Category: Internet Marketing

Podcast – Wonderhell – Laura Gassner Otting on Achieving Greater Business Success

Home Business Magazine Online

Interview with Author and Life Coach Laura Gassner Otting

Have you had a “Wonder Hell” moment? That time when you have achieved success, which gives you an increased hunger for something bigger? Which leads to a great deal of uncertainty, self-doubt, anxiety and stress. According to best-selling author, international speaker and renowned life coach Laura Gassner Otting (www.lauragassnerotting.com), success is wonderful, but it’s also “Hell.” So she has a new book Wonderhell, Why Success Doesn’t Feel Like It Should . . . and What to Do About It.Home Business

Laura dares audiences to find their voice, and generate the confidence needed to tackle larger-than-life challenges. She wants to help you to lead, manage and mentor others to achieve increased business success.

Laura’s TEDx on Wonderhell was chosen as an Editor’s Pick, and is quickly approaching 1M views;, and was featured on the TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Oprah Daily, Harvard Business Review, and others.

Subjects discussed in Podcast Include:
• “Impostor syndrome” – How do we overcome it?
• Make your own luck through manifestation and hard work
• How can we quiet our perfectionist tendencies and allow ourselves to fail?
• Managing our uncertainties and our “what ifs”
• Can we better learn from others and accept being a “beginner”?
• Creating a community of those who bring out our best – and cutting off those who don’t!
• What is one thing you can do tomorrow morning to overcome “Imposter Syndrome”?

Episode Sponsor: Kaeser & Blair * https://Kaeser-Blair.com

 

Interview Guest

internet marketing
Laura Gassner Otting, author of the book Wonderhell,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Host

Home Business Podcast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/lifestyles/success-lifestyles/podcast-wonderhell-laura-gassner-otting-on-achieving-greater-business-success/

How to create service pages that rank and convert

Your service pages, especially if you operate entirely online, have a huge job to perform.

They need to effortlessly convey exactly what you do, what you offer, and how your services benefit your ideal customer.

It’s a pretty big ask.

Luckily, you don’t have to start from scratch whenever you want to create a winning service page.

There’s a formula to ensure you include all the most important information, helping you create a page that will rank and convert.

What is a service page?

A service page is a webpage on your business website that describes and explains a signature service or offer to potential customers. (You might also call a service page a landing page or a sales page.) Ultimately, this page should make your target audience want to purchase your service.

A service page can be dedicated to presenting one service, multiple services under one umbrella, or all of the services you offer. The way you set it up will be dependent on your brand, industry, and audience, not to mention your preferences. 

Ultimately, whether you run a business online or have a hybrid brick-and-mortar/online presence, a service page is 100% necessary to include on your website.

5 elements every service page needs

A well-constructed service page is worth dividends.

Don’t just throw one together and hope for the best. Construct it with care, and include the most important pieces for success.

When you build your service page, include these key elements for better results.

1. Long-form, descriptive, benefits-focused copy for each service offered

The most important part of your service page is the description of your service(s).

You might be tempted to write a quick paragraph about your service and call it done.

But that will only result in a thin, useless page that doesn’t tell your prospect much about your service. And, in actuality, you have so much to tell them.

  • What is included in the service/offer? What does the customer get, in a nutshell, after they buy? For example, if you sell website design services, what does that entail? A website audit, page design/development, rewriting website copy?
  • What problem are you solving for the customer? What larger problem are you solving, beyond what the service accomplishes at face value? 
  • Who is your service/offer for? Describe the person who will benefit most from your service. This is your ideal customer – when they read this description, they should see themselves!
  • What are the long-term benefits? What positive outcomes will reverberate for your customer long after completing your services?
  • Why is your brand uniquely qualified to offer this service? What’s your backstory? How did your company form, and how did you come to sell XYZ? What experience, education, or combination of these two things has shaped your service(s)? Tell a story.
  • What are the most frequently asked questions you get about your service? Answer them on your service page.

Once you add all this information to your page should start getting pretty long – but that’s a good thing.

I always recommend going long-form for service and sales pages because adding more copy gives you more time to overcome your prospects’ objections to purchasing.

However, don’t fall into the trap of adding more copy just for length. Instead, think about how helpful you can be on your service page.

How can you clarify your offer, explain it, and present it so your prospect has zero questions left when they’re done reading?

2. Testimonials or reviews

Next, prove that your services work or deliver your promised benefits. 

Adding customer testimonials or reviews to your service page is the easiest way to do this.

For example, embed a video of a customer talking about their experience with your service. Or, add a customer quote alongside their photo.

Along with these pieces of social proof, if your brand is a B2B, consider adding a list of the businesses and brand names you’ve called clients. You’ll see this technique on most B2B sites, but that’s because it’s effective.

A great example that goes one step further comes from a financial services company.

On their debt financing solutions service page, there’s a section that shows clients they’ve worked with and what role they played.

Debt financing solutions service page

3. Visuals

Not every service page needs visuals, but very few wouldn’t benefit from adding an image, an embedded video, or some other element that adds visual interest.

Consider how your visuals can further help your prospect understand your offer for service pages. 

  • Add visual examples of your service in action. For example, a custom cabinetmaker could add photos of their workshop, pictures of cabinets in production, or a gallery of completed cabinet projects.
  • If your service is more desk-oriented, include screenshots of some of the services you perform in various programs and tools. 
  • If you produce a physical product as a result of your service, include photos of past projects (with client permission).
  • Consider adding a video of you/your client discussing and explaining the service and its benefits.

Here’s an example of a video embedded into a service page for website design. In the video, a team member explains how they work with you to redesign your website.

Video embedded to service page

4. Conversion-friendly design

A service page with great content won’t perform well if the design and layout are cluttered, confusing, busy, or hard to read.

For a conversion-friendly page, focus on a few key elements:

  • Easy to scan: Most people don’t read pages word by word – instead, they scan: 79% of users scan new web pages vs. read them. For that reason, design your service page content so your prospects can easily scan the page.
    • Use meaningful headers to organize the page.
    • Use bulleted and numbered lists.
    • Highlight or bold important text, such as your CTAs, contact information, or keywords that highlight what your service is about.
    • Break up long paragraphs (and long sentences) into smaller pieces.
  • Easy to read: Is your main font clear and readable? Do you have enough white space surrounding page elements? Do your text and background colors have sufficient contrast?
  • Speedy: Does your site load quickly?
  • Easy to navigate: Can users intuitively find their way around your site? Is your service page easy to find?
  • Prominent CTAs: Do your calls-to-action pop off the page? Are your prospects’ eyes drawn to them as they navigate and read your page?

This professional editing service page is a good example of a conversion-friendly design. It’s clear, easy to read, easy to scan, and the CTAs pop.

Professional editing services

5. Calls to action (CTAs)

Lastly, include targeted calls to action (CTAs) throughout your service page. Ideally, they should stand out and be formatted as buttons your prospects can click on.

Where should these CTAs lead? That depends on your service and how ready your prospects are to buy.

If the audience coming to this page is primed and ready to buy, your CTAs can point directly to a checkout page:

  • If you have more than one service listed on a single page, include a CTA for each service that leads prospects to a checkout page for that service.
  • If your page is dedicated to one single service, include CTAs sprinkled throughout the page that all point to one checkout page for that service.

If the audience coming to your service page isn’t quite ready to buy, consider adding CTAs to talk to your sales team or get a free consultation.

Give your customer who may be on the edge of buying a chance to hash out their last objections with a knowledgeable person – and gently move them toward the sale.

Whatever you do, ensure your prospects understand exactly what action they can take after reading your service page. CTAs provide this clear direction.

On this plumbing repair service page, the company has added multiple CTAs that urge customers to give them a call or request an appointment:

Plumbing repair service page

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How to rank a service page on search engines

Ready to go the extra mile and get your service page ranking in search engines?

Follow these tips to research keywords and structure/optimize your page(s) for the best results.

Create individual, long-form pages for each service you offer

Consider creating individual, long-form pages for each service on your roster to boost your SEO.

Where does the SEO come in? Each page can be targeted to a specific keyword related to the service you’re selling. 

In essence, more pages optimized for more keywords = more opportunities for search engines to index and rank those pages.

Research and choose one relevant focus keyword for each service page and pepper in related keywords/synonyms/variations. Learn how in the next section.

If you focus on one main keyword per service page, how do you find the right ones?

Look for a combination of: 

  • Relevance to your business and service.
  • Relevance to your audience.
  • Tied to your location (if you’re a local business).
  • Low keyword difficulty (KD). 

The last part (low KD) is especially important if your business is new or small.

You don’t want to target highly competitive keywords because you’ll never rank against the high-authority brands already jockeying for those terms.

And, not ranking (or landing on page 25) means you won’t earn search traffic, which defeats the entire point.

For example, you want to create a service page for your website design services.

Thus, you research the keyword “website design services” using a tool like Semrush – but you discover it has a KD of 83 (hard).

Semrush keyword overview

That just means you need to look at the keyword variations to find a similar, relevant keyword with a lower KD.

Ideally, the focus keyword you choose for your service page should have a KD of 40 or below so you can edge into the rankings.

Keyword variations

Never randomly choose keywords or guess what will work. Do your research and find a term your audience is searching for that you can also rank for in search results.

Optimize your service pages correctly

Once you have a focus keyword in hand for each of your service pages, you can move on to optimizing those pages.

What should you home in on for optimization? (Where should you place those darned keywords?) Here are the top pieces of your page to focus on:

Headings

Structure your service page with headings to organize the content, help search engines understand what the page is about, and help readers find the information they’re looking for.

Keyword placement

Place your focus keyword in important areas, including:

  • The page title/H1.
  • The meta description.
  • At least one H2.
  • At least one H3 (if applicable).
  • The first paragraph.
  • The URL slug (e.g., www.yoursite.com/url-slug-here)
  • Add keyword variations/synonyms if applicable.

Helpful, useful content

Don’t just think about selling on your service page. Instead, consider how you can help your prospect understand what you offer, how you deliver, and how that will ultimately benefit them.

Include helpful content to make your service page more useful and of higher quality – and to help you rank in the search engine results.

Internal links

From your service page, link to related pages on your site.

For example, if you have a service that’s related to another, you could link those pages to each other using keywords in the anchor text.

Meta description

Your meta description won’t necessarily directly impact your ranking, but it will impact how many people click your link in the search results.

Google is more likely to pull a well-written, keyword-optimized meta description into their listings.

These descriptions are what searchers read when they’re choosing which result to click on. Write yours with the intent of getting people to click:

  • Make it 160 characters long – or less. Anything longer will get cut off.
  • Include your keyword near the beginning.
  • Describe what your page is about and include your USP (unique selling point).

Here’s a good example of a meta description from a service page ranking for “catering Kansas City.” Note that they include their USP: “Seasonal, made-from-scratch menu items.”

Sample meta description

Build an ROI-worthy service page

Your service pages are some of the most important content on your website.

They also have to do a lot of heavy lifting. Simultaneously, they need to convey what you do, what you offer, and how what you offer benefits your customer.

And, if you want your service page(s) to rank, you need to structure and optimize them accordingly.

So, spend the time to make this important content incredible. Consider tracking the page’s performance, testing different versions of the page, updating the copy/content, and testing again.

Your service page should work hard for you, so take the time to find the right formula. It will be worth it.

The post How to create service pages that rank and convert appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/create-service-pages-rank-convert-395583

How to redesign your site without losing your Google rankings

Relaunching or redesigning a website can make or break your SEO efforts. 

Even a single mistake can result in catastrophic ranking drops – or, worst, revenue loss. 

Here’s how to handle a site redesign without risking your organic traffic, rankings and revenue.

Why a redesign is an inherent risk

Businesses must never take a website change lightly. 

Aside from the SEO ramifications, users don’t always welcome a website overhaul. (Think of Facebook’s latest redesign and most marketers’ disdain of GA4).  

Numerous SEO horror stories revolve around disastrous site redesigns, re-platforms and relaunches.

Dealing with the aftermath can be a nightmare for SEO teams and the external SEO consultant (who often only gets called to fix others’ mistakes).

Most site redesign fails involve the following:

  • Noindexing the website.
  • No redirects in place.
  • Adding/removing content. 

Noindex

Typically, redesigned websites are prepared on a separate server where a copy of the live website is tested with the new look and feel. 

To avoid creating duplicate content issues with Google, you have to add the noindex meta tag to the test server (or block it in robots.txt):

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />

This tells the search engine to ignore this site version.

Yet, all too often, nobody remembers to remove the noindex command before relaunching the website. 

It might take weeks, along with lost leads, sales and revenue, before someone notices.

So before going live, make sure to remove that noindex meta tag.

No redirects

When moving a website to a new domain or changing your URL structure, you must “tell” Google and visitors where to find the new one. 

Unless the business has an in-house SEO, redirection is often neglected. 

Search engine bots and users might end up on error pages or get redirected to the homepage, resulting in poor user experience and missed SEO opportunities.

Failure to redirect existing resources to new ones will negatively affect your rankings, traffic and conversions. 

For one, since incoming links to your content end up nowhere, you might lose that ranking push on Google. 

Google handles error pages as if your site is broken and may demote it completely.

All 4xx errors (except 429) are treated the same. Googlebot signals the indexing pipeline that the content doesn’t exist. 

How to fix it? Use a permanent redirect (301).

Content removal/addition

Designers often work with a “lorem ipsum” placeholder text even when the website has existing content.

Only when the redesigned website goes live will they realize that large parts of the content don’t work with the new design. And instead of fixing the design, the content might get deleted.

In some cases, business owners just want to remove old content for no apparent reason other than that it’s “old” and they don’t want to update it. 

As ex-Googler Kaspar Szymanski noted in his SEO horror stories example: 

“When content migration is done, Google has to recrawl new URLs, along with all of their accompanying signals, such as backlinks and canonicals, in order to rank what effectively becomes brand new landing pages. Under any circumstances, a migration is best prepared months in advance, carefully planned and executed during a sales low season.”

There are also instances when SEOs prune underperforming content and then go overboard. 

Your existing content might have attracted links over the years. When the content gets deleted, that link equity you’ve built up will go away. 

Moreover, Google tends to assess websites as a whole, not just based on particular content or pages. Once your site shrinks overnight, you may lose credibility connected to your former size and status.

The same applies to the opposite. You can’t just grow from 100 to 100,000 pages overnight without causing Google trouble. 

Don’t deflate or inflate your page number drastically in a short time frame.

How to fix it? Treat existing content as valuable linkable assets and migrate them to the new website version. Use only one web address per content piece or add canonical tags.

Doing it like Amazon

Given the risks, you can opt for the slow and safe route like Amazon. The ecommerce powerhouse is known to make incremental changes to its platform.

Some sites redesign and relaunch occasionally, while others seemingly want to stay the same.

Amazon is a “prime” example (pun intended) of a site getting continuously improved over time instead of being recreated all at once. 

Website launch and redesign timeline
Image source: Olive&Co

The current Amazon website design has been used since 2015 without a redesign. Even the design changes before that weren’t complete redesigns either.

This gradual change approach has pros and cons. 

Regular Amazon shoppers don’t have to struggle to learn a new interface. But the platform is also plagued with increasing clutter and feature creep. 

You may be doing something right when your revenue continues to grow despite such a bad user experience. Otherwise, a redesign is probably overdue.

When to redesign your site?

Despite all the risks mentioned above, there are some valid reasons for a site relaunch.

Acquisition

When your business or website has been acquired, you have various options for dealing with the “old ” website:

  • Some new owners let the existing site rot.
  • Some redirect it to the new owner’s website.
  • Others merely change the logo by adding “by [new owner].” 

Those serious about a website and its audience usually redesign and relaunch, often under a new name. 

Change of business model

Startups change business models frequently. At times, the pivot is so big that the former business model has nothing to do with the new one anymore.

Let’s say your startup used to offer a tool and then became an agency offering services. In that case, your previous website structure may no longer make sense.

Clutter and feature creep

Clutter and feature creep often go hand in hand but can also happen independently. 

Older websites accumulate items, options, content and links.

With an established design and system, removing items that have grown organically is hard.

Even long-time users will struggle with cognitive overload.

Your site may be ripe for a redesign when:

  • The bounce rate and exit rate grow over time.
  • It gets harder to retain new users, leading to a drop in recurring visitors.

Personally, I think Amazon’s design approach is tough to use. It’s full of clutter, feature creep and ads in different places that are not even properly disclosed.

If Amazon wasn’t one of those “too big to fail” corporations, their website would probably be defunct by now.

Expansion

You may also need a redesign or at least a design update to serve new markets (i.e., more countries), launch different products, or serve new audiences. 

A redesign is not always needed in such cases. It depends on how easily a website can be adapted to the expansion.

  • So instead of just serving the U.S. or UK, you want to serve a global audience or other languages? 
  • After selling shoes, do you want to enter the fashion market or even sell household items?
  • Instead of a niche audience of enthusiasts, do you want to reach a mainstream audience?

These large changes may require a full-fledged redesign or at least benefit from one instead of squeezing the new objectives into the limited existing design.

Unsupported technologies

Is your site built with Flash? That was never a good idea, especially now that Adobe has discontinued and most browsers stopped supporting it. 

The same applies to using less popular obsolete technologies like Java (not to be confused with JavaScript) or frames.

If your site still relies heavily on those, you must do something about them immediately. A whole redesign may be the only viable solution then. 

Some less obvious legacy technology within your website code may not be supported by major browsers anymore (Google’s Chrome and its derivatives mainly by now). 

I had to fix my website over the years a few times, not because it was broken, but due to changing requirements by browser vendors and evolving technologies that weren’t backward compatible.

Once, my website broke because the latest PHP version deprecated some built-in functions and interpreted others differently.

A legacy website with thousands of lines of custom code may make restoring functionality after third-party technology changes very difficult.

Sometimes a redesign from scratch may be cheaper in the long run.

Before anything else, call the SEO 

OK, so you decided that a redesign is the only way to go? For goodness’ sake, call an  SEO expert right now! 

The earlier you involve the SEO (team), the better. 

Often, businesses start the design with the designers, as the name conveniently suggests. But the SEO-compliant information architecture (IA) must be planned before the design. 

If you don’t have a sophisticated information architect on your team, you have to ask the SEO person about it.

And even if your UX specialist has a solid understanding of IA, don’t rely on that. 

Of course, the user experience is its own complex discipline that requires mastery, so you can’t expect the same person also to be an expert on SEO.

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How to redesign without hurting the SEO

Hire an SEO! Let them inform all involved teams. Here are additional tips for an SEO-friendly website redesign project.

Agree on actual goals

To implement a proper redesign, you have to agree internally on its goals.

The SEO team can provide some of them, but there need to be overall business goals as well.

The redesign is not just a cosmetic change. It has to be validated using metrics that go beyond vanity. Increasing traffic or engagement is not enough.

How will a redesign impact conversions, sales and ROI?

Choose highly relevant KPIs before you start to determine whether your goals have been met.

For example, instead of adding annoying pop-ups and overlays to your legacy design, you could redesign with the primary goal of having built-in subscription forms to grow your newsletter audience. Each subscription would be a conversion, then.

Build the new site separately

Use at least one local server to code and test. Large website redesigns have three of them: 

  • A development server.
  • A test server. 
  • A live server.

Ideally, you check your site redesign as a website running beyond your local network. 

While at it, use the aforementioned noindex tag on the new site as long as it’s not officially live yet.

For small WordPress-based sites, you may get tempted to work on the live site and introduce the new theme out of the blue.

Don’t trust ready-made themes or the design and development team to care for your SEO, not even the basics!

It may be a shocking experience to check your analytics soon after. Some themes (and designs) ignore the SEO fundamentals, or they randomly rewrite them.

So you may have optimized your perfect title tag structure and streamlined your headlines, and then they’re gone overnight, and neither designers nor UX experts noticed.

The headlines may look exactly the same, but behind the scenes, there will be a div, span or p-tag instead of the H1, H2, etc.

Your title tag may show the brand first or, worse, only lorem ipsum and be repeated all over the place, creating duplicate content Google will automatically demote or remove from the index.

All your arduously created meta tags, schema code, nofollow/sponsored/UGC attributes, image alt attributes and minimized scripts may be completely gone. So create a checklist of must-have SEO features upfront.

Don’t mix up design and code

Ideally, you separate code, behavior and design. Your old site does not do that yet? Introduce this separation on the new site. 

You will be glad. There will probably be numerous changes down the road before you even go live.

Editing the HTML code to enter design tweaks is tedious and error-prone. It’s also utterly impractical in the long run. Also, it is likely to hurt your SEO efforts. 

Content should be separate anyway, usually in a database. Or if you have a small legacy website, using XML or text files like .txt, .csv or .inc.

Use whatever works best for you. Just don’t mix everything.

Legacy websites from the ‘90s had all of these things in one file in many cases, so it was almost impossible to change without breaking things that were not even related to the change.

Yet even modern WordPress websites struggle with mixing code, design and content. 

Some themes require tweaks or UX text added to the themes themselves so that you end up with English words like “comment,” “search” or “next” on your translated website version. 

Never touch a running system, especially URLs

Geeks with decades of experience will advise you to “never touch a running system” for a reason. 

This motto also applies to search engine optimization. A minor change can wreck your website’s SEO.

Is your domain already ranking well? Do you really have to rename it from x to x-y? Every domain name change is a huge risk. 

You never know whether Google will accept your new domain as fully equivalent to the last one. 

In the worst case, the algorithm may assume that your website is completely new and put you into the dreaded “sandbox” for new domains. 

Some people say there is no such filter, but seasoned SEOs know from their experience how long it sometimes takes to get a new domain off the ground. So you want to keep your existing authority.

When registering a new domain, please do not put it online without content authority or while the old one is still reachable.

Otherwise, the risk of being viewed as a completely separate project is much higher.

Having two domains for the same project at once is also a mistake. You compete against yourself. You have to go “all in” on one of them!

At least try not to change the URL structure. The design can change and improve without having to change that in most cases. 

So unless the IA changes significantly, you can simply add or subtract directories and pages to or from the existing structure.

Is there no alternative to changing your URLs because the new structure has to be different for some valid reasons? 

Then redirect the old URLs to the new ones by mapping every single or at least important page upfront or simply by changing the URL structure only slightly and then automatically redirecting every URL in .htaccess file using the asterisk “*“:

example.com/site/content/article

…could be then redirected to…

example.com/new-site/content/article

Instead of a “new-site” you could add something more meaningful or neutral. Web designers often just added a v2 or whatever number applied as a workaround.

example.com/v2/content/article

In reality, this could be something more specific lower on the structure level.

When you have pivoted the business model, you could keep the services page and add specific pages below it.

example.com/services/old-service-one

will be… 

example.com/services/new-service-one

Lorem ipsum yourself! Or don’t forget content design

When searching for a new WordPress theme, you will first look at the design and fall in love with it, only to realize that once your content has been displayed using the new one, it looks awful. 

What happened? Lack of content design! 

The design has been created in a vacuum with idealized content to fit and underscore the “beauty” of the new design.

Use the actual content from the existing site from day one or create content that will be displayed on the new site upfront. Only then should you create the design around the content.

When pruning content, do a content audit first and assess each page. Keep the pages that rank already and have garnered some backlinks in the past.

Pages that get traffic, be it search traffic, referral, or direct traffic, should also be kept for obvious reasons.

Some content may seem useless based on the criteria above, but it is needed to complete a website, even if it’s rarely visited. So don’t assume that obscure content has no value, either.

Ensure crawling and indexing

Why is the most important technical SEO part at the end? 

Once you go live with your new site, you have to check whether the SEO best practices you have taken into account earlier are making it into the Google index and whether you retain your rankings.

  • Watch your analytics and Google Search Console reports frequently to discover potential roadblocks (think noindex above).
  • Double-check your automatically created sitemaps and use a website crawler like Screaming Frog to test URLs once again on the live server.
  • You may also want to check the server log files. Why? Orphan pages and pages that haven’t been indexed for some reason may not even show up elsewhere.

Sometimes even the Analytics code does not appear on all pages, so some pages have no traffic because it’s invisible. 

The post How to redesign your site without losing your Google rankings appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/redesign-website-google-rankings-395604

5 Ways to Make Your Business More Efficient

Home Business Magazine Online

Do you sometimes have meetings that go on for too long? Projects that aren’t being completed when they should be? Even if your business is doing well, there are always ways that you can make processes (and your employees!) more efficient.

From utilizing the latest automation tools to using task management software, read on to discover 5 simple ways that you can make your business more efficient without blowing your budget.

1. Use task management software

If you still rely on email to communicate or collaborate on projects, then you should know that there is a better solution. Task management software is designed to help people work together more efficiently and to allow management to track progress without the need to micromanage every little detail.

There are several task management software applications that you can choose from, some of which you have to pay for and others that are free but offer limited features.

2. Utilize fuel cards

If your employees are often on the road, then you are probably spending a lot of money on fuel to get them from A to B. While you may not be able to eliminate these expenses completely, you can cut them down considerably by using a fuel card.

Fuel cards allow you and your employees to pay for fuel without the need for cash or a credit card. Plus, these cards help you to find the best deals on fuel in your area for even greater efficiency.

3. Embrace automation

Most businesses spend a lot of time on monotonous tasks such as responding to customer inquiries, carrying out payroll, and managing social media posts. However, there are lots of automation tools available that can do all this for you so that your employees can be more productive and you can plan for the future.

Although some automation tools can be costly, they will save you money in the long run and make your business much more efficient.

4. Hold a short daily meeting

Most employees dread meetings at work as they tend to stretch on for hours on end, which can make managing their daily workload almost impossible. That being said, face-to-face communication is important, so you need to find the right balance.

A short daily meeting first thing in the morning offers a great way to keep everyone updated and to bring up any issues that need addressing. Make sure you limit these to 15 minutes for maximum efficiency. Anything much longer, and you risk losing the attention of everyone in the meeting and wasting their precious time.

5. Focus on company culture

Happy employees are hardworking employees, so you need to make sure that you are encouraging a positive company culture. This could be through regular team building events, rewards and recognition or by simply keeping your door open so that your employees know they can talk to you whenever they need to.

It is also important that you try to embrace a diverse workforce, as this can make your team more productive, creative, and efficient.

The post 5 Ways to Make Your Business More Efficient appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/management/operations/5-ways-make-business-more-efficient/

5 Common Mistakes Business Owners Make That Can Lead to Employment Legal Problems

Home Business Magazine Online

Running a business as the sole employee can be stressful but requires lesser legal issues.

Unfortunately, as your business grows, you will need to hire more hands. As much as this is a sign of progress for your company, it can get you and your business in trouble if done wrong.

Some business owners are unaware of this and usually realize their mistakes after being served by the court.

According to a employment lawyer, Jason Erlich, understanding and abiding by the employment law in your area can save you from many legal suits.

Below are some of the common mistakes business owners make that can lead to employment legal problems.

Misclassifying employees

Misclassification refers to a wrong designation of an employee. It usually classifies an employee as an independent contractor or freelancer, either by mistake or intentionally.

Employees, by law, are entitled to wages or salaries. Contractors, on the other hand, are fully paid upon completion of a project, and they decide on what to work on.

Contractors are not entitled to employee benefits such as health insurance, medical leave, and paid vacation.

The law is against misclassification because it often results in tax evasion, depriving employees of their benefits and breaching their rights.

A study revealed that about 30 percent of US employers might be misclassifying their workers, resulting in billions in lost taxes.

If found guilty of this offense, you may be fined up to $1,000 per misclassified employee and risk jail time of up to one year.

In addition, the judge may order you to pay all wage differences, including benefits, to each misclassified employee. The tax authorities will demand you pay the tax owed on income and payroll taxes for the period of misclassification.

Always regularly check your payroll to ensure every employee is correctly classified.

Ignoring anti-discrimination policies

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employers from discriminating against employees and job applicants because of their race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

As a small business, you may see no need for this, but it is essential to have anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies once you have fifteen or more employees.

Always discuss your anti-discrimination policies with employees and job applicants. You may also have copies distributed to your workers. This is vital in case an employee files a complaint against your company.

During an investigation, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will consider the presence or absence of your company’s anti-discrimination policies.

Being careless with the content of the employee handbook

Although not mandatory, an employee handbook can save your business from losing a legal suit if an employee sues you.

It should contain all information about your company, including performance metrics, an overview of benefits provided to each employee, and how to lodge a complaint officially.

Ensure your employees confirm they understand the handbook’s content and ensure everyone has a copy, if possible.

You must be careful with your choice of language and vocabulary when preparing the handbook. Some courts and employees may interpret the handbook as a contract.

Include language that signifies the company reserves the right to terminate an employee for reasons not stated in the handbook or for no reason at all. Also include certain actions that may be taken and might not be as specified in the handbook.

Failing to respond to employees’ complaints properly

Harassment and discrimination complaints from employees should never be ignored. Document the filed complaint and processes are taken to remedy it.

It is a violation of the law to terminate an employee or punish them in other ways, such as denying them a promotion for filing a harassment or discrimination complaint.

Complaints about workplace settings should also be resolved, such as providing an accommodating environment for qualified employees with disabilities.

Improper interviews

Interviews are part of the process of selecting the best candidates for openings in your company. Even though it is an avenue of getting to know the personalities and abilities of the potential candidates, it should be done in accordance with the law.

At the end of the interview, you should be able to state why a candidate is not hired. This does not necessarily mandate you communicate the same to the employee.

Document all interviews, including the questions and responses from the interviewee.

Desist from asking about their age, race, marital status, children, religion, health status, political affiliation, or preferred sports team.

Asking any of these might indicate an intention to discriminate against them because of their answers, and this violates US employment policies/practices.

The post 5 Common Mistakes Business Owners Make That Can Lead to Employment Legal Problems appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/management/legalese/5-common-mistakes-business-owners-make-lead-employment-legal-problems/

4 new Instagram Reels features

Instagram has just introduced 4 new features for Reels, including:

  • A dedicated destination to discover inspiration through trending audio and hashtags on Instagram Reels.
  • Easier Reels editing
  • Two new metrics to Reels insights: total and average watch times.
  • Expanded availability of gifts on Reels to additional countries and incorporated a feature that allows creators to acknowledge fans’ gifts.

Find out what’s trending. Creators continually seek new content ideas, and to facilitate this, a dedicated space is being introduced to provide inspiration from the latest trends. This will enable users to view the most popular songs on Reels, check the number of times the audio has been used, and either use or save the audio for themselves.

Users will also have the ability to explore the top trending topics and hashtags on Reels, which can inform their content creation. For instance, the festival season might gain traction earlier than anticipated.

Android
Australia

Editing Reels, easier. Instagram is streamlining the process of editing reels on Instagram by consolidating video clips, audio, stickers, and text into a single editing interface. This enhancement allows users to more visually align and time elements of their reels to the appropriate moments. As they continue to invest in developing methods to simplify and ease the editing process, users can look forward to additional exciting tools. This feature is accessible worldwide on both iOS and Android devices.

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Updates to insights. Instagram is enhancing Reels insights to provide a better understanding of content performance. Two new metrics are being introduced: total watch time and average watch time – and they are simplifying the process of viewing insights directly on users’ reels.

Total watch time records the cumulative duration of time a reel was played, including any replays. Average watch time calculates the mean time spent playing a reel by dividing the watch time by the total number of plays. For instance, if the average watch time is 17 seconds, it means that on average, viewers watched 17 seconds of the Reel. This information will help users identify where their audience is engaged or where they might need to develop a stronger hook to retain viewers for a longer period. Additionally, they are introducing a new method to track how reels contribute to user growth. Users will now receive notifications regarding new followers gained from their reels.

Improving and expanding gifts. Instagram has made gifts available to more creators by expanding to additional markets in the coming weeks, including Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, and the UK.

Additionally, they’re introducing a feature that displays which fans have sent a gift, enabling creators to acknowledge their supporters. By tapping the heart icon next to their supporters, creators will send a notification to the fans, letting them know that their gift has been seen and appreciated.

Dig deeper. You can read about Instagram’s new features here.

Why we care. Instagram’s continuous improvement and expansion of features create a more interactive environment for creators and users. These enhancements also help advertisers better understand user behavior, identify trending content, and develop targeted campaigns that resonate with their audience.

The post 4 new Instagram Reels features appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/4-new-instagram-reels-features-395632

Advertisers slow to return to Twitter despite Musk’s claims

Twitter’s ad revenue recovery appears to be slower than its owner, Elon Musk, claimed earlier this week in an interview with the BBC. Data from research firms Sensor Tower and Insider Intelligence, as well as statements from multiple companies, indicate that many advertisers are not rushing back to the platform.

Ad spend down roughly 20%. Twitter’s top 50 advertisers spent a combined $83 million over the past two months, down from $102 million in the same period last year. Insider Intelligence has also slashed its forecast for Twitter’s global ad revenue this year by 37%, to $2.98 billion, representing a 28% decline from its 2022 ad revenue of $4.14 billion.

Scaring off big brands. Before Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in late October, major brands such as Mondelez International, Unilever, and Coca-Cola were among the platform’s top 10 advertisers. However, these companies are no longer listed in the top 50 advertisers in the past two months, according to Sensor Tower. Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put had previously cited concerns over their ads being placed next to “wrong messages,” including hate speech.

Some advertisers, including AT&T, Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Mars, have confirmed they have not resumed ads on the platform. Several others, like Merck & Co, Google, Kellogg, and Meta Platforms, have not responded to requests for comment on their ad spending.

Twitter’s ad portal also experienced an 18.7% drop in web traffic in March compared to the same time last year, as reported by research firm Similarweb. The firm added that Twitter’s ad business is “eroding” and its subscription product, Twitter Blue, is only moderately successful.

The platform faces the added challenge of competing for brands’ marketing budgets during a time when companies are cutting or reevaluating their ad spend due to economic concerns. Enberg noted that advertisers are focusing on platforms that can offer the highest return on investment, and Twitter has not been that platform.

Dig deeper. Review the entire article from Reuters here.

Why we care. Twitter is still a popular platform with millions of users, offering potential for targeted ad campaigns and engagement with a wide audience.

However, they need to weigh the risks associated with the platform’s recent controversies, management changes under Elon Musk’s ownership, and the overall decline in advertising revenue. Brands should make informed, educated decisions on whether to invest in Twitter advertising or allocate their marketing budgets to platforms with higher returns on investment and less controversy.

The post Advertisers slow to return to Twitter despite Musk’s claims appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Original source: https://searchengineland.com/advertisers-slow-to-return-to-twitter-despite-musks-claims-395637

More Businesses Are Relying on VoIP Systems and Here’s Why

Home Business Magazine Online

Many businesses are taking advantage of a new telephone system that offers more capabilities and an attractive price point. The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems are some of the more popular business telephone networks.

VoIP uses voice data that is collected in a digital form and then transferred through internet lines. The system does not rely on the traditional telephone company, but can be provided through systems such as OnSip hosted VoIP. This type of phone network has become quite popular, with as many as 30 percent of all businesses now using the system.

While VoIP has been around for several decades, the technology has improved quite a bit. Concerns about call quality have been resolved, making it better than most landlines. And the VoIP system offers more capabilities for businesses, particularly those expanding more into digital commerce.

Why are more businesses switching to VoIP?

As the popularity of VoIP continues to grow, businesses are finding that phone systems offer a number of benefits, including:

  • Call quality: Evolving technology means VoIP systems now can benefit from advanced high-definition codecs, which have greatly improved voice quality. These systems now surpass the quality of landline calls.
  • Low upfront costs: Small businesses find VoIP easy to use without the need for the installation of a telephone infrastructure or special equipment. Cloud-hosted VoIP offered by vendors do not require equipment or specialized technicians to install and maintain the system, only an internet connection.
  • Easy to use: VoIP systems do not require tech support and do not experience downtime to maintain, which landline networks can experience.
  • Simple scalability: Cloud-based VoIP makes upgrades and additional lines easy. As a business grows and hires more workers, additional lines can easily be included on the network and plugged into an Ethernet port.
  • Remote functionality: Many businesses have turned to cloud-based VoIP as they have transitioned into hybrid and remote workplaces. The VoIP system allows workers to use a mobile system app to make and receive calls from anywhere without callers knowing the workers’ location. This offers companies flexibility in how they meet the needs of workers who prefer the flexibility of remote functionality.
  • Cost flexibility: More businesses are switching to cloud-based VoIP because of the cost and the ability to control expenses. Traditional phone networks hosted by telephone companies often charge by the minutes used in calls. Most VoIP vendors charge businesses a flat monthly per-user fee, and in some cases, businesses can get free access to limited features. There also are no upfront equipment costs.
  • Expanded capabilities: VoIP systems offer businesses expanded capabilities, such as videoconferencing, call recording, and other features. That is in addition to the typical features, such as call hold, transfer, forwarding and caller ID. These digital features give businesses more control over monitoring customer service and how they engage with external callers.
  • Optional integration services: Some VoIP systems offer businesses the ability to integrate some of their existing communication tools, such as chat services and email. This offers more control and oversight of communication between employees and customers, in addition to internal communications. Some systems also offer conferencing capabilities, including video call integration.

The future of VoIP services

As technology improves, businesses will gain access to even more capabilities in VoIP systems.

For example, VoIP systems will soon benefit from the use of artificial intelligence and sentiment analysis. This trend offers businesses AI-fueled analytics that use natural language processing to provide sentiment analysis. Businesses will have the ability to analyze every customer call and interaction, using the insights to determine how customers feel about service, products, and other aspects of the business. The AI-powered analysis uses the calls to make those insights actionable, whether it’s for customer service quality, advertising impact, or product sentiment.

Future VoIP systems will also help organizations use call data to develop a unified customer experience through an omnichannel approach. This is particularly important as businesses expand their digital commerce strategies. Organizations will be able to assess the customer experience along any point of the customer’s journey, using data obtained to provide actionable insights. No matter where the customer is, the future VoIP system should be able to provide seamless communication for more productive interactions.

The post More Businesses Are Relying on VoIP Systems and Here’s Why appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/home-office/office-equipment/more-businesses-relying-voip-systems/

Tips for Growing Your T-Shirt Customization Business

Home Business Magazine Online

If you want to start a t-shirt customization business, there are some key tips you should keep in mind for success. The first step is to create a plan for your business. This should include the type of products you will offer, how much they will cost, and how you will market them. Once you have a plan in place, it is important to research the competition and understand what other businesses are doing that could help or hinder your success. You should also consider what materials and equipment you need to purchase in order to run your business effectively.

Once these steps have been completed, it is time to begin marketing your wholesale t shirts by creating an online presence through social media and a website where potential customers can view products and make orders. Attending trade shows or hosting events can be beneficial for growing awareness about your company’s services.

Exploring Different Methods of T-Shirt Customization

One popular method of customizing t-shirts is screen printing, which involves using a mesh screen to transfer ink onto the fabric of the shirt. This method works best with bold designs that have few colors and require precision. Another option is heat transfer printing, which uses heat to transfer an image or design onto the shirt. This method works well for intricate designs with multiple colors and details. You can also use embroidery to add texture and dimension to your t-shirt design. Embroidery requires special machines that stitch thread into the fabric of the shirt in order to create a pattern or design. You can also use dye sublimation printing, which uses heat and pressure to transfer dye directly into the fibers of the fabric. This method allows for vibrant colors and detailed designs that won’t fade over time. No matter what type of customization you choose, it’s important to consider how it will look on your t-shirt before committing to it.

Increasing Your Brand Awareness Through Unique Customized T-Shirts

Think about what makes your brand special and use that as inspiration for your unique design. You can also consider incorporating elements such as logos, slogans or images into the design to further emphasize your message. It’s important to choose quality materials when printing customized t-shirts so that they last longer and look better. This will help ensure that people wear them more often and keep them in good condition for longer periods of time, thus increasing their visibility in public spaces. Don’t forget to include contact information on the t-shirt so people know how to get in touch with you if they want more information about your products or services.

Tips for Maximising Profits with a T-Shirt Customization Business

To maximize your profits, it’s important to focus on the quality of your products and services. Invest in high-quality materials and equipment that will help you create unique designs that stand out from your competition. Make sure you have an efficient production process in place so that you can quickly turn around orders without sacrificing quality. You should also consider offering discounts or promotions to encourage customers to purchase more items from your store. Don’t forget about marketing. Use social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to showcase your work and reach potential customers.

The post Tips for Growing Your T-Shirt Customization Business appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

Original source: https://homebusinessmag.com/businesses/success-tips/tips-growing-t-shirt-customization-business/

Make money from speechwriting

Reading Time: 4 mins

Make money from speechwriting.

Writing speeches for public figures to use is quite a niche profession but it absolutely pays dividends for the right candidate. Speechwriting tends to be a very competitive market but if you make, or have made, the right preparations, you might find yourself qualified to become a professional speechwriter.

Before we share the best places to find jobs, let’s have a look at the following steps you can take that will improve your chances of getting hired.

 

Get Your Qualifications

You need at least four GCSEs at grades 9 to 4, or A* to C, including English and Maths, as well as a complete set of A-Level qualifications to increase your choice of your next steps.

There are no specific further education requirements to becoming a speechwriter but having a degree in a relevant subject might help make your CV more noticeable to potential employers. You might consider the following subjects:

  • English
  • History
  • Media
  • Communication Studies
  • Film
  • Creative Writing
  • Journalism
  • Politics
  • PR
  • Marketing

See what each of the universities you’re interested in applying to is looking for, and if you don’t have the right A-Level results or subjects, think about a foundation year – which is four years instead of three – and usually focus on developing your research skills, written communication, critical thinking and argument building: all things that are essential to speechwriting or jobs that lead to speechwriting careers.

There are also plenty of short online or in-person courses that are sometimes run by speechwriting experts, which can give you a valuable chance to develop the speechwriting skills you’ll need.

GAU Tbilisi PR School

Experience

It’s always a lack of experience that flummoxes potential candidates, even if they’ve studied. And a lot of employers simply won’t hire you if you haven’t had relevant experience. So how do you gain experience relevant to speechwriting? Well, you might consider volunteering your services to charities, community organisations or small businesses, and those smaller roles will essentially provide for you a portfolio of experience. Anything you can grab in copywriting, publishing or journalism – including running your own blog – will serve toward proving you have the skills to become a speechwriter.

 

Networking

As with many communication roles, networking is essential both to meet people and create opportunities, and also to get your name out there and make yourself known. Speechwriting is all about knowing and working with people. If it’s political speechwriting you’re keen to get into, you could for example get involved in local election campaigns and build your professional contacts in the industry this way. Introduce yourself to as many people as you can, and let people know your skills and career goals when you can.

 

Writing

You must make sure your writing skills are excellent, and that you’re able to present, clear, concise, compelling paragraphs and pieces that successfully communicate your ideas. Read a lot of books and newspaper features, listen to speeches and analyse why they’re good. Go on Twitter (but not for too much of the day) and pick out several long-form pieces of writing to study. See what you find persuasive and good or bad examples of writing.

You may, after reading all this, realise you’re already qualified. Whether or not this is true, here are a few tips that could prove useful:

  • Speechwriting is surprisingly difficult as the longer, more complex phrases and sentence construction don’t necessarily translate when spoken out loud. The most important thing you can do with a speech is to stand up and read it aloud, as if to an audience. If it’s hard for you to say, it may be hard for the speaker to say.
  • You may find that sticking to clear, simple language, expressed in short sentences that are easy for the speaker to deliver and the audience to follow, is the best method.
  • No speechwriter can be expert on every single topic and style of speech. So, with each speech, give yourself a chance to gather and read as much material as possible. Or, work with a researcher to get more relevant context.
  • The News is everywhere all at once these days, so you’ve got just about every single idea and style of communication at your fingertips every day, BUT be careful not to burn out and consume too much reality. You need to know your stuff if you’re going to be a speechwriter but it’s also possible to watch,
  • Listen to and digest much of what’s going on in the world, so maintain some distance from the material and work out how to break it into chunks of time.

writing

Job Openings

Try Indeed for some current UK jobs involving speechwriting. LinkedIn is also a great community to discuss and find jobs with like-minded candidates and employers. There are daily updated speechwriting jobs in London at TotalJobs, and similarly at Jooble.

Those are just some examples. Have a Google around and visit the websites of the relevant companies you might be keen to work for.

 

Do you have speechwriting experience? Let us know your top tips below!

The post Make money from speechwriting appeared first on MoneyMagpie.

Original source: https://www.moneymagpie.com/make-money/make-money-speechwriting