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Reginald Chan – Page 152 – Serious Talks on Marketing & Relationships Matters

Blog

How To Start A Blog In Just 5 Steps [Infographic]
You heard that you can make money with a blog and you are inching to start a blog. There are way too many guides out there on ‘how to start a blog‘ but you want just the facts.

Yes, you want a complete blogging tutorial that teaches you how to create a blog from scratch. You have no time to waste and certainly, you don’t want to waste money buying web hosting and domain names just to become another failed blogger.

You want to start a blog and start making money from blogging. I feel you –and that’s why I created this post for you; How To Start A Blog In Just 5 Simple Steps.

If you are the type that read, bookmark this post for future reference and if you’re a graphic-type of person, there’s an infographic right at the bottom of this post. And if you find this post useful, I would appreciate it if you can share this around or use the infographic in your blog post!

Step 1: Start a blog by choosing a domain name

A domain name is like your brand and it matters even more especially when your blog get traction and more visibility. Most bloggers find it really challenging to find a blog name and allow me to hep you out on this.

There are several rules of thumb when it comes to choosing a domain name:
- Always go for dot com (.com) followed by dot net (.net) and dot co (.co) – Avoid others forms of Top Level Domains (TLD’s) regardless how interesting they sound like
- Domain name should be short and in most cases, under 20 characters
- Choose a domain name the represents your brand and make sense for reading (higher readability = easier remembrance)
- Avoid hypes and numbers whenever possible
- Have the keyword embedded in the domain for some search engine advantage in the future
Domain usually costs anywhere from $0.99 to under $10 per year. There are many domain registrars out there such as GoDaddy and NameCheap which sells at super low prices.

Want to save money in domain name and get a free one? Continue reading Step 2!

To be included in you reading list: ProBlogger Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

Step 2: Choosing a reliable web hosting company

Web hosting is like the power company that lights up your home (in this case, home is your domain). One of the biggest mistakes done by bloggers is choosing really, really cheap web hosting companies due to the obvious reason; dirt cheap cost.

The results? Tons of downtime and even possibility of hacking which leads to angry visitors and lost of revenue for you. If you think about it, this isn’t the reason of you starting a blog. You want to make money or passive income from blogging!

So, here are some guidelines you need to know when choosing a web hosting company:
- Reliable uptime for web hosting performance
- Proven track record in this industry
- Support consists of live chat, phone, email and forum
- Money back guarantee
Since you are starting out in blogging, you should be getting shared web hosting as this is the most affordable one. While there are higher end ones like WP Engine, you’re still in good hands especially when your blog is hosted with a professional web hosting company with affordable prices.

Why? Because it doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket.

If you need recommendations, I recommend using BlueHost (read my review on Bluehost) because it costs only $3.95 per month and all the goodies such as free domain name, free site builder, professional support and money back guarantee under one roof. Of course, you only get this deal when you use this link (original price is $5.99 per month).

Step 3: Installing a blogging platform

In the 3rd step on how to start a blog, you need to install a blogging platform. Here, I would recommend you to install WordPress as it is one of the most flexible blogging platforms for both beginners and businesses.

Big brands such as Tech Crunch, The New Yorker and Sony Music use WordPress for their websites.

By default, most shared hosting service providers would have cPanel system which you can use to install WordPress. If you slightly geeky, here’s the real definition of cPanel credits to Wikipedia:

cPanel is a Linux based web hosting control panel that provides a graphical interface and automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site.

If you are wondering if you could create a blog without WordPress, yes you could — but would you? Millions of blogs out there are powered by WordPress because it is flexible and super scalable. As a matter of fact, WordPress allows you to change every expect of your blog (with some coding knowledge).

Right now, you may be thinking, “Hey Reginald, this is just too much for me. I am working/studying and I have absolutely no time to spare. I demand to know how to start a blog fast!”

Yes sir! Pardon me for all the jargons I said in the past few paragraph. You want an easy way out? Signup for BlueHost web hosting and they will give you a free domain. Then the magic happens. BlueHost has 1-click install for WordPress. All you need to do is to click and wait.

Now you are all set … under 5 minutes. Yes, sign up for BlueHost here (If you cancel within 30 days, you receive a full refund on your hosting service and if you cancel after 30 days, you receive a prorated refund for the remainder of your hosting term).

Step 4: Setting up your blog

Yes, you just started a blog. Pretty simple right?

No, it’s no over yet! There’re two more steps and the next step (really simple one, I promise) is setting the blog up.

On your dashboard (accessible through http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin), head over the left panel and click on Settings > General as seen on the image below:

Once the page is refreshed, you will see a new page and this is the main switch box for your blog. See the options in the image below? Fill the details according to the details of your blog.

Once everything is done, click on the Save button.

Important note: Tagline should be no longer than 160 characters.

Bonus offer: See why over 164,000 website owners trust StudioPress Themes!

Step 5: Installing plugins to your blog

What are WordPress plugins?

WordPress plugins are bits of software that can be uploaded to to extend and expand the functionality of your WordPress site.

In short, plugins help you to do wonders with your blog (even when you have no knowledge about) and it increases productivity.

Plugins can be installed directly from your blog’s dashboard. Click on the left panel and select Plugins.

A new page will be visible and you can search dozens of plugins directly from the WordPress repository. As of this point of writing, there are over 37,900 plugins available for download to your blog.

Here are some important plugins you need to have when you first start a blog:
- JetPack (utility plugin)
- Akismet (plugin to manage spam comments)
- Contact Form 7 (plugin to create contact forms)
- W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache (helps to reduce blog loading speed and improve web performance)
- WordPress SEO by Yoast (improves your blog SEO markups)
Alternative plugins for advanced bloggers:
- Thrive Leads (plugin to build email list)
- Easy Social Sharing Buttons (create custom social sharing buttons)
- Scribe Content (advanced SEO and analytics tool for bloggers)
WordPress comes with some beautifully made themes which you can use for free. But if you would want a more custom look and feel, there are tools such as Thrive Theme Builder that allows you to create custom custom blog templates without a single line of code. Besides that, you have StudioPress who offers dozens of professional made blog templates ready for download at very reasonable prices.

So, what’s next after starting a blog?

Did you know that you have finish all the 5 steps in ‘how to start a blog‘?

Yes, give yourself a pat on the back and maybe some beer. You have successfully create a blog from scratch (and without pulling a single strain of hair). Well, that’s awesome right?

Of course, starting a blog is just the first step in your blogging journey. What’s coming up next is how to make money with a blog (subscribe here to be kept updated)!

Bonus: How To Start A Blog [Infographic]
February 19, 2024
How Different Social Media Platforms Generate Leads
Mike Bird is a co-founder of digital marketing agency, Social Garden. Social Garden specializes in data-driven lead generation & marketing automation to grow companies revenue in the finance, property and education verticals in Australia. Mike is an influencer in the social media marketing & Facebook advertising space and contributes to Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today, Yahoo! Business Advisor and most importantly, the Social Garden blog.

You have your social media accounts all set up and ready to go, but do you know how to use them to generate leads?

Read on and learn how to use each social media platform to generate solid leads and make your social media marketing an overall success.

Facebook

Facebook is like the hub of social media. Everyone can post content from other sites to it, and nearly everyone has a Facebook account. This makes the social media platform instrumental in your lead generation plan.

Above all other social media platforms, Facebook’s advertising services target exactly who you want and can put your content right into the hands of those most likely to use it. After all, you spend so much time creating great, quality content on your blogs so you might as well share it with new potential clients.

The Promoted Post feature puts your best content on the Facebook feeds of those most likely to be intrigued and click. You might promote a link to a free ebook or upcoming webinar you are hosting, or you might promote your most popular blog article. The only think you cannot post is a direct link to any sort of landing or product page. This is not the time to sell.

Whatever promotional angle you decide to use, make sure you have a sign-up form or some way of getting visitors to give you their email addresses. This is the best way to collect the leads that click on your posts.

Twitter

Sending out well-crafted tweets with defining hashtags is a great start, but you might have more success generating leads if you are participating in or hosting Twitter chats. Any Twitter account can host a discussion and anyone interested is allowed to participate. The host will decide on a relevant hashtag so everyone participating can find the most recent posts by searching for the hashtag.

If you are unsure about hosting one, try participating in a few chats to see how it is done. You will meet both other industry leaders as well as consumers, and you will be free to voice your own opinions on certain subjects. This is a great way to gain exposure for your brand and introduce it to a new group of consumers.

Whether you are participating or hosting, there are a few things to keep in mind when posting. These will help you make better use of your time and hopefully generate more leads:
- Stick to the designated hashtag.
- Add insightful comments that show your understanding of the industry and the topic at hand.
- Stay on topic and do not pitch any of your services or products.
- Research the people who are active participants by checking out their profile. If you think they might be a good fit for you, follow them. More than likely, they will follow you back.
Be active in Twitter chats and your brand will reach new consumers.

Cendrine Marrouat of Social Media Slant hosts a monthly Twitter chat using #smslantchat where users discuss various aspects of digital marketing.

Instagram

Want to give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your company? Instagram, the photograph platform, is perhaps best used for showing off the personal side of your business. It gives you the chance to showcase your staff’s antics and offer a glimpse at what it is really like to be a part of your company.

By introducing your staff members to the world, you’re giving a face to your brand and humanising it. Your brand inspires these people at work every day so show your consumers why it is so great to work for you and be a part of your company.

You can also send live updates from promotional events you attend and show readers what you are up to. This is a great way to attract people to a local event or trade show that you are participating in, and you can offer small discounts to followers who attend the event or trade show and stop by your booth.

Pinterest

Want to show off your company’s creativity and style? With Pinterest, you can create a board that represents your brand, and you can create multiple boards to meet the needs and wants of certain sectors of your audience.

To generate the best leads from Pinterest, optimise your pins for maximum pin-ability:
- Craft the perfect board to match your audience’s tastes
- Select visually stunning images – create your own or use others you love (Hint: tall images tend to get more pins)
- Use your URL or UTM parameters to lead visitors back to your website
- Create a short and sweet copy description – less than 200 words is best
- Include a relevant hashtag if necessary
Promote your boards on multiple sites and encourage your followers to pin their favourite posts.

LinkedIn

One of the best lead generation features about LinkedIn is LinkedIn Groups. The site hosts hundreds of individual niche groups that participate in monthly, weekly and some even daily discussions together. The groups bring all sorts of industry professionals with similar interests together in one place where they can talk about the issue that matter most to their business.

There is no limit to the amount of groups that you can belong to, and you can always start your own group. You might start a small business support group for your area and invite other local small businesses in your area to participate. You can share marketing ideas and connect with other businesses who might be interested in doing some cross promotion with you.

Regardless of whether you start a LinkedIn group or participate in existing ones, you should be regularly posting questions, commenting on other’s opinions (politely) and answering any questions that people post. Like Twitter chat, active participation is key, and you should avoid doing any sales pitching. Doing so will only make people think that you are there to sell it them.

Research the participants in the group and take note of anyone who continually asks questions. You may answer them directly on the group chat and then follow up with a more in-depth direct message. This will help you build a good relationship with your fellow group members and portray your expert knowledge.
February 19, 2024
CDN77 – Content Delivery Network That Accelerates Website Loading Speed

Recent years have brought few new players into the content delivery field of business. We decided to have a look at one of the most promising – CDN77. A London based company of 30 people seems to be an interesting disruption amongst the IT giants on the market.

What it promises

As a content delivery network, CDN77 takes care of the heavy-lifting of your internet traffic. Whether you have few large files or a ton of small support ones like Javascript or CSS, your own server will thank you for unloading the burden to multiple different machines. Not only will you be able to serve as many customers as you would like to, but with nodes all around the world, you will be able to serve them significantly faster than you would with your one-machine webhosting.

The Techcrunch effect

Being covered and linked by just one ‘big’ website can generate so much traffic to your own web that it is enough to eventually overload it and take it down. CDNs can usually handle millions of requests per second and therefore make your site effectively immune to this spike-traffic problem.

How it works

When setting up a CDN for your website, you usually create a subdomain and dedicate it to caching all its content via CDN. For ilustration, if you had a domain of example.com, then you create a new subdomain cdn.example.com and let the CDN service cache everything on it. Then whenever someone comes to cdn.example.com, despite having example.com in the address, he will be served cached data from the content delivery network service and your sever can calmly sleep in the background.

Without a CDN, your sites is bothered with every request that comes to it – and loading one page by one visitor can produce dozens of these. With caching implemented, though, the page is saved with CDN and your server does not even have to know someone has loaded it – the cache does all the work (except for the very first request where the page is not in the cache yet).

What is the improvement

Some webmasters implement content delivery networks to save money on webhosting services as they only need to use much cheaper plans then. For others, however, the main purpose is to make the site load faster all around the world. Hosting companies will usually grant you a part of a server in one location. If you physically host your site in New York datacenter, for example, requests from your customers in India will have to ‘hop’ many times before being routed to their destination. Each hop adds a little lag and you might end up with a page that is being loaded several long seconds.

CDN edge servers, on the other way, are spread all around the world. In CDN77’s case, there are 27 datacentres across 5 continents. Even if your own hosting is in New York, requests from users in India will not have to travel that far. They will be routed to the closest location (in this case that would be New Delhi) and local cache will take care of it. Together with a very promising specifications about the cache hardware, this gives a chance to speed up the page loading time rapidly. We decided to test it for ourselves.

We loaded the page 50 times in the ‘normal’ configuration and 50 times with the CDN implemented. It can be safely expected that with longer distance from the origin server, the measured difference would be even more significant.

Setup process

We were quite surprised how easy it was to set up an account. You don’t have to be an engineer to get started and even though we had a little bump on the way, the chat support was helpful and we were up and running in few minutes.

If you can change your DNS entries yourself, setting up a CDN is a matter of minutes.

The result

CDN77 proved to be worth the hype it causes on the market. With a very easy setup and evidently powerful hardware, we can recommend it as a provider of choice for speeding up the website and relieving your potentially stressed hosting server.

Now, it’s over to you!

If you are looking for a good CDN, CDN77 may just be the best option for you and your website. Have you considered taking it for a trial run? Click here to start your 14 days free trial!

February 19, 2024
Why Mobile Marketing Is A Must For Your Business?
This article is contributed by Alexandra Nicola. She is the Chief Content Writer at Squirrly.co. She enjoys helping people with their SEO problems and loves reading S.F. novels.

Smart-phones, tablets and laptops! That’s what people use nowadays in researching interesting topics, checking their email and deciding what brand of beverage they want to buy. It’s clear that in digital marketing word of mouth is one aspect you always need to keep in mind. Now we’re actually taking one step forward with mobile marketing. Not only can we make the message available on-line, but we can also find out how the users receive the message by taking a look at the device they use.

Why is mobile marketing important?

If you are going to take an afternoon to study the average person’s behaviour in your community, you will see the following: people using their phones in their cars, not just for talking over Bluetooth, but also for searching the internet to find nearby specific locations.Moms check their grocery list on their IPhone. Teenagers surf the web on their smartphone trying to find the best deals online for that product found at the mall which their parents won’t buy them.

[ Credits: Julian Bleecker ]

These are most probably the habits of your targeted audience as well. So, how can you determine them to stay focused on your message while all of this is happening? Simple, through mobile marketing.

You need to take the message where they are. You are probably going to tell me you already are there. Most of this devices are used on the internet and you are already there. But that isn’t enough. Because users are usually highly critical. If it’s not convenient for them to use your site, they will probably leave and find an app for the same task; an app one of your competitors has made, one that enables them to digest content easily on their 7″ or less screen.

How you can adapt for mobile marketing benefits?

The great part is that you don’t actually need to start from scratch if you have a standing digital marketing strategy. But you need to take into consideration two aspects :
- How user experience feels on a mobile device
- The behaviour pattern when getting in contact with mobile marketing strategy
How user experience feels on a mobile device?

The first observation is linked to the screen size. The elements of your site need to adapt to that. There is the viewport meta tag that will make your site take over the full width of the device and nothing more. This simple fix might actually be all the work you need done, if you have a very simple design on your site.

Most times that isn’t the case. That’s where responsive design comes into mobile marketing. In this type of design, not just the width taken up by the page is changed, but also each element of design adapts. This means columns, banners, images, pop-ups, and any other element you might think of.

Making sure that the font size is appropriate and that the spacing gives the user the chance to skim and scan your content is also important.

However, there is another aspect of the user experience you need to consider. Mobile devices are used differently. You don’t simply open pages on the web and read their content as you usually do on a laptop. Users want to be engaged by content, so they choose to use apps. This is a solution for your site that needs to be at least taken into discussion.

The advantages of an app is that you can keep the user more to yourself, offer more personalised content and have more appealing design elements that determine them to return more often than a bookmark does. Plus, you can easily collect feedback and see whether the user is engaged by your content. Apps demand more calls to action and buttons to click, which is in your best interest, in the end.

The behaviour pattern when getting in contact with mobile marketing strategy

Now you decided what you are going to do to make it more appealing. The next step is to consider in which way the content you’ve created especially for mobile is different. People that are looking through your content from mobile devices are not necessarily sitting on a chair in front of the device. They might be pushing a cart, in a bus or walking down the street.

Research or consider the most frequent scenarios in which your user is checking your app. If he/she is checking products, consider that he/she would want to compare prices while in a store, or to get more details on the item than the label offers.

My advice is to make sure that the mobile marketing content is actionable. Tell your user what to do in that particular situation. If there is an offer just that day, make him/her aware of it. Have a short and clear purpose for each piece. The question “Why am I here ?” should be answered at any given time.

Also remind him/her to come back to your app. Email marketing might be efficient, but Facebook’s app showing the latest updates on the icon is more convincing in mobile marketing.

Going the extra mile pays off

It always does. When you’ve invested in digital marketing, you saw the same thing. People mention you or your product on social media, to their friends. They share your relevant content, comment and ask for your opinion because they trust you. The same behaviour will come with mobile marketing.

Your audience will turn into loyal users, who incorporate your app in their daily lives. Checking for your information not just when they need to, but also when they have spare time as well. Why? Because you give them valuable information and, more so, you make it easier for them to access it.

So take the time to consider investing in mobile marketing. There are products out there that can give you a preview of how your site looks at this moment on different devices. Contentlook can also tell you if you have any improvements to make and how to implement them. Take the step forward and implement the strategy for the benefit of your customers as well as your business.
February 19, 2024
Revolutionary and Affordable Content Delivery Network – KeyCDN
I can’t bear the thoughts of a slow loading website. Being in the WordPress sphere for some solid years, I’m always looking for better solutions to speed up my website. Down my blogging path, I have written about MaxCDN and content delivery networks which I used so dearly in my daily content marketing life.

Recently, I came across Jonas Krummenacher, Co-Founder of KeyCDN and it was long for me to take a look at KeyCDN. After all, I consider myself a huge WordPress geek and there is absolutely no risk when it comes to checking out a new toy.

In this article, you’ll find informations you need to know about KeyCDN and how it could literally speed up your website loading speed.

What is KeyCDN?

Taken directly from its official website, KeyCDN is a service of Proinity LLC.

We are a Swiss registered company headquartered in Winterthur, Switzerland. The company is privately funded. We’re a passionate team operating a high-performance content delivery network (CDN). We make content delivery smarter and less expensive.

KeyCDN practices 4 core values which are professional, passionate, skilled and proactive. Being in the customer service industry for some years, these are definitely 4 important core features any companies would need to get more loyal customers and as well as sales.

Features offered by KeyCDN

Make no mistake; KeyCDN provides several top features of any other content delivery network providers do such as:
- Pull and push functionality
- Video hosting features
- RTMP streaming features
- Security
- Management dashboard
- Super affordable prices and plans
The descriptions of the features are as follow below.

1. Pull and push functionality

With KeyCDN, you can create as many zones that you require and it would only take a few minutes for the configurations to be activated globally. You can then upload your files directly using FTP, SSH or even integrating with cache plugins like W3 Total Cache and Super Cache.

2. Video hosting capabilities

Do you think tools like Wistia is just too pricey and YouTube being too risky? You easily host all your videos using KeyCDN.

Bloggers, you can even monetize your videos using the KeyCDN ads enabled video player which is really cool!

3. Easy RTMP streaming

KeyCDN offers Video on Demand (VOD) and Live Streaming based on RTMP, RTMPT and RTSP. Well, this simply means that you can easily accelerate your streaming across the globe real, real fast.

KeyCDN supports several file formats for VoD such as:
- FLV
- MP4
- .ismv, .isma
- MP3
4. Security features

In today’s world, security is a huge concern for many (including me). With KeyCDN, you can rest assured security is taken into serious consideration.

KeyCDN has several features which takes security to the next level such as:
- Secure token
- Shared SSL
- Custom SSL
SSL certificate can be integrated and configured with just a few clicks, plus for those who require additional support and assistance, access tokens can be created for more advance usages (e.g. management access etc).

5. Powerful management dashboard

KeyCDN dashboard provides a detailed overlook on the credit amount, zones available and used storage (to name a few).

Navigations are pretty easy and no-brainer even for an absolute newbie. The below are some features you can find on the management dashboard:
- Close to real-time reporting
- Account usage and statistics
- Beautiful user interface
- Accessible via mobile and tablets (huge plus point)
- Available invoices for viewing
- API’s
Reginald, what makes KeyCDN really powerful?

For me, it must be the integration with WordPress. Regardless if you are using W3 Total Cache (W3TC) or Super Cache, integration can be done under one minute.

KeyCDN users are able to access the knowledge library which has a full list of questions and answers which is really useful. And, trust me — the knowledge library is really well-equipped with information.

To show the ease of using KeyCDN, this is the only CDN service provider that I had used (and did not require any support assistance). So yes, a huge kudos to the team for that.

Need another plus point for using KeyCDN? The pricing structure of Pay Per Use if really good for those who have very limited budget.

The traffic pricing (as seen below) is really affordable even for the lowest budget and personally, I don’t believe there is any other services that can match the features and benefits provided by KeyCDN.

Getting started with KeyCDN

Are you looking for a good content delivery network service provider? You should (definitely) give KeyCDN a try and get a free trial using this link: Sign up for a free trial account with KeyCDN
February 19, 2024
How To Make Animations With GoAnimate [Review]
Do you want to make professional animated videos?

I’m not talking about the $5 Fiverr gig or those low quality animation. I’m talking about high quality ones and I’m sure you want that as well.

When Lilach from CommsAxis reached out to me about GoAnimate, I knew it was something I seriously need to dig into. Trust me, I was so involved with GoAnimate that I have recommended this to a few of my colleagues and clients.

For starters, GoAnimate made a super, duper bold statement that anyone can make an animation under 5 minutes. Of course, I was like “you must be joking me!”

A quick check on GoAnimate on Youtube and they have more than 14,500 fans! Obviously, they should be creating some sort of excellent videos to attract the fans.

In this 2 minutes video, take a look at how GoAnimate can work for you:

Now, let’s see how GoAnimate works and if it is able to live up to the statement.

GoAnimate – Creating high quality animations videos

For those who are wondering, GoAnimate is a web based tool to create animations and it was founded by Alvin back in 2007.

Their mission (which can be found here) is to help businesses, schools, and individuals to make good videos quickly and easily.

Oh yes, I really love their slide on their About Us page because they feature their colleagues on both fun and working times — Smart move!

For those do their own videos, you know how hard it is to create one. Without GoAnimate, it takes me over 6 hours just to create a video.

Yes, it takes a lot of time!

Personally, GoAnimate is probably the first video making tool I ever use that has the drag and drop feature. Seriously? A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

GoAnimate features

I got to admit, there are tons of features on GoAnimate and probably I can’t cover them all in this post. So, I’ll give a brief explanation about them.

According to GoAnimate official website, the tool helps to:
- Providing flexibility for video making
- Simple video making process (use any background or choose a pre-made scene, drag and drop other features including voice)
- Generate spoken words (ideas) into animation
- Advanced features in video making (moving characters around and adding props for example)
The process of creating GoAnimate animation videos

The process of making (animation) videos is not that easy if you doesn’t have a creative mindset. Yes, I am not creative and creating a normal video is already challenging for me.

The workflow should be something like this:
- Plan a story line
- Voice recording for your characters
- Finding the right characters for your videos
- Adding background music
- Publishing the animation
The final results?

Here are two animations using GoAnimate:

http://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/d5bt9lhgea?autoPlay=1

http://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/apwove6grt?autoPlay=1

Pretty sleek right?

GoAnimate Dashboard

The dashboard is very clean and simple.

Upon login in or sign up (grab a free account here), you’ll be able to:
- See all your videos (published and drafts)
- Activity feed
- Weekly statistics
- General statistics
In short, you get everything all the important stats and settings on one page which is a HUGE time saver.

Creating a video

The process is really easy using GoAnimate.

1. Click on the ‘Make A Video’ button on the top right.

2. Two options to choose from; making a video from scratch or pre-made templates. You can also use the ‘character creator’ to create your own characters.

3. Finding the right setting (background effects / scenarios)

Using the pre-made templates, just click left or right to choose the right scenario.

A few of my favorite scenarios are:
- Office meeting
- Interview
- In the break room
4. Selecting the appearance of your characters

You can choose ready made templates (again) for characters which is great and easy.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can even create your own characters.

5. Recording voice

With GoAnimate, you can easily select voice for your characters with filters such as:
- Different languages
- Different genders
- Adding emotions
GoAnimate comes to lip-sync feature and this means that you can see the characters actually taking to look even more realistic.

6. Preview before publishing

The last step is to preview the animation video. Click on the preview button to view (as below).

Creating your own animated videos from scratch using GoAnimate

For those who want to be different or would love to have an unique animated video, you can use GoAnimate drag and drop feature.

Simply click on ‘Start From Scratch’ as seen in number 2 above to proceed. Here’s a view of GoAnimate video maker platform.

How much does GoAnimate costs?

GoAnimate comes with several plans you can choose from:
- Personal plan – $58 per year
- GoPublish – $39 per month
- GoPremium – $79 per month
- GoTeam – $250 per month
Looking for GoAnimate discount? Sign up for yearly plans and get a huge discount!

GoAnimate has taken the whole process of creating an animated video as easy as 1, 2 and 3 for me. How about you?

See GoAnimate in action here.

What do you think about GoAnimate?

I certainly hope you enjoy this review as much as I do. Tell me what you think in the comment form below.
February 19, 2024