The Blue Ocean Strategy

I read this book several years ago, and it was vital in shifting how I thought about our company and how we compete in the marketplace. I was also a particularly receptive audience to the primary lesson: differentiation. I have a screw loose somewhere that has always forced me to do things in a unique way or to make something mine. Not so much as reinventing every wheel, but for some reason, I could never just do things the same way as everyone else.

The gist of the book is that to succeed and grow in business, you must move out of the competitive red water and into open blue ocean. Identify an opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competitors, draw those lines with messaging and branding, and then own the new open channel you created.

When we launched Pagely in 2009 we had the market all to ourselves, a blue ocean. Within a few years, there were a dozen or so competitors all saying the same things. Many of them were massive companies moving into the space, or well funded VC backed companies hellbent on growth at all costs. In this very, very red ocean, we had to ask ourselves how we were going to survive as a revenue-funded small team.

We elected to seek open water and over the course of a few years we re-positioned our brand, revamped our service, and began to target a different segment of the widening channel. We left the volume driven B2C segment to everyone else and focused on the needs of value-driven B2B, higher education, media, and enterprise companies with a flexible and high-touch approach. That kicked off a multiyear run of growth for our company and most likely saved us from sputtering out.

Your company’s unique selling proposition should be defined by you, not by your competition who will happily paint you into a disadvantaged position if you let them. The compelling narrative of your story can aid your buyer in selecting your firm out of many. In a side-by-side comparison of solution providers in your space, what makes your firm stand out?

Like this content? Meet Pagely.

During my keynote I described our journey to discover and sail to new blue oceans and cited how in my mind the new block editor in WordPress v5 is an example of this process. In order to stay relevant and continue the WordPress OSS dominance in the CMS space, it had to modernize a bit and seek a novel way to differentiate from a growing list of competitive platforms. There is disagreement within the community if the new block editor was the right thing to do, or was implemented correctly, but I believe something is better than nothing to keep WordPress relevant.

As business owners, we always need to be thinking about the future, and a key question to answer is how we’ll stay competitive and prosperous. The last time we asked this question the answer we came up with was NorthStack, a new service we’ll be launching in the coming weeks.

In the next part of this series, I’d like to look at how we empower our team to be successful. For now, please check out the video below and let me know your thoughts.

Originally published at pagely.com.

Blue Oceans. Notes on Joshua Strebel’s WCPHX Keynote presentation (Part 2) was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

These are things every business leader, at every level of the company, should be aware of. They impact our perceptions and decision-making processes, even when we think we’re being objective and logical.

Bias

One of the topics I explored was Bias. Specifically how Authority, Attribution, and Survivorship bias may influence our experience working in business and participating in communities. I wove these topics into the presentation (though, I’m not sure how effectively).

Authority Bias

We tend to explicitly trust conference speakers, or anyone in some capacity of leadership or authority. We assume what they say is genuine and true, and we may not critically question their agenda. This is authority bias. Most thinking people have a pretty well-tuned BS detector when it comes to politicians and the media, but they may let their guard down in other areas.

To illustrate this I used myself as the first example. I shared my thoughts on the market positioning of various players in the WordPress hosting space, and then acknowledged that those competitors may not see it the same way.

Since I was on stage as an authority figure at that moment, the audience may have been influenced by my message. I closed this section by asking the audience where we may be failing to question the veracity of affiliate-driven hosting reviews and the decisions around the feature roadmap and future of the WordPress platform.

Unchecked authority bias inside of organizations can lead to bad decision making and groupthink. Inside of Pagely, I expect our teams to ask the why questions of me and their team leads. Asking why a decision was made, or why it was made a certain way, is important for short-circuiting groupthink and averting wasted time and resources on pet projects or ideas.

Attribution Bias

The downside of asking the why questions of someone and attempting to gain clarity on their agenda is that it is a great opportunity for attribution bias to creep in from the person being questioned. As human beings, it’s easy to wrongly attribute an aggressive or negative intention to the person asking the question. It’s also easy to fall into a defensive position and ignore the validity of questions we don’t like or, even worse, insult the character of the person asking.

To illustrate this to the audience I asked some uncomfortable questions about the future of WordPress and whether its popularity has peaked and it may be declining. To support my questions, I cited some quotes from dissatisfied community members. Acknowledging that in that moment the audience may be considering the audacity of a speaker at their community event questioning the direction of that same community, I stated my intentions were good and asked the audience to consider how not asking these questions may impact their current and future livelihood. Sometimes it’s easier to just go along with what seems like a good thing, and not even consider the possibility of things taking a turn for the worse.

Survivorship Bias

I catch myself often saying something like “I did it, it’s not that hard” and every time I do that I am demonstrating my own survivorship bias. There were so many points in time where it could have gone bad, or worse, for Pagely. So many times when things could have not worked out.

In those alternate timelines our company may have died early. Sometimes we don’t consider all the near misses we survived and take a meaningful lesson away from the experience — but usually we do. Survivorship bias may also play a roll in your company in that dreaded “that’s the way we have always done it,” meme everyone groans about. Be careful not to let a bad or outdated process continue just because it survived up to this point (which may be long past its usefulness).

I touched on this point by sharing with the audience a bone-headed mistake I recently made. Ultimately we survived the mistake, of course, and I encouraged the audience to go out there and break stuff (an analogy for making mistakes while learning). I told them it won’t be fatal to them or their business. This is my own survivorship bias on full display.

Being Your Own Best Cheerleader

Like this content? Meet Pagely.

“Fake it ’til you make it” is an overused reframe commonly thrown around. I feel that phrase is disingenuous. You cannot fake the consequences of failure. They’re very real. However, to be an entrepreneur you have to be a bit self-delusional. Somehow you have to find the hope and conviction that things are going to work out okay. Finding that conviction can be very hard when faced with the long odds of success and the inevitable landmines along your journey.

So, it helps to be your own best cheerleader, and find something to cheer about, even when there’s nothing worth cheering about. This can sometime lead to what the interwebs refers to as #hustleporn, or the celebration (and validation) of the 80-hour-a-week grind of the perpetual startup ‘bro’. Don’t be that person, but do celebrate your successes. Sometimes that success may just be mustering the energy to keep going.

In a follow up post I’ll explore some of the other topics I covered in the presentation, like market positioning and blue oceans. Stay tuned for that, and in the meantime please watch the video below. I’d love to hear what you think.

Originally published at pagely.com.

Bias and Self Delusion. Notes on Joshua Strebel’s WCPHX Keynote Presentation (Part 1) was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In our case, at Pagely, this ethos guides everything we do. As our Head of Customer Success, Kris LaGraff, puts it; our core value is basing our success on the customers success, we’re all on the same team.

Why Are Customer Support Expectations Changing?

These changing expectations are due, at least in part, to the rise of both e-commerce, SaaS, and social media. In a sense, the customer experience never ends–and modern brands have an obligation to honor that experience on the customer’s terms.

How Have Customer Support Solutions Changed?

As consumers’ customer support expectations have changed, the solutions deployed by brands eager to maintain and improve relationships with their customers have evolved in profound ways.

Customer Support Personalization

Personalization is important because 84% of customers say that being treated like a human being is incredibly important to them. That said, treating customers like a number is a terrific way to lose business. Personalization acknowledges the humanity of your customer.

When it comes to Pagely, Kris, our Head of Customer Success says, “we believe in building trust through human interaction rather than canned automated responses. Each support case is unique and should be addressed accordingly which automation fails to achieve.”

• Modern customers expect interactions to be conducted on a personal level–so ensuring your customer support representatives emphasize the little things (such as getting the customer’s name right) is important.
• It’s also important for customer support representatives to have a thorough understanding of the customer’s journey up to the point of their current contact. Tracking how past interactions have been resolved is essential.
• In digital spaces, customers expect brands to interact on a personal level. This can mean exchanging emails or direct messages. Even when these messages are auto-generated, customers expect them to be personal and helpful.

No Tiered Support

This aspect is especially important for software and technology providers who handle aspects of a customer’s business that can make or break their success. Today it’s simply unacceptable to filter a customer through a tiered support system, having them meet someone at the beginning of the interaction who can’t actually solve their problem. Tierless support means:

• Your customer speaks to a skilled technician or support representative the very first time they reach out. They aren’t juggled between multiple staff members, needing to repeat their question or concern multiple times, and they are put on the path towards a solution immediately.
• Your support team is staffed efficiently. You don’t waste resources on tier one support staff, because you know they don’t offer the best experience for your customers.
• Customers know that when they need something from you, it will be handled quickly. They know that they’ll speak with someone first who understands their problem and, more importantly, understands how to solve it.

“By utilizing a tier-less support system we can provide expert knowledge efficiently with little to no escalation delays,” Kris, of Pagely, adds.

Multiple Mediums for Contact

Today’s customers also expect you to meet them where they are. According to one study, 60% of consumers will change contact medium based on nothing more than what they happen to be doing. This means that effective customer support solutions need to have several options; customers need to be able to reach out and receive a response through multiple mediums. Modern customers typically expect to get a response from:

• Social Media: Most brands have a social media presence, and customers do expect a full customer support experience on each and every platform, whether initial contact messages are sent via direct message or through mentions, tagging, or hashtags.
• Website Contact Forms: Your website has always been a good medium for customers to reach out to your brand. Modern customers expect contact forms to work perfectly on both the mobile and desktop versions of your website. They also expect contact forms to be easy to find.
• Live Chat: There was a time when calling a customer support representative was the most expedient way for a consumer to connect with a brand. But today, many customers prefer chat-based options.

The more mediums through which your brand can offer customer support, the more likely you are to meet your customers on their terms and improve the overall experience. It’s important to closely track all of those mediums and ensure they’re staffed appropriately to the level of demand your brand experiences.

A 24/7 Customer Support Experience

A brick-and-mortar retail store is typically open for a set number of hours every day. In the past, this meant that retailers would only need to provide customer support during those hours. But modern consumers expect 24/7 customer support. When they use the chat option on your website, for example, it doesn’t matter to the customer whether it’s 3 p.m. or 1 a.m.; they want to know someone is listening.

This isn’t always going to be possible, but it’s difficult to fault the customer for the expectation. After all, if they can make a purchase on your website at 1 a.m., why shouldn’t they expect to receive customer support when something goes wrong?

The solution that many brands have come to rely on is automation. There are numerous automation solutions available today, especially for brands that rely on WordPress for their websites, which offer easy chat plugins. Customers expect to at least be notified that their communications have been received, and they know that it’s best practice for the company to respond in less than twenty-four hours.

Customers Expect a Rapid Response

It’s safe to say that not only do modern customers expect 24/7 customer support, they also expect rapid responses to any queries or communications. It’s true that most customers will give brands something like twenty-four hours to provide customer support in a digital space. But that’s a minimum expectation.

Most businesses want to use customer support experiences to improve a customer’s loyalty to a brand. This can only be accomplished when customer support exceeds the consumer’s expectations. There are several ways that you can improve on the response time to customer support inquiries:

• Ensure that staffing levels are appropriate. Good customer support often requires a human touch.
• Automate as much of the process as you can. However, avoid linking customers directly to an FAQ page as a customer experience solution–most customers will find this immensely frustrating and give up on the process and your brand in one fell swoop.
• Respond to a customer immediately even if you need time to resolve their issue. Customers like to know you’re working on it, even if it might take some time to see results.
• Use a variety of means to communicate with customers. For example, a direct message on social media may be a faster way to get in touch with your customer than leaving a response on a thread.

Data Protection

You might not think about data protection and security as part of your suite of customer support solutions, but consumers certainly do. Fifty-nine percent of customers believe their information is vulnerable, even in good hands such as yours. That means customers expect you to reassure them that their data is safe.

• Be transparent about how you use data at every stage of interaction with your customers. Customers do expect you to use their data in some way; just tell them how.
• Allow customers to opt out of data collection during the customer support experience. You may need some extra infrastructure to accomplish this, but your customers will appreciate it.
• If your business experiences a data breach of any kind, have a plan in place for notifying customers with urgency and transparency.

Generally speaking, while today’s consumers might be worried about a data breach, they also understand that it happens from time to time. What they expect in terms of customer support is expediency in being notified regarding breaches that might impact them.

Leveling Up To Amazon’s Customer Support

According to a recent SalesForce survey, something like 69% of consumers expect an “Amazon-like” experience. To a certain extent, this means that your business is held to the same standard as the largest e-commerce operation in the world. Whether that’s fair or not is immaterial. It’s just a fact.

As you plan your customer support solutions, then, it’s worth thinking about ways in which you might emulate Amazon or other large operations that emphasize customer support. After all, if operations such as Amazon are shaping customer support expectations, it’s only natural to look to them for solutions.

Embrace Social Media

Perhaps no single factor has contributed more to changing customer support norms than social media. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms have revolutionized how consumers perceive customer support and engage with brands. That’s why modern businesses need to:

• Monitor social media mentions. Many customers will use Twitter or Facebook, for example, as a primary channel to contact brands. Every public complaint is an opportunity for your brand’s customer support to shine–but a misstep here could be costly to your reputation.
• Most social media platforms also provide a means to direct message customers. Changing conversations to these direct messages is a good strategy when consumers have particularly personal complaints.
• Ensure that your business has a presence on all major social media channels. Customers will expect your brands to be there and be active.

Improving Modern Customer Support on WordPress

Managing customer support expectations in the age of 24/7 social media can be challenging for a business of any size. That’s why it’s vital that brands take advantage of every opportunity their technology infrastructure allows. When your business leverages the power of WordPress, several significant advantages become immediately apparent.

The most potent of those advantages is the the endless list of plugins and integrations. In this case, we’re highlighting Zendesk’s WordPress integration. Zendesk for WordPress, allows users to:

• Respond to customer support requests across multiple channels, including various social media platforms, from one centralized location.
• Monitor customer support responses.
• Use chat services to provide immediate customer support to consumers.
• Gather data and analytics on customer support metrics.

Zendesk is only one such WordPress plugin, of course. There is a wide variety of options, and businesses will each have individualized needs based on performance, niche, and infrastructure.

The advantage to most of these plugins is significant. First, they leverage your central and already-active content management system. This means you can introduce much-needed efficiency into your customer support solutions.

Second, WordPress plugins of this stature are typically well vetted and reviewed, meaning your brand’s operation can hit the ground running with new and improved customer support solutions.

Meeting Customer Support Expectations

This topic is so important to us at Pagely, in particular, because top-notch customer support is the ultimate driver behind every single thing we do. We’re only happy when our customers are happy, and that starts with the support we provide.

Customer support expectations have changed wildly just in the past couple of years. Customers expect 24/7 responses. They expect fast resolution. And they expect you to notice when they’re publicly unhappy on social media. Technology has made the customer support game more challenging and less forgiving.

But in some ways, customer support hasn’t changed that much at all. Customers still demand to be respected; they want to be treated like more than a number. They want that human touch, no matter how big your brand or business happens to be. In that sense, customer support expectations have remained steady throughout the decades.

You simply have bold new ways to deliver customer support solutions and your business needs to be ready to take advantage of them.

“Anytime our WordPress sites are down we lose money. When reliability became an issue at our previous host we knew there was only one place to turn: Pagely.” — Carl Hancock CEO/Founder — RocketGenius

Originally published at pagely.com.

Expectations From Customer Support In Today’s Top Brands was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Because the fact is that, on a long enough timeline, disaster will happen. A thorough, comprehensive business continuity plan can help your business maintain operational effectiveness while weathering the storm. In this post we’ll go through:

What Is Business Continuity?

The term business continuity refers to how your business maintains operations through or after a disaster, calamity, or crisis. These days, most businesses are serious about learning how a disaster may impact either a brick-and-mortar location or internet and cloud-based operations.

Though cloud-based services do have built-in redundancies, they are still susceptible to natural disasters and malicious actors, necessitating a business continuity plan for web-based operations. In fact, 90% of business have experienced unexpected downtime of some kind. And these unexpected outages cost companies an average of $1.55 million a year.

A business continuity plan will:

• Take into account all known vulnerabilities to the operation of your business.
• Plan for continued operations in the face of a crippling disaster.
• Take into account the needs and limitations of technology and human resources.
• Focus on speedy recovery from a disaster.

If you aren’t sure where to start with your business continuity plan, templates are widely available.

Business Continuity and Disaster Preparedness Plans

It’s worth noting that business continuity plans should be distinct and separate from your disaster-preparedness plans, though the two are related. Disaster planning is designed to address the short-term needs of your business in the event of a disaster — it will help you navigate through a hurricane and its immediate aftermath, for example.

But a business continuity plan extends beyond that, addressing medium- and longer-term business operations while infrastructure is rebuilt or repaired. If, for example, a data center is struck by a wildfire, how will your employees gain access to backup data in order to continue work? What will be the best way to rebuild operations once your infrastructure is back in place?

Common Elements of a Business Continuity Plan

Every business continuity plan will be different, as you’ll want to tailor the plan specifically to your business. However, most business continuity plans will include the following:

• Identification of the planning committee: These are the people who will be spearheading your plan.
• Business impact analysis: This is a thorough analysis of how any given disaster or downtime might negatively affect your business.
• Risk mitigation steps: What steps can you take before disaster strikes to limit the possibility of downtime?
• Continuity strategies: What are your overall strategies for ensuring business continuity? What are your strategic goals?
• Thorough business continuity plans: Your plans, in as much detail as possible.
• Training steps: How you’re going to train your employees to ensure your continuity plans are carried out effectively.
• Test reporting: All business continuity plans need to be tested, and the results of those tests recorded for future analysis.

This outline can become the foundation for your plan, but be sure to focus on steps that might be unique to your enterprise or vertical.

Business Continuity Best Practices for 2019

Today, more businesses are fully distributed than ever before, like Pagely. Employees who work remotely are commonplace. And there’s more data in the cloud than would have been possible to conceive of ten years ago. This has many perks, but can also complicate both business continuity best practices and fundamental disaster planning if not taken into consideration in the planning process.

That’s why it’s essential for your plan to be forward-looking. These best practices for 2019 are designed for just that purpose.

Leverage the Cloud

The cloud has become a ubiquitous term, but all it really means is off-site digital data storage. When it comes to enacting a business continuity strategy, there are several significant benefits to the cloud:

• Cloud storage is almost always redundant. Your data can be stored on backup servers in multiple locations separated by thousands of miles, making it very unlikely that you’ll ever lose total access to your data.
• In the event that you lose access to your primary data storage, remote backups can be easily integrated with your system to provide seamless redundancies.
• Cloud services can be accessed via mobile hotspots if local internet access infrastructure has been damaged by a natural disaster.
• Data hosted offsite in multiple locations is a robust defense against malicious actors who may use cyberattacks to derail your business.

The degree to which your business relies on the cloud could, in theory, provoke some new vulnerabilities. But defenses to those vulnerabilities are relatively easy to build into your plan, and the benefits that the cloud can provide far outweigh the risks of any potential vulnerabilities.

Leverage Automation for Disaster Planning

Complex businesses, enterprises in particular, have a large number of moving parts — and it can be difficult for a human being to monitor those assets continuously. That’s why most modern business continuity plans rely on automation as much as possible. This automation can be incorporated daily to provide your hosting environment with a seamless backup in the event of a disruption.

Automation is typically employed:

• To continuously monitor the health of systems, both digital and analog.
• To proactively monitor the readiness state of backup systems.
• To instantly react to interruptions, seamlessly moving from primary to backup systems.
• To reroute data in the event of a disaster or interruption.
• To back up data on a regular (if not constant) basis.
• To protect data backups.

Automation is, of course, a rather large umbrella. Bouncing back from a disaster is going to be far easier with a plan that appropriately and proportionally leverages automation in digital and cloud-based systems.

Businesses that rely on WordPress website foundations have an additional advantage, in that automation plugins such as SiteStillUp and Super Monitoring are relatively easy to download and install into your digital environment. A WordPress-based system can give you more automation options and make those options easier to implement.

To take that one step further, businesses on WordPress that utilize managed hosting can typically rely on their provider to monitor their sites and provide alerts when necessary.

Perform Due Diligence on Third-Party Software

If you’re relying on the cloud and on automation as part of your business continuity plan, it’s likely that you’re relying on a patchwork of third-party software, tools, and solutions. Your business is not unique in this respect, as almost any business with a sizeable digital footprint is going to to be in a similar situation.

That’s why it’s important to thoroughly examine any third-party tool or software from two angles:

• What happens to the business when third-party software fails? What are your backup plans if, for example, your shared host suffers from a cyberattack or your ecommerce plugin encounters a significant error? Each third-party tool must be evaluated for its possible impact on your business, in terms of both isolated issues and cascade failures.
• How can third-party software be incorporated into my plan? In some ways, third-party plugins, software, and tools can be seen as a kind of redundancy in the event of a disaster — they represent aspects of your business that will continue running even if your primary web services or brick-and-mortar locations are compromised. In such an event, third-party tools can be a significant asset for your business continuity.

Invest in Full Backups for All of Your Critical Data

These days, data drives business. So planning to protect, back up, and access your data in the event of a disaster or emergency is a vital part of your business continuity plan. Without that data, your business could grind to a halt or find itself dealing with a significant data setback in addition to a natural disaster.

That’s why most plans emphasize the importance of creating several backups of your critical data. These backups should be complete, reliable, and independent. The more up-to-date your backups are, the more insulated from interruptions your business will be.

Complete, reliable, and independent data backups can also protect your business from extortion-based cyberattacks, in which malicious actors infiltrate your system and hold it ransom (your data in exchange for a large sum of money).

Thankfully, this task can be accomplished somewhat easily by using WordPress plugins. When you’re operating a WordPress website, your business has access to powerful tools and plugins that can help you backup your data in safe, accessible, and robust venues.

Plan for Cyberattacks

Disaster planning has always been a significant part of Business Continuity best practices. The danger of a wildfire, hurricane, or tornado is that they are unpredictable. But modern Business Continuity plans also have to take into account the rise of cyberattacks.

In many ways, cyberattacks function in the same way that natural disasters do: they are unpredictable and can cripple your entire operation without warning. Business continuity in the event of a cyberattack means special planning:

• Identify weaknesses in your cybersecurity suite, shoring up those weaknesses where possible.
• Ensure all of your data is sufficiently backed up and isolated.
• Develop, test, and practice procedures for identifying and coping with cyberattacks of various types.
• Ensure that all employees know what to do in the event of a cyberattack.
• Establish processes for recovering from a cyberattack and getting your business running again.

Understand and Embrace Virtualization

We’ve spent a significant amount of time talking about backup data. But virtualization offers your business the ability to backup your entire operation. That’s why virtualization is such a potent tool in the business continuity best practices toolbox.

Establishing a virtual environment means that you can run your operations from anywhere. Your employees can, for example, continue taking orders and providing customer service. Your customers, additionally, can continue interacting with your web presence.

The idea behind a virtual environment is that your employees and customers have an experience so authentic that they never even notice that your primary operation has been compromised in some way. Often, this is something that will be automatically included in WordPress hosting services, but it’s still important to incorporate that information into your business continuity plan.

Test, Test, Test

No plan is going to be perfect. That’s why testing your plan in a variety of ways is essential. Business continuity tests can help you see new opportunities for improvement, train staff and employees, and keep your business continuity plan up to date. The two most common test types are:

• A structured walkthrough, in which each team member (often as a group) walks through their particular roles.
• A disaster simulation test is essentially a role-playing and simulation exercise. All of the necessary equipment will be procured and on site, and participants will behave as though enacting a real plan.

Tests often reveal opportunities for improvement that are difficult to see otherwise, and are thus an incredibly vital step in the process. That’s why they’re part of our list of business continuity best practices.

Your Business Continuity Plan

Your business continuity plan is about so much more than disaster planning. Your plan is about what you do after the disaster, how you help your business stay above water and maybe even gain a competitive advantage.

Disasters are going to happen — and they’re going to be unpredictable (that’s why you engage in disaster planning in the first place). But these business continuity best practices can help your business bounce back fast. Thankfully, preparing for business continuity is also easier than ever, thanks to a wide selection of WordPress plugins and managed hosting providers suited to your business and technology needs.

Learn how to keep your WordPress safer with Pagely’s comprehensive solutions.

Originally published at pagely.com.

How to Develop a Business Continuity Plan was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Still, there are those who are making it happen. We interviewed nine prominent freelance writers in the tech, startup, and WordPress spaces and asked them to share insights into how they got things going. We asked about business lessons they’ve learned, as well as their best piece of advice for other writers.

As a bonus before we get started, we went a step further and asked our head of content what she looks for when considering freelancers for the Pagely blog. Here’s what Lizzie Kardon, editor of the Pagely blog, had to say about hiring freelancers.

“I’m always looking for writers that promote the content I publish as they would something on their own blog. Taking that extra step shows me you know about the content promotion side of things in addition to just the writing. Some examples would be posting the article to your followers, answering questions on places like Quora with backlinks to the piece, adding insightful comments from the piece to other blogs, etc. To me, that’s a win-win, and gets my attention every time. It’s a great way to stand out in a big pool of freelance writers, and a surefire way to get hired a second time after an initial writing engagement.”

And now, here are nine tips from the pros on how to make a name for yourself as a freelance writer.

1. Nurture Your Professional Relationships

It should go without saying that you need to be on your best behavior when writing for a publication. Ask for guidelines, humbly accept requests for revisions, and respect deadlines. In addition, being friendly and keeping in touch with business contacts can go a long way toward building your future.

“Make sure to ask if an organization has style guidelines you need to follow. Not all of them will, but if they do, you want to make sure you’re writing in a tone and style consistent with the organization. Even if they don’t have one, you’ll look more professional for asking,” says Carrie Dils, freelancer coach, WordPress developer, and consultant.

Maintaining contacts can lead to new introductions and new partnerships as well. Carrie says, “Build relationships and leverage your network to find gigs. Cold emails (especially ones that are obviously a template) have a low return and worse–they turn people off.”

Carrie Dils has been a guest speaker at several WordCamps and has been interviewed by some of the biggest names in the WordPress community and elsewhere. She also hosts a weekly WordPress business podcast at Officehours.fm and is a course instructor for Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning.

2. Be a Master Interpreter

Being a successful writer is about more than mastering good sentence structure and grammar. When you’re working freelance and producing content for clients, you need to keep them in mind just as you would your end reader.

According to Joyce Grace, a professional web copywriter and WordPress website provider, “The job is not so much about the ability to write, but rather, the ability to research. That means being a good listener, with an inquisitive mind. The job is to hear a client’s [needs], get inside their head, and figure out what they want to convey.”

She goes on to say, “At the same time, it requires being attuned to the end reader’s perceptions. The thing that makes writing challenging is the need to do justice to the communication aspect of the piece. Meaning, both sides need to be clearly understood. The audience needs to understand the client, and the client needs to understand what the audience wants to read.”

Joyce Grace was named one of the Top 20 WordPress Bloggers You Need to Follow and one of 25 Awesome WordPress Women to Watch. She has written for a number of popular WordPress and e-marketing publications.

3. Develop Your Own Style

Many times you will be writing on a topic that has already been covered extensively. This is where developing a unique voice and style will set you apart.

Tom McFarlin, a WordPress Developer, shared that “You have to play the long game and you have to make sure that your content, although hitting on the same topics as some others, has your own unique take on it. If someone else has done the same, then that’s okay. Your perspective may be the same, different, or there may be overlap. And if there’s the latter, why not quote and link back to their article for credit?”

It’s also important to write in a way that mirrors how you speak. It can come off as disingenuous if the two are totally incomparable. Tom says, “Despite what we’re often taught, writing like we speak goes a long way whenever people meet us and hear us speak at events such as WordCamps. If we write like we speak (and we speak well), then they can go back and read our previous articles in the tone, inflection, and voice that we use when we speak.”

Tom McFarlin was voted Microsoft MVP four years in a row. He has contributed to Smashing Magazine, has written and produced numerous courses for Tuts+, and was the technical editor for Smashing WordPress, 4th Edition.

4. Read, Read, Read

One of the greatest things you can do for your writing career is to read the writing of others. And not just the same type of work that you produce. You can benefit from reading a wide array of literature. Reading the work of others will not only inspire you but will help you develop your own style.

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs, shared, “Read, read, read. BUT, read like a writer. Notice how stories begin, and how they end. Notice how sentences start. Notice structure and word choice and voice. Notice punctuation, or the lack of. Keep a pen in your hand, and make notes in the margins. I’ve learned more by reading like a writer than I ever could in a classroom.”

Ann Handley is a Wall Street Journal best-selling author and publishes a bi-weekly newsletter all about leveling-up your writing and marketing skills.

5. Quantity Less Important Than Quality? Not Always.

Many people will tell you that when it comes to your writing business, focus on quality over quantity. Hillel Fuld, dubbed Israel’s top marketer, believes that actually, both are important. “Consistency is key. Volume is key. Quality is also super important but if I had to choose between a wow piece once a month or ten great pieces, I choose B.” Notice that he doesn’t say to write several average pieces, but rather to write well while writing often.

Wondering how to get your blog ranking on the first page of a Google search? The answer is time and consistency. It’s not going to happen overnight. Not only will your writing improve with practice, but your search engine ranking will too. Hillel says, “Write often. People like consistency. Google likes consistency. Just start and keep going. You won’t believe how powerful content can be on the internet.”

Hillel Fuld has worked with leading tech entrepreneurs, investors, and visionaries. His work has been published in some of the world’s top tech publications including TechCrunch, Venturebeat, Inc., Entrepreneur, The Next Web, and Business Insider. He’s also collaborated with global brands like Google, Oracle, and Huawei.

6. Develop a Plan of Action

If you want to write a New York Times bestseller, it’s important that you have a vision of how you’ll get there. Decide what kind of writer you want to be, and then find a mentor to guide you. That’s what Bob Cringely did.

Bob says, “Find someone who is already doing pretty much what you would like to do and study their work. For me, that person was a guy named Adam Smith, who founded New York magazine and Institutional Investor magazine, and wrote best-selling books about Wall Street, most notably The Money Game.”

“I wrote Adam a letter asking if I could take him to lunch. Thus began a friendship that lasted for thirty years until his death a couple years ago. He didn’t open any doors for me professionally, but he listened to me and answered my questions. And I answered his because that’s how mentor relationships evolve.”

“There’s a fiction that freelance writers mature in a vacuum. The truth is that we’re molded by our work, by our readers, and by the people we meet and connect with along the way.”

Robert X. Cringely was a columnist for InfoWorld for eight years. He is also the author of the best-selling book Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, and Worth to name a few. He has also created documentaries for PBS and Maryland Public Television.

7. Write Consistently

If you’re waiting to try to publish something until you feel you’re at the top of your writing game, you’ll never get started. Your skill will improve over time. So write often and develop a thick skin because you’re likely to get some criticism and, yes, rejection. Take it in stride. See it as a stepping stone to becoming a better writer.

“Writing as a skill can be developed over time. We tend to think writers are born, and truth is, for some, it comes more naturally. But as long as you write, write, and write more, and also have an open mind to feedback, even sometimes criticism, you will get better,” according to Bob Dunn, a professional blogger and podcaster.

Bob Dunn has been a designer for twenty years and in the WordPress space since its inception. Bob blogs about e-commerce and various WordPress matters over at BobWP.

8. Write with the End in Mind

It’s important to understand the end game when it comes to your writing. What is it you want the reader to feel or do after reading your piece? Keeping that question in mind will help you focus your writing and adapt your tone to suit your end goals. Mark Zahra of WPMayor, one of the oldest and most popular WordPress resources on the web, explains, “Remember that you’re writing for the reader, not yourself. Depending on where you’re writing and for what audience, you should adapt the phrasing and tone that you use.”

He says, “Always keep in mind what you’d like the end result to be. Are you looking for people to engage in the comments? Do you want them to convert and buy what you’re trying to promote? For me personally, re-reading my work from the reader’s perspective has helped me to figure out where I may have gone off course.”

Mark Zahra is also the co-host of the Mastermind.fm podcast, which is about building successful businesses on the WordPress platform.

9. Learn Efficiency Hacks

When you first start writing, the time involved may seem overwhelming. Remember that writing gets easier the more you do it. It helps if you can develop some tricks for working more efficiently. You may find that batching certain elements of your work to be the most effective method.

As Chris Lema, of ChrisLema.com, explains, “Writing gets easier and faster as you do it more–what once took six hours becomes something that takes one hour. So just keep writing. Don’t try to do two things at once. Don’t write AND research. Don’t write AND edit. Just do one thing at a time. Do a lot of research. Do a lot of writing. Do a lot of editing. But don’t mix and match. It will speed up your writing.”

There you have it, straight from the mouths of nine of the best freelance writers in WordPress today.

Some of these suggestions might seem obvious to you, while others you may not have considered before. My take on it is that you’re not likely to experience a breakthrough inside your comfort zone. So make yourself a little uncomfortable by leveraging any of these nine strategies that seem like a challenge to you.

As a new writer myself, I just want to say that it has been an honor to write this post. I consider the advice shared here to be invaluable and I am very appreciative of everyone who took time out of their busy schedule to participate in this. Thank you all!

Originally published at pagely.com.

Jumpstart Your Freelance Writing Business With 9 Professional Tips was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The U.S. Travel Association has been tracking the State of American Vacation for years. Specifically, it takes a look at how vacations (or a lack thereof) affect the average U.S. worker.

While this survey only pertains to the U.S., there’s something to be said for the findings and how they tap into executives’ innate concerns with leaving work behind for vacation.

But let’s start off with something positive, shall we? Take, for instance, this table that depicts the main reasons why people go on vacation:

Spending time with family, relaxation, fun, experiencing something new. Those are all fantastic reasons to get away, especially if they lead to improved health, greater productivity, strengthened focus, and the always-important opportunity to catch up on sleep.

That said, there are people greatly concerned with the consequences of taking time away from the job:

Let’s zero in on the second and third most common reasons:

• “My workload is too heavy.”
• “Lack of coverage at work.”

As it pertains to WordPress specifically, there are ways to get around these concerns. And that’s likely why you’re reading this article: you want to know how to prepare a WordPress site so that security, performance, and SEO aren’t a problem (or stressing you out) when you leave for vacation.

So, let’s dig into this and uncover some ways you can prepare a WordPress site for your vacation.

Not all vacation time leads to stress reduction and increased levels of productivity upon returning to work. A study out of the Netherlands in 2010, and one from the Institute of Applied Positive Research in 2013, support the theory that a stressful vacation can negate the benefits of the trip in the first place.

Let’s say you schedule a two-week trip with your family. You’re busy trying to get everything off your plate before you leave, but you’re still nervous about your time away and how it might impact your business.

You know that traffic surges aren’t uncommon this time of year and you don’t want issues with performance to hurt business in your absence.

Or, perhaps, it’s security that has you feeling anxious about your trip. You’re currently the only one monitoring your network’s security and you don’t want it to go unchecked.

Then, there’s the SEO piece. You’ve gotten into a good rhythm, keeping keywords up-to-date and fresh content on the blog. Will this weeks-long vacation put a damper on your progress in search?

These are all valid concerns. After all, it’s not like a website can look after itself… can it?

Well, sort of! There are resources you can depend on to watch over and maintain your site in your absence. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to prepare a WordPress site for your time off the clock.

Performance Preparation Tips

Loading speeds aren’t something you want to mess around with on your WordPress site. As this Kissmetrics infographic explains, every second your site fails to load completely greatly costs you in conversions:

By now, you likely have a thorough performance optimization system in place. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to do.

1. Ditch Slow Plugins

There are a number of WordPress plugin best practices you should abide by from the very get-go. That said, it might be worth a quick rundown of your site’s currently installed plugins to see if there aren’t any outliers that could slow it down while you’re away.

If your website is hosted by Pagely, review the list of plugins and themes that are discouraged. For other web hosting companies, you can try to find the same kind of list by searching through the documentation for “banned plugins” or “discouraged plugins”.

If you can find a suitable replacement for a plugin that’s currently a resource hog or that works inefficiently, install it a couple of weeks before your trip to give it some time to sit on your website while you monitor it for improved performance.

2. Review Your Caching Solution

For some WordPress users, a caching plugin is a necessity. With it, you can:

• Implement server, browser, and/or object-based caching.
• Use Gzip compression.
• Minify CSS and HTML.
• Combine CSS.
• Combine JavaScript.

But that’s not always the most efficient or reliable caching solution for a WordPress site.

If you really want to optimize your site for performance, and ensure it stays that way even when you’re gone, look to your web host’s caching solution. Pagely uses PressCache, also suggesting that users implement other performance enhancing tricks (like using Nginx and updating to HTTP/2).

3. Clean Up

Another way to quickly lighten the stress on your server is to clean up your files. If you’re not currently in the habit of doing so, at least give your WordPress site a good scrub before you leave town.

There are database cleanup plugins you could use for this task, but, as you’ll see in Pagely’s list of discouraged plugins, some of them can be problematic for performance. So, I’m recommending you use the old-fashioned way–and it’s really simple.

Here is what you need to target:

• Media: Go through your media folder and delete any images, videos, PDFs, or other uploaded content you’re not using.
• Plugins: Delete any plugins you don’t need. You might also want to quickly check on each in the WordPress repository to make sure they’re still supported and worth using.
• Themes: Unless you have a Multisite network, you really only need one WordPress theme. Anything not in use can be deleted.
• Pages and Posts: Pages or posts that you have no intention of publishing should be trashed. And, while you’re at it, remember to empty out the trash completely.
• Comments: If you leave comments in the queue for moderation, take time to go through them before you head out. Delete the ones you don’t want; publish the ones you do.

4. Put Your Site through the Wringer

The chances of your WordPress site getting hit with an unexpected surge of traffic while you’re away are pretty low. That said, you should still run a stress test beforehand to make sure it is prepared to handle whatever comes.

If stress testing isn’t currently part of your quality assurance process, then be sure to review QA tip #20.

Load Impact is a tool that Pagely recommends its customers use in conjunction with Pagely support. Just that peace of mind in knowing your site is prepared to handle a traffic surge can help you maintain a stress-free mindset while on vacation.

5. Get Uptime Monitoring

When going on vacation, try to completely disconnect from work. If you’re regularly reading emails, logging into WordPress, and checking in with your team, your mind will never be able to break away and fully enjoy wherever you are and whatever it is you’re doing. At Pagely, we’re all about that work/life balance.

That’s why you test and bolster your site’s performance beforehand.

However, let’s say your site goes down despite your best efforts to keep it up and running while you’re away.

If you host with Pagely we make it our prerogative to monitor, and do everything we can to prevent, downtime. However, we can’t say the same about very other WordPress host out there. So, to be safe, consider uptime monitoring services.

By signing up for an uptime monitoring service like Pingdom, you’ll be notified the second your site goes down. This leaves you free to enjoy your vacation and only engage with your web host or on-site team when it’s absolutely necessary.

Security Preparation Tips

Pagely already has a great action plan for WordPress security, so I hope you’ve taken time to read through it and implement these suggestions on your site. These include the usual suspects like using a security plugin, installing an SSL certificate, and more.

In the following list of security preparation tips, I want to focus on the tasks you should do right before vacation.

6. Review Your Security Protocols

It’s always good to review the security protocols configured for your WordPress site–this includes the security plugin you use in WordPress as well as any security your web host provides.

When reviewing your WordPress plugin, check to make sure all of the following are activated:

• Firewall
• Limited login attempts, strict password rules, and two-factor authentication to protect against brute force attacks
• Malware scanning
• Database monitoring
• Updated WordPress salts and security keys
• Real-time threat notifications (make sure your email address is the recipient)

Of course, don’t forget about security at the server level. Pagely’s PressARMOR hardens and protects our network, hardware, and WordPress apps with a primary focus on prevention and the mitigation of risk.

7. Set Stricter User Controls

There is a feature that comes with the iThemes Security plugin that makes it a good tool for anyone going on taking some time away.

It’s called “Away Mode”. Essentially, you are able to schedule when people are allowed to log into WordPress. This will not only provide extra protection against hackers, but it’ll ensure that users are in there when they’re supposed to be.

You should also do a quick sweep of your user list before leaving town. Just make sure that everyone that’s on there is supposed to be there and that they have been assigned the correct access levels.

8. Save a Backup the Day Before

Having scheduled backups for your WordPress site is an important part of any security plan. They ensure that, no matter what happens to the site, you can quickly restore it with just a click. Your web hosting plan should include these automated and scheduled backups. However, if they don’t, you can always install a WordPress plugin like UpdraftPlus to handle it.

Depending on how frequently you backup, you might not have a super recent version of your site saved. If that’s the case–say, if it’s over a couple weeks old–save a backup of your site the day before you leave. Then, store it outside of your server. This will put your mind at rest if you’re concerned about getting your site back online quickly while you’re away.

9. Automate Updates

There are bound to be a few updates for your theme or plugins, or even WordPress core, while you’re away. Since these updates fix performance and security issues, you need to make sure they’re handled correctly.

You have four options for this:

1. Offload the responsibility to a team member who will manually handle all updates.
2. Offload the responsibility to your managed WordPress host.
3. Hire a WordPress maintenance contractor for the time you’re going to be away.
4. Install an updates automation plugin like Automate.

Whichever option you choose, just make sure to start using it a few weeks in advance. You don’t want to entrust your updates to someone or something, only to find out the service was never activated.

10. Scan for Vulnerabilities

Your WordPress security plugin will already have a monitoring tool that runs on a schedule for you. That’s good as it should take care of this piece.

However, if you want to do a deeper dive into the state of your website to make sure it’s fully secured, I’d suggest performing a security scan. This way, you’ll receive a thorough assessment that either puts your mind at ease or gives you something tangible to fix before heading out on your trip.

SEO Preparation Tips

You might be wondering how you could possibly keep optimizing a WordPress site for search even when you’re not available to do anything to it. The key to most of this will be automation. You might even find some of these tips helpful for your continued SEO efforts.

11. Run through the SEO Checklist

Before you do anything else, run through the 2019 SEO Checklist for Webmasters. If anything is missing from the list, get it in place now.

Once you confirm that these SEO basics are in good working order, let’s talk about actively improving SEO when you’re not around.

12. Schedule Blog Posts Ahead of Time

Content marketing is an essential part of every business’s success in the digital age, so you likely have a blog publishing content regularly.

If you are the one responsible for writing content for it, or you have an active role in reviewing and approving all content submitted for it, don’t let your absence stop the flow of information. This means taking on a bit more work prior to your vacation, but it’ll be worth it for SEO purposes.

Schedule your posts to publish at future dates. You can do this one of two ways:

In the Publish widget inside of your Post, click on the “Edit” button next to the publication date.

You can change this to any date–past, present, or future–that you’d like. Once you’ve chosen the date and time, click on “Schedule”.

There’s always the option of using a WordPress plugin like CoSchedule or Nelio Content. This would be ideal if you have a larger team with which you want to coordinate your publication schedule. It’s also a good option if you need to schedule corresponding social media posts for each published blog.

13. Consider Aggregate Content from the Web

Let’s say you’re short on time leading up to your vacation and you don’t have anyone internally to cover the blog. You might want to consider aggregating content from the web.

You can do this is with an RSS feed aggregation tool. WP RSS Aggregator is a plugin that enables you to pull in unlimited RSS feeds from other blogs on the web. The free plugin won’t be enough for what you need it to do though.

With the Feed to Post extension, you can automate the conversion of that aggregated content into WordPress post format. In so doing, you’ll give readers a more seamless experience as they peruse the blog, which is now populated by your own custom content as well as content aggregated from others.

If you don’t want to publish content from others on your blog, you could at least consider using an RSS tool to keep your social calendar full, as an alternative.

14. Automate Social Sharing

Keeping your blog full of fresh, new content is only one part of keeping Google happy with your site. In order for your regularly updated site to continue performing well in search, more visitors need to find it and they need to stay on your site for longer.

One way to keep up? Social automation.

There are a couple of low cost ways to do this.

One requires the installation of a social sharing plugin like Jetpack. (If you’re going to use this, just remember to turn off all the other features you’re not using so it doesn’t cause too much of a drag on website performance.)

Jetpack’s social automation tool is really easy to use. Just as you scheduled blog posts under the Publish widget, so too can you automate the sharing of those posts on connected social media platforms. You can either rely on preconfigured messages (usually a combination of the blog title and URL) or you can customize each of them within the Publish widget.

Also consider Buffer, for scheduling social media posts ahead of time outside of WordPress.

Other Tips to Prepare a WordPress Site for Your Vacation

As I wrap up here, I want to leave you with a few general best practices for leaving your WordPress site in the hands of others when you take a vacation.

First, I strongly encourage you to plan your vacation as far in advance as possible. This includes preparing your security, performance, and SEO to keep running in your absence. It also includes notifying clients, partners, employees, and anyone else who would benefit from knowing that you’ll be away.

Not only does this give you more time to properly prepare a site (and your team), but it gives you a chance to enter into relaxation mode much sooner than the usual two days into vacation that it takes most people to unwind. Oh, and the fact that vacation planners attain a much greater happiness ROI than non-planners is a big reason to do so, too:

Second, I think having an actual person monitoring and managing your website is important. There is a lot that automation can do–and you should use it regardless to offset the burden on whoever is left in charge–but having someone to actively watch it will help you disconnect from work and relax.

If you haven’t yet hired a WordPress maintenance contractor or you don’t have managed WordPress hosting like Pagely, look into hiring a freelance assistant. They don’t have to do much; simply monitor your contact channels for reported issues and log into WordPress once a day to confirm there are no security or performance problems.

All in all, it’s important to trust the security and performance measures you have in place, as well as your team and the people behind the scenes. Everyone needs some time to get away, and worrying about your website really shouldn’t be a reason to stay home and burn out.

Originally published at pagely.com.

How to Prepare a WordPress Site for Your Vacation was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It wasn’t all that long ago that you bought software on a CD-ROM and someone from IT had to install it on your computer for you. In recent years, however, more and more businesses have moved away from this on-premises software model in favor of web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

In fact, according to BSCG research, 64% of small and medium businesses now rely on cloud-based technology to drive growth and boost their productivity. Additionally, 88% of businesses say they are considering investing in new SaaS solutions in the next 2–3 years.

While SaaS has been around for more than a decade now, it only reached maturity as once-resistant legacy software providers (take Microsoft and Oracle, for example) finally abandoned their outdated pricing, licensing and delivery models in favor of SaaS and cloud subscriptions, joining companies like Salesforce and Slack.

Worldwide, SaaS spending is on the rise — and is predicted to increase at an exponential rate. According to recent data by Gartner, final data for 2016 shows that SaaS revenue was far greater in 2016 than expected, reaching $48.2 billion. Last year SaaS revenue was projected to grow 21% to reach $58.6 billion, and grow to $71.2 billion in 2018, $84.8 billion in 2019 and reach $99.7 billion in 2020.

What’s driving this rapid growth? Convenience. SaaS saves organizations from having to install and run software on their own computers and in data centers, saving time, money and resources. There are also many other reasons that SaaS makes sense for businesses: flexible payments via subscriptions, scalable usage, and automatic updates and support.

In addition to SaaS maturing, there has also been growth in vertical SaaS solutions. Back in the late 1990s when Salesforce emerged as one of the first SaaS companies, horizontal solutions addressed general industry-agnostic business processes, such as CRM and accounting. With vertical SaaS, we’re now seeing a growing number of cloud solutions that provide industry-specific solutions that are not adaptive to other industries.

So what does 2018 hold for SaaS? While it’s not easy to predict what’s likely to happen in the future for such a dynamic market, there are some trends that are impacting the growth of SaaS this year.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

With the emergence of Amazon Alexa, Google Home and even Apple’s Siri over the past few years, these once infant technologies are finally growing up as the personal assistance space gets more competitive.

In fact, Amazon is investing big in the Echo and Alexa, the virtual assistant that goes with it: More than 5,000 people now work just on Alexa, according to David Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services.

Interestingly, the Alexa team is paying close attention to how people are using Alexa. Limp said the team is tracking how people use their devices over time and as new popular uses emerge, a new “single-threaded leader” is assigned to develop that aspect of the product. For example, when the team noticed people were using their Echoes as timers, this use got a team leader.

Chatbots are also becoming more prevalent, helped along by Google’s investment in the area. Last year, the search giant acquired API.ai, a bot management startup. And this year, Google launched a new service called Chatbase, which provides analytics and suggestions for how to “fix” bot experiences to make them better for users.

The technology is finally evolving past the novelty stage and we’re now seeing chatbots being integrated into existing platforms like Slack and Facebook’s Messenger. As TechCrunch explains, “These [services] tap into innovations in areas like natural language processing and machine learning to provide information and much more to users in a chat messaging format — a new way for users to interact with organizations and apps.”

While Google has mostly missed the boat on dominating AI in social media, it’s pushing forward with its Google Cloud services and integrating AI into its apps to help people work more efficiently. Using machine learning to aggregate vast amounts of data, Google has reached a point where apps can prompt users to open files at certain times of the day, and Google Calendar can automatically find the best time for office meetings.

While these advancements in artificial intelligence are hugely exciting, it’s important to note there are growing concerns as it becomes more predominant in technology advancement.

Mobile

Smartphones are an everyday part of our lives and our work, whether we’re invoicing clients using Freshbooks while on-the-go, joining a Skype call with colleagues who live in five different time zones, or accessing files via Dropbox or Google Docs.

Nearly half (43%) of small business owners use a smartphone as their primary device to run their operations, which is increasing the demand on the SaaS industry for mobile apps and “mobile first” solutions.

Customer demands and expectations have driven this change — we all expect everything to be available online, especially the younger generation of workers who have grown up using smartphones and expect to use them at work.

With worldwide sales of mobile phones still surging — Gartner predicts they’ll reach 2.1 million in 2019 — businesses that don’t prioritize cloud and mobile will be left behind.

Neumob, now part of Cloudflare, summed it up succinctly by saying the game has changed when it comes to SaaS in a mobile app world:

“The continued trend toward the mobilization of virtually everything is fast converging with a profound surge in the adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. The impact of Mobile-SaaS convergence is that organizations of all sizes are leveraging new, critical mobile applications that maximize employee productivity and spur business growth.”

There are three big obstacles for SaaS mobile apps according to the newly acquired Cloudflare team: user experience, development efficiency and app performance. These challenges will likely further steal the focus of companies next year due to the fact each of these obstacles has a huge impact on user retention in “mobile first” countries, as well as in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Just as word of mouth can help encourage adoption of a product, online reviews and testimonials can make or break an app. Just check out the Apple Store or Google Play Store for evidence of this. If an app is slow or difficult to use, users will simply delete it from their phones. But if an app is fast and performs well, users will happily leave a glowing review, encouraging other users to download the app.

Shifts From SaaS to PaaS

As SaaS companies grow and reach a certain level of adoption and maturity, the focus shifts from customer acquisition to customer retention. This has led to the rise of platform-as-a-service (PaaS), allowing companies to expand on their original product and enable customers to choose add-on apps and services.

One example is Salesforce and its Force.com platform, which is designed to simplify the development and deployment of cloud-based applications and websites. Another example is Hubspot, which is introducing collaborative spaces inside its CRM and task management tools.

In the WordPress space, WPMU DEV looks ripe to evolve into a PaaS. Originally a development company that sold single plugins, WPMU DEV switched to a SaaS membership model a few years ago and has since rapidly grown its suite of tools, including security, performance, optimization, backup and site management API services.

These are just a few example of SaaS providers that are focusing on providing PaaS to their customers, the ultimate goal being to take hold of the market in their niche. As more and more SaaS companies mature, we’ll see a greater number focusing on PaaS in the years to come.

Security and the Private Cloud

Security will continue to be an ongoing issue for SaaS, especially as GDPR comes into play and regulations on privacy are increased. As smartphone adoption continues to increase, it provides multiple points of entry for security breaches, exposing personal and enterprise networks alike. On top of this, remote workers expose companies to unencrypted wifi networks that are more vulnerable to hackers, something our Security team at Pagely makes sure to prevent.

Writing for Computerworld, security manager Mathias Thurman explains how shadow IT and and the “consumerization of IT” are a threat to corporate data. Employees at his company use more than 90 cloud-based SaaS apps — and those are the apps that he knows of. While many of the apps are corporate-sanctioned, meaning they’ve been through a selection process and identified as secure, Thurman says other apps, like GitHub and Skype, are “unsanctioned but tolerated.”

However, he said sometimes, he discovers employees are using apps only after he is invited to collaborate:

“An engineer introduced [a] free app to our network and was using it to share some fairly sensitive information regarding security weaknesses in our product. Although his intentions were good and the tool got the job done, it was a security nightmare. Authentication? Nonexistent. Encryption? Same story. The app uses http instead of https, and worst of all, everything shared to it gets indexed by Google, meaning it can be discovered by anyone.”

Smart service providers are making it their mission to serve up best in class security solutions, like our Secure WordPress Hosting at Pagely. For example, Pagely developed PressArmor, a security architecture that hardens and protects our network, hardware, and WordPress applications with a primary focus is on prevention and the mitigation of risk to clients. As such, it’s part of our promise to our customers that security is a given when they use our product.

Conclusion

If there’s one takeaway from this article, it’s this: SaaS companies are embracing innovation and change — knowing they can’t rely only on first-generation SaaS strategies if they want to keep growing. This year SaaS is set to become even more personalized as artificial intelligence continues to evolve and help solve people’s problems, mobile apps become even more relied upon for business productivity, and SaaS companies provide more secure solutions for customers.

We make light of some buzzword trends, but at Pagely it’s our job to stay connected and aware of where our community is headed.

Originally published at pagely.com.

4 SaaS Trends to Watch in 2018 was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Let’s play a quick round of Jeopardy!

Player: “I’ll take Sales Techniques for $1000”

Host: “Whereby a seller induces the customer to purchase more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons in an attempt to make a more profitable sale”

Player: “What is Up-Selling”

###

Up-Selling is probably the most ballyhooed tactic for increasing revenue in your business. It’s effective and often beneficial and even necessary to meet the requirements a prospect or client has given you.

But let’s talk about Down-Selling.

Down-selling is the art of narrowing a customer’s expectations and matching them more effectively with a solution that best fulfills their needs or desires.

Source

Down-Selling is about serving the customer, first and foremost. Listening to their needs, wants, desires, and recommending a solution (hopefully your company has a matching offer) that addresses those needs.

Down-Selling here at Pagely

We typically recommend our lowest priced VPS Hosting plan to a prospect that may be unsure what their resource needs are or will be in the future. We say “Let’s see how things go, and then you can grow into a larger plan as your needs justify.” — Committing to earn the customer’s future MRR growth.

There are times when a customer will come to us about ‘needing to upgrade for better performance,’ citing a ‘slow site’. Most of the time, their site is bypassing cache, but after a few moments with one of our support agents identifying and correcting the issue — no upgrade is needed. — We fix the issue instead of up-selling the plan — saving the customer money.

Over time, a customer may have added CDN add-ons of various sizes to accommodate the growth of their traffic profile. 50GB here, 100GB there, 2 more 50GB packs, etc. Our prices go down as your CDN purchase goes up. We periodically scan our customer base and will swap out the 4–5 individual add-ons, with a single, lower priced add-on has the same or more CDN bandwidth, but at a lower $ per GB — Saving the customer money.

Sometimes a customer’s site needs may change where raw computing power may become more important than High-Availability (HA). If cost is a concern, we typically move them out of a more expensive HA setup into single instance plan with the higher computing resources required. — The customer gains a more stable site + saves money.

Stop, Pagely, you’ll go broke!
Yes, some readers may be shaking their head about the dollars we are leaving on the table — we’re not maximizing our MRR or ARPU in all cases.

However, what we are doing is serving the customer in a manner we believe is fair while building LTV and reducing churn. In some cases, we actually grow our profit margin when we eliminate a wrong-sized plan for a right-sized plan simply by reducing the support burden of that site/customer. — The net effect of utilizing down-selling is we actually do better overall as a company.

Up-selling is a powerful skill, but only when your customer is getting more value. Not less. When you down-sell you build trust and demonstrate you are acting in your customers best interests.

Source

Up-Sell where appropriate to grow your top-line MRR

Down-Sell to build LTV and reduce churn.

Good luck out there.

Originally published at pagely.com.

Down-Selling For The Win was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon, is soon to become the world’s richest person. And, if we are to believe him, he’s just getting started. He’s not the only one who thinks so. RBC Capital’s managing director, Mark Mahaney, estimates Amazon is on track to become the world’s first trillion dollar company. And if that wasn’t enough, Bezos is also an early investor in Google, Twitter, and Uber. He runs his own version of SpaceX called Blue Origin and he is the owner of the Washington Post. In the midst of huge success, Jeff Bezos’ leadership style includes some key lessons we can all learn from.

Whatever you think of Bezos, he should be able to teach us a thing or five about leadership. To get a glimpse of his thinking, the annual Amazon shareholder letters are a good place to start. Bezos has been writing them since Amazon’s IPO in 1997, so there are exactly 20 of them now. I studied them all in detail. Here are five lessons I learned.

1. Vision matters

In his first letter to Amazon’s shareholders, Bezos immediately states he will take a long-term perspective. His company will never choose to optimize quarterly results at the expense of a long-term disadvantage. He also lays the foundations for his vision, which he articulates in 1999:

“Our vision is to use this platform to build Earth’s most customer-centric company, a place where customers can come to find and discover anything and everything they might want to buy online.” (1999)

This vision still holds true today, especially the first part: in everything Amazon does they obsess over the customer. Whether it’s books, Amazon Web Services, or Alexa, they start with the customer and “work backwards from there.”

This customer-centric theme comes back again and again. Here it is in a memo to the team:

“There is no rest for the weary. I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified. Not of our competition, but of our customers. Our customers have made our business what it is, they are the ones with whom we have a relationship, and they are the ones to whom we owe a great obligation. And we consider them to be loyal to us — right up until the second that someone else offers them a better service.” (1998)

But it doesn’t end with management practices and internal communications. Bezos is even willing to forgo short-term profit over long-term advantage in his commitment to Amazon customers:

“One industry observer recently received an automated email from us that said, ‘We noticed that you experienced poor video playback while watching the following rental on Amazon Video On Demand: Casablanca. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and have issued you a refund for the following amount: $2.99. We hope to see you again soon.’ Surprised by the proactive refund, he ended up writing about the experience: ‘Amazon ‘noticed that I experienced poor video playback…’ And they decided to give me a refund because of that? Wow…Talk about putting customers first.’” (2012)

In theory every company cares about their customers, and some leaders have a vision. Yet Bezos ensures his vision is more than a plaque on the corporate office wall. He walks the customer-centric walk, and also communicates the talk on every possible occasion.

Key takeaways:

1. Have a clearly articulated long-term vision.
2. Communicate it to both internal and external stakeholders as often as possible.
3. Make product decisions based on the vision (which is why the previous point is key, especially in large organizations).

2. Improve your thinking, simplify your message

When you hear someone like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, or Jeff Bezos describe a new product or initiative, it often sounds obvious and simple. But ask any startup entrepreneur what they’re working on and the answer is often fuzzy and confusing.

This might sound like an irrelevant detail about communication. In fact, this is about thinking and strategy. Most entrepreneurs are not colonizing Mars or building the world’s biggest ecommerce platform. While ambitious, most startup endeavors are less complex.

Why can Elon Musk describe his plan for taking over the Red Planet in plain language, while the average entrepreneur struggles to explain his upcoming product? It’s because masterminds like Musk, Bezos, and Jobs have thought their plans through in detail. They understand what’s required, and they know their target audience. They’ve boiled their complex ideas down to something simple and they know how to position their brand. As Pete Seeger, American folk singer and social activist, once said:

“Any damn fool can make something complex, it takes a genius to make something simple.”

You can see this quality in Bezos’ vision, which still holds true after two decades (!). But it’s also on display in simple value propositions for products. Here’s how he sums up Audible in one sentence, the audiobook company Amazon acquired in 2008:

“Audible makes it possible for you to read when your eyes are busy.” (2013)

And here’s another example of a clearly articulated and understandable goal for designing the Kindle:

“We started by setting ourselves the admittedly audacious goal of improving upon the physical book. We did not choose that goal lightly. Anything that has persisted in roughly the same form and resisted change for 500 years is unlikely to be improved easily. At the beginning of our design process, we identified what we believe is the book’s most important feature. It disappears. When you read a book, you don’t notice the paper and the ink and the glue and the stitching. All of that dissolves, and what remains is the author’s world.” (2007)

If you can’t articulate your plan, it’s a strong signal you need to go back to the drawing board and do more homework.

Key takeaways:

3. Staying committed

As Bezos indicated in his first shareholder letter, Amazon cares about the long-term. All decisions get made in that light. Now that Amazon is one of the most valuable companies in the world, it’s easy to laud that strategy in hindsight. It wasn’t always that way:

“’Amazon, as far as I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers,’ writes one outside observer. But I don’t think so. To me, trying to dole out improvements in a just- in-time fashion would be too clever by half. It would be risky in a world as fast-moving as the one we all live in. More fundamentally, I think long-term thinking squares the circle. Proactively delighting customers earns trust, which earns more business from those customers, even in new business arenas. Take a long-term view, and the interests of customers and shareholders align.” (2012)

Once you’re on top of the world you can defy criticism and stay true to your principles. But, like any company, Amazon must have experienced countless struggles behind the scenes. Sticking to a long-term vision in the face of such tribulations is hard. It takes guts, conviction, and a plan that makes sense. This makes Bezos’ tradition of attaching the first shareholder to all the later ones even more impressive. He continues to do this every year and can still claim the long-term vision laid out there holds true.

Key takeaways:

1. Ensure you have a solid plan (also see the next point).
2. Don’t waiver at the first sign of trouble.
3. Get a thick skin to deal with criticism.

4. Know your market

Market is the most critical success factor for a new business according to Venture Capitalist Marc Andreessen. His mental model goes something like this (warning: simplifying heavily here):

• If you have a great product but no market, your business is doomed.
• If you have a mediocre product but a huge market, the market will pull the product out of you and you have a good chance at succeeding.

Bezos understands this. From the first letter onwards, he shows a deep understanding of the market, the opportunity, and what it will take to capitalize on it. This is best exemplified by his end notes on the 1999 letter:

“Consider this most important point: the current online shopping experience is the worst it will ever be. It’s good enough today to attract 17 million customers, but it will get so much better. Increased bandwidth will result in faster page views and richer content. Further improvements will lead to “always-on access” (which I expect will be a strong boost to online shopping at home, as opposed to the office) and we’ll see significant growth in non-PC devices and wireless access. Moreover, it’s great to be participating in what is a multi-trillion dollar global market, in which we are so very, very tiny. We are doubly-blessed. We have a market-size unconstrained opportunity in an area where the underlying foundational technology we employ improves every day. That is not normal.”

This section demonstrates he has a clear idea of the current market, but also a clear vision of where it’s headed. He anticipates technical developments like faster internet and mobile devices. He then predicts how those will affect customer behavior by anticipating more online shopping from home.

This is a key skill for a business leader and, to be fair, Bezos has an unfair advantage. Before starting Amazon, he worked at several financial companies on Wall Street. Understanding markets was part of his job. He supposedly made the leap into entrepreneurship after learning in 1994 that the web had grown by 2,300% in one year.

This understanding and observation of markets is often lacking, especially in startups. The team might have a nice idea for a product, and perhaps some hunch about an audience. But a grasp of the market and the trends that influence it is rare to come by.

Key takeaways:

1. Understand which market you’re operating in.
2. Get a grasp on future trends that are relevant to your business.
3. Try to predict how those developments will affect the behavior of your customers.

5. Never miss an opportunity to self-promote

When you read these letters or watch an interview with Bezos, he displays a trait that many great business leaders have: a knack for casual self-promotion, no matter what the occasion.

Whether it’s Howard Schultz (Starbucks), Steve Jobs (Apple), or Jeff Bezos, they always find a way to promote their companies and get you excited about their products. They don’t have to do this: their organizations have large marketing teams to take care of promotion. Yet none of these guys can resist. Whether they’re writing a book, giving an interview, or, like in this case, writing letters to shareholders, they never miss an occasion to promote a new product:

“In addition to Prime Instant Video, Fire TV gives you instant access to over 200,000 movies and TV episodes available a la carte, including new releases like Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, Frozen, and more. As a bonus, Fire TV also lets you play high-quality, inexpensive games on your living room TV. We hope you try it out. If you do, let us know what you think. The team would love to hear your feedback.” (2013)

This is just one of many examples. Bezos always promotes Amazon to whatever audience he’s facing. And, being the leader of a gigantic company, this means he gets a lot of these chances, which translates to a lot of free publicity for his company.

Key takeaways:

1. As a leader you get visibility, whether that’s in front of a national television audience or your local community.
2. Never miss a chance to promote your company or product, but…
3. Practice your delivery. It should feel natural, casual, or like an off the cuff joke. Nobody likes someone who’s constantly selling.

Summed up

Reading through two decades of these letters is an amazing experience. You get a sense for the unbelievable growth Amazon has experienced. Most importantly, you get a true glimpse into Jeff Bezos’ leadership style and thinking.

Few people get to build successful companies, even less build one of the most successful ones in the world. Amazon seems set to be with us for a long time. It’s well worth understanding how they operate and where they come from. These letters are a good place to start and there’s a lot more in there than the above five lessons. Dive right into them here and enjoy the journey!

Originally published at pagely.com.

5 Key Takeaways from Jeff Bezos’ Leadership Style was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Worried about WordPress? Unsure about GDPR? Let’s dive in to the basics.

GDPR Basics and What We Know Right Now

GDPR replaces Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, and according to EUGDPR.org is “designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.”

Improving privacy and empowering user control over personal data are primary goals of this legislation — accomplishing this aim requires significant changes which impact companies at large, no matter what type of platform they’re using. These include:

• Increased Scope — The new legislation clearly lays out specific types of protected data such as name, address, ID numbers, Web location, IP address, cookie data and RFID tags. Health, genetic, biometric, ethnic, political views and sexual orientation data are also covered.
• Global Expectation — Under GDPR, companies processing the personal data of any subject “residing in the Union” are subject to new privacy requirements, regardless of their geographical location. For example, companies in the United States processing data for U.K. or French customers must abide by GDPR regulations.
• Substantial Fines — Companies found in breach of GDPR can be fined 4 percent of annual global turnover or €20 million, whichever is greater. There is a sliding scale for minor offenses up to full-blown refusal to comply.
• Breach Notification — If a data breach occurs which will “result in a risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals,” notification must be made to regulating bodies within 72 hours and to customers “without undue delay”.
• Portability — Companies must have processes in place to provide individuals all personal data they have provided in a “commonly used and machine-readable format” upon request.

How GDPR Impacts WordPress

With so much of the Web leveraging WordPress, it’s worth having the conversation: What happens to WordPress sites and users when GDPR goes live? Companies using WordPress should address several specific areas and how each one is impacted by GDPR.

• Data collection: As noted by Code in WP, common ways that WordPress sites collect data include user registrations, comments, contact forms or analytics. Under the new laws, consent must be informed — it cannot be assumed. WP sites must be reviewed and amended to ensure all data collection follows consent policies. Best bet? Tell users who you are, why you’re collecting data, how long you’re going to store it, who will have access and for what purpose.
• Plugins: Site owners are ultimately responsible for the data collection and storage methods of any plugins or third-party software used, meaning it’s critical to audit existing plugin libraries and address anything that needs clarification before May 25th — there’s a WP GDRP Compliance plugin available through WordPress to help identify key issues. Third parties are also a critical concern here since the data “controller” — the company collecting personal data — is responsible for its handling and storage. As a result, businesses must ensure that third-party plugins are compliant with GDPR.
• Automatic consent: Companies using WooCommerce or other WordPress eCommerce options need to ensure that all marketing materials, newsletters, etc. are “opt-in” rather than “opt-out”, since already-checked consent boxes are considered a breach under GDPR. According to IT Governance, approved options for lawful consent requests include clicking an opt-in button or link, selecting from “equally prominent” yes/no options or responding to an email requesting consent.

Filling in the Gaps

While it’s unlikely that substantive changes will be made to GDPR legislation before it goes live, any regulation this complex can include grey areas. Here are three worth watching:

• The Case for Consent — While consent is critical under the new legislation, it’s not the only lawful ground for processing data, creating confusion among organizations. For example, if you have an existing contract with individuals or must process data to meet legal requirements, consent may not be required. As noted by Lexology, there are six lawful grounds for processing data listed in Article 6 of the GDPR:

1. Consent
2. Contract
3. Legal obligation
4. Vital interests
5. Public interest risk
6. Legitimate interests

Given the potential ambiguity of “vital” and “legitimate” interests, companies should be prepared for more specific guidelines regarding this type of processing after the law goes live. Best bet? Stick to informed consent wherever possible.

• Age Limits — Initial drafts of the GDPR set the EU age limit for choosing to hand over personal data at 13. But pushback changed this limit to 16 — under Article 8, member states can now choose a lower age if they wish. With protecting children’s data as a priority for this new legislation, WordPress sites must be diligent in obeying local age limit regulations and keep an eye on potential revisions.
• New Technologies — Article 35 of the GDPR lays out the need to asses the risk of new technologies for processing and storing data on the risk to personal information. The problem? The scope of “new technologies” isn’t defined, nor is there any template to assess risk. For WordPress deployments, this begs the question: What if a new plugin that streamlines data collection is considered a “new technology”? How do companies assess risk? What happens if/when specific guidelines are put into place? Here, it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution — don’t introduce sweeping policy or plugin changes in May and June — and keep an eye on GDPR news after the law goes live.

The Current State of Affairs

Given the current state of GDPR and potential areas of concern, there are three basic interpretations for WordPress site owners. These are simply observations and should not be taken as advice:

• Same old, same old — If your site doesn’t collect or store any information, this may be true, but chances are high that modification will be necessary. While this “wait and see” approach requires minimal spending and effort up-front, it could lead to substantial fines for non-compliance.
• Complete overhaul — This is the “all in” approach, using what’s known about GDPR to completely overhaul WordPress sites. It has the benefit of better alignment with upcoming policies but could see companies revising newly-minted policies as real-world interactions around consent and breach reporting compel legislative evolution.
• Finding a middle ground — Opting for a “middle ground” model may provide the path of least resistance for WordPress sites. By reviewing current consent, data storage and ease-of-retrieval polices it’s possible to address the bulk of GDPR expectations and streamline the process of implementing new data-handling requirements as the law dictates.

Stay Informed on GDPR

Worried about WordPress under GDPR? You’re not alone. The new legislation comes with significant impact for data collection, informed consent and direct user control over personal data. Things you can do right now? Review your site before May 25th to ensure consent requests are obvious, clear and concise, all plugins follow GDPR guidelines and consumer information is properly stored, encrypted and available upon lawful request.

We are doing everything we can to become experts on GDPR and make sure our sites, and whatever we do that impacts our clients, is covered. As always we are here as a resource for the WordPress community. Don’t hesitate to reach out and speak with our team.

Originally published at pagely.com.

GDPR and WordPress — A Resource Guide to Compliance was originally published in Pressing Words on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.