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Make Money with Your Website

May 13th, 2013

Simple ways to make money with your website:

1. Advertising

This is the most popular way because it is one of the best ways to make money online without putting in too much time and effort.

Some of the most popular choices for website advertisements are:

2. Get Paid to Post

If you have a blog that has a decent base of readers and/or a Google Page Rank, you can get paid to post reviews, articles and product launches on your website!

Some of the most popular choices are:

3. Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Programs are a good way to earn extra revenue on your website. By putting a simple URL on your website and/or pasting a banner, you can earn money any time someone clicks on that link and makes a purchase.

In Doteasy’s case, we pay you US$70 for every Unlimited Hosting sale. You get paid even if your visitor purchases our free Basic Hosting plan. More details on the Doteasy Affiliate Program*

Other popular choices:

4. Ad Space and Sponsorship

If your website or blog is popular enough, you can offer the option to accept site sponsorship and/or ad space. A lot of times, companies that target the same or related niche will pay you to advertise their services.

5. Donations

Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog contains information readers learn and gain value.

Popular “Donate” links/buttons:

6. Shopping Cart – Sell your Own Product

This is probably the best way to earn a solid, long-term income. When you are selling your own product, you directly control how much profit your make.

Popular shopping carts:

  • Doteasy Commerce System
  • ZenCart (click here to see how easy it is to install ZenCart with Softaculous, an auto-script-installer)
  • osCommerce (click here to see how easy it is to install ZenCart with Softaculous, an auto-script-installer)

*Conditions apply. Please refer to our Affiliate Program Page for full details.

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Posted in Domain, eCommerce, Internet

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Content Theft – What Can You Do?

May 3rd, 2013

In simple terms, content theft refers to the stealing or unauthorized usage of web content (both graphics and text) by another website. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”? Certainly not in the case of content theft. Most content thieves steal content simply to fill space on their websites and attract traffic (think Google AdSense).

Content theft also damages your standings in search engines. Search engine consider duplicate content on multiple web sites spamming, which can result in a drop in placement on search listings or elimination from the search engine altogether.

To catch the thief

There are many tools available on the Internet that you can use to catch a content thief:

1. Google Alerts – Google Alerts are email reports of the latest relevant Google search results (including news, web, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. You can setup an alert for your blog name or a unique phrase from your website.

2. Copyscape – Copyscape is a search engine to locate duplicated materials on the Internet. All you need to do is provide your URL and Copyscape will check whether text content found on the provided URL appears anywhere else on the Internet.

If you find a thief:

Once you have found a content thief, your next step is to preserve the evidence you have found. Often infringing sites are either altered or taken down once you attempt to contact the site owner, host or search engines, having a copy of the site for your records and to verify the infringing content will come in handy in case a dispute arises later.

As there are tools to help you catch the thief, there are tools to help you preserve evidence:

1. WebCite – WebCite is a service that archives web pages on demand and stores them in simple URL that you can easily access later without worrying whether the original web page is revised or removed.

2. Furl – Furl is a free social bookmarking website that allows members to store searchable copies of webpages and share them with others.

3. The Internet Archive – The Internet Archive preserve websites by taking regular “snapshots”.

Cease and Desist Letter:

Once you have caught the thief and preserved the evidence, your next step is to try and resolve the situation – contact the thief with a Cease and Desist Order.

A Cease and Desist Order is simply a “stop, or else face legal action” order. While a cease and desist letter can be sent by anyone, they are best written by lawyers.

Resources:

You can use Whois to find the site owner contact information.

Contact Host, Advertisers and Search Engine

A domain’s Whois data will also include the website’s nameserver, which you can use to look up the site’s web host.

You can send a copy of the Cease and Desist Letter to the site’s web host and advertisers. But to make a stronger case, you may also want to advise them of your attempts to resolve the situation with the site owner, including copies of the ignored Cease and Desist Letter. You may also wish to send a formal DMCA letter. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires hosts to remove infringing content once they have been properly notified.

DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringement – Sample Template

Contacting search engines:

Before you contact Google to report the infringing website, you have to make sure that it is indexed by Google. You can search a website if it is already indexed by visiting Google.com and type site:yourdomain.com. For example, if you want to see if Doteasy.com has been indexed, go to Google and type site:doteasy.com. If you see results, the website has been indexed.

Additional guidelines from Google:

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Posted in Blog, Internet, Security

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Tips for enhancing Facebook Page engagement: Part 3 (5 Don’ts with your Facebook Page)

April 29th, 2013

We’ve shared 5 easy tips to effectively increase audience engagement for your Facebook Page. If you haven’t already read this, please do so by clicking this link as it explains why your Facebook Page can’t reach to certain group of your followers. In this post, we are going to share another 5 tips that you should avoid doing on your Facebook page.

5 donts for facebook

Tagging your followers in photos

One of the greatest features of Facebook is the capability of tagging your friends on a photo. In fact, this feature is also available to your Facebook page. You can tag your actual Facebook friends on a photo that you posted on your business page. Once you tag your friend on the picture, it will display on your friend’s timeline, which means the “friends of friends” who do not follow your Facebook page will also see your picture.

A lot of online clothing retailers use this technique to attract new followers/customers. However, this practice may also trigger your already-fan “unliking” your page because tagging unrelated photo to a friend is, in fact, very spam-like. Think this way: do you want your personal Facebook timeline showing a picture with a mannequin tagged your name on it? If the answer is no, your Facebook followers are very likely sharing the same feeling as you are!

Instead of tagging people, stay focus on the actual picture you want to post on Facebook. Be creative by adding caption, borders, comic effects, etc. on the pictures. People tend to share Facebook pictures if the pictures can amuse them. This is by far much more successful approaching than spamming photos with name tagging.

One post, two places

There are a lot of apps that let you auto-feed your status from one place to another. For example, by using an app called “Facebook to Twitter”, once you post a status update on your Facebook page, your Twitter account will also create the same post. It is understood that having an update cross-posting on two social media channels is much more convenient than administering multiple social media accounts. However, since Facebook and Twitter have different limit characters set on posting, if you have a post over 140 characters on Facebook, the post auto-generated on Twitter will be shorten with “…” displayed in the end of the post. A Twitter account with repetitive posts ending with “…” is a clear sign of lack of engagement and professionalism, which, as a result, turn off audience.

Less is more

Making more posts does not necessary give you a better opportunity to outreach your Facebook page. In fact, making a post every 10 minutes of your status update may actually be very annoying to certain people which may result in followers hiding your Facebook page from their timeline.

In general, we would recommend Facebook page owner to make one post a day. That should be sufficient enough for you to stay engaged with your audience.

Overlook the Facebook Insights

Every Facebook page owner can export the Fans data in the Insights section. These data contain extremely important facts about your followers. For example, you can view the daily and weekly new likes and “unlikes” of your page. In particular, we would like to highlight a function called “Negative Feedback”. This term does not refer to the negative comments your Facebook fans made on your page. Instead, it refers to those who hide your page or even mark your page as spam. It even shows you the exact date your Facebook fan made such Negative Feedback. By analyzing the Negative Feedback, you can compare this with your Facebook page timeline so that you can get a better understanding of what kind of posts that your followers dislike.

Post links without description

One of the main reasons for a website to have its own Facebook page is to use this social medial platform to outreach and create more traffic to the actual website. So, it makes sense for the website owner to regularly post their website links on the Facebook page. However, please note that simply putting your URL without any description may look “spam-like” to your fans and may not be able to attract them by clicking the links. The most effective way to post your link is to attach with a picture and a description. Generally speaking, Facebook fans are much more engaged to pictures than just words.

We hope that these series of Enhancing Facebook Page Engagement tips will help you achieve a bigger fan base for your page which will help you boost up your website traffic. If you find these tips helpful, please give us a like and share this post on your Facebook! Thanks.

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Posted in Internet, Social Networking

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I’m looking for a Job!…How can I stand out from my competition?

April 9th, 2013

It’s quite depressing to read the news these days when all we hear about are the high unemployment rates of college graduates. The financial recession inevitably causes these new grads to work minimum wage jobs, hence causing underemployment. At the same time, we are also experiencing rising graduation rates. As we get closer to the graduation season, it is without a doubt that college grads are competing fiercely with their peers in their quest for that perfect job. An ordinary resume with high academic achievement, and a variety of extracurricular activity is no longer the ticket that will get you an interview. The key to getting a job opportunity is learning out how to stand out from the crowd. Doteasy would like to share a few tips for those who are currently job hunting on how to impress your potential employer.

doteasy_resumeTip #1: LinkedIn

This first tip is quite obvious, but we believe it still deserves a mention. LinkedIn is the free online social networking website for professionals. Many LinkedIn users like to set up their accounts similar to their CV, but we would like to remind you that LinkedIn was built on the philosophy of social networking. In other words, it is a tool for you to build networks with your potential clients and employers, so you should make full use of it! Instead of copying and pasting the contents of your resume, tell your readers whom you have previously worked with, and what you’ve done to help previous clients to achieve certain goals. Leaving your contact information is also helpful. This should be sufficient. Remember, less is more!

Tip #2: Contact Information

Speaking of contact information, your telephone number and Email address are the most commonly used forms of communication for job searchers. Again, we would like to reiterate that your goal in job searching is to stand out from your fellow job seekers. So, spend some time to see if you can find a meaningful word which can make your phone number stand out (e.g. HSBC Tel: 1-866-688-HSBC (4722). While this may not be an easy task for some people, you can also take an alternative approach using your Email address. Before we go into more detail about Email addresses, we would like to emphasize an important point: professionalism is the key! This being said, avoid using an Email address containing your favourite cartoon character, or the name of the lead role in your favourite soap opera. On the contrary, you can achieve much more by using an email with your own personalized domain. An email with a personalized domain serves the following two purposes:

  • It differentiates your online identity among your competitors, who most likely have ordinary Email addresses such as @hotmail.com and @gmail.com accounts.
  • It leaves a strong impression with your potential employer as to how much you value your professional identity online.

By convincing your potential employer that you value your professionalism, it makes sense that it would lead your future employer to believe that you will demonstrate the best effort you can to achieve the same level of professionalism in the workplace. To learn more about the great features of having a domain email account, check out this blog post.

Depending on your desired business industry, having a social media account is valuable because it can showcase some of your best work to your future employer. Of course, this depends on the industry that you are specialized in. However, we find that this tactic is especially relevant for marketing positions. Assuming your social media accounts are mainly about current trends of your desired business industry news, making the accounts public enables you to portray yourself to an employer that you are always on top of the trends. Before you make your social media channels available for employer access, consider the following:

  • How often do you tweet or create content about your specialization’s industry? If the answer is not very often, then don’t bother!
  • Are there any embarrassing/silly pictures you have been tagged in? If the answer is yes, then you know what to do.

Tip #3: Making a Website

For certain job positions, a paper resume may not be sufficient (e.g. fashion designer, photographer, journalist, etc.). You require a platform to showcase your work, and that’s why you need a website.

There are many free website builders available online which offer sub-domain services (eg. Yourname.wordpress.com or yourname.blogspot.com). While you can build your website for free with these services, the tradeoff is the lack of control over the look and feel of your webpage. Also, with sub-domains, you are unable to create your own personal domain email accounts. Most importantly, your goal in creating a website is to communicate professionalism, and market yourself as an individual who practices this important skill. Imagine this: if you need to purchase a product from an online store, which store would you pick? The one with a customized domain name, or the one under Blogspot?

Creating a website with your own personalized domain name creates an online identity for you as well as portrays a professional image to anyone who visits your website. Check out this article from Journalism.co.uk as it features how personalized websites helped 5 journalists land their dream jobs.

We’ve made a live demo website that is tailor-made for freelance photographers. Check this out by clicking the iamge below.

wp_photo_screenshot

Lack of coding experience? No need to worry!! We’ve created step-by-step video tutorial on how to build this website. So, all you need to publish your professional website showcasing your masterpieces is: roughly $50 for the first year (less than 15 cents a day) + 1 hour of your time. To sign up, simply give this link a click, choose a domain name (e.g. yourname.com) and subscribe to our Unlimited Hosting plan. Need help during customizing your website? Our tech support team is happy to assist you.

A typical portfolio website should contain:

  • A home page with your name, a brief intro about your expertise, and preferably a snapshot of yourself
  • A page with your work/volunteer experience as well as your academic background
  • A portfolio showcase of your work (photos, online article, freelance project, YouTube Video channel etc.)
  • Contact info

Step #4: Go a little bit further

Just before we dive into the details, check out this success story:

http://googlepleasehire.me

The fellow from this webpage was desperate looking for a job, and not just any job, but a job from Google. Like many, he tried all the traditional methods of looking for a job such as sending in resumes, and posting portfolios on LinkedIn. Needless to say, these efforts had not been very effective in getting Google’s attention. Wanting to take things into his own hands, he decided to not just make a website, but also created a video resume for his potential employer. He leveraged the use of domain names very cleverly by including “Google” as a part of the website URL, and the “.ME” domain extension when he made the website. He is a prime example of how to market yourself effectively to employers. Soon enough, a technology blog spotted his website, and slowly many other blogs and the media caught on. He eventually received a lot of media exposure on ABC News, TechCrunch, etc.

So, what’s the takeaway? Be creative, think outside the box, and start building your online portfolio today!

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Posted in Blog, Customer Support, Domain, Domain Names, Doteasy Hosting, Email, Internet

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Tips for enhancing Facebook Page engagement: Part 2

February 20th, 2013

In our last article, we briefly explained EdgeRank, the algorithm with which Facebook determines the content shows up in the news feeds of a Facebook account. Let’s do a quick recap to refresh your memory. The followers of your Facebook page may not see your posts if Facebook thinks your post is not relevant to your Facebook followers. To combat this problem, it is a good idea to increase fan engagement through the content you post on Facebook. In this blog post, we will share 5 simple but effective tips to increase audience engagement.

Enough is enough

In this day and age, readers care about quality over quantity. This being said, if you are spamming your Facebook followers with irrelevant junk posts, it can do more harm than good. In general, one post a day is sufficient to keep followers informed of the happenings at your business or organization, whatever it may be that you are trying to promote. In terms of length, studies show that posts with 100 to 150 characters receive 60% more likes than longer posts.

Timing

Believe it or not, the time that you release your Facebook posts actually matter! The optimal way of discovering the best time to make Facebook posts is by the trial and error method. Try different times to make your posts, and use the Facebook feature which allows you to see how many people actually saw that post. This becomes a little tricky if your business targets consumers globally, as the time differences can have an impact on time optimization. In general, making posts in the morning gets the highest engagement for businesses such as retailers and restaurants.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A picture with a short text caption always gets more likes, shares, and comments. People respond well to visual stimuli.

Be specific

Always include a call-to-action message in your Facebook posts. Encourage your followers to share and comment on the post. Remember that the more shares and comments you have, the higher the reach (the number of people who see a given post) of the post! For example, if the post is for a promotional sales campaign, be sure to include a phrase like “hurry before the promo is over!” or “head over to our main page to enjoy this limited time offer”.

Content is king!

You’ve probably heard this many times before, but content is king. At the end of the day, there’s no need to run a contest to increase the likes of your Facebook page if you offer valuable content to your readers. People will eventually flock to your page by themselves, no questions asked!

To wrap up, always try to put yourself in the readers’ shoes. Think of it this way: if your post can make you think “WOW, I’ve got to share this info with my buddies”, then you are on the right track! If the post you made can’t even impress yourself, chances are slim your Facebook followers will share it. We hope our series of Facebook Marketing tactics have been helpful. We hope this article WOW-ed you enough that you will share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

 fb_very_nice

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Posted in Internet, Social Networking

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