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8 Tips to Make the Most Out Of Your Explainer Video

Published on April 9, 2021April 9, 2021

Explainer videos have become popular and the go-to marketing tool for many organizations. Entrepreneurs are embracing the technology to boost their online visibility and increase conversions. To sell products or services effectively, the importance of creating high-quality explainer videos cannot be over-emphasized. They should offer valuable information to customers, among other things.

Creating an explainer video is not difficult. It is not also a walk in the park either. Explainer videos are roughly 60 to 90 seconds long and one of the best ways to engage your target audience. Spiel creative claim that while shorter videos are more accessible, they should be as long as it needs to be to sell your product or meet your goals.

In this article, we will look at the ways you can make the most out of your explainer video and ensure conversions.

Let us delve into specifics.

1. Creative scripting

Scripting is among the first order of businesses in the pre-production phase of video creation. It is the backbone of the whole project. As such, drafting a creative script is imperative.

During the scripting process, allow your imagination to run wild. Be unique and think outside the norm. Look at what your competitors are doing and come up with something more relevant and concise. It should also be memorable, among other things.

2. Simplicity is key

You only have a couple of seconds to get your information across. Considering that people have a short attention span, it is essential to incorporate simplicity in your explainer videos to grab the attention of your clients.

In the one or so minute you have, start by addressing your clients’ pain points. Address this issue by offering a solution. This is the part where you introduce your products or services to viewers. Explain further its working mechanism or how to use it. At the end of the video, introduce a call-to-action.

The essence of keeping it simple is to allow you to do all the above-stated things in less than two minutes.

3. Value addition

Consumers are on a constant quest for quality and value. So, when creating explainer videos, look for ways in which you can add value to them.

For instance, you can create free tutorials that educate your clients on how to use products or services effectively.

For those looking to promote their brands, offering incentives is a great place to start. Urge your viewers to engage through commenting, liking, and sharing, for them to leverage gifts. By offering such incentives, your target audience is more likely to engage with your explainer videos, which helps in growing your reach and visibility exponentially.

4. Make it engaging

I am yet to meet someone who spends a minute or two watching a boring video on the internet.

The online world is competitive, to say the least. Due to content saturation, brands are crafting high-quality videos to ensure customer engagement.

The first step to make your explainer videos more engaging is to learn how to capture the audience’s attention. To ensure you do this effectively, you must understand your target audience. What are they inclined towards? What are their knowledge gaps? What are their pain points? It is only by having the answers to the above questions that you can create content that engages with your consumers.

Another way to create engaging explainer videos is to make use of eye-catching visuals. In a world where people have a vast array of fun videos to watch, making use of visuals allows you to capture the attention of existing and prospective clients. It allows you to get your point across more interestingly and dynamically.

5. Mobile-friendliness

Technological advancements have revolutionized everyday living. Particularly on internet surfing, the number of people using their phones to surf the internet is on a steady incline. For this reason, creating a mobile-friendly explainer video is of paramount importance.

Optimizing your explainer videos for mobile is not only beneficial to your target audience but is also vital for search engine optimization and boosting web traffic. Additionally, since a vast number of younger web users frequent websites via their mobile devices, creating mobile-friendly explainer devices allows you to reach them easily.

6. Expert voice over

Voice-overs are an integral part of high-quality video production. When handled by an expert, they help grab the viewers’ attention, making them connect with the content better. Besides, they are instrumental in storytelling, allowing you to get your point across better.

Additionally, voice-overs can be localized. By doing so, you can target certain demographics and people from one ethnic group. Through the rich tones from professional voice-overs, you create wider audience connections, among other things.

7. Showcase the benefits, not features

When creating an explainer video, you may be tempted to go on and on about the product specifications. Yes, this is information that the user deserves to know. However, you only have a minute or so to speak about the product or service. Don’t you think it is wiser to inform your target audience of the perks of using the product or service?

Instead of talking about the features, showcase the benefits. It is the sure-fire way to get people interested in what you are selling.

8. Partner with industry experts

As stated earlier, explainer videos are not extremely difficult to make. As much as you may want to save money, hiring an industry expert is one of the best decisions you can make for your brand.

Companies that specialize in explainer videos are your best bet. Since it is in their line of work, explainer video experts will give your videos explanations that create better engagement. Through their experience, they will create videos that promote brand awareness and increase customer retention.

Bottomline

Explainer videos are an integral part of business advertising. For this reason, creating one that resonates with your target audience is of the utmost importance. By following the eight steps listed above, you are setting yourself up for success in explainer video production and in converting sales.

Going Down the Rabbit Hole of Modern-Day SEO with Jason Hennessey

Published on March 30, 2021

Marketing

Remember the early 2000s? Those years way before the pandemic struck seem so far away now, and yet the picture of it all is still so familiar to us: chunky flip-phones, questionable fashion trends, good music – and, of course, the continuous rise of the internet. Back then, we’d wait minutes for the screeching sound of our computers attempting to form some semblance of a connection to the available Wi-fi. If that were to happen today, everybody would complain bitterly.

Then again, the internet in our modern setting has gone leaps and bounds to evolve into an almost untamable creature of its own, breathing and morphing into so many shapes and sizes that it’s hard to keep track sometimes. A good distinction between the face of the internet only 20 years ago and today can be represented in every website’s current, heavy reliance on search engine optimization.

SEO wasn’t popular back then. There were hardly any college courses on it. If one wished to learn about SEO online, they would have to really scour the internet for scraps of information on the subject matter.

Today, SEO is a key mechanism which turns the gears that drive any online platform’s success. As it is when objects closer to us appear larger, SEO enables more related web pages to be put in the spotlight according to their ranking in the search engine’s algorithm. From this concept alone, it’s a no-brainer that in recent years, the SEO niche has become a cornerstone in the tech industry.

Ironically, it is because of SEO’s popularity that the quest for quality SEO services often results in a person going down an endless rabbit hole.

For instance, it’s extremely difficult to educate oneself so thoroughly in the subject matter. If someone were to attempt to write a book on SEO, and if they were determined to ensure that every piece of information in this book remains up to date for a long time, this would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Publishing takes a while. And in that period between the writing and the book’s subsequent publishing, Google, for example, would have updated its algorithm very quickly and frequently. Once the book has been released to the public, it’s likely some or most of the information in that book would be rendered obsolete. The fact that search engines update their algorithms to match current trends makes it ridiculously impossible for one to have a solid, time-tested blueprint on SEO.

This leads to the situation where the quantity of SEO specialists greatly overwhelms the quality of existing services. Everyone can pick up a book, sure. But does everyone have the passion, the dedication, the drive to keep up with the ever-mutating trends on something as volatile as search engine optimization?

It should, therefore, come to no surprise that there are plenty of people who claim to be experts on SEO but in fact have no idea what they’re doing.

Jason Hennessey, the current owner of Hennessey Digital, a digital marketing agency currently worth over 10 million dollars in revenue, recounted a story which led to the formation of his third business. After dabbling in the entertainment industry and subsequently going on to develop his business in the wedding niche by building websites, Hennessey found his passion in SEO. He was then invited to give a talk at a lawyer’s house in Atlanta, Georgia. Standing amidst a group of fifty prominent lawyers, Hennessey, a novice in the legal industry, shed invaluable light unto them that day. He had nothing else to offer them but his secrets on how to market their law firms through search engine optimization. Applying the knowledge and experience obtained when he was growing his wedding-related websites, he spoke to them about the strategies he personally used to raise the rankings of his wedding websites in the eyes of the search engine algorithm.

After the talk, some from the audience spoke to him about their troubles. One of them told him, “I’m paying an SEO company 7,000 dollars a month, and they’re not doing any of this stuff.”

This was when Hennessey was offered the opportunity to gain some bucks growing their law firms’ websites, which then enabled him to go on and build another agency which he sold later on, EverSpark Interactive.

It’s a strange and admittedly scary reality: some people in the SEO business don’t actually know what they’re doing. Or, rather, they don’t know everything about the very subject in which they should be specialists.

So, what separates people like Hennessey and the other self-proclaimed ‘specialists’ in the SEO industry?

Hennessey went down the rabbit hole, but he never got lost. Instead, he found something in there.

See, the thing about tackling a behemoth that can grow to the size of what SEO is now (and will be in the future) is that one must be constantly learning. In Hennessey’s case, he learned about SEO during its unpopular days in 2001. All he had to start with was Aaron Wall’s ‘SEO Book’, which he read from cover to cover twice before he started to practice tinkering with websites on his own. It was a trial-and-error situation for him, where he had to constantly troubleshoot his own mistakes in order to fix them.

“When a student is ready to learn, a teacher will appear,” Hennessey said.

But knowledge so vast cannot be obtained from a single book. People like Hennessey go down the endless path of scouring for knowledge: they read everything on SEO, whether the content is online or forever imprinted upon the pages of a book or magazine. SEO is everywhere – and especially now, there are ample opportunities to learn all this information on one’s own. However, one must proceed with caution. Filter out the useful from the bad. Follow trends. Spend any available time possible on keeping up with the rapid changes in this genre.

Another notable thing Hennessey did was that he built relationships with others passionate about SEO. In his SEO-related educational website, iloveseo.com, there is not only endless information provided – it also sells SEO-inspired T-shirts and so on. Sure, it’s a great marketing tactic, but it’s also useful for connecting with other people around the world, and this allows people to share their information and passion for SEO.

In essence, growth isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing when it comes to education. Sure, getting a degree and specializing in SEO is wonderful. But the learning doesn’t stop there. Hennessey’s skills in SEO can only be credited to his endless efforts to teach himself more and more things about the subject.

So, indeed, getting a grip on modern-day SEO isn’t easy. But it is possible, if only one were willing to venture deeper down the rabbit hole.

How can an Outdoor LED Display Promote Service Specials?

Published on March 11, 2021

Technology

Are you interested in installing an outdoor LED display? If yes, then it is one of the best investments you will make for your business. According to stats, 3 out of 4 Americans are impulsive buyers. Moreover, 26% of Impulsive buyers spend $500-$1000 on the spot. However, it means that many people make the spot decision to buy something. So, if you run an attention-grabbing marketing campaign, then there are bright chances to grow sales right away. However, in this regard outdoor LED display is doing a marvelous job. Now many businesses are using LED displays to promote their services and products.

Ways to use an outdoor LED display to promote unique services:

Outdoor display shows that led display is one of the most growing kinds of advertisement. But we can’t jump into this without having the proper knowledge. If you are thinking of running a digital screen campaign, then here are ways to promote your service special.

Use outdoor signs to show yourself off:

If you use an outdoor LED display, your primary purpose is to remain in front of the public’s eye. So, for this, you have to connect your business with the passersby and visitors. It is vital to place the digital screen at a place that is most visited by people. If your offers are in front of customers’ eyes, they will indeed spend on those. For this purpose, you can run particular service messages by using vibrant colors and brightness.

By taking complete control of campaign:

If you use an outdoor LED display, then you have complete control over that screen. It means that you can change the message anytime to get the best results. For instance, it would help if you use a collage of videos and pictures to get the public’s attention. Moreover, it’s also good if you change the nature of the advertisement according to the time. For instance, you can attract impulsive buyers by running flash deals and short-term discounts.

Out of home advertisement:

With static billboards, you have to invest money in the production of each billboard you are making. But digital screens are different than those. LED display need computer software to update data instantly with zero extra cost. So, this mode of advertisement is a breath of fresh air. Moreover, people can see this board from a distance due to its brightness and dynamic visuals.

Outdoor LED display: More Visibility:

The primary purpose of setting up an outdoor LED display is to increase visibility. So, if you place the billboard in the right place, then you will grab more attention. For instance, if you need to cover a considerable distance, set a digital billboard on a rooftop or building. But if you want to target the main street or main area, choose a place on the floor. While setting up the screen on the floor, make sure that it is visible from the beginning of the street to the venue’s last row.

Get advantage of the outdoor LED display by changing message anytime:

An outdoor LED display is entirely different from the traditional mode of payment. The coolest feature of this technology is that you can change messages anytime. If you are into a services business-like stock market where information is continually changing, then take advantage of this. Digital screens are most convenient and affordable when it comes to showing dynamic data.

Enhance return on investment:

Outdoor LED display can be programmed to feature one campaign at different times throughout the year. Furthermore, you also have the option to target specific clients, areas, and purpose. All of these are the ways that increase the return on investment of this mode of promotion. Moreover, there are following other factors that play a vital role in increasing return than investment.

LED displays are durable

Takes less electricity

You can advertise 24/7 at the same production cost because you don’t need to spend extra every time.

Businesses can run customizable campaigns.

Less installation and maintenance cost

The conversation’s crux is that if the business uses an outdoor LED display, it’s in the right direction. In this way, you can even grab visitor’s attention, and they are functional everywhere.

How to get maximize ROI from outdoor LED screen?

Though outdoor LED display are helpful and oofer more benefits than traditional display, we should to know ways to maximize investment return. So, let’s discuss the ways to increase ROI by using the LED screen display for business.

Protect LED from bad weather

When water seeps through the outdoor LED display, then there are chances of screen damage. If you want to extend the life span of led display, it will help if you install a air circulation equipment. However, the installation method will isolate the display enclosure and protector from dampness. The entrance protection protects against solid object contact and water. So, better look for LED display screen with high protect to prevent form water.

Choose the high quality hardware:

If you study the LED market, you will get to know more outdoor LED panel that are best for certain condition. So, find the led screen that suits with hard temperature condition. Moreover, don’t forget to make sure the seasonal requirements of your advertising. Ensure that the outdoor LED screen won’t be harmed by direct sunlight or snow.

Internal temperature regulation:

Internal temperature is important to make sure the right functioning of the LED system. So, you should focus on issues like overheating, dying LED, and fading photos. However, it is important to install the regulate system to regulate it with temperature for the better protection.

Adjust brightness:

Brightness is one of the key things to get the attention of passersby. So, it would help if you adjust the illumination so that it remains prominent despite direct sunlight. However, you can select high brightness outdoor led screen, and high contrasts to make it even more attractive. According to Doitvision experts’ guidelines, the LED display will not attract others unless the brightness over 2000 nits. But if the brightness is under this limit, you have to set LED display under cover.

Best SEO Ideas in 2021

Published on January 11, 2021April 2, 2021

Technology

All social media fads might get old fashioned at some point, but the lucky news is that strategies for attacking online audience will always be a top notch!

What are the best ways to attract visitors to your website?

Here are the top 5 ideas for attracting an online audience:

1. Irresistible Content is Always

Ask yourself this, would you gain any online audience if your content is bad?

The more creative and irresistible it is the more audience you will get. It’s your job to introduce topics people are eager to read and know about, make sure you write content that will leave people asking you for more.

What do you think is more important than the content itself?

Headlines are more crucial. If your headline is not catchy then no one will make an effort to click and read what’s inside! Make sure you catch the first eye viewer by special catchy headlines and then put a huge effort into your content.

2. Why would people spend time on your website?

Internet surfing websites are now full of interesting topics and some even offer free fun services, so what to do next?

Offering a Unique Selling Proposition is the perfect solution to gain attention to your website, Offer your audience a clear case about your website.

Do you feel that you can be a part of this marketing development fuss? Well, you can start by involving in fresh SEO job positions; you can check LinkedIn and Joblang.com for a variety of SEO job opportunities.

3. Make Them Come Back

Attracting audience to check your websites is not enough, your target must take a deeper level of continuation, at the beginning they were impressed by the headlines and images and some contents that’s what made them check the website, now you have to make sure they come back to you for more updates and features.

How can you make your own traffic and get a loyal audience?

Let your visitor subscribe
Connect them with your social media accounts
Make some of the content exclusive for subscribers only
Keep on reminding them to register and subscribe (in a smart catchy way)
Make you sign up offer extraordinary

4. Play it smart with search engines (SEO)

If you can exceed this step, then you are halfway short. How?

Google keyword optimization
Concentrate on Google’s popular keywords
Make sure Google likes you, how? Use Google webmaster tools or simply offer a sitemap
Put optimized content before link building to gain longer SEO success
Do not be slow! Being fast is now a major factor in search rankings

5. Make it presentable and functional

The first step in attracting any visitor to your website a charming visual view, you should always take care of giving your audience a total comfort while surfing your website, disturbing colors, fonts and images will make the visitor leave your website in seconds before digging in your marvelous content.

You have to also make your website functional, like allow your subscribers and audience to share your content (under the law of copyrights) and make sure you make a long term goal satisfaction review tool to see if your audience is happy with your services and website.

Did you know that Web developer’s positions are paid large salary amounts?

If you’re interested you can check Joblang.com for job opportunities in the UK and The US. Do not hesitate!

When you decide to make your own website, be sure to take everything into consideration, the purpose of building a strong functional website is not only to be highly ranked in search engines, it’s your job to make it effective and useful. Web development is making your dream come true on virtual platforms.

The author of this text is:

Aya Silawi, an employee in JobLang Company. Holding a position of a content writer. She offers essays assistance to a wide range of clients both locally and internationally.

Marketing Trends for Amazon Sellers and Brands in 2021

Published on January 1, 2021March 21, 2021

Business

The Amazon landscape is continuously evolving, and you must be aware of these changes in order to become a successful Amazon seller. With more and more sellers introducing their product on Amazon, the competition in this landscape is getting fiercer.

Sellerinteractive.com reports that this growing competition is forcing sellers to become involved in their marketing strategies spread them across multiple channels. Every year, there are marketing trends that drive the strategies to build by Amazon sellers, and 2021 is going to be no different.

In this article, we will be discussing some of the prominent marketing trends for Amazon sellers and brands that will be dominating in 2021.

1. Understanding the Customer’s Journey

Amazon sellers typically focus on the first and the last touch-point of customers. However, each touch-point of their journey and valuable insights that can no longer be overlooked. From being aware of your brand to making a purchase decision, there will be multiple incidents where customers will come in contact with your brand. It might be from posters, advertising, window display, social media channels, websites, reviews, or word-of-mouth recommendations.

Q: How to better understand your customers and what they are looking for?

A: A thorough Amazon keyword research can be of great help.

Take SellerMotor Keyword Research as an example, it is a useful tool that you can implement to understand the customers journey and then make a better decision. It extends sellers with an extensive set of data and insights that include keyword search volumes, orders, reviews, etc. All these information together helps sellers to find out what customers are exploring, buying, and reviewing.

2. PPC Campaign

Pay-Per-Click or PPC campaign is not a new trend in Amazon marketing, but its prominence will certainly increase in 2021. Implementing an effective Amazon PPC ads allow sellers to generate greater visibility for their products and get them on top of the search results. A well-planned and implemented PPC campaign can significantly help in boosting your sales.

Sponsored ads appear on top of the search results, providing you with better opportunity to get clicks. PPC sales directly influence the organic ranking of your product on Amazon. So more sales derived from Amazon PPC ads will have increased positive effect on the organic ranking of your product. This is especially important if you are introducing a new product as they lack sales history and performance data. With Amazon PPC you can change that by increasing your product’s traffic, subsequently boosting your sales.

3. Generate Strong Brand Awareness

A brand goes beyond merely name and logo; it is also about the relationship your products build with consumers. A strong brand presence can add value to your business and contributes in creating a loyal clientele. You need to think outside the box in order to sustain in this increasingly competitive market. Your customers not just looking for products on Amazon, they are searching on Google and social media channels. Therefore, you have to think beyond Amazon ranking and reviews.

Building a website and being actively present on social media is a great way of generating higher brand awareness. Additionally, put a little more thought into your packaging as it can help in creating an impression for your brand. Brand packaging is a great marketing tool, so make sure you invest in quality and creative packaging that has your logo and mane placed smartly so that your customers remember your product.

4. Get on with Voice Search

Voice search is not a new trend; people have been talking about it for a couple of years. However, its adoption is going to increase in the coming year significantly. In fact, 50% of the searches on Amazon are expected to be voice searched in 2021. In fact, there is a growing concept called voice search SEO and sellers better get on this bandwagon as soon as possible. While voice search for products and services are yet to become mainstream, they are considered to be the next big thing on the Amazon.

Presently around 1 Billion voice searches happen every month, and the sales of voice commerce are speculated to reach approximately USD 40 Billion by 2022. Optimizing the product for voice-search early on will give you competitive advantages in the future. With voice search, the way sellers use keywords is going to change dramatically. The focus will be on a more colloquial way of speaking, which means there will be a switch to the first-person approach.

There has been a 65% increase in first personal search terms like, where should I, How do I, What Should I, etc. Voice search also influences what people say when they are looking for products on Amazon. So it is important for sellers to understand this shift, and optimize their products for voice search terms.

5. Google Smart Shopping

The marketing world is getting more dynamic with every passing year, so if you are focusing your marketing strategy solely on Amazon, you are missing out on many opportunities. Google continues to hold the top placer, where people search for product information online prior to making a decision. In fact, in a recent report, 85% of the people revealed that they use Google to search for products online. Now people who search on Amazon are close to making a purchase decision, whereas people who search on Google for the product are still on their research phase.

However, Google provides customers with an opportunity to showcase their brand in front of people. Google Smart Shopping allows sellers to generate campaigns that target people who are likely to make a purchase. Furthermore, with Google smart shopping, you will be able to capitalize on the people who are browsing on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. It furthermore leverages machine learning to identify the audience, automate bids and display ads across search network, YouTube, display network, Gmail, etc. You only have to provide a display ad with text and image along with relevant product data, and Google will handle the rest for you.

Final Thoughts

In 2021, the competition is going to be fiercer and to sustain in the market; Amazon sellers need to prepare ahead. Above are some prominent advertising trends that will be dominating the marketing strategies. Understanding these trends and effectively implementing them into the marketing strategies will allow Amazon sellers to stay ahead from the competitors and drive more sales.

Why Web Hosting Privacy Matters and 5 Places to Get It

Published on November 12, 2020February 5, 2021

Uncategorized

You must worry about a myriad of things when considering web hosts.

Your privacy is one of them.

Well, depending on what you need a website for, it’s understandable if extra privacy isn’t top of your list. But who wants to leave their privacy to chance? Online privacy is an increasing concern for 53 percent of internet users worldwide.

So people are taking great strides to keep their digital residue down to a minimum.

If you read on, you’ll know why your web hosting privacy matters and five hosting providers that offer anonymous services.

Why Web Hosting Privacy Matters

According to professionals, the hosting service marketing is nearing $154 billion. Hence, it’s easier to find niche hosting providers that take your privacy needs seriously. If you need to host a simple personal blog, chances are you may prioritize design and ease of use over other features. But for users looking to remain private, that’s a different ball game.

In our digitally connected world, it only makes sense that you’d want to keep your personal information away from hackers, third-party brokers, and identity thieves.

But that’s not all there is to it. Hosting your website anonymously keeps you away from certain legal risks and limitations due to jurisdictions.

Technically, when you host your website in countries like Sweden, or Iceland with strong (and entrenched) privacy laws, you’ll be saving yourself a lot of trouble.

Another reason why web hosting privacy matters is because your government may spy on you.

Some countries’ governments make it difficult for people to air their views through:

Censorships
Regulations
Taxes, and
Criminalization

Individuals either stop running some kinds of businesses or risk jail time.

However, if you worry about leaving digital residues or hosting controversial content, you must be picky with your hosting provider.

Read on to see five hosting providers that offer you complete hosting privacy.

5 Web Hosting Providers That Offer Privacy

Some of the criteria to keep in mind when searching for anonymous hosting providers are:

A “no-logs” registration process. (by email alone)
Anonymous payment gateways through cryptocurrencies
Domain privacy protection.

The following hosting providers tick all the boxes and more.

Bahnhof

Bahnhof is a web hosting provider and residential ISP based in Sweden. They provide clients with secure cloud solutions and maximum security against mass surveillance and data leaks.

Bahnhof powers its secure data centers with 100 percent green energy and flourishes under Swedish favorable data protection laws.

While Bahnhof caters to users with traditional data center needs, it also provides cloud alternatives with Virtual Data Center (VDC), Virtual Private Server (VPS), and colocation services.

Bahnhof has four customizable VPS packages on OpenStack. Small, Medium, Large, and Custom, which users can customize with the following features:

1-24 vCPU
1-128 GB VRAM
5-2000 GB VHD SSD
Linux

Bahnhof is notable for hosting the infamous yet anonymous WikiLeaks. They also run a certification process for data centers that use renewable energy called Triple Green.

Tranquillity

Tranquillity is an environment-friendly, no-logs hosting provider in Sweden. They live up to their “no-logs” feature and are cautious of leaving digital footprints on the internet.

You can make payments through Paypal and Bitcoin and contact them through secure channels like GnuPG and XMPP.

Tranquillity offers the following web hosting features.

VPS – €8 per month (VAT inclusive)
100 Mbit(no traffic limits)
1GB Ram
30GB SSD storage
IPv4
IPv6
UPS

However, they charge up to €5 per month for extra storage. And €50 plus VAT for commercial internet connection.

OrangeWebsite

OrangeWebsite is an Iceland-based offshore hosting provider, offering anonymous hosting solutions since 2009. They encourage uncensored speech and guarantee data privacy for users.

To show their commitment to privacy and freedom of speech, OrangeWebsite allows clients to host Tor relay and exit nodes on their VPS servers.

They require only an email address to sign up and receive anonymous payments via Bitcoin and Monero. However, they also accept payments via PayPal and bank transfers.

OrangeWebsite has three hosting solutions:

Shared (cPanel) Hosting

The shared hosting package has four hosting plans with the following features:

cPanel plus SSL security.
SSL-secured webmail.
Spam Assassin.
Green Site Seal.
osCommerce Shopping Cart.
Softaculous one-click installer.
WordPress, Boonex Dolphin, Drupal, and 330 other scripts.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

This hosting package has seven fully-managed hosting plans. It allows one dedicated IP address and root access.

It offers cPanel, Windows web servers, Encompass, Linux distributions, and other pre-installed control panels.

You can also get a dedicated CPU core, advanced DDoS protection, and a secure external backup service for an extra charge.

Dedicated Servers

This package has four dedicated server plans with these features:

Four dedicated IP addresses
Quad-core processor
Root access
DDoS protection
Pre-installed control panels
Free setup
24/7 support.

Your options will vary based on RAM, disk space, processor, and bandwidth.

FlokiNet

FlokiNet is another provider that offers friendly, anonymous hosting. Like OrangeWebsite, they’re also based in Iceland and accept payments in Bitcoin, Monero, and Paysafecard.

The company also has encrypted data servers in Finland and Romania, offering secure, flexible, and autonomous hosting solutions since 2012.

They provide a unique set of tools and features to help you build websites and maintain your privacy without cutting on performance.

FlokiNet provides shared hosting, virtual private servers (VPS), and dedicated servers as hosting solutions. These solutions come with the following features:

Installation of a desired operating system
SSH access
SSD storage
SSL certificates for all domains
9 percent uptime
Free migration assistance
DDoS/firewall protection(in Romania only)
Softaculous app installer
Requires only email to sign up
Legal adult content (on Finnish and Romanian servers)
Accepts several cryptocurrencies and other payment options

FlokiNET also offers services like penetration testing, Team Speak, and secure VoIP to protect your IT infrastructure and allow smooth digital operations.

Greenhost

Greenhost is an eco-friendly web hosting company based in the Netherlands. They support DNSSEC and specializes in encryptions and open source applications like:

GlobaLeaks
Etherpad
VPN/Viper platforms
Zimbra mail and collaboration server and more

Greenhost offers three hosting plans – Basic, Professional, and Premium packages. And a Virtual Private Server with Ceph, SSD, and Xen as pillars.

Points to Remember

Aside from primarily paying with cryptocurrencies and offshore data centers, an anonymous web hosting plan works like a regular or local hosting plan.

Typically, the features vary according to the services each package offers. But, complete data privacy, site performance, and reliability are set-in-stone features, you must look out for when looking for a web host.

To learn more about host performance visit hostscore.net.

Bulk SMS: 6 Reasons Why You Should Be Using It Now

Published on November 6, 2020

Technology

One thing that separates pro marketers from amateurs is that the pros carefully select the marketing channels they’re going to use and ensure that they’re fully integrated into a coherent marketing mix that is designed to hit various KPI’s.

It doesn’t matter how many marketers I talk to when I ask them about SMS I hear nothing but crickets.

Yes, even though bulk SMS delivers 98% open rates, that doesn’t seem to even “click” for them, according to smspapa.com.au.

I get it. SMS (short message service) is not the sexiest marketing tool out there, far from it.

Look at Facebook, you can use images, videos, carousels, etc. you can get super granular on who you want to target and once you get enough conversions you don’t even need to target anymore your pixel just goes out there brings in fresh new customers – it’s amazing.

The downside of course are the ad policies, they’re incredibly strict and are designed to satisfy the political correctness crowd – I’ll save that rant for another article.

In this article, I want to share with you exactly why I think Bulk SMS MUST be a part of your existing marketing mix moving forward.

1. SMS Is Not Saturated

One thing that we marketers are always on the lookout for are channels that are underexploited.

This simply means finding a place to advertise that has super low competition with a large audience reach.

SMS is one of those channels.

The great thing about SMS is that when send a text message to a mobile phone your only competition is grandma asking Shirly if she’s coming over for a family dinner on Sunday evening.

In terms of direct competitive threats, you will find virtually none.

And when they read your text there are no distractions, with ads, landing pages, and even emails there are links and flashing images all over the place tempting the recipient to go down a rabbit hole – with an SMS message it’s just characters and maybe a link.

2. Bulk SMS Isn’t SPAM

One of the main reasons why business owners haven’t taken to SMS messaging is because they think their customers will complain about being spammed but if you follow the rules of SMS this will never happen.

The rule with bulk SMS is to always get permission so people know that they are going to receive SMS messages from you.

Never just slam all of you customer mobile numbers into your online SMS contacts book and start sending text messages.

3. SMS Is Cheap

People love email because it’s “free” it’s not. Email subscriptions can be incredibly expensive especially when you get into the thousands of subscribers.

The problem with email subscriptions is that you pay based on the number of subscribers you have whether they’re active or not.

For example, most of your emails will likely end up in the spam folder if you’re using it to send promotions which means most of the subscribers will not see it which means they will not unsubscribe which means your list will continue to grow which means your monthly subscriptions costs will continue to grow.

With SMS you only pay when you send an SMS AND that SMS is received by the recipient, if it is not delivered then that money goes back into your online SMS account.

4. SMS Is Cheap

Yes, I’m repeating point no. 3.

Have you noticed that your paid advertising always seems to go up in price? The reason for this is that more and more businesses are using paid advertising channels each and every year which naturally drives up the pricing because there is only so many impressions they can sell.

This is bad news for small businesses with tight marketing budgets.

SMS on the other hand has actually reduced in price over the years because there are more bulk SMS providers entering into the market all of the time making this a fantastically cheap way to reach customers for only a few pennies per SMS.

5. Gary Vaynerchuk Is Using SMS

Recently Gary Vee was videoed talking to a small group about SMS as a way to reach customers and followers. Not only does he recommend SMS but he has invested his own money into two bulk SMS companies.

Gary mentioned that he is getting a big fat 98% open rate along with 90% engagement rate.

Show me another social media platform that is delivering anything close to those numbers.

You can’t.

Because it doesn’t exist.

As far as I’m aware there are no paid or free marketing channels offering anything close to these kinds of numbers.

If you are astute then you’d be asking yourself, why are these numbers so important?

This brings me to my next point.

6. SMS Has Huge Open Rates

Why is it that marketers obsess over the perfect subject line, the perfect clickbait YouTube title and image, the perfect paid ad headline, etc.

Why do they spend sometimes up to 80% of their attention into this part of the campaign?

Because they need to get those open rates.

They need people to watch the video, see the promotion, etc.

If they don’t get the click then they don’t get the money.

While a lot of marketers will say that the offer is the most important part of a marketing campaign, I disagree, I think the open rate is most important because if the campaign doesn’t get opened there’s no money…zip.

Give me high open rates and a mediocre offer and I’ll make money all day long, give me high open rates and an excellent offer and I’ll retire rich.

Bulk SMS gives you a massive 98% open rate without A/B split testing, without digging around for the perfect headline, without any work at all you will get higher open rates than the most advanced Brainiac marketers on the planet just because you’re using SMS.

This allows complete marketing noobs to outperform their bigger competitors who have teams of marketing specialists.

All you need to do is put together an offer and click send and you can be sure that you’re going to have close 100% of your subscriber list open and read your message.

What Are the Largest Pharmaceutical Lawsuit Settlements?

Published on November 2, 2020

Business

GlaxoSmithKline paid the largest pharmaceutical settlement in U.S. history in 2012, with a total payout of $3 billion. The period from 2009-2015 saw several lawsuits with settlements in the billions of dollars and many others in the hundreds of millions range. Much of this was due to enforcements of new and existing laws targeting deceptive practices, unadvertised side-effects, and kickbacks.

While these cases represent the extreme for pharmaceutical settlements, they do show what it is possible to obtain from this type of lawsuit. After all, pharmaceuticals are a trillion-dollar industry that is ostensibly supposed to be in the business of helping people. Deep pockets, combined with a lack of morality leading to harm and even death, can result in very harsh judgments.

GlaxoSmithKline

In 2012, GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty and was forced to pay $3 billion as part of a civil and criminal case regarding deceptive business practices around many of their products. The company faced $1 billion in criminal fines due to their failure to disclose the safety data for several of their products and off-label promotion of them for unauthorized uses.

The company also paid $2 billion in civil fines relating to its kickback program and false and misleading statements for one of their products. They also got into hot water for underpaying the MDR Program.

Dangers of Unauthorized Medicine Usage

This case, along with several others at the time, showed the potential dangers that pharmaceutical companies could pose to consumers. Someone could take a medicine based on the recommendation of a pharmaceutical company for a condition it did not have FDA approval for, placing the health of that person at risk.

Taxpayers were also not properly compensated by the pharmaceutical companies for programs such as Medicare. Consumers could face individual health risks and financial losses from taking a medication that was not authorized for their specific use case.

Other Cases That Broke the Billion Dollar Barrier

To most people, $1 million seems like a lot of money. Which, of course, it is. But to a big pharmaceutical company, $1 million is nothing. Paying out a million-dollar settlement does not set them back more than a night on the town does for most people. Less actually. One billion dollars, on the other hand? Now that one hurts.

To date, there have been six cases that resulted in a pharmaceutical company having to shell out over $1 billion, including the GlaxoSmith Kline case.

The other five cases are:

Takeda Pharmaceutical – $2.4 billion
Pfizer – $2.3 billion
Johnson & Johnson – $2.2 billion
Abbott Laboratories – $1.5 billion
Eli Lilly and Company – $1.4 billion

Takeda Pharmaceutical

The big payment for Takeda Pharmaceutical came in 2015 in relation to its oral diabetes medication Actos. The $2.4 billion settled around 8,000 separate lawsuits against the company concerning the substance.

Takeda marketed the medicine as a safe alternative to Avandia (one of the substance named in the GlaxoSmithKlein settlement). They advertised the product as lowering blood sugar without an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. However, they failed to disclose that the medicine could pose a risk of bladder cancer.

Pfizer

In 2009 Pfizer paid $2.3 billion for illegal promotion of pharmaceutical products. Pfizer marketed several of their products for off-label use and paid healthcare providers to prescribe their medications off-label.

It is legal for a doctor to prescribe a medicine for a reason other than that approved by the FDA, as long as there are credible studies that make them believe the product can benefit their patient in another way. But it is illegal for a medicine company to ever promote off-label or for a doctor to prescribe off-label for reasons of profit.

Pfizer also submitted false claims to government healthcare programs. $1 billion of the settlement money was used to pay Medicare, Medicaid, and other government health insurance progams.

Johnson & Johnson

Here we have another case of off-label marketing, as well as understating the health risks of certain medical products. In 2013 Johnson & Johnson paid $2.2 billion over these and other misconduct charges. $1.72 billion was for settlements while they paid $485 million as a criminal fine.

Abbott Laboratories

After pleading guilty to the unlawful off-label promotion of the prescription product Depakote, Abbott Laboratories ended up paying $800 million in civil settlements along with $700 million in criminal fines and forfeitures.

Eli Lilly and Company

Yet another case of off-label marketing Eli Lilly found itself in trouble for unlawful marketing of its anti-psychotic medicine Zyprexa. In 2009 they were forced to pay a $515 million criminal fine in addition to $800 in civil settlements.

When Can I File a Pharmaceutical Lawsuit?

You may qualify to file a pharmaceutical lawsuit if any of the following describes your situation:

You suffered an injury from a medicine
There was a defect in the medication, or it lacked a warning for your potential injury
Your injury is directly related to your use of the medical product
You file a claim within the statute of limitations

In some instances, you may qualify for a claim even if there were warnings for certain side effects. The medicine injury lawyers at Pintas & Mullins advise that when taking medication one should exercise caution, even if it was prescribed by a doctor. The medicine could have effects that the doctor is unaware of, either due to manufacturing defects, a lack of testing, or misrepresentation by a pharmaceutical representative. You can click here and find more information about this topic.

What Types of Product Liability Lawsuits Are Open to Me?

There are several different types of product liability lawsuits available to you, depending on your circumstances.

Defective Manufacturing: If a product was improperly manufactured, such as with the wrong formulation or through improper storage, you might qualify to sue on this basis.
Complications and Side Effects: You may be able to sue if you are experiencing complications or side effects from the medication. Your case will be stronger if these were unlisted on the product’s warning label.
False or Inaccurate Marketing: If a medicine was marketed to you falsely or with misrepresentation, you may be able to file a claim.

Should you suffer an injury or face another kind of hardship as a result of your use of a medication, and you meet the requirements to file a lawsuit, it’s important to do so as soon as possible. Any injuries you receive from a medicine can last a lifetime and can impact your future earning potential. A lawyer experienced in pharmaceutical lawsuits can help you seek out the maximum award, either through a settlement or by taking the company to court.

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