1. Copy.ai

The post 20 Best AI Writing Apps first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

14 novembre 2022/par Service comm.

How to Sell on Pinterest Without a Website

You don’t need an online shop to sell on Pinterest, but owning one can give you the upper hand.

The only problem is that managing an eCommerce store is expensive.

On the other hand, selling on Pinterest has a low entry barrier. So it’s an excellent place to start even if you can’t afford a website.

Plus, Pinterest has many engaged users who are happy to buy your product, craft or offer. This is the only social media network where the most significant users hold the most disposable income in America.

This guide shows you how to sell to these top spenders on Pinterest, whether you own a website or not.

What Pinterest Brings to the Table
Selling On Pinterest Without a Website
Organize Your Products into Boards
Publish Your Products as Pins
Promote Pins on Pinterest
Go Beyond Pinterest
Blog on Medium
Selling On Pinterest With a Website
Set up Your Online Store
Add Your Product Catalog
Create Rich Pins
Stay Organized With Product Groups
Prompt With Shopping Ads
Wrapping It Up

What Pinterest Brings to the Table

Pinterest is not just a visual discovery engine. The social network brings more to the table.

With 433 million monthly active users and over one billion web visits in August 2022, the platform offers businesses new opportunities to reach highly engaged audiences.

Data Source: SimilarWeb

Also, data shows that about 38% of pinners have a college education, whereas Snapchat is 20%, Twitter is 32%, and Reddit stands at 15%, offering you access to a sophisticated market.

The social network enables about two billion monthly searches.

The company’s data revealed that 97% of the searches are unbranded, providing a level playing ground for all competing brands. However, for context, 42% of Google search queries are with branded keywords, meaning many searchers already have a brand in mind before searching.

Also, 80% of pinners said they discovered new products or brands on Pinterest, and 85% buy things they’ve seen from brands. Additionally, pinners are 55% more likely to buy a product after seeing a visual on Pinterest compared to other platforms.

The platform is not all talk and no action.

For instance, nearly nine in ten weekly pinners make buying decisions on Pinterest, and 50% of users have bought after seeing a Promoted Pin.

Pinterest might not be as popular and imposing as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok, but the user engagement shows the platform can hold its ground against some perennial favorites.

Its numbers are impressive, making Pinterest too good to pass up.

Selling On Pinterest Without a Website

You can sell on Pinterest without a website.

It’s an excellent option for affiliate marketers. A Pinterest business account will work best since it lets you monitor analytics and run ads. You might also need a Facebook page and a Medium account to further your marketing.

When you’re ready, here’s how to start selling on Pinterest without a website.

Organize Your Products into Boards

Pinterest Board is a collection of pins.

It lets you stay organized. You can create different boards to categorize your products. For example, having boards for televisions, sound systems, video players, and other products in your catalog will make sense if you deal in electronics. You can further classify the boards into sections, like LG, Samsung, and Sony.

Boards make it easy for shoppers to find your products.

To create one, log in to your profile and click the Saved tab.

Click the + icon to reveal a drop-down menu, then select Board from the options.

Enter the product category in the name field to create the Board.

Open the newly created Board, click the ellipsis icon (the three horizontal dots), then the Edit board option to type a befitting description for the Board.

Use the Organize option to create and organize the pins into sections.

Publish Your Products as Pins

Create visually engaging pins to display your products.

One exciting thing about Pinterest is that you can create unlimited pins for the same product using different visuals, titles, and descriptions. And the more pins you create, the greater your chances of increasing your visibility and CTR.

The mistake most brands make is creating a single pin for a product and leaving the rest to fate.

But it doesn’t work that way.

As a visual discovery engine, you’ll need to create a lot of pins to stand out and hold your ground on Pinterest. It also lets you cover most of the keywords pinners use to discover products on the platform, stretching your visibility further.

To create pins, head to your profile and select Create Pin from the Create drop-down to begin.

On the next page, select the Board you wish to have the Pin on from the drop-down, then enter the Pin’s title. Of course. Use the keywords people are likely to search for to target Pinterest searchers.

You can see in this Pin that Cicinia, an online retailer of bridal dresses and accessories, uses searchable keywords in the title. But the Pin doesn’t have a description. Don’t make the same mistake.

Write a compelling description to entice users to click your link.

You can search your keywords on Google to see what other brands have as their descriptions if you don’t know what to write. Then, add a discount code to the description if you have any. It supports up to 500 characters, so make the most of it.

Finally, upload your visuals, add your alt text describing the visual you uploaded, then include the destination link, in this case, your affiliate link, and publish the Pin.

Repeat this step for the rest of your products.

Promote Pins on Pinterest

Pinterest comes with a built-in ad manager.

With this tool, you can promote your pins to the perfect audience. It lets you target people based on demographics like age, gender, and location. You may also run campaigns based on their interests or search terms.

Additionally, Pinterest allows advertisers to upload their customer lists for custom targeting. However, it works best for sellers that own a website.

Running ads means you don’t have to compete with the over 240 billion pins for attention. Instead, promoted pins put you on the spot and in front of the right people.

Dimniko, an online advertising agency, helped a client sell over 22,500 products with Pinterest ad campaigns, generating up to 11-times ROAS.

The brand pivoted to Pinterest after experiencing slow sales from other channels. According to them, the client spent around $15,000 daily on Facebook ads, generating $3 million monthly in Shopify; that’s $6 for every $1 spent on ads.

But with Pinterest, they generated $1.29 million with $116,000—$11.12 per $1.

Dimniko advised Pinterest advertisers to kill assets that didn’t meet the KPI in the first seven days and scale the budget of the top performers by 20% every two to three days.

They admitted that half of their sales were due to their retargeting strategy and suggested that new advertisers should start with their existing buyers and ‘actalikes.’

Go Beyond Pinterest

Several opportunities exist for you outside Pinterest.

Depending solely on the channel to reach prospects is a considerable risk. The platform only controls about 450 million of the estimated 4.7 billion global social media users, so there are always more people to reach.

You can do this organically by publicly sharing your pins or boards using trending and relevant Twitter and TikTok hashtags. Also, brands like Bergdorf Goodman use Facebook to promote their pins.

Like them, you can post your pins’ links as updates on your Facebook page.

Promote the post to reach more people.

Blog on Medium

Nearly 43% of global internet-enabled persons use ad blockers, meaning there’s little future for intrusive marketing.

So, content marketing is a no-brainer.

It lets you reach prospects through organic search when they are most likely to purchase. Also, creating consistent, valuable, and engaging content helps you answer customers’ questions, build trust, and influence buying decisions.

Studies found that content marketing generates three times more leads than traditional marketing channels. Also, brands that create content have a six times higher conversion rate than non-adopters.

Thankfully, you don’t need a website for content marketing with Medium. It’s a free and intuitive online publishing platform that lets anyone create, share and discover content.

Sign up on the platform. Research keywords and create quality content with them. You can repurpose the article into a video with tools like Lumen5.com and share it on YouTube.

Selling On Pinterest With a Website

A website puts your Pinterest marketing on steroids.

At least you won’t have to upload your products manually. Instead, the platform can automatically pull your products from your online store to Pinterest and update your catalog regularly. It also lets you retarget non-converters and upsell existing buyers, improving conversion and customer lifetime value.

Follow these steps to connect your website to Pinterest and sell on the platform.

Set Up Your Online Store

Create an online store if you don’t have one yet.

Pinterest currently supports Shopify and WooCommerce stores and online shops that can integrate with the following:

Lengow
ChannelAdvisor
GoDataFeed
Feedonomics
Products

Next, add the website to your Pinterest business account to claim ownership. Verifying your site allows you to access analytics for the pins you publish from your website and pins other users created from your site and get a verified merchant tag.

You can claim your website by adding a DNS TXT record to your domain host, uploading an HTML file to your website’s web server, or adding an HTML tag to your website code.

Add Your Product Catalog

Upload your catalogs to start selling on the platform.

Catalogs are a feed ingestion tool that lets you connect your eCommerce shop to your Pinterest store. The file lists all your available products and their corresponding attributes, creating a data source for the Pinterest store.

Pinterest ingests the data source every 24 hours to create your product Pins and process up to 20 million products per account. You’ll need to contact Pinterest support if you have more than that number of products.

You can add up to 20 data sources to promote your products across different markets, languages, and currencies. However, uploading your data sources to Pinterest is only available in selected countries. If you’re eligible, the steps here can get you started.

Alternatively, you may use third-party integrations like Shopify’s Pinterest app and Pinterest for WooCommerce plugin to get your products on Pinterest. Tools like Lengow, ChannelAdvisor, GoDataFeed, Feedonomics, and Productsup can also streamline your Pinterest data ingestion.

Create Rich Pins

Rich Pin is a step up for Pinterest pins.

They have extra information like price, product availability, description, and product link, providing pinners with rich shopping experiences. Rich pins encourage higher click-through rates, enabling you to sell more. They also make better ads.

With rich Pins, you don’t need to update your product Pins manually whenever the need arises. Instead, they update automatically each time you change your product titles, description, price, or availability.

Another fantastic thing is that rich Pins require only a one-time, easy setup. Pinterest will convert all your product Pins to rich Pins if you enable the feature for your account, and new Pins will appear as rich Pins.

Shopify natively supports Pinterest product-rich Pins, so it doesn’t require manual setup. Open any product page, copy the link and append .oembed to the URL, then validate with the Pinterest Rich Pins Validator.

If your store runs on WooCommerce, install the Yoast SEO plugin and enable Open Graph in the plugin setting. Next, copy any of your product URLs and validate. It’s that easy.

However, you’ll have to roll up your sleeves for custom sites.

It requires you to manually add rich metadata to the header of all your product pages. Pinterest supports Schema.org properties. Use any product schema generator like Merkel Schema Markup Generator to generate the JSON-LD code for each product page.

Next, use Google Tag Manager to add the code to the page’s HTML.

To begin, log in to your account and select Add a new tag under the “New Tag” section.

Choose a name for your tag, then select Custom HTML as the tag type.

Scroll down to Triggering to choose a trigger, then click the + icon.

Name your trigger and select Page View as the trigger type. Next, choose Some Page Views under the “This trigger fires on” section.

Specify your trigger condition, save and then publish your tag.

Repeat the steps for all your product pages, then validate any URLs to apply for rich Pins.

Stay Organized With Product Groups

Product groups help you manage your inventory.

It also lets you promote a product category instead of individual Pins. You can create a product group manually or leave that for Pinterest to handle if you use Shopify. The app can automatically sync your Shopify collections to create relevant Pinterest product groups.

The auto-created product groups include All Products, Top Sellers, Back In Stock, Best Deals, New Arrivals, and Most Popular.

You can add others manually if you need different product groups like brand, custom label, product type, category, or gender. First, ensure the fields exist in your data source and name the products based on your chosen filters.

Follow these steps to create a product group:

First, log in to your Pinterest business account from your desktop.
Click Ads on the top menu and select Catalogs.
Select View product groups, then Create product group.
Apply filters to select the products for the group
Go to the next page and enter a name for the product group.

Prompt With Shopping Ads

A website lets you take your Pinterest ad campaigns to a new level.

For instance, you can retarget non-converting shoppers to recover lost sales or upsell active buyers to improve their lifetime value. You may also create an act alike (equivalent to Facebook’s lookalike) audience to reach your ideal prospects, eliminating guesses from your targeting.

However, the first is to install the Pinterest tracking tag.

It’s a code snippet that lets Pinterest track your store visitors and their actions while on your site. The code helps you measure your campaign performance, optimize your conversion, build a targeting audience and become a verified merchant.

To install the tag, log in to your Pinterest ads account, click the Ads tab on the top menu, select conversion from the drop-down, and follow the rest of the instructions to complete the process.

Create your audience and run shopping and personalized collections ads to promote your products. Also, launch dynamic retargeting campaigns to upsell buyers and retarget shoppers that abandoned their carts. Run these campaigns concurrently for the best results. This resource can guide you in setting up high-converting Pinterest ads.

Also, don’t forget to promote your store outside Pinterest for maximum reach.

Wrapping It Up

So you don’t need to own a website to sell on Pinterest.

With just an affiliate link, you can get started on the platform. That might even change soon. The social network is piloting a feature that lets shoppers checkout and pay for items on Pinterest so that they don’t have to leave the app to complete their purchases.

The in-app checkout will probably redefine social commerce in the coming years, and getting onboard Pinterest and setting up your stores now means you’ll always be ready for the mad rush.

Thankfully, the tips in this article can get you started.

Featured image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

The post How to Sell on Pinterest Without a Website first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

9 novembre 2022/par Service comm.

15 Best Podcast Hosting Platforms

Podcasts are on the rise. In 2020 consumption of podcasts reached 332.2 million internet users, and this number grew to 383.7 in 2021. And it is increasing steadily – with the number of listeners slated to reach about 509.4 in 2024.

Podcasts have moved from a niche market of discussants in their parent’s basements to being spread across the globe into everyone’s earsets.

However, it’s more complex than just creating a decent show and uploading it. First, your website needs to be able to handle the traffic, lest you want your listeners attempting to sign up for your newsletter on a frisbee. But where does one start?

And that’s where podcast hosting sites come into the picture!

You need a podcast hosting service to publish your podcast episodes online and make them available to your audience. Podcasts are called interactive audio content for a reason. Your podcast listeners can get in touch with you through the comments section, emailing you their feedback, sharing your episodes on social media, and more.

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to become a mega-star or want to solidify your brand; knowing which podcast hosting platform to use is essential to the podcasting process.

In today’s article, we have covered the 15 best podcasting sites. So whether you are looking for free or paid podcast hosting sites, we have covered everything in detail.

1. Podbean

Podbean is a podcast hosting and monetizing platform that lets you publish your podcasts in minutes. Just set up some basic information about your podcast – and you are set to publish your first episode on Podbean. With Podbean’s intuitive user interface, getting started with the service is as easy as pie!

In the above image, you can see how Podbean will ask you to set up your podcast. Podbean makes it easy to create a professional-looking site from title and description to category and podcast logo. Once you upload your episode, you can also pick a theme for your site.

As you see in the below image, you can customize its fonts and colors and test the audio and appearance before it launches.

Podcasts can also be listened to on Apple, Google, Shopify, and other podcast apps. If you want to embed your podcast on your website or blogs, Podbeans Embeddable Players will make that easy for you. The Embeddable player is also customizable and lets you add branded elements, making the design professional.

You can even connect your social media handle with your Podbean account to directly share podcasts on your social pages.

It doesn’t skimp on statistics, either. Podbean statistics will give you all the insights you need to know about your podcast’s audience, including the top 10 episodes, how many downloads there are at a particular time, where your customers come from, and user retention data.

All in all, it’s a great option to get started with your podcasting journey. However, one downside is that the podcast website isn’t as polished as some podcasters might prefer.

Other key features include

You can host audio and video files without limits on storage and bandwidth.
You can personalize your podcast with your own domain.
You can also schedule your podcast episode in advance.
Once you publish your podcast, users can access it on Alexa devices.
Its Mailchimp integration will help you collect emails for future distribution.
You can monetize your podcast using ads.
Live stream your podcast with a remote co-host or guest.

Pros

They offer a free plan, which provides iPhone and Android app players with 100GB of monthly bandwidth and their own podcast site.
Even though the interface is very intuitive, the resources in their knowledge base will be helpful to beginners.

Cons

You can’t host video podcasts unless you are on their Plus & Business plans.
The podcasting website should be more professional.

Pricing

It starts at $9/month for unlimited storage space, unmetered bandwidth, distribution on significant podcast apps, customizable themes, and more.

2. Buzzsprout

Buzzsprout is a podcasting platform that provides hosting, promotion, and analytics solutions. You can directly distribute your podcast on Google, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Alexa, Overcast, and more through Buzzsprout.

You can start with easy and free learning material provided by Buzzsprout, including podcasting guides, courses, video tutorials, industry podcasts, and community.

It’s also worth noting that Professional-sounding podcasts don’t come easy. That’s why Buzzsprout’s MagicMastering tool is available for you to use. It’s an audio filter that sweetens your podcast and optimizes it for the best industry standards.

That said, the Magic Mastering feature is only available with the pricier plans, so you’ll have to shell out more money for it.

You don’t have to worry about optimizing your episodes yourself either because Buzzsprout optimizes all episodes in terms of file type, bitrates, ID3 tags, etc.

The best part is that it has dynamic content flexibility, letting you decide whether audio should go at the beginning or end of an episode. It does everything to make your podcast search engine friendly, including transcribing each episode for people with hearing disabilities.

Buzzsprout’s users also usually have good things to say about the platform.

For example, Neil Thacker, founder of Casual Car Guide, who uses Buzzsprout himself, is a big fan of the platform.

Thacker says,

“I have been lucky enough to host a few different podcasts in various industries. Every time, my hosting platform of choice is Buzzsprout. They just get it. Buzzsprout makes it super easy to publish and syndicate your podcast episodes across various mainstream streaming platforms and directories.

If you need a website for your podcast, Buzzsprout gives you the tools to create one. Simply pick a domain and host your podcast there for the world to see. It’s quick and easy to set up and won’t cost you the earth. Go, Buzzsprout!”

Other key features include

It offers a customizable podcast player that lets you skip to the next track or move backward. You can also share your episode on social media and make the player match your website’s branding.
One account can hold multiple podcasts and team members.
You can find all the necessary help through its YouTube channel and Facebook community.
It integrates with tools such as Chartable, Podtrac, Hindenburg, and more.
It also offers Visual Soundbites to match your brand colors.

Pros

It offers competitive pricing and features.
Clean & easy-to-use UI.
Plenty of learning resources.
Free version for 90 days.

Cons

Limited upload time, even with paid plans.
Your episodes will be hosted only for 90 days with the basic plan.
The basic plan does not include Magic Mastering.

Pricing

Starts at $12/month for 3 hours of upload, advanced statistics, unlimited storage, and more.

3. Simplecast

Simplecast is the all-in-one solution for your podcasting needs – including podcast publishing, distribution, analytics, and sharing. Whether you’re a large or small business, it also has similar tool access for all sizes of companies.

Your podcast can be set up anywhere, including Shopify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, and other podcast directories. Simplecast gets your podcast on these directories and apps as soon as you publish any episode and then automatically sends it to your listeners.

Then it will provide you with advanced analytics to show how many listeners you have, how many downloads you get, your listeners’ locations, and more. See below for a visual representation of how this works:

It also has a website. That’s right; you’ll get your own website.

This website automatically updates as you publish new episodes and is customizable, mobile-friendly, search engine optimized, and Google Podcast optimized. You can even use your own domain names.

In addition, it allows the user to manage multiple shows in a single account. The image below will show you what the Podcast Dashboard looks like. It displays the number of episodes for each show and other information, such as role and owner.

Other key features include

Its audio analytics come in easy-to-understand visuals and show you different trends – for example, which device listeners use to listen to your podcasts.
Simplecast’s framework is a rock-solid, no-nonsense platform that keeps your stream playing 24/7.
You can import your existing podcast from any platform with just a few clicks.
You can use its players to embed your podcasts on your web.

Pros

All of its plans offer unlimited uploads and storage.

Cons

It does not offer a free version.
I see users getting frustrated with the limited customization options for website themes.

Pricing

It starts at $15/month for two seats, unlimited storage and uploads, basic analytics, a custom domain, a customizable website, and more.

4. Anchor.fm

Anchor is one of the – if not the best free podcast hosting services by Spotify that takes care of creation, distribution, monetization, analytics, and more.

Creating Music+talk episodes on Anchor is as easy as pie. Choose any song from Spotify’s library, place it in your episode builder, add an audio file that you wish to go with the music file, and then submit your episode for review.

Some of the best ways to make money from your podcast are by building an audience and monetizing that audience. And with Anchor, you can monetize in various ways, including by adding paid advertisements to your podcast or asking for donations from listeners.

In addition, the IAB 2.0-certified metrics from Spotify let you measure your podcast’s performance in detail. For example, you can see where listeners are abandoning you on the track and adjust accordingly by adding content that really matters to them. You can also see what type of listeners interact with your podcasts – how old they are, what gender they identify with, and more.

Luciano Colos, founder and CEO of PitchGrade, who uses Anchor for his own podcast, talks about his experience with the platform.

He believes that the end-to-end control of the whole process is what makes Anchor.fm unique.

Colos further shares,

“Even if you’re not a technical person, the interface is so simple that you’ll be able to learn it in minutes. I’ve been using it since the day I started my podcast, and I’m so glad I found it. It’s also worth mentioning that the support on the platform is great. If you ever have a question, you can contact the staff on their Discord channel and will get an answer within minutes.”

Other key features include

All the content rights are yours.
You can distribute your podcast to Google, Apple, Pocket Casts, Spotify, and more.
You can directly record from your phone, tablet, or computer and sync them to all devices.
You can create both audio and video podcasts.
The episode builder has easy-to-visualize building blocks.

Pros

Anchor offers free and unlimited hosting in all plans.
Easy monetization options, that too with ads in your own voice.
You can distribute your podcast to all major podcasting platforms.

Cons

You can host only one podcast per account.
Interview features on phone hosting are limited.
Customer support is limited to online resources.

Pricing

It’s a free platform.

5. SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a platform for both streaming audio and hosting podcasts. Majorly, it’s a popular music-sharing platform, but it also offers a robust podcast-hosting platform used by over 75 million people worldwide.

Creating a SoundCloud profile is also as simple as pie. You can personalize your profile with your own username, profile URL, custom profile image, and header.

SoundCloud is also one of the few podcast-hosting platforms that allow you to create a community around your podcasts. This is handy if you want to grow awareness about your podcast among other users.

Users can comment on specific moments of the track, and other users can see those comments when they reach that moment on the track.

The podcast hosting platform is available for Android and iOS, and you can sign up for free. Of course, there’s an affordable fee for upgrading your account to a creator account.

In addition, SoundCloud lets you distribute your tracks on various channels, including Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and more.

Then you have the SoundCloud Analytics dashboard that gives you a quick overview of the number of streams, revenue, and top tracks — but it’s not as detailed as you can get with other podcasting sites. After all, it’s a music streaming platform primarily rather than one specifically for podcasts.

There is little to no knowledge on their website for beginners, which is another disadvantage. That said, it’s pretty easy to use, so anyone without experience in podcasting can easily use the platform.

Other key features include

SoundCloud allows you to share your music on Apple Music, TikTok, Spotify, and more.
Except for the free version, SoundCloud offers unlimited upload time.
If you have collaborators in your profile, you can split the payments with them.
You can also schedule your podcast releases in advance.

Pros

It offers a free plan with 3 hours of upload time.
The hosting fee is affordable.
Listeners can comment on specific moments from your track.

Cons

Many users report that it takes a long time to load the track.

Pricing

It starts at $2.50/month for monetization, distribution, promotion, and split payment features.

6. Transistor.fm

Transistor’s like other podcasting platforms – you can create a podcast from scratch or import it from another platform. Just follow the instructions, and you’re good to go.

Once your podcast is recorded and ready to go, you can invite multiple members to contribute. Its analytics software provides clean visuals and robust insights into listener trends.

For instance, the below image is an overview of the podcast performance:

Now observe that the amount of data and clear visuals make this less overwhelming. As you can see, it gives you insights into average downloads per episode for the specific period, estimated subscribers, and total downloads (month-wise visual presentation).

In addition to providing one-click submissions to significant podcast platforms such as Spotify, Google, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict, and more, Transistor also offers one-click submissions to search engines like Listen Notes and The Podcast Index. Transistor is one of the few podcasting hosting platforms to provide a service like this.

Corey Haines, Founder of SwipeWell, shares his experience with the platform,

“I’ve been super happy with Transistor.fm for hosting all my podcasts. Instead of paying for each one individually, Transistor allows me to host all the podcasts I want for a single price. This made me feel free to experiment and start as many podcasts as I wanted. They also have great integrations, analytics, and sharing capabilities to embed on a website or newsletter.”

Other key features include

You can create, import, and host multiple podcasts in a single Transistor account.
You get a unique RSS feed, advanced analytics, a basic webpage, and collaborator invites for each podcast you create.
The analytics tool gives you insights like the number of plays, total plays per episode, average download, devices, and more.
It offers a podcast player that you can embed on your website, landing page, or tweet.

Pros

Multiple podcast hosting options allow you to test different podcast formats for varied groups of listeners.
You can host unlimited podcasts in one account.
It offers a free trial.

Cons

The starter plan, which is a paid one, does not include dynamic ads. It also does not allow you to automate YouTube posting.
There are plenty of resources in their knowledge base, but finding what you’re looking for is confusing.
Only the Business plan allows you to remove Transistor branding from the player.

Pricing

It starts at $19/month for unlimited podcasts, private podcasts, live customer support, a built-in podcast website, and more.

7. Libsyn

Libsyn has the tools to help you get started regardless of your level of podcasting expertise. It assists you in recording, publishing, distributing, and monetizing your podcasts.

The best part? You can host both audio and video podcasts on Libsyn.

To get started with Libsyn, you’ll have to provide a few details, including podcast title, subtitle, description, category, owner’s name & email, author, website URL, and more.

The below image shows what the Libsyn podcast settings look like:

You can also add your own artwork to your podcast. Click “Add artwork” or drag and drop the images in the upload area. Suppose you don’t have your artwork ready. In that case, you can design one on Canva – Libsyn’s integration with Canva makes creating a professional-looking podcast cover simple without any graphic design experience.

Once you are ready with everything, publish your podcast and distribute it to the platforms where your listeners could be, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play Music.

Libsyn gives you more ways to make money with your podcast, including advertising and subscriptions. For example, you can pitch to the big advertisers on Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast Marketplace or build a community of members who get exclusive access to your content.

Antreas Koutis, Administrative Manager at Financer, shares his experience with Libsyn,

“When I started podcasting on the side, I wasn’t sure which hosting platform to use. There are a lot of options out there, and it can be overwhelming to try to figure out which one is the best. After trying out a few different platforms, I found that I liked Libsyn the best.

It was easy to use and had all the features that I was looking for. I also liked the fact that they offered unlimited storage and bandwidth, which was important to me since I wanted to be able to grow my podcast without having to worry about running out of space. The only downside is that it can be a bit expensive, but overall I thought it was the best option for me.”

Other key features include

Its podcast players allow you to drag and drop your uploads, and you can create an episode from any page.
You can also publish your episodes in batches or pre-schedule them.
With Snippets, you can create a description for your podcasts just once and reuse it with every post.
It provides IAB Tech Lab Verified Stats, which means you can trust the accuracy of the data.
Get access to advanced analytics, including an interactive worldwide map, listener app analytics, demographics, and more.

Pros

Podcasting can be a cinch for anyone who starts with Libsyn’s in-depth, step-by-step guides and other valuable resources.
Its integration with Canva helps you design your artwork with ease.

Cons

The basic plan does not offer unlimited storage or uploading hours.
For advanced features, the price is quite high.

Pricing

Starts at $5/month for 3 hours of uploading, 162MB storage, stats snapshot, basic social promotion, unlimited bandwidth, ad-free website, and more.

8. Podcastics

Podcastics is a complete suite of tools for hosting, sharing, and monetizing your podcasts. The prime reason to give Podcastics a try is its 1-month free trial – no credit card required! And you don’t even need the training to use this platform. But if you need assistance, there’s plenty of help in the help section.

It takes just a few clicks to get Podcastincs up and running. The editor is clean and self-explanatory, as shown in the image below. Just follow the steps, and your podcast will be ready in minutes.

Moreover, if you already have your podcasts on the Apple Podcasts platform, you can easily import all of them into your Podcastics account in just two clicks. Simply type your podcast name in the search box and select yours from the list that appears. This will collect and save all your data, such as titles, descriptions, episodes, etc.

Podcastics is also one of the few podcast hosting platforms that allow you to host multiple podcasts with unlimited episodes under one roof.

Once your podcast is up and ready to be distributed, you can share it with the world on major listening platforms such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and more. Podcastics makes distribution so much easier by automatically creating an RSS feed for you.

Its magic link never misses redirecting your listeners to the correct platform. You can also add QR codes to your magazines or print flyers to get user subscriptions.

Other key features include

You can host multiple podcasts in one account.
It also records heat maps for you with the most and least active time during the week.
The text editor lets you insert links and lists and style your fonts in episode descriptions.
If you are using a free version, you can use your own server to upload your podcasts. Paid plans offer to host by Amazon Servers.
You can also monetize your episodes using Patreon and affiliate programs.
You can segment your podcasts into sessions and assign episode numbers.
You can schedule your podcasts for specific dates & times.

Pros

It saves your time with the duplicate episodes feature; then, you can edit a few details and post another episode in minutes.
Its description snippets eliminate the redundant task of adding a few same elements for each episode.

Cons

Although it contains so many advanced features, newbies can quickly become confused by the program for the same reason.
For the free plan, you have to use your own server.

Pricing

Starts at $8/month for worldwide distribution, easy import, unlimited episodes, private/unlisted episodes, and more.

9. Spreaker

Spreaker comes with a bundle of tools for you to create, distribute, monetize, grow an audience, and track the progress of your podcasts. You can host and monetize your podcasts with programmatic ads from big brands, such as Green Chef, Lego, Swag.com, CareerBuilder, and more.

Spreaker’s how-to guide for podcasting will get you started in no time. Once you have your podcast’s name, length, and format ready, Spreaker Studio will help you record it, add sound effects, and crop or trim your audio. Finally, add the cover art, and you are ready to publish your first podcast on Spreaker.

Martyna Inkielman, Community Manager at PhotoAiD, shares her experience with Spreaker,

“I find Spreaker the best and most reliable platform. My favorite thing about it is that it provides most of the essential features in one place – pretty much everything related to your podcast can be done on Spreaker. It’s also very intuitive, so it’s effortless to use, even for beginner podcasters.”

Martyna mostly has good things to say about Spreaker, but one thing that bothers her – it doesn’t support video podcasting, so she can’t post on YouTube with it.

Other key features include

With Spreaker, you can share your podcasts on Google Podcasts, Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio.
For monetizing, Spreaker inserts relevant ads in your podcasts no matter how new your episode is.
For analytics, you can choose the plan for the level of detail you need about your podcast interactions. From downloads to listeners’ geolocation, Spreaker shows you every statistic vital to you.
Spreaker Enterprise offers full-stack audio publishing, single-click distribution to various podcast channels, ad campaign manager, and more.

Pros

You can monetize your podcasts regardless of the size of your audience, the number of downloads, or your account age.
You can see real-time analytics of your podcasts because of their IAB Tech Lab certification.

Cons

Users have reported limited options for customer service.

Pricing

It starts at $8/month for 6-months statistics, 100-hours storage, auto-upload to Spotify, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, and more.

10. Podomatic

Podomatic allows you to build your podcasting career in four easy steps: create a free account, record and publish, submit your podcast to big podcast platforms such as Spotify, and keep repeating.

To upload media, you must first add it to Podomatic’s library of supported file formats. It supports file formats including m4a, mp3, mp4, BMP, jpg, png, mp4, m4v, and more.

Podomatic will store your audio and video files in an unpublishable section if they are larger than 350MB, lack an extension, or has an unsupported extension.

To upload a podcast, you only need to determine the title, tagline, cover art, description, category, tags, and language. Then, once published, you can start monetizing it using Patreon, Popcorn, and What For Apparel ads.

You can also get stats on your podcast, including total plays, mobile plays, embeds, downloads, visits, and more. The service goes further into analytics to show your performance over a selected period of time, the performance of individual episodes, and listeners’ graphs.

Other key features include

You can store up to 6 hours of recording (free) or 500MB of files.
It gives you 15GB of bandwidth for a month.
It also offers free tracking of your podcasts daily.

Pros

You don’t pay for your first 20 episodes.
Its premium plans are affordable.
Premium plans offer unlimited bandwidth and storage.
Be it a computer or mobile – you can record and publish high-quality episodes.

Cons

It doesn’t allow the scheduling of episodes.

Pricing

Starts at $2.49/month for 100GB bandwidth, 2GB storage, and more.

11. Blubrry

Blubrry is a podcast hosting platform where you find easy podcast migration from other platforms, live customer support, and in-depth statistics. Blurry is also ready to host your single podcast or a whole slew of them.

With Blubrry, you can get more than just a podcast hosting service. You can grow your audience and connect with listeners by using Podcast Audience Surveys. These surveys give you valuable information about your audience, allowing you to develop a more robust publishing strategy.

For instance, you can see who completed your surveys and see their entire profile with information like identification, age, employment, education, demographics, audience’s listening habits, feedback, and more.

Once you’ve got all these metrics in place, you can then use them to compare and contrast with one another to come up with a more robust publishing strategy. This is something that no other podcast hosting platform does.

Blubrry also offers a free and optional managed WordPress website – designed with all the necessary modules a podcast website needs. In addition, this site automates podcast publishing on your website by using PowerPress Plugin.

And if you’re not looking to host an entire website, Blubrry offers a podcast landing page with a quick display of the show and listen and subscription module.

Want to further know where your listeners are coming from and which device they’re using? Blubrry Stats can help you analyze all of that!

However, it’s worth noting that Blubrry’s Standard plan is so basic that you can’t even use your own domain with it. It doesn’t come with advanced statistics or additional themes and plugins either – so be prepared to buy a pricier plan if you want all of those features.

Other key features include

It allows private podcasting for secured delivery of audio and video to any device.
It comes with a podcast media kit – which gives you an overview of your podcast performance.
It also lets you choose your own logo, branding, and theme.
You can also use your own domain with its advanced plan.

Pros

Additional storage is available for an extra charge.
Listeners’ survey helps build a closer connection with the audience.
Its visual reports are detailed and easy to understand.

Cons

Both paid plans offer minimal storage. The maximum is as little as 400MB.

Pricing

It starts at $10/month for 125MB storage, standard statistics, monetization, email and phone support, unlimited downloads, a custom embedded player, and more.

12. Captivate.fm

Captivate takes pride in its simple, easy-to-use dashboard that covers all the necessary functions and metrics to create, distribute, monetize, and promote your podcast.

Although it does not come for free, the range of hosting features and storage and upload capacities makes the price worth it. Captivate is designed by podcasters for podcasters, so it knows about their needs.

Creating a podcast in Captivate is a 5-step process. First, you’ll need the podcast name, author name, podcast cover art, description, category, directory setting, and more. Once you have all the necessary details, you can start importing your podcast into the Captivate Dashboard.

Then copy your current RSS feed into the current feed URL box and choose the current host—and voila! You are ready to go.

As soon as you publish your first episode, your podcast can be listed on one of the directories that Captivate integrates with.

With Captivate Analytics, you can see total downloads, total listeners, unique listeners, website traffic, listener demographic, and more.

It also offers responsive podcast websites where you can select from 3 templates, add bios, sign-up forms, lead generation modules, and more.

Nina Paczka, Community Manager at Resume Now, shares her experience with Captivate.fm,

“What I like the most is their dashboard – minimalistic yet providing everything you need. If you’re experiencing some trouble, Captivate’s team is there to support you. Considering the above, there’s nothing to dislike there. The platform offers a seven-day free trial. All paid plans cover unlimited podcasts and team members, with access to analytics and marketing tools.”

Other key features include

Each plan offers unlimited podcasts and unlimited storage.
You can import, add, and edit podcast transcriptions within Captivate thanks to its support of podcasting 2.0.
It offers an international support team of 11 that covers four time zones, which means no matter where you are, their customer support will always be available.
It offers Advanced IAB Tech Lab-certified podcast analytics to all podcasters.

Pros

Their blog section is the source for every little question you could have while you are using this platform.
Analytics goes deeper with each metric giving you a complete picture of your podcast performance.
It offers a 7-day trial with all the features.

Cons

It does not offer a free version.

Pricing

Starts at $17/month for 12K downloads, unlimited podcasts, unlimited uploads & storage, podcasting 2.0 support, and more.

13. Sounder

Sounder is another podcast platform on this list that offers tools to monetize, analyze, and promote your podcast across global directories. It follows IAB & GARM industry standards to generate accurate episode ratings, transcripts, keywords, summaries, and more within seconds.

You can create your podcast on Sounder either from scratch or by importing it from an existing platform. Once you sign-up for a free account, you can start with the podcast by entering details such as title, description, category, and artwork.

You can tinker with many more details, including your podcast’s name and description, author name, language, timezone, and more. While setting up these details, you can enable monetization by simply clicking on the relevant option. And that’s it!

Now you can create an episode by uploading an audio file and adding its title and description. Here you can set episode numbers, types, and artwork. You can also pre-schedule them.

If you’ve enabled monetization, you can select whether pre or post-rolls ads should go to your show.

Once you publish your podcast, Sounder will help you distribute it to popular listening apps such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, and more.

With Sounder Analytics Dashboard, you can get insights into streams, listeners, revenue, listeners’ demographics, keywords, referrals, and more.

Other key features include

You can have up to four collaborators on your podcast.
You can publish your podcasts under custom domains.
It comes with a podcast player with audio search functionality.
You can host unlimited podcasts in one account.
If you have 50K+ streams per month, you can get early access to host-read DAI opportunities.

Pros

Unlimited podcasts.
Offers a free version for limited features.
UI is clean and intuitive.

Cons

Only offers audio podcasting.
You cannot create membership programs.

Pricing

Available on request.

14. Fusebox

If you’re looking for an affordable podcast hosting platform, then Fusebox is the tool for you! It’s also pretty easy to use and provides a step-by-step guide through the entire process.

To start a podcast using Fusebox, you need to choose whether you’re starting a new podcast or importing from an existing one. In the below image, you can see that the UI is straightforward and easy to follow, even for newbies to podcasting.

If you’re creating your podcast from scratch, you must be ready with the details, such as the podcast title, description, and cover artwork.

Here’s what the form will look like:

You can also import data from your existing podcast by simply entering your feed RSS URL. It will lead you to the subscription page, where you can select a free or pro plan.

If you’re a new user of Fusebox or creating a podcast for the first time, you should enable Easy Hosting from your dashboard. It comes in every paid subscription.

Here, Fusebox will find your podcast and import all the files and data into your Fusebox account – you can just sit back and relax.

Once you’ve set up podcast information, you can start customizing your podcast player. The Branding page lets you select the brand colors that match your podcast or website branding.

You can also add a call to action – a button that prompts listeners to buy your music or sign up for your mailing list.

You can further:

Control the speed of the player
Add a download button and subscribe button
Include a custom URL that sends listeners directly to your online store when they click on the cover art in their iTunes library.

Other key features include

Customizable podcast players will help you stay aligned with your branding.
Fusebox focuses on the metrics that count, such as downloads, referral sources, and top-performing podcasts and episodes.
The easy hosting feature comes with step-by-step instructions to create podcasts.
The built-in mobile player allows you to target listeners on the go.
The podcast player comes with a download, subscribe, and social sharing buttons.
It offers three types of podcast players – including sticky player, full player, and single player.

Pros

Its podcast players are customizable.
Easy, self-guided UI.

Cons

The free version forces you to use your own host and gives you a single-track player with limited customization features.
The starter plan includes only single-track players. To offer the rest of the players to your listeners, you’ll have to upgrade to the Pro plan.

Pricing

Starts at $7.50/month for a single track player, essential analysis, easy hosting, and more.

15. RSS.com

Rss.com is a podcasting app for people on the go. It’s like a Swiss army knife for busy podcasters, with features such as cross-platform analytics, automatic podcast distribution, and unlimited audio storage.

You can start by creating your podcast from scratch or importing it from an existing podcast platform. Both are super easy. To create from scratch, you will need to enter its title, description, language, and more.

Check out the image below to see what you will need:

As you can see, the UI is clean, easy to use, and self-explanatory. Every field is explained as you fill it out, and tips appear onscreen if you need more information. Once you create your podcast, you’re ready to upload your first episode.

The good thing about episodes is that they can be assigned season numbers, episode numbers, and types – giving you the flexibility to publish your episodes in the form of different series or trailers.

If you want to monetize your podcast, you’re in luck – RSS has in-built tools for that. The activation process is also easy and just takes one click.

Rss.com offers you three ways to monetize your podcasts: donations, bitcoin payments, and sponsor ads.

You can also distribute your podcast to listening platforms such as Google, Amazon, Spotify, Samsung, Amazon Music, and more.

Other key features include

Its all-in-one dashboard shows you a complete picture of your podcasts. You can see scheduled episodes and navigate to your podcasts, analytics, distribution, or settings. You can also create a new episode from the dashboard.
Its cross-platform analytics enables you to compare the metrics from different sources. For example, you can determine which podcast channel gives you more listeners or downloads.
It uses podcasting 2.0 – which means you can transcribe your audio and use them for SEO purposes.
From analytics, you can determine the best time to publish your episode and schedule it for the right time.
With its embedded episode player, you can easily embed your podcast to any third-party website.
You can get more reach using social share buttons on your podcast players.

Pros

You can add chapters and soundbites to your episodes.
You can schedule episodes in advance.
Your podcasts are automatically distributed to popular podcast platforms.
It offers a free podcast website.
Each plan includes a free trial with no credit card.
Affordable plans.

Cons

Does not support mobile apps.
No forever-free plan.
Does not support any WP plugin.

Pricing

It starts at $4.99/month for unlimited episodes & audio, cross-platform analysis, RSS feed, free website, custom embedded player, and more.

Frequently Asked Questions about Podcast Hosting Platforms

1. What is a podcast hosting platform?

Podcast hosting platforms are the middleman between you and your audience. They’re a necessary part of the podcast ecosystem — they provide the basic infrastructure that makes it possible for you to create and publish your show.

2. How do I choose a podcast hosting platform?

There are many factors to consider when choosing a podcast hosting platform, including:

Cost – How much does it cost to use the platform? Paid services don’t always offer better features than free ones, but they may come with more support options or other perks.

Features – What does the platform offer in terms of features? Does it have things like automated episode creation, automatic distribution, social media integration, and more?

Support – How good is their support team? Can you reach them if you need help?

Bandwidth – The amount of data that can be transferred from one location to another in a certain amount of time (usually measured in bits per second). The more bandwidth available on your account, the more listeners will be able to download your episodes without having their connection interrupted or experiencing any buffering issues.
A built-in audio player – This allows listeners to listen to your episodes without having to download an external app or visit another website. You can even add social sharing buttons so people can easily share your episode on Facebook or Twitter.

3. Do I need to use a podcast hosting platform?

If you’re just starting out, then it might be easier for you to use a podcast hosting platform because there are so many options available. However, if you have some experience with WordPress, then you can host your own podcast to avoid paying monthly fees and have more control over your content and website design.

4. How does podcast hosting work?

Podcast hosting services provide a platform to upload your audio files as well as convert them into an MP3 format. After uploading your content, it will be available on their servers so that anyone can access them online.

Most of these services also offer some basic analytics and statistics that help you track how many people have listened to your podcast and where they live.

Some even offer more advanced analytics like ranking charts, number of downloads per episode, etc., which helps you understand what people like about your show and how they listen to it (e.g., through mobile devices).

5. What do you mean by “Hosting?”

Hosting refers to storing your files on the Internet. It’s like storing your files on an external hard drive, except that they’re stored online rather than on a physical device. When you upload an episode to a podcast hosting platform, it will be saved there so that listeners can access it easily.

6. How do I upload my podcast?

You need to sign up for an account with a podcast hosting platform (like Libsyn). Once you have your account set up, there is usually an upload tool that allows you to select the files from your computer and add them to your account.

7. What are the best podcast hosting platforms?

Libsyn, Buzzsprout, Blubrry, and PodBean are all popular options for podcasters. It really comes down to personal preference and what type of features you’re looking for. You can also check out our post on how to choose a podcast host if you need more information on making this decision.

8. Can I use iTunes or Stitcher?

No, those aren’t podcast hosting platforms — they’re directories that people use to find podcasts. You’ll need to host your own MP3 files off-site so that they can be accessed by these directories (and other apps/devices).

9. Do I need a website?

No! Your podcast will be hosted on a website provided by the platform you choose, so you don’t need your own domain name or web hosting account. You may want to create an email address for your show so listeners can contact you directly with questions or feedback, though.

10. What are the different types of podcast hosting?

There are two main types of podcast hosting: free and paid. Free hosts do not give you full control over your episodes, while paid hosts usually offer more features and flexibility.

Ready to start podcasting with a suitable podcast host?

Hopefully, we’ve answered a few of your questions and given you the information you need to help you pick the right podcast host for your needs. Whether you’re looking for the best professional podcast host, the cheapest option for monetizing your podcasts, or something in between, there are podcast hosting sites out there that will help you meet your specific requirements.

We think the best way to choose whichever podcast hosting service is right for you is to check out how they handle certain features and what level of support they offer.

Note that free podcast hosting services are a great way to get your podcast started. The free option is perfect for a hobbyist or someone who is interested in the process of making a podcast. From there, you can upgrade to paid accounts for a more dedicated podcast hosting service with some of these platforms or go with a self-hosted option.

Whichever you choose, make sure you read the fine print, so your podcast isn’t censored for inappropriate content or hurt yourself by not having the proper legal disclaimers in place.

Featured image by Freepik.

The post 15 Best Podcast Hosting Platforms first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Actualités, Méthodes et organisation des process IT

2 novembre 2022/par Service comm.

TSQA 2022: Test Automation Code and Strategy

In March, Abstracta’s Senior Leader, Matías Fornara, and I had the opportunity to speak at the Triangle Software Quality Association(TSQA) 2022 Conference.

TSQA is a non-profit, volunteer-led organization dedicated to promoting software quality practices through networking, training, and professional development opportunities. The TSQA conference takes place once a year, and leaders from all over the world get together to share cutting-edge knowledge, emerging technologies, and trends in the test and quality assurance industry.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

14 octobre 2022/par Service comm.

Adobe Has Acquired You

There were mixed reactions on Thursday morning when Adobe announced it had acquired Figma.

Excited press releases extolling the benefits of the “collaboration” followed the news. Dylan Field, founder and CEO of Figma, said: “There is a huge opportunity for us to accelerate the growth and innovation of the Figma platform with access to Adobe’s technology…”

The reaction from the design community has been a little less enthusiastic.

The problem for the design industry is that we’ve been here before. The acquisition of Macromedia followed a period in which Adobe tried to compete, failed to update its legacy code, lost the battle, and purchased the victor. You only need to look at the number of former Macromedia products in Adobe’s stable (zero) to see where Figma’s heading.

Figma has grown faster than any of its rivals in the last eight years. It is, of course, easier to grow when you start at zero. But there’s no denying Figma is a well-managed business and probably a good investment — if not worth the $20bn that Adobe reportedly paid.

Figma’s technology will give Adobe a leg-up in the collaborative design stakes, where it is clearly lacking. And Adobe’s resources will iron out some of the kinks in Figma, especially around typography, which is, if we’re honest, a bit hacky in places.

Adobe will provide a good home (we hope) for the Figma team, who will have the opportunity for career advancement in a much wider pool of development teams.

And, of course, Figma’s annual revenue will begin to trickle into Adobe’s vault — although it may be some time before it makes a dent in that $20bn hole.

But Adobe didn’t buy Figma for its business model, collaborative technology, team, or revenue stream. Adobe bought Figma’s users, all four million of them.

Adobe‘s approach to design software is upselling. It lures you in with free apps, and when you’re engaged, it integrates them with other parts of its ecosystem until suddenly, without meaning to, you’ve agreed to a Creative Cloud subscription.

Adobe was losing customers to a competitor. And more importantly, due to Figma’s free-use approach for individuals, it was losing young customers to a competitor. If it hadn’t bought Figma, Adobe would have needed to invest heavily in its own products while providing them to freelancers for free; that isn’t viable for a company with as many commitments as Adobe.

Yes, it is entirely accurate to say that competition drives innovation, and with fewer competing apps, there is less need for companies like Adobe to build high-quality, reliable products. However, it is also true to say that a lack of competition creates opportunities for new apps.

Somewhere out there, in a dorm room, or a basement, or on a kitchen table, someone is working on Adobe’s next big acquisition. It’s probably an AR design app; we need a few more of those.

For Figma, the next 12 months will be bright as Adobe works to retain the customers it’s bought. Within five years, you’ll probably need an Adobe Fonts subscription and a Photoshop plugin to use Figma. In ten years, it will be stored in a code archive next to Freehand.

Some designers will turn to Sketch; others will turn to Affinity; some will shrug and keep using Figma; others will shrug and keep using XD.

If an app is intrinsic to your design work, it’s probably time to switch apps. Your skills are transferable. I’ve switched apps many times; some I loved, some I just needed. I’ve never encountered an app that improved my work, although plenty have improved my mood while working.

Figma took a great approach and will continue to be great until it isn’t. Tools come and go, Adobe’s acquisitions team, it appears, is eternal.

Featured image uses photos by Afrika ufundi, Andrea Piacquadio, Andrea Piacquadio, Anna Tarazevich, cottonbro, fauxels, Ketut Subiyanto, Mikhail Nilov, Moose Photos, Pavel Danilyuk, Pavel Danilyuk, Polina Tankilevitch, Tima Miroshnichenko.

The post Adobe Has Acquired You first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

19 septembre 2022/par Service comm.

15 Inspiring Alternatives to Dribbble & Behance

Web design is often stagnant because designers look at the same work and follow the same trends. Unfortunately, algorithms promote work that is liked, and designers produce content to get likes, which leads to a self-feeding cycle.

We’ve been talking about the dribbblization of design for years, but Behance is just as guilty of promoting and encouraging homogenous design.

It’s not that Dribbble and Behance don’t have value; they are both excellent resources for designers. But they’re victims of their own success, and it’s healthier for them, designers, and the industry if we broaden our sources of design inspiration.

And so, today, we’re presenting this list of the best places to find design inspiration for web designers that aren’t Dribbble or Behance. (OK, you can check them out too, if you really want to!)

Awwwards

Awwwards is the top site for web design inspiration. The best agencies in the world post here, and a ‘Site of the Day’ award is a coveted accolade. So if you’re looking for design inspiration, this should be your first stop.

Admire The Web

Admire The Web is an excellent collection of curated sites. It’s more selective than sites like Awwwards, so you don’t have to dig through so much to find the best web design.

One Page Love

One Page Love is one of the best resources for designers seeking inspiring new ideas. It’s devoted to one-pagers, which means it leans towards apps, tech start-ups, and smaller independent projects.

Godly

Godly is another excellent collection of web design inspiration. Godley uses animated thumbnails, so you can get a sense of a site before you look at it in detail. As such, it’s perfect for animated landing pages.

Hoverstat.es

Hoverstat.es is a collection of curated websites that often finds little gems other sites miss. Unlike most roundups, it doesn’t go into much detail on each site, and new sites are infrequent, but it’s always worth a browse.

Siteinspire

Siteinspire is one of the most established design inspiration sites. The collection is carefully divided into different styles; if you find your own site listed, you can add your contact details.

Land-book

Land-book is a curated collection of the best sites on the web. The site does a great job of presenting screenshots clearly, and the similar sites feature is great for browsing a particular mood.

Savee

Savee is a fantastic site for browsing all kinds of design inspiration. It’s like Pinterest for designers as it leans towards art direction and photography. It’s easy to scan for mood boards.

UIJar

UIJar is a nicely designed collection of hand-picked websites. Unlike most other sites on this list, UIJar also features a collection of branding that’s great for identity designers.

Brutalist Websites

Brutalist Websites is the perfect inspiration site if you’re a fan of the Brutalist design trend. There are plenty of designs that show why Brutalism is so popular right now, but the site itself is probably short-lived.

Minimal Gallery

Minimal Gallery is a collection of sites that embrace minimalism. Like Brutalist Websites, the quality of the collection is very high, but the site’s lifespan is probably short-lived thanks to being tied to one trend.

Ello

Ello is a platform for showcasing excellent design work. It’s solid on illustration and artwork. There’s also a great deal of photography on show. You’ll also find regular opportunities tied to creative briefs.

DeviantArt

DeviantArt is still the largest, and arguably the best, showcase for illustration, with dozens of styles from Anime to classicism. It’s easy to lose a few hours browsing DeviantArt.

Figma Community

Figma Community is a collection of the best work from the Figma community. But you don’t need to be a Figma user to grab some inspiration from the UI work on show.

Lapa

Lapa is a collection of 5000+ landing pages. The collection is headhunted from around the web, so if you only have time to check out one site, Lapa could be a good choice.

The post 15 Inspiring Alternatives to Dribbble & Behance first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

15 août 2022/par Service comm.

How to Measure Live Chat Performance

Live chat is one of the most powerful tools for customer experience in the current marketplace.

In a world where customers are constantly connected to the online world, online chat is a reliable way of getting quick solutions to common problems.

Today’s consumers prefer talking to an agent over chat to calling a contact center, and they often feel that live chat is less frustrating than waiting for the right person to answer the phone.

Of course, like any digital tool, live chat is only effective when using it correctly. Today, we’re going to show you the crucial KPIs you need to consider if you want to ensure that your chat strategy is delivering a tangible return on investment.

The Most Important Metrics to Measure for Live Chat

These days, implementing live chat tools is easier than ever.

You don’t necessarily need to hire a professional developer unless you want a specialist widget with specific functions and unique branding. Many plugins and tools for sites built on Shopify and WooCommerce allow you to instantly access chat functions.

However, just because implementing live chat is easy doesn’t mean that there aren’t countless ways for your strategy to go wrong. Keeping an eye on these crucial KPIs and metrics ensures you’re making the right impression with your chat strategy.

1. First Response Time

First response time is a crucial live chat metric. This measures how long customers need to wait before someone responds to them. Technically, this metric only refers to how quickly an actual agent responds to your customer, so automated “thanks for getting in touch” messages don’t count. However, immediately responding with one of those messages can convince your audience to stick around for a little longer.

The faster your agents can respond to messages and solve problems, the better your brand reputation becomes. The good news is that a good live chat strategy can lead to pretty quick response times. The average time for an agent to see a live chat message is around 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

To improve your FRT statistics, make sure you:

Invest in chatbots: AI chatbots can support customers 24/7 with handy, self-service functionality. These tools will also filter out the customers waiting for an agent who can find a solution to their problem on your FAQ page.
Prepare canned responses: Quick responses to common queries can help you to address a problem much faster. In addition, preparing canned responses will ensure that your team members can quickly respond to more customers.
Increase your resources: Ensure you have the right hand and enough agents to handle peak demand.

2. Average Resolution Time

The first response rate only looks at how quickly someone responds to a customer’s message for the first time. However, it doesn’t show how rapidly you deal with client problems. Average Resolution Time is the metric that helps to measure customer satisfaction by seeing how long it takes to get to a point where your customer can close the chat.

If it takes too long for your employees to solve problems, there’s an increased risk of your customers becoming annoyed and frustrated. Additionally, the longer agents take dealing with each individual chat, the more other consumers will have to wait for someone to become available. Finally, the longer it takes to resolve an issue, the more customer satisfaction decreases.

The key to success is ensuring that the right agent deals with the correct customer and that everyone on your team is empowered with the appropriate tools and information. Boost resolution time by:

Giving customers a quick self-service solution: For common questions, make sure that you have an FAQ section that you can direct your customers to. In addition, a chatbot that can offer quick canned responses to regular queries can save time. Plus, they’re great for reducing the pressure on your agents’ shoulders.
Integrate CRM tools with live chat: Make sure your agents have access to information about each customer as soon as they start the conversation. This information should include the customer’s name, what they’ve purchased before, and if they’ve issued any support tickets. Integrating with the CRM makes it easier for agents to jump straight into the action without needing the customer to explain everything first.
Keep resources handy: Your team members should have instant access to all the information they need to answer customer questions. Ensure that searchable data repositories are available for everyone on your live chat team.

Remember, routing tools that automatically send customers to the agent with the proper knowledge or skills will also improve response times and reduce the number of times a customer needs to repeat themselves.

3. Chat to Conversion Rate

Live chat tools aren’t just an avenue for problem resolution. Although customers can get excellent service through live chat, they also look to chat to collect information before a potential purchase. Around 38% of customers say that they end up purchasing a positive live chat experience.

The live chat app on your website can provide real-time assistance for sales queries, converting leads, and maximizing your return on investment. However, to determine how successful your chat system is at encouraging sales, you must look at the chat to conversion rate metric.

Essentially, you measure the number of chats your company has been involved in, then compare that number to the total number of conversions from those customers. It might be helpful to narrow down your results here by using your data and analytics tools to separate your total number of live chats into those intended for sales information and those requiring assistance.

If your chat to conversion rate isn’t as high as you would like, there are lots of things you can do to start making a positive impact:

Automatically launch a chat: As soon as someone comes to your website, launch a chat window with a bot that asks whether you can help your customer. You can even include a list of commonly asked questions so your customer can get help faster.
Follow up on chat conversations: Make sure you follow up on any questions that customers ask on your chat widget with an email. This is a great way to reach out to customers that may have been distracted and ended up abandoning their cart.
Personalize suggestions: Use AI insights and information from your customer management tools to determine which products are most likely to appeal to each customer, then suggest those items. Remember to ensure that your tone of voice in the chat matches your brand too.

Remember, the faster you can answer customer queries and address their concerns with your live chat strategy, the more likely the chat will lead to a sale. Ultimately, customers are convinced to purchase when they believe they can trust your business to deliver excellent experiences.

4. Customer Satisfaction Score

The customer satisfaction score is probably one of the most critical metrics in any customer experience strategy. It directly measures customer satisfaction levels and gives you an insight into how well you’re doing from the perspective of your target audience.

The best way to measure CSAT through live chat is to add a survey to the end of the chat session. For instance, you could ask, “How would you rate this session on a scale of 1 to 10”. Then, based on the score, you’d calculate a “Net Promotion Score.” Each score falls into one of three categories: “Detractors 0-6”, “Passives 6-8,” and “Promotors 9-10”.

The more information you collect about your CSAT score, the easier it will be to determine where you’re going wrong with your live chat strategy. On the other hand, if the score is pretty good after a chat session, you’re probably on the right track. To improve your overall score:

Encourage feedback: Getting people to leave feedback, even on a live chat app, can be difficult. Offering customers the chance to win something in exchange for their insights could help you to get more data.
Follow up: Connect with your “detractors” to find out what you did wrong. Follow up in the live chat session by asking if they’d like to leave a more comprehensive review. Alternatively, you can send an email asking for additional information.
Reach out to promotors: Connect with the people who give you the most favorable scores to ask them for their insights. Find out what they enjoyed most about the experience and request a review that you can place on your website for social proof.

5. Missed Opportunities

The longer someone waits for you to answer their question in a live chat or respond to their initial message, the more likely they’ll give up on the conversation. Unfortunately, this means that your company ends up with missed opportunities. You lose the chance to potentially make a sale, delight a customer, and strengthen your brand reputation.

While you might assume that your customers will know you can’t be available to answer all of their questions immediately, that’s not the case. INC tells us that 51% of consumers believe a business should always be open. So every missed chat is another negative mark against your reputation.

If you discover that your team is missing a lot of chat chances, this could be a sign that you don’t have enough resources available in this area. However, there are a few ways that you can reduce your chances of missed opportunities, such as:

Hiring more team members: If you know that there are times of the year or week when you have peaks in demand, ensure that you have the correct number of staff members available.
Using chatbots: Chatbots won’t be able to answer all customer questions, but they can deliver quick responses to commonly asked queries and reduce the risk of lost opportunities.
Provide alternative forms of communication: if your customer can’t reach you on live chat, make sure that there are other options available, like a phone number and email address or a form where your customer can automatically submit a ticket.

6. Total Number of Chats and Tickets

Keeping track of the total number of tickets your customers submit, alongside the number of chats your employees engage in, will give you helpful information. First, the total number of conversations shows how many customers are taking advantage of your live chat function on the website.

You’ll also be able to compare your total number of chats to the number of resolved problems you deal with for your customers. For example, comparing your total number of chats to an unlimited number of tickets shows you how many customers have been left to rely on other sources of communication. You can also see how good your employees are at following up with tickets issued by customers.

When you’re analyzing your number of tickets and chat sessions, you might notice that many of the queries you dealt with were connected to specific questions or topics. If that’s the case, you might be able to create a new FAQ page for your customers or provide your chatbot with extra information that it can use.

If you’re getting more support tickets through alternative means than live chat, it might be time to ask yourself what’s wrong with your live chat performance and why your customers choose not to use it.

Improving Live Chat CX for Your Business

Live chat can be a powerful tool for improving customer experience and an excellent way to strengthen your relationship with existing and potential clients.

Step into the shoes of your customer and discover what it feels like to walk through the whole live chat experience, from the moment that you send a request to the live chat team to the moment when you close down the chat with a solution to your problem. Other quick tips include:

Getting the software right: Make sure your live chat app is easy for your end customers and your employees. The chat app you use should be convenient and suit your brand. It also needs to collect information effectively without causing problems like GDPR and regulations. Get a developer involved if you think you have a problem with your chat functionality.
Guide your team: Remember that your team needs to know how to use the live chat tools available effectively if they’re going to deliver the best results to your customers. Make sure you give your employees scripts to deal with problems if needed. In addition, chatbots that can quickly grab information from integrated CRM tools and other solutions could make your agents’ lives much more manageable.
Pay attention to feedback: Ask your customers for feedback on their live chat experiences whenever you can. Ensure you pay attention to what they say they like and dislike about the encounter. If you can listen to your customer’s opinions, they’ll give you a lot of helpful information to work with when you’re enhancing and optimizing your live chat strategy. In addition, listening to your audience shows that you have their best interests at heart.

Remember, as well as customer feedback; you might be able to ask your employees for their insights into how you can improve live chat performance too. Employees also work with these tools regularly, so they know which features are more problematic than others.

Measuring and Improving Live Chat

Live chat functionality isn’t something that you implement into your website and forget about. Instead, like any form of customer service or engagement tool, your live chat solution should be something you test regularly and constantly update to suit your customers’ needs.

Knowing which metrics to measure when examining live chat functionality and performance will boost the experience you can give your audience and even open the door for better relationships with clients in the long term.

The post How to Measure Live Chat Performance first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

12 août 2022/par Service comm.

How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Two

Last week, you started a web design agency. This week we’ll help you take the next steps towards making your agency viable.

The first couple of days were spent on legal checks and taxes. After that, you’ve picked a niche to specialize in, an awesome name, worked out how much you’re going to charge, and set up business accounts. Then, finally, you took a day off to prepare for this week. (If you skipped any of those steps, go back and catch up now.)

This week, we’ll start defining who you are as an agency. The process is the same as last week: focusing on one task per day. By the end of the week, who you are as an agency will start to become apparent.

Day Eight: Choose Your Clients

For any new business, the temptation is to grab any work you can get to keep the money flowing in. However, chasing money is counter-productive; you end up clutching at opportunities instead of taking a targeted approach.

Last week you selected your niche. Today, you will choose the clients you intend to work for. And we mean that literally: draw up a list of target clients.

Do you want to work for Nike? Fine, add it to the list. Think Apple would look good in your portfolio? Add it too. Make sure you add a few that are more realistic but don’t aim too low.

By the end of the day, you should have a spreadsheet of companies to target.

Day Nine: Tech Stack

Now you know who your agency is planning to work for, it’s time to identify the technology stack you’re planning to offer them.

It may be that you will be a full-service agency handling everything from branding to custom apps. Alternately, you may perform better handling one aspect of the job well and outsourcing the rest.

However you plan to approach the actual work, you’ll need a full-stack solution for most clients. That means brand design, web design, marketing and content, front-end code, content management, and SEO.

The best advice is to focus on your existing strengths and develop a skill to an expert level. Then, once you’ve done so, you can expand sideways to plug any gaps.

For example, moving into WordPress development is a good option if you already know HTML and CSS. On the other hand, if you’re more design orientated, a site builder approach using SquareSpace or Shopify might be a better fit.

Technologies change, so you shouldn’t expect your core technologies to stay with you throughout your career. But these are the solutions you’ll become an expert at over the next few years.

Day Ten: Define Your Red Lines

All companies have brand values, whether they define them or not. So at this stage, it’s more practical to look at what you’re not prepared to do.

Everyone has red lines that they’re not prepared to cross. Would you work for a pornography company? Would you work for a radical political group? Would you work for a controversial religion? Would you work for a company with a patchy human rights record? Would you work for big pharma?

There’s no right and wrong answer to this; it all comes down to your personal values. However, you will be asked to cross the line at some point. It’s easier to say “no thanks” if you know where the lines are in advance.

If you don’t have red lines, that’s valid too. But be aware that once you’ve crossed a line, that line will stay crossed; you’ll attract more of that type of work, which will define you.

Day Eleven: Write Your Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a short couple of lines that can be delivered to a prospective client on a (hypothetical) elevator ride between two floors.

When someone asks you what you do, “Um, well, you know, mostly just websites and stuff.” Is not a good answer.

Your language should be natural, non-technical, and self-assured. Something like, “We help startups like yours outperform their competitors on Google.”

Once you’ve settled on a good elevator pitch, practice it over and over. Write it on a post-it and stick it to your monitor, screenshot it and use it as your phone’s wallpaper. Say it over and over in the shower, in the car, and in the elevator. Learn it so that when someone asks, it trips off your tongue effortlessly.

Day Twelve: Pick a Coffee Shop

You don’t need fancy offices to start a web design agency, and in fact, the first agency I worked for tanked primarily because they couldn’t afford their office lease.

People are used to remote work now, and most meetings can be conducted by video call. But you will still find clients who like to meet one-to-one, especially for a kick-off meeting.

It’s always best to visit a client’s premises if you can, but coffee shops are a good alternative, and every new agency should have one.

Consider your coffee shop your meeting room. If you’re lucky enough to be in a town or city where there are a few to choose from, try to pick one that matches your values: quirky and independent, efficient and corporate, etc.

Check when the quiet times are (you don’t want to be shouting over the buzz of rush-hour orders). Make sure you know where the nearest parking or public transport is so that you can direct clients. Ensure the wi-fi is OK, preferably free, and find out the password in advance.

Day Thirteen: Start Your Branding

Two weeks in, you finally get to do something creative: design your logo.

If you’ve been matching days to the days of the week, then it’s Saturday. That should give you more time for this task, but don’t go to town. Your logo is going to change and evolve. It is far too easy to get wrapped up in tiny details like logos and lose sight of the bigger picture.

Remember: no logo, no matter how cool, ever won a pitch.

If you’re a designer, you probably ignored us and started the logo on day one. In fact, you’ve probably had something knocking around in a sketchbook for a while.

If you’re not a designer, type out your name in a geometric sans-serif, tighten the tracking, and call it a day.

Either way, by the end of today, you’ll have something that fits your niche, ties into your elevator pitch, and appeals to your target clients.

Day Fourteen: Rest

Hopefully, you learned the benefits of a rest day last week, and this week was easier as a result.

It’s time to do whatever you do to relax. If you can, do it outside away from your computer. Create some distance and recharge your batteries.

Next week, we’ll start putting together the assets you will use to present your business professionally.

Featured image via Unsplash.

The post How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Two first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.