Tag Archives: comedy

How You May Be Sabotaging Your Small Business

The post How You May Be Sabotaging Your Small Business appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . You’re running your small business. You’re doing things your way, and you think you have it all under control. The fact of the matter is, the potential for things to spiral out of your control always exists. There are several different things that you may be doing that might actually be hurting your business instead of helping it. We are going to review some of these things. Take a look at whether or not you are actually committing a small business faux pas, and if so, you’ll be able to correct course before they start to negatively affect your business.   Excessive Focus on Profits While profit is certainly a goal of business, there is such a thing as being too focused on the bottom line. If your only concern is money, you will slowly start to drive employees away, and ultimately drive your customers away as well. Money is important, but losing sight of the human aspect, the fact that your employees have lives, that stuff happens, and that your customers, and even you have a life outside of making money or having someone make money for you is important. If you become lost in the idea of money, you will lose sight of the reason you are making money, and thus will inevitably start to lose control.   Overconfidence It is vital to be confident in your business and your business ideas. It is this confidence that serves to grow your business and is surely what prompted you to start your business in the first place. Don’t be overconfident, however. Keep both feet on the ground. Be realistic in your expectations. Remember that there is always room for improvement, and a good idea can always be improved upon to become a great idea. Constantly look for new ways to improve your business. Don’t just assume that your business is awesome and it rocks and you need to change absolutely nothing. This overconfidence is what can cause your business to fail.   Need for Control The last faux pas we are going to address is the relentless need for control. Small business owners have often started their business by themselves. They are generally the only employee until their business takes off. They get used to doing everything themselves. When the business grows, the problem comes when they continue to try to do everything themselves. Learn to delegate. Understand that things may not get done the way that you used to do them, but they will still get done and done to the standards you have set. Accept that change is necessary and release a modicum of control; if you don’t, it can become a literal death grip that chokes the life out of your company.   It’s Not Perfect, But It’s Mine In working to address each of these concerns and working to ensure that there is the appropriate balance within the company, it will become possible for your business to grow and flourish in ways that you may not have dreamed possible. Your small business is like a child you are raising, and just like when raising a child, you have to learn when to let go and to allow it to grow. The first step, the first bicycle ride without training wheels, the first car… businesses grow similarly to people, and when your business grows, you have to remember to keep sight of what is important, just like with a child.   Image Source: Borselaer. (2014). Need for Control. Retrieved from http://www.borselaer.org/wp-content/uploads/need-for-control.jpg web hosting Continue reading

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What You Need To Know About Spanish SEO

The post What You Need To Know About Spanish SEO appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . The good news within this article is that you won’t need to learn anything new about SEO. The techniques we use to perform basic search engine optimization do not change across languages. However, translating an entire website into another language does require a lot more than just an English to Spanish dictionary. With more than 37 million people speaking Spanish in the United States alone, it’s hard to ignore the potential within such a rapidly growing market. If your business has not considered opening its reach across cultural demographics, perhaps it’s time.   Reasons Why You Should Consider It Adding content in Spanish is no trivial task, but the returns may be entirely worth the extra investment. As Latin America rapidly expands, experts estimate there will be 329.1 million internet users in Central and South America by the end of 2014. A user base that exceeds the entire population of the United States by 12 million people ( U.S. Population 317 Million, 2014 consensus ). What’s more, Latin America has also been shown to have the most loyal and engaged users on Social Networks with 94.1% of all internet users being on one or more networks. The major problem most marketers are missing in their SEO campaigns is that they’re not providing engaging content for viewers residing in the Latin demographic. The two primary reasons for having your content available in Spanish, are: You’re opening property/location in a Spanish speaking country/region You’re service/product could benefit from potentially reaching over 350 million Spanish speaking Internet users worldwide. For most competitive entrepreneurs, reason number two speaks volumes. The problem is that many have attempted to optimize in Spanish without understanding the regions and key wording necessary to rank for terms searched in the Native language.   How To Avoid Common Mistakes The basis for running any SEO campaign is determining how your business will appear in the search engines. What many companies have failed to realize is that using a conversion software to duplicate content will not suffice.   Translations and Dialects Many English speakers have taken Spanish classes in school, where we learned the proper context and rarely spoke in the way natives communicate on a daily basis. Just like English, slang and informal variances in the Spanish language will not be easy to make parallel translations for the keywords you want to rank in. As an example, think of the common differences in simple English nouns; many people who want to drink a Pepsi on the West Coast would refer to it as ‘soda’, while citizens of Nebraska would probably call it ‘pop’. It’s these little variations that will make all the difference when selecting keywords you want to rank for. What’s especially challenging is trying to throw a net over a continent (Latin America) with so many individual countries and cultures.   Regional Planning While extensive research as an individual is always a possibility, many SEO companies have begun to include Spanish specialists into their branches in order to effectively reach the most viewers with one keyword search. For instance, if you’re running a custom wedding cake shop and you had two different users (Argentinian, Peruvian) search for wedding cake in Spanish: one would read ‘torta de bodas’, while the other might say ‘pastel de bodas’. Which one would you choose and why? Often times we don’t know, while a specialist on the other hand could construct a marketing plan based on your location, demographic statistics, and what keywords are being seen most often that aren’t overly competitive. If you’re cake shop is right in the middle of a well known Argentinian immigrant community, ‘pastel de boda’ may be right for you. Catch the drift?   Bilingual Considerations Spanglish is a beautiful term, and something very accurate when it comes to the depiction of searches performed in two languages. Let’s say your primary consideration for consolidating your marketing strategy is to only target the Hispanic population of the West coast. Would it surprise you to know that Google receives high volumes of searches performed with keywords in two languages? 80% of all Spanish language searches performed on Google in the US are done in the English interface, suggesting a strong bilingual presence. Things like: ‘Scholarships locales en San Diego’ (Local scholarships in San Diego), ‘restaurants circa de la playa’ (restaurants close to the beach); even simple things like ‘Hispanic Radio online’ A great resource for testing your content is to use www.2lingual.com , which can simultaneously pair keywords in two different languages and find relevant web pages, powered by Google of course.   How To Get Started While we strive to provide the best information on how to be a self-sufficient marketing guru, sometimes it can be even more beneficial knowing when to consult a Professional. Step one, determine how your business could infiltrate the Spanish market of consumers. Step two, get in touch with an agency specializing in Spanish SEO. Get quotes and ask to see case studies of proven success, you want results not promises.   Image Source: http://www.iloveseo.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/use-of-spanish-in-the-world.jpg web hosting Continue reading

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Entrepreneurs, the Internet, and Speed: Why Page Loads Matter

The post Entrepreneurs, the Internet, and Speed: Why Page Loads Matter appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Entrepreneurs utilize the Internet in a variety of ways: a means of promoting themselves or their products, completing market research, setting up a marketing plan, and so forth. It’s no surprise that, as a result, businesses are able to rise and fall in days or even weeks. If an idea takes hold of the public’s subconscious, it’s liable to explode. If the idea, regardless of promotion, never takes hold in the mind of the public, the company is liable to languish, forever lurking in the darkest corners of the Internet. Not all ideas are gems, but at the same time, something as simple as presentation could be preventing the organization from taking off.   Speed Everything happens quickly online. Pages load in a fraction of a second, transactions are able to be completed in minutes, if not sooner, and manuscripts from hundreds of years in the past are able to be read and reviewed in less than a few hours, all without ever leaving the relative comfort of your computer chair. People have come to expect expediency when dealing with all things online. If you don’t believe it, go from a cable modem back to dial up and see how quickly you become frustrated with the inability to work at your normal pace. (If you can’t bear to complete that experiment, switch from your cable modem to a satellite connection in the middle of a rainstorm; the experiment will show you how much you have come to rely on speed without being quite as painful as the dial up experiment.)   Turning it Around to Your Benefit Take a second to clear your browser cache and attempt to visit your website like a new visitor would. How fast does your site load? Do experience any frustration as a result of the load time? If you get frustrated with the speed at which the pages load, or the amount of time it takes you to find a certain piece of information, there’s a good chance your users will be frustrated with it as well. Remember, you’re creating your site to get their attention, not to frustrate them. Speed is now of the essence; make sure your website gets the attention it deserves.   Image Source: Catchpoint. (2012). Brain wheelie. Retrieved from http://blog.catchpoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iStock_000018917656Small.jpg web hosting Continue reading

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Snappy Loves Puppies!

The post Snappy Loves Puppies! appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Today, Snappy felt the need to speak out publicly about his love for pets of all shapes and sizes, but especially puppies. The mistreatment and abandonment of puppies is a heart-breaking situation, and Snappy wants to do something about it! Austin Pets Alive is a no-kill animal shelter that saves more than 6,000 animals from euthanasia annually. As of this moment, we will donate $5 for every new hosting sign-up via coupon code PUPPYLOVE to Austin pets Alive, up to $5,000. Not only will we be making this donation, but coupon code PUPPYLOVE also carries a 50% discount on all new hosting packages. Help us fight animal abuse and abandonment, while saving 50% off new hosting packages! Get started right now by visiting http://gtrkb.com/puppylove Thank you to everyone who participates in this donation, and thank you to Austin Pets Alive!   web hosting Continue reading

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Outsourcing: Is It Right For You?

The post Outsourcing: Is It Right For You? appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Outsourcing is the process of contracting out certain aspects of a business to an alternative company as a means of working to reduce the overall costs incurred by the business. A computer manufacturer may outsource the creation of certain components to another company because it is cheaper for that other company to make them, as opposed to making the components themselves. A government entity may find that it is cheaper to outsource their tech support to another organization as opposed to keeping IT professionals on staff, and a small business owner may decide that it makes the most sense to outsource their human resources department rather than to create one of their own for only a few employees. Regardless of the type of outsourcing being completed or the type of company looking to outsource, there are several different factors that must be considered, outside of the cost, when looking into this decision.   Factors for Consideration The first factor the company needs to look into is cost. The question of whether or not the company will save any money, in terms of their overhead or operating expenses is a key factor in business decisions. If the company will not save any money by outsourcing, then there is really no point in proceeding. If the company will save money through using outsourcing options, the company must then look to factor two. The second factor a company must consider is whether or not there is an available company willing to take on the outsourced role, and whether or not that company is reliable. Research must be completed regarding the validity of the company and, more importantly, the types of checks and balances that the organization has in place in order to ensure the safety of the data they will be handling. Studies have shown that 63% of data breaches occur as a result of outsourcing, and most companies do not even know the breach has occurred, that is, until they are notified of the breach by a third party. (Guess who is responsible for the breach? Not the company being outsourced to, the company who was responsible for maintaining the data in the first place: YOU.) If the company looks legitimate, and if the company does not have any past complaints for data breaches, and if your company can afford to outsource, then go for it. If none of these aspects meet your expectations, however, it’s best to nix the idea altogether.   You are Responsible Always remember, you are the one responsible for the data, regardless of whether or not you outsource a role. If you can’t afford a data breach, chances are you can’t afford to outsource. This is not to say that all outsourced departments or companies are horrible, but rather that there is simply not enough oversight in order to properly regulate this type of transaction as of yet. As the old saying goes: “you get what you pay for;” if you can’t afford the potential consequences of using a lower cost alternative, you can’t afford not to have the standard measures in place.   Image Source: Workhoppers.com. (2013). Outsourcing. Retrieved from https://workhoppers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/outsourcing.jpg web hosting Continue reading

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