Ecommerce Tips: How To Make Payment Easier For Your Customers

Posted on by Allen Brown
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For an eCommerce business, having user-friendly payment methods is crucial for success. If you’re setting up your business, prioritize payment methods. Explore the many options online and see which one best suits your business.

Customers need to know from the get-go how to make payments after a purchase. Therefore, make it clear how payments should be made and provide multiple options on your site.

The upside of having a secure, friendly payment option is that you can grow your client base. Here are some tips that will improve your customer’s payment experience.

1. Accept a Variety of Payment Methods

Because clients’ preferences differ, offering them several options at checkout makes the payment more manageable. Therefore provide many tools such as credit or debit cards, virtual currency, or even loyalty points.

The catch here is to keep in mind that the payment methods should sync with your customer trends. Find out which strategies they prefer by either doing market research or a survey. For instance, a customer may choose an eCheck because it reduces their costs, unlike paper checks.

2. Offer the Mobile Option

If you want instant payments, providing mobile payment options can be a great way to make your customers’ lives easier. On this front, Apple Pay can be an ideal way to help increase conversions from your mobile customers as an eCommerce entrepreneur. The best part is that if you’re using it for BigCommerce, you can always seek expert advice and consultation to make the most out of the mobile payment option. 

Mobile payments provide a convenient alternative to your customers because they can make payments from anywhere. Whether they are shopping online or ordering food, they can pay their bills immediately from their phones. Additionally, mobile payments are secure due to features such as biometric scanning.

3. Use Online Credit Card Payments

Add a payment form that accepts online credit cards. You can outsource this mode to a payment service provider. The provider will host the payment mode and process the payment securely. They also store payment records securely to capture return clients as long as they give their permission.

You can also use a merchant gateway such as PayPal or Stripe. When choosing a service provider, consider their fees and fraud protection levels.

4. Stop Redirecting Customers

Ensure sales and payments happen on one website. Redirecting customers to another site for payment can cost you business. Payment platforms like PayPal are secure, but turning customers from your website might make the payment process cumbersome. Apart from making your customer’s work lighter, retaining them on your website longer can keep them shopping around for more products or services. If the payment process for your eCommerce business involves redirecting customers, you might want to rethink it. 

5. Avoid Prodding Too Much

So, your customer has made a purchase and is ready to pay, but there’s a long-form waiting for him to fill at check-out. Having to fill lengthy forms can make a customer abandon a sale. If you must collect information, limit it to the essentials.

Requesting unnecessary details is a hurdle to purchases, and customers don’t like challenges when shopping.

6. Reassure Customers about Privacy

Most people fear making online purchases due to fraud. Customers become skeptical if a website asks for personal information. Therefore, they need to know they can trust you with their details.

One way to do this is to have a Secure Sockets Layer certificate, which means information such as credit card details, IDs, and passwords are encrypted. Having a secure website can also boost customer trust, and ultimately their loyalty. Data security and privacy are paramount. 

Here are some moves you can make to help assure customers of their privacy and payment security on your site:  

  • Create a privacy policy page on your website and make sure it’s visible to the customer
  • Ask for consent before using cookies or tracking customers online
  • Encrypt data that is being transmitted over public networks like Wi-Fi hotspots so that no one can intercept it
  • Use SSL certificates to encrypt your customers’ data
  • Disable the ability for customers to enter personal information on your site
  • Consider a secure checkout process that doesn’t require a customer’s credit card or other sensitive info
  • Give customers the option of opting in or out of sharing their contact information with you
  • Allow customers to delete their account and all personal data from your site at any time

7. Upskill Your Staff

You might have brilliant technology and equipment, which staff can’t operate. If this is the case, train your team to handle such equipment and answer queries related to online payments.

They should also know how to resolve issues like failed payments or hitches during transactions. Train your staff on this whenever you upgrade to a more advanced payment method such as a mobile wallet.

8. Improve Your Purchasing Experience

It’s one thing to have a website that is super good and which customers enjoy visiting. It’s another to ensure they can make payments from wherever they are and whichever device. 

Ensure your check-out process is straightforward. One way to do this is to offer a seamless payment option even on mobile devices. You can also assure clients that your payment methods are secure by displaying a privacy statement on your website.

Making payment easier is not the only thing you need to increase conversions on your eCommerce site. Apart from streamlining the checkout process, other things you can do to improve the customer purchasing experience include the following:

  • Provide adequate information about products
  • Use high-quality images to showcase your products
  • Have a variety of colors and sizes available for customers to choose from
  • Display the price in an easy-to-read format, such as $10 or 10% off
  • Offer free shipping on orders over $50
  • Allow customers to return items if they are not satisfied with their purchase within 30 days

The success of your online business is not solely dependent on your product. Having a cumbersome payment method could make you lose business. For a safe and friendly payment experience, ensure your customers can use several options. You should also prioritize security and privacy to build customer trust. On top of this, avoid sending customers away from your site. Remember to train your staff on new technology whenever you upgrade.

How To Perfectly Secure Your Data From Any Loss Or Leakage

Posted on by Charlene Brown
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Your data is the most valuable information you create and store on your devices, like smartphones, laptops, etc. Data is mostly unique and sensitive that if accessed by unauthorized persons or it gets lost, the aftereffect can be devastating. Whether the data belongs to private individuals or corporations, it is typically sensitive and confidential. 

A company’s data includes special documents containing trade secrets, employee and clients’ personal information, financial information of the company, and so on. In the case of private individuals, your phones, laptops, and other devices contain sensitive information about you. Your bank account, social security number, credit card details are some of the information these personal devices contain. If accessed by unauthorized people, it may aid in identity theft, and so on. 

Securing your data is essential for you to protect against data loss and data leakage. You would think it is such an overwhelming and complex process – thankfully, it is not.

Here are some simple ways to secure your data to prevent data loss or leakage:

source:https://www.pexels.com/photo/internet-screen-security-protection-60504/

1. Update Software Regularly

Allow software updates on your devices, from the operating systems to every other application on the device. Software companies regularly put out updated versions of their software, usually in response to detected bugs and vulnerabilities in the software. 

Failure to update your software when the software company releases an update means using the previous version. The old software version is usually prone to data breaches and other data loss and leakage forms. 

2. Create A Password And Protect It

One of the best ways to secure your data is by creating a strong password for your devices, software, etc., to prevent an invasion of your digital devices and act as a disaster prevention plan and it is also best practice to use unique passwords for each device and software; passwords shouldn’t be hard for you to remember. You may use password trackers to track all of your passwords, so you don’t forget them. This will allow you to go all out to create a strong and unique password for each of your devices. 

3. Protect Your Browsing

Make sure your browsing is protected and secure. Let’s say you use free public WiFi; you will need to protect your data from being accessed by unauthorized third-party organizations or individuals. Free public WiFi networks are generally unsecured, so your personal and sensitive information may easily be exposed to other people using the same public network. You should use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect your device network and your browsing on the free public WiFi. 

You just need to ensure the VPN service is trusted and legitimate. 

4. Keep Your Data Encrypted

Encryption codes your data into ciphertext to make the data inaccessible by unauthorized persons. Encryption is useful for protecting data, from email to the messages on your phone, computer, and other personal devices. 

When you encrypt your data, the data becomes scrambled and appears meaningless without the key to the encryption, called ciphertext. 

This will make it impossible for unauthorized persons to gain access to your personal information, thereby preventing data loss or leakage.

5. Back Up Your Data

Make sure to have backup storage for the data you have stored on your devices and networks. You may lose all of those data or any of the data if something happens to your devices or networks. Backing up the data is a trusted and reliable way to ensure you don’t lose your vital data. 

Let’s say you lose your computer and all of the information/data stored on the computer network, and you can simply restore the data if you have backed it up before.

You can secure your pictures, documents, etc., from hackers, ransomware attacks, and other forms of data loss or leakage by simply backing up your data.

To ensure optimum protection for your data, you can backup using online services and external hard drives, but you can use either of the two backup storages.

Some of the popular causes of data loss include:

  • Fire damage or water damage to your device.
  • Virus and other malware attacks on your device networks. 
  • You may accidentally delete your data.

Although data loss and data leakage are not the same as a data breach, which is typically an intentional attack on your network to steal your data for malicious purposes, they are just as bad since both involve data reaching the hands of unauthorized recipients and loss of your data.

Your personal and sensitive information or data are typically essential data that you cannot afford to lose, especially in the hands of unauthorized persons. So, it is only reasonable for you to keep the data secure to prevent loss of data and data leakage. 

Reasons Why Redmi Phone Prices are so Affordable

Posted on by Ankit Sharma
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When Xiaomi entered the market in 2014, the company knew it faced an uphill battle. Until that point, “Chinese phones” had a negative connotation. They were considered to be cheap knockoffs of the more popular models. Low-budget Indian consumers were accustomed to using such handsets, and from the very beginning, Xiaomi had to make the right moves. Within two years, the brand was successful in overturning this sentiment and became one of the leading smartphone brands in the country.

Fast-forward to 2021, and Xiaomi is the undisputed market leader. The brand has been successful in overtaking Samsung, and ships tens of millions of smartphone units every year. Going by the quarterly market share numbers, Xiaomi has been thwarting its competition for the past 3-4 years. The occasional blip was followed by Xiaomi’s strong response, and the brand has been so successful mainly due to its Redmi smartphones.

The Redmi series phones offered by Xiaomi are primarily catered to the budget segment. Redmi has become a name synonymous with excellence for Indian consumers, who were initially taken aback by the quality of these phones. But how does Redmi, in spite of offering such high quality and feature-rich phones, keep the prices so low? We dive deep into the working of Xiaomi, and their strategic manoeuvers that help keep the Redmi smartphone prices low.

Low Per-Unit Profit

Redmi phone price is affordable mainly because of the low-profit margins the company is willing to make. The higher the smartphone price, the more profit the company makes when it ships the units. However, Xiaomi is willing to cut down the price to increase the number of sales. This marketing strategy has paid dividends, as Xiaomi ships tens of millions of units. According to Xiaomi’s CEO, the company only makes a 5 – 10% profit margin. Thus, the company can afford to sell smartphones at much lower prices than its direct rivals.

Zero Advertising

Smartphone companies take different approaches to advertise their products. For instance, Vivo bagged the rights to become the title sponsor for the Indian Premier League. From the very beginning, Xiaomi followed in Tesla’s footsteps. Tesla, the most popular electric car brand in the world, virtually does zero advertising. However, consumers still know about Tesla and are willing to bank on its brand name and popularity. Similarly, Xiaomi has relied heavily on the goodwill of consumers, and their online reviews. This worked in the brand’s favor, and without spending any money, Redmi phones became the top-selling models in the Indian marketplace.

Longer Product Cycle

Typically, Indian consumers change their handsets once every 12 – 18 months. iPhone users boast about their phone’s durability and longevity. Redmi phones — even though these are mobiles under 10,000 INR — offer a longer product cycle. That is, the brand does not release new phones with updated hardware every year, and instead does so once every 2-3 years. This results in Redmi phone users sticking with their devices for longer periods. Considering the brand does not cut any corners, and keeps its profit margin low, these models are sturdy, robust and durable.

Online Sales Strategy

Until recently, Xiaomi followed the online-only sales strategy, which helped the brand in procuring higher profits. The company did not have to give a cut of its profits to the retail outlets, and thus, could keep the costs low. Usually, smartphone brands give a cut of their profits to the offline retail outlets for selling their handsets, and this forces them to increase the cost of smartphones. It was only in 2020 that Xiaomi promised higher profits to offline partner stores, but the brand continues to keep the Redmi phone prices low.

Flash Sales

Initially, when Redmi phones became all the rage, it was through strategic online sales that the brand managed to get the attention of the consumers. Xiaomi offered its Redmi phones through flash sales on e-commerce platforms, and while this meant that not all consumers were able to get their hands on Redmi phones, the available units started selling like hotcakes. This made the brand elusive, and consumers wanted to purchase a Redmi smartphone. When the phones were made available, consumers were quick to purchase these devices.

Xiaomi understood the Indian market and laid out a well-thought-out strategy to become a major player. This also enabled the company to make substantial profits, while keeping its profit margins low. Today, Redmi smartphones are some of the most sought-after devices in the country.

In India, you can purchase your preferred Mi 5g smartphone at lower costs by shopping at the Bajaj Finserv EMI Store. The Bajaj Finserv EMI Network Card will allow you to pay for the smartphone on easy EMIs, while you can also avail the zero down payment facility on select models. Place the order online, and get the smartphone delivered to your doorstep within 24 hours.

Why Forgotten Passwords Cost Company Revenue

Posted on by Hammad Basharat
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Passwords are a necessary part of the online experience. When operating properly they can keep us safe, protecting our valuable data and identities, as well as ensuring peace of mind. The only problem with this is that we tend to use many passwords for different websites and services, some of which force changes at regular intervals. With this concern, lost and forgotten passwords become an inevitability and a problem that can negatively affect both customers and the businesses with which they interact.

Churn and Abandonment

In business, the term churn refers to the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity. There can be many possible reasons for this, from issues out of a business’s control to deliberately designed elements that users find frustrating. One of the elements that is not so much the fault of individuals but rather the overall market is the password problem. Again, this is generally the result of juggling many passwords with many requirements, where frustrated users can give up rather than keep guessing the details of old accounts. Churn can be the result of many parts of the purchasing process but is commonly manifested as cart abandonment. This is where users fill their orders but get locked out of purchases because of misremembered passwords. Directly costing a business sales, this measurable issue has affected online stores for decades.

“Windows login screen” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Christiaan Colen

Overworked Support Systems

When getting locked out of websites due to misremembered passwords, there is usually some form of recovery process available. Unfortunately, these aren’t always reliable and can be confusing, leading many users to turn to live support. Though these live support systems can fix the problems, they’re generally designed to help with more complicated issues, with constant calls about passwords overloading support capacity. This is a problem that has existed for years, with around 30% of all customer support calls dealing with this exact issue. For every one of these calls, another customer risks being left unaddressed, which can again cause lost profit if the user gets frustrated and walks away.

Customers Placing Blame

Though complicated password systems are developed to help users, those negatively affected by them tend to blame the website or brand they’re using for the difficulties password systems create. Fortunately, there are ways around this concern through the use of a time based one time password. These passwords use encryption keys to link devices like mobiles to websites and services, allowing the generation of temporary but simple codes. Common names in this realm include the Microsoft and Google Authenticators, which are integrated with many major services. While far from perfect, such methods can save time, and reduce the guesswork and trial and error that can drive users away.

“Google Authenticator on Android” (CC BY 2.0) by xmodulo

Looking forward, it’s inevitable that better solutions to password issues will become increasingly necessary. Though many services manage this issue, they’re still often underrepresented with the digitally involved populace. With a greater reliance on passwords than ever before and increasingly difficult criteria applied to them, it looks like one-time passwords and specialized password streamlining systems will eventually become the status quo. If you’re constantly fighting against your passwords, consider trying these out, and at the very least you will be left with less wasted time and a smoother online experience overall.

League of Legends Ranking Tips From the Pros

Posted on by Charlene Brown
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If you are a gamer, you must have heard of League of Legends (or LoL), which is possibly the most popular and most played game globally. It is categorized as a multiplayer online battle arena and is definitely not one of the easier ones. There’s a lot that goes on in LoL and it requires you to be on a very steep learning curve as you navigate its complicated gameplay. While the game is certainly worth investing your time in, some players might find themselves stuck from time to time, especially when it comes to increasing their rank. The following tips might help you in improving your rank faster.

Favoriting A Champion Might Be A Good Strategy

One of the fastest ways to quickly take up your LP is to one-trick a champion with maybe a couple of backup champions. If you can master how to play a champion and that too in a particular role, you will be able to quickly climb the ladder in the ranked matches. By practicing and understanding the champion mechanics and how you can master those champion skills, you can aid your team in winning simply by leveraging those skills in the right place and at the right time. Of course, it is easier said than done. You can’t simply unlock a champion and expect to master it enough to be your main over the course of a single night. You will need practice over many games to know your champion and how to equip it with the best items and learn about which other champions work well with your main (and which don’t), and the right strategies for you.

Dodge to Avoid Bad Situations

Dodging might get a bad rep sometimes but it is a technique that professional players and even high Elo ranking players sometimes advise. You may not always step into a game with the biggest advantage and when you know the odds are stacked against you, it would do good to just dodge the game. You might lose some LP points but your MMR doesn’t get ruined, which you can verify with an MMR Calculator, and ultimately, your MMR is what really matters. Dodging still comes down to a personal preference but it might be worthwhile. One advice to follow while dodging: give the queue a break. By waiting a while, you avoid ending up with the same people and get fresh faces which means you have a lower risk of tilting your team right from the start.

Watching the VOD Would Help

You might want to take a leaf out of the book of conventional sports and watch your game film. It’s a strategy that professional LoL teams use all the time; they take out a block of their time to review their recent gameplay and that of other teams and go over it as a team, analyzing decisions, learning from mistakes, and strategizing future gameplay. Being able to discover mistakes you’ve made is the reason why reviewing VOD is important for any player, offering helpful feedback and allowing you to restrategize your decision-making. Don’t restrict yourself to just watching your own gameplay. Discover high-ranking pro gamers who play the champions of your choice and watch how they make decisions in the game. It will offer you valuable perspectives on some winning moves and strategies that they employ and can even learn from their commentary.

Reach Out to LoL Gaming Community for Advice

The gaming community can be very supportive, so it won’t be considered irregular behavior if you reach out to the LoL community for advice on your gameplay. You can very easily find guides on different gameplay strategies and tricks to improve your skills. Experts even stream their gameplay, which many tune into, to listen and watch them talk about tips in general but also advice on specific things like champions skills or managing waves.

You could even hire a coach if you are looking for a detailed analysis of your gameplay. They may be able to assist you to increase the the rank of your lol accounts. Experts can offer you insightful advice targeted at improving your performance in different ways. They could point out mistakes and points of improvement either by watching your replays or watch you play via screen sharing on platforms like Discord. You could also just seek advice on general theory.

League of Legends is one of the most exciting and popular games, with monthly active players numbering in millions. That means while you will have a lot of competition as you play, it also means that you have a huge opportunity to learn from others to improve your own gameplay. Experts constantly dole out so many tips and strategies, especially with every new update and season. All you have to do is keep up.

How to Start a Credit Repair Business

Posted on by Victoria Blake
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The credit repair industry is flourishing, and starting your own company is a great idea. This is a highly scalable model — you can even run the business from your home. The initial costs are modest, and the profit potential is undeniable. One in five Americans has problems with unfair scores, so the demand is guaranteed. Here are the basics of starting a business in this niche in 2021.

Look at the Top Performers

The top credit repair services allow clients to remedy their scores in the most convenient way. All the tasks, from analysis to disputes, are delegated to professionals. For $79-$129 per month, these firms communicate with lenders, bureaus, and collection agencies to achieve a boost as soon as possible.

Certified experts perform painstaking investigative work to collect evidence and avoid redisputes. Well-established brands like Lexington Law remove a wide range of information, from late payments to Chapter 7 bankruptcies. Consumers pay for their services even when they could manage the disputes by themselves. Speed, convenience, and efficiency are the biggest selling points.

Navigate the Legal Landscape

The industry is regulated by The Credit Repair Organizations Act and The Fair Credit Reporting Act. The first law stipulates the ways companies operate and interact with clients. For example:

  • you are not allowed to charge any advance payments;
  • all the contracts must be in writing, and they must be signed before any services are rendered;
  • every client must have an opportunity to cancel the contract;
  • you are not allowed to use misleading marketing methods.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is what makes this industry possible. Every nationwide bureau is obliged to report only accurate and verifiable information. Any mistakes must be removed through a formal dispute procedure. This is what your company will handle on your clients’ behalf.

Study the regulations in your state. Registration and licensing requirements vary. You will also need to obtain a surety bond. This provides client protection if your company’s actions result in negative consequences. In the event of misconduct, the clients receive compensation.

Get Education

No formal requirements in terms of education exist. Still, qualifications are essential for trust and credibility. Get some formal training to become a certified professional.

Prepare Your Business Plan

Your business plan must cover all the essentials of launching and running the business. Pay attention to the following elements:

  • An executive summary highlighting the market opportunity — the audience in need of repair. This section must include your mission statement.
  • Business description giving a snapshot of the market situation. Define the problems your business will solve, and describe the different types of services you will offer.
  • Market analysis showing how your company should position itself to stand out from the competition. Conclusions must be backed by quantifiable data.
  • Competitive analysis showing the main weaknesses of your arrivals, and ways you could fill those gaps to serve the customers better.
  • Operations and management description explaining how the business will be structured, what types of expenditures you will incur and who will be responsible for different operations.
  • Goals, which may be organized as phases of business development, from launch to expansion. Include the services offered at each phase and the milestones you should reach.

Get the Best Software

Successful companies are unimaginable without efficient and versatile software. It streamlines different aspects of operations and interaction with customers. You should manage events and contacts easily, capture leads, organize clients and track progress on each case. Export of contacts for mail marketing should be effortless.

Promote Your Company

Obviously, the digital space is the primary channel of promotion. Devise a multifaceted strategy to engage different dimensions, and build a professional website to showcase your work. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Create a business profile on Instagram and use the full spectrum of tools: post helpful content with relevant hashtags, create fun and engaging stories, IGTV, and Reels. Pay for ads to gain exposure more quickly.
  • Use Facebook communities to spread the word about your company implicitly. These groups are organized by your competitors, so become a valuable member to attract attention to your profile. Participate in discussions and give useful advice to the members, so they get curious and check your bio. Make sure your profile looks professional and includes a link to the site.
  • Create a YouTube channel with helpful content related to repair. Ideally, your videos should not last longer than 10 minutes.
  • Use the search feature on Twitter to find users discussing repair, and provide valuable tips. Engage local financial affiliates to expand the prospective audience.
  • Use LinkedIn to reach a vast audience of professionals. Post case studies, white papers, articles, and other information to catch their attention. Referrals from financial pros will help you grow your audience quickly.

The Bottom Line

To establish a successful company, you should navigate the legal landscape and learn from the experience of well-established brands. Start with a home-based business and let your company grow gradually. The Internet offers a wealth of proven promotional strategies. Efficient software will streamline operations, helping you provide excellent services and promote your brand through word of mouth.

How To Fix Common WooCommerce Security Issues

Posted on by Denny Fontaine
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WooCommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce software platforms. It has one of the highest market shares (23.43%), second to Squarespace online stores at 23.51%. Its popularity is mainly facilitated by its ease of use and user-friendliness advantages.

This is not to say that WooCommerce has no challenges. Security threats targeting eCommerce stores are on the rise. To use a WooCommerce store, users will have to login in and share their sensitive details with you.

Because WooCommerce stores have a significant market share, hackers target them more than other eCommerce platforms with a lower market share. The higher the market share, the more vulnerable an eCommerce platform will be.

Woocommerce Security: Best security plugins (2018 Edition)

This article explains seven practical tips to fix WooCommerce security issues.

1. Always Update Your Site

WordPress WooCommerce and security plugins usually become obsolete over time. As a result, they become vulnerable to security breaches. Developers and software vendors are always coming up with new or improved versions to address security issues. They will release new software updates that have improved security capabilities.

You have to install the security updates once they have been released. Failing to update is like choosing to live with the security vulnerabilities which could be detrimental to your WooCommerce security.

The best strategy to deal with the updates is to set aside a regular time to review and conduct the updates, backup your data, and deploy the updates to your WooCommerce website. You can as well set up the WordPress auto-update feature to do the task for you.

2. Use Security Plugins

Installing security plugins is one of the most vital WooCommerce security measures that you must implement. WooCommerce security plugins will scan through your site to identify any security threats.

The plugin will also clean up all your websites to protect them from brute force attacks, malware attacks, among many other security threats.

3. Install SSL Certificate

Having an SSL certificate on your WooCommerce store will ensure that all in-transit data and communications between your store servers and your customers’ browsers are encrypted. Encryption ensures that no intruder can read or decipher a communication.

You must acquire your Secure Socket Layer (SSL) from a trusted SSL certificate providers like RapidSSL, CheapSSLShop, GeoTrust, DigiCert etc. There are several SSL certificate options that you can work with. However, I will recommend the wildcard SSL certificate because of its ease of use and cost-effective advantages that the certificate brings forth.

With a wildcard SSL certificate, you only need a single certificate to secure an unlimited number of first-level subdomains under the chosen main domain. If budget is a concern, there are several premium yet cheap Wildcard SSL certificate that you can choose to work with.

When you invest in one such certificate, you afford premium and reliable security to multiple subdomains such as blogs, payment pages upto level one.

4. Protect Wp-Config.php File

Wp-Config.php File carries critical data and information. Therefore, it is one of the most vital files on your WooCommerce store and should be protected at all costs. It would be difficult for an attacker to hack into your WooCommerce store if your Wp-Config.php File is not accessible.

Protecting your Wp-Config.php File is not an arduous task. All you need to do is move the file to a higher level than the root of your WooCommerce store.

5. Use Strong Passwords and Enable Two-Factor Authentication

Passwords act like the keys that lock your WooCommerce platform to protect it from unauthorized intrusions. The stronger the passwords, the more secure your WooCommerce platform will be. The following are the best passwords practices that you can adopt for your WooCommerce platform:

  • Use unique passwords for each account and advise your clients to follow suit.
  • Create strong passwords that combine numbers, letters, and special characters. The more complex the password, the more secure it will be.
  • Password Length should be a key priority. Use passwords with eight or more characters.
  • Use password manager tools.
  • Store the passwords safely.

Passwords are susceptible to attacks such as brute force attacks and dictionary attacks. As such, you will need an extra layer of authentication to fortify your authentication process.

Two-factor authentication, commonly abbreviated as 2FA, is one of the most fantastic WooCommerce security measures that will safeguard your store against intruders.

2FA denies unauthorized people the ability to validate the logins via the extra authentication factors. For instance, a user will have to enter a one-time password and use biometric authentication features such as voice recognition, retina scans, or fingerprint IDs to gain access to an account.

Only the rightful account owners have access to the second authentication factor. For your WooCommerce security, ensure you enable the 2-factor authentication.

6. Back-Up WooCommerce Store

If you ever lose your data or your WooCommerce website gets hacked, then a backup is the easiest way to get your website on track as soon as possible.

A backup plan will help you retrieve all your data. Without a backup, your business will most likely cease to exist, which is not a good thing. Here are some of the WooCommerce backup tips that you should know:

  • Select a WooCommerce backup plugin that will automatically backup all your data. One of the best plugins that you can work with is the JetPack Backup.
  • Regularly update your data. You can select the daily backup option or real-time backup option.
  • Ensure you have a seamless data restoration plan to have your website up and running in just one click.

7. Use a Secure Hosting Provider

Selecting a web host is one of the most significant business decisions that will impact the success of your business. A reliable web host will play a vital role in the security of any business.

With the right hosting provider, you can adequately secure your WooCommerce store. Choose the wrong host, and you will end up causing all kinds of web security headaches.

The first question you ought to ask yourself when choosing a web hosting provider is, “will the web hosting provider take your WooCommerce security seriously?” If you have any reason to believe that the host will easily compromise the security of your WooCommerce site, then you better not use such a provider.

Here are some of the critical considerations to make when choosing a web hosting provider for your WooCommerce store.

  1. Always choose a dedicated hosting provider over a shared host.
  2. The hosting provider should maintain regular backups.
  3. The web hosting provider should monitor your internal networks to detect and prevent intrusions and anomalous activities.
  4. The web host should offer firewalls capable of protecting your networks against all forms of intrusions.
  5. The web host should offer antimalware and antivirus software to protect your networks against any form of malware attacks.

If your web hosting provider does not meet any of these thresholds, it would be best to work with a more secure host to avoid any security issues to your WooCommerce website.

Conclusion

All the hustle and bustle involved in launching a WooCommerce store can make you quickly forget about the security concerns. However, an insecure WooCommerce store could potentially expose your customer data to malicious people. Therefore, it would be best to have a cybersecurity measure that protects your store from security threats.

By following the seven steps, you will be able to formulate the perfect groundwork for a secure and trustworthy WooCommerce store that is well protected in any event of an attack.

Reasons to Learn JavaScript in 2021

Posted on by James White
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Are you planning to build your career as a web developer? You might be wondering what programming languages are you need to learn. There are a plethora of languages available in the market and you can also choose to learn JavaScript.  JavaScript has gained high popularity as a crucial web technology. However, you are not sure whether it has any relevance in the present day.

When there are a plethora of frameworks that offer ready-to-use code, it is a prerequisite to learn JavaScript. From this article, you can understand the reasons why you should learn JavaScript in 2021:

It is going to make you the versatile programmer

JavaScript is becoming widely popular to developers in coding on the frontend or client-side of the websites. There are certain additions to the framework of JavaScript, which make it an excellent choice to coding on the website’s backend and server-side through Node.js.

JavaScript is a language, which boasts the can-do attitude. Therefore, it provides the excellent choice to the developers in creating mobile applications, web applications, and desktop applications through Electron, React Native, React.

It is a popular language

JavaScript has gained high popularity as the leading programming language among different software developers. JavaScript language is constantly changing. Also, the latest constructs and features are being added regularly. With the rise of TypeScript and babel, software developers can use different language features.

It is available in the pre-installed form in the browser

Learning JavaScript is regarded as the coding language. Hence, you do not require any branded textbook, development environments, and fancy equipment. If you have a computer with a browser, you will be successful in coding through JavaScript language. The computer boasts JavaScript GUI and runtime already. Through text editor and the browser, you will be successful in coding in the JavaScript language.

Hence, it is considered to be the ultra-accessible choice for newbies. Featuring the basic understanding, you will be successful in following the tutorial. It provides a suitable opportunity to write the program in no time.

You will be capable of learning by poking around in the JavaScript, which runs a plethora of sites, through right-clicking, thereby choosing “inspect” on the site. It is an excellent option for picking the pre-existing JavaScript and viewing what is happening as things are changing.

You will find different options for learning

There are a plethora of people who wonder why it is necessary to learn JavaScript. However, JavaScript boasts of the literally devoted coders’ generation, who are very happy for lending the expertise to the newbie coders, who find it hard to start the basics.

JavaScript is considered to be the primer for future programming languages. It offers a vital introduction to vital practices and principles.

In addition, it provides support to the imperative, functional, and object-oriented programming styles. As you are fully versed in JavaScript and think about choosing language number 2, you will be successful in picking it up in no time.

JavaScript is recognized to be a popular programming language for newbies. It is believed to be a multi-functional language, which is easy to get started with. Moreover, it comes with comprehensive libraries and frameworks set, which will make life easier than ever. If you want to learn JavaScript, refer to rapidessay without giving it a second thought.

Dos and Don’ts When Choosing The Perfect LED Shop Lights

Posted on by Lucas Arlo
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LED shop lights are a great way of decorating your office or work area when you want to attract customers to your place. They have many advantages over the business like they are supremely cost-effective, simple to install, easily adjustable, and reduce the monthly electricity bill. However, there are some things to know before you start looking for 8ft led shop lights. 

It is important to be choosy in your purchase as it is capable of granting your every need and expectation. In addition, it gives out a warm feeling to which people feel welcome and helps bring out the most of your products. So here are some dos and don’ts mentioned for you; make sure you stick to them. 

Do set the mood with excellent lighting

The colour of the LED lighting is what will set your customer’s mood, so make sure it projects a relaxed and laid-out feeling. This is possible when there is dim lighting and not sharp. Also, the colour of the light is warm.

Remember, this setting is for the fashion section when it comes to departmental stores; customers need white lighting. If you want to look for different other option too, you can visit Dhgate. 

Do consider different options

There are tons of lighting option to choose from, like panel lights, tube lights, strip or puck lights, etc. So, make sure you consider it. If you choose the best option, it is capable of featuring the best part of the products you offer and convince the customers to buy it. Click view more to look at the different option.

Do change your lighting when the floor plan changes

It is best to install a new lighting system when changing your floor plan. This is important because it is possible that gimbal, track lights and eyeball aim in different directions. Not to mention, you will have to change your lighting depending on the product you want to showcase. Now, click here to start scrolling through the retail LED lighting option. 

Don’t over light the place

The right amount of lighting is essential in many ways. For example, it helps not to overwhelm the shoppers with everything bright around them. However, it is also important that you do not choose too many unique lighting or colors as it may distract them from shopping. 

Don’t forget about the glare factor

Choosing the right lighting mostly depends on what your aim is. For example, if you aim to create a welcoming atmosphere, it is best not to choose lighting that points to their face. Instead, the lighting should be aimed above the products you are trying to sell. Also, do not forget about the glasses near them as they may cause reflection. If you want to look for the best LED lights for your shop, tap here. 

Conclusion

LED lighting for shops is an excellent choice for illumination your work area to call out to your customers and increase your sale. The different lighting option will also enable you to present your shop in a better way. So, make sure to install it.

Cutting Costs When Setting Up a Home Office

Posted on by James Hunt
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These days, there are many people who decide to set up a home office where they can work in peace and quiet. Some people do it because they often work remotely for their employer at home, and these days with work-from-home becoming so mainstream, it has become all the more important. Others set up a home office because they run their own business from home or operate on a freelance basis.

Whatever your reasons for needing or wanting a home office, one thing you must take into consideration is the costs involved. This is something that can vary based on the items you need to set up your office such as furniture, storage, and equipment. The good news is that there are ways in which you can reduce the cost of setting up a home office, so this is something you should look into before you make your purchases. In this article, we will look at some of the ways to cut costs when setting up your home office.

Some of the Ways to Save Money

There are various ways in which you can save money when it comes to setting up your home office. Some of the main ways in which you can do this are:

Assess Your Needs

One of the things you need to do if you want to avoid spending money unnecessarily is to assess your needs before you start buying items for your home office. You may find that you have a lot of what you need, and this means fewer items to buy, and less money spent. So, make a list of the items you need for the home office and then work out what you already have.

Use Online Promotions

Another thing you should do is to look for online promotions, as these make it easy to save money on the cost of all sorts of home office items. This includes promotions such as Dell discounts. By using these vouchers, you can look forward to excellent discounts on all the items you need for your home office, and this means that you can set it up without breaking the bank. In addition, it means that you can afford to invest in quality items for your home office.

Check Out Sales Events

It is also worth checking out sales events when it comes to buying items for your home office, as you can often get some great bargains in the sales and also clearance sections of sites. You can wait for special sales such as Black Monday for devices and electricals for your home office, as this can also save you a lot of money.

Subscribe to Sites

One other thing to do is to subscribe to websites that sell the types of items you need, as this can provide you with access to special offers and deals. You can get these offers sent directly to your inbox.

These are a few of the ways in which you can cut costs when setting up a home office. 

3 Free and Affordable Design Software Alternatives

Posted on by Alex Sanders
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Creating high-quality marketing materials for both your print and digital needs starts with having some type of design knowledge. Unfortunately, not everyone has the skills they need in order to be able to meet the standards their business requires. 

Subscription-based software programs like Adobe Suite are expensive and can easily run up to $250 to $300 every year. They are also incredibly technical and take a lot of time and education to learn how to navigate some of the more simple options like Adobe Lightroom.

Affordable Alternatives to Adobe Suite

With developers trying to find more affordable ways to beat the competition, there are now several free and inexpensive options for designing vectors, websites, animations, graphics, flyers, posters, or digital banners for social media and advertising. The best part is that many of them are user-friendly and can be easily used, even when you don’t have years of education and experience under your belt.

Despite there being a significant amount of free and inexpensive design software available across the internet, it’s always recommended that you take a deeper look into your business goals and budget. Trying to cut corners to save money may not actually be beneficial for the long run of your business. 

Outsourcing through third-party design and printing companies may be a viable solution for your digital and print designing needs, such as inexpensive real estate postcard templates for your agency or royalty-free images and backing tracks for your local bookstore marketing collateral. 

Your time is just as valuable as a dollar sign. If you find yourself spending more time designing graphics than you are running your business, it might be time to look for an alternative.

However, if you think you’re up for the challenge of designing your own work, here are a few places you can sign up and get started for free or at an affordable starting rate.

Canva

Canva is a leader in the DIY design and template generator industry for all print and digital needs. Their gallery of professional templates offers business owners a wide range of options that are suitable for a wide range of industries. Even when you sign up for their free account, you’re getting full access to a large suite of video, photo, graphic, and animated elements for just about anything you might need. 

The best part is that they also offer printing services for various products, including shirts, mugs, stickers, and so much more. There is an option to upgrade your service with them for a cost for access to more collateral. The higher packages are more beneficial if you’re looking to collaborate with a larger team, plus they also have advance feature tools like an online poster maker, flyer maker, brochure maker, and more to streamline your design needs.

AppyPie Design

AppyPie Design is an up-and-comer in the industry but provides incredibly similar templates as Canva. While their array of images and videos is a bit smaller and their templates are not as frequently updated, it’s still a very viable option if you have minimal projects to work on. 

The catch is that the free plan they have available only is good for up to five projects. After that, you’ll have to upgrade to one of their premium plans which still ends up being significantly cheaper than its competitors.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is a free design app that was primarily created for photo editing. Since their creation, they’ve made space to keep up with their competitors. The platform now provides simple video editing, as well as various templates for digital and print marketing collateral. 

PicMonkey offers a free trial but is not technically free once the trial is complete. Their monthly billing plans range from $7.99 to $23.00 per month based upon the size of your company and your project needs.

Other Affordable Design Apps

Here is a list of a few other design software companies you might want to check out as you continue to search for free or affordable design and editing software. However, they don’t quite keep up with the competition of the top three contenders listed before.

  • Vectr
  • Gravit Designer
  • Inkscape
  • GIMP
  • DesignWizard

Conclusion

Whatever your needs are, there will always be free and inexpensive options available. Always consider the alternative of looking into a professional to help you with your design needs. 

But if you’re ready to take on the work yourself, these three are definitely worth a try.

How to Start Your Own Social Media Marketing Agency

Posted on by Emma Yulini
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Thinking about starting your own social media marketing agency but don’t know where to start? 

You’ve come to the right place. 

While social media marketing is certainly a lucrative industry to work in, the competition is also tight. It’s crucial to plan your business carefully and have the right strategy so you can win more clients and grow your business. 

In this guide, we will discuss all the necessary steps to starting a successful social media marketing agency, and let us begin right away. 

1. Choose a Specialty as a Social Media Marketing Agency

A social media marketing agency is actually a pretty broad term, and you can actually offer many different services to different types of clients. 

In general, you can choose to be either a specialist or generalist agency.

A specialist agency offers specialty services in one industry or sector. For example, you can choose only to offer services to fashion businesses or sports businesses. Or, you can choose to specialize in B2B operations. 

However, you can also be a generalist aiming to serve all kinds of clients. 

Both types have their own pros and cons, but if you are just starting out, it’s typically best to start out as a specialist and focus on specific types of clients first. This can help in hiring, so you can hire people that specialize in the services you’d like to provide. 

However, being a specialist might mean it’s going to be harder to attract your first few clients, so you’ll need to focus more on marketing your business. 

2. Developing a Pricing Strategy

How should you price your social media marketing service? There are many different factors that might affect the answer. You should generally consider who your target audience is, your skill/experience level, your unique value proposition (UVP), and your overhead costs when defining your price. 

Some overhead costs to consider: 

  • Labor costs
  • Taxes
  • Business licenses/permits
  • Office expenses
  • Software investments
  • Professional/legal services

A good approach is to perform a competitive analysis and check how much your competitors are charging their services. You can always opt to charge cheaper than them in order to attract more clients, but if you are confident about delivering more value, it’s okay to charge more. 

3. Establish Your Business

Establish your business as a legal entity. 

This is often the most frustrating part of starting a business but is necessary. 

You should: 

  • Register your business. If you are going to start the business on your own, you can establish a sole proprietorship. However, we’d recommend establishing your business as an LLC or corporation so you’ll be more protected in the event of legal disputes, debts, and other issues
  • Set up a business bank account(s) to keep a separate fund for your agency and to start receiving payments
  • Find a legal help to help you in the legal aspects of the business
  • Depending on your location, you might need to get specific licenses, certifications, and insurance policies before you can start the business. Check with your local trade associations for your local regulations. 

If necessary, you can get help from a business consultant or a lawyer to make sure your business is compliant with the legal requirements in your area. 

4. Branding and Marketing: Winning Your Clients

The toughest challenge of starting a social media marketing business is landing your first client, but there are effective ways you can try to establish your credibility and attract more clients: 

  • Have a professional website: build a credible, functional website that showcases your credibility and professionalism. Publish relevant, high-quality content on your social media, and add relevant client testimonials to your website. 
  • Social media presence: as a social media marketing agency, it would only make sense that you have at least a decent social media presence. You don’t need to have millions of followers, but make sure you are using social media best practices in all your profiles. Demonstrate that you know what you are doing in the social media space. 
  • Build relationships: build relationships with other brands and relevant influencers. Network at relevant events, and make guest appearances on other blogs, podcasts, webinars, and other opportunities. Actively engage brands and influencers you’d love to work with. 

Engage with a HubSpot Solutions Partner program-eligible digital marketing firm. A HubSpot partner firm will have marketing teams that are constantly learning the newest methods for analyzing data.

5. Improving Your Productivity

The more productive and efficient your social media marketing agency is, the more clients you can work with, and the more revenue you’ll generate. 

A crucial aspect of growing your social media marketing agency is finding the right balance between executing existing clients’ projects and pitch your agency to new clients. As you can see, this can be very challenging in the long run. 

Here are a few tips on how: 

  • Create a workflow that works best for you. This is very important and might need trials and errors before you’ll get it right. 
  • Invest in the right technology. You’ll need, at the very least, social media analytics and management tools (like Buffer, Hootsuite), SEO tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs, Content analytics tools like Buzzsumo, and agency management software and tools like Function Point to maximize your productivity. You’ll also need a complete office suite (Microsoft 365 or Google Suite) and a digital asset management solution like Dropbox. 
  • Content planning. It’s crucial to plan your content in advance so you can batch and schedule your tasks to maximize efficiency. This also allows us to delegate the right tasks to the right people. 
  • Automation: implement automation whenever possible. Tools like Hootsuite, for example, allows us to schedule the posts to minimize manual labor. 
  • Outsource: If possible, outsource some of the more repetitive and redundant tasks to third-party vendors, provided it’s a cost-effective choice. 

Closing Thoughts

Starting a social media marketing agency is certainly not an easy task, but in the end, your hard work will be worth it once you’ll get a steady stream of clients. 

The key here is to really understand your client’s needs and problems and be a viable solution for them. Keep a mindset that you’ll grow by helping your clients grow in social media marketing results. 

7 Tips to Keep Your Employees Motivated in A Post Lockdown Environment

Posted on by Priya Jain
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Shared lunches, team outings, and birthday celebrations have one thing in common: they happen together. But with people confined to their homes as offices are slowly opening up, the workplace scene is likely to be quite different.

Employers have to rethink their employee motivation and engagement approaches because what probably worked before COVID-19 may no longer be feasible, especially since you have to encourage your employees to maintain adequate social distancing and follow all precautions even at the workplace. 

Shared lunches and team outings may not be as enjoyable as earlier because you would want to limit the physical interactions. 

Amidst such a scenario, employees’ motivation level goes into turmoil, and lack of motivation reduces employee engagement level, thereby impacting their productivity and decreasing employee retention. 

In this article, we will discuss a few ways to keep your employees motivated after they return to the office. 

7 Tips to Keep Your Employees Motivated in a Post Lockdown Environment

According to a report by Gallup, only 36% of employees are engaged in the workplace. With this statistic in mind, companies need to take employee motivation seriously. Here are seven practical ways of achieving it:

1. Focus on employee wellbeing

With studies showing that a wellness program can provide a return on investment, overlooking could be the difference between engaged and disengaged employees. 

Wellbeing isn’t just about physical health. It’s more about how your job, duties, stress level, and environment affect your employee’s overall health and happiness. It entails mood, cognition, and factors like a sense of purpose. 

Your employees spend most of their waking lives at the office, so businesses must prioritize employee wellbeing to foster employee satisfaction and productivity.

That’s why companies worldwide focus on providing wellbeing initiatives like health, financial and professional social, personal development, and work-life balance.

Considering the specific needs of your office location, exploring reputable commercial cleaning services in Phoenix could be advantageous if your office is set up in Phoenix.

From making lunch break mandatory, reinforcing the benefits of taking sick leaves to starting employee recognition programs, and planning regular team-building activities, these initiatives will go a long way to create a motivated workforce in such an unprecedented time. 

Interesting fact: 86% of employees prioritize health initiatives from their company, and 24% expect 24/7 access to health care professionals.

2. Offer counseling sessions

With more than one year of staying indoors and working from home, your employees will find it challenging to get back to their old schedule. 

In such a situation, it’s normal for employees to feel left out, feel demotivated, and lose interest in their work due to a changing work environment. Furthermore, with the pandemic far from being over, employees may be hesitant to join back. 

To answer your employee’s questions and eliminate their apprehension regarding joining back, it’s advisable to conduct counseling sessions. Also, work-focused psychotherapy is likely to help employees return to work, remove their fears, and prepare them to cope with the challenges they might face. 

Counseling sessions are a great way to motivate employees and help them cope up with workplace dynamics. 

Interesting fact: With every $1 a company invests in treating common mental illness through counseling and other medical processes, a company gets a return of $4 in improved employee productivity. 

3. Offer financial help

COVID-19 has made life difficult for the families of 24% of employees because these employees witnessed a reduction in their income. When returning to work after the lockdown, you would like to ensure that your employees are supported in every possible way to keep them motivated and engaged. 

That’s why providing financial assistance to your returning employees could be one of the best motivation factors. From offering debt counseling to assisting with money management, you can train and encourage employees to help them financially get back on their feet.

 Interesting fact: With one in four workers reporting that financial worries adversely affect their ability to perform their duties, providing financial guidance and help can reduce stress and increase the happiness index of your employees. 

4. Provide timely recognition

One of the easiest ways of engaging and motivating employees after the lockdown is by providing timely recognition of their work. You can also gather valuable feedback through avenues like employee satisfaction survey questions to understand how employees feel about recognition practices and ensure that they are motivated and appreciated.

Employee recognition doesn’t have to be delivered in a fancy way. Saying “Good Job” for a work done exceptionally in front of everyone is a great motivator and enhances the employee’s morale.

When you appreciate employees for their efforts, they feel worthy, and it instills a sense of gratification and belonging. Interestingly, this sense of gratification fills employees with joy and happiness, which eventually translates into the zeal to achieve more. 

Also, timely recognition of work may act as an inspiration for others. This can motivate them and inspire their team members to give their cent percent at work. 

Interesting fact: Timely employee recognition can increase employee productivity, performance, and engagement by 14%.

5. Provide a flexible work schedule

As your employees are probably returning to the office after more than 18 months, they are used to enjoying a flexible work schedule and maintaining a healthy work balance. Expecting your employees to come out of this comfort zone within a few days of joining back is unrealistic. 

Whether you like it or not, most of your employees would find it difficult to catch the unlock wagon. This is because they fear infection or are apprehensive about leaving their family at home or simply because they enjoy working remotely more than traveling to the office. 

So, to motivate your employees to join with full enthusiasm, consider offering a flexible work schedule like remote work for two days and three days at the office. 

Flexibility allows your employees to settle into their old work schedule faster and without facing any issues. These efforts from your end would gradually scale up their engagement levels. 

Interesting statistic: 40% of employees want flexible work hours, and three in five workers prefer to continue remote work post-lockdown.

6. Provide a safe environment

Another important way to boost the motivation and excitement level of an employee returning to the office is by providing a safe environment and removing their paranoia of getting infected while at work. 

If possible, describe how you plan to make the workplace safe to work. Above all, your employees have to feel safe physically and mentally. 

Apart from physical considerations, work towards creating a culture where employees don’t face the repercussions for expressing their feelings about heading back to work. 

You can achieve this by creating a safety initiative policy and communicating it to your entire team. Your policy may include details regarding physical distancing, symptom checks, PPE requirements, testing, and enhanced cleaning and sanitization of the workplace.

Some other ways to make your employee feel safe and engaged are:

  • Creating a COVID-19 response team for your office
  • Frequently disinfecting common areas
  • Installing hand sanitizer throughout your workplace
  • Arranging for safe transportation medium like providing cabs and buses for travel
  • Checking temperature of employees daily       

Such safety initiatives from your end will motivate employees to return to a safe environment. They would no longer worry about the pandemic and concentrate more on their work. 

Interesting statistic: 51% of employees expect social distancing requirements, and 45% of employees want detailed cleaning protocols when returning to work.

7. Provide your full support

Parents and guardians are trying hard to blend work and home remotely. They expect companies to provide child care benefits upon returning to the office in a post lockdown environment. 

Providing a child care benefit may prove a costly burden initially but would deliver fruitful results in the long term. A child care benefit can become a motivating factor for employees who constantly fear the well-being of their children while they are at work.

To motivate your employees and increase their engagement level without levying a dent in your financials, focus on providing these child care benefits:

  • Offer child care subsidies
  • Foster a culture of flexible work schedule
  • Provide a company-sponsored child care facility near the office
  • Include backup child care assistance to deal with issues like school closing, a spouse getting sick, or other unprecedented events
  • Offer a flexible child care spending account

Interesting fact: The job performance of 60% of employees who don’t receive child care benefits would increase if their company provides these benefits to them.

Motivating your employees

Returning to work after lockdown will be unusual, strange, and probably new. The sooner your employees adapt to this paradigm shift, the more engaged they will be at their work.

Interestingly, highly engaged employees are not those who come and leave the office on time.  They are employees who feel good about what they are doing and perform to their best capabilities to finish a task as per expectations. 

Such positive vibes will make your employees happy and replenish their motivation level. 

That’s why companies worldwide never hesitate to invest in employee engagement programs, as it does more good than harm. 

These seven strategies are a good place to start with and get back your employees in your old 

form. 

How are you planning to keep your employees motivated and engaged?

Share your thoughts with us!

Author Bio:

Priya Jain is a professional copywriter with 8 years of experience. She has an MBA and engineering degree. When she is not writing, you will find her teaching math, spending her day running behind her toddler, and trying new recipes. You can follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter.  

What is Content Moderation

Posted on by Emma Yulini
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What is content moderation? It refers to monitoring and removing from the user-generated content the unwanted parts based on platform-specific rules and criteria. It helps ascertain whether you can use the content on the platform or not. When content such as review or feedback is submitted on a website, it undergoes a review process to ensure that it adheres to the website’s rules. Content moderation is crucial as it helps a website maintain a database of clean data.

Content moderation is common on digital platforms that rely on user-generated content (UGC). They include e-commerce websites, social media, and dating websites. Below are the benefits of content moderation.

Importance of Content Moderation

It improves your site’s search engine ranking and traffic

Content moderation helps improve your website’s search engine ranking organically. Better quality content, including user-generated content (UGC), allows you to rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). By directing more people to your content, your website gets more traffic.

It protects your brand

Users have varying tastes and preferences. Therefore, you cannot always guarantee that all the UGC on your website conforms to your standard and community guidelines. Content moderators help protect your forum, social media account, or website from any undesirable user-generated content. By keeping your customers happy through positive engagements on your content platforms, the content moderators help maintain a good reputation and protect your brand. To ensure it delivers value, user-generated content needs to be moderated along various touchlines.

Gaining user insights

By content moderation, you understand your community better. Content moderators may go through the user-generated content to see how they are responding to your services. Companies can then use data and sentiment analysis to come up with brand-centered offers. A company can use content moderation of user-generated content not only in marketing but also in product design.

Protecting your online community

Your online community needs to feel safe from trolls, spam, and explicit content. They should be free to express their opinions on matters that concern the brand. Content moderation is essential in making your online platform from such offensive content.

Other benefits of content moderation include scaling your marketing campaigns and keeping pre-cleaned data.

There are several types of content moderation. The type of content moderation used by a specific company depends on the nature of services it offers and the volume of user-generated content. Having understood what is content moderation, what are its types?

Types of content moderation

Pre-Moderation

In this method, all the content submitted by registered representatives or users is given to the verification team. The verification team uses various criteria to detect any infringement that the content may contain. Therefore, in pre-moderation, the offensive or inappropriate content is removed before it is visible on the website. Pre-moderation is an ideal choice for the online communities that cater to high-risk users, like children, to prevent bullying and sexual advancements. A good example is Facebook and online gaming platforms.

Post-Moderation

From the user-experience view, in online platforms that require moderation, post-moderation is better than pre-moderation. The content is posted on the site but replicated in a queue to be examined by a moderator later. It allows conversations to take place immediately within users. The platform operator becomes the legal publisher of the content as the community grows. Unfortunately, for some communities like celebrity-based news, this can be a risk.

Reactive moderation

In this type of moderation, a company relies on the users to flag that they deem inappropriate or in contravention of the company’s rules. It acts as a safety net to the unsuitable content that gets past the moderators when used alongside other types of moderation.

Automated moderation

This type of moderation uses technical tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for content processing and moderation. It applies predefined rules and natural language processing to approve or reject user-generated content. A word filter is the most commonly used tool in automated moderation. A dictionary of banned words and the tool either replaces, flags the word for review, or rejects the post entirely. In addition, the captcha system is used to establish if a user is a human or a bot.

Other types of automated moderation

  • Block keyword – The system rejects any post containing a specific word
  • Image filter – Here, the tool removes all posts having banned images such as violence or nudity.
  • Block user – Auto-moderation rejects a specific user’s all incoming content.
  • Whitelist User – The system approves all the incoming posts that belong to a specific user. They bypass the moderator’s queue.

No moderation

Though an option, choosing not to moderate content in the current age can prove fatal. With the advent of online stalking, cybercrimes, and hate crimes, businesses and companies have grown serious about content moderation.

The Do’s and Don’ts of content moderation

The Don’ts of content moderation

Wait long before starting to moderate your content

Do not wait for long before starting to moderate your content. As your platform grows, you need to have a scheme for creating user-generated content moderately.

Misinterpret a good content

Quality content is essential in creating user confidence and achieving a robust user experience on your platform. Avoid misinterpreting good content that you end up dismissing user-generated content merely because it is negative.

The Do’s of content moderation

Moderate all content

To see to it that there are fun interactions on your platform, ensure that all the content is moderated correctly, be it photos, text, or videos.

Have clear rules and guidelines

Your content moderation rules and guidelines must be transparent to all those who engage in content moderation on your platform.

Need fitting moderation form

What is the kind of content, and who are the users on your platform? This creates a picture of what criteria for moderation and configuration to use.

Outsourcing Content Moderation

If your company needs professional content moderation, you should outsource it. The benefits of outsourcing rather than hiring in-house include:

It frees you from hiring and training new content moderators

Form a team of professional content moderators takes much time. This involves hiring, training, performance feedback, and monitoring. Instead of going all through this, why not just outsource? This way, you get to concentrate on the core functions of your business.

Expert content moderators

Through Oworkers, you get the help of expert moderators. Outsourcing companies keep a roster of professional moderators who will give you quality moderation support for your platform.

Necessary tool and ready knowledge

Outsourcing companies ensure that all the tools, workforce, and processes are available before offering a business solution. By outsourcing your content moderation, you avoid the costs of setting up new offices, getting resources, hiring and training a new team. Therefore, you do not need to buy tools or hire and train your content creation team.

Bottom Line

To ensure fun and exciting interactions between the users of your platform, content moderation is vital. Additionally, moderating your content using any of the above techniques has many advantages. Outsourcing your content moderation needs saves you time and money while offering you the highest quality services.

Fleet Management: 4 Key Tactics To Improve Efficiency

Posted on by Charlene Brown
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Fleet Management is an important aspect of any business. With the introduction of autonomous and electric vehicles, fleet management will only become more complicated in the years to come. There are many things a company can do to improve efficiency with their fleet. The following article discusses four key tactics that can improve efficiency in the fleet management process. 

1. Monitor Fleet Performance & Utilization with GPS Tracking

GPS tracking is an effective way to monitor performance and utilization. A GPS tracking system allows you to get real-time information on your vehicles, including driver behavior.

Vehicle data is also recorded by trucking GPS, including driver location and driving habits. This can be useful when reviewing vital data to improve efficiency, as well as in the event of any fleet insurance claims. It also helps you monitor how often your drivers are visiting locations that may be a safety hazard, which can help you identify any potential motor vehicle accidents. 

Managers can use this information to their advantage by analyzing data from the time of day and times of the year to understand what areas pose safety risks for drivers. Additionally, the GPS tracking system records vehicle data such as speed and braking to help monitor how efficiently your drivers are operating their vehicles. GPS tracking is also necessary when it comes to driver physical fitness. A GPS tracking system allows you to track pedometer steps throughout the workday, as well as monitor all maintenance records in order to ensure that all vehicles are being maintained at optimal performance levels.

2. Use Route Planning Software

Route planning software uses advanced algorithms to help organizations plan and arrange multi-stop delivery routes in the most effective way feasible. Routing and scheduling software, or route optimization software, is another name for it. UpperInc is vehicle routing and scheduling software.

It’s no surprise that software-assisted route planning are significantly more accurate than manually planned routes when all the relevant factors are included, as well as the amount of possible permutations. As a result, you’ll be able to consistently deliver things to clients when you say you would, resulting in happier customers. When you do it day after day for months or years, you acquire the loyalty and repeat business of those consumers.

3. Use The Latest In Telematics To Monitor Driver Behavior

GPS fleet management telematics technology can also be used to monitor driver behavior in real-time, including speeding and harsh braking. Managers can receive alerts whenever a driver violates safety regulations, as well as drivers that make frequent stops without letting the vehicle idle. Managers use this information to hold employees accountable for their actions in the workplace. Telematics technology is extremely useful when it comes to making sure all employees on your team are adhering to company policies. According to the experts at FleetOptix.com, a fleet dash cam system can provide you with real-time information that is one of the most important factors when it comes to improving efficiency. Management software used by businesses provides real-time data on drive times, speed limits, vehicles maintenance records, and potential hazards and safety concerns along routes. This allows you to have complete control over operations, as well as be involved in the day-to-day maintenance of vehicles. 

4. Monitor Fleet Maintenance Records

Fleet managers should be aware of any trends or patterns that may be impacting their fleet’s performance or causing vehicle damage. Management software can also help monitor maintenance records to ensure all vehicles are being properly maintained at optimal operating levels. Using this information, you can make adjustments as necessary to ensure your fleet is performing at its full potential. Managers can use the information from management software to make sure all vehicles are being properly maintained and adjust routes to manage safety concerns. Maintenance records can help shed light on any problem areas that may be affecting vehicle utilization or overall performance. The maintenance records can also help identify any problems with employees that may be causing problems in your fleet. Once you’ve identified the problem areas, you can take steps to improve efficiency. 

5. Use Your Fleet Operations Manual To Reduce Risk

It is extremely important for managers to continually track and update their operations manual with current regulations and best practices within the industry. Fleet management software uses GPS tracking data to monitor driver behavior at all times, including potential infractions such as speeding and harsh braking that violate company policies. Continually reviewing your operations manual can help you take the necessary steps to reduce risk and increase efficiency. Ensure that your manual is up-to-date with current regulations and best practices, as well as any pertinent safety information for driving in your area. Operations manual best practices include maintaining a fleet that is always at optimal working levels, as well as providing regular maintenance to ensure vehicles are running at their peak performance.

Fleet management is a key factor in keeping your business safe along the road. Managers should be aware of any trends or patterns that may be impacting their fleet’s performance or causing vehicle damage. Management software can also help monitor maintenance records in order to make sure all vehicles are being properly maintained at optimal operating levels. Using this information, you can make adjustments as necessary to ensure your fleet is performing at its full potential. 

How to Launch Your Career in Project Management

Posted on by Devika Ohri
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Regardless of what field you are working in, project management will be an integral component of your organization. By employing project management strategies, you can ensure accuracy and quality in your projects and meet the expectations of your customers. However, starting a career in project management is not as simple as it sounds. Read on to learn how you can launch your career in the field of project management:

Requirements

Anyone can pursue a career in the field of project management. However, there are certain qualifications that can give you an edge over your competitors. If you have any of the following qualifications, your career path will become a lot easier:

  • A bachelor’s degree in business or management
  • A master’s degree in business management of project management
  • Certificate in project management
  • `Relevant work experience

If you work in a management domain or obtain a degree in project management, you will be able to gain the skills needed to succeed in this role. Another option is pursuing a curse that allows you to obtain the skills you need. Here are some skills that you will need in order to be a successful project manager:

1. Strong leadership and analytical skills

As a manager, it is your responsibility to lead large teams and analyze business decisions. With strong analytical and leadership skills, you will be able to improve your team’s productivity and be more efficient.

2. Risk management skills

When you are a manager, you also have to look out for potential risks and issues and develop strategies on how you can mitigate them. You will need risk management skills for protecting your company from potential crises.

3. Patience and perseverance

To be a good manager, you have to be patient with your team employees. Also, in case any process fails, you have to continue and not give up. Most importantly, you should know how to analyze mistakes and make sure that they aren’t repeated.

4. General business skills

You must have a basic understanding of business skills like negotiation skills, delegation skills, and diplomacy. This will ensure that you are able to manage each project effectively. Most of these skills can be learned and the right online negotiation course can teach you more about one-on-one or group negotiation techniques.

5. Basic technological skills

Today, every business has a technological aspect. As a manager, you will need basic technological skills for making sure that your business has seamless management.

6. Communication skills

As a manager, you will need excellent oral and written communication skills for avoiding any misunderstandings and confusion.

7. Time management skills

Time is money. That is why, as a manager, you are responsible for maintaining the highest standards of punctuality and time management. You have to make sure that all the projects are finished and timely delivered.

Launch your career

Here are a few steps that will help you launch your career in project management:

1. Networking

Before you take on a new career, the first thing that you have to do is find out about the field as much as you can. To do this, you can talk to professionals who have experience in project management. They will help you understand the fulfilling aspects of the field and the challenges you might face.

2. An online course

There are several online courses on project management. This is a time-saving approach that will help you start your career as a project manager. It will give you an introduction to the subject and get an understanding of the basics so that you can deal with the challenges.

3. Pursue a degree

Once you have a basic understanding of project management, you can go for a higher degree like an MBA to become an expert on the subject and get a more in-depth understanding of the subject. A degree will also improve your employability in the field.

4. Gain certifications

As a project manager, you have to keep updating your skills and the best way to do that is through project management certifications like PMP. A Project Management professional training program will help you stay updated on the latest trends in the field.

Conclusion

So, these were the skills you need to obtain and the steps you need to follow for launching your career in project management. Once you do this, you will have a multitude of opportunities waiting for you.