A high quality web hosting provider needs to have three things:

1. Fast, secure technology that has what your website needs to run well
2. Hosting options that give your business room to grow
3. Fast access to customer support members who know what they’re talking about, and a huge catalog of nuanced self-help content

InMotion and SiteGround, our two top picks, are both excellent options. We think most small businesses will be really happy with what they have to offer.

DreamHost, Bluehost, and HostGator are also very popular and generally well regarded—there are just enough little issues that keep them from being our overwhelming favorites.

We also looked at GoDaddy. We recommend avoiding hosting your small business’s websites on GoDaddy. You can absolutely do better.  [click to continue…]

When people talk about social media, the first networks that come to mind are usually Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

While YouTube may not be your first thought, it needs to become a priority for you moving forward.

Whether you’re a business, Internet personality, or social influencer, your YouTube channel will help you increase sales with video content.

Behind only Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. More than one billion people visit the platform every month.

The amount of content on YouTube is astonishing.

Today, 100 hours of video get uploaded to YouTube every minute.

More content has been uploaded to this platform in 60 days than the three major US networks created in 60 years.

If you want to learn how to run a successful video blog, you need to be active on YouTube.

But your YouTube channel is only as good as the number of subscribers, traffic, and views you get on your videos. You could be producing the best video content in the world, but it’s useless if nobody watches it.

I love YouTube because it’s a great way to repurpose content.

After I upload content to my YouTube channel, I share it on my website, blog posts, and social media platforms.

If you’re struggling to grow your YouTube channel, it’s probably because you’re not using anything to help you create better content. While the YouTube platform in itself is useful, there are other tools you can use that will enhance your content and make it easier for you to manage your page.

That was my inspiration for this post. I’ll show you the top 12 tools you need to grow your YouTube channel. Let’s dive in.  [click to continue…]

So, you’re ready to build an online store and sell, ship, and manage your business. We’re here to help. We took a look at six of the biggest names in e-commerce software to find out which store is easiest to set up, customizable to your liking, and economical. There’s no stress needed here: all of our options offer at least 14-day free trial periods for you to set up your store and see if you like it and it has all the features you need.

• • Shopify
    Quicksprout pick: Easiest All-in-One
    14-day free trial
  • BigCommerce
    Quicksprout pick: Impressive Features
    Free
  • Wix
    Best Pre-Made Shops
    14-day free trial
  • Squarespace
    Best Free Templates
    14-day free trial (with one-week extension if requested)
  • Magento
    Best for Scaling
    Unlimited free trial
  • WooCommerce
    Best for Customization
    30-day free trial

  [click to continue…]

Quality content takes time and effort to produce. I am sure you know this if you regularly publish content on all your distribution channels.

But many brands lose quality in pursuit of higher quantities of content.

While I agree that quantity is important as well, your quality can’t suffer as a result of this strategy. You need to learn how to avoid stale content.

I work with many businesses that run into this problem. They want to publish at least one piece of content a day on all their distribution channels.

Among their websites, blogs, and social media pages, it’s a lot of content. Before you know it, that’s upward of 30 posts per week across these platforms.

However, that doesn’t mean you need to come up with 30 unique pieces of content. This approach will take too long and ultimately hurt your quality.

That’s why you need to learn how to effectively repurpose your content across multiple marketing platforms.

First, you need to learn the top ways to come up with new content ideas.

Once you have an idea, you can turn it into multiple posts on each channel. In fact, sometimes you won’t even need to come up with a new idea. You can use old content to your advantage here as well.

Worker smarter, not harder.

As we continue through this guide, I’ll explain how you can repurpose your content across all your distribution channels and give you some ideas to try.  [click to continue…]

With the holiday season quickly approaching, your business needs to take steps to prepare for a potential surge in sales.

But you can’t assume people will buy from your brand during the holidays if you sit back and do nothing. The brands able to recognize the latest marketing trends will have success in the coming months.

Consumers are willing and able to spend money during the holidays. It’s a fact.

How you prepare and position yourself will determine how much of the market share your company will control.

Even though the ecommerce industry is a competitive space, there is plenty of money to go around.

In fact, experts predict ecommerce sales to increase by 17-22% during the 2018 holiday season. November 1st to January 31st is considered the holiday season.

I know what some of you are thinking. There are holidays throughout the entire year. What makes the ones during those dates so special?

Research shows consumers say they will spend nearly $800 during the winter holidays:

On average, they spend more money during the winter holidays than during all the other top-spending holidays combined.

It’s the season of giving, and it’s usually a happy time of year. People are feeling generous when buying gifts for their friends and family.

However, the holiday season can be stressful. The weather starts to get colder. Stores get busier. Consumers feel overwhelmed with the length of their to-do lists.

As a marketer, you need to make the buying process as easy as possible for the customer.

With your ecommerce platform, there is no reason for people to fight the crowds at their local shopping malls. They can buy holiday gifts from the comfort of their homes.

I’ll explain how you can use this situation to your advantage and benefit from a major boost in ecommerce sales during the 2018 holiday season.  [click to continue…]