One of the ways I use to increase my website’s search engine rankings is using guest posts. Guest posting is the process of writing and publishing an article on someone else’s blog. You are not part of the team and often just posting occasionally to share your knowledge on certain topics. I have a blog on my website where I share useful information with people. I also contribute to external blogs and I would link back to related articles on my own blog. This method allows you to build backlinks while contributing to other people’s blogs. There are 3 ways that guest posting can help increase your website’s traffic:

Search Engine Rankings

This is the first and most obvious way; posting guest posts on other people’s blogs and linking back to your blog’s content would build backlinks for your website which will improve your search engine rankings. Organic traffic (traffic from search engines) is one of the best ways to generate traffic because you only need to put in the work once and you will constantly get traffic.

Build relationships with other blogs

Other blogs require content and if you can contribute something useful to their blog, they don’t mind helping out your blog as well. This is the same as networking with other people. You are building relationships with other bloggers and they will be able to help you build an online presence. A large amount of online conversations come from bloggers, especially on social media like Facebook and Twitter. By becoming friends with these bloggers, you are effectively growing your influence in the social media world and this will help your own website grow.

Interacting with new people

Guest posting introduces you to new people because you are posting on established community and you will be able to interact with their audiences. For large blogs, it is common for the audience to leave blog comments about the topic and you will be able to interact with these people who may end up becoming fans of your own blog. Try to add value to the discuss and interact with these people and you will see a positive return on investment. However, do not try to sell your products and if you do promote your products, make it natural. Only mention it in your content if its related to the topic or leave a link in your biography. You don’t want to annoy other people because this will make you famous for the wrong reasons.

The important thing for guest posting is linking to relevant content. I allow other people to make guest posts on my website as well as I want new perspectives on topics, and this gives my blog more engaging content which will benefit both my blog and the guest posters. At the end of the day, if you add value to other people’s blog, it will benefit you too.

With so many inspirational stories from people who started a blog and became rich and famous in no-time, it’s only natural to want to do the same thing. Sadly, where there are dozens of stories about success, there are thousands of stories about failure. How do you make sure that your blogging experience is a pleasant one, with a minimum amount of stress and fear? Follow these tips, and you’ll see that starting a blog can be a fun and exciting process.    

1. Have an idea    

It’s not enough to simply want to start a blog. This is a great first step but you also should have a topic to write about. First, it should be something you’re interested in. You wouldn’t want to force yourself to produce at least a few lines every time you decide to write a post, would you?  Secondly, it should be something other people can be interested in, too. Ask yourself, are there people who’re just as passionate about this as you are? Of course, your style of writing can be so fascinating that it will make your readers interested in anything. Still, it helps to know from the start that you’ll write about something people are concerned about.    

2. Choose a blogging platform    

Now that you know what you’ll share with your audience, you need to figure out where you’re going to do that. There are many platforms out there; most bloggers, however, recommend going for WordPress. It’s very easy to use, it has a lot of layouts that you can use, your readers will be able to interact with you without having any difficulties, and these are just three of its many advantages.  At this stage, you’ll also need to choose between a free platform and hosting. A free blog sounds tempting but it won’t allow you to create your personal domain name, you’ll have many limitations when it comes to uploading your content and, most importantly, you won’t even own your blog. It sounds weird but everything you write will belong to the owner of the platform you’re using, and they might decide to delete your blog if they don’t like it. That’s not something you want to happen, so it’s best to go for self-hosting.    

3. Think of a catchy domain name   

 Remember that a domain name will be your blog’s address on the internet, so think carefully when you’re choosing it. Let the name be something personal, relevant to your topic, but also memorable. Obviously, it has to be completely original and not owned by anyone else. It can be very tricky to come up with a great name but don’t go with the first idea that jumps into your head. Keep brainstorming, and you’ll find what you’re looking for.    

4. Design your blog    

It’s crucial to have interesting content on your blog, but a good design plays a big role as well. Having a great design is the first step towards attracting a new audience when you’re just starting. It should reflect your personality and go well with the blog’s main topic. It also should be easy to navigate because if it isn’t, people aren’t very likely to stay on your blog.    

5. Don’t go into blogging for the money    

This is arguably the most important tip. If you start a blog focusing exclusively on the money that you’ll earn, you probably won’t be able to enjoy this process that much. You’ll constantly be under a lot of stress because you aren’t making any money or aren’t making enough. Go into blogging because you have something you want to share with the world; because there’s a topic that you’re really interested in, and you think that others might be interested to hear you talk about it. It’s ironic but, having this philosophy, you’ll start earning more money more quickly. And you’ll have so much fun while you’re writing posts and interacting with your audience that money won’t be your primary goal.

Following these tips will help you build a successful blog but if you still have any questions about starting a blog, leave us a comment below and we are happy to help you.

You may be very happy when someone contacts you on your website requesting for a quote for your Web Design service with a budget of $5,000 to $10,000. This shows that your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts has paid off. However, you should be very careful when random people contact you online requesting for your services. We recently received multiple Web Design requests that looks very odd and we knew that something wasn’t quite right. We all know that there are lots of online scams, so we need to be very careful when selling services online. As an international Web Design company, we serve customers from all around the world and it can sometimes difficult to differentiate between legitimate customers and scammers, when you can’t meet up with them due to location limitations. In this article, we will provide you with tips on how to identify potential scammers who may request your services.

How the Scam works?

These scams are called the Third-Party Transfer Scam, also known as the Payment Reversal Scam. Before we let you know how the scam works, we would like you to take a look at the first email we received from the scammer:

“My wife has small scale business which i want to turn into large scale business now it located in MI and the company is based on importing and exporting of Agriculture products such as Kola Nut, Gacillia Nut and Cocoa so i need a best of the best layout design for it. Can you handle that for me ?. so i need you to check out this site but i need something more perfect than this if its possible .https://agroamerica.com/en/…. the site would only be informational, so i need you to give me an estimate based on the site i gave you to check out, the estimate should include hosting and i want the same page as the site i gave you to check out and i have a private project consultant, he has the text content and the logos for the site.

Note:

1. She want the same number of pages with the example site i gave you to check excluding videos and blogs.

2. She want only English language

3. She doesn’t have a domain yet but she want the domain name as yourtopfarmproduce.com

4. you will be updating the site for my wife.

5. The private project consultant is also working on how to provide the images, logos and content for the site.

6. Her budget is $5000 to $10000”

Firstly, you can already see a few odd things about this email. The first thing is this person claims to be from MI, I am assuming Michigan, USA? However, his English is very poor, has bad grammar and it doesn’t sound like someone from USA. Interestingly, we were on Google Analytics when he used our contact form and we found out that this person was actually from Nigeria. When we looked at their name online, there was actually someone with the same name from Michigan, USA so they are pretending to be someone else. For privacy reasons, we won’t mention names in this article.

Another weird thing is that all they want is to copy another website and there are very little requirements. The reason is because they want to send you the money quickly so they are giving you very basic requirements.

So now lets go into how the scam works. As you can see with the scammer, he has a very large budget and also a private consultant. The private consultant is actually the scammer himself. When you give him a quote, he will just accept your quote and then he will pay you more than your quoted amount. He will then make up very lame excuses like he is too busy to pay his private consultant so he sends you extra money so that you can transfer the money to the private consultant on behalf of him. The truth is that the scammer is using a stolen credit card to pay you so when the actual owner of the credit card requests a chargeback, they will take back all the money that the scammer paid for the quote and you ended up losing money equivalent to the private consultant’s charge.

How to spot and prevent these scams?

Here are some tips to help you spot and prevent these scams:

Use Contact Form: We use WordPress’s Contact Form 7 on our website and one feature that we use is the tracking of the sender’s IP address. As I mentioned earlier, the scammer was pretending to be someone from the United States but they were located in Nigeria. Check their IP address to see if they are actually from the location they claim to be in. If you are collecting IP addresses, make sure that you are GDPR compliant.

Poor English: Maybe they are a legitimate customer and English is not their first language but I would be a little bit more careful if they English is poor, especially if they claim to be from an English speaking country.

Google their message: If you are unsure if they are a legitimate customer, google their message. A lot of scammers are using the same template message to request web designs. If you find a similar message online, do not reply to their message.

Bank Transfer: Chargeback scams are very common for PayPal and Credit Card payments but you cannot request chargebacks from bank transfers so receiving payment using bank transfer is one way of preventing these scams. If you are a CryptoCurrency fan like us, you can also accept that as a form of payment as there are also no chargebacks available.

Multiple Messages: A few weeks after our Agriculture product web design request, we received another one:

“I just open a new elementary school which I run now and I need a website for my school to grow, So I need you to go through this example link site: https://www.birmingham.k12.mi.us/beverly, but I need something more perfect than this if possible, I will like you to get back to me with an estimate and the estimate should include hosting and I want you to understand I want the same page as the example site I gave you to check and I want only English language and I want you to know you will be updating the site for me. I want the site up and running before end of November and also I don’t have a domain name yet and i will prefer: Marilynhyneselementerysch.net. My budget is $5000-12000 for the web design, I have a private project consultant, she has the text content and the logos for the site with the image artwork, so please go ahead and check the example website and get back to me with an estimate cost also I will like to know if you are the owner or the manager and do you accept credit card and check as payment. Thank you”

Again, there is a high budget and another private consultant. Interestingly, this time, they message us the same message twice within 3 hours. If they send the same message multiple times then it must be a scam.

Never Pay a third party on behalf of a client: Never ever pay a third party on behalf of a client. If the client sends you extra money for you to pay on behalf of them, reject the request and refund them the extra money. If they make a fuss about it, refund them in full and reject the project. It is not worth taking the risk.

We hope that this article can help you prevent being victims of scams. These scammers are not just targeting web designers but also graphics designers and other digital agencies so be very careful! Thankfully, we didn’t fall into this trap as we knew something was very odd since receiving the first email. If you receive similar emails, feel free to post them in the comments below as this can help other people identify these scams.