OPENING AN SEO AGENCY? Read These Lessons

OPENING AN SEO AGENCY?
Starting your own venture in this business-driven world is always a great feeling. Even though the process is grueling, but once for all, it gives you the freedom to practice your own ways. It offers you a stage where you can formulate your own strategies, work on them, and show the world what you have to offer.

If you are thinking about starting a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agency, you will know that there are more than 1500 SEO agencies already registered - battling for the top 5 spots on the web. Do a Google search on SEO companies, and you might see quite a few more.

The competition is on the hike due to the low barrier to entry. In order to enter the SEO market, all one needs to do is put out an open for business sign, in the form of a website, and they are an SEO Agency.
With so much of competition already doing the rounds, making an impression as a startup is not a piece of cake. However, even if everything goes well while setting up, maintaining a profitable business, in the long run, is another matter.

Thus, to stand out from the crowd, you will have to consider the right steps more often. Here are some aspects and some recommendations you should consider on how to position your SEO Agency in today's marketplace.

It Starts With You

Before you even begin your research on how to start an SEO agency, you need to be mentally prepared for all the hardships you will be coming across in the course of action. Take out some time to question yourself if - is running a business really something you can look forward to? Or it is just a means to avoid looking for employment?

Working for yourself could be an immensely rewarding, but reaching that point where you can enjoy those awards takes a lot of work and hustle. There are personality traits people have that make them fit to running a business, including a desire for independence, being a self-starter, and having the ability to take the financial risk.

If you do not commit to the grind, you won’t be above average successful. Thus, it is good to spend some time exploring; before you commit to any decision that can change your life in multiple ways.
The Real Deal: Starting an SEO business requires some tips, tricks, and tools to make your grand opening much smoother. So what do you need if you want to start such a business?

What Will You Be Focusing At?

One of the first things you need to consider is deciding what will be the point of focus, which involves two linked decisions. The first is your industry and the second is your scale.

Picking up an industry allows you to address potential customers. For example, if you are targeting the assignment assistance industry, you might compare your customers to the Thanksforthehelp. If you are targeting a hospitality industry, you could compare them to Taj Group.

Considering an industry in advance can also give you an idea of what kind of scale you want to focus on. For example, if you decide to target the hospitality industry, (I am so into hospitality I do not know why) you can focus on small chains looking to compete against the major chains.

A smaller focus means a higher number of clients, which is considerably good for the start-up. This may or may not be more work, but an effective way to start. Focusing on a national or global chain could mean one contract worth more than you have ever made in your life, but remember, it is one of those major investments that you absolutely cannot screw up.

Moreover, always try aiming an industry you are at least somewhat familiar with because it makes it easier to communicate with potential leads.

What Services Will You Offer?

Once you have your niche and focus sorted, now it’s time to put on some research to investigate what services your competition offers. SEO agency offers a variety of services, here are a few:

Social Media Marketing – the goal is to build social media links so that websites can gain traffic. As an agency, your task is to create content that gains the reader’s attention and motivates them to share the same on their various social networks.

Content Improvement - A huge part of modern SEO revolves around high-quality content, so offering a content production and editing service can be very profitable.

Organic Search - refers to various approaches used to gain high ranking on search engine pages with unpaid results that are algorithm-driven. It uses tactics such as using good keywords, creating quality content etc.

Building Link – Link building is one of the most discussed topics in the SEO industry as it consumes a lot of time and is expensive until you can find blogs that accept like us a free guest post with your websites link embedded in it.

Website Optimization - The service involves crawling through the client’s website making improvements. Simple changes to Metadata and basic code improvements can be cheap, while more detailed script repairs, security overhauls, or website migrations might be more expensive.

Consultation - Sales meetings you can use to go over a site audit and discuss what services might be necessary, what are optional, what you recommend, and what pricing may be.

Choosing what service you want to offer will largely depend on you being able to find the resources for providing those services. If you are experienced, you will be able to handle 1 or 2 of those services, but once you decide to expand your reach, you will need more resources to help you.

There is no chance you can do everything by yourself, especially if you land an unexpectedly high maintenance client, as you do not want to fall short of their expectations.

There are two ways you can consider to solve this problem. Either you can subcontract services by acting as a reseller, or you can hire people to do the work for you. Many companies opt for reseller options to get half of their task done.

For example: if you want to offer a content marketing plan, editing and posting content can be done by you while you can pay to have the content written.
OPENING AN SEO AGENCY?

Looking Forward To A Great Website

In general, your website should be clean and crisp, telling potential clients that you are what they have been looking for. Transparency is good, so including a public pricing and services page is a good option.

Moreover, do not forget to add live chats,as it is a trend that you must follow. With a live chat on the website, you will get notified whenever a potential client is on your site so you can respond quickly before they reach out to a different company. Being the first to respond is sometimes all it takes to win contracts.

Once you have a list of clients, you can start adding testimonials and client lists to your website. And, of course, you need a robust contact page as well.

Never Ignore Quora

Answering questions on Quora and trying to be helpful is full of gains. Quora can considerably help your business grow when you are trying to settle in if you know how to use it for your good. All you need to do is be helpful. Answer SEO related questions more often.

Impressed by your answer, people will see your profile, and hopefully, you have linked to your company’s website so they can reach out to you for business if needed.

How to Attract Customers?

If you do not have customers, who care how aesthetic your websites look? So how can you pull in clients to get started?

Content Is The King - Producing quality and informative content has two-fold advantages. Firstly, it tells your leads that you are an expert in the field and secondly it can help your website rank better and much faster.

Lure Them With Free Tools - A free SEO audit can be a hook to sell services to fix the problems it finds, though you never want to make up problems like those fake malware scanners do.

Stop Promoting Start Informing - Keeping the visitors excited through a blog that solve a problem or informs them about innovation in SEO industry is an easy way to build trust.

Set Up A Referral Program - You can give away anything from free weeks or months of service to monetary rewards for referrals.

Leave A Mark - You can use your client sites for advertisement. All it takes is a small footer link – nofollowed, to avoid spam flags – and a line like “SEO by “bestSEOCompany.” Anyone who is researching your clients would like to get in touch with you.

A Lesson On SEO Tools

Using the right SEO tool can save a lot of your time and grind. They are everywhere; all you need to do is select the right one. Hopefully, I can save you some time and energy by listing a majority of tools here:
  • Basecamp – Project Management
  • Moz– To manage and monitor the SEO of clients
  • Olark – Live Chat on my agency’s website
  • MySiteAuditor – Free SEO audit tool for my agency’s website visitors. Helps generate way more SEO leads and sales.
  • Checkli– Create checklists for personal productivity
  • Google Analytics – Monitor and report traffic
  • SEOinvoice.com – Create free invoice for SEO clients
  • Less Accounting – Simple accounting software for small business
  • Social Locker– Free downloads in-exchange for sharing
  • Pay With a Tweet – Free downloads in-exchange for sharing
  • Tweet Deck – Manage multiple Social Media Profiles
  • GrooveHQ – Customer support
  • Google Keyword Planner – Keyword research
  • Crazy Egg – Visually monitor activity on your site
  • Qualaroo – Ask your website’s visitors specific questions (Qualitative Analytics)
  • Upwork – Find freelancers

Be Prepared For Sales Call

Leads won’t take out even a single penny from their pocket unless and until you can make them trust your words. And, getting this done over a telephonic conversation is stressing.

When a new potential customer calls in to inquire about your service, what do you say? This could be your only chance to make the sale, every aspect is crucial.

You do not need a full script; just have questions on hand you want to make sure you hit. The more information you get on the customer’s needs, the easier it will be to find exactly how to best help.

Keep Growing

Yes, it is challenging to have a growth mindset. That is because you have to get the work done in the best way possible. If you do not fulfill the work, you lose clients, and that could be discouraging.

You have to keep trying to grow your business. No matter how many clients you have. No matter how much money you are already making. Focus on growth as if; you do not have a single client. Have the mindset that you could lose it all tomorrow.

AUTHOR_NAMEAbout the Author:
Saun an editor at cdr-report.com and a journalism student who loves to pen down his thoughts on habits, personal development and anything pleasing to eyes.

Seven Marketing Strategies That Will Boost Your Online Sales

Marketing Strategies That Will Boost Your Online Sales
Now’s the best time to launch an online business. As of writing, brick-and-mortar shops may still be closed, and many more shoppers are buying their essentials online. If you’re a savvy entrepreneur, you should take advantage of this time to earn even more than that which you previously expected to. Plus, you can establish your online store from the comforts of your home.

Completing the first sale sounds straightforward enough but it can pave the way to better and profitable business years ahead. While this may sound like a challenging thing to achieve, the Internet today is fair to all and gives everyone an equal chance to prove their worth no matter how rich or saturated one is with resources. Whether you run a Happy Cakes retail business or a huge e-commerce website like Amazon - Increasing online sales must be your primary goal as it not only contributes to sales and profits but also helps in brand awareness and keeping the flow of traffic consistent throughout.

Thus, here in this article, we will be exploring seven of the best marketing strategies that you can make use of with minimal spending to help you with the overall development of your business.

Creating Value For The Customers

You probably might have heard of terms such as Inbound Marketing or Content Marketing as many marketers acknowledge the importance and benefits of the same. Such marketing trends focus on creating value for the prospects.
In this competitive market, the consumers are the ones who make the rules. Consumers want additional value and not just products or services. So how to create this value?

Creating value is the act of offering additional and relatable content, that is useful and relevant to the consumer (e.g. blog posts, e-books, videos, webinars, infographics, etc.). The content is mainly designed to solve consumer’s problems and help them find what they are looking for.

It has been proven that those brands who can create value for their consumer’s gain their loyalty, but that does not mean anything and everything will work. Creating value does not mean snowballing every piece of content with the qualities your product offers. It is about understanding the buying process, which consists of 3 main stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.
  • During the first stage, prospects identify that they have a problem or a need.
  • During the second stage, they begin to look for all the possible solutions to the problem.
  • Finally, they evaluate different providers to see which one can offer them the best deal.

The idea is to create relevant content for each of the different stages of the buying process. Something which can solve the problems of the prospects. Something people on the web can relate to or something that can lure them to buy your product or service.

To start with, you may ask the help of expert agencies to achieve this. A bonus tip is to make that switch from PSD to HubSpot so that you can create more effective websites. With this advantage, customers will come chasing through your site.

Pay Attention to Stats

The behavior of every visitor right from the entry to exit on your website can be tracked, and you should know to use it to your advantage. This refers to your website’s stats, which will show you what prospects are doing on your site including which pages they enter, the time they spend on particular pages, and the route they take to leave your site.

Moreover, it will not cost you a penny, either. Google Analytics is a completely free service, allowing you to measure your traffic in more ways than you can think of. When this is a tool that’s immediately at your disposal, why not take advantage of it and use it right away. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on so many benefits of using Google Analytics.

Creating A Sense Of Urgency

There is no rule against creating a sense of urgency to encourage prospects to buy from you right now. Many users respond positively to the deals that create a sense of urgency, but only if you know the right tricks. The key is to start by giving your target market all the reasons why they have to patronize your online store right now, particularly when there are also a lot of online stores out there.

Urgency is a strong catalyst, but it does not stand up very well on its own. Prospects will only deliberate over whether to buy your product only if he/she see value in your offer. Do not think urgency to work if you cannot leave the prospect of guessing and wondering about the offer.

However, if you cannot tempt the prospects with an urgency offer, maybe you can offer a financial incentive to customers who commit to a purchase right away, such as free shipping or a discount.

User-Generated Content

Customers can create the most valuable content for the firms that are beneficial in boosting sales. User-generated content (UGC) is content written by an audience related to a brand in some way or the other. Anything from social media, testimonials, reviews, blog posts or forum posts can be termed as UGC.

According to Business Insider, consumers who come across UGC are 97% more likely to convert than those who do not.

Here is an example, a testimonial on CDR-Report.com
Marketing Strategies That Will Boost Your Online Sales
User-generated images (images created by customers featuring your products) are especially powerful. Such content usually influences other people as friends, families and your enemies. In fact, when online shoppers were asked to choose between UGC (like people post to Instagram) and expensive professional images on product description pages, the overwhelming preference was for 77% to 22%.

Research also shows that UGC is 50% more trustworthy than traditional marketing technique and why would marketers not want a slice of that action.

Offer A Contest or Giveaway

Everyone loves free stuff no matter how small or big. If you are looking to build up some trust, a contest or giveaway could help you do just that. Not only can contests and giveaways help you build valuable inbound links but are also a great way to show potential customers that you can be trusted and that your brand is serious.

Moreover, it is not important to start big. Running a simple contest on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can help you build valuable traffic (only if the contest is fun to play). Such contests cost no money to run and can be initiated in a few minutes.

Getting Used To Comparison Shopping Engines

In this technology-driven world, competition is all over the place due to factors like the ease in doing business and location independence. Every other business niche you can think of has 2-3 competitors where one with the lowest price and best quality is more likely to win the prospect.

Many, if not all, consumers like to shop around before making a purchase, and that includes a visit to comparison shopping engines. Popular engines include Nextag that allows comparison of thousands of products so that you never miss a great deal.

To get noticed, you just need to play by the rules of each engine. Stay competitive in terms of price, while you experiment to find out which engine suits you the best and gives you the best ROI.

The Right Hashtags

Social media monitoring tool Hootsuite can help you find, like, retweet and reply to posts under several hashtags. Moreover, you can use a tool like Hashtagify to find other hashtags related to the one you are trying to target. However, do not treat hashtags the same on every channel.

Twitter posts with a single well-placed hashtag can generate more engagements than tweets with three or more hashtags.

Instagram posts, on the other hand, see the most engagement when using more than one hashtags, even 10+ in a single post.

Facebook posts do better without hashtags.

Here’s a bonus tip for you. Out of all the three major social media sites, it pays to put a lot of emphasis on Instagram. For marketing, it’s one of the easiest, cheapest, and most effective social media sites to use.

Final Word

If you’ve recently launched an online business, these tips can greatly help you in facing the extreme competition that’s right ahead of you. No business is ever going to be easy, but with the right strategies, you’re going to make it big and well.

Do remember that no success ever comes overnight, so you’ve got to be willing to put in a lot of effort and hard work. Start by applying these tips, so that you, too, can enjoy reaping the benefits of higher sales.

AUTHOR_NAMEAbout the Author:
Himanshi Goel has been associated as a Social Media Expert with Thanks For The Help since its start. She really loves to pen down her thoughts on mental constructs, habits, personal development and anything that pleases her eyes.

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials In 2018

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
People, in general, are dependent on the various apps for multiple reasons in today's world. Among them are the millennials who are entirely reliant on these apps for their daily lifestyle. The apps are computer programming which is designed for a specific purpose. These are the day-to-day backbone for most of the millennials today. Apps help us in a vast number of ways like they help us stay connected, keep check of our lifestyles, find new friends, exhibit your photography, get a cab and in many other ways. These apps today are quite popular and have a vast array of benefits. The apps enable us to carry out many functions with ease and effortlessly. The millennials today have a very different point of view and thought process. They don't tend to care about what others think of them. These apps are also the medium through which the millennials can express themselves boldly.

The Popular 10 Apps For The Millennials

In this year there are some must-have apps which are quite popular among the millennial generation. These apps have varied purposes, some are for social networking, some are for casual dating, and there are a few on daily lifestyles, a few on shopping and again some on music and more. These apps help the millennials be who they are. There are also many online shopping apps that sale fashionable clothing for the millennial like jumpsuits online. These apps have become popular and are prevalent this year. The top ten most popular apps amongst the millennials in 2018 are as follows:

1. Twitter

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This app has become a social platform for a wide variety of positive reasons. The aware millennials use this app for raising awareness about crimes and political situations. You can catch up on the recent news and daily traffic and weather updates through this app. You can find jobs as well on this app platform. This is the most common medium where you can interact with your favorite stars and celebrities. This just like other social networking site enables you to connect with your friends and family.

2. Pose

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This is a fashion app which helps you elevate your style quotient by more than a notch. This is similar to a photography app like Instagram. However, here the users upload pictures of themselves in unique dresses and combination of clothes. In the picture, they also explain what they are wearing and other related facts about their fashion and style. This app brings out many new fashion trends.

3. Tinder

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
Love has got harder to find, and among the millennials, especially the teenagers having a relationship is like a necessity. This is basically because of the reason that they want someone to share their feelings with. Tinder helps you find a dating partner. It is a user-friendly app which enables you to connect with similar people who like each other's pictures. The app has the all-famous ‘swipe to like' format which has been incorporated in many other apps today.

4. YouTube

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This is one of the most famous apps this year and has been for the last few years. This app provides videos from various channels. The entertainment app helps you know a lot of facts. You can v-log or create videos to upload them unto your channel. These will get likes, views and get you, subscribers. Through this app, you can also earn some money. YouTube pays you the money when you have a specific number of subscribers.

5. Evernote

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This is an organizing app that helps you keep your work and schedule organized. It gives you a variety of tools that help you keep your digital articles organized from documents to photos. Today people have a lack of time and are often unorganized. This causes a problem when later they can't find what they look for due to the haphazard manner of saving the files. Evernote is like a virtual reality platform where you can share, collaborate and discuss the various productive subject matters.

6. Uber

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This is a commuting helper. This app helps you book a cab pick-up for you from one place to another. This is a beneficial app that gives taxi service online. You need to set you pick-up and drop locations, after that book the cab that you want, and it will arrive at the doorstep to pick you up. This app is essential for commuting by cab instead of trying to fetch a cab on the road.

7. Shazam

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This is a music related app. You can download and listen to music through this app. The most vital aspect of this app is that it has a massive database of music and can recognize a track by listening to it for a few seconds. On identifying the record, it provides you with all of its available information and also gives you an option to save the track. This app is an excellent way to know the name of the songs that linger in your mind, but you don't remember the name of.

8. Acorns

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
The millennials are not at all in favor of the thought of investing money. This app helps the intimidation of money investment sooth down a bit. It is an easy, simple and useful app to teach how money investments work and also help the user invest their money and help them earn out of it.

9. Instagram

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This is a pretty famous social networking site which is prevalently for uploading and exhibiting images and pictures. This is an apt platform for photographers to promote themselves and get exposure. This app has some features which are helpful for editing a photo.

10. Sleep Bot

10 Popular Apps Amongst Millennials
This particular app is an app which helps you change you to have a proper and healthy lifestyle. Often the millennials don’t sleep well due to various reasons. They wake up with a groggy mood and the day is pretty much started with a bad note. People with early morning schedules need to get this app. This app helps you schedule your sleeping hours and keeps you healthy and your mind fresh. This is also a fantastic app for people with insomnia.

These are the ten popular apps amongst the millennials that are prevalent this year. These apps have the millennial generation at their fingertips. The top 10 apps for millennials mentioned above are among the best apps available in the digital market today that can help a millennial in their life.

Top 10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient

10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
The world of fashion is on a constant change. It is an evergreen industry and a new wave of trend changing the whole concept of fashion every year. The latest wave has been technology which has slowly wrapped its arms around the fashion industry. With more and more industry getting engaged in smartphone apps, fashion has also found its way into it. In the early stages of fashion being influenced by technology, the e-commerce sites have maintained a domain where the fashion aficionados would get a range of variety to choose from. The fashion industry has witnessed a subsequent growth in their sale. But as time went by, the fashion industry started incorporating with the developers to merge fashion and technology and optimize it so that they can be easily accessed through smartphone apps. And then begin the era of fashion apps which is now the latest hub of fashionistas.

Now there are numerous amounts of fashion giants such as Maybell India available on the market. The variety may make you bewildered about choosing the best one amongst it. But for you, we have made a list of the ten best fashion apps which would help to lift up your style quotient. So, let us have a look at the best fashion apps which are handpicked just for you.

1. Stylebook

This app helps you make a wardrobe of your own with the photos of the clothes that you have. It enables you to curate your clothing wardrobe and enables you to look amazing every single day of the week. Even if you have a small collection of clothing, the mixing and matching function of stylebook helps you wear a varied combination of clothes through the week. It organizes the cupboard and helps you plan what to wear for the next day. It gives a detailed account of your cloth-wearing suggestions.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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2. Mallzee

Have you used tinder? Well, this app has function somewhat similar to it. In this app, you can like or dislike a style statement. This app has accessories and clothing from more than forty popular brands.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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3. Spring

Launched in the year 2014, this app caused a renaissance among the fashion apps. This app has a grand launch and changes the whole conception of fashion apps. The user interference of this app is similar to Instagram and has collaborated with more than 80 popular fashion brands across the world. This is a user-friendly app which helps you to purchase things with just a tap.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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4. Cloth

This is one of the best apps if you want to stay updated with the latest fashion trend from all over the world. Just like the pose, this app also enables its user to avail suggestion for clothing up for any occasion. You can even avail suggestion for dressing up for various weather conditions. In this app, you will also find a clothing diary which will help you to stay organized. If you are a follower of fashion trend, then this is probably the best choice of app for you.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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5. Whisp

Whisp is a messaging app where the user talks about fashion and exchanges fashion tips and tricks. It gets the virtual realm a notch higher with its excellent features. In this app, you can also avail your friend's opinion. Suppose, if you are looking forward to wearing a dress for an occasion but not sure what to pair it up with, then you can take help from the app and ask the friends there for their suggestion. The interference of this app is outstanding, and it is closely related to print media. Unlike other messaging apps, this app helps you to lift to fashion statement. This app is a common choice among the group of the fashionistas.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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6. Pose

This is another fashion app which has been causing a revolution among the fashionistas. In this app, a user could upload a picture of him/her and explain about his/her style statement. This is a great app to get fashion inspiration from people across the world. Moreover, you can also pick a piece of clothing from the collection and try it on yourself on this app only which would help you to decide how it looks on you. It is one of the best apps for the fashion experimenters. No matter what occasion you would be dressing for, be it for office, a casual dinner or a party, this app could help you out with all of it.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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7. PS Dept

PS Dept is a personal shopping app which also has a built-in personal fashion consultant option. In this app, you can go to a particular clothing piece which could be paired up with any of your existing outfits. Or, you can even take help of the consultant to choose an entire outfit for yourself. The 24X7 fashion consultant is always ready to help you out with the best outfits which would help to lift up your fashion statement in a minute. This app has collaborated with many of the famous fashion designer brands such as Derek Lam, Chloe as well as Stella McCartney. Download this app today and lift up your fashion statement.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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8. Etsy

It is another fashion app which features millions of artists and their works. From jewelry to clothing to art, this app has everything that you will need. This app also has Android Pay support, shopping details and one can also communicate with the shippers directly via this app.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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9. The Hunt

Regardless of what fashion item are you looking for, name it, and you will get it here. Hunt is a one-stop-shop for all the fashion enthusiasts. You can even find a recommendation from members about an item and from where you can get the same item at a cheaper rate. It is a great app for shopping, getting fashion ideas and also getting social.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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10. Polyvore

This app is a community where people from all around joins to share tons of idea on sale, fashion and much more. In this app, you will also find the latest trends along with shopping options too. From fashion to furniture, you will get it all in this app.
10 Android Apps To Lift Up Your Style Quotient
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Best Chatbot Building Platforms For Developers In 2018

Best Chatbot Building Platforms For Developers
In 2017 we saw unprecedented hype about chatbots, mainly thanks to Microsoft's bot 'Tay' and Facebook moving to integrate chatbot capabilities into Messenger.

The current use of artificial intelligence to communicate with us in natural language can make us feel like we are experiencing the future already. However, you don't have to be a giant conglomerate with an entire team of developers to be in a position to build one for your own business. With the new readily available technology on the market, you can now literally do it from your own home, and you won't need complex programming skills to do so.

Here is a selection of the best current platforms to help to build your chatbot.

Pandorabots

An online service that lets developers build, host and deploy chatbots. It has 225,000 registered developers, and its tools have helped to create nearly 300,000 chatbots. Pandorabots uses AIML [Artificial Intelligence Markup Language], which is the open standard for writing chatbots. Tools on offer include 'Artificial Intelligence as a Service', which provides API access to its bot hosting platform and the 'Pandorabots Playground': a free, integrated development environment for building chatbots.

Rebot.me

A simple service lets you create, teach, test and then deploy chatbots to your website. One of its more attractive selling points is that you don't need programming skills to be able to use it. It works by letting you set up then customize your chatbot, teaching it to respond to specific questions. The more you talk to it, the more it learns. Rebot.me says its chatbots can help visitors to your website become familiarised with your products or services more quickly, among other uses.

Imperson

Disney Accelerator 2015 alum Imperson has created a chatbot generator for designing, deploying and managing chatbots via Facebook Messenger, Skype, Kik, Slack, Twitter, Amazon Echo and SMS.

Specialising in character bots, Imperson has successfully launched Miss Piggy and Doc Brown chatbots developed for Facebook Messenger.

In essence, it breaks away from some of the first menu-driven bot experiences whereby new brands can differentiate themselves and get deeper conversing with their consumers and an overall more engaging relationship.

Flow XO

This UK-based company is providing a visual platform that allows you to quickly build and create your chatbot for your website, Facebook, SMS, Telegram and Slack. It has over 100 integrations with other systems businesses use, without the need for coding abilities or technical knowledge.

Pricing plans start at $19 per month.

ChatbotsBuilder

An online platform that lets you build Facebook Messenger chatbots to capture leads, engage users and build new business relationships. Users can build chatbots in three steps: by choosing and creating a Facebook page, using ChatbotsBuilder to create triggers and replies, then deploying and promoting their bot. It is free to try with basic pricing plans starting at $19 per month.

Mobile Monkey

It lets you build a Facebook Messenger chatbot in minutes with no coding experience required, enabling automated mobile messaging between businesses and their customers. The training process needs you to review and answer a few questions every couple of days, helping your chatbot learn to ask and answer any question about your company.

Mobile Monkey's plans start with a free version with options up to $149 per month.
Best Chatbot Building Platforms For Developers

Landbot.io

A platform that lets you turn a website into a chatbot. With this tool, you can also create bots on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or live chat and manage them from the same platform with human assistance features. It creates a conversational interface in substitution of forms and requires no coding experience to get started.

The Bot Platform

The Bot Platform's CMS allows you to build, test, deploy, and track multiple bots on both Facebook Messenger and Workplace.

Used by the likes of the BBC, Showtime, and Sony Music, its platform enables those with little or no coding experience to build a deployable bot in minutes.

The Bot Platform's marketing automation system functionality allows both users to be segmented based on how they interact with the bot. Alongside the ability to integrate into Google Analytics, this provides insights into user preferences and behavior. Customers can then use the platform to generate bespoke outbound messages like surveys, drip campaigns, and more, aimed at specific user segments.

Engati

A chatbot platform that claims you can build, manage, integrate, train, analyze and publish a chatbot using its software in just 10 minutes.

It currently supports eight major messaging platforms including Messenger, Kik, Telegram, Line, Viber, Skype, Slack and Web chat.

Bot Builder

In March, Microsoft announced it was bringing chatbot capabilities to Skype, and launched Bot Builder for Node.js, a framework for constructing your bots. "It can handle both freeform interactions and more guided ones where the possibilities are explicitly shown to the user," according to Microsoft. It provides a platform where developers can build, test and publish their bots, using frameworks like Express and Restify.

Bots for Messenger

At their F8 developer conference in April, Facebook launched ‘Bots for Messenger’, a tool allowing developers and businesses alike to build chatbots for its Messenger platform (currently being used by almost a billion people). Developers build bots, submit them for review then Facebook decides which get onto Messenger. The three central capabilities are its send/receive API, generic message templates and the ability to customise the welcome screen users first see when interacting with your bot.

Conclusion

There has been a recent explosive growth in messaging apps, 2018 leading into 2019 will see businesses thinking 'messaging first'.

With bot platforms maturing and delivering custom content through messaging, voice, web or app, along with adding features like analytics and live chat, the change has come to how businesses now think about customer interaction.

AUTHOR_NAMEAbout the Author:
James Row is a passionate blogger and professional software developer who started his career in website development Melbourne, has a love for informative writing, and looks to keep you up to date with the latest information about the industry.

How To Choose The Right Marketing Mix To Grow Your Business

Choose The Right Marketing Mix To Grow Your Business
For the modern businesses, establishing their place on the market and getting in touch with their target audience is a crucial step for growth and development. That is easier said than done, especially since the market is overcrowded and highly competitive. Luckily, with the right strategy in place, any business can make a name for themselves on the market. The key is choosing the right marketing mix that will give your business the much-needed boost.
Must Check: Marketing Automation Tools That Every Business Should Be Using
What exactly is a marketing mix? Simply put, a marketing mix encompasses the four elements of marketing, otherwise known as four P's, which make up a marketing strategy. The four P's are product, price, promotion, and place. This framework helps you establish the right approach to your business will take, in order to reach the top of the market and ultimately business success. Here are a few ways to choose the right marketing mix to grow your business.

Choose The Right Product

The crucial element of your marketing campaigns is your product. The goal is to set the product/market fit and determine the need for your products on the market. For instance, will you be able to compete on the main market or will you have to target a specific niche market with your product? What's more, you have to make sure your product is designed in a way that customers will want to buy it and that it serves their specific needs.

It will also influence how you'll label, package, and distribute your products to your customers. Moreover, you must consider the sales of your product, as well as its life cycle and the challenges it may face during that time. For instance, ask yourself these questions: Will my product fill a particular gap in the market or will it serve a specific customer need? Also, will my product actually solve a particular problem my customers have? Can I sell this product for profit after I include the costs of manufacturing?

Determine The Price

Setting the price for your product is a lot more difficult than it seems. You may consider lowering the price of your product below the market's average. Sure, you may get more customers to buy from you and may even outrun your competitors that way, but you must also include manufacturing costs, costs of sales and promotions, as well as how that price affects your profit margin.

What's more, you must discover how your customers perceive the value of your products and how they will pay for it. The key is to set a price for your product that will yield a return on investment. In other words, you must be able to generate profits, in order to have the leftover funds after sales to grow your business further.
Choose The Right Marketing Mix To Grow Your Business

Promote Your Product Well

The third P is probably the most important one because no matter how good your product is or how well priced it is, it's worthless if nobody knows about it. That's why it's important to promote it well. You must consider the right media channels for product promotion. Moreover, you need to decide if the digital approach will work the best or you will have to rely on traditional means as well. Also, you must identify how to tailor the right messages to your audience, in order to get them interested.

If you don't know enough about your customers to develop a good marketing strategy, now is the time to learn as much as you can. For instance, you can offer your audience a chance to get paid to take surveys online. That way, in exchange for an incentive, you get to collect their feedback and valuable data that will help you improve your marketing efforts. The more you know about your customers and their preferences, the better you'll be at creating more compelling offers and personalized promotions.

Pick The Right Place

As the name suggests, the place determines the point of sale or the exact location your customers will be able to purchase your products at. In this modern day and age, businesses are mostly focused on selling their products online. If you're running an eCommerce business, you must also consider the logistics plan for your products. Even though your customers will make purchases on your website, you must have means of storing, packaging and transporting the goods.

You can also open up a retail store of your own or establish a partnership with a wholesale or retail dealer. In that case, you must also plan for proper distribution of your products and ensuring means so that products can reach your customers in an orderly and timely fashion. Choosing a distribution channel for your product depends on your strategy, as well as your budget. That's why it's important to plan for distribution accordingly.

Choosing the right marketing mix isn't simple. You have to take time to consider your options and develop the right strategy that will help your business grow. If you focus on the four P's, you'll be able to evaluate your situation accordingly and create a plan that will drive your business forward.

10 Incredibly Useful Android For Small Businesses

Useful Android For Small Businesses

What Is An App?

An app or an application (which is its full form) refers to any program or group of programs that facilitate the doing of an activity repeatedly. They are designed for the end user. For example, a hotel may create an app for its customers so that they can order food online from it, repeatedly. The main objective is to make ordering food easy so that the activity may be performed on a regular basis. Nowadays, we have apps for every small thing. If you are addicted to this app world, there is a caveat to this world. Apps downloaded on mobile phones may be able to access important data stored on the phone.

Not many people like such intrusion. Therefore, the app world is not for everyone. It is only for people who are tech-savvy and who know their technology well enough to distinguish between an app that seeks to intrude into their data and an app that merely tries to make things easier for them. Nowadays, there are a number of apps coming onto the market for doing various activities. A standing example of it is the bookmyshow app. This app was created to make the activity of booking entertainment tickets online, easier. By doing this the film industry has increased their revenue.

What Is Android?

Now let us tackle android. This is an operating system created by Google for mobile phones. This application software is designed especially for mobiles and it is based on the Linux kernel and other open source software programs, which are designed for touchscreen phones and tablets. Touchscreen phones are called smartphones. There is also an android operating system each for televisions, cars, and wristwatches. There is also an android for game consoles, digital cameras, and personal computers. Right from the time the first commercial Android device was launched in September 2008, to the current period, the Android operating system has changed in leaps and bounds. The current version is called 8.1 "Oreo". Suffice to say that Android is an all-encompassing operating system, which has brought about tremendous change.

Ten Best Android Apps For Small Business

Now that the meaning of apps and Android is clear, let's get down to listing the ten best android apps for small businesses. The ten best android apps are as under:

Asana

This is one business app that everyone should try to apply in his or her daily routines. It is a to-do manager that allows users to allow work to their subordinates. You can also add many sub-sections to it as per the need.

Procore Construction Punch List App

Procore is a project management software that’s tailored for construction professionals that can be downloaded to a smart device that runs either IOS or Android. One of the many interesting features is its construction punch list app for android and IOS. This means that people who are involved in the punch list process can directly write tasks while they are on site, organize tasks depending on its status as well as using QR codes and assign it to tasks.

Camscammer

This application helps you scan documents. Everything from word files to excel spreadsheets can be scanned. It also enables users to quickly share the scanned documents with colleagues, the HR department or wherever else it is needed. This app gives editable pdf files, which can be modified if required.

ExpressVPN

This Android VPN app is one of the best cybersecurity apps on the market. Since new businesses started today often rely on the internet, this app is perfect because it encrypts all online activity and hides your IP. This allows your business to ensure privacy and security.

Google Drive Suite

Google has come out with a number of office apps under the Google drive banner. Through this app, you can get support for pdf, images, notes, documents, spreadsheets and many other things. This app works both, on your mobile and the computer. Due to this, it enjoys tremendous patronage among small businesses.

Google My Business

This app helps your business to be visible on Google search and Google maps. These are huge business lead generators. This app also lets you update facts about your business namely hours of operation, name, and address. Multiple locations can be managed through this app Click Here.

Microsoft Office Suite

This is the ubiquitous Microsoft suite of apps namely Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Here, Word is the word processor, Excel, the spreadsheet maker and PowerPoint, the presentation maker. These have a presence both on the web as well as on the mobile.

Newton Mail

Newton mail is the support app for small business people. It supports most email accounts, be it Rediff, Gmail or even Yahoo. Additionally, it also supports other apps and services like LinkedIn, Ever note, Taoist, Zen desk, etc. This app includes a calendar and a two-step verification process for security.

PayPal

This is one of the better apps for both small and medium-sized businesses. Many businesses use PayPal to manage transactions and invoices. At times, it is used to pay employees. A business account can be set up which can both send and receive money.

Slack

Slack is a business app that helps users do many things. It helps them manage multiple channels, document sharing, a simple interface, a chatbot, etc. It can be integrated with a number of third-party apps and websites like Google drive.

Square Register

This is a very useful business app for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and medium-sized businesses. It can also help manage mobile businesses. Essentially, it is a simple system of point-of-sale. It provides a basic magnetic strip reader free. Better alternatives to this reader may be available at a cost.

Any Authenticator App

A two-step verification process is necessary for any app. It helps prevent hackers from accessing your data easily. It also keeps your contacts, files, and information safe. Platforms like Google, Microsoft and Last Pass all have their own authenticator apps.

AUTHOR_NAMEAbout the Author:
Sunny Chawla is a Marketing Manager at AIS Technolabs – a Web design and Development Company. Helping global businesses with unique and engaging tools for their business. He would love to share thoughts on Ecm Services, Web Designing and Android App Development.

10 Apps To Manage Your Life Better

10 Apps To Manage Your Life Better
The amount of information the human brain is exposed every day is said to be equivalent of 34 GB of data. With this much information daily, you would overload your computer in a week or two. With that amount of data, we can’t remember everything or keep everything under control. It is just too overwhelming for anyone to hold that much data in his or her head.

Thankfully, with our personal digital assistants in our pockets, we don’t have to anymore. We can do much more with our phones than we can do without them. For each and every problem you might face in your life, you can find a good solution on your phone in form of mobile application.

As people tend to have different problems imposed on them, we have tried to give you a good overall list of apps that might help you manage your life better. Let’s dive right into this list of apps.

Evernote

Evernote is the best note-taking app out there. It was released 3 years ago and since then it has helped millions of users with their notes. Use Evernote to create notes with pictures, handwriting or with your voice. The seamless syncing option allows you to make your documents available online, on PC, and your phone. Never forget important things with this app since you can write them down.

Download: iOS | Android

Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the best free options for cloud storage and document management. It enables you to store your files online, making your files available anywhere you are and saving your storage in the process. It has 15 GB of free storage, you can easily search for certain words in documents, and you can share files with other people from the app. If you need an app to create text documents, then just add Google Docs to the list.

Download: iOS | Android

Files Go

Files Go is a must-have app for the local files on your phone. It acts as storage and file manager at the same time. And with the new update, it acts as sharing service as well, enabling you to share files with friends near you. When you don’t have space on your phone, go to clean up screen and follow the steps to save your memory in a few taps. You can also look for your files based on the document type, no matter the folder they are stored.

Download: Android

PDF to Word Converter

PDF to Word Converter app can convert any PDF to Word document on your phone. Avoid retyping files when you can reuse them. You can convert any PDF on your device,on Cloud or by scanning the document directly. This app can be used to make quick fixes on PDF documents and in that way it help users with document management on the go.

Download: iOS | Android

Wallet

Wallet is an app that is made for tracking your expenses. For those who don’t know where most of their budget is spend, this app is a must-have. You can connect it with your credit card, so it will automatically track your payments, but you can add them manually, too. You will get beautiful pie charts, with details, like how much of your budget goes on food, utilities, rent, shopping, etc. By tracking your spendings, you can learn about which areas of your life you can save more.

Download: iOS | Android

Habitica: Gamify Your Tasks

Habitica is a jewel in to-do list apps. This app aims to gamify organizing your tasks, and makes completing your choirs a fun thing to do. After you install it, you create your avatar that will grow stronger and gain levels as you cross out things from your to-do lists. When you fail to do things that you have set up to complete, your character will lose health. There are also tons of customization options, options to complete tasks with your friends and much more.

Download: iOS | Android

Forest

The Forest app cures phone addiction by setting up the counter for 30 - 120 minutes in which you are planting a tree and if you quit the app in that period to check notifications from your social media or any other distraction, your tree will die. You wouldn’t want a little cute tree to die, right? By holding up you accountable for the trees life, you are becoming more productive and focused on the task at hand. Focus more on what truly matters.

Download: iOS | Android

Stop, Breathe & Think

Stop, Breathe & Think app has a self-explaining name, it is one of the best mindfulness apps that puts you in the first place by asking: “How are you feeling today?”. According to your mood and intensity of your feelings, you will receive adequate meditation or breathing exercise to ease your mind. It offers sessions on multiple topics, like sleep better, tame anxiety, strengthen focus, cultivate kindness and manage depression. Whatever your troubles might be, this app tunes to your current state of mind.

Download: iOS | Android

LastPass

We try to protect our online profiles behind passwords. The option to use “12345” everywhere as your password is not an option anymore. In order to help you with managing and creating strong passwords online, we introduce you to the LastPass password manager app. It will automatically fill in login information and create strong passwords. To access all your profiles you need only one master password or fingerprint recognition.

Download: iOS | Android

IFFT

IFFT is a type of app that connects all the other apps and devices in one place. With IFFT you can automate any task on your smartphone to even work with apps which aren’t natively supported. The app uses applets, that are premade automation, that can allow your home lights to turn on when you arrive home, mute your phone when you are in the meeting, send you a message in the morning if it will rain later that day, etc. You can automate almost any task with this app.

Download: iOS | Android

Essential Tips For Designing Mobile UX/UI

Essential tips for Designing Mobile UX/UI
Since invention, the internet technology has developed a lot. There was a time when people have to stick to desktop computers or laptops to use the Internet. A person needs to move from one place to another to perform different works. Tech-savvy people are so addicted to the internet that they don't want to leave it for a long period of time.

That's why they use the internet on mobile devices. It facilities ease of mobility and hassle-free internet access 24*7.

Web designers and developers make a lot of mistakes while designing the UX/UI features of mobile websites. Even a single mistake in your mobile website can displease visitors and repel them away. So what are the main UX/UI factors that you should keep in mind while designing mobile websites? Let contemplate the following points.

1. Minimal Website Design

Always keep in mind that mobile devices have limited space for displaying all the elements of a website. If your website is full of unnecessary advertisements, design elements, pop-ups, lengthy content, it will not get displayed well on mobile devices. In such situations, visitors will flee away to your competitor's site for receiving the same products and services.

So, keep your website as simple as you can and make sure it is easily accessible on all mobile devices. Use only the necessary design elements for the creation of mobile websites. If you don't know how to do this, take the help of an expert designer.

2. Typography

Typography plays an important role in website usability, content consumption, traffic, user engagement. There are a number of website owners that use fancy fonts to impress the targeted audience. Always remember that even a little slice of business matters a lot when you struggle for your survival in the web-based business. A website is visited by people belonging to different age groups. The use of fancy fonts can repel old age people away from your website. So, always use professional and standard fonts on your website. It will make your website look professional and a large number of people will visit your website daily and read the available content.

3. Uniform Color Pattern

We all know that color combination plays an important role in how people perceive your website. A website made up of good color combinations are considered professional and people love to spend time on it. All those websites that are colorful, often considered as unprofessional sites. So, keep user's interest in mind & maintain a uniform color pattern all across your website.

4. Website Loading Speed

Would you like to browse a website that takes a considerable amount of time to load on your mobile device? Definitely not. Slow loading websites frustrate visitors. So, they quash such websites and look for its faster alternatives. Google, the most popular search engine of the world, hates slow loading websites and downgrade it's ranking in its SERP.
Essential tips for Designing Mobile UX/UI
So, try to make your website as fast as you can. Restrict the use of plugins and extensions, use clean code for website/page creation, use a CDN, etc, to make your website or its pages super fast. If it happens, it will rank in Google's top search results and you will be able to get more clicks on your website, which means the generation of sufficient leads.

5. Content Length

Content length matters a lot when you tend to target the business originating from the small screens. If your site's content length is big, visitors browsing it through mobile devices will not be able to view it in full. This causes disappointment and frustration among them and they decrease their engagement with your brand. Therefore, you should keep your content concise, to the point and straightforward. In this way, visitors can easily contemplate your statement by reading the fewer text content.

6. Easy Sign up Options

When your brand starts to gain popularity, people love to use your products and services and subscribe to new offers made by your company. So, they look for sign up options on your website. Therefore, based on your needs, use social sharing buttons, Email subscription facility, corporate Email addresses, etc.

7. Use Of Animation

Animation entertain people and help them to understand the subject matter easily and effortlessly. So, based on your needs, use animation images and make people feel delighted while visiting your website.


8. Straightforward Navigation Path

It is one of the most important factors that must be considered seriously while creating mobile websites. It allows visitors to browse websites easily and find the desired stuff quickly. You should take the help of an experienced web designer to determine the navigation path for your website.

Concluding Remarks

UX/UI design elements matter a lot in while designing websites with a mobile-first approach. Just keep the above described UX/UI design elements in mind to make your website a prime destination for the targeted audience.


AUTHOR_NAMEAbout the Author:
Stephen Chong works as a writer for Fonbell Solution. Fonbell Solution is one of the best IT firm offer web design in Singapore. He loves to share information on latest technology, knowledge, and thoughts with others on the web. For more blogs, you can follow him on Pinterest, and Linkedin.

A Complete Guide To Become A Proficient Web Developer

Guide To Become A Proficient Web Developer
Since the inception of the internet, the web technology has taken leaps and bounds. Today, you can see a nearly infinite number of websites online. Custom Web Application Development is on its rise at this moment. Every business and organization want a visually appealing website at its disposal. Hence, due to an uphill trend and increasing demand, it can be rightly, said that there's a demand for web developers right now.

Becoming a web developer is easy but becoming a proficient web developer isn't. You need to think unique, plan everything ahead of time. Web Development itself has several sections like Frontend dev, Backend dev, Mobile App Dev, Web Programming. Here's a step by step complete guide to become a proficient web developer.

Step 1 – Learn Basics Of HTML

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is a must for top web application development. It is used to create the skeleton for a website. You'll learn how the basic web code works. It gives you an opportunity to create an interactive user interface. All you need is a notepad and a browser.

You can learn about HTML tags, attributes, and elements as a stepping stone. Then proceed to titles, paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, forms, and hyperlink. Now, practice, practice, and practice.

Step 2 – Learn Basics Of JavaScript

Most web and web browsers are, based on JavaScript. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE, Edge, all provide support for JavaScript. You must learn JS to add more interactivity to the website. The language is very popular nowadays it has spread to mobiles, servers, and desktops. So, learning JS will help you in various fields of tech.

You can learn JavaScript by learning about variables and data. Some operations are common to all languages. For example – Mathematical operations, logic, conditionals, looping, arrays, events & callbacks. You can then proceed to learn AJAX, JSON, Scope, to understand data requests. Again, practice, practice, and practice.

Step 3 – Learn About CSS

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) looks more like HTML but differs in functionalities. While HTML is used to design skeleton, CSS is the skin to it. It is used to aid the visual appeal of a webpage. CSS is easy, but it has a lot of hidden tricks. So, try to explore as much as possible. Study and again, practice, practice, and practice.

Step 4 – Exploring The Backend

Congratulations, you've got your hands on what is called the front-end web development. But, there's someone who does the ugly work behind the scenes. It is, referred to as back-end or server-side programming.
You can go for languages like Node JS, Express, Mongo DB for the back end. Node JS allows you to run JS on a server.

Express is a library which acts as an intermediator. It listens to request from web-browser and sends responses. Node JS does the processing.

Mongo DB is a database just like SQL. It also allows to retrieve, store, and manage info.

Step 5 – Choose The Correct Road

Now, you've already explored the front-end and the back-end part of custom web application development. It's your turn to choose, either you want to become a front-end developer, back-end developer or a full stack developer. Full stack developer means you're going to proceed with both back-end and front-end.
Guide To Become A Proficient Web Developer

Step 6 – Advanced Front-End (for Front-End and Full-Stack developers)

1. Attain Perfection In HTML

What you've learned are just the basics. Learn more about spans, abbreviations, meta tags. Go for Advanced HTML which gives you in-depth knowledge about specific applications of HTML5.

2. More About Front-End JavaScript

Learn more about client-side JavaScript. Read about Scope & Closures, Object Prototypes, Async, etc. JavaScript is vast and expanding, so there's always an opportunity to learn something new. Learn about JS frameworks.

3. jQuery Framework

jQuery may be declining, but it’s necessary. It’s a popular JS library which makes daunting tasks easy with a simple API.

4. Get Hands-On Some Popular JS Frameworks

React JS and Angular 1 & 2, are some JS frameworks you should learn. React JS by Facebook helps you to create interfaces. You can even create a cross-platform mobile app using React Native. Angular by Google is also very popular and worth a go.

5. Choose A CSS Framework

Bootstrap by Twitter and Material Design by Google are best CSS frameworks compatible with React and Angular. Bootstrap already holds market while Material is rising.

Step 6 – Advanced Back-End (Back-End And Full Stack Developers)

There's only one step, choose a language and proceed. There are many languages for back-end development, let's discuss some.

Java is most popular. It's everywhere, be it app development, web development or enterprise. It's the best option to go for.

C# is just java but with a lesser market base. So, if you want a contained ecosystem then go for C#.

Python is easy and gets the job done quickly. However, it's a bit on a slower side. If you like concise codes, then Python is for you.

Just textual learning won’t do any good in web development you need to get lots of real-world experience to become proficient. The best bet here is to contribute to open source software on GitHub. You can go freelancing but keep your rates low. In the end, in order to become proficient, practice, practice, and practice.

Logo Design Tips For Effective Communication


Logo Design Tips For Effective Communication
A logo is a visual representation of your business. The aim is to keep it simple and focused. A logo, rightly designed, can be a means of telling the crowd your story. This, in turn, should help the business attract potential customers.

Most businesses fail at doing so because of the failed logo design services. Some logos fail to emotionally attach to the crowd’s feelings. They tend to remain a piece of image instead of actually being capable of deriving a meaning from it.

To ensure that your business succeeds ineffective logo designing, or in case you are a logo design service provider, your client’s business, go through the following tips and make the best out of them.

Know Your Target Audience

Do you know who your target audience is? The target audience is the potential customers of the business. Identifying them in order to know with whom you are communicating will give a clear idea of how your logo needs to be designed. Should it be simple or fancy? Should your color palette be subtle or loud? Answers to these questions and similar ones become easier once you know your target audience.

Know Your Business/Client’s Business

In order communicate your story to the crowd or target audience, it is first and foremost important thing that you know it well yourself. What is the story you want your potential customers to know?

In case you are a logo design service provider, make sure you go through the details of your client’s business. Make sure you go through their brief thoroughly and talk to your client about their business and find out the maximum.

Know Your Rivals

Look into who else is in the competition with you. Find out if your design already exists or is way too similar to an existing one. Find out about your competitors. Research on their weakness and strengths. Know about their failures. Take lessons from them. Inspire yourself from their story or design.

Know The Color Theory

Colors are an excellent way of evoking emotions. Learning about the color theory will help you incorporate the right color in your design to evoke the right feeling. For example, blue is the color of peace, red evokes feelings of bravery, love, energy and passion. Imagine the Coca-Cola logo to be orange or green, would it still evoke the same emotions once you saw it?

As a logo design service provider, go through your client’s website or business card. Focus on the bright colors and incorporate it in your logo design. This will not just cover the ‘evoking emotions’ part but also makes sure the client maintains a certain uniformity in his designs.

Know Your Design’s Flexibility

A brand’s logo will necessarily be used in various forms, sizes, and materials. Design a logo keeping in mind that it not just goes on the business’ website but also maybe on a business card, garment, or posters. Making sure that the logo is compatible with most and flexible will increase its productivity. It will, in turn, help the client to communicate to the maximum crowd and grow.

Know Typography

The font and its size will bring out the personality of the business. Using larger fonts will portray the bold character of the business. A handwritten text will evoke a feel of originality. An elegant font will make the logo look stylish. Study the character and personality of the business as a logo design service provider and choose the right typography style.

Keep It Simple

Make sure that the message that you want to convey is done through a simple and straightforward design. Complicating it too much might result in confusion in the minds of the potential consumers. Make sure you design your placement of text and image or symbol is a neat and clean way so as to avoid misunderstanding. The consumers can connect and remember your logo if it simple and clear and this will turn potential customers into loyal customers since the brand is edged in their mind.

Being Smart

As a logo design service provider, be sure to be smart and creative. Utilize your resources to create something a logo that speaks to the consumers emotionally. Utilize various method and techniques to make your logo stand out and different from the rest. This will help boost your client’s business.

If you’re wondering what makes logos like FedEx. McDonalds or Coca-Cola stand out, it’s how they communicate with the consumers. They not only acquire new consumers but also retain their existing consumers. They are attached to the logo rather emotionally and it is beyond just a small image. Incorporated some of the above tips might help you conquer this art too.

AUTHOR_NAMEAbout the Author:
Hermit Chawla is a Marketing Manager at Sprak Design. He would love to share thoughts on Professional logo design.

Li-Fi IS A FUTURE OF INTERNET

Li-Fi Is A future Of INTERNET
Everyone of us heard about this phrase “Necessity is the mother of invention” but with the accidental invention of Wi-Fi as a “by product” signal of failed mini black hole detection research proves it otherwise. Today ‘John O'Sullivan’a scientist who invented this signal has never anticipated on what he did to help the mankind. Today, more than 60% of the internet traffic is transmitted through a Wi-Fi. Although it is not a secure form of communication, still it is considered as most accepted Wi-Fi Radio frequency signals.

In the age where we are not thinking that technology cannot go better any further, Professor Harald Haas introduced the term "Li-Fi" at 2011 TED Global Talk, where he assured the possibility to transmit high-speed internet signals with the every light built in our home. During his presentation, he even demonstrated it to the audience on how it works. He also said that these signal transmissions can be more secure, safer, cheaper and plenty full due to the availability of the light everywhere. Due to the high frequency of its signal, it can transfer data at more robust speed, more than it is known today. The possibilities are endless, in this article we will discuss about it in more details.

How This Technology Work?

Unlike Wi-Fi uses radio waves, Li-Fi runs on visible light. It uses ultraviolet, infrared and visible light as a medium of communication. Basically, it can be even become by using the simple commercial light-emitting diodes (LED). Li-Fi works in very similar way like the Wi-Fi works. The technology is named as Visible light communications (VLC) which transforms the works by switching the current to the LEDs off and on at a very high rate. The rate at which it will turn on and off is so high that it is not noticeable to the human eye. The LED has to be kept continuously ‘ON’ in order to transmit the signal. But if there is a desire to transmit the while it is ‘OFF’, there is a way to do that.

All you have to do is to dim the LED below human visibility while still emitting invisible light to carry data, because this technology works with invisible light frequency. The light waves are not strong enough to penetrate walls, which make its signals to remain in a much shorter range, but making it more secure from hacking from remote area away from the source. In order to get a signal on receiving device, it doesn’t have to be in the line of sight (except if you are out of the spectrum of LED), because light’s reflective nature can make it travel from one place to another easily. Imagine one day you can direct the signals to the devices by using mirrors connected in your home. LED light reflected off walls still has the ability to carry signals 70 Mbps.

Li-Fi Advantages

An internet signal transmission is still an issue in Airplane cabins during flight or in the hospital where electromagnetic signals can interfere with the operation of other sensitive equipment. With the introduction of Li-Fi, this issue can be addressed. It can also become a safe way of communication in nuclear power plants, where electromagnetic interference is dangerous. The Li-Fi signals can easily be sent to places where there is difficult to send signals, for examples, deep underground tunnel networks, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) in the deep sea (because light travel through water up to 1000 meters). The idea is also purposed for vehicles can communicate with one another through front and back headlights to increase road safety. Street lights and traffic signals could also provide information about current road situations.

Speed

Experiments and researches show that Li-Fi can achieve high-speed internet up to 224 Gbps in bi-directional connectivity just from your LED lightbulb. Theoretically, this speed is very high, but this speed is too high for our current technology to handle. The speed was achieved under lab conditions, but when it will come in the real life with will be much less, still in the real world, chances are that the standard speed will be in 1Gbps. However, this is still a very huge development of the current technology.

Security

According to the pureLiFi (the company whose co-founder is Professor Harald Haas). This technology is more secure than other existing wireless technologies because, light can be confined in any small area. Let’s say Li-Fi is our room, where there are doors and windows that can be shut. Light cannot travel from out of the non-reflective or walls, so the signals will remain inside the confinements away from any unauthorized use. The existing security protocols can be merged inside of these signals and can make it secure ten folds.

Availability

Li-Fi Is A future Of INTERNET
So far we know that this Li-Fi is a light based VLC system. Which only need light for its medium. Light is available everywhere, the non-visible light can be used in the Li-Fi is also available in the dark. So the opportunities are endless. It will also not be a surprise that internet service provider companies like Charted Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon etc. will change their medium of internet and use Li-Fi in future. Sun is a mega source of light which can further become an object of study if this technology rollout now.

Commercialization

This technology is still in the stage of experimentations, but most of the experiments so far are successful. It will not be a surprise if suddenly, in just next few months it will be in our use. Several organizations are already researching and developing commercial applications of this technology.

PureLiFi company is co-founded by professor Harald Haas and Mostafa Afghani. World's first LiFi dongle at Mobile World Congress in 2016 is already introduced. US based company VLNComm has already developed Li-Fi products like LumiNex the world first lighting panel, VLNComm's Li-Fi USB adapter and LumiStick 2 is used to connect electronic devices to Li-Fi networks. Zero.1, in Dubai, uses urban LED street lighting for communications infrastructure and they are considering to add this technology. Other tech giants like Qualcomm, Panasonic, Philips lights, Samsung Electronics are among the larger corporations who are entertaining this technology and already working on this technology.

AUTHOR_NAMEAbout the Author:
I am working as senior editor & report's Analyst. Currently, I am working with Spectrum cable which is in ceiling business of cable, internet and phone. I have strong knowledge of business intelligence, management. I am active, appreciated on several forums, blogs. I can convince readers through the creative skills. If you want to know more about us, follow me on angelicadowson2.