4 Things to Consider Before Choosing a Web Hosting Company

Choosing a web hosting company has to come as a result of an informed decision in order to prevent dozens of inconveniences that could be fatal for your business. The main problem that we are facing today is that there are dozens of such companies offering their hosting services.

Of course, all of them are advertising like they are the best option available and they are all offering the same features, guaranteeing 100% percent uptime and immaculate support for their clients. But as you already might think, in reality things are a bit different. This is why I have decided to point your attention to these important things that you should check before making your final decision.

Choosing the Right Hosting Plan

Web hosting plans can be divided into two major groups, one being individual plans and the other dedicated servers. The individual plans are usually the cheapest ones and their starting price usually starts at a couple of dollars per month. They are usually a good option for anyone who wants to start a small specialized blog and doesn’t anticipate a lot of traffic. The other option, a dedicated server, is much better suited for businesses or people who aim for very high website traffic.

What you should look for here are the web host companies that have several plans available for their clients, with the option of upgrading to an advanced plan if your website starts to evolve. Also, try to look for hosting companies that allow you to choose all the technical specs and features, so that you can create a custom plan that best suits your needs.

Getting the Best Deal for a Good Price

The price is usually the most important factor in choosing the right host company. However, the same rule that applies to other purchases also applies here – the cheapest option isn’t the best one.

Luckily, the hosting market is pretty much saturated and there are some really nice deals to be found. This is why it’s good to always keep an eye on the cheapest webhosting providers and the special deals they offer from time to time.

For instance, the first Monday after Thanksgiving is the Cyber Monday, and many top-notch web hosting companies have special deals during Cyber Monday. Some of the web hosting companies offer a money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with their services in a given period of time.

Is the Tech Support any Good?

The hosting company’s tech support should be on the top of the list of your concerns. How long does it take for them to answer your ticket? Is there a direct phone line? What happens if the ticket escalates? In some cases, one minute of your website being offline can mean a significant financial loss.

So, before you consider a hosting company as a viable option, make sure to visit their official website and popular forums to look for their customers’ reviews and satisfaction. Furthermore, make sure to explore the contact methods they made available for their customers. Do they only offer an email contact form or do they also have live chat, perhaps a phone number? Is the support available 24/7 or do they have fixed work hours?

Technical Specs

Technical specs are a really important aspect of choosing the right web hosting company. Are you going to run a blog or an ecommerce website? What features will your site have? All these have to be supported by both the hardware and software a hosting company uses for their servers and services.

If you are going to use any of the CMS platforms, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or Magento make sure that the company has support for those. For instance, do they have the latest cPanel Control Panel, and do they offer website statistics? How about instant shopping carts? What programming languages do they support? How many MySQL databases can you use? Only after you get all the answers you will be able to make a good, informed decision.

Although these things might seem too techy for you at the start, trust me, they are essentials that make good web hosting. Don’t rush yourself into making this decision. Take your time and get all the relevant information. The speed and uptime of your website, especially if it is a business or ecommerce one, are of the utmost importance.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/4-things-to-consider-before-choosing-a-web-hosting-company/

4 Reasons Why Adding Eggs To Your Meal Plan Can Help You At The Gym

Eating more eggs is a fantastic way to give you a healthy boost. Consumption of whole eggs is vital as a significant amount of the protein and nutrients in eggs is found in egg yolk (which contains more than 90% of the calcium and iron of an egg). If you do not eat eggs regularly, here are four reasons why you should consider adopting them into your meal plan:

1. Get Your Vitamins

A small egg is packed with several vitamins essential to your health including:

• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin), which helps your body break down food into energy
• Vitamin B12 (cobalamin), which is vital for the production of red blood cells
• Vitamin A (Retinol), which is ideal for your eyesight
• Vitamin E (tocopherol), which fights free radicals that can cause tissue and cell damage, which can lead to cancer

Vitamins A and B2 are also important for muscle growth, and helps during the anabolic post-workout state thanks in large part to a metabolism-spiking protein punch. For more information on the metabolic benefits of eggs and to find some quick and easy egg recipes online, visit Getcracking.ca for the shakedown on how this one addition to your diet can make a world of difference.

2. Lose that belly flab

Did you know that eating eggs can help you lose weight? This may surprise those who think eggs are “fattening” or “unhealthy,” but a study by the Rochester Obesity Research Center found that eating eggs at breakfast helps limit calorie intake throughout the day — upward of 400 Calories per day. This means you could lose three pounds or more a month by eating at least one egg each day you hit the gym.

Eggs keep you full for longer which means that you are less likely to succumb to a mid-morning snack or overindulge at lunchtime. And although eggs contain cholesterol, it’s “dietary cholesterol” different from “blood cholesterol” in your body. Despite the health recommendations of the past, there is no evidence that eating eggs will increase your blood cholesterol levels.

 

3. Get those essential minerals

Eggs are packed with minerals like iron, zinc and phosphorus that are essential for your body’s ability to build muscle mass and keep its immune system strong. Iron is necessary to fight off lethargy, while Zinc keeps your immune system in top shape and helps your body transform food into energy. Phosphorus, meanwhile, is important for the health of bones and teeth. And, as a bonus, there are trace elements (minerals you need in small amounts) in eggs of iodine, needed to make thyroid hormones, and selenium, a powerful antioxidant that can help reduce your risk of Cancer.

4. Get your fill of low-calorie protein

An average egg contains only 70 to 85 calories and about 6.5 grams of protein. This means that three eggs (210 to 255 calories) provide 19.5 grams of protein: Eating a Spanish omelette with three eggs, or three scrambled eggs or poached on toast, will keep you full for hours.

Eggs are one of the most complete and versatile foods available. It has a valuable role in providing a healthy diet for all and especially those looking to build muscle mass at the gym.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/michaelsanduso/4-reasons-why-adding-eggs-to-your-meal-plan-can-help-you-at-the-gym/

Steps You Can Take to Outline Your Essay

When you get an assignment to write an essay, creating an outline for the essay is very important. An outline is a quick way to organize your thoughts about the topic so you can effectively prove your thesis or tell a stellar story. Outlines help to ensure that your essay is orderly and filled with relevant information.

Typically, an outline contains three sections: an introduction, the body paragraphs, and a conclusion. While the process may seem daunting, it can actually be quick and easy if you adhere to the following steps.

Brainstorming

Before you even begin to outline your essay, it is crucial that you have a brainstorming session about the essay. Brainstorming sessions allow you to explore all potential avenues for the thesis of your essay. How you choose to brainstorm is entirely up to you. Some find it helpful to use a whiteboard to write out all potential ideas, while others may find it beneficial to simply spend some time thinking about topics to themselves. Once you feel you have adequately brainstormed, select the thesis that is strongest, and begin writing your outline after that.

Outline sections

Now, it is time to begin your official outline. While the structure of essays can vary depending on the actual assignment, most essays can generally be outlined using this format:

Introduction
Begin by outlining the introduction portion of the essay. The introduction is one of the most important components as it sets up the rest of the essay. Start by writing down the thesis statement or the main idea of your essay. If this is an opinion-based essay, write a sentence about why this topic is important to you personally. In this section of the outline, you should also list out the main components of the essay that will be further outlined in the body paragraphs.

Body

Now it is time to outline the body paragraphs of your essay. The purpose of the body paragraphs is to make claims that will support your main thesis or idea.  Supporting evidence will back up these claims. Typically, essays are formatted so there are three main paragraphs that look something like this:

Paragraph 1: The first idea

• Supporting evidence for the first idea
• Supporting evidence for the first idea
• Supporting evidence for the first idea

Paragraph 2: The second idea

• Supporting evidence for the second idea
• Supporting evidence for the second idea
• Supporting evidence for the second idea

Paragraph 3: The third idea

• Supporting evidence for the third idea
• Supporting evidence for the third idea
• Supporting evidence for the third idea

Conclusion

The conclusion portion of the outline should be used to restate your thesis. Additionally, you should include a wrap-up statement that can be used to end your essay.

General tips

When outlining your essay, stick to these general tips.

• Keep it short: The outline is meant to be just that — an outline. Do not write lengthy paragraphs of information. Save that for the actual essay! Instead, keep it simple by writing a sentence or two per section.
• Stick with it: When writing the actual essay, keep your outline within reach at all times. Stick with the original outline so your essay remains organized (but feel free to make adjustments when necessary).

Do not be too overwhelmed by the prospect of writing an essay. By using an outline, you can keep your thoughts organized and structured so that it is actually quite simple to create the end product. If you find yourself stumped while writing the outline, it may be wise to return to the brainstorming phase to ensure that your thesis is as strong as it can be.

 

Jenny Modlisz 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/steps-you-can-take-to-outline-your-essay/

How to Make Content Work for Your SEO Efforts

In the realm of SEO, content is the king who reigns supreme. Maximizing the search visibility and internet traffic are prerogatives of the royal position, but they must be earned fair and square. Shabby content simply cannot engage readers, or lead to stellar link prospecting success. Nobody will share or comment on a copied article with the sole purpose of spamming links. People might scan it, but will not read it to the end, and that is the main difference between worthy and hackneyed content.

The content gatekeepers

The all-powerful gatekeepers of the digital landscape, the search engines, want to treat users with the most quality and relevant content possible. Thus, high-quality material is the foundation of digital marketing strategies. Now, the term quality content encompasses well-optimized, timely, original and insightful information on the internet. It can, of course, take the shape of imagery, video or some other graphic element. The main characteristic relates to the engaging appeal, not the exact form, textual or otherwise.

Classy content also holds valuable keywords that are based on proper research and best SEO practices. Still, overstuffing the articles with keywords does not go down well with the internet powers that be, and may induce a fierce reaction from their algorithms. The pages themselves must also be the subject to optimization, as that way, you allow search engine bots to crawl your pages nice and easy. This brings forth more chances of your pages getting ranked, leading to better visibility on the internet.

All of this is achieved by a well planned and executed web design. These thing have to be clearly conceived from step one of designing your website. The best way to go about ensuring success in this direction is by cooperating with a proven web design company.

 

Lead the way

Attaining a higher position in search results ensures that you attract more organic traffic, and takes the lead generation to the next level. Yet, to get there, there are some signs by the internet highways you need to keep a close eye on. Namely, evaluate your activities by getting hold of bounce and click-through rates. These indicators reveal how the audience is taking your content, and whether the process of building confidence and trust is taking place.

Furthermore, there are some other crucial metrics like page view and time on site that Google employs when determining the ranking. Adhering to these standards helps you avoid shattering penalties. Webmaster guidelines make it clear that you can expect nothing good to come out of over optimization, promoting thin affiliate content, or “black hat” SEO tactics. The Panda update has even punished some reputable sites, so manipulative blogs can expect to be blown out of the water.

The weakest link

As it turns out, content creation and guest blogging are the best ways to earn links and step up the SEO game. Again, one must strive to link only interesting, vital pieces of content in order to drive targeted traffic. Also, remember that whenever your content is shared on social media, links to your website or blog are established. The good link juice brings you an improvement in rankings in its own right as well, and the quantity of backlinks is the testimony of your trustworthiness.

Spread the word

Content marketing is the backbone of any successful SEO strategy, shining ever brighter in the center of the digital universe. Those who fail to produce quality material roam the digital landscape like ghosts, uttering sorrowful words that fall on deaf ears. Gaming the system has worked in the past, but is becoming harder and harder to thrive with the cloak and dagger as weapons of choice. Today, there is only one safe road to take— user engagement.  Quality content is the one that gets bookmarked, talked about, and spread across the social media.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/marcusjensen/how-to-make-content-work-for-your-seo-efforts/

5 Amazingly Simple Ways to Step Up Your Dating Game

Dating can at the same time be fun and thrilling, but also a rather stressful experience. The latter comes in if you face too many failed dates in a raw, or if you pressure yourself with paying attention to and analyzing every little detail. The natural response to unknown and unpredictable events is to overthink and to constantly be on an edge.

There are quite a few ways for you to overcome this and build up your confidence. For starters, it might be smart to get familiar with some of the most useful tips that have a huge impact on how the date will go. You will actually be surprised to see how really small changes can make such a big difference. Here is a list of amazingly simple ways to step up your dating game.

Show Initiative

This one is pretty important if you want to make a good impression. The main thing that people don’t seem to get is that, when they ask someone out, they are the ones responsible to pick the place and the activity. This is why a good plan is crucial.

Remember that the person who agreed to go out is already interested in getting to know you, so you don’t have to worry about that part. Take it easy, follow the plan and be ready to improvise.

Know When to “Quit”

You don’t have to be that guy from the TV show “Lie to me” to be able to see all the not so subtle cues that are common for dates. For instance, if you are still not finished with your drink or meal and your date asks for a check, it might be a sign that he/she is not interested.

On the opposite, if your date is interested in you, he/she will find a way to spend more time with you. There is no need to dig into why someone is not interested in a second date. Use that energy and time to plan a new date with someone else.

Build Your Confidence From your Feet Up

Confidence is a real game changer when it comes to dates. You just have to find the means to boost yours. If being fit and looking toned works well for you, why not work on that. If you want to start from the feet up, look up Zederna, as they are a great source of information about how to keep your feet healthy. Maybe a change of style? Whatever it is that can boost your confidence, make sure to identify it and work on it. Trust me, it will change your dating game for the better.

Get Rid of your Smartphone

It is of the utmost importance to do these two things with your phone: keep it in silent mode and put it away. Yeah, staring at your phone during a date is beyond rude. If you have to use it, make sure to apologize and try to keep it as short as possible. Also, and this one goes for the guys, please make sure that you are polite and show good manners throughout the entire date – at the restaurant, hold the door for her, open the door of a cab for her, etc. All these “little” things are huge factors that lead to a good date.

Improve Your Body Posture

There are two common body postures that have the negative effect on the outcome of the date. The one is when you lean back away from your date, the other is when you lean in. The first one sends the message that you are not interested and, with second one, you may be invading his/her personal space. You didn’t her what they said? Ask them to repeat it again.

As you can see, the key to dating is to shine with confidence and know how to maintain the perfect balance between your formal and casual self. And remember, don’t get stuck with only reading about how to step up your dating game. Go out and practice what you’ve learned.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/5-amazingly-simple-ways-to-step-up-your-dating-game/

Reasons Why Moving to Texas Is a Good Idea

A lot of Americans and foreigners as well don’t have very high opinions about Texas. Everyone is rushing to California, New York or Florida, but little do they know that Texas beats most of these states when it comes to growth, standards of living and helpful laws. If you are not looking to become “a star” and instead want to start a family and a business of your own there is no better state than Texas.

Texas has a great standard of living and if you work honestly and put in the effort, you will definitively be able to set your life straight and live happily here. No matter if you are single or have a family Texas can be a great place for you to settle in. I know it doesn’t sound glamorous because the media doesn’t present it this way, but there are a lot of facts that show that Texas is one of the best U.S. states to live in.

So let’s get to them.

The cost of living is very low

All the people who don’t know much about Texas first say that it has low wages and that you will get paid less for the same job than in some other states. Yes, this is true, and although wages are slightly lower, the cost of living in Texas is also quite lower than in other states. In the end these things even out and it’s the same as living in any other state.

A person doesn’t have to spend a lot to have everything he or she needs. Rent, health and food are all cheaper. Utilities and gas are significantly cheaper, given the fact that it’s an oil state. This means that it’s easier to start a business as you will need to invest less money.

Low taxes

First of all, Texas has no income taxes. It also has no corporate income taxes and last year the governor of Texas approved tax cuts for homeowners and business organizations worth $4 billion. The tax revenue is regulated with the state sales tax and it can go up to 8 % depending on the city you are in.

Property Taxes are also imposed but they can vary a lot depending on how luxurious and large the property you are buying is. It also has a lot of mild regulatory policies such as “one sticker vehicle registration” designed to reduce the state costs and make the process of getting them easier.

Real estate is much cheaper

Texas is the second largest state in the U.S. second only to California and it was always rich with land, which means that you can find lot of relatively affordable real estate. A lot of properties on the market equals more competition and lower prices.

If you are looking to buy a property here you will definitively be able to find what you are looking for. There are more expensive areas of course, but if you compare them to other states they are also generally cheaper.

Great sports community

During the 2016 Olympics which took place in Brazil, United States took away more medals than any other country: 121 in total. The United States of America also got the most golden medals, 46 in total, however if you take away the golden medals which were won by athletes from Texas you would see that if it were an independent country, Texas would take the third place in total gold medals won, behind the rest of the U.S. and Great Britain. This shows that the sports community is very good and if you are an athlete or want your kids to be, Texas is the right place for it.

Low unemployment rate

When talking about unemployment, one might think that Texas had lot of problems when the crude oil prices fell back during the global economic crisis in 2007. Although there were consequences, the reality is that Texas’s economy proved to be quite resilient, as its unemployment rates were quite smaller than in some big economies, such as the European Union, Canada or the rest of the United States.

This is because the lower regulations and costs attract new businesses to come to Texas and start their work here. They create new job positions and a stable job market. Some might argue that the people are quite underpaid in Texas, but this is not entirely true.

The population in Texas is very young and the wage figures you can see include a lot of underage employees and students who have part time jobs, which are usually paid less and give no insurance.

In the end, remember that there are a lot of friendly people in Texas and they have strong communities that will help you get used to living in there. A lot of tech companies are investing in Texas because they see opportunities and if they are doing it, you shouldn’t be afraid to make the same step.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/nmanojlovic/reasons-why-moving-to-texas-is-a-good-idea/

5 Tips for a Startup You Probably Overlooked

New startups can be adventurous and challenging with a great number of factors to consider. If you plan on growing your business and one day selling, it is critical that it is run right from the start and that it operates within the law. Basic steps that are involved in starting new businesses are not all that difficult to find. That being said, some tips are often overlooked. Let’s take a peek at a few of them now.

Please note that these tips are in no particular order.

Network Defense

Your data is probably your greatest asset as a startup. You have your clients’ information, company documents, inventory lists, book keeping documents and more. The thing is, you need to keep them protected. Your business is right in the crosshairs of things like exploits, vulnerabilities, ransomware, advanced threats, and even targeted attacks.

The only way to protect yourself from this is to have total network security. You need to have omniscient visibility into all of the traffic on your network and the activity in order to stay ahead of attacks that now bypass the traditional controls to exploit the vulnerabilities in the network and ultimately either steal or ransom intellectual property, communications, and sensitive data.

Do the Research

Just because you sell it or build it, that doesn’t mean that people will want to buy it. You really need to do your research to see what the potential market is in your area. Is there anyone who needs what you have to offer? Is the market saturated with something similar or is there space for it? Is your market national? Global? Or only local? Is it a niche market? Have you defined your target demographic? All of these questions need to be answered. Too many startups have failed because the entrepreneurs behind them didn’t have all the answers before they got started.

Pay Attention

Yes, it can be exhilarating to launch your own business. Many people will keep their “day jobs” while getting their startup off the ground. There are pros and cons to this – as with everything. How do you know when to start dealing with your startup on a full-time basis? If your workload reaches a tipping point, this is probably indicative that you need to be working with your startup full time. Losing focus is also an indicator of this. The main idea here is that if you don’t focus on your startup, how can you expect anyone else to?

Exit Expectations

Have you decided if you are building this business to be a lifestyle business or if you are just trying to get some outside capital. This is because things that you might consider doing for yourself, you wouldn’t entertain if you are doing it for outside capital. Having outside investors means that you will more than likely need to grow at a faster pace. You will also need to have a clear vision to an exit for their investment after a certain period of time. You, on your own though, you might be fine with having a smaller revenue stream as long as it gives you the lifestyle you desire while not having to deal with outside investors.

Expenses

Make sure that you keep your personal and businesses expenses separate. There is a range of expenses that will meet GAAP (generally acceptable accounting principle) standards and it is entirely legitimate to be using business monies to pay for them. However, if you use your business funds for personal use, you can get in serious trouble with the IRS while also exposing yourself to liability. If you have paid for personal expenses using business money, it will be hard to separate them in the future if your company gets valued. The best way to avoid this is by keeping your personal expenses and business expenses separate from the beginning.

Also, make sure that you report all of your revenue. Don’t skim money off the top if you are doing business in cash. This can also get you in deep with the IRS while reducing the overall value of your business in the long run.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-epicninjadaboss/5-tips-for-a-startup-you-probably-overlooked/

Try These Natural Sleep Solutions To Overcome Sleep Disorders

Getting sufficient sleep is very important for the human body. It is during sleep that the body repairs and heals itself. However, in today’s fast-paced world sleep deprivation is so common and widespread that many people do not even know that they are suffering from it. Besides sleep deprivation, constant use of screens and gadgets has led to disruption of sleeping patterns for a considerable number of individuals.

In the U.S., 4% individuals use prescription sleeping aids to get a good night’s sleep. However, experts say that while you do doze off after these medically subscribed sleeping pills, these are not always safe and their use should be limited. Also, there is evidence to suggest that the sleep quality after a sleeping pill is not the same as one you would get if you could sleep naturally. Sleeping pills impair the ability to reach the deeper stages of sleep, thus making you feel lethargic and unrested even after waking up.

What many people don’t know that there are natural ways to fall asleep which are much better than sleeping pills? We shall list them down.

• Stick to a well-set schedule

Going to the bed same time every day and getting up at the same time every morning does wonders and this applies even to the weekends. A steady sleep routine keeps your biological clock steady, allowing you to rest more easily and fall asleep quicker. A hectic long day of work and a well-planned evening would yield you a good night’s sleep as you’ll be tired enough to think of something else. Plus, the exposure to a regular pattern of light and dark helps to stay in synchronization by drawing the window curtains or going outside as soon as you wake up.

• Exercise and Meditation

If your mind starts to go through a million different thoughts right after you hit the pillow then you should try meditation. Meditation will help you to train your mind to relax. Research has shown that people who practice meditation regularly are better sleepers.

For some, exercise can do the trick. A morning run or a bout of yoga, whatever works for you. Evidence shows that people who exercise get better sleep. Try to get at least 150 minutes of exercise per week. Not only will you sleep better, but you will also be more active throughout your day.

 

 

• Your bedroom should be a sleep inducing space

Start with basic and ban all screens. Be it your smartphone, kindle or the laptop. Just stop using screens before asleep. This is because by using screen you trigger cognitive stimulation which is the exact opposite of what should happen when you need to sleep. Make sure you have the right kind of pillow and mattress for the kind of body you possess. Go through the internet and find out mattress inquirers to land on the most comfortable thing matching your needs. Especially, for those who bear some kind of back or neck pain getting themselves a good and comfortable piece of bedding is immensely important.

• Aromatherapy

Lavender certainly aids in sleep proven by studies and is a non-toxic cheap way to get into peaceful slumber. Aromatherapy cannot cure insomnia or the root cause of it but can certainly help you relax and calm yourselves down before your intended bedtime. Find a spray with a tinge of real Lavender and spray it around your pillow before bedtime or buy yourself a lavender filled pillow.

• Bathing

The most wonderful way of relaxing is to take a hot bath before going to bed. It calms your nerves down and you feel like a lot of burden is off your shoulders. Make sure you don’t bath immediately before going to sleep. Instead, get yourself a shower an hour before going to bed so that you have the time to normalize the blood circulation that was boosted after the bath.

• Do not eat before sleeping

If you are facing any health issue such as diabetes than you can eat according to the schedule of your ailment but if isn’t the case than try not to eat your meals before sleep. There are certain diet components such as carbohydrates, spicy foods and foods with caffeine that make it hard for you to sleep therefore, schedule your meal at least an hour before going to sleep and may be more.

• Turn off the lights

Make sure your window treatments, your curtains mask out all the light. Generally, people face difficulty in falling asleep or staying so in the light. So, for those facing sleeping disorders this is something they need to eradicate right away. Especially, if your schedule requires you to sleep when the sun is out, it gets very difficult to sleep and creating a dark serene environment in the bedroom is a must. Eye masks are also one of the remedies of hiding out the light and one should try them in order to filter out the light.

Happy Sleeping!

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/zyanamorris/try-these-natural-sleep-solutions-to-overcome-sleep-disorders/

Can Equity Crowdfunding Support Your Startup?

Crowdfunding has become a central part of the modern economy; anyone with a project or a problem can set up a site and draw on community support to fund it. This model has been wildly successful, helping many companies get off the ground, but for startups with greater opening costs, it’s also an unrealistic structure. These companies call for a more traditional investment structure, and these private investors need to have deep pockets.

Between crowdfunding and more traditional forms of investing, there remains a gulf, however, and it’s one that keeps upper-middle class Americans from becoming investors – and that’s what equity crowdfunding is aiming to change. A new take on an old model, equity crowdfunding is lowering the entry cost for those who want to invest in startups.

Investing In Startups: The Old Model

In the past, if you wanted to have an equity stake in a startup, the financial requirements were pretty high: you’d need over a million dollars in assets or over $200,000 in annual income. While this isn’t an excessive lower limit for many investors, in a culture that so highly reveres the ingenuity of the startup, it does keep a lot of interested parties out.

Those falling below the cap were then relegated to crowdfunding, where a financial offering doesn’t create a meaningful stake in the resulting business. It’s a donation, not an investment – and this creates an unfair split between the two key groups that support new companies.

Enter Equity Crowdfunding

In an effort to level the playing field between potential investors, several factors needed to come together. First, equity crowdfunding is founded on 2012 legislation signed by Obama known as the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. And though it was signed four years ago, it’s taken time to hammer out the logistics of small-scale equity investing at the regulatory level – hence the delay.

From there, the JOBS Act needed logistical support from crowdfunding operations. Indiegogo stepped in here to support this mission, offering the platform that would allow companies to sell equity shares at a crowdfunding level. At this juncture, they seem to be the only ones; Kickstarter has been clear that they’re not interested in being part of equity crowdfunding.

Settling Stable Limits

One of the most important aspects of equity crowdfunding is that, although it lowers the income limit at which you can invest in a startup, it doesn’t eliminate it. Instead, the regulations follow the same rules of reason as other types of investing. For those making less than $100,000 a year, for example, you can’t invest more than $2,000 in startups per year, or 5 percent of your annual income. This is the same principle of fiscal conservatism that underlies penny stock investment. You don’t want to overextend your resources.

A Few Words Of Caution

Whether you’re an investor or an individual hoping to fund your business through equity crowdfunding, it’s important to approach this new process cautiously. We don’t yet know how successful equity crowdfunding will be, and whether it will be subject to many of the same failings as traditional crowdfunding.

It can be dangerous to try to launch your equity crowdfunding campaign on too small of a budget, for example, because resuscitating a company that’s already begun to slow is much harder than maintaining momentum. Don’t assume, then, that because people will invest, your budget will grow. If you can’t sustain yourself during those early phases, a little bit of money from the equity crowdfunding scene isn’t going to be enough.

It’s also important to do some research on the different platforms that will support equity crowdfunding. Right now, Indiegogo is getting most of the attention, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best option. New approved platforms are regularly being added to the list managed by the Federal Industry Regulatory Authority, so pay attention to additions as you seek the right fit for your company.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/larryalton/can-equity-crowdfunding-support-your-startup/

Brand Recognition: 4 Tips That Will Help You Improve It

Businesses around the world are giving their best to improve their brand recognition, as it is crucial for creating brand ambassadors. There are a couple of ways to approach brand recognition growth, and these are some practices you need to follow.

Go the extra mile

Staying remembered in today’s market is very hard, as there is plenty of competition in all the different niches. However, being creative, and by following the trends, it is possible to achieve great results. For example, providing outstanding customer support through a software solution such as live chat is a great way to stand out and offer your customers more than they expect.

Tell a great story

Behind every well-known brand, there’s a great story. Apple strives to offer perfection as well as Mercedes. Coca-Cola wants people to have fun and be happy. A variety of businesses out there are telling stories about who they are and what they want to achieve. They are forming a direct connection with their customers on a more personal, that is, emotional level.

This makes telling a story a must for every business that wishes to increase their brand recognition and grow. Sit down and consider what your company stands for and create a memorable slogan that will help people connect with your brand. Go online and see how others have done it; you might get a couple of new ideas.

Continually offer value

Offering value to your customers is the best way to ensure exceptional brand awareness and customer loyalty. The best way to achieve this goal is to establish a blog on your website, where you are going to share a lot of valuable content with your customers. A great example of this practice is Hubspot’s blog. It’s reach with tips and a variety of information for online marketers. This practice allows them to have a stable flow of customers.

The creation great content comes from having a team of professionals who can offer knowledge and expertise to people who are interested in your niche. This is literally the best way to build a community around your brand. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and consider the questions he or she might ask and try to answer them. Over a longer period of time, this strategy pays off significantly.

Stay consistent

Consistency is important in various business tasks and marketing is no different. Creating a great logo is only the beginning, if you already have one, perform some analysis and consider redesigning it, it carries risk but it can also brings rewards. Once you have a good logo, make sure that it is present everywhere, along with the story behind your brand.

No matter if it is a blog post, an ad, an online ad, a website, or a guerilla marketing stunt, make sure that your logo is always there. It is simply going to make it easier for your brand to grow.

By following these tips, you are going to be in a position to easily grow your brand’s recognition and grow your business. The main point is to stand out and be different from the others. With outstanding products and services, an army of followers will, well, follow. They will remain loyal customers for a long time.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/brand-recognition-4-tips-that-will-help-you-improve-it/

Don Mazonas of Don Markets Limited pledges to donate $25,000 if …

Don Mazonas, CEO of Don Markets Limited, pledges to donate $25,000 to various charities of his choice if he manages to win SEO competition held by Wix.

The competition rules are simple but challenge is very hard. The rules state that if anyone manages to outrank Wix website for keyword “SEO Hero” within 4 months, the highest ranking website owner will receive a cheque of $50,000 from Wix.

It all sounds great but the challenge is yet to be overcome. Don’s website which was created just for this purpose only – winningseoherocontest.com will act as a living case study of how it can be achieved.

However, the difficulty lies in two factors – Wix website is very old and very powerful when it comes to SEO. One of the rules of competition is that the website participating in this competition must be registered on or after 16th of November, 2016. This puts all the participants in very huge disadvantage. It is always easier to rank a page on powerful domain name than a domain name which was just registered. Another rule is that the domain name must be fresh. Expired domain names will be disqualified from the competition.

SEO Hero competition is going to be tough if you consider the massive advantage that Wix has over the competitors. Not only that, in order to qualify for the big cash prize, website owners cannot participate in anything that violates the rules of Google. That means no participating in link schemes. That also means no SPAM or any automatically generated link strategies allowed. This is completely understandable. Using black hat techniques, it is easy to overtake even giant like Wix within a month or less. However, this competition requires complete white hat strategies that do not violate Google’s rules.

So, having such unfair disadvantage, why would anyone try to compete in this competition? First of all, $50,000 is not a small sum of cash. Anyone who participates will have a chance to prove that they are best at what they do best – SEO. Since most of link building strategies are not allowed here, it is a true challenge to outrank such a massively huge and powerful domain name like WIX. However, the challenge’s prize is huge and worth a try.

Winner of the competition will also be able to add such a big achievement to the portfolio or resume. Winning this competition would also act as a proof that the winner is actually true SEO professional! This would get attention of so many big companies and corporations, it would not be hard to pitch their services to such companies.

However, while $50,000 is big money, Don Mazonas, CEO of Don Markets Limited, pledges to donate half of the prize ($25,000) if he manages to win and receives the cheque. The charities will be announcement soon. The plan is to donate either $1,000 to 25 charities or $5,000 to 5 charities.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/donmaz/don-mazonas-of-don-markets-limited-pledges-to-donate-25000-if/

3 General Tips for Staying Healthy While in College

Being in college carries a lot of responsibilities, however, many students are also under the impression that it is also the best time for having fun. While it is true that you are going to meet some amazing people in college, fitting all the obligations, responsibilities and active social life is impossible; simply because a day has only 24 hours.

Cramming everything in a tight schedule causes a lot of stress, which can devastate your general health. However, by acquiring a couple of habits, you will be in a position that will allow you to easily prevent becoming ill.

Let’s take a look at a couple of great habits to help you stay healthy while in college.

Focus on nutrition and sleep

The strongest foundation for your body and your mind is created by having good eating and sleeping habits. Your immune system is fueled by both of these things, which is why it is extremely important to pick the right food types and to sleep long enough. These types of foods can help significantly:

• Fruit – Eating fruit regularly is a great way to feed your body with variety of vitamins. It is important, however, to regularly change types of fruit you are eating, as different fruit types are rich with different types of micronutrients. Your immune system benefits greatly from a good balance of micronutrients, so make sure that you make fruit a part of your daily diet.
• Vegetables – Veggies are healthy not only because they are rich with vitamins, but because they contain lots of insoluble fiber as well, which is very important for keeping your digestion system healthy, while also working on keeping your metabolism rate fast.
• Lean protein sources – Proteins will feed your muscles, just make sure that you pick different protein sources such as dairy, meat and nuts that have significantly more protein than fat.
• Healthy carbs – Regular sugar used in all kinds of sweets is a form of carbohydrate, but not the good kind. Going with foods such as oatmeal and rice is the best way to fuel your body for the day, as they contain complex carbohydrates that are slowly broken down over a few hours.

Sticking with a good diet is not only good for your immune system, but for maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system as well. Having a healthy meal plan is something many people struggle with, because they think it takes a lot of effort, but the truth is that you only need a week or two to get used to the new plan. Afterwards, it becomes a habit.

Create a reasonable schedule

The main problem with going to college and trying to achieve all your goals is the amount of obligations that you encounter every single day. However, to achieve all of the task, all you have to do is introduce a little bit of organization in your day.

This is hard to achieve for many people, because they believe that it is impossible to function like this and still feel relaxed and have fun. Well, nature has given us consciousness so that we can make certain decisions, and choosing to go with a schedule is very logical when you want to meet all the deadlines at the end of a semester.

Luckily, setting up a schedule takes a little bit of effort nowadays, as there are various mobile applications that can make this happen. Simply take your phone, download one of the apps, and start scheduling your days. After only several days of staying on schedule, you will see how easy it is to complete all of your daily tasks without constantly being in a hurry and feeling stressed out.

Choose your friends carefully

What you can achieve also depends on the type of people you hang out with every day. It is quite simple, if you are surrounded by negative and generally lazy people who just want to party all the time, you should seriously reconsider who you are friends with.

None of these things are good for your general health; it creates a loop in which you lose sight of what your goals are, which dramatically increases stress levels over a longer period of time. Having fun is great, but it should be a celebration for an achievement and a way to blow off some steam, not your main priority. Instead of staying in the loop, pick a group of like-minded friends who have similar habits. They will make sticking with your healthy habits much easier.

These are some of the general habits you should incorporate and practice during your college days if you want to limit stress, keep you healthy and make your life a lot easier. They are going to allow you to stay focused and steer clear of the things that can make you feel sick or anxious and derail your plans.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/3-general-tips-for-staying-healthy-while-in-college/

3 Common Myths About the HVAC Systems in Your Home

It’s amazing what some homeowners will do to reduce their utility bills. From laying on extra blankets and refusing to turn on the heat to following myths that have no proof behind them, some people will go to extremes to save a few dollars. However, some of these strategies are more effective than others. Here are three common myths that won’t actually save you money, and might actually damage your system or cost you money in the long run.

Closing Your Vents Reduces Energy Costs

The idea behind closing vents in the house is that homeowners want to make the heating more concentrated. By skipping certain rooms, the heat will fill up one area and turn off faster. After all, if no one is staying in your guest bedroom, why should you heat it?

However, this myth is simply not true. First, your thermostats across the house will pick up different readings and keep pushing heat as long as they’re not hitting their goals. Next, the heat from the room you are heating will continue to seep through the rest of the house, driving up costs. The act of closing the doors and vents won’t stop the airflow entirely. While you might not pay more by closing your vents, you’re certainly not going to pay less.

Fans Cool the Air When You’re Gone

Image via Flickr by by Frank Boston

There’s a belief that fans work to cool the air, when in fact they just circulate it. They move the air around your home and push it against your skin, which feels cooler. This is why standing in a room with a fan might not be cool, but standing next to or underneath it does.

What does this mean for your energy bills? Many homeowners turn off the air conditioning but leave fans on when they leave the house to keep it cool. If they simply turn off the fans along with their HVAC units, they can reduce house of energy spent circulating air for no one to appreciate.

Setting the Thermostat Higher Will Warm the House Faster

This myth also applies to setting the thermostat cooler than you want it to be in the summer. However, your HVAC system doesn’t have multiple temperatures; it simply pushes the cool air out at the same pace until it hits the desired goal. You won’t cool or heat your home faster by setting the thermostat lower — you will simply increase your energy bills by forcing your system to work longer.

This can actually tax your HVAC system and cause it to break, so if you have been following this myth, you might need to call a maintenance tech to check for wear.

There are plenty of ways to reduce your electric bills without taxing your system or trying methods that don’t work. Walking around in socks and placing area rugs on your hardwood floors are two proven methods for naturally heating up your body and home. The next time you hear an energy-saving myth, think about where it came from before you believe it.

 

 

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/sambradford/3-common-myths-about-the-hvac-systems-in-your-home/

3 Tricks to Keep Your Home Warm During Winter Without Cranking the Heat

It’s a constant struggle for homeowners to stay warm during the winter. They want to be comfortable around their homes, but they don’t want to pay the exorbitant costs of running the heater 24/7. Fortunately, there are a few steps everyone can take — whether they own or rent — to reduce their heating bills while staying warm this winter. Follow these three tips start winter on the right foot.

Choose Winter-Weather Curtains

Image via Flickr by Jorbasa

Your curtains need to serve two purposes during the winter. During the day, they need to be opened to let the sun in and naturally heat your home (as any cat lying in a sunbeam knows), and during the night, they need to keep heat in so that it doesn’t escape out of the windows. This means they need to be light enough to move but heavy enough to provide insulation.

Check your local home store for curtains if you think you need to replace them for the season. This is also a great opportunity to clean your curtains to remove dirt and dust that have collected on them during the past few months.

Put Down Area Rugs and Wear Socks

Feet are the trick to keep the body warm. Like our hands, they’re at the end of our limbs and have specialized blood vessels to offload heat and keep the body cool. This is why your whole body feels cold when your hands and feet are cold. By protecting your feet in the winter (with socks, blankets, and area rugs) you’re able to warm the rest of your body. This perception of warmth can reduce your need to turn on the heater, thus saving energy and money.

Of course, there are other benefits to placing thick area rugs around the house other than foot warmth. These pieces serve as insulation trapping the heat and keeping it inside. Plus, who wants to step out of bed in the morning onto freezing wood floors, anyway?

Call an HVAC Tech Before It Gets Cold

Most people wait until their HVAC system breaks to call a technician, which means they could spend thousands on repairs because of unit neglect. Calling your local HVAC maintenance team before it gets cold can prevent damage and ensure that your system is functioning properly.

HVAC systems can easily get clogged if they’re ignored for several months. You could be paying more to push more air through the filters if they’re not replaced, or end up running the heater if hot air is escaping through cracks in your air ducts. This means your heating bills will continue to rise, despite your best efforts to seal the house. By scheduling regular maintenance, you’re able to reduce your heating costs while still running your system.

Once you start taking advantage of these ways to stay warm, you will soon come up with more. For example, leaving the oven open after you cook will warm up the kitchen, while you get to enjoy a hot, home-cooked meal. Before you know it, the snow will be melting, and you will be reaching for fan once again.

 

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/sambradford/3-tricks-to-keep-your-home-warm-during-winter-without-cranking-the-heat/

3 Ways a Leaky Pipe Can Cost You Thousands

A leaky faucet doesn’t seem like much. After all, what more damage could a few drips of water do than cause a puddle and some damp areas? But a leaky faucet is just the beginning: What starts as a few drips of water can actually cause you thousands of dollars in home repairs and even lead to medical bills and long-term health conditions. If you have a leaky faucet, make sure you get it fixed today to prevent these three problems.

Damp and Wet Spaces Cause Mold Growth

Image via Flickr by matsuyuki

If the spaces under your kitchen sink and bathroom are regularly wet and irregularly cleaned, you can quickly develop a mold problem. Most homeowners spend between $1,000 and $3,000 to free their homes of mold, which can spread quickly and get out of hand. In some of the worst cases, people have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars clearing their living areas of mold.

Mold causes breathing problems in people who are prone to asthma and allergies, but it can also be toxic for anyone to breathe in. Black mold in particular can affect healthy people who have strong immune systems, leading to headaches and chronic fatigue. With each drip of your leaky faucet, you’re making the problem worse.

Pests Are Attracted to Water and Damp Environments

There are more than 55 species of cockroaches in the United States, many of which can survive for weeks without food. When they do eat, they can live on anything from dead skin cells to hair — both of which most people have in their bathrooms. Furthermore, cockroaches need water only every few days to survive and are drawn to shallow pools such as the ones forming under your leaky faucet.

Although cockroaches and other pests might seem like minor annoyances, they can also affect your health. They spread disease and trigger allergies. Furthermore, they’re not as easy to get rid of as you think. You could spend up to $500 to remove them in extreme cases.

Water Damages and Warps Hardwood Floors

Water is the biggest threat to wood flooring. The wood becomes warped and discolored, making it hard to walk on and possibly even a danger in the home. Furthermore, all it takes is a few warped planks to push on other pieces of flooring and cause them to become deformed as well. Although you might be used to squeaky floors, you could pay the price when you try to sell your home.

Even water isn’t coming into contact with hardwood floors, wood could still suffer damage from a leaky faucet. Water could wear away cabinets and cause damage that exposes the interior of your house — letting other pests in. The cost of water damage can range from $1,000 to $3,000 and even extend to $6,000 for major fixes.

Between warped wood, pests, and mold, you could spend almost $10,000 on home repairs because of a leaky faucet. Meanwhile, the cost of a wrench or replacement pipe at your local supply store won’t exceed $20. It’s worth the time and expense to invest in this quick fix.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/sambradford/leaky-pipes/

4 Technologies That Can Improve Team’s Workflow

Companies are always looking for ways to improve the workflow within a company and make its team of people much more effective and efficient. Luckily, employing various technologies can help companies easily achieve this goal.

These are some of the currently available solutions that can significantly improve team productivity and help establish an impeccable workflow.

Cloud technology

Cloud technology is certainly one of the best ways to improve a team’s productivity and workflow. There are plenty of popular cloud solutions out there, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box. What makes them exceptional are their features, the two most important being:

• Data accessibility – This one takes the top of the list, as accessing all the data on the cloud is only a few taps or clicks away, wherever you are. Furthermore, accessing data is possible from a variety of devices such as computers, smartphones, and tablets. This enables employees to work from any location while any changes made are immediately saved.
• Collaboration features – Having two or more people working on a document or several different documents simultaneously was practically impossible in the past. Nowadays, employees are in a position to work on tasks and get them done faster.
• Secure data backups – Keeping data secure was a problem for many companies, as it required equipment as well as a team of IT professionals. But now, this feature is practically included when you are using a cloud service. Not only is the data accessible only by you and your team, but all of it is additionally backed up in case of emergency.

This technology has revolutionized how teams of people work together on projects. It is a solution that should be implemented for all businesses and it is simply the best option for improving workflow.

Knowledge base

Knowledge base software tools are specifically created for growing businesses which contain a lot of data. There are paid and free variants, and many businesses go for Moodle, as it offers a lot of customization. A knowledge base is perfect for collecting and storing all the important information about the company, its regulations, project notes, and any other types of information which is vital for the business.

The platform is specifically useful for sharing a variety of data with new employees, as they can easily go over all the important information on their own. This puts less pressure on all other employees, as new ones can acquire the necessary knowledge on their own.

Team monitoring software

Managing and monitoring the behavior of smaller groups of people, for example those counting 4 or 5 members, is fairly easy. However, when these numbers reach two or more digits, having everything under control is quite a challenge.

Luckily, there is a software tool for this as well. For example, time card software is a perfect way of monitoring the work hours of all the employees in the company. Tracking this sort of statistic is very hard when teams count a lot of members, especially if there are those who work remotely. But, with an easy-to-use software solution like this, tracking team members’ activities is very easy to achieve, which gives managers the opportunity to invest their time on other pressing matters.

Task management software

Teams of people face a variety of different tasks every single day and each task has a deadline that should be met. When there are only a couple of task and a few people, organizing is easy. But, when things add up and more people join the team, it is up to the team manager to find the best way to organize how tasks are going to be performed.

For example, a great platform for task management is Basecamp, which provides an abundance of features for team management. It is a completely easy and straightforward way of adding tasks, adding details about them, and setting the deadline as well as assigning it to all team members. Software solutions like this help teams of people achieve their goals without any bumps.

These were the 4 different technologies that greatly help improve the workflow within a company. Make sure to implement all of these technologies, as they can significantly upgrade the whole process and make it much easier.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/ivandseo/4-technologies-that-can-improve-teams-workflow/

Reverse Engineering: What Can You Gain From Your Competitors

 

Reverse engineering is the process of dissecting or dismantling an object for analysis to understand how it works, with the intent of duplicating the original object, or improving it for the better. This practice has been implemented in a wide variety of industries, old and new. It has been applied countless times over to computer software, where machine code is reverted to source code, and programmers use it to fix bugs, identify viruses, or simply optimize a program’s performance at a very technical level.
Reverse engineering has its place in online marketing as well, since there are many areas where these same principles can be implemented to help marketers improve sales. Marketing to an online audience can be very competitive and intimidating for those new to the game, but there are fundamental areas they can focus on to help improve their success.

As stated above, reverse engineering involves dissection for the purpose of analysis, and one of the first things to find out about your competitors is their target audience. When you arrive at their website, try to identify who their target demographic is. This can be done through fully understanding their products and services, and knowing what needs they address. For example, if your competitor is a tutorial website on how to create a website, consider all aspects of the target audience, including age, education, income, occupation, and other relevant details. Your goal should be to attract an audience that is similar to that of your competitors, and be able to communicate with and appeal to them.

Once you’ve identified your competitor’s audience, content is another factor that needs to be addressed. The content is the sole reason for their audience in the first place, and it is important for you as an online entrepreneur to understand everything about the content. For example, let’s say your competitor focuses on entertainment news and current events. Pay close attention to the website’s articles, titles, graphics, and links, and ask why they are present in the first place. Also take into consideration your competitor’s priorities by analyzing the content strategy the website owner had in mind. This can be derived by keeping track of the order that the articles appear chronologically, the phrasing or tone of the articles, keyword strategies, and any links that appear in the bodies of the articles. If there are any patterns or recurring themes to the content, you will be able to understand the content at a level that allows you to plan your own content and expect a similar degree of success.

The most crucial strategy in sizing up the competition is identifying those needs within your competitor’s market that are not being addressed. Take another look at their website and see whether there is anything missing, and take note of areas where you can outshine them. Aside from looking on-site, take your research to other venues. Perhaps there are online forums or other websites that contain criticism or negative reviews about your competitors. Surely these are things you as an online entrepreneur do not wish to emulate. These areas of inadequacy are opportunities for you to learn from their mistakes and save time by avoiding trial and error. By filling in the gaps of their model, you can improve upon their strategy for the benefit of your own business.

Reverse Engineering Your Competitor’s SEO
The appearance of your competitor’s website, including layout, organization, link structure, and page depth all contribute to the user experience. A good strategy to understand your competitor’s website structure is to conduct a crawl of their site via the “Tree” view on an SEO tool such as ScreamingFrog. This will enable you to visualize how the information architecture is designed. Other key factors of your competitor’s website is the page depth and take note of the proportion of pages that are at each level within the website.

Internal link structure is also important to analyze, because the link structure used by your competitor may have room for improvement. Again, there are several SEO tools that can perform this function. Get to know their strategy and find out how to make it work for you.

Aside from the user experience, content and site structure, link building represents another important facet of your competitor’s strategy that you can reverse engineer for your own website. Content that performs particularly well may enjoy exposure on social media and natural links. However, link-building strategies from external websites may contribute to your competitor’s SEO success. Look for spikes in the velocity of new links versus links that have been lost. This activity may suggest volatility in your competitor’s SEO activity, especially if your competitor’s website has suddenly ranked well for novel keywords.

Moreover, your competitor’s organic keyword rankings can also be analyzed using SEMrush. This tool lets you know what specific keywords your competitor actually ranks for. Of course, this level of analysis is far more detailed than overall performance, and carries much power for your web development strategy.

To analyze your competitor’s organic performance, you can conduct studies on organic search visibility using a tool such as SearchMetrics. Search visibility is measured by the keywords for which a website ranks, keyword volume, and click-through rate, and you can take this strategy further. Contrasting the organic search visibility between desktop and mobile devices can expose whether your competitor’s website is mobile-friendly, and you can make the necessary adjustments to your own site.

We’ve mentioned several tools for your reverse-engineering strategy, such as ScreamingFrog, SEMrush, and SearchMetrics. Aside from these tools, there are plenty of services at your disposal:

• Google Trends
• MOZ
• Alexa
• Majestic SEO
• Ahrefs Site Explorer
• Quantcast

These services provide vital information for you to understand your competition and run a successful website. Let us know if these reverse-engineering strategies helped you build your website by leaving a comment below.

Also if you don’t have a website you could always create one for your business. All you need is a good domain name, reliable hosting provider and an excellent website builder like Joomla or WordPress. There are lots of helpful sites with comprehensive guides and tutorial on how to create your own website that you could use to build a website.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-easyvince/reverse-engineering-what-can-you-gain-from-your-competitors/

Weatherization Tasks to Help You Save Money on Your Energy Costs

Have you ever considered how much money you waste each year on your utility bill? You should. Leaking air is one of the costliest utility expenses. Reducing the number of drafts in your home could save you as much as 20 percent. Here are four weatherization tasks to help you save money on energy costs.

Reverse Your Fans

Image via Flickr by Vox Efx

We all once learned that heat rises while cold air sinks. You’re using these fundamental laws of thermodynamics in your home every day, even if you’re not thinking about it. The ceiling fans in your home spin counter-clockwise by default. Their purpose is to circulate cold air in the room, and they do so by pushing cold air down.

Have you ever noticed the switch on your ceiling fan? Its purpose is to reverse the fan blades to spin clockwise. You should flip this switch during the winter. That way, your fan will take the hot air near the ceiling and redistribute it to the rest of the room. One simple flick of the switch will keep you much more comfortable during the winter and summer.

Identifying Air Leaks

Since air leaks are so expensive, preventing them is the first goal. The most likely culprits for air leaks are places directly connected to the outside. Run your fingers by the baseboards of your home, and check to see if you feel air on your hands. If so, you have a leak. Repeat this process with windows, doors, and vents.

A nice trick for finding air leaks involves a candle. Light one and carry it around your home. Wherever you suspect an air leak, hold the candle to the site. If its flame flickers or burns out, you have an air leak.

Check Your Filters

Many apartment complexes and maintenance-free living facilities across the country do quarterly filter checks. They do so because they understand how much damage occurs to an HVAC unit that uses an old air filter. Changing to a fresh one in a timely manner slows the depreciation of one of the most expensive pieces of hardware in your home.

For this reason, you should treat your HVAC unit the same way that you treat your car. Acting negligently will cause your utility bills to spike. Plus, you’ll have to replace your hardware earlier in its life cycle. To protect your HVAC unit and thereby extend its lifespan, hire a reliable professional to service your unit twice a year. By performing maintenance once early in the summer and again early in the winter, you’ll save yourself a lot of money overall.

Clean Your Water Heater

Did you know that sediment deposits build in your water heater over time? When this occurs, the heating element in your unit is more likely to fail. You’ll have to hire a technician to replace it, which will cost $500 on average. To avoid that, you need to clean your water heater. Flushing your water heater is an easy process that even a novice homeowner can do. Simply follow the steps listed here to remove the sediment from your unit.

Preventing your home from wasting energy saves you a lot of money over time. Follow the four tips above to maximize the efficiency of your home, thereby reducing your utility bills.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/sambradford/weatherization-tasks-to-help-you-save-money-on-your-energy-costs/

5 Essential SEO Practices for Your E-commerce Website

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an integral part of any e-commerce venture. Your online store may be well-stocked, with plenty of wares to choose from, and you may have a great support team ready to answer any questions that your customers may have, but without SEO, how can your site be seen?

For the uninitiated, SEO is the practice by which you tweak every aspect of your site to allow search engines to quickly see and access your website. With great SEO application, you’ll be more likely to show up in search results. SEO applies primarily to king-of-the-hill Google, but many of the same adjustments also work for search services such as Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo.

What are the first steps to helping your site be seen by more people? Let’s take a look.

1. Have a compelling URL

The World Wide Web has been a core part of our lives for the past twenty-odd years, and granted, securing an exceptional URL is getting more and more difficult. Not all of us can be Shopping.com. However, there are plenty of them left. You just have to be creative.

Make up a quirky, memorable word that represents you and your brand, and let that identity permeate throughout your store. Integrate this branding throughout your site, so that people know who you are.

Having great domain hosting is also highly recommended. Your shop is presumably here for the long haul, so make sure that you get a provider that is reliable and will support you throughout the years.

2. Reduce duplicate content

Barraging Google with an avalanche of content once worked for black hat SEO, but that era is long gone. These days, having a proliferation of marginally different content is actually penalized by search engines.

For an online store, duplicate content is a reality that can’t be avoided. Let’s say that you sell shirts—of course you’re going to have that baby tee in pink, and orange, and yellow, right? A great way to address this issue is to place canonical tags on the “flagship” version of that shirt. The red one, perhaps?

A barrage of similar items when using your in-store search will also be frowned upon, and will be seen as stuffing. Paginate your search results so that both search engines and your end user—nobody likes being assaulted by data and options all at once—will be happy.

3. Use search-friendly categories

When adding categories to your store, make sure that they are easily readable by humans and search engines alike. Take that as no strange numbers or symbols cluttering up the site. So, in your sweater store, if people want to look for a certain type of sweater, make sure that the URL is simple and to the point. That means sweetsweaters.com/vnecks, or sweetsweaters.com/hoodies. Google (and your customers) will thank and reward you.

Employ effective internal linking as well. Make sure that all of the v-necks are under the v-neck category, and all of the hoodies are under the hoodie category. This streamlines the entire operations of the site and will let Google index it more optimally.

4. Ensure that your site loads fast

Even though you’re rocking that 50mbps connection, many people around the world are not. Google, in its widespread inclusivity, factors your site loading speed into account when deciding to award you higher search rankings. There’s a lot of websites that provides free content about how to create your own website and also provide advanced tutorials on how to optimize your own website.

Streamline your site elements accordingly. Minimize the instances of images on your site—let them be clickable if your users wish, but do not impose. Animated flash images are a big no-no, as they load really slow and cannot be accessed by mobile devices. Again, let them be optional. Run extensive tests to see how fast your site loads on a variety of different connections.

A faster site loading speed will enrich your customers’ user experience, letting them browse more and hopefully, be so pleased that they will buy your wares or avail your services.

5. Provide a mobile service

Since the original iPhone and iPad were launched, the increasing ubiquity of smartphones and tablets meant that the amount of people using the Internet on their mobile devices has similarly increased. A whopping 31 percent of mobile users primarily use those devices to go online, forsaking the desktop entirely. Plus, 58 percent of mobile users also expect that browsing the Internet on their phones is as fast or even faster than using their PCs.

To facilitate this belief, you must make sure that you have a mobile version of your store as well. Thankfully, modern website design practically guarantees this. However, you may need to add security, so that your customers can shop using their phones with peace of mind.

Getting yourself out there is one of the hardest parts of any online endeavor. It’s easy to get lost in the waves of content that appear on the Web on a daily basis. These are just some of the first steps to making yourself known, so make sure that you apply them well.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/twitter-easyvince/5-essential-seo-practices-for-your-e-commerce-website/

Good Governance Starts with Transparency in the Boardroom

Unless your organization has the right tools for the job, transparency can be a harder goal to achieve than you might think. If directors have complained in the past about a lack of transparency or fairness, begin by identifying where your practices have been falling short. Access to information is one of the most frequent sources of frustration among board members, but how does inequitable distribution of information happen in the first place? It really depends on how you disseminate materials to directors or archive old reports and whether or not they can be retrieved without turning to the administrator. For example, here’s a typical scenario: while preparing for the year’s CEO evaluation, Director A requests last year’s evaluation to see if the CEO has achieved his or her performance goals. The administrator emails or couriers the document, but when Director A brings it up at the meeting, Director B wants to know why all members weren’t sent this relevant information. Meanwhile, the administrator thought twice about sending copies to the other members to avoid overloading them with extra information.

This is a great case for arguing the merits of board portal software over both paper-based meetings and using email or free file sharing services. They make it easier for administrators to implement transparent practices and provide equitable access to information for all members without overburdening them with documents they’re not interested in reading. They also tend to be considerably more secure than paper or email by requiring password authentication to access every document. Papers are frequently misplaced, as are mobile devices, while email accounts are too easily compromised to store sensitive materials.

In order to see how a board portal can specifically address access to information pain points, take a look at how a platform like Aprio Boardroom works. The administrator first divides the board into groups and subgroups depending on the organization’s structure. They then create an event (such as a general meeting) for the appropriate group, and subsequently attach documents to the event. All group members are then given email notifications that new material is available, with a link that will take them back into the portal (with password authentication required) to view the document. Historical documents, like past resolutions or meeting minutes can also be easily accessed in the library. A deeper look into the features and processes of a board portal is available at Aprio.net.

When you’re looking for board portal software, be sure to ask how much control your administrator has over creating groups and events and uploading materials. For example, whereas with Aprio the administrator has complete control over the back end, other systems require the administrator to send all information to the software company, which inevitably leads to miscommunications and mistakes. There should be in place a way to create sub-admins, an important feature when it comes In Camera meetings. Since the admin should not be privy to In Camera materials, they can make the Chairperson a sub-admin for this particular sub-group, safeguarding the company’s privacy and integrity. These are all important features to ask about during a vendor demo to make sure that your company gets the product that can meet its security needs.

from Feedster http://www.feedster.com/blog/michaelsanduso/good-governance-starts-with-transparency-in-the-boardroom/