Especially, for those who choose to do an online business, an online presence becomes more and more important, and such companies are experiencing a great success.

In today’s fast-moving world everyone can start their own enterprise, you need basic web development skills, eager to learn and work, and know how to promote your brand.

However, to make a business work a great concept and preparation are necessary. And when there are many fascinating ideas, it might get overwhelming to choose the only one. That is why we are recommending online business ideas that will make a profit.

Photo: pexels.com

1. Online T-shirt Business

Who doesn’t want to look unique and outstanding, a big part of our appearance is the clothes we wear, that is why an online t-shirt printing business is on demand. How to start selling t-shirts?

The process is quite simple, although, it is critical to find a niche that suits your vision and mission, and do thorough research on the market to find out if your concept has a demand and could make a profit.

The next steps would be finding a reliable manufacturer, setting a budget, looking for investments and generating first leads.

2. Sell Photos Online

Do you know how to use a camera and take astonishing pictures?

Then why don’t you implement your hobby to earn extra money, photo stocks are continually searching for talented photographers who could replenish their collections. Additionally, you can combine your other passions and specialize in traveling, food, furniture, model photography.

To be noticed you need an outstanding website, it does not only have to look good but also be functional. In this case you can use CaptainForm, a WordPress forms plugin which eliminates all unnecessary work and makes the page look professional.

Photo: pixabay.com

3. Social Media Management

A compelling social media strategy is critical for a business due to online presence and communication with existing and potential clients.

As people spend more and more time on social media platforms, it becomes one of the primary communication channels with partners and customers. However, it’s not that easy as it might look, to create a powerful campaign it is necessary to have a good copywriter, marketing designer, photographer and someone who can define a target audience.

That is why companies are willing to pay a lot of money for professional social media manager, and if you know more than just how to put an Instagram story, then consider online business as social media manager.

4. SEO consultant

Search engines ranking is a necessity in order to be noticed, get steady traffic to your website, and generate potential leads and customers.

A professional SEO consultant is vital for companies to be able to compete and stand out. If you know how to use keywords correctly, choose the right links, and as a result increase business visibility, then SEO consultant is a perfect position for you to start your own online business.

Photo: pixabay.com

5. Accounting

You don’t have to be a part of a company to work as an accountant, many enterprises hire freelance accountants or sign short-term contracts.

It makes it is easy to start your online business as an accountant and help companies with managing budgets, revenues, expenses, payroll entries, invoices, and other accounting charges. You can also have some accounting softwares as explored by Small Business HQ to help you with the process.

6. Coaching

People have to learn more and more different subjects to keep up with today’s fast-paced world, learning and developing a skill might get overwhelming if you are doing it on your own.

To avoid unnecessary fuss people willingly hire personal coaches who could help them grow, when the internet is available 24/7 online coaching business becomes a great option.

Coach people on a specific subject, for example, a foreign language, math, history or even cooking.

7. Affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketing is one of the most accessible online businesses to start with, it requires an initial investment and basic portfolio. Nevertheless, some companies provide a free of charge permission to promote and sell their goods.

Generally speaking, you will earn money from the commission of each product you sell. It’s a good plan for those who want to earn extra money and have something on aside from a day job.

8. Translate

Are you fluent in more than one language, if so why don’t you use your valuable skills to earn money and start a business as a translator. When asked about translator job many people imagine someone who is following diplomats in foreign countries and translating every word. But in most cases, this work can be easily done online.

As a translator, you would be helping people or companies to transcribe documents, papers, books and related records.

9. Legal Writing

Legal writing is perfect for someone who has an in-depth knowledge of legal matters and also can handle a pen.

Legal writing service is mainly used by lawyers, judges, legislators and other judicial workers. It has to follow specific rules of citation, legal terms, and references, it is mostly used to prepare operating agreements, working contracts, certificates, and other legal documents.

10. Financial Consultant

As a financial consultant, you can work for companies or people to manage their money.

In general terms, if you choose to start an online business as a financial consultant, you will assist your clients on regarding matters, for instance, managing a budget, defining best investment options, choosing insurances, and other financial questions.

This year looks encouraging for online business and because the internet and online jobs are getting more accessible it makes it easy to start a career as an online entrepreneur. However, it brings many different business options which makes it harder to find the one that suits your plans best.

Don’t worry, carefully consider all of them and pick the one that does not only have a demand but also drive you.

This is because the content doesn’t come from you; it comes straight from your satisfied buyers. It’s a win-win: They want to tell the world about their purchase and you do, too. Without further ado, here are four smart ways to use customer-generated content in ecommerce.

Customer Reviews on Website

 The effectiveness of consumer-generated content boils down to the power of social proof. People tend to trust what others say. Seeing others bought a product or love a brand can be very influential when it comes to persuading customers to convert. And, the numbers don’t lie.

As Business Insider reports, shoppers who interact with consumer-generated content are 97 percent more likely to convert than those who don’t. In turn, brands see a 78 percent boost in conversion rates.

One of the simplest ways to reassure shoppers that others have bought from your online store is to post customer reviews on product pages. Seeing positive reviews helps shoppers gain confidence in the item they’re considering—the more, the better. It’s the same effect as choosing to eat in a crowded restaurant because you figure the food must be good if it’s so sought-after.

Even negative reviews can be helpful because they bring possible pitfalls to shoppers’ attention. The key is collecting detailed reviews so users can know exactly what went wrong or fell short of expectations; while contributing to the honesty of your review section. This also allows shoppers to judge for themselves whether the failing was a specific situation or a general problem.

An example would be “my senior dog didn’t love this specific toy” (personal preference) versus “this toy fell apart in my dog’s mouth so we had to take him to the vet and get emergency surgery” (universal shortcoming).

Create a Social Media Hub for Customers’ Posts

 You’ve asked your social media followers to use a certain hashtag to share their photographs and stories involving your products.

So what are you going to do with them? You’ve created a handy hub for potential buyers to visit and scan user-generated content.

Just think back to Coca-Cola’s highly successful campaign asking users to share pictures of themselves with personalized bottles of soda. This campaign earned Coke a two percent increase in revenue.

Go beyond merely collecting social proof, develop a system for reposting the cream of the crop for all to see.

According to Attrock, Social media is more important than ever in ecommerce for scaling businesses. Social media platforms like Facebook can now directly integrate with cloud ecommerce software like Shopify. This means storeowners can use customer-generated content to target potential buyers at the point of purchase.

Host a Crowdsourced Contest

You have something online shoppers want for free. They have compelling content and creative ideas for promoting their favorite products. Tap into these motivations with a crowdsourced, content-based contest.

Ask your followers to submit photographs or stories for voting, then aggregate them in one place. People can vote with their “likes,” “favorites” or comments.

Just make sure your contest is legal on each respective social media platform. Be certain to also establish clear parameters so everyone knows what’s at stake.

Feature a Customer of the Week

Encourage customers to post by picking a “customer of the week” and rewarding their diligent sharing efforts.

You might send a free t-shirt to someone who shares a great gym story, or email a coupon for 25 percent off to someone who makes the funniest pun involving your products. This will boost customer loyalty as shoppers see the human side of your online store.

Call out customers via Twitter to let them know how much they mean to you:

Using customer-generated content in ecommerce is a no-brainer, and these four ways to do so are just the starting line.

Whether you are looking to promote your new product or have an existing store but haven‘t ventured to Google Ads, we‘ll guide you through the process.  

Many Shopify store owners have experience or start with Facebook Ads first. We‘ve worked with multiple stores running Facebook Ads and transferred that success over to Google Ads.  

Google Ads is an extremely powerful product and one of the most used marketing platforms out there. But the learning curve is a little steeper than Facebook or Instagram. This means that some owners are hesitant to get started. 

 I‘ll review the major points and steps to take when creating your new Google Ads account. More importantly, we will share our tips for success. This article is written specifically for Shopify, but these principles can apply to any eCommerce Website builder.  

1. Make Sure the Correct Tracking is in Place

Conversion tracking is a critical piece for any Google Ads account and is even more critical for eCommerce businesses. You want your Google Ads account to show the actual sales and revenue from your Shopify Store.  

Fortunately, Shopify and Google have multiple integrations to make this as painless as possible.  

• The first step is to add a Google Analytics tracking code to your Shopify website. There are default integrations for this, and it is a pretty quick setup 

• Once this is complete, sales and revenue data will start to show in Google Analytics  

After adding Google Analytics, you can import the sales data directly into Google Ads using the conversion goals section. This is also a straightforward process, and your tracking should be up and running in no time.  

2. Import Your Products and Launch Google Shopping Ads

Google uses a product data feed to show your products in Shopping Ads. These ads are the catalog images commonly seen above Google search results.  

To match your product to the proper search, Google uses information like titles, descriptions, product types, and other data points to serve the correct product. Unlike search ads, which use a targeted keyword list to match your products.  

To set this up, you will need to create an account in the Google Merchant Center. This is where you will add the data feed. Then link your Google Merchant Center account to your Google Ads account.  

Shopify also supplies standard integrations to help create your product feeds. Depending on the number of products in your store, your feed can contain hundreds or thousands of individual product variations. If you had to input this manually, it could take hours or even days!  

• There is a default Google Shopping Shopify app that will do most of the heavy lifting for you 
• Or there are multiple paid options that allow for more customizations 

Finally, import your feed into the Merchant Center. Now Google will review all of the imported products. This process can take a few hours up to a few days.  

Within Google Ads itself, you create the Shopping campaigns. There are many best practices or strategies, but we recommended starting with a Smart Shopping campaign featuring your best products.  

With Smart Shopping ready, Google will match your products to the most relevant searches. From here, select your targets to set an appropriate target ROAS (return on ad spend). 

 At first, it may take Google’s algorithm some time to start hitting your targets. But with enough data, Google will optimize towards the targets set.  

3. Create a “Brand” Search Campaign  

A fundamental principle for any Google Ads is to defend your brand term. These are the searches directly targeting your companies’ keywords.  

It‘s important to bid on your brand term to control the traffic looking for your product, and so your competitors do not “steal” your traffic.  

Most of the time, this traffic is incredibly cheap, and it will not take much budget to show up on the top of Google’s results. Since Google knows it‘s your terms, your keywords will take preference. 

• This is based on quality score calculations, which is an entirely separate article 

Additionally, when paid ad campaigns on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram are pushed, searches for your brand will increase. This only amplifies the importance of directing these users to the correct location and not to competitor pages.  

4. Create a Competitors Campaigns  

Similar to how you need to bid on your brand term, you can bid on your competitor terms. This provides an opportunity to capitalize on competitors that are not as Google ads proficient and leave their brand terms open.  

• We’ve worked with businesses that launched their products off competitor traffic 
• This traffic can be expensive, but when managed correctly products great results  

The only thing to watch out for is using any competitors‘ headlines in the ads. This is against Google Ads guidelines and can get your ads disapproved.  

5. Add Remarketing Audiences and Campaigns

Remarketing audiences refer to the users who have already visited your website. Using Google Ads or Google Analytics, you can target this specific traffic.  

Once you‘ve created these audiences, you can go back into Google Ads and create display campaigns. Display campaigns are the image ads you commonly see on millions of websites.  

Create display ads based on your products and remarket to all recent visitors of your website. You can even use the data from your product feed to pull into the ads dynamically. This technique is referred to as “dynamic remarketing.“  

Final Thoughts

Google Ads is incredibly in–depth and there are hundreds of tactics and strategies. These five techniques will get you started advertising on Google Ads. 

The points above are the most successful and fundamental items for all our Shopify store Google Ads accounts. Once this is in place, you can branch out and test multiple strategies.  

This is a guest contribution by Lior Krolewicz.

Analyzing website visitors is not always easy, and Google Analytics may seem the most popular choice. However, setting up and customizing the GA code is tricky and will require constant knowledge, evaluation and a lot of time to get results.

In this post, I’m going to introduce you a better option to Google Analytics, called Finteza. Let’s see how it works and how you can use this tool to boost your site conversions, analyzing quality traffic.

How to Set Up Finteza

First of all, you need to register.

Enter the website you want to track, your email and password. Click on the link you receive by email and you are good to go.

Now, you want to add the Finteza HTML code into all pages of your website, in order to launch analytics:

You may customize the code with some additional tracking features, like:

• tracking hash in the browser address bar;
• tracking clicks on external links;
• the exact time on the site;
• proxying the script and requests.

Proxy scripts through your website to get clear and secure data. Additional customization includes:

• events;
• retargeting;
• goals;
• ad zones.

If you have troubles with setting up the code in your website, or you are simply not familiar with the technical side of blogging, you can get the official plugin for integrating Finteza web analytics with WordPress websites. Here‘s the download link.

Other CMS plugins are available, like for Drupal, or Joomla, or even PrestaShop.

And there are guides for installing Finteza analytics code, if you are running a website on platforms such as Blogger, or Tumblr.

Traffic Analytics

Finteza offers full-cycle data management, like collecting, processing and creating data mapping in the form of real-time reports and charts.

You can customize the analytical report, with 15 basic parameters:

• visit sources;
• events;
• UTM parameters;
• page addresses;
• countries
• and 10 others.

Measuring Quality Traffic

One of the Finteza interesting features is measuring the quality of your site traffic.

You can find out up to 12 types of low-quality traffic from each channel, in real-time.

For example, if you want to detect fake conversions, you just need to click on the “Funnels” section to view all the bot details.

The different reports offered lets you analyze the audience from several perspectives.

Using Finteza to Increase Conversions

You know how important is a conversion funnel to increase sales.

Even more important is measuring this funnel to find out weak points.

Can you spot when or where users leave your website?

With Finteza, you can create funnels on all pages, exploring user behavior from different sources and spot the zones that need your attention and more work. You can build reports using several criteria for studying your target audience.

For example, you can create a funnel for iOS users coming from the U.S., who were attracted by an ad on Twitter.

Also, this tool can help you track conversions not only by channels but also by separate ads and keywords.

For example, if your traffic is coming from Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, you may want to reduce costs while keeping the number of requests. This can be achieved following these 3 points:

1. set traffic with UTM parameters;
2. checking and analyzing conversion rates of each channel;
3. cancel inefficient ad units, campaigns and keywords.

You may also want to test different funnels, by canceling or changing the number of steps. Finteza will help you compare values using different criteria, and, at the same time, it will calculate conversion rates and gives suggestions for each stage.

Data is available in real time, so you can follow up the funnel performance immediately after activating the code.

Finteza Pricing

Final Words

With Finteza, you can get real-time web analytics, to track the number of visitors, page views or events in your website. It’s important to analyze the incoming traffic quality, to examine the audience behavior and get more conversions.

Finteza offers also a wide range of tools to increase conversions by optimizing your sales funnel, or to create, manage and improve marketing campaigns.

There’s a 30 days free trial, after you register. I suggest you to give it a go and don’t forget to share here your experience and thoughts.

There are thousands of businesses online but still, there is enough room on the internet for you to make some serious money by doing what you do best.

Most people fail with their first business. There are certain factors that you need to keep in mind before starting an online business.  It takes a lot beyond just an idea for a business to begin.

Here are some biggest challenges that you will face while starting an online business.

#1 The start will be painful

Once you start your business you have to be patient with it. An online business cannot get immediate profits. It takes time for business to grow and make the profit.  A lot of online business owners Say that the 60-day mark is the toughest. It’s where the real dares start Most of the companies don’t make a single cent over what they invested until the end of the first year.

Entrepreneurs already have put all that they can into developing their dream: savings, credits from relatives, pay from their normal everyday employment, etc. Yet, they still need progressively money to divert their business into something from which they can see free income.

No doubt you won’t take compensation for yourself in the primary year (or two) of your new startup. Smart entrepreneurs will pipe as much cash as they can into their startup to see the greatest development over a brief span period before stashing money from the business.

Indeed, even as you’re yielding things like holidays, parties to develop your business, you could be amazed to discover what number of additional business-related costs come up that you hadn’t planned for. Such as:

• Accounting errors
• Travel expenditures
• Seminar & conference fees
• Office articles
• Liability insurance
• Employee taxes
• Self-employment tax

#2 Marketing would be the most difficult part

It’s insanely difficult to market a new business. You have to identify who your potential clients are, their location, their preferences, how you can make your business stand out, what do I offer that other online businesses of the same niche don’t? These are some questions or challenges that you might face when creating a marketing strategy

Rising above the mass is not an easy task. Everyone can start an online business but only some succeed and make some money from online business.

Before stepping in the digital world, you need to have the proper knowledge and an appropriate marketing plan. A good marketing plan focuses on a lot more elements than just getting people to click on your website and read your content. You need to understand why people are coming to your website, what stimulates them to buy the product or service. You need to do a lot of research and you should have proper knowledge of Digital Marketing if you want to be successful in the online business.  

The Internet offers the opportunity of getting a huge, global consumer-base, but also the danger of wasting your content and budget on people with no real interest in your product. There are several digital marketing practices which can help you work up your marketing game.. By doing a digital Marketing course you will understand how online business works.

#3 Finance Management

Nobody will ever guide you, where you have to spend your money and how to have to spend it. When running an online business, it’s very important that you keep track of your money- how it’s spent, where it’s going, where it’s coming from. Good cash control is important for any business.

If you’re starting your business you have to be careful on how to spend your budget. Many businesses fail because they are not able to do proper money management.

Making the best use of your financial plan should be on highest of your business planning list. With limited resources, you will need to pass on some chances and wisely invest in something that won’t suck up all your money.

Every element of your company’s capital should be controlled to maximize your investment and free cash flow.

Good stock control and effective supplier management will also play a more imperative part in your achievement as your business grows.

#4 You’ll Find Friends in your journey

In spite of facing difficulties day by day and feeling just as you’re the just a single in the battle, as a business person you have a large number of potential supporters to approach. All business people are centered on survival and others won’t have any desire to see you fall flat.

As far as I can tell, they are almost constantly glad to share understanding, regardless of whether there is no advantage to their very own business. Discover a businessman you adore and request that they be your coach, look for guidance and build up associations: no one can tell when they may prove to be helpful.

As you grow a business, there’s in every case some new problem, and you get, ‘I’ve never thought of this. I’ve never attempted to do this present.’ It’s much simpler to discover somebody who has done it earlier and learn from them than to attempt to begin without any preparation and waste a ton of time and even cash simultaneously.

#5 Attempting to do everything all alone

Productive business people realize that they can’t do everything. On the off chance that you force yourself excessively hard, you will destroy yourself, and you may even destroy your business.

First of all, an entrepreneur more often than not has the complementary attributes: sets the organization vision, centers around the future, plans for crises, think about the comprehensive view, and sets up business objectives.

Though, every entrepreneur needs somebody to enable them to exit the down to earth parts of his or her arrangement. As it were, the visionary sees the woodland; partners and other colleagues focus on the plans. They assist the visionary with the delicacies so the plan really works out as expected.

The skillful business person knows when and what to assign. They will realize what their time is worth and where their center will be generally profitable. Set your locales on your qualities, and look for assistance from individuals who can convey parts of the heap that you are fighting with.

Conclusion

If you’re planning to start your own business, you need to work hard and focus on your goals.  Indeed, even with the majority of the annoying things that line being a businessman, the things you will find out about yourself, your clients, and your society will make your life additionally fulfilling.

Every day new freelancers approach the market with individual businesses and make it a success. There is no guarantee that a business idea can generate any income. But the best way to make it work, as a freelancer, is to follow a foolproof guide.

Successful freelancers agree that the following were their safety rules to launch their business.

1. Research the market

Whether you choose to embrace the freelancing life or you decide to become an entrepreneur, there is no way around it. No business can start without a thorough market research. A good pro forma analysis will really set your business apart from the handful of other startups launching around the same time as you. There are also plenty of companies providing helpful advice when you are just getting your business started. 

Indeed, without knowing your target audience, your competitors, and the market trends, it’s impossible to present an offer that will attract buyers. You might have a business idea, but without a market analysis, it’s not enough to rock a new trend.

Market research

2. Plan your business launch

A successful business launch takes time. In fact, for Tender Greens, a restaurant that serves organic, farm-fresh dishes, it took around two years between the first idea and the opening of the first restaurant in 2006. 

The delay here is pretty normal for a complex business concept. If you are offering a simple service, such as creative painting or freelance accounting services, you might be able to bring the planning time down to a couple of months.

In the end, the more time you spend planning the launch, the better you know your offering and the culture that you want to build. In other words, the better you plan, the stronger your market position will be.

3. Make it look professional

Yes, you might decide to work as a freelancer, but it doesn’t mean that your online presence should be homemade. A freelance business is designed to create an income, therefore look attractive and reputable to potential customers.

It’s important to work with a web design company to ensure that you present a functional and engaging website that can compete against similar businesses. You need to remember that some of your competitors may be small or medium-sized companies. They got professionals working on their websites, and on their brand design. You need the same level of details to survive in their market.  

4. Differentiate yourself

Whichever area you pick, the market is a crowded space. Finding the services you want to offer is one thing, but it’s not enough. Telling people why they should go with you instead of someone else is key to stand out.

What can you do that others can’t? What do you have that makes you better? The process of differentiation is difficult.

For Tender Greens, for instance, it was about showing their customers the cooking process and the organic label. The secret is that nothing is hidden. It’s a strong differentiator. What will yours be?

Pixabay image

5. Cultivate a positive presence

An online business requires an online presence, for freelancers as well as long-established companies. Without a positive online presence, there can be no path to success. If you choose to promote yourself as a brand, your online presence is the combination of all your online activities, from social media platforms to blog articles.

It’s important to use the planning time to develop your presence and share your expertise. Blog articles and teasing social media content are a great way of gathering a small audience before you’re ready to launch.

6. Don’t start without a money plan

Let’s get something clear from the start: A new business needs a budget. There are plenty of ways to come to the necessary funds and not all of them involve using your savings. From investors to loans, if you know how to convince people that your business idea is solid, you can start with a comfortable budget. But convincing is an art that is difficult to master.

A few tips to get you started here: You need to stick to the thing that you said you were going to do, and you need to focus on staying authentic. You don’t need to sell yourself; you need to be yourself and to explain how your idea works and why you believe in it. If you are applying for a loan, you’ll need to provide sufficient research about your expected profits and costs – that’s where the market research comes in handy!

7. Define your brand

As a freelancer, you can’t just introduce yourself as the guy next door. You need to create a professional brand that supports your business. Your brand is how you want customers to think about you.

The logo is an element of your brand, as it allows your audience to identify your business. And the link between your logo and your brand is your visual identity – from the kind of letterhead you pick for your invoices to any form of messaging. Before your business launch, you need to have established these elements so that you can provide from Day One strong identifiers.

8. Stick to a plan

Do you remember your market research? It’s likely that you’ll find that success will take time, as it rarely happens overnight – even when you think it does, it is generally the result of several months or years of work.

Consequently, you need to plan your business actions to create some buzz and build up a customer base. Why do you need to plan it in advance? Because however successful your business launch is, you won’t be selling en masse immediately. Therefore, it’s helpful to plan your marketing activities in advance, so that you stay focused and avoid panic-stricken decisions as a last resort.

9. Take it seriously

It’s a business. The only way it will work is if you work at it. You need to be the first person to believe in your success and to invest energy in it. The rest will follow.

10. Improve your skills

As a freelancer, you are completely exposed. When something in the project goes wrong, it reflects on your services. You can’t always avoid mistakes. But you can keep your skills updated and follow training courses to make sure that your customers are receiving the best service possible from you.

There’s no guarantee of success in the freelancing world. But in the end,  the only golden rule that can make it possible for all those who try is: Work hard and don’t give up.

In many cases, it makes more sense to set up your own money-making website rather than just look around for online work. There are too many people out there who want something for almost nothing to make that option very lucrative.

The trick to making a decent income online is to be the one in charge, and to do that professionally, it is essential you plan, create and launch a great website.

To help you get started here are four ideas to guide you to success.

Royalty Free Photo

Tip 1 – Decide on a Clear Identity and Focus

There are no formal rules around this, and you can be as mainstream or offbeat as you choose, but you do need to know what you want to sell, offer or promote.

Your site could concentrate on movie reviews with cinema memorabilia affiliate links as the money-maker, or create a tribute to chickens and get so many hits the advertising pays your car loan – the topic is not important so long as it makes sense.

You can imagine that trying to cover both areas mentioned on one site would be confusing and strange to any visitors.

Tip 2 – Choose a Structured and Relevant Template

Unless you have a keen interest or educational background in web design, putting a site together may be a challenge. The easiest approach is to make a website using a drop and drag type of service.

WordPress is perfect for beginners, and the free templates can be personalized to reflect the focus of your site. This adds style and credibility, and ultimately attracts viewers and increases sales.

TemplateMonster offers tons of different and good-looking themes for WordPress, Joomla and many other CMS. For any kind of topic, including multipurpose templates for business:

Tip 3 – Deliver Consistent and Regular Content

If your site is more about selling than relaying information you should still be updating it regularly, perhaps to mention when something is selling out or to promote spending with a flash sale or discounts.

If quality content is the main focus, set yourself a regular posting plan and stick to it. It is better to be consistent with one weekly post than erratic, and advance scheduling options allow you to store posts and release later.

Tip 4 – Don’t Over-Do the Extras

Building a structured website develops confidence, but resist the temptation to add too many extras at the expense of content or style.

E-commerce plug-ins, social media links, and options for customers to contact you are more likely to be useful than translation options for every language under the sun. Avoid clutter or risk annoying visitors.

Like anything else, setting up and running your first commercially inclined website is a learning process. Take your time, develop a strong voice and nurture viable financial opportunities and success will follow.

And you?

How many websites do you own?

What’s your secret to success?

Please share your views in the comments below, thanks!

The threats are the so-called DDoS attacks, which stands for Distributed Denial-of-Service.

What is a DoS Attack

To understand what is a DDoS attack, it’s necessary, first of all, to analyze the DoS attacks. Acronym for Denial-of-Service, a DoS attack is a deliberate action that aims to saturate the resources of a computer system that provides a service to the client connected to it.

In network area, a DoS attack has targets such as servers, networks distribution or data center and acts so that their client – whether they are websites or visitors- have difficulties or are unable to reach them.

What is a DDoS Attack

A Distributed Denial-of-Service has the same purposes (disrupt communications between two or more nodes of the network) and the same targets (servers, data centers, distribution centers, etc.) but it takes on a much larger scale.

The lines of attack are varied (distributed in the network, in fact), and the strategy used is much more effective. By sending false requests for access to online resources targeted by more than one node, you have a greater chance that the attack will successful end in a shorter timeframe.

Since a DDoS attack needs a great synchronism, it is likely to be carried out by a small number of hackers who controls one or more botnets.

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The difference between DoS and DDoS attack, therefore, lies in the number of attacks launched and in the number of “lines” exploited for the purpose: while in the first case you must defend  from a single computer traffic source (for example a large number of emails coming at the same time), in the second case the attack is carried by more botnets coordinates on several levels (for example, a high number of web accesses coordinated with a large number of FTP connection attempts).

Therefore, a DDoS attack will need to average a shorter timeframe than a DoS attack to saturate the IT resources of the attacked system and also its deleterious effects usually will last longer.

Characteristics of a DDoS Attack

To saturate the resources of a computer system, hackers implement DDoS attacks simultaneously sending many requests for access to the same online resource. This allows, in short time, to make inaccessible a single website, server or an entire data center.

The various types of DDoS attack can be grouped into four main categories:

• Attacks on the TCP connection: the hacker tries to use all the available connections of the infrastructure network- a server or data center – so that it no longer reachable.
• Volumetric attacks: the objective of this type of attack is to completely saturate the transmission band available to a computer system so as to make impossible any form of communication.
• Fragmentation attacks: the data packets with access requests are sent in partial or incomplete, so as to lead the attack object computer system to use all of its resources – not only network but also computing – in an attempt to reconstruct the information digital receipt.
• Application attacks: instead of attacking the whole system, it attacks only one part – a program or application – critical to the IT ecosystem functioning. In this way, it triggers a process that makes unstable the entire infrastructure.

Learn More About DDoS Attacks

Incapsula has recently launched the world’s first-ever free training portal for DDoS protection.

It’s a training portal which offers a wide selection of free courses and challenging quizzes that test and improve your DDoS protection skills.

The courses cover the following topics:

• Introduction to DDoS
• Volumetric Attacks
• Protocol Attacks
• Application Level (Layer 7) Attacks
• Reflection Attacks
• Understanding Risks
• Mitigation Techniques
• DDoS Trends

The training is divided into Basic and Advanced levels so you can select the courses that best match your needs.

Get started by visiting the DDoSBootcamp here.

How to Defend Your Online Business Against a DDoS Attack

In the event that your online business is the subject of a DDoS attack you have very little chance to intervene. Only system administrators, in fact, will be able to mitigate the effects of an attempt to destabilize the computing environment under their control.

Various countermeasures, more or less effective, can be put in place:

Sink holing

In case of attack, this technique provides to divert all traffic to a dead end, so as to preserve the stability and full functionality of computing resources. It has the weakest point of making inaccessible the resource, either by diverting the good and bad traffic, but at least it saves the IT infrastructure – both hardware and software – from irreparable damage.

Routers and Firewalls

Before an attack hits the target, it is possible to stem the incoming traffic from non-essential protocols and invalid IP addresses by applying filters to the router and firewall. In case of more sophisticated attacks (attacks that use multiple levels of the communication protocol and at the same time many of guidelines attack), however, this technique is not very effective if not altogether useless.

Intrusion Detection Systems

Some software installed on servers and data center control systems are able to detect when the “legitimate” protocols and essential for the operation of the service are used to bring on an attack. If integrated with a firewall, it can block traffic to its malicious identified protocol and thwart the attack or at least minimize the effects.

Server

Proper configuration of the server and hosting services is one of the best antidotes to mitigate the effects of a DDoS attack. A system administrator, for example, may indicate which and how many resources can use a service like this and can respond to requests that come from the outside. In this way, in the case of an application attack, the effects would not be passed on the entire computerized system, but will simply knock out the only object of the attack software.

Overestimate Their Needs

It is, probably, the defensive technique that is most effective against a DDoS attack. Performing an overestimation of resources that will be needed in a given computer system, you will be able to cope without major problems, attacks that aim to saturate the bandwidth or processing power of a server or a data center. By utilizing a wide distribution of networks that extend into several states, for example, you will be able to survive a direct attack on one of the servers or a section of the network, simply by diverting the excess traffic to other “twin” computer servers even at great distances and not subject to attack.

Your Thoughts

This article introduced what are DDoS attacks and how you can improve the security and increase the protection of your online business.

Now, I’d like to hear more from you.

Have you ever heard of DDoS attacks?

Have you ever experienced one of them with your online business?

Please share your opinions in the comments below, thanks!

The website must be appealing to shoppers as well as easy to navigate.

Consider a few of the steps an owner must take when setting up a website for a business.

Arrangement of Products

A business owner who is selling a collection of products has to create an attractive online display.

The person must take the time to arrange the products in a logical and appealing way.

For instance, a business owner who is selling coats may want to arrange them by style, color or design.

So, online shoppers can browse the inventory and not miss out on seeing a coat they may want to buy.

Creating a Color Scheme

Setting up a customer-friendly website involves choosing colors that complement one another.

Most online shoppers like visiting a website that features soothing colors.

Many online business owners use a signature color on their website.

This color or design reminds customers of the business every time they see it.

Finding a signature color is an easy way for an owner to get people to remember the name of the business.

Writing Text

Writing text is another step in creating a website for a business. Text is used on the homepage, product pages and the frequently asked question page.

All text should be clear and succinct especially when working on product descriptions.

After all, most online shoppers spend just a few seconds skimming a product description.

All the text found on the website should be free of grammatical and spelling errors.

This lends to the credibility of the online business.

Finding a Good Hosting

Choosing the right web host is going to influence on your website success.

Does your business need a shared plan, a VPS hosting or a dedicated server?

I’m sure you know that the loading speed of your web pages is one of the factors that Google consider to rank your site in SERPs.

A good hosting must ensure a fast response and a quick loading of all your pages.

Other than that, your customers do not want to wait a long time while browsing your website.

According to this study, the ideal “tolerable” loading time for the average web user is below 3 seconds!

Connecting with Customers

Giving customers a way to connect with the business is an important part of setting up a website.

For instance, an owner may post answers on a frequently asked questions page so shoppers can find quick solutions to problems.

In addition to a FAQ page, some owners put contact information on their “about page” website such as an email address or phone number where customers can connect with them with in-depth questions about products.

Shoppers are more likely to purchase items from an online business when they know they can easily contact the company with questions.

Finding a Domain Name

It’s important for a new online business owner to find and register a domain name for a website.

This prevents the person from trying to start a website with a domain name that belongs to another person.

If the owner has a name in mind, he or she can check available domain names to ensure that the name can be used without a problem.

Finally, it’s a good idea for the owner of a new online business to get the opinion of others on the quality of the website.

Colleagues and friends may be able to offer constructive criticism that can make the website even more inviting to online shoppers.

How is your online business going?

Can you share any hints that work for you?

Please share them in the comments below, thanks!

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!