Month: February 2023

Business Marketing Online: Secrets of Internet Millionaire Webmasters

One mistake that most website owners and businesses are currently making is that they depend on their traffic to come from search engines alone.

Some are even squandering hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly doing (Pay per click) PPC campaign.

This is fatal.

It is impossible for all websites to rank at #1 or among the top 10 all at once in any search engine.

So, once businesses realize this obvious fact, it should be common sense for them to know that the solution should be to diversify their marketing and promotion.

Stop depending on the uncertain search engine traffic otherwise you’ll go bankrupt soon.

You need to do different kinds of marketing and promotions both online and offline.

Some of them are newspaper and magazine advertising, TV, cable and radio advertising, direct mailing promotion, text-link campaign, link exchange campaign, events sponsorship promotion, press release, article promotions.

When you do all these promotions, you get a lot of exposures, traffic from many sources and will not be forced anymore to depend on search engines traffic and rankings alone.

I have also noticed that most businesses are still using the old tactics of copywriting that worked during pre-internet era.

Perhaps that is why many of them have problems in making their websites profitable.

In these internet times, a website content has to be short, direct, interesting and must have a unique selling proposition to be effective and to convert visitors to buyers.

Many people just don’t have the time to spend all day reading the content of one website when they are aware there are thousands and millions more they may have to read before they make up their minds to buy.

I see many website contents which are professionally written, organized and designed.

But all have one common mistake. They forget this fact that I am pointing out:

They are way too long, too desperate in their sales pitches, hype and most of them will not even allow you to read more than one word before their subscription pop-up forms come up and block the websites.

What a very rude and annoying way to welcome a prospect to your website.

In other words, they do so much to repel the customers, instead of doing so much to attract them.

May these insights into website promotion, work at home business income program, online income opportunity, website marketing, work from home business, affiliate programs, internet promotion help you improve your online marketing so as to achieve more success and happiness.

Please feel free to print or publish this article anywhere and read and also send it to your friends and well wishers and please preserve the author’s resource box and website below.

Ikey Benney

Basic Things You Need to Know About Custom Packaging

Packaging plays a significant role when it comes to marketing a product. It’s what the client sees first, and it will establish their opinion on the company they just subscribed to. And you don’t even have to be an expert to know that first impression can easily dictate whether your business will reach the high road or end up in a ditch. Custom Packaging is not recommended for startup businesses. However, for established ones it can do wonders when it comes to brand marketing. Hitting all the right details at the same time can elevate your company to a whole new level of success. If you think conducting a proper custom packaging on your product is simple well, then you made a mistake. It is not, there are a lot of playing factors that can easily affect the outcome. Listed below are some of the basic things you need to know first about custom packaging before you give it a try.

TYPES OF BOXES

Different types of parcels and boxes can be used for packaging. From the regular ones to unique new items that can improve the overall aesthetic of your business. Here are some of them.

• Bubble Wrap Mailers

• Traditional boxes

• Rigid Envelopes

• Customized Envelopes

WAYS TO PRINT THE CUSTOMIZED PACKAGING

.Just like the types of boxes, printing can also be done in a lot of ways. Having the right amount of knowledge on how the flow works can work to your advantage and avoid getting ripped off or sold out by fraudulent people.

• Digital Printing – used in most small-sized batches. It is almost similar to home printers that almost everyone has in their homes.

• Flexographic Printing – this one is typically used for mass production. It works in a stamping-like manner.

• Li tho-Label Printing – Unlike the first two, the litho label provides a cleaner finish and a name that has a higher resolution.

SIZE MATTERS

One way to save you money is to know what box sizes are you going to need for your business. Doing bulk orders on each size available are not that recommended because of the high probability that you’re not going to be able to use all of them.

Now that you’re already aware of some basic but important thinks in custom sized subscription box packaging, here’s a list of what you need to consider next.

• The way you’re going to print it. – Since there are different types of printing, the design or resolution of your box can be affected.

• If you chose the right colors to represent your company – Make sure it goes well with your brand.

• The program where you’re going to make it. – You’re going to design an essential part for your business, go for nothing less than the absolute best.

• Samples for everyone to see. – Before you do mass printing, it’s great to ask everyone first for their opinions. Maybe they could even give proper inputs that can help you a lot.

Why OpenCart Is Ideal For Your Online Ecommerce Business

The themes, plug-ins, extensions, and tools provided by ecommerce platforms make it easier for enterprises to take their businesses online. You have option to choose from several ecommerce platforms according to your precise needs and objectives. Unlike other ecommerce platforms, OpenCart is open source and free. Hence, you can use this online store management system to build and run ecommerce websites without paying any monthly fees. In addition to reducing ecommerce application development cost, OpenCart also comes with features to accelerate custom web store development.

It enables you to build and customize ecommerce applications using popular technologies like HTML, PHP and MySQL. Also, OpenCart makes it easier for you to build, maintain, and upgrade the web store by supporting model-view-controller (MVC) pattern. Also, it helps you to promote and sell products to more customers by supporting multiple languages, currencies, and payment gateways. You can even take advantage of the features provided by OpenCart to create a robust ecommerce website according to your precise needs.

Features that Make OpenCart Compete with Commercial Ecommerce Platforms

Supports MVC Pattern

As mentioned earlier, OpenCart is developed based on MVC pattern. The MVC pattern enables you to accelerate web store development by keeping the user interface and business logic layers separated. The separation further helps you to maintain the ecommerce website quickly and make changes to its source code without any hassle. At the same time, you can customize the open source ecommerce platforms according to your precise needs simply using HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL.

User-Friendly Admin Interface

OpenCart further comes with a simple and user-friendly admin interface. It allows you to manage multiple stores through a single admin interface. You can even use the admin interface to categorize users/user groups, and set precise access and privileges for each user. At the same time, you can use the admin interface to access important information related to customers, sales, and orders. The latest version of OpenCart also comes with an admin interface which is accessible on both computers and mobile devices.

Supports Unlimited Products and Categories

OpenCart makes it easier for you to sell a large number and variety of products by supporting unlimited products. It even allows you to organize and display the products in a structured way by creating multiple categories and subcategories. You have option to create many categories and subcategories, and assign products to individual categories. OpenCart also allows you to sell both physical and digital products. You can even boost online sales by providing the marketing features provided by the open source ecommerce platform.

Helps to Drive Online Sales

In addition to facilitating sale of both physical and digital products, OpenCart further helps you to promote the products and increase online sales. The admin dashboard provided by the ecommerce platform enables you to create and monitor digital marketing campaigns from a centralized location. At the same time, OpenCart also helps you to boost online sales by implementing reward programs and improving customer journey. You can even take advantage of an integrated system provided by OpenCart to promote the products effectively through customer reviews, comments, and ratings.

Supports Multiple Languages, Currencies, Payment Gateways and Shipping Methods

Unlike other commercial ecommerce platforms, OpenCart does not allow you to sell products through various online sales channels. But it helps you to sell products to customers regardless of their current location by supporting multiple language, currencies, and payment gateways. In addition to supporting thirty-five payment methods, OpenCart also allows you to set up recurring payment option for customers and sell product through subscription. At the same time, you also have option to choose from several shipping options according to the shipping address of individual customers. These options help you to sell your products in a flexible way and improve shopping experience of global customers.

Choose from Many Themes and Extensions

OpenCart is developed as a modular ecommerce platform. It allows users to customize and extend its functionality by adding specific modules. You have option to extend the core functionality of the ecommerce platforms by installing extensions for bestsellers, latest, special, manufacturer, and information. Also, you can use the Extension Installer provided by the platform to add modules without writing additional code. Likewise, you can make the web store appealing by downloading a beautiful theme from the OpenCart marketplace. At present, you have option to choose from over 13000 themes and extensions. However, some of these themes and extensions are commercial and paid.

Refines Product Search

Most users nowadays love fast and responsive ecommerce websites. They even expect the website to allow them to find and compare relevant products without any hassle or delay. OpenCart enables customers to gather information about relevant products through refine search. You can crate filters to make it easier for customers to find and buy relevant products. The filters can be created just like categories. But the filters will make it easier for customers to evaluate and compare products based on a number of parameters including price, manufacturer and condition.

Keeps the Ecommerce Website Responsive

A large percentage of customers nowadays access ecommerce websites on their mobile devices. Hence, you need to make the ecommerce website accessible and look good on smartphones, tablets, and desktop/laptop computers. OpenCart is developed as a responsive ecommerce solution. It makes the web store accessible on a variety of devices by keeping it responsive. You can even enhance the mobile-friendliness of the web store by using responsive themes.

On the whole, you can always consider using OpenCart as an alternative to commercial ecommerce platforms. But you must not forget that OpenCart, like other ecommerce platforms, has its own shortcomings. For instance, OpenCart lacks some of the robust features provided by other ecommerce platforms like caching and hook system. Also, it requires you to use additional plug-ins and extensions to enhance the ecommerce website’s functionality and performance. However, it has been evolving consistently to compete with other commercial ecommerce platforms. You can still consider using OpenCart build a custom ecommerce website developmnet without investing extra time, effort, and money.

How To Choose The Best Freight Broker Software

Are you just establishing a trucking business? In case you are, you know that this is a capital intensive business. Regardless of what you are investing, one tool that you would definitely need to run your business in an efficient manner is a good trucking software program. There was a time when all the accounts and logs that were maintained by those in this business were done manually. This led to a lot of bulk work and took a lot of time. Yet, in spite of the extra hard work that was put in, there still remained the chances of the mistakes and wrong entries in the accounts.

Obviously, the freight broker software comes as a boon for all those in the trucking business. So how do you pick the right software program for yourself? How do you know which is the best among the choices that are presented to you. You would have to ensure that it has all the programs that are important. Firstly you would have to ascertain that the log accounting system of the software is designed in a way that makes it easy for you to carry out your tasks. This should be carried out on an automated manner. This means that the system should not wait for the truck driver to come back. They should be automatically updated while the task is being carried out.

Another aspect that you would have to check is the fuel tax calculation functionality. This is a very important aspect in a trucking software program. A trucking business can never be kept restricted to one state. You would have to move from one state to the other. Once you cross state borders, the fuel tax structure changes. To complicate matters further, these state laws can be changed any time. You need to ascertain that the software that you choose allows the calculation of the fuel tax with the updated tax structure. Unless you have this feature on the software that you use, there is no way you can get a clear idea of how much cost you would need you make a trip.

Technology has always helped man to work out his life in an easier manner. The computer and the software industry have been further helpful to people in dealing with their life activities. Ever since the freight broker software was designed, the trucking industry was managed beautifully all over the world.

Advantages of RSS Feeds

The fun of building a website quickly diminishes once you realize that you are only getting a few visitors each day and they are only ones you have told about your website. The truly sad news is that some of these people fall by the wayside as well and you are left with even less visitors. Keeping visitors coming to your website and gaining more traffic is dependent on what you put into promoting as much as how often and how interesting your information is to your readers. You should be sure to upload new content regularly and be sure to stick to your theme.

RSS feeds are a wonderful way to keep your readers informed while bringing in more traffic. With an RSS feed, your readers do not have to bookmark the page and come back all the time to see if you have uploaded new content. They will have a subscription to your feed that will be sent to their reader so they can read the headlines and short blurbs of your posts. If they are interested in reading more, they will click the link to visit your website.

All you have to do is provide the RSS feed and a subscription button. Nothing could be easier. Now, when your readers see that you are having a sale, introduced a new product, an event, or even a newsworthy article, they will know it as soon as you publish in real time.

Of course, just by adding an RSS feed will not be a miracle solution as you will still have to get the word out regarding your RSS feed. There are various ways you can announce your new feed such as newsletters, guest posts on blogs, and by submitting your feed in RSS directories.

The major advantage is that your readers will automatically know when you have updated your website or blog. One other advantage is that once you get your feed recognized on the net, you will begin to get more traffic, which will be interested in your topic.

There are several companies using RSS feeds today for blogs, forums, articles, discounts, sales, schedules, events, and more. The use of feeds will help your business or organization keep your readers up to date on important information whether you are having a sale, event, or providing local news. With an RSS feed you will have the tool you need to provide real time content to those interested without the need of emailing each subscriber.

Why QuickBooks Hosting Is a Real Big Thing for Accountancy

QuickBooks accounting software is a popular name for accounting professionals who value the technology along with the services. QuickBooks has provided exceptional work support for small and mid-scale businesses, which is the significant reason for its popularity. QuickBooks offers a streamlined process for computing financial reports as well as creating invoice charts for the customers. It provides simplified processes to avoid the complexities of financial accounting, involving cost-efficiency to reduce the additional costing in accounting operations.

Although cloud computing is still running in the race to attain the peak of accounting software, QuickBooks has already made its remarkable way towards this race. Virtualizing and ease of accessibility from any mobile device is becoming a necessity of businesses in this rapidly changing technological era. With the enhancement of productivity scale, work from home, you can’t ignore the business expansion. Also, you will require facilities like mobile devices like tablets, laptops, and smartphones so that it won’t be a restriction, irrespective of the geographical locations.

QuickBooks analyzed this benefit relevant to the hosting. So, QuickBooks is ready to make future accounting easy and productive. Here are some reasons that clear out the reason why QuickBooks is becoming a remarkably influential thing for accountancy:

1) Device compatibility and collaboration –

Hosting of QuickBooks is available with PC, tablets, and smartphones. It offers support to all topmost browsers and operating systems. You can access your account from your mobile devices and can work conveniently from anywhere and any time. You don’t require to take your hard drive everywhere to access the financial information. Quickbooks hosting allows you to access your data via the internet.

It also provides collaboration capability while working. It indicates that various users can access the same work or data without any device constraints. Although the number of users accessing the file depends on the subscription, your business opted for your business.

2) Easy and simple interface –

QuickBooks is famous for delivering the best accounting functionalities with a simple user interface. It provides existing features with minimum flaws in the system. Its simple user interface gives easy access to the new user to avoid hurdles in his learnings.

It offers the choices like dedicated server service based on need, timely upgrades in the backend, automation of executing server internet issues, etc.

The automation of maintenance saves your staff time and improves productivity, as they can work without any delay or struggles.

3) Higher data security –

In every business, whether it’s a small or medium, or big scale business, data security is a critical aspect and, it becomes more sensitive when there is financial information involved. Accounting professionals and business owners get concerned with issues like various users access the data from multiple devices, it is prone to data theft.

QuickBooks focus on providing the utmost data security. QuickBooks hosting uses security options like dual backup, password protection, and 128-bit secured encryption for the user’s data. In this way, your data is much safe in the QuickBooks hosting than the on-premises software. Also, the data security and privacy-related information get listed in the contract signed by the user electronically.

4) Updated technology –

QuickBooks keeps on updating its technology at regular intervals of times to maintain its optimum performance levels. Automatic updates ensure well-maintenance of security checks. Swift and systematic updates manage the latest security measures to safeguard the user data.

5) Options of third-party hosting –

The owner of QuickBooks, Intuit, gives authorization to third-party application hosting providers for QuickBooks hosting. Specific rules and regulations need to be followed by the hosting providers to attain the permission, which ensures there is no modification of application performance get delivered.

6) Exceptional support –

It’s easy to use and work comfortably on QuickBooks. However, numerous users are accessing the software, including accounting professionals and business owners. Hence there is a possibility that you will face some issues that may seek technical support. QuickBooks hosting providers ensure that the users will get exceptional technical support round-the-clock. It gives assurance to the users that they can work on QuickBooks with hassle-free access.

7) Managing client’s data conveniently –

Accounting professionals manage an enormous amount of client’s accounting data. The paperwork culture of handling the client’s financial records is usually challenging to manage. Also, there is a possibility of losing the data with the printed documents.

QuickBooks assists accountants and firms in storing the data in a well-defined format.

8) Enhanced productivity at work –

Previously, accountants use to work manually, whether generating the reports, creating invoices, processing the bills, etc. Processing these tasks takes a lot of time and resulting in lower productivity.

Evolution in technology changed the processing of accounting, and now QuickBooks accounting software is there to assist the CPAs to reduce their routine work accordingly. You can conveniently accomplish your regular financial work with some clicks using the software.

The accountants can save the financial data or records in the software and can access it as per their convenience or requirement. It helps to minimize the repetitive work, time-saving so that you can take advantage of other productive tasks.

9) Focused on core accounting –

Situations like repetitive workflow, loss of files, lower productivity may lose the concentration of work for the accountants. It is necessary to handle these situations in time to reduce any hurdle.

With QuickBooks, accountants can reduce the possibility of troublesome events to some level. Handling this situation can help the accountants to focus on managing the client’s data, preparing the profit/loss statements or balance sheets, etc., without thinking of any other disruptions.

As a result, it helps the accountants to analyze the business performance and make appropriate plans for growth.

Finally, we can say that QuickBooks offers a lot of benefits to the users. You can access QuickBooks hosting service at any time without any geographical constraint. Some people think it might be an expensive model, but the users who adopted this model say this is a comfortable and cost-efficient solution.

Appropriate investment in this software will ensure business growth. There are various other options too for accounting software, but as compared to the pricing, QuickBooks provides all the advanced and required features at nominal pricing.

The Buzz Word – "SaaS" and Some Available SaaS Applications

What is SaaS?

Software as a service is an online application developed, maintained and hosted centrally by a software company. This software company uses the one to many model for the delivery of the application and provides complete customer support & technical maintenance to its users. The company is also responsible for all up gradations of the software, introduction of new business rules and security of end users information. On the other hand, the end users lease the software using a subscription plan or ‘pay-as-you-go’ model. This saves the end user from hassles of downloading and installing complex single user applications, maintaining them and finally a lot of time and money. And the best part – the web availability of the application enables you use it anywhere, anytime just like your emails.

Advantages of SaaS?

There have been a number of applications available in the market for single users for quite long. But with the evolution of SaaS applications, the market has boomed and the number of netizens increased exponentially. Let’s see some of the key benefits of SaaS that is driving customers to use SaaS applications:

  • Easy access – Anywhere.. Anytime – The online availability of the application makes it easy to use from anywhere and anytime, just like your mails. The users of the application can access the same application, same documents, same information from anywhere in the world.
  • Fast Setup – Most of the SaaS applications expect you to register, pay a nominal subscription fee and gives you access to the application in couple of minutes. Thus, you save a lot of time in setting up the software.
  • No up gradations/No Maintenance – The software company (vendor) is responsible for all upgrades, technical maintenance and customer support. These applications are usually built for millions of users. Thus the end user is saved from installing new updates/ upgrades every now and then; even if the number of users increases manifolds.
  • Low Setup Cost – The end user pays a nominal fee to the software vendor to start using its complete services. Thus, a software which would have been very expensive for the end user including maintenance cost, hardware cost and software licensing is reduced to a very low subscription amount.
  • Overall savings – The end users of SaaS application save a huge amount of money on hardware, software licensing, support staff, maintenance and up gradation costs, overall administration, etc.
  • No restriction on company size – The biggest benefit of SaaS application is that its features can be used by company of any size, be the number of end users in a company be 1, 10, 100, 1000 or more. The same list of features is available to all irrespective of the strength of the company.

SaaS applications available in the market:

Magazine as a Source of Information

The Magazine came to live in early 1700s during the outbreak of the World War. During those times, it is used as a support for politics, government, criticisms and information that aims to be affirmed or contradicted either through the release of researches or study results. After gaining the freedom, various companies got the idea on starting a magazine publishing business that would evolve in different aspects of life. People started buying these magazines with the goal of keeping themselves updated with their environment and to expand their knowledge. That was successful.

Today, Magazine is probably the number one source of information readily available for everyone. Its readers range from kids to students and to executives. There are actually two types of Magazines. One of these is the consumer magazines that are widely available in the country. The other one is the business magazine that can be availed on a subscription basis. Both magazines usually come in a weekly, monthly, or quarterly release with up to date contents.

For a kid, reading magazines with graphical representations like comics is a good way to start learning. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the early years are a key period for the development of intelligence, personality and behavior of a child.

For students, magazines are good source of information when doing research for school. Since educational magazines have updated content, further reading of it could truly contribute well to their learning.

As for professionals or executives, being the captain of their own journey is really essential. To be constantly updated on workplace and business issues, reading business and other related magazines is important. It gives them not just ideas but awareness on the current issues that are important in their field.

Through the years, magazine has existed with the aim of giving the freshest and accurate information to its readers. Among the famous magazines in the United States include the BusinessWeek for business, American Girl for children, Drovers for agriculture, Sports Illustrated for sports, Cook’s for cooking and recipes, American Baby for parenting, Liberty for politics, Playboy for pornography, Adventist Review for religion, National Geographic for science, WikiMusicGuide for Music Lifestyle and many more.

Reading is indeed, a good way of expanding our knowledge and awareness. There are several reading materials that have great potentials of contributing to our craving mind and magazine is one of them. Choosing our point of interest is definitely endless with magazines.

5 Useful App Monetization Strategies

A high-quality app can take a lot of time and effort to code. In order to get a return on this time investment it makes sense to look at the different strategies to monetize the app. There are several different ways to drive revenue and the preferred choice is likely to relate to the type of app.

Here are a few of the best options to monetize your app:

In-app purchases

In-app purchasing is a common strategy to monetize your app and gives a convenient solution to offer a wide range of services or goods, as well as installing a paywall that unlocks new features or content within the app. This type of monetizing method should be made seamless and enjoyable in order to increase sales.

Subscriptions

The ability to use subscriptions can depend on the type of app. When subscriptions are a viable option, it is a useful way to create a reliable and consistent revenue stream. This method is most effective when able to keep adding the fresh content. Most users are unlikely to subscribe to an app if the content isn’t kept fresh and updated on a daily basis. The short update cycle is a great way to get repeat customers who are likely to visit your app at regular intervals.

Ads

For the apps where subscriptions or in-app purchasing isn’t a practical option, it may be worth adding the well placed ads. A major issue with using ads is to avoid impacting the customer’s all-round experience. The ads shouldn’t disrupt the basic use of the app. Most of the modern ad networks offer targeted ads which can significantly help to improve the potential income. The irrelevant ads can lead to a poor user experience and can even make the customer turn off.

Sponsorship

One strategy that can be highly effective is sponsorship. This type of monetizing approach takes more effort compared to using ads because it is necessary to put in the time and effort to find a relevant sponsor. Sponsorship can be a very rewarding option and increases customer engagement and gives more control of the ads.

White-labeling

A revenue model that is worth considering is the white-label route. The process of thinking up ideas and building the apps is quite expensive and time-consuming. In order to benefit from this process, an app creator can package and white-label the app so that it can be sold on to other businesses. Any business that buys the code can add their branding and start selling it to their customers.

Does Satellite Radio Advertising Work?

You are a business owner or person in charge of getting the word out about a product or service. The landscape on which you can paint your message is vast with many hills, bridges and pitfalls. It is the pitfalls you are looking out for.

Chances are you want to know if the medium of satellite radio advertising is an effective choice for your business. Lets take a look at what the medium offers and see if what you are advertising would be a good fit for it.

Satellite radio is a unique medium. It reaches millions of people each and every week, has hundreds of stations divided amongst countless topics, and is a “subscription” based service, which makes many of its subscribers financially pre-qualified to buy what you are selling.

If your product or service can go out to any place in the country, then this can be a great medium for you. If your business is trying to bring people into a single store front location, this may not be a great means to promote your message, as the radio commercials on satellite radio reach the entire nation. There is no way to “segment” where your commercial airs. Its all or nothing.

That being said, it is one of the most affordable ways to advertise on a national level, with commercials on some of the stations starting at around $50 each time they air. While satellite radio advertising will not reach the amount of viewers of say a prime time show on a major TV network. It still reaches millions of people each week, which is nothing to put your note up at.

Another way that satellite radio advertising can be effective, is placing your commercial on its highly targeted programming.

Have a product for pets? There are shows for that.

Want to reach cigar lovers? There are shows for that.

Looking to reach new moms? There are shows for that.

Want to communicate with CEOs? There are shows for that too.

Selling a new “toy” for kids or adults? There are shows for both of those too.

The list goes on and on. Chances are there is a show that is targeted at the specific audience you want to reach. This makes it one of the most affordable and targeted national advertising options around.

Is satellite radio advertising for everyone? No. But for a majority of people that I talk with on a daily basis, there is usually an option on the medium to strongly consider when planning an advertising campaign.

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