• www.kblee007.blogspot.com •: 2018-06-10

Saturday, 16 June 2018

Facebook Page Administrator Shares Responsibility

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The Court Justice of the European Union recently held that the administrator of a Facebook fan page is jointly responsible with Facebook for the processing of data of visitors to the page.

As set forth in a June 5 ,2018 press release, the German company Wirtschaftsakademie Schleswig-Holstein operates in the field of education. It offers educational services by means of a fan page hosted on Facebook. Fan pages are user accounts that can be set up on Facebook by individuals or businesses. To do so, the author of the fan page, after registering with Facebook, can use the platform designed by Facebook to introduce himself to the users of that social network and to persons visiting the fan page, and to post any kind of communication in the media and opinion market.

Administrators of fan pages, such as Wirtschaftsakademie, can obtain anonymous statistical data on visitors to the fan pages via a function called “Facebook Insights” which Facebook makes available to them free of charge under non-negotiable conditions of use. The data is collected by means of evidence files (“cookies”), each containing a unique user code, which are active for two years and are stored by Facebook on the hard disk of the computer or on another device of visitors to the fan page. The user code, which can be matched with the connection data of users registered on Facebook, is collected and processed when the fan pages are opened.

By decision of 3 November 2011, the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein (Independent Data Protection Centre for the Land of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), as supervisory authority within the meaning of Directive 95/46 on data protection, with the task of supervising the application in the Land of Schleswig-Holstein of the provisions adopted by Germany pursuant to that directive, ordered Wirtschaftsakademie to deactivate its fan page.

According to the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum, neither Wirtschaftsakademie nor Facebook informed visitors to the fan page that Facebook, by means of cookies, collected personal data concerning them and then processed the data.

Wirtschaftsakademie brought an action against that decision before the German administrative courts, arguing that the processing of personal data by Facebook could not be attributed to it, and that it had not commissioned Facebook to process data that it controlled or was able to influence.

Wirtschaftsakademie concluded that the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum should have acted directly against Facebook instead of against it.

It is in that context that the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court, Germany) asked the Court of Justice to interpret Directive 95/46 on data protection.

In its judgment, the Court of Justice observed that it is not disputed that Facebook (U.S.) and, for the EU, its Irish subsidiary Facebook Ireland must be regarded as “controllers” responsible for processing the personal data of Facebook users and persons visiting the fan pages hosted on Facebook. Those companies primarily determine the purposes and means of processing that data.

The Court found that an administrator such as Wirtschaftsakademie must be regarded as a controller jointly responsible, within the EU, with Facebook Ireland for the processing of that data.

The Court further found that such an administrator takes part, by its definition of parameters (depending in particular on its target audience and the objectives of managing or promoting its own activities), in the determination of the purposes and means of processing the personal data of the visitors to its fan page.

In particular, the Court noted that the administrator of the fan page can ask for demographic data (in anonymized form) – and thereby request the processing of that data – concerning its target audience (including trends in terms of age, sex, relationships and occupations), information on the lifestyles and centers of interests of the target audience (including information on the purchases and online purchasing habits of visitors to its page, and the categories of goods or services that appeal the most) and geographical data, telling the fan page administrator where to make special offers and organize events and more generally enabling it to target best the information it offers.

According to the Court, the fact that an administrator of a fan page uses the platform provided by Facebook in order to benefit from the associated services cannot exempt it from compliance with its obligations concerning the protection of personal data.

The Court stated that the recognition of joint responsibility of the operator of the social network and the administrator of a fan page hosted on that network in relation to the processing of the personal data of visitors to that fan page contributes to ensuring more complete protection of the rights of persons visiting a fan page, in accordance with the requirements of Directive 95/46 on data protection.

In addition, the Court found that the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum is competent, for the purpose of ensuring compliance in German territory with the rules on the protection of personal data, to exercise with respect not only to Wirtschaftsakademie but also to Facebook Ireland all the powers conferred on it under the national provisions transposing Directive 95/46.

“Where an undertaking established outside the EU (such as Facebook) has several establishments in different Member States, the supervisory authority of a Member State is entitled to exercise the powers conferred on it by Directive 95/463 with respect to an establishment of that undertaking in the territory of that Member State even if, as a result of the division of tasks within the group, first, that establishment (in the present case, Facebook Germany) is responsible solely for the sale of advertising space and other marketing activities in the territory of the Member State concerned and, second, exclusive responsibility for collecting and processing personal data belongs, for the entire territory of the EU, to an establishment situated in another Member State (in this case, Facebook Ireland).”

The Court further stated that, where the supervisory authority of a Member State (in this case, the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum in Germany) intends to exercise with respect to an entity established in the territory of that Member State (in this case, Wirtschaftsakademie) the powers of intervention provided for in Directive 95/46,4 on the ground of infringements of the rules on the protection of personal data committed by a third party responsible for the processing of that data whose seat is in another Member State (in this case, Facebook Ireland), that supervisory authority is competent to assess, independently of the supervisory authority of the other Member State (Ireland), the lawfulness of such data processing and may exercise its powers of intervention with respect to the entity established in its territory without first calling on the supervisory authority of the other Member State to intervene.

The full text of the judgment can be seen, here.

Contact an FTC defense lawyer to discuss emerging privacy and data security law compliance trends that impact the online advertising sector. You can visit the author’s website at https://ftcdefenselawyer.com/ftc-defense-lawyer/

Richard B. Newman is a regulatory litigation, FTC investigations and advertising compliance attorney at Hinch Newman LLP. Follow him on LinkedIn.

ADVERTISING MATERIAL. Informational purposes only. Not legal advice. Always seek the advice of an attorney. Previous case results do not guarantee similar future result. Hinch Newman LLP | 40 Wall St., 35th Floor, New York, NY 10005 | (212) 756-8777.

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When Writing Your Business Plan, Be Sure to Include This

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A plan to outsource back office departments can save you time and money.

June 15, 2018

3 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Since the inception of my company enBio, we have outsourced human resources and payroll. If you’re ready to start a business, I suggest you do the same and make sure to include that in your business plan.

Running an internal HR and payroll department is an expensive undertaking -- especially for startups, small and mid-sized companies. Outsourcing will save you time, resources and importantly, money. Here's a breakdown of what I have found over the years of running my company.

The benefits of outsourcing HR

For starters, outsourcing HR will likely save you money as it helps reduce the cost of maintaining nonrevenue-generating back-office expenses. A fully-functional human resources department requires additional office space and highly-trained and experienced HR staff.

You need to ask yourself if you can afford an experienced enough HR professional (salary, benefits, and perks) who not only can handle the day-to-day but can also stay on top of increasingly complicated federal, state, local employment laws and compliance-related issues, such as:

Healthcare mandates
State and local minimum wage changes
Labor law compliance
Worker’s comp
Sexual harassment
Leave time
Tax implication strategies by employee classes
Penalties for improper training
Employee handbook updates

Benefits of outsourcing payroll

Payroll is an essential part of your business, much like sales and customer service. It's not just a twice-monthly burden or a bookkeeping task. Payroll is how you reward and retain employees. When there are errors due to miscalculations, you'll wind up with dissatisfied, unmotivated employees.

Calculation errors are not the only concern, however. There are hundreds of tax codes and payroll regulations that you need to understand. A payroll mistake with any one of these items can be costly:

Classification of employees and contractors
W-2 forms
Tax deposit and filing deadlines
Overtime payments
State unemployment taxes
Garnishments and levies
Taxable items

While every business owner wants to focus on delivering that product or service the business was founded on, they unavoidably begin spending more and more of their time on back-office tasks. The owner of nearly every company will beam with pride when talking about his or her products and services; however, that enthusiasm quickly fades when the conversation turns to these issues. I recommend outsourcing HR and payroll so that you can not only efficiently and effectively stay up to date, you can stay focused on what made you want to start a business in the first place: creating first-rate goods and services for your customers.

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How Reddit's Alexis Ohanian Balances Work and Family

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The entrepreneur and investor, shares his take on parental leave and work-life balance.

June 15, 2018

3 min read

For all the time and effort and hopes and dreams you put into growing your business, it’s no wonder that entrepreneurs often refer to their company as their baby.

The idea that you can figure out how to perfectly balance all aspects of your life is something of a myth, and it’s something Reddit and Initialized Capital co-founder Alexis Ohanian readily admits he doesn’t have figured out, as new husband and dad.

“It’s a constant tension, no doubt. It’s something I know I still struggle with. But like all things, it's just one more step on that walk of self-improvement,” Ohanian tells Entrepreneur. “The good news is that being an entrepreneur has in a lot of ways prepared me, because exercising those muscles are required if you want to have success as an entrepreneur. And they apply pretty nicely to being a good partner and parent.”

Ohanian says that his best work and family time consists of the same kind of “uninterrupted flow state” when he can be completely focused, whether on solving a problem in the office or spending time with wife Serena Williams and daughter Alexis Olympia.

Ohanian’s advice for anyone looking for that equilibrium is to take time to acknowledge milestones both big and small. The entrepreneur is partnering with Johnnie Walker to commemorate his first Father’s Day. “I figure when you're going to celebrate you do it with the best, and the Blue Label is my pick. Have a moment as a team to take a breath and to celebrate. This is not a short road. It's a very long road. And those moments are important.”

He also wants other new parents to not have to choose between their work and personal life, advocating that having a comprehensive parental leave policy is vital for a company’s long-term success.

“If you don't have one at your company and can do something about it, you should,” Ohanian says. “Both Reddit and Initialized have fantastic 16-week programs for parents. I hope more companies follow suit, because it's a huge asset when a workforce believes there's a process for taking time to be with their families and their jobs won't be at risk while they're away.”

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After This Entrepreneur Stood Up to Her Board, Her Sales Quadrupled and the Business Exploded

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'The ones who don't quit are the ones who ultimately survive and lead their businesses,' says Samasource founder Leila Janah.

June 15, 2018

8 min read

In this series, Open Every Door, Entrepreneur staff writer Nina Zipkin shares her conversations with leaders about understanding what you have to offer, navigating the obstacles that will block your path, identifying opportunity and creating it for yourself and for others.

Samasource and LXMI founder and CEO Leila Janah describes herself as a real optimist. “I believe that if something doesn't exist, and I believe that it should exist, that I can will it into existence,” she says.

It’s that mindset that helped her stand her ground with the Samasource board chair when she wanted to invest more into creating initiatives that would tie back into her initial vision: moving people out of poverty via access to work opportunities and technological skills. Her argument to the board was simple. She would step down as the company’s leader if she would not be able to see her goals for the company through. Janah’s conviction won out in the end and since then, her company’s sales have quadrupled.

“I woke up in this period and thought, wait a minute, I'm running a multimillion dollar business here with Google and Microsoft as clients, who I recruited. The idea is mine. I built a whole team,” Janah recalled to Entrepreneur." I absolutely deserve not just to have a seat at the table around strategy, but to set the strategy. That's my job."

In 2008, Janah launched Samasource as a nonprofit business to help women in low-income and marginalized communities in East Africa, South Asia and the Americas find employment through the internet. A digital skills spinoff initiative called Samaschool launched in 2015.

Janah is also the founder of organic skincare brand LXMI, which makes products sourced from East Africa, which provides women in the region work that allows them earn at least three times local wages. Samasource has helped move more than 33,000 people out of poverty since 2008. And more than 20,000 people from 65 countries have taken courses with Samaschool.

“All that we can do is try our best to make the world a little bit better,” Janah says of the driving force behind her companies -- and what inspires her doing tough moments. “If it's too easy, it's probably not worth doing.”

Janah says that her ultimate aim is to inspire everyone to reassess their perceptions about charity, work, reducing poverty and solving social problems. She says she believes that it’s on every business to embed social and environmental consciousness into its DNA.

“And not just a 'do no harm' policy. To me, that's pretty lame. In 2018 businesses should be more ambitious than not harming the planet,” Janah says. “My biggest hope is that the world reorients itself to the concept of social business. Rather than being an outlier or nice to have, that it will actually be the predominant form of business. If you're an entrepreneur building a company, it damn well be a company that does good in the world.”

Janah shared her insights with Entrepreneur about finding confidence in herself as a leader.

Can you tell me about a time you needed to pursue an opportunity? How did you approach it?

I had a struggle several years ago around the strategy and vision for Sama. I wanted to basically set up a structure where we could do R&D on some new initiatives, which is how our U.S. program Samaschool developed. It's now the only nonprofit in the U.S. that trains low-income Americans to benefit from the gig economy. To me it was really important that I build that kind of organization that could continually be doing R&D even though we were resource-constrained on the main business.

My board chair didn't agree with the strategy. We had some differences of how we wanted to do things. So it was a tough period because nonprofit CEOs have no power, basically. You don't have any equity in the business so you can be be fired at any time. So we considered it and eventually my strategic vision ended up going forward. So I think it was the right call then. It was also an important inflection point for me because I heard some feedback from the board about ways that I could be a lot more effective at selling that vision.

What was at stake for you in this moment? Did it change how you thought about yourself as a leader?

It did. I had been afraid to step up and own things. I'm now the chairman. My former board chair was a 60-something-year-old former venture capitalist, a tall white man who was very wealthy. That is often the dynamic with nonprofit women CEOS. I've seen it countless times, you've got a lot of women in the management team, but if you look at the board composition it's not gender balanced. If you're a young woman, frankly it can be challenging.

I so often get the question did you launch this business by yourself? People ask me all the time because as if they're so shocked that I might be able to do that. I went to Harvard, I busted my ass to get into a good college and then worked as a management consultant so I could learn how to read a P&L and know how to run at least part of a business. I found those types of comments to be really cutting and patronizing and allowed them to make me feel like I didn't deserve the role that I had.

If I can do [my job] effectively and if there's somebody in the board that's hampering that, that's a problem and I need to address that head-on rather than accept it. Had I left, I don't know that we would have survived as a company. Now we're in a different position. But it helped me perceive the lens that I should use in making these decisions.

What do you think entrepreneurs need to do to make the most out of the opportunities that cross their path?

When I started Sama, I had people at foundations and famous venture capitalists who told me it's never going to work in Africa. You're never going to get poor women from a slum to be able to use a computer. They need mosquito nets and water before they can do anything. Now you have all these companies setting up shop in East Africa, and we were really the pioneers of that movement.

The most important quality for any entrepreneur is a willingness to not quit. It's really not about brilliance. I mean I'd like to think that I'm smart and I work hard but I think a lot of people are smart and work hard. The real difference is some people decide to keep going in the face of every obstacle when it seems like there's no hope or path forward. The ones who don't quit are the ones who ultimately survive and lead their businesses.

Was there a blindspot that you had about leadership and opportunity you worked to change within yourself?

The biggest blind spot for me is that I grew up in a very perfectionist household where if you didn't perform, there were repercussions. Consequently, I've had a very harsh management style until several years ago when I had that big board change. I didn't believe that much in coaching or development. I felt like if they were not getting it and they're not doing their job correctly it's time for them to move on and hire someone else. The saying in Silicon Valley is hire slow, fire fast. I don't know that I believe that now. I think firing fast is often a mistake.

Now I come at it from the perspective, we're not hitting our goals, why is that? What additional tools or resources do you need to be able to grow and develop into the work that you're doing. It's very different from what I grew up with and from what I saw being crafted by a lot of leaders in Silicon Valley. For me that idea has been really helpful and it's reduced attrition really dramatically at the company. It's made me evaluate my own style and be less hard on myself and people around me. Now I'm more focused on if we're not here today, how do we grow and develop the teams so that in two years time, everyone will be up a level.

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Why Content Marketing Will Keep Growing Over the Years

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Content marketing is huge within our industry and the importance keeps growing. Before to get your products and services in front of people, you had to create separate campaigns and would have to invest countless resources. Things have changed drastically because of content marketing and much of your success can be achieved by simply implementing one single campaign. However, people are worried about the future of content marketing because if it’s like other things, then it will have a relatively short life line. I personally think content marketing will continue to grow over the years because not only is it simplistic in implementation, but it also meets all of the requirements of search engines.

For those of you still not convinced, let’s look at why content marketing will continue to dominate over the years. Let’s get started…

People are Adding Value

Because one of the requirements of content marketing is to provide value, it’s able to make a huge impact online. By adding value, you’re essentially meeting the requirements of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Content and success is about making sure your audience finds what they are looking for so content marketing is a great way to conquer this WITHOUT being too aggressive in your sales approach. Before, content would be short and aggressive, trying to push irrelevant products to earn commission but now the landscape has changed. Content marketing is lengthy, providing value of 2,000+ words and then recommending a product that NOT only helps, but also can help your readers achieve their objective.

As long as content marketing provides value, it’ll continue to grow no matter what.

Affordable

Content marketing doesn’t involve spending thousands of dollars each month, however, you can if you have the budget, but it’s a strategy that can be applied by anyone. The main thing you need to do well is patience and hard work putting together something special for your readers. If you have the mind to research and write content, then you can do a great job through your content. If you think about the major ingredients of content marketing, you’ll notice the following:

Research

Value

Relevance

“Targeted” keywords

Social marketing

The above are FREE and only requires effort to implement, which anyone can do. Other marketing methods require thousands of dollars but this is not the case with content marketing. It’s affordable and this is why experienced bloggers and beginners will continue to apply it to their blog.

Search Engines Love It

I know I’ve talked about this above but keep in mind, search engines are very important to get your content in front of people. Google has been making tweaks over the last several months to encourage value and increase the user experience. Content marketing provides both of these, which is why Google will give preference to those who can create something special. Google relies on its users to dominate the web and these people want the best user experience. Google has started to implement the following and has been very strict about the following:

Quality

Relevance

Freshness

Social signals

Quality links

Keyword targeting

By having a solid content marketing strategy, you are truly fulfilling all of the requirements and this will encourage people to give preference to content marketing going forward.

In the end, if you can provide EXACTLY what search engines are looking for, you’ll be able to rank higher within the SERP’s. This means more traffic and conversions, generating profits for you in the long run.

With content marketing providing value, it being affordable, and search engines giving it preference, it’s no wonder the future looks great.

Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!

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Do You Keep Money Secrets from Your Spouse?

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Just as you wouldn't want to find out your significant other had a secret relationship on the side, it can be devastating to land on the wrong end of financial infidelity.

June 15, 2018

5 min read

This story originally appeared on Due

Financial infidelity means keeping a money secret from your spouse. With a divorce rate today of about 50 percent, any form of infidelity could easily lead to a relationship breakdown. And while a little white lie about money may seem like no big deal, financial infidelity is as serious as any relationship secret. Let’s take a look at how money and relationships intersect and what you can do to make your relationship as open, honest and fair as possible with a focus on long-term relationship success.

Is financial infidelity a big problem?

Before we dive into how to solve money troubles with a significant other, it is important to understand the problem. If you fight with your significant other about money, you are not alone. A study last year found that 48 percent of American couples argue about finances. That is huge! Nearly half of all couples argue about money.

A study from SunTrust found that money is the leading cause of relationship stress. The survey found that 1 in 5 Americans has made a purchase of $500 or more secretly without telling their spouse. Six percent of respondents go as far as to keep a secret bank account! If you don’t trust your spouse so much that you need to secretly keep money without their knowledge, you probably have bigger relationship and trust issues than just money, but money is clearly the big symptom of the discord.

How to avoid money fights in a relationship

There are a few specific personality traits and money disagreements that tend to percolate to the top. According to Elite Daily, here are the four biggest causes of money friction in a relationship.

1. Spending versus saving

If you have a saver mentality and are dating or married to a spender, you know how frustrating it can be when your significant other splurges on even the smallest purchases. From a daily lunch at the local burrito or sandwich shop to a big dollar purchase online or at the store, watching money fly out the window can push you to the edge. If this is an issue in your relationship, consider the other’s perspective and try to calmly explain yours. Finding middle ground and creating fun money budgets for each half of the couple can help smooth things out.

2. Expectations that one partner pays more

The battle over who pays goes far beyond the first date. Even long-time couples often have different views on who should be bringing what to the table. In many cases, the male is expected to pay for the majority of costs, even if both partners have similar earnings. There is no right or wrong way to approach this. Open communication and setting clear expectations can help avoid this little argument turning into a blowout.

3. One partner earns a lot more

If you earn a lot more than your partner, or they earn a lot more than you, stress and double standards are probably not far behind. It is easy for the lower earner to expect the higher earner to pay more. But when income in a relationship is not distributed equally or distributed as earned, it can lead to resentment.

4. Wants versus needs

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. One partner’s need is another partner’s frivolous purchase. What one of you thinks is a need versus a want may differ. It is okay to have different values, as long as they don’t bust the budget. This is where a fun money budget comes into play. If you have a certain amount to spend guilt-free, you don’t have to fight over it.

Set shared goals but allow for individual freedom

In real life, things don’t always look like a movie. After the honeymoon period wears off, real-life goals, stresses and obligations remain. Never go into a relationship expecting your partner to change. If you don’t like their money habits, it may be better to cut things off from the start. (Credit score dating anyone?)

When you do get into a serious relationship, you have many money questions ahead. As you tackle them one by one, remember that it isn’t reasonable to expect your significant other to never spend money. Even if you are the primary income earner with a stay-at-home spouse, you have to expect that they will want to treat themselves every once in a while. And that’s just fine!

To find the right balance between family savings, shared fun money and individual fun money, work together to create a good budget you can stick with over time. Tweak as necessary until you have it right and both of you are on board with the plan.

Work together for a financial infidelity free lifestyle

Just as you wouldn’t want to find out your significant other had a secret relationship on the side, it can be devastating to land on the wrong end of financial infidelity. If you are keeping financial secrets, it’s time to change that and move to an open and honest relationship with clear, trusted communication about money. If you suspect your spouse is cheating with money, consider confronting them for an honest discussion. Long-term financial success requires an effort on both sides, and with honesty and a team driven focus on your money goals, you can get on track for a long and happy financial future together.

(By Eric Rosenberg)

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How One Entrepreneur Is Creating an Alternative Global Ivy League Experience

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Beri Meric shares his path to creating IVY and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs with Jessica Abo.

June 15, 2018

2 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you live in Boston, Chicago, D.C., Miami, New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, chances are you've heard of an IVY event, seen video content from one or attended. Beri Meric co-founded IVY: The Social University with Phillip Triebel in 2013 to bring together intellectually curious entrepreneurs, creatives and innovative professionals. Today, IVY has more than 500,000 followers. Members are positively impacting the world through travel experiences and curated events in art and culture, entrepreneurship, policy, health and wellness, and social impact. Meric shares with Jessica Abo why he created this platform and the key to IVY's rapid growth.

Watch more videos from Jessica Abo on her YouTube channel here.

Entrepreneur Network is a premium video network providing entertainment, education and inspiration from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders. We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre.

EN is partnered with hundreds of top YouTube channels in the business vertical. Watch video from our network partners on demand on Roku, Apple TV and the Entrepreneur App available on iOS and Android devices.

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Ever Hear of 'Escape Rooms'? This Millennial Entrepreneur Is Capitalizing On the Trend.

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Jordan Brawner of Little Spider Creations is profiting off the love millennials have for experiences, rather than just products.

June 15, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

What do Amazon (shopping), Home Chef (cooking) and StitchFix (clothing) have in common? Beyond the products and services they deliver, all three companies (and many more like them) offer something far more valuable to us: time.

So, this begs the question, what are consumers doing with all of this additional time saved by avoiding stores, lines, parking and all the other toils of shopping?

When it comes to millennials, the answer is simple. Studies by the Harris Group and EventBrite found that three out of four millennials surveyed preferred experiences over things; and given these young consumers' buying power of $600 billion, businesses should be paying attention.

One small but convincing indicator of this trend is the rapid rise of escape rooms, a business model in which customers are locked for an hour in a room where they urgently solve riddles and puzzles to get out.

For more insight on this fascinating industry -- and how entrepreneurs can capitalize on the experience economy in general -- I spoke with Jordan Brawner, CEO and creative director for Little Spider Creations (LSC), a company that's been creating and fabricating escape rooms for the past few years. LSC is a family-run business which, for 25 years, produced custom props and themes for clients and only recently became involved with the escape room frenzy.

Be hypersentitive to trends.

While Brawner knew of that industry through his work with theme parks, he saw early that it was a clear and compelling trend to explore. The numbers, he reasoned, simply did not lie.

According to RoomEscapeArtist.com, the U.S. industry grew from roughly 22 escape room companies at the end of 2014 to almost 1,800 by the second quarter of 2017 -- and those numbers didn't include rooms set up for temporary purposes (a popular trend itself).

Moreover, this growth is not unique to the United States. Consider Beijing, which currently operates 181 venues, one for every 63,000 people, while New York City operates 51, or one for every 167,000 people.

What's important is that the escape-room trend shows no signs of slowing.

Know when to pivot.

Although LSC operated for decades as a designer and fabricator of custom theme projects for clients (think: towering figures throughout a theme park), the idea of pivoting to a new business model actually came easy. "Our previous direction no longer seemed sustainable," Brawner told me, "so pivoting was necessary if we wanted to continue, and entering this new market was the only way to do it."

Granted, Brawner is relatively young (a millennial himself) and has worked his way up through his family’s business, but he was on target when he said that, "Pivoting is the lifeblood of entrepreneurship.

"As I began to see the curve of where the industry was going," Brawner said, "I made adjustments to our focus, with the escape room industry to handle the shift. That is just what entrepreneurs do."

Embrace uncertainty and change.

Like any new business or industry, the future of escape rooms is uncertain. The current industry is fragmented and fairly unpredictable, and companies will need to remain spry while constantly creating new experiences to accommodate customer expectations.

"The escape room [companies] that will survive will be those that evolve," Brawner speculated, adding that he is already looking to the future. "This evolution looks like it will include more advanced technology to enhance interactive gameplay and more immersed theming to create a more realistic feeling."

And, like the evolution of most industries, Brawner admitted, "As the escape rooms evolve -- or at least those that can afford to evolve -- the lesser entry-market escape rooms will be acquired or be faced with going out of business. These are harsh realities most business need to face."

At the moment, though, the future looks bright for the industry, and LSC appears to be in a good position to lead. Like any entrepreneurial story, Brawner's was not easy, so I asked him what advice he would give to aspiring entrepreneurs in his position.

"Seek and you shall find," he responded. "The best I can advise is to keep seeking what opportunities exist that can align with your vision and business. Be open to them, and be willing to act.”

Are you involved with “the experience economy”? Please share your thoughts with others in the comments below.

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These Momtrepreneurs Turned Tragedy Into Opportunity

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How two moms teamed up to pay for their children's cannabis treatments.

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How to Hire Right and Avoid Layoffs

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Hire sensibly at the earliest stages, and you could end up hitting major goals without overloading your team roster.

June 15, 2018

6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Even enormous companies aren’t immune from the effects of unforeseen strategy shifts. Take Amazon, which is now shedding positions in Seattle and throughout the world. Yet, at the same time that Amazon’s laying off, it’s adding personnel to other departments.

The implication, it would seem, is that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean pragmatic. In other words, bringing a smaller number of carefully selected people on board early might have been enough for Amazon -- and any other company facing the same challenges-- to avoid having to cut jobs later.

I’m not speaking from a hypothetical back seat. When hiring, I myself bring in bright candidates who share my vision and will execute goals without micromanagement. And, what I've found is that less can be more if you have the right people in the right places. Three efficient, high-quality writers in my business can perform the job of six mediocre ones. The minutes and hours I save dealing with three superstars more than outweighs the higher salaries and strong benefits I need to offer to keep them around.

In business, everything boils down to return on investment, including a team’s size. Athletes get it: The Stanley Cup (for hockey) doesn’t go to the most talented player, but to the most talented group that operates as a single unit with a laser focus. Similarly, if your company wants long-term success, a small, tight-knit team will help you weather storms, pivot when needed and bring you opportunities.

Chances, risks and rewards

Originally, I was a one-man operation working out of my home office with the help of three contractors. After an acquisition in 2011, I recognized it was time to scale. However, I didn’t start bringing in employees right away; I stayed lean and mean until the business met my revenue goals.

By increasing the size of my team slowly and thoughtfully, I maintained at least one person who specialized in every vital business area.

This was hardly a strategy unique to me: The team that started mattress-in-a-box company Casper put the same thought into the company's start. Each of the five team members brought different skills to the table, from experience in mattress sales, to graphic design, to marketing and brand-building. And even though the team was small, the co-founders hit their one-year revenue projections after just the first month.

Of course, being small isn't always easy. Switching from project to project can create hiccups. With limited resources and time, small groups need to dedicate themselves to efficiency. They must work hard to master their roles, to minimize bumps, delays and interruptions. Sometimes, that requires people to wear several hats to ensure knowledge and coverage; in other words, things are chaotic and stressful. But, with time, companies with small teams can use those challenges to continuously improve without bringing on more staff.

Building a small, spectacular team

If you’re an entrepreneur at the beginning of your journey or are planning to broaden your scope, consider the core advantages of moving forward with a small team. Then, follow some steps to keep yourself on track:

1. Before hiring, be honest with yourself. Even if you’re not an introvert like me, you are probably more effective when you have time and space away from others to innovate and contemplate. Prior to hiring, figure out the types of personalities you cannot -- or will not -- work with, whether you are a strong manager and whether you need a “face that runs the place” as your second in command.

It’s tough to be sincere and admit your weaknesses, but the sooner you do, the better you’ll be able to flesh out a complementary team. Some innovators have great success relying on tools like the Harvard Business Review-recommended Deloitte’s Business Chemistry system to build a cast of players who have the skills successful companies need. From possibility-driven pioneers to challenge-drawn drivers, the Business Chemistry system gives you a visual understanding of what you lack and what you need.

2. Take a breather before making hiring decisions. Rushing is a surefire way to take on more than you can handle, so practice some patience. For each role, determine the type of person best suited to fill the void. Then, figure out whether you can afford that ideal candidate. If you can’t, you’ll have to look internally. That’s certainly wiser than making a bad hiring decision and having to start over again with a wounded -- and potentially fractured -- team.

In fact, it’s better to have a psychologically safe team environment than to enlarge a team for the sake of growth, according to Google. For years, the company studied work teams as part of Project Aristotle. What researchers discovered was that the wrong person could mess up a team’s innate intuitiveness and belief in thought equity.

3. Get to know your team players. Logically, small teams will come to be like families simply because everyone knows each other. You can facilitate and speed up the team-engagement process by encouraging discussions outside of workplace boundaries. As a leader, the more you know about the people you’ve entrusted with your company's well-being, the likelier you'll be to discover hidden talents.

For instance, a seriously amazing programmer might harbor a secret desire to design. Similarly, a hot rainmaker could have a dormant penchant for social content marketing. By fostering organic interaction opportunities, you can discover each team member’s drivers. Plus, you can boost the trust your people have in you as a leader. The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer indicated that CEO street cred took a 12-point nosedive last year. Be the executive who bucks this scary trend.

No matter what you’ve heard from well-intentioned mentors and friends, scaling a business doesn’t mean driving up the number of people on your payroll. Hire sensibly at the earliest stages, and you could end up hitting major goals without overloading your team roster.

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Instagram Stopped Notifying People When You Screenshot a Story. 3 Things to Know Today.

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Stay in the know in 60 seconds.

June 15, 2018

1 min read

In a quick turnaround after Tuesday's ruling, AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner, giving it the rights to assets like HBO, CNN, major sports leagues and the Harry Potter films.

There's bad news on the corporate diversity front: Google released its fifth annual diversity report yesterday, and the number of women and underrepresented minorities in its workforce has barely changed. This news comes after the company rejected the proposal to link executive pay to diversity metrics.

In other news, Instagram officially stopped notifying people when you screenshot a Story, so people can now "creep" in peace.

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3 Lessons the Big Brands Hopping on to the Blockchain Can Teach Entrepreneurs

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By mirroring strategies undertaken by big brands, startups can find ways to offer unique services taking advantage of the blockchain's beneficial attributes.

June 15, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

With the blockchain bandwagon gaining momentum, it’s easy to argue that the increasing number of large companies testing the waters is simply a money grab rather than a decision to dabble in innovation.

For these brands, blockchain technology, which has commonly been linked to the startup ecosystem, may seem like a somewhat unnecessary add-on that is largely unrelated to core business processes and practices.

Moreover, some of the high-profile public blockchain initiatives, like those by Kodak and Long Island Iced Tea (since renamed Long Blockchain Corp.), have flopped hard enough to make observers doubt the applicability of the technology to large companies (as this Fortune article documented).

Even so, behind the more visible stories of failure are multiple cases of companies deploying blockchain systems successfully.

The common thread connecting those successful implementations is a careful consideration of needs and a targeted approach to integration. While the major corporations jumping in can count on bigger financial and human capital, blockchain technology is fortunately low enough in cost (see this Ruby Garage tutorial) that entrepreneurs can absorb the necessary information and try their own hand at deploying it.

In fact, those entrepreneurs can look to the big brands starting to employ the blockchain and three key lessons those bigger players can offer startups seeking a competitive edge within their industries.

1. Blockchain opens new avenues for businesses to add valuable services.

The surging popularity of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underlies them has meant more and more people wanting to be part of the action. However, despite the praise for blockchain as a magic bullet to solve various technological issues, this technology is neither useful nor even applicable for all business models.

Simply adding blockchain to an existing platform, in fact, is likely to result in a scrapped project and an income-statement loss.

Instead, to ensure successful implementation, companies must find a practical use for the technology which adds value. Such is the case with ASKfm, which is expanding its already popular service by launcing its blockchain-based ASK 2.0 initiative.

The company, already one of the world’s largest Q&A social platforms, is set to add an educational component and improve the quality of its answers by using tokens to incentivize professionals to respond to queries. Eventually, ASKfm hopes to create a massive open online course (MOOC) platform delivering tutoring, private lessons and more.

Takeaway: Entrepreneurs often feel the need to jump on new trends to “stay with the market.” However, understanding why blockchain can be a valuable integration is the first step toward a company opening up this avenue to improve or transform its services.

2. Blockchain improves accountability and tracking.

For enterprise-level companies in retail or logistics, expansive and complex supply chains are commonplace and difficult to efficiently manage. One of the blockchain’s biggest advantages over existing architectures is its distributed ledger, which creates an immutable record of all transactions closed across the blockchain.

For companies that operate enormous supply chains, this incorruptible distributed ledger is a vital addition, because it reduces the likelihood of missed inputs or faulty information. For companies in the food services sector, for instance, the blockchain can also improve their ability to track products and avoid foodborne disease outbreaks due to faulty goods.

Walmart, for example, as CoinTelegraph reported, has already taken the step of creating a blockchain platform to track food products that travel from source to shelf. The retail behemoth is working in collaboration with IBM to create a system that was originally designed to track food deliveries to its stores.

By utilizing blockchain, other companies can similarly track their products more accurately, allowing every block on the chain to have the same up-to-date, incontrovertible data. In Walmart’s case, this means reducing the likelihood of outbreaks and expired goods.

Takeaway: For entrepreneurs, the creation of strong supply chains and exerting better control of their products from the factory door to their stores and stakeholders is key. As Entrepreneur explained, the blockchain even empowers small startups to increase transparency, accountability and security throughout their supply chains.

3. Blockchain delivers more avenues for incentivizing consumers.

Another highly touted benefit of blockchain is its tokenization ability, which can be used to purchase services in-app or provide rewards and incentives to convince users to participate.

This allows companies to create value-added ecosystems that reward users for contributing and reinvesting their tokens back into the company. Tokenization is already being deployed by several large brands and is quickly being adopted as a marketing strategy.

As Bloomberg reported, Italian coffee maker Latesso, for instance, is including token addresses on its products where users can redeem online rewards and even perform exchanges for fiat currency. Similarly, communications brand Rakuten is creating its own tokens for its Viber app. As TechCrunch explained, the token will allow users to monetize messaging groups and communication streams, enabling businesses to easily integrate with the ecosystem.

These companies are simply adding blockchain utilities into their services, doing so in a way that generates incentives to persuade people to use their products.

Takeaway: Entrepreneurs can build more devoted followings and incentivize involvement even without an established brand name. By constructing ecosystems that reward participation and encourage reinvestment, startups can build loyal communities without having to resort to expensive and sometimes inefficient marketing strategies.

Overall, the blockchain is catalyzing a transformation in the entire tech world, and entrepreneurs are well positioned to be at the vanguard of the revolution. By paying close attention to major trends and mirroring strategies undertaken by big brands, startups can find ways to offer unique services that take full advantage of the blockchain’s beneficial attributes.

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How to Calculate the ROI of Video Marketing

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In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Lemonlight is featured as one of the Top Video Production Companies in the United States. Check out their profile here.

By now, you already know investing in video marketing for your company is incredibly valuable and an important step toward growing awareness for your brand, strengthening your online presence, reaching new audiences, and converting more traffic into customers. A majority of the industry already knows it — according to a poll conducted by Syndacast, 52 percent of marketers believe video production provides the best return on investment (ROI) when compared to other types of digital content marketing.

More impressive, viewers spend 100 percent more time on web pages that include videos, and four times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. The data doesn’t lie; video production is incredibly powerful for your business. But how do you know if your video marketing is working?

The key to accurately evaluating the success of your video marketing is being able to properly calculate its ROI. This doesn’t just mean counting how many views your video gets; calculating the ROI of your video marketing efforts involves figuring out the right metrics to track. Setting up the proper key performance indicators to achieve your specific video marketing goals first and foremost is paramount to being able to properly track your video’s success.

Step 1: Defining the Specific Goal of Your Video Marketing Efforts

The very first step in calculating your video’s ROI is defining what goal you’re trying to achieve with your video marketing. From there, you can define the right key performance indicator (KPI) to track how well your video is performing.

Some common goals most businesses try to achieve using video marketing include:

Attract: You want to attract new customers and build better brand awareness, leaving new customers with a positive impression of your company.

Engage: You want to keep customers engaged with the content on your site so they provide you with their information.

Nurture: You want to nurture leads and increase the number of prospective customers buying your product over time.

Delight: You want to educate customers on how to use your product more effectively and make them feel included and part of a community.

Step 2: Creating the Right Type of Video Content to Achieve your Goal

After identifying a primary goal for your video content, you then need to create your video. The video content you create can vary greatly in style and format, so you need to make sure you’re creating the right type of video to help you achieve your goal.

We’ve copiously researched and tested what type of videos are best for each type of business goal, and the great news is that there’s plenty of options to choose from. Ultimately, what video types that perform the best for you will depend entirely on what your audience of prospective customers reacts the strongest to.

Here’s a short list of video types you can make for each of your desired goals:

Primary Goal: Attract New Customers

Video Types:

Commercial

Industry Video

Educational Video

Before and After Video

Product/Service Video

Angel Fire Optical – Lifestyle // Original Lemonlight Cut from Lemonlight Media on Vimeo.

Primary Goal: Engage Your Visitors

Video Types:

Brand Video

Day in the Life Video

Testimonial

Crowdfunding Video

Before and After Video

Adogo Brand Video // Lemonlight from Lemonlight Media on Vimeo.

Primary Goal: Nurture Your Prospects

Video Types:

Social Content Video

Product Review

Customer Spotlight

FAQ Video

Event Video

Binge // Lemonlight from Lemonlight Media on Vimeo.

Primary Goal: Delight Your Customers

Video Types:

Welcome Video

Thank you Video

Tutorial Video

Tips and Tricks Video

Referral Video

Little Red Feather Racing 60 Second Commercial // Lemonlight from Lemonlight Media on Vimeo.

Each video type has a unique style and format — check out this blog post to learn more about every individual type and whether or not it’s right for you.

Step 3: Picking the Key Performance Indicator to Achieve Your Goals

Now, you can narrow in on the right KPI to track your video’s success and ROI. If you’re looking to attract new customers, measure click-through rate (CTR) instead of just video views. Video views are the least reliable metric for tracking a video’s success. A video might have millions of views, but viewership always drops after the first 10 seconds and the video might be converting at less than one percent.

Some common KPIs you can use to track against your primary goal include:

Impressions

Click-through rate

Views (least reliable)

Beyond these common goals, think outside of the box and hone in on more unique KPIs, like these:

SEO Ranking

Backlinks

New leads

Social Engagement (comments, likes, etc.)

If your goal is social interactions on a specific social platform, for example, you will need to measure the engagement on that specific platform. Usually, this engagement will tend to bottom out after 72 hours, but will continue to grow over time from there.

For the best results, make multiple videos and make sure that you compare your KPIs across all of your videos by comparing the individual results video by video. Maybe one video is doing really well because of some element that isn’t in the rest of your videos. Or two videos may be performing better than another because their video format resonates better with your core audience.

Here’s a helpful graphic for determining which KPI to track for your individual goal.

Step 4: Picking the Right Analytics Measurement Tool

Once you’ve defined how you’re going to measure your ROI, you can then choose a measuring tool to help you collect and analyze your data.

Things you’ll want to make sure your platform measures include how many people are actually watching your video to the very end, at what point your viewers stop watching your video, and what your viewer demographics are.

Here are some popular tools to choose from for measuring your video marketing analytics.

Popular Paid Analytics Tools:

Popular Built-In Analytics Tools:

Some analytics measuring tools are provided by your video hosting platform, like when you host your video on YouTube or promote your video on Facebook. This data is handy and readily available, as long as you know how to interpret it. For videos you host on your homepage, you can use Google Analytics as a free tool to track how well your video is performing and use a tracking pixel to determine when a web visitor actually makes a purchase.

Step 5: Picking the Right Distribution Channels

Now, in order to properly track and calculate your video’s ROI, you need to make sure you distribute your video to the right places in order to maximize your reach.

There are plenty of places you can post your video once it’s done, but there are four key distribution channels you don’t want to ignore.

Owned social pages: No matter your primary goal or specific KPI, post and share your video content across all of your relevant social channels to maximize your video’s reach and put your call to action to the test.

Email marketing funnel: Share your video content in your email marketing efforts at multiple touch points, including linking your videos in your sales funnels, promoting your videos in your newsletters, and sharing your videos in your marketing emails to nurture prospective leads into becoming customers.

Company homepage: Host your video on your homepage to help achieve better web visitor engagement, higher SEO placement, and stronger sales conversions.

Paid advertising channels: For maximum impact, allocate an ad-spend for your video so you can target your current customers, new lookalike audiences, or retarget previous web traffic to your homepage with your video content.

Take advantage of these four main distribution channels, as each has its own unique value proposition.

Step 6: Testing and Updating Your Content for the Best ROI

A lot of data tracking might come second nature to you by now, since you’ve probably been tracking all kinds of data from your other traffic sources. However, you can work with a data analyst (or become one!) in order to better analyze and test the data you track.

This is where tracking your key performance indicator across all your video marketing efforts video by video becomes incredibly important. By reviewing your video marketing master metrics, you’ll see where your video marketing can improve, where you need to make adjustments, or where you need to lean in to certain video practices or formats.

Once you or your data analyst team have enough data to make the proper comparisons and adjustments, start altering your content to improve and increase your video’s ROI. If your primary goal is to attract new customers, you can increase your click throughs by using a stronger call to action. If your goal is to engage more with web visitors, you can create a more compelling type of video that captures your prospective lead’s attention in a faster, more emotionally driven way.

Remember, the only way to properly calculate your ROI is by tracking your KPIs against your primary goal. Don’t try to track too many things at once, or you’ll become overwhelmed — you won’t know what is and isn’t working and your results will be influenced by too many factors. Focus instead on a few KPIs and make meaningful changes that’ll move your company forward.

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Hope Horner

Hope Horner is a three-time entrepreneur that has been featured in Inc.'s Top 25 Entrepreneurs to watch in 2017, Entrepreneur's 11 Marketing Experts that Could Changes Your Business, and Pepperdine’s 40 Under 40. Horner is a regular contributor at Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc. and multiple other publications where she shares startup insights and scalable solutions. She is currently working on her third startup, Lemonlight, an LA-based business that produces and distributes branded video content at scale.

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Link Building For Beginners: A Digital Marketing Agency’s Guide

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Search engine optimization is very tricky because each year Google is making changes to their algorithm. The old fashion techniques are no longer working as well, and bloggers are trying to find creative ways to rank their content. It essentially comes down to the following:

If you can rank your content higher than your competition, you’ll be able to drive a lot of traffic to your website. With the popularity of social media, this targeted traffic can double or even triple within a short time. With that said, I’ll be exploring 7 ways which bloggers can increase their rankings in 2017. I’ll visit what expert bloggers are saying about linking building, and what strategies they have been using to get an edge on their competition. Let’s get started.

1 – Focus on Web Analyzer tools

These are tools that provide you with a lot of interesting data. We are now in a time where you shouldn’t be wasting time building links that don’t add value. This means you should know who your competition and what they are doing to outrank you in the SERP’s. Many new web analyzer tools will provide you with loads of great information like:

Who links to your competition

The value of each link

The referring domain

The referring anchor text

Current keyword rank in search engines

And much more.

What all this information does is help you focus your attention on the data that matters. This will help you put your time, effort and skills where they matter most. But, it’s important you use only the best web analyzer tools so do your research online and start to research some of them.

2 – Optimize Your Website

It’s important to optimize your website for performance because other factors matter when it comes to ranking. There are now over 200 ranking factors and load time, mobile compatibility, clean design, and reduced clutter are all included. If your site is lacking in one of these areas, it can quickly pull down the rankings of your site as a result of it.

With a very high performing site, you are increasing the user experience, and this means a lot to search engines. This is especially true with mobile speed and responsiveness as well. Companies like Google are in business because they provide people with information in an organized fashion. Not only that, they provide people with the best information available online. The next time you are skimming through your website, look for ways you can optimize your blog it going forward by either changing the content font, color, and making it mobile compatible. You also want to test the current load speed which must fall below 3 seconds.

3 – SEO Traffic, Remarketing and Emails

With so much emphasis on ranking higher in the search results and getting as much free organic traffic to your site as possible, site owners should want to take as much opportunity of this high-quality traffic as possible. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by setting up a remarketing campaign through Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, or any other remarketing platform.

When moving forward with a remarketing campaign, it’s important to make sure you have ad creative for all sizes and ad spots possible. Digital Monopoly Perth has a great article on their site that shows all of the sizes and image formats that are currently being used for Google Adwords.

The best way to rebrand and remarket to an audience is to have your ad banners display your logo, site colors, and also a call to action that will remind them on why they were previously at your site in the first place.

At the same time, while we are talking about the importance and value of search traffic, it’s key to get these users on your mailing list as well. You can see a perfect example of how this is being used at TerritorySupply.com. This site ranks very well for a wide range of products they have listed on their site. While the average person is going to visit the search from a search they did in Google, it’s likely most of them won’t make a purchase the first time around. The best way to turn this organic visitor into a longterm visitor and potential customer, is to offer them a free 20% discount coupon and getting them onto their mailing list.

This is a tactic that is being used by millions of sites, but only a small portion of those sites are doing it correctly. Take advantage of what popup tools like OptinMonster have to offer, by creating different popups and call to actions based on the pages your audiences are visiting, and also where they are coming from. Remember, most SEO visitors to your website will leave and never come back after the first visit. It doesn’t have a lot to do with your content, but instead that there are simply too many sites and distractions out there already.

4 – On-Page SEO

Many bloggers spend too much time building external links but fail to optimize their own website. There is no point in building links with strategic anchor text if your website doesn’t have the same keywords in the title, description, and URL. You should spend a lot of time with on-page SEO and understand what keywords work best at ranking your website. Personally, I think you should be focusing on the title, URL, description, and body. In the body, you should include not only targeted keywords but some which are related to the main keyword you are trying to rank for.

It’s stated, 75% of your ranking has to do with on-page SEO so you should work very hard on optimizing your site, and content.

When it comes to On-Page SEO and ranking factors, there are always going to be debates and discussions on which methods work best. Fortunately, there are now more reports out than ever before, showcasing which factors are likely working best. You can see a preview of these ranking factors in the graphic below from SearchMetrics.com.

5 – SkyScraper Technique

For you to outrank your competition, you’ll have to get creative, and nothing is more creative than the skyscraper technique. It involves finding related content to yours which has been published and looking for broken backlinks within the content. When you locate them, you need to first figure out what you can do to replace this link. Since your searching on a relevant blog, you know you can write content which is better, and up to date. After, you simply contact the blog owner letting them know about your content, then asking them to link to it as a replacement.

Many blog owners don’t have a problem replacing low-quality content with higher quality content. If the link is broken, then you’ve increased your chance of securing that link. However, just make sure you focus on quality when writing content, and you find a blog which is related to your niche. The last thing you want to do is ask for a link for a non-relevant blog.

When it comes to using any type of SEO or ‘working strategies’, it’s important that you are still relying on new and working SEO methods, and not old ones. A good way to stay updated with these changing trends is to keep an eye on what your competition is doing, while also looking at the most recent infographics, case studies and SEO reports from different agencies, especially like the one below.

6 – YouTube Traffic

This platform has changed the way people interact online so make sure you make use of it. With the right type of videos, you can generate a lot of traffic to your blog within a short time. However, for you to benefit, you’ll have to start creating videos which are not hard at all. You can use affordable software, and many of the operating systems come built-in with a video recorder, camera, etc. Do some research on YouTube looking at what others have created in terms of video, and try to create something better. Here’s the trick,

Once you go live, you want to make sure you optimize your video by adding the right keywords in the title of the video, description, and you add a link to your blog. You can add links to your social media accounts too. Again, create high-quality videos offering a lot of great value, and you’ll increase your brand awareness within a short time.

7) Social Media Traffic

The biggest networks are Facebook, Twitter and Google+ so use them to build an audience. Imagine having 100,000 Twitter followers, and what this can do for your traffic when you share a valuable post with them. Top bloggers generate 5,000 visitors within minutes after sharing their recent content with their followers. You can also build your brand by taking advantage of Facebook Ads which is great to promote an event, brand, post or even take a survey. Social media is able to connect and engage readers quickly so don’t let this avenue slip out of your hands.

Here’s the great thing, to join these networks doesn’t cost any money, and all it takes to increase traffic is a retweet from a power blogger in your niche. It’s important to network with other bloggers within your niche because they’ll be more than happy to share your content with their followers. Whenever you decide to share your content on social media, it’s important to make sure you optimize your title and add keywords within the description before sharing. This helps build engagement too.

Getting the Most Out of Your SEO Efforts in 2018

As you can imagine, with more websites and blogs on the internet than ever before, it’s going to be tough to rank your site on the first page of Google — however, it still is possible. Bloggers, brands, and businesses that want to rank higher in Google, need to put in the time and effort to make sure each of the factors above are implemented and live on their sites asap.

Follow these SEO tips, implement them into your site, and then watch and see as your SEO and site traffic continue to improve.

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Slide Images

Saturday, 16 June 2018

The benefits of outsourcing HR

Benefits of outsourcing payroll

People are Adding Value

Affordable

Search Engines Love It

Is financial infidelity a big problem?

How to avoid money fights in a relationship

1. Spending versus saving

2. Expectations that one partner pays more

3. One partner earns a lot more

4. Wants versus needs

Set shared goals but allow for individual freedom

Work together for a financial infidelity free lifestyle

Be hypersentitive to trends.

Know when to pivot.

Embrace uncertainty and change.

Chances, risks and rewards

Building a small, spectacular team

Subscribe to the UpCity Blog!

1. Blockchain opens new avenues for businesses to add valuable services.

2. Blockchain improves accountability and tracking.

3. Blockchain delivers more avenues for incentivizing consumers.

Friday, 15 June 2018

Step 1: Defining the Specific Goal of Your Video Marketing Efforts

Step 2: Creating the Right Type of Video Content to Achieve your Goal

Primary Goal: Attract New Customers

Primary Goal: Engage Your Visitors

Primary Goal: Nurture Your Prospects

Primary Goal: Delight Your Customers

Step 3: Picking the Key Performance Indicator to Achieve Your Goals

Step 4: Picking the Right Analytics Measurement Tool

Popular Paid Analytics Tools:

Popular Built-In Analytics Tools:

Step 5: Picking the Right Distribution Channels

Step 6: Testing and Updating Your Content for the Best ROI

Hope Horner

Subscribe to the UpCity Blog!

1 – Focus on Web Analyzer tools

2 – Optimize Your Website

3 – SEO Traffic, Remarketing and Emails

4 – On-Page SEO

5 – SkyScraper Technique

6 – YouTube Traffic

7) Social Media Traffic