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How to start a eCommerce business with $5,000?

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

The world of ecommerce has taken a dramatic turn with the invention of smartphones.

Today, anybody can establish a successful ecommerce platform with very little capital. As a startup entrepreneur, how much have you saved up as capital? Thousands of dollars? Hundreds of thousands?

Money saved to start a business.
Money saved to start a business.

Contrary to popular opinion, establishing an ecommerce business does not require a truckload of money. With just $5000 or less, you can create and develop a very successful ecommerce business.

How to Start Your Ecommerce Business with $5000 or less?

While $5000 may seem like a small amount of money for some people, in reality, it could go a long way in starting up a business. Want to create an ecommerce platform with this seemingly small amount of money for some people? Let’s get started!

There are several steps you need to take to start a successful ecommerce business. These steps include:

ecommerce

Research and decide on shipping:

When it comes to ecommerce, most business owners are faced with two choices: dropshipping and holding or carrying an inventory. Dropshipping involves contacting a third party supplier to deliver products to the customer. On the other hand, holding stock has to do with taking items directly from your store or warehouse and giving to the third-party services to deliver. Before starting up an ecommerce business, it is best to decide which form of delivery or shipping would be best and more convenient for your business.

Ecommerce

Create a website:

Creating a website is very affordable if you are tech-savvy. For your ecommerce business, you should create a website similar to Shopify’s interface. The website should be fast and have optimum user-friendliness. If you are tech-savvy, the cost of entry for creating a website should be around $28-$67. However, if you aren’t tech-savvy, you may spend up to $500 on creating an excellent site for your ecommerce business.

Ecommerce

Google ads:

Google ads help to advertise your business and draw potential customers to your website. Signing up for Google ads could cost around $100. Now, you must have spent about $600 on creating a website and signing up for Google ads. In the same vein, you could hire some professional agency to run an ad words campaign for your website. They are running an ad words campaign costs around $500. Thus, you must have spent about $1100 in total at this stage.

Ecommerce

Sign up for an affiliate program:

An affiliate program is an arrangement where you pay an affiliate network a commission to drive traffic to you or your website. There are several affiliate programs with differing costs. Some cost as much as $800 or higher. However, you can get a lot of affordable ones. Set up an account and sign up for an affordable affiliate program to drive traffic to your website.

Ecommerce

Banners and Logos:

Your ecommerce brand requires banners and a professional logo. Thus, you could go to websites such as Fiverr or Upwork. On these sites, you would find professional graphic designers willing to design banners for your website. The cost of creating a banner ranks around $200. Thus, your total expenditure is within the range of $2100.

At this point, it is essential to take a step back and observe sales very carefully. You will need to monitor and take account of sales for the first month. Depending on the level of progress, you could invest more money in marketing. Investing in marketing would help you to draw more customers, drive sales, and traffic to your website.

It is also vital to ensure that you have a little amount of money left in your reserve to cover for unforeseen circumstances.

Let me know if this was helpful in the comments below.

How Liquid web is changing web hosting?

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

Liquid Web Hosting

Liquid Web is a high-end web hosting service known for its flexibility and variety. With around 30,000 customers worldwide, the host has spent the last 20 years and has built its specialized web hosting empire.

Liquid Web’s feature-rich and flexible subscriptions make it stand out from the competition. Also, the customization offered by these subscriptions, almost instantaneous charging times, and extremely reliable availability make Liquid Web one of the best choices for small medium and large business entities.

Why Liquid Web:

Hosting

  • To provide help and assistance when you need it with the help of a competent support team available year-round, 24/7/356, instant messaging, phone, and email.
  • Ensure your customers’ satisfaction and sales performance through incredibly fast charging times and near nil service interruptions.
  • Make security a priority using a Cloudflare CDN, protection against DDoS attacks, and built-in firewalls.
  • Migrate and develop quickly with the help of customer service experts.
  • Create great WordPress websites with the test site and automatic WordPress maintenance.
  • Deploy custom Liquid Web server clusters to meet complex hosting needs.        Services, Security & Pricing
  • Liquid Web offers a wide range of subscriptions that address a wide variety of business and web-specific needs. The basic managed WooCommerce offering, a beginner starts at $29 a month and includes several essentials for e-commerce, such as Beaver Builder drag-and-drop website builder, SSL certificates, cloud VPS hosting, and mobile optimization.
  • Each WooCommerce subscription also includes simple promotion planning tools and Jilt’s abandoned baskets solution best with $39 per month. The host’s WordPress offers to start with an essential $29 monthly subscription, which includes trial sites, automatic daily backups, and a set of development tools.

Hosting

  • Cloud VPS subscriptions start at $29 per month and offer developers a plethora of customization options, including cPanel or Plesk Onyx control panels and root access in addition to robust features of security. Reselling is also an added service that Liquid Web provides to its customers who want to become resellers. Such customers would receive free tools and revenue-based discounts. On-demand cloud dedicated services can also be availed just at $159 per month.
    • Liquid Web also provides the most straightforward way to manage and host multiple websites without any prior server knowledge requirements by just $150 per month. Developers can take advantage of features like root access, free Git and SSH repositories to fully customize the background of their activity, and cPanel or Plesk control panels Onyx.

The vital point about pricing is that while Liquid Web remains an undoubtedly exclusive hosting solution, companies that can afford it receive many benefits in return. An abundance of features, optimal security, and an expert support team is well worth the investment, and customers who opt for managed subscriptions leave their background in expert hands.

Liquid Web hosting services are effortless to use. While highly skilled newcomers can fully benefit from Liquid Web’s managed solutions, their products are more geared explicitly to medium and more enormous sized companies with more advanced web needs. Nevertheless, Beaver Builder’s intuitive website builder, automatic daily backups, and commercial updates provided by WordPress subscriptions can allow neophytes to run their business without worrying behind the scenes of their website.

With many sites to administer and higher web traffic, medium and large companies can gain even more insight into the simplicity of using the more advanced features of Liquid Web.

Reliability and Consistency

Hosting

  • In terms of loading and reliability, Liquid Web behaves admirably in terms of availability. Host’s availability is consistently over 99.9%, doing Liquid Web a highly reliable web hosting service that is one step ahead of the industry average of 99.4%. Liquid Web’s loading time is around 500ms and sometimes dropped below 400ms. Liquid Web charges its luxury services, and you will be hard-pressed to find more reliable availability and almost instant loading times elsewhere.

Customer Support

  • Technical support with more fabulous customer satisfaction is available at Liquid Web, which is certified by the best customer service on the web. The response times on the three support channels offered (phone, instant messaging and email) are systematically lower than the guaranteed time, and often less than a minute. Every agent speaks friendly, knowledgeable, and able to respond quickly to most of the business problems.
    Liquid Web is unique in its attention to detail and personalization. If you cannot find all the features you want or if you’re looking for a more complex hosting solution, you can work with Liquid Web’s developers to create the background of your dreams.

So, what are you waiting for contacting Liquid Web to grab the world’s best web hosting services for your business!

Learn More About Ecommerce:

7 steps to set up an E-commerce website with Woocommerce Hosting

WooCommerce vs. Shopify: A Ultimate Comparison of E-Commerce Platforms

A WordPress Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Right Hosting for your Website

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Reading Time: 7 minutes

So you just started your WordPress site, but have no idea which web host you should use.

Well, the options are plenty of web hosting services run into the thousands, but with so many options, how do you choose one that works best for you and your WordPress website.

If you have a new WordPress site or running one and you are not happy with the hosting capacity, this article is for you. We are currently on Kinsta and believe it or not; I spend $128 every month on two separate accounts for a total of 11 WordPress websites.

Several factors affect the sustainability of a web hosting service but so that you know it is not one size fits all. A web host for my website will most definitely not work for you, and if you are just beginning a website with a new domain name, the cost and strength of the hardware will confuse you, but there are factors to consider when choosing the right host, but let’s understand what your website requires first.

What does your WordPress Website entail?

WordPress

Certain things come to mind such as

  • What is the traffic level on your site?
  • What’s your growth vision for the future?
  • Are you in need of a scalable web host provider?
  • Your answer on scalability depends on the solution you give for the above questions?
  • Are you looking for a friendly developer web hosting service?

How much support structure your need as you grow?

  • How much fund is allocated for web hosting? The following questions must get an affirmative response to enable you to pick the right web host for your site. Characteristics that a good web host must possess.

Speed and Performance

WordPress

The overall performance of your website depends on the quality of the hardware – the RAM, CPU, HDDs & SSDs (disk space) provided by your host.

Each component listed above plays a crucial role in how your website’s performance. For example, if your contents are viral and traffic is high on your site; you need a large RAM and CPU capacity to make up for the traffic which a low-cost hosting plan will not provide for you. However, deciding to go for cheap will reduce the speed, performance, and cause traffic to drop on your site.

We are not saying disc space –HDDs and SSDs aren’t essential but what use is space which most hosts provide to the speed and performance of your site. So if the load on your website is affecting the speed and performance on your site, it is time to upgrade your hosting plan.

You can check this information from your host’s dashboard on your system.

Support

WordPress

No matter how smooth a web hosting service is or how much knowledge of WordPress you have, there are times glitches and problems beyond your understanding arise. Although most web providers provide some support, ensure you know how helpful they are before you pay for anyone. The best are those with a quick turnaround time after a complaint is made.

UP Time

The uptime of your web hosting provider is very crucial. Even though most hosting services are not less than 99 percent, a significant change can affect the reliability of your site. So if the uptime affects your site performance, change the web hosting now.

WordPress

Other features you need from your web host are:

  • Offsite Backup & Recovery – your web host provider should be able to restore all your information and data if you suffer data loss due to computer malfunction or hackers.
  • Caching – this helps your system works faster, while there are two types of caching, having gone from the server side will help your website a whole lot
  • GIT version control – these are mostly for developers
  • Built-on CDNs – this is optional, but if you decide to go for it, then Cloudflare is one of the best, and it’s free to start.
  • Security features – the number of times their system have been hack is a good indicator of how secure they are.
  • Datacenter location – the closer it is your visitors, the better for your website.

The following must be put into consideration before you choose the right web hosting provider.

Types of hosting and which is the right one for your website

To manage your site successfully on WordPress, there are four types of hosting services to choose from

  • Shared hosting
  • Managed Hosting
  • Dedicated Hosting
  • VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting, while all are expensive, some hosting is better than others.

WordPress comes with free hosting for the newbie site owners, but it isn’t reliable as the hosting services listed above. If you have a passion for developing your website, then stay away from free hosting.

Shared Hosting

WordPress

While this is not the best for websites that enjoy large traffic; the price, less configurability, and inflexibility are a plus until you realize that you share power, memory and disk space with hundreds of other website owners.

Shared hosting is suitable for small sites with less traffic, but for large traffic sites, it can be risky as too many sites make the server slow, and in the worst case, the server crashes when the limits are exceeded. To compensate for a shared hosting such provider attracted customers by offering them large storage spaces.

Although, for a beginner, this is an excellent web hosting plan to start with until your website gains visibility and traffic.

Managed WordPress Hosting

WordPress

Well if computer language is not your thing, then managed WP hosting is the right way to go. With this hosting plan, the hosting provider does all the technicalities while you focus on building an amazing and informative website.

When you are using a managed WP hosting, the company handles the optimization, caches your sites regularly, discovers and fix loopholes, run security checks, updates and back up your website and offer full data restoration if you are hacked or lose data.

All this is good; they are scalable, accountable with zero downtime but a tad expensive, but it gives you time to grow your passion.

Dedicated Hosting

WordPress

This is a server that serves your website and gives you full authority and access to the server’s memory, RAM, and disk space. With a dedicated server, you are sure of controlled speed and performance, but it is expensive and not the right choice for beginner sites with low traffic.

Virtual Private Server Hosting

WordPress

As the name suggests, the VPS hosting, you are allocated a portion of the server that will cater to your needs. This means you get a certain designated amount of disk space, processing power, and RAM.

You have the power to modify each of the components to suit your website’s need, but it also needs a lot of technical/computer language. On the flip side, VPS hosting is flexible, scalable, and you only pay for what your website uses.

Furthermore, you can be sure that the speed and performance will not be a problem as long as your server has resources on it.

Our Recommendation

If you are an e-commerce entrepreneur, blogger, or looking to create a commercial website or one for a small business, the best web hosting for you is the Managed WordPress Hosting.

As mentioned above, this hosting choice allows you to concentrate on developing yourself and the site while the hosting company handles the technicalities for you.

Best Hosting company for Managed WordPress Hosting

Liquid Web

They are the pioneer and the best company providing Managed WP hosting for the website and making it possible for newbie WordPress account owners to create and run an amazing website.

This hosting company has a built-in Cache system, which makes it great because their structural system is designed to fit like a glove into WordPress architecture, making it scalable and powerful enough to handle traffic without buckling under pressure.

Pros of the Managed WordPress Hosting

  • Offers excellent customer support all day and every day
  • Handles all the technicalities for you such as regular backups, malware checks, easy restoration options
  • Enables CDNs for super faster content loading
  • Improved security systems with firewall and SSL on all websites
  • Large staging area to test your content before posting
  • You have the option of a server choice in US Central Servers (Michigan) or
    EU Netherlands (Amsterdam)
  • The price is a mere $29

Overall Assessment

Managed WP hosting is the best for a newbie who wants to build their career on WordPress, generate income and traffic.

Below are the pricing table and the choices to suit your website and purpose

WordPress

Managed WordPress Hosting is the best plan that will allow you to grow your WordPress site with no extra charges.

Hosting

 

 

Final verdict

You can go for other hosting services online, but the one shared in this article are the best.

They are great in allowing your pay more attention to developing your website, pulling in traffic, and generating revenue along the way.

However, like any other hosting site, if you discover the performance is lagging or it takes time to load, switch to a better plan immediately.

Share your thoughts with us when you finally create your first new WordPress site.

Read More:

7 steps to set up an E-commerce website with Woocommerce Hosting

Why You Need To Startup An eCommerce Business?

 

How to select the best hosting company for your business?

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

“Best Web Hosting May Not Be the Right Host,”

that is the key that every business needs to know who is seeking web hosting services. The stakes related to the right presence on the internet are high for a business. The creation of a website increases the visibility of the company. This one has the opportunity to attract new prospects. Companies can also improve their communication through their site. Specific information can be provided on the nature of their offers for products. More and more consumers make their purchase via the net. For all these reasons, it is essential to choose the hosting solution for your website.

Using free hosting websites to host an e-commerce site is a nightmare. Your business would not get the professional attention and be treated as a waste of time as well as utilization of resources. Free hosting services will also lead to having few or limited access features that are vulnerable to the smooth running of the business in the online arena. Most of the companies which plan to go online always assume disk space as the only significant feature in the hosting which is not correct still. Having a lot of space may be useful for a typical web page but not for the online businesses.

Businesses, while availing the services of hosting companies, always look at some critical parameters as:

Step 1: Think of having clear and concrete requirements

You need to make a list with possible features and functions of all your requirements which you want to avail from the host service provider for putting the business over the internet.

The file may contain the following:

Hosting

 

    • Disk space
      • The most crucial need is the disk space requirement, which depends on multiple factors like frequency of online operations, remote services, emails, instant messages, and backup requirements. For example, if you are availing the services for your corporate website where you have showcased your products and services. Your average daily emails usage is ten emails in normal working while more than expected in extreme operation. Two GB cloud space might be enough for the first year of your business as requirements might be around 50 to 100 MB. Your company might need further 100 MB in case you integrate a blog for promoting the business. 1800 MB would be left to manage emails (i.e., 180 MB for each email) which is quite enough if size varies for each email.
    • Transferring on Monthly Basis (Broadband/Bandwidth requirement)
      • Monthly transfer guides the business owners the need for broadband, which they require to transfer the information from hosting machine to PCs of visitors. A certain amount is assigned, which can be changed or an exclusive one in case of dedicated services. Users would not be able to view, send, or receive information packets in case the allocated limit crosses. So, being a business owner, you must be very clear about the requirements of broadband to avoid such inconvenience happening.
    • Frequency of business posts
      • Business posts continue to increase with the growth of it. Therefore, you should focus on the expected flow of emails yearly rather than one or up to four emails. This will provide backup when the actual time would come to create emails hassle-free.

Step 2: Select the hosting which coherent with your business

Hosting

    • The tone or way of provisioning the services of hosting company (i.e., Liquid Web) should be logical with your business requirement. In other words, both go the same way with a similar tone. Your hosting would be prudent and efficient enough to handle troubles when your business in online system encounters. There should be a minimum lead time to resolve the issue. If hosting speaks the same language as your business do, then such questions would either be addressed quickly or never recurring.

Step 3: Review and have a better look on contact forms being offered

Hosting

    • Searching and selecting the best hosting provider laid down the ways contact with them such as email, phone numbers, contact forms, supporting the ticket system or better to have social networks access, etc. The response rate and multiple ways of communicating with hosting providers will be more attractive for the businesses which are seeking the services.

Step 4: Technical support

Hosting

 

    • Rapid feedback with multiple support types and 24/7/365 (i.e., Liquid Web) would be an added advantage for the businesses to quickly contact and get quick resolving of their online web issues. Excellent technical support is key to good hosting as they are the ones who will be more responsible and competent to solve the problems of your online business web pages.

Step 5: Security/Privacy

Hosting

    • Security or privacy with compliance of international and national internet business laws are becoming critical for business success in the click-n-mortar. You should seek the services of those which provide added facilities such as antivirus, firewall, and malware protection with a consistent upgraded platform. Besides, you should avail the services of web host with the most significant possible security.

Step 6: Hosting packages and pricing

Hosting

    • Whether you are a small, medium, or large business owner or part of any of such business, you should not just focus on the services and reputation of the web hosting providers but also have a look at their pricing and packages by comparing with the competitors. Price would always remain a crucial factor to find out the quality of hosting with specified services.

Step 7: Payment cycle

Hosting

    • Lots of web host companies nowadays have multiple plans with different payment cycles. Some charge you monthly, some charge annually while there are many which provide both payment cycles. As the business continues with the assumption of going concerned and has a long term orientation, you should go with annual plans which are cost-effective too if you compare them with a monthly plan of the same services by the host. However, if you are at the start-up stage with the intention to less investment and less exposure, then a monthly plan initially would be great to begin the journey which can be converted to yearly if the business grows and you are satisfied with the services of the host.

Step 8: Services vs. human value

Hosting

    • Being human, you should not forget that we are all people who communicate with each other. Web host providers must ensure friendly and proximity with the clients, which makes them feel as exclusive rather than dealing just with numbers which often observed with business growth or with a more substantial customer base. Being a client, you will feel the essence of human values and respect while seeking the right host services for your business. What makes striving for business opportunities with a high level of satisfaction at both ends.
      After exploring the steps as mentioned above, we are now able to describe that we should not buy any hosting which is tagged as best but to seek and buy the right hosting for the business.

Learn more:

7 steps to set up an E-commerce website with Woocommerce Hosting

Guide About Amazon’s A9 Search Engine

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A9
Reading Time: 3 minutes

A9 is Amazon’s search engine.

What is amazon a9?

Amazon A9 is the search engine behind the world’s largest online shopping platform, Amazon.com. It is responsible for indexing and ranking the millions of products in Amazon’s inventory, providing users with relevant and accurate search results.

What is the amazon a9 algorithm?

A9 uses various algorithms and techniques to understand the content and context of products to match them with user queries. It considers customer ratings and reviews, sales history, and price to rank search results.

How does the amazon a9 algorithm works?

The Amazon A9 algorithm is a proprietary search algorithm used by Amazon to power the search functionality on its online shopping platform. It is designed to understand the content and context of products in Amazon’s inventory and match them with user queries to provide relevant and accurate search results.

The A9 algorithm uses various techniques to understand and interpret natural language queries. It breaks down user queries into individual keywords and phrases and uses them to search through the product catalog for matches. It also considers customer ratings and reviews, sales history, and price factors to rank the search results.

In addition to keyword matching, the A9 algorithm also constantly uses machine learning techniques to improve its performance and accuracy. It can learn from user behavior and adjust its ranking algorithms accordingly, ensuring that the search results it returns are as relevant as possible.

Overall, the A9 algorithm is a sophisticated and highly effective tool for powering search on the Amazon platform. It helps customers find the products they are looking for quickly and easily, making the shopping experience more enjoyable and efficient.

In addition to powering Amazon’s search functionality, A9 is also used to power search on other websites and applications through the Amazon Product Advertising API. This allows developers to access Amazon’s vast product catalog and provide relevant search results to their own users.

One of the critical features of A9 is its ability to understand and interpret natural language queries. This means that users can type in free-form queries, such as “red dress under $50,” and A9 will be able to understand and return relevant results.

A9 also utilizes machine learning techniques to improve its performance and accuracy constantly. It can learn from user behavior and adjust its ranking algorithms accordingly, ensuring that the search results it returns are as relevant as possible.

A9

It has become the standard for product recommendation in the online retailing industry.

Amazon uses product information & consumer interaction to power the components of its A9 algorithm.

The days of Brands & sellers just throwing a product on Amazon and Stuffing it with attractive keywords are over. With the Amazon A9 algorithm, you need to build a brand, and a product customers will be proud to recommend.

How to rank on Amazon A9?

Several factors can impact your ranking on Amazon A9, the search algorithm used by Amazon to power the search functionality on its online shopping platform. Here are a few tips for improving your ranking on A9:

  1. Use relevant and descriptive product titles and descriptions: Make sure that your product titles and descriptions accurately and fully describe your products. This will make it easier for the A9 algorithm to understand the content and context of your products and match them with relevant user queries.
  2. Use relevant keywords: Identify the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your products and use them in your product titles, descriptions, and other product metadata. This will help the A9 algorithm understand the content of your products and match them with relevant user queries.
  3. Optimize your product images: Use high-quality, clear product images that accurately represent your products. This will help attract potential customers and improve your ranking on A9.
  4. Encourage customer reviews: Customer reviews are an essential factor that the A9 algorithm takes into account when ranking search results. Encourage your customers to leave reviews, and respond to any negative reviews in a timely and professional manner.
  5. Utilize Amazon Sponsored Products: Amazon Sponsored Products is a pay-per-click advertising program that allows you to bid on keywords and have your products appear as sponsored results in search results pages. Utilizing this program can help improve your ranking on A9.

Following these tips can improve your ranking on Amazon A9 and increase your visibility on the Amazon platform.

Overall, A9 is a critical component of Amazon’s success as an e-commerce platform. It helps customers find the products they are looking for quickly and easily, making the shopping experience more enjoyable and efficient.

Learn More :

Websites that you don’t think we’re a search engine

What does Omni-Channel mean?

6 Steps to Blog Successful (How to Start a Successful Blog?)

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

How to Start a Successful Blog

Every year some many people have this new year’s resolution. To start a blog but never get started. It may be because they don’t know how to start or where to start. No fear I’m going to tell you the how and where to get started.

    • Domain
    • Social Media
  • Do you have to know why?

    • No to be cheesy, but having a why. It will motivate you to keep working and building when you don’t feel like doing anything.
  • What is your blog going to be about?

    • Know your niche!
  • Do your research on the name availability.

    • It’s always nice to have your matching Name, Domain Name & Social Handle.
  • Selecting Domain and Host

    • is very important to the success of your blog.
    • Domains

      • When it comes to selecting a domain name. I’ll also add Domain Name Privacy. I recommend for following providers for Domain:
      • Mad-EZ-Domains
        • I use Mad-EZ-Domains in many of my domains.
        • It’s super affordable
            • Domain Registration – $16.99
            • Domain name privacy – $6.95Blog
            • Free Shared Hosting for one year
            • Free Email Forwarding
            • Free Website BuilderBlog
          • Hosting

            • You can always update to a faster butter hosting plan. Blog
    • Selecting a CMS

      • (content management system)for your blog. I recommend WordPress.org NOT wordpress.com
    • Installing WordPress

      • Your hosting account has a built-in tool to install WordPress to any domain that you have added to your hosting.
        • Log in to your Mad-Ez-Domains account.
        • Click Web Hosting.
        • Next, to the cPanel account you want to use, click Manage.
        • Click cPanel Admin.
        • At the top of your cPanel menu, click Applications. In the Apps for Content Management section, click the icon for WordPress.
        • Click Install This Application.
        • Complete or change any fields, and then click Install.
        • Once the Install is complete, you can log in to WordPress using the Domain you chose during setup. HTTP://[your WordPress domain name]/wp-admin
        • After installing WordPress, you will see a WordPress Setup Wizard the first time you log in.
        • WordPress setup wizardBlog
      • If you want to use WordPress Page Builder for your website, click Continue.
      • If you would instead use the standard WordPress experience without any add-ons, click No Thanks.
    • Selecting your Theme

      • The WordPress Directory has hundreds, if not thousands of themes for free. You can choose any of the free ones, or you can buy a premium theme on Themeforest.com
      • Here are the rules for purchasing a premium item anywhere.
        • Check when the late time the theme was updated. The needs to be compatible with the current WordPress version.
        • How long has the theme been around?
        • Check reviews of what other people are saying about it.
        • How does the theme company providers support?
  • Installing Your Theme –

      • From the Appearance menu, click Themes.
      • Click the Add New button.
      • Using the search bar, browse for the theme you wish to install. (If you’re using the WordPress Theme Directory)
      • Hover over the preview of the theme and click Install.
        • Note: Optionally, if you purchased or received a third-party theme you want to use instead, click the Upload Theme button. Browse to the theme’s files on your computer, and click Install Now.
    • Installing Your Plugin –

      • You can install a WordPress plugin using the available plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory, or upload a premium plugin you purchased or received.
        • Click Plugins.
        • Click Add New.
        • Pick the following set of steps based on how you wish to install the plugin.
      • From available plugins
        • Using the search bar, search for the name or type of plugin you want to install.
        • Click Install Now next to the plugin you wish to use.
      • Uploading from your local computer
        • Click Upload Plugin.
        • Click Browse then select the plugin (should be a zip file).
        • Click Install Now.
        • Next steps
        • Activate a plugin in WordPress

Now you are ready to start sharing your content with the world. Happy Blogging!

If you’re looking for an alternative hosting service, check out liquidweb.

Hosting

3 Site Abandonment triggers That Will Help You Turn Visitors Into Paid Customers

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Site Abandonment
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Site Abandonment is a big problem.

Does any site owner/manager understand the value of conversions? versus visitors?‍ Most people are so focused on the hits. They are receiving instead of monitoring their hit to sale conversion rate. This misguided focus is the road to ruin because it fails to take in the issue of site abandonment.

First, let’s have an understanding of abandonment. Abandonment is an e-commerce term used to describe a visitor on a Website who leaves that page before completing the desired action. Examples of abandonment include exiting before signing up for a newsletter or downloading an incentive.

There are three types of abandonment that are overlooked:

  • Cart abandonment – refers to visitors who add items to their online shopping cart, but exit without completing the purchase.
  • Browser abandonment – refers to visitors who just look at products on the website, but exit without completing the purchase.
  • Search abandonment – refers to visitors who just search for products on the website, but exit without completing the purchase.

So many great online stores/businesses on the web with unique innovations. Sadly, some sites never turn a profit and even limit their profit potential. Site owners must focus on converting visitors to customers when building a site. Here are 5 things that will increase your conversion rate: 

  1. Website speed – If your website is slow visitors will leave and not buy.
  2. UX/UI (User Experience/User Interface )Design your site and make it easy for your customer to use.
  3. Advertisement – All advertisements must click through directly to the products page (Check out the post about products page) that is being searched, not the home page of the site.
  4. Exit popup – An exit popup is a message that displays to users as they are attempting to navigate away from your site. Keep visit from abandoning the site with a special offer.
  5. Email Automation – A campaign is set up once and then automatically sent to a particular individual when that person meets a certain trigger.

Now it’s time to force on turning visitors into paying customers. Let me know what other strategies you are using to increase conversion and lower site abandonment.

 

How website speed performance can affect your conversion ?

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

Would you wait for a website that is taking 6-7 seconds to load?

The chances are that you will leave it and move to the next one on the search results. You didn’t take any action on that website and left. Therefore, you didn’t convert, affecting the website’s conversion rate. The takeaway from this example is that merely a single factor like website speed can make a huge difference when it comes to conversions.

Google and other search engines like Bing also penalize such slow-loading websites. However, more importantly, they lose a prospect that might’ve been converted to a customer otherwise.

Page load time is one of the most overlooked areas of conversion optimization, yet one of the most direct ways to boost the website’s conversion rate. According to a report by Akamai, even a two-second delay in web page load time can increase the bounce rate by over 100%.

Improving your website speed will make your customers happier, enhancing customer experience, conversion rate, and ultimately, your sales revenue (for e-commerce stores).

What most retailers do is overlook their website speed/page loading time in their annual priorities and focus on other elements such as SEO, social media ads, PPC, design, etc. This isn’t an appropriate thing to do – many kinds of research by industry experts have shown that page loading time directly affects page views, CPC, conversions, SEO, and revenues. According to Google, 53% of mobile visitors would leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

If you have read up to this point, you might want to test your website’s performance.

So, what’s a Good Load Time?

  • 1-2 seconds: Excellent!
  • 3-6 seconds: Good, but can be further improved.
  • 7-10 seconds: Poor – Needs improvement.
  • 10+ seconds: It will cause a high bounce rate – better start working on it as soon as possible.

Sum up: The faster, the better

What Affects Your Website’s Speed?

Hosting Provider

Sometimes, the foundation of your website can cause slow loading speed. Make sure you opt for a host that offers plenty of resources and features, so you can feel confident that your website wouldn’t be affected by slow servers, at least.

Whether you are a freelancer, agency, business owner, or a reseller, Liquid Web offers a significant number of hosting plans with 100% uptime guarantees. What makes their servers fast is that they use SSD drives for the most part and latest Intel Xeon processors. They have one of the best server hardware and network infrastructure. Here are six amazing hosting plans they offer:

  1. Managed Dedicated Server

 

This plan consists of a single-tenant (dedicated) server that guarantees the highest level of performance and is fully customizable. With 100% power and network uptime, you don’t ever have to worry about slow server speed and downtime.

  1. Cloud VPS

website

This is one of the most reliable hosting plans for people who want amazing control of a dedicated server and affordable features of a VPS (Virtual Private Server). It offers a lot of interesting features, including enhanced security, built-in backups, DDoS Attack Protection, etc.

  1. Cloud Dedicated

website

These servers are a combination of traditional dedicated server and cloud platform– the best choice for people who want the features of both of them in one.

  1. Cloud Sites

website

Have multiple sites? Opt for Cloud Sites, a managed hosting platform that doesn’t require any server management skills from you. Whether you have one visitor or thousands of them, your site will always work fast.

  1. Managed WordPress

website

This is an exceptional managed hosting plan for performance-obsessive people that guarantees the fastest page load time, and always keeps your site up to date, so you don’t have to worry about it ever!

Bonus: Image optimization plugin is included in the plan (free of cost) that can also help improve your page speed.

  1. Managed WooCommerce Hosting

 

Running an e-commerce store? Managed WooCommerce Hosting plan is the #1 choice! This platform will help boost your website’s load time and reduce query loads by a whopping 95% to increase performance.

Choose the right hosting plan from the list above, according to your requirements, and increase your website’s speed, and ultimately, boost conversion rate.

Other things that can affect your website speed/performance:

Images

Most of the time, webmasters forget optimizing the images and upload them directly (in HD), which adds up over time, consuming a lot of space. You can compress them to increase your website’s speed and decrease the total space they take.

Plugins

Too many plugins or poorly coded plugins can affect the website’s speed severely – make sure to research the plugins before installing them to your site.

Not Using a Caching Plugin

If you don’t have a caching plugin installed already, have it installed immediately. It will help lower the time your website usually takes to load.

Page Design, Layout, and Content

If you have everything optimized but have a poor page design, layout or content, your website won’t feel user-friendly and leave a bad first impression, causing your visitors to leave, and perhaps never return.

Learn More About Ecommerce:

7 steps to set up an E-commerce website with Woocommerce Hosting

WooCommerce vs. Shopify: A Ultimate Comparison of E-Commerce Platforms

Graphic Design Resources that’ll Make You a PRO Graphic Designer Overnight!

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Reading Time: 8 minutes

One graphic design is an essential aspect of small business marketing and branding.

It helps businesses to communicate their message and visually represent their brand effectively. However, finding the right graphic-design resources can be challenging, especially for small businesses with limited budgets and resources. This article will explore some of the best graphic-design resources for small businesses.

Here are some resources that make you look like a pro graphic designer:graphic design tool canva

CANVA

Free & Paid Version ($12.95 monthly) – This user-friendly graphic-design platform offers a range of templates and tools for creating professional-looking graphics. It is perfect for small businesses that need to create marketing materials, social media posts, and other visual content quickly and easily. Canva offers a free plan with access to a wide range of templates, images, and design elements and a paid plan with additional features and resources.

graphic design tool madewithover

OVER

Free & Paid Version ($69.99 yearly) – All you need is the app, a phone, and a thumb to wow the world. One of the best graphic-design apps on the market. You can import images and videos. It only comes in a mobile app.

graphic design tool adobe creative cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud

Paid Version ($79.99 monthly) -is a comprehensive suite of graphic-design and creative tools, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. It is a powerful resource for small businesses that need to create high-quality graphics, such as logos, brochures, and business cards. While a Creative Cloud subscription may be more expensive than other options, it is worth it for the extensive range of features and professional-grade tools.

thegiantsquare

GiantSquare

Giant Square lets you make BIG pictures on Instagram, FB, Twitter, and much more++. Download free on Google Play & App Store! Search for “Giant Square.”

phonto

Phonto

is a free app that allows you to add text to photos. Get it on Google Play. Don’t – Add Text to Videos.

inshot

InShot

Easily create shot videos and photos.

humaaans

Humaaans

Mix-and-match illustrations of people with a graphic-design library.

elements envato

Envato Elements

12 Free assets  & Paid Version ($16.50 Monthly or $198.00 Yearly) – Everything you need in one place. 890,000 Creative Assets. Future-proof commercial license. Unlimited Downloads. That includes 3,600+ Fonts, 15,000+ Vectors, 6,800+        Video templates, 88,000+ Audio, 620,000+ Photos, 1,200+ Actions and presets,        15,000+ Icons, 29,000+ Logos, 93,000+ Motion graphics, PLUS: Tuts+ courses,        backgrounds, email templates, infographics and many more.

flaticon

Flaticon

Free & Paid Version ($9.99 monthly) -1391000+ Free vector icons in SVG, PSD, PNG, EPS format, or as ICON FONT. Thousands of free icons in the largest database of free vector icons!

Hosting

Eye Dropper

Eye Dropper is an open-source extension that allows you to pick colors from web pages, color pickers, and your personal color history. Eye Dropper is an extension for Google Chrome and Chromium. It allows you to pick colors from any webpage or the advanced color picker. It is an excellent tool for web developers.

Hosting

Piktochart

Free & Paid Version ($12.95 monthly) – Piktochart is a tool for creating infographics, presentations, and other visual content. It offers a range of templates and graphic-design elements to help small businesses create engaging and informative graphics. Piktochart has a free plan with basic features and paid plans with additional templates and resources.

 

Venngage

Venngage

Free & Paid Version ($16.00 monthly) – Venngage is another platform for creating infographics and other visual content. It offers a range of templates, graphic-design elements, and the ability to customize and create your own graphics from scratch. Venngage has a free plan with limited features and paid plans with additional templates and resources.

Hosting

Unsplash

Unsplash is a website that offers a wide range of high-quality, royalty-free images for use in marketing materials and other visual content. It is a great resource for small businesses that need professional-looking images for their graphics but doesn’t have the budget or resources to commission their own photography.

Now go and create amazing things with all the tools I’ve shared. Let me know in the comments what tools you like to use.

In conclusion, a wide range of graphic-design resources are available to small businesses. From user-friendly platforms like Canva and Piktochart to professional-grade tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, there is something for every budget and need. By choosing the right resource for your business, you can create professional-looking graphics that effectively communicate your message and represent your brand.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is a graphic designer do?

A graphic designer is a professional who creates visual concepts, using computer software or by hand, to communicate ideas that inspire, inform, and captivate consumers. They develop the overall layout and production design for advertisements, brochures, magazines, and corporate reports.

Graphic designers use a variety of design elements to achieve artistic or decorative effects. They select typefaces, colors, and other design elements to create visual representations of ideas and messages. They may also use multimedia design software to create interactive designs for websites and other digital media.

Graphic designers work in various industries, including advertising, marketing, and publishing. They may work in-house for a company or organization, or they may be self-employed and freelance. In either case, they typically work closely with clients or employers to understand the needs and goals of the project and to ensure that the final product meets the desired objectives.

In addition to creating visual designs, graphic designers may also be responsible for project management and coordination with other professionals, such as printers, programmers, and copywriters. They may also be responsible for staying up-to-date with industry trends and new design software and techniques.

What are the 4 types of graphic designers?

There are several different types of graphic designers, and their specific design work can vary greatly. Here are four common types of graphic designers:

  1. Print graphic designers: These designers create visual concepts for print materials, such as brochures, advertisements, and packaging. They work with layout, type, and color to create effective visual communications for various print media.
  2. Digital graphic designers: These designers create visual concepts for digital media, such as websites, social media posts, and digital advertisements. They use design software to create interactive and engaging designs for the web and other digital platforms.
  3. Motion graphic designers: These designers create visual concepts for video and other moving media. They use design software and animation techniques to create graphics and visual effects for film, television, and other video content.
  4. User experience (UX) designers: These designers focus on creating intuitive, user-friendly designs for websites and other digital products. They work to understand the needs and goals of the user and create designs that are easy to navigate and use.

Graphic designers may specialize in one or more of these areas or have a more general design skill set that allows them to work on various projects. Regardless of their specific design work, all graphic designers strive to create visually appealing and practical designs that meet their clients’ or employers’ needs and goals.

Which software is best for graphic-design for beginners?

Many software options are available for graphic-design, and the best one for beginners will depend on their specific needs and goals. Here are a few popular software options that are well-suited for beginners:

  1. Canva: Canva is a user-friendly design platform that offers a range of templates and tools for creating professional-looking graphics. It is perfect for beginners who need to create marketing materials, social media posts, and other visual content quickly and easily. Canva has a free plan with access to a wide range of templates, images, and design elements and a paid plan with additional features and resources.
  2. Adobe Spark: Adobe Spark is a suite of design tools for creating social media graphics, web pages, and video stories. It is a user-friendly option for beginners who want to create professional-looking designs without much technical expertise. Adobe Spark is free to use and offers a range of templates and design elements to help beginners get started.
  3. GIMP: GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free, open-source photo editing and graphic-design software similar to Adobe Photoshop. It has a wide range of features and tools, making it a good option for beginners who want to learn more advanced design techniques.

Ultimately, the best software for graphic-design beginners will depend on their specific needs and goals. It may be helpful to try out a few different options to see which works best for them.

What is some free graphic design software?

Many free graphic-design software options are available, which can be great for beginners or those on a tight budget. Here are a few popular free graphic-design software options:

  1. Canva: Canva is a user-friendly design platform that offers a range of templates and tools for creating professional-looking graphics. It is free to use, with access to a wide range of templates, images, and design elements, and a paid plan with additional features and resources.
  2. Adobe Spark: Adobe Spark is a suite of design tools for creating social media graphics, web pages, and video stories. It is free to use and offers a range of templates and design elements to help beginners get started.
  3. GIMP: GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free, open-source photo editing and graphic design software similar to Adobe Photoshop. It has a wide range of features and tools, making it a good option for beginners who want to learn more advanced design techniques.
  4. Inkscape: Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor that is similar to Adobe Illustrator. It is a good option for beginners who want to create logos, graphics, and other vector art.
  5. Gravit Designer: Gravit Designer is a free, cross-platform graphic design software that offers a range of tools and features for creating professional-quality designs. It is a good option for beginners who want to learn more advanced design techniques.

Keep in mind that while these software options are free to use, some may offer paid versions with additional features and resources. It is also worth noting that free software may not have the same support or updates as paid software.

Are you looking for courses in graphic design?

Here are some graphic design courses:

  1. Canva Design School
  2. udemy

How to launch a Shopify store in 7 days or less

Podcasting With WordPress

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Reading Time: < 1 minute