Tag Archives: politics

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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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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What Is Net Neutrality And Why Does It Matter?

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Hosting

The post What Is Net Neutrality And Why Does It Matter? appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Net neutrality is the basic premise that all online data should be treated equally, without discrimination, without additional charges, and without blocking or throttling internet usage by all ISPs (Internet Service Providers) or by the government. It is uncensored access, equal access, and unrestricted access. As Senator Franken (of Minnesota) has been quoted as saying “Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time.” The internet was designed as an open medium of communication, one in which all users could access all content (within the legal requirements for content access in certain cases) without being restricted from doing so. There are many that argue that net neutrality no longer exists, in light of the fact that the FCC’s previous rulings on the matter were recently struck down, but in light of the publicity that we, the users of the internet, have brought to this issue, in light of the protests that we have made, the FCC is taking steps to create new net neutrality rules, working to try to keep the public’s desires at heart (a first for the FCC, one could argue!). The FCC’s actions are not entirely altruistic, being concerned with the creation of monopolies and the like, but, the fact of the matter is that net neutrality is not yet dead. If net neutrality ceases, we could be looking at a creation of an internet bogged down by fees, one in which the user must pay to access certain types of content. One in which Netflix does not have to pay a toll to have its content streamed, and one in which those tolls are not passed on in fees to the customers who wish to use it. It is not just streaming that would be affected, however, but all content. For example if you wanted access to the news websites, you could be charged a fee, and another fee could be charged if you wanted to look at internet memes. The sky would be the limit if net neutrality dies out completely. So yes, pay attention to anything involving net neutrality, and remember, as we said back in 2011 – “We here at HostGator support a free internet. An internet in which free information and unhindered distribution of said information is an unalienable human right.” We still stand by this statement and we believe that you need to know what’s going on in the world of the internet today! Image Source: Color Lines. (2014). Net Neutrality . [image online] Available at: http://colorlines.com/assets_c/2013/09/net_neutrality_081310-thumb-640xauto-629-thumb-640xauto-9121.gif [Accessed: 27 Mar 2014]. web hosting Continue reading →

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How to Effectively Integrate Your Marketing Efforts

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Hosting

The post How to Effectively Integrate Your Marketing Efforts appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . As the Internet becomes a more commonly used tool for consumers to locate companies and products they are interested in, it is becoming more and more important for companies to effectively integrate their marketing efforts into the online arena. Many companies are still operating as if their online marketing efforts are entirely separate from the rest of their advertising campaigns. In fact, in the 21 essential for your company to integrate all of your marketing campaigns in order to ensure one cohesive message. Potential consumers are easily turned off by a lack of continuity across varying advertising platforms. Being promised one thing and receiving another proves frustrating for everyone involved. As a marketer, you should take steps to make sure that your efforts are helping your company realize its maximum potential. Organizing an effective and cohesive marketing strategy that includes both online and offline marketing doesn’t have to be incredibly difficult. Here are a few easy tips designed to help you effectively integrate your marketing efforts:   Define Your Focus A vast majority of marketing efforts today fail to focus on the big picture. A company that fails to inspire their employees to concentrate their marketing efforts will most likely encounter a lack of success when it comes to attracting potential customers. Today, the most effective integrated marketing campaigns usually come down to how well companies can brand themselves. Every company should take time to research how they want to shape their own brand, what is important to their customers when making a purchase, and what makes their company unique from their competitors.   Identify Marketing Channels Many people think about integrated marketing as a wide range of marketing messages that reach consumers on every channel possible. In reality, trying to reach every channel can actually result in fragmentation of your desired marketing message. The advertising arena today is incredibly saturated with messages from millions of companies around the world. Fragmented messages can actually limit the effectiveness of your communications in the channels that are most important to your company. Limiting your company’s message by trying to disperse it across every possible medium will simply result in your message becoming subject to the ‘needle­in­a­haystack’ syndrome. Identifying the marketing channels that will have the most impact on the customers you are targeting is essential to any successful integrated marketing effort.   Sync Your Efforts Once you have successfully identified the channels you believe will be most effective to capture customers, you need to take time to organize and coordinate all forms of your marketing communications. As mentioned above, companies who do not present a coordinated, cohesive message across all of their marketing platforms can easily discourage their customers. Every channel should have a message that focuses on the same positive aspects of your business.   Think Global, Act Local Companies in the 21st Century have a much greater potential to reach customers on a global level than ever before. The Internet provides companies with a simple platform that allows them to reach international consumers quickly and efficiently. Many businesses fall into the trap of excessively tailoring their messages to the local consumers that are interested in their products. Too much local focus can actually compromise a company’s ability to maintain consistent messages across various channels.   While tailoring niche messages will certainly allow companies to capture larger segments of the local market, companies must be careful to maintain consistent and reliable messages. Keeping your key marketing elements in mind throughout your integrated marketing efforts will allow you to remain consistent, and maximize your potential. web hosting Continue reading →

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