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Footloose: Or Why A Good Environment Makes All The Difference

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Hosting

The post Footloose: Or Why A Good Environment Makes All The Difference appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Kevin Bacon fans and film buffs (as well as pretty much anyone of a certain age) are all familiar with the ever-popular Kenny Loggins song “Footloose,” originally released in 1984. This classic image of Kevin Bacon in his beat up Nike’s is instantly recognizable and immediately associated with the song. It isn’t so much the song itself that we’re going to discuss here, but what it is that the song actually offers. With its upbeat, dance-inspiring tempo, this particular song affords far more than just entertainment; it actually serves as a means of creating an ideal environment, believe it or not.   Tap Those Toes! What this song does is makes those who want to hear it move about, getting stuff done, and it is that motivation that becomes key. When working, many people find that music helps them to accomplish the tasks that they have set for themselves, regardless of whether or not they are still consciously listening to the music at all. The music serves as a means of providing a method for the brain to tune out all other distractions, allowing the individual to concentrate on the task at hand.   Why Does It Matter? By working to distract one’s brain, the individual is working to ensure that they are able to get their assigned tasks completed within a reasonable amount of time. In serving to provide an environment that is conducive to working, individuals are able to accomplish far more than they would otherwise, and are able to do so in less time than normal.   What Does This Mean For You? This doesn’t mean that you need to turn your workplace into an 80’s montage video, (though if you do, I’d love to see it!), but what it does mean is that the environment in which individuals are working is just as important as matching up the right individuals to the right tasks. While Mr. Bacon’s shoes may not particularly motivate you to tap your toes, chances are that there’s a song out there that does, and that when you have that song playing, you’re able to really get in your groove, knocking out tasks quicker than before. Your employees have songs like that as well. Find the right mix, get things moving forward, and maybe you too can have the time of your life while working, getting things done while enjoying yourself and increasing office productivity all in one fell swoop!   Image Source: Nickpicksflicks.com. (2014). Footloose . Retrieved from http://www.nickpicksflicks.com/footloose%20nikes.jpg web hosting Continue reading →

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5 Companies You Might Not Realize Google Now Owns

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Hosting

The post 5 Companies You Might Not Realize Google Now Owns appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Everyone knows that Google is a big deal.  Each year, news of Google’s new acquisitions makes headlines across the world and across the web, stunning analysts and everyday consumers alike. From little start-ups to longtime titans of industry, so many companies have been picked up that users often forget (or don’t realize) that their favorite app or software is now part of the Google machine. For some, this just means better service, better quality, and better integration on mobile platforms; for others, watching a beloved site or service get stripped for parts and silently assimilated into the inner workings of Google’s infrastructure can be disappointing to say the least. For better or worse, Google is making waves not just online, but in nearly every facet of our lives.  Here are five companies you didn’t know Google owns and what that means for you:   Waze Social networking, mapping, and up-to-date traffic, all rolled into one app?  Sounds too good to be true, but that’s precisely what Waze is all about. Waze helps drivers help themselves by providing an outlet for folks to warn other drivers of potential delays and hazards by means of tweet-like posts.  This information then coalesces into a living map that shows drivers in the area just how long it will take to get from Point A to Point B, which roads to avoid, and even the location of speed traps. It isn’t hard to see why Google would want to snatch these guys up.  With close to a billion downloads of Google Maps from Google Play alone, adding the social networking power of Waze to the application gives users the unparalleled quality of Google’s navigation interface, In addition, the benefit of sourcing information about travel times and level of traffic from drivers on location is hard to beat.  And with the recent launch of Google Now, Waze data is seamlessly integrated into Google Maps’ auto-updates for an even more intuitive traffic alert system.   Nest Home automation is still a relatively new concept for many consumers.  The idea of sending a text message to your alarm system because you forgot to arm it on the way out the door—much less having your fridge text you when Timmy sneaks some cake in the middle of the night—still sounds like something from The Jetsons . But Nest, founded by Tony Faddell and Matt Rogers, the same guys who brought us the iPod, is all about making your home smart, from thermostats to alarm systems.  Nest was picked up in January 2014 by Google in its quest to branch outside the worldwide web and into your living room. Acquiring Nest helps Google build their stockpile of resources for total home integration with Android devices that are already making everything from turning on the outdoor lights for a party to setting the timer on the sprinklers easier than updating your Facebook status.  Expect big things from this merger: with Nest’s innovation and Google’s infrastructure, we are stepping into a brave new world.   Zagat Google almost acquired rival company Yelp back in 2011, but picked up Zagat instead after the deal fell through. Prior to merging with Google, Zagat.com was a subscription-based service, offering its vast cache of knowledge only to those who paid a premium.  Zagat membership is now free—as long as you sign up with Google+, that is. But whether you subscribe to Zagat or not, Google has tightly and seamlessly integrated Zagat reviews and information into its standard Google search, so even casual users benefit.  The novelty and prestige may have taken a backseat, but picking a restaurant for that special occasion has just become much easier.   Flutter A short-lived but popular gesture recognition program, Flutter was acquired by Google in October 2013.  Due to its native integration with applications like YouTube, Chrome, Netflix and Pandora, Flutter was a prime candidate to springboard Google’s gesture recognition ventures moving forward. Users of the original Flutter app need not worry that it’s merely been stripped for parts—the download can still be found here . As with a few other apps, merging with Google bodes well for both Flutter veterans and newcomers alike. As Google engineers hone and develop gesture recognition for more and more programs, it will become a smoother, more universal experience across the board.   Boston Dynamics This is actually just one of about a half dozen or more robotics companies bought up by Google in early December 2013, along with Redwood Robotics, Meka Robotics, Holomni and others.  Boston Dynamics is best known for the DARPA-funded BigDog, essentially an automated four-legged pack mule designed to carry gear for soldiers over terrain too rough for vehicles. What does Google intend for these companies?  It isn’t too clear yet, but whether they are planning on putting these firms to use in vamping up their manufacturing capital in preparation for the Google Car, or if they have bigger plans in mind (humanoid robots?), picking up so many robotics companies suggests that Google is gearing up for some big, exciting things.   Whether it results in overall better quality or if an app or service is simply assimilated into the infrastructure, Google’s acquisitions are taking tech in bold new directions.  As its influence pervades every aspect of our lives, more and more companies are sure to follow.  And whether we embrace it or not, this snowball-effect is pushing the boundaries of what we thought possible, and that’s a very exciting thing. web hosting Continue reading →

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Four Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your Business

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Hosting

The post Four Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your Business appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Everyone makes mistakes. We all know it, and sometimes we recognize it as soon as we have done it that we have screwed up. Sometimes these mistakes can be avoided, other times they’re made when we’re not in our right minds, and sometimes we have no way of knowing they are mistakes until later. There are thousands of clichés and sayings that talk about mistakes just for these reasons. One way of making sure that mistakes aren’t made is to pay attention to what you’re doing, but another, perhaps more important, method is to pay attention to the mistakes of others. The trick is not just learning from your mistakes, but learning from the mistakes of others as well.   An entrepreneurial friend of mine has started companies around the world. One thing he always tells up and coming entrepreneurs is that they should do as he says, not as he does (or did). He turns all of the mistakes that he has made in business into teaching opportunities, showing others how not to make the same mistakes that he has made. While I cannot, and would not, want to go around telling you all of his mistakes, after all, those are his to tell, I can tell you from personal experience that there are certain things that don’t work, and hopefully you’ll be able to learn from the following:   Choose something you are passionate about Just because you know an idea can be a successful one, don’t choose it just for that, choose it because it is something that you enjoy.   Look, just because an idea is a great one doesn’t mean that it’s worth the hassle. If it’s not something that you enjoy, don’t do it. If and when it takes off, you’re going to be stuck with that business. You’re going to live it and breathe it as you work to make your company successful. If you hate the concept, don’t bother starting. You’ll waste your own time and burn out quickly.   Be realistic Just because you know you can make something work, you shouldn’t expect it to happen overnight. Sometimes companies take years to become fully solvent. Know that it will take a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of hard work to make your business take off. Once it does, you’ll have relatively smooth sailing, but it’s not instant.   Get out there and do it Don’t just talk about it. All the talk in the world won’t help you succeed; you’ve gotta work to bring it into existence – whatever “it” is. A book wasn’t ever written by talking about finding time to sit down and write a book, it was written because someone actually did sit down and write the book. Businesses are the same way. You can talk the talk all day long, but until you take that first, second, and third step, it makes no difference. Get to work!   Always treat what you do as a business It doesn’t matter what your product or service is; once you decide to start offering it to others, for money, you must always treat it as a business, for that’s what it is. It’s your new source of income. Don’t blow it because you used to just do “it” for fun. If an individual decides to start making prints and selling them on Etsy because all their friends wanted one, once that first order comes in, you get it done, get it shipped and move on to the next one. It’s fun, sure, but it is work too, and it needs to be treated as such. Make a home office if you’re working from home. Use it for only work related stuff. That will become your new place of business, going to that room or area as opposed to leaving for an office. It will put you in the right mindset and ensure that you are able to successfully dedicate your time to what you do. (For example, I used to love MMORPGs, but my computer is my work area, so I’ve gone back to console gaming, ensuring that I’m not distracted from work by anything other than the occasional website, academic journal, or the biggest time killer of all – Facebook.   By working to avoid these mistakes, you can work to make your business a success. Just remember, there are thousands of people online who can tell you what not to do, but only you can find out the winning combination that works best for you!   Image Source: Bullas, J. (2012). Oops!. [image online] Available at: http://www.jeffbullas.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Personal-Branding-LinkedIn-10-Mistakes-to-Avoid.jpg [Accessed: 27 Mar 2014]. web hosting Continue reading →

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Twitter Cards, What Are They?

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Hosting

The post Twitter Cards, What Are They? appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Twitter’s advertising platform is still young, but it’s setting itself up to be really strong.  It still has plenty of areas for improvement, but if I had to describe Twitter Cards in one word, it would be FANTASTIC! In my personal experiments, Cost Per Engagement is down from $0.50-$1 to $0.05-$0.20.  For those of you who don’t know what an engagement is, it’s every-single-action on your ad. This means a click on a link, picture, your profile, retweet, favorite, or reply. With all those ways for people to engage, you unfortunately do sometimes pay for things you don’t want; in the advertising world, that’s lost money! With Twitter cards, you can create a clear Call to Action (CTA) with less characters and less channels to engage. I’ll explain each of these cards below:   LeadGen Twitter Card This is geared towards email marketers. If you build your list or are just thinking about building your list, then these are an easy way to do so. You can set it up where you can download email data or have it sent to your CRM such as Mailchimp or Salesforce. There’s a small list of CRMs that Twitter says are compatible with Twitter Cards , but if your CRM can receive POST data, then you “should” be fine. Don’t quote me on that, though. These LeadGen cards can be used in many ways. You can capture their email and send them to a page to download an ebook or a special landing page on your site. If you have an autoresponder setup with your CRM, you can automatically send them a coupon code or digital product via email as soon as they click your call to action and agree to give you their email address. Either way, you now have their email address to be able to market to them later. But DON’T SPAM!   NOTE: You will need to have a privacy policy on your site that you can link to. Almost every email marketer should know this and have one on their site. If not, you can review HostGator’s Privacy Policy as an example.     Website Twitter Cards These are quickly becoming my favorite. You know those links you have in your tweet for either your website / landing page or picture? GONE! You can now insert a picture and that becomes the link. Granted, it’s probably a lot smaller of a picture than you want, and the dimensions are a pain to work with, but if I can decrease character space and increase effectiveness, then I’m all for it. I’ve seen campaign engagement go up from 1%-3% to 10-20% and I couldn’t believe it! I certainly recommend trying these out in your strategy if you haven’t already. Personally, I think they need to add some more CTAs other than “Read More” because people won’t just use this for website views. They’ll want more strong signals to buy or download. Hopefully this feature will come soon enough.     While I’ve been impressed with the results I’ve seen thus far, it’s always worth noting that early adopters usually see better numbers than those that begin to use it after the first wave of users. And as with all marketing efforts, a large part of it is simply finding your niche . Have you started to use the Twitter Cards? If so, tell us about your results in the comments below. web hosting Continue reading →

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How To Take The Headache Out Of Keyword Research

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Hosting

The post How To Take The Headache Out Of Keyword Research appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . Let’s admit it:  keyword research can be difficult, and we all wonder sometimes whether it’s worth all the effort. Can you really figure out what people are searching for and use that knowledge to drive quality traffic to your website?  Can you rank for that keyword and show up on the first page of search results?  What’s the best keyword research tool to use? Arrrgh! It’s enough to give anyone a migraine. Choosing the proper keywords and using them to build a profitable business may sound like an impossible task. But it doesn’t need to be. You can do basic keyword research using a simple 4-step process. Follow these keyword research tips and you may find yourself attracting more search traffic than you can deal with.   Smart People Do Keyword Research OK. You might be asking why you should even bother with keyword research. The short answer: Search engines are the largest source of web traffic. Did you know that 92% of people on the Internet use search engines and 59% say they do so at least once a day? There are over 175 billion searches conducted each month worldwide. The fact is when people are looking for something online they go to a search engine first. Keyword research helps you identify the exact language the people you’re looking for use when they surf the web. How? Keyword research is just discovering the most popular, and most often searched terms in your industry or niche. Customers can find your website easier when you rank highly for these keywords on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. In other words, keyword research is the first step to cutting through the noise and driving qualified leads to your website. Keyword research is good for more than developing a good keyword list for SEO and PPC. Content marketers use keyword research to identify topics and determine what phrases to use when writing. So hang on while I explain what to do…   When You Don’t Know Where to Start People describe things in different ways. The words you use to talk about your business may be different from the words your customers use. That’s why it’s important to use keyword research to determine the actual language people use when they search the web. Lots of people aren’t doing keyword research or they’re not doing it effectively. Most people who avoid keyword research do so because they’re confused or overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. The answer to both of these problems is to approach the problem strategically.   You Don’t Have To Be A Rocket Scientist To Do Keyword Research Keyword research isn’t just to get more traffic or better SERP position. It’s about understanding your customer and knowing your niche. You can use your research to help you figure out: A profitable niche for your business Content ideas people are interested in Similar markets you can tap into Products and services to promote on your website Keywords with the highest cost per click (CPC) I’d like to emphasize something here. If you’re not a techie, but you need to do keyword research break your keyword research down into a manageable 4-step process. What this all boils down to is: You’re looking for targeted keyword phrases that have a high search volume and low competition. Ideally, your keywords should accurately describe what you do. You don’t want too many competitors ranking for that exact phrase but you do want lots of people searching for the exact phrase. Now the specifics: Brainstorm and come up with list of keyword ideas. Take your best guess how your prospects describe your content, products, and services. This is just a starting point. Expand your list using keyword research tools. You use a keyword research tool to check out the possible keywords or keyword phrases and see how they perform. You want to see how much competition you have for each of your keywords and how hard it will be to rank for them. Fine-tune your list by doing some research. Check out the search volume and traffic estimates for keywords you’re considering. This will help you determine consumer demand. You should also add some of the suggested keyword phrases from your analysis tool to your list. Don’t ignore long tail keywords. In most cases, longer-tail keywords are less-competitive. People who search using long tail keywords are more likely to buy because they know exactly what they want. They’re usually searching for a place to buy it. Remember, don’t obsess over the details and don’t let what you don’t know stop you from getting started. To knock one more barrier out of your way, I’ll even show you how to pick a keyword research tool.   Here’s a Quick Way to Use Keyword Research Tools Now, you’re probably wondering, “What is a keyword research tool?” and “ Which keyword research tool is the best? ” A keyword research tool is just a tool for creating a keyword list and viewing the historical popularity of keywords. Keyword research tools allow you to see what people are searching for on the web, guess what else they might search for, and then optimize for those keywords. Don’t get hung up searching for the perfect keyword research tool. That’s a waste of time since the good tools provide the same basic service with only a few minor differences. That said, here are a few you may want to try. Wordze Keyword Discovery Wordtracker Google Adwords Keyword Planner Bing’s keyword research tool SEO Book’s Keyword Research Tool Wordpot YouTube Keyword Tools Keyword Spy Google Trends Use these keyword tools to get keyword ideas and traffic. Remember, you’re learning how your customer thinks, not trying to outmaneuver the search engines. If you’re serious about your website ranking and getting quality traffic, use this process to make life easier. Leave a comment and share your best keyword research tip.   About the Author Anthony Sills’ work can be found at American Express OPEN Forum, Copyblogger, Infusionsoft’s Big Ideas blog, Hostgator’s Gator Crossing blog, and elsewhere. He writes about HR & employment, marketing, and business. You can always reach Anthony via social media , email, or by leaving a comment below… web hosting Continue reading →

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