5 Steps On How To Do Keyword Research With LongtailPro SEO
Before writing this article, I thought that I should disclose that I have been a happy customer of Long Tail Pro for 4+ Years and is my favorite SEO Tool.
The reason for my really good review is for the keyword competitiveness feature. This tells me how hard (or easy) it is to rank for a particular phrase so I do not waste my time writing a blog you have little chance of ranking for.
Even though it is lacking in some of the features as some of its more expensive competitors (Moz, SemRush SEO Monitor) it has the core features I need to write effective blogs.
However, you would be shocked by how few people are actually doing this and by writing well-crafted blogs how we get 1+ million viewers a year to our website. Odd how this is how you found us, know we are going to teach you how to do proper keyword research to determine competitiveness factors.
How To Keyword Research
Now that we have discussed how important keyword research is, I think it is time to show you what keyword research is and how to do it. In our Shopify Success training series, we used a Beach Umbrella business as an example and want to take you step-by-step through the process. This lets us know if this is a niche where we want to rank higher for Google Rankings within 3-6 months.
1. Start by Googling For Related Search Terms
People may think that we are being mean, when they ask us what the first thing to do in Keyword Research is to actually Google it, but it comes up with the most valuable information.
The first thing that you should notice are the related searches, for similar phrases, and what or how many ads appear above your listing.
Then type Umbrellas into a thesaurus and see more related words to “umbrella”. I did not think about a cover, or shade, that will help in finding similar (but different) keywords.
2. Add 5 Seed Keywords To LongtailPro
To log into here, you do need to have a Google Adwords Account and add your credit card, but you do not have to spend anything. I always go to the source to start my keyword research, as the search volumes it provides are always the most accurate (straight from the source).
For this, I want to type in Seed Keywords:
- Beach Umbrella
- Portable Umbrella
- Lightweight Umbrella
- Windproof Umbrella
- Umbrella
Think of all negative terms you need to remove
Now that I have found similar keywords I want to show up for, now it is time to view and remove keywords not related to you. My niche right now is just beach umbrellas, and yes sometimes I may want to do patio umbrellas or stands, but they are too large and hard to ship. For now, I only want to focus on. We will be adding these to a negative list, later on, just wanted to make you aware.
3. Do The Competition Analysis
Umbrellas is a tough business
But Best Beach Umbrella
May not have the same searches, but far fewer competitors with lower KC, Trust Flow, Citations.
4. Add It To The Your Website
- Title Page
- H1, H2, H3 Header Tags – Most Powerful Headers, But will really often use h3. Prioritize in Long Tail Keywords in H3
- Which Keyword To Include in URL.
5. Blend It All Throughout Your Content
Once you know which keywords you want to rank for and update your title tags, it is important to view your content. Google wants to make sure that you are not “keyword stuffing” and writing like a robot. We suggest keeping the keyword density to a max 1%, but I only go with .05% (5 times for a thousand word article).
It is called LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) where you use other words to help explain it. Or how would Google know that an apple is a type of phone, versus a fruit? Make sure to mention, Apple iPhone, Steve Jobs, Cell Phone Covers, anything you can to be close to extinguishing.
How important is keyword research?
If you are a data-driven entrepreneur, that wants to view domain statistics to pick the best keyword for your site, then I think it is important.
If you do not want to waste time writing a blog that you do not have a chance to rank for, or has very low search volume, then I think it is very important.
If you want to uncover low competition keywords for your website in minutes, and have suggestions for related keywords, then I expect you do know by now.
Other SEO Articles For Your Knowledge
Now that you have seen how important Keyword Research is and how beneficial LongTailPro is, you will want to read up further one some of our advanced Shopify Success blogs.
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HostPaPa Review – Best Underrated Web hosting
There are literally thousands of web hosting companies offering their services these days. They vary in prices, performances and the way their customer support caters to their clients. Some more notable hosting companies such as Sitegrounds, Bluehost and WP-engine have dominated the industry for quite some time now but there have been plenty of new competitors who are ready to challenge them.
Continue readingTop 5 Marketplace Templates To Build A Website Like Amazon or Ebay
Have you ever dreamed of creating your own marketplace like Amazon, Ebay, or Etsy but do not know how? Some of the highest earning e-commerce companies in the world are marketplaces and offer a scalability that is second to none.
What everyone might not know is that many of these marketplaces do not sell any products of their own. They have registered vendors who sell their goods through their platforms and take a percentage of the revenue they sell. A lot of work goes into setting up these marketplaces as vendors need to be able to upload products, and consumers need to be able to buy and review their purchases.
Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and years creating a system that can scale, there are many different marketplaces themes and websites that can allow you to set up your own business almost instantly. However, there are many different options to choose from that include WordPress, Joomla, or even custom solutions.
What is multi-vendor eCommerce
So what exactly is multi-vendor eCommerce? Essentially it’s making an eCommerce store which allows other vendors to sell on the same portal as you, the Admin. In return, you provide them with a dashboard, tools and essential add-on which can help them with their transactions.
When a consumer visits your multi-vendor site they are able to select any item from “Vendor A” and also from “Vendor B” while having it all processed from exactly the same cart from your website. So how do we know which revenue goes to which vendor? Well, the system and algorithm behind a multi-vendor shopping cart system automatically split all payments made behind the screen from the two vendors who just sold products.
This whole environment of people purchasing and selling from one portal aids consumers to find a wide array of products and diverse prices. At the same time, you, the multi-vendor eCommerce owner gets to enjoy commissions. In the physical world, it’s kind of like malls, allowing tenants to rent out a stall in their establishment for a fixed fee or a percentage of their net revenues.
Top 5 multi-vendor eCommerce platforms
1. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
Started in 2005, CS-Cart is part of the Simtech conglomerate, and it’s been known as a solid solution for those who want to sell on a self-hosted platform. In the span of just 13 years the company has already sold over 35,000 copies of their software through 170 countries.
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor isn’t like your casual SaaS solutions companies wherein you have to pay for a monthly subscription. You only need to pay the one-time fee however pricing does get tricky. You will need to pay for upgrades and customer service.
With CS-Cart Multi-Vendor all of your vendors are treated to an admin dashboard filled with metrics, statistics, and multi-functional tools. Not to mention, the vendor admin area allows vendor-specific shipping methods, payout recording, and powerful product display tools.
What we like most about it
- Support for over 70 payment options
- Support for eight carriers
- Each carrier has dozens of shipping options
- Highly customizable
- Sleek drag and drop editor
- Intuitive admin dashboard
- Reliable metrics and statistics
- Design tools
- Self-hosted
- Integrations with email marketing tools
- Bundling features
- Abandoned cart functionality
- Promos and discounts
- On-sale listings
- Best Seller listings
- Product ratings and reviews
What we liked least about it
- Tricky pricing
- Paid customer support
What we think about it – 4.5 out of 5
From the multiple options of platforms that are available, we have selected CS-Cart Multi-Vendor as our top pick. This is because it is one of the most powerful ways to create your own multi-vendor store. You are given complete control of your content creation and maintenance procedures. You are also given the freedom to host your own site on your server of choice. This way, your security is ensured from possible breaches and you are given plenty of freedom.
Yes, the pricing might get tricky and you need to pay for customer support which most likely will lead to you spending more than you actually planned to pay for a downloadable platform which you are hosting yourself. Costs can stay a tad lower as long as you’re not paying for constant updates or customer support. If you can manage to pull it off, you get an amazing multi-vendor creation platform at a fair price with heaps of built-in add-ons.
2. Shopify Multi-Vendor Marketplace Plugin
From their humble beginnings, Shopify has been known now as one of the most successful and productive eCommerce platforms around. With the help of a plug-in you can turn your eCommerce store into a fully pledged multi-vendor platform.
What we like most about it
- Best in class dashboard
- Best in class tools
- Reports and Metrics
- Additional plugins available
- Integration and comparability
What we liked least about it
- You need to subscribe to Shopify
- Exclusive hosting
- You pay monthly for SEO
What we think about it – 4.5 out of 5
If you are already a Shopify subscriber (which in there is a high change you are) or if you would like to use the best eCommerce platform around to channel your multi-vendor website then this is definitely for you. However, it can get pricey as there is a monthly payment for SEO if you want to avail that service. But, if you have deep pockets to spend for your developmental stage then this is the top pick for you.
If you want to learn about how to make money with Shopify, go ahead and read our guide over here.
3. Arcadier
Unlike most other marketplace SaaS platforms that offer a templated solution for all purposes, Arcadier allows users to choose from a bunch of options- from buying and selling goods or booking services to renting spaces and items and several other business models.
What we like most about it
- Self-Service On-Boarding
- Items Management System
- Transaction Reports
- Hosting
- Order Management System
- Customer Account Management
What we liked least about it
- Their paid packages are not available as of now. You can get either the basic package or enterprise package.
- No drop-shipping default feature
- No facebook store
- No Data feeds
- No Cart saver
What we think about it – 4 out of 5
Besides these, they also offer several unique features like multi-lingual capabilities, private marketplaces, and social logins. I particularly love the ability to edit JS code (which opens the possibility of additional customization and the ability to add our own payment service providers).
They’ve also got a Freemium plan where the pricing plan scales up with the number of transactions on the store!
4. Yo!Kart
Yo!Kart is one of the lesser known multi-vendor platforms, but it pulls its weight as a viable competitor. The intuitive interface is fully customizable, and it provides easy navigation for vendors and admins alike. Yo!Kart has a nice vendor profile area where people can upload products, modify listings and change pricing. All changes are first sent to you, the moderator, before anything is published on the site.
What we like most about it
- An intuitive interface
- A highly secure system
- Multiple stores for those vendors
- Real-time shipping cost calculator
- All orders are split and consolidated for shopping carts with products from multiple vendors
- Most SEO is completely automated
- Divide customer into groups based on buying behavior
- Relatively cheap pricing
What we liked least about it
- Design lapses
- Limited templates
- Tricky pricing
- Not open source
- You pay Monthly for SEO
What we think about it – 4 out of 5
An interesting feature is where the buyers are not shown the vendor details while shopping. I figure this might have something to do with preventing any unfair treatment of certain vendors. Anonymity could possibly serve some vendors well. Similar to most other options in this article, the Yo!Kart system lets customers place orders from multiple vendors in the shopping cart.
5. Sharetribe
Sharetribe is intriguing because the system is built solely to help people create marketplace (multi-vendor) websites. They don’t mess around with standard eCommerce sites, so you can rest easy knowing they focus on this one area.
The initial starter package lets you have up to 300 members, and if you pay for the highest package you can manage up to 100,000 members. What’s cool is that you don’t have to stick to the normal sales strategy. Rather, Sharetribe allows rentals, services and more. The setup only takes a few minutes, and the global payments are good for accepting just about any credit card or online payment system like PayPal.
What we like most about it
- Customer Accounts
- Email Marketing
- Order Management
- SEO Management
- Very easy to set up
What we liked least about it
- Functionality upgrades are not very fast
- Expensive pricing
- Lack of functions
- Pricing is driven by number of users rather than by number of transactions
- Lack of API’s
- Lack of custom themes
- Limited customization
What we think about it – 4 out of 5
Users create listings and manage their own profiles, with features for including photos, pricing, location and product information. The white label design is nice for attracting vendors, since they can upload their own logos, and the messaging and order management system is perfect for vendors to keep in contact with customers.
If you are looking for a fast way to set-up a multi-vendor platform then Sharretribe is for you, but if you are looking for something long term we suggest you consider our other choices.
6. X-Cart Multi-Vendor
X-Cart is a licensed shopping cart that lets you sell products securely from your own server. Since its launch in 2001, X-Cart has grown to support over 35,000 stores in 111 countries.
What we like most about it
- Both hosted and self-install versions available
- 30-day free trial
- Refunds
- Free plan
- Extensive features
- Highly customizable
- Intuitive UI
- Scalable
What we liked least about it
- The upgrade fee is expensive
- Requires manual coding and setup
- Confusing pricing packages
- Developer skills required
- Annual upgrade fee
- Expensive customer support
What we think about it – 3.5 out of 5
X-Cart can be used both as a ready out-of-the-box shopping cart or as a powerful basis for a customized web shop with whatever modifications of design or functionality. X-Cart loves customization, yet remains easy to upgrade.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, to anyone trying to create an eBay like marketplace, we recommend CS-Cart Multi-Vendor. This platform can provide you with support for over 70 payment options and eight carriers each with their own shipping options. They have an easy to use drag n drop editor filled with templates that you can choose from. And, the metrics from within the dashboard, once you have launched the site, has all the tools you and your vendor could possibly need.
The Best and Cheapest Web Host for Premium Publishers
Cost is a critically important consideration when selecting a web host. But while it’s a truism that you get what you pay for, it’s also true that every penny counts and that there is some great web hosting deals to be had. First, let’s define web hosts in general. A web host is a company with servers that you use to store and deliver the files that make up your website. Large businesses can spend hundreds of dollars each year on dedicated web hosting or virtual private server (VPS) hosting, but there are plenty of web hosts designed specifically for very small businesses, too.
Thrive Themes Review – Is it the Best WordPress Theme?
If you ask me about my Thrive themes review and why I changed from Genesis, first I should ask how much you love my new site design? For those who are already using Thrive Themes, I am sure that you are a huge fan because of the advanced features and how easy it is to use.
The fact is that I am not a programmer, but in just a few hours after a few glasses of wine late on the weekend was a changeover to the new theme without any coding skills. I understand that WordPress may not be the easiest thing to learn, but their content builder and plugins worked so well it was really easy to change. You can easily control all the additional style layouts, performance features, moderate comments, blog controls, or decide which related posts show up where.
However, there are a few cons to go with the many pros and wanted to give you the list of my Thrive Themes Review. It is meant for bloggers who are looking to be able to make the changes themselves while focusing on conversions. Divi is the only theme that I found comparable, and with this cost more as the plugins like Thrives Lead Box was not included.
Thrive Themes Review
There are multiple aspects of Thrive Themes that you need to know about. It isn’t just a single plug-in that you use for themes, it’s an all in one plug-in to transform your website into a money-making-machine.
The Thrive Architect WordPress Page Builder
As I mentioned above, the best feature of Thrive is how easy it is to use and is because of the Thrive Architect Page Builder. Previously called the “content builder” thrive has updated their previous plugging and made this compatible with no all Thrive Themes, but all WordPress themes.
The click and drag page builder has around 40 different elements that give you control over almost everything in the design. This includes changing the color, height, width, background, text without just a few clicks of the button. You can also edit or delete any elements or sections if you want.
A few other notable important things to note include:
And one of the very important features of the Thrive Architect that many others will not do, is that even if you deactivate the deactivate Thrive Architect plugin, the HTML content remains intact so you can change one day if you want to switch platforms. This means that the CSS modifications may not be working, but will not be lost.
Other Thrive Plugins Available:
There are 8 Thrive WordPress plugins available, and I can say that I use almost all of them. All of these are created with optimization and conversion tactics in mind and include Thrive Architect, Thrive Leads, Thrive Clever Widgets, Thrive Headline Optimizer, Thrive Ultimatum, Thrive Ovation, Thrive Quiz Builder, Thrive Comments.
The Thrive Leads form is the plugin that I use the most. It is similar to Opt-In Monster (premium) but has far more features and does not lock you into a monthly plan. You can choose exactly what pages you want them to display on, split test results, and show different forms based on new visitors versus current subscribers, and much more.
There are a lot of different forms to choose from that have been specifically designed to maximize your conversions. As you can see from my pages, I normally use Post Footer, Slide-in, and Screen Filler. You have super prevised targeting features, with time-based trigger options and smart exit popups. Thanks to the dozens of professionally designed templates you will never have to worry about designing anything.
Landing Page Optimized Templates:
Choose from over 220 full in templates designed for creating beautiful landing pages in record time. I choose the Rise theme for my website, but use individual landing pages for specific funnels and targeted campaigns. As we showed you above with the Thrive Architect, everything is so customizable that you will never have to pay for another web designer again.
Plans & Thrive Pricing:
Thrive themes is not only good at optimizing your website, but they optimize their plans as well. You can get a single license for $67 that you can use for up to 5 websites, but odds are that you will at least want Thrive Lead and Thrive, Architect, making it pretty much the same price as the full membership.
Thrive Membership – $19/month (annually) or $25/month (quarterly)
- Use all of the plugins and themes on all of your own sites
- Agency Membership – $49/month (annually) or $59/month (quarterly)
- Use all of the plugins and themes on your sites and clients’
Note: If you decide to purchase one of the individual plugins now and want to become a member later, the individual licenses you bought will NOT be credited towards your membership. See full fine print here.
Are you still planning about making your website? or are you planning to change your hosting? You can use this coupon for Bluehost and get it for less than $3.00 per month!
Things Thrive Can Work On (Cons)
I had planned to write pros and cons at the bottom, but my excitement for Thrive lead me to say more about the pros than cons. Thrive may lack some of the custom designs such as magazine theme of something more specific to your niche, but something you can fully customize. A few other things to point out include:
Final Recommendations
In my opinion, the Thrive Themes provides the best conversion-focused websites for internet entrepreneurs. It may be more expensive then your typical “Theme Forrest template” but I believe it is excellent value for its money. You will save hundreds of dollars not buying additional plugins and save thousands from not hiring developers to do these easy changes for you.
There is the 30-day money back guarantee, so if you are not happy just ask for a refund with no questions asked. Interested? What are you waiting for, go ahead and purchase Thrive Themes!
PS. If you are going to buy Thrive Themes and found my article useful, please buy through my link and send me a coffee and #virtualhighfive
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My Top 5 Free Stock Image Websites For Royalty Free Photos
There will be no reason for you to buy expensive Shutterstock photos anymore when you see these new websites offering stunning and free stock images. We all know how important high-quality images are for any project, but the costs and licensing rules are something that worried me for years.
Did you know that Shutterstock advertises “royalty free” but none of the images you are buying on an individual plan are even transferable? This means that if you bought the image, and it is on a clients website, but they do not own it. They do not make this apparent and trust me when I say that they hounded me for logging in on my second computer and had legal contact me about multiple users.
This discontent for all the major stock photo websites, made me focus on finding the best websites for free stock images and to read all the fine print. I wanted to find stock images, that were actually royalty free and allowed for commercial use.
Here are 5 of the Best Free Stock Image Websites I use when I need royalty and copyright free images for my website.
My Top 5 Free Stock Image Websites For Royalty Free Photos
Pexels – Most Royalty Free Stock Images & Videos
Website: https://www.pexels.com/
Pexels is my first and favorite source for free stock images. It has a larger selection than most of the other sources and superior search function. All of their photos and videos require no attribution, are free for commercial use, and just sometimes ask for a donation or buy them a coffee. You need to be careful when searching, that you do not click on any of the sponsored link images but I rarely need to look elsewhere.
If you are looking for specific elements (like a specific city) they are lacking, but general pictures, models, and images for gifs/meme is more than sufficient.
FYI, a lot of their free stock images are released under COO (Creative Common) so you can use them with no payment for personal and commercial use.
Pixaby – 1.4 Million Royalty Free Images
Website: https://pixabay.com/
A lot of what you see on Pexels is available on Pixaby. However, for some reason whenever I need larger images they just seem to be higher quality. This means if you are looking for a slider, or a larger infographic I would start by looking at Pixaby for your royalty free images.
Also, I just really like how they make their licensing so transparent. “Free for personal and even commercial use”. Everything is under the creative commons zero licenses (CCO).
Burst.shopify – Free Stock Photo Platform
Website: https://burst.shopify.com/
It may not have as many resources as the Pexels or Pixaby, but the ones it does have are very high quality. This has images related to higher end web design and product images, than anything. However, it is adding new stock images daily and soon to be specific dropshipping and product images. Shopify has already purchased Oberlo, and would not be surprised to see even more services added to their marketplace.
Unsplash – High-Resolution Photos For Everyone
Website: https://unsplash.com/
Unsplash has incredible high-resolution images from a very large community of photographers. You will find a lot of one of a kind gems here. Everything is also free for all users, even for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
Even though it is not required they encourage crediting a photographer for exposure for their work, and earns their photographer’s countless backlinks.
Canva – Create Amazing Graphic Design For Free
Website: https://www.canva.com/
Last but not least, I had to list Canva as my favorite place for putting together my stock images. Even though it does not have the largest selection of stock photos, the presentation, and design resources more than makes up for it.
I typically download my free stock images from one of the websites above and upload it to Canva. This way I can use the simple and free editor to create designs such as overlaying text, creating infographics, or anything social media related.
Other Websites for Free Stock Images
Do you know of any other websites you recommend for Free Stock Images? Feel free to list below and share your experiences. Please make sure that they are royalty and copyrights free, and that attribution requirement are apparent.
Also, if you are in the middle of creating a website you will read our how to build a blog or how to build a Shopify store in less than 2 weeks.
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Evolve Media Bankruptcy Concerns
Amongst the recent concerns and speculations of Evolve Media’s financial health, we have undergone a thorough investigation to gauge the risk of the rumors of Evolve Media bankruptcy. As an obligation to our publisher readers, we must report on any ad network risks if we come across such information.
We received several claims of many rounds of layoffs. Just recently there was a claim that the fifth round of layoffs happened. After looking into this further, and checking out some of their very recent employee reviews from GlassDoor.com, this was consistent with what we were told.
Evolve Media clarified, however, that there were only two rounds of layoffs that involved 21 – 22 employees and the total employee count is now 150. They added, “We had one in August that affected mostly Crave and evolve staff supporting Crave and then one in May that affected TotallyHer and it’s evolve support staff. Our other Apex, Canada and Martini businesses are doing well and are unaffected.”
Below are the major focuses of the allegations we’ve received:
1. Employee Morale And Not Replacing Key Staff
Despite the layoffs, Evolve Media has allegedly not been replacing their senior staff after they’ve been fired or laid off. However, Evolve clarified that the company is still run by Brian Fitzgerald and Aaron Broder and responded to the allegation with, “We added a head of operations (we didn’t have this before) and a new head of finance.”
Several employees reached out to question the work conditions and the financial viability of the company. This certainly has not helped amidst these layoffs and the alleged downsizing of one of their offices. However, Evolve responded to the office downsizing saying, “No, we moved a while ago.” There is a chance that an office move was construed as office downsizing.
There were also allegations of a lot of the work over the last few years has been outsourced to a Mexico office, so fewer employers are required in the US and Canada leaving everyone worrying about their jobs.
2. Paying Publishers Late, or Not At All.
One of the biggest concerns for publishers working with the Evolve Media is if they will be paid late, or not at all. Several of the past employees and publishers have recently brought this to our attention.
However, according to Evolve Media, “We changed our payment terms from net 60 to net 120 as we are being paid by agencies on average net 150-210. That’s the real story here. Agencies are keeping publishers money longer and longer.” We can confirm that this has been a trend in the industry. If Evolve Media only required updating contract terms without mutual consent, there is a decent chance that publishers’ have overlooked extended payment terms.
Of the publishers that are aware of the payment term changes, Evolve mentioned there were several that were upset by the change. Evolve Media added, “Also, with all of the viewability auditing in sold campaigns, we get paid on and we pay on viewed impressions. This means pubs get paid less than what our reporting interface may show because we are paid off of third party numbers like IAS, Moat, DoubleVerify or DFA.” Longer payment terms and not getting paid on all impressions could definitely upset publishers. This could be the cause for some of the negative feedback we’ve received.
3. Dwindling Support for Executives & Leadership
Just because it is on the internet does not mean it is true. However, in most cases, Glassdoor is very reliable for company reviews and you can see how their ratings changed from good to horrible, over a short period of their most recent reviews. However, in the past couple of weeks, a few positive reviews have been submitted as well although, the positive reviews are still a minority.
It is consistent in the recent negative reviews, the lack of leadership and what is thought of the executives. Allegedly, the leadership has not been very present. If these allegations are true, this toxic environment and culture spills over into the entire feeling of the company and could be sensed among the clients.
4. Declining Revenues and Profit Losses
Many of the Evolve Media stakeholders that proactively reached out to us have alleged that Evolve Media has been declining in revenue for years and they are going through yearly losses. Evolve, when asked to comment asserted that they are breakeven. They are earnings losses in some months and profits in others. As ad tech businesses are very seasonal, this claim isn’t out of the ordinary.
Their business model revolves around creating and building custom content for authority websites. Some of the websites include fashion, pets, computer games, beauty, outdoor, and coupon websites. These lifestyle brand and niche authority websites attract 120+Million fans a month that all require hundreds of well written long-tail content each month. There’s no doubt their business model is expensive to run, however, it can be lucrative for some companies with optimal ad tech.
5. Not Adapting To New Business Models
Evolve Media is one of the industry vets that we have followed for many years. It started off as Gorilla Ad Network in 2000, before purchasing many different websites listed above that they monetize internally.
However, several stakeholders have claimed that many of the advertisers have left for more programmatic avenues such as Pinterest, Facebook, Google, YouTube, or Instagram. Programmatic ad rates are considerably less than sold directly. Programmatic is also more efficient and effective to buy when combining technology. In fact, Evolve Media confirmed this trend commenting, “Advertisers have been moving more budget to programmatic for years.“
Like Mode Media and Say Media, Evolve Media is an agency type of ad network. They are sales and marketing first and technology never seemed to be their strength. As a result, they have allowed ad tech advances like header bidding, server-to-server, and exchange bidding pass them by. This has most likely been a reason for declining revenues. More technologically advanced SSPs like Index Exchange, AppNexus and OpenX have thrived while ad networks like Evolve Media have declined.
MonetizePros Recommendations
The above is based on allegations from Evolve Media stakeholders, responses from Evolve Media, thorough web research and our educated opinions. It’s hard to say exactly what is happening with a company till official announcements are made. As we said above, we hope the best for all the publishers and entire Evolve Media Company but had to address these concerns. There are a lot of symptoms of an ad network that is going out of business joining a sizable list of Ad Networks that went bankrupt in the past years.
If you are running Evolve Media demand, we recommend to contact your rep and confirm your payment terms. If your publisher business has some late payments from Evolve Media, we’d recommend pausing their demand. It is not worth risking late payments or not getting paid at all especially with so many great ad network options that are header bid compatible.
If you are a publisher that is thinking about trying out Evolve Media, approach with caution. Long payment terms, a dying business model that is most likely surviving because of the publisher side of their business and tech being a weakness are not savory traits in ad tech these days.
As usual, tread lightly and please let us know if you have any information to add in the comments below.
10 Best Shopify Apps for Dropshipping to Increase Sales
Want to make even more sales from your Shopify store? Then you should start using the Shopify App Marketplace for conversion boosting strategies from thousands of third party developers.
As amazing as Shopify is for eCommerce, these apps are designed to help improve one aspect of your store and make them even better. A few features include pricing automation, inventory control, shipping calculators, accounting system, inbound marketing, customer care, and so much more.
10 Best Shopify Apps For Dropshipping
1. Dropshipping With Oberlo
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/oberlo
Have you wanted to create a store, but do not know what you want to sell?
Oberlo solves all of this and allows you to automatically import products (Images & Full Product Descriptions) directly into your store from AliExpress so you can start selling. Then when you actually make a sale, you just click “order product” and everything else is done by Oberlo. The review and rating system for suppliers helps reduce scams and find the best supplier.
With a 5 star review from thousands of happy users, Oberlo is one of the most used apps among dropshippers. It was purchased by Shopify, and is continually improving. It is free for first 50 orders / month to get your business started. After that, it is $29 for up to 500 products/month and $79 for unlimited sales and more features. They do everything they can for you to succeed.
2. MailChimp
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/mailchimp
For all new stores, I recommend using MailChimp as your email marketing service, because it is free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails. They are one of the leaders in this space and allow you to connect your Shopify store for free and automatically adds the customer to Mailchimp.
With this, you can create powerful automated features, ad campaigns for personalized marketing, and track customers on payment history. Their Mailchimp Prices are very affordable and I have never had an issue with email deliver ability for staying out of Junk Filters.
3. Custom Cat
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/customcat-fulfillment
Custom Cat provides the best on demands fulfillment and design for all my merchandise and custom apparel. It is a USA Based business that provides fast production, shipping, with very competitive products.
Shipping for drop shippers costs $4.99 in US + $1.50 per additional item; international shipping is $7.50 + $5.95 per additional item. See above for their current 2018 pricing and link to full 550+ product catalog. Some examples of pricing are Unisex T-Shirt – $6.00, 11 oz Mug – $3.50, 15 oz Mug – $4.00, Pullover Hoodie – $18.50, Crewneck Sweatshirt – $12.95, Embroidered Flat Bill Snapback Hat – $13.64, Embroidered Baseball Cap – $11.22.
4. Quick Announcement Bar By Hextom
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/quick-announcement-bar-always-keep-your-customers-informed
One of the most important thing that any Shopify Dropshipping store must have is the quick announcement bar. One of the top rates for Shopify Apps, and highest converting features. This pop-up does a lot more than just inform a customer about your business updated, it also has advanced targetting such as geo-targeting, source targeting, and page targeting. I use it for different campaigns especially when using Facebook traffic and customize it especially for the custom audience and list.
5. Sales Popup By MakeProSimp
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/sales-pop
Increase your conversion rates with social proof! The Sales Notification by MakeProSimp is a newer sales notification (But Completely Free) and awesome. The pop-ups build trust with your consumers by encouraging them to buy your product. There are highly customizable for hiding or displaying products and works on all mobile devices. Super easy to set up and actual had really good support.
6. Shopify Messenger
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/messenger
Who really uses emails nowadays anyways? The Messenger App created by Shopify provides a fast and easy way for customers to buy products from your store. You can chat in real time and customers love having all confirmation and shipping details all sent in one place. Not all customers are ready (just yet) to do this through their Facebook, but it is growing and my conversion speaks for themselves.
7. Instafeed
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/instafeed
The Instafeed app easily adds your Instagram pics to your Shopify Store attracting many new followers. This adds social proof and shows that there is more to this brand than just a store.
8. Quickbooks Shopify App
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/quickbooks-online
It is not the cheapest accounting system, but I personally use the Quickbooks Shopify App and their online accounting system. You can automatically export orders from Shopify, sync inventory levels, and keeps track of all your payouts and fees. The money I save from not having to hire an accountant far outways the monthly costs.
The first 30 days are free to try, and you have to have both the Shopify App and Quickbooks Online subscriptions that cost about $75 / month. If your budget is tight, Xero is a similar system and plans start at only $9.00 per month.
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/xero
9. Spin-a-sale
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/spin-a-sale
The spin-a-sale is pretty legendary in the Shopify community, and highly engages users for email subscribers. They have been working hard on the load speed, but customers love to spin the wheel for discounts. It will allow you to quickly grow your list and has done crazy things with my conversions.
It gives you full control over the customization and built with automation in mind. You can set it for delayed timing, when someone is exciting, and give automatic unique codes. It has a 10-day free trial so when your site is up and making sales.
10. Referral Candy
Link: https://apps.shopify.com/referralcandy
After showing you ways to make more sales, our last dropshipping app on the list is referral candy. Because why would you not want your happy customers out there making sales for you? It is one of the more expensive apps recommended today at $49/ month but has a 30 Day Free Trial.
You get to design and choose your own referral program exactly the way you want. This may mean Cash or Coupons or create it however you like. The additional metrics and dashboard feature let you optimize the campaigns based on your real metrics.
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Hosting24 Review: Premium web hosting at an affordable price
Finding affordable web hosting isn’t easy. The problem isn’t that there’s a lack of choice but that there’s so much choice out there that it can be difficult to know where to get started. You can find plenty of free hosts without too much of a problem, but they all came with their drawbacks whether it’s a limited amount of space or whether they run ads on your site to try to make some money from it. So I guess you have not probably heard of Hosting24 by now? So let the MonetizePros give you a full and honest Hosting24 Review.
Free web hosting can come in useful, especially if you’re a hobbyist blogger who’s trying to get their site off the ground without having to pay for it. But it’s usually not the best option if you’re trying to make money from your website, and that applies whether you’re running an e-commerce site or whether we’re talking about the website for your business.
The good news is that while free hosting isn’t usually good enough for serious sites, you also don’t have to spend a fortune to find a host that will do the job. Unless you want to hire a dedicated server or to go for managed hosting, in which the host provides a certain amount of their time to manage the server on your behalf, then you should be able to find a reasonably-priced hosting package that meets your needs.
Hosting24 Review – Getting Started
Arguably the single most important decision you’ll make when creating your new website is which domain name to use. There’s an art to picking a good domain name that’s way beyond the scope of this article, but what we will say is that it’s a good idea to draft up a bunch of potential choices and to run them through a domain checker to see what’s available.
You’re going to need to know that domain name in advance because it forms the foundation of your website. On top of that, if you take out an annual plan from Hosting24 then a free domain name is included when you pay for it. But even if you want to keep costs as low as possible and to go for the $2.15/month single web hosting, you’re still going to need to purchase a domain name from somewhere to go with it.
Take a little time to check out each of Hosting24’s plans, as they’re all pretty reasonable and they all offer a different set of features. Discounts are on offer for when you want to take out a longer contract, and you can also pay extra for upgrades if you’re running out of resources. For most, though, the $3.49/month premium package is all they’ll need. It covers an unlimited number of websites, unlimited amounts of storage space and bandwidth and even unlimited email accounts and FTP users. That makes it an ideal choice for companies and for other teams who need multiple user accounts or logins.
Affordable cPanel hosting
Finding affordable hosting is one thing. Finding affordable packages that don’t break the bank and which include cPanel hosting can be a real challenge, but the good news is that Hosting24 have got you covered. They offer cPanel by default, which is ideal if you want to have some serious control over your server setup. We’re not going to go into too much detail on cPanel in this article, but there are plenty of guides to cPanel out there that will tell you exactly how to use it.
But it’s not just cPanel that’s on offer here. Hosting24 are also a solid choice because they offer 24/7 customer service and a money back guarantee, both of which are nice little add-ons that can make you feel better about spending some money with the company. Sure, they don’t promise 100% uptime, but that’s because nobody can. Still, they do boast 99.9% uptime, and their in-house team works around the clock to make sure that any downtime is reduced to a minimum.
There’s also the fact that Hosting24 will help to migrate your site from your existing host, which can help you to avoid much of the inevitable hassle that comes along with it. When you switch from one host to another, you need to duplicate both files and databases and then update the DNS settings so that your domain name is pointing to the new server. It’s surprisingly difficult to get all of that done without making mistakes or causing downtime, which is why it’s usually a good idea to call for backup. Luckily, Hosting24 offers migration as a service and so they’ve got a lot of practice at it.
Other advantages of Hosting24
Another of the big advantages of going with Hosting24 is the fact that they offer a free SSL certificate. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the industry standard type of encryption, and whether you know what it is or not, you’ve used it. If you’ve ever used online banking or made a purchase online then the chances are that you’ve used a site with an SSL certificate.
Installing and configuring an SSL certificate is best practice if you’re handling any kind of sensitive data, such as usernames, passwords, bank details and more. An SSL certificate basically makes all of that information unreadable just in case your site is compromised and someone is able to listen in, which is good news if you’re running an e-commerce store or some other website that handles sensitive data. But using an SSL certificate is a good idea in general because it can also improve your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) and increase trust amongst your visitors.
Hosting24 also uses more advanced technology than most free hosting providers, whether we’re talking about their advanced firewalls and their HTTP/2 support or whether we’re talking about the infrastructure that they use. Part of the reason for their more powerful infrastructure is the fact that they offer a number of different hosting products ranging from shared hosting to VPS and reseller hosting for those with more robust needs.
Choosing the right type of hosting
There are many different types of web hosting available to you, and one of the reasons why Hosting24 is worth checking out is the fact that it offers such a range of services. They start out with shared hosting, in which multiple sites are stored on the same server, and go all the way up to reseller hosting, which is perfect for agencies and web developers. As a reseller, you can create cPanel accounts of your own and set up custom packages for your clients. It effectively allows you to act as a web hosting agency yourself by white labeling Hosting24’s existing service.
But if you’re like most people then you’re just looking to host a single website, and that’s where Hosting24 excels. Their WordPress hosting is amongst the best in the market, thanks to a combination of the reasonable pricing and the features we talked about earlier, such as their 24/7 support team. WordPress powers nearly 20% of the web, and hosting a WordPress site through Hosting24 as opposed to WordPress’s own solutions is cheaper and arguably even easier. And of course, Hosting24 will give you a free domain name as well if you sign up for the annual plan.
Hosting24 also offers VPS (virtual private server) hosting, which is an ideal mid-point between shared hosting and hiring a dedicated server. A VPS basically uses the same kind of resources that a shared hosting plan would have access to but with a virtual machine set up on top of it. That allows users to maintain full control over their virtual server and to configure it so that it works exactly how they want it to.
Conclusion
Hosting24 might not be a premium web host, but it offers everything that you need to get a website up and running and at a price that doesn’t break the bank. They also offer free domain names to customers who sign up for an annual plan, and they’re fully certified with ICANN which means you can register through them with confidence.
If you’re looking for a web host with huge amounts of bandwidth or storage space, look no further. Hosting24 is one of the only budget web hosting providers which offers truly unlimited bandwidth and storage, as well as a free domain name for annual customers and all sorts of other benefits. They might not give you everything – you’d need a managed host for that, and you’d pay a lot of money for the privilege too – but you’re going to struggle to find a better hosting plan for the price.
Ultimately, Hosting24 might not be as well-known as some other providers, but that’s because they don’t throw vast amounts of money at marketing to bring customers in that they can just churn and repeat. Instead, they reinvest their profits in their infrastructure, and the result is a reasonably priced web hosting company that keeps its overheads low and passes the savings on to its customers. And if you ask us, the result is the best value cheap hosting provider on the market.
Best Blog Niches That Will Make You Good Money
Do you blog for a hobby or for a living?
Choosing the best blog niches has always been one of the things to consider ever since blogging has become increasingly popular in the last several years. While some people blog for a hobby, others blog for a living. To blog for a living, you’ve got to build up an audience so that you have consistent traffic coming to your blog. And to build up an audience, you’ve got to know who your target audience is. To know who your target audience is, you’ve got to know the niche of your blog or what your blog is going to be about. Here are our top picks for the “6 Best Blog Niches That Will Make You Good Money”.
Although there are tons of different blog niches to choose from, when trying to choose one for your blog, you want to pick a niche that’s popular and that people want to read about and find interesting, so that it will be easy for you create content. You also want to pick a profitable niche, so that you can monetize your blog. When it comes to monetizing your blog, there are numerous ways to go about it, from affiliate income and ad revenue to the selling of products and sponsorships. Here are six blog niches that will make you money.
Pick a profitable niche so that you can make money from your blog.
Best Blog Niches
There are many niches out there, and each niche has a strong potential to make you plenty of money, however, let the monetization pros give you a list of the top 6 to help you gain that revenue that you are looking for. But, a quick disclaimer. At the end of the day, no matter what niche you choose, it will depend on your ability to create engaging content that your audience will enjoy and learn from. As you continue to create more content, your audience will gradually grow hence increasing your revenues as well. It all comes down to your ability to blog. Just in case you have not yet, here is our comprehensive guide on how to blog. You can also go ahead and enroll in our 30-day challenge.
Weight Loss Niche
The weight loss niche is quite popular and profitable blog niche because men and women all over the world are always eager to lose weight, but they need help. These people are looking for recipes, tips and tricks on how to drop the weight. If you are interested in the weight loss niche, you could write about various methods to lose weight, different diets to try, healthy recipes and of course, if you have lost weight or are trying to lose weight, you can always share your story to resonate with your readers.
People are always searching for information on how to lose weight, so this niche can bring you in a boatload of money if done the right way. According to ShoutMeLoud, weight loss-related keywords are in the top 10 highest-paid keywords, and the AdSense cost per click (CPC) is more than $3. This means that if you have targeted traffic coming to your weight loss blog, then you could be making several dollars for every click.
Gaming Niche
The gaming industry is growing rapidly and was a $116 billion industry in 2017, with online and mobile gaming responsible for most of it. The gaming niche is a perfect niche for a blog because more people are getting involved in mobile gaming now more than ever. KeywordKeg shows that the CPC for the keywords “casino games” is about $3.87, which is great!
Gamers are online searching for the newest and best games to play, they are looking for cheat codes and a community to join to discuss gaming. With a gaming niche blog, you could benefit all these gamers by posting about the newest, entertaining games that can be found. If you’re a gamer yourself, you could post videos while playing your favorite games. This niche can be quite lucrative as the opportunities are endless.
Make Money Online Niche
Another popular niche, as everyone is always looking for ways to make extra money, and now more than ever, making money online. With a make money online niche blog, you could post about the newest moneymaking tips, videos on programs and companies to join to make some extra cash and pretty much anything that relates to making money online. Also, with this type of blog, if you are making money online or have the knowledge on doing so, you can create an e-book, guide or course to teach others how to go about making money online and put it up for sale on your blog. According to Keywords Everywhere, the CPC for “how to make money online” is $1.06. So, as you can see, there is a ton of money to be made with a make money online niche blog.
Personal Finance Niche
If people aren’t looking for ways to make more money, then they’re looking for ways to save.
A personal finance niche blog can be a helpful blog since people are always looking for ways to budget, save money and get out of debt. If people aren’t looking for ways to make more money, then they are trying to figure out how to save money. If you have any tips about saving money and living frugal, you could offer them in blog posts. You could also research some of the best budgeters and feature a new person every week on your blog. The average CPC for the keywords “get out of debt” is a whopping $14.68, as people are always searching for tips to help them get out debt and live debt free. So, just think if your blog were to pop up during a search how much money you’d be making.
Travel Niche
If you love to travel like most of the world, then a travel blog would be perfect for you! When it comes to a travel blog, there are numerous topics to discuss. You could blog about the best places to travel to, luxury hotels to stay at as well as start recording travel vlogs and post them on your blog with a description detailing where you traveled to and the highlights of your trip. According to Keywords Everywhere, the CPC for keywords “travel vloggers” is $5.72, which makes this a great niche for a blog. Plus, there are people who love to live through others by setting and watching strangers travel and go on trips, so this type of blog can make you a killing.
Food and Beverage Niche
Who doesn’t love to eat and drink? If you are a foodie or enjoy getting in the kitchen and creating delicious recipes, then a food and beverage niche blog may just be the blog for you. With this type of blog, you could get in the kitchen and cook up something amazing, take high-quality photos of your food and post it on your blog with the recipe attached. Posts like these are always going viral on Facebook.
People are always searching Google for “healthy recipes blog,” which is why the CPC for such keywords is $3.20. So, there’s plenty of money to be made! Don’t worry if you can’t cook or don’t like to cook, you could be a taste tester and go around to different restaurants and blog about their food. The point is people love to see and hear about good food, so there are so many options when it comes to a food and beverage niche that you could get creative and paid well.
Websites vs Blogs: Which One Should I Use?
You’ve got the product, service, or idea ready.
You’re motivated and excited.
But where do you start?
Let me answer that: at the beginning.