A critical report into the protection of three murder victims, including a celebrated Dutch journalist gunned down in central Amsterdam, said Wednesday that security services in a “fragmented” protection system didn’t always act on tips about possible threats.
The conclusions highlighted flaws in a network involving police and prosecutors that is intended to offer protection to people facing threats ranging from stalkers to possible attacks by criminals and terrorists.
The report came following an 18-month government-commissioned investigation by the Dutch Safety Board into the slayings of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, lawyer Derk Wiersum and the brother of a key witness in the trial of an alleged Dutch crime gang.
De Vries, who was shot on an Amsterdam street on July 21, 2021, and died nine days later acted as a confidential advisor to the witness. Wiersum, the witness’ lawyer, was gunned down on Sept. 18, 2019, outside his home in Amsterdam. The witness’ brother, identified only Reduan, was shot and killed March 29, 2018.
The witness played a key role in the prosecution of Ridouan Taghi, who is accused by prosecutors of multiple murders in the violent Dutch criminal underworld. Judges are expected to deliver verdicts later this year in the trial of Taghi and several alleged accomplices.
The report said that “command of the surveillance and protection of the persons under threat was fragmented across national and regional organisations” and the protection service “did not receive all the information about the threat that was available to the investigation.”
It added that “signals” of possible threats from the victims “were not regarded as concrete threat information and therefore did not fit into the usual system.”
Both Wiersum and De Vries had police surveillance at their homes. De Vries “was not willing to share his schedule to make it possible to organize surveillance for his arrivals and departures. He also made no use of the option to personally notify any high-risk moments,” the report said.
The brother of the witness “insisted on protection for members of his family. When the attack on his life took place, no specific security measures had yet been taken for him,” it added.
Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius said in a reaction to the report that the government has made investments to beef up the security apparatus in recent years.
“The increased threat, specifically from organized crime, means that the number of people and objects that are intensively monitored and secured for a long period of time — sometimes even many years — has increased considerably,” she said in a statement.
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius said that “the person to be protected is now more central, and tailor-made security measures are being developed.”
Your agency has become the GOAT of pay-per-click (PPC), search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing (SMM), or another digital marketing service.
Now you want to step into the world of SEO.
To provide SEO services to your clients, you need a strong team. After all, as Google’s algorithm grows increasingly complex, so does SEO.
Luckily, there’s a way you can offer SEO services without having all the expertise.
The answer is an SEO reseller.
Reseller SEO services can help your agency with every aspect of optimization. Simply put, SEO resellers handle your clients’ SEO campaigns on your behalf. That way, you can add to the range of services your agency already provides without the cost of building a team of SEO experts.
I know you’ve got big goals. Using reseller SEO services for agencies can help you reach them.
Let’s get you started with SEO reselling and discuss its advantages.
Why Are Reseller SEO Services for Agencies Needed?
Competition among SEO agencies is fierce. An SEO reseller will help you keep up.
Having industry-leading experts in your corner is key. You’ll be able to tap into a whole range of reseller SEO services, including:
Link building: The big money for SEO resellers comes from this. Outsourcing backlinking efforts to a reseller has major advantages, as link building is a labor-intensive process. Resellers use a variety of strategies—everything from outreach and guest posts to correcting broken links.
Website analysis and SEO audits: A fresh campaign often starts with an on-page SEO evaluation. SEO resellers can identify prospects for quick wins by assessing a site’s SEO health.
Keyword research: Allow SEO resellers to identify profitable keywords on your agency’s behalf rather than try to make sense of data from SEO tools on your own.
Content creation: To assist you in producing content at scale, several businesses additionally employ in-house copywriting expertise or vetted contractors.
Local and international SEO: SEO resellers frequently assist with the detailed, manual aspects of local and international SEO, such as Google Business Profile page optimization.
Joining forces with an SEO reseller from the best SEO agency can propel your business to the next level. A successful long-term partnership is a great source of extra income. Sometimes, two agencies combine to form a larger agency that can handle all services in-house.
Using reseller SEO services for agencies enables you to:
Concentrate on what you’re good at while meeting your clients’ needs.
Gain new skills to support enterprise-level clients with specialty services
Build trustworthy partnerships with other agencies
This type of SEO outsourcing, which you may also know as white labeling, allows marketing agencies to sell an SEO reseller’s packages as if they were the agency’s own. You can either offer the service monthly or set your own terms.
There’s a stark difference between this version and private label SEO services. The latter is packaged depending upon the specifications of the reseller, whereas the former can be customized.
Alternatives for Reseller SEO Services
SEO reselling isn’t the end-all, be-all option for agencies. You can deliver on your clients’ goals with resources outside of reseller SEO services. Alternatives include creating an in-house team or working with freelancers.
Creating an In-House Team
Rather expand your in-house expertise? Hire out to build your own SEO dream team. You can simultaneously keep your core competencies and enhance your offerings this way. You’ll need a mix of SEO strategists, data analysts, editors, and writers to deliver desired results for high-ranking pages and high-quality backlinks.
After forming your team of trusted experts, ensure they understand the clients’ needs and pain points to pull off SEO results that are a win-win for everyone.
Working With Freelancers
You can get the equivalent of on-demand reseller SEO services through quality SEO freelancers. They are your go-to niche experts.
Freelancers can help serve numerous clients, allowing you to have SEO experts on hand. A team of freelancers in your corner for technical SEO consulting can help increase your profitability.
Reseller SEO Services: Pros and Cons
You can outsource your clientele’s SEO work to an SEO reseller that can also handle all your marketing requirements. Using a reseller’s private label SEO services means that the best technology and tools drive your SEO campaigns. However, working with a reseller comes with positives and downsides.
Pros
Partnering with an SEO reseller can:
1. Help You Scale Business
SEO reseller packages help expand your service offerings. It allows you to scale your business without having to do the work yourself.
As a result, you may take huge projects from major brands and businesses without worrying about how you’ll complete them. This is a big win for your agency, as SEO projects can take six months to a year to yield winning results. Plus, you won’t have to take on the huge expense of hiring an in-house team.
2. Enhance Campaign Performance
By leveraging SEO resellers for their expertise, you’re working with individuals who know your clients’ needs and work accordingly to meet their goals. With results-oriented private label SEO services, you can better communicate clear campaign results to your clients and pivot strategies if needed.
3. Give You Access to Paid SEO Tools and Platforms
To run the most effective campaigns, you need data and insights that only certain SEO tools can provide. You gain access to premium tools and platforms by working with an SEO reseller. When running data-driven initiatives, you must gauge the effectiveness of SEO KPIs ranging from conversions to bounce rate and everything in between.
Carefully selecting reseller hosting plans plays a big role in site management and reporting data on KPIs. Additionally, access to SEO tools such as Ubersuggest and Google Analytics can help measure these metrics effectively.
If you can’t afford costly software and tools, you can navigate Ubersuggest for free as you figure things out. However, this does show why an SEO reseller is so valuable: They handle all this for you.
Cons
On the other hand, you can avoid the downsides of working with SEO resellers by keeping an eye out for:
Unreasonable Projected Results
If an SEO reseller makes far-fetched promises, that’s a sign you should consider working with someone else. An example would be promising that a client will rank between positions 1 and 3 within a week. Every client’s SEO needs are unique, and it can be challenging to forecast how fast results will set in.
No Onboarding
Trustworthy SEO companies want to be certain that their work is correctly portrayed and that they are collaborating with true experts. As a result, most SEO resellers, at the very least, include an onboarding procedure. It’s a bad sign if an SEO reseller doesn’t perform due diligence during the sign-up process.
Lack of Measurable Outcomes
Your SEO partner should have results to show for their work. They offer a ton of case studies that showcase their skills and the outcomes they achieved for previous clients. It’s also crucial to pay attention to testimonials. If the SEO resellers you’re vetting fall short in these areas, it’s probably best to seek out a different agency.
How to Get Started with Reseller SEO Services for Agencies
A partner that aligns with you and your client’s goals is essential.
Some pointers for choosing a reliable SEO reseller start with researching their past work.
Fact check the data because it says everything you need to know about your partner’s track record.
Verify whether they provide the services you require and how effective they are at executing them. Find ratings and recommendations at Capterra and on Google Business Profiles.
Analyze the metrics they use to assess their performance. Research what they measure as successful to see if their metrics also meet your value standards.
With a full-service digital marketing agency, you will likely get more out of the partnership than just SEO services and their knowledge in your niche.
Picking the Right SEO Reseller for You
An SEO reseller will serve as an extended department of your agency.
To get the job done right for your clients, consider the following when picking an SEO reseller:
Seek testimonials and references from actual individuals: Research reviews from businesses who have used their services. The insights you glean from those companies offer a sneak peek at what you’ll likely experience.
Years of expertise: Longevity helps when it comes to the SEO game. A company that has had time to understand and adapt to the changes in the industry knows what it takes to run campaigns.
Trial of services: Get a trial run of their services—kind of like a test drive. See how things perform so you can verify the quality of what the reseller has to offer.
During the vetting process, note how resellers communicate and how knowledgeable their teams are on your niche. Asking for everything upfront will save you time, money, and unwanted surprises.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is SEO reselling?
SEO reselling provides private label SEO services to an agency for their clients’ SEO projects. These services are outsourced on behalf of an agency to benefit their clients with marketing, development, and design.
Who can use SEO reselling services?
Anyone can use SEO reselling services to help them flourish in their niche. However, I highly recommend SEO reselling services for small agencies, agencies that don’t specialize in SEO, or if you’re struggling to deliver heavy-hitting SEO services to your clients.
Can one agency use another agency for SEO work?
Yes, this is kind of how the process works. If an agency needs to strengthen its SEO offerings, it can seek out a full-service agency with more SEO experts or years of experience to get quality results for its clients.
How to pick an SEO reseller?
When picking an SEO reseller, I recommend you start by:
Gathering testimonials and references from companies who have worked with the reseller you’re interested in.
Taking note of years of business to see how they’ve grown in expertise over time.
Asking for a trial period of their services to ensure they’ll meet your clients’ needs.
SEO reselling provides private label SEO services to an agency for their clients’ SEO projects. These services are outsourced on behalf of an agency to benefit their clients with marketing, development, and design.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Who can use SEO reselling services?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Anyone can use SEO reselling services to help them flourish in their niche. However, I highly recommend SEO reselling services for small agencies, agencies that don’t specialize in SEO, or if you’re struggling to deliver heavy-hitting SEO services to your clients.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Can one agency use another agency for SEO work?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Yes, this is kind of how the process works. If an agency needs to strengthen its SEO offerings, it can seek out a full-service agency with more SEO experts or years of experience to get quality results for its clients.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How to pick an SEO reseller?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
When picking an SEO reseller, I recommend you start by:
Gathering testimonials and references from companies who have worked with the reseller you’re interested in.
Taking note of years of business to see how they’ve grown in expertise over time.
Asking for a trial period of their services to ensure they’ll meet your clients’ needs.
”
}
}
]
}
Conclusion
As you grow your business, reseller SEO services can yield success for you and your clients.
Providing cutting-edge SEO services requires collaborating with a dependable partner.
Find an SEO reseller with experience in your niche and results to back up their work. Doing the homework before you lock into the agreement is worth the research.
Working with real experts will help you get your clients where they want to be with campaign performance.
Offloading SEO tasks will make sure you don’t spread yourself thin. With the help of a partnering agency, you can grow SEO as another area of expertise.
As you gradually get stronger in SEO work, you will be able to sign more clients and earn more money for both of you.
If you’ve been planning to work with an SEO reseller, what are some things your clients need? Is SEO a new area of expertise for you?
There are so many areas to focus on, from content creation to admin, to maintaining a site via updates. This is to say nothing of security—you (and your visitors) really don’t want your site hacked.
The good news is that WordPress maintenance services can take a load off users’ shoulders, keeping their sites up to date and allowing them to spend their time elsewhere.
These services offer support and can help with website downtime, theme modifications, site backups, and more.
I’ve put together a list of the best WordPress maintenance and management services to help you get started.
WP Buffs is a top maintenance service for those who want full confidence in their site’s security. When users purchase the service, they’ll be able to use the iThemes Security plugin—considered to be one of the best security plugins available.
The plugin exists to protect a site from nasty malware and spam, but it’s also useful for its cache feature that improves the loading speed of a site—something crucially important for good rankings.
Users also have the option to back up their entire site with WP Buffs and store it in the cloud for extra peace of mind.
Other key features of WP Buffs include:
24/7 site edits
Speed optimization
Ongoing security
Weekly updates
Emergency 24/7 support
On the pricing front, WP Buffs offers multiple plans. The key ones are Maintain, Protect, Perform, and then there are a series of custom plans for those with advanced needs.
Itemized, these are:
Maintain / Annual or monthly / $66 a month when billed yearly
Protect / Annual or monthly / $133 a month when billed yearly
Perform / Annual or monthly / $183 a month when billed yearly
Custom / Annual or monthly / $290 a month when billed yearly
Custom Pro / Annual or monthly / $373 a month when billed yearly
The iThemes Security Pro premium plugin is included from the second package onward or the Protect tier in this case. The third level of pricing, Perform, includes four daily cloud backups, priority support, and complete malware removal.
GoWP is an ideal WordPress maintenance service for agencies and web developers. Whether you want to expand your team or outsource more of your services, GoWP can completely support you.
It positions itself as a white-label service, which allows an agency to layer its own branding and SOPs on top of the maintenance services GoWP provides as if those services are now part of the agency’s own back end.
The white-label focus allows GoWP to create a dedicated mailbox using a domain, provide help and support to all requests to that email, and share a white-labeled dashboard with clients.
On top of that, you have WordPress plugin updates, security monitoring, and automatic site backups with 90 days of offsite storage.
Other powerful features of GoWP include:
Unlimited content edits
Dedicated account manager (premium)
Dedicated WordPress developer (premium)
Daily security scans and malware cleanup
White-label help desk
GoWP has these main tiers of pricing:
Maintenance / $29 monthly per site
Content edits / $79 monthly per site
Landing page builds / $1,299 monthly
Dedicated developer, copywriter, virtual assistant, or designer services / Starting at $1,099 monthly
The second tier gives agencies access to a 24/7 team of experts, a support ticket dashboard, and Visual Validator WordPress updates.
The next tier jumps up in price but does provide you with a dedicated WordPress developer for it. Learn more at GoWP.
FixRunner is a great choice for dedicated tech support.
The service features monthly support time from 90 minutes to four hours—this does depend on the plan you opt for—and additional help is available if you need it.
You’ll be able to use this support time to make all sorts of tweaks to a site, including full debugs, performance improvements, and more.
I was particularly impressed with FixRunner’s 30-day satisfaction guarantee that offers a full refund, no questions asked if you’re unhappy with the service.
FixRunner also offers:
Speed optimization
WordPress core updates
Plug-in and theme updates
Uptime monitoring
Security scans
The service provides plans for both small websites and bigger, enterprise-level ones. There are three core plans available for smaller websites:
Premium / Monthly, quarterly, or yearly / $69 monthly
Rocket / Monthly, quarterly, or yearly / $99 monthly
Advance / Monthly, quarterly, or yearly / $179 monthly
If you sign up for a full year, the price drops considerably. For example, the Premium plan drops to $49 per month.
For bigger websites or Enterprise-level business, we have the following:
Advance + / Monthly or quarterly / $300 monthly
Advance ++ / Monthly or quarterly / $500 monthly
Custom / Monthly or quarterly / Call for price
If you run a smaller website, I think the Rocket package is a good starting point—it includes support for online shops, on-page SEO optimization, and a faster response time for sites, making it a notable offering all around.
#4 – Valet Review — The Best for Ecommerce Store Owners
Valet should be a top pick for those that run ecommerce stores.
It’s a comprehensive service that provides manual updates and includes uptime monitoring, security scanning, and full examinations of checkout workflows, all of which help ensure everything is running smoothly for your customers.
Some of the other highlights include:
Code checks
Reports and analysis
Remediation for website accessibility
Up to five hours of dedicated support per month
The first paid plan with Valet starts at $300 per month and includes two hours of support.
should check out the professional plan that costs $750 a month but includes five hours of dedicated support every month.
The top-tier plan with Valet is the Elite Plan that offers over ten hours of support each month, and this is quite clearly catered towards large companies that have the extra funding available.
General consultations with Valet are available and cost $175 per month.
#5 – SiteCare Review — The Best for Performance Optimization
SiteCare is the best option on my list for site performance optimization. If you want a service that will optimize a site so it loads as quickly as possible, this is your top choice.
SiteCare gets to work by first looking at aspects of a site that could be causing it to slow down. This can be due to anything from poorly optimized images to faulty plugins or a web host’s quality.
Once that’s done, the service implements a series of best practices, removing the website’s weaknesses step by step until it’s responsive and efficient.
SiteCare offers the following to those that use the service:
Hack cleanups
Daily backups
Real-time monitoring
Theme and plugin updates
Mobile optimization
In terms of pricing, things are clear and simple. There are four key plans available:
Standard (annual plan only) / $82.50 per month
SiteCare Plus / $299 per month
SiteCare Pro / $499 per month
SiteCare Premier / $1,200 per month
The Standard plan includes access to the essentials, such as daily backups, malware cleanup, and access to support.
The more advanced plans are quite a jump, but for that, you get access to custom development hours with a specialist and a few extras such as ecommerce support and Sucuri firewall.
#6 – The WP Butler Review — The Best for Custom Plans
Only want specific parts of a service? Well, The WP Butler is unique because it allows users to customize their service plan.
For example, maybe you’re just looking for caching and speed improvements but don’t require anything else.
Monthly services with The WP Butler include malware scans, daily or weekly backups, and plugin or theme updates.
The itemized one-off service includes everything from configuring HTTPS to a custom security inspection.
Additional features of The WP Butler include:
Weekly site reviews
Uptime monitoring
30 minutes of development time on retainer
Emergency site restoration
Security plugin configuration
As there are quite a few options with The WP Butler, pricing varies significantly depending on what you need.
If the monthly packages are more suited to you, these come in the following tiers:
The Basics / $39 a month
The Solopreneur / $69 a month
The Small Business / $129 a month
The Company / $299 a month
The Enterprise / $599 a month
One-off services range from $100 to $250, and there’s even the option of a monthly retainer. With this, you pay for a set number of hours of development work each month. Lots to choose from here.
Don’t you want WordPress experts building your WordPress site? Then Emily Journey & Associates is who you need to call. This women-owned and led company is an excellent choice for website maintenance services if you want direct access to a dedicated website manager.
Founded in 2012 by Emily Journey, the EJ&A team has developed a reputation for its high standard of professionalism.
Companies choose Emily Journey & Associates for their consultative approach and depth of experience with the WordPress platform.
EJ&A clients can count on:
Direct communication with their website manager
A 24-hour response time during the workweek
Options for WordPress training
A strong focus on SEO
In terms of pricing, Emily Journey & Associates is among the higher-priced agencies for website maintenance services.
Their service package options are as follows:
Basic Website Maintenance / $199 per month billed monthly
Premium Website Maintenance / $450 per month billed monthly
Custom Website Maintenance / Pricing varies
The website managers at EJ&A are also WordPress instructors. If you’re looking for responsive website service, they’ll do the work for you or even teach you through an informative training course. This is a valuable plus when you want to understand the capabilities and limits of your website.
What I Looked at To Find the Best WordPress Maintenance and Management Services
There are two primary ways that people outsource the maintenance and management of WordPress.
One is to pay for a managed WordPress hosting plan, which means the provider takes over a lot of the technical legwork that goes into running WordPress sites. They also provide premium customer support that goes above and beyond what you usually get with web hosting.
Companies like WP Engine, Bluehost, SiteGround, and WordPress.com (not WordPress.org) all offer managed WordPress hosting plans. These can be a great way to offload your site maintenance responsibilities, though you have to pay more than you do for “unmanaged” hosting.
Not every web host offers a managed WordPress option, though, so your other option is to use a WordPress maintenance and management service.
You really want to find a single service that covers all the WordPress responsibilities you want outsourced. There’s no sense in getting more than one, which would be confusing for everyone.
Here are the core areas you need to consider.
Security Monitoring
It goes without saying how important security is for a site in the internet age. With the increase in threats and cyberattacks, knowing someone has got your back can bring great comfort.
Most of the maintenance services on this list include top security monitoring as part of their monthly packages, although not every service will.
Some, for example, might include security monitoring as an optional extra. If that’s the case, I say it’s worth the add-on cost. At the very least, get a WordPress security plugin to cover
How essential this is depends on the size of a company, but in most cases, monitoring a site for threats and knowing what to do if attacked is key. A maintenance service removes a great deal of worry here, so I think it’s a vital area to consider.
Site Optimization
Site optimization is a broad term, but in the case of WordPress maintenance and management services, I’m mainly talking about making a site more responsive and quicker to load.
A slow website can lead to people leaving sites rapidly in today’s fast-paced world, not to mention that Google actively penalizes slower websites by pushing them down in the search results.
A WordPress maintenance service can optimize a site to load quickly, making it responsive and pleasurable to use. This is important for every single site on the internet.
Almost all the WordPress maintenance services on this list include site optimization in some form, though the exact service carried out can vary.
Backups
A site that’s a victim of a cyberattack could find itself damaged and beyond repair—that’s where site backups come in. These allow users to restore a healthy and fully working version of said site.
In fact, it might not be a cyberattack, mistakes that delete files or whole databases can happen, sometimes inexplicably.
Having a maintenance service ready and waiting to install a healthy backup of a site if something goes wrong is beyond useful. It removes a lot of the stress from potentially losing everything.
Companies of most sizes will find this a vital feature, although site backups are easy enough to do if you’re an informed solopreneur—in the case of the latter, they might not need this particular service.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to put WordPress into maintenance mode?
Create a maintenance page (.maintenance file) for your blog to inform readers when it is being updated or to create a coming soon page for a new website. The front end of the blog is fully accessible to users with admin credentials.When the plugin is activated, your blog enters maintenance mode, is operational, and only authorized users can access the front end.
What is the best WordPress maintenance service for agencies?
The list of WordPress maintenance services I recommend to agencies are:
GoWP
WP Buffs
FixRunner
Valet
WP Site Care
The WP Butler
Emily Journey & Associates
What are the best ways to secure your WordPress site?
A great path to securing your WordPress site starts with choosing a good hosting company. Install WordPress plugins to help with security that can scan for malware and monitor security, activity auditing, and other features. Make sure you install an SSL certificate to help protect sensitive information. Keep everything in WordPress updated and your site secure from hackers and you’re good to go.
What do WordPress maintenance services do?
They aid with website speed optimization, WordPress upgrades, security audits, emergency support duties, and more. In addition, they provide a variety of digital marketing services, including SEO optimization, pay-per-click management, content marketing, and more.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How to put WordPress into maintenance mode? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Create a maintenance page (.maintenance file) for your blog to inform readers when it is being updated or to create a coming soon page for a new website. The front end of the blog is fully accessible to users with admin credentials.When the plugin is activated, your blog enters maintenance mode, is operational, and only authorized users can access the front end.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What is the best WordPress maintenance service for agencies?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
The list of WordPress maintenance services I recommend to agencies are:
GoWP
WP Buffs
FixRunner
Valet
WP Site Care
The WP Butler
Emily Journey & Associates
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “What are the best ways to secure your WordPress site? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
A great path to securing your WordPress site starts with choosing a good hosting company. Install WordPress plugins to help with security that can scan for malware and monitor security, activity auditing, and other features. Make sure you install an SSL certificate to help protect sensitive information. Keep everything in WordPress updated and your site secure from hackers and you’re good to go.
They aid with website speed optimization, WordPress upgrades, security audits, emergency support duties, and more. In addition, they provide a variety of digital marketing services, including SEO optimization, pay-per-click management, content marketing, and more.
”
}
}
]
}
Conclusion
WordPress maintenance and management services can be crucially important to the right person. There’s a considerable amount of choice out there too, and knowing where to start can be difficult.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently settled a case against Dun & Bradstreet, the business credit bureau. The case was about its CreditBuilder product.
To settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it engaged in deceptive and unfair practices, D&B agreed to an order. This order required major changes in its operations. The idea is to benefit small- and mid-sized businesses. Under the proposed order, D&B (the Respondent) will also refund some businesses that bought the company’s products. Businesses bought these products, believing they would improve business credit scores and ratings.
The initial complaint goes back to at least 2019 and refers to D&B business practices from 2015 and later. In this case, the FTC is the complainant and D&B is the respondent.
From at least May 2015, D&B sold and distributed products to small and mid-sized business consumers. These included products D&B claims will help a business monitor, manage, and build its business credit report. D&B claims the products offer an easy way to provide positive payment history. This is history otherwise unreported by D&B. The aim is to improve the business’s credit report.
But in fact, D&B rejects most of the submissions. Thousands of businesses that have paid for these products cannot get even a single payment experience added to their reports.
D&B’s Claims About its CreditBuilder Line of Products
The complaint (paragraph 16) also said:
Respondent has routinely deceptively claimed that if an affected business would simply purchase a CreditBuilder Line product and provide information to Respondent, Respondent would verify that information and add it to the credit report. For example, in pitching … (these) … products, Respondent’s telemarketers have made specific deceptive claims including, “we will contact those companies that you add … [and] verify that payment history going back a full 12 months,” and “[i]t’s a really easy process[,] I just need a little bit of information from you and we basically take over the rest from there.”
Pricing
CreditBuilder and related products were already expensive to begin with. They cost almost $900/year. And in 2018, after selling ever more expensive products, D&B came out with Credit Essentials Plus (after releasing CreditBuilder Plus and other products). It had a price tag of almost $2,500. But in 2013, CreditBuilder cost $948.
Hence, in five years, the price of the information and features in this product rose by over 163%. In contrast, the actual inflation rate for this five-year span was less than 3%.
Selling a CreditBuilder Account as a Way to Add Trade References
Many times, telemarketers for D&B told business owners that using CreditBuilder would be a fast and easy way to add trade references. But such was not the case.
In paragraph 51, the complaint says that often and for various reasons, D&B rejected trade references added by CreditBuilder Line customers. And they didn’t include this information on their credit report.
Issues
D&B employees convinced business owners to sign up for expensive services. And then they never bothered to do what they promised to do, anyway.
Hence, beyond the issue of hard selling services which entrepreneurs didn’t need, there’s also an issue of breaking their promises. D&B was paid for services it didn’t render. And this doesn’t even get into what looks an awful lot like price gouging.
Furthermore, entrepreneurs had to spend considerable time and money correcting several errors on D&B’s part.
And finally, these issues may even date back at least to 2013.
Arguments
There don’t appear to have been too many arguments by Dun & Bradstreet in favor of its practices. The Federal Trade Commission makes arguments like the issues listed above.
Holding and Rationale
The matter was settled, and Dun & Bradstreet agreed to:
Change operational practices to help businesses correct their reports. This includes deleting or reinvestigating disputed data within certain time periods. Plus, a way to receive free results of revised data.
Clearly disclose its limited involvement in adding to a customer’s history of payment information. And disclose its rates of accepting customers’ requests to add payment information.
Provide disclosures for automatic renewals. And do so without placing a customer’s subscription level to a more expensive one not ordered; and
Give customers refunds or allow them to cancel a current subscription.
By the looks of the above proposed order, D&B conceded on pretty much everything.
What This CreditBuilder Case Means for You, the Small Business Owner
Per the FTC, business owners should review credit card statements often and with care. And consider any and all subscriptions on a regular basis. If the subscription isn’t needed, then get rid of it. The same goes for subscriptions you were signed up for without your knowledge and consent. If you have no idea what a subscription is for, or how it got on your bill, don’t hesitate to ditch it.
At Credit Suite, we help you monitor your business credit reports. This could help you spot charges you don’t recognize. But any way you monitor, we encourage you to review all statements, bills, and reports. Do so before anything like this has the potential to happen again.
And finally, we still believe trade references are an excellent addition to any business credit report. We hope Dun & Bradstreet will improve its means of adding trade references. Small business owners should be able to reap the benefits of such added data on their business credit reports.
Keeping your audience engaged with your content is a full-time job in itself. You must constantly evaluate your current content’s engagement metrics while also anticipating the needs of your growing audience.
With this in mind, new and updated content is crucial to any successful digital marketer’s strategy. How can you generate new content without spending more time than you have available? With transcription services.
In this guide, I’ll explain what transcription services are and what they can do for digital marketers. This will include a look at one particular use case—repurposing content—to give you an idea of just how valuable these services can be.
What Are Transcription Services?
Transcription services are business services that transcribe audio to text. The audio is most often pre-recorded and is then transferred to transcription professionals, who are trained in shorthand. They are able to quickly and accurately transcribe audio from many different sources.
You also have the option of AI-powered transcription tools, such as Otter and Rev. These services combine AI with trained professionals to deliver a top-notch experience.
From podcasts and videos to workshops and live speeches, a transcription service can help you to preserve your audio in text format. This can later be used for reference or, as I’ll outline below, as a way to repurpose your marketing content.
When are Transcription Services Used
Transcription services are most often used by physicians, scientists, researchers, and other technical professionals. Their spoken notes are transcribed into written notes and reports that can be used for reference or recordkeeping.
When you think of transcription, you may also think of court proceedings and police investigations. These, too, are used for recordkeeping (often public record) and as a way to make the proceedings accessible to all.
However, transcription can offer great benefits to digital marketers, too. One of the most effective ways to use transcription is to repurpose content and create high-value content in multiple formats.
5 Ways to Use Transcription Services to Repurpose Your Content
There are plenty of benefits transcription services can provide to digital marketers, and repurposing of content is just one. Here are five ways you can use transcription to expertly repurpose your content.
1. Turn a Video Into a Blog Post
Whether a new or established digital marketer, I can safely assume you never feel as if you’re hitting your weekly or monthly blog post targets. By transcribing your videos into blog posts, you can get that much closer to reaching your goal.
How many posts should you publish a week? According to HubSpot, the sweet spot can be anywhere from one post to five posts per week.
However, this will depend on the size of your website and what you hope to achieve. For a small website with a goal of maximizing organic traffic, for example, three to four new posts per week is recommended.
Another benefit of turning videos into blog posts is accessibility. While many digital media platforms offer closed captioning, they aren’t always the ideal way to digest content. By turning videos into blog posts, you can ensure all of your traffic has access to your content in multiple ways.
Of course, you should aim to bulk up these blog posts in ways that benefit the readers. These include using visuals (e.g., images, infographics, charts) and adding more in-depth examples.
The transcription should serve as a starting point to creating engaging, valuable blog posts.
2. Turn a Podcast Into a Video or Blog Post
You don’t need to forfeit multimedia content entirely! You can “upgrade” your podcast to a video using transcription services. Just add some visuals and you can now share to digital media platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.
The greatest benefit here is the ability to reach a wider audience. While there is certainly crossover between podcast listeners and video watchers, there are some people who stick strictly to one format. By turning your podcast into a video (or vice versa), you open your content up to a whole new audience.
You have a few options here when it comes to adding visuals to your videos. The simplest is using one image (perhaps a solid background with your brand and website URL) throughout the entirety of the video. This isn’t appealing, but it will enable you to add your content to sites like YouTube.
For more appealing visuals, you can also try stock photos, digital imagery, or even b-roll.
How can you ensure the visuals you use are appropriate and appealing to your audience? Search YouTube for similar content keywords to see what types of videos your target audience is currently engaging with. This can ensure you are on the right track, while also giving you ideas on how to improve your content over the current offerings.
Or, you can turn your podcast into a blog post.
For example, Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi hosts a podcast, then turns the transcript into a detailed blog post. This allows users who don’t have time to listen to still access their content.
3. Create a List-Building PDF
Do you have a video or podcast episode that would make great list-building content? Then consider hiring a transcriptionist to turn that content into text.
List-building content, also known as lead magnets, are a great way to build your email subscription list. It is an offer of free content in exchange for an email address. However, it is not as easy to attract people to your list-building content as it was before everyone had a website. Your content must be truly compelling and high-quality.
Using a unique angle, you can use the above formats to attract a targeted audience. With such an array of content types, it’s likely you have a video or podcast episode that can easily be transformed into one of the above.
4. Build a Resource for Social Media Content
There’s bound to be a Tweet-worthy quote or two from your latest podcast episode. Instead of replaying the episode and scrubbing through it, turn the episode into a transcript. This will make it incredibly easy to find social media content to share.
Without the need to scour your audio, you can now spend that time creating attractive visuals using platforms like Canva or Adobe Spark. These services allow you to create the ideal visuals for each social media platform, and they even include templates to get you started.
Do keep in mind the cost of transcription services may increase if your episode includes more than one person. This can take time and skill to navigate. On the other hand, the added benefit of transcribing multi-guest content is that multiple speakers can add refreshing insight to your social media pages, especially if the guest has their own social profile to engage with your audience.
5. Create an E-Course
If you want to create a substantive course, then consider combining multiple videos or podcast episodes on a similar topic. The resulting e-course can then be offered as a lead magnet or even a paid course.
With platforms like Kajabi and Thinkific, you can host your online course with ease. How can you ensure the course you create is profitable? The steps to creating a successful online course include:
As a paid course, the content should be of exceptional quality and it should go in-depth. Transcriptions of your previous content will be helpful to create an outline, but you should really dig deep and build out the content as best you can.
Before you employ a transcriptionist, take special care to pick your best audio and video episodes for transcription. These will form the basis of your course, but they’ll of course need to be bulked up with further examples, imagery, and more.
Transcription Services Frequently Asked Questions
Transcription is invaluable to digital marketers, but perhaps you still have a few questions. Let’s go over them.
How much does it cost to get a transcription of your content?
The cost to transcribe your content will vary. Consider that transcriptionists have various ways of charging for their work (e.g., per hour, by project) and rates will vary by experience level, location, and more.
How long does it take to transcribe audio?
Just as with cost, the length of time it takes to transcribe your audio will vary. The industry standard is two to three hours per one hour of audio. However, that assumes the audio quality is clear with little to no background noise.
Do transcribers use software?
Even professional transcriptionists rely on software to ensure efficiency and accuracy. With tools like Amberscript and Happy Scribe, you (or your editors) can collaborate with your transcriptionist in real-time. This ensures a seamless transcription experience.
Are transcription services accurate?
As with most services, you get what you pay for. The same can be said for transcription software tools, as well. The more experienced your transcriptionist (or advanced the software you use), the more accurate the transcriptions are likely to be.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “FAQPage”,
“mainEntity”: [
{
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How much does it cost to get a transcription of your content?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
The cost to transcribe your content will vary. Consider that transcriptionists have various ways of charging for their work (e.g., per hour, by project) and rates will vary by experience level, location, and more.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “How long does it take to transcribe audio?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
Just as with cost, the length of time it takes to transcribe your audio will vary. The industry standard is two to three hours per one hour of audio. However, that assumes the audio quality is clear with little to no background noise.
Even professional transcriptionists rely on software to ensure efficiency and accuracy. With tools like Amberscript and Happy Scribe, you (or your editors) can collaborate with your transcriptionist in real-time. This ensures a seamless transcription experience.
As with most services, you get what you pay for. The same can be said for transcription software tools, as well. The more experienced your transcriptionist (or advanced the software you use), the more accurate the transcriptions are likely to be.
”
}
}
]
}
Repurposing Transcriptions for Content Conclusion
Your audience craves new and updated content on a regular basis. While this can seem a daunting task, audio transcription services can offer a solution.
With transcription, you can turn your audio content into text. This text can then be repurposed into other forms of content, including blog posts, social media content, and online courses. Transcribed content can help you to satisfy the needs of your growing traffic numbers, while also providing accessible content so as to reach a wider audience.
Depending on the quality of the services you use, you may not even need to spend much time editing the transcription. This will save you immeasurable time while also expanding your reach as a digital marketer.
Which of the above content formats will you transform your audio content into?
Consumer marketplaces are essential to connecting businesses with consumers looking for services.
However, it can be hard for smaller businesses to compete with well-known brands in their market. That is where B2C niche marketplaces can help.
Alongside customer choice, brand awareness and visibility are critical to business success. Niche marketplaces allow businesses to leverage the power and branding of larger platforms to reach their target audiences.
Today, with 11 percent of all shopping is done online, it’s vital you know the digital platforms that will give your B2C niche service brand the reach it needs to flourish.
What Are B2C Niche Marketplaces?
A B2C niche marketplace is an online platform that matches vendors who provide specialized service providers with their ideal customers.
A marketplace is a platform that enables consumers and suppliers to find each other. One excellent example is Amazon.
However, the problem with such marketplaces is that they’re often so big that it can be difficult for users to find specialized goods and services. The same goes for brands who struggle to reach their customers—it’s easy to drown in the sea of players (including indirect competitors).
This is where niche marketplaces come in.
The Benefits of Niche Marketplaces
When looking where to sell online, you need to make the best decisions for your business. While some platforms (like Shopify) are free to set up, they can also take expensive fees for each sale. As a B2C brand, it’s even more important to make the right decision. Niche marketplaces are the solution. Why?
1. Access to a Targeted Audience
One of the biggest advantages of a niche marketplace is that you gain easier access to your target audience when compared with standard marketplaces. With innovative products, services, and brands being added to global commerce every day, it’s becoming an increasingly crowded market to operate in. Choosing a smaller platform that caters to high-intent customers will help you cut through some of the noise and deliver a high-quality product or service.
2. Less Competition
Niche marketplaces give you the opportunity to target your service offerings to the right audience—without having to compete with other non-related products and services. As the marketplace only promotes services you offer, your conversion rates are more likely to improve. This ultimately results in a boost in revenue.
3. Lower Marketing Costs
Because the focus of your marketplace is narrower, advertising on a niche market is easier and thus cheaper. As a result, you can focus your resources on exploiting your target market more effectively. Your marketing costs get lower while your return on ad spend (ROAS) improves.
4. Help Boost Brand Loyalty
Niche marketplaces make it easier for your prospective customers to find you. This is an essential step towards creating a customer journey they’ll love. If your customers enjoy the journey right from discovering your products to actually buying them, the chances of them becoming repeat customers and brand ambassadors are higher.
5. “Done for You” SEO and Digital Marketing
One of the most challenging aspects of running a business online is getting visibility. As a small business, you may not have the money or skill to run effective digital marketing and SEO campaigns to get your business noticed.
Niche marketplaces allow companies to leverage the SEO efforts of their platform and benefit from the success of their digital marketing campaigns.
14 Examples of Niche Marketplaces for B2C Services
You’ve heard of Amazon, eBay, and Shopify. They are international brands with millions of sellers. You may not have heard of marketplaces that cater to your niche, so let’s look at some service examples and find the perfect one for your business.
1. Teachable
Teachable is one of the most popular B2C niche marketplaces for those in the information products niche.
One advantage of Teachable is that it allows users to run the entire production process on the platform. They can create, curate, market, and sell their information products without needing multiple complicated software programs. This makes it very convenient for niche brands and smaller businesses, as well as helping cut down on costs.
Teachable is especially effective for freelancers who want to turn their knowledge and experience into a revenue source. However, businesses of any size can use the platform to monetize their knowledge and expertise.
2. Special Guest App
Entertainment plays a huge role in most events. From weddings to birthday parties, to stag nights and everything in-between, the life of the party is the quality of entertainment. Often, finding the perfect special guest is never an easy task. The opposite side of the coin is also true—finding enough gigs as an entertainer can be quite daunting.
That’s exactly where B2C niche marketplaces like Special Guest come in.
Co-founded by one of Hollywood’s finest entertainers, Damon Wayans, Special Guest is a marketplace that specializes in live entertainment. With a mission to make it easy for live entertainers to find more paying gigs, it’s the best platform to leverage if you’re an entertainer. Customers can choose to pick a “special guest” from their area or from anywhere in the country.
3. Cameo
If there’s one thing people love, it’s meeting their favorite celebrities.
Cameo makes that possible, no matter who you are or where you are.
For celebrities and influencers, Cameo is a great marketplace to find people willing to pay you to create short (average of 3 minutes) personalized videos. You set your own rates and can choose whether to fulfill a request. Besides videos, you can also do live Zoom calls with “fans,” for which you can charge higher rates than the videos.
Whether you’re a well-known celebrity or still building a name for yourself, Cameo is one B2C niche marketplace you should consider listing your services on.
4. Booking.com
If you offer services in the travel and tourism space, Booking.com is the niche marketplace for you. The premise of the platform is a simple one—to connect people to accommodation, travel options, activities, and other travel needs they may have.
As a brand providing any service in this area, you can simply create an account and list your service. With a footprint in almost every corner of the world, Booking.com gives you access to an international target audience.
5. Airbnb
Affordable accommodation is in high demand. People traveling the world or touring a region of the country are always looking for a place to sleep as they enjoy their travels.
That’s where niche marketplaces like Airbnb come in.
Airbnb offers users affordable lodging, primarily homestays, that users can book through their platform. If you have a room, home, or other types of lodging you are able to let out, getting your property listed on Airbnb is an excellent way to reach renters.
Fortunately, listing your accommodation on the marketplace is free, and you’re only charged a 3 percent fee when you book a reservation. As you control the price of your listing, you can easily factor this into your night rate to ensure you get the profit you want.
6. Fiverr
If you offer digital services and need a marketplace to promote your services, Fiverr is definitely one to check out. The platform was created to bridge the gap between service providers and their target customers.
For service providers, especially those just starting out, finding first clients willing to take a chance on you can be difficult. By listing your services on Fiverr, you (almost) eliminate non-revenue generating tasks associated with running a digital services business (such as marketing yourself).
A well-polished Fiverr profile will help you stand out and attract clients looking for your services. Plus, jobs can be anything from designing personalized greeting cards to web design or writing copy—all depending on what your skillset is.
7. Upwork
Another excellent B2C marketplace to consider for digital services is Upwork. No matter what your talent or skill is, if you can monetize it, you can sell it on Upwork. From writing services to tax preparation, you can list any skill you have.
To get started with Upwork, you first have to create a profile. From there, you can either bid for jobs, pitch your services, or communicate with recruiters as a way of landing your desired project.
8. PeoplePerHour
As a freelancer offering digital services, getting noticed is essential to your success. Listing your services on PeoplePerHour should be a critical component of your marketing strategy.
PeoplePerHour is a platform that connects digital service providers to clients looking for specific services. Like Upwork, you have to create and optimize your profile to make sure you stand out. Through simple keyword research, your ideal clients can come to you.
9. Koachee
Some people are gifted at bringing out the best in others. If you’re such a person and would like to generate revenue by offering coaching services, then Koachee is the B2C niche marketplace to promote your services on.
Koachee is a platform that helps you connect to clients by providing you a marketplace and the tools you need to succeed, such as:
client booking and scheduling
marketing tools
invoicing run
in-app communication
No matter your expertise or industry, it’s free to create an account and profile on Koachee.
10. TaskRabbit
Are you good at running errands or hands-on tasks?
No matter your skills and abilities, you can always find people who need your help and are willing to pay for your time and labor.
A great B2C niche marketplace to help you make money by running simple errands is TaskRabbit.
Whether it’s cleaning, grocery shopping, handyman work, or any time of service you offer, listing yourself on TaskRabbit will help you find customers in your area. Available both as a desktop and mobile app, you can easily find jobs wherever you are, even when you’re on the move.
11. LoveCrafts
Almost everyone loves art and crafts, but most people aren’t good at it. If arts and crafts—particularly knitting, embroidery, crocheting, and painting—are areas you’re skilled in, LoveCrafts is your go-to B2C niche marketplace.
LoveCrafts is both a community of creators and a marketplace for selling your services as an artist. For example, if you’ve designed some dress patterns people love, you can list them and get paid for your creativity.
12. Etsy
Another popular B2C marketplace place to sell your handmade crafts (or vintage goods over 20 years old) is Etsy. But Etsy is good for more than just knitted mittens; you can also list worksheets, calligraphy, patterns, printables, and more.
Joining Etsy and starting a shop on the platform is free. However, you’ll be expected to pay listing, transaction, and payment processing fees.
Users love Etsy for its ease of use and the tools available for managing and growing your small business. You also get excellent support and free tips for running your Etsy shop.
13. Decorist
Founded in 2014, Decorist is a B2C niche marketplace specifically for interior designers to sell their design services. If you have an eye for detail and a flair for transforming homes into works of art, then Decorist is definitely the marketplace for you.
The application process includes submitting a portfolio and a case study. It also includes a brand review so make sure you have everything in place before applying. According to the website, there’s so much demand for designers on the marketplace that most are usually booked solid.
14. Meowtel
One of the B2C services that has been growing over the past few years is pet-sitting. For those who love animals, and especially cats, you can find your perfect jobs on Meowtel.
Meowtel was created to make it easy for cat moms and pops to find reliable sitters for their furry family members. Of course, the other side of the coin is that you as a pet-sitter can list your services and get paid doing what you love.
B2C Niche Marketplace Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a B2C Niche Marketplace?
A B2C niche marketplace is a digital platform that connects you as the service provider to your ideal audience. In most cases, only services in your niche are allowed to be listed.
Do I Need to Be Licensed to List on a B2C Niche Marketplace?
You don’t need qualifications or a license to list on most B2C niche marketplaces. However, most conduct a thorough screening process. This is to ensure the platform only registers high-quality service providers.
Can I Make a Full-time Income Listing My Services on B2C Niche Marketplaces?
You can definitely make a full-time income by promoting your services on niche marketplaces. The key is to optimize your profile and ensure you deliver quality services on time.
A B2C niche marketplace is a digital platform that connects you as the service provider to your ideal audience. In most cases, only services in your niche are allowed to be listed.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Do I Need to Be Licensed to List on a B2C Niche Marketplace?”,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
You don’t need qualifications or a license to list on most B2C niche marketplaces. However, most conduct a thorough screening process. This is to ensure the platform only registers high-quality service providers.
”
}
}
, {
“@type”: “Question”,
“name”: “Can I Make a Full-time Income Listing My Services on B2C Niche Marketplaces? “,
“acceptedAnswer”: {
“@type”: “Answer”,
“text”: ”
You can definitely make a full-time income by promoting your services on niche marketplaces. The key is to optimize your profile and ensure you deliver quality services on time.
”
}
}
]
}
Niche Marketplace for B2C Services: Conclusion
With so many B2C niche marketplaces available, making a few extra bucks or even a full-time living is achievable.
You just need to know where to list your services for maximum visibility.
Whether you’re a freelancer or small business, listing your services on the right platforms is essential to finding and attracting your ideal clients, and especially if you don’t have the skills and resources to run your own digital marketing campaigns.
Leveraging a niche marketplace is the best move you can make to grow your business.
If you’ve used one of the B2C niche marketplaces above, what was your experience?
This mantra has seen millions of freelancers turn to the internet and become location-independent.
That’s not all.
Over the last decade, service marketplaces have sprung up and distributed how we work and live.
For instance, Airbnb, a marketplace for vacation rentals, has over four million hosts who have welcomed over 800 million guests. Food delivery service marketplaces are expected to reach $154.34 billion in 2023.
The success of current platforms is one of the main reasons entrepreneurs are looking to get into the business.
In this post, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about service marketplaces and how to launch one people will use.
What Is a Service Marketplace?
A service marketplace is a website or app for buying and selling services. Freelancers, private individuals, or companies in various industries can advertise their services and get hired by people who need their help.
The most successful service marketplaces cater to a specific market and redefine how we manage our lives.
For example, Upwork and Fiverr have changed how companies find freelancers for gigs. These online marketplaces have also made remote work more accessible to millions of people around the world. Meanwhile, Uber and Airbnb have disrupted how we travel, created more jobs within the gig community, and given homeowners a way to make extra cash on the side.
If getting a slice of that pie isn’t enough to tempt you, here are some of the top benefits for creating a service marketplace.
You don’t need to be a professional: While understanding the industry you’re helping is a must, you don’t need to do the work. As an owner of a services marketplace, you only need to focus on attracting sellers and buyers. For example, you can start a website for personal trainers without having the skill.
It’s easy to build: These days, there are various marketplace software providers to make the process of launching your site quick and simple. Some of the top providers are Sharetribe, Shopify with Multi-Vendor Marketplace Extension, and Arcadier.
It may be more profitable than an e-commerce marketplace: Unlike Amazon, when you provide services rather than goods, you don’t need to figure out things like shipping and inventory. Fewer costs mean higher commissions for you and your sellers.
You can outwit, outlast, and outplay the competition: Sites like Upwork and Thumbtack are wildly successful because they make finding and buying services faster and cheaper. In a world where time is a scarce commodity, creating this level of convenience could give you the upper hand over your competitors.
How to Create a Service Marketplace
Curious about how to start your marketplace? Here are the top four things to keep in mind if you want yours to become successful.
Do Your Research to Find a Niche Service Marketplace Idea
The trick to finding a winning service marketplace idea is understanding the needs of sellers and buyers.
Apps like TaskRabbit and Postmates are successful because both companies figured out how to solve a problem by making it easier and cheaper to sell and buy those services.
Here are some tips for researching your niche to find a business idea:
Identify inefficiencies: What tasks are time wasters? What services in a marketplace would help people save time?
Improve trust: Are there tasks in your niche that people want to delegate, but a layer of trust is needed from both parties?
Costs: What services would help people save and make money if available online?
Overcome hurdles: What hurdles does your niche experience? How would a marketplace eliminate these hurdles or make the process smoother?
Bring fragmented markets together: Are people offering certain services on places like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist? Would a marketplace for that service improve the user experience for buyers and sellers?
Build a Website for Your Service Marketplace
Once you have an idea for your service marketplace, the next step is to create your website.
There are a few places to do this, including:
WordPress: Buy a WordPress service marketplace theme or build your site from scratch. If you go with the latter, check out my guide on the best e-commerce site builders.
Marketplace Platform: As I mentioned earlier, there are sites specifically made for this purpose.
Whichever option you go with, there are some key features you need to include to make sure it’s a great experience for everyone involved.
Buyers and seller profiles: User profiles for sellers and buyers help to build trust and credibility. Both parties will feel like they’re dealing with a real person, and it can help the seller build a reputable brand on the platform. You should consider adding fields like descriptions, testimonials, certifications, and photos.
Listings and searchability: How your listings will look on your service marketplace depends on the type of services your users are listing. Besides providing tools to showcase offerings, you also want to make sure it’s easy for buyers to search and filter through your listings.
Bookings: No matter what you’re selling, a solid booking management system is essential for your marketplace’s success. You want to give providers the ability to control their availability and workflow. On Upwork, users can decline gigs, and on Fiverr, you turn a gig off to prevent unexpected bookings.
Payments: Another crucial factor in running a successful service marketplace is how you take payment from buyers and pay your providers. Most sites usually take a commission from each transaction and pay the seller after the deduction. If you plan to do the same, you need to set up a transaction flow to ensure the process is as seamless as possible.
Reviews: Reviews build trust and are essential to making sure everyone feels safe using your platform. As the marketplace’s owner, you can use feedback to kick off any users who are harming your platform’s trust.
Optimize Your Service Marketplace for Local SEO (If Applicable)
Want to create a niche service marketplace for your city, region, or country? You’ll need to optimize your site for local SEO.
Local SEO is similar to organic SEO, but it focuses on the geographical element and is aimed at a group of people from a specific area.
To grow their market share and start attracting users, local traffic is a top priority for anyone selling in a certain market. In fact, 46 percent of Google searches are local, which means you’re potentially leaving a lot of money on the table by not optimizing for local SEO.
When creating your website, think about the search terms people in your area would use to find the services you offer. For example, “need help moving in [city].” Another thing to consider is the keywords service providers would use to find a gig, such as “freelance writing jobs in [city].”
While Google usually automatically assumes people are searching for services or products in their area, making sure your location’s name is involved is essential in case someone is coming from out of town.
Create a Marketing Strategy for Your Online Service Marketplace
Below, I’m breaking down the simplest marketing considerations to think about when you want to open your online service marketplace.
What Problem Do You Solve?
You can have the best marketplace with all the bells and whistles and still not succeed if you don’t have a specific problem to solve.
You need one to stand out from everyone else and make sure you’re attracting the right people to your platform.
For example, the problem Upwork solves is finding reputable freelancers quickly.
Who Is Your Audience?
Your marketing strategy will flop if you haven’t taken the time to understand who your target audience is. This involves determining what demographics you’re targeting, including age, background, consumption habits, and more.
Google blogs in your niche, and read the comments to see what questions people ask and how they talk about their problems. Hop onto Quora and see what questions people are asking.
If you want more information, create a market research survey. Send it out to people in your network who would be a good fit. You can take it a step further and post your survey in relevant Facebook groups to get even more feedback.
How Should You Grow Your User Base?
Your next step in your marketing strategy is finding sellers and buyers to join your marketplace.
Luckily, there are quite a few ways you can do this without investing in paid search or social media advertising. You just have to know who your target audience is and where they hang out online.
Facebook and Reddit: Find relevant groups in your niche and engage with users by answering their questions. Some groups even have self-promo days, which you can use to get more eyeballs on your site.
Craigslist: Are your sellers hanging out on platforms like Craigslist already? Find them and tell them about your marketplace. This is how Airbnb initially grew its listings.
Link building: Research blogs in your niche where it would make sense for them to link back to you. Once you have a list, send out a personalized email and ask for the link.
SEO: Traffic from organic searches is free and incredibly valuable. People searching the phrases you’re ranking for are leads who have the problem you’re solving. Don’t skimp on investing time in researching your keywords and optimizing your site for SEO.
Paid advertising: If you have the budget for paid ads, take advantage of the different platforms. Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are highly targeted and can help you get in front of the right people with minimum effort.
Examples of Service Marketplaces
Here are some of the most well-known and successful marketplaces:
Upwork:Upwork is one of the biggest service marketplaces for freelancers. You can use the site to find writers, designers, web developers, and more.
Talkspace:Talkspace is an online therapy portal. You can use the site to connect with a therapist who matches your needs instantly. The marketplace makes mental health care more convenient, accessible, and affordable.
TaskRabbit:TaskRabbit is a same-day service marketplace platform. It connects its users to skilled labor who can help with various tasks like furniture assembly, home repairs, or basic errands. It saves you time trying to find the right person for the job and allows you to compare reviews, ratings, and prices.
Postmates:Postmates is similar to UberEats, but there is a core difference. While both apps offer food delivery from restaurants, Postmates takes it a step further. You can use the app to get groceries and other goods delivered straight to your door.
VIPKid:VIPKid connects English teachers with students around the world. What sets the site apart from other marketplaces is its application process. VIPKid screens teachers before they are allowed to work on the platform to ensure they’re knowledgeable and will give the children a good learning experience.
Conclusion
A service marketplace can be a profitable business model if you’ve done your homework. Before investing in hosting plans or platforms, make sure you have a problem your marketplace can solve.
Despite the competition you’ll face, if you have a solid niche and you market your platform to the right people, you can achieve the same success as the Upworks and TaskRabbits of the world.
What problem do you think a service marketplace will solve in your industry?
If you try to grow your consulting or freelance revenue by merely adding more clients to your portfolio, you may hit a common obstacle: Living project to project. This kind of lifestyle isn’t sustainable for everyone, and it can be frustrating and stressful. One solution to this problem may be productized services. The productized services …
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
What if I told you there was a single marketing channel through which companies are finding a 3,800% ROI?
That’s earning $38 for every dollar spent.
This magic marketing channel is called email. Yes, just good old email. And that insane average return on investment is one of many email marketing statistics that have held true for years now.
The biggest surprise to me is how many companies aren’t taking advantage of email marketing.
I hear it’s too much work to design newsletters, manage a growing number of contacts, personalize messages, and keep the campaign moving forward.
There’s this perception that email is a time-sink, but it doesn’t align with the statistics.
If it were really too labor intensive to run an efficient email marketing campaign, the average ROI wouldn’t even be 1/1000 of what it is, year after year.
The key is finding the right email marketing service. Don’t wait to start building better campaigns in less time.
How to Choose The Best Email Marketing Service For You
Email marketing services are packed features to help you save time at every step of a campaign.
Every step.
My favorite products get you minutes back on every task. Professional templates, drag-and-drop email editors, list management tools—they make all the hard parts easy.
On top of that, many of the most time-consuming campaign processes can be automated with an email marketing service.
The minutes you save turn into hours quickly, especially if you’re churning campaigns on a large scale.
More effective campaigns. Less effort. That’s the goal.
Let’s walk through the core features available with email marketing services so that you understand which product is going to deliver you the best results for you.
Ease-of-use
Unless your marketing teams double as developers, it’s essential to find a tool that anyone on your team can use.
As you browse, pay attention to the templates and pre-set workflows offered by each email marketing service. Are you excited to use these or do you intend to create your own custom templates? Some email marketing services lose their reputed ease-of-use once you step outside their pre-defined pathways.
It’s a definite plus if your solution comes with visual design tools to build emails and workflows. A simple-to-learn editor can be used right away by the people who need it. They don’t need training, and aren’t stuck waiting on someone who’s comfortable with the editor.
The best email marketing services also provide support, documentation, and walkthroughs to educate users and ensure that their product is truly self-service.
If reviews indicate that customer support is sluggish, or that answers are hard to find, that’s a red flag.
Integration and Implementation
An important question to ask: How easily is your email marketing service going to mesh with your existing stack?
Solutions that integrate with products you use are going to speed deployment and encounter fewer issues moving forward. This is especially true of your existing CRM and any other customer data sources.
Some products, like Sendinblue, come with their own CRM as part of the package, which can be nice for companies that aren’t looking to purchase multiple products in service of their email campaign.
Email Deliverability
The emails you send need to reach your recipient’s inbox. End of story.
Without a high deliverability rate—I would be worried about anything below 95%—your email campaigns are dead in the water.
All good email marketing services ensure high deliverability in two ways.
On the backend, they authenticate emails with DKIM, SPF, and SenderID, while also working with internet service providers to make sure that customer IP addresses aren’t blocked.
Plus, quality platforms will provide ready-made email templates that are both visually appealing and compliant with privacy and anti-spam laws.
On the user side, email marketing services help you craft compelling subject lines and content that encourages customers to actually open your message. They also provide tools for managing subscribers so you can keep a clean list and avoid the spam folder.
Email Automation and Customer Journeys
One of the biggest defining (or limiting) features of an email marketing service is the level of sophistication your workflows can manage.
Entry-level tools can help you automate welcome series of emails for new subscribers, and other similarly straight-forward processes.
If you want to start adding conditional or logical triggers that branch the customer journey into more personalized paths, you are going to need a more substantial tool.
You are also going to need to know a lot about your audience. Products that have really good list segmentation features will pick up tons of information on your customers, which in turn makes your automation more accurately targeted.
Segmentation really drives your ability to automate personalized emails, for example. You can set workflow triggers that respond to customer engagement, shopping habits, and other tendencies to ensure that customers are only receiving messages they’re likely to care about.
Subscriber Management
Quality email marketing services come with a lot of tools to manage the subscribers on their list. They will help you:
Import lists: Seamlessly integrate contact lists from CRMs and other databases.
Keep a clean list: Identify and remote inactive subscribers and spam traps that reduce deliverability
Generate leads: Create new contacts with pop-ups, landing pages, and other multi-channel tools that start an ongoing conversation.
Segment your list: Automatically group subscribers based on many criteria, including everything from what time zone they live in to how they signed up, and everything in between.
Campaign Performance Tracking
Email marketing strategies must be agile.
Every service reviewed in this article comes with the ability to track traditional KPIs like:
Bounce rate
Click through rate
Conversion rate
Deliverability
Forward/share rate
List growth rate
Open rates
Unsubscribe rate
By keeping tabs on these metrics, companies can tweak their campaigns accordingly.
Many email marketing services offer A/B testing, which allows you to test different versions of emails or subject lines to see what performs better.
Look for that, because it’s super helpful for adjusting campaigns in the right direction over time.
More advanced email marketing services will help you tie traditional metrics to revenue, letting you see ROI per email sent and other business-critical metrics.They’ll also let you see how content is performing with features like click heatmaps, which show where your customers are spending the most time.
You’ll probably have to spend more for those features, but they can provide crucial information that pays for itself.
Marketing automation software, like Pardot, provides multi-touch attribution models that let you visualize each touchpoint in the entire customer lifecycle. Marketing attribution drives business growth and informs your future campaigns by spotlighting the key elements of each customer relationship.
The Different Types of Email Marketing Services
Most products in this category want to provide email marketing services for companies of all sizes, so they offer a range of plans from a budget-friendly package to enterprise-grade service tiers.
On the lightweight side of the spectrum, you’ll find services that augment your email marketing campaigns with easy-to-use tools for automation, email editing, and subscriber management.
You’ll see these products billed as email autoresponders or email automation.
They don’t change what you do so much as they help you do it better, faster, and at scale.
Because they are so simple, the best email autoresponders are incredibly intuitive, inexpensive, and can start delivering results almost immediately.
Email marketing platforms are a one-stop shop meant to help you build, track, manage, and optimize campaigns.
They are going to capture, store, and segment your customer data much better than a standalone email autoresponder. And with the richer picture of your audience, you can build much more complex email workflows.
You can get really granular when it comes to personalized customer journeys, for example. In Constant Contact, you can automate emails with shoppable product recommendations based on a person’s buying habits.
Doesn’t that sound great?
What’s really nice is that these products are very easy to use and deploy. Campaign performance tracking features are built right in and provide a ton of visibility and control instantly. Some will integrate with tools like Google Analytics to get actionable data.
You can see what’s working, what’s not, and make changes on the fly.
Marketing automation software includes email marketing services as part of a broader suite that accounts for every channel of communication.
Organizations can expand their reach across email, SMS, social, SEO, websites, webinars, and paid media. Information from across all these channels is centralized in intuitive dashboards that drive real-time, evidence-based campaign decisions.
With marketing automation software, you can build out multi-branch email campaigns and customer journeys, tracking progress across every stage.
These products tend to be quite a bit more expensive, and understandably so. If you are looking to run simple to moderately complex email campaigns, you’re fine with an email marketing platform.
On the other hand, if you start to run into problems at scale or email workflows can’t handle your needs, it may be time to consolidate your processes with a marketing automation solution.
#1 – Constant Contact — Best for Ecommerce
Constant Contact offers some of the best email marketing services alongside top-notch solutions for ecommerce, event hosting, website building, and multi-channel marketing.
They average a 97% deliverability rate. This is only possible because the mature platform blends powerful behind-the-scenes functionality—like blocklists, proactive monitoring, and multiple forms of authentication—with an intuitive UI that helps teams craft effective messages that don’t bounce.
You can get Constant Contact up and running very quickly, and it will eliminate much of the legwork associated with email marketing.
Automate product recommendations, for example, by sending shoppable emails based on the items a customer has in their cart, the weather, or tendencies of like-minded shoppers.
Trying to accomplish this task without an email marketing service would be extremely time-consuming. With Constant Contact, the process can be automated by just about anyone.
Some of the other reasons millions of people use constant contact include:
Unlimited email sends
Custom and branded templates
Campaign performance tracking
Subject line A/B testing
Drag-and-drop email editor
Rich ecommerce capabilities
Subscriber management, segmentation
RSVP, survey, and poll
Constant Contact helps with lead generation, too, via landing pages, customizable pop-up forms, and free hosting for a mobile-responsive website. This includes a blog, where you can leverage your email content as posts for SEO.
There are three pricing tiers for Constant Contact email marketing services and the amount you pay is based on the number of contacts. The plans are:
Email: Starting at $20/month
Email Plus: Starting at $45/month
Pro: Starting at $195/month
Constant Contact Email and Email Plus are two of the most popular email marketing services available today.
Constant Contact Pro uses AI-driven marketing automation to provide personalized product recommendations, smart subject lines, behavioral segmentation capabilities, and more advanced workflows.
I would consider a Pro subscription if you are thinking about marketing automation, but aren’t ready to pull the trigger on a heavyweight product like Pardot or Marketo.
#2 – Zoho Campaigns — Best for Simple Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns is a lightweight, cost-effective email marketing service that comes with all the must-have features.
In Zoho Campaigns, everything has been trimmed (but not watered down), so you can still accomplish 80-90% of what you can do with an email marketing service that costs three to four times as much.
The ease-of-use is on par with agile project management software like Trello. Not only can non-technical users navigate Zoho Campaigns, they can master their domain.
Intuitively control the following features:
Drag-and-drop email editor and template builder
Email autoresponders
Email automation
Merge tags
Subscriber management
A/B testing
Team collaboration
Real-time analytics
Keep in mind that Zoho Campaigns also has integrations with popular CRM, ecommerce, and contact management products.
Tying these data sources in can help you better target and personalize your email campaigns, yet Zoho Campaigns will remain fairly easy to use.
Integrating Google Analytics, for example, can enrich the amount of customer data you pick up on each interaction, providing data visualizations to help you make sense of relationships over time.
Pricing is straightforward for Zoho Campaigns:
Email-based Plan: starting at $2/month
Subscriber-based Plan: starting at $4/month
Pay-as-you-go Plan: starting at $6/month
The Subscriber-based Plan is my favorite because it includes email automation, which doesn’t come with the Email-based or Pay-as-you-go Plans. At $263/month for 100k contacts with the Subscriber-based Plan, the automation will pay for itself many times over.
You can also try the Zoho Campaigns free forever version. It’s limited to 2,000 subscribers, but you get a lot of the marketing and content management features, as well as the chance to see if you like the interface.
#3 – Sendinblue — Best Ease-of-Use
Sendinblue is a unified CRM, chat, Facebook, SMS, and email marketing platform. It’s loaded with features that are super easy to learn.
In other words, lots of tools with very little training.
Unlike other options on this list, every Sendinblue subscription (including Free and Lite) comes with a sales CRM, marketing automation, real-time reporting, advanced segmentation features, and more.
How’s that for out-of-the-box function? But wait. There’s more.
With popups, landing pages, and chatbots, you can build out your contact list with minimal effort, turning website visitors and Facebook passerbys your next lead.
And once people are on your list, Sendinblue gives you a ton of great tools to nurture leads, build out customer journeys, and communicate effectively every step of the way. The key features include:
Unlimited contacts with any plan
Mobile-friendly visual email editor
Retargeting ads
Campaign performance tracking
A/B Testing
Customizable signup forms
Transactional emails
Email API, SMTP relay, and other core API features
Advanced email automation
Sendinblue offers a free forever version, and paid plans at several pricing tiers:
Lite: Starting at $25/month
Premium: Starting at $65/month
Enterprise: Contact sales
The amount you pay is based on your tier and the number of emails you send each month. You can store as many contacts as you want without affecting the price, which is not true with most other platforms.
Notably, Sendinblue’s pay-as-you-go plan includes the same great features as whatever tier you choose, except the phone support. This is also something you won’t find in other options, like Zoho Campaigns.
There is no prior knowledge or technical skill necessary to start using Sendinblue, and their free forever plan is one of the best available.
#4 – Marketo Engage — Best for Segmentation and Personalization
Marketo Engage, from Adobe, is a full-service marketing automation solution ready to support your strategy across any channel.
Centralize and analyze customer data in an intuitive environment that allows for email campaigns with fine-grained segmentation and dynamic personalization.
You can customize intricate workflows with behavioral triggers that wouldn’t be possible on other platforms because they can’t capture as much information as Marketo does.
Every feature is full-bodied. A/B/n testing, for example, lets you pilot multiple versions of the same site or email rather than just binary A/B testing, which is where many other products stop.
There’s also Adobe Sensei, which uses AI and machine learning to personalize content. Sensei analyzes the performance of all your assets, learns which content works best for whom, and updates emails accordingly.
Other great features that come with using Marketo for email marketing include:
Drag-and-drop workflow builder
Lead and account scoring
Deep engagement and performance analytics
Attribution and ROI dashboard
Customer lifecycle management
One-click campaign cloning
Champion/Challenger testing
A/B/n testing
You’ll have to contact Marketo to get a price. It’s going to have a higher total cost of ownership than a dedicated email marketing service, but if you want superior segmentation and personalization , this can get a lot more done.
#5 – Pardot — Best For B2B Marketing Automation
Pardot is the marketing automation platform from Salesforce that’s built specifically for B2B marketing.
Do you need to hear more, or are you already sold? It’s as good and as deep as you think it is.
Pardot has 2,000+ integrations, a rich feature set, and a surprisingly intuitive UI. To be honest, the platform is a few steps ahead of its competitors in the dedicated email marketing space.
It’s going to take some time and effort to build out the backend, but once everything is set up, Pardot gives you unrivaled visibility into your campaigns.
If you feel like the sophistication of workflows is lacking with your current setup or your analytics and data visualization tools aren’t giving you the insight into campaigns that you need, Pardot is the ticket.
Some of the advanced email marketing features include:
B2B Marketing Analytics
Engagement history dashboards
Merge fields
Visual lead nurturing designer
Social profiling
ROI reporting
Multi-touch attribution models
Developer sandbox
Pardot is not a cheap option, but it is money well spent in service of a high-growth campaign.
There are four pricing tiers:
Growth: starting at $1,250/month
Plus: starting at $2,500/month
Advanced: starting at $4,000/month
Premium: starting at $15,000/month
Other marketing automation solutions, like Marketo, are going to be in this neighborhood price-wise. There are certainly email marketing platforms you can get for a fraction of the cost, but they’re not going to give you anywhere close to the oversight and customization Pardot affords.
Summary
If you are just starting out, I would try out one of the best email autoresponders to get a feel for which email marketing features are going to be most important to you.
Zoho Campaigns is another really great starting point. These tools are easy to use and many have free forever options.
For companies that need more visibility into their campaigns but don’t want to struggle with a new platform, Sendinblue will be great. It’s also not prohibitively expensive, even at the premium tier.
Constant Contact is another great option in the SMB price range, especially for ecommerce. It comes with some of the functionality you find with marketing automation software, but there’s no loss to it’s ease of use.
If you need the marketing automation and business intelligence functionality of Pardot or Marketo, budget it in. After a certain point, dedicated email marketing services aren’t going to handle the automated journeys you have in mind.
If Pardot and Marketo give you sticker shock, but you still want true marketing automation, check out Freshmarketer, or one of the other best marketing automation software solutions.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
A decade ago, clouds were white puffy things we pointed at in the sky.
Today, I suppose that’s still true. But “the cloud” means something completely different. It started as a buzzword, but now, it’s not uncommon to hear it in an afternoon conversation over coffee.
In fact, it’s an incredibly common occurrence in our everyday lives.
And it’s rise in popularity happened for a good reason—cloud storage is safe, affordable, and undoubtedly easy to use. Plus, it has countless uses, from backups and document archiving to team collaboration and file sharing.
But choosing the best cloud storage services isn’t always easy, especially since there are so many options on the market.
To make your decision a little easier, I looked at dozens of providers and narrowed it down to my top nine recommendations.
Then, I reviewed them to help you make the right choice, depending on what you need.
How to choose the best cloud storage services for you
Every option on this list has its own set of perks, features, and benefits. They’re all great in one aspect or another. However, choosing between them isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t know what to look for.
So, don’t forget to use the following considerations as you go through the process.
Storage limits
Every cloud storage service offers various plans with differing storage limits and different price points, depending on how much space you need.
You don’t necessarily need to know how much space you need before you decide.
Thankfully, it’s easy to upgrade and add more storage space with most providers on the list. Some charge a small monthly fee to add more space and others may require you to upgrade to a different plan.
With that said, I always recommend starting on the lowest plan until you meet those storage limits. From there, you can upgrade as you need to.
However, it is essential to choose a provider that can scale with you.
For example, if you know you’re going to need hundreds of terabytes of space, you need a mass storage provider since you will quickly outgrow a standard cloud storage service.
Security
Legal requirements for your industry and your personal preferences may require advanced security features and capabilities.
And when it comes to cloud storage, not all providers are equally secure.
Some practice No Knowledge, meaning they do not know your password, account details, encryption keys, or the files you store on their servers.
Furthermore, end-to-end encryption is common but not utilized by every provider. And some may change their security processes while your files are moving, while they’re stored, or when you share them with other people.
So, you need to be aware of the types and levels of security you need.
This is especially important if you need advanced security for legal compliance, like HIPPA privacy laws in the healthcare industry.
Number of users
This consideration isn’t as crucial if you’re looking for personal cloud storage. However, if you need cloud storage for your company, you typically need to pay monthly per user.
So, it’s important to understand how many users you have and how much space each account needs to have.
Some providers, like iDrive, offer plans with unlimited users and an all-encompassing storage limit. So, you only need to upgrade when you reach the maximum storage capacity, rather than paying separately for new accounts.
However, others don’t offer this, and you’re required to pay for the number of users you have.
Your use cases
There are various types of cloud storage services, which we’ll talk in-depth about here in a second. However, this is an important consideration to think about when deciding which provider is best for you.
Do you need device backups? Maybe you need easy file-sharing or access to files from multiple devices. Perhaps you want to archive sensitive information.
There are many use cases, so it’s essential to understand your needs before making a decision.
Operating system
iCloud is specifically for Apple devices. So, it doesn’t make sense if you don’t use the Mac operating system or have an iPhone.
On the other hand, OneDrive is specifically for Windows users.
Some providers offer solutions that work regardless of your OS. So, this isn’t a crucial consideration unless you plan to use a cloud storage service specifically for your operating system.
You may even need more than one of these services. I use iCloud to back up my phone and for personal use, but I use pCloud and Google Drive to run my business.
The different types of cloud storage services
There are countless different types of cloud storage services, including backups, archives, hybrid deployments, and standard file storage.
The best type for you depends on what you want to do with your cloud storage solution.
So, before we dive into my top recommendations, let’s take a moment to walk through some of the most common types.
File storage
With standard file storage cloud services, you can upload images, videos, text documents, audio, spreadsheets, and most common file types anytime and anywhere.
Google Drive, Icedrive, pCloud, and OneDrive are all examples of this.
They typically also include collaboration tools and advanced sharing capabilities to suit businesses and teams of all sizes. They make it easy for everyone to get access to what they need and collaborate in real-time.
This is an excellent type of cloud storage service for individuals and businesses of all sizes without tight security requirements and the need to collaborate or share documents.
Plus, you can keep your phone/computer storage space open for other things.
Backups
Backups are an incredibly affordable way to create cloud-based copies of your files, device settings, servers, etc. if something happens to the original document or device.
This process usually happens automatically, daily, or at the click of a button, depending on your preferences.
Regular backups help protect you and your business if someone hacks into your system, files get deleted, or something physically happens to your device (i.e., your phone or laptop).
If something does happen, you can revert everything to the last backup you have.
iCloud, SpiderOak, Zoolz, and iDrive offer backup services for various devices, including phones, computers, servers, setting configurations, and more.
Archives
Archive storage is similar to backups, except it’s for files and data you don’t expect to access again in the future.
Archiving is typically for legal compliance purposes and is usually very affordable since you don’t need any special features or collaboration tools to go with your storage space.
Hybrid deployments
This is a combination of public and private cloud storage for businesses that need hyper-secure storage and general storage space.
Private clouds are much more secure and aren’t shared with other users, hence being called private. And this comes with a bigger price tag.
However, public cloud resources are shared with numerous users to keep costs low. But it also means there’s less built-in security.
As such, it makes sense that you wouldn’t want to store sensitive information or patient data in a public cloud.
So, specific industries may need a hybrid deployment to cover their sensitive documents as well as other files and backups that may not require as much security.
#1 – pCloud Review — The best cloud storage services with lifetime access
Most cloud storage services charge monthly based on the amount of storage you need. However, pCloud offers lifetime plans, so you don’t have to worry about paying a fee every month.
This is a great deal, especially if you plan to use the storage space for an extended period.
On top of that, pCloud’s lifetime plans come with a wide range of features, including:
Shareable links and file requests
Brandable and customizable share links
TLS and SSL channel protection
Five copies on different servers
Automatic syncing
Offline access capabilities
Built-in video and audio player
File versioning up to 30 days in the past
pCloud also offers an add-on service for extra security and client-side encryption. You have the option to pay annually or for a lifetime subscription.
There are two lifetime storage plans to choose from, including:
Premium — 500 GB for $480 (only $175 for a limited time)
Premium Plus — 2 TB for $980 (only $350 for a limited time)
If you prefer paying annually, you can do that as well.
You can try pCloud for free for up to 10 GB of storage space. So, sign up for a free account or buy lifetime access to get started!
#2 – iDrive Review — The best storage + device backups with unlimited users
If you need cloud storage or cloud backups for a large number of people, it’s more affordable to choose a plan with unlimited users. With iDrive Business, you can have as many users as you want with flexible plans depending on the amount of space you need.
iDrive’s personal plan is also affordable if you only need cloud storage for yourself.
However, the business plans are where the service really shines. Those business plans come with a ton of powerful features, including things like:
Unlimited PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, and tablet backups
Continuous and automatic data backups
External hard drive backups
Remote management via a browser-based application
User and group management
Single sign-on
24/7 priority support
Server backups
Business compliance
So, it’s an excellent option for businesses of all sizes needing backups and affordable cloud storage space.
Pricing starts at $99.50 per year for 250 GB, with storage limits up to 12.5 TB if you need more. Alternatively, you can opt for monthly plans starting at $49.95 per month for 1.25 TB.
You can try iDrive free for up to 5 GB to see if it’s right for you. From there, you can upgrade once you run out of space or need access to more features.
#3 – Zoolz Review — The best high-volume cloud storage services
If you need a secure place to store large amounts of backup data (100 TB range), Zoolz is an excellent choice. They offer long-term storage plans in increments of one, three, and five years.
The longer your term and the more space you have, the more you can save.
Plus, Zoolz’ enterprise-grade mass backup storage plans come with a ton of security, management, and reporting features, including:
Automatic purging by days and versions
Smart duplication algorithm even for encrypted files
On-the-fly decryption for easy access
Military-grade AES encryption
Easy deployment via Active Directory Deployment
Advanced device management
Bandwidth and storage monitoring
Automatic system alerts
Continuous change monitoring
Server backups
If you don’t need mass storage, Zoolz offers standard cloud backup plans for businesses of all sizes starting at $15 per month (or $99 per year) for up to 1 TB of storage space.
#4 – Icedrive Review — The best desktop and portable cloud storage software
If you’re looking for cloud storage that feels more like a hard drive with cloud servers’ portability and flexibility, Icedrive is a smart choice. It utilizes drive mounting software so you can access your files as if they’re stored directly on your computer.
You can also get up to 10 GB of storage space for free, making this one of the most robust free plans on this list.
Icedrive offers several different storage apps for various devices, including web-based, mobile, and desktop. So, you can easily access your files from anywhere.
The mobile app is available for iOS and Android devices with a clean and intuitive interface.
With it, you can view documents in various formats, watch videos and listen to audio files with the built-in media player, and create a full device backup in just a few taps.
Plus, the various apps come packed full of powerful features, including:
Client-side Twofish encryption
Password protection
Share timeout capabilities
Collaboration tools
Icedrive offers monthly, annual, and lifetime plans. Monthly plans start at $4.99 per month for up to 1 TB of data, which is incredibly affordable. Alternatively, you can pay $49.99 per year or $149 for lifetime access.
#5 – Degoo Cloud Review — The best cloud storage services for storing photos
If you’re interested in a better way to store your photos, Degoo Cloud is a photo storage service that lets you rediscover memories using AI and a built-in personal image feed.
Plus, Degoo has over 23 million users worldwide. So, you’re in good company.
On top of that, you get top-notch security. When you upload an image, you can encrypt it with a password. From there, the data gets broken down into pieces and scattered throughout several data centers in different countries.
The company even claims it’s 100% NSA proof. So, you can rest easy knowing your photos are safe and secure.
It’s also an excellent way to free up space on your phone. And you can choose when you want to upload your files to preserve your phone’s battery life. Alternatively, you can set things up to auto-upload into your Degoo account.
Furthermore, Degoo works on virtually any device with iOS, Android, and web-based applications available.
You have three different plans to choose from, including:
Free — 100 GB of storage, three devices, and Degoo ads
Pro — 500 GB of storage, ten devices, and no ads for $2.99 per month
Ultimate — 10 TB of storage and unlimited devices for $9.99 per month
#6 – SpiderOak One Review — The best cloud storage services and backups for security
If you want or need advanced levels of security, SpiderOak is an excellent choice. It offers everything you need to protect your data and stay compliant with local, state, and federal regulations (like HIPPA).
Rather than a true cloud storage provider, SpiderOak provides data backups. However, you can share and access those files.
So, it works similarly, but you can only store backups vs. uploading whatever you want.
On top of that, SpiderOak practices No Knowledge, meaning the company has no knowledge of your passwords, the data you’re storing, or any of the metadata associated with the files you upload.
No one but you knows what you store on the cloud. And the system is built with privacy and security in mind with end-to-end encryption.
This means your files are encrypted before they ever leave your computer, and they stay encrypted the entire time they’re stored.
Furthermore, you also get:
Point-in-time recovery to restore data to any point in time
File sharing (No Knowledge doesn’t apply to shared files)
Mobile apps for file viewing
Separate encryption keys for each file
File versioning
Access to deleted files
Pricing starts at $6/month for up to 150 GB and goes all the way up to 5 TB for $29/month.
#7 – OneDrive Review — The best cloud storage services for Windows users
If you use Windows and none of the other options feel like a good fit, OneDrive is an affordable and easy-to-use option. There are family, individual, and business plans available to suit individuals and businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Plus, you can access, edit, and manage your files from any device regardless of where you are in the world.
Some plans also include access to Microsoft Office apps, like Word and Excel. So, it’s a great deal if you don’t already have those tools.
Each business plan includes 1 TB of storage space, among various other features, including:
Secure file sharing
Access expiration dates
Accessing files on the cloud without having to download
Offline access
Mentions, comments, and tasks
File folder and access controls
Password protection
Multi-page scanning
Furthermore, you can get unlimited cloud storage space with the Business 2 plan. It also includes advanced security features so you can rest easy knowing your files are secure.
OneDrive’s business plans include:
Business 1 — $5/month paid annually for 1 TB of space
Business 2 — $10/month paid annually for unlimited space and advanced security
365 Business Basic — $6/month for 1 TB plus essential Office apps
365 Standard — $15/month for 1 TB plus all Office apps and collaboration tools
Alternatively, you can get 5 GB for free or pay $1.99/month for 100 GB of personal storage space.
#8 – iCloud Review — The best cloud storage services for Apple users
iCloud definitely isn’t the strongest competitor on this list. But it’s a good choice if you already use Apple devices and want an easy way to store and access your files from one device to another.
Plus, you automatically get 5 GB of storage for free.
If you’re a light user, this may be enough for you. However, if you have a lot of photos or videos, you probably need more space.
Furthermore, it’s incredibly easy to set up and upgrade to a higher plan.
You can upgrade from any of your devices using your iTunes account. And there are various storage plans to choose from, including 50 GB, 200 GB, and 2 TB.
You can also share this storage space with up to six people in your household.
This space can also be used for device backups, including your Apple watch, home screen and app organization, purchase history, photos, videos, and device settings. This means you don’t have to start from scratch if you get a new device.
You can simply use the backups stored in iCloud.
In the US, paid plans start at $0.99/month and extend up to $9.99 per month.
These prices vary in other countries and regions, so be sure to check out iCloud’s storage plan pricing for your country before upgrading.
#9 – Google Drive Review — The best cloud storage services for Google users
If your organization uses G Suite (now called Workspace), Google Drive is included in your subscription. It’s packed full of powerful features and is incredibly affordable for businesses of all sizes.
Workspace paid plans include business email accounts, cloud storage space, video conferencing capabilities, internal messaging, and various web-based tools for document creation, powerpoints, and more.
So, you get everything you need to connect, collaborate, and share documents with your entire team.
But if you’re not already using or planning on using Workspace for business email, you’re better off choosing Workspace Essentials (doesn’t include email services and starts at $8/month) or a different option on this list.
Google Drive comes with various features, including:
Desktop, web-based, and mobile applications
Centralized user and data management
Data loss prevention services
AI-driven predictions for important content
Shared drives for easy team access
Cloud-based streaming
Advanced sharing and accessibility settings
Pricing for Google Workspace starts at $6/month per user with up to 30 GB of storage space per user. You can also upgrade to a higher plan for more space and additional features.
Alternatively, there’s an enterprise plan with unlimited storage, advanced security features, and custom pricing.
pCloud, iDrive, and Icedrive are my top recommendations for most users. Each service offers flexible plans at affordable prices to suit individuals and businesses of all shapes and sizes.
However, your storage and security needs also play a role in which option you should choose.
So, don’t forget to use the considerations we talked about as you go through the process of choosing the best cloud storage services for you and your team.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
