Nabin Paudyal

Stories By Nabin Paudyal

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  Buying Guides

  Buying Guides By Nabin Paudyal

  Top 6 Bluetooth Shower Speakers You Can Buy Now

  True audiophiles can't live without their music, so there's likely to be a speaker in every room imaginable - including the shower. Combining a warm shower with your favorite tunes is probably the most fun you'll have all day. But that experience can be quickly ruined if you don't pick the perfect speakers. Shower speakers need to do more than simply sound great - they need to be waterproof and rugged. The design and materials count for a lot. You don't want an okay sounding speaker that doesn't stay on the wall or breaks down after a few months. So, here are the six best bluetooth shower speakers you can buy right now. 1. Splash Tunes Pro by FRESHeTECH One of the best bluetooth shower speakers you can buy right now is the Splash Tunes Pro by FRESHeTECH. Unlike a lot of others on this list, Splash Tunes has Bluetooth 4.0. That means music streams faster and more seamlessly. The tiny body of this wireless speaker packs a mean punch. It's designed to withstand a six foot drop and float if accidentally dropped into a pool. It strikes the perfect balance between ruggedness and sound quality. 2. Photive HYDRA Not only is this speaker waterproof, but it is also dust-proof. It's rated IP66, which means you can leave it in the middle of the desert or drop it in your pool and it will sound just the same. Crisp sound and quality materials, but the bright blue light could be a bit annoying at times. 3. BOOM Swimmer Designed like a micro swimmer, the Boom speaker can be submerged in water for less than half an hour. It is waterproof up to a meter so it's still useful in a shallow pool. What makes this perfect for the shower is its crisp sound and flexible tail that lets you attach it at any angle. It is lightweight and packs a ton of features but at $60 it may be a bit overpriced. 4. KOHLER K-9245-0 2.5 GPM Moxie Showerhead and Wireless Speaker Probably the most user-friendly speaker on this list, the Kohler k-9245-0 costs less than $100. The selling point here is the variety of color options and light shades available with each model. It's designed to fit seamlessly with your bathroom decor. The speaker is a showerhead with a built-in speaker that can connect to your music via bluetooth up to 32 feet away but it takes more than three hours to charge, offers six hours of playtime once it's done, and it can also charge up your smartphone. Also, the suction cup doesn't fit everywhere. It's a good buy if you're on a budget, but not if you like listening to music for hours uninterrupted. 5. Brava CV This one's a special bluetooth speaker. It offers a sleek design, 3W output for the clearest and loudest sound, and nearly ten hours of continuous playback on a single charge. The best part - it's completely waterproof so you can drop it into the bathtub and it'll be fine. 6. Pulse! This one is a really cute and fun device. It is compact and really convenient to carry. The device also features bluetooth 4.0 and multicolored LED lights that can turn your shower into a nightclub. The only drawback is the volume and size. It's a mini-speaker so don't expect it to be too loud. However, considering its size the high-quality bass is really surprising. These were some of the best bluetooth speakers on the market right now. Some are more affordable and some have better features. It boils down to what you need for the perfect shower music experience.

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  EVs and Transportation

  EVs and Transportation By Nabin Paudyal

  The Last Car To Go Fully Autonomous Will Be A Corvette

  The automobile industry seems to be on a collision course with innovative consumer technology. It seems all cars could be fully-autonomous, electric, and smart in just a few years. While a world where no one needs a driving license and anyone can hail an Uber without a driver surely sounds exciting, the hard facts paint a very different picture. According to Citi Research, self-driving technology just isn't ready to go mainstream yet. GM, Toyota, Tesla and Uber have been investing in research relentlessly, but despite their best efforts it could still be twenty years before autonomous cars are widely adopted. Mobility, connectivity, and electrification are issues the industry still needs to tackle. New business models will have to be developed to support the rise of robot cars in the future. The last car to go fully autonomous may well be a Corvette. According to Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter, the car-maker could be last in line to adopt self-driving technology. The company has never shied away from innovation. It was one of the first to use composite materials in its cars, for example. But every change and upgrade has been aimed at making the driving experience better, not getting rid of it entirely. Juechter believes the purpose of a Corvette is to let the driver enjoy the experience of being behind the wheel. According to him, performance cars have never been better. Over the coming years lighter materials and more efficient engines could make muscle cars even better. Perhaps a few autonomous features to help the driver, like self-parking. But the joy of driving and modifying a Corvette yourself will, most likely, be preserved. Josh Greenwalt, CEO of RPI Designs adds "The Corvette will be one of the last vehicles to go autonomous because of the legacy and history of the Corvette. The Corvette is meant to be driven. The passion with most Corvette owners is the fact they can own and drive a world class sports car at a super price. A self-driving version would most certainly fall flat for GM." Corvette's avoidance of self-driving tech goes against the grain. Last year, Audi unveiled an autonomous version of its RS7 that was able to match lap times set by professional sports car drivers. Someone even modified a Corvette to help a quadriplegic driver clock 152 mph on a race track. Meanwhile, governments may have to reconsider human-driven cars if the majority of vehicles on the road are fully autonomous by 2040. Competition within the industry and government intervention could push Corvette to reconsider its position. Although it could take a while and Corvette may be the last brand to jump on board the autonomous bandwagon.

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  News

  News By Nabin Paudyal

  Photography Looking to Past/Future for 2017

  Even though many of the technologies upon which photography is based are now mature, the culture surrounding photography is anything but stagnant. Lovers of film and/or digital photography have the tools to create images of the highest quality. The diversity to be found within these images in 2017, however, is going to exhibit a lot of new trends. While it is impossible to totally anticipate 2017 photography trends, we'll do our best to anticipate some of them ahead of time. 1. High Quality Video Grainy Youtube videos and data caps are a sign of an internet video culture in its infancy. Today, quality and ubiquity are the demands that will change internet video in 2017. Facebook has already announced that video is a top priority, and video is becoming inseparable from all forms of social media. It is estimated that 74% of internet traffic will be video in 2017. With drone video delivering aerial moving pictures unlike anything the world has ever seen, and cheap consumer tech mimicking the highest levels of digital video quality, you can bet that videos in many different forms will be omnipresent in 2017. 2. Images of the New Space Race Outer space hasn't dominated the cultural consciousness since the original moon landing half a century ago. Today, innovators like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, imaging advancements among national photography telescopes, increased viewing distance among commercial photography technologies, and the major advancements from states like China and India, all influence a growing resurgence in popular space imagery. With every new discovery, every image that is clearer than anything ever previously released, the public becomes more involved in the new Space Race. We predict this will only become more so in 2017. 3. Drone Photography Most people don't have drones today. We expect this to change in the coming decade. Drones may in fact be the new smartphone, something that few could afford a decade ago but which are near ubiquitous today. Drone photography is already changing our TV, movies, news, and social media. Expect this to become all the more common in 2017. Drones are becoming ever more affordable, and we're only just learning how much they can do for photography. You don't need a helicopter anymore to get some of the most impressive aerial shots, and tiny drones have the capability of navigating tight confines and turning on a dime. This trend is only going up in 2017. 4. Virtual Reality Virtual reality hasn't hit in a big way yet, but that may change in 2017. Everybody has a friend on social media who has tried VR and thinks it will change the world. When it does, pictures and videos that compose the virtual experiences will be some of the most important to capture and understand. We think this will take center stage in 2017. There are endless other and more nuanced photography trends that will emerge in 2017. There are some of the most interesting and novel. As we wait to see what 2017 will hold for all aspects of our culture, you can bet that image-making and viewing will be central to it.

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  Buying Guides

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  10 Accessories To Add Fun To Gamer's Life

  Are you a professional gamer or an amateur one trying to have some fun? Well, gaming can be taken as fun. Also, it is a serious business too covering over more than $74 billion market. With some enhancement in your gaming equipment and accessories, you can exponentially increase your gaming experience. Since most of the accessories released for the Xbox or PlayStation console are also compatible with the PC, you don't need to worry much about the selection of equipment if you own both devices. All the gamers drive towards victory. While skill has something to do with your victory, your selection of equipment also matters - determining your success or failure. The selection of perfect gaming equipment not only increases your gaming experience but it also helps you a lot to shift a game on your side. Manufacturers around the globe are always trying to enhance gamer's experience innovating different equipment for different devices; mobiles, PC, PlayStation. All of these vendors have only one sole purpose; providing the best gaming experience every gamer wants. 1. Gaming Chairs for Your Comfort If you ever get tired of same old and rusty chair, you have to think of some modification. If you love gaming then you should think of gaming environment—alongside Powerful PC or PlayStation—to enhance your gaming experience. Feeling focused and comfortable is also a key part of getting perfection in gaming. You can find many different types of gaming chairs. Among many, DXRacer Formula Series, Vertagear Racing Series, Rocker 51396 Pro Series are the best one. They consist of different features such as Adjustable Back, Adjustable Arms and Casters. You can choose them based on your budget range as well as requirements. 2. Best Controllers to Enhance Your Gaming Experience You should get rid of old and traditional gaming controllers that came up with your PC or Consoles. Selecting a new, modern and perfect one based on your requirements can really enhance your gaming practice. If you are not content with your controller, you really have to consider a better gaming controller. Move all the old stuff into the trash and head towards the market to get a new one. To fit phones and tablets you can choose Mad Catz Lynx 9 Controller. Samsung Gamepad can be best fit for mobile gamers to get control over your touchscreen. For iPhone, there is MOGA's Ace Power Controller. Based upon your requirement, you can choose the ultimate one. 3. Racing Wheel Racing wheel can transform your gaming experience to a whole different level. Play a racing video games available in PC and Consoles with Racing Wheel and you will certainly never leave it. They tend to be more realistic. PlayStation Move racing wheel can be more effective for car and motorcycle games providing more realism. Other racing wheel includes Steelseries SRW-S1, Thrustmaster F1 Replica Racing Wheel, Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Italia Racing Wheel for Xbox 360 and Wireless Xbox 360 steering wheel, which can surely enhance your gaming experience. You wouldn't regret your purchase after using it. 4. Gaming Mouse Still on the same Mouse that came up with your PC Purchase? Well, you have to think about it if you are seriously using it in gaming. Gaming mouse are specially designed to suit for gamers. They can be wireless as well as wired. They consist of different additional sensors than the normal mouse which can control acceleration of mouse. They provide optimal response when needed. Better think of the gaming mouse since most of the games use mouse intensely. Some of these mouse found in market includes Logitech G303 Performance Edition gaming mouse, Tt eSPORTS VOLOS gaming mouse, Logitech G500s and Logitech G400s. 5. Headsets for Gamers If you are a serious gamer, you have to choose best gaming headset to increase your experience. There are lots of features in gaming headsets than normal one which includes noise filter, noise cancelation etc. They are mainly used to communicate with friends and also to notice minor details of the game. With better headsets you can have more advantage while playing. Some of the gaming headsets found in market includes SteelSeries Arctis 5, Sennheiser GSP 350 and SteelSeries Siberia 800. 6. Super Keyboard Gaming keyboard are typically designed for controlling online gaming. Switching between different keys would never be so easy without these type of keyboards. Some of the latest gaming keyboard includes Logitech G910 Orion Spark RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, Logitech G510s, Logitech G710 and SteelSeries Apex which you can purchased online. 7. Gaming T-Shirts Gaming vests are really amazing as it encompasses some concept of virtual reality. They are specially designed so that you can feel on-screen action in your body. They try to emulate the environmental realism that can guide you to ultimate gaming experience. These shirts may consist of air bags and different sensors attached to your body and your game engine. Some of them found in market includes KOR-FX gaming vest, 3RD Space gaming vest etc. 8. Set Up Your PC in Multi Monitor Mode You can set up you gaming environment with the use of more than one desktop. As the graphics card are more powerful than they were few years ago, using multiple displays can really enhance your gaming experience as it can provide larger view of game field whether you are playing racing game or shooting. Setting up multiple displays is not so troublesome. You can setup on your own if you can get enough accessories. It can increase your productivity and also it can also be your advantage over other gamers. 9. Gaming Glasses for Your Perfection Being a gamer isn't an easy task. You have to see the screen continuously for a long period of time which can cause headaches, eyestrain, dry eyes etc. Since these problems are caused by too much continuous light reaching your eyes, you can prevent or control such effects using gaming glasses. They are anti-reflective which are designed to protect your eyes from high contrast light radiation. Some of them includes Gunnar Optiks INT-00101, The Versatile Sheadog, The Phantom Onyx Marco etc. 10. PrioVR PrioVR allows you to enter into virtual world where you can enjoy natural, full-body interaction. It is changing the gaming perspective, bringing movements into virtual environments, such as you can see your body move as you move into the game, manipulating items as if is happening in real world.

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  Buying Guides

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  Best Open-Back Headphones Under $300

  If you are in the market for a new pair of headphones, and you are unfamiliar with the advantages of open-back headphone design, there is no time like present to learn what open-back headphones are, how they work, and to examine a handful of the world's best open-back headphones under $300. More than likely, most headphones you have encountered before have been of the more traditional, closed-back construction, where the entire ear cup is built from a solid material, such as plastic or metal, which keeps sound from leaking out. While this design is convenient, particularly if you are planning on using your headphones in public places (like on an airplane, or in the office), unfortunately, the tradeoff is that the music you listen to will often sound muddied, with all of the instruments overlapping each other in aurally unpleasant ways. Liken it to listening to your stereo system from within a closet with the door closed. What Benefits Do Open-Back Headphones Provide? If closed-back headphones are like listening to a stereo in a closet, then open-back headphones are like listening to a live outdoor concert, where you can truly hear the different instruments entering your ear from distinct directions and locations, the way they were intended to be heard. You can describe this sensation of being able to differentiate and separate instruments as "soundstage," and, by and large, open-back headphones have a much larger soundstage than closed-back headphones. That Soundstage Open-back headphones achieve this larger soundstage simply by using an ear cup material which allows sound waves to escape. This is often achieved through the use of a metal mesh grate covering the ear cup, as opposed to a solid piece of material. $300 over budget? We understand if $300 is perhaps more than you would like to spend on a single pair of headphones. Rest assured that more affordable open-back headphones exist. Drumroll... 10. Fostex TR-70 Dynamic Headphones Driver: 40mm, Dynamic Impedance: Comes in both 80 ohm and 250 ohm versions Frequency Response: 5Hz - 35kHz Weight: 298g (80 ohm) / 304g (250 ohm) 9. SoundMAGIC HP200 Headphones Driver: 53mm, Dynamic Impedance: 32 ohm Frequency Response: 10Hz - 30kHz Weight: 288g 8. Beyerdynamic DT 990 Premium Headphones Driver: 45mm, Dynamic Impedance: Comes in 32 ohm, 250 ohm, and 600 ohm versions Frequency Response: 5Hz - 35kHz Weight: 290g 7. Audio Technica ATH-AD900X Headphones Driver: 53mm, Dynamic Impedance: 38 ohm Frequency Response: 5Hz - 30kHz Weight: 264g 6. Grado Prestige Series SR325e Headphones Driver: Dynamic Impedance: 32 ohm Frequency Response: 18Hz - 24kHz Weight: 357g 5. AKG Q 701 Quincy Jones Signature Headphones Driver: 45mm, Dynamic Impedance: 62 ohm Frequency Response: 10Hz - 39.8kHz Weight: 235g 4. Philips X2/27 Fidelio Headphones Driver: 50mm, Dynamic Impedance: 30 ohm Frequency Response: 5Hz - 40kHz Weight: 380g 3. Shure SRH1440 Professional Headphones Driver: 40mm, Dynamic Impedance: 37 ohms Frequency Response: 15Hz - 27kHz Weight: 345g 2. HIFIMAN HE-400i Planar Magnetic Headphones Driver: Planar Magnetic Impedance: 35 ohm Frequency Response: 20Hz - 35kHz Weight: 370g 1. Sennheiser HD 600 Professional Headphones Driver: Dynamic Impedance: 300 ohm Frequency Response: 12Hz - 39kHz Weight: 260g Those are 10 of the best open-back headphones under $300 currently on the market from top headphone brands. We hope you enjoy the large soundstage and outdoor concert-like headphones experience. Happy listening!

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  Wearables

  Wearables By Nabin Paudyal

  Why Phone-line Medical Alert Systems Are Being Replaced By Internet-based Systems

  The Medical Alert system was first introduced in the 70s, way before the birth of the Internet as we know it today. During its beginnings, Medical Alert systems used telephone lines to connect care receivers to emergency assistance. A device that was always conveniently within reach and that used telephone lines to immediately summon emergency help was game changing. It brought awareness to a real and potentially tragic problem and offered a viable, cutting-edge solution. Since the person in an emergency situation could only reach one person at a time using voice call, connecting them to a trained professional was the best way to go. This professional was the operator, who would become responsible for coordinating the safety of people who called in for help via the button on their transmitter. After assessing the level of the caller's emergency and determining the most appropriate resource, the operator would either call 911 emergency services, local emergency departments, or next of kin and then proceed to coordinate their safety, including making sure that emergency staff has access to the building number or the keys to the caller's apartment. In the case that the emergency was assessed and deemed to be manageable by family and friends, the operator would coordinate with those people instead. A High Cost for Companies and Customers This dependency on the operator to coordinate emergency assistance made them critical to the caller's safety. For this reason, operators had to be well trained and because of that, they were also well paid and were required to work in very secure and expensive operation centers. Both because of the large investment that companies put into these centers and the high salaries of the staff within them, Medical Alert companies had to hike up the costs of their systems by charging customers upwards of $30 per month to use them. To attract new customers, companies also started to give out free products for customers who subscribed to their monthly service. Even when newer upgraded Medical Alert systems were designed and created, the old model that put the operator at the center of the caller's safety didn't change–perhaps unsurprisingly, since hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars were already invested in the infrastructure of this model and in the training and salaries of these operators. Rise of Internet-based Medical Alert Systems Skip ahead to the 90s, when the Internet as we know it today became almost ubiquitous worldwide. Not only affecting individuals, the Internet had also changed the ways companies worked, from the delivery mechanism affecting business models to many verticals. It also started to creep into home monitoring systems by changing the way those systems alerted homeowners. New Internet-based monitoring systems allowed people to purchase DIY (Do-It-Yourself) systems that sent alerts directly to their mobile phones, which meant that they could forego monthly monitoring service fees. Canary Smart Home Security and Google's Webcam are two such systems that enable homeowners to take the safety of their homes into their own hands. With the arrival of the Internet, the job of the previously essential operator could now be easily managed by an intelligent piece of software capable of coordinating the safety of the person in an emergency. In fact, a software-based system can alert and inform friends and family even faster and more intelligently than older operator-based systems. This is because software-based systems can use multiple channels such as text messaging, smart phone notifications, and automated calls to ensure that the appropriate person is reached. It can also immediately connect the caller to 911 if needed. Rather than the step-by-step protocol that a monitoring operator must follow, software-based emergency response systems can use pre-programmed contact information to reach multiple people using multiple channels at the very instant the emergency happens. It's hard to argue that Internet-based systems are not efficient than their older counterparts: they can decrease the time it takes for the caller to be safely assisted and reduce human errors in the process. It's for those reasons that today's connected cars also have similar 24/7 automatic crash notifications installed. For businesses and customers, they can also substantially reduce the costs of providing and receiving such essential services. A drawback of older Medical Alert systems is that they only kick in after an emergency occurs—they can't prevent emergencies from happening because they're designed to call for help after something has already happened. One handy aspect of modern Internet-based alert systems is that they can provide continuous safety for care receivers by sending their status and location feedback to caregivers and family members. For people with Dementia and Alzheimer's, not waiting until an emergency occurs to send status feedback could potentially help prevent one from happening at all. Safety Labs Anchor-PA uses the connectivity of the Internet with an intelligent cloud server that provides 24/7 medical alert safety to elderly people. See how Safety Anchor-PA works.

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  News

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  How SMS Marketing Can Boost Sales For Retail Franchises

  "Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart." - Joe Chernov It is needless to say how much of an impact marketing has on sales. Since the dawn of business and trade, the people in business have always been looking for easy ways to advertise their products to potential consumers to boost their sales. So, marketing has come a long way- from "town criers", who ran all across the town shouting their throat out all the way to SMS and mobile marketing that gives marketers direct access to a large number of consumers without having to leave the comfort of the room. Thanks to the ever-evolving technology. Mobile marketing is a relatively new thing since the first mobile devices came about a little over a couple of decades ago. And SMS actually began to take off during the early 2000s. But over the short period, it has managed to be the best tool in the digital marketing industry that every advertiser includes in his/her mix of strategies. Marketing isn't just reaching out to customers. That is only half a work done; it hasn't properly served its purpose unless it has driven the customer all the way to making purchases. It's like Joe Chernov suggested, "Customers need to feel smart about the purchases they make." And the facts prove that the best marketing strategy that makes the customers feel smart is "SMS marketing". How SMS marketing can boost sales Among all the marketing strategies, SMS offers the best ROI for marketers. Stats show that more than 90% of SMS messages are opened within three minutes and 98% of the them are read while the figures are considerably low for others- 29% of tweets, 20% of emails and only 12% of Facebook posts are actually read. Smartphones and apps might be the craze in the town but even today, smartphone penetration in the US is only about 65% which means there is still a large portion of the market untapped by apps and smartphones. Nearly 100% of the mobile phones are SMS enabled, which is why SMS is undoubtedly the most effective marketing tool. The retail industry has benefited largely from mass text messaging campaigns because SMS is not just a broadcast medium to funnel consumers, it actually drives prompt actions and conversions, directly boosting sales. A single SMS marketing campaign can help rocket sales significantly high. In the US, approximately 50% of consumers make direct purchases after receiving brand messages/QR code/discount coupon via SMS. Coupons delivered via SMS have 10% higher redemption rates than printed coupons. And only about 10% of SMS marketing messages received are considered spam. Retailers feel that migrating to SMS loyalty programs from traditional point cards has earned them more value and consumers feel the same way. More than 50% of the consumers would be happy to sign up for SMS loyalty programs and over 90% of them who signed up for such schemes feel they have benefited from the programs. The effectiveness of SMS marketing in the retail market has made it a dominating mobile ad strategy and now there are hundreds of companies on the market these days, helping B2B and B2C companies to set up SMS marketing campaigns with their nifty software. Companies like Trumpia that provide SMS Marketing software call it high impact communication- and the figures show how much of 'high impact' SMS really is. Trumpia: The Most Complete SMS Solution One of the leaders in the SMS marketing and communication arena is Trumpia that has been providing texting solutions and many other marketing services to thousands of customers, including some of the Fortune 500 companies like Coca Cola. Reportedly, Coca Cola has invested 70% of their mobile ad budget on SMS Marketing. Trumpia's automated communication platform has connected hundreds of retail franchises to thousands of their customers via mass messaging, smart targeting and automation, ultimately boosting sales. Their complete SMS software provides the most complete texting solution with features like SMS, MMS, mobile coupons, mobile customer loyalty programs, SMS surveys, mobile voting, auto reminder, and many more to meet the retailers' marketing requirements in very affordable prices. 7-Eleven Hawaii, a group of 62 locations of the world-renowned convenient store chain, is one of many satisfied customers who have subscribed to Trumpia's service. They did a test run of Trumpia's system in Oahu and the outcome was more than just satisfactory. Using Trumpia's software, they ran a mobile keyword campaign which gained over 3700 sign ups. They were able to grow business by sending text promotions and weekly product specials, and it didn't stop at simple messaging. They were able to boost coupon redemption rates by sending a reminder five days before coupon expiration to anyone who hadn't redeemed it yet. The campaign was driving the traffic to their stores at an unexpected rate and their contact database was rapidly growing. Thrilled with the significant business growth in Oahu locations after a successful test run, Edna Ching, the Merchandising Manager at 7-Eleven Hawaii said, "The test run of Trumpia in Oahu was so successful, that we've already decided to expand our use of the software to all 62 of our locations." Success stories like that of 7-Eleven Hawaii can be the story of every retail franchise with Trumpia's powerful technologies for SMS marketing. According to Ken Rhie, CEO of Trumpia, "Trumpia's complete SMS solution is ideal for franchises like 7-Eleven, because they can send the right message to the customers automatically. With our enterprise feature, each location run their own campaign based on their demographic needs."

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  8 Reasons Why Typography Is Important

  When someone visits your website, they don't care much about the graphics, they just go through the textual content. This is because, texts are the major sources of information. So while creating a content for your website you should take care of balancing the graphics and text. This is where typography comes into play. Typography is all about adjusting the text within the design while creating powerful content. It provides attractive appearance and preserves the aesthetic value of your content. It plays a vital role in setting the overall tone of your website, and ensures a great user experience. Typography is an art of arranging all the contents of your website, giving a feel to it and presenting the information in a professional way. If you are a web designer, then you should give typography some priority. Here are 8 reasons why. 1. It is a medium of communication. A website may be related to a business or art or some specific product. When you visit a website, you can easily determine what sort of information it provides. This is due to the use of typography. The arrangement of the contents, the colors and fonts used and other minute details provide a way of communication between the visitor and the website owner. 2. It attracts the readers. The basic approach of using typography is selecting the correct font. The font should be as clean as possible. It shouldn't be too small and crummy. Using fonts that are easy to read are key to presentation. The fonts add value to your text. It helps readers to perceive information from the text. The correct choice of color, font and text size can prove to be vital for attracting your target audience. 3. It holds the audience's attention. It's easy to attract the readers using typography but holding their attention requires more creativity. You can work on creating some interest within the content by highlighting texts that are captivating. Every content may contain some mundane text. If used effectively, typography can make them look attractive. The correct approach might be the use of some attractive graphics. 4. It conveys a certain mood or feeling. A content might be an advertisement of a computer game. It might contain some exciting features of the game. In such case, you should design the content that is fun, playful and glamorous. If your content requires some seriousness, you should choose fonts that are simple, plain and professional. The choice of such typeface determines how the content is understood. 5. It establishes an information hierarchy. Information hierarchy means categorizing the texts inside a content according to their importance. You can use different font types and sizes to differentiate the texts that are most important. You can highlight the important topics by using bigger font sizes. This will help the audience to easily determine the information that they should pay more attention to. 6. It helps to create harmony. If you design a typography and repeat the same pattern throughout your presentation, then it creates a harmony. Harmony is the leading feature in typography design. Harmonic design provides an artistic effect to your website. Using same font for similar contents provides continuity. The alignment of fonts with correct proportion organizes your presentation and makes it uncluttered. 7. It reflects professionalism. The correct addition of typography in a design project reflects great professionalism. Appropriate use of text font and size gains the trust of customers. This will add benefit to the marketing of your product if your website is based on business. The professional approach of design includes typography at its core. Typography defines the importance of content you provide and customer feel secure regarding the information they gain. 8. It creates and builds recognition. If you follow a pattern on using fonts and present your site with some rhythm, it adds a great value to your company brand. The audience always remembers the fonts that you use in presenting the visuals. Typography specializes your company and it works as an identification for the viewers. With the help of typography each of your content gains your company's presence.

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  10 Beautifully Designed Ecommerce Sites With Great Design

  Most often, websites are the main source of communication between the company and the customers. So, you must be aware of what sort of information you should display. But, gaining customer's attention requires attractive design. An attractive website always helps in making successful online sales and marketing. That's because a good design makes your website look more authentic and increases the value of your products. A good design contains clever use of typography, visual effects, , creative navigation options and so on. By putting all these ideas together you can easily design websites that are visually appealing. You can also take examples from the list below and use their designs as a reference. This list contains ecommerce websites with great shopping experience and impressive branding. 1. Threadless Threadless originally sells graphic t-shirts with creative arts as they claim to help "arts unknowns become arts totally-knowns". This Chicago based company seem to be doing well since they opened in 2000 and a fair bit of their success can be credited to their visually appealing online store. Threadless.com is designed with bold fonts, colors, layouts and unique icons that add a lot of energy to it and offer a seamless navigation through their inventory. The inventory is well-organized by gender, type etc. which does not look hectic at all. A search box is featured on the top-right corner for taking keywords which further takes into a page with lots of other filters. Their promotions are featured on the header with great designs which ensures visitors don't remain without noticing it. 2. Urban Originals Urban Originals has been selling accessories for both men and women since it opened in 1999 with a brand promise – "Enhance more than just your look". Be that true or not, the look of its online store, for sure, is enhanced with a great design. On the homepage, the high quality photos of models endorsing their products are displayed on a beautiful, large, full-width slider. The design is simple yet they elegantly display their products on a neat white background. The fonts are unique and the search features are excellent. This Australia based company has done a great job with designs on its store to give customers a smooth shopping experience without any distractions. 3. Design By Humans Design By Humans sells graphic t-shirts, phone cases and wall art prints from over 15000 artists from all over the world. It has done a remarkable work in designing its storefront just as well as it seems to be doing with its sales. The use of bold, eye catching colors makes the site look vibrant. The products are displayed in boxes using a tight grid layout and they promote their products in the featured boxes- all that gives them a blog-like look instead of an old-fashioned store. The inventory is neatly managed into categories and subcategories to help smooth navigation through their extensive collection of tees. 4. Inkefx Inkefx also sells graphic t-shirts. The significant use of dark yellow and black colors has given it a grungy look that fits the style of tees for sale on the website. The products are neatly displayed in big boxes on the homepage along with descriptions. The large fonts and icons make it easy to navigate through. Promotional offers and discounts are exhibited on a large banner in the header. 5. Ink And Spindle Ink And Spindle is based in Australia and sells textiles. As beautifully as they design their textiles, so is there storefront designed, minimally with stunning photos and gorgeous fonts. The homepage is designed as a single page long scroll that tells the story of the company in novel fashion. Beautiful photos and texts are animated to slide onto the page from either sides while scrolling. To make jumping onto different sections on the homepage easier, a menu bar is placed on the top. Above that menu is another navigation menu that takes customers to other pages. Although two navigation menus are a little confusing at first, the site's minimal eye catching design is worth a mention here. 6. Bill Blass Bill Blass retails clothing items. This retailer has moved away from the conventional way of displaying products in separate boxes and showcases its products in a stream so they appear not separate but a single big image on the homepage. The customers can click through the products to acquire more information and add them to their carts. This creative approach of showcasing when combined with a beautiful color scheme and great typography reveals a trendy looking ecommerce website. To engage the visitors and keep them coming, it has added an inspiring feature of dropping funny items among the products such as a fried egg. 7. Archive Books Archive Books is a book retailer. It has designed its ecommerce website in the traditional newspaper column layout with monochrome images. And it has managed not to look cluttered despite having used most of its space for texts, saving you lots of scrolls while reading. All those texts on the page and you can still navigate through it easily, that is how it has managed to be in our list- for excellent user experience. 8. Ada Blackjack Ada Blackjack is a store for handmade bags and leather goods. Among the ecommerce websites, it stand outs for the expressive use of large hero images. They showcase the products neatly and elegantly with beautiful high quality photos making the ecommerce site easy and intuitive to use. Although the overall design is traditional, products on individual detail pages are shown overlaying the large version of the product image within the page, moving away from traditional popup and making it simpler and cleaner. 9. Good As Gold Good As Gold is a New Zealand based fashion store. Their ecommerce website is bold and heavy with high quality images. The big homepage imagery looks impressive enough to entice the users to browse through their wide range of clothing collections. The inventory is well managed in big drop down menus to make it easily navigable. Navigation is further made easier on the brands page by listing every vendor from A-Z. One of the inspiring feature of this ecommerce website is how their logo turns into a loading spinner to indicate that the page is loading. 10. Mulberry Mulberry is an English design company renowned for its extensive line of luxury fashion bags for men and women. Along with bags, their product range also includes womenswear, accessories and footwear. Although the website is designed in a simple layout, the artistic use of high quality product imagery in their website does well its job of enticing customers in. All the effort of designing this ecommerce website seems to be focused on the product images, with simplicity and easy navigation in mind. Their website includes a gallery and a blog which contains photos and articles about celebrities sporting their bags, which contributes to draw in visitors to their website.

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  Top 10 Web Design Trends To Watch Out For In 2016

  Web design is a quickly changing industry where trends come and go. Websites today look quite different than they used to just a few years ago. They have evolved in almost every aspects: tools and technologies, performance and speed, workflow, best practices, interface, user experience and whatnot. The web, as a whole, has evolved quite a lot in a few decades; technologies have changed rapidly and with that, changed people's pattern of web usage. So it's not really a surprise that web design sees a lot of changes in trends as the web community makes a constant effort to make the process of building websites easier and reliable. As in any volatile industry, keeping up with these trends certainly means staying ahead of the competition. Here below, we have presented you the list of top 10 web design trends to watch in 2016 to help understand where the trend is going. 1. Vertical patterns and scrolling remains in the trend. Since the explosion of mobile devices in the market, the number of internet users on mobile devices has long exceeded the number of desktop users to browse the internet. Along with that shift of trend, web design also saw the trend of vertical patterns and scrolling. To fit to the smaller screens of mobile devices, designers adopt the vertical patterns and scrolling has won over clicking. People were debating the end of the scroll in web design a few years ago. Now, since everyone is touch scrolling up and down on their smartphones these days, scrolling has become an important interaction tool for mobile devices and desktops alike. This trend seems to continue well into 2016 and beyond and it doesn't seem like it is leaving the trend town anytime soon. Recently the top website builders have also started to climb on this bandwagon. 2. More card-style interfaces are seen on the web Lately the card-style interface has started to get more traction as they represent information on card/tiles making them organized for content heavy web pages. It was first popularized by Pinterest but it's not a new thing on the web design scene. Drawn from the concept of modular design, it's reusable, user-friendly and has clean-looking flexible layouts for any screen size. It's safe to say cards are likely to crowd the web design scene this year. 3. Responsive design reigns as a best practice Responsive web design has been the greatest trend in the web design for quite some time now, thanks to the swell in mobile internet usage and it is there to remain not just as a trend but as a best practice. Offering a rich mobile experience has become mandatory for websites to not lose the perspective users. 4. Flat design continues to rule Flat design was embraced in web design to acquire better user interface, performance and speed, cutting down on heavy stylistic elements and emphasizing the minimalistic use of simple elements for usability, without compromising on user experience. Being compatible with other trends like responsive web design, material design and minimalism, flat design delivers what it promises- allows interface designs to be more streamlined and efficient. Flat design continues to dominate the web design trends to get websites to perform smoothly and deliver content effectively to viewers across different devices. So web designers aren't likely to be swayed away from it anytime soon. 5. Material design emerges as the game changer Material design has now moved beyond mobile apps into the world of web design. Although the adaptation of material design seemed slow, web designers seem to be joining the material design movement now. It has a lot in common with flat design trend with the same minimalistic approach. However, it makes use of depth and shadows to provide great UI and UX across different devices. It is for sure a richer alternative to flat design that will set a new standard in 2016. 6. Rich animations keep the users engaged Animations are great tools to attract the user's attention and the web designers know it well that animated UI elements help engage the users. The trend of animation has continued to grow in popularity with dozens of libraries in the industry dedicated just for the purpose. The use of tiny motion animations, background animation, hover animation, they have set a trend that is there to stay as long as the bandwidth keeps on getting wider. 7. Typography keeps on improving Responsive design, flat design, material design- they have made it possible for typography to improve and set the trend of beautiful fonts in web design. Serifs and handwritings are making maximum use of different devices with increased resolutions, adding a special touch to websites. Experimenting with fonts continues to make them work well with other trendy elements. 8. UX design continues to be fine-tuned UX has always been a major trend changer in the field of web design. Web designers have always kept the focus on UX design with the single goal of delivering a great user experience. UI patterns have changed a lot from the cluttered arrangement of menu to the trend of cleaner hamburger menus. Storytelling on websites has changed too from multipage approach to one-page long scroll vertical patterns. Designers will keep on putting greater focus on UX design principles that can be applied to all digital interfaces in 2016 and beyond. 9. New designer tools rise on the web design scene Different interesting designing tools are now in the marketplace to help designers do their thing. Photoshop was the name of the trend until recently but Sketch is quickly replacing it on the Mac for all UI design tasks. Sketch App on Mac is specially targeted for web and mobile designers to craft elements of UI. Although it has not been released for Windows yet, it has become a popular choice for design tool. Adobe too has come out with Adobe Project Comet, a design and prototyping tool for web developers, to give Sketch a fair competition. These will be the developer tools in 2016 to watch for. 10. Background videos and large images become effective tools for quick communication Higher speed connection and better video plugin integrations have made it easier to include videos in the websites. Custom explainer videos on the background have become an effective way to communicate with users to promote businesses. Visuals attract attention quickly and easily. So, large sharp crisp high definition images on the background, relevant to the products, are being used in web designs. The trend is likely to continue in 2016 and beyond.

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  10 Great Websites Where You Can Play Fantasy Sports

  Assembling imaginary or simulated teams made up of real professional athletes is the goal of any fantasy sports game. The performance of an individual player in the real game is tracked and converted into points that are cached and summed up according to a list selected by each fantasy team's manager. Nowadays, the points are updated in real time using computers tracking results of the real game. Basically, the real aim of any player is to win money and/or compete with fellow players or friends, but most, importantly to keep up-to-date with the particular sport. Let's look into some of the web portals that are a major part of this multi-billion dollar industry. 1. Fanduel Fanduel is one of the dominant daily fantasy sports sites, based in New York. The company is believed to have a net worth of $1 billion. "Play when you want. Where you want. On any device" is the motto of this portal. There are lots of options you can choose from, as it provides more than 20,000 leagues to choose from every day. Needless to say, the payment is instantaneous too, as soon as the contests end, resulting in 1M+ active users. You can also use the site's online tools, such as Fanduel MLB lineup builder, to outsmart your rivals. 2. DraftKings DraftKings is a multi-billion dollar company based in Boston. It focuses on fans in North America, allowing them to compete in single-day online games where you can play a variety of professional and college sports. The games provided by DraftKings include five major American Sports ( MLB , the NHL , the NFL, the NBA and the PGA), English Premier League and UEFA Champions League. 3. Fantasy Premier League Needless to say, with over 3 million users, Fantasy Premier League is the biggest football game in the world, focusing on the English Premier League. Amazingly, it's FREE to play and you can win amazing prizes. This is the official web portal of Premier League where participants can create a team with a limited fantasy team salary. The points are updated according to player's as well as team's performance. The highest point takers can win prizes given by the site monthly, quarterly, and yearly. 4. Fantasy NFL Fantasy NFL is solely focused on American Football. You can select actual football players for fictional teams and then compete with other fellow participants or friends, with the scoring is based on actual player's statistics. It only features head-to-head scoring, where each team is matched up against another team within a league each week. The points are calculated accordingly, as per the performances such as offence, kicking, team defense, etc. 5. Hattrick With hundreds of thousands of users from all parts of the world, Hattrick is the leading soccer manager game right now on the web. It's FREE and easy to play. You can build a club and coach it over time. Remarkably, you don't need to be online for hours every day to win; the key to triumph is to think of the best tactics. The community support and active users are great, and you won't regret once you join. 6. Yahoo What in the world hasn't Yahoo covered? Well, you can Join Yahoo for free and start playing your favorite fantasy game instantaneously. There, you can enter into different contests starting at $1, with exciting prizes. It covers a wide range of sports such as NBA Basketball and Major League Baseball, along with different soccer games. With Yahoo fantasy football, you can manage your own team. As usual, a team will start earning fantasy points based on the real performances of players, which can boost you against your opponents. 7. Superbru More than 1 million sports fan play Superbru. That is more than the population of Iceland, Fiji or Bhutan. Initially started by a group of around twenty graduates from the University of Cape Town, the game was played on a single sheet of paper stuck to the fridge, and each week the duty of recording picks and adding up scores was passed to a different member of the group. The online version was started in 2003. Offering a wide range of sports such as rugby, cricket, football, golf, tennis, and more, it is one of the pioneers in the field of fantasy gaming. 8. Dream11 Love cricket? Want to play fantasy cricket? If so, Dream11 is your ultimate choice. It's the world's largest fantasy cricket game, where you can showcase your cricketing understanding and make tons and tons of cash instantly. You can create your own team of 11 players with the virtual budget of 100 crore. Once the live match starts, the team that you have chosen starts earning points based on the actual performance of the players. After the end of the match, final points, rankings, and winners are declared. 9. Fantasydraft Fantasydraft offers fantasy gameplay for NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. As mentioned on the website, every day is game day on Fantasydraft. The great thing about this site is that there are no season-long commitments and you can draft new teams on a daily basis. You can sign up for free and win real cash prizes. The site states that its mission to provide fun and fair experience for all players. The site has a larger payout zone and it claims a minimum of 25% of the players can win on guaranteed contests. The lineups are flexible and you can choose more of your favorite players. You can play against pro athletes and also sports personalities, both active and retired. 10. Draftday Draftday makes fantasy sports easy. You can choose contests, build teams and win money. You can specify the number of opponents you are going to play, ranging from one to a thousand. It gives you the opportunity to test your fantasy sports skills. The offer of a one-day fantasy sports game with the buy-ins ranging from free to $530 can be a motivation for you to join Draftday. Also, avoiding a season long commitment to the leagues, you can play a one-day fantasy game. NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, CFB, PGA are the leagues covered by Draftday.

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  20 Great Books No Ecommerce Entrepreneur Should Miss

  "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." ― Charles William Eliot Reading expands our horizon and makes us resourceful- which we most certainly need to be if we are to thrive in this era. Thus, reading is important for entrepreneurs who are in a dire need of motivations, ideas, advices, and any kind of lift up they can get to turn their entrepreneurial idea into a successful business. By putting together great ideas and hard work you can make your business successful and excel in your ecommerce entrepreneurial career. Here below, we have put up a list of 20 great books for ecommerce entrepreneurs which could be 'the wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers' for their entrepreneurial journey in ecommerce. 1. The Lean Startup (Eric Ries) This book has become a sort of Bible in the startup world, which presents a scientific approach to create and manage startups. The lean startup method is a guide for entrepreneurs to allocate resources as efficiently as possible and grow the business with maximum acceleration. Although it primarily applies to software startups, this would be a great book to start with for any ecommerce entrepreneurs. 2. Convert (Ben Hunt) The book shares easily implementable techniques to design and develop ecommerce sites that converts browsers into buyers. Since choosing the best ecommerce software only is not going to guarantee you success, Ben Hunt also shares his insights of ecommerce marketing. 3. Think And Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) Napoleon Hill came up with this inspirational classic after over 20 years of research on the accomplishments and attributes of 500 of the most successful people in business. He lays out in this book the 13 key principles of success he identified through his research. Sold over 15 million of copies worldwide, this is one timeless guide to success. 4. The Startup Owner's Manual (Steve Blank and Bob Dorf) This book is a complete guide that teaches how to create a successful company using business model canvas, covers 'new math' for startups and everything you need to know about it. 5. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, And Join The New Rich (Timothy Ferriss) This groundbreaking classic explains how to work smarter rather than hard long hours to live a low-stress high income life. Drawing from real life experiences, Ferriss explains in this book how to improve efficiency of your ecommerce business and free up time to invest in other things. 6. Getting Things Done (David Allen) This is yet another book about the art of stress-free productivity that stresses on the fact that our ability to relax determines our productivity. From fundamental philosophies to verified tricks, Getting Things Done can change the way you work, presenting you how to pick up the speed without getting yourself down. 7. Don't Make Me Think (Steve Krug) This book basically says "If a customer arrives on your online store and has to think about what-s and where-s that does not bode well for your sales". In this book, Steve Krug talks about techniques and ideas to design your web store so that you won't lose customers on account of your website's poor design and usability. 8. Screw Business As Usual (Richard Branson) Richard Branson founded the Virgin group and turned it into a billion dollar company. He sounds like a guy who could give some advice on how to run a business and grow it to billions. In this book, he shares his experiences on building something new and making it big. 9. Zero To One (Peter Thiel) Peter Thiel is one among the founders of PayPal. He along with Elon Musk (Tesla Motors), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), and the YouTube founders are considered as the "PayPal Mafia" in Silicon Valley who has built multiple successful companies. In this book he explains, the importance of being innovative; thinking differently to do something that's never been done before instead of doing more of what's already been done. 10. In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works And Shapes Our Lives (Steven Levy) When talking about ecommerce, Google most definitely won't be left out. Steven Levy conducted a research on Google and presents his findings in the book. This book most certainly should not be missed by any ecommerce entrepreneurs. 11. Lean Analytics (Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz) This book gives you the understanding of what metrics matter to your ecommerce business and guidance to measure progress through the lean startup process. A good foundation builder for the newbies. 12. The Ultimate Marketing Plan (Dan Kennedy) This book lays down the marketing techniques you need to know in today's world with examples. It might not actually be the ultimate plan, but it certainly does provide you guidance to build a foundation for your marketing strategy 13. One Click: Jeff Bezos And The Rise Of Amazon.com (Richard Brandt) Considering how Amazon is the one of the largest ecommerce website in the world, this book would be a nice source of inspiration for anyone looking to venture into the ecommerce world. Plus, it provides an insight into Amazon's largely successful business model and describes how Jeff Bezos's Amazon rose to become one of the billion dollar companies. 14. Get Rich Click!: The Ultimate Guide To Making Money On The Internet (Marc Ostrofsky) Marc Ostrofsky has put together stories of many entrepreneurs to show how they made money online with digital products. This book also demonstrates how entrepreneurs can use social media platforms to their advantage. 15. Likable Social Media (Dave Kerpen) Social media have outgrown any other kind of websites on the web and has become a fertile land for ecommerce marketing. This book teaches the entrepreneurs, skills to tap into the potential of social media for marketing. 16. The Complete E-Commerce Book: Design, Build And Maintain A Successful Web-Based Business (Janice Reynolds) If you are looking for a step by step guide on setting up an ecommerce business, then this is the book you should look for. It is a complete guide that takes you from the most basic concepts of building an ecommerce store to taking it to the pinnacle of success. 17. The $100 Startup (Chris Guillebeau) Chris Guillebeau has put together stories of many real startups after hundreds of interviews and surveys to discuss the challenges of starting a successful business and offers a guide to overcome these challenges. This book delivers exactly what a promising entrepreneur needs: road-tested, effective and a matter-of-fact advice for starting a new ecommerce business. 18. The New Rules Of Marketing And PR (David Meerman Scott) David Meerman Scott is a marketing expert and has written multiple books on the topic. This book shows his expertise as he presents in the book a step by step plan to take advantage of today's marketing dynamics with the most relevant tools and strategies. 19. The Complete Guide To B2B Marketing (Kim Ann King) This book teaches you the art of making effective marketing strategies for your ecommerce ventures. It provides you a complete guide to make your business grow in the B2B world. 20. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, And The Quest For A Fantastic Future (Ashlee Vance) Elon Musk, the founder of companies like PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity, is one of the greatest entrepreneurs and visionaries of this era with lots of world changing ideas. Vance, after spending 40 hours in conversation with him and interviewing close to 300 people, wrote this book to tell his inspirational story to the world.

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  How To Choose The Right Ecommerce Platform For Your Business

  Online retailing is a lucrative business these days and boy! It sure is growing fast. Half of all the internet users shop online regularly- that's literally a lot of reasons to start selling your things online. To tap into that big earning potential, you'll need to have an ecommerce website. Once you've decided to set up an online store, the next step involves choosing the right ecommerce platform for your business which could be confusing amid multiple platforms with own set of offer. The ecommerce market offers a large array of options of ecommerce solutions to business owners who want to put up online stores for retailing. It is absolutely critical that you choose the right ecommerce solution to build a successful online enterprise. But identifying the best ecommerce platform, from out of hundreds of options, could be a bit overwhelming since you'll require to make numbers of different decisions considering number of different factors. Below are a few basic things you need to keep in mind while choosing the ecommerce platform for your business. 1. Determine what kind of hosting is suitable for your business: Self-hosted (Licensed, Standalone) solution or Hosted Solution. First thing you need to make up your mind about is what kind of hosting is be suitable for your business needs. A self-hosted solution is a plugin that lets you set up a store in your existing website. If you feel that you'll need complete control over your online store, you should opt for self-hosted solutions. They tend to give your more flexibility and control but with great control comes great responsibility and you'll be solely responsible for managing the site from scratch. On the other hand, a hosted ecommerce plan provides you most everything you need- that likely includes a domain, website and shopping cart on their own space and is maintenance free. The hosting company take cares of everything ecommerce related once you subscribe to their hosting packages (Think of it like renting a house). There are hundreds of hosted ecommerce solution providers in the market suitable for various kinds of business. The best hosted solutions provide unlimited data storage, unlimited bandwidth and guarantee 24x7 uptime. Buy or rent, choose whatever favors your business. 2. Look for a platform that gives you easy customization options. You will need your site to be unique to stand out from among thousands of other stores out there. So, while choosing a platform, consider what level of flexibility and maneuverability it provides. The best ecommerce solutions allow organization of websites according to preference, allow customized organization of products, provide customers with ability to compare products, let unlimited photo uploads, and give many more options to be creative that might make significant difference in the probability of your success. To help you decide the best ecommerce software according to your need, you can always check their reviews. You can start with a great Shopify review here. 3. Make sure that the ecommerce solution is compatible with your existing resources and data. It is likely that your business already has a website and plenty of existing product databases that you might want to integrate with the ecommerce solution. Is your choice compatible with your existing resources? Does it allow you to import your existing data? If it does, it might save you lots of hassles of having to change the system completely or entering a bulk of data into the web store's database. Good ecommerce platforms provide you several methods to import your spreadsheets, reports from various other compatible systems. Look for a platform that integrates well with other back-end systems. 4. Ensure that the product catalog features all your products. Different ecommerce platform severe better with different types of products. To determine the fit, compare your products to the templates offered. What kinds of product you're selling? How flexible is the product catalog? What kinds of goods are you selling, digital or physical? Can it handle the variety of your stock? Can the platform adequately manage the breadth of your products? Start by asking these questions to look for a platform that suits your needs. 5. Ensure that it accepts broad range of payment methods. There are no euphemism with money. You pay your money, you get your value it as simple as that but before you invest, make sure that the platform supports a wide range of payment methods and provides the ability to easily add different payment functionalities. To maximize your sale, you need to be able to accept as many payment methods as possible- traditional and electronic- and to integrate the payment methods used most by your regular clients. If you want to extend your business to international customers, you should be able to deal in multiple currencies. The best ecommerce platforms provide the facility to process different types of credit cards and facilitate payments through various online payment processors like PayPal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payment. 6. Make certain that you'll get detailed reporting on every aspect of your online store. Understanding your website performance is vital to model your business profitably. Therefore, analytics and reporting tools are an important aspects of ecommerce solution that should not be overlooked A successful enterprise keeps track of its every transactions and understands its customers. Your ecommerce website needs tools that provide statistics on various factors of your website's performance like website traffic, unique visitors, sales revenues, referring sites. The best ecommerce solution offers not only order processing capability but also keeps track of your inventory with every sale and provides detailed reporting. It gives you valuable insight into how to fine-tune your business process and maximize your profit. 7. Make sure the platform fulfills your marketing needs. To ensure growth, marketing is absolutely essential. The ecommerce solution that you'll acquire should be able to assist in your marketing strategies. Look for the platform that provides tools to promote your website- like blogs, integration with social networks, SEO features etc. The best platforms offer you capability to add features like offering coupons, discounts, gift cards; to send email newsletters to your potential customers. The right ecommerce platform will meet all or most of your marketing needs to let you grow. 8. Ensure the platform offers ease of administration. It is important that you be able to administer your store with ease at anytime, anywhere. The best ecommerce platforms provide you with a user-friendly administrative panel to monitor your store and make changes as you see fit from anywhere with an internet connection. 9. Compare the price, services offered and your budget. When you start a business, your budget is going to be a limiting factor in the process of deciding what services to acquire and what to discard. All ecommerce platforms provide different services in packages. Packages vary in services according to the price you pay. But since there are hundreds of platforms to choose from, you will find differences in services offered for the same price. Hunt for the best deal that suits your budget and won't hurt your business either. 10. Do not overlook the prospect of mobile users. The number of users who access the web via mobile devices has long surpassed the number of desktop users. Statistics show that mobile commerce is growing at the rate of more than 30 percent each year. That means, you are going to lose a lot of potential customers if the platform you choose does not allow for a good mobile experience. Opt for the platform that supports responsive web designing to offer rich mobile experience to your customers.

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  10 Things To Watch Out For Before Starting An Online Business

  An online business is not much different than any other offline ventures at most levels; the same ground rules of business apply to it, after all it is a business- just that the business is moved online. So in addition to the same important factors, a few more things (things that are associated with the fact that the business is online) should be considered before venturing into an online business. Everybody, everything is 'online' these day, the world is 'online', thanks to the internet and the advances in technology. And it has made online retailing a lucrative business. Setting up an online store is ridiculously easy but starting an online business is not just setting up a website. Before jumping into it, a few things are needed to be kept in mind to avoid making the worse of foundational mistakes. Here below are some factors you need to consider before starting an online business. 1. Know your market. Before you venture into any kind of business, it is mandatory that you know your market first. Whether it's product or service you plan to sell, knowing how much of that will actually sell dictates your business flourishes or eats dust. It is plain simple- if there's no market, you don't have any business. Evaluate the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (this is popularly known as SWOT analysis in business) and plan accordingly. In business, it is the market that dictates everything. 2. Lay out a business plan. Just as much as it is necessary to have a business model for any offline venture, a full-fledged business plan is equally essential to ensure successful online enterprise. Having a properly documented business plan helps you to look at your strategies logically and understand the managerial aspects of your business. Research and formulate a business plan about where, when, how to run a business. Thanks again to the internet, there are plenty of guides available online to help you build your own business. 3. Design and build an easy to navigate website. An online store is the soul of online business, therefore, it cannot afford to be clumsy. You loses valuable customers if it is not easy to steer around your website. A good online store has all kinds of features of an offline store; a good search functionality, proper display of products to make it easy for the customers to find what they want. It should be easy to check in and out at convenience and payment methods should be simple and easy. There are handful of website builders out in the market that offer total ecommerce solutions to build your own customer-friendly store or you can hire a professional as your budget allows. Compare among the different ecommerce platforms available, let's say BigCommerce vs Shopify, to find out which one is best suited for your needs. 4. Choose an appropriate domain name. There's a lot in the name than you might imagine when it comes to business- a lot more when it is actually an online business. It is by the domain name that we are identified on the web. For start-ups online ventures, having a good domain name that is short, unforgettable, easy to remember and spell and that represents your business accurately could prove to be highly beneficial (even the domain name itself sells big on the internet) to drive customers to your store. 5. Formulate a financial plan. The first rule of business is that there should be investment. If you don't have a clear financial plan, your business plan might land hard on its back even before it takes off. There will obviously be some start–up costs to cover the overheads such as the cost of building your website, marketing, storage etc. Determine your start-up cost and look for suitable funding. Banks, Venture Capitalists, Small Loan Firms etc. are among different options available who could finance your business. Make sure to include unforeseen expenses in your financial plan and also take in account your living costs. 6. Choose the right web host. It is absolutely essential that you host website through the right host. An online store should be able to handle a lot of traffic and should have maximum uptime. Website down time is one of the major reasons for losing search engine ranking. There are many web-hosting companies out there that offer you free and paid webhosting services. Since free hosting services provide limited features, a paid webhosting is advised for a reliable service. Choose the right webhost that allows growth and flexibility. Some webhosting companies also offer domain registration service and tools to build website. 7. Make marketing plans. Your online store needs to be accessible to as many people as possible, therefore it is necessary that you have a marketing plan to maintain a favorable online presence. Register your site with the major search engines like google, Bing, Yahoo etc. to drive potential customers to your site. Blog about it, create content. Have business accounts on social media, advertise there. Capture email addresses of your customers, send promotional emails. Exchange links with other websites. Use SEO techniques. The key to success on the internet: it's all about getting your name out there. 8. Have a reliable banking. Reliable banking is a must in any kind of business. It is better to have a business bank account rather than a regular one with a bank that understands your business. You risk losing the sales if you don't have a reliable payment system in your online store. Make use of good and prompt methods to accept credit cards and take orders. Online payment systems like PayPal, google checkout are usually preferred. 9. Know your competitions. What can you offer that you competitors cannot? That is business. The market today is brutally competitive. It's likely that someone else has already started the same thing that you want to start. Needless to say, you need to have strategies to secure your market. To stay in the market, your business should have some element of uniqueness to stand out from the rest. Knowing your competitions gives ideas to be unique and to be noticed. 10. Legal matters. All said and done, your business will seize to exist if it is not in compliance with the law. It is necessary to understand the regulations, registration, licensing, taxing, trademarks, all other legal matters concerned with your business. Consult with a lawyer and accountant to align your business with the rules of law. Setting up a successful business is hard enough. The last thing you need is some technical legality to stand in your way.

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  10 Common SEO Mistakes Made By Beginners

  When I discovered that there is this incredibly magnificent thing called SEO that can actually dramatically increase my traffic, I was so overwhelmed that I jumped right into. But as I read through it, it was not as easy as it had first seemed. SEO is like performing in an orchestra—every instrument has to hit the same note, be it keyword density, meta description or proper anchor text. Each element has to work together to create the perfect content that the "Google god" will bestow his blessing upon. I learned the basics of SEO (and am still learning) mostly by trial and error of different methods, but the only thing I can say for a fact is that the more you practice things, the more things start working. Of course, there are many mistakes you'll need to learn to correct, but if you avoid the 10 mistakes below, it will certainly make your life a lot easier and soothe your mind with the images of your SERP horse hiking on the green hills of internet. 1. Overstuffing keywords The most rudimentary thing that search engine works on is keywords, and so the temptation to place your keywords as much as you can is really big. However, you must realize that a search engine isn't a single beam, it's a spectrum and keywords are just a single color in it. Experts usually recommend keeping keyword density at 4 to 7 percent, but there is no hard and fast rule. Try to make them look as natural as possible, as Google easily identifies spammy keyword stuffing. Researching long tail keywords may help a great deal in driving the straight traffic who are often direct buyers (if you are selling things). 2. Trying to compete with high DA sites You learn about SEO and watch if high DA (domain authority) sites have used it or not. On seeing little to no SEO use, you quickly develop an insane idea that you can beat them if you somehow magically optimize your content. But this does not work. They are miles ahead of you. There are tons of sites back-linking (trusting) them, and your angry Google father loves your sassy sister more than you. However, targeting keywords not used by high DA sites like Huffington Post, Forbes, TechCruch, Mashable helps to boost your search ranking and drive traffic to your blog. 3. Choosing the wrong keywords You research for keywords and see huge search traffic and get started working straight away. Even if you did research on high DA sites, you often overlook the level of competition out there and forget that some of your competitors have way longer head starts in the race. Don't buy a horse that will grow bigger than your house. Use keywords you are certain you can beat the competition on. Under the radar long tail keywords and keywords with medium competition are best beginner SEO practices. 4. Ignoring alt text Though image optimization does not play as much part as content optimization, don't overlook the virtues of either. They often play parts in tie-breakers in rankings, and you know how much of a difference in traffic a single rank makes! Google bots creep right into images after they are done searching for them in content blocks, so they are an integral part of content creation. Proper image optimization also means increasing your site's chances of being found on Google images, and although that won't count as organic common search traffic, you should take visitors as they come and leave no stone unturned. 5. Ignoring internal linking Often the desire to press the publish button is so strong that you overlook goldmine content that you could link from your own site. Linking to your own sites makes it easier for Google to reach many of your pages, and these links present the real verdict on you. This is not only good for visibility with search engines; internal linking is helpful to your readers too. They get easy access to other content, and traffic increases naturally. 6. Not publishing consistently Publishing consistently helps to build trust among your fan base. Schedule your posts and follow your plan or you risk losing your fan base. If you are on a hot streak, take a breath. If you are struggling, try harder to make your publishing consistent. 7. Ignoring post publish optimization Clicking the publish button can be the most satisfactory thing in the world for many bloggers, but publishing is not enough. You can also optimize your post to give yourself the maximum chance to rank in Google. The practice of post publish optimization includes adjusting keywords, updating your posts, updating images etc. This helps for both search engine rankings and building trust among your followers 8. Ignoring URL optimization URL optimization ranks as the most important factor that is ignored by beginner SEO users. The probability of your post being highly ranked increase drastically if words in your title tag match with the searched key phrase. Google uses your URL to find what the content is about, and it tries matching searched keywords with your URL. So, if there is an exact match with little competition, who knows, you might get the highly coveted #1 SERP. 9. Ignoring meta description Though meta description tags do not play that big a part in direct SEO, they are extremely important in gaining user click-through from SERPs. These short paragraphs are a webmaster's opportunity to advertise content to searchers and to let them know if the searchers are finding the exact information they are looking for. A typical HTML code for meta description tag looks like <head> <meta name="description" content="Here is a description of the applicable page"> </head> 10. Not paying attention to local search If you're running a blog that focuses on an audience from a specific region then you should learn more about local search rather than diving straight into mainstream SEO. Most search engines, including Google, treat local keywords differently than global keywords. Include region-specific keywords in your page titles and meta descriptions. Local reviews-based sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle, Google Places, and Foursquare can help a lot.

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  10 Best Websites For Insurance And Financial Services

  Websites of financial niche are really tricky. Most of them are publicity oriented and difficult to browse amid the vigorous promotions on the websites. Their contents are often poorly written and most of them brag about their services rather than solving the problem or providing an advice. It's only natural they see visitors who are often left frustrated after visiting the site. However, among the business centered mud, you can count on the following 10 websites for help regarding insurance and financial services. Allianz Allianz is a European finance company operating from their headquarters in Munich, Germany. As of 2014, it is world's largest insurance company. The company operates in more than 70 countries and has over 147k employees. It offers products and solutions on Private insurance, Business Insurance, Asset Management, Global Lines and sustainable solutions. If you are looking for insurance of your need, you can always count on Allianz. AXA AXA is a French multinational insurance firm. It operates from its headquarters in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The company engages in global insurance, investment management, and other financial services. It offers people advice, retirement packages, life insurance, and employee benefits. The AXA Group is highly productive in Western Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific region, and the Middle East, plus it also has strong presence in Africa. It is one of the oldest and most reliable financial companies which has been operating since 1859. ING The ING Group is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation operating from its headquarters in Amsterdam. The chief services offered by the company are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, asset management, and insurance services. As of 2012, ING was the world's largest banking/financial services and insurance conglomerate by revenue with gross receipts exceeding $150 billion per annum. It also ranks 18th on the list of largest companies by revenue. The ING official site has all the information about insurance in a cool User Interface. Voya Voya Financial is a financial, retirement, investment and insurance company. It operates from New York U.S. Previously it was a full subsidiary of ING Group N.V., ING U.S but it was spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. The company offers termed life insurance, universal life insurance, indexed universal life and variable universal life scheme. The site also has a tool called 'Life Insurance Needs Calculator'. AFLAC AFLAC, acronym of American Family Life Assurance Company is one of the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. It is most known for payroll deduction insurance coverage, which pays cash benefits when a policyholder has a covered accident or illness. The company claims to provide financial protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. They know peace of mind and cash are incredibly hard to come by. They manage to do their best to help you achieve your goals. Prudential The Prudential Insurance Company of America, is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, investment, and other financial products. It offers services to both retail and institutional customers. Though it is primarily active in the United States, it has wings across 30 other countries. The range of services provided by Prudential include life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, pension and retirement related investments, administration and asset management, and securities brokerage services. The company also offers commercial and residential real estate in many states of the U.S. Quotiva Quotiva is a team with big technology and a long history in the insurance business. It operates from Manchester City Centre and the company helps people find better insurance in less time through their network of specialist UK brokers. Some of its popular products include: Caravan, Courier, GAP, HGV, Horsebox, Japanese Import Car, Landlords, Minibus, Motorhome, and Motor Trade insurances. It offers Professional Indemnity insurance, Public Liability insurance, Static Caravan insurance, Taxi insurance and Van insurance. It's free, quick and hassle free just like they claim. GEICO The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) is an American auto insurance company. It operates from its headquarters in Chevy Chase. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway providing a coverage for more than 22 million motor vehicles owned by more than 14 million policy holders. With the slogan of 'more than an insurance" and direct-to-consumer sales model, the company keeps its promise to save you money. It claims to support local communities and protect the environment. Farmers Farmers Insurance Group is an insurer of automobiles, homes and small businesses operating in the U.S. It also provides other insurance and financial services. The company has more than 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and approximately 22,000 employees. Farmers offers wide range of insurance services including auto insurance, home insurance, motorcycle insurance, life insurance, business insurance, and recreational insurance. It also provides financial services and products, such as mutual funds and variable annuities. Hollard Hollard Group is a privately owned insurance group operating from South Africa. It operates under two insurance licenses: short term and life. Hollard, along with Dalberg created the world's first social impact insurance entity that measures and manages risks associated with the funding of social impact organizations. The company covers personal insurance, business insurance and its own scheme of investments. The website also has a cool Broker Zone Portal that helps you to connect with different clients and make them read newsletters for you.

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  How Classified Ads Have Evolved Over The Years

  Looking for a place to rent? Searching for a used car to buy? More often than not you'll begin your quest with some online classified advertising site. Or, maybe you'll be going through the classified section of your local newspaper. Classified Ads or classifieds have been helping people connect and complete transactions since the birth of media. Sellers can advertise their products for a minimal fee. Thus, it is very beneficial to private sellers who can't afford to spend a lot of money. The shoppers on the other hand get to browse various local offers. For decades, classified advertising was a business dominated by newspaper, earning the print media billions of dollars. However, the marketplace for online classifieds has seen tremendous growth in recent times and offers a far more lucrative prospect. Let us have a look at how this multi-billion dollar business has evolved over time. The invention of advertising can be traced back to the Egyptian, who used to disseminate sales messages using wall posters made up of papyrus. Similarly, in the Roman Empire, political campaigns and commercial messages were published in the Acta Diuma. Likewise, the Chinese government, in around 250 BC, produced news sheets tipao where people could also publish lost and found ads and want ads. In the seventeenth century, advertising via handwritten notices were quite common. These notices, nailed to posts and walls, usually concerned lost properties. The world saw the first of newspaper advertises when Boston News Letter started printing ads in 1704. As the publication and distribution of newspapers escalated, the advertisement industry flourished as well. In the 18th century, London's Morning Herald began classifying its Wants column by category. The credit of invention of modern classified advertising goes to The Philidelphia Public Ledger, for it was the first to promote this type of advertising as a separate department. The advertisements in print media today can be categorized into two main groups: display and classified. Display ads tend to be elaborate with beautiful photos, colorful texts and intricate design; strategically placed among the regular editorial contents. On the contrary, classifieds are usually text-only, short messages that appear on distinct sections based on their ad category. While display ads, are more likely to get readers' attention, classifieds are far more affordable. Although they cost buyers a small amount of money, classifieds are hugely profitable for the newspapers. They account for approximately 27% of all newspaper revenues. However, with the advent of internet era, the print media has seen a steep decline in revenue generated by classified ads. Between 2002 and 2012, print media saw their revenue from classifieds decrease from $15,898 million to $4,626 million, an astonishing 71% drop. Meanwhile, classifieds have acquired a fertile platform in the worldwide web. In 1995, two companies were started with a vision to reap profits using classifieds on the internet. One was AdOne—a service business that intended to make money by helping newspaper classifieds online. Another was Criagslist that offered ads across a range of categories. It is one of the most successful ventures in online classifieds advertisement. Over time several other web sites publishing online classified ads have emerged choosing to publish ads related to several fields; or publishing ads dedicated to a single category such as automobiles, or real state. Given the advantages of the internet, the migration of the classifieds to the internet was inevitable. Newspaper classifieds has a number of limitations: it does not allow for photos; it does not present detailed information. These were no longer problems for the online platforms. Photos and links to details regarding a product are common in online classifieds. Furthermore, the web technology has provided innovative methods of earning money using classifieds, like the search model. The ad publishing sites like Craigslist fundamentally work on the same model as newspaper classifieds. People pay for publishing and the sites run the ads. In contrast sites like SimplyHired, that utilize the search model, focus on indexing all the job classifieds and providing keyword search. Simply put, sellers are not paying these sites to get published, but to be found by interested buyers. Social classifieds is another form of classified advertising that has its roots in the internet. Social Networking sites like Facebook, twitter among others are immensely popular and have a massive user base. Realizing this, Facebook launched the Facebook Marketplace that allows users to post free classified ads in 2007. Other sites like MySpace, Orkut etc. also provide a platform for classified ads. In addition, several start-ups have emerged that help to publish ads across multiple social networks. There are even classified ads search engines like Adswish. The future of classified ads seems mobile bound. Given the fact that classifieds have generated billions of dollars for print media as well as online platform, it is no surprise that companies are voraciously competing to get the largest share of mobile classifieds.

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