Write is a minimal Blogger theme for users focused on writing. It's designed to keep decorations to a minimum and put your writing in the spotlight.
| |  |
| Why Bloggers Need to Manage Cybersecurity Posted: 23 Dec 2021 03:08 AM PST Bloggers aren't immune to getting hacked; they're some of the easiest targets on the internet. Few bloggers secure their websites against cybercriminals even on a basic level. For instance, many fail to update their WordPress plugins, which can make hacking a breeze.
Bloggers need to take information security management seriously. The consequences of losing content in a cyberattack can be devastating. Videos, documents, contracts, and invoices are too important to lose. Even when you have a backup, you don't want sensitive information to end up in the wrong hands. Hackers want more than credit card data The devastation of getting hacked was something blogger Lori McNee never expected, yet it happened to her twice. She learned a valuable lesson the hard way: hackers want more than your bank account and personal information. After getting hacked, McNee wondered why anyone would hack her art blog. She soon learned that hackers don't just want credit card information from large corporations – they want server resources. Hackers generally hijack web servers to run phishing schemes. They don't want to use resources in their own name, so they break into other people's websites and use their server to automatically send our phishing and spear-phishing emails. The website owner doesn't usually know they've been hacked until their site gets shut down by the host after receiving complaints. Can you recover from a hack? Whether you're hit with ransomware, a data breach, or your resources are hijacked, you need a recovery plan. The best recovery plan involves keeping regular backups of your blog and your database so you can just reinstall if you get hit. Without a recovery plan, you'll struggle to piece your website back together. It's time-consuming and expensive to have your website professionally cleaned. It's much easier to just start over. A data breach can be costly Violating a data privacy law can result in massive fines. If you're found to be in violation of a data privacy law because of a data breach, you'll face even bigger fines. Some businesses have been fined anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of dollars. If you run a blog, you're bound by data privacy laws based on the type of data you collect and from whom. For example, if you collect data from UK residents, you're bound byGDPR regulations . If you collect protected health information (PHI) on behalf of a covered entity, you're bound by HIPAA regulations. Since there's no easy way to control who visits your website, it's wise to comply with GDPR requirements. When it comes to other data regulations, you might be more responsible than you think. For instance, if you're acting as a webhost and blogger for a small chiropractic office, hosting their website makes you a business associate responsible for following all HIPAA regulations. However, if you're not hosting their website, you're not a "covered entity," and HIPAA regulations don't apply to you. One keystroke logger and it's over Next to ransomware, another big cybersecurity threat bloggers face is keystroke loggers. If a hacker manages to install one of these on your device, they'll have full access to everything you type. This will include usernames and passwords for online banking, investment accounts, PayPal and Venmo accounts, and more. The best way to thwart keystroke loggers is to install reputable antivirus software. There are several popular options, but the top applications are Avast and Norton. If you collect data on your visitors, your reputation is at risk For bloggers who collect data from visitors, your reputation is at risk if you get hit by a cybersecurity attack that leads to a data breach. You probably don't need to worry much about downtime. Although visitors will be annoyed, they probably won't start trashing you on the internet if your website goes down. However, your visitors will be far less forgiving if their personal data ends up in the hands of hackers. Your visitors have the power to destroy your reputation should they decide to post comments about you online. They might even post reviews on sites like Trustpilot and Google My Business if you also run a business. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising, but it works both ways and can help and hurt your reputation. It's time to prioritize cybersecurity Whether your blog is a hobby or your livelihood, it's time to prioritize cybersecurity. At minimum, keep your website software updated, install all patches as they're released, and encrypt any personal data you hold in your database. If you use WordPress, this security guide will help. If you run another content management platform, contact a cybersecurity professional to help you secure your blog. |
| | |
| 7 Convincing Reasons To Accept Multiple Payment Methods Posted: 02 Dec 2021 03:58 AM PST Choosing a payment method that you're familiar with and comfortable with as a consumer will make you more likely to purchase from the store. For customers, it's all about convenience. If they can pay for their purchases easily and quickly, you'll have a higher chance of them completing their purchase. It's also important to note that the more payment methods you offer, the higher your revenue opportunities.
The internet made it possible for e-commerce stores to have their customers purchase or book online services and pay online by integrating plugins such as a WordPress booking plugin into their websites. If you're already selling online but accept only one or two payment methods, you may be losing a lot of potential business. Here are seven reasons why you should offer a more comprehensive array of payment options to your customers. Customer Retention Customer retention means keeping your current customers and convincing them to come back for more. If the experience of buying from you is so positive that they want to come back for more, they'll be your loyal customers. And, of course, people like to spend money with brands that make their shopping experiences easy and quick. Furthermore, technological advancements may change the way customers prefer to pay for their purchases. People who like to pay in cash might prefer online payments once exposed to the convenience of paying online. Others may also choose to pay using cryptocurrency to support global cryptocurrency adoption. For businesses to keep existing customers, they'll need to provide a payment method that'll match the trends in consumer preferences. Make it Easier For Customers To Purchase Online Have you ever experienced checkout issues with a website when you desperately needed to purchase something? It can be pretty annoying. The last thing you need is for customers to experience inconveniences that may lead them to close your website and go elsewhere. Offering a variety of payment methods will give your customers more options from which they can choose their preferred method of payment. For example, if you're selling clothes, offer online payments using popular credit cards to make it easier for your customers to buy from you. Make their online shopping easy, quick, and effortless. Offering Multiple Payment Methods Increases Customers' Trust Sometimes, seeing a well-known payment gateway on a store's website gives customers a sense of trust in the store. It makes the store look legitimate, safe, and trustworthy if they offer trusted payment gateways. Attract A Wider Audience If you offer too few payment options, you're missing out on the opportunity to attract other customers who also prefer those payment methods over others. Not everyone has a credit card or account on any online payment company. Some customers may choose to use a specific payment method to take advantage of price cuts or offers. So, if a store only accepts a couple of payment options, they're missing out on customers who may shop at other similar stores that accept more payment options. For business owners to take advantage of the majority, opening up more payment choices will ultimately help their business. Increase Your Capacity To Handle High-Volume Transactions Some payment methods may have lower limits for processing transactions. So, if a business only accepts one or two payment methods, there are restrictions on the number of transactions they can process. For example, some payment methods have maximum amounts per transaction, while others may set a maximum number of daily transactions that can be made using that payment method. If you're selling luxury products, chances are you may have a lot of customers making high-value purchases. With a transaction limit, you'll need to open up more payment methods for your business to handle a high volume of transactions. Reach International Customers Some payment methods may only be available in certain countries with the support of local banks or companies. Therefore, if you're selling products that can be delivered internationally, you'll need to offer a variety of payment methods that customers can use from different countries. Businesses must accept international currencies to make it easier for customers from different countries to pay. Personalize Your Business If you want to stand out in a saturated market, where your competitors also offer the same products and services as you do, you'll need to make it easier for customers to buy from you. Differentiate your business and create a personalized experience for every customer. Customers appreciate when they're respected and valued enough for a company to offer them the methods they prefer to pay. Final Words There are many reasons why businesses should offer more payment methods. The list goes on from creating a sense of trust in customers to making it easier to pay. The more payment methods you offer, the better your chances of reaching a wider audience. So don't limit your business by having just one or two payment methods. Instead, open up more payment options to gain more customers and increase your profits. |
| | |
| 8 Tips to Creating an SEO-Friendly Website and Generating Organic Traffic Posted: 11 Oct 2021 02:17 AM PDT
The best way to increase online visibility is by utilizing SEO. Google accounts for almost 90% of organic traffic, so an SEO-optimized website is bound to rank higher on Google SERPs. If you are serious about expanding your online business, SEO should be your first priority when developing a website. Focusing on SEO also allows you to post better content.
You might have the most thought-provoking content, but if they are not optimized, no one is going to find them. Creating an SEO-friendly website takes time and careful mapping. To help you rank higher on SERPs and generate more organic traffic, here are eight tips you should follow. 1. Choose Static URLs The URL structure might not be the most important aspect of SEO, but every little detail matters. There are two types of URLs. One is a dynamic URL that looks like- Domain-name/Category/?id=21941 And a static URL would look like- Domain-name/Category/How-to-optimize-your-website. A search engine can understand both languages, but a user will not be able to make sense of a dynamic URL. If you publish an article on WordPress with a dynamic URL, it is going to convert it into a static URL but will pick random words from the content for the address. For the sake of SEO, it's better if you manually create a static URL. 2. Structure Your URLs Better When you are manually typing in the URL, use one primary keyword or one keyword phrase. When inputting your keyword phrase, do not use underscore (_). Google's crawlers treat words with underscores as a single word. So if you type How_to_optimize_your_website, the crawlers will refer to it as "Howtooptimizeyourwebsite". That's a mouthful and the complete opposite of SEO-friendly. To separate your words, use hyphens (-). Lastly, keep the URL address brief and relevant so users can take one look at it and understand what that page or content is all about. 3. Optimize Your Contents Quality content is easy to produce these days, but optimized content needs a little more work. There are digital marketing companies like RankUp SEO that offer you optimized content along with several other services to boost your ranking. However, if you want to optimize your content yourself, you will have to cover the following things- A Title Tag Use title tags for all your pages. Your title tag is going to appear on social media, SERPs, browsers and other digital spaces so, make it count. It has to be a brief, compact, and catchy sentence that explains what your domain, page, or content is about. A Meta Description Right under your title is going to be the meta description. It's a short paragraph of 150-160 characters that explains your brand. Add Alt Texts Alt texts help crawlers understand the meaning of the images you put on your website. You can use your keywords in the ALT text as well. You can optimize your keywords each time you post or upload an image by using ALT texts. 4. Experiment With Keywords Keywords are relative words people supposedly use to find products and services. There is no definitive guide to finding the right keyword since the words people use can change over time. But to optimize your content and your website to the fullest, you will have to use all types of keywords. There are primarily 3 types of keywords. They are- - Generic Keyword
- Broad Keyword
- Long-tail Keyword
Generic keywords bring in the most traffic but are also competitive. Best SEO Practices can be a generic keyword. A broad keyword will be something that narrows it down a little such as Best SEO Practices for Beginners. Long-tail keywords are phrases to target niches or very specific target markets. They are less competitive, but effective long-tail keywords can bring in a large chunk of organic traffic. How to use SEO for online clothing shops can be a long-tail keyword to target your specific audience. Strategically place your keywords in titles, meta descriptions, headings, and subheadings to get maximum results. To search for popular keywords, use ahrefs, Ask the people, Moz Keyword Explorer, and other keyword suggestion tools. 5. Optimize Your Website Your website and content should be compatible with all devices. According to a report in ahrefs, 52.2% of the global online traffic comes from cell phones, and this traffic is only going to grow. If your website is only designed for desktops, you are going to miss out on more than half of your audience. Make sure your website is compatible with both mobile phones and computers. The user experience has to be smooth for everyone. 6. Create Internal Linking Internal linking significantly improves SEO on your website. Readers can also navigate better if the website has proper internal links. The links have to be for meaningful content. Suppose you have this article for tips on improving SEO; your internal links should be related to SEO. If you have another article on how to write the best blog posts, go ahead and link it. People will stay longer when you have interesting content linked together. Internal linking also improves content strategy and mapping. 7. Don't Forget about External Linking External linking increases your website's credibility and organic traffic. Pick relevant websites in the same industry, and try to receive backlinks from them. Target authoritative websites more because if you can get backlinks from them, your traffic and authority will surely go up. You don't need dozens of links, but you do need high-quality and trusted links. For that, you will also have to create high-quality content. Do not go for sponsored links; it will only hurt your credibility and SEO. 8. Always Maintain Social Media Presence Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are the holy grails for marketing. Facebook's marketplace has over 1 billion users. If your content is popular on social media, people will share and interact with them. This increases organic traffic and authority. Final Thoughts Creating an SEO-friendly website requires a lot of practice and experimentation. However, if you can follow up on all the information we put here, you will be able to create a high-quality website that ranks high on Google.  |
| | |
| 7 Effective Social Media Marketing Tips for Your Business Posted: 30 Sep 2021 05:37 AM PDT 
The advent and sudden boom of social media in our lives have been nothing short of amazing, and its influence on our lives is something that should be taken very seriously. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't have an active presence in one form of social media or the other, and it takes up a significant portion of most people's daily routines. If you can successfully leverage this space to market your products and services to casual social media users, you can reach a massive number of people in an unprecedented amount of time that other forms of marketing would struggle to replicate. This potential reach and opportunity to market your company's culture and personality makes Social Media marketing one of the most promising avenues to consider in the current times.
However, social media is as unpredictable as it is diverse and large, which makes marketing successfully on such platforms a much trickier job than one might be used to. Every action can have unforeseen consequences, so you must carefully consider all the choices you make. To successfully pull this off, you need to have a good understanding of all the trends, groups of interest, and implications of actions, so you can always be prepared for whatever the consequences here. Here are 7 effective Social Media Marketing tips to get you started on the journey. 1. Create a clearly defined Social Media Plan To start your social media campaign, you need to first establish what your objectives are. Without clearly defined and attainable goals, your campaign will come across as directionless and unrefined, which sets a bad precedent for your business. Figure out your own answers to relevant questions about this plan, like - Who your target audience is?
- How would you reach this audience?
- What message would you want to send across online?
If you're finding it difficult to come up with a general strategy, remember to choose one that fits with your business type. There is no one size fits for campaigning on social media, and to stand out, you can always choose a marketing style that is appropriate but also unique to your business. 2. Look up your Target Audience As Diverse as Social Media platforms are, there'll always be a category of people on the sites that are much more likely to take a liking to your products or services. It is much more cost-efficient to focus your marketing efforts on these groups of people and understanding their tastes and interests can also help you make content that is more likely to go viral. After all, it's a lot easier to create Content for an audience whose taste you're familiar with. Thus, it is recommended that you spend some time and effort researching your brand's target groups, as it makes your marketing operations smoother and more efficient in the long run. 3. Figure out the most effective platforms for you To establish a strong presence for your business online, it is recommended to focus on the platforms you're most likely to find your target audience at. For example, if your brand happens to work best with visual media or happens to cater to millennials and Gen Z, Instagram is a great place to have a strong presence. It is rather difficult to maintain a uniform and strong presence across dozens of social media sites, so just focus on a few sites that would work best for your business and establish a strong, recognizable image in these places 4. Humanize your brand on social media It never hurts to be associated with the more emotional side of the business, rather than just the gritty and competitive ads and posters for sales. People are more likely to have positive opinions about your business and brand if they can relate to it. You can do this by sharing your work culture, fun stories from the workplace, and the experiences of your employees. Telling stories is also a great way of engaging with your audience, as we as humans remember stories far better than simple posters. Also, don't be afraid of admitting your mistakes online or using "emoticons" or other such symbols that are considered unprofessional. It makes your brand much more human and thus, relatable. 5. Schedule your Posts The question of how often you should post can only be answered by the business itself, as it depends on a variety of metrics specific to them (such as the nature of their content, audience, etc.). Regardless, once you come up with your answer, it is a good idea to schedule your content around certain times. Not only does this increase the possible engagement that your posts may get, but it also lets you prepare your content and captions well in advance and monitor whatever content you've already put out. There are several tools available online such as HubSpot and Hootsuite that can help you with this. 6. Create Engaging Visual Content for your business It is a well-known fact that people are a lot more likely to remember visual content than some written work. This is especially true in a space like social media, where attention spans are shorter and access to videos and graphics are far easier. If you can invest in making graphics and videos that demand the attention of people, you can give yourself a huge leg up from the competition online. This is also where strategies like TikTok brand marketing comes in. 7. Use Social media analytics to bolster your success One of the most convenient aspects of social media is how easy it is to get access to feedback and data about the content you've put out. There are several important metrics you may have access to, such as Post engagement, Likes, Reach, Tags, Profile visits, etc. which can give you a great deal of information about how well your marketing campaign is doing. These metrics, along with separate tools you can use for the same purpose, can help you understand your audience's likes and dislikes better and implement effective strategies on a larger scale to improve your outreach. Conclusion Social Media is a volatile place full of diverse people and ever-changing trends, and this means it is also a golden place for opportunities to market, no matter what kind of business you are. If you can carve out your own niche in this space by employing the available tools and resources such as these tips well, you can greatly increase the outreach of your company and create a brand image that is exclusive to you.
 |
