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  • 6 Reasons Why You Should Consider Becoming an Affiliate Marketer

    6 Reasons Why You Should Consider Becoming an Affiliate Marketer

    For the last few decades, the internet has created several opportunities, especially for individuals who have embraced modern technologies. One of the thriving ventures that the digital platform has created is affiliate marketing. While it doesn’t work for everyone, it’s worth considering becoming an affiliate marketer because of the benefits that accompany the activity.

    First of all, it’s essential to know what affiliate marketing entails before deciding to take the new challenges that come along with it. An affiliate marketer is an individual who earns commissions for promoting products and services of other companies. It’s an ideal business for people who are keen to establish an alternative source of income.

    Let’s look at the other benefits of being an affiliate marketer.

    1. Convenient

    While most employees continue to lament the challenges brought by job losses during this pandemic period, affiliate marketers are enjoying the transition. For a long time, many people have been looking for legit opportunities to work from home, but they’ve mostly been falling to crook hands of scammers. However, they’re fortunate to dive into affiliate marketing where working from home is possible.

    Working from home allows you to attend to other duties, such as monitoring your children or performing important chores. At the same time, you’ll also cut expenses like transport costs when working from the confines of your walls.

    2. Asks for Less Capital

    With a computer and the basic knowledge of computers, you’re good to go. Everyone is looking forward to becoming entrepreneurs, but the lack of massive capitals has put such dreams on hold. As an affiliate marketer, you have a real opportunity to sell even expensive products without investing in financial resources.

    When it comes to investing in this hassle, you can consider starting with education. Yes, you first learn before you start earning. There is nothing that feels more amazing than being guided by an individual who has been down that road before. The course takes a short time. You can learn more about this course by checking reviews from other affiliate marketers. With a detailed review, it’s much easier to decide on a course that’s more likely to benefit you.

    3. No Compulsion to Create Products

    Most investments are costly to start because you are needed to create products for your clientele. As an affiliate marketer, you’ll find existing quality products to promote and earn a commission if you reach a given goal.

    The venture has a massive possibility, especially for entrepreneurs who are keen to realize financial freedom. The typical target market for affiliate marketing is Amazon and Alibaba. Do you know that Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, is the wealthiest person in the world? Elsewhere, the wealthiest person in the world’s most populous country is Jack Ma, who owns Alibaba. These are the personalities you’ll work with if you take the challenge to become an affiliate marketer.

    4. An opportunity to Become your Boss

    Who can resist an opportunity to be the owner of a thriving business? While substantial growth in affiliate marketing requires patience, you have a realistic chance of establishing a firm with several employees. Once you’ve identified your niche, you’ll develop a strong customer base and attract consistent sales.

    Being your boss means that you can formulate objectives and set targets. Besides, you’re free to set your schedule to accommodate other activities. Depending on your availability, you have 24 hours to select when to conduct your affiliate marketing activities.

    5. You can Still Keep your Current Job

    As a boss at your promotion activity, you have the freedom to continue with other occupations. However, complacency and too much involvement in other duties can limit your success rate as a marketer. It’s upon you to determine how to balance your activities without causing friction with your employer or your other responsibilities. Depending on your commitment, affiliate marketing may take a long time to witness success, so you should consider remaining at your current job. If you don’t have another source of livelihood, you should only consider leaving your current employer after making some progress as a marketer.

    6. Earn According to your Ability

    If you commit more time and energy to concentrate on your activity, you can earn more money. Making several sales affirms your financial muscles. The feature is unique with other organizations that will give you the same salary despite your dedication and work input.

    7. A Wide Range of Products and Services to Earn from

    As an affiliate marketer, you have a flexible platform to promote as many products and services as you wish. It’s this flexibility that makes it easy to earn, depending on the effort you put. With a thousand plus products and services, marketers cannot fail to find the niches that suit them.

    Moreover, when one product isn’t working for you, you have plenty of options to explore your ability. It’s advisable to go through sites to look for sites and the products that match your ability and interest.

    8. No Special Account Needed

    Affiliate marketing saves you from experiencing tedious processes that other traditional businesses feature. If you’ve ever run a merchant account of any store, you must be aware of how fulfilling all the requirements are. A merchant account needs you to include a customer’s name, credit card number, and many other details. Besides, you may end up paying a huge amount of money to sign up for an account that limits your fun.

    With affiliate marketing, your hassle is reduced significantly. All you have to do is to succeed in your activities, and the money will follow you. The platform has replaced the old business model that was witnessed with merchant accounts. Affiliate marketers have several options of receiving their pay, including paycheck, PayPal, and bank account deposits

    The possibility of affiliate marketing isn’t restricted to six benefits highlighted in this article. Do you think that it’s already too late to be part of the thrill? The truth is that you can join at any time and even overtake seasoned colleagues. Go ahead and try it out. You may be surprised by the results that come after you have tried it.

  • How To Create an Engaging Multi-Page Form In WordPress With WPForms?

    How To Create an Engaging Multi-Page Form In WordPress With WPForms?

    I was working on my new hosting project, ServerStack.io and one of the most important thing to do is to use a WordPress form plugin that allows me to collect payment and multi-page options.

    And here’s the fact.

    I had been using WPForms for quite a long time now, and I had never been happier to use it again. In this article, I’m going to share with you some nifty tricks that you can use to create an engaging multi-page form with WPForms (hint: “engaging”).

    How to easily create multi-step forms using WPForms?

    If you prefer the watch video instead, here’s the video for you, courtesy of WPForms.

    The first step in creating a multi-page form in WordPress using WPForms is to create a form. Instead of using codes, you can easily achieve such by installing form builder plugins such as WPForms. Here’s the link to download WPForms for free.

    By default, WPForms allows you to create a wide range of different forms and structures including:

    • Request a quote form
    • Job application form
    • Order form
    • Survey form
    • Poll form
    • User registration form

    And, there are many ready-made templates that you can easily 1-click install them using WPForms.

    The second part to creating a multi-step form is to split the newly built forms into several parts. This is how it is done quickly and easily, without coding skills.

    WPFORMS = FLEXIBILITY

    Do you know that WPForms allows you to create different columns to collect information?

    The final step is all abou customization. Here’s the thing. WPForms is an excellent tool when it comes to building forms for your WordPress site. However, it is only effective if you are converting leads with it.

    This means that you need to spend time to create the right type of form for the right type of audience.

    Why should I focus in creating engaging multi-step forms in WordPress?​

    For starters, the Internet is saturated with content and readers nowadays are more likely to enter their details on things that they trust. In this case, it is your website!

    A long form is an excellent way to collect valuable information from your readers but always remember that long forms are also the ones that easily turn readers off.

    Instead of displaying the entire form in one page, using page breaks and multiple step forms allow you to funnelt the reader into taking action, one step at a time.

    Summary: Improving convertion rates using multi-step form

    With that being said, I hope that you find this article simple, effective and fun! Are you using WPForms?

    Leave a comment and tell me what you think!

    WPForms is 100% free to use

    Download here and now!

  • Gutenberg vs WordPress Visual Builders: The Deciding Factors for WordPress Users

    Gutenberg vs WordPress Visual Builders: The Deciding Factors for WordPress Users

    WordPress visual builders play an important role in my writing business. As I use WordPress CMS a lot in my daily life, WordPress visual builders such as Thrive Architect allows me to create multiple WordPress pages and posts quickly and without any coding skills.

    But, make no mistake. Since the launch of Gutenberg, I use Gutenberg a lot too. Over the months and years, Gutenberg been receiving tons of updates and while it may not be as flexible as the current WordPress visual builders, it is growing in popularity and importances — with many believe that it will take over WordPress builders in the coming years.

    In this article, we will go through Gutenberg vs WordPress visual builders for 2020 because what matters is this year and right now.

    Gutenberg vs WordPress visual builders

    When I first use Gutenberg, I thought it was messy and complicated. Hey, Gutenberg isn’t entirely a drag and drop, or point ot click WordPress editor. It is just a few blocks that work together and allowing WordPress users to create posts and pages quickly without any coding skills.

    Here’s how the Gutenberg blocks WordPress looks like.

    Gutenberg Blocks

    Gutenberg Blocks

    If you are an avid WordPress user, you know that it is pretty decent but limited functionality as compared to popular WordPress visual builders in the market.

    Here’s what some of the best WordPress visual builders look like in the backend.

    Thrive Architect

    Thrive Architect

    Here’s what it looks like with Divi (which I use quite a lot as well for my WordPress agency, WP Maven).

    Divi Builder

    Divi Builder

    Here’s another great WordPress visual builder, Elementor!

    Elementor Builder

    Elementor Builder

    Part 1: WordPress Visual Builder In Summary

    WordPress visual builder is still an important tool for website owners — both freelance and agency level. The right tools help you to create beautiful WordPress pages and posts quickly without any coding skills.

    There is no denial that WordPress visual builders is an excellent WordPress investment to go with and you can’t go wrong with any of these:

    • Thrive Architect
    • Divi
    • Elementor

    Part 2: Gutenberg In Summary

    Gutenberg has always been a nice addon to WordPress. For beginners and those who can’t afford WordPress visual builders, Gutenberg is an important WordPress tool to build WordPress posts fast and effectively, without coding skills.

    Yes, Gutenberg isn’t that great when it comes to creating WordPress pages for now out-of-the-box. If you are looking to make Gutenberg as great as WordPress visual builders, then you need Gutenberg addons such as Genesis Pro by WP Engine (review).

    Here’s a quick video on Genesis Pro.

    Summary — Gutenberg vs WordPress Visual Builders

    Until now, I find that WordPress visual builders certainly has an upper hand especially when it comes to website development. Gutenberg may not be on par with it right now but I believe this might change in the coming months.

    With the constant growth and launches of Gutenberg addons such as these, Gutenberg is getting more popular and useful by the day. Plus, Gutenberg is the baby for WordPress/Automattic, you know this is one projec that won’t hit the sack anytime soon.

    If you are serious in building great WordPress sites and fresh layouts, you can’t go wrong with Genesis Pro (click here for addon perks by WP Engine).

  • You Don’t Need A Fast Website But You Need These Instead!

    You Don’t Need A Fast Website But You Need These Instead!

    This post is going to be short and I think it is time to address something very important — website speed. Take a scroll on Facebook or Google and you will see thousands talking about website speed:

    • How fast a website should load?
    • How fast should a website respond to a request?
    • How fast a website can be like when integrated with content delivery network (CDN)?
    • And many more “website speed” matters

    The truth is, you don’t need a blazing fast website. Blazing fast websites is just for speed junkies who appreciate some show off and of course, personal satisfaction for a job well done.

    What you really need is a website that loads under 3 seconds (1.5 seconds if you could) and you should be doing quite good already.

    Now, what do you really need for your website? Here’s a simple list:

    1. A good and reliable web hosting company (recommended are Kinsta and WP Engine)
    2. WordPress visual builder and Gutenberg (Elementor or Beaver Builder are great choices)
    3. Proper Google Analytics integrations (MonsterInsights plugin — hands down)
    4. Security plugin (Wordfence is a good choice for free plugin)
    5. SEO plugin (you can’t go wrong with SEOPress)

    You see, you don’t need much if you want to start a blog and have a fast loading website.

  • How To Stop DDoS Attack?

    How To Stop DDoS Attack?

    ​If you do fall victim to a DDoS attack, you are not alone. High-profile victims of DDoS attacks in 2018 include organizations as diverse as Google, Amazon, PlayStation, Pinterest, and GitHub – which was on the receiving end of the highest volume DDoS attack ever witnessed.

    In this article, you will learn how to stop DDoS attack on your website quickly and effectively.

    ​1. Identify the DDoS attack early

    The trick to stop DDoS attack is detect the DDoS attack as early as possible. The earlier the detection, the faster you can implement security measures to ​reduce and ultimately, overcome the DDoS attacks.

    To be in a position to do this, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with your typical inbound traffic profile; the more you know about what your normal traffic looks like, the easier it is to spot when its profile changes. Most DDoS attacks start as sharp spikes in traffic, and it’s helpful to be able to tell the difference between a sudden surge of legitimate visitors and the start of a DDoS attack.

    ​2. ​Enable Cloudflare security features

    Cloudflare is an excellent website security feature when it comes to avoiding DDoS attacks.

    Cloudflare Layer Security Preventing DDoS

    Cloudflare’s layered security approach combines multiple DDoS mitigation capabilities into one service. It prevents disruptions caused by bad traffic, while allowing good traffic through, keeping websites, applications and APIs highly available and performant.

    ​3. DDoS mitigation services at urgent times

    For very large attacks, it’s likely that your best chance of staying online is to use a specialist DDoS mitigation company. These organizations have large-scale infrastructure and use a variety of technologies, including data scrubbing, to help keep your website online. You may need to contact a DDoS mitigation company directly, or your hosting company or service provider may have a partnership agreement with one to handle large attacks.

    DDoS Specialist

    “If a customer needs DDoS mitigation, then we divert their traffic to (DDoS mitigation company) Black Lotus,” said Dufficy. “We do this using BGP, so it only takes a few minutes.”

    Black Lotus’s scrubbing center can handle very high levels of traffic, and sends on the cleaned traffic to its intended destination. This results in higher latency for website users, but the alternative is that they wouldn’t be able to access the site at all.

    DDoS mitigation services are not free, so it’s up to you whether you want to pay to stay online or take the hit and wait for the DDoS attack to subside before continuing to do business. Subscribing to a DDoS mitigation service on an ongoing basis may cost a few hundred dollars a month. If you wait until you need one, however, expect to pay much more for the service and wait longer before it starts to work.

    ​4. Overprovision bandwidth

    It generally makes sense to have more bandwidth available to your Web server than you ever think you are likely to need. That way, you can accommodate sudden and unexpected surges in traffic that could be a result of an advertising campaign, a special offer or even a mention of your company in the media.

    Overprovision Bandwidth

    Even if you overprovision by 100 percent — or 500 percent — that likely won’t stop a DDoS attack. But it may give you a few extra minutes to act before your resources are overwhelmed completely.

  • The Marketing Huddle — Top Marketing Blog for Small Business

    The Marketing Huddle — Top Marketing Blog for Small Business

    We are in the post Covid-19 era and let me be really honest with you — Marketing is no longer the same. Many of us are affected badly with the turn outs from Covid-19 and we even see many small businesses closing down / downsizing across the globe.

    I’m going to sugar coat it because it is already bad. There must be something that small business owners can do right now, right?

    The truth is, yes. If you are affordable, you can work with digital marketing agencies with your marketing needs. Or you can spend time and effort to learn more about digital marketing.

    Either way, you need to do something and right now … to keep your business afloat long enough.

    Introducing The Marketing Huddle

    I came across TheMarketingHuddle.com in expired domains and I was intrigued to build my blog database. What other thing can I do than to create a marketing blog dedicated for small business owners?

    The Marketing Huddle Marketing Blog for Small Business Owners

    As you can see, this blog is brand new (with less than 10 posts) and I have no plans to place any ads on it for now. Yes, a few affiliate links and that’s much about it.

    And hey, it is not running on WordPress!

    The Marketing Huddle is created on Ghost CMS (works just like Medium) and I’m loving it right now.

    What can I expect from The Marketing Huddle?

    The Marketing Huddle is created as a marketing blog for small business owners. As a consultant myself, I came across dozens of entrepreneurs and business owners who are struggling to keep up with the latest marketing related news.

    The blog serves as a free publication site focusing on marketing related matters with some detailed case study write ups (like this case study on WaaS business model).

    Apart from that, there are also free content such as daily, weekly and monthly online marketing tips specially crafted for small business owners.

    It doesn’t matter if you are doing it inhouse or want to train your team, this is one blog not to be missed!