How to Make Your Online Community a Safer Place

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Edward Brown

At a time when we need to limit the amount of physical contact and interaction we do, it’s vital to find ways to keep in touch with others. Surviving through the pandemic isn’t just about getting out of being physically healthy, it’s also about getting out mentally fit as well.

To fight the sense of isolation and loneliness, one thing you can do is engage in online communities with people that share the same interests as you. Of course, there are dangers when it comes to online communities. Whether you’re a moderator or a part of the community, it’s always better to stay free from toxicity and potential threats online.

Let’s put you in the position of a moderator. This makes you the leader of the community and in some cases, you are the founder as well.

How can you ensure that the people within your community are safe? Here are some tips you might want to consider.

Get A Content Moderator

If people are free to post their content and thoughts on your community, then it’s imperative that you take the time to moderate what is posted on your platform. Understandably, not everyone has the time to do this but there are ways you can do this without having to do it yourself.

Of course, we are talking about hiring online moderators that do the job for you. It’s a little expense on your end but it’s an investment that keeps your community happy and well-regulated.

A content moderator will basically browse through all of the user-submitted content in your forum or page. It would be best to hire multilingual online content moderation services so that more people have the opportunity to enjoy your community safely. It’s the easiest way to filter content without having to go through hoops on your end.

Aside from keeping your community safe, content moderation also helps you abide by community standards set by certain platforms.

For instance, Facebook has community standards even for the Groups features. If the Group you own breaks those guidelines, the group can be deleted entirely. It would feel horrible to have your page taken down because of the post made by others.

Filter The Community Rigorously

Some platforms allow you to filter all of the people that join your community. For instance, Facebook lets you set a few questions that interested people will need to answer should they join the group. Once submitted, you can check out their answers and it’s going to be up to you whether or not they are allowed to join.

It may seem bothersome on your end to set up such restrictions on your page but trust us, it can pay off. Aside from filtering your members, these will also prevent bots and spammers from getting into your community. Thus, making everyone much safer within.

Some people won’t even try answering the questions once they see it on your Groups application menu. However, that only serves your community better. You’re at least guaranteed that every person in the community is passionate and serious about joining.

Be Clear About Your Rules And Regulations

Every online community thrives on proper management. Without a proper set of rules and regulations, no online community will be safe for anyone. As such, it is important that from the very beginning, you become clear about what you expect from members of the online community.

Setting a list of do’s and don’ts to follow is a must to keep an online community safe. Some of the common rules that benefit every member include prohibiting hate speech, racial slurs, adulterated content, and even the sharing of pirated content. It’s safeguarding not just your members but your community as well.

The rules and regulations should be visible upfront. On Facebook, you can pin it at the top of the page so all members will see it once they get to your community’s hub. You can also do this on other platforms such as online forums and community websites.

The key to making a good set of rules and regulations to abide by is to make sure that everyone benefits from it. There is such a thing as being too strict about the rules. If you are having trouble setting your own regulations, you can turn to other online community owners for help to ask them about what rules they set and go from there.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ban Or Remove Members

A common mistake that community owners make is being too afraid to remove members. It’s understandable that as a community owner, you’d want to see your group grow larger in numbers. However, it’s more important to keep your members happy and satisfied.

If you continue to keep toxic and offensive members for the sake of keeping your community large, you’ll end up with fewer members because others will leave on site.

The best way to regulate your members is by giving them at least three chances when it comes to bannable offenses. Make a list of members who break the rules and once they commit a mistake three times in a row, then you should bid goodbye to them immediately.

Understandably, some offenses are heavier than others. For instance, if one member engages in hate speed on your platform, then it would be best to have him or her removed immediately.

To be fair to others, make it possible for those that have been banned to rejoin the community eventually. Give them a few months of probation before letting them join again. Like with banning, some offenses are unforgivable so it would be best to let members who commit such acts permanently be banned from the community.

Running a community is not just about making the most members. It’s also about making each and every one of your members feel safe and respected. With the world in the state that it’s in, the last thing anyone would want is to get toxicity online. Communities online should be a safe haven for everyone.

How are Small Businesses affected by Hafnium Microsoft Exchange Breach?

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Hamza Razzaq

The cyberattack on Microsoft Exchange email servers has impacted thousands of small businesses, government organizations, enterprises, educational institutions, etc. This led Microsoft to scramble quickly to patch those vulnerabilities that hackers have exploited. As of now, Microsoft was able to patch all the zero-day flaws that caused the Hafnium Exchange breach, but it is beyond the capabilities of small businesses to secure their compromised systems. In this blog, we will shed light on the Microsoft Exchange breach and then related it to the challenges that small businesses have to face for the next few months.

Hafnium Microsoft Exchange Breach

Analysts from Volexity first detected the exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities of Microsoft Exchange in March 2021. Those vulnerabilities helped hacking group so-called Hafnium, a Chinese state-sponsored group, to get access to email accounts associated with Microsoft Exchange without requiring any authentication credentials. As per Microsoft, the attacks were conducted in three steps, as follow:

Hackers started with getting access to the Microsoft Exchange server by either account credentials they had stolen or utilizing the vulnerabilities to present themselves as a person who has the right to access.
By developing a web shell, the hackers then remotely controlled the breached server and all additional backdoors to set up more access points.
Using remote access, the hackers then stole the sensitive data from the corporation server, mostly email addresses and passwords, because they are stored unencrypted by Microsoft Exchange.

Hafnium’s main objective was to extract sensitive data from thousands of Exchange associated corporations, such as educational institutes, law firms, non-governmental organizations, defense contractors, and other small and medium businesses.

Microsoft Response

In response to the hacks, Microsoft released multiple security patches for Exchange Server to overcome the zero-day vulnerabilities. Microsoft also urged all Exchange users working with Exchange 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 versions to patch the servers on priority. Despite the patch release, Censys a cybersecurity company, says that above 50% of those versions of Exchange Servers left unpatched and vulnerable to potential threats. Besides that, many other hackers have also come up to use this loophole and make an impact.

Exchange Breach Impacts

As of now, around 30,000 U.S. organizations are hit by the breach. Mostly the victims were U.S. organizations, but Germany, UK, Netherlands, and few others were also the target. Although all kinds of organizations, whether large enterprises or small businesses, are the victims, the larger enterprises are still in a better place to investigate their systems and remove all malware, web shells, and other vulnerabilities in minimal time. Because patching the vulnerabilities is just one stage for recovery, but clearing all the after-effects of hacking is another crucial stage. This second stage is quite challenging for small businesses to meet due to the lack of resources and expertise.

Effects on Small Businesses

Thousands of small businesses have also been the victim of the Hafnium Exchange breach, and most of those businesses by now have installed the security patches from Microsoft. But when it comes to investigating the system to avoid further infections, such as ransomware or destructive malware, small businesses clearly lag there. Mostly, small businesses outsource their technical support to IT providers, but such IT providers are just experienced in setting and managing IT systems. For addressing cyber-attacks, such providers cannot be trusted.

Restricted budgets and no serious plans of cybersecurity are making small businesses’ systems further vulnerable to threats for many months to come. And since many other hacking groups are also taking advantage of the situation, it is the worst situation for small businesses. As per ESET, at minimum ten other hacking groups are using the same server flaws to breach through organizations systems.

IT Department Tasks

For small businesses, removing initial web shells is easy with their IT administration’s help and following the Microsoft guidelines, but doing the next investigation demands dedicated skills. The world is already seeing high demand for cybersecurity experts, and the present cybersecurity experts also present a significant skills gap. Therefore, it is also quite difficult for small businesses to find highly trained experts and willing to be part of such an organization when they can easily score a high position in big enterprises.

There is also a possibility that small businesses don’t even know that they are hit, and in case they know about it, they still need proper guidance to know how to proceed next. Seeing the gap of expertise from small businesses and the potential of Exchange Server hack, Microsoft has provided detailed guidance for helping IT staff what to do. CISA has also provided a tool and advice to look for server logs to get evidence of a compromise. So, small businesses have multiple approaches and resources they can utilize in order to get out of the victim-zone in minimal time. But all such measures do not guarantee complete system recovery and protection, owing to the fact that other hacking groups have also used their own approaches to exploit Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities.

Patch Problems

Many sites that are not hit with the Hafnium intrusion have been put offline for another problem. The process of applying Microsoft Exchange Server patches often leads to network disruption. To apply the Hafnium patch requires an Exchange Site must update all prior patches. This process of updating has been a disaster for many sites, as their systems are taken offline and do not recover. No one is able to contact Microsoft for a fix.

Conclusion

Hafnium Microsoft Exchange breach is one of 2021 biggest attacks seen by now. It is far more invasive than the recent SolarWinds Breach, which affected mostly Government organizations. and the worst part is the after-effects of these breaches. Suppose 30,000 U.S. organizations are hit by this hack, then despite the Microsoft patches. In that case, there will be many organizations that are going to be exploited by Hafnium and other hacking groups due to hidden backdoors, etc. Compared to all such organizations, small businesses are the most vulnerable ones. Therefore, it is a need of time that Microsoft and other cybersecurity firms play a helping hand in making those victim businesses get rid of possible malware by facilitating in thorough investigations. Besides that, opting for cloud servers and migrating workloads to the cloud can also facilitate small businesses to avoid getting a victim of such breaches in the future.

Expert Tips for Choosing the Right VPN

Posted on March 27, 2021 by Charlene Brown

A VPN can be used for a variety of reasons, from use within your personal/home life, to use within your business and work life. No two VPN providers offer the same packages and because of this, it can make your decision a little more tricky. Choosing a VPN needs to be done once you have researched the market and once you have established exactly what it is that you want. If you are not aware of what is out there then it is wise to browse the market first and foremost. Once you have done browsing you will be able to compile a list of must-haves. So, what must-haves do you need – Is speed important, is server location essential?

How To Get The Right VPN – The Considerations

With a VPN provider, there are lots of other things you still need to consider. From cost and coverage to reliability and usability. With so many choices out there it can feel a little bit overwhelming so it is best to use VPNBrains who can, and will narrow down your choices.

You need to ensure that you get the right Anonymous VPN for your personal use and business use. Comparing providers ensures you get the best value for money too! In addition to comparing providers you can also establish which VPN is right for you by considering the following:

Security And Protection On Offer

Not all VPNs offer the same level of security. For example, some cannot guarantee top-level security in certain countries. If security is one of the main reasons you want to use a VPN, for example, you want to use a public or shared computer but you don’t want to share your data and information, or, you want to browse websites with added security behind you then it is crucial you check the VPNs security offer. If they don’t highlight how good their security offering is then it is probably best to look elsewhere.

Price Monthly Or Annually

If affordability is a consideration you need to think about how you can pay and when you can pay. Some providers only accept PayPal or Payoneer. Is this right for you and your lifestyle. Some providers demand an annual subscription – Can you afford this. Price consideration is important as paying month by month can also end up costing you more in the long run. It is also wise to track prices for a few days as lots of well-known VPN providers change their prices, even by a few cents every so often to attract new custom.

Reviews and Recommendations

What other users are saying and how they are reacting to a brand is important. Pay attention to the customer service that they provide, and pay attention to how quickly issues get resolved. For example, if you have an issue will they resolve it quickly or will you be paying full subscription costs for a while until they can be bothered to rectify any issues you may be experiencing. Some reviews can be fake and malicious, so it is important to have your guard up when using reviews. Also, on the flip side, there can be fake reviews stating how good a VPN is, when it is a load of rubbish, so watch out for this too. Doing due diligence and utilizing a few recommendation and review websites will ensure that you don’t get caught out.

Usage Within Your Country

This sounds simple enough right, but in reality, not all VPNs work in your country or provide adequate servers for you to use. Choice and selection are important when choosing a VPN. Everyone deserves a good selection for their subscription price and if you are not getting it, or you are not going to get it within your country then look for another provider. If a provider offers limited coverage within your country of use then you will quickly be left feeling frustrated and annoyed. Coverage and quality are important especially when purchasing annual subscriptions so always check the terms and conditions before signing up and parting with any money, and, of course, don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as possible.

A few days of research and use of comparison websites should be all that you need to ensure you choose the right VPN provider for you. Remember to ensure the site is legitimate and authentic before paying for any services as there are lots of fakes out there who look very similar to the real thing, and once you have parted with your money it can be very difficult to reclaim, so, always ensure you use real and trusted sites no matter what.

Law Firm: Marketing Tips From The Experts

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Charlene Brown

Following a year notable for the COVID-19 pandemic, law firms being among the most competitive markets now have to take marketing more seriously to get more clients and stand out from their competitors.

Given how people search and get information on the web these days, marketing your law firm can be an uphill battle. However, digital marketing has continued to be useful for businesses, and here are six marketing tips to help you understand some fundamental elements of online marketing for law firms.

Identify Your Target Market

A good rule of thumb in marketing is to know your customers so well, that you know what they like, where they are, and how to reach them. To define your target market, you need to ask yourself questions like “What type of clients do I want?”

Usually, law firms have a particular niche which is often based on the type of cases they want, or their practice area. Some attorneys want workers’ compensation claims or a personal injury case, while others want disability claims, etc. If a firm focuses on family law, they’ll need a different messaging than a class action attorney. So first, identify your target market.

Build A Strong Conversion-focused Website

Law firms must strive to stand out by design by creating a custom website that shines the spotlight on your firm’s unique selling proposition. Your website is the foundation of your Internet marketing efforts, where you provide basic information about your services and show your expertise for your current and potential clients.

There are many aspects to consider when evaluating your website design. For attorneys, It’s about showing prospective clients why they should choose your firm over your competitors. Your website should focus on the User Experience. This way, prospective clients should be able to scan your website and find what they are looking for without missing the point.

Conversion is the proof of an excellent website, let yours guide the users to answers they are seeking and ultimately make them contact you.

Optimize For Search Engine

SEO (search engine optimization) is simply the science or art of ranking high on search engine result pages when searches make queries online. Unfortunately, developing, implementing, and maintaining a successful SEO strategy for law firms takes time, energy, and technical knowledge that many busy attorneys don’t have, yet, it is as important as the other part of your marketing strategy in this digital age.

Some useful SEO practices include;

Targeting local keywords to show up for relevant searches in your area.
Categorizing your website for visitors to find the pages they want, especially if you offer different services.
Optimizing your pages to make it easy for search engines to read, therefore allowing you to compete with other local firms.

Start Using Email

Global email users amounted to 4.48 billion users (Indectron), that figure is said to likely grow to 4.85 billion users by 2027. If you think about it, that’s half the world’s population.

Attorneys have a lot on their plates. That is why we offer email marketing for lawyers because we understand that you have to handle cases and still think of how to find leads to bring in fresh cases.

While word-of-mouth and referral marketing bring in clients, today, email marketing is one of the most effective types of digital marketing. This is not only because it is cost less compared to mainstream marketing channels, but because it can help you keep in touch with an extensive network of contacts by sending them informative, interesting, and engaging content. A simple email every so often can help you stay at the top of peoples’ minds so that if they need an attorney in the future, they know who to call.

Create Valuable Content

No matter the type of law you practice, understand that your clients need help. And for most people, it begins with a google search before they choose a law firm to work with. According to a 2020 study, 86% of study respondents said they would use Google as their resource for researching a lawyer online.

To meet this group of people at the point of their need, you need to produce content that answers all of their questions. This will show potential clients you can help them.

Creating valuable content helps you build authority and shows that you’re the best attorney around.

Create A Solid Social Media Presence

As a law firm, to be successful, you need to connect with old and new clients, so you can drive more business through the Internet.

Consider the fact that almost everyone uses social media, including your new clients, so maintaining an authoritative and professional profile on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms is essential to your firm’s growth.

There are significant reasons law firms need to inculcate the above into their overall marketing strategy. One of them is that you will get a huge return on investment through new clients. If done well, these marketing tips will not only make you an authoritative brand in the legal industry, but they will deliver impressive, measurable results.

How to Set Up a Business Abroad

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Boris Dzhingarov

There are many reasons why you might want to set up a business abroad. You may have a fantastic idea or business that you want to introduce to the rest of the world. You may decide that locating part or all of your operations abroad is more cost effective for you. It may be that you have plans to emigrate at a later date and want to set up a successful business first with a view to moving once you have established your income abroad. Whatever the reason, here are some things to consider first.

Research the Area

Researching the local area is important. An idea might work incredibly well in the USA, but it may not work abroad at all. You will need to consider the local customs, traditions, workforce, and the best way of marketing your product locally. Spend some time in the country and get to know it well. Learn the language if you can’t already speak it. This will help you to overcome communication barriers. Enlist the help of local people to set up and run your business and listen to the advice they give you about the region. After all, they know it better than you do.

Politics

Check the political stability of the country you want to set up your business in. It has been known for businesses to lose money following a coup as the new government can reappropriate their funds. Make sure that this doesn’t happen to you by watching the news to make sure the country of your choice has good political stability.

Legal Issues

The law is different in every country. Make sure you research everything, from employment law, to buying or renting workspace, and business law. Seek the advice of an independent lawyer who speaks English and has a fantastic knowledge of everything relating to business law. Makes sure they are in the area in which you are setting up the business, and they will help ensure you stay on the right side of the local law.

Financing

Whether you are trying to raise money to finance your venture or simply need to pay for the day to day running of your business, the financial side is crucial to the success of your scheme. Make sure that you have set this up before you sign any legal paperwork, or you could find yourself in trouble. You might want to consider using the Ria Money Transfer App to have money sent overseas and make sure that your running expenses are covered and always paid on time.

Taxation Laws

Tax laws can change depending on the country you are receiving income from. It may be that it is necessary for you to submit tax returns for the USA and the country where your business is located. Make sure you know what you are supposed to do and by which date, as failure to do so could result in hefty fines or the closure of your business.

Follow these guidelines to make sure that setting up your empire abroad is a smooth process and continues to work well in the longer term too.

12 Reasons to Use Video Content for Small Business

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Roy Emmerson

Video content is the future. It’s an effective way to promote products and services, as well as a powerful source of traffic to the website. Every business owner or entrepreneur should take full advantage of the video format to expand the audience, increase their trust, and boost sales.

44% of people are more likely to order a product after they watch a video about it. 83% of video marketers say video helps them with lead generation. You may not believe this data, but you can’t deny the obvious: video content is the future.

People upload approximately 100 hours of videos to YouTube every minute. This platform has become the second largest search engine in the world. Dynamic content (video content) is a success on Facebook and Instagram. A substantial proof of the statement that video content is the future of our world – TikTok. This platform has quickly gained worldwide popularity, although people can post only videos on TikTok.

According to Hubspot, 94% of marketers agree that videos have helped increase user understanding of their product or service. 43% reporting that video has reduced the number of product support calls their company has received.

Video is something more than entertainment

The bulk of videos on the Internet are entertainment content. But this doesn’t stop the video from being used for informational and commercial purposes. Video content makes it possible to show a product, present a service, show the process from the inside, and reveal the product content.

Major online retailers have long embraced video content. A demonstration video now accompanies all significant products. The video perfectly complements text descriptions and photos. Entrepreneurs actively use reviewing and advertising videos – they embed videos on website pages and share them on social networks. Many of such videos go viral, attracting traffic and driving sales.

Video content evokes far more feelings and emotions than text. For example, watching a cooking show even engages the taste buds. Textual content is mostly viewed fluently. As a result, the number of clicks on links in text is much lower. The video format yields more effective results. According to HubSpot, placing a video on a landing page increases conversions by 80%. Also, Precision Marketing Group data shows that adding a video to an email leads to a 200-300% increase in conversions.

Why are videos so effective?

80-85% of people perceive information best of all through vision. Therefore, to convey information or persuade – it is most effective to use visualization. More about visual information processing be people you can find here.

For example, instead of talking boringly and long about the properties of a mackintosh fabric, you can show how water collects on its surface in a 10-second video without getting inside. Most times, a video is more informative and convincing than a text description, especially if you want to talk about the external properties or the work process.

A one-minute video tells you something written on 3-4 pages. In 10 seconds, a video can show you how a drill or hoover works, for example, or how great bread turns out in a bread machine. Today, when everyone is short of time, this is important. People say it’s better to see something once than hear it 100 times.

12 reasons to use video content for small business

The benefits of video content are worth using for the promotion of products and services, personal PR, and business advertising. Video content has a wide range of applications. Video is the type of content that requires minimal effort to comprehend. A person doesn’t have to read or scroll – just sit and watch. This is how video content works in both B2B and B2C.

1. Videos are more effective than photos and text

Movies are great to attract attention, convey information, persuade, and sell. Using video content increases conversion rates.

2. Videos are versatile

Video can entertain, inform, and entice. It is possible to shoot product reviews, advertise services, tell about the company, and show the internal structure.

3. Videos have better sharing possibilities

Video content is easy to share. It can be published on the website and social networks. Businesses can use video content in advertising.

4. Videos are shared by people more often than texts and photos

A video can easily go viral. Users actively share interesting and useful video content.

5. Video content engages people more than text and photos

Video is addictive. Viewing is effortless, so the user willingly engages in absorbing the content.

6. Video builds trust

People better believe what they see. You can talk a lot about something with the most convincing arguments. But it is better to show and to introduce convincing arguments to the person in the video.

7. Video increase traffic

By publishing and distributing videos, you can increase traffic. All entrepreneurs know if traffic to the website increases, then sales can increase too.

8. Videos provide benefits for SEO-promotion

As the user watches the video, they stay on the website longer. This time affects positions in search engines. It ranks websites with video content higher than websites without it.

9. Videos help to show expertise

By making videos and taking part in them, you are positioning yourself as an expert. It doesn’t matter that the text is pre-written – it’s the persuasive delivery that counts.

10. Video content reduce bounce rate

It’s easier to get a visitor interested and persuaded to stay on the site with videos. If some business creates the video professionally or with the right approach, then people become more interested in the product or service. A well-informed person takes a balanced approach to buying, which minimizes bounce rate.

11. Video increase conversion

The economic effect of using videos has been proven. For example, posting product video reviews increases the conversion rate by two times.

12. Video content help save on advertising

Videos can be used as an advertising tool. Attracting customers through content costs at least half the cost of traditional advertising. And a video shot once “works” for years.

Conclusion

A small business does not need to create professional videos. It can be simple videos for promotion on social media, for example, on Instagram. To create professional video content, it needs special equipment and experienced specialists. Small businesses can’t afford it.

Therefore, small businesses create unprofessional videos. When professionals work, the videos are outstanding; you don’t have to trim anything, for instance. Small businesses always use free online tools like this to trim unnecessary segments, convert, or compress video and audio.

Professional or any quality video always has a script. Don’t create a video until you have a detailed plan of what you’re going to do. This will make it easier to create a video. The script is based on the common to many content principles:

Greeting (attracting attention).
Increase of interest (statement of a question, the actualization of a theme).
The solution to a problem, topic coverage.
Conclusion.
CTA (motivation to action or call to action).

The content of video depends a lot on the type of content and the objectives set. Advertising should never be intrusive. Remember that the video should first address the viewer’s needs and, secondly, offer the product.

Top Reasons You Need To Use Blocks On Your WordPress Website

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Charlene Brown

If you’re using WordPress version 5.0 or later, you might be curious about “blocks.” Blocks are a new way for WordPress to arrange content within blog posts and pages. In simple terms, a WordPress block is a single content unit. A paragraph, a heading, an image, or any other type of content may be used as the content’s unit.

You’ve probably figured out that a block isn’t just a visual element by now. It’s a word that means they make it simple to add and edit the content on a WordPress website and offer design options that were previously difficult to come by. Each element can be placed in its block in the block editor. As a result, a heading is distinct from a paragraph, and a quote is distinct from a block. Each photograph, audio file, and so on are the same.

Different Types Of Blocks

Blocks come in a variety of options. If you use a plugin like WordPress Gutenberg plugins, the blocks can be expanded even further. Some plugins, such as Yoast SEO and WooCommerce, will add blocks as well. The following blocks are included with WordPress:

Reusable
Widgets
Layout elements
Most Used
Embeds
Common

Reasons To Use WordPress Blocks

You can use the WordPress visual editor, which has replaced the classic content editor known as Gutenberg, in addition to the fantastic inventions.

To Build Layouts

All content is expressed as blocks in Gutenberg, and post layouts are defined directly in the editor. Content layout https://yoast.com/the-block-editor-gutenberg-why-you-should-be-using-it/ is specified in template files using HTML and CSS, and the new block editor is free-flowing like any other word processor software.

To get two blocks of content side-by-side with blocks, you don’t need to know HTML or CSS, making layouts more available to the average user. The blocks can be used for a variety of purposes as a website owner.

Making FAQs Interactive

WordPress blocks allow you to create a FAQ quickly and easily. It will most likely appear as a series of questions and answers if you try it manually. By making the questions clickable and including a “back to top” link in the blocks, you can further customize it. Otherwise, unless you know how to code, it won’t be very interactive.

Ability To Add More Plugins

The best part about using WordPress blocks is that you aren’t restricted to the default ones. That is, you can add new content and layout blocks by installing other plugins. You can use the blocks to make the block editor feel more like a page builder, allowing you to easily create multi-column layouts and insert styled content such as testimonials or a price table.

Easily Accessed Information

Checking the word count, headings, and paragraphs is part of your daily routine as a writer or content creator. Fortunately, blocks come in handy in the information box, which can be accessed by clicking “I” on the block editor’s top bar. Its primary purpose is to count words, headings, and the number of blocks in a document.

Enables You To Create Content Easily

The block editor feature is included in Blocks. As a result, you can edit and customize each block as needed depending on your article’s needs. It gives your content a more professional look by providing a standardized and balanced approach. As a result, the blocks give visitors to your website a professional feel.

Makes Custom Blocks Creation Simpler

WordPress blocks make things easier for developers and designers to give audiences more complex and interesting block combinations, in addition to the obvious time-saving benefit. This allows themes and plugins to provide their custom block patterns that can be used across a website without requiring any custom coding. A custom WordPress development team makes it easy to enhance your WordPress website.

Different Styling Options

The use of WordPress blocks results in a significant improvement in visuals. It has a lot of styling options so that you can beautifully present your content. If you already have a website, using themes ensures that your site’s look and feel remain consistent. The blocks, too, come with various customization options, such as background colors, text colors, and drop caps.

Blocks Are Intuitive

A single document can be transformed into a collection of elements that can be tweaked separately using blocks. The editing features for each block are easily accessible, so creating pages of content with paragraphs of text interspersed with photographs, videos, and various-sized headings takes just a few minutes.

WordPress blocks are admirable in every way. The editor is easy to use, intuitive and allows you to do things you couldn’t before without coding. WordPress blocks have a bright future ahead of them, as you’ll soon be able to add any piece of content you can think of to a blog post or page using the block-based editor.

Here’s Why You Need Employee Management Software

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Charlene Brown

If you operate a business, you should know that your management style determines its success or failure. Managers need to keep the employees active and engaged from the different places they operate from. This can only be possible if you have a digital work-related communication system that promotes engagement amongst all parties involved. For instance, employee management software can go a long way in helping managers and employees to achieve organizational goals. While management software may seem optional, it has recently become more common and it’s not as costly as you’d think.

Here is why you need employee management software to improve the operations of your business.

Fosters Real-time Communication

Regardless of size, there is no organization that can survive without communication. Happy and motivated workers are productive while unmotivated and unhappy employees can tear your company down. One way of achieving success in your business is to promote open and real-time communication with all your team members. With the right employee management system, you can maintain an environment that fosters communication. The system helps managers and employees to work together toward the attainment of the company goals.

Employee management software also helps reduce some of the pressure and stress that can develop between the employees and the managers. In other words, a better management tool helps create a good relationship between the managers and employees that leads to increased productivity and more efficiency. A good work environment also leads to better employee retention and less conflict amongst workers. A major cause of employee turnover in different organizations related to strained relationships.

Enhances Employee Engagement

Employee engagement plays a crucial role in boosting productivity, enhances company culture, employee retention, and encourages good customer satisfaction. When you have the right employee management app, you can engage all the workers in a meaningful way on top of busy schedules and this fosters a good relationship. It is important to engage with your employees from the very first day of their work. You can achieve this by using the right employee management system. There are different stages involved at every stage of the employee life cycle like hiring, on-boarding, staff scheduling, tracking time, task management, and more. Your software can determine the workforce you need and help you ensure that you meet your labor targets and stay within your budget.

Promotes Constructive Feedback

One thing that is critical for any organization is constructive feedback. However, conducting annual performance reviews can be a challenge since, in the absence of the right tool to get feedback from different angles, the process of gathering feedback tends to be one-sided. With employee management software, you can send messages directly to various employees, and they can also do the same. To boost employee morale, you can send messages to everyone since this helps to promote engagement. The system can also help you provide feedback to the workers in real-time. The system also removes other barriers that can affect communication between the employees and the management.

Reduces Paperwork

As more organizations are going “green” in their operations, digital communication and management platforms are increasingly gaining popularity in different sectors. You can customize an employee management system to suit the needs of each department while at the same time reducing paperwork. Apart from being efficient, it encourages accuracy in data processing. The system is quicker, and it is more secure than keeping data on hard files. You can use the system for various tasks like tracking time, vacation requests, invoices, processing inventory. You can perform all these tasks from anywhere as long as you are connected to the system.

Helps Track Time

Employee management software helps provide managers with insight into their workforce. They can use this system to track time, control labor costs, and increase productivity at the same time. The managers and the employees have access to the real-time record of the number of days worked and cases of absenteeism. The system helps you to stay on top of the situation and you can manage issues like absenteeism before they go out of hand. The employees can also view their current and past timesheets. This helps to prevent conflicts and other related labor disputes.

Managing people in a company is critical since it determines the success or failure of your business. To increase efficiency and productivity in your operations, you need to obtain the right employee management software. This system helps to promote open communication amongst all team members which thereby improves performance in the organization. No business can survive without communication and feedback from both ends.

Record Any Area of your Screen for Free with IObit Screen Recorder

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Tiger Zhang

Looking for a screen recorder that can catch every detail of your screen while no lagging when HD recording? Follow this post to get the best screen recorder free of charge without a watermark.

Why Do You Need IObit Screen Recorder

There is no doubt that videos are becoming more and more popular than texts or images. After all, texts are plain. Meanwhile, image delivery limit information. But videos can contain rich elements including words, icons, animations, as well as audios. It takes less time for anyone to get a lot, learn a lot from a video than an article or an image. No matter you are a teacher who wants to record a tutorial, or you are a student who wants to learn skills and review all lessons you have learned, you can finish the task with a nice video.

Therefore, you need a screen recorder. But what makes people disappointed is that you always need to pay for a screen recorder, monthly or yearly. And what makes things worse is that most software limits the record time and adds the watermark by default. If you want to a long video or remove the watermark, no problem, just pay more. On the other hand, people always want an HD video so that they can clearly see what happened during each frame, but only to find large videos with a lot of lag.

Thus, the FREE IObit Screen Recorder comes into being, with all of your needs covered, such as recording any area of your screen, unlimited recording time, no watermark, recording the screen with audio, no lagging while HD recording, taking screenshots while recording, multiple outputs/convert formats, edit after recording. The most interesting thing is the IObit team also provides an online version, which means you don’t need to install any extra software to get a high-quality WebM video. If you are hurry for a tutorial, just enjoy this free online screen recorder now.

How to Use IObit Screen Recorder

Let’s see how to use IObit Screen Recorder to record your screen and make a fantastic video.

Step 1: Head to recorder.iobit.com and download this free software, and install it on your computer. Vista, Win7, Win8, Win8.1, and Win10 – all supported.

Step 2: Run IObit Screen Recorder and select the area you want to record. By default, it will record all areas of your screen. You can select one specific window to only capture everything within that window. Or you can select any area you want to get started.

Step 3: Directly start or change the default settings before starting. Actually, you can now click the “REC” button to begin recording. All default settings are optimized according to the hardware of your computer, to make sure you have the best experience. In case you want to change something such as the output directory, the video and audio format, the frame rate, the hotkeys, or the watermark.

Step 4: Use F9, F10, and F11 to control the recording process. Press F9 to start or end recording. Use F10 to pause or resume. Sse F11 to take screenshots while recording, which may be the most useful feature as the IObit team broke through technical barriers between video & audio recording and screen capture taking simultaneously.

Step 5: Preview and edit your video. If you want to cut some parts off from the original video, just click the edit icon from the video list. Then you can drag the progress bar to only save the parts you want to keep.

Conclusion

This post gives you a simple introduction to IObit Screen Recorder and clearly displays the steps to use it. Hope your life could be more interesting with this free recorder online or offline.

What to Look For in a Desktop Computer

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Carol Trehearn

Are you looking to buy a desktop computer? Whether this is for work or personal use (or both), it is a major decision to make and inevitably will be a high cost to cover. As such an important piece of equipment for people in today’s day and age, you need to take the time to find the right device for your particular needs so that it will be a good fit and allow you to easily carry out whatever you need the machine for whether this is playing video games, working with specific software, watching TV and/or simply for internet browsing and creating documents. Read on to find out what you need to look for to find a high-quality desktop computer.

Processor

The processor is the chip that carries the core operations and calculations that drive everything in the computer, so this is essentially the “brain” of the computer and highly important. It is difficult to upgrade a processor once it is in place, so ideally, you will want to get this right the first time. If you plan on heavy use, such as playing video games, you will want to make sure that you have multi-core processors, which are multiple processors working in tandem.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM is the computer’s short-term memory and directly impacts speed and efficiency. When you ask the computer to complete a task, such as opening a file, the task is loaded into RAM, and the higher the RAM, the better. It is measured in GB but does not confuse it with storage space. This can be relatively easy to upgrade, but it is still something that you need to consider when looking for a desktop PC.

Storage

The storage is the long-term memory and for keeping all of your files, programs, games, and anything else. You do not want to run out of storage, so think about the type of things that you will be storing on the computer and give yourself plenty of space if you play games and have large video files. You can also buy an external hard drive if you run out of space (and for backups), but this will be another expense.

Choosing a Good Keyboard

There are many different types of computer keyboards on the market today, each with its own set of functionality to meet certain needs. If your main computer use is for gaming, choosing your gaming keyboard is very important. If you want to get serious about gaming, you’ll need more than the keyboard that came with your PC, and competitive gamers’ gaming keyboards are built to last, even after years of intense use.

Monitors and Hardware

In addition to the actual computer itself, you will also need to consider the monitor and hardware. A powerful desktop computer is not much good with a low-quality monitor, particularly for gaming or streaming. Hardware such as a mouse and keyboard are other important factors that will greatly impact the performance. You can buy all-in-one packages, or you could do your own research and find your own hardware but be sure that it is from a reliable brand and has good reviews.

These are the key areas that you need to focus on when buying a desktop computer. A desktop can bring many benefits over a laptop, especially for activities like gaming and using certain software, but it can also be daunting and a lot of money to spend, so hopefully, this post will help.

The Advantages of Using Managed IT Services

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Vic Tan

Regardless of whether you are a business executive or an IT expert, the best IT managed services in Washington DC can make your work easier so that you can focus on other important things. Managed IT benefits can include the industry knowledge, dedication, and expertise of the whole IT department, who can deliver your core business. These benefits allow you to focus on growing your company’s core competencies.

Remember that a managed IT service provider can assist you with daily tasks that are complex and time-consuming, such as disaster recovery planning, data center solutions, cloud computing, and end-user support. As a result, these providers can improve the company’s efficiency and competitiveness. This article discusses the advantages of using managed IT services.

Predictable and Scalable Spending

No doubt, it can be quite expensive to invest in IT infrastructure and systems. When you decide to invest in IT requirements upfront, then it can be hard to predict operating expenses as the business grows. But with managed IT services, these expenses are put together into a single and fixed set of costs.

Because IT managed service providers usually operate with a fixed monthly rate, it means rates, such as maintenance, hardware breakdowns, and repairs are calculated using your operational budget, meaning it can’t break the bank once the unexpected happens.

You Can Avoid Sunk and Operational Expenses

Running an in-house IT team means that you have significant sunk costs like monthly salaries, office upkeep, benefits, and insurance. Also, it can take a lot of time and money to train your employees to become familiar with the existing processes and systems.

So your Manage IT provider can reduce a lot of capital expenditures that are associated with managing IT systems in-house and even add a bit to no value to your company. Aside from reducing your capital expenditures, you can also lower your IT costs by using managed IT services.

For example, managed IT services tend to assist you to save on licensing, consulting, training, and emergency repairs. You can also benefit a lot from reduced labor rates once you hire the managed IT services.

Fast Response Time

Today, employees don’t have to be slowed down by any type of technical problems or downtown. This is especially true when you are experiencing high traffic times.

This is the reason why you need to have 24/7 support to make sure that your team is always productive. Managed IT service providers offer such types of services and you can expect that they will be available for your users regardless of whether it’s a weekend, day, night, or holidays.

Expertise and Experience

Another notable benefit you can get by hiring a managed IT service provider is that you can find a team that has the training, qualifications, experience, and certifications required in this industry.

A managed IT service provider can also offer you access to high-quality IT administrators with a great skill set to negate the need for you to hire such expertise yourself. When you find a managed IT service provider, you can also access the latest technology available on the market.

If One Bitcoin is Worth 60 Cars, Should I Buy Bitcoin Now?

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Wayland Bruns

Recently BofA analyst Francisco Blanch issued a report called “Bitcoin’s Dirty Little Secrets”. The long-form-pdf file states “there’s no good reason to own bitcoin unless you see prices going up.” And A “single Bitcoin purchase at a price of ~$50,000 has a carbon footprint of 270 tons, the equivalent of 60 [internal combustion engine] cars. So that becomes the question of the day. Is one bitcoin worth 60 cars?

Is Power Consumption an issue with Bitcoin

Keeping in mind that this same investment advisor has also stated Bitcoin is “exceptionally volatile”, “impractical,” and an environmentally disastrous asset that is useless as a store of wealth or an inflation hedge. Of course, none of these statements address the fundamental question – Should I buy Bitcoin now?

Argument For Deferring Bitcoin Investment because of Power Management

The nature of Bitcoin is that the currency is based on a computational hash. Any commodity is priced according to its rarity. Gold is more expensive than Silver because it is less common. Diamonds are more expensive than Amethyst because it is less common. Bitcoins are “rare” because there is an intentional computation that makes new bitcoins harder to find. This process is called mining, and Bitcoin miners use power to create more bitcoins.

Worldwide Bitcoin mining uses a huge amount of computational power and needs electric power to run. The total power consumption is balanced against power price – as it would be impractical to mine if the cost of electricity exceeds the cost of Bitcoin. So as the price of Bitcoin goes up, more people mine it, and the more power is consumed by Bitcoin mining operations.

The Argument Against Deferring Bitcoin Investment because it Wastes Power

Unless you live in a tent, everything else in your life is balanced by this same power management discussion. For instance, your ability to travel on vacation is directly tied to airline tickets’ price, which is tied to the airline’s fuel cost. If fuel is cheap, you go far away, and if fuel is expensive, you stay close to home. I have never heard someone say they will defer a vacation because it would increase worldwide power consumption. The Bank of America analyst will not turn down the AC in his office because he is concerned about worldwide fuel consumption. To mix a personal choice with some over-arching goal is privileged thinking. Why not point out that the entire investment industry misuses computational resources to effect fast trading because slower trading would use less power? Newer computers use less power, so why does Bank of America still use old computers in their operations?

What is the True Argument?

The author points out that the bulk of the Bitcoin Power Consumption problem is because Chinese miners use Coal Based power which is cheap in their area. Suddenly privilege markers abound because he mixes ethnic bias and nationalism into his discussion. The implication that power usage by Chinese people is bad leaves unstated that power usage by privileged Americans, which one a per-capita basis is four times higher.

The author is simply pulling out garbage arguments to save his privilege and his job. Bitcoin is just as valid an investment as S&P 500 index funds. No one knows if it will go up today or down tomorrow. What people know is that over the past 20 years, it has consistently gone up. Past performance is not an indication of future results.

Is Bitcoin a Worthy Investment?

If you invested $1000 in Bitcoin in January 2017 (1 bitcoin), your investment would be worth approximately $60,000 today. If you invested $1000 in the popular S&P ETF called SPY – (4 shares), your investment would be worth $1558 today. So over four years, SPY has returned about a 50% rise in value. Bitcoin has returned a 6000% rise in value Bank of America’s investment advisors charge approximately 2% per year to manage your account. So over four years, they would charge $80 for your SPY investment, lowering the net gain to only $300 for the four years. On the other hand, no advisor charges for Bitcoin, so you get the full rise in your pocket.
The Bitcoin Empire app offers a user-friendly interface, real-time market data, and advanced features for secure Bitcoin trading. It’s a smart choice for both beginners and experienced traders.

You can see that Bitcoin is a far better investment than Bank of America advisors can offer you. That is why they write garbage-filled misleading points that one Bitcoin will feed Chinese Menace Coal Miners and destroy the world.

You can easily offset the problem after Bitcoin makes you marvelously wealthy by donating a portion to the University of Sichuan to help disadvantaged Chinese youth. Do not forget to donate to the Unemployed-Investment-Advisor’s Children’s College Fund.

How to buy Bitcoin

Bitcoin is not easy to buy. It takes many forms. The more you learn, the more lost you can feel. There are also many investment rules to follow. You can buy Bitcoin or any alternative like Ethereum, or Dogecoin, or Stellar Lumens. US Tax rules mean you cannot easily hold Bitcoin in an IRA.

One easy way to invest in Bitcoin is to purchase an ETF that holds Bitcoin. As an ETF, you can do this with your IRA. Also, the tax consequences are clearly defined since you are simply holding an ETF. The common EFT for Cryptocurrencies are Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) or Grayscale Etherium Trust (ETH).

You can also buy Defi coins, which don’t have power requirements. How to buy Defi coins, like other cryto is a simple online purchase.

You can use Qumas AI to capture crypto volatility trends and trade cryptocurrency easily.

You can also purchase stock in companies that operate as miners like RIOT, or Bitcoin Exchange platforms like Coinbase. The stock movements in these companies follow the price of Bitcoin. Finally, there are hybrid bitcoin plays like Overstock (OSTK), which use to sell goods but became a big player in Bitcoin, PayPal (PYPL), and even NVDIA (NVDA), which makes chips that optimize bitcoin mining even though they are trying to get out of this business.

Bitcoin is an Easy Investment

You should never invest all of your capital in a single investment. Bitcoin is volatile. At worst, it has at times dropped more than 90% of its value. That means a $1000 investment today might become $100 tomorrow. But over the past ten years, Bitcoin has proven to be a durable asset with explosive value. If you can spare some play money today, perhaps in four years, you will again see something that matches past gains.

Note: The author has been long GBTC since Bitcoin was $400, and often smiles broadly.

Creative Solutions That Will Help Fleet Managers Do Their Duties Better

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Charlene Brown

If you own or work in a medium enterprise business or a company similar to many around the world, there’s a big chance you have a fleet of vehicles. These could include the personal cars used by employees, staff transportation vehicles, or vehicles used to transport goods. It could also include vehicles used in the delivery of services. Whichever the case, these vehicles need someone to operate them and take care of them. They will need fuel, regular maintenance, and mileage accounting to avoid losses. These are just some of the reasons fleet managers are employed in the first place.

If you are a fleet manager or intend to become one, here are some creative solutions that can help you do your duties better.

1. Integrate Technology into Your Job

We are in the 21st century, where one way to become better at anything you do is by integrating technology into it. Well, this is even more essential when it comes to business, with every industry having relevant technology that can be utilized to improve operational efficiency and profitability.

Now, it so appears that fleet managers need to incorporate technology even more, especially in industries involving shipping and receiving goods. Fleet management involves several things, which include tracking the movement of the vehicles in your fleet, ensuring the vehicles undergo maintenance, as well as ensuring they are compliant with all legal requirements. These are things that need you to integrate technology into your job for effective performance. Thanks to technology, asset tracking has revolutionized fleet management and made it easier for managers. This is achieved through technologies like GPS tracking, which allows you to monitor the whereabouts of all units in your fleet in real-time. Among other things, fleet management software can also help you monitor the following:

Where a vehicle is headed
Fuel consumption
When the next maintenance for a particular vehicle is due
How a particular diver is performing
Vehicle costs related to fuel and maintenance
Vehicle performance
Route efficiency
Enforce driver accountability based on location and route

2. Use Appropriate Management Tools

A fleet manager has several tasks in their job description that have to be performed simultaneously. They include management of the vehicles, HR management, development and management of the mobility plan, and parking lot management. Simultaneous management of these tasks requires you to integrate more than one tool, so you are sure to do all of them in time and perfectly. Make sure that the tools you utilize have a defined working scope. That way, you will know how they are helping you with the tasks, making it easy to determine if they are effective. Use tools that evolve with the evolving needs.

3. Stay Informed About Innovative Solutions

In the past few years, you probably have noticed that the globe has been doing several updates on motors, so they are more eco-friendly. This is a move to curb the effect that old motor models had on the environment. Every year, there is something new that comes up to solve challenges that have been faced previously. As a fleet manager, it is important to stay informed on new solutions, such as fleet safety solutions like CameraMatics, so you can integrate them into your job and let your business enjoy the benefits.For example, most companies have integrated car-pooling, parking management, and soft mobility to ensure sustainable development. If you do not keep yourself informed, such information will not be known to your business.

4. Build on Your Communication Skills

Fleet management bounces between logistics, HR, and operations. The smooth of these three factors depends largely on how effectively you can communicate to the people under your management. It is not uncommon to offer the company’s parking lots and vehicles to the employees as part of their benefits. However, these benefits should never at any time be the reason anything in the company that needs to be mobile isn’t. You as the fleet manager need to communicate efficiently to other employees on how their benefits are going to be given to them without injuring the company’s operations. If you foresee a problem in your job, communicate it to your superiors so you have it addressed before it becomes a real issue.

5. Keep Track of the Taxes

There are several taxing points that you need to keep track of for effective fleet management. When it comes to taxes, you can only minimize the costs of business by paying up early or making sure your superiors know what to expect before the due date. Just for a recap, there are several taxing points in fleet management. Some of these include CO2 emissions, parking lot taxes, and state taxes. They will vary from state to state or region to region. When you know the taxation rates, you can create a plan that makes sure you pay as little as possible while ensuring compliance. This also helps keep lawsuits against your company at bay.

Are some of your employees stealing work hours or engaging in non-company activities/jobs? Are the fuel costs and maintenance fees skyrocketing lately? Have you experienced an increase in late delivery complaints from customers? Well, you could put an end to all these and more using tips from this article.

Fleet management is an aspect that any company will want to make sure is well handled. It plays quite a crucial role in the eventual success of the company. As a fleet manager, the above are just a few tips you could borrow to ensure excellence in delivering your mandate.

What is SaaS Hosting? Who’s The Best For Your Site

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Mike Khorev

SaaS Hosting is a specific type of web hosting service where your SaaS software and files are stored on the hosting provider’s servers instead of your own servers. So, your customers and users can access your software solution (your SaaS product) via the cloud.

The Benefits of SaaS Hosting

With a proper SaaS hosting, your customers wouldn’t need to have a copy of your software on their devices, while the hosting service will also provide maintenance and updates at the server level. So, the customers won’t need to update or patch the software.

Hosting for WP SaaS will also provide various benefits to the software developers. For instance, the developer wouldn’t need to host the software in-house, which may require certain infrastructures and management. Some companies also opt for Iaas hosting that maintains the infrastructures.

SaaS hosting can also provide the following benefits:

Security: the more widespread your SaaS software is and the more popular it gets, the more exposed your business is to cyber criminals and other threats. A good SaaS hosting service will also offer dedicated protection against various cyber threats like DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, malware and ransomware, hacking, and other threats.
Content delivery network (CDN): a CDN is a network of servers that distribute the content, so users can receive the content (and SaaS service) from a server that is located closer to them, allowing better latency and faster processes
Scalability: you can easily add more web hosting service with virtual SaaS hosting as your company grows, which is more cost-effective and would save more time rather than investing in more physical hosting and servers.

Who’s The Best For Your Site?

1. SiteGround

Key features:

cPanel access
Included SSL certification (HTTPS)
Free website transfer
Unlimited data transfer
Free website backup
WB-CLI

Pros and cons

Pros:

Very fast servers with the latest technologies and software
Excellent customer support with 24/7 live chat, phone, and support ticket
Free CDN (by Cloudflare)
Free SSL certification
Multiple data centers in three continents, so you can choose according to your needs

Cons:

Limited/fixed storage, although the initial storage is quite large
Extra fee if you choose monthly billing

SiteGround is our top recommendation for a SaaS hosting for several reasons. First, its VPS cloud servers are based on super-fast SSD architecture, allowing very low latency and excellent reliability.

SiteGround also offers a very powerful CDN service to allow better deliverability of your content and SaaS software, and you can choose between five data centers. Also, SiteGrould will perform automatic daily backups of your site.

Arguably, however, the best reason to choose SiteGround is their excellent customer service: very fast, responsive, and reliable with almost no hold time on live chat and phone.

2. Liquid Web

Key features:

Fully managed VPS and dedicated hosting service (all updates and security fixes are handled by Liquid Web
100% uptime
For WordPress websites, Liquid Web automatically updates your plugins
PHP 7 and Nginx to boost your site’s speed and performance
Manage all your sites from a single location via iThemes Sync Pro

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Fast and secure technologies (SSD, PHP 7, Nginx, HTTP/2, and more)
Fully managed hosting infrastructure for various platforms (WordPress, VPS, dedicated servers)
Automatic daily backups and updates
100% uptime money-back guarantee
Free SSL certification and CDN
Free site migration and DDoS protection
Premium tools included (iThemes Sync Pro, BeaverBuilder, Jilt, and more)

Cons:

Expensive option
Need to pay more for an email hosting
US and Europe data centers only

Liquid Web is definitely one of the best managed hosting services out there, and actually offers more features than SiteGround. Also, a very attractive selling point is its 100% uptime money-back guarantee (they will credit you 10x the amount when you were down).

However, LiquidWeb is relatively expensive (it is not a shared hosting service) and doesn’t automatically include email hosting. If you do have the budget, however, Liquid Web is a very interesting choice.

3. Heroku

Key features:

Fully managed runtime environment
Reliable and secure PostgreSQL
GitHub integration
Various add-ons like New Relic, MongoDB, SendGrid, Searchify, Fastly, Papertrail, ClearDB MySQL, Treasure Data, and more
Heroku CLI for interacting with the cloud environment

Pros and cons

Pros:

Very easy deployment and environment configuration, very fast to launch
Very affordable especially for smaller-scale SaaS apps
A great free option, where you can deploy demo or test applications
Great interface with the Heroku CLI
Excellent mobile-responsiveness

Cons:

Does not offer static IP addresses, which can make Heroku limited in some applications
Pricing can be high for larger SaaS apps
Not very versatile for advanced developers

Heroku is a great choice due to its ease of use, allowing us to deploy apps to the cloud very easily. With Heroku, you don’t really need to manage your servers at all and you’ll also get extremely fast software launch times and intuitiveness. You can use Heroku’s Git push feature which will automatically detect your stack and automatically deploy your app.

Not as versatile as other options on this list, but one of the easiest to use.

4. Digital Ocean

Key Features:

Various data center locations across many different continents
Managed Kubernetes cluster in just a few clicks
Real-time alerts
Various resource metrics and summary stats with time-series graphs
Flexible compute options with various infrastructure options for your workload

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Easy to use, developer-friendly tools and APIs
Great documentation features
Great user interface allowing easy cloud management
Excellent customer service and support

Cons:

No South American servers
Don’t offer enterprise-level options (no MS SQL, Oracle, Windows Server).

Digital Ocean is another great hosting company for SaaS projects, especially for smaller SaaS businesses with their great pricing versatility and a very easy-to-use hosting environment. Fast, reliable, and secure SaaS hosting at a fairly reasonable price.

While it is not the most versatile hosting service, you get a great load time, decent server uptime, and excellent customer service.

5. Cloudways

Key features:

Choice of 5 IaaS providers
Fully managed cloud hosting platform
Optimized stack for fast load times
Auto-healing servers

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1-click installation for apps like WordPress
Free SSL integration
First site migration is free
Fantastic support
Pay as you go pricing

Cons:

No root access
Add-ons cost extra
No support for cPanel or Plesk

Cloudways is one of the best companies that offers SaaS hosting solutions right now. They have a fantastic, highly optimized stack for fast speeds, and the company is known for its range of support options. Their pricing varies depending upon the provider you choose, making them an ideal choice for most companies big or small.
However, you don’t get root access to your web apps, and since they provide their own platform, you can’t use Plesk or cPanel.

End Words

A proper SaaS hosting can significantly improve your SaaS product’s deliverability and usability, by allowing a faster, managed cloud service from the hosting service instead of your own server.

Above, we have also discussed four of the best SaaS hosting options available today, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

5 Essential Technologies for Effective Remote Working

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Carol Trehearn

Whether through necessity or choice, more and more people are working from home. While at first, this might appear to be as simple as plugging in a laptop and having a cellphone nearby, the reality is that it takes more than that to be able to work from home effectively.

It can be difficult to stay motivated and productive when working from home, particularly if you are balancing family commitments at the same time. The right home office environment can make it easier to connect to your colleagues, but you also need the right equipment at hand. Here are five essential technologies that all remote workers should have at their disposal.

1. Laptop and accessories

You need your laptop, of course, but you should also consider other pieces of hardware for your home office environment. For example, it is often much easier to work on complex projects with multiple tabs when you have a second monitor. You should also have a headset so you can take calls efficiently and an ergonomic mouse mat to prevent your wrist from developing repetitive strain injury (RSI).

Note: While not technically technology, it is also important to invest in a comfortable and supportive work chair to prevent back injuries.

2. High-quality Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is obviously essential, but you may find that your domestic Wi-Fi speed is not enough for your work needs. To ensure you can attend virtual meetings and work without interruption or delays, consider upgrading to a more reliable, secure, and faster connection. You might also want to consider adaptive Wi-Fi, which will automatically allocate bandwidth depending on which devices require the most.

3. Virtual meeting platforms

The virtual meeting is here to stay. Emails and phone calls are fine, but sometimes only a ‘face to face’ meeting will do. There are lots of examples of video calling software to consider, but all will enable you to connect with colleagues, clients, and customers wherever you are in the world.

4. Communication and collaboration software

Of course, it is not always necessary to arrange a virtual meeting or type out an email, as often you want to be able to communicate succinctly and quickly with colleagues when collaborating on projects. This is where instant chat tools, collaboration, and project management software come into their own. The best platforms enable you to chat privately with one colleague or in groups/teams. Working from home with software like CoAmplifi enables you to share and edit documents in real-time, track your progress, and stay on top of multiple projects at once.

5. Digital/voice-activated assistant

Digital assistants like Google Assistant or Amazon Echo are often thought of as a domestic product, but they have the potential to support home working as well. You can tell a digital assistant to make a call, send an email, take notes, and check facts on the internet while carrying on with another task or making a coffee. Used as multitasking tools, digital assistants can significantly improve efficiency and productivity. Click here to find out which is the best digital assistant product on the market.

How Jungle Scout Can Make Your Amazon Shopping Easier

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Allen Brown

Jungle Scout is an Amazon research tool that is designed to help businesses reach success in an easy and efficient way when selling or buying products. Small businesses, in particular, can benefit from this tool to find suitable equipment and supplies with a huge bang for their buck. In other words, Jungle Scout helps entrepreneurs get their businesses up and running. On that note, here’s exactly how Jungle Scout can make your Amazon shopping easier.

Helps You Research Keywords

No business or startup can survive without the essentials. Having products on hand that helps you get organized and get to work with ease will allow you to progress. For instance, the latest office equipment can prevent a lot of hindrances; however, searching through the many products Amazon offers can be overwhelming. With Jungle Scout, you’ll be able to research keywords that are relevant to your needs, saving you the hassle of having to do extensive research about a product’s quality yourself. Shopping is much easier when you can immediately find what you specifically need for your office or small business.

Allows You to Estimate Sales

Small businesses don’t have the resources that big enterprises have. For this reason, it can be quite overwhelming for small businesses to manually search products and create spreadsheets to analyze all the data. Moreover, most startups and entrepreneurs cannot afford to hire a big IT company to handle the analytics for them. That’s where Jungle Scout comes in. Since product research is crucial to your business’s success, you can’t overlook it. Therefore, Jungle Scout will help you estimate your sales which helps you evaluate your finances and marketing strategies better.

Allows You to Spy on Competitors

Another major part of a business’s success is being able to stay ahead of the competition. Small businesses don’t have the budget to put towards standing out and getting their brand out there. As such, use Jungle Scout to stay up to date on what is and isn’t working for competitors, and adjust your strategies accordingly. In other words, it makes competitive analysis much easier for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners alike. Amazon Agency will show you how to stand out among your competitors and effectively promote your listings.

Offers the Best Products to Grow Your Business

It’s one thing to make a list of all the products you need to shop for to grow your business; it’s another thing to ensure you’re actually getting quality products. Shopping on Amazon becomes much easier when you can turn to Jungle Scout to provide you with the best products that will benefit your business.

The competition is growing exponentially in the e-commerce market, so staying on top of the latest trends and conducting regular market research is vital. Amazon has a lot to offer, and most small businesses just don’t have the resources to ensure that they don’t miss any valuable products or information. So, refer back to this guide the next time you are shopping on Amazon to grow your business. With Jungle Scout at your service, you have the perfect business partner you could ask for.