Tag Archives: linkedin

Why Half Of All Small Businesses Missed Out On Over $250 Billion In 2015

The post Why Half Of All Small Businesses Missed Out On Over $250 Billion In 2015 appeared first on HostGator Blog . There are over 28 million small businesses in America, accounting for 54% of all sales within the country. Yet more than half of them are missing out on billions of dollars, combined. If you have a small business, you know that every penny counts. Wouldn’t you do anything within reason to get yourself a leg […] Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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5 Easy Ways to Value and Appreciate Your Customers

The post 5 Easy Ways to Value and Appreciate Your Customers appeared first on HostGator Blog . Customers are the lifeblood of any business. Showing and expressing gratitude for being our customers is the least we can do to make them feel valued and appreciated. Countless of our customers have taken their time to promote our business on our behalf to their friends and social circles, they have spent time reaching out […] web hosting Continue reading

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5 Easy To Use WordPress Plugins For Shortening Your URLs

The post 5 Easy To Use WordPress Plugins For Shortening Your URLs appeared first on HostGator Blog . URL shortening services are certainly not new to the web, platforms like TinyURL have been around for over a decade now and has successfully shortened hundreds of millions of URL’s for its users. The web is being inundated with new websites and content management systems that utilize very complicated and difficult URL patterns. When Twitter was introduced to the World, it quickly had to adapt to its own URL shortener due to the fact that URLs would be too long to copy and paste in traditional manner. Default: https://twitter.com/HostGator/status/638766536421830656 Shortened: http://t.co/kE1FfPFSoh It makes such a huge difference in the length of the URL, as well as the complexity of having to share it with your friends, relatives or coworkers. Other uses for URL shorteners, especially in the WordPress blogosphere, is the ability to mask affiliate links, a way for bloggers to earn revenue without having to directly expose their long affiliate marketing URLs, or we can mask our links from 3rd party affiliate sites that we are using on our blog, and rest assured that such techniques are completely safe in terms of their effects on your rankings. If you have been struggling with keeping up with your analytics data on certain links, perhaps you’re having trouble really understand Google Analytics, you will be happy to know that URL shorteners usually provide a way to track your shortened links and their full statistics, when the link was clicked, and where, which can also help with understanding who else is sharing your links on the web. Bit.ly has the analytics platform narrowed down to perfection, definitely consider them as one of your first choices in learning more about modern link shortening. Short URL First we want to get clear about whether we want to use a 3rd party service, or we wish to use our own website for shortening our links. If your choice is leaning towards the latter, then Short URL plugin will give you all the necessary features to turn your own WordPress blog into a link shortening platform; giving you full control over how your links appear on the web, and your website. ClickMeter ClickMeter knows what makes webmasters, marketers and online affiliate agencies tick. This state of the art link shortening solution provides a sea of features, for example you can use the variety of URL shorteners that ClickMeter offers, but you can also turn your own domain into a link shortening service. The comprehensive analytics platform will give you enough insights and data about the way your links are being exposed online that creating further duplicates of successful content are going to become a daily occurrence. You can even monitor links that have suddenly gone offline, helping you to protect yourself against unexpected Google penalties. Goo.gl Google provides its own, easy-to-use URL shortener. Create tiny and flexible URLs that you can share with anyone and anywhere, and use the Goo.gl’s own monitoring platform to learn about the number of clicks that your links are receiving. Each shortened URL is complimented with a snapshot of the website that you’re shortening, at the time of shortening. Adf.ly Adf.ly is known to be a platform for helping bloggers monetize their content by protect the outgoing URLs. This plugin will help you manage your Adf.ly account from within your WordPress dashboard, making it much more flexible to create the kind of URLs that will hopefully bring about revenue. iOli iOli is a simple and straightforward URL shortening platform that will let you shorten any URL on your website. Sometimes all we need is simplicity, and flexibility, and that’s exactly what iOli brings to the table for its users. web hosting Continue reading

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9 Best Practices For Social Based Customer Care

The post 9 Best Practices For Social Based Customer Care appeared first on HostGator Blog . It is no question that social channels can be an extremely valuable tool for a business. It not only increases brand awareness and connects you to potential users, but gives you a direct channel to your current users as well. Yet, as the saying goes, ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ Now that you are talking to your users, know that your users are talking to you, and it is not always positive. Using social media as a tool for customer care not only let users feel heard in a medium they feel comfortable with, but it also sends the right signals to potential customers about how you treat your users. Here are some best practices to doing this properly.   1. Don’t Disregard The Issue Everyone wants to be heard, and a generic, “take a look at our FAQ’s page for answers to most of your issues,” is just useless enough for your user to look elsewhere. Put a pinned comment at the top of your Facebook page, or in your twitter bio, that sends user to try your customer care channels first. Many may ignore it, but a number will listen and be dealt with there, only coming back if the problem persists. You may need to try harder to keep them happy after the process but at least it isn’t clogging up your social feed.   2. Treat Your Users As People Not Problems Don’t be afraid to banter and have an informal chat, as long as you don’t make it inappropriate or too personal for a public forum. Users respond to the human element and will have a more positive impression than if they receive generic, robotic answers. Look at your user’s basic information. The instructions you give to a tech-savvy teen, would not be appropriate for someone with less technology experience. Adapt your support accordingly.   3. Keep It Short And Sweet You need to keep you user engaged, the worst kind of service is one that is met by the sound of crickets because you have lost your audience 4 tweets ago. Make sure your answers are informative but do not drag on longer than necessary. If you can be as effective with three words as using a paragraph, opt for the three. You will maintain your audience’s attention span and not make them feel that their time has been wasted with superfluous information.   4. Don’t Be Afraid To Take It Elsewhere Some issues are universal and your reply could be of value to all users, if this is not the case, then you should carry on the conversation in a direct message or through email. If they have opened a support ticket before contacting you, take their ticket number and flag it up with your support staff to be prioritized.   5. Give Clear Answers Try to make your post, tweet or Facebook message as informative as possible. Be aware that talking on your Facebook homepage or through main twitter channels means that anyone can see your interaction. Both current and potential users can be listening, and your decorum can be a make or break for some of them. Make sure not only that you are patient and helpful, but also that you are using proper grammar and punctuation. When someone’s account is frozen, it is not the time to bombard them with emojis.   6. Look Out For The Little Guy There will always be that shy user that will post once, oftentimes as part of an unrelated thread that will get lost unless you are actively looking out for them. Signaling them out and answering their issues or concerns sets you apart from much of the competition, and lets the user feel important which could result in lifelong loyalty.   7. Deal With Complaints Some users are out for blood, ignoring a negative comment can be more disastrous than you realize. Be warned that some users may use their social following to bombard you page or ‘trash’ your brand. They can do this by creating inflammatory hashtags or posting multiple comments across all of your social channels. Early intervention is key here.   8. Separate The Wheat From The Chaff Not all users on your social channels are what they seem. Keep a sharp eye out for competitors looking to harm your brand, and destroy your service’s reputation. If you are sure a user is not what they seem, and they are becoming more hassle than their worth, don’t be afraid to block them from your account. You should only do this as a last resort! A perfect page looks fake, and will cause you to loose trust from potential users.   9. Manage Expectations If you are a small business, no one expects you to have a large social media support team. Be honest with your audience and don’t spread yourself too thin. If users know that it could take up to a few days to have their complaint attended to, their expectations will be better managed and they are less likely to be fed-up and leave. Just be sure to keep your promises, if you say it will be up to two days, make sure it is.   ***** Natalie Lehrer is a senior contributor for  CloudWedge . In her spare time, Natalie enjoys exploring all things cloud and is a music enthusiast. Follow Natalie’s daily posts on Twitter: @ Cloudwedge , or on  Facebook .   Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosauraochoa/3256859352/in/photolist-5XNfPs-dUmKE4-amC4jN-6mYWTq-aFy3bt-dZxNRq-6u2DBs-5XJ1Qc-9eVCSc-99BVQZ-9MoWtb-9hNywz-9x7H6Z-8bspY4-4oUWXS-6DtPYC-axnKy3-6u2Dkq-7rY7do-6qPE85-7YNkeA-7YNkh5-8Q7LKc-8Q7LSH-8Q7LZ4-8QaSeA-9yMPBV-71ZNv4-8NyVNa-yv3t2-6tXvgR-6qPE89-7oytoK-8H6Z3P-6qPE8f-aucWr1-dU7Cn1-9iAUEF-9iAVoa-9iAVf2-9iE4fm-9iATSR-9iE2eb-9iE3uw-9iAWvP-9iATHv-9iAUmz-9iAUY2-9iE4od-9iE47b web hosting Continue reading

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2015 Holiday Dash

The post 2015 Holiday Dash appeared first on HostGator Blog . HostGator Holiday Dash Giveaway Official Rules NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Eligibility The HostGator Holiday Dash Giveaway (the “Giveaway”) is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States (including District of Columbia) who are eighteen (18) years or older at the time of entry. Void where prohibited by law. Employees of The Endurance International Group, Inc. or any of its respective affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, or any other company or individual involved with the design, production, execution or distribution of the Giveaway and their immediate family (spouse, parents and step-parents, siblings and step-siblings, and children and step-children) and household members (people who share the same residence at least three (3) months out of the year) of each such employee are not eligible. The Giveaway is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations. Participation constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and Sponsor’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters related to the Giveaway. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein. Sponsor The Endurance International Group, Inc., 10 Corporate Dr., Suite 300, Burlington, MA 01803. Timing The Giveaway begins on September 21, 2015 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time (“ET”) and ends on October 16, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. ET (the “Giveaway Period”). Sponsor’s computer is the official time keeping device for this Giveaway. How to Enter During the Giveaway Period, you will automatically receive one entry into the Giveaway for doing one of the following: Tweeting your favorite tip from HostGator’s Holiday Dash email series using the hashtag #dashwithsnappy; or Alternatively, you may enter by hand printing your name, age, complete address (including zip code), daytime phone number and e-mail address on a 3″x 5″ card and mail it, postage prepaid, to: The Endurance International Group, Attn: HostGator Holiday Dash Giveaway, 10 Corporate Dr., Suite 300, Burlington, MA 01803. Mail-in entries must be postmarked by October 16, 2015 and received by October 21, 2015. Mail-in entries will NOT be accepted via messenger/courier delivery service or any means other than United States Postal Service mail. Sponsor is not responsible for lost or misdirected mail in entries. Limit one (1) entry per person during the Giveaway Period regardless of method of entry. Any attempt by any participant to use multiple Twitter accounts to enter will be ineligible. Use of any automated system to participate is prohibited and will result in disqualification. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible or misdirected entries, which will be disqualified. In the event of a dispute as to any entry, the authorized account holder of the twitter account used to submit the entry will be deemed to be the entrant. The “authorized account holder” is the natural person listed as the owner of the twitter account. Potential winners may be required to show proof of being the authorized account holder. All entries become the sole and exclusive property of Sponsor and will not be returned Winner Selection On or about October 22, 2015 the Sponsor will select one (1) entry as the Prize winner in a random drawing of all valid entries received during the Giveaway Period. The entrant will be contacted using the Twitter handle or email address provided with the entry and may be awarded the Prize (subject to verification of eligibility and compliance with the terms of these rules.) Sponsor’s decisions as to the administration and operation of the Giveaway and the selection of a potential winner is final and binding in all matters related to the Giveaway. The winner will be notified one day after the drawing. POTENTIAL GIVEAWAY WINNERS ARE SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION BY SPONSOR WHOSE DECISIONS ARE FINAL AND BINDING IN ALL MATTERS RELATED TO THE GIVEAWAY. Verification of Potential Winner The potential winner must continue to comply with these Official Rules and winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements. The potential winner will be required to sign and return to Sponsor within five (5) days of the date notice is sent, an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release (except where prohibited) in order to claim his/her prize. If a potential winner of the prize cannot be contacted, fails to sign and return the affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release within the required time period (if applicable), or if the Prize or prize notification is returned as undeliverable, the potential winner forfeits the Prize. In the event that a potential winner of a Prize is disqualified for any reason, Sponsor may award the applicable Prize to an alternate winner by random drawing from among all remaining eligible entries. Prize Winners One (1) prize winner will receive a goMobi bundle, which includes a professionally set up mobile site and one (1) year of goMobi service (the “Prize”) for a total value of Two Hundred and Fifty-Nine Dollars ($259). The Prize is non-transferable and no substitution will be made except as provided herein at the Sponsor’s sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute the listed Prize for one of equal or greater value for any reason. The winner is responsible for all taxes and fees associated with Prize receipt and/or use. Odds of winning a Prize depends on the number of eligible entries received during the Giveaway Period. Entry Conditions and Release By entering the Giveaway, each entrant agrees to: (a) comply with and be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor which are binding and final in all matters relating to this Giveaway; (b) release and hold harmless the Sponsor and its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliated companies, the Prize suppliers and any other organizations responsible for sponsoring, fulfilling, administering, advertising or promoting the Giveaway and all of their respective past, present and future officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liability, including but not limited to negligence and damages of any kind to persons and property, including but not limited to invasion of privacy (under appropriation, intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light in the public eye or other legal theory), defamation, slander, libel, violation of right of publicity, infringement of trademark, copyright or other intellectual property rights, property damage, or death or personal injury arising out of or relating to a participant’s entry, creation of an entry or submission of an entry, participation in the Giveaway, acceptance or use or misuse of a Prize (including any travel or activity related thereto) and/or the broadcast, exploitation or use of an entry; and (c) indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Sponsor from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liabilities (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to an entrant’s participation in the Giveaway and/or entrant’s acceptance, use or misuse of a Prize. Publicity Except where prohibited, participation in the Giveaway constitutes winner’s consent to Sponsor’s and its agents’ use of winner’s name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions and/or hometown and state for promotional purposes in any media, worldwide, without further payment or consideration. General Conditions Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Giveaway, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond Sponsor’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Giveaway, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Giveaway or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Giveaway may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. Limitations of Liability The Released Parties are not responsible for: (a) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Giveaway; (b) technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions, or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software; (c) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Giveaway; (d) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Giveaway or the processing of entries; or (e) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Giveaway or receipt or use or misuse of any prize. If for any reason an entrant’s entry is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost, or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant’s sole remedy is another entry in the Giveaway. No more than the stated number of Prizes will be awarded. In event that production, technical, seeding, programming or any other reasons cause more than the stated number of Prizes as set forth in these Official Rules to be available and/or claimed, Sponsor reserves the right to award only the stated number of Prizes by a random drawing among all legitimate, unawarded, eligible Prize claims. Disputes Entrant agrees that: (a) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Giveaway, or any Prizes awarded, other than those concerning the administration of the Giveaway or the determination of winners, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action; (b) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Giveaway, or any Prizes awarded, shall be resolved exclusively by the appropriate court located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; (c) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual and reasonable out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering this Giveaway, but in no event attorneys’ fees; and (d) under no circumstances will entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and entrant hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages, other than for actual and reasonable out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the entrant and Sponsor in connection with the Giveaway, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Entrant’s Personal Information Information collected from entrants is subject to the Sponsor’s Privacy Policy. Giveaway Results For Giveaway results send a hand-printed, self-addressed, stamped envelope to Winners List – HostGator Holiday Dash Giveaway c/o The Endurance International Group, Inc., 10 Corporate Dr., Suite 300, Burlington, MA 01803. Requests for the winner list must be received by December 15, 2015. Twitter is a trademark of Twitter, Inc. Twitter is in no way affiliated with or a sponsor of the Giveaway.   web hosting Continue reading

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