Sample Content Preview

5 Car Buying Apps That Can Save You a Bundle of Money

We live in a wonderful age of free information. Even if you do not own a com-puter or smartphone, you only need to hop down to the nearest library to access a globally linked wealth of information. This means you can turn to the Internet and the World Wide Web of interconnected computers to research your next car purchase.

If you head over to Google and search for "top car buying apps," you will receive millions of results. You can certainly work your way through those results if you like, or we can save you some time. The following 5 car buying apps can give you valuable information that might save you money the next time you purchase a ve-hicle (listed in no particular order).

1 – Kelly Blue Book App

Before the Internet arrived, the Kelly Blue Book was a trusted resource for used car buyers. It was annually updated, delivering information about the purchase price on vehicles by year, make, and model. Now the online version of the Kelly Blue Book introduces new and used car information, while also offering online and offline access.

2 – Edmunds.com

You can browse car reviews on Edmunds.com, and the trusted car buying website also offers financing options before you buy your vehicle. You are provided with auto calculators that reveal your car's true cost, and you can shop for your next vehicle as well.

3 – TrueCar.com

TrueCar promises to help you "Get the True Price – the Actual Price You Will Pay at the Dealership." You can shop new and used cars in your area and get the true cash offer of your trade-in in just a few minutes. From the home page, you select either the new or used option, and then shop by a manufacturer and make.

4 – CARFAX

CARFAX is essential if you want to learn the real information behind a used vehi-cle. If you are purchasing a used car from a friend, family member, neighbor, or stranger, get the VIN. CARFAX will turn that number into valuable information which shows previous repairs and vehicle history reports.

5 – CarMax

CarMax takes negotiating out of the equation. A lot of people don't know how to negotiate, or they don't like having to haggle. Salespeople are excellent negotia-tors. This could mean that you are put in a poor position for getting the best pos-sible price on a vehicle.

The free CarMax app lets you contact dealers in your area, shop and search for used cars, and scan VINs to see if there is a similar vehicle near you. You can also sell your current vehicle separately and get instant offers for cash that you can put down on a vehicle purchase.

Buy a Used Car Online to Save Money and Time

Your time is valuable to you. You are only given 24 hours a day. If you are like most people, you are probably very busy already. When you think about the fact that you are going to have to buy another car soon, you might understandably begin to become stressed out at the mere thought of that experience.

You have to haggle with the dealership and the salesperson. You need to do some investigation into your finances and see what you can afford. You may have to drive to several dealerships and spend a lot of time and effort (as well as gas money) and end up settling on something that is not what you want.

You get so frustrated by the process that you just buy something that is close to what you want, rather than getting a great price on the exact car you are looking for. It doesn't have to be this way. You can save a lot of time and money when you learn how to buy a used car online. Here are a few tips for purchasing your next vehicle online, proven methods of saving money while getting the vehicle you want.

Head to Cars.com and AutoTrader.com, then Edmunds.com

If all you do is check out these websites to buy your next used vehicle, you can wind up with a great deal. It may take a little time, but the time spent searching at your leisure on your laptop or smartphone rather than driving all over town and fighting traffic while dealing with intimidating salespeople is much more enjoya-ble. You can narrow your search to makes or models, vehicles with a certain amount of mileage, different price ranges, or features and accessories. After you locate something that looks like a steal of a deal at Cars.com or AutoTrader, head over to Edmunds.com. Use their appraisal tool to check out the average price people are paying in your area for that same vehicle. This lets you know if you are getting a deal or paying too much.

An Attractive Price Does Not Make up for lack of Paperwork

When buying used, the car you select should be accompanied by maintenance pa-perwork. You only want to purchase a vehicle you know has been well main-tained. Don't let a bargain-basement price tag make you overlook the fact that there is no maintenance paperwork accompanying a used vehicle. People who take care of their cars, trucks, and SUVs have the paperwork to prove that they have done so.

Let Carsala Do the Haggling for You

If time is at a premium and you hate negotiating the best price, why not let a pro-fessional do it? Carsala is a used car buying service that does all the dirty work for you. Using the site couldn't be easier. You search for a make and model vehicle, and then you receive a list of matching offers. Choose the offers that look the most attractive to you, and the professional negotiators at Carsala go to work to get you the best possible price.

Buying a Car? Talk as Little as Possible to Get the Best Price

A successful salesperson is very good at what he or she does. In some cases, the person you are dealing with when you are shopping for a vehicle has had decades of sales experience. They know what you are thinking before you think it, and they also understand exactly what they need to say to get any conversation under their control.

Sample Content Preview

The Benefits of Leasing a Car

The fast-paced challenge of new technology is everywhere. Computers are geared to last three years, maybe less. Smartphones barely last a year before new tech-nology and new uses have made them obsolete and in need of replacement.

What about the most complex arrangement of mechanical and electronic engi-neering most of us are ever likely to own: the automobile? That single umbrella word “car” takes in a vast amount of computer and electronics, much of which is improved and updated on a daily basis. With so much change coming so fast, it makes perfect sense to lease a car, instead of buying.

If you’re on the fence about leasing a car, consider this:

• Leasing helps you stay current. Most people are not able to buy a new car as often as, say a cell phone. That’s where leasing comes in. When you lease a car, you’re never saddled with old technology. You actually can change out cars as you need to, ensuring that you have the latest in comfort and fuel economy.

• Lower monthly payments. When you buy a car, you’re buying the life of the car. That is to say, a car you purchase for $20,000.00 is worth $20,000 at the time of purchase but may have no value at the end of 15 or 20 years when the life cycle of the car is complete. When leasing, you’re paying for the portion of the car’s lifecycle you’re actually going to use. A $20,000 car today might be only worth $12,000 in three years. With leasing, you’re only paying on that $8,000 (plus interest) that you’re actually using of that car’s life cycle.

• The never-ending warranty. If the car is always under warranty, you don’t have to worry about costly repairs other than normal wear and tear on the car. You simply say, “fix it” and it’s all completed for you, and with few exceptions, it’s all covered.

• Taxes. If you’re not buying a car, you’re not usually going to pay sales tax, though you need to check the regulations in your state. If there is sales tax, it’s only for the amount of the car’s life you’re buying. So, on that earlier example, you’re only paying sales tax on the $8,000 you spent on the car, vs. sales tax on the full $20,000

• Selling/Trading in. Many people feel overwhelmed by the process of selling a car or getting a good price as a trade-in. Leasing solves that issue, simply re-turn the car and walk away. Or better yet, drive away in a new lease.

While leasing might not be the one-size-fits-all solution, there are many ad-vantages to leasing a car. The greater freedom and the ability to keep up with cur-rent technology makes leasing an attractive option.

The Biggest Financial Mistakes People Make When Buying a Car

Buying a car is a big investment. But it's not only the price of the vehicle that needs to be considered. There are also interest rates and monthly payments, spread out over how long the loan is for to take into consideration.

There are several pitfalls that are common to many car buyers. Be careful of these:

• Loan length. Dealerships will give you a startlingly good monthly payment if you extend the loan to 60 or 70 months. This is a bad mistake. Why do they do it? Two reasons: they want to sell you the car. If you can see that the monthly financing is in your budget, you’ll be more likely to go for it. The other reason? They don’t want to sell you that car. They want to sell you a much more expen-sive car, one where monthly payments in a 70-month plan are affordable.

Why not? As soon as a car is sold, it depreciates rapidly. A car is – finan-cially speaking, a bad investment. It is, in fact, a losing investment. The other side to a longer lease is more payments on interest. Eventually, you’ll end up paying twice the original value of the car and will never re-cover what you owe when you sell it.
Solution? Don’t get a car you can’t pay off in three years. It might not be as slick as the nicer ones, but your finances will love you.

• Leasing. Keep in mind that cars are financially a bad idea. They depreciate. Fast. On the other hand, if you pay off a car in three years and drive it for five after that, you can take that money you’ve been using for car payments and put to other use. At the end of three years on a lease, all you have is someone else’s car who wants it back. Now you have to start on a new lease.

Why not? No one needs a new car every three years, and if you are run-ning a car so hard that you do, then the leasing company is going to fine you heavily for excess wear and tear. When you’re done, you’ll have no car, no trade-in and no way to get another car except through another lease.

Solution? No one ever improved their credit by leasing. But a purchase with prompt payments will go a long way to revitalizing your credit and give you a credible option for other uses of your money.

Don’t let these mistakes affect your happiness with purchasing your car. With a little proper care and research, you’ll be able to avoid them, and still, have good financial footing alongside a beautiful and dependable vehicle.

The Downside of Buying a Car

Owning a shiny new car is a dream most of us have had at one point. Chances are, our fantasies date back to our childhood when we saw that bright red sports car reflecting the sunlight as it flew by. From that moment, on we’ve all given a thought to owning a car. It’s been a part of the “American Dream” for genera-tions.

But there are some problems with achieving that dream that needs to be consid-ered in the cold light of day. Here are a few things to think about when consider-ing whether to buy a car.

Sample Content Preview

5 Great Travel Blogs

Whether you travel a lot or infrequently, it makes sense to ask for veteran advice. Whether you are looking to save time or money, or simply have the best possible experience when traveling, there are people who have the information you're looking for. You have probably purchased something online, and checked out the reviews of previous purchasers before you made a decision. You can do basically the same thing when you lean on national and international travelers who share their hard-earned information with you for free.

You can find these individuals a couple of ways. Just type "best travel blog sites" or "top travel blogs" into Google or your preferred search engine. If you do this, be prepared to sift through 436 million results. That is how many different web pages showed up for a recent Google search for "top 10 travel blogs". If you don't have the rest of your life to work through all of those websites, check out the fol-lowing 5 award-winning travel blogs where you can find anything you want to know about vacationing, travel and accommodations away from home (updated in May of 2018 and ranked in no particular order).

1 – Dan Flying Solo

Aside from having some incredible pictures and photographs on his website, Dan is a veteran globetrotter that can give the solo traveler a lot of smart advice. He often travels with other known travel bloggers and the wealth of information he has on his blog for traveling internationally and nationally is virtually limitless.

2 – Under 30 Experiences

This travel site is ranked as a Top 15 Millennials Travel Blog. As the blog name in-dicates, the information contained here is perfect for those around or under 30 years of age. The blog even offers trips where you can join other millennials for memorable travel experiences.

3 – The Blog Abroad

Gloria is the Arizona native that created and runs The Blog Abroad. From scoring discount deals to securing upgrades on air travel, Gloria has assembled a lot of travel knowledge. Be forewarned that she is never scared to voice her opinion, but in many cases, this is good for you, because she lets you know when she runs across a destination or accommodation you should probably pass up.

4 – Drew Binsky

It seems like a lot of great world travelers hail from Arizona. Drew, like Gloria, is an Arizona native. Years ago he left college because he felt he wasn't seeing enough of the world. That is good news for you because he has spent every year since traveling the globe and gaining a lot of knowledge that can help you make your next travel plans a success.

5 – A Broken Backpack

Melissa is the Canadian native that runs A Broken Backpack. She is a superstar on YouTube and Snapchat, and she has plenty of videos that show you the pros and cons of a destination you may be thinking about visiting. Melissa's blog is the per-fect destination for anyone that enjoys backpacking and hiking away from home.

Staying in a Hotel? Get to Know Your Staff Before You Travel

Are you planning a trip? Will you be staying in a hotel, motel or B&B? It is easy to get anxious about your trip to the point where you forget to do little things like packing a toothbrush or your phone charger. These things happen, and they put minor speedbumps in your travel plans. To make sure you experience a great time when paying for lodging, and you encounter as few unforeseen issues as possible, use this simple travel hack.

Call ahead and get to know the staff that will be waiting on you. This is such a simple practice, but almost nobody other than veteran travelers ever do it. A few days before you travel, call the hotel or motel where you will be staying. Let them know who you are, and when you have reservations. Let them know you would like to speak with anyone who will be working while you are there if they will be interacting with you.

It is especially important to get to know the concierge or doorman. These men and women can make your stay a 5-star experience because they know every-thing about your lodging, and also about the surrounding sights and sounds in the area. A short conversation with a manager or doorman that has lived in the area for years can yield important dos and don'ts that keep you from having a misera-ble experience.

What to Do if You Can't Speak with Your Staff

Some accommodations will respect the privacy of their staff members. This might mean you won't be able to glean any insider info from housemaids, bartenders and other "in the know" service personnel. If this is the case, call back on another day and ask to be transferred to the bar. Ask to speak with the concierge when the operator or desk clerk answers.

This can get you straight to the individuals you want to speak with. Let them know your lodging dates and ask them if they will be working on those dates. Make a personal connection and discuss what you are hoping to accomplish during your stay. Are you traveling for a second honeymoon? Will your entire family be going, or is this a getaway for you and your significant other? Bending the ears of service personnel instead of managers can reveal the real pros, cons, and possibilities available to you.

If these attempts at getting the 411 on your accommodations fail, try this. As soon as you arrive and get situated, meet as many staff members as you can. Keep a smile on your face and thank everyone you speak with. Make real connections in- stead of treating these individuals as if they are your servants. These simple re-connaissance hacks may just turn a so-so stay into the best travel experience of your life.

The Travel Documentation Hack You Probably Aren't Using ... and Should Be

Imagine the following scenario. You travel to an exotic destination. You have been planning on this dream vacation for years, maybe even decades. You are having the time of your life. You can't imagine the experience getting any better. You are having such a great time that you are not paying attention to what you are doing, maybe because you have been enjoying too many adult beverages, and you mis-place your wallet.

What do you do now? You know you are going to have to replace your license or ID and call your credit card companies. If you have earned any specific skills or de-grees which could prove handy during your travel plans, how can you prove you have earned those accreditations? If you are overseas or otherwise in a country other than your own, what are you going to do about your passport?

Sample Content Preview

Four Common Home Ownership Myths Debunked

We hear advice about home ownership all the time, usually doled out by people who have gotten their pearls of wisdom from TV or the Internet. Regardless, “truths” are often given by people with limited practical experience in the field of real estate.

To help you determine if home ownership is right for you and your family, we’ve debunked four of the common myths below.

1. It’s better to buy the worst house in the neighborhood. This “truth” springs from the idea that the lowest price house will be worth more by association. In the best-case scenario, the worst house in a neighborhood accrues value at the same rate as any other house. But sometimes, this wisdom can even backfire, and the house appreciates slower than the other houses in the neighborhood.

The reason for this is that under-performing houses are just not in demand. This can make perspective buyer start to wonder why the home is in the state it’s in, and they will then shy away from it.

2. The best bargains are foreclosures. It’s true that a house in foreclosure cost far less than other houses, but a momentary thought process will show why that’s a fallacy. Foreclosed homes are not like other houses.

Homeowners facing foreclosure have nothing to gain by fixing roofs or maintain-ing a home. Some will even deliberately sabotage a home, pulling out copper
pipes and appliances to sell. Bear in mind too; a foreclosed house is usually purchased from a bank and banks do not have the same the same obligations to disclose as private sellers do.

3. Real Estate is no longer a good/safe investment: Yes, stocks do accrue faster, but having $25,000 to put in stocks will get you $25,000 worth of stocks. Whereas $25,000 as a down payment will get you into a $250,000 house. Plus, the mort-gage payments offer tax benefits. Interest on home loans are deductible, but so are property taxes. Over time, real estate will actually out-perform stocks.

4. Real Estate is Risk-Free: Anyone old enough to remember the events of 2008 knows that is a lie. While buying a home might be a stable investment when com-pared to stocks, is it risk-free? The answer is no.

Keep in mind that having a home is more than an investment, although it is that too. It’s a place where you will raise your family and build memories. Taking the time to understand the real truths behind home ownership is worth it.

6 Reasons Why Millennials Rent Instead of Buy

Fewer millennials are buying than previous generations, preferring instead to rent. It’s easy to blame the economy, but there’s more to it than just that. Three-quarters of all Millennials are now renting instead of owning a home.

But why? There are six major reasons for this:

Economic Factors The real estate crash of 2008 began in 2007 and ended in 2009, but the effects have yet to end. The ripples reached into the job markets and overall economy creating a recession that is limiting careers and job opportunities and curtailing room for advancement.

Delayed Families

A recent national poll revealed that while millennials are interested in creating a family, it’s not something they are striving for with the immediacy of previous generations. There is less pressure on them to commit and thus less pressure to establish a permanence.

The Bubble

Already mentioned above, this is a category all its own. Though it was a part, and in a way perhaps even a cause of the recession, the real estate bubble has a far-reaching effect directly on buying a home. It is harder and harder to qualify than ever before. The sub-prime mortgages of ten years ago were given away like an advertising ploy but fell apart when they could not be paid off. Since then, mortgage brokers have had to toe the line as new laws and regulations have been put into effect.

Budget

Mortgage payments are often cheaper than rent, but buying a house takes a lot of money up front. Between limited career options and crushing student debt, many millennials do not have the needed cash to afford the down payment and closing costs for a home.

No Ties to an Area

When the rental lease is up, you can stay or move to another part of the world. Because of our global economy, Millennials need more freedom to pursue their careers. Renting allows them this freedom. Who wants to be stuck with owning a home when you may not want to stay in the area long-term?

Not my problem

In case of emergency, call the landlord. It’s his problem. Millennials don’t need to get involved in long, costly repairs. Most would rather let someone else handle dealing with repairs while they get on with their lives.

Homeownership isn't right for everyone, perhaps for an entire generation. But generations before them also explored the world before settling, so perhaps in time, these numbers will change. For now, most millennials would rather rent than buy a home.

10 Tips for Buying Your Ideal Home

You decided to buy, found a cute place or two to look at, but now what? Before you go running off to the bank, here are ten things to think about first to save yourself headaches later.

Sample Content Preview

5 Simple Tips to Grow your Self-Esteem

When you think about it, there is nobody more responsible for how you feel than yourself. You can decide to focus on nothing but your negatives, or you can recog-nize the upside of being you. This is good news, because it means you can im-prove a poor mood any time simply by feeling better about yourself. The follow-ing 5 tips and best practices have proven effective for building your self-esteem when it has taken a hit, when you need a mental or emotional boost.

1 - Eat Some Chocolate

Be careful here. This is not a free license to pig out on some unhealthy, highly pro-cessed candy bars or 2,000 calorie desserts. The self-esteem boosting move here is to eat some natural dark chocolate, without added sugar, preservatives and other ingredients. The chemicals in dark chocolate cause the same reaction in your brain that you experience when you feel loved and appreciated.

Studies show you only need to eat two or three small pieces of dark chocolate to boost your self-esteem and feelings of overall well-being.

2 – Keep a Self-Esteem Journal

One of the easiest ways to recognize what is causing you to feel poorly about yourself is to track those experiences. As soon as you begin to question yourself and think negative thoughts about who you are and what you are capable of, break out your journal. The things going on in your environment may be uncon-sciously causing your low self-esteem.

What can you smell? What do you see? Who are you spending time with? What physical environment are you in right now? Did you just try to accomplish some-thing and fell short of success? Keep these and any other thoughts and feelings in your self-esteem journal. You should also record what is happening when you feel high levels of self-love and self -appreciation. You may be surprised to find there are patterns which you can avoid to keep from second-guessing yourself and knocking your self-esteem.

3 – Practice Gratitude and Self-Love in the Morning and at Night

When you are daily grateful for the things around you, you will find yourself feel-ing better about who you are and where you are in the world. Each morning when you arise and just before you lay your head on your pillow, think about the won-derful things you currently enjoy. These can be friends, experiences, gifts or abili-ties. Then think about the wonderful gifts you are grateful for in your past, even if they may not be present now.

Doing this each morning and each evening is a simple way to develop powerful self-esteem which can get you through the day, no matter what life throws at you.

4 – Set Goals And Create Routines, Rather Than Just Taking the Day As It Comes

Routines, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and patterns are like nirvana to the brain. Your brain loves recognizing patterns and then habitually and automati-cally responding. When you have some purpose to your day, the odds that you will complete that day with a sense of self-worth and self -appreciation are higher than if you simply let life happen. The more routines, goals and SOPs you can cre-ate in your life, the better it is for your self-esteem.

5 – Make a Positive Spin

We all fail. We are never going to be 100% successful at anything, and that is just a part of being human. If you were to write down every failure and lack of success you have experienced in your life, you would probably be staggered by the quan-tity. However, this is no reason for knocking yourself for feeling bad about who you are in any way. Failures are simply things that happen. They do not quantify you are as a person.

The next time you experience a failure or lack of success that has you questioning your abilities and knocking your self-esteem, think positively. There are probably incredible lessons you can learn from that failure. Be happy your failure has taught you these lessons, and learn from them in the future. There is always some positive spin to the many failures life is going to hand you, and when you learn to look for them, your self-esteem improves.

For Higher Levels of Self-Esteem, Honesty Is the Best Policy

Do you lie to yourself? We all do from time to time. Sometimes we do it con-sciously so that we don't have to make an effort. If you lie to yourself about some trait or behavior you know you need to change, you are doing yourself no good. This practice can lead to physical, mental or emotional issues that wreck relation-ships, ruin your career, or lead to physical health problems.

If you are constantly caught lying, people begin to feel that they can't trust you. This could harm any area of your life. Even if you successfully lie to everyone and are never found out, are you really helping yourself? There is research that indi-cates people who are constantly lying experience much higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression than others. This probably happens because they are stressed about being found out, and they constantly have to remember what lies they told in the past.

This is no way to go through life.

Everyone should enjoy healthy feelings of self-worth, and if you have to lie to get through the day, you probably won't feel good about yourself. Whenever you lie to a loved one, the feelings of frustration, disappointment, and anger you feel to-wards yourself are not good. Worse yet, when you lie to yourself, you are injuring yourself in so many ways.

Your feelings of self-worth have to originate from a realization of your true situa-tion. If you are failing all of your classes in college yet you see yourself as a capa-ble student, this dishonesty is not going to help you get your degree. What eventually happens is a person who is dishonest with herself suffers from regular bouts of self-questioning.

She wonders why she can't be honest with herself. She begins to feel frustrated and anxious because of this. These feelings trigger the stress response in the hu-man body, cortisol and other "feel bad" chemicals are produced, and mental, emotional and physical health problems are the result.

When you practice honesty, in your dealings with yourself and others, your self-esteem improves. It may sound contrary to what you believe, but even if your honesty points out faults and failings in your life, this honest appraisal of your sit-uation boosts your self-esteem. You feel good about yourself for being honest. These positive feelings increase how you look at yourself, and they further em-power you with self-confidence that you can improve upon those negative areas of your life.

Be honest with yourself and with your loved ones. Lies don't help anyone. You will eventually get found out, and then people will wonder whether or not you really value their relationships. For better self-esteem and self-love, self-confidence and personal relationships, be honest with yourself and those you care about.

High Self-Esteem Boosts Self-Confidence and Expands Your Life Experience

How do you feel about yourself? Did you know that answering that simple ques-tion gives you powerful information about how rich of a life you live? Some peo-ple are very happy to live a simple existence. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. In many cases though, the inquisitive and exploring nature of the hu-man brain means that people want to get the most out of their lives by being ex-posed to multiple experiences and realities.

This is why the travel industry will always generate billions and billions of dollars. People strive to learn and know more about the world they live in and the people that inhabit that world.

One simple way to boost your life experience if you feel like you are stuck in the doldrums is to enjoy a better opinion of yourself. High self-esteem gives you posi-tive feelings about who you are and what you can do. The more positively you view yourself, the more likely you are to take on new experiences or tasks.

This elevates your self-confidence, and when you enjoy high self-esteem, whether you fail or succeed at anything, you appreciate the fact that you made an effort. Consequently, high levels of confidence which come from healthy self-esteem work to improve your self-esteem even more. This is a wonderful cycle of mental health and well-being that begins with you simply recognizing that you are a being that is worthy of recognition.

Sample Content Preview

5 Tips for Keeping Your Website Secure

So, you’ve gone to a lot of trouble and effort to get your business website looking just the way you want it. Don’t forget to make it safe! You’ve probably heard about the increased risk of hacking, data theft, and web attacks, but there is a lot you can do to protect your website. There are some key measures you can take to minimize your risk and reduce your website’s vulnerability.

1. Minimize the risk from plug-ins

• Experts say that vulnerable plug-ins are the top way hackers can gain access to WordPress sites. When it comes to plug-ins you should:
• Keep the number of plug-ins to a minimum. You really don’t need that many, tempting as it might be!
• Delete any plug-ins you’re not using and keep the others updated.
• Check and double-check plug-ins before you download them to make sure you’re getting them from a reliable source.
• Remove plug-ins that haven’t been updated in over two years, and regularly check to see if your plug-ins are current. Check the Wordpress Directory to make sure your plug-ins are still live.
• Use Wordpress Security plug-ins to detect threats, and block attackers and malware. Popular ones are Wordfence Security, iThemes Security, and All in One WP Security and Firewall.

2. Make it hard to login as you

Using ‘admin’ as your username, or having a weak password is like leaving your front door open. It’s almost inviting hackers in! Make sure you don’t use the de-fault ‘admin’ username. Think of a unique and difficult username to guess. Simi-larly, come up with a strong password using a combination of letters, capital let-ters, symbols, and numbers between 10 and 15 characters long. If you find this difficult, you can use Strong Password Generator to make one for you.

And don’t forget to change your password regularly. Schedule it in as a regular business task, so you don’t forget.

3. Make your website HTTPS

Changing your website to HTTPS encrypts the connection between your web server and your web browser protecting your data from attacks. And as an added bonus, HTTPS improves your Google rankings!

4. Use two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication protects your website against an attack that tries un-limited combinations of usernames and passwords until the hacker gets into the
site. Adding Google Authenticator to your website will add this feature automati-cally.

5. Backup and update

Doing regular backups and updates will keep your website data safe, so even if the worst happens, and you are hacked, you’ll be able to get your site back as soon as possible.

5 Things to Look for in a Wordpress Theme

It’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed when you’re setting up your WordPress web-site. There are so many decisions to make about colors, designs, fonts, and graphics. Having lots of themes to choose from makes it a bit easier, but how do you choose the best theme for your website? After all, the theme is the face of your Wordpress site, and the image it conveys about you and your business plays an important role in how your potential clients and even search engines perceive it.

Here are some things you should keep in mind to make sure you get the theme that is the right fit for your business.

1. Keep it simple

Simplicity and an uncluttered design are key for a business website. You don’t want anything that will distract from your core message. On the contrary, the de-sign layout and look should support your message, make it easy for readers to find the information they need and help you get new business and subscribers.

2. Flexibility

Whatever design you choose, make sure it is responsive across multiple devices. Clients should be easily able to navigate and read your website whether they’re on a cellphone, tablet, laptop or computer.

3. Consistency

If you already have a business logo or design, choose a design that is consistent with your look and branding. If you choose a neutral theme, make it more engag-ing by including some touches of color. If you’re starting a business look from scratch, bear in mind that studies have shown that readers find lighter colored sites easier to navigate and read than darker colors.

4. Make it SEO friendly

You may not realize that the theme you choose can affect your websites’ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) capability. It’s no good having a website that looks great and has fantastic content if the search engines can’t pick it up. Check the description of the theme to make sure it’s optimized for SEO.

5. Good reviews

If you find a theme that feels right to you and it checks out on the simplicity, flexi-bility, consistency and SEO optimization fronts, look at the reviews before you hit the download button. Users can leave up to 5-star ratings on the theme itself – and it’s also worth a scan of user forums to see if there are common problems.
Choosing the theme for your website is important, so it’s worth doing some re-search to find the right one for your business. And you can play around with dif-ferent themes to see what feels right. Use the preview button to see what they look like on your screen.

6 Common Mistakes Newbie Website Owners Make

There are a few mistakes that many people make when setting up and adding to their websites. Here are the most common missteps to avoid.

1. Choosing the wrong platform

If you have chosen one of the more popular providers like Wordpress, make sure you choose the one that’s right for your needs. Think of the purpose of your web-site. If you want to use your website for promoting a business, sending newslet-ters or selling products, you will be looking for a different package with room for
customization, growth, and control (Wordpress.org or WordPress.com Business) than someone who just wants to keep a personal blog (WordPress.com).

2. Choosing the wrong writing style

Writing for websites is not the same as writing for print. Research has shown that people spend little time reading website content. They land on your page, scan it for anything interesting, and unless you can grab their attention quickly, they’ll move on to something shinier.

Keep your writing simple, direct, and easy to scan. Don’t use jargon or technical language or assume that your readers know as much as you do about your busi-ness.

3. Too much detail

If you have too much detail on your web pages, people will lose interest and move on to your competitors. Potential customers are looking for an overview of the most important information about your business. Keep messages short, sim-ple, and easy to understand. Think of what you want your customer to know about your business right away.

4. Too busy

The last thing your website needs is too many graphics, photos, GIFs, or videos. Keep your web design simple and uncluttered.

5. Publishing incomplete pages

Don’t hit the publish button until you’re 100% happy for a page to go live. Check and re-check in preview mode until it looks right, has no spelling or grammatical errors, the images are the right size, and it communicates what you want your customer to know.

And don’t ever, under any circumstances, publish a page that says, ‘Coming Soon’ or ‘Incomplete.’ Having incomplete pages on your website looks sloppy and un-professional. While you’re building your website, you can have a holding page that tells customers when the site will be launched, but once the website is live, it needs to look professional and finished.

6. Not doing your website housework

New website owners tend to forget two of the most important bits of housekeep-ing: doing regular backups and keeping their website and any themes and plug-ins updated. These two tasks are vital to protect your data against hackers, your own human error, or power failures.

Best Wordpress Plugins for Newbies

WordPress has more than 47,000 free and premium plug-ins available for the new website owner. That’s pretty overwhelming. And it’s tempting to go nuts and in-stall everything that looks cool! But take a deep breath and think about what your website really needs. Your website reflects your business self, and that self should look straightforward, clear and direct.

There are a number of plug-ins that will reduce your workload and maximize the functionality of your website. Here are some of the plug-ins experts recommend for every website.

1. Yoast SEO

Search engines are the major source of traffic for every website, and Yoast SEO guides you through improving your web content to make it as search friendly as possible.

2. VaultPress

VaultPress is a security plugin built to create real-time automated backups for your website. It syncs all your website files and provides protection from web at-tacks.

3. Social Icons

Having a social media presence is vital. It is arguable that you can’t do business now without it. Social Icons is a free WordPress plugin that displays the most pop-ular social icons on your website from Facebook to Pinterest and more than 100 other social media platforms.

4. Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security will scan for known issues and alert you to potential problems like weak passwords, faulty plug-ins, and other vulnerabilities. If it detects a prob-lem, it will suggest what action to take.

5. Akismet

Spammers are the scourge of the internet. Akismet will automatically filter out spammy comments and prevent them from ever appearing on your site. If a com-ment is blocked accidentally, you can go in and manually review and approve it.

6. WooSidebars

WooSidebars allows you to have as many sidebars and widgets on your web pages as you want. For example, you can display a Google Maps widget showing your business address on your About Us or Contact page.

7. WP Smush

A good website has graphics and photos as well as text. But newbies can often fall into the trap of having images that are too big that slow down their websites, tak-ing their potential customers with it. WP Smush is an image compression plug-in that will resize and optimize your images for speed automatically.

8. WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize is a great housekeeping tool that automatically removes unneces-sary data from your website. WP-Optimize will free up your space by cleaning up spam and un-approved comments, trash posts, and comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks.

Build Your First Website Step-By-Step Guide

So, you’ve decided to have a website, but you’re not quite sure where to start. Should you pay someone to build it for you or is it something you can do yourself, even if you’re an IT newbie?

Building your own website or blog is easier than you might think. To start with, you need to decide which platform to use and which format will suit your needs. Do you want a website for your business or for a personal blog? Or both?

There are lots of website platforms around, but WordPress offers the most afford-able, flexible, and support services. Wordpress also offers the facility to have a blog on your website, giving you the best of both worlds! They provide support to newbies in the form of tutorial, helpdesk, and videos as well.

Here’s a quick step-by-step to get your first website off the ground:

1. Choose and buy a domain name. (yoursite.com) This can be the name of your existing business or whatever name you feel reflects the purpose of your web-site. If you’re starting a new business or blog, think of which niche you’re aim-ing for. Do some research and see what’s trending and where your business fits.

2. Choose a web host. Do some research see which web hosting service suits your present and possible future needs. Once you’re signed up with a host you can go ahead and connect it to your domain, so your website can go live.

3. Install Wordpress and go ahead and design your website! Wordpress gives you lots of options for site design, themes, plug-ins, sidebar widgets and other giz-mos to make your website look just right for you. There are lots of tutorials on the Wordpress site and other websites offering trouble-shooting, videos, and other support. It’s probably best to start small with just the basics and then add other elements once you’re more familiar with how WordPress works.

4. Add your content. Start with the basics like the About and Contact pages, and gradually add in pages related to your business.

5. Don’t worry if it seems a bit overwhelming at first – just take a deep breath and remember if you make a mistake, it can be fixed!

6. As you go, you can check to see what the site or page will look like by pressing “preview,” which is essentially a mockup of the work you’ve done so far. And it won’t go live until you press the “publish” button, so you can play around as much as you like.

7. Don’t forget to add social media links and set up a backup plugin.

8. When you’re happy with your website, hit “publish.”

9. Don’t forget to tell people about it. Send out a newsletter, email your clients, and broadcast your new website across social media.

How to Choose Safe, Free Plugins

Plug-ins are powerful tools that increase the functionality of your website. There are more than 30,000 plug-ins available for Wordpress alone. But how do you work out which ones you need for your website? Here are a few tips to help you find your way through all those options.

1. Work out what you want

Before you start looking at plug-ins, write down what you want it to do. Now is the time to be selective and not go crazy installing plug-ins you don’t need. So work out what functions you want your website to have (e-commerce for exam-ple), essential marketing tools like SEO, social media sharing, and so on.

It will be helpful to have a checklist of functions and what features you want in a plug-in to help you find the right plug-in or combination of plug-ins to have.

2. Do your research

You can browse through the WordPress plug-in directory, CodeCanyon, Creative Market or other marketplaces that offer free and paid plug-ins. Referring back to your checklist, see which plug-ins look like they might suit your needs. Look for version numbers, when it was last updated, number of downloads and user rat-ings.

Avoid plug-ins that haven’t been updated recently or that few users have down-loaded. And be suspicious of a deal that looks too good to be true (premium plug-ins being offered for free), or you could end up downloading malware that wrecks your site or gives access to hackers.

It’s also worth checking user forums to see what problems or questions other website owners have had either with the plug-in you’re looking at or the functions you’re looking for. This might help you decide between two or three plug-ins that seem to be equally good.

3. Test your candidates

Once you have found some plug-ins that look like they may suit your needs, have a closer look. Most plug-ins will have some screenshots, videos, or demo pages that will allow you to see what they look like. There may also be videos on YouTube, and reviews as well as guides and tutorials.

Even once you have chosen your plug-in, you can install it and run it in a test envi-ronment before you upload it to your live site. This way you can see how a plug-in
will affect your website, whether it might slow your site down, for example, or if it’s not compatible with another plug-in.

Once you’re researched, assessed and tested your plug-in, you can go ahead and load it to your website.

Important Design Elements for Every Website

It doesn’t matter which industry you’re working in your website has to look good! Your business website exists to get people’s attention and direct them to do something whether it’s to hire you, buy your services or products, enroll in your course, or subscribe. And good design is crucial to get your reader to do what you want.

A poorly designed website does not attract business. Studies have shown that you only have a few seconds to intrigue your reader and get them to explore further, or they’re off looking for the next shiny thing or funny dog meme.

So here are the fundamental design elements you should get right for your web-site.

1. Get the homepage right

Your website’s homepage gives the first impression to your reader. Get it wrong here, and you’ve lost them. Keep your homepage simple and to the point. A short headline, a brief description, two or three calls to action (buy, register, sign-up) and an image or video to make it clear what your business offers.

2. Space!

Your business website should look clean and uncluttered. Having lots of space will make it easier for readers to focus on your message and navigate around your site. Space is not necessarily white space, it indicates a lack of visual clutter and can be any color or texture you like, although studies have shown that people prefer lighter colors in website design.

Sample Content Preview

5 Free Online Poster Makers and Image Creators

You can certainly hire a graphic designer to create your digital posters, in-fographics, and images. The process can be lengthy, not to mention expensive. If you have an unlimited budget, you can just hand off your poster making ideas to your project manager who will coordinate with your designer to create what you're looking for.
If you have budgetary constraints, you may have to design and create your digital poster yourself. This could be daunting if you are not the most tech-savvy person. Fortunately for you, there are some free resources located online that make cre-ating digital posters quick and easy. Even if you have never attempted to create and distribute images online in the past, the following 5 free online poster makers can help you get the job done with minimal fuss and no money out of pocket.

1. Canva – The number of features you get for free with this image maker is really impressive. In the past, you could pull up Canva on your computer or tablet and begin making eye-catching designs for use online. Canva now offers a printing option. That means once you design your poster using the simple drag-and-drop software, you can turn your digital posters into physical market-ing tools. Additionally, Cava has added a dedicated free poster maker that is so easy to use you can create your first digital poster in just a few minutes.

2. DesignCap - The digital poster templates at DesignCap were professionally cre-ated. You may find some more pro-quality templates and themes here as op-posed to the other poster generators on this list, but the downside is there are only a few hundred templates rather than the thousands offered by Fotor or Canva. You also have access to stock photos and clipart, and the usual font se-lections. One feather in this online poster creator's cap is the fact that you do not have to register to use the tool for free.

3. Fotor - Fotor offers free and paid versions of its poster creation tools. The company gives you access to a poster maker that includes several templates to get you up and running in a hurry. You can also use Fotor's browser-based de-sign tools to create images, logos, graphics, and banners. For speed and ease of use, go to the website and open a free account. Choose from the many themes or templates, add your text and images, save and export. As with Canva and some other digital poster creators, you can pay a small fee for ad-vanced features and tools.

4. Adobe Spark - This online tool comes to you from the recognizable Adobe plat-form. While you can use the base Adobe software to create online posters and digital images, Adobe Spark was created specifically for making posters. You choose a desired size, select from a list of themes, upload a background image and add your text. You can then download your creation to your PC and begin sharing it on the web.

5. PosterMyWall - This online tool for making digital posters is free to use. Thou-sands of templates are included, and you can create and then download your poster to your computer. Filtered categories help you choose a template quickly, and many of the free templates are surprisingly high quality.

7 Proven Headline Formulas That Get Your Online Poster Read

Have you ever created digital posters that didn't do a very good job engaging your audience? Perhaps your click-through rate was very poor, or the number of views your poster generated wasn't what you expected. Just like any other piece of con-tent used to market your business, creating an eyeball-grabbing headline is often the most important part of the process.

Why do you click on a particular link when you are searching online? When you Google a search term or phrase, what makes you choose one result over another? In many cases, a good headline is the reason you end up where you do on the In-ternet. The following 7 headline formulas have been proven to work on multiple types of media, and they can get your digital posters clicked on and read, rather than passed over.

1. Add a Number - Make sure you use the number instead of spelling it out. "The Top 7 Backyard Garden Herbs" will usually outperform "The Top Seven Back-yard Garden Herbs," and there is something about numbers which automati-cally gives a perception of truth and reliability. Studies show that odd numbers like 5, 7, 11 and 21 frequently outperform even numbers such as 6, 8 or 12.

2. Use "How to" to Start Your Headline – People turn to the web for answers. They want to understand the right way to perform a process or get an in-tended set of results. "How to" headlines have worked in marketing messages for centuries, and they still work well on the Internet for getting your content read.

3. Mention the Main Benefit – Your digital poster should be attempting to tell one story or send one message. What is that message? What is the big benefit someone will receive when they check out your poster? State that benefit simply and quickly in your headline. You don't want to bury the lead, so the most important information for your prospects that rewards them for reading your poster should be stated in the headline.

4. Ask a Question That Makes Your Reader Think - One of the best performing print advertisements of all time began with a headline which asked the simple question, "Do you make these mistakes in English?" Asking a provocative ques-tion in your headline is a great way to grab attention and get people thinking.

5. Give a Command - Tell someone what to do in your headline. People like to be given direction online. A direct statement could be as simple as, "Turn Your Blog into a Cash Machine." This leads to the creation of a simple and direct call to action, and your potential reader knows exactly what your digital poster is going to deliver.

6. Use a Testimonial – Make sure to put the testimonial in quotes and make it short. Here's a good example. "This online poster creation software is fast, easy to use and free. I love it!" For someone searching the web for that partic-ular type of software, that is a headline which can't be passed up.

7. Offer an Incentive – A headline that offers a 50% discount or a free report or product is going to get a lot of clicks. Just make sure you follow up by providing the relevant content and call to action.

Sample Content Preview

7 Natural Alzheimer's Treatments and Tips

The cognitive decline that comes with the many diseases under the dementia um-brella can be treated. In some cases, depending on the condition and its progres-sion, the mental difficulties dementia causes can be reversed. While there are tra-ditional medical treatments for Alzheimer's, vascular dementia and other forms of dementia, they often involve unfortunate side-effects. As alternative and comple-mentary treatment methods, the following 7 natural oils, herbs, vitamins, and spices are showing promise.

1 – Coconut Oil

Ketones are brain-boosting compounds found in coconut oil. Coconut oil also con-tains "good fats" that improve how the brain communicates with the rest of the body. Doctor Bruce Fife is an author of 20 books, some of which deal with the in-credible benefits of coconut oil for treating and preventing Alzheimer's disease. He is one of just several mental health professionals that have noticed dramatic improvement in Alzheimer's patients when coconut oil is taken daily.

2 – Ashwagandha

This perennial evergreen is an herb commonly found in aromatherapy. It has been used to treat mental disorders and physical health problems for thousands of years in the age-old Indian practice of Ayurvedic medicine.

3 – Turmeric

Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric. Present in several natural healing practices which date back thousands of years, curcumin has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which have a positive influence on Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

4 – Fish Oil, Omega-3 Supplements

To benefit from this natural Alzheimer's treatment, eat 2 to 4 servings of fish every week. You can alternately take an omega-3 supplement each day. Cod liver oil is a safe and natural alternative suggestion to get health-boosting essential fatty acids into your body where they can go to work treating Alzheimer's symp-toms.

5 – Probiotics

One of the easiest ways to prevent and treat a number of mental and physical health conditions is to keep your gut healthy and happy. Digestive problems have a link to as many as 75% of all chronic and serious diseases. Eat more fermented foods like sauerkraut and kefir to benefit from the probiotic influence on Alzhei-mer's or take a daily supplement.

6 – Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkgo biloba supplements have shown effectiveness in some studies for boosting heart health, clearing blocked arteries, promoting healthy blood circulation and calming the nerves of the brain. Additionally, some research shows ginkgo biloba can improve memory as well.

7 – The B Vitamin Family

Research announced in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show B vitamins can slow the speed in which Alzheimer's disease progresses. This is espe-cially true for folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12. Taking a B vitamin super com-plex is a simple way to get your daily dose of important B family vitamins.

Common Treatments to Help a Dementia Patient Deal with the Disease

Alzheimer's and dementia with Lewy bodies are two forms of dementia. Vascular dementia delivers dementia symptoms after a stroke has been experienced. There are several other causes of the cognitive decline and mental health probems which are identified by the blanket dementia term. Treatment often de-pends on the type of dementia involved, but in many cases, treatment protocols are similar, no matter the underlying cause.

Obviously, treatment cannot begin without a diagnosis. Your doctor or mental health care professional needs to fully understand what is happening before the appropriate treatment can improve quality of life. This is because some forms of dementia are treatable but irreversible, and some are totally reversible. This means a comprehensive diagnosis of dementia symptoms and their underlying cause is needed before a treatment is decided upon.

Treatment for Reversible Dementia

In the case of reversible dementia, where the problem is triggered by thyroid problems, medication, vitamin or mineral deficiencies and other causes, treat-ment options could vary greatly. If the lack of a particular vitamin is leading to cognitive decline, memory loss and brain fog, or other telltale dementia symp-toms, daily vitamin supplementation may be all that is required to fix the prob-lem.

Hypothyroidism is a situation where not enough thyroid hormone is developed. When this is the cause of dementia symptoms and behaviors, a thyroid hormone prescription may fix the problem. You are probably well aware that many medica-tions can sometimes cause dramatically negative side-effects. When a prescrip-tion is the underlying cause of dementia, changing medicines is often the treat-ment suggested.

Treating Irreversible Dementia

Palliative care is at the basis of treating all forms of irreversible dementia. When dementia cannot be reversed, palliative care recognizes the futility of trying to
cure or remedy the condition. This means quality of life at every stage of demen-tia is stressed. Symptoms are treated with the hopes that the disease in question is minimized as much as possible.