6. Leverage Endorsements and Recommendations

Anyone can lie on LinkedIn and add any keywords, skills, or boastful statements. However, you can validate your information by providing job details in the professional experience field or through your projects. Make sure your profile looks extra credible by leveraging endorsements and recommendations. Endorsements are for your proficiencies where people advocate the skills you have added to your profile. 

A Recommendation is a brief description of your professional feats, the kind of individual you are, or the kind of experience people have had by working with you. 

To ask for endorsements and recommendations, do not post or announce an update to your connections. Instead, ask your mentor and colleagues. Also, make sure you do not participate in mutual recommendations (giving a recommendation to receive one in return). It does not look legitimate. 

Conclusion 

Although this article covers all the pointers to revamp your LinkedIn profile, you need to make sure that you add information that you can substantiate. Even if you have a stellar profile, you need to invest time in engaging with professionals on LinkedIn to improve your visibility.

10 Effective Strategies to Driving Traffic to a Newly Launched Shopify Store

OCT. 14, 2020

So you finally launched your e-commerce store on Shopify. Congratulations! Now, what’s next?

As a brand new Shopify store owner, your top challenge is driving traffic to your e-commerce store. With more than 5,000 active Shopify stores, it can become extremely difficult for any newly launched online business to compete. But it’s not all bad news. Luckily, there are ways to drive traffic to your newly launched business.

This article discusses the 10 effective strategies to market your Shopify store so that you can enjoy the high flow of quality traffic to your website.

1. Apply SEO Best Practices

Needless to say, SEO is the heart and soul of your Shopify business. No matter how attractive your product range is, all of your efforts will go down the drain if your store isn’t visible in SERPs. For those unaware, SERPs, also known as search engine result pages, are the pages users see when they type in their keywords in the search box. (See example below.)

Search engines assign a quality score to each e-commerce store. The stores are ranked on the basis of these ratings. Every search engine has a unique algorithm it uses to rank websites. The purpose of this algorithm is to ensure that only relevant pages are returned for the search query entered by the user. 

Search engine ranking is a broad concept that involves crawling, indexing, and ranking. You’ll eventually know all of these terms once you have a solid standing of search engines. As of now, make sure you have high-quality content on your website so that it’s included in SERPs when someone enters a search query in the search box. 

2. Create a Logical Site Structure

A well-designed and logical website structure helps visitors easily navigate your content. Also, it helps search engines better understand your website. As a result, your Shopify store will rank better on SERPs. The elements of a well-designed website are the following:

It’s easy to navigate.
It has an appealing layout.
It has high-quality content.
It communicates information well.
Its information is easy to access.
It’s optimized for mobile devices.
It’s intuitive to use.
It incorporates branding (e.g. company colors, logo, tone).
It contains call to actions throughout.

3. Conduct Keyword Research

To rank your Shopify store better on search engines, make sure you conduct proper keyword research and incorporate the right keywords into your website. There are many options available online, including KWFinder, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Keyword Planner.

The purpose of keyword research is to know the topics people care about the most. Find suitable keywords that are getting a high volume of searches per month and include those keywords throughout your website so that you appear higher on search results. Make sure you have a list of the low, medium, and high volume keywords handy so that you can use the right mix to boost conversions. 

4. Optimize Your Meta Titles and Descriptions

Once you have keywords in hand, you can use them to optimize your meta titles, meta descriptions, and URLs of your product pages. Simply edit these details using the “Edit website SEO” option available in the blogs category, and you’re good to go. 

Shopify allows you to write a 70-character meta title for each page of your website. Simply write the title containing the right ratio of keywords. Similarly, you can write a keyword-rich meta description for up to 320 characters. 

5. Comment on Other People’s Blogs

When you leave comments on other people’s blogs, you’ll observe that you get referral traffic (traffic that comes from other websites) in return. Popular blogs receive millions of visitors every week, meaning you can easily drive a percentage of their traffic toward your e-commerce store when you add a valuable comment. If you choose to implement this strategy, just ensure your comment is at the top. Meaning, try to post your comment or feedback before anyone else. Your comment should be relevant and interesting enough to capture the reader’s attention. 

6. Content Marketing

The biggest mistake newly launched Shopify stores make is they launch their e-commerce stores with no additional content than what’s already there in the descriptions category. Publishing high-quality content drives tons of quality traffic to your website. Here it’s important to understand that your Shopify store  is not just about buying or selling products — it should offer maximum customer experience. 

Also, make sure that you arm your Shopify store with the best content marketing tools so that you can outclass your competitors. Here’s a list:

Pexels (for high-quality stock images)
BuzzSumo (for brand monitoring and research)
Mixkit (for HD stock videos)
SimilarWeb (for tracking competitors’ monthly traffic)
Hemingway (for improving your writing)
Clearscope (for content optimization)
Google Analytics (for tracking your website traffic and performance)

7. Participate in Guest Posting

Another very important yet often neglected aspect of an e-commerce digital marketing strategy is the use of guest posts to create a healthy backlink profile. As a general rule, the more backlinks your website has, the better it can rank on SERPs. Having more backlinks to your website improves your Shopify Store’s domain authority (DA) and also grows your e-commerce store in the long run. 

Backlinks, popularly known as inbound links, are links from one website to a page on another. Web pages with links to high DA websites tend to rank better on search engines. Backlinks are an important SEO tool that improves your store’s domain authority. They’re an integral element of your e-commerce marketing strategy. 

When your Shopify store successfully makes its way to the first page, you’ll get more traffic to your store. For a wider reach, you can write for blogs within your area of expertise that accept guest posts. You can also use the advanced search operator in Google to identify guest posting opportunities within your niche. 

Try reaching out to as many relevant blogs as possible and publish a few guest posts every month to improve engagement.

8. Use Influencer Marketing

Starting an influencer marketing campaign is one of the proven ways to drive more traffic to your e-commerce store. A social media influencer could be any person with a huge fan following. An influencer marketing campaign enables Shopify stores to benefit from the fame and popularity of their hired influencers. Not only does this form of marketing improve brand awareness, but it also increases the average order value on a Shopify store. 

Make sure you choose a reliable social media influencer who’s admired and adored by your target audience. There are different ways you can reach out to influencers working in your niche market. For instance, you can hire a professional influencer marketing agency to do this job for you, or you can also reach out on your own using cold outreaching techniques.  Once you have your influencers, the next step would be to launch your influencer marketing campaign. 

Thanks to social media, your target audience will already be familiar with your brand. When they see their favorite social media influencers or stars marketing your products, this will automatically increase traffic to your website. 

9. Offer Discounts

The competition in an online space is already aggressive. If you’re looking to take your e-commerce store to the next level, you may want to create a buyer-friendly sales campaign. 

People love being rewarded. One of the best ways to increase traffic to your Shopify store is by offering an incentive or a giveaway. You can do this by arranging a competition where participants receive free coupons or free delivery benefits as a reward. Also, you can offer a “Buy One Get One Free” deal to persuade your existing and potential customers that they will get an item free if they make a purchase of, say, $60 or more.

10. Leverage Email Marketing

Email marketing is another cost-effective yet result-driven way to increase your website traffic. With emails, your Shopify store can not only target local customers, but it also enables you to reach out to global audiences. 

Email marketing can be used in a variety of different ways. For instance, you can use it as a reminder to notify buyers about abandoned carts. Also, you can use it to announce deals and discounts. Having a new product launch in the queue? Use email marketing to alert your buyers.

Some of the strategies discussed won’t drive millions of visitors to your website instantly, but they can help you get started and grow your e-commerce store.

By Ricky Hayes

How to Develop a Killer Social Media Strategy for Wellness Businesses

OCT 12, 2020

LYFE Fuel / Unsplash

A strong social media strategy has become a must for brands in most industries. The number of users now stands at around 3.5 billion people, which is roughly 45% of the global population. Not making use of this huge and expanding advertising space would be nothing short of madness.

Obviously, this goes for wellness brands as well. However, developing a killer social media strategy can sometimes be very difficult, and there are many potential pitfalls to avoid. Namely, there is a worrying number of wellness brands advertising their products or services as an ultimate solution to absolutely everything, and showing how you’re different from them has never been harder. In addition, it’s very challenging to gain any visibility, given the mere scope of competition in the industry.

This post looks at some useful tips on how wellness brands can get the most out of social media marketing.

Build Authenticity

The wellness industry has grown by more than 20% in the last five years, but the diversity of its advertising methods has hardly increased at all. It’s often difficult to distinguish different brands by their offers, messages, or imagery they use. That’s why it’s crucial to think of your own little twist to your social media approach in order to be truly memorable and to stand out from the competition.

Source: NerdFitness.com

A great example of this is Nerd Fitness. The brand’s whole philosophy is unique, so its social media game easily follows suit. It aims to attract “nerds, misfits, and mutants,” as well as other groups not usually seen as gym fanatics. The brand’s posts are creative and its attitude easy-going: There are memes, jokes, and funny videos but also success stories, motivational quotes, and workout tips.

Add a Human Touch

Thanks to the increasing number of health and fitness gurus with magic potions and formulas, consumers have developed trust issues when it comes to the wellness industry. This is one of the biggest obstacles for companies that are truly trustworthy but are having a hard time proving it. There are several ways you can build customer trust using social networks.

First of all, it’s vital that you humanize your brand because some wellness companies are starting to look like they’re generated by not-so-brilliant AI software. The truth is they should be dealing with people and their well-being, so a stock photo and a generic slogan won’t do the trick. Just for a moment, try posting content that makes people feel well, not content that’ll make them convert instantly. They’ll know how to appreciate that, and they’ll recognize that the company is run by actual humans, not a money-making machine.

@officialbayalarmmedical / Instagram

Take a look at how Bay Alarm Medical handled this. It’s a medical alert system that has helped a lot of people in emergency situations, and it’s a product that can make a difference between life and death. The brand’s Instagram is full of genuine, heart-warming stories that remind us the importance of leading an all-around fulfilling life and appreciating little victories. If it wasn’t for one single link to the website in the bio section, you couldn’t tell it’s a business profile at all.

Create Relevant Content

Now, of course, you don’t have to go for this all-out altruistic approach in order to be convincing. That’s one way to do it. There are other methods you can use to achieve this effect.

In the times dominated by charlatans and quasi-experts, a great way to show trustworthiness is producing science-backed, industry-related content. This sort of content is usually uploaded to a company blog, but it can be equally successfully distributed on your social media accounts. Regular, quality content on health and welfare issues can help convince your audience that your product really works and that you’re not into any magic or trickery.

Let’s see a concrete example of this: Drink LMNT. This brand usually uploads a series of connected in-depth posts on Instagram, dealing with certain health topics to promote its hydration product. For instance, the company had a full POTS week, explaining the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of this heart condition.

@drinklmnt / Instagram

The trick with this kind of content is that POTS is often caused by a lack of sodium, and sodium is basically Drink LMNT’s unique selling proposition. This way, the brand’s actually helping its audience, showing its expertise, and promoting its product, all in one package.

Hire Influencers

Another way to increase visibility and authenticity is by finding influential people who will promote your product. Since this is already a widely-used strategy in the wellness world, the only way to stand out from the others is to pick your influencers very carefully.

This influential person has to be someone whose audience overlaps with your customer base, who is respectable, and who can prove the efficiency of your product, whether in theory or in practice. Never go for people who don’t have a flawless reputation or for people who’ve previously worked with compromised brands.

For instance, if you want to advertise a mass gainer, there aren’t many better choices than Hafthor Bjornsson, the guy nicknamed “The Mountain.” You just look at the guy, and you can believe the product is working. This is what Transparent Labs did, and Bjornsson promotes some of the brand’s other supplements as well. 

@transparentlabs / Instagram

Of course, not every brand can afford a superstar like the Mountain, but the main lesson is this: For fitness brands, the credibility is not only a consequence of how the product is promoted but who promotes it as well.

Use hashtags

Hashtags can increase your visibility, widen your audience base, and generally attract people who haven’t heard of your brand. Using specific, memorable, and searchable terms as hashtags can definitely help you with this.

Also, you can use hashtags as a part of a broader branding strategy, by associating a certain term or catchphrase with your company to make it more recognizable. In this case, it’s important to either have top-class content to go with this hashtag or to hire appropriate brand ambassadors who can make it popular.

@zomasleep / Instagram

Zomasleep did exactly this. They hired influencers and professional athletes to promote their #sleeptowin hashtag and raise awareness about the importance of sleep for those who wish to maximize their athletic performance. This way, they’re targeting a very specific audience with specific interests and pulling them closer to their brand.

Leverage Ephemeral Content

Once Snapchat appeared and Instagram Stories followed, it may not have been obvious just how important of a marketing tool they’re going to be. However, in the fast-paced world we live in, it turned out that temporary content — despite being, well, temporary — can play a big role in companies’ digital strategies.  

Ephemeral content gets a lot of instant attention and can produce quick results. In 2019, Instagram reported around 500 million stories watched daily, and we can only assume this number has grown substantially. It’s no surprise: Ephemeral content is quick, easily consumed, easily shareable, and it can become viral in no time.

Wellness companies can especially make great use of it. For instance, Planet Fitness uses it to present their clients’ success stories and before-and-after photos. 

@planetfitness / Instagram

Our culture is predominantly visual, and the wellness industry is about producing predominantly visible results, so using this quick content to showcase the efficiency of your product or service is a great way to go.

Final Thoughts

Wellness brands normally target wide audiences, which gives them an opportunity to broadly apply social media in their digital marketing strategy, and they should take full advantage of that. However, just being present and having active accounts on social networks isn’t enough.

You need to use social media in a way that’ll show your trustworthiness and how you’re different from an ocean of similar brands advertising in an almost identical way. The core of your strategy should be to emphasize why and how you’re different. The competition is huge, and all the brands have the same tools at their disposal, so you’ll have to come up with your own identity and your own little twist in order to stand out. But all that work is definitely worth it, as it will enable you to maximize the results of your social media efforts.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: What’s the Best E-Commerce Website for Dropshipping?

OCT. 9, 2020

Roberto Cortese / Unsplash

In 2020, e-commerce sales soared more than ever before due to quarantine regulations that stop the further spread of COVID-19. In fact, just in the first quarter of this year, U.S. retail e-commerce sales amounted to more than $160 billion, about 2.33% more than Q1 2019.

Sales in the U.S. are projected to grow up to $6.54 trillion by 2022, so if you’re thinking of approaching this market and starting your own online business, now is the right time to act.

There are a few different ways you can start your own business, but if you don’t have the budget to purchase stocks of products and if you’re not really the creative or crafting type, perhaps dropshipping might be the right sector for you.

What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a low-risk retail fulfilment method used by many e-commerce entrepreneurs worldwide. In this model, the e-commerce owner runs a business-to-consumer (B2C) online store without any physical product stock. Only after the customer purchases the products does the owner buy the ordered goods from a wholesale supplier, who also arranges the shipping of purchased goods to the customer.

Thanks to this business model, dropshippers can virtually sell any product that weighs up to 11 pounds. With dropshipping becoming more popular every year, the only thing to argue about is the e-commerce website on which to build the online dropshipping store.

The most popular platforms are WooCommerce and Shopify. While WooCommerce has more than 82 million downloads and powers more than 26% of all online stores, Shopify has 21% of the share with 500,000 vendors and about $45 billion in revenue. These two platforms are very different from each other. This article lists some of the core differences so that you can decide which one is the best for your dropshipping business.

WooCommerce
Here are the pros of WooCommerce. 

With WooCommerce, you have unlimited store customization options and full control of the functionality of your website, design, and products. You can add virtually anything you want to your store without any limits. Moreover, with WooCommerce being a free plugin for WordPress, you could even kill two birds with one stone, making use of your WordPress blog to drive traffic and attention to your products. 

WooCommerce can indeed help you grow your online business, providing a fast and responsive experience for e-commerce stores of any size.

Here are the cons of WooCommerce.

However, if you’re not familiar with WordPress — the world’s most popular CMS — you would have some difficulty understanding how WooCommerce works. To get the customization you want, you will either need to know coding or spend money in themes and plugins. 

Despite WooCommerce being, technically speaking, a free plugin, you would still need to count in the costs for purchasing web hosting, domain name, and SSL certificate. 

Additionally, WooCommerce does not have a dedicated customer service team; however, there are several WooCommerce community forums that you overcome any problem you might encounter.  

Shopify
Here are the pros of Shopify.

Shopify is an all-in-one solution that allows you to build a basic online store in just a few minutes, even without any knowledge of coding or previous experience in website-building. 

For a monthly fee, you will have access to hundreds of apps that can help you market your products and that can be easily integrated to your store.

This CMS, developed especially for e-commerce websites, will provide you with everything you need, from the domain name to store themes to content management. There will not be any additional fees for web hosting or SSL certificate, and you will not need to connect your store with any other website management platform. Moreover, you will have a dedicated customer care team that will assist you 24/7 in any matter related to your website.

Here are the cons of Shopify.

While the above points are just enough to sell the idea that Shopify is what you need, don’t forget that there are some drawbacks to this platform. For one, you don’t have full control over your website. Your store’s customization options are limited, and the monthly payments will not stop, even if you’re not making any sales. 

Which Is the Best E-commerce Website?

There is no set answer to this question. Whether you choose one or the other depends entirely on you. The two platforms are quite different, and they offer different kinds of services. 

If you’re not familiar with the CMS world, and you have never worked with WordPress, the best choice for your dropshipping business would be Shopify, since this platform can provide everything you need to get your business started in just a few minutes. You would not have to worry about anything other than what products to upload. However, if customization and full control is what you’re looking for, then WooCommerce is your best choice, even though it might need a bit more maintenance and initial effort to launch. 

Regardless of which one you choose for your online business, you can rest assured that both will allow you to run an online store without having to go through the logistics and storage hassles. This is precisely what dropshipping is: 

Low maintenance
No product storage
Freedom to choose (almost) any product you want
Freedome to change your online store catalog

This article talks about some of the major features and the distinctions between the two platforms. Now the choice rests on you. Choose the software that best suits your needs and become your own boss today.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: What’s the Best E-commerce Website for Dropshipping?

OCT. 9, 2020

Roberto Cortese / Unsplash

In 2020, e-commerce sales soared more than ever before due to quarantine regulations that stop the further spread of COVID-19. In fact, just in the first quarter of this year, U.S. retail e-commerce sales amounted to more than $160 billion, about 2.33% more than Q1 2019.

Sales in the U.S. are projected to grow up to $6.54 trillion by 2022, so if you’re thinking of approaching this market and starting your own online business, now is the right time to act.

There are a few different ways you can start your own business, but if you don’t have the budget to purchase stocks of products and if you’re not really the creative or crafting type, perhaps dropshipping might be the right sector for you.

What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a low-risk retail fulfilment method used by many e-commerce entrepreneurs worldwide. In this model, the e-commerce owner runs a business-to-consumer (B2C) online store without any physical product stock. Only after the customer purchases the products does the owner buy the ordered goods from a wholesale supplier, who also arranges the shipping of purchased goods to the customer.

Thanks to this business model, dropshippers can virtually sell any product that weighs up to 11 pounds. With dropshipping becoming more popular every year, the only thing to argue about is the e-commerce website on which to build the online dropshipping store.

The most popular platforms are WooCommerce and Shopify. While WooCommerce has more than 82 million downloads and powers more than 26% of all online stores, Shopify has 21% of the share with 500,000 vendors and about $45 billion in revenue. These two platforms are very different from each other. This article lists some of the core differences so that you can decide which one is the best for your dropshipping business.

WooCommerce
Here are the pros of WooCommerce. 

With WooCommerce, you have unlimited store customization options and full control of the functionality of your website, design, and products. You can add virtually anything you want to your store without any limits. Moreover, with WooCommerce being a free plugin for WordPress, you could even kill two birds with one stone, making use of your WordPress blog to drive traffic and attention to your products. 

WooCommerce can indeed help you grow your online business, providing a fast and responsive experience for e-commerce stores of any size.

Here are the cons of WooCommerce.

However, if you’re not familiar with WordPress — the world’s most popular CMS — you would have some difficulty understanding how WooCommerce works. To get the customization you want, you will either need to know coding or spend money in themes and plugins. 

Despite WooCommerce being, technically speaking, a free plugin, you would still need to count in the costs for purchasing web hosting, domain name, and SSL certificate. 

Additionally, WooCommerce does not have a dedicated customer service team; however, there are several WooCommerce community forums that you overcome any problem you might encounter.  

Shopify
Here are the pros of Shopify.

Shopify is an all-in-one solution that allows you to build a basic online store in just a few minutes, even without any knowledge of coding or previous experience in website-building. 

For a monthly fee, you will have access to hundreds of apps that can help you market your products and that can be easily integrated to your store.

This CMS, developed especially for e-commerce websites, will provide you with everything you need, from the domain name to store themes to content management. There will not be any additional fees for web hosting or SSL certificate, and you will not need to connect your store with any other website management platform. Moreover, you will have a dedicated customer care team that will assist you 24/7 in any matter related to your website.

Here are the cons of Shopify.

While the above points are just enough to sell the idea that Shopify is what you need, don’t forget that there are some drawbacks to this platform. For one, you don’t have full control over your website. Your store’s customization options are limited, and the monthly payments will not stop, even if you’re not making any sales. 

Which Is the Best E-commerce Website?

There is no set answer to this question. Whether you choose one or the other depends entirely on you. The two platforms are quite different, and they offer different kinds of services. 

If you’re not familiar with the CMS world, and you have never worked with WordPress, the best choice for your dropshipping business would be Shopify, since this platform can provide everything you need to get your business started in just a few minutes. You would not have to worry about anything other than what products to upload. However, if customization and full control is what you’re looking for, then WooCommerce is your best choice, even though it might need a bit more maintenance and initial effort to launch. 

Regardless of which one you choose for your online business, you can rest assured that both will allow you to run an online store without having to go through the logistics and storage hassles. This is precisely what dropshipping is: 

Low maintenance
No product storage
Freedom to choose (almost) any product you want
Freedome to change your online store catalog

This article talks about some of the major features and the distinctions between the two platforms. Now the choice rests on you. Choose the software that best suits your needs and become your own boss today.

35 Banned and Restricted Products You Can’t Advertise on Facebook

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OCT. 7, 2020

Joshua Hoehne / Unsplash

Although most businesses are welcome to advertise on Facebook’s platform, there are some products and services that Facebook won’t allow on its site. Before you decide to promote your business with Facebook ads, review this list of products and services banned and restricted from Facebook’s platform.

1. Tobacco Products

Facebook doesn’t allow the advertising of tobacco and tobacco-related products, including these:

Cigarettes
Cigars
Chewing tobacco
Tobacco pipes
Hookahs
Hookah lounges
Rolling papers
Vaporized tobacco delivery devices
Electronic cigarettes

However, Facebook does allow ads that promote blogs or groups about tobacco. Other tobacco-related ads are also allowed, such as those that promote anti-smoking campaigns, e-books, counseling services for smoking addiction, rehabilitation programs, and facilities for smokers.

2. Weapons and Explosives

Facebook doesn’t allow ads promoting weapons, including the following:

Firearms
Ammunition
Paintball guns
BB guns
Fireworks
Explosives
Pepper spray
Knives
Tasers
Self-defense weapons

If your ads link to landing pages where people can purchase weapons, those ads will be flagged by Facebook.

Images of weapons are acceptable, as long as the weapon is not pointed directly at the person seeing it. Ads that promote blogs or groups about weapons are allowed. Those ads may contain images of weapons, as long as they are not pointed directly at the users seeing the ad.

3. Derogatory Personal, Political, and Religious Content

Facebook bans ads that promote hatred against its users. In particular, the social media company doesn’t allow ads attacking the following:

Race
Sex
Creed
National origin
Religious affiliation
Marital status
Sexual orientation
Gender identity
Language

If your ads promote hate speech against any of the above, they will be rejected and your account flagged.

4. Spy Cams and Surveillance Equipment

James Bond may be the world’s most famous spy, but his new idea for a spy store won’t get very far on Facebook. The social media company doesn’t allow the promotion of spy cams, mobile phone trackers, or other surveillance equipment. The promotion of private detective services may be allowed, so be on the lookout for Magnum PI.

5. Counterfeit Goods

A study shows that nearly 25% of luxury-item ads on Facebook were leading to sites that may promote or facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods. Facebook has taken a firm stance and will block any ads that fall within this category.

6. Fake Documents

Forgers looking to expand from dark alleyways and windowless vans will run into problems on Facebook. Ads may not promote fake documents such as degrees, passports, and immigration papers.

7. Adult Products and Services

As a general rule, Facebook ads may not contain nudity, overly sexual, or pornographic material of any kind. But how much skin can be shown in a Facebook ad before it gets rejected? Here are examples of what Facebook rejects and approves.

Facebook Ad Was Approved

Facebook ad with woman in t-shirt with minimal cleavage.
Facebook ad with woman in low v-neck t-shirt with noticeable cleavage.
Facebook ad with woman in normal swimsuit.
Facebook ad with woman in normal t-shirt wearing underwear or boy shorts.

Facebook Ad Was Rejected 

Facebook ad with woman in bikini.
Facebook ad with woman in shorts with no shirt, hands covering breasts.
Facebook ad with normal shorts with low cut t-shirt exposing some underside of breast.

However, ads for family planning services and contraceptives are allowed.

8. Penny Auctions

Penny auctions lure consumers into thinking they are able to purchase high ticket items like iPads, designer handbags, and other electronics for a margin of the retail price. What the companies don’t disclose is that you must pay to bid, meaning multiple people are paying money, but only the highest bidder receives the final item. Facebook has stated that no ads may promote penny auctions, bidding fee auctions, and other similar business models.

9. Alcohol

Although alcohol is allowed, you must abide by local laws. For example, while the drinking age in the US is 21, it’s 18 in the U.K. Additionally, some countries may not allow the promotion of alcoholic beverages.

10. Body Parts

Because the sale of body parts is illegal, it also isn’t allowed on Facebook. “Body parts” specifically refer to the illegal sale of organs.

11. Cannabis

Although legal in several U.S. states, any promotion of cannabis is banned from the site. This includes cannabis paraphernalia, such as bongs and rolling papers.

12. Dating

Although dating ads are allowed on the platform, advertisers must abide my Facebook’s policies to make sure their ads are approved to run. Advertisers must also be pre-approved by Facebook to run ads.

13. Drug Tests and Exam-Taking Services

Services that involve taking exams or drug tests on behalf of clients are banned from Facebook.

14. Face Masks

Due to COVID 19, the demand for face masks rose. However, with this demand came price gouging. As a result, face masks that protect the nose and mouth are allowed with restrictions. Cotton masks are allowed while medical-grade masks aren’t. Ads must not also promote false information about COVID-19 or unrealistic promises about the benefits of face masks.

15. Fake Followers Services

Companies that offer to sell fake followers, engagement, or website traffic to clients are banned from the platform.

16. Gambling 

Only certain types of gambling are allowed on Facebook. For example, ads for casinos are allowed while online gambling isn’t.

17. Hacking and Surveillance

Services and software for hacking and surveillance are not allowed on the platform.

18. Illegal Automobile Modification Products

Illegal automobile modification products are banned from Facebook. Here are the five most common products:

Radar detectors
Loud exhaust
Under-body neon lights
Modified headlights and taillights
Super dark tint

19. Lottery

Lottery ads are allowed but with restrictions. Government-run lotteries are allowed, as long as their targeting abides by the law.

20. Multi-Level Marketing

Ads for multi-level marketing companies, or pyramid schemes, are banned from Facebook.

21. Over-the-Counter Drugs

OTC drugs are allowed but with limitations.

22. Payday and Short-Term Loans

The following loans are banned from Facebook:

Payday loans
Paycheck advances
Bail bonds
Short-term loans (90 days or less)

23. Personal Loans

Personal loans are also not allowed on Facebook.

24. Online Pharmacies

Ads for online pharmacies are allowed, but ads for pharmaceutical drugs are not.

25. Politics

Although political advertisers must first be approved to run ads, political ads are usually allowed on Facebook, as long as they abide by applicable laws.

26. Recreational Drugs

Recreational drugs and drug paraphernalia are banned from Facebook.

27. Prescription Drugs

Prescription drugs are not allowed

28. Rehab

Ads for rehabilitation centers are allowed but with restriction.

29. Reproductive Health

Ads promoting reproductive health are allowed but with limitations.

30. Spyware and Malware

Spyware (spy cams, phone tracking devices) and malware (computer viruses) are not allowed on Facebook.

33. Subscription Services

Subscription services with the following conditions are not allowed:

Negative options
Automatic renewal
Free-to-pay conversion billing

34. Unauthorized Set-Top Boxes

Unauthorized set-top boxes are not allowed on Facebook.

35. Unsafe Supplements

Unsafe supplements, such as anabolic steroids, chitosan, comfrey, dehydroepiandrosterone, ephedra, and human grow hormones, are banned from Facebook.

36. Binary Options

Facebook bans financial products and services associated with misleading or deceptive practices. The following are not allowed:

Binary options
Initial coin offerings
Contract for difference trading

To stay up to date on Facebook’s ad guidelines, read the full list of Prohibited Content on Facebook.com.

By AdvertiseMint Staff

 

How to Turn Off Sound On for Facebook Videos

OCT. 5, 2020 Back in 2017, Facebook announced on its newsroom blog that videos will automatically play with sound on. After Facebook tested automatic sound in News Feed and received positive feedback from participants, the company decided to slowly bring sound-on to more users.

“As people watch more videos on phones, they’ve come to expect sound when the volume on their device is turned on,” said Facebook’s announcement. “After testing sound on in News Feed and hearing positive feedback, we’re slowly bringing it to more people.”

In the announcement, Facebook also added that playing videos automatically with sound on brings “videos to life.” Of course, not all may agree, but Facebook’s vice president, Dan Rose, is confident that this change will be well received by users.

“We think people are comfortable with it now,” Dan Rose said at the Code Media conference at Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, California.

As many users are familiar with by now, with the sound-on feature, sounds fade in and out as they scroll through their videos on their News Feeds. If the phone is set to silent, however, videos will play without sound. 

Upon this feature’s debut, some, who prefer watching videos with sound off, may dislike it. After hearing the news of videos automatically playing with sound on, AdvertiseMint’s CEO, Brian Meert, commented:

“This is a horrible idea. Videos that play with sound on are intrusive, and you can only watch these types of videos in limited situations. For example, you won’t be able to watch videos while at a noisy room or at a quiet library. Sound on limits these videos’ accessibility.”

Facebook’s decision to transition to automatic play with sound on is, indeed, surprising, considering 80 percent of users react negatively to videos that automatically play with sound, and videos that optimize for sound off perform better than videos that optimize for sound on. Although this new feature may be inconvenient for some Facebook users, it may be convenient for advertisers who will no longer need to design video ads for sound off, saving them more time and money.

Fortunately, those who don’t want their videos to play with sound can disable the feature in Settings. Here’s how.

How to Turn Off Automatic Sound On

Although sound on will be the default option, Facebook still allows users to opt out. Doing so takes only several seconds, and it can only be done from mobile devices.

Step 1: Tap the three-hamburger icon from the upper-left corner of your screen. 

 

Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the drop-down menu and tap “Settings & Privacy.” Next, tap “Settings.”

Step 3: Scroll all the way to the bottom. Tap “Media and Contracts.” 

Step 4: Slide the toggle button to the left for the first option, “Videos in News Feed Start With Sound.” The toggle button turning from green to gray is an indication that all videos appearing in News Feed will automatically play for sound off. 

Many users may dislike Facebook’s decision to make all videos play automatically with sound on, despite the company and its executives’ belief that it improves the video-viewing experience. Will automatic sound on grow in popularity? Only time will tell.

By Anne Felicitas

A Resource of 50 Free Stock Photo Websites

OCT. 2, 2020

If you manage ad campaigns on your own without the help of a Facebook advertising agency, then you know the difficulties of obtaining high-quality creatives. To obtain these creatives, you will need to either hire a graphic designer or photographer or purchase licensed photos online (unless you can photograph and edit photos, in which case, that will be more time consuming for you).

Of course, there are easier, cost-free ways of obtaining photos for your ads by searching for images on Google. However, this method can be costly to you because, although those photos are accessible and downloadable online, you can’t legally use many of them. This means if you downloaded a photo online that a photographer or graphic designer has full rights to, you can get sued for copyright infringement or plagiarism.

Fortunately, you can avoid this predicament by downloading free stock photos instead. Stock photos are professional, high-quality images of common places, landmarks, nature, events, or people.

The list below contains free stock photo websites, with licenses under the Creative Common Zero, or CC0. Photos licensed under CC0 can be used for any legal purpose. These photos, which you can edit, copy, and distribute, are free for personal and professional use without the need for attribution (asking for permission from the photographer or giving credit to the source).

The list below contains the 50 best free stock photo websites that exist online. These are the best websites because of the following criteria:

Quality of photos
Ease of search
Diversity of photo collections
The size of photo gallery

From among the plethora of other stock photo sites, these are the 50 best.

1. Unsplash

Unsplash contains free high-quality photos, from images of couples to nature to workplace — it has it all.

2. Pexels

Currently, Pexels contains more than 25,000 free stock photos, and the platform releases 3,000 new ones every month. All photos are hand-picked from photos uploaded by Pexels’ users or sourced from free image websites.

All of Pexels’ images are under the CC0 license — they’re free to use. However, the site creators ask that you don’t portray identifiable people in the images in a negative or offensive light without their consent.

3. Pixabay

Pixabay currently contains more than 850,000 free stock photos, art illustrations, videos, and vectors. All of Pixabay’s photos can be depicted on social media sites, including Facebook. Note, however, that some of the photos here are photos sponsored by Shutterstock. These photos, which are still free to use, are watermarked with Shutterstock’s logo.

4. Stocksnap

Stocksnap adds hundreds of stock photos weekly, photos which are free from copyright restrictions. When searching, you can sort the images by trending, date, views, downloads, and favorites, making it easier for you to find the image that you need.

5. Negative Space

Negative space provides HD stock photos for free. Hundreds of new images are added each week.

6. Deposit Photos

To gain access to the free images provided by this website, you must sign up for an account.

7. Life of Pix

Although Life of Pix contains hundreds of free photos for you to use, note that some of these photos are sponsored by Adobe Stock. Adobe Stock photos are still free to use; however, they are watermarked with the brand’s logo.

8. Picjumbo

When using Picjumbo’s images, consider adding attribution or linking back to Picjumbo’s website as it is greatly appreciated by the owner. Adding attribution is, of course, optional.

9. Free Stocks

Although all photos are free for personal and commercial use, when using Free Stocks’ photos, remember to respect registered trademarks and intellectual and private property. Your are not allowed to redistribute these photos to other free stock photo websites (such as the websites listed in this article).

10. Gratisography

Gratisography offers free high resolution images for free. More images are added weekly by the photographer, Ryan McGuire.

11. Good Stock Photos

Created by Kevin Ma, Good Stock Photos contains free images that are uploaded by the daily, keeping its site’s content fresh. Unlike most stock photo sites, however, the images uploaded to Good Stock Photos are not sourced from other sites. Instead, they are taken and uploaded by the creator himself. Kevin’s photos are free for both personal and commercial use.

12. iStock

This stock photo website provides free images that users can download confidently, without infringing on copyright, moral right, trademark, or intellectual property right. Free downloads come with the same rights as paid downloads.

13. Burst

Burst is a website created by Shopify that contains high-quality images in various collections, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Fall, and Halloween. Images here can be used for commercial and noncommercial purposes.

14. Reshot

Reshot markets itself as a platform that offers “hand-picked, non-stocky” stock photos. From this website, you’ll discover images that look more artistic than what you typically see.

15. Kaboom Pics

Kaboom Pics offers thousands of free images, even for commercial use. The website also has a blog, which provides advice on design and (of course) stock images.

16. Foca Stock

Foca Stock not only offers images with a CC0 license (a license that allows for use of any purpose), but it also offers free custom social media graphics you can post to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest.

17. Picography

Picography offers high-resolution images for free. The site contains 24 different categories — art and design, fashion, wildlife — from which to browse for images. 

18. Foodies Feed

The aptly named Foodies Feed focuses on one specific niche: food. Choose from a selection of more than 1,600 images of drinks, breakfast items, chefs at work, and more.

19. Life of Pix

This stock photo website not only offers free images, but it also offers free videos, from a woman sketching a ballerina to a fire blazing under the grill, cars driving through a bridge to a sailboat traveling across the sea.

20. The New Old Stock

This website is unlike any stock photo platform you’ve seen before. It contains a collection of vintage photos, which are free to use thanks to their availability in public domains. If you want to know more about their licenses, you can click the link provided on each photo.

21. Little Visuals

Little Visuals is a small collection of photographs taken by Nic Jackson, who unfortunately passed away back in 2013. Nick’s family is allowing the public to use his work, free of charge.

22. Jay Mantri

Jay Mantri is the eponymous creator of the stock image website. A designer based in Los Angeles, he offers his collection of photos to the public for free. All images have a CC0 license. On the site, Mantri encourages his visitors to “make magic.”

23. Skitter Photo

All of the images in Skitter Photo are public domain, which means they are free to use for any purpose, commercially or not. Categories include business and finance, travel, sports, and animals.

24. Picspree

The images in this website offer the following rights: perpetual (no expiration date on use of images), worldwide (anyone from anywhere can use), unlimited (images can be used for an unlimited number of times, and exclusive (others can use the same images you used).

25. Styled Stock

Styled Stock markets itself as “feminine stock photography.” Indeed, many of the images contain subjects you might associate with femininity: women’s clothing, pink objects, and soft colors.

26. ISO Republic 

This website offers free images and videos. Categories include landscape, fashion, people, and food.

27. Pikwizard

Pikwizard boasts more than one million free stock images. Although the site offers photos from numerous categories — food, backgrounds and textures, abstract — it also provides free use of videos. 

28. Rawpixel

 

Although this site offers free images, it also offers membership packages for those wanting access to more stock photos. Rawpixel offers two memberships: Business lifetime at $1,000 and casual lifetime at $149.

29. Morguefile

Don’t be fooled by this website’s name. Contrary to what you might believe, this site doesn’t specialize in images of the morgue. In fact, it offers stock photos from a variety of categories, including animals, landscape, and architecture. If you can’t find the image you want, you can also make a request.

30. Stock Vault

You’ll find new images, textures, and illustrations added each day.

31. Barn Images

Barn Images is a small collection of stock photography, ranging from landscapes to people, animals to food. All of the images are free to use.

32. Free Food Photos

The name says it all: This website offers free photos of — you guessed it — food. The site calls its collection of images “mouthwatering creativity.” 

33. Albumarium

This website offers a collection of albums, containing images that you can use. When searching for images, you can filter for license, any license, or commercial.

34. Death to the Stock

Death to the Stock is a website created by artists who wanted to “make the internet beautiful” by producing free authentic, fresh stock photos and videos. New images, available for unlimited downloads, are uploaded each month.

35. Scatter Jar

Another website that focuses on food, Scatter Jar offers free images of mouthwatering treats, produce, and dishes.

36. Snapwire Snaps

Snapwire Snaps boasts 200,000 image from talented photographers.

37. IM Free

The name is self-explanatory. The images in this website are, yes, free.

38. Public Domain Archive

Public Domain Archive provides free images for public and commercial use. The website provides both modern and vintage images. New pictures are added weekly.

39. Free Photos.CC

This website offers a free photo-editing tool for once you find the perfect photo that you want to refresh or personalize.

40. Freestocks

The images at Freestocks are safe for personal and commercial use. Categories include animals, city and architecture, fashion, and technology.

41. Splitshire

Splitshire offers images you can use for personal (perhaps to post on your social media account) and commercial (perhaps for your Facebook ads) purposes.

42. Free Images

With more than 300,000 images available for public use, the offerings of Free Images span a diverse range of categories, from wildlife to religion, industrial to weapons, architecture to fashion.

43. Flickr

On Flickr, you can search for images according to your intended use. For example, you can search for all creative commons images, images for commercial use, or for images with modifications allowed. Make sure to carefully read the license of each image before downloading.

44. CreateHER Stock

This website provides a collection of more than 185 free images for download. It seems the site uploads new collections each year: You can join the site’s newsletter to gain access to the 2020 collection. Otherwise, you can wait until 2021.

45. Jopwell

This website is owned by digital diversity recruitment company called Jopwell. Although the images, which are corporate in themes, are free to use, you are required to provide your email to download.

46. Deposit Photos

The images provided here are safe for personal, commercial, and editorial use. Simply type in your keywords in search to find the image you want to download.

47. Super Famous

Most of the images provided here are landscape photos. Although free to download, you are required to give credit to the photographer.

48. Crello

On top of design templates and animation, Crello offers access to more than 500,000 free images. However, you must create an account with the site to get them.

49. Canva

This might come as a surprise to you. Canva, the website that provides free digital templates, has a section dedicated to free images.

50. Dreamstime

Dreamstime offers stock photos with CC0, royalty-free, and public domain licenses. Search from a collection of business, nature, finance images, and more.