The busiest shopping season of the year is just around the corner, and there's only one question to ask:

Are. You. Ready?!

Last year, holiday shoppers worldwide spent $108.15 billion on online purchases, which was 14.6% more than the year before. It's estimated that 2018's results will set a new record, as increasingly more people choose online gift shopping over going to physical stores.

But isn't October a bit too early to start thinking about Christmas?

The answer is: it's not.

Getting your business off the ground and ensuring that orders come in steadily is probably the most challenging part of running an online shop.

In the two previous articles, we talked about branding and website design and how to make top-notch product photos on a $0 budget - these things are crucial to make people trust your business and fall in love with your product.

Now, when your online shop looks picture perfect and runs smoothly, the next step is to start generating traffic to it and watch orders come in. The question, however, is - how?

How to make people discover your website and close your first online sale? Today, we'll show you 7 tactics that will guarantee you sales in no time - with minimal or no investment!

If you sell products online then a part of your success depends on great quality product photos, this article is for you.

Look:

When it comes to online shopping, visual appearance matters. In fact, studies show that 93% of online shoppers find high-quality visuals to be the critical factor in making the purchasing decision.

Brand design means your company name, logo, and website, right?

Not really.

Your brand design is your corporate image as a whole, including all your visuals, fonts, and even photos you post on your social media.

As you start designing your brand, your first task is to define your brand’s strategy, target audience, and how you want to address them. Your brand’s character - along with its design personality - should arise from these considerations.

When you’re sure about what you want to say to the world, follow these simple tips for a good-looking brand and website:

Have you ever wished your website performed better? Would you like to get more purchases, leads, blog subscribers? Then you're in the right place.

You may not be able to design the perfect website, but you can perfect the few things that visitors pay attention to. Today I'm going to share 9 improvements that you can do on your website (in 30 minutes or less!) that are guaranteed to yield big results.

The best part?

At the end of this article, you'll find a free checklist that includes all the tactics mentioned in this post - download it, print it, and keep it at hand. The printable checklist includes some bonus tips and tactics!

Small businesses have to get by in any way they can. Today’s market is harsh and unforgiving towards businesses that often have to compete with international giants. To ensure that you have enough time and energy to win these battles, we have prepared a checklist of seven mistakes that you could slip up on, on your way towards the top!

As of 25th of May, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets out requirements for all entrepreneurs and self-employed persons targeting EU citizens.

The regulation aims to improve the personal data protection of EU citizens. Even though the control mechanisms are not yet clear, the expected fines are drastic: 4% of turnover, or up to 20 million euros.

What does GDPR establish? And what can small entrepreneurs do to make sure their business complies with GDPR? We prepared a brief summary for you.

If your company has offered goods and services up until this moment, 2018 is the year to make a change. Why? First of all, it happens more and more often that people look for solutions to their problems rather than searching for goods or services. Second, companies that are aware of the need to offer solutions, are getting better at it. It means that train has already left the station! If you don't want to stay on the waiting platform, get your sneakers on and start running to catch that train.

Owning a business - that's cool. Making a profit - great. Having the skills to make the maximum possible profit - excellent! To get to "Level: Excellence," you must learn how to use different tools - used in a comprehensive way, they are able take your business to "Cloud 9"! Setting up a website is no longer enough - in order to make more profit, you need a client audience, in addition - you must also understand it to be able to offer exactly what it needs. One of the most useful tools for that - Google Analytics. Read on and see what it's all about and why you need it!

At the moment, there are more than 40 million business pages on Facebook. Creating a page is absolutely free and there’s a wide range of possibilities to reach your target audience. Meanwhile, many companies keep on investing a lot of funds to create more and more modern websites. How can each of these channels be useful – read further in this article!

Author: Elīna Jurkāne – Content Marketing Team leader at digital marketing agency Infinitum 8 and Coach at Digital Journey.

This will be, most probably, the tastiest article about content that you’ll ever read – here I will compare texts to creamy desserts, savory Italian portions of pasta and warm French baguettes covered with melting butter. There’s only one goal – to help you understand what your target client would like to eat. Eat up and crave the same afterwards.

The idea to start your own business usually doesn’t fall from the sky. Typically it begins to swell and quietly urges in the background of your daily responsibilities while not giving the piece. It’s no wonder that our experienced minds begin to worry: “Hang on, slow down your horses my friend! Do you even understand what are you doing?” When starting your business all these doubts and internal struggles are natural. Probably you have heard the famous saying - the only obstacle to success is yourself. It really is true! For that reason, we have put together 8 golden tips in order for you to become immune to irrational fear and eliminate the danger posed by rational angst.

Your website is up and running. Congratulations! However, it has no use until people start visiting it. For your online efforts to work, you need to learn how to get traffic to your website. Website advertising or internet marketing is actually a lot more complicated than creating a website, but fear not, for it is no rocket science either.

Online marketing effort is what usually determines whether a page will receive thousands of visitors or whether it will remain an undiscovered island.

So what can you do to drive traffic to your website?

Web design depends largely on taste, and tastes differ. However, it’s important to keep in mind a website’s primary function – to represent a business and provide information rather than serve as a piece of art or a compilation of our favorite colors. What you think looks great is not always what actually works best for you and your business.

That doesn’t mean that a website should be tacky or ugly. Put simply, the design of a website shouldn’t make it difficult to understand the information on it.

So what are the best practices of web design?

You have a website which you’re actively advertising. How do you know if all the work you've put in has been worth it? How do you know what works and what doesn’t? You need website visitor statistics and analysis.