Tag Archives: business

Does Your Small Business Website Have the Cybersecurity Basics Covered?

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Hosting

The post Does Your Small Business Website Have the Cybersecurity Basics Covered? appeared first on HostGator Blog . Think your business is too small to be targeted by hackers? Think again. Last year, 43% of all reported data breaches affected small businesses —and the costs of recovering from a breach are high enough to force many small businesses to close. So, if you’ve recently launched your SMB website or are getting ready to launch, make sure you’ve got these 8 cybersecurity basics nailed down. 1. Domain Privacy There are so many things to love about the internet, but spammers, identity thieves, and stalkers are not among them. You can protect yourself with a domain privacy plan that shields your name, email, mailing address, and phone number from people who look up your site in the ICANN’s Whois database.  2. SSL Certificate An SSL certificate is a must-have if you run an eCommerce store or collect visitor information on your site. That’s because an SSL certificate proves that any data your visitors send to your site is encrypted, so hackers can’t see it while it’s in transit. (You can read a more detailed SSL explanation here.) SSL certificates also keep visitors from seeing a browser warning that your site may not be secure. Plus, they may also help your site rank better in search results. 3. Automatic Site Backups If your business website site is hacked, or if an update crashes it, you need a way to get up and running again fast so you don’t miss out on customers. Get an automatic site backup service like CodeGuard , and you can quickly restore the most recent uncorrupted version of your site if something goes wrong. Make sure that whichever service you choose runs daily backups, so you don’t have to go back to an out-of-date site version in case of a crash.  4. Automatic Malware Scans and Removals Thanks to cybercriminals armed with botnets and malicious code, all sites are continuously at risk for malware injections that can steal data and let criminals take over sites. This means site owners need to monitor their sites closely for attacks. And the only practical way to do this is with automatic scans. A site-scanning tool like SiteLock gives you daily protection from new malware and botnet attacks. SiteLock also seeks out vulnerabilities on your site, so you can fix them before hackers exploit them. 5. Automatic Domain Renewals Domain registrations don’t last forever. At some point—anywhere between one and 5 years from when you first sign up–you’ll need to renew. If you don’t, you can lose control of your business domain name, and anyone who comes along and buys up your expired domain may be able to access the email accounts on it. That could open you and your customers up to data theft and fraud. The best way to prevent this is to enable automatic renewals, either when you register your domains or during your next renewal. You may also be able to switch to automatic renewals now by logging into your domain registration account and adjusting your billing preferences. (HostGator customers, here’s how you can renew your domain registration.) 6. Automatic WordPress, Plugin and Theme Updates On the internet, you have to stay up to date. That includes WordPress software and the plugins, themes, and addons you choose for your SMB site. Why not stick with the old versions if they’re working for you? There are lots of reasons, but the main one is security.  Some updates are designed to patch flaws that hackers have shown they can exploit. So, when updates are announced, you need to install them right away. But updates don’t always come out on a schedule, and if you have a large site with lots of plugins, updating manually can be a hassle that’s too easy to postpone. The solution is to set WordPress and everything else on your site—themes, plugins, etc.—to update automatically. You can do this within most apps, or you can use a WordPress security plugin like Easy Updates Manager to handle it all for you. 7. Seriously Secure Passwords One of the simplest ways to protect your SMB website is to use a unique, secure WordPress password that would-be hackers are unlikely to guess. Make sure that any employees or contractors who have access to your site use secure, unique passwords, too.  You might think this goes without saying, but even in 2019, too many people are still using passwords like 123456 , monkey, and blink182. 8. Site Login Protection Login forms on your site make it easy for customers to sign into their accounts with your store or business. These forms also create potential weak spots where attackers can break in. In simple terms, a bot-powered brute force attack can try thousands of possible login credentials to try to get past a login form. If they find a way in, they can unleash malware, ransomware, or other mayhem to disrupt your business. To keep bad actors and botnet attacks from experimenting with logins until they find a way in, add some layers of protection to your sign-in forms.  One option is to limit the number of login attempts a user can make in one session. For example, after three failed attempts, the user is locked out of trying again until they contact your tech support team for more guidance. This lets legitimate customers get the help they need and prevents bot-powered brute force logins. Another option is one you probably see every day. Ask visitors to prove they’re not a robot when they sign in with a reCAPTCHA tool. The Contact Form 7 plugin lets you enable reCAPTCHA , or you can install a different reCAPTCHA plugin for the forms on your site. Yes, it’s an extra step for your site visitors, but one that can keep your visitors and your business safe from bot-powered data theft. Now that you know the cybersecurity basics, are you ready to set up your site?  HostGator’s Managed WordPress Hosting plans come with CodeGuard, SiteLock, and SSL certificates for free and make it easy to buy domain privacy services. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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Email: Still the Best Tool for Growing Your Business

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Hosting

The post Email: Still the Best Tool for Growing Your Business appeared first on HostGator Blog . It’s tempting to focus on social media instead of email for marketing when you’re starting a business. Social media is cool and fun, and email seems kind of stale by comparison. It’s also a lot easier to set up social media accounts than it is to build and manage an email list. But email still rules in terms of return on marketing investment, so if you want to grow your business, email needs to be part of your marketing mix. Why Does Email Marketing Still Work? One reason email rules is because it reaches virtually everyone. Sure, there are plenty of people on social media, but not everyone uses the same platforms, and some folks don’t use social media at all. But do you know anyone who doesn’t use email? Do you ever go more than 24 hours without checking your email? Probably not—and email is email, no matter which operating system or email service provider you use. What about Gen Z? Do teenagers even use email anymore? According to a study by OptinMonster , 75% of teenagers consider email part of their daily lives. The study also found that overall, 99% of people check their email every day. Fifty-eight percent check it first thing in the morning, a much higher number than the 14% who check social media first. And it’s not just that people check their email. People engage with marketing emails at a much higher rate than they do social media posts, according to the study. The average open rate for marketing emails is more than 22% and the click-through rate is 3.7%. The average engagement rate for posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is less than 0.6%. Why does email get so much more engagement? In part, recipients are more likely to see email than social posts. An email sits in the inbox until it’s opened or dismissed. But a post may not even show up in someone’s feed, and if it does, it competes with a steady stream of other posts, comments, and links to other media. Broad reach and high engagement contribute to email’s high ROI — $38 for each dollar spent on email marketing , according to the Direct Marketing Association. Over the past ten years, email has outperformed every other marketing channel, from search and social to affiliate programs and display ads. 7 Steps to Making Email Work for Your Business Okay, so you’re convinced that email is a worthwhile part of your small business marketing program. How do you begin? Here are the basic steps. 1. Choose your email marketing software Building and growing a list is not a DIY affair. You’ll want to choose a service like Constant Contact to manage list opt-ins, segment your list, create campaigns, and measure their effectiveness. You can sign up for a free trial to test the features before you choose a subscription plan. 2. Get people to join your list Make your list worth joining. Your opt-in forms should offer something your target audience wants, whether that’s a coupon code, a free gift, a free report to help them solve a problem, or something else appealing. It’s also a good idea to let people know how often you email. People sometimes avoid joining lists because they’re worried about getting emails every day. Your offer can overcome that objection. For example, “Get 10% off your first purchase. Sign up for our weekly email list.” 3. Take care of your list Not every customer who joins your list will be interested in the same offers, products, or services. That’s why it’s important to segment your list. Rather than send one-size-fits-all messages to every list member, you can create separate messages for each segment, to deliver what they’re looking for. Segmentation is important for personalizing offers, which we’ll get to in a bit. Constant Contact lets you refine your list segments by automatically grouping your list based on the links they click in your emails, so your information is always evolving and up to date. Make opting out easy. One-click opt out is the gold standard. It keeps your list members from getting frustrated and reporting your messages as spam, which can reduce your delivery rates. 4. Connect with customers in their inbox Your messages will get more opens, click-throughs, and conversions if they deliver what your list members want. You can personalize offers to segments and even individual customers based on their past purchases, seasonal needs, and the links they’ve clicked on in your previous emails. For example, send preview-sale emails in March to your customers who buy new swimsuits every spring. Or send your premium dog food customers monthly offers for the newest treats and toys. Customers who clicked on your bespoke bags in your last campaign can get a follow up offer on those items later in the week. You can add graphics and videos to your emails to keep readers’ eyes on the page and to showcase your products. Be sure to test your multimedia messages before you send them to make sure they’ll look good in your customers’ inboxes. 5. Test your campaigns Use your email marketing service’s A/B testing tools to see which subject lines, content, and offers get the best responses from your list members. Use that information to make your next campaigns more effective. 6. Monitor your metrics Watch your email service dashboard for each campaign to see how many opens, clicks, and unsubscribes it gets. You’ll also see the peak days and times for email opens so you can time your future campaigns more precisely. Link your email service to your Google Analytics dashboard so you can track visitors who arrive from your email links, what types of devices they use to visit, and where they go on your site, and whether they convert. 7. Refine and repeat Email marketing is a process that should get easier and more effective over time. Use your data from past campaigns, your dashboards, and feedback from your customers to continuously improve your messaging—and your ROI. Ready to grow your business? Get started with Constant Contact today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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How to Use Facebook Ads to Grow Your Email List in 10 Simple Steps

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Hosting

The post How to Use Facebook Ads to Grow Your Email List in 10 Simple Steps appeared first on HostGator Blog . Email marketing is one of the most effective types of digital marketing. Two-thirds of consumers say they’ve made a purchase because of an email they received, and the average ROI of email marketing is $38 for every $1 spent. But for your business to see results like that, you need an email list. And not one you bought. Paying for an email list isn’t a good way to reach people who will actually care about what you have to say. And according to spam laws, it’s also illegal. What you need is an email list you built — one that’s made up of people who chose to opt in because they care about what you have to say. Email subscribers that chose you are extremely valuable, but hard to find. To build and grow a strong email list, you need a strategy for promoting it. There are a lot of smart techniques you can use to get more email subscribers . A good option that many overlook is using Facebook ads. 5 Benefits of Using Facebook Ads to Grow Your Email List Obviously Facebook ads have a cost in both time and money, so you want to be confident this is a tactic that makes sense for you. Facebook advertising has some strong benefits to offer. 1. It’s where your audience is. “Go where your audience is” is marketing 101. Today, that means Facebook. Even with recent scandals that put the social media network in the headlines, tons of people use Facebook.  The platform has over 2 billion monthly active users and many of those users are on there every day.  In the U.S., the average person spends 40 minutes a day on Facebook. Facebook is such a ubiquitous part of our lives at this point that no matter who your target audience is, you can trust that they’re hanging out on Facebook. 2. Facebook doesn’t offer much organic reach. Anyone can create a Facebook page for their business for free, so you may figure you should just work on reaching your audience on the platform that way.  But over the last couple of years, Facebook has made changes that make it increasingly difficult for business pages to gain followers and for the followers they have to see those updates. That doesn’t mean it’s a waste to create a Facebook page and work on building followers to it, but on its own, that won’t get you very far. To really gain traction on Facebook now, you have to pay for ads. 3. You can reach people in your target audience. If that’s the bad news, this is the good news. By paying for Facebook exposure, you tap into the company’s powerful targeting options. Your ad won’t show up indiscriminately for all of Facebook’s billions of users, you can specify who you want to see it based on factors like demographic categories, interests, and behaviors. 4. You can reach them at the right moment. The marketing ideal is reaching the right person with the right message at the right moment. Facebook’s targeting options include controlling the timing of when you reach people. If the items you sell would make great gifts, you can target your ads to people with an anniversary coming up. If your business blog provides travel tips, you can target people currently planning a vacation. While the goal of an email list is to build an ongoing relationship with potential customers, you can still increase sign ups by ensuring your promotion shows up right when people will most value what you offer. 5. Remarketing converts people who already showed an interest in your brand. A lot of people will interact with your brand multiple times before they make the decision to sign up for your email list. If someone visits your website and never sees mention of you again, they’re likely to forget you completely. But with remarketing, you can serve ads to the people that have already interacted with your brand in some capacity, increasing the chance that they’ll take the step of signing up for your email list before you slip from their memory. How to Use Facebook Ads to Grow Your Email List in 10 Steps Now that you know the why, here are a few tips to help with the how. 1. Develop an email marketing plan. Before you get to the point of using Facebook advertising to grow your list, you need to figure out what you’re going to do with your email list . There’s no point in working to gain subscribers if you’re not ready to follow that up with work to keep them. Create a plan for the types of emails you’ll send out and the schedule you’ll send them out on. You may want to create an email newsletter that goes out every month, or plan on sending a weekly update that includes links to the new content on your site. You can send out more directly promotional emails as well, but don’t make that all you ever do.  Promotional emails work best if the recipient is already familiar with your brand and has a reason to trust you. Your other emails will help build that trust. 2. Select “Lead Generation” as your campaign objective. One of the first steps to creating an ad in Facebook is choosing your campaign objective. After you click the Create button , you’ll see a few options you can choose from in a dropdown menu. Since your primary goal is building an email list, select “Lead Generation.” This ensures that the options Facebook provides as you go through the steps of creating your ads will match up with your goal of collecting email addresses from people in your target audience. 3. Clarify your target audience. One of the next steps is to set up your audience targeting. Facebook allows advertisers to narrow down who will see your ads based on wide variety of factors, including:      Geographic location      Age range      Gender      The language(s) they speak      Education level      Relationship status      The type of work they do      Their financial status      Whether they have kids or not      Their political preferences      Their interests      Their online behaviors      Whether they’ve interacted with you before Think about what your ideal customer looks like. Use this step to clarify who you want to reach with your ads so you get the most bang for your buck. 4. Choose what information to collect. You definitely want to collect email addresses — that’s the main goal here, after all. But Facebook will let you choose additional information to ask for in your ads, such as:   First name   Last name   City   Phone number   Date of birth   Job title   Company name On the one hand, the more information you ask for, the better you’ll be able to provide relevant emails to your new subscribers. On the other hand, adding more required fields for people to fill in before signing up may lose you some leads who decide it’s too much work. Most businesses should be fine sticking with name and email address, only add the others if they’ll help you create more useful, segmented lists. 5. Set your budget. Figure out what you can afford. You can set a maximum daily budget, and select whether to bid manually on your ads or let Facebook do automatic bidding for you. Automatic bidding is generally the best choice for anyone that’s not already an expert in PPC advertising . Keep in mind that the more you’re able to spend, the more people will see and interact with your ads. Try not to be too stingy here, while staying within a budget you can handle. 6. Create eye-catching images for your ads. Now it’s time to create the ads themselves. Social media is a visual medium, so make sure you include an image (or several) in your ad that will attract your audience’s attention, while still being relevant to what you’re offering. 7. Write copy that emphasizes the benefits of subscribing. An image can’t tell the whole story, so couple it with words that tell your audience what they’ll get out of subscribing to your email list. Make sure you focus on the benefits to them. It may be accurate that signing up means learning more about your brand and products, but that won’t convince most people. What problems will your emails help them solve? How will you make their lives easier or better? 8. Include a clear call to action (CTA). You want them to take an action, so tell them what to do. You can test out different language to use here, but be sure you explicitly ask people to “Sign up today” or “Subscribe now.” Facebook will provide some options for you to choose from here. 9. Set up a relevant email drip campaign for new subscribers. Every time someone subscribes, it’s a win! But it could quickly turn into a loss if you don’t manage to keep them. One of the best ways to convince new subscribers that you’re worth sticking with is to set up a series of welcome emails that automatically go out to new subscribers. Use these initial emails to explain to your subscribers what they can expect from your email list, make the case for why it’s worth sticking around, and provide them a reward of some sort for joining (such as a discount offer or exclusive content). Providing value right away while the decision to sign up is still fresh in their memory will give you the chance to establish the relationship and show them you’re worth their time. 10. Test and tweak. You won’t know what will get results until you get started. Pay attention to your analytics — both for Facebook and your emails — to learn what’s working. Test out different images, copy, and CTAs to see what your audience responds to best. Over time, you’ll learn more about your target audience — what they respond to and what they care about. That knowledge will enable you to run better ads, strengthen your email marketing campaigns, and provide better service to your customers. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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What Is An Affiliate Program?

Posted on July 24, 2019 by Hosting

The post What Is An Affiliate Program? appeared first on HostGator Blog . The idea of affiliate marketing is simple. You recommend  high-quality products or services, and if a person buys through your link, then you receive a commission. Usually, a percentage of the total purchase price, or a flat fee. Affiliate programs can be used as a marketing technique to raise brand awareness and increase revenue.  Recommending affiliate products is usually one of the first ways people will earn an income online. It’s a much simpler process than creating a course, selling services, or starting any other kind of online business . Naturally, you probably have a lot of questions.  What is an affiliate program? How does affiliate marketing work? Was I born to be an affiliate marketer? If you’ve been curious about earning income as an affiliate, or just want to know the intricacies of how affiliate programs work, then this post is for you. Below we answer your most pressing questions related to affiliate partners and programs, so you can decide if you should join an affiliate program to promote products you love.  What is Affiliate Marketing? Put simply, affiliate marketing describes the process of earning a commission for a sale of a product you recommend.  Affiliate marketing is one of the most common ways that people earn money online. Site owners find products and services they love, then recommend them to their visitors. Entire sites have been built on the back of affiliate marketing. Plus, it’s a relatively passive way to earn money if you want to monetize your blog . For example, if you write blog posts reviewing certain affiliate products, then you’ll earn commissions whenever someone buys something through your link. Plus, all of this takes place without you having to do any additional work. It’s like having a salesman work for you around the clock.  Here’s a visual of how the process works with HostGator’s affiliate program : At its core, affiliate marketing remains the same. You get paid a commission for recommending products to your website visitors. But, as you’ll learn below, there are a wide range of different products you can recommend, along with a ton of different affiliate networks you can sign up for.  How an Affiliate Program Works Affiliate programs can be a great way for companies to expand their user base and add new customers and clients. People who recommend products get a piece of the commission and it’s a win-win situation—especially if it’s a product or service that you’re already a fan of and would recommend even if you weren’t getting a piece of the sale.  With an affiliate program, there are multiple different parties involved.  Here’s a quick breakdown of the different parties and their roles: 1. The Merchant Business The first essential role is the merchant business. This is the retailer who actually sells the product or service. Beyond just offering a product or service there also needs to be an affiliate program created. To use an example let’s look at Amazon. They’re one of the biggest retailers in the world and they have a very long-running affiliate program. You can sign up to be an affiliate for Amazon, and you’ll get a unique tracking link. You add that link to your site and whenever someone clicks that link and orders that product from Amazon you’ll receive affiliate commissions. The mechanics will differ slightly depending on the merchant business, what they sell, and how they structure their program, but the core elements remain the same. 2. The Affiliate It would be hard to have an affiliate program without the affiliates. Affiliates are the people who promote products in exchange for a commission. As an affiliate, you join the affiliate program or network, which gives you access to certain marketing materials, or a unique link that will track your commissions.  You can then promote a variety of products and services via your link. Some affiliates will build entire sites dedicated to affiliate marketing (which we highlight below). Others will simply promote a single product via email, or even share a unique link across social media. As an affiliate, you’ll have plenty of options for earning an income around the products and services you recommend.  3. The Customer You won’t earn an income as an affiliate without customers. To earn  affiliate commissions you need people to click through your link and buy a product from the business you’re promoting. With most links there will be tracking cookies in place, so the merchant will be able to see that the sale originated from your link. For some affiliate networks, this cookie will last between 24 to 72 hours. So if a customer clicks your link and then ends up making a purchase the next day, you’ll still get credited with the sale.  Some companies like Amazon will even give you a commission for any item that a customer orders, even if it isn’t the same item as the original link. For example, let’s say you’re promoting a fancy Vitamix blender. A customer clicks the link but ends up buying a new television. You’ll still get a commission, even though they didn’t buy the original item. For some networks, your customer will have to buy the exact product or service you’re selling, but for others, the requirements are much looser.  4. The Merchant Network The merchant network is usually integrated with the company running the affiliate program, or it can be managed by a third-party vendor.  Essentially, this network is how clicks are tracked and payments are taken care of. Nowadays this is usually done through software. At HostGator, we use ImpactRadius to manage our affiliate program. You get a unique tracking link. That link is connected to your affiliate dashboard which will show you the number of clicks, sales, and your conversion rate.  The payments will also be processed by the merchant network. Your commission and frequency of payments depend upon what you’re selling and the affiliate network you’re using.  What to Know Before You Join an Affiliate Program There are a myriad of different affiliate programs out there. You could probably find an affiliate program for virtually every niche on earth. But, not all of them are of high quality. Some of them are basically scams. This isn’t said to scare you, but instead to highlight the need in finding a quality and reputable affiliate program.  Most big companies will offer their own affiliate programs. Usually, you can find this via a link or page on their site. For example, here at HostGator, you can sign up for our web hosting affiliate program. Then, whenever you recommend HostGator web hosting to a friend you’ll earn commissions.  There are also other big affiliate networks that have a multitude of different products and services you can promote.  Keep in mind that the quality of the company’s website whose products you’re promoting will have an influence on how much you’re able to make as an affiliate. Send your customers to a low-quality website and it’ll decrease the chances that they’ll buy. This is another reason why you want to only sign up for affiliate programs with reputable companies.  Affiliate Program Payment Breakdown The affiliate program you sign up for will dictate the payment options and level of commission you’ll receive.  Often the price of the product will influence how much you make per sale. Generally, you’ll get paid more when a customer purchases a higher ticket item, or if it’s a subscription service since that kind of customer is very valuable to a company. There are typically two types of ways an affiliate commission can be recorded. The first is pay-per-click . This is where you’ll get paid the moment a person clicks a link that takes them to the merchant’s site. This type of payment is usually much lower, but it can pay well if you can send a high volume of clicks. The second is pay-per-action . This is where you’ll get paid when a customer completes a desired action. This can either be buying a product, signing up for a service, or even something like completing a customer interest form or placing a phone call.  Payments for affiliate programs can be a little slow as all sales and commissions have to be verified. But, it can still be a nice additional income. As you’ll learn below extremely profitable sites can be built on the back of affiliate marketing.  What Do Affiliate Sites Look Like? Affiliate sites come in all shapes and sizes. Find any niche of products selling online or off, and you can bet that there’s an affiliate site dedicated to that style of product.  You don’t have to build an entire site around the affiliate products you’re promoting. Some website owners will have dedicated blog posts that promote certain products, affiliate links placed throughout their website, or resource pages contain affiliate links to all the tools, products, and services they can’t live without. Some people will simply use affiliate links throughout their emails to subscribers. This is a very common way to promote different products, courses, and services. Chances are you’ve gotten a few emails today that are recommending or selling certain affiliate products.  Overall, it’s up to you to produce creative content as an affiliate marketer. Here are a few examples of different ways affiliate marketing can be done:  1. This Is Why I’m Broke This is Why I’m Broke is a very interesting example. Essentially, the site shows interesting and intriguing products from Amazon. If someone clicks on the link and buys something from Amazon, then the site gets a commission.  2. Smart Passive Income Smart Passive Income makes great use of a ‘Resource’ page to highlight affiliate products and services. If you’re a fan of their website, then chances are you’ll find value in the products and services they recommend.  3. The Best VPN The Best VPN is an entire site that’s built upon reviews. They review different VPNs and privacy tools and feature those that will provide the most value to their visitors. Affiliate review sites are incredibly common and can be very successful. 4. The WireCutter The WireCutter is another technology and product review site that focuses mostly on physical products. They review different products across a variety of niches and recommend those that pass the bar to their visitors. You’ll notice links to different retailers across their site.  5. Brain Pickings Brain Pickings is an interesting example. The site is built upon sharing the wisdom from different writers, thinkers, and other visionaries. You’ll notice that there are links throughout the content which take you to Amazon to check out the book currently being discussed.  As you can see there are a ton of different ways to not only make money as an affiliate but even create an entirely new website. Hopefully, the sites above can act as inspiration and get you thinking about the direction you’ll take with your affiliate recommendations.  Is an Affiliate Program Right for You? Chances are you won’t need to join an affiliate program the moment you build your first website. You’ll probably want to have solid traffic coming in, or an existing channel where you can make money promoting products. If you’re ready to sign up for an affiliate program, then make sure you do your research. If there’s a product or tool you love, then chances are you can sign up for an affiliate program through the original retailer. If not, there are reputable and large-scale affiliate networks like Amazon Associates , or even ClickBank for digital products. If your goal is to build a site like one of those featured above, then make sure there are products or online services you can promote that are in alignment with the niche you’ve chosen.  Making money as an affiliate isn’t as simple as throwing up a couple of links and waiting for the money to start pouring in. It takes careful planning, finding high-quality affiliate programs, and recommending products and services that are in alignment with the needs of your audience.  In time, you’ll get a feel for the types of affiliate products that convert well and that your audience actually loves.  Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what affiliate programs are, how they work, and know if it’s time for you to sign up for an affiliate program.  Ready to get started? Join the HostGator affiliate program today, and build out your affiliate marketing toolkit . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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5 Best Practices for Business Blogs

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Hosting

The post 5 Best Practices for Business Blogs appeared first on HostGator Blog . Blogging can be good for your business, if you start with a plan. A blog can boost your website’s SEO, build relationships with prospective customers, and position your company as a trustworthy source of expertise. Sounds good, right? So, what are the best practices for starting your business blog ? Let’s dig in. 1. Blog for Your Customers, Not You What should you write about on your business blog? The big difference between business blogging and personal blogging is this: Business blogging is all about your audience, not all about you or your business. What that means is you’ll need to stick to topics of interest to your potential customers. Write for your customer personas , include keywords they search for, that you want to rank well for, and try to answer customer and reader questions with your posts. For example, does your business sell custom replacement windows? Use your posts to answer the questions customers ask you about energy efficiency, design, durability, energy rebates, and more. Remember that a blog is supposed to be a casual conversation. Readers come to you because they’re looking for information. You build trust and authority with them by giving them the information they want. That means don’t get too salesy on your blog. Yes, you can post about new products and sales, and share user-generated content like customer photos of their new windows. But don’t turn every post into a full-volume sales pitch. A call to action at the end of each post is enough. Vary the format from time to time. Maybe throw in an interview with a customer or supplier, use Canva to make some infographics with facts and stats your customers can use, shoot some tutorial videos, or make a slide deck with PowerPoint that your readers can download and share. 2. Include an Image with Every Blog Post Why? It’s simple. People love pictures. Pictures pull your visitors into your story before they read a single word. Look at the home page for Gardener’s Supply’s blog. For gardeners, these pictures are catnip, because they show what’s possible—and they show what the company’s customers want for themselves. Images also make social media posts more engaging. Tweets with images get 34% more RTs than tweets with only text, according to social media scheduling service Postcron. And Instagram posts without images? Just not happening. So take the time to create original photos or graphics for each posts. 3. Decide on Your Posting Schedule Hamster wheel or lazy river? How often should you post? Business blogs that turn out a post or more each day, like HostGator, have teams of writers and editors dedicated to creating that content. But as a small business owner, you wear many hats, and your most important one is running your business, not cranking out blog posts. If you must choose between fewer high-quality posts and more low-quality ones, go with less frequent, better-written posts. You can get good results from a slower posting schedule, if your content gives readers and prospective customers information they want. The key is to use the search terms your audience is looking for and the questions they are asking. To make an infrequent posting schedule go farther is to promote the heck out of each blog post on your business’s social media channels . If you’ve done your persona homework, you already know where your target audience hangs out online. Meet them there with your posts. 4. Keep Your Posts Fresh with Regular Blog Updates Every post you create is a resource you can edit and update as your business grows and your customer base evolves. When you update an old post, save that update in WordPress or update the publication data so that Google knows it’s been freshened up with new information. It’s a good idea to build regular updates into your content schedule. Changing out quarterly or yearly updates of statistics is an easy way to freshen up old content. Adding new feedback from customers to product-focused posts, or updates on new features, can also extend the life of your posts. For more tips, follow our step-by-step guide to running a content audit . 5. Get Organized with Blog Categories and Tags Keep your business blog categories simple and limited. Here’s how HostGator does it. Give your categories names that are search keywords, when possible. HostGator’s customers search for phrases like web hosting tips and marketing tips and tricks. Your business may have very different categories. Whatever they are, they should line up with what your market wants. For example, let’s say you’re in the dog training business. You might have categories on dog behavior, obedience training for dogs, socialization for dogs, and exercise with your dog. This keeps your blog focused on the stuff your customers are interested in. It also makes it easier for readers to home in on the information they need. You can tag your posts, too. This is different from assigning a post to a category. Maybe you write a series of posts on socializing and behavior training for rescue dogs, and another on senior dog behavior and exercise. The categories for these are clear—socializing and behavior. But you can tag them with “rescue dog” or “senior dog” so your readers can search your whole blog, not just individual categories, for content that matches their situation. Like with your category names, tag with phrases your readers search for. Here’s what the category and tag control panels look like in WordPress. Be sure to fill out the slug and description for each of your blog’s categories and tags. That information helps search engine crawlers understand what your post is about. Tags and categories can also help you when it’s time to update your content. Is there new research about senior dog health you want to add to your old posts? Call up the “senior dog” tag and you can rework all the relevant posts in a snap. Build Your Business Blog with HostGator Ready to get started? You can set up your business blog today with a WordPress hosting plan . Add on HostGator Domain Privacy to shield your personal domain registration information from public view to protect your business from spam. Not familiar with WordPress? You can still get started today, too. Gator Website Builder gives you drag-and-drop tools to help you snap together your business blog in minutes, with lots of mobile-friendly templates to make it look great. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading →

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