How and Why to Safely Invest in Cryptocurrency in 2022

Posted on by Wayland Bruns
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As we enter the third year of the COVID era, we see tectonic shifts in the financial industry. From the debt limit crisis, the failure of Gold as a safe asset, Brexit and the looming default of the major financial markets, there comes a need to be flexible. The way you invested in the past will not likely achieve the yields necessary to fulfill your retirement goals. It is time to walk on the wild side.

Remember how you got started with investing. In a time when simply holding stocks made a profit, or a safe company like IBM was considered a safe investment. Everyone trading now knows full well that robots dominate the market, and the Quants are stealing your money by trading ahead of you.

From my own experience, I gave nearly $80k of IRA funds to a major bank’s investment advisor. Over a ten-year period, he took $22,000 in fees and achieved a return to me of 0.25% – Total – for 10 years of investing. That is one quarter percent gain – an APR of about one-quarter of a CD over the same time period. Since pulling that money, I have made 50% in 4 years using simple index ETFs. Every time a Financial Advisor tells you not to trade Bitcoin – keep in mind that they are talking about their fees and not your best interest, in mind.

Bitcoin was invented in 2009 as an electronic form of value and exchange. In the early days, it was easy to say that it was made of nothing, worth nothing and would go nowhere. In the following 12 years, the value and adoption have exceeded all expectations. If you are not currently invested in Bitcoin, here are some easy ways:

1. Purchase Bitcoin Using a Traditional Stockbroker

Popular brokers are Robinhood which operates as a high-tech operation. You deposit your funds to Robinhood and purchase Bitcoin. They claim to not have a commission. However, they are entirely funded by a market consolidator that trades ahead of you – scalping higher prices in the process.

2. Purchase Bitcoin Through PayPal or Other Payment Provider

At this point, everyone and their brother handles Bitcoin, including PayPal. You can simply run your purchase through them.

3. Use a popular Crypto Exchange

The most popular exchanges in the US are Coinbase and Binance.us. Note that Binance.com is banned from operating in the US. My quick suggestion is to make accounts on both of them. Coinbase is handy because they will give you $5 for just opening an account, but I find the services available on Binance.us to be easier to understand.

4. Invest in an ETF that trades in Bitcoin

The SEC and Bitcoin have a fraught relationship. If Cryptocurrency becomes successful, a considerable number of financial corporations and brokers will be unemployed. The SEC runs front man ensuring that Bitcoin is a second class asset in its tax treatment, rules to limit firms from trading it, and ensuring that regular people cannot invest.

While there currently is no ETF that trades Bitcoin directly, the Grayscale Investment Trust (GBTC) allows you to own an investment based solely on Bitcoin assets. In general terms, one GBTC share is about 1/100th of a Bitcoin. Recently, due to changes in their management, the “premium” value has moved from positive to negative. GBTC trades with the Pink Sheets, so you can only trade it during market hours. You can trad GBTC from your IRA account.

5. Invest in Etherium

Bitcoin’s younger sibling is Etherium, and Grayscale now offers Grayscale Etherium Trust (ETHE). Again, this is a trust and not a real ETF, but it gives a vehicle that can be easily traded from a common stock account.

6. Invest in Blockchain Related ETFs

In addition to GBTC and ETHE, 2021 has brought us some new blockchain-based ETFs – And finally, some new ETFs for blockchain – Vaneck Digital Transformation ETF- DAPP, Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK), Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF (BLCN).

7. Invest in Companies that are Bitcoin Merchants or Miners

Bitcoin Stocks – Some companies are so involved with Bitcoin that they trade relative to Bitcoin’s price. None as directly as GBTC but enough to be worth mentioning. Coinbase – COIN, Marathon Digital – MARA, Riot Blockchain – RIOT, Sphere 3d – ANY.

8. Do NOT Invest in Bitcoin Technology – Soon to be Obsolete

Some call NVIDIA a “Bitcoin stock” because their GPUs are used for mining. But this is not trading on the broad cryptocurrency market or even in a sustainable market. You are merely trading the merchant of the current mining technology. The method of bitcoin mining is wasteful both in electricity and electronic waste products. It is already obsolete. You are trading Coke in the era of Rockstar or IBM in the era of Microsoft. Trade Robinhood, not Lehman brothers. Everyone knows that you need to trade emerging technologies and not get distracted by the dinosaurs you see on the road.

9. Move your Money to Where the Action Is

Willie Sutton, a famous bank robber, was asked why he robbed banks. “Because that’s where the money is” is the oft-quoted reply.

Bitcoin and Etherium average about 200% gains per year. However, they tend to run a pattern of going up 400% one year, then going down as much as 80% the following year. So half of Bitcoin investors are thrilled because they’ve been through a couple of cycles and made 400%, and the other half are somber because they lost 80% in their three months of trying it.

In 2022, both Bitcoin and Etherium have enough history to become dependable. They have even spawned an investment style to put a fixed amount in per month so as to slowly grow an account without having a considerable risk at the start. For instance, if you want to invest $10,000, you have a massive risk if you invest today – since Bitcoin may drop by 50% next month – burning $5000 of your investment. But if you instead move $500 per month over a 20 month period – you are likely to bridge a number of up and down cycles and good chance to end up with a higher balance at the end of the period.

I can tell you from experience that I own the equivalent of 2 bitcoin at a purchase price of $8,000 each. A couple of years ago, I was on the seat of my chair for every drop. But in 2021, I really don’t care if Bitcoin is worth $40,000 one day and $20,000 the next. I just do not care. It is improbable it will ever again hit my break-even spot and is very likely to hit $100,000. I can state from experience that once you have hit a 400% gain, it becomes far easier to ride out the swings.

10. Investing in Altcoins and 2nd Tier Cryptocurrencies

Once you have a Coinbase and Binance.US wallet, you will see that they allow you to invest in about 100 other cryptocurrencies. It is easiest to look at these in terms of market share. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) still account for 80% of the market. But the next 15% of the market is held by a small number of Altcoins. Cardano (ADA), Binance Chain (BNB), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE) and others. These are easy to trade and have regular chart patterns.

Anyone experienced in chart trading of stocks will quickly find comfort in trading the Alt-Coin market. Even if you are not experienced, use this simple formula –

  1. Find any coin trading in a zig zag that represents an upward moving channel
  2. Watch when it hits the bottom of the channel
  3. Buy when it moves up,
  4. Sell when it hits the top of the channel.

The past channel will show you your holding term, and ideally, a channel that runs 14-60 days gives a good ROI. Day traders like to trade intra-day channels, but I have always been a fan of 60 day channels. Finding channels that run 14-60 days give you a nice in and out cycle. Just sell when the coin breaks the channel or goes “weird” on you. Not every investment keeps to channels, but finding the ones that are regular is better than trying for a wildcard win.

My own experience is that the Alt-Coin market generally trends in-line with Bitcoin. So the best time to trade is when Bitcoin is rising. This is easy to spot because all the coins follow the same general trend. In an uptrending market, even your wrong decisions become right. Then when Bitcoin falters, move your money to the stable coins.

11. Stable Coins and their Use

There are a number of stable coins – Tether (USDT), Center (USDC) and Binance USD (BUSD) which attempt to remain parity with the US Dollar. When you encounter a down-drafting market, it is often faster and cheaper to park your funds in a stable coin rather than withdraw them to a US Dollar account.

12. Easy Way to Minimize your Risk

A reasonable way to invest in Alt-Coins is to wait for a time when market analysts predict Bitcoin will rise. Currently, with the debt ceiling looming and the COVID cloud on the economy is a good time.

Then invest a small amount of money broadly in many vehicles. I like to put $50 or $100 in a coin for a month or two, so that I can track the action to be sure it looks sane.

Then if it starts trending, I double and quadruple my investment. Right now, I have an alphabet soup of Altcoin investments with $40-60 in them (depending on whether they went down or up) and only about 5 of them with more than $400 in them. If these coins follow the general trend for Bitcoin, which goes up nearly 400% every-other-year, then I am anticipating returns of about 1,200% per year from Altcoins. Keep the tax treatment in mind – as these investments are taxed as income and not as long or short-term gains.

13. Another Warning

Crypto markets trade 24 hours a day. If you have spent any time trading penny stocks or trending stocks, you are accustomed to the rhythm of pre-market, market and post-market hours. With Cryptos, the market runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The market commonly trends as soon as the US stock market closes. On many weekends you can see Bitcoin takes off just after 4 pm Eastern Time on Friday and carries that momentum through the weekend, only to lose it on Monday morning. Beware of the effect on your sleep and worry that your new investment will lose value if you fail to execute a 2am trade on your phone.

14. Investing on the Wild Side using DeFi (DEX) Markets

Starting in 2019, the DeFi markets have come into their own. This is a place you can make significant gains. The DeFi markets allow you to invest in the virtual birth of a Coin, and there are thousands of them. You can easily have a coin with such a low value that 1 trillion of them is not even $100. It raises the imaginary circumstance that if they rise to a penny, you can retire for life.

The DeFi coins all have convoluted reasons for existing and features that their designers hope will bring them into prominence. From the silly coins like WIFEDOGE because DOGE needs a wife to the super-serious Greentrust, which promises to offset the investing with green technology. GNT is now my most significant loss so far at about 85% lost (nearly $60 or 1.5 Chinese Dinners). Trading in these coins is speculation in its purest form – you buy a currency foolishly, hoping only to sell it for a higher price to the next fool.

15. Getting a DeFi Wallet

The vehicle for trading Defi Markets is a Defi Wallet. Popular wallets are MetaMask for your browser or Trust Wallet for your phone. These wallets give access to a trading Blockchain, like Binance Smart Chain or Polygon. Finally, within that chain, you can purchase DeFi tokens.

It is challenging to move money from your Bank to the top tier exchanges, to the DeFi chains. This is convoluted because you are moving through levels of deregulation of your money. So be careful to only move money you can afford to lose – and never borrowed money or your emergency funds.

The Crypto markets use the term “Fiat” to mean US Dollars, which are worthless without the trust of the US Government. So in their words, Crypto is Real because it tangibly exists on the blockchain, and Fiat is Fake because it has no value except that people agree to honor the face value of a piece of paper. So you are moving your money from the Fake world to the Real-world, which takes time and effort.

Both Coinbase and Binance have holding requirements of about ten days before you can withdraw funds to the blockchain world. Then you need a third-party utility like Uniswap or Binance Wallet to effect the withdrawal into the blockchain.

16. Procedure for Moving from Fiat to DeFi – from Dollars to Pancakeswap

  1. Withdraw US Dollars from your bank account into a Binance.US. You can purchase BNB OR BUSD here, but you need to let it sit for ten days.
  2. Then withdraw into a compatible chain – like Binance Chain.
  3. Once in the chain, convert it to a DeFi chain for the token family you want to buy. So convert Binance Chain BEP2 to Binance Smart Chain BEP-20.
  4. Finally, move the money into the more obscure coins supported by that chain. Sift through the features, and make some test investments.

Again, my experience is to start with a $50 investment to start, and then $100 and only if it feels right to work with more significant amounts of money. For me, $50 is the cost of a takeout Chinese Dinner, something we do once or twice a month (with leftovers, it makes two dinners for my family).

17. Staking Rewards add Up To 90% APY to DeFi Profits

One of the things you can do with DeFi coins is to stake them. Staking a coin assists the market and gives you access to staking rewards. When other people trade the coin, or “stake” is rewarded. For this activity, I am most impressed with Pancakeswap and their CAKE coin. Currently, if you stake CAKE, you can earn about 80% APY – that is – about 5% per month. Your earnings are dwarfed by the movement in the underlying coin, which has gone up 25% in the last three months. Like Bitcoin – from its recent High in April 2021 to its low in June 2021 was an 80% drop. On the other hand, if you had purchased CAKE in January 2021, you would now have a 2,900% profit.

The 2,900% profit in 9 months is completely dwarfed by SAFEMOON, which launched in March 2021. If you had invested $1,000 at launch, you would have made $3.5 million two months later.

As Willie Sutton observed – “Because that is where the money is.” For 2022, where you want to be is in Altcoins, Staking and watching the breakout opportunities.

Summary

If you ever dream of being one of the early Bitcoin investors, spending 10,000 bitcoin for a Pizza, only to have that amount grow to be worth $400 million in 10 years, do not think those days are over. A simple strategy of investing $100 evenly over 100 coins, total $10,000 investment, will likely yield 50 complete losses, 40 break evens, and 10 winners. But if even one of those winners makes $100,000, you would call this the best investment of your life.

Stay safe and only play with money you can afford to lose. But it may be worthwhile to skip a Chinese dinner tonight and to push the $40 over to walk on the wild side of DeFi and DEX Cryptocurrency.

How to Arrange Funds When Emergency Strikes

Posted on by Stacy Craig
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These days there is quite a bit of uncertainty in the world.  Despite an increase in the facilities available, there is always a fear of the unknown. More so when there is a possibility of a fund crunch when any such situation arises. 

However, even if something like that happens, there are ways in which you can organize money. Here we tell you some simple tactics to handle the funds when an emergency strikes.

Call your family and friends 

Our family is our support system when an emergency occurs. The first instinct, therefore, is to give them a call and discuss the fund situation. Naturally, your family would share whatever help they can provide. 

Apart from that, friends also help around in whatever manner possible. However, if both of them cannot help, you can request a Same day online payday loan. Such monetary services ease your financial woes quickly. 

Ask the employer for a salary advance

If you are facing a short-term problem, then you could turn to your employer for assistance. Take an advance on your salary. This amount you will have to return after a certain period is over. 

You will have to sign documents before you are approved for this loan. Also, you must share a cordial relationship with the employer to get help.

Organize a garage sale

You may just not have steady employment, or your firm does not offer salary advances. In that case, you could organize a garage sale at your home and sell off items you no longer need. 

This could include books, toys, furnishings, appliances, etc. Though this may not fulfill your requirements completely, you would still receive some kind of help.

Liquidating assets 

This you can do if the situation is quite tricky. Maybe you have some old jewelry or antique items lurking in your cupboards. 

Some websites allow you to organize and sell such items. Choose the items you wish to sell carefully lest you regret the decision later. Plus, check the authenticity of the buyer and take full payment before you furnish the goods ahead.

Take up odd jobs

Sometimes you arrange for the funds but then paying back the amount becomes difficult. In that situation, you could take up simple jobs to keep the balance high. In part-time, you can mow your neighbor’s grass, take their pets for a walk and do babysitting. However, before you start this, just check the rates per hour, so you do not get less payment for your effort.

Conclusion

Life is tough to predict. Some days everything moves smoothly. But it does not take much time for tides to turn against you. If you are also facing a fund crunch, you could use the above tactics to get some help. 

Always recheck your options before you finalize any of the above. A payday loan is a good choice as you have to pay back the money on a fixed timeline. To avoid getting trapped with the wrong lender, always check his credentials before you sign up.

Different Types of Insurance Medical Practitioners May Need

Posted on by Stacy Craig
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With the rising cases of medical negligence lawsuits against a medical practitioner, medical malpractice insurance has been prevalent over the years to protect the livelihood and assets of such professionals. Overlooking this important aspect has cost heavily for many doctors so far. 

According to Washington Post, 2016 “The medical negligence payouts in 2014 in the New York alone stood at $690 million”

It has also been observed that there are other forms of insurance which a medical professional is required to cover under the law. But due to the lack of inadequate knowledge, most of this coverage is likely to be missed by them resulting in huge losses at the later stages.

Most of the doctors focus on medical liability coverage, which is the largest premium paid by them on account of medical malpractice insurance. However, they tend to ignore the other types of insurance which are equally crucial in protecting their livelihood and assets.

In fact, under several circumstances, these insurances are required by the law which most of the doctors are unaware of. 

In this article we are going to discuss different forms of medical insurances:

Medical Malpractice Insurance

It is one of the prevalent insurance sought by medical professionals. Medical malpractice insurance carriers are protected against the financial losses that arise due to the lawsuits filed by their patients claiming professional negligence leading to an injury/death of the patient. 

Hence the patient’s claim of negligence is covered under medical malpractice insurance for the doctors.  

Business Auto Insurance

Some medical practitioners facilitate their patients with home visits and require using their vehicle for the commutation. Hence the need for commercial or business auto insurance is imperative. 

Most auto insurance policies do not cover the damage that occurs due to business use. Thus business auto policy is designed to cover the vehicles used for business purposes.

The insurance primarily covers the property damage and medical expenses for bodily injury on account of such accidents. Depending on the coverage, the insurance company will replace or repair your vehicles due to theft, accidents, or any natural calamity.

Professional Liability Insurance

The unfortunate event of lawsuits made by your patients to claim negligence on your part is a re-occurrence when you are practicing as a medical professional privately. 

Due to the lack of a one-size-fits-all policy, this special insurance coverage helps in covering the legal defense cost that can even run up to hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Most of the private small physicians do not have enough resources to cover such claims, thus malpractice insurance for professional liability is a must. 

Practice Overhead Insurance

Individual liability insurance is relevant for the inability to practice medicine due to illness or injury. While this type of insurance is usually kept as a backup to recover the medical expenses on such an inability, the prime concern should be – Who will replace your absence in such an event?

However, when you are temporarily out of office, expenses like salaries, rent, taxes, and utility bills are still in place to handle. Practice Overhead insurance helps in recovering such overhead expenses in the event of loss of income due to injury. 

Worker Compensation Insurance

When you come up with a private clinic, you require employing dedicated employees to maintain it. If anyone gets seriously injured, how to continue with your practice? Most of the states in the United States make it a mandate to such business owners to obtain workers’ compensation insurance if they have more than the prescribed limit of employees. 

This type of insurance helps in paying off the loss on account of wages and medical expenses to the employees who get injured while discharging their duties. In the event of the death of the employee, the insurance companies compensate the employee’s family. 

This insurance is significant for most businesses to ensure the livelihood of employees in the event of accidents. 

Property Insurance

Like every business, opening a clinic requires a lot of time, effort, and investment for the right medical equipment, fixtures and furniture, and other medical supplies. But, in the event of a natural disaster, how will you ensure safety?

Property insurance is the best way to secure your property in the event of unwanted theft and fire. It exhaustively covers the physical building along with the medical equipment and other fixtures used for your practice. Especially in the event of leasing your space, property insurance is a must.

Business Interruption Insurance

Some places are likely to be affected by natural calamities and disasters at a higher rate than others. If you choose to practice in such areas, this insurance is of utmost importance for your business. In the event of a catastrophic event, the business operations will suffer.

A reliable business interruption insurance policy helps in running and getting back on your toes. 

Compared to property insurance, this type of insurance aims at covering the income stream from the business, which is adversely affected due to the disaster. 

The temporary closure of business and structural rebuilding to overcome the adversity of natural disasters are the reason for stagnation in business operations. Business Owner policy is a comprehensive insurance solution to cover the property insurance policy and business interruption insurance. 

Life Insurance

Although it is not directly related to your practice, life insurance is a significant form of insurance that extends financial protection to your family member in the event of accidental death. 

Your appointed beneficiaries receive financial protection in the event of your death under life insurance. Not just your family members, your business partner gets their peace of mind too. It is the best way to compensate for the loss of income to your family members in the event of accidental death. 

Summary

The right type of insurance is the best way to avoid major financial losses to any medical practitioner in case of catastrophic events. The day you begin your medical practice, you are certainly exposed to various liabilities. 

Having suitable insurance in place helps a doctor to protect their practice from the various kinds of potential risks. 

Top 10 Must-Follow Marketing Tips for SAAS Start-UPS in 2021

Posted on by Atreyee Chowdhury
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The SaaS market is promising but it also brings incredible competition. With new software products getting launched every day across every vertical, building a viral product is harder now more than ever.

No matter how challenging and saturated the market may look, it is not impossible to gain the attention of your audience. With the right mix of product-market fit and smart marketing tactics, you will witness the ball to be at your side. This is what we are exactly going to talk about in this blog post.

We take a deep dive into the 10 marketing tips that can create the foundation of your marketing success for your SaaS business in 2021.

10 Marketing Hacks To Skyrocket Your SAAS Start-up in 2021

No matter what marketing technique you use to acquire customers if your product does not meet the demands of your target audience. In other words, build something that people want.

This makes developing a unique selling proposition the heart of every growth hack technique.

Yes, you heard that right.

If your product is just like your competitors then no one is going to care about what you build. Did we tell you that you can use your audience research data here?

Finding the bridge to connect what your audience want and competitors fail to deliver is going to make you unique. The best part? Your perceived value in front of your audience will grow. But once you have developed your USP, the rigorous part comes in; marketing.

Ideally, you would have to undergo multiple experiments and iteration in your strategy to find out what works and what doesn’t but we make that easier for you.

The following 10 tips can streamline your SaaS customer base in no time.

1. Adopt a freemium model

If there is one strategy that opens up your software adoption rate like no other, it is the freemium model.

In an oversaturated market, where your customers are overwhelmed with product choices, a freemium model makes it easier for them to make the final decision. You empower them to make their own decision.

There are multiple strategies to experiment with here. From a 30-day trial window to lifelong freemium access, you can sample tests on real audiences.

2. Word of mouth marketing

There’s a good reason why word of mouth marketing is so popular amongst the SaaS startup community. More than often, SaaS startups include this model to gain their first customers.

It is the most effective, sustainable, yet low-cost strategy to gain loyal customers. But all its sweetness comes in one condition.

You need to deliver a superlative customer experience to your early customers. If your first customers do not find you valuable, there is little chance that they would tell their community about you.

This means to turn your customers into brand evangelists you would not only need to satisfy their expectations but exceed them. Be obsessed with customer delight. No matter what you have to do, be it give discounts, create a hyper-active response team, be there in there to answer their needs.

3. Viral marketing

Creating a viral effect with one marketing technique is often hard yet not impossible.

All you need to do is look closely into your process to identify the growth lever that can make it possible. Infact, there are a few established ones already available in the industry. The best part?

They always give results.

From referral schemes, loyalty programs for existing customers to giveaway contests any of them can give you results. It can not only give you the opportunity to establish new relationships with customers but improve the total value of your existing customers.

4.  Content marketing

There is so much value that content marketing can bring to your SaaS process.

Content is king after all.

But while you get invested in developing the heart of this scalable marketing strategy, do not forget to market your content.

There are so many methods to do so. From microblogging, SEO optimized knowledge base, webinars, infographics, time-sensitive promotions, to lead magnets, you can test all. For promotions, you can consider guest blogging or sponsor the content for an influencer to do so. Another cost-efficient way would be to use user-generated content.

5. Branding

Building a successful SaaS product is almost impossible without building a brand. Unsure why?

Here is the answer.

A successful branding venture can bring multifarious benefits to your SaaS product. From faster adoption rate, strong community, higher retention, optimized marketing costs, and the best part, market capture.

You can basically become synonymous with the category of product you are building. Does that suddenly sound like Google?

There are so many ways to do this. From SEO optimization, press review, authority review, influencer marketing to affiliate marketing. But to ensure performance, you need to keep in mind your unique situations. The budget, constraints, and goals.

6.  Optimize all the time

In business, there is no such thing called maximum sales. Ideally speaking, even if you have reached the saturation point of your total market size, it doesn’t mean your growth potential has reached the roof. You can always work on improving the perceived value of your product in the eyes of your target audience.

But to do so, you would need to optimize your processes which makes it so valuable to realize your startup potential.

There is so much you can do here. From aligning the micro-level factors like landing page elements to macro-level factors like product-market fit there is always room for improvement. The best part? It will help you yield better results without investing more resources in your marketing.

What follows is a significant improvement in the LTV (lifetime value), CAC (customer acquisition cost), and the final ROI (return on investment).

7. Create API integrations

APIs are the best scalable customer acquisition techniques you can integrate into your marketing operations.

It can not only open doors to new audiences but reinforce the foundations of strong partnerships with your collaborators. The best part? You automatically gain the position of authority in the market.

But here’s a word of caution.

Partnerships can make or break your brand’s reputation. While the right partner can fast pace your growth by years, the wrong choice can deter your speed by many years. An effective way to think about it is to ask a vital question. Whether your collaborating brand is an extension of your product’s value? If yes, then it is often the right choice.

8.  Paid marketing

Although there is no substitute for what you can accomplish with organic marketing in time, only depending upon organic growth will slow down your SaaS startup significantly. This makes paid marketing and campaigns incredibly vital. But here’s a thing.

Before you jump into paid marketing, ensure you have a complete strategy laid out. With the increasing expense of paid ads, chances are you will invest significant resources with little to no returns.

There are so many techniques to do this right. Use FOMO (fear of missing out), time-sensitive offers. Campaigns that are contextual and personalized on the basis of audience profiles and channels of distribution tend to perform better. But the best piece of advice is to develop a mindset of testing and optimizing.

The more you are open to A/B tests and campaign optimization, the better your long-term results will be. Chances are you can even witness exponential growth.

9.  Invest in building trust and authority

Trust is one of the most crucial elements for your SaaS product to succeed. No matter how promising your product may appear, if your target audience does not trust your brand, they will not engage with your brand.

This puts authority building as one of the top priorities for your marketing team.

The best part is there are many cost-effective ways to do so.

Use social proof like customer testimonials and peer reviews to do so. Platforms like G2, Quora, and ProductHunt are great ways to kickstart this. You can later integrate the best reviews of your clients on your website too. But this is not all.

You need to make sure the payment gateway is safe and secured. Using end-to-end encryptions and third-party vendors like Paypal is a good strategy to do so.

10. Collaborate with experts

Collaborations and partnerships are undoubtedly one of the most sustainable strategies for building a robust SaaS business. But if you thought that your partnerships are limited to indirect competitors, influencers, and authorities, then think again.

There is so much value that a domain expert can bring to your SaaS startup.

A SaaS growth marketer brings their domain expertise. Some of the best SaaS marketing agencies can optimize your growth levers to unleash the true potential of your product. From reducing marketing costs, finding new sales opportunities to improving customer acquisition and retention, there is so much a specialist can do.

They can prove to be your biggest asset when it comes to growth in the long term.

Conclusion

Building a successful SaaS product is hard and going to be even harder in the future.

But that doesn’t mean there is no room for winning. All you need to do is shift your mindset about the development process. Think of disrupting the existing process even in a small way possible.

Keep on reiterating and evolving your product-building methodologies and even your product if required.

This dynamic landscape makes the requirement of a nimble marketing plan incredibly important. Sure, the above tips are to give the foundational speed for today. But to sustain that growth you need to optimize the process and make changes from time to time.

Only then can you see true success with your SaaS startup.

Author bio

Atreyee Chowdhury works full-time as an Instructional Designer and is passionate about writing. She has helped many small and medium-scale businesses achieve their content marketing goals with her carefully crafted and compelling content. She lives in Bangalore, India with her husband and parents. She loves to read, experiment with different cuisines, travel, and explore the latest content marketing and L&D trends in her free time. You can reach her on Linkedin or write to her at atreyee.c@gmail.com for any content writing/marketing requirements.

When Does the Payroll Tax Cut Start?

Posted on by Jamesh
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On Aug. 8, 2020—during the first spike of COVID-19 in the United States—President Donald Trump issued an executive order to institute a “tax holiday.” If you’re still wondering when it starts, I’m afraid you’ve missed the mark. The tax holiday started on Sept. 1, 2020, and ended on Dec. 31, 2020. Moreover, it wasn’t a true tax cut, but a tax deferment.

So let’s look at what the tax holiday entailed and how it affected businesses and employees.

The Executive Order

The Executive Order contained three sections that directly affected businesses and their employees. Here is what these sections entailed:

Section 1 & Section 2

These two tie into each other. Section 1 states the COVID-19 pandemic is “of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant an emergency declaration,” and Trump directed the Secretary of the Treasury (then Steven Mnuchin) to “use his authority to defer certain payroll tax obligations.” In simple terms, it’s like an essay introduction: It states the issue and the way Trump intended to fix it.

Section 2 goes into more detail about Trump’s policy. In it, he directed Mnuchin to defer the “withholding, deposit, and payment” on wages between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, 2020. In sub-section (a), the order states the deferral will apply to anyone who makes less than $4,000 before taxes per bi-weekly paycheck (or the equivalent, if they aren’t paid bi-weekly).

Finally, sub-section (b) states this deferment will not incur any penalties, interest or other additions to the taxes deferred. In other words, the tax deferment is almost like an interest-free loan.

Section 4

Section 4 is short and to the point. In it, Trump directed Mnuchin to “explore avenues” through which the deferment might become permanent. In other words, Trump asked Mnuchin to look into any methods through which the deferred taxes might be forgiven entirely.

In the end, however, these taxes were not forgiven. Everyone who received the tax deferment was required to pay it back through extra tax withholdings between Jan. 1 and April 31, 2021.

What It Meant for You

If you’re the owner of a private company or one of its employees, it probably never meant much at all. Most private entities opted out of the payroll tax holiday and decided to deduct taxes from paychecks as normal. It was never law, it was never mandatory and most private companies thought it was short-term relief with an impending reckoning.

Think about it: Trump gave the option to not pay taxes for four months, but you’d have to pay double taxes during the next four months to make up for it. At best, it would be a lot of work to accomplish nothing; at worst, it would harm employees by cutting their paychecks during the repayment period.

Companies Can Learn From the Payroll Tax Cut

Even though the payroll tax cut proved to be irrelevant to most businesses, it did provide some value. Most notably, it compelled businesses to think carefully about their processes and how they affect their bottom line.

How to Choose the Best Payment Processor for Your Business?

Posted on by Hamza Ashraf
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For most small businesses, selecting your payment process is one of the most critical decisions you can make.  Anyone who has experienced a day or two of downtime knows that network service will break your business if it is not dependable.  Dependability has a cost, and the monthly fees can add up to significant amounts of money.

A payment processor is a company that acts as a go-between allowing your customer to move money from their own account to your account.  Allowing your customer to pay using a credit or debit card requires a payment processor to mediate the transaction.

If we talk about the best payment processor for small and medium businesses, then we are familiar with numerous companies which are offering these services.

Helcim

Helcim is a payment company with high standards for ethics and transparency.  It offers many different types of banking services. They rank highly on Helcim review websites.  Their common products aim to provide quick and convenient services to their customers. 

Helcim was founded in 1993 by two entrepreneurs who had previously worked with the Swiss National Bank. The company has grown steadily since then due to Helcim’s innovative solutions for financing needs.

Today Helcim provides various products and services such as loans, deposits, investments, and credit card processing through their branches in North America and online on the Helcim website.

 Why People Prefer Helcim over Stripe?

Helcim vs. Stripe is a really worthy table talk among the people doing or promoting their small businesses. 

Considering the Helcim, so it is a better choice for merchants based in the US and Canada than Stripe. Let’s compare their differences here: 

 1-Helcim has an easier-to-use API and a lower monthly fee.

 2- Helcim allows you to run your credit card terminal at home without any additional fees

3- Helcim is cheaper and has a more flexible credit card processing plan for nonprofits

4- Helcim allows you to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Interac debit payment

5- Helcim charges no monthly fee on business accounts with $3000+/month of volume. They do not even charge per-transaction fees

6- Helcim has a higher payout and more payment options than the Stripe

7- Helcim allows you to choose the length of your contracts, while with Stripe, there is no option for this 

8- Helcim’s merchant account signup process takes less time. With Helcim, it takes only one business day to get approved and activated, and you can start accepting payments in your store immediately 

9- Helcim has a real person (like Matt Kaplan) to answer specific questions about their services, while with Stripe, there is no such option. You only get general information that does not apply to merchants like you 

10- Helcim has a higher approval rate (it takes less time for the application process), and there is no need to provide any documents besides ID, which means you can get your merchant account faster. With Stripe, on the other hand, it often takes several days to get approved 

11- Helcim accepts businesses with bad/no credit, while Stripe does not. With Helcim, you can have multiple bad business accounts connected under one Helcim account, and they all work together as a team if needed

12- Helcim gives merchants the ability to manage their statement preferences – this is a very convenient option, especially for Helcim merchants who have to send statements via email instead of snail mail

13- Helcim has a better customer service department by far. With Helcim, if you need help with anything specific, you can call Helcim, and a real person will answer your question. With Stripe, on the other hand, if you need to speak with someone via live chat or email, it takes several minutes until anyone responds

14- Helcim has better sales tools and credit card processing solutions for local businesses than Stripe does. With Helcim, you can use a wireless terminal or buy your own and connect to the Helcim network

15- Helcim’s credit card processing fees are cheaper than Stripe’s. Helcim charges $0.08 per transaction and 0% of the total sale, while with Stripe, it is $0.15 plus a percentage fee.

Summing up all the points, we can conclude that Helcim is the best choice rather than Stripe. We said this based on the pros and cons discussed above.

Other Options for Payment Processor

PayPal

PayPal Credit Card processing means that you can accept all major payment types from your customers right on the site. The checkout process is simple, customizable, and scalable for businesses of any size!

PayPal knows how important it is to offer their clients fast & secure online transactions without compromising their ability to get a great customer service experience – which is why each transaction through this platform comes complete with 24/7 support via phone or email.

As well as auto-reloading funds into an account so there are no delays during peak hours due to lack of cash flow like what often happens when using other platforms.

Paytm Business

Paytm, the fastest growing payment platform in India, and over 17 million merchants are already using it! It’s time for your business to get on board. With a variety of solutions, including eCommerce integration with magneto or eCommerce – Paytm will make accepting payments easier than ever before.

• Get familiarized with all their features like Online Bill Payments & Cheques.

• Send money instantly anywhere around the Indian subcontinent within few seconds by choosing a one-touch option among many other options available at their site. You can also sell goods& services through online marketplaces such as OLX.

Stripe Connects

Stripe offers solutions for web and mobile payments that are built to empower developers. With a set of unified APIs, Stripe enables businesses to accept online payment instantly on any device with iOS or Android apps available at launch in July 2013!

The company provides tools like credit card processing as well, so your customers don’t need another app installed before being able to purchase products from your site – just enter them through the checkout process, which automatically generates invoices based on their shipping address too ensuring no one gets left out when paying over email etc.

EBiz Charge

Century Business Solutions, a leader in integrated B2B Payments

Is a payment gateway capable of processing payments inside your CRM/ERP or online shopping carts such as QuickBooks? 

The EBiz Charge team is always working hard to stay up-to-date with new technologies and offer full support for all their clients’ needs. They can also provide you PCI compliant mobile solutions so that it will be easy!

Authorize.net

Authorize.net is a payment gateway that helps make it easy to accept electronic and credit card payments in person or online, giving you the freedom to do what your business needs. 

When you need it most, Authorize.net will take care of everything so you can focus on running things smoothly without worrying about whether there will be money left over at closing time because another customer didn’t have enough cash on hand!

BlueSnap

BlueSnap is a payment processing platform that streamlines businesses’ operations for B2B and B2C transactions. By integrating their service, you can accept payments from any angle in just one click! 

BlueSnap supports integrated credit card sales as well as invoice or manual orders through an easy-to-use virtual terminal which gives us complete control over your entire operation, so there’s no risk involved when accepting new customers online today.

The Blue Snap team designed this All in One Solution (AIS) with global retailers at heart – and they know how hard it was before all vendors were separate entities working against each other.

Buffer vs Post Planner: Best Tool for Social Media Posts

Posted on by Jeremy Collins
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If you are an entrepreneur with a digital business, you most likely will need a social media management tool to optimize your social profiles. Buffer and Post Planner both are popular social media management tools. Both tools provide an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that comes with a variety of features. 

They offer services such as post scheduling, content creation, and data analytics, which helps to grow popularity and get instagram followers. Thus making it challenging for professionals and businesses to pick the right option for their social media management. 

In this blog, we will provide you with an in-depth review of both Buffer and Post Planner. This will help you decide which tool is best suitable for you. 

Overview 

Buffer 

Buffer is the most efficient tool for content creation. It is perfect for bloggers and small businesses who want to enhance their online visibility. Buffer provides a wide range of amazing graphic designs, visual cues, and images that help to get more engagement. Besides this, Buffer also helps in scheduling and publishing content with complete automation for all social media platforms. 

The best part about Buffer is that it has a well-organized user-friendly interface that provides straightforward navigation. You also get access to a data analytics tool that provides information about all metrics that impact your social media performance. 

Post Planner

Post Planner is an excellent social media marketing tool for managing social media campaigns. It offers an intuitive interface that allows content managers and entrepreneurs to create, schedule, and publish content regularly on all social media networks. 

Post planner also offers a wide range of tools that help to optimize your social media profiles. Thus helping you grow popularity and gain more engagement. Its automated post-scheduling tools help in updating your social media feed with constant streams of content.

Product Features 

Buffer 

The first striking thing about Buffer is that it is compatible with all the popular social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, and many more. It also integrates well with third-party applications that offer content creation tools. Talking about content creation, Buffer has a tool called ‘Pablo’ which helps to design amazing graphics and visual cues within a few seconds. 

Post scheduling tools are another feature of Buffer that helps to organize your posts and schedule them in advance for each social media profile. It provides a content calendar where you can customize and color code posts so that it is easy to review. 

Besides this, Buffer also offers two excellent sets of tools – data analytics and team management. Data analytics provide deep insights into your performance rate and audience engagement. This helps in building sound marketing strategies to grow popularity. 

The team management tool provides a platform for all team members to coordinate and work efficiently. They can plan content, schedule posts, get feedback and save drafts for approvals. 

Post Planner

Post Planner also provides similar features as Buffer. Here, you can get access to a social media publishing calendar that is fully customizable to suit your needs. With this tool, you can publish posts when your audience is most active. This helps to get more engagement on your social media profile. Post planner also helps in optimizing your posts for all social media networks especially Facebook and Twitter. 

Post Planner’s database offers a library of top-performing content for any keyword or hashtag. You can use relevant content from this database and publish it on your social media profiles to keep the audience engaged. In addition to finding relevant content, you can use the feature called ‘Status Idea Engine’ to publish quick status updates. 

A unique feature of Post Planner is that it allows you to post both links and images on your feed. You can even post a link as an image to maximize the call-to-action and lead generations. 

The data analytics tool provides a detailed analysis of your profile that can help to target the right audience. It also provides the time-zone conversion tool, with which you can seamlessly cater to the international customer base. 

Pricing Plans 

Buffer 

Apart from the 14-day free trial pack, Buffer offers three monthly subscription plans – 

  • Pro Plan at $15 per month – This provides access to one user account and 8 social media channels. Although the scheduling option is limited in this plan (only 100 posts per channel), you get access to all integrations and community support. 
  • Premium Plan at $65 per month – This provides all the features in the Pro plan along with an extended scheduling option (2000 posts per social media profile). You also get access to team management tools that are not included in the Pro plan. 
  • Business Plan at $99 per month – This is best for large corporations as it provides access to 25 social media channels with 2000 scheduled posts per profile. Here you can add up to six user accounts to access the complete Buffer toolset. 

Post Planner

Although there is no free trial pack, Post planner offers four incredible subscription plans at the most affordable rates – 

  • Starter Pack – It costs $3 per month with access to 3 social media accounts. You can schedule 300 posts at one time and publish 30 posts per day across all social profiles. 
  • Love Pack starts at $9-$11 per month and is perfect for small businesses. Here, you can connect up to 10 social media accounts, publish 100 posts a day, and schedule 1000 posts at one time. 
  • Guru Pack – Priced at $19-$24 per month. This pack allows the registration of up to 5 team members. You can connect 25 social media profiles, publish 500 posts in a day, and schedule 5000 posts at one time. 
  • Agency Plan – This plan costs $99-$125 per month. This comprehensive plan allows the registration of 12 team members to manage 100 social media profiles. You can publish 200 posts a day and schedule unlimited posts at one time. 

Pros and Cons 

Buffer 

Pros 

  • Efficient in post scheduling and publishing 
  • User-friendly interface with seamless team management feature 
  • Excellent content creation tools 
  • 24/7 customer support 

Cons

  • Offers only 14 days of a free trial
  • Does not offer paid advertising features

Post Planner

Pros 

  • Provides a database for high-performing content to publish
  • Best integrates with Facebook and Twitter
  • Excellent tool to boost social engagement 

Cons

  • Limited integration with other social media networks 
  • Poor customer support 
  • Lacks in-depth analytics in starter packs 

Conclusion – Which is the Best Tool for Social Media Posts?

Both Buffer and Post Planner offer incredible tools to create, schedule, and publish your social media posts. But when it comes to choosing the best tool for social media, we would recommend Buffer. Buffer offers more flexibility when it comes to creating visually stunning content and post scheduling. You can even gain instagram followers for your profiles through this. 

As compared to Post Planner, Buffer provides a powerful customer support facility that takes care of every query at any time. Moreover, it integrates well with most of the popular social media networks. The team management feature is a game-changer for large corporations and marketing companies to manage their social profiles efficiently. 

All these benefits make Buffer better than Post Planner. However, if you are looking for an economical option to manage your social media profiles, Post Planner may be a good choice. The best way to choose among the two is to understand what you want to achieve with these tools. 

What is Product Liability Insurance? 4 Things You Need To Know

Posted on by Jackson Thomas
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Large business manufacturers produce goods at a massive scale every day, and there are always products that will have defects that cause malfunctions and a decrease in quality. Because of this, production lines always include a quality testing stage in the whole process to ensure that all products are tested and Inspected for any type of defects. After a product passes quality control, it can now be packaged and shipped to outlet stores and distributors. Still, some products get damaged during transport, and these can still make it to the store shelves and the consumers. When consumers purchase a defective product while being unaware of its condition, it may cause serious harm to the user if an accident occurs due to the malfunction of the product. These situations usually lead to lawsuits being filed against the company, and the consumers may sue them for the damages caused by their products. Lawsuits regarding defective products and damages to customers usually lead to million-dollar lawsuits that can greatly affect the company’s sales and reputation, leading them towards bankruptcy. To avoid such situations, manufacturing companies can avail product liability insurance that can protect them from lawsuits and damages to their company’s name and sales. The next part of this article will cover the basic knowledge that one must know regarding product liability insurance.

Several phone manufacturers also avail of product liability insurance packages.

1. What is product liability insurance?

Product liability insurance is a type of insurance package that companies and manufacturers can avail to protect their companies from lawsuits and claims of personal injury or property damages from their customers. Companies take time to set up product liability insurance since this can help them cover the legal costs brought by lawsuits. The insurance package can also cover costs of medical damages and property damage. Insurance companies offer different insurance packages depending on their client’s business scale, which ranges from small business owners to large conglomerates.

2. How does product liability insurance work?

Whenever a malfunction occurs on a product purchased by a customer, the product liability insurance package of the company will help pay for the damages done by the malfunction of the product. An example of this occurrence can be observed on a Samsung Note 7 lawsuit that happened on a flight of Jet Airways.

In October 2017, a female passager was boarded on a flight to India on Jet Airways when suddenly, her phone burst in flames while stored in her handbag. The passenger observed smoke coming out of her handbag approximately 15 minutes after boarding the flight. A flight attendant immediately responded to the situation and tried to use a fire extinguisher on the device, but the fire extinguisher failed to operate. The attendant then submerged the device in a tray full of water to prevent any possibility of fire or explosion. Fortunately, the device stopped smoking, and nobody was harmed during the incident. In the aftermath, the female passenger was furious over the lack of preparation of the airline’s safety precautions and was planning on filing a complaint against the company as well as the phone’s manufacturer.

In this incident, the phone company was expected to pay for the damages caused by their product. This was not the first time that Samsung has encountered smartphone problems as they had to recall some of their products in the past year. The company did not have product liability insurance, and they also had to recall the note 7 series products in the previous year due to other claims of malfunction and exploding batteries, so they were expecting a loss of over $17 billion in total revenue.

Had they availed a product liability insurance for this product, they could have lessened their losses significantly. They could have avoided a product liability lawsuit that could affect their resources and brand reputation.

3. How much is product liability insurance needed?

To decide how much a product liability insurance package will cover, the scale of the business must be considered. A large-scale business will typically produce a thousand units of products in a single day, which means there is a larger possibility of occurrence of defective products. A larger yield will mean more defective products, so the insurance must cover the majority of the price of production to avoid major losses in case of a recall or a lawsuit. Smaller business owners will only need to avail a basic package for product liability insurance since their production rate is less than that of large-scale companies.

Insurance can help secure a business against liabilities.

4. What is the difference between general liability insurance and product liability insurance?

General liability insurance is a type of insurance purchased by businesses to protect their companies from all types of claims and lawsuits that may affect their sales and profits in any way. This type of insurance covers all types of services provided by a company. The difference between general liability and product liability is the range of the compensation that the insurance will provide. General liability insurance can cover all the services provided by a company, which includes consulting, estimates, and customer service. In contrast, product liability insurance only covers the products sold by the company to its customers.

How to Make Effective Employee Training Videos

Posted on by Anna Yurovskikh
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Many companies waste a lot of money and resources on training. For example, if a new employee comes on the scene, a current employee will have to teach them all they need to know. Not only will this put extra strain on the other employee, but it will also prevent them from fulfilling the job that they were supposed to do.

Training videos reduce the costs of training to almost nothing. Indeed, you may have to make an initial investment for the equipment and the creation of the video – but after that, you’re all set. This article will tell you everything there is to know on how to create an employee training video.

What Is a Training Video?

A training video is a kind of video that has an educational goal. Its purpose is to teach a skill or knowledge to anyone wanting to learn. Simply put, training videos are there to teach someone how to do something.

Training videos could be for employees coming on board, software education, compliance training, and many more. They can be corporate or non-corporate, depending on whom the target of the video is. Training videos can spare several resources because rather than using a person’s time, you are getting the information that you need from a video.

Why Choose Video for Training?

On average, videos are much more engaging and compelling as compared to texts. You can access them anytime and anywhere, and you don’t have to wait for your peers to come over and teach you anything. They reduce costs and effort, something that will help not only the employer – but the employee as well.

Types of Training Videos

There are several types of training videos to choose from, all of which will depend on your audience, your goal, your resources – and sometimes, just your personal preferences. Here are some of the training videos that you may utilize for your business:

1. Instructor-Led Training Videos

As the name suggests, these training videos have an instructor at their core. It’s like in-person training – only instead of talking to a live person, you see them digitally on the screen.

With instructor-led training, the instructor will show up on the screen and explain the topic to an audience online. These training videos are also referred to as “talking head videos,” because basically, the only thing you can see is the head and bust of the speaker.

These training videos are mostly recommended for beginners and intermediate individuals that are still in the learning process. It’s perfect for delivering the information in an engaging way, as it makes the audience feel like they are talking to someone right in front of them.

2. Screen-Capture Videos

For skills that are slightly more technical, such as a program tutorial or a demo, seeing that person’s face on the screen will not help you much. What you need to see is how to use that program in particular. And this is where screen-capture videos with a voice-over come in handy.

These videos will tell the employee exactly what they need to do from start to finish. It’s a “show and tell” kind of video for people that learn more from seeing than listening.

3. How-To Videos

For processes that require a step-by-step approach, how-to videos are generally the most recommended type. Also referred to as demonstration videos, these training videos will take you step-by-step through a process that you wish to learn.

Various topics may be approached in these training videos. For example, if your company needs its employees to write in an APA format, then a “How to write in APA format” training video might be exactly what you need.

4. Animated Videos

These training videos make use of visuals that are fully animated. They are a great option for explaining data, ideas, and complex processes. It makes explaining much easier when everything is made in the form of animation. Also, these types of videos are much more engaging.

5. Interactive Videos

For many people, interactive videos represent the most efficient way to train someone. These videos work on a scenario basis, where the viewers will see a small clip and be given a path choice. They are less restrictive, and they are also highly motivating.

Resource-wise, they might take the highest budget. On the other hand, they are also very efficient, as they test the knowledge of the person watching them. If possible, these interactive training videos should be used as much as possible when it comes to training new employees.

6. Videos Created by Employees

We learn the best from our peers, which is why employee-created videos are usually the best options to go for. After all, it’s not the employer that usually knows best; it’s the employee that has already been doing this for a while.

Plus, by creating these videos, the employee will get a better understanding of their tasks and the right ways to put their skills into practice. The employees will offer their tips and tricks so that the newcomers will know exactly how to do their job.

Steps to Create a Training Video

There are five steps to keep in mind when creating a training video, and they go as follows:

1. Set Objectives and Goals

The first thing that you will have to do is to understand your goal. What outcome are you planning to achieve by creating this video? Understand your goal, know your audience and then define what the learning objective should be.

2. Plan the Video

You already have a big idea in mind – now it’s time to move onto planning. Build the staff, decide on the video type that you plan on using, prepare the equipment, and create a project plan. Set up the atmosphere for your team. Get to know your SMEs and make a video knowing that your SMEs are most likely busy.

3. Design and Script

The planning is done, now you need to move onto the designing part. Write a script for what you are planning to add to the video. Sketch out the ideas and try to figure out how to make them more entertaining. Decide on the tone; can you add jokes and other stuff, or does it have to be more on the serious side? Plan everything out nicely.

4. Record and Edit

This is where the action starts. Take your tools and start recording. Whether you want to create an instructor-led webinar or you want to set up an interactive workshop, use the tools that are most convenient to you. You may film yourself, record the screen and your voice, and then edit them in the way that you see fit.

5. Share the Video

Your video training piece is done. Now, all that is left for you to do is to share it. LMS platforms are good for smaller companies, but for larger ones, you may use other tools as well. Vimeo and YouTube are the most popular options in that regard.

Requirements for a Good Start

To start on a good note, you’ll need certain pieces of equipment. Here is what you need to put on your checklist. 

· Equipment

First things first, you will need a webcam, a computer, and a good microphone. When it comes to microphones, you might want to go for a lavalier microphone, as you clip that one onto your clothes. This way, you can make sure that the audio quality is high.  

· Software

To have a good start when it comes to video creation, you might also want to be very careful about using the right creation and editing software. There are various tools that you may use here, such as iSpring, Wistia video software, Kapwing, and FilmoraX. If you want a more accessible online video editor, you may also try Fastreel. All of these options are great when it comes to creating an online course.

Depending on the type of video that you are making, you might also want to get a screen recorder program. However, some video editing programs also have the option of recording your screen.

Examples of Effective Training Videos

There are many examples of effective training videos that you may learn from. Here are just a couple of examples:

Retail POS: After upgrading the POS of their system, many employees would once more have to learn how to be productive.This is why Retail created a 10-part video series that would teach the users how to efficiently use the new system.

Supply Chain eLearning Video: Supply Chain has more than 12,000 employees, and more people keep coming around each time. This is why they created very effective 12-course learning videos on best practices for the end-to-end supply chain.

The Bottom Line

Training videos are a great way to maximize time and productivity. This is why, as a business owner, you should ensure that you make the most use of them. Check the tips above, gather your equipment, and start filming.

How to Buy Expired Domains with Traffic

Posted on by Dennis Hamming
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When buying expired domains, the first step is, of course, finding available domains. Instead of clawing at straws and chasing false leads trying to find domains, you’re better off turning to SpamZilla.

SpamZilla is a service that will allow you to identify and buy expired and deleted domains with traffic from Google, Bing, and other popular search engines. 

This means when your new site is ready to go live, it will have an excellent backlink profile and already be high-ranking in SERPs.

Even if these high-quality sites have not been active for a while, they can still generate significant web activity that could add considerable value to your main website.

When you buy expired domain names, you also:

  • Drive web traffic coming into your new site through valuable redirects.
  • Boost search volume for your website’s content.
  • Obtain real SEO power
  • Track incoming links from other sites, increasing your search traffic

What Are Expired Domains with Traffic?

Abandoned or expiring domains with traffic are web domains previously leased by businesses or individuals. When a domain expires, the domain registrar will likely reclaim it because it means the owner has failed to pay the renewal fees due after the 30- to 60-day grace period. 

Once a registrar reclaims a domain after the expiration date, they make it available for resale to the public.

Interestingly, these expired domains still receive a fair amount of traffic from search engines. They also come with various sites that backlink to the domains.

Why Buy Expired Domains with Traffic?

There are several good reasons to purchase defunct domain names with traffic. These include:

Redirecting the Expired Domain Traffic to Your Monetized Site

Redirecting an expired domain’s website traffic to your monetized site will ensure that you get the expired domain’s existing traffic straight to your main site. 

Here, you can easily make conversions and revenue from visitors. This is literally free traffic (and money) on your new domain without you having to work for it.

Another benefit of expiring domains is that these web addresses come with links from other sites. Those backlinks to the expiring domain automatically redirect to your main site.

This link juice will increase your search engine optimization ranking on your new page URL.

Parking the Domain

Another reason to buy expired domains with traffic is to “park” the domain on domain registrar platforms that enable this service. 

You don’t need any knowledge of website development, hosting, or content creation to park expired domains, and you can profit off of the ads without lifting a finger.

The best part? When you get traffic from the US, UK, Canada, or Australia, it could be even more profitable for you – there are plenty of opportunities for anyone looking to generate revenue fast.

Setting Up a New Authority Site on the Expired Domain

Established sites, including expired domain names, are often more reliable for linking to your site than brand new ones. Web traffic will flow more easily into this site because they already rank on search engines and may even have a loyal audience.

In addition, expired domains are sometimes at the center of public blog networks. This allows you to gain authority links instantly, which is useful when building a website with content that needs instant credibility.

Setting up a new website using an expired domain involves much more work than domain parking, but over the long run, it will pay off. With an expired domain, you’ll be building a new site, but with the added advantage of ready monthly traffic.

 You can also use tools like Google Cache and the Wayback Machine to try to restore the old site and take advantage of its existing search traffic.

Reselling Expiring Domains for a Profit

When you buy domains, there are two primary things that you can do with them to make a profit beyond building a new website or using them for SEO:

  • Domain parking – Keep renewing the lease on an expired domain until its contents become more relevant – and profitable.
  • Domain reselling – Buy the domain cheap and sell the rights at a profit. Some domain flippers will also improve the domain’s authority and rank before selling.

Remember, when domains expire, they still retain their value. If no one buys your expired website immediately, wait.

 You are still likely to make a profit in the long run as domain age is a major factor in determining site selling prices.

How to Find Expired Domains with Traffic

It’s vital to vet each expired domain carefully before buying it. There are many advanced platforms, which will help with your search, but not all are simple to use. 

Here are the best places to look if you want to buy expired domains with traffic:

Domain Registrars

If you want to purchase expired domains, this is where a dedicated domain registrar comes into play – they store all records. 

Because these platforms work in tandem with several top-level domains (TLD) like .com, .org, etc., they will always beat a third-party expired domain traffic reseller.

Domain Auction Sites

Auction sites like the GoDaddy website are a great way to find an expired domain or domain lists. However, the price you get will depend on supply and demand.

 At GoDaddy auctions, sellers set the price they want for their starting bid (usually estimated), while bidders offer initial counteroffers, which the sellers can accept or reject on each specific domain.

There are also fixed-price auctions on these sites, which might not need any bidding. The cost of the expired domain depends on the site’s age, niche, rank, and traffic.

Other top auction sites include:

Flippa: This expired domain traffic reseller sells domains, websites, and applications and includes many tips and tutorials to help understand its services.

NameJet: This auction platform allows for bidding if you create an account and attach a credit card. On the flip side, this aftermarket platform has no paid packages.

Sedo: This auction platform has over 18,000,000 expired domains available with brokers to help you negotiate with the seller. However, it doesn’t display the pricing of each specific domain on the website.

Expired Domain Names Marketplaces

Domain marketplaces like Spamzilla are great platforms that can help you find expired domains, all for free. 

They provide an easy-to-use interface and show the prices of each domain side by side, so it’s extremely straightforward. You can also filter your searches based on different niches and domain sources for example the GoDaddy expired domains list.

FreshDrop is another domain marketplace that you can use to make your purchase. They have filters and keywords to help you find the type of domains you’re looking for with precision.

What to Look Out for When You Buy Expired Domains with High Traffic

Since the characteristics of an expired domain name can impact a website’s worth, it’s essential you scrutinize any domain you are considering buying. Here are some factors to keep in mind:

Backlinks

Expired domains should contain valid links from other websites in your chosen niche and not be part of a private blog network. These links should come from both authority sites and small blogs.

 At all costs, avoid spam links that make Google think your website is a part of a private blog network for shady SEO purposes.

Reputable sites must demonstrate their value through search engine rankings and not their links to private blog networks. If you want to increase your SERP rank, you need to check the expired domain’s backlinks. 

Google Webmaster Console is one of the most popular tools for checking backlinks as it analyzes domain leasing for free.

Another great paid tool worth considering is Majestic; this software makes analyzing and understanding website goals easy with various features like inbound link tracking and competitor analysis.

Domain Age

As a rule, older domains are more valuable. An old domain that has been around for a while will rank higher on search engines and reap greater benefits than a brand-new site.

If you’re planning to purchase expired domains, make sure to check out the domain age before deciding on anything else. One quick way of checking the domain age is by performing a WHOIS history lookup. 

Just type in your query URL followed by “.com” at the end. This should give you information about where the site owner or owners registered the website and when they first registered it.

 An important thing to note when finding domains is that if you buy a domain and register it again, the date of the first registration is when the website’s age begins.

Google Index

Google Index may be the most important metric in all of SEO. It measures and evaluates a website’s value to Google. To check whether a domain is indexed correctly:

  • Enter Google Console
  • Open the fold “Index Google” and select “Index Status.”
  • Type the “site” in your search queries – “site:URL.”
  • Use relevant SEO tools, like Small SEOTools and DupliChecker.
  • Remember to check the sitemap and robots.txt file to ensure correct indexing.

Check DA and PA with PageRank and MozRank

You can determine how high well a domain ranks by checking PageRank and MozRank. These metrics evaluate Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) on a scale from 0 to 100. Higher scores are better for reaching the top of SERPs.

You may be surprised that two different metrics (DA and PA) are important for a site’s ranking. The first assesses the value of an entire domain and considers factors like the number of links pointing back to this particular domain or quality/authority/trustworthiness (QAT) associated with those linking sites.

Page Authority, however, measures the importance of web pages based on their relevance. PA ranking relies heavily on how many and what quality links are pointing towards one web page and the external sites linking back into it. 

This ensures that people aren’t self-promoting or creating spam articles just to get PPC clicks from services like Google AdSense.

To measure DA and PA, you can use a range of free tools available on almost every reputable marketing platform. These include:

  • Keyword Explorer’s SERP Analysis.
  • Link Explorer
  • MozBar

Don’t fuss about looking for the perfect DA. Focus on the main competitor in your niche and try to get a higher score than theirs.

Why Use SpamZilla to Find An Expired Domain with Traffic?

SpamZilla is a domain list program designed to assist anyone searching for expired or expiring domains. The platform enables you to compare millions of updated auctioned, deleted, or expiring web domains.

It tailors each option to your specific needs and wants. Whether you’re seeking to make a one-time purchase or looking to buy many domains, SpamZilla has tons of features that simplify the process.

SpamZilla also offers the following conveniences:

  • With ordinary domain searches on platforms like Whois.com, you only find out whether a website is available for purchase and the Whois history. SpamZilla gives you much more.

    The site reports on a domain’s monthly organic search volume and identifies how many authoritative and ordinary backlinks it has to other sites.
  • Check the SEO of the domain with the Backlinks Miner Tool, which compares the top 100 backlinks linked to your domain. Included in each report are the anchor language, anchor text, and outbound links from that site. You’ll also be able to visit any linked website or blog post.
  • SpamZilla’s powerful filtering tools will make your search results easier. You’ll be able to save, catalog, and research the relevant keywords and keep up with what sites are trending so you never miss an opportunity again.
  • With SpamZilla, you can immediately compare tens of thousands of supported domain zones from all over the world. Don’t worry if your domain zone is unsupported because we work with more than 60 different domains for any given domain zone globally.

Choose SpamZilla for Your Expired Domain with High Traffic Search Today

Create an account and find the best expired domains at SpamZilla today. 

You’ll gain use of a database of expiring or expired domains with powerful authority backlinks that will give your business the boost it needs to build the perfect website. SpamZilla takes all the risk out of buying expiring domains!