When it comes to ecommerce platforms, you have many good choices at your disposal. One of them is Shopify.
Shopify is an online store that can completely transform the way you operate your online store. Your sales will probably benefit when you use Shopify to run your online store.
There are many reasons why you should consider using Shopify as your ecommerce website platform. The following are several of them:
It is Incredibly Easy to Use
Shopify is a user-friendly platform that is designed to be used by anyone. The interface of the platform was made with regular people as the intended users.
Even with no design background at all, you will still be able to create an incredible template for your store. Your store will look as if a professional designed it.
The best part about Shopify is that you can customize your store exactly how you want it. The appearance of the store will have your personal style depending on your preferences.
Is Super Fast
Speed is an element that both ecommerce operators and customers want in an online store. Shopify is well renowned for its amazing speed.
Shopify is hosted by some of the best and fastest servers in the world. You get cloud storage with Shopify and the speed is so fast, your pages will load immediately.
Every online store owner knows that every second a web page loads, they lose revenue. With Shopify, you will never lose any money because of slow speeds.
Social Media Integration
If you run an online store, then you probably use social media to market your product or service. It is an integral part of every online business’s digital marketing strategy.
A vital reason why you should consider using Shopify for your ecommerce site is that it makes social media advertising very easy. One reason is that you can check on your social media channels directly from your website.
Another is because you can include a Facebook pixel on every webpage on your website. You can also claim advertising discounts using Shopify codes on various social media platforms.
Features
Shopify is one of the most fully stocked ecommerce platforms as far as features are concerned. It has every possible capability to allow you to customize your site.
The best part is that Shopify is always improving and creating new features for the platform. Shopify Plus is a great example about which you can learn from Vincit.com. There are constantly fixing bugs with the platform’s software as well.
The abundance of features is what allows you to make your online store personal. A customized store with your personality is sure to set you and your online store apart from the competition.
It is Safe and Dependable
When you run an online store, you have a lot of information that you are privy to and some of it is quite sensitive. Therefore, you should ensure that you use an ecommerce store that will keep all the information safe and Shopify is one such store.
You will rarely have to worry about your client’s accounts getting hacked or your store crashing. The security on Shopify’s servers is top-notch.
The servers also have 24/7 technical support so there are never any glitches on your site. If there are, they will be fixed immediately, and you let them know.
It is Mobile Friendly
A great advantage of living in the modern age is that you can buy anything wherever you are and whenever you want as long as you have a device that can connect to the internet. However, you will be surprised at how many online stores don’t have mobile sites.
Mobile ecommerce accounts for almost half of all online retail sales. Therefore, many stores lose money by not being available via a mobile device.
Shopify will make your online store automatically mobile friendly. The site is fast and highly responsive as well. Therefore, your store will look incredible and function optimally on any device.
It has In-built SEO
You need traffic if you are to sell anything on your site. The best way to increase and ensure traffic to your website is to optimize it for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
A reason to use Shopify is that it is designed for online marketing. They essentially have SEO covered.
You can use various tools on the platform to ensure that your store regularly appears high on search engine results. You also get analytic tools to measure your site’s traffic.
There are many reasons why Shopify is the preferred ecommerce platform for many and why it should be for you. The above reasons should be enough to make a good argument for using Shopify. You should consider it and at least give it a chance, and you might just be surprised.
Everyone has slow days sometimes. Whether it’s because you’re feeling unwell, or because it’s a certain time of year, or because you just need a break as you’ve been working hard. However, more than a few slow days in a row, and your online business could start to suffer badly. If the slow days keep coming, you might even have to shut down completely.
If you find you’re having a lot of slow days, you must find out exactly what’s behind them so you can do something about it. Anything that’s slowing down your business needs to be eliminated and new processes put in place to put things back on track. Here are some of the main reasons.
Trying To Do Everything Yourself
Strangely, one of the biggest reasons for your business slowing down might not even occur to you at first, especially as, if this is the issue, you’ll be feeling busier than ever. But just because you’re busy that doesn’t mean the business is, and this is a distinction that it’s important to make.
The reason we’re talking about is you trying to do everything yourself. If you try to do this, you’ll always be distracted and you’ll never be able to focus on the things you really should be focusing on if you want to grow the business. It’s far better to outsource what you can and use virtual services to give you some breathing space and a chance to work on the business rather than in it.
A Lack Of Advertising
Even the biggest businesses in the world still advertise, and you’ll certainly have seen ads for McDonald’s and Amazon, for example, so if you’re trying to grow your online venture, you have to advertise too. After all, if it’s good enough for them, it has to be good enough for you.
If you haven’t invested enough time, money, and effort into your advertising, the work and customers will eventually dry up, especially if you have only created one or two advertising campaigns and then done nothing at all. If those campaigns worked and brought you more business, you run the risk of losing the momentum by drawing back. If they didn’t work you might feel there’s no point in advertising, but that is not true; you simply need to find a new way to engage with people. The more you advertise – and keep advertising – the more your business will be noticed and the busier you will be.
Your Website Is Out Of Date
As an online business, your website is going to be of huge importance; you couldn’t run the business at all without it. Yet it could be what’s slowing you down as well. The online store might be what brings you customers, but what about the rest of your website? Is that up to date? When was the last time you added something new to the blog or changed the homepage to reflect a special event or feature a specific new product?
If you can’t remember, it’s been too long.
When people come to a website, they might not land on the store right away; they could land on other pages first, or they might want to check the business out before buying. If your blog is months or even years out of date you’ll be giving the wrong impression, and people might even think you’re gone out of business. Update your website and you’ll soon become much busier (and your SEO will improve too).
If you own a personal business in this day and age, you have to perfect your online marketing strategy. Thousands of other companies are probably overwhelming your target audience with pop up ads and promotional emails, so unless you find a way to capture their attention, your business won’t have a chance. This brings us to landing pages and the critical role they play in encouraging your audience to take action.
Landing pages can come into play during various stages of an online marketing campaign. From the very beginning, i.e., attracting your target customers’ attention to your product and its unique features, up until the final stage during which the customer is checking out and finalizing their purchase. If you feel like your marketing plan has become obsolete and isn’t working as it should, you need to read this article. With the year coming to an end, it’s the perfect time to round up the top 6 performing landing page builders of the year. Let’s get started.
Unbounce is the best landing page builder app for small businesses with limited budgets. Not only does it have all the essential features that make a great landing page builder app, but it also offers multiple pricing plans to accommodate its ever-growing list of clients. Unbounce will give you access to many professional landing page templates to choose from. All you have to do is fill in your content, and your landing page is ready to use.
One of the most remarkable features of Unbounce – one that gives it an unparalleled competitive advantage – is that it’s focused purely on driving conversions. After all, driving conversions is the ultimate purpose of creating landing pages, and that’s the benefit you get out of using Unbounce. Throughout your usage, you’ll be able to enjoy unlimited A/B testing; an essential feature in all landing pages, although the feature is limited to the landing pages created through Unbounce only. You’ll also be able to use AI optimization features, popups, sticky bars, and other built-in tools to capture more leads. However, one significant shortcoming is that the landing pages of Unbounce can lose their position as a data source once connected to Google Analytics. Although there are some workarounds, they’re far from ideal.
If you are a complete beginner, you will appreciate its simple layout and the excellent support and help center that you can reach out to at any time. However, it’s important to note that if you want to unlock the more intricate features on Unbounce, you will need some professional help as it can get overwhelming for true beginners.
ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is another popular landing page builder app that has proven successful in 2020. Although both Unbounce and ClickFunnels compete for popularity, each has its benefits. With its simple drag and drop feature, you will be able to use ClickFunnels to build your desired landing pages yourself without any professional help. Moreover, ClickFunnels have an excellent app for sharing your pages with other people to stay on track and keep the team aligned. If your sales team uses Clickfunnels, sharing becomes easier.
Even though previous users usually complain that the ready landing page templates are not always up to par, having access to a marketplace will unlock abundant options where you’re sure to find what you’re looking for. On the downside, the ClickFunnels help center can be sluggish at times. Furthermore, a bit of high pricing makes it hard for potential users to commit to long-term subscription plans.
We mentioned the landing page builder Unbounce before. If you want to know if Clickfunnels or Unbounce is the right tool for your business, MarketingEnvoy compared both tools in an in-depth article. In the shortest, Unbounce focuses on creating and optimizing landing pages, ClickFunnels provides the user with a better ability to create sales funnels and optimize the conversion process.
Google Sites
Perhaps not as well known as other Google products, Google Sites is the best way to start if you are still unsure about building your landing pages yourself since it’s absolutely free. You can take as long as you need to try and test the various features available on the app until you either get the hang of it or decide that you will need to hire professional help. However, it won’t come as a surprise to learn that the available templates are pretty basic since the app comes free of charge. As many people struggled financially throughout this year, the app filled a huge gap in the market and gained a lot of popularity.
When using Google sites to create your landing pages, you’ll be limited to a few themes to choose from. These themes all have the same basic look: the large header at the top giving you space to enter your page title and available space underneath, so you can drag and drop sections. These sections can be inserted in text, uploaded images, or uploaded files. Although the tools only offer basic functionality, you’ll be able to customize the layout, color, and typography of the landing page as you desire.
On the plus side, you’ll likely enjoy using the editor. The available stock layout options make adding and formatting text and images quite a fun experience. Since it’s a Google product, you can expect unmatched convenience when looking to use files from your Google Drive. You’ll simply click on the Drive button to browse your files and embed forms, images, documents, or any other file from the Drive.
Mailchimp
Specially designed to increase email sign-ups, Mailchimp is a highly efficient landing page builder. This app offers a straightforward approach to build your landing pages after choosing from a list of ten well-curated themes. You will even find that the themes are categorized according to the purpose they serve, making them suitable for the average user. Using the Mailchimp landing page builder, you’ll be able to create unlimited landing pages – regardless of the plan you’ve subscribed to. That means that you can do that even with the free-forever plan!
To add to its convenience, you won’t have to struggle with adjusting your landing pages for multiple devices. The Mailchimp landing page builder has taken care of that for you since all their templates are responsive and mobile-friendly. Moreover, you’ll be able to access quality insights by generating their landing page reports. These reports will notify you of how well your pages are performing, based on the key metrics of subscribers, visits, and clicks. The landing page builder also gives you the ability to edit your landing pages, URL, title, tracking settings, or content whenever you need to make adjustments following the report generation.
Unfortunately, the Mailchimp landing page builder has some serious shortcomings. The most obvious downside of this builder is the lack of A/B testing functionality. Moreover, the builder blocks special forms of content, like testimonials, quizzes, and image carousels. Another downside is that the search engines can’t index your landing pages, which can seriously hinder your SEO efforts.
You can enjoy Mailchimp for free if you have 2,000 contacts or less and limit your emails to 10,000 emails/month. If you are interested in adding more contacts, you can pay the extra fees and unlock premium features like access to more email templates and custom branding.
Leadpages
Leadpages will make your life easier as it allows you to market and sell your product through the same landing page. This means that you won’t risk losing potential customers who usually lose interest while shifting between multiple pages until they find what they’re looking for. Leadpages is well known for its pragmatic interface and easy to use editor. It even gives you the ability to filter templates by their conversion rate, which Leadpages has taken the liberty of measuring themselves. For 37 USD/month, you can purchase the Standard package, which is pretty impressive at this price. However, if you want to build an online store for your product, the Premium account will allow you to add a checkout form for an integrated customer buying experience.
Instapage
If you are interested in building multiple landing pages to market and sell your full-range of products, Instapage will give you what you’re looking for. On Instapage, you can create, edit, and even save your blocks that contain information like descriptive text and headers. You don’t need to rebuild your blocks again; you can simply retrieve the ones you previously archived.
This app is also great for teams as it allows different members to edit or add their comments on the original page and take actions accordingly. Teams working remotely during lockdown this year found this feature particularly helpful. Instapage is a little on the pricier side as a Business account will cost you around 200 USD/month. The enterprise account is even more expensive, but it gives you the option to update your blocks all at once after having saved them previously.
Choosing the right landing page builder will take some research on your side. However, the above list of top-performing builder apps in 2021 will give you an idea about what to expect and make your job easier. Start by identifying your specific needs and budget and then take it from there. Don’t let the options overwhelm you; instead, consider it an opportunity to enhance your online marketing and give it the boost it needs.
Copyright laws enable creators to protect their works from reproduction, selling, or any other unauthorized use. Just because you have seen a beautiful art or idea physically or on the internet, it is not free for use unless given permission by the owner. Using someone’s work that’s copyrighted or trademarked without consent can lead to a jail term, fines, or ruin your reputation. It’s important to copyright your work as a creator to avoid unlawful use. This article will discuss some copyright laws, dos and don’ts, and those affected by these laws. Read on to find out more.
What is copyright, and who is eligible for it?
Copyright refers to protecting your ideas, story, and art of software from illegal use. It marks the concept as solemnly yours, and it’s not for use by anyone unless under your permission. Most governments handle this protection, and rules change daily, especially in this internet era where duplication is rampant. If you find your copyright infringed, you can sue the parties and get compensation for damages. It is essential to get a patent lawyer to help safeguard your content and get culprits who infringe it. Who is eligible to copyright their ideas? Many creators are suitable for protection. These include all literary works, architecture, artistry works, films, TV shows, Podcasts, choreography, software, and hardware. What is noteligible for copyright?Not everything is suitable for copyrights. The lists depend on countries, and it includes facts, ideas, operation methods, and systems.
Which protections are provided by copyrights?
When you copyright something, it becomes your own, and if one uses it without your permission, it can fall under stealing. If you are a copyright owner, you are privileged for so many things. As the owner, you can reproduce your work, create other works concerning the original one, display your ideas in public, sell copies of the original work, and perform the same in public. For example, if you produce your music on DVDs and streaming it online, you can also perform it in public and sell it through other media. The rights you get are long-lasting, and you only lose them if you dissolve the copyright legally. With it, you will enjoy economic rights, legal rights, social rights, and even moral rights.
Which are the economic rights?
The economic copyright rights enable the owner to benefit financially from their copyrighted ideas. To earn from your ideas, the copyright allows the owner to reproduce the concepts to the public, perform public performance, translate their work in different languages and broadcast their ideas on streamlined media including smart TV, Radio, or the internet. You can also derive your results to earn something from them.
What are Moral Rights?
These rights allow the creator to protect their works against actions that may damage its reputation or personal reputation. The moral rights benefits include the right to own the work, the right to publish their work anonymously, protect their work against unclear reputations, and protect against unfair attacks that may damage their reputation.
How long should copyright last?
There is no definite limit for a copyrighted work. It depends on the item and where it is made. For example, contents made before 1978 gave the author a copyright limit of their lifespan, including an additional 70 years after they passed away. However, few exceptions vary from one region to another, depending on the material and the law imposed.
Does one need to register a copyright?
This situation also depends on the state. To some, immediately you create a concept, it becomes copyrighted automatically without registration, while some require one to register for it. You can register for your work anytime as long as it’s within the time frame. Even if not registered, the creator can have a public record of their claim, file an infringement lawsuit, and get refunds for legal fees in infringement claims. To register for copyright, you have to fill an application form, pay the fee, and pay a deposit for the same.
What is Copyright Infringement?
Infringement is when someone breaks the rules and uses your content without prior permission. This is a crime punishable by law, whether done knowingly or unknowingly. When caught in the wrong arms of the law, you can be fined huge sums of money depending on how you used the content. As a content creator, you can use your lawyers to press charges for someone who used the content unknowingly.
If you are a content creator, it is important protecting your work or something you earn from. It is essential to have a lawyer carry you through the copyright process and protect your work. The lawyers will ensure every procedure is followed and everything gets copyrighted, and those who infringe it are charged according to law.
Construction is certainly a risky business. With things going array in a second because of an unknown structural defect or delayed payments from clients, one needs to keep their heads clear and think of ways on how to get the business moving and the project completed.
When you can’t meet your financial obligations, like paying suppliers and your staff because of a shortage of funding, you would have to be more creative to cope with the lack of cash. There are outfits and out of the box methods that you can get additional money for your construction business such as revenue based loan. Let’s talk this through.
How Can I Have Extra Money For My Construction Project?
Most business owners are getting battered in their first few years especially when you are engaged in the construction industry. It is a super dynamic arena that you can lose your shirt over. From the permits, suppliers, crew, and getting the project up to code, your investment or your investor’s money can easily get eaten up.
When you don’t have enough money to continue the hammering and the nailing, here are your options.
Invoice Financing/Factoring
Invoice financing is a creative way to ensure that you are up to date with your payment obligations to everybody you owe money to. This is construction finance where you borrow money against the unpaid invoices of your clients with interest. Basically, you are using your income in advance. It would help you improve your cash flow, meet your obligations, and invest your money wisely.
But you have to be very meticulous in your accounting because you can easily borrow more money than you are entitled to be paid. Plus, take note that it has an interest. When you borrow too much from invoice financing, your profit might just be lost due to the interest you have to pay off.
Equipment Leasing
Another innovative way of getting that extra cash to supplement your construction projects is leasing some of your equipment to other contractors who need it. Since heavy machinery like a tower crane will not be used all throughout the project duration, you can lend it to someone for a specified period of time in exchange for periodic payments.
A risk that you have to keep in mind as a lessor is that the equipment may be misused by the lessee that the equipment is rendered inoperable after the lease duration. To prevent this from happening, you can add in penalty clauses for specific clear misuse circumstances in the contract. You can draft a sample contract online and tweak it to reflect all the terms and conditions that you want to be included in the leasing agreement.
Business Line of Credit
This works like your emergency stash or open banking but with interest. Line of credit loans you a set amount of money that you can use when you need it. You don’t need to use it all up in one go. And the good part is you only pay interest on the money you borrowed and the interest starts when you use the loan.
Line of credit should be set up ahead of time before things go bonkers so that you would have time to give all the requirements needed to the bank or finance institution where you want to avail a line of credit.
You would need to present collateral if you want to apply for a secured line of credit. Of course, you can also seek credit without needing to pledge specific assets but your business needs to have a good track record and strong credit profile. Also, unsecured lines of credit have usually higher interest rates and offer smaller loan amounts.
Short Term Loans
Short term loans are often used by small businesses to raise working capital to cover money deficits for inventory, payroll, and other expenses.
Just like a business line of credit, you would need to guarantee your repayment through an asset or some form of collateral to get approved. Interest rates for short-term loans are usually lower than long-term ones but the tables can be quickly turned when the economy is in recession.
Short term loans are usually repaid in 30 days up to a year depending on the amount and the terms of the lender. This is quite enough time for construction projects to make the money and settle the loaned money.
Merchant Cash Advance
A quick way to earn the cash you need for the rainy days is availing of a merchant cash advance. A merchant cash advance is a lump-sum payment in exchange for future revenue.
This type of business financing is discouraged by business finance experts because of the high risks it puts small businesses into. They can get bankrupt easily because of how the contract and staggering interests on your loaned money.
Lenders that offer merchant cash advance use a “factor rate” that is fairly simple to understand. Your initial loaned amount is multiplied to a factor rate ranging from 1.1 to 1.5, and you get the total amount for repayment. However, if you compare it to APR, the interest rate on your borrowed money will be converted up to 200% APR. A shocking rate that would surely shake any small business owner.
So beware of availing of a merchant cash advance. Only use this highway when you are in desperate need of cash and that you can repay the amount within the terms or even earlier.
There are of course other means on how to finance your obligations in your construction business but just like any transaction, there are risks involved in loaning money. Before you decide on the type of financing you would want to use, be sure that you understand all there is to comprehend about that type of loan. It would also not hurt to research a bit about your options and take your pick on what option you are comfortable with. Losing your shirt over your business is not necessary but can happen if you are not careful in dealing with your finances.
