Tag Archives: ideas

What Dad Taught Me About How To Be An Entrepreneur

The post What Dad Taught Me About How To Be An Entrepreneur appeared first on HostGator Blog . What Lessons From Dad Made You a Better Entrepreneur? At HostGator, we help millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners realize their dreams by building their websites. But your website represents much more than just your business. It’s a complex organism you’ve designed based on your thought leadership, your product, your industry, and more. We recognize that we’re […] Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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Determining When To Enact Change

The post Determining When To Enact Change appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Nothing stays the same forever, and neither should your website. It’s important to constantly work to improve the content and quality of your website, but how do you determine when change is necessary? What changes should you make? These are both valid questions, and while we cannot provide you with all the answers, as some of that will depend on your client base, profit margins, and the like, we can offer you some tips as to when you should start looking to change things up.   Updates This is huge. When you receive a notification that your site or any of the different programs, applications, widgets, templates, etc. that you use has an update available, do it. These updates are typically designed to address vulnerabilities. Your site needs to stay up to date. Make the change. Update your site. Your customers, your tech support, your staff, and your pocketbook will all thank you. It can be disastrous to fail to do this one simple step. Granted, these changes will likely not bear any visible changes to your site, but they will keep the back-end safe which is just as important.   What About The Rest of It? If you’re blogging, try to update at least two to three times per week. More if you like, but at least weekly updates are ideal. Keep new content coming and you will have repeat readers. If you have an e-commerce site, keep it constantly flowing – add new products or services. Change product descriptions to make them sound catchier if you notice a particular item isn’t selling. You can even poll your customers regarding changes that they would like to see on your site and then determine how you would like to go from there. Not all the ideas are going to be ones that you will implement, but if half a dozen people tell you that they want the search options updated, there’s a good chance you should get on that. If you have no suggestions, go look at your site from a customer’s point of view. See the site as they would see it, try to see it as if you are seeing it for the first time. See where it looks cumbersome, see what you did well. Try to remove the clunky and the cumbersome and try to work to ensure that what you did well is done well everywhere. If you really like the way one item page looks and flows, try to replicate it on the others.   It’s Natural It’s natural to not want to update your site (the “set it and forget it” mentality), and you don’t have to update everything. If you like your background color or the template you’re using, keep it. If you’re using a black background and neon pink text, you may want to consider changing it to something easier to read, however. The Internet is constantly evolving, and your site should be as well. In working to determine the different things you like about other sites, you may find things you want to change about your own site. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Change is not a bad thing. Keep things fresh and your content up to date and attention grabbing and your website will flourish!   Image Source: Jelly Ranger. (2014). Future Self. Retrieved from http://jellyranger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/futureself.jpg web hosting Continue reading

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New Funding Methods For A New Age In Business

The post New Funding Methods For A New Age In Business appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Starting a Small Business So you’ve decided you want to start a small business of your own; you’re ready to stop working for others and start working for yourself. This is great! Yes, you get to set your own hours, and yes, you get to do what you would like to do; however, when starting up a business of your own, you need to have the available capital to do so, and the time it takes to get it done. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day!   Ways to Accomplish This You’ve decided to start your business online. There are lower associated startup costs, and you don’t have to wear pants to go to work, both of which are decided bonuses! The problem is that it still costs money. You need a hosting plan , and you need up front capital to be able to get your inventory started, regardless of whether you are making something yourself or whether you are selling pre-made, manufactured products. How would you go about doing this if you don’t have the money saved up yourself? Well, there are several ways. You could find an angel investor, a set of investors, get a loan from the bank, or you could turn to the latest in funding – investment sites like Kickstarter.   Kickstarter Kickstarter is a site that people may go to in order to present their ideas to the general population. Individuals read through the proposals, some of which include bonuses to those who donate x amount to their cause, and then donate. Yes, that’s right, people just give you money because they like your idea and want to see it come into existence. Now keep in mind that your idea must be a good one, as defined by the population at large, and that not all Kickstarters work. If the proposal is not written well, the likelihood of gaining funding decreases dramatically. Included below is a link to a very helpful article that discusses the progress of one small business; how they took their idea from just an idea and turned it into a successful business using funding gained through Kickstarter. That’s right, someone is being helpful just for the sake of being helpful. This increasing amount of transparency in companies serves to benefit you in that it teaches you one possible path to walk, providing you with the information necessary for your business to potentially succeed in the same manner.   Getting Going While not all Kickstarters are a success, as we have mentioned, there are those that have the potential to become quite successful (such as Amanda Palmer’s ground-breaking Kickstarter campaign). While it is true that you must obtain the knowledge yourself instead of building on top of the knowledge of others, you are able to take information, such as this, and use it as a means of working to increase your knowledge base, providing you with insight on how to succeed, and the different pitfalls to avoid. So, what are you waiting for? Get going! Start your own business, and start reaping the success of your own hard work. For more information: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/angeliatrinidad/passion-planner-the-one-place-for-all-your-thought/posts/1067424   Image Source: Kickstarter.com. (2014). Start your project — Kickstarter. Retrieved 26 December 2014, from https://www.kickstarter.com/learn?ref=hero web hosting Continue reading

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Google’s Project Shield Hosts Websites Vulnerable to DDoS Attacks

October 25, 2013 — Google announced the launch of “Project Shield,” a hosting service for targets of DDOS attacks, at its Ideas conference on Monday. The DDOS protection hosting service is part of a suite of tools meant for use by websites which serve “media, elections, or human rights related content.” Keep on reading: Google’s Project Shield Hosts Websites Vulnerable to DDoS Attacks Continue reading

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Writing Appealing Online Content: The Basics

The basics of writing are the same whether you write for an online audience or a print audience. Continue reading

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