There is nothing more wrong than using your mailing list just to communicate the release of your latest article.

Your subscribers should be treated as privileged: you have to give them added value! Send exclusive content, new discoveries, case studies, or your future plans. This helps to establish a really deep connection between you and your readers.

This post at WHSR suggests always having something to offer in your emails, whether that’s a freebie or an idea, or an opinion, and always making the person feel special.

Now, even if it may sound easy, I can tell you that managing a successful newsletter is a trivial task.

Today, millions of emails are sent every day in the world and, with the current pace of life, no one can read all the emails he receives. Due to the limited time available, each person decides in an instant if he is going to read or not message, often, by simply scanning the object or the sender.

For this reason, you must know the basic strategies of email marketing, which include using the right service provider. Yes, Google Workspace is great, but it’s not enough to build and manage email lists.

In this post, I’m going to list the top nine email marketing tools in the industry. It’s up to you to decide the one you like more.

1. GetResponse

GetResponse is, in my opinion, one of the best email marketing providers. With an intuitive user interface and beautiful design, you can create attractive email newsletters to boost your business.

I like the email creator feature that checks how the messages will look on desktops or smartphones, so as to make the proper changes before sending them out. There are more than 500 templates to choose from, plus, there are more than 1000 free iStock images you can insert into your emails to make them more visually appealing.

One of the main features is the autoresponder, the most loved tool of bloggers and marketers. Using this tool, you can create a series of emails that are sent to users automatically at specific intervals of time, once subscribed to your mailing list.

This is actually a powerful strategy, that gives you the opportunity to stay in touch with your audience for a long time. And it’s an automatic system. Once you set it up the first time, it works the same way for every new subscriber.

GetResponse also offers an easy-to-use landing page creator (it’s a feature included in all plans, something that you don’t see on many other ESP).

There are more than 100 templates to choose from, with good-looking “thank you” pages that match the design of the template chosen.

The drag’n’drop WYSIWYG editor is really simple to understand. Without particular HTML knowledge, you’re able to move and edit every element of the landing page (such as buttons, texts or boxes).

I particularly like the extra option to publish the landing page on the tab of a Facebook fan page (other than on websites or a free GetResponse sub-domain).

Every template is mobile-friendly, which is really important nowadays.

The last feature I want to talk about is the webinars (something that just GetResponse offers included in an email marketing service plan).

As you know, a webinar can boost your business and improve your audience, by creating online events where you can share your knowledge on certain topics. This is a perfect occasion to gather new contacts for your mailing list.

Pricing is competitive. From $15/month for unlimited emails to 1,000 contacts or $25/month for up to 2,500 contacts (included the landing page builder, other than email creator and autoresponders). The next step is at $49/mo, including also the webinar service.

2. AWeber

AWeber is another popular choice, which used to own the market monopoly until a few years ago (I remember it was the obvious choice when I started blogging in 2010).

It has many high-end features, including autoresponders, sign-up forms, email deliverability, and email newsletters with a drag-and-drop editor.

I particularly like the easy-to-use templates and segmentation capabilities.

There are a few cons, however. AWeber doesn’t support mobile platforms and doesn’t host images on its own servers.

You can make use of landing pages with Aweber, using a series of third-party tools or (if you have enough expertise) by manually coding your landing page and inserting the Aweber form (unlike GetResponse which offers the landing page editor included in all its plans).

Prices are quite hard to digest. Plans range from $19 per month for just 500 subscribers, scaling to $29 for up to 2500 and $49 for up to 5000.

3. MailChimp

MailChimp is a good solution for very small businesses. The free plan offers lots of third-party integration and a good number of help materials. There are built-in templates and editor to customize the campaigns.

The free version supports up to 2,000 users and up to 12,000 emails per month, switching to the paid version costs $15 (or up to $240) per month depending on how many subscribers you have.

Good integration with mobile and awesome application for Android and iPhone.

There are a few cons. Features like spam filtering, analytics tools, and auto-responding abilities are absent in the free plan. Even with paid plans, reports aren’t real-time and are quite slow to refresh.

When your mailing list is over 2000 subscribers, with MailChimp the service can cost quite a lot. With 2,500 contacts, the price would be $30, scaling at $35 for 2600 users and $40 for 2700. Quite expensive, even with unlimited emails.

As a bottom line, I can say that MailChimp is easy to set up and simple to use. If you are a small business looking to get started with email marketing with the least amount of investment, MailChimp should be your solution.

4. Constant Contact

If you are just starting with email marketing, other than MailChimp, ConstantContact could be a great solution.

They offer a powerful and user-friendly interface with a wide selection of email templates.

There is a huge selection of materials to leverage email marketing for your business, such as webinars, tutorials, user guides, and tips to help you in this industry.

ConstantContact offers great event management tools and useful social media campaign resources.

But there are a few cons. They miss some advanced options, such as triggered campaigns and an RSS to email function (these features are powerful when you want to automate part of your campaigns), or even A/B split testing, which is another important omission (I’m sure you understand how A/B testing can improve your conversions).

They have quite high prices for the industry, starting at $20 per month to send unlimited emails for up to 500 users and scaling to $35 per month for 2,500 contacts and $55 per month for up to 5,000.

5. Benchmark Email

Benchmark Email offers a free plan which allows you to send up to 10,000 emails per month.

There are a lot of user segment options and their customer support is great. I liked the Google Analytics tracking option.

With the paid plans, you can get other premium features, such as online surveys, email templates, and tracking email statistics.

Overall, I can say that Benchmark Email grants a simple-to-use interface and a good number of features.

The cons are that Benchmark does not offer Gmail or other third-party contact integration. Plus, there’s no mobile preview option. I also found the email editor a bit glitchy in testing.

Prices start at $9.95 per month for 600 emails and max out at $375 for 100,000 emails per month.

6. Ominsend

Omnisend is a great tool for those who want to take their email marketing to the next level. Not only does this platform offer sophisticated email marketing automation workflows, but you can include additional channels into the same workflow.  

This means you can create complex workflows including channels such as SMS, web push notifications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, and more, extending your campaigns across several channels at once.  

But email stays at the core of what Omnisend does, and they do it well. You don’t need HTML savoir-faire to create emails with this tool, instead just use their drag-and-drop visual composer. That same visual aspect is used when you’re creating popups, landing pages, or anything else in Omnisend.  

Another interesting point to note is their segmentation. They allow you to layer segmentation so that you can target by profile data, campaign engagement, customer behavior, or a mixture of the three. This allows you to get pretty precise when you’re targeting your campaigns.  

The biggest con with Omnisend is that there is no mobile app at the moment. So if you’re trying to send your campaigns on the go, it might be a good idea to bring a laptop.  

Prices start from $16 per month for their Standard plan, and their free plan for basic email marketing allows for up to 15,000 emails per month.  

7. EngageBay

EngageBay is the new kid on the block but fast becoming the preferred email marketing service for many startups and small businesses out there. They offer a wide array of email marketing templates powered by a simple drag-and-drop interface. Moreover, the segmentation and targeting functionalities are great. 

The ability to personalize your emails, rich formatting options, and an easy option to track your campaign performance makes EngageBay a great marketing automation software to go for. 

Grow your business with powerful email marketing. Choose from several ready-made email templates or create your own. Personalize every part of the email and send them in a click. Track and analyze your results. Choose from a wide array of email marketing templates to suit your business needs. Use their simple drag-and-drop interface to create a template that suits your business need. Segment and target your subscriber lists. Personalize your emails. Track and optimize your campaigns. 

But it’s the pricing that really stands out: 

Pricing per contact 

• Up to 1,000: $0/mo
• Up to 10,000: $7.79/mo 
• Up to 25,000: $14.99/mo 
• Up to 50,000: $29.99/mo  

What we like about EngageBay: The number of features it offers at a competitively low price point. Their flexible, customizable plans are good too. The user interface is simple and user-friendly and their support is commendable. It is a modern platform for small businesses that cannot afford higher-priced solutions. 

What they should improve: Emails are branded so if you’d like to send emails without the EngageBay brand, you’d have to pay extra.  

Who is this for: those who are looking for a powerful yet affordable tool to reach customers via different channels (emails, SMS, push notifications, etc). Also, in case you are looking for a free tool, they offer a decent deal for $0 a month. 

8. AeroLeads

Have you heard about AeroLeads…? That’s one of the best email marketing tools in the market helping you find business email addresses. Part of your email campaign requires the right set of audiences to broadcast your brand.

AeroLeads helps you extract Email IDs, contact numbers, addresses, and many more credits to work with. Email Marketing needs potential leads and acquiring them needs more effort and man-hours. AeroLeads has made it easy to collect prospects from various platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter & more.

Giving you the feasibility to access it around all platforms, AeroLeads has a free Google Chrome Extension that allows you to extract emails and integrates them in a consolidated .CSV file.

The simple yet powerful plugin gives you both customization and automation. You can now upload your data, and synchronize them to your favorite CRM like Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Mailchimp, HubSpot, FreshSales, and Zapier.

• Flexible 
• Import / Export Data 
• Extract Business Leads Email Id 
• Works across LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. 

The pricing of AeroLeads gives you full access without any restrictions. Though there is a full-time free access agenda, when there are restrictions to specific user profiles, the AeroLeads premiere version will give you exclusive access to all prospects at $49. With chat and email support to back you up, you can acquire up to 4000 credits wherein five users are allowed to help in with your email campaign at $149. Supporting bulk tasks, the plugin gives you a cost-effective plan that can grow your revenue at the same time helps you immensely in lead generation.

9. NotifyVisitors

NotifyVisitors is a powerful email marketing tool that businesses can use to transform their email campaigns. They provide a comprehensive suite of email solutions for businesses of any size to help them create and send highly targeted email messages to their customers. 

Drag and drop email editor to make email templates of your choice. Moreover, using personalization to send more relevant content to generate better outcomes 

From creating automated email newsletters, customized email newsletters and email series, NotifyVisitors has all the tools and features you need to engage with your customers directly through email. 

In-depth analytics to provide you insights into every campaign. Furthermore, businesses can easily track the performance of their emails in real-time to ensure they are optimized for success.

The best part about NotifyVisitors is, it is easy to set up and implement and does not require any coding knowledge to get started.

Moreover, it offers a free plan that allows you to understand its functionality and decide for yourself.

Final Words

While it’s always up to you the final choice, I’d like to hear what you think about these 9 email marketing tools I talked about in this post.

Do you have experience with any of them?

Please share your views in the comments below, thanks!

Google Calendar is a powerful tool for managing your schedule, but its true potential is unlocked when integrated with other useful applications.

Here, we explore some of the best Google Calendar integrations that can transform your workflow and boost your productivity.

1. Trello: Streamline Task Management

Why Integrate Trello with Google Calendar?

Trello is a popular project management tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to organize tasks. Integrating Trello with Google Calendar ensures that all your deadlines and project milestones are synced, so you never miss an important date.

How to Set It Up

1. Navigate to Trello’s “Power-Ups” section.
2. Search for the Google Calendar integration.
3. Follow the prompts to connect your Google account and select the boards and lists you want to sync.

Benefits

• Visual Organization: See your Trello tasks directly in your Google Calendar.
• Automated Updates: Changes in Trello instantly reflect in your calendar.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Team members can track shared tasks more effectively.

2. Slack: Enhance Team Communication

Why Integrate Slack with Google Calendar?

Slack is a team communication platform that centralizes your messaging, making it easier to collaborate. By integrating Slack with Google Calendar, you can receive reminders and updates on upcoming meetings and deadlines directly in your Slack channels.

How to Set It Up

1. Go to Slack’s App Directory.
2. Search for “Google Calendar.”
3. Follow the setup guide to link your Google Calendar account.

Benefits

• Timely Notifications: Get reminders about upcoming events without leaving Slack.
• Shared Calendars: Easily share calendar events with your team.
• Event Creation: Create new calendar events directly from Slack.

3. Asana: Improve Project Tracking

Why Integrate Asana with Google Calendar?

Asana is another robust project management tool that helps teams track their work. Integrating Asana with Google Calendar allows you to visualize your Asana tasks within your calendar, helping you manage your time more effectively.

How to Set It Up

1. In Asana, go to the project you’d like to sync.
2. Click on “Export/Print” and select “Sync to Calendar.”
3. Follow the instructions to add the iCal URL to your Google Calendar.

Benefits

• Centralized Scheduling: View all your project deadlines in one place.
• Better Time Management: Allocate your time more efficiently by seeing tasks alongside other calendar events.
• Seamless Updates: Automatically sync new tasks and deadlines from Asana to Google Calendar.

4. Zapier: Automate Your Workflow

Why Integrate Zapier with Google Calendar?

Zapier is an automation tool that connects different apps and services, enabling you to create automated workflows (referred to as “Zaps”). Integrating Zapier with Google Calendar can help automate repetitive tasks, saving you time and effort.

How to Set It Up

1. Sign up for a Zapier account.
2. Choose Google Calendar as your trigger app.
3. Select an action app (e.g., Trello, Slack, Asana) and set up your desired workflow.

Benefits

• Time Savings: Reduce manual tasks by automating them.
• Custom Workflows: Tailor automations to fit your specific needs.
• Efficiency Boost: Streamline complex processes across multiple apps.

5. Zoom: Simplify Meeting Scheduling

Why Integrate Zoom with Google Calendar?

Zoom is a leading video conferencing tool that facilitates virtual meetings. By integrating Zoom with Google Calendar, you can schedule and join meetings directly from your calendar, making the process seamless.

How to Set It Up

1. Install the Zoom extension for Google Calendar.
2. Sign in to your Zoom account and authorize the integration.
3. Create a new calendar event and add Zoom meeting details with a single click.

Benefits

• Effortless Scheduling: Quickly schedule meetings with all necessary details.
• One-Click Access: Join Zoom meetings directly from calendar events.
• Meeting Reminders: Receive timely reminders for upcoming meetings.

Conclusion

Integrating Google Calendar with other productivity tools can significantly enhance your workflow, making it easier to manage tasks, communicate with your team, and stay on top of your schedule. Whether you’re a freelancer seeking to streamline your projects or a small business owner aiming to optimize team collaboration, these integrations offer valuable solutions to elevate your productivity. Consider getting Microsoft 365 to boost even further your productivity.

Ready to unlock the full potential of your Google Calendar? Try out these integrations and experience a new level of efficiency in your daily operations.

1. Mailchimp: Perfect Email Marketing Integration

Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience, and Mailchimp is a leading platform in this domain. By integrating Mailchimp with Squarespace, you can easily manage your email lists, create compelling campaigns, and track their performance.

Benefits:

• Seamless Signup Forms: Easily embed signup forms on your Squarespace site to grow your email list.
• Automated Campaigns: Set up automated emails to nurture leads and drive conversions.
• Detailed Analytics: Monitor email campaign performance with comprehensive analytics.

Practical Tip:

Use Mailchimp’s pre-designed templates to maintain brand consistency across your emails and website.

2. Google Analytics: In-Depth Website Performance Insights

Understanding how visitors interact with your website is crucial for making informed decisions. Google Analytics with Squarespace provides valuable insights into your website traffic, user behavior, and more.

Benefits:

• Traffic Analysis: Track how many visitors come to your site, where they come from, and how they navigate through your pages.
• User Behavior: Analyze user behavior to identify areas for improvement.
• Conversion Tracking: Measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts by tracking conversions.

Practical Tip:

Set up goals in Google Analytics to track specific actions (e.g., form submissions, downloads) that align with your business objectives.

3. Acuity Scheduling: Streamlined Appointment Booking

For service-based businesses, managing appointments efficiently is key. Acuity Scheduling, now part of Squarespace, simplifies the booking process for both you and your clients.

Benefits:

• 24/7 Booking: Allow clients to book appointments at their convenience, anytime, anywhere.
• Automated Reminders: Reduce no-shows with automated email and SMS reminders.
• Payment Integration: Collect payments for services during the booking process.

Practical Tip:

Customize your booking page to reflect your brand’s aesthetics and provide a seamless experience for your clients.

4. Stripe: Simplified Payment Processing

Stripe is a powerful payment processing platform that makes it easy for businesses to accept online payments. Integrating Stripe with Squarespace ensures secure and efficient transactions.

Benefits:

• Multiple Payment Methods: Accept major credit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
• Secure Transactions: Ensure the security of your customer’s payment information with advanced encryption.
• Global Reach: Operate your business internationally with support for multiple currencies.

Practical Tip:

Regularly review your Stripe dashboard to monitor transactions and quickly address any payment issues.

5. Social Media Integrations: Enhance Your Online Presence

Squarespace offers seamless integration with various social media platforms, allowing you to amplify your online presence and engage with your audience on multiple fronts.

Benefits:

• Social Sharing: Encourage visitors to share your content on their social media profiles.
• Social Feeds: Display your latest posts from Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook directly on your website.
• Analytics: Monitor the performance of your social media campaigns through built-in analytics.

Practical Tip:

Leverage user-generated content by showcasing customer reviews and photos on your social media feeds integrated into your Squarespace site.

6. ShipStation: Effortless Order Fulfillment

For e-commerce businesses, efficient order fulfillment is critical. ShipStation automates shipping tasks, making it easier to manage orders and ensure timely deliveries.

Benefits:

• Shipping Discounts: Access discounted shipping rates from major carriers.
• Automated Shipping: Streamline the shipping process with automated workflows.
• Order Tracking: Provide customers with real-time tracking information.

Practical Tip:

Use ShipStation’s batch processing feature to save time by printing multiple shipping labels at once.

Conclusion

Integrating these powerful tools with your Squarespace website can significantly enhance your business operations, improve customer experience, and drive growth. Whether you’re looking to streamline your email marketing, gain deeper insights into your website’s performance, or simplify appointment bookings, these integrations offer practical solutions to help you succeed.

Remember, the key to maximizing the benefits of these integrations lies in understanding your specific business needs and choosing the tools that best align with your goals. Start exploring these integrations today and take your small business to new heights.

For more expert tips and practical advice on leveraging technology to grow your business, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated with the latest industry insights.

These small graphical elements can enhance user experience, communicate ideas efficiently, and add visual appeal to your projects.

However, finding the perfect icons without breaking the bank can be challenging. In this guide, we will explore the best resources for free icon downloads and offer tips on how to effectively incorporate icons into your designs.

Why Icons Matter

Icons serve multiple functions in design, making them indispensable for various projects:

• Enhance Usability: Icons can make interfaces more intuitive by representing actions, objects, or concepts visually.
• Improve Aesthetics: Well-designed icons contribute to the visual appeal of your project, creating a polished and professional look.
• Convey Information Quickly: Icons can communicate complex ideas at a glance, improving comprehension and engagement.
• Increase Accessibility: Icons, when used correctly, can help users with language barriers or cognitive disabilities navigate your content more easily.

Top 10 Websites for Free Icon Downloads

1. Flaticon

Flaticon offers an extensive collection of over 4 million icons in various styles and formats. The platform allows you to customize colors and sizes, making it easy to integrate icons into your projects seamlessly.

2. Icons8

Icons8 provides a vast library of free icons, along with tools for customization. Their icons are available in multiple formats, including PNG, SVG, and ICO, ensuring compatibility with different design tools and platforms.

3. The Noun Project

The Noun Project offers millions of icons created by a global community of designers. You can download free icons with attribution or subscribe for unlimited access without attribution requirements.

4. Material Icons

Material Icons, developed by Google, features a comprehensive set of icons designed for use in various applications. These icons follow the Material Design guidelines, ensuring consistency and usability.

5. Font Awesome

Font Awesome is a popular icon toolkit that includes thousands of scalable vector icons. The free version offers numerous high-quality icons that can be easily integrated into web projects via CSS.

6. Ionicons

Ionicons is a set of open-source icons designed for use in web, mobile, and desktop applications. The icons are optimized for both Android and iOS, making them an excellent choice for cross-platform projects.

7. Heroicons

Heroicons offers a collection of free, high-quality SVG icons designed for user interfaces. The icons are available in both outline and solid styles, providing flexibility for different design needs.

8. Streamline Icons

Streamline Icons provides a growing collection of free icons with an emphasis on consistency and quality. Their icons are available in multiple styles, including light, regular, and bold.

9. Iconmonstr

Iconmonstr offers a curated selection of free icons, focusing on simplicity and usability. The platform allows you to customize icon sizes and colors before downloading them in various formats.

10. Iconfinder

Iconfinder hosts a vast library of free and premium icons. The free icons are available for use with attribution, and the platform provides advanced search filters to help you find the perfect icon quickly.

Best Practices for Using Icons in Design

Ensure Consistency

Consistency is key when using icons in your designs. Stick to a single style throughout your project to maintain a cohesive look. Mixing different icon styles can create a disjointed user experience.

Optimize for Clarity

Icons should be easily recognizable and understandable. Avoid overly complex designs that may confuse users. Test your icons with different audiences to ensure they convey the intended message.

Maintain Accessibility

Ensure that your icons are accessible to all users. Add descriptive alt text for screen readers and consider color contrast for users with visual impairments. Icons should complement text, not replace it entirely.

Use Icons Sparingly

While icons can enhance your designs, using too many can clutter your interface and overwhelm users. Use icons strategically to highlight important actions or information.

Leverage Customization

Many icon libraries offer customization options, such as color and size adjustments. Take advantage of these features to tailor icons to your brand’s aesthetic and functional requirements.

Conclusion

Free icons are a valuable resource for graphic designers, web developers, and content creators looking to enhance their projects without incurring additional costs. By leveraging the top websites for free icon downloads and following best practices for icon usage, you can elevate your designs and create visually appealing, user-friendly experiences.

Ready to take your design projects to the next level? Start exploring these resources today and discover the perfect icons to bring your vision to life. If you found this guide helpful, share it with your network and let us know your favorite icon resources in the comments below!

The good part of failing is that you can learn a lot from the experience. And if I can share something that I’ve learned in the online business is the importance of diversifying.

Today, I own several websites, based on different business models. I love to test new things, to find out what works for me and what it’s probably not my cup of tea.

Owning a piece of the internet is great, one of the best investments anyone can make. With just a few dollars, you can purchase a domain name and a hosting service to get your website up and running.

Once you understand how everything works, the possibilities are endless.

You can increase your online portfolio, adding properties that make you earn a steady income every month.

With time, you will have your favorite web host and domain registrar, but it’s always good to have alternatives or to try different services. You never know if they can become your next favorite service provider!

In this post, I’m going to talk about Temok.com.

Temok: Domains Registrations, Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers

They are relatively new in the industry, providing web hosting since 2014. They aim to grant high-quality services at the lowest rate with highest customer satisfaction. This should be the goal of every company!

When choosing where to base your business, it’s important to hear testimonials of happy customers and get as much information as possible.

Here’s a testimonial from Angelie (U.K.):

And now let’s see what Temok has to offers.

Domain Names

Temok gives you the opportunity to fund your online business in the same place. Having both your domain name and hosting service managed by one company can help your organization.

Start by searching your desired domain name:

You can enter your keyword or name to find your domain name.

There are also useful tables with extensions to help with your choice, based on generic categories (the topic of your business, like .audio, .camp or .design), geographical areas (European, Asia-Pacific, African and American) or by community domain extensions.

I always prefer to go with the classic and most popular “dot com” extension, but I see the “dot co” is trending, at the moment.

Check prices (you can get a .com for as low as $6,99 per year or a .co for as low as $15,59):

Temok also offers bulk registrations and domain transfer service.

Web Hosting

What I found particularly interesting is the competitive price.

It’s really hard to find such low prices around. Starting from $2.99/month, Temok offers a shared server plan with (among other things):

• Unmetered disk space and bandwidth
• Easy to use control panel (with the latest cPanel)
• Unlimited sub domains, FTP accounts and email accounts
• 99.9% uptime guarantee (which is really, really important)
• Free Weebly sitebuilder and website building tools
• 4,500 free templates to choose from to create your website
• Free website, MySQL, script or domain transfer
• $100 Google Adwords offer

They also offers, of course, a Linux or Windows VPN hosting plan with (among other things):

• 24/7 Technical Support
• Free OS reinstall
• Free reboots
• Lifetime hardware guarantee
• 99.9% network uptime
• Powerful Intel processors
• Full root access

Also the dedicated server plans are really competitive, with a choice based on your country:

If you choose U.S.A., for example, you can get an Intel Core I3 3220 (2c, 4t)/ SATA or SSD Disks, with 16GB DDR3, 2TB SATA storage, 100Mbit unmetered transfer bandwidth, for as low as $63.99 per month, with a $49.95 set up fee.

Temok offers a 24/7 support and a 100% uptime.

Other Services From Temok

It’s really interesting that Temok is offering other online business related services, like:

• Web design
• Logo design
• Web development
• Internet marketing
• SEO
• App development
• App Marketing

The app development is among my next projects.

In 2015, over 190 million Americans alone used a smartphone, and that number is projected to be near 207 million in 2016.

Smartphones aren’t just a comfortable way of communication, they are becoming an integral part of people lives.

It’s really important to understand how to market an app when created and this post will tell you what you should keep in mind.

But the first and most important step remains the development process.

Temok offers a great service for the creation of apps and games to help build or grow your business.

You just need to come out with an idea and they will streamline the process for you, always keeping you updated on the progress.

You can contact Temok for:

• Apps & Games Projects
• iPhone Apps
• Android Apps
• iPad Apps
• Facebook Apps
• Games

Temok has been awarded as best Android app developer for 2011, by the Digital Technology Awards.

Use the contact form to get in touch with the Temok staff and get a personalized quote to accomplish your project!

Why Should You Choose Temok?

100% Customer Satisfaction
They strive to give their customers the best service possible at the most competitive prices.

8 + Years Experience in Serving More than 40 Industries!
Temok served millions of clients, creating brand identities for more than 40 industries worldwide.

24×7 Customer Support Unit
The 24×7 support is synonymous with quality.

Final Words

Thanks for reading my review of Temok today.

I hope you can consider their services for your online business, because not always the most popular provider is the best choice.

You need to consider other factors, and the price is one of the most important ones (and Temok definitely offers one of the most competitive services I’ve ever seen in this industry).

What you think?

What’s your domain name registrar?

Which company are you using for your web hosting?

Are you planning to use Temok for one of these services? Or both?

Please share your views in the comments below, thanks!

Having the right tools will definitely make the difference.

The list I’ve written is divided into categories, and the resources mentioned can help you boost productivity, manage your time, increase your audience, make more money with your site or improve your social media following.

Huge Blogging Tools List

I use most of the tools listed in this post, and I suggest you to make a scan through the article to see if you can learn something new!

Or you can use one of the shortcuts below to jump directly to the content of reference.

New Content Ideas

Proofreading

Pictures for Your Site

Bookmarking

Analytics

Productivity

Keyword Research

SEO

Server Analysis

Social Media

Site Monetization

Affiliate Programs

Hosting Resources

Blog Marketing

Have a good reading!

New Content Ideas

Google Trends: find out what is trending at this moment over the internet or make a quick search based on your keywords

Quora: aside from creating your account and add your site links in the profile, you can run a research for your keywords to get several ideas for new posts.

Blog Title Generator: Enter your keyword and it will give you post ideas.

TweakYourBiz Title Generator: just enter a seed keyword and get several headline ideas, together with new post suggestions.

Content Idea Generator: rather than a real instrument, it’s a title generator of posts ready to make you smile.

Proofreading

Hemingway App: a free tool to help you increase your writing skills. Get suggestions in grammar, spelling, etc.

Grammarly: I use this to double check my articles before hitting the “publish” button. Particularly useful for the non-native English bloggers. Get several tips in a matter of seconds after submitting your content. There’s a free and premium version.

Pictures for Your Site

Photopin: add your keyword in the search box and find your favorite images. It’s basically a search engines that takes all the pictures from Flickr under Creative Commons, which means you need to quote the source, before using them (code is provided).

Free Images: very easy to use. Over 410.000 photos available.

Stockvault: run a search, based on your keywords, and find your favorite picture, in a repository of about 54 thousand images.

MorgueFile: this one is very popular. Over 350 thousand photos, a great choice!

Pixabay: simple to use, just make your search. I like the “Editor’s Choice”, which suggests you the media selected by the Pixabay team.

Photo Rack: http://photorack.net

Free Pixels: http://www.freepixels.com

Free Digital Photos: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Pic Jumbo: http://picjumbo.com

New Old Stock: http://nos.twnsnd.co (“vintage” pictures)

We Function: http://wefunction.com/category/free-photos/

Gratisography: http://www.gratisography.com

Google image search: remember to add the appropriate link source before adding an image to your site.

Bookmarking

Pocket: bookmarking site and “read it later” app. Good both to get backlinks or to add articles to read when you have free time.

Delicious: pretty popular and old one, still working.

Pearltrees: same as Pocket, equal system, different design.

Analytics

Google Analytics: every serious blogger has Google Analytics code installed in his blog. Great to track a lot of metrics and analyze different data.

Facebook Insights: the Facebook analytics for your pages. Divided into 2 main parts: Users and Interaction.

YouTube Analytics: same concept, but for Youtube channel. Click on ‘Account’ and ‘Analytics’ which is under “additional features”.

TrenDemon: this is a new tool to create more revenue and conversions from your content and traffic, automatically using personalized content recommendation and call to actions.

Productivity

Trello: good for managing your tasks. I use it daily. Based on “cards” and “boards”. Your can also add team members.

Rescuetime: find your ideal work-life balance. This tool helps you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive.

Keyword Research

LongTailPRO: a must have tool for any serious blogger. Get profitable keywords to build niche sites that make money or simply to improve your blog traffic, by targeting long-tail keywords. Read my LTP 3300 words guide here.

Google Keyword Planner: the free keywords research tool offered by Google.

Market Samurai: read Chris guide.

CanIRank: a new keyword research tool launched recently.

SEO

Google Webmaster Tool: another must have tool for every webmaster, offered by Google. Get several suggestions to improve your properties, once claimed.

Bing Webmaster Tool: the same concept of GWT, but for Bing (I suggest you to get it, seeing Bing’s increased size).

Majestic SEO Site Explorer: another popular tool for checking your backlinks (and much more), which uses a freemium model.

Ahrefs: a great tool for check backlinks and monitor the SEO of your site, with a very loyal user base. Similar to most of its competitors, this tool uses a freemium model.

SEMRush: it’s one of the biggest free SEO tools available online and its age is a clear endorsement of its value.

WooRank: use it to get a fast and clear review of a website.

Open Site Explorer: SEO Moz tool. It’s basically a search engine for links.

Quicksprout: it scrutinizes your site from top to bottom, giving you precise details on SEO, SMO and comparisons with competitors.

Server Analysis

Pingdom: this site offers a free online tool that analyzes the loading time of a given URL. Plus, you can be notified when your site is no longer accessible. Good for monitoring your server status!

URI Valet: another free service, which allows you to view HTTP headers transferred during a request for a specific URL.

Downforeveryoneorjustforme: ” Is the site down for everyone or just for you?”

Social Media

Hootsuite: a fantastic tool for managing all your social media accounts under the same dashboard. I use the PRO version (you can even auto-post content from your blog’s RSS feed).

BufferApp: this app is used by many bloggers and social media marketers. Easily schedule your content, for free.

Followerwonk: this website provides valuable information on your Twitter account with the ability to compare your followers with those of other users.

Tweriod: this tool analyzes your Twitter account with a particular attention to the moments in which you generated more engagement.

JustUnfollow (now Crowdfire): useful site to manage your Twitter and Instagram followers. It’s free up to 200 daily actions.

Conversation Score: after analyzing your Facebook page, it provides information regarding your relationship with those who follow you, your habits, the percentage of likes in your posts and other useful statistics.

LikeAlyzer: it analyzes your Facebook page and gives you advice on how to improve your presence and your appeal, relying on dialogue, timing and posts that you have posted.

Twiends: use this tool to gain exposure for your Twitter account and receive new followers.

Tweepi: useful for “flushing” people who are not following you back on Twitter, or reciprocate following users who are actually your followers.

Tweetstats: it’s another free tool for measuring your Twitter profile.

Twitter Counter: a useful service to measure some parameters of Twitter, like the followers growth rate, the average number of tweets per day, and more.

Klout: are you using it? This website has been always in the center of a debate, as an instrument to measure your level of online influence (be sure to not take these numbers as really the truth).

Social Mention: good to alert you whenever a specific keyword is mentioned on a platform of social media.

Oktopost: a powerful social media management platform, created especially for B2B marketers and with particular attention to LinkedIn.

Site Monetization

Google AdSense: Google contextual advertising network. The most popular way to monetize a blog.

Infolinks: in-text advertising solution, with various ad formats (read my review here).

BuySellAds: most popular online advertising network. Check my site marketplace at BuySellAds.

RankSeller.com: get sponsored post opportunities.

RankSider.com: same concept of RankSeller.

SponsoredReviews.com: get many job opportunities. But high competition.

SeedingUp.com: great way to monetize your site and social media audience. Check the interview with Johannes here).

LinkVehicle: sponsored opportunities and affiliate links to make money with your blog.

Affiliate Programs

ShareASale: a popular affiliate marketplace with many affiliate programs that you can join.

Hosting Resources

HostGator:  leading provider of web hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Discover why over 9000000 websites trust them for their hosting needs. I have a dedicated server and very happy with it.

FileZilla: desktop FTP tool.

Blog Marketing

Triberr: share your content and other members one. Get your audience amplified and increase your connections. See Chris article here.

JustRetweet: a nice platform where you can expand your social media audience, by sharing other members posts and gaining credits, while you want to submit your content and get it shared by other users. Read my review here.

ViralContentBee: good not only to boost your Twitter exposure, but also to increase your Pinterest and Facebook audience. My review is here.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this list, and that you learned something new today.

Please add your favorite tool in the comment below, and let me know what you think!

Thanks.

Featured image at http://imgkid.com/construction-tools.shtml

Do your visitors just open and close your website without letting you know if they will return?

If your stats show that you attract more new visitors rather than entice old ones to return, then you must recognize that you need to focus on working harder on your audience, instead of thinking about just getting more traffic.

To generate more traffic you can make use of social media, guest posts and forums, but users who return on your web pages usually need to have a good reason to do so.

If your website is already popular and you have invested your time to create a community around your blog, then the problem of having repeat visitors is solved and all that’s left to do is to keep doing well your job.

On the other side, if you have trouble getting users returning to your site, you should think of creating a healthy list of subscribers.

The truth is that even today, after years and years of radical changes in the web, email marketing remains one of the most effective strategies that need to be developed and integrated into your road to success.

2 Techniques to Collect Subscribers

Here are two ways to convince your visitors to leave their email address and subscribe to your mailing list.

1. Box Enrollment at the End of Each Post

The registration box is an organic method to collect email addresses.

Who is looking for information about what he just read, he’ll likely insert his email address (usually this happens with those who find a solution to their problems).

Make known to users that can receive content similar to those who are searching for, using a box at the end of each post.

Despite being considered the best tactic, it will help only to collect email addresses from those who have already been convinced to sign up for other reasons.

If you want to make a difference and collect more contacts, compared to other bloggers, you may consider a second option to collect more emails.

2. Exit Pop-up Opt-in

Unlike simple registration boxes, exit pop-up opt-ins allow you to be more persuasive.

Here are the major benefits that can be drawn using the pop-ups to encourage the user to enroll:

– surprise effect: no one expects to receive something when is about to leave the page;

– you can use incentives to encourage anyone to join in the exchange of free ebooks, guides or checklists;

– becoming a promoter of valuable information for your readers;

– one of the features of the pop-ups is that you can test different versions.

Try to run several A/B tests, to find out which of them converts more. This way, you’ll know exactly which resource is more interesting, what content like most to the public and, of course, collect more subscribers.

Also, you should know that once gone down this road, you have to continue to send relevant content to your subscribers, keeping in mind what they have downloaded.

Target and email marketing play a crucial role in building a huge mailing list.

Other than using pop-ups, be sure to learn how to write newsletters that get opened, read, and clicked.

4 Tools to Increase Subscribers to your Mailing List

For those who decide to use them, let’s see some examples of WordPress plugins that use the “exit intention” technology and other tools that can help you to capture more email addresses.

1. Optin Monster

Optin Monster works out of the box with all major email marketing software, including GetResponse.

It’s a complete tool that allows you to have the following features (and more):

• triggers the pop-up opt-in, while scrolling the page
• allows to try different versions, making A/B testing
• provides data and relevant statistics on A/B tests
• allows to create opt-in widgets, registration boxes, slide in and much more

There are different packages, from the basic plan at $49, passing through $199 and the biggest one at $499.

2. PopUp Domination

One of the most popular ones.

It allows you to use different layout and colors, produces statistics and reports and integrates with all the most used and famous autoresponders.

It also includes rules for the target and the option to run A/B testing.

The basic plan is $77 per year, which you can use only for one site.

3. Dreamgrow Triggered Scroll Box

You can set it to work based on the percentage of sliding, so when your readers reach the end of a post or comment, a small popup appears in the lower right or left corner.

It’s free and you can get it here.

4. Icegram

It’s the most versatile WordPress plugin of this list and allows you to customize the design of your pop-up.

You can use Icegram to give users access to any of your eBooks and capture their email addresses.

But be careful: you have to build a landing page yourself.

Conclusion

Hope you will find some inspiration and ideas, browsing this list of email marketing resources.

Whether the tool you are using to capture the attention of your users, be sure to track the results.

Also, remember that the important thing is not only the technology you use to achieve your goals, but also the value of the content you offer to your subscribers.

What do you think?

Are you using pop-ups on your website?

Which tools do you recommend?

Please share your experience in the comments below, thanks!

You have to choose the right subject, identify a picture free of copyrights (otherwise citing the source or the author), verify that the image has sufficient pixels size (I go for 600 px within my blog posts, and a little more for the featured one) or even resize the image if needed.

And despite all the time you spend on this process, sometimes the results are mediocre (well, it always depends on your expectations).

Photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world – Bruno Barbey

A beautiful picture can make the difference between getting clicks and visitors or being ignored.

Wanting to go into detail, a well-edited image within your web pages provides:

• a greater amount of hits from Google Images (upon proper completion of the alt tag);
• a better perception of the “quality” of your article;
• an overall professional look of your website;
• an increase in the CTR. Just think, for example, when your content is shared via Facebook or Google Plus. The featured image of your post, together with its title, are the determining factors to get clicks.

Here is a list of 20 websites to find free photos, without copyright, to use in your content.

1. Photopin

Photopin takes all the pictures from Flickr under Creative Commons, which means you can use them by quoting the source (with a very short code already provided).

Just proceed with the keyword search in any language.

But pay attention as on Flickr, as well as great photographers, there are also fewer good users publishing media, so try to scan for quality pictures.

2. Free Images

Free Images is simple to use, albeit a little unattractive.

Do your keyword search and download your preferred images.

There are also tutorials to learn how to “do things”, with the possibility to modify the pictures.

Over 410.000 photos online.

3. Stockvault

Stockvault has currently about 54 thousand pictures (so a few compared to other repositories of images).

For each media, you are notified of the conditions of use, but it is not possible to choose the size of download.

Good variety.

4. MorgueFile

MorgueFile is among the most popular sites to get free images.

With over 350 thousand photos, it’s nearly impossible not to find what you want!

Insert a keyword and do a parallel research on iStockPhoto, Getty, Dreamstime, Fotolia and Depositphotos.

5. Pixabay

Pixabay is easy to use: just add your keyword in the search field to find the picture you are looking for.

Not bad also the “Editor’s Choice”, which contains the images chosen by the Pixabay team.

Other Websites

6. Photo Rack: http://photorack.net

7. Free Pixels: http://www.freepixels.com

8. Free Digital Photos: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

9. Pic Jumbo: http://picjumbo.com

10. New Old Stock: http://nos.twnsnd.co (good if you are searching for “vintage” photos)

11. We Function: http://wefunction.com/category/free-photos/

12. Gratisography: http://www.gratisography.com (Brian McGuire and Bells Design provide many photos, with a particular taste. Copyright-free, even for commercial uses).

Download for Free, After Registration

This is a widespread formula.

If you find the site that intrigues you, just register and you will be able to download quality images.

Here are some:

13. FreeRangeStock: http://freerangestock.com (even for commercial purposes, with a minimum size of 2400 x 1600 pixels)

14. RgbStock: http://www.rgbstock.com (wallpapers, images, textures)

15. StockPhotosForFree: http://www.stockphotosforfree.com (with the ranking of the most downloaded. Interesting preset categories to choose from)

16. StockFreeImages: http://www.stockfreeimages.com (more than 1 million of images and illustrations)

17. PixelPerfectDigital: http://pixelperfectdigital.com (not just photos, but also background, textures, various elements of design)

Free Images, But With a Newsletter

In addition to classic search engines for images, there are also sites where you need to subscribe to a free newsletter, in order to get images directly in your inbox.

18. DeathToTheStockPhoto: http://deathtothestockphoto.com (just enter your email and automatically, every month, you will receive free photos)

19. Unsplash: https://unsplash.com (after the subscription, you’ll get 10 photos a day)

20. LittleVisuals: http://littlevisuals.co (7 photos every 7 days, with no limit of use)

I hope you will find this list of resources useful.

So now you have no excuses to add catchy and nice images to your website.

And you?

Do you have a special place where to find excellent free images?

Please share it in the comments below, thanks!