Video Clip Marketing For Free Traffic

Video Clip Marketing For Free Traffic Making use of video clip advertising to drive website traffic to your internet site is an internet marketing method numerous local business proprietors and also net marketing professionals are starting to welcome, with much success. Having a standard site just permits you to get to those individuals that initially …

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How to Get a Free Credit Report Sample

Your business credit isn’t the only thing that affects your ability to get funding.  Still, it is a huge piece of the pie. One way to see your business credit and get a feel for where you stand is to get a credit report sample.

A Free Credit Report Sample Can Help You Know Where to Start with Funding and Fundability

Unlike your personal credit report, you can’t really get a free copy of a business credit report.  However, you can get a sneak peak in some cases with these options. 

Nav

So, Nav is a service that will let you see a credit report sample from all three of the major credit reporting agencies.  But these are only summaries, not full reports.  Generally, that means you can see your score, and maybe the accounts you have listed.  While this will help you get your bearings, it will not suffice for the purpose of correcting mistakes or even to show you what you need to do to improve your score. You do have the option to pay for more information though.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring

Credit.net

Similarly, Credit.net will let you see a credit report sample with their free trial.  There is no credit card required.  Also, after you pull the report, you have 30 days to check it out. As a result, at least once you can get a totally free look at your report.  Since there is no fear of missing a cancelation deadline and having to pay anyway, it’s a great option. 

Scorely 

Scorely offers you a credit report sample before you pay for an ongoing subscription.  In contrast to Nav or Credit.net, they actually calculate their own score similar to the big 3:  Experian, Equifax, and Dun & Bradstreet. They strive to be totally transparent and to make their reports easy to understand. 

CreditSafe

You do have to pay for an ongoing subscription to CreditSafe.  However, they will give you a credit report sample to get you started.  Also, they have a number of reports that are unique to them.  This means you are getting something that you may not get with the other monitoring services or even the standard reports from Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax. 

How To Read Your Credit Report Sample

In truth, each reporting agency offers different types of reports and information. Similarly, they all contain the same general data.  You need to understand what your credit report sample says, whichever agency it is from, about your business.

Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet offers several different types of business credit reports.  In fact, there are six different reporting options in all.  They all offer different information related to credit worthiness, and it takes all of them to get the whole picture.  The price range listed above is dependent on which reports you want to order. 

The report most use is the PAYDEX.   This is likely because it is the easiest to understand, due to it being the most like the consumer FICO score.  It measures how quickly a customer makes payments and ranges from 1 to 100.  Scores of 70 or higher are acceptable.   For example, a score of 100 shows payments are made in advance, and a score of 1 indicates that they are 120 days late, or more. 

The other Dun & Bradstreet Credit Reports include:

  • Dun and Bradstreet Delinquency Predictor Score

The delinquency predictor score measures how likely it is that the company will not pay, will be late paying, or will fall into bankruptcy.  The scale is 1 to 5, and a 2 is good.

  • Financial Stress Score

The financial stress score measures pressure on the balance sheet.  It shows how likely the company is to shut down within a year.  These scores range from 5 to 1, with a score of 2 being a good thing. 

  • Supplier Evaluation Risk Rating

This rating ranks the odds of a company surviving 12 months.  The minimum score is a 9 and the maximum is 1.  A “good” score is 5. 

  • Credit Limit Recommendation

The credit limit recommendation reflects a business’s borrowing capacity.  It is a recommendation for how much debt a company can handle. Typically, creditors use this to determine how much credit to extend. 

  • D&B Credit Rating

This one ranks overall business risk on a scale of one to four.  A score of 2 is good.  The rating is given in conjunction with letters, the combination of which indicates a company’s net worth. 

Even if there isn’t enough information on a business to assign a regular rating, Dun and Bradstreet will assign what they call a Credit Appraisal Score.  This is based on the number of employees. Another option is an alternative rating based on what data is actually available.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring

Experian

Experian’s uses what it calls Intelliscore as its credit ranking.  There are more than 800 different factors that they use to predict a company’s credit risk. With Intelliscore, a score of 76 or higher indicates a low risk of default or late payment. If a score falls between 51 to 75, it indicates a low to medium risk.  Scores from 26 to 50 are medium risk, and from 25 down to 1 is medium high to high risk. 

Here is where Experian gets tricky. Intelliscore is a blended score of both the business and business owner’s personal information.  That means it offers insights into a business’s public record findings, collections, and payment trends, as well as overall business background. Experian is also unique in that it does not ask businesses to self-report.  Instead, they collect all the information themselves. You will have to give permission for a lender to view this report, due to it containing personal information.

Equifax

Equifax collects information similar to Dun and Bradstreet, including: information from public records, financial data from the business, and payment history from creditors.  Credit utilization is also a factor, which accounts for how much credit you are using versus the amount of credit you have available to use.

The information is used to calculate various scores, including the business credit risk score and the business failure score. The first measures how likely it is that a business will become 90 days or more delinquent on bills over the next year.  The score ranges from 101 to 992.  The second ranges from 1,000 to 1610 and predicts how likely it is that the business will file for bankruptcy over the next 12-month period.  A lower score indicates higher risk. 

They also calculate what they call the business payment index.  This is the Equifax version of Dun & Bradstreet’s PAYDEX.  It even runs on the same scale of 0 to 100.  This is an indicator of payment history over the past year. It is different from the PAYDEX, however, in that you must reach a score of 90 or higher for it to be a good score.  

In addition, Equifax offers business identity reports to confirm a company actually exists. It verifies details such as the company’s tax ID, number of employees, and yearly sales. 

Equifax does not allow business owners to request reports on their own company.  They decide themselves when to start a credit file on a specific company.

Keep your business protected with our professional business credit monitoring.

A Note on CreditSafe

If you want to subscribe with them after you see your credit report sample, they offer 3 packages, Standard, Plus, and Premier.  The problem is, they do not list their prices on their website.  You have to request a quote to determine what your pricing would be.  They allow you to purchase individual products as well. 

CreditSafe is quickly growing in popularity. No doubt that is partly due to the subscription service it offers, which allows easy insight into your own company’s credit report. The free trial allows for test driving, which sweetens the deal even more. 

Their main score, the CreditSafe rating, works on a scale of 1-100.  It predicts the likelihood that payment performance will become 90 plus days beyond terms within the next 12 months or that the business will go bankrupt.  They offer a variety of other scores and reports that provide a ton of information however.

They collect data from over 8,000 sources including: 

  • FTSE Stock
  • Telephone research
  • Local Agents
  • Companies House
  • Gazettes
  • Branches
  • News
  • Trade Payment Data
  • Banks
  • Courts
  • Registry Offices

Of course, this is far less than 8,000, but it gives an idea of the sources they use to gather their information.

CreditSafe Business Credit Reports

  • International Score

This score is derived from the Creditsafe rating. It allows for a comparison of credit risk between companies that are registered in different countries.

  • Credit Limit

The Creditsafe recommended credit limit uses information from the business payment records and those of similar companies to calculate a dollar amount recommendation of the maximum amount of credit a company should receive at any one time.

  • Days Beyond Terms (DBT)

Compares how many days late a business pays its bills in comparison to other companies in the industry.

  • Derogatory Legal

This is a report on the number and value of tax liens and judgements that have been filed in the past 6 years and 9 months.  It also includes bankruptcies filed in the last 9 years and 9 months

  • Payment Trend

A report designed to highlight at a glance substantial changes in how a company is paying its bills. 

  • Business Spend Trend

Lets you know whether the total annual business spending is going up or down when compared to the previous year. 

Subscription packages come in levels, and the prices depend on your business’s individual needs.  You will have to speak to a consultant to get a quote. 

How To Use the Information on Your Credit Report Sample

Honestly, it’s a great idea to get a credit report sample.  But, what do you do with the information that is on it? Here’s what.  You use it to figure out where you need to start with building stronger fundability.  Truly, your business credit score isn’t the only thing that affects fundability.  In fact, there are many other factors that come into play as well. However, if you have a problem with any of these other factors, it will often be detectable on your credit report sample.  Once you see it, you will know what you need to work on, including business credit. 

What Affects Fundability? 

What are some of these other factors you can use your credit report sample to check? Here are just a few.

Other Business Data Agencies 

In addition to the business credit reporting agencies that directly calculate and issue credit reports, there are other business data agencies that affect those reports indirectly.  Two examples of this are LexisNexis and The Small Business Finance Exchange. These two agencies gather data from a variety of sources, including public records.  This means they could even have access to information relating to automobile accidents and liens. While you may not be able to access or change the data the agencies have on your business, you can ensure that any new information they receive is positive.  Enough positive information can help counteract any negative information from the past. If you see something on your credit report you did not expect, it may have come from one or both of these agencies.

Business Information

On the surface, it seems obvious that all of your business information should be the same everywhere it may show up.  However, when you start changing things up like adding a business phone number and address or incorporating, you may find that some things slip through the cracks. If you see accounts missing from your credit report sample, or accounts on it that should not be, you may have a problem with this.

The Application Process

Consider the timing of the application.  Does your credit report make it seem as if your business is currently fundable?  If not, get to work.  

Use Your Credit Report Sample to Build Fundability

Biz Credit Reporting Review Credit SuiteOf course, there are a lot of factors that affect fundability that you may not be able to use your credit report sample to check on.  Still, getting a peek at what is on your business credit report is a fabulous start.

With the information you see, you can start making some decisions about how to create stronger business fundability.  If you see an issue with any of these factors you need to work on it. Seeing a credit report sample is the first step toward detection and correction. Also, I would encourage you, don’t stop with a credit report sample.  You need to see more. Regular monitoring of your business credit is vital.

The post How to Get a Free Credit Report Sample appeared first on Credit Suite.

Google Shopping Actions: How to Increase Product Visibility for Free

Did you know Google Shopping listings are free for most merchants to use? Google has also dropped commissions for its Buy on Google program. This means nearly any retailer can sign up for Google Shopping Actions and link their products without paying the 12% commission Google formerly collected on each sale. Retailers and advertisers have a unique opportunity …

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Welcome to Content Marketing Unlocked: Your Free Blogging Course

Blogging is so effective that there are over a billion blogs on the web. Just think about that… that’s roughly 1 blog for every 7 people. Sure, we don’t really need any more blogs, but people still create them because they can be such effective marketing channels. And best of all, unlike social sites, the …

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Welcome to Content Marketing Unlocked: Your Free Blogging Course

Blogging is so effective that there are over a billion blogs on the web.

Just think about that… that’s roughly 1 blog for every 7 people.

Sure, we don’t really need any more blogs, but people still create them because they can be such effective marketing channels.

And best of all, unlike social sites, the moment you create a blog that has an audience, you can continually reach them without having to worry about algorithm changes.

So, to help you with your content marketing efforts, I’ve created a free 4-week training course called Content Marketing Unlocked.

Introducing Content Marketing Unlocked

As I mentioned, over the next 4 weeks I am going to teach you all about content marketing.

Everything from the basics of content marketing and how it works to the advanced parts such as generating traffic and sales from blogging.

To get you started, make sure you watch the welcome video:

The welcome video breaks down what you’ll learn over the next 4 weeks and, under the video, you’ll find a goal worksheet and a course outline.

Then you’ll learn about the history of content marketing:

In that lesson, you’ll find 2 worksheets:

  1. Content outline – this will show you how to outline and create content.
  2. Content steps – this breaks down the steps you need to follow in order to write amazing content.

After you get the hang of writing content, you’ll want to learn how to rank your older (existing) content on your site.

And in that lesson, you’ll also get a list of tools that you should use and a master resource guide that’ll help speed up the process.

From there I teach you about the different types of content you can leverage to get more traffic. Believe it or not, there are actually 18 types you should be using.

Over time I will continue to add more lessons, but I don’t want to drown you in information by embedding all the lessons in this post.

So, what else will you learn?

The four lessons above are a great start, but there is much more to the content marketing course. This is what you can expect from Content Marketing Unlocked:

Week #1

Lesson #1: Getting Started

  • Course Introduction
  • Strategies You’re Going to Learn
  • What Google Wants
  • Content Production Strategy Overview
  • Understanding the Algorithm & Updates
  • The Right Mindset

Lesson #2: History of Content Marketing

  • History of Content Marketing
  • Fact & Fiction About Content Marketing
  • Understanding Your Target Audience
  • How to Find Keywords That Will Make You Money
  • Refining Your Keyword Lists
  • Content Examples

Lesson #3: Optimizing Your Existing Content

  • How to Audit Your Existing Content
  • How to Optimize Your Content the Right Way
  • How to Re-Write Your Content So It Gets You Traffic
  • Step-by-Step On-Page Optimization Tactics
  • Content Templates to Rewrite Your Content

Week #2

Lesson #1: Major Content Types

  • Credibility & Trust Through Content
  • Types of Content
  • Blogs
  • Articles
  • Infographics
  • Videos / Visual Content
  • Podcasts / Radio Shows
  • Facebook Posts / Pages
  • Courses / Digital Classes / eBooks / Checklists
  • How-to Guides
  • SlideShare / PowerPoint / Webinars
  • Photographs / Graphics / Art
  • Instructional Guides
  • Magazines (Digital & Print)
  • Streaming Media (Periscope, Facebook Live, Snapchat)
  • Forums / Wikis / Groups / Resource Centers
  • Whitepapers / Case Studies
  • Memes (Twitter/Facebook)
  • Testimonials / Reviews
  • Content Templates for Different Content Types

Lesson #2: Pilar & Cluster Pages

  • Turn Your Keywords Into An Outline
  • How to Write Content That Gets You Traffic
  • Topical Clusters
  • Pillar Pages
  • Cluster Pages
  • Pillar & Cluster Templates

Lesson #3: Alternative Content Strategies

  • Building Authority Through Guest Posting
  • Content Production Tools
  • Plugins to Use
  • FAQ Schema
  • Live Case Studies, Market Data & Field Reports
  • Share Worthy Content
  • Content Outline Templates

Week #3

Lesson #1: Marketing Your Content

  • Site Structure
  • Theme & Topic
  • How to Rank Your Content Faster
  • Promote Your Content on a $0 Budget
  • Content Marketing Strategy
  • Content Promotion Workflow

Lesson #2: Link Building Tactics

  • What is Link Building?
  • External Link Building
  • Internal links
  • Your Link Profile
  • Advanced Linking and Off-Page Optimization Strategies
  • How to Build Links from Authority Sites
  • How to Launch Link Campaigns

Lesson #3: Tracking & Analytics

  • Setting Up Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager
  • Setting Up Google Search Console
  • Must Have Content Marketing Tools
  • Live Ranking Case Studies, Market Data & Field Reports
  • Determining KPI’s
  • Budget Planning

Week #4

Lesson #1: Ranking 1 Long Term

  • You’ve Got Content & Links, What’s Next?
  • Content Marketing in a Competitive Space
  • How to Get Started if You Are New & Have Little to No Budget
  • How to Scale if You Do Have a Budget
  • Build a Brand Long-Term

Lesson #2: Media Outlets

  • Getting on Huge Media Websites (Forbes, HuffPost, NYTimes, etc)
  • Guest Blogging
  • Podcasts
  • Social Media
  • Connecting with Influencers

Lesson #3: Omni-Channel Strategies

  • Going Omni-Channel
  • Back Office Infrastructure
  • Analyzing and Measuring Results
  • More Content Marketing Case Studies
  • Become A Great Content Marketer
  • Summary – How to Get the Most Out of This Course

How can I follow along?

You can go to the training section of this site as I keep all my courses there.

Every Monday, Thursday and Saturday I will be adding new lessons and content.

Each lesson is roughly 10 minutes in length and contains worksheets, templates, cheat sheets, checklists, spreadsheets, and more that will make your life easier.

In general, if you take the time to follow along each week and complete your homework assignments, it shouldn’t take you more than two to three hours each week.

Some weeks will be less work, but because this course involves writing and promoting content, you will have to put in a little bit more effort than some of my other courses.

As a heads up, I won’t be blogging about each lesson, so the easiest way to keep up is to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Once you click the link above, you’ll see a subscription box popup on YouTube. All you have to do is click the “SUBSCRIBE” button.

A screenshot of a cell phone

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Once you click “Subscribe,” you’ll notice a bell image next to the subscribe button. Make sure you click that as well.

A close up of a logo

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When you click on the bell, you’ll be given a few options.

A screenshot of a cell phone

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Click on the “All” option. Next to the “Subscribed” button, you should see a new bell notification:

A close up of a logo

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This makes it so YouTube notifies you when I release a new Content Marketing Unlocked lesson.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoy Content Marketing Unlocked.

I created this course because content marketing is one of the best ways to market your business and compete with the large companies.

Best of all, you won’t have to spend a dollar on marketing.

Let me know what you think about the course so far.

And also, what free course would you like me to create next?

The post Welcome to Content Marketing Unlocked: Your Free Blogging Course appeared first on Neil Patel.

Welcome to Ecommerce Unlocked: Your Free Ecommerce Marketing Course

E-commerce is booming.

There are currently 24 million e-commerce sites and counting. And with only 12% of sales taking place online, you can expect there to be massive growth in the years to come.

So if you want to create an online business, one of the best ones to create is an e-commerce store.

But how do you market it? How do you grow your traffic? And, most importantly, how do you get sales?

Sure you can use tools like Ubersuggest to help you out, but what do you do if you need step-by-step instructions from the very beginning… especially if you have little-to-no marketing experience?

Introducing E-Commerce Unlocked

Over the next 4 weeks, I am going to teach you how to market an e-commerce website. From SEO to paid ads to even CRO… I am going to cover all aspects of e-commerce marketing.

And of course, all for free. 😉

E-Commerce Unlocked is similar to my free SEO training course, SEO Unlocked.

But unlike SEO Unlocked, which is a 7-week course, I thought it would be more efficient to get you the training you need in just 4 weeks.

So, every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, I will release new videos to teach you how to get more traffic and sales to an e-commerce site.

And just like SEO Unlocked, E-Commerce Unlocked will contain worksheets, cheat sheets, PDFs, spreadsheets, and everything else you need.

Here’s the first lesson, which you can watch below:

Make sure you go here to download the worksheets that go along with it.

So what exactly will I learn?

As I mentioned above, it is a 4-week course. Here is an overview of what will be broken down in each week and in each lesson:

Week #1

Lesson #1: Getting Started

  • Foundation methodology
  • Strategies you’re going to learn
  • Strategies & mindset

Lesson #2: Sales Channels

  • History of e-commerce the timeline
  • What is working in the e-commerce space
  • Introduction to sales channels
  • Understanding sales channels

Lesson #3: Marketing Channels

  • Multi-channel marketing
  • Which market and sales channels work
  • Building visibility and brand
  • Current & future movers and shakers in the e-commerce industry

Week #2

Lesson #1: Conversion Rate Optimization

  • Introduction
  • Product pages made to convert buyers
  • Experience
  • Using reviews
  • Urgency and scarcity
  • Abandoned carts and follow up
  • Increase your AOV (Average Order Value)
  • Exit intent – capture lost traffic
  • Split testing with Crazy Egg
  • Increasing conversions on your e-commerce store
  • Email marketing campaigns for your site
  • Action tasks for optimizing your website for conversions

Lesson #2: SEO & Content Production

  • Setting up your Google organic feed
  • Rank your product listing pages
  • E-commerce content marketing workflow
  • Technical SEO for e-commerce
  • Making your content & transaction pages
  • E-commerce topical clusters
  • Content examples to look at

Lesson #3: Content Promotion

  • Link building for e-commerce
  • Building links to content, PDPs, & PLPs
  • Social media and social proof leveraging
  • Social media platforms in the long-term
  • Strategy for content promotion

Week #3

Lesson #1: Amazon

  • Keyword research for Google & Amazon rankings (and the differences)
  • Data sources
  • How to write good copy, product descriptions, ads, and come up with different marketing “angles” for Amazon
  • Amazon promotions & lightning
  • Optimize your listings
  • Using Facebook Messenger & Manychat
  • Amazon PPC
  • Sell more to your existing customers

Lesson #2: Sales Channels

  • Getting higher rankings on marketplaces
  • Walmart – how to get set up and what to expect
  • eBay – how to get set up and what to expect
  • Etsy – how to get set up and what to expect
  • Wish – how to get set up and what to expect
  • Facebook Commerce – how to win
  • Getting traction on each platform & what to do to win in each platform

Lesson #3: Marketing Types

  • E-commerce Marketing for (B2B) vs (B2C)
  • Sales process for B2B e-commerce vs B2C
  • Picking the one that’s right for you – do both or pick one?

Week #4

Lesson #1: PLA Campaigns

  • Setting everything up
  • Google dynamic remarketing
  • Google product listing ads (Google Shopping Ads) introduction + setting up
  • Your PLA campaigns
  • Bing product listing ads + setting up
  • Facebook dynamic product ads + setting up DPA’s correctly
  • PLA + DPA summary

Lesson #2: Additional Marketing Channels

  • Instagram ads
  • YouTube PPC – world’s 2nd largest search engine work to get you sales
  • Etsy PPC – what’s working on Etsy
  • Email marketing campaigns must have campaigns for e-commerce
  • Automate your customer emails and gather reviews much faster

Lesson #3: Additional Channels

  • Working with influencers
  • Push notification – lists & messaging
  • Understanding your metrics (COGS, ROAS, ROI to see what SKUs to scale with)
  • Case studies
  • Summary

How can I follow along during the 4 weeks?

You’ll see videos released every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.

The videos are roughly 10 to 15 minutes in length on average so it shouldn’t take you more than an hour per week to follow along, including the completion of the homework assignments and worksheets.

To make things easier, the worksheets and homework assignments will be somewhat pre-filled so you will know what to do every step of the way.

No matter what, make sure you complete each assignment. Watching the videos is not enough.

Sure, the videos will teach you theories and strategies, but you also need to learn how to execute and implement. That’s why I want you to complete the worksheet and homework assignments.

In total, I’m asking you to commit an hour each week. If you are new to marketing, maybe an hour and a half, which should be doable. 🙂

Once you complete the 4 weeks (12 videos), you’ll know how to market any e-commerce website and even how to sell products online on sites like Amazon.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss a lesson (because I won’t be blogging about each lesson), make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel as I will be uploading the lessons there.

Once you click the link above, you’ll see a subscription box popup on YouTube. All you have to do is click the “SUBSCRIBE” button.

Once you click “Subscribe,” you’ll notice a bell image next to the subscribe button, make sure you click on that as well.

When you click on the bell, you’ll be given a few options.

Click on the “All” option. Next to the “subscribed” button, you should see a new bell notification :

This makes it so YouTube notifies you when I release a new E-commerce Unlocked lesson.

Conclusion

E-commerce is a booming field. Just look at Amazon, they are bigger than any traditional retailer.

Having the skillset of knowing how to market an e-commerce site can never be a bad thing.

And who knows, maybe you’ll do it full time as either a consultant or through running your own e-commerce site.

If you are new to marketing, don’t worry about being overwhelemed. I am going to teach you the main tactics that drive the majority of the results. And I will break them down in a simple step-by-step formula.

You’ll also be provided with the worksheets and tools you need, so you all you have to do is bring yourself and be willing to commit an hour to an hour and a half each week.

So, are you ready to learn e-commerce marketing?

PS: Leave a comment below letting me know what course you would like me to create next. I already did one on SEO, and now I am doing one on e-commerce marketing. Would you like one on content marketing, paid ads, Instagram…? It can be anything, just let me know in the comments.

The post Welcome to Ecommerce Unlocked: Your Free Ecommerce Marketing Course appeared first on Neil Patel.

Companies That Help Build Business Credit: What Should You Pay For, And What Should be Free

Regardless of whether you are an existing business or a startup, your business needs its own credit.  The problem is, a lot of owners are unsure of how to start building business credit.  There are companies that help build business credit, but if you aren’t careful you will get scammed.  You should always know what you are paying for, and if it is worth it, or not.  

Lenders are becoming more picky and there are more automatic denials than ever before.  Working with an insider familiar with the system can help tremendously. It can help everything go faster and it can minimize denials. Your time is money – working with a company to help build business credit can be a wise investment. But there are things you should know.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit, even in a recession.

Companies That Help Build Business Credit: Know What You Are Paying For

First and foremost, you should always know exactly what services you are paying for.  The truth is, some “services” just aren’t worth it.  For example, you should never pay a company to report your payments to the business credit reporting agencies.  There are plenty that will do that for free.  However, they do not usually advertise that they do that, nor do they typically make public which companies they report to.  Paying someone to help you find these companies? That is worth paying for.  

Companies that Help Build Business Credit: Why Separate Business Credit? 

companies that help build biz credit Credit SuiteThere are a few reasons why it’s a good idea for your business to have credit separate from your personal credit.  First is protection.  If your business goes south, it will not directly affect your personal credit.  You can still buy a home and a car other things you need to based on your personal credit. 

Also, business credit almost always has higher limits.  If you try to finance a business on personal credit cards, you will likely stay at or even go over the credit limits on your cards.  This will affect your debt-to-credit ratio in a bad way.  That, in turn, will negatively impact your personal credit. 

Companies That Help Build Business Credit: What NOT to Pay For

We’ve established why you should not pay anyone to have your on-time payments reported.  While no company has to do that, there are plenty that will, and they do it for free.  Here are some other things you should never pay for. 

  • An EIN
  • A Credit Protection Number (CPN) 
  • Correcting mistakes on your credit report
  • A peek at your personal credit score
  • A list of lenders from whom you may qualify for financing 
  • Trade accounts

Companies that Help Build Business Credit: What Does it Take to Build Build Business Credit

The thing is, business credit doesn’t just happen in the same way that personal credit does.  It has to be intentional, and there is a process to make it all come together.  It is a complicated web, and before you can understand why certain things are worth paying for, you have to understand little about what it takes to build business credit and make it all work. 

Of Business Credit and Fundability

 Your business needs to be set up in just the right way to be fundable.  I like to call this the foundation of fundability. If you do not have a fundable foundation, payments may be reported, but there will be no record of your business with the business credit reporting agencies so they will not know how to apply it.   Here is what it takes to have a fundable foundation.

Separate Contact Information

The first step in setting up a foundation of fundability is to ensure your business has its own phone number, fax number, and address.   That doesn’t mean you have to get a separate phone line, or even a separate location.  In fact, you can still run your business from your home or on your computer if you want.  You don’t even have to have a fax machine.  

Actually, you can get a business phone number and fax number pretty easily that will work over the internet instead of phone lines.  In addition, the phone number will forward to any phone you want it too so you can just use your personal cell phone or landline if you want.  Whenever someone calls your business number it will ring straight to you. 

Faxes can be sent to an online fax service.  That is, if anyone ever happens to actually fax you.  This part seems outdated. However, it does help your business appear legitimate to credit providers. 

You can use a virtual office for a business address unless like Supply Works, the credit issuer does not accept a virtual address.  Many do accept them though.  How do you get a virtual office?  It’s not what you may think.  This is a business that offers a physical address for a fee, and sometimes they even offer mail service and live receptionist services.  In addition, there are some that offer space for face to face meetings. 

EIN

The next thing you need to do is get an EIN.  It’s an identifying number for your business that works like your SSN works for you personally.  You can get one for free from the IRS.

D-U-N-S Number

Dun & Bradstreet is the largest and most commonly used business credit reporting agency.  Every credit file in their database has a D-U-N-S number.  To get a D-U-N-S number, you have to apply for one through the D&B website

Incorporation

Incorporating your business as an LLC, S-corp, or corporation is not negotiable.  It lends credibility to your business as one that is legitimate, and also offers some protection from liability. 

Which option you choose does not matter as much for getting a net 30 account with companies that help build business credit.  What it does matter for is your budget and needs for liability protection.  The best thing to do is talk to your attorney or a tax professional.  Fair warning, you’ll lose the time in business that you already have  once you incorporate.  When you incorporate, you become a new entity.  You basically have to start over.  You’ll also lose any positive payment history you may have accumulated before you incorporate. 

For this reason, you have to incorporate as soon as possible.  Not only is it necessary for fundability and for building business credit, but so is time in business.  The longer you have been in business the more fundable you appear to be.  That starts on the date of incorporation, regardless of when you actually started doing business. 

Business Bank Account

You have to open a separate, dedicated business bank account.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, it will help you keep track of business finances.  It will also help you keep them separate from personal finances for tax purposes. 

There’s more to it however.  There are several types of funding you cannot get without a business bank account.  Yu probably noticed that most of the companies above require one.  In addition, you cannot get a merchant account without a business account at a bank. That means, you cannot take credit card payments.  Studies show consumers tend to spend more when they can pay by credit card.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit, even in a recession.

Licenses

For a business to be legitimate it has to have all of the necessary licenses it needs to run.  If it doesn’t, red flags are going to fly up all over the place.  Do the research you need to do to ensure you have all of the licenses necessary to legitimately run your business at the federal, state, and local levels. 

Website

I am sure you are wondering how a business website can affect your ability to get funding.  These days, you don’t exist if you do not have a website.  Yet, having a poorly put together website can be even worse.  It is the first impression you make on many, and if it appears to be unprofessional it will not bode well for you with consumers or potential lenders. 

Spend the time and money necessary to ensure your website is professionally designed and works well.  Pay for hosting too. Don’t use a free hosting service.  Also, your business needs a dedicated business email address.  Make sure it has the same URL as your Website.  Don’t use a free service such as Yahoo or Gmail. 

Here’s another reason why a website is important.  Elsewhere on our blog, there is actually a comment about a company asking for a website to help make the decision to  extend, or not extend,  net30 terms.  

You’ll notice many of these things are listed in the requirements of our list of companies that help build business credit.  These are all things that you need for a variety of reasons, including to make your business more fundable.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit, even in a recession.

Companies that Help Business Business Credit: What You Should Pay For

This is just the start.  There are so many other factors that affect the fundability of your business and business credit that it can be completely overwhelming.  This is why it can be very profitable in the long-term to pay a company to help you through the process.  Most of the time they do not actually complete the steps for you, but they can help you get where you need to be and tell you what to do once you get there. 

This is crucial. You don’t waste time with companies that don’t report, and you know what is reported is showing up in the right place. There is so much more though. 

The lending world is changing fast since COVID-19 hit.  Lending has been cut drastically, and more changes are happening everyday.  Having someone who knows how to navigate the system and both current and future changes is priceless. 

Companies that Help Build Business Credit: 6 Things You Should Definitely Pay For

  • Guiding you through the process of setting up your business to be fundable.

All of the things mentioned above are necessary, and many of them have to happen in the right order.  If something gets out of whack, it can take even more time and money to fix it.  Paying someone to help you get it right the first time, or help untangle a mess that is already there, is well worth it.

  • Helping you find  accounts that report.

It’s more difficult than a simple Google search.  You need to know which accounts will report that you are actually eligible for.  Otherwise, you will spend a lot of time applying for accounts that you either cannot get, or that you can get but do not report.

  • Helping you apply for financing.

A lot of companies will just give you a list of lenders with products they hope you qualify for.  You have to fill out the applications on your own.  Why would you pay for that?  What’s worth paying for is a company that has a list of lenders for whom they know the underwriting requreiments.  Then, as you work through the credit building program, they cross-reference so they know exactly where you pre-qualify and fill out the applcaitons for those lenders for you!  Now that’s worth paying for!

  • Guidance for analyzing fundability.

Fundability doesn’t stop with how your business is set up.  In fact, the overall fundablity of your business actually begins before you ever have a business.  This is because a lot of personal stuff can affect your ability to get funding.  That’s true even if you have separate business credit.

  • Step-by-step guidance through the business credit building process.

Building business credit doesn’t just happen.  Unlike consumer credit, you have to intentionally work to start and build it. Having a partner come alongside you and show what to do at each step is priceless.

  • Help navigating the lending system in this post COVID-19 economy.

Lenders are buckling down and there are more automatic denials than ever before.  You are more likely to get an automatic denial rather than an automatic approval. Having someone familiar with the system, an insider if you will, can help tremendously.

  • Business credit monitoring.

Unlike consumer credit reports, there is no way to know what your business credit report says about you or what your score is without paying.  You can pay the credit reporting agencies directly, but it works much better to pay a monitoring service that can help you keep up with your business credit on an ongoing basis. We can help you monitor your credit at Experian and Dun & Bradstreet for less than it would cost you at those business CRAs.

The bottom line is, paying companies that help build business credit can be useful.  They have more time, knowledge, and experience.  It can save you a lot of time and money in the long run, if you know and understand exactly what it is you are paying them to do.

Companies That Help Build Business Credit Are a Good Idea, Just Know What You Are Paying For

As you can see, it takes a little more work than just getting accounts reporting to build business credit.  Your business has to be set up properly for the reporting to matter. Then, you have to keep a close eye on your business credit reports to ensure things are progressing.

It’s not a complicated process, but it takes time.  The best thing to do is to set your business up to be fundable before you ever get started.  Then, you should meet most of the requirements related licensure, business bank account, business address, and website.  It can be extremely helpful to have guidance and help as you go through the process.  Let us help you build business credit. Find out how.

The post Companies That Help Build Business Credit: What Should You Pay For, And What Should be Free appeared first on Credit Suite.

Coronavirus live updates: New York City to offer free antibody tests as East Coast sees growing spread of cases

Covid-19 has infected 3.7 million people globally, and killed at least 264,111 as of Thursday morning.

The post Coronavirus live updates: New York City to offer free antibody tests as East Coast sees growing spread of cases appeared first on WE TEACH MONEY LIFE SELF DEFENSE WITH FINANCIAL GOALS IN MIND.

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Welcome to SEO Unlocked: Your Free SEO Training Course

I learned SEO by starting my own website and just testing a
lot of different tactics out.

Some of these tactics worked well and others didn’t. But the way I’ve learned SEO isn’t right for everyone.

Some people prefer learning by practicing like me. Others
prefer learning by reading dozens of different strategies and tactics.

And if you don’t have the time, you can learn SEO by creating a project on Ubersuggest.

But what if there was another way to learn… one that was step by step and involved hand-holding to ensure that you are really learning SEO, so much so that your traffic starts going up?

Introducing SEO Unlocked

Over the next 7 weeks, I’m going to be teaching you SEO.

I’ve released a free course called SEO Unlocked.

Eventually, it will live on the training section of this site. But for now, it is going to be published on YouTube every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday for the next 7 weeks.

Here’s the first video which is a welcome video the course.

Make sure you watch it as I also give you 2 homework assignments. But don’t worry, they are easy. I even provide the worksheets and PDF templates here so you can get them done with ease.

I’ve also released the second video that goes over the fundamentals of SEO and why it is important.

Again, this video also contains some homework assignments,
so make sure you watch it and follow everything step by step.

How can I follow along during the 7 weeks?

As I mentioned above, it’s a 7-week course. You’ll see videos released every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.

The videos are roughly 10 to 15 minutes in length on average so it will only take 30 to 45 minutes of your time each week to watch them.

The homework assignments are easy as well. The reason I will give you worksheets, PDF templates, and spreadsheets is so you can do the homework assignments faster.

The homework assigns should take you 30 to 45 minutes a week to complete.

In total, I’m asking you to commit an hour to an hour and a half each week, which really isn’t much.

Once you go through the whole course, you’ll know the formula for getting traffic to your website.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss a lesson because I won’t be blogging about each lesson, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel as I will be uploading the lessons there.

Once you click the link above, you’ll see a subscription box on YouTube… just click the “SUBSCRIBE” button.

And once you click “subscribe” on my channel, you’ll notice a bell image next to the subscribe button.

When you click on the bell, you’ll be given a few options.

Click on the “all” option. Once you do that, you’ll notice that next to the “subscribe” button your bell icon should look something like this:

This will make it where YouTube notifies you when I release a new SEO Unlocked lesson.

Conclusion

If you really want more search traffic and you want to take SEO seriously, this is your chance.

There is no excuse for not having the financial resources because the course is free. If you put in the time, my team and I are here to teach and train you on everything you need to know.

And don’t worry, we aren’t going to bore you with every Google algorithm factor or anything like that. Instead, we are going to teach you the main concepts and strategies of SEO that drive the majority of the results as we know that you don’t have 40 hours a week to dedicate to SEO.

That’s why the videos are short and you should be able to watch all of them and get your homework assignments done in less than 90 minutes per week.

That’s all I am asking for you.

So, are you ready to learn SEO?

The post Welcome to SEO Unlocked: Your Free SEO Training Course appeared first on Neil Patel.

Ubersuggest is Now More Free

Please read the whole post as I have a few surprises for everyone and it affects all member types.

A month or so ago, I blogged about the future of Ubersuggest and how there will still be free plans along with paid ones.

But as you probably noticed, the free plan wasn’t as generous as you were hoping for.

And with Coronavirus growing at a rapid pace and affecting so many people and businesses, I thought I would do my part and help small businesses out.

Because if I help you grow a bit more without spending money, hopefully, you won’t have to lay off any people and, ideally, you will even be able to hire a few more people.

So today, I have made Ubersuggest “more free” and over the next week, it will become even more free.

What does that mean? Let me break it down for you…

You’ll have full access to historical data

First off, anytime you want to view graphs on historical data, you no longer have to pay.

For example, if you want to see how popular a keyword was over the last 12 months, all you have to do is type it in and you’ll see the data.

If you aren’t logged in, you only see 3 months’ worth of data (this is to help stop scrapers and reduce server expenses), but once you log in, which again is free, you’ll see historical data.

The same goes for traffic estimates. Anytime you look up a competitor, you’ll be able to see their search traffic over the last 12 months as well as how many keywords each site is ranking for during that time period.

As for backlinks, there is a historical link graph and a new
and lost link graph.

Currently, it is blocked off for only paid members, but in the next 7 days I WILL BE OPENING IT UP FOR FREE.

Sorry for the delay, but it takes my developers a bit of time to make this change.

So, within the next week, this will also be available for
free.

You also have access to more keywords

Have you performed keyword research recently?

If you haven’t tried, look up a domain and go to the “keywords” navigation item…

Once you land on that report, you will see a really long
list of keywords. 🙂

If you aren’t logged in, you’ll be asked to do so, and this is also free. The reason being is this helps stops scrapers and reduces server costs.

The same goes for the keyword ideas report. This report
gives you more keyword suggestions once you enter in a keyword.

In the navigation menu bar, click on “keyword ideas.”

Enter in a keyword and you’ll be given a list of other
related terms.

Again, you may be asked to log in, which is free, but that is to reduce scrapers on our end to save on server costs.

More content ideas and top pages

Over the next 7 days, we are also going to make the content
ideas report and the top pages a bit more generous.

We will probably provide four times more results for free on these two reports.

So when you are looking for ideas for your next blog post, you’ll see more recommendations.

Or if you are looking up a competitor to see which pages drive them the most traffic, you’ll want to go to the “top pages” report. In the navigation, click on “top pages.”

At the moment, you can see some for free, but again in the next week, you will be able to see roughly four times more without having to pay for it.

The changes with the content ideas report and the top pages may be rolled out sooner but by next Tuesday at the latest, they will be ready.

There’s also more good news

My goal with Ubersuggest isn’t to make money. It is honestly
to break even as my costs are so high. It’s well over $200,000 a month. 🙁

These changes will probably make it take 12 months for me to break even instead of 6 months… but hey, that’s life. It’s the least I can do with all of the businesses out there struggling due to the Coronavirus and all of the people getting sick.

As paid members, you will still get access to more data, be able to create more projects, and crawl more pages to find SEO errors.

But I am going to sweeten the deal for you over the next 30
days as I am adding some stuff that is going to really help you grow your
traffic.

Here’s what I am thinking:

  1. Bi-weekly training – every month, my team and I will be holding 2 group calls to help you grow your traffic. The first call will go over an SEO tactic that you need to implement and I will break down how you can do so. The second monthly call will be a QA where anyone can ask me and my team questions and we will answer them. And if you are wondering if I am going to be on the calls, I will. With my busy schedule, I probably will miss some, but I will be on many of the calls training you myself.
  2. Weekly action plan – I’m currently working on an SEO action plan. As a paid member, I will be giving you 12 things to implement (one each week for 12 weeks) to grow your SEO traffic. If you implement them, you’ll get more traffic. I know many of you are busy business owners, so I am trying to make things easy and help you get the most traffic with the least amount of work.
  3. On-demand help and support – we are adding live chat to Ubersuggest and the NeilPatel.com site. That way you can talk with my team of SEO experts, ask any questions related to your site or marketing, and we will help you. That way you can get customized one-on-one advice. This is what you’ll really need to grow.
  4. Ultimate SEO course – I’m working on an SEO course that teaches you everything about SEO. It’s looking like it will be over 20 hours of video training material as well as worksheets, cheat sheets, and templates for you to use to make it easier for you to get results.
  5. Private Facebook group – we have a pretty decent size community, so why not leverage it to help each other grow? We will be creating a private Facebook group or Slack group (not sure which one), were we all help each other grow our traffic.

You’ll start seeing this stuff rolled out within 30 days as well as the Chrome extension which is in the final round of testing.

I also have some cool new features that we are close to
adding that I know you will be excited for. 😉

Conclusion

Over the next 30 days, if you are a paid member, you’ll be
getting even more.

And if you are strapped for cash, no worries. I am making the free plan even more generous, as you can see above. Just give Ubersuggest a try and you’ll see it is already “more free.”

My goal has never been to make money with this tool. It’s to help small and medium business owners succeed.

I know times are tough right now but try to stay safe by staying indoors more often and practicing social distancing.

So, what do you think about the new Ubersuggest Free plan?

The post Ubersuggest is Now More Free appeared first on Neil Patel.