6 Ways to Motivate Your Employees and Create a Productive Workplace

Creating a productive workplace that will allow your employees to develop and shine should be on the top of your list when running a successful business. When you are hiring, never settle for anyone else but the brightest minds you can find out there. The question is, once you have employed them, how do you motivate them and stay engaged with every employee and, at the same time, get the best out of them? We all know that happy workers are productive workers, and luckily, if you want to motivate your employees, it only takes a little effort and not a lot of resources. Here are a couple of steps you can consider when you are motivating your employees and trying to create a productive workplace.

Better Communication

To your employees, you should be more than just a name on an email, because employers often overlook how important good communication is. If you are just a face they see occasionally, how will that motivate them to meet the goals you have set for them? So, you should communicate with your employees as frequently as you can, speak with them in person and get their feedback. That way, they can see that they are valued in your company and, if you talk to them in person, you will show them how much you appreciate all the hard work they are doing for you.

Give Them the Freedom to Experiment

If you give your employees the freedom to experiment, you will allow their creative juices to flow and that will help them create a balance between having fun and work. While your employees are experimenting, whether on their personal or work related project, it is important that they never slow down and always have their foot on the gas. You will need to have a lot of empathy because, if they manage to keep doing what is necessary and, at the same time, they can do what they want, you will create leaders. Treating your employees with security and freedom will enable them to thrive and stay brilliant.

Set an Example

You should not expect from your employees to behave in a certain manner or work hard if you don’t set an example for them. You need to show how excited you are to come to work every day, to achieve the goals you have set for your company, and your employees will notice that behavior and start feeling the same. They’ll work with you towards achieving your common goals. A good mood is like an infection, it spreads fast, especially when it comes to a workplace.

Add Some Responsibility to Their Role in Your Company

After some time, an employee can feel frustrated when doing the same day to day job, and this is why you should add some more responsibility to their role. You have to make them think outside the box and make them understand that they are different individuals. Do this in time – don’t wait for your employees to become careless and lazy. More responsibility will motivate them and drive them towards getting better results.

Give Them More Power

Your employees will feel important if they have a say when it comes to what they can do to improve your company. Ask them for their input, suggestions on how they can improve your company’s performance. Every employee has an idea on how they can make themselves more efficient, but are afraid to share them with you. Therefore, you have to ask them. If you really want your employees to feel empowered and motivated, you need to listen to what they have to say and implement it. Make sure to give them the authority to make their decisions, trust them so that, at a certain point, they will not need your approval.

Organize Social Gatherings

Social gatherings are a good way to entertain your employees and keep them motivated. It is important to let your staff wind down from time to time and organize a couple of social events. Your employees should bond outside the office, so consider taking them out to happy hours, sporting events and organizing holiday parties. Your employees will grow together and become closer to each other. Just make sure that you don’t decide on what is fun, but rather let your employees decide what they want to do.

Motivation is an important role in making your employees happy and productive. You should motivate your employees all the time and you will only experience positive feedback. So, if you want your business to be and stay successful and your employees happy and productive, implementing these six ways of motivating them will help you achieve that.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/6-ways-to-motivate-your-employees-and-create-a-productive-workplace/

Content Markeing That Doesn’t Suck! Real Stories From Real People

Content Marketing is one of the largest marketing segments on the internet today. B2B is especially large in the content marketing space with 94% of business to business marketers saying they utilize content marketing in their approach. Why then are their so many people that are not content marketing and what is it causing them not to do something that seems so fruitful for those that use it.

Content Marketing is Time Intensive

Small Businesses seem to face the struggle and not have great answers for it. Normally small business owners are challenged with time due to the lack of streamlined systematic processes and that is the same in their content marketing efforts.

Data and Chart from: Search Engine Journal

While small businesses seem to have inabilities and lack of buy in for content marketing, the ones that do pick it up seem to flourish.

Yale Appliance Content Strategy

Yale Appliance  in Boston picked up on a content strategy that sent their website views and customer engagement through the roof. First Steve began “blogging” in 2007 but in 2011 began to understand more about his customers life or buying cycle. He began to focus on creating post that capture a prospect when they are in the decision making stage of the buying sales cycle. They started to provide critical reviews and side by side comparisons of competing brands. This information attracted the potential lookers and gained trust from them. This made it highly more likely that the purchase would be made at “Yale.”

Basically the blog post were designed to answer questions that customers asked their sales staff daily. Questions like:

• What is the best
• How does this compare to
• What Problems to avoid
• How do I maintain or service this

As a result, these blog post move the customers from shopping and asking to calling and buying. The results are in and they are great. His potential customers move through the buying sales funnel online and then actually call or visit ready to purchase.

A few of the other strategies combined with the above that have helped his content marketing really take off are:

• Free Guides
• Recipes – Chef Demonstration and then the Recipes are Online
• Videos – 140 located on his Youtube Channel which show off employees as specialist which helps push his companies expert profile on each appliance.

These approaches have shown off the expert position while embracing the customers themselves.

“We send lead nurturing (non-sales) emails to consumers who download our free guides.  The unsubscribe rate is less than a 1 percent and the click through averages 30 percent, so they must like them!” Sheinkopf says of Yale’s free guide and email success.

Traffic has skyrocketed from 40k visitors monthly to 150k monthly. Leads went from 800 to 4300 monthly. Revenue has spiked over 40 percent since 2009. Profitability is up way more than that because they were able to eliminate a lot of marketing expenses. Their consumers feel more confident in their purchases and the brands that Yale sales on a daily basis due to this sequence.

Here are some examples of their best posts:

Yale Insider

KitchenAid vs Jenn-Air Side-In Gas Ranges (Reviews/Ratings/Prices)

Best Small Bedroom and Living Room Paddle/Ceiling Fans

Home Appliance University – Refrigerators

When you look through the success of these campaigns you have to understand the time passing between 2009 to 2015. You have to also look at the amount of promotion needed in order to gain valuable links that push the articles to the top locally. Once that process is followed effectively then the snowball starts and is perpetual in growth. You just have to keep feeding the machine the content it needs.

Old World Inn – Content Marketing Through TripAdvisor

Old World Inn in Napa Valley California

The reviews and content marketing that this wonderful inn is doing has worked out tremendously for their rating and bookings. They focused on genuinely helpful information about their inn but more importantly they focused on planners visiting Trip Advisor and directing them to answers to questions such as the best time of year to visit the area and weather forecast.

The creation of the “Best Kept Secrets” of Napa help travelers dig into the surroundings better than a generic travel guide. Creating the perception  of “The Expert” and that they have inside knowledge on Napa have streamlined their bookings. They also take time to provide helpful guidance when booking events and activities for groups while they are staying at the inn.

Credibility within the travel industry is the final result from the content marketing the inn has produced. When the content started they just wanted to serve their target customers better. Now they are considered the go to for Napa information and booking events. Their website looks amazing and is filled with this great content as well. Customer bookings and 2nd stays are up across the board since the brand started their content campaign.

The Possibilities Are Endless When Content is Done Right

Now that you see the possibilities of outcomes and ideas for your business to start content marketing, let’s look at what it takes and how to achieve it. Looking over the previous examples we dive a bit deeper into how their content was produced and exactly what the steps are to creating these lasting campaigns.

Content Marketing Playbook – The Go To Steps For Content

1. Education and Buying Cycles

Start with your customer in mind. Answer the questions that they would want to know. Look at forums and think about what they ask you while they are on phone calls with you and your sales team. The real essence of content marketing is just education. You take a customer from interested maybe to results focused and ready to buy. You clear the doubts and conversations they have with themselves about the doubts and possibilities of failures that come up with any purchase. You clear the path with the content you create for the customer to engage with your brand. You position yourself as the expert that can help them. You position your impeccable service as a must and how it is really your brand that makes buying this item make sense and not just the item itself.

That is the true power in content marketing. The positioning that you can create when forming content and content paths. You focus on the life cycle of your customer and make sure that the right content hits them at the right time. You want to take the shoppers and engage them to a review and then to the highlighted benefits and then into the store or online meeting with sales people.

2. Entire Companies Get Behind the Content

Yale Appliance

The top of the organization has to be behind the content marketing and content driven strategy. This marketing strategy takes everyone as it hinges on the collaboration between management, service, and sales. In the case of Yale Appliance, the CEO Steve Sheinkopf, has contributed over 1600 articles himself.

3. Production of Content Must Be In House

When you are looking at the level of information that it takes to forge a successful content driven marketing campaign you realize that the information must come from in house.

Dominant Link SEO

Jason Roelke from Dominant Link SEO who manages content marketing campaigns at the firm said that “Content comes from the company themselves. We may interview and record sessions and then take it to our writers, but the real content has to come from the owner, the sales people, and the service staff. The details from content that are generic are just not of interest to their prospects. The real power in content marketing campaigns come from the details that position the brand and its people as the experts on that topic.”

Creation of content is simple. It seems hard and a lot of people have “stage fright” when it comes to placing “words on paper.” Jason and Dominant Link SEO taking the interviews and then creating the content make perfect sense for a lot of small businesses that are pressed for time.

4. Education Comes From Honest Non-Promotional Content

There is no need to promote yourself or your brand in your content. You should offer honest fact based information and position yourself as the expert that knows about all the information.

Checkstand Program

Anthony Bautista from Checkstand Program knows about the positioning of an expert. He said “We are experts. We just make sure other people have access to all the common pieces of information that we know from years of experience. Our competitors despise us and try to do underhanded internet tricks that never work for the long term while we continue to gain business because of our dedication to blogging, customers, and customer service. We grew this business because we were honest and hardworking. We know that grass roots is why we are Nationally known in the C Store Markets today.”

Checkstand Program and their honest first approach really shows off their business and showcases to potential customers why their brand can achieve the thing they do. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to educational content. Leave out all the promotions and just focus on talking to the customer and answering their questions.

5.Find the Big Questions and Don’t Avoid Them

There are certain questions that have many variables. They are tough in nature to answer. These are the perfect questions to go after and answer in your content.

Content Marketing with Content How

Content How – Content Marketing says this, “You have to maintain the mindset of a champion. Wins are long away. Loses and Failures are strung together often and bountiful. Just survive and continue. The real winners at content marketing are those that do just a few things really well and then tenaciously, like bulldogs, they latch on and don’t stop. I can count on one hand the number of blogs that consistently put out great content on a streamlined consistent fashion that are not successful. Sometimes winning is just consistently showing up waiting on others to fail and leave. Create Compelling Content that Showcases your ability to answer the big questions. Show that off, don’t hide from it.”

When you are looking at your Revenue goals and marketing strategy for 2016 make sure you look into content marketing. Understand what it takes to do it right. Get top down buy in. Create great content that comes from your customers and service staff. Find ways to promote that content in your circles. Enjoy the process and grow!

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/admin/content-markeing-that-doesnt-suck-real-stories-from-real-people/

Ecofying Your Business

Not everything in your job should necessarily be profit-oriented. Sure, staying solvent is not easy, and in order to do so, some sacrifices will have to be made, but you should never do so at the expense of your own ethical principles. Our planet is not only suffering, it is slowly dying, however the illness is not yet terminal. There is a cure, but for it to start working each and every one of us needs to work towards it. In this struggle, no effort is too insignificant to go unnoticed and you can start by making your business more eco-friendly, thus doing both yourself and your business a great favor.

Encouraging greener commute

As great Gandhi once said “be the change you want to see in the world.” Any great revolution in way of thought must first come from within and with it in mind, it might be time to introduce some changes. First of all, you can change your commute method and encourage your employees to do the same. Carpooling and the use of public transportation are far better for the environment than everyone going separately.

To make things even better, these changes are not just planet-friendly but wallet-friendly as well. However, for those who really want to make a difference, riding a bike or even walking to work are also great options. This way, one can help both their environment and their health at the same time. A genuine win-win scenario, if there ever was one.

Managing consumables

Now, the best thing about these eco-friendly changes is that most of them help save you substantial amounts of money on a regular basis. What our planet faces every day are pollution and resource shortage. Managing your consumables can make all the difference here. By simply switching from regular to recycled paper you can cut your expenses and help the planet at the same time. Also, you need to mind the type of ink cartridges that you are using. Some of them are greener than the others, but you can also improve your efforts by refilling them with ink on your own. Where there is a will, there is always a way.

Saving energy

Sometimes in order to save some money you need to invest something first. Same goes for the planet as well. Seeing how power bill, is one of your greatest monthly expenses, buying appliances that consume less electricity definitely sounds like a good idea. Think about this next time you go out to buy a printer or coffee maker. Finally, every bit helps and you can add a final touch to this energy saving endeavor by replacing your regular light bulbs with some LED ones. The saving you can make by introducing all of these changes is so great that any purchase is bound to pay off in the long run.

Educate and encourage your staff

In the end, regardless of how hard you try, you are just one person. However, this doesn’t mean that you should just give up, but that you should try to spread the word to others who are willing to listen. Try raising awareness among your employees of the importance of going green and ways of doing so. Also, it could help to create an award system for those members of your staff who invest the most effort into saving the planet.

As Roman poet Ovid once said, “Our children shall reap the fruits of our labors.” In other words our main goal should always be to leave this world better than it was when we got here. In the light of this worthy cause, everything else stands subordinate.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/marcusjensen/ecofying-your-business/

Weigh Your Options: Choose the Best Payment Methods for Your Online Store

Entrepreneurs who are either just starting out or operating small businesses are wholly dependent on their cash flow. A big part of that is making sure that you get the payments from your customers as seamlessly, safely, and consistently as possible. Being able to guarantee quick and easy payment processing for all transactions is crucial to earning both steady income and the trust of your customers.

There are viable options you can consider for your online business–all of them having dependable practices, as well as various methods of security to ensure customers that their transactions are safe.

Being able to pick the best payment method for you may require a bit of mental gymnastics to work out all the details involved, including what type of company you are running and how you conduct your business.

If you are still confused about it, the following could help you choose by looking at the intricacies of various payment methods.

 

Credit Card and Debit Card

The most logical option for most people is payment through card due to convenience and having banks doing a lot of the busywork for you. It is said that businesses these days can never get by without being able to accept card payments as they have become ubiquitous all over the world.

In order to accept credit and debit card payments, it is recommended to use a merchant account from a service that acts as a middleman in processing card transactions, which ensures that the money is appropriately withdrawn from the right place through the right card. Upon confirming the transaction, the money can then transferred from the merchant account to the business’ regular bank account.

You can just forgo the use of a merchant account if you wish, but it may be better to avail of the security and convenience of having one. There are different kinds of merchant accounts for card payments, including retail merchant accounts, Internet merchant accounts, and mail or telephone order (MOTO) merchant accounts. The purpose of each is clearly stated through their names, and online businesses will most likely benefit from Internet merchant accounts.

Of course, making use of such a service is not free; monthly fees and transaction fees are included. However, if your business is to earn most of its revenue through credit and/or debit card payments, then it is recommended that you use one for your transactions.

 

Direct Deposit and Direct Debit

The direct deposit method requires a bit more work since customers transfer money directly from their own accounts to your business’ account through a bank deposit. As for direct debit, it is mostly the same as the former, but done through an automated electronic fund transfer. The customer must give a proof of payment, usually the receipt and/or date of transaction and transaction number, in order to complete a purchase.

These transactions do take 24 hours to clear and require you to give your business’ bank account details. It also means that you must consistently practice caution by keeping a record of references to every transaction so you can track them when needed. This is needed to protect your business from fraudulent transactions, which is likely through this payment method.

This option is good if most of your customer base is within your local physical area where you operate, which lets customers have the option of going to the bank to make their payments.

 

Online Payment Services

While credit and debit cards are convenient, not everybody can get them. That is why online payment services are regularly used to shop and transfer money online since anyone of legal age can register a free account for one. Services such as PayPal have become synonymous to online transactions, and they can go hand in hand with card payment options for online businesses both big and small.

In order to receive money from customers through an online payment service, you will most likely have to register a merchant account as opposed to a personal account. This is to prevent having your account frozen when the service detects multiple accounts sending money to you in quick succession, as well as to make use of additional features that may prove useful to your business.

 

Cheques and Money Orders

By now, this option has become rarer due to the prevalence of online payment methods. Cheques and money orders take time to send, receive, and process, which is not favorable for online businesses.

However, some customers may still prefer this payment option due to security and personal reasons. Similar to direct deposit, you have to exercise extra caution by making sure that all payments include references to easily identify the corresponding transaction.

Now that you have seen your options, which of these are you planning to use for your e-commerce site? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

 

 

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-easyvince/weigh-your-options-choose-the-best-payment-methods-for-your-online-store/

SHOULD COMPANIES MONITOR THEIR EMPLOYEES’ SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS?

Social media opens a window to interests, hobbies and personal life of employees. The only question is should employers pry into that window?

Modern employees live in a virtual online aquarium and there is a big possibility that the person browsing your Facebook profile is either your current or your future employer.

The number of people getting fired over posts in social media is pretty significant to consider keeping it nice and simple. You can understand employers on the one hand – it can be quite embarrassing if your worker is posting cruel jokes about his or her boss online. On the other hand it is against ethical behavior and basic moral principles. Let’s see if we can find a happy medium by looking through pros and cons of social media monitoring of employees.

Cons

I decided to start with cons as I am an employee myself, so I do have something to say from my point of view.

• Time-out. Every person needs a time out, even employers. Remember those times when you hated your boss for yelling at you for watching some YouTube video or checking your IM chats? This is the exact same situation. You may overgrown it, but your employees still need time-outs. And if they want to share something silly it is only their right. Face it, they have their own lives. I personally enjoy checking Facebook several times a day. It is my way of procrastination and I admit it. If I am forbidden to do so, I will simply find another way to procrastinate.
• Needless drama. There is a good saying: “What the eyes don’t see, the heart does not grieve over”. It comes as a surprise but your workers might not be your biggest fans. Sometimes they discuss their feelings in social media and there is no need to get upset as they do it in their free time and treat you nicely while at work. Seeing that employees don’t like you will only make you feel bad and destroy the spirit of your team. Once they get to know that there are being monitored they will change their behavior but they will find a way to discuss you in a more severe manner. It is better to focus on being a good and unbiased boss and not to look for people who write bad things about you. Being a boss always means to have some employees that don’t like. It is just the way it goes. Deal with it.

Pros

Sure thing there are pros, as well. Monitoring either potential or current employees can be quite beneficial for an employer. Here are some of the advantages of it.

• Recruitment tool. Monitoring social media accounts can be a great recruitment tool not only for job seekers but even for potential employees. CareerBuilder reported than as much as 39 % of employers search for information on potential candidates in social media. Moreover 41 % of workers post information about them drinking or doing drugs. Also, no one can deny that most job seekers lie during their interviews. And while you can turn a blind eye to some sort of lying, you cannot hire a police officer who belongs to some sort of a racist group. Surely, many people hide or delete inappropriate content from their social profiles. But still some people totally forget about it and you can check your candidates and see whether they are decent and suitable for your company.
• Increasing productivity. Some bosses monitor employees’ social media activity to increase the company’s productivity. There is a reason for it as some people would spend their entire day online and then demand promotion. If this is an easy job where people are paid hourly without any intention to help out the company, then additional keylogging tools can be also of use. The same way you put limits for kids, you can put limits for some employees and there is nothing wrong about it. In fact, many companies already do it and say that such measures for sure increase employees’ productivity.

So should we allow social media monitoring? I believe there are two sides of a medal. I know that no one is allowed to invade my personal privacy but I understand that an applicant with a drinking problem cannot be hired to drive kids to school every morning. So, there are definitely pros and cons and every employer, boss or manager should consider all of them. What do you think?

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-rachelfowlersf/should-companies-monitor-their-employees-social-media-accounts/

Top 10 Important Tips for Making a Jaw-dropping Poster Design

There’s a lot that goes into good poster design, although not a lot of people seem to understand how much it really takes. It does have that arts and crafts feel to it, but poster design is a science onto itself. It’s a big part of marketing for many, ranging from individuals and groups to even big companies who still understand the power of the poster on the wall in a public place. To create a good poster design that can draw people in, here are 10 important tips to go by.

 

Start with Good Ideas

It’s good to be creative and be filled with ideas because the concept is the foundation of what will become the finished product. Therefore, you have to build a good foundation in order for the rest of it to stand strong. By starting with an idea that’s already good to begin with, you’ll have something you can wrap your head around easily, rather than a bad idea that you have to justify and bend around to make it work.

All Information Should be Readable

This is a poster, not an abstract art piece. It still has to relay a good bit of information to audiences, so you have to make sure that you can put text on it. If it’s dark, make the text light, and vice versa. Also, have the text in colors that stand out without clashing with the rest of the colors on the poster, making it readable without making it tacky.

Make Good Use of Colors

Taking from the last tip, you have to make sure that the colors don’t clash. The overall look of the poster is such that a person should be able to tell its main color from far away. Then when that person gets closer, he can see the details of the poster. It should be both harmonious within itself and still be eye-catching from even far away.

Create Point of Focus

All elements of the poster must work in harmony. A great way to accomplish this is to have them all point towards a single focus. Perhaps it’s a person, an animal, an object, or a logo. Whatever it is, make sure that everything in the poster draws eyes towards that central element, and that should say everything about the poster as a whole.

Typography is Your Best Friend

As mentioned, the poster contains a good bit of text for relaying information like the date and venue for an event, a public service announcement, or so on. Typography isn’t just about making it readable, but also making it match the rest of the poster. If you use the wrong typeface, it can look tacky and distracting, the latter of which is not the right way to create a point of focus.

 Call-to-Action is Important

Most of the time, a poster is made to convince people to do something like attend an event, heed a warning, or remember a message. To hit home that purpose, create a call-to-action that talks directly to the person and makes him/her think about what you’re telling him/her to do. It need not overtake everything else on the poster, but at least make it pronounced enough to be noticed virtually immediately.

Be Consistent with Details

There’s nothing worse about a poster, or anything else in that matter, than it saying one thing, and then another thing. The information in the poster must be made consistent; they must compliment each other and not contrast at all. You must avoid confusion with the poster, so have other people proof whatever you’re about to put on the poster so you can be sure that everything is consistent with each other.

Think Symmetry

The human brain is attracted to symmetrical shapes and patterns, so take that face into advantage by having symmetry in your poster. A well-designed poster has symmetry somewhere on it that draws people to it like eye candy. If you’re able to make the background and the text symmetrical, that could do well in attracting viewers.

 Balance Type and Images

Of course, with both type and images in one poster, balance must be achieved with all visual elements. When something is off in the poster, whatever it may be, it can become distracting and take away from the main purpose of the poster itself. Therefore, it would be good to get second opinions from other people to see if they think it’s balanced as well.

Have Fun

Of course, this is the most important factor of them all. If you’re not having fun making the poster, it’s going to show on the finished product. People who are having fun create great work, so be sure to not let the seriousness of the endeavor get to you too much. Let it be a ball to work with so the finished product will reflect that joy as well.

 

Perhaps some may think that these tips are a bit vague and too broad, but that’s how it is when involving anything creative. It’s all up to the designers themselves to figure out what their optimal process is, but these tips are indeed some of the more commonly attributed factors that make for a good poster design. Practice and persistence takes care of the rest, and you’ll soon find yourself enjoying that process and churning out impressive designs.

 

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-easyvince/top-10-important-tips-for-making-a-jaw-dropping-poster-design/

The End of Dot Com?

A domain name has a significant impact on the branding process and the value of the internet domain. It is a chance to shine with customers, and grab their attention. Since the dawn of the Internet, people have been using TLDs like .net, .org, and .com. Websites with these extensions still form the majority of our search results, but lately there has been a surge of new generic top-level domains (TLDs). A bulk of smaller players can hardly afford a top-notch dot com address, or a solid domain name is simply not available.

The one and the many

In the early stages of the Internet, only one computer scientist used to oversee the state of online affairs, but something like that is unimaginable today. ICANN is a non-profit corporation with the governing purpose of coordinating the domain names on the internet. You can register a domain name through a web hosting provider or via an appropriate domain register. Unrestricted gTLD can be registered by anyone, while sponsored domains are acquired by organizations and private agencies.

It has become difficult to attain a good gTLD, while over 240 ccTLDs worldwide offer a wide array of options for two letter domains. As a result, ICANN has lately introduced hundreds of new gTLDs to the Internet, which has given rise to bidding wars for hot names. Not everyone can spend a fortune on the auction, and many people opt for other solutions.  There are numerous extensions that we do not even know about, so can we make good use of them? Is a dot com domain really necessary?

A name to conjure with

New domain names are not gaining any preference form Google, but this does not mean that they do not carry the weight in the real-world search engine marketing. Research shows that even Google AdWords tend to favor new gTLDs, which suggests they are more cost-effective in protecting the brand and enhancing the growth of business. But, in terms of conversions, the public seems to still favor the dot com domains. These extensions are easy to understand for users and the annual registration prices are usually lower than with the ccTLDs.

Although this points out to the tenacity of dot com, there are great examples of shunning this domain for something snazzier. One rising trend is the use of .io, a ccTLD for the Indian Ocean Territory. It seems that this domain extension has an irresistible nerd allure, and Google even started treating this extension as a generic one in search results.  That is why many internet “real estate” owners use TLDs like Domain.me to reap the benefits of SEO and chose the premium name that can live up to high expectations.

We are also witnessing emerging gTLDs like .xyz and keyword-rich extensions such as .photography.  The first one is seen as a combination of three letters that will bring an end to the supreme reign of dot-com sites. This has not occurred, as some search engines still push those old school gTLDs.  Although the wind of change is strong, it seems that the part of the digital landscape is resisting it and trying to preserve its topography.

Property sold

Domain name industry is not in the spotlight of the online community, but it is a foundation of the internet’s success. There is clear potential in new gTLDs, and they provide a plethora of exciting investment opportunities. Favoring dot com domains is just fine as long as it is possible to find the right name that separates you from the competition. This is becoming a serious challenge, and it seems that we are running out of good dot coms. The internet may seem infinite, but its real estate is far from it. This realization might not be the end of the dot com, but it may be a beginning of the end.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/marcusjensen/the-end-of-dot-com/

How to Find a Good Lawyer for Your Small Business in 7 Steps

Seeking out a lawyer for your small business can be a confusing and anxiety-inducing process. Most likely, this is one of your first gos at hiring a lawyer, so you’re not 100% clear on what you should be looking for in the first place. And at the same time, using an inept lawyer can be detrimental to your business, especially if you’re hiring a lawyer for a more serious legal matter (and not something basic like a trademark).

We’re here to help. You will have to do the actual legwork to find the right lawyer at the right price, but we will give you the exact process that you, as a small business owner, should follow. If you’re a small business owner who needs desperate help navigating the complex world of law, read on.

Step 1: Get your needs, wants, concerns, and questions in one place

Before you reach out to a single lawyer, start by writing down everything you need and expect from the lawyer you’re going to be hiring. (Along with anything else you feel is pertinent to your situation.)

Why? Lawyers will almost always offer initial consultation fees free of charge, but anything past that will have you paying the hourly rate, which is usually quite high. More importantly, though, if expectations are not laid out in the first meeting, the lawyer may not understand the full scope of your project. As such, he or she will give you an inaccurate estimate, and that will lead to increased, unexpected financial burden down the line. Companies have gone under for less.

Instead of leaving your legal matters to chance, be very clear with what you need in the first meeting. We highly recommend getting all of your concerns, thoughts, and ideas onto one piece of paper and printing out two copies for the meeting so there’s no chance of anything being left out.

Step 2: Ask around for the best recommendations

If you’re networking (as you should be), you know at least a few other small business owners. Chances are, at least one of those owners has used a lawyer before, and that lawyer might be able to help you with what you need.

Send out some emails and post on your social media accounts with your request. A recommendation from a friend or connection you trust is always to find the best option for your business, particularly in the case of lawyers. Not only do you know the lawyer is good, but you’ll sometimes get preferential treatment if you come from a referral, even if the lawyer or law office claims you don’t.

Step 3: Look at review sites… but not just any review sites

Some of us don’t have the luxury of expansive social networks. Or, your network might just not be able to help you with what you need. Don’t fret – although a personal recommendation is best, third-party review sites are pretty decent, too.

Don’t just go straight to Yelp for something like hiring a lawyer, though – especially as a small business. Not only is Yelp geared more towards consumer-facing business, but the reviews on there really aren’t usually detailed enough to give you a scope on the real skill of a lawyer.

Instead, head to a site like Avvo and search through reviews for lawyers in your state or city. You will always be able to find some top-rated lawyers who are specialized in what you need, and because you’re looking at Avvo, those ratings and reviews can help you narrow down your choice in a meaningful way to ultimately make a smart decision.

Step 5: Meet in person and judge him or her

Again, hiring a lawyer for a small business is much more complex than hiring someone as a consumer is. Although online ratings are helpful, you should always contact a few different lawyers for free consultations.

Once you’re there…

• Judge the space. Legal offices should be pristine. If they look messy, or unorganized, or “cheap”, you know to look elsewhere.
• Judge the personality. You’re going to be working with this person extensively. Don’t work with someone who you don’t vibe with. Although lawyers are always professional (and carry themselves in a serious way), they shouldn’t be rude, cold, or condescending.
• Judge how involved he or she is in your industry. Make sure your lawyer works with other small businesses, and if he or she works with other small businesses in your industry, that’s even better.

Step 6: Ideally, find the best quote possible

Treat hiring your lawyer like any other business decision. Where can you get the best service at the cheapest price?

Lawyers will usually bill by the hour, so that’s the number you should focus on. As far as the service, you should never sacrifice legal service for a better price (bad lawyers aren’t helpful), but two lawyers of different skill levels (and pay rates) will sometimes be able to accomplish the exact same thing.

If you have a cut-and-dry matter or there are a multitude of lawyers who can help you out, feel free to “shop around”and save some money. Hiring a lawyer as a small business is expensive enough as it is, especially if you weren’t planning to have to hire one.

Step 7: Continue to use the same lawyer

The good news is that once you find a lawyer who you trust (and who can service the needs of your business), he or she will sometimes be able to help you on further legal matters. If he or she can’t, you will always be able to get a solid recommendation – so really, once you find your first reliable lawyer as a small business, your work in finding future lawyers is pretty much done.

All in all, it boils down to determining what you need as a small business, finding a few top-rated lawyers who work with businesses like yours, sitting down with each one of them and making sure that he or she is perfect for your business in particular, then doing your due diligence to try and get a good deal.

The specifics past that will depend on your particular situation – follow our process, get in touch with a few lawyers today, and they will be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck!

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/leurypichardo/how-to-find-a-good-lawyer-for-your-small-business-in-7-steps/

Top Spots in Paris to Explore Art and Culture

For many people, Paris is a top destination to visit. They dream of it day and night. For others, Paris is a cliché, and this is unfortunate. Even though Paris is on every list of top cities to visit, it is a kind of city that you can never get bored of. Every time you visit, you will discover something new and interesting. For example, the first time you go there, you can do it as a tourist. The second time, you can explore the food and wine. Then, on some other visit, you can explore the wonderful art and culture that Paris has to offer. And be sure, you will never get enough of this. In order to have a stress free time in Paris, and to be able to enjoy the art and culture without any distractions, make sure all travel and accommodation technicalities are taken care of. Once you got this done, you can set about on the next great cultural adventure of your life. So, if you are ready to take up this challenge, here are some suggestions on where to go and what to see while in Paris.

Montmartre

 

This is an obvious choice. The best spot for both art and culture, without a doubt. Take a stroll down the tiny cobble streets, and the many stairs of this Parisian neighbourhood and time travel. It will take you back to the times when every famous person used to spend most of their days here. You can also catch a glimpse of the modern artists, as they showcase their drawings and paintings on the small squares in the neighbourhood. When you get tired of walking, sit in some café and have a taste of really good French wine. And the best part of it all, on your way to Montmartre, you will see Moulin Rouge and the gorgeous Sacré Coeur. Certainly, you will feel like the main character from the movie “Midnight in Paris”.

Musée de l’Orangerie

 

If you are in need for a quiet, relaxing moment, then this is the place for you. Take a break from the city bustle and hustle, and dive into the waters of Monet’s “Water Lilies”. The museum houses this masterpiece and it offers the best way to see them. They are displayed just as Monet wanted them to be. The same way he envisioned them. So, when you get inside the room, you feel surrounded by the paintings, as though they are hugging you. This is because of the oval shape of the room. Thanks to Monet, who planned the positioning, the sizes and spaces between each painting, you will get a full experience of his art.

Shakespeare & Co.

 

This is a must-see for every book lover. It is the holiest of all bookstores. A small building, tucked in a corner, just across the river from the Notre Dame cathedral. This is where you will fall in love with literature, if you already haven’t. And if you already have, this is where you will seal that love forever. Take a pick from the vast offer of books they have. They have everything from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. New editions, old editions – it’s your choice. You will not be disappointed.

 

Whatever you decide to visit, you will be amazed. Amazed by the offer, and by the beauty of it. Paris will charm you with its biggest attractions, but it will do so with the small ones, too. By walking through the city, you will see more on one street than in a whole museum like Louvre. You will learn of its history, of the great people and their culture. You will learn of the love they have for life. And that is one thing Parisians are the best at – living life to the fullest.

 

And these three items on the list are only the beginning. You can visit many other museums and neighbourhoods. Each corner of Paris has an offer for you. Its map is like a treasure hunt map. All you have to do is be willing to wake up your spirit for adventure.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/top-spots-in-paris-to-explore-art-and-culture/

Tips to Maintain a Good Social Media Presence When Applying to College

Let’s face it—everybody is on social media these days. Parents, grandparents, neighbors, and even teachers have social media profiles across a large number of platforms. The age of social media is upon us, and it is certainly changing the way we interact with one another. An effective social media presence can even make or break students in some situations, so it is important to curate an image of yourself worth presenting to the world—particularly when it comes to admissions.

While it may feel simpler to just delete your profiles as you apply to colleges, it isn’t necessary. In fact, by following a few simple rules, you may even be able to successfully market yourself when applying to colleges by establishing good social media practices.

Explore what you can and can’t control

Because each social media platform is different, it is important to examine the exact capabilities of each. Find out what you may be able to control to protect your privacy. You may be able to limit who sees what, which can be useful in presenting a certain image of yourself.

You may also be able to request that you’re able to either approve or deny pending followers or friends, ensuring that strangers receive very little—or no—information, if you so choose.

Remember to think twice

Social media platforms have quickly transformed into a space in which individuals can express everything they’re feeling—which isn’t necessarily a good thing! Because they are so easy to use, we tend to be reactionary at times, posting in moments of excitement or even anger.

A good rule of thumb is to wait 15 minutes before posting. In that time, you may reevaluate what it is you want to share with the world. Your posts will be more cohesive, logical, and thoughtful. Assume future employers as well as college admissions officers are browsing your social media.

Show excitement about the schools to which you’re applying

A great way to tell potential colleges that you’re really invested in them is by engaging with them on social media. Perhaps you have a photograph of you visiting the campus or hanging out with the mascot—these are great additions to your profiles!

It can also be a good idea to go as far as interacting with the schools. Repost articles about them, respond to their posts, or mention them specifically when you’re posting updates. This establishes a connection between yourself, the school, and people you may someday be interacting with there.

Do a double-check by Googling yourself

While you may be fairly certain that you’ve adjusted your privacy settings to your specifications, it can’t hurt to check up on the situation. Imagine that you are an admissions staff member from a school you’re applying to—what’s the first thing you do? Perform a web search on the applicant, often with Google.

To perform this action yourself, open a private window so you aren’t logged into any social media sites. Search your name and click on any profiles that come up for you—how do they look? If they aren’t “clean” enough, do some revising. You may even be able to make these profiles harder to find by taking them off of Google search results.

Finally, you may even want to Google a few other people you know—their profiles may provide good guidelines or give you valuable insight as to what’s easy to find, what isn’t, and what looks good.

Think carefully about the image you wish to present

It may seem like the key to social media management when applying to college is in lying or at least covering up the truth, but that’s not it at all. Instead, you want to project an image of yourself that is accurate and professional, which can be achieved without being dishonest. Think about the person you are and the person you want to be, and make sure your social media profiles represent that effectively.

If you are political, there are ways to express your beliefs in a respectful way. If you’re into cooking, post pictures of the impressive meals you create. By curating your profiles to purposefully reflect the person you are, you actually offer admissions representatives valuable insight into the type of student and individual you will be on their campus.

A few final words

The key to social media management is balance—your profiles should ideally paint the portrait of someone who is professional, passionate about higher learning, and well-rounded with some fun outside interests as well. If you have to question whether or not something should have a place on your account, chances are that it doesn’t.

Remember that many admissions professionals also have social media profiles themselves, so they understand the various ways students interact on social media. By keeping your profiles clean, professional, and fun, you ensure they’re not a burden to the admissions process—in fact, they may even help you!
Heather Hamilton is a contributing writer for Varsity Tutors, a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/varsitytutors/tips-to-maintain-a-good-social-media-presence-when-applying-to-college/

Your User Experience Improvement Checklist

Since most UX problems on the web are rooted in poor user interface design, a quick heuristic evaluation can do wonders in improving the overall user experience of a website.

Keeping in mind Nielsen’s widely used usability heuristics to check if your website is good enough to provide a good experience for your users, we can check for the following:

 

Provide relevant feedback whenever possible

It’s important to keep the user informed in every step of the process. The site should provide relevant feedback in a timely manner. Information should be there as soon as the user needs it. Help the user know their current state and provide triggers that will let them act appropriately. This helps maintain a seamless flow of navigation throughout your site.

 

Speak your user’s language

Use a language that is familiar to your target audience. Real-world conventions make your users comfortable navigating your site. Technical terms and acronyms should be reserved to those users who will understand them at a glance. Otherwise, immediately provide descriptions or remove them entirely.

 

Users should be free to do whatever they want

It is important that you provide an ample amount of freedom to your users. Give them options to handle both wanted and unwanted actions. There should be options to go back, move forward, or leave the current page without disrupting the experience.

Your users will make mistakes from time to time and it’s up to you to handle them appropriately. Create user contingencies for possible error states, giving users more options on what to do upon encountering a roadblock. A good information architecture is a big help in preventing and solving errors, giving users a clear path to their goals as well as what to do if they encounter them.

 

Create a style guide and follow it at all costs

Try to maintain the same design layout and style across your site. From the fonts, color schemes, margins and navigation, keeping it consistent adds to the user’s level of comfort. The opposite creates distraction and confusion that does nothing but detract from your user’s goals in navigating your website.

 

Catch potential mistakes

Part of keeping your users in control is catching potential errors before they occur. If you think that an action is either sensitive or will have a significant impact on the user’s current state, provide options and alerts prior to the action. Test for errors in the background as the user goes through a task. You can use Javascript and CSS to validate data and inform the user accordingly.

 

Don’t make your users think too hard

Chances are, your users are better at recognition than recall. So be consistent in your design. Provide the user enough information about the current page they’re in, and they’re place in the overall site structure. Effective use of breadcrumbs, navigation menus as well as fonts, color schemes and other site elements will give users enough context to know where they are, what is the purpose of this page, what they’re supposed to do, and where to go next.

 

Design for power users

Give your more advanced users options to navigate the site faster than they did the first time. Track common actions and design for that. Make frequently visited pages more accessible, commonly clicked links more recognizable, and important content readable.

Your navigation, sitemap, and breadcrumb structure is a big help in terms of getting your users to go wherever they want to go on your site as quick as possible.

 

Keep it simple, keep it straight

Make sure that every piece of information on a page is absolutely necessary. Either too much or too little can potentially paralyze your user, preventing them from achieving their goal upon visiting your site. The more you put on a specific web page, the lower the chance that your user can fulfill an intended task.

 

Catch your users when they fall

Some errors are unavoidable; therefore, the messages that recognize these must be simple and actionable. State the error, suggest solutions, and provide your users some options on how to proceed from there.

 

Support should always be at least one click away

Accessing your site’s help and documentation should always be your user’s last resort. It is where your users go if all else fails, so make sure that the documentation is robust, easily searchable, catered to the current task and most importantly, accurate. Provide user access to this through easily identifiable “Help” links, and the error message itself should contain links detailing possible solutions.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-easyvince/your-user-experience-improvement-checklist/

6 Tips on How to Create a Bedroom of Your Dreams

Do you want to walk into your bedroom and just feel right? You can easily achieve that by creating a simple design that will function well. It may look simple, but it actually isn’t. You might wonder why? Well, every bedroom has to have a bed in it, and beds are big and bulky and pretty much dictate where everything else will be placed in the room. So, when you are planning a bedroom from scratch or remodeling your old one, you have the control in creating a space that will be both pretty and practical. So, here are some tips that will help you create a bedroom that will be your own piece of heaven.

Easy to Get Around

In order for your bedroom to be functional, you should keep your circulation on one side of the room only. Hotels design all of their bedrooms in this manner because of two reason, it is simple and it works. So, make a good get around plan, and remember that it can be more challenging if they are en suite or if they have balcony doors. When creating a bedroom from scratch, pay attention to the location of the closet and bathroom. If your bedroom has a bathroom or access to a closet, make sure that you have a longer hall.

A Nice View

 

You will always feel much better if you sleep in a bedroom that has a nice view. Imagine waking up and the first thing you see is a beautiful view out of the window. So, when designing and creating a bedroom of your dreams, make sure that you choose a layout that will focus on the windows. Wouldn’t it be better to wake up to a view of a lake or your landscaped backyard, than to looking at a plain wall?

Privacy

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the possibility to leave the bedroom door open and still have some privacy? Having this in mind, when creating your bedroom, leave a small foyer in front of the bedroom and in that way you will get make your bedroom more private from the other rooms in your home. Avoid designing a layout where someone can directly look into the bedroom from other more public rooms, like kitchen or family room.

Have an Outdoor Space

This might not be suitable for all climates, but if you live in a warmer place, than this is an amazing idea to implement in your bedroom. Connecting your bedroom with an outdoor space will make your bedroom look bigger and it will receive more natural light. If your bedroom is on the ground floor or maybe on a second story with a nice balcony, just add French doors, and you will be amazed how it will visually increase your space.

Furniture

When creating a bedroom of your dreams, furniture represent a big part of how it will look and feel at the end. Choose a big bed with a comfortable mattress to spend your nights in, and our friends at The Sleep Judge also recommend putting a topper over your mattress so that you feel like sleeping on a cloud. Next you are going to need night stands, a TV, and perhaps a desk and a chair if you want to do something where you won’t be disturbed. If you aren’t sure how to place your bedroom furniture, work with a designer or an architect so that you implement your furniture in your bedroom circulation.

Lightning and Ventilation

Your bedroom should be in a corner of your home, so that you have windows on two or more sides. This will benefit you a lot, you room will receive natural and soft light and you will easily ventilate it. Take your time, a great design can take a while, so don’t rush through it… if it takes a little more time, it is important that you come up with a functional and efficient plan for your dream bedroom.

Having a great design does not depend on having a space that will be complex and pricey to build. It is only important to create a space that will be functional, cost less and be efficient in maintaining. This is what great design really is.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/6-tips-on-how-to-create-a-bedroom-of-your-dreams/

H9 test postpage

This is test post page from Hostnine

 

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/admin/h9-test-postpage/

How to Create Working Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing strategy is a very important part of any business. Experts from educational help service Assignment-Masters prepared a few rules to follow to create successful content marketing strategy.

 This is the process you should follow each and every time you begin a marketing cycle. Jump right into content creation without a proper foundation and process, and your every marketing effort will be a shot in the dark as you hope for the best.

Content Marketing Process

 

 

 

Set your marketing goals making sure to ally them to your business goals

It is not enough to simply say you want more conversions or more profit. Your goals must be precisely defined and must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your business goals, which may also mean portioning off part of your efforts for brand building and brand educating your target audience.

Create metric measuring and analysis protocols

There is no point in creating goals and working your marketing plan if you have no reliable ways of measuring the results. How can you be sure you met your targets or achieved your goals if you are not correctly measuring the results?

Define and research your target audience

Knowing your target audience will help you find them, identify them, and communicate with them in a way they find engaging. It has to involve the alienation of at least some people that are not part of your target audience.

Research how your competitors are communicating with your target audience

Finding innovative ways of communicating with your target audience is important, but most of your efforts will revolve around taking customers from your competitors, which is why communicating using the same channels, mediums and platforms as them is important.

Don’t forget big businesses

Even though larger branded website and stores may seem like only a minor competitor because you work within your own niche, you can still learn a lot about them by advertising. For example, they invest millions into marketing research, so when the bigger branded companies in your industry do things such as start their Christmas advertising, you too should strongly consider doing the same. They have spent a lot of money finding out the right time to run promotions and to identify things that will pull in the most customers.

Define and set your communication platforms and mediums

Decide which will suit your company and your marketing goals the best, and consider how you will divide your resources to engage with your target audience on said communicate platforms and mediums. Wasting time on ineffective mediums and platforms is the same as giving money away.

About your communication mediums and platforms

It is not about finding the medium with the most potential customers. Just because there are a lot of people tuning in to a certain channel doesn’t mean it is your most cost-effective and efficient way of communicating with them. Added to which, such channels often have very large and powerful companies operating within them that are able to draw buyer’s attention far better than smaller companies. Remember that it is better to whisper to small groups rather than trying to yell your message to a large one. The time to start yelling to larger groups is when you have the pull and influence that big named brands have.

Plan the most cost-effective methods for information dissemination

Now you have your plan in place, it is imperative that you do a cost-benefit analysis of each so you may place the correct amount of resources into each information-dissemination and user-engagement channel/portal as possible without waste. Streamlining for the best ROI is most important at this stage otherwise you will burn through your marketing budget with little to show in return.

Generate your marketing material and disseminate amongst your chosen channels

How, why, when, and how often are all decisions you need to make. You also need to decide the most cost-effective way of creating the most beneficial content possible. Creating content for the sake of it is silly. The principles of drip-drip marketing are true, which means the more people see your brand and your content, then the more they will trust you, but creating content just for the sake of putting something out there is not very cost effective and may even tarnish your online reputation.

Stick to just one idea or selling point

When creating your content, you may be tempted to include all or most of your best selling points and your unique selling points that set you apart from your competition, but it is not the best way of communicating with strangers. Fill your website with the hundreds of ways your products and services are fantastic.

Think of your website as your spider’s web where people will be bowled over and won over once they are in it because of all of your USPs and such. However, when trying to tempt them into your spider’s web, it is best to stick to your overriding brand principle and best selling point. Draw in and tempt their interest and then try to wow them on your website. Draw them in by sticking to a single selling point on your disseminated content.

Consider larger brands again

Even large and established brands only use a single selling point to draw people in. A single selling point makes a difference. For example, take Volvo, they are known as very safe cars, yet if you go onto their website you will see how they are also luxury cars, they are powerful, have energy saving features, space-aged suspension and much more. Now consider the defunct car manufacturer Rover, can you recall their biggest brand selling point? No? Neither can anybody else.

Analyze and evaluate your results

Have your targets been met? Have you reached your goals? Where did you fail the most? What areas saw the most success? Which were the most cost-effective methods and channels? Are your positive results repeatable?

Use your findings to power your re-planning process and begin again

In essence, you are undertaking a large and highly throughout trial and error test. Now you have your results, you must use the good, eliminate the ineffective, and apply what you have learnt to the process as you begin again for your next marketing cycle. To learn nothing is the equivalent of setting plans to fail.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/laurajonson/how-to-create-working-content-marketing-strategy/

Building a Startup around a SaaS Platform

SaaS founders seem to be sprouting up like mushrooms after the rain, and the market is becoming increasingly competitive.  But, it takes more than good ideas and fancy premises to get a small business off the ground. Some startups like WhatsApp and Instagram managed to skyrocket in no time, but this was not the result of a spectacular streak of luck.

It takes a lot of time to get the products right, but it is only then that the real work starts. The sales, marketing, customer service, there is no shortage of activities that can occupy your day and trouble your mind.  Getting the recurring revenue and initial traction takes a great deal of commitment and some strategic planning.  

Serving for the win

SaaS platforms involve a subscription-based licensing and central hosting. They have become a popular delivery model for business applications and many software companies incorporate it in their operations. One of the benefits for users is reduced IT costs because maintenance is outsourced to a SaaS provider. For the latter, this results in more work dedicated towards making customer’s life easier.

The initial phase includes developing and designing. You can choose to allow other developers to build on top of your platform, adding new value to your product. Another way to boost your chances and offer added value to customers is via key integration. Keep in mind that application with limited features can easily win acclaim, provided that it is user-friendly, fast and that it solves problems for your clients.

In any case, be prepared to adjust on-the-go and change your strategy more times than you can count. The SaaS business model is all about flexibility and responding to market shifts. Furthermore, SaaS-based companies must provide around the clock support to establish lasting connections with the customers. Helping out new clients in the onboarding process essential, so offer free guides, video tutorials, write handy blog posts and host webinars.

To attract a new audience, you can offer a freemium model, which is usually better than time-limited trials. Of course, what matters is scaling the free accounts up and turning them into paid ones. To pull this off, take advantage of marketing automation via tools like Marketo or Hubspot. The goal is to move to a position where the feedback you are receiving is predominantly positive.

Prospecting and exploring

Now, even the greatest products do not sell themselves, and must be backed up by promotional activities. At first, a bulk of startups was looking to team up with big names in the industry and sign the “Marketing partnership program”. The results did not meet the expectations, and many founders turned to other means. One of them is putting your application on major marketplaces for desktop, or App Store and Google play for mobile devices.

Still, there is no better way to enhance your online endeavors that to build a solid website.  Filling it with quality, relevant content, and engaging in SEO is what comes next. All your efforts here gravitate around the search engines’ axis, as these are the imposing gatekeepers of the virtual realm. Moreover, do not neglect the link building process, as it will help you boost the site’s rank. The truth is, however, that this is something that could take a lot of time and distract you from other important tasks.

On the brighter note, there are also link prospecting startups that can help you get your own startup project of the ground and promote it with more success. The latest SEO tool from Four Dots called Dibz seems promising, even in the beta phase. It makes the whole link building process less time-consuming and enables you to adjust your search results to show only sites that are spam-free. This fresh example also demonstrates the importance of securing a proper domain name (dibz.me), which is one of the key aspects of the online brand building process.

A long lasting success

When you are only in a phase of developing and designing a product, a road to success ahead can seems obscure and bumpy. Some startups explode in a matter of months, but others bite the dust in the same amount of time. To make the first scenario more probable, you need to show commitment to customer service excellence. Success does not happen overnight, so be prepared to be in for a long haul. Make a lasting first impression and make sure you get the last word with your software solution.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/marcusjensen/building-a-startup-around-a-saas-platform/

Tips to Prepare Your Small Business for the Holiday Season

Tips to Prepare Your Small Business for the Holiday Season

At the end of this week the holiday shopping season will officially begin. Queue Christmas music. Black Friday, believed to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year, will fall, as always, on the day after Thanksgiving. You may have your shopping list planned, but is your small business ready for the rush?

Black Friday has proven to be incredibly lucrative for retail giants such as Target and Wal-Mart, but you don’t need to own a Fortune 500 company to benefit from the holiday buzz. Efforts have been made to give smaller businesses a seasonal boost, including Small Business Saturday which helps shift some of the attention away from large corporations. Here are some tips to help your business make the most of these busy shopping days:

1. Don’t Feel Intimidated by Larger Businesses

Even though larger businesses might have more to offer when it comes to holiday discounts and deals, don’t feel discouraged. You can compete without price-matching, which could prove to be detrimental to your business. Shopping malls and department stores will likely be packed and uncomfortable for much of the season, so make doing business with you as inviting, convenient, and stress-free as possible. Be appropriately staffed and ensure your employees are knowledgeable about your products and services. Workers who can educate potential customers, not just sell to them, will earn trust and respect. This will help build a loyal, returning customer base.

2. Update Your Website

Every year more and more holiday purchases are made online. The establishment of Cyber Monday, an online follow-up to Black Friday, is an attempt to capitalize on this trend. You, too, can get in on the holiday internet traffic by updating your website with your holiday hours (even if they are the same), any special deals or promotions, contact information, events, news, etc. Websites that are updated frequently will appear higher in Google search results: one of the most important factors in internet marketing. More traffic to your site provides you with more opportunities for purchases, so make sure your website is fully-functional and aesthetically pleasing. This, combined with online exclusive deals, will keep visitors on your site and lead to a higher conversion rate.

3. Show Your Employees Appreciation

The holidays can be an especially taxing time for workers. In the rush of a busy season it is easy to overlook the hard work your employees may be putting in to ensure everything runs smoothly. Holiday bonuses and parties are excellent ways to show them how much you appreciate them, but circumstances don’t always allow for these extras. Publicly recognizing individuals who have done well is a simple way to make them aware that you do notice their efforts.

4. Be Aware of Weather Conditions

If you live in an area with particularly cold winters, be sure to watch the weather forecast. If snow storms are on the horizon, closing for a day might be a good option. Business doesn’t have to halt when shoppers decide to stay home. Update your website and social media with an announcement of when you’ll be closed, when you’ll reopen, and a link to your product pages for those who want to make online purchases. Earlier this year, Boston saw a major blizzard that lead to a 50% fall in sales for retailers and restaurants. To prevent this from happening to you be sure to have an online backup plan.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/dylanellison/tips-to-prepare-your-small-business-for-the-holiday-season/

Investments that Won’t Break Your Bank

Trading used to be associated with high income households due to expensive brokerage commissions. Now with introduction of low cost online brokers lots of fairly cheap investment opportunities emerged. In this article we are going to review three least expensive ways people can invest their money and wait for high returns.

Forex

Forex is a market where world currencies are being traded. Although most people think that only national financial institutions and big corporate players are able to invest money on Forex, since recently everybody can try out their skills (and luck) by trading world currencies. Forex comes with plenty of benefits as a market and despite popular opinion, investors don’t need huge amounts of cash to make their investments profitable. This is due to high predictability of Forex, which makes it one of the least risky investment environments. Investors can control $100,000 with down payments that are as small as $1,000, because currency pairs move less than one percent per day. This makes the leverage very high, sometimes even 250:1, which was made into an industry standard.

When it comes to currencies, their exchange rates are mainly defined by supply and demand, without any additional factors, or artificial hypes. This is another fact that adds up to the Forex reputation of being one of the safest markets to invest. Here we listed some of the main pros and cons of Forex trading:

Pros

• Market is open 24 hours, when New York market closes, the one in Tokyo opens, after that the one in Europe and so on;

• Unlike equity markets, Forex traders can use ultra-high leverage;

• Forex comes with much less risk than other markets;

Cons

• High leverage can create volatility and act as a double-edged sword ;

• Forex is one of the least dynamic markets;

• It is very dependable on world politics, which can be very unpredictable;

Binary Options

These are the options that depending on supposed outcome can be paid in full or can lead to no payment at all. “In the money” and “Out of the money” are two important terms to remember when it comes to binary option’s outcome. First one means that the assumption on which binary option is based turned out to be true, in which case the option’s owner will receive $100, while the second term means that the assumption was wrong, in which case the owner won’t get anything. Price of one binary option can be anywhere from 0 to $100, depending on the possibility for “In the money” scenario.

When it comes to binary option, risk and reward are known from the beginning. This makes it easier for the traders to create elaborate strategies and employ their knowledge in statistics. Binary options are sold on over-the-counter markets, and they are much less regulated than most other options and equities. Here are some of the main pros and cons associated with this kind of options:

Pros

• Risk and reward are known from the start;

• In most over-the-counter brokerage firms, there’s no commission on buying binary options;

• Binary options can deal with many different asset classes from around the world, and it is easy for the trader to choose an assumption from the industry he/she has good knowledge of.

Cons

• Binary option is not an asset, which means that its owners don’t own anything before the option becomes “In the money” one.

• There is not a lot of regulations when it comes to binary options trade, which makes it little bit shady at times;

• Reward is always less than a risk, which means the trader must be right for the high percentage of binary options to cover the losses made by “Out of the money” ones.

Penny Stocks

Penny or the micro-cap stocks are shares of small public companies that are sold bellow $5 per share. These are traded over-the-counter on exchanges like OTC Bulletin Board and Pink Sheets. Although most financial magazines advise people to stay away from penny stocks due to very volatile market, as well as many frauds like pump-and-dump and short-and-distort schemes, there are many millionaires, like Timothy Sykes for example, who got rich by trading penny stocks. If you think about it, almost every startup company that decides to sell its shares, puts them on penny stock market, and since we are living in the world that provides opportunities for fast growth of companies in various industries, we can clearly see the model that enabled many penny stock millionaires to earn their wealth.

When trading penny stocks finding the right information about the company is crucial. Since these stocks are only loosely regulated by SEC. Because of this, traders sometimes need to search elsewhere for the right information and this can lead them to various online directories, forums, niche websites and even bars located in company’s neighborhood. Therefore creativity approach to finding the financial information about the company is one of the most important things that turns regular penny stock trader into a millionaire. Like with other two options from this article, we listed some pros and cons of penny stock trading.

Pros

• Penny stocks are cheap, which enables traders to make big and diversified portfolios;

• Since penny stock market is very dynamic, right investment can bring huge profits in short period of time;

• Startups tend to grow fast after getting their initial funding, same goes for penny stocks, since they are mostly associated with startup companies;

Cons

• Penny stock market is the most volatile market out there;

• There are lots of fraudulent activities on penny stock market;

• Lack of regulation by SEC, makes information about penny-stock companies hard to find.

Good investments are always better than regular savings and with the introduction of online brokerage firms, forex brokers and binary option traders, even households with small incomes are able to invest their money earn from trading and dividends.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/marcusjensen/investments-that-wont-break-your-bank/