Tips to Learn 3D Animation Quickly

Willing to learn 3D animation and find a lucrative job in the field? If yes, then the following post offers some important tips to learn 3D animation quickly and easily. Read on...

With the emergence of new technologies, the role of three dimensional graphics and animation has increased. As a result, there is no dearth of lucrative animation jobs. 3D animations and graphics find application in gaming, cartoon and movie industry depending on the different types of software used. This software may be programmed to design various living creatures or non-living creatures like buildings, and vehicles.

Steps to find a career in animation

It is mostly seen that the novice 3D animation and graphic students struggle to easily learn the basic concepts of animation. Here we discuss simple steps to learn 3D animation in a much easier and effective manner:

• Focus on a Particular Discipline

In order to perform well in a particular discipline, it is important to practice it by working with various assets available online for free. For instance, for a candidate willing to become an animator, the right approach to learn it is to download some character rigs that are available online for free to start practicing animation. 

• Take note of your learning experience at every stage

It is beneficial to keep a record of what you are learning. Making notes on what you are learning every day. At the end of every week, take a look at all the notes to see your learning progress. This exercise helps you to know the areas covered by you and what remains to be done. Preparing notes acts as your roadmap to excellent learning.

• Build your network

For learning more about the new things in animation industry, establishing a strong network of like-minded professionals plays a crucial role in finding an animation job of your choice. Expanding network has become much easier with the dozens of available online forums like Facebook, Meetups, Twitter and LinkedIn. Such social networking sites offer a great advantage of finding and interacting with people with interest in the same profession.

• Get and give feedback

The above discussed method to build network not only helps in discussions on common topics, sharing techniques and making work strategies, but also a useful way of exchanging ideas and giving feedbacks. Novice artists can find it helpful to take feedback on their work before putting it on display. Giving and taking feedback on your work is a useful method to learn more and improve on your weak areas.

• Focus on setting and meeting your goals

To achieve success in your endeavors to learn and perform well in animation industry, it is crucial to set a schedule and meet your defined goals. At the starting level of your learning, achieving even smaller goals such as completing your craft within the scheduled time gives a boost to your learning process. This motivates you to stick to your daily schedule and learn every day.

• Avoid any distractions

It is important to understand that any distraction from your learning and work is not right for your progress. So, while learning stay focused and try to avoid any distractions like television, emails and phone call.

• Seek out for a mentor

To learn and gain knowledge in the field, find a mentor who can make a difference in your learning experience in your discipline. An experienced artists or animator can have much more to teach you than just the theoretical knowledge.

Animation is an exciting, rewarding and a highly liberating career path. Pursuing a career in animation is a fun, provided you remain focused, creative and skilled!

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Best Digital Marketing Strategies for 2014

In this contemporary world, internet use becomes more and more prevalent with each passing day. In recognizing this reality, many business owners are interested in learning what types of digital strategies they need to implement in order to accomplish all of their professional goals in 2014. While there are a variety of different internet marketing techniques that can help businesses experience continual growth and expansion, the following three can be particularly helpful:

1. App Development.

These days, more and more businesses are developing their own apps, and for good reason. Apps give businesses an opportunity to become an integral feature of their consumer's electronic device. With an app, business owners can provide customers with information regarding new products, sales, and any other data that is relevant to the goods and services it is attempting to advertise. If your business wants to excel in the world of app development during 2014, the key will likely be the implementation of a mobile app development strategy. These days, more people are purchasing mobile phones than personal computers, a fact which makes the development of mobile apps seem both practical and important.

2. Web Design.

Although web design has grown common and prevalent enough to now constitute a career, its relevance and importance has not yet grown old. In fact, web design may be more important now than in previous eras given the steady increase in internet use. In order to ensure that your business maintains an edge over its competitors in 2014, it is important that you pay attention to each component of your website. There are many, and some of them include your font, background, content, functionality, and use of widgets. Generally, it is a good idea for business owners to seek assistance from professional web designers when working on its site. Doing so can help ensure that you have an aesthetically appealing and functional site capable of catching and keeping the attention of prospective clients.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The use of effective search engine optimization techniques is one of the best digital strategies your business can use in 2014. Although broadly defined, search engine optimization is basically a process that involves the implementation of specific strategies that will help a website, blog, or video reach the top of the search engine results pages. There are a variety of SEO strategies your business can employ to accomplish this purpose, and some of them include the creation of great content, anchor text, internal linking, external linking, social media optimization (SMO), and online reputation management (ORM).

Conclusion

If your business is serious about expanding its online presence and sphere of influence in 2014, utilizing proven digital strategies will be the key to its success. By attending to the three techniques listed above, your business will likely witness the increased conversion rates and expanding customer base that you want. Good luck!

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Analysis of Competitive Intelligence Tools and Data Sources

The ability to use big data for your business in order to upkeep with the competition is something that is very crucial especially in a competitive world of digital marketing. Understanding the course of progress of your business marketing strategies will help you define more accurate steps in order to target results. Being able to know what drives businesses to profitability in the digital world of marketing will give you a better market positioning and you have wide sources of information and options to consider using competitive intelligence tools and data sources.

Key points of competitive intelligence

Online marketers are leveraging over the benefits and advantages of competitive intelligence. In essence, the process involves the analysis and gathering of important data sources in order to build your databanks regarding vital information concerning your products, customer behavior and preferences and understanding your competitors. By distributing the data intelligence that you have gathered you will be able to foster better competitive marketing strategies beyond the guess work. Your objective is to use data sources to maximize your business and competitive intelligence to produce profitable results.  

The competitive intelligence tools to optimize business data sources

Search engine optimization Atlanta drives most business towards a more competitive environment by providing better understanding regarding the external business environment of an organization. With the use of competitive intelligence tools it is easy to drive your business towards competence in all your business decision making. You can derive better data sources and convert them into business intelligence with the help of internet marketing Atlanta that can improve your metric conversions and lead generation for better return of business profits. 

There are data mining tools that can give your business better competence to become at par with you competitors. Using the tools, you can extract better advantages in building your digital marketing structures and you can enjoy these following benefits from mining data sources for your business:

1. Broaden your competitive intelligence and translate data metrics as useful information to understand your website statistics

2. Business competitiveness at par with your competitors. 

3. Ability to define marketing strategies and gain better search results positioning 

4. Develop a more engaging business environment that helps you to connect better to your customers. 

5. Using competitive intelligence tools you can give your business a better advantage by collecting raw data that will help you define which important issues in your digital marketing strategies that you need to address as a priority with the following considerations:

• Your target market

• Ability of structuring a more responsive website design and development plan

• Finding the most reliable SEO services company to deliver targeted results based on your gathered data sources.  

• Analytic ability to use metrics and how to make them help your business convert better.

There are various aspects of competitive intelligence that can help drive business towards better marketing positioning. The key aspects of your businesses that the competitive intelligence tools can have a significant impact include:

1. Identifying your current competitors

2. Profiling your competitors and understanding their own digital marketing strategies and why it seems to be productive.

3. The key marketing strategies that competitors employ in order to gain better advantage to your business.

4. Using analytical metrics that can be a big source of mining data regarding their web marketing tactics and SEO strategies in promoting their products and services.

5. Discovering more innovative technology that can drive your own business towards better competitiveness and productive digital marketing strategies.

Optimizing SEO with competitive intelligence tools and data sources

Search engine optimization remains to be a vital aspect of all digital marketing strategies. You can optimize your business performance in the digital world using metrics and data sources that will enable you to use business intelligent information that can help your business respond with better competence to meet your customers’ needs and attain a better market positioning by targeting better search engine results page for your website. 

One of the very useful competitive intelligence tools that you can use in digital marketing is the analytics tools that can optimize your search engine marketing efforts. Analytics tools can be a big data source for your business by giving you different metrics to help define a more appropriate digital marketing response based on the current marketing trends and industry demands. Using web analytics, you can easily foster better competitive search engine optimization strategies that can improve both your onsite and offsite website competitive intelligence.

Not only will you be able to identify which marketing tactics are relevant to your business needs but you will also understand what SEO approach you are doing wrong with the help of competitive intelligence tools. The data sources that you can mine from competitive intelligence tools can offer you several search engine optimization campaign enhancements such as the following:

A. Onsite optimization with competitive intelligence

• Enhance your URL structure by comparing yours against that of your competitors.

• Improve your competitive intelligence by improving your website design and development and consider the website design enhancements used by your competitors.

• Reinforce your data sources using analytics in order to understand your competitor’s traffic sources and what keywords are working best for their organic traffic on search.

• Review your page title and meta tags if you are using the most productive keywords on search.

• SEO integration to your web design and development strategies.

B. Offsite Optimization with competitive intelligence

• Data mining regarding your competitor’s link building campaigns

• Optimizing your SEO results using local listings where you competitors tend to obtain organic traffic and higher search results.

• Social media marketing engagements and defining how your competitors promote their social media brand marketing campaign and how to reinforce yours.

Last parting words

Competitive intelligence tools and data sources can boost the overall digital marketing performance of your website. By using the obtainable metrics, data and information from analytics tool it can likewise enhance your search engine optimization campaigns that can drive your business with better competence to thrive in a very competitive digital marketing environment.

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How to Make Money as a Gaming App Developer

Just about everybody has some kind of gaming app for their Smartphone or Tablet. Gaming apps continually top the list for most profitable apps. In a July 2013 article, the Business Insider estimated that Candy Crush alone made $633,000 a day. Many of these gaming apps are absolutely free, yet app developers continue to make huge profits year after year. How do they do it?

There are a variety of different methods that game makers utilize to maximize their gaming app profits. These methods are some of the most powerful ways to make money in the mobile market, and can be adapted to just about any other kind of apps. These methods include: upselling, in-app purchases, ads, cost per install, and even sponsorship.

Upselling

Upselling is the process of limiting access to certain game features until the user pays for them. Many gaming apps offer paid "HD" versions of apps or paid "full" versions that include features you can't get from the free versions. Certain areas of the game may be blocked from access or certain gaming methods unavailable. This tactic satisfies players who just want a free game, but creates profit potential for the cunning app developer.

In-app Purchases

In-app purchases are one of the most powerful ways to make money as a gaming app developer. It actually has the potential to create an infinite cash loop for the developer. Basically, players have the option to pay money to get more lives, gold coins, or other essential gaming items. A good example of this method involves Candy Crush. Players can either wait 20 minutes per life to get new lives, or pay a small fee to get lives immediately.

Ads

Ads are another powerful app profit method. Not necessarily running ads in your game (which many people do), but paying for banner ads for your game. It may seem strange to pay to advertise a free product, but it is worth it if you target the right audience. Lets say a developer has a role playing game app with a potential infinite profit loop method of payment for more experience points. Advertising this free app on popular role playing gaming websites can attract players that may not have spotted the game and can potentially hook them in on the payment loop.

Cost Per Install

Cost per install or CPI is one of the newest gaming app profit method. Basically, you pay a third-party to promote your app and host it. They promote the game, bring in money from advertising and other gaming methods, and spread the word of your game. They make a certain amount of money each time the game is installed. You will also make money each time your game is installed. You will make a little less than the third-party, but they will be doing most of the hard work promoting and hosting your game, so it's a fair trade off.

There are a few things you should avoid if you want to make a profit as a game app developer. Never set the premium pay-per-download option as the default. That will drive away users who think the game costs too much. You should also create a marketing plan before building your app, create platform appropriate customization, avoid in-game advertisement, and create a game that is fun to play.

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Apps Development: A Very Good Career Opportunity?

America is disappearing underneath an ever-growing heap of iPads, iPhones, and Androids. Newer, faster, prettier mobile devices hit the market every day as the world's appetite (no pun intended) for more and better mobile technology grows. In turn, the apps development industry has taken off like a rocket in order to supply the ever-increasing demand for more and more apps. If you're considering a career switch, apps development might be a smart industry to sink your teeth into – but even apps development comes with its risks. Pros include job growth and diverse opportunities, but would-be developers might want to weigh the cons of security challenges and competition as well.

PROS

Job Growth

These days, everyone is talking about the recession. Jobs are few and far between and wages are low. Meanwhile, the cost of living increases mercilessly. Apps development, however, has been one of the lucky industries which has more or less side-stepped the national dip in employment. The apps development industry cranks out billions of dollars on an annual basis. The best place to head for to seize upon job growth is California, sunny home to tech heavyweights like Apple and Google. Even Washington, which boasts residents like Microsoft and Amazon, comes in at about a quarter of California's annual app-based profits.

Diverse Opportunities

There are apps for absolutely everything. Stupid apps, cerebral apps; novelty apps, functional apps; consumer apps, commercial apps. Whatever you're interested in, there's an app niche for you. That means that instead of being shoehorned into an area you have little to no personal investment in, you have the opportunity to work on subjects you know and love. You may even be able to pioneer a new niche. Trends to look out for in 2014 include messaging, educational, and enterprise apps.

CONS

Security Challenges

In this case, we don't mean job security – we mean the security of the actual apps themselves. Because app development is such a comparatively new field, apps are particularly vulnerable to security defects, which presents a considerable challenge for programmers. Jack Mannino, head of the Mobile Security Project, cautions, “ There is constantly really sensitive stuff going through these applications,” referring to data like email addresses and bank account information. That means that app development can be a lengthy and laborious undertaking. “You have to build and test — for feature functionality and also security,” says Mannino. To make matters more complicated, app developers have to consider the fact that their apps might be connected with unsecured devices, or running with other apps that lack security measures.

Competition

Because app development is such a hot industry, it attracts countless tech-savvy hopefuls into its fold – and while big business means plenty of customers, it also means plenty of competition. There are thousands upon thousands of apps to struggle against in virtually every niche, which means developers' chances of attaining Angry Birds-grade fame are slim in a sheer numbers game.

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iPad Freeware Applications and Games Abound

If you have purchased an iPad, undoubtedly one of the first things you have done is visit the App Store and downloaded some of the cool available apps that exist for it.

There are already over 275,000 apps in the App Store designed specifically for the iPad, apps that take advantage of the large screen and that allow you to do everything from playing games to working on spreadsheets to planning meals to writing the great American novel.

A great deal of the apps available for the iPad are absolutely free. However, this has also led to certain misconceptions. Let's examine some of these.

First of all, when you download applications and games from the App Store, you needn't worry about such things as Trojan horses or spyware (this is especially important if you come from a PC environment). Apple keeps a tight lid on the applications that appear in the App Store and runs a gauntlet of checks and other safeguards to ensure they are 100% safe to run and use.

Unlike the free applications known as shareware which you may have run on a desktop computer, the free apps for the iPad are not crippled and do not work for only a couple of days.

With shareware, if you don't pay, you cannot continue to use the software, but the free apps on the App Store are not like that. Some of them generate revenue for their creators due to the inclusion of non-intrusive advertising, while others are scaled-down versions of the full apps. Others are temporarily offered for free for promotional purposes.

Another misconception is that the free apps on the App Store are of little value, and that is why they are offered for free. All of the apps on the App Store are rated by the users, and you can be sure that if they offer little of value, they will not get a good rating. Besides, it costs nothing to download an app and try it.

Certainly, there are some substandard applications available on the App Store, but if you're diligent in searching and reading the app descriptions, you can find some absolute gems at little or no cost. You just need to read the descriptions and the user reviews carefully.

It is fortunate that there are diligent and good-hearted software programmers out there who are willing to share their hard work with users at little or no cost or for the revenues that they make through advertising. Without them, the iPad would not exist, or at least not in its present, incredibly useful form.

What else can you do for free on the iPad? You can take complete courses from universities and other schools by accessing the world's largest catalog of free education in iTunes U. You can download a free podcast app for one-touch access to thousands of audio and video podcasts on every conceivable topic. You can view over 1.5 million books on the iBookstore, many of them free. Or you can download such free apps for the iPad as Find My iPhone, which can help you locate your lost iPad even when you lack access to a computer.

Before you purchase an app for your iPad, you might want to check out the free applications to see what is available. With a little research, you can save a lot of money on applications and games. If you like the free version, then you'll know that the full version is worth the money and you will have no qualms about purchasing it.

The iPad has continued to gain in popularity with the buying public because they recognize it as a worthy investment that allows them to have fun and get things done in the home, office and everywhere else.

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Step By Step Action Plan For When You Inherit A WordPress Site

A person can acquire a WordPress website from another guy and what follows thereafter is very important. You don't just inherit the site and then you claim that you are good to go with its management. The all idea of inheriting a WordPress has its own distinct consideration that you must attend to before you start its smooth running. Since you don't have a clue as a developer about the credentials, content, links, password and many more, the following ideas are the most important things you should do after you immediately inherit an existing WordPress site.

1. Change Existing Administrator Password and Email

The first step that you engage yourself after taking his/her WordPress site is to change the admin password and emails. It is essential to make sure that the previous owner of that site does have an authority any more after you take full responsibility of the site.

2. Backup Creation

The site you should then have its own backup created when you are done with password and email change. It is not an option but mandatory to have a site's backup. Failure to do this can end you up in stressful situation just because you don't have any other relevant data from that site. A copy of the original should be available all the time.

3. Roles of the Users Should Be Updated

The other day you acquired a WordPress site; you become the focal point of everything that is taking place both at its server and client point. You must change the admin permission and of course roles. The only person who can be granted permission is one who you trust or share the same inherited WordPress site.

4. SEO and Tracking Matters

It is wise to understand that the SEO strategies of WordPress administrators or bloggers do vary significantly. The best step to attend to this difference is to understand the tracking and SEO technique that is used for that site. For example, you can change the tracking by simply modifying the Google Analytic code. You then have to insert your own tracking so as to maintain the privacy.

5. Perform Security Scans

No one wants to have a site that is not secured. The best thing to do is to use a WordPress verified security scan tool to analyze its status. The performance of the site should also be determined if it needs major scan. A simple way to verify if it needs thorough scan is just to view how fast the pages load. The plugins that came with the inherited site should also be affirmed to be able to determine if they are optimal.

6. Familiarization

You need then to understand what does what. If you are not very conversant with WordPress sites, that should not deter you from exploring it. You can always get tutorials that will help in this. If you are sure of what you are doing, you should analyze and then have a thorough understanding of what each plugin does. You should write this done so as not to omit any information.

7. Clean Up

It is now evident that you have done what must be done when you have inherited a WordPress site. The last but not the least step to take is to remove unnecessary file. For example, the previous user of the site might have had several themes that you may not use again. It is best to delete it instead of just having it by your side. Accounts of users that are no longer in use should also be inactivated. What about unused plugins. For this, just make sure you may not need it in any future before completely deleting them.

Conclusion

Inheriting WordPress sites should not be something to shun. It just needs a person who understands what needs to be done before you proceed with it. The above are also some of the many things you can do to such a site but these are the main ones that need to be attended to. If you don't have a thorough understanding of WordPress sites, you can always use a tutorial either in soft copy or video option. 

Next time you buy a used WordPress site, don't ever forget to do the above and you will be good to go.

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Technology advancements from Tablet to Tablet

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10 Powerful Online Tools For Testing Your Website Under Various Resolutions

The era of fixed resolution screens has long gone by. In this digital world of notebooks, tablets and smartphones, every screen has a different resolution. Your creative juices spent on your website may bear little or no fruits if the website is not tested for various screen resolutions. 

Here are 10 powerful online tools for testing your website under various resolutions: 

1. Resizemybrowser.com

This tool enables you to fit your website's browser in the resolution provided by your device, be it a tablet, a smartphone or a notebook. You also have the liberty of defining your own resolution settings which can later be removed.

2. Screenfly (Quirktools) 

This is another famous screen testing tool for websites. This has a number of screen resolution sizes to show you your webpage on various devices viz. TV screens, tablets etc. Once you type in your URL and click on 'Go', Screenfly will present you your website in various screen resolutions. 

3. Testsize.com

This is another online tool for testing your web pages on different screen sizes. You need to just type in the URL and select the screen size from the drop down menu or even manually enter the screen size. Click the open button and view your website in the screen resolution you want to see it in.

4. Firesizer

This works in Firefox and enables you to check your site's pages in various screen sizes. At the right bottom of the screen you can see the present resolution of the screen in the status bar. You can click here to see other screen sizes that are available for preview. You also have the liberty to feed in your own dimensions for testing.

5. Yet Another Window Resizer

This is another easy to use Firefox add on. All you have to do to test your website for a different resolution is click anywhere on the website and choose the resolution from the list that appears. 

6. Resolution Test

This is a Google Chrome extension that enables resolution testing of your website. After you install this tool, you need to just press on the test button which you can find at the right corner of the browser. This extension keeps a record of most frequently used screen sizes and displays them in a list for you to choose from. You can also feed in your own settings of resolution.

7. Window Resizer

It is very similar to Resolution Test. It also features a list of preset resolution sizes which may be utilized for your website testing. Like Resolution Test, it also enables you to define your own presets. 

8. InfoByIP's Screen Resolution Simulator

This tool features a list of various screen sizes for laptops, desktops, mobile phones and tablets. You can also manually enter the screen size of your choice. You have two options available with this tool. You can either check the "in browser" or leave it unchecked. If "in browser" is chosen, the resolution that you get to view the site in is of the selected monitor along with some space for the task bar and other controls and borders. If "in browser" is left unchecked, you get to see the resolution of the webpage. This is very useful in testing your site's visual compatibility with mobile devices' screens since they always render websites in full screen. 

9. Dimentions

This is a Responsive Web Design testing tool which works well on all versions of Chrome and Firefox. It consists of a screen sized progress bar that shows you how does your website look on various resolutions and devices.

10. Screen-Resolution.com

This is yet another excellent resolution testing tool. Apart from being an efficient resolution testing solution, this is quick and simple too. With this tool you can manually select the resolution that you wish to view your website in. It is most compatible with Internet Explorer where it displays the result in the same window. A new window pops up in case of other browsers like Chrome or Firefox. All you need to do is open the website, enter your URL and click on "check page". 

Armed with these tools to test your website for various screen resolutions, you are certain to design a versatile website in terms of screen resolutions that it is compatible with. You also diminish the chances of your website having poor display on different screens due to resolution mismatches.

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10 Best Online Programs For Small Business: Accounting Software

Are you using an accounting software application for your small business? If not, you may want to consider using one to simplify your recordkeeping. You don’t have to be an accountant or bookkeeper to know how much your business is earning. There are accounting software that can do the job for you:

10. Outright Plus

Outright Plus is an accounting solution that lets you keep track of your income statement accounts. Among its primary features are estimation of quarterly income tax, computation of sales tax and calculation of Schedule C for taxation. Outright Plus is offered at a monthly subscription price of $9.95. It is your best choice if you like assistance in tax accounting.

9. Invoice Expert XE

The Invoice Expert XE is a comprehensive free accounting program with many features. It allows you to make invoices, manage customers, create a detailed inventory and create monthly financial reports among others. But it is limited only to businesses with up to 100 products and customers.

8. Adminsoft Accounts

Although Adminsoft Accounts is not a premium accounting program, it offers many functionalities that can be used by small- and medium-sized businesses. Its basic functions include general accounting, billing, taxation, budgeting, forecasting and fixed assets management. It is also capable of multi-currency and multi-user accounting systems, which are not available in most free accounting software.

However, for business owners who have no background in accounting, it may take a while to learn this program because it has many dialog boxes and menus that users should be familiar with.

7. TurboCASH

With over 100,000 users worldwide, TurboCASH is one of the popular small business accounting software. It is a fully functional free accounting program that is readily configurable to your needs. It has the advantage of multi-business and multi-user capabilities. It also generates almost all types of financial statements and reports.

One drawback is that TurboCASH is not a very simple program to learn for non-accountants.

6. QuickBooks Premier Edition 2011

With a monthly subscription starting at $79 per month, this price may be overwhelming for some businesses. But QuickBooks Premier Edition 2011 is worth the price as it is considered one of the best accounting software available. It can streamline all accounting transactions including payroll, taxation, customer and supplier records, inventory and preparation of financial statements and reports.

5. Sage 50 Complete Accounting 2013

For businesses that require a sophisticated tool to manage inventory, the Sage 50 Complete Accounting 2013 is one of the reliable accounting software that can help with that need. Aside from its comprehensive inventory recording capabilities, it also comes with extensive tutorials. The only drawback is its price which starts at $369 for a single user.

4. NCH Express Invoice

If you have a business with less than five employees, you could take advantage of the free NCH Express Invoice. It is an invoicing package that lets you create invoices, keep track of sales and payments made and create a schedule of recurring invoices.

3. VT Cash Book

For business owners looking for a simple accounting program, VT Cash Book might be for you. It is known for its simplicity and ease of use for entering daily transactions. It can also help you with basic financial statements such as balance sheets, income statements and VAT returns.

However, this free program cannot maintain a database for suppliers and customers, and it has no capability to make invoices and purchase orders. Also, it cannot be used for multiple accounts. VT Cash Book is ideal for small businesses that require simple accounting, such as trading businesses.

2. FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a cloud-based free accounting program with a wide range of applications. It includes easy invoicing and dispatching, creating of customer and supplier records, as well as service records and document sharing.

With FreshBooks, you can access your business data from any computer. However, the free version is limited for 30 days only. Monthly subscription starts at $19.95.

1. TAS Basics

TAS Basics is a free accounting program that is useful for tracking your payables, receivables and VAT returns. You can also use it to monitor your cash flow and keep records of individual customers and suppliers. However, it has no capability to make invoices or record sales orders.

Your Turn

How do you find the accounting software listed here? If you are using another software, please feel free to share it with us. If you want to learn more about accounting software just go over  Vagueware.com.  

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How Pay Per Click Ads Can Help You Become An Intelligent Marketer

Marketing is all about understanding the target consumers. What do they like? What do they dislike? And what are the elements that can help you touch them emotionally? If you work in a PPC company, you must work with a lot of Google search page ads. PPC helps you learn a lot of things and as a result, you become a smart marketer.

In this article, I will highlight the ways in which pay per click makes you a smart marketer.

# PPC helps you make crucial strategic decisions: When you invest in PPC, you basically pay Google to acquire customers for your business. Therefore, it is important to know that you are investing money in the right place. Let's assume that you sell products to both B2C and B2B customers. Now, if you see that your online B2B sales is much better than that of B2C, you can go through the offline sales reports to find out whether this is true for offline sales as well. If both online and offline conversion rate show that you have more B2B customers than B2C customers, you can pay attention to B2C marketing campaign and discover the flaws hindering your business growth.

Without PPC, it is not possible to measure the success of a marketing campaign. Some tactics like SEO, banner ads, word-of-mouth advertisement bring traffic as well, but you can never be sure how many customers are actually visiting your online and offline store. PPC gives you a solid figure. For example, 100 people clicked on the ad and visited the site. Google Analytics will tell you how many of them clicked the “buy now” button. In fact, you can also track how many people are buying offline as well by placing a simple survey form on the website. A simple question like “do you love our online shop or prefer our store at your locality” can help you get the statistics easily.

You can also optimize business process by paying attention to users' behavior once they reach your site. For example, some businesses let customers buy their products from the site and some additionally offer “call to order” facility. PPC tracking can help you find out what customers are really doing. Are they clicking the “buy” button or do they prefer to call? If the result shows that customers like to call because it saves their time, you may hire a few more telecaller executives to handle the incoming calls.

# You can form a better marketing strategy: PPC helps you understand your customers and gives you an opportunity to find the best sales pitch. The idea may seem surprising, but search engine result page ads make you fail first and then bring you to the path of success. There is no “guessing” in PPC marketing. Suppose, a client asks your professional PPC company in India to publish 5 ads with 5 different catch-lines. Some of them will fail miserably and some will bring you a certain number of customers. So, you fail and learn what does not appeal to your target audience. You don't have to guess, as the conversion tracking tools give you data regarding your success ratio. Once you know what works and what does not, you can use this knowledge for offline marketing, e-mail campaign and SEO articles.

# Make data-driven decisions: PPC marketing is a learning process. Some of your ads will fail, but you have to scan them and try to understand why they failed. It can be content, time of ad, placement or something else.  If one ad did not work a couple of months ago, it does not mean that it will not work ever. You have to test and think what you can do with the ad to make it perform. For example, you may have posted a discount offer ad when other leading merchants were offering discounts as well. Why don't you offer a flash discount for 24 hours? Modify the content and make sure that the ad stays live for 24 hours only. The discount remains the same, but since you tell customers it is for “24 hours only”, they will flock to your site.

# Boost your analytical skills: Pay per click ads make you a great analyzer. You don't only pay attention to the performing and non-performing keywords, but also analyze factors like CTR, conversion rate, cost per acquisition etc. The more data you gather about your marketing campaign, the more easily you can manage budget and compose better ads in future.

PPC makes you a knowledgeable marketer. You know exactly how much you are spending, from which locations customers are coming to your site, what age group prefers your products/services and how many customers are actually buying from either your online or offline shop. Thus, you not only become smarter but gradually start improving the investment-profit ratio of your clients. As a result, more people start hiring your PPC company for their online campaign management.

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Heed before you start PPC

PPC, conjointly referred as Pay-Per-Click may be a part of Web Promoting Campaigns that depends totally on getting the adequate and applicable keywords to be targeted to induce the recognition of the website top. With this tool the traffic to the targeted website collectively will increase drastically. Organic promoting, freed of any charge, is one amongst the economical suggests that of getting extra traffic to the online website but PPC, being a paid service has much better, potential results than the other means of getting extra traffic to the website. An awfully extremely intimate and hold data and expertise among the PPC Campaign management. It is important for any PPC skilled to induce the motive of the PPC campaigns with top results, quite expected because it may be a paid service and the clients are paying for it.

Benefits of Hiring the PPC Experts

• The PPC consultants at hold immense knowledge and skills of the PPC technique as per their experiences.
• The clients will select the PPC experts by themselves from the talented pool of our specialists.
• PPC ads formed at our end for your business are going to be seen within quarter-hour of publishing them.
• Offer highly targeted and relevant traffic to your website in an exceedingly short period.
• Pay only when the visitor clicks on your paid ads.
• Get complete management over the keywords choices.
• ROI are going to be utterly measurable down to the keyword level.
• Our PPC campaign is going to be an ideal supplement for your organic SEO campaign.

Our Experts recognize usage of the most effective keywords to fetch more popularity to your website by the PPC experts, optimized traffic diversion to your website, etc.

Skills of the PPC experts

• More than 5 years of Experience in holding the PPC campaigns.
• Excellent knowledge in the SEO business along the PPC analysis.
• Excellent skills in ROI analysis and Campaign analysis preparation and implementing the top PPC tactics.
• Best SEO experience and skills.
• Working experience in e-commerce websites for products and service marketing.

Work Sample of the PPC Experts

• To begin the PPC campaign for the clients, our PPC experts would like the entire details of the necessary company information as well as all the details that are required to start out the PPC campaign.
• Once all the information are recognized, our PPC Experts perform the analysis for higher content which will be used for PPC campaigns like the superior keywords or the top ranking PR websites which will be targeted to put the targeted keywords for the clients.
• Starting from the bidding for the wishes keywords and putting the keywords and phrases to the targeted top ranking PR websites, our PPC experts lookout of the entire PPC campaigns effectively and very expeditiously.
• The main focus of our PPC experts will be on your business development which will forever provide the top results for the PPC campaigns control.
• Updated reports will be sent to you on the daily, weekly and monthly basis to make sure that the work is being done perfectly.

You will also be ready to be in contact with our PPC consultants directly, so the customization part can be often taken care properly and can be done as per your preferences.

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