3 Essential Tips To Building A Website

website
Flickr

If you have your own business but still haven’t got your own website – there’s a problem. Websites are one of the most important things that you need for your business; now it’s 2017 – practically everything is done through technology as a pose to paper, whether that be marketing or accounting.
There are plenty of different website builders that are advertised around the web, and although these can be very useful to initially get yourself up and running, they most likely come with strings attached later down the line. – Whether that be an increase in price or restrictions on how much attention you can actually have from potential customers. And in the long run, that will end up causing you more harm than good.

Here are three essential tips to building a website.

Domain name
Once you have come up with a simple but unique domain name, you have to check if it’s available to own and hasn’t been taken already by another business. If it is available, you will want to register it as soon as possible so you can officially ‘claim’ it. It will cost you, but the price is well worth it in the long run.

It’s important to be prepared for a lot of domain names to be unavailable, and this can become rather frustrating when you found the perfect name to represent you as a business. The key is to stay focused and don’t just settle with something you’re not happy with because there was nothing else available, it’s just about being unique enough with your ideas.

Hosting
Now the domain name has been sorted; you will need server space to host your website on. This is what will give you the space to store of all the important information.
As you’re just starting out, you won’t need to pair up with a large web hosting company just yet, so it won’t cost you too much money for the moment. But it is still wise to shop around until you find a price that you agree with.

If you want to add features to your website like a blog, forum or the ability to run videos on it, you will need to make sure that you have a package that covers these areas. If you don’t, you won’t be able to install any of the necessary features. Just make sure to read the terms and conditions of the hosting company so you know exactly what you’re getting.

Uploading information
This tends to be rather simple if you’re familiar with the internet. Most of the time you just need to enter your login details, and from there you can put as much information onto your website as you like.

If you’re having trouble with your layout, you can get help from a web development agency that will give you some useful advice on the best way to go about creating the overall look of your website. All that’s left to do then is a little fine tuning and some added visuals to please the eye – and you’ve got yourself a website!

building-a-website
Pexels

Continue Reading

Removing Any Programs on a Mac with Movavi Mac Cleaner p

Normally if you want to remove programs from your Mac you probably drag its icon over to the ‘Trash’. However in some cases that may not work – and an error may pop up. Similarly if the program you want to remove doesn’t have an icon you won’t be able to remove it in this fashion, and will have to use other methods instead.

While there are several of learning how to uninstall apps on Mac the easiest is by enlisting the help of Movavi Mac Cleaner. Although it is mainly designed to detect and delete junk files, it has an ‘Uninstaller’ feature that specializes in removing unwanted apps too.

mac cleaner 4

Using the ‘Uninstaller’ feature in Movavi Mac Cleaner is really simple. To access it just launch the software and wait as it scans your Mac for junk files, then select the ‘Uninstaller’ tab on the left. Once you select this feature, it will scan your Mac once again – this time to find all the programs that are installed on it.

Within the ‘Uninstaller’ feature you’ll see three tabs labeled ‘User Apps’, ‘OS X Apps’ and ‘Leftovers’. By clicking on ‘User Apps’ or ‘OS X Apps’, Movavi Mac Cleaner will list the apps that it found and you can then check the boxes next to them and click ‘Remove’ to delete them.

If you want you can use the ‘Leftover’ tab to see if any apps that you uninstalled in the past left behind unnecessary files or folders. Assuming they did you can use Movavi Mac Cleaner to delete them as well – and free up more space in the process.

Not only does Movavi Mac Cleaner make it easy to remove any programs whatsoever, but it will ensure that the programs you remove don’t leave behind unwanted files. If you wish you could also make use of its other features and clean out junk files, optimize startup items, permanently delete sensitive files, protect your Mac from various threats, and much more.

All said and done these features will guarantee that you’re able to free up as much space as possible on your Mac and optimize it in other ways too. In short Movavi Mac Cleaner can act as more than just a ‘cleaner’ or ‘uninstaller’, but rather a tool to help ensure that your Mac stays in good condition for as long as possible.

Continue Reading

Is Your Workplace Making You Sick?

If you’re spending most of your time somewhere, and it’s damaging to your health, you could run into some serious problems. After years of sitting in that office for eight hours a day, all of those small health niggles can add up to something a lot more dangerous. While you might not realize it, your workplace is one of the most dangerous places that you spend time, for a lot of different reasons. Some might be better than others, especially newer ones, but they all have their problems. Here are the ways that your workplace is damaging your health.

Air Conditioning

cold
Image from Maxpixel

When it’s boiling outside, you’ll want the air conditioning on to keep you cool. Nobody can concentrate on working when they’re sweating buckets, but a lot of offices tend to overcompensate. Sometimes, when you step through the office doors, you’re hit with a wave of freezing cold air that makes you shiver. It’s basically like sitting outside in winter, which isn’t going to be good for your health. This usually happens because the air conditioning temperature is based on the average office worker which tends to be a middle aged man. If you are smaller than the average person, you’re going to be chilly. When you’re exposed to cold temperatures for extended periods of time, you are far more susceptible to catching a cold. If you’re freezing cold all day at work, bring an extra sweater or consider getting a small heater for your desk.

Fears About Job Security

Employers these days are not as loyal to their workers as they once were, and freelance workers are being used more often. This flexibility does work for some people, but people tend to be more worried about their job security. This constant stress can have a big negative impact on your health. Stress causes mental health issues if you allow it to build up without dealing with it, and it has also been linked to heart disease. In order to alleviate some of those fears and make yourself more relaxed, make sure that you’ve always got a healthy savings account so if you do end up losing your job, you won’t be stuck in a bad situation.

Horrible Bosses

bad-boss
Image From Flickr

Another common cause of contention in the workplace is a difficult boss. We’ve all had them at some point so I don’t need to tell you that it can make your work life twice as stressful. Research found that people working under a demanding boss are around 35 percent more likely to develop a physical ailment as result of stress. If you are being overworked, you might end up damaging your health to keep up with it. So, even though you might think it’s just part of life, a horrible boss could really be hurting your health.

Old Building Materials

Older buildings tend to be full of materials that are bad for your health because we didn’t realize at the time that they were so bad for us. Asbestos is a common material that pops up in lots of older buildings and can cause serious health problems. If your office has asbestos in and your health has been affected, your employer could be liable to pay you some compensation. The experienced mesothelioma lawyers of Madeksho Law can tell you if you have a case and help you with the legal proceedings. If you are constantly exposed to asbestos, you could develop forms of cancer.

Lead paint is another common material that could have a significant impact on your health. A lot of the time it’s harmless, but if it starts to peel and flake off, you risk breathing it in and getting lead poisoning.

Open Offices

open-plan-office
Image From Flickr

Open plan offices seem to be all the rage at the moment. There are all sorts of new age companies building open plan offices instead of the classic cubicle set up because they think it’s more conducive to creative and productive work. The truth is, they aren’t as amazing as we think. There are far more distractions in an open plan office which increase adrenaline levels and raises your blood pressure. When you’ve got high blood pressure all of the time, your risk of heart disease increases drastically. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work in an open office at all, but it might be worth putting some headphones in and getting a bit of solitary work done.

These workplace problems are fairly common so the likelihood is, most of us are affected by at least one of them from time to time. Unfortunately, you can’t avoid going into the office, but if you’re aware of them you can try to reduce the effects.

Continue Reading

Reaching The World While Working From Home

workspace
Picture Credit

Many of us dream of working from home. Imagine being free from office hours and constraints. You’ll be able to kiss goodbye to uniforms and work in whatever outfit you fancy. And, you’ll be able to do something you love from the comfort of your favorite place. It’s an enviable situation. And, for those of us with children and other such commitments, work like this can be a lifesaver.

But, working this way isn’t all plain sailing. The main setback that many freelancers admit to is the loneliness of a job like this. When working alone, you may find that you go hours without speaking to a soul. It’s peaceful, of course, but when you do it every day, it can start to get you down. If you let it, it can leave you feeling a disconnect with the outside world. That is never a positive thing. Such disconnect can cause dissatisfaction. And, dissatisfaction is a terrible condition once it takes hold. It may even make you doubt the wonderful life you’re living.

The good news is, there are ways to stop the issue. When starting out, consider work from home options with an added dose of satisfaction. That way, when dissatisfaction creeps in, you can rest easy that you’re contributing. Knowing that you’re helping others, even if you’re doing so from home, is the best way to keep yourself connected to what matters. Here are a few options which are sure to make a difference.

Start A Charity

A fantastic way to make a difference while working from home is to start a charity. Admittedly, this isn’t going to sustain you in the early stages. The primary purpose of a charity is, of course, to raise money for a good cause. But, if all goes well, you may find that you can afford to pay yourself a wage later down the line.

In many ways, starting a charity is no different from starting any other business. Once you’ve developed your idea, you will need to register as a charity. But, once you’ve done that, you’ll be on familiar footing. You’ll need to develop a website, and build awareness of your brand. Fundraising events and charity days are invaluable. They’ll also offer you a chance to get out and about on occasion. Even when working from home, it can be helpful to go out to the field now and again. It’s the ideal way to counter that loneliness.

An Online Counseling Service

If you have a desire to help, you could opt for an online counseling service. More and more people are coming round to the idea that counseling can be helpful in day to day life. The only trouble is, we’re all busy. As such, a counseling service you can take with you is the perfect thing.

Bear in mind, if you are going down this route, that you’ll need credentials. Not just anybody can set up and give advice. If you try it, you could do more harm than good. You have a responsibility to your clients to give informed and professional advice. You could do an online Master of Arts in Psychology during the planning stages. Or, if you don’t want to take things that far, a counseling course is an excellent alternative. Once you’re qualified, you can get to work. The interaction this option offers will ensure you forget that you’re alone.

Offer Tutoring Services

Tutoring has long been a go-to for freelance workers. Teaching is incredibly rewarding, and working one on one with a student can be even more so. In the past, you would have had to meet students face to face, but technology means that’s no longer necessary. As such, this is the ideal work from home option.

Using programs such as Skype means you can interact, and even have face to face conversations. This suits young people, who prefer to do things online. And, it’ll allow you to maintain the work from home lifestyle you desire.

online-work
Picture Credit

Tutors don’t need qualifications to operate, but you have a care of responsibility here, too. It would be unfair to your students to undertake a subject you don’t know much about. Only go down this route if you’re extremely knowledgeable about an individual subject. If, for example, you studied English or maths at university. If all your students fail, you’ll find it hard to make a go of this. Besides which, you’ll be letting them down in a major way. That’s no way to find satisfaction.

Continue Reading

Lifting Weights: How Building Strength Prevents Diseases

strong-body
Image via: Pexels

If you’ve been enjoying muscle-building exercises for a while now, you hardly need someone to tell you that it’s good for your body. It feels stronger, leaner, and energized – but the benefits are far greater than the immediate boost of confidence and a tighter body.

When you’re pushing your body to get stronger, you’re also preventing a variety of physical and mental diseases, as well as making you a smarter and more balanced person in general.

The difference between strength building and bulking up

While strength training is recommended for both genders and during most stages of life, some people shy away from it. They don’t want to bulk up or become much bigger – which is particularly relevant for young women who think they’ll end up with massive muscles. This is, of course, not the case and we should learn to encourage our daughters to become stronger.

Women are in anyway more prone to the loss of bone density with age, and strength-building exercises are ideal to keep our bones healthy and strong for as long as possible.

Strength and Alzheimer’s

Did you know that certain exercises are excellent for your brain power? Ping-pong was, for example, proclaimed as the best brain boosting sport of all times; it might not be weight-lifting, but it’s worth mention nonetheless. A study has found that when sedentary adults over the age of 65 started to work out, their brains still benefited from it and increased in size as well as function.

Another study focused on women between the ages of seventy and eighty who were diagnosed with MCI; after six months, they found that the women who participated in strength exercises outperformed all the other cardio groups when it came to improved brain functions. Keep lifting, in other words, and pump that brain up as well.

Strength and Osteoporosis

As mentioned, women are especially affected by this disease – and the best prevention is an active youth filled with calcium-dense food. Sometimes, it’s too late for prevention, though but people who are already diagnosed can greatly benefit from muscle-building exercises as well.

Anything that can keep your bones strong and healthy is excellent news; with resistance training, you’ll be able to strengthen them as well as with regular weight-lifting. Combine your regular medications with this kind of exercise and bulk up on leafy greens, canned sardines, and low-fat dairy as well.

After talking to your doctor about it, you can also consider a calcium supplement which may increase your bone density. Read about the AlgaeCal side effects and ask your doctor if this is a good choice for you.

Besides from increasing our lifespan and letting us enjoy a strong and healthy body while we’re here, building strength is great for your mental health. It keeps you active, striving, and makes sure you take full advantage of this wonderful shelter you’ve been given – so that it can keep you safe for a long time to come.

Continue Reading

The Truth About Building Muscle: Is It Healthy To Lift Weights?

muscle
(Image: http://bit.ly/1YuQl1d)

We need to take our health seriously if we want to live a long and fruitful life. One of the main things we’re told to do is exercise and work out. In turn, this throws up a much-debated question; should you lift weights? Most women wonder this, as they’re not sure how healthy it is to gain muscle.

Well, today’s piece will show you the truth about building muscle, and prove that it is healthy for women to do so.

muscle
(Picture: http://bit.ly/2nX8DMX)

The Truth About Building Muscle

Many women believe that building muscle means you end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. This really isn’t the case at all, particularly for women. You see, women have lower testosterone levels than men, which makes it impossible to look as big and bulky as them. Instead, you look a lot leaner and stronger.

How Do You Build Muscle?

Building muscle is as simple as can be. In truth, all you need to do is train with resistance. By doing so, you put more tension on your muscles, causing them to break down and grow back stronger. As it mentions in this Body Beast review from defendyourhealthcare.us, many exercise programs and people claim to have a muscle building secret. Don’t be fooled, there is no secret! All you have to do is train your muscles regularly, with resistance, and watch them grow.

How Does It Benefit Your Body?

This is where things get interesting as building muscle has lots of benefits for your overall health and physical condition. In this article from livestrong.com, it mentions how muscle mass can help speed up your metabolism. The more muscle mass you have, the faster it will be, which makes burning calories a lot easier. As a knock on effect, you will find weight loss much easier to achieve as well. Plus, gaining muscle will make you stronger, which make everyday tasks, like carrying your grocery shopping, a lot easier. It also improves your physical appearance by making everything look more toned and tighter. This gives you a confidence boost, which can really help your self-esteem and mental health.

lift-weights
(Photo: http://bit.ly/2qKs6FK)

Is It Healthy To Lift Weights?

So, is it healthy for women to lift weights? The answer to this is a resounding yes! There are lots of health benefits to lifting weights, and you shouldn’t miss out on them. The key is learning to lift in moderation. You shouldn’t lift weights every single day, you need to have at least a couple of days per week where you rest, so your body can recover. Likewise, avoid training the same muscles in consecutive days. For example, let’s say you do a workout for your legs on Monday, switch to a different body part on Tuesday. Furthermore, make sure you know how to lift weights before you start. Injuries occur when you lift without proper form, so bear that in mind.

In conclusion, you can see the truth about building muscle and that it is healthy to lift weights. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’ll end up looking like a bodybuilder by picking up a few weights. This type of training is very important if you want to live a healthy lifestyle.

Continue Reading

3 Unconventional Blog Promotion Ideas

blog
(image)

Whether you are an established pro blogger or just beginning to dip your toe into the water, the fact remains that promotion for your blog is an essential. You could be producing the best, richest, most varied content on the entire internet – but if you don’t have readers, very little else matters.

As a result of this obvious need, the internet is stuffed to the brim with tips that are meant to help draw the eye of readers. A lot of these tips have some merit to them, but here’s the problem: every other blog under the sun is doing them as well. If you want to truly stand out in what is becoming an ever-more dense marketplace, then you’re going to need to do something different.

So, steering away from ideas like “use social media” or “comment on other people’s posts” – what’s the next stage of blog promotion that can truly elicit excellent results?

1) Run A Giveaway

There’s no doubt that running a giveaway is a lot of work. The idea is pretty simple; you contact a brand, who give you a product to run a giveaway on. This benefits your blog as, to enter into the giveaway, you can request that people follow your blog and social media. While some of those potential new readers will drift away when the competition closes, some will stick around – and you’ll have developed a brand partnership at the same time.

The biggest problem you’ll have is managing the entries. You’re going to need a PO box if some of the submissions are to be done by post; you’re also going to need to be able to send the winning entrant their item, so check your mailing costs. As for selecting a winner, the tried and tested method is using a Rafflecopter, so make sure you’ve got that sorted before you launch your giveaway onto the world.

2) Offer Yourself As An Expert

One way to bring new readers and a sense of authority to your blog is to offer yourself as an expert on the topics you can best represent. The best way of doing this is to peruse the #journorequest hashtag on Twitter. This is where writers and journalists publish the kinds of people they are hoping to speak with. If a request fits into an area you know a lot about, you can volunteer your experience in exchange for a blog credit.

Not only does this spread the name and URL of your blog to a wider audience, but it also allows you to add “as featured in…” to your blog sidebar. This can help give new visitors a sense that your blog is professional in a way the majority of standard hobby blogs just can’t manage.

3) Brand Your Life

So much of the search for traffic is related to the internet. Of course, this makes sense; your blog is an internet-based entity, so of course the majority of your promotional work is going to go in this area.

However, it’s not just online you can catch new readers – there’s plenty of offline chances, too. Add your blog to your business card; even paste your URL onto the back of your car, in the hopes that one day someone behind you in traffic will be curious enough to visit. While these might seem like small fry, finding a loyal readership is all about spreading your net far and wide – so don’t be afraid to experiment!

Blog promotion isn’t an easy thing, but do it right, and you could find yourself reaping the benefits in terms of traffic for years to come.

Continue Reading