As a small business owner, your website is one of the most important tools that you have in growing your business, getting more customers on board and generally making sure that things are moving in the right direction. It is clearly important to make sure that you are doing whatever you can to keep your website strong, but to make sure of that you first need to have a good sense of the health of your website generally. That is something that is fairly easy to determine, but it does take a few steps to do it right. Let’s take a look at some of the things to bear in mind as you attempt to do this with your business’ website.

Visitor Count

One of the most important things of all is the visitor count, as that shows exactly how many people are coming to your site, and therefore how impactful the site is likely to be as a marketing tool. The important number here is the one that relates to unique pageviews, as that shows you just how many individuals are coming to your website. If this figure is low, that could be a problem. Fortunately, there are ways to improve it, such as hiring an seo expert to try and drive your website up to the top of the search engine results pages. Make sure that you are doing whatever you can to keep your visitor count high, as it really does make a difference overall.

Ease Of Navigation

Another important thing to be aware of is how difficult or easy it is to navigate around the site. There are many reasons that this is so important. For one thing, it makes a difference to how many people are likely to stay on your site once they get there. That’s important if you run an ecommerce store, for instance, or if you are merely hoping for customers to be able to find out information on your website that they might need. It’s also something that shows you have a care for the person visiting, which always goes down well. Make sure that your website is easy to navigate around if you want it to be a successful one that people like to go to and make use of.

Design

The design of a good website should be simple and easy to understand, and it should not get in the way of the function of the site. In fact, you could say that the ideal website has a design which aids the function in some way or another, but at the same time it should also fall in line with the branding of the business itself. Getting all of that right can be tough, but if you manage it then you are going to have a much better website on your hands in general, which is going to help your business along much more smoothly too. That is something that you will want to make sure of.

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Building your business and keeping it sustainable is one of the biggest challenges as a business owner, especially if you are really eager to expand your reach and increase your revenue. A lot of people fail during their first attempt, but that does not mean you will. It’s just that some businessmen succeed because they commit time and considerable resources to invest in their business. Of course, there are hundreds of other factors to consider. It’s not just about thinking about what your business should be. The real challenge comes after that.

Managing and expanding your network will make you struggle. Looking for prospects and turning them into returning customers will bring you to the point of giving up. This is also applicable to the shipping industry. Everything won’t come easy in the business world, but if you take these 4 handy hints, you can increase the probability of success of your business. 

#1: Assess if shipping is the right industry for you

One of the most important things to remember for shipping vehicles overseas is assessing if this is the right industry for you. You have to ask yourself if you have enough resources, money, and time to manage every challenge that comes your way. Given the resources available, are you willing to commit to it? Are you ready to take the path? Is this something you are considering for the long term?

Getting into the shipping industry might be a huge challenge now in a highly saturated market. When assessing the shipping industry, you need to make sure that you have a long-term vision for yourself and plan accordingly. Do you have any liaisons in other countries with whom you can coordinate in terms of receiving shipments and dealing with customs? Do you have extensive knowledge of or keep up-to-date with other countries’ import laws and customs duties? Do you have the necessary equipment to store cargo temporarily?

Planning ahead will keep you from switching into another industry just because you don’t see yourself holding on to your business for too long.

#2: Search and target the right segment

Setting your target market is one of the most important things you have to do when you are dealing with shipping overseas. Are you looking at purely shipping vehicles or heavy equipment overseas or moving freight in general? Are you planning to partner with brick-and-mortar or online businesses and be their sole freight movement service?

Apart from knowing your target market, consider that certain locations and countries won’t suit you. You should not let this idea bring you down. Focus on the locations that will make your business life easier. To find the right market for you, don’t hesitate to ask for help from other experts and do a lot of research. Remember, you are dealing with a big business here. You don’t want to spend your capital on unnecessary expenses that will give you nothing. 

#3: Plan your exports carefully 

You have to set out the plan for your business thoroughly. The production, marketing, sales, shipping, and other similar related processes are your key activities here. When planning for your business, make sure to touch every corner and segment. If you think outsourcing your tasks will make everything easier, go for it. If you can do them in the house and it will cut your costs, don’t hesitate to follow this route.

#4: Always comply with the rules and regulations

Don’t enter the shipping industry (or any business in general) without the correct licenses and permits to operate. Failing to acquire the permits and licenses might mean downtimes for weeks or even months. If there is a need to comply with a certain law and tax requirements, consult with a legal team to help you complete all necessary paperwork and requirements. The legal issues related to exporting and importing may cause your business to fall. If you don’t want this to happen, put everything on the table before you start your business. Keep in mind that you are dealing with handling cargo from country to country. You have to make sure that the cargo you are moving is safe and gets to its destination in good order as well.

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It’s truly a great time to be a work-from-home entrepreneur. The internet has opened up side-hustle and income opportunities never dreamed possible just a couple decades ago.

Everyone’s looking for that easy online income idea, but the truth is that making money online is a business just like any other. Being successful in any of these opportunities means cutting through the myth of online income and learning what products or services work for you.

Finding the best ways to make money can be overwhelming so I wanted to share my favorite three online income strategies, three that helped me make $142,000 last year.

Blogging: Where it All Started

Making money as a blogger and developing your piece of online real estate means finding the best online income sources for new bloggers as well as the ones that will make you the most money.

Now blogging is different from the other two online income sources we’ll look at. For the most part, blogging is going to be how you get other income sources in front of people. It’s the vehicle that allows you to make money with self-publishing or courses or affiliate marketing.

Not only is creating a blog critical to these other income sources, it can also be its own income source though.

Blogging is the New Real Estate

I’ve been running my own blogs since 2014. I’m constantly amazed at how easy it is to create and develop an online property and how it can grow into a solid cash flow. I now own three sites and averaged $12,200 a month in 2019..

Blogging isn’t an immediate source of passive income, as many people make it out to be, rather it’s a business just like any other. You have to put in the time to produce articles, promote them on social media and develop your revenue sources.

But blogging can grow into an amazing income source over time.

The largest traffic source for most bloggers is from Google search traffic. Building that traffic from search takes time but visitors will continue to find your site well after you’ve stopped promoting your articles.

Creating an online income from blogging means following a few simple rules:

●      Balance growing your blog traffic with making money

Too many bloggers wait forever to start making money because they’re still ‘building traffic’. If you have one visitor, you can make money.

●      Diversify your income sources.

Use advertising, affiliates, sponsored posts, courses, and self-publishing. Blogging income sources can be unreliable from month-to-month, so you don’t want to rely on just one source.

●      Don’t avoid search engine optimization (SEO).

A lot of bloggers think SEO is too technical or too much work but learning the basics can really help set you apart. Even a new blog with a little SEO magic can rank your posts on the first page of Google for free traffic.

The ease of starting a blog hides the hard fact that you’ll need to work to grow your blog. Stick with it though and blogging will drive your other income sources as well as grow into an income source of its own.

Self-Publishing: My Favorite Passive Income Source

Self-publishing has been, by far, my favorite source for online income. It’s not my largest revenue source but is easily the most passive.

I’ve made a total of $86,190 since 2015 from twelve self-published books on Amazon, paperback and audiobook. I average over $2,000 a month from the books and add to that $15,000 from the rights to another book I sold and you can see the true money-making potential here.

Better still is that self-publishing is almost completely passive. After launching your book and getting those initial sales to rank on Amazon, you’ll need to do very little to keep making new sales every month.

Self-publishing is a natural fit for bloggers

You’re already creating content and developing your expertise in a niche, why not monetize that expertise?

Besides publishing books through platforms like Amazon, you can also convert posts or guides into printables to sell through your site. Creating printables of just a few pages is a great idea because you can hyper-target your marketing with printables directly related to your high-performing posts.

Try this passive income self-publishing strategy to seamlessly work the income source into your blogging

• Choose a popular topic on your blog that you can turn into a book, a topic that you can create a transformation around.
• Brainstorm the process behind causing this transformation in readers including major steps, frequent questions and hurdles.
• Research books within the topic on Amazon. What are other authors talking about, what are they missing and what can you add? Check out reviews for each book as well. What did readers like and what else did they want to see?
• List out 8 – 12 chapter ideas for your book. These should offer a natural path to your reader’s transformation including everything you found through your research.
• Outline each chapter, the relevant topics in each and what you want to cover, then publish one chapter a week as a blog post.
• After a few months, collect all the posts into a single document and reformat into a book. Once the book is published, add a call-to-action and a link in each post to your Amazon page.
• This strategy breaks your book into manageable chunks and keeps you on track to finish it. It also turns your blog into a ready-made marketing channel. Each post will start drawing Google search visitors, readers that are targeted and interested in your book’s topic.

Self-publishing won’t make you rich but it’s a solid online income source. After launch, just a few sales a month from advertising and your blog should be enough to keep the book ranked and generating sales from the billions of users on Amazon.

I make between $100 and $500 on each of my published books but they average out to stable monthly income. Don’t give up if one book isn’t a best-seller. Publish a few books and the numbers will work out for you.

Video Courses: The Next Level for Online Income

There’s a rule of thumb in online income: You can make quick money through advertising and affiliate partnerships, but the real money is in your own products.

I’ve seen it in transitioning from affiliates to spending more time on self-publishing and when making the transition to the next level, online video courses.

Self-publishing is great, but you’ll make about $3 per copy sold. The upside is that you benefit from Amazon’s billions of monthly views to sell hundreds of copies of your books.

But why not make $300 per sale?

This is the idea behind creating a video course. It takes longer to develop your course, and you probably won’t make as many sales, but you only need a few sales to make thousands a month.

Whereas most ebooks on Amazon sell for between $3 to $5 a copy, you can easily price your courses between $99 and $500 each. I’ve seen video courses and workshops sell for $1,000 though I prefer the lower range.

Creating a great video course isn’t as difficult as it seems. If you can create a book, you can turn it into a video course of the material. Not only can you turn a video course into a stable monthly income, but it will build your brand for sponsorship opportunities and even more money.

Creating a video course is a lot more work than publishing a book but you’ve already got some of the work done. See which of your books are popular with readers then consider converting those books into video courses.

Key Tips for Making Money with Video Courses

• Just as you created marketing channels by posting your book chapters to your blog, consider uploading a few of your course videos to YouTube.
• Start developing a YouTube channel now for your courses so you’ll have an audience that is used to following you on video.
• Use your YouTube channel to start the learning curve for video production. Believe me, there’s a lot more that goes on in producing a good video than you see by watching it. Practicing with videos on your channel will help you get proficient before you start recording course material.
• Courses don’t need to require weeks of students’ time. Think of your course in terms of the transformation you’re trying to produce in students and the quickest way to get them there.
• Invest a little money to boost the quality of your courses audio and video. This means using a quality webcam or DSLR camera and a digital microphone.
• People don’t buy information; they buy the transformation. Remember that when creating and promoting your course. What is the change you want to create?
• Be conversational. Nobody wants to sit through three hours of flat instruction. Share your personal stories within the theme.
• Keep it exciting and engaging with different media throughout the course. Use some talking head videos, PowerPoint presentations, screen-share walk-throughs, and even animated sequences to keep your students engaged.

These aren’t the only sources for online income but are three on which you can center your work-from-home business. Each of these three income ideas is at least partially passive, meaning you’ll continue to make money each month even as you move on to the next product.

Don’t rely on just one income source

Diversify your monthly income for reliable and substantial cash flow. It can be devastating seeing your only source of online income drop off. Being able to rely on multiple sources helps keep you in the game without getting discouraged.

The beauty is that you don’t need dozens of ideas. Focusing on just a few proven income sources can set the foundation for your work from home business, just keep at it and you will make money!

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There are many things that can help you to find success in business. But while you might know that holding an MBA gives you some valuable skills, there are plenty of other areas of study that can help you out too. If you have a keen interest in history, your historical knowledge can be extremely useful to you as a business person in several ways.

Know How History Has Affected Business

A strong knowledge of the history of business can prepare you to be a good leader in business. When you understand how certain historical events, both within the economy and other parts of society, have affected businesses, you can be prepared for similar events occurring in the future. For example, you can understand how military action might have affected businesses in the past.

Learn from Past Mistakes

They say that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. One of the best reasons to be a history buff is that you can learn about mistakes in business that have led to disaster. When you understand how businesses can be affected by various decisions, you can apply the best thinking to the running of businesses you’re involved with.

Understand the Power of Propaganda

There are many links between political campaigning and marketing. Propaganda has been used in many political contexts to influence people in various ways. In business, marketing to consumers is much like campaigning to get voters on your side or to get people to take an interest in a particular social issue.

Infographic Design By Norwich University

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