Category: Internet

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The Best Ways to Boost Your Blog Revenue

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Blogging really has become huge in the past few years, with thousands of new ones being set up every single day. People blog to share their knowledge on a topic, to keep as an online journal, to connect with others, even businesses have got on board with the benefits blogging can bring. If you own a blog, chances are you started it as a hobby. But these days there’s the chance to earn excellent money from blogging, and why wouldn’t you? Making money doing something you love is pretty much the dream. Here are some simple ways you can start earning money (or boost the revenue) of your blog.

Make Yourself More Attractive To Sponsors

The web is saturated with blogs, when it comes to advertising sponsors are spoiled for choice. So your best bet to encourage them to work with you instead of the next blogger is make your site as attractive as possible. You can do this by publishing regular, high-quality content with beautiful image. Have a clean, professional blog template installed with an eye-catching header to make it personal and unique. Drop the ‘.wordpress.com.’ or ‘.blogger.com.’ at the end of your domain by purchasing your own custom domain. Use a domain registration tool to find out what’s available and then go ahead and purchase. Setting it up to work with your blog is relatively straightforward, and you then have a far more professional looking blog. Some sponsors will only work with bloggers with their own domain, so this is something you can’t afford to miss out on. Another major thing sponsors will be looking at is domain authority. This is influenced by how long you have had your domain, and how many backlinks you have to your site. You can improve your number of backlinks by collaborating with bloggers, asking them to publish a guest post from you. Simply include a link back to your blog at the end as an author bio, and it’s win- win. They get good quality content, and you get a backlink. Use social media to connect with other bloggers, join in with Twitter chats and make friends. Not only can you support each other with links and comments but you might make some genuine friends too.

Sign Up To Sponsored Post Websites

The thing about sponsored posts is you often have to wait for advertisers to contact you. This can be frustrating as a blogger as you can go weeks without hearing anything and there’s not much you can do to be proactive. However many advertisers work with sponsored post companies, so it’s worth finding some of these and signing up. Usually, you can ‘bid’ on jobs, and the client will accept or reject you if you’re a good fit with relevance and have the number of social followers they’re looking for. It’s a good way to actively seek out work, even if you’re not getting accepted for everything it can help you to land jobs you may have otherwise not got.

Explore Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing, and while as a blogger this is unlikely to be your main source of income it can be a good backup. Google Adsense is always worth signing up for, every time someone clicks on your ad or even if you get an impression on the page you earn a small amount of money. Over time this can definitely add up. There are tonnes of other affiliate marketing companies out there so find one you like that pays well. You usually just insert an ad, link or piece of code onto your site (or in a blog post) and the clicks and purchases from it are tracked. If you link to something that your followers love and they actually buy the product you can get a decent percentage from it.

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The Internet Is Full of Money: Are You Getting Your Share

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Anywhere there are large quantities of people; there is money. And on the internet, there are a lot of people; some 2.8 billion people, approximately. With so many people accessing the same service, it’s no surprise that internet businesses have skyrocketed their way to massive financial reward. However, you don’t have to be Amazon or eBay of Facebook to rake in the digital cash. Anyone with a pinch of talent and a strong work ethic can make money online. They just need to find out exactly how they can do it. Here are a few tips to get you on your way.

What’s Your Talent?

There are a million and one ways to make money online, but you don’t have the skillset to do all of them. You can do one (or several) of them. As such, think about what you’re good at and then research the online demand for that skill. If you’re a good writer, then there will be opportunities for you to write online. If you’re a guitar player, then there will be a demand for online webcam lessons. These are just two examples; it can be anything. Think of how you make money in “the real world” and see if it’ll transfer to the digital world.

Putting it out There

The idea is one thing, putting it into practice is another thing. You need to understand how the internet works and build your new venture around it; it is your gateway to success. This means understanding the internet trends (such as how people find businesses/establish their trustworthiness, etc.). You’ll also need the tools to get ahead in a busy marketplace. If you’re selling your products, then recruiting the services of an ecommerce agency will give you access to the areas of expertise you need to be successful. If you’re planning on writing, then having a website that showcases your talent and provides testimonials from past clients is the way to go.

Part-Time, Full-Time

Some people think of the internet as a way to get easy, fast cash. That’s not the case. Just as you can’t expect to be profitable offline if you don’t work hard; if you don’t put the necessary effort into your online venture, then it is doomed to failure. You may want to start as a side-project, but you’ll quickly need to put in full-time hours (even if you have another job). There’s no way to just fall into success online (at least anymore), so treat it as a serious business from day one.

Being Patient

The road to success on the internet, like in most other things, is never as quick as we would like. You’ll need to be patient, and be willing to roll with the punches as you work toward building a successful business. If you have a skill that at least one other person will pay for you, and understand how the internet works (or are at least willing to get help), then there’s no reason you can’t get your slice of the internet pie!

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Let’s Encrypt The World

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lets-encrypt-logoI have been a big fan of free SSL certificate authority LetsEncrypt.org since it was in Private Beta. Now in Public Beta, and now being a Certificate Authority recognized by every major web browser, it’s time for you to start using it on your website!

The great thing about Let’s Encrypt is that it is free. Why? Because the sponsors behind it believe encryption is for the public good. And they are correct. No more do you need to pay $80/year or more for an SSL certificate through some company like GoDaddy. This all may sound too good to be true, but it isn’t.

Wait, what?

In case you are unfamiliar with what I’m talking about here, LetsEncrypt.org offers you free SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates for your website. This make your website secure and encrypted for your visitors, just like your bank does, by changing your site’s address from using http://  to https://.

Being a user of the WHM/CPanel web hosting tools for the handful of websites I run, I found a great set of instructions and scripts you can use to get this set up and running in that environment. Just follow the instructions in the WHM forum here. Be sure to set up the cron job so that your cert(s) get renewed automatically. If you forget, it’s very easy to do it by hand from the command line, but the cron job makes it so that you don’t need to remember.

Encrypt WordPress

If you are a WordPress website owner, you can configure it to use the SSL certificate by editing your site’s URL in Settings > General. I especially recommend this for WordPress admin area logins, but there’s not reason you shouldn’t be using SSL on your whole site anymore. This is especially true considering Google favoring SSL-enabled sites over non-SSL sites.

Redirect Traffic to HTTPS

Using an .htaccess file, you can set it up so that any traffic going to your http:// website is automatically redirected to your https:// version. This is the snippet I use in my .htaccess file for that:

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

Go forth and encrypt all the things!

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Can Cloud Based Applications Empower Your Business?

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When businesses speak of the latest modern technology, cloud computing is often something that is brought to the discussion and examined thoroughly. But what exactly is cloud computing and how can it benefit your business? Let’s find out.

Cloud software gives instant updates and feedback

Unlike traditional software development that has to be compiled and distributed to testers, cloud software is deployed instantly thanks to revolutionary services such as Microsoft Azure and Stackify. Azure lets Stackify easily empower fellow developers by offering an ideal foundation for web developers all over the world. In the world of software development, the most critical component that every team should be concerned about is the speed of development and how much time is spent on actually creating and launching the product as opposed to fixing bugs and analysing security problems. This is one of the biggest draws to cloud applications; the ability to get instant feedback and provide quick updates.

Cloud software makes your business accessible from anywhere

Since there are no files to pass around, cloud computing makes it possible for you to access your business remotely. The ability to work from almost any portable device and from anywhere in the world is a massive boon to any business. By offering flexibility with those you hire, you essentially open your doors to the entire world and you can recruit employees that can work around the clock to give you constant progress to your business. This is essential if you want your business to be known around the world as a global powerhouse.

Cloud software reduces the cost of operating a business

When it comes to starting up a business, money is perhaps the biggest thing on our minds. With the introduction of software as a service (SaaS), we’re not able to license industry-grade software and services for a much lower price. This gives many smaller companies the ability to use the same tools as industry professionals, thus evening the playing field and offering everyone the chance to become successful. Money is becoming less of an issue for entrepreneurs and the major defining factor of new businesses nowadays is their ideas and community interaction.

Cloud software opens up the possibility of collaboration

When collaborating using traditional software, it was common for people to pass around old USB flash drives or use an expensive office network to transfer files. Those days are over now with the advent of cloud storage and cloud applications that can be accessed by several people at once, thus creating an environment in which updates are instant and files can be exchanged much faster than traditional methods. For instance, using Google Docs, people are able to collaborate on a single word document or spreadsheet, improving productivity and efficiency among all of the staff. It also helps that you don’t need to be within the same office and there are no hurdles to leap over just to get the system running smoothly. It’s incredibly simple to set up, it’s cheap and it opens up a world of opportunities for your business.

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Remote Control: How To Run An Office From Anywhere

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Advancements in technology and society are placing less focus and demand on the need for a centralised workplace. With laptops, tablets, smartphones and the quality of modern software, there’s less need for a workplace anymore.

It has to be said that remote working isn’t a policy that needs to be avoided. We might seem wary of working remotely as it could be seen to have adverse effects on company culture, we might not be able to build rapport or trust with employees or freelancers that we cannot see. That’s not true though.

The massive ace in the hole for remote working is technology. There’s simply no end to the use of technology and it has enabled us the ability to run an office or workplace from anywhere in the world. That’s incredible!

We can video conference using the video communication tools provided by Skype. We can project manage with Trello and Basecamp. Apps like Slack enable us to build a virtual office where we can communicate. There’s simply so much that can be done right now to establish a remote working policy that works. You can even forward your physical mail with mail forwarding which is better than a po box. Cloud storage will also ensure that crucial files are stored online, which means your work can not only be completed from anywhere, it can be accessed from anywhere.

Working remotely isn’t going to be the most amazing thing right away and it certainly isn’t going to work from day one of its implementation in your business. It does require a trained eye and careful, controlled management to work though.

For yourself, you need to ensure there is discipline. When not in the workplace it can be far too easy to procrastinate and not complete tasks. Work remotely in the same manner you would at the workplace for the best success possible. Enforce deadlines for your tasks and treat breaks as just that – a break from work. Working life doesn’t need to fit to the strict nine to five and it should be flexible. Remote working accompanied by discipline is a great way to add flexibility to your workplace.

A good working knowledge of technology can certainly save the day when remote working and knowing what apps to use is crucial to remote working as the majority of your communication will be stunted if you cannot figure out what app is right. Simply put, you’ll need cloud storage capabilities, a word processor, emails and video conferencing tools to do remote working well. You should always be able to communicate with your staff and should always be able to type up your work!

Having reliable equipment is also key. If your computer can’t handle basic tasks, change it out and if your internet connection is spotty, upgrade it or find a 4G workaround. A good laptop will save your day and is completely portable and comes with all the tools and hardware you need to excel at working remotely.

You don’t have to be in an office to run your business!