Reginald Chan

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  • 5 Ways To Sell Online Quickly In 2021

    5 Ways To Sell Online Quickly In 2021

    If you have things to sell or you want to start making money by selling online then these days there are loads of ways to do it. It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve, if you just want to declutter your house and sell your old things social media or an auction site might be the best option. However, if you’re looking to start a business and make some money then there are other options to look at. 

    Dropshipping

    You might have heard the term ‘Dropshipping’ now as it’s become a pretty popular way of making money. Dropshipping is what is known as a retail fulfillment method and what it means is that you can essentially have a ‘store’ but not keep any products. You will sell the products but then pass the order onto a third-party supplier, who then ships the order to the customer. It can be easy money if you get it right as essentially you sell other people’s goods and take a cut for yourself. You need to know where to get the goods that you want to sell and know things like how to import from 1688, but if you do your research and follow all the tips and guides you can find online then dropshipping can be a great way to make some cash.

    Etsy

    Etsy is a fantastic place for small, independent business owners to sell online without having to have their own website. It is a great place for those amazing and talented creative people to sell their handmade jewelry or artwork and crafts to people who they might otherwise not be able to reach. 

    Amazon

    Everyone knows what Amazon is and these days it’s the first place people go to when they are looking for a particular item. Amazon is the biggest online shopping website in the world and accounts for almost half of all retail sales online. If you have something to sell then get it on Amazon because that is where the buyers are and you can even pay an extra fee to get Amazon to deliver your stuff for you too.

    eBay

    You can pretty much buy and sell anything on eBay and that’s why it’s such a great place. The things that you might see as complete trash and taking up space in your home, someone else would pay good money for. If you’re not sure if something will sell then try it on eBay and you might just find a buyer.  

    FacebookIf you’re looking to sell a big item that will be difficult to deliver, then Facebook Marketplace is the perfect place to target local buyers. Most local communities even have a Facebook group where people buy and sell things and you can often sell your item within hours. You might find yourself with a lot of time wasters too but seeing as it’s free to sell on Facebook and it can be really easy to do, then time wasters aren’t too much of a headache to deal with.

  • Free Professional Graphic Design Resources

    Free Professional Graphic Design Resources

    Even the most experienced web/graphic designers sometimes need a little help, especially when project timescales are tight. We’ve all been there; suddenly, the thing that could wait until next week now needs doing like yesterday. In these types of scenarios, premade graphic design resources come in very handy. 

    Why? Because premade graphics, add ons, photos, templates, backgrounds, icons, illustrations, etc. save you time by streamlining your creative processes. Taking a walk on the premade side will also benefit business owners, bloggers, beginners/intermediate web or graphic designers, digital artists, and other creatives for the same reasons. 

    And it turns out you can save money too, because, well, FREE professional graphic design resource recommendations are aplenty within this article. Whether you need an add on for speedy photo editing, the perfect Procreate stamp for your latest illustration, or a handy social media template to shout about your business, keep reading!

    Where To Find the Best Free Resources 

    If you’re looking for the best design resources on the market, look no further than Design Bundles. Independent designers make these premium resources with other creatives in mind, and every download includes a dual license for personal and commercial use. 

    The Design Bundles website hosts a dedicated section full of free design resources available for instant download. Seriously, there are no strings attached; everything in the category is FREE. They also release a free design every week, so it’s worth going back to the website frequently to check out the latest high-quality freebie.

    Here’s What To Expect 

    The section includes free SVG’s, graphic packs, illustrations, icons, templates, backgrounds, textures, seasonal imagery, and plenty more. These are compatible with popular design software, including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, InDesign, or Canva, Monogram Maker, and others — perfect for purely digital projects such as web design or catering to printing requirements for branding and merchandise. 

    For handmade craft projects, the free downloads work with digital cutting machines like Silhouette or Cricut and their corresponding software. If you don’t have a digital cutting device, use a home printer and sharp scissors or a cutting mat paired with a precision craft knife to cut. 

    Now let’s take a look at some specific free professional design resources that are extremely useful for web/graphic designers, bloggers, hobbyists, business owners, and creatives of all inclinations to discover. Oh, and by the way, every category mentioned below is entirely free to download via Design Bundles and available for personal and commercial use. 

    Perfect Photos

    Are you ready for some epic photo-related factoids? Well, hold onto your seats. Blog posts containing images gain up to 94% more views than posts with none. Meanwhile, Facebook posts and tweets with photos receive around 37% more engagement and a 35% boost in retweets, respectively, compared to imageless posts. 

    With that in mind, sourcing high-quality free stock photos is a top priority for bloggers, web/graphic designers, and other creatives. But with more people than ever hip to the mighty stock photo and only so many websites to find decent ones for free, you often see the same images appearing over and over again. Enter the free images offered by Design Bundles.

    No longer will you have to spend ages scrawling the web or setting up time-consuming photoshoots. Their selection of free photos will help experienced creatives or business owners taking a DIY approach to marketing, produce professional social media graphics, digital and printed marketing materials, websites, blog posts, product mockups, and more.

    Awesome Add Ons

    Add ons are a fantastic way to streamline your design workflow or editing process and achieve professional results effortlessly. The free add ons available include preset effects, actions, color palettes, video textures, backgrounds, brushes, palettes, and gradients. There are also specific Lightroom, Procreate, Photoshop, and Illustrator presets. All of which equates to a massive time saver for photographers, digital artists, graphic & web designers, bloggers, videographers, and other creatives.

    Make use of the retouch presets to get those wedding photographs spruced up with ease, create stylized portraits to sell online, or invoke a specific atmosphere within your illustrations and videos in no time at all. You can also download the FREE add ons and apply them to typography, art prints, greetings cards, wedding stationery, websites, business branding, marketing materials, and more.

    Gnarly Graphics

    There is a free graphic in the collection for pretty much any occasion, season, or celebration. In some cases, a single download includes a range of elements and patterns following a specific theme. The graphics also come in different file types. Whether you’re a design pro working on a logo in Illustrator, a small business owner designing a company letterhead in Word, or a blogger creating a new blog/website header in Canva, there is a fitting graphic for you. 

    Consider the impressive range of free seasonal graphics to ensure your business branding or personal projects are on point throughout the entire year. Check out the Autumn watercolor clipart, and hand-drawn cherry blossom dividers perfect for spring. Other fantastic finds include Halloween clipart, fun illustrations, Fall graphics, quirky quotes, Cinco de Mayo clipart, animal graphics, vector patterns, textured backgrounds, and more.

    Terrific Templates

    Premade templates can help people of all design abilities (from little experience to ALL of the experience) produce professional results quickly and efficiently. While it can be fun to reinvent the wheel, it isn’t always necessary. Templates provide an aesthetically pleasing guide to follow with the opportunity to personalize your creations because you can customize the essential design elements. It’s a nice balance between following the rules for convenience and infusing your unique blend of creativity into the mix. 

    Some of the free templates include product mockups so you can preview/present your designs on ornaments, fast food packaging, beer bottles, gift boxes, headphones, soap bars, mugs, t-shirts, and many more items. The collection also includes frame mockups for artists to present their work online; and marketing templates for social media covers and posts, videos and animations, business cards, flyers, posters, ad banners, and newsletters.

  • The Advantages of Moving To An Internet Phone System

    The Advantages of Moving To An Internet Phone System

    Modern communications technologies have brought the whole world closer together. With all the social media, smartphones, and apps, almost everyone has forgotten about landlines. Yet, landlines are still a massive part of maintaining a business presence across America. That being said, landlines in their traditional form are slowly being rendered obsolete. 

    We’ve reached a point where an internet phone system can do everything your landline can, only better and cheaper. Here are a few advantages of using a VoIP service instead of your regular landline. 

    Cheaper Running Costs 

    The largest and most obvious advantage of using a VoIP phone system is the reduced cost of service. Traditional landlines served their purpose well, but they come with an increased cost of maintenance as well as a scaling cost of service. In other words, making local calls may be affordable, but the moment you decide to make a long-distance call, you’ll be getting a sizable bill at the end of the month. 

    By using an internet phone system you are essentially solving the issue of costly long distance calls. Whether you’re running your phone system through a direct IP connection to your provider, or you’re using the Internet, you’ll find that VoIP is simply cheaper. In fact, VoIP costs are far lower even if your provider charges you for long-distance calls. Your bills at the end of the month will be less costly. 

    Increased Flexibility 

    One of the main disadvantages of standard landlines is the fact that in most cases you can only communicate with one person at any given time. Naturally, this doesn’t apply to massive call centers, but then again most small businesses won’t be using those. 

    If you’re running a business that is all about customer support and being available to their clients/users, you could greatly benefit from switching over to VoIP. Not only is this form of communication cheaper if you want to run several parallel lines, but it is also much more flexible. 

    The Vast Network of Features 

    The flexibility of VoIP comes from the fact that you’re using a form of digital communication that takes place in a diverse ecosystem of software and apps. In other words, you’re not limited by the hardware potential or lack thereof that is standard for landlines. 

    Using VoIP allows you to create instant conference calls, route your incoming calls according to your own, custom list of priorities and so much more. Naturally, more advanced features such as these will greatly streamline your outreach abilities and make you more available to your customers.

    Moreover, you can choose a VoIP phone service based on the features you need to improve your customers’ experience and just to simplify your job.

    Make Calls from Anywhere 

    If there’s one major issue with landlines, it’s the fact that they are stationary. The fact that you can’t use landlines on the go is the one reason why we have cell phones today. With VoIP, you can solve this issue. 

    There are features such as cloud-based VoIP that allow you to answer your phone and make calls no matter where you are. Depending on your line of work, this can help you run a more efficient business. Additionally, your ability to answer the business phone from anywhere works great with the rising demand for remote work. 

    No longer do you have to sit at your office, or have someone else sit at your office and take calls. With VoIP, you have the flexibility to choose when and where you’ll answer your phone. 

    Advanced Call Forwarding and Routing 

    Speaking of handling calls, the usual landlines often found in homes or small businesses are generally limited to voice mail. With VoIP, call handling, forwarding, and management become a whole different beast. 

    Voice over IP allows you to customize your call routing in ways that aren’t possible with landlines. For example, say that you have a line in the office but you’re out working. When the call comes, and the phone rings, you can set the call forwarding to engage after a certain number of rings. Once those are up, the call gets forwarded to the next instance in the chain. 

    You can daisy-chain a number of lines, routing calls from one location to another, without increasing your service costs. If you want, you can even direct missed calls to your email by using a voice mail feature that does the speech-to-text conversion. 

    Call Quality 

    One of the major misconceptions about VoIP is that it can’t match the sound quality of a standard landline. This simply isn’t true. In fact, most VoIP Services come with QoS, or quality of service, guarantee. 

    If you’re using regular internet to run your VoIP calls, you’ll still enjoy a clear, smooth connection. However, it’s worth mentioning that using the internet for VoIP makes you subject to internet coverage in your specific area. The good thing is that you can usually fix VoIP call quality even if you run into issues. When a landline has technical problems, there is nothing you can do about it. 

    Scalability 

    A particular point of interest for growing businesses is the scalability of VoIP technology. Instead of going through the complicated process of acquiring more landlines, you can easily get in touch with your provider and simply get a different plan. 

    A good VoIP provider will help you grow through sustainable features, service costs, and long term support. This is especially important for businesses that rely on customer interaction. 

    How Reliable is VoIP? 

    If you were to ask that question a decade ago, you’d be getting a very different answer. However, today VoIP is perfectly reliable. You can count on consistent, uninterrupted service as well as good call quality. 

    The only real downside to VoIP is the fact that select operators don’t allow emergency calls. However, such providers are rare and even if you end up working with one, there are ways to work around this issue. 

    Soon enough landlines will be rendered obsolete and VoIP will reign supreme. This is projected to happen within 5 years from the moment this short guide is published. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to be ahead of the curve before everyone is forced to make the switch.

  • Benefits of Hiring a Cyber Security Service for Your Business

    Benefits of Hiring a Cyber Security Service for Your Business

    As so many of our business transactions and operations are now taking place on the internet, businesses today are becoming more digitized and connected than ever. But digitization also comes with the increased threat from bad actors as it exposes businesses and their vulnerabilities to viruses and internet criminals. 

    As a result, it is vital that business owners start to use cybersecurity services – a combination of human expertise and cutting edge technology – to protect their company from cyber attacks. Here are some of the many benefits of hiring a cybersecurity service for your business.

    1. Prevent Cyber Threats

    After the transition from paper documents to computer files, businesses have had to face a host of new security challenges. An effective cybersecurity service will be able to predict certain cyber threats thanks to its insight or intelligence about your business’s unique challenges. The experts at perthsecurityservices.com.au explain that these challenges may be digital documents that are attractive to cyber criminals such as personally identifiable information or intellectual properties. A good cybersecurity service will allow businesses to foresee issues and separate networks that house sensitive data from those that house non-sensitive data so that in case an attack occurs on the non-sensitive data network, the critical network won’t be affected.

    2. Block Cyber Criminals

    With an effective cybersecurity service, you will be able to block cyber threats from ever getting through to your IT systems. As most businesses have now moved from snail mail to emails, cybercriminals can take advantage of these businesses’ emails to conduct fraud. They use spoof emails from CEOs to trick finance personnel worldwide to release their corporate funds to scammers. They commonly use a slight variation of the legitimate email addresses of businesses to fool the recipient into believing that the email is authentic. A good cybersecurity service can create an email filtering system, which will prevent this form of attack by blocking emails with similar extensions to a genuine company’s email.

    3. Detect and Respond to Attacks

    As cybercriminals are getting more creative each day, predictive and blocking measures are no longer enough. No matter how strong your company’s security systems are, there is always a chance that an anomaly can happen, which will allow attackers to gain access to your system. The bad news is that most businesses only find out about these intrusions after being informed by law enforcement or through a common point of purchase. An effective cybersecurity service can detect these activities by monitoring network traffic and correlating it with configuration data.

    4. Save Money for Your Business

    An effective cybersecurity service can save businesses an enormous amount of money through losses related to the costs of cyber theft, as well as those of hiring a law firm or offering victims identity protection services. Moreover, post-attack, businesses may have to pay for more services, such as investigative activities, audit services, and crisis team management, as well as reimbursing customers and clients or paying compensation for the loss of personal data.

    5. Access to Cutting-Edge Tools and Top Security Talent

    Hiring a cybersecurity service gives your business access to cutting edge tools and top security talent that come in 3 types of managed cybersecurity services: traditional, cloud solution, and outsourced. While traditional services (also referred to as on-premise services) require in-house manpower and capitalization to run cutting-edge software and hardware tools, cloud solution cybersecurity can provide the service without the need for additional hardware thanks to its cloud-based console and tools. A lot of businesses also choose to have an outsource cybersecurity model, in which they work with an external third-party provider to take care of everything. 

    Each of the three options comes with its own benefits and budget requirements. The cost of traditional or on-premise cybersecurity services isn’t limited to trained and skilled in-house staff, but also to the growing IT infrastructure. The number of new devices needed each year that need to be secured, for example, is a major challenge for businesses. A cloud-based security service, however, allows you to remotely manage from multiple endpoints, on any device. In the case of outsourced or third-party cybersecurity, your business can gain access to the best security talent with greater scalability and continuity without having to have a team in house.

    In a world where all business activities are connected and most transactions are made digitally, having a good cybersecurity service can ensure that your organization’s data and daily operations are safe from a cyber attack. Hiring a cybersecurity service alleviates the pressure on your organization, helps your operations to proceed smoothly, and can save you a lot of money in the long run. Remember, that preventing an attack is always a lot easier than it is to repair the damage after the fact.

  • Reasons Why Cyber Security Awareness is Important

    Reasons Why Cyber Security Awareness is Important

    With a lot of businesses shifting to a larger online presence, the threat of cybercrimes looms. The internet has been around for quite some time now and even though there are different entities out there that are responsible for keeping the web as safe and crime-free as possible, there are still people bent on committing various crimes through different means to gain money, blackmail people, or simply have fun at the expense of other people’s panic and misery. You can avoid all of these issues by being aware of the cybersecurity measures that you and your employees can take. Here’s why cybersecurity awareness training should be your number one priority.

    1- Cybercrime Is Continuously Advancing

    Cybercrime has quite serious consequences, which is why cybersecurity awareness has become a more important topic. Every day, cybercriminals find new ways to cause issues for businesses and regular individuals who are trying to peacefully browse the web. These different crimes can affect you, your employees, and your business if the right precautions are not taken. This is what you need to look out for.

    a) Hacking

    You have probably already heard stories about hacking. People often think that it is something that they will never experience since they have strong passwords, but unfortunately, this is not the case and advanced hacking can still occur. Most people are not aware of the threat of hacking and its consequences. If you’re running a business and store sensitive information on your cloud, it’s advisable to use programs that can generate difficult passwords that are challenging to hack, even with the most advanced programs. Another tip you can use is not keeping all your passwords in one place. This ensures that even if one of your various accounts or email addresses gets hacked, you do not have to worry about all of your other accounts being at risk.

    b) Phishing

    Phishing is the most used scheme when it comes to cybercrime. No matter how much banking websites try to prevent their clients from falling into this trap, it is still very common. Phishing is done by tricking the recipient into clicking a link, usually by sending it in an email or text message, masquerading as a trusted entity such as your bank or cellphone provider. Being aware of how to avoid such a scheme is one of the key pieces of information one learns when finding out about cybersecurity. There are various ways to identify a trusted website from an unsafe link that could lead to your information being stolen. When your employees know exactly how to protect themselves from this frustrating experience, their morale is going to improve since they will be able to deal with such scams.

    c) Identity Theft

    Identity theft is used by people looking to steal your money or people who want you and your company to lose their reputation by acting online in ways that make your clients lose their respect and trust in your business. Sometimes, this is done through creating an account on a website, especially social networking platforms, with the same name as your business or your personal account and posting inappropriate things. Other identity theft cases can be more severe when a person could steal personal information and commit crimes as though they are you.

    2- Protecting Sensitive Data

    If you are in a competitive field, you need to ensure that you are protecting your date from being stolen by competitors or people who will sell the information to the highest bidder. To protect such data, you need to be aware of the process of finding security blind spots and how to deal with them. The most straightforward way to do this is to educate your employees on how to protect your company’s data from cybersecurity threats through courses and to create a BYOD policy. This ensures that data, such as new designs are safe from any wandering cybercriminals.

    3- Avoiding Malware and Spyware

    Malware is a software program that a person develops to make certain applications and programs on your device malfunction. It slows down your processor exponentially and is often downloaded as a hidden attachment when downloading anything from an unreliable online source. Spyware is also a software program that is downloaded similarly, but instead of causing malfunctions, it is used by others to spy on you remotely. This helps them find sensitive information to steal and allows them to take compromising screenshots or video-feeds through your device’s camera. Cybersecurity awareness allows you to avoid such situations by giving you the information needed to ensure that you are using reliable websites and have proper spyware and malware protection on your devices.

    4- Reduced Risk of Data Corruption

    Criminals might not want the information you have on your device to use it against you; they might simply want to corrupt the information you have to derail your business’s progress. Protecting your files from corruption is not hard if you do have the proper security set-up to protect all the data you have on personal or work devices.

    5- Ensuring Client Confidentiality

    Clients are bound to give you different personal information about themselves that you need to protect. Sometimes, you will be given payment information, which requires a high level of protection, otherwise, your business may face lawsuits that compromise its reputation and cost you money. Moreover, you will find that clients are losing their trust in you if you aren’t capable of keeping their data safe. Making sure that your employees are aware of cybersecurity measures will also allow you to detect breaches and fix them before such an event occurs. It is important to keep in mind that even the tiniest chink in your defense against cybercrime can lead to monetary and reputational damages you will not be able to afford.

    Whether you use your personal devices for website browsing or you have a company to run and are responsible for protecting sensitive information, being aware of how to remain secure while browsing the internet is crucial. These are just five of the reasons why cybersecurity awareness is a definite requirement when browsing the internet. Remember that failing to protect yourself and your customers from cyber threats is a liability that could cause you a lot of issues, so it is better to be safe than sorry.

  • Monitoring Customer Reviews Effectively With Proxies

    Monitoring Customer Reviews Effectively With Proxies

    There are many different things that businesses must pay attention to, like marketing, sales, product development, customer experience, and so on. But one of the most valuable assets a company can have is knowing what customers think about its products or services.

    After all, the customer is always right. Companies are always competing to deliver their customers precisely what they want. This customer-centric approach has revolutionized business numbers and how successful companies can be.

    In the past, it was challenging to gather a large amount of data that can tell companies exactly what their customers think. However, this is no longer an issue.

    The Voice of the People: Reviews and Grades

    The internet has introduced various business benefits. Companies are making the most of their online efforts to boost business results. Among many things, the web is a great place to learn what customers think about businesses, their brands, products, and services.

    One of the best indicators of customers’ sentiments is reviews. With grades, customers can quickly indicate the level of overall satisfaction with a product. Reviews allow them to share their opinions, what they found great, and what they disliked about something.

    Most people will leave reviews or grades. More importantly, everyone will read some reviews before deciding whether or not they should buy a product. Not only can other customers learn from this, but companies can improve as well, with review monitoring.

    Review Monitoring as a Business Necessity

    Review monitoring is an essential technique for brand monitoring. It’s the process of gathering and monitoring online conversations about a business or its products. One of the best ways to do this is by using web scraping.

    This practice helps companies gather large amounts of data from review sites and put all that data in one place. Apart from monitoring customer feedback and brand mentions from different sources, it also involves analyzing the data and establishing practices to improve and maintain the brand image.

    This helps companies generate better future reviews and address all of the negative ones quickly to reduce damages. At the same time, companies can learn a lot about where they can improve their service. Furthermore, web scraping also lets companies gather customer feedback about other companies anonymously.

    This lets companies learn why their competitors are so successful and what they are doing right. But at the same time, they can discover their weaknesses. However, scraping is limited on its own without using proxies. Proxies are essential for this process and help overcome various challenges.

    What Challenges Proxies Help Overcome

    Proxies are 3rd party servers that enhance the customer review monitoring process with web scraping. The first major issue with scraping is that sites can block it. Review sites don’t want companies to extract their data.

    A proxy can change the IP address of the scraper and let you gather data continuously without being blocked. Since monitoring customer reviews is an ongoing process, it’s essential to have fresh data coming in regularly. At the same time, companies often scrape their competitors’ websites.

    A proxy lets you do this anonymously without anyone being able to figure out who is extracting data from their site.

    This helps companies hide their intentions from their competition. Scraping and proxies also let you filter out the exact data you need with the utmost accuracy. This helps businesses get usable data that is structured, ready to be analyzed. 

    What Type of Proxies Work Best

    There are many types of proxies out there. Not all of them are great for gathering customer reviews. Some of them are designed for personal use and simple IP address coverage. Overall, the best proxies for customer review monitoring are rotating proxies.

    They allow you to send out hundreds of requests to a single website. This is very important as web crawlers go through a review site many times to gather data from different pages. They prevent blocks and let you rotate your address countless times, granting free access.

    Furthermore, these proxies are built to process many requests. They are a lot faster and save money when it comes to monitoring customer reviews. These proxies also offer a high level of anonymity, making them perfect for the job.

    Conclusion

    Knowing what your customers think about your business at all times gives you valuable business intelligence. It helps make informed business decisions and changes to perfect your service while mitigating negative sentiments online.

    All companies need to get on with the times and take full advantage of modern tools and data. Business data is the future, and soon, companies will have to have actionable information at their disposal. This is why scraping and proxies are essential in modern business.