How to Save Money Through Garage Maintainance

As a homeowner, you know how important it is to take care of your home and keep it in good repair. After all, keeping your home in a good condition not only makes things more convenient for you and your family, but it adds value to your home as well.

Most people have no problem spotting issues in their home, and keeping things running smoothly. The problem usually comes in when you take a look at your garage. When was the last time you had someone come in and do some regular, routine maintenance on your garage door?

Chances are, you don’t even remember the last time you called someone to take a look at your door! Read on to find out exactly why regular maintainance is so important, and what you can do about it.

Why Do You Need Garage Maintenance?

1. · Increased Security and Protection
2. · Decreased Repair Costs
3. · Increased Home Value

Increased Security and Protection

Your garage door is the first line of defence against thieves looking to break into your home. A garage door is typically targeted by burglars, so it is important to make sure that it is in tip-top shape. Making sure that you are regularly repairing any wear and tear, and strengthening any weak points, you can rest assured that your family and your possessions will be safe!

Decreased Repair Costs

Prevention is better than cure! It’s better to catch a small problem with your door, and have it fixed immediately, than rack up a huge bill because that problem got worse.

Making sure that your door is working, well-maintained, and regularly fixed, is vital in keeping costs down. So, while it might seem like an unnecessary expense’ at first, it’s actually a huge cost-saving measure. Not only that, but prevention means that you’re not left inconvenience.

After all, you don’t want to get stuck outside your house the next time your garage door breaks!

Increased Home Value

Another one that goes without saying- If your garage door looks worn, is creaking and falling apart, no one is going to be interested in paying much money for your house! Now, the inside of your house might look amazing, but if the curb-appeal is lacking, people immediately assume the worst about the state of your home and are willing to pay a lot less.

The small fee involved in maintaining a great-looking garage door, is absolutely worth the increase in value and re-sell value that it will bring to your home. It’s important not to underestimate how important visuals are to a potential buyer.

Garage door regular maintenance typically includes:

• Adjusting springs
• Adjustment of the door opener
• Tightening of your door’s chain
• Lubrication of your door’s drive mechanism
• Tightening all door nuts and bolts
• Lubrication and replacement of any cables, pulleys, and rollers

So, if you are looking for a cheap and effective way to increase the value of your home, save money on maintenance costs and ensure that your garage door lasts as long as possible, then regular maintenance and repair is the way to go.

If you think you’re overdue for a maintenance session, and need garage door repair in Virginia Beach, or garage door repair in Goldsboro nc , then don’t hesitate to give us a call, and book a consultation today.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/house-and-home/how-to-save-money-through-garage-maintainance/

Ravi Bahethi Explains How a Disaster Recovery Plan Can Reduce Critical Damage from Cyber Attacks and Disasters

Disaster recovery plans are critical to successful mitigation, containment and recovery of data after a ransomware attack. Cybersecurity defenses are never entirely impenetrable, so organizations must have backups and the right plan in place after an incident. In this article, systems engineer and cybersecurity expert Ravi Bahethi discusses how recovery plans and proper backups reduce the cost of data recovery and downtime.

How Ransomware Attacks Threaten Your Data

Ransomware has become one of the fastest-growing forms of cyberattacks in recent years. A majority of malicious emails now contain ransomware. Ransomware is typically placed in a business’s IT environment through its user community. Attackers send multiple emails to users, and when triggered, the ransomware infiltrates all of an organization’s IT systems. While data theft is designed to remove sensitive data from a company’s systems, ransomware is designed to lock up data inside an IT system, making it unusable. The attacker then demands payment to release the hold of the ransomware on the systems. Ransomware attacks can have a severe, negative impact on an unprepared business’s operations and reputation.

Disaster Recovery Is More Than Backing Up Data

Backing up data is vitally important, but it is crucial to understand how it differs from disaster recovery. Backing up data is the way we protect data by making extra copies that can be accessed and restored in the event of data loss. Disaster recovery involves a comprehensive plan to get applications, IT resources, and data back online after an outage. Disaster recovery is designed to protect business continuity.

Assess Your Current Recovery and Restoration Status

It is best to make a frank assessment of how long your business can face IT system downtime without a critical impact. You should evaluate each system’s value, vulnerability, and the cost of restoration in developing a disaster recovery plan. Some operating systems can take hours or multiple days to be reinstalled, updated, tested, and brought back online.

Cloud Services Can Provide Serious Disaster Resiliency

Networks and telephony with onsite infrastructure can result in significant downtime in the event of a ransomware or other cyberattack. Using a managed cloud service for networking, telephone service, and other software applications and processes can provide a secure layer of protection against outside attacks. In addition to cyberattacks, cloud services protect against natural disasters and interruption of local services.

Assign and Train a Disaster Recovery Team

When you are comfortable with the disaster recovery and backup plan your business needs, you need to be sure that the right people will be able to implement the plan when required to minimize downtime or data loss. Each system should have a sufficient number of team members designated and trained on assessing risks and taking appropriate steps to safeguard systems when possible.

About Ravi Bahethi

Ravi Bahethi is a systems engineer and programmer with a strong interest in all things technological. He works hard to provide his government and industry clients with customizable and cost-effective integration solutions and protections against cyber attacks and other threats. Ravi Bahethi is a systems engineer and programmer working in Fortran 77, Fortran 90, C/C++ and SQL on a variety of platforms, including OpenVMS, Tru64 Unix, IRIX, Linux and Windows. When he is not busy managing Maryland-based Terranet Inc., Ravi enjoys taking long walks and playing tennis. 

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/technology/ravi-bahethi-explains-how-a-disaster-recovery-plan-can-reduce-critical-damage-from-cyber-attacks-and-disasters/

How To Supercharge Your Business With Location Analytics

Information technology has dramatically evolved over the last 2 decades. Don’t believe us? Here are some statistics:

• There are now 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day
• 90% of the world’s data was created in the last two years
• Information technology is currently a $4.8 billion industry (with no signs of slowing)
• 57 percent of companies believe that integrating key digital technologies is critical to their business

We weren’t kidding: in 2020, enormous amounts of data will be created and consumed each day, and there are no signs of this trend slowing.

If you’re clued in to the back-end of a business, you know that data is analyzed wherever it is consumed. As a business, analytic systems allow you to gain real information by observing patterns, trends, relationships, interactions, interests, and much more. 

You can then group these observations into demographics like age, occupation, race, and gender. But there’s one area of data analytics that most businesses are missing: location intelligence. 

Geographic location can offer a lot of useful information on your customer base to help you strategize in some very impressive ways. With location data, you can learn how to best facilitate growth, expansion, and optimal service locations for your business. 

If you’re already using location data to improve your business insights, you’re not alone. Representatives from Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks coffee have revealed how they use geographic information systems (GIS) to gain valuable context in their location data. 

If you think you’re too small to join in on the fun, think again: you don’t have to be a key player in your industry to utilize location analytics. No matter how small you are, location intelligence is a valuable tool that you can use to your advantage.

In this article, we’ll explore how data mapping be used to help strengthen your business’s approach to data analytics.

How to Use Location Intelligence to Your Advantage

Analytic-based companies like Maptive suggest that mapping location data is becoming increasingly important to achieve business goals. 

Data collection and analysis is about gaining comprehensive, detailed information to help guide and direct informed decision making. You can use location information to plan and strategize for the same purposes.

Mapping technology and spatial analytics can offer your business many key advantages:

• Data aggregation using cluster maps, temporal organization, point listings, and color-coding
• Data collection and information enrichment (lifestyle data, demographic information, social media statistics, environmental conditions)
• Map filtering, proximity assessments, customized area specifications (travel time, conflicting territories), and geoprocessing.

Targeted Marketing And Customer Segmentation

For the success of any business, it really comes down to delivering what customers want and need. But before you decide how to market to those wants and needs, you must first understand them. 

By using location analytics, a business can have access to an unprecedented amount of knowledge about their customers. Customers can be very diverse and unique and do not all fall into similar categories; so by understanding trends and preferences grouped geographically, you are given valuable insight into detailed customer segmentation. 

Creating hyper-targeted marketing campaigns built around geospatial data can strengthen your existing customer bases or help you learn where to expand your business.

Identifying Brand Preferences

Many businesses use mapping software to organize where their brand is most popular, or to learn purchasing habits that are favored in certain geographical locations. You can use this information to learn about geographic preferences for specific products and brands. 

Location Decisions

Location can mean a lot to your business. Where you choose to place manufacturing sites, head offices, or retail spaces can all be aided by location data. Where you are can have a large influence on how you perform. By utilizing data analytics you can plan for who lives where and ultimately make wiser decisions on where to expand retail spaces and target growth potential. 

More Than Just Customer Information

Geospatial data can offer more than just customer information. You could use sensors through a large variety of devices and applications. 

For example, productivity and performance data could be incredibly useful to your specific business. Transportation systems do this best, as they require a high level of planning in order to regulate congestion, energy costs, safety, and timeliness. Mapping technology has tremendous potential to enhance profitability when used to evaluate and manage performance and productivity. 

Geospatial data collection and location analytics have many valuable applications, and the means of gathering and interpreting this data is growing greater every year. New technologies are being developed, and the understanding of these technologies is moving into the mainstream. By paying attention on location intelligence in 2020, your ROI could be tremendous. 

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/business-news-daily/how-to-supercharge-your-business-with-location-analytics/

5 SEO Tips To Boost Your Organic Rankings

If you’re a small business owner that has managed your own business website, there is no doubt that you’ve run into some challenges along the way.

You’ve probably dealt with slow servers, spam, and your website crashing, all on a good day. Dealing with technical problems is just one aspect of business marketing, but what about your organic search rankings?

If you’re trying to sharpen up your website’s SEO, there are a few tips for you to consider if you want to boost your rankings. Try these tips:

Amp Up Your Speed

Did you know if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 57% of your visitors are likely to leave? Website load times are an important metric to consider when you want to boost your rankings.

Without getting too technical, load times are often affected by large image files, lack of caching, and large javascript and CSS files. Your goal is to bring your site loading time to 3 seconds or less, and one way to do this is to run a speed test on your site.

Pingdom Tools and Google’s PageSpeed Insights are great resources to utilize. Once you get a proper reading of how fast your website is loading, you can target the specific areas that are affecting your website’s speed.

Connect with Your Audience

Another way to boost your rankings is to connect with your audience over social media. This might seem like a roundabout way to do so but you’re actually killing two birds with one stone.

The more you connect with your audience through social media (whether through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or other platforms), the likelier chance you’ll be able to build your credibility and authority with your audience.

Ranking isn’t always about having the most appealing website, but about engaging with your customers and building a relationship of trust with them. Focus on building this trust and you’ll be going up in rankings in no time.

Create a Google My Business account 

Think about the last time you were looking for the nearest gas station to you on Google Maps. The map will show you all the gas station around you in a 2-mile radius, with each pin representing a different gas station nearby.

To get your business listed on the map, you have to let Google know that your business exists. If your business does not have a Google My Business account yet, create one right away.

Google My Business is a great way to create a presence on the search engine, especially if you have a brick and mortar store. The point of the account is to offer your customers a way to connect with you, find you, ask you questions, and learn more about your store or service.

If your store is showing up on Google map’s search results, you’ll have a better chance of drawing people into your location or utilizing your services.  

Be The Solution

The right SEO strategy will help search engine users find your website in a quick and easy way. One way to go about this is to consider the questions your customers may have, especially questions where your services will be the solution.

For example, if you provide antivirus protection for computers, you may create content on your site addressing the different viruses that could infect a computer and offer your antivirus protection service.

If there’s a common problem many of your customers face, create content on your site that describes the specific problem.

You can also create content answering frequently asked questions you have encountered while helping your customers. All of this is to help your customers find a solution to their problem: you.

Run Ranking Reports

If your business is in a competitive field, you may see just minor changes in your website ranking over time. When the competition is tight, business owners will need more arsenal.

There are various SEO tools and resources that can help with finding an advantage over your competitors. For example, Ahrefs and SEMRush are both multi-faceted SEO tools that can audit websites and detect errors (such as 404s).

Many of these tools run ranking reports to give you an idea of where your website is ranking on the search engine results page. With this knowledge, business owners can see what keywords they are ranking for and which to target in their next campaign. 

Final Thoughts

Optimizing your website for the search engine is never a quick fix but requires a long-term strategy. When looking for ways to boost your organic rankings, close the gaps by trying out these 5 tips.

Finally, when it comes to finding the right resources to run a business, Opportunity Business Loans knows that business owners have enough on their plate to worry about.

Don’t make business financing one of them. Get connected to a large network of lenders today with just one application.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/seo/5-seo-tips-to-boost-your-organic-rankings/

How to choose flowers for different occasions?

Flowers are the best pick for most of the occasions. You can use them almost all the time. It can either be an anniversary, birthday, New Year, and any other occasion. However, you need to pick the flowers based on their relevance following the occasion. Are you looking for knowledge about the relevant flower for the relevant occasion? Well, we will help you out. Below you can find out some of the information regarding how to pick the best flower for a particular occasion. Take a look below and figure out how to pick the best flowers that you may give.

Anniversary

If you are looking for some flower options to give it to your better half, you need to figure out what occasion it is. If it is your anniversary, you need to play safe. You can pick out the red or pink roses or any other flower which is red or pink. Roses are the best pick for the flowers on the anniversary. Your honey bunch will love these Red Roses. These Red Roses reflect the love and the passion you have.

Birthdays

If it is the birthday of your friend, you do not have to think a lot. You can pick the easiest option. For a friend, you can make yellow flowers. It can be sunflower or any other yellow flower. When it is a birthday, try to avoid red or pink flowers. When you want to reflect friendship, you need to pick the color that reflects that. However, the red color does not reflect friendship. Yellow is meant to reflect friendship.

Date

Are you excited about the date night? Well, you also need to find the perfect flowers for your date. If you want to impress your date and make her drool over you, you need to pick the perfect flowers. You can pick orchards or lilies. These are the perfect ones for the date night. Moreover, if you want to make it even more romantic, you can bring these flowers to the doorstep. This will make her drool over you all night long. Voila! You have won the date.

Funeral

When you are picking the flowers for the funeral, you cannot take the bright and attractive colors. You need to keep this in mind that at a funeral you need to get the flowers that are calm and promote humility. You need to find flowers that are white, green, blue. These are the colors that promote peace.

Gratitude

If you want to show gratitude to someone or if you want to say thank you to someone, you can get the lilies, daisy and roses. It will promote your gratitude and the feeling of thankfulness.

Are you planning to get some flowers? Well, now it is easier for you to get the flowers at your doorstep. You can get the best florist delivery.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/lifestyle/how-to-choose-flowers-for-different-occasions/

How to Buy a Laptop For Cheap and Get Everything You Want

Numerous individuals think that buying a laptop requires a lot of cash. They’re not aware of how buying a new, cheap laptop is simpler than ever before.

These gadgets have consistently been seen as an expensive possession that provides a lot of many personal as well as professional interest for the owner.

Their small sizes and technological features have sparked a global interest in these devices. In addition, with the increase in the number of PC producing firms worldwide, the costs have taken a significant southward shift.

This is excellent news for individuals who are willing to own this critical device.

Lately, laptops are the device of a competitive marketplace. So, buying cheap laptops is not that problematic, as a lot of the laptops manufacturers tend to cut their costs to sustain the challenge.

Besides, different permutations and blends of features and accessories determine the price of laptops. In the event that you spend less money on the purchase of your PC, you can opt for a computer with insignificant accessories and essential features.

Therefore, it is possible to buy cheap computers within your financial limit. However, you need to know precisely, which highlights and accessories you need.

In numerous models, you will find a word processor, an internet browser, and a sound/graphics card. You should see whether these features meet the needs of your PC or not.

It’s crucial to understand that your laptop ought to be useful to meet your basic requirements. Cost should not be the only criterion when buying a PC. The configuration is of increasing importance, and it will decide on its usability for you.

An innovative, fast, and advanced laptop may cost you a fortune.  But you can choose between one of the cheap PCs accessible on the market and upgrade it according to your requirements and your financial limit.

For instance, you can buy a PC with less memory and add extra memory later on. A lot of work applications can be included then if you think your laptop is becoming more useful.

However, when purchasing your cheap laptop, ensure that it is capable of being upgrades later on. Note the accessible layout and check which of the highlights can be redesigned and which cannot.

This rating is essential while buying cheap PCs. You may need to redesign your configuration in the future, and you should know whether this is conceivable or not.

Now, getting a laptop is not that hard as it used to be. But you should not be disappointed. A lot of organizations have to sell their progressive and latest range of laptops.

This way, it means you have to do a lot of research to find a cheap laptop. With a little tolerance, you will have the opportunity to find a PC retailer who sells something you’ve been searching for.

Some online retailers offer laptops at cheap prices. Compare the cost of these online retailers to get the best deal on buying your cheap notebook.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/computers/how-to-buy-a-laptop-for-cheap-and-get-everything-you-want/

Affordable and Unusual Start-Up Business Ideas for 2020

The new year is upon us. How do you feel about your job and career prospects right now? Are you happy to carry on for the next twelve months doing what you’re doing right now?

If so, that’s great news, and we’re happy for you! If not, you’ve probably spent more than a few hours wondering what the best way of changing the path of your professional life might be.

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of people in the world who have the skill, determination, and vision to start their own business, but the majority of them will never do so. There are many reasons why that might be the case.

The biggest one, unsurprisingly, is money. People enjoy having a steady income, and fear of losing that guaranteed income is what stops them from setting up on their own.

A lack of start-up cash is also a factor. Almost any new business comes with at least a few start-up costs, and beyond those costs, you’d also need enough money to support yourself while you waited for your new venture to become profitable.

What if there was a way to have the best of both worlds, though? What if you could start a business up for little or no money and then work at it in your spare time until it was paying you enough money to give up your job and switch to running it full time?

Does that sound too good to be true? It shouldn’t. There are many start-up ideas that offer that route, and we’re happy to share a few of them with you right now.

Become An Online Slots Affiliate

It can’t have escaped your attention that online slots are a big thing right now. Relaxation of laws about gambling almost all over the world have allowed online slots websites to spring up everywhere, and they make big money for the people who own them.

The good news here is that you don’t need to know anything about online slots to get involved. You don’t even have to have played an online slots game in your life!

Loading up the most popular casino game like Fluffy Favourites, you just need enough money to become an affiliate of an established player, enough design flair to come up with a marketable brand and website, and enough knowledge about marketing to promote it effectively.

Every time someone plays an online slots game on your website, you get a cut of their money. It’s a competitive industry, but if you’re prepared to put the effort in when it comes to marketing and design, you can break into it.

Open a T-Shirt Printing Website

If you think t-shirt printing ever went out of fashion, you must have taken your eyes off what’s fashionable. T-shirt printing has never been more popular, and nor has it been more lucrative.

There are people in their 20s making six figures a year just through selling t-shirts in Amazon. There are hundreds of companies online who will handle the printing and shipping of your t-shirt designs for you, so all you need to do is come up with a design that will catch people’s eyes!

Funny slogans always work, as do highly controversial political or social comments. There will always be a time and a place for a unique piece of graphical flair, though, so if you have any graphic design skill, this is where to use it.

As with online slots, you’ll need to put the hours in when it comes to marketing so people can find your website. Once you’re making enough money, buy your own t-shirt press, cut out the middleman, and quit your job while you’re at it!

Website Trading

This is all about knowing what a URL might be worth right now, and what it might be worth in the future. There are two ways you can go about website trading.

If you find a small web-based business and believe you could easily improve it, you could simply offer to buy the whole website and run it yourself.

If you’re more interested in selling URLs, though, you need to be quick and accurate. Google’s AdSense and other tools can tell you a lot about URLs that are typed by accident, or URLs that people use when they’re trying to find something specific.

These are the sites you want to own because once you’ve got them, you can sell them to someone who might use them. Imagine you could buy greatsneakers.com and sell it to Nike, for example.

They’d buy it to avoid you (or someone else) using it, and you’d get more from them than you paid for it. Website trading is a test of ingenuity and wits!

Start a YouTube Channel

One of the top-earning lawyers in the world makes most of his money outside the courtroom, and rarely sees clients. He’s the man who owns and stars on the LegalEagle YouTube channel.

Every video he posts is guaranteed to get at least a quarter of a million views, and he both starts and ends each video with sponsored content. Not only that, he uses the channel to sell books he’s written, and just about anything else he feels like selling.

He’s been a success because he’s been able to take the dry topic of the law and turn it into something genuinely entertaining and relatable. Could you do the same about the industry you work in?

If so, it doesn’t take long for YouTube advertising revenue to start flowing in once you’ve attracted a regular audience. Product endorsements will follow shortly behind them.

Dumpster Diving

This involves getting your hands dirty – quite literally – but it’s worth it. You can make huge money as a dumpster trader, but virtually nobody wants to do it. Every day, people all over the planet throw out things that have material value.

They throw out old clothes, or working electronics, or old pieces of furniture. All of those things are worth something to someone. Even the components of broken electronics have value.

If there’s a large recycling plant or dump near you, make a habit of going down on weekends to see what people have thrown away. You’ll honestly be stunned by what you can pick up for free, clean, and sell on.

You can make hundreds of dollars from just a single day spent doing this, and once you have a taste for it, you’ll be driving all over the country and doing it full time.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/business-start-up/affordable-and-unusual-start-up-business-ideas-for-2020/

What Automated Processes Spell Big Success For Small Businesses

If you are a small business owner, then automation is your saving grace. Taking the reins on some of the more tedious tasks in your business, automation can spell big success for your current and future operation. If you have resisted automation to date and can’t see what there is to gain, we’ve compiled a list of automated processes that you should be considering in your small business. You don’t need to do it all on your own, so let’s take a look at these business automation saviours.

Invoice templates 

This might not be what you thought when you considered automated processes, but a smart invoice template for small business is something that will save you a lot of time. Think about how much time you will save creating a new invoice each time, and agonising over the formatting and look of the invoice you are about to send. By leveraging an invoice template generator, you can put a professional foot forward, complete with your small business branding. Sometimes it’s better to have the creative input taken from your list of things to do, and generated on your behalf.

Email capture

Email capture is something that should absolutely be automated so that your customers or clients can be receiving what they want when they want, so you don’t have to manually send correspondence each time someone reaches out. Imagine the time you will save when you don’t have to receive and react to each email capture at the start and end of every day. Your perfectly planned response is ready to go and sent promptly to a potential customer. When you get comfortable with this concept, you can actually start to aggregate your email communications based on the information your customers are seeking in your online enquiry form and build different funnels to best convert these leads automatically.

Social media

Do you produce your best social media posts when you’re under the pump and have one foot out the door at the end of the day? Typically social media posting is reserved for the time of the day when we are not feeling our most creative, and this can have a negative effect on your business as your audience simply will not engage as they could be. By scheduling your social media you can elect a day to plan, create and post all your content to a schedule that works best for you. Don’t miss out on the huge opportunity that exists on social media, and give its due diligence with a planning day that will produce fine content that will resonate with your target. The best part? It will all go live at the time you have scheduled so that you don’t have to be manually posting in the moment.

CRM platform

Many small businesses believe that they are simply not big enough to warrant a CRM strategy, and that couldn’t be less true. You don’t start going to the gym when you reach your peak weight, and so you shouldn’t wait for your business to be big enough before thinking about how you can engage and communicate with your captured customers. Rather than manually keeping details on hand about your loyal customers, keep it stored in your CRM platform so that you can review and optimise when the time comes. This will be exceptional automation when you have new starters on board who may know not know the history and buying habits of your most loyal customers.

Standing behind a small business can be incredibly exciting, and growing pains are almost inevitable. Automation will help you focus on the important parts of your business, without having to sacrifice on other growth areas. Simply put – have it all when you start automating certain processes.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/small-business-advice/what-automated-processes-spell-big-success-for-small-businesses/

New and Improved Ways to Enhance Your Marketing ROI in 2020

Marketing isn’t getting any more straightforward in 2020, though more and more tools are being developed to help you manage it all. Making the most of these diverse tools and strategies will be the optimal way to enhance your ROI in 2020 and beyond.

Speed

Loading speed is becoming more and more critical when it comes to page rank in search engines. The higher you rank, the more traffic you get. Generally, the more people that are exposed to your products and services, the more chances you have to make a sale.

People are also looking for things that are faster and easier. Companies like Netflix are implementing features that allow users to speed up videos. YouTube viewers are demonstrating a preference for short videos.

You can make the most of speed when it comes to cutting your losses, too. Make informed, data-driven decisions. If one campaign is making you more money, invest in it.

If another is under-performing, cut your losses. Overall, this should help improve your ROI in 2020.

Content

2020 is going to be a year where any given internet user will be able to find nearly any topic online, in a format they are comfortable with. The quality of that content will be what makes all the difference. 

Video content is still one of the best ways to connect in many industries, as even search engines across the board are beginning to serve video answers to popular queries for most mobile users. 

Content designed around a specific query and linked to related materials will also help businesses provide value to customers while building relationships.

Search algorithms are becoming better and better at recognizing content that answers a given question or that will be practically useful for someone that began a search with a particular term. 

AI is beginning to be able to be a viable customer service option for serving information and answering common questions. This can help fill in the gaps in an interactive way, and take the burden off of customer service personnel.

Personalization and the Cross-Sell

Marketing is about getting your product out there and making people aware of it, in the broadest sense of the word.

Demand generation marketing is about taking that general concept and narrowing it down to not only build awareness but to turn that into a demand that builds on itself.

Connecting with your audience or potential customers is key to this strategy. If you can connect in a way that leaves an impression, you can build a stronger demand.

One way to do this is to know what a given customer likes and make a meaningful recommendation.

Personalization, however, isn’t just about recommending products and services or using a client’s name. It’s about meeting a customer where they are most comfortable.

Communication tools that can bridge the gap from text to phone emails are making this easier than ever. 

Influencers and Sponsorships

Social media is beginning to add new tools for tracking engagement with influencers, brands, and the given social media audience. Further, as social media platforms age, many “followers” and “fans” are beginning to join more and more groups. 

In many cases, smaller groups may be more tight-knit and develop stronger loyalties to their influencers. To make the most of your ROI when it comes to influencer marketing in 2020, focus on how well your brand aligns with these smaller groups.

It should cost less to engage with them, and you may find out that they produce stronger results that larger groups with more diverse interests.

Keeping with that theme, developing the online brand of your business, by showing what causes you have aligned with, can help people empathize. This may help boost organic traffic and recommendations as well as build up the community aspect of your business and brand. 

Informed Price Management and Product Development

Price management that is informed by data collection and analysis can improve margins by 5 percent in a year, according to a recent Deloitte report. 

Many companies simply don’t have the data-collection infrastructure in place to provide a complete picture of how price affects their business.

Price changes are central to the entire product portfolio, customer choice, and how the price can change depending on various factors in the production channel.

With better, more transparent data collection, it’s possible to price products in a way that encourages customers to purchase more in situations where they would have otherwise not purchased at all. 

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/marketing/new-and-improved-ways-to-enhance-your-marketing-roi-in-2020/

5 Trademark Strategies for Your E-Commerce Business

A federally-registered trademark is a valuable asset to any e-commerce business.  Consider the following trademark strategies for your e-commerce business:

1. Choose a strong mark from the start.
2. Work with a trademark attorney to conduct a comprehensive trademark search.
3. Register your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
4. Consider registering your trademark internationally.
5. Continue to use your mark consistently to maintain control.

Start with a Strong Mark

Your trademark often represents the first interaction a person has with your brand.  If chosen well, it should help to set you apart from competitors, build customer loyalty, and protect against infringement. 

Because of its importance to your brand, the process to choose a strong mark, therefore, should be carefully thought out from the start.  Trademarks can be divided into four categories, based on strength:

• Generic words depict a general product or service.  An example of this would be “Books” for an online business selling books.  Generic words and phrases, because of their wide use, cannot function as trademarks and will never obtain registration from the USPTO.
  
• Descriptive trademarks simply describe a product or service in basic terms.  “Good Music” as the name of a music streaming site would be considered a descriptive mark.  The USPTO affords descriptive marks very little, if any, trademark protection.
  
• Suggestive trademarks hint at the product or service being offered.  The well-known e-commerce business Instacart is an example of a suggestive trademark. 
  
  While suggestive marks can be protected, they often face more trademark disputes, as others may choose a similar language, like QuickCart or InstaShop.
  
• Arbitrary trademarks use commonly used words that don’t represent the goods or services provided.  Amazon is an example of an arbitrary mark, as the products offered are not related to the rain forest the name represents. 
  
  These marks are stronger than the marks previously mentioned, but businesses must educate consumers about the goods or services offered while the brand is in its early stages.
  
• Fanciful trademarks offer the strongest protection.  They are invented terms with no relation to the products or services provided. Rakuten and eBay are both fanciful trademarks. 

Before you fall in love with a name for your e-commerce business, be sure that it is strong enough to help you stand out from competitors.  For online businesses, it’s especially important to choose a name that is easy for customers to remember. 

Arbitrary and fanciful marks will provide the most protection, but they also require additional marketing and advertising to create customer recognition. 

Rakuten, for example, launched an extensive ad campaign on how to pronounce the business name.  You may also want to see if the domain name related to your mark is available before you begin the registration process.

Conduct a Comprehensive Trademark Search

Once you’ve selected a strong mark for your e-commerce business, you need to complete a comprehensive trademark search.  The purpose of the search is to determine whether your mark is already in use by another business or individual. 

It’s frustrating to learn that your mark may infringe on another business, but it’s best to learn this before you file your application and pay your fees, or worse, move forward with branding your business. 

To ensure that your trademark search reveals all potential trademark conflicts, it’s best to work with an experienced trademark attorney. 

Business owners and entrepreneurs often take a do-it-yourself approach to business, and while that has likely led to success in other areas, it’s not recommended for conducting a trademark search. 

Simple Google searches and DIY legal sites will typically only reveal exact matches to your mark.  Most trademark disputes, however, don’t arise from exact matches, but rather from any mark that may cause a likelihood of confusion in the marketplace. 

Fortunately, the search tools used by trademark attorneys are more sophisticated, revealing not only exact matches but confusingly similar matches as well. 

Register with the USPTO

After you’ve completed your trademark search, the next step in protecting your trademark is to register with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO. 

While you will have some common law protections simply by using your mark, those protections are often not enough to protect e-commerce businesses. 

For example, common law trademark rights will only protect your business in the small geographic region where you are located. 

This may be sufficient for small, brick and mortar shops, but for e-commerce businesses that essentially live online, you may face challenges if a similar mark is used in another region where your customers are located. 

To get full trademark protection and the presumption of nationwide validity, you must register with the USPTO.

 Work with an experienced trademark attorney as you draft your application for the USPTO.  Many detailed legal decisions need to be made throughout the process, including the selection of international classes. 

The USPTO and many other trademark offices around the world use the Nice Agreement to categorize goods and services into 45 different classes.  Selecting too few classes may limit your ability to offer additional products in the future. 

Selecting too many classes, however, may result in your application being rejected.  Your attorney will work with you to determine which international classes provide the broadest trademark protection for your business.

Consider International Registration

In today’s global economy, many U.S. e-commerce businesses have reach outside the United States.  Unfortunately, the valuable protections provided by a U.S. registered trademark will not protect you in disputes in other countries. 

Whether you use a manufacturer or distributor overseas or you sell products outside the U.S., you should consider international trademark registration. 

The process to register your trademark in other countries is usually not as overwhelming as it sounds.  Think about where you are currently doing business, and where you plan to do business in the future. 

Once you’ve decided where to register, you have two options.  The first is to register directly with each country’s trademark office.  This is often the best choice if you plan to register in only a few other countries. 

For businesses that plan to register in many countries, the best option may be the Madrid Protocol.  This international treaty allows applicants to file one application, in their home language, which can then be sent to over 90 member countries. 

While the application process is streamlined, using the Madrid Protocol does not guarantee the approval of your application.  That decision is made on a country-by-country basis.

Use the Trademark Consistently

The protections provided by a registered trademark never expire, as long as you continue to use the mark and meet renewal deadlines.  It’s important to use the trademark consistently, exactly as it appears in your trademark application with the USPTO. 

Many e-commerce businesses find it helpful to create trademark use guidelines.  These guidelines would provide information to employees, vendors, and distributors about how and where the trademark should be used. 

If an authorized user incorrectly uses your trademark, or if you find that your mark is being used by others without your permission, it’s important to take action immediately. 

Allowing your mark to be used improperly could confuse loyal customers or hurt your brand’s reputation.  In cases of potential infringement, a cease-and-desist letter is often all that is needed. 

In some situations, however, more formal legal action will be required.  Work with your attorney to determine the best way to handle possible infringement. 

E-Commerce Trademark Strategies

Whether you are just beginning to set up your website or you’ve been in business for months, now is the time to protect your e-commerce business with a registered trademark. 

Begin by choosing a strong mark and conduct a search to be sure that your trademark isn’t already in use.  Then, register your mark by submitting an application to the USPTO. 

Because online businesses could have customers around the world, you may also want to consider international trademark registration. 

Once your mark has been registered, use it consistently and meet renewal deadlines to have trademark protections that never expire.  Contact an experienced trademark attorney today to begin the trademark registration process. 

Author Bio:

Attorney Josh Gerben is the founder of Gerben Law Firm, PLLC, a nationwide intellectual property law firm that has secured over 5,000 trademarks for clients since 2008. Featured in a variety of national news outlets including FOX News, NPR and The Wall Street Journal, Josh Gerben was named one of 2018’s Top 10 trademark filers in the US by World Trademark Review.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/ecommerce/5-trademark-strategies-for-your-e-commerce-business/

Rory Brown, Managing Partner of Nicklaus Brown & Co., on the Lydian Dynasty

The History of the Lydians is one of great prosperity and even greater tumult. Its borders ebbed and flowed under the ambitions of successive kings, and then its ownership and fortunes fluctuated under the weight of successive wars.

Lydia owed its great wealth and influence in large part to a lucky bit of geography. The country was centered at the crossroads of several important trading routes. It was also blessed with significant stores of natural resources, particularly the readily accessible electrum deposits that flowed freely in the Pactolus river. This favorable location also made Lydia a target for outside empires looking for a strategic foothold in the region. Rory Brown, Managing Partner of Nicklaus Brown & Co., weighs in on the Lydian’s survival as a sovereign nation for nearly 700 years in the Western Asia Minor Region.

Lydia Under the Mermnad Dynasty

Lydia’s peak, both as a regional power and as a financial force, began with the first of the Mermnad dynasty kings, King Gyges. His brutal ambitions, from 680 to 645 BC, captured the Greek city of Colophon and drove the Cimmerians out of Phrygia. Gyges laid the groundwork for the country’s rapid rise.

Alyattes, the fourth Mermnad king, continued his ancestor’s expansion, battling the Greeks, Carians, Medes, and the nomadic Cimmerians in a ten-year campaign that captured the cities of Miletus, Smyrna, and others, pushing out Lydia’s eastern, western, and southern borders.

It was under Alyattes’s son Croesus that Lydia experienced the height of its power and influence in the region. Through a mix of expansionary expeditions and shrewd diplomacy, Lydia became a dominant power in the region by the middle of the sixth century BC.

Croesus conquered the remaining Ionian Greek coastal cities to drive Lydia’s borders until the country occupied the entirety of the Anatolian plateau, straight to the Persian border.

This border, it turns out, is what caused the fall of the Lydian empire.

Lydia Loses Sovereignty

When Croesus chose to attack the Persian King Cyrus II’s troops in 547 BC, the campaign didn’t go well. Lydia was roundly defeated and became a wholly-owned satrapy of the Persian Empire. In almost no time, Lydia’s dynasty came to an end.

About: Mr. Rory Brown is a Managing Partner of Nicklaus Brown & Co., the Chairman of Goods & Services, Nearshore Technology Company, and a member of the board of directors of Desano. He is passionate about delving into the history of money and how our modern currency has evolved into what it is today. In his spare time, he writes about the history of the Lydians – the first civilization to use gold and silver coinage.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/lifestyle/rory-brown-managing-partner-of-nicklaus-brown-co-on-the-lydian-dynasty/

How to Find a Better Job After You’ve Been Made Redundant

Many workers who’ve been through a redundancy would agree that it is a horribly demoralising experience – but it doesn’t have to be devastating. What if you could use your redundancy as an opportunity to find an even better job than the one you lost? That’s entirely possible. Here’s how to do it:

Decide on Your Optimal Job

It’s nearly impossible to achieve a goal you never set for yourself; so the first step in landing your dream job is to decide on your goal. The key here is to be totally intentional about determining what it is that you want from a job so you can dedicate yourself to pursuing exactly the right career opportunities.

Many workers, particularly those who have been made redundant, are all too willing to settle for the first job that becomes available to them. Then, instead of continuing the search for the position they really want, they get complacent. If you’re serious about landing your ideal job, this would be a mistake.

What is it, exactly, that you want to be doing? What job title do you want? What salary do you want to be earning? Decide on these things, and make a conscious effort to focus your efforts on pursuing jobs that will deliver the results you’re seeking.

Make a Plan for Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Next, it’s time to determine what, if anything, is holding you back from actually landing your optimum job:

• Do you have the right credentials?
• Do you need to spend some time on continuous professional development or other types of upskilling?
• Have unwarranted fears been holding you back from maximising your own success in the workplace?
• Are you suffering from imposter syndrome?

 Potential barriers such as these can all be surmounted. You can enrol in an online course to bring your skills up to date. If your own fears are sabotaging your career success, it would be beneficial to work on building your professional self-esteem. Negative thought patterns can be countered with positive self-affirmations. Improving your inner monologues could do wonders for helping you to build your confidence and land your dream job.

Polish Your CV

Your CV is likely to need some updating before you send it out to potential employers. You may need to add your most recent coursework, or perhaps you need to work on effectively communicating the career breaks on your CV so they will not cause concern.

Once your CV is in good order, you are welcome to make use of an online job database; you can use it for searching more than 188,000 jobs to find likely places to submit your CV.

Reach Out to Your Network

Don’t make the mistake of conducting your job search entirely on the internet. Of all the things you could be doing, networking is an activity that is one of the likeliest to get you hired in a new role. According to experts at the National Careers Service, this is the means by which most job openings in the UK are filled. Social media networking can sometimes yield favourable results, but it isn’t usually as effective as face-to-face networking.

Impress Your Interviewers

When you obtain an interview for a job you want, make sure to do everything in your power to impress the interviewer. Dress properly for the meeting. As you interact with your potential future employer, let your confidence shine through.

Don’t get discouraged if it requires multiple interviews to find the right role. Repeat the networking and interviewing processes as many times as necessary until you obtain your ideal job. It may take some time to do; but if you’re persistent, you’re likely to succeed in transforming your redundancy into the ultimate opportunity for landing your dream job. In the end, that redundancy might even turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/careers/how-to-find-a-better-job-after-youve-been-made-redundant/

Current and Future Online Videos: Trends in Video Marketing

Fashionable video formats and video marketing have become a fundamental part of every marketing and communication strategy today.

Brands are committed to making videos to publicize their projects in a closer way and to reach their users and customers with the appropriate equipment.

Recent studies on the status of internet videos confirm this:

• 90% of consumers say videos help them make a buying decision.
• Videos on the website’s homepage can increase conversions by up to 80%.
• Making videos through social networks encourages community participation.
• Live video is a trend on all social networks and has increased interaction and user response rates.
• 80% of all internet traffic will be videos for 2020.
• Growth in the number of animation companies has reached approximately 10% every year.

We know that brands and users are betting on videos, including Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, stating in February 2017 that “video is a big growing trend” and Instagram has launched the launch of IGTV, a new function that will allow users to share videos for up to 60 minutes.

It is clear that brands can take advantage of video formats in their content strategies and, therefore, today we talk about different types of videos and ideas for video marketing that will help your brand’s digital strategy.

Ideas for video marketing

We give you some ideas about the types of videos you can make for your project:

Explanation video

An explanatory video is a short video that explains the company’s service or use of a product.

The purpose of this video is so that users can understand in a few minutes how things work in a simple way. Using explanatory videos on content, the conversion rate grows to 144%.

Brand video

Positioning the brand and making it known is probably the most difficult job.

Brand videos allow you to show your company to the world directly, from you to you and with confidence. A good way for your prospects to find out how close you are.

Testimonial video

Testimonial videos often show true stories that are emotionally connected with users. If you have satisfied customers, why don’t you let them talk to you about your product or service?

This will make the message stronger and generate interest between your community and potential customers. Choose testimonials that are fun, different and that build trust.

Video tutorial

Video tutorials allow you to display ‘step by step’ of a process in a simple, fun and visual way. Making this type of video is very useful for users and prospective clients in the future.

Animated video in a moving graph

Motion graphics are videos created from digital animation that display information from images, photos, text messages, colors, and iconography. Namely, graphic animation that allows you to make your company, service, product or event known for its creativity and unique results.

And many more…

Video is what will become increasingly important in modern marketing. Renting video services for your products is a profitable investment.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/video/current-and-future-online-videos-trends-in-video-marketing/

Asif Ali Gohar is working on new products and scaling production

Asif Ali Gohar is a successful florist in Lahore and he has been a part of the industry for more than 10 years now. He is known for constantly trying to break the boundaries and coming up with something new. Delivering something unique and different is always rewarding, and it has the potential to truly push the experience in a meaningful and exciting manner.

There are obvious challenges along the way in regards to creating new flower varieties and that’s why Asif Ali Gohar shines. He has a vision and he strives to bring that to reality in a very interesting and rewarding manner. He constantly re-assesses the situation and focuses on the approach of not only adapting the current varieties, but also coming up with some new options.

He recently worked on a floribunda rose variety that was named Gohar and it became a cult hit in Lahore. A lot of people want flowers that are different, visually exciting but also a tad outside the norm. And that’s definitely what you are seeing here. It’s designed with the idea of pushing the boundaries and constantly coming up with features that are exciting and extremely impressive at the same time.

Due to the overwhelming demand, Asif Ali Gohar is scaling the production and he is focused on something new and extremely immersive. It’s a creative process and one that seems to be very important for people all over the world. There’s always going to be something new on the market, and if it’s the case of flowers in Lahore, then Asif Ali Gohar is definitely going to work on that.

Asif is coming from a gardener family and he worked really hard to bring in his vision and ideas to the table. He is known for being very focused on something new and exciting, while also coming up with stuff that you rarely see out there. That’s very important to consider and a great insight into the entire process as a whole.

The fact that Asif Ali Gohar is trying to expand his growth and reach in Pakistan is great, and it’s a good idea to let flower companies about this opportunity. Another thing to keep in mind regarding Asif Ali Gohar is that he is also focusing on tulip cross-breeding. This is a project that has been in his mind for a very long time. But it comes with its fair share of challenges because tulip cross-breeding is a time-consuming process that might take up to a few years to fully complete it.

However, Asif Ali Gohar’s unique approach and style shows us that things will get better and he will constantly focus on the best results and experience. Challenges will surely arise, but Asif Ali Gohar is one of the known flower growers that can easily surpass any problems. He is very focused on growth and results, and he knows how to bring in something distinctive and different that people will like!

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/house-and-home/asif-ali-gohar-is-working-on-new-products-and-scaling-production/

A Quick Guide to Selecting the Best University

Going to university is considered by many to be an essential stepping stone in the transition from school to adult life.

In addition to gaining valuable skills and qualifications for most young people, it offers the opportunity to live away from home in a safe, learning environment.

University is a great place to grow in confidence and learn skills in independence and self-reliance.

However, selecting the right university can be a difficult decision to make. With the enormous range of options available not to mention the cost involved, it is not surprising that many students feeling overwhelmed and anxious about which route to take.  

A clear mind and focused plan are definitely required to sift through all the options.

Here are some of our top tips for choosing the best university:

Course content and learning styles

What kind of learner are you? Make sure the course reflects your preferred learning styles.

If you’re a practical learner and prefer coursework and modular exams as you go along, then go for a course that offers this approach rather than a more academic route that only has formal exams at the end.

Future career path

Do you have a future career all mapped out in your head? What will the course enable you to do afterward?

If you know what you want to do- that’s great- go for it. If, like most people, you are not sure yet, a more general route which allows you to specialize later on may be a wise decision.

Do your research

What do other students say about the university you are considering? This Russell Group university list has some useful statistics regarding student and employer satisfaction which you may find useful.

Look at starting salaries and jobs to see the opportunities available and how well-regarded people with your prospective qualifications are in the job market.

Attend the Open Days

Go to Open Days and use the time wisely to find out as much as you can about the course you’re interested in, student life, clubs and societies as well as accommodation.

Student life

Look at what other students say in order to get a measure of what life is like beyond the world of the glossy prospectus and open days.

If you know of anyone who has studied your course or gone to a university that you are considering then talk to them. Otherwise, look at online reviews.

Plan your finances

Make sure that you have a budget and plan in place for funding your higher education journey. If you need to get a job to help fund your journey, put a plan in place for finding work and make sure you can sustain this workload around your studies.

In short, the university offers the opportunity to gain friendships, experiences, and skills that will launch you on an amazing career path to future success. However, careful planning and thorough research are required to get the most out of this experience.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/discover/a-quick-guide-to-selecting-the-best-university/

Ideas and Tips On How To Make and Save Money Quickly

Saving money is something we could all probably be a bit better at. There are lots of things you can do that can help you not only make money but save money. Here are a few tips and ideas.

Sell things you no longer use or need

Many people have hundreds of pounds worth of unused belongings sitting right under their noses. Selling unwanted items not only makes you money but will help to declutter your home at the same time.

From old mobile phones to kids’ toys, there is money to be made. There are lots of online websites and apps you can use such as eBay, Shpock or Gumtree.

If you prefer something a bit more traditional that the whole family can get involved with, a car boot sale is a great idea and a fun day out. For old mobile phones and other devices, there are a host of technology dedicated websites who will purchase them.

All you have to do is enter the details and accept their monetary offer. Once you have sent them off the money will be in your account within a matter of days.

Check if your bills can be reduced

You can potentially save a fair bit of money by checking if your monthly bills can be reduced. One of the biggest outlays many of us encounter is our mortgage.

Switching products and/or lenders may save you thousands over the lifetime of your mortgage. Habito is the UK’s largest mortgage broker and there are a host of different mortgages compared by Habito online.

Find out what products may be available to you based on your circumstances.

When annual insurances are due, don’t automatically renew with your existing provider. You could save hundreds by switching. Shop around for the best deal.

Reduce your food bills

Changing where you shop can make an impact on your spending. Try an alternative supermarket the next time you do your weekly shop. If you are a brand shopper, try the supermarket’s own-brand products.

Many are made by the same manufacturers with different labeling. You might be surprised at how much you can save. Taking a packed lunch to work can make a big difference.

It’s estimated that most people spend an average of well over £1500 a year! Batch cooking and meal planning can reduce food bills dramatically. These can also reduce food waste and help you make healthier dietary choices.

Only buying what you need is essential if you want to save money. Whilst it may be tempting to put random things in your trolley whilst maneuvering the aisles, don’t! All those extra items can add up. 

Get paid while you shop

Cashback sites are common these days and a great way to make a few extra pounds here and there. Topcashback and Quidco, to name but a few, work with thousands of online companies.

Just log in, search for the website you intend purchasing from and make money while you spend!

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/investing/ideas-and-tips-on-how-to-make-and-save-money-quickly/

What Should You Know About Turbulence and In-Flight Injuries?

Turbulence is an issue that can cause problems when you’re traveling in different ways, even though it’s normal and affects flights everyday throughout the world. Turbulence can be mildly bumpy and maybe a little scary, or it can be highly dangerous and lead to serious in-flight injuries.

People often have questions about turbulence itself, such as what causes it, and they also wonder what actions they can take if they’re injured in-flight and who’s liable. Some people may even question if they can hire a personal injury lawyer if they receive injuries in-flight, and the following gives you a breakdown of some of the most important things you can know about turbulence.

What Causes Turbulence?

First, what is turbulence, and what causes it?

Turbulence is a rough patch of air. It can be caused by many factors such as storms, the jet stream, wind, and being near a mountain range when you’re in the air.

For the most part, turbulence is harmless, although it might create anxiety.

Pilots often know when they’re going to hit turbulence, and as a result, if they anticipate you’re going to encounter it during a flight, they’ll activate the fasten seatbelt sign. Some of the ways a pilot may be alerted about impending turbulence include weather reports, the cockpit radar, and reports from other pilots who are flying in the same area.

There is something called clear air turbulence that’s different.

Clear air turbulence occurs on a beautiful day when there’s not a cloud in the sky, and it can be most dangerous. Clear air turbulence occurs when the visibility is impeccable so it’s not detected on the radar.

As a result, a plane can hit it without warning, and that can lead to in-flight injuries.

Some scientists believe clear air turbulence is going to increase in prevalence and more commonly affect flights in the coming years.

Pilots view turbulence as a convenience problem, but not a safety issue.

If a pilot changes altitude to find smoother air, they’re not doing it because they think the plane is going to crash, but instead to make everyone else more comfortable.

If you’re someone who feels less anxious when you know what to expect, you can check out the turbulence expectations before a flight, although as you might expect, that’s still not going to show you the potential for clear air turbulence.

According to the FAA, in 2019 only nine passengers were seriously injured in turbulence and eight crew members for a total of 17. That was a significant drop from 2016 when 29 passengers and 13 crew were injured. That doesn’t include relatively mild injuries, however.

How Does Turbulence Affect the Plane?

No matter how much it feels like it, turbulence isn’t going to rip the wing off a plane or anything like that. You may also feel like your plane is dropping quickly during turbulence, but it’s really not moving much at all.

Planes are designed to withstand the effects of turbulence far beyond what you’re going to experience on a flight.

In-Flight Safety

Even though turbulence isn’t likely to crash or destroy a plane, that doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous inside the plane.

The FAA has guidance for how passengers can stay safe during turbulence.

The most important thing you can do is keep your seatbelt on anytime you’re seated, and make sure your children do the same.

If your child is under two, you should use an approved child safety seat as well.

Make sure you follow the instructions of flight attendants at take-off and throughout your flight, because much of what they’re telling you is for your safety, including if you are to hit turbulence.

One of the most common reasons for injuries during turbulence is because luggage falls from overhead bins. It’s estimated that around 4,500 airline passengers are injured each year from this.

Rolling food carts can cause mild injuries as well, and sometimes turbulence can cause falls if you’re up and about when it hits.

In-Flight Turbulence and Legal Considerations

If you’ve experienced injuries from in-flight turbulence, you may wonder if there are legal options available to you, and the answer is sometimes.

The actions of the crew play a major role in whether or not you might have grounds for a legal claim.

For example, if your claim is based on negligence, you have to show the crew’s carelessness led to an injury.

An example of in-flight negligence might include an employee who leaves something in the aisle, or not having latched an overhead bin properly. The airline may be found negligent if they don’t provide adequate training to crew members as well.

Airlines are subject to the requirements of a common carrier, which means they have a higher duty of care since they transport the public and charge a fee for doing so. Airlines are required to operate with a high level of vigilance to protect passengers.

If you were to be injured because of turbulence but you were walking around the cabin after the fasten seatbelt sign was turned on, you’re probably not going to have a claim. On the other hand, if no instruction was given and you were injured, you may have a claim for those injuries.

If you are injured on an international flight, it may actually be easier to get compensation because there is a treaty called the Montreal Convention. Claims that arise under this treaty allow passengers to receive compensation if they’re injured on an international flight, and they don’t have to show much to prove it.

If you do receive an injury in-flight, you should first submit a complaint to the airline within 60 days, because federal law requires this. You can also report it to the FAA, and if you were seriously injured and you think it’s the fault of the airline, you might consider contacting a personal injury lawyer to figure out what to do next.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/transportation/what-should-you-know-about-turbulence-and-in-flight-injuries/

How to Use Scrap Materials for Leftover Craft Projects

No matter what type of craft project you’re pursuing, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with leftover materials. You’ll buy slightly more than you need, or you’ll employ a method of cutting or trimming that leaves you with a small amount of practically useless excess.

You’ll be tempted to throw these materials away, but in most cases, you can use these scraps for additional creative projects. We’ll explore some ideas in this guide.

The Benefits of Using Leftovers

Why would you go out of your way to make use of these leftovers?

There are several benefits:

• Cost efficiency. If you’re selling your work for a profit, you’ll need to think critically about cost efficiency. If you’re buying all your own materials (and not, say, finding or receiving them), every piece of material you throw away represents lost money. Reusing these materials for projects that you can sell in the future is a way to capitalize on your existing investment.
• Environmental impact. It’s also reasonable to consider the environmental impact of your work. If you’re constantly disposing of extra wood, plastic, and other materials, you’re indirectly contributing to the waste problem in this country. Upcycling those materials can make your operation more environmentally friendly—and you can market your products as “green” as well.
• Creative stimulation. Working with scrap materials forces you to think outside the box. If you tend to make the same types of projects over and over, you’ll appreciate the break. You may also use this as an opportunity to get more familiar with your core materials, and brainstorm other projects you can tackle in the future.
• Originality. Not all artists make good use of their scrap materials. This is a good chance to differentiate yourself, and offer products that are distinct from the ones being sold by your competitors.

Now let’s take a look at some of the types of materials that are well-suited for scrap projects.

Leather

If you work with leather regularly, you’ll often be left with scrap leather after you cut the main piece from your base. You can use them for a variety of smaller projects, like:

• Leather totes. While you’ll need a sufficient quantity of leather for a high-quality leather tote worth selling, you can make a small tote from your leftovers you can use for personal transportation.
• Planter labels. If you have planters around the house, a scrap of leather can function as a classy way to label them. It doesn’t take much work, but it can instantly step up your décor.
• Pulls and handles. Throughout the house, you’ll have opportunities for pulls and handles. For example, you might add leather straps to your cabinets or to existing trays, making them easier to transport.
• Coasters. Coasters are a good project for scraps since they don’t have to be very large. Consider etching or stamping them to improve their appearance.
• Switch covers. Switch and outlet covers are practically necessary, but they tend to be dull. A bit of leather can instantly make them more charming.
• Napkin rings. If you have just a small scrap of leather, you can turn it into a napkin ring.

Wood

Wood is another material that frequently needs to be cut down. When you have smaller pieces of wood that aren’t big enough for a core project, you can try using them in projects like these:

• Cutting boards. It’s possible to make a cutting board from almost any type of wood, and you won’t need much to do it.
• Keyring holders. Are you or your spouse constantly losing your keys? Make a keyring holder from your leftover wood.
• Coasters. Like leather, wood is highly conducive to coaster making.
• Whittling projects. If you have small amounts of a soft wood, you could consider taking up whittling. It’s an art that’s easy to pick up but hard to master.
• Small boxes. You could also create small wooden boxes, for decorative or functional purposes.

Fabric

Fabric is softer and easier to cut than wood or leather, so it’s a bit more versatile. These are just a few of the projects you can make with your scraps:

• Coin purses. A small bit of fabric is all you’ll need to make a coin purse.
• Patchwork pillowcases. You can also take scraps of multiple fabrics to make a patchwork pillow case or even a full quilt.
• Phone cases. Fabric won’t protect your phone from being dropped, but it can look stylish.
• Cat toys. Fill a flap of fabric with cat nip and add a tail or string, and you’ll have a fully functional cat toy.
• Lanyards. Though basic, lanyards can be useful—and they still sell at craft shows.

These ideas are just the beginning. There’s practically no limit to what you can do with your leftover scrap materials, especially if you combine those materials together. Experiment and look for inspiration from other artists; you might be surprised what you can come up with on the fly.

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/house-and-home/how-to-use-scrap-materials-for-leftover-craft-projects/

Getting Started With BigQuery–A Cloud Storage

Of course we need a place where we can store all the necessary data. In this article we’re going to talk about Google BigQuery, a cloud storage service that perfectly handle such task.

Besides keeping data in one place, you can also use BigQuery for analyzing the collected data with SQL queries. And in order to do everything properly and accurately, you need to structure your data correctly. How to do that? Read in our article.

Datasets: What they are and how to create one

You need to adjoin a dataset in BigQuery whenever you create a project in GCP.

What is a dataset? It’s a top-level container which basically keep your data organized in plenty of tables and views. You also get control access to data with it.

So now go ahead and open your project in GCP and go to the BigQuery tab. There you need to choose “Create Dataset.” Indicate the title for the dataset and the shelf of a table.

If you want tables with data to be deleted automatically, specify when exactly. If there’s no such need, just leave the default Perpetual option.

Adding a table for upload data

Having a dataset you now can add a table that will get the data. It consists of rows which in turn consist of columns–fields. You can create a table in different ways:

• Create an empty table and set up a data schema for it by yourself
• Create a table using the result of a previously calculated SQL query
• Input a file from your computer
• Instead of downloading or streaming data, you can create a table that refers to an external source: Cloud Bigtable, Cloud Storage, or Google Drive.

So let’s take a close look at the first option.

Here’s what you need to do.

1. Pick the dataset to which you want to add the table, then — Create Table.

2. Choose the Empty Table in the Source field, then select Table in the native format of the target object and name it in Latin characters.

3. Specify the table schema: two necessary (column name and data type) and two optional (column mode and description). To properly work with the data, please, pay attention with all these fields.

With an unfilled table in BigQuery, you need to set the schema manually:

Either click the “Add field” button or enter the table schema as a JSON array using the Edit as a text switch.

Please note: BigQuery can automatically change the name of a column to make it compatible with its own SQL syntax when loading Google files. That’s why tables should be named using English.

Making modifications to the table schema

Just as we’ve mentioned above the BigQuery might change something automatically in the tables information. But no need to panic. You can make changes to tables by your hands.

Using a SQL query as an example, we’ve added one below–select all the columns in the table and retitle the table. In this case, you can overwrite the existing table or create a new one:

#legacySQL

Select

date,

order_id,

order___________ as order_type, — new field name

product_id

from

[project_name:dataset_name.owoxbi_sessions_20190314]

#standardSQL

Select

* EXCEPT (orotp, ddat),

orotp as order_id,

ddat as date

from `project_name.dataset_name.owoxbi_sessions_20190314`

And using another SQL query, you can make changes to the organization of your data. Go ahead and choose all data from a table and convert the corresponding column to a different data type. And here’s another example:

#standardSQL

Select

CAST (order_id as STRING) as order_id,

CAST (date as TIMESTAMP) as date

from `project_name.dataset_name.owoxbi_sessions_20190314`

To all the possible changes mentioned above the column, mode change can be also added as described in the help documentation.

Use the SELECT * EXCEPT query to remove a column (or columns), then write the query results to the old table or create a new one. One more example of such a query:

#standardSQL

Select

* EXCEPT (order_id)

from `project_name.dataset_name.owoxbi_sessions_20190314`

More information you can find here Google Cloud Platform help documentation.

Exporting and importing data stored in BigQuery

There are also several ways to export and import your data. Let’s look through the first option — via the Google BigQuery interface

Importing data

• Open your dataset
• Click Create Table, and select the data source: Cloud Storage, your computer, Google Drive, or Cloud Bigtable
• Specify the path to the file, its format, and the name of the table
• Click Create Table

Ta-da, a table will appear in your dataset.

Exporting data

• Create a report through the system interface:
  • Open the desired table with data
  • Click Export.

You’ll see two variants: see and save the report in Google Data Studio or download data to Google Cloud Storage by specifing where to save the data and in what format.

Export and import data using an add-on from OWOX BI

And this is a second option for exporting and importing data — using the free OWOX BI BigQuery Reports add-on. With it you can transfer data practically in the blink of an eye from Google BigQuery to Google Sheets and vice versa without any CSV files.

Let’s imagine such situation. You want to transfer offline data to BigQuery for a ROPO report. You can do this by simply following the instruction:

1. Set up add-on in your browser
2. Open your data file in Google Sheets
3. Choose OWOX BI BigQuery Reports → Upload data to BigQuery in the tab Add-ons
4. Select the necessary project and dataset in BigQuery and give a title to the table
5. Pick the fields whose values you want to load.
6. Start the Upload

If you want to export data from BigQuery to Google Sheets follow these steps:

1. Open Google Sheets.
2. Pick OWOX BI BigQuery Reports → Add a new report in the menu

1. Enter your project in Google BigQuery
2. Select Add new query and insert your SQL query to upload data or to pull and calculate the necessary data.
3. Retitle with a convenient name
4. Click the Save & Run button.

Sometimes we need to get the updated accurate report on a daily/weekly basis, right? For this you can schedule such automatic updates:

1. Choose OWOX BI BigQuery Reports → Schedule report in the Google Sheets menu.
2. Set the time and frequency
3. Click Save

To get more specific instruction on starting work with BigQuery click just follow the link https://www.owox.com/blog/use-cases/bigquery-schema/

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/technology/getting-started-with-bigquery-a-cloud-storage/

5 Reasons a Microservices Tutorial Can Help Any Employee

Why spend time doing inefficient tasks that can be automated? 

There’s no reason to at all! With a quick microservices tutorial, you can make your employees all the more efficient by enabling them to automate many of the mundane tasks and operations they have to complete as software engineers.

In addition, microservices will enable them to develop better software using less time and resources.

If any of these sound like attractive benefits to you, then read on.

1. More Efficient Software Functionality

The first benefit that microservices will provide to your employees is by enabling them to build more efficient software functionality. The way microservices work is by developing individual, single-function modules that accomplish a very specific task within the software. 

Instead of encompassing multiple different functionalities in one module, each microservice is highly specific to its task. The natural result of this is more lightweight modules that run faster and more efficiently.

2. Build Quicker

Because microservices only contain a single feature, they are much quicker to build. No longer do your engineers have to think about all the different complexities in developing a massive multi-function module.

They’ll instead be able to iterate much quicker. And because of how lightweight each module is, debugging also becomes far simpler.

3. Make Your Business More Professional

Nowadays, the nature of microservices has made it spread like wildfire across the industry. Thus, microservice usage has become standard in many software applications. In order for your business to keep up with the curve, it has no choice but to start include microservice architecture in its software.

By incorporating technology from big name brands like Monolith or Amazon Web Services API Gateway, your employees will be able to make your business seem more professional in the industry.

4. More Time Back in Their Day

Because of how much more efficient your engineers will be when they take the microservices tutorial, they will have a significant amount of time put back into their day.

The benefits of this are obvious. Not only will they have extra time to devote to building better quality software pieces that they were already working on, but now you can task them with interesting, one-off projects. This will build their skills, yes. But it will also enable you as the team lead to extract more productivity from your employees and accomplish more. That’s a sure recipe for helping your team step up the ladder.

5. Build Testing Skills

Last but not least, leveraging the power of a Microservice Architecture Webinar enables your engineers to build up their testing skills. Because microservices require testing of each individual module, your engineers will be no stranger to copious amounts of testing. Practice makes perfect, so pretty soon their testing skills be as close to perfect as you can get!

Leverage a Microservices Tutorial Today

The benefits are clear — leverage a microservices tutorial today to help your employees grow both their careers and your business. 

For more business advice, be sure to check out the rest of the articles on the website. 

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/uncategorized/5-reasons-a-microservices-tutorial-can-help-any-employee/