Mohit Tater's Blog, page 682

The Daily Forex Mobile App

As we enter what seems to be the next phase of instant phone technology we have no choice but to move along with the throngs. Hand held devices as we know them started out with only a hand full of applications and that quickly changed until there are now hundreds of different apps that can be downloaded on an instrument that can be smaller than a wristwatch. Consumers look to their Androids and iPhones as their prime source of communication and entertainment.  It helps them keep abreast of the news as it happens, while  maintaining constant contact with their friends and family. Others depend on their phones to play games, watch videos and anything to keep their fingers tapping.

Mobile apps have made multi-tasking simple and certainly when it comes to banking and finance, they seem to move in a world of their own.

In fact, when it comes to finance, mobile use has become an integral part of all areas of trading and investing. Investors look to the mobile internet to avail themselves of the necessary information needed when researching monetary information and before opening an account with a broker.

When it comes to Forex,  brokers have developed trading platforms with mobile capabilities in order to accommodate their clients who are always on the run and need to make quick decisions from wherever they are. The platforms are usually identical to those offered for web trading but often they offer even more features that the web platforms.

There are many apps that provide up-to-the-minute news as well as financial analysis. Expert financial advice and relevant articles help investors to make the right decisions and there is no shortage of apps that provide this sort of information.

But not all Forex News app are alike and many are limited in the features they provide.  The DailyForex.com Forex News and Analysis app hit the market several months ago and it has everything a Forex trader needs. Daily Forex is not a foreign exchange broker,  so this is not a trading app nor does it have trading capabilities. Instead, it provides many of the features of a web-based broker review site but is also packed with up-to-the-minute news reports and fundamental analysis of what is happening in the financial markets around the globe.

The Daily Forex app is good for anyone interested in making money in currency trading and looks forward to a daily dose of currency news as well as constant updates effecting  major currency pairs. Traders receive free Forex signals and trade alerts to all registered Daily Forex members and these have proven beneficial to all those who need to understand an upcoming trend in the markets before they place their trades.

In the world of finance apps, the app of Daily Forex is a must have.

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Building Your Business Blog

A great business blog can serve as a major source of leads. Blog visitors who come for great content are often left impressed by a blog’s expertise if it produces quality content well beyond the self-promotional ilk. Blogging is a great way for businesses to show off their skillset and expertise, establishing niche-relevant authority and producing long-term results in regard to leads and industry prominence.

A practical way for you to see the result of a great business blog is to browse through some of the top examples. Each company blog embodies a recommended strategy (or several) that can help transform a typical business blog into a lead-generating machine.

Produce Content That Retains Leads

One of the great aspects of Whole Foods’ company blog is their “Daily Dish” feature, where a delicious recipe using ingredients in their store in their store is featured. Seasonal articles — like great New Year’s dishes — and regular articles like the weekly “What to Make This Week” help convince readers to come back for more on a weekly or daily basis.

When a business is able to capture an audience that returns consistently, it holds a great potential for long-term leads. Firmly retained leads can be extremely lucrative.

Synergize With Social Media Content

Quality social media content can also transform casual visitors into leads when done well. You should definitely update your business’ social media page with a link to a new blog post whenever one is published, complete with a catchy hook to get people clicking (such as “you may be surprised at number one on this list…”).

Place social media buttons prominently on your blog, so that interested visitors can easily click on them to follow you on social media and begin their path to becoming a solid lead. The Mary Kay blog is a fine example of this tactic.

Use Visual Content

While longform content certainly works great for some company blogs — especially the technical sort like IBM’s syndicated blog feed — other niches should rely on more immediately accessible content to hook visitors. Infographics are a great way to showcase your knowledge, while reinforcing a potential customer need for your services. The CJ Pony Parts blog does a great job of this in several of their posts. For one post, an infographic showing the best road trip destinations across the U.S. makes the piece both inviting and fun.

Use a Fitting and Easy-to-Navigate Design

Accessibility and aptness are the two aspects to consider when choosing a design for your business blog. For navigation, Dell uses a fluid landing page sorted into different categories, so their 5,000+ blog posts aren’t a pain to sift through. The forum-like design isn’t recommended for a smaller business blog with tens or hundreds of posts, but for a major corporation with thousands it can be an apt design choice.

Squarespace’s blog is a good example of stylistic aptness — the company promotes their service as an easy-to-use website creator, so a design that emphasizes minimalism, readability and a super-fast response time is a great way to showcase that a service works as advertised. Whether it’s the colorful kid-friendly tone of Disney’s blog, or Squarespace’s product-in-action approach, an apt blog design is another ingredient essential to a successful company blog.

Answer Commonly Asked Questions in Your Niche

All businesses reach a point in their blog creation process where they are at a loss for blog topics. One way to generate ideas is to look at what competitors are posting about and get inspiration from them. Another highly effective method is to remember questions posed to you from customers or anyone at all. Then, write an in-depth blog post answering the question. This is a great way to show off your expertise.

Zillow’s blog has content that uses this strategy exceedingly well. Articles like “Should You Write a Letter to the Seller?” will produce immediate click-throughs for anyone slightly interested in the topic, since the blog post’s topic is extremely clear. Providing valuable insight within your area of expertise will set you on the fast track to recognition as industry leader.

Maintain a Narrow Yet Interesting Focus

Gravitating too far from your topic can disinterest readers and turn your audience into a big mess of various interest points, which isn’t great for long-term leads. Instead, focus nearly exclusively on your niche — posting a food recipe on your auto parts store’s blog may sound fun, but it isn’t relevant at all. Ford’s blog focuses on cars, driving and not much else, allowing enthusiasts to dig into the interest they enjoy while reinforcing Ford’s knowledge of the industry.

These tips and exemplary company blogs are great places for business owners to look for inspiration on their own blog, which can bring in a massive amount of leads via quality content that keeps the above successes in mind.

This is a guest post by Holly Whitman. She is a writer and journalist based in the DC area. You can find more of her writing at Only Slightly Biased or on Twitter at @hollykwhitman.

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5 Unbeatable Tips on Maintaining Customer Relationships

Establishing a great customer base and maximizing the chances of every transaction becoming a repeat customer are vital factors in creating and maintaining a successful business plan. It’s not just about increasing your sales it’s about securing a reliable client base that will help your business thrive. One of the most important things to do in order to keep your recurring customers loyal is to keep them happy with your services.

There are many ways in which you can maintain good customer relationships and each entrepreneur uses the methods that work best for his business model. So if you’re still looking for great ideas to help you build better relationships with your customers, here are some useful tips that will help you find the right system for you.

1.     Get honest feedback

Positive reviews and ratings online are great for any business but if you’re looking for things that can still use some tweaking in your operation systems try to get some honest feedback from your customers. Use various tools such as Customer Service reports, social media platforms and surveys to find out what your customers like and dislike about your services on a wider scale.

Making your customers feel like they are being listened to and offering them the possibility to easily connect with your business will help maintain and even improve customer relationships. Platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook can be great for establishing your company’s presence online so create accounts for your business on these social media sites and provide your customers with an easy and direct connection to it.

People readily give companies feedback about their services and products using online platforms and responding to your customers’ complaints, questions and opinions will create a stronger and better relationship between them and your business. Online surveys about your products and services can also offer you great insight into how your company is being perceived by clients and the issues reported to Customer Service representatives can help highlight what elements of your system could be improved.

2.     Keep in touch with your customers

In order to maintain good customer relationships you should stay in touch with your customers and keep them up to date on your activity. Most importantly, you need to find the right balance when it comes to your communication with your customers: you don’t want them to forget you even exist but spamming them with constant emails and advertisement offers isn’t good either so you should work out in which situations and in what ways it’s best to contact them.

Every business uses a mix of tools and methods in order to keep in touch with its customer base depending on what solutions work best for its particular activities, needs and interests. Emails, opt-in newsletters, courtesy calls and business SMS texts are just some of the most popular ways to keep customers updated on the latest products and services businesses offer, notify them of policy or product changes and send them information regarding their transactions.

If you’re not exactly sure which of these methods would work best for you, customer relationships on how other business owners have integrated them into their companies and about how they can be successfully used for maintaining customer relationships. Get some great ideas, try different tools and implement the methods that you find work best for your business.

3.     Show your customers some appreciation

A great way to remind your customers of how much you value their business is by sending them an occasional gift to mark important events in their lives. A small gesture can go a long way in making your customers feel appreciated and in encouraging them to remain loyal to your company.

Happy occasions bring people together and there’s no better way to create and maintain great relationships with your customers than to celebrate joyful events with them. Whether you send them a lovely holiday gift or a thank you note, a nice gesture will not go unnoticed.

If you want to offer your customers a courtesy gift for being loyal to your business personalized items that you’ve put some thought into will not only be appreciated, they will also keep you in your customers’ minds since they provide some free advertising for your company. Don’t be afraid to be creative and resourceful and make an effort in choosing what gifts to send, customers will notice the extra effort and enjoy a well thought-out present.

4.     Offer great customer support

It’s hard to create a loyal customer base if you don’t provide a great customer experience and ensuring timely and comprehensive support is a very important part of creating a pleasant experience for your clients. Set up an efficient customer support system that can quickly resolve any type of problem that your customers can run into while using your services so that they have a positive experience when working with you even if something goes wrong.

It’s very important to show your customers that they are valued and that their concerns and problems are a priority for you so that they consider your business reliable and customer-oriented. How you handle customer complaints, inquiries and requests is a very important factor in shaping the image your company has. Your actions speak louder than your words so make sure that you are prepared to handle any situation promptly and professionally: customers will trust your services and will be more likely to use them again.

5.     Do some smart advertising

Advertisement and marketing campaigns are an essential part of building any business but you’ll have a better chance of increasing your sales if you are smart about it. Instead of spamming your customers with generic advertisement emails and SMS messages set up an opt-in system and create a great data-base of interested customers that you can keep up to date on your latest products and promotions by sending them a weekly or a monthly customer relationships.

This way you can be sure that your customers are reminded of all your best services and offers every now and again and that you can keep them up to date with any changes in your business. You can also use this advertising method to reward subscribed customers with coupons and discounts, alert them of time-sensitive sales and special promotions and maintain a great relationship with them all at the same time.

Helen Daniels is an avid blogger who focuses on economic and social topics. She has a degree in Business Administration and loves to cover business stories. In her spare time, she likes to read about social media trends and catch up on the latest viral videos.

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The Year Of You

As we begin the New Year, everyone has new goals and aspirations that they want to take form. However, within a couple of months or even weeks you are back to your old self.

Many people, like myself, just had these goals inside their own head. Then one year, something magical happened. I started writing the goals down on an index card and read it aloud to myself. I would read it and then reread it again out loud as soon as I would wake up in the morning and once before I went to bed every night. Going to bed and waking up thinking about your goal works wonders, whether it’s about getting that new promotion at work or finally getting in shape. When you read your goal aloud every day, it is always on your mind. There’s something powerful that happens when you take your goal to paper.

Something that also helps is setting a deadline for when you want to achieve your goal within the current year. Make sure you give yourself adequate time to achieve your goal. Every Sunday, review your progress of how close you are to achieving your goal. Spend about thirty minutes recalling what steps you have taken the previous week to achieve your goal. If you want to lose twenty pounds this year, it’s amazing when you start to see results. Even if you only lost one pound the week before, it can be an encouragement and push you to lose more pounds the next week! This can make a big goal seem small when you break it down into simple steps.

With this goal setting process, you can even have up to ten goals at a time if you’re feeling ambitious! Usually no more than ten goals is good, as you don’t want to overwhelm yourself.

If you decide to set more than one goal, focus on the categories of your health, finance, and lifestyle you want to achieve. A goal for finance could be a set amount of money you want to be making, but don’t sell yourself short! You can achieve a lot more than you think could ever be possible if you break your goal down into little steps. A goal for lifestyle could be spending more time with the family. Sometimes work can hectic and you can accidentally neglect those who you love the most. If you constantly focus on your goal of spending more time with the ones you love, it will come into form.

Start this year off right by setting goals you wish to see in your life! Don’t worry if you don’t achieve your goals right away, just keep working on them. As long as you keep reviewing them each and every week, you will see the progress that you are making. Always remember, there is nothing that you cannot do in this life as long as you set your mind to it! Before you know it, you will be knocking out goals left and right. This year is going to be the most amazing year of your life!

Guest Post by :

Trevor Oldham

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Simple Ways to Make a Workplace More Efficient

Forward-thinking business owners and managers are always looking for ways to make their organization more efficient. Businesses led by these types of people become much more successful than their competition and achieve more. It may seem like a daunting task to introduce more efficient processes and methods to a business. However, with the proper planning and some imagination, it’s possible to transform the fortunes of most companies by making the workplace more efficient. These are some effective ways to achieve this.

Automate Repetitive Tasks

Today’s technologies make it possible to automate mundane, repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Reporting, computer backups, social media marketing, accounting, invoicing, billing and a range of other tasks can be automated so that you and your staff can focus on more productive activities that benefit your business.

Train Employees Properly

Unfortunately, not every business’ training procedures are up to scratch. Many employees never get the proper training to do their job to a high standard. This leads to mistakes, causes stress and holds a company back from achieving what it should achieve. Providing proper training from the start avoids these problems and benefits both the employee and their employer.

Improve Communication

We’ve never been as interconnected as we are now and yet many businesses have terrible communications problems. Members of the same organization fail to communicate effectively with one another.

The same is often true for external communication with suppliers, customers and the general public. This is a serious problem and can damage a business in many different ways. Hiring communication specialists to help address this problem is a first step towards better communication in an organization. It may be necessary to create certain processes and systems that make this easier to accomplish.

Avoid Any Downtime

Downtime in a business is an avoidable cost in many cases. This is often a result of poor planning and scheduling of work in an organization. To deal with this problem, business owners and management have to plan well in advance to reduce this issue. They need to find alternative work or activities for employees during quieter times of the year. This could include scheduling training courses for staff when downtimes are expected or training staff to work in other roles during these occasions.

Create Work-Friendly Work Spaces

Most work requires a certain amount of concentration. Unfortunately, many workplaces are not work-friendly. Finding out how work-friendly your business is will help you create a plan to avoid this problem. Typical problems that prevent employees from being as efficient as possible include safety concerns, noise, disruptions and other issues. These problems should be removed so that employees can work more effectively.

Invest in Specialist Equipment

Investing in the proper equipment makes a business more efficient. It’s possible to cut corners and use alternative methods to carry out a particular job. However, spending money on important, specialized equipment that makes a job easier is money well spent. Equipment like a high performing server, a downdraft table, high-tech office equipment or other advanced equipment that makes employees more productive should be considered an investment rather than a cost to the business.

An efficient business is usually a successful business. Following the points above will help you and your organization become more efficient and face the future with more confidence.

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Protect And Diversify Your Portfolio With Gold And Silver Bullion

Diversification is imperative for investments and any expert will tell you that the old adage is true: you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. Silver and gold bullion are great inflation-proof ways to invest and they are a surefire diversification tool. What is bullion? Bullion means a precious metal stamped in the shape of bars — and stands in as a physical representation of wealth. Quite frankly, when a person buys a bullion bar, it means that they are buying in bulk — after all a bar of gold weighs 12.4 kilograms. Forget the silver and gold coins that are nice to place on your mantle but don’t have as much value; bullion allows a serious investor to get massive quantities and store it easier. You will find that mining and refinery companies don’t utilize this term, but investors and bullion traders certainly do. It is used for gold, silver, copper, nickel and aluminum; all the base metals are made into bullion and consequently, it can also be used to refer a piece of metal that is shaped like a coin or bar and has been plated with one of the aforementioned precious metals. An example would be a gold-plated bar or coin.

How does bullion play such an integral role in the diversification process?To adequately evaluate the importance of diversifying, one must consider the doomsday scenario. Gold has the greatest value of all the precious metals, followed closely by silver. If the economy were to tank next year or even tomorrow, these metals can be used to directly pay for goods and services — unlike stocks, bank notes, or paper money, they retain their value because they are not merely metonyms for wealth, but rather they exist as physical wealth itself. Some predict the value of the dollar will plummet, and should this happen, gold and silver won’t lose their value. They are inflation-proof and resist devaluation due to market trends. In fact, according to Guildhall Wealth Management, a Canadian investment expert, gold and silver bullion often have an inverse relationship to the traditional market.

Remember the crash in 2008 that affected the overall financial market until 2013? The great thing for silver and gold collectors was that precious metals gained in the markets to the tune of 32 percent during this time. By diversifying your portfolio and getting your hands on some gold or silver, you are hedging against, inflation, devaluation, and market instability. While it doesn’t often get the attention that it should, silver is an affordable precious metal that is often undervalued, and experts tend to agree that it is a great alternative to gold. Both silver and gold have few counter-party risks; it doesn’t fall into someone else’s liability. The industrial world uses silver, making it a practical investment, as it has pragmatic uses outside of speculation. A wealth management company like Guildhall can help you explore your options and add gold or silver bullion to your portfolio in order to diversify and protect it. Visit Guildhallwealth.com to learn more about diversifying your portfolio with investment strategies for gold and silver.

The thing to keep in mind is that during times of crisis, metals keep their value, and more often than not they increase in value. With instability and hyperinflation affecting world markets, who knows how important that gold bullion will be in the troublesome months ahead?

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Four Ways to Prevent Your Business From Slipping Up This Winter

You’ll have seen us write about how to get your customers through the virtual door, but what about your physical store? You don’t want to fall at the final hurdle this winter where conversions are concerned, so read our top four tips for making the consumer journey easier.

1) Use Your Online Presence

Your store can help to boost physical traffic during periods of bad weather. Most consumers will not bother venturing out if they think you’ll be closed, so don’t be afraid to advertise your status on your website. You could even be creative and turn to your social media presence; by posting regular updates on Twitter and Facebook, starting conversations, and engaging with your customers, it gives them the opportunity to ask if you have something in particular in stock and whether it can be reserved for them. Your online presence can make sure that no customer has a wasted journey.

2) Send in the Gritters

Extreme weather can be frustrating for all concerned, but accessibility isn’t just important for customers, but for staff too. Making sure that you have the right professionals on the job means that you can uphold your duty of care as an employer. By enlisting the help of a reliable gritting service, you know that whether you’re a supermarket chain, a retail giant, a business park or a facilities management specialist, you’ve got it covered. Services can include everything from 24/7 gritting and snow clearance, to the supply and refilling of salt/grit bins, giving you the peace of mind that you can keep on top of any bursts of snowfall.

3) Make Sure Deliveries Are Up and Running

It’s a fact that when bad weather hits, online traffic and conversions increase, so that gritting service will come in handy for when your delivery trucks need to get on the road. Last year, Rakuten conducted a study across three French cities, which showed a huge increase in online sales and revenue during days of bad weather. Make sure that the deliveries are running as they would on any other day, but also that your system is prepared for larger volumes of orders during these times.

4) Go Through Procedures With Your Staff

On the run up to the festive season it’s easy to get carried away with the deals in-store and the targets for the months ahead, but making sure that your staff are properly trained for periods of bad weather is just as important. Put a plan in place so that staff are completely clear on the procedure to follow should there be heavy snowfall and no communication is possible.

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5 Reasons Why Throwing Away Your Stuff Will Make You More Money

This is a guest post from Tom Hunt.

The Traditional Route To Success and Happiness Involved Accumulating Stuff

Why?

Well I’m not sure there is a single reason responsible, but it could be because before Internet, our media choices (influences) were limited to a small number of large media conglomerates, incentivised by corporations to promote a materialistic lifestyle,

However, now that our media choices have expanded exponentially, we are no longer subject to this influences e.g. instead of reading this article now, you would be reading a newspaper or watching a television program produced and controlled by large media corporations.

There are a number of fantastic articles from minimalist icons that focus on the various benefits of owning less stuff. However, in the rest of this article we will focus specifically on how owning less stuff can make you more financially successful.

More Time

You will only become aware of the amount of time that you spend on your stuff once you begin to throw it away.

Remember last week when you had to take that suit to the dry cleaning?
Or when you had to go and get your shoes re-heeled?
Or the 30-minute drive to the tech store to repair your old camera?

Yes, these tasks may fit into your admin assignment but when you throw away those items this time is reclaimed either for revenue generating activities or recovery time (which will make your revenue generating time more effective).

The Investor Mindset

Your assessment of all spending will become more analytical.

You find yourself attempting to calculate the ROI on your morning latte:

If Investment In Latte

If Investment In Latte > Increase In Productivity Of My Morning Writing Then No

You will start to delay gratification because you know there will be a great payoff down the road.

That new television becomes less attractive as the capital and time you would spend watching it could be utilised more effectively elsewhere.

You will also become acutely aware that every second or dollar that you spend has an associated opportunity cost that will lead you to make more informed spending decisions.

Then over time, your better decisions will compound…

More Clarity

Imagine waking up to a room with cupboards stuffed with clothes, paperwork coming out of your desk drawers and the walls covered in posters of “inspiration“.

And then imagine waking up here:

(Image Cred)

In which do you think you would enjoy a more productive morning workout and focussed work session?

When you own less stuff your focus will concentrate.

Think of the difference between a 100 watt light bulb:

And a 100-watt laser:

The only difference is the amount of focus.

More Freedom

As well as reclaiming your time for more revenue generating activities (or recovery), you may also become location independent.

“Ok yes Tom, but how is travelling going to enable me to make more money?”

Well it may not directly (unless you are able to move to join a new lucrative business opportunity).

But what it will do is lead to more personal development, especially in the social realm.

Personal development that you would be missing out on if you were sat in your cluttered house thinking about and spending time with your stuff.

And I’m sure that if you ask any financially successful person, they will inform you that personal development is definitely the most reliable route to riches.

Less To Lose

Any entrepreneur starting a new venture will inevitably encounter risk:

Risk = Likelihood * Impact

Now, de-cluttering your life could potentially affect the first part of the equation Likelihood (as you become more skilled through points 1-4) but it will have a larger impact on Impact (not a typo).

Once you have sold your TV, expensive financed car and have sold your apartment you will find that your monthly payments AND monthly expenses will reduce significantly.

You will feel the lightness of a Buddhist monk when assessing new ventures as what will you have to lose apart from your time?

(Which is an investment in your future regardless)

OK, so there we have the “why”…

Why you should reduce your total possessions to increase the likelihood of your financial success.

And for the “how”, I will refer you to this post but will leave you with one tip from my experience:

START SLOW

It took almost 1 year for me to go from having wardrobes full of old clothes to a single carry-on backpack containing all my things.

Remember, that removing just one piece of clutter from your life is a victory and soon you will be weightless and free experience each of the benefits listed above.

But now… I need a favour.

You know that one friend that always complains they have too many things or not enough time?

Will you be their inspiration by using the social icons to the left to share this post?

Who knows where it could lead…

Tom is the Founder of Virtual Valley, a platform that connects Entrepreneurs and Rockstar Virtual Assistants with the mission of giving Entrepreneurs back 1 million hours of their time by 2018. Tom writes about how to grow your virtual business on the  Virtual Valley Blog  and gives free 1 on 1 marketing advice to EVERYONE that signs up  here .

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Augmenting Your Earnings with Affiliate Programs Involving Gold and Other Precious Metals

You may have already heard about different kinds of affiliate marketing programs but the idea of gold affiliate programs may sound new or unusual to you. Information about gold being publicly traded through the Internet has been in the news recently but it’s been because of a number of investment scams. Still, these negative reports should not discourage you to explore the idea of making money through gold affiliate programs.

Samples of Affiliate Programs

Not to be mistaken for or associated with Bitcoin, Bitgold is a Canadian company that allows individuals and businesses to buy gold and undertake financial transactions using the value of the gold acquired. The company facilitates the sending, receipt, and redemption of gold bullion. To promote its services, BitGold runs an affiliate program that grants commissions for those who can bring in new customers to BitGold. Commissions range from $25 to $35. On May 2015, BitGold acquired GoldMoney Network Limited. As such, the GoldMoney referral program another precious metals affiliate program, now operates as part of BitGold. These are arguably two of the most attractive options for those who are looking to make extra earnings from gold affiliate marketing online.

Basically, they bank on the attractiveness of precious metals as safe investment options or at least as safe ways to store pecuniary value. They just vary in their ways of sharing their earnings for the transactions they get from an affiliate. One is intended for small time or “retail” buyers while the other is meant for those who buy, trade, or invest in gold in large quantities.

How It Works

Most of the time, you need to have a blog, website, or some other form of online presence to be able to participate in an affiliate program. If you already have your online store, you’re all set. You just need to insert some codes to put up the banners or links for your affiliate marketing. However, it is not really necessary to have a website or blog to make money from gold affiliate marketing. You can do the referrals or promote the services of the companies that run the affiliate programs through social media, networking, chats, and forums. The key is to have an online presence so you can share the links through which your affiliate credits or earnings can be counted.

Improving Your Conversions

To improve your success in precious metals affiliate marketing, there are things you need to bear in mind. Avoid becoming a failure affiliate or one of those who complain about not getting anything from the endeavor for not properly understanding the whole idea of precious metals affiliate marketing.

The focus should be on quality, not quantity. It’s important to carefully target your prospects instead of dispersing your links and banners randomly and just waiting for whatever sticks.
Avoid banners. Instead, stick with images (with the appropriate links of course). Banners have already gained notoriety for not offering anything useful to Internet users. Most Internet users immediately ignore them or even employ ad blockers just to get rid of them.
If you rely on links, make sure that you have an excellent keyword strategy. Target keywords with which you can realistically compete with. Also, choose keyword phrases that have higher potentials for conversion. Don’t stick to generic keywords like “gold” or “gold prices.” Go for something more specific like “how to make money from gold online.”
Use calls to action and create a sense of urgency. The texts you use should always be engaging and in a way trying to converse with your target viewers. Use sentences like “click here to start earning $$$ now” and “avail of our limited % doubled commission offer.”

Caveat

It’s very important to remember, though, that not every gold or precious metal affiliate marketing program can really lead to earnings. In fact, most of what can be found on the Internet are fraudulent, or at the very least are simply trying to bait clueless Internet users to visit some other site. Aside from scammers, there are also many sites that may only introduce malware to your servers so you really have to be extra careful.

Study your options carefully and don’t think that becoming an affiliate for the different gold buying and selling service providers online is something you have to hastily pursue. Ascertain that you will become an affiliate only to legitimate companies. Yes, there’s money in affiliate marketing but you have to be prudent with your decisions so you should carefully scrutinize the terms and inquire if there are real benefits you can get.

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Entrepreneur Profile: EverydayHappy’s Philip Keezer

When it comes to starting a small business, the risks are many and they are usually life or death. All the decisions made are going to have a huge impact on the success of the business. To properly get the business on its feet, a budding entrepreneur is going to need to take a few leaps of faith and start taking risks. They can be calculated, but ultimately it is a case of who has the most guts to do what it takes to turn their small startup into a successful business.

Such is the case of EverydayHappy. This was an American startup founded by a group of like-minded moms and dads who decided that instead of running errands and missing out on the important moments of their children’s lives, they would help parents everywhere get their baby cleaning and family care products online. Today, we talk to Philip Keezer, the CEO of EverydayHappy and co-founder of the company. He gives us all valuable advice on how to get a start-up going in the right direction and how to end up just like EverydayHappy and their new sideshow: ParentingHappy, a hotline for parents.

1) How do you validate your business idea?

In the case of EverydayHappy, I believed that there was a real need for a company that offered superior baby and family care products that were affordable, eco-friendly and toxin-free. The idea really started when I became a dad and I was desperately trying to find products that I thought were safe enough for my newborn son, all to no avail.

While doing my research, I noticed that a lot of products are full of harmful chemicals and good eco-friendly alternatives are hard to find, or simply too expensive to be accessible to all parents. There was nothing in stores or online that made the cut and I couldn’t believe it. Being eco-friendly and environmentally minded shouldn’t be hard. Where were all the naturally sourced, biodegradable and safe products that would leave the planet in a good state for our kids?

Planning trips to the store with a little one in tow also proved to be a great feat. Any time I spoke with fellow parents, they seemed to share the same struggles. That realization was the moment I knew this was a viable business and that, given my experience, I was the one who could launch it.

That’s when EverydayHappy was born. I wanted to help take some of the guesswork out of parenting, giving new moms and dads peace of mind. The idea of making EverydayHappy a subscription service was validated when I realized how crazy life can get when you’re a parent. Being able to skip running errands to the store for supplies meant more time to spend with my son and to actually appreciate the joys of parenting.

The core of our business is helping moms and dads have an amazing parenting experience (whether that be by offering great products or through our unique helpline, ParentingHappy, because sometimes you just need someone to listen) and people are really responding to that!

2) How to get funding for your business?

A big part of the funding behind EverydayHappy came from JoVentures, as well as from our founders. We were extremely lucky in the sense that we were able to find a group of people who shared our passion and vision for creating a brand that was not only filling a gap in the marketplace, but also fulfilling our dream of helping families here, and abroad.

3) Should you get a cofounder?

This really depends on the business model, the specific situation and what the co-founder(s) bring to the table. Ultimately, it may sometimes be easier to be a sole founder and have final say over the big decisions, but there’s no denying that having a partner can help bring fresh ideas to the table. Especially if all parties involved share the same vision and are comfortable enough to push each other to really step outside the box.

This is something I’ve learned firsthand by working on EverydayHappy with co-founder Phil Fang. We started with a solid foundation: A shared passion and belief that eco-friendly, carcinogen-free baby and family care products should be easily accessible and not cost a fortune. From there, we worked nonstop to make EverydayHappy a reality and as we continue to grow, we never shy away from dreaming up bigger, better (and sometimes wilder) ideas.

4) Your best advice for people starting out on the entrepreneurship path?

It might sound cliche, but the best advice I’ve ever received is to never give up. The only reason businesses become successful is because they overcome all of the obstacles in their way, both planned for and unexpected, and not because they never encountered one. It’s the tough times that can really help make a business and its entire team stronger and more passionate and, in turn, more successful.

When we were starting out, the idea of offering eco-friendly diapers that cost less than the mass-produced bargain brands you find on most store shelves seemed crazy to a lot of people. It meant the world to us, however, and we kept researching, innovating and pushing until we could make our vision a reality. The more people questioned it, the more fired up we felt to succeed. Never, ever give up.

You can find EverydayHappy on Twitter.

For a free trial of EverydayHappy, click here.

The post Entrepreneur Profile: EverydayHappy’s Philip Keezer appeared first on Entrepreneurship Life.