**1. ** Understanding Shopify

Before diving into the process of creating your Shopify store, it’s crucial to have a basic understanding of what Shopify is. Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to set up and manage an online store. It provides various tools and features to help you sell products and reach your customers. To get started, visit the Shopify website and sign up for an account.

**2. ** Choosing a Niche

One of the most important decisions when starting an online store is selecting a niche or industry to focus on. Your niche should align with your interests and expertise, as this will make it easier to create and curate products, write compelling content, and connect with your target audience. Research the market and identify trends to ensure there is demand for your chosen niche.

**3. ** Market Research

Once you’ve chosen your niche, conduct thorough market research to understand your competition and target audience. Identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and look for opportunities to differentiate your store. Define your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and pain points to tailor your offerings and marketing strategies accordingly.

**4. ** Choosing Products

Selecting the right products to sell is a critical step in the process. Consider whether you want to sell physical products, digital goods, or a combination of both. You can either create your products or source them from suppliers, wholesalers, or dropshipping companies. Ensure that the products you choose align with your niche and have the potential for profitability.

**5. ** Setting Up Your Store

Now that you have a clear vision of your niche and products, it’s time to set up your Shopify store:

• Choose a Domain Name: Select a domain name that reflects your brand and is easy to remember. Shopify offers domain registration services if you don’t already have one.
• Select a Theme: Shopify provides a variety of customizable themes for your store’s design. Choose one that suits your brand and products, and make necessary customizations.
• Add Products: Upload your products to your store, complete with detailed descriptions, high-quality images, and pricing information.
• Set Up Payment and Shipping: Configure your payment gateway to accept payments from customers. Set up shipping options and rates based on your products’ size, weight, and destination.
• Configure Taxes: Depending on your location and the locations you ship to, configure tax settings to comply with local regulations.

**6. ** Design and Branding

Your store’s design and branding play a significant role in attracting and retaining customers. Ensure that your store’s visual elements, such as colors, logos, and fonts, align with your niche and target audience. A consistent and visually appealing brand will make your store more memorable.

**7. ** Content Creation

Create high-quality content to engage and inform your audience. Write product descriptions that highlight the benefits and features of your products. Start a blog or create educational content related to your niche to establish yourself as an authority in your field and drive organic traffic to your store.

**8. ** Marketing and Promotion

To drive traffic and sales, you’ll need to implement marketing strategies:

• Social Media: Utilize platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to connect with your audience, share content, and run targeted ads.
• Email Marketing: Build an email list and send regular newsletters, promotions, and updates to your subscribers.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimize your store’s content for search engines to improve its visibility in search results.
• Paid Advertising: Consider using platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your store.
• Influencer Marketing: Partner with influencers in your niche to promote your products to their followers.

**9. ** Customer Support

Offer excellent customer support to build trust and retain customers. Provide clear contact information, respond to inquiries promptly, and address any issues or concerns professionally. Happy customers are more likely to become repeat buyers and refer others to your store.

**10. ** Monitor and Adapt

Regularly analyze your store’s performance using Shopify’s analytics tools. Track key metrics such as traffic, conversion rates, and sales. Use this data to make informed decisions, refine your marketing strategies, and continuously improve your store’s performance.

Starting your own Shopify store is a rewarding journey that requires dedication, creativity, and adaptability. By following these steps and staying committed to your goals, you can build a successful online business that generates income and provides value to your customers. Good luck with your Shopify venture!

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In the not-so-distant future, there will be a very profitable new feature available on Youtube for creators: Applause. Let’s find out together what it is.

Another source of income will be made available to youtubers or creators during the coming weeks. It is a new feature, Applause, with which viewers will be able to further support their favorite creators. At this time, this innovative feature has only been released in a few states-Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico New Zealand, and the United States-in a sort of trial period.

What YouTube applause consists of
Until now, those who wanted to build their own business by producing content on Youtube had several ways to make money on Youtube:

• income from advertisements within pre-recorded videos that were uploaded at a later date
• donations that came through Superchats, direct conversations between youtubers and viewers, featured in live streams

In recent times, however, there has been a need to increase ways of earning money to facilitate creators who invest time and labor in the Google-owned app. The latter has decided, therefore, to introduce a feature very similar to Twitch donations, applicable, however, also to pre-recorded and later uploaded videos. The name of this new feature is Applause (Clap) and it will allow people to send their support to our favorite creator via the appropriate button.

How they work
As is anticipated in Google’s blog, the feature will be placed between the Like and Dislike buttons. The user will be able to purchase Applause directly in the app and then later donate it via a fee (ranging between $2 and $10) to the youtuber.

The donation will appear to the viewer once, in the form of an animation that plays an applause, at the top of the screen, where the cost of the donation will also be displayed depending on one’s geographic area. The viewers’ applause will, in addition, be displayed in a standard public commentary that will include the channel name, profile picture, and donation amount.

The animations that appear to the donor can be different, depending on the amount you want to send. The larger the donation, the more complex and elaborate the applause animation. In a day, a user can buy applause up to a maximum of $500, while per week the limit is raised to $2,000, after which Youtube activates a security mechanism.

Advantages and disadvantages
Youtube Applause is not, as it might seem, a gesture of magnanimity by the great Google giant but, rather, it is a well-targeted action toward both the interests of creators and Google itself.

The Youtube Applause, in fact, can be used by anyone who wants to donate support to their favorite artist. On the other hand, however, not all creators will be able to benefit but only those who have an active monetization program.

In this way, Google will keep an eye on the situation by benefiting that segment of artists with limited group of followers but composed of loyal fans who, otherwise, might migrate to other shores. In addition, the multinational will take, in exchange for this new form of income, 30 percent of donations.

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How to Open a Youtube Channel
Creating a Youtube channel is not extremely simple and it is even less so to create it considering all the optimization factors that can give you a certain competitive advantage.

In fact, although in itself it is not a complex operation, it is more complex to make decisions that will guide the entire editorial plan of the channel. From the very first opening in fact Youtube will ask us to set Tags and Keywords that may not be clear to us from the beginning. In fact, it is not uncommon to see channels that totally change direction on the run. But rest assured there will be our guide and video below to clear all your minds and answer your questions.

But let’s start with the first question then that you may be asking: how to open a Youtube channel?

Initial cornerstone for creating a Youtube channel is the need to have a Google account. So if you do not have a Google account you need to do that. You can register with google by creating a gmail email, or by registering your personal email.

So you do not need to create a new email to create a Youtube channel. How can you create a Google account? After clicking on the top right of the search engine screen on the blue “Sign In” button , you can either enter your chosen email address or create a new gmail account. In the following video we will explain how to do everything step by step.

The focus of this step is specifying the Google account you want to choose. There are 2 options

1.Private use
2.Professional, business use.

Difference between private or corporate Youtube account
The difference between these two options is that in the first case the subscriber will be the only person who can manage the account, this will force you to have to share your Google account credentials if you want to have a third person support you in managing your channel with all the risks involved.

By choosing the second option (Professional Use, which we highly recommend) you will be able, even in the future, to involve other people, such as co-workers or a few friends, sharing and having them support you in managing the channel by assigning each user a very specific role in management. Finally, having done the step that identifies the type of the channel you will have to enter the first name, last name and the reference e-mail address.

Once you arrive on the Youtube interface you just need to click, again on the top right side, on the icon (which identifies the user profile) and at the opening of the dropdown select “Create Channel”.

Now you are in “Creator” mode and the first step is to choose a custom name for your channel. Basically Youtube will suggest your first and last name as the channel name, but our advice is to think about the goal and argument of the channel and come up with a name that also considers the macro-topic prince within it. Actually, it will be enough to name the channel to activate it but the personalization factor and, therefore, fully centering on the focus theme of the topic covered is crucial.

How to customize the YouTube channel
Now we are inside the channel and we can start customizing it.

After creating it, as anticipated earlier, it will be crucial to customize your channel as it will be the real distinguishing feature from other Youtubers.

The newly created Youtube channel represents the home in which you will welcome your community, so give it the right attention, take care of it and keep it tidy. It is only in this way that your community will be clear about your message and will follow you much more easily, choosing the content that is most interesting to them.

Once you have chosen the name you can proceed to select the images that will represent you. the channel image and the channel cover image. The first one will be the image that represents it (a kind of profile picture): you can upload it by searching at the bottom for the icon for uploading the image (create it square) and it will be enough to upload it. Youtube will take care of adapting it to each device and cropping it to give it the classic circular shape. You will be able to upload the picture directly from your PC or smartphone; in fact, Youtube allows the creation of the channel also from the mobile device but, in terms of convenience, we recommend you to proceed via pc.

The cover image, on the other hand, can be changed later. Below is an example for cover and image.

Youtube cover size
The format of the Youtube cover is 2048×1152 px.

Within this format, there are actually three areas that start from the center of it and go according to the device the user will use (e.monitor, smartphone,tablet)

Recommended cover area: size of 1235×338 px so it will fit on all devices.

Once you have created your Youtube channel, don’t forget to download the Youtube Studio app, available for Android and iOS with which you can manage your channel from smartphones more quickly

Youtube channel description
Once you have chosen your images, you will need to add a short description that previews your topic and will anticipate what users will find in the channel. Spend time to make a clear catchy description is add a call to action to invite users to subscribe. Don’t forget that it is often the channel description that allows users to decide whether you are the right place to spend time on.

In the description, it is also useful to include the keywords (keywords) that identify the channel’s topic or topics; in fact, it is these first tricks that help the platform frame the channel and position it in the category it belongs to and distinguish it from the crowd. Do not forget that Youtube, like Google, feeds on text, so the clearer and more precise you are, the easier it will be for it to understand you and thus reward you.

Once you have created a well-crafted description, you will also be able to include links to social pages.

These are the first basic steps for creating your first Youtube channel. Once completed simply save and continue.

The first steps on the Youtube channel
Now, how to get started on Youtube?

In the “customization” section of Youtube studio, which is the control panel of your channel, through the button on the right on the main home page of your channel you go to the customization: going to it opens the page where, immediately, on the layout you can insert a video trailer, which previews the channel for users who are not yet subscribed as well as a later video, always in the foreground, for those who are already subscribed. The layout page is dedicated, moreover, for the organization of the different video sections that make up the channel: for example, play list with videos where the company is told, a later one presenting the brand’s flagship products, etc…

With this step done, next to it is the “Branding” section where you can now go to update your cover image as well. There you will simply need to upload an image of at least 2048 x 1152 pixels and a maximum of 6 MB to the “branding” section.

Interesting is the option to insert a watermark and, that is, the sticker that appears inside each video that can be used, either to brand the videos, or, as is often the case, to entice users to subscribe to the channel by inserting an image with the appropriate wording “subscribe to channel.”

What other settings are important for the YouTube channel?
At this point, on the left column of the channel you need to click on the “settings” wheel, which is divided into the following sections:

• General
• Channel
• Uploaded video settings
• Permissions
• Community
• Contracts

Within the “General” item, you need to set the currency of the channel’s country of residence. This will serve since, upon reaching the threshold of 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of video viewing, you will be able to monetize through the insertion of commercials and banner ads while viewing the video.

Within the “Channel” section, we will find three subcategories, namely: “Basic Information” (with channel name, country of residence, and keywords indicating video content); “Advanced Settings” (you tell youtube whether the channel has content suitable for a minor audience or not); “Feature Suitability” (this section alerts you if there are violations of the community’s standard rules, and it is in this section that, through verification by phone number, by entering the code that you will receive via text message, you will be able to unlock the uploading of videos longer than 15 minutes, streaming, and other features. It will also be the section where any copyright violations will be reported and where the results of any appeals will be displayed)

On the other hand, in the “Default settings uploaded videos” section you will be able to manage all the wording that you want to be always present within the Youtube videos, indistinctly if you are going to insert a description or not.

The “Permissions” section is dedicated to editing contributors and, that is, whether you want to add users or remove them. Also from here you can delete the channel. In this section you will be able to act only being within the “master” account.

The “Community” section, on the other hand, is reserved for the interaction of users outside the channel, thus controlling their behavior within the channel. Indeed, in this section, it is possible to block certain users as well as set filters for comments that contain links. You will also be able to filter precise words so that they do not appear below in comments as well as ban them from the beginning, appoint moderators, pre-approve users who will never be moderated, and block users we do not want them to comment.

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What is Microsoft Clarity?
While similar in some respects to Google Analytics and perhaps more like Yandex Metrica in others, Microsoft’s monitoring tool is designed to be used even by novice users. The main features offered, by this tool, are:

• Dashboard for an overview of user performance and behavior
• Session logging that notes the behavior of visitors to your website
• Heat map that allows you to observe, in a precise way, the different movements and where visitors click the most

Importantly, thanks to its careful optimization, it does not slow down page loading on sites where it is used. In addition, it has no traffic limit: even sites with large influx of visitors can use it for free.

Clarity uses real evidence but does so while respecting user privacy and GDPR.

How Microsoft Clarity works
To use and make Clarity active, it is necessary, first of all, to register and create a project. Next, simply click on the “Start” button, and as soon as you sign up, a dashboard will appear with a popup asking you to enter a new project, the URL of your website, and choose a site category.

Next, you will have to enter a monitoring code inside the tag of a site, e-commerce or app that you want to analyze. You can also install the code using third-party platforms such as Google Tag Manager.

In addition, Clarity offers the ability to integrate data derived from Google Analytics by simply connecting your Google account.

Dashboard
This section is well structured and easy to understand. It is designed to provide a single set of information, and each metric is juxtaposed with a quick explanation. This approach is very useful for those users who come from other monitoring tools and are unfamiliar with the new entries:

• Rage clicks When a small section of a page is clicked on continuously. This indicates a certain nervous state of the user;
• Dead clicks A visitor clicks idly on a page and gets no results;
• Excessive scrolling A lot of scrolling is done within the page, as if to quickly scroll through the page without getting a chance to see anything.

Eliminating these issues and knowing the most interesting user sessions allows you to make important decisions that serve to simplify the design and optimize the user experience of your site, improving the conversion rate.

Recording Panel
This tool allows users’ sessions and behavior to be recorded as they use the page. The data that are highlighted are:

• the duration;
• the number of pages visited;;
• the number of clicks made;
• the device and operating system used;
• the country of origin.

The navigation video faithfully reflects what the user viewed. The only exceptions are mouse movement from desktops and touches on the screen from smartphones. Convenient filters can be used to make it easier to find a session.

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Who is the ecommerce buyer?
The buyer-or purchasing manager-is a figure who is responsible for planning the selection and purchase of goods and services for resale by an ecommerce.
As a purchasing manager, this figure must be responsible for planning procurement in order to optimize inventory, improve storage flows with a view to reducing costs. Depending on the reality in which he or she operates, he or she may be in charge of choosing raw materials to purchase, as well as products to resell and energy suppliers.

This is a very complex task-though it may not seem so-since the figure in question must be able to understand the needs and preferences of the designated target audience and know how to negotiate smoothly between the parties involved.

The buyer covers many useful functions in ecommerce purchasing and sales including:

• establishing procurement strategies
• selecting the most advantageous suppliers (scouting)
• evaluating designers to understand what they offer
• negotiating procurement budgets with management
• managing relationships with suppliers and customers
• plan purchases (quantities, deadlines) within the assigned budget
• study market trends
• supervise the distribution of goods
• monitor stock trends
• assess the quality of products distributed
• keep abreast of changes in the industry and customer tastes
• visit showrooms, trade shows, and industry events
• study sales materials
• store item master records using management software
• collaborate with other departments in the company to make reasoned decisions
• evaluate the terms and conditions of purchasing contracts
• prepare reports for the purchasing department

What an ecommerce buyer does
The buyer is in charge of evaluating suppliers and their respective offerings to judge whether they are congruent with his company’s needs. He must, of course, understand changes in the market to ascertain whether the goods he can buy meet the needs of his target audience.

He negotiates with suppliers to buy products within the predetermined budget and to possibly obtain discounts. It directly checks the quality of products and, if it finds discrepancies with what was agreed upon, it points this out to suppliers.

In a broader sense, he frequently monitors the industry to define changes in trends that may affect the ability to sell goods. Analyzes the results of market research to define the product lines to be sold. It also makes decisions on final product details, models, sizes and colors. To this end, he compares with suppliers and designers to evaluate the choices available.
Once the products have been chosen, he presents them to the senior manager who gives the go-ahead for distribution in stores. Of course, he can also think of new product lines than conventional ones to propose to the company.

In the supervisor’s capacity, he serves as a unifying figure for the various business sections, oversees the work of the salespeople, and liaises with the sales department to decide whether it is appropriate to withdraw a product that is no longer profitable. Based on the information from the various company departments (purchasing, production, sales…) he can make more effective decisions, and possibly modify the purchasing plans undertaken based on additional data received.

On the administrative side, he or she is responsible for checking quotes, contacting suppliers to make sure deliveries are made on time.

What characteristics should the ecommerce buyer have
The buyer generally possesses excellent communication skills, both written and oral, which he or she uses in negotiating with suppliers.
He or she possesses excellent organizational and planning skills to perform his or her tasks to the best of his or her ability, excellent mathematical skills to compare prices, and data analysis skills to make well-reasoned decisions.
The buyer must be able to relate to the company as a whole to be able to define in advance the timing and quantities of products to be met.
Appreciated qualities are resistance to stress and the ability to act on multiple levels to ensure tasks are carried out correctly.

Typically, buyers have a degree in business related to a technical background. Educational backgrounds such as master’s degrees in subjects related to warehouse management and logistics, and a knowledge of corporate contracting are also appreciated.
This professional can specialize in certain sectors (e.g., clothing, toys, electronics): in fact, Buyers can work in all areas of retail: large retail bookstores, fashion, hi-tech stores.

They certainly cannot lack a certain amount of resourcefulness that drives them to make motivated and perhaps innovative decisions to improve ecommerce performance!

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They are everywhere, we cannot do without them-and there are so many of them!
We are, of course, talking about social networks, global connection and sharing tools that have become part of our daily lives.

Social networks are people-oriented platforms that have already conquered something like 3.8 billion people, with an increase of 9.2% from 2019 to 2020.

In Italy alone there are 35 million members, a little less than 60 percent of the total population, and users spend at least 2 hours a day there

.Social media have revolutionized the way we communicate, made it easy and intuitive to share information, and developed special features to stand out among numerous competitors.

That’s right, there are many social networks, more than you might know, and new ones pop up like mushrooms every year. The need for networking aggregation has become practically a primary need, and each platform seeks to expand its membership base by either posing as “the new kid on the block” or by offering more innovative features than those that came before it.

Facebook
Facebook is the social network par excellence and one of the most widely used in the world (it has at least 2.5 billion monthly active users!).

It targets a general audience and makes as its strength the intuitiveness in sharing textual posts, images and videos.

The platform is used by both individuals and companies with appropriate professional profiles, both to communicate with others and to promote themselves.

Users can gather in thematic groups around certain topics to share opinions and content around their passions.

The platform offers many options to try to capture the audience’s attention as much as possible. In fact, we can create from our profile posts that are graphically evident, quizzes to make our followers interact, videos, images, as well as, of course, the possibility of sponsoring paid posts to make them more evident.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn positions itself as a “job social network,” and members use it to demonstrate job skills and qualities. It registers at least 303 million active users.

The platform acts as a virtual marketplace to connect job supply and demand. Professionals can report their work experiences and get in touch with others, based on larger or smaller circles of connections.

A Linkedin profile is a kind of digital resume composed of work experience, examples of work performed, skills, and references.

Again, we can follow company profiles and join thematic groups. There are paid membership plans for services such as Premium Sales Navigator and Premium Career.

TikTok
TikTok began as a platform for sharing short-form music videos.

It proves to be one of the most popular social networks of the moment: it ranks seventh among mobile apps from the largest monthly active users, and already has 500 million users.

Simply download the app available for ios and Android and create an account with your email. TikTok allows you to upload 15-second music videos, change their speed, and add filters. Unfortunately, the lack of a clearly defined privacy policy makes it a controversial platform that is not appreciated by all.

Instagram
Instagram is a visual social network that allows people to share images and videos and edit photos using special filters. It is a widespread platform that already has one billion users.

Originally created as a stand-alone application, it later became part of the suite of applications related to Facebook

We can add a caption to images containing up to 2,000 characters and up to 30 hashtags (a term that collects content related to the same topic).

In recent years, Stories are also available, content that disappears after 24 hours and can be highlighted and categorized.

Posts on Instagram can also be sponsored to increase their visibility.

Twitter
Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows users to share (tweet) messages up to 280 characters long, including images, videos, or links. Users can also share in turn what others post (retweet).

Compared to other platforms it aims more to offer flash updates about one’s thoughts and activities. It is used, for example, by public figures, influencers and politicians to update their audiences, as well as by companies to share flash offers and news of the moment. It has at least 326 million active users.

Pinterest
Pinterest is a platform for sharing images, photos and videos, which can be organized as a real virtual pinboard. Indeed, we can pin with symbolic pins the images that interest us, even those from other pinboards.

Compared to other visual platforms such as Instagram, it focuses more on wanting to convey inspiration and is used by creatives and fans of a given topic to find new ideas.

From a promotional point of view, pins have the advantage of being linked to the websites from which the content originates, so clicking on them redirects users to the original source. Business accounts offer Analytics features and sponsored content.
It has at least 250 million active users.

Youtube
Youtube is a true social network, sharing platform and video search engine, second only to Google in importance. Users can upload their own videos and view those of others, share them, embed them on websites, and leave a Like or Dislike depending on whether they liked or disliked content.
It also proves to be a useful promotional platform for business purposes. which allows users to produce targeted advertisements based on gender, age, preferences.

Users can sign up for a paid service to watch videos without the ad breaks and access additional services such as YouTube Music streaming.

Twitch
Twitch stands as a competitor to Youtube dedicated to the world of online gaming.

It is a streaming platform that allows gamers to broadcast their games online, as well as host live broadcasts on various topics such as music, entertainment, and current events.

Users can subscribe to the channels they follow and comment on live broadcasts.

The Prime Gaming service offers additional features such as the availability of exclusive chats and increased participation in streamer activities.

Reddit
Reddit is a news social network in which users can aggregate by topic areas, post images, text, and videos on various topics. Users can comment and rate others’ content, create new discussions in special subcategories, called “subreddits.”

Tumblr
Tumblr is a microblogging platform that allows precisely to post textual and visual content as if we were in the presence of a blog space. The registered user can post text, music, images, videos, which once online can be shared by others.

WhatsApp
Whatsapp is undoubtedly is the most widely used messaging app in the world, with 1.5 billion users.

WeChat
WeChat in China is what Facebook is to the rest of the world: it boasts more than 1.1 billion users! WeChat is a messaging and social media app that allows users to call their friends, read the news, play games, and take advantage of paid features.

Snapchat
Snapchat is a platform that may not boast record-breaking numbers (287 million users) but has an undoubted hold among young people.

This app allows users to send text, images and videos that can only be viewed for 24 hours.

What are your favorite social networks? Let’s talk about them below!

The post World’s most popular social networks: here’s the list appeared first on E-Commerce Marketing.

To make money with Youtube it is not necessary to have a channel with millions of subscribers. Even with a relatively small channel, in fact, it turns out to be possible to start turning your passion into a source of income. Below we will find out how to make money with Youtube, addressing the following topics:

• Youtube Analytics
• Youtube Partner Program
• Patreon
• Sponsors
• Affiliate Marketing

Check your audience through Youtube Analytics
Before you start thinking about earning money with Youtube, you need to be aware regarding the audience interested in your content. Through Youtube Studio Analytics you can check the average age of your viewers, as well as the amount of content viewed by them.

In order to maximize your chances of Youtube earnings, it is important to keep this data in mind, and try to focus the production of your videos towards the user group that most represents your audience.

Joining the Youtube Partner Program
In order to monetize your videos and start earning money through the views you receive, you need to join the Youtube Partner Program. Through it, in fact, it turns out to be possible to activate advertisements within the videos, which will allow you to earn a small amount of money for each ad viewed. To activate monetization, you must follow the following requirements:

• You must comply with the monetization rules, which we will discuss in a moment;
• You must have at least 4,000 hours of views on your channel over the past year;
• You must have at least 1000 subscribers to your YouTube channel;
• You must have an AdSense account.

Beware of demonetization
Once you have activated the Youtube Partner Program, to ensure that your videos can be monetized you need to make sure that they meet Youtube’s community standards and Adsense program standards.

In the first case, Youtube will check that your videos do not present content of a misleading nature, with nudity, endangering the safety of minors, with incitement to hatred, and in general other content deemed dangerous. In these cases, Youtube will proceed to remove the video deemed unsuitable, which will obviously not, therefore, be monetized.

In the second case, on the other hand, these are quality norms, whereby the repetitiveness of the content you submit will be evaluated, as well as the possible presence of reused material, yours or others’. For more information about the monetization rules you can consult this link.

Getting your fans to support you through Patreon
Patreon is a fan funding platform, which allows a content creator to receive donations from his or her followers. The frequency of donations can be freely set by the user, from a minimum of one per month, up to one per video you create for Youtube.

Obviously it is difficult to get money donated without offering anything in return, so you will have to think of extra content to offer your fans. Donations are usually divided into several “tiers” (tiers), and each tier corresponds to a specific reward.

These can range from small rewards, such as adding fans’ names to the end of your videos, to exclusive videos or other materials, to private live chats for the highest tiers. Before establishing rewards be sure to get a good understanding of the type of audience that follows you in order to best capture interest and entice them to join your Patreon.

Sponsor products within your videos.
Once you reach a certain number of followers, you may be contacted by some brands to sponsor their products. Alternatively, you could be the one to contact a particular manufacturer whose items you find interesting. This will obviously be all the easier the more focused your channel is on a particular topic. To give a couple of examples, a youtube channel that talks about fashion will be more likely to be contacted to sponsor beauty products, while a channel devoted to music may be offered audio products and musical instruments. In pitching these products to your audience, however, do not overly alter the nature of your videos and risk being boring to your audience. Be clear about sponsorship and do not agree to promote products you do not believe in.

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Checking a site’s indexing status on Google is a key step in getting to rank and get visits from search engines. But how exactly does indexing work?

How does website indexing work?
Google uses programs called bots (spiders or crawlers) to scan the web for new content. Through links they go from one piece of content to another and include them in their archives. Periodically, they go through such paths again to discover new content and variations of pre-existing content.

The scanned content is included in the list of sites from which the search engine can choose those potentially to return to users’ searches. Google “fishes” from the sites included in its archives to generate result pages to offer to visitors. The order of the results is called “ranking” and is determined by Google’s algorithms through evaluations based on a large number of parameters.

Google performs indexing of websites for free and spontaneously. However, it does not happen under all circumstances; certain conditions can make it difficult for crawlers to access or store content.
Indexing can be hindered:

• by special instructions on the page (noindex meta tag) or in the robots.txt file
• by technical problems that prevent crawlers from viewing content
• by the presence of identical duplicate content

To ensure that indexing occurs correctly, check that the page contains enough text to be read, and that it is unique, i.e., not a duplicate of an already indexed page. In this case it may happen that the new content is excluded from Google’s results. In addition, the presence of duplicate content risks causing Google’s crawlers to consume unnecessary resources that it cannot use to crawl other pages. Google assigns a “crawl budget” to each site, a maximum limit of resources it allocates for crawling, and wasting it on resources that are not useful will affect the quality of indexing.

To speed up indexing you can link the pages of the site through internal links: in fact, crawlers move from one page to another through links this favors the passage of bots to the deep content of the site and makes indexing more complete.

To check whether a site is indexed, you can:

• check from tools such as Google Analytics whether it gets visits from search engines
• type into Google the formula site: followed by the content address without www (e.g., site:webhero.co.uk/page-of-example)

How to index a site on Google?
By now you may be wondering: how can you index a site on Google?

First of all, if you haven’t already done so, you can activate a Gmail email address, which you can use to sign up for Google Search Console. GSC is a Google service that allows you to manage various technical aspects of your site, including indexing.

If you want to index a particular URL (such as new content) you can enter its path in the URL Inspection tool. If the page is not indexed, it will reply that “The URL is not found on Google” and you can request a crawl.

This is still a technique to adopt to speed up the discovery of particularly important content, but it should not make up for a recurring difficulty in indexing.

If this occurs, the source of the problem must be identified in order to correct it and restore a proper crawling opportunity for crawlers.

To facilitate indexing, we can help Google by providing it with an actual list of pages to scan.

The sitemap is a map that lists all the pages on the website. This file greatly aids Google in learning what content is on the site and speeds up the inclusion of items in its archives.

To create the sitemap you can use plugins such as:

• Google XML Sitemaps
• Yoast SEO
• Rank Math

which allow you to quickly create a sitemap of the site’s files.

It is not only about indexing a website, but also about optimizing its content to make it easily understandable and valuable to search engines.

For this reason you may need the help of an SEO consultant, a professional who can guide you through the recommended procedures to make your website easily understandable and authoritative for search engines.

The post What is indexing and how to index a website appeared first on E-Commerce Marketing.

However, there is another important step to take in lead generation, which is the creation of incisive call-to-actions to stimulate conversions and increase sales.

A good copywriter must therefore be able to complement texts with engaging and direct calls-to-action that finalize the viewers’ attention toward taking actions beneficial to the business.

What are calls to action
A call to action (CTA) is a call to action placed in a web content to prompt the reader to take an action beneficial to conversion goals.

The call to action can be simple text as well as a button or widget placed prominently,. It can be an element with the function of transporting the user to another page where they can take a desired action, such as leaving their information in exchange for an appealing free product.

Devising compelling call-to-actions is a task that is far from obvious and not necessarily easy to accomplish. Indeed, one must be able to combine clear indications of what one wants users to do, with an idea of the benefit that will accrue to those who will accept.

In fact, the CTA is critical in lead generation campaigns to convert casual visitors into actual customers and to get them to take actions such as:

• request a quote
• requesting more information
• download a trial of a product
• download an ebook
• subscribe to the company newsletter
• invite to share on social media

These are also very useful invitations to create a strong community around one’s brand and to increase the visibility of content.

Many times it makes use of phrases such as “Click here,” “Discover now,” and “Sign up now” to make the action to be taken obvious.

Once the user clicks on the call to action, they are on a landing page that either urges them to take an action (e.g., provide their contact information to sign up for a newsletter) or thanks them for taking the action (e.g., thank you page after placing an order). In this way an occasional contact can be turned into an actual lead (business contact).

We thus have a process like this:

• landing on the landing page
• identifying the call to action
• clicking on the call to action
• landing on a “thank you page” that delivers what was promised and says thank you

How to create effective call to action
An effective call to action must be able to reach the viewer’s attention and prompt them to take the desired action.

The important thing is always to put the user’s needs at the center, to act on the levers that are really able to push the user to take action.

An effective call to action must:

• express how it is able to satisfy the person’s need
• nudge the viewer in a “gentle” way to take the action toward the product or service you are offering
• clearly state the action you want the reader to perform
• adopt the company’s usual tone of voice.

The CTA should be concise and direct and clearly express the benefit the reader will receive if he or she takes the suggested action.

The call to action must be placed in strategic locations on the page so that it is clearly visible and entices the user to click.

It should point directly to indicate the action to be taken and the promised benefit, without getting lost in frills.

Some examples of effective call-to-actions might be:

• Join our community and learn all the tricks to earn money!
• Download our software and keep track of all your expenses
• Leave a comment and share with your friends
• Save now
• Discover our Free Guide

These texts aim to make it very clear in a few words the benefit that those who perform the required action will receive, without diluting, inviting the viewer to act immediately.

Although using verbs in imperative form may seem aggressive and “rude,” it allows for more direct reception and prompts action more effectively.

Netflix’s call-to-action:

“Watch what you want anywhere. Cancel anytime you want

Free subscription for one month.”

is effective since it expresses the benefit of watching countless products, as well as the ability to subscribe for free with no commitment and easy to cancel.

Trello reports instead:

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to illustrate how the proposed product succeeds in increasing users’ productivity.

Evernote reports:

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which hints at the benefit in terms of streamlining the work it offers, and then invites you to sign up now.

It is then a matter of choosing the right combination of form, text and color that will capture the viewer’s attention and propel them to action.

To assess the effectiveness of each choice, special A/B tests are conducted: these involve changing a small number of elements so as to assess which arrangement yields the best results.

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Brands are constantly looking for new ways to excite users and convey their commercial messages more effectively. One such strategy is product placement. What is it all about?

What is product placement
Product placement (or “embedded marketing” or “embedded advertising”) is a form of promotion that consists of showing, mentioning or otherwise highlighting a commercial product within a narrative product (movie, TV series, radio show…) so that it is received by the viewer in an unconscious way.

It is a technique that has really been used for dozens of years and was already present in films of the 1950s-60s. You only have to think of even black-and-white films where you could see a Hollywood actor smoking a Marlboro, complete with a clearly visible pack.

What does traditional brand promotion mean today? Why doesn’t regular advertising work? The consumer today is more aware and demanding; that is why the conventional way of product brand promotion is not enough. Nowadays, marketers are reaching for unconventional marketing tools. This is precisely where product placement comes in.

According to several studies, product placement has a great impact in the recipient of advertising. The product, directly shown, affects on average about 30 percent of viewers.

In addition, if the product is shown near the actor or secondary characters, the effectiveness of the message increases to more than 50 percent. While if the main character uses the product, the visibility goes up to 80%. Really high numbers when compared to other advertisements. This also explains why during our times, advertising done through influencer marketing has a very very high response.

The same research also tells us that if there is a verbal mention within a program or movie (thus without visual impact) 60% of the target audience will notice it.

How much does it cost to do product Placement
Product placement usually takes place for a financial consideration, that is, it is a covert sponsorship performed without the viewers being aware of it from the beginning.

In other cases, the “reward” for the sponsoring company consists of another form of financial return, such as selling its products and services needed for the production of the film.

Unlike conventional advertising, which is presented as such and which viewers take in its true purposes, product placement acts more “sneakily” by reaching out to users when their defenses are down, presenting marketed products as elements of a narrative context.

Generally, the product should stand out but not too blatantly, possibly in a way that is functional to the plot. A product displayed in a way that disturbs the viewer or does not stick in the mind, on the other hand, is not considered effective.

As the July 30, 2004 Decree adopted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities clarifies, “The placement of products or brands within films or television programs must integrate into the development of the action, without constituting interruption of the narrative context.”

Product placement is applied in many channels such as movies, TV shows, radio shows, video games, games and events, so that the enjoyment of the entertainment product is not interrupted. It is a more insidious form of indirect advertising, if you will, as it is mixed with other entertainment elements but, unlike these, with a commercial intent.

Product Placement: why did it catch on?
You may be wondering: but why has product placement caught on?

In traditional commercials, the viewer is already prepared to receive advertising messages and therefore knows that he or she will be called upon to decide whether or not the offer is appropriate. For this reason, commercials often do not achieve the desired effects, as viewers either do not pay attention to the advertisements or skip them directly.

In product placement, on the other hand, the user is predisposed to follow the film, TV series or show carefully, and if the product is part of it undoubtedly reaches the viewer.

In these cases, the user identifies the product as a part of the entertainment media, so his judgment of it is “distorted” by the emotions conveyed to him by the narrative.

Obviously, the more the product is presented in a smooth, obvious though not overly placed manner, the more the message goes unnoticed but reaches its destination.

This advertising technique requires larger investments than the other modes, costs that are justified by the returns that can be obtained when entertainment products have high notoriety.

From a certain point of view, product placement acts like native advertising, since it is integrated into the context consulted by the user.

Over the years, this system became established as a real method of increasing film budgets, as companies financed film productions in exchange for the appearance of their products in films.

According to a report by PQMedia, product placement in 2020 reached global value of more than $20 billion!

Nielsen Media Research released a study showing that 58 percent of viewers recognized a brand while viewing a product placement in combination with the commercial, while 47 percent of viewers recognized a brand exposed only to the commercial.

Of course, this study does not show an overall view of the impact of brand placement that brand awareness increases with product placement. But the fact that a brand appears every 3 minutes in prime-time TV shows and media forecast data suggests an annual increase of more than 10 percent of the $8 billion spent globally on brand placement of film and TV products.

Examples of Product Placement.
Forrest Gump drinking 15 bottles of Dr. Pepper or discarding Nikes

• Tom Cruise wearing Ray-Ban glasses in Top Gun

• In Et the Extraterrestrial Spielberg there are in several scenes with Rece’s Pieces candy

• Jurassic World. Watch this video, a trailer made all of Product Placement was created. Had you ever paid attention to it?

At one time this practice was performed in a rather common way, configuring itself as de facto unregulated advertising. Over the years, regulatory interventions (such as the Urbani Decree of July 30, 2004) were developed so that its influence on the viewer would be regulated.

Product placement – The types
Different types of product placement have been developed over the years, evolving in parallel with the entertainment products provided to the public.

• Visual (screen placement): the brand is placed in a highly visible manner for the viewer (this is one of the most effective modes)
• Verbal (script placement): the brand is named by the characters in the story (its effectiveness depends on the context and how it is integrated)
• Integrated (plot placement): unlike the more superficial modes, in this case the product is integrated with the plot of the entertainment channel and becomes part of it if not a real pillar of the story (see “The Devil Wears Prada,” although in this case it is called “title placement” since the product is present in the title)

The integrated formula in particular has evolved in recent years so that it is increasingly perceived as an actual entertainment product rather as a way put in place strictly to advertise a product.

See the “Lego Movie” films that revolve entirely around the use of Lego bricks to build different kinds of artifacts (i.e., the function that is meant to prompt potential customers to buy them) or “Wreck-it Ralph” where characters from video game brands as well as Mentos and Coca Cola are mentioned. And who more than others Toy Story, with its cen.

In some cases, on the other hand, product placement originates after the release of the entertainment product: this is the case with Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans from the Harry Potter films or the novels attributed to the TV character Richard Castle, which were released after an existence only in fiction.

Where product placement is done
Product placement nowadays is done not only in TV series, dramas or children’s TV series, but also in school textbooks.

In France, children can learn techniques for brushing their teeth with images of Colgate materials.

At the moment, the consumer who sees shoes, cars, cell phones and other products of specific brands in TV programs or serials is not surprised and even convinced that this kind of advertising has been paid for by the company that wants to promote its brand.

But product placement in print, especially in books, is a relatively new and rare mode of promotion. Multiple brand placement in the text can be an effective marketing technique that allows consumers to become familiar with the brand embedded in the text and thus become a favorite brand of consumers in the selected product category of other brands. This may subconsciously change the reader’s own thoughts.

Advantages and disadvantages of product placement
Although product placement is an effective marketing communication tool, it is not without its drawbacks. However, numerous advantages that affect the effectiveness of product placement make these negative elements become less visible. Summary of the positive and negative aspects of product placement presented below.

The most important advantages are.
Alternative to traditional forms of advertising, product placement unlike television communication does not affect the interruption of the broadcast. Advertising blocks cause annoyance to viewers.

Credibility of the message: brands presented in films or TV series introduce an atmosphere of authenticity. By seeing the products they know from the real world on the screen, the recipient is gaining trust in the content presented.

The presentation of the brand-product in the audiovisual broadcast takes place in the company of the celebrities who use them. According to the viewer, the actors/sportsmen/television personalities are attractive, so that product also becomes an object of desire.

Low cost and high efficiency: the cost of product placement is much lower than that incurred by the advertiser in the case of television advertising. Companies often have the option of placing the brand in exchange for providing props for the film, which is a minimal cost to them.

Unlimited range: product placement in the film offers the opportunity to reach a wider audience because the film can be seen anywhere in the world. This is attractive to companies that operate globally, because they have the opportunity to reach an international clientele.

The ability to promote products prohibited in classic advertising: product placement creates a space in which manufacturers can present their products prohibited by law in advertising. These include products such as alcohol and tobacco products. Films are extremely attractive to producers of these types of products because they have fewer opportunities in the classic mode of promotion than, for example, food.

Unrestricted access: each audiovisual work appears in different mass media; in the case of films, the first is the cinema, then the Internet, DVD and television. The viewer thus has unlimited access to the image, and the product thus localized can be seen many times.

The disadvantages of this promotional tool include the following
Unpredictable number of clients: it is difficult for producers to predict whether the film or any other work will be successful or not. Careful selection of the cast and a good idea for a script do not guarantee success. It may be the case that using brand positioning incurs costs, but the investment has not been worthwhile.

Bad placement: the reception of product placement depends on screenwriters bringing a brand into the film. If done superficially, producers and sponsors of the video project can have the brand exposed to negative public reviews. In the Internet age, bad reputation spreads very quickly. For example, let’s take a car as a product for positioning. Let’s put the car in scenes where there is a chase and the car manages to catch up with the car in front with great acceleration, this car brand will look like a high-quality product with a high-performance engine. Take another scene with the same car not losing the chase with a car in the same category, the brand will be seen as a brand with low quality and non-performing engines and therefore not trustworthy.

It remains stationary at the moment it is photographed: the introduction of product placement photographs the product at that specific moment. If the product changes visual identification and some external features (logo, packaging, etc.), the image of this product will continue to circulate not updated to the time of fruition.

Limited opportunities for communication differentiation: the situation applies to brands that operate globally. Sometimes a product arrives in different countries under a different name or not at all, which is a kind of limitation that does not allow the full potential of this kind of promotion tool to be exploited.

Low sales effect: product placement performs the functions of branding. Therefore, this tool requires support from other forms of promotion that will induce the consumer to decide to buy.

Lack of control over the life of the product in the film: once identified, the product is in the film forever. It may happen that the product is withdrawn or begins to be positioned differently, thus making its presence in the film obsolete.

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