Home Blog Page 90

Do You Need a New SEO Agency?

Somen
-
0
Do You Need a New SEO Agency?

Optimizing your website and web content for search has been important for decades, but in recent months, SEO has become more important than ever. With both B2Cs and B2Bs driven out of brick-and-mortars and onto the internet, competition is fierce for almost all keyword phrases, not to mention backlink placements and guest content. It is critical that you have an expert SEO on your side to guide your business to search marketing success.

seo agency

But — how do you know if your current SEO provider is any good? There are a number of SEOs your business might use, from freelancers to consultants to in-house personnel to full-fledged agencies. If your SEO is failing you, your business could be missing out on a significant amount of audience engagement and revenue. Instead of hoping that your SEO is doing fine, you should read the following signs your current SEO provider just isn’t cutting it.

Outrageous Ranking Promises

Some SEO companies will reel you in on promises permanent or long-term ranking. Often, the same companies will advertise remarkably reduced prices for their services, even flat rates. If you have accidentally partnered with such an agency, you need to get out of the agreement ASAP.

SEO might feel like magic, but it isn’t. No SEO agency can wave a magic wand and deliver a top ranking position as soon as you ask for it — and they certainly can’t do it at a much lower rate than the rest of the SEO market. SEO takes time and rarely delivers perfect results, so promises that you will get everything you desire on the cheap should always ring false.

No Interaction Between You

No SEO agency is an island. Effective SEO requires all kinds of information about the website, the business behind the website, the industry behind the business and more. Your SEO agency should ask you for this data at the outset; if they don’t, you can’t trust that their methods are tailored to your business’s needs.

What’s more, your agency should lay out a communication plan, which will help them seek more information and project approval from you and keep them accountable to their estimates and projections. Even if this communication plan isn’t formalized, it should be clear who you should contact with questions and concerns. Beware the SEO provider who makes it difficult to get in touch.

A Notable Lack of Deliverables

When you pay a third-party for services, you expect to see those services deliver results. Because SEO can take months and years to manifest change, you might not expect results any time soon — but that doesn’t mean the SEO agency shouldn’t deliver anything to your inbox in the interim. In fact, there is a large number of deliverables your agency should send along within the first few weeks, such as:

  • An SEO audit of your website
  • An analysis of your website’s link profile
  • A plan for optimizing content on your website

If you are remaining in contact with your agency but aren’t getting any sign of their hard work, you might start looking for a more professional SEO outfit.

A Dearth of Their Own SEO Content

SEO providers can be their own best case study. They have all the resources at their disposal to improve their search ranking: content creators, website developers, social media masters, influencer relationships and more. Take Digital Current; this agency’s website has a blog packed with optimized content. If you are underwhelmed by your SEO agency’s own low rank or lack of content, you will be supremely disappointed by what they can deliver to you.

Secret Formula for Success

It isn’t uncommon for SEO providers to be a bit secretive about their methods, especially before you sign on for their services. However, if your SEO provider claims “trade secrets” and won’t give you any insights into their efforts, you might want to look elsewhere for SEO services. Most often, agencies that are too-secretive are employing black-hat SEO techniques, which might improve your ranking in the short-term but eliminate your chances for high ranking in the future. Though they take more time, effort and budget, white-hat agencies are your best option.

Even worse, some cagey SEO agencies excuse their actions with some hint about a relationship with some Google insider, who is feeding their SEOs data about the search algorithm. This is almost certainly never true. Google employees are paid well and take pride in their work — and even those few disgruntled employees are so bogged down in NDAs that they would never team up with an SEO.

You know you need SEO, and now you know that not all SEO will benefit you the same way. If some of these issues are too familiar, you should look for a more trustworthy SEO provider today.

6 Marketing Key Performance Indicators that Really Matter to your Business

Guest Contributor
-
0
6 Marketing Key Performance Indicators that Really Matter to your Business
Key Performance Indicator
PIC:Key Performance Indicator

In this Article How Key Performance Indicator is a vital tool in Business. Is your marketing plan working for your business? Sure, you are making sales, but what specific aspect of your program is bringing in those sales? Do you know how much your business is paying per lead? How about the exact ratio of people that hit your website’s landing page that converts into sales?

These questions and more like them often leave business owners with blank looks and silent mouths as they stare across at a consultant who is looking for business metric information. Too often, business owners throw money at marketing in the hopes that at least some of it will produce enough revenue to not only justify the cost but to ensure the profitability of the company as well. 

Because of this, when a downturn happens in the company or the revenue of the business dips for any reason, marketing is often the first line item that takes a hit in the budget. But unless a business knows their marketing key performance indicator (KPIs) numbers, this action is often a mistake and leads to a further loss in revenue.

Knowing your marketing KPIs can be one of the most valuable sets of numbers for your business as it will tell you exactly how much you spend, where you spend it, and how much you make per dollar spent.

Below are 6 of the most essential marketing Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) that matter to your business:

Sales Revenue

The first and most apparent Key Performance Indicator is your overall sales revenue. If your total revenue is completely marketing-driven (i.e., all your sales come directly from marketing), then it is easy to see if your marketing program is working. But, if you have sales that come from referral, existing clients, etc., you will want to subtract that revenue from overall revenue to see what the marketing revenue is. 

Cost Per Lead

Figuring out your cost per lead is reasonably straightforward; you can simply use the CPL Formula, which is your total ad or marketing spend divided by the total number of leads you receive. This can be broken down by segment, of course. 

For instance, your total number of leads from magazine ads, online ads, organic social media, etc. The vital factor here is the proper tracking of leads, which many businesses fail to do. Every incoming communication should be tracked back to its source. You can do this either by simply asking, which is not always 100% effective or by establishing some marketing funnels that will ensure you know where each lead comes from. These could be in the form of dedicated phone numbers that include call tracking, separate email addresses, etc. 

Lifetime Value of Customer

The lifetime value of a customer is another Key Performance Indicator that many businesses often overlook. One obvious point is that your cost of a lead should be a lot less than the lifetime value of a customer. This can be an issue if your revenue is based on one time sales of a product or service, but if your business model includes recurring income, the lifetime value can be significant. 

In either case, focusing on retention is vital to increasing this metric. For one-time sales, your hope is to have them purchase again at a later date. For recurring income clients, your goal is to keep them as a customer year after year via retention campaigns that involve general customer service. 

Reach out to them to see if their needs are being met as well as any other forms of communication that will help them feel good about their decision in doing business with your company. 

While determining this metric is a little tricky, Hubspot’s blog has a great entry that includes a downloadable tool to help your business discover your lifetime value of a customer. 

Website/Landing Page Conversion

When thinking about their websites, businesses often think in terms of traffic. They want a lot of people to visit the site and see what they have created. But high traffic is an ego boost, not necessarily an income generator. It doesn’t matter how many people come to your site if they don’t buy. 

To convert that traffic into paying customers, work must be done on the site, so that it is designed to encourage that activity. Increasing the conversion rate of a website or landing page is an entire subject unto itself, but rest assured, it is absolutely a Key Performance Indicator you want to pay attention to as part of the marketing campaign for your business. 

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic refers to the number of people who find you themselves, mainly through search engine results. This means that your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has got to be reliable. 

When people are searching for what you do on Google, are you being found? This is another extremely involved topic, and the process of creating a highly effective SEO campaign can be expensive and lengthy, but it can also be extremely financially rewarding. 

For the uninitiated in this area, begin your journey with a quality keyword search. Your goal is to find which keywords people are using in search engines to find what you do. Then, you want to optimize your site using those keywords. Easier said than done and hiring a quality SEO company that can guarantee results is recommended here. 

Social Media Traffic & Conversion

Concerning social media activity, you don’t need to have that traffic and activity result directly in sales for the campaign to be effective. Your social media pages can be used to support some of the Key Performance Indicator KPI’s above, including lifetime value of a customer and website traffic/conversion. 

If your social media activity gives value to a customer or prospect, that alone may make them feel better about your business, visit your site, and choose to buy. Existing customers may be retained in this same way as well. But, if sales and conversion is your number one goal, the campaign gets quite a bit more involved and will include paid advertising and posts geared around converting visitors into sales. 

No matter your purpose, your overall social media campaign is another Key Performance Indicator to consider in your overall marketing campaign. 

Digging into each of the areas above can take some time, but once you begin to understand each of the KPIs listed, you will gain valuable insight into your business and your current marketing campaign. Once you know the numbers, what’s working and what’s not, you can then tweak as necessary to begin your future marketing campaign. 

Good luck, and here’s to your marketing success!

Key Steps For Building a Travel website

Editorial Team
-
0
Key Steps For Building a Travel website
building a travel website

What kind of photos flood Instagram feeds on countries across the globe? Travel photos of course. People love the immersive experience of traveling someplace new. Whether it is the adventure-of-a-lifetime or a relaxing stress-free getaway, people will always seek the unknown and go where they’ve never gone before. This can make building a travel website particularly alluring.

The adventure of a great journey starts long before a tourist hits the road. Most great trips start on a travel website where wanderers can choose a destination, book a hotel, or even buy a vacation package. If you’d like to build a website that proves a jumping-off point to someone’s next great adventure there are a few key steps to keep in mind. After all, creating the perfect travel website is an adventure in and of itself. Read on for key steps to get started today.

Create a List of Must-Have Features for building a travel website

Before you go through the trouble of Googling ‘how to make a travel website’ or hiring a web development team, create a list of must-have features. Consider what others might think about when going on vacation. Your website should effectively mirror the image of an ideal getaway and inspire those who visit to explore new regions or hotels. With a pen and paper, tick off all of the must-have features you’ve found when visiting other travel websites. Make sure you include all of those features when you build a travel website.

Include Immersive Photography for building a travel website

People are visual creatures, especially those with a bit of wanderlust. We tend to buy with our eyes, especially when it comes to vacation or getaway. Utilize immersive photography and virtual reality on your travel website to immerse your visitors into the magical views of faraway lands or nearby getaways. Make them feel as if they are already stepping off of the plane. Only use high-resolution photography and professional videos when you build a travel website that will increase the user experience. It may cost a bit more and impact the load time of your site, but it will optimize engagement. 

Create a Visual Compass for Visitors

No one wants to click on a travel site and feel lost or overwhelmed by information. A clear navigation bar or scheme can help random visitors to find the information they desire quickly. Make sure you include available destinations, trending locations, vendors, and even blog posts with helpful information on the navigation bar. Additionally, keep these things in mind when you are building a travel website: 

  • Choose the best locations for the main navigation bar. 
  • Make every CTA clear. 
  • Create a landing page that links to internal pages
  • Add micro-interactions to guide visitors
  • Keep your menu as brief as possible.

Implement A Quick-Search Bar

Sometimes visitors will go to a travel website with a particular destination in mind. A quick-search bar allows them to access the information they need with haste. Include advanced search features such as predictive results and useful features. Even if a search bar will only save users a few seconds, they will surely appreciate being able to cut to the chase. For extra bonus points include a voice search option for those with disabilities or impairments. 

Optimize Your Travel website for Mobile

No matter how great your travel website looks on a desktop, you won’t get visitors if you’re not optimized for mobile. Statistics show that more travelers are booking trips on their smartphones and tablets than ever before. Don’t miss out on those visitors when you building a travel website because you didn’t create a mobile site. Just as is the case on your desktop site, make sure your mobile site has a savvy search bar, clear concise CTA, fast load times, easy navigation options, and secure payment methods.

Create A Secure Payment Method

With a travel website, reputation is everything. That means you’re going to want to carefully select a payment gateway provider that instills confidence in your visitors. No one wants to risk losing money with a fly-by-night gateway. Not sure how to choose a reliable payment provider? Just keep these key points in mind:

  • Check for vendor security standards (can be accomplished with a simple Google search)
  • Discover reputation and read through reviews
  • Consider whether you want a hosted or built-in payment portal
  • Review any contractual terms or added fees carefully.

How To Get More Leads on Instagram: 10 Highly Effective Tactics

Guest Contributor
-
0
How To Get More Leads on Instagram: 10 Highly Effective Tactics
instagram leads

How to generate more leads on Instagram? With more than 2.3 billion active monthly users, the count of Instagram users is growing at a faster rate when compared to Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter. Also, with effects to better results and a stronger user base, businesses are considering Instagram for generating more leads. 

If you too are struggling with getting leads from Instagram, the problems will end here. We have compiled a detailed guide on how to maximize your leads on Instagram with a few promising Insta tips and tactics that will help you to do wonders on Instagram. 

As the marketer believes that Instagram’s business accounts are very popular today, it is time for you to strategize your marketing activities. Also, it is a proven fact that around 90 percent of accounts follow one or more business profiles on Instagram and tend to shop on the platform. Also, 60 percent of people have said that they discovered a new product via Instagram. 

instagram stats
PIC: leads on Instagram

How To Increase The Count of Leads Via Instagram?

Now, as a brand manager, one must be assured about the importance of including Instagram as a marketing channel for promoting your online business. However, at the same time, it is essential to note that generating leads on Insta takes much more than just posting and using hashtags. 

Thus, this is the crucial time to monitor Insta campaigns, the overall quality of the content you publish including the stories and hashtags to boost your marketing efforts. Let us see some proven specific steps that will generate enormous conversions on Instagram. 

#1. Use Instagram Lead Generation Ads

The lead generation ads on Instagram are specifically designed for collecting the target audience’s broader data and statistics, and using the right data is a prominent way to maximize leads on Instagram. 

instagram lead generation
PIC: leads on Instagram

Also, from running ads, it is essential to note that you can flock the crucial details of the audience, such as their email address, contact number, birth dates, etc. This feature will be the most effective way to channelize your marketing attempts in the outward orientation.  

To effectively utilize the Instagram ads for generating leads, having a Facebook profile along with a business profile on Instagram is essential. After setting up a well established Facebook and Insta profile, visit the ‘Ads Manager’ and start designing and drafting Insta ads inclined with the business objectives. 

#2. Go for Establishing Twinning Audiences

Once you gather the required data of your existing followers, now is the time to move up for setting lookalike audiences. Doing this will aid you in targeting mass audiences on Instagram which matches your current target audience. Further, you get an added advantage of targeting new audiences, which gives vast exposure to your brand. 

While creating a lookalike audience base, you need to consider the following factors-

  • Existing profiles of Instagrammers who have recently engaged with your post and profile
  • People who are frequently visiting your Instagram profile
  • Followers or users who keep on sending you messages on Insta
  • The audience who like to save or share your post or ads on Instagram

Targeting lookalike audiences will promote your future campaigns and generate quality leads from a genuine audience base. 

#3. Add Action Buttons 

instagram action button

Source PIC: leads on Instagram

Adding a call to action button on the Instagram profile is always beneficial for maximizing Insta leads. Also, adding a link to your email and details like contact number and address is valuable. Doing this will ensure that your audience easily connects and reaches out to you. 

#4. Optimize Your Bio

On your profile, the Instagram bio section catches the attention of your visitors as here they can find all the primary information about your business. The audience comes to know who you are and what you offer. Also, they will come to know more about your brand and what they can expect out of your brand.

A great Instagram bio highlights your brand’s features and compels the users to take swift action. 

Also, there are only a few places where you can add clickable links. It is important to note that you can add only one link. Thus, the link should be relatable to the objective which your business needs to accomplish. 

This link can take them to your official website, your latest content or blog, newsletter subscription, or a product survey.

Remember that you can change this link as often as you wish. 

Pro Tip – Make short and easy links, and don’t forget to promote this link via stories.

#5. Add “Swipe Up” Feature

Swipe Up on Instagram
PIC: leads on Instagram

Source leads on Instagram

Using the “Swipe Up” feature could work best for those who have 10k+ Instagram followers.

A few brands have also found that adding links in their stories have rounded more effective results when compared with including links in bio. 

Having said that, it is equally remarkable to build landing pages that are attached to a particular link, as this compels users to land on the links available in stories. 

Pro Tip – Ensure including Instagram stories in your highlights. Doing this will increase visibility and give users the flexibility to redirect on your site and why they prefer. 

#6. Promote Eye Catchy Shopping Content on Your Feed

instagram shopping

Source

Lately, shopping on Instagram is the new trend and a bunch of users loves to see the shoppings ads and posts on Insta. With this shift in trend, as a marketing veteran, you must assure that you use this pattern of shoppers for enhancing the brand’s distinctness on Instagram. 

By posing shoppable content, you must make use of the feature called ‘tag your products’ to aid your audience in easy navigating. Also, when users have the right details about the product you are offering, it increases the probability of click rates. 

Also, to make the most out of your Insta account, you must be eligible for having an account that lets you post Instagram shoppable content. The basic requirement to have such an account is – creating your own catalog via the Catalogue Manager. After formulating an appealing catalog, register yourself to Instagram Shopping to make tags efficient. 

Creating shoppable product tags can multiply the probability of appearing your merchandise in the ‘Explore Feed’, which can formulate more clicks and conversions. 

#7. Instagram Influencers for Marketing

For new companies, it is challenging to capture leads on Instagram. In that situation, entering into a partnership with the influencers could be the best move if you’re planning to boost the conversions. 

Ensure that you wisely chalk out the plan for hiring genuine influencers who have followers inclined with your product or business. Also, look at their existing engagement patterns with their current audience. 

Also, it is seen that many brands enter into a partnership with the influencers. In such situations, influencers “Take Over” the brand’s Instagram account for some time and post the content in a way they want. This also results in good engagement for your brand. But this requires extensive research as your brand is at stack.  

#8. Instagram Contests

Instagram Contest
PIC: leads on Instagram

Source

You can run various contests on Instagram in the form of surveys and offer your audience to win a prize. You can also run some sales or promotional activities on Instagram. These types of contests help in increasing engagement and generate new leads for your business. 

In Conclusion

leads on Instagram are the fuel of your brand and thus to maximize the Instagram ROIs, it is essential that you work on strategic lead generation activities. Thus, follow the above-mentioned strategies and pull the right audience which is actually interested in buying from your brand.

We hope that this guide turns out as a stepping stone for you to create larger engagements on Instagram and get maximum engagement for your brand. 

About the guest author

Pooja Shah is a Creative Writer at Auto Monkey. We provide an original analysis of the latest happenings in the social media industry. Connect with Latest Social Media Trends and News plus tips on Twitter, Facebook and other social tools on the web.

10 Awesome Things You Can Do With WordPress

Guest Contributor
-
0
10 Awesome Things You Can Do With WordPress
WordPress,wordpress things

Since the inception of WordPress in 2003, it has been utilized to power millions of online presences and many WordPress developers are delivering their best services. It will be strange though if we imagine our online content without the presence of WordPress. Approximately 28% of the internet will be gone if WordPress is ceased to exist. 

It has now more than 1.2 billion downloads to date, WordPress has shown just how powerful the system is and can be, so the percentage to hire the WordPress developer has increased in recent times. The farthest thing we can assume is that it isn’t a blogging tool anymore. So, what are the awesome things you can do with WordPress?

Here, I will list out all the awesome things that can be done with WordPress things. 

So, here it goes:

Build an affiliate shop

If you are a newbie in the field of website launching, then you really need to know about some marketing tips. Affiliate marketing is one of those methods to increase your worth and leads. Add affiliate links to your pages and posts and see the results as it’s a great way to cash in your efforts.

Here are a few solutions for adding affiliate links to your website:

Thirsty Affiliates

It enables you to create visually appealing links that connect your content to relevant products with a single-click process. You can also manage your progress by providing accurate sales tracking and redirecting unprepossessing affiliate links using your website’s URL. 

WP: affiliate manager

Offering a solution for eCommerce plugins, WP affiliate manager helps you to track referrals and affiliates sent to your site in order to make correct payments. The plugins also report on real-time traffic and sales so you can track earning and pay-outs. There is no limit to a number of affiliate signing. 

Easy affiliate links

The plugins help you create short links to cloak your affiliate links so they blend in relevance with your content. Links can easily be created using visual and HTML editor. Add-ons for analytics and geo-specific links can be added for local sales support. 

Let users book online

Now you can allow visitors to schedule appointments and see availability right on your WordPress website. WordPress offers you the add-on feature for a booking system. Here is the best solution for adding a booking system:

Gravity Forms:

It is a great way to add a contact form to your site. The plugin is secure and flexible, allowing for countless integrations that permit you to create a complete booking solution for site visitors. 

WordPress multisite:

The feature was first introduced in 2010 and can convert your website into a network of websites. With this feature, you can break into sections; online shops for instance. Each section can have different styles so, you can easily tell the difference between each page. 

You can also make an employee a “super administrator” so that he/she can have complete control over every page in the network. 

Social Network:

Did you know that you can turn WordPress into a social network? It could be a great tool if you focus to reach your niche audience. You can easily get it done with BuddyPress. 

It allows your visitors to sign up, create profiles and send messages and connect. There are over 330 BuddyPress plugins that you could customize as per your needs. Another popular plugin that could transform your WordPress site into a social network is the WP Symposium. 

Forum:

You can also feature Forum as when you are looking to build a community. WordPress provides you a plugin of bbPress. It helps you manage and grow your community all within a WordPress site. It’s easy and simple to set-up as you are on the go with one-click install that features multi-site forums. 

WordPress allows you great plugins that enable you to easily create forums and build your own community. A few of the most preferred plugins include CM Answers, AnsPress, Forum Engine. 

Security:

Well, if you are new in website handling, security is a serious concern. Most of the people know that they should focus on security, yet there are a lot of sites that get hacked daily. The sites are of legitimate business and the number goes up to 30,000. 

To avoid it, WordPress supports you a lot. Make sure that your website is coded properly and you scan it on a regular basis. Download and add a security plugin like iThemes Security or also known as WP security. 

Some of the features that are provided by them include:

  • User action login
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Import/export settings
  • Protect multiple sites
  • Hides WordPress vulnerabilities
  • Monitoring your website
  • Backup of your database
  • Bans bots

Shortcodes:

Shortcodes are short bits of code that you can use to replace long, repetitive HTML codes. They can be inserted anywhere as they are handy when you want to add a social media button or Google AdSense ad. Shortcodes add functionality onto specific pages of your website. 

The best and the known way to handle shortcodes is through the use of plugin. 

Though you can hire WordPress programmer, but as it has been statistically tested that WPExplorer offers Simple Shortcodes that contains shortcodes for every domain like, social icons, table and columns and more. Another most preferred plugin is WordPress Shortcodes. It’s free and is packed with features that have over 26 shortcodes as per for SEO friendly, shortcodes editor, and a custom template. 

E-commerce site

Convert your WordPress site into an actual e-commerce site and that too without any hassle. One of the most popular ways to monetize your site is through WooCommerce. Keep track of incoming sales, stock levels, and reviews. This plugin is the most customizable plugin. It also comes with payment gateways like PayPal, BACS and COD. It also handles all your shipping needs and takes the most care of your business.  There are more plugins by WordPress namely, iThemes Exchange, MarketPress, and eCommerce Product catalog. 

Direct response marketing/ landing pages/ content tools

Ever want to run a membership site? Well, WordPress allows you to do this also. You can easily achieve it by either downloading or purchasing PrivateContent, Userpro, Magic Members, or membership. Such plugins let you offer exclusive content for a small fee. Every plugin has its own features and cost. Make sure to do your research before stepping onto one. 

The website landing pages plugin gives you the ability to monitor and track conversion rates. Get a contact form like Gravity Forms, its easy to plugin that can be integrated with PayPal, stripe, and Aweber. 

Image gallery

If you’re a photographer or any craftsmen who need to showcase their work, then WordPress could be your support system for life. Yes, it can be used as an image gallery. 

The NextGen Gallery plugin not only uploads images but also controls the size, style, and transitions, and lightbox effects. Slideshows and thumbnails galleries are the most used display styles. 

CONCLUSION: 

Plugins are the most effective way to make your website better and efficient in various ways. They are mostly one-click install and easily interact with third-parties while providing security. The above listed are the awesome things that you could with WordPress. WordPress has no limits and can be used in better and effective ways. I know there are many things that could have been left out, but these were the major in all. 

About the guest author

Anshul Sharma- CEO of fluper, a web development company has taken its company forth by his hard work and his vision towards the future. He is always ready to learn about new changes in the game development industry and wants to make people updated with it. 

How To Create A Productive Work From Home Space

Guest Contributor
-
0
How To Create A Productive Work From Home Space
productive work from home
PIC: productive work from home

Creating a productive work from home space will help you set up your schedule and start working on your own terms. If you have a big team, coordination and productivity might be a concern, but there are employee monitoring software to help you with time tracking and productivity levels.

Here are some tips and tricks on how to create a productive work space.

#1 Find the Best Corner of Your House

The first thing you should do is to find the best corner of your house. This does not necessarily mean that the corner should be absolutely perfect – on the contrary, the best corner is what you yourself find comfortable rather than what is logically more comfortable. For instance, if you like sitting by the window, then set up a place next to it.

You need to keep in mind such criteria as lightness, the ability to sit straight at a desk, the ability to place drawers and shelves nearby, the ability to get rid of unnecessary noise, and your personal feelings about the space. this is the first step towards creating a productive work from home space.

#2 Declutter the Space as Much as You Can

Once you decide which corner you like the most (by the way, “corner” does not necessarily mean an actual corner, but rather a part of the room or an entire room), you will need to declutter the space as much as you can.

Keep in mind that decluttering is not just the process of cleaning up and getting rid of the dirt, but also about getting rid of the things you won’t need. These include unnecessary tools, used papers, books that you won’t be reading while you work and so on and so forth. Anything that can distract you from work should be put away.

#3 Regularly Clean Up Your Home

At the same time, you need to remember to keep your entire home – house or apartment – clean. If you don’t set aside time to clean up your home and only look after your space, you will constantly have thought at the back of your mind telling you that there is a mess in the rest of the house.

The best solution is to do the cleaning regularly in small portions instead of doing a complete makeover every once in a while. For instance, putting your clothes on their places and wiping the dust every day will help you prevent those situations when you need to do everything at once.

#4 Add Some Greenery in Different Rooms

Plants, even small cacti or succulents, can give brighter splashes of color in your home that will please the eye and make the rooms look livelier. But if you decide to go crazy with this and get many big house plants, you might even turn your home into a kind of jungle that is most suitable for people who like living in the countryside (read: it’s not a bad thing).

If you don’t want to get too many plants because you don’t have time for them, make sure you get at least one for your workspace. This could be a small cactus that doesn’t require very regular watering. With time, you might even start feeling protective about it.

#5 Outsource Part of Your Tasks

Outsourcing is not a new thing and has been practised both by freelancers and by big companies. One of its main benefits is that it can significantly reduce the workload of employees and even reduce costs while maintaining high quality.

To get started with outsourcing, determine which tasks you would like to outsource. Then, find those who can do these tasks. For example, if you write, using a writer from Best Writers Online can be the path to take. This way, you will be able to choose a writer at a good cost with a good reputation. This is one of the best productive work from home these days.

#6 Buy Some Scented Candles

Scented candles are beloved by millions of people who either want their homes to smell good or want to relax. However, they can actually be very useful to those who want to become more productive work from home space while working at home as a freelancer or remote worker.

Scented candles that use essential oils are known to promote relaxation reducing stress and anxiety. This will help you to think more clearly when you are struggling to keep up with all the deadlines. When you take breaks and perhaps want to a quality nap, lighting such candles will help you sleep better and get your energy back. Hence boost productive work from home.

#7 Bring in The Essentials to Your Spot

Now that you have set up certain things in your small workspace, you need to bring in the essentials for your work. If your space is bare, you will need to start with a good desk and chair. Then, you will need to move on to drawers and shelves. After that, bring everything else you will be using.

Get your laptop and any other devices you need (e.g. graphic tablet for illustrators). Find a notepad and some pens or pencils to make notes when you need to jot something down quickly. Perhaps even place some encyclopedias or guidebooks on the shelves if you need such. In other words, get everything you need.

#8 Have Some Snacks and Drinks at Hand

It’s true that eating while doing something else (working, reading, watching TV) is not a very good habit. That being said, having a cup of tea or coffee at hand will mean that you no longer have to get distracted every time you want to drink.

You can also keep some snacks nearby as long as they are not going to make you too full. For example, dried fruits and nuts require more chewing, but they are also more nutritional than other fruits while not being considered heavy food like meat.

#9 Approach Your Workspace as You Would an Office

Having the right attitude when you get to your workspace is crucial if you want to be productive work from home. This is why you should view it like you would a regular office. Set your mind to “work” mode and start doing everything one by one on your to-do list. This is something you should treat seriously.

#10 Change the Scenery Up from Time to Time

Last but not least, change the scenery up from time to time. You don’t have to stay at home to work all the time. Instead, look for coworking spaces where you can meet new people and get a unique experience. You can only start traveling and working as you visit different places. As long as it clears up your mind, it will be time well spent.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, creating a cosy yet productive work from home space is easy if you follow these simple steps. Have we mentioned all of them? Leave a comment about your favourite best practices for creating productive work from home!

About the guest author

how do you create a productive workspace

Dominic Beaulieu is a gaming enthusiast turned tech writer who covers an impressive variety of topics like design, development process, game marketing, and helps developers with spreading the word about their creations. He is a fluent French speaker, who also has mastered Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish. He has experience in software translation, tech counseling, project management and digital marketing tailored for startups.  He’s a writer for Translation Client Zone.

What is Node.js, and Why to use node.js?

Guest Contributor
-
0
What is Node.js, and Why to use node.js?
node.js

Node.js is an application programming framework that lets you write programs on the server-side in JavaScript. Thanks to its unique I/O architecture, it excels in the flexible and real-time scenarios that our servers are continually requesting. In addition, it is flexible, lightweight, and its capacity to utilize JavaScript on both frontend and back-end unlocks new technology avenues. This comes as no shock that so many major corporations have leveraged node.js in growth.

It will be the most robust Node JS web development tools that can help you guide your company to greater heights.

Features of Node.js

Following are some of the main features that render Node.js the software engineers first choice:

Very Fast – Based on the V8 JavaScript engine of Google Chrome, the Node.js library is incredibly quick in application execution.

Asynchronous and event-driven – Both Node.js library APIs are asynchronous, that is, to say non-blocking. Virtually, it ensures a server built on Node.js is never waiting for an API to return the results. Upon calling it, the server switches to the next API, and a Node.js Events feedback function lets the server get an answer from the previous API request.

Single-threaded by highly scalable – It utilizes a single-threaded layout of looping events. The event framework lets the server react in a non-blocking way and allows the server extremely scalable, as compared to conventional servers that generate small threads for handling requests. 

License ? It comes out under the MIT license.

No Buffering ? They never buffer up data. Such programs literally send out the chunks of info.

Every programming language should give you reasons for preferring them over others. The thing about it is it was designed for on-scale applications. New tooling and supporting the increasingly forward-looking manner in which dynamic systems are built allow it to stand out from many computing technologies.

Combining Node.js with a Microservices Pattern

Every single project begins tiny. And with the introduction of MVP, if you wish. But as time passes, one question continues to be more than a solution. It continues to develop, adding highly anticipated users and new features. 

Performance and Scalability

Designed for various operating systems, written in C++, and super fast, it is based on V8 runtime from Google Chrome. With speed enhancements, security updates, and support for new JavaScript applications, both V8 and Node are regularly patched.

It supports get-go scalability, with innovative technologies like the Cluster framework for load balancing over many CPU cores. Robust resources such as the PM2 process management allow the control, configuration, and delivery of node applications much more uncomplicated.

Building Cross-Functional Teams

Contrary to a skill-set silos team, every participant is accountable for the entire lifecycle of the device in a cross-functional team: application development, reviewing, storage, delivery, and maintenance. These teams are comprised of specialists in all related areas: front-and back-end developers, network engineers, and specialists in quality control.

Cross-Platform Development

Platforms such as Electron or NW.js enable you to create cross-platform mobile applications using Node.js. This ensures you can use any of the technology from your Web device in the Windows, Mac, and Linux mobile models. In the future, the same team working on your Mobile app would be able to create a smartphone app without specialist knowledge of C #, Objective-C, or any other language used to develop native applications.

Long-term Support

Sixty-one percent of programmers found long-term support for Node.js a significant function, according to the 2018 Node.js User Survey Study. This awareness enables developers to determine what the future holds for our application and to schedule more timeline-based growth. 

Why will I use Node.js?

If your usage case doesn’t require Processor intensive operations or access any blocking services, you can take advantage of Node.js ‘ benefits and enjoy fast and scalable network applications. It’s web development offers a versatile range of tools for both desktop and smartphone applications. Welcome to the real-time web.

1...899091...374Page 90 of 374