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Best site to find website graphic designers if you are on a budget!

If I don’t have time to do a design task, I have found there is no better resource than Fiverr! If you consider using a gig, here are some of the factors to consider when selecting a freelancer:

Criteria to look for when choosing a service on Fiverr.

Rating: It goes without saying that the rating of a Fiverr freelancer is very important. However, there are times when the rating (as with Amazon) may not be indicative of the quality of the service. This can be because there are not enough ratings and one bad rating will factor in more or because a customer’s expectations were not in line with what they expected. You get what you pay for and to that extent, you have to determine the value of a particular gig requested. Sure it is tempting to select a $5 gig, but you cannot always expect the quality of a more expensive gig. In some cases, the gig might be priced reasonably because a freelancer is just getting started. In other cases, the gig may simply be higher quality service and is worth it because of the freelancer’s talent and experience.

Read the reviews and determine if there is consistency in customer satisfaction. Remember that reviews are not always legit (again, as is the case with Amazon), so you do have to make a decision based on your overall assessment. Fiverr does the best job it can at offering information about a particular gig.

Contact the gig provider with any questions that you feel are left unanswered after reading the gig details and expectations.

With some services, ask for a sample of what you are requesting. This obviously will vary depending on the type of project.

Make sure the response time is reasonable, keeping in mind that the services are from around the world.

There is a reason why Fiverr has a Category Rank of #139 with 62 Million visitors a month!

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How do I add an affiliate link to a WordPress website?

There are many ways to add links to your website. The following are the easy ways to add an affiliate link to your website. Though you will need to access code for a few of these techniques, there is no need to know coding to create affiliate links on your website.

Table of Contents

1. Hyperlinking

2. Banners

3. Embed code

1. CLICK the Share button under the video

button">2. CLICK the Embed <> button

3. Copy the Embed code

4. Click the Text button in the upper right corner of the post

5. Paste the code next to the cursor

6. Click back to visual mode and the video will appear.

4. Pasting Link Directly On Your Website

5. Images

6. Plugins

1. Hyperlinking

Hyperlinking is done using the chainlink symbol on your editing platform. First, highlight the word or words you want to link to a particular product or page and then right-click on the highlighted area and select the chainlink symbol on your editing platform. A box will open and you can place the link in and close the box. Hyperlinking is by far the most common way to link an affiliate product to an offer and they work well as they are less intrusive when a visitor is reading your post or article.

2. Banners

Banners are offered to affiliates in two forms. Either the banner is already set up with the HTML code that you copy and paste into your website in the text mode or the banner is an image and much the same way you hyperlink a word you just highlight the image and use the same chainlink symbol to add the link to the image.

3. Embed code

Embed is basically the same as what has been outlined above. It is the process of taking the block of HTML code and pasting it into your text mode of your editor in the spot where your cursor clicked prior to leaving the visual mode. Embed codes are used for many reasons, not just to post affiliate products. On YouTube, If you want to post a video to your website that will place the video and not just a link on your website, you use the embed code option on youtube and copy and paste the code into the text mode of your editor.

Placing a YouTube embed code into a WordPress website:

1. CLICK the Share button under the video

2. CLICK the Embed <> button

3. Copy the Embed code

4. Click the Text button in the upper right corner of the post

5. Paste the code next to the cursor

6. Click back to visual mode and the video will appear.

4. Pasting Link Directly On Your Website

Pasting links directly on your website is also an option and when you refresh your site you will find that the link becomes active. This is not the most desired approach since the link is not as aesthetic as any of the other methods mentioned above. Most marketers in this situation would choose to type something such as CLICK HERE and then highlight this text and hyperlink the link to the text.

5. Images

Images are again the same as using a banner image. Use an image the same way you would a banner. Highlight the image and then add the link to the box that opens when you click on the chainlink in your editor.

6. Plugins

Plugins are another way to work with linking and WordPress has many plugins that can help with this task. However, it is hard to suggest using a plugin for a process that is straightforward. The fewer plugins you use on your site the better to both, maximize site speed and maintain security. (plugins that are not updated can make your website more at risk of being hacked)

Final Thoughts

Many website owners are concerned about the risk of using affiliate links incorrectly and getting banned from an affiliate program or social media platform.

The important thing is to not listen to random discussions online about whether it is or isn’t alright to use an affiliate link in a particular way. Years ago this was a very confusing matter when posting Amazon products online … Pinterest also had an unclear policy about how affiliate links could be used.

What I have found is that you have to get the answer from the terms of service and admittedly this can still be difficult. As mentioned earlier the rules are much clearer now about what can and cannot be done.

The best approach has been and continues to be sending affiliate links from a social media platform to a landing page. This avoids any problems relating to direct linking. What is nice about having a website for your affiliate links is that your website pages can be used as landing pages.

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How to use AI in Marketing

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After building your WordPress business website, companies are faced with how to get customers and clients using digital marketing. This article discusses how and why ai in marketing is becoming so important to create effective marketing campaigns.

AI or artificial intelligence marketing is the use of artificial intelligence to create powerful digital marketing campaigns. The software that is now available makes this a marketing strategy available to any company willing to invest in AI technology.

AI marketing has been around for many years, though it has only recently started to become a major component of marketing campaigns. There have been hurdles early on, focused on how information gathering is performed and though this has been addressed there are still strict guidelines on how artificial intelligence can be used in digital marketing.

The transition has been much like the gradual transition from direct or conventional marketing to digital marketing. The time it took companies to jump on board with digital marketing was far too long. To this day, there are still companies that have not taken advantage of online marketing strategies.

Using AI for marketing ad creatives and banners, is not to be confused with some of the issues that can come up when using AI for content marketing. The same rules apply in terms of copyright and plagiarism; however, the limited content with marketing campaigns makes the job of integrating AI not nearly as tedious.

Content marketing using AI is done to create information to help with Google ranking. Content writing is often 1000 to 2000 words and has to be unique and well-researched.

AI marketing optimizes ad creatives by using artificial intelligence to combine the most powerful components of online marketing campaigns (database) into your marketing campaign.

How to use AI in Marketing:

Though it might seem easy to simply jump right into an AI platform for marketing, with the belief that taking this approach would automatically improve your marketing campaigns. However, much the way AI should not be used as a sole replacement for content creation, using AI for marketing should be used to enhance your digital marketing.

As many found out with the evolution of PPC advertising, it was and still is easy to lose a lot of money if you are not aware of how to market online. The following is what would be the best steps to take for a business that is considering incorporating AI software into their digital marketing campaigns.

Take the AdWord Google certification course if you are not well versed in PPC advertising.

Learn about and practice PPC advertising until you can control your ad spend and split test.

Once you have become comfortable with creating PPC campaigns, introduce software that uses AI to optimize your marketing campaigns.

There are many AI software to choose from, Ad Creative is one that works well with Google Adwords to create powerful marketing campaigns:

Using AI in marketing offers companies a number of benefits:

1. Data collection can be streamlined and analyzed efficiently.

2. Customer service and personalization can be enhanced.

3. Research and analysis of data can help identify trends early.

4. Ultimately artificial intelligence helps free up staff to deal with projects that cannot be managed through AI.

[[[At the center of any AI-powered program is the ability to establish a mathematical relationship between two variables]]]

AI requires a five-stage process:

The following is a general explanation of these five phases that are inherent to the application of Artificial Intelligence:

Problem Scoping — This is the first stage and is about understanding the problem and how limitations can be met based on constraints associated with a particular business.

Data Acquisition — In order to make quantifiable measurements between two variables and hence develop a mathematical relationship, data has to be accurately acquired. Depending on the industry, data gathering can be done using many devices such as various sensors and cameras, established databases that have gathered information through websites and registrations, etc.

Data Exploration — Arranging the data such that it is in a uniform arrangement and able to be subjected to EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS.

Modeling — Creating models from the data is then performed by analyzing data trends and the ability to create a mathematical relationship between parameters.

Evaluation — The final step is to evaluate the project with real-life data and measure the loss functions. This helps to quantify how far a model is from making correct predictions. Ultimately, if the model performs well on new data then it is ready to be deployed as an AI application.

Companies that invest the time and money into researching how to use AI as part of their marketing campaign strategy will prevail ... AI is the way of the future for online marketing.

There will be a lot of scrutiny about the use of AI until mainstream businesses finally accept that ai marketing (aside from the reasoning power) can outperform the most efficient and organized effort by an expert IT marketer with access to the best IT software.

The most powerful addition to online digital marketing has been the use of AI-powered marketing software. In 2022, it is becoming essential to learn how to use AI in marketing to keep up with the competition online.

For more information, check out our website at:  

Website Building Tutorials

Regards,

Doug

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Why Is WordPress The Best CMS Platform?

It does not matter what business you are in, your website represents your brand in front of a massive audience so it needs to be something different from your competitors and be the best.

Choosing the right CMS platform is essential because it will decide the tools, customization options, and design features you will have available to you.

Even more important, the platform you choose will impact the performance of your website in terms of loading speed and other core vitals that are key to ranking on Google.

WordPress is frequently updated, well tested, and comes with a community of passionate developers and users, offering an unrivaled depth of support. According to a recent survey, Word Press powers 32.3% of all websites on the internet. Here are some of the key reasons why WordPress is considered to be the best CMS platform:

WordPress is free

One of the biggest selling points is that this platform does not charge even a penny for its usage. This is a huge perk for using WordPress and because it is an open-source platform it is constantly being updated and checked for code errors. You can take the privilege of using it over the longer term and also themes, plugins, and other tools without even paying for them as there are tons of free and low-cost options to choose from. It is open source too which means you can alter or improve its source code in a way that you like to customize your website functionality or its appearance. (For more about open source see below)

Is It Easy to set up and has a great user interface?

WordPress is used by people, including top WordPress Designers, who have no knowledge of how to code. Most developers will actually discourage owners of WordPress websites from tampering with the WordPress code as there is rarely a need to change the code. Developers say that changing the code can cause problems if you are not well trained in WordPress coding and troubleshooting.

As has been mentioned in many of our other articles, you also have many options when it comes to choosing a theme. You can switch out themes and experiment with many different features and plugins. With all this flexibility you can still have your website up and running in no time.

You want your website to look professional for your business so if you don’t have experience working with WordPress you have the option of getting someone to help you. Since it is such a popular CMS platform there are many WordPress developers and designers available online at affordable rates when compared to other website developers.

Hostgator hosting is second to none when it comes to customer service 24/7 with access to live tech access by simply picking up the phone. There are many Hostgator WordPress hosting reviews online to watch or read. Though there is a lot of information about the differences in technical resources between various hosting companies, few companies can compete with the immediate live support offered by the Hostgator hosting company.

WordPress is SEO friendly

Word press is SEO (search engine optimization) friendly right out of the box. You can then use various SEO plugins to further optimize your website and there are countless videos on YouTube if you need help configuring a plugin.

WordPress makes use of standard compliance, and high-quality code and produces semantic markup. Search engines, like Google, love this platform configuration and this is the reason WordPress websites tend to rank well with good SEO compared to other website platforms.

WordPress was developed while keeping security in mind. However; the internet is constantly evolving so there is always the chance your site can become prone to cyberattacks, the most common being a brute force attack. Vulnerability to hackers is a concern with every platform. One good thing about WordPress is that because it is so popular, security breaches are identified and addressed quickly.

As a WordPress website owner, you have a good amount of control over the security of your site. You can follow some simple precautions listed below to help secure your website. Unfortunately, no website is completely immune to being hacked; however, WordPress gets top priority when it comes to fixing any security issues, given the number of businesses that depend on it:

Choose to download plugins and themes that are known to be the most secure.

Keep your plugins and theme updated. WordPress sites with outdated plugins are less secure.

There are low-cost security plugins such as WordFence Security.

WordPress can handle different media types

When it comes to your website it is not just limited to text, you also need a built-in media uploader to upload videos, images, and audio files. WordPress supports embedded websites which means you can embed YouTube videos, tweets, Instagram photos, and much more by just adding the URL in the WordPress post editor.

WordPress Is Mobile-Ready

No matter what kind of visitors you have or what type of audience you are targeting, it is essential to have a mobile-ready website since visitors with mobile devices far outnumber those with desktops and laptops. So if your site is not mobile-ready you are actually losing a large portion of your potential website visitors. If you want your website to look good on any device WordPress has the ability to be very mobile-friendly. For more information about WordPress hosting, Google

WordPress is open source

The fact that WordPress is an open-source platform is yet another reason why WordPress is the best CMS. The source code for WordPress is available for modification by developers familiar with WordPress. Since WordPress website designers and developers have access to the source code and can modify it, there is an open collaboration between developers which inevitably results in a better end product.

With the software development being decentralized, WordPress stands to benefit from the input of unlimited developers with varying degrees of expertise. This only enhances the high-end functionality and design of the WordPress platform.

Since IT technology is extensive, like any other professional service, there are developers who are specialized in one type of code or even just one aspect of a particular type of code. This is a major reason why WordPress has such an advantage over other websites which are limited to using the developers within their company.

This is a major reason why WordPress is the best CMS platform. Even when looking at WordPress and SEO, clearly WordPress has the advantage once again. The platform benefits from developers who are SEO specialists and familiar with coding within the WordPress CMS platform.

If you have ever asked … Is WordPress good for SEO? … all you have to do is Google other website-building platforms and you will see that their SEO is often compared to WordPress which has in many ways become the gold standard. WordPress is among the best CMS for SEO and with the ever-increasing importance of SEO for Google ranking, it is not surprising WordPress’ e-commerce platform (woo-commerce) is the most common platform used for E-comm marketing. If you want to see this for yourself, simply go to BuiltWith.com and compare the number of E-commerce sites using WordPress compared to all the other options available. None of the others come close!

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Conclusion

The flexible functionality of WordPress websites is just some of the reasons why WordPress is so popular.

Many of the top brands use WordPress to power their websites including Time Magazine, Facebook, The New Yorker, Sony, Disney, Target, The New York Times, and more. So if you choose a WordPress website for your startup business, you are in good company!

Regards,

Doug

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Website Builder vs Self-Hosted Platform

For years the question has come up of whether to use a website builder vs a self-hosted platform. Some of the more popular website all-in-one builders (not plugins) include: WIX, Weebly, Shopify, Volusion, BigCommerce, etc., or use a self-hosted website such as WordPress with a website builder plugin such as Elementor or an eCommerce plugin like WooCommerce. 

WordPress is actually the most popular self-hosted eCommerce platform and is created by simply installing the Woo-commerce plugin. You can check out this information at the website: Builtwith.com

Perhaps the most searched keyword phrase about selecting a website platform is: Website Builder vs Self-Hosted Platform

The fundamental difference between the two types of online website creation lies in the fact that a website that is built on an all-in-one platform such as WIX, etc, though far easier to learn and create is not an asset years later. This means that the money and time you spend on the website is not growing a piece of real estate online. If you don’t continue the website with the company or should the company go out of business (very unlikely), you would have to transfer data and hopefully be able to keep your site intact. Just changing a hosting company is a lot easier.

Related Post:

Is It Worth It To Host My Own Website

You own the website and once it is generating income you can sell your website for many multiples times the income it produces in one month. For example, if you create a website that generates $2000 a month, assuming it is a quality site with excellent content and manage by a good advertising company, currently, it can potentially be sold for up to 45 times monthly income or as much as $90,000.

Again, this website valuation relates to websites with valuable content. So if you have a content website making money through ads you would definitely want to build a self-hosted business website since no one can take that away from you. You own it outright!

After building and writing blogs with WordPress for 15 years, I feel strongly about self-hosted websites unless the site is a static business website or for certain e-commerce models. Bloggers who spend thousands of hours building their sites should always use a self-hosted site. Unfortunately, years ago when I used to consult with bloggers, the most unfortunate situation I would run into was someone who had built a highly successful blog for years on a platform such as WIX or Weebly.

Many clients were mom bloggers and if at all possible, depending on where they were in their blogging career, I would encourage them to shift over to WordPress. org, so they “owned” their blog.  At the time even email lists acquired through all-in-one platforms were not transferrable. Fortunately, this has changed for many companies, though clearly a question you would want to ask an all-in-one hosting company at the outset. Building an email list through your blog is a tremendous asset and you never want to give that up.

Hopefully, this information will be helpful for those who are just getting started building a business website.  Upcoming posts will be sharing a great deal of information learned over many years. Including email marketing, autoresponders, content creation software, and legitimate social media management companies for those who desire social media traffic in addition to targeted search engine traffic.

Website Building Tutorials

Finally, after discussing so many options for hosting, in this article and other posts, there is also the option of building a website within a hosting or domain company. This option is often aggressively offered once a domain name or hosting company is selected.

This includes Hostgator, GoDaddy, NameCheap, and many if not most other companies dealing with domains and hosting. Although this is an option, I would not recommend this over building your own self-hosted WordPress blog.

The hosting and domain registrar companies that have ventured into the website building sector may offer good products and make it super simple to get started, it is important to remember that you are still building your online company’s major asset on rented land!

Use domain registrars and hosting companies for what they were initially designed for and leave the website building, customization and apps to the WordPress CMS platform. Maintain full control over the website you will invest countless hours and money creating.

The ease with which one can create a website on an all-in-one platform is the reason so many new business owners are searching for a website builder vs a self-hosted platform. Try to resist the temptation!

Doug

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Is Building My Own WordPress Website Worth It?

Is building my own WordPress website worth it? Absolutely, unless you simply need a static website so customers can find your business or because you just prefer a ready-made e-commerce platform.

However, even for an e-commerce website, WordPress’s woo-commerce plugin for e-commerce is still the most popular e-commerce website platform.

Building your own WordPress website will pay dividends in the end.

The following are just a few of the many reasons why you want your own WordPress-hosted website online:

1 This might seem obvious, but hosting your own website means you own your website outright and are not limited in terms of what you can do when it comes to design, hosting, and collecting emails.

2 You will be putting a lot of time (thousands of hours) into building your website, it only makes sense you would want such an asset to be fully within your control.

3 You will also be putting money into your website, even if you choose to go with an all-in-one website building platform. In most cases, you will pay once for a plugin or other software to enhance your site. Other options will likely involve a monthly charge for the duration of time you run the website.

4 Getting help for a WordPress website from developers is far easier than other platforms because WordPress is the most popular CMS platform online. WordPress hosts approximately 40% of business websites online.

5 Some website building companies may have restrictions on email list marketing. This was a huge problem in the past and is far less of a problem now, but it is worth looking into.

6 Advertising options may be limited depending on the platform you use for your business website. With WordPress, you will have few, if any limitations as you will be using the most popular e-commerce Website platform online!

7 WordPress. org is an open-source platform and is constantly improving because an endless number of developers are able to enhance the platform.

8 WordPress has tens of thousands of plugins to manage the design and functionality of your website for your specific needs.

9 In terms of knowledge about working online and constructing a website, WordPress does have an increased “barrier to entry”.

However, it is not due to affordability but rather a result of the time that is involved to learn the platform. This limits the number of individuals who use WordPress to those who are more invested in their business.

It may not be said, but many customers do not look at an all-in-one, cookie-cutter website with the same authority as a WordPress website that is built correctly.

10 When hosting needs become a priority as a result of your website’s database size and increased traffic, there is the option to select a hosting plan that is specifically designed to host WordPress websites.

11 Some advertisers and affiliate programs regard WordPress websites with more authority if the design and development are professional. Granted if a website, regardless of the hosting and platform, is very large and well-established this may not be a factor.

12 If you plan to sell your website, a website on a WordPress platform is often more desirable. Should your website be maintained online by a website building company, there is always the chance the company could close or change hands which is something you will have no control over.

This can be a very important issue as websites that make money, sell for many multiples times their monthly income.

13 Search engine optimization is yet another factor to keep in mind. If you are depending on content creation to rank in Google Search this is particularly important.

The fact that some of the well-known website companies now say their SEO is now as good as WordPress says something. It suggests that WordPress for SEO is the gold standard for comparison.

This is especially true as WordPress SEO plugins continue to improve, now incorporating AI, etc.

Simply put, if you don’t host your own website, you are building a website on “rented land” and if your website is your business that is relinquishing a lot of control over an asset you are literally building from scratch.

Unless you have other reasons to choose a website builder company, don’t let the ease of setting up a website in a matter of minutes without any online experience tempt you. Take the time to learn WordPress and in the end, you will be happier.

It is cheaper and you will maintain full control over all the content and software behind your business website.

So…do you still have some questions? … Is building my own WordPress website worth it? … Is WordPress good for professional websites? … Do I need WordPress To Build A Website?

In most cases, the answer to all these questions is a resounding YES!

If you were to research each of these questions you would find that the overwhelming majority of individuals answering these questions would say absolutely! Not because there is something in it for them. It is simply the truth.

Nothing comes close to WordPress! Competitors are trying to get a portion of the online business website industry, while WordPress is currently the CMS platform being used by roughly 40% of all online business websites.

There really is no reason to look elsewhere. Even the price is the best, assuming you are not looking at free hosted websites which are very limited in functionality. Free hosted websites are free because ads are placed on your site. You want your ads on your site!

For more information about building your WordPress website, visit Website Building Tutorials for more articles and video tutorials.

Doug

If you prefer to have Fiverr build your website creation, just make sure to choose the right gigs.

Fiverr Services For WordPress Business Websites