As Coronavirus forces millions of people to work from home, employers and employees alike are looking for ways to stay connected and stay productive while the upheaval lasts. For most, the answer lies in technology and particularly the use of cloud-based tools and apps that can be accessed over the internet. To help, here are …
Tools
Top 10 analytical tools for Bloggers
Are you a blogger, or an Internet-savvy pro webmaster then you need to know of all the great tools that can help you monetize on your blog faster. You especially need to know about your blog stats, your data health, traffic and revenue. So today we’ve decided to share the top 10 analytical tools for bloggers.
1.Google Webmaster Tools
GWT is the best blogger tool and it helps correct your SEO strategies. This is the 1st SEO tool bloggers and webmasters use, and as such about 99 people out of 100 use it to start their statistical search. This tool offers you a glimpse of your sitemap, the search queries used to get to your site, traffic stats and both internal and external links.
2. Google Analytical Tools
This is another great tool that Google makes available for free. It tells you about your traffic. This tells you what traffic you get and where it comes from. It also offers you information on your real time visitors. It shows you where traffic sources come from, gives you audience overviews, social media references, content page views and more.
3. Google Adwords Key Tool
This is a tool that almost any SEO expert uses. It helps the pros find keywords for titles and to include in their content. It is the most searched tool and key to indexing content correctly.
4. Moz
This is another pro tool with several key integrated tools for SEO. This site offers some of the best SEO tools to help bloggers find solutions to their problems. It offers help with meta descriptions, page rank. It has a sitemap creator and even offers SEO training.
5. SEO Quake
This is another top SEOtool that allows you to check page rank, metas and many more. This is a plugin that you can install on your browser.
6. Woorank
This site offers a free once a week check for one website. It is a popular tool for checking the correct SEO rules.Created by pro bloggers it offers a lot of insight and is used by many SEO analysts.
7. SEMrush
Here is another tool similar to the one listed above. What’s the difference? Not much some bloggers or SEO specialist prefer this site while others prefer Woorank, it’s just a matter of preference.
8. Keywords Density Analyzer
This allows you to check your keywords limits and see whether you have too many or too few keywords. This helps prevent keyword stuffing for your content.
9. Alexa
This is still a top free tool used by pro bloggers and web masters. It offers the blogs ranking on a word wide or by country. It is easily installed on all browsers and shows up as a browser.
10. Woopra
This is a good analytical tool that you want to use when you have multiple blogs and want to track an analyze all your blogs simultaneously.
Connecting With Free Online Cybersecurity Tools and Educational Resources
Many of the major data breaches of 2014 affected large businesses and corporations, though a number of small- and medium-sized businesses also experienced malicious attacks on company data. Regional chains, municipal government agencies, and even non-profit organizations have had to tighten their security protocols in order to prevent similar breaches from occurring. A whole new population of business owners and security managers are exploring the most modern solutions to the ever-evolving problem of data security.
Learning From the Best
Major online corporations like Google are at the forefront of electronic security. Their on-going research helps raise the standard of data integrity for everyone, not just the people they directly serve. The Google security team has helpfully made available a number of lessons used for internal training. This information can be used by other agencies to improve their own security protocols. Other organizations can also follow Google’s example by fostering a company culture of security.
Along with video lessons, Google has also shared research on a number of topics related to electronic security, such as:
- Browser security
- Authentication
- Privacy and its preservation
- Cloud authorization
- Secure data outsourcing
- Account hijacking
- Access control
Exploring Free Security Resources
Every dollar makes a difference, especially to small and growing businesses. Luckily there are a number of free lessons and training courses in data security available for anyone to use. These lessons will introduce company employees to many essential subjects related to current electronic safety and security.
Infragard Awareness is a resource with tools and educational materials aimed at increasing overall workplace security through positive shifts in company culture. Infragard specifically offers tools that help businesses increase their resistance to identity theft and general cyber crime though customized training courses are also available. These tools make it easy to introduce essential topics regarding electronic workplace security to employees and other agents.
To begin using the training tools designed by Infragard Awareness, simply create an account on the website. You can begin using the educational modules and course materials right away
Another free online resource worth exploring is a series of webcasts offered by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. The MS-ISAC National Webcast Initiative is a collection of educational materials developed by the cyber security division of US Homeland Security. These webcasts are intended to provide users with the means to protect themselves and their information on the Internet. This material is ideal for people without a technical background. The educational tools, videos, and other material can be used by businesses to begin essential conversations about company cyber security. Various technical subjects are also covered, so employees without a technical background as well as those responsible for implementing cyber security protocols will also find a great deal of relevant information.
SANS Cyber Aces Online offers a broad collection of training courses appropriate for technical and non-technical users interested in improving electronic security. The SANS Institute is widely recognized as one of the leaders in modern global computer security and aims to help raise the standard of this important aspect of personal and company safety. The educational modules offered on this website include networking, system administration, and operating systems.
These learning modules are excellent for individuals, schools, businesses, and educators. The information presented is specific to cyber security and introduces key concepts to users in an engaging way. Additionally, courses are updated periodically to preserve the accuracy and relevance of the educational materials. Explore this resource; you are sure to find many helpful learning tools.
Especially for Small Businesses
The US Small Business Association has several online video lessons specifically designed to address the security concerns of small and growing businesses. These can be viewed at your convenience right in your Internet browser. The lessons are approximately half an hour long and can be easily used to augment an existing training program. The material is geared to non-technical users in particular though some technical users will find these tools helpful, especially when seeking ways to communicate complex issues to people without a technical background.
You will find it worth your time to explore the US SBA website to discover other security-related tools and resources. The Small Business Association maintains a directory of local resources, too. There may be several relevant agencies not far away that can connect you with other free and low-cost training and educational materials that will help increase your business’s electronic security.
Lessons From Educational Experts
Cyber security degree programs are offered through many colleges and universities; a few of these institutions have made certain educational materials available for free to the public. Stanford University has a series of business and technology lectures on video that can be streamed instantly. These lectures are offered by university professors in classroom settings. Not only will these videos provide viewers with a comprehensive understanding of various technology-related subjects, they can be used to augment training materials obtained from other organizations. Additionally, the videos can be downloaded for later viewing.
And finally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers a non-credit version of their Network and Computer Security course that can be taken online for free. The course covers all essential aspects of computer security, including software protection, operating system security, cryptography, authentication, and risk assessment. This is a great course for anyone interested in the technical side of cybersecurity. Simply follow the steps on the website to register for the non-credit class.
Other Security Resources to Explore
There is a wide range of cost-based security courses and training programs that are worth exploring, too. Cost-based programs tend to involve more time investment and so may not be the right fit for every organization. Still, a few security courses stand out from the crowd; you may find these worth exploring at a later time.
Texas A&M Engineering offers several web-based training programs in cybersecurity. These can be taken for college credit; courses specific to the needs of technical and non-technical users are offered. Carnegie Mellon University can boast of its computer science program, which is currently ranked as one of the top five in the world. Educational materials and course offerings can be explored in more detail in their CyLab.
Enhancing Security Through Education
Education is a key part of security enhancement. Non-technical employees have to understand the relevance of cybersecurity in order to properly support the efforts of technical security measures. These free resources will help begin this important training dialogue and can be used to introduce this complex, yet essential, topic.
Top image ©GL Stock Images
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Google+ Finally Comes Alive With These 16 Great Social Tools
You just can’t knock Google! Yes, there are complaints about Google Panda but Google changed the world and will continue to do so. That’s what confuses so many that Google+ lagged for so long behind Facebook and even LinkedIn. Well, thanks to these tools, Google+ has become the most powerful social media and digital communications platform around. Why did we doubt Google would build a winner?
YouTube Integration
If you have a YouTube channel or have thought about it, take advantage of its easy posting to Google+. Establishing yourself on YouTube or Google+ will help you reach a wider audience when you use them in conjunction.
When you share a YouTube video to Google+, users can view the video within Google+. Any comments on that Google+ share show up as comments on your YouTube video. Take advantage of this integration ability!
Use Hangouts
Webinars are a powerful tool for building email lists, monetization and a growing audience. Webinar software, however, can be clunky and expensive but webinars are considered one of the top ways to cement a loyal following. Google+ has an easy alternative.
Hangouts On Air provides a free video broadcasting service that lets you stream a live feed to your YouTube channel for recording. According to Stephan Hovnanian, using Hangouts On Air drastically increases your brand’s reach.
If you’re looking to build your own Hangouts On Air audience, visit HOAShows and submit your hangout to the directory. HOAShows is one of the more popular and most updated Hangouts On Air directories. From there, you can also find other great examples of Hangouts!
Share More and Monetize Easily
With Google Drive and their superior cloud-based storage, you can share an incredible amount of information with your Google+ audience, including slideshows of information and presentations, PDFs and even password-protected documents (which you can monetize for ebooks, whitepapers and other written digital information.
Forget Photo Storage Sites
If you are a Googlephile, then you should want everything at your fingertips, so dump Flickr and Photobucket and store your photos and images on Google+. Uploaded images can be highlighted, enhanced and easily shared.
Of course, being a Googlephile, you already know you can control, add, delete or anything else right from your mobile device. Another point for Google+!
Share Great Content — Extend Your Reach
Sure, you can share your blog posts to Google+ but did you know you can share Google+ posts to your blog? Yes! The embed feature will let you increase the life of your content. Once it passes too far “below the fold” of Google+ news feeds, you can extend the content on your blog. Of course, other people can embed your article on their blog as well!
If your followers are logged into their Google+ accounts, any +1s, shares or comments will show up on both your blog and your Google+ content.
Make Animations and Slideshows
Viewers love videos. Written content is losing out, so how can Google+ help you create videos?
Google+’s Auto Awesome feature lets you create animated videos with photos, videos or both. It’s a really cool effect and has endless possibilities for video-minded marketers.
To create your video using Auto Awesome on Google+, you’ll need to download the Google+ app for your smartphone and make sure you have the correct settings enabled. Go to Settings > Camera Settings and turn on Auto Backup, Auto Awesome and Auto Enhance. After uploading your images to Google+, wait a few minutes and then check your photo album to make sure all of the photos have been successfully uploaded. Google+ will automatically make the video.
Check out this helpful tutorial…
Create an Impressive Image Gallery
Google+ is different from Facebook and other social sharing sites. It doesn’t auto-crop your images or require you to resize them before posting. The result is a gallery of full images, which will engage followers and is great for portfolios for freelance creatives and businesses that want to show their products in the best light.
Maximize Your Content Formatting
LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook don’t let you format your post content with eye-catching type formatting. That means you can’t draw the reader’s attention to important parts of your posts.
Google+ allows you to add simple variables such as “*” for bold and “_” for italics to grab the attention of readers who scan articles to see if it will interest them.
Hashtag Heaven
Just like Twitter and Instagram, hashtags can have a big impact on reaching a targeted audience on Google+. The Explore feature uses hashtags to help Google+ users quickly find and join hot topics, which is where your content will be. Facebook does use hashtags but if you have your privacy settings to only friend, then the general Facebook public won’t see hashtaged content.
Circles Target Your Audience
At first, some people were against the idea of anyone being able to see your content without your permission, as with Facebook but Google+ Circles allows you to place your targeted audience into one circle for targeted email marketing (although many experts say you should get followers permission first).
To distribute permission-based, targeted traffic to your posts, just include the “circle” in the “also send email to… “ button when posting new content. Again, some people think this is bad Google+ manners unless you have an opt-in list. Instead, try posting in one of Google+’s groups.
If you want to find more targeted people to add to your circle(s) Circlecount provides Google + statistics. You can view standard statistics provided and run various searches by user, location and/or keyword to find details of Google + users.
Share From Google+ to Other Social Media Platforms
Friends+Me has the incredible ability to automatically share content from Google+ to other social networks. By checking your Google+ business page and/or personal profile at regular interval, new posts are found and reposted to any social networks you’ve linked to Friends+Me.
Friends+Me has some excellent configuration options but you’ll need to spend some time setting them up with the learning curve. Once that’s done, Friends+Me is a great time-saver to share your Google+ updates across multiple social platforms.
Aside from the links available, you can integrate bit.ly tracking links. You can share content using either the Friends+Me web address shortener or you can use bit.ly. Both link shorteners let you track how your audience responds to your linked content but why not just stick with the geniuses at Google and make Google+ your home base?
The most incredible advantage of Friends+Me is that you can schedule each platform to share your Google+ updates at different times. With this tool, you can post to different platforms when it’s the best time for the most share possibilities.
Check Your Posting Times
Every social media platform has optimum times for posting, so to get the maximum benefit from posting across any of the social networks you need to work out the timing to the very moment your audience is online and the most receptive.
Timing+ analyses your last 100 posts on Google Plus to identify the best time to post. Just login to your Google + account and Timing+ analyses your posts.
Easy Google+ Analytics
Steady Demand is a Google+ audit and analytics tool. The audit function is free — the analytics tool (for business pages) is a premium paid service.
To use the Free Audit Tool, go to Steady Demand and click on Launch Tool to reach the audit page. Enter your Google+ brand page URL and click TEST. The results will show you an complete overview of what’s working on your page… and what’s not. Remember, you can always delete and report a reworked piece of content if it’s doing poorly.
Learn Google+ Success From Others
Allmyplus allows you to search for a particular user on Google + and display detailed information on that user. Information, such as the posts they made, when they made them, the interactions they had and much more will be available. Picking a popular Google + user in your niche will help you understand how they grow their following.
Of course, you can also get first hand information about your competitors and view their entire activity log. It’s a great way to see how your competitors post are doing in comparison to yours and adjust your content for maximum success.
Aggregating Your Google+ into and RSS Feed
When you are on a Google + profile have a look at the web address. Copy the numbers displayed within this web address and paste into MyGplusFeed in yahoo pipes. Underneath this you will see options for adding to an RSS feed, for example Google reader.
When you open up your reader application you will see the latest posts from the Google + accounts that you added to your RSS feed.
Get Rid of Inactive Followers
Circloscope, as the name suggests, is a “circle” management tool. Circloscope helps by allowing you to remove inactive users, un-circle people who do not circle you back and a lot of other management functions. It gives you complete information and analysis of your circles, followers, people with whom you engage. Cutting out inactive followers will cut your quantity but give you better quality for your posts.
More Google+ Resources
3rd Party Management Tools for Google+ Pages
Google My Business: New Tools for Small Business Owners
The Quick-Start Guide to Google+
Google Adds GIF & Collage Creation Tools to Its Google+ Android App
*WebHostingGeeks does not support or sponsor any products or services mentioned in this article. The items shared are provided for information only.
Top Image ©GL Stock Images
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