Are you new to photography and are looking for ways to make your photos more beautiful? Perhaps you find your pictures aren’t coming out as you would like and want some tips that can help you? Or maybe you are just looking for general photography advice? Whatever your reason might be, we have the answer for you!
Today we are here with some easy steps to creating a beautiful photo that you are sure to love! Whether it’s experimenting with lightroom presets, adjusting the settings on your camera, or changing the way you set up a shot, we have some steps here you are sure to love! So without further ado, let’s dive in and look at these easy steps!
1. Make a Genuine Connection
Connection is a vital part of photography and can help enhance your images and create beautiful photographs. You don’t need to communicate with the subject, but taking some time to appreciate and learn about what you are photographing can help strengthen your bond with the person or location and create a more meaningful photo.
It can inspire you to explore new angles or different lighting that you might not have thought of before. Photographs that the photographer has connected with tend to have more feeling in them, creating a beautiful image.
2. Pay Attention to Your Background
A beautiful image doesn’t have to have complicated concepts or hard-to-pin locations. You can create a unique and beautiful image using a simple background. Simple backgrounds allow viewers to focus their attention on the subject and appreciate your work more.
Photographs that are quite busy with intricate backgrounds or complex concepts can be unappealing and often put viewers off. In most cases, less is more.
For example, an experienced event photographer should have the technical expertise to incorporate these techniques into their work to create stunning images that truly capture the essence of your event
3. Lighting is Key
Most photographers will know this, but we couldn’t not include it! Whether you are shooting in a studio or using natural lighting, you will want to adjust it to suit your photograph. You might want to take advantage of the golden hour for softer lighting or invest in softboxes and light diffusers, depending on your setup.
If you are shooting outside, it’s best to avoid midday light unless you want to focus on your subject’s textures. You can also take your photos in the shade during this time. Lighting can be tricky to get right, so take photographs at various times of the day to find the lighting that best suits your style of photography.
4. Vibrance Over Saturation
Your camera filters and editing tools are a massive help to enhance parts of the photograph you want; play about with the brightness and vibrance of the colors. We often see photographers, especially landscape photographers, oversaturating everything. Sure, it makes the image colorful, but it can make your photos look grainy and even ruin some colors!
Instead of destroying your image, use the vibrance tool instead of saturation to enhance duller areas of your photograph for a beautiful and vibrant result.
5. Separate the Subject from the Background
Background details or details in the subject can often blend together, making your image look crowded. You can avoid this easily, though, by using a large aperture to separate the subject from the background.
The aperture you use will depend on your style and the story you want your image to tell. Remember that the smaller the f-number, the blurrier the background will be. Thankfully there are lots of tutorials and reviews online to help you select the right aperture for you.
6. Focus on Leading Lines
Leading lines help lead your subject and allow viewers to understand what your image is trying to say. They also help prevent your subject from getting lost in the image. Leading lines is a phrase often used in the principles of photography, and it’s no wonder why! Incorporating them into your image will certainly help everyone see the beauty in your photograph.
7. Do Not Forget the Power of Editing Tools
Software like Photoshop, Lightroom, and even the editing tools on your phone are all wonderful ways to enhance your image and create a beautiful photo. They also offer features to remove objects from a photo, making your images cleaner and more focused.
These tools are used once the image has been taken and can help add brightness, contrast, smooth out sections, or add shadows and highlights if you choose. These software do come at a price, although students can usually access free versions.
It’s worth keeping an eye out for any offers or business rates for those freelance photographers. There are also free apps that you can use and a wealth of tutorials online to help you navigate these apps with ease. You can also use a background remover tool if necessary to remove background distractions.
Summary
And there we have it, plenty of helpful tips to create a beautiful photo! Be sure to incorporate some of these into your photography, and don’t forget to make the most of editing tools to enhance your image further.
Easy Steps To Creating a Beautiful Photo was last modified: February 26th, 2024 by Charlie Short
A cryptocurrency wallet is a place where you may save your cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, or any other token. Private keys are used to safeguard these currencies, and you may store these keys in a variety of methods, all of which are referred to as wallets. As a blockchain investor, you don’t need to ‘mine’ the token you own; you may just buy and sell them on either an interchange or directly to others, and then convey the ‘keys’ to the exchange rates to get access to them. The following is what you need to comprehend about how all this works. Also check bitcoin401(k) to know more about 401(k) plans.
How are the distinctions between cryptographic keys?
While we’re on the subject of bitcoin wallets, it’s vital to grasp the difference between public and private keys. In essence, a crypto wallet that lacks these features is equivalent to having no wallet at all. Cryptocurrency, as the name implies, is built on encryption technologies, which employ a pair of keys: a public one for identifying a block of tokens and a private one for accessing them. That’s already a big simplification, but if you’re only interested in learning how to trade crypto, it can be simplified much further, be it a bitcoin wallet or dogecoin wallet.
Your public key in a crypto wallet functions similarly to your username in a payment app, allowing you to receive tokens. The passwords that let you check your balance, make transactions, and use other services are known as private keys. Keep in mind that both are equally essential.
What is a bitcoin wallet, exactly?
A virtual currency wallet, often known as a crypto wallet, is software or an app that you use on your mobile device to store digital assets like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum. Not only that, but you also digitally sign your bitcoin transactions using the same wallet. A crypto wallet also protects your digital money by requiring a password to access it. Furthermore, if you want to carry your wallet in your hand, you may use a physical device to operate your wallet apps.
Differences between hot and cold wallets?
Hot wallets are accessible over the Internet, allowing you to purchase and sell bitcoin more readily. However, because such a system is more accessible to attackers, there is considerable concern regarding its security. Active traders, on the other hand, will generally keep some funds in a hot wallet for trades.
Instead of keeping your data on the computer, you may download it to a USB device or a hard drive and save your tokens there until you’re ready to sell. In principle, this sounds like a wonderful idea, but if the wallet is destroyed and you can’t access the keys, the coins would be lost forever, so you’ll have to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of both options. Over the years, there have been several reports of hard disks malfunctioning, USB devices being misplaced, and coins being lost forever.
Then there are paper wallets, which are a more extreme kind of cold wallet in which the private key is written down on paper, making it difficult to hack. This is also vulnerable to being destroyed by the environment, being misplaced, or even having minor errors in duplicating the codes, all of which would render it worthless, so before you spend your money, consider the dangers.
Keep your items at the exchange.
Many people wonder if they may store money on cryptocurrency exchanges in addition to hot and cold (hardware) wallets. Yes, however, it isn’t regarded as the safest place to keep your valuable collection of digital tokens. According to research, exchanges lose an average of $2.7 million every day, and this amount is only expected to rise in the future.
While you won’t have the same problems on a respected exchange, it’s a good idea to distribute your assets around in a variety of methods, depending on your security needs and the quantities you anticipate you’ll be trading on a frequent basis.
What is the procedure for creating a digital wallet?
You may discover a variety of digital wallets on the internet. Many exchanges offer their own wallets that are independent of the exchange and may be utilized, however, Exodus and Mycelium are two of the most popular.
Setting up and utilizing these applications is as easy as using any other internet service. You establish an account, log in with your information, and then move your bitcoin from other wallets to these wallets by following the extremely easy on-screen instructions.
Cryptocurrency Wallet: How Does It Work and How To Set It Up was last modified: November 15th, 2021 by Livia Neisat
The art of scamming is a time honored fraudulent practice. Scamming results in good ROI (Return on Investment) for perpetrators, and spells trouble for victims. Fraudulent practices like scams and schemes occur both in the offline and online world. Both practices operate in the same fashion but on different platforms.
Finding business contacts Phished and Farmed
There are more than four billion netizens online today. These billions of internet users are interacting with a vast amount of different services, applications, and web pages. This means that the possibilities and opportunities for cybercriminals are endless. On another note, it makes hiding much easier for them too. Cyber incidents involving the exploitation of vulnerable internet users, their data, finances and sensitive personal information occur dozens of times every minute, all over the world. To put it into perspective, financial losses incurred from cyber incidents are on par with natural disasters.
This is why it is important to understand what a cyber scam (internet scam) is, the types of cyber scams out there, and finally how to protect against them. What can you do after you have already been scammed, is the most important question to ask. Thankfully, today there is a substantial cybersecurity knowledge base from which tips and recommendations can be drawn to help internet users protect themselves from such risks.
A Brief Look at The Worst Cyber Scams
Throughout the years, the world has fallen to several types of cyber scams. All scams are not equal, because some are no longer utilized, while others that have existed for decades still reap dividends for cybercriminals to this day. Cyber scams have cost the U.S. billions of dollars per year, as it stands today, with the average victim losing almost $500 on average in each scam. Some of the most serious cyber scams that are still active today are; Nigerian 419 scams, Indian IT call-center scams, and counterfeit services and goods scams. Adding to this list is everything imaginable from lottery scams, romance scams, illegitimate check scams to social security scams. Practically any service or product can be a part of a cyber scam. This is why it is important to be armed with safe internet usage best practices as well as good cybersecurity knowledge. Especially, if one becomes a victim of a cyber scam.
Types of Cyber Scams
Cyber scams come in numerous forms and various types of attack schemes and methods. All cyber scams have a ‘social engineering’ component intrinsic to them because scamming someone involves sharp manipulative social skills to trick a victim into divulging valuable information. Technically, most of the notorious cyber scams come in the following forms;
Phishing, spear-phishing, vishing, smishing, and pharming
Baiting
Whaling
RAT attacks
By far the most popular, and most successful, method of scamming belongs to the phishing social engineering category. This is simply because email-based scams are by far the easiest to orchestrate, with the least resources expended. For example, phishing campaigns orchestrated by cybercriminal groups can reach millions of people via email with a minimal financial outlay by the criminals. Cybercriminals can even automate this email process, sit back and wait for internet user credentials to be ‘harvested’. Email-based scams affect absolutely everyone, from regular citizens to the largest corporations. Statistically speaking, almost 25% of all phishing attacks worldwide were focused on financial institutions. In second place was social media, resulting in 24% of all phishing attacks. A close third is the Saas/Webmail sector. As far as the ‘victim count’ is concerned, phishing is the leader by far again, followed by non-payment/non-delivery scams and extortion in third place. Personal data breaches, identity theft, and spoofing are much lower on the list, but undoubtedly still cause damage and plague the economy.
What to do in an Event of a Scam And How to Stay Safe From Cyber Scams
First of all, it is important to look at what to do if one is already involved in a cyber scam. Following this, recommendations and tips will be given on how to prevent cyber scams in general. There are several steps to take if one has already been involved in a cyber scam. This can fall into the following categories;
If a scammer has successfully accessed a device
If a scammer has access to personal information
If a scammer was paid
It is primarily important to note that a scam can be identified most easily via any unauthorized changes or charges across user accounts.
Firstly, in the unfortunate event that a scammer has successfully received payment from a victim, it is crucial to remember that the individual immediately contacts the financial institution, reports a fraudulent charge, and requests for a transaction reversal. Secondly, if it is confirmed that a scammer has access to personal information it is recommended by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to visit IdentityTheft.gov. Furthermore, if a scammer has access to username and password credentials, one should immediately change their password across all devices and ensure that they are unique, long, complex, and stored in a safe place offline. And thirdly, if it is confirmed that the scammer has accessed a personal device (laptop, smartphone, or other) then it is recommended that one runs an antimalware and antivirus scan on the device. Otherwise, individuals should contact their service provider for support as well as change the account credentials immediately. Scams can also be reported directly to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC.)
Internet Safety Best Practices
In general, there are a few steps to take to avoid cyber scams in the future which are the following;
Using a premium Virtual Private Network or VPN when connecting to the internet will obfuscate the connection and make it difficult for cybercriminals, data collection agencies, and marketing companies to track individuals online
Making sure that no suspicious emails are opened, especially to avoid clicking on suspicious attachments from unknown senders
Installing and running a premium antimalware software, as well as a premium antivirus at all times
Avoiding oversharing and divulging personal information over social media
Being suspicious of any email urging payment, help, or any bizarre claims
Checking that the website being visited has an HTTPS lock sign in the address bar
Cross-checking the URL address by doing an online search, to determine whether the website is real or a scam
Applying spam filters to user email
Keeping software on all user devices automatically updated
Using multi-factor authentication across all accounts wherever possible
Backing up as much data as possible
Applying a WHOIS lookup online to check who the owner of the website domain is
Sticking to the above recommendations, as well as common sense, should help users avoid common cyber scams and stay safe online in the future.
Steps to Take if You Have Been Scammed was last modified: May 30th, 2023 by Matt Outreach
Evidently, there’s no success formula to establish your own business and boost its expansion. Maintaining your business and managing its growth does not happen overnight, unfortunately, it can be quite challenging and demanding. In fact, it requires a lot of hard work, knowledge, patience, and perseverance. Having a clear perspective and working towards achieving it is the key to a successful business. Here are 6 important things to do to boost your business growth.
1. Build A Strong Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is the potential journey of customers to complete a purchase. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a customer not complete the purchase, especially after spending hours looking around, chatting with the sales team, and questioning about different products.
Well, you can never stop this from happening, but you can lessen lost opportunities by creating an automated sales funnel and getting the right help to manage the process.
You will find that creating a strong sales funnel will increase your business growth and decrease the lost opportunities.
2. Apply a Customer Managing System
It is quite impossible to keep track of demands and customers’ purchase orders unless you have a customer managing system. Now, there are plenty of options available in the market, do thorough research and select the one which is best for the type of your business and utilize it. Having the right CMS will help scale your business and manage to track your transactions.
3. Know Your Customer
If you don’t know the needs of your customers, you will not be able to develop your business according to their needs and demands. Knowing your customer well will give you a wider perspective on how to develop your products and services. Being up to the rapid market changes and the wide variety of similar products offered everywhere heightens the challenge of keeping customers’ satisfaction. You have to work on personalizing your products and enhancing your services to meet the requirements of today’s market.
4. Social Media Platforms
Everyone in business today has to know that their customer is out there using at least one or two social media platforms. Social media is one of the most essential marketing strategies; knowing how to manage it is one of the most crucial key factors for growth and success. Online traffic and leads from Google will help you get more customers. Specialists at Infinite Ace recommend that you apply to search engine marketing in order to grow your business. It is a bit difficult to keep up with social marketing trends as well as the rapid market changes, therefore, getting professional help will get you there faster than you think.
5. Customer Experience
Having to deal with customers is the most challenging part of any business. Keeping up with customers’ perspectives and satisfaction is one goal that you must achieve if you want to expand your business and have loyal customers. Delivering quality products and providing distinguished services will help you keep a successful and growing business.
6. Hire Dedicated Employees
Hiring the right people for the job will ensure running your business successfully. Dedicated employees and delegating tasks will enable you to focus on new and different ways by which you can improve your business. This will also free your mind to implement innovative methods to satisfy your customers and provide them with the best services.
Understanding that growing a business is an ongoing process will give you the power to continue trying and striving to achieve your goal. If you see no other alternative than to make it work, you’ll be able to get there, even if it takes more of your time and effort. In this fast-changing market, you must research and implement different software and techniques to take some burden off your shoulders, so you can focus on delivering the best products/services to your customers.
6 Important Things To Do To Boost Your Business Growth was last modified: August 9th, 2024 by Allen Brown
For a small business owner, the overhead costs of maintaining in-house servers are hair-raising. Not only do you have to pay for the servers themselves, but any servers need employees to support them, driving up your labor budget.
That’s why serverless architecture is an absolute boon for small business owners. The servers still exist in “serverless” architecture, but you’ll never have to deal with them. In the serverless model, you essentially pay to rent space on someone else’s server, and they take care of the backend maintenance for you.
Like any other architecture, serverless has its advantages as well as disadvantages. If you’re on the fence about outsourcing your hardware, here’s the small business owner’s guide to the pros and cons of serverless architecture.
Pros of serverless architecture
Without a doubt, serverless represents a significant edge for your IT needs. Besides numerous benefits for application development, serverless can also positively impact your workflow by cutting downtime spent on the backend.
If you’re already chomping at the bit to sever your servers, Akka Serverless from Lightbend is an excellent way to capitalize on the benefits of serverless architectures.
Here are some notable advantages of serverless architecture:
Reduced costs
One of serverless architecture’s most significant claims to fame is its low cost.
Business owners only pay for the data they actually use, eliminating the costs associated with bulky, unscalable in-house servers. You can scale up as your data needs increase or cut expenses as they decrease. Either way, you’re never stuck holding the bandwidth bag for space you don’t even need.
Enhanced scalability
The serverless architecture model allows automatic scaling of any business application.
For example, if app usage increases or the user base expands suddenly, the app will scale automatically. Users’ location doesn’t matter as serverless providers are almost everywhere to ensure no delays in the app performance.
Fewer worries
First, a business owner doesn’t have to pay for any maintenance costs. That’s because the business isn’t managing any backend infrastructure. The cloud provider takes charge of all maintenance problems.
Secondly, security is not a concern. The service provider takes care of potential hacks, patches, and updates.
Allows for more focus on user experience
Your users aren’t interested in the backend infrastructure. Users care about your app’s features, so why shouldn’t you do the same?
Now that you don’t need to worry about server maintenance, you can channel your time and effort towards enhancing customer-facing elements. Look for ways to make the user experience in your app even better and more engaging.
Cons of serverless architecture
Sadly, despite the many benefits serverless architecture brings, it has some disadvantages. Some of the downfalls of going serverless include:
Vendor lock-in
Unfortunately, handing over your server management also means handing over your data. This arrangement can make negotiating with your serverless provider challenging.
Why? The resources at your disposal are limited. In case of system downtime, undesirable upgrades, and so on, there’s very little you can do to influence what your third-party providers are doing.
Additionally, serverless infrastructure vendors make it difficult for businesses wanting to switch to another vendor.
Another risk of this vendor-operated environment is that the vendor may change the terms of service and pricing or even stop offering the services altogether. If your business can’t absorb that hit, it could be detrimental.
Read any contracts thoroughly to ensure that your vendor won’t be taking your data hostage if you ever decide to switch.
Time limitations
Serverless is not suitable for long-term tasks that require constant runtime. It may end up costing way more than what you would typically pay for reserved computing timing.
Serverless is ideal for short-term processes such as email. But tasks such as large video file uploading may require you to call additional functions.
Complex
Learning how serverless works is a daunting task. Compared to other architectures, it has small integration units. Hence, one needs more time to organize the functions to align with your data.
Versioning and deployment only add to the confusion.
Any business owner considering switching to serverless must be ready to face the rabbit hole undertaking of splitting their monolithic application into several microservices.
Wrap up
Serverless architecture might just be the extra piece your business missed. However, the efficacy of serverless strategy will depend on each business’s individual needs. If you’re on the fence, consult a few serverless providers and get different quotes.
A Small Business Owner’s Guide to the Pros and Cons of Serverless Architectures was last modified: September 7th, 2021 by Amanda Greenberg
Each year, millions of Americans are involved in rear-end collisions. Although not all of them are serious, fortunately, they can still be a complicated matter from a legal and insurance perspective.
Knowing what to do before you find yourself in this situation could improve your outcome significantly.
What to Do After a Rear-End Collision
According to the latest research, 29 percent of all traffic incidents that result in serious injury involve rear-end collisions. That is, roughly one out of every three serious crashes is a rear-end event.
Furthermore, they are responsible for seven percent of all traffic-related fatalities. In most cases, rear-end crashes are caused by one of four possible scenarios:
As one vehicle slows down on the interstate for upcoming traffic, the driver behind it misjudges the sudden change of speed and slams into its bumper.
A driver fails to notice that the vehicle in front has a turn signal on and crashes into the back of the vehicle as it slows for the turn.
A driver who is changing lanes or speeding through a changing traffic signal does not anticipate the vehicle in front will stop.
A driver assumes the vehicle in front will begin moving as soon as the light turns green and accelerates into the back of that car.
In almost every case, it is the driver coming from behind who is at fault. There are certain situations where the driver in front can share some blame, though; for example, if his brake lights or turn signals are not operating properly.
But regardless of what happens, here are some steps you should take after a rear-end collision.
1. Check for Injuries
The health and well-being of all drivers and passengers in the vehicles involved is the very first concern. Nothing else matters until it is verified that every person is okay.
Start with yourself. Just because you do not feel any immediate pain or discomfort, that does not necessarily mean You are fine. The adrenaline and emotions coursing through your system may be suppressing pain.
Check for signs of lacerations or broken bones. Continue to listen to your body during the hours after the accident.
Once you’ve verified that You are okay, turn to the others in your vehicle. If they are okay, you may turn your attention to the people in the other vehicle(s). Checking on everyone in this order ensures You are able to help as many people as possible.
If someone is hurt, call 911 so paramedics may come to the scene as quickly as possible.
2. Call the Police
If everyone seems all right, your first call would be to the police. Even in a minor fender bender, getting law enforcement officials on the scene ensures that the accident will be documented. This is vital to establish the integrity of any claims you will wish to make.
When officers arrive on the scene, provide an official statement. Give the facts (and only the facts).
This is not the time to start speculating or offering assumptions. Make your statement and then move on. You will have a chance to provide additional information in step four.
3. Document the Scene
Once the police have been called to the scene, you should start documenting as many details as possible. Pull out your phone and take pictures and videos from as many different angles as you can.
You might also open your audio recording app and record a verbal account of what occurred. If any witnesses are on the scene, gather their names and contact information.
4. Call an Attorney
This is the step where it is okay to spill your guts and explain everything that happened.
The fourth step is to call an attorney, no matter how minor the situation appears. Even if it seems insignificant to you, a good car accident lawyer will listen to the facts and give you a professional opinion.
5. Take a Defensive Driving Course
This fifth tip is optional but worthwhile. After a rear-end collision, it can be mentally challenging to get back behind the wheel. Flashbacks, fear, and anxiety are quite common.
By taking a defensive driving course you: (a) push through the fear, and (b) equip yourself with the skills you need to stay out of harm’s way in the future.
Look Out for Number One
When all is said and done, nobody is going to look out for you the way you can. You have to stand up for yourself.
That means speaking up, hiring a lawyer, and proactively addressing any challenges that arise in the aftermath of your accident. It won’t necessarily be easy, but your discipline and focus will pay off.
What To Do if You Are in a Rear-End Collision was last modified: May 10th, 2022 by Alex Sanders
You might not know this, but marketing automation is one of the most important parts of running a successful business. Marketing automation refers to the use of software and internet-based tools to automate repetitive tasks that would otherwise take up too much time and energy. It can be used for lead generation by automatically sending out emails and nurturing prospects who do not convert independently.
There are many different aspects of marketing automation that we will cover here, so keep reading!
What Is Marketing Automation?
In simpler terms, marketing automation refers to the process of using software to automate repetitive tasks. This is a handy tool in marketing because it helps save time and energy while still providing a professional image for your company.
Real-time CDP is one of the capabilities that modern marketing automation platforms offer, which enables companies to have a unified view of customer data and automate personalization across channels in real-time.
Marketing automation can be used for lead generation by automatically sending out emails and nurturing prospects who do not convert independently. You can also use it to automate follow-ups with customers who have already made a purchase. Marketing automation is one of the best ways for individuals and companies to save time, money, and energy while still providing professional results!
How Does Marketing Automation Work?
Marketing automation uses triggered emails to reach out and engage with your audience. The software will automatically send messages at specific times or after the user has taken a certain action. Through a customer data platform (CDP), companies can identify their customers’ habits, which you can use to determine what they will respond best to. With this, marketers can effectively reach out to their audience and engage with them at all stages of the customer journey.
This strategy is beneficial for companies because it saves a lot of time and money, which you spent on manual labor. Automation also increases your scalability since you will be able to do more activities without having an increased cost. Use omnichannel CDP marketing solutions to boost business efficiency and sales.
The Benefits Of Marketing Automation
The benefits of marketing automation are immense. One, marketers will save a lot of time and money because they don’t have to rely on manual labor anymore. Since the software uses automated ways to reach out to your audience, you can scale up operations without cost increases. This strategy also allows companies to focus more on their buyers and provide them with personalized experiences.
Marketing automation also improves lead generation, whereby you can capture more leads in the process. This means that you can grow a larger customer base, which is beneficial to your company’s growth. You can also generate better quality leads and increase your close rates.
Marketing automation helps marketers understand their audience and improve conversions by improving the customer experience. This is beneficial because it allows companies to build stronger relationships with their customers, which will help them grow their brand awareness and market share. Finally, marketing automation increases reporting accuracy, whereby you can obtain the right data from your customer database.
These are just some of the benefits marketing automation can bring to any company. As you can see, it’s a huge value add and enables companies to improve their business operations considerably.
How to Start with Marketing Automation?
There are a lot of ways you can start using marketing automation. You can either use existing software or hire a professional who will guide and help you with your operations. The latter is recommended since it’s more cost-efficient in the long run, plus professionals have extensive knowledge about different strategies that work best for companies. They would also be able to create the best marketing automation program for your company.
There are also different types of software that you can choose from, depending on what type of results you want to achieve or how much budget you have allocated for this strategy. You can either go with classic tools that have all the features included in one package at a lower cost, or you can go for a SaaS (software as a service) offering with more advanced features but at an increased price.
The most important thing is to make sure that you can implement the software in your business operations and achieve results along the way. This will require time, effort, and dedication on your part, so it’s best to go with a strategy that you can manage.
Tips For Using Marketing Automation Successfully In Your Business
Marketing automation is not an easy strategy to implement. There are many things that you need to consider, especially if you will use this in your company’s customer operations. You have to make sure that everyone on board understands how the software works and what they should do next.
Certain tips can help you achieve better results, including:
Planning your automation strategy from start to end.
Deciding on what you want to achieve and investing in the necessary software.
Getting your team on board and making sure they follow through with what you need them to do next.
Measuring results along the way and adjusting if needed.
Marketing automation is still in its early stages, so there’s no need to worry about being left behind when it comes to this method of engaging and reaching out to your audience. With the help of professionals, marketers can improve their business operations significantly by investing in marketing automation software solutions.
What You Need to Know About Marketing Automation was last modified: August 16th, 2023 by Charlene Brown
It’s no wonder that business leaders are starting to fully embrace the promise of big data, given the gaming industry’s continuing growth. The gaming industry is following other industries’ footsteps in attempting to increase the amount of data collected during online activities. Big data also enables the video game industry to personalize its service to customers, whether it’s determining which types of marketing to utilize or determining which types of golf sports players to include in their game design.
While the term “big data” is relatively new, the act of gathering and storing massive volumes of data for later analysis has been practiced for centuries. As a result, modern applications can be both mind-boggling and enthralling. Google, for example, maintains track of our searches and actions in other apps like Gmail, maps, translate, drive, documents, and, of course, YouTube, and uses the information to create user profiles, which they then sell to their clients.
Let’s now turn our attention to the video gaming industry and see some examples of how data is shaping the gaming world. Below we can see the journey that data is helping the industry from the very beginning right through to the end.
Idea Process
Publishers can use data analytics to make informed decisions on long-term business models. For example, publishers will determine which games are popular, why they are popular, and how to use data to improve their own games using data analytics. Popular freemium games like Fortnite and PUBG are a perfect illustration. Publishers can utilize data analytics to figure out what draws gamers in, why they spend money, how much time they spend playing, and so on. Then, the publisher can use this information to inform their own long-term business goals and models.
Publishers will plan their businesses over a long period. As a result, publishers will shift their focus from short-term profit tactics to long-term business models. A good example is Microsoft’s acquisition of Minecraft in 2014, which was a controversial decision. On the other hand, Minecraft has thrived under Microsoft, with over 122 million copies sold and a monthly user population of 55 million. In addition, the software behemoth revealed intentions to make Minecraft a 100-year brand.
Design
Graphics, narrative, and innovation are no longer sufficient. Game creators must adjust the game to how players behave to keep them involved. Developers must understand how players interact with game systems, how they interact with levels, how much time they spend playing when they stop playing, and why they stop playing. The data is beneficial in multiplayer games, as players frequently exploit bottlenecks in levels or exploit system weaknesses to kill player involvement.
If developers have access to data, they can make changes to remedy errors, improve gameplay, and maintain player engagement. Millions of players’ actions are recorded by data analytics software platforms, which generate helpful information about how players interact in the game. Data analytics software is essential because it allows developers to collect real-time data on player actions. As a result, developers don’t have to rely on user comments or wait until a problem becomes a significant issue before taking action. Instead, developers can track player movement in real-time, discover flaws, and remedy them nearly instantly.
Marketing
Any sector, including the video game industry, relies heavily on marketing. As a result, if publishers want to see significant sales, game marketers and advertising must have a substantial effect. When gamers are exposed to irrelevant advertisements, they are less likely to make future purchases, resulting in a waste of resources. As a result, gamers must receive ads that are relevant to them. As a result, publishers must divide their audiences based on their geography, preferences, and other factors. But how do publishers segment a multi-million-person audience? It’s simple: data analytics.
SAS and other powerful analytics solutions may segment an audience based on any variable. As a result, publishers may segment their audiences and create advertising that appeals to each group. For example, developers can examine who is spending the most money on microtransactions or who is playing the game for a long time and what motivates their activities. This data can then be utilized to create programs that encourage other participants to spend more money. In addition, publishers can develop loyalty schemes to reward specific gamers in the same way.
While data-driven companies are succeeding, any company that ignores data will fall behind its competition. Gaming firms have begun to establish a data-driven culture to make big data analytics perform optimally. To have the most impact, data collection, integration of internal and external data sources, visualization, and cleansing should come before analysis. While the industry’s big names have already used data to their advantage. Even smaller players have plenty of room to target regions where there is still room. There are numerous gaming types to choose from, ranging from racing to open-world games.
How the Video Game Industry Wins With Data was last modified: September 12th, 2021 by Tomas Sire
Thanks to today’s technological advancements, everyone who wants to learn a skill or acquire new knowledge and expertise in any field they wish can do so in the comfort of their own homes. Gone are the days that you must file sabbaticals or longer leaves to pursue your studies. Many people have been learning many different skills and knowledge that they use in their careers or gain more sources of income using the skills they learned online.
Many people have seen the potential of these edtech startups in transforming the face of education around the world. Thus, many are using them for their educational benefit. Here are the six best edtech startups in the USA, as acknowledged by many people.
Course Hero
It is an online learning hub that is very useful for many college students because they will come out more prepared than ever, thanks to the wide range of online courses and test preparation programs available. What makes them so unique is that they offer a lot of study materials for different subjects and courses, from the small campuses in your state all the way to the top universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard.
Masterclass
It is an online platform allowing users to learn from the best experts online. They offer online classes in different categories that users will love. Through Masterclass, they can learn television writing from Shonda Rhimes, cooking from Gordon Ramsay, the basics of photography from Annie Leibovitz, and so much more. With their years of experience, learning the basics from the experts has never been so insightful.
Teachers Pay Teachers
Dubbed as the “Etsy of education,” this is an online marketplace where teachers and other educators buy and sell the resources needed in their classes. Ranging from worksheets, educational resources, and many others, more teachers, have used this for their classroom needs. Nowadays, it is said that more than 70% of the teachers in the US, Canada, and Australia have benefitted from the platform.
Pay to Write Essays
This is another platform where students can buy essays that they need for their academic requirements. With paytowriteessays, they have a team of highly qualified academic writers who can help you out with your research paper or essay that you can use to submit as your requirement in any of the subjects. Most of their writers are college professors and instructors, so you can be sure that the essays you buy from them will be professionally done.
Duolingo
If you study another language, you are probably familiar with Duolingo and its iconic parrot. This is a platform where everyone can learn a foreign language for free, complete with many updated resources and activities that will help you practice your acquired language skills in the comfort of your own home. What’s more, you can also download the app on Play Store or Apple Store to learn consistently anytime, anywhere.
Coursera
This list will not be complete without Coursera. Like Course Hero, it offers online classes from a wide range of universities, from smaller ones all the way to the big boys, such as Stanford and Duke, all in an open online format. Aside from the wide range of universities, the platform also offers various fields to study, from sciences to arts and other subjects and courses. Coursera also employs different learning methods, such as video lectures, discussion forums for students, and auto-graded homework.
Our Takeaway
Thanks to technology, more people now have access to education with different platforms catering to their needs. These edtech startups have successfully met the balance between the innovations of today and the thirst for the education of yesterday and beyond.
6 Best Edtech Startups in the USA was last modified: September 2nd, 2021 by James White
Auto insurance is a necessity for any teenager who wants to get behind the wheel. But, not all teenagers know what they are getting into when it comes to auto insurance. Many teens believe that driving without car insurance is safer than carrying it because paying premiums can be expensive. There’s less risk involved in accidents with other cars if one has no coverage at all. The truth is, you never want to drive without car insurance because this leaves you vulnerable in many ways! This blog will discuss why you should buy the best auto insurance for teens and its benefits.
Why Should Teenagers Have Auto Insurance?
Auto insurance for teenagers helps to protect them from many risks involved in driving. Teenagers are more likely than adults to speed, drive while fatigued or impaired, and not wearing a seatbelt. Besides this, one of the significant reasons you must have auto insurance for teens is the teenage cell phone use statistics. Fifty-two percent of teenagers talk on a cell phone, and 32% of adolescents text while driving, resulting in more chances of crashing than adults.
Advantages Of Auto Insurance For Teens
1. Comprehensive Coverage
Auto insurance is essential for teens when they start driving and choosing the best car insurance policy can be tricky. They are more prone to accidents due to inexperience and lack of skill and an increased likelihood of being involved in a collision because their risk-taking tendencies may lead them into situations that cause accidents.
For these reasons, teenagers must have coverage on the car they use, as well. Comprehensive coverage is the most important type of auto insurance for a teen driver because it protects against accidents they may experience due to things out of their control – like weather and vandalism. Comprehensive policies cover everything from snowfalls and hail damage up to being stolen or vandalized by someone else.
2. Liability Insurance
Liability insurance is a form of coverage that protects you and your family members from injury or damages caused by other people’s actions. For example, suppose somebody rear-ends your car in an intersection because they were not paying attention to their surroundings. In that case, liability coverage will help pay for any repairs made to your vehicle. Liability also covers medical costs related to the incident and any other damages incurred as a result.
3. Collision Coverage
If you’re a young driver, collision coverage can be used to repair or replace your car. This is important because as a new driver in the United States, statistics show that you are much more likely to file an insurance claim for damage due to collisions than any other type of incident. Collision coverage also protects against “comprehensive” hazards like fire and vandalism–something else that your parents’ policy may not cover.
4. Personal Injury Protection
PIP coverage pays medical bills for your passenger if you are at fault in an accident. This can be worth up to $15,000 per person and up to a total of $30,000. You’ll also have coverage for any passengers that were not initially named on the policy, like family members or friends who come with you when you’re driving their car.
This is one-way auto insurance that covers more than just damage done by accidents; it also helps pay for injuries sustained by people other than the driver (like passengers). PIP coverage will typically reimburse costs such as doctor visits, emergency room treatment, therapy sessions, and even funeral expenses.”
5. Underinsured Motorist Coverage
Underinsured Motorist Coverage protects against what is called “gap insurance.” Gap Insurance (or coverage) protects you from the difference between your medical expenses and how much the other person’s auto insurer pays. For example, if you have a $500 deductible on your auto policy but are injured in an accident where it takes $5000 of rehabilitation to get back to 100% mobility, that additional 5000 would be out-of-pocket for you without gap insurance. Luckily with Underinsured Motorist Coverage, those gaps will be covered up to the limit specified in your policy as well!
Summing Up on Teen Auto Insurance
Everyone knows the pros and cons of auto insurance for teenagers. The low rates, high deductibles, limited coverage can make it a tough decision to purchase this type of insurance for one’s child under 18 years old. But with so many advantages that come with teen car insurance policies – such as special discounts and regulations just for them – there are usually more benefits than drawbacks when deciding whether or not to invest in protection against major accidents.
There is no question; teens need good enough protection from their negligence should they cause an accident while driving without any help from others on the road. Here are five common reasons why purchasing an inexpensive car insurance policy for your teenager might be worth considering.
Top 5 Advantages of Auto Insurance for Teenagers was last modified: July 18th, 2022 by Robert Gold
When it comes to cyberstalking, the first thing you need to do is understand what it is. Cyberstalking consists of someone that harasses or threatens another person through email or instant messaging for an extended period. It can also be a situation where someone has been following you around on social media and commenting on everything you post. If this sounds like something that might happen to you, there are some things that you should know about how to protect yourself against it!
The central government has also introduced some strict cyberstalking laws to protect the country’s citizens. Cyberstalking is a serious threat, and you should never take it lightly. Moreover, you must be careful and always look upon taking safety measures for yourself. This article will go over some of the steps you can take to protect yourself against cyberstalking.
What Is Cyberstalking?
Cyberstalking can be defined as using the technology in the wrong manner to harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress to another person to make them feel intimidated and fearful for their safety. Often this is done anonymously because even though they are not physically next to you, they can get close enough to be a threat. Cyberstalking is not just limited to stalking someone through the internet.
It can also include making repeated phone calls or sending unwanted messages on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Stalkers may watch your every move by tracking you online using GPS services. So, if there have been any threats occurring or computer viruses at home and online security, you must report the police without any delay.
How Is Social Media Stalking Different From Cyberstalking?
Cyberstalking is a form of harassment that occurs through the Internet and other electronic means. It may involve one or more perpetrators who continue to harass, threaten, track, and verbally abuse someone else online. Social stalking is when an individual makes indirect contact with another person using social media sites like Facebook to get information about them without their knowledge.
Cyberstalking can be extremely dangerous and damaging to the victim’s mental health. At the same time, social media stalking is usually seen as a harmless way of gaining information about someone on an online profile or through their friend’s list. Victims of cyberstalkers may feel unsafe in both their personal and professional lives.
Anti-Cyberstalking Tips
Perform regular security updates on your software and hardware systems (e.g., operating system, browsers), and these will also help you avoid malware attacks.
Be careful when opening attachments in emails or clicking links from suspicious sources – they may contain malware that allows cyberstalkers to take control of your devices remotely without your knowledge.
Make complex passwords and do not share them with anyone. Furthermore, make sure to change your passwords much of the time.
Utilize the protection settings in the entirety of your online records to restrict your Internet imparting to those external you confided in a circle.
Be cautious about permitting actual admittance to your PC and other web-empowered gadgets like cell phones. Cyberstalkers can utilize programming and equipment gadgets to screen their casualties.
Educate yourself about cyberstalking and the security settings in your gadgets, and then take the necessary precautions to protect yourself.
Secure your home and workplace against cyberattacks by using anti-theft software such as antivirus, firewalls, and spyware removal tools that contain malware detection capabilities.
Talk with someone you trust about what is happening if you are experiencing stalking or online harassment.
Be aware of your online presence and that of your children, and make sure they understand the dangers.
Report cyberstalking to law enforcement. If you have been a victim of cyberstalking, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline. They can provide victims with support and guidance on the following steps to take.
Delete any offensive messages and block the sender if you do not want to interact with them. Closeout of chat windows that are no longer being used to avoid having someone watch from a distance via webcam or video feed.
Wrapping Up On Cyberstalking Laws
With the rise in cyberstalking cases, it’s more important than ever to know how to protect yourself against this crime. The first thing you can do is delete any information about your physical location and personal life on social media. It would be best if you also refrained from posting too much about what you’re doing at all times of the day.
Combined with strong privacy settings, these measures will help ensure that stalkers don’t have as much access to your online presence and whereabouts. If you suspect someone has been stalking or harassing you over the internet, contact a lawyer immediately for legal advice on the next steps, like contacting law enforcement agencies or through civil lawsuits if necessary.
How To Protect Yourself Against Cyberstalking was last modified: September 2nd, 2021 by Robert Gold
Custom software is a special type of software specially designed for a business or organization to ensure the smooth running of that organization’s workflow and product delivery. They are never just random software but built to fit the company’s specifications, needs, and of course, their audience.
You can agree that you personally enjoy apps or software when it has been personalized for a particular product or service whether it’s information technology or any other industry. But for that to happen, custom software needs to be developed.
There is no doubt that customized solutions are very efficient and flexible for your organization’s needs as they will definitely add positivity to your business in the long run. It is expensive to design custom software, but you should view it as an investment that would definitely pay off rather than an expenditure. If you’re contemplating whether to build one or not then this article is for you as we put together some of the benefits of having custom software.
1. Enjoy Targeted Solutions
Targeted solutions may likely be one of the most important reasons why your business should invest in custom software development because it helps to develop a product that tackles your exact needs. Most of the time, businesses tend to choose just about any software they presume would be right for them only to realize that it does not address their challenges.
As a business owner, understand that any business including yours may not always find it easy to get software that meets all your needs at once. Deciding to create and work with products specially tailored for you not only allows the business to grow, but it does also mean you are very much concerned about the success of your business.
For instance, oilfield companies face unique challenges and requirements in their operations. By investing in efficient planning software for oilfield companies specifically designed for their needs, these businesses can streamline their processes and increase efficiency in project management, resource allocation, and scheduling. Not only does this improve overall productivity, but it also minimizes costs and maximizes profits.
Custom software makes the running of all of your daily activities smooth. You could decide to make it complex or easy-to-use, but the latter is highly recommended.
2. Scaling Is Organized And Better
No business starts without the prospect of scaling its operations as time goes by whether it has to do with the introduction of new services, products, or mode of operations. Using off-the-shelf software that is not designed to handle the growth of a business would ultimately lead to a loss in terms of customers, productivity, and functionality. Equally dangerous is the attempt of businesses to adjust their off-the-shelf software so it can support their expansion as the disadvantage of that is that bugs appear from potential mistakes and disrupt the business.
A custom software development is able to accommodate your business growth without being disturbed by bugs. With that in mind, a business can keep using or updating their custom software solutions for years with no need for off-the-shelf software. As you start your business, you wouldn’t want what limits your growth to be a software you could easily have designed. Don’t hesitate to build one if you can afford it.
3. Long Term Investment
Building custom software from scratch can be expensive, but don’t let that deter you because it’s a smart investment for your business as you expand. Why spend your time and money on securing additional hardware, licenses, or other pointless features you may never even get to use. The long-term benefits of custom software far outweigh the headaches of dealing with off-the-shelf software.
4. Long-Term Maintenance
Compared to the regular off-the-shelf software, you own the custom software, and as such can do anything you want to with it. That’s not the same with off-the-shelf software as your business is at the mercy of the developer of the app and in a vulnerable position.
Before making any improvements to the software, you would need to contact the developer when the need arises. There is not so much you can do apart from hoping the developers can make the changes you want. Having your custom software wouldn’t give you so much trouble when you want modifications done. There would be little to no cost at all and your business would grow as opposed to using general software.
5. Increase In Productivity
Any business that solely runs on off-the-shelf software which would most likely not offer all the required features needed for its operations is going to experience disruptions. This wouldn’t be the same for businesses that use custom software specially designed to meet the needs of their business to ensure that the workers are able to function at optimum capacity and with confidence.
When employees become more productive, they have a smooth workflow and are able to do so much in a short time which subsequently moves the company forward.
Custom software ensures there is smooth running of your business and those great innovative ideas can be turned into reality. Customers are happy, employees are productive, and the business is growing; it’s basically a win-win situation for everybody.
The Benefits of Having Custom Software for Your Business was last modified: October 7th, 2023 by Allen Brown
When it comes to safety measures, you may not be able to stop the determined thief from visiting you, whether it is online or in person. However, you can make it so very difficult for them that they go and find somewhere else and leave your business well alone.
Cybersecurity
With cybercrime ever-present, it is more important than ever to keep your cybersecurity up to date. It is important to use the best security software for your business. The use of SOAR Security (Security Orchestration, Automation and response) is often used if you have remote workers working on personal equipment and saving data to multiple cloud storage facilities. There are alternatives available, though, so you may find it beneficial to speak to an expert to make sure that you have the correct product for your business, as protection given can vary greatly depending on what your business is.
Most reputable cybersecurity businesses will offer more services as well as support on their products, enabling you to get the best out of your software and helping your business in being safe and secure for all the data you hold.
Training Your Employees for Personal Security
One of the best ways in which you can enhance your security is to teach your employees about the importance of all security as well as their own personal online security.
It is a good idea that each of your employees has to have a password to access your database and that the password is unique and private for each employee. Your employees must understand the importance of changing their password regularly and not divulging it to anybody else.
Having a good strong password is imperative as cybercriminals are smart, cunning, sly, and resourceful. Using names, whether it is last names or pet names, important places, and other topics mentioned on social media is a big ‘no-no’ as cyberthieves watch social media sites to gain ideas for passwords as well as personal information.
Password Security
The best passwords need to be at least 12 characters long, preferably longer. It should contain special characters such as the asterisk or question mark. Have a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters and contain some numbers too. It is a good idea not to use words that can be found in the dictionary as these are easy to guess but try misspelling or dotting numbers and special characters throughout your password.
Ensure that your employees understand why they are having to use keypads or swipe cards to enter your building and tell them the importance of not letting someone tailgate behind you to gain access to the building.
It is a good idea to have a person nominated as a go-to person should anyone see an unfamiliar face wandering around if they are not confident enough to challenge the person for work identification.
Physical Security
It is important that you make sure that your work premises are secure and safe for your employees, as well as the information you have on-site for your customers.
There are many things you can do in order to make your premises secure, such as erecting fences in order to keep trespassers out. Fences used in this way are usually over 6 feet high with razor edging to make them unscalable. Vehicle barriers are a good idea for car park entrances which can be activated by swipe cards or keycodes so that you do not have to have your parking lot patrolled. Warning signs are also a good idea to deter unwanted visitors, as well as security lights for exterior areas.
Control Access
When it comes to actually be able to gain access to your premises, it is a good idea to install key coded entry or personalized swipe cards which can be handed out to each employee with a lanyard, perhaps with their photo printed on to it. Make sure that you have a few for visitors clearly marked. This will help any intruder to be spotted as they will not be wearing a lanyard or have any visible form of identification on them.
When you have visitors on-site, make sure that they fill in a visitor book with their name, company, and who they are on-site to see. Do not let them wander around your business premises unchaperoned at any time, and make sure that they wear either a lanyard with visitor written on it or a badge of some description. It is important that you do not give them a way of entering your building by themselves and keep all key codes secret to outsiders.
Implementing the Best Safety Measures for Your Business was last modified: August 31st, 2021 by Carol Trehearn
The invention of the radio as a broadcasting medium in the latter years of the 1800s is one of those moments that can truly be said to have changed the world. Radio communication is ubiquitous today and forms the core of all of our communication networks. There were three distinct wavelength groups in the early days of commercial radio: longwave, mediumwave and short wave.
This article talks about shortwave radio, what it is and who uses it, and supplies some tips to those who want to begin using shortwave. Let’s start with an explanation of the name.
What is Shortwave Radio?
Radio travels in waves. This was discovered in the 19th century by several remarkable scientists, chief among whom was Guglielmo Marconi, now accredited as the ‘inventor’ of the broadcast radio. Radio waves are a part of the radio frequency spectrum. So, why shortwave?
If you want to learn all about shortwave radio, there are plenty of resources available online where you’ll find more details than we’ve got space for, but summarise a couple of things first. Shortwave radio refers to radio waves shorter than 1500kHz. There are advantages to shortwaves not found in the other wavelengths, notably the ability to broadcast over long distances.
This is why radio fans use shortwaves as a hobby form of broadcasting. However, it is also used by aircraft and vessels at sea and numerous emergency services worldwide. In many countries – notably those in the developing world – the radio stations listened to for entertainment are often shortwave, unlike those in the developed work that tends to be a medium wave. Who uses shortwave radio and why?
Who Uses Shortwave Radio?
The history of shortwave radio is an interesting one that brings up many interesting facts, such as the use of shortwave by Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, who, when faced with an attempted coup and cut off from all usual communications, kept up to date via the BBC World Service which broadcast on shortwave.
Today, these wavelengths are mainly used for maritime communications, police radio bands, and similar, and many thousands of radio enthusiasts worldwide use the system as a hobby. Many amateur stations broadcast, and an enthusiast – or radio ham – will spend his or her time browsing the wavelengths for broadcasts, much as we browse the internet.
Radio transmitter sets can be purchased surprisingly cheaply, and it is – for many people – an addictive and yet rewarding hobby. Through the wavelengths, you will find many curious broadcasts, including the famous and somewhat mysterious ‘MDZhB’ – or ‘The Buzzer’ – which originates from Russia, and for which the real purpose remains open to speculation (if you want to listen to the short, strange tone it repeatedly broadcasts you can find it at 4625 and 4810kHz).
How to Get the Best Out of Shortwave Radio
The future of shortwave radio is long-term as it remains one of the few broadcasting methods over thousands of miles. Most radio enthusiasts will create a ‘radio shack’ in which their equipment is situated, which becomes their home from home. Some have quite sophisticated equipment, while others use simple radio receivers and transmitters, often built from kits. Here are a few tips that you may want to note if you are looking at joining the band of enthusiasts using shortwave:
Check for RFI
Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is one of the main problems experienced by ham radio users. RFI is interference from electrical items such as plasma TVs and power sources for computers, and even the regular mains AC outlet. RFI is a background noise that makes listening to shortwave – which can be difficult in certain conditions anyway – even more difficult. The fewer extra electrical items in your shack or home, the better.
Find an Open Space
Another problem with shortwaves is that they can be badly affected by buildings and other solid objects. This is why many enthusiasts use a portable shortwave device if they live in a built-up area. To get around the problem of distorted reception, head to an open space free from buildings, and you will find reception to be much improved.
Create a Wire Antenna
If you are looking for better reception, a length of wire and a crocodile clip can become a useful and efficient aerial. Attached to the reception port of the receiver, you should play around with it to discover the optimum length for the best reception.
Listen with Headphones
As reception can be poor – see the reasons described above – listening with headphones is highly recommend. These are affordable items now that just about every smartphone is supplied with a set of earbud headphones.
That’s all for now, so if you are thinking of getting into amateur radio, enjoy!
Shortwave Radio Tips was last modified: August 30th, 2021 by Pankaj Budhija
Most of your projects will include the backend part if you work as a PM in the IT sector. Moreover, some of them may be purely backend-related. They require a lot more technical knowledge of software architecture and its peculiarities than frontend-focused projects. It’s natural, as you will focus on building business logic that hugely impacts the final result.
The first reason is that the backend serves as the backbone of any software, be it an application or a website. The second one is complexity-related: if something is wrong with the frontend, critical bugs may postpone the release for several sprints, and non-critical ones can be fixed on production afterward. If there are issues with the backend, they may require a complete do-over.
Adhering to the software development cycle and its key stages such as planning, testing, design, and maintenance is necessary. But some less apparent tips may be helpful when managing the backend projects:
Automate
The sooner you think about automation, the better. It will help you to save time for discovering and fixing issues. Another positive effect is minimizing human effort, so your team can focus on more critical tasks. Things that require automation:
QA testing. Auxiliary tools and pre-written scripts to check the code for issues will come in handy during regression, database unit testing or load testing.
Project management. Keeping templates for creating tasks and reporting, task cloning, and automatic dependencies highlights will make your life easier. There will be no need to input repetitive information manually, and at the same, you will not miss anything. Thus, you will not forget to include artifacts like docs or backgrounds for the tasks.
Keep documentation
Keeping concise technical documentation is the key to integrating new tools into the existing environment, team changes, or troubleshooting. Pay special attention to API documentation, as it’s the core of any backend. System Requirement Specification is also important to check if the functionality under development matches the business requirements. And for sure, a changelog. It will enable all the stakeholders to track bug fixes, releases, or any other change to the code base.
Communicate with stakeholders
Provide your stakeholders with timely updates such as release notes, summaries of the work done, presentations, etc. Regular demo calls to show the implemented functionality and quick catchup meetings are also of great help. This approach will help you better to understand the needs of your customer and their objectives. As a result, you will be able to come up with the best possible solution. Also, it’s a great chance to spot that you are moving in the wrong direction before it gets critical and adjust the plans according to stakeholders’ expectations.
Develop with CI/CD in mind
Keeping a copy of your back-end assets is critical for the CI/CD environment to make the releases faster and smoother. This approach will help your team quickly spot the failed build, arrange a quick roll-back, and focus on fixing before integrating other changes on production.
Back-end-oriented project management may be challenging at times; however, you can rest assured that nothing is missed with the tips above. Your team has all the assets to accomplish their part and prepare everything for the end-user’s front-end enhancements and software delivery.
4 Tips and Tricks for Backend Project Management was last modified: November 16th, 2021 by Claire Ward
Setting up your ecommerce store has never been easier, what with the range of ecommerce platform options available to you. But to run a successful business online that reaps profits and loyal customers, you need to sort through these to find the best platform to build a profitable store.
That’s the most challenging part. How do you actually select between so many platforms? Especially when almost all of them promise roughly the same ecommerce-specific designs, characteristics and features, and claim to be the best at quickly and easily setting up a successful ecommerce store.
Well, there’s absolutely no one-size-fits-all when it comes to ecommerce platforms, as what might work best for your ecommerce store might not work for someone else’s store. You need to see which eCommerce platform would be best for your specific business and unique store needs.
Remember, an ecommerce platform is a long-term investment. What could be worse than finding out your newly customized store is slow to load products fast, costing you valuable customers, and asking you to pay additional costs for dropshipping and integrations?
Some basic requirements many of you will have include no coding hassles, no technical skills requirement and budget-friendliness. And while there are some differences between each ecommerce platform, these minor nuances can either way create major impacts for you.
With all this in mind, here’s an overview of the top 3 ecommerce platforms that we think are best for building great ecommerce stores that help you earn revenue.
Top 3 Ecommerce Platforms for You Store
According to BuiltWith Australia’s 2021 trend research, data on the top 1 million sites shows that around 34K+ websites are using Woocommerce Checkout, 24K are using Shopify, while 11K are using Magento.
For this reason, in this article, we will talk about these three most popular ecommerce platforms that have generated revenue and success for customers around the globe.
1. WooCommerce
In 2017, Mark Forrester, Magnus Jepson, and Adii Pienaar decided they wanted to offer their customers the peak of functionality when it came to building a professional ecommerce storefront. And thus was born WooCommerce, a flexible open-source email ecommerce solution built on WordPress.
WooCommerce stands as the most powerful plugin facilitating the full transformation of WordPress website into beautiful, and functional ecommerce stores. It gives small to medium sized businesses the choice to build exactly the store they have perceived and desire.
Salient Features
We have highlighted some of the top features WooCommerce is reputed for among ecommerce store owners.
Manages Orders On the Go
Since WooCommerce is built on WordPress, it has a super smooth user interface to conveniently manage and fulfill orders. It allows automation in calculating live shipping rates, other tax calculations, and also gives an option to print labels at home. You can effortlessly update products and inventory as well. You can even use it to develop an ecommerce store mobile app for iOS and Android.
Flexible and Secure Payment
WooCommerce supports integration with all the popular payment gateways like Stripe, Paypal, Square, Amazon Pay, Google Pay and Apple Pay. It also supports deposits and subscriptions and accepts all the major credit cards, checks, bank transfers, and cash on delivery.
Hosting Freedom
WooCommerce is extremely user-friendly when it comes to choosing a hosting solution for your ecommerce store. It allows you to choose from a lot of options, unlike Shopify, which places several restrictions regarding choosing a host.
If the exhaustive list of hosting providers daunts you, you can choose Cloudways as a fast and reliable ecommerce hosting provider that offers exceptional hosting options for WooCommerce as well as Magento stores.
Cloudways WooCommerce hosting offers a reliable, fast, and scalable solution that can help you set up your ecommerce store. With Cloudways, you can choose from 5 of the best IaaS providers across the globe, and set up your store with 1-click simplicity, scalability, and ease.
Besides offering managed cloud hosting, which rids you of all hosting hassles, it offers easy migration so you can easily migrate to any other hosting provider if you ever want to do that. This kind of hosting freedom is a rare find when it comes to ecommerce platforms.
Free and Paid Extensions
WooCommerce gives you near unlimited options. It offers hundreds of free and paid extensions to choose from for an advanced store in terms of features as well as functionality. You can benefit from marketing integrations, multi-channel and point of sale, and enhance your store according to your needs – all under one roof.
Sell to a Global Audience
WooCommerce allows for a complete translation of your ecommerce store in 24 languages, so you can sell to a global audience and secure more sales and revenue by participating in international markets.
Secure, Affordable, and Scalable
For free security, insights, and monitoring, you can download Jetpack, a product of WooCommerce, on your store. WooCommerce is super affordable as it does not charge you beyond the initial payment. It also offers scalability and flexibility in case your orders grow and you want to expand your ecommerce store by migrating to WooCommerce.
2. Magento
Magento is another popular leading ecommerce platform that is open-source. Its gross merchandise volume is a mind-blowing over $100 billion.
According to the 2017 Internet Retailer Top 1000, Europe 500, and B2B 300 lists, Magento has gained recognition among the world’s largest brands, retailers, and branded manufacturers in both B2B and B2C eCommerce industries.
As part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, Magento enhances and integrates digital and physical shopping experiences, and offers cloud-based omnichannel solutions that grant access to top-notch order management technologies and more.
In order to provide an even enhanced digital shopping experience to your ecommerce store customers, you can choose a fully managed Magento hosting platform like Cloudways for the fastest performance, and 24/7 support for your ecommerce store.
When you have a problem with Magento design & development or Magento upgrade, Mageplaza experts will help you to solve it with Magento development services.
Salient Features
Let’s look at the best characteristics and elements behind the popularity of Magento as an ecommerce platform.
Non-Technical Features
The drag-and-drop page builder, as well as the content staging and preview feature allows you to give your customers a great brand experience. The ease with which you can build your store makes for an outstanding ecommerce experience.
Multiple Extensions
A variety of over 3600 extensions are available from Adobe Commerce technology providers for better functionality in terms of shipping, tax, payments, and more. You can find these extensions in the Adobe Commerce Marketplace.
Easy Integration
For greater customization, Magento allows easy integration with third-party tools like CRM, ERP, and marketing automation tools. This further enhances its functionality and results in a much smoother shopping experience for customers.
Scalability and Hosting Freedom
Whether your store is B2B or B2C, or both, Magento allows for fast and easy expansion. You can have dedicated stores for your brands and centrally manage them without creating other niche commerce platforms or re-platforming.
Like Woocommerce, Magento also offers the freedom to host your ecommerce store with any hosting provider. Since Magento uses cloud-based technology, it would be best to choose a managed cloud hosting solution that specializes in Magento Hosting.
Multi-Brand, Multi-Site Support and Localization Feature
With Magento, you have an added advantage of expanding into global markets, having multiple brands and sites, and integrating with popular payment gateways and global shipping providers. It supports multiple languages so you can easily localize your store in different regions, make cross-border sales and win customer loyalty. The best part is, you can centrally manage everything with just one platform.
3. Shopify
Shopify has recently gained quite a lot of attention from ecommerce store owners. It is an all-in-one ecommerce platform to start and run your ecommerce store. This means it offers storefront, store management, marketing and SEO, web hosting, analytics, and mobile app within the same platform. That’s everything you need to execute your idea and start selling online.
Shopify is comparatively more expensive than its counterparts because of the very same reason. It provides access to Shopify APIs and development tools so you can customize your store using its templates and tools along with other features.
However, there is one downside of using Shopify. Because everything falls under one roof, including hosting, it is rather restrictive and offers lesser flexibility in terms of scalability. Moreover, if you are just starting your ecommerce store, we don’t recommend using Shopify. It is expensive and meant for larger stores with a greater product range. You cannot scale it down to meet your budget if you are just beginning to sell.
If you are using Wix and your Wix store isn’t able to cater your business as you wish, you might consider transferring from Wix to Shopify. Shopify is considered as one of the best alternatives to Wix by offering fully responsive designs, support for mobile pages, product pages, multi-currency selling functionality, and
Salient Features
As an all-in-one ecommerce platform, Shopify boasts plenty of valuable features.
Branding and Customization
Shopify comes with pre-made templates and its own settings, so you can quickly build your store and customize it. Even though this could mean your store might end up looking like another Shopify merchant’s, it reduces decision fatigue for you if you struggle with creativity. It also speeds up your store building process.
Shipping and Payment
An advantage of using Shopify as an ecommerce platform is that it allows you to automatically receive shipping rates from shipping service providers like UPS, USPS, and FedEx. Moreover, it supports payments from Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express so your customers can easily complete their payments and checkout from your ecommerce store. Also, many different shipping apps for Shopify can make shipping easier.
In case of cart abandonment, it will remind your prospects to complete their purchase by automatically sending them emails with links to their abandoned cart. This way you will be able to capture lost sales easily in an automated way.
Easy Integration
The option to integrate with over a 100 external payment gateways like bitcoin, Paypal, to iDeal, and with dropshipping apps like Ordoro, Inventory Source, and eCommHub, gives store owners a variety of options to choose from when it comes to enhancing the features and functions of their ecommerce store.
Hosting Solution
Shopify offers its own web hosting, with unlimited bandwidth and a 256-bit SSL certificate for security. It even offers you to buy a domain if you really want everything in one place. However, we don’t recommend having everything combined. For security reasons, it is always better to keep your hosting and domain separate to avoid data breaches and hacking.
HTML, CSS Access and Themes
There are around 70+ themes to choose from when it comes to building your store on Shopify. Moreover, Shopify grants you full access to the HTML and CSS of your store, which allows for easy customization when it comes to setting up your ecommerce store. It also has its own CMS for a blog section on your ecommerce store so you can easily write and publish articles about your products for your customers to read.
Conclusion
When choosing an ecommerce platform to launch your store, ask yourself how big you want your store to be, how vast your product range is, and if you want to grow into multiple brands and sites. Moreover, think about your budget, where you want to sell, and how much security you will require while selling online. These questions will give you enough clarity to make the right decision. So do your homework, and choose the best ecommerce platform for your store.
You can also buy and sell entire active ecommerce businesses, if you have established you store and want to move to the next project there are steps to ask yourself about selling my ecommerce business or buying an active one. Starting from a working store with existing traffic can be a great place to start.
The Top 3 eCommerce Platforms You Can Use to Build a Super Successful Store was last modified: February 12th, 2025 by Edward Bishop
