Their inspiration is improving personal health, the health of the planet, and most importantly the choices people have. They provide support and guidance to their community and through their blogs keep inspiring thousands of people around the world to start making better decisions about their lives.

If you recognize yourself in these words, then maybe it’s your time to create a zero-waste blog. And if you are still unsure about what to include in it, we are here to help. We’ve collected some of the most significant points every eco-friendly blog should have to be fully precise.

Ideas

Influencing other peoples’ beliefs and decision-making reasoning is not an easy thing to do. Although influencer marketing has been only growing and expanding, it’s also getting harder for users to trust. That’s why if you want to make a change in something you should inspire people with more than collaborations and ads.

If your blog is going to be focused on zero waste, it’s mandatory to include in it, a section for Ideas. This would be a place for you to share concrete methods they can try, insights on how to live a healthier life, and specific ideas on how to change small and big things around them.

Share Experiences

What better way to inspire people than to share real-life stories? One small change can lead to another and one thing that happened to you is more likely to also happen to someone else if they open their mind to it. So, anything you experience daily that is eco-friendly related, you’d have to share it with your audience.

You can do that with photo storytelling or with blog posts. Just make sure you stay positive, bright, and reliable. This is key to building a strong relationship with your readers and winning their trust.

Products and Places

This might be essential to your readers. If you share with them products they can use because they are eco-friendly and organic, they will find it more than useful. Users don’t visit zero waste blogs just to read something. They need to do something. By providing solutions for their daily choices you’d be surprised how valuable for them you’d become.

The same goes for sharing places. For example, places where they can recycle old clothes, and where they can throw their plastic goods. Or campaigns that you admire. There are lots of zero waste organizations, meet-ups, and events that you already probably know of because you are interested in the eco topic.

Educational Posts

One of the most important parts of your blog can be precisely the educational section. You can share valuable insights on the ecosystem, news about technological innovations, the history of zero waste appearance, where problems are crucial, and anything else you think of. This way you will keep the information up to date, talk about problems and solutions that people need, and at the same time inspire them.

DIY Ideas

If you are good with your hands, creative, and have enough time to spare, DIY (do it yourself) ideas are great for this kind of audience. You can look at some things online or open your mind to new ideas, and share some interesting ways people can turn their non-sustainable items into useful for them. By changing the purpose of something you can give it new life and not throw it away as soon as you are done with it.

To Sum Up

Starting any kind of blog is both exciting and scary. But whatever it is you are planning to create on your website hosting platform, make sure you do it with love and inspiration that comes firstly from you and then spreads through your readers and followers. Especially when it comes to a topic wide and important as the zero-waste one, your focus should not be making profit, but making a change.

So, to conclude, you need a few kinds of sectors where you can share various valuable content. One for educational posts and insights, another for your experience and events, also a page for your ideas, and for products and places. This way you will keep a full of important content website.

The post What to Include in Your Zero Waste Blog? appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

What the successful people do is create business plans to follow through the year and smaller ones for each month and week. The big opportunities usually take more time and effort than those that we all otherwise call small goals and aims. But those small goals are actually the ones that make us achieve everything we wanted originally.

So, for a recap of 2019 it’s safe to say that with hard work and always looking at the goals is a great chance to get where you want to be a year apart from now. And the end of the year is not only the time where you need to be asking questions about the previous year but also about the following.

This way you can set new goals, create new plans to follow, and move forward to your bigger success and achievement. This is what we call a successful strategy for business planning. Trust us when we say there is no better time to do it than now. And no better plan for it than the one you start thinking about now.

1. Was 2019 successful? Did You Reach Your Goals?

Starting with this question there are a few things to do. First, look at the goals you set at the end of the previous year and which of them you succeeded to reach? This will help you establish a baseline for your accomplishment rate and of course how realistic you were when you first set your targets. By taking a clear look at your previous course of purposes, don’t get disappointed if you were not able to complete many.

Quite the opposite. Take it as a good teaching lesson that will help you with the next year’s business planning. It will be better adjusted and you will adapt to the circumstances quickly by meeting the expectations.

Nonetheless, if you, on the other hand, reached your goals, it will help you easily expand them and set new bigger ones. What better way to get ready for 2020?

2. What New Have You Learned About Your Business?

Taking advantage of all customer insights is crucial to your performance. Gathering feedback is crucial for your perspective. Spend some time thinking about the year that has passed and what about your business was improved or had flaws.

Did you create your website already? Look through the tools you are using to track how it works. Have some of your pages ranked on new keywords, or have they changed positions in SERP, was anything significantly modified? Mark those changes as progress or decrease and take notes as to what to be changed or improved.

3. How to Prepare Your Website for 2020?

First of all, if your business is still not online, maybe it’s time you start with that. Create a website from scratch and start building an online empire that will get you the success you want. It’s now easier than ever and it takes just a few steps that you need to follow – get your website hosting package with a domain, install a CMS, and customize your desired looks for your site.

If you are already running a website then here is what you need to do. First, make sure you backup your site. If some disaster comes to your business – from a burglary to a flood to a cyber-attack – having a backup of your website can get you back in business in no time.

Then make a run through your content – old pages that need to be cleaned, accurate information that is up to date, and so on. Don’t forget to do your least favorite job – check the finances. Calculate your profits and expenses. Get your conclusions and prepare for a better year.

4. What New Goals Do You Have for 2020?

Once you’ve reviewed your website and business it’s time to get ready for the new one. Do a lot of planning, set many goals, think of marketing strategies, web development, changes, and improvements, and even throw out what’s not suiting you any longer to be left in 2019.

All of that will get you a clean start, a great eagerness to complete all, keep you motivated, and in the end give you amazing results for you and your business to benefit from. At last, take a look at our last year’s business plan’s ideas to help you create new ones.

The post Full Recap of 2019. Website and Business Planning for 2020! appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

This “as long as possible” is actually your customer’s lifetime value. But how to calculate customer lifetime value and what to expect when doing it? Here are these and more answers.

What is Customer Lifetime Value?

Let’s start with the customer lifetime. As mentioned in the beginning, that period is the time your customers spend as such. For example, you are selling services, and they can pay for an annual subscription.

But this period might change according to the progress of your services. It could become a customer lifetime of two years or more. And once you understand the lifetime value, you will be able to determine how much you’re willing to pay for growing the cycle.

Each customer is essential for your business, and we are sure you already know that. But the benefits that come with each of your trusted audiences are imperative and, in a way, different. Some might help you increase brand awareness. Others will endorse your work and make you look good. The third will help you build a trustful bond with them, and so on, and so on.

But those that you will find most helpful for your success are the ones that stay. They pay and stay with you.

How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value?

It’s hard to ignore the math, but basically, you need to calculate the average purchase value, then multiply that number by the average purchase frequency rate and then you can determine your customer value. Once you calculate the average customer lifespan, you can multiply that by customer value to determine customer lifetime value.

Yeah, it sounds messy, doesn’t it? Let’s break it down, step-by-step to understand it better.
1. Calculate your average sale and profit.
2. Determine the average number of sales, transactions, renewals, etc. you can expect over some period if you keep your customers happy
3. Multiply those numbers together, and then multiply that by the average customer lifetime.
Then you’ll know what’s customer lifetime value you need to keep in mind.

What to Do with These Numbers?

Well, increase! That’s the end goal. All of those benefits we shared, in the beginning, are actually great ways for you to increase not only your sales but the lifetime value your customers have.

This means improving customer service for starters. Let them have a great experience on your website and while using your services or buying your products.

Take care of them as you solve problems they might have, suggest solutions, and fix what needs to be fixed. Be always there as a support and make sure the friendly tone is also a priority.

Read reviews and listen to what they have to say because your customers’ insights can raise your awareness of what you need to improve.

Find a way always to inspire and surprise them. Give them something extra that’s not too much for you but enough for them.

Always look for ways to improve your business and never settle once you start growing. Quite the opposite, it’s the time when you need to mobilize your company and skyrocket it, instead of just keeping it up. This will help you not only enjoy excellent customer lifetime value but also look at numbers that just go up.

To Sum Up

Learning how to calculate customer lifetime value is just a way of learning how to increase your profits, be more successful, and improve everything that needs to be improved in your business. Following the insights, you get while taking this measure into account will lead to having to make necessary adjustments but it is mandatory if you want to reach your business goals.

The higher you find your customer lifetime value to be, the better acquisition costs you’ll get. And while thinking about increasing it, you will also have to build and strengthen your relationship with the customers. Hand by hand, all the benefits will start working out great for you, and soon you’ll find yourself in a much happier place.

The post How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

This, however, illustrates an increasing tendency that is no secret to anyone. The commercial interaction gets more and more digitalized with every passing year and getting on this board is imperative for any retail business.

Despite this ubiquity of online commerce, today it is not enough to merely be on the web. eCommerce businesses struggle with daily challenges to attract enough relevant audience which then converts into sales. With web hosting becoming more accessible than ever the actual challenge nowadays is differentiating your own business from the overflow of providers.

To be one of those brands that you look at for inspiration, you do not need to accumulate an insane amount of sales daily. What you need to do is follow some simple tips for small retail business websites and luckily enough, we have prepared not one but three of them!

1. Keep your audience in mind

Whenever a sale is made on your eCommerce website, you might be seeing just some numbers that register the transaction. In reality, however, an actual human is navigating through the net and deciding to trust exactly you and not someone else to provide the product they need. With this thought in mind, look at your retail website through the eyes of your customers.

So, why is this so important or useful in the case of finding a relevant audience? First of all, marketing a certain product online through promotional campaigns inevitably involves a psychological analysis of the prospective audience.

To comprehend their behavior online and to predict their decision-making, getting to know not only the demographics but the psychology of your customers is essential.

Keeping your audience in mind is not only useful for acquiring new customers but also obviously for retaining your already existing ones. Following the typical path visitors take on your website, their approach to your products, and the categories they’re interested in will give you an invaluable insight into their needs.

Getting back to them through email marketing or social media publications will allow you to form a meaningful relationship with the people who trusted you with their money.

2. Give your products a story

Aside from the audience’s personal interests, you can offer additional value with your products too. And we’re not talking about product bundles or freebies but something much more effective in modern-day marketing – storytelling.

When a product is presented to a group of people, its features and actual properties take up about 30% of what’s of actual interest to them. The rest is what you make the audience believe in such as a story accompanying the production or use of the product, a mission for its existence, and an innovation to one’s life.

Just look at any Apple presentation that still manages to take people’s breath away only by constructing an alternative reality where the product in question seems essential.

If you feel lost, whenever someone mentions storytelling, do not worry. You’re just one of the thousands who feel the same. Storytelling, however, does not have to be this exquisite art only accessible to a handful of talented creators.

You, as an owner of a small retail business, can also add a story behind your products. Try thinking of what makes your company stand out, what are values you follow through your work, and what is the story behind the production and application of the products offered.

Looking into these can provide you with an eternal resource of inspiration for stories that will be written with ease.

3. Sales pitches do not work

Is this true? Do sales pitches not work even a bit? What about the ‘buy one, get one for free’ types of pitches? No? Not at all?

Okay, let’s talk seriously. Yes, sale pitches were the wonderful creation of the advertising dawn when action verbs induced the expected behavior in the average consumer. Today, however, people have become so sensitive to advertising that an invisible filter appears in the mind of a person who feels like they are being sold something.

This has become such an obnoxious and annoying aspect of online media that users have learned to ignore them as magic.

To manage to get to these people who have such a low tolerance for advertising is speaking to them as humans. Interact with those humans. Show them that your products were manufactured by people and for people.

Who are you? Introduce yourself without the fancy stock images – just your environment, your team’s faces, and lives. Let people feel like they are actually putting their money into something human and approachable. This is what makes the difference between an average company and an exceptional one.

Where to now?

Marketing is an ever-evolving ever-branching field keeping pace with it is often almost impossible. To achieve a somewhat relevant behavior that suits modern times, it is enough to follow only three simple stips for small retail business websites.

Personalized marketing is taking over all advertising and getting in the brain of your customers is what actually helps companies turn into beloved brands that people remain loyal to. Also, constructing mythology around a simple product helps to turn it into a special item, owning which has the capacity to affect the quality of life of the consumer. And finally, while all of these matter just the same, retaining your humanity in the age of technology is what may actually put you on the map. And this is what fills your work with purpose.

More digital marketing tips:

• Digital Marketing: The Trends That May Change The Game in 2019

• How to Write SEO Content Articles in 2019

• WordPress SEO: What You Need to Know

The post 3 Simple Tips for Small Retail Business Websites in 2019 appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

This immense pool of potential shoppers is as impressive as it can be and has the capacity to convince any business to start selling online. When there is no initial business to start with, however, this endeavour can be risky.

Some of the main reasons why eCommerce websites fail within their first year are the oversaturation of the market niche and the lack of relevant demand. Business owners might design their work models in advance but stumbling blocks are everywhere and getting acquainted to the contemporary eCommerce climate is imperative. And this climate can be both polar and tropical in the blink of an eye.

Once you have already started wondering how to create a website to sell, it’s time to also consider the products you’ll offer. We’ve prepared a list with categories of top eCommerce products to sell in 2019.

Creating a website is the best way to give an eCommerce business a kick-start. Choose a web hosting plan and start selling within 10 minutes!

Niche products

A category to describe certain types of top eCommerce products is what we call a niche. Niches ideally target a specific group of customers sharing particular interests, hobbies, or necessities.

Some niche product areas include painting materials, gardening instruments, fishing accessories, pottery items, etc. In general, these are items that do not come in handy in everyday life but cater to the interests and pastimes of particular people.

Because it is such a direct selling model, search engine optimization is key to finding the right customer base. Most niche product-looking customers stumble upon websites through an engine search and remain loyal to them when they like the product.

This is why aiming at obtaining and preserving a loyal customer base is the essence of niche eCommerce. And it’s not as hard as it sounds. Quick research shows that people prefer putting their trust into already established companies that they know when it comes to buying niche products.

To gain this trust as an eCommerce business, you want to engage with the audience in a way that meaningful interaction can be established. This can be done through a series of tutorials, videos, blog posts, and live Q&A which enable not only communication but also an emotional investment.

Commoditized products

From clothes to technology, from food to furniture, there are products that everyone needs. In fact, these are such an essential part of the everyday life of the contemporary person that we’ll call them commoditized products. Ingrown into our physical needs, products like these are bought every second everywhere across the globe, and making your way into the market is a trick.

Search engine optimization doesn’t work as well here as it did with niche products. The main reason is the vastness of the market and the corporate giants that offer these products. Amazon and Walmart are surely no competitors you’re aiming to have.

There has, however, been a certain way to reach the desired audience and that’s through social media. Advertising on Facebook and Instagram has opened up opportunities for small retailers to market their products to a target group without the need to compete in the fierce environment of search engines.

Keep in mind, however, that the social media user has developed a filtering eye of a kind that ignores and deals with the numerous ads displayed daily on their news feed.

To overcome this, providing a unique value to your ads either with quirky marketing techniques or with original twists to basic products can be the key. Even though you might be selling something as basic as a phone charger, you can still provide a sapid experience to your audience by telling a story that sells.

Digital products

Digital products deserved a category for themselves not because we couldn’t fit them within the two ones already mentioned but rather because there are particular strategies to take into consideration when it comes to selling non-physical products.

These include but are not limited to software, applications, fonts, illustrations, music, design, etc. Finding the right market for these, however, is not as easy as it might sound. First of all, the fact that they are not part of the immediate necessities a human has in his everyday physical life means that the prospective customers are only those who deliberately look for them.

To find those that look for your digital products, on the other hand, is another deal. One of the most effective strategies in the past couple of years has proven to be the collaboration with niche influencers. From bloggers to YouTubers, getting popular faces to recommend your digital products allows customers to identify a virtual item with an actual human. This results in a more meaningful interaction with the audience and increases sales and reach.

Final thoughts

The art of commercial retail has long been a driving force of the economy. Learning it, however, is something one masters throughout his work. When it comes to eCommerce, all of this is doubled.

This is the reason why most eCommerce businesses fail within their first year – they do not calculate a realistic income based on what they offer. And what they offer is the essence.

Top eCommerce products in 2019 inevitably include both niche and commoditized products which cover most of the aspects of the everyday life of the average person. These include their necessities and their pastime items allowing the imagination of an eCommerce owner to add a unique voice to any of them. Digital products, on the other hand, are also one of the main driving forces of eCommerce. Mastering them and their marketing is surely a key to success.

Whichever path a business chooses, remaining consistent with an idea that is communicated all throughout channels is what actually makes customers return. And this loyalty is all that an eCommerce needs.

More digital marketing tips:

• Digital Marketing: The Trends That May Change The Game in 2019

• How to Write SEO Content Articles in 2019

• WordPress SEO: What You Need to Know

The post Top eCommerce Products to Sell in 2019 appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

In the contemporary economic environment, starting a business can be a daunting experience. This is due to the innumerable dynamic links in the commercial network prompting enterprises to remain relevant and up-to-date.

Usually, relevance comes with the ability to keep pace with the innovations and developments popping up daily and this is a task that is not up to everyone’s abilities.

As a business is being born, there are multiple points that need consideration for it to survive. How to create a website to sell their products and services is one of them. Not the creation of the website, per se, but rather the overall digital strategy development that leads to a successful eCommerce business.

This includes the logistics of creating a website but what is more important in this case is the deliberate care to turn it into a digital space that not only attracts customers but also retains them.

How to Create a Website to Sell Products and Services?

People often say that you don’t sell a product, you sell a story. In the online domain, this is especially true as people will spend hours browsing the web and you only occupy a small portion of that time. In order to do it the right way and to get visitors to stay within your own digital realm, it is imperative to build a space that appeals to the users’ desire for innovation and storytelling. This is where the website’s role comes into play. So how to create a website to sell your services or products?

1. Web Hosting

Something that might not appear to be a priority as a web business is being born is web hosting. This, however, is one of the most decisive factors in your prospective website’s success.

While web hosting comes in different forms, choosing the right one for your needs is a quite straightforward process. How much web hosting costs is one of the leading factors in the decision. The features included in the plan and the prospective traffic flow are also important parts of choosing web hosting.

2. Domain name

Choosing a memorable and witty domain name in 2019 has proved to be a tricky endeavor. This is mainly because domain names have become an influential business industry and most one-word ones are already taken.

Nevertheless, the past couple of years witnessed a tremendous new tendency in brand naming – misspelling. That’s right some of the most memorable brands have spelling errors in their names (Lyft, Froot Loops, Tumblr, Scribd, etc.) and this is what makes them so easily recognizable. Whatever brand name you come up with, it’s always useful to know which domain name is best for SEO.

3. Content Managing System

Once the first two points are checked, it’s time to choose a CMS for the prospective eCommerce website. We have been recommending WordPress for this, mainly because of the opportunity it provides to use the ready-made WooCommerce platform turning any website into an eCommerce one.

Moreover, WooCommerce plugins will allow high customization of the website and will encourage the creation of versatile content.

4. Storytelling

As already mentioned, storytelling is not a new concept for getting people to adopt a certain behavior. In fact, not many other techniques have worked in the mass manipulation and population governing processes like mythology and stories.

Because of this, when a brand starts its web journey, it is essential to extract the fundamental experience they are capable to provide to its users and turn it into a story worth telling. It does not need to be a sophisticated narrative but rather a compressed journey that users take as they get acquired to your business.

5. Marketing

Once you’ve found out how to create a website to sell your services, it’s time to market it to the world. This does not necessarily involve hiring a powerful digital marketing team that deals with your reach but rather simply putting deliberate effort to find your audience and comprehend its needs.

Social media has proven to be the number one choice of small business owners when it comes to reaching out to the audience and promoting your services. Moreover, driving traffic to your website using social media is a sure way to accumulate a quality visitor base.

Final thoughts

The new-age turn of digital businesses has left a persistent mark on economics and consumption. From human behavior to economic networks, the whole business environment is forever altered. There is, however, a basic customer desire that has remained unchanged – that of storytelling.

eCommerce has only come to demonstrate just how important of a role stories play in decision-making and overall customer behavior. Online, brands are engaging in the process of narrative creation more than ever before. This is not a surprise considering the overall flow of information humans are surrounded by on the web.

From web hosting to CMSs, multiple choices lie on the way to creating a website to sell your services. All of these are some pointers to follow while building your business. Nevertheless, the leading and most powerful one is that of human interaction. Satisfying the need of a customer means making a story come to life. And this is what makes a business stand out.

More digital marketing tips:

• Digital Marketing: The Trends That May Change The Game in 2019
• How to Write SEO Content Articles in 2019
• WordPress SEO: What You Need to Know

The post How to Create a Website to Sell: An Introduction to eCommerce appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

Generally, hobbies can offer an essential link in the evolutionary chain of survival – that of positive emotions. Through feeling pride and affection, we increase our biological capabilities of coping with fear and danger. From a more cultural slant, hobbies have the important responsibility of engaging our free time and thus, their development has a direct impact on our personal qualities such as patience and persistence.

Once we are aware of our abilities to perform certain activities better than others, a logical question arises: How to make money from a hobby? Despite all of our doubts, 2019 is here to prove that the new media has the power to reward our efforts and turn hobbies into stable earning opportunities.

Reflect on your skills

Research suggests that people struggle when asked to evaluate their own skillset. This is not because we are too humble or too cocky but because assessing your own behavior is much harder than that of your fellows. Nevertheless, learning to build a rational judgment of your development will help you direct your efforts in the right place.

Once you have decided that you can earn a living through your hobby, consider the following:

• What is unique about the way you practice your craft? Can you offer something new to the market?
• What do you need to still work on in order to master the technology behind your hobby?
• Would people be interested in paying to receive the service or product you offer to them?

Even though in the beginning these might seem to be a deal-breaker, remember that it is up to you to market your skill in a way that sells. Everything else is a matter of practice.

Come up with a monetization model

As we briefly mentioned, to monetize something means to find your unique voice in what you do. This is entirely dependent on the hobby itself – as you can guess, video-editing and stitching require entirely different strategies.

First and foremost, consider the outcome of your practice: whether it’s a service or a product. This is important because monetizing services will usually entail a lengthier relationship with the end customer. Also digital and physical products and services require a different approach.

When it comes to digital products and services, such as stock photographs, coding, or graphic design, you might consider creating a portfolio website. This will allow you to showcase your work and have prospective customers contact you directly for inquiries and orders.

On the other hand, physical products such as prints, paintings, and clothing, perform best on e-Commerce websites where users can browse through a product page and order the item of their choice. This will also facilitate your shipping and payment options and will not require any third-party platforms to complete users’ orders.

Create a website

Many people are hesitant when it comes to creating a website and that is mainly due to two fears.

First of all, there is a widely popular misconception that creating a website inevitably involves coding and programming skills. This is not only avoidable but is also entirely untrue when it comes to WordPress and other content management systems where you can make use of already created themes and plugins.

The second fear people have is large financial investments which can be risky and turn out not beneficial in the long run. As we have discussed multiple times, free hosting allows users to create websites completely free of charge for an unlimited time period. This means that you could potentially maintain your website for twenty years and not pay a single dime for it.

Market yourself

As already said, your marketing strategy can turn out to be the difference between a profitable business and a failed endeavor. What’s essential here is discovering the identity your hobby has can develop a unique voice for what will later be known as your brand. This uniqueness is not only a matter of wording but also should be ingrained in your mindset as a creator and a businessman. And that’s a combination to die for!

Another aspect of your marketing is your work directed towards external of your own website entities. This includes social media and search engine optimization. While social media has an immediate effect on the overall engagement with your brand, it can also help you drive traffic to your website. This, combined with on-page SEO strategies has the capacity to generate quality audience emotionally invested in your work.

Remain persistent

Hobbies don’t become hobbies because we are immediately good at them. The very first stitch is usually crooked, the first design project is usually silly, and the first photograph is usually overexposed. They become hobbies because we don’t give up. We make a thousand more stitches, designs, and photographs to prove to the world and most importantly, to ourselves that we can do it and it will be worth it.

Approaching all beginnings with a mindset like this can turn ridiculous and shaky attempts into exquisite and masterful work. Earning money doing what proved that you are capable of growth, is a reason to be proud of yourself. And here is to yet another beginning, that of a beautiful 2019, where persistence can and does pay off.

More business development tips:

• How to Sell Photos Online: The Beginner’s Guide

• Creating a Website for a Musician: The Beginner’s Guide

• How to Start an Online Clothing Store

The post How to Make Money From a Hobby Online in 2019 appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

If you’re asking yourself “Why do I need a website?” you probably are on the right way. There are many reasons why having a website is a great idea. These days, it has become so easy to be done that you might regret you didn’t do it earlier.

Reasons for “Why Do I Need a Website?”

Creates Great Vision

If you are an owner of a business of some kind or you have services that you want to present, or you simply want to have your personal blog, portfolio, or any other use of a website, then that’s the best possible way to create an amazing vision of yourself.

Being present on social media is easier than anything but it is never enough. You need to position yourself with a look that will be interesting, useful, and great for your users/viewers/customers. The look of your brand or yours itself is going to be concluded when you have a website to give the final touch.

Gives You Freedom

If we have to compare again social media and a website, the field of freedom is close enough. Although some comments, posts, or media can be deleted by a certain social media channel, there are lots of opportunities to express whatever you want.

But by creating a website, the whole idea of it rests on you only. You get to decide how it’s going to look, what you’re going to say, how you are going to present your ideas and make your brand appear in an extraordinary way. It sets your imagination free and you can be anything you want.

You Have Control Over It

Why do I need a website if I am not going to be the one in control, right? One of the advantages of creating your own virtual space is the possibilities you have. Just like you have the freedom of doing and expressing however you decide, you also control what happens to other people there.

Your image, and how you look in front of all of your customers or followers can be controlled by you and what is shared on your website depends again – on you. That is a great way to present the positive side of you and attract people that are interested in your content, services, or items.

Your Ideas Decide

Why I need a website might be a question asked by a business owner, influencer, or someone interested in providing services but not sure how a website will be helpful. The truth is when you have freedom and control, you get to decide how whatever it is that you’re sharing will be positioned.

How your products will be presented, how your words will be explained, how the vision will be attractive, and what your message will be. All this is crucial to the perception of a person. And you’re the one that decides how your ideas will bloom.

Better Than the Competition

Any business-related matter is compared to its competition. You can’t run away from that and you can’t ignore it. Different entrepreneurs decide how they are going to show themselves to the world and sometimes that showing off is the way to stand out.

Having a website is a smart way to demonstrate how you are different, how you are better, and why people should trust you. You can always also keep an eye on what your competition does and think of ways to improve.

Brand Awareness

Whatever your ideas are, turning them into a website is just a smart way for people to know you, know them, and your world. Whether you already have a business or you are thinking of starting an online one, raising awareness for it is the best marketing decision to be made.

The Internet is way too big and it presents more than enough opportunities for everyone to share their best. And being there only helps you to put your business in nice clothes, good perfume, and even makeup.

Connects Everyone and Everything

Before you ask yourself “Why do I need a website?”, try with “Do I need to be close to my customers?” And then you’ll know. Of course, comparing again with social media, you can do that there too, but with a website, the connection you are creating is much stronger.

Building trust is not easy when there is such a great market online. But being there for everyone is a start. Don’t hold yourself back – just talk to your users, share with them, and let them get to know you. This way you can only gain more – business growth, trust, and friends.

Now that you already know why you need a website, it’s time to create it! Here are the best tips for starting:

• The Best Online Business to Start with No Money: The Zero-Investment Plan
• How to Create a Free One Page Website in 3 Steps
• How to Start a Blog for Free in 5 Easy Steps
• How To Start A Lifestyle Blog In 10 Simple Steps
• How to Start a Food Blog: Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Start an Online Clothing Store

The post Why Do I Need a Website? – AwardSpace Answers appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

Forecasts on the holidays, however, predict sales. This means that all of your competitors will be taking the opportunity to promote their online stores enticing your prospective customers into their own realms. And that’s a Christmas carol no one wants to sing!

In order to fully enjoy the advantages of the holiday shopping season, it is imperative to prepare your WooCommerce website for it. We’ve prepared a list of the 5 best WooCommerce plugins which will help you customize your website and drive sales during the holidays.

1. Customer Reviews for WooCommerce

If there’s something that has the capacity to convince the online user to make a purchase, that’s a comprehensive positive review. WooCommerce does not typically include a review option but that does not mean you cannot add one to your website.

The Customer Reviews plugin is among our list of the best WooCommerce plugins for a reason. It allows customers’ voices to be heard by letting them leave product reviews and feedback. On the hand, your conversions inevitably increase with exhibiting the first-hand impressions of existing clients.

The plugin also allows you to send automatic review reminders via email to those who recently purchased a product from your store.

2. Extra Product Options for WooCommerce

Whether it’s size, color, fabric, material, or something else, at some point you might want to include a variety of options for the same products. This is something that allows customers to find the exact match of their search and thus, drives more prospective sales.

To include options, you’ll need a WooCommerce plugin such as WooCommerce Product Options and Price Calculation Formulas. As the name suggests, the plugin allows users to add custom options to existing WooCommerce products and also calculate custom prices based on any formula.

This personalization of your WooCommerce store will surely prove fruitful once you deliver the wanted option of a product to the right customers.

3. WOOF – Products Filter for WooCommerce

In today’s fast-paced world, scrolling to infinite pages of products is not only inefficient but also largely avoided. This is why, if you’d like to retain users who’ve landed on your page, make sure to include the option of filtering out the products based on certain properties or features.

WOOF is a WordPress plugin that allows WooCommerce websites to incorporate filtering options. Website customers can filter products by categories, attributes, product tags, products custom taxonomies, and price. The high flexibility offered by the plugin is already appreciated by 70,000+ WooCommerce sellers and the number grows daily.

4. WooCommerce Advanced Free Shipping

Shipping is another aspect of your eCommerce that you might want to reconsider this holiday season. Allowing custom shipping calculations, and most importantly offering free shipping, will certainly skyrocket your sales this year.

With customizable rules determining when a free shipping rate should be available for a customer, the WooCommerce Advanced Free Shipping is an incredible plugin to complement your website’s content. You can create condition groups within each shipping rate. These conditions can include the subtotal of purchased products, discounts, country, volume, weights, etc. Moreover, your customers will take advantage of free shipping and thus, be more prone to make a purchase from your online store.

5. Discount Rules for WooCommerce

It wouldn’t have been an article for the best WooCommerce plugins for the holiday season if we didn’t talk about the almighty discounts. There’s no surprise here. Christmas means sales and this shouldn’t be something to consider for too long. Offering discounts to your users on the holidays allows them to purchase presents for family, friends, or even themselves and can bring joy to human beings across the globe.

While you can include discounts on products using the WooCommerce plugin itself, the Discount Rules for WooCommerce lets you create bulk discounts, dynamic pricing, advanced discounts, percentage discounts, and user role-based discounts for your products. Just like the shipping customizable conditions, here again, you can choose to offer discounts based on quantity, subtotal, buy one – get one free deal. Offering dynamic pricing is a must-have for any website looking to embrace holiday sales.

Increasing Sales This Holiday Season

While holidays have different meanings to us all, one thing is certain – no one can remain indifferent to them. This is why catering to your audience’s need to celebrate whatever they believe to be the true meaning behind this season is imperative for you as an online store owner.

Luckily there are plenty of resources online to make your endeavors as easy and customizable as possible. WooCommerce is the preferred eCommerce platform with users from every walk of life. A vast variety of products are sold daily through it all around the globe. While incredibly useful and personalizable, the plugin is sometimes not enough for what we envision for our website to be.

Features such as customer reviews, product options, filtering, shipping, and discount flexibility have the capacity to boost your traffic, drive more sales than ever and offer a pleasant customer journey to every visitor. And that’s a win-win situation!

More eCommerce tips:

• The Essential 6 eCommerce Web Design Tips for Perfect Online Business!

• How to Start an Online Clothing Store

• 5 Major Benefits of Having an E-commerce Website for Small Retailers

The post 5 Best WooCommerce Plugins to Increase Your Sales This Holiday Season appeared first on AwardSpace.com.

Almost everyone uses social media channels, and it doesn’t really which ones, wants to say something. First, it was the posts on Facebook to say how we feel, then the tweets commenting on a political matter, and later the food on Instagram when we find a new place and it’s so good!

Now it’s the pins we save, the answers we wait for in Quora, the few seconds on Snapchat to know where our friends are, the gif we look for on Tumblr, and all the watch-later videos on YouTube.

And if you still don’t know why social media is good for you and your business, here are a few more reasons.

Connect with People

A lot of people underestimate the power of the right audience. They think just by creating something good enough, customers will come naturally. But the truth is, no matter how good your product/website/service is, if you don’t talk to people about it, they will never hear.

Simply waiting for the magical appearance of the website traffic would be a waste of time. That’s why you need to start your connection with them. And that’s when you realize why social media is good. You can be able to get to the right people with audience segmentation and persuade them. You can make them believe they need you.

Now, there are a lot of powerful books about how to convince people what you want, but you can never choose your target in a better way than with social media. And why social media is good for that you might ask. By choosing the right channels and the right audience, there is an enormous number of things you can achieve.

Since life has become more real in the digital world, the only way to connect with people is through social media channels. This might sound a little sad, but it is where the community lives. This leads us to the only conclusion we can make – connecting with people is why social media is good for your business. Create a bond and your business will be strong!

Increase Engaging

Why social media is good for any business shouldn’t even exist as a question. But it does and It’s a big one in the world of marketing. Every year, the conversions, the engagement, and the awareness all evolve.

When you are present on more of the social media channels, you make it possible for your own customers to engage. Doesn’t matter what line of business you’re in. Whether you have an e-commerce, a portfolio website, a business website platform, or whatever it is you created.

The users that are willing to click on your content and are possible to be interested in you are right there waiting for you to make them engage. And that’s why you need a social media presence.

When you create profiles, pages, and boards, for example, you make it possible for everyone to reach out. You’re out there, in their world, they are one click away from being yours. And you shouldn’t waste that possibility.

I could share a lot of data with you to make you understand what numbers exactly are your win, and how for real everything works. But I don’t want that. You need to feel the need. And I realize how that sounds, but trust me if you feel it, then you’ll be good at it. No number can tell you any secret. Just get into your website visitors’ shoes and start walking. Eventually, you’ll get to the end, and hopefully, that end will be your website.

Brand Awareness

This is something everybody talks about and still, not everyone understands. I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard it a lot of times, but when was the last time you actually did something with no agenda other than people hearing your name?

When businessmen or entrepreneurs want their website to be promoted, or their services, what they do is advertise and expect purchases/visits/engagement or whatever their final goal is. But no one wants to invest money in promoting the name itself.

That’s when the need for social media appears. You can use all those channels to tell people about your brand. Raise awareness. Create articles, posts, videos, or any other creative idea you have. Turn it viral and shareable, and watch the magic begin.

Why social media is good is easy to understand when brand awareness begins to appear. Don’t think of it as something rock science. It’s simple as your ideas and goals. If you have a vision about what you want people to think of you, then all you need to do is… tell them!

Increase Website Traffic

Of course, all of the pinpoints so far lead to an increase in website traffic. That’s one of the most important answers to why social media is good and helps your traffic. And I believe everybody knows it.

When posting on social media channels you attract more people to click on the content and eventually get to your website. Every inspired click is traffic and this traffic is valuable. People who are interested in reading or looking at your content are always the right ones. And they are your potential users.

Build Trust

I am going to end my article with this most important for me – business must, and answer to why social media is good. I believe in brands that create a bond with their customers. The relationship should not be between buyers and sellers. We all work for each other.

I need a good coffee to keep my work, I’ll buy from my favorite brand. They, on the other hand, will need a website to sell their products online, they can get free website hosting from AwardSpace. It’s a big circle and everyone needs something and they buy or sell another.

That’s why trust between customers and owners is a must. Now, for that, there are a lot of ways to achieve it, but social media is truly one of them and I prefer to use it for that. If you can do anything you want with social media – build trust. There is no way to lose your users if they trust you and of course, you trust them.

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