Tag Archives: world wide web

Pro Tips To Boost Your New Blog

Standard
Pro Tips To Boost Your New Blog

In today’s world, blogging is becoming a popular way for people to express their opinion – and why wouldn’t it be? Blogging is fun, it allows you to share your thoughts, and there is the potential to make a side income from your page. A blog can be based on pretty much anything, you can write about business, sports, marketing, food & drink, travel – the list goes on. Then, when you find your niche, you can connect with other people with similar interests across the blogosphere. It’s awesome!

If you are interested in boosting your new blog to unlock its full potential, check out these tips to help you get started:

Use the correct editing software:

In order to run a successful blog, you will almost definitely be publishing pictures and videos to assist your article writing. Pictures are a must, however, video is becoming a lot more popular. When working with images and videos you may want to look into things like home video editing services to ensure the quality is there. You never want to just upload an image without making adaptations to it. Take your time to learn the software so whatever media content you use best suits your page.

Create a content schedule:

Another tip that should be followed when running a successful blog is to stick to a content schedule. Try to decide how many posts you would like to publish each week and set a dedicated time for them to go out. This way your readers will know when to return to your blog to access new information and it shows your website is regularly updated. When putting a schedule together, it gives you the opportunity to think about different topics and categories to write about. The schedule itself is easily done, you can do it with a notes app on your phone, a content schedule website, Word, Excel – whatever your preference may be.

Look after your website:

How your website looks and feels is extremely important. You will have a lot of competitors out there, so having a good-looking website may bring their readers to you. Websites aren’t as expensive as you may think and with many different website builders out there and a creative mind, you may find you can do it yourself using a template or two. If not, reach out to your friends or family members or employ a freelancer to do it for you.

Any blog has the potential to turn into the next big thing. Use the tips above, stick to them, and watch as your page grows!

Featured Image By: Andrea Piacquadio

Advertisement

How Do Social Media Influencers Make Money?

Standard
How Do Social Media Influencers Make Money?

As we look at the current and future job market, we can identify a few career paths that will seemingly become more and more popular. Certainly, the rise of social media influencers has carved out a brand new path that didn’t exist before. These days, thousands of young kids and teenagers are desperate to have a job as full-time influencers. While this initially seems like a poor career choice, it quickly becomes an idea that can provide a lot of success.

Influencers can earn a lot of money without even being one of the biggest and most well-known creators on the planet. Sure, you have Charli D’amelio, Addison Rae, and Khaby Lame who amass millions of dollars per year. But, they have millions of followers across multiple accounts. An influencer with just a few thousand followers can still earn a lot of money. How? Here are the main ways most influencers make their cash:

Sponsorships:

The majority of money comes in the form of sponsorships. Brands pay the influencer to promote their products, services, or just the brand itself. This is usually in the form of sponsored posts, with payments made per post. Alternatively, influencers can have sponsorship contracts where they represent a brand. This means that they regularly post about them, wear their clothing, and so on. It’s more of a long-term thing with money paid regularly as part of the contract.

Ad Revenue:

Most influencers will also make money from advertising revenue. It’s rare that you will see an influencer only work on one platform. In most cases, they’ll have a YouTube account or another platform that allows them to monetize their content. The more views they get, the more advertising revenue they earn. As they become more popular, advertising companies pay more money to get their ads shown on their videos. Why? Because these companies know that thousands of impressionable eyes will be watching, which is a huge opportunity for them.

Merchandise:

Finally, you have money earned through merchandise sales. Once an influencer gains a following, they’re in a very unique position. They will have thousands of people who pay attention to them and want to support them. So, the influencer can create merchandise or other products to sell to their followers.

The followers want to show support or represent the influencer, so they’ll be more than happy to make purchases. In a lot of cases, influencers use their platform to create products that extend beyond brand merchandise. Many will develop their own clothing lines that attract attention from people outside their following, helping them make even more money.

You see, the money making opportunities are very diverse here. This is why smaller influencers are still able to earn decent wages. Of course, one benefit of this career choice is that you get back what you put in. The more effort you make to grow your brand and the bigger you get, the more money you could end up making. Just remember to work hard because influencing doesn’t become an instant career over night!

Featured Image By: Pexels

Getting The Basics Right With Your Business Website

Standard
Getting The Basics Right With Your Business Website

When you’re trying to make a startup work, few elements of the process are as important as running a functional website. It’s close to impossible to have a fully offline startup these days and it’s hard to know why anyone would want to. However, if you don’t manage the website properly, you’ll be pretty close to invisible online so it’s important to devote time and effort to your digital presence.

Of course, it won’t be a shock to anyone that the website is important. There’s a wealth of tools out there that can be used to make your website stand out more, to display information about your global reach, and to showcase your business down to the finest detail. It’s easy to get bogged down in all the little tricks and gimmicks that take your website up a level. What a lot of startup entrepreneurs seem to forget is that all of this counts for very little if you don’t get the basics right. Follow the tips below to understand better what the way forward is:

Get the domain name right:

Sometimes, you can navigate to a business website without even looking it up – because you know what it’s going to be. That’s the power of having a unique name and owning the domain that attaches to it. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that it’s worth changing your business name (after all, it’s a startup) if that’s what it will take to get an appropriate URL. Bear in mind that the domain should be memorable, succinct, and clear. If it’s a really long name or there are hyphens in it, people are liable to leave it alone and look for something else.

See the value of the right hosting:

Your website is your shopfront on the internet so it’s important to make sure it is in working order, that it looks right, and that downtime is kept to a minimum. Managed hosting from the likes of www.nestify.io is a worthwhile investment, because they will ensure that your site is functioning as it should, warning you of any cyberattacks, and keeping the site online. Proactive hosting like this will identify and remedy issues before you (or worse, a customer) have even noticed there’s a problem. Knowing that the hosting is handled allows you to focus on what you’re best at.

Set out your mission statement front and center:

It’s not uncommon to see websites that feature flashy graphics, dynamic text, and all sorts of tricks. These sites can be visually impressive. Indeed, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of wizardry, but bear in mind that you need to be setting out what the website and your business is all about. A strong mission statement should be among the first things your potential customers see. It’s also a handy place to put some of your SEO features and keywords, which will help the search engines find you – which is what you need to grow your business.

While the basics of running a successful website may seem boring, it is the best place to start. Having a strong base will provide you with opportunities for bigger and better things to come!

Featured Image By: Pixabay

3 Signs Your Business Website Needs A Makeover

Standard
3 Signs Your Business Website Needs A Makeover

If you’re a business owner, you will understand the importance of your website. This is your virtual storefront where new and existing customers can find out what you’re offering. If it looks good and provides all of the right information, you will make an excellent first impression.

But if your website falls down in any way… That first impression might not be a very good one! It might even get in the way of your chances of business success. Sometimes, your page might just need routine website updates to keep things looking fresh and modern. In other cases, your website might need a full overhaul to reach its optimum potential.

In this post, we will list a few signs that indicate it’s time to give your website a makeover. Be it through your own efforts or the efforts of website designers and other professionals, you may make your business dreams come true. Let’s get to it:

Your images are low-quality:

By low-quality, we are talking about the photos you may have taken yourself. If you don’t have a good eye for composition, it might be that your photos aren’t showing your products in the best light (literally in some cases). Because of this, your website and products will lose the wow factor that is needed to attract customer attention.

Issues might also arise if you use a lot of stock images. If they do little to make your website stand out or if they are have been overused on other sites, they could be doing you no favors.

The answer? Well, invest in better photography. You could take a photography course and learn more about backlight photography, object framing, perspectives, and other useful photo skills. Or you could hire a professional to take photos for you. Whichever route you take, you will improve your website if you have better quality photos.

Your website doesn’t rank highly on Google:

When you type words related to your business on Google, your website will hopefully show up. Ideally, it will be on page one or two. When your website ranks highly, you will have a better chance of beating your nearest business rivals, as customers will see your website first. But if your website doesn’t appear on the first couple of pages, it’s probably because it hasn’t been optimized for SEO (search engine optimization). This means your competitors will have the upper hand, as potential new customers will get to see what they have to offer first.

You can improve matters by making a few tweaks to your website content and design. Check out this beginner’s guide to SEO for a lot of useful information and do what you can to make changes yourself. Of course, if it all feels overly complicated, there are people who can help. Look online for marketing professionals and web designers who are well versed in SEO and invest in their services. A post on social media looking for help or services of web design in Bristol can also be helpful. There may be an expense but once your site starts ranking higher on Google, you will profit your business through more customers. 

^^^ Unsplash Image

It’s clearly broken:

We aren’t saying that your website crashes after loading (although it might) but there could be other issues that indicate there are serious faults. These faults will deter your customers from using your business because they might associate your products with your rickety old website!

So, what are the signs that your website is broken? If web pages take a long time to load, it is clear that there is something wrong somewhere. If your links no longer lead your customers to the right pages (or to any page), then you will confuse and frustrate them. And if your website doesn’t display pages properly on mobile devices, then you are going to alienate most of your potential customers.

If such problems exist on your website, you will affect your SEO. Going back to our last point, this means it won’t show up highly on Google. Your website will suffer from a high bounce rate too, as potential customers won’t stay for very long. This will also affect your SEO.

The answer? Do what you can to fix any issues yourself. There are lots of helpful articles online, including this one on fixing broken links. Alternatively, call in a professional web designer as they will fix any problems for you. When your website has been improved, you should get more people using your business.

These aren’t the only reasons why your website might need a makeover. If it no longer reflects the colors and design styles you use for your brand, you should make changes for the sake of consistency. And if the information on your website is outdated, you clearly need to update your content. Look at other websites for examples of good practice and then consider the other changes you might need to make.

Featured Image By: Unsplash

Dating During The Pandemic

Standard
Dating During The Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it hard to do just about anything, let alone date! This has resulted in a lot of people feeling lonely with not many viable solutions to easing the problem. Luckily, there is much that can be done both virtually and in real life to get yourself back out there in the dating world. Here we go:

Check In With Yourself:

If you have been unlucky in love or have just gotten out of a long term relationship, it’s important to check in with yourself before dating again. What went right in your past relationships? What went wrong? And what are you looking for now? These are all key things to consider if you are looking for an actual relationship and not just a fling. Be honest with yourself because, only then, can you be honest with potential partners.

Chat Virtually:

If you are participating in online dating, then chatting online is a great place to start for meeting with potential matches. You could email, instant message, text, make phone calls, try video dating, or do things old school style with snail mail! The best thing about chatting prior to meeting up is that you can better determine if you have a connection or if they could just be good friends. That way, no time is wasted on awkward first dates because a connection has already been established prior to.

Narrow Down Your Options:

There are a plethora of different dating websites and apps for specific things that you are looking for like if the person is religious, is a senior citizen, or enjoys a more laid back or high end lifestyle. If you have something really specific in mind, then this could be a great way to go because the dating pool has already been narrowed down for you. For example, if you would like for the person to be of a certain faith any deal breakers will be eliminated from the jump.

Venture Out:

If you are fully vaccinated, then why not venture out and mingle a little? Speed dating could be a fun, different option to try. Or what about a dance club where you need to find a partner to cut a rug on the dance floor with? Don’t forget that confidence is key! Strike up a conversation and put your best face forward. This doesn’t mean cheesy pick up lines or flooding someone with compliments – just be your best self and go from there!

It can be scary to enter the dating scene at any time, but it is a whole different ballgame during a pandemic. Consult the tips above and you should be just fine. Best of luck!

Leverage Photography To Elevate Your Marketing Strategy

Standard
Leverage Photography To Elevate Your Marketing Strategy

We humans adore visuals. Our brains are wired for visual perception and we desire it. Images appeal to us because we spend more of our brain’s processing capacity to vision than any other sense or skill. Images are more natural to our eyes than words. Content with pictures regularly attracts more clicks while scrolling through infinite search results. The absence of pictures in your online material frequently means that it will be disregarded. Shoppers are sixty times more likely to contact a brand with a picture in search results than without. Let’s dive into the impact of imagery and photography on your marketing campaign:

Leverage Intuition:

Humans like looking at pictures and instinctively comprehending them. We can analyze a photo in less than a tenth of a second, which is quicker than reading text. When marketing your business online, always include images that assist visitors in understanding what you’re promoting. Material with pictures receives up to 94% more views than posts without images. Search engines prefer visual information and prioritize results with large image files. A well-received appearance may compensate for poor content and enhance the viewer’s overall impression of the product.

The Impact on Emotions:

Images may trigger emotions in us more than any other kind of material. These feelings are more intense than those elicited by reading a story, and individuals make strong connections between the two. When selecting pictures to accompany your web material, use images that evoke emotion. A spectacular landscape can be captivating, but one with a happy home can be moving. The image must convey the information, but it also has to fit in with the general design of your website. Your web material will be more memorable if you include images that convey emotions of love, contentedness, or liberation.

The Images Are Part of Your Assets:

Images are a vital component of the business arsenal and should be treated as such. Good pictures will help you attract consumers and help you negotiate with other products and businesses. For example, to generate inbound connections, invite social media influencers and writers to use your pictures for free in return for link traffic to a website.

Investing in your views allows you to reach across many platforms such as social media, news stories, your website, your company profile, print advertising, and more. A picture may significantly impact a news story. Many PR agencies utilize pictures as marketing material; providing great images is typical for getting companies noticed in the news.

Pictures Drive Engagement:

Pictures, in addition to capturing our attention, eliciting emotional responses, and leaving a lasting impression, possess another ability. Visuals, as every marketer is well aware, enhance engagement. People don’t only want to look at photos; they also want to share them and then see more. Material that includes images gets up to 40 percent more shares than content without pictures.

You can also use digital tools to do things like incorporate your logo into images. Do some research to determine how to make pictures transparent on photoshop, this way you can start using it for improved branding. By incorporating your logo into designs in a professional way, your audience will be more likely to see you as a trustworthy brand that cares about reputation.

In recent years, we have learned that part of the judgment call process takes place in one’s visual cortex, which means that the minute consumers see your material, they are already thinking about what they will do next, whether that is sharing it on social media or responding to a Call to Action.

Availability of Tools:

Images are becoming more important to marketers and academics alike, and everyone wants a piece of the action. Even technology firms are attempting to capitalize on this emerging trend by developing image-based products. The emergence of visual search engines, such as those provided by platforms like Google and Pinterest has been a significant development in recent years. The sheer increase in visual searches on Pinterest alone (from 250 million in 2017 to 600 million in 2018) demonstrates the scale of the shift that can be anticipated in the following years.

Images matter to various industries, especially those that deal with jewelry and accessories. Reliable jewelry photo retouching services are something your company can benefit from. It’s not easy to match your text with the appropriate image, but there are specific recommendations to follow to increase clicks. Remember that today’s customers are adept at evaluating ideas. These skills have been developed by assessing picture quality and distinguishing stock photos from unique brand assets resulting from their internet experience.

An image that is high-quality, uplifting, and emotional is a beautiful start, but what’s in the picture is just as essential. The image should reflect your business, purpose, and values to best enhance your customer’s experience.

InboxDollars Update

Standard
InboxDollars Update

Hello! I have been visiting the website, InboxDollars, daily for years now and since posting about earning a thirty dollar Amazon gift card in mid January, I am already so close to receiving another ten dollar gift card. On InboxDollars, you can complete surveys, watch videos, play games, clip coupons, answer trivia questions, and more and it all earns you money. And who doesn’t like free money?

Although it can take a while to get started on the website, it is so easy once you get the hang of it and when you reach the ten dollar mark, you can select a gift card as your reward. The website also always seems to be updating to add new ways to earn some extra pocket cash through special offers and making searches online.

While survey websites are, usually, not a viable source of income, it sure is nice to be able to save some money with your gift card rewards! I spent my thirty dollar Amazon gift card when I buffed up my skin care hoard and got my moisturizer and eye cream FO FREE. And literally all I did to get my free product was open emails and answer trivia questions which takes about two minutes per day. Hey, I’ll take it!

Whether you are looking to kill time or make some extra spending money on Amazon, InboxDollars is a terrific little site to check in daily with. Just be sure to refer yours truly so we both get rewarded! 😀

What is your favorite survey website? How do you like to spend your free time online? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

6 Tools To Create Visual Marketing Materials

Standard
6 Tools To Create Visual Marketing Materials

Digital marketing comes in many different forms, from SEO to video marketing and social media. To promote your company online, it’s useful to use plenty of visual marketing materials. You might not have great graphic design skills or a huge budget, but with the help of these tools, you can create some excellent marketing materials:

iTonic:

iTonic Digital Marketing Agency helps create effective digital marketing campaigns for your business. This can include SEO, social media, as well as ads on other websites. iTonic does the hard work for you so your content can reach a larger audience. This is a great service to use to save you time and boost your sales.

Infogram:

Infogram is a great tool for marketers and entrepreneurs. The app allows you to create engaging visuals, using your data. The tool includes design templates, icons and images, and interactive charts. There’s also a drag and a drop interface, hundreds of maps, and reports. With the help of Infogram, you can create stunning infographics to use as marketing materials. You can use the software to publish content, customize the theme, import data, and export code.

Design Wizard:

Design Wizard is a type of image and video editing software, the app features plenty of pre-made templates, to make life easier. You can use Design Wizard to make blog images, marketing videos, or social media posts. With the help of Design Wizard, you can upload logos, fonts, and make customized color palettes. The app features a huge library of graphics, illustrations, and videos to choose from. Whether you’re looking to make content for YouTube or printed marketing materials, there are a lot of options.

Behance:

Behance is an online library where you can access illustrations and graphic designs. You can use the search function to find whichever types of images you need. Photography is great for many types of marketing materials, but if you want to shake things up a bit, illustrated images are perfect. Remember, you’ll want to stand out from the crowd. Some niche and cool-looking illustrations are the way to go!

Canva:

Canva is a fantastic design platform where you can create beautiful designs with zero experience. The app provides millions of fonts, photographs, and graphics, which you can use for marketing materials. You can use Canva to create social media posts, blog images, and more. Once you get into the swing of using Canva you’ll wonder how you lived without it!

Visme:

Visme is a tool to help you create social media posts, short videos, infographics, and more. As well as content generation features there are tools to help you publish your content. It’s simple to share Visme content on websites and social platforms. With so many options to create beautiful visuals, you’ll soon improve your marketing materials.

Depending on the type of business you run, you’ll need different visual marketing materials to suit your needs. Real estate companies might use floor plans to present properties to prospective tenants. Restaurants might use creative Instagram posts to draw in new customers. Whichever kind of business you run it’s important to establish your objectives and set marketing goals to further improve your online presence.

Featured Image By: Pexels

Need A New Hobby? Try The Following!

Standard
Need A New Hobby? Try The Following!

Hey! Hobbies, hobbies, hobbies. That’s all you hear about when people talk pandemic and, as it has been almost a year since the start of this craziness, you might have exhausted all of the options of things to keep you occupied. Believe you me, I feel it completely and have felt like I’ve been stuck in a never ending loop of work, video games, Netflix, and bed. It can be hard to break that cycle but maybe these ideas below will help inspire all of us to keep on trying new things, despite all of the boredom blues. Let’s get to it:

Library Programs:

If your local libraries are anything like the ones in Ohio, then the events calendar on their website should be full of virtual programs that you can enjoy. There are events for every age group to participate in from story time for children to concerts from local talent and craft nights on Zoom. Take a look at your library’s website, see what sparks your interest, and sign up. The best part? If you don’t like it, all you need to do is close out of the Zoom call!

Make Some Money:

I used to be a huge fan of garage sale style apps like LetGo and they can be a great tool when you are doing a big home clean out. Start your spring cleaning early and see if you have anything that you’d like to try your hand at selling. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as they say, and you could put your earnings towards a vacation fund when it is safer to travel. Plus: Clean house. It’s a total win/win.

Check Out Local Specialty Shops:

In my neck of the woods, there are plenty of small businesses that you can support and a lot of them have programs offered online. Perhaps your local game shop has an online Dungeons & Dragons community? Or maybe the craft store offers online tutorials on completing an art project from their employees. Not only will you help support their business but it will be a great way to meet new people and possibly develop a brand new hobby.

Fresh Spins On Old Favorites:

There is nothing wrong with sticking with the same old if it’s what you enjoy but how about putting a spin on it? Love pampering yourself in your free time? Try your hand at making your own soaps or lotion. Handy in the kitchen? Open your cook book to a random page and whip up something you never tried before. Book worm? Start your own book club with your friends over Zoom! Incorporating some new things into a hobby that is already your favorite will keep things exciting and you can become skilled in all areas of your craft.

We still have a long way to go before things go back to “normal”, which means we are going to be confined to our homes for a bit longer. Try the ideas above and, before you know it, nicer weather will be here and seeing friends safely outdoors will be possible! 😀

How do you spend your time in lock down? What is something new that you’d like to try? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Bored At Home? Try InboxDollars!

Standard
Bored At Home? Try InboxDollars!

Hey! I don’t know about any of you, but there was a point in my life when I would do online surveys like it was my job. I tried a multitude of different websites but when I found InboxDollars, I stuck with it and have been using it for years. In fact, I just got myself a thirty dollar Amazon gift card from my earnings and was able to purchase all of my skin care for the next few months for a song.

If you are bored at home and looking to make an extra buck, then I can’t recommend InboxDollars enough. The best part about this website is that it isn’t just endless surveys. You can answer trivia questions, open paid emails, play games, clip coupons, online shop, and watch videos to get you closer to your ten dollar cash out goal. Once you have enough earnings, you can collect cash or gift cards to restaurants and online retailers.

InboxDollars is a great way to kill some time and I go on it once daily to at least open some paid emails and answer their daily trivia question. You can spend as little or as much time on it as you’d like and not only is it an easy site to maneuver but it’s fun, too! If you are interested in signing up for InboxDollars, please use my referral code and I can help show you the ropes. 🙂

https://www.inboxdollars.com?rb=78080190&ref_src=link

Which online survey sites do you use? What are your thoughts on InboxDollars if you have used it? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah