I have been cranking away at some new songs. I just released two over the last week. I hope you enjoy them. Please comment, subscribe, yada yada.
And, of course, you can hear the full album I released back in June:
If you’d like a copy of that album on CD, just shoot me your name and address. It is free, and I will cover the shipping cost!
Your website is your virtual place of business. Just like your regular place of business, your website needs to be neat, clean, attractive, inviting, and professional. Here are some easy, low-cost ways to improve your homepage. It’s actually easier than you think.
Schedule a monthly reminder to check your website and update the content on the homepage. This will stop you from having seasonal content sticking around too long, such as your Black Friday deals still showing in the New Year. If you have downloadable PDFs, such as menus, that need updating, SodaPDF Online lets you convert pdf to docx.
What is the top action that you want visitors to your website to take? Here are three examples of calls to action:
Look at your homepage objectively. Are you making your visitors look for or guess how to reach you?
Many small businesses add contact information in the header and or footer of every page. At the least, you should include an email address and a phone number. If customers can visit your location, add your address too. If you want to have a separate contact page, make sure it has a large and prominent link.
Is your home page text heavy? Images help to break up large blocks of text and look more inviting to visitors. Include at least one photograph that shows your business, team, or products. If nobody in-house is a decent photographer, invest in some professional photography. In most areas, you can hire someone for a reasonable price.
Videos are good too. Create a how-to video or one that demonstrates your products, or of you welcoming visitors. Load this video onto YouTube or another video platform, then embed the code onto your site.
A website that was designed a few years ago will look very dated compared to one designed more recently. Outdated web design gives the impression that your business isn’t up to date either. Update the whole website if you can, but if time and money are tight, at least redesign your homepage to give a better first impression. Update other pages later on as time and money allow.
Ask your web developer to give the homepage a facelift. If you manage your website yourself, buy a low-cost template to make sure you have something that will work and look good.
Your conversion rate is the rate at which visitors to your site follow through and complete a transaction. While many websites have a conversion rate of less than 1%, the optimal conversion should be between 2-5%. This means for every 100 people that visit your site, 2-5 people complete checkout or the required action.
While this might seem low, it is a target to aim for as a minimum when looking to improve conversion rates.
If you want to determine your conversion rate, divide the number of goals you achieved in a given period by the total number of visitors to your website, then multiply that number by one hundred. For example, if your landing page received 20,000 visitors, and 5,307 of those visitors completed the desired action, your conversion rate is 26.53 percent.
Improving your website and thus your conversion rates can be achieved by addressing a few different areas.
Having a compelling headline can make or break the success of a landing page. If you approach the subject in the wrong way, some people will not continue reading. They’ll hit the “back” button on their browser and disappear forever.
On average, eight out of ten people will read the headline copy, but only two out of ten people will read the rest of the content. Consider the implications of that. Eight out of every ten visitors to your landing page may not bother to read anything past the headline.
Without understanding how users are interacting with your site, it won’t be easy to improve your conversion rate.
But how do you identify the points at which visitors become tripped up? With website analysis tools, you can view screen recordings of users interacting with your website. You’ll be able to see what they click on, whether they skip over an offer, and whether they abandon a form in the middle of it.
These tools should also include heat maps of your website so that you can see which elements stand out and which ones draw the viewer’s attention to your site.
Make sure the software you have in place supports conversions, and all of your applications are geared towards improving what you do and automating processes. Check out testrigor.com intuitive testing that enhances your applications.
While it does not directly affect conversion rates, it does have a positive impact on revenue while not involving your current funnel. Offer a similar product or service that can be added to a customer’s order with a single click just before the customer completes their purchase.
Because of this one trick, your average order value will regularly increase by approximately 10 to 20 percent. You’ll want to experiment with different point-of-purchase upsells to see which ones work best. One offer may be rejected, while another might increase your average order value by 20 percent.
The call-to-action button is a critical component of conversion (CTA). An example of a call-to-action is downloading an offer, sharing a post on social media, or subscribing to a newsletter via email.
Whatever it is, you must include CTAs on every page of your website and landing pages. They should be unobtrusive and easily accessible.
Typically, each landing page will have only one call to action, but that call to action will be incorporated several times throughout the page. Repetition will garner tremendous success and conversion rates for your chosen activity.
If someone is visiting your site, it is a sure sign you are offering something they are looking for. If they fail to convert, chances are something is holding them back. Live chat tools are ideal for assisting people in this situation.
Live chat tools, like pop-ups, are simple to integrate into any website and provide an immediate boost to your conversion rates. You can program them with answers to FAQs or easy to answer queries and be around to answer requests outside of usual working hours.
Consumers want to know immediately what others thought of your service or product. Were they happy? Did you excel at what you offered, or were they disappointed? Know this; people are more likely to look for reviews, around 9/10 people search for reviews before committing to purchase via all the significant sites online regardless of your industry. So harness this power by including reviews and testimonials to your website to work in your favor and push for conversions positively.
Let’s give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. The pandemic, despite all the horrors it has caused around the world, has helped normalize remote work. While more and more businesses are encouraging their teams to head back to the physical office, technical professionals are now surfing the remote wave.
Are technical professions ever going back to the office? Everything seems to imply that being remote has unique advantages that no office can match. Additionally, more and more professionals are seizing the opportunity to transform their careers. Remote work gives them the chance to control their professional path and establish themselves as renowned and desirable experts. Remote freelancing, contracting, and employment are the way forward for tech jobs. Here’s why:
Because you can actually learn by doing
Technical skills evolve rapidly as tech environment, equipment, and language develop. Working remotely enables professionals not only to keep up with the pace of change but also to hone their skills through practice in the safety and privacy of their homes. With a variety of tools available online, such as secure cloud developer environment solutions and step-by-step video tutorials, knowledgeable technicians can brush up their skills and improve their profiles. On the other hand, working in an office provides less access to digital solutions as the work environment tends to be much more controlled.
Because you can show off your skills to your audience
What’s the best way of anchoring new knowledge into your mind? Psychologists claim that sharing your knowledge with others switches your position from a learner to a teacher. Being able to explain what you know reinforces your skillset. While options are limited in the workplace, a remote working environment enables individuals to build an online presence. The options are infinite, from starting a blog to sharing video tutorials on Youtube or stories on Instagram; creating your little corner on the Internet lets you boost your skills. Whether you wish to use your presence as a pendant to your CV when applying to a new position or as a marketing tool to attract new freelancing gigs, maximizing digital visibility is a must.
Because you can become an expert
Technical skills are highly desirable. Businesses are keen to test applicants and contractors with random and arbitrary exercises. Unfortunately, tech exercises can lead to unusual results as they are often designed and assessed by a non-expert recruiting agent. To boost their chances of being noticed, a remote tech professional can create an expert profile. Using your expertise to stand out in a crowd can prevent unnecessary, time-demanding, and ineffective tests. You can demonstrate your expertise online using specialist knowledge. Creating an expert blog can be hard work, but the reward is worth it. Your articles will need to be highly detailed and bring something new to the topic.
However, you can also join tech forums and answer burning questions and troubleshooting problems to showcase your experience. Troubleshooting other users’ issues highlight your knowledge as it means you can apply your skills to a specific and unique project. Compared to tutorial material, which tends to be generic and high level, troubleshooting content is more likely to get noticed in your industry.
Because every business is remote
The good news about remote work is that more and more tech companies are embracing the trend. For a tech professional, wanting to work from home is not an oddity anymore. Whether you wish to work as an independent freelancer or as an employee, remote working can remain a valuable option. Recent experiences have demonstrated that working from home can significantly improve productivity and quality of life. Tech workers have adjusted their work routine to the new environment, focusing on avoiding harmful pitfalls that could affect productivity and concentration. Besides, businesses can take responsibility for creating healthy work environments even with remote employees. Once the company supports the team with adequate equipment and dedicated interactions, remote workers can thrive and grow. The real question that is left to ask is: Why hasn’t every business embraced the advantages of a virtual office?
Because you don’t have to take risks
For tech experts, working from home offers a unique risk management approach. Indeed, more often than not, when a professional wants to control their workplace, they need to create their own venture. Yet, launching a business can be tricky as risks of failure are high. Yet, the nature of technical skills provides a different choice. As more and more companies outsource their tech services to contractors or work with remote teams, experts can benefit from the safety of a permanent position with all the comfort and independence of the home office.
Technical professionals are among the first to enjoy the advantage of a safe remote position. They can use their remote environment to build up their skills and expertise, reach out to businesses all around the world, and even secure employment without leaving their homes. If you are looking for a professional reconversion, tech skills are the way to go.
The recent pandemic has brought the needs of working professionals to the forefront, where remote work is now considered more of a potential consideration that many are hoping to adopt as normal. Yet it’s also true that many professionals have been curating a home office environment for some time, working as a freelancer or consultant for a wide array of possible industries.
In this light, investing in your home office or studio for your professional, freelance work is an essential measure worth considering. But how should you cultivate this space? How should you prioritize the installations necessary for your particular line of work? And how can you make this environment worth spending time in for hours each day, to the point where even the most work-focused professional will not denigrate their health thanks to shrewd investment?
In this post, we’ll leverage a few tidbits of advice that can help you make the most of this situation. No matter if you hope to become an online influencer, see your creative work get noticed, or become an in-demand industry veteran, this advice should help you curate those tools that will help you achieve:
Consider Your Particular Discipline
Depending on what kind of work you do, the home office you may need could vastly differ in s cope and design. For instance, implementing a larger office space with a U-shaped desk with space for mixers, decks and production equipment could be key. Consider how this will be placed near power sockets, and how much room you have to navigate the space. Consider if you need a standing desk or not. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments and retrofit the room to your standards. Also, keep in mind what additional concessions you may need to make investment-wise. An extra power adapter or two could help you out of a jam.
Lighting & Acoustics
Someone who makes video content may need to implement key lighting, while someone else may need to implement sound-protective foam to prevent the rebound of plosive sounds around the space, eliminating echo entirely. Your lighting may also dictate how strained your eyes become if reading and writing text all day. Make sure to reinforce these essential elements depending on your needs and working comfort requirements. It will make a big difference. Additionally, it can help you achieve the idiosyncratic design choices you need to remain more productive.
It’s All About The Furniture
Just because you’re not at the office doesn’t mean you should accept your health any less, or that your home furniture should be cheap and tattered. Investing in a great ergonomic chair with adjustable lumbar support and arm rests can be key. IKEA provide excellent budget options for this, while more expensive brands like Steelcase and Hermann Miller provide the platinum standard. Between those two price points, looking for an ergonomic chair on sites like Reddit and comparing price points/YouTube reviews can help you find what you really need. Stay away from branded ‘gaming chairs,’ as they are usually made cheaply and without sturdy materials.
With this advice, we hope you can continue to curate the best home office for your professional freelance work.
When you thought you were going to design your very office headquarters, a poor job was not what you had in mind. You wanted an office that was modern, intriguing and allowed employees to have their own space but also to congregate and have flowing conversations to solve issues in their respective projects. But something went wrong. When you thought your office was finished, there were a few problems here and there. Maybe the wiring was falling from the ceilings, the lighting was not that powerful, and the air flow left a lot to be desired. Maybe the windows are too small or the design is incorrect. And to top it off, you can’t find the contractor who did all this.
Can you salvage it?
Don’t panic, all might not be lost. You may still be able to fix the office. Can you replace a few things that would solve the issues? Maybe you need to look at getting more powerful bulbs instead of changing the lighting as a whole. You could possibly change a few of the windows or just the panes to give you more natural light in the office. There must be some way that the office can be salvaged. You can also call in another contractor to see if they can help you with ideas and some fixes here and there.
Reach out
Okay so you can’t fix the issue, it’s best to contact the contractor and ask for a refund. But before you do, make sure you have the evidence to prove your point. You could link photos you take of the office to wording in the contract. If one of the stipulations in the contract was to have natural light in abundance in the office and instead, during midday when the sun is highest it still looks dark, then take a photo of this and highly the wording in the particular clause of the contract where this is mentioned. Make your point with evidence, quotes and infer to verbal conversations.
They go on the run
Did you think they were just going to roll over? Some contractors do not want to play ball, even if it means you leave bad reviews on rating websites which could hurt their future chances of business. So use a collection agency software where you can find data to any files or folders that were shared with the contractor. You never know they might try to clean a file to then say that a certain obligation wasn’t mentioned. They may be going under a different name now, so you want to find this out too. Use the right-party feature which will locate the correct person or business that you are after.
It’s going to be another pain in the backside to find the contractor who left your office in a poor state. But, it’s going to be worth it, if it means you can salvage some of your funds back and start working on the fixes at no extra cost.
