Shopping is an integral part of travel. When you go on travel, you are tempted to purchase a few goodies. Purchasing small items like purses or a small handicraft is ok. However, if you plan to purchase bulky items, you need a plan to transport them back to your home. Here are some travel tips for going on a shopping spree during vacations.Shopping before proceeding on travelBefore you proceed on a travel, make a list of items you will need. It includes toiletries, clothes, bag and baggage, non-prescribed medicines, any maps and books. Make sure every thing is as light and small as possible.Shopping at your vacation destination1. While purchasing a handicraft or any other thing, ensure it is unique and you will not get the same in your city handicraft stores. If the item is available in a nearby store, there is no need to purchase it unless it is available in down to earth rates.2. For bulky items, we suggest you to shop the items and ask the merchant to parcel them to you. While purchasing the items confirm if they have a facility to parcel it from the counter itself. Also, analyze if it will be cost effective to purchase an item and get it parceled to your home. Often the international freight charges are too high. So compare the price of your purchase and the shipping cost with the cost of item in local store.3. Always purchase items through your credit card. The advantage of purchasing through a credit card is that you have a proof of purchase and if merchant does not deliver the goods in time or in perfect shape, you can dispute the charge. Consult your credit card customer service about the dispute procedure.4. Make purchases in the last phase of your vacation. It has two benefits. One, you know the money left with you and can decide the budget for your purchase. Two, you need not carry this extra piece of luggage with you everywhere you go. Remember the important thing is to enjoy the vacation and not to purchase items. Most items are available in US at a reasonable price during off-season.5. Travel tips for temporary shopping: Some items you may want to use and throw. There are many things, which are not in fashion in US. However, if you are fascinated with them, purchase, use and part away during vacations. Items like stone jewelry, straw hats, T-shirts, local dress fall in this category. They may be attractive for a while but do not have a long time use.
Find Freelance Work With Free Classifieds Online
Are you one of the increasing number of people joining the freelance workforce? Or are in you in the position of either having been made redundant, or facing job cuts at work? If so, then free classifieds online could be one way of finding employment working for yourself.What skills do you have? What kind of service could you offer? If you have a skill that other people could use, then with a bit of help from a free classifieds online service you can build a business that will allow you the freedom of using your skills to build a business.Time is one of the scarcest resources many people have today, and so anyone with a skill that can save someone else time is likely to find themselves being hired. If you place an ad with a free classifieds online site you’ll be able to let people know what you can do for them and how by employing you, they will be able to spend less time doing what they have to do and more time doing what they want to do.For example, are you any good at gardening? Yard work is a chore for most professional people who spend far too many hours in the workplace. They want to spend their weekends relaxing with their partners and children, not tending to the yard. Place an ad that tells these people that the cost of spending time with their family over a weekend without feeling guilty about mowing the lawn is $x – you’re a freelancer, you set the rate! Don’t just think about selling your services, think about selling the idea of free time; remember that’s the commodity people are looking for.Read through the other ads in the free classifieds online site that offer similar services to the ones you’re trying to sell. How have they worded their ads? If you were in need of their services, would you be tempted to ring one of these people? Think about the services you offer. If you needed someone like you, what would attract you to a certain ad? This is the kind of wording you need to put in your own ad. If you wouldn’t hire you based on your ad, why should someone else?Keep your ad short and to the point. Take the time to think out the words that people will search for when looking for your type of service. Think about the things you can offer, not just in terms of your professional expertise, but other important things such as flexibility, customized, free quotes. Are you qualified in the area you’re seeking work? If so, make sure you state you are certified. These are all things that can set you apart from other freelancers.Free classifieds online cost you nothing but the time to focus your mind on selling yourself. Use the time wisely and make the most out of these sites, they could hold the key to your future.
Video As an Engaging Content Marketing Tool
If you are an Internet marketer, blogger, webmaster, and online retailer, you must be turning the Web inside out looking for a strategy to keep your website visitors a few seconds longer on your page. There are a million and one advises or suggestions you can try, but you can save yourself from much trouble by grabbing what seems to be a current trend: video content marketing strategy.
What is video content marketing?
Video content marketing makes use of the video as the heart of the content marketing strategy with the social media being used to support and promote the video content. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube and embedding videos in blog posts offer the most engaging way to share video message to the target audience.
A message that informs, entertains or is useful can foster maximized engagement, spread and conversion by using the content as the message. This can best be achieved by seamlessly integrating the message with the look, feel and flavor of the video. You know you have done well when your message is talked about in forums, discussion boards, and even mainstream media channels.
The use of videos may not really be a new idea. What is novel is the recognition that it can be a very effective vehicle of information and a powerful strategy that prompts immediate action. You have heard about YouTube ranking as the second largest search engine in the Internet and passing the 1 billion monthly users mark. This is equivalent to over 4 billion hours of video viewing each month. With these explosive statistics, it is not surprising to see how it is gaining strength as a source of content marketing.
Will online video be just another over hyped and soon-will-fade craze?
Based on current researches and surveys, it seems unlikely. For instance, consider the data from B2B Demand Generation Benchmark Survey for 2012 entitled Percentage of Marketers Using Each Content or Offer (survey compiled by Eloqua, CMO.com and Software Advice).
What makes video a crown jewel of content marketing?
Video communication is an effective strategy of reaching target market as it pools the pluses of “classic” TV advertising and the Internet’s interactivity. Powerful and compelling videos can more likely motivate viewers to buy on impulse than those who merely read text ads. In a way, it seems like it is irresistible having a “biological” or “human” factor about it. This may be attributed to the fact that videos can simultaneously affect several senses. If you want to understand the science behind web trending towards video, the explanation of Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D. in Forbes’ article Why Online Video Is Vital For Your 2013 Content Marketing Objectives says it all.
According to Dr. Weinschek, there are four major reasons why people are drawn to videos: the fusiform facial area or the face easily catches and holds attention; the voice can effectively convey rich information and meaningful content; the emotions and the body language are pleasing to watch and infectious; and movements grab attention due to the human’s innate power of peripheral motion. For online marketers looking for a way to engage their visitors, the question is: How must you leverage this 100% human connection to video? The answer lies in what innovative option you will use to make a simple, but impactful video.
If video is not a passing fancy among content creators, then how will it affect future content marketing?
In Kissmetrics’ article The Future of Content Marketing Revealed, some ways to get ahead of competing pack are emphasized. There are three major points made; the content becoming big (long blog posts, giving away of free eBooks, and offering multiple lead magnets) and two stressed the importance of visual content such as use of infographics and videos.
In ReelSEO’s 2012 Online Video Marketing Survey Report, 81% of the respondents/online marketers said they used online video in their marketing efforts. Over two thirds of them (67%) use these videos to social networking sites, and about half (52%) used video in email marketing.
Moreover, approximately 64% of these marketers indicated they intend to spend more money in the coming years intended for technologies, platforms and services allied to the use of video for business marketing programs.
There are of course other statistics that may say otherwise, but for now it seems that content marketing is going beyond text.
Where is video content now?
“Video gives us the opportunity to wow our customers and this in turn delivers results. We have tested and proven that when someone watches our video reviews they’re 120.5% more likely to buy, spend 157.2% longer on the site and spend 9.1% more per order… ” (Matt Lawson, Head of Conversion at Appliances Online).
With all these stats, YouTube’s sensational rise to fame and the cheap video technologies, how can you not use it as a marketing tool? Many think that video is still an underused marketing tool at the moment, but not so in the coming days. Those into it are starting to enjoy improved SEO rankings, site engagement and customer conversion. Maybe you just found a way for your visitors to stay little bit longer on your site.