Top 3 Digital Marketing Tips to Earn More Traffic to Your Website

Top 3 Digital Marketing Tips to Earn More Traffic to Your Website by William Morrow.  Availabe from <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-morrow/top-3-digital-marketing-t_b_12075358.html> [09/20/2016 04:58 pm ET]

We’ve all heard the statistics and reports on how search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical focus point for businesses on the internet. Setting a perfect stage for customers to come in and patronize your business in the form of a great website design is not just enough to make your business successful. You need several customer attraction points that can deliver not only the right quantity of referrals to your business but will also direct targeted, ready-to-buy customers to your business.

Social media may take the lead in website traffic referral for business on the internet, but what is undeniable is that search is still the leading source of the most targeted customers on the internet.

While this fact is known to most digital marketers, many are unable to recommend the right steps needed to attract qualified leads to their clients’ businesses.

This article will explore methods your business can use to make better gains through the search engine and improve sales.

Get on Google My Business

With Google’s increasing advancement in listing businesses along relevant search results, digital marketers and business owners are seeing better opportunities to get listed and be showcased directly to their customers.

Google My Business offers businesses with a brick-and-mortar presence the ability to get their business’ opening hour, phone number and location displayed to customers in search results and on Google Maps.

What’s more impressive is the “view office” feature that allows potential customers to take a virtual tour of your office without leaving Google or their seat. This will offer businesses several benefits which include increased trust and confidence in customers that have taken the virtual tour.

Use the instructions on Google My Business by Google to get started on setting your business up for the listing.

Encourage User Review

A lot of reports have shown that users who read reviews on your website, whetherthe customer reviews are negative or positive, will be highly likely to consider making a purchase from your website. Even leading digital marketing experts agree that using customer reviews on your website can enhance trust and transparency in your business.

According to Marc Smith from Top 10 Digital Agencies, “The best performing businesses have customers leave reviews on their websites so that potential buyers understand that they are dealing with trusted entities.”

There are several ways to encourage your customers to leave a review on your website. Being creative and open about the process will make them feel more comfortable to share their experience doing business with you and thus encourage others to come aboard.

Take Advantage of Off-Page Optimization

Off-page SEO is an important aspect of search optimization that businesses can take advantage of and get increased presence on top search results. While most businesses concentrate most of their resources on on-page efforts, signals like links, citations, and references on other websites are very credible ranking signals that Google considers.

In a comprehensive list that tries to share most of Google’s ranking factors, Brian Dean places the off-page optimizations efforts among the signals that Google’s algorithm considers when ranking a website.

Search engines have always been a very important aspect of digital marketing. This makes it critical for businesses to get search engine optimization right.

(Image Source)

Top 3 Digital Marketing Tips to Earn More Traffic to Your Website by William Morrow.  Availabe from <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-morrow/top-3-digital-marketing-t_b_12075358.html> [09/20/2016 04:58 pm ET]

Top 5 E-Commerce Trends Of 2016

Top 5 E-Commerce Trends Of 2016 BY Amy Watson.  Available from <http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/the-top-5-e-commerce-trends-of-2016/> [20/09/2016]

Ready to take on the world of e-commerce? If your answer is “not just yet”, here are some reasons why this year is the best time to pursue your online business dreams. 2016 is a great time to start working on the e-commerce dream you’ve had with the help of social media, different lending preferences, crowd funding, and the advancement of technology.

There are a lot of new trends in store for any passionate e-commerce startup with a great vision for an e-commerce business idea. This article will get you inspired by discussing the current situation and trends of e-commerce today perfect for any e-commerce startup like you for the year 2016.

But First, What Is E-Commerce?

E-commerce utilises an electronic network or the internet as a platform for buying and selling of goods and services. Usually, transactions under the e-commerce platform are B2B or business-to-business, B2C or business-to-consumer, C2C or consumer-to-consumer, and C2B or consumer-to-business. An e-commerce business usually makes use of various applications like email, online catalogues or shopping carts, social media, and the like.

Customers find e-commerce advantageous given its convenience, round-the-clock availability, speedy process, and the wide range of choices on goods and services available at the tip of their fingers. But the major downsides toeE-commerce in the perspective of a customer are that there is only a limited customer service, a long wait time, and the absence of concrete inspection of the product you wish to purchase.

Why Should You Start An E-Commerce Business?

Mobile and internet use have expanded globally making e-commerce advance radically over the years. With this fact comes the immense opportunity for storefronts to develop their significance and expand their market by finding their place online. The idea of starting an e-commerce business can cross any person’s mind considering the ease of access.

The only problem now is how to come up with a unique e-commerce business idea that can spark the interest of customers. It is common knowledge that an entrepreneur needs to carry out an in-depth research before going into any business. Before you wrack your brain for a distinct business niche to sell, it would be best if you check out the success stories of e-commerce pioneers.

Here are the top five e-commerce innovative ideas and trend from this year from the top dogs to inspire you in jumpstarting your e-commerce business venture.

1. Web To Print Business

Web to Print or web2print SaaS (software as a service) is where people can take advantage of the internet to customise/improve their desired products before being finalised by the seller company to print the designs along with producing the products. Products can range from brochures, catalogues, business cards, postcards, flyers, and other branding propaganda and even those that involve wide-format printing like banners. A good web-to-print software is used to realise all this. Here, the software may enable the customer to customise the “look” of a certain product, submit it to company for finalisation, then more possible needed coordination before the products are produced, that are all done seamlessly using the software, such as those from (http://buzz.newsjs.com/news/what-web-to-print-can-do-for-printers-just-get-the-answer-here) where customers can connect with their different requirements that they might just need for their projects.

2. Subscription E-Commerce

Here’s a good idea to spice up everybody’s month in the year: do subscription e-commerce! Imagine this: you send your customers a monthly (or it depends how often) box of treats by subscribing to your service! If you’re into organic food products, customers can get a monthly basket of organic goodies depending on the ingredients on season. If you’re into fashion, you can send them a box of trendy pieces depending on what’s hot at the moment like how Stitch Fix and Trunk Club do it. There’s no limit to your creativity and the systems you can employ to make it perfect! From your daily dose of coffee, your kid’s and pet’s playthings and even your personal hygiene products can come in a box every month. You can add it as a feature of your business, or you can base your service entirely to just that! (http://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-resources/the-hottest-ecommerce-subscription-businesses-right-now)

3. Online Grocery Store Via Apps

Nobody likes to find themselves waiting for hours at an overcrowded grocery store just to get their supplies. Sometimes you even have to haggle for your shopper’s discounts. With the advent of online food ordering apps, you can now skip preparing a shopping list, asking a shopkeeper which aisle it’s found and worrying about whether you’ve brought enough cash with you. This e-commerce idea delves into this common inconvenience. An online grocery app allows customers to choose grocery or food items, the method of delivery and even the mode of payment. (http://www.fooddive.com/news/7-grocery-retail-technologies-to-innovate-the-shopping-experience/399553/)

4. Hotel Room Booking Via Apps

One of the inconveniences a person has to experience when it comes to going on vacations is the hassle of booking a hotel. You still have to worry whether it’s at a close proximity to your venue, fully booked, clean, and other things. With hotel mobile apps taking an innovative approach into hospitality marketing, hotels can provide a seamless reservation process, using push notifications or in-app messaging to provide personalised service and to relay valuable information to their guests about their stay. There are also curated guides in the apps containing leisure activities, restaurants, transportation tips and location maps that guests can use. Like how The Bulgari Hotel in London utilises their curated mobile booking app as a guide with information ranging from nightlife, shopping, and galleries for the Bulgari traveller. (http://blog.apps-builder.com/hotels-with-mobile-apps/)

5. Product Curation E-Commerce

Modern shoppers are drawn to the convenience of e-commerce simply because they value their time more than anything. At the same time, customers are faced with choice overload while needing some expert purchasing advice. This e-commerce practice had brands exploring on personalising the shopping experience – which led to the trend of curated shopping. Curated e-commerce aims to assist shoppers on finding out products based on their own unique tastes and preferences. Websites and online apps like ShoeDazzle, JustFab, and MYHABIT let their customers take a quick online quiz to specify their style preferences, physical profile and available budget. The agony of choice is quite real, and anything that will help alleviate the overload will be much appreciated. (http://www.guided-selling.org/curated-shopping-how-it-works-and-how-successful-it-is/)

This year, many e-commerce trailblazers established even more unique ideas for the already abundant industry. This is also an exciting time to be in the e-commerce industry seeing as how everyone strives to innovate. But innovation isn’t all about the investment; creativity is what makes all the good difference. What’s great with the online platform is that it doesn’t necessarily require big capital but rather outside-the-box thinking. You will have an edge if you can see possibilities where others can’t. Prepare yourself to create new ideas as 2016 reveals many attractive and rare assortments in the e-commerce realm.

Top 5 E-Commerce Trends Of 2016 BY Amy Watson.  Available from <http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/the-top-5-e-commerce-trends-of-2016/> [20/09/2016]

Choosing a Web CMS Platform: How to See Beyond the Hype

Choosing a Web CMS Platform: How to See Beyond the Hype By .  Available from <http://www.cmswire.com/web-cms/choosing-a-web-cms-platform-how-to-see-beyond-the-hype/> [Sep 20, 2016]

Anyone reading this article in the hopes of finding a cure-all for all your web content management woes, stop here.

Choosing the right web content management system (CMS) is no guarantee of success.

A great implementation of an average to poor CMS will perform better than a great CMS implemented poorly.

But choosing the right CMS gives you a great start on what we hope will be a long and beautiful relationship.

So how do you go about picking the right one for your organization?

Tip #1 Establish Your CMS Requirements

I promised myself I wouldn’t mention this again, but the top of the top-most tips is to invest in developing requirements and scenarios before doing a feature function comparison of what’s in the market.

Tip #2 Understand the Content Management Market

This vital step can turn into a potential distraction, as some organizations view “understanding the market” as “understanding the art of the possible.” What’s possible often has little to do with your requirements, and will turn your procurement process into pursuit of an unrealistic wish list.

Of course your set of requirements needs to include some forward thinking to ensure the platform can stay the five year course. Market research from analysts and vendors can augment the pragmatic needs you have today, and offer some level of future-proofing against trends.

However, the CMS market can at times offer a hodgepodge of opinions on where the future lies, which don’t always relate to the real needs of managing web content.

I’ve been through the hype cycles over the years. Personalization hit first, with Vignette battling BroadVision over an argument about cookies.

Then we moved on to enterprise CMS, with promises that Vignette, FatWire or Interwoven/Autonomy would become the SAP of enterprise information management. And here we are today, with the battle of ideas between Adobe, Sitecore and SDL around customer experience.

Personalization is back in the picture, which brings us full circle to Vignette in 2003.

The rise and fall of the perceived market leader can happen pretty quickly.

Multiple web CMS vendors have come and gone over the years and clients still face the challenge of publishing web pages.

So review the market, but use your requirements and try to avoid the more prosaic predictions and distracting functionality.

Tip #3 Don’t Over-Spec and Over-Buy

One of the common issues I’ve seen with clients is that they have over bought.

You’d think buying something beyond your needs would be a safe bet. Sure, eventually we may want to manage every content asset in this hub, yes, at some point we may introduce 17 languages, yes, someday we may do multi-channel targeting.

However, what really happens is that the organization ends up with an unwieldy system that is expensive to maintain and 50 percent of its functionality lies idle.

An “enterprise” product (however you want to define that) will inevitably be more complex to implement and use.

This happens to big and small organizations. Just because you are a large enterprise, does not always mean you need a big enterprise product from the top right of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.

Those features that seemed so fantastic in the demo just get in the way of getting stuff done.

The complexity of the solution raises the risk of a bad implementation, increases the price for the skills required, the authors hate using it and finance hates paying the maintenance (and those cheeky chaps in the local market are using WordPress).

Tip #4 Open Source is Not Free Beer: It’s Free Puppies1

A free download of some crowd-sourced IP is not the key to web content management nirvana — the same challenges await during the implementation and maintenance of the solution.

A box full of poorly taught free puppies could result in greater mayhem than those potentially well-trained puppies that you could have paid for.

Once again, business requirements are key. All of the solutions, regardless of source, need to be judged against those requirements. Being “open source” is not a business requirement, it is just a different way to structure the procurement and servicing of your project.

The open source market offers some great solutions that will stand up to many enterprise needs, but open source does not equal a free pass on meeting your business needs.

Judge the solution the same way as any other vendor, including skills, costs, support and risks for the duration of your five year relationship.

Tip #5 Ensure You Compare Apples with Apples

The cloud and new commercial models based on subscription and consumption have also disrupted the standard perpetual software licensing model and commercial relationships.

At this point, most vendors are offering their products in a combination of these models: offering to host a perpetual software license, offering SaaS or PaaS and folks like Acquia offering open source (Drupal) in the cloud.

Comparing solutions using these different models is a challenge.

Direct comparisons of a perpetual license that doesn’t include hosting and support to a PaaS or SaaS solution won’t work. Ultimately you need to consider the full cost, including hosting, support, maintenance, etc., in whatever form that comes.

Once again it comes down to this: does the contract meet your business needs?

Tip #6 Dig Into the Community, Follow Up on References

Community activity is a standard litmus test for open source projects.

Community activity can signal a vendor’s progressive development and the level of support to expect going forward. If a product has no friends, no buzz in the development communities, you will have a hard time attracting skills to your project.

It’s not just the developer community. Speak to people that use the product — and not just to the references the vendor provided. Try to speak to the user community or your peers in other businesses who have implemented the solution.

Some simple online sleuthing and a polite LinkedIn request could save a lot of pain later.

Tip #7 Imagine Day 365 of the Project

You’re sitting across the table from the vendor, ready to commit to this potential partner for the next five years.

This person has to be there with you when you are tearing your hair out at 2 a.m. when the inevitable disaster happens. Will they be there?

Use the procurement process to get to know the solutions and the partner. You only get one go at this, take your time and remember — you’re in charge.

Avoid the boring procurement box ticking of RFPs. Emphasize setting tasks, like demoing against scenarios, a proof of concept and a pilot that enables you to see them outside thestage managed pitch conference room.

You’re entering a two-way marriage which should benefit both of you. Let’s just hope that this time around it’s “the one.”

Title image Geetanjal Khanna

Choosing a Web CMS Platform: How to See Beyond the Hype By .  Available from <http://www.cmswire.com/web-cms/choosing-a-web-cms-platform-how-to-see-beyond-the-hype/> [Sep 20, 2016]

Six tips for staying safe online

Six tips for staying safe online Article By: Megan Ellis.  Available from <http://technology.iafrica.com/features/1036155.html>[Mon, 19 Sep 2016 11:48 AM]

More and more people are falling victim to cybercrimes, from downloading malware to falling for phishing scams.

We spoke to Kaspersky Lab Africa’s MD Riaan Badenhorst to find out how users can stay safe online.

Here are six tips for staying safe online.

Encrypt your sensitive information

“If your smart device or computer contains data encryption features, make sure you use them to minimise the chances of your personal information from being lost or stolen,” Badenhorst says.

This can apply to anything from confidential files to pictures you wouldn’t want to show up online.

Various operating systems have some way of encrypting files and a quick internet search can point you in the right direction.

Don’t use unreliable apps

Messenger apps are considered by users to be the most unreliable communication tools, according to Kaspersky Lab research.

However, it’s pretty difficult to avoid using these apps in today’s online world.

Badenhorst suggests only using apps you know that you can trust.

“It is also important that users are careful when choosing online tools for personal communication, and only use a device reliably protected by a password and an Internet security solution,” he says.

Whatsapp this year announced that it had encrypted user messages, meaning that your information is pretty safe. However there are a few unreliable apps out there.

Install an Internet Security app

Badenhorst suggests using internet security apps and programs to protect your devices. There are a variety of options out there with varying levels of security.

Of course, he touts Kaspersky Internet Security for Android as a good option.

“It can help protect your privacy, and safeguard personal data, even if your device is lost or stolen. It also has a function that allows you to protect and track all the data saved on your smartphone – so that it is easily traceable and well protected,” he says.

Create a strong password

This must be the oldest advice in the book, but it’s also the most often ignored advice.

Having a strong password is the first line of defence from having your information accessed without permission.

You should also not use the same password for multiple accounts – after all, this is how Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg got hacked earlier this year.

Don’t open suspicious emails

One of the easiest ways hackers can get your personal information is by using email scams. While most of now know not to trust those Nigerian prince requests for help, there are many variations of scams out there.

“In light of emails that claim that you have won the lottery or a certain amount of money due to a competition, if it’s too good to be true – it probably is,” Badenhorst said.

“Remember to NEVER send your personal information via email to anyone you don’t know (not even banks ask for this information via email).”

Also, do not open files or follow links from senders you don’t know – this can often lead to malware being downloaded to your device.

“In most cases, when handling a spam message, the best course of action is to simply delete the message immediately,” Badenhorst says.

Be cautious while shopping online

Online shopping is one of the great things about the internet – but it also comes with risks.

“At Kaspersky Lab we encourage users to check if the URL onto the address bar is correct. Instead of just clicking a link to take you to your chosen retailer’s website, it’s safer to type the retailer’s URL into the address bar on your web browser. It may take a little more effort, but this simple action can help to prevent you visiting a fake or malicious website,” Badenhorst says.

Also, always check when you have to put in any payment information that the URL starts with “https”. Sites that don’t have a valid security certificate won’t have this, or if their security certificate has expired there will be a red line through the “https” to indicate it is not necessarily secure.

Photo Credit: pexels.com

Six tips for staying safe online Article By: Megan Ellis.  Available from <http://technology.iafrica.com/features/1036155.html>[Mon, 19 Sep 2016 11:48 AM]

5 tips to keep kids safe online this school year

5 tips to keep kids safe online this school year by Sean Wright, For The Tennessean.  Available from <http://www.tennessean.com/story/life/family/2016/09/15/5-tips-keep-kids-safe-online-school-year/90413066/> [12:49 p.m. CDT September 15, 2016]

As kids go back to school — often with laptops, smartphones and tablets in tow — we’re reminded of both the wonderful opportunities technology offers them and of the dangers it presents. From cyberbullying and sexting to pornography, there is a side of connected life that we want to protect our children from. But where should we start?

The good news is that the right technology can both protect kids and teens from these dangers and facilitate healthy lines of communication about internet safety. Here are five tips for finding and using the right kinds of internet safety tools for your family.

1. Find a good content filter. Simply put, content filters block the bad stuff. These software applications prevent access to websites that contain inappropriate content.

Most content filters give parents granular controls over what kinds of content they wish to block, and many contain age-defined filtering levels. Some solutions, such asOpenDNS, even filter content at the network level, giving parents the ability to filter all web traffic in their home network — on a child’s laptop, tablet, phone or even friends’ devices.

2. Consider monitoring software. Monitoring software facilitates conversation between parent and child about online behavior. These applications report online activity to parents, allowing them to approach their children about dangerous or unhealthy online habits.

Covenant Eyes is a monitoring solution with a monthly flat-rate subscription fee for unlimited devices within a family. The subscription also includes a device-level content filter, which allows parents to protect children even when they access the internet outside of a filtered home network.

3. Understand how these tools work together. Content filters are a necessary first line of defense, protecting against the massive amount of pornographic and otherwise objectionable content on the web. But as advanced as content filters have become, they don’t catch everything. This is where monitoring software is helpful. Sometimes, the best filter is another human being — one who has the best interest of the child in mind and can communicate with and educate the child if his or her online activity becomes problematic.

4. Review parental controls on mobile devices. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2015 study on the way teens use technology, nearly 75 percent of teens now have a smartphone or access to one. This means that parents need to adapt internet safety strategies to mobile devices as well as computers.

This can be tricky because, unlike traditional computers, smartphones and tablets provide multiple ways of accessing internet content. For instance, on an iPhone, it’s possible to access Facebook, as well as content from the web that people post in a newsfeed, via the Facebook app, which is separate from the phone’s native Safari browser. This makes content filtering and monitoring difficult because there’s no good way to monitor and filter all apps across the board.

Still, when coupled with administrative settings on the device and healthy parent-child communication about app use, filtering and monitoring solutions can make smartphones and tablets relatively safe for kids and teens to use.

Ultimately, parents will need to decide what further controls, if any, should be imposed. On iOS devices, for instance, parents can block access to social media apps, and can require parental permission for all app downloads.

5. Take a holistic approach. Because of the numerous ways kids and teens access the internet and interact on it, it’s critical to think through a holistic strategy that combines content filtering, monitoring software, parental controls and healthy parent-child conversations. Parents should arm themselves with information on the capabilities of internet safety technologies and match those capabilities to what is best for their children.

Sean Wright is founder and president of Affinity Technology Partners, a managed IT services provider in Brentwood. The company specializes in network management, systems administration and network security for small to mid-sized businesses and non-profits. They also provide home users with family internet safety services, wi-fi speed-up and general technology support.  Learn more atwww.affinitytechpartners.com.

(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

5 tips to keep kids safe online this school year by Sean Wright, For The Tennessean.  Available from <http://www.tennessean.com/story/life/family/2016/09/15/5-tips-keep-kids-safe-online-school-year/90413066/> [12:49 p.m. CDT September 15, 2016]