Start online store with Shopify eCommerce solution for online shops

How to Start an Online Store in 9 Steps with Shopify (Updated 2019)

eCommerce

Need help in starting your own online shop with Shopify? Here, you will be given everything you need to do that in a simplified manner so your online store can be up and running in a jiffy.

If you need anything here clarified further, just reach out in the comments section or our Facebook group.

How to Set up Your Online Shop on Shopify

Are you ready to learn how to create your own online store? Maybe you just came up with a wonderful product idea and now you’d like to see if people are willing to buy it. Well, you’re in luck, because you no longer have to be an experienced web developer to build an online shop and eventually, it can be done pretty easily with Shopify.

So, first of all, you need to sign up for an account. Signing up with Shopify and starting your one store couldn’t be any easier and they even offer a 14 day free trial to get you going.

#1 Getting Started with Shopify Online Stores Service

Getting an online store with Shopify is simple and user friendly. They will even offer you a 14 day trial so that you can test things out.

  1. First, you have to open a Shopify account if you haven’t done it already.
  2. Fill in your details in the sign up form, then click on the ‘Create your store now’ button.
  3. Select a store name that’s unique and hasn’t been taken. Shopify will highlight names that are already in use and request you choose another if what you have in mind has been taken.
  4. Afterwards, you will be taken to another page where you have to provide more details like your name, location and contact details.
  5. Shopify will want to know what products you want to sell on their site. If you’re just testing out the site, in the ‘Do you have products?’ Dropdown menu, select ‘I’m just playing around’ and in the ‘What will you sell?’ section, answer with ‘I’m not sure’. But if you do have products to sell, then enter in their details.
  6. If you have finished filling in the details, click the ‘I’m done’ button.

#2 Building Your Online Store

You will be taken to your store admin page after completing the signing up process.

This is the stage you start building up your online store, getting your products uploaded and establishing your payments and shipping processes.

Creation online shop with online eCommerce platform from Shopify service
Shopify online shop dashboard view

#3 Establishing How Your Online Store will Look

You will like your store to stand out from the others and reflect your personality, right? You can do this with themes which will allow you personalize it the way you want. These themes are available at the official Shopify theme store.

Every theme got a list of modifications that can be applied to it, but, you don’t have to be a tech wiz or coder as the modifications list for the themes are user friendly and simple to use. More modifications are available with premium themes but your site will still look great with free themes.

And just in case you want to deeply change your online store theme, it’s very a simple by using HTML and CSS which gives you a lot of options to work with. Like we implied earlier, you don’t have to be a software guru to be able to do this as you can call on a lineup of design agencies also known as ‘Shopify experts’ to personalize your site to your taste. 

You could configure your site this way:

  • Theme – Brooklyn (free theme)
  • Shipping – Free to all countries
  • Payments – Shopify payments can be used if you’re in the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, UK, Ireland or Australia. Use Paypal if you’re outside these countries.
  • Pages – This should contain your contact details, refund policy, privacy policy and service terms.
  • Free shipping page – Used to explain how the shipping is done.

#4 Changing Your Shopify Settings

Most of the themes on Shopify will allow you to personalize your site anytime you want by making changes on how it looks, so your store can be unique.

Theme possibilities in Shopify online store
Theme possibilities in Shopify online store

#5 Uploading Products onto Your Store

Go to the bar on the left and select ‘Products’. On that page’s top right hand corner is a blue ‘Add a product’ button. Use that page to provide as much details as possible of your products, most especially those that will aid your SEO campaign like name, description and URL. Provide details about the variations of your products in order to better inform your customers.

You will also upload your products pictures on this page. You don’t need to worry about uploading them in a particular order as they can be rearranged easily on the page.

Listing your products and adding new ones on Shopify isn’t complicated
Listing your products and adding new ones on Shopify isn’t complicated

How your products look is an important factor in sales so make sure your images show them in the best possible manner. Use close up pictures to draw attention to special or unique features. Make sure the images are all of the same dimensions so that your site looks neat. Cluttered and untidy sites could be a turn off to prospective customers.

Once all your products are uploaded, click on the ‘Save product’ button at the right hand corners at either the top or bottom of the page

#6 Setting up Product Collections on Your Store

Collection refers to a group of products with similar features that customers might want when they visit your store. For instance, they could be on the lookout for the following collections:

  • Unique men’s, women’s or children’s clothing.
  • Certain items such as lamps, cushions or rugs.
  • Items that are on special sales.
  • Products of a particular size or color.
  • Seasonal products for certain occasions like chocolates for valentine, Christmas decorations, Easter eggs etc.

Collections can be made of any combination of products. Make sure you display your collections on your home page and the navigation bar. This will make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for and avoid the stress of going through the whole catalog.

There are two options to select when adding products to a new collection in your store. The first option involves listing the products by hand while the second option involves doing it in an automated manner. This is done by establishing a set list of conditions for products to be listed. Once a product fulfills these conditions, it’s automatically listed in the collection. 

Creating a collection page on online store based on Shopify
Creating a collection page on online store based on Shopify

#7 Collecting Payments

Customers will pay for the products on your site through a payment gateway which will be integrated into your site. Not all payment gateways have the same offerings so you have to scrutinize their features carefully.

Here are the things to check when determining which payment gateway to use for your business.

Get the best payment gateway that suites your online store
Get the best payment gateway that suites your online store

Transaction Fees

Payment gateways make their money by collecting a small percentage of the sale you make or a flat fee per transaction. Look at how much you forecast for your sales and decide which of the approaches will be best for your transactions.

Mode of Payment Accepted

You will have to know what cards and payment solutions are accepted by your payment gateway. VISA and Mastercard are accepted by all of them. A majority will take American Express while an increasing number are opening up to online payment solutions like Paypal. Make sure the payment gateway you choose will be able to handle the well-used cards and online payment.

Checkout

Some payment gateways will process sales transaction on their own servers through a form on their site, implying that the customer has to navigate away from your own site’s checkout. But they are redirected back to your confirmation page after a successful transaction allowing you some control of the checkout process. This allows you to bypass Shopify’s restriction on customizing your checkout with any other tool apart from CSS.

Usually, Shopify adds the transaction fees of the payment gateways to its own handling fees. But right now, stores in the US and UK can use Shopify payments so there should be some reduction on the combined charges to store owners.

It’s also possible to make some savings on these costs. That will depend on your Shopify plan. These are the rates you will get according to your plan.

  • Basic – 2.4% plus 20p
  • Professional – 2.1% plus 20p
  • Unlimited – 1.8% plus 20p

It could be worth moving up to a higher plan if your site makes enough transactions to support it so that you could take advantage of the savings.

Your store will make use of use of Shopify payments by default if you’re in the US or UK. If you prefer this option, click on the ‘Complete Shopify payments account setup’ button under settings in the payments page. If you however prefer a third party payment gateway, navigate to the ‘Enable payment gateway’ link on the same page.

#8 Going Live with Your Online Store

Now it’s time for your store to go live right? Not quite yet! There are still some more details to be sorted out like adding some more information about your company, how you intend to deliver customers’ purchases and your tax payment structure.

General

All information about your business goes on the page highlighted below marked as ‘General’. Ensure you make use of the Google analytics feature on this page. It will help you track store visitors which will empower you to make modifications to your business model if necessary.

General details about your online store
Here, you provide details about your store

Tax Settings

Now let’s configure the taxes in your newly created Shopify store. It’s important to mention that based on if your business is VAT registered or not, it will determine on the need to charge VAT.

In case you are VAT registered and you will sell products to both business and consumers in different EU countries, don’t forget to configure the tax rates and setting accordingly.

  • Go to the products section of your admin page.
  • Click the name of any of your products.
  • Go to the section called ‘inventory & variants’.
  • Open a dialog window by clicking on the edit link next to your product variant.
  • Check the boxes next to ‘Charge taxes’ and ‘Requires shipping’ if these are required for that product.
  • Some products like digital goods will not require the charging of taxes or shipping costs due to their nature. Physical products on the other hand have to bill for both.
  • If a product requires shipping, enter the product’s weight in the field designated for it.
Shopify store tax configuration settings
Make sure you structure the taxes for your business

Shipping

Ensure you have the right rates as failure to do this could harm the sales of your store and eventually will hurt your earning, because you will have to cover the price of the shipping from your own pocket. Do the following to make sure of this:

  • Go to the shipping page from your admin page and click on settings.
  • Under ‘Shipping rates’, set a weight based shipping rate for your product according to its weight.
Online store shipping settings
Online store shipping settings

#9 Ensuring Your Order System Works

You will need to test the workings of your store system. This can be done by using Shopify’s Bogus Gateway.

  • From your store admin page, click on settings, then navigate to payments settings.
  • You will have to deactivate your credit card gateway if it’s on. To do this click ‘Edit’, then click on ‘Deactivate’. Confirm your deactivation afterwards.
  • Go to the ‘Accept credit cards’ section. Click on ‘Select a credit card gateway’. A dropdown menu will open.
  • Go down to ‘Other’, and then click ‘Bogus Gateway’.  
  • Under ‘Bogus Gateway’, click ‘Activate’.
  • Place an order on your online store as if you’re a customer.

You can also test the workings of a payment gateway with a real transaction. Ensure the gateway you’re testing has already been set up on your store.

  • Buy a product from your own store like a customer and use your own credit card details to complete the transaction.
  • Then, cancel the order at that moment so that you don’t pay any transaction fees and get your money back.
  • Check your payment gateway to see if your money went through the checkout.
  • You got it!

Of course, it’s a completely free flows, just be sure to cancel that order as mentioned. If the credit card has been billed after you’ve placed the order but before you cancelled it, the transaction will appear on your bill.

There’s still the opportunity to cancel after paying Shopify but your refund will be in the form of a transaction credit on your account which could be useful for paying future transaction fees.

Conclusion

And that is all there is to it.

You sign in to Shopify, setting up a theme, adding products, setting up your collection, tax and shipping policies, some payment getaways and vualá, you got an online store.

After those 8 steps, you will have a great looking, unique and fully-functioning store in less than half an hour without having to be a web expert. This way you can spend most of your time marketing and concentrating on you business instead of taking care about the technical side of things. Shopify is amazing!

If something is still not clear, feel free to contact me in the comments or write to us in our Facebook group.

How to Create a WordPress Website With Elementor Plugin (Updated 2019)

WordPress

The procedure of customizing websites requires an understanding of different technological topics such as HTML, PHP, and CSS. Unfortunately, most people do not have these technical skills and thank goodness, there are other simpler ways of creating and customizing websites that do not require programming. You can create and customize sites with relative ease using content management systems such as WordPress and the Elementor plugin.

WordPress is a flexible content management system that powers about one-third of websites on the internet. Elementor is a page builder that provides an intuitive interface to create content within a WordPress site with an easy drag-and-drop interface. The combination of these two programs can help you create stunning websites in a jiffy.

This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide on how to create websites with WordPress and Elementor. Get ready to design your dream website today using these leading-edge technologies without any need to code, just an easy drag-and-drop site making. Let’s start.

#1 Get a Hosting Account and Install WordPress

First things first, you need a domain name and a web hosting account to create your website. Your domain name is like a real-world business name which you register with a government agency. The web hosting account is comparable to renting an office from where you can do business. While the website design aspect is like putting all the furnishing in place to make your office look professional.

You can register your domain name and get a WordPress hosting easily by using the DreamHost WordPress hosting package. Click on the “Get Started” link on the and follow the instructions to create your account. Dreamhost gives you an option to register a new domain name or transfer an existing one to build your website.

Getting started with WordPress Hosting

Now you can log in to access your hosting dashboard after creating your DreamHost account. The hosting dashboard contains a variety of tools that you can use to manage your hosting account.

We recommend using the tool called One-Click WordPress Installer to do the initial WordPress installation. You can find this program in the lower part of the dashboard when you scroll down. Open the One-Click Installer menu, click on WordPress, select your domain name and install WordPress on your domain.

One click and you have WordPress!

DreamHost one click WordPress install

#2 Add Elementor to the New WordPress Site

By this time, you must have completed the WordPress installation and also have your password to the Admin section. Log in to your WordPress Admin backend and let’s install Elementor – hover your mouse on the Plugin section within the menu by the left and click on “Add New” within the flyout menu.

New WordPress site installing Elementor

On the new page that opens, type “Elementor” in the text box and press the enter key to search for the plugin. The result will show “Elementor Page Builder” among other results.

Ignore all the other result entries and click on the install tab beside the “Elementor Page Builder.” After installation is complete, the tab menu changes to activate, click on it to activate the plugin.

Now you have Elementor installed!

Install Elementor plugin on WordPress site

#3 Use Elementor to Create your First Page

Once the Elementor Page Builder has been activated, it is time to create your first web page. Navigate to the Pages section on the admin menu and click on “Add New” link.

Add new page to WordPress site

The first page you shall create will serve as the Home Page. Type “Home” in the Title section and click on the “Save Draft” button to save your work.

It is a good habit to save the incremental changes you made on your site. It helps you retain the changes you made if the browser crashes, or the system malfunctions when you are working.

Now, you have your new page created. Locate the “Edit with Elementor” button just below the Title bar to launch the Elementor Page Builder plugin.

Create new Elementor page on WordPress platform

#4 How to use the Elementor Templates to Create Your Homepage in WordPress

One of the easiest ways to get up and running with Elementor site builder is to use templates. It gives you access to many functions of the program rather than trying to figure them out on your own.

Click on the “Add Template” button which is a right part on the screen to open the Elementor Template Library.

Add template in Elementor site builder

The template library gives you access to numerous templates. Many of the templates are free while others are only available when you purchase the premium version of the Elementor Plugin. Browse for the layout of your choice and click on the “Insert” button.

#5 How to Change Your Elementor Template to Full-Width

Hover your mouse on the template and locate the sky-blue control panel above the template. You will notice some icons within the panel, these icons allow you to customize the template. When you click on the first icon, it changes the left panel view to enable you to customize the template.

The first option on the left panel is for toggling the width of the template layout between boxed design and full-width. Simply click on the switch button to toggle between the two options.

#6 How to Change the Text on the Home Page and Any Other Page

Now that you have set the width style of your home page, you can proceed to customize the content of the home page. Elementor gives you access to user-friendly tools to edit the content of the template.

To edit any element on the page, click on it and the left panel will present you with various options to customize the content.

You will be able to change the font type, size, color, and the way the heading elements appear on the page.

Edit content on Elementor page

#7 Change the Background Images

One of the core elements of a webpage is the background. Elementor allows you to change the background images to another one that aligns with the theme of your website. To change the background, navigate back to the template edit section and click on the “Style” tab.

Elementor change backgound click on style

All you need to do is to delete the current background image and choose another one to replace it.

Now, you newly create WordPress site have a new image, all thanks to the power of Elementor site builder.

Elementor change backgound update the image

Elementor provides you with many options for changing the background of the web page. You can use images, gradients, and videos from YouTube as your website background.

#8 How to change colors and fonts in Elementor site

The font and color elements allow you to align your web page with your brand features. You can customize these features by clicking on the element you want to change and selecting the “Style” tab from the left panel.

You can make changes by choosing another font type from the wide array of fonts in Elementor. You can either use the color picker to make adjustment to the font color or specify the color code if you know it.

Elementor change color and fonts click on style

An excellent design style is to maintain a consistent font appearance and color on your web page. Multiple color palettes can be distracting and serve as an annoying factor which can make your website visitor leave almost immediately. Choose site’s color wisely.

Click on the “Save” button to apply the changes to your site when you have finished.

Elementor save button

Click on the hamburger menu icon at the top left after Elementor has saved the changes you made.

After that, click on “Page Settings” from the list of menu that appears.

In the menu that will open, in the “Status” section, click on the select options and choose “Published.” This option will make the web page available for other people to see on your website.

After that, click on the “X” icon at the bottom left of the page to close the options. You are now reedy to view your first web page.

#9 Make the Page You Just Created the Home Page of Your Website

The home page of your website is the page that opens up when someone types your website address. We shall now set the page you just created as the home page for your website.

Navigate to the WordPress Admin menu, hover your mouse on “Settings,” and click on “Reading” from the flyout menu.

WordPress setting reading configuration

Scroll to the “Front page display” option and check the radio button beside the “A static page” option. This setting tells WordPress to display a specific page on the website rather than the latest blog posts.

Setting static homepage on WordPress

After the last step, a drop-down select menu with a list of pages appears just below the option. You can now select the “Home” page you just created.

The next step is to scroll down to the bottom of the settings page and click on the “Save Changes” button to apply the settings to your website.

WordPress static page save changes

After you have saved the settings, your website home page will change to the page you just created with Elementor.

10#Let’s Keep Creating the Rest of the Website

Of course, you would like to have other pages on your website besides the homepage. Some regular pages on most websites are the “About us” that tells the user what your site is all about, and the “Contact” page as well.

Hover the mouse on “Pages,” and click on “Add New,” then follow the steps outlined previously to create the new pages.

Other aspects of designing your WordPress website involves working with widgets. The Widgets settings are accessible from the Appearance > Widget menu option. The interface is intuitive; simply drag your preferred widgets to the appropriate positions and adjust the settings.

Most WordPress themes also come with “Theme Options” which you can fine-tune to align with your website needs. However, it is important to ensure that your choice of colors in the theme options aligns with the one you choose in Elementor. This will help create visual balance for your website.

Start Creating Websites Without Coding with Elementor

You can start creating website without writing a single code by combining the power of WordPress with the Elementor Page Builder plugin.

The program gives you a visual interface to bring your imagination to life and writes the codes for you behind the scene. These two powerful tools can help you create stunning websites and high-converting landing pages without learning HTML, PHP, or CSS.

So, start with a reliable hosting, install WordPress on it and use Elementor for easy drag-and-drop site building experience.

Do it. And for any questions during the process, don’t hesitate to leave us your comments. We will help you with creation your WordPress site with a breeze.

why to separate website hosting and domain registrar?

6 Reasons Why You Should Keep Web Hosting and Domain Registrar Separated (Updated 2019)

Domains

It’s important that you keep your web host and domain registration separate. Before getting into why, we’ll start by defining what the two terms mean and why they are the foundation of any successful website.

The domain registration is sort of redirection work, such as ebay.com – that directs people to the files of a particular website through an internet browser.

The web host is the account on a server that stores website files and serves them to users through the internet. It’s basically a kind of file storage. Think of Dropbox, but it’s connected to the network an instead it’s something that serves the files to internet users.

The domain of a website is their internet “address”, while the hosting is the “land” that the website is built on.

Now we’ll look at the reasons you should have separate domain and hosting providers.

1. Holding your hosting or domain as a hostage

Many hosting and domain registration services offer the two tied together in confusing and obnoxious ways.

If you want to cancel just your hosting, you may find that your domain has become more expensive. Or perhaps the domain is canceled with the hosting because everything was offered as a “bundle”.

Keeping your registrar and web host separate allows you to prevent this kind of thing happening. It stops one company from having so much leverage against you.

2. Easier to switch web host provider service

Having less service commitments makes it easier to change web hosting providers.

If you are getting downtimes from your current supplier, are disappointed with the lack of support, are paying too much for renewal, or facing a similar problem, you’ll have an easier time changing hosts without impacting your domain. All you have to do is move the files across to the new host and redirect the DNS settings.

Site hosting and domain registrar separation is more secure

3. Separate security from the file management

Companies typically specialize in either hosting or domain registration, and not both. It’s hard to find a company that can excel with both at the same time.

The very best domain registrar services offer privacy, advanced DNS settings, sub-accounts, and other benefits. The best web hosting companies have great file management, backups, site-lock features, and more. It’s good to have separate accounts for domain and hosting to get the best of both worlds.

4. In case of hacking to your account or website

Let’s assume that you have your domain and web host handled by the same company. What happens if the hosting website gets hacked or something happens to your host or website? What if someone stole your files and your domain and injected malware, or your hosting company locked your account? That means you lose access to your web domain too.

By keeping domain and hosting separate, you have an easier time dealing with these problems without affecting your domain. You’lll still have access to your domain dashboard and are in control.

5. Several domains support and control

So you’ve got multiple domains, each of which is hosted on a different service. This makes it easier to manage your domains all under one roof as you are able to manage several domains all from a single account.

6. Keep Problems and Concerns Separate

Will your host provider still be in business in five more years? Will your domain provider? By keeping your registrar and web host separate like this, you reduce the risk of total and complete outage.

Final Words…

If you are considering a website project, then it’s critical to understand the difference between domain registration and web hosting and the way they work together but also act like different products.

A domain is critical to any website project — whether you go with a hosting company or bundled services.

We also understood what it’s recommended to separate the web hosting solution and the domain registrar. But, what solution should we go with?

For web hosting provider, we recommending DreamHost. It’s they are global, SSD based, non-EIG and provide a free SSL (by Let’s Encrypt) with great support and uptimes. Check out this DreamHost review.

As for domain registrar, we are a fans of NameCheap, which is an affordable domains service with constant pricing, quick support, features rich and 14-day money back guarantee. Look into the Domain registrars review.

What domain registrar and hosting solution to pick?
Starting a Podcast

How to Start a Podcast: Step by Step Guide (Updated 2019)

Podcast

Why should you create a podcast? Well, the answer is simple enough. Podcasting is a way of reaching your online audience using your voice on recorded audio files. It’s similar to having your own radio station or an audio version of a blog. Just think about the traffic and the fellowship it can bring to your content!

How to Start a Podcast Step by Step Guide

The audience for podcasts is recording faster growth than that for blog readership. At least four out of every ten Americans have listened to an online podcast according to recent reports. According to the latest Google trends, online searches for podcasts have surpassed searches for blogs.

Also, advertising revenues for podcasting grew by 80%+ per year according to the Internet advertising bureau. All the largest corporations such as Google or Apple have taken note of this with its release of a dedicated podcast app which makes finding podcasts online easier. It’s easy to see why starting a podcast could be a great idea.

The wide listenership it enjoys makes it an attractive complement to running a blog and could even help you increase your blogging audience.
It’s easier for an average person to connect and engage more with a podcast than with a blog as hearing someone speak his/her views is more personal than reading an author’s thoughts. This makes them place more trust in podcasts than in blogs as it is believed they present a more authentic voice. 

Right now, podcast content lags demand according to Google trends which makes it a good time for you to start a podcast. So, if you believe you have what to say, a message to deliver or an amazing content to speak about, then you’re more than ready to start your own podcast. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you through the process.

#1 Pick a reliable Podcast hosting

Picking a great podcast hosting provider is a must as you will need this to be able to distribute your show via RSS feeds, online podcast directories and podcast apps. For a user-friendly experience, we recommend the Podbean podcast publishing platform. It has different categories of podcast webhosting including a free option.

Check out Podbean, a full-featured podcast hosting platform, unlimited storage and bandwidth, iTunes and play store support, search engine optimized, your own domain and branding. First month is FREE!

Register on Podbean podcast hosting and let’s continue.

Pick a reliable podcast hosting service

#2 Acquire a reliable podcast microphone

A good and reliable microphone suitable for podcasting is essential to ensure your message comes out loud and clear with good sound and isn’t interrupted by technical issues. This should be your first step as the quality of your microphone can make or break your podcast.

If you are looking for a quality podcast microphone that’s not too expensive we recommend the Blue Yeti microphone.  It’s a USB microphone that you can plug into your laptop, desktop or tablet and retails for just over $100. This brand is being used by many podcasters today. You can check it as well as complimentary products like microphone stands, pop filters and more.

For now as a beginner, there’s no need getting mixers, portable recorders and headphones. The microphone is the only technical equipment you need for now to start podcasting.

Buy the Blue Yeti USB Microphone on Amazon

Get a quality podcast microphone

#3 Great content and podcast title

First, you have to know what you want to talk about. Make sure you have an in-depth knowledge of your topic. Conduct research on it so that you come across as knowledgeable. Then choose a title/name for your podcast. This should reflect your topic or the host depending on the circumstances.

Make sure you plan your podcasting routine beforehand as it will make your job easier. Decide how often you will be podcasting (Daily, weekly, biweekly, etc.) as well as when you will be podcasting.  We recommend that you start with a twice weekly podcast.

Then get the topics you will be covering as well as when you want to podcast them depending on your prearranged schedule.  Make sure you have enough topics to cover a particular time period as that will make your podcasting routine easier. With all your topics researched beforehand, recording your content will be a breeze.

Make sure your topics are scheduled in a logical order. For example, if you’re podcasting about music, make sure you schedule ‘songwriting’ before ‘studio recording’.  Some topics can be very broad so we advise that you break them into sub topics which you can cover within a given time frame. With this you could make a month or a period about a particular theme for instance October could be ‘marketing month’.null

#4 Get a well made podcast cover image

Packaging, they say is everything. Make sure you have a great cover image for your podcast. This will help convey an image to your audience as well as an arsenal in your marketing plan.

Get a professional graphic designer to make your podcast cover image. You can get them at an affordable rate on freelance sites like Fiverr.

Register on Fiverr and create your cover for podcast.

Have a good idea of what you want your cover image to look like. Provide a rough sketch of what you want to your designer so he will be on the same page with you. The cover image has to project your personal brand so make sure the designer gets the graphics and style to match it.

Avoid cluttering your art with too many details so that potential listeners will be able to identify it clearly in a small format. It should be readable even at 200px wide. 

Ensure your cover image is clear and visible even when small. This is to ensure visibility when it appears as a thumbnail image which is how most podcast streaming services project their content.

Your cover art should be in JPEG or PNG format, should have 1400 x 1400 pixels and be a maximum size of 500kb. These specifications should help you avoid issues with podcast directories.   

Register on Fiverr to create your podcast cover image

#5 Have a great outro, intro and voice over

This will be used to tell listeners the name of the podcast, who the host is and what you expect to hear in that particular episode. It’s similar to the theme song and opening credits of a TV program. Having a great intro, outro and voice over will help set your content apart from others and draw in more listeners.

To get professionals to help you do a quality job at an affordable price, check out the freelance sites like Fiverr where you could get a voice over artist at $5. For an additional fee, he/she could also add music to the voice over.

Register on Fiverr to create your podcast voice over, outro and intro

#6 Produce and edit your content

Listeners will be expecting a high level of production on your podcast so you have to ensure your production stands out. Even if it’s just simple elements like the intro music, episode introduction, background music, story introductions and telling as well as the ending, make sure your production values are top notch as this is an essential element listeners use to judge a podcast.

You could hire someone to edit your audio files. Alternatively, if you want absolute control on how your finished podcast sounds, you could do the editing yourself. There are tutorials all over on how to do this as well as free editing software such as Audacity, one used by a lot of podcasters. 

Afterwards, you can upload your new podcast to Podbean.   

7# Get your Podcast on iTunes and other platforms

Now that you’ve produced those first podcasts episodes, you must get them to where there are a lot of potential listeners and the number one place for this is iTunes.

It hosts majority of the podcasts out there and is the first place where most people look for podcasts so applying here is a must. iTunes has most of the podcast directory market though Spotify and Google music are growing.

For an easy how to guide, check this link. It’s on Podbean, the podcast hosting service we previously recommended.

#8 Get your listeners to subscribe and review your content

Podcasts with a lot of positive listener reviews on iTunes appear in the ‘New and Noteworthy’ section. This helps increase their visibility and even attracts more listeners. You want your podcast here when you get on iTunes so at the end of each episode, tell your listeners to subscribe and leave a review about what they think about the show.

If you have a blog, embed a podcast player on it or include a link to your podcast. Appeal to your blog readers to subscribe to it and leave reviews.

Finally

Now you’re ready to begin podcasting. At the start of the effort to be perfect when on the microphone, you might get self-conscious and sound robotic. But don’t worry. Just relax and be yourself as you record your show. With practice, you will sound better and each podcast episode producing will get easier and smoother.

Remember, people want to connect with the person behind the microphone so feel free. Express your emotions if you can as that’s what makes us human. Forget about hiding your accent if you have one. With time and diligence, you will have listeners begging you for more episodes.

To sum it up:

  • Podbean – our recommended hosting for podcasts, free for 30 days!
  • Fiverr – great freelancing site to order your podcast cover and audio effects.
  • Blue Yeti microphone – reliable and affordable microphone for podcasting.
  • Audacity – free audio editing solution.

Start you podcast, keep on recording, be happy!

Full guide to start a podcast
How to Get More Sales on Fiverr

How to Get More Sales on Fiverr? 8 Ways To Sell More And Improve Gigs Conversion

Freelancing

Do you know there are hundreds of sellers who are making $1000+ per month from Fiverr only by selling their services and skills?

They get their gigs ranked at the top for their keywords and by this, driving more sales to their gigs.

So basically, Fiverr is one the best platform today to earn online through your skills. But, unfortunately, many people don’t know how to get more orders on Fiverr by correctly utilizing the platform and it’s pretty important because if you know basic strategies of Fiverr and follow them, then you can easily earn a lot from the platform.

Following a few pretty easy-to-implement rules, you can increase your sales by 200% just by following the tips to get more orders in this article.

Let’s start and learn how to get more orders on Fiverr. Oh, before we continue, do you have a Fiverr account?

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

1. First, make your profile look professional

You already got Fiverr account, right? It’s time to make your Fiverr profile look attractive and professional.

You’ll have to use your real picture, good description and so on. In the description or About Me section, you have to define yourself andnot your services. Like I am Johnny Fortune, a Professional Software Developer, Internet Marketer with over 3 years of experience. I will provide my services with 100% satisfaction or something like that. But write it in a professional manner. It attracts buyers!

Also, it’s important to mention that if you change your profile pic and upload a female picture you will get more orders (sorry guys but this is 100% researched proof, this is one of most researched Fiverr trick to get more orders.

If you don’t want to put a girl picture, then, as we previously stated, you must use a professional looking picture because right display picture has a good impression on the buyer.

2. Add a mind blowing description to your gig

Describe your service well. Add a great description to each of your gigs, explain your services Like a Boss. Whenever a buyer rolling on Fiverr checks your gig, he/she reads the description first, if you can fulfill their requirements in the description, you will get orders.

So make gig description clear and detailed. Use bold, underline and highlight options correctly in your gig description. Delivery time should be less if you have new gig. Also, write about bonus offer in a description as it can attract a buyer to buy your gig.

3. Upload more photos about the Gig

Pretty simple. Some clients may not want to go through the trouble of reading your descriptive description about the gig.

I call them the “I buy what I see clients”. For such, the more attractive photos you have to describe you gig, the more sales you could make. So make sure your gig have at least three photos to describe it.

4. Target keywords in Gig description as well as title

Really important. Fiverr got it’s internal SEO-ish factors to display the gigs. So if you are selling a Gigs about fixing WordPress errors, target it at least three times in the description and one and half in the title.

For example, the title can be I will Inspect your WordPress Blog and Fix WordPress Errors. You notice how I mentioned WordPress twice in the title and the targeted keyword WordPress errors is in capital letter. That’s exactly what you need to do as well.

5. Write a descriptive FAQ for the Gig

Write all related question you think people want to know about your Gig, so people don’t need to much time to select your gig. Improves conversion.

6. Add videos to your gigs

According to Fiverr, gigs having videos sell 220% more than those having justimages. You can create videos for your gigs online.

Videos can boost your sales. If you’re not getting orders from a long time, add videos to your gigs.

7. Stay active on Fiverr

Activeness matters a lot. As Fiverr introduced online/offline feature, we can assume that it will factor into the chances that you gig will be displayed on different result lists. If you’re active, buyer will contact you and you can get orders plus sales. In this way, activeness can prove beneficial to make a boost in your orders and sales.

8. Offer money back guarantee

Offer money back guarantees in your gigs. Download badges by simply Googling “Money back guarantee badges“ and add them to your Fiverr gig description and/or photos. Yes, you can use the money back guarantee badges in gig images!

And

And the last thing, provide your services quickly!

Be fast. For your first gig, sell the services which you can provide faster (1–2 days gig)! After you did that, provide your services fast to your customers. It can transform buyers into clients. In this way, you can get more orders on your gigs. Be fast and earn fast.

Anything Else?

If you got any comments, suggestion or tips, we would be happy to know about it. If you know any other trick that can increase sales on Fiverr, share with us. Thanks for stopping by!

>>> Create Fiverr seller account now<<<

Feel free to comment for any tip, trick, suggestion or just general conversation.

Dreamhost Review  Pros and Cons of Dreamhost Wordpress Web Hosting

DreamHost Review  2019: Pros, Cons & Comparisons od DreamHost WordPress Web Hosting

WordPress

DreamHost are perhaps one of the oldest hosting companies out there, who are had the time to master the art of providing top quality web hosting with plenty of perks, features and plans.

DreamHost started as a project of some enthusiastic undergraduates of Harvey Mudd College of Claremont, California in 1996. These students were Dallas Bethune, Josh Jones, Michael Rodriguez. One year later in 1997, The name DreamHost was conceived and registered and DreamHost came into being as an officially recognized hosting company.

Before long DreamHost was being counted as one of the renowned and reliable hosting companies of the USA. It garnered fame especially for being a cheap-and-powerful-hosting providing company.

Not many hosts offer a 100% uptime guarantee, but DreamHost do. This means they have a lot of pressure on their shoulders to provide that consistently to their users. The service provides shared hosting, VPS and dedicated plans that come with a 14 day free trial so you can explore what DreamHost have to offer before jumping straight in. Once you have accustomed yourself to the hosting dashboard you will find that there are plenty of unlimited features, and tools but they do lack a telephone number..

A 97 day money back guarantee will also provide you with a confidence boost in case you find that the service isn’t to your expectations.

Also, right now they have a promotion for 50$ discount (basically you will pay just about 5.5$ a month! A great deal.

DreamHost Shared Website Hosting Provider

DreamHost is the only WordPress shared hosting provider I’ve seen to offer unlimited storage, domains, email and monthly data transfers even on its basic plans. This is a huge plus for more advanced website owners and helps get over the higher price on hosting.

Most other website hosting companies only provide some of these unlimited services on the higher-level packages and few offer unlimited domains or monthly data transfers at any price.

Once you sign up for a DreamHost hosting plan, the control panel is easy to use. There is no website builder which really wasn’t an issue for me since I have all my sites made in WordPress anyway.

DreamHost does offer a simple, one-click install for WordPress, making getting your site going fairly easy. Once in WordPress, you’ll simply install a theme and start working…or do what I do and just hire a cheap developer to get you started.

The hosting provider starts you off with some free WordPress themes and plugins as well as all the unlimited features mentioned above.

DreamHost customer service is managed through email, ticket-based support on the platform and through online chat. I have contacted them a couple of times and each time received great service which solved all the issues I had. I was able to get on chat support multiple times without waiting more than a minute. The DreamHost customer rep was knowledgeable and able to guide me through several questions.

I asked another blogger that uses DreamHost to share her experience with the webhost’s reliability. She uses uptimerobot.com to automatically monitor her site every five minutes. It basically pings your site to make sure it’s working right.

She reported only one instance where the site was down over the last three months and then only for eight minutes late at night. It’s right up there with the best site reliability I’ve seen in other website hosting reviews.

Check the 50$ discount promotionthey currently offer (you will pay just about $5.5 a month).

DreamHost VPS and Dedicated Hosting

DreamHost offers Linux-based virtual private server plans (VPS) for larger websites and businesses that need more security or higher traffic. The packages start at $15 per month with 1GB of RAM, which is pretty nice. Also, you do get unlimited email, storage and monthly data transfers and higher RAM is available for a little more per month.

Dedicated server plans start at $149 per month, a little more than other hosting providers but you get 1 TB of storage and unlimited data transfers. DreamHost doesn’t offer Windows-based dedicated servers which will be a non-issue for those familiar with Linux.

You get anti-spam software on DreamHost email but no malware protection. You will also need to set up your own SSL certificates for websites. There are a few other security features you get with DreamHost but you will need some developer skills to manage them. It’s another reason why I only recommend DreamHost to more experienced website owners or those with help.

DreamHost Price Comparison

DreamHost doesn’t have a no-frills package for shared WordPress hosting with its cheapest plan starting at $10 per month (and that’s before the 50$ discount promotion!).

For that pricing DreamHost offers extra features like multiple WordPress sites and domains as well as much larger storage compared to other hosting providers. For those that will use the extra services, it’s a good deal.

This pretty affordable deal combined with 1-click WordPress install making it suitable for beginners as well.

What I Liked About DreamHost Website Hosting

DreamHost is a strong contender for experienced and amateur website owners that will be able to use its extra features on the hosting plans. Newbies will probably want to go with a more basic tier such as the one around $10 per month.

For those with larger websites or that don’t need a site-builder, you’ll like the quality you get from DreamHost’s managed hosting and some of the other features

DreamHost Cons

DreamHost is a hosting solution that will be exactly what is needed for many website owners, advanced and beginners alike. There are some great features in its hosting services that users of every expertise level could benefit from. DreamHost monthly price is fair compared to other shared hosting providers. Yet, there are still some cons that we must to point out:

  • There isn’t servers based on Windows
  • Chat and email support

But, the lacking of Windows servers are, in my opinion, an advantage. Linux based one are much reliable for web hosting.

As for phone support, I never needed it. The LiveChat support was ultra fast and helpful.

Oh, They’re Carbon Neutral (AKA Green)

Being a web host takes tons of resources. Just the amount of electricity it takes to run servers alone is tremendous.

That’s why DreamHost is committed to reducing their impact on the environment. One way that they do this is through the purchase of carbon offsets.

In fact, DreamHost has been a carbon neutral company since 2007. In just 10 years, the company has neutralized a whopping 29,298.1 tons of greenhouse gases.

That’s huge! If you’re proactive about reducing your carbon footprint, DreamHost is a great web hosting option to consider.

Let’s Summarize. What’s good about Dreamhost?

  • Great uptime (almost 99.9%).
  • Page loading times are 18% faster than competitors (~870ms).
  • High-quality, helpful, and fast customer support.
  • Generous 97-day money back guarantee (most web hosting companies willing to offer 30 days refund policy).
  • Bandwidth is truly unlimited.
  • They’re carbon neutral (AKA green).
  • A generous 2 weeks free trial during which the user can test and get used with the platform.

Try DreamHost for 97-days risk free! Click to get your website started today with 50$ discount.

Beginners Strategy Guide to Start Selling and Make Money on Fiverr

Beginners Strategy Guide to Start Selling and Make Money on Fiverr

Freelancing

It doesn’t matter whether you are a college student, a graphic artist, talented writer, software developer or stay at home mom who is thinking to start making money from home. There are a lot of ways you can use to make money online, and most of them are reliable sources that help you make a decent income every month.

Fiverr one of the most popular options today to create an online income where you create and provide your services, also called gigs, which will allow you to start making some real money online.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Let’s Start With… What is Fiverr?

Fiverr is an online marketplace to buy or sell services which offers people to get whatever they want just for $5. This is the reason why Fiverr has become such a huge hit in no time. Fiverr was founded in 2009, since then it has been helping people to outsource and also helping many sellers to make money online.

What are Fiverr gigs?

A Fiverr gig is simply a task that is provided by a seller. Fiverr gigs can be anything from logo design, software developing, video transcribing to writing articles and hiring virtual assistants (VA). You will get more clients if you focus on offering best Fiverr gigs that help you make more money.

You need to create gigs to start earning money from Fiverr.

Here’s how to start a new gig on Fiverr:

  • Click on “Sales” on the top bar of the Fiverr page.
  • Click on “Create A New Gig” button on the right side.
  • That’s it!

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

What Should You Sell on Fiverr?

Since you will begin with getting 4$ from each sale (and later you can go to much highly priced gigs!), you should start with gigs that won’t require much of hard work and time. This is true because the buyers on Fiverr want their service ASAP. And you will also not spend your whole day for just one gig. And if you do this, you will be out of time to complete other gigs.

It’s important to remember that there are main three types of buyers in the Fiverr ecosystem which are individual buyers, fun buyers and business, companies and organizations.

Let’s talk about each of the Fiverr buyer types.

Individual Fiverr Buyers

These are the regular people who spend on some gigs that help in their home life, business or work. You can target such people by creating gigs like:

“I will write a promotional article for your website”

“I will transcribe your YouTube video”

“I will design a logo for your business”

These kind of gigs sells a lot on Fiverr but to get orders for such services is hard as there is a lot of competition in these gigs sector. Moreover people prefer to buy services of those people who got good review or ratings.

But that’s not the point of worry. Where there is a competition, it means that a BIG money got interest in it, so it will be enough for everyone. Second, if are worried by the competition, then you will never succeed in life. Just give it a shot and check whether you are getting response or not.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Gig Buyers for Fun

Funny buyers usually buy gigs for entertainment or fun . They don’t mind to spend 5$ on a funny video gig for a friend or an astrology gig for a bachelor party.

Funny gigs categories for example:

“I will say anything as Harry Potter”

“I will write your message in the sand on a beach”

“I will write your name in calligraphy”

“I will reveal spoon bending trick”

Well these gigs have got a good market because there are many different things you can do and sell on Fiverr. Just search yourself for some fun and bizarre gigs and you will get many ideas of what you can do and earn.

Organizations / Business / Company Gig Buyers

These buyers are similar to individual buyers but these buyers are usuallylong term buyers.

A survey showed that company, business and organization buyers tend to keep a long relationship with their sellers. So if your gig is ordered by any company or a professional team, then you may get future projects with them. For this reason it is very important to maintain good contact with such buyers. Not only this, these buyers can order your gig in bulk. But the best part is that these organizations have a strong social circle. So if they are impressed with your service, they might share it to their clients and such other people. This can get you more orders.

Eventually, once you progress with your seller profile on Fiverr, it’s important to catch more of business type of gig buyers in order to grow and sell even more on Fiverr.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Okay, these were the gigs that can be sold on Fiverr. But there are some gigs you should avoid on selling and promoting on the platform.

What Kind of Gigs to Avoid Selling on Fiverr?

Don’t sell gigs that will require days of work from you. Like “I will develop a full web application for you, for 5$” or super-tight schedule ones like “I’ll illustrate and design a logo in 1 hour”.

Because this type of hard-to-deliver gigs, your profile would be filled with negative ratings and reviews from people that weren’t satisfy with your final product. So try not to sell such gigs that can destroy your Fiverr profileand then you will have to create a new account.

I also did the same mistake once. The gig was “I will setup your template on Blogspot blog”. I just got one order but that order became a mess when it took so long to fix one bug in the template. At that time, I was not familiar with HTML and CSS. But this gig can get even worse when you are providing the person with a free template and are not able to fix an issue. So never try to sell gigs about which you have no knowledge.

So since now you know what you can sell, we can head over to the next section about creating gigs.

Creating Gigs That Sell on Fiverr

As previously described, you need to create a new gig on Fiverr in order to start making money on it.

  • Click on “Sales” on the top bar of the Fiverr page.
  • Click on “Create A New Gig” button on the right side.
  • That’s it, you inside of a Gig creation process, let’s dive a bit deeper here.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Creating New Fiverr Gig Title

The title is one of the most vital aspects of your Gig, try to make your titles short and attractive. You can use 1 word with capital letters.

It’s your first chance, together with your Gig image, to tell buyers exactly the services you offer. Think about what a buyer is looking for, and write titles that indicate you can meet that need.

Consider going a little more focused and niche with your Gigs — rather than just saying “I will design your logo,” say “I will design a logo for your business consulting service.”

Use evocative language in your title — don’t say “I will write blog posts” say “I will write beautiful, powerful blog posts.”

Use the terms your potential buyers are searching for. Google Trends and the Google Adwords Keyword Tool let you type in certain terms to compare them and see which are most popular.

Fiverr Gig Description

When I created my first Fiverr gig, the description I wrote was much longer than it should have been. This is not a recommended practice since the buyers want everything explained to them in a detailed yet concentrated manner.

What type of description would you want to read when you buy gig? The answer is simple. Make descriptions short yet elaborated and precise about the value that the gig buyer would get from it.

Do not add other matters that are not related to the gig. Also make your important keywords bold and highlight text wherever necessary. If you are thinking to highlight text, don’t make your description fancy with different so much bold text and underlined words.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Fiverr Gig Description Video

It is recommended by Fiverr to add a video to your Fiverr gig. It is a very important factor to get buyers for your gig because videos increase engagement by up to 40%. They also do something else that’s really important — they create trust. Trust is one of the most vital aspects of selling online, and on Fiverr, you are selling yourself. Videos allow you to talk directly to your customer, detail what you will do, and build a connection.

Here are some of the key areas you should cover in your video:

  • Introduce yourself and thank the person for watching.
  • Address your viewer directly, with “You” statements.
  • Tell them how this specific Gig will help them and the benefits.
  • List your experience, expertise, and approach.
  • Finish by asking them to order.

This is true because if your gig provider service that needed the to buyer, then the buyers also approach it in a serious matter. There are some buyers on Fiverr who use their money very carefully.

So if they watch a 60 second video of yours saying what you are selling and some features of the gig, the buyers will order your gig in comparison to those without the video.

Picture and Portfolio

Upload relevant pictures about your gig. Create your own picture using paint or other simple software.Don’t even think to use Photoshop for a minute job of creating an image. Also upload some other pictures of your work you will do. Your portfolio is very important for buyers. So if they want a logo which you are providing but haven’t uploaded any projects, then the buyer will never turn back.

Never copy others image and upload it as yours. Use google images to search for relevant pictures of your gigs and then turn on the label rights filter.

Tags

Use tags that are relevant to your gig. Do not use unnecessary tags for your gig. Your gig can be deleted because Fiverr will consider it as spamming. Also your Fiverr gig will be shown in such places where it is not required and as a result you will get no orders.

Getting more orders on your gig

Here comes the part of promotion. You can create a personal YouTube channel to promote your Fiverr gigs. Many people get flooded with orders by creating a blog about their services and promoting it. But the most helpful part is social media.

Create a fan page on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media websites to promote your gigs. Join Fiverr groups and promote your gig. But maintain a limit of your promotion because Fiverr can delete your gig anytime. This happened to many people and you can read on Fiverr forums about such cases.

Tips to Maintain the Flow of Income

If you are getting orders then it is necessary to maintain your income. You should continue getting more orders. By this way you can earn passive income by Fiverr which can be a great addition to your main income stream and even with time, to become your main money income source. So, some tips of doing this are:

Conversation with buyers

It is always important to be kind to your buyers and having a good conversation. Never use false language or talk rudely to your customers.

If your buyers are happy with your service, they can come back again with more orders or refer your gigs to other people also.

Maintain your gigs

If your gig is selling good and you have added some gig extras, then do not make any changes to your rates. If you are thinking that buyers love your gig and increasing the price of your gig extras (if any) will help you, then you are wrong.

Just keep in mind that you are not the only one who is selling on Fiverr.There are people better than you or people who can be better than you if you do some silly mistakes.

Creating and Revision of Existing Gigs

Just never get stuck at limited number of gigs. Expand your gigs and create different revisions of your gig by giving much more to your buyers.

Try to level up as fast as possible to level 1 and level 2. It will allow you to add even more Fiverr gigs for sell and you position you profile as a more reliable person for the buyers.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Promoting Your New Fiverr Gig

Contact your friends and family to get your first few gig orders just to kick the ball and start rolling some reviews and get Level 1 and Level 2 fast.

Do a great work to get your first few clients. If everyone is offering 250 words for $5, then offer 500.

Start with promoting your gigs on social media channels. The channels that will show signs of interest, put more effort into them. Focus on the kinds of social media promotion that got positive ROI.

If you’re a writer, start a blog and use it to promote your Fiverr page. If you don’t like to write and enjoy speaking, start a podcast. Or if you enjoy video, do regular Google Hangouts and make use of your YouTube channel. Focus on having fun, being personable, and creating or sharing fun content.

As mentioned, the best way to promote your Fiverr gig is by creating a websitewhere you can easily build up your portfolio in addition to promote Fiverr gigs. And it’s not only limited to promoting just Fiverr gigs but it also builds up your portfolio claiming your self-promotion. You can also link your blog to the Fiverr account. In the personal blog, you should include the following things:

  • What are you offering in the Gigs?
  • Why should the clients hire you?
  • Your pricing packages.
  • Your previous seller ratings and reviews.

Learn here on how to start a WordPress website which will allow you to earn even more income and increase you passive money stream from Fiverr.

Making Your Fiverr Seller Profile Shine

If your Fiverr profile is updated and has everything about you, then it is good because profile matters a lot. Write an awesome Fiver bio. Don’t write fake information or skills about you. Just write what you are but in a good way.

Also upload your profile picture. Check the profiles of top sellers. You will see what and how they present their profile. If your profile is neat and clean then there are more chances of getting orders on your gigs.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Detailed Fiverr Seller Profile

Conclusion

Well that’s all. I hope you may have understood how to use Fiverr correctly and how to make money with it. Just a few more quick tips that can help you with your first Fiverr sell:

  • Use Proper English and Grammar in your gigs and in your conversations with buyers.
  • Do not use Stock images and avoid copyright claims.
  • Explain what you are offering in your gig service.
  • Explain what the Fiverr gig buyer will get and the exact value for him out of it.
  • Respond to negative feedback positively.
  • Use gig keywords relevant to your niche and gig topic.

Good luck and feel free to leave us any questions about your gig selling practices.

>>> Create Fiverr seller account here <<<

Best domain name registrars top recommendations

Best Domain Name Registrars Top Recommendations

Domains

You know that buying a domain name is a must when you starting a new site and you can’t dodge the need to register a domain name but where’s the right place to buy a domain name?

Buying a domain name is normally the first thing you need to do when creating website. It may sound simple enough – you should simply look for a domain registrars sites and you’ll be on way.

Here’s the thing, with the sheer amount of domain registrars available (with many more less known and reliable) and simply choosing the first that comes up is probably not a good idea.

If you’re wondering, “what’s the difference between them and is one selling you anything the other can’t?” Glad you asked because we’re going to answer those questions while giving a list of the best domain name registrars to get your domain name in a reliable name for an affordable, constant and without-surprises pricing.

But, if you need help in finding the best domain registrar today, we’ve compiled the top domain registrar services that you should definitely check out.

So, let’s start…

Best Domain Registrars, Buying Domain Name

1. Namecheap

Often listed high within the registrars ranking list, Namecheap is one of the bigger names in the industry, and for good reasons. The company was founded in 2000 and was named the most popular domain name registrar in 2012.

Today, Namecheap is a leading ICANN-accredited domain name registrar. They combine a solid trifecta of affordable domain pricing, great customer support, and have a huge selection of top-level-domains (.com, .net, .uk, etc.) that you can choose from.

>> Buy a domain name with Namecheap.com <<

Namecheap features and pricing

When it comes to pricing, Namecheap is hard to beat with some domain names going as low as $0.98 for the first year. Their pricing for year after year renewals can range anywhere between over a dollar for less-common top-level-domains (TLD) to around $9 for more favorable options.

They also offer additional features such as WHOIS privacy protection for $3 a year, guaranteed uptime with their PremiumDNS system at $5 per year, and the option for SSL certificates which starts at $9 per year. Plus when you sign up with Namecheap, they give you a year of WHOIS privacy protection and a two-month private email for free.

Namecheap offers online support via its ticket and live chat system. Their chat support system is responsive and customers have praised both its system and support staff. However, if you ever want to call someone for an immediate help, you won’t be able to do so.

>> Buy a domain name with Namecheap.com <<

Namecheap is a solid choice for registering your domain name. Plus, their site is incredibly intuitive and easy to use, especially on their domain management pages, which can be incredibly helpful. They offer reasonable priced domains, and have a free DNS service, and WHOIS protection. They also offer SSL encryption, for those looking to beef up the security of their domains.

It’s one of the best domain name registrars today.

>> Buy a domain name with Namecheap.com <<

2. NameSilo

Founded in 2009, NameSilo advertises the lowest domain name prices in the industry. They focus strictly on domain registry and reselling domains. By utilizing in-house designed backend tools, NameSilo does not depend upon third party tools to manage domain names.

An added benefit of using its own backend system is that domain transfers and registrations are not bungled- a rare problem throughout the industry of domain registry. NameSilo is truly an innovator in the field when it comes to keeping overhead operating cost low.

On the downside, NameSilo user interface is a bit dated one and we prefer the UX of Namecheap.com.

>> Buy a domain name with NameSilo.com<<

NameSilo features and pricing

A unique selling point that makes NameSilo competitive is that their annual fees do not increase after the first month. There are a lot of domain name companies who advertise for a lower price but lock in the customer at a higher price after the first year renewal.

NameSilo is one of the few domain companies that offer an array of alternate convenient payment options in addition to all major credit cards. These include: Paypal, Skrill, Dwolla, AllPay and BitCoin. (Most companies offer credit card payment options only). This makes it much easier for the millions of app customers who can buy a domain using these popular apps.

NameSilo charges higher fees for alternate Top-Level Domain names like .org, .net, .co, .info and .biz, ranging from $2.89 for a .club extension to $22.69 for a .co extension. Those are the extreme pricing on both ends of the spectrum, with the most common TLDs being $9.89 to $9.99/year. Compared to most domain companies, these prices are low. Some alternate domains run for $13.99 and higher.

For the negative parts, NameSilo does not offer a mobile app that lets customers manage their domains from a smart device. This makes them inferior to the few companies who offer a mobile app for iOS and Android. NameSilo does, however, let customers link their domain name with Google Apps. This will allow for some mobile functionality.

Also, there are issue with transfer domains policies. Customers that want to transfer their domains away from NameSilo will find information buried deep in the Support Home section. Most companies offer transfer instructions within their ‘knowledge base’ pages. Registrars in general have a terrible reputation for holding names hostage, making it difficult to switch registrars if you become dissatisfied. Some charge exorbitant fees or create delays to avoid losing business. NameSilo does not do this, but by means of ‘omission’ of external transfer instructions, they “discourage” customers from moving their domains elsewhere.

3. Hover

Hover focuses purely on being a domain registrar site. Compared to others on this list, when you load up Hover, it’s clear what their strengths and focus are.

They are also upfront when it comes to pricing. Domain names can cost about $5 per year and they also include the cost of renewals and transfers on the same page itself. If you’re buying more than 10 domains, they offer discounts for purchasing it all at once.

>> Buy a domain name with hover.com <<

Hover features and pricing

Hover offers a number of options for top-level-domains (TLDs), ranging from popular TLDs such as .com to more trendy ones such as .io. Since they don’t offer any hosting options, they try to make it easy for users to set it up with other hosting companies.

For those who are privacy conscious, Hover provides an additional benefit that most registrars doesn’t, which is to include a WHOIS privacy protection for all of its packages for free. They believe that you “shouldn’t have to opt-in to protect identity”, which shows that they take privacy a little more seriously than others.

>> Buy a domain name with hover.com <<

Hover also offers other features such as the ability to forward emails to your domain name at $5 per year and creating a domain inbox for $20 per year. When it comes to customer support, you can contact them via phone call, email, or live chat, but it’s not available 24-hours a day.

>> Buy a domain name with hover.com <<

To Wrap it Up, the Best Place to Buy a Domain Name

Having the right domain name could be fundamental to the success of your business and website.

And, buying your domain name from the best domain registrar is the key to reach successful domain integration and management. Ideally, you would only have to make this decision once and go back to your preferred registrar whenever you need a new domain name.

Now you know the features and differences between the best domain registrars, you can make the clear decision with the options.

  • Namecheap — One of the best domain name registrars today for its affordable domain extensions, tons of unique TLDs and personal domains, plus a free DNS offer. Our #1 pick.
  • NameSilo—A decent domain name registrar that offers affordable pricing, along with a host of free services.
  • Hover— Purely domain registrar site. Free WHOIS privacy protection.

All of the domain registrars that we’ve presented in this list are the best, so to speak, and they’re more than capable of handling any of your needs through your website’s lifespan while providing you with your desired domain. Choosing which one works best for you will depend on the details.

Depending on whether you need additional services, such as hosting, adding SSL security, and so forth, one company might better suit your need by offering these services compared to others while some might be more affordable. We recommend you take a good look at the companies on the list and find the one that fit your needs.

EIG web hosting companies brands

Full List of EIG Web Hosting Companies Brands With Details (+ Non-EIG Hosting Recommendation), Beware of EIG Hosting (Updated 2019)!

Hosting

The History of Endurance International Group (EIG)

In this post we are going to take a closer look on the big conglomerates that took over dozens of web hosting companies for the past few years — the Endurance International Group, aka EIG.

In case you are not aware — EIG is probably the biggest player in today’s web hosting industry. EIG initially began as BizLand in 1996 and is HQ in Burlington, Massachusetts, but began buying smaller web hosting businesses to grow their customer-base. Today, they own some of the most well known hosting companies such as BlueHost and HostGator.

In 2011, EIG was acquired by Accel-KKR and GS Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. Today, the company is listed on NASDAQ (under the ticker EIGI) and valued at $1.2 billion dollars.

If we look at the companies stock, we can see that it’s a pretty huge corporation with a market cap of over 1 Billions dollars.

At this time of writing, EIG has more than 80 web hosting brands under its umbrella (more on this shortly) and over 5 million subscribers all over the world.

What Happens for a Hosting Acquired by EIG?

If the past is any indication of the future, we can safely assume that EIG will continue to expand it’s operations and acquire more and more web hosting properties. As soon as EIG buys a hosting company, it typically makes several changes to the company such as changing the control panels, equipment, data center locations, operational changes to existing staff and starts moving customers to their own network. Some customers have noticed a significant reduction in the level of customer/technical support following the purchase of a hosting company by EIG.

Since the purchase of HostGator, some customers have become frustrated with their quality of service. Some have noticed a delay in response time when submitting tickets. Also with accounts being moved from SoftLayer to the EIG data center in Provo, UT there has been an increase in customer complaints. On the outside, HostGator among most of EIG’s other acquisitions have remained the same, while all the changes took place on the administration and technical side of things. It is possible that HostGator is not the same company we once knew to be reliable and performance-based.

The Sad Truth — With EIG owning a number of the top web hosting companies in the industry, even if you are dissatisfied with one host and choose to switch to another there’s a good chance that you might still end up with a company owned by EIG (see full list of EIG brands below).

You should remember to verify that the hosting you going to work with is a non-EIG one. For example, the non-EIG & highly secured hosting service by DreamHost.

Hosting Companies and Brands Under EIG

EIG is an umbrella company for over approximately 80+ companies, many of which are web hosting companies. Some other, are online presence studions and services that are eventually, tightly couple to the parent company (EIG) buinsess.

The following is a list of the host companies acquired by EIG over the years:

  • 2slick (2slick.com)
    Probably belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • AccountSupport (accountsupport.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • ApolloHosting.com (apollohosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • AptHost (apthost.com)
    Belongs to EIG as a part of wwwh.com since at least June 25, 2015.
  • A Small Orange (asmallorange.com)
    Acquired by EIG in July 2010.
  • Arvixe (arvixe.com)
    Acquired by EIG in October 2014.
  • Athenix Corporation, Athenix Inc. (athenixinc.com)
    Belongs to EIG since 2012 or earlier.
  • Berry Information Systems L.L.C. (berryinfosysllc.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • BigRock (bigrock.com)
    Acquired in January 2014.
  • BizLand (bizland.com)
    Former name of EIG. Founded in 1996.
  • BlueDomino (bluedomino.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • BlueFur (bluefur.com)
    Belongs to EIG since at least 25, June 2015.
  • BlueHost (bluehost.com)
    Acquired by EIG in November 2010.
  • Cloud by IX (cloudbyix.com)
    Acquired by EIG in Q4 2015 with IXWebHosting.
  • Directi Web Technologies (Directi, directi.com)
    Acquired in January 2014.
  • Domain.com
    Belongs to EIG since October 2011 or earlier.
  • DomainHost (domainhost.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • Dotster (dotster.com)
    Belongs to EIG since July 2011 or earlier.
  • Dot5Hosting.com (dot5hosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
    iPower, StartLogic and Dot5Hosting were acquired by EIG at the same time in 2007.
  • EasyCGI (easycgi.com)
    Belongs to EIG since July 2009 or earlier.
  • EntryHost (entryhost.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • Escalate Internet (escalateinternet.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • FastDomain (fastdomain.com)
    Has become part of Bluehost since December 2006 (or earlier).
    Bluehost was later acquired by EIG.
  • FatCow (fatcow.com, fatcowhosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
  • FreeYellow (freeyellow.com)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
  • Globat (Glob@t, globat.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • Homestead Technologies, Inc. (homestead.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • HostADay (hostaday.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • HostCentric (hostcentric.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • HostClear (hostclear.com)
    Bought by JustHost in October 2011, which was later acquired by EIG
  • Host Excellence (hostexcellence.com)
    Acquired by EIG in Q4 2015 with IXWebHosting.
  • HostGator (hostgator.com)
    Acquired in June 2012.
  • HostNine (hostnine.com)
    Is a sister company of A Small Orange (ASO), which is an EIG.
  • HostMonster (hostmonster.com)
    Is a sister company of BlueHost, which was acquired by EIG.
  • HostYourSite.com (hostyoursite.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • HyperMart (hypermart.com, hypermart.net)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
  • IMOutdoorsHosting (imoutdoorshosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • IdeaHost (ideahost.com)
    Belongs to EIG.
  • Impress.ly (impress.ly)
    BigRock, which is a part of EIG, launched impress.ly since 15, Dec 2015.
  • Intuit Websites
    Acquired in August 2012.
  • iPage (ipage.com)
    A tool used by iPage and turned into a brand.
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
  • iPower (IpowerWeb, ipower.com)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
    iPower, StartLogic and Dot5Hosting were acquired by EIG at the same time in 2007.
  • IX Web Hosting (ixwebhosting.com)
    Acquired by EIG in Q4 2015.
  • JustCloud (justcloud.com)
    Belongs to EIG since February 2014 or earlier.
  • JustHost (justhost.com)
    Acquired by EIG in 2010.
  • LogicBoxes (logicboxes.com)
    Acquired by Directi, which was bought by EIG.
  • MyDomain (mydomain.com)
    Belongs to EIG.
  • NamesDirect (namesdirect.com)
    Belongs to EIG since 2011 or earlier.
  • NameZero (namezero.com)
    Belongs to EIG since 2011 or earlier.
  • NetFirms (netfirms.com)
    Was acquired by EIG in 2011.
  • NetworksHosting (networkshosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • Nexx (nexx.com)
    Was acquired by EIG in 2012 or earlier.
  • PowWeb (powweb.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2006 or earlier.
  • PureHost (purehost.com)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
  • ReadyHosting (readyhosting.co.uk, readyhosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • ResellerClub (resellerclub.com)
    Acquired in January 2014.
  • SEO Hosting (seohosting.com, seowebhosting.net)
    Was part of HostGator which was later acquired by EIG.
  • Site5 (site5.com)
    Belongs to EIG since the 4th of August 2015.
  • SiteBuilder (sitebuilder.com)
    A part of EIG since Q2 2015.
  • Sitelio (sitelio.com)
    A part of EIG.
  • Sitey (sitey.com)
    A part of EIG since Q2 2015.
  • SouthEastWeb (southeastweb.com)
    Probably belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • Spry (spry.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • StartLogic (startlogic.com)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
    iPower, StartLogic and Dot5Hosting were acquired by EIG at the same time in 2007.
  • SuperGreen Hosting (SuperGreenHosting, supergreenhosting.com)
    Merged with JustHost, which was later acquired by EIG.
  • TightHost (tighthost.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • TypePad (typepad.com)
    Belongs to EIG since 2014 or earlier.
  • UsaNetHosting (usanethosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • Verio (verio.com)
    Belongs to EIG since the 4th of August 2015.
  • Virtual Avenue (virtualave.net)
    Belongs to EIG since May 2007 or earlier.
  • VPSlink (vpslink.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010.
  • Web2010 (web2010.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • WebDevHosting (webdevhosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • WebHost4Life.com (webhost4life.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • webhosting.info
    Acquired by Directi, which was bought by EIG.
  • WebSiteBuilder (websitebuilder.com)
    A part of EIG since Q2 2015.
  • WebstrikeSolutions (WebstrikeSolutions.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • Webzai (webzai.com)
    Acquired by EIG in the 3d quarter 2014.
  • World Wide Web Hosting (wwwh.com)
    Fictitious Names: PRESSED, WEBSITE.ME, WP MANAGED HOST.
    Belongs to EIG since at least June 25, 2015.
  • Xeran (xeran.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.
  • YourWebHosting (yourwebhosting.com)
    Belongs to EIG since April 2010 or earlier.

>> Check the Fiverr Gig that will help you pick the right hosting <<

Conclusion

The fortunate fact is that there are several other highly reputable hosting companies in the industry that still have not been taken over by EIG. Slowly but surely, many hosting companies are finding out about EIG and will refrain from a deal if it means a reduction in service, support and reliability for their customers.

That’s why I recommend you to avoid any hosting provider from EIG umbrella and choosing non-EIG hosting services for you site.

There are options available for those who are looking for non-EIG hosting. The following independently owned and operated web hosting companies are some of the best options for reliability, price, customer service and performance.

For example, check out DreamHost, a non-EIG, reliable and SSD based web hosting solution. Already using them for a couple of years on a numerous websites and absolutely satisfied with them. Great uptime and support when I need it.

Also, with 90 days money back guarantee period, it can feel safe with your money.

Try DreamHost for a reliable, non-EIG, web hosting service.

I’ll be updating this post once new companies will be acquired by EIG. Bookmark this page to be able to refer to it once you decide to buy hosting to make sure it does not belong to EIG.

Advantages of WordPress websites

5 Benefits and Advantages of WordPress Websites

WordPress

WordPress websites are becoming more popular because of certain benefits. In fact, more than 8 percent of the top websites on the Internet are run by WordPress and more than 30% of all the websites in the web. In this article we will try to outline some of the benefits. You may consider a WordPress website after going through them.

WordPress supported by community

WordPress is run by a community of developers and enthusiasts that support one another. These people are ready to help you out whenever you run into a hitch. There is virtually no problem you will run into that some members have not faced before. All you have to do is ask and solutions will be proffered.

Google recommends WordPress

There is no point building a website that people won’t visit. Every website should rank high and get a lot of traffic from Google and other search engines. Or don’t you want huge traffic on your website? So, it will interest you to know that Google recommends WordPress websites for higher ranking.

Besides, the content of WordPress websites are well structured and relatively easier for Google bots to crawl very quickly.

WordPress websites are easier to update

WordPress websites are easier to update
Every website needs to be updated and modified but it is not ideal for you to contact your website developer each time you want to update your website. This is why you need a WordPress website. It is very easy to update. In fact, if you can create a Microsoft Word document, you can easily publish articles to your WordPress website. Or don’t you want a website that you and all your employees can update easily?

Availability of numerous plugins ecosystem

WordPress has numerous plugins for all kinds of functionality. Instead of writing codes, you can just select and integrate appropriate plugins. So, you don’t have to be a programmer to put some complex functions on your WordPress website.

Huge themes availability yo customize your site

Since WordPress offers thousands of themes, you can easily build, redesign, and re-modify WordPress websites as often as you like.

In conclusion, there are many more advantages of WordPress apart from the ones outlined above. However, these few ones are enough to make you consider converting your website to a WordPress website.