5 Things You Need to Check Before Starting a Website

Setting up a website for your business is not something that can accomplish overnight. If you want to increase your product sales, prospective customers should be able to visit your website and get more information about your business. If they find your website unattractive or they didn't find the information they are looking for, they might close the tab immediately or just look for other websites.

This is the reason why before you go on live, you need to decide carefully how your website should look and what information is necessary for visitors to find useful and/or entertaining.

Identify what your target audience needs

Building a website has a purpose of attracting more customers to patronize or buy your products. It means you should understand exactly what they want to know. You can conduct a survey or try to engage with them via social media. This will allow you to list down the information that they want to know such as product descriptions, promotions, and other services. You can prioritize this information when designing the website.

Check other existing websites

It also helps if you check other websites just to find out which ones are doing well. You may consider benchmarking these sites and create a better version for your own business. Of course, don't just copy what has already been put up. You just want to see what kind of strategy works so that you can do something of the same type, or probably even better.

Collect pertinent information

Before publishing your own website, make sure that everything is properly organized. You must have the complete list of products to sell, prices, descriptions, images, as well as other details. There should also be articles that provide more information that the people can read and learn more about your products' or services' benefits, advantages, and purposes. Your business contact information, as well as your office location should also be visible for people's reference. And if you want to continue interacting with them thru social media, it should also be published online. Starting a website without having all these information available is a big no-no.

Think of an overall theme

Aside from having all the important information, you need to have a theme in mind for your website. For example, there are sites with a darker motif to create a stronger or braver vibe, while others have a relaxed or comfy feel. You can also incorporate the appropriate background music with your chosen motif to add an impact or effect to your site visitors. When deciding your website's theme, consider your product and the image you want to portray to your target audience.

Search for the best web designer

Once you have everything planned out, you can now proceed in searching for the best web designer that can accomplish the job. The good thing is that it is easy to look for experts in Oxford Web design. Aside from the concept that you already have, you need a design expert in order for your website's concept and theme to materialize. You also need someone to do the maintenance in case something goes wrong with your website.

Online Business Ideas You Can Start With Immediately

It's considered normal for anyone, whose dreaming of starting his or her own business, to envision four white walls and a mess of boxes to unpack in a commercial space. However, it doesn't have to be that way. With technology at present, you can start and run a business online, often with little or no cost at all.

By focusing on your strengths, you'll be able to find a client roster and get your online-based business started. Here are some great online business ideas you can start with.

SEO Consultant

Do you like the ins and outs of search engines and have skills in platforms like Google Analytics? The owners of a lot smaller companies don't realize how much of an impact search engine optimization (SEO) can have on their business. Educate those business owners of the power of SEO to help transform their websites into a more SEO-friendly property. Use your skills to show business owners how to read and use their analytics data the right way, and how to properly use keywords and structure content to get more traffic.

Business Coaching

If you possess a great deal of business experience and knowledge, why not create a business that helps aspiring entrepreneurs find success? You can use your skills to help new business owners get off to a good start and help experienced entrepreneurs keep up with demand. To show off your knowledge and skills and bring in clients, you can also write articles about business on platforms like LinkedIn.

Social Media Consultant

Larger companies can hire an agency or full-time staff member to run their Facebook and Twitter accounts, but small businesses often have to handle their own social media marketing. With so many responsibilities, business owners are often too busy, overwhelmed or undereducated about the importance of social media to spend time developing and implementing a great social media strategy. As a consultant, you can help them determine the best tactics, posting schedules and content for their target audience. As their follower count grows, so will your business.

Web Design

There's nothing more off-putting than a poorly designed website, and often, it kills credibility. If you know HTML and have a good eye for design, you can launch a service to create attractive, easy-to-use websites for small businesses. Put your skills to good use for business owners who want to take their online presence to the next level. Build a comprehensive portfolio, and then create your own website to show it off and attract a steady stream of clients.

Resume/Cover Letter Writing

It's a tough truth to swallow, but a standout resume and cover letter can make all the difference when you're applying for a job. While listing career accomplishments might seem like an easy task, the fine art of "humble bragging" eludes some of us. Find work by helping others to get hired with the aid of stellar resumes. Capitalize on the increasingly important social media branding bandwagon and offer to fix LinkedIn profiles as well.

Remote Technical Support

Many small businesses don't have room in their budget for a full-time IT employee, so when their systems go on the fritz, they'll usually call a computer-savvy friend or family member. If you have experience working on computers and networks, you can eliminate their need to call in a favor and offer immediate remote technical assistance.

When Should You Invest in Dedicated IT Support for Your Small Business?

The answer to this question is simple: Today; right now; pick up the phone now or browse the Internet right now; not a minute more; do it now!

Of course, the reasons are pretty obvious if you have a small business -- it’s not practical to have your own dedicated IT or tech team directly employed to your business. This entails a large overhead with salaries, benefits, perhaps even an additional position for human resources (HR). Add this to the equipment setup that you need for the business such as desktop computers, maybe three or four laptops for higher management or the field operators, including networking and Internet access.

No small business today can do away with computers and the Internet as part of their daily operation, especially if the business needs to be visible at all levels. The main purpose of these computers is mainly to serve the business by sharing files and other devices in connection to sales and services. Another important function is communications; customers online and between the employees and management.

So, what happens when you run into all sorts of computer and technical problems that are all beyond your technical capacity?

These problems can create lost business transactions including lost customers and lost sales and opportunities. That is why it is always recommended to have a dedicated technical support service that you can subscribe to, and in terms of practicality, will cost less than having an IT department on standby.

Every business owner knows that when anything affects its computer infrastructure, then it follows that customers, potential business, and sales, and along these lines, profit and the chance for the company’s growth is lost. Unable to meet a customer’s deadline, unable to deliver a service on time, failing to answer a client inquiry, and other similar instances easily translates to lost sales.

In practical terms, any small business will benefit from an online and remote dedicated technical support service to solve any computer and related issues that may arise. Remember that all machines are similar and will eventually break down after a period of time of continuous usage.

A 24x7x365 online dedicated technical support by well-trained, well-equipped, and experienced network and technical support engineers is like owning a weapon. You would rather have it and not use it, than having a need to use it, and not have it. Best of all, the advantages of having full and dedicated technical support is quite straightforward:

§  Coverage and support for all types of networking, computer, and software issues, concerns, and brands.

§  Issues can be fixed at your convenient time so as not to disrupt your business operations.

§  Can help your business to understand computer issues and concerns to avoid re-occurrence.

§  Online remote sessions while you watch how the technicians fix your computers.

§  Repair of modem and home networking issues such as frequent disconnections including wireless concerns.

§  Setting up VoIP, Internet connection sharing, and networking.

§  Installation of programs or software including antivirus and antispyware programs.

Reliable Ad Blockers You Need to Have for Your iOS 10 Device

Over the years, there are now different ways on how ads are inserted in iOS devices, along with the number of updates that the operating system has gone through. Because of this, some older ad blockers that have not been updated won't be able to perform their jobs properly. Check out some free ad blockers that you can download from the App Store that will block most ads in Safari and certainly a few apps optimized for iOS 10.

Ad Guard

Ad Guard is a great solution when it comes to blocking ads on your Safari browser since it boasts up to 50 filters. The only disadvantage of using this particular app is that some of these filters are subscription-based. However, you can already enjoy the filtering job of its free and default version that most average Safari user will ever encounter. What sets this app apart from other ad blockers is that it can be turned on or off from a specific page by tapping the "Share" icon in Safari.

This app also offers a fake VPN profile that has the ability to block ads across the entire system -- not just in Safari. The only downside with this option is that this upgrade needs to be purchased, though its free version is more than enough to clean up the user experience.

Block Ad by Neverads

Block Ad by Neverads is free, fast, and effective with no frills included. It blocks all those annoying ads including image ads, video ads, etc. As a result, you get the best experience in fast web browsing. This app installs on Safari and makes you feel comfortable whenever you start browsing. Like many other ad blockers, Block Ad provides anywhere from two to five times more browsing speed and actively helps to prevent any unnecessary data consumption.

1Blocker

The description on its iTunes' downloads page claims that it has a "lightning-fast native Content Blocking API" and that it "doesn't slow Safari." 1Blocker is proven to be non-invasive, stable, and quick when it comes to blocking ads and get back to seeing what really matters the most.

Turn On Your Ad Blockers

Do take note that ad blockers do not start working the minute you downloaded them. You need to turn them on first on your device's settings. On your device's Home screen, go to Settings, then scroll down and tap on Safari. Next, scroll and tap on Content Blockers. Toggle the switch next to each ad blocker according to your personal preferences.

It won't hurt to run more than one content blocker on your device, though the idea is not actually necessary.