A lot of videos are watched without sound

According to one survey, as many as 85% of all videos on Facebook are watched without sound. This means that, unless it’s a completely text-less script, people wouldn’t be able to understand what’s going on if there were no captions. Sure, an automatic captioning option is often used in these scenarios but the truth is that they are not 100% accurate. For a person listening to a video while watching these captions, mistakes are obvious and easy to fill in. However, manual captioning is always a superior choice.

There are a lot of people with hearing problems out there

According to some of the latest surveys, around 466 million people in the world have disabling hearing loss. The older the demographics get the worse the situation becomes. For instance, one-third of people over 65 have problems with hearing loss. Keep in mind that this is a massive audience that would be completely discarded without the use of captions in your videos. Moreover, if you are in an industry that targets older demographics, adding proper captions to your videos becomes a top priority.

Captions in Your Videos: Greater completion

One of the biggest reasons why you should add captions to your videos is because of a higher level of completion. When observing partially completed videos, those without subtitles have an average of 66% of completion. The completion of videos with subtitles was at 91%, which is a massive difference. It’s also a great investment in your content marketing. The last thing you want is to produce content that people won’t watch until the end. This is especially true since the branded message often gets pushed to the very end of the video (for dramatic impact). So, if you want people to watch your content whole, try adding captions using a caption generator.

Captions in Your Videos: Greater comprehension

Experts behind Alpha Omega Video claim that, in order to create a strong branded message, video professionals need to target every sense of their audience. Previously, we’ve already mentioned that a lot of videos get watched without audio. So, what are video production experts supposed to do? Are they supposed to ignore any audio-based means of expression like a voice-over or background music? Of course not, they need to act as if every video will be watched the way they intended it to be but also acknowledge that there are people who will approach this differently. Don’t discard this potential audience by failing to add captions.

Captions in Your Videos: Simpler SEO indexing

Whenever you produce a piece of content, you need to be aware of the fact that there are two types of audience. First, there is your human audience. They interpret your content through their own subjective impressions. Then, there are Google bots. They do not see content in the same way we do. In order to interpret it, they need metadata. One of the ways in which they can analyze video content is through captions. In other words, with the use of captions, this video will be easier and more accurately indexed.

People don’t necessarily speak your language

By adding a chance for non-native speakers to understand you (captioning in another language), you are drastically expanding your potential target audience. This is especially true if you’re from a non-English speaking country and want to add captions in English/your native language. Keep in mind that another language group that you target has its own portion of the internet that is ranked completely differently. This means that if it’s hard to become competitive globally, you can always try to improve your local ranking. In the field of digital marketing, this is achieved through captioning.

Captions in Your Videos: More social reach

Various surveys have shown that videos with subtitles have more shares, better reactions, and more CTA clickthroughs. This is quite expected. People often share for validation and since they get more reactions to videos with subtitles (because the majority of people on social media watch videos without sound), they are bound to hit their marks. This means that they will (either consciously or subconsciously) drive a parallel between videos that have a greater reach (those with captions) and those that often fail (without captions). Next time, they are more likely to share a more successful part.

Subtitle makers are simple and available

Never before was it so easy to create subtitles as it is today. You see, there are a lot of programs that make it easy to manually add subtitles. There are even some platforms that do automatic captioning. Now, this method may sound a bit sub-optimal but the truth is that algorithms and AI-assisted tools and software really do a great job. If anything, they add quite a bit of value to those who want to add more than 2 or 3 languages. After all, people from different language-speaking areas usually aren’t that picky. They understand that they are not your primary target audience and they are more tolerant towards inaccuracies.

Make them viewable under different circumstances

One more thing worth taking into consideration is the circumstances under which the video is viewable. If people receive a link to your video and the video is not captioned, chances are that they won’t be able to enjoy it on public transportation, during meetings (although unethical it’s what the majority of people do), etc. The thing is that they might be genuinely interested in the subject matter and be determined to check it out once they get home. By that time, nonetheless, they might simply forget about this. This will help you overcome this problem.

Grabbing attention

Lastly, when you use captions, your audience gets one more thing to focus on. In other words, it’s quite efficient in grabbing the attention of your audience. Keep in mind that audio content allows people’s vision to be directed to something else. Split senses always imply split attention. This can be quite problematic if you’re trying to send an important branded message. So, having captions in your videos might enhance your chances of success quite drastically by ensuring that your message hits the mark with greater accuracy.

In conclusion

The most important thing worth mentioning is that captions don’t really hurt your video content in any way. If they want, your audience can use them; if not, they probably have an option to just switch them off. In other words, while the advantages are numerous, the downsides are virtually non-existent. Now, combine this with the fact that adding them to your video is a relatively simple and inexpensive process, from the logistical perspective. In other words, there’s no reason for you to skip this whatsoever.

Suggested:

The Ultimate Screen Recorder Online to Record Videos

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2021 Best 2 Video Converter Recommended

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There are no shortcuts to a successful business. You need to be determined, focused and consistent to turn your business into a success story or in simple words make it grow from a seed into a strong tree. Also, you have to be very patient because starting and then growing a business can be tricky and you get to learn things along the way. With smartness, you also have to put hard work to see the output. Transcription business is just like any other business in the world. You start it as a freelance job. Then, you realize it is working great for you and you turn it into a full-time job and eventually into your own business. Remember, you start your transcription business when you know how it is done but it only grows when you know how to get the clients.

So, hereunder are some practical methods to grow your transcription business once you have set it up:

1. Never Stop Learning

There can never come a time when you can say you have mastered everything related to transcription. There is always a room for learning more, for pushing your limits. Also, when it comes to business, there will always be someone doing better than you and you would want to outgrow them. For that, you have to keep an eye on what is new about transcription so you can stay on top of your game. Follow blogs, check forums, invest in courses, attend seminars and read books to keep abreast with the latest trends in the world of transcription. Keep learning because that is the key to be different.

2. Make a Striking Website

If you have started your transcription business and you have not made a website already, this is the first thing you should do. If you do not have a genuine web presence, how can you land your dream clients? You might have one or two of them already and you might be earning decent but you need more because you are aiming at growing. It costs you nothing to make a website but to own a website domain, you will need to invest a little. Also, spend some time on your website to make sure it catches the eyes from the first look as this is the major component to get you more clients.

3. Have the Right Supplies

Do not spend a whole lot in the first place and buy whatever you think will look cool in your office space. Start with buying what you need and focus on the quality of those things. That is how you grow. For example, you will need some kind of computer, fine headphone, and good related software to start with. Now do not buy tens of software at once. If you are transcribing basic Youtube videos only, buy a good video transcription software and invest more of your money on the infrastructure development.

4. Take your Transcription Speed to the Next Level

When you have turned your transcription job into a business, you now need to come up with ideas that save you seconds. Those saved seconds might seem little at first but they save your mental energy in the long run. For saving the seconds, you can master your software and put in use all the extra features to enhance your experience of transcription. You can buy a speech recognition software to give some rest to your fingers. Also, you can learn the keyboard shortcuts.

5. Aim for Anchor Clients

Anchor clients are the ones who are flexible, pay you well, and stick to you. You can name them your dream clients and you should aim to get as many of them as your time allows you. They help your business grow like nothing else! For getting those, make sure you are marketing your business right, having a great supportive professional attitude and finally doing great work.

6. Know When You Need Outsourcing

It could be that you started your transcription business well and it began to grow. You also have clients but now not only it is declining but also you are under a lot of pressure. Then it is time to see how much work is there on your shoulders. If your business is growing and you are getting clients, you do not need to do it all by yourself. You have to focus on the quality of your work for it to grow. So, you must hire an assistant or find a partner with whom you can share some work and continue to be efficient.

7. Feedbacks and Testimonials

If you are doing great work but not telling the world about it, how do you suppose to grow your business? How are clients supposed to trust you enough with their work? The most efficient way to gain the trust of new clients is the feedbacks and testimonials of your older and current clients. Once, you finish a job and a client is satisfied, request them to send you short feedback or a testimonial. Add that to your website where your new clients can access them. This works wonder for your business website which works wonder for your business.

8. The Power of Social Media

This world is a global village and social media gets the thanks for it. The fastest and easiest way is to present your business on all social media websites especially the ones related more to business like LinkedIn and Twitter. If you do not have a lot of clients, chances are you will get some in a few days with the presence on social media. That’s the power of it. But as with your business website, you have to make sure that you are marketing yourself the right way. If you are using social media for your business make sure to keep your personal life and views out.

9. Manage Your Work and Clients

You could be getting work every day. You could be getting hired by great clients every day. You might also have some dream clients. But to grow your transcription business, you need to learn to say NO. Transcription takes time and effort. You cannot grow if you keep piling up the work. Sometimes you might get an offer from a dream client but if you already have enough on your plate it is wise to say no. After all, your aim is to grow your business.

10. Accuracy is the Final Key

Even if you master everything, the final most important thing for your transcription business will be the accuracy of your work. You have to make sure about three things under accuracy:

1. Keep your deadlines.
2. Submit the work that is 100% right.
3. Make sure to fulfill all the demands of your clients.

If your clients are not satisfied with the quality of your work, you will not get positive reviews which will be hazardous for the growth of your business.

11. If You do not Enjoy Your Business, You Can’t Grow

If you have chosen to turn the transcription into a business you must know why you have done that? It is good if you got into it because it was earning you well and you will do amazing but only for a while. Soon you will get bored and would want to shut it off. If you want to continue doing something, you have got to be passionate about it and enjoy it. The transcription business is just the same. It can be hard at times but if you love doing it, you will always have reasons to keep doing it. And when you are consistent, you grow!

12. Just Keep Swimming!

Can you grow if you quit? So, to grow, you continue to work even if it gets hard. You could get a bad review despite giving your best, you could lose clients, your business revenue could decline for a while, your competitors show up but you do not have to lose hope. You will succeed eventually. You might want to look at some success stories from time to time to get going. Remember the good old saying for kids: Just Keep Swimming!

The Final Word

Forbes also has some essentials down to grow your business. The most important thing as per Forbes is also the strength of the relationship between you and your clients or vendors. Setting a business might not be as hard as growing it. So, you have to focus on everything mentioned above to efficiently grow your transcription business. Good Luck!

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Informational technologies power our interconnected world. In this day and age, a strong online presence is necessary for a business to be successful. Most companies come face-to-face with their clients through the web. This is also where most of the business revenues are created. 

If you do not have a smooth-running and accessible website, web-related investments can go down the drain. If you have a website, but the website outage status checker reveals your website to be always offline, the same thing will happen. Or worse, your company’s operation can come to a full and abrupt halt.

Your website needs to stay online

Consider your website as your traditional brick and mortar store. If you’re always offline, it is similar to your physical store being padlocked. In the process, you lose money and opportunity. Moreover, to add insult to injury, you might find your customer going to your competitor instead.

Google can also impose a sanction on you by dropping your rank from its search result pages, significantly decreasing your site’s traffic. The penalty can last for a couple of months, depending on the severity of the issue. By the time you have recovered your ranking, your customers are long gone.

Apart from those mentioned above, a website that is often offline can have a negative effect on your brand image.

Improve your brand image by making your business accessible to your site visitors. If you keep this up, you will create a trustworthy, reliable, and professional image.

Outage is costly

Huge brands like Twitter, Microsoft, eBay, Google, and Amazon also experience serious system downtime. In 2013, for instance, a website outage status checker showed Amazon went offline for 30 minutes. During this time, they lost roughly $66,240 per minute.

That was not the first time they lost millions for a short-period downtime. In 2008, Amazon also went offline for two full hours, and given the fact that they make $29,000 per minute, a 120-minute downtime cost them $3.48 million loss.

If a small-scale e-commerce store or business website goes offline, their bottom line revenue will be adversely affected. What’s even challenging to quantify is the repercussion of the brand’s credibility and reputation.

How to calculate website uptime?

In web hosting, uptime is defined as the time the server is operational and available. Uptime is a crucial metric to consider when selecting a web host.

The usual 99.99% guaranteed uptime offered by most web hosts equates to downtime of 8.76 hours per year. Here are the usual uptime guarantees and their corresponding downtime duration:

80% uptime means 4.8 hours of downtime per day, 1.4 days downtime per week, 6.2 days downtime per month, and 73.2 days downtime per year.

90% uptime means 2.4 hours downtime per day, 16.8 hours downtime per week, three days downtime per month, and 36.5 days downtime per year.

95% uptime means 1.2 hours downtime per day, 8.4 hours downtime per week, 1.5 days downtime per month, and 18.25 days downtime per year.

99% uptime means 14.4 minutes of downtime per day, 1.68 hours of downtime per week, 7.20 hours of downtime per month, and 3.65 days of downtime per year.

The ideal uptime guarantee is 99.99999%, which means 8.64 milliseconds of downtime per day, 60.48 milliseconds of downtime per week, 262.97 milliseconds per month, and 3.15 seconds per year.

To avoid severe loses from prolonged downtime and maximize profits, it is best to check the status of your website regularly using established website status checkers.

The post Why Your Website’s Uptime is Crucial for Business’ Success? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

If you don’t like your 9-to-5 job and feel like making a big change in your career, you’ve come to the right blog. The freelance industry gives everyone more than enough opportunities to take a turn, work outdoors, and improve their quality of life.

According to Upwork, the largest freelancing platform in the world, 84% of full-time freelancers achieve the lifestyle they prefer. This is mostly why the number of freelance professionals keeps growing so steadily. Last year, over 56 million people were doing some sort of freelance work in the U.S. alone.

However, freelancing brings a few challenges of its own and some individuals still find it hard to give up traditional career development methods. If you are a member of this group, keep reading our post to learn about the benefits of freelancing and see five real-life success stories.

The Benefits of Being a Freelancer

Before we get you acquainted with our five freelance heroes, we want to discuss a highly practical side of this type of career building. According to content creators at Essay Shark, individuals who decide to switch from traditional to freelance work do it because of the following benefits:

• Flexible work hours: As a freelancer, you get to decide when to work. This doesn’t mean you can work less than before (on the contrary, most freelancers work even harder), but you definitely don’t have to wake up at dawn if you don’t want to.
• Flexible location: This benefit is our favourite. You are free to work from home but you can also find a cozy office that suits your requirements. However, you can decide that working from a local coffee bar is the perfect solution, while no one ever stops you from working while travelling.
• Choose clients and projects: Beginner-level freelancers tend to work with almost everyone, but you will soon start choosing clients and projects much more carefully. There is no need to work with people you believe to be rude or inappropriate in any way.
• You are your own boss: It is another benefit because you don’t have any superiors to tell you what and what not to do. While it does increase personal accountability, it makes you happier and more satisfied.
• A chance to earn more: As soon as you establish yourself as a successful freelancer, you can gradually start increasing revenue. Besides that, you get to keep all the money for yourself.

Real-Life Freelancing Success Stories

You have seen the pros of freelance working, but this section is where the real fun begins. It’s much easier to figure out the privileges and professional opportunities if you see examples of freelancers who already made a breakthrough. We present five such stories here:

1. 
   

   Nicolas Cole: Freelance writer

   
   

Nicolas Cole used to be a gaming fanatic and a copywriter at an advertising agency with a regular 9-to-5 job. Writing a book on gaming was his extracurricular activity for over four years, but he felt like it was time to change as soon as the book was released.

Nicolas decided to take a short break and visit a friend in Los Angeles. As he was running out of money, he started freelancing as a ghostwriter for all sorts of senior executives. Soon enough, it turned out to be an amazing business opportunity that allowed Nicolas to launch a company together with his friend Drew.

These two friends proved that assignment writing service plays a major role in modern business, particularly for CEOs and other senior managers who want but don’t have time to build their self-brands. The opportunity has been waiting for years, but it took Nicolas courage to leave his job and start doing what he does best.

2. 
   

   Paul Clarke: Freelance photographer

   
   

Here is another example of a person who uses his creativity to evolve and start doing something he really loves. Paul Clarke was an interim director working on government technology projects who turned into an event and portrait photographer.

The reasons for leaving his old position were standard: Paul wanted to get out of the rush and create a business he could really call his own. What we like about this story is that Paul admits there was not a single moment when he decided to become a full-time photographer. Instead, he calls it a long-term process that lasted for a few years.

Christopher Hudson, a content creator at “6dollaressay reviews†agency, says he has seen a lot of freelancers like Paul: “It takes a long time to make a decision and part ways with the old way of life. But the year is 2019 and I believe modern-day professionals should not be afraid of experimenting with freelancing anymore.â€

3. 
   

   Kelly Vaughn: Freelance web developer

   
   

Kelly Vaughn quit her government job to run her own digital freelance business in Atlanta. She is a professional web developer with dozens of successfully completed projects, but what makes her case so interesting? Well, it is Kelly’s determination to share her insights with other freelancers.

First of all, Kelly believes future full-time freelancers should spend some time working both jobs simultaneously. In her opinion, a freelancer might need up to a year to build a portfolio and grow a client base.

Secondly, Kelly recommends finding a convenient coworking space because new freelancers can hardly afford a solo office. It allows you to work in a relatively peaceful environment, but you can still meet new people and perhaps even grow your network of professional connections.

The third piece of advice is to scale your business cleverly. As time goes by, you will probably start working with many different clients, so don’t let it jeopardize the quality of work. Feel free to form your own team if necessary and hire one or two freelancers to help you.

4. 
   

   Brandon Cowan: Freelance mobile app developer

   
   

The story of Brandon Cowan is also very interesting. Back in 2010, Brandon was only a 19-year-old guy when the whole world started revolving around mobile apps.

Brandon always enjoyed playing with smartphones, while iOS coding has never been a stranger to him. This is why he decided to create the App Making Guide to help users learn how to develop their own iOS-based platforms. It turned out to be a huge success for a solo developer, so Brandon made a few more apps, including iParkedHere and PetRescue. His projects were getting better, so Brandon eventually decided to launch his own company called Crazy Dog Apps.

The thing we like about this story is that Brandon never even bothered with traditional employment. He started as a freelancer because he believed in his skills and ended up running his own company.

Our fellow colleagues claim that the ultimate point of the story is to focus on freelancing exclusively: “If you are a youngster with enough knowledge and potential, you might as well try your luck with freelancing straight away.â€

5. 
   

   Susanne Peng: Freelance designer

   
   

Susanne Peng is the last but certainly not the least interesting freelance success story on our list. Like many other freelancers, Susanne did not even consider making a career out of it. Instead, she engaged in a couple of extracurricular projects just to accumulate some money.

But the wheel kept turning faster and faster, so now Susanne is a super-successful freelance designer. One could say that it is the most common situation since most professionals don’t never plan to dedicate themselves 100% of the time.

Susanne’s message is clear – freelancing offers you tons of opportunities to make a career while choosing the lifestyle you want. The pressure grows, but so does the privilege of living the life you’ve dreamed of.

Conclusion

The freelance economy is far from perfect, but it creates a brand new world of career opportunities. It allows you to become your own boss, choose clients carefully, and work from wherever you want. On the other hand, it does force you to work twice as hard because you have to earn a decent living.

In this post, we showed you five stories of freelance success you should look at when deciding whether to make a career change or not. These are definitely not the only success stories out there, but it should be more than enough to give you that extra push and encourage you to try out new possibilities in your life. Good luck!

The post 5 Stories Of Freelance Success You Should Look At appeared first on Tricky Enough.

What is the Role of Measuring and Evaluating Marketing Performance

Many businesses do not measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, and the primary reason is that they are intimidated and confused. There is a close correlation between marketing and many indefinite benefits such as awareness of brands. Basic tracking tools can be used to analyze business areas like sales or website traffic, and there are numerous advantages of measuring the performance of marketing. Firstly it helps you know the usage of money and thereby allows more accurate budget in the future. Secondly, the conversion rates are more likely to be improved in the future with the better understanding of your results. The third main advantages are being able to invest in the right channels, use of budget on the strategies that do not work is no longer needed, and understanding what type of return on investment will be given.

The need to shift is when your ROI is low. However, what you are doing right needs to be known by you especially when your ROI is healthy and apply the same knowledge in other areas.

5 Tips for Measuring Success

There are five tips to guide you to till the success of marketing

#1. Set Specific Goals

You have to plan before any execution for measuring marketing campaign results. Aims and objectives established at the very beginning of a campaign will give you something to evaluate as you move forward.

Goals do not necessarily change the outcome of your campaign. Measurement of results from the right point of view is what they do allow.

#2. Utilize the Rate Metrics

Begin to identify several parameters once you have your goals right as this will permit you to measure the success of the campaign. Four different ratios at the various stages such as the stage at which rate of coverage takes place, the stage at which the rate of conversion takes place, the stage at which price of purchase takes place, and the stage at which the rate of penetration takes place can evaluate a direct marketing campaign. Measurement of the cost per acquisition is also significant.

David Court admits that “Rarely, metrics are found to be perfect. However, keeping in mind the volume of data available, finding metrics and analytic opportunities to the advantage of your unique insights should be possible. In the future, your top team should understand, trust, give progress proof and be able to make a base for greater complex, mature ways to track a marketing ROI.”

#3. A View of Engagement

Substantial attention needs to be given to participating in the measurement of the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns”. Shaw recommends brand awareness, social shares, commenting, and inbound links as some of the top engagement metrics.

#4. Right Tools Usage

Measuring results requires the right tools and what are they? Use of few different resources is a good idea. This way the risk of your data being altered due to some error or oversight is lowered.

Your marketing investment ROI can be measured with tools such as Constant Contact (where all your marketing efforts are monitored in one spot), HubSpot (your inbound marketing tools are included in one easy to use spot), Infusionsoft (you can automate your marketing and sales with this all in one CRM solution that is particularly designed for small businesses), Salesforce (an excellent and best tool to help manage activities relating to marketing and sales, its most compatible with iOS, Android devices, has an easy to use interface and is reliable), Icontact (an excellent tool to build, send and monitor your email marketing campaigns), TweetDeck (gives real-time analytics about your social media profiles, monitors your brand lists, searches activities in one easy to use interface), HootSuite (gives real-time analytics about your social media profiles, monitors your brand lists, searches activities in one easy to use interface), Google alerts (an excellent tool to keep track of sites around the web), google analytics (can monitor ROI via mobile and desktop), free CRM (keeps track of your team’s marketing efforts), sales storm (a software tool that informs about the state of key business areas, can manage your marketing ROI by tracking your prospects), Zoho (an integrated marketing and sales tracker that gives a complete solution for small businesses, helps in automated lead generation, tracking), and others such as Facebook, Sumall (displays all your social media and e-commerce data in one easy to read and interactive chart), IceRocket (helps you search the web for the latest content in blogs, twitter and facebook), Klout (lets marketers monitor their online presence with popular social media tools such as facebook and twitter), How Sociable, Addictomatic, Maximizer CRM, SugarCRM, Sage CRM, Intouch CRM, vtiger CRM, Bullhorn, Clickdimensions, Oracle CRM, limelight CRM,agile CRM, base, NetSuite, Green rope, Relenta, Insightly, MailChimp, Comarch, Lenskold-group, Oracle-Eloqua, Marketing mo, Toddle, marketing today, Pardot, Bplans, Dragon search, Blitz media, Fuel interactive, Powered by search, Brandwise, Fulcrum tech, Mplans, Marketo, Curalate, Union Metrics, Bringshare, Marin software.

#5. Depend On Your Intuition

It has to be recognized that the value to grinding numbers and trends study is a limited one. So, in such a situation one has to depend upon one’s intuition to know whether there is any response from customers, any positive feedback, etc.

Conclusion:

The three primary responsibilities as a marketing person are to know when what and how to plan, manage and measure. Highly successful marketers stand out from others in way they measure results. Whatever may be the responsibility one should not stop evaluating. Also, ensure that the significance of measuring marketing campaign results is analyzed.

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