The Basics Of Digital Networking

Networking has always been an integral part of the success of any business. You will have often heard the expression ‘It’s not what you know but who you know.’ And there is a lot of truth to this phrase. In a perfect world people would be completely unbiased in all their decision making processes. But this isn’t the case. People are always going to be naturally inclined towards those they have a pre-existing relationship with.

Building a strong business network is worth it for so many reasons. For one it is one of the best ways to learn new skills relating to your chosen profession. Utilizing the wealth of experience and knowledge belonging to those you connect with to further your own goals. And it is pivotal for securing better deals, finding new clients, finding potential investors, and so much more.

The digital age has changed the networking landscape forever. We now have the ability to network with people from across the globe in an instant. This sort of access is something you should take full advantage of. So we have put together a few tips and tricks to help you improve your digital networking.

Bolster Your Social Media Presence

People are too quick to write off social media as a frivolous distraction. But social media has become an integral part of the digital networking process. People forget that sites like LinkedIn are social media platforms too. They are arguably the best way to connect with like-minded professionals.

To that end you need to ensure you are maintaining an active presence on the right social media platforms. LinkedIn is the obvious one. Instagram and Facebook are also fantastic platforms for digital networking. Facebook is great for connecting with small business owners and professionals from the older generations. Whereas Instagram is great for connecting with influencers, young entrepreneurs, and trendy digital businesses.

Networking is a two way street. You need to be able to offer as much as you plan to get from those you connect with. To that end you need to maintain an active posting schedule. And the content you post should be relevant to your chosen field, educational, or highlighting your strengths and skills. Ideally you want to be posting three times a week minimum.

It is also worth considering boosting your Instagram profile. People are far more likely to connect with people who have amassed a substantial following and view count. Keep in mind though, when buying Instagram video views or followers you want to properly vet the website you buy them from. You need a company that offers what is called ‘natural likes and followers’ as opposed to using bot accounts to generate likes for your content.

Use Clear Communication

Successful networking is all about confidence. You need to believe in yourself. Know that you have something to offer other people. You need to believe that forming a connection with you is a worthwhile endeavor. I see too many people reaching out with hesitancy. Being too polite and beating around the bush.

We aren’t saying don’t be polite. But there is a fine line between politeness and meekness. When forming business relationships you need to be polite, but direct. Don’t be afraid to dive straight in with any questions. Be blunt about your intentions. Most professionals will take it as a compliment. You’re valuing their time and their skillset enough to be honest and frank with them.

There is nothing that says you can’t become good friends with those you connect with. But, at the start, your focus should be on building business relationships. Time is money. For both parties involved. It is in everyone’s best interests to be professional and focus on what you can both bring to the table.

Research Potential Connections

This ties into the idea of clear communication. When you find someone who you want to connect with it is worth your time to do as much research about them as possible. In regards to their professional career at least. No one wants to have to cite off their achievements like they’re in a job interview. They will feel complimented that you took the time to study their skillset and achievements. And it will show them that you have put serious thought into this and truly believe that this potential business relationship is worth pursuing.

Naturally LinkedIn is the best place to get a full picture of their professional achievements. But you should also scan through their public Instagram and Facebook profiles to get an idea of the type of person they are.

To that end you also need to ensure that all of your professional achievements are up to date and present on your LinkedIn profile. You want any potential connections to be able to get a better understanding of your skillset without having to ask you. And it will also allow line-minded people to better find and connect with you.

Renting out properties is one of the most stable income streams out there. Providing that you do your due diligence as a landlord, it is entirely future proof as well. People will always need a place to live. The real estate sector is very competitive at the moment in regards to buying. Meaning most people are still looking to rent.

Too many landlords make the vital mistake of not increasing the value of their rental properties as time goes on. In fact most landlords allow their properties to fall into disrepair. Costing them thousands and significantly reducing the resale and rental value of said property.

There are so many changes you can make to a rental property to massively increase its value. From a complete overhaul to making minor modifications. This guide will walk you through the easiest ways to increase the value of your rental properties.

Installing Smart Technology

One of the best ways to increase the value of a rental property is to provide different amenities such as washing machines, dishwashers, and microwaves. But if you really want to up the value then you should consider making as many appliances as possible smart ones.

There are a huge range of amazing smart appliances out there. Ninja offers an amazing range of small smart kitchen appliances such as kettles, air fryers, and rice cookers. Smart washing machines are an absolute game changer too. You should also ensure you have a smart meter installed in the property. This will allow both you and the occupants to more accurately track energy usage.

Smart technology can increase the value of your property by as much as 10%. This does depend on a number of factors such as the brand of the products and how many smart appliances are linked to the home network.

Refurbish The Interior

Doing a complete overhaul of the interior of your rental property can increase the value by a staggering amount. When we talk about refurbishing the interior we are primarily focused on the aesthetic elements. Flooring, window boards, skirting boards, door frames, and wall paneling.

You will want to ensure that your property is maintaining a more neutral style, rather than anything too grandiose. Since the property will likely have multiple renters throughout the years you need a non-offensive style to ensure it will be selected.

I recommend shopping at places like Homebase for new flooring and wall paneling. But for the rest you should look at companies like Skirting World. Most online skirting board companies only focus on one product type. While Skirting World is different since you can buy window boards here, along with new door frames and door architraves.

Refurbishing your interior also means redoing all the painting. A quality paint job will help further increase the value of the property. So it is wise to seek out a professional painting company with solid reviews. To ensure the job is done right.

Robust Security Features

One of the biggest concerns renters have is often regarding security. They want to know that they are safe when they are at home. So you will need to make sure you have installed robust security features. The most obvious step is ensuring the front door is reinforced and fitted with strong locks. You could also provide a video camera doorbell as standard for your properties.

You also need to ensure the properties electrical systems are all up to code and regularly checked. Your residents need to be protected from internal risks such as fires and flooding. The property should have a few fire extinguishers and fire blankets on site at all times. And you should have an electrician and plumber come at least once every six months to do a check on all the systems.

If you own an apartment complex you should consider hiring a security company to manage the building during the nights. This could be a roaming security company who will do regular checks throughout the night. Your residents will feel far safer knowing they have someone to call on if need be. And this, in turn, will raise the property’s value.

Invest In The Community

In the game of real estate, location is everything! You can make all the changes to your property in the world and, if it is located in a bad neighborhood, you will struggle to increase the rental value at all. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid buying properties in a lower value neighborhood. In fact, if you have a lot of money at your disposal, it can be extremely lucrative.

What you need to start doing is investing in the local community. This might sound hard, but it is actually extremely easy. Many local councils accept donations to help fund public works projects. Or you could donate directly to different local establishments such as libraries and community centers.

It is no big secret that times are tough financially for everyone. The cost of living keeps rising and wages are seemingly stagnating. Which is why more people are looking for extra income streams to boost their finances. And you might not be aware that you can make a good bit of money from gaming.

There are multiple ways you can turn your gaming hobby into a second income stream. Some are harder than others. But these routes are often more lucrative too. We have put together this guide to help you get started in the business of gaming. We aren’t going to be looking at actually making video games as this would fall more into a second job territory.

Winning Tournaments

Pro-gaming is a very appealing career for a lot of people. Getting paid to play your favorite games? Sounds like a dream. But the life of a full time professional gamer is no easy task. You would have to stick to a regimented schedule of training, exercise, and diet. And the game you play would very soon become more of a job than a fun escape.

But you can still earn money from smaller gaming tournaments. A lot of cities host regular entry level events that offer a modest prize pool. And, while the competition won’t be easy to beat, it is definitely more manageable than at a high level tournament.

Usually it is games like League Of Legends, Dota 2, Call Of Duty, or Overwatch that have tournaments with a good payout. You will most likely want to enter as part of a team, which does mean having regular training sessions with your friends. If you did eventually want to veer more into the pro gaming scene, this is a great way to get your foot in the door.

Running A Gaming Server

Online gaming has become a staple of the industry. Most games are built around multiplayer. And there are countless thousands of active private servers running at any one time. Running your own gaming server is a great way to enjoy gaming with your friends in a more personalized environment. And it can also be a good source of income.

Let’s look at Minecraft as an example. Unless you are playing local multiplayer, you need to join a server to play online. Mojang does allow you to hire a server directly from them, but we recommend going through a different server rental company. Setting up a server is fairly easy these days. There are a lot of useful guides for getting it running and installing mods.

Running a paid server does mean you will have to offer something more than a free server offers. For example, if you are running a Minecraft server, you will want to offer the game modes people want. Right now Bedwars and Factions servers are extremely popular. So you could run a server that alternates between the two modes.

You need to ensure your paid server has a good mod team behind it. If people are paying for a space on your server they won’t want to have to deal with trolls or rule breakers. Or bad mods. So make sure you properly vet all your mods before handing them the reigns of power.

Secondary Item Market

A lot of games, particularly on Steam, have in game cosmetics that can be traded or sold. Games like Team Fortress 2 or CS:GO have built a huge community around people buying and selling these items. And some of them sell for a lot. One hat in TF2 was sold for $18,000 worth of keys. And a gun skin in CS:GO sold for roughly $400,000.

Chances are you won’t be making that much money. But, if you are smart with your trading and lucky with your item drops, you could make an extra hundred dollars every month. And, every now and then, you might be lucky enough to find an extremely rare item that could give you a big income boost.

Steam also has a trading card system. These cards are awarded to you for logging playtime in certain games. The cards, when combined, give you cosmetics for your profile. But they can also be sold on the Steam Market. This isn’t the most lucrative side hustle. But it can earn you enough to buy some new games. Our advice is to always put your cards up for a couple cents lower than the market average to ensure it sells.

The gaming industry is currently one of the most lucrative industries in which to invest. The industry has experienced a significant market boost in recent times. New appealing games keep emerging, and the old ones are steadily upgrading their gameplay. Consistency and innovation in the gaming world have increased the number of gamers and gaming fans. This, in turn, increases the value of the gaming market.

Investing in the gaming business will make a great investment if you are looking for a lucrative frontier as an investor. One of the qualities of a good investment is visible progress, and the gaming industry possesses such qualities.

However lucrative the gaming industry has proven to be, you need to be careful when choosing the game to go for. Not all games are worth the investment.

For those investors looking to invest in promising games with guaranteed return on investment, we have created a list of some of the most lucrative games in the industry. Read on to find out which games made it to our list.

7 Most Lucrative Games for Investors in the Gaming Business

Here is a list of some of the best games for investors looking to invest in the gaming business:

Minecraft

Minecraft always makes it to the list of the best games in the gaming world. Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game has existed for more than a decade, yet it still maintains its relevance in the gaming world. The developers of Minecraft have consistently upgraded the game, making it meet up to the standard of gamers from around the world. Minecraft is the most played game in the gaming industry. Investing in Minecraft will yield you much income.

Apex Legends

Apex Legends is played on almost all game consoles, making it easy for anyone to play it. This battle royal game was developed by, Respawn Entertainment. Everything about the Apex Legend game is special, especially the gameplay. The game is a little difficult, but this makes it even more appealing. Due to its difficulty, some gamers use cheats to pass certain stages. Hacks and cheats for Apex Legends can be found on various platforms online. However, Apex is still one of the most popular and lucrative games in the gaming industry.

Call of Duty

Call of Duty was first released in 2003, and it is one of the most-played games in the gaming world. Call of Duty is popular worldwide, and it has thousands of fans. Gamers from different parts of the world can play as teammates due to the multiplayer feature. This is what makes the game a favourite for gamers. Call of Duty since 2003 has been developed by different persons or companies, but the current developer and publisher is Activision. Activision is one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.

Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto, popularly known as GTA, was developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. The popularity of this game surpasses hundreds of other games. GTA is an action-adventure game that has captured the hearts of many devoted gaming fans, and it is still appealing to newer fans.

EA Sports

EA Sports consists of several sports games, but the most popular is football. Football lovers from all over the world invest a lot of their time into playing this game. Investing in EA Sports is bound to get you a reasonable return on investment (ROI).

PUBG Mobile

PUBG was developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. The game was released in 2017 and is still making rounds in the gaming world. Millions of gamers have downloaded PUBG on their mobile devices, and there will be more downloads in the future. Investing in a game like this will fetch you a lot of money.

Overwatch

Overwatch is an award-winning game that has been nominated for several awards. This game is a shooter game that allows players to team up from different platforms to play the game. Like other games on this list, Overwatch is a popular game and one of the favourites for gamers.

Conclusion

Before investing in any gaming company or franchise, do in-depth research about the company. This will help you determine whether or not to invest in the company. You can invest in any of the above games and expect to get a good return on investment. Ensure you go through the right source and work directly with the game owners.

If you are someone that has always dreamed of opening your own business, now is the time to stop dreaming. We are entering a new year, which means that it is time to stop pushing our dreams and wants to the back of our minds and now start pursuing what we love. If you want to be your own boss and you want to do well, you need to understand the steps of growing your business. Here are some important aspects of growing your business.

Think of Your Concept

It is likely that you have had some ideas and you have had some thoughts about your business, but if you want it to do well, you need to have a concrete concept put together. There are some things that you have to work out. For example, what is the goal of your business? Will you be operating online? What kind of customer do you want to target your product at? There is a lot that you have to think about before you can even get started.

Get Funding

Gaining funding for your business is incredibly important and it is a very crucial part of being a business owner. Without money, you won’t be able to do anything and not everyone is lucky enough to already have the funding to be able to run a business. Most people tend to go to the bank to request loans, as this is the best way to get a substantial amount of funding in a safe way. However, banks can be very strict when it comes to giving out loans and if you have any poor financial history, this may have a negative impact on your business. If you are someone that has dealt with bankruptcy in the past, this may be an issue when attempting to get a loan, so be sure to contact bankruptcy attorneys you can trust to offer you advice.

Work on Branding

Something that is very important for your business to be a success is unique and noticeable branding. You have to remember that there are a lot of businesses out there and it can be very difficult to create unique branding. If you are someone that is not very artistic and you do not have a very clear vision of the branding that you want for your business, something that you should consider is hiring someone to work on the brand with you, as you will often end up with much better results.

Pick Where You Will be Operating From

Something else that is very important is picking a base of operations for your business. Location matters for a number of reasons. First of all, your location can make or break the success of your business. If you pick a building that is very cheap, you will save money on rent, but it is likely that the location of that building will not be good. Whereas if you find somewhere a bit more expensive, the rent may be high, but you will likely get more foot traffic and therefore make more money. It is a lot to think about and it may take some time to figure out.

Market Your Business

Marketing is a crucial part of the success of any business. Without marketing, you will not have customers and you will not be able to make your business a success. There are many forms of marketing. You can take out local ads so that you can market your business to local people and you can also make an online identity for your business. If you plan on shipping your product nationally, it is very important that you market your business through social media as this will allow you to reach out to people all over the world.

Hire Employees

Your business is not just dependent on you to be able to run successfully and a big part of your business being able to thrive is having reliable employees that you can trust to move your business forward. You should be picky when it comes to your employees and you should have several steps to the interview process, as these are the people that will be looking after your business when you are not present and so you have to trust them.

Keep Track of Company Growth

When your business first starts, something that you have to be really focused on is the growth of your company. It is very common for businesses to fail in their first year and a big cause of this is business owners not keeping track of the success of their business and how it is doing. If you keep a close eye on this growth, as you will then be able to notice if something isn’t going quite right and if there are any problems to be had with the business.

As the world is becoming more dependent on technology and more expectant of the progression of technology, we are in need of more technically capable programmers. Now, there are not a lot of people that are involved in the world of programming, so it is important for us to educate the next generation of programmers and here are some of the ways that we are doing it.

Introduction of Programming in School

When I think back to my time in school, computer programming was never even discussed in our education. To me, computer programming was something that was done by geniuses all over the world and it was an exclusive club. However, times have now changed and in school programming is actually a very big part of the curriculum and all students are expected to take the time to learn some of the programming fundamentals. Not everyone will succeed in these classes and many will have no interest in it at all, but it is at least worth finding the few that love programming.

Games Like Minecraft

Something that you have likely noticed is that the younger, and older, generations have become absolutely obsessed with gaming. Children can spend hours every day playing the games that they adore and for some of them, gaming has become a really important part of their lives. The best thing about children suddenly becoming obsessed with gaming, is that it can actually get them interested in programming. There are a lot of games out there that allow people to mod aspects of the game and programmes servers. A good example of a game that allows you to mod is Minecraft. If you have a child, it is likely that that child is absolutely obsessed with Minecraft. If you want to see why kids seem to be so obsessed, you can play free Minecraft at minecraftforfreex.com. A big aspect of the game is creating servers, which requires a basic understanding of programming.

Free Online Resources

Because we really want the future generation to have an interest in programming, there are lots of businesses that have published free resources online that can help them learn. If you take a quick look online, you can find plenty of websites that go over the basics of programming. They teach children how to make some basic programs that they hope will entice them into learning more. In the past, you would have to pay for expensive classes for your child to learn away from school, so these online resources have made programming accessible to everyone no matter what their economic position is.

Programming Competitions

There are a lot of programming businesses that have managed to succeed substantially, and these businesses want to give back to the community and they want to make children interested in programming. In order to entice more people into programming, a lot of these businesses have funded programming competitions. These competitions will usually have some sort of brief, The brief can be incredibly specific or it can be a general theme that they would like the programmers to explore. often these competitions come with a cash prize, so this makes it more interesting for anyone that will apply. By offering a cash award, it increases the likelihood of people getting involved and people that may apply initially for the cash prize, may discover that they have a love of programming that they have never noticed before.

There is a Lot of Money to be Made in The Industry

Another huge way that children are being inspired into taking up programming is the awareness they have of how much money that can be made in the industry. In the past, nobody really understood just how much you could make by becoming a programmer and now this has been made really clear to the general public. Now, not everyone bases the career that they want to pursue on the money they can make, but this is a really big part of our career choices, as we want to ensure that we are getting enough money to live a comfortable lifestyle. You can make a lot as a programmer and people are interested in this.

Starting Programming From a Young Age

On the rare occasion, programming was taught in the past, it would be taught at a high school level and by then, people had already developed their interests and programming often felt like more of a chore rather than something that could be enjoyed. However, a big change that we have experienced recently is exposure to programming from an incredibly young age. By exposing kids to programming from a young age, we are able to really gauge their interests and get them more excited and more involved when they are still developing their interests.

Advertising and marketing strategies have come a long way in recent years, with the huge boom in online activity that has taken place worldwide many companies have had to get more creative in how they direct potential customers to their companies. Video games provide plenty of opportunities for advertisements as well as product placement within the games themselves. The fact that so many people play video games on a daily basis also improves the chances that the advertising material that you place on this platform will generate a good response and hopefully bring you plenty of profits.

This article will be looking at some of the biggest factors when it comes to using advertising on video games. Even if your company is not directly related to the technology or gaming industry, you may still be able to attract plenty of customers to this industry. Smaller businesses with their own servers are also much more likely to accept the extra work and bring you in so that you can use some of your own marketing strategies to benefit both sides of the business.

The Boom in the Gaming Industry

One of the first reasons why people are buying advertising space within video games would have to be down to the huge boost in the industry. After the pandemic where people were forced to spend their days indoors, video games increased in their worldwide use as people had more free time. With this in mind, you can imagine just how many people have been using video games, and the potential that this provides for advertising that thousands of people will see every hour. This is a rather innovative method of marketing your company, but if it brings you the success that you desire I would argue that it is worth the risk.

Easy Advertising

While the advertising space you can receive when trying to implement your material into a video game platform can be very limited, this also means that you will be able to create your content very quickly as it will be difficult to be able to fit anything too extravagant on the space. Because video games are not going to be flooded with advertisements, there is going to be less pressure from the competition when conducting marketing in this way.

Gaming Related Advertisements

You are much more likely to get accepted to host marketing on a gaming platform if the industry your business falls under is also related to the world of technology and video games. It is not essential but you may find that it is more successful with gamers and that you’re able to come up with unique ideas when two similar companies are brought together. You could start reaching out to other companies that are on the same level as you pretty early on in your company’s development, by collaborating with a video game brand you should be able to earn a nice profit by attracting new customers that you know have an existing interest in the gaming world.

Server Advertisements

Big games like Minecraft have recently set up a large number of minigame servers to accompany their traditional gameplay format. With so many players enjoying bed wars and survival games you should definitely try and find an epic Survival Server, which will naturally encourage potential customers to your business while also providing them with a fun activity to hide the sometimes aggressive nature that some marketing strategies can bring. Servers get regular traffic from all over the world so it could make a significant change to your success and profit levels, thus securing a large rate of business development for the future.

Large Amounts of Traffic

Gaming servers are not going to slow down anytime soon in terms of the amount of traffic they receive on a daily basis. This is why it provides such a good platform for marketing and the fact that the opportunity arises for you to collaborate with other companies is only going to help you form strong business connections and partnerships. Even by placing a single advert on a gaming platform, you should definitely see a strong increase in how many customers you have as more people are aware that your company and its services exist.

Over the past few years, we have seen many people deal with the increasingly difficult economic situation that has made it very hard to follow the rising cost of living. Despite all this, it doesn’t mean that people want to deprive themselves of the little luxury items or pleasures that they indulge in every day. One such pleasure of course is the one of smoking or at the very least vaping. Well, many people still introduce nicotine in their daily regime it is important to realize that over the past two decades or so we have seen a rapid decline in cigarette habits and a rising presence of vape pens and vaping apparatus in people’s everyday carry. So, if you are industrious, you might realize there is an opportunity there to make money. But where do you even start and how can you create a successful vape brand? Let’s get down to brass tacks and explore all the avenues in which you can make your business a success.

First and foremost, before you engage in business you need to understand that not everyone makes it and every attempt at business is a gamble. You shouldn’t let that stop you though you need to understand that if you are ready to get into this you need to go all in and not just partly. While many people believe that starting a business is a great way to be your boss it doesn’t mean that you won’t work for it. This is part of the way for you to analyze if first there are demands for the products you want to offer and what kind of customer base you will be able to build once you can put your name out there. This is true of course for every business but some things are specific to commercially dealing with vaping products. So now that we’ve addressed this mindset part, we need to delve a little deeper into what it means to start a vape business.

The first step of creating a successful brand when it comes to vape products is knowing what exactly you want to carry product-wise. One good way to know what kind of accessories or products you want to provide your customers with is to look at what other people are doing. You can for example look at online stores and products like Breeze Pro disposable vapes, to get a good feel at what most people are doing. With this in mind, you can think for example that products such as disposable vapes or personalized vape pens can be a popular product that everybody uses and also something that will allow you to build a loyal customer base. You do have to understand that not every customer base has the same tastes so as you pursue your business you need to tailor your offerings to the demand that comes your way. Understanding and being in tune with your customer base is extremely important of course.

This brings us to another very important point and that is marketing. While for most businesses marketing can be very easy as you can advertise everything to anyone the reality is different for nicotine products such as vapes. You need to be mindful that on the Internet you are not only advertising to your customer base, but you are also advertising to anyone who might come about your advertisements. This is mostly true for negative advertisement when it comes to websites but just because there are algorithms and predictive advertisement placement you should not forget that when building your marketing campaigns. Being able to grab the attention of customers while not giving yourself a bad name amongst people who can encounter your ads is very important, especially for products that can be somewhat controversial depending on where you live or the type of people that are around you. While keeping this in mind you need to understand that reach is the best way to get people to buy your products.

With all these things in mind, you need to understand of course that to build a business you will need to invest both time and money in it. While it may seem cliche to say that you need to spend money to make money the reality is that to build the brand you will need to build or purchase an infrastructure that can prop up said business and said brand. Investing in a clean and sleek online storefront can be the difference between the sale or not. This might seem crazy but you need to understand that the easier you make it for customers to purchase your products the more sales you will make since not everyone is as tech-savvy as the next guy. Anyone can build a successful brand vapes or not it is a matter of investment, business savvy, and of course luck.