November 18, 2019 | Shopping Cart Reviews

November 14, 2019

What Are Payroll Taxes? And How Do You Calculate Them?

Most people don’t like the idea of taxes in general, not to mention the excruciating minutia of what goes into calculating how much to pay the government and when. And if you do like those things, then you are probably an accountant or a payroll tax expert already. God bless you, you don’t need this article. However, if you are a small business owner who is entering the world of payroll, understanding payroll taxes can feel daunting. It’s true: there’s plenty to learn and making a mistake can result in costly fees. Using payroll software might take the guess-work out of the process and do the calculations for you, but it’s still important to have a rudimentary understanding of payroll taxes, especially if employees have questions about their paychecks.

In this post, we’ll cover what payroll taxes are, who’s responsibility it is to pay them and when, how to calculate them, and more.

What Are Payroll Taxes?

Payroll taxes are the money an employer withholds from an employee’s earnings to pay taxes to the state and federal governments. How much an employer takes out and sends to the government is based on the employee’s salary and wages, and it is the employer’s responsibility to manage these taxes. There’s only one exception: 1099 contractors are in charge of their own taxes! Contractors, freelancers, and small business owners pay a self-employment tax which is the equivalent of employee/employer payroll taxes.

Payroll taxes make up a substantial part of government revenue and are the second-leading money generator for the United States. (And we can often look to payroll in America as indicators of how our economy is growing or receding, too, as payments reflect growing trends in hiring and stagnation.) When an employer runs payroll, the process involves calculating the employee’s net pay. Net pay is the take-home paycheck employee’s receive on payday, and how you calculate that net has to do with how much state and federal taxes you, as the manager of the payroll, take out, collect, and pay to the appropriate agencies. It’s a detail-oriented process that has multiple opportunities for missteps and steep penalties for mistakes.

Bear in mind that when someone says “payroll tax,” they are lumping together all of the various taxes paid out of a person’s paycheck for services, but in the next section I’m going to breakdown where those payroll taxes go.

Types Of Payroll Taxes

When an employer removes taxes from an employee’s paycheck, that money is earmarked for state and federal services. Here’s how payroll taxes breakdown individually:

Federal Income Tax Withholding:Â Federal income tax is based on income level and the rates are progressive, meaning that as you make more income, your rates move, and your income tax increases as you travel up the tax brackets. There are currently seven tax brackets that tax income at: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37% as income increases.
Social Security Tax:Â This tax is also called the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability insurance, and it’s a flat-rate tax of 12.4% of taxable income. Both the employee and the employer are responsible for paying half (6.2%) of the social security tax.
Federal and State Unemployment Taxes: The Federal Unemployment Tax is a mandatory tax paid quarterly versus monthly. State requirements differ widely.
Medicare Tax:Â This tax is also a flat rate of 2.9% with the employer and the employee splitting the cost at 1.45% each.
State Income Tax Withholding:Â There are currently seven states that do not have a state income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming) but for everyone else, income taxes work similarly to federal income tax withholdings. The tax rates are very specific to each state, so check the withholding tables on the state government website where your business is located.
Local Taxes:Â Local taxes are very specific to city and state. Most states have a state unemployment tax that is accounted for in this local taxes section. These taxes are based on local tax laws and the tax rates vary, so small business owners need to check/verify those taxes through the state’s tax department.

Payroll Tax VS Income Tax

Payroll Taxes		Income Taxes
Payroll taxes include FICA taxes (social security and medicare) and local taxes withheld, and the additional percentages provided by the employer.	VS	Income tax specifically refers to the federal, state, and local income tax rates

So, running taxes for your payroll involves collecting both payroll taxes and federal/state income taxes. When people say “payroll taxes” they are providing an umbrella term for all collected tax, but the term “payroll tax” refers to FICA taxes (social security and medicare) and local taxes withheld from an employee’s paycheck, plus the additional percentages provided by the employer. Income tax specifically refers to the federal, state, and local income tax rates. Even though the two are joined together in one lump, payroll taxes are specifically earmarked for certain programs. Income tax, on the other hand, is delivered to its respective federal or state governments and is used to manage the budget.

Who Pays Payroll Tax?

The burden of managing payroll and sending payroll tax payments is on the company, and the burden for paying those taxes falls on both the employee and the employer. Each state has different regulations and requirements for how state income tax is paid to the government, and the federal government collects payroll taxes quarterly.

Employer Tax Responsibilities

Okay. You are a small business owner and it’s time for payroll. What tax responsibilities do you have?

Social Security: You will pay your half of the 6.2% and you will withhold 6.2% from wages for your employee’s portion.
Medicare:Â You will pay your half of the 1.45% and you will withhold 1.45% from wages for your employee’s portion.
Federal Unemployment Tax:Â This tax is employer-paid and the current rate is 6% on the first $7,000 earned by an employee.

Self-Employment Taxes

If you are self-employed or working under contract, you are the employer and the employee and it’s your responsibility to pay for both sides of the payroll taxes. That means that contractors need to withhold the full 12.4% for social security and 2.9% for Medicare, and withhold their own state and federal income taxes (saving 15-20% of each check to cover these taxes is the recommended practice). Some states also charge additional taxes for small businesses that become the responsibility of a contractor, as well. When contractors file their taxes, they will pay their portion of these taxes then.

When Are Payroll Taxes Due?

Once you have collected the payroll taxes for your small business, they are due on either a monthly or semi-weekly deposit. Semi-weekly deposits are primarily required just for large businesses with a large payroll tax revenue, so it is most probable that you will deposit your withholdings monthly. Payroll taxes are due on the 15th of every month (unless that falls on a weekend, then the next available Monday).

If you are self-employed, you most likely will file estimated quarterly taxes (although some states accept yearly payments if you make under a certain amount). Check your state’s specific rules and tax brackets for the most accurate information.

How To Calculate Payroll Taxes

Calculation of payroll taxes uses all the great basic math skills: multiplication, addition, percentages. Be aware that if you make a mistake or are late processing a payment, the government likes to slap fees around. (I mean, no doubt, fees are a source of revenue for the government, too.) While you can do payroll calculations by hand (and many do, including an adorable 80-year-old woman on Facebook who chastised me for suggesting someone run payroll using anything other than their head, a pencil, some paper, and the numbers), there are many great payroll software options that can do this part for you: Gusto, Square, Paychex, and ADP are all reputable companies that you can use to outsource payroll.

However, maybe you really want to tighten the budget and only have a few employees and you’re not gonna let me convince you to give the computers their chance at this one. Okay. Pencil. Paper. Calculator. Spreadsheet with equations, maybe?

You’ll need to know how many times you are paying/withholding taxes from your employees before you can run payroll, so determine whether you are running payroll, weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Then you will need to decide if you’d like to pull taxes using the wage bracket system (recommended by most tax experts for small businesses) or the percentage method (not recommended for small businesses attempting payroll on their own).

When you onboard employees, you will have them fill out a W-4. You will use that W-4 to note the employee’s withholdings and whether they are filing single/jointly/head of household. This is the data you need to calculate federal income taxes. The following image is from the IRS Publication 15 for the 2019 tax season and gives the step by step numbers for calculating the federal income tax withholdings through either method.

After you withhold the money for federal income taxes and any additional pre-tax deductions (retirement, worker’s compensation, healthcare), then you calculate the FICA (social security and Medicare) taxes. To calculate the social security tax, you will take your employee’s gross pay (the amount your employee receives before payroll taxes are removed for that pay period) and multiply it by .062 — the product is the amount of money to be withheld from the paycheck and matched by the employer.

You would do the same thing for the employee’s portion of Medicare by taking the gross pay for the pay period and multiplying it by .0145%. The product is the amount you’ll withhold and match for Medicare.

All state and local taxes are calculated on a state-by-state basis.

How To Report & Pay Payroll Taxes

When you run payroll, calculating the taxes and discovering your employee’s net pay (aka their take-home pay or the amount they make after payroll taxes are removed) is only the first part of the process. After you’ve run your payroll numbers, you face the important task of getting those taxes into the right hands and accounting for your payroll to the government. As a small business owner, it is your responsibility to:

Withhold all payroll taxes and submit them on time (the 15th of every month, or next available business day) to state and federal agencies.
Report income, withholdings, matching of payroll taxes to the government quarterly.
Keep records of yearly payroll for state and federal reporting agencies.
Send W-2s and 10-99s to employees and contractors listed with the correct amounts of their gross/net pay and tax withholdings.

When you have the monthly deposit to submit, you must submit the funds electronically (barring special circumstances allotted to small businesses only) using one of the following methods: via a third-party (through a software/payroll service like ADP, Gusto, or Paychex); through your bank’s Automated Clearing House (ACH) network; or by the Treasury Department’s free Electronic Federal Tax Payment System online/over the phone.

Some small businesses, especially those with low liability, can opt-in to a yearly payroll payment. This requires filling out a Form 944. Check the government’s website to check for current eligibility requirements.

Your Federal Unemployment Taxes are due to the government quarterly. Form 941 is your guide to reporting income, withholdings, and payroll taxes to the government, and the tax forms are due on the last day of the month after the end of the quarter. For example, quarter one ends March 31 and the report is due by April 30. And at the end of the tax year, you have until January 31 to deliver the necessary tax forms to your employees, former employees, and contractors, so they can file their taxes correctly.

If you are self-employed, you’ll need to gather your 1099-MISCs and file a Schedule C when you file your taxes (due April 15).

For both small business owners and the self-employed, it is imperative to maintain impeccable records of your state and federal payroll taxes, whether by hand in a notebook, in an old spreadsheet document, or by using online software.

Payroll Tax Penalties

Alright, here’s the big scary number: 100%. If you fail to withhold the proper amount from your employees, you the employer are 100% liable and will need to furnish the missing monies from your own pocket in addition to any legal penalties and fees you face. Look, people get real serious when you don’t give them the correct money owed. Also, these funds go toward employee services, so sometimes your employees can’t access these services if the account is behind. Employer error is costly because tax laws say that the onus for accuracy is on you, the business owner. And if you can’t pay those fees? That trickles down into every aspect of your business in a cycle: higher consumer costs, decreased employee wages, a hiring freeze. Not to mention that it erodes the trust between an employer and an employee.

If you don’t pay your payroll taxes on time, every month, you incur a 2% penalty for 1-5 days late; 5% penalty for 6-15 days late; 10% for 16+ days late or within 10 days of first hearing from the IRS. The maximum is 15%.

Also, the government doesn’t care if you outsource these jobs — if a third-party isn’t paying on-time (your payroll service or your bookkeeper), you still hired them and will receive the penalty all the same.

There are other ways you can be penalized, too, like if you miscategorize employees or you make an error on your reporting. There are too many potential errors to explain them all, so it’s important small business owners meet with tax attorneys or other tax experts for a full understanding of the myriad ways things can go off the rails.

Payroll Tax Deductions

But hey…those Statutory Payroll Tax Deductions (all the things we just talked about above: federal and state income tax, social security, Medicare, unemployment taxes) are not the only payroll tax deductions you’ll need to make as you process payroll. In addition to the mandatory deductions, you also have Voluntary Payroll Tax Deductions. These are things like health care, retirement benefits, worker’s compensation, or any other pre-tax deductions. As a small business owner, you might offer some of these programs and benefits but some of the cost can (and does) trickle down to employees.

Final Thoughts

Nothing concludes this post better than this: payroll taxes are complicated. But, they don’t have to be.

If you have a handful of employees, and you want to calculate payroll taxes yourself, then yes you can! You now know the basics of which payroll taxes you are responsible for, how to calculate them, and how and when to pay them. People have been processing payroll manually for longer than they haven’t been.

Or, you can opt for payroll software to help handle the calculation for you. Even if you do have a software program or an online program helping you, it’s great to know what those numbers mean and where that money is going. There are also free online calculators to use in lieu of a software program, or a regular calculator, or an abacus. All in all, these payroll taxes — while they may be an added stressor to the laundry list of small business owner responsibilities — are what pay into great social programs and protections. The most important thing to remember is that rates and guidelines can change yearly depending on inflation and tax laws, so keep up with current literature on the tax brackets from the IRS Forms. Know your state’s laws, file accurately and promptly, pay on time, and report on time. And if you want someone else to do it for you, check out our reviews of some of the leading payroll service vendors out there: Gusto, Square, ADP, Paychex.

The post What Are Payroll Taxes? And How Do You Calculate Them? appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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November 14, 2019

Your Step-By-Step Guide To Starting A Successful House Flipping Business

If you’re intrigued by the thought of making money by flipping houses, you aren’t alone. Flip through the TV channels (pun intended), and you’ll see home improvements that lead to a five- or six-figure payday. You may have even received an email promising frozen cocktails on the beach while raking in the dough … all because of house flipping.

What these TV shows and emails don’t tell you is that there is a lot of hard work involved in starting a house flipping business. I know, I know. The idea of a burgeoning bank account without having to do much work is appealing, but it isn’t the reality of the industry. That said, don’t be entirely discouraged — you can build a successful business that centers on flipping houses for a profit. You simply have to be prepared to put in the hard work — just as you would with any other business.

In this guide, we’re going to look at how to start your own house flipping business, step-by-step. While this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme or even a guarantee of profitability, understanding the industry and what it takes to open and operate your business can increase your chances for success. Whether you’re brand new to house flipping and toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur, or you’re ready to hit the ground running, this guide is a must-read before you get started.

Why Start A House Flipping Business?

If you’re reading this, you probably already have at least some idea of what a house flipping business does, but let’s briefly review what this type of business entails. A house flipper buys a property at a low cost. This property could be distressed and in need of repairs, a foreclosure, an older home that needs to be updated, or a house that is located in an up-and-coming neighborhood. Once the home is purchased, it is renovated and resold to another buyer at a higher price.

So, why are people jumping into this industry? One reason that many people choose to flip houses is the potential for profits. If a property is purchased and renovated at a price that’s low enough and resold at a much higher price, you have the potential to pocket thousands of dollars per house. For example, let’s say you purchase a house for $120,000. After putting $20,000 into the house to replace floors, cabinets, counter tops, and make other cosmetic repairs, you are able to resell the house for $150,000. You have only invested $140,000 in the house, so you make $10,000 on this flip. Of course, there are circumstances where a flip doesn’t work out exactly as planned (which we’ll cover a little later), but there is the potential for big profits with a house flipping business.

A house flipping business may also be a great opportunity if you’re somehow already familiar with the industry. Maybe you have experience as a real estate agent or contractor, and you’re familiar with how the business works. You might have even flipped a house or two to make extra cash in the past, but now want to make it a full-time career. If you have experience — whether it’s selling properties or fixing them up — you can put these skills to work for your own house flipping business.

Finally, right now may be the perfect time for you to flip houses. We all remember the housing crisis of 2008, but more than 10 years later, the real estate market is hot again. Housing prices are on the rise, and investors are grabbing up properties to flip. According to Realtor.com, mid-sized cities in the South and Midwest with strong economies, growing populations, and an abundance of older properties in need of rehab are prime markets for flipping. If you live in these areas, house flipping may be the right business opportunity for you.

No matter what your reasoning, you must be prepared to work hard to make your business a success. From finding and securing financing to marketing and reselling your properties, you’ll need to be fully involved every step of the way (at least at first) and be prepared to encounter bumps in the road on your path to building a business.

6 Steps To Starting Your Own House Flipping Business

Whether you’ve already set your mind on flipping houses or you’re still on the fence, it’s important to understand what this business requires to be a success. We’ve outlined six steps to starting your own house flipping business to help you determine if this business is right for you. If so, these tips can help you get you on the right track. Let’s jump right in.

#1 Write Your Business Plan

Every business should have a business plan, and a house flipping business is no exception. A business plan is important for a few reasons. The first is that it acts as a road map for your business. It outlines the purpose of your business, evaluates the industry and your competition, projects profitability, and states the goals of your business.

In addition to outlining your goals and how you’ll achieve them, a business plan is also necessary in most cases to obtain funding. Flipping houses requires capital — capital that you obtain from traditional lenders, investors, or other sources. Your business plan shows that you know what you’re doing, you’re familiar with the industry and your competition, and you have a good chance for success, all of which add up to a lower risk investment for lenders.

There are several ways to write a business plan. A traditional business plan spans several pages and is more complex, containing in-depth analyses of your market and competition, financial projections over the next three to five years, your business strategy, and information about the members of your team. However, more businesses are scaling back on these lengthy documents and opting to create a one-page business plan. A one-page business plan is a condensed version of the traditional plan, offering information such as your objectives, a financial summary, and your industry experience. Learn more about whether a one-page business plan is right for your business.

No matter which plan you choose, there should always be a few things you include about your house flipping business, such as basic timelines, projected budgets, your market, and the types of properties you plan to flip.

#2 Set Up Your Business

Once you’ve written your business plan, it’s time to set up your business. At a minimum, this includes choosing your legal structure, registering your business name, setting up a business bank account, and acquiring any required licenses or permits. Taking these steps allows you to legally operate your business, determines how you pay taxes, and gives you credibility with lenders and investors.

The first step is to choose your legal structure. As a quick summary, a legal structure for a business may take the form of one of the following:

Sole Proprietorship:Â A sole proprietorship is the easiest and cheapest to set up. It does not require registration. Sole proprietors are taxed at the personal tax rate and file business earnings or losses on personal tax returns. This structure does not offer liability protections.
Partnerships:Â A partnership is a structure for a business with two or more owners. Partners are taxed at the personal tax rate and file earnings or losses on personal tax returns. Limited partners have liability protections, whereas general partners do not.
Corporations:Â A corporation is the most expensive to form and has the most requirements, such as annual meetings and a board of directors. Depending on the type of corporation, taxes may have to be filed using the corporate tax rate. Corporations can raise money through the sale of stock. There are also liability protections in place for owners.
Limited Liability Company (LLC): An LLC offers features of several legal structures. There are no requirements, and owners can choose how they are taxed. There are liability protections under an LLC.

This is just a brief summary of each type of legal structure. To learn more and to help determine which is right for you, check out our in-depth guide on choosing your business structure.

Once you’ve determined your legal structure, you’ll need to register your business name with the state in which you’ll operate. Depending on the legal structure you select, additional fees and or paperwork may be required.

Next, you’ll need to find out the types of licenses you need to operate your business. If you’re operating in an office outside of your home, for example, you’ll need a general business license and business insurance. As a house flipper, you’ll also need permits and insurance on each house that you flip, so it’s best to establish a relationship with an insurance agency early in the game. Some house flippers opt to get their real estate license. While this isn’t a requirement for flipping houses, it can certainly help you along the way.

Finally, you’ll need to set up your business bank account. This is necessary for keeping your business and personal finances separate, which especially comes in handy when tax time rolls around. If you seek business funding, this account will also be where your funds are deposited.

#3 Know How To Find & Secure Funding

You’ve taken all the steps of setting up your business and your new bank account. Unfortunately, your new business bank account is probably looking pretty empty … and in most cases, there certainly isn’t enough cash to buy and flip a property. The good news, though, is that this isn’t uncommon for new house flippers — or new business owners in general. It’s rare to find someone with their own cash to start and fund their own business, so that’s why new business owners turn to lenders or investors to get capital they need to start and operate their businesses.

There are a few funding options for flipping houses. The type you select is based on a number of factors, including time in business and your credit history. Not all funding will be right for your business. For example, if you have a low credit score, hard money loans may be an option for you. Hard money lenders base lending on the deal itself — not your personal or business credit or lack thereof — but are usually very short-term and have high fees.

Once you’ve been in business for at least a few months, you may need a flexible funding option to purchase properties, pay for renovations, or cover operating costs. In this situation, you may qualify for a business line of credit. Even if you have a low personal credit score, you may still qualify with lenders that consider the performance of your business over credit history.

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If you own your own home, you could use a home equity loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC) to fund your flips. If you have equity in your home, a low debt-to-income ratio, and a good personal credit score, you could qualify for one of those options, which come with low rates and favorable terms. If you have a retirement account, you could also consider a Rollovers as Business Startups plan (ROBS), which allows you to leverage your retirement funds without penalties.

For unexpected expenses or operational costs, consider applying for a business credit card. You can also get creative by bringing on a business partner or launching a crowdfunding campaign. Whether you’re new to the game, have some experience, or have credit challenges, there are options available to you. You just have to connect with lenders to find them.

No matter what type of funding you seek for your business, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, understand that borrowers with the highest credit scores typically qualify for more options that are also more affordable. So, one of the first things you want to do prior to submitting your application is pull your free credit score, access your credit report, and dispute any errors. You can also take steps to boost your credit score.

Once you apply for funding, make sure that you fully understand the terms, fees, and interest rates associated with your financial product. Don’t be afraid to shop around your options if you aren’t happy with a lender’s offer.

If you do secure funding, make sure to always pay as agreed and meet all conditions put in place by the lender. By doing so, you can not only raise your credit score, but you can also establish lasting relationships with lenders and investors that will serve you well as you build your business.

Unsure of which funding option to choose? Learn more about the best loan products for your house flipping business.

#4 Connect With Contractors & Other Professionals

In addition to lenders, you’ll also need to establish relationships with contractors and other professionals that will help contribute to the success of your business. Even if you plan to get hands-on with the renovation of your properties, you’ll still need a team of contractors to help with the work, particularly when distressed properties are involved. Not only will a contractor complete the work required to flip a house for profit, but a good contractor will know about licenses, permits, and other local requirements. You can also discuss your timelines and budgets with your contractors so you don’t have extended timelines or unnecessary expenses cutting into your profits.

When seeking contractors, don’t be afraid to ask for references or a portfolio. Also, don’t forget to shop around your options to find a reputable contractor that works with your budget. If you’re new to the industry, developing a working relationship with a reputable contractor can even help you score hard money loans from investors.

Another professional that you need on your team is a real estate agent. If you opt not to get your real estate license, a realtor has access to resources that will be essential for your business. This includes access to properties on the multiple listing service (MLS), as well as prospective homeowners that could be interested in purchasing your properties. A realtor can also help market and sell your renovated properties.

Someone else to keep on your speed dial is an attorney, and not just any attorney — one that specializes in real estate. There are some legalities of flipping houses that you don’t want to overlook, so it’s wise to have a real estate attorney on your team. An attorney is especially critical during your first flip. Overlooking important legal details, errors in contracts, and other issues could not only derail your deal but could also damage your reputation in the industry.

Over time, there may be additional professionals you’d like to have in your corner, such as an accountant and investors. For now, though, focus on finding the right contractors, attorneys, and realtors for your house flipping team.

#5 Understand The Importance Of Market Research

Knowing your market is key to maximizing profits as a house flipper. Buying the wrong property in the wrong neighborhood could result in a low profit that’s not worth the time invested in the property, or worse, a loss.

Working with a realtor can really help when it comes to knowing your market. Realtors have the inside scoop on the hottest neighborhoods, information on recently sold properties, and other data that can help you find the right homes for flipping. You can also take advantage of the vast amount of information you can find on the internet, where you can do a lot of your market research for free.

With market research, you’ll soon learn where buyers are buying, how much they’re paying, and what they’re looking for. While there are some variances depending on where you live, there are a few markets that are always hot, including neighborhoods with great schools, neighborhoods with homes that are at least 20 years old, areas with low crime rates, and houses that are close to amenities. Once you understand the market, you can begin further narrowing down the areas you wish to target and begin preparing for the next step: buying and flipping a property!

#6 Buy, Renovate, & Sell Your First Property

You’ve set up your business. You’ve connected with a team of reputable professionals. You’ve found and secured funding, or are at least aware of a few potential options. You know your market, you’ve researched recent selling prices, and there are properties on your radar. Now, it’s time to pick a property, buy it for the right price, renovate it, and then flip it for a profit.

This is where your team will really come in handy. For instance, your realtor may have information on properties before they hit the market, giving you an early edge over other flippers and buyers. Your attorney can help with the paperwork and walk you through the steps of purchasing and flipping a house — think, walk-throughs, insurance requirements, and negotiating contracts.

Once you’ve purchased the property, it’s time to start your renovations. Work through your budget and timeline with your contractors, and put the research you did earlier to good use. Look at comparable properties when determining what renovations need to be completed. For example, if recently sold houses in the same neighborhood have updated granite counter tops, add granite counter tops to your “to-do” list. Finally, be prepared for the unexpected. Deadlines may be missed, or there may be additional expenses that weren’t accounted for in the budget. It happens to even the most experienced flippers — the key is learning to roll with the punches.

After the renovations are complete, it’s time to put your house on the market. Your realtor will be a valuable asset by listing the property and helping you market it to buyers. Then, once a buyer is interested, work with your attorney to make sure all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. Once the property is sold, any amount that exceeds what you’ve put into the house is pure profit.

Final Thoughts

Let’s make one thing clear: flipping houses isn’t easy, no matter how simple it looks on TV. But if you’re ready to put in the work, you’ll find that house flipping is extremely rewarding. As you flip your first few houses and begin to find your groove, you’ll find that the process gets easier, just as it does with any other business.

You don’t have to go at it completely alone, though. We have a load of great small business resources right here, so check them out and get ready to build your business. Good luck!

The post Your Step-By-Step Guide To Starting A Successful House Flipping Business appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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November 13, 2019

PayPal For Nonprofits: How To Easily Accept Donations Online And Other Helpful PayPal Features For Your Organization

Nonprofit organizations have never had as many tools at their disposal for raising money as they do today. With all the options out there, you might not think of PayPal as a natural fit for your nonprofit organization, given PayPal’s close association with eCommerce and business enterprises such as eBay. Alternatively, while you might be aware that PayPal offers a Donate button, you may not know about the other PayPal features, policies, and third-party integrations that can facilitate nonprofit fundraising.

With this article, we’ve set out to highlight all aspects of PayPal that can benefit your nonprofit organization — and as it turns out, this encompasses quite a bit! We’ll also detail the main alternatives to using PayPal for nonprofit fundraising.

Why Use PayPal For Nonprofits?

PayPal presents nonprofit organizations with plenty of reasons to use its services to raise money.

Setting up a donation button to accept online payments is a swift and easy process.
Accepting donations online — whether one-time or recurring — is incredibly easy once you have your Donate button set up.
Nonprofits can get a discounted payment processing fee applied to their online PayPal donations.
Want to accept donations offline or in-person? Maybe even sell nonprofit-related merchandise in-person? PayPal facilitates this as well.
Sell branded products online on your website using a customizable cart.
Integrate with countless third-party apps to facilitate charity events, such as auctions, fundraising galas, annual retreats, trivia tournaments — the options are endless!

Disadvantages To Using PayPal For Nonprofits

Of course, PayPal is an imperfect processor — both for nonprofits and everyone else.

Keep in mind that PayPal is a third-party processor (also known as a Payment Service Provider (PSP) or an aggregator). As such, PayPal carries with it an inherent risk of account instability. As opposed to a traditional merchant account wherein each organization or merchant has a separate account, third-party processors combine all their merchants and nonprofits as sub-users under a single umbrella merchant account.

This arrangement means that the sign-up and approval process is nearly instantaneous. It also means that because merchants (and nonprofits) are not vetted before signing up, every transaction gets scrutinized much more heavily than transactions processed by a traditional merchant account provider. This process increases the risk that a completely innocent transaction might trigger an account hold.

You’ll want to review PayPalâs prohibited products and services to make sure youâre in the clear. (Most nonprofits should be perfectly fine, but we make no guarantees, and it’s always important to understand what you are signing up for.) You should also check out our article, How to Avoid Merchant Account Holds, Freezes, and Terminations, to learn how you can minimize the chance of this kind of disruption.

Additionally, some of the PayPal tools you may want to make use of in the course of fundraising are either inadequate or don’t exist. Luckily, there are legions of third-party integrations that can fill in any gaps left by PayPal’s fundraising tools.

PayPal Fees For Nonprofits

One nice perk of using PayPal to accept online donations as a nonprofit is that you can pay a discounted payment processing fee when accepting online payments.

PayPal’s standard processing fee is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. However, registered 501(c)(3) charities are eligible to pay just 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction. To do this, you’ll need to do the following:

Verify your 501(c)(3) status by entering your EIN or providing official documentation
Provide a copy of a bank statement or a voided check for each bank account linked to your PayPal account

If your nonprofit organization does not yet have 501(c)(3) status, you’ll have to pay the standard per-transaction processing fee.

Note that nonprofits do not pay a special discounted rate when accepting in-person donations via the PayPal Here mPOS app, which charges a 2.7% fee for all swiped transactions. More on PayPal Here later.

What’s more, if your organization typically processes payments of less than $10, you may want to sign up for PayPal’s micropayments plan. Under this plan, you will pay 5% + $0.05 per online transaction instead of PayPal’s regular processing rate, which saves you money on each transaction if you primarily process low-value transactions from donors.

Make The Most Out Of Your PayPal Account With These Nonprofit-Friendly Features

Let’s go through all the ways PayPal can be a boon to your nonprofit fundraising.

Accept Donations Online

Adding a Donate button to your organization’s website and/or fundraising emails is quick and easy. To get the process started, here’s what you do:

Sign up for a PayPal business account
Select Nonprofit Organization as your business type
Select Nonprofit as the category
Enter your organizationâs bank account information to link it to your PayPal account and transfer funds to your bank account

Note that 501(c)(3) organizations still have to follow the process outlined in the previous section to receive donations at the discounted rate.

To set up your Donate button, you’ll need to follow the steps outlined here on PayPal’s developer page. You’ll be able to do the following:

Choose your button style
Display your organization’s name and logo
Select the currency in which you receive donations
Choose whether donors can give any amount, an exact amount, or provide three set amounts
Choose whether to let donors make recurring monthly donations
Choose whether to collect donor mailing addresses
Choose whether to let donors send you optional notes with their donations
Add additional HTML button variables

Another way to solicit online donations is to use PayPal.Me — PayPal’s peer-to-peer payment platform — to send personalized donation links to your donors. It’s a great way to approach your biggest supporters to ask for individual gifts.

One other thing: If you process more than $100,000 in monthly volume, you’ll need to call PayPal to make special arrangements.

Accept Donations In-Person

Nonprofit organizations can accept in-person payments via the PayPal Here mobile POS system. PayPal Here is not as fully-featured as a full POS, but for a mobile system, it certainly gets the job done.

With PayPal Here, you get your choice of three different mobile card readers, two of which are free until June 30th, 2020. With a mobile card reader, you can process in-person donations at big fundraising events, charity galas, trivia tournaments, or wherever else your organization’s fundraising takes you. Do note that the basic mobile headphone-jack card reader is only suitable for organizations processing less than $500 a month.

All swiped transactions processed by PayPal Here are subject to a flat 2.7% fee. Unfortunately, nonprofits cannot pay a discounted processing fee when using PayPal Here. Keyed-in transactions will be subject to a higher 3.5% + $0.15 fee.

Additionally, you can send out invoices via the app. Invoices are free to send, but when you get paid, you’ll be paying the standard 2.9% + $0.30 rate that PayPal charges for standard online transactions. What’s nice about the ability to send invoices is the fact that for substantial purchases — we’re talking four figures or more — you can just send an invoice, thereby creating a paper trail. That can come in handy later!

Additionally, payments from non-US credit cards are subject to an additional 1.5% transaction fee.

Other PayPal Here features include:

Cash and check recording (yes, you can accept cash and checks with PayPal Here)
Quick sale mode
Item library
Item add-ons
Item categories
Custom tax
Custom tip options
Discounts
Refunds and partial refunds
Recurring billing
Reporting
Sub-user accounts
Support for register setup
Same-day funding

Sell Merchandise

Whether your nonprofit organization is conducting a charity auction (if this is the case, here are some auction apps that integrate with PayPal) or is selling branded merchandise at a gift shop or other “meet space” location, PayPal Here is a solid option for processing your transactions. And if you need a POS system with more feature depth than that provided by PayPal Here, don’t worry, as PayPal integrates with more robust POS systems as well, including:

Vend
Lavu
Touchpoint
talech
Brightpearl
TouchBistro
Revel

The 2.7% PayPal rate for swiped transactions will apply regardless of your POS partner, but you will incur additional software fees for the POS system itself.

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I’ll note that PayPal also offers a Virtual Terminal that you can use to process in-person payments (or accept donations over the phone). However, you’ll need a PayPal Payments Pro account to use it, and Payments Pro costs $30/month. Because other platforms offer a virtual terminal for no monthly fee whatsoever, we don’t recommend this as an in-person donation acceptance method. Also, the Virtual Terminal’s 3.1% + $0.30 per-transaction processing fee is higher than PayPal’s standard in-person transaction fee.

Sell Event Tickets

Perhaps your nonprofit holds events, such as annual retreats or charity galas, from time to time. Or maybe you’ve thought about holding a walkathon to motivate donors to give. If so, you’re in luck, as PayPal integrates with Eventbrite for ticket sales. With PayPal’s Eventbrite integration, not only will you be paying a lower processing rate than with a standard Eventbrite subscription, but you can also choose to pass Eventbrite’s fees on to the customer and avoid paying them yourself. Alternatively, you can absorb the fees to keep your donors happy. Your choice!

Eventbrite offers three different subscription packages tailored for event organizers. All three packages include access to the Organizer app for both iOS and Android devices that, when paired with the rental equipment on offer, can transform your mobile device into a box office.

Track Your Income & Improve Your Bookkeeping

PayPal’s reporting tools give you detailed information about the activity associated with your PayPal account and can assist your nonprofit with bookkeeping. Available reports include monthly and annual financial summaries, monthly sales reports, your chargeback/dispute history, transaction history, order fulfillment reports, money management reports, customer agreement details, Payflow gateway reports, and more.

Additionally, if your nonprofit organization processes $20,000 in gross payment volume from sales of goods or services in a single year and processes 200 payments for goods or services in the same year, PayPal will send Form 1099-K to both you and the IRS for that year early in the following year. Your 1099-K will be accessible from your PayPal account as of January 31st of the following year, and it will tally your payment transactions from the preceding year. You can see further details about PayPal’s tax reporting here on its tax information page, including FAQs and a downloadable guide.

Furthermore, PayPal integrates with QuickBooks via the Connect to PayPal data integration app, available from your QuickBooks account.Â With this app, you can transfer up to 18 months of PayPal transactions into QuickBooks. You can also import your discounts, taxes, customer data, transfers, and PayPal expenses. View detailed sales information, including your PayPal fees, in your sales transactions. The Connect to PayPal app is free for all QuickBooks users.

Check out this article to see how the services QuickBooks provides can benefit a nonprofit organization.

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Alternatives To PayPal For Nonprofits

Let’s walk through the primary alternatives to using PayPal for nonprofits. Let’s start with online fundraising software:

Fundly: Fundly is an online crowdfunding site with particular appeal for nonprofits as a PayPal alternative, as your fundraising page is completely customizable. You’ll have easy social sharing integrations at your fingertips, intuitive management tools, and the ability to offer perks to donors, depending on their level of support. However, you’ll have to contend with a 4.9% platform fee on top of the 2.9% + $0.30 fee charged to each transaction.
Qgiv: Qgiv’s online fundraising platform is another PayPal alternative worth your consideration from a nonprofit standpoint. Qgiv’s donation forms are fully customizable (much more so than PayPal’s donation forms) and mobile-responsive. The platform allows for recurring gifts to encourage donors. Qgiv even provides an auction platform and event management capabilities from its app. Qgiv’s pricing and fees both vary depending on the level of service you need.
GoFundMe: Most people think of GoFundMe as a platform for personal fundraisers, but did you know that GoFundMe supports nonprofit fundraising as well? With GoFundMe, you can launch an unlimited number of campaigns, access basic donor data, and set up team fundraising pages, all without paying a monthly fee or a platform fee (just a 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee). Alternatively, you can use GoFundMe’s CrowdRise software to enhance your fundraising capabilities further. CrowdRise’s Essential package offers more extensive donor data, ticketing and registration features, deductible email receipts, and more. While the Essential package does sport a platform fee of 5%, this package also lets you pass the fees — both the platform fee and the payment processing fee — on to the donor. Read our GoFundMe review to learn more about the platform.

When it comes to using third-party processors to process your donations, PayPal isn’t the only game in town. Let’s explore the other big third-party processor offering nonprofit-specific benefits:

Square: Square has a lot to offer nonprofits as a payment processor. While Square doesn’t offer a discounted processing fee for nonprofits, its 2.6% + $0.10 per-transaction rate for swiped, dipped, and tapped payments through the Square point of sale app is extremely competitive and cheaper than PayPal’s in-person processing fees (Square’s online processing fee is 2.9% + $0.30). Capturing donor information is easily done right from the transaction screen of the Square POS app, automatically adding your donors to your Customer Directory. Team members can accept donations on your behalf via the POS app as well. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Square’s nonprofit-friendly tools. Read our Square review to get the full scoop, and check out our Square VS PayPal piece for a direct comparison of the two.

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Now, what if you don’t like the idea of using a third-party processor and would rather use a traditional merchant account? While merchant accounts don’t normally come with as many add-on software options as a third-party processor, their laser-focus on payment processing means that you’re much less likely to experience an account hold or termination than with PayPal (or Square, for that matter).

Dharma Merchant Services: This merchant account provider is quite well-suited to nonprofits, provided your organization takes in more than $10,000 per month. Dharma features transparent interchange-plus pricing, which should see you saving money over a service such as PayPal. And unlike some other merchant account providers, Dharma doesn’t charge account setup fees, annual fees, or early termination fees, nor are there any monthly minimums to worry about. Dharma also provides more comprehensive customer support than you’re likely to get with PayPal. Read our full review of Dharma Merchant Services to see exactly why we like them so much.

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Is PayPal Right For Your Nonprofit?

We can’t guarantee that PayPal is the right payment processing solution for every nonprofit. However, when it comes to accepting online donations, PayPal is the absolute simplest tool out there.

With support for in-person payments, invoicing, reporting, nonprofit-specific discounts, and the fact that PayPal’s massive list of integrations with other platforms means you will almost certainly be able to fill any functionality gaps left by PayPal’s in-house solutions, PayPal is more than capable of powering your nonprofit organization. Alternatively, PayPal makes for a great supplementary payment option if you primarily accept donations via other means.

Check out our article on saving money on payment processing as a nonprofit for more on how to keep your costs down. And if you have experience working with PayPal as part of a nonprofit organization, drop us a comment and let us know about it!

The post PayPal For Nonprofits: How To Easily Accept Donations Online And Other Helpful PayPal Features For Your Organization appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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November 12, 2019

Giving Tuesday for Small Businesses: Why Your Company Should Get Involved, Plus 5 Fun And Clever Ways You Can Participate

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States is officially known as Giving Tuesday, a kick-off to a celebration of charitable giving throughout the world. What started in 2012 as a small act of community activism to rebut the holiday season’s abundant consumerism has turned into a global movement of generosity for individuals, small businesses, and corporations. Giving back to your community is one of the most meaningful acts you can do as a small business. If you are looking for a way to capitalize on Giving Tuesdays’ influence and reach, keep on reading to find out how.

What Is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday is a global social media campaign started by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation. The campaign’s goal is to combat the commercialization of the holidays and raise charitable giving to organizations across the world. According to the Giving Tuesday organizers:

When GivingTuesdayÂ launched in the US in 2012, we believed that technology and social media could be used to make generosity go viral; that people fundamentally want to give and to talk about giving; and that the social sector had the capacity to show more innovative leadership, creativity, and collaboration. People and organizations around the world proved us right. In just seven years, GivingTuesday has radically changed how we think about generosity and showed just how much power communities everywhere have to create change.Â

In 2018, Giving Tuesday donations in the United States exceeded $400,000,000 and received over 14.5 billion social media impressions. Each year, the media attention and hashtag activism create a surge of momentum, and the stats show that consumers (Millennials, especially) make purchasing decisions based on a company’s charitable giving.

The concept behind Giving Tuesday is to create a day where our energy and attention focus on how we can help our communities; how you embrace this pseudo-holiday is entirely up to you and your staff. We live in an age where social responsibility matters for your business branding, and it also helps target potential customers who share in your cause. The movement’s website does have a way to search for nonprofits seeking assistance in your area if you’re looking for a place to start. And if you’re wanting to check a charity rating, you can do that through the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance.

When Is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday is set to take place every Tuesday after the US Thanksgiving holiday. This year, the day falls on December 3, 2019. The celebration of giving lasts twenty-four hours.

5 Fun & Effective Giving Tuesday Ideas For Small Businesses

If you don’t know the best way to incorporate Giving Tuesday into your small business, Merchant Maverick has some tips for you. Here are five fun ideas:

Choose A Nonprofit Through A Contest

Every year, my credit union holds a contest to donate $10,000 to a local nonprofit in the area. Five charitable organizations are plucked from a bevy of nominations, and customers and people on social media vote for the winner. In this particular version of the event, the nonprofit that wins the contest receives the big prize, but all nonprofits receive a small donation regardless. You want your customers to care about the organization you’re backing, so offering the community a chance to nominate their favorite nonprofits is a fantastic and fun way to encourage participation and buy-in. Some companies share their winners on Giving Tuesday, but if that’s too late a start for marketing, you could start the contest on Giving Tuesday and extend it through the holidays.

Have Your Entire Company Donate Time/Resources

Giving Tuesday could be an afterthought to an already hectic holiday season. It shouldn’t be. There are numerous ways your employees can donate time and resources in your small business’s name. Several larger corporations give their employees time off on Giving Tuesday to work/donate their time to a nonprofit of their choice, and other businesses go together as a group to volunteer locally. It’s up to you on how you share the news of your giving, but it’s more meaningful to focus on the impact you and your business can make to the community. Find places that need you, find a nonprofit that merges well with your business style, and ask how you can help.

Give A Portion Of Your Sales To A Nonprofit

This is an oft-used, tried and true method, but it still has an incredible impact for you and for the nonprofit you raise money for: give money from sales or give goods/services. You can hold hourly contests with giveaways for reaching certain sales goals or keep an updated real-time calculator for social media showing what you’ve earned. When consumers know a percentage of money is going to an organization they care about, they will be more likely to spend money with you. Is there a special product you could release where 100% of profits go to a charity of your choice?Â (Think: LUSH Beauty’s Charity Pots or Portland’s Ex Novo Brewery, where 100% of beer sales target specific nonprofits in the area. Portlanders are always down for drinking with a cause.) There are other ways to use this model that do not cut into sales. There is the TOMS Shoes model (you buy shoes, they give a pair of shoes to someone in need), or the Barnes and Noble Buy a Book campaign for local school children. Is there a product people can buy from you for others? Pick a method that works for your company, whether you are brick and mortar or online, and advertise those Giving Tuesday plans.

Get Your Clients/Customers/Employees To Participate In The #UNselfie Campaign

One of the reasons why Giving Tuesday has momentum and staying power is because of its tireless connection to social media campaigns. The hashtag game is strong with #GivingTuesday. One of those important hashtags is the #UNselfie. An unselfie is a picture posted on social media that lists the reasons why someone might give or where someone is giving their time and resources. The pictures usually involve someone holding up a piece of paper over their face listing the best reasons to give and what specifically is important to them. You can ask customers and employees to take an #UNselfie and post it with your company’s hashtag to draw awareness to the day and what your small business is doing. (Maybe hold a random drawing for one customer who posts! Be sure to like and respond to posts, too. Engage with your customers/clients.)

Focus On Storytelling And Go Big On Social Media

I’m a loud and intense proponent of using storytelling to grow your business and help the world. As humans, we are drawn to stories. We want to know who people are, what makes them tick, how we can help. There are many ways to use Giving Tuesday as an opportunity to tell your story or the story of someone who needs help from the community. If you are collecting money for a charitable organization, think about setting certain price-anchors for donations and telling your customers what impact that donation has. (For example, a $10 donation plants a tree; a $100 donation sends a kid in your community to camp.) No matter the organization you choose, it’s up to you to tell that story and get the word out. The more relational your Giving Tuesday campaign is, the more success you’ll have.

3 Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit From Participating In Giving Tuesday

It’s important to note that Giving Tuesday is about giving. Can you benefit from participating? Of course! But the who and the why of this day are far more important than the how. Shoppers are savvier than ever before and they know what they like in a business, and they can also smell inauthenticity from miles away. If your Giving Tuesday campaign is too focused on you and not focused enough on who you’re helping…you’re doing it wrong and it will feel forced and backfire. Getting excited about Giving Tuesday starts at the top and works down, so you set the barometer as a business owner. Still: that doesn’t mean the attention to Giving Tuesday isn’t worth it for your business. Here are 3 ways you benefit from participating:

Improve Employee/Customer Morale:Â Today I cried watching a viral video of a little boy finding an empty candy bowl on Halloween and filling it with his own candy before leaving the house. We are moved by selfless generosity and love for others, and when feel-good stories are short supply, boosting morale is no small task. Work is work and business is business. For business owners and employees alike, taking the time out to do something important and generous will boost mood and overall company self-esteem.
Receive Tax Deductions: Tax deductions are helpful and we cannot ignore that they are a benefit to donations. Check out your state and local requirements for tax deductions on charitable giving and follow all the rules.
Establish Yourself In The Community:Â Your small business is part of a larger community and serving that larger community is a huge benefit to you, your employees, and your customers. Whether it’s getting your name out as a partner or ally, communicating your business values, or setting up a system of giving that extends all year long, Giving Tuesday is the perfect place to start your campaign.

Pay It Forward With Giving Tuesday Campaigns

Doing good for the world and your community is good for business. Shoppers care about their communities, they also care about knowing where their money is going, and they want to shop for a cause. While the Giving Tuesday media ramps up and before the hashtags start to fly, decide on the most practical way to contribute this year and build off that foundation. What has your small business done for Giving Tuesday in the past? Do you have any ideas and success stories to share? Tell us in the comments below.

The post Giving Tuesday for Small Businesses: Why Your Company Should Get Involved, Plus 5 Fun And Clever Ways You Can Participate appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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November 5, 2019

WooCommerce Review: Pros & Cons of Using WooCommerce for an Online Store

WooCommerce is the most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress, which is the Internet’s most popular content management software.

Explore WooCommerce’s Feature Set

Explore my WooCommerce Setup Guide

WooCommerce was originally developed by a small theme / web design firm in 2011. It grew rapidly among the WordPress community due to its feature set, but also due to its business model.

Same as now, you could download & use the full WooCommerce plugin for free from the start. WooThemes made money by selling compatible designs, support, and from specific extensions (e.g. to connect to a credit card processor).

In 2015, Automattic bought WooCommerce from WooThemes. Automattic is the software company run by Matt Mullenweg, the original author of WordPress software.

Ever since, the development of WooCommerce has been tightly coordinated with the development of both self-hosted WordPress and Automattic’s hosted WordPress.com software.

So that’s enough introduction. The point is that WooCommerce is legit, WooCommerce is growing, and WooCommerce can be a great fit for many storeowners…but not all.

Disclosure – I receive customer referral fees from companies mentioned on this website. All data & opinions are based on my experience as a paying customer or consultant to a paying customer.

What is WooCommerce?

To run an ecommerce website, you only need a few additional features. You need a product listing, a shopping cart, a payment processor, and order functionality that will merge & manage all the order information within a database. That’s it.

Because of that, ecommerce platforms are very similar to general website software…with just a bit of added functionality.

And like general website software, your choice of software depends on your personal desire for control / customization vs. convenience.

It’s a bit like real estate. A house provides maximum control. But you have to deal with maintenance, contractors, and random issues. A hotel offers zero control or customization, but they take care of *everything*.

WooCommerce lives on the more control / customization end of the spectrum. If Etsy & Amazon are hotels, then WooCommerce is a house.

WooCommerce is a software plugin that adds ecommerce functionality to WordPress, which is general website software (aka “CMS”).

And WordPress is part of a 3 part bundle that “makes a website” –

domain (your address on the Internet)
hosting (where your website files live)
software (what generates the files & pages that make up your website)

In other words, WooCommerce can help WordPress build a stand-alone store instead of a single-family home.

Now, this leads to the first overarching choice with WooCommerce.

Your choice is that WooCommerce is *part* of that 3 part bundle. It directly competes with other WordPress ecommerce plugins.

But…it also competes with other big bundled ecommerce solutions. And many big competitors deliberately bundle domain, hosting, software & ecommerce into a single, simple monthly price.

That’s great – and there are plenty of upsides & downsides to that bundling. But it’s important to be aware of since exploring the pros & cons of WooCommerce is a bit like comparing apples & oranges with other ecommerce solutions.

But – we’ll do it anyway. I love WooCommerce for what it is, but it’s not for everyone. Here’s a few pros & cons of WooCommerce both in comparison to direct & indirect competitors.

Pros of WooCommerce

Most ecommerce platforms have a series of strong advantages, and WooCommerce is no different. Here are a few reasons to use WooCommerce, not only instead of other WordPress plugins, but also instead of other ecommerce solutions.

Long-term Cost & Value

WooCommerce is free to download & free to use. If you have WordPress installed on your hosting account, you can navigate to Plugins –> Add New and add it to your website right now.

Explore my WordPress Ecommerce Setup Guide here.

WooCommerce is also fully functional with no add-ons or extensions.

That means that your annual website costs could be as low as ~$120/yr, depending on what hosting plan you have.

For contrast, the average low-tier ecommerce bundle with a hosted service like Shopify (review), BigCommerce (review) or Wix (review) will run around $360/yr for a single website.

But it gets even better for WooCommerce.

Since your main annual cost will be for a hosting plan, you can maximize the value of your hosting account with multiple websites.

If you had 4 small WooCommerce powered websites on your hosting account, then your annual per website costs would be $30/yr.

To run 4 small ecommerce websites with Shopify or Wix, your annual per website costs would be at least $1,440/yr.

For example, one of my earliest clients had a personal website, a home decor blog, a cat collar store, and an embroidery store – all on her same hosting account.

All 4 sites used WordPress, and the 2 store used WooCommerce. It helped her defray the costs and keep her 2 stores profitable – since they were side-hobbies anyway.

But it gets even better for WooCommerce.

WooCommerce comes fully-featured and fully supported with no transaction fees of any kind. There’s no “premium tier” to move to. Your long-term per-feature costs will always be lower with WooCommerce.

Also, almost all of WooCommerce extensions are flat-fee and under $100. You have access to a huge and rapidly expanding library of advanced, complex ecommerce features for flat-fee optional cost.

And, lastly, since WooCommerce works within WordPress, you get a double cost benefit for any free or premium plugins that you already want to use with your website.

For example, the most popular Redirection plugin for WordPress is free. And it’s free for WooCommerce too, since WooCommerce is integrated with your website.

If you are already paying for speed, security, and anti-spam for your existing WordPress website (with something like JetPack), then you can simply extend that subscription to cover your store as well.

And, you can piece together any 3rd party software based on cost, need, compatibility, etc.

If we stick with the housing analogy with WooCommerce, you can sub-lease rooms to help with the rent, your home office can benefit from your general security bill, and you can add-on *exactly* as your budget allows.

Now…all these massive cost benefits for WooCommerce comes with a few massive caveats, which I’ll cover in the cons. But on face value, WooCommerce is an incredible short-term and long-term value for any storeowner.

Integration with WordPress

WordPress software powers more than 1/3rd of the entire Internet. And it’s popular for a reason – it works well, it’s incredibly versatile as software, and it has a huge community (both for-profit and non-profit) supporting it.

And WooCommerce benefits from all three reasons as well, since it’s been a part of the broader WordPress community for years now.

This seamless integration with WordPress is important because WooCommerce can pull features in from an entire universe of plugins, themes, tutorials, and values that simply does not exist anywhere else.

For example, Yoast SEO has long been a hugely popular plugin with lots of international translations, advanced SEO feature support, and good usability.

There is no hosted platform with anything like it (or like any of Yoast’s excellent competitors). But since WooCommerce is integrated with WordPress…Yoast is integrated with WooCommerce as well.

The same goes with popular themes. Themes will support the same PHP structure as WooCommerce. In fact, developers will often go ahead and add bonus features to WordPress themes to make it extra appealing to WooCommerce users.

Plus, WordPress has long upheld the values of the Open Web with full RSS support, nice permalinks, W3 valid code, cross-browser compatibility, and full control over your code, content & data.

f you want to leave WooCommerce, it’s easy and well-supported. Your data is only accessible to you – and anyone you grant permission to (not the other way around).

Lastly, if you have an existing WordPress powered website and want to add ecommerce, WooCommerce makes it as seamless as any other plugin so that you don’t have to style & support a store on a completely different platform.

Support from Automattic

Automattic is a company founded by Matt Mullenweg, who is also the author of WordPress software.

WordPress software is free, open-source and community supported. But Automattic is the for-profit company that makes & sells tools for WordPress software.

They run WordPress.com, a bundled hosted service for WordPress software in addition to JetPack, a speed / security / utility kit for WordPress websites, and WooCommerce.

Now, there’s a whole universe of for-profit companies offering WordPress plugins, themes, support, etc. They all do great work, and I recommend many of them.

But for longevity, consistency, and building more 3rd party integrations, I think it’s in WooCommerce’s advantage to be owned by Automattic.

There are plenty of WordPress software companies, and plenty of good ecommerce plugins. In fact, some have features and setups that I like a bit better than WooCommerce (mainly for digital goods only).

But the bottom-line when comparing WooCommerce not only to other plugins, but also to Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, etc – is that you need a large company that will be around and have an financial interest in keeping the software cutting-edge.

Additionally, since Automattic is still private and venture-funded – they are still in “growth” mode, which only means more investment in features & customer service.

WooCommerce’s ownership is a huge advantage for choosing WooCommerce over other ecommerce plugins, and put it at parity with other ecommerce solutions offered by large, stable companies.

Versatility & Compatibility

A few fun facts about WooCommerce –

You can use it to sell memberships
You can use it to sell recurring licenses
You can use it to sell digital goods
You can use it to sell apppointments
You can use it to sell affiliate, drop-ship, or even Amazon products
You can “hack” it and combine to sell really anything you can imagine

The actual plugin is incredibly versatile and compatible with a huge range of uses. Like WordPress, your imagination is likely more limited than the tool is.

The plugin automatically creates & manages a range of page types including products, product categories, orders, confirmations, etc

It’s compatible not only with most single-use WordPress plugins but also with large site-type plugins like the BuddyPress social network plugin and bbPress forum plugin.

In other words, you can create a niche social network with forum and online store all with the same WordPress install.

3rd Party Integrations

WooCommerce has a large & growing Apps & Extensions store. It’s a library of premium extensions that allow you to harness powerful 3rd party software for things like payments, shipping, cross-product listings, inventory management, marketing, bookkeeping, and more.

If you are an offline merchant who loves a 3rd party processor (like Square), then you can use an extension to add it to WooCommerce.

If you love your 3rd party shipping or inventory software, it will probably integrate with WooCommerce.

Ease of Use & Onboarding

This pro has a caveat – I’m assuming that you have worked with WordPress before. If not, this will actually appear in the cons section.

But, if you have, WooCommerce’s onboarding is amazing. They’ve upgraded the process to the point where my WordPress Ecommerce Setup guide isn’t nearly as useful as it used to be.

When you add the WooCommerce plugin, you are instantly moved into a setup sequence that will help you list your first product, set up your page types, and get all your basic settings ready to roll.

You really can be set up to sell in minutes. And unlike some plugins that create a dedicated section for use, WooCommerce automatically folds pages, media and options within the existing WordPress install so that everything appears where you think it should be (e.g., media settings, categories, etc).

Control & Customizations

Since WooCommerce is a PHP-based plugins that integrates with your WordPress install, you have direct access to the code via browser and FTP.

You can add, remove, edit scripts and bits of code to your heart’s content. If you want to edit your checkout flow or your error codes or your analytics script or your CSS – then you just do it.

You are not limited by a platform’s plan or code access or script limitations. If you want to hire a designer or developer or marketer, you can hire from a huge pool rather than a narrow field.

There are even custom extension developers who will create whatever extension for WooCommerce that you want.

Do you run a store than needs to accept Dogecoin? Or a very specific shipping option? You’ll need to use WooCommerce – because no major ecommerce platform will be building that anytime soon.

Cons of WooCommerce

Every ecommerce platform has natural disadvantages since there is an inherent tradeoff between control & convenience. You’ll likely find a lot of WooCommerce complaints and issues around the Internet.

Here’s a few of the key disadvantages you’ll find with WooCommerce – and using WordPress as an online store in general.

Ease of Use & Onboarding

WooCommerce & WordPress both try to make ease of use & onboarding (i.e., moving a new user to an active user) simple, straightforward and intuitive.

There are plenty of guides around the Internet, along with prompts, Q&As, support, and more.

But the bottom line is that there is still a basic tradeoff between control and convenience.

For a beginner, WooCommerce has a learning curve that is even steeper than WordPress’ learning curve. When you install WooCommerce, you not only have to learn the basic jargon of an ecommerce store (listings, checkout flow, payment tokens), but you also have to learn the basic jargon of WordPress (permalinks, posts, pages, plugins, etc) and the basic jargon of any self-hosted website (difference between HTML & CSS, page load speed, etc).

For a beginner with zero experience with WordPress or running a website, WooCommerce will require a steep learning curve. Now, it might be worth it if you have the time & patience to learn everything.

But compared to drag & drop basic online store builders like Weebly or Wix or even comprehensive ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce’s onboarding & setup is a huge downside.

Technical Maintenance

Sticking with the house / apartment analogy, you know how you can just call the landlord when something goes wrong?

Yeah, you can’t do that with WooCommerce. There is some semblance of support via your hosting company and Automattic (if you are a premium JetPack subscriber) and the WooCommerce community. But there’s no single place to just call and get something fixed.

In fact, like a landlord, there’s no one who will come by and just check on the HVAC filter, the roofing, and basic structure.

Running WooCommerce is really like owning a house. There are plenty of people who will help you maintain it. In fact, many are quite reasonable and even quicker than a landlord.

But…when it comes down to it, *you* and *you* alone are in charge of keeping your website maintained, available, and operating.

Plugins will notify you of security updates, but you will need to install them and manage any new conflicts. Your hosting company will give you support, but you need to know what questions to even ask. You’ll need to know how to troubleshoot.

This downside comes directly from the benefit of maximum control. With maximum control & freedom comes maximum responsibility.

Again, you can get customer support for WooCommerce. In fact, some hosting companies offer “WooCommerce Hosting” with management included.

But compared to online store builders like Wix & Weebly or ecommerce platforms like Shopify & BigCommerce, WooCommerce is lacking in simple technical maintenance.*

*The one caveat here is the WordPress.com option – they are a hosted version of WordPress run by Automattic. Since they bundle hosting, software, support & more – you can get many of the benefits of WooCommerce without this downside. They’ll take care of all the maintenance…at an extra price.

Speed & Security

With the continued growth of mobile and the profitability of hacking, website speed & security are more important than ever.

Like the situation with technical maintenance, WooCommerce leaves you basically in charge of speed & security – even though there are plenty of native & 3rd party options to help you.

WordPress & WooCommerce are inherently secure when installed with a good hosting company, maintained, and used with basic security best practices.

Additionally, WordPress & WooCommerce are inherently fast when installed with a good hosting company, maintained and used with basic speed best practices.

But your weakest link is the toughest part with both speed & security.

For hosted platforms like Weebly, Wix, Shopify or BigCommerce (and the WordPress.com option) – this is an area where they truly shine. Your website lives on their infrastructure with their team of professionals watching constantly for issues and keeping software cutting edge.

In fact, several have bounty programs where they pay hackers to deliberately seek vulnerabilities in their systems. They will also have direct partnerships with payment processors for real-time fraud alerts.

Overall, speed & security should not be an issue for WooCommerce storeowners – including beginners. But, like with owning a house, you are still the one responsible for any issues.

It remains a key downside of WooCommerce, especially if you store starts growing rapidly from hundreds of visitors to hundreds of thousands of users – which brings us to the next downside.

Growth & Scaling

Since WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, it has to work within WordPress’ basic functionality.

And WordPress’ basic functionality is not built specifically for ecommerce, it’s built for versatility.

This issue means that the way WooCommerce works starts to break down when you get above a certain threshold of “queries” – ie, requests of the database.

And unlike browsing content, or really any other type of functionality, ecommerce can generate *a lot* of queries, very quickly, and in a short space of time.

Imagine WooCommerce is a single dude standing between a group of customers and a library. Imagine they all need to request books and return books before paying you, getting change, and then leaving. Now, if they go one at a time, it’s fine. In fact, you can probably push the guy to handling several returns and new books at once.

But imagine they all show up at once, say, on Thanksgiving, and start shouting out lots of book orders. And they start giving books to put back…and they all want to pay all at once.

Well, the dude is going to get really confused, tired, and crash. Not because he’s not good but because it’s a not-ideal system.

That’s WooCommerce’s core problem – handing *lots* of add to cart and checkout events all at once.

Ecommerce platforms that are built from scratch for ecommerce like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have this issue. They use a completely different set of technologies to avoid WooCommerce’s inherent issues.

Now, before a bunch of WordPress folks’ start sending me emails, WooCommerce can absolutely scale to hundreds of thousands of orders. WooCommerce says that the issues is a myth and has examples to prove it.

All true. But it take a lot of work & expertise to make that type of scaling happen. Here’s an interview with a top WordPress expert on making WooCommerce scale…and even he discusses it like a huge project, not something built-into the product.

If you have a small, growing store, this is a non-issue. You can solve problems as they come.

But if you are starting what will be a large ecommerce site very quickly, it’s a critical disadvantage to be aware of – especially when looking at other Enterprise ecommerce options.

Potential Long-term Costs

WooCommerce’s price (free!) and potential long-term value are amazing for beginners and anyone on a budget.

However, you may have noted the potential need for 3rd party help, WooCommerce can become quite expensive.

One of my earliest clients back paid me $1200 to fix several emergency issues that she simply could not figure out before her sales deadline.

She had chosen WooCommerce specifically to control costs (rather than integrate with an existing content site). But it will take several years of no issues to recoup those costs compared to a Shopify plan.

Since WooCommerce is not bundled with hosting and other software, it’s also easy to let regular costs get out of control. Once you start paying for automated backups, security scanning, managed hosting, CDN, premium plugin extensions, and more – your monthly costs may be much higher than anticipated (again, just like homeownership vs. renting).

Now, all these costs are *potential* costs. And if you have the time and patience, many storeowners would rather than potential costs that they choose rather than an high guaranteed cost. But it’s a potential downside to be aware of.

Future of Ecommerce

Ecommerce is changing rapidly. And the speed of change is happening faster everyday.

Apps like Poshmark, Depop, Pinterest, and Instagram are moving more ecommerce to happen seamlessly within apps via “headless” ecommerce backends.

In other words, some ecommerce platforms are simply inventory & order tracking systems where the actual shopping, cart, and payments happens within a 3rd party app.

In some ways, WooCommerce’s open structure should be an advantage. And yet, cutting edge ecommerce relies increasingly on APIs and direct integrations, which are not WooCommerce’s specialty.

Shopify is able to leverage its size, infrastructure, and tech team to create cutting edge integrations. Same with MailChimp, Square, and a whole universe of similar marketing tools.

And all that does not even start to discuss Amazon.

All that to say, WooCommerce does have a current disadvantage with ecommerce as it is currently evolving.

However, it could have a huge advantage as content becomes more important. And it will forever have an advantage as somewhere that you truly own & control. It’s this bet that Automattic has their money on.

It’s a potential downside to consider. There’s no right answer, it all depends on your goals, expertise, and view of the future. There’s a reason why so many website builders like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, WordPress.com, and GoDaddy GoCentral are adding basic ecommerce functionality.

All of which leads us to a few direct comparisons.

WooCommerce Alternatives

There is a whole universe of ecommerce solutions on the Internet. Compared to 2003, this is a really good problem to have. But as an online storeowner, navigating choices is still an issue. Here’s a quick rundown of the main alternatives to WooCommerce, along with links to further posts.

WooCommerce vs. Other WordPress Ecommerce Plugins

There are lots of ecommerce plugins, but most are pretty terrible. WooCommerce’s main direct competitors are –

Easy Digital Downloads – a focus on simple digital goods.
WP Easy Cart – a focus on simplicity but limited add-ons.
WP Ecommerce – a non-Automattic comprehensive option. Meant for developers due to limited support options & simple extensions.
NinjaShop – a focus on simplicity but limited add-ons.

WooCommerce can also run on WordPress.com as part of a hosted bundle. This option removes a lot of WooCommerce’s negatives, but also increases WooCommerce’s costs & removes some of the self-hosted freedoms.

WooCommerce vs. Shopify

I wrote a full comparison of WooCommerce and Shopify here. The short version is that unless you have a specific reason to use WooCommerce and plan on running a growing ecommerce store, then you’ll probably do better with Shopify.

WooCommerce vs. BigCommerce

I wrote a full comparison of WooCommerce and BigCommerce here. The short version is that unless you have a specific reason to use WooCommerce and plan on running a growing ecommerce store, then you’ll probably do better with BigCommerce.

WooCommerce vs. Wix

Wix is much more user-friendly compared to WooCommerce. However, Wix also constrains your options more than even WordPress.com and hosted ecommerce platforms like Shopify. If you have a small store and want drag & drop convenience, then use Wix.

WooCommerce vs. Magento

Magento used to be a much tougher competitor to WooCommerce until Magento’s sale. Now, self-hosted Magento is going away. If you run an enterprise site, then scalability will likely make your choice for you. You’ll want Magento (or other Enterprise options). If you have a small ecommerce shop, then WooCommerce will be a better option.

WooCommerce vs. OpenCart

OpenCart is well-respected open-source ecommerce software. If you are building a ecommerce store from scratch and you want to host it yourself, then OpenCart is a solid option. However, it is declining in use (and with that, apps & extensions & developers). Unless you have a reason to use OpenCart, WooCommerce will give you access to a larger open-source community.

WooCommerce vs. Ecwid

Ecwid is less an ecommerce solution and more of an “anywhere shopping cart”. You can quickly add it to an existing website (ie, a plain WordPress website) and provide an ecommerce experience of a sort. However, it does not integrate with your backend. You also will have trouble competing for inbound marketing. It’s a good option to quickly add ecommerce functionality to your website without going through the WooCommerce setup process.

WooCommerce vs. Prestashop

PrestaShop is well-respected open-source ecommerce software. If you are building a ecommerce store from scratch and you want to host it yourself, then PrestaShop is a solid option. However, it is declining in use (and with that, apps & extensions & developers). Unless you have a reason to use PrestaShop, WooCommerce will give you access to a larger open-source community.

WooCommerce Review Conclusion

WooCommerce is the best ecommerce solution for 3 types of storeowners –

Storeowners with technical resources who want to heavily customize their store or use unique functionality.
Website owners who have a content-driven website and want to add-on a complementary, but seamless store.
Storeowners who are highly cost-conscious and feel comfortable investing time rather than money into running their own website.

If you fit those buckets, I’d highly recommend checking out the main WooCommerce website and using my guide to setting up your WooCommerce-driven ecommerce store.

If you don’t fit in those buckets, I’d highly recommend checking out a hosted solution. Explore my ecommerce platform quiz here. Or if you are building a small store (a dozen products), explore my online store builder quiz here.

Lastly, be sure to explore my guide to marketing your ecommerce store. So many stores fail, *not* because of platform…but because of a bad marketing plan. Spend as much time planning your marketing as you spend researching your store software.

The post WooCommerce Review: Pros & Cons of Using WooCommerce for an Online Store appeared first on ShivarWeb.

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November 5, 2019

6+ Best Dental Website Examples for Inspiration

So you’re creating a dental website, and you’re looking for dental website design examples for inspiration and guidance. You’re also wondering which website platform is best to use for your website.

But before we dive into examples of what professional personal websites look like in the wild on a variety of website builders and hosting platforms, there is one thing to keep in mind when you’re evaluating a website: it’s not just about how the websites look. The functionality matters too.

Think of it like buying a car. You have a make / model in mind, and you’re probably looking to see them drive by on the road to see how they actually look. However, you also care about how they operate. Does it accelerate well? Does it have the hauling capabilities you need? How is the gas mileage?

Looking at a dental website examples should be done in the same way.

Do you want the website to have appointment scheduling functionality? Do you want a patient portal? This functionality needs to be consider before you start choosing a website builder + hosting platform.

Find The Right Website Builder for Your Dental Website

We collected the following website examples not just to show you how they look on different platforms, but how they can function, so you can be sure you create a website that fits both the look and functionality you need!

Disclosure – I receive customer referral fees from companies mentioned on this website. All data & opinions are based on my professional judgement as a paying customer or consultant to a paying customer.

Best Dental Website Examples

We’ve pulled these examples based on functionality, design, and usability. Again, when you’re looking to build a dental website, remember that you’re not just thinking about making the site look good. You want to think about what your site actually needs to do, and find a platform that supports all of your needs.

Ponce Dental Group

Software: Adobe

Hosting: Adobe

This dental website by Ponce Dental Group has all of the bells and whistles. You can book an appointment, manage your appointments, and learn about payment plans and insurance all from the homepage. And yet even with all of this information, the layout is still clean and information is easy to find.

If you’re looking for a website layout that allows you to have multiple calls to action without overwhelming visitors or making the site difficult to navigate, this dental website example is a great one to use for inspiration.

Bay Area Dental Surgery

Software: Weebly (Weebly Review)

Hosting: Weebly (Weebly Review)

On the other side of the spectrum is this dental website by Bay Area Dental Surgery Center. We liked the simplicity of this website, with the clear header and subhead that tells you exactly what this dentist does and who they help, and the cartoon graphic that adds an element of creativity and branding to the site.

This example just goes to show that a simple, straightforward layout can still be incredibly effective for your dental website. You don’t necessarily need something with tons of advanced functionality or even advanced branding!

If you’re looking for a good dental website example that includes a simple template that you can just plug your content into and get going, this is a great one to reference.

Grace & Leedy

Software: Squarespace (Squarespace Review)

Hosting: Squarespace (Squarespace Review)

This dental website example stands out for a few key reasons. First, notice how clear the navigation is on the homepage. As soon as you land on the website, your focus is drawn to the options of where to go next. It’s straightforward and makes choosing a next step simple.

We also liked the download functionality on the Form page.

The clear instructions and bright call-to-action buttons make it easy for visitors to see exactly what they need to do, and including the forms on the website not only enhances new patients’ experience online… but in person, too! No more filling out endless forms in the waiting room!

This site is another great example of a simple template that makes the most out of the design and functionality to give visitors a great user experience.

Dr. James Catt DMD

Software: Self-Hosted WordPress

Hosting: Codero + Linode

This dentist website example stood out to us for a few key reasons — the first of which being the color palette! Notice how the buttons, logo, and even header image all have the same color scheme. It makes the design look sophisticated, even though the layout is fairly straightforward.

Next, we also liked how Dr. James used focus landing pages to expand on each of his services:

This is a great way to make more detailed services pages that also provide valuable information for potential clients who may be doing research on dental procedures before deciding to move forward with them.

St. Lawrence Dental

Software: Wix (Wix Review)

Hosting: Wix (Wix Review)

Have you ever gone to a website to try to find logistical information (like operating hours and contact information) and had to dig for it? How frustrating is that?

This dental website does a great job of keeping key logistical information in clear view. Notice how the operating hours, telephone number, and “request an appointment” button are all grouped together in the top right corner of the homepage. This gives visitors all of the information they need when booking an appointment, without them having to dig around the site to see when the clinic is open, how to call, or where to request an appointment.

Atlanta Dental Spa

Software: Self-Hosted WordPress

Hosting: Google Cloud / Google

This website for Atlanta Dental Spa is another strong dental website example that hits all of the marks. The layout is clean and sophisticated, and although the site has a lot of content (including before / afters), it’s organized in a way that’s easy to navigate.

We particularly liked the Messenger functionality Atlanta Dental Spa includes, which allows you to chat with them on Facebook Messenger directly from their website.

If you’re looking for an overall example to use for inspiration for your dental website, check this one out!

Next Steps

Now that you have some inspiration in terms of the design, colors, and functionality you may want in your dental website, where do you go from here?

Well, it really depends on where you are in your dental website building journey!

If you’re ready to decide on a website builder, check out my guide to choosing a website builder here.

Lastly, if you’re wondering how to market your dental website, check out my guide to creating a local marketing strategy.

The post 6+ Best Dental Website Examples for Inspiration appeared first on ShivarWeb.

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November 5, 2019

Types of Digital Marketing: Examples, Uses, and Resources

Saying you’re going to start doing “digital marketing” for your business is like saying you’re going to the “Western Hemisphere” when someone asks where you’re going for vacation. Digital marketing is made up of a bunch of marketing concepts, each with their own strategies and purposes.

And if you’re wondering what types of digital marketing you should be using in your business, a bunch of grab-bag tips and techniques won’t help you until you first understand how digital marketing breaks down and exactly how each marketing concept works.

I’ve put together a guide on the different types of digital marketing with examples, uses, and resources so you can evaluate which digital marketing strategies support your goals.

I’ve broken digital marketing into three media types (owned, earned, and paid) to categorize the different marketing concepts.

Let’s dive in!

Owned Media

Owned media is any media or attention that you own and control.

Your website(s), blog, and social media channels are all examples of owned media.

Marketers use it in contrast to Earned or Paid Media where other people control the attention you receive. Successful owned media means that your audience pays attention to you directly rather than via other websites or ads.

SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization — it’s all about getting your website to appear when people search for it / you / related content topics. The world of SEO is wide and takes time. So while I won’t tell you it’s the best channel for immediate satisfaction, there are still some amazing results to be had.

For most, a successful SEO campaign would be a huge win due to the sheer volume of traffic that Google organic search can drive. Google processes over 3.5 billion queries per day and most of the clicks go to an organic result.

You’ll learn pretty quickly that in paid advertising, clicks for competitive keywords can be quite expensive. That’s a cost you don’t have to pay if you rank in the organic search results.

SEO breaks down into three categories: technical, off-page, and on-page. Technical and on-page SEO are owned media, and off-page SEO is earned media (more on that in a bit!).

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is all about ensuring that Google/Bing bots can crawl and index your website effectively. It’s about making sure you’re not generating tons of duplicate content. This is really about making sure the technical components of your site are up to snuff (no broken links, no multiple versions of your about page, etc).

Seeing it in action:
Some of the biggest gains in organic traffic can come from good technical SEO. Bad technical SEO creates problems like this –

A huge technical issue with re-launched sites is link redirects. I’ve helped several clients triple their organic traffic simply by redirecting old URLs to new URLs.

If you’ve ever had difficulty searching large retailers on Google for products…it’s because they are terrible at technical SEO (I’m looking at you Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic…also Nordstrom’s).

Why it’s useful:

I mean… you want Google to be able to evaluate your site, right?! Technical SEO is here to make sure users can find the actual information they’re looking for, and that Google can see all of the great content you’re creating (more on that in a minute).

What’s tough about it:

If you’re using WordPress, a good website builder, or a good hosted ecommerce platform you have the big barriers taken care of.

If you are already using a different platform, a technical audit might be the SEO item worth paying for, especially if you don’t have any technical SEO experience or you are working on a large enterprise scale.

Mentioning a “stand-alone technical audit with recommendations” to an SEO expert can be valuable if you’re on a custom-built site. Just don’t let them sell you on “ranking #1 tomorrow!”

What to Learn:

If you are running WordPress, install WordPress SEO by Yoast and run through my guide for using it effectively.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is all about “targeting” the right keywords and ensuring that your website is laid out in a coherent way that is understandable by search engines and users browsing your website. It’s about creating targeted content that helps answer your audience’s questions (either through a blog, a newscenter, or targeted landing pages!).

Seeing it in action:

REI is a master at on-page SEO. Check out what happens when I search “stand up paddle boarding”.

REI has created tons of content around various outdoor sports, and they rank in the top of the search results consistently. So while I may not be ready to buy a stand up paddle board, REI is on my radar from the very beginning because of the educational content they’re giving me.

Why it’s useful:

The goal of on-page SEO is to get specific content to appear on Google when someone is searching for it. It should bring in new people AND support sales (and it shouldn’t be keyword-stuffed content that won’t help customers on your website make a decision).

When done correctly, you can create authoritative content that addresses problems, questions, etc of your market, and when coupled with off-page SEO (more on that in a minute!), you can drive organic (AKA free) traffic to your site and capture your audience in the “research phase”.

It’s a way to build trust and authority with your ideal clients.

What’s tough about it:

It’s a long game for sure. And, if you’re just getting started, you’re already behind the curve. That’s not to say don’t do it (you should absolutely be creating content that addresses the problems your audience has). But you have to be consistent, research the right keywords that you can compete for, and build some trust with Google in order to get your content to appear in the top level of search results.

*Bonus – listen to Nate debate the merits of focusing on on-page SEO over off-page SEO.

What to learn:

How to use keywords on your website
How to do keyword research
Using title tags and meta descriptions
Using Google Search Console
Finding Content Ideas for SEO

Email Marketing

Email marketing has been around for ages. It involves having a list of “subscribers” (people who have opted in to say they want to receive emails from you) and sending them periodic emails with content, promotions, news, etc.

Seeing it in action:

Those promotional emails you get from your favorite retailers? Reminders that your car is due for service? Heck, even promotions from your credit card companies!

Yep… they’re all a part of email marketing. Here’s an email marketing example one of our team members received from Madewell:

Why it’s useful:

You can create highly targeted content with email marketing based on buying behaviors, automation rules, and even site behaviors. Email provides a highly customized experience and helps businesses create a more intimate relationship with their audience.

Why it’s tough:

How many emails do you get a day? Probably hundreds! In fact, if you have a Gmail account, you likely have an entire section of your inbox dedicated to promotional email. It’s a noisy space that can be difficult to breakthrough in, and in order to do it correctly, it requires consistency, strategy, and basic copywriting skills.

What to learn:

How to Write an Email Newsletter
Email Copywriting basics
Avoiding spam trigger words

Social Media

While social media platforms technically own the content on them, you do own your channels to a certain extent. You have complete control over what you post, which makes your profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. part of your owned media.

Seeing it in action:

Brands use social media in several different ways. For example, some use it to drive sales, like this men’s apparel brand:

While others, like me, use certain platforms to share content (like on Pinterest).

Why it’s useful:

Social media is, well… social! Building your brand’s presence on certain channels is a great way to connect to your audience on a deeper level and get to know them better. Plus, with the advanced analytics social platforms provide, you get such a detailed picture of who your ideal clients are.

Why it’s tough:

Social media experts make social out to be rocket science. It’s really not. Unless you started a business you know nothing about, you should know where your audience hangs out.

Where people tend to go wrong is when they try to be 100% present on every single social network. Effective social media is about having direct interactions where you build relationships and learn more about your audience.

What to learn:

First, I’d definitely recommend any resources from Buffer. I’ve also written a good bit on social media analytics & content marketing.

But second, I’d recommend focusing & learning a single platform. Don’t expand until you really understand your “wheelhouse”. Every platform has a manual and best practices. Study and practice more than anything else.

Earned Media

Earned media is press, coverage or mentions on other websites that you do not pay for since the story/content is useful enough to the outlet to stand on its own. In other words – you “earn” the placement in the news instead of paying for an advertisement beside the news. Earned media is a big deal not only because you don’t pay for it but also because readers trust it more than overt advertisements.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is basically just SEO-speak for getting links or “link building”, with the caveat that links are not all considered equal.

Sketchy $5 links are going to harm your site. Quality links placed on a related or well-known website are the primary factor for getting better visibility in Google search results, hence why on-page SEO and off-page SEO work well together.

Create high-quality, educational content, get people to link back to it because it’s actually helpful, build your site authority, show up higher in the search results.

Seeing it in action:

The only real way to see off-page SEO in action is with a backlink profile tool like Ahrefs. Check out my post on Ahrefs for how to explore and understand backlink profiles.

Why it’s useful:

Again, off-page SEO works hand-in-hand with on-page SEO. When you have quality sites linking to your quality content, it raises the overall quality of your site. Google takes that into consideration. If you’re a more trustworthy, authoritative site, you rank higher in the SERPS. If you rank higher in the SERPS, your high-quality content appears above competitors, and you get more of the right people onto your site.

What’s tough about it:

Again, it’s a long game… and it requires consistent outreach. When you’re just starting out, you can’t just write a piece of content and hope for links to come. You’ve got to get them, and you’ve got to get them for quality sites. This means pitching your content, doing outreach, etc. It also means having high-quality content for people to link to.

What to learn:

Broken Link Building
Redirecting Old URLS
How to Use Ahrefs

Public Relations

Unlike paid placements, public relations is where you earn publicity for your brand, either through features, news stories, press coverage, social shoutouts, and more. It’s all about working with the media to get the word about your business out there.

I’ve broken public relations down into two categories: traditional media relations and viral marketing.

Traditional Media Relations

This is probably what most people think of when they think of PR. It’s pitching your content to media outlets + trying to get coverage. Keep in mind this isn’t about pitching your business. Focus on being a reliable source & providing good stories / content (In fact, media relations works hand-in-hand with your on-page SEO strategy. Create good content, pitch it to outlets that may find it useful).

Seeing it in action:

Anytime you see a news story about a company or organization…it was probably via a press release or press outreach. PR is everywhere. Here’s an example from a campaign I did for this website.

Why it’s useful:

Having reputable outlets link back to your website or even run your content not only grows your website traffic — it builds brand authority. When you’re trying to stand out in a crowded space (i.e. the Internet), having coverage from reputable sources helps build trust with your audience quicker.

Why it’s tough:

Pitching to the media isn’t a walk in the park. Most outlets get tons of pitches every single day — which means yours needs to stand out and provide actual value. It can be a time-consuming process.

What to learn:

How to Plan a DIY PR Campaign

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is when a piece of your content goes “viral” — AKA it gets a massive amount of shares and attention in a short period of time. Viral marketing is tough to do, but when it is done, it can create massive traction for your brand.

Seeing it in action:

There are plenty of big corporate campaigns that spark outrage, curiosity or some other big emotion. The original “small business” viral marketing effort was Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” series of videos.

Why it’s useful:

When your content goes viral, you can see a huge spike in traffic over a short period of time. You get more eyes on your site, get in front of larger audiences, and get in front of new audiences you likely haven’t seen before. If it’s high-quality content, you’ll also likely get links back to the viral piece, which can build your site’s authority with Google.

Why it’s tough:

You can try your best to guess what goes into creating viral content, but you’re also at the mercy of the Internet. There’s not an exact science to viral marketing, which makes it hard to pull off.

What to learn:

A big part of viral marketing is tapping into trending topics or trending emotions. The rest is not really a secret. It’s just combining those and hitting the right moment.

Paid Media

Paid media is any media or attention that you pay for. Paid media is a great way to promote your website and get the ball rolling on your business. Usually any type of media business will offer businesses attention for a price. The trick is choosing the right media and getting a positive return from it.

I’ve broken paid media into three categories: search ads, display ads, and social media ads.

Search Ads

Search Ads show up when someone searches for a query. For example, if you search “shoes” – you’ll get ads for shoes. Google was the first mover here and made their billions with search ads. But now many networks from Pinterest to Twitter to Amazon and more all use search ads within their networks.

Seeing it in action:

Search ads are anywhere — just try searching for something on Google! I searched “dentist in Atlanta” and got this…

Again, these ads show up whenever you’re searching for a specific query on search platforms (i.e. Google).

Why it’s useful:

The key benefit of search ads is that the searcher has intent — i.e. they’re actively looking for what you have to offer (like a dentist in Atlanta). The marketing jargon here is that you are “harvesting” demand rather than generating demand.

Why it’s tough:

You’re paying to play, and volume and bid prices can affect your performance significantly, especially if you have budget limitations. If you’re bidding on a competitive keyword, it’s going to cost you. You’ve also got to compete with others who are bidding on high search volume, competitive keywords.

What to learn:

How Google Decides What You Pay
Alternative PPC Networks

Display Ads

Display ads (AKA Banner ads) have been around since the dawn of the Internet. They’re everywhere both the Internet + within platforms (think about the banners that pop-up when you’re using an app on your smartphone).

Display ads differ from Search Ads in two main ways. First, they use images / banners. Second, they focus on interest rather than intent.

Seeing it in action:

Display ads are EVERYWHERE. Just log into Facebook and look on the left side of your newsfeed.

With the data Facebook provides to its advertisers, they can show me ads based on what they think my interests are.

Why it’s useful:

Displays Ads are different from Search ads because you’re targeting interest rather than intent. In our example above, I’m getting targeted with ads for software that helps small businesses, because Facebook knows I’m a small business… so they’re betting I’m interested in software that can help me manage my business.

And while Google handles most Display Ads around the Web, the big opportunity for Display Ads is on “walled gardens” like Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Zillow, etc who all know everything about users on their network.

There are also a range of targeting options, match types, and formats depending on network and goal.

Why it’s tough:

If you don’t know a ton about your audience (or don’t have access to that data), you’re taking a shot in the dark. Targeting interests can be way broader than targeting intent, which means your chances of getting highly qualified leads are less than what they are with search.

What to learn:

Like social media, it pays to learn a single network. Read their manual, learn how to read analytics, and run lots of test campaigns before “scaling up” your spending.

Social Ads

Social ads are exactly what they sound like… ads on social media platforms! Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, etc… they all have advertising capabilities that allow advertisers to run paid promotions on their platforms.

Seeing it in action:

Check out this ad from UNTUCKit on Pinterest:

One of our staff members uses Pinterest primarily for fashion, so her Pinterest feed includes ads based on her interest in fashion!

Why it’s useful:

Social networks have a ton of data on their users, which gives advertisers a huge opportunity to create very targeted ads based on their users interest. There’s also massive opportunities to retarget users who visit your site and bring them back to your platform.

Why it’s tough:

You’re not just learning one ad platform… you’re learning several. Each social media advertising network operates differently, has different policies, and is constantly changing. It can be easy to spread yourself, and your budget, too thin. The trick is to focus where your users are most active and you have the most data so you can get the most bang for your buck.

What to learn:

Advertising on Reddit
Advertising on LinkedIn
Advertising on Snapchat
Advertising on Pinterest
Advertising on Quora

Next Steps

As you can see, digital marketing is made of up so many different avenues and methods. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel like you have to master them all, but you really don’t.

If you’re just starting out and don’t want to spend a dime, I recommend checking out my guide on How to Promote Your Website Online for Free next.

If you’re ready to spend a little and want a step-by-step process to advertising online now that you know the different digital marketing methods, check out this guide here.

The post Types of Digital Marketing: Examples, Uses, and Resources appeared first on ShivarWeb.

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November 4, 2019

How To Design a Website Layout w/ Best Practices & Examples

So you’re designing a website layout, either for yourself or for a client, and you’re looking for some best practices and examples to follow.

Maybe you’ve even spent some time digging through templates for inspiration, because hey… it can’t hurt, right?

Wrong!

Website templates are great… but they can be drastically affected by stock photos, brand assets, colors, fonts, etc.

Before you start browsing templates, you first need to understand what your site needs to do, what content you’ll have, and how you need to lay it all out for an optimal user experience.

So how do you do that? Great question! Here’s my step-by-step process to designing a website layout with best practices:

Step One: Set Your Goals

A website is more than just a collection of pages. Really, it’s a roadmap for your audience. It helps them find what they’re looking for when they’re looking for it.

Which means before you start looking at templates and designs, you have to first understand what your audience needs from your site to begin with.

What’s the goal of your site? Is it educational? Is it selling products? Is it a resume site to help you get hired?

Before you can start navigating somewhere, you have to know the end destination. The same applies to your website. Before you even start planning the website layout, define the overall goal of the site.

What to Consider:

Your website today doesn’t have to be your website tomorrow. Set your goals for what you want to accomplish right now.
Your overall website will have a goal, and each page will have a goal. Separating the two can help you get clear on the overall flow.
Your site is all about the user. What are THEY trying to accomplish?

What to Avoid:

Biting off more than you can chew. If you’re trying to do too much at first, you’re either going to end up with a messy site or no site at all.
Getting caught up in the nitty gritty. We’re not talking functionality, yet.

What to Learn:

How to create a minimally viable website

Examples to Copy:

Sean Halpin

Sandy Springs Artsapalooza

Step Two: Map Out Your Main Content

Once you have the main goal of the website, you can start to think about what content you need.

What types of information is your audience searching for? How should that information be grouped?

This will become the overall architecture of your site (and the navigation). Remember, your site is all about your audience’s journey.

The end goal is to get them to the information they need in the fewest steps possible. It doesn’t matter how beautifully designed your website is if no one can find what they’re looking for!

The key here is clarity. The navigation should be intuitive — your people shouldn’t have to dig for information.

Define your site’s primary navigation and content groupings before moving into design, so you can choose or design a template that supports an intuitive architecture.

What to Consider:

Think about how a user who lands directly on a given page would feel (without having navigated from your homepage).
Think about someone how has accessibility needs, or is simply in a hurry would feel.
Again, less is more. If you don’t need multiple pages to say it, don’t use multiple pages to say it!

What to Avoid:

Burying important pages in a deep hierarchy. Prioritize key information
Death by content. Your website doesn’t have to be the final destination.

What to Learn:

How to use keywords on your website
Smashing Magazine resource on content planning

Examples to Copy:

Au Lit Fine Linens

Lesley M.M. Blume

Step Three: Get your page layout down

I know, I know… it sounds counterintuitive to think about a layout before you start searching for a template. But again, this is all about organizing your information.

If you have an idea of the type of layout you need for each page, you’ll narrow down template options a lot sooner (and will be less distracted by frills that you probably don’t need anyway).

Again, the goal is to get people the information they need in the quickest way possible. Think about your own browsing behavior. You’re likely not reading each and every word on the site, right?

What to Consider:

Use size to distinguish between important info / details that may not be as crucial — the most important information should be the biggest on the page
Use headers and subheads to help scanners find key sections + information
Bold important phrases and key information
Use bullets / icons to break up text-heavy sections (see what I did here?)

What to Avoid:

Don’t sacrifice clarity for creativity
Don’t bury key information “below the fold” (AKA don’t make people dig and scroll endlessly for it).

What to Learn:

If you want a page-by-page breakdown, check out our guides on…

Homepage best practices
About Us page best practices
FAQ page best practices
Contact Us page best practices
Product page best practices

Examples to Copy:

Trello

Grovemade

Step Four: Lock in functionality

After you have a general layout in mind for your pages, it’s time to think about functionality on each page.

When we’re dealing with website design, remember that sometimes less is more, especially if you’re just trying to get your site up and running.

Having a minimally viable website can be more effective than having some juggernaut with bells and whistles that confuses people or costs you a fortune to get up and running.

Think through the minimum functionality each page needs.

For example, your services page probably doesn’t need social media icons / social sharing. However, you may want to include links to your social channels on your Contact Page, or bring in your Instagram feed on your About page if it’s applicable to your overall site goals.

A well-designed website isn’t about how advanced the functionality is. It’s about how quickly and easily can you give people the key information they need to accomplish their goals on a certain page.

What to Consider:

Think about the functions that would actually enhance your users’ experience.
What functionality is a must-have right now, and what’s a nice-to-have down the line?
Functionality isn’t built in a template — it’s supported by your software (AKA your website builder).

What to Avoid:

Functionality for the sake of functionality. You don’t want to overload your site or confuse your users.
Biting off more than you can chew. Having the ability to upload your latest YouTube episode is great, until you have to keep up with it.

What to Learn:

Which website builder will fit your functionality needs
WordPress plugins

Examples to Copy:

Dave Horak

Cumberland Community Church

Step Five: Pick Your Template

So you’ve done the planning, you’ve sketched out your site, and you even know how the site needs to function. It’s time to finally, FINALLY start looking for a template (or creating your own)!

What to Consider:

Templates are really just HTML and CSS… which means they can be recreated almost anywhere. If you see a Wix template you love but want to use WordPress, you can easily recreate it.
Keep your layout needs in mind that you defined earlier, and remember that most templates are fairly customizable.
Look beyond the homepage. Look at how the subpages and unique pages are presented.

What to Avoid:

Again, functionality is NOT something that comes with a template.
Don’t judge a template based on the photography and logo designs. Often, a template will only look a certain way due to the mock-up creative assets.

What to Learn:

How to create your web design color palette
How to write effective website copy

Examples to Copy:

Inherit Clothing

Beautiful Destinations

Next Steps

You’re all set! Just follow the step-by-step process outline above to design a website layout that’s clear, easy to navigate, and gets your users the right information at the right time!

The post How To Design a Website Layout w/ Best Practices & Examples appeared first on ShivarWeb.

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November 1, 2019

The Complete 2019 Small Business Guide To Holiday Shipping: Deadlines, Prices, And How To Save

The holiday season is upon us! For many small businesses, this is the busiest time of the year for sales and shipping, so busy that UPS is said to have delivered over 800 million packages in 2018 during the holidays alone.

In today’s world, consumers are accustomed to inexpensive and fast shipping, which means making a holiday shipping plan is essential. But how do you prepare for such a busy season as a business owner? What are your best shipping options? And how do you get the best rates to make your customers happy and compete in a space with Amazon and other two-day shipping providers?

Heading into the holiday season blind, without information about shipping rates and times, is an expensive mistake you can’t afford to make. It’s important to understand what customers want in shipping rates, the shipping methods customers prefer, and how to navigate general holiday busyness. We’ll answer all these questions and more to help your business handle holiday shipping with ease.

Here is what you need to know about holiday shipping 2019.

The Best Holiday Shipping Options For Your Business

Holiday shipping choices are an integral part of your overall business strategy, especially during the holidays. Even though the small business holiday season starts with Halloween, don’t let your shipping start with a scare. Learn what shipping options you have ahead of time so you can be prepared and ease the stress of the holidays.

In today’s small business world, there are more shipping options than ever, whether you outsource or use software apps and software. That means the holiday shipping rush doesn’t need to be crazy. Still, when it comes to shipping options, there are really three major contenders: The United States Postal Service (USPS), United Parcel Service (UPS), and FedEx.

We’ll explain what services each provides, how much they cost, and which is the best to use for your shipping needs. And, if none of these fit your needs, we’ll also cover the best shipping software and outsourcing options.

Small Business Shipping Options	Best For
USPS	Affordability and saving money when packages don’t need to arrive quickly
UPS	Fast deliveries with guaranteed shipping, package tracking, and no peak surcharges
FedEx	Fast deliveries with package tracking and Saturday shipping
Shipping Software	Streamlining your shipping process and integrating with your eCommerce site
Outsourcing	Business owners who are too busy to handle shipping themselves

useful and easy-to-navigate shipping calculator. You can use it to get an estimate for your shipping rate. If your shipping method is available via their Click-N-ShipÂ® option, you can sign-in to your account, select shipping type, pay, and print your label. Small businesses can use Click-N-ShipÂ® to create batch shipments or order flat-rate boxes to be delivered directly to your home/place of business. Pick-up at residences and almost all business locations is free.

For international shipping prices, visit the USPS business prices page. Prices listed below are up-to-date as of October 30, 2019.

Shipping Service Price Delivery Time Price Details

USPS Retail Ground Starts at $7.35 2-8 days Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location; only available in-person at a post office

First-Class Mail Starts at $0.33 1-3 days Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location; for envelopes or small packages up to 13oz

Priority Mail Starts at $7.35; flat-rate boxes available 1-3 days Flat-rate boxes prices do not vary based on weight or destination location; non-flat-rate box priority mail rates are based on weight, size, and destination location

Priority Mail Express Starts at $25.50 Overnight Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

Media Mail Starts at $2.75 2-10 days Only available in-person at a post office

USPS also has flat-rate prices their priority mail service. With flat-rate boxes and envelopes, weight and destination do not affect pricing. If you can fit it, it’ll ship for the pre-determined price. Prices listed below are up-to-date as of October 30, 2019.

Package Type Size Price

Letter Envelope 12 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ $6.95

Small Envelopes 10” x 6” $6.95

Padded Envelopes 12 1/2″ x 9 1/2″ $7.55

Small Box 8 11/16″ x 5 7/16″ x 1 3/4″ $7.50

Medium Box 11 1/4″ x 8 3/4″ x 6″ or 14″ x 12″ x 3 1/2″ $12.80

Large Box 12-1/4″ x 12-1/4″ x 6″ or 24-1/16″ x 11-7/8″ x 3-1/8″ $17.60

APO/FPO Box 12-1/4″ x 12-1/4″ x 6″ $16.10

Shipping Service	Price	Delivery Time	Price Details
USPS Retail Ground	Starts at $7.35	2-8 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location; only available in-person at a post office
First-Class Mail	Starts at $0.33	1-3 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location; for envelopes or small packages up to 13oz
Priority Mail	Starts at $7.35; *flat-rate boxes available	1-3 days	Flat-rate boxes prices do not vary based on weight or destination location; non-flat-rate box priority mail rates are based on weight, size, and destination location
Priority Mail Express	Starts at $25.50	Overnight	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
Media Mail	Starts at $2.75	2-10 days	Only available in-person at a post office

Package Type	Size	Price
Letter Envelope	12 1/2″ x 9 1/2″	$6.95
Small Envelopes	10” x 6”	$6.95
Padded Envelopes	12 1/2″ x 9 1/2″	$7.55
Small Box	8 11/16″ x 5 7/16″ x 1 3/4″	$7.50
Medium Box	11 1/4″ x 8 3/4″ x 6″ or 14″ x 12″ x 3 1/2″	$12.80
Large Box	12-1/4″ x 12-1/4″ x 6″ or 24-1/16″ x 11-7/8″ x 3-1/8″	$17.60
APO/FPO Box	12-1/4″ x 12-1/4″ x 6″	$16.10

When To Use USPS For Holiday Shipping?

If you are a low-volume merchant, USPS does free pick-up, and you can use the Click-N-ShipÂ® method for the shipping services available. The entire process is quick and simple. Click-N-ShipÂ® is the most economical, it reaches all households/PO Boxes, and can be a great option this holiday season when time isn’t of the essence. USPS overwhelmingly provides the best experience for most small businesses and eCommerce merchants. UPS and FedEx can’t compete with the prices and speed for lightweight (under 2lbs) packages. If that applies to your shipments, then this is your best choice.

UPS

Best for fast deliveries with guaranteed shipping, package tracking, and no peak surcharges.

We recognize those trademark brown vans anywhere. UPS (United Parcel Service) is a favorite among merchants because of their amazing customer service, package tracking abilities, and reliability. However, it is the most expensive option whether you ship from a regular pick-up or from a retail shop. It is notable, though, that UPS does not have any peak pricing or peak surcharges this year.

Pros

Great tracking
Reliable expedited shipping
No holiday peak pricing surcharges

Cons

No free pick-up
More expensive than most
No Saturday delivery

a handy calculator to determine shipping costs. Prices for shipping are different for daily rates or retail rates. Daily rates are for businesses with a scheduled UPS pick-up. Retail rates are the shipping rates you will pay if you go into a local UPS retail location. The fees for scheduling a pick-up start at $13.45.

Here’s a breakdown of UPS’s shipping by service. Prices listed below are up-to-date as of October 30, 2019.

Shipping Service Price Delivery Time Price Details

Ground Starts at $12.32 1-5 days Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

UPS 3-day Select Starts at $11.23 3 days Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

UPS 2nd Day Air Starts at $18.40 2 days Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

UPS Next Day Air Starts at $24.70 Next business day Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

UPS Express Critical Varies Contact UPS Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

Shipping Service	Price	Delivery Time	Price Details
Ground	Starts at $12.32	1-5 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
UPS 3-day Select	Starts at $11.23	3 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
UPS 2nd Day Air	Starts at $18.40	2 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
UPS Next Day Air	Starts at $24.70	Next business day	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
UPS Express Critical	Varies	Contact UPS	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

When To Use UPS For Holiday Shipping?

UPS has great tracking. If you have a package you need delivered fast and you want to keep a close eye on its travels, then UPS might be worth the extra cost. Tracking and guaranteed speed are the two reasons to choose UPS over USPS. While some small businesses have amazing relationships with their UPS drivers, most small businesses and eCommerce sites won’t want to pay the pick-up fees or increased rate prices by heading into a store.

are negligible. However, FedEx, like USPS, does have Saturday delivery, and they tout a more involved tracking system, too. There are fewer FedEx stores in the United States, so locations are limited, and that could add time to delivery for remote locations.

Pros

Excellent tracking

Saturday delivery

Cons

Fewer locations

No free pick-up

Can be expensive

Holiday peak pricing/surcharges

FedEx Services

Source: FedEx

FedEx offers several shipping options, which vary depending on how quickly you need your packages to arrive.

Ground: Prices for Ground shipping are based on package weight, size, and destination location. Shipments will arrive between 1-7 business days.Â Ground shipping is only provided for Monday-Friday delivery days.
FedEx Express SaverÂ®: Prices for the FedEx Express SaverÂ® shipping are based on package weight, size, and destination location. Your shipment will arrive between 1-3 business days.Â
FedEx 2Day AirÂ®: Prices for FedEx 2Day AirÂ® are based on package weight, size, and destination location. Your shipment will arrive by the end of business on the 2nd day. (You can also purchase 2DayÂ® AM and make sure your package is delivered by the morning.)
FedEx Standard OvernightÂ®: Prices are based on package weight, size, and destination location. Your package will arrive by the next business day.Â
FedEx Priority OvernightÂ®: Your package will arrive by mid-morning the next business day.Â

How Much Does FedEx Holiday Shipping Cost?

For the holiday 2019 season, FedEx does have peak and surcharge fees. Surcharge fees start at $4.20. You may also need to pay a fee for a package traveling to a remote area. You can use their rate calculator here and view a breakdown of their pricing details below. Prices listed below are up-to-date as of October 30, 2019.

Shipping Service	Price	Delivery Time	Price Details
Ground	Starts at $7.85	1-7 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
FedEx Express Saver	Starts at $16.07	1-3 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
FedEx 2Day Air	Starts at $18.22	2 days	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
FedEx Standard Overnight	Starts at $27.19	Next business day	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location
FedEx Priority Overnight	Starts at $29.18	Mid-morning on the next business day	Prices based on package weight, size, and destination location

FedEx also has flat-rate prices. With flat-rate boxes and envelopes, weight and destination do not affect pricing. If you can fit it, it’ll ship for the pre-determined price. Prices listed below are up-to-date as of October 30, 2019.

Source: FedEx

When To Use FedEx For Holiday Shipping?

If you are close to a FedEx store or need a very detailed tracking provider, this is a solid choice. Pricing between UPS and FedEx is similar and inconsistent (some years one is more economical, the next year the other one is; it’s impossible to tell you which one is the best option). So, this comes down to your own preference. This year, FedEx does have peak/surcharge pricing for the holiday season (which UPS does not have this year), but the pricing differences between UPS and FedEx are negligible.

Shipping software is a helpful tool to streamline the shipping aspect of your business. If the information about shipping prices and options above made your head hurt a little, that’s okay. If you don’t have the time or inclination to do shipping calculations yourself, finding shipping software that works for you can cut time off your precious holiday work hours.

What can shipping software do? It can: give real rates, print labels in bulk, manage shipments, and it works with your eCommerce site. Here are the top choices you should look into.

Best Shipping Software For The Holidays

Merchant Maverick’s top-rated shipping software is a great place to start to find a shipping software that works for you. Here are a few of the top merchants we recommend:

Shipping Easy:Â Shipping Easy is, you guessed it, easy to use and its pricing is excellent. That makes it one of our favorites at Merchant Maverick. A bonus of partnering with Shipping Easy is the partnership with USPS, and it’s an affordable option for low-volume merchants.
ShipStation:Â ShipStation is one of the leaders in eCommerce shipping and it has integrations for UPS/FedEx/USPS.
Ordoro: Ordoro has great dropshipping options where you can send packages directly from a supplier, which might be an amazing step for the holiday rush.
Stamps.com: Stamps.com works directly with the United States Postal Service. This is a flat-rate service; you pay a flat monthly fee no matter how many packages you ship. With free pick-up from USPS at almost all residences and businesses, for companies looking for a great economical option, Stamps.com is a great choice.

How Shipping Software Can Help For The Holidays

Shipping software takes some of the labor of shipping and moves it into a streamlined process. Time is money and time is limited. If you have a dedicated person working on shipping, that’s amazing, but human error is bound to happen, and shipping software helps take some of the labor out of your shipping process.

Here are the top reasons why you should invest in shipping software:

Saves you time
Reduces chances for error
Simplifies your shipping craziness
Streamlines your shipping process
Keeps shipping information in a single location

These shipping software companies are prepared for the holiday rush and they can help you, too. Anytime you can economically outsource, you should.

Is it worth the cost? Keep on reading!

How Much Does Shipping Software Cost?

Shipping software is an expense, and rates vary. However, many of theses shipping software companies have worked on shipping discounts and cheaper rates for their clients, and that makes the differences in price negligible vs. not using shipping software.

If you acquire help via a shipping app that is saving you up to 40% on shipping costs, it’s worth it to pay a monthly fee for that type of discount — that fee is absorbed by savings on shipping costs. When you look at the bottom-line, there is no way to go wrong with a shipping software company if your company ships enough products to benefit.

Read our post on the advantages of shipping software to learn if this option is right for you.

Outsourcing shipping is really just the act of saying, “Let’s not hassle with this craziness!”

You might be a smaller merchant who is hoping to get to the level where you can outsource. The savings threshold is 25 orders a day. If you fulfill over 25 orders a day, you can economically benefit from outsourcing. (And we’re cheering for you to get to that level or above!)

One important thing to consider: Third-party shippers are better equipped for dealing with the holiday shipping madness, and it’s nice to hand a difficult task off to someone else. Read our complete post on outsourcing to learn if this option is right for you.

Best Options To Outsource Holiday Shipping

There are multiple options to outsource your holiday shipping. Finding a way to keep yourself as hands-off as possible is a small business owner’s dream. Here are a few options for holiday outsourcing:

Amazon: Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) Multi-Channel Fulfillment is a great way to get your items to customers by using the Amazon platform. Using the Prime shipping feature is a huge benefit. It’s indisputable that Amazon is the leader in commerce in 2019; why not ride on their coattails?
Fulfillrite: This company has same-day shipping and amazing cost plans. If your eCommerce site is looking to outsource, this is an option that works directly with your business.
Shipware: Shipware says that through their program, they have saved $1,321,250 per year for small business merchants in shipping.
FedEx Fulfillment: FedEx also has a fulfillment service to help businesses reach their customers. This is a great option if FedEx is a close and competitive selection for your business.

How Outsourcing Shipping Can Help For The Holidays

Outsourcing your shipping gives you the freedom to focus on all the other important business issues during the holidays. Timely customer service is still a huge part of consumer decisions. When choosing whether to outsource, ask yourself:

How fast am I able to fulfill orders?
What are my plans for returns/refunds?
Can I respond to issue situations immediately?

If the answers to these questions are inducing a heart attack, stop right now. Outsourcing may be the cure for you.

How Much Does Outsourcing Shipping Cost?

To set up an outsourcing system for your company, you will need to find an outsourcing company and set up an account through them. There are initial set-up fees and fees based on use and inventory. Costs for outsourcing vary. The average industry cost for outsourcing shipping is $2 per order, with negotiated rates.

When To Outsource Your Holiday Shipping

If you are struggling with shipping your holiday orders, outsourcing is a no-brainer. Here is the best way to assess if you need to outsource. Close your eyes. Imagine that you don’t have to worry about fulfillment regulations, inventory space, the time spend on shipping, training staff to ship, or where you’ll keep holiday inventory. If this vision has you relaxing for the first time since the Back To School supplies hit the shelves, then you need to find a way to outsource.

Remember: in general, if you have more than 25 shipments a day, it may be cost-effective to outsource.

Holiday Shipping Schedule for 2019

As a small business, it’s important to fulfill your shipping promises. Knowing the shipping deadlines and understanding the holiday schedule will help you plan and set your own shipping costs and let customers know when to expect their items. We’ve all had one or two close-calls or misses with holiday packages. (Or those packages that came just a few days late…)

Deadlines listed below are up-to-date as of October 30, 2019.

USPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines

With USPS the last day to ship a package and have it arrive by Christmas is December 23. However, for cheaper shipping options, you’ll want to send your packages well before this date. See the deadlines below:

USPS Shipping Deadlines
December 13	Last day to mail USPS Retail Ground service
December 19	Last day to mail First-Class Mail
December 20	Last day to mail First-class packages (up to 15.99 ounces)
December 21	Last day to mail Priority Mail
December 23	Last day to mail Priority Mail Express

UPS Holiday Shipping Deadlines

With UPS, the last day to ship a package and have it arrive by Christmas is December 23. However, if you don’t want to be stuck paying for NextDay Air, you’ll want to use another one of UPS’s shipping services and get those packages in sooner. See the deadlines below:

UPS Shipping Deadlines
December 13	Last day to mail Ground packages
December 19	Last day to mail UPS 3 Day SelectÂ®
December 20	Last day to ship via UPS 2nd Day AirÂ®
December 21	Last day to mail UPS 2nd Day AirÂ® with Saturday service
December 23	Last day to mail Priority Mail Express/UPS Next Day AirÂ®

FedEx Holiday Shipping Deadlines

With FedEx, the last day to ship a package and have it arrive by Christmas is December 25. But, if you want to save some money, and save a poor soul from having to work on Christmas day, you’ll want to send your packages before this date. See the deadlines below:

FedEx Shipping Deadlines
December 16	Last day to mail FedEx Ground shipments
December 16	Last day to mail FedEx Home Delivery shipments
December 19	Last day to mail FedEx Express Saver shipments
December 20	Last day to mail FedEx 2Day and 2Day A.M. shipments
December 23	Last day to mail FedEx Standard Overnight, Priority Overnight and First Overnight shipments
December 25	Last day to mail FedEx SameDay shipments

5 Tips To Make Holiday Shipping Easier For You & Your Customers

Shipping is crucial and people invest in your business because of what you promise to deliver. According to a recent study, 70% of customers navigate away from a shopping cart because of questions about shipping and shipping timing, so it is 100% true that shipping can make or break a sale. It’s gut-wrenching to get a customer to that final click and lose him/her/them with shipping speeds and prices.

With that in mind, how can you make holiday shipping easier for both you and your customers? It’s easy. Think about your own needs as a customer in today’s holiday market and try to meet those needs for your customers. Here are a few tips:

Tip #1: Keep Your Inventory In Stock

This should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway: keep your inventory in stock during the holiday season. Nothing creates a headache like running out of an important item during the busiest time of the year. (Is this the appropriate place to incorporate an anecdote about the time I worked for a chain restaurant famous for ribs, and a man actually threw a pitcher of water at me one day when we ran out of those ribs? Stay in stock, people!)

Waiting for a shipment yourself will slow down the shipping process. Be ready to ship as close to receiving an order as you can. That’s what most customers expect.

Tip #2: Make Shipping Work For Your Business

Whether this involves utilizing free shipping options or putting effort into tracking packages, shipping needs to be an integral part of your business plan and not an afterthought. Instead of feeling like shipping is bringing you down, make a shipping plan.

Maybe your shipping plan involves utilizing all shipping options (USPS/UPS/FedEx) depending on price. Maybe you promise free ground shipping, knowing you can absorb the cost. Research your business and what your customers expect for holiday shipping options.

Tip #3: Provide Shipping Information In Your Meta-data

It’s the year 2019. We don’t quite have the fully automated-flying cars we were all promised, but we do have a robust internet that is an incredible resource for small businesses.

If customers are looking for your product and a way to ship fast or free, advertise and capitalize on your ability to provide that option. Lead people to your site or product by offering up transparency.

Tip #4: Make Shipping Information Clear For Everyone

Will you provide tracking? Do you have a ship-by date? When will packages arrive?

Transparency is the number one most important quality in a business.

If you advertise certain shipping speeds, be ready to make good on those claims. Customers and clients who go into a sale with clear expectations are often the most satisfied. Whether the shipping takes one day, three days, or 14 days, as long as the customer can decide and choose, they will be happy.

However, it should go without saying, if you make a promise, stick with it and keep customers informed.

Tip #5: Prepare For Returns

Lastly: No matter how you ship, it’s important to prepare for returns. It’s inevitable that someone will need or want to return a product.

Do you have a return policy? How will customers return incorrect or damaged items? These are critical components of the shipping process. Implementing an automated return process is integral. Also, customers may be looking for information on returns before making a purchase, so communicate your return policy in a clear, public location.

Get Started On Your Holiday Shipping

Holiday shipping is crucial. If you and a competitor are equal in all other things, you’d better make sure you have the better shipping options. How do you do that? By knowing your inventory inside and out, including how much it weighs; by checking prices between the carriers and deciding on a shipping plan to utilize during the holiday season; and by understanding whether outsourcing or using a shipping service is the right choice.

The holiday shipping rush starts now. People are already thinking about holiday purchases; make it easy for them to choose your business. Check out our other articles on shipping to make sure you are prepared for the holiday rush.

The post The Complete 2019 Small Business Guide To Holiday Shipping: Deadlines, Prices, And How To Save appeared first on Merchant Maverick.

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