Tag Archives: around the web

Dear HostGator Clients

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Hosting

Today our Provo, Utah datacenter experienced outages that may have affected access to your website and account services.  At this time, all services have been restored. I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for this occurrence, as well as the negative impact that it may have had on your websites and businesses. The outages began during routine maintenance which traditionally has been completed without any disruption. Unfortunately, hardware failures including our core routers cascaded causing downtime and network instability. Our datacenter technicians reacted immediately, working tirelessly alongside the hardware providers to re-establish connectivity as quickly as possible. Our engineers are conducting a thorough review of the incident and implementing new processes and safeguards in order to prevent similar occurrences in the future. Please know that customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to us; we are committed to providing you with the high-quality, reliable service that you’ve come to expect and very-well deserve.  We apologize for failing to exceed that expectation during this incident. If you are still experiencing any issues, please contact us via http://support.hostgator.com so that we may properly assist you. In closing, we’d like to thank you for your understanding and patience throughout this situation. We truly value your business. Sincerely, Adam Farrar CEO, HostGator.com Continue reading →

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Infographic: The Secret Art of Digital Marketing

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Hosting

Properly marketing something in the digital realm can seem elusive and mysterious.  There’s multiple avenues that must be simultaneously tracked and measured in order to ensure you are doing an optimal job, and getting the most bang for your buck.  The following infographic reveals The Secret Art of Digital Marketing: Click image to see a larger version The Secret Art of Digital Marketing via HostGator Continue reading →

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Best Social PPC Platforms for Your Business

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Hosting

When it comes to PPC ( Pay Per Click ), there’s no doubt that the big search engines are great places to advertise. With Google now reaching at least 80 percent of all internet users, Google Adwords has become a powerful force in PPC advertising. However, you can’t talk about PPC these days without giving at least a mention to social media. The larger social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all have their own PPC programs that allow you to target your ads to a specific audience. Social networks collect plenty of demographic information from their users. This means that – even when they’re not searching – members can still see ads tailored to them and their interests.  So the question then becomes: Which social network PPC program will serve your business best?   Things to Consider As with any advertising campaign, your budget and target audience should be your main focus. It’s true that PPC costs much less than traditional advertising methods by comparison, but the daily costs can quickly add up and you’ll really feel it if your campaign isn’t getting the results you expect. Test and retest your chosen platform(s) before making any major financial commitment. Time spent on testing is well worth it in the long run. Also, don’t advertise on any particular PPC platform just because everyone else is doing it. Find out where your demographic congregates and take your advertising dollars there.   Who Uses Social Media? This is the first thing to consider when you’re thinking about going the social PPC route, as targeting the right demographic is crucial to the success of your PPC campaign. Though marketers and webmasters are singing the praises of social PPC, the truth is that not every business can benefit as much as the next when it comes to this advertising channel. The following are a few of the different types of users you’ll find on social media networks: Age: According to data from the Pew Research Center, the age demographic with the largest social media usage rate is 18 to 29-year-olds (83%), followed by 30 to 49 year olds (73%). Not surprisingly, this age stratification has stayed constant since 2005, with the younger subset being the most frequent social media users. Education: The data shows that social media usage pretty much spans across all education levels, with 65% of users holding a college degree or higher, 69% of people with some college education, and 66% of participants with a high school education. Gender: Roughly 71% of women engage in social media, compared to 62% of men. Location: About 70% of people in urban areas use social media, 67% of people in suburban areas, and 61% of people who live in rural areas.   Comparing PPC Programs Facebook is probably the most widely used social PPC program, since it was the first one to make a huge splash on the social media scene (it’s also the most widely used social network by a landslide). With over 800 million users and a minimum daily budget of only $1, it’s a good choice for advertisers who want a wide reach on a budget. When advertising on Facebook, you can choose from the CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per mille, or cost per thousand views) methods of payment, though costs have been rising since last year for those paying by CPM. Twitter is currently the biggest well-known micro blogging platform – with 500 million registered users as of October 2012, they’re fast catching up to Facebook in terms of user base. Twitter offers both sponsored tweets and sponsored hashtags for advertisers, though advertising here is considerably more expensive than on the other platforms. For this reason, you most often see sponsored content from big companies, media giants, and well-known celebs on Twitter. Because of its succinct nature, this platform is fast paced and suitable for promoting hot and trendy things that you want to quickly build a buzz around. Though this social network has a broad swathe of users, account holders tend to be young (with an average age of 18-29), African American (26%), and/or urban dwellers (72%). LinkedIn is the place to advertise if you’re offering B2B or employment services and products. With its very specific demographic (professionals and job seekers), LinkedIn allows you to target business professionals in specific industries. Right now, the minimum budget is $10 a day, which could be well worth it if your audience is mostly found on LinkedIn. At the end of the day, experience is a great indicator for future success. If you’re still unsure about which social PPC platform is right for your business, the best thing to do is test. Run test campaigns on the platforms you feel would best suit your needs, and see which ones you perform well on. Then, optimize those campaigns so that they perform even better. Social PPC popularity is showing no signs of slowing down, making now a great time to dig your business’s roots into the social PPC soil. Continue reading →

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15 Ways to Expand Your Brand’s Authority

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Hosting

Having trouble standing out in your industry?  Tired of fighting against bigger brands when it comes to market share?  It’s time to expand your brand’s authority! Any of the following techniques can help you to gain an edge – no matter how crowded or established your field may be:   Idea #1 – Release a whitepaper Whitepapers are research-based document that educate audiences on specific subjects.  Create a good one with your brand’s name on it and you can be sure it’ll be sent far and wide on industry social channels.   Idea #2 – Write an ebook Either write your own ebook or hire a ghostwriter to develop something you can put your name on.  Give it away for free and watch your brand’s authority soar.   Idea #3 – Develop an infographic Infographics are highly shareable.  By creating your own (whether by hiring a marketing agency to do so or by using infographic creation tools ), you’ll get your name out within your industry.   Idea #4 – Launch an email crash course Educational email courses are a great way to build brand authority as they’re free and highly attractive to potential customers.  As an added bonus, they’re easy to develop using traditional email management services or technique-specific programs like Drip .   Idea #5 – Start an educational YouTube channel People love video, but truly great internet videos are few and far between.  You don’t need to spend a fortune to create a good video, but releasing a channel that’s packed full of informative, engaging videos is a great way to attract brand attention.   Idea #6 – Release a podcast Though simple, podcasts can be incredibly popular – especially amongst listeners with long commutes.  Create your own business-branded podcast and you’ll have direct access to prospective customers’ minds for as much as an hour at a time.   Idea #7 – Sponsor a social media contest Everybody loves free things, which is why social media contests tend to attract so much attention.  Spend a few hundred dollars on a great giveaway item and tie contest entries to some type of social participation.  Within a few weeks, you’ll have more brand interest than ever before.   Idea #8 – Interview an industry expert The great thing about interviewing industry experts is that they come with their own built-in audiences.  Use Skype to record a video interview with your chosen expert and then post the resulting clip to your website.  Your profile will increase by association and you’ll experience a flood of inbound traffic from the expert’s promotions.   Idea #9 – Connect with journalists Journalists are always looking for great sources for their next projects – you can be that source!  Join a service like Help a Reporter Out and you’ll be entered into a database from which journalists pull expert sources.  Just one interview in a major news publication can do a world of good for your brand.   Idea #10 – Get a book deal  If you fancy yourself a talented writer and have a good story to tell, a high profile book deal can be a great way to boost brand recognition.  Obviously, this isn’t the easiest path to walk, but if you’re successful, the brand-building results can be huge.   Idea #11 – Speak at industry events Want to put yourself in front of a room full of your peers and be granted automatic expert status?  Sign up to speak at industry events.  Not only will you expand your brand’s authority, you might even be paid for the privilege!   Idea #12 – Sponsor industry events Not the speaking type?  You can still use industry events to boost your brand’s recognition by sponsoring panels, sessions, gift bags and more.  To do so, pick an event that’s highly attended within your industry and get in touch with the event’s organizer for more information on sponsorship opportunities.   Idea #13 – Create your own industry event Of course, if you’ve got the time and money to do so, you can always create your own branded industry event.  It’s a major undertaking, but it’s guaranteed to boost your company’s profile.   Idea #14 – Volunteer at industry events One last way to leverage the power of industry events is to volunteer.  It isn’t glamorous work, but it will put you in touch with a number of influential people.  Once the event is over, they’re sure to remember your good works.   Idea #15 – Add a charitable initiative TOMS has it “buy one, give away one” shoe sales project.  Warby Parker donates one pair of glasses for every set sold.  Getting involved in a charitable initiative isn’t just great for brand-building – it’s great for the world at large.   What other techniques have you used to build your brand?  If you have other recommendations, share them in the comments section below! Continue reading →

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5 Infographic Creation Tools to Try Now

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Hosting

The recent rise in social media usage has taught us many things. One of the most striking is how visual human beings truly are.  As a result, websites, blogs and social media accounts that use great visuals are typically more successful and see more engagement from users than those that rely on text alone. Growing awareness of this trend has led to the rise of the infographic.   An infographic is a visual depiction of data that helps users to learn more about a topic.  This combination of visual imagery with statistics and facts makes information easy for a user to digest at a glance.  In fact, some studies even show that users remember information learned through infographics more easily than data obtained by other means. As a result, infographics have been successfully used in sales campaigns, marketing efforts, education initiatives, internal company trainings and more.  Given that, many companies are eager to create their own infographics to compete in an increasingly visual marketplace.  This is easy for firms that have a large staff of designers on hand, but not everyone has access to those resources. So how can people who are not designers make their own infographic? Check out these five tools:   Infogr.am Infogr.am is a simple, free tool that allows you to create more than 30 types of charts. For comparison, Microsoft Excel – the analytics tool used by many small businesses – offers only 11 types of charts. This allows for much simpler visualization of data. Data can be imported from Excel into Infogr.am and can then be published in PDF format or easily embedded on your website. If your data is sensitive, you can also password protect it before sharing it with others. Overall, Infogr.am is a simple infographic tool with many features, all at no cost to the user.   Piktochart Piktochart offers drag and drop infographic creation for $29/month. The service’s “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) platform makes it easy for users with no design or technical skills to use when creating infographics. Currently, the tool includes 90 templates of varying quality. These premade starting points give you an easy to use and effective way to turn your data into great infographics. You can then share your creations via social media or download print quality files. If you’re curious about the tool, but don’t want to commit to a paid plan, you can try the Piktochart editor for free for a limited time to give it a test run.   InfoActive Like many of its competitors, InfoActive lets you turn your data into visuals in a fairly straightforward manner. In addition, this program allows users to interact with that data. This means that users can add their own experiences to the data, allowing it to change in real-time. This feature allows data to continue to be “real-time,” whereas other infographics can quickly become outdated, making it the most “social” infographic tool currently on the market.   Many Eyes This IBM tool doesn’t offer the premade themes that other programs on this list provide. As a result, it may be better suited to those who are somewhat more technically inclined. However, the visualization styles included offer some features the others don’t – including heat maps, word trees, tree maps and word clouds. Many Eyes also allows users to compare a set of values, see parts of a whole or track rises and falls in data over time. If your data is more trend-based than statistic-oriented, the program is definitely worth a look.   Visual.ly This paid service creates some of the most widely seen infographics on the market. Visual.ly brings together marketers, designers and data experts to create stunning visuals that bring your message to life. One fun program feature that’s great for internal presentations is its ability to create web traffic reports based on your website’s Google Analytics statistics. In seconds, you can have a visually pleasing and informative report on how your website traffic has been trending over the past few weeks. If you don’t feel comfortable designing on your own, the program can match you with a designer (though this is considerably more expensive and time intensive than doing it yourself). *** These five infographic creation tools allow you to easily visualize your data and to share it with your community in a fun, engaging way. Depending on your design and technical skill level, you may prefer one tool over another, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different programs. But whatever option you choose, be aware that creating a visual representation of your data can take your firm to the next level. These tools can be used for internal purposes, helping you to understand your firm’s target market, goals and website traffic. Alternately, they can be used to help educate your audience, drive sales and distribute your marketing messages. Whatever your goals, creating stellar infographics is an important part of standing out in an increasingly visual marketplace – so get started with your first graphic today! Continue reading →

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