Amazon | Engineers | London, UK | On Site (Remote during COVID 19) | Full-time | VISA Sponsored | https://www.amazon.com
Amazon Alexa Shopping team is hiring Software Development Engineers to be based in London. Our vision is to redefine the future of shopping by transforming the way our customers browse, find and buy from Amazon using Alexa.
If you are interested in being considered or if you have any questions, email me: (achandaw amazon (dot) com)
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
You’ve decided to create your first website—great! I’m going to teach you to set up your site like you’ve done this thousands of times before.
In order to get your website online, you will need a domain name and a web host.
Bluehost allows you to buy and register both a domain name and hosting plan.
You can start for free at WordPress.com.
To use the free plan, you will not need to register a domain name or choose a web hosting provider since your website will automatically be generated as a sub-domain of WordPress.com. For example, if you wanted to start a blog about vintage teacups, your URL could be www.vintageteacups.wordpress.com.
If you’re in this for the long haul, keep in mind that your audience will be much more likely to trust your brand if you own your domain name (i.e. www.vintageteacups.com). Investing in domain registration and hosting is the first step towards growing an independent business.
Ready to get started? These 8 steps will walk you seamlessly through the process from sign-up to beginner content building so you won’t have to worry you’ve left anything out.
Do you intend your website to be a portfolio of your work? A niche blog? An eCommerce site? You can do all of this and more via WordPress, which opens up the world wide web of possibility with its full-powered CMS.
How do you want to be known by your audience? That’s your business name.
And how do you want them to reach you? That’s your domain name.
Since your domain name will be a major face of your business, you’ll want to put some good thought into it.
A strong domain name serves your business goals by referencing your product or service. It should be catchy, memorable, and easy to type. Try for shorter rather than longer names where possible.
How can you come up with the right name?
Let’s take the two businesses we’re working with in this guide as an example.
WordPress is short, iconic, and evokes images of text (“word”) and potentially a printing press (“press”). It’s clear that their business model is based on sharing content.
Similarly, Bluehost includes the word “host,” suggesting they are a web host provider. The combination of “blue” and “host” is simple and catchy.
Both names are highly brandable and easy to remember.
The benefit of hosting on Bluehost rather than just WordPress.com is that Bluehost takes care of your site’s security, speed, performance, and updates for you.
We recommend shared WordPress hosting, which gives you access to a server specifically attuned to the WordPress software package. This means that safety, security, and speed are all built in—put another way, managed for you.
To choose a plan, go to Bluehost’s pricing page. You’ll see this:
Bluehost offers four hosting plans: Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro. At every tier, the plans include a free SSL certificate (adding an extra layer of security to your site), unlimited bandwidth, and plenty of storage. For most sites, the performance of the hosting will be more than good enough.
Select the plan and that’s right for your budget. You can always upgrade later.
After selecting a plan, you’ll be prompted to register your domain name.
If you already own a domain name, enter it on the right. You may need to change your DNS records to make sure your domain name servers point to Bluehost, allowing people to access your website.
If you are registering your domain name with Bluehost, enter it on the left. Domain registration is free for one year with a managed WordPress hosting account. Always be sure to note when your domain must be renewed so it doesn’t expire without your notice, leaving your website inaccessible.
You’ll be asked to fill in personal information before finalizing your purchase.
Be sure to choose a strong password for your Bluehost account (preferably not the same one you use to log into any other site). You’ll then be ready to install WordPress.
Connecting Bluehost with WordPress is incredibly easy. In your Bluehost account control panel, navigate to “MOJO Marketplace” and choose “One-Click Installs.”
This will bring you to the Scripts and Platforms page. After you click the WordPress icon—found under “Blogs” at the top of the page—an installation window will open. Click “Start” to begin installation.
You’ll now be taken to the progress page. After installation is complete, you will see your site URL, admin login URL, your username and password. Print and store this master list in a safe place.
Time to log in to WordPress! Log in at your admin URL and you’ll find yourself at the Dashboard, where you can begin on the visual design for your site.
Also called “skins,” your site theme is like an outfit for your website. The theme you choose will affect your site visuals, content layout, and some of the customizable design features you have access to.
WordPress has a number of both free and premium (paid) themes.
When choosing a theme, pay special attention to:
Most themes allow you to try a Live Demo so you can see how it will look and compare its appearance to your design and content goals for the site.
When you’re ready, click “Activate theme” to install. You can always add plugins for additional functionalities or switch themes when you are better accustomed to WordPress.
If your website theme is like a “skin” or outfit that gives the website substance, design, and form, your plugins are the accessories that pull the outfit together.
Plugins work alongside your theme to provide desirable functionalities, like a comment filter, contact form, or search engine optimization (SEO) toolbox, and are built to work seamlessly with WordPress’s back-end operations. While some are best-suited to a particular type of site, like eCommerce or blog, many are all-purpose. Plugins can be free or paid.
In most cases, you will need a WordPress Business plan or higher to use plugins. Aspects of Jetpack and Akismet (see below) are included with your blog.
Popular plugins:
Be sure to vet your plugins before installing: A large number of positive user reviews alongside information about the developer, functionalities, and latest release date can all help you make the best decisions for your site.
On WordPress, there are two meaningful distinctions when it comes to organizing your site content, pages and posts.
When you start adding content to your website, it may be helpful to get inspiration from existing websites, both those where you spend a lot of time and sites that have a similar function to yours. Ask yourself:
Here’s how to create your first page (ideally, the homepage):
After creating the essential pages, consider your website’s functionality from the point of view of your future site visitors. Although it may be tough in the beginning to put yourself in their shoes, successful site content is laser-focused on the audience. Ask yourself:
Don’t feel pressure to include all possible content at once; less is often more for a new website. Your site will likely change over time based on your evolving business model as well as the needs of your audience. You can always add more content as you go.
Additional pages
On the one hand, the beauty of website creation is that your site design is completely up to you. Depending on the purpose of your website, however, you may be required by law to include certain content, like:
Be sure to check the relevant law in your area and update your website regularly.
Do you want your homepage to appear as a traditional homepage or a blog?
WordPress allows you to choose whether you want a static (unchanging) or dynamic homepage (shows your ten latest blogs). The dynamic version is the default.
To designate a static homepage, find the “Site” category in the left-hand sidebar and click “Pages,” then “Add new page.” You can choose a premade layout or click “Use Blank Layout,” as in the photo just above. Then name your page and click “Publish.” For example:
Now, navigate to the “Design” category in the left-hand sidebar of your Dashboard and click “Customize.”
There are many things for you to play around with here, including adding your Site Title, Tagline, and Icon, adding a header or footer, and changing the site colors. For now, click on “Homepage Settings” and toggle the option for “A static page.” Beneath, you can choose the page you just created.
It’s time to start adding content to your homepage!
Once you add more pages, like About or Contact, they will show up as part of a navigation bar that is designated by your theme. In “Customize,” click on “Menus” to change the page order and location.
You’ve just created your first website. Congratulations on this exciting new step!
Now you can start familiarizing yourself with the WordPress interface. While creating Pages and Posts, you’ll be using the Block Editor, which uses Gutenberg blocks to help you add content and make your site engaging and interactive.
Since your website is a representation of your brand, I recommend building your content with a critical eye. At the same time, learning as you go is part of the experience. You can always delete or click the back button—no change is permanent, so feel free to play around.
The post How to Create Your First Website Like a Pro appeared first on Neil Patel.
By now you have heard about the Coronavirus.
The sad reality is that it is spreading quickly and will continue to spread for a while.
Did you know that we are getting roughly 13,000 new cases a day and it’s growing fast?
No one really knows how many people will be infected (or will pass away sadly), but it has caused the global stock markets to crash, which means as a business (or even a marketer), you will be affected.
And because my ad agency works with hundreds of companies in all the major sectors and we have 7 offices around the world, we are already starting to see how it is impacting marketing (I’ll share the data below).
So what does this mean for you?
Well, before I go into that, let me be clear on what marketers should NOT do.
The first thing we are seeing is people trying to exploit fear.
What I mean by this is supplies are running low around the world. From masks and toilet paper to hand sanitizer and other basic necessities… I am seeing marketers buying them and then reselling them on eBay or running ads and selling them for 10-50x the price.
This isn’t entrepreneurship and this isn’t marketing. I highly recommend that you avoid exploiting the Coronavirus situation to make a quick buck.
Not only is it wrong but it is also very short-sighted. Sure you may be able to make a quick buck, but it won’t last… you are better off spending your time on anything that is long term.
So now that we got that out of the way, what does the Coronavirus mean for marketers?
Even if the virus slows down fast as the numbers have dropped in China, businesses are going to struggle for well over a year because they will have to make up for their losses.
For example, in China the virus caused retail sales to drop by 20.5% and the unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 in February.
When companies like Apple shut down their stores to help reduce the spread, it means less income and less profit. Sure they are able to pay their employees during their temporary shutdown, but not all companies have their bank balance and most won’t be able to do the same.
Just look at the travel industry. The virus is expected to lose them 820 billion dollars. Virgin Atlantic just asked their staff to take an 8-week unpaid leave.
The ports are also empty and the first rounds of layoffs have already started.
It’s estimated that in total COVID-19 will cost the global economy $2.7 trillion.
And not only are people losing money but they are losing traffic and conversions.
As I mentioned above, we work with hundreds of clients in different industries through my agency. On top of that, we also have tons of data because of Ubersuggest.
Before I dive into the data, note that we didn’t focus on any one single country, we decide to look at the traffic stats from a global perspective. We also didn’t include data from sites with less than 5000 visitors a month as they tend to have drastic swings from a percentage perspective even when there are no global issues or algorithm updates.
We also don’t have data on every single industry, for example, we don’t really work with many restaurants nor do we purchase data for that category as local restaurants usually don’t have the biggest marketing budgets. We have data on most of the major ones, but again not all.
Now, from an SEO standpoint, last week we saw huge drops in organic traffic for most industries we are tracking. Just look at the chart below (compares last week to the previous week).
If you are in the news industry or financial space, your traffic skyrocketed.
And if you are in the travel industry, you saw massive drops in traffic.
You can’t tell by the chart, but e-commerce was a mixed bag, depending on what sites sold, traffic was either up or down. For example, if you were selling baby products like diapers or wipes then you saw a nice bump in traffic.
But if you were selling luxury goods like big-screen televisions you saw a drop in traffic.
From a conversion rate standpoint, we saw drops in most industries as well. Even the financial sector, which had big traffic booms in traffic, dropped in conversions.
Just look at the chart below (comparing last week to the previous week):
As for news (media) sites, they had a big conversion lift as many of them charge for people to read their updated information.
For example, you can only read a certain amount of content from the Washington Post for free until you see a message that looks like this:
People didn’t want to miss out on Coronavirus, political and financial information with the turmoil, hence news sites saw a nice lift.
And with some sectors like travel, they are currently offering massive discounts, which is helping counteract some of their traffic declines. Overall, they are still seeing a massive revenue hit.
We don’t have as much pay-per-click data as we do for SEO as Ubersuggest is mainly used for SEO purposes, but we haven’t seen big shifts in cost per click… even for things like the travel industry.
We don’t have a big enough sample size, but as I mentioned, costs haven’t come down much.
For example, even though we saw big dips in the number of people searching for things like flights or hotels, we didn’t see a drastic drop in CPC but we did see a big increase in cost per acquisition.
In other words, you can still roughly pay the same amount per click, but the cost per conversion has been going up for most industries… unless you are selling necessities like toilet paper.
So what does this mean for marketers?
I didn’t come up with that saying, it’s actually a line from Warren Buffett.
You will see people cutting back because the economy is predicted to get hit by 2.7 trillion dollars and experts are saying that we are going to go into a recession.
You even have billionaire investors like Carl Ichan saying that the market has more room to go down and we should expect the sell-off has longer to go.
But what I’ve learned from going through two crashes (the dotcom crash in 2000 and the real estate crash in 2008) is that the best time to double down is when others are not.
During an economic downturn, you’ll find that you will have less competition, which means it is easier and faster to get results, and in some cases, you’ll be able to get deals, such as a potential reduction in pay-per-click advertising.
Just think of it this way: out of all the publicly traded companies in the United States, if the market keeps going down, many of them will struggle to pay off their debt, which has exploded to $75 trillion.
This means some companies will either go bankrupt, get bought out, or get bailed out by the government. Some may be able to cut costs enough to pay their bills, but for most, it will be too late.
Again, this just means less competition for you.
If you are lucky enough to be sitting on some cash during the recession this is the best time to buy out other companies. The ideal ones to buy are media companies.
The more eyeballs you control, the more power you will hold in the future. Plus, by controlling eyeballs, it gives you the ability to sell anything you want in the future.
It’s the reason I bought the KISSmetrics website for $500,000 a couple years ago. During their peak, they had 1,260,681 million unique visitors a month.
That’s a lot of traffic.
When I bought the site out, I was out a good amount of money for me, but the moment I merged it into the NeilPatel.com site, I increased my lead count by 19% and recuperated my investment in less than a year.
In other words, this is your opportunity to strike and gain market share.
So when you see your competitors closing down or slowing down on their marketing, the goal is to double down. You may not see the biggest return right away, but in the long term, you will.
Every time the market goes down by 20% or more it roughly takes 536 days to recover.
As we recover, you’ll see your revenue climb and the ROI from your marketing spend go through the roof.
Hopefully, the Coronavirus passes soon and it has minimal impact on lives. For the time being, try not to socialize with others too much or go into crowded places.
You should read this article by the Washington Post as it breaks down great simulations of how the Coronavirus will spread and what we can do to reduce the impact on the world.
And as for your marketing, this is the time for you to double down. Don’t be fearful when others are also afraid. Do what Warren Buffett does… be greedy when other people are fearful.
In other words, double down.
How have you seen the Coronavirus affect your traffic?
PS: Please be safe and, if possible, stay indoors.
PPS: To help out a bit, I’ve opened up the keyword ideas report on Ubersuggest as well as historical keyword data. I know many of you may be facing financial difficulty, so hopefully having the data helps you save a bit of money on marketing.
The post What The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Means For Marketers appeared first on Neil Patel.
Devera Group, Inc. obtained $21,000.00 in 401K financing. This allowed them to move forward on business growth goals.
Provided help when needed and became a great solution.
We are excited to be a part of your success!
Click Here to see how much funding you can get for your business.
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Inc-Query | Operations | Full-time | REMOTE (Americas/Europe only) | https://inc-query.com
Bootstrapped, profitable, very rapidly growing B2B tech company. We program surveys insanely fast for private equity and management consulting clients.
If you enjoy dealing with very smart clients in a somewhat technical and fast-paced environment, this role may be for you. The Survey Director exercises 3 different skill sets:
1. Client management/communication skills: Interact with clients all the time
2. Business acumen: Learn about different industries/niches and transfer learning across projects
3. Technical skills: Never-ending supply of short coding puzzles (think <10 lines)
This is not a software engineering role, but some coding familiarity is required. It’s a tough role, but super interesting work!
If you’re interested in learning more, shoot me (the founder) a note with either your resume and/or LinkedIn: hn@inc-query.com. You’d be joining a handful of other HNers who work here.
Article URL: https://www.sourceress.com/jobs/machine-learning-engineer Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20996563 Points: 1 # Comments: 0
Everyone thinks SEO is a long-term game… that you have to wait months if not years to see results. And, maybe that was the case a few years ago when content was still king.
With Google making 3200 algorithm changes in just one year, their goal isn’t to make a website wait a year or two before they are able to achieve a top spot.
Instead, they want to show the user the right site as quick as possible. It doesn’t matter if the site has been around for 10 years, or 10 days.
It used to be that if you want to rank well, you would have to create tons of long-form content and build links.
Or have a really aged domain with history. But as Google has clearly stated, having an older domain or even a new domain won’t affect your rankings.
And sure, those things still matter today. But there are over 200 factors in Google’s algorithm.
In other words, there are other tactics that produce quick results.
For example, a few weeks I wrote a blog post about FAQ schema and how you can see the difference with your Google listing in 30 minutes.
Literally, 30 minutes.
That kind of stuff wasn’t possible before.
And SEO is no longer just a game of ranking on Google. There are tons of popular search engines like YouTube, in which you can get results in 24 hours.
Their algorithm is a bit different than Google’s in which if a video does really well in the first 24 hours of it being released, it will get shown more and rank higher.
In essence, you can take a top spot on YouTube in just days, no matter how competitive the term maybe.
Look, I’m not trying to say you can rank for “auto insurance” on Google within 24 hours or achieve unrealistic results, but you can drastically grow your search traffic in a reasonable time if you follow the right tactics.
It doesn’t matter if you have a new website or an old one.
So how do you get results faster? What’s the secret?
Well, I have a Master Class that will teach you how to double your traffic, but you’ll have to wait till Thursday.
I’m going to be introducing something new in which you can get more search traffic in 30 days.
All you have to do is take one simple action each day. And the action is so simple that it shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes.
Stay tuned!
PS: Don’t forget to add the Master Class to your calendar. That way you’ll get notified on Thursday when it comes out.
The post SEO Doesn’t Have to be a Long-Term Game: There Are Quicker Ways to Get Results appeared first on Neil Patel.
Company Analyst for the Small Business
Little company proprietors might not assume they require a service expert. The company expert can really come in and also identify what the little organisation proprietor can do to increase his or her service. The tiny company proprietor can profit simply as much from a company expert as a huge firm.
The tiny organisation can profit from the company expert in lots of means. Advertising and marketing methods the tiny organisation is making use of might be verifying useless. The service expert might be able to recommend factor of sale revenue not assumed of by the little service proprietor.
The service expert will certainly be able to identify and also analyze the tiny company what service choices need to be made. The service expert will certainly be able to provide guidance as to brand-new innovation the little company proprietor is not taking benefit of.
He or she can reveal the little service exactly how to carry out cutting-edge service strategies. These methods might have never ever been prior to idea of by the little organisation proprietor. It is up to the service expert to reveal the little company what will certainly function as well as what will certainly not function for the organisation.
A great service expert will certainly be able to incorporate these vital components right into a strategy of activity for the little service. The service expert can act as the intermediary in between the little company as well as the consumer to establish if the demands of the consumer are being satisfied.
The small company as well as it’s clients can gain from the expertise a service expert offers the table. The included expenditure of a service expert can considerably elevate the revenues of a local business. When it comes to a tiny company, it is worth investigating whether a service expert will certainly be able to utilize his or her abilities.
The service expert can really come in and also establish what the tiny organisation proprietor can do to broaden his or her organisation. The company expert might be able to recommend factor of sale earnings not assumed of by the tiny service proprietor. The company expert will certainly be able to figure out as well as evaluate the tiny organisation what service choices ought to be made. It is up to the service expert to reveal the tiny service what will certainly function as well as what will certainly not function for the organisation.
The included expenditure of a company expert can substantially increase the revenues of a little service.
The post Company Analyst for the Small Business appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.