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10 Ways to Get Your Website in Shape for the New Year in 2019

The post 10 Ways to Get Your Website in Shape for the New Year in 2019 appeared first on HostGator Blog . A New Year should come with new goals for your business . As you work through your end-of-year to do list – reevaluating your finances, hiring new employees, and deciding which tactics to embrace or toss aside in the year to come – it’s important that you make plans to maintain your website along with your larger business. Your website is the main way a lot of people interact with your brand, after all. “One of the most often overlooked components—yet one of the most critical—to any successful website strategy is ongoing maintenance. While the initial website project is critical to creating the right foundation, the ongoing maintenance and upkeep is where you’ll really see your website shine,” writes Don Cranford , principal and director of technology at Katalyst Solutions. If you’ve tended to let general maintenance of your website slide over the years, make it one of your goals moving into the New Year to correct that. Here are a few action items to add to your to-do list now to get your website in shape for 2019. 1. Evaluate your analytics. Analytics are the ultimate tool for examining the health of your website traffic . It’s vital for your team to understand how your visitors and qualified leads find your business. Knowing whether people come to your website from organic search, paid search, or Facebook tells you a lot about how your online marketing efforts are working. And keeping an eye on your analytics as part of regular website maintenance can save you trouble down the line. Kim Garst , founder and CEO of Boom! Social, offers the following suggestion, “Compile a bunch of blog posts on a particular topic, and promote them as a multi-day e-course. Each day, send one email (blog post) to your new subscribers to help them accomplish whatever goal you have promised to help them achieve.” Don’t be afraid to revisit your content archives and promote your old content anew. Your audience that’s been with you for a while may appreciate the refresher, and your new audience will get to see some of your old hits for the first time.   5. Revamp your homepage. Your website’s homepage will be the first impression you make on many visitors – you’d better make it a good one. Your homepage should accomplish a few main goals:   Clearly communicate your brand’s positioning (why should a customer choose you?)   Look professional (you don’t want to scare new visitors off by looking like you’re still in the 90s )   Answer the main questions people may have (where you’re located, contact information, etc.)   Make it easy for people to know where to go next Update your design by tweaking the navigation of your site. Anticipate where consumers will click and provide clear calls-to-action to help them locate what they need. Eliminate any wording that doesn’t benefit the visitor. Too many words can distract customers from their intended reason for checking out your site. In the example below, HostGator customer  Hiatus Spa + Retreat  uses their site to say more with less. The website looks clean and professional, has a clear CTA, and provides an intuitive menu for those who want to find more information. A few words and vivid imagery can go a long way. Make the best first impression by showcasing a modern, uncluttered homepage. It’ll give clarity and accessibility to your visitors.   6. Review and improve your calls-to-action (CTAs). Every page on your website should be designed with a clear goal in mind. You should always know what you want your visitor to do next, and it should be obvious to them how to do it. The CTAs you include on each page have an important job to do , but you shouldn’t just assume they’re all doing that job. Check your analytics to see how often the people who visit your pages are taking the action you most want them to. Then do some experimenting. Work up different variations on your CTAs – try different visual designs, different wording, and different locations on the page. Try out different CTAs on different pages to see if some work better when paired with specific content. Do A/B testing to confirm which of the CTAs you try work best. The more data you have, the more you can refine your website so that people are more likely to take the steps you want them to.   7. Fix any checkout process issues. Everything else you design your website to accomplish leads back to the main end goal of sales. If you’re not driving revenue, you won’t last. To meet your sales goals, your checkout process must be frictionless. Jeremy Said . If you discover that customers hate creating member registrations, one solution is to try a social login. This one-click alternative will help consumers move through the checkout process faster. If you’ve noticed the checkout seems to stop at the moment the customer sees the cost of shipping , think about offering flat-rate shipping or free shipping for qualifying orders. Anything that stops the sale from happening is bad for business. Figure out what roadblocks are in your customer’s pathway and remove them.   8. Make sure your security’s up-to-date. Every time a story about a data breach makes waves, people get a little more nervous about handing their credit card information over to businesses. You can’t help what happens in the news, but you can take steps to keep your own website secure and ensure all the private information your customers give you is protected. Go through our web security checklist and make sure your security measures are up to date. There are some easy ways to reduce vulnerabilities in your website to make your customer data safer. You owe it to your customers to do your part in protecting them.   9. Check your domain registration. This is a simple step to take, but one you have to remember to do every year. Contact your hosting provider to learn when your registration will expire. If it’s due soon, go ahead and pay for the renewal, and consider signing up for auto-renewals for future registrations. And remember to update any contact information—business name, address, and phone number. It also may be time to purchase a new domain for upcoming brand changes . So, ask your provider for details about availability and prices. Sometimes the smallest things in your business are overlooked. Make sure your domain registration continues so you can offer uninterrupted service to your customers 10. Reinvest in your brand community. This is less something that you do to your website, and more something that you do for it. As your business grows, it’s essential to keep your brand community engaged. Make a plan this year to give your consumers the engagement they deserve. Respond promptly to comments left on your blog posts. Take time to say thanks in response to positive reviews and ensure that no complaint goes unanswered. Interact with users on social media – plan to be quick and polite at least, but if your social media manager is up to it, try to be clever or entertaining as well. Experiment with starting a new loyalty program or making improvements to the one you have. Brand ambassadors serve as an extension of your company. If they’re not satisfied, you may expose your business to unwanted negative publicity. Get reacquainted with your target audience. A dedicated community opens the door to business opportunities.   A New Year, A Better Website It’s time to roll up your sleeves. The New Year is a time to reflect and reassess your business’s needs, and that includes your website. A better website is part of running a better business. A few tweaks now could garner you better results in the year to come and ensure your website can continue to do the important job it does for your business. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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5 Tips to Get More Guest Blog Posts for Your Site

The post 5 Tips to Get More Guest Blog Posts for Your Site appeared first on HostGator Blog . 5 Tips to Get More Guest Blog Posts for Your Site By accepting guest posts, your brand draws new attention to your site. Guest posting adds a variety of content to your blog and helps you develop meaningful relationships with bloggers. It is also an avenue to drive traffic and keep your readers engaged. “In an era where reputation is everything, it’s incredibly useful to build a network of trusted writers to verify each other’s legitimacy in a given field…When a guest author posts on your site, the author is implicitly agreeing that you’re an authoritative source,” states Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers . Are you ready to get more guest blog posts? Here are five tips to get you started.   1. Write a Guest Blog Page Information is important in our society of technology. Knowing about opportunities empowers people to take action. Your company can attract more guest bloggers by merely announcing your interest. Start by writing a guest blog page. You’ll want to include all your guidelines for submitting a post. State the desired topics, word count, sources, and other standards. Don’t shy away from giving writers every crucial detail. By doing so, you set expectations for your content. Bloggers will appreciate the value you place on high-quality writing. It makes getting their blog post accepted a badge of honor, rather than an item to complete on a long to-do list. In some instances, it may be helpful to include the entire submission process. Check out this  example from Entrepreneur  below. You’ll want to convey to writers the benefits of guest blogging on your site. Will they get featured in your exclusive email list? Or will they receive a small financial reward? Be sure to list all the advantages on your guest blog page. And of course, it wouldn’t hurt to mention all the notable bloggers who’ve already published on your site. This social proof will persuade bloggers to send in their submissions. Be honest and specific on your guest blog page. It’s the first step to receiving superb content from writers.   2. Give Guest Bloggers Credit Online communities rely on developing quality relationships with individuals. It’s an ongoing give-and-take bond amongst content creators. So, it’s vital that your business shows goodwill too. “Bloggers make up a large percentage of conversations happening on the Internet, especially on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. They can be tremendously influential. Which makes them good friends to have,” says best-selling author Jeff Goins . For writers, giving credit is one of the simplest things your site can do. Set up your blog to add multiple authors, and then ask bloggers to submit a short bio with their post. Providing a bio section is also beneficial to the reader. If they enjoy the post, they may want to read more of the person’s content elsewhere. Plus, it adds humanity to the words. Readers will know that an article wasn’t just pumped out from a content mill; someone actually took deliberate action to write a post to inform or entertain the reader. Get creative when showcasing your guest bloggers. You can invite them to a Slack community that matches their interests. Or refer bloggers to other brands seeking professional writing services. Guest blogging is all about highlighting other people’s expertise. By giving credit, you show your company’s appreciation and become a business ally.   3. Add a Guest Post Submission Form When you’re seeking guest posts, managing the entire process can become difficult. You have to promote an open call, draft a guest page, and sift through all the submissions. Depending on your brand’s popularity, you may receive a high volume of guest post pitches. And if you’re receiving them all by email that will flood your inbox. Creating a submission form is one solution to this issue. It’s a convenient way to organize all the pitches. Form tools, like SurveyMonkey and Typeform, let you build custom fields and export data into spreadsheets. CoSchedule  uses a Google form to capture its submissions. They even require guest bloggers to fill out specific information. When crafting your form, you’ll want to ask for links to relevant writing samples and why the blogger wants to publish on your site. It helps to get a sense of the person behind the words. Remember to keep the form short by limiting your questions. More blogger details mean more unnecessary work. Don’t bog down your team by accepting guest post pitches via email. You can create a unique submission form to make the process easier.   4. Pay Traffic Bonuses Money is a motivator for many bloggers. If your site wants to attract the best writers, you may consider offering a few financial incentives. If the blogger is doing more than just writing, like following specific SEO requirements or adding the content to WordPress, it’s a signal to pay the guest blogger. Susan Gunelius , president & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., gives her perspective: “The more you expect a blogger to do, the more you can expect to pay that blogger to charge you to write for your business blog. The reason is simple: the more the blogger has to do, the longer it takes her to complete the project, and she should be compensated adequately for her time.” Financial rewards can take many shapes and forms. You can start with paying traffic bonuses to writers who exceed a particular session goal. Decide how you will track the traffic, maybe a custom URL . Then, the blogger and you can monitor the results on a designated dashboard on Google Analytics. With any financial agreement, you’ll want to draft a contract and speak with an attorney. It will save you the hassle if any problems arise in the future. Sometimes guest bloggers will need more than just exposure. You can up the ante by offering writers a monetary bonus.   5. Promote Guest Posts Guest posting means nothing if no one gets to read the work. That’s why it’s so essential to promote your blog posts as much as possible. Depending on your business industry, how you publicize your content will vary. You may need to talk about the post in a community forum or syndicate posts on other brand sites. It may even be beneficial to enlist the help of an influencer . Well-known industry leaders can instantly spark people’s curiosity and drive traffic to the content. And don’t forget the power of social media. From Facebook to Instagram, your brand can use these channels to lure in more eyeballs on your guest posts. See below how Prisync promotes on Twitter.   The best way to understand your customer journey, and how it relates to your checkout flow, is to rely on your analytics Let’s jump in our latest article “How to Understand Your Customer Journey from your #Ecommerce Analytics.” ( via @DivvitHq ) https://t.co/WayaPtyEnk — Prisync (@PrisyncCom) May 25, 2018 Avoid the desire to splatter your guest posts everywhere. Instead, you want to develop a target strategy. If a post discusses the latest baking techniques, find promotional channels around food and cooking. Promotion is a two-way street. Before asking bloggers to promote on their marketing channels, it’s key that you take the initiative. Promote guest posts like any other piece of content. Work with your team to get the most attention from your target audience.   Earn More Guest Post Contributors Guest posting is beneficial for your brand and readers. It opens the doors to new relationships, while giving your consumers a different perspective. Ramp up your guest posts by sharing your blogging guidelines. You can entice contributors to participate with financial rewards. And you’ll want to promote guest posts as much as possible. It’s your turn. Start getting more guest blog posts today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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Inspirational Quotes about Blogging, Websites, and Online Entrepreneurship

The post Inspirational Quotes about Blogging, Websites, and Online Entrepreneurship appeared first on HostGator Blog . Inspirational Quotes for Bloggers and Online Entrepreneurs “The right quote can inspire people to change their ways.” – Zig Ziglar Whether you’re starting your own blog, a new website, or an online store, there are going to be some rough patches, and at times it can be hard to stay motivated. Prevent writer’s block. Stop spinning your wheels. And get going! Kick your motivation into high gear with some of our favorite quotes for bloggers, entrepreneurs, and online store owners. Inspirational Quotes for Bloggers “Write what you know.” – Mark Twain “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Sir Winston Churchill “Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in business at all times.” – John Gerzema “These days, people want to learn before they buy, be educated instead of pitched.” – Brian Clark “An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.” – Seth Godin “The paradox is the more info you give away, the more people will buy what you have to give.” – Brian Clark “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney “If you can learn something new every day, you can teach something new every day.” – Martha Stewart “Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.” – Jonathan Perelman “Content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life.” – Avinash Kaughik “Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” – Brian Clark “Write. Rewrite. When not writing or rewriting, read. I know of no shortcuts.” – Larry L. King “When you brand yourself properly, the competition becomes irrelevant.” – Dan Schawbel “If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.” – Zig Ziglar “Content: there is no easy button.” – Scott Abel “Create content that teaches. You can’t give up. You need to be consistently awesome.” – Neil Patel “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs Inspirational Quotes for Online Entrepreneurs “Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours per week.” – Lori Greiner “If you’re looking for the next best thing, and you’re looking where everyone else is, you’re looking in the wrong place.” – Mark Cuban “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates “Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.” – Steve Jobs “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon “The challenge with being an initiator of projects is that you are never, ever done.” – Seth Godin “Any idea is only as valuable as its ability to solve a problem.” – Sally Hogshead “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” – Jeff Bezos “Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton “Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.” – Dennis Waitley “Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait, the grip of your hand and the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.” – Henry Ford “The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and actualizer. He can visualize something, and when he visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen.” – Robert L. Schwartz “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” – Jeff Bezos “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” – Guy Kawasaki “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” – Andrew Carnegie “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” – Milton Hershey “I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.” – Elon Musk “The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.” – Seth Godin “You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.” – Jack Ma “In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision.” – Peter F. Drucker “My best advice to entrepreneurs is this: Forget about making mistakes, just do it.” – Ajaero Tony Martins “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford Inspirational Quotes for E-Commerce Site Owners “Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend.” – Mark Zuckerberg “You can’t wait for customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there and drag them back to your store.” – Paul Graham “E-commerce leaders will have to keep with these changes (and others) to survive and stay ahead.” – Linda Bustos “Learn as many mistakes about what not to do while your business or product is small” – Daymond John “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why do you it.” – Simon Sinek “In e-commerce, your prices have to be better because the consumer has to take a leap of faith in your product.” – Ashton Kutcher “Don’t obsess over data as a tool, obsess about the future.” – Jeff Beaver “You can have an assertive culture without trampling people’s sprits.” – Jill Layfield “Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community.” – Meg Whitman “Customer service shouldn’t be just a department; it should be the entire company.” – Tony Hsieh “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” – Jeff Bezos “Stop selling, start helping.” – Zig Ziglar “Overall the web is pretty sloppy, but an online store can’t afford to be.” – Paul Graham “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates “The reason it seems that price is all your customer’s care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.” – Seth Godin “Amazing things will happen when you listen to the consumer.” – Jonathan Mildenhall   Hopefully, the quotes above will bring you an added dose of inspiration for your new online venture. Any quotes we didn’t mention above? Share your favorites in the comments below. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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WS Credit Manager For WHMCS

With this module, Credit Manager, the client can see the balance in the client area as the option — it is not implemented by default six te… | Read the rest of http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1697848&goto=newpost Continue reading

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Bad experience with nocix, credit card charged for the service that I didnt use

Dear All, I just want to share my long effort on trying to get my money from Nocix after they automatically charged my Credit Card for the … | Read the rest of http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1695738&goto=newpost Continue reading

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