-
Free Online Courses with Certificate: Take These to Improve CV & Change Jobs in 2019.
-Free online courses with certificate of completion are a plus for everyone -student, professional or business owner.
Regardless of your level in your career or business at the moment, you will find something new to learn from these free online courses; most of which were developed by faculties of reputable UK higher institutions.
These are 5 free online courses with certificate to boost your CV in 2019:
1. Supply Chain Short Course by Oxford Home Study College.
Every business runs some form of supply chain setting, which facilitates day-to-day operations. From manufacturing through delivery to storage and down to the retail stores, the supply chain ensures the business cycle does not snap. This is why every business needs supply chain manager to stay in business.
Free Supply Chain Short Course by Oxford Home Study College will teach you how to build, maintain and optimize supply chains is 20 hours of self-paced online learning.
Register for FREE Supply Chain Short Course.
2. Business Law and Ethics Course by Saylor Academy.
Law, typically, protects one party from another in any form of relationship. Laws and ethics shape a company’s decision-making process; stating the corporate can do and not do.
This free online course will introduce you to the laws and ethical standards that business owners must abide by in the course of conducting business.
Free Business Law and Ethics Course by Saylor Academy comprises the Nature and Sources of Law, Litigation vs. Alternative Dispute Resolution, Contracts, Property Law and more..
Register for FREE Business Law and Ethics Course.
3. Responsive Web Design Course by Aquent Gymnasium
Responsive Web Design course is a hands-on, code-intensive course on how to build high-performance, responsive websites that look great across multiple screen sizes and devices.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search: http://bit.ly/2wRdIOoThis free online course is an introduction to responsive web design strategies and how to implement those strategies through HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Free Responsive Web Design Course by Aquent Gymnasium teaches technical, conceptual, and design considerations involved with Responsive Web Design, Typography and Layout, Navigation Patterns, Web Performance and more…
Register for FREE Responsive Web Design Course.
4. Financial Planning and Budgeting by The Open University
Financial Planning and Budgeting course teaches fundamentals of finance by showing you simple four-stage model for making sound financial decisions. You will get deep insights into the two components of household budgeting, income and expenditure, as well as how to manage them.
This free online course explores how current economic conditions impact household finances, before showing you how to manage yours more effectively.
Free Financial Planning and Budgeting by The Open University comprises Prioritising Plans, Financial Decision-making Model, Income and Inflation, and more…
Register for FREE Financial Planning and Budgeting Course.
5. Project Management Short Course by Brentwood Open Learning College.
Businesses rely on short and long-term projects to grow, evolve and generally remain competitive. As a profession of relevance to businesses in almost every industry and sector, career opportunities in project management are limitless.
This free online course take you through the basics of the industry, along with what exactly the project manager does and an overview of the project life cycle.
Free Project Management Short Course by Brentwood Open Learning College covers Introduction to Project Management, Role of the Project Manager and The Project Life Cycle.
Register for FREE Project Management Short Course.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search: http://bit.ly/2wRdIOo00 -
Sources of Business Ideas: Best Ways to Form Small Business Ideas
-Thought to share these smart sources of business idea you can explore in 2019.
Should you want to start a side gig this or you want a small business that could make you self-employed and help employ other, there are source of business ideas you can look into:
1. Business Experience.
Business ideas often come from experience we garnered over the years of working in particular market or industry.
Many startup businesses take sources from working experience of the business owner. Business ideas based on business experience typically comes from:
- Urge to solve a common problem.
- Burning passion to right a wrong.
- Knowledge of competitors, pricing or suppliers.
- Superior understanding of market through research.
- Access to top industry contacts or category leaders.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search
2. Personal Experience.
For some entrepreneurs, business ideas come knocking them in the head from their day-to-day dealings in life. Business ideas based on personal experience typically comes from:
- Entrepreneur’s hobbies, interests or passion.
- Entrepreneur’s inability to get desired employment.
- Entrepreneur’s talent, special skills or disability.
- Frustration or bad experiences due to service failure.
3. Observation.
By simply observing what goes on around can be a good source of business idea. It may also happened that you develop a concept based on what is happening in other countries or economies.
Business ideas based on observation typically comes from:
- Present economic hardship your country.
- Business launched in another country that can be adopted.
- Innovation that could change already known business model.
4. Miscellaneous.
These are other source of business ideas you could explore:
- Research alternative methodologies and learning methods, use them to solve a current problem
- Travelling expands horizons within your mind, look out for business ideas as you travel
- Join online entrepreneurship and industry related communities, ask critical questions
- Deliberately start keeping a “pain point” journal from today
- Talking to totally new people could bring new ideas, try it!
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search.
-
5 Things Successful Salespeople Do Better Than Others
-Wondering what successful salespeople do better than average sales guy?
These are 5 things to learn and master, if you want to succeed in selling anything. Anything at all!
1. Successful Salespeople Sell Value at Scale.
What is Value?
Value is a construct, a perception in buyer’s mind not necessarily the reality. Price may be fixed but value is subjective and Customer determines what is valuable to them.
Since buying decisions are based on PERCEIVED value, successful salespeople communicate value the best way customer can comprehend.
2. Successful salespeople master 5 PILLARS of COMMUNICATION.
These are pillars of communication you must master in order to succeed in sales:
- Visibility: People buy from who they know, how do you gain visibility?
- Language: Speak the language of the problem because ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE PROBLEM CAN BE TRUSTED TO SOLVE IT.
- Conviction: Sell first to yourself. Yeah? If you are not SOLD, you can’t SELL.
- Relationship: Building relationship in sales is like investing in an emotional bank. Don’t just sell, build bridges.
Personality: What are your personal values? What are your after sales values?
3. Successful Salespeople Have Excellent Attitude towards Sales.
Develop excellent Sales Mastermind by answering these 5 questions:
- What do you believe about yourself?
- What are your personal values?
- How much do you like others?
- How do you perceive customer rejection?
- Rate your selling ability: Are you Best Ever, Exceptional, Good, Average, or Below Average?
4. Successful Salespeople Master Are Always Prospecting.
This Is How Successful Salespeople handle prospecting better than others:
- They differentiate activity from productivity because activity takes 90 days to pay off.
- They fill their pipelines consistently.
- They do not ignore phone calls, no matter what the situation is.
- They differentiate prospects from opportunities by qualify or scoring their leads.
- They prospect value one-on-one not via anonymous bulk emails or SMS.
5. Successful Salespeople Get out of Obscurity.
These are steps taken by successful salespeople to get out of obscurity:
- Always networking.
- Positioning themselves as subject matter experts.
- Creating value Online.
- Generate leads via referrals from existing customers.
- Prospecting by Categories.
Culled from: Sales Masterclass by Salesruby.
-
10 Habits of Eventual Millionaires in 2019
-If one of your new year resolutions is to rake in a million bucks daily, weekly or monthly, here are 10 habits of millionaires you must imbibe..
Since success normally leaves track, you too can make millions, as many times as possible by the end of 2019 if you imbibe these habits that are consistent with people who eventually become millionaires.
1. Being around people who love them …
To become a millionaire, make efforts everyday to be around people who are kind to you and love you.
2. Being perpetually grateful …
Whether you are angry, stressed or in distress, find one thing to be grateful for. This is one way eventual millionaires keep positive energy around them always.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search.
3. Writing down ten ideas a day …
Writing down your ideas daily helps you keep record of your aspirations and dreams. Not all these ideas will fly but keep writing them down.
4. Always planting seeds …
Eventual millionaires know that 1% of seeds planted turns into 50% of the flowers. That is why they plant seeds such as thank you letter, sharing ideas with people, creating meaningful handshakes, surprising their loved ones, …
5. Refusing to give excuses …
Blaming others, complaining about situations, explaining one’s decisions is draining. People who become millionaires know this and they avoid it. So should you!
6. Obeying Warren Buffett’s 5/25 rule …
Make a list of the 25 things you want to do right now. Now do the top 5 that are the most important at the moment. Pursue your top 5 goals vigorously and NEVER look back at the remaining 20 till you achieve them all.
7. Following up with people ….
Following up with new people you meet or business prospects is an act. It requires serious practice to get good at it. Learn how to follow up with people for good, keep at it. Keep following up.
8. Asking questions ….
Never be afraid to have ‘curiosity conversations’. You have things bothering you? You have great ideas you could bounce off people you know? Call them, pay them a visit. Start the curiosity conversation. Ask questions.
9. Making mistakes ….
Eventual millionaires know that mistakes help people improve, so they are not allergic to honest mistakes.
Remember, if you have never made mistakes, you have never tried anything new. Life is too short to be avoiding mistakes. When you make mistakes, learn, improve and get ahead.
10. Saying NO …
To become a millionaire, you must learn to politely say NO to things that do not add up. Be rest assured that every door is not your door. Once you recognize it is an opportunity you really need, let it go. Say NO.
Saying YES all the time, even when it hurts you, does not make you a wonderful person. It makes you a people pleaser. Learn to say NO.
Culled from 20 HABITS OF EVENTUAL MILLIONAIRES by James Altucher.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search.
-
WhatsApp Business: 5 Creative Ways to Get Closer and Personal with Customers
-WhatsApp Business is an Android app which helps businesses interact with customers easily by using tools to automate, sort, and quickly respond to messages.
Do you need a free online tool to get closer to your customers and prospects? These are creative ways to build community with customers using WhatsApp Business.
What are the key features of WhatsApp Business?
- Business can create profile to list important piece of information. Information that can be listed include company address, email and website.
- It provides statistics to see how many messages were successfully sent, delivered, and read.
- It is a great for creating and growing community of customers where you relate as humans.
Can I Use Same Phone Number for WhatsApp Messenger and Business?
Much as you can use both WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Messenger, each app must be linked to its own unique phone number.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance of your website in Google search.
These Are 5 Creative Ways to Use WhatsApp Business:
- Internal Communication: Use it for internal communication. Different teams within your business can have dedicated WhatsApp groups. This keeps internal communication less formal though it remains official.
- Lead Nurturing: It works great for following up with Prospects. Businesses who tested out effectiveness of WhatsApp for customer communication got 40% increase in responses.
- Customer Support: Use it to resolve some of your customer support or help desk requests. Calling help desk can be sometimes frustrating especially if customer needs prompt response to guide decision-making. You could eliminate this barrier in communication between your support team and customers.
- Online Marketing: Use it for Online Marketing. Capability of WhatsApp Business to seamlessly share text messages, images, audio files and short video clips can take your brand messages to customers’ personal zone.
- Service Delivery: Use it to deliver some component services such as to take booking, customer orders, parcel delivery, free consultation as content offer and more…
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance of your website in Google search.
-
Events in Google History: 20 Significant Moments at 20 Years as a Company
-Here are 20 major events in Google history as the Search Engine giant clocked 20 recently.
1998
Larry Page and Sergey Brin start to show investors their novel search engine, initially called BackRub, which ranks search results based on links back to individual pages, rather than keywords.
Google got interest from 4 angel investors namely: Andy Bechtolsheim (Sun Microsystems co founder), Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com founder), Ram Shriram (former Amazon executive) and David Cheriton (Stanford professor).
1999Page and Brin try, unsuccessfully, to sell Google to the now-defunct Excite. Later in the year, Google raises $25 million from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and others.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search. Get FREE SEO Audit report in 48 hours!
2000
Google launches its first April Fool’s Day prank, called MentalPlex. MetalPlex asked people to project a mental image of what they want to search for while staring at an animated GIF.
2001
Google makes its first acquisition in its corporate history, buying Deja, which forms the basis of Google Groups.
2002
Google officially enters pop culture vernacular, as with a character of the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” making a reference to ‘Googling’ someone. Yahoo offers to buy Google for $3 billion, but Google declines.
2003
Google moves into 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, leasing buildings from the Silicon Graphics. 1600 Amphitheater Parkway would become the nexus for the Googleplex, which now spans hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space in Mountain View.
2004
Google goes public in August 2004 at $85 per share, raising a little over $1.9 billion.
2005
Google Maps and Google Earth were launched, undercutting the paid GPS navigation market.
2006
Google buys YouTube for $1.6 billion. Despite the hefty price tag, YouTube remains one of Google’s most profitable acquisitions to date, generating billions of dollars per year in video advertising revenue.
2007
Google buys advertising service DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
2008
Google begins distributing early versions of the Android operating system to phone manufacturers. T-Mobile’s G1 is the first smartphone to run Android.
2009
Google crosses a major milestone, with people making more than 1 billion search queries on the site per day. The site becomes the dominant search engine in the U.S., with 65% market share.
2010
Google launches its first branded smartphone, the Nexus One.
2011
Google buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. Three years later, Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.9 billion.
2012
Google reports annual revenue of more than $50 billion.
2013
Google launches Chromecast, a dongle that allows people to stream content from their phones or computers to a TV.
2014
Google buys DeepMind, a U.K.-based artificial intelligence company, for $625 million. It also picks up home automation startup Nest for $3.2 billion.
2015
Google restructures itself as Alphabet, a holding company that owns several companies, including Google.
2016
Google launches its line of smart home speakers, powered by Google Assistant.
2017
European regulators hit Google with a $2.7 billion fine, for promoting its own shopping results over results from competing shopping services.
2018
Internal protests prompt Google to cancel its involvement in Project Maven, a government effort to use artificial intelligence to automatically process military drone footage.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search. Get FREE SEO Audit report in 48 hours!
-
Google Page Speed Insights: How to Make Website Rank Higher in Mobile Search
-Google Page Speed has been a search ranking factor for months now. Hope you know!!!
If you are still putting up with slow website, it is time to go MAD (Make A Difference) because the fear of slow website is the beginning of wisdom in online marketing…
53% of mobile site visits leave a web page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load; according to Think with Google.
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search. Get FREE SEO Audit report in 48 hours!
What is Page Speed?
Page speed is a measurement of how fast the content on your web page loads in user’s web browser.
Google’s recent data on how PageSpeed affects performance and profitability shows that while more than half of overall web traffic comes from mobile devices, mobile conversion rates are lower than desktop.
To summarize this, web page loading speed equals revenue. …..NEED FOR SPEED….
Why is Google Page Speed Critical?
Google started using mobile page speed as a ranking factor in their mobile search results; since July 2018. Apart from being an official Google Search Ranking factor, the speed at which a website loads affects:
- Customer experience
- User engagement
- Conversion rate
Should You Lose Sleep Over Terrible Page Speed?
Yes, you should. And this is why: 70% of mobile landing pages typically take more than 5 seconds for the visual content above the fold to display on the screen, and it takes more than 7 seconds to fully load all visual content above and below the fold.
Meaning?
Slow website drives prospects away, especially if you are targeting young Internet users (including Millennials), upwardly mobile netizens, busy moms, online shoppers who have too many alternatives already. All these people among others do not have the luxury of time to wait a decade for a web page to load…How to Find Out Google Page Speed?
Use Google Page Speed Insights
How Can I Make My Website Faster?
Take these steps to at least remove bloated content that typically makes web pages take forever to load:
- Get a better Web Host
- Enable web page caching
- Get a faster Website Theme
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- Remove Unnecessary Plugins and Add-ons
- Load Analytics and Ad Networks Code Asynchronously
- Enable Expiry tag for old images & other web contents
- Reduce (not completely remove) Social Sharing Buttons on Your Website
Request for Free Website Audit to improve keyword ranking and general performance in organic search. Get FREE SEO Audit report in 48 hours!
-
Get Free Website Audit to Know Why Your Website Desnt Show in Google
-SEO audit, also known as website audit, is the beginning of effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy.
How about free SEO Audit for your website?
SEO Audit helps you unravel technical SEO and on-page issues you need to fix on your website as well as opportunities for content marketing and link building.
On the average, organic traffic (from web searches) makes up around 30% of overall website’s traffic. It also can deliver upwards to 20% – 25% conversion rate; according to SEOclartiy.
WTF is SEO Audit?
SEO audit involves analyzing your website content and pages for insights, problems and improvements to be made in order to improve performance in organic search and get more organic traffic from web searches from both desktop and mobile devices.
You can call SEO Audit a process of altering and strengthening a website’s online visibility; especially but not limited to organic web search.
Bad news, if your website has not undergone thorough SEO audit for at least once. Why?
You could be investing so much money, time and resources trying to patch a problem you could outrightly solve in a day and then move on to better online visibility, both via organic search and other related channels.
Request for FREE SEO AUDIT for you website. You will your SEO AUDIT report in 24 hours.
Why Is Website Audit Important?
SEO Audit reveals typical issues with important components of a website such as content -related issues, site architecture, indexing, backlink analysis and social-media engagement.
What Website Audit Report Reveals?
SEO audit report presents insights into:
- Technical SEO issues
- On-page SEO fixes
- Content Optimization issues
- Keyword opportunity and difficulty
- Potential web traffic volume and sources
- Analysis of top competitors in organic search
- Backlinks opportunities
Benefits of SEO Audit?
It’s rare to find a single report in Digital Marketing that provides huge benefits like these but SEO audit done by seasoned expert could provide you with the following:
- Keyword Optimization & Ranking Opportunities
- Right Content Optimization Approach
- Actionable Link Building Strategy
- Insights into Competitors’ Strength in Organic Search
- Competitor’s Backlink Profile & How to Leverage It
Request for FREE SEO AUDIT for you website. You will your SEO AUDIT report in 24 hours.
-
Google Dataset Search Engine Launched to Provide Detailed Insights on Selected Topics.
-Google Dataset Search Engine Launched to Provide Detailed Insights on Selected Topics.
Instagram Dives into e-Commerce with a Rumoured Shopping App, Google Chrome Address Bar Now Shows Search Results, Facebook User Engagement Declines by 42%.
Here is my recap of what happened in the world of online marketing during the week.
Online Marketing Updates by ContentKrush gives you latest news in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing in the past week.
Google Dataset Search Engine Launched to Provide Detailed Insights on Selected Topics.
Google Dataset Search is a new service to find data from sciences, government and selected news organizations.
Using dataset schema, publishers, agencies, organizations and companies can mark up data to get their data file included in the new Google Dataset Search engine.
What’s the catch?
Dataset Search allows searchers to find datasets on many topics across environmental and social sciences, as well as data from other disciplines including government data and data provided by news organizations.
Google Dataset Search Engine Launched
Google Dataset Search feature will be used by scientists, data journalists, data geeks and anyone who is curious about the data behind a specific topic.
Finding data for research has never been easier!
What should you do?
Mark up your published data web pages (like survey, market research, reports, stats or any form of well organized insights) so that Google can display it to searchers within this new vertical search feature that is still in Beta stage.
Log on to https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/dataset to find guidelines for featuring your data in Google Dataset Search Engine.
Read up —> Search Engine Land
Instagram Dives into e-Commerce with a Rumoured Stand-alone Shopping App.
If this comes through, Instagram users would be able to search for products and make purchases directly in the app -according to The Verge reports.
Instagram is yet to comment on this report by The Verge though.
instagram shopping app
What’s the catch?
It’s been more than a year since Instagram opened up shoppable organic posts to apparel, jewelry and beauty brands.
Also In June, Instagram offered a shopping bag icon to a select number of retailers, allowing them to add an e-commerce element within their Stories.
And as such, Instagram already has a sufficient number of retailers and advertisers already pushing products on the platform. So it may happen sooner than expected.
What should you do?
If you sell online or do marketing for e-Commerce business, be prepared!
Follow relevant influencers and blogs where you can get all the gist before anyone else, so you can jump on Instagram shopping app when it finally rolls out.
Read up —–> Marketing Land
Google Chrome Now Shows Search Results in the ‘Omnibox’ Bar by Default.
Google Chrome 69 ‘omnibox’ bar now allows you to type in URLs or search queries, as it shows you search result answers to what you type.
This new feature is similar to how Google search works, but now shows directly in the Google Chrome latest version that was released on Tuesday September 4, 2018.
Chrome Omnibox search
What’s the catch?
Google Chrome 69 Omnibox will show answers directly in the web browser address bar without you having to open a separate tab.
It can show rich search results on public figures, sporting events, instant answers like the local weather forecast and translation of a foreign word.
What should you do?
Enjoy the new Google Chrome 69 Omnibox search bar as you can do more within a browser now. You won’t need to open a million web browser tabs because your work spreads across multiple web pages!
Read up —–> Search Engine Land
42% of Facebook Users Stepped back from Daily Activity and Engagement. -Pew Survey June 2018.
According to new survey data from the Pew Research Center (June 2018), 42% Facebook users have stepped back from daily activity and engagement.
This stands in marked contrast to a March 2018 Pew survey that found 74% of Facebook users visited daily while 51% visited multiple times a day.
Decline in Facebook Engagement
What’s the catch?
To corroborate this sharp decline in usage and engagement revealed by Pew Survey, Facebook’s Q2 results shows that its daily active user metrics were flat in North America and declined in Europe.The totality of the Pew survey evidence and other polls by Reuters (March 2018) argues that many Facebook users have become ambivalent and less engaged, especially since the notorious Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
What should you do?
Do not rely solely on your huge Company page followers to help spread your brand message, as this is becoming less effective in terms of reach and user engagement.
It is time to make your brand, business, organization or client more human on Facebook. Think of user engagement campaign that can make your target audience take ownership.This way you keep your conversations, advocacy and loyalty in top gear.
Read up —-> Marketing Land
-
Content Marketing ROI: 5 Inspiring Content Marketing Case Studies with Amazing Results!
-Content Marketing ROI is a popular headache among CMOs, marketers in general.
After reading this piece by Stefan Debois from marketo, you will have a better idea of how to pitch Content Marketing in such a way that results will be evident.
Obviously, there are many articles with Content Marketing best practices, proven strategies, and statistics. But there’s one thing that can beat all of these: Clear, actionable, real-life examples.
Content marketing case studies with excellent results can be hard to come by, but here you have successful case studies with awesome results they achieved:
iSpionage Got 58% Increase in Blog Referral Traffic in a Month with Onsite Re-targeting
The growth hacking tool iSpionage runs a pay-per-click marketing blog. By investing in content marketing, they had hoped to capitalize on additional visits. But despite publishing new articles regularly, they weren’t seeing a lot of referral traffic towards the main website. In this case study, they explain how they managed to increase that traffic by 58.09% in just one month by using an exit intent popup.
Lawrence of Morocco Got over 11K Additional Website Visits in 2 Weeks with #GOT Infographics
When the Game of Thrones series was in full swing, it generated huge buzz online. Lawrence of Morocco, offering tailor-made holidays, took advantage of this as much of the series was filmed in Morocco. By creating related content linking back to their product offering, they generated tons of extra traffic to their website.
CollegeRaptor Got 100K Web Visitors/month with Data-driven Content
In this content marketing case study, YesOptimist helped a startup, CollegeRaptor, to get from absolutely no organic traffic to 100K visitors per month in just one year. They created a highly relevant piece of content using nothing but publicly available data which was picked up by several big blog sites, giving them the initial boost in high-quality backlinks.
Originally published: 5 Inspiring Content Marketing Case Studies (with Results!)\
Contact us on +234 813 597 6513
