Laurier Uns Life

Apr, 2021

Understand Digital Marketing in the Real World

Digital marketing just like any other forms of marketing is a way of connecting with and influencing customers online.

It creates a medium where you get to know your audience or customers and they get to know you personally. This helps create your brand loyalty.

It also helps reach an enormous amount of clients while you get to pay less.

Examples of Digital Marketing

1. Social Media Marketing

Is a free and organic way to use social media. A great percentage of the world’s population is using social media as a way of connecting. You can grab this opportunity and market your product and services.

2. Digital Advertising

This another way of marketing your product and services. Digital Marketing Strategy runs on digital tools and platforms. This will help you gain access to a massive range of audience.

3. Content Marketing

Mostly use content assets e.g blog posts, infographics, ebooks, videos e.t.c to build brand awareness. This in turn leads to sales.

4. Email Marketing

Is it one of the oldest forms of marketing and is still going strong? Most digital marketers advertise special deals using email marketing to highlight content or promote an event

5. Search Engine Marketing

Is used to market products and services whenever one clicks the search buttons then their product automatically shows up.

This strategy ends up attracting more clients for the products and services you are advertising.

6. Paid Social Media Adverts

Social media platforms e.g Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat allows you to run ads on their platforms.

This is great for building awareness to the clients who might be visiting those sites

What a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy Entails

1. Visualize Clear Directions

You should be able to know and understand what your marketing and what kind of customers you’re targeting for your product

2. Effective Content

Get to know how your content marketing is going to be received by the customers. Make it as effective as possible for reception

3. Create a Realistic Framework

When marketing your product and services, make sure you’re very realistic with what you’re marketing and to the kind of customers you’re marketing to.

Create a Library of Evergreen Content

When marketing your product and services, give your client a library of the benefits of what you’re marketing. This work helps attract more customers.

Some Benefits of Using Videos in Digital Marketing

1. A Simple Video Makes a Big Difference

When marketing digitally, the use of a simple video can make a big difference. Giving an illustration of what you’re marketing creates more visual awareness to the customer.

Everybody wants to get proper know-how of anything they would spend their money on.

This video will tend to attract more clients which in turn will lead to more income. Which better way is there to market your product and services than to go digital.

2. Video for a Relationship, Not Just for Marketing

when making a video for marketing your products, you get to attain two benefits. You’re not just marketing your product and to get better sales, but you also get to relate better with your website.

It’s more of a relationship platform than just a marketing platform. Most people tend to buy products and services from people they feel they have a sense of relationship with.

Videos when used in marketing lets you get to know your audience or customers as they get to know you personally. This helps create brand loyalty

3. Video Email Versus Traditional Email

Emails are the form of marketing and have been growing strong over the years. There have been great improvements in email marketing with the introduction of new ways to attract customers. One of the most effective ways that have been embraced is the use of video emails. It’s true to say that anything visual will capture your attention.

The use of videos emails captures attention and this leads to better marketing strategies in the sense of email marketing.

Conclusion

It’s true to say that digital marketing has become one of the most common ways of marketing. This is because of the reality we are facing in today’s life since the world is embracing technology. It has become cheaper and more efficient.

Nov, 2020

Website Designers Galway, Online Image Optimisation Tips

E commerce is growing at a rate of knots, driven by the Covid-19 virus and a massive migration of consumers to online shopping. As a result of this, corporate websites have become the key focus area in most business strategies.

Marketers know that the main goal of any website is to increase website traffic, provide users with a great user experience, leading to conversion and ultimately a sale. Web Designers Galway have all the required skills to fulfill customers needs of reliable and secure Web Design.

The key to achieving an increase in website traffic is the quality and relevance of the content that any website offers and one of the most important factors to consider in the equation is the images that we include in our content.

When it comes to the copy content on our websites, SEO is a matter that we often consider, but how many of us give thought to the importance of optimising our website images for SEO? read more about image optimizing at https://yoast.com/image-seo/

Considering SEO optimisation is great, but so few of us actually have the necessary expertise. By appointing a specialized web design companies, you can ensure that your budget is maximised for ROI.

The following tips should be considered before you upload any images to your website:

Compress images to reduce file size

Google’s algorithms rank page loading-speed and a faster loading page is likely to rank higher than one that is slow. Graphic Design Galway recommends your images should be optimized to increase load speed and it is worth taking the time to compress images before uploading to your site. You can do this on Photoshop and there are various tools and plugins available to help you. learn more about image optimization using Photoshop by clicking here.

Choose the right format

Galway Website Design recommends that before adding images to a website, it is important to decide on the best file type. There are no ‘right formats’, but what matters is the kind of image and how you want to use it. The most common formats used on the web are:

PNG – will give you better quality images, but larger file sizes

JPEG – will give good results for larger images, with a relatively small file size

Feature unique images

If you want to achieve a high-quality user-experience, then it’s the quality and originality of your images that are sure to do the trick. Google picks up on quality and originality, so it is worth investing in generating your own content.

Image file names matter

The file name of the image is what alerts Google and other search engines to the subject matter of your image. You can improve the SEO value of an image by changing the file name from the default and writing descriptive keyword-rich file names.

Write SEO oriented alt text

Alt tags can be beneficial to your on-page SEO strategy. If all areas of optimisation are in place, but an image fails to load for some reason, an alt tag allows users to identify what the image should be. If you do not want to go into these minor details you can always hire good web designing companies who can mange all this, read more about hiring web designing companies at https://bestproductlists.com/website-design-why-do-you-need-help-from-an-agency

In addition, by adding appropriate alt tags and associating keywords to your images, you can help your website achieve better rankings.

Page title and description

As per recommendation by Web Design Galway, the title tags and description tags are two of the most important factors that Google takes into account for SEO.

Google uses the title tag to determine the topic of a page, because it is the first thing that users see in search results and your description tag is viewed essentially as your first pitch to a potential customer.

Make images mobile friendly

Most people visit websites on their mobile phones these days. A website with a better mobile experience is ranked higher by Google search than a site that is not mobile friendly. Images will need to adjust to the size of the device, whether users are on mobile, tablet, or laptop.

Add images to your sitemap

Search engines read your sitemap file to crawl your website more intelligently. You can add images to an existing sitemap or create a new sitemap specifically for your images. This can help Google discover images that it might not otherwise find, and the result will be more traffic.

Website Design Galway

Your website is the flagship for your brand on the Internet and in order to maximise ROI it is important that you have a professionally driven SEO strategy in place.

Few people have the wherewithal to be able to develop and maintain such a strategy and employing the services of experts like Web Designers Galway is a pre-requite for success.

Galway Web Design are experts in SEO. They will work closely with you to develop a tailor-made SEO strategy, that will generate traffic and sales and a great ROI.

Jul, 2020

The Way Old Stuff

I had a semi-productive day today. I got work done for a couple of clients, put together a newsletter, and watched some speed skating!

Around 4 pm I was really feeling the lack of grown-up conversation and gave my BFF a call at work. I’m jealous that she can keep getting paid while I bug her on the phone, lol, and she probably wishes she could work in her pj’s! Despite the whole grass is the greener thing though, today I gave a lot of thought to the fact of how hard it is to work alone so much of the time. I’m pretty sure that over time I will get out to work more, but essentially I don’t see my business ever leading me to be a super social person. Most of my work requires me to really concentrate while at my computer, which doesn’t exactly lead to conversations even if you are working at Starbucks, but you have to start finishing the work learn more about it at http://www.laurierunslife.com/you-have-to-start-to-finish/

Sometimes I’m super grateful for the chance to work alone. I used to hate being interrupted at work by a chatty colleague right when I was getting down to business. But on the other hand, sometimes I loved having someone to share things with, both work and personal. So now, while I have plenty of online interaction opportunities, I miss working with other people. I miss conversations that are NOT about Mario, Luigi, or any other character in a Wii Mario Bros. game. I miss grabbing a quick coffee during a break, instead of having my toddler beg for a sip of my instant decaf. I think next year when two kids are in school I’m going to have to work harder at getting out of the house!!

Apr, 2020

You Have to Start to Finish

Do you know how you finish something big? You have to Just Start! In between start and finish are a bunch of steps – simple, put one foot in front of the other, steps.

In September I’m running my first half-marathon. It’s a big goal for me, and a great race to finish off a year of athletic firsts. I won’t be super fast, but I sure as heck will be a lot fitter than I was last year at the same time. Actually, it was last fall that I decided I was done with being overweight and unfit, so it is particularly fitting that my half-marathon is in this year in the fall. Like a one-year celebration of a changed me! learn more about how old stuff works by clicking here

I have had people in my life ask me how I fit in so much exercise into my busy schedule. Or friends who “wish” they could run or whatever but they just don’t have the time. We all have 24 hours in a day people I want to yell at them. I’m busy, who isn’t? But we also all prioritize differently.

It’s your choice to not find time to exercise or to choose something else that is important to you to spend your time on, but I actually find it almost insulting when people say they just don’t have time – I think I take it too personally, but I feel like they are saying they are too important to make time for the things I make time for. Probably because I feel a little lacking in being “at home” all the time, even though *I* know how full my days are with my work, my boys, etc. Anyway, my favorite response and tip to those who say they don’t know how to start or they don’t have time is to take just 10 minutes and get out and do something active. If I run for 10 minutes, I usually realize I can keep on going for another 20 or more. Starting is the hardest step, but to get to your goal, your finish line, you just need to start and then keep going!

Dec, 2019

Stepping Stepping Stepping

Today marks my seventh day in a row of hitting my step goal of 10,000 steps! My S-Health graph looks so pretty with all those gold medals, doesn’t it? I’m feeling pretty good about this and considering that in the past several months I’ve averaged closer to 5000 steps a day, it’s definitely a step in the right direction. I’ve also slowly started adding in some strength training – just some free weights and some push-ups, but it’s a start and in about another week I think I’ll be ready to really focus on that. I just have to really have the step thing to become routine first.

Overall, I feel like I’m on my way to a truly healthy lifestyle change. I’ve switched to having hot water in place of most of my daily coffee (just a couple of lattes a week now), I’m getting this step thing going (I want to up my daily step goal eventually, but I’m definitely getting the 10,000 for now), and I’m even starting to run again.

It isn’t easy to make lifestyle changes that will stick – but I’m going to keep working hard at it!

Oct, 2019

Blank Blog Posts and Why I Run

I read a beautiful post yesterday from Megan at Velveteen Mind and I was inspired (especially by a couple of the comments!) to plan to blog early in the day and pour out my thoughts into a blog post. Well, I was inspired yesterday, but this morning? That blank blog page just stared me in the eye and practically screamed “not this early lady“. Words just didn’t want to come, at least not then.

But then this afternoon, after working this morning and starting bread dough to make some buns and making the kids lunch and yeah, all that stuff, I read another inspiring blog post and the words finally came. Thanks Kerrie for motivating me with your honest words.

I commented on Kerrie’s post, but then I realized I’d really never talked here about why I run. I’ve mentioned little things, or parts of running that I love, but why? Why do I drag myself downstairs to my treadmill a few times a week (well, in a good week it’s a few times)? Why do I want to run in races even though I’m not exactly fast or competitive? Why did a pair of running shoes have to be on my blog header and why do I buy so much running gear?

Well, the running gear is probably just about the pretty, but at the very heart of it, the reason I run is simple. I run because it’s the first thing I’ve found in a long, long time that helps me get on an even keel emotionally. I’ve always been an up and down kind of girl, easily upset, easily hurt, easily angered.

I know that having kids brought out the yeller in me (and no that isn’t a word according to spell check but I don’t care!) I feel sometimes like there are so many things pulling me in different directions, so many legitimate needs and wants and people who I have to be here for. Running is an outlet that lets me be calmer and clearer and just better overall, even if it sometimes is hard at the moment to get up and just go run.

Speaking of which….time to go and RUN!

10 upcoming Google Projects !

Jul, 2019

Fixed Asset Management for Small Business

No matter what kind of business you run, you probably own property that helps you provide products and services. Your company’s assets are a valuable part of your operations and need to be carefully maintained. Use a fixed asset management system to organize information about your business property.

What are fixed assets?

Fixed assets are the items in your business that typically are not converted to cash. These items can be any of the things listed below but not land. They are used to produce goods or services, can be rented to third parties and for use in your business.• Buildings
• Equipment
• Furniture
• Vehicles
• Computers
• Land
• Intangible assets

This type of business property has a useful life greater than one year. Inventory is not a part of this category because it is converted into cash as fast as possible.

What is a fixed asset management?

Fixed asset management is a specialized field in which an accountant should be engaged to track them properly. Tracking includes recording the date purchased, the amount paid, the vendor from whom the item was purchased, and most importantly recording depreciation. Depreciation is the method used to record the expense annually. An accounting transaction is used to record an amount to accumulated depreciation and depreciation expense. Without getting into the technical details of accounting, suffice it to say that if the transactions are not recorded properly then there can be a major problem when it comes time to filing your business tax returns. learn more about working from home at http://www.laurierunslife.com/five-years-of-working-at-home/

There is specific software that can be used apart from your accounting program if you want. However, unless that software automatically posts to your accounting module, you will have to make a manual entry which could lead to problems if not recorded properly. Most accounting programs have modules for recording all transactions relating to fixed assets thereby simplifying the procedures.

The importance of fixed asset management

Managing these properties makes it easier when concerns and opportunities arise. There are several ways this technique can help your business succeed:• As a small business owner, you know that unexpected events happen every day. When something breaks, it’s easier to address the issue if you already know what’s going on.
• Know the best times to acquire new assets. This system will show you the proper time to take advantage of opportunities to replace or purchase assets.

• Keep up with your tax obligations: When you buy these items, you usually should depreciate them. The IRS does allow for substantial expense write-offs of fixed assets, but keep in mind that you lose any future expense on that amount which can impact your tax returns. Fixed asset management helps you accurately assess depreciation expenses and see an asset’s depreciation status.

• Determine the value of your business. Fixed assets add value to the overall worth of your company. At the same time, the accurate recording of depreciation expense is also necessary to determine your profit or loss.

This overview is meant to show the importance of the system used for tracking and depreciating these critical business items. You should have adequate knowledge of proper accounting procedures before undertaking this program. Otherwise, how will you know if what you have recorded is accurate?

Jun, 2019

Five Years of Working at Home

I haven’t been talking all that much on my blog lately about my work. Mostly because it’s actually been going pretty smoothly! It has been a lot easier with the little one getting older – having him at school two days a week doesn’t hurt either! While I’d probably stop working if I won a lottery or something, most days I count myself awfully lucky to own my business and to be able to provide assistance to some really great clients.learn more about filing tax returns for your business at http://www.laurierunslife.com/fixed-asset-management-for-small-business/

This fall was my five year business anniversary. I meant to blog about that, but I only managed a post on my actual business blog, not the personal one here I intended to share. Well, it’s a couple of months late now, but it seems like a great time to share the ups and downs of having a work-at-home paralegal business.

Year one of being a virtual paralegal was HARD. Yep, super hard. I had a little boy in grade one, a 4.5-year-old and a 1-year-old. I had a husband who worked crazy hours and was not around much and I had a lot to figure out in the self-employment arena. I had next to no clients at first though, so while I had no income at least I also had time to figure everything out. And I was very lucky as my husband was (and IS) incredibly supportive and knew that it would take time for me to make any real income from my new business.

By year two I was starting to have clients, but maybe not the right kind of clients. They were great people and the work was interesting, but despite all the advice I had heard about defining my client, I kept accepting clients who did work out of my area of expertise and preference. I did some freelance writing, I helped with blog maintenance, I spent a pile of time on Twitter and other social media. I had maybe two lawyer clients on my roster! I was growing and I was gaining some skills that helped though – so I wouldn’t say it’s completely wrong to take on those projects out of your comfort zone. Just be careful you don’t stray too far from what you really want to be doing.

By the third year in business, I was really starting to get into the groove. I gained several lawyer clients in this time frame, many of them referrals from my first couple of lawyers. If you do good work referrals can really be the lifeblood of your growth. I upgraded some of my equipment and sent a second child off to school. I lost a couple of early clients, either because we agreed that they needed someone in their field or because they stopped working themselves (or at least they stopped working FOR themselves, at least one left solo practice to go big law).

Year four – wow, honestly that was when it all started to blend together a little bit. My days consisted of trying to fit work around naps and school bell schedules and after-school activities. I think I worked a fair number of nights that year as the daytime hours were hopelessly scattered and hard to work with. I started counting down to the “baby” going to kindergarten but delayed it by a year because he just wasn’t ready, no matter how much I wanted him to be. Preschool is not the help to a warm that you might hope it would be, there are too many helper days and field trips and school “holidays” to count on any kind of consistency in your work schedule.

Year five, this was definitely the best year my business has had so far, although I like to think year six will top it! I made more money, I really worked on updating some of my skills by attending some training and seminars. I actually met several of my clients in person! And the end of year five-hit just as the baby finally really did go to kindergarten. I’m at the place I was working towards when I first decided to try this wahm thing. Having time for my kids, knowing I can pick them up from school if they are sick, and being able to go on an occasional field trip, but still showing them the example of life with a mom with a career she cares about.

Reflecting on the past five years really makes me think about where the next five years are going to lead me. I’m not sure if I want to grow my business (maybe take on contractors although I have flirted with that idea and it was NOT successful. At.all.) or if I want to just enjoy it as it is. I do know that I have no desire to go back to working in-house for a lawyer/law firm. I love the flexibility and the variety that this way of working offers me. I know there will be changes – that is just part of life, isn’t it? But I sure am going to enjoy the ride in the meantime

May, 2018

How old Stuff Worked

As I’ve said before, I moved a lot when I was a kid. Not all of my changes meant a new school, but I did change schools approximately 5 times in elementary school alone. Every change was hard, the first, the second, the last. I always had to make new friends, learn where the bathrooms and the music room were, decide which teacher was nice.

When our oldest child was getting close to school age, my husband and I relocated to a smaller suburban city where we knew we would live for a long time, because I’m strongly opposed to making my children change schools. Sometimes the change is necessary, for a new job or a house more suited to a family. If a family looks at all the factors and decides that it is best for them, I wouldn’t criticize them for making a change. learn more about learning old stuff at http://www.laurierunslife.com/the-way-old-stuff/

Some changes aren’t a choice though and that makes me angry. And sad. Last year our school district changed a policy basically forbidding all cross-boundary attendance. A number of children had been attending cross-boundary and were allowed to stay at their current schools’ thanks to a grandfathering clause. The clause didn’t include younger siblings entering the system or kindergarten students moving on to grade one though. This meant a lot of families felt compelled to move all their kids to their designated school, to keep siblings together.

I thought it was a ridiculous charge, especially given that the attendance numbers at each school affected barely changed. This year though we are seeing that it may have been the first step toward a new change. Redefined boundaries are being proposed and if they go through 60-90 families will be affected. One possibility would see 9 children change schools for the second time in two years. The other option will leave 3 children changing schools for a second time.** And this time – no grandfathering is being considered at all. How is this acceptable? Consider the school board’s own policy:

“The Board is charged with the responsibility of providing, for its students and their parents, and education system organized and operated in their best interests (emphasis added). It exercises this responsibility through the setting of local educational policy and the wise use of resources.”

How is changing schools in any child’s best interests?!

I’m trying to do my part to support the involved families. My kids have not affected actually, but I fear future changes that could impact them. And I feel morally obligated to try and help, because someone’s kids are affected, doesn’t matter if they are mine or not really. I’ve written to the board and I wrote a Letter to the Editor of our local paper. I’m attaching the text of that letter here because if it is not published I still hope to be able to reach some people and help them understand how wrong these choices are. So if you live in the Parkland School District – attend the special meeting on March 1st!!!!

I am writing in light of proposed boundary changes in the Parkland School District. I attended the recent School Board Trustee meeting to learn more about the boundary changes. First, I think the information at that meeting should have been made clear to the public in as visible a way as possible several weeks ago (or at least several weeks from any decision point).

This is a huge change for a significant number of parents in the Spruce Grove area. With either the possible Urban West boundary change or the Rural East boundary change, some children will be attending their THIRD school in three years.

In my opinion, no children who currently attend a school should be forced to change schools, all changes should only apply to future applicants and grandfathering of current students should be standard. The trauma of being uprooted from your familiar surroundings, your friends and activities should not be underestimated. I moved multiple times as a young child and the emotional impact of those moves is with me today. In my case my parents made poor choices, but in Parkland, parents are doing everything they can to provide a consistent and appropriate school for their families and are being denied that opportunity by a board of trustees lacking in vision. Only a few years ago an elementary school was CLOSED in Spruce Grove and a complete restructuring of schools was done. Now the Board says we need a new elementary school and schools that previously housed K-6 aren’t big enough for K-4. Now they think we have too many kids for our elementary schools. They have mentioned Brookwood’s growing population too and I don’t doubt that it will be the next target for change.

Children are not just numbers and they deserve to be treated with more courtesy and respect that our trustees have shown them over the last couple of years. I hope parents from all of Parkland’s schools will attend the March 1st special board meeting to support Millgrove parents and to show that we want our children to be treated better.

**Numbers of children affected are what were given at the February 16 School Trustee Board meeting. If there are any inaccuracies I apologize.