blogging Archives | Georgi Kamaliev

3 steps to set up your business for success

March 3, 2018 By Georgi Leave a Comment

You can’t build a skyscraper on a sandy basis.

Some business owners make a big mistake thinking too small. When you are just starting, setting up big goals is a little bit difficult thing. And you can do it. The question is: Are you willing to set up your business for growth?

Prepare your business for growth

Now I want to tell you about my uncle John. Uncle John had a normal family – a nice wife and a beautiful daughter. Through the years we have been together often on a family gathering. John always joined our party latter, sometimes he missed the dinner. He missed also his daughter first step because he spoke on the phone, he late for her ballet competition, for the first day of school, for a graduation…. Only because he was in a business meeting. Of course, his wife – my aunt, gets used to eating alone, to drink her glass of wine alone, to sleep alone, to prepare every holiday without him. She was absolutely sure there is another woman. When their daughter grew up and moved out, my aunt decided to reveal the truth, followed my uncle and discovered the terrible truth – her husband was obsessed with his job. I have to admit it – John has a successful company. One of the best in its segment. In private conversation, once uncle John told me what he learned for business through the years and save my family stability.

Here’re uncle John pieces of advice.

1. Prepare your business for growth from the beginning

Even in a beginning of a new business, you should think about his growth – about a growing number of customers who will make more purchases, new types of products and directions of development.

Please, follow these questions:

– Is my brand name illustrating the essence of my business? Your brand name sends message to your customers. He shows what is your attitude to your business, your ideals which you cannot change in the future.

– What are my basic values, constant elements? Every business needs of fundamentals values on which to be built.

– What are my advantages over my competition? Everybody has a unique style, skills, and ideas. You should know what you are better. Refer your efforts in this direction.

– How you send messages to your customers? You should know that you contact your customers not only in your store, fabric or local. You contact them via your brand name, your site, even your labels and packages. Everything needs to bring one message.

– What do you want to reach? It’s good to know from the beginning what is your target group – do you want your business to be a local, national or international? Then you could build your business this way.

2. Good online presence is a must

Uncle John thought that internet changed everything in a business world. He learned that in a difficult way. For a temporary business good online presentation is obligatory. From the beginning you need to prepare your website for more traffic, more hits and more requests.

Here’re uncle John main things:

– You should choose a perfect platform for you which be able to cope with a big weight. Nobody wants site overload and problems with using it. Think about cloud hosting – it could give you more space. Maybe you need a Virtual Private Server and higher or unlimited bandwidth with your hosting account. Make everything to protect your site from a crash.

– Your site is your business identity to the customers and it needs to be in absolute synergy with your business values.

– You should think about a hosting plan which can save you money if you pay for a long period, like a year. Some hosting providers make a 25% discount for advance payment.

3. What is the average day of your customers?

The last advice of uncle John was about information. He thinks that a good information is a key word for every success. Of course, it will be perfect to know what your competition planning to do but I don’t want to make you like a James Bond in the business world. More important is to know your customers – what they purchase and what they looking for. In one word – you need a good DATA for your clients. From the very beginning of your business, you should start to gather information – tracking and measurement will help you to know what’s the reason for your success, where your grow come from or maybe why there is no growth, what are the problems. With Google Analytics you can track your traffic, you can use also Hot jar it “gives you the ‘big picture’ of how to improve your site’s user experience and performance/conversion rates.”

Thеse were uncle John’s pieces of advice. I hope that they will help you in the way they help me!

How to find your right target market

March 2, 2018 By Georgi Leave a Comment

Always, always, always start with defining your target market.

My father told me once good seller can sell an ice to Eskimo. Perhaps he was right but why you should do that? Isn’t easier to find who really needs your products, services or skills? If you make an effort to show all the world what you suggest, you just waste your time, money and ability.

Defining Your Target Market is essential for Your Success

Let’s start with basic – do you know the difference between target market and target audience?

Target market – according to the dictionary – this is a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed.

The target audience is the people you’re selling to.

I’ll explain this with a simple example. In the winter my son and his friends wear warm hats. They are hat’s manufacturer target market. But parents are people who buy these hats for our little boys – we are the target audience. When hat’s creators decide to make advertising they show their spot in kids channel but mostly in magazines and TV programs for grown people.

Use your target market language.

Always think about your target market – who they are, how they live, where, what is their specific slang… If you sell medicine for a sore throat it’ll be ridiculous to use words like Cool, Hundo P, Savage…

If you sell energy drink describes like “good for your health” will be out of place. There aren’t product or service which are good for everybody. Don’t waste your time, focus only on your target market.

But how to figure out who are your customers? Is this possible?

Actually – Yes! With some help.

Site statistic.

Every website has a statistic, from which you could discover the age, the gender of your visitors, where do they live, how did they find you, what they search in your site, how much time they spend in your site…

Connect with your customers.

When I meet someone new I ask questions about getting to know him. You should do the same. Ask your customers about them via phone, mail, a special poll on your site, on your Facebook page… There’re many opportunities.

Speak to your employees.

Your employees are people who meet your customers every day. They know what are their problems, what they ask frequently, even what they expect from you.

Watch out your Competition.

Pay attention to your competition steps. Not to follow them but to know who they direct their efforts and to whom isn’t.

You couldn’t imagine how much you can learn about your customers if you did this effort. Like they are your closest friends. You will know not only their ages, gender, are they married, did they have children, what are their occupation, where they live, but also what are their hobbies, goals, problems, and of course – how you can help them.

You can I summarize three representative profiles of your main clients. That’s enough for small business. For example, if you’re the one who sell kid’s hat your three main clients will be young mothers – housewives, grandmothers – retired and other women – friends of young mothers. All of them probably will live in your shop’s neighborhood. If you sell helmets your customers will be completely deferent.

The easiest way to make these profiles is using special software. You can find free platforms also.

Then start to show your advertising especially to these special clients using social media, Google AdWords, and places where these women can see your advertising – in web and in the real world.

I guarantee the time spent will not be a waste of time. It will thank you back for an increase in sales and business development.

SHARED or DEDICATED hosting: What is best for you?

March 1, 2018 By Georgi Leave a Comment

Handling with the technical part of the online business like considering shared or dedicated hosting can be overwhelming. Some people think that there isn’t a big difference but they’re wrong. There are some basic distinct. You need to know what type of hosting – shared or dedicated, will fix perfectly for your target.

The United States was famous for The Land of Unlimited Opportunities because an idea was enough to make you a rich guy.

Today the things are different. The whole world is The Land of Unlimited Opportunities because of the Internet.

You understand how important for your business success your presentation in the web world is.

Not only appearance but the functionality of your site is something that you should think over.

Of course, usually, entrepreneurs aren’t professional computer workers – programmers, developers, designers… Computer terminology probably sounds you like Chinese and it’s normal. Now I will help you with first steps.

1. Shared hosting

Obviously, this is a hosting which you share with other users. In details that means a server serves a few sites with their own domain names.

There are two red points for this choice:

It’s cheap – The host company gives one server to multiply users and then separate maintenance cost between them. This option is perfect if you have a small budget.
No need any computer skills – The host company cares about everything – maintenance, protection… If you’re having trouble working on your site, just call your host administrator.

But there are two big black points:

Shared hosting crashes are something expected. Too many sites overload the system. Imagine a tree with many branches – this is world web. There are branches with many birds perched on it. These branches are shared hosting. Each bird is a different site. If birds become many, the branch will break. Something like this happens to your site, but while the birds fly away, your site just fails. And you must call your administrator. It’s completely possible to call him more often than your partner’s calls. Independently of words – “unlimited bandwidth” in your contract. Site’s crash = lost a customer. Think about it!
Shared hosting is more vulnerable. Let’s imagine again. If you share your house with other stranger people, it’s possible some of them invite a suspicious person. It’s equal here. Malware could enter through other sites with which you share hosting. If you work with money, accounts, and other important data, this could be fatal.

2. Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting offers a server only for your website. You will be the only bird on the branch. This sounds very good – your own computer in your host company with a web server, needed software and Internet connection. But let’s see the advantages one by one and then disadvantages – if they exist.

Advantages:

– Every computer professional will recommend dedicated hosting for sites with many visitors. It can serve high traffic easy. Temporary users are high-feds, they expect site’s loading only 1-2 seconds after they become nervous and search for alternative.
– You can make your site safer with high-level security control. Of course, no one can give you full guarantee against hackers and virus attacks but you can prevent some of them better than shared hosting owners.
– You control what happens to your site. You can use every application that you need. In general, you can customize your site exactly like you want. That is impossible with shared hosting.
I can bet, you want dedicated hosting badly but there are some disadvantages:
– Dedicated hosting is expensive, really expensive like 40 – 60 times more expensive than shared hosting. If shared will cost 2,5 USD a month, dedicated will be 80-120USD for this period. I’ll be happy if this cost won’t scary you but most small companies can afford this price.
– Dedicated hosting needs technical support. You should appoint computer specialist or do-it-yourself if you have computer skills but this commitment can’t be done among other things. You should manage your server and keep track of its good functionality. There is another problem – high-level security needs daily updates and installation of new programs. You can’t make any compromises to make sure you are well protected. Hackers don’t need many opportunities to attack you. Common cases are a denial of service (DoS) attacks, unauthorized access and cross-site scripting (XSS). So they can penetrate your customers’ computers.

I’m sure you already know what variant is good for you – shared or dedicated hosting. In a few words – if you plan to make a blog or some kind of personal site, don’t have a big budget and computer skills, your option is shared hosting. If you plan to make a site with large traffic, want maximal security, have computer skills or you have someone on your team with the technical skills and a huge budget – dedicated hosting is your solution.

How to start blogging in 30 minutes for free with WordPress

February 27, 2018 By Georgi Leave a Comment

What’s the reason one of the most famous companies to use a free and open-source content management system WordPress?

Big organizations like Sony Music, the Walt Disney company, Time Inc, Mercedes-Benz, medias like Variety, BBC America, Facebook Newsroom, celebrities like Beyoncé, Rolling Stones, Usain Boltcould could afford a thousand of dollars for best developers who will create a unique panel for them. What’s the catch? Why they choose WordPress and more important – can I do it for me?

How to start a blog in 30 minutes with WordPress

WordPress is attractive for search engines because it doesn’t just define web pages but emphasizes the meaning of page information using semantic markup

Let’s start step-by-step and find out everything.

1. What’s WordPress offers?

This powerful content management system suggests an opportunity to all users – no matter novices or professionals, to make a website and then manage it – organize, edit, publish it. WordPress is really easy to work and you can do it 24/7, completely free, including all plugins, themes, improvement…

Yes, there isn’t such a proposal in our precious new world – where everyone wants to get your money!

2. OK, but what are the limits?

There are no limits in WordPress. With this software you can create everything you can imagine.

All kinds of sites – private and celebrity pages, information and corporation sites, blogs, social media… You can use infinitely numbers of themes, plugins, and all other possibilities.

There is absolute freedom.

For that reason, it isn’t strange that almost 60% of the sites now are created with WordPress software. 60% – that’s millions of spaces in world web. Unbelievable!

3. Is it possible to exist unlimited opportunities?

Yes, it sounds impossible but it’s a fact. The explanation is simple. WordPress is an open-source platform that means everybody could develop and improve themes and create his own plugins.

Designers and computer programmers around the world make their own ideas and introduce them to all WordPress community.

When you decide to use the software, you customize a new look when combining deferent themes, layouts, and plugins.

4. But I’m an absolute beginner, who can help me if I have a problem with WordPress?

You can rely on numbers of users who can help you for free. You can find them in forums. Plus, there are many video tutorials and detailed guides for all kind of problems. I’m sure that you can solve every difficulty with their help.

5. Maybe I should assign site creation to a professional programmer?

It’s alternative but still think twice. Programmers would connect the site they created with their own hosting service. But is this the best hosting service for your needs? Is this safer, secure, faster option that fix exactly for you? WordPress software works with all kinds of hosting. You can choose the one who is perfect for your ideas.

6. How can I distinguish my site in this sea of millions of sites?

Maybe you talk about so-called SEO or search engine optimization, the main target of all site owners?

Of course, when your site becomes public, it will need traffic. Everybody wants to become one of the first options who search engines offer when someone looking for your service. Good optimization is a keyword to reach your goals. WordPress again is what you looking for.

First, WordPress is attractive for search engines because it doesn’t just define web pages but emphasizes the meaning of page information using semantic markup.

Second, it gives you many plugins to optimize your site, plugins like Jetpack and All in One SEO.

Third, as it became clear, WordPress is very popular. The best online marketing tools just love it. Programs like ConstantContact, CoSchedule, Buffer, Hootsuite, ClickToTweet, Disqus, Google Analytics, LinkPatroland connect their platforms with site’s using WordPress really easy. You should know there are plugins for everything you want to do with your site and much, much more.

Finally: WordPress provides an opportunity to make a site on your own, like you want, to manage it, to control everything that happens in it, to give you full statistics and many options to continuous development. If you choose WordPress you’ll be part of a huge community who growing with light speed since it’s appearance in 2003.

7 simple steps to choose the right hosting service for your new online business

February 27, 2018 By Georgi Leave a Comment

If you really serious about starting your own online business you need a website. As you probably already know whether you are starting one page site or authority blog it needs to be stored and published in Internet. Web hosting service allows your website or webpage to be viewed.

It’s major for every temporary online manager to know how much of his success depends on a good hosting service. You need a website with many visitors and your web hosting provider connect your business with customers.

Choosing a good hosting provider is an investment in your business future.

The Main Points For You To Keep In Mind:

Set up your goals
Define your hosting needs
Speed & Performance
Security, Reliability & Uptime

You have to know a few simple things to make a right solution.

Discover 7 simple steps that will help you to make the right decision.

1. Faster, faster, faster

If you have watched the movie Speed with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, you had to know the speed is a very important thing. If you lose speed you can explode… at least – your business.

You need a hosting service who can ensure maximum speed for your current needs. When your new potential customer tries to enter your site you have to be sure that he will do it. There is no time for “loading….”.

You should choose servers with SSDs because those servers will load your website faster than spinning hard drives.

If you expect visitors from different places on Earth, you should trust to servers on multiple continents. With this server, you will have fastest connection in every time in everyplace.

It’s important to ask your hosting company about CDN (content delivery network). CDN decrease losses through proxy servers around the world. Some companies offer free CDN, in other cases, you should pay for this service.

The latest version of HTTP – HTTP/2 is a network protocol of our time. HTTP/2 is up to 10 times faster than HTTP. Your host should support it. But what is 10 times faster when you can make your site many, many times faster – hundreds of time. How? With a simple trick – caching options. You need choices like PHP 7 opcode caching, Memcached/Redis object caching, Nginx/Varnish full page caching, CDN, and ElasticSearch/Solr full text searching.

2. Protection and safety

I’m sure that you often read these words from Google: “This website may contain a virus and may harm your computer”. I know what you do when you see it, you choose next alternative. Exactly what you don’t want to make your potential customers. You lost money with every lost click. But how to protect your website from malware? How your hosting service could assure you that the hackers can’t attack you?

Your web host must be updated daily to keep software up-to-date. Check it out is they use the latest software like PHP, Apache, MySQL

Are there automatic CMS updates? Be careful – it’s safer to choose manual activation for new updates because you can lose important information if new updates start running in the middle of your job.

Your web host should be your guard dog – keep an eye on your traffic, block up all the suspicious enters and find all the vulnerabilities handling. Dog’s best helper would be Web Application Firewall but for full security you need backups. Hackers are always a step forward! It’s possible your host company make backups but there is no guaranty how often they do that.

A month is an optimal time for regular backups, more often is better. Insist for this service even this will cost you more, loses may be incomparably larger. Backups will restore your information with a simple click.

But hackers are not the only one who make problems. Like all computer components programs also crash without external intervention. Your host can offer you help – their server admin can log onto the server and find problem solution. Restart the machine it’s possible options in many cases but causes dead time. Nobody likes dead times! Prepare yourself for such a problems and prevent them before they really happen with good monitoring. This secure system will check server status and automatically will fix occurring problems. If you don’t want to rely on your web host can do it for yourself with programs like Uptimerobot, Pingdom and Uptrend

3. Help

You have to know that online business is like a new relationship – you have to be available 24 hours 7 days in a week. But as opposed to love connections someone else could do it instead of you, someone like your web host. This perfect helper is friendly, always ready to support you, work fast, 24/7, you can find him via phone, chat, messenger… Of course, this service will cost you something but will be worth it. Especially if words “hosting support” in your contract means a lot of issues

4. The site is ready

Your website is ready, you’re happy with the result but only one lefts. That spark that will give him life. It depends on your web host. The necessary software and complex of facilities to show your site to the world should be provided by your host. Even it’s simple site. Make a list of all important things that you want by your hosting company and ask:

Necessary software to run your website?
Do they allow plugins?
CMS?
Operating system?
Database?
Web server?
Programming languages?

If you need special tools, do they assure them – SSL, Let’s Encrypt, Staging, FTP, SSH?

About services. If they provide:

Domain registration?
Email hosting?
Database management?
Control panel?
Storage size? Because there are limits always independent of advertising word like “unlimited”.
Free site migration?

5. The hosting service company

When choosing web host you choose a partner for a long period and you have to choose right. It’s easy to find out more about the company.

How solid the company is? Is it small, local provider or a big corporation? What are their advantages?
Check their site – is it easy to use it, clear and explanatory?
Read About us section – what’s company story, goalsand philosophy? Do they invest moneyin events like WordCamp, open source projects or some other enterprises?
Look how they respond to their clients in social networks – how fast, do they keep friendly language even for the bad comments?
How does their office look like?
Their employers – are they look happy?In general – company who take cares of employers, take cares of customers
Is host company eco-friendly, for example – what they do with their carbon footprint? How they save electricity?

6. Payment

The payment isn’t the main when you choose web host but it will be good if you pay as much as the service costs – no more no less. Maybe you have chosen a hosting company because you like their advertising with happy faces who ensure you that you receive everything in a lower price? Although, please, read the little letters to understand what “everything” means for this company. For how long is also a good question to ask? Are there any limits, perhaps “everything” but for basic needs? It’s possible lower price applies only if you pay for long period.

That’s it! If you take the time, follow these steps you will select the best web host for you. The time spent will pay you back!