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What Is a CMS? Which One Should You Use for Your Website?

” All right, so today, We have a special guest Alycia from Sucuri. Thank you so much for coming on today. Yeah thanks, I’m happy to be here Awesome, so we’re Talking about what is a CMS and which one should you Use for your website, Can you tell us a little Bit about what a CMS is So CMS stands for. Content management system and it’s basically an easier way to put pages, live on your Website or blog post manage your image media Library all that kinda stuff Awesome and now, let’s Go over the top three CMSs, I’m going to be a little bit! Biased in this episode, That’s my disclaimer right there, I’m going to start with WordPress WordPress is the most popular Content management system out there today powers Over 1/3 of the internet, It has tons of plug-ins tons of options and it’s pretty resourceful And probably my favorite Reason for why I use WordPress is the community behind it.

They’re such a large community that that just all comes Together, there’s meetups, there’s wordcamps and everyone just helps each other out For sure, and I mean with 40,000 plugins almost like you, have no end to the kind of functionality you can add to your CMS Absolutely. So what are some other CMSs that we can possibly use For sure, yeah,,’cause everybody’s heard of WordPress, so Yeah Drupal is another very popular one.

It’s been described to me as Kinda, like a Swiss cheese, you need to be a bit more Technical to use Drupal, but it does have a lot Of different features compared to WordPress, it has A different user experience and ultimately it’s been Used for a lot of things like government websites, And that kinda thing because of its ability to be a little more secure in some areas: yeah Yeah and it’s definitely One not for like the smaller business type sites as Enterprise or large Corporation type sites right, Yeah, yeah for sure Yeah Joomla – is another really Popular one as well, It’s got a really good.

Community – and it’s got, I think, the second highest Market share after WordPress, Although WordPress is Like 30 % – and I think, like It’s, a giant Joomla’s like 6 %, so just A little bit of a gap there between the top two but Joomla’s, also a really awesome CMS to use You wan na make sure that you’re using the most latest version. If possible, There are two active versions: Available that you can use Yeah, you definitely wan na stay on the most recent branch.

Of any CMS, if possible, Yeah that’s just a best practice there. All right. Let’s talk! About really figuring out, which one should you use right Like what are some of the first Steps we wan na think about. Definitely you wan na Make sure that you know what your requirements Are for your website, So how does it need to Be for your users to use! How are you going to go about? Actually creating posts and what are the processes that you’re going to use as part of that And then once you have all that you can kinda look at each CMS and see what are the extensions and Themes that are available And see if they’ll match the Requirements that you have for your website, That makes sense and It all comes down to figuring out what’s right for you Like, I will stand by WordPress all day, but WordPress may not be Right for your situations, Figuring out those requirements, With those applications are super important, Yeah and usually a Lot of the CMS websites have a great community Because they are open-source, So tell us a little about open-source Yeah for sure.

So all Those top three CMSs they’re open-source they’re, also free, which is very important, Open-source, basically Means that the source code used to build WordPress Or Drupal or Joomal, it’s all open and available, and anybody can contribute to it as well Right on So that just means it’s Constantly being improved by the community and the Community’s also checking to make sure that, what’s Being added is secure All right, so we want our Website to look good right, So is that something to think About when we’re choosing what platform we use and how easy it is to create those sites Totally so different themes will have different attributes like They may have a sidebar on the left or the right, Or they may be all one column in a never-ending scrolling website.

Different themes will Allow you to accomplish, maybe what you need by Having custom backgrounds or custom menus, so you Wan na look at the options for your theme and you also don’t wan na discount like premium themes, A lot of premium themes out, there will add extra functionality, So you’re, essentially Paying for the theme, even though the CMS is free, That’s an awesome option. There’s premium plug-ins as well, Depending on what you Need the default themes that come with it are Sometimes a little restrictive, so you wan na take a look at What the default themes are: Try some different free themes and see what the options are to get your site to look.

The way you want it to Yeah and what was kind Of controversial at first in WordPress and 5.0 remember Gutenberg, Oh yeah, Gutenberg is essentially The new WordPress editor, The whole point is to kinda mirror the printing press of just Blocks and everything else, Yeah, what you see is what you get So as you’re typing — Whizzy, wig, Yeah whizzy wig, Thank you So as you’re typing Yeah, you see exactly what you would see on the website, So that comes default by WordPress.

It has made the experience. Especially for first-time users easier to create, Then there are page Builders like Elementor or Beaver Builder or WPBakery Builder, that makes that user-experience A little bit easier, If you’re going on the WordPress realm and really want something: That’s pretty customizable, you don’t have to be a Web developer or guru to build that website For sure CMSs are having to Make things a little easier, You know, there’s a lot of Different places out there that are creating website builders that are super easy for people to use, and so it’s helpful for These open-source CMSs to make the user-experience a little easier All right.

So another thing we probably have to think about. Is the hosting requirements We’re going to need for our applications? Talk us through a little Bit of what that looks like For sure, so most of These are running on PHP, so you want the most Updated version of PHP, especially if you want The latest features and to make sure that you’re Getting those security updates? Yes, So that’s really important.

A lot of hosting companies will offer one-click Install for most of these major CMS applications, Some hosting companies Especially when I first started creating websites – and I Was on a super budget, but also a very secure host, it took me a long time. It took me like three days to install WordPress and they have a famous 5-minute install You wan na look and see, and maybe talk to your hosting company.

About what the options are for getting this CMS Installed on your server Right,,’cause, taking three Days to get a website going just the beginning is not Something you wan na do There’s a lot of places out there that will do managed hosting Especially with WordPress There’s managed WordPress that has just already automatically installed some extra security features And then what most people End up going with is like a cPanel type Hosting Since it does have that one-click install with Installatron or Softaculous, Whatever they’re, using Totally Couple of clicks of a button and then it’s there, You can start building and Designing, however, you want All right, so the real Reason I brought you on to this.

Episode is really talking about security with CMSs They’re open-source. You Constantly have to update them, so there’s lots of things. That we need to really think about to make sure Our stuff’s protected Totally well with It being open-source not only are all the good People contributing code, but all the bad people can Also, look at that code as well and find vulnerabilities. So that’s something that a lot of people are concerned about.

Especially with WordPress being so popular, it is a large target. The CMS itself is actually quite secure because there’s a great Community checking things out. You wan na make sure that you’re Not installing more plug-ins than you need Trying to make sure that you’re keeping everything up to date. If you have a managed solution, They’ll, do it for you, Which is awesome. Yup, You wan na make sure That you have something some kind of security plug-in That’s monitoring your site, letting you know if there is A problem that they detect There are some that can also Add features for protection like adding Two-Factor Authentication, which is a second password on your phone that you need to enter in Order to get into your website There’s all kinds of Cool security, plug-ins security utilities that You can use with your CMS Yeah, I know with WordPress the top security plug-ins That come to mind, of course, Sucuri has This security plug-in, but there’s also Wordfence And then with having an SSL on your site, super important just to Encrypt that password,’cause, you have to login The beauty with CMSs that You can access them anywhere right, Yup, So you wan na make sure that wherever you’re accessing’em Your password isn’t being sniffed out by someone in the middle Yeah.

You wan na, be careful. You don’t wan na. Maybe do It in like an airport or coffee shop, Wi-Fi Unless you’re using a VPN.’Cause, if you are sitting There on public, Wi-Fi and there’s a hacker sitting next to you, they could sniff your password As you’re typing it in And then the next thing you know, there’s a bunch of spam pages on your site that you need to deal with. So what about firewall? I’ve heard that it should be important.

Should be added to the site, What’s the validity with that? Definitely one of the nice things about a website firewall Is that it will virtually patch your CMS? So if There is a security issue, essentially the firewall’s Taking care of that, It surrounds your website. And if somebody’s trying to exploit a vulnerable Plug-In on your site, the firewall will catch. That attempt and block it They’ll see a blocking page.

Meanwhile, all of your legitimate Visitors are being sped-up because of the global Network of the firewall and content delivery network, So we’ve figured out what Cms we’re wanting to use We’ve got it installed, how Do we go about documentation, learning the program itself? There are some awesome Resources out there, You talked about WordPress WPBeginner has some awesome? Training guides and tutorials There’s an awesome community.

For all of these CMSs, with very active, like support forums, That’s a great way to go about it And then, obviously, if you have a developer, Or something like that, that’s helping you get some customization. They can usually help you. You wan na make sure that You’re documenting everything as part of your website as well, so It’s just going to help you Later on down the line, if you know you have a List of all the users, all the plug-ins and that kind of stuff and you’re keeping that up-to-date Yeah, especially if you Have people on your team that needs to access the site, Giving them documentation on What they should be accessing, what they shouldn’t be, because sometimes the wrong click can Make just chaos happen Totally and good user passwords making sure that you’ve Got the right role levels assigned to your users? Whether they’re just an editor or author or contributor Right Those roles are usually built into the CMS to allow you to make Sure they can only access what they should be allowed to access.

You only wan na grant admin privileges to somebody for as long as they need it, and that kind of thing Now, with this website, I know many of the entrepreneurs or even solopreneurs out there with their stuff, has Many hats to wear right, Sometimes maintaining it, isn’t always something that they have time for Yeah. It may not be top of mind Right. What should we be? Doing with those updates Yeah, definitely I would say that it’s very important to make sure that you always retain Access to your property, your web property, So I’ve seen cases where a developer will leave a client and Leave with the passwords and then you can’t get Into your hosting account, or you can’t into WordPress, It’s not ideal, so make sure you always have access to those things And make sure that you’re just practicing safe security practices.

Throughout all of it Right on and with WordPress and Joomla everything else, we Talked about it earlier, make sure you’re at least going in there every now and then to update It to the next latest version: It’s not only for performance, but it is for security Yeah for sure I mean with some CMSs there might be different branches that are still being actively developed So having a firewall That can virtually patch and make sure if there Are any vulnerabilities you have a little bit of an extra window.

‘Cause whenever there’s a Security update released, the hackers are looking going. “: Okay, here’s the old file; “, here’s the new file; oh look: “! There’s the security flaw!”, So it can be –. Then send all our bots out Totally it can a matter of minutes hours after a security patch is released before there’s active attacks in the wild So definitely update your Sites as soon as possible, Auto-updates are amazing, WordPress has auto-updates on most hosts, Yeah and or you can hire developers like most designers or Developers will have like a website care plan, so you Can them just do it for you, If you’re using WordPress, Godaddy ProSites or ManageWP has the one-click updates.

So you can update all your Plug-Ins and your themes, You even have a safe update option. So what it does is It’ll update your site, take a snapshot of before and after and make sure they’re all the same. And if there’s an issue It’ll retract, back to it It’s a free option for you Yeah, that’s perfect! You hit on a good point, It’s not a set it and forget. It thing with a website: You need to make sure that You’re maintaining it And that it’s part of your business, it’s how your business looks.

So you should definitely Make sure that you have some kind of plan for keeping It up-to-date and maintained All right. The last point that we should really talk about is really your time and investment with the CMS of your choice. Talk us through a little Bit of that about that For sure we’ll you Wan na go in and realize that it’s going to take you Time to setup all the pages that you want Right: It may take you time to find the right plug-ins, so you wan na kinda think through whether You want to hire somebody or get some help with that To find the functionality and the look and feel that you’re after Definitely budget when It comes to free CMSs.

Well, you don’t have to pay for the CMS. So that’s helpful Right! But it’s customization and security and all Those things that you definitely wan na consider as part of the whole package of having a website On-going costs for domain WHOIS privacy, SSL certificates, Right firewall, All that kind of stuff, All that good things Totally yeah, there’s A lot of accessories that go on with having a website, So you wan na figure like I said at the beginning what those requirements are And then make sure you have a plan for how you’re going to budget and the timelines around When you wan na launch Perfect and with Drupal And Joomla they are, they do have that smaller market share, So there’s really specific requirements of when you wan na use those applications.

Those developers that you hire for Drupal or Joomla might cost more than a WordPress designer as well For sure yeah, and you wan na make sure that you’re really looking at the work that the developer has done and make sure that it Matches what you’re, after There’s lots of great Websites out there that you know can tell you more About how to pick a developer depending on what you’re after Well? Thank you so much for Coming out on the show today and helping us figuring Out what a CMS is why we should use one You’ve been awesome Thanks my pleasure.

Well, if you liked this article go ahead and smash that, like button, add a comment below on Something that you’ve learned and subscribe to this blog and ring that bell, if you’d like to see these episodes first, This is “ The Journey.,” we’ll see you next time.

 

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What Is Web Hosting? Explained Simply | GoDaddy

Your website’s files and data must be physically stored on a computer that is connected to the Internet. These large high-powered computers are Called web servers Website hosts are companies that physically house several web servers in one location or what is sometimes referred to as a data center.

In addition to housing, the web servers website hosts provide the software security support and bandwidth that connects your website to the internet. Think of a website hosting company like a shopping center that contains several individual stores. If you want to open a store at the shopping center, you can lease space in it and set up shop Just like a shopping center website. Hosting companies enable you to lease space on their web servers where you can store your website files and make them available for visitors to view on the Internet To accommodate a wide variety of websites and customer needs.

There are a variety of hosting solutions. Hosting solutions are broadly categorized, based on the amount of server space you need for your website files and the monthly amount of bandwidth your site consumes. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data being transferred or the amount of resource usage. Your website requires Consider your shop again…. Suppose you sell only handmade bracelets, you have a small unique product offering, so you don’t need nor want to lease the same amount of space as a big department store.

Instead, you could lease a smaller store in the shopping center. That gives you just enough space for your goods and costs less money. Additionally, because you’re a small shop, you don’t need a lot of extra technology or staff to help you sell your product, like a department store requires Between you and your mobile payment device. You have plenty of bandwidth to take care of your customers and don’t need to buy any extra technology or hire more employees, Make sense Beyond server space and bandwidth.

There are other things to consider when selecting a hosting solution. Your budget ease of use or complexity of solution, the level of flexibility or customization. The solution allows, as well as privacy and security features. Godaddy offers a variety hosting solutions To determine which hosting solution is best for you. Please visit GoDaddy.Com and click Hosting

 

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How to Start a Service Business

Let’s go Hey, I’m Emma your GoDaddy Guide and today, I’m super excited to be joined with my co-host, Justin Nealey, Hey Justin! What’s up What up? How are you, What are we going to talk about today, Starting a service business, Exactly We’re talking about starting Your service business, I’m already dying to Know where do you begin?’Cause there’s a lot of things.

That I’m sure you have to do, but what’s first and foremost, Right and you have to take That first step of really figuring out what you want: You want your business to be Right, You can’t just go. I want to Be a service-based business! Well, what do you want to do If you want it to be something that you’re actually passionate about, because you’re going to Get a lot of the things that you don’t want to do like the admin or just the run-around.

And if it’s not something You’re really passionate about it’s not going to last. I love the passion component To me if you’re doing something that you’re passionate about you’re, going to give it your all your 110 % Right, absolutely You’re going to do the best work Right. It’s your! Why It’s? Why you do what you do Yeah? So what do you need? Where do you start So probably step one just to make sure that you’re productive is to buy a computer If you don’t have one, If you read this on a computer, then just disregard this Move on to step two, but That’s going to be step one.

What about a smartphone, though I feel like I do everything On my smartphone, You can do a lot absolutely, but it’s all about being productive. You can flip to different tabs. Go to different screens. Do a bunch of stuff that You potentially couldn’t do or if you have to go and type everything out on a smartphone. It’s going to take you a lot. Longer than on a computer, It’s good to have both, though That’s a good point.

Okay, so you have a computer got it Then. What’s next, I’m thinking social media, but that’s just’cause. I’r Obsessed with it domain, where do you go from there? So probably the next Step is to figure out what your name is and buy a domain name and get your social media handles. We’ve got a couple of articles. That we talked about really diving into Instagram Twitter and Facebook in the links or descriptions below As soon as you have that Domain then you need a website.

Social media is great, but you can’t always control social media. Do you remember Vine (, laughs, ), Yeah Yeah? It was a super popular platform Right. What happened to Vine Everyone invested all their time and it’s gone So all those followers went with it And with your website, it’s there to help. You generate Leads and you control it and it’s there for as long as you want it, And then you piggyback into social Another thing, I’m so just wrapped up! In the digital world, — Absolutely, But I was at a trade, show recently walking the floor.

Networking and I forgot my business cards And it’s easy to do’cause. I do so much in the digital world Right, But I got by, but I just am curious as a small business owner and the local heroes listening in are business cards still An important thing, Absolutely it’s absolutely relevant. In fact, I got a business card today and it blew my mind. The quality of it Right. Look at that Super cool There’s even a texture with the font It’s something tactile and if you’re on the go, sometimes you may not Remember the domain name or the handle, or things like that, but that business card is just something to really make yourself stand out, Especially if you got a cool one like that.

That’s different It’s a cool one. It helps you out. Did you want it back? I mean I might ( laughter ), We’ll get it later. I didn’t even notice you Put it in your pocket Yeah thanks Some place, you can get business cards. There’s places like Moo.Com, that’s pretty cool, There’s Vista Print They’ve been around forever, We talk about Canva a lot. You can create your own Business card on there They can print it off for you.

What do you use? I use Canva’cause I like to really design every part of it and there’s a couple of templates, but to each their own. Now, when it comes to Getting your actual work done, I imagine you need to have what An office space work space Space in your home, It’s going to vary right. Is that important? It’s somewhat important! It depends on what type Of service you provide, If you don’t ever really Talk to someone face-to-face, you don’t need an office, but if you want to be able To have meetings with people things like that, you don’t have to invest.

In an office space, There are a ton of just co-working spaces popping up all over the country. Some are free, some are Freemiums some are paid, It just depends on what the budget is, but with those co-working spaces. What I love about it is it’s Not only a place to work, but it’s a place to –, Free coffee, There’s, free coffee, too (, laughter, ), There’s coffee and Kick Flips, but it’s a great place to network And you get all these Like-Minded people around you that you can just piggyback ideas off of or find just complimentary businesses That maybe I’m a web designer right And you’re working there and You’re, a graphic designer You start sending me web design leads, I start sending you graphic design leads and your service just builds.

And builds and builds Or work at home Have a little office space. Something that’s just yours, free of distractions. I know I’m like a squirrel. I just get distracted all day, Just I’m working and Then Netflix will pop on and my dog runs by and I get distracted so what I like to do, Is go to a coffee shop and drink coffee, (, laughs, )! I love the working at home, It’s not for everybody, but — Not for everyone.

It is if you like to work in your PJs. That’s how I do my webinars ( laughter, ), Okay! So one more question: for you All right: How do you stay productive doing this? Oh, that’s! Tough! It really depends on the type of service business you provide. There’s not one answer fits all, but I’ll go over. Some of the Things that helps most people First off. You need some Type of productivity suite Most popular out there are Google Suite with all their Google Docs Sheets all that good stuff and then Microsoft Office.

I would almost caution people to have basically get a second number And what I mean by that is not going and getting another phone Right. There’s lots of digital services, where you can basically have Another number on your phone so that way people aren’t Calling you on your mobile line and you’re like is this personal. Is this business And then it gets confusing Separate the two Absolutely and then you Don’t answer like a weirdo like hey, this is Nealey’s Web Design and it’s your mom right.

You want to make it professional, so you have that difference. She’ll be happy to hear That you’re always working and working hard, (, laughs, ), She’s, so proud, (, laughter, ) And just separate your personal Life from your business’cause, otherwise it’s going to Start getting overwhelming, I say the same for social media. If you have a business, go And get a business page, Don’t use your personal page, Yeah Absolutely All right and then let’s Talk about getting paid, You’re a service business right, Oh right, yeah, You want to get paid You’re not doing this — That’s an important part of all this This is not just a hobby, Not just a hobby.

We all got bills, Yeah passion that pays Yes, lots of tools out there If you’re going in person, probably Square or something like that, so you got that little dongle and you can swipe that credit card. Venmo’s, probably my favorite just to read the comments. Personally, that people talk about, but quick and easy way to get paid, otherwise, there’s PayPal and Stripe for your website and things like that Sounds like a lot of options.

We got options All right, that’s a wrap. I want to thank my co-host. Justin for being here, It’s been awesome, You’re the expert, and we learned a lot about how to start your service business. But I’m sure you have questions so go ahead and drop them below and be sure to subscribe to our blog for more articles. Like this See ya, Bye

 

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How to Use Facebook for Your Online Business

What’s up, How are ya Good, No surprise we’re going to Dive into Facebook today The book face But I also ( laughing ) The face book. It is your favorite right, It is my favorite No well, I don’t like To choose favorites So we’re talking about Facebook for your business – Maybe I just have a personal page and I’ve decided – maybe it’s Time to create a business page for my business right, What are kind of the First, steps that I need to really think about Well you’re, already, Off to a great start, You wan na go to a business page And that’s really important.

Because then, you get the ability to track metrics and analytics So absolutely business. Page over personal page And then from there You wan na make sure you set up your profile. Get that profile photo. Usually your logo works great or maybe, if it’s your personal brand use a great headshot of yourself and then take that cover photo to really showcase your Products or your services and then from there make Sure all your information is up to date And that Is really important? Your hours, your website, Your phone number 100 % And make sure that lines up with your Google And your Yelp listings too Right I went into a coffee shop recently I Was in northern California, You drink a lot of coffee, ( laughing ), It’s true And the cashier was looking At me, like I don’t know like, maybe she wanted to rush me and I’m thinking they’re Open for two more hours, what’s the deal, ( laughing ) Sure enough, they were Closing in five minutes I go, but your Facebook says and I wanted to Go into my spiel like this, but I saved it got a quick Coffee to go fortunately, but that’s the whole point.

I left with a customer experience that wasn’t as ideal And then onto probably one of the largest most impactful components: content Right, always preach Quality over quantity Yeah, so you definitely Want to make sure you vary your content, So mix it up. You know you don’t Wan na become predictable; Okay, And you also don’t want to turn into just a business always talking about yourself right. It becomes so salesy.

When it’s always about me, me me So salesy me me me: yeah, Buy this, buy that Yeah sell, sell, sell; Rather you want to Tell tell tell Exactly ( laughing ) Throw something out there. That’s entertaining I mean social media is escapism. Oh yeah, Throw in a good laugh But also educate me, So I always tell my friends: That I follow my dentist on Facebook and they look At me, like I’m crazy, Why right What And it’s because my dentist Shares really educational tips and tricks like how to whiten my teeth without spending hundreds of dollars.

I saw also my yoga studio was just giving a friendly Reminder to stretch how to maintain the zen, which Is really important in life? Absolutely Also, sharing testimonials that you’ve already Received on Yelp and Google and turning it into a Facebook post Right repurpose that content Take that review. Let’s Say it went on about your your ice cream, you’re an ice cream shop, And the review goes on about How you have the best flavors, but the ultimate flavor Is definitely rocky road, Absolutely Yeah, it’s the best Hands down.

So you have that review that the customer went on About your rocky road ice cream and then use Canva or Something and in the background of that review and select A picture of the rocky road on a nice ice cream cone. It really brings it to life. For those of you that don’t know, Canva is a free website that Has all sorts of templates and kits and graphics For literally all things that you could possibly create Like social media templates, Facebook headers all that Good stuff and it’s free – I use it pretty religiously, Also article, So I’m a huge advocate, Of article I love article Just keep it on the shorter Side, attention spans are short Seems like under two minutes: Or so under three minutes Yeah.

Definitely I would even a minute is good and also doing behind the scenes footage. That’s one of my favorite things about following local businesses is like well, I wan na know how This all comes together And showcase your staff And also repurpose anything your customers take User generated content And I think what gets A lot of people hung up on, creating article is, maybe they don’t have a production set like we do right, (, laughing ) And that’s okay.

Our smart phones are Pretty darn good right, Yeah they’re, pretty smart, Take a article with your phone and even it doesn’t have To be the best quality Go behind the scenes. People like that story like to see the other side of things, and it really helps them. Relate to who you are as a business owner You’re, not just some faceless company. So next up we have these groups. Can you tell us a little Bit about what the Facebook groups are and how I can potentially leverage It as a business owner Yeah, so definitely Encourage you to pay attention to other like-minded Businesses, but also groups to piggy back off the Engagement, you already have, I will say, content is Where you wan na spend most of your time, but Groups can be an advantage to getting your business More exposure for sure, So next up we have advertising.

What do we do with the Paid advertising aspect Yeah, so it’s no secret. Facebook has gone on Record to say organic reach is on ( whistling ) the decline Don’t give up on it. Organic content is still Alive and well and breathing, but I think Facebook posts that you boost has a lot of potential and you Can reach a targeted audience, which is one of favorite things about it? You can start off with like five bucks and you can get in front Of a specific demographic age group, zip codes and That way, you know your post is going to reach the right people And with I would kinda Look at the post that maybe have done the best And then boost those and get those that reach out.

That’s a really good point. Thank you for bringing that up. It’s usually ( laughing ) Wait you’re the expert ( laughing ) I dabble So with Facebook. It’s you wan na go ahead and let the post that you’re Doing hang out organically for a little bit, Let it chill see how it Does garner some reach Now once it garners some Reach then boost it, That’s what we found to work best While a lot of people. I Speak to think, there’s no way to track this to ROI.

That’s a total myth. You can actually go ahead and look at it’s called your insights tab and it breaks down everything. You know what your audience is liking engaging with. Are they Clicking on the links, what time of day they’re doing this, and when you look at all of that and really understand it, the insights you can truly be informed about. Where do I go from here right Like? Where do I go from When it comes to which days work best to post, what Time of day works best Does my audience prefer The entertaining posts more than the educational And on which days And from there you can truly Come up with a great strategy, What happens if I’m not Getting maybe the engagement that I want? Are there any like, like Just great pro tips or boosts that I can do to help me.

Just skyrocket and get in front of those people Yes, Contests: Okay, how so So recently, I saw this cafe that had a special music guest coming in and they encouraged their Audience on the Facebook post, which is like promoting the music, Okay, yeah Comment below and tag a friend and then they’re going to do a random drawing, and it’s like two free Tickets to the show That quick little tag, A friend now becomes just free advertisement for you and it’s costing you a couple tickets or maybe a free, drink or free burger.

Exactly Or whatever you do, You could also ask a question: What is your “ go, to” order when You come into our restaurant Or, what’s you favorite thing on the menu and your favorite person to dine with, And so it’s your customers Spreading word of mouth about what’s great to eat So on Twitter and Instagram Hashtags are super relevant, but I don’t always see It as often on Facebook Are they a thing.

Absolutely I mean here’s the thing when it comes to using hashtags Whether it’s on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook, Or if you’re just posting either way you got ta monitor it, because it’s going to be Different for each business, It doesn’t hurt to use Them just be mindful and use relevant, hashtags Perfect and probably only one or two Don’t go overboard. Just a few Yeah, you don’t need to go overboard.

This has been The Journey. Thank you. So much for reading Make sure to like and comment. Below subscribe to know when our next articles are coming atcha and we are signing off

 

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Set up payments in GoCentral Online Appointments | GoDaddy

You can change how you accept payments at Any point by clicking Settings in the top menu bar and then choosing Appointment Payments. You have the option to collect full or partial Payment at the time of booking or to accept payment in person You can set how much of a deposit you require.

If you accept partial payments, If you choose to require any payment up front, You ’ ll need to connect your Square account. Click on the green “ connect, ” button and You ’ ll, be prompted to enter your Square username and password. If you choose to collect in person, you can Keep track of payments by viewing the appointment on your calendar or from the profile of the Customer who booked your services

 

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Top Tips for Google My Business

This is mine. This is me, So if you don’t have a Google, My Business profile you’re, just not showing up for 90 % of the people out there who are searching It’s gone right, poof, Welcome to The Journey, I’m Nealey And I’m Morgan and today we’re going over the beginners guide to Google, My Business So Morgan. What is Google My Business? So Google, My Business or Gmb, as the experts call it yeah, throwing some acronyms at you Right, Google, My Business allows local consumers To find your business on Google Web Search and Google Maps, It’s a one stop shop for all Of your business information and users love it.

It’s visual! It’s tied to the map in the middle of the search. Results page it’s great. So when I do searches I usually see only three businesses pop up. Why is that? That is known as the Google, local three pack, Basically the best of the best businesses for that search, result The ones that have the Most optimized profiles the best of the best They show up. They only show three, Sometimes it’s three and an ad, but that’s how you get to be there.

You can click more results. And then you’ll see all of the Google My Business profiles for that search result but yeah, that’s the cream of the crop that show up in the local three pack [ Nealey ]. I dig it Awesome. So is this all Something you can show us Yeah, absolutely, let’s go check it out, Cool All right. So let’s take a look at Google, My Business in action. Let’s go to Google.Com to See what this looks like [, Nealey ], You should search How’Bout dog groomers [, Morgan, ], Dog, grooming, Okay, so let’s do a dog Groomer in Phoenix Arizona and see what shows up Perfect so the first Thing that you can see this is the local three pack that we talked about, which is the maps Google, based on these three Google, My Business profiles – these Google has indicated Are the most optimized the best answers for dog Groomer Phoenix Arizona Right on We have the Smelly Dog, Dog, Town, Pet Grooming and The Hairy Dog, So let’s jump into the first one to see.

What’s so great about this profile, [ Nealey ] Other than the name [ Morgan ] Other than the Name, it’s pretty darn good! So, as you can see right, Here The Smelly Dog they have optimized their Profile pretty pretty well, So they have their website link. They have directions because They have their address Hours of operation, all It says is open now an area of opportunity here. Is they could add full hours? So that way you can know well what, if I wan na go Tomorrow or on Saturday [ Nealey ] Right, when do they close? You don’t wan na go too late.

[ Morgan ] Right, [, Nealey ] and have to Go all the way back: [, Morgan, ], So they’re missing that which is fine, but that’s an Area of opportunity to fix You can also see that there are questions which people have asked. And then there’s answers in addition to lots and lots of photos about the business where it’s located. What it looks like inside Some examples of dog grooming and hair cuts and what to expect, if you were to take your dog here, That’s so important, especially just how the outside looks.

I don’t know how many Places I’ve driven past and it’s just a wild goose Chase trying to find it That makes it super easy for me, And the nice thing About Google, My Business in with the maps, particularly you, can see where this business shows up and maybe The Smelly Dog’s Too far away for you, so you can just click. On one of the websites, I like Hot Dogs and Cool Cats All Breeds Grooming. That seems more up my alley where I live and then you can click and you can see if this is The right business for you, So one other thing to point out we’ve been talking about.

You need to create your profile or claim your profile. Here’s an example right here: All it says, is dog grooming and there’s no information. It just has the location Most likely this was a user that just came in and said: hey I’ve had my dog groomed here, a grooming place exists but, as you can see, there’s no information. Other than the zip code, Literally nothing. So there is this button here that says own this business question mark you can click it and that’s how you can start the process to claim your profile.

If I were this dog Groomer, I would for sure do this right away because There’s so much information about my business – that’s not here, and people are looking for [ Nealey ] Right. If anyone goes and see that there their Going to think it doesn’t exist and their moving on. So that’s all I wanted to show you. I just wanted to give you visually what this looks like on. The search results page, so you can see what customers are seeing for your business when They search for you, So that was awesome.

Demo Thank you, but what about the audience at home? Why? Why should they set up A Google My Business account. It gives you so much more visibility to your local business, 90 % of the worldwide search. Traffic goes through Google, So if you don’t have a Google, My Business profile you’re, just not showing up for 90 90 % of the people out There, who are searching 90 % – it’s gone right. Poof and, like I said before, having A Google My Business profile, it really is a one stop.

Shop for your customers to learn everything about your business; Everything They love clicking on the pretty map and they Click on your business and they get your name Phone number address hours of operation, reviews star ratings and they can click and go to your website and check out photos of All your amazing products Right, it’s just it’s one link, but again they don’t Have to go any further cause all that information is there, And the last reason you should set it up is because can tap into Really cool analytics about people who are visiting your Google, My Business profile, I love analytics, but what What type of analytics, What can we see So it gives you information, About the number of people who are calling your Business from that link who are visiting your website all sorts of stuff, All right, so you have me sold.

How do we start So? The first thing you need to do is you need to create your Google, My Business profile, Go to Google.Com/business To create your profile or to claim your profile, because sometimes you’ll have a profile already created by other users, and you need to claim that to say “, Hey, I actually own this. This is mine,!” This is me And then on that you’re Going to put in some basic information about your website, the name phone number address, So the next step is, you need To optimize your profile, A lot of people fill in The basic information and go on their merry way and they don’t do anything else and Google doesn’t like that.

They wan na fully I don’t like that optimized profile. I know you don’t So optimizing. Your profile means going in adding photos of your business, putting your menu. If you have it, responding to reviews all sort of things to really Provide so much context and make that have tons of information. Also, if you have keywords, That you’re, trying to target on your website, For your businesses, you should probably sprinkle those in A little bit throughout Just a little bit Just a little little Taste of the keyword Right and that will help as well with SEO The more value you Can add to that profile to get people to actually stay and look around the better All right guys.

I hope you found this beginners guide to Google My Business helpful, so you can get started, Start getting lots of business Checkin’ out all those analytics All the good stuff Right and if you’ve created your Google, My Business Account or claimed it, let us know in the comments below Like this article, subscribe to the blog and ring that bell. If you Wan na see these articles first, This has been The Journey and we’re signing off.

 

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SEO for Beginners – How to Rank in Search

And the most trusted for searches related to Your products or business, So those two things, Relevance and trust – is What Google’s looking for to determine? Which which Websites, it should rank on the first page, And so when I say Google, just so you know, I’m going to be using that interchangeably for all search engines. Because 167 billion searches happen on Google a month. That’s a ton. Most searches happen on Google right Right, so I’m just going to Use, Google interchangeably, I mean it is the 167 billion Pound gorilla in the room, so we’re just going to go with it.

I’m scared All right so SEO, like Why why is it important? Why should we invest our time? Energy and money into it So search engines, they’re The new Yellow Pages: This is where people go to find answers Billions upon billions of Searches are happening each month and many of those are for Your products and services, So, if you’re not showing up On the search results, page you’re missing out on a Huge untapped potential of all these customers, Who, literally, are typing your products into the search? Bar wanting to purchase 88 % of people, research Before they buy and they’re-, where do they research [ Nealey ], That’s huge Google, so you need to just- It’s just plain and simple: You need to be there So, instead of me telling You, let me just show you, Let’s go check out a Search result right now, Cool: let’s do it All right, so we’re going to Break down the different pieces of SEO by going to the Search results page itself: Okay, So, let’s dive into it, So let’s go to Google.

Com and What’s an example business that we should look into [ Nealey, ] Um: let’s try, lawyers [, Morgan, ], Laywers, ahh, That business of yours is getting big time: huh [ Nealey ], Something like that. [ Morgan, ], Yeah, Phoenix Arizona, you need a lawyer now So lawyer, Phoenix Arizona. So what I just typed into The search bar is known as the search query and this Is a phrase or a question that you are looking for answers for This can contain your Keywords, for example, lawyer, is a keyword and Phoenix Arizona is probably a keyword.

So now, let’s look at the Three different pieces of the search engine results, page Also known as the SERP Okay, so these first two sections Right here these are the ads paid ads and normally You can tell because they have a little ad flag right there. So you can see there are two ads here and then, if we scroll down to The next section this is the local map listing sections, So these are local businesses.

Only so if you serve a national audience or you Don’t have a physical location that you serve, then you Aren’t going to show here The way that you appear Here is you have to have great SEO on your website? And you also have to have an optimized Google, My Business profile, And you can see that only a Few businesses appear here so there’s usually three. This is known as the local three pack And then occasionally there’d be an ad, So this is an example of Someone who’s paying to appear in the local listings and Then these three below it are the ones that are naturally Organically showing up here, which Google has deemed For Phoenix Arizona, these are the best three.

You can click on more places. And that’s going to bring you a wider map of all the Different local lawyers, So you can see quite a few And then you can dig into their Google My Business profile from there, So here’s an example of one So the next and last piece at the bottom. These are the organic results. This is where you want to be Because, unlike the paid ads, you have to pay to play for those.

So once your ad budget is Out poof you’re gone you’re no longer there, But with these you prove to Google over time that you’re the most relevant and The most trusted answer and then you’re going to stay Here, for a long long time, as long as you continue To show Google that you’re better than your competition And people love these A lot of people while ads are affective, we’re kind of trained to Just skip over the ads and go straight down: To the organic results, and so so many people will Just hop down right here and they’ll click and find their lawyer, So I wan na go back to the Top and I wan na talk about keywords and keyword.

Competitiveness because keywords are things which We’ll be talking about, you need to put all across your website. It’s these search terms. That people are looking for, and so you need to make Sure that you have that on your website as well Um, however, some are much More competitive than others, So if you look at lawyer, Phoenix Arizona, there’s about 32 million results, It’s pretty broad Phoenix is a pretty big city.

If we change it to something. That’s less competitive, let’s say a dog grooming- Dog groomer Phoenix Arizona, only 2.3 million results So clearly less competitive business. So there’s not as much competition there, which is great if you’re a Dog groomer cause. That means you have a- if you’re Doing the right SEO it’s going to be easier to Appear on the first page for that search term, Unlike lawyers, where They put a lot of money into advertising.

It’s a very Very very competitive space. There are people, always Fighting for those top spots, Should we only put short keywords: Is there anything else we can use So initially, no With Google. You need to start Small with they’re called long-tail keywords, so They’re they’re keywords with three four: five: Six words altogether um, because you need to prove your authority in the small, less competitive Spaces before Google is going to realize that you Should be ranking for these more broad terms, So for this example, If I’m a dog groomer, let’s say I specialize in poodle grooming, So we’re going to change It to poodle, groomer, Phoenix Arizona And you can see the Competitiveness there’s only 300 thousand search.

Results, so this is great because there’s not as many People who put poodle grooming on their websites, and so for me this is a great opportunity. For me to start building that authority with Google, So remember if I’m a dog Groomer and you go to my website and there’s absolutely Nothing about dog grooming, it’s just my name. My phone Number and maybe a photo Google’s going to look at that and think this doesn’t talk anything about It’s not relevant Yeah.

It’s not relevant. So this person must not be great for this keyword: They’re, probably not a dog groomer at all, So our job is to go and make Sure that all the content on our website is relevant, To those keywords, All right, so you’re Telling me all I need to do is update just a little bit. Of content on my website, Not exactly so remember, That we’re doing this not only for our users, So they have information, but for Google, Okay, So and Google wants our Websites to be structured in a very particular way right.

Ultimately, it’s a robot That’s scanning the backend of our website, so the Backend data of the website, Google wants to make sure that We have it formatted in a way that it can easily read and Know what our website is about, So these are things like Our H1 tag, our meta data meta descriptions which I’m going to go into right now to show you where this is [: Nealey ] Awesome. Let’s see it [ Morgan ]! So for Since we’re here on this poodle grooming website, Let’s go to this one Puff and Fluff Grooming and Pet Sitting: [ Nealey ], I’m all about rhyming, [, Morgan ]! It’s a nice! Looking Website it has great colors great branding, but the problem is Google doesn’t see any of that.

This is what they see Boom. [ Nealey ]. That’s gross [, Morgan ]! That’s not that pretty And end users, your customers, If this was your way that your website was presented, they would get nothing from this However, this is exactly what Google looks at when they’re Wanting to rank a website All right, so you’re Telling me that I have to know how to code to do that. Not necessarily because Modern day website builders already have this built in here.

You can see with this website. They’re actually using a plugin for WordPress Called “ All in One SEO”, Where you just put it in and It just makes it super easy for you, as a non-technical. User to update all of these SEO elements, which is awesome So as part of this, you need To have your meta title, so this is basically the title: Of each part of your website that when you go back to the Search engine results page you, this is what will show up So for this example.

They set their meta title for Puff and Fluff Grooming and Pet Sitting And then you can also see right, Here the meta description they get to choose what that is All right. So that’s the basics of SEO. The search engine results page Everything on your website. We just talked about everything on-site that you need to do to your Website so now, let’s talk about the things off-site. Okay, That shows Google that you’re The most trusted answer for search results.

All right so explain trust A little bit more for us Yeah, so I have an analogy. So let’s say that you get a call one day and it’s from a fifth grader And the fifth grader says: “: Hey Morgan is the best basketball player in the entire world..”. Are you going to believe him? Probably not. I think you paid him Right all right now. What If Kobe Bryant LeBron James and Michael Jordan, called you up and said, “ Hey, I’ve got the scoop.

On this new player, Morgan She’s, the best basketball Player in the entire world.”. What would you say to that? Would you believe them? Oh absolutely Yeah They have authority, They have authority, so you will trust their opinion. And it’s the same thing with Google: The way that Google can Tell if your website, if it should trust your Website cause again, we could toot our own horn all day long, And we see this all the time.

People say: “ best dog, groomer, In Phoenix Arizona,,” right, Like people love to toot their own horn, but with Google [ Nealey ] Self-proclaimed. It needs that authority. From other people and that’s where backlinks come in And so backlinks are Links on other websites that point back to your Website and Google uses this as an indicator to see Oh okay, this is actually a really good website. Other people are talking about it Now with backlinks.

It’s Quality over quantity, You don’t just want to go on. The internet and go put your you know, go on every comment. Every YouTube comment, like just put your website everywhere, cause that’s going to look spammy Google’s not going to like that. It wants really high quality. The Michael Jordan’s, if you will, What is one thing they can do right now, The biggest thing that you Can do that will give you so much bang for your buck is to put content on your website.

Especially content that has your keywords To determine those keywords: You should probably… What are the products and Services that you offer or what are the products And services that you want your customers to know about, For example, using the dog Groomer in Phoenix Arizona – maybe is there certain types, Of grooming that you do that you’re really well known for Let’s say you’re the best Darn toy poodle groomer this side of the Mississippi, ( laughs, ).

Okay, You should have a separate Page with content on it about that specific Service that you offer So that’s what I recommend Go make sure your page Just has tons of content so that way, when users and Ultimately, Google look at it, they know exactly what You’re about and then Google will start ranking you All right guys. I hope you Found this beginner’s guide to SEO helpful and that These are actionable things that you can start doing now.

So that way, your customers can start finding your business online If you’re going to get started. And you found this helpful, let us know in the comments: Below the number one thing you learned about SEO today Awesome and make sure You like this article, subscribe to the blog And if you wan na see these articles first ring that bell, But this has been The Journey Signing off.

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Offering Coupons and Promotions to Help Customers

Today, to talk about ways to boost your sales during This COVID-19 crisis by running promotions or offering coupons, We realize that it may seem Counterintuitive to offer discounts or coupons when times are tough but now’s the right time, because you wan na encourage your customers to Continue to buy from you And let’s face it, some of your Customers may be struggling so a good promotion or Coupon may be just the thing they need to get them to Make that buying decision Over the past two weeks, I’ve Seen, restaurants and stores offering unique things in My area here in San Diego, For example, I’ve seen Some of my favorite stores and restaurants selling gift Cards at a discounted rate – and this is a great way – To earn revenue right now and your loyal customers who love to come to your establishment, they’re going to wan na do so more than ever, when social distancing Is a thing of the past, Some restaurants that I Know have gotten creative with their take-out options too.

I’ve seen some of them. Offering free dessert with take-out orders and some are selling full or half trays of Their most popular items at a great price Yeah most of the companies That I buy products through online are offering Free shipping right now, which I’m super frugal, so I love this And with more and more people, Turning to online shopping, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, this is a no-brainer And, of course, the other Thing I’ve seen are a lot of special coupons and discounts.

With my favorite retailers, I’ve seen offers for Buy-One-Get-One free or a certain percentage. Amount, if I spend so much – And I know a good sale – can Entice me to buy something that I’ve been thinking about Yeah totally. These are all great ideas for running promotions during this time Darlene can you show us how To create coupon codes for our Websites, + Marketing, Ecommerce customers Yep I’d, be happy to do.

That Emma, let’s get to it, We’re going to start on the Websites + Marketing dashboard From there. Let’s choose Marketing and select Coupons, Select, Add to add a new coupon We’re now on the Create Coupon page. First, we need to create a coupon code. This is what customers enter. During the checkout process, If the coupon you’re creating Is representing a certain sale or free shipping make That part of the code, For example, running a sale right now on the COVID-19 crisis.

You might want to use STAYSAFE Or STAYHEALTHY as the code, If you aren’t feeling Creative, that’s, okay, you can click the Get A Code link and one will be generated. Just for you We’re going to use STAYSAFE. The code can be between Three and 30 characters and it’s not case sensitive Now, you need to select when you want the coupon to start and end. If you don’t want the coupon to expire check the Never End box, The Options section is Used to add restrictions to the coupon, You can limit the coupon To a product or category Just check the box and Make your selections You can also set the Maximum number of products per order that will receive the discount, For example, you only want To give 20 % off of one item, The next option gives us the ability to limit the number of total uses that the coupon can be used by everyone, not just one customer.

For example, you want To give 20 % off, but only to the first 100 customers, You can add that restriction here. If you want to require A minimum order total you can add that in this section, Maybe you’re offering a coupon for $ 10 off once the customer reaches A certain threshold We’re not going to add any Restrictions at this time, so we’re going to click, Save Now you’re back on the main Coupon page.

You can see an overview Of the coupon details and you can edit the coupon By clicking the pencil icon or delete it by clicking the trash, can That’s it. That’s how You make coupon codes. Thank you, Darlene, Hey! That does look pretty easy. I hope you thought so too, Once you have your coupon set up, make sure you share the Information with your customers put it front and center on your site and send an email to existing Customers to let them know and don’t forget to share Over on social media too – And we understand that Times are tough right now for everyone, so letting your Customers know that you’re still here ready to help Them is always a good thing.

It was great to see you Emma Yeah. You too Darlene stay healthy, Stay, safe,

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Adding Product Reviews to Your Ecommerce Site to Increase Trust

Today we’re going to talk. About adding product reviews to your eCommerce site, That’s right! Darlene People, trust other people, especially when those who’ve done things that they want to do. Let’s say you want to buy a new car or a new computer or even A great new hot sauce You may ask your friends or family, or even a random social media.

Page for recommendations Having those recommendations make us feel good about our decisions to do business with an unfamiliar company, especially in a time of uncertainty where businesses are closing their doors and moving to an online model. Maybe, for the first time, Yeah Visible review posted in the last few days could be The difference between a sale and your customer scrolling Down to the next website, By showing the trust of Your current customers, new customers, are far more Likely to check you out, Let me show you how to connect your Websites, + Marketing, Ecommerce site to Yotpo, so your customers can start To leave product reviews and ratings on your site, The starting point is our Websites, + Marketing dashboard From the header choose Store and Overview In the Track & Capture Sales, section click enable reviews Connecting your online store to Yotpo.

Let’s you collect reviews with the email after purchase feature stand out in search results by displaying your customer ratings, and your customer can share Their reviews on social media, Let’s turn on product reviews In the build and trust With product reviews window, you can sign in with an existing account by clicking connect or Enter the email address where you want the reviews to be sent, then click sign up.

I’m going to enter my email, Address then click sign up. That’s it Now that Yotpo’s enabled you can click manage reviews To see your product reviews, If this is your first time using Yotpo you’ll, see a Welcome to Yotpo page Click get started At this point. Yotpo Has a article to teach you how to use their site, We recommend that you read Their article and then click next, so you can get familiar.

With the interface I wan na change gears and show you what this looks like on your site, so you can see what Your customers will see First we’re going to publish the site. Let’s go check it out From the shop page. Let’s Look at one of the products I’m going to choose Larry’s Hot Sauce From the product page itself. There’s an option for your Customers to write a review, Let’s try it We’ll give it some stars, enter a title, write a review and enter our name and email.

Don’t worry, The email won’t Show on the final review When things look good click post. Once the review has been submitted, your customer can share their review on their own social media. By clicking the share links Now, when other customers visit your site and look at this product, they’ll see the reviews. Left by other customers, It’s a good practice to Respond to your customer reviews – and you can do this by Responding to the email that you receive when a Review is actually submitted Now if the review is positive, you can thank your customer right And if the review is negative, that gives you a chance to make it right Gives you a chance to neutralize it.

That’s right Emma And it’s so important to do that. It shows your potential customers that you will do what you can to make things right if needed, Darlene thanks for showing us how to add product reviews to our site. It was great to see you You, too, Emma Stay safe and healthy

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How to Take Your Home Based Business Online

What’s up Justin What up How’s it going Living the dream, Yeah. So first thing that comes to mind and I get asked this. A lot is: where do you start when It comes to just technology, Or you know,,’cause. You say online.

What comes first Website or domain Well you’re, currently offline right as a home-based business Yeah You got ta get online and The first way to do that is with a domain name and a website. That’s your online real estate and it’s how people find you online. That’s like godaddy.Com, Or coffeeandkickflips.Com It’s how people get to you. It’s like street address right And after that you need hosting essentially think of that, as like online storage for your website, and then you need something.

To build the website Now many people aren’t web designers and they don’t want to Spend a lot of their time building a website, so there Are tons of tools out there that just help you build websites or there’s WordPress if you’re a little bit more Technically inclined, but Not me, You don’t have to go overboard. Just have a homepage Have a little bit about what you do. Maybe the services you provide Or if you’re online shop like if you’re on a Farmer’s Market – and you really wan na, bring that to life and sell your products online, then you can have a little online shop.

That’s pretty easy to Use and a contact page Yeah, so speaking of Farmer’s Market, let’s say I’m out there. You know selling some plant-based soap, Okay Or hot sauces, or both I’m in (, Emma laughs ). So once I get a domain That makes a ton of sense’cause we’re going from offline to online Then what’s next. Well, probably the next step is social and that’s kinda, where you’re the expert. Now you want to be on Your favorite platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, You also wan na – be on Business directory sites, like Yelp Google pages, Oh absolutely And claim your your listings.

Yes, Don’t let it just be open to the masses. That’s your baby right! It’s your business! Make sure you control it. Okay, so once you’re On the social media, I know that’s a big step, but it’s not where the majority Of your time is going to go, The majority of your time goes into actually creating content, so you connect with your customers right [, Justin ] Right. So can you elaborate on that The importance of engagement and connecting with potential customers Right so we’ll take the Kinda, the Farmer’s Market example that you have there.

So if I’m, what were you selling Hot sauce and what Plant-based soaps, of course Great combination. So if I — You use them after You use the hot sauce (, both laugh ), If I’m selling hot sauce and Soap at the Farmer’s Market, — Yeah – I wan na – take it online and I really wan na take it. Into social media presence, What I don’t wan na do is just Start listing off my products and saying “: Hey this Is all the cool stuff “ you can buy from me.

”? What I wan na do is basically Start opening people up to my world, the hot sauce And all natural soaps there Interesting world ( laughs ), So you do that by basically Showing what you do Like the Instagram Stories is A great way to do that, Just pop up cool I’m making a soap or I’m makin’, a hot sauce Ooh behind the scenes, Try not to get those mixed,’cause! You don’t wan na like be scrubbing with the hot sauce soap, But open up your world Talk about what you do as a Business and be relatable People buy from people, They don’t buy from companies right, [, Emma ] Yeah, And if you start to really open up who you are as a business.

Owner your day-to-day the struggles you go through, maybe just some of the cool stuff you do beyond your business itself. It really helps people connect with you and then they’re more Apt to buy it from you tell their friends about you And get a hashtag, Yes About your soap or the hot sauce. Well, my soap and my hot sauce brand # Hotsoap So that way, yeah ( laughs ). So that way, when customers Are using my products, they can use the hashtag and then –.

Yes, I can re-share that Or reTweet it right Right, over and over — And over And over And that’s helping you Create just more content, That’s called user-generated content And I know you’re an expert at this. It’s making people create posts and having your hashtag in there, and that gives you more content to post Yeah. I’m curious email Does that matter: Email marketing, Still a big thing! Should businesses do that if They’re trying to go online with their home-based business, Yes, email is super underrated and a lot of people think Of email marketing as spam, And it shouldn’t be spam, It is spam if go the same.

Approach of like saying, hey, here’s all my products, Buy buy buy, buy, buy, But you wan na really Engage the conversation Bye, bye, bye, (, Justin, laughs, ), Engage that conversation And help your people out, If you maybe say you’re Doin’, the hot sauce and all natural soap – maybe you send out recipes Of your all natural soap, Maybe try this at home with Your family or your kids Try to get different ideas and be creative about The content you give out and even if people don’t Open your actual message: that’s okay! They still see your brand each and every time they go in their inbox and that’s brand recognition Stay top of mind And it’s saying top of mind Yeah.

So with your website a great think to do to start collecting those emails. You can’t just say: hey: Sign-Up for my newsletter, Nobody cares about a newsletter. You create a lead. Generator and what that is, is just something free, That you can give them in exchange for their email address. So if I’m a hot sauce and all Natural soap, maybe I’d, say, cool sign up, enter your email. I’ll, send you 20 % discount Or enter email.

You’ll get five Recipes to do this yourself, Things like that Cool And it’s kind of an Even exchange and then because then you build that List build that list, — You’re, giving me some really good ideas. I check my email when I wake up. I check it throughout the day. I check it in the evening, So it’s — It’s with me forever Yeah. It’s still very much a blog that consumers are using And checking frequently Yes, So it’s another avenue if you will to reach that next customer or, like you said with your regulars, just stay top of mind Right, you wan na, be Where your audience is and your audience lives on social and they live in their emails All right, so that’s a Wrap on today’s episode, I wan na give a huge shout out: To my co-host, Justin Nealey ( crowd cheering ) The expert ( Justin laughing ).

I hope he helped your Home-Based business get online If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you Go ahead and share below and in the meantime, Subscribe to our blog, See ya.

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