The world’s biggest populace assumes they don’t get enough time to do what they love. Many always complain that they’re not getting adequate time to spend at work, share good memories with loved ones, discover their inner beings, and explore their hobbies. Want to get more time to achieve your goals, then do away with these things eating up most of your time. Let’s take a look at the list, crafted by writezillas.com.
Watching Lots of TV Content
A few hours of movie or news watching once a week can’t hurt you. However, spending an hour or two every day watching TV is a big waste of time.
Eating Junk Food
Eat quality food and stay full for hours instead of spending a few minutes every hour eating junk food to save time and focus on essential life matters.
Answering Calls When Busy
Unless a call is unavoidable, please don’t take it amid a critical task. It disconnects you from what you were doing, which can affect the performance and completion time.
If You’re A Social Media Addict, Delete the Accounts
You’re a project of what you do most. If you engage in social media most of the time, you’ll be surprised to realize that you’re wasting lots of time and energy on it. Don’t be a prisoner of social media. Delete those accounts and live a normal life.
Disorganized Office
If you can’t find certain things on time, you’ll waste so many time. It affects how the time spends in completing certain tasks.
Working Without a Schedule
A schedule directs and controls your everyday operations. Without a timetable, you’re likely to work on anything, anyhow, any time.
Making Unrealizable Promises
If you can’t complete a task, don’t commit to it. It’ll inconvenience you a lot to have it completed before the deadline.
Sharing Moments with Toxic People
Avoid people who are never positive in life. The toxic venom from these people can ruin your life.
Part-time Aggressiveness
If anything disturbs your mind, don’t hide it from the people you trust. Communicate it out and get help if possible.
Not Being Active to What You’re Doing
Allowing challenges to weigh you down affects your concentration.
Multitasking
There’s no value in taking more than one task at once if you’re not mentally capacitated to complete them. In short, don’t multitask—it eats lots of your precious time.
Spending Time Reflecting on What People Think About You
Ignore what the world thinks about you. Do what pleases your heart and watch as you become the best of you.
Not Automating Bill Payment
If you’re extra busy, you’re likely to delay in bill payment. Automate the payment of bills and save yourself the hassle.
Procrastinating
By all means possible, avoid procrastinating. It eats lots of your valuable time.
Gossiping
Concerning yourself too much on the failures and success of other people deprives you of peace of mind and contentment besides wasting your precious time.
Complaining A lot
Don’t blame people or things on your failures. Work on improving where you failed instead of apportioning blames.
TradingView is a social network and an analytical portal for traders that was launched in 2011. The web portal contains daily live quotes for more than 100,000 assets and technical tools for developing and testing your trading strategies.
Traders Union analysts and experts have studied all areas of the TradingView website and published the results of its analysis, which describes in detail each service of TradingView.com. You can read it here: TradingView Review 2021.
Analysis of TradingView website
The TradingView.com website offers its content in more than 30 languages and has 13.6 million users. The site is chockful of more than 31 million charts and 5 million published trading strategies.
TradingView primarily functions as an analytical platform for beginners and experienced traders, but it also serves as a critical social network for traders. Based on this multifunctional platform, traders from all over the world can share acquired experience, publish trading ideas, communicate openly, unite in groups, and work together in the financial markets.
TradingView: Its pros and cons
The TradingView portal is one of the most popular financial and analytical resources for the Forex market. Below is a list of its advantages and disadvantages.
Pros
Cons
More than 100 built-in technical indicators for developing your trading strategies
The demo version is active for only 30 days from the date of registration. After this period, you will need to purchase a paid subscription to use TradingView’s services
Has an artificial simulator for trading strategies that can be used either on a demo and a real trading account
Some indicators may work incorrectly
100,000+ regularly updated quotes of trading assets
Scalable trading asset charts
TradingView services
TradingView is a unique simulator that allows you to develop and test trading strategies for various assets and instruments. Here you can find a record number of technical indicators and charting tools that are not usually available on any other site.
Also, you can use additional services that are designed to develop your trading strategies both on the TradingView platform and on the platforms of its partner brokers.
The main TradingView services for traders are:
Ideas. This section publishes trading ideas of different authors that are grouped into separate classes such as technical analysis, assets, and instruments. Here you can also subscribe to publications of an author you like.
Markets. This section presents several markets for trading instruments and assets. Here you can find reviews, ideas, and quotes for a specific asset of interest.
Scripts. This section contains more than 100,000 ready-made strategies, indicators, and scripts that can be used to work on Forex and stock markets.
Screeners. They are considered the most useful tools from TradingView. Using these tools, you can filter assets and determine the optimal levels of selling or buying an asset.
Additional services for traders:
Reporting calendar.
Strategy tester.
How to register on TradingView using the Traders Union link
Before starting to work on the TradingView portal, register on the Trading Union website and then select a broker. This will allow you to work on the trading account of a brokerage company and receive additional income daily or monthly in the form of a return on a part of the spread or commission for each completed transaction, regardless of its result.
To register with a broker through Traders Union, follow these instructions:
Register an account on the Traders Union website.
Select a broker and go to its website among the Traders Union ratings.
Open a live trading account on the broker’s website.
Add this account number in your personal account on the Traders Union website, in the “Accounts” section.
Benefits of working through Traders Union
Traders Union is the largest community of Forex traders worldwide. Traders Union has 300,000 trader-members and 200+ Forex brokers.
Traders Union members receive additional income for each completed transaction in the form of a rebate based on a percentage of the broker’s commission on the spread. Also, you will get legal assistance in case of disputes with a brokerage company. All Traders Union services are completely free of charge for its members.
Traders Union — Data by thenumbers
Payout to its clients to date
$10 million
Rebate size
80-100% of the spread
Number of users
More than 300 thousand
Number of Forex brokers
More than 200 companies
Legal assistance
$0 (free of charge)
Conclusion
Reviews by experts that are published on the Traders Union website allow you to thoroughly explore several Forex portals, brokers, or information projects in one place, without spending time collecting the information yourself or analyzing the data on your own.
The examination of TradingView.com uncovered detailed information about its portal and its main goals. It allows you to study each service of its website and review the functionality, capabilities, and tools offered for your use.
Here you will receive a comprehensive analysis of important information about TradingView as a financial and analytical center and its formidable social network for traders. You can also learn how to use all the Forex tools and services on the Tradingview.com website.
Join the Traders Union and get the most up-to-date information about financial markets and their participants from a single reputable source!
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) remains an effective way to drive people to your online platforms organically. SEO techniques are constantly evolving, however. So what trends should you keep on top of throughout 2021? Let’s delve deeper.
#1 Optimising for Voice Search
More than half of all smartphone users engage with voice technology on their device. In fact, stats show that 41% of adults use voice search at least once per day. It’s thought that 6.4 billion people could also use voice-activated search and assistants worldwide by 2022. So how will this impact SEO? Well optimising for voice search is becoming increasingly important. Algorithms are understanding human speech with impressive accuracy. Therefore as marketers it’s crucial to:
Research questions people ask about your keyword or phrases and integrate these into your content.
Divide your content into question and answer chunks to ensure it’s relevant to voice search queries and therefore likely to show in the SERPs.
Optimise your local business listings. This is because people use voice searches to look for products and services near them.
#2 E-A-T Principles
Google has reiterated that content quality is crucial when it comes to ranking success with E-A-T principles helping to determine if a webpage is quality. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. So if you want to get your content noticed organically, it’s important to provide content that showcases your credibility.
Ways to improve your content based on E-A-T include:
Work with high-quality content creators that are experts in their field. While it might seem easier to get a budget-friendly freelancer to do the hard graft for you, it’s actually much more beneficial to have guest blogs and posts from credible sources with a successful track record, impressive social media following and glowing profiles on platforms like LinkedIn.
Get high-quality backlinks, mentions and shares as this will improve the authority of your content. Search engines like Google want to see what other websites think of you as this works as a vote of confidence allowing them to deliver the most relevant search engine results.
Trustworthy content is well-written, factually accurate, up-to-date and follows through on the promises made by titles and headings. You can also improve the trustworthiness of your site by improving load times, creating easy-to-navigate menus, having credible ‘About Us’ pages and never taking someone off-site to a questionable page link.
#3 Long-Form Content
Long-form content is another SEO trend in the spotlight that can help improve rankings. This is because longer reads of 3,000+ words can achieve 3.5-times more backlinks than articles between 900 and 1,200 words. If these backlinks are credible then this will also help your SEO strategy. If you’re going for long-form, however, always:
Maintain the quality by fact-checking and spell checking.
Credit the author and make sure they’re qualified to have written the piece.
With Mobile First a priority, always divide your content into easy-to-read sections that are easier to absorb via mobile.
If you’re looking for an SEO agency Kent to help optimise your platforms, contact Whitefish Marketing today. Enjoy quality SEO services Kent specifically tailored to your business.
The Internet has been constant in the daily lives of people. In fact, 4.66 billion or roughly 60% of the world’s population are continually using the Internet since the start of 2021 according to DataReportal. We do a lot of activities online and it’s no wonder businesses have jumped into this bandwagon. Companies implement digital marketing strategies, like SEO, as these are believed to be an effective method of bringing more opportunities to a business. Organizations, like law firms, can also benefit from this strategy. Learn what are the best SEO services for attorneys you can apply to your practice.
What Is Digital Marketing and SEO?
Digital marketing comprises various marketing efforts related to the usage of an electronic device or the Internet. Compared to traditional marketing methods, digital marketing allows businesses to reach a larger audience since more people are always online. Digital marketing has different categories, and one of them is SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
This process is intended to help a business’s website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) leading it to have increased engine traffic.
The Importance of SEO for Law Firms
96% of people are in need of legal advice begin their search online. That is why, if you want to get a client for your legal practice, start building a well-optimized website. Here’s how SEO for law firm websites can help your organization grow:
Sets a Name in the Industry
Applying the best SEO services for attorneys can help legal practices land a reputable name in the industry. How? People often perceive that results showing in the top SERPs are the most reliable sources related to their search. If you or your law firm ranks high in the search engine results, chances are people will view your practice to be more reliable and trustworthy compared to those firms ranking low.
Targeted Traffic
The risk with traditional marketing is that you don’t know if your ad is successful in reaching your business’s target market. In contrast, SEO can be used to optimize your website so that it becomes available to targeted traffic. One common practice is to incorporate specific keywords in a law firm SEO blog and the entire website to make sure your website will appear when people type these keywords into the search engine.
More Prospective Clients and Conversions
As your website ranks high in SERPs, expect more calls and inquiries coming in. And the more people reach out to you with just landing on your website, the more chances they are to be converted into paying clients. Allowing law firm SEO companies to do the job for you means you get more time to deal with other components of your business. At the end of the day, a well-optimized website can get you not only paying clients but also a good return on investment.
What Are the Best SEO Practices to Apply in an Attorney’s Website?
Check out these best SEO services for attorneys to have a well-optimized website for your practice.
Prioritize Keywords
One of the most essential steps in optimizing your website is listing out all possible keywords you would want your legal practice to rank for. Choose specific and targeted keywords to be sure you’ll attract qualified traffic and leads. Start by including keywords from your main areas of practice. From these, SEO experts will be able to suggest related search terms that will help your practice rise above the SERPs.
Incorporate Keywords Well on Your Website
Now that you have determined the right set of keywords, it’s time to use them on your website. It’s best to put keywords on the home page since this is where most likely web visitors will land first. Add the keywords into the primary elements of the content, such as the headline, the sub-headers that break up topics, and your call-to-action sentences.
Check Out the Competition
Use your set of keywords in search engines and see where you rank in the competition. Then, check the other websites that rank higher. Not that you will copy how their website looks like but inspecting their websites will give you an idea of what they’re doing to be in the higher SERP ranks. Consider factors like the loading speed of their web page or the blogs they post to know how you can adjust your SEO strategies.
Optimize How Your Website Appears in Search Result Pages
Metadata is significant to any website as this information serves as a guide for online users to know the content of a website even before clicking on it. Furthermore, it helps search engine algorithms to get to know what a website is all about. Fill out your title tags and meta descriptions with your targeted keywords to be consistent with your SEO plans.
Keep Your Website Mobile-Friendly
As of January 2021, 92.6% of active Internet users go online through their mobile devices. Most likely, your next client will be searching from mobile. Therefore, you have to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. Your SEO expert can surely help in applying a responsive web design for your website to achieve this.
Work on Your Website’s Speed
Speed plays a vital role in your website. Do you know that 1 in 4 web visitors will likely opt out of a website if it takes more than 4 seconds to load? If your website has speed issues, you may want to reduce image sizes to around 100KB or minimize HTTP requests. An SEO expert can also apply more techniques to improve your website’s speed.
Create Professional Profiles
You’ll have an edge over other law firms or attorneys if you have profiles set up on lawyer directories like Super Lawyers, Avvo, and Justia. Don’t forget to build a profile on your local state Bar Association website, too. Including information about your practice in these directories will help spread consistent detail about what you do. As a result, taking advantage of these profiles can help in the ranking of your website.
Google My Business
Another professional profile not to miss is Google My Business (GMB). Having a GMB profile can help your practice’s website appear in Google’s Local 3-Pack or the first three listings that appear in the search results. Being included in this top 3 listing increases the visibility of your legal practice making it more accessible to potential clients. Make sure that all details on your profile are accurate. Also, encourage your current and previous clients to leave a review so that your firm stays visible online.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to grow your legal practice, the most efficient way of marketing today is applying SEO for attorneys. With billions of global Internet users, it’s less difficult to attract prospective clients online. The key is to ensure your website and all other online platforms are well-optimized so that you can reach your target market effortlessly.
For more articles about business, technology, and more, visit our website today!
Many parents and teachers seem to shun social media and automatically classify it as an unproductive tool, but that is not always the case. The recent efforts at social media education have shown that students can actually do more than just cause trouble when they go online.
Here are ways that social media help.
Blog Posts for Essays
Essays are a constant part of a student’s life, so it would not hurt to have a place where they can access free essays on social media. Starting a blog where all work written, submitted, and marked is published could help other students work on their assignments. Writing pieces like those at https://phdessay.com/free-essays-on/social-media/ show how important social media is student’s lives. The idea is to assign a blog post per student with an essay topic that will not only help them improve their writing skills but also enlighten their peers. This could open them up to a career in writing later in their lives.
Networking
Learning in class is great, but you need to know how to interact with people for this education to be valuable. When a student joins a social media group to benefit from sharing information with their peers, they create new connections. They may not seem that important at the beginning since they are only in school, but over time they could prove valuable. Also, being able to make friends is already a skill that will help beyond school. They stay in the know of events happening around them such as marathons, competitions, and even parties. These same networking skills will help them know when opportunities arise later in their lives.
Global Exposure
It starts with creating friends online who are from other countries and then maybe planning to visit each other over the summer holidays. Even if they don’t get to travel physically but with social media resources they still get the chance to learn about other cultures and how people in other countries live. Virtual interaction is one of the ways social media can help you travel. People get to share about culture, food, interests, facts that one may have gotten wrong about the other’s country, and new languages. If it is allowed, they can even share classroom lessons through their phones. This interaction is especially handy when one wants to go to university in a foreign country. It also leads to respect for other cultures as well as firsthand information on a country.
Expressing themselves Creatively
We are gifted differently and there is nowhere better to show this than social media. One can post photos, blog posts, and just about anything else that helps them express their creativity. This deviates from the old way of expression where a person had to physically present their art. With the current trends, these expressions could lead to a career or income-generating side hustle even as a student works their way through college.
Social Media Marketing and Influencing
If you are really good at creating posts that generate lots of interest, you could have a future in social media influencing. This means working with organizations to create content that brings people to their social pages and eventually converting them to customers. Today, young people are making pretty sums of money doing what comes naturally to them – such as entertaining people online. Other ways one can benefit their peers while making a name for themselves online is through a YouTube channel where one could teach their peers hacks that will benefit them.
Job Opportunities
As you advance your education, you will start looking for jobs to practice what you have been learning in school. With a good social media following, you are likely to create more leads for yourself than someone with no presence at all. LinkedIn is yet another social site that allows people to display their skills and academic qualifications so they can get ahead. It is one of the tools that today’s youth cannot afford to ignore when looking for exciting opportunities.
Not all Bad, Right?
Using social media for studentscan help set up a student for success in the future. They will have the avenue to communicate with their peers in a way that comes naturally to them and this may translate to great communication skills after school. As long as it is used for good, a student is likely to benefit more from being socially active than being reclusive.
As a beginner in the world of forex or as someone who wants to commit to making more profit off the market, the need to use the safest means possible cannot be overstated. How else do you get the highest guarantee of safety of your investments than by using the top regulated brokers?
By using the term ‘regulated brokers’, we mean brokers who have been licensed and are duly recognized by the appropriate regulatory bodies. This is the most important way of ensuring that you are not in the company of scammers.
Even among regulated brokers, there are top-regulated brokers. These are brokers who have excelled in one area or the other and have been able to garner wide acceptance over the years. This is an extra assurance that your investments will not be stolen from you and that your affairs are handled by proven or tested hands.
Here are some top regulated brokers you should consider:
FP Markets
FP is a renowned forex broker which is headquartered in Australia. It has spread its tentacles to and gained substantial recognition in fast-growing markets like India where it holds its own among the popular Indian forex brokers, most of whom are subsidiaries of commercial banks. FP offers a demo account, over 10000 trading instruments, runs a minimum deposit of $100, and is regulated by two of the world’s most recognized regulatory bodies – ASIC and CySEC. You can get more information from this FP markets review.
FXTM
Forex Time has grown to become a force to reckon with in the forex trade market. FXTM review is more or less a household name. Over the years, they have maintained an impressive level of consistency in the forex brokerage arena. Headquartered in Cyprus under the CySEC and the ASIC regulations, the multiple award-winning company offers a top-notch demo account, $200 minimum deposit, and runs on Mt4, Mt5, and the FXTM Trader platforms.
Forex Capital Markets Limited has continued to fly high in the forex brokerage industry since it was founded in 1999. Its longevity and adaptability have given the company a wealth of experience that has helped it maintain a spot at the top. It has the ASIC, FCA, and FSCA regulations and operates a minimum deposit of $50 and 300 Great Britain Pounds (GBP). It is headquartered in the UK and operates a free forex education program.
AVATRADE
Avatrade is regulated under the Bank of Ireland, ASIC, JFSA, and FSCA. It is widely known for how speedy opening an account on its platform is. It is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and operates a minimum deposit of $100. Avatrade is an award-winning forex broker that has successfully penetrated all the major forex markets in the world.
GO Markets
Go Markets review is a world-renowned forex broker founded in 2006. It has its headquarters in Australia. It is regulated under the ASIC, and CySEC, runs on the MT4, MT5, and WebTrader platforms, and is one of the leading innovators in the forex brokerage industry.
The top regulated brokers will give you peace of mind and topnotch security for your funds. After all, what else is more important?
If one of your adventure dreams is going on a safari in Africa, the chances are that a Kenya Migration Safari tops your bucket list. Dubbed the 8th Wonder of the World and the World’s largest overland migration, the Annual Wildebeest Migration across the Masai Mara-Serengeti ecosystem is a must-see.
In this post, we take you through everything you need to know about one of the most sought-after experiences, the Great Wildebeest Migration.
Let’s start from the beginning.
What Exactly is the Great Migration?
Each year, approximately 1.5 million wildebeests and thousands of zebras and antelopes make the exhausting and dangerous trip from Tanzania’s Serengeti to Kenya’s Maasai Mara. The migration herd has to cross the Mara River where deadly crocodiles prey on them. It is believed that the animals migrate in search of lush grazing and breeding grounds and water.
This epic journey which spans about 3000km from north to south, is known as the Annual Wildebeest Migration. The migration is driven by rainfall such that the wildebeest are drawn where it recently rained and the grass is green.
What to Expect
The Masai Mara Migration offers everything one can anticipate it would be — promising nothing short of adventure packed with some surprises. Being able to witness a migration of this magnitude is nothing short of a sensational experience.
Interestingly, due to the sheer number of animals, the phenomena can be observed from space. It’s no wonder this awe-inspiring passage comprising millions of wildlife earned its place as the Eighth Wonder of the World.
The Mara river crossings are the most sought-after moments as the wildebeests, zebras, and antelopes dip themselves into the crocodile-infested waters. Watching the migration makes you experience a range of emotions, including anticipation, excitement, and distress.
For the wildebeests that successfully survive the migration, lush green grass plains await them — a grazing sanctuary and a chance to mate with their partners. For the unfortunate wildebeests, they’re either eaten alive by crocodiles or drown in the commotion. Not to mention being preyed upon by the big cats.
Unknown to many, the Great Wildebeest Migration is an all-year-round event. Each time of year offers a unique wildlife experience as the herds constantly move rhythmically in a clockwise direction between Tanzania and Kenya.
That said, the best time to catch the Masai Mara Migration, when the wildebeest are crossing the Mara River, is between July to October.
Nevertheless, due to the irregular nature of the wildebeest movements, it’s advisable to use the Herdtracker app. The app helps you track real-time wildebeests’ movements so you can effectively plan the safari and not miss out on the action. You can also plan your wildebeest migration safari with Nairobi based travel agencies to help you keep track of the migrating herd.
How to Get There
The Masai Mara Reserve is located in the southwest of Kenya. On arrival in Kenya, you could choose to drive to the reserve, which is 280 km away from Nairobi, depending on your entry point. Alternatively, you can book a flight, which is quicker, private, and more comfortable.
Better yet, you will enjoy scenic, magnificent views of Kenya’s landscape from the sky. Either way, it’s best to partner with a local safari company to ensure you maximize your Kenya Migration Safari experience.
The Best Places to Stay
Masai mara is endowed with many exceptional camps and luxury lodges, offering the stage for exploring this eye-catching wildlife event. And every option seems like a great one.
However, some are better than others regarding location, amenities, crowd-free views, activities, and providing front-row seats to the Wildebeest Migration. While many properties offer full board rates, some have additional charges for game drives and other recreational activities such as hot air ballooning.
If traveling with your family, go for family-focused accommodation options with child-friendly activities besides game driving. Couples and honeymooners might opt for something different.
Each property offers a different vibe that’ll shape your safari experience, so depending on your budget, duration of stay, amenities, extra activities, among other factors, choose wisely. The Kenya tour operator you choose to explore Kenya with should help you choose an accommodation package that best suits you.
What to Pack
July through August are the coldest months of the year in Kenya. Temperatures can sometimes drop to well below 10°C. Essentially, early morning game drives will require several layers of clothing. Gloves and hats will be an added advantage.
Afternoon game drives may need lighter clothing, depending on the weather. Sometimes intense winds and unexpected rain can take you by surprise. Apart from clothing, don’t forget your favorite devices. Cameras will be convenient when capturing iconic safari moments. Above all, pack wisely.
How Can You Plan to See the Great Migration?
With the Kenyan government easing travel restrictions, it’s now easier for overseas visitors to travel in the country. Airlines such as Kenya Airways, British Airways, Qatar, KLM, and Emirates offer direct flights into Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
Ensure you link up with experienced safari experts to get the most out of your trip to see the Great Wildebeest Migration. They’ll help you choose a safari package tailored to your needs and budget. Given the high demand for the migration safari spaces in the high season, make sure you book your Masai Mara migration safari in advance — weeks or months before you travel.
Final Thoughts
No matter how many destinations are on your bucket list, taking a safari to the Masai Mara is a magical experience. The safari provides a fantastic way to immerse yourself in one of mother nature’s most wondrous spectacles and create beautiful memories. Don’t dream of what it could be.
PayPal is an online compensation company established in mid-1998. In 2002 they became the primary payment option of eBay and today remains a high-quality solution for eBay patrons. PayPal is available in over 202 countries and receives funds in over 100 currencies. It also offers its clients withdrawals in 56 different currencies, making it one of the oldest and top processors globally.
Over the years, PayPal has built a stable and extensive network of consumers and merchants using and accepting their payment services. However, Technology and a sales shift to digital, has made Paypal face an increasing number of threats from newer companies, banks and credit card issuers. Added to this, new Financial Companies are opening up all over the world, so the slice of the pie gets smaller and smaller for Paypal.
In saying this, there are a few factors that give PayPal an advantage over its competitors. Firstly, many online shops worldwide use them as a payment solution and the general public who own a Paypal account can transfer funds from one account to another at a relatively cost.
Secondly, is the fact that banks are encouraging their customers to add their credit cards to PayPal, therefore strengthening their competitive advantage.
The bottom line is that they have an excellent reputation which has taken years to build and have maintained exceptional levels of service and delivery.
Paypal and Online Casinos
As Paypal is such a convenient and easy payment option, it was only a matter of time until UK paypal casinos started integrating them into their payment options. At the moment only online casinos in Europe and the United Kingdom can deposit using Paypal.
Benefits of using PayPal
The point of payment services like PayPal is to ensure a safe, reliable and speedy checkout when shopping online. To that end, PayPal is exceptional as it converts shoppers into paying customers at a rate of 82% higher than all other payment options. Furthermore, it converts 60% better than other digital wallets.
The reason for this increase is due to Paypal providing their users with more options because previously, PayPal forced their users to use their existing balances and defaulted payments to bank accounts. This resulted in lower processing fees than credit cards. In line with staying in the game, PayPal negotiated with a series of payment networks offering users greater flexibility in how customers pay for their online purchases.
As previously mentioned is the fact that credit card issuers want consumers to add their cards to PayPal and issuers have been incentivizing customers to do so with cashback and reward points. PayPal has also infiltrated other digital wallets and partnered with companies like Google and Samsung who now offer it as a payment option in their digital wallets
Key Services offered by PayPal
PayPal has sustained its strong growth through the introduction of various partnerships across commerce and payment space. Some of the critical services PayPal offers its users are:
The transfer of money globally
Rewards on PayPal debit cards
One-Touch Easy checkout
PayPal also created and acquired a suite of products that target different markets. Venmo is its payment product that serves the Millennial market using smartphones and social networks. PayPal was innovative enough to change a primary transaction into a social experience. How may you ask? Well, it’s simple; your friends can see what you’re doing on your social networks through your Venmo payments.
They also acquired a company called Xoom which gives people the ability to move funds internationally via their mobile phones and costs half of what international remittance providers charge. It’s easier and less expensive, and once again, PayPal is at the forefront of being innovative and continuously looking for the competitive edge.
PayPal’s Strategic Partnerships
To sustain and increase its customer base, PayPal partnered with some top card network incumbents, which include:
Visa
MasterCard
Alibaba.com
Citi
Telcel
Vodafone
Discover
GoPay
They have also entered into partnerships with a multitude of other companies across the eCommerce and payment space which include cybersecurity firms, social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as well as the popular Uber service used throughout the world.
Conclusion
PayPal has seen explosive growth since its inception, and its flexible yet strategic business model has provided a safe and secure way for customers and merchants to benefit and transact online. Further to this, is PayPal’s partnership with various companies such as Uber, Visa, MasterCard, and many more. They have sustained their growth and increased their user base, thus remaining relevant in light of new entrants. They have a legacy of which they can be proud of and will continue to offer top-class service to their customers by remaining one of the most competitive and innovative companies.
Affiliate marketing has become mainstream in just about every branch of business, offering a new way to promote your brand, generate income, and connect with your customers. And boy, is business booming right now.
An incredible 84% of business owners are turning to affiliate marketing in search of new opportunities to drive revenue to their sites and opening up various engagement channels with their audience. In fact, the spending for affiliate marketing is expected to reach 8.2 billion dollars by 2022, and that’s only considering data from the US.
But are affiliate programs really all that they are made out to be, or will they do your business more harm than good?
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing model that businesses use as a low-risk and low-cost method of increasing brand recognition, traffic, and revenue. Through advertising a business’s goods and/or services to their audience, a publisher (also known as an affiliate) drives revenue for the publisher on a commission-based structure.
In most cases, the affiliate supports a product or service by sending traffic to the retailer’s website with a unique link that identifies them as the referrer. Following that, future sales would be counted against the affiliate’s commission. Usually, the commission fees are paid as a percentage share of any sale or as a fixed amount that has been agreed upon in advance.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of implementing affiliate marketing into your business.
The Good
Opens up new revenue streams and boost sales
One of the best parts of setting up an affiliate program is gaining access to a new *untapped* audience. Depending on your company’s size, many of the affiliates you partner with will be introducing your brand to their audience for the first time, which is great exposure for your business.
Additionally, a good affiliate will increase sales and drive more conversions to your business without requiring you to spend much time or resources on developing your own marketing materials. Even bigger brands such as Lacoste have found massive success with affiliate marketing, as they reportedly obtained a 70 percent higher ROI due to Rakuten’s affiliate strategy.
Minimal upfront cost
Setting up an affiliate program is usually low-cost and relatively straightforward for most companies. It can be as simple as giving a publisher a tracking link to your product and supplying them with a few branded graphics and email templates to help them attract consumers.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go out and find affiliates yourself. Many businesses charge a low subscription fee and give you immediate access to a wide range of publishers that are looking for new work.
High-income potential
Seeing as all of the heavy liftings is being done by the affiliates, it becomes much easier to scale your operation and increase your output if you find a winning formula. It’s simply a matter of finding more affiliates to drive more sales. Remember, publishers are only rewarded if they produce results for your business, so there’s almost no financial risk to scaling this way either.
The Bad
Inconsistent results
Many of the affiliates you work with will be attempting to drive traffic for a number of companies on a daily basis. It’s doubtful they will be focusing solely on your business, making predicting the results of affiliate marketing challenging. Secondly, affiliates are not contracted to your company, so if they decide to move on to a different offer, take a vacation, or find a new job, that leaves you with one less revenue stream overnight.
Affiliates can damage the reputation of your company
It’s essential to do your due diligence on an affiliate’s marketing activities when you collaborate with them. If they have a history of engaging in unethical practices such as misleading ads, spamming email lists, or failing to comply with GDPR, for example, having your brand name associated with them will be detrimental.
Jesse Willms, who has sold over half a billion dollars worth of products using affiliate marketing strategies encountered a similar problem with his earlier businesses when selling a collection of weight loss products:
“Affiliates would often make false claims in their marketing campaigns before bringing users to our site. These claims would often be in the form of fake news sites, or sometimes even claiming Dr. Oz or Oprah endorsed the product. Affiliates would also sometimes steal credit cards and then purchase on our site. They greatly hurt our reputation.”
This goes to show the importance of recruiting the right affiliates and protecting your brand image. Ensure you take the time to vet your applicants and only accept those with a proven track record and significant experience in the industry. Of course, this may cost you more, but it’s worth it.
Even though affiliate networks have requirements that publishers must follow to become affiliates, this doesn’t always guarantee they are all “above board.” At the end of the day, if there is money to be made, there is always someone who will cut corners and advocate your brand negligently.
Final Word
Despite the apparent drawbacks listed above, affiliate marketing is still a fantastic tool for driving new customers to your business and boosting sales. A good affiliate will help increase your revenue, but they will increase your brand recognition in your industry, which will build authority and trustworthiness. Just make sure you conduct thorough due diligence when selecting who you work with.
When applying for financial products such as mortgages, credit cards, auto loans and similar facilities, having a good credit rating gives you an upper hand in getting accepted. Therefore, it is imperative that you first know your credit rating and then work towards improving it.
It doesn’t matter whether you have no credit history at all, or you’ve recently been turned down by a lender, monitoring your credit is part of a personal financial journey that you must be willing to travel. To start you off, here are 5 steps to help you fix your bad credit.
Find Out Your Current Score
The first step to repairing your bad credit is to establish where you stand in terms of your credit score. In the UK, consumers have a statutory right to access a free copy of their credit report annually from at least the three major credit reference agencies (CRA)- Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.
Depending on the CRA you request your report from, the scores will vary. Here is a snapshot of what to expect from each of the agencies.
Experian
Experian scores range from 0-999 and are categorised as follows.
961 – 999: Excellent
881 – 960: Good
721 – 880: Fair
561 – 720: Poor
0 – 560: Very Poor
Equifax
Equifax has categorised its scores ranging from 0-700
466-700: Excellent
420-465: Good
380-419: Fair
280—379: Poor
0—279: Very poor
TransUnion
Formerly known as Callcredit, TransUnion is the second-largest CRA in the UK. Its scores range from 0-710 and are grouped as follows.
628-710: Excellent
604-627: Good
566-603: Fair
551–565: Poor
0–550: Very poor
You can visit the official websites of the above credit reference agencies and request your credit report. The report will be available almost instantly for you to view online, download or fill an application to have it mailed to you via post.
Check Your Report for Errors
Credit reports are generally considered an accurate reflection of your financial status. Having said that, it is not unheard of to find errors and misinformation. Therefore, you need to go through your report carefully and look out for any of the following typical errors.
Personal Information: Check for errors in your name and address. This is especially the case if you’ve moved from your previous address or you’ve changed your name.
Account Details: Check that each account appearing on your report is yours. Also, confirm the balances on the accounts and the credit limits for accuracy.
Mistaken Accounts: Check that accounts do not appear more than once on the report and that all of them bear your name. You may be a victim of identity theft in which case you need to report such an incident faster for resolution.
Account reporting errors: Confirm that no closed accounts are reported as being open or timely payments recorded as late payments.
If you find an error, send a Notice of Correction, a 200-word statement to the credit reference agency stating the error in question and why it should not appear on your report. Once resolved, your score will reflect a higher mark than previously indicated.
Pay Your Bills on Time.
Stop the bleed by ensuring that you pay all bills as they fall due. Scoring models use complex statistical analysis to assign weights to late bill payments thus pulling down your scores. Traditionally, these models considered credit bills such as credit cards and instalment loans.
However, this has changed and now utility bills such as gas, water, and electricity bills are factored in the calculation of your score. It is important to note that not every instance of bill payment delay is reported to CRAs. Generally, utility companies would report delinquent accounts which are amounts that are outstanding 30 days after falling due.
Through innovative products such as Experian Boost, payments like Council Tax payments, rent, digital subscriptions, and utility bills are reported to CRAs. If you make timely payments, this will give you a boost.
Keep Your Credit Utilisation Low
Whether it is credit card debt, auto loan, student loan or mortgage, plan to pay it off bit by bit until you finish it.
As you begin paying off your debt, your credit utilisation limit will gradually go down. Credit utilisation refers to the fraction of your total credit that you are using. After payment history, credit utilisation takes a prominent share of your credit scoring.
As a rule of thumb, you need to keep your utilisation at or below 30%. Research shows a strong correlation between high credit scores-750 and above, and low credit utilisation rate. Finding your credit utilisation rate is as simple as adding your total balance on your cards and dividing by the total credit limit.
For instance, if your card total is £4,000 and your credit limit is £20,000, your credit utilisation rate will be £4,000/ £20,000 which gives you 20%. Beware of the factors that can impact your credit utilisation rate which includes the credit card balance, opening and closing of accounts, and the credit limit on your accounts.
In case you need urgent cash, and your credit utilisation rate is already high, consider applying for instant guarantor loans. These loans are approved within 24 hours, have flexible payments, and you can borrow up to £15,000. Just ensure you get someone to co-sign the loan and you will be good to go!
Check That You Are Not Linked To Someone Else’s History
If a person is registered to vote at your address, they may appear on your credit report. Similarly, if you took a joint loan such as a mortgage with another person, lenders may use the linkage to decide whether to approve your loan application or not.
In case you were linked because of a past obligation and now you no longer have anything tying you with the other person, consider asking the CRA to remove their records from your report. This will improve your score and put you in a much better financial position.
Conclusion
Your credit score plays a key role in how lenders perceive you and paints a picture of your creditworthiness. Therefore, you must monitor your credit and ensure that it accurately reflects your circumstances. Make it a habit to request your report regularly, check it out and file a Notice of Correction where applicable.
Also, ensure you pay your bills on time, keep your credit utilisation low and check that you are not linked to someone else. There are other tips out there but the five discussed above will start you off on a good footing.