Mohit Tater's Blog, page 488

3 Tips For Choosing The Right Shipping Provider For Your Business

Have you ever stopped to think what your customers value the most when it comes to buying your products online? Is it the fact that they can do everything from the comfort of their home, without bothering to stroll around large shopping centers or search for the address of your specific store for hours before actually stumbling upon you? Is it the easiness of the transaction that makes them want to keep using your online services?

It’s that, but it is also much more than that! The things I have mentioned above won’t mean a thing to your customers if you don’t offer them great shipping services. Statistics show that around 50% of shopping cart abandonment happens due to huge shipping costs. Your consumers won’t bother justifying those costs by realizing that you aren’t the one that’s charging them because, eventually, they are buying the products from you and they don’t care how you handle your deliveries. They just want things delivered at a small fee.

Here are the results of an interesting survey on the influence of shipping costs on consumers: https://retailwire.com/discussion/consumers-hate-paying-for-shipping-more-than-just-about-anything/

In addition to not wanting to pay a huge fee, there is something else that people don’t want. I’m talking about waiting for a long, long time for their package to arrive. Fast delivery is almost always an indicator of great and high-quality service. No matter how great your products are, if people end up waiting for those products for longer than they expected, they are highly unlikely to use your services ever again.

 It’s in our nature to be at least a little bit impatient. Think about it. If you need to wait a significant amount of time for something, you will most likely give it up. Even if you don’t give up your order at that time, you will definitely look for other service providers and other stores the next time you are ordering something, just to be safe that your package will arrive sooner. This is also how your consumers think.

Shipping fees and the time of delivery are factors that don’t actually depend on you. These factors, however, affect your reputation directly. That means that you want everything to run as smoothly as possible, so that you don’t end up being labeled as the company that charges too much for their delivery services or takes forever to send the package. In order not to be labeled that way, you’ll have to find the perfect shipping provider. Let me give you a few tips on how to make the right choice.

Consider The Fees

If you don’t want your customers to pay a huge fee, you need to find a provider that won’t charge you huge fees. As you can see at GLS and similar companies, the fees depend on the region you are shipping to, but they can very well be reasonable and affordable. Take your time to compare the costs offered by a few different providers and find the one that works perfectly both for you and your customers.

You cannot get these services for free. Expecting such a thing would be a complete nonsense. You shouldn’t, however, be satisfied with enormous fees. Don’t let anyone overcharge you and rip you off. Take some time to do your research and find the perfect option for you, because the perfect option definitely exists.

Time Is Detrimental

I have been going on above about how people don’t like waiting too much on their packages, so it’s not surprising to see that this is the second criterion on our list. Every professional and dependable company will be able to give you an idea about how long it would take to ship to which regions. If you come across a firm that is too vague with time, it’s best to continue looking further and avoid them. Your reputation is at stake, remember?

Now, I don’t want you to expect a miracle here. It takes time to deliver things from one place to another and how much it will take depends on the area of delivery. Keep your expectations reasonable, because the packages aren’t miraculously teleported from point A to point B. Look for a company that won’t drag their deliveries and have your customers wait for months, but be reasonable and don’t expect everything to happen in a day. Go here to learn what else you should expect from your shipping provider.

Reliability Is Everything

If you don’t want to deal with misplaced packages and similar nightmares, you will need to find a reliable shipping provider. Check the reputation of a specific company before hiring it, because reputation speaks volumes about the quality of their services and their reliability. It would also be a good idea to read a couple of reviews about specific providers, so that you know whether they are worth your time and your money.

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The Guide on Starting a Marijuana Business

There are many reasons why starting business in the marijuana industry may be appealing. Is it a real possibility, or is a cannabis business a pipe dream? As with starting any business there is plenty to consider before taking even the first steps, and below we will look at some of the considerations you need to think about and steps to take before you commit.

It is no secret these days that marijuana is legal in certain states of the USA so the first thing to do is consider whether you would be within the law where you intend to operate. So far, 11 states have legalized the growing, selling and use of cannabis for recreational use, and while others may follow there is no certainty that your home state will be among them. If you live in one of the states where it is legal, we can move on.

The First Steps

Right now will be a difficult time to start any business. When you look at the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on US businesses of all kinds you will see that things have been – and continue to be – slow and troublesome. However, that doesn’t mean now is not the time to start thinking and planning your marijuana business.

Having determined that the law is behind you, now you must think about what sort of marijuana business you want to start. There are two main types of marijuana business: the growers, and the dispensaries. Some people also specialise in delivering cannabis to clients but growing and retailing are the most obvious choices.

When you have taken some time and thought about the way you want to go, then you need to create your business plan as unless you have ready cash lying around you will need to convince investors to help with your project. 

Building a Business Plan

A business plan is a document that outlines the intention of your business, your projected market and growth, and draws on market research. Covid-19 aside the cannabis market is a fast-growing one that has attracted many new businesses, and there are people who are investing in it. Be sure to have a professional help you with your business plan as if you are new to these then there are certain things you need to include for the right response. 

Meanwhile, try talking to people in the industry and see what you can learn from them. You may find that there are areas of the cannabis industry you don’t know much about. For example, it is a robust industry as has been proven by recent events. Legal cannabis sales are still holding strong in several states due to its essential status. The sales manager of vape4ever.com also mentioned this: “COVID-19 has affected many businesses, but the sales of cannabis vaporizers have been increasing. This reflects the fact that more and more people are using cannabis.” This is another reason why investment is continuing into the industry, which is certainly a factor in your favour. 

The online markets are also worth looking at, as many people choose to buy cannabis online for convenience sake, and for quality as this is where much of the best product comes from. If you want to check out the projected future growth of the cannabis industry it should help you understand the direction you need to take to make sure your start up is a success. Do be aware that cannabis is a competitive market and new growers and retailers are entering it all the time, so take your time and do your research, and you may find it is the right thing for you.

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How to Remain Competitive in a Saturated Online Retail Market

The herd mentality of humans will always breed competition. A business idea is not yours for keeps. As soon as it enters the market, there will be an influx of imitators, who will then evolve into competitors. Competition gets even tougher in the online market since it is far easier to set up an online store than an offline one. As a result, there is a never ending slew of online stores flooding the internet daily. This means that many online markets are already saturated. 

Thus, as an online retailer already in the market or one trying to get into the market, your goal is to seize and maintain a sizable portion of the market share. How do you achieve this? How do you stay afloat in a saturated online retail market? 

1. Understand the Flexibility of Consumer Psychology

Successful online retailers know that consumer psychology is dynamic. You should expect a shift in consumer psychology from time to time depending on the economic climate. Understanding consumer psychology and its flexibility forms a bedrock to stay winning in the online retail space, and guides you on the method of persuasion to use per time. 

If you are reading this article, it is likely that you are an average or new player in the online retail market. This means that using ethos as a mode of persuasion may not favor you. Ethos involves establishing your authority and credibility, and as a player in the middle or lower tier, this may be difficult to achieve. This is because humans are not usually comfortable with change, thus they stick with what or whom they know as long as they remain satisfied. And this means sticking with the household names.

So what do you do? Pathos and logos are better approaches for you to lure people into patronizing you. For example, the Covid-19 pandemic offers a perfect commercial climate to appeal to the emotions (pathos) or sense of logic (logos) of buyers. As panic ravages the world, a client would most likely buy from the vendor who shows that they are in touch with the client’s reality, or the one who offers a logical reason why their product is needed in these times. 

2. Stay in a niche

The online retail market is a vast space, thus it is not surprising to see some online vendors trying to be everywhere at the same time. For them, it is an effective strategy for growing and maintaining their visibility. But what they don’t know is that this strategy is likely to backfire. 

Buyers trust and patronize vendors who are committed to a niche. Spreading your tentacles across different niches labels you as indecisive, insecure and insatiable. This will affect your brand image. Allowing people to attach an identity to you is a sure way of being in the competition and winning. 

Note: There is a difference between diversification and being an online handyman. Diversification, for example, means selling phones, then branching into selling tablets, airpods, headsets, etc. But an online handyman would sell phones, clothes, cars, anything and everything. 

3. Leverage social media 

It is not enough to have a web presence, you must also have a solid social media presence. Social media offers you the opportunity to expand your visibility. The developers of popular social media apps keep introducing updates that can be employed by online businesses to expand their visibility and enlarge their customer base.

For instance, with the highlight covers on Facebook and Instagram, online vendors can categorize their products using their Facebook and Instagram stories. It enables customers to, with just a click, go through a catalog of information and products. 

4. Use storytelling and don’t run out of content

Storytelling is a veritable tool for the growth of every business. The greatest brands in the world all have a (brand) story. Marketing is all about persuasion. The goal of persuasion is to appeal to emotions. And stories evoke emotions. Social media provides a platform where you can tell short, powerful stories about your brand and your products. 

You may have a blog section on your website, but the truth is that more people would read your Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram captions, and/or WhatsApp statuses more than your blog posts. 

Always remember that on the internet space, content is king. So keep producing quality content frequently. This is how to create and maintain an impression in the minds of people. People may forget your logo or tagline, but they would never forget a story — content — that resonated with them. Content is not limited to (written) words alone; photos, videos, podcasts and (info)graphics can be used too.  

5. Keep in touch with your customers through email marketing

One fascinating quality about James Clear, the bestselling author of Atomic Habits is that he never fails to send motivational nuggets to his thousands of email subscribers every week. James is not an online vendor. He has written just one book so far. Yet long after you’ve read his book, he still lives in your mind through the emails he shares consistently. 

As a retail marketer, you can adopt this strategy to nestle in the minds of your (potential) customers. Use emails to send inspiring and motivating messages, or notify them of current market trends. This will show them that you care about them beyond their money. When they know this, they would easily patronize you when you offer a product. 

6. Buying or exchanging an ecommerce business

The truth is starting and growing an ecommerce business from scratch requires a lot of hard work. However, if you have the finances, it is easier to buy a developed, successful and popular online store. By doing this, you skip the hassles of building a business from scratch. You could also exchange or sell your online store. This can provide you with the cash you need for other profitable ventures. 

Exchange Marketplace offers you a platform to buy and sell ecommerce businesses. It is a large online store of ready-made stores spanning diverse niches. So visit the website now that offers you an opportunity of owning an online store without sweat. 

Conclusion

The competition in the online retail market will not cease. This article has provided you with six key strategies that will make you a major competitor in the online retail space. Ensure you employ these strategies because only businesses with the right strategies will stay at the top of the food chain.

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SEO for Startups: 6 Ways to Optimize Your Startup’s Blog Content for SEO

Is your startup’s blog SEO ready?

In the digital age, no startup can succeed unless they have a strong digital presence. SEO is vital for startups if you want to reach a critical mass and build a strong marketing channel that only compounds with time. But if you’re new to this, you might not know where to start.

We are here to help. Read on for 6 ways to optimize your startup’s blog content for SEO.

1. Get the Technical SEO Foundations Right

It might be tempting to build your website from scratch, but you will benefit far more from using a standard CMS. A CMS does a lot of the heavy lifting for you and is designed to make creating an optimized site quick and easy. There is a reason 30% of websites are powered by WordPress!

When building the site, keep user experience (UX) at the forefront of your mind. Not only does this improve the quality of your site, search engines track how your visitors behave and engage with your content to decide your ranking. This is going to be more important than ever before.

Search engines also rank based on-page speed. This is the time it takes for a page to load. Inefficient pages with lots of external content will negatively affect your ranking, so try to keep your blog as minimal as possible.

2. Do Keyword Research

A lot of startups make the mistake of writing content that their audience isn’t searching for. Use SEO tools to check for keywords your competition is using. Make sure to check the ‘difficulty’ scores. This will help you pick keywords that you have a good shot at ranking for. 

If you’re just starting to invest in content marketing, I would advise you to start with focusing on long tail keywords since those are easier to win compared to high volume keywords. 

Once you start winning the long tail keywords and start building topical authority, you can slowly start shifting your focus towards higher volume keywords. 

3. Choose Your Post Title Well

The title of your post is what appears on the search engine result page (SERP). It’s the first part that search engines use to determine if your content is relevant.

Before settling on a title for your content, check out what your competitors are doing. Just like your keyword research, this will tell you what appears to be working in your industry. Use this to inform your own titles. You want to stand out, but not scare your potential visitors away!

You want your target keywords in the first 60 characters of your title. Make sure they’re at the beginning, so they don’t get cut off.

4. Create Comprehensive Content

When it comes to SEO, content is still king.

When thinking about sub-topics you want to cover in your blog, make sure to check out your competition (the top ten search results are a good start). Scan through the articles and make a list of common subtopics your competition is talking. Once you finish the analysis, start to build your outline with most recurring subtopics. 

As you build your outline, your job is to provide answers to your audience. Use a tool like People Also Ask to find the hot questions your audience is asking. You can use this to help brainstorm content ideas, optimize your existing content and gain a competitive edge over your competitors.

When writing the copy, make sure you cover these questions and topics comprehensively. Comprehensive content tends to rank better since it not only answers all your audience’s questions but also keeps them engaged for longer. Eventually google starts to recognize that your users are enjoying the content and will start moving you up higher in search rankings! 

Thin content that provides no value to the audience will fail to rank, and can negatively impact your SEO.

Add images where required. Fill out the alternate text field with a description of the picture. The alt text describes what the image is all about. The alt text with the right keywords will help your images show up in image search. 

5. Write an Effective Meta Description

The meta description is the description that’s under your page title on the SERPs. They affect your click-through-rates. Having keywords inside this description isn’t as important as the title. But you want to keep it clear and match the reader intent to get them to click.

There isn’t such a thing as the perfect length. You need to convey your message without having to cut it off, but you want it to stay snappy. Try to keep it under 156 characters – if you have to go over that, your description needs to be more focused.

6. Internal Linking

Google and other search engines crawl websites following links to find and index content. When you are just starting out, you won’t have many external links pointing at your site, which means your internal links are more important.

Whenever you publish a new post, you should go through your previous posts and identify any organic placements for backlinks. Not only will this help your readers find useful content, it will also help your SEO. Search engines will see your popular pages and improve the ranking of the pages they link to, giving your new posts an immediate boost.

SEO for Startups Made Easy

So there you have it! If you follow these top tips for SEO for startups, you’ll be sure to succeed. Build a solid foundation then focus on producing helpful, useful, interesting content that helps you build a winning strategy on search. This will help attract backlinks and will reach the right people.

If you want to make your copy stand out, try our blog post optimizer for free today. We’ll find out what your post is missing and show you what you can do about it.

About Author:

Nikhil is the cofounder of Topic, a content research and optimization tool. At Topic, he likes to think about new ways to help writers spend less time doing rote work and more time exercising their creativity.

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Benefits Of Using Trading Platforms Like Metatrader

Investing today has never been more fun and easy. Unlike before, where you need a middleman to do all the trade, you can now do it yourself. And that’s all thanks to trading platforms.   

Almost all trading platforms can help you achieve your investment goal. Not only because you can access it anytime, but trading platforms like Metatrader give you the following benefits:  

1. Affordability  

As mentioned above, you can trade and invest in using a trading platform. With such, you don’t have to spend money on hiring a middleman. Although there may be some charges, it’s way lesser than the traditional way of trading.   

With Trading Platforms like Metatrader 4, you can even use their app or website for free. They also offer a free tutorial on how to use their app or website. So instead of paying for someone to trade for you, learn to use the Metatrader.   

If you want to upgrade your account, you can choose from an enterprise license, standard license, or entry license. With a minimal fee, you can enjoy advanced features of Metatrader depending on the type of license you use.  

2. User-Friendly Interface  

Another benefit of using a trading platform like Metatrader is its easy-to-use interface. Not only does it offer a demo or tutorial, but it gives you access to different tools to customize your account. With these tools, you can even see your historical data to make wiser trading decisions. You can also monitor the market with the Metatrader’s interface.  

If you’re unsure how to use the tools, Metatrader has a demo and tutorial about it. They even have a FAQ portion which may answer our questions regarding their interface. Thus, you can easily learn how to navigate the app or website easily.   

If you want to make your trading experience even better, you can use the Metatrader’s widgets. With such, you can easily access the portion of the trading platform you regularly use.   

You won’t need to open various platforms when you’re trading because the Metatrader offers navigation tools to make your trading quicker.  

3. Receive Market Signals  

Not only do trading platforms offer a tutorial, but you can even benefit from their market signals. Especially if you want to receive trading signals from the experts, Metatrader can help you with this. And that’s the reason why Metatrader is one of the best trading platforms.  

You can either copy the trading signals that other traders do or use them to make a wise decision. As they say, learn from the experience of others. Similarly, you can trade by considering the market signals of a trading platform. It’s because they have groups of experts who analyze the market so their clients can trade better.   

Moreover, with Metatrader, you can easily access these market signals because they’re sorted according to the trading results. Of course, the most successful traders are on top. Although you may need to pay for the subscription to receive trading signals, the return is much bigger. Especially if you follow an experienced in the industry, you can earn big time without difficulty.  

So, if you want to make your trading experience way better, start using the trading platforms’ market signals. Especially when you’re too busy to analyze the market, these trading signals can help you with such.  

4. Access To Real-Time Data  

Since you can trade anytime, anywhere, you can also see real-time trading data that you need. You can access real-time quotations so you can trade real-time. That way, you can earn more or minimize your loss since you can see the market prices.   

You can even look at the real-time bid/ask quote of the stocks or currencies you’re watching for. With Metatrader’s Market Watch Window, you can easily monitor the real-time price of the ones you’re betting for. You can even see the margin percentage, margin currency, contract size, spread, and the like with this window.  

Most importantly, you can see real-time market activity via the Metatrader’s Depth of Market portion. With this, you can monitor the various currency pairs’ prices with their number of buy or sell orders. When you use this, you can predict whether the price will go up or down. This feature is vital if you’re doing short-term trading.  

Conclusion

If you’re still wondering whether Metatrader and other trading platforms are advantageous, read it again. Not only does the trading platform allow you to trade anytime, anywhere, but you only pay minimal fees for a greater return. You don’t have to worry if it’s your first time using a trading platform because Metatrader offers a demo or tutorial to become familiar with their site or app. With its tools, you can even make your trading quicker and easier as Metatrader’s interface is user-friendly.   

You may not even have to become an analyst to make wise trading decisions by using Metatrader’s market signals. Lastly, you can have real-time data to make a real-time trade. That way, you stop losing big and start earning more. 

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What Do Women Lie About on Dating Websites?

The Internet has become an indispensable part in the lives of millions of people around the world. People socialize, solve business issues, job hunt and entertain. The Internet provides incredible opportunities in the dating industry. The question is whether you can fully trust this person on the Internet? Today we will talk about lying online.

“Everybody lies”

This is not just a phrase from “House, M.D.” Studies show that not all and more than half of the users lie on the Internet. Thus, according to data of B2B International and “Kaspersky Lab”, 57% of people embellish reality or do not tell the truth. Their study included more than 21,000 people from 32 countries aged 16+.

16% of people surveyed confessed that they lie to look more attractive and interesting for a potential partner. And in many cases, this is truly justified. For instance, the popular dating website OKCupid reports that girls, whose profiles fall under the generally accepted beauty canons, receive 11 times more messages.

What do ladies lie about and why?

Studies have given a rather unexpected result. 34% of girls surveyed admitted that they lie about themselves because of fear. They fear that scammers and blackmailers may use their real data. And these fears are not groundless. You really need to be careful and analyze where and what information you write about yourself on the Web.

Many users of dating websites (both men and women) prefer not to advertise the fact that they use such services. And they don’t want friends to know about it. Therefore, they change the name, photo, city of residence in the profile, and so on. 5% of respondents admitted that in this way they are hiding from their partners. Another 3% are registered under a false name to test their own partner.

Things women lie about on the Internet most of all:

Age. This works both ways: young girls prefer to “add” a couple of years to look more presentable in the eyes of men. And those who are older, decrease their age or even try not to talk about it.



Place of residence. If, for example, a country and a city of residence is provided without any problems, things are more complicated with respect to specific information. Most ladies prefer not to disclose the district of the city and the address or they give fake data for security reasons.



Weight. The topic of weight does not pop up so often in online communication. But on many dating websites it must be indicated in the profile. Often, girls subtract a couple of extra pounds to be more attractive in the eyes of a potential partner. In some cases, it comes to artificial “weight loss” in the profile photo using the photo editor.



Marital status and children. Married girls and single mothers with children rarely talk about this, preferring to hide the truth as long as possible. Although, in terms of relations, it is men who often lie about that.



Interests. Many girls understand that they can attract a man not only by appearance, but also by their personality. Therefore, they attribute more “winning” interests to themselves: literature, sports, video games, and others.

By the way, many experts divide the lie on the Internet into two types. The first is a distorted way to present yourself from the best side. It is the one we described in the paragraphs above. But the second type of lie is caused by a reluctance to meet in real life. This is the so-called “white lie.” A girl may not tell you openly that she does not want to meet in person. Instead, she comes up with softer excuses: “arrival of relatives,” “business trip,” “phone issues,” etc.

A lie in video chats with strangers: what is it like?

A random chat is a special communication format where it’s not so easy to lie, like on dating websites. After all, the partner sees you, and can estimate age and body type. Therefore, it is not only useless to hide the truth, but frankly unwise.

However, when chatting with strangers, there are enough misunderstandings and lies. For example, about the place of residence, marital status, interests, etc. Yes, and age can be a little trick – this is unlikely to be critical. But the difference between 29 and 31 may seem very significant for some. Therefore, age occupies the first place among online chat lies.

At first glance, random chats do not give as much freedom for lies as the same dating websites or social networks. Indeed, video communication puts its limitations. But does it protect against untruth sufficiently? Of course not! Studies show that an average person lies 3 times during a 10-minute conversation. When communicating with a stranger, the number of lies can be much higher. It can be an outright lie, as well as a slight misrepresentation of the truth, to get more interest in the interlocutor.

There is a curious statistics in video chats with strangers:

33% of women lie about the earnings and expenses when talking about it;



65% of people are confident that the lie is the most reasonable way to avoid offending the interlocutor;



men lie twice as much than women do.

Does all this mean that you can’t trust people on the Internet? Not really. Many tell lies for good reasons. Often this is such an insignificant lie that it can be ignored. For better or worse, lies are all around us on a daily basis.

Surely best friends or even soulmates also repeatedly tell you a lie or misrepresent the facts. Probably, for your own good. In 99% of the cases it is not a reason for arguments or termination of communication in any form. The same applies to online communication. If a girl lies about her age during the first meeting on the Web, this is not so scary. 

Perhaps, she sincerely wants to impress you and resorts to such tricks.

Consider any information on the Internet with some skepticism, but do not be paranoid. It is possible that one day you will have to tell a lie in order to interest the date and, as a result, have strong and warm relations with them for life.

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Safe-cationing in an RV this Summer—Here’s How to Plan Yours

Summer is supposed to be the time when we’re ready to be driven to distraction by wanderlust. Unfortunately, due to the unabated spikes in COVID-19 cases, the administrations across the world have been putting any travels and large gatherings on hold. 

With that said, the coronavirus doldrums couldn’t fully stop millions of cooped-up travelers to gear up for summer getaways. However, they just have to make sure that they’ll have a safe vacation, or should we say “safe-cation,” in a fun, responsible way.  

Taking a spin in an RV is among the best safe-cations you can do nowadays. It doesn’t only offer an off-grid living, but also naturally matches travelers’ concerns over health and safety amid this pandemic. 

Here’s an all-inclusive guide to help you get a great RV trip with ease.

Choose your RV

There are various RV sizes, ranging from motorhomes to towable RVs. Here’s a heads-up of the most common kinds of RVs in the current market:

Class A and Class C Motorhomes
– large, spacious 

– convenient
– equipped with more gears

– non-towable 

– best for beginners

– gas guzzlers 

– expensive (around $50,000-$100,000)

Class B Motorhomes 

– flexible and comfortable 

– easily navigates narrow, dirt roads
– smaller than class A and class C motorhomes

– only sleep one or two

– less expensive (around $40,000 and $80,000)

Towable RVs
– come in all shapes and sizes

– automatically have an auxiliary vehicle available
– can be either cheap or expensive (around $18,000 to $150,000)

Each RV type comes with different pros and cons, so you might want to check them first online or with a professional. Before that, consider a few logistics first, such as:

How long will you be on the road?Will you go alone or with other people? Will you bring some pets?What’s your itinerary? Are you going to camp, hike, bike, or kayak? 

Choose an RV that suits your lifestyle and interests. You would want something that is self-contained and, at the same time, can maximize your fun in the future. Don’t solely base on an RV’s physical look. Check your budget. You need an RV that’s the best for you and your wallet. 

Additionally, keep in mind that you might change your mind after spending some time on the road, so be sure to pick something you won’t regret. Seek help from a professional if you’re unsure what’s best for you. 

Plan Your Itinerary 

Leaving some wiggle room for spontaneity is fun, but it’s best to narrow in when planning a road trip. You need to have a basic idea of the place that you’re planning to stay along the way. Here are some guide questions you want to answer:

What kind of scenic spot do you want to see?  Are you going to take the scenic route?  Are there any stops where you can rest along the way? Are you going to avoid paying tolls?  Are there narrow roads, low bridges, or steep inclines and declines? Do you want to get to your destination fast? 

You can also opt for RV-friendly GPS systems that can offer you a lot of routing options. You’ll want to jot down or remember the next truck stops, especially the fuel stops. This saves you time and hassle and prevents unpleasant situations, such as getting stuck on the road.

Outline your Timeline

Once you’re done with your route planning, identify where you’ll be at a certain time. The timeline must include the roadside stops, the total travel distance, and the desired arrival time at the destinations.  

Figure out your kind of comfortable driving distance, too. Determine your total travel distance then divide it into drivable hours/days. Don’t forget to spare some time for fun stops, which does not only involve sightseeing but also for a quick stretch from being sedentary too long. 

Most people feel comfortable traveling at 300 miles. That’s approximately a four- or a five-hour driving day at 60 miles per hour, usually with overnight stops. On this, you might be doing less on the road. However, it’s way better than doing an eight-hour drive (or so) for multiple days in a row. 

An RV trip isn’t 100% the same as your average weekend road trip. In fact, traveling in an RV is much slower than a quick weekend getaway, but not as long as a mega tour. Generally, spending less time on the road means longer RV living. 

Set a Budget 

RVing can be either affordable or expensive. But no matter how much costs you’re expecting to have, sticking to your budget is just plain old common sense. Like how an old saying goes, “a penny saved is a penny earned.” 

Determine how many times you are going to eat, how much food to purchase, how much money to set aside when expensive breaks or emergencies occur, and the like. Then, list down these trip-related needs and their costs. In your list, you should include the following: 

Travel costs , such as RV rental fees, gas costs, airfare, etc. Accommodation costs , such as hotel fees, campground fees, etc. Basic necessities costs , such as food, water, toiletries, etc. Sightseeing costs , such as admission or entrance fees, etc. 

If you’re driving your own RV or renting it elsewhere, always ensure an RV insurance coverage, no matter what happens. See to it that you’re covered so you won’t have to pay out of pocket for potential injuries or damages. 

Many of us are now financially stressed-out due to the current pandemic, so we want to have peace of mind through RVing. The thing is an RV trip that can empty your budget and can also drain all your satisfaction. Ensure that you can make it through your trip with your budget and finances intact.

Moreover, if your funds are not enough to support your RV trip, you can seek advice when it comes to financing for RVs. You can easily connect to the lenders through dealers, but we recommend you to do otherwise. The best deal is usually outside the dealership. 

Takeaway

There’s nothing like a one-size-fits-all way of preparing your RV trip. Everything depends on how you go about it. Still and all, avoid making reckless, you-only-live-once approaches during the trip. Additionally, when RVing, don’t spend more than what you can afford. RV stay-cations are fun and enjoyable, as long as you know how to make and stick to your plan.

Author’s bio:

Lauren loves to travel, and often combines her great love of travel with her interest in the world of finance. She shares her stories with her readers, often not only suggesting the best destinations, but various ways to enjoy them… including camping, RVs, airbnb’s etc. She loves to help her audience find great deals, while making sure their travel plans and leisure activities are protected.

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How to create the Best Podcast Show Notes

Though Podcasts are mainly for episodes to be heard and not read, still, it is incredibly essential to have a proper show note, with excellent content. The only reason behind it is to provide the audience with an in-depth knowledge of the podcasts, in both written and audible episodes. So, you might think about what is a Podcast show note. A Podcast show note is the written version of the audible episode, as well as few more added notes that would give the audience little more detail. Apart from the usual summarization of the audible episodes, Podcast show notes also include links to specific external articles, which leads to interviews, bios, and other similar contents.

What’s the use of Podcast Show Notes?

To include show notes, related to the audible episodes, has a vast list of advantages, such as:

Providing more details to the audience

Through the show notes, it becomes effortless for the audience to learn more about the episodes. Hence, it results in better satisfaction for the audience. Also, through the show notes, you can provide external links, which would lead to more information. The more information you put in, the more interested your audience would be.

Reach to a larger audience

With the help of SEO, you would quickly reach to more people, and promote your entire work. If you start implementing better keywords, more people will find the episodes out. This would lead to more audience, and hence, your work gets promoted too.

Promote the Older Episodes

If your older episodes didn’t make as many listeners, as you would have liked, you could now increase the numbers. Once you start promoting your content with excellent show notes, the new audience would like to start from the very beginning, and this would lead to more numbers of audiences for the older and latest episodes.

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Ways to write the best Podcast Show Notes

Now, you have an excellent idea about the advantages of Podcast show notes, but before starting on creating them, you need to know how to make the best show notes. Here is a list of methods that would help you produce high-quality show notes for your episodes.

Have a pattern/format for the Show Notes

You need a simple format for the show notes, and it would be better to keep the content short and crisp. Sharp, straightforward points never fail to make an impact on the audience. They become more interested in going through the content if it catches their interest. The best way to write appealing show notes is to use bullet points and small paragraphs. Using bullet points is, undoubtedly, the easiest way to gain more audience.

Always Make Notes

Don’t procrastinate when it comes to creating show notes. The best way to write the content is to make small notes while recording the episode. In this way, you won’t overlook any necessary information to add in the show note. Keeping it for the last would only lead to procrastination, or you might end up missing out on a few essential points.

Interact directly with the audience

Through the show notes, you can easily communicate with the audience. It is a great way to promote your social media profiles and gain more subscribers or followers. Through this, you would be able to reach the audience, and make requests, which would increase your followers, and this would be another way to get an excellent promotion for your episodes.

Provide External Links

To attract the interests of more audience, you need to provide links to external details such as videos, pictures, or others. For example, if you mention something in your episode, it is better to link the same in the show note. This would make the entire experience for the Audience smooth and quick. Moreover, you certainly should include the links to your sources. For instance, if you have received inspiration from some other source, or taken some elements from some other place, you definitely should include those in the show note. This makes your work honest and helps the audience to know more about your source.

Write a Short Summary of the Episode

Don’t include every part of the episode, but try to make a summary focusing on the elements which might attract the audience to listen to the podcast. Through an outline, you can make the audience more interested in the episodes. This is the easiest way to gain more audience, and promote your episode.

Make Bullet Points

Bullet points are crucial, as mentioned above. There is no need to exaggerate and write down lengthy sentences. Instead of making the show notes dull, you should focus on bullet points. The points make the content attractive and easy to read. Hence, always opt for bullet points instead of paragraphs.

Use One-Liners

Try to come up with a catchy one-line sentence, which would make the episode seem appealing for the audience. Using a smart, one-liner makes the entire episode wittier and attractive.

SEO is essential

Never forget how much necessary SEO is when it comes to content. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, includes few keywords, short or long, which helps the people to reach your podcast easily. Use Google tools to find out the popular keywords, and try to use them as much as you can in your show notes.

The Podcast show notes are as essential to promoting your work, as are the episodes. It is better to focus on both the episodes as well as the show notes to create the best content for the audience. Try to provide the listeners with as many details as you can, without making it lengthy. In this way, you would easily be able to reach out more, and within no time, you would see the rise in the percentage of followers. Once they start subscribing to your social media accounts, you would inevitably gain more audience for your Podcast episodes. Don’t leave the show notes behind. Please make them an essential part of your Podcasts.

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Tech Sales are Shaping the Future of eCommerce

It’s hard to believe that just a few decades ago, eCommerce was almost not existent (along with the rest of the Internet). Now, eCommerce businesses make up a huge part of the global economy. With Coronavirus keeping billions of people at home, online shopping has spiked, leaving many brick-and-mortar businesses in the dust.

However, not all eCommerce stores are seeing greater profits from the current crisis. In fact, many are losing money and looking to the government for temporary funding. Though many businesses are struggling, one sector that remains strong is technology. So, how exactly are tech sales shaping the future of eCommerce? Read on to find out!

Coronavirus Exposes the Need For Better Tech

COVID-19 has taught us many things. One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned so far is that, despite the technological advances made in the last few decades, the world was not prepared for a pandemic. As we adjust to a COVID-19 and (hopefully) post-COVID-19 world, we will require new technology to stop pandemics before they start.

Not only will this drive production and R&D in the tech sector, but it will also drive sales. The need for personal and business tech for security and safety will only increase over time. To be clear, the world was already headed in this direction. COVID-19 only sped up the process.

Advanced Technology Is Just a Click Away

Whether your business sells phone chargers or the Pedal Commander PC18, you need to make your products quickly accessible. Consumers increasingly expect businesses to provide simple, user-friendly eCommerce resources. Fortunately, the advanced nature of web development allows even green entrepreneurs to provide a high-quality purchasing experience for their customers.

Additionally, consumers no longer have to search far and wide for hi-tech products. Large retailers like Amazon and Walmart make some of the top tech brands easily accessible with just a click of a button, to say nothing of smaller, niche retailers. In short, it has never been easier to buy and sell tech over the Internet.

The Global Economy Is Moving Away From Face-to-Face Transactions

Coronavirus has not changed the basic needs of human beings. People still need access to financial services, essential products, and healthcare. However, many people used to access these services in person. In most places, this is no longer an option. 

As a result, companies are having to change to meet the virtual demand of consumers. Things like food, clothing, and medicine need to be accessible via the Internet and virtual portals. These changes may require legislation from the United States government as well. Many advocates for free Internet argue that it is more of a necessity than ever and should therefore be categorized as a public utility.

Conclusion

2020 has already been a complicated and frightening year. With such an uncertain future, many individuals and business owners are turning to technology to provide them with the resources they need. As a result, COVID-19 and the rise of tech sales will forever shape the future of business and eCommerce.

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Top Ways to Monetize your Blog Website to Start Building your Digital Portfolio

As our world is becoming more and more digitalized, digital assets are becoming more accessible. These assets aren’t just photos or videos but can be any content in any format. Storing this content digitally will provide value to your business. So, building digital asset portfolios for your business is important as it will influence your customers buying behaviour and build brand awareness. The increased network capacity, low costs and essential digital media infrastructure has made accessibility of digital assets simpler. This accessibility makes it more lucrative for businesses to build and buy digital assets.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most common and easiest ways that businesses use to monetise their blog website. This means that your blog website promotes other businesses’ products for a commission when there is a sale made. Size of your traffic and responsiveness of your audience will determine where you will be starting. Having large consumer base is useful as it means you have a good foundation and chances to make commissions. If you are an established business, it will be easier for you to earn the commission. It is important to decide what products you affiliate, the more they relate to your content the more likely you will earn your commission as your customers are more likely to buy them. However, it still might take some time for you to see results, but as traffic grows the more results, you will notice.

Email marketing

Email marketing is a powerful way to monetise your blog. You can directly market and promote your blog to your customers. A sign that your customers are interested in your business and products is when they opt in for email marketing. So, this is one of the most effective ways in converting customers to sales. Personalising your emails is important and you need to invest time in doing so to make them effective. Building an email list of your customers is a way to have effective marketing as you can personalise these emails specially for those customers. Usually, if you are a smaller business, the personalisation of emails is easier because your customer base is not as big yet as of a bigger business. However, larger businesses have the advantage to reach out to more customers and to monetise their blog faster. The connection between you and your readers will grow over time so you could generate a good amount of money through the course of email marketing. 

Sell digital products

Creating digital products is another significant way to monetise your blog. This requires less investment than making a physical product and can be precious for your customers. Digital products can be anything you want as long as it goes well with your content. However, creating these digital products needs an extensive amount of time to create. By creating webinars and virtual summits you can market your products and to connect to the consumers. This engages your customers and is a lot more interactive. 

Advertisements

Advertisements are probably the hardest way to monetise your blog. They are usually pay-per-click, which means you will need a lot of traffic to make a suitable amount of profit. If you are a larger business with a lot of traffic, this is the best way to monetise your blog. But any business who chooses to use this way to monetise their blog website needs to consider the products they are promoting. Using the strategy of promoting products related to your content, the visitor is much more likely to click on the advertisement with a relating topic. 

These ways are great to monetise your blog, but all of them will take time to make you money, especially if you are a smaller business. For smaller businesses email marketing will be the better option to monetise your blog because you are directly reaching out to your customers with high value products, but it doesn’t have to be physical products as it can be articles valuable for your customer. Affiliate marketing and advertising are similar but if you have smaller traffic affiliate marketing is easier to use. If you have a lot of traffic on your blog website advertisements are a great way to make passive income. The consistency and effort you put in to monetise your blog will reflect in your results.

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