SME business ideas: Develop an online presence cheap

Here is why you will love this guide:

It is beginner-friendly, up-to-date, fast to set up, and best of all free. :-)

Step 1: Choose the best website hosting platform.

Before you start worrying about color schemes and domain names you have to first decide what platform you are going to build your website with. 

The objective of this guide is to give to you an easy guide to building your first website regardless of what you choose to start with; well almost all of the available services out in the world today should incorporate basically the same principles.

What do I mean by a "platform"?

Back in the days creating a website required prior knowledge of fancy codes (prerequisites: HTML, CSS and even Flash) and they require a great amount of investment in time to learn and were very challenging to master.

HOLD IT! Today much of it has changed and the past has contributed to much of what is today's conception that creating a website from scratch is difficult or requires a lot of coding and design skills - but rest assured that is no longer true!!

IN 2015, there have been a plethora of content management systems (CMS) like WordPress that have been making website creation accessible to almost anyone who have an interest to do so.

A CMS is a user-friendly platform for building websites and managing your own online content, instead of using a bunch of complicated HTML pages, constructed using pure code.

Amongst the most popular website building platforms are Wordpress (50.07%), Drupal (17.07%), and Joomla (6.44%). Just from those you can see that half of the internet is running on WordPress.

Why choose WordPress?

FREE. There isn't any other reason that beats that! The other part to it is WordPress is beginner-friendly, powerful, mobile-friendly, and a massive support community. There are others too such as Drupal which is popular with web developers and experienced coders but comes with a steep learning curve that makes it a terrible experience for beginners, and Joomla which still requires a little bit of technical coding to make it work the way you want, but this works fantastic for online stores.

For beginners, WordPress is a good place to start.

You won't need to install or set up anything because in Step 2 will explain choosing a domain name and finding a great hosting plan for your website;

and in Step 3 you will be guided through a step by step process to install and customize a WordPress website.

Step 2: Choose a Domain Name & 

Website Hosting for your website.

To get a new website online you are going to need two things:

1. a domain name (www.yourname.com)
2. hosting (a service that connects your website to the internet)

As you are already aware the WordPress platform itself is free, but a domain name and hosting will cost you a fee. For a more targeted approach to your Malaysian SME business obtaining a www.yourname.com is relatively inexpensive and should cost you from RM55 onwards a year depending on the availability of the domain name.

Having your own hosting will ensure that your website loads quickly and won't go down for hours at a time (this is really important for everyone who visits your pages).

Where to get a domain name and hosting.

You can get your domain name from here and hosting from here.

It is affordable, has good customer service and comes with some good deals. When you get a domain name you will also get a personal email account(s): you@yourname.com which is more professional sounding than a generic Gmail or Yahoo Address.

Step 3: Set up your WordPress Website.

Once you have setup your domain name and hosting you should be well on your way. Now is the time to get your website up and running. The first thing you will need to do is install WordPress to your domain.

Installing WordPress.

Some hosts provide 1-click-installation. But to install WordPress Manually. All you have to do is:

1. Download WordPress from here.
2. Create a new folder on your desktop and unzip WordPress in it
3. Look for a file named wp-config-sample.php and rename it to: wp-config.php
4. Now open the wp-config.php (with notepad for example) and fill the following lines: (1) define ('DB_NAME','database_name_here'); - Database name (if you don't know it ask this from your hosting support), (2) define ('DB_USER', 'username_here'); - Your hosting username, (3) define ('DB_PASSWORD','password_here'; - Your hosting password. After you have filled the gaps, save the file.
5. Now log into your hosting ftp (download FileZilla for that). The FTP address is usually ftp.yourdomain.com, username and password are the same that you used to register your host.
6. If there is any file name "index" - delete it. After that upload all the files from your WordPress folder to your FTP server. (You should be able to use "drag n drop" function in FileZilla.
7. Once you have completed the previous steps go to your URL: yourname.com/wp-admin/install.php

You should see a form and fill it in and you are ready!

Choosing a theme/template for your website

Once you have successfully installed WordPress to your domain, you will see a very basic yet clean website:

But you don't want to look like everyone else now do you? ;-)

This is why you need a theme. Go to your name.com/wp-admin and you should be able to find over 1500 free themes, along the side bar on the left for "Appearance" and then "Themes".

If you want something more professional you could find a professional website designer or head over to ThemeForest.net where there is a really big library of themes to choose from with varying costs!

But before you do that take time to browse free themes as they are very professional.

IMPORTANT: Changing themes won't delete your previous posts, pages and content. You can change themes as often as you want without having to worry about losing what you have created previously.

How do you add content and create new pages?

Easy just look along the sidebar in the WordPress Dashboard for "Pages" > "Add New" and once you have clicked on it you will find a screen that looks a lot like Microsoft Word. Add text, images and more to build the page you want and then save it when you are done.

Adding pages is similar to adding new postings. Click "Appearance" > "Menus" in the sidebar of the WordPress Dashboard and find the page you have created and add it to the list by clicking the checkbox next to it and then "Add to Menu".

Setting up a static front page.

Some people have frustrations where they say that their frustrated that their home page looks like a blog post. You can fix that by making your home page "static:.

A static page is a page that doesn't change as the name implies, and unlike a blog where the first few new articles show up at the top every time, a "static" page will show the same content overtime someone comes to the site - very similar to a home page you have designed.

To set up a static front page:

Go to "Settings" > "Reading" and choose a static page that you have created. "Front Page" denotes your home page, "Posts Page" is the front page of your blog (if your entire site isn't a blog).

If you don't choose a static page on your own, WordPress will take your latest posts and start showing them on your homepage.

Installing plugins to get more out of WordPress

"Plugins" are extensions that are built to expand WordPress capabilities, adding features and functions to your sites.

Basically shortcuts to add to your website without having to build the feature from scratch.

How to start installing a new plugin?

Go to "Plugins" > "Add New" and simply start searching. There are over 25,000 different free plugins so you have got a lot to choose from!.

Installation is easy - once you find a plugin you like just click "Install".

Congratulations - you are ready to launch!

If you have followed the steps in this guide, you should now have a fully-functional WordPress website!

I hope you have found this guide useful.

Share this page if you like it and if you have any issues leave a comment and I will try to solve them for you!

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Alternative Option for SME Growth Driver Diversification

More people today use mobile devices as compared to years before. This has been driven with the sudden drive and demand for greater functional use and portability. This is heavily driven by growing global demand for more flexibility to perform daily tasks. The advancement in technology has made the smartphone indispensable to every modern person's daily life. Diversify your business and develop a unique proposition with proven results that drive greater profitability.

It is important that you look for a SMS Payment Gateway with these features:

1. Unlimited MO and MT. There should be no limitations to the amount of ingoing mobile originated and outgoing mobile terminated traffic providing you with the necessary scalability requirements;
2. SMS Helpdesk support. It is always integral to any operation to have available support to help with any payment-related disputes and management of your managing your sms business's reputation;
3. World-class datacenter with dedicated high speed fiber optic channels to ensure secure connections;
4. Easy API access with an emphasis on a short-integration method;
5. and flexible payment schemes to ensure adequate cash flow management to accommodate different payment terms of differing Telcos.

Small Business Diversification for Growth

Diversification options can be costly for most small businesses and therefore choices are not many but with EVERWORKS SMS Payment Gateway solution it can give small businesses opportunity to diversify with an affordable entry.

Transaction Costs

It is also important to identify with a provider that will not be charging you too high of a transaction costs. You can refer to EVERWORKS SMS Payment Gateway breakdown of revenue sharing here.

How it works

This method of diversification looks at fulfilling the key driver: adaptation as the business seeks to less risky and quicker deployment of an alternative localised internationalisation strategy. This would represent to be a more cost effective solution when compared to other vertical value chain involvements. 

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How to create a winning online marketing campaign

Have you come across a website and noticed it hasn't been updated for the past few years, pictures look outdated and the layout of the website isn't very appealing; giving the impression that the website has been neglected. When navigating to a competitors website it looks fresh, graphics are crisp, content is current and there is consistent communication through their social media; chances are people are likely to choose their competitors.

On the Internet you have less than 8 seconds to make an impression on a customer, and dependent on the impression you have imparted on them it gives them motivation to continue on. A website should load quickly, and should have features that can give your business scalability and flexibility, because anything less would likely lead an internet customer (potential lead) to move on before any of your carefully prepared content has been presented.

For any small business owners, the internet can be a powerful marketing tool as there is a great pull factor with the attraction of the ability to reach millions of potential customers with one advertising campaign. However exhilarating it may sound it can also be overwhelming. One burgeoning question is how do you make sure that you are seen in the thick of the crowd? Why are there clear distinctions between companies where some are very effective online, but others aren't? Like most advertising plans there are multiple methods to creating great online marketing campaigns.

Unfortunately it won't be a simple task and I won't be giving you false promises to say that it will be. Creating an online advertising campaign requires effort and dedication like most other traditional methods of advertising. 

In this article we will look into:

1. What are the pre-stages to planning required;
2. Tools required;
3. the importance of having the right management;
4. and choosing a good hosting provider.

The pre-stages to planning required before you create an online marketing campaign.

1. Before beginning any marketing campaign it is important to find out what is the purpose and goals to the campaign;
2. You will need to identify what resources are available and ready to be allocated without proving to be too much of a burden to ongoing business operations and constraining cash flows;
3. identify where your customer bases are and what habits they perform daily;
4. conduct a risk analysis on the target positions, and risks involved in the inherent venture;
5. consider the nature of your competition, and what they are doing;
6. and identify the characteristics of your product/service (whether it would be beneficial to demonstrate the product/service through video or an image?)

Develop a brand name and image before starting communications.

Develop a fixed image that reflect your company ideals and culture of your company;

combine your ideas, with your company name and logo so that you can use them in your online marketing;

and there should be a certain degree of standardization to allow for potential leads to continually meet preconceived expectations.

Tools required.

Social media - the peer pressure provided through key social media influencers adds weight behind a product, service, or cause as current users are dependent on provided reviews (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, and etc.;

SEO - this tool isn't dead and still provides a great deal of amount of relevance in your online marketing campaign, it will help greatly to have your online marketing campaign to search for on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing;

Less intuitive point - choosing the right hosting provider for your website.

Advertising campaigns and marketing initiatives however innovative they are won't be effective without a reliable central reference hub that directs all customers and leads to participate in the product or service your small business wants to sell. Choose an external hosting provider to outsource your IT needs to reduce your overall business overheads, and pay one flat fee with unmetered data transfers to avoid any surprise fees.

Final point: Track your results.

Performing any activity or task should be fully reflected upon to learn and provide an accelerated growth curve for the company in its future endeavors. Launching an online marketing campaign can be either rewarding or costly. It requires attention to detail and a great amount of planning, but the upside could extend potential company growth.

© photo by Yahoo

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Why should SMEs choose to host externally?

Technology over the years have influenced and shaped the business world. There is a large amount of users and especially small business owners that have turned to the Internet to help them to deliver some type of service or function as it is evident that the Internet can help to perform a lot of operating business activities. There has been a rise on the need for external hosting. Why? The attraction of outsourcing business activities and directly saving costs is among one of the big factors in influencing this change.

The reality is that external hosting is customizable to fit almost any budget and project - as shown through these hosting packages on offer. When working with an external hosting provider it is important to know which features you really need and how they will help your small business grow. Once these goals are aligned, the options which are on offer become very attractive to any business.

For business managers the relation in choosing outsourcing as a business strategy should be reasoned with alignment of business goals and objectives, available resources, push factor; whether there is an internal need to pursue hosting or pull factor; due to attractive external propositions and proactive environmental scanning to determine what best fits your current needs.

What you should look for when outsourcing your hosting needs:

1. a dedicated 24/7 phone & email support deployed to help you with your day-to-day IT needs. This comes with no additional human capital requirements on top of the service fee charged.
2. Unmetered data transfers; no hidden terms that would severely limit your business potential and not reflect on your investment and prove to be expensive poorly reflecting on your return on invested capital.
3. Allows you to try without fear of commitment, on offer should be a 30-day money back guarantee with no questions asked to accommodate the notion that not all services provided, although designed with good intention, fits everyone.
4. One other important distinction that you should look for is the ability for your outsource hosting provider to be able to accommodate your infrastructure extension requirements. A big misconception is that an externally hosted environment once deployed becomes an island that is independent/isolated from your businesses future expansion requirements. 

As more and more small businesses are seeing the benefits of moving towards outsourcing their complex IT needs. Your business will be able to enjoy both the cost benefits and ability to adapt to an ever changing business environment that is highly influenced by a hyper-competitive IT integrated ecosystem.

photo by © Brennan

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Use Email to Transform The Way You Work

Email is now part of our everyday life and is going to remain to be for a long time to come, backed by research at IBM email isn't dead. Email has gained widespread popularity as it has reliably provided a quick, instant, 'formal', way of communicating through the widely available internet today.

Email can be overwhelming, and instead of managing email, what we needed was a better way to communicate, ultimately engaging in deeper engagement and better outcomes.

EVERWORKS Web & Email Hosting solution is a platform where the focus is on the communication between people bringing together messaging with web access to allow greater accessibility and flexibility, and here are the concepts behind the design of EVERWORKS Email Hosting solution:

A) Better value: A system that integrates website, email, and database hosting to provide you with scalable options. Business class email allows you to build you business identity, filter for spam to keep your inbox free of clutter, with an internet connection and any internet browser grab your email anywhere, and access to 24/7 expert help.

B) Clarity over clutter: An intuitive control panel helps users to take quick action on content previously scattered across multiple applications.

Here are some intuitive ways you can use email to ensure effective communication between internal and external networks:

1. Keep your messages brief

Reading from a computer screen isn't easy, use shorter paragraphs and bullet points; cut straight to the chase. Avoid using capital letters as it sends unintended interpretations such as the appearance of being bossy (ICAEW 2008).

2. Stay organised

There is an age old saying that staying organised allows you to get more things done, stay more focused, and remain in control over most situations. Take this approach to email and invest 2 hours of your time right now to go through your inbox, create filters that give automated actions to specific email to reduce repetitive tasks and allows you to manage and attend to the most important emails first. Find out how I keep my personal email organised by just using Gmail, and the Mailbox app.

3. Advantage: Email as evidence

The advantage of email is it is a stored accepted form of instantaneous form of communication that is applicable in many ways. For example emails can be used as evidence, that there exists proof of communication between the sender and the recipient, although there are issues in the form of relevance, authenticity, hearsay, original or duplicate documentation, and unfair prejudice (Sarah, 2010). Consult a lawyer to develop an email framework to follow to fully utilize the advantage of using email as evidence. Is there a need to consult a lawyer? Yes as laws differ from place to place and it is highly recommended that you find a representative lawyer that is familiar with domestic laws.

photo by Caden Crawford

References:

1. ICAEW 2008, 10 ways to use email effectively, ICAEW <http://www.icaew.com/en/archive/library/subject-gateways/career-and-personal-development/communication-and-presentation-skills/small-business-update/10-ways-to-use-email-effectively>
2. IMB Smarter Planet 2015, How To Use Email To Transform How We Work, Forbes, <http://www.forbes.com/sites/ibm/2015/02/19/how-to-use-email-to-transform-how-we-work/>
3. Sarah 2010, Legal consideration for electronic evidence, Part 3: Applying the rules of Authenticity, <https://crlgrn.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/legal-considerations-for-electronic-evidence-part-3-applying-the-rules-of-authenticity/>

Note:
If you like articles like this please bookmark this blog as there will be more similar and other topics regarding technology, business, telecommunication, and EVERWORKS related updates. Feel free to leave your comments on this topic below.

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Announcement - Maxis Planned Downtime Notification for MPG/BMG/EWIG - 1st July 2015

Dear Valued Customers,

Kindly be informed that BMG services by Maxis will be unavailable as per below details:

Duration: 0:15 hrs

1st July 2015

7:50AM ~ 8:05AM GMT +8

Intermittent failure of charge related to prepaid MSISDN for below listed services.

1. EWIG Charging
2. SMS MT
3. MMS MT
4. SMS MO

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

For urgent inquiries please contact this hotline 017-382 8028 or drop an email to mpxg@maxis.com.my

For management inquiries please email info@everworks.com
For technical inquiries please email cvs@everworks.com

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