Shop abandonment for eCommerce stores can go as high as 80%, and this is true even if you use a platform like Shopify. So if you don’t act against this common problem, you will be just like other businesses – significantly losing potential sales.
Surely you are getting decent revenue, but you still can be experiencing wasted sales via abandoned carts.
Can you imagine the things you can use the lost money for if you recover it? – maybe a vacation or maybe that extra amount is what you actually need to buy a new upgrade for your business.
This is why you should make extra efforts in mitigating and retrieving abandoned carts.
There are things you will have to ensure that your website has to reduce cart abandonment. One of the best ways to do it is to use a Shopify abandoned cart app as a contingency because it easily integrates into your website’s system.
To get back your shoppers, we must understand why people abandon carts on Shopify. This way, we can pinpoint the proper solutions.
People Have Too Many Choices.
Shopify is one of the best and simplest-to-use eCommerce platforms today. It is easy for business owners or merchants to create an entirely working eStore and convenient for consumers to find what they need.
If you are using Shopify, you are in healthy competition. But it is competition nonetheless.
Consumers already know that there are reputable sources of logistics and products that use the eCommerce platform. Also, they know or at least assume that your website will provide an uncomplicated shopping experience.
This means that by using Shopify, there is already a minimum amount of trust that people give you. But not just you – the tens of thousands of other merchants too.
When people shop, they usually consider more than one store. It is always you or someone else.
If your competition’s website:
Has a better user experience;
Has easier navigation;
Has a more seamless checkout process;
Has the perfect payment options;
Has the best security features; and
Has excellent conversion and conversation optimization in general;
A shopper who sees the comparison and advantage over your store will leave your outlet or abandon their cart.
For this reason, you will be able to change things to make your website’s performance better.
What you can do is try shopping on the website of your best competitor and see for yourself what makes it excellent. Then take what they do well but do it 100x better on your website.
If you have a lousy website, no amount of effort or a Shopify abandoned cart app will help you. People returning after cart abandonment who see that the reason why they left is still there will simply leave again.
So the first thing you have to ensure is that you mitigate problems that you can cause by making your site a wonderful thing to use.
Then, have an effective contingency in place.
People Mostly Leave for Random Reasons.
A shopper can abandon a cart “just because.” This is the most prominent reason for abandoning.
Some may browse and get distracted by personal matters like a phone call from work. Or maybe they just got hungry, went for a meal, and then forgot to go back to shopping.
For these people, you will simply need to remind them of what they were previously doing.
There are three modes of communication or reminding that you can use.
Email
Push Notifications
SMS
With email, you will be able to send a long enough message that reminds them of what they were doing and entice them to return with a perk. You have more freedom with the character length available.
But people don’t check their emails all day. You will have to wait for the customer to do their email reading time before you get any chance at a result.
With push notifications, you are able to ping people at a chosen time. However, 60% of consumers opt out of push notifications because they can be annoying.
People are already generally sick of pings and beeps in this heavily digital world we live in.
SMS doesn’t have the problems that email and push notifications have.
SMS has a different story. For decades, we have been using SMS as a reliable source of vital need-to-know information.
People closely consider SMS as something as important as a call that needs an immediate response. Plus, it is shorter than an email but demands less than push notifications.
SMS is your sweet spot when it comes to reminding people to come back and shop. Hence it is best that you use an SMS Shopify abandoned cart app like Winback.
With Shopify SMS Marketing App, you will even be able to entice window shoppers who abandon carts to go back and complete a purchase.
Malware, a general term for malicious software, is any kind of software that can damage your devices and alter or steal your data. While computers have become more complicated and impressive over the years, this complexity applies to malicious programs, too.
But how dangerous is malware, and how does it usually work? Here are the basics of what you should know and how you can deal with it.
What is malware?
There is not a single basic form of malware – each individual piece of software is coded and designed differently. Some are only meant to cause small amounts of damage and disruption, while others are specifically built to target certain types of data or just completely ‘brick’ a device if left unchecked.
Because of this, there is not an easy way to define what counts as malware, other than saying ‘malicious software.’ Generally, any software that is designed to exploit your device in some way is malware, even if that exploit only changes one small harmless detail.
Where does malware come from?
Originally, malware comes from some virus creator, hacker, or coder, but it spreads through several different means. Some of the most common can look perfectly innocent but are still trying to spread and propagate a certain virus or piece of replicating code.
Emails
One of the most common (and avoidable) sources of a virus is through email messages, either as links or attachments. These programs are inserted into the message somehow and activate when the user downloads the file or visits the website contained in the message.
Many email clients will scan and block messages that come from suspicious URLs or contain dangerous code, but some can still get past. It is a good idea to educate yourself on how to spot risky emails, which are usually ones from odd addresses or ones that contain strange messages.
Virus-Filled Websites
There are many compromised websites that end up hosting viruses themselves, often without knowing. These sites can become very risky to use without proper protection since malware can end up being downloaded to your device unexpectedly and without any way to tell.
It is important to remember that these sites are not always aware of the virus issues, so it may be worth contacting them if it is a company’s site. However, there can sometimes be sites that were made to spread malware.
If you are looking for something specific and find a website that either copies an existing design or appears to be partially AI-generated, do not download anything from it. These sites are generally made up to either scam other people or spread malware and rarely ever actually function.
Messaging Applications
On mobile devices, you will rarely (but occasionally) get links in messages from people you do not know. Be sure to not click these links unless you know they are from some official number: they usually have either malware in them or direct you to some other kind of scam page.
Other downloads
There are also a lot of cases where an unrelated download can have a virus packed in. This could be because the original creator has that virus because it was added by a third party who re-uploaded the download somewhere else or just because of the site from which you are downloading it.
It is much better to avoid downloading anything that you can’t prove is clean. This is especially true of .exe files, which can be some of the most dangerous malware types around.
How does malware work?
There are a lot of different malware types to consider, and some are more dangerous than others. However, all can be a major problem, and some may even leave you unable to use your computer normally without spending a lot of time, money, and/or effort to fix the problem.
It Tries to Scare You
Quite a lot of malware is not actually harmful but makes it seem like something is wrong. This is common for social engineering tricks where a third party wants you to buy a service you do not need to ‘fix urgent errors’ that are actually caused by their own software.
This often happens with rootkits and trojans, both of which hide inside normal-looking files and have access to a lot of different computer functions. This can sometimes mean that they start sending back data, such as passwords or financial details – often known as spyware.
It Records Information
Spyware may take your details, but so will keyloggers and adware. This data might be used to serve you unwanted ads or gain access to your accounts, but it is never a good thing to have information sent out without consent.
It Encrypts Files
Malware can sometimes include ransomware, which tries to encrypt everything it can to force the user to pay for their device or files back. There is not always an easy way to remove this without paying, and sometimes paying does not remove it either, so avoiding it is vital.
How can I avoid malware?
How can you easily avoid malware without putting your device at risk? There is one thing that you need to consider first: how does malware work? The more you learn about malware as a whole, the easier it becomes to understand its weaknesses and limits once it gets inside your computer.
Generally, malware will get into your computer through ‘sneaky’ means and start to cause damage from the inside. The best way to prevent this from happening is to simply avoid downloading any malware in the first place, which often means having the necessary security to detect and destroy malware.
Good anti-virus software can work wonders when you are browsing the internet, and it will handle almost all cases of you running into malicious software. However, you still need to involve some common sense – do not download and run any programs that you think might be malware, for example.
It s also important to back up anything important. If something happens to your anti-virus or a piece of malware manages to get past, then you will want to have everything saved in a separate place so that you can recover important files.
As any entrepreneur knows, finding a sustainable way to grow your business can be difficult even under ideal circumstances.
Whether you’re new to the professional world or you’re a seasoned veteran within your industry, you know you’ll need to gain new customers if you want to grow. But you also need to figure out how to keep your existing customers around.
There’s an old adage that says it costs five times more to bring on a new customer than to keep an old one. But even if that’s not quite accurate for your business, customer retention is still much more cost-effective than customer acquisition.
Simply put, it’s essential that you’re investing the right amount of time and resources into your current customer relationships in order to grow your business over time. And while there are many key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics that can provide insight into this area, customer lifetime value is among the most vital.
Let’s take a closer look at what you should know about customer lifetime value as it relates to the growth of your business.
What is Customer Lifetime Value?
First of all, what is the lifetime value of a customer? Customer lifetime value, which is sometimes shortened to CLTV or LVC, basically tells you how much a given customer relationship is worth to your company.
It’s a measure of how much money they will spend with your business – or how much revenue you might expect them to generate – throughout the life cycle of that relationship.
The more established the relationship, the more you might expect that a customer will spend; understandably, a customer who stays with you for three years will likely spend more than a customer who stays with you for only three months. As such, LVC is a good indicator of customer loyalty. Lower LVCs are often associated with a greater risk of churn, while higher LVCs are usually associated with customers that have a great relationship with your brand.
It’s important to note that customer lifetime value and customer acquisition cost are two different metrics, though they are related. While acquisition costs refer to how much your company might spend to bring a customer on, LVC shows you how much your company stands to make with that customer once they start doing business with you.
Why Does Customer Lifetime Value Matter?
Now that you understand what LVC is, at its most basic level, you might still be wondering why it’s important.
Without knowing your average customer lifetime value, you’ll have no choice but to make a wild guess as to how much a given relationship is worth. While you might want to give each and every customer the same caliber of service, the reality is that you might not see the financial return on some of those customers.
For example, if you’re targeting an audience of folks who can’t really afford your services on a recurring basis, sinking extra time and money into those relationships simply won’t pay off. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about these customers at all, but it does mean you need to be more strategic about where you’re spending your valuable resources.
If most of your customers come with higher churn rates, you’re going to spend all of your efforts on maintaining relationships that simply aren’t going to grow your business. But if you’re looking to create a strong base of clientele that are loyal to your brand (and are inclined to make more than just a one-time purchase), you’ll want to make sure you’re putting your efforts into the right relationships.
Understanding the value of your client relationships can ensure you make the right decisions pertaining to marketing, lead generation, customer service, and even staffing. In the end, you’ll want to know you’re getting more (or at least as much) out of these relationships as you’re putting into them. That’s the only way your business operations will be sustainable.
How Can You Calculate Customer Lifetime Value?
Now that you understand what CLTV is and why it’s such an important metric for your business, it’s time to learn how to calculate it for yourself.
Ultimately, customer lifetime value willbe a bit of an estimate. There’s really no guarantee that a current customer will spend as much as you think they will; unforeseen circumstances happen all the time, after all. But if you have a solid idea of what you can probably expect, that’ll allow you to make more sound business decisions than a wild guess or a mere hope will.
In order to figure out the lifetime value of your customers, you’ll need to factor in a number of other figures. You’ll need to take into account your customer churn rate, the average customer lifespan, the median invoice you send, the average number of new customers you acquire every month, your monthly sales and marketing costs, and more.
Many business owners that’s a lot to figure out on their own. Using a customer lifetime value calculator is one of the easiest ways to ensure your metric is as accurate as possible and that it’s easy to track. With tools like these, you can simply plug in the numbers and the tool will automatically calculate your LVC.
Once you have your LVC, you can determine whether you’re spending too much or too little on your existing customer relationships. And if you find that you need to improve your LVC across the board, you can prioritize customer service improvements, send out customer surveys, or devote a larger portion of your advertising budget to retargeting.
While it might not always be the most pleasant task, you’ll want to face this challenge head on and know exactly what you’re dealing with. If your LVC is higher than expected, you’ll at least know you’re on the right track. And if you’re seeing lower LVC rates than you want, you’ll have a better idea of what can be improved.
When you want to grow your business, having a clear understanding of customer lifetime value is imperative. Without this metric, you won’t know for sure whether you’re targeting the right customers or whether your approach needs to change. But with it, you can make more informed decisions that will support your ultimate business goals.
Having an online presence is almost obligatory in the modern world.
You might just have a social media account or two for sharing family stuff, or you might have a brand and be an authority on your chosen topic or interest. Many people even go so far as to start a blog, a site featuring articles, interviews and the like based on their interest.
Whatever you are into, you’ll find a host of blogs dedicated to the subject. There are sites about true crime, sports, local news and crochet. Whatever your passion, others will share it and most likely, someone will write about it. One hugely popular topic on the internet is the card game poker, and if that’s the path you choose to go down, we’re on hand to make sure your blog doesn’t get lost. We’re assuming you have already set your blog up and followed our guide, ‘How to Start a Blog’, for the rest of this article.
The age-old game is very much in vogue in the US at the moment. Poker.org suggests that poker is still one of the world’s most popular games, and a slow relaxing of the regulations around online poker is driving its popularity. Several states offer legalized online poker now, and while land-based casinos have been shut recently, it has expanded in popularity. Then again, you might already know that because virtually every poker blog discusses it in detail.
Be Original
Therein lies the first lesson of your poker blog – don’t just follow the crowd. It might be that you just want your opinion heard, or you might be considering joining an affiliate scheme to earn a few bucks for yourself. Whatever your motivation, you’re going to want readers, so how do you ensure you stand out, other than not just rehashing the same old stuff. It is also prudent to understand how the poker site world works differently from most. Many sites simply promote brands or act as a vehicle for an online provider, so you have to make it very clear from the outset that yours is different, that it is not promotional or looking to push a service. Many blogging topics don’t need to do this; poker and the online gaming industry are unique and have a lot of promotion with very few actual authority sites.
Social Media
Social media is a crucial to any successful blog, and that applies to poker, too. Whatever your branding, ensure it is seen on all the usual social media channels, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Video content is easily digestible too, so make sure you have something on YouTube, and maybe even investigate Tik Tok. People don’t find your blog simply by searching on Google anymore; they’ll notice you from your presence on social media. Try to think of engaging content around poker that others have not; for instance, you might do a weekly news report on the latest events from around the world. That is likely to drive viewers through one of your social media channels, and that will all link back to your site.
Original Content
Another great way to drive up your numbers is through super-original content. In the modern media world, one news story will often spawn a hundred copycat stories, as everyone fills their site with content. For instance, take the story about Tony Parker qualifying for the World Series of Poker, which broke on MySanAntonio.com. It was a huge story, and it contained a quote from Gregory Chochon, the director for the WSOP. That quote can be found in a thousand articles online now, as it is repeated, rehashed and regurgitated. The key is being the person who gets the quotes, and whilst it won’t be easy for you as an amateur blogger to collar Tony Parker, you might be able to get something else exclusive from somewhere, even if it is a local poker player are someone you connect with on social media.
Engage
Finally, if your goal is to have others engage with their content, then you’re going to have to get out there and engage with theirs. Whatever your ‘brand’ happens to be, the best way to get it noticed is on forums, discussing topics on social media and come across as knowledgeable at all times. That means you’re going to have to know poker, the news, the events and whatever else is relevant. The more you engage, the more knowledge you’ll get and the better your content will be. Once you’re in the swing of things, you’ll soon find your poker blog to be one people visited for news and views they trust.
Social media always remembers even the slightest mistakes. Making one, especially if you’re not a world-famous brand, could drop your engagement and loyalty rates to nill. Many companies have already had their fair share of fails, so why should you go down the road?
We’ve gathered ten main social media mistakes that are frequently made by businesses of all kinds. While not all of them are critical, some might help you lose a customer or two. Avoid doing so by reading more about the fails below!
1. Trying to be in every network
Having a powerful presence on social media is great. You engage more customers, create better brand awareness, and also increase sales. However, that doesn’t always work the way it sounds. There is a bunch of obvious pitfalls ignored by most companies.
While you might have created an account in all existing networks, you can’t publish the same content everywhere. A YouTube video won’t fit on Instagram. Likewise, funny Instagram memes have nothing to do on LinkedIn.
Each platform has specific requirements for the type of content that is posted. Brands that try to be present everywhere usually don’t get it. These companies would repost every publication without any changes expecting them to bring tremendous results.
Everyone forgets that it doesn’t work that way. So here are some tips to consider:
All content must be adapted accordingly to the platform;
Irrelevant content must be substituted entirely;
You might need more than one team for your SMM strategy.
Remember that it is better to stay out of a network than build a negative reputation within it. Focus on the media where most of your potential clients are active. Once you make a community there, move on to secondary websites.
2. Posting content with poor engagement
What is engaging content? Always ask yourself this question before creating something new. If you fail during the creation stage, you won’t succeed when publishing.
Content with high engagement rates often includes:
Texts with helpful information or storytelling.
Several images;
Videos.
Instagram has recently posted a guide about how its algorithms work. This information will help you increase the visibility of your publications.
You must first focus on the quality of your content. If people like what they see, they will react somehow. Any like, comment or share will show the actual engagement rate. Still, what would make people do this?
It is said that video content engages users much better than photos and texts. The statement is quite reasonable once you think of it. There’s something new each second, driving more attention with every moment. Even a simple slideshow made with a free video merger would generate bigger engagement.
As the publisher, you need to know the pains of your target audience. This includes topics that interest them, the style they prefer, and multiple other ideas that show what could strike an emotion. The simplest way is asking people questions or sharing viral information. Yet, it all depends on the area you work in.
3. Nothing special about the profile
Would you be interested in a profile that’s similar to dozens of others? Most likely, you wouldn’t even give it a chance. But, unfortunately, that’s how modern consumers act.
Visiting your profile, the audience usually expects to see something special. By saying “special,” we mean an individual brand style. There are hundreds of ways to stand out. You could have a certain profile layout, one-styled images, powerful texts – anything that draws attention.
Take a look at the accounts of Recess and GoPro. Both have pleasant, attention-drawing images that tell a story about their products. Nothing extra. People see nice photos, brief texts, and an engaging story. In addition, they see the products with the ways they work – that’s another significant advantage!
Some ideas to improve your profile’s first impression would be:
Think of a unique layout (rows, tiles, puzzles, rainbows);
Highlights with good covers and titles;
A profile bio that gives all necessary information;
Engaging texts with storytelling and other features.
You could practice different layouts with a preview application. It will let you see the way your profile would look before any real users. Many accounts use this to build their profiles in one style without errors.
While there is no limit to your creativity, don’t overdo it. Your brand’s message must be clear enough for people to understand it within several seconds!
4. Not using CTAs
The absence of call-to-action phrases helps your company lose a lot of potential clients each moment. Okay, they read your text, saw the photos – what’s next? The audience is free to scroll by without even worrying about additional information about the product.
This is one of the common social media mistakes made by many companies. A CTA isn’t the universal cure. It’s more like one of the elements that make people buy the product or at least get some additional interest.
Some recommendations regarding your CTA are:
Make a crystal-clear point;
Ensure it stands out;
Use numbers to show a discount or demand.
Remember that you mustn’t deceive the audience. If you share a price in the CTA, it can’t be different after a user contacts you. This will only create a negative impression. We need sales, not lowered reputation!
5. Posting irregularly
With hundreds of other brands and influencers creating content every day, having an irregular schedule might prove to be a big issue for your accounts. It is best when you regularly publish during certain days of the week.
Why don’t we say “5 posts a week” or “10 stories a day”? Because that’s not how it works. Primarily, you won’t be able to generate that much quality content for a very long time. Sooner or later, overposting would make your content team turn into an example of another social media failure.
All your publications must be well-planned. That is why it is best when the content is prepared in advance. Depending on your industry, you could publish something 1-3 times a week. Stories must be posted daily to keep your engagement rates high.
Of course, if you want to stay afloat, you will have to do more than that. Each detail must be well-thought to keep people interested. Publishing content will small engagement rates will bury your account, so think of different ways to keep the statistics “alive.”
6. Always trying to sell
Yes, CTA’s are good. But that’s only when they are used in moderation. People will never want to follow an account that always tries to sell a product directly in every post. That’s absurd!
To stop making this error, follow the practices of the top brands in different industries. For example, have a look at Photoshop’s Instagram. Nearly every post is a creation of customers who used the company’s software. Seeing such beautiful images, people are likely to want to create some of their own. How? They buy the software!
Your sales should be made through stories and ideas. Think of your followers as students. Giving them the knowledge directly by saying “buy it” won’t do any good. However, if your lead them to the answer, make them realize that they need the product themselves, the results will be astonishing.
Here are some tips on how to sell your product on social media:
Share stories of your customers;
Involve user-generated content;
Demonstrate the value of your product via different situations.
Selling without selling is hard to master, but it’s definitely worth it. Try applying this strategy and adapt it depending on the customer’s reactions. This is how you will find the best approach!
7. Not promoting best posts
Many companies neglect promotion tools on social media. Sometimes, they use them but only with separate content created for advertisement-only. It might be a good try, although there’s an even better way to apply it.
When you see that a certain publication gets much better statistics when compared with others, it’s a good time to promote it. Subscribers are engaged, so it is very likely that other people will be as well. You never know unless you try!
For best results, you will need to know maximum information about your audience to target people with similar interests. With multiple tools for social media analytics, that shouldn’t be a problem. Remember that each audience requires a different approach. You can’t target teenagers with ads for adults!
Some tips for promoting your best posts are:
Check whether a user will be interested in the topic without knowing what’s going on;
Ensure you target an audience similar to the one that’s engaged in the post;
Work with an experienced targeted advertising specialist not to lose your investment.
If you want to get a free promotion without spending money, try contacting influencers to strike a deal. Probably, some might agree to repost your content for being spotlighted in your profile. However, bloggers usually prefer barter deals if money isn’t involved.
8. Leading a brand with no personality
Have you ever wondered why some brands are remembered, and some aren’t? It’s simple. That’s the way their branding works!
Seeing an ad with a red truck and Santa, people will think of Coca-Cola. A big yellow letter “M” will immediately remind them of McDonald’s. Why? Because these companies have a personality. “It’s that VERY brand!” – here’s what the audience thinks when they see anything related.
Building a personality for your brand requires a ton of work, and that can’t be done in one day. Generally, here are the points that determine your uniqueness:
A clear identity with certain beliefs;
A unique style of doing things;
A suitable tone of voice;
A team that is not hidden from society.
While there are dozens of points that build up a personality, these four are the foundation of all. It’s much easier when you’ve got a community around your product, like in the gaming industry. However, for instance, selling beverages or clothes makes things a bit more complicated.
Follow one style and apply the points mentioned above. You will see what else can be added once you start building a brand personality. If you’re interested, you could also read our previous post about starting an online business.
9. Creating content for everyone
This mistake is literally the same thing as trying to be in every network. Earth is huge, and the population of nearly 8 billion makes it impossible to suit everyone’s tastes. Even if it is a smaller group of people, focusing on your audience is always the best approach.
Now imagine that Asus, a huge technology company, started publishing content about food, clothing, and gardening. What would happen? Yes, total chaos. Current subscribers would be shocked, and new ones wouldn’t even subscribe.
If you specialize in a certain industry, then you have to stick to it. Food companies mustn’t try to apply politics in their campaigns. The same goes for any other example. Apple publishing about food? People aren’t there for this type of content!
They follow a brand because it shares similar ideas and values. Changing those will push away the current followers and is unlikely to attract new ones. Therefore, the best approach is publishing content that is only related to a specific audience. It’s the only way to keep it loyal and engaged.
10. Using hashtags that aren’t interesting for the target audience
If you subscribe to the hashtag “#hamburger,” you expect to see hamburgers. What would your reaction be if you saw a pizza with this hashtag? Okay, then what about cars? Many accounts use tags that aren’t even closely related to what their content is about. Only a negative reaction appears in this case.
Each hashtag is followed by a certain audience. If you are a fast-food restaurant, your audience will most likely be found in such tags as #fastfood, #burgers, #fries, and a bunch of others. You can find all hashtags related to a certain word with free online tools.
Here are some tips on hashtag usage:
Avoid banned and spammy tags;
Don’t use tags that are irrelevant to your content;
Ensure you understand the meaning of each tag applied.
Instagram limits hashtags to 30 per post and 10 per story, while Twitter recommends using only two. LinkedIn suggests using three to five of them to avoid being spammy.
This is a very popular instrument, so there even are different types of hashtags. Some of them are:
Location-based;
Product and niche-related;
Community hashtags;
Seasonal tags;
Acronyms, emojis, and others.
You will find related keywords for nearly any topic. So, if you do not want to end up dealing with negative emotions, use only those that are relevant to your post and account. That’s the only way your target audience will be engaged!
How to avoid making these mistakes?
Even if you’ve read the article till here, you are still likely to keep on making several mistakes. That’s not the reason this material was created, so let’s find a way to help you avoid the most common issues.
The most efficient strategy to remove all errors is creating a checklist. Whenever your team reaches the content-making phase, they will use the list to double-check the material. The same goes for planning and strategizing.
Finally, set a general rule in your content marketing department. It should always be quality over quantity, not vice-versa. Once every member sets this as a lifelong standard, you can be sure that your social media will be on top of the competition.
Are your website visitors leave your site after reading the first post? Increasing the views and reduce the bounce rate of your website pages is a big challenge for the owners. The best and easy way to increase user engagement on your website is by showing them related content. This is one of the amazing proven techniques to increase the page views on your website.
You can easily implement this strategy on your own WordPress website by using different related posts plugins on your site that will help you to display the related posts on your web pages or under the blog posts.
In this article, we will share the best related posts plugins for WordPress websites that will help you to display the related posts on your web pages with different approaches.
Our Top 6 Best Related Posts Plugins
Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin For WordPress
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Contextual Related Posts
Related Posts For WordPress
Inline Related Posts
Related Posts By Taxonomy
Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin For WordPress
Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin for WordPress is one of the most popular free related posts plugin developed by WPBrigade. With the related posts plugin, you can easily customize your related posts display settings, styles, and customize the thumbnails.
You can easily specify the number of related posts that you want to display under a specific blog post. This plugin will automatically use the by default uploaded featured image in related posts thumbnails.
Features
Video Thumbnails
Sidebar widget
Relations builder option
SEO Friendly
Shortcode support
Compatible with WPML Plugin
Languages Support
Related posts thumbnails plugin support different languages
Yet another related posts plugin is another most popular related posts plugin with 100,000+ active installs. Yet another related posts plugin offers both thumbnail and text display of related posts. This plugin automatically adds the related post thumbnails or text display according to your selected option under the blog posts.
Features
Shortcode Support
Related posts in feeds
Multisite Support
HTTPS Support
Thumbnail and list view style
Note: There is no option of displaying the custom-related posts in the Yet another related posts plugin.
Another WordPress plugin that will help you to display the related posts on your website/blog and feeds. Contextual related posts plugin display the related posts in simple contextual form and thumbnails.
With this plugin, you can easily create different styles of thumbnails by adding custom CSS, and shortcodes.
Features
Shortcode Support
Gutenberg/Block editor support
Exclusion of different related posts
Display Custom related posts
EU Compliance (GDPR)
Widget for related posts
This plugin tries to use the images in related post thumbnails if there is no featured image of any related blog post. Same as Yet another related posts plugin, this plugin does not work on large-scale websites. WordPress hosts like WPEngine blocked this plugin because this related posts plugin slow down the websites.
Related posts for WordPress plugin is a lightweight plugin that uses the cache to display the related posts thumbnails on your website or blog. The main focus of this plugin is website performance. This plugin is faster than other related post plugins and will never slow down your website. This plugin display related posts in thumbnail and textual style.
Features
Support Shortcode
Manually add & edit or remove related posts
Widget
Multisite Support
Create Manual links of related posts
Cross custom post type support
Custom Taxonomy support
This plugin is available in both free (limited features) & premium versions.
This is far away different from other WordPress plugins that will help you to display the related posts under your website/blog post content. But the Inline related posts plugin display your related posts within your content. This kind of inline display is quite popular on news websites or blogs.
But if you want to display the related posts under your blog posts content then you have to install the other WordPress plugin.
Features
20 plus combinations of style (themes, colors, hover)
Auto-detect line break without destroying your paragraphs
Automatically add multiple boxes in your blog posts
Add related posts boxes INSIDE your blog post content
In WordPress taxonomy means to sort the content in different terms. Category and tags are the by default two taxonomies used in WordPress blogs/websites. Relate posts by taxonomy plugin helps you to sort the content according to these taxonomies in WordPress. For example, you can select any taxonomy like tags or categories to display the related posts under the content of your blog posts.
This plugin will help you to display the related posts under those blog posts having the same taxonomies as tags or categories.
These are the top related post plugins for WordPress websites that will help you to add the related posts under and between the content of your blog posts. By adding related posts you can easily increase the views and engagement on your website plus easily reduce or adjust your website bounce rate.
Some of the WordPress related posts plugins can be resource intensive and some of the plugins may not work well on shared WordPress hostings.
In this case, you can use the Related posts thumbnails plugin for WordPress that will help you to manually add the related posts under a blog post content. You can easily display new and old posts in the related posts area on your website/blog.
The price to make an eCommerce website can vary from $26,400 to $99,700 and up. No developer can tell you the exact price until they know your requirements: what features you want to add, design, integrations, etc. Especially if you intend to build a custom website, bypassing out-of-the-box solutions.
In this post, I’ll flesh out the cost to develop an e-commerce platform based on the core features. Also, you’ll learn what factors influence the final price.
The estimate here is based on the average hourly rate of $50/hour in Eastern Europe.
Average Cost of E-Commerce Website
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the price of developing a tailored-made eCommerce website can reach $99,700+. You may consider this sum creating the website from scratch. A ready-made solution will cost you less, but it’s a good option for short-term needs.
Why are customer websites better? There are a bunch of reasons. The main ones are page loading speed, adaptability, and Google loves them more. Besides, you can create exclusive UI designs and stand out from the faceless mass. The more complete your website is, the more customers you may attract. Besides, ready-made templates may not be as secure as you expect your website will. Security’s vital when you handle customers’ personal and payment data.
Now, let’s reveal the main factors influencing the price. To make the process easier, I’ve split the e-commerce websites by their complexity, from simple ones to websites with complex features.
Large e-commerce sites must be well-organized to manage high loads and rank well on Google. This is one of the reasons (along with unique design, number of pages, etc.) why e-commerce site cost can go up. By the way, the tech stack will also vary depending on the project. For example, simple websites don’t require push notifications or coupons compared to large-size platforms.
What Factors Affect an E-Commerce Website Cost
To make it clear, the main cost-drivers are:
The number of features and their complexity
Web design difficulty
Number of 3rd party integrations
Developers’ rates
Let’s consider them in detail.
Features: Number and Complexity
The intricacy of tech requirements depends on the website’s size. Respectively, the cost to develop an e-commerce website grows either.
Screens, buttons, fields, logic affect the final price. Moreover, the developers may need to integrate APIs (e.g., payment systems or social login) or design from scratch. All these points matter a lot.
I’m going to estimate e-commerce development cost feature by feature. But firstly, look at the list of must-have pages:
Main page
Shopping cart
Favorites
Check out
Blog
Category pages
Product pages
And the core features:
Integration with payment systems (Stripe, PayPal, Dwolla)
Push notifications
Recently viewed products
Products’ rates and reviews
Search bar with filters
Admin panel
Custom Website Design
The same dependence on e-commerce website design cost: the more complicated your website design will be, the more time developers will spend to implement required elements.
Design isn’t only a bright picture. It should provide customers with a fast, clear, and simple select-buy process. Or even push them to purchase.
Moreover, if you plan to add some animations or ask designers to prepare 2-3 visual concepts (it requires additional time), be ready for higher website costs.
Another point: you may want to design a website that renders well on mobile devices. In that way, you need to consider adaptive web design costs. It’s the right choice if you prefer your web pages to go together with various devices, including smartphones (so you don’t need to develop native iOS and Android applications for mobile users separately).
Number of 3rd Party Integrations
If you want to incorporate 3rd-party tools, add an online chat, or adjust shipping options, you’ll need to pay extra money for your project development.
Payment gateway integrations allow you to sell your products online and provide secure transaction processing. Let’s consider the most popular payment integrations – Stripe and PayPal.
Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ per successful cash transfer. PayPal charges the same price, but they also take 5% + .05¢ for payments lower than $10.
Want a robot assistant to contact your clients when orders are sent? Or send them notifications in WhatsApp? Twilio APIs (programmable voice or SMS) is the right choice. It stands for a cloud communication platform that allows users to text, make a call or start a chat from their websites.
Let’s look at the Twilio price policy:
$0.0045 to convey a WhatsApp message
$0.0080 to pass on or get a message
$0.0090/min to get and $0.015/min to place a call
Again, it requires additional time for integration (not much, though).
Another example, emails. It’s a must-have channel if you’re planning to notify customers about their orders being prepared or delivered.
It’s a good idea to utilize the Amazon email sending service (Amazon SES). You’ll pay $0 for the first 62,000 emails you send each month. And they take $0.10 for every 1,000 emails you send afterward.
Developers’ Rates by Country
Software developers’ rates also affect the final price. The specialists who have experience in similar projects will charge more compared to non-experienced ones. Besides, website development services in Eastern Europe or India cost less than in Canada or the US.
Here are the average cost to make an e-commerce website in different country (per hour):
Canada – $100 – $149
United States – $100 – $149
Israel – $100 – $149
Australia – $100 – $149
Sweden – $100 – $149
United Kingdom – $50 – $99
Germany – $50 – $99
Norway – $50 – $99
Switzerland – $50 – $99
Latin America – $30 – $50
Ukraine – $25 – $50
However, a high price doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get a well-architectured website. Some software development companies provide high-quality services for an affordable price.
But not so fast. I’ve discovered the basic factors of e-commerce website price, but it also requires additional expenses like:
The domain name ($10 to $20/annually)
Hosting ($100 to $200)
SSL certificate ($6 to $150)
Maintenance ($500 to $12,000)
Finally, if customers don’t know about your e-commerce platform — there is no sense. That’s why it’s essential to add marketing expenses to your business plan. Here are some of them:
PPC advertising (the cost depends on the competition level of the keywords)
SEO (the month price can vary from $300 to $1,500 on average)
Copywriting (from $60 per article)
SMM (the price starts from $500 per month)
Now, let’s move to the most significant e-commerce website cost driver – features.
E-Commerce Website Cost: Estimate by Features
Content, design and the domain will definitely affect the final. However, features that you want to add to your website will take up a tidbit from your budget.
Let’s examine how much time the developers need on average to develop an e-commerce platform for basic features (frontend part).
To make it easier, I’ve combined the features into modules. The time was calculated per module.
Module 1. Registration:
Register using email and password
Login using social media
Logout
It takes approximately 56 hours to implement this module.
Module 2. Main screen
Watched products
Last purchased products
Popular products
Developers will need 96 hours to carry out this module.
Module 3. Catalog screen
List of categories
It’ll take 24 hours to enforce this module.
Module 4. Product details screen
Photo slider
Rate
Add review
Module 5. Cart
List of products
Checkout
It takes approximately 112 hours to implement this module.
Module 6. Profile
Edit profile
Orders
Payment screen
The team will need 64 hours to carry out this module.
Module 7. Help screen
Terms and conditions
About company
Feedback form
It’ll take 32 hours to implement this module.
Module 8. Push notifications
Notifications
It’ll take 16 hours to enforce this module.
Module 9. Analytics integration
Google Analytics
Developers will need 16 hours to carry out this module.
Given these points, it’ll take 456 hours to build a front end of the e-commerce website.
All e-commerce websites need an admin panel to operate items, users and give access to employees. Keep that in mind to accurately calculate the price of building an e-commerce platform.
It will take approximately 456 hours to build a back end of the website. So, the development team will spend 936 hours in total to develop an e-commerce website. Remember that you may need other specialists (UI/UX designer, project manager, QA engineer, business analysts) on a team to develop a full-fledged website from scratch.
Consider the amount of work, it’ll cost you approximately $99,700 to create the e-commerce website.
Tech Stack of an E-Commerce Website
After we determine the price, let’s consider what tech stack the developers need to design such a complex product from scratch.
Front-end part:
Angular
Angular Universal
UI elements libraries
Backend:
Nodejs + TypeScript
PostgreSQL or Mysql
Elasticsearch
Redis
BullMQ
3rd party elements:
Amazon SSS
Amazon SES
Paypal, Stripe, etc
Firebase Cloud Messaging
Login through social network API
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, I’ve explained how to calculate the price to start an online business. As you can see, you need to address various factors before making your ecommerce site.
If you want to create a simple eCommerce platform, you can use ready-built solutions (e.g., Magento, Shopify). But if you tend to boost your business growth and get as many clients as possible, then a custom eCommerce website will be the best choice.
If you are using WordPress or have ever used WordPress, you know very well that you will get too many advanced features if you have installed different plugins. For your kind information, WordPress plugins are the essential part of WordPress. If you want to develop a great website, then plugins are necessary to use.
If you don’t know what plugins are and how they work, don’t worry; let me explain. The WordPress plugins are the PHP script made by the developers. The main motive to make plugins is to extend the functionality of the website.
All plugins come with different features; they always enhance the features or add new functions to your website. Most of the plugins are free to use, but some of them have charges. Once you set up your WordPress site, you can install these plugins.
On the WordPress Plugin Directory, more than 45,000 plugins are present, and thousands of plugins are present on third-party websites. Other than this, individual developers sell more than thousands of plugins.
You can find plugins for everything like data engineering to collect the user’s data, enhance the website, and do many other things. However, I will tell you the top 4 plugins for data engineering to collect the user’s data and to maintain the website.
Why Is Data Important?
Data are the raw bits present in the form of pieces of information and with no context for your kind information. However, if you want to store data, you have to use the software that collects all the data, and this software stores all data and analyzes it.
But in WordPress, MySQL is used to assess the data. However, MySQL stores all your website data and provides you when the data is requested. However, it is open-source software; that’s why MySQL also works with the other open-source database software.
When you know about your website visitors’ behavior, knowing different things about the visitor is very like on which page they spend more time? What is the reason for returning so quickly? Do they love your website? So, it proves that the data will provide you with all the information about every visitor.
When making a blog and website, you should know about your target audience, and it is obvious that the data plays a vital role in making decisions for any website. And in making decisions, open software will definitely help you.
For example, if you have a website or blog and have complete access to visitors’ data. Then this thing will help you to know where you have to focus on growing your website. However, the data collection always enables you to explore your website and allows you to make a decision to increase the traffic and grow your website. At the same time, the data that you get about the website visitors include the locations, age, gender, and other exciting things
Google Analytics
If you want to make data-driven decisions and improve your website, then Google analytics is the best way to do this. But the main thing is that adding Google Analytics is very challenging that’s why too many professionals use the Google Analytics plugins.
Too many data plugins are present in the market to collect the user’s data which works like Google Analytics. However, Google Analytics is a free website that provides you the details of your visitors.
The features that you can get from Google Analytics include:
You can learn how visitors find your website
Easily find the most visited pages or posts
Check the different demographics of the visitors
You can set the real-time stats
Provide an opportunity to track inbound and outbound links
With the help of this information, you can easily make data-driven decisions to improve the website and the marketing strategy. Before installing any plugin, you need to set up WordPress to avoid inconvenience later.
When you connect the Google Analytics plugin with your WordPress website, this plugin will automatically add the Analytics Tracking ID to every page of your website.
So, if you are in search of the best data plugins to collect data, don’t worry; the best Google Analytics plugins are the following.
MonsterInsights
The MonsterInsights is one of the best Google Analytics plugins; till now, this plugin has crossed the 2 million active users. It comes with the best features and easy integration to WordPress, and because of all these things, it offers you to track your website data easily.
It provides you the opportunity to add this plugin into WordPress without entering a single line of code. After installing this Google Analytics plugin, you can quickly check the report of your website directly from the WordPress dashboard.
The best thing about this plugin is that you can use the advanced Google Analytics tracking system without customizing the tracking code. With the help of this plugin, you can collect all your website’s data that you can use to make decisions to improve your website and grow your business.
However, the features that you get from the MonsterInsights plugin include:
With the help of a WordPress dashboard, you can easily view your website traffic detail
Get all the demographic reports of your website visitors
You can easily check that how your visitors can find your website
You have the opportunity to unlock the event tracking with the help of this; you know if the CTA gets clicked
Track with the help of submissions, conversion rates, and also from the views
To show the ad campaign data, you can integrate it with Google Ads
With the help of a single click, you can easily track categories, tags, and custom dimensions
To see the data of the eCommerce store like conversion rate, average order, and transaction, you can connect the Google Analytics eCommerce tracking with WooCommerce.
GA Google Analytics
The next plugin that I recommend is GA Google Analytics. It is effortless, lightweight, GDPR-compliant, and a very famous Google Analytics plugin. The main motive of this Google Analytics plugin is to help everyone add the tracking code on every page of the website.
But the main thing that you have to remember is that this plugin will not show you any insights or data like the other Google Analytics plugins, but still, it does its work correctly.
The GA Google Analytics plugin is the best option for those people who want to know how to extract the data. Other than this, if you want to know different types of information from your WordPress dashboard, you can’t do this with the help of this plugin.
All the features that you can get from the GA Google Analytics include:
It provides you the opportunity to add the tracking code easily on your WordPress website
It allows every visitor to opt-out of sharing their data. But the main thing is that you don’t track the user
You can easily configure too many tracking codes, and this thing will help you to tracks all your links
WP Statistics
The WP Statistics is a powerful plugin. It is very simple and helps you track all your visitors’ activities with the help of the WordPress dashboard. However, this plugin is the best option for geographical and content reports.
With all these features, this plugin will also show you the real-time metrics of the website. The best thing about this plugin is that you can get all these features without paying any money.
But the main thing is that it is not a Google Analytics plugin, but still, it contains too many unique features and advantages. With the help of the WP Statistics plugin, you don’t have to configure Google Analytics, and also, it doesn’t share your website data with anyone.
Sharing your website data is possible because this plugin tracks all your website’s data and keeps it, but it doesn’t share anything with anyone except you. Other than this, the Wp Statistics also increases your website’s backup size, but you have the opportunity to delete the old data of your website.
This plugin comes with too many features; all these are the following:
With the help of the WordPress dashboard, you can see all the stats
You can track all the visitors that are coming from the different search engines like Bing, Google, and Yandex
You can filter all your data according to your needs, like by the version of the browser, by location, keywords, and many more.
After analyzing all the data plugins to track website data, I have decided that MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin to install in your WordPress to improve the website. This plugin comes with the free version but also contains the premium version.
If you buy the premium version, then you will get too many outstanding features. With the help of this plugin, you can easily optimize your website, but the main thing is that you have to try it by yourself. If you don’t like this Google Analytics plugin, you can try the other to fulfill your needs.
How To Add a Data Engineer Plugin To WordPress?
There are different ways to add any plugin to WordPress, but it all depends on where you have downloaded it. The first method that you can use to install the plugin is the automatic method.
In this method, you have to install the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory. I already mentioned that there are too many plugins present in the WordPress plugin directory. For this, you have to follow all the steps that are as under:
First, you have to go to the WordPress dashboard
Here you have to click on the Plugins option
After this, click on the Add New plugin, and you will get the plugin’s gallery.
Now, you have to find the plugin that you want to install with the help of the search bar.
After finding the plugin click on the Install now button.
When the installation process completes, click on the activate now button.
The second method is installing a manually WordPress plugin that you have downloaded from any third-party website. WordPress provides you the opportunity to upload the zip file of the plugin. The steps to do this are the following:
First, you have to download the zip file of the plugin from the trusted third-party website.
After this, go to the plugin section in your WordPress
Here you will find the upload plugin button and then click on it
Select the zip file of the plugin that you have downloaded from the third party website
Click on the Install now button and wait until the upload process is complete
After this, click on the Activate plugin option
In Conclusion
I hope that this article is helpful to you, and after reading the complete article, you can easily select the data plugin that is best for you. I guarantee that you can’t go wrong with the above-given Google Analytics plugins.
A vast number of businesses have gone online and millions of employees have shifted to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic—with mixed results.
While many people have enjoyed the flexibility that comes with working from home, some have found it tricky. And then there’s the risk of data breaches and other cyberattacks.
When operating from the office, the day-to-day workings of a company are protected as a matter of course. But with each individual using their own laptop or computer at home… things aren’t so cut and dried.
So… Can it be compromised?
The short answer is yes, of course. Although you could argue that a computer is at risk of compromise in an office too. However, working from home comes with bigger risks, including individuals falling for scams, employees using weak passwords, lack of firewalls to protect employees’ home Wi-Fi networks, and the use of other devices that aren’t encrypted.
It seems that COVID-19 has resulted in a massive upswing in phishing emails. In the past few months, they have increased by over 600%. Malspam and ransomware attacks have also increased exponentially—often by trying to exploit the confusion caused by the pandemic upheaval and knock-on economic effects.
What are the cybersecurity dangers of remote working?
There are several specific scenarios and activities that pose a threat to a company’s cybersecurity:
Human (employee) error
Lack of vigilance
File and information sharing
Use of personal devices
Difficulty accessing IT support
Failure to use VPN
Failure to back up files and data
Use of unsecured Wi-Fi connections
Some of these present bigger risks than others, and the scope for disaster varies. But all are largely mitigated if a company is vigilant and comprehensive in its security practices.
Human error
This unfortunate weakness is applicable whether working remotely or in an office setting. Unfortunately, it’s much more likely to crop up when working from home—probably because sitting in your “home office” results in a much more easygoing approach to work.
Human error can include things like clicking on malware, opening attachments that contain viruses, or setting a weak password that’s vulnerable to hackers.
While human error is unavoidable, training and educating staff can reduce the occurrence a great deal. Keeping staff informed about the dangers makes them more aware, and more likely to spot a scam, phishing mail, or potentially threatening attachment.
Lack of vigilance
Similar to human error, lack of vigilance can result in chinks in a company’s metaphorical armor— weak points in the cybersecurity barrier that protects data from unauthorized access.
Research has revealed that people working from home fall for phishing scams at much higher rates than those working in office. Shockingly, 47% of employees fall for phishing scams when working remotely.
For many people, “working from home” can also mean working from a coffee shop or similar setting where Wi-Fi is available. What they fail to realize, however, is that such networks are insecure and provide hackers or other parties with an ideal opportunity to access confidential data.
Once again, raising awareness to the issue is key, and can go a long way towards improving vigilance.
File and information sharing
Working from home means that people use the internet more often to share files and data with colleagues, instead of using in-house methods or protocols.
Sharing data in this way, from home to home, poses a much greater risk. Immediately the danger of human error and lack of vigilance doubles, purely because there’s more than one individual involved. If employees are not provided with advanced encryption software, then company data is open to exploitation by third parties.
Use of personal devices
This is one of the greatest risks of working from home. Unfortunately, many companies find it too costly to provide every remote employee with a laptop or computer, which results in them using personal devices.
Not only does this mean their own laptops or computers but also smartphones, printers, scanners, and tablets. Many smartphones are not encrypted, totally negating the use of encryption on laptops or PCs and posing the same risk of data breaches. Personal devices may also lack vital antivirus software and firewalls.
A BYOD (bring your own device) policy is an excellent idea, not just for the office, but for those working remotely too. If policies and procedures are in place, there’s a better chance of protection.
Difficulty accessing IT support
Technology is great when it’s working, but all too often employees encounter IT problems, whether on-site or within the comfort of their own homes. It’s relatively simple for the IT department to fix an issue within an office environment, but they are highly unlikely to be able to provide the same service to individuals working remotely.
Internet connections and imminent data breaches can make it difficult or impossible for IT support to render aid and prevent attacks.
Allowing remote access to IT teams can alleviate this issue to some degree, but it’s not 100% infallible.
Neglecting to use a VPN
This scenario is interwoven with many others—use of personal devices and lack of vigilance, for example. Every remote worker should use a VPN, which is a fundamental tool to ensure privacy and security.
Issues with accessing IT support can also result in employees defaulting to personal devices without adequate security when something goes awry with the VPN they’re using.
Failure to back up files and data
One of the greatest worries of every business is the loss of their data, with no way of recovering it. It only takes one attack to bring a company to its knees by wiping out all their files.
To combat this, make use of the cloud and ensure that every bit of information backs up.
Use of unsecured Wi-Fi connections at home
We’ve already covered the dangers of connecting to Wi-Fi in public settings, but people also forget that their home networks are not protected.
Many people aren’t aware that updating home router software is necessary to ensure cybersecurity. And that failing to update other devices results in the same security risks as an insecure Wi-Fi connection. Even routers that have some kind of firewall in place are usually not as secure as an on-site network. This danger can be offset, however, by providing remote workers with a firewall equipped to deal with serious threats.
A New Era Requires A New Approach
It’s unlikely that work will ever return to pre-pandemic “normal”. This requires companies to change their approach to tech. Working remotely is here to stay, cybersecurity must adapt.
What separates good content from great content is the willingness to take risks and push the envelope
– Brain Halligan, CEO and Co-Founder HubSpot.
What makes content great is the writer’s ability to transform words into art.
Basics of marketing
Marketing refers to the process in which you interest potential buyers often referred to as customers to buy the product or service that you are marketing. Marketing is a long process, some of these steps are –
Researching
Selling
Promoting
Distributing
When we market a product/ service we are also creating a brand. We are setting the tone of the brand the kind of messaging that will be associated with that particular brand. One common way of doing this is by creating a unique identity for the brand. For example – why do you choose to buy an X product as opposed to Y? Does the messaging appeal to you, do the ingredients? Does it have a sense of uniqueness to it? There are many things to consider when marketing a brand, first, you must meet the ISO brand standards then you must choose the path that sets you apart from the competition and what markets the product accordingly.
History of marketing
It’s very difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when marketing first began. Some people believe that marketing as a means of selling your product existed right from the times of ancient civilizations. It could be possible that during the era of barter systems, traders came up with fun and unique ways of selling their products in exchange for their products. They could have possibly used the tools at their disposal to make their product stand apart. China and India were the first ones who came up with innovative ways and methods to sell their products to others. Their methods were conventional and not recognized as marketing then, but it’s believed that that is where the idea of marketing began to develop.
The 18th and 19th century, people saw a period of rapid social change. The driving factors for this service change was technology and scientific innovation.
What is affiliate marketing?
With the advent of technology, came new marketing trends that have gained popularity. Affiliate marketing is a relatively new form of marketing where businesses pay a commission on conversions through links provided by the brand.
Affiliates are freelancers who don’t own stock, they don’t have to deal with customer complaints or have a fixed number of customers to meet in order to get paid. Affiliates get paid every time a customer clicks on their link and buys a product or service that they advertised.
How does affiliate marketing work?
Unlike conventional marketing methods where there are many process that you need to undergo before going public with your brand, here there are only 2 parties involved these are :-
Affiliate – Affiliates are marketers who promote brand content on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter which then ultimately drives potential customers to the product. Affiliates get paid in commission when their advertisement is turned into a sale.
Gone are the days when advertising was done only through print media. With the advent of technology, more people are spending time online and are hence more prone to seeing an advertisement on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, than television or on the radio. A reason why this form of marketing is gaining more and more popularity is due to it’s inexpensiveness. The merchant isn’t advertising the product, you are advertising a merchants product in return for a commission that’s charged by you. Television advertisements typically run for lakhs even crores of rupees for a simple 30 secs ad. Paying commission to affiliates is much more convenient.
Customers these days are a lot more informed than they were 50 years ago. Today’s customer read product reviews, talks to people before making a decision. What makes affiliate marketing interesting is the fact that affiliates have the opportunity to reach as many customers as they can through their content and then turning it into an effective sale. Research has shown that a referred customer is 4 times more likely to talk about a particular brand and has a 37% higher conversion rate.
As an affiliate, there are many ways, many tools that you can use to promote your or your merchants products. Some of these products are –
Social Media – Suggestive of the name, social media refers to various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc to market a product. This is one of the most popular tools that’s used by marketers these days.
PPC –If you’ve ever made a search online, you must’ve noticed the first 2-3 links that pop up, more often than not, a brand pays the search engine platform to buy that ad space. Every time you click on an advertisement that you see online, the advertiser pays for that click. This is a way for advertisers to advertise their products when someone organically searches for a product that’s relatable.
SEO – SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of your product and increasing your website traffic to gain more customers through both paid and non-paid organic or inorganic search engine results.
Content Marketing – Content Marketing is focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content that’s consistent to attract and retain a clearly defined audience who will then ultimately drive your customers towards making a purchase or a profitable customer action.
Key pointers to remember when using affiliate marketing
With growing popularity, affiliate marketing is a highly competitive market wherein to be successful you have to do some studying about what works for you and what doesn’t. Here are a few points to remember and work on before becoming an affiliate and promoting a marketers content –
Creating content that generates revenue – When you start working on something new, I’m sure you are going to be super excited and this excitement to post something, anything may or may not work. Good content comes from when you strategize and devise a plan that works best for you and your brand. Randomly placing links in the article isn’t going to help anyone. If you really want your content to help generate sales, then focus on who your target audience is. As long as your content reaches the right target audience, the sales will come.
Incorporate your products in the content – What is the content that you want to put across your platform? Who is your target audience and what is their problem that you would want to solve? Once you have all these answers, you can move on to doing your research. Do keyword research and once you have your content ideas it’s time to start inserting affiliate links into your content. The benefit of doing this is that your links will be specific to the content that you want to promote.
Turning visitors into affiliate customers – When you identify which content campaign of yours has the most traction , you can focus on either promoting that or creating more content that’s similar to that. A lot of beginners assume that in order to generate high sales, you need to promote each and every post with the same amount of money but this isn’t true. Experiment with your content, observe and make use of tools like CPC, SEO and turn them into your advantage.
Different affiliate marketing platforms
Now that you know what affiliate marketing is, let’s talk about how to become an affiliate marketer. There are many platforms that are available for you to join online. These platforms have various commissions for their marketers depending on the product they choose to advertise and the platform they choose to operate it from. Some affiliate marketing platforms are –
Reseller Club – Reseller clubs is one of the largest reseller hosting sites in the world. Here you can choose from a wide range of hosting products which is created for web developers and web designers. Earn anywhere between 25-100$ per referral. A referral is a link that has a time validity such as 60 days. This link keeps a track of all the sales which were made by you in the past 60 months.
Flipkart Affiliate – As one of the largest e-commerce platforms in India, Flipkart provides its affiliates with a variety of tools such as banners, APIs for listings on Flipkart, widgets. All these products will help you promote Flipkarts deals/ platforms on their own site/app. An affiliate can earn a commission anywhere between 6-20% based on the category of their choice. You can track your referral links and conversions with real-time reports.
Amazon Associates – Amazon is the largest e-commerce brand in the world. Becoming an amazon affiliate is easy, all you have to do is sign up using your existing amazon account. Customise your links by adding pictures which can help elevate your sale. Amazon affiliates earn anywhere between 0.2% to 10% based on the kind of product they’re marketing. A huge advantage of being an Amazon affiliate is, if a customer opens your link and is then taken to another product through your link, you will still get a commission on that product purchase because it was your link that helped make that purchase.
vCommission – As one of the oldest affiliate networks in India, vCommission is working with some leading e-commerce websites such as Myntra, Snapdeal, and AliExpress with a strong affiliate base of over 18,000+ and has more than 14,000 publishers making it also India’s largest affiliate network platform in India. As a vCommission affiliate, you can earn a commission anywhere between 5,000-100 $. To be eligible for this platform, your content needs to be written only in English.
BigRock Affiliate –BigRock is one of India’s leading web hosting and domain registration company. As an affiliate earn a commission that’s anywhere between Rs. 30 and can go upto 30% on each sale. Apart from domain registration, you can use the platform for email hostings, digital certificates, and website buildings.
Yatra Affiliate – You may have heard of yatra as one of India’s e-commerce travel companies. Plan your entire trip from travel to hotel rooms. Commission for affiliate marketers is given upon paid bookings.
In Conclusion
Affiliate marketing is a great way for you to earn some side income whilst staying at home. The great thing about affiliate marketing is that there are many tools at your disposal and so you can be as creative as you want to, to market a product/service of your choice.
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