How to Make a QR Code in 10 Easy Steps

 

QR codes are everywhere. You can spot them on magazines, on restaurant tables, bus stops, train stations, historical sites, at video kiosks, for payment methods, the list just goes on and on! A type of 2-dimensional barcode, QR codes are prevalent across multiple industries. They even contributed to the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, helping reduce physical contact by automating processes. All you need is a barcode scanner or a QR code reader on your smartphone, and you get access to the relevant information. Another best thing about QR codes is that they can be easily created by following some simple steps. So, if you are looking forward to creating a QR code, we’ll discuss the ten steps to do so in this article. So, without further delay, let’s begin! 

Some Interesting Facts about QR Codes 

Before we discuss how to make a QR code in ten easy steps, let’s first get acquainted with some interesting facts about QR codes. 

• The first QR code was created in 1994 in Japan. The aim was vehicle tracking through high-speed component scanning during manufacture. 

• A QR Code acts as a physical link. You can scan it with a barcode scanner or a QR code scanner, and it will take you to a web page or display the relevant content in front of you.  

• There are two types of QR codes, static and dynamic QR codes. The static QR codes do not allow you to change the content once they are created. On the other hand, dynamic QR codes are considered to be recyclable as you change the content without printing them again and again. 

• QR codes are sturdy. Although the highly crumpled ones are hard to be detected with an ordinary QR code reader, slightly damaged QR codes can still be detected and scanned. No wonder, they are used in multiple industries in various operations. 

• Some exciting uses of QR codes include linking to a mobile page, for business cards, downloading files, linking to Google Maps, showing YouTube videos, etc. All in all, it depends on you. The more creative you get, the better the usage. 

• As compared to other modern technologies such as Augmented Reality and Near Field Communications (NFC), QR codes are cheaper. Not to mention, QR codes are much more reliable as well. 

• You can easily create QR codes. The process starts with finding a QR code generator. We’ll be discussing the other steps in the next section. 

Creating a QR Code in 10 Easy Steps 

Now that you are aware of the exciting uses of QR codes, let’s find out how to create a QR code. It will take ten easy steps to build your first QR code. 

Step 1: Search for a QR code generator. The internet is filled with QR code generators. Go through their ratings and reviews and finalize one to get started. And, the best part, most of them are free! 

Step 2: What type of content do you want to promote? Do you wish to provide a website link or share some specific information? You need to decide these things before heading to the next step. 

Step 3: Go through the details in the form that appears on your screen. 

Step 4: Fill in the details that appear in the form. 

Step 5: In this step, you’ll have to download a dynamic QR code. 

Step 6: The next step is to make customizations in the code. You can add anything you feel is necessary. 

Step 7: Choose a robust QR code scanner as the next step involves testing the QR code you have created. There are multiple options available out there. You may also have a QR code reader on your phone, but it may not be able to scan highly damaged and crumpled QR codes. So, consider choosing one that works in all challenging conditions. 

Step 8: Once you have found a suitable QR code scanner, it’s time to test the QR code you have created. 

Step 9: If your QR code works fine, it’s time to share it with your target group. 

Step 10: Keep track of the performance of the QR code you have created by doing an analysis that will help you in the future. 

Choosing the Best QR Code Scanner 

What do you do with a QR code if you don’t have a good QR code scanner? While most smartphones now come with a QR code reader, they are ineffective with tough QR codes and challenging conditions. Hence, there arises the need for a robust QR code scanner. If you are looking for one, then the pointers mentioned below will help make your search easier. Take a look. 

Fast Speed

Speed is crucial for a QR code reader. The leading ones can scan more than 500 barcodes in a minute. 

Scans Tough Barcodes

Curved, crumpled, tiny, angled, marked up, or incomplete, a good QR code reader should be able to read all such barcodes. After all, you wouldn’t want to face a situation where you have to struggle reading such barcodes. 

Works well in Challenging Environment

A robust barcode scanner works in all challenging environments such as low light, glare, or shadow. Such conditions are not a challenge for it. Leading barcode readers are capable of performing very well in such conditions. So, choosing them is the best thing to do. 

Supports Multiple Platforms

Be it Android, or iOS, choose a barcode reader that runs on all standard platforms. You can also opt for a web app that works on all common browsers. 

So, those were some essential features that a robust QR code scanner must have. While searching for the best barcode reader, don’t forget to try the solution before finalizing it. Go through the reviews and ratings. Also, you may compare different options and see which one fits your requirements in the best way. Following these steps will definitely help you find the ideal QR code reader.

You can create one to promote this side gig: HBNaturals , The Club Shop

How to Create Profitable Business Ideas

 

I think it is “timely” that we talk about how to create profitable business ideas for your online business.

Why is it timely? Here’s why…

On Wednesday, I released our brand new List Builder Script, free for all LeadsLeap members. Shortly after the release, I received many emails from members asking what are the business ideas that can be used with the script.

Now, technically speaking, the script can be used for any niche and any business idea. The only problem is some business ideas may be more profitable than the others.

So in today’s blog, I’ll show you how to create profitable business ideas.

First, you have to decide which niche market to focus on and whether the niche is profitable.

If I were to start another online business tomorrow, I will have to make sure that……

1) The market has an ongoing supply of new products that I can promote.

2) People’s interest in that niche do not change too quickly. For example, I will not use the List Builder Script to build a business around “spyware removal” because once I provide them with the solution, they are not likely to want to hear from me again.

3) People in the niche are always craving for more information.

4) There are many affiliates in the niche that I can contact and JV with.

5) There are established websites where I can find lots of people interested in the niche. This is to ensure that I can easily find targeted traffic for my new business, through advertising or striking deals with the webmasters.

Examples of good niches are internet marketing, stock trading, forex trading, body building, holistic health and personal improvement.

If I found a niche that I see a potential in, I will ask myself 2 questions.

1) Can I find/create a useful product to giveaway?
2) Can I find/create a high value product to sell?

1) Can I find/create a useful product to giveaway?

In some niches, you can find some PLR products that you can give away. This is by far the fastest way to kick start your online business.

Another way is to create your own product, which may not be difficult at all.

The trick is to create something that is useful to the people in the niche.

Here is one idea that I just think off my head.

For example, You can create an ebook called “Online Scam Report – A complete list of scam (or near scam) programs you should avoid before you become the next victim”. Just go to Google.com and search for “scam”. You will be able to find websites discussing about different scam programs. Your job is to compile those programs into a book or if you are lazy, get a freelancer to do it.

2) Can I find/create a high value product to sell?

This is an important part in making sure that your business idea is profitable.

A profitable business idea should be able to help you generate immediate profit so as to fund your future expansion and cover your advertising costs.

This can easily be done with the One-Time-Offer feature in the free LeadsLeap List Builder Script and a powerful strategy that I’m going to share with you now.

The idea is to create a high value product worth thousands of dollars, write a sales letter that looks as if you are going to sell it for $197, and offer it for $9. This idea has never failed to work!

If you are in the internet marketing niche, the easiest way is to compile a huge package of PLR and MRR products that worth thousands of dollars.

Alternatively, you can create a high value product on your own.

For example, I’ve seen people giving away 1 website template and offer 10 website templates for $5 as a one time offer. This is a good and profitable business idea because website templates have high perceived values. At a great offer of $5, you bet a lot of people will bite.

Creating profitable business ideas is not rocket science. Once you can identify a profitable niche, all you have to do is to think of something useful to giveaway for list building purpose and something of high value to sell it cheap for immediate profit. Together with other backend sales, it is almost guaranteed that you’ll have a profitable business in both the short run and long run.

New Business

The Club Shop

Best Email Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Business

 

Over 4 billion people are active email users. That’s more than half the world’s population! So, it shouldn’t surprise you when we say that email marketing can work wonders for your business if you know how to leverage it. 

Yes, there is a right way to wield this medium. And, several digital marketers are already doing it. So much so that they and other industry experts rank email marketing as the most effective promotional platform. Even more than social media, affiliate marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Why is that, you may reckon? Probably because email marketing returns organizations 38$ on every dollar spent. Pretty high, wouldn’t you say! But, this happens when you carefully draft your email marketing strategy and send valuable communication to your leads to engage them. How? Find out in the next section.

Strategize Your Next Email Marketing Campaign in 4 Simple Ways

Now that you know why solid email marketing – one that is worth your lead’s time, is critical, here’s how you should gear your future campaigns.

1. Begin by segmenting your email list

Don’t have an email list? Build one now! Because if you’re not in possession of warm leads to email, none of this will work. There are several ways to create an email list. You can generate leads through website pop-up forms, market surveys, or better yet, by investing in third-party email lists. Once you’ve built a qualified lead database, it’s time to segment them into relevant categories.

Segmenting your email list automatically makes your email marketing campaigns far more targeted. Here is a simple example. Suppose your company wants to host a product launch for small businesses only. If they don’t have a pre-segmented email list of small business owners out of their entire dump of contacts, they’ll end up spamming all types of leads. 

Such a thing could potentially damage your company’s credibility, and entities other than small businesses will stop taking your email communication seriously.

You can segment your email list depending on hundreds of parameters like purchase triggers, likes and dislikes, motivations, age, occupation, and the list goes on.

Remember, the finer your segmentation, the more targeted your email campaign. Creating and segmenting your email list also helps you etch out Ideal Customer Profiles or ICPs. Through these personas, you can identify who your future clients are and prep email content for them. 

2. Personalize Your Emails to the Hilt

No, email personalization does not mean sending out a unique email to every email list subscriber. But your subscribers sure should feel unique! Personalizing emails means using your lead’s personal information, their likes and dislikes, and pitching email content that is highly relevant to them.

Furthermore, email personalization doesn’t stop at addressing a lead by their first name over email. Sure, do this as well. But, along with this, you must ideally pitch an offering the lead is most likely looking for. Don’t send an email if you don’t have anything relevant or remotely valuable to say. 

For example, suppose a customer services manager is struggling to streamline customer information. No matter how hard they try, a ton of customer data is pouring in each day, and they can’t seem to manage it. Sharing with such leads a marketing email for a robust CRM software highlighting its customer service management features is a win-win for both parties. 

For those wondering if email personalization drives results – an Experian study reveals that email personalization delivers 6x higher transaction rates than generic email communication.

3. Design Mobile-Friendly Emails 

Even though this strategy does not directly link to improving your promotional email’s content, it contributes to boosting readability, click-through rates, and subsequent conversions.

The screen on your phone is way smaller than a laptop or desktop, which leads to zooming in or out a lot. Your leads may struggle to find Call-to-Action or CTA buttons and lose interest quickly if your emails are not optimized for smartphones. 

Simply put, what do you think will happen if your promotional email is not optimized for a friendly interaction over smartphones? The lead will lose interest quickly and delete it or unsubscribe from your list.

So, design mobile-friendly emails to make it easier for prospects to browse through them. Here are 5 ways to create mobile-friendly emails.

• White short subject lines. Ones that can be read in entirety on a smartphone screen.
• Don’t use heavy imagery. Your email should instantly load.
• Keep the text concise. Remember, less is more when sharing emails over mobile phones. Also, don’t write a block of text. Instead, break paras into spaced-out sentences, and use bullets where necessary. 
• Place big CTA buttons on top or bottom so they are clearly visible. More importantly, ensure that the landing pages these buttons take a customer to are also optimized for mobile phones.  

• Remember that a whopping 1.7 billion people are reading emails on their smartphones, which royally outnumbers the ones checking it on their desktops (0.9 billion). Therefore, designing a mobile-friendly email marketing campaign is non-negotiable.   

4. A/B Test Your Subject Lines, Email Layout, and CTAs

These three elements are cardinal to your email marketing strategy. So:

• Write unambiguous yet witty subject lines. Studies say a subject line under 9 words is ideal.
• Don’t design a cluttered layout.
• Utilize white space intelligently.
• Do not roll out emails without adding impactful CTAs. They prompt your reader to take action.
• Finish your email body within 50 to 125 words. Research suggests that email copy within 25 to 50 words offers response rates of 50%.

Further, draft two emails with separate subject lines, body text, and CTAs, and test them with a chunk of leads. This exercise is called A/B testing, and through it, you’ll figure out which email subject line, CTA, and text work better with a particular lead segment.

Over to You

Know that your prospects receive hundreds of emails every day, and a majority of them contain promotional content. But, this shouldn’t mean your email stays on the backburner. 

Such a thing won’t happen if you employ the four email marketing strategies listed above. So, segment your email list, pitch prospects what they want, make your emails easy-to-read on different devices, use imagery, and uncluttered layouts, and you’re good to go.

Maintain the sanctity of email marketing, make it more customer-centric, and you shall be rewarded rather quickly!

Secret Email System

5 Scrappy Marketing Strategies When You Don’t Have a Budget

 

Marketing requires money right? You may feel that because your budget is limited, so is your ability to promote your company, product or service. While advertising on a limited budget is challenging, it is not impossible. And in fact, when you have to get creative, sometimes the out-of the-box thinking and tactics required, can yield some big results. You may not have the budget of the big guys, but you do have the brains! You just need some scrappy marketing strategies. What does it really mean to be a scrappy marketer? Basically, it means doing more with less. Getting creative and finding efficient and affordable marketing techniques.It is possible to make an impact without a huge budget. Try these 5 scrappy marketing strategies to promote your business when you don’t have a budget!

1. Research

Research does not cost any money, just your time. But it is a crucial, and often overlooked marketing tactic. Even the big guys who do have a lot of money, often miss this first step and suffer because they do.The internet is chock full of resources. With one google search, you can locate stories, webinars and case studies on marketing tactics and success stories.Look at what other companies are doing. Research low-budget marketing tactics for new ideas. Look at your competitors’ tactics and try to understand what is and isn’t working. Just taking the time to learn may result in you stumbling across an affordable idea for your marketing mix.Research your customer as well. Understand who they are, what drives them to purchase, and what they value. Knowing your customer can help you tailor your marketing efforts to uniquely work for them and deliver the best results. Research will not only help provide marketing ideas, but will also help you improve the ROI on your marketing investment.And, there is a reason why research is my number one strategy. All your marketing tactics and strategies should start here. Take the time to educate yourself before diving into any activities.

2. Build up your social media

The beauty of social media is that it is free. Leverage all the appropriate channels for your company like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Consistent sharing will boost your engagement and reach, so create a schedule and stick to it.Platforms like Fiverr  can help you easily create and maintain a social media editorial schedule. With automatic posting, you can pre-write your posts a month at a time.But don’t just post anything! Spend time crafting quality content and images. If you lack the budget for a graphic designer, you can use a tool like Fiverr yourself to easily create professional images.Emotional content can also help boost engagement and encourage re-sharing. Join Facebook groups relevant to your topic and interact with your customers there. Sharing your content through these groups can amplify reach. Just make sure you abide by the group rules, especially with link sharing which is sometimes only allowed at certain times. Don’t get stuck in the mindset of only sharing to your company social media pages. Try tactics within each platform to improve your reach. Research the best hashtags to use, build relationships with influencers in the social media world and get your content out there! This is an unlimited marketing tactic that is 100% free!While building up your social media marketing doesn’t require funds, if you do have some budget, consider ads. You can limit your spend to only what you can afford. With daily budget maximums and focused targeting available, it is an ideal and scrappy resource for the advertising funds you do have.

3. Leverage a digital intern

Take advantage of the digital age! While finding an intern in your town may be challenging, you can actually find a virtual one anywhere in the world now.Contact local universities and colleges about offering an internship to students who need to bulk up their resume. Acadium offers digital marketing internships that benefit both the student and the business. For just $150, you can hire your own digital intern who will work up to 10 hours per week for 3 months.Best of all, you can hire more than one and you can hire based on the tactics you most need assistance with. I am currently getting SEO assistance from my very own Acadium intern and am happy to have the super low-budget help.

4. Use these free-to-cheap resources

Sometimes some of the basics you need for marketing such as a graphic designer can take up the bulk of your budget. If you can find ways to minimize these costs, then it frees up funds for tactics such as advertising that will show the ROI you need.Resources like Fiverr  can help you create attractive images and graphics even if you do not have the budget for a graphic designer. Tools like these can help amp up your social media presence and content with polished and shareable images even with no budget. Another low-cost graphic design resource can be found with companies like Design Pickle and Pebbled that offer unlimited graphic design for a low monthly fee. I use this resource in my full-time marketing job and have found we save a ton. Best of all, they are fast and efficient with the work.

5. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization can help get your website and your business more visibility. And many of the tactics around this are free. Work on the SEO of your website with relevant keywords and copy. Finding backlink opportunities on other sites will not only boost your SEO and ranking, but could bring important traffic your way. Sign up to receive emails from HARO. HARO stands for “Help a Reporter Out.” It is free and just requires a few minutes of your day to respond to journalists’ requests for soundbites and expertise. In return you will get a link to your website, not only giving you more exposure and traffic, but also improving your SEO.Another free marketing tactic that also helps build SEO is guest posting. You can write blog posts and articles for other sites that are relevant to your niche. You can build your exposure, site traffic, and google search ranking.Even when you have no advertising or marketing budget, you can still build your brand and your business. Just think creatively and stay scrappy with your marketing tactics. Exercising brains over budget can help your business growth!

For Most of your Marketing Resources go to  Fiverr 

When Do We Need MySQL Databases With Our Web Hosting?

 

Whenever you buy web hosting, your hosting provider is sure to include an option called "Databases" in his price quotation or package details. But not many of us know what are databases and why we need them when setting up a website. This article aims to explain a couple of reasons why we use databases and when we need them for our website.

The database systems we usually get with our web hosting accounts are all relational database systems or RDBMS. If we take a Windows hosting server we usually get Microsoft SQL aka MSSQL and if we take a Unix based system we usually get MySQL. Both these systems put your website data into tabular layouts for fast and easy retrieval.

Databases are a collection of rows and columns, where each row or column is related to the others in some way. Due to this relation, information from this database can be retrieved quickly and efficiently as compared to if the data was stored in any other unstructured format. You can consider a database as a collection of multiple spreadsheets which are all related to each other in some way or the other.

Security

A major advantage of having your data stored in a database is the ability to protect the database from unauthorized access, or the ability to protect a database record from being tampered with. A simple example would be the storage of login credentials. In a simple way, login credentials can be stored in a simple text file and be read by your script which does the authentication. However, your file will always save the password stored in plan text, making it vulnerable to anyone who has access to it. Databases have the ability to encrypt the entries using a hashing algorithm to obscure them. Further, to read or write to the database, you need to specify login details, something which is not easily possible with an ordinary text file or spreadsheet.

Efficiency

Due to the manner in which data is stored in the database, retrieval and storage is most efficient. Unlike a spreadsheet, where anything and everything can be stored in any cell, SQL restricts the type of information stored in each row or column based on certain conditions. This validation is inherent in the properties of SQL and is an added advantage for a programmer or developer. Due to the various inbuilt mechanisms that are present in RDBMS systems, they are the most preferred method of storage and retrieval of data.

An article on the DatabaseJournal Blog explains this in a lucid way:

"...The problem with text files is during a read, if the text file is large, it can take quite a bite of time to open and scan the contents of the file looking for what we want. Also, if we wanted to see all the sales to a specific customer, the entire text file would have to be read, and every line occurrence of the customer name would need to be saved in some temporary place until we had them all. If we saved to a spreadsheet instead of a text file, we would have a Sort feature built in. So we may be able to find all the sales to a specific customer quicker, but again, if the file was large, opening the spreadsheet could take a great deal of time."

Administrative Control

Database systems also have various control mechanisms which allow easy administration of the database and tables within it. The most important part is user management. Each user can be given specific rights to the database, thereby allowing limitation in access so as to secure the data from being tampered, modified or altered. Database Administrator's can tweak many settings of the database thereby restricting the flow of data, the connection speeds, maximum number of connections to the server and even adjust what hardware resources should be allocated for performing a task.

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Email Marketing: Old Way VS. New Way...

 

There are 2 ways to go about doing email marketing and each way has a certain number of steps in order to get paid. 

I’ll call these 2 ways “The Old Way” and “The New Way”...

Let’s take a look at these two different methods and the steps involved:

The Old Way:

Create a Product (manual)

Create a Landing Page (manual)

Create a Sales Page (manual)

Create an Upsell Page (manual)

Made Ads (manual)

Sell Products (manual)

Manage Support (manual)

Get Paid (manual)

The New Way:

You hardly work

Build a List (automated)

Mail the List (automated)

Get Paid (automated)

Want to learn how to get started with the NEW way, starting today?

Check out the Secret Email System by genius marketer, Matt Bacak, and SAVE 85% OFF for a limited time...

It's literally just over $5 bucks, but not for long!

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