What To Know About Payroll Taxes

There has been a lot of discussion recently about payroll taxes and the ways that they affect business owners.

The President recently announced executive action suspending payroll taxes through the end of the year in response to coronavirus and the shutdowns it led to. For businesses, this is one of the ways the government has stepped in to offer aid to struggling businesses.

It’s been much-needed relief, particularly as a lot of employers discovered their business interruption insurance policies had little coverage for a situation like a pandemic.

The following are some of the things employers should know about payroll taxes, particularly in the situation we’re in right now.

What Are Payroll Taxes?

Payroll taxes are paid to the federal government on wages, and the money is then primarily used to fund social insurance benefits, including Social Security and Medicare. Some of the federal income taxes also pay for security and defense.

Employers are required to report taxes on a quarterly basis in most cases, and to deposit their employment taxes.

Employment taxes are withholdings from employees’ checks. They cover not only federal income tax, but also in some cases, state and local tax and the employers’ Social Security and Medicare taxes (FICA). They also include the portion of FICA paid by the employer and federal and state unemployment taxes.

There are things that employers are required to do as it pertains to payroll taxes, including figuring withholdings, depositing employment taxes on a set schedule, and reporting quarterly about employment taxes.

If an employer doesn’t handle payroll taxes properly, they can be penalized.

In 2020, the Social Security tax rate is 6.2% on the first $137,700 of wages paid. The Medicare rate is 1.45% on the first 200,000 of wages, plus 0.9% on wages above $200,000.

Nine states don’t have an income tax on wages currently. These are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. There isn’t a tax on wages in New Hampshire and Tennessee but there are taxes on interest and dividends in some situations. You can start your own business by getting an LLC in Florida.

There are voluntary payroll deductions that may be withheld from employee checks, too, only if the employee agrees. These can include 250K life insurance premiums, health insurance premiums, and retirement plan contributions.

Penalties

If you don’t pay payroll taxes or they’re late, then as an employer, you may face penalties, and there is going to be an accrual of interest.

As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure deposits are timely, the deposits are made in the right amount and that the deposit is made in the correct way. If you don’t do any of these, you may be subject to what’s called an FTD penalty, which stands for Failure to Deposit.

There is a penalty system that is four tiers if you make incorrect or late deposits.

The rate you have to pay is based on how many calendar days you are late.

There is a 2% rate for deposits that are 1 to 5 days late. Then it’s 5% for deposits that are 6 to 15 days late and 10% for deposits more than 15 days late.

There is a 10% rate for deposits not paid by EFT.

There’s a 15% rate for all amounts that are unpaid more than ten days after the date of the first notice requesting payment.

COVID-19 Changes

Under the CARES Act, passed in response to the pandemic in spring, there were measures intended to relieve some of the financial pressure on small businesses. For example, there was something called the Employee Retention Credit, and there was also a modification of net operating losses and a write-off for property improvements.

What Does The Payroll Tax Deferral Mean for Employers and Employees?

In August, the president announced he would be taking executive action regarding payroll taxes after Congressional negotiations failed to yield results.

When announcing the order, the president said it was a way to put money in the pockets of American workers and create incentives for employment and work.

Under the order, the employee’s obligation to pay a 6.2% Social Security tax per check is deferred. It applies to people who make less than $4,000 every two weeks, which would mean an annual salary of around $104,000.

The Treasury Department, under the order, has been instructed to see how the government might be able to forgive the deferral of the payments, but right now that’s not in place.

In 2018, the median household income was just over $63,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. If a worker made $64,000 before taxes, that would mean being paid on a biweekly basis would come out to around $2,400 before taxes. Then, based on a rate of 6.2%, the taxes for Social Security out of that check would be around $152.

That would mean a deferred amount of $1,220 from September through the end of the year. It would be similar to the amount that was sent out in stimulus checks earlier in the year.

Some are describing is at an interest-free government loan, however.

Unless something happens that changes the situation, businesses will still have the taxes due at the start of 2021.

It may be that employers don’t necessarily pass the deferrals to their employees, because they’ll be worried about how to get the money back when they eventually make their payments.

What this all means, at least for now, is that there’s a potential for workers to take home more money through the end of the year, but that’s not a certainty under the executive order.

There are concerns that the move doesn’t help the people who most need it either, since there are around 17 million Americans unemployed. The executive orders issued by the President did address unemployment payments, with a $400 bonus.

For employers, it’s important to understand the full implications of a payroll tax holiday, and also what they’ll do when the deferral period is over if there aren’t any changes that address it before then.

Best Apps To Craft A Business Plan For iOS

To be a successful entrepreneur, you not only need to start a business but also make sure it has a working plan. The entire process of starting a business begins from when you get a million-dollar idea for your startup, all the way to the planning phase: many people however fail to give enough attention to the planning phase. Effective planning will help a lot when you need to find startup investors

Since writing a business plan may be challenging and tedious, there are apps for your iOS you can use to help you come up with one. With just a phone application, you can get an investor or bank-ready written plan that you can use to source for funding.

Top iOS Apps To Create A Business Plan

In today’s tech-driven world, nobody wants to tire doing something technology can do in seconds. If you can sync business contacts and data digitally, why on earth would you do so manually.

Same case goes for proposals. Do you need a business plan to source funding for your business proposal? Why not have an App write one for you? Why?

Here is a list of top iOS apps that will help you out.

1. Upmetrics

This software comes with 200+ industry-specific sample business plans to give you a customized planning experience. Moreover, you can add or delete several elements like charts, timelines, analyses tables, and many more to make your plan look more interactive.

The software also comes with financial forecasting to predict your finances within a short span and automatically, a pitch deck creator that helps you create impressive and convincing business pitched and multiple business model canvas to make brainstorming and sharing feedback easier and faster. The best part is that it has three different pricing plans and you can choose the one that fits your needs the best.

2. Enloop

It will cost you $10 to $40 per month to enjoy all the premium features of Enloop. This might sound like a lot of money, but considering how helpful this app is, it is a very small price to pay. The program will ask you for all the relevant information then help you generate an actual outline for your investment.

Enloop generates all the data you need to convince financiers to invest in your idea: from cash flow to balance sheet projections. You can always recover deleted files, unless of course, you decided to go the old way and draft the proposal yourself.

Enloop also generates the text for all the sections in the business plan and gives you a chance to customize them. You can get this app for free, but you have to pay to enjoy premium services.

3. Liveplan

With this app on your iPhone or iPad, you don’t need to go through a long process of drafting a business plan. Liveplan makes it as easy as possible since all you have to do is answer some questions about your business idea and leave the rest to the app.

Once you have answered the questions, you get a lot of sample proposals that you can modify or use as they are. Countless Live Plan reviews have claimed it is the easiest app to work with. To some extent, I agree with them: it cannot get any easier than this.

4. Business Plan & Start Startup

With this application, you can choose to seek help writing your business plan from the entrepreneur community or do so as an individual. What is even more interesting and unique is that you can download the plan into your email free of charge. It gives you a platform to interact with other entrepreneurs and seek different perceptions.

It is one of the most popular mobile apps for creating a business outline. It has a lot of video resources and tutorials on how to approach the planning phase       of the dealing. Hardly will you feel the stress involved in coming up with a realistic scheme of action.

5. GoCanvas

This application takes you through the step-by-step process of creating a professional outline to make sure you do it right. The most exciting thing about the software is that you get to save everything on the cloud and synchronize data on all your devices. This way, you can edit it as your trade continues to grow and progress.

As an individual, you can enjoy this application free of charge: but for an enterprise, you will have to pay between $45 and $62 to enjoy the premium services it has to offer. As a small startup seeking to scale up the trade, this is the best app to update your investment scheme.

In a Nutshell…

If you want your idea to work, you better start by taking your time to plan on its execution perfectly. Once you have a proper business plan, you can then go ahead and start on the implementation and realization. If you fail to properly put things in order prior, there is a huge probability that the startup will not last longer than 5 years. It will be a short-term thing.

It shall too be short-lived.

According to statistics, up to 50% of all startups fail before four years. If you want to make it past these 4 years and after, you just need a proper plan. Just get any of these apps and you are good to go. Don’t stress yourself out.

How to Record High-Quality Videos for YouTube

YouTube is an essential service form marketing your business to customers who may not be able to come in to your place of business.  A well produced video can demonstrate your product, explain the benefits and demonstrate the solution that gains you a lifetime customer.

Creating videos is not as easy as it seems at first. After all, what’s so difficult about shooting videos about something you’re knowledgeable about? There are a lot of factors that go into launching a successful channel for business marketing on YouTube.

If you’re serious about taking a shot at making it on YouTube, you need to know that aside from the subject of your videos, you will have to take into account your target audience, video formats, as well as the technical aspects of the job. It is not enough to know what you want to record – you should also be familiar with how to record YouTube videos that will draw audiences in, en masse.

A good way to break down each and every aspect of a quality clip is to download a couple of successful videos using Bitdownloader or other platforms that allow you to save content from streaming services, and analyze them to see exactly what it is that makes certain types of videos pop. Keep reading to learn about just a couple of tips on how to make a high-quality YouTube clip.

Image Quality

There is no need for an in-depth introduction to this particular aspect of film-making. Sure, shooting a catchy clip with a smartphone might just be enough for it to go viral, but in order to transform this individual success into a long-standing channel with millions of subscribers, you will most definitely need to invest in durable and proven equipment.

Having a high-quality digital camera to produce your content can directly influence the number of views on, as well as encourage YouTube algorithms to promote your videos. Additionally, enabling viewers to watch your stuff with the highest quality setting is a nice touch that shows people that you take your job seriously.

Apart from the camera, as you get started, you should also purchase a tripod. Few things are worse than having to sit through a shaky, unprofessional video, and many people will move on to better things before giving your content a chance, no matter how captivating of a script you’ve written.

Clever Editing

In 2020, where just about everyone and their mother has launched at least one YouTube channel, it isn’t enough to have good editing skills. They need to be impeccable. You have to be able to tell a story through the cuts and transitions just as well as you can tell it with your words. It might not be the most grateful task in the world, since not a lot of viewers can appreciate, or even notice the editing work that was put into an engaging video, but once you take it away, the clip’s appeal can evaporate in a matter of seconds.

Unless it’s a part of your video’s concept, like one-shot rap clips, for example, there is absolutely no excuse for publishing an uncut, raw video in hopes of captivating and growing your subscriber base. Regardless of the niche you’re trying to make yourself comfortable in, no audience is generous enough to be passionate about a half-assed product.

Captivating Script

Script-writing for YouTube is much different than writing for movies or TV. Some people find it more difficult, whereas, for others, it comes naturally. No matter the extent of your prior experience in script-writing, you’ll need to understand how to compose and plan out a video that will be not only entertaining but also well-structured and coherent.

Many YouTubers fall into the trap of putting inadequate effort into their scripts, or simply forgoing the practice of writing them altogether. This usually results in a significant drop in the quality of their content, as they go off tangents on various topics and start ranting incoherently to the camera. Not only does this make you look and sound ridiculous, but it also prevents you from using some of the ideas you’ve come across during that lengthy, unstructured clip in future videos.

Good YouTube scripts tend to be written with an end goal in mind. A good practice you should follow in the beginning is outlining the whole video before you even start drafting the actual sentences you’ll be saying in it. That way, you know what things you absolutely need to touch upon, as well as the general trajectory of your clip. Stream of consciousness writing, although fascinating from a literary perspective, does not seem to fly so well.

The Bottom Line

There are many different paths to success when it comes to marketing on YouTube. Keep in mind, though, that there are just as many, if not more, ways to fail. Don’t take the advice listed above as the be-all, end-all of video-making, but rather as a general set of guidelines that are meant to help beginners take their first steps and keep them from sabotaging their own careers before they even start.

Best Video Editing Software To Give Professional Editing Feel In Minutes

Let us face it: creative storytelling in videos comes from the post-production stage. How many times have you shot a video only to realize that you could have made it more interesting? After all, creating the perfect video requires multiple iterations and editing. 

Sometimes the lighting isn’t good, the content isn’t right, or speakers forget their line in-between; there can be several bloopers while producing a video. That is why using a cool video editing software is necessary to take care of these “behind the scenes” moments. And did we mention, working with video editing solutions can allow you to add effects, filters, and even sounds to further enhance your final video.

But how do you choose the perfect solution for your business? With a dime, a dozen video editing solutions available online, selecting the right tool can be a tough decision. That is why we have come up with a list of six video editing platforms that you can use to edit and create high-impact videos in minutes like a pro.

1. iMovies

Perhaps the easiest video editor, iMovies is ideal for beginners. The software supports multiple templates as well as transition and animated titles for quickly editing projects. It can also make video trimming and merging very simple. 

iMovies is a match made in heaven for marketers who require basic fades and cuts for social media videos. If you are starting with AI video editing, this tool can help you with its library of templates. However, since iMovies is popular among general consumers, we would advise you to steer clear of it when making critical sales videos. 

Pros

  • Good software if you are new to video editing
  • An easy-to-use tool with a simple drag-and-drop interface

Cons

  • Limited features
  • Works only on Mac or iPhones
  • Does not allow the transfer of project files

2. Blender

Blender is an advanced video editing platform that works on both Mac and Windows. It is an open-source tool and has some useful features such as live preview, chroma vectorscope, luma waveform, waveform visualization, audio mixing, syncing, scrubbing, and histogram displays. Blender only has 32 slots for adding videos, images, audio, and other effects such as a 3D animation suite.

Blender is a great tool to add variety to your videos, whether you are making 3D renders for a real-estate project or working with an animated character for an explainer video. That’s not all, since it is an open-source tool, there are several websites such as Turbosquid to assist you while creating the perfect video. You can also become a pro in no time by perusing tutorials and online support material.

All in all, this software is perfect if you are starting with 3D editing!

Pros

Good professional feel about the videos

Cons

A steep learning curve, but reading material and tutorials can make it easy 

3. Promo

Promo video maker is liked by marketers for several reasons. With all the tools required to make an engaging marketing video, Promo claims itself to be the #1 video maker. Let’s look at some of the tools you can use for video editing. 

To begin with, Promo allows users to add and manipulate the text’s size, font, and color, including a range of pastel colors. Users can also include images, sounds, and other visual effects to appear perfectly on social media platforms. The software also comes loaded with around 2,500 in-built templates, stock images from Shutterstock and Getty, and more than 15 million premium HD videos. 

Pros

  • Online and easy-to-use solution
  • Free trial available

Cons

Limited functionality

4. Invideo

InVideo is a great online video editor with several useful functionalities. The tool is easy-to-use, making it an ideal solution for beginners or marketers that work with deadlines to create video content for social media marketing. Invideo supports more than 1,500 design templates that help users create great video content quickly.

The platform also allows users to export videos in HD and use the text-to-speech feature to convert text-based content into engaging videos. Users can also access Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, for images, and royalty-free content.

Pros

  • Online, easy-to-use for beginners
  • A free plan that allows you to create a maximum of 60 videos a month

Cons

  • Video editor falls short of finer video details due to limited features
  • Videos exported by using the free plan has a watermark

5. Biteable

Biteable is a web-based video maker that delivers high-quality results in minutes. Super easy to use and packed with video editing tools designed to make video creation more easily for beginners! Biteable has hundreds of templates to choose from, ranging from sales videos, explainers, advertisements, infographics, internal videos, and more. Each and every one designed by a team of copywriters and editors who know how to make effective videos for businesses. Pick a template that does the trick, tweak the text, change the colors to suit your business, add your logo, and you’re done.

Biteable’s packed browser-based software is just the beginning — even the basic membership gives you access to 1.8 million stock images and clips to make each video your own. It doesn’t stop there: Biteable has a library of fully customizable professional animations created by an in-house team that will make your videos drop jaws.

6. GoPro QuikStories

Exclusively for mobile apps, this video-editing app lets you edit videos on the go. The tool is user-friendly, with a simple interface and several useful features. It is most commonly used to edit videos shot on the camera of a smartphone. 

As a name suggests, the app can directly interface with a GoPro camera and allows users to edit the video without exporting it on PCs. However, you can also use it to edit various other types of videos. The app has several automatic features and presets that can make video editing extremely quick and easy.

The verdict: the app is best suited for beginners as it doesn’t offer a lot of advanced features for professionals.

Pros

  • Several options and presets to try
  • App-based, making it easy for users to edit and publish on social media channels on the go

Cons

Not suitable for professionals as it does not have many advanced features or control for users

7. OpenShot

Like Blender, OpenShot is also an open-source, free video editing platform that has numerous useful features. The intuitive and simple-to-use drag and drop features make it suitable for even beginners trying to learn the basics of video editing. It also supports some critical advanced features such as video-transitions with real-time previews, unlimited layers, etc. 

Openshot also comes with other options such as video effect, animations, and keyframe. It makes video trimming a breeze, allowing users to shorten the video length for making it appropriate for social media channels.

Pros

  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Unlimited layers

Cons

The software sometimes lags 

Final Word

These were our top six video editing tools that can help you create up-vote worthy video content in minutes. Whether you are a beginner or a video editing wizard, these software solutions have something for everyone to make their job easier.

Tips To Prevent Sexism And Ageism Among Your Workers

IIn the twenty-first century, sexism and ageism at the workplace seem like old and ridiculous practices, but sometimes people just can’t give up the stereotypes that have haunted them for many years. We can’t always recognize our wrong actions instantly and stop doing what we do, but mostly we all need a gentle way to be stopped. Some people compare sexism and ageism with terrorism, they say that sometimes it can make really massive psychological harm. Read more on https://lawaspect.com/terrorism-law-essays/. Let’s see what we can do to prevent sexism and ageism and develop a more modern and healthy attitude to the working process.

Focus On The Goal, Not On Personalities

We come to work to do work, that’s the main point. Socializing and team activities are nothing more than pleasant bonuses. Mostly, sex and age can’t prevent people from performing tasks (unless these are very special tasks that may be risky for the health of a particular group). When you feel that something isn’t right, ask yourself particular questions. Does the sex or age of the worker have something to do with the task they should be given? Can they lift the weight they are asked to? Maybe, after a certain age, it’s really not a good idea. If you see a real medical reason for something related to sex or age, it’s not sexism or ageism. But if you believe in a psychological difference like “female brain” or “male brain” or, possibly, more rigid thinking of older people – it might be a form of sexism or ageism. How this harm impacts women you can read on https://newyorkessays.com/examples/woman-suffrage/.

If the goal doesn’t have anything to do with sex or age (e.g. breastfeeding experience is unique for women, so sex does matter for this), there is no reason to prefer people of certain sex or age. There is also no reason to focus on the external aspects of the working process, such as demands for women to look good or not expecting the knowledge of modern technologies from older people. The people are ready to do the job until they haven’t proven the opposite. Focus on the goal and reward the workers according to the work they do and the results they get. It is one of the best ways to prevent sexism, ageism and other -isms at the workplace.

Don’t Assume, Ask

People can have their reasons to do or not do something. They may be good at some things and activities and not so good at others. Assuming that some skills are passed with X or Y chromosomes or miraculously appear with age is also sexism and ageism. However, almost all of us are prone to it to some extent. But we should re,e,ber that women aren’t more empathetic and emotional, and men aren’t more reasonable by default. Older people aren’t always more conservative and slower to accept radical changes. Family expectations are another topic that can be speculated on and become the source of sexism.

If you feel that something personal or psychological may influence the working process, don’t be shy to ask. A polite question has nothing to do with sexism. There is nothing wrong with asking who in the couple will take sick leave because their kid is ill. It is fine to ask if the pace of changes is comfortable for everyone. When everyone is asked the same things, it isn’t a manifestation of sexism in any way. By the way, applying the “gender mirror” and “age mirror” is a great way to fight sexism. If you can ask any of your colleagues the same question, then it’s not sexism or ageism. If the question looks inappropriate when you ask people of different sex or age, then you should think about it a bit more.

Be Aware

Knowing how you are acting around others is the best way to prevent any discrimination. We don’t urge you to control each of your actions all the time and develop anxiety, but if you feel inappropriate about something done towards you, it is also a good time to think if you did something similar by yourself. Humans naturally don’t think about discrimination and empathize too much until they feel that discrimination by themselves. It is the way our brain is hardwired.

If someone tells you that the situation is bad for them, try to imagine yourself in a similar situation. Will you feel comfortable? Can you imagine yourself in such a situation at all? Maybe that person exaggerates things a bit? Mirroring situations helps you to stay aware of your actions and the actions of others towards you. It lets you both not to discriminate and not to become a discriminated one.

Sexism and ageism are still way too prevalent, unfortunately. Social stereotypes are rigid and can still be seen everywhere, influencing our subconscious processes. But getting rid of sexist and ageist assumptions is possible and totally within our possibilities. Like any bad habit, it can be controlled by our mind and eliminated completely, giving way to a completely new, healthier lifestyle.

How to Easily Find Top Add-ons You Need for Work

An add-on or a plug-in is an application intended to supplement the needs of a website. It can either support the website or be added as a feature for users of the site. Right now, there are thousands of WordPress plug-ins to choose from, some are free while others are paid software. These add-ons are used for sites tailored for SEO, Social Media Management, Storage, Improve Latency, and many more. Having the right plug-in will help your site increase traffic, improve performance, and help you in your work or business.

If you’re looking for the top plug-ins for your needs, you can read on and choose which one suits best for you. Below are plug-ins highly favored in their respective category because of its efficiency and functionality.

Forms

One of the most basic features of any site is to have a contact form. This will allow users to send feedback, inquiries, and other correspondence, it is also important to manage the contents sent through these forms to optimize your work. These popular and widely used plug-ins offer a dynamic and easy way to create and manage your Forms on your site:

Everest Forms

It’s a free contact form creator, it’s a straightforward plug-in that is easy to incorporate into your website. Since this is a must-have add-on, you should install WordPress plugins that offer comprehensive features and are easy to handle. With its “drag and drop interface”, you can design your own form in no time along with the necessary validations (captcha) and easily placed in any of the pages on your site with its short-code.

Ninja Forms

Just like the add-on above, Ninja Forms can be downloaded for free that you can build a fully-functioning Contact Form with. But if you want to get the complete package, you’ll have to pay for them. They include building multi-page forms, Front-end posting, Payments, Integration to email marketing, and more. 

SEO

Yoast SEO

If you’re working to improve a website’s ranking this plug-in offers invaluable insights for that. With over 250 million downloads, it’s one of the most useful and powerful plug-ins there is. It’s easy to set-up and it looks through all of your pages with a goal to have useful content for users to drive traffic and sustain your SERP ranking. It also looks at keywords, its usage, usability, and visibility in the search engines.

Rank Math SEO

An easy-to-use SEO add-on that is powerful to help you identify necessary adjustments to optimize your site. It has gained popularity because of its Google Keyword Tracking, 15+ Schema Markup Types, Woocommerce, 404 error logging with a redirection module, and many more.

Analytics

These add-ons will help you in your efforts to rank high in the SERP.

MonsterInsights

This analytics tool will connect your site with Google Analytics to provide you with insight into how people view and use your website. This makes it easier for you to track your site’s performance with users in real-time. With Universal Tracking, you can track and generate reports of product performance, visitor demographics, and other interests from different platforms and devices. 

Optimization and Performance

WP Smush

Images are helpful content to garner traffic and user value for your site, however, they can also affect loading speed and performance. Smush can help you compress images to optimize your site’s requirements without diminishing its quality. This helps you in your work to make your website perform better.

Imagify

This easy-to-use image compressor can save you storage and time in achieving an optimum size and quality for your images. You can automatically or manually resize images according to your specifications.

Security

Wordfence Security

Having a security application you can trust will save you a lot of work from untoward attacks on your website. It offers firewall protection, malware scan, blocking, login measures, and live monitoring. It also has robust protection for admin and user access to your sites.

Sucuri

It offers a comprehensive approach to website security with file integrity monitoring and modification tracking, it also has malware scanning, blocking, activity auditing, and security monitoring. The paid features include a firewall for added security for your site.

Social Media

Integrating multiple social media accounts and content is helpful to get more quality content for your site. It can also be tedious and slow to go to each platform and get preferred posts from those sites. These plug-ins can help you connect your social media account to your site and vice versa.

Social Warfare

This plug-in has attractive buttons that allow visitors to share your content with their social media accounts. It also includes a counter that adds social proof to users. Paid features allow you access to more social media platforms.

Instagram Feed

Instagram has become a very popular social media platform that offers some of the most organic images and multimedia content. This plug-in will allow you to create an Instagram feed on your site to display your posts or other non-private posts from the social media platform.

Email Management

Constant Contact

It’s one of the most effective and convenient email marketing tools for your WordPress website. It allows you to create beautiful emails and newsletters and send them either individually or to an email list or subscribers. Its appeal is in its user-friendly environment that can be used by those who are not that familiar with online tools.

Mailgun

This free plug-in allows you to send up to 200 transaction emails through the Mailgun service.

E-commerce

If you have an online business or working for an e-commerce site, these add-ons will help you make your daily operations smooth and efficient.

WooCommerce

This plug-in has over 100 million downloads, making it one of the best ways to create and operate an e-commerce store. You can use this plug-in for physical products or digital content. Aside from its core features, there are a ton of extensions and additional functionalities to help you work on your store.

Easy Digital Downloads

Primarily used for selling digital content, this add-on makes it easy for you to sell and manage your digital store. You can use this if you’re selling images, music files, software products, etc.

Depending on the nature of your work, these add-ons will make your work so much easier and efficient. It will also add features to your site for the benefit of your users. It is common to have more than 10 plug-ins especially if you’re delivering a lot of functionality for your site.

How to Grow Your Small Business With Content Marketing

Whether you’re launching a startup or already have an established business, a strong online presence is a must. Just relying on word on mouth alone isn’t enough. 

More than half of shoppers say they use Google to discover brands. The data points to the importance of a digital marketing strategy. 

If your target audience can’t find your business online, your competitors will happily grab those sales. So how can you attract prospects and bring in more sales?

The answer is with content marketing. Not sure what that is or what it entails? Don’t worry — we’re about to take an in-depth look at what content marketing is and how to get started.

What is Content Marketing?

ContenContent marketing is the process of creating and distributing engaging content. The goal is to attract prospects to your site and convert them into customers. By far, content marketing on WordPress is the most popular choice and a starting point for aspiring bloggers.

The average consumer today is constantly bombarded with ads. Content marketing is effective because it doesn’t take this aggressive approach. 

Creating engaging content means you’re attracting prospects to your site and helping them address their issues. That in turn can help you establish credibility and build trust with your audience.

Publishing content on multiple channels can increase your reach. But as a small business, you may have a limited marketing budget. The good news is that content marketing is highly scalable, so you can start small and gradually ramp up your efforts.

Now let’s look at how to grow your small business with content marketing.

1. Define Your Content Marketing Goals

Content marketing is most effective when you have clearly defined goals. These should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. In other words, use the SMART goal setting methodology to bring structure to your marketing objectives.

For example, simply saying you want to increase traffic is too vague. A better goal could be increasing search traffic by 10% within the next three months. A goal like this makes it easier for you to measure your progress and pivot as necessary.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying your target audience is key to developing and implementing an effective content marketing strategy. If your content doesn’t resonate with your audience, they’ll likely move on and take their purchase elsewhere.

Start by creating a buyer persona — a profile that depicts your target customer based on market research. A buyer persona includes details like background, demographics, behaviors, motivations, and goals.

Collect data about your audience using platforms like Google Analytics. You can take your research even further by surveying your existing customer base.

Developing a buyer persona may take some time. But it allows you to get a clearer sense of who your audience is, and create more effective content.

3. Decide on Content Types

The next step is to think about the types of content you’ll create. Publishing blog posts is a good place to start. This type of content is relatively easy to produce and it gives you the opportunity to share your expertise.

You can also use guest blogging to build backlinks and increase your Domain Authority. Guest blogging is when you publish content on other sites. It can drive referral traffic to your site and help you build a quality backlink in the process.

Other types of content you can create include ebooks, infographics, videos, webinars, and more. Revisit your content marketing goals to help you decide on which formats to focus your attention on.

4. Select Your Marketing Channels

Publishing content on your site is a great way to establish your business as a go-to resource for helpful information. But you’ll be severely limiting your reach if you rely solely on your site.

Social media is one such marketing channel you don’t want to overlook. With an estimated 3.6 billion people on social media, there’s a good chance your audience is on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Be strategic about which channels you market on. For example, Twitter may be a popular social platform, but is it where your audience is on?

Refer back to your research on your target audience. What channels do they actively use? This is important because those are the channels you’ll want to focus your efforts on.

5. Create a Content Calendar

Content marketing takes ongoing effort to be successful. You can’t simply publish one blog post and expect traffic to suddenly flood your site. At the same time, it can be overwhelming to keep track of everything.

A content calendar is a document that outlines upcoming content for the coming weeks and months. It details everything from the types of content you’ll create to when and where you’ll publish it.

Using a content calendar is a great way to keep all your content organized. Instead of starting from scratch every day, you can simply refer to the calendar and get started.

6. Incorporate SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your site with the goal of ranking higher in the search results. There are two aspects of SEO: On-page and off-page.

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual aspects of a page like titles, headers, meta descriptions, and the content itself for certain keywords. Optimizing on-page factors helps search engines understand what a page is about.

This LastPass review is a good example of a well-optimized page. It includes the target keywords in the title and it’s broken down into sections that are easy to read. 

As you optimize your pages for SEO, always focus on your visitors. Spamming your content with keywords doesn’t work, and may incur a ranking penalty. Be sure to use a grammar checker before you publish to make sure that your content still flows well after optimization.

With off-page SEO you’ll focus on external signals like backlinks, which are a major ranking signal. Google sees links from other sites as a vote of confidence. Building backlinks to your pages can improve your overall rankings.

7. Scale With a Content Team

There’s only so much you can do on your own. Eventually, you should consider outsourcing your content marketing to scale your content efforts.

Use platforms like Upwork to find talented writers and editors who can implement your content marketing strategy. You can use Google Docs to write your content and automate with Wordable to automatically upload to WordPress.

Conclusion

Content marketing is a key strategy that can raise brand awareness and establish your business as an industry authority. It can also help you turn more visitors into customers. Implement the tips laid out here to grow your business with content marketing.

Google BERT, Translation, and Small Business SEO and Marketing

** This article is updated regularly. It was last updated in April 2021 **

It’s been two years since Google BERT was integrated into search engine algorithms, in November of 2019. Since then, it’s been understanding searches through a vigorous crawling process, and integration of Google spiders and bots. This made it more capable of “reading” and “understanding” website content almost like humans.

BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers and it has revolutionized searches online, translation and will soon reach directly into the realm of websites. SEO experts have changed their methods before and after BERT was implemented, allowing for the increased changes in Google’s SEO algorithms.

With BERT’s increased understanding, you can look to translation to understand the changes BERT has brought about, especially in terms of machine and human translation, and certain sectors as translation services. This article takes a look at that.

Google BERT and Its Background in Translation

BERT is built on the back of the transformer, which is a neural network architecture created for NLP or natural language processing. BERT has thoroughly beaten more traditional NLP models in both English to French and English to German translation tasks.

One additional standard is the Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SquAD) which is made up of questions to determine the NLP capacity, BERT even surpassed human accuracy rates, scoring 93.2% accuracy where human translations scored 91.2%.

Does this mean that human translators or translation services will soon be left by the wayside? While that day may eventually come around, at present translation by machine is still severely restricted, most notably in areas like figurative speech and localized vernacular and expressions.

While it presently works very well for translating large volumes of data, machine post editing, or more specifically, human translators from translation services are still necessary to finalize the translation.

BERT was released as open-source long before it was introduced into the actual search engines. While there has been amazing progress in some areas by such prestigious Ivy League universities as Cornell, at the end of the day, humans still seem far more capable of providing translation services, which revitalizes machine learning with language acquisition,that are more accurate and complete. In terms of search engine optimization, however, as may have been noted during the May 2020 Google updates, BERT will soon revolutionize search engine optimization or SEO and the approach to small business marketing online.

Google Bert and Its Impact on SEO

Google has estimated that the BERT updates will directly impact 10% of all search engine results, and while important, that is only a part of the outcome that is relevant to small businesses and SEO experts. The latest Google updates have caused many SEO professionals to reconsider how they do business and website owners to rethink their content marketing campaigns.

BERT is exceptionally adept at “understanding” language more similar to humans and as such, makes it much more capable in determining the search intent of people using the search engine. Google was quick to take advantage of this, not only in terms of the actual search results but also through the inclusion of additional “features” on the search page.

Among the many features of Google are paid advertisements, of course, reviews, featured snippets, the knowledge panel, related questions and other inclusions that make it substantially more busy for the searchers, and also more competition even for the top ranking websites.

There were some types of websites that have experienced more radical results from the BERT implementation. There is a complete list on the Search Engine Journal website where it notes that among them were sites focusing on history, natural and traditional medicine, news, music and entertainment; and perhaps most notably here, for small businesses and local business websites.

What Google BERT Means for Small Business

There is a page called SE Roundtable that lists all of the ongoing Google Updates and reports extensively on their impact on various websites. Of particular interest is one conversation pertaining to the May 2020 update and the apparent presence of a “bug” in the update that created adverse results for many local small businesses.

There seems to have been some speculation that this bug was specifically limited to local car dealerships, though further testimony from numerous SEO experts clearly showed that this bug was in fact not ultimately a bug and proved detrimental to a great many local business interests.

While this has been largely sorted out, it would appear that the stabilization of localized search results was as much a result of continued and deeper integration of BERT into the search engine algorithms and others were the result of changes in the practices of SEO for many of these local small businesses.

The Future of BERT and Small Business SEO

Many people have questioned how they can optimize their website content in order to maximize the benefits from the Google BERT updates. Perhaps one of the most wonderful things about the future of SEO and local business content marketing online, is that there is no need to optimize content for BERT.

Small businesses and SEO experts alike need to rethink their content marketing but for their readers and not for the search engines. If there is any tactic that would benefit in terms of SEO, it would be query-related content.

Search engine queries are the actual words, phrases, and questions being asked on the search engines. For the sake of brevity, the results from Ahrefs will be considered, where they list four different and distinct types of search engine queries.

What Are The Different Types of Search Engine Queries?

  • Navigational search engine queries
  • Informational search engine queries
  • Commercial Investigative search engine queries
  • Transactional search engine queries

Navigational search engine queries are where the searcher is merely looking for a URL or universal request location, more commonly known as a website address. These should not be mistaken for transactional search queries where the searcher is seeking out directions to a particular store in order to make their final purchase. These results should also be fairly common to the website and not require any specific focus by either SEO experts or the small business online operations.

Informational search engine queries are just that, used by viewers who are seeking out specific information. Some of these informational queries will be immediately answered in one of the many search engine features that were noted before.

If someone searches for the current time in New York City, for example, the answer will come up immediately on the SERP and there is no reason for the search to progress any further. These types of informational queries have a very low click-through rate and focusing on these types of queries is not likely to result in any increased website traffic.

The SEO expert should determine what the common and relevant queries are being searched in any given area, and the small business should focus on an international, multilingual approach to providing answers to those queries in their content marketing campaigns.

The content should then focus on providing meaningful and relevant resolutions for these queries. Ideally, the content should point to the fact that their product or service offers a viable answer to the question being asked. This process should ultimately direct the potential customer into a sales funnel.

Commercial investigative search engine queries are those where the searcher needs to find a particular service or product but have not yet determined the best products or services to meet their needs. This is where queries such as “what are the best translation services online” and similar questions will be asked of the search engines. These types of queries are why the SEO experts and small businesses may want to focus on “listicles” and other review type content for their site.

These types of viewers are the ones that are ready to purchase and who can be more easily directed to a well-planned sales funnel on the website. Look for this type of content to become increasingly popular and common for increasing rankings on the SERP, especially if it keeps the readers on the page long enough to read the entire article. This on-page time will be an increasingly important part of the new ranking factors by Google. SEO experts and small business owners should focus this content on overcoming any objections and leading the reader and soon-to-be consumer to the sales page or the buy now buttons.

Transactional search engine queries are those where the viewer knows the product or service they will be purchasing and are looking for the best price or location to purchase that product or service.

Conclusion

In the near future, look for the quality of content and the ability of content to directly answer search queries to become increasingly important as opposed to a focus on keyword content. On a side note, albeit a very important one; look for translation services and other services to expand as we expand into a more global digital environment and people recognize the ability to gain tens of millions of viewers with very little direct competition.

How to Recover Deleted Files from Hard-Drive Using EaseUS Data Recovery Software

On the occasion that you’re searching for a quick, entire, and safe data recovery programming to recover eradicated, lost, or orchestrated records or reports from PC, PC, or outside limit devices, by then EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is the best data recovery programming open on the web.


EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is an outrageous free file recovery software  for Windows customers to discover and recover lost or killed records, photographs, music, sound, messages, compacted chronicles, and so on unequivocally from hard drive, external hard drive, SSD, USB, memory card, moved the camera, cell phones and other putting away media. It can without a lot of a stretch and rapidly recover data from various types of data mishap: abrupt eradication, hard drive contamination, disease ambush especially Want to Cry Ransom ware, structure crash, volume adversity, stupid movement, arranging or by various reasons.

This free data recovery programming works magnificently with hard drives, gear RAID, SD cards, pen drives, iPods, and so on. Memory card data recovery can get back the lost records from hurt or subverted memory card including a memory stick, SD card, CF card, Micro card, and that is only the start. USB drive data recovery can restore records lost from a USB drive, pen drive, streak drive, and other removable amassing devices.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free is unimaginably simple to utilize and requires no earlier association on data recovery. It has a reasonable interface that shows recoverable information beforehand we start the recovery method. It gives you essential “Lively compass” and further “Significant yield” modes to find all lost or erased archives, photographs, and media records completely. Ensuing to inspecting, it empowers us to search for a record by name and channel the discovered pictures by content.

EaseUS free information recuperation programming is besides adaptable and profitable. You can beyond question convey checked results at whatever point and essentially import you’re saved sifting result and resume recovery without rescanning. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free engages you to restore up to 2 GB of information, anyway with Data Recovery Wizard Professional the extent of information you can restore is boundless.

The best technique to Recover Your Lost Data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free – Step by Step with Screenshots

Stage 1:

Select a region to begin discovering reports that you have lost. You can in like way pick lost sections here. Select and click Scan to begin finding the lost documents.

Stage 2:

Scanning your PC or outside contraptions for lost information begins. First lively sifting is done and after that noteworthy yield begins to discover more lost records by fundamentally examining the document records. You can delay the checking by some coincidence and continue later. After looking at is done, you can channel what you need to restore from the separated outcomes.

Stage 3:

Preview explicit restorable records/archives and tap on ‘restore’ to get lost reports back. That is it your data recovery is finished. (Note: DO NOT keep the archives into the hard drive or outside devices where you lost the information).

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Presently you know how to utilize EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free to get lost data back. You should impart this article to other people, who you feel may benefit from this free data recovery programming.

Essential Phone Apps Every Small Business Should be Using

Mobile devices have entered businesses as the key gadget in various industries. Both small and large companies have employees who use mobile devices for their work. Small companies rely on efficiency and agility to stay competitive. It includes working directly from the office but also while on the go.

Hence, mobile devices have become inevitable in our work routines. Without them, we would not be able to communicate with our colleagues as efficiently as we do. However, to do business while on the go, your employees need to have the right apps. Luckily, there are many apps you can use, and many of them are entirely free. Cost-free options make them ideal for growing businesses.

Task management

All employees juggle multiple tasks at once, finding time to help or consult colleagues in between. However, the more assignments build up, the more difficult it is to keep track of your progress. Hence, you need a sharp and convenient tool to organize all your tasks for the week or month neatly. Luckily, there are many options available. All of them operate on a relatively simple principle and are beginner-friendly. So, do not hesitate to increase your productivity with the help of a simple app.

VPN

A phone VPN can quickly boost your security and privacy. When using your smartphone for private conversations and searches, you expect this data to be confidential. However, this data is easily snatched by marketers, websites, and even your ISP. A virtual private network app is designed to help you stay secure while online.

It encrypts your connection and prevents anyone from seeing what you do online. Hence, such security measures halt data thefts and loss of personal information. At the same time, quality VPNs can also be used to hide your IP addresses and help you pick one that unblocks geo-restricted content. All of these things are very important for businesses since online criminals often target companies. Furthermore, a VPN ensures that your Wi-Fi connection is safe, and knowing its questionable nature, you will be glad to have this protection. 

Skype

Skype has been a standard choice for videoconferencing and overall communication for the last 15 years. Many different apps tried to compete, but none have succeeded. At the moment, the app itself has more than 10 million comments and reviews on Google store.

Skype has been a standard part of everyone’s PC for years. When the app came out, most people simply got Skype for their phones as well. Skype lets you voice or video call anyone for free. You can get a maximum of 25 people in a single call and share various files. However, if you are looking for something new, you can explore alternative apps as well.

Evernote

If your employees have a fast-paced job where they need to remember lots of information and do research, Evernote might be what they need. This app allows you to gather various pieces of online information in a single place.

The information can be changed, embedded, shared, tagged, and much more. At the same time, Evernote can be used as a notebook. You can store social media posts, contacts, create to-do lists, and much more. What’s even better is that all of this is entirely free. There is a paid version that gives more upload space and some additional controls.

Google Drive

Google Drive is cloud storage offered by Google. It’s attached directly to your email, and everyone can use it for free. The Google Drive app is free to download and can be used in many different ways. It’s great for any kind of writing work or documentation.

It lets you upload, store, manage, and share files. At the same time, users can edit those documents, leave comments, and communicate through the platform. The paid version gives more storage space.

Apps for successful cooperation

Project management is vital. It is especially true when doing work on smartphones. So, project management apps need to be clear and provide a nice overview of all essential information. That’s how people won’t make mistakes while doing their jobs.

For this reason, we find Trello to be the best fit, as it’s very visual. It’s designed around boards where users can create, check, move, and modify lists. As a project progresses, the cards are moved. All of the cards can be assigned with members, checklists, or have attached files. At the same time, people can use cards to leave comments or communicate directly. Trello is around $10 for businesses, but it’s worth the expense.

Conclusion

These are some of the best mobile apps for small businesses. Of course, there are thousands of others, but we feel that these will make an immediate difference in the way you do your business. So, do not hesitate to make your business mobile and flexible.

Virtual Fax – A Must Have Tool for Small Businesses

Good communication tools are essential to own a successful small business.  They help us stay in touch with customers and providers, allowing things to run smoothly and without delays or complications.  If you rely on faxing to communicate on a regular basis, you can improve the delivery of documents with virtual fax.

There are multiple companies that can enable us to fax from email in just a few steps and without the problems that traditional fax machines have, such as busy phone lines, paper jams, running out of ink, etc.

This new way of faxing is called “virtual fax”, because instead of printing all incoming documents and having to scan the ones you send, you can simply manage all files digitally.  That’s right, all incoming faxes arrive to your inbox as PDF files, and in the same way you can send faxes straight from email, using digital documents. For businesses, this means that you’ll spend less money and time faxing on a daily basis.

What Are the Advantages of Virtual Fax for Small Businesses?

A free fax number. Another big benefit of using virtual fax companies is that they provide you a fax number, totally free of charge.  When you create an account with a fax service you can choose between a local or a toll-free number, which people will use to send you faxes.  Contrary to what happens with common dedicated phone numbers, this line will never be busy.

Speed of delivery.  Faxing from your computer is many times faster than faxing through a machine.  Once you press Send, your digital files are automatically converted to a fax image and sent to its destination without running into issues such as paper jams and interrupted transmissions. You can send email to fax, or you can use your service’s website to send faxes.

Fax from anywhere. With the use of a mobile fax app, businesses can send, receive and even sign faxes in just a few taps.  There are apps that charge you per fax and others that work alongside online fax service subscriptions.  We recommend the latter option, because they actually give you a number to receive faxes. If your business requires to be always on the go, this is an invaluable feature.

Automatic delivery. Every fax coming your way is automatically saved to your account and sent to your email as a PDF, you don’t have to do anything because the process is 100% automatic.  Just make sure you enable notification on your phone and be able to read them electronically.  Since your line is never busy you won’t have to worry about missing a fax ever again.

Other advanced features. Basic faxing tasks are just the tip of the iceberg of what you can enjoy with online fax.  There are other features that can make faxing easier than ever before, such as the ability to schedule your fax at an exact date and time, fax broadcasting (send a single fax to a list of recipients at the same time, and integration with cloud storage platforms including Dropbox and Google Drive.

Choosing the Right Fax Company

To make the most out of online fax, you need to choose the right company.  You’ll find that some services promise you everything, but many times customers have to deal with unreachable numbers or fax servers going down without customer support at hand.  

Luckily, there are also companies that have proved time and time again that they are reliable and can really help your business take the next step in faxing.  I’m talking about companies such as RingCentral, eFax and Nextiva, which we have tried and continue to use to this very day.

If you are having trouble deciding on which fax service to use, you can take advantage of free fax trials.  Most fax companies give you the chance of creating a test-drive account, which you can cancel at any time. So, for a full month you can fully test the features of a service and check if it is really helpful in reaching your goals. A great thing about integrating an email to fax Google alternative in your business is that it is very quick to get started.  It only takes a few minutes to create a new account and pick the fax number you wish to use.  If you are in the US you’ll find that there are numbers for the vast majority of cities in the country, but if you are outside the US you’ll need more specialized services with international presence.

Secure Your Video Conferences With These 5 Steps

Introduction

The security flaws inherent in video conferencing and in particular with certain offerings have been well documented over the last few months while the world at large has limped from one crisis to another. When security firms started predicting what would be the main security concerns for 2020 the increased use of video conferencing tools to support remote work did feature predominantly, however, they had no idea how the current pandemic would create an environment where the prediction became reality almost overnight.

Flaws And Threats

While businesses rapidly adopted video conferencing solutions or look to find the best HD conferencing API, the scramble to remain operational left the important security questions unanswered. Security researchers were quick to point out flaws including those that would allow unauthenticated users joining meetings or poor password management that would see gate crashers arrive to spoil the party. The good news is that steps can be taken to secure video conferences and these should be implemented as part of an organization’s security policy.

Understanding Your System

This step can be done when choosing a solution or even when one has been chosen. Of importance here is to ask what type of data encryption does the solution provide, how the data is managed, and the security features presented to users before they log in. Also, the age of the current solution should be looked at, if the product is older than five years it might not offer the required security measures to help combat modern threats.

Have A Policy in Place

As with policies that dictate how employees are to use personal devices in the workplace, whether in the office or, ever increasingly, remotely, a policy for video conferences needs to be done, if not already in place. Ideally, the policy needs to clearly list the boundaries and expectations of both the company and the employee. Requirements for recording meetings, what information can be discussed, how to use the camera and mute functions following policy guidelines, and what devices may be used are important considerations when drafting a policy.

Domain-Based Security

Too often is the case that these tools are connected directly to the Internet with no firewall in place. This is simply begging a hacker to compromise the company network. A far better approach is what researchers have termed Domain-based security and involves placing video conferencing solutions within the protective barrier of the company network and allows administrators to control access to the tool. As an example, if a video conference is set up between an outside stake-holder and an employee, an employee with the correct privileges will need to allow the outsider to join the call and authenticate their access.

Control Access

Closely linked to the above step is controlling who has access to calls. Technology has provided a handy tool to help manage this in single sign-on (SSO) systems. These systems are tied to users’ privileges and authorization level so that credential theft is made much harder. Further, these systems generate log data that tracks where, when, and how the user accessed the system.

Encryption

Concluding this article is a note on encryption. By using 128-bit AES as a company’s encryption standard for all things including video-conferencing the company has gone a long way to harden their data and keep it away from prying eyes. When using this standard to generate an encryption key for a video conference, it would take a supercomputer billions of years to try and break the encryption key.

A Guide To Combating Abandoned Carts

Abandoned shopping carts are one of the biggest problems for online companies. While a user might have liked your brand and products enough to add a product into a basket, they could be deterred by the user experience, order total, or second thoughts about their wants and needs. As a result, they might click away from your site and never return.

To grow your revenue and turn visitors into customers, read the below guide on how to combat abandoned carts.

Understand The Reasons For An Abandoned Cart

A high abandoned cart rate can be both confusing and frustrating for business owners. There are various reasons why a user might have failed to complete a purchase, which you must identify to secure more customers.

Common reasons for an abandoned cart could include:

  • Unexpected fees (such as shipping costs or taxes)
  • Complex navigation
  • Security concerns
  • Lengthy processes
  • Discovering a better price elsewhere

For this reason, you must aim to prevent worries from occurring, simplify the shopping experience, and avoid hidden extras to secure their custom. If you do plan extra fees for shipping, highlight the costs across your website to ensure a customer will factor in the price when adding items into their basket. If you fail to do so, the order total might not complement their budget, and they will be more likely to remove an item or click away from your site.

Build Trust In Your Brand

If a customer isn’t familiar with your brand and has never placed an order with your business before, they could worry about inputting their personal details and financial information. There are, however, actions you can take to build trust in your company.

Encourage visitors to trust your site by:

  • Investing in a valid SSL certificate
  • Adding trust symbols onto your site (such as PayPal Verified, Verified by Visa, and Verisign Secured)
  • Creating an attractive, easy-to-use website
  • Publishing high-quality thought leadership content
  • Displaying testimonials and customer reviews

Send Cart Abandonment Emails

You will likely capture a visitor’s email when they embark on the checkout process. If they fail to complete a purchase, you could send an autoresponder email to inform them their items are waiting in their cart.

While you shouldn’t inundate a visitor with messages, send one or two emails within 24 hours to encourage them to return to your site and finish an order. You must, however, learn how to create an engaging email marketing campaign that will not end up in their trash folder.

Launch A Remarketing Campaign

Remarketing campaigns can be a powerful tactic for encouraging past visitors to return to a site and complete an order. The advertisements can appear across social media, apps, or the Google Ad network to specifically reach a previous visitor using cookies. It will feature products they have viewed in the past in an attempt to re-engage with them and secure their custom.

Add A Guest Checkout Option

Many online shoppers don’t want to create an account and enter many personal details into a website. To improve the user experience and simplify the buying process, provide visitors with a guest checkout option. Once they have placed an order, a customer might be happy to add their information to place future orders on your website.

Feature Impartial Reviews To Convince Customers

Impartial reviews can remove any doubt about the quality of a product or service. To convince a customer that your product is worthy of their time and money, you should:

  • Incorporate genuine reviews and testimonials on your product pages
  • Feature reviews on your Facebook profile
  • Add a backlink to a review website, such as TripAdvisor or Glassdoor
  • Feature an app such as Notify on your online store to prove others are buying your products

Simplify Your Navigation

Visitors don’t want to enter many forms and click through many pages to make a purchase. As mentioned earlier, complex navigation could lead to potential customers abandoning their carts. Prevent customers from clicking away by reducing the number of clicks to three.

Simplified navigation should look like this:

  1. Pick a product
  2. Add an item into a shopping cart
  3. Hit the checkout button

Reduce the time it takes from a product page to the basket and offer limited forms to fill for a fast buying process and a greater user experience. It could make a big difference to your yearly revenue and profit margin.

Incorporate A Progress Indicator

Increase a visitor’s patience by incorporating a progress indicator into the checkout process. It will show your customers where they are in the checkout and how many steps that they must take to complete an order. It will assure a customer that they won’t have many actions to take until they have bought a product, so they can quickly return to their day.

A progress indicator should have minimal steps to complete, which could prevent a prospective buyer from abandoning their site, such as:

  • Access Checkout
  • Billing
  • Shipping Details
  • Payment
  • Order Confirmation

You also could optimize the checkout experience by using A/B testing of a progress indicator. Remember, what works on one company’s site won’t necessarily work on your own, so test different options to find a sign that matches your web users’ online behavior and the company’s needs.

Use Visuals To Increase Buyer Confidence

Customers might have second thoughts about your products at the checkout, as they can’t hold an item in their hand to review its quality. Visuals can, however, convince them to make a purchase, as they will have a greater understanding of a product and how it could match their needs.

For example, you could add high-resolution product photographs from various angles. You also should add images that show visitors how they can use an item, and that highlights its many benefits.

So, if you want to lower your abandoned cart rate and maximize sales in 2020, you should consider the above advice. It could lead to a more significant customer base, an improved user experience, and a more substantial annual revenue.

4 VPNs That Are Suitable For Your Android Phone

As we go further and further with the internet at the very core of our communication, security becomes an issue. When we surf online, especially with our Android Phones, there’s an entire record of what we do, who we talk to, from where, and for how long. This is called metadata. This metadata is so incredibly valuable that it’s more important, and traded at a higher price, than oil. But leaving a trail of metadata has a downside: we have no control over who buys it, who sees it, or what they do with it. Maybe we don’t want other people to see the private photos we’ve sent. Maybe we want more encryption around personal medical data and inquiries. There’s a whole lot you can do with just a bit of privacy.

Enter the VPN. A Virtual Private Network is a shield against the most egregious of privacy concerns. According to opportunites-digitales.com, when you have a VPN, you essentially have a protective tunnel everywhere you go online. This is a huge concern, especially for Androids. Here are the 4 best VPNs for your Android Phone.

ExpressVPN

There’s so much hype around ExpressVPN for android, and for a good reason. It puts all the complicated settings options into a simple, easy to use, and efficient set of options. It’s this ease of use that has thousands flocking to download this app. It can be used all over the world, with servers covering 94 different countries. It allows for everything your average consumer would want in a VPN, and then some. 

NordVPN

NordVPN has its branding and its message down to a tee. They have a mountain as their primary image, and that’s exactly what using NordVPN is like. They have an extra layer of security, much like a tunnel within a tunnel. They’re also incredibly scalable to larger networks, with a keen focus on merging android with company systems. 

IPVanish

If you’re into the technicalities and nitty gritty of privacy, IPVanish has a bunch of cool features for you. They have split tunneling options as well as obfuscation. On top of that, there’s a “kill switch” that shuts off your internet in case the VPN drops. The problem with most VPNs is that if it drops, and enough metadata points place you in a single spot—like your home, data analysts can know where you are. 

Surfshark 

Surfshark is the best bang for your buck. It’s gained some decent traction in the security world for being the most accessible in terms of customer reach. People with smartphones all over the world can avail. This is also a great idea due to many budget hardware having questionable security to begin with. It’s a great first line of defense that carries the greatest weight for the low-low price. 

Everybody needs a good VPN. In the Information Age, it’s hard to argue against it. What we do, and what we see is akin to where we go on the globe. If we have constant tracking on all of our movements, who is to say that it can’t be used against us? Modern concerns need modern solutions. With android phones, the answer is a solid VPN.

VPN for Android by Namecheap

Android VPN by Namecheap is a safe and fast VPN for your android device. You can easily download VPN for Android by Namecheap from the official website. Basically, it’s just like any other virtual private network that hides both your IP address and location. The app is very simple and easy to use on any of your old or new android smartphones. It has a world map that you can zoom in on, with your location highlighted.

One of the biggest advantages is that Namecheap’s Android VPN works with more than 1,000 servers spread across 50 countries, which guarantees you a high internet connection.

4 Ways To Make Your Small Business More Productive

shallow focus photo of thank you for shopping signage

New small businesses are being created every day by ambitious owners looking to make a difference. As these companies go up against fierce competition, it is essential that small businesses do everything in their power to ensure that they are productive and efficient with every minute they have.

What stands in the way of many small businesses from reaching the top is a lack of productivity. Productivity is essentially how effective a business is using its time to improve itself and spread a message. With these 4 productivity hacks, your small business will be on its way to the top.

1.  Be Collaborative

Being collaborative in the workplace is any business’s first step to success. All members of a small business team need to b eon the same page so that there is a clear vision and end goal. Working in the same space can help, but having effective communication outside the workplace is also key.

Given there are hundreds if not thousands of communication apps available to download and install collaboration with colleagues and stakeholders have never been easier. Setting up the time and space for a team to collaborate together will encourage the spreading of ideas that are what could take a business to the next level.

2.  Spread Your Message

The main goal of any business is to spread a message to customers. You can do things like build your own blog or push new marketing campaigns to get your business seen by the masses. You can have the best product in the world, but it won’t stand a chance of selling in the current marketplace unless you are making it visible.

Understanding how you can sell online and get a message across around the world will open up your doors to new and never before considered markets. Using a powerful message to show customers you have plenty of value to offer them is what will get them hooked on your business.

3.  Establish An Efficient Workflow

Productivity and efficiency are two products that go hand in hand when you look at how a company is going to do. Being productive means using your time effectively, and efficient workflows are how you are able to remove burdens and free up essential time.

Streamlining your online business means that you can sell products without having to do much work and can use your time for more important tasks. Having the luxury of efficiency on your side will make being productive much easier and, by extension, improve revenues and profitability. If you need help check out these top eCommerce website builders.

4.  Have A Reliable Team

The last but often most important element to having a productive small business is to have a team that shares your goals and values. Asking people to invest in your vision asks a lot from people and you need to make sure they are reliable enough to help make your vision a reality.

Start conversations with every employee so you are all on the same page and can reach your goal together. The last thing you want to have to do is drag dead weight around that is not going to help you get to the top.

5.  Be Secure

Keeping in touch with colleagues, selling products online from a website and ensuring security of stored data can be a real pain. Ensure that all hardware is secured with AV software, and lines of communication are sent via secure channels. Be prepared for the worst and it won’t happen, but give a thief or hacker just a small opportunity and they may end up destroying all that you have built or are trying to build.

4 Ways Local Businesses Can Benefit From An SEO Service

If you’ve done any research into promoting your business, you’ve probably come to the conclusion that search engine optimization makes the business world go round.

And unless you spent a decade in digital marketing, you might not have any idea how to use that information and actually improve your small business’ marketing strategy.

The good news is that you don’t have to worry about the technical complexities of SEO. There are hundreds of tools out there that will handle the details for you, and some of them specialize in small or local business marketing. A good SEO service will handle the details so you can focus on running your business and creating web content to attract new customers.

But before we look at how your local business can leverage an SEO service, let’s take a minute to break down search engine optimization and what it does as a marketing tool.

A Brief Introduction To SEO

At its most basic level, search engine optimization is all about keywords. If you run a local hardware store, you might assume that your ideal customer is interested in a few specific topics like DIY projects, home renovations, tools for rent, etc.

SEO tools help you see which of those topics that customers search for online. You might discover that “DIY bathroom remodel” is getting 10,000 searches a month, which means you should probably write a blog post or create a tutorial about that topic.

And the more of this research you do, the more relevant your content becomes. Which means you’ll start showing up higher in Google search results, which means more people will see your company and head to your website or social media pages.

Yes, an SEO strategy takes a lot of work in the beginning. But it helps you streamline the process to make things easier moving forward. If you use SEO correctly, you’ll be able to focus your time and money on the keywords that matter most to your business.

And to help you get started, here are 4 ways your local businesses will benefit from SEO (and why an SEO service can help you reach your goals).

#1. Tap Into Existing Traffic

Okay, so this one is fairly straightforward. But here are a few shocking statistics from SocialMediaToday:

  • 46% of Google searches are people looking up local information
  • 72% of people who search for local businesses visit a store within 5 miles
  • 78% of local mobile searches resulted in an in-store purchase

Large numbers of people in your area are looking for local businesses. Whether you live in Burlington, Iowa or Brooklyn, N.Y., there is web traffic that you are missing right now.

An SEO service won’t guarantee that every one of those Google searches leads to a purchase from your business. But it does mean that you will suddenly have an “inside man,” someone who is finding the trends and helping you market to people in a way that leads to more brand awareness for your company.

#2. Target The Right Customers

The greatest strength of winning SEO campaigns is that it lets you segment your marketing. Instead of creating a bunch of generalized content, you’re able to build content clusters that specifically meet the needs of the different segments of your target audience.

For local businesses, that can make all the difference. People instinctively want to support businesses that align with their values, represent their hometown, or represent something they care about. But if you aren’t using SEO strategies, you won’t know which keywords will get your brand in front of those potential customers.

An SEO service won’t just take care of that for you — the good ones will work with you directly to make sure that your marketing strategy is as fine-tuned as is possible.

#3. Keep Up With Local Competitors

As a local business, it’s easy to think that your biggest competition is the national brands. You know, the ones with the billion-dollar ad campaigns that seem to haunt your dreams.

But the truth is that those brands aren’t using SEO strategies that target your local community. These mega-companies are going after keywords around their niche, which can make it competitive. But if you run a local bookstore, the best competition to focus on is the one against other local bookstores, both in your city and the greater region.

Let’s stick with the bookstore example. Customers already know what to expect from the nearest Barnes & Noble. But what if that customer wants used books, or fiction from local authors, or regional travel guides? They’ll search for “bookstores near [your town here]” and that’s the kind of keyword you want to focus on.

Targeting a keyword like “bookstores near [your town here]” might pull up a Barnes & Noble location, but if you create enough content that focuses on that keyword, soon enough you’ll start to climb higher and higher up the search results.

#4. Optimize Your Online Presence

SEO isn’t just a way to help your content rank for certain keywords — it’s also a way to build authority around your company’s web presence. (That’s actually at the core of search engine optimization, but in terms of local SEO, it’s more of a side benefit than the main focal point.)

A strong content strategy might get some of your blog posts, tutorials, and marketing materials to rank as a local business on Google. But if you use the same SEO principles on your home page, search engines will start to see your site as an authoritative voice in your community and industry.

Additional SEO Resources

As a reminder, there are dozens of high-quality SEO services out there. (Here’s a comprehensive list of SEO service companies.) Some specialize in local business, while others focus on domain authority. The point is, you can find a service to help you in a specific area or improve your overall web presence and keyword targeting.

If you’re new to SEO, you may want some tips on how to write SEO articles. And it might help to read a huge collection of statistics and facts to support the value of local business SEO. Or maybe you want to start somewhere small and try to get some of that “[enter business type] near me” Google traffic.

No matter where your business is or how you approach advertising, local SEO can help you maximize the time and money you invest in marketing. And an SEO service will take care of all the nitty, gritty details so you can focus on running — and growing — your business.


Drew Gula is the copywriter at Soundstripe, a company that produces royalty free epic music and sound effects to help businesses improve their video content.