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Today every business wants to make a strong online impression. To make your customers fall in love with your online business it is not enough to create an appealing website but you have to work hard to enhance your customers’ experience when they visit your online business. There are different web development platforms available out there to create websites. If you are considering creating a web application then AngularJS development is a helpful way for you. AngularJS is a popular JavaScript framework that offers extensive features to create advanced web applications. Here are the top 5 reasons to go for AngularJS web development. 

1. Backed by Google

AngularJS is backed by one of the world’s leading tech giants Google that makes it a reliable web development framework. This framework has a solid codebase and it is one of the most stable JavaScript frameworks. Due to its reliability and stable code, most developers and companies prefer to work with this framework for developing high-end web applications. 

2. Seamless integration

When it is about the collaboration of the framework with other libraries for AngularJS web development, it offers seamless integration. If a web developer wants to work with varied object-oriented MVC frameworks for developing server-side solutions, AngularJS serves as an easy way for developing client-side code. 

3. MVC architecture

AngularJS works with the principles of MVC architecture to build interactive and robust web applications. When it comes to working with many other frameworks, web developers are required to divide the code into components. The developers write code for different components and combine them. In the case of AngularJS development, javascript developers deal with different code components that are readily available with this framework. As it follows MVC architecture, so the code is divided among Model, View, and Controller components. 

4. Excellent data binding

A major reason why developers choose AngularJS for developing web apps is due to the two-way data binding capacity. As a result, any change that you make in the interface is immediately reflected in the app’s interface. This is important for saving development time as you can easily see the effects of changes you make in your app. Developers can know the effects of any change that they want to commit in their apps and ensure a greater quality of web applications. 

5. Use of directives

HTML is utilized as the pattern language is AngularJS web development that also comprises directives. These directives help in promoting good conduct for coding. They help you focus on creating logics that influence you to work more beneficially. You can reuse them that enable you to ensure code readability. By creating a readable and reusable code, you can create a more robust and high-performance web application. 

Final words

These are a few reasons that make AngularJS a popular front-end development framework. When it comes to web development you have to deal with both front-end and back-end. Front-end is the part of a website that you can see and interact with – the user interface of a web app. To accomplish front-end development, you need to use frameworks like AngularJS that allows creating interactive and appealing user interfaces for web apps. Although there are lots of front-end web frameworks, AngularJS is one of the most used frameworks, 

We have discussed some of the top reasons for why you should choose AngularJS development for creating web apps. There are several other reasons that make it an ideal choice for developing web applications for all kinds of businesses whether small, medium, or large enterprises. It offers a quick and convenient way of developing web apps. 

A Picture Worth 1,000 Words: Top 12 Famous Photographers of All Time

In the United States, there are currently about 50,000 professional photographers.

Out of all of these professional photographers, only a select few will be remembered and be famous enough to make it into the history books.

But what photographers have already made it into the history books? There are so many famous photographers, but here are a few that you definitely need to know about. 

1. Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is one of the best photographers because he puts so much money into making his photographs. Consider some movies with a million-dollar budget.  Gregory Crewdson would use that same budget to create a single photograph. 

He would set up an entire, large-scale set just to take a photograph or two. With each photograph, they get more and more extravagant. 

One thing that makes Gregory Crewdson unique is that he uses everything available to him in order to get the style of photograph that he wants. Some of his pictures include broken fire hydrants, dilapidated buildings, and old towns. 

He specializes in using a large-format camera in order to get the look and type of photograph that he wants. 

If you get a chance, you need to check these photographs out in person. You can view them online, but they just don’t have the same depth and texture that they do in person. 

You could spend hours looking at these eery photographs and absorbing every detail that’s in the photograph.

2. Robert Frank

Robert Frank isn’t as modern as Gregory Crewdson, but his work is still notable. He was born in 1924, and when he was seventeen years old, he became a photographer for commercials. He worked in Zurich and Geneva.

Six years later, he became a photographer for fashion. While he was doing that, he used a camera that people weren’t using at the time, which was the 35mm Leica. 

Later on in his career, he diversified his portfolio even more and got into photojournalism and street photography. Once he started doing this, he really found his niche and made a name for himself. 

He started traveling around the United States and started photographing some of what would end up being the best pictures in his portfolio. 

His black and white photographs show the day-to-day lives of average Americans. He had a talent for capturing people’s real emotions, which his why so many people recognize his photographs.

Eventually, he compiled many of his famous photographs into a book called The Americans. To get content for his book, he drove across the entire American country in the 1950s. By doing this, he was able to get photographs of everyday Americans doing everyday things. 

Once he had done all of that, he was able to compile and publish his book. He had a famous writer at the time, Jack Kerouac, write an introduction for it, but once it was published, many critics hated it. 

As the years went on, the critics decided that maybe his work wasn’t all that bad. As the years went on, his photographs became something that would be considered classic art. 

3. Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus was also a photographer who took black and white photos in America. However, unlike Robert Frank, she specialized in photographing New Yorkers during the ’50s and ’60s. 

She loved photographing things that were outside of the norm. For example, she took photographs of people who performed in circuses, transgender people, disabled people, and even people with tattoos. Due to this, many people called her a “photographer of freaks.” 

However, that’s also what made her portraits stand out from all the rest of them.  In a time where people like that weren’t really accepted, Diane Arbus gave them a platform and a spotlight. 

Arbus was so influential that they actually made a biographical movie on her called Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. 

4. Robert Capa

Robert Capa focused on photographing war, and he actually photographed five different wars. 

He wanted to be close to all of his subjects in order to get good photographs, so he was often in the midst of all the combat and action. 

This is what helped set him apart from other photographers because most other photographers only took them from a distance. 

These black and white photos get up close and personal with common soldiers. They are a living part of history. 

5. Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier is an interesting photographer, and she became famous after she died. 

Her photographs were discovered by John Maloof in 2007. In a trunk he had purchased, he found a bunch of her undeveloped film. Once he developed them, he found thousands of photos that Maier had taken. 

After her photographs were discovered, people started digging into her life and learning more about her. She was a nanny for most of her life, and she took most of her photos in New York and Chicago. She just captured anything that caught her attention.

Her camera of choice was a twin-lens 6×6 camera. She took it everywhere with her just in case she found something she wanted to photograph. 

She practiced a lot, and you can tell that that practice paid off. Even though her photographers were more modern, it looks like she took them in the ’30s or ’40s. 

She also took many photographs of some of the people on the street. Some of them are candid, like of little kids crying or people sleeping in their open convertible on the street. 

6. Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon was born in 1923, and he lived until 2004. 

His specialty was taking photos of fashion and people. As one of the earlier photographers, he helped to guide the style and fashion in America. 

When he first started his career as a photographer, he worked for Harper’s Bazaar. After he worked for them for a while, he then started his own photography studio when he was only twenty-six years old. While he was there, he took pictures that would later appear in Life and Vogue. 

He used a large-format 8×10 view camera, and slowly he started building his reputation as one of the most famous photographers. 

He was interested in portraits especially because he enjoyed capturing the personality of his subjects. He always tried to bring his photographs to life and make you feel like you really knew the person that you were looking at. 

7. Andy Warhol

You may have heard of Andy Warhol before. While he is known for his unique and famous paintings, he was actually into photography as well. 

He viewed photography as a way to capture the real things in life, and he saw it as a type of visual diary. When you look at his art and photography, you’ll find that a lot of it has a double meaning, so an art critic may wonder if keeping a visual diary was ever really his intention. 

The “Father of Pop Art” first started using a Brownie camera when he was only ten years old. He had grown up in Pittsburgh, so many of his first photographs were taken in his local neighborhood. 

Later, in the ’70s, he started using a Polaroid camera. Once he became skilled at using Polaroids, he was actually commissioned to start taking Polaroids of famous celebrities. 

Eventually, he was able to have his own studio, and he started taking these commissioned Polaroids against a plain white background. This style of Polaroids made the celebrity the focus. In addition to these famous Polaroids, he also took many famous black and white photographs. 

He kept taking photographs up until when he died in 1987. 

If you’re looking for Andy Warhol art, there are many places where you can find it. If you like it enough, some of it is even available to buy so you can hang this famous art in your own home. 

8. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in 1908 and then died in 2004. 

Unlike some of the other photographers on this list, he was a French photographer. He mastered the art of candid photography.  He took these candids on the street, capturing some of the most intimate and realistic moments. 

During a time where no one was really using 35mm film, he decided that he was going to become a master of it. 

Later on, when he had enough photographs, he made a book out of all of them. In this book, he made all of his subjects come to life and make you feel like you really knew them and saw them in real life.

9. Tim Walker

Tim Walker is also a fashion photographer, but he has said before he doesn’t really care about how important the brands are or not. This is what gives him a unique advantage. 

He has an active imagination, and this shows up in his creativity. Even though he’s a fashion photographer, he’s also photographed portraits for actors, directors, and designers. 

In some of his portraits, he incorporates florals and creates a surreal, fantasy picture. His colorful and vibrant photos are something that would fit a calming, interesting aesthetic. 

10. Ansel Adams

Instead of taking portraits or shooting fashion photography, Ansel Adams is a popular nature and landscape photographer. 

His photographs are so popular that you’ve probably seen them at some point; you just may not have realized whose photographs they were. His photographs appear in books, on posters, and even as screen savers. Some of his most popular photographs include black and white photos of Yosemite Valley in California. 

He was important for inventing a system to make sure they had a good exposure for black and white films. This process is called Fred Archer, and many photographers still use it today. 

11. Gary Winogrand

Gary Winogrand is another street photographer who was based in New York City. 

At the beginning of his career, he was a freelance photojournalist. In addition to that, he also took advertisement photos. 

Unlike other famous photographers, he would take a photograph without looking through the camera lens. Instead of trying to find a focal point through the lens of the camera, he would just guess where it was and hope it turned out.

Despite this odd technique, his photographs still came out perfectly, proving just how much natural talent he had. 

As he practiced, he got better and better at doing this, and his black and white photos became famous around the world. 

He also used a wide-angle lens, even when shooting portraits. This technique wasn’t commonly used, but somehow it still worked. 

12. Philippe Halsman

Lastly, Philippe Halsman is another photographer that you should know about. 

He was popular in the ’40s, and he photographed for the next thirty years until he passed away in 1979. If you’ve subscribed to LIFE magazine, you’ve probably seen his photographs. He has the record for the most covers for one photographer for the magazine. 

If you’ve heard of Salvador Dali, you may not be surprised to hear that these two were actually close friends. They collaborated on many creative projects as well. The popular Salvador Dali portrait you see with his mustache hairs pointing straight up was actually shot by Halsman.

Salvador Dali wasn’t the only famous person Halsman photographed though. There are also pictures of Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Marilyn Monroe. 

He was always good at getting his subjects to feel natural and comfortable when he was behind the camera. He had a great sense of humor, which you can see in most of his work. 

Discover More Famous Photographers

These are only a few of the famous photographers from history, but there are so many more out there. 

If you get a chance, try going to a photography or art museum to see some of these photographer’s photos in real life. Even though you can view them online, there’s something special about seeing them up close in person.

If you enjoyed this article, make sure that you also explore our website to find more just like this one!

How important is it for you to detect flaws in your early product development life-cycle? Wanna save your organization from bearing heavy financial losses? Then you must have qualified testers in your QA team or may hire services of independent software testing companies to make your application bug-free in early software development life-cycle. Catching an important bug in your application can help you relieve from facing costs and increases your chances of standing out.

No doubt, all systems, and applications may have some glitches. The desire to create a bug-free application is in contradiction with the reality i.e the lack of special tools to uncover the glitches until it’s too late in the application development life-cycle. On the other hand, catching bugs can be a great challenge for testers. Many testers are formally trained before it is expected of them to catch bugs while many use their own specific innate abilities to detect. In the Information Technology domain, effective bug hunting is a competitive niche among the testers. 

Here we are spilling out some of the best practices for hunting bugs, which testers can adopt to ensure best quality software product;

Try to explore as much as you can – It is widely being observed that a loophole in tester’s failure to hunt for bugs is their strict adherence to the pre-defined test cases. Test cases are good at detecting flaws and errors but they can’t make sure that an application is 100% free of bugs. It is therefore recommended for testers to explore the functionality of an application under test. It is found as an effective method of suspecting glitches and bugs, by different high profile testers.

Look out for patterns – Software errors are inherently social in nature. They like to stay in groups. Most of the errors have their own unique nature, that makes them singular. Try to look for the patterns that software bugs follow. Jot down the test ideas which helped you in the past for the detection of bugs as past experiences prove to be very helpful.  

Work hard in the most hurtful place – When you encounter errors, don’t panic and take it easy. This may just be a starting point, not the end! Don’t race to log it into the bug/issue/defect tracker. 

Suspecting an error directs that there is a loose link in the software. Before coming across this error, the system may have entered an unstable state. Assume that the system is in a shaky state, it is recommended to abuse it more; provide more crazy input than ever; encourage gallon data entry; reduce available system resources; try to place it to the point where it may cause the application under test to crash. Who knows that you may soon experience the horrible face of early bugs! Once you suspect it, don’t skip to jot down all the details and check the repeatability before logging it into the tracker.

Hear the steps of an approaching bug! – A good tester must hear the hiss of an approaching bug! It’s not an exaggeration at all. One of the common practices of successful testers is that they wear a headset while hunting for bugs. This way testers are enabled to hear the various background sounds including the ding of a warning message or a buzz of several other messages. Moreover, it also aids in listening to the specific background sound of errors which usually don’t show up on the screen. 

Better a couple than single! – A most common statement is remarked about testers that they never run out of ideas. Well, this quality is a desirable one. Testers are humans too and are also prone to failures. Sometimes it’s possible that your test cases may not be able to uncover the bugs in the application or software. That’s the point where you need another tester to intervene. Request your fellow tester to come and test along with you. This helps in the generation of more and more test ideas and thus results in brilliant testing i.e 90% error detection. 

Conclusion

The practices we have described may work in your case but not in another because it might vary from context to context. Therefore it is recommended that the tester must know what sort of problems he is likely to encounter and then research or jot down different globally appreciated practices to hunt bugs. 

How to Become a Bodybuilder: The Top Tips You Should Know

Approximately 62 percent of Americans report having weight loss goals. For many, these goals involve shedding a few pounds and having their clothes fit a little better. For some, though, the goal is more specific.

Their intention is not just to look good, but great. They want to reach extreme levels of muscularity and leanness. They want to step on stage and compete as a bodybuilder. 

Are you interested in learning how to become a bodybuilder? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for answers to all your most pressing bodybuilding questions.

Reasons to Pursue Bodybuilding

Some people, the question isn’t necessarily how to be a bodybuilder to how to become a female bodybuilder. Their questions are more along the lines of “Why would someone want to be a bodybuilder?”

There are actually a lot of benefits that come with participating in the sport (yes, it’s a sport) of bodybuilding, including the following:

• Increase your confidence
• Challenge yourself to do something new
• Gain a more thorough understanding of fitness and nutrition
• Feel empowered by setting and sticking to a goal
• Learn self-discipline

This last point is especially important. If you want to compete and do well as a bodybuilder, you have to be a highly disciplined individual. It’s not easy to do, but you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish when you dial things in and demand excellence from yourself.

Who Should Pursue Bodybuilding?

Those benefits of bodybuilding sound pretty great, don’t they? Before you decide to dive headfirst into the bodybuilding world, though, it’s important to note that it’s not for everyone. Some people are better cut out for this type of competition than others, including the following:

• Those who have enough time and energy to dedicate to consistent training and dieting (preparing for a bodybuilding competition is a months-long process that needs to be taken seriously)
• Those who do not have a significant amount of weight to lose (if you are very overweight or obese, you’ll have a much harder time getting down to competition-levels of leanness)
• Those who have taken time to build a sufficient amount of muscle (remember, in order to win a bodybuilding competition, you must be muscular and lean, not just skinny)
• Those who do not have a history of disordered eating
• Those who have the funds to dedicate to competition prep (paying a trainer or coach, paying competition fees, buying a competition suit, traveling to competitions, etc.)
• Those who are able to accept criticism and lose with grace

It’s important to assess your reasons before you decide to embark on a bodybuilding journey, too. What are you hoping to get out of being a bodybuilder? Are you pursuing these goals because you want to challenge yourself and your fitness, or are you trying to mask your insecurities?

The answers to these questions are very important, as they will help you determine whether you have the right mindset to compete in bodybuilding.

How to Become a Bodybuilder

If you’ve assessed your motivations and situation and decided that bodybuilding is right for you, it’s time to get down to brass tacks. If you want to become a bodybuilder and have a good chance of winning when you step on stage, here are some steps you’ll need to take:

Choose a Show

Start by figuring out when you want to compete. When choosing a show, remember that it takes several months to get to a place where you can stand up against other bodybuilders and have a chance of beating them.

Don’t choose a show three months away if you’re nowhere near stage-ready. Be honest with where you are right now and look for a realistic show date. Be sure to consider how much time you need to spend building muscle before you try to shed body fat and lean out, too.

Plan Your Workouts

Next, think about how you’re going to phase your workouts leading up to your show.

This is another time where brutal honesty is required. Which aspects of your physique need the most work? Do you need to focus on building muscle in your glutes or shoulders, for example?

Assess yourself and figure out where you need to place the most emphasis during your workouts.

Plan Your Meals

A clean, healthy diet is essential if you want to be a competitive bodybuilder. When you start dieting for your show, you’ll need to make sure you’re eating in a calorie deficit and tracking your macronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats) with precision.

Consider whether you need to “bulk” before dieting, too. This involves eating in a calorie surplus to help your body put on muscle. If you do plan on bulking prior to your show, you’ll need to make sure you have enough time to diet down to an appropriate stage weight beforehand. 

Hire a Coach or Trainer

If all this is sounding a bit overwhelming, you don’t have to give up on your dreams of becoming a bodybuilder. You may want to hire a coach or trainer to help you through the process, though.

They can help you to create a workout plan that targets your weaknesses, and they can put together a diet protocol that allows you to lean out and get stage-ready in time for your show. They’ll help you find out more about which supplements you ought to be using, too.

A coach’s services don’t come cheap, but they’re worth it if you want to have a good chance of winning or placing well when the time for your competition rolls around.

Be Patient

Finally, be patient. A lot of people have questions like “How long does it take to become a bodybuilder?” and the short answer is “as long as it takes.”

One of the best bodybuilding tips to keep in mind is to be patient and trust the process. It’ll take several months (and often multiple rounds of bulking and dieting) for you to achieve your ideal physique, so you need to make sure you’re in it for the long haul. 

Is Bodybuilding Right for You?

Now that you know more about how to become a bodybuilder, what do you think? Are you still interested in stepping on stage and competing? If so, be sure to follow the tips discussed above to ensure your physique is stage-ready in time for your first show.

To learn more about health, fitness, and bodybuilding, check out some of the other resources available on our site. From exercises to supplement protocols, we’ve got lots of information you can use to guide yourself through show prep and beyond.

Over millions of startups start every year, but only 30% of the startups succeed. There are various reasons for it, and it can be different for different startups.

However, as per research, most of the startups fail because of their inability to operate with the minimum requirements at the beginning.

If you help yourself, and your team with these must-have gadgets, then there are higher chances that your start-up would make a profit over time.

Eight Essential Gadgets for A Start-Up:

Starting a new venture calls for the two most important things:

• Investment, and

• Planning.

Most of the time, the failure is not because of funds, but due to lack of planning. So, make a plan for your business to ensure its growth. The first thing to count in your planning is, must-haves for your startup business.

Here is the relevant list for the same.

Smartphones

We all are having smartphones, and we all are aware of its use. However, there should be a separate phone for your personal and professional use. It makes it easy to make your operations smooth.

Your personal engagements over calls will never make your mails, business chats, and other business notifications on the phone left unnoticed.

It is more important for the sales team of your company, for smoother operations. You can provide the sales team smartphones from your end and restrict the personal use of that smartphone.

Notebooks and Tablets

It is essential for a startup to make notes of every small and big thing. If you do not keep a note of things, you can miss out on things that can be important.

Also, you might be having different age groups in your company. Some might be comfortable in making the offline notes while others are comfortable to note down the things online. So, make the availabilities accordingly.

Moreover, both the tablets are notebooks are portable. You cannot carry your laptops and desktop everywhere.

Notebooks and Tablets keep you up to date and always ready with the follow-ups and updates. However, there are a few pros of using tablets over notebooks, as you get the alerts and things are more organized. Still, you shall allow your employees to work as per their comfort.

Portable Charger

With automation, we are using a lot of gadgets around us in our office. So, if we want all our devices to work without interruption, we should be ready with the backup.

You might be frequently out for meetings when we talk about startups. So, you shall not suffer due to the fault in your gadgets. Carry the portable battery charger for emergency support. In case if you have to rush from one place to another without reaching to the electric socket in your office, you have an alternative to it.

Hard Drives

With the facility of cloud storage, we do not like to have an add on for carrying the storage devices. With Google drive, and other cloud sharing services available over the web, we do not carry the hard drives.

However, there is a huge security issue for your files when you upload it over the cloud storage. One can access the data anytime, and can perp into your company insights. It is better that you shall be in a habit of carrying a portable storage device and pass on a similar trend to your employees. It will also be handy in a situation wherever the internet is not working, and the cloud services fail.

USB Hubs

The transfer of data is often required for smooth functioning in the offices. You may require to transfer the data from one device to another, and due to lack of facilities, we waste a lot of time.

So, never let yourself or your employees get stuck in this condition. It considerably hampers the performance and efficiency of the work. In USB hubs there are multiple ports for connecting multiple slots.

All the offices using the USB hubs save a lot of time, and employees have considerable convenience.

Power Backup Device

Electricity supply is a big issue. Even if the power cut is not a frequent concern in your area, it is anytime possible due to bad weather conditions. Most of the time, you may lose your data on your devices, due to the immediate shutdown of your desktops.

So, your office area should always be supported by a power backup. You cannot hamper your work due to the inconsistency in the supply of the system. You must be alert and well-prepared at your end.

Router For High-Speed Internet

With the globalization of businesses, you have to connect most of the time with your national and international clients over the web.

All the big and small software used for the working of the startup often requires internet to perform ideally. Moreover, in the increasing trend of online business. Your startup might suffer considerably even if you have a problem with the internet for an hour.

Wireless Headphones

Gone are the days when meetings were held in the offices. Nowadays most of the interactions are done through web conferences.

In such a scenario noise cancellation headphones are a must-have for you as well as your employees. So, you can go to minimalisation, and keep only a few headphones, as some might carry their own headphones while not all require to attend the meeting simultaneously.

However, it is not something that can be avoided. It is an important gadget and highly useful for startups as well as developed companies.

Final Words

If you want to leave no stone unturned to make your startup a success, you shall work on the availability of the resources too.

Make sure your performance does not suffer due to lack of availability of a few important gadgets, that requires a minimum funding compared to huge capital investments.

5 Top Tips When You Buy and Sell Antiques

If you’re the type that likes to buy and sell antiques, then you’re in the right place.

If you’re in the antique industry you know that this isn’t an easy market. There’s a very specific type of population that purchases antiques, and operating a profitable business requires a real depth of industry knowledge.

For solid antique buying and selling tips, look no further than these five.

1. Get Your Antiques Appraised

The first thing that you should do when buying or selling an antique item is to get it appraised. Unless you have a very significant amount of experience valuing antiques, chances are that you won’t be able to assign it a value with just a single glance.

Remember that the money that you invest in a professional appraisal will come back to you in the form of you knowing how much to charge for it. Make sure that you only get a USPAP appraisal done.

2. Consult With Other Buyers and Sellers

You don’t have to do buying and selling antiques alone! You should focus on building your network in this industry. One of the best ways to do that is by consulting with other buyers and sellers whenever you need some advice on how to price, sell, or buy an item.

Don’t think of your network as competition for your business. Instead, think of them as potential buyers and sellers that you might want to deal with. Given that perspective, you’ll be able to sell your antiques for them at a margin and vice versa.

3. Stage Your Antiques

Just like with home staging, antique staging is crucial to get your stuff sold as soon as possible. By staging your antiques in the right setting, you can help prospective buyers envision how they would use the item or decorate their home with it.

And any time that you can do that, you bring a whole new level of a personal touch to your shop. Before you know it, you’ll be selling more antiques than ever before. 

4. Operate in Bulk

When you operate in bulk, it doesn’t matter if you have low margins. You’ll still be able to make very decent money because of the volume that you buy and sell.

By transitioning your antique business to a volume-based one, you can buy and sell your merchandise faster. Even though you won’t make as good of a deal on each one, the sales will add up to a significant profit margin for you in the long run.

5. Be Willing to Walk Away from a Deal

Last but not least, be willing to walk away from a deal. Whenever you go into a negotiation, whether you’re buying or selling you need to have a number in mind that you won’t go below or above. 

If the other party can’t agree on that number, then walk away. It’s not worth sacrificing your margin.

Buy and Sell Antiques the Right Way

There you have it — how to buy and sell antiques the right way. 

For more business advice, be sure to check out the rest of the articles on the website!

Blog to Book: How to Turn Your Blog Into a Top Selling Book

Building a successful blog is hard work. You have to become an expert in your field, learn about web design and search engine optimization, spend a lot of time on marketing, and hope you have a post or two go viral. Once you’ve built a solid platform, it’s natural to start looking toward the next steps in your writing career.

Many successful bloggers have been able to take their business to the next level by writing a book. You already have an established group of readers, several hundred thousand words written on a subject, and a reputation as a relative expert, so it’s a natural fit. If you’re thinking about taking your writing from blog to book, read on to learn how.

Find a Unique Angle

When you’re starting the process of turning your blog into a book, the first thing you’re going to want to do is find your unique angle. One of the advantages of starting out as a blogger is you already have some expertise on your particular subject. You know what’s on the market, what readers are looking for, and which questions still need to be answered in your field.

Try to find a book topic within your wheelhouse that presents a unique angle. Think about what it is about your blog that keeps readers coming back and sets you apart from the millions of other websites. If you’re looking for inspiration or ideas, you can find some great choices here. 

Create a Content Plan 

Once you’ve figured out your angle, it’s time to map out the content plan of your book. This should at the very least be a general sketch of the topics you’ll cover in the book, if not a detailed table of contents. This will serve as the skeleton you’ll build your book around.

It can be tempting to put together a book with blog posts you’ve already written, but that won’t fly in the publishing world. Why would readers pay $25 for a book when they can read the whole thing online for free? Instead, use your blog as a guide for ideas when you’re developing this content plan.

Mine Your Blog Posts

With your content plan in place, it’s time to dive into the process of writing your book. And while you shouldn’t copy any of your blog posts directly, they can still be a huge resource in writing your book.

Go back through blog posts related to the chapter you’re working on and mine them for information. You’ve already done a huge amount of research, thinking, and writing on the topic, so use that to inform your book chapters. Pull relevant factoids and ideas, and revise old statistics and information that’s changed since you published older posts.

Create the Missing Content

Your book content plan should contain brand-new topics that aren’t on your blog. Once you’ve written everything that you have already blogged about, it’s time to start filling in the gaps. Research the new topics the same way you would for a blog post and start adding those into your draft. 

It’s not a bad idea to put out some blog posts related to the missing content after you’ve written the chapters. This can start priming your audience for your book. Once you get closer to the release date, you may even want to release a chapter or two of the new content as a sort of teaser.

Hire an Editor

Once everything in your book has been written, it’s time to start the editing process. Read through the book several times, and change everything you can to make it as perfect as possible. Once you’re convinced the book is as good as it can get, it’s time to bring in an editor.

A good editor will help you make your book even better than you thought it could be. They’ll correct the grammar mistakes you’ve missed, suggest changes where things may be unclear, and help you improve the overall flow of your manuscript. You only get one chance at a good first impression with an agent or a publisher, so it’s worth every cent to hire an editor who will make your manuscript shine. 

Assemble a Solid Platform

One of the biggest things publishers look for in potential authors is a solid platform. Your platform is the specific thing that will help your book sell; in some cases, it may be that the author is a celebrity or that the book covers a topic that’s been making news lately. In your case, your platform will be your established body of readers.

If you can go to a publisher with a guarantee that you already have 10,000 people who will buy your book because those people read your blog every week, you’re much more likely to get a publishing contract. Get together your blog’s readership data to include in your publishing submission. The more detailed information you can give about the readers you’ve already garnered, the better.

Start the Publishing Process

Edited manuscript and platform presentation in hand, it’s time to launch into the publishing process. You have two choices for how to publish your book: with a publishing house or through a self-publishing service.

If you have an extremely well-developed readership and don’t mind doing a lot of legwork for marketing, self-publishing may be a good choice for you. Self-publishing allows you to keep a greater percentage of your royalties, but the trade-off is all marketing for the book will be on you.

You may choose to work through a professional publishing house as well. If you want to submit your book to the Big Five publishers (Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuester, and the rest), you’ll need to work through an agent. Be sure to find an agent who specializes in your genre.

Make the Leap From Blog to Book

Writing a book is a challenging process no matter how you slice it. But starting with a well-established blog can make the process easier and give your book a better chance at success. Make sure when you’re making the leap from blog to book that you stay focused on your unique angle and give your readers something new to love. 

If you’d like get some advice on growing your blog, check out the rest of our website. We can help you drive traffic, generate leads, and create content that will bring in money. Check out our other articles about writing today.

Top 5 Business Payment Systems Every First-Time Entrepreneur Should Consider

They say time is money. And if you’re one of the 30.2 million small businesses in the United States, you know that very well. 

That’s why finding ways to simplify how you do business can help you maximize time and run and grow a successful shop.

Discover how business payment systems can help ensure you get paid and focus on what you do best.

Business Payment Systems: What Are They?

Business payment solutions offer an easy way for you to receive payment and for customers to pay you. These systems can take care of all the various steps involved when you process customer payments. That includes swiping credit cards and safely storing credit card information.

Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store or an exclusively web-based business, online payment processing can streamline how you process and receive payments.

Online Payment Systems for Small Businesses

Your small business payment processing needs may depend on several factors—including the size of your business, your average customer, and whether you want an all-in-one POS (point of service) and payment processing system.

Here are five online payment systems to consider for your small business.

Authorize.net

If you’d like your customers to be able to make payments directly on your website, Authorize.net will help you accomplish that. Instead of redirecting visitors to your website to a third-party payment platform, shoppers can pay directly on your site.

Using this payment gateway service allows you to accept all major credit cards as well as digital payments through platforms like Apple Pay and PayPal.

PayPal

PayPal is another popular platform for accepting business payments. In addition to receiving online payments, you can accept in-person credit card payments through a mobile app and card reader. You can also create and keep track of invoices directly in your online account.

Square

Square not only offers payment processing, but it also provides POS systems as well. With Square you can process credit card payments without incurring fees through the use of a free card reader.

Other bonuses include fraud protection and payments transferred to your bank account in as little as one day. Plus there are no monthly or set-up charges.

QuickBooks Payments

If you want a system that integrates with QuickBooks accounting software, this tool will let you do that. You can choose either a web or computer-based program as well as a pay-as-you-go or monthly payment structure.

Striker Payments

Striker Payments is a merchant account payment processing company that offers an innovative POS system that is easily accessible through an iPad interface. They also offer easy online payment processing for a range of business types and sizes.

Whether you own a small retail shop or an eCommerce or mobile business, Striker Payments has a solution and platform for streamlined payments processing.

Get More Small Business Tips

Have you found this information on business payment systems helpful? Do you want more advice about simplifying your small and growing business? Keep browsing our blog for tips on everything from eCommerce solutions to ideas for growing your brand.

Top SEO Tips to Remember When Promoting Your Website

Getting your website online is only the first step. After that, you need to find a way to market your site to get visitors. Promoting your website with SEO is one of the best ways to do this.

With 67,000 searches performed on Google every second, it doesn’t make sense to ignore SEO for your website. But with all the information out there talking about SEO, it can be hard to figure out where you should start. This post will get you started on the right path.

Keep reading to learn six SEO tips that will help you rank your site on Google.

1. Learn What Your Audience Is Searching For

Content is king when it comes to SEO. The problem is, it can be hard to know what topics to write about on your website. That’s where keyword research comes in.

You can use tools like the Google Keyword Planner to learn what people search for in Google. This tool will give you estimates of the keyword search volume every month. Type a word in, and the keyword tool will provide you with suggestions for keywords that you can target.

Use this data to come up with ideas for blog posts. When writing your posts, you can then integrate your keyword and other similar ideas into your post. This will help your website rank for those terms in Google.

2. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Optimized

Mobile internet use has grown by 504% since 2011. That’s a lot of people that are using their phones instead of their computer to browse websites.

If you don’t provide these people with a pleasant website experience, why should Google show them your website in search results? If your site isn’t mobile-optimized, Google will know and bump your site down in the search results.

To optimize your site, you will need to make your website responsive. This means that whenever someone with a small screen size visits your page, they’ll be shown a different website layout that looks good on smaller screens.

Optimizing for mobile also means being sure that mobile users can load your site in a reasonable time. Every second counts when it comes to page load time.

The first step is to optimize your images. There are compression tools out there that will lower your image file sizes without ruining their quality. Once you finish this, implement lazy image loading on your site so your visitors can see your website without loading the images at the bottom of the page first.

3. Start Optimizing for Voice Search

Text search has dominated information queries since the internet first started to become popular, but that’s beginning to change. With smart devices starting to get good at understanding voice commands, voice search is starting to become more popular.

Because of that, many of the keywords that you would typically optimize your site for will start going down in value. People don’t type the way they speak, so there will be many new search terms that will take their place.

If you can optimize for these terms before your competitors, you’ll get a leg up on the websites that ignore voice searchers.

4. Don’t Ignore Backlinks

Backlinks have gotten a bad reputation over the past few years. That’s because a lot of webmasters have abused them to rank their websites on Google.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t work, and that you can’t use them to improve the SEO for your website. You can think of a backlink as a vote for your site. The higher the reputation a site has that links to you, the more authority you get for your website.

If you can acquire backlinks from several high authority websites, you can see a boost in your Google rankings.

One way to start acquiring backlinks to your website is guest posting. Search for websites that have a similar following to yours and ask if they accept guest contributions to their website. You’ll write a post for their site and include a link in the content that directs visitors back to your page.

It’s a long process, so don’t be afraid to reach out to SEO services to handle this for you. This is one of the easiest ways to acquire traffic for your website.

5. Optimize Your Page Titles

It’s harder than ever to grab a person’s attention on the internet today. Because of this, you need to give your blog posts and pages captivating titles that will grab a person’s attention.

You can do this in two places: your page title and meta description. The page title should tell the visitor exactly what your page is about. Integrate your keyword into the title for Google, and tell searchers what they’ll learn by visiting your website.

Your meta description gives you a chance to talk a little more about your post. Use this space to connect with a searcher.

What problem are they having? What issues does their problem cause? How does going to your website help their problem?

Optimizing these things will increase your click-through rate on search engines. Google wants to rank relevant content, so increasing this will tell Google that your page is answering the questions that their users have.

6. Optimize for Featured Snippets

Google’s goal is the answer the user’s question. To do this, Google created rich snippets to put at the top of their results to answer the user’s question without going to another website.

These snippets can include anything from definitions to lists of products. Google grabs this information from a website they believe does an excellent job of answering search queries.

Because of this, ranking number one on Google isn’t as effective as it used to be. You can be ranked number five and still have a featured snippet at the top of the results.

To get your website there, take a look at the snippets that are currently ranking and research how the website there is doing it. Try to do this on your site so you can capitalize on the snippet position yourself.

Promoting Your Website With SEO Is Worth It

Yes, SEO is a lot of work. But when you put in the work, you’ll reap the benefits long into the future. Use the tips above to start promoting your website.

If you’re looking to take advantage of your new SEO traffic, you need a plan to monetize your traffic. Head back to our blog to read our latest marketing strategies.

Finding a Digital Marketing Firm: The Top Questions to Ask Before Hiring

50.8% of the global population is already online. Roughly speaking, that’s about 4 billion internet users. Without digital marketing, you’re missing out on a big chunk of your potential audience.

With a professional digital marketing firm on your side, you can reach out to this audience and start growing your business! But how do you choose the right one?

Here are five questions to ask when searching for the best marketing companies. 

Once you find your perfect match, you can start growing and beat out the competition!

What Previous Clients Have You Worked With?

First, test the agency’s experience. Have they worked with another company within your industry before? How did it go?

Find digital agencies that have experience with your industry. That way, you can skip the guesswork. They’ll already know what works.

Make sure the agency is equipped to handle your company’s specific needs, too.

Search for an agency that offers experience specific to your industry and needs. Working with them will become a lot easier as a result. 

What Tactics Do You Use?

Some agencies are versatile and offer a long list of tactics. Others perfect the process for a single campaign. 

Ask if they offer a range of digital marketing services or specialize.

For example, Ignite Digital offers a number of services to help businesses grow.

You might need specific help, such as social media marketing or a new website. When choosing a marketing firm, make sure their capabilities and expertise align with your marketing goals.

How Will You Help Me Achieve My Goals?

Marketers who plan their projects are 356% more likely to have a successful campaign. Before you start working with an agency, make sure they have a plan and process in place.

You can also ask:

• Who will become my point of contact?
• How often will we communicate?
• What tools or software do you use?
• How do you keep up with the latest trends?

Make sure the agency’s process provides everything you need before moving forward.

How Do You Measure Success?

What key performance indicators will the marketing firm look for? How will the plan change if those goals aren’t met?

Marketing requires a lot of analytics. Ask how the company will look at the data so you can understand it when a report comes in. 

This is also a great time to inquire about how often they’ll update you about a campaign’s performance. 

How Much Do Your Services Cost?

Your marketing campaign won’t become a success unless you invest time and money. As you search for a marketing firm, make sure you determine their costs.

They might charge based on a project, monthly, or hourly basis. 

In some cases, the firm will offer you a package deal. Make sure to choose an agency that aligns with your budget and overall marketing goals.

Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Digital Marketing Firm

When you team up with a digital marketing firm, you want to know they have your company’s best interests at heart. With these five questions, you can find the perfect match from hundreds of agencies.

Check out the Digital Marketing section on this site for more helpful tips.