Multiple Posts

Title 1: Understanding the Characteristics of Different Dog Breeds

Dogs are one of the most beloved animals around the world. They come in different shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities, and are bred for different purposes. Each breed has its own unique set of characteristics that make them stand out from the rest. In this post, we will explore the characteristics of various dog breeds, including popular, small, medium-sized, large, rare, and hypoallergenic dog breeds.

Popular Dog Breeds

The popularity of dog breeds varies from country to country, but some breeds remain consistently popular around the world. These breeds include:

Labrador Retriever – Labradors are a friendly and loyal breed that make great family pets. They are also used as service dogs, therapy dogs, and as working dogs in search and rescue missions.

German Shepherd – German Shepherds are highly intelligent and courageous dogs that are often used as police and military dogs. They are loyal, protective, and make great family pets when socialized properly.

Golden Retriever – Golden Retrievers are a friendly and affectionate breed that make excellent family pets. They are also used as service dogs, hunting dogs, and as therapy dogs.

Bulldog – Bulldogs are a gentle and affectionate breed that love to relax and cuddle with their owners. They are known for their distinctive wrinkled faces and stocky bodies.

Beagle – Beagles are an energetic and curious breed that make great family pets. They are often used as hunting dogs and have a keen sense of smell.

Small Dog Breeds

Small dog breeds are great for people who live in apartments or have limited living space. They are also great for people who prefer dogs that are easy to handle and require less exercise. Some popular small dog breeds include:

Chihuahua – Chihuahuas are a tiny and spunky breed that are known for their big personalities. They are great lap dogs and are often carried around in purses.

Pomeranian – Pomeranians are a fluffy and playful breed that are great family pets. They are also used as therapy dogs and can be trained to perform tricks.

Boston Terrier – Boston Terriers are a lively and intelligent breed that make great family pets. They are often used as therapy dogs and are known for their distinctive tuxedo-like markings.

Yorkshire Terrier – Yorkshire Terriers are a small and spunky breed that are often carried around in purses. They are also used as therapy dogs and make great companions for older adults.

Shih Tzu – Shih Tzus are a loyal and affectionate breed that make great lap dogs. They are often groomed with long hair and have a distinctive underbite.

Medium-Sized Dog Breeds

Medium-sized dog breeds are great for families who have more space and are looking for a dog that is more active than small breeds but not as demanding as large breeds. Some popular medium-sized dog breeds include:

Boxer – Boxers are a high-energy and playful breed that make great family pets. They are also used as service dogs and as working dogs in search and rescue missions.

Border Collie – Border Collies are a highly intelligent and energetic breed that excel at herding and obedience training. They require a lot of exercise and mental stimulation.

Australian Shepherd – Australian Shepherds are a loyal and intelligent breed that are often used as herding dogs. They are also used as service dogs and as search and rescue dogs.

Siberian Husky – Siberian Huskies are a strong and independent breed that are often used as sled dogs. They require a lot of exercise and are not recommended for first-time dog owners.

English Springer Spaniel – English Springer Spaniels are a friendly and affectionate breed that are often used as hunting dogs. They make great family pets and are known for their long, droopy ears.
Large Dog Breeds

Large dog breeds are great for families who have plenty of space and are looking for a dog that can provide both protection and companionship. Some popular large dog breeds include:

Great Dane – Great Danes are a gentle and affectionate breed that are often referred to as “gentle giants”. They require a lot of space and are not recommended for small apartments.

Rottweiler – Rottweilers are a strong and protective breed that are often used as guard dogs. They are loyal to their owners but can be aggressive towards strangers if not properly socialized.

Saint Bernard – Saint Bernards are a friendly and gentle breed that make great family pets. They are also used as search and rescue dogs and are known for their large size and droopy jowls.

Bernese Mountain Dog – Bernese Mountain Dogs are a loyal and affectionate breed that are often used as therapy dogs. They are known for their fluffy coats and friendly personalities.

Mastiff – Mastiffs are a large and powerful breed that make great guard dogs. They are also loyal to their owners and make great family pets with proper training and socialization.

Rare Dog Breeds

Rare dog breeds are breeds that are not as common as others and may be difficult to find. Some rare dog breeds include:

Azawakh – Azawakhs are a rare breed of sighthound that originated in West Africa. They are tall and slender with short coats and make great hunting dogs.

Catahoula Leopard Dog – Catahoula Leopard Dogs are a rare breed of herding dog that originated in Louisiana. They are known for their striking coat patterns and make great family pets with proper training.

Xoloitzcuintli – Xoloitzcuintlis, also known as Mexican Hairless Dogs, are a rare breed that were originally bred in Mexico. They are known for their hairlessness and make great companions for people with allergies.

Thai Ridgeback – Thai Ridgebacks are a rare breed of dog that originated in Thailand. They are known for the distinctive ridge of hair that runs along their backs and are often used as hunting dogs.

Komondor – Komondors are a rare breed of dog that originated in Hungary. They are known for their distinctive corded coats and are often used as guard dogs.

Hypoallergenic Dog Breeds

Hypoallergenic dog breeds are breeds that are less likely to cause allergies in people who are allergic to dogs. Some popular hypoallergenic dog breeds include:

Poodle – Poodles are a hypoallergenic breed that come in different sizes, including standard, miniature, and toy. They are highly intelligent and can be trained to perform a variety of tasks.

Maltese – Maltese are a hypoallergenic breed that are often carried around in purses. They are known for their long, silky hair and make great lap dogs.

Bichon Frise – Bichon Frises are a hypoallergenic breed that are known for their fluffy white coats. They are highly sociable and make great family pets.

Portuguese Water Dog – Portuguese Water Dogs are a hypoallergenic breed that were originally bred to assist fishermen. They are highly intelligent and require a lot of exercise.

Schnauzer – Schnauzers are a hypoallergenic breed that come in different sizes, including standard, miniature, and giant. They are highly intelligent and make great guard dogs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, dog breeds come in various sizes, colors, and temperaments. Each breed has its own unique characteristics that make them suitable for different types of families and lifestyles. Whether you are looking for a small lap dog or a large protective breed, there is a dog out there that will fit your needs. Understanding the characteristics of each breed can help you make an informed decision when choosing a dog. It’s important to remember that each dog, regardless of breed, has its own personality and will require love, attention, and training to become a well-behaved companion.

Title 2: How to Start a Business in 11 Steps

Starting a business is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences you can have. But where do you begin? There are many ways to approach creating a business, with many important considerations. To help take the guesswork out of the process and improve your chances of success, follow our comprehensive guide on how to start a business. We’ll walk you through each step of the process, from defining your business idea to registering, launching and growing your business.

Before You Begin: Get in the Right Mindset

The public often hears about overnight successes because they make for a great headline. However, it’s rarely that simple—they don’t see the years of dreaming, building and positioning before a big public launch. For this reason, remember to focus on your business journey and don’t measure your success against someone else’s.

Consistency Is Key

New business owners tend to feed off their motivation initially but get frustrated when that motivation wanes. This is why it’s essential to create habits and follow routines that power you through when motivation goes away.

Take the Next Step

Some business owners dive in headfirst without looking and make things up as they go along. Then, there are business owners who stay stuck in analysis paralysis and never start. Perhaps you’re a mixture of the two—and that’s right where you need to be. The best way to accomplish any business or personal goal is to write out every possible step it takes to achieve the goal. Then, order those steps by what needs to happen first. Some steps may take minutes while others take a long time. The point is to always take the next step.

1. Determine Your Business Concept

Most business advice tells you to monetize what you love, but it misses two other very important elements: it needs to be profitable and something you’re good at. For example, you may love music, but how viable is your business idea if you’re not a great singer or songwriter? Maybe you love making soap and want to open a soap shop in your small town that already has three close by—it won’t be easy to corner the market when you’re creating the same product as other nearby stores.

If you don’t have a firm idea of what your business will entail, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do you love to do?
• What do you hate to do?
• Can you think of something that would make those things easier?
• What are you good at?
• What do others come to you for advice about?
• If you were given ten minutes to give a five-minute speech on any topic, what would it be?
• What’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but lacked resources for?

These questions can lead you to an idea for your business. If you already have an idea, they might help you expand it. Once you have your idea, measure it against whether you’re good at it and if it’s profitable.

Your business idea also doesn’t have to be the next Scrub Daddy or Squatty Potty. Instead, you can take an existing product and improve upon it. Or, you can sell a digital product so there’s little overhead.

What Kind of Business Should You Start

Before you choose the type of business to start, there are some key things to consider:

• What type of funding do you have?
• How much time do you have to invest in your business?
• Do you prefer to work from home or at an office or workshop?
• What interests and passions do you have?
• Can you sell information (such as a course), rather than a product?
• What skills or expertise do you have?
• How fast do you need to scale your business?
• What kind of support do you have to start your business?
• Are you partnering with someone else?
• Does the franchise model make more sense to you?

Consider Popular Business Ideas

Not sure what business to start? Consider one of these popular business ideas:

• Start a Franchise
• Start a Blog
• Start an Online Store
• Start a Dropshipping Business
• Start a Cleaning Business
• Start a Bookkeeping Business

• Start a Clothing Business
• Start a Landscaping Business
• Start a Consulting Business
• Start a Photography Business
• Start a Vending Machine Business

 

2. Research Your Competitors and Market

Most entrepreneurs spend more time on their products than they do getting to know the competition. If you ever apply for outside funding, the potential lender or partner wants to know: what sets you (or your business idea) apart? If market analysis indicates your product or service is saturated in your area, see if you can think of a different approach. Take housekeeping, for example—rather than general cleaning services, you might specialize in homes with pets or focus on garage cleanups.

Primary Research

The first stage of any competition study is primary research, which entails obtaining data directly from potential customers rather than basing your conclusions on past data. You can use questionnaires, surveys and interviews to learn what consumers want.
Surveying friends and family isn’t recommended unless they’re your target market. People who say they’d buy something and people who do are very different. The last thing you want is to take so much stock in what they say, create the product and flop when you try to sell it because all of the people who said they’d buy it don’t because the product isn’t something they’d actually buy.

Secondary Research

Utilize existing sources of information, such as census data, to gather information when you do secondary research. The current data may be studied, compiled and analyzed in various ways that are appropriate for your needs but it may not be as detailed as primary research.

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to look at the facts about how your product or idea might perform if taken to market, and it can also help you make decisions about the direction of your idea. Your business idea might have some weaknesses that you hadn’t considered or there may be some opportunities to improve on a competitor’s product.

Asking pertinent questions during a SWOT analysis can help you identify and address weaknesses before they tank your new business.

3. Create Your Business Plan

A business plan is a dynamic document that serves as a roadmap for establishing a new business. This document makes it simple for potential investors, financial institutions and company management to understand and absorb. Even if you intend to self-finance, a business plan can help you flesh out your idea and spot potential problems. When writing a well-rounded business plan, include the following sections:

• Executive summary: The executive summary should be the first item in the business plan, but it should be written last. It describes the proposed new business and highlights the goals of the company and the methods to achieve them.
• Company description: The company description covers what problems your product or service solves and why your business or idea is best. For example, maybe your background is in molecular engineering, and you’ve used that background to create a new type of athletic wear—you have the proper credentials to make the best material.
• Market analysis: This section of the business plan analyzes how well a company is positioned against its competitors. The market analysis should include target market, segmentation analysis, market size, growth rate, trends and a competitive environment assessment.
• Organization and structure: Write about the type of business organization you expect, what risk management strategies you propose and who will staff the management team. What are their qualifications? Will your business be a single-member limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation?
• Mission and goals: This section should contain a brief mission statement and detail what the business wishes to accomplish and the steps to get there. These goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, action-orientated, realistic and time-bound).
• Products or services: This section describes how your business will operate. It includes what products you’ll offer to consumers at the beginning of the business, how they compare to existing competitors, how much your products cost, who will be responsible for creating the products, how you’ll source materials and how much they cost to make.
• Background summary: This portion of the business plan is the most time-consuming to write. Compile and summarize any data, articles and research studies on trends that could positively and negatively affect your business or industry.
• Marketing plan: The marketing plan identifies the characteristics of your product or service, summarizes the SWOT analysis and analyzes competitors. It also discusses how you’ll promote your business, how much money will be spent on marketing and how long the campaign is expected to last.
• Financial plan: The financial plan is perhaps the core of the business plan because, without money, the business will not move forward. Include a proposed budget in your financial plan along with projected financial statements, such as an income statement, a balance sheet and a statement of cash flows. Usually, five years of projected financial statements are acceptable. This section is also where you should include your funding request if you’re looking for outside funding.

Learn more: Download our free simple business plan template.

Come Up With an Exit Strategy

An exit strategy is important for any business that is seeking funding because it outlines how you’ll sell the company or transfer ownership if you decide to retire or move on to other projects. An exit strategy also allows you to get the most value out of your business when it’s time to sell. There are a few different options for exiting a business, and the best option for you depends on your goals and circumstances.

The most common exit strategies are:

• Selling the business to another party
• Passing the business down to family members
• Liquidating the business assets
• Closing the doors and walking away

Develop a Scalable Business Model

As your small business grows, it’s important to have a scalable business model so that you can accommodate additional customers without incurring additional costs. A scalable business model is one that can be replicated easily to serve more customers without a significant increase in expenses.

Some common scalable business models are:

• Subscription-based businesses
• Businesses that sell digital products
• Franchise businesses
• Network marketing businesses

Start Planning for Taxes

One of the most important things to do when starting a small business is to start planning for taxes. Taxes can be complex, and there are several different types of taxes you may be liable for, including income tax, self-employment tax, sales tax and property tax. Depending on the type of business you’re operating, you may also be required to pay other taxes, such as payroll tax or unemployment tax.

4. Choose Your Business Structure

When structuring your business, it’s essential to consider how each structure impacts the amount of taxes you owe, daily operations and whether your personal assets are at risk.

LLC

An LLC limits your personal liability for business debts. LLCs can be owned by one or more people or companies and must include a registered agent. These owners are referred to as members.

Pros

• LLCs offer liability protection for the owners
• They’re one of the easiest business entities to set up
• You can have a single-member LLC

Cons

• You may be required to file additional paperwork with your state on a regular basis
• LLCs can’t issue stock
• You’ll need to pay annual filing fees to your state

Limited Liability Partnership (Llp)

An LLP is similar to an LLC but is typically used for licensed business professionals such as an attorney or accountant. These arrangements require a partnership agreement.

Pros

• Partners have limited liability for the debts and actions of the LLP
• LLPs are easy to form and don’t require much paperwork
• There’s no limit to the number of partners in an LLP

Cons

• Partners are required to actively take part in the business
• LLPs can’t issue stock
• All partners are personally liable for any malpractice claims against the business

Sole Proprietorship

If you start a solo business, you might consider a sole proprietorship. The company and the owner, for legal and tax purposes, are considered the same. The business owner assumes liability for the business. So, if the business fails, the owner is personally and financially responsible for all business debts.

Pros

• Sole proprietorships are easy to form
• There’s no need to file additional paperwork with your state
• You’re in complete control of the business

Cons

• You’re personally liable for all business debts
• It can be difficult to raise money for a sole proprietorship
• The business may have a limited life span

Corporation

A corporation limits your personal liability for business debts just as an LLC does. A corporation can be taxed as a C-corporation (C-corp) or an S-corporation (S-corp). S-corp status offers pass-through taxation to small corporations that meet certain IRS requirements. Larger companies and startups hoping to attract venture capital are usually taxed as C-corps.

Pros

• Corporations offer liability protection for the owners
• The life span of a corporation is not limited
• A corporation can have an unlimited number of shareholders

Cons

• Corporations are subject to double taxation
• They’re more expensive and complicated to set up than other business structures
• The shareholders may have limited liability

Before you decide on a business structure, discuss your situation with a small business accountant and possibly an attorney, as each business type has different tax treatments that could affect your bottom line.

5. Register Your Business and Get Licenses

There are several legal issues to address when starting a business after choosing the business structure. The following is a good checklist of items to consider when establishing your business:

Choose Your Business Name

Make it memorable but not too difficult. Choose the same domain name, if available, to establish your internet presence. A business name cannot be the same as another registered company in your state, nor can it infringe on another trademark or service mark that is already registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Business Name vs. DBA

There are business names, and then there are fictitious business names known as “Doing Business As” or DBA. You may need to file a DBA if you’re operating under a name that’s different from the legal name of your business. For example, “Mike’s Bike Shop” is doing business as “Mike’s Bikes.” The legal name of the business is “Mike’s Bike Shop,” and “Mike’s Bikes” is the DBA.

You may need to file a DBA with your state, county or city government offices. The benefits of a DBA include:

• It can help you open a business bank account under your business name
• A DBA can be used as a “trade name” to brand your products or services
• A DBA can be used to get a business license

Register Your Business and Obtain an Ein

You’ll officially create a corporation, LLC or other business entity by filing forms with your state’s business agency―usually the Secretary of State. As part of this process, you’ll need to choose a registered agent to accept legal documents on behalf of your business. You’ll also pay a filing fee. The state will send you a certificate that you can use to apply for licenses, a tax identification number (TIN) and business bank accounts.

Next, apply for an employer identification number (EIN). All businesses, other than sole proprietorships with no employees, must have a federal employer identification number. Submit your application to the IRS and you’ll typically receive your number in minutes.

Get Appropriate Licenses and Permits

Legal requirements are determined by your industry and jurisdiction. Most businesses need a mixture of local, state and federal licenses to operate. Check with your local government office (and even an attorney) for licensing information tailored to your area.

6. Get Your Finances in Order

Open a Business Bank Account

Keep your business and personal finances separate. Here’s how to choose a business checking account—and why separate business accounts are essential. When you open a business bank account, you’ll need to provide your business name and your business tax identification number (EIN). This business bank account can be used for your business transactions, such as paying suppliers or invoicing customers. Most times, a bank will require a separate business bank account in order to issue a business loan or line of credit.

Hire a Bookkeeper or Get Accounting Software

If you sell a product, you need an inventory function in your accounting software to manage and track inventory. The software should have ledger and journal entries and the ability to generate financial statements.

Some software programs double as bookkeeping tools. These often include features such as check writing and managing receivables and payables. You can also use this software to track your income and expenses, generate invoices, run reports and calculate taxes.

There are many bookkeeping services available that can do all of this for you, and more. These services can be accessed online from any computer or mobile device and often include features such as bank reconciliation and invoicing. Check out the best accounting software for small business, or see if you want to handle the bookkeeping yourself.

Determine Your Break-Even Point

Before you fund your business, you must get an idea of your startup costs. To determine these, make a list of all the physical supplies you need, estimate the cost of any professional services you will require, determine the price of any licenses or permits required to operate and calculate the cost of office space or other real estate. Add in the costs of payroll and benefits, if applicable.

Businesses can take years to turn a profit, so it’s better to overestimate the startup costs and have too much money than too little. Many experts recommend having enough cash on hand to cover six months of operating expenses.

When you know how much you need to get started with your business, you need to know the point at which your business makes money. This figure is your break-even point.

Break-even point = Fixed cost ÷ Contribution margin

In contrast, the contribution margin = total sales revenue – cost to make product

For example, let’s say you’re starting a small business that sells miniature birdhouses for fairy gardens. You have determined that it will cost you $500 in startup costs. Your variable costs are $0.40 per birdhouse produced, and you sell them for $1.50 each.

Let’s write these out so it’s easy to follow:

This means that you need to sell at least 456 units just to cover your costs. If you can sell more than 456 units in your first month, you will make a profit.

7. Fund Your Business

There are many different ways to fund your business—some require considerable effort, while others are easier to obtain. Two categories of funding exist: internal and external.

Internal funding includes:

• Personal savings
• Credit cards
• Funds from friends and family

If you finance the business with your own funds or with credit cards, you have to pay the debt on the credit cards and you’ve lost a chunk of your wealth if the business fails. By allowing your family members or friends to invest in your business, you are risking hard feelings and strained relationships if the company goes under. Business owners who want to minimize these risks may consider external funding.

External funding includes:

• Small business loans
• Small business grants
• Angel investors
• Venture capital
• Crowdfunding

Small businesses may have to use a combination of several sources of capital. Consider how much money is needed, how long it will take before the company can repay it and how risk-tolerant you are. No matter which source you use, plan for profit. It’s far better to take home six figures than make seven figures and only keep $80,000 of it.

Funding ideas include:

• Invoice factoring: With invoice factoring, you can sell your unpaid invoices to a third party at a discount.
• Business lines of credit: Apply for a business line of credit, which is similar to a personal line of credit. The credit limit and interest rate will be based on your business’s revenue, credit score and financial history.
• Equipment financing: If you need to purchase expensive equipment for your business, you can finance it with a loan or lease.
• Small Business Administration (SBA) microloans: Microloans are up to $50,000 loans that can be used for working capital, inventory or supplies and machinery or equipment.
• Grants: The federal government offers grants for businesses that promote innovation, export growth or are located in historically disadvantaged areas. You can also find grants through local and regional organizations.
• Crowdfunding: With crowdfunding, you can raise money from a large group of people by soliciting donations or selling equity in your company.

Choose the right funding source for your business by considering the amount of money you need, the time frame for repayment and your tolerance for risk.

8. Apply for Business Insurance

You need to have insurance for your business, even if it’s a home-based business or you don’t have any employees. The type of insurance you need depends on your business model and what risks you face. You might need more than one type of policy, and you might need additional coverage as your business grows. In most states, workers’ compensation insurance is required by law if you have employees.

Work With an Agent to Get Insured

An insurance agent can help determine what coverages are appropriate for your business and find policies from insurers that offer the best rates. An independent insurance agent represents several different insurers, so they can shop around for the best rates and coverage options.

Basic Types of Business Insurance Coverage

• Liability insurance protects your business against third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage and personal injury such as defamation or false advertising.
• Property insurance covers the physical assets of your business, including your office space, equipment and inventory.
• Business interruption insurance pays for the loss of income if your business is forced to close temporarily due to a covered event such as a natural disaster.
• Product liability insurance protects against claims that your products caused bodily injury or property damage.
• Employee practices liability insurance covers claims from employees alleging discrimination, sexual harassment or other wrongful termination.
• Workers’ compensation insurance covers medical expenses and income replacement for employees who are injured on the job.

9. Get the Right Business Tools

Business tools can help make your life easier and make your business run more smoothly. The right tools can help you save time, automate tasks and make better decisions.

Consider the following tools in your arsenal:

• Accounting software: Track your business income and expenses, prepare financial statements and file taxes. Examples include QuickBooks and FreshBooks.
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software: This will help you manage your customer relationships, track sales and marketing data and automate tasks like customer service and follow-ups. Examples include Zoho CRM and monday.com.
• Project management software: Plan, execute and track projects. It can also be used to manage employee tasks and allocate resources. Examples include Airtable and ClickUp.
• Credit card processor: This will allow you to accept credit card payments from customers. Examples include Stripe and PayPal.
• Point of sale (POS): A system that allows you to process customer payments. Some accounting software and CRM software have POS features built-in. Examples include Clover and Lightspeed.
• Virtual private network (VPN): Provides a secure, private connection between your computer and the internet. This is important for businesses that handle sensitive data. Examples include NordVPN and ExpressVPN.
• Merchant services: When customers make a purchase, the money is deposited into your business account. You can also use merchant services to set up recurring billing or subscription payments. Examples include Square and Stripe.
• Email hosting: This allows you to create a professional email address with your own domain name. Examples include G Suite and Microsoft Office 365.

10. Market Your Business

Many business owners spend so much money creating their products that there isn’t a marketing budget by the time they’ve launched. Alternatively, they’ve spent so much time developing the product that marketing is an afterthought.

Create a Website

Even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business, a web presence is essential. Creating a website doesn’t take long, either—you can have one done in as little as a weekend. You can make a standard informational website or an e-commerce site where you sell products online. If you sell products or services offline, include a page on your site where customers can find your locations and hours. Other pages to add include an “About Us” page, product or service pages, frequently asked questions (FAQs), a blog and contact information.

Optimize Your Site for SEO

After getting a website or e-commerce store, focus on optimizing it for search engines (SEO). This way, when a potential customer searches for specific keywords for your products, the search engine can point them to your site. SEO is a long-term strategy, so don’t expect a ton of traffic from search engines initially—even if you’re using all the right keywords.

Create Relevant Content

Provide quality digital content on your site that makes it easy for customers to find the correct answers to their questions. Content marketing ideas include videos, customer testimonials, blog posts and demos. Consider content marketing one of the most critical tasks on your daily to-do list. This is used in conjunction with posting on social media.

Get Listed in Online Directories

Customers use online directories like Yelp, Google My Business and Facebook to find local businesses. Some city halls and chambers of commerce have business directories too. Include your business in as many relevant directories as possible. You can also create listings for your business on specific directories that focus on your industry.

Develop a Social Media Strategy

Your potential customers are using social media every day—you need to be there too. Post content that’s interesting and relevant to your audience. Use social media to drive traffic back to your website where customers can learn more about what you do and buy your products or services.

You don’t necessarily need to be on every social media platform available. However, you should have a presence on Facebook and Instagram because they offer e-commerce features that allow you to sell directly from your social media accounts. Both of these platforms have free ad training to help you market your business.

11. Scale Your Business

To scale your business, you need to grow your customer base and revenue. This can be done by expanding your marketing efforts, improving your product or service, collaborating with other creators or adding new products or services that complement what you already offer.

Think about ways you can automate or outsource certain tasks so you can focus on scaling the business. For example, if social media marketing is taking up too much of your time, consider using a platform such as Hootsuite to help you manage your accounts more efficiently. You can also consider outsourcing the time-consumer completely.

You can also use technology to automate certain business processes, including accounting, email marketing and lead generation. Doing this will give you more time to focus on other aspects of your business.

When scaling your business, it’s important to keep an eye on your finances and make sure you’re still profitable. If you’re not making enough money to cover your costs, you need to either reduce your expenses or find ways to increase your revenue.

Build a Team

As your business grows, you’ll need to delegate tasks and put together a team of people who can help you run the day-to-day operations. This might include hiring additional staff, contractors or freelancers.

Resources for building a team include:

• Hiring platforms: To find the right candidates, hiring platforms, such as Indeed and Glassdoor, can help you post job descriptions, screen résumés and conduct video interviews.
• Job boards: Job boards such as Craigslist and Indeed allow you to post open positions for free.
• Social media: You can also use social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook to find potential employees.
• Freelance platforms: Using Upwork, Freelancer and Fiverr can help you find talented freelancers for one-time or short-term projects. You can also outsource certain tasks, such as customer service, social media marketing or bookkeeping.

You might also consider partnering with other businesses in your industry. For example, if you’re a wedding planner, you could partner with a florist, photographer, catering company or venue. This way, you can offer your customers a one-stop shop for all their wedding needs.
Another example is an e-commerce store that partners with a fulfillment center. This type of partnership can help you save money on shipping and storage costs, and it can also help you get your products to your customers faster.

To find potential partnerships, search for businesses in your industry that complement what you do. For example, if you’re a web designer, you could partner with a digital marketing agency.

You can also search for businesses that serve the same target market as you but offer different products or services. For example, if you sell women’s clothing, you could partner with a jewelry store or a hair salon.

What Are the Best States to Start a Business?

To rank the best states to start a business in 2022, Forbes Advisor analyzed 18 key metrics across five categories to determine which states are the best and worst to start a business in. Our ranking takes into consideration factors that impact businesses and their ability to succeed, such as business costs, business climate, economy, workforce and financial accessibility in each state. Check out the full report.

Bottom Line

Starting a small business takes time, effort and perseverance. But if you’re willing to put in the work, it can be a great way to achieve your dreams and goals. Be sure to do your research, create a solid business plan and pivot along the way. Once you’re operational, don’t forget to stay focused and organized so you can continue to grow your business.

Title 3: Improving your Cow Performance with Herdwatch

2022 will see big changes for Dairy farmers: Mastitis remains one of the most biggest challenges for dairy farmers that can affect cow performance and production. Currently, the practice of blanket dry-cow therapy is the most common method used prevent mastitis. This is where intramammary (IM) antimicrobials (AMs) are given to all cows at dry-off in order to treat infected cows and prevent against infection on uninfected cows.

From January 2022, under the new Regulation (EU) 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal products, the blanket use of antibiotic dry cow therapy will be prohibited. The new legislation will take effect from January 28th, 2022 which means we will no longer be allowed to administer dry cow tubes to all cows in the herd by default (blanket dry cow therapy). This is part of a targeted global action plan to reduce the use on anti-biotics in food chains, which have been increasing the levels of anti-biotic resistance in humans.

Metaphylaxis (treating animals with an antibiotic in advance of an expected outbreak of disease) e.g. putting weanlings into a shed and treating them all, and prophylaxis (treating animals with an antibiotic to prevent a disease) will both be prohibited and may be prescribed only in exceptional circumstances such as diagnostics or veterinary advice but general antibiotic use on healthy animals will not be permitted.

The highest priority critically important antimicrobials (HP-CIAs) such as your 3^rd and 4^th generation cephalosporins and your fluoroquinolones will be restricted use from January 2022.

What is antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and why must we change how we use antibiotics?        

Anti microbial resistance (AMR) is a real concern in both human & animal medicine. It occurs when micro-organisms that cause infections adapt and prevent an antimicrobial from working against it. As a result the antimicrobials used to treat infections are no longer effective, limiting the treatment options available and therefore making the most common infections more difficult to treat.

AMR related deaths are greater than 25,000 a year in the EU and the WHO is estimating that 10 million deaths will occur by the year 2050 as bacteria are able to mutate to become “Super Bugs”. AMR is here but we need to do everything as a society as a whole to stop it.

Selective dry cow therapy is the future of drying off.

Mastitis is NOT caused by a deficiency of intramammary antibiotic! Hygiene is the main thing that causes mastitis and no antibiotic should be used to take over from poor hygiene. Dairy farmers can combat mastitis by using your data, keeping hygiene good and keeping your records in check so you can pick out the cows the cows that you don’t need to use antibiotics in.

Selective dry cow therapy (SDCT), as opposed to blanket dry cow therapy (BDCT), employs a specific strategy to avoid treating every cow with antibiotics at dry off.

On a recent Herdwatch webinar, Hazell Mullins, Clinical Director at Highfield Veterinary Group was on hand to outline how to successfully implement Selective Dry Cow Therapy on your farm as well as talking about the the benefits of Milk Recording.

Key criteria for success of SDCT

• Identifying the infected cow at point of dry off.
• Avoid infection during the drying off process.
• Keeping the cow uninfected throughout the dry period.
• Keeping the cow uninfected at calving.

Key = Hygiene & Hygiene + Hygiene

Example Criteria for SDCT

Herd Selection 

1. Bulk Tank SCC consistently <200,000 cells/ml
2. Milk recording: ideally monthly
3. Records of clinical cases and outcomes
4. < 2% clinical case rate in the last 3 months of lactation

Cow selection

1. SCC consistently <200,000 – last 4 recordings
2. No clinical case throughout the lactation (important to record all cases as sometimes will not be reflected in the milk recordings)
3. No skin lesions

Milk Recording & Cow Performance

Milk Recording is the key to achieving successful safer Selective Dry Cow Therapy. It is essential to record one month before dry off or 60 days before the start of calving to assess the SCC of the herd, which allows you to monitor cure rates over the dry period.

Working with your Vet or advisor, you should be aiming for > 85% cure rate and Dry period new infection rates of < 10%. Milk recording should be carried out least 4 times a year – the more you do, the more information you have and in turn the safer the SDCT is for your cows.

Along with SCC management, improving udder health and reducing the usage of antibiotics, milk recording provides excellent detail on cow performance that can be easily accessed and interpreted within Herwdatch.

Interpretation of milk recording data and the information that it provides will have a critical role to play in the development of breeding plans on farm in the future. The number of herds milk recording in Ireland is low relative to our international counterparts and needs to increase significantly. Its importance will become even more critical as blanket dry cow therapy is phased out.

Using the milk recording and performance dashboards in Herdwatch you will be able to easily select best cows for dairy replacements improving EBI overall on the farm, selecting culls and making sure problem cows are not being bred and in turn reducing SCC. Selective breeding will increase your EBI, solids, milk reduction, fertility as well as having a SDCT process. Combining and analysing milk recording information in Herdwatch can easily be done and help to make better on-farm decisions.

Hazell Mullins Top Tips for SDCT

• Eat breakfast – Don’t be hangry!
• Be organised – lay out everything on a table or other side of herring bone
• Spotless parlour before starting
• Gloves – if possible new gloves for each SDCT cow
• Teat score – make sure surface of the teat is smooth
• Bucket of cotton pads in surgical spirts or else remove wipes from packets and place in surgical spirit
• Do not place sealers in warm water to soften – Pseudomonas risk
• Stand in clean yard for 30 mins
• Remember – treat your cows like surgical patients – embrace your inner surgeon!

Dry Off/SDCT Management in Herdwatch

By using Herdwatch, you will be able to access all of the information needed to select cows to be dried off, within the Dry Off Management feature in Herdwatch which gives you a detailed dashboard which includes cows in herd, average herd SCC, cows suitable for SDCT, cows to dry, cows dried, milk record and more.

A simplified list of what cows Herdwatch suitable for SDCT (always check with your Vet) as below:

These lists are all customisable with the use of filters, so you can change highest SCC threshold to 50,000 and latest SCC threshold to 50,000 and expected calving date to 15 of February 2022 to just have a list of cows with this criteria.

Herdwatch is fully compliant with all quality assurance standards in Ireland & the UK and allows farmers to record all remedy usage, register calves, cattle movements, breeding records, map your farm and more on a simple to use app.

You too can join Hazell and over 15,000 other happy farmers saving time on farm paperwork and managing their farms more efficiently by downloading the Herdwatch app today.

Title 4: Treating Retinoblastoma

Retinoblastoma is rare and so your child will go to a specialist centre for treatment. There are different treatments such as freezing and laser therapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. The treatment your child has depends on several things including the size of the cancer and if it is in one or both eyes.

Treatment centres

There are 2 specialist retinoblastoma centres in England and they are:

• The Royal London Hospital
• Birmingham Children’s Hospital

These 2 centres serve all parts of the UK including Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They have teams of specialists who know a lot about retinoblastoma and how to treat it. Your child may have some of their treatment in their local cancer unit which is overseen by one of the specialist retinoblastoma centres.

There is a lot to think about as a parent and you’re likely to worry about getting the best treatment for your child. Talk to the doctors or specialist nurses about any worries that you have. They might also be able to put you in touch with other parents of children who have already been through diagnosis and treatment.

Deciding which treatment your child needs

A team of doctors and other professionals discuss the best treatment and care for your child. They are called a multidisciplinary team (MDT).

The aim of the treatment is to get rid of the cancer, save the eye or eyes, and provide the best possible vision for your child. The doctors also want to provide treatment with the least possible side effects, both in the short and long term.

Treatment planning for your child depends on several factors including:

• where the cancer is
• if the cancer is in one or both eyes
• the size of the cancer
• how far it has spread
• the number of sites of cancer in the eye

Your child’s doctor will talk to you about the treatment, its benefits and the possible side effects.

Treatment overview

Treatment for your child might include one or more of the following:

• freezing therapy (cryotherapy)
• laser therapy
• chemotherapy
• radiotherapy
• surgery

Children usually have their treatment while they are asleep under general anaesthetic . They’ll be awake if they’re having chemotherapy into their bloodstream (systemic chemotherapy).

Types of treatment:

Freezing therapy (cryotherapy)

Cryotherapy is a treatment that uses extreme cold to destroy cancer cells. It’s a local treatment, which means that it only affects the area where you have the treatment. It doesn’t treat any cancer cells in other parts of the body. Cryotherapy is best for retinoblastomas that are in the outer edge of the retina.

The doctor uses a metal probe that’s cooled to an extremely low temperature. The probe then freezes the cancer cells and kills them.

Laser therapy

There are 2 types of laser treatment for retinoblastoma:

• photocoagulation
• thermotherapy (transpupillary thermal therapy (TTT)) or heat therapy

A laser is a very thin, focused beam of light that destroys the tissue it’s directed at. The doctor aims the beam through the dark centre of the eye called the pupil.

Photocoagulation laser treatment is different to thermotherapy. This is because the laser delivers the light at different strengths. Photocoagulation laser treatment destroys tissues.

Thermotherapy is another type of laser treatment. This treatment uses an infrared light. The doctor aims this light at the cancer and slowly burns away the cancer cells, destroying them by heat.

Your child usually has laser treatment if the cancer is small and at the back of the eye. They also might have laser treatment with or after chemotherapy.

Radiotherapy

Doctors treat some retinoblastomas with radiotherapy. Radiotherapy means the use of radiation to treat cancer cells.

Your child might have a type of radiotherapy called brachytherapy. This means your child has a small radioactive disc called a plaque stitched directly over the cancer. The plaque works by continually delivering a high amount of radiation to a small area (the part of the eye it covers). You might hear it called localised radiotherapy. Your child will have the plaque in place for a set number of days. The doctor then removes the plaque.

Proton beam radiotherapy is a type of external radiotherapy. Your child might have this if the cancer has spread to the optic nerve in the socket of the eye. Proton beam therapy uses a different type of radiation to brachytherapy known as proton radiation. The proton beams are aimed precisely at the cancer. This type of radiation reduces the risk of damage to the surrounding healthy eye tissue.

We have more information about radiotherapy to the eye area. It’s aimed at adults with eye cancer.

Surgery

Your child might need surgery to remove the eye (enucleation) if the cancer is large and the eye is no longer working. If your child has cancer in both eyes, they might remove the worst affected eye.

It can be devastating to find out your child needs to have their eye removed. Your child will usually recover and adapt quickly. And it doesn’t usually stop them from doing what they want to do.

After removal of the affected eye the surgeon fits an implant which is like a small ball to replace the lost eye. This will fill their eye socket. It’s attached to the muscles, so it moves in sync with the other eye.

Your child also has an artificial eye (prosthesis) made to cover the implant. This will match their original eye and is like a large contact lens. Your child usually has this fitted a few weeks after surgery.

Find out more about living with an artificial eye from The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust.

We have more information about surgery to the eye. It’s aimed at adults with eye cancer.

• Read more about surgery to remove the eye (in adults)

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Your child might have their chemotherapy in one or more of the following ways:

• into their bloodstream (intravenous) through a long flexible plastic tube (systemic chemotherapy)
• through a blood vessel (artery) to the affected eye (intra arterial chemotherapy or IAC)
• as an injection directly into the jelly part of the eye (vitreous)

Your child might have chemotherapy to try and shrink the cancer first if it is large. They might have this before a local treatment such as laser therapy.

Your child’s doctor might suggest chemotherapy if there is any risk that the cancer might have spread. They usually have a combination of chemotherapy drugs. Doctors commonly use a combination called CEV also known as JOE. This includes:

• carboplatin
• etoposide
• vincristine

This combination is given in cycles of treatment. Your child might have between 4 to 6 cycles. Each cycle lasts between 3 to 4 weeks.

Other chemotherapy drugs used for systemic chemotherapy include:

• cyclophosphamide
• ifosfamide
• doxorubicin
• topotecan

If your child is having chemotherapy into a blood vessel or as an injection directly into the jelly part of the eye, they commonly have one of the following:

• melphalan
• carboplatin
• topotecan

Your child usually has chemotherapy into the blood vessel every 3 weeks. They have between 2 to 4 cycles. If they are having it into the jelly part of the eye, your child has between 2 to 6 cycles. The injection is every 7 to 14 days.

Side effects

The side effects of having chemotherapy into the artery or vitreous of the eye can be different to those intravenous chemotherapy. These might include side effects such as:

• inflammation
• droopy eyelid
• squint

These are usually temporary. There can also be a risk of reduced vision.

Your child’s doctor will go over the possible risks of having chemotherapy into the eye with you.

• Find out more about chemotherapy drugs and possible side effects

Going to sleep (general anaesthetic)

Your child will receive most of their treatment, tests or scan while they are asleep, unless they are having systemic chemotherapy.

To get your child to sleep a nurse or doctor puts a small tube (cannula) into your child’s hand or arm. The nurse first puts some local anaesthetic cream on the area to numb it. Your child might still feel the needle go in, but it shouldn’t be painful.

You can usually go with your child to theatre before the operation or examination. You wait with your child in a room next to the theatre, called the anaesthetic room. You can give your child a cuddle and reassure them until they are beginning to fall asleep.

The anaesthetist gives your child the anaesthetic through the cannula in their hand. Or, they gently place a mask over your child’s mouth and your child breathes in the anaesthetic gas until they fall asleep. A member of the team lets you know when the treatment, test or scan has finished.

It’s not unusual to feel very emotional seeing your child drift off to sleep. The theatre or ward team will take your mobile number to call you as soon as they are awake.

Side effects

Your child’s doctor will talk to you about the possible side effects. The side effects your child might have depend on the type of treatment they are having. Some of the possible side effects include:

Loss or changes to eyesight

Most parents worry about whether their child will lose their sight. Whenever possible, the doctor will try to keep the sight of the eye. Removing the affected eye will not cause sight loss in the other eye. Children learn to adapt very quickly and live a normal life, often going to mainstream school.

If your child has retinoblastoma in both eyes it’s possible that your child will lose some sight. This might mean they need to have visual impairment support, either within a mainstream school or in a specialist school.

Some treatments such as laser treatment might cause changes to their sight. Your child might complain that it’s not as bright as before. Other comments might be that they can see dots or lines (floaters) and flashes of light. Let their team know straight away if this happens.

Increased risk of infection

Chemotherapy can cause a drop in your child’s white blood cells. Symptoms include a change in temperature, aching muscles, headaches, feeling cold and shivery and generally unwell. Your child might have other symptoms depending on where the infection is.

You should contact your child’s advice line urgently if you think they have an infection.

Hearing changes

Some chemotherapy drugs such as carboplatin and cisplatin can cause changes to your child’s hearing. They might have hearing tests before these types of drugs. Let your child’s doctor or nurse know if you or your child notices anything different with their hearing.

A second cancer

Although the risk is very small, chemotherapy can cause them to develop a second cancer many years into the future. If your child has an inherited retinoblastoma second cancers can occur in later life. Your child’s doctor will talk this through with you and answer any questions you may have about it.

Trilateral retinoblastoma is very rare type of cancer and children with inherited retinoblastoma can develop this. It starts in the centre of the brain, from the pineal gland . The pineal gland is just behind the brain stem. It makes the hormone melatonin that controls sleep. Symptoms include headaches and feeling and being sick.

Your doctor will talk to you about this if your child is at risk. They will monitor your child very closely.

Retinoblastoma that has come back or not gone away

Almost all retinoblastomas are successfully treated. But some cancers can come back again (recurrence or relapse) or don’t go away (refractory). Your child’s doctors will develop a treatment plan. This will depend on:

• what treatment they have already had
• where the cancer is
• the size of the cancer
• how far it has spread
• your child’s general health

Your child’s healthcare team will explain the different treatment options and support you through this difficult time.

Follow up

Your child will have regular follow up appointments with their specialist. They are very close together to start with and then get gradually further apart as time goes on. These appointments are to check:

• how they are recovering
• their development
• if they are having any problems following treatment
• if there are any signs the retinoblastoma has come back

These appointments usually include your child having a general anaesthetic for a close look at their eyes.

Coping when your child has cancer

It is understandably devastating when a child is diagnosed with cancer. Although many children with cancer are successfully treated, it is a difficult time for everyone affected.

As well as the doctors and nurses on the ward, you and your child will be supported by a number of professionals during and after treatment. These include your GP, cancer nurse specialists, social workers, play specialists and a psychologist or psychotherapist.

Talking to other people who are experiencing the same thing can also help. Our discussion forum Cancer Chat is a place for anyone affected by cancer. You can share experiences, stories and information with other people who know what you are going through.

There are children’s organisations that you can contact for help and support.

• Children’s organisations

The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust is a charity for families and people affected by retinoblastoma. It offers support and information, funds research and raises public awareness of this rare cancer.

Title 5: How to Become an Influencer in 2023

Social media influencers are all the rage right now. That’s why everyone’s asking, how to become an influencer.

A lot of people might be mistaken, thinking it’s easy and take no skills. That’s where they’re wrong.

Becoming an influencer takes a lot of hard work, whether you want to be a social media influencer, or work in the entertainment industry, becoming an influencer will take time, and comes with a lot of responsibility.

In this article, I’ll guide you through all of the steps to becoming an influencer.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, and we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We try our best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for yourself.

What Is an Influencer?

In simple terms, influencers are social media personalities with many loyal and engaged followers. Most influencers share a friendly rapport with their fans.

The fans, in turn, often regard these influencers as role models and follow their recommendations. In fact, influencers are often perceived as authority figures or experts in their respective niches.

Want to know why they are so influential?

Owing to the accessibility of social media platforms, influencers are able to establish personal connections with their followers.

Unlike traditional celebrities, their lives aren’t shrouded in an air of mystery. This is what gives them sway over their audience.

Instead, influencers often reveal a glimpse of their personal lives to their followers. This is precisely what helps them establish friendly bonds with their fan base.

Influencers are social media celebrities who have a certain amount of leverage with their fan communities.

The most significant factor that distinguishes influencers from high-profile celebrities is that the former adds their unique and authentic voices to their content. This helps them earn the trust and loyalty of their followers.

In fact, 70% of millennials claim to be more influenced by bloggers than celebrities.

It is also important to ensure that your content is grammatically correct and has the right tone. You can achieve that by using the ProWritingAid style editor and grammar checker.

Types of Influencers

Influencers can be put into categories according to their follower count or their content/niche.

Let’s take a look at both.

Influencers According to Their Follower Count

There are between 3 and 37 million influencers according to EarthWeb. With such a large number, it can be expected that some garner much larger followings than others.

That’s why influencers can be categorized according to their follower count, as follows:

• Nano-influencers – 1k to 10k followers
• Micro-influencers – 10k to 100k followers
• Macro-influencers – 100k to 1M followers
• Mega-influencers – 1M+ followers

Nano-Influencers

Nano-influencers with their small community of followers tend to be very engaged and yield high engagement rates.

The reason is that people who tend to follow these nano-influencers are most likely following them because they are interested in their content, rather than following them just because they’re famous or trending.

Nano-influencers are usually also more engaged and specific with their sponsors and what they promote, which helps their followers to fully trust their endorsements.

Nano-influencers are also able to engage more closely with their audiences since a smaller follower count means you can easily answer a larger percentage of your followers’ questions and comments.

Micro-Influencers

Although boasting a larger follower count, micro-influencers still have a relatively decent engagement rate, although a bit lower than nano-influencers.

At this point, most influencers have settled on a subject or niche, becoming somewhat of a “professional” in their field of content or niche.

This makes it easier for brands to be able to pinpoint an influencer’s target audience. Marketing campaigns with micro-influencers are often the best option of the 4 types.

Macro-Influencers

Macro-influencers have amassed a large following of over 100k, but haven’t joined the 1M club yet.

These tend to be internet celebrities, which typically include social media influencers, bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters.

At this point, the large number of followers means that some might only be there for certain content, whilst other followers might only engage every so often. This means that the engagement rate on the posts of macro-influencers is much lower than on posts from nano and micro-influencers.

Mega-Influencers

Mega-influencers are full-blown celebrities with millions of adoring fans around the world.

They don’t come cheap and can ask for a lot of money for sponsored content or brand deals. Their engagement rate is the lowest of the 4 types, but their audience reach is obviously the highest.

Influencers According to Their Content/Niche

Now, let’s take a closer look at the different types of influencers based on their content or niches.

Gamer Influecers

Gaming influencers are people who enjoy a certain aspect, or all, of gaming.

They create content geared towards the gaming community, whether it be playing games, reviews, news, or livestreaming.

Markiplier is a mega-influencer coming from YouTube fame as a gaming channel. Currently, he has 33.7 million subscribers.

A lot of gaming influencers post video content on YouTube, as well as livestream gaming sessions on YouTube or Twitch.

Fitness Influencers

Fitness influencers are all about looking and feeling great.

Fitness influencers come in many different forms. Some provide only nutritional advice, with others offering exercise and workout guidance. Some prefer to post a mix of both on their social media accounts.

Jeff Cavaliere, better known for his social media account, Athlean X, has over 13 million subscribers on YouTube and 2.2 million followers on Instagram.

His videos are a mix of exercise programs, exercise advice, and nutritional guidance. He’ll also vlog about his daily routines or heating habits occasionally.

Photography Influencers

Photography and photographers become internet celebrities through their remarkable skills in taking and editing photos.

Photographers who share their work on social media might be lucky enough to get to endorse a large camera manufacturer like Canon or Sony.

They might also offer classes or tips on taking better pictures.

This is Chris Burkard’s Instagram account. He is a photography influencer with over 3 million followers on Instagram. He specializes in taking photos of nature and scenery.

Beauty and Fashion Influencers

Fashion and beauty influencers spent most of their time designing clothing or giving fashion advice, including makeup and styling advice and tutorials.

Macro and mega-influencers tend to get sponsored deals with large fashion design or cosmetic companies.

Lauren Conrad is a famous fashion and cosmetics influencer with 5.9M followers on Instagram. Recently, she launched her own fragrance brand.

Food Influencers

Food influencers spend a lot of time creating food content related to cooking, food blogging/vlogging, and reviewing the latest food trends and restaurants.

A popular “foodie” is David Chang. With 1.7M followers on Instagram, David Chang has to spend his time wisely between his family, food vlogging, and running his chain of restaurants called Momofuku.

How Do You Become an Influencer

The life of a social media influencer is envied by many. What we often fail to recognize is the persistent effort they have to put in order to live a life of luxury and glamour.

The truth is that there is no easy answer to the question of how to become an influencer. However, there are certain steps that you can take in order to steer your efforts in the right direction.

1. Identify Your Niche

If you want to become an influencer, you can’t expect to be a “Jack (or Jane) of all trades, master of none.” It is crucial that you pick a niche that aligns with your image.

An easy way to select your niche is to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Choose a niche that allows you to showcase your strengths and hone your skills further.

Deciding on a particular niche will help you streamline your audience and tailor your content to suit their preferences.

Typically, when deciding on how to become an influencer, you can choose one of the following categories:

• Travel
• Lifestyle
• Fashion
• Food
• Beauty
• Sports
• Gaming
• Entertainment
• Tech
• Health and Fitness

You don’t have to limit yourself to just one of these categories. You can combine two or more of these niches. Make sure the individual niches align with one another. For instance, you can combine travel and lifestyle or beauty and fashion when you decide on your niche.

It is not mandatory for you to stick to these established and well-known niches. The key to becoming a social media influencer is adding your unique voice to everything you do.

So, don’t hesitate to experiment and carve your own niche that allows you to exhibit your strengths as well as your quirks.

Example:

For instance, 24-year-old, Karina Garcia, became an overnight YouTube sensation just by uploading wacky videos of slime.

She has more than 8 million subscribers on YouTube, who aptly refer to her as the “Queen of Slime.”

In addition, she has also published two bestselling books and has launched her own crafting brand named Craft City.

Pick Your Platform

As an influencer, you need to have a powerful presence on the internet.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should use all the social media platforms and distribution channels out there. Depending on your niche, certain platforms might be better suited for your content than others.

Example:

For instance, if you are a fashion blogger, Instagram would work better for your visual content than other platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

In fact, 93% of social media influencers prefer Instagram as it delivers the best results.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should focus all of your effort on Instagram if your niche doesn’t align with the platform.

Want to know more criteria for selecting a platform?

You should also consider the platform that your audience is most likely to use. For instance, if your target audience includes millennials, you should focus your effort on Snapchat and Instagram.

If you choose to utilize multiple social media platforms, make sure that you tailor your content for each channel.

Example #2:

For instance, digital marketing guru, Neil Patel, actively uses Twitter to promote his blog posts and other content.

This is obvious considering most of his target audience (entrepreneurs, digital marketers, content creators, etc.) is likely to frequent this platform for meaningful content.

While it is recommended that you select the platform that is most suited for your content and target audience, you shouldn’t ignore other distribution channels.

Instead, you should strive to acquire a basic working knowledge of other channels so that you can utilize them in the future if the need arises.

2. Prioritize Your Content

High-quality content is perhaps the most potent answer to the question of how to become an influencer. It is extremely important to publish unique and authentic content that resonates with your audience.

In fact, this is the only way to keep your audience hooked to your content. Regardless of the type of content you create, it should be meaningful and valuable.

Depending on your niche and distribution channels, you can choose different types of content such as blog posts, photos, videos, podcasts, etc.

You can also run joint giveaways or contests on social media channels with the brands that you collaborate with. You can use a tool like VYPER to create engaging contests and giveaways that attract tons of participants.

It is crucial to add your signature voice to every piece of content you create. That is what will distinguish you from other people who are also trying to figure out how to be an influencer.

Wondering how to do that? Let’s understand with the help of an example.

Example:

For instance, photographer and lifestyle influencer, Katie Stauffer, received mass acclaim by uploading videos of her 2-year old daughter, Mila, on Instagram.

What distinguished her content from other similar Instagram pages was Mila’s dialogue delivery and mature acting skills. Today, Stauffer is followed by 4 million devoted Instagram users who look forward to the next video featuring Mila.

It is extremely important that you find the unique quirk or trait that distinguishes you from other influencers in your niche. Once you have identified this unique selling proposition (USP), incorporate it into your content as much as possible.

In addition to helping your content stand out, this will also establish your image as an influencer. It is advisable that you integrate this USP into your sponsored content as well.To ensure that your content tone and style remain consistent, use a style editor like ProWritingAid.

3. Listen to Your Audience

An effective way to ensure that your content garners traction is to create content that your audience wants.

In order to get relevant content ideas, you can run a quick Google search for your niche. Scroll down to the bottom of search results to find the long-tail keywords that are being used by your target audience.

You can also search platforms such as Quora and Reddit to get an idea of what your target audience is talking about.

If you want your content to strike a chord with your audience, you must have a deep understanding of your follower community.

Most social media platforms have an analytics section that can give you meaningful insights into your target audience. You get access to audience demographics data such as gender, geographic location, occupation, online behavior, etc.

In addition, you should pay close attention to the comments section of your social media and blog posts.

It can be a goldmine of fresh content ideas that your audience wants to read/watch. You can also conduct polls on social media channels and ask your followers to tell you all about their preferences and pain points.

4. Up Your Hashtag Game

If you are wondering how to become an influencer and excel at it, the answer is to make judicious use of the right hashtags. Your content only becomes valuable and meaningful when it reaches the right audience.

An effective way of giving increased visibility to your content is by adding appropriate hashtags to your social media posts. This is especially useful for people who are just starting out as influencers and need to grow their audience.

Identify the most relevant and trending hashtags in your niche. Then use them in your posts to get your content seen by an entirely new audience that may have been unaware of your existence.

For this, you can use HashtagsForLikes to identify the top-performing content and hashtags in your niche. This tool can help you find hashtags that you can use to amplify your reach on social media channels. It makes the process of hashtag targeting a lot easier and quicker.

When using hashtags, you should be careful not to flood your posts with unnecessary ones. Only use hashtags that align with your image as an influencer.

Example:

Take a look at the screenshot below to understand how Brian Kelly, aka The Points Guy, makes effective use of hashtags in his Instagram posts.

Wondering what else you can do? In addition to using popular hashtags, you can also create your own unique hashtag to widen your reach even further.

Encourage your followers to upload content on their own profiles using your branded hashtags.

This popularizes your hashtag and builds awareness about you in your followers’ social networks.

5. Maintain Consistency

Publishing high-quality content on a regular basis is one of the most effective ways to retain your audience’s attention. When you deliver good content on a regular basis, it creates a sense of anticipation among your audience.

That, in turn, boosts audience engagement and increases your reach.

It is advisable that you create a timeline for all the content you plan on publishing in the next few months.

You can also create a weekly or monthly series to keep your audience hooked.

Example:

For instance, Nusair Yassin, aka Nas Daily, made a promise of uploading one 1-minute video on Facebook every day, for a thousand days.

People started keeping track of his Facebook page to find out if he was keeping his promise.

Nas did, in fact, keep his promise, as a result of

However, you should ensure that the quality of your content is never compromised in an attempt to maintain regularity.

If a situation arises where you can’t deliver content on the proposed date, publish a post to communicate that. Assure your audience that you are working on the content and it will be available soon.

When you are running out of good quality content, you can use of the Stories feature on Instagram and Facebook. You can upload simple pictures to give your audience a sneak peek into your workspace or living room.

This can help keep your audience engaged and help you stay connected with them without spending hours perfecting a video.

6. Collaborate With Other Influencers

When you are starting out, and still wondering how to become an influencer, partnering with someone famous in your niche can be of great help. It gives you access to their fan base and allows you to attract them to your social media profiles.

You must be able to offer something of use to the other social media influencer in order to tempt them to collaborate with you. If the bigger influencers seem out of reach, you can even partner with micro-influencers who have small yet highly engaged fan bases.

7. Create a Media Kit

A media kit serves as a digital portfolio for an influencer. Think of it as a way to show brands what you can help them achieve.

Whether a brand approaches you for collaboration or you want to pitch a brand that you’d like to work with, having a media kit will help you stand out as an influencer.

Your media kit should include details like:

• Introduction about yourself and your expertise
• Number of social media followers
• Audience demographics
• Engagement rate
• Previous brand partnerships and testimonials
• Collaboration options

You can easily create an impressive media kit online with real-time data and analytics using a platform like MediaKits.

It offers multiple customization options to ensure that your media kit reflects your personal brand perfectly.

Additionally, you can also build a website to add credibility to your image and help you win the trust of your target audience. It is easy to build one using website builders like WordPress.

8. Host Amas, Contests, and Giveaways

If you are wondering how to become an influencer with a devoted follower community, the answer is to keep them engaged.

One of the most effective ways to boost audience engagement is to host an AMA (ask me anything) session on the platform of your choice. In addition to keeping your audience engaged, it will also help establish your expertise in certain subjects in your niche.

Another clever way to improve engagement is to announce a giveaway. Typically, you offer your followers a reward in exchange for likes, comments, and shares on your posts. You can also ask them to tag their friends on the giveaway announcement.

You can use customizable templates from VYPER for your giveaway. This will save you time and effort in creating and running your giveaway.

A contest is similar to a giveaway, except that the participants are required to upload specific content or use your branded hashtag in order to be eligible to win.

Contests and giveaways also help you reach out to a wide audience and grow your followers. You can collaborate with other influencers or brands in your niche in order to make them more effective.

Make sure you clearly specify the rules, deadline, rewards, etc., and announce the winner at the promised time. One of the best answers to the question of how to become an influencer is to host giveaways and contests to keep your audience engaged.

VYPER can help you with both contests and giveaways starting from the designing aspect to the kind of incentives to provide. Use this tool to take your social media contests and giveaways to the next level.

Go Live

The simplest answer to the question of how to become an influencer is to maintain a personal connection with your audience.

Most platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube allow users to go live and share real-time updates with their followers.

You can use this to your advantage and give your audience a glimpse of behind-the-scenes action at an event or a party. It makes your followers feel closer to you and reinforces their loyalty.

You can also host a live AMA session to communicate with your followers in real time.

This is an extremely effective strategy to boost engagement. At the same time, it also allows you to get a fair idea of what your audience likes/dislikes and expects from you.

Make sure you notify your followers about the session in advance.

9. Respond to Your Fans

As your audience grows and more people start appreciating your content, they are likely to leave their feedback in DMs and comments.

Responding to each and every comment might be a herculean task. However, it is advisable that you reply to as many as possible.

A response from your side validates the trust that your fans put in you and makes them feel more connected to you.

Example:

Savi and Vid, the traveling duo of Bruised Passports, make it a point to respond to the comments on their Instagram posts. This has helped them attract an army of 287,000 loyal and devoted followers on Instagram.

In addition, you can also do a shout-out for any exceptionally positive feedback you receive. It makes the sender feel rewarded and strengthens their faith in you.

If you want to know how to become an influencer, the key is to value your audience members as much as they value you.

Title 6: 34 Ways to Practice Self-Love and Be Good to Yourself

Self-love allows you to reach a new level of security and happiness.

We look outside of ourselves for love since that is how we found stability and love as kids. We received rewards for our good deeds. The truth is, the love you’re looking for can only come from within.

But we didn’t get over this; we still looked for love in other people. Because of this, no amount of affection from another person will make you completely content, and you can never feel safe if you don’t have confidence in your talents.

But how can you adore and feel more self-confident?

We work on loving ourselves so that we can overcome our limiting thoughts and live a life that truly shines.

The answer to everything lies in self-love.  Practicing self-love would allow you to be good to yourself and in the process become a better human being.

How to Learn to Practice Self Love

Give yourself a break. Breathe deeply, give yourself a small hug, and begin learning how to love yourself.

1. Cast Out the Idea That You Have to Be Perfect

If you’re wondering how to practice self-love, start by ditching the idea of perfect; perfect in every way—body, life, IQ. The idea of perfection is false, and when you see it on social media, it frequently hides serious mental health problems.

Never expect to be flawless. It’s good to know that nobody is. Nobody aspires to an idealized standard of perfection; everyone has their distinctive qualities and personalities.

2. Understand That Sometimes Societal Expectations Offer Unrealistic Standards

You are unique on this earth and cannot reasonably be compared to anyone else. You are the only one to whom you should compare yourself.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Even if you meet that unattainable standard, you will always be unsatisfied because you need more since it is in our human nature always to be insatiably curious. Avoid comparing yourself to that unattainable ideal; doing so will make you feel bad about yourself and depressed. Remember, the more we compare, the more we lose ourselves.

3. Live in the Moment, Just for a Moment Every Day

Stop your never-ending search for anything better for a time, and just look within. Recognize your origins and the wonder of the present. Realize how fortunate you are to be a living, breathing, and functioning human being.

According to Psychology Today, mindful people tend to have higher self-esteem, are more empathetic, and are more secure. ^[1]

4. Daily Gratitude

Daily gratitude is the key to happiness and loving yourself.

Start a gratitude journal, an Instagram channel, a blog, or just take three minutes every day to think about all the things you have to be thankful for, such as your health, your life, your friends, your country, M&Ms, how long that old pan has lasted you, or how the person on the bus let you off first.

When we get comfortable, we get ungrateful. Change that, and show gratitude every day. According to Harvard Health, gratitude can make you feel more positive emotions and research has shown it can improve your overall wellbeing. ^[2]

5. Embrace the Fact That You Can’t Control Everything

The only things you can control are the ones you can change, including your reactions. Recognize that, like the weather, you do not influence other people, their decisions, or their actions.

Instead of attempting to control everything in life, focus on how you respond to it. Do the best you can and then put your hands up and say, “it is in the hands of the Gods now,” letting everything work itself out rather than attempting to control everyone and everything. Everything finally resolves itself.

6. Self-Care

Society has taught us that taking care of ourselves is selfish, and, God forbid, this is what we fear most. In response, we exert tremendous effort so that everyone knows our goodness.

The price of being “good” in the eyes of society is, however, your happiness. Stop attempting to be “good” and start looking after yourself. Self-love or Self-care = Happiness.

Start to take up these 30 Self-Care Habits for a Strong and Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit. Self-care is one of the best ways to practice self-love.

7. Check In With Yourself Emotionally

Find a seat, get a cup of coffee, and share your day’s events. What mood are you in? Sense that emotion. The greatest course of action is to learn to feel your sentiments rather than bury them genuinely. It’s essential to stay in touch with your feelings if you want to keep practicing self-love.

This includes negative thoughts. Do they exist? Do they prove useful? Are they decent?

Before you say something unfavorable, consider whether it will benefit you. Does having this thought in any way improve me? Or is it merely impolite, dismissive, and harsh?

Stopping internal agony is one of the most crucial steps to happiness because we frequently abuse our minds. Say supportive and encouraging things. Negative beliefs will always impede self-love.

Try these 7 Powerful Ways to Stop Negative Thinking.

8. Tighten Your Circle

Your social circle affects your whole life.

Look at the five individuals you spend time with since they make up who you are. Are they favorable? Loving? Supportive? Or are they unfavorable, impolite, and abusive? Do they also value themselves?

If someone is bringing you down, such as a negative friend, an insulting partner, or an overpowering, overly opinionated aunt, remember that you owe them nothing. They don’t owe you any of your time. Ditch, avoid, and continue.

9. Eat Healthier

Your mental health is impacted by what you put into your body. If you eat something you think is terrible, you sit and feel ashamed of yourself, not only biologically.

Don’t be hard on yourself; life is too short to be miserable because you ate. Remove the eating restrictions, stop dieting, and eat like a normal person. Eat natural foods that you enjoy to practice self-love. Your body will appreciate it.

10. Get Moving!

Don’t simply join a gym and never visit. Try out a new sport or physical activity, then discover one that you like that makes you laugh and is enjoyable for you. Do that then!

Zumba, spin, mermaid swimming, dancer… there are a virtually infinite number of different sports. Try them out and see how happy you become! There are many ways to keep fit, even if you are busy. Here’s a 7-minute workout video that you can squeeze in.

11. Clear Up Your Environment

Get rid of all the haters on social media. All those relatable memes about drunken underachievers. It simply makes sense to fill your head with positive information because you will live a positive life since you become what you think.

Try these tips: How to Declutter Your Life and Reduce Stress (The Ultimate Guide)

12. Be Unique

Take pride in your differences and learn to love them if you want to develop self-love. This is what distinguishes you. If you think about how can I love myself better, then try to be unique.

13. Let Go of Toxic Relationships

End all toxic relationships. Seriously. Nobody should be a part of your life if they make you feel anything less than fantastic. It may take some time to figure out which connections in your life are poisonous.

It’s critical to consider the connections that make you feel good and recognize those that negatively influence your life. The people that don’t support you should not be in your life.

14. Forgive Yourself

Do you recall the one (or maybe a few) times you did something that left you feeling regrettable, humiliated, or ashamed? Time to let go of that. Although you can’t change the things you’ve done in the past, you can influence what happens in the future.

Consider it a teaching moment, and believe in your capacity for change. Give yourself the same grace that you would extend to someone else if they were imperfect.

15. Meditate

Take time out to calm your mind every day. Breathe in and out, purge your ideas from your head, and then simply be. Meditation is a way to be more intentional.

Be aware of your thoughts, feelings, and desires. Live a life that accurately reflects this. You can include self-reflection into your routine by engaging in mindfulness practices.

16. Remember Who You Are

You have endured a lot, yet you have overcome it, growing stronger with each experience. Please keep in mind who you are.

You should welcome adversity because it will make life more fascinating and help you go where you want. Experiencing feelings like self-doubt is natural, but don’t let it overconsume your thoughts.

Here’s a video on 10 Tips to Overcome Self-Doubt

17. Give Yourself Permission to Love Your Body

Your body is a gorgeous and fantastic tool for exploration. Your body wasn’t made only to be aesthetically pleasing to the rest of the world. It’s not an elaborate vase. It is a tool that enables you to accomplish all of your life’s goals.

Climb, eat, go places, go to work, knit… as if it were your child, take care of your body. With nothing but love and the knowledge that everything is ideal just the way it is. Loving yourself and falling head over heels with your appearance is what self-love is all about!

We are instructed that achieving the ideal body will make us happy. You are familiar with that kind; it is an unattainable beauty standard frequently airbrushed over.

No matter how much weight you lose, how many goods you purchase, or how much plastic surgery you have. A body cannot contain happiness because there is nowhere for it to reside.

Happiness results from accepting oneself. Realize that having a body is what you need to feel secure, successful, and like you can do anything you want.

You can do whatever you want regardless of how your body is shaped, so stop spending time attempting to follow a particular diet type and instead get Happiness. It is found within.

18. Try Minimalism

True joy and love can only be found by enjoying your possessions and experiences, not material possessions.

You want someone to tell you at your passing how wonderful your life was and how you accomplished everything you set out to do! Not that you were a hoarder or had a large collection of things. Happiness is appreciating what you already have that can result in amazing discoveries like cooking a healthy meal from scratch.

Here’s an inspiring read recommended for you: If Money Can’t Buy Happiness, What Can?

19. List Positive Things About Yourself

Make a list of your best traits and accomplishments the next time you feel joyous and in control of the universe. While it might sound a little cheesy, it can be a great reminder when you are having a less-than-stellar day. Although it may be challenging initially, developing this habit can help you learn to accept yourself.

20. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Creative

Use your imagination and whatever other means you choose to express yourself. Whatever catches your attention—painting, writing, sculpting, constructing, music—leave your inner critic at the door. There are no right ways to be creative.

Creativity can actually be beneficial to your health, according to Forbes. ^[3]

21. Learn Continuously

Learn, read, and try new things. Figure out what works for you.

Try. Don’t just read this. Think, “well, that’s interesting,” and leave. Choose one of them, then put it into practice. Happiness is a daily discipline, not a switch.

22. Stop Being Too Tough on Yourself

Not everything you think is true. We all have a critic who wants to keep us tiny and secure. The drawback is that it prevents us from living complete lives. One of the biggest things that might prevent someone from loving themselves is being hard on themselves.

23. Manage Stress

Spend 10 minutes working on a favorite stress-management technique. Stress prevention can help with managing health conditions like possible heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and depression. ^[4].

Here are seven stress management techniques that you can do to help you get through challenging times and practice self-care.

24. Setting Time-Boundaries

If you think about “how to love yourself,” then it starts by focusing on yourself. Set boundaries on how you’ll spend your time. Steer clear of time-sucking activities that don’t add meaning to your life.

Also, don’t feel guilty for saying no. Saying no occasionally does not make you a bad person; rather, it makes you clever.

25. Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Taking a risk is one of the best ways to show yourself, love. The joy we experience when we realize we have accomplished something we didn’t know we could do is fantastic.

26. Treat Others With Love and Respect

We feel better about ourselves when we treat people the way we want. Everyone may not always return the favor, but that is their issue, not yours.

27. Celebrate Milestones

No matter how big or small, acknowledge your victories. Be happy with your accomplishments and pat yourself on the back. This is a wonderful method to love and be pleased with oneself. Celebrating achievements in your life might help you stay motivated.

Small wins also matter. For more tips on what small goals may look like, read “How to Celebrate Small Wins to Achieve Big Goals.”

28. Follow Your Passion

Are you aware of that thing that both excites and terrifies you? Although you’ve convinced yourself it won’t work, the thing you want to accomplish. Get moving on that!

Self-love is a dynamic concept. It can take a lifetime to perfect, but it requires continuous practice. Be nice to yourself and persevere through the challenging moments, especially if you’re on the road to finding your passion.

29. Give up the Need for Approval From Others

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” — Dita Von Teese.

You don’t need to rely on approval from others to love yourself. Giving up your need for approval from others will help you find your happy place and also help you let go of past trauma and wounds. Sometimes our want for approval is attached to events from the past.

The reality is that when we let go of the things that have happened to us, it feels almost as though a burden has been lifted. We are no longer required to transport that. We deserve better.

30. Find Your Happy Place

What is the one area where you feel completely at ease, at peace, happy, optimistic, and full of life? When going through a difficult period, visit that location or visualize yourself there. Consider the way something looks, feels, and smells. Make it a habit to regularly envision your happy location.

31. Turn Off and Inwards

Grab a cup of your preferred tea, coffee, wine, or other beverage, and sit by yourself for a while. Just you, no TV or other distractions. Consider the amazing things now taking place in your life, your greatest aspirations, and the best ways to achieve them.

32. Try Journaling

How do you feel your head is spinning so much from having so many thoughts? No matter how bizarre, cruel, depressing, or horrifying they are, list them all on paper.

Whatever it takes for you to let it go, do it. Keep it in a notebook. Regular journaling can be a crucial component of your self-love practice and will help you gradually recognize the value.

33. Be Realistic

Nobody on this planet experiences happiness every second of every day. Do you understand the reason? We are all human, after all. We all make errors and have mixed emotions, and that’s okay. Embrace your humanity.

You can develop a realistic mentality by practicing it. We are often overly hard on ourselves, so learning to be realistic will aid you in your quest for self love.

34. Laugh

There are many benefits to laughter, and it’s a part of self-care. Learn to do things that make you laugh and spend your day joyously.

Final Thoughts

You can improve your relationship by learning to love yourself and practicing self-love. This is essential if you want to develop a strong connection with other people. Although it takes time to develop self-love, you will undoubtedly get better at it.

Even if you’re under stress, consider all that you’ve already accomplished. You will be one step closer to being the best version once you discover how to be kind to yourself.

A wonderful time! Get out there and pursue the activities that ignite your passion. Enjoy them, enjoy who you are, and take in your amazing life.

Title 7: Mobile SEO: The Ultimate Guide

We are addicted to our smartphones. For many people, the smartphone is the first thing they check when they get out of bed in the morning and the last thing they look at before they go to sleep. People use them for everything – it’s huge! Mobile phones have dramatically changed our lives, the way we use the web and, consequently, it has changed SEO. Mobile SEO helps you to reach customers and satisfy their needs while enjoying the experience. This guide to mobile SEO tells you everything you need to know to deliver the perfect mobile experience.

What is mobile SEO?

Mobile SEO is all about offering an exceptional experience to visitors of your mobile site. It’s about making your mobile site load quickly and without issues, and presenting stellar content that matches the users search intent. In today’s mobile-first world, it’s incredibly important to have a flawless mobile site.

Why is mobile SEO so important?

Mobile SEO is crucial because it helps you reach your customers in the right place at the right time and give them the very best experience. Mobile traffic has now eclipsed desktop traffic. Billions of people have discovered the enormous advantages of the smartphone. Our whole lives are in these devices – it’s almost scary to see how attached we’ve become to our smartphones. Many people call it an extension of themselves and something they can’t live without. To reach these people you need a mobile SEO strategy.

Mobile does not necessarily mean on-the-go. Studies have found that people often grab the nearest device to look something up quickly and more often than not, that’s their smartphone. They use it to inform themselves about products before making the decision to buy something, any time, any place. According to research by Google, smartphone users have a higher buyer intent than desktop users. They’re focused and ready to buy. It’s your job to be there when they are looking for your products or services.

It is easy to see mobile SEO in terms of solving technical problems or content issues, but it is also very much a user experience and branding thing. Getting a bad experience from a brand on a mobile phone might scare away a potential customer forever. Offering a great experience increases the chance of consumers recommending your brand.

Mobile SEO vs. desktop SEO

There’s quite a difference between desktop SEO and mobile SEO, but the goals are often comparable. You want to reach your audience and convert them into paying customers. In some ways, desktop SEO tactics also work for mobile SEO, but in a slightly different form. Three major themes still apply: focus on performance, user experience and content. In desktop SEO, you’ll often focus more on the general public, while mobile SEO can also have more of a local focus.

What is different, though, is the results you get on mobile versus desktop. For the same search query, different results may pop up depending on what device you are using. Plus, there are other factors that influence the mobile search results, like the location you’re at. This means that getting a good ranking for your product or content on desktop doesn’t guarantee the same result on mobile. When evaluating your performance on mobile, alway keep an eye on the mobile search results.

In addition, it is always a good idea to regularly check what Google is doing on mobile, in general, but especially in your niche. Google is continuing its push for so-called rich results — often powered by structured data — and these are more prominent on mobile. Think about it: searching for flights, events, jobs, movies, music, products and even simple facts will trigger a Google-owned rich result. We’re going to see a lot more of this going forward.

Google’s mobile-first index is live

The importance of mobile SEO is made even clearer by Google’s 2016 announcement of the mobile-first index. In July 2019, Google switched to the mobile-first index and by March 2021 all sites should be indexed mobile-first. What does this mean? For the first time, Google will determine rankings based on the quality of the mobile version of the site instead of the desktop version.

A smartphone version of Googlebot will crawl your mobile site and determine if its performance, content and user experience are up to scratch. If so, you might get a better ranking. If it is lacking, other sites might rank higher and you could lose out. Even if you’re not focusing on mobile you will still be judged by your mobile site, so now’s the time to take action.

What’s more, in January 2018, Google announced that page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches from July of that same year:

“The “Speed Update” applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.”

Things have changed

Right now, Google uses mobile-first indexing when evaluating sites. To get Google to discover and understand it properly you must keep your mobile site crawlable by taking down all possible barriers such as poorly loading scripts and not blocking stuff in your robots.txt. It also has to load lightning fast if you want to be indexed well.

Google’s Gary Illyes wrote a blog post detailing some of the things you should take care of for the mobile-first index. These include offering the same awesome content on both the mobile and desktop site, investing in structured data, offering the correct meta data, checking your hreflang set up and making sure that your servers can handle the increased crawl rate. In July 2020, added another post with even more possible improvements like making sure that you serve images and video in the proper format.

Mobile equals desktop?

You can no longer present less information on your mobile site than on your desktop site. Your content has to be identical on both, because you will only rank based on the information on your mobile page. Don’t hide stuff! We wrote a post about the so-called mobile parity. Or, like former Googler Maile Ohye told us in an interview:

“To “optimize” for the mobile-first index, make sure that what you serve to mobile users is the version of the content you’d want Google to index, not a pared down version, or a version that gets updated later than desktop, or a version that redirects to the mobile homepage.”

Maile Ohye

Don’t forget to tell Google your site is mobile-friendly. You can add a viewport declaration – if you’re using responsive design – or a Vary header when using dynamic serving. More on this later – or in Google’s developer documentation.

Read more: 5 things you need to know about mobile-first indexing »

A new Google ranking factor: Page Experience

In May 2020, Google announced a ranking factor called Page Experience. While Google has been advocating site speed for years, the page experience update adds something new: user experience. For the first time, Google takes into account how users experience a site. Does the site load quickly? Are there images or slow-loading ads blocking the rendering of a mobile site harming the user experience? The new Core Web Vitals metrics help you make sense of the perceived page experience and prioritize improvements. In May 2021, the new page experience algorithm will see the daylight.

How to improve mobile SEO

Mobile SEO is – just like regular SEO – all about making sure your site is crawlable and findable. Also, you need stellar performance, great content and a flawless UX. To get it right, you need to know how your site is currently performing and what your visitors are doing right now. For example, will people use the same keywords on mobile to find you? People often change how they search while using a mobile device. And what do you want people to do? Offering to navigate to the nearest Whole Foods is less than ideal when you’re on a desktop machine. It makes total sense on your smartphone, though.

Mobile SEO tools

You need to become best friends with Google Search Console. Its search tools are legendary and a big help if you want to find out how your site is doing in the search results. For instance, by using the Search Analytics feature, you can see how mobile and desktop users use words to find what they need. Are you targeting the right words? Should you focus on something else?

Googlebot needs to be able to crawl your JavaScript, CSS and image files to index it properly. There is a handy tool for this inside Search Console: URL Inspection. This tool lets you see exactly how Googlebot sees and renders your content. When the screen doesn’t align and the tool lists errors, you’ve got work to do.

Mobile Usability tool

Another Google Search Console feature that makes your life easier is the Mobile Usability tool. This tool checks your site and presents an overview of posts and pages that don’t follow Google’s mobile-friendly rules. This is an excellent way to start improving your mobile SEO.

Other tools

Some other great tools to up your mobile SEO game are Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, Rich Results Test, Lighthouse, Analytics, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Ryte, ScreamingFrog, and SimilarWeb.

Read more: Google Search Console: Search appearance
Read more: DIY: Test your mobile site

Mobile SEO is designing for performance

The number one thing you should be focusing on when you’re trying to improve mobile SEO is performance. Performance almost entirely boils down to site speed. It’s a no-brainer: the faster your site is, the happier your users will be. It’s well known that a site has to load within a couple of seconds or your visitors will give up and go elsewhere. If you combine this with the fact that sites are only getting bigger, it’s clear you have your work cut out.

Optimizing performance, however, is a continuous process. Your site will never be fast enough because there’s always more you can improve – and that’s ok. By keeping a close watch on how your mobile site is performing, you can immediately jump onto every opportunity to improve it. Google loves fast sites, and so do your customers.

Responsive design vs. dynamic serving vs. separate domain

While developing your mobile site, you’ll have three options: responsive design, dynamic serving, or a separate site on a subdomain. Google prefers responsive design because you only have one site that adapts to the device it’s used on. There’s only one code base, so maintenance is easy. According to Google, using responsive design will make your site eligible for addition in the new mobile-first index. Always let Google know that your site is mobile-friendly by adding the meta name=“viewport” declaration in the head of your documents.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

Dynamic serving

Dynamic serving takes a different approach. It uses server-side technology to serve a different version of your site to mobile users, depending on the way they access your site. The URL stays the same, but the files sent are completely different. You need to add the Vary header to get Google to crawl your site. This way, Google immediately knows that it will receive mobile-optimized files from somewhere else. A Vary header appears like this when a browser makes a request:

Vary: User-Agent

A separate domain

The third option is a separate mobile site on a different URL – usually an m. domain – and with different content. Google supports this method, but only if you make the correct connections between your regular desktop domain and the mobile domain. Use rel="alternate" and rel="canonical" to tell Google how these pages are connected. More on these different types and how Google uses them on this Developers page. Or you can read our rel=”canonical” ultimate guide.

Improve site speed of your mobile site

One of the most importants aspects of mobile SEO is improving site speed. PageSpeed Insights shows you exactly how fast your site loads on both mobile and desktop. It also suggests performance improving enhancements. Use this alongside the Developer Tools in browsers and the Core Web Vitals Report in Search Console to see how your site is rendering its contents.

Among other things, PageSpeed Insights looks at the three current Core Web Vitals metrics:

• CLP (largest contentful paint): The largest contentful paint happens when the largest element of a requested page appears on the screen. A good grade gives users the feeling that the site loads fast. A slow site can lead to frustration.
• FID (first input delay): The first input delay is the time between the first interaction of a user with an element on the requested page and the reaction of the browser to that input. How quickly your page reacts to input is of utmost importance for it to appear fast and responsive.
• CLS (cumulative layout shift): The cumulative layout shift measures the total time of movement on screen that happens during loading. This gives you an idea if stuff is jumping around which could make your site appear jerky.

Type in your URL and Insights will give you two scores: one for mobile and one for desktop. These will be different. If your score is red, you have much work to do. Orange means an average performance and green is good. It’ll give you suggestions on enhancing the performance of your site. Follow these suggestions, and you’ll be on the right track.

But…

I hear you thinking:

“Nobody has a score of 0/100, right?”

Well, think again. A combination of factors can do your mobile site a lot of harm. Find a bad hosting provider, install WordPress on a crappy shared hosting platform, activate thirty plugins and upload a hundred non-optimized images to your blog and you are going to score badly. Even huge sites with big budgets score badly. But these things can be fixed. Run PageSpeed Insights and other speed analyses tools and follow their advice.

What can you do to improve your site speed?

• Optimize images and use fewer images
• Invest in quality hosting
• Update PHP version to PHP7
• Keep your redirects in check
• Fix render-blocking content above the fold
• Prioritize visible content
• Optimize and minify CSS, HTML and JavaScript
• Cache your assets
• Use a CDN
• Make the transition to HTTP/2
• Upgrade to HTTPS
• Load fewer assets like JavaScript libraries
• Load fewer ad servers
• Improve server response time

To help you, we’ve listed five things you can do to boost your Core Web Vitals. When improving your page speed, you should always ask yourself if you need all these assets, libraries, images, plugins, theme features and so on. The famous saying “less is more” is still as valuable as ever.

Read more: Site speed tools and suggestions »

Think about implementing AMP

The Google-led open source project AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, has one goal: loading your pages as fast as possible. It’s been around for some time now. In the beginning, AMP was used on static posts, like blogs or news articles, that didn’t need interaction from the user. For e-commerce purposes and other dynamic types of pages, AMP fell short – until a year or so, that is. Today, AMP is capable of powering canonical sites, with more to come. Look into what AMP could do for your site and how you might implement it. Not every site needs it, but the ones that do could gain a lot from it.

Read more about implementing AMP with WordPress »

Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

PWAs offers another way of targeting mobile users. A progressive web app (PWA) is an all-in-one solution that works on all devices, for all users. It’s the perfect crossover between the app world and the web world. The web app works like an app, without the need to publish it in an app store. PWAs combine the load speeds of mobile sites with the best functionality of a native app. When done correctly, a good PWA might fool users into thinking they are using a native app. Google has a must-read blog post if you want to know how to create indexable PWAs.

Thanks to technologies like service workers, the browser can do a lot more in the background, while keeping the front end updated in real-time. This makes it a good option if you need an app, but can’t justify the cost. There will be a lot happening with progressive web apps in the next couple of years. Every major browser — both mobile and desktop — now supports service workers, even Apple’s Safari on MacOS and iOS. There are, however, still some kinks to be ironed out before Apple’s implementation is solid.

Focus on user experience

Besides being easily found and lightning fast, your mobile site should offer an enjoyable user experience — especially now Google will factor it into their algorithm. Find out which common tasks your customers have on your site. What is their search intent? Try to remove any obstacles and make sure users can achieve their goals quickly. There’s a lot you need to consider when optimizing user experience. Here are a couple of things you need to think about:

• First and foremost: don’t forget your customer!
• Make your site mobile site useful and enjoyable
• Fix your font size: your typography needs to be top-notch.
• Keep enough room between the clickable elements.
• Make your sub-menu clickable, so users don’t automatically go back to home instead of the submenu.
• Put your phone number on the homepage and make it clickable. This way, people can call you if they want to do business.
• Don’t make users pinch and zoom to see – and use – your interface.
• Make your buttons large enough for fingers.
• Fix your forms: bad forms are unusable on mobile.
• Cut the clutter.
• Test, adjust and test again!

Read more: 10 ways to improve mobile UX »

Optimize for local

While we use our smartphones a lot in our homes, these devices become even more useful when we’re out and about. Google found that 76% of people who searched for something nearby visited a related business within a day. 28% of those visits led to a sale.

To cope with that local demand, or so-called near me searches, you need to work on your local SEO. Local search results can look very different from regular desktop searches, so you have to know what to target and how to target it. Here are some ways you can improve your local SEO for mobile:

• Write locally oriented content: It’s one of the best things you can do to improve local rankings.
• Build local links: Ask, and you shall receive.
• Google My Business: Sign up and fill in your details. Here, you can keep your NAP data up to date, respond to reviews and upload photos, among other things.
• Reviews: Ask your customers for reviews, mark them up with structured data and present them on a particular page on your site. This does wonders.
• Photos: Take beautiful pictures of your business and add them to Google My Business.
• Schema.org: Add structured data for NAP details, products, reviews, etc. and you get mobile rich search results like rich cards or carousels.
• Contact details: Make sure your contact information is always correct and up to date. If not, fix it.
• Yoast Local SEO for WordPress plugin: This plugin can do a lot of the hard local SEO work for you.

Finetune your mobile content

Smartphone screens are small. On that screen, text gets truncated and wrapped in a seemingly never-ending stream of paragraphs. Users have to scroll endlessly. Text on a mobile screen has the potential to give any web designer a headache. But the design – and use – of text is of crucial importance to the success of your site. If your site is unreadable or just plain ugly, people will not read your 1,000-word article. Well, maybe not even your 100-word summary. Fix your typography.

People read a lot on their smartphones, but you have to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. You also need to make sure that your content is up to scratch.

Read more: Optimize your mobile content

Write for the small screen

Always keep the restrictions of the small screen in mind when creating or editing content. Don’t use too many long sentences, keep your paragraphs to around four sentences and break up text using bullet points, lists and headings. Nothing is more daunting to your visitor than a massive block of unformatted text. Check your content on a smartphone to see how it looks and find ways to improve it. The Yoast SEO Premium analysis can help you improve your content.

Read more: Copywriting for mobile

Write better meta descriptions and titles

Google shows less information in the search results on mobile than on a desktop. Your meta descriptions and your titles will be truncated if you make them too long. Think about that when you optimize your posts and pages. You lose several characters when optimizing your meta descriptions and titles for mobile. In Yoast SEO’s Google preview, you can switch between a mobile and desktop preview. This way, you can compare the differences between the two and find the perfect middle ground. Yoast SEO also uses the titles and meta descriptions to fill your structured data, so make it clear to search engines what your page is about.

Read more: The Google preview in Yoast SEO

Prepare for voice search

When working on your content, you should account for voice search. Yes, it’s been around for a while, but with the advent of Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home assistant, things are moving faster. More and more people are using their voice to perform actions on the web, and your content has to provide the answers. If done correctly, you might kill two birds with one stone: you’ll not only respond to questions mobile users have, but it might also lead to so-called featured snippets or answer boxes on desktop searches. Getting a featured snippet almost guarantees your content to be a top answer for assistants. Curious what’s powering conversational search?

To prepare for voice search, you need to take a good look at your current content. Ask yourself, does it answer any question a user might have? If not, change it. Find out which questions people use to find your content and optimize for that. Use Google’s autofill or tools like Answer the Public or AlsoAsked.com to find ideas for questions to answer.

Read more: How to prepare for voice search

Add Schema structured data to a mobile site

Structured data is incredibly important. By using structured data in the form of Schema.org to describe elements on your site, you can open a line of communication with search engines. Structured data makes it clear to search engines what all the different elements on your site mean. If done correctly, search engines can use this data to give you highlighted search results, known as rich results or rich snippets. This way, your site immediately stands out from the crowd, which could lead to a higher click-through rate.

Structured data allows for many new ways of presenting search results. The rich results we see in the carrousel, for instance, uses data you can add to your mobile site. The result is a snippet that is mobile-optimized and very attractive to click. Since Google is heavily investing in improving and expanding the types of rich results these might turn out to be your ticket to enhanced visibility. Try to get those featured snippets!

Structured data is one of the most important topics to get your head around. See our structured data course for an easy way to learn how to add structured data to your mobile site. This course is part of our Yoast SEO academy training subscription. 

Yoast SEO takes care of your Schema needs

Adding Schema to your site has always been a struggle — but not any more! Yoast SEO is making it easy for you. The popular SEO plugin automatically adds an extensive list of Schema structured data properties to your site. Not only that, Yoast SEO also ties everything together in a neat graph. This graph makes it incredibly easy for a search engine to understand the true meaning of your site. That’s not all, because the free Yoast SEO structured data content blocks turn the WordPress block editor into a helpful tool to craft FAQ pages and how-to articles — with more block types to come. Both of these Schema types have a relatively easy to get rich result on mobile attached to it as well.

Read more: Structured data with Schema.org: the ultimate guide

A mobile SEO guide full of tips

This ultimate guide to mobile SEO gives you a lot of pointers to improve the performance of your mobile site. Mobile SEO should always be a work in progress because there are always new developments, but also technologies arrive and are superseded. The world is always changing, and you need to keep up. If you do, the rewards can be great.

So, what are you waiting for? Get your smartphone, check your site on a mobile browser and find and fix those issues. Use this mobile SEO guide well, because this is an important time! This is the time to take action because if you don’t, you might get left behind.