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10 Work From Home Careers You Should Know About

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By Gargi Ghosal

If you’d like to work from home but aren’t sure which careers let you operate remotely, here are some of the best ones you should know about.

Even a couple of years back, work from home seemed like a perk for freelancers—not the rest of us. However, with the steady evolution of technology, more and more jobs can now be executed remotely.

Though you can’t extinguish fires over Slack or repair cars on Zoom, there are a number of remote jobs that you can do. If you’re hoping to work remotely, here’s a look at some work from home careers that are in-demand because they pay salaries comparable to on-site jobs.

1. Blogger or Writer

You no longer need to choose between a profitable career and your love for writing. With most companies striving to develop an online presence in the digital world, writing jobs are in high demand.

If you want to get your foot through the door, starting off with blogs might be a good idea. If you’re persuasive, you can try copywriting, and if you’re well-versed in technology, technical writing might be a good fit. With digital products on the rise, UX (User Experience) writing is a booming field. Your problem-solving skills and technical proficiency can come in handy.

Interestingly, there’s one skill that binds together all successful writers: they must be proficient in the use of technology and in a position to leverage it through and through.

2. Digital Marketing Consultant

A digital marketing consultant develops, implements, and monitors a business’ online marketing strategies. They focus on building marketing initiatives and play a crucial role in understanding a company’s target audience and their behaviour.

Their job is to create a high-converting sales strategy that helps grow your business through strategy, planning, and the efficient use of digital tools and techniques.

3. Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant does everything from conducting research, scheduling appointments, to creating presentations. While some positions can focus solely on administrative tasks like invoicing clients and managing calendars, others can require copywriting and social media management skills.

Most virtual assistants work with a number of clients at a time, from a location that fits them the best. In that regard, the career offers flexibility and versatility to job-seekers.

4. Web Search Evaluator

A number of companies hire web search evaluators to give feedback on internet search results. To elaborate, a web search evaluator helps companies assess whether internet search results are accurate, timely, and comprehensive. Mostly popular as a work from home position, web search evaluator roles don’t require a lot of experience.

a person browsing the web

It can be quite a rewarding option for people interested in computer science, research, analytics, and market trends. They rate websites, videos, web pages, maps, and images based on a key performance indicator (KPI) to demonstrate how effectively the rated website or image ranks in internet search results.

5. Captioner

As captioners, your job is to transcribe pre-recorded audio, video, and live television programs. You must be able to type accurately as well as quickly to become a captioner.

While some of your work involves transcribing parts, captioning involves specialized transcription and is perfect for individuals who’d like a work from home career that’s not entirely mainstream. Also called steno captioners, captioners use stenotype machines and phonetic keyboards for accuracy.

6. Web Developer

Web developer roles used to be on-site roles, not long ago. However, with the popularity of digital nomads and remote roles, web developer positions are now suited best for a work from home career. As a web developer or a programmer, your job is to create software and applications by writing code, debugging it, and deploying it.

You employ one or more programming languages to build a product or service, or specific parts of it. While web developers operate in agile teams, everyone has specific tasks they are assigned to.

7. Social Media Manager

With almost all companies now having dedicated social media accounts, social media managers are in demand. Companies hire them to maintain their accounts or develop a complete social media strategy involving everything from social media campaigns to brand voice development.

If you’re creative, have fresh ideas, and are great with new tools and digital mediums, social media management could be a good fit. You’ll be responsible for increasing engagement, social media traffic, and building brand recognition. Many social media managers work for a number of companies, as the position is flexible and remote.

8. Online Educator

The role of an online educator is identical to traditional teachers in developing curriculums, monitoring student performance, and providing instruction on specific subjects and specializations. The key difference lies in the medium in which the educators operate.

Perfect for anyone with a teaching degree or specialization in core competency, online educators teach students via online platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams.

9. Graphic Designer

As most companies are trying to increase their digital presence, the demand for good graphic designers in computer systems designs and related services is on the rise.

RELATED: The Top Free Graphic Design Tools You Can’t Live Without

Almost all graphic design jobs are going remote, thus giving designers the flexibility to work from a place of their choice. You can also create and sell templates, be a design consultant for a number of companies, or design fonts, pre-made logo packages, and printable items.

10. Product Reviewer

a woman reviewing products

You can make a decent living, and that too from home—reviewing products that you use. So, you must begin by picking a niche and registering yourself in a site that provides product review gigs. You have to come up with ideas for new products, review products, provide opinions on advertising campaigns, and more.

Companies also hire product reviewers to review products that are in the testing phase. They ship you the products and pay you an amount that’s mutually agreed upon in return for real user feedback.

Work From Home Careers Are Fast Becoming the Norm

Work from home careers are only expected to rise as they are being preferred by employees and employers alike. They increase productivity, decrease stress, and allow a better work-life balance for employees, while they increase revenues and decrease costs for employers.

The jobs listed above are only some popular work from home careers that are gaining traction. You must choose the one that best fits your skill sets, relevant experience, and interest areas.

By Gargi Ghosal

Gargi is a writer, storyteller and researcher. She specializes in writing compelling content pieces on all things Internet for clients across countries and industries. She’s a Literature Post-Graduate with a Diploma in Editing & Publishing. Outside work, she hosts TEDx shows and Literature festivals. In an ideal world, she’s always a minute away from heading off to the mountains.

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How to get better search results in Google

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By Andy Wolber

Try these refinements to your keyword search to improve the relevance of Google search results.

A keyword search on Google.com can be a great way to learn more about many topics. Enter a few terms and receive results in under a second or so. Typically, the displayed results will either give you the answer you seek or provide a link to a relevant page.

But when you want to explore a topic in depth, you can improve the usefulness of your results with a few simple search techniques. For example, I was helping a non-profit organization identify potential case management software solutions. The basic search of the three keywords returned more than 2 billion results. A few search refinements narrowed the results to just over 76,000.

The following five-step approach will help you refine your search with the use of quotes to group terms, combined with methodical exclusion and inclusion of keywords.

1. Adjust Google search settings

For serious searching, I suggest you modify your default Google search preferences (Figure A). While on Google.com in a desktop-class browser, select Settings (lower right corner) then Search Settings. In most organizational environments, I recommend the following adjustments:

  • Enable SafeSearch to exclude explicit content from the results,
  • Adjust the number of results per page to 50 to display a significant number of results,
  • Select “Do not show popular searches” to reduce the impact of trending topics, and
  • Select the “Open each selected result in a new browser window” so you may explore links without having to repeatedly re-enter your search.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save after you make these changes.

Figure A

Screenshot of Google Search Settings page, with SafeSearch on, 50 results per page selected, Do not show popular searches set, and option to Open each selected result in a new browser window checked.

In most organizational settings, I suggest you make a few changes to the default Google Search Settings, such as turning on SafeSearch and setting the number of results per page to 50.

2. Put search keyword phrase(s) in quotes

When you enter your initial search, put quotes around keywords to indicate a specific phrase (Figure B). In my example, results for three keywords with no quotes (i.e., case management software) return more than 6 billion results. Why? Because a page only needs to have any one of those three terms on it to merit inclusion. Results for the three keywords placed in quotes (i.e., “case management software”) requires a page to contain these three specific words in sequence. In this example, the use of quotes narrows the number of results to a little less than 2.3 million.

You may use multiple sets of quotes to return links to pages that contain both phrases (e.g., “quantum computing” “quantum supremacy”).

Review the returned results — all the way to the bottom of the page. If you detect several results that are not what you want, make a note of common keywords in these unwanted results.

Figure B

Screenshot of Google search for "case management software" shown to return about 2,280,000 results.

Put quotes around keywords to search for a specific phrase.

3. Exclude certain results with –

Next, modify your search a bit. After your initial keyword phrase (or phrases) in quotes, add a – followed by a word you noted in the undesirable results. In my example, “case management software” returned many results related to systems used by law firms. So, I extended my search to exclude results with two keywords (e.g., -legal -law). This reduced the number of results to about 240,000 (Figure C) — roughly 10% of the number of pages returned when I used only the three-keyword phrase in quotes.

Again, review the full page of returned results. If you still find many non-desirable pages, repeat the exclusion process again with an additional – followed by a common unwanted keyword.

Figure C

Screenshot of Google search for "case management software" -legal -law shown to return about 240,000 results.

Review the initial set of results, then modify your search to exclude pages with keywords not relevant to the pages you want. Use a – symbol in front of a term to exclude pages with a keyword, as shown (e.g., -legal -law).

4. Require results with +

To refine the results further, add a keyword whose presence increases the likelihood that a page will be relevant. In my example, since I sought software for the non-profit community, I added +non-profit as an additional term in my search (Figure D). Now, every page returned needed to have the keyword “non-profit” on it in some fashion. This changed the number of results from 240,000 in the prior step to slightly more than 76,000.

Again, review the entire initial results page. If needed, add any additional required terms (e.g., place a + in front of the term). Note that you also may place a + in front of keywords contained within a quote (e.g., +”cloud computing”) to require the presence of a phrase.

Figure D

Screenshot of Google search for "case management software" -legal -law +non-profit shown to return about 76,300 results.

Use + before a keyword to specify that results pages must include that term. In this example, pages must include the term non-profit due to the last keyword (i.e., +non-profit).

5. Explore results

After you complete the above sequence, you should have a page of 50 highly relevant results to explore. I typically will open around 10 links, review those pages, then proceed to peruse another set. Often these pages provide additional links to explore and also help me identify keywords for additional searches. I save pages for later review to the Chrome reading list, as a Chrome bookmark or as a link with a note in Google Keep.

What search techniques do you use?

When I want to explore a subject deeply, I also tend to search other sources. Wikipedia serves as a solid starting point for many topics, especially when pages have detailed “see also,” “references” and “further reading” sections with links. Twitter searches help me find people who tweet about topics via “top” and “most recent” searches. For additional resources, I search with DuckDuckGo, Mojeek or Qwant to access different sets of results.

What search techniques do you use when you want to learn more about a topic? What search tips do you advise people in your organization use? Let me know how you find relevant information — either with a comment below or on Twitter (@awolber).

Feature Image Credit: Image: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic (Screenshot: Google.com) 

By Andy Wolber

Sourced from TechRepublic

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The Rise Of Youpreneur

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Everyone’s turning into a ‘youpreneur’ in the pandemic. Brand ‘you’, got even bigger! In the world of social media, virtual hybrid work-life, everyone is their own personal brand entrepreneur

Welcome to the world of youpreneurs! The pandemic is witnessing a rise of youpreneurs like never before. They are social magnets of success. Youpreneurs are capitalising how they show up in other people’s mind and timelines. In 2014, podcaster Chris Ducker coined the word ‘youpreneur’, to describe the rise of personal brand entrepreneurs.

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We are all youpreneurs in the pandemic, where lives are lived online. Posting is emerging as the surest and quickest way to strengthen your personal brand. Youpreneurs are the public face of the business, they have dynamic personalities and drive their success. From Richard Branson to Jeff Bezoz, powerful Youpreneurs are changing the game.  There was a time when personal branding was seen as something exclusive to celebrities and super successful. In 2022, it is accessible to everyone. If you are an entrepreneur, consultant, coach, author or ‘solopreneur’, you can train yourself to become a youpreneur.

In a pandemic world, we are witnessing writers, bloggers, travellers, corporate honchos, PR gurus, CEOs leverage their timeless personalities and unique experience by posting on LinkedIn and Instagram to grow with their audience despite shaky economies, changing technologies and uncertain world dynamics.

Says Vineet Bajpai, entrepreneur and author, “In an era when influencer marketing has become the buzzword and creators are fast becoming brands, youpreneurs need to ride the personal branding wave in order to stay relevant. From seasoned authors like Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), global motivational gurus like Gary V, to modern restaurateurs like Salt Bae, thousands of businesses world over are thriving on the back of the entrepreneurs’ personal brand. Some strategies that can galvanise your personal branding journey on social media are as a youpreneur are as follows: Post. Post. Post. Remember, nothing beats regularity of content posting. It doesn’t matter if you have hundred followers or one million, you can’t hope to build a brand around sparse and sporadic content. Secondly, video is king. Nothing beats a human face talking on the screen, or a smartly made video reel for that matter. No amount of creative designs or product posts can outperform well-made short videos. So, if you don’t have a home studio in place just yet, now is the time to invest in one. Explore multi-channel, 360 degree social media. You’re good on Instagram. Great! But what about LinkedIn? And Twitter? And your blog? A podcast? Yes, you got that right. A holistic, cross-channel presence will more often than not outdo single platform promotions.”

Youpreneurs play by their own rules. Whatever the market fluctuations, they empower themselves. The ‘business of you’ remains powerful, even as the outside world changes. It’s all about impression management, communication and leadership. Every youpreneur cushions their personal financial and business model and makes it future-proof. It’s a great idea to invest in relationships and networking. You might not control the market forces but you can control: ‘brand you’. Says Farzana Suri, entrepreneur and business coach, “Your personal brand is your persona. Every piece of communication defines and strengthens it. Youpreneurs use their tone, presentation, content to resonate their brand essence. I market myself as a success and victory coàch, everything I put out online has the ‘winner or victor’ story narrative. There are few things that help establish your personal brand. My mantras are simple: Stay you, be you and do you; you don’t have to emulate others. Identify your expertise–who you are and what you offer clearly–what do you want to stand for? Keep your content positive and engaging. Consistency matters. Stay consistent also in tone, voice and look. Don’t sell. Learn from others, follow people of influence, take a social media course. Lastly keep adding value by staying up-to-date.”

Every entrepreneur needs to be a youpreneur in 2022. With a solid personal brand in the ‘youpreneur ecosystem’ you can sustain yourself in uncertain times. Chris Ducker writes in his book, The Rise of Youpreneurs, build, market, monetise yourself, “The mantras of being a youpreneur are simple: Know yourself; attract the best, repel the rest. Know who to trust. Learn to flatter yourself.” However, don’t get hooked on the personal development treadmill: be yourself.

More people are beginning to see the value in having an influential personal brand. Since 2020, networking, connecting, and building relationships has moved online. In 2022, we will witness how youpreneurs take their personal branding to the next level. Personal branding on social media will reflect in the way you broadcast your voice with authenticity.

In their book, – Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself, authors Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy talk about how every individual needs to optimise their social media to supercharge their business, “Regardless of who you are, or what you do, social media can be invaluable. It is imperative to create a personal brand that will help you stand out. There’s nothing wrong with letting some of your ‘public personal’ life bleed over into your professional life. ”

In the Youpreneur landscape of 2022, you are creating and master-minding your own success story!

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Nona Walia is a successful journalist and writer. She’s the author of The Art of Mental Toughness: Survival Lessons from the Pandemic. A motivational expert, she is passionate about helping people live their lives in the best possible way. A wellness warrior and a wellness blogger, Walia has done certified online course on Science of Well-Being from the Yale University. She runs a Wellness Channel on YouTube. She has worked with The Times of India for 24 years as a Senior Assistant Editor and is also the acclaimed writer of many articles for Thrive Global.

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

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Social influencers can make – or break – a company’s reputation

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When Nathan Apodaca posted a TikTok video that showed him longboarding while drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice and singing along to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” it was simply a spur-of-the-moment frolic.

Ordinarily, those kinds of videos blend in with the millions of others that crop up on social media. But this one caught fire, eventually pulling more than 80 million views and nearly 13 million likes.

“It struck a chord,” Chris Ferzli, Ocean Spray’s director of global corporate affairs, said in a 2020 interview with CNBC. That “chord” fueled a massive sales increase for the  Massachusetts-based company.

Apodaca is one of many social influencers who earn money or perks by influencing the buying habits of consumers. In Apadaca’s case, Ocean Spray gifted him a new truck and sent him and his fiance on a paid honeyoon.

But it didn’t end there. Money also poured in from online viewers who learned he’d been living in an RV. He used the money to buy a $320,000, five-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Idaho for his family.

That was clearly a win-win for both sides.

The flipside

But the impact of social influencers can cut both ways, according to Doug Bania, an intellectual property valuation and defamation-damages expert with Nevium.

“They need to be aware that when social influencers engage in bad behavior that makes the front pages, the company can quickly lose face with customers and lose money,” he said. “A brand that took years to build can be ruined.”

Such was the case with Jared Fogel, the once famous pitchman for the Subway sandwich chain.

After attributing significant weight loss to eating Subway sandwiches, Fogle appeared in the company’s advertising campaigns from 2000 to 2015, doing numerous TV ads and in-store appearances to promote the company’s prodcuts.

The partnership abruptly collapsed when he was convicted for traveling to pay for sex with minors and for possessing child pornography. He was ultimately sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

Needless to say, Subway’s reputation took a hit.

Willing to take the gamble

Still, a growing number of companies are willing to take the gamble. In fact, the influencer marketing industry is predicted to grow by as much as $10 billion over the next five years.

“It’s become very common,” Bania said. “Companies are realizing that social influencers have very large followings on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and other other platforms. It’s a big audience.”

When businesses weigh the cost of shifting some of their advertising dollars away from traditional marketing channels into less costly social media advertising, the strategy often makes sense, Bania said.

“The other thing about social media is that you can be very audience-specific,” he said. “It can go right to your target market.”

Bania expects the Federal Trade Commission will impose more guidelines in the coming years regarding social media advertising, as well as punishments if those guidelines aren’t followed.

“It can be very risky when you connect your brand with somebody’s personality because we’re all humans,” Bania cautioned. “Some people do good things and some people do bad things, so it’s a risk. The hard thing to determine is if the risk is worth the potential reward.”

It’s all part of what has become known as the “Attention Economy.” Consumers are giving more time and attention to social media platforms, and brands want to be where the attention is.

Bania put it simply:

“You may be older brand,” he said, “but how do you tap into a younger, hip crowd?”

Feature Image Credit: Nathan Apodaca’s TikTok video that showed him longboarding and drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice, fueled a heavy sales boost for Ocean Spray. (AP photo) 

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Improving Instagram Reach With Branded Content in 5 Easy Steps

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Want to reach new audiences on Instagram without running ads? Have you considered branded content but weren’t sure where to start?

In this article, you’ll learn five simple steps to create, launch, and promote Instagram branded content campaigns to reach new people.

What Is Branded Content on Instagram?

Here’s what you need to know before you dive into the world of branded content creation, influencer marketing, and Instagram settings.

Branded content is one of the most powerful tools for Instagram marketing. It bridges the gap between organic content and paid ads, commercial partnerships and authentic recommendations. But as you might imagine, building that bridge takes some skill.

You need to find the right partnerships, set guidelines for your content, and finally, have a plan for boosting and resharing branded content.

Let’s start with some definitions. You might think that any content you produce as a social media manager is branded content: It’s content by a brand.

But Instagram thinks differently. Within this social network, “branded content” has a specific meaning. It’s content that markets your brand but it’s not created or posted by you.

Influencers or creators create this content on your behalf. They receive “an exchange of value” in return, whether that’s payment, product samples, or gifts. And that exchange of value has to be disclosed by using the branded content tools on Instagram.

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Top 10 eCommerce Reports Every Store Owner Should Follow For A Successful Business

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Sourced from FINCYTE

Every venture, whether an eCommerce store, a specialized blog, a portfolio website, or a company’s official website, needs analytics.

Finding the appropriate eCommerce reports and learning about your customers might mean the difference between steady growth and exploding earnings. However, having an inexhaustible supply of good data to mine can be a challenge.

ECommerce reports provide vital data that allows you to make informed business decisions about how to increase sales and revenue while enhancing the customer experience.

Importance of Regular Monitoring in e-Commerce Business

eCommerce Reports

Depending on the type of your subscription, Shopify, Magento, or Woo Commerce all feature a wide selection of reports, ranging from conventional overview dashboards to more granular reports. You can’t keep track of every other eCommerce report on the marketplace. This just dilutes important information, which can easily escape your sight.

So, to help you avoid this problem, we’ve compiled a list of the most crucial eCommerce reports that you should be monitoring. To demonstrate how you can unlock and exploit the full potential of your eCommerce store data, let’s start with the reports provided in the standard Shopify subscription.

1. Overview Dashboard

The report allows users to compare data and identify patterns all in one place. By clicking the “Compare to previous dates” option and selecting the dimensions for comparison, the data can be compared to a specific period or the same date range from the previous year.

You may also see the number of sales made in each of your point-of-sale locations, also the number of sales looked after by each member of the staff, if any.

The overview dashboard makes it simple to see which traffic sources are most effective, how your marketing efforts are going, and what your current repeat customer rate is, so you can act on this information and consider retention methods.

2. Finance Reports

This report summarizes your sales, payments, liabilities, and gross profit. It organizes your sales and returns, as well as the taxes you must pay, to make book keeping easier for you. You can select the period that you need and download the data in a spreadsheet for that month or quarter.

You can also customize the reports by adding or removing metrics, dimensions, and filters to meet your individual needs. If an order has multiple commodities, each commodity appears in the report as a distinct sale or return. The same can be said about shipping expenses. The specifics of an order become available when you click on the order number.

3. Product Analytics

Product analytics reports show you how different products in your portfolio have performed over the last 90 days. This way, you can learn who is buying what, which sources drive the most sales for a specific product, and more about the company’s past performance.

  • Net sales: This value is derived by multiplying the price of each commodity unit by the total number of unit sold, minus the discounts and returns; it can then be compared to the preceding 90-day period’s net sales value.
  • Breakdown of sales: This is the breakdown of all the values that result in net sales when added together.
  • Net sales by channel: The channels that account for the majority of a given product’s net sales.
  • Customers: The percent of customers who made their first purchase from your store versus those who had previously made at least one purchase.

4. Marketing Reports

Only the Sessions Attributed to Marketing report is available on the Shopify Basic package. This report shows number of people that visited your store as a result of marketing initiatives like UTM campaigns, Google ads, social network ads. Google Analytics must still be used to track marketing campaigns, and Shopify gives instructions on how to do so.

5. Behaviour Reports

Knowing your customers’ behaviour opens up a plethora of opportunities for optimization, retention strategies, and marketing tactic improvement.

  • Online store conversion over time: It displays the percentage of visitors who made a purchase on your website during a specific timeframe; You can choose a timeframe and then see the sessions that occurred during that timeframe, out of these sessions, how many of them led a product to the cart, you can see how many of them led to the checkout page; finally, out of the sessions where the checkout was completed.
  • Online store speed: This is crucial for the customer experience, but it is also a criterion that Google considers when deciding how to index and rank web pages.
  • Online store searches: This shows you which terms your customers used to search for a product on your online store the most frequently. Use these to update the name and description of the products if necessary, so that your customers can find what they’re looking for more easily. This report assists you in understanding the specific terms that customers enter in the search bar. Furthermore, they may reflect trends in search query trends on search engines, making this report an excellent resource for search engine optimization. If you notice repeating patterns, you can use these terms in your ads as well.
  • Sessions by landing pages: In this report, your see on which page your website’s sessions begin.
  • Sessions by device: This report displays the devices that were used to access your website. The Overview Dashboard also includes the Sessions by landing page and Sessions by device reports.

6. Acquisition Reports

The acquisition reports track sessions over time, sessions by referrer (how users arrived at your store: directly, through search, or through a referral; this metric is also included in the overview dashboard, but the Session by referrer report provides more detailed information and insights), and sessions by location.

It’s crucial to know where the visitors are coming from so you can better target potential new customers. If we see the number of session over time, this is a critical metric to consider when analysing the overall performance of your eCommerce store: are you getting enough visitors? Are you keeping up with industry standards?

7. Inventory Reports

The inventory reports may come in handy at the end of the month because this can be the reference of the inventory and track the quantity and percentage of stock units sold each day.

  • Month-end inventory: shows how many of each product variant you had on hand at the end of each month
  • Average inventory sold per day: shows the average number of product variants sold per day over the selected time period
  • Percentage of inventory sold: the percentage of the product variant sold during the chosen period as a percentage of the total starting quantity
  • ABC analysis by product: A-grade, B-Grade, C-grade where A represents the source of 80% of your revenue, B represents the next 15% and C represents the last 5% of your revenue.

8. Live View

Who wouldn’t want to know what’s going on with their eCommerce store’s website in real time? Shopify users can get real-time insights from all over the world with live view. There are two kinds of dots on the map: white ones and orange ones.

The white dots represent a recent session, while the orange dots represent recent sales. The dots pulsate constantly and then fade away after a certain amount of time. Every 10 minutes, Live View will display a visual representation of your customers’ behavior during the checkout process. This type of visualization is especially important during peak times like the holiday season or Black Friday.

  • Visitors right now: shows how many visitors have viewed a page, clicked a button, added something to their cart, etc. in the last 5 minutes on your online store; to be active, the visitor must engage in some way with your website- view a page, click a button, add something to their cart, etc. Note that this number may differ from what you see in Google Analytics because Google does not disclose the mechanism by which they estimate the real-time visitor count.
  • Today’s total: shows all of the current day’s sessions, orders, and sales. The count begins again at midnight in the time zone of your store. The total value of sales is calculated by adding gross sales, discounts, refunds, shipping, and taxes to purchases placed on your web store and through other sales channels since midnight.
  • Real time page views: indicates how many pages of your website have been viewed by visitors in the last 10 minutes; each bar represents the number of page views for a 1-minute time unit; the last bar represents page views in the current minute.

9. Sales by billing country

This report will show you which countries contribute the most to revenue. The data can assist you in deciding where to invest in new markets.

You can even dive down into a country to observe which provinces or states perform better in terms of future ad targeting.

10. Sales tax reports

You’ll very certainly have to pay sales taxes on anything you sell, regardless of what you sell or where you sell it. The methods of taxation vary depending on where your consumers are located.

However, they are also determined by the volume of sales in each destination. When it comes to setting up your store, make sure to seek advice from a certified financial specialist.

You may focus on improving all of the crucial components of building an online store by tracking these Ecommerce reports. Make it a habit to review the data on your eCommerce dashboard on a weekly or monthly basis and make informed decisions based on it.

By Ekta Patel

Ekta Patel is a technical writer and digital marketer at Selected Firms – detailed analysis of top IT, mobile, web, digital marketing and E-commerce development companies. Skilled digital Marketer with 7 Years of experience in eCommerce SEO marketing, Google AdWords, and social media content building. Successfully increased organic traffic by 70% for small and medium sized businesses in the eCommerce sector. Has also built content for the company websites/apps, blog and case studies. Has profound experience in working for IT organizations and is responsible for introducing the latest eCommerce trends to the team.

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What Are Bangs in DuckDuckGo?

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By Autumn Smith

Whether you’ve been using DuckDuckGo for a while or are completely new to it, you might wonder what bangs are. Here’s everything you need to know.

DuckDuckGo offers you more privacy when it comes to searching the internet. Along with keeping its hands off of your personal information, and promising not to target you with geared ads, the search engine also offers you a unique tool called !bangs or simply bangs.

In this article, we’ll briefly explain what they are and how to use them so that you can save time searching the internet and still find relevant results.

What Are Bangs in DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo’s bangs are shortcuts that allow you to skip the use of the search engine altogether. Each bang represents a website, and when you use one, you’re searching that website directly.

Screenshot of a website layout with a phone and text shortcuts

For example, if you want to try Google instead of DuckDuckGo, you would type !g followed by your query. Adding the bang takes you directly to the results Google would give, which saves you the step of visiting Google and typing it into the search bar directly.

There are thousands of bangs that you can learn to get the results you’re looking for quickly. You can view a full list of the available bangs on DuckDuckGo. The site even lets you add suggestions in case there’s a site not supported.

However, keep in mind, if privacy is a concern, once you use a bang you’re leaving DuckDuckGo and the site you’re going to may use tracking. Same as if you’re using the private search engine in a browser like Chrome.

How to Use Bangs in DuckDuckGo

Each bang begins with an exclamation mark and ends with a letter or keyword. If you’re using DuckDuckGo as your default search engine, you can enter the bang followed by your query directly into the address bar.

Screen shot of a search engine beside a screenshot of a video game store layout

When visiting the search engine’s homepage, you follow the same directions in the search bar. Some examples of common bangs include !a for Amazon, !steam for Steam, !pss PlayStation Store, and !yt for YouTube.

Give Bangs a Try in DuckDuckGo

While DuckDuckGo’s results may not be as extensive as Google’s, bangs are yet another feature that makes it worth the switch if you’re looking for a more private search engine.

Now that you know how to use them, it’s only a matter of time before you memorize your favourites and cut down the time it takes for you to find what you’re looking for.

By Autumn Smith

Autumn Smith is a content writer with a background in marketing and a passion for tech, hobbies, and recreation. More From Autumn Smith

Sourced from MUO

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How to Improve Organic Clickthrough for Your Content

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By Ann Smarty

Google search result pages are becoming more diverse and even interactive, which makes any clickthrough study out there much less reliable, because no two sets of search results are the same.

But how much control do writers and content creators have over how their content is represented in search? As it turns out, they do have quite a few options when it comes to optimizing their search snippets!

The anatomy of a standard search snippet

The standard Google search snippet has changed over the years, but in essence all the key elements are still there:

  • The clickable title or headline of the snippet (in blue)
  • The description of that page (about two lines long — it was lengthened for no particular reason a few years ago, but now seems to be back to two lines)
  • The URL path (used to be in green, now it is black)

On a mobile device, there’s also a tiny logo next to the URL:

Here’s how much control you have over these standard elements of your search snippet (in the order they currently appear):

Logo

Google will use your site favicon when deciding which image to show next to your URL. This means that you have full control over this part of the search snippet.

URL path

These days, Google will do its best to show the meaningful URL path (almost like a breadcrumb) instead of simply the URL of the page. This consists of:

  • The domain: I don’t have any research to support this, but I personally always scan domain names when choosing what to click. That being said, your choice of a domain name may somewhat impact your clickthrough (if you do a particularly good job picking a snappy domain name that intrigues) and you do have full control over this part of the snippet. Tools like Namify specialize in finding exactly that type of domains that are short, memorable, and witty.
  • The breadcrumb or the truncated URL: You can use breadcrumb schema to force Google to use breadcrumb instead of the URL, and watch your Search Console to see if that helped clickthrough:

Title

Google used to rely on the page title to generate the title of the search snippet, but it has been rewriting that part more and more often recently.

That being said, it is still recommended to optimize your title to include keywords and entice more clicks — and hope Google will keep it intact.

Description

Google has been generating the search snippet description for years without using the associated meta description: recent studies show that Google ignores meta descriptions in about 70% of cases.

You may still want to create meta descriptions in case Google needs some clues, but expect them to figure this part out on their own.

Another way to try and trick Google into using your chosen snippet description is to create concise summaries of the content and add it at the beginning of the article. Using semantic analysis tools like Text Optimizer, you can also ensure these summaries are semantically relevant to the topic:

Now, let’s see how we can enhance that standard search snippet to let it stand out and attract more clicks.

Rich snippets for content-based pages

Rich snippets are search snippets enhanced with some additional details. Web publishers can control rich snippets by adding schema markup, so they are thus under website owners’ control.

Here are the types of rich snippets that will work for content-based pages:

FAQ page

Your page doesn’t have to be FAQ to qualify for this rich snippet. All you need to do is answer two or more subsequent questions somewhere on that page to use the code. There are several WordPress plugins — including this one — that help you code that section.

HowTo schema

The HowTo schema was introduced for the DIY niche as a way to feature snippets that include step-by-step instructions.

These days, I see HowTo rich snippets implemented for just about any tutorial:

Video schema

More often than not, these rich snippets show up only on mobile devices, but they seem to be very common. A video rich snippet includes a video thumbnail:

Video schema will help you ensure the rich snippet is indeed generated, although I’ve seen dozens of cases when Google creates a rich snippet once you simply embed a video on the page, no schema required.

That being said, using the rich code won’t hurt, especially given there’s an easy video schema generator for you to create a code easily.

Structured snippets

Structured snippets are less popular than rich snippets, even though they are very common on search.

Structured snippets import tabular data to formulate a more informative search snippet:

All it takes to qualify for this type of a snippet is to create an HTML table. It is a good idea to use tables for summaries, feature comparisons, lists, etc.

Image thumbnails

Image thumbnails are very rare on desktop. Yet on mobile devices, images show up inside most search snippets:

There’s no particular optimization tactic here, but there are best practices that may or may not help:

Dates

Google shows dates within a search snippet when they think this may be useful to a searcher. Obviously, dates may have a big impact on clicking patterns: Based on the research by Ignite Visibility, about half of searchers claim that dates in search snippets are either “important” or “very important” clickthrough factors.

  • People may feel willing to click on a search snippet with a more recent date.
  • They can scroll past an older date even when the page ranks on top.

Google has clear guidelines as to how web publishers can keep those dates fresh:

  • Don’t try to hide dates, because they are useful.
  • When updating a piece, re-publish it on a new date only when you’ve basically rewritten it.(I.e., don’t redirect, better to update the old piece and change the publish date).
  • Include an “Updated on” note on top of the article if you updated it (Google will pick up on that date).
  • Using schema “datePublished” and “dateModified” is not required but will be helpful.

Google will understand all of the following date formats:

  • Published December 4, 2019
  • Posted Dec 4, 2020
  • Last updated: Dec 14, 2018
  • Updated Dec 14, 2021 8pm ET

Mini sitelinks

Mini sitelinks are probably the most unpredictable element of a search snippet. Google may randomly pick links from navigation, tag, or category links, etc. There’s also no way to tell Google they made a poor choice.

Unlike sitelinks, which usually show up for the top-ranking result and mostly for branded searches, mini sitelinks can be generated for just about any result out there.

Mini sitelinks represent a very useful feature, though, because they increase your odds that your search snippet will get a click (by adding more clickable links to your snippet).

One way to increase your chances that Google will show mini sitelinks within your search snippet is to use an on-page table of contents (which is powered by HTML anchor links).

Here’s an example of the table of contents:

And here are the mini sitelinks they generate:

Featured snippets

As of January 2020, featured snippets were officially considered the #1 organic result (previously they were “position zero” — appearing before the top organic result).

It still remains a big question whether they get clicked more than “normal looking” search results, or whether they are comprehensive enough to get fewer clicks. However, recent research suggests they’re still important for SEO.

With that being said, featured snippets are not easy to predict, but if you choose to optimize for them, be sure to check my older Moz column that is still very valid: How to Optimize for Featured Snippets. Just don’t forget to monitor your clickthrough to ensure getting featured didn’t hurt.

Indented results

Showing intended results is a relatively new trend. So far it is not clear how exactly to get that type of search snippet, but you can track them in tools like STAT.

Complementing your product page with how-to content on the same topic may be a good idea (Google may decide to rank both as indented results). At least this is something to experiment with.

Monitoring and measuring

While rank monitoring is pretty straightforward, this kind of optimization is harder to monitor because your rankings remain the same. Here are two tools you can use:

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console provides clear clickthrough data that can help you signal of positive or negative impact of your optimization efforts:

In the Performance tab, click in the date range filter (it usually defaults to three months), go to “Compare” tab and select “Compare last 3 months year over year”:

From there, you can click to “Pages” or “Queries” tab to identify pages or search queries that have lost organic traffic from the past year (especially if there was no substantial position change):

2. WebCEO

WebCEO provides a more convenient way to keep an eye on your keywords that are losing clicks. The tool has a separate tag and a notification system alerting you of any queries that see a decline in clicks:

3. Visualping

Another useful tool here is Visualping that you can set to monitor your exact search snippet to be alerted when it changes:

This is a great way to correlate your optimization with the actual change that happened (and then clickthrough change).

Using SiteChecker’s website monitoring tool you can also monitor your competitors’ pages and correlate their edits to an improved search snippet:

Conclusion

Whether it is good or bad news, organic traffic is no longer about rankings. In fact, you may well be ranking #1 (i.e. get featured) and notice a decrease in clickthrough once your page is promoted. But, you can experiment with all kinds of ways to improve your organic clickthrough without investing more into your rankings, even though organic CTR is much harder to predict these days.

By Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty is the Brand and Community Manager of Internet Marketing Ninjas, co-founder of Viral Content Buzz and founder of MyBlogU

Sourced from MOZ

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What Is Email Security Policy and How Does It Work?

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By Chris Odogwu

Having an email security policy can protect you and your company from malicious threats.

When was the last time you sent an email? It was probably today. Just like you, many people around the world send emails daily.Emails have been a part of our lives for the longest time. Since it’s almost impossible to do without them, you must secure yourself with an effective email security policy.

You don’t want your emails to get into the wrong hands, do you? Implementing an email security policy helps to keep them safer.

What Is Email Security Policy?

Email Newsletter

An email security policy is a series of procedures governing the use of emails within a network or an establishment. It details how a category of users interacts with messages that are sent and received via email.

Keeping your emails organized and secure boosts your productivity. The goal of an email security policy is to secure messages from unauthorized access.

Who may be trying to access the emails without permission, one might ask? Cybercriminals—they are very much interested in the confidential messages that you send within and outside your organization. And that’s because they know that such information is valuable. If they get hold of it, they can use it for a series of malicious activities to enrich themselves.

How Does Email Security Policy Work?

Gmail on Computer Screen

The default security strength of email isn’t so strong. Messages sent via email are in the public space. Hence, they can be easily accessed by anyone with average hacking skills. Creating an email security policy is one of the basic things that you can do to ward off attackers.

Believing that you or your organization can’t fall victim to an email breach is a false premise. As long as you make use of emails, you can be targeted.

Your reluctance to implement an email security policy can only hold water if the emails you send are meaningless. But that’s hardly the case if you run a decent business.

For an email security policy to be effective, it must include the following items:

  1. The scope and purpose of the policy.
  2. Information about the ownership of content contained in the emails.
  3. Privacy concerns and expectations of parties using the email.
  4. The responsibilities of the email users.
  5. Guidelines for using the organization’s email accounts.
  6. Tips to detect and avoid email security threats.
  7. Specific actions to take in the event of a suspected email security breach.

Accessibility is key in the successful implementation of the policy. Team members can only be abreast with the information in the policy if they can access the document.

Instead of storing the document on a physical device, it’s advisable to use a workflow tool with cloud storage and remote access. That way, authorized team members can access the policy from anywhere and at any time.

Training is another essential element to successfully implement an email security policy. Some users may be reluctant to abide by the policy, especially if they haven’t used something similar in the past. It’s up to you to make provision for proper training to make them understand how using the policy is in everyone’s best interest.

How to Build an Effective Email Security Policy

Woman Working on Computer in Office

An email security policy isn’t one-size-fits-all because no two organizations are the same. But the cyber threats that endanger the use of emails have similar effects on organizations regardless of their offerings and sizes. They are common attributes that should be considered in building a standard policy.

Here are some practical tips for building an email security policy that works.

1. Adopt a Template

Creating an email security policy from scratch isn’t a bad idea, but you could save yourself some time by adopting an existing template. This is necessary, especially if you aren’t familiar with the content of the policy.

Instead of creating irrelevant information, you have vital information for creating a policy that works.

2. Modify the Template

Adopting an existing template doesn’t mean you should use it the way it is. The template is to give you an idea of what the policy looks like.

Instead of taking everything contained in the template hook line and sinker, adjust it to suit the unique needs of your business.

In the end, you’ll have an original document that’s tailormade for your organization.

3. Identify User Engagement Terms

Users of your email may engage in indiscriminate activities if they aren’t aware that such activities are prohibited. It’s your responsibility to expressly state how they should use your email.

Identify unhealthy email practices that may expose your network to cyberattacks and warn against involving in such activities.

4. Implement a Tool

Your email security policy is incomplete without implementing a tool that enhances the security of your emails.

Manually protecting your email against cyber threats is insufficient, especially as cybercriminals use advanced technologies for their attacks. Match their energy with tools such as sandboxes, spam filters, and malware prevention software. An effective spam filter prevents you from viewing malicious emails.

5. Enforce User Policy Acknowledgement

The successful implementation of your policy begins with your users’ willingness to abide by it. Change comes with some resistance. Team members who aren’t familiar with an email security policy may decide to overlook it.

Get users to commit to using the policy by appending their signatures as a form of acknowledgment. That way, you have proof of their agreement to use it in case they fail to.

6. Train Users

Users of your email may not understand some information in the policy. Leaving them in a state of confusion is risky as they may take inappropriate actions that will endanger your network.

Ensure that everyone understands the policy by conducting training. Create room for them to ask questions on grey areas so that everyone is up to speed on what to do and what not to do.

7. Develop an Incident Response Plan

Even with all the training on how to implement an email security policy effectively, things might still go wrong.

Develop an incident response plan in the event of a security breach. Your policy should contain what users should do once they suspect malicious activity or attack. Taking the right actions can mitigate the effects of a cyberattack.

Cultivate Healthy Cyberculture With Email Security Policy

Instant messaging may be trendy in communicating with friends and family. But when it comes to work and business, good old email is still relevant. It helps organizations to maintain a sense of order and formality.

You may not be able to stop attackers from targeting your emails, but you can nullify their attacks with an effective email security policy.

When everyone using your email understands how to keep the information safe, cybercriminals will have no opportunity to strike. It’s only a matter of time before they give up trying to penetrate your network and move on to the next one.

By Chris Odogwu

Sourced from MUO

 

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How To Use Non-Social Media Marketing To Generate A New Client Base

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By Mike Swigunski

Launching and scaling a new enterprise can be tricky. Not only do you need to reach your target audience but also convince them to invest in your product or service rather than one of the other countless options on the market. So how do you develop a marketing campaign that drives long-term business success? According to Money & Marketing Strategist for Visionaries at Carrico Ventures Erica Carrico, it’s by taking a step back from social media.

While trying to get a new venture off the ground without the help of online promotion can sound counterintuitive, this is exactly what Erica has done. And over the past four years, her seven-figure enterprise Carrico Ventures has helped thousands of women find their purpose and monetize their gifts by moving away from email marketing, funnels, and online advertising.

“My clients have successful business launches because I move them away from the influencer mentality of the volume first. We look at things from the perspective of building relationships and intimacy, and offering a boutique experience for a select group of people,” Erica says.

Move Away From Internal Marketing

Erica says there are two forms of marketing — internal marketing and external marketing. Internal marketing involves social media, email lists, and blogs, and is designed to keep in touch with the people who are already in your online community. External marketing is everything else — workshops, podcasts, speaking engagements, and outreach via media publications.

“Most people who start their business by focusing on internal marketing end up selling to the same people over and over again, which is usually quite a small audience, especially at the beginning,” Erica says. “And typically, it’s only around 1% of your audience that will buy from you. So if you don’t have a consistent amount of outside leads, you’re going to tap out your audience within the first few months.”

Use the Power of Proof of Concept And Work On Word-of-Mouth Referrals

According to Erica, not overextending yourself is crucial when first starting a business. This involves small, well-thought-out launches rather than lavish, poorly-planned events that are more likely to fail and negatively affect your reputation from the get-go.

“It’s about getting those first five to eight clients so that you have what I refer to as the proof of concept,” she says. “A lot of that is done through networking, personal reach-outs, and asking for referrals. Personally, I keep my launches small and almost invisible to ensure that they are highly successful.”

These Are The 3 Ways Knowledge Can Provide Strategic AdvantageRun Virtual Workshops 

Once you work out your niche, organize intimate settings where you can promote your services to a limited audience. “The strategy that I teach is called signature workshop. And that is one two-hour workshop, which can be virtual or in-person, that you hold in two to three different places each month, consistently, every single month,” Erica says.

For example, if you have 10 people in a workshop all of them are already your ideal clients since they are already investing time and a small amount of money to have you help them solve a problem. she says. “So let’s say, I might charge $20 for people to come to a workshop and share with them how I can help them further in one of my programs. I have an 80% conversion rate at my workshops.”

Partner Up With Other Organizations

Building relationships with other organizations in your business niche can be an excellent springboard for promoting your service or product. “I built my business to six figures by holding two small, intimate workshops each month where I partnered with external organizations,” Erica explained.

By collaborating with different centres, you’ll end up filling your workshops, and there are also other ways such as reaching out to schools, conferences, and organizations that are in line with your target audience. Many are often looking for speakers on a variety of topics.

Reach Your Target Audience 

While reaching out to your potential clients through external marketing is important, you shouldn’t forget to do the background work such as appearing on podcasts, getting published in the media, and running social media accounts. “I typically see most people start to hit those $10,000 months after running their external marketing for 12 months,” she says. “But then once you’re trying to scale to $20,000 – $30,000 a month, we start scaling social media, we bring in offers, and we start helping people hire team members.”

Erica runs programs and courses to help coaches, healers, holistic health practitioners, alternative therapists, creatives, and visionaries to grow their businesses to six figures and beyond, so they can have the impact and the income they want. “The aim for 2022 is to impact one million people to live their purpose, to start their business, and to grow it to where it’s having an impact.”

By Mike Swigunski

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

My name is Mike Swigunski, and I am a bestselling author, remote work leader, and founder of GlobalCareerBook.com. As an online business expert that has helped broker millions of dollars of internet businesses, I have cultivated a strong passion and knowledge for everything within the remote work realm. Now, I am focused on transforming the way location-independent work and business synergize. After more than a decade of working remotely and internationally in more than 85+ countries, I have built a unique 360-degree view of the remote workforce and love sharing my knowledge and experience to help others succeed.

Sourced from Forbes

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