Instarama, Author at Instarama Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Top 10 Businesses To Start During COVID19 Situation

The COVID-19 pandemic is antagonizing global economies at every scale. The recovery path is likely to engulf trillions of dollars. Be it travel, tourism, eCommerce, or hospitality, it is clear that the future of global business has suffered a setback. A report from McKinsey & Company suggests that it might take up to 3 years to recover from the losses occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There would be capital losses, layoffs, and loss of prospects for the businesses. The market is more likely to take some time to get on its feet. Those with plans to venture in the future must innovate their ways and discover improvised ways to generate revenue in this crisis. While social distancing could become a harsh reality for an unforeseeable future, entrepreneurs need to mold their strategies as per a ‘New Norm’, which is social distancing.

Fortunately, some sectors are still fighting hard and doing great amidst this crisis. The IT industry having ported 95% of their operations to a work from home environment is one such example. What’s more interesting is that this pandemic has revealed the need for contactless operations in every feasible sector. Consequently, a large number of businesses, which have been operating in the traditional environment, are now either porting into a complete online ecosystem or using the same to diminish their losses.

If you are an entrepreneur looking for business ideas to start during the COVID-19 pandemic, this article will suggest ten sectors that are safe, agree with social distancing, and provide better opportunities to make legit money in an online ecosystem. By starting a feasible business, you will not just help the customers in need but also create jobs and business opportunities for people.

Why should you invest in pure online business ideas?

E-commerce having adopted the sale and delivery of essentials is a good example of survival. Many regions have allowed home deliveries of grocery, food, local courier, and medicine. Although the governments across different countries have allowed eCommerce businesses to deliver essential items, there is still a requirement for physical labor. Hence, it is not 100% safe for the people who are involved.

Not everyone, who wants to make a living in the COVID-19 crisis, can afford to invest big money in labor-intensive businesses. Despite the safety measures, all the suppliers, sellers, delivery fleet, and customers are in constant risk of infection

You cannot operate without an internal team of human-workforce
You will need a fleet of delivery partners to deliver the essential orders
You will have to invest in the safety of all your workforce and customers

Venturing in a partial online ecosystem such as eCommerce is not ideal for new entrepreneurs. Besides, the hyperlocal nature of on-demand delivery will limit your reach to a certain geographical boundary. Hence, investing in pure online sectors would be a more profitable, less expensive, highly collaborative, less labor-intensive, and easier business idea in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Top online businesses ideas to start in the COVID-19 pandemic

We have included the top ten business ideas from eLearning, OTT streaming, and the adult entertainment industries. These sectors can function from a work from home environment and you can start a business without stepping out of your home or meeting anyone in person.

In a complete online ecosystem, most of these ideas facilitate a pure online collaboration and digital delivery of purchases made by the customers. You can procure not just the supply chain digitally but also deliver an order without the customer needing to step out of their homes.

1. Live Online Tuitions/Coaching/Training

In the aftermath of the novel coronavirus, educational institutions have shut down across the planet. As the schools and colleges are not functioning, online learning has grown exponentially. Although the school, colleges, and universities have arranged online classes, other learning establishments are struggling to keep up.

The demand for online learning is rising from a multitude of domains. Not just academic courses but also the interests of people, who are sitting at their homes, have increased in hobby training activities. For example, people are enrolling for vocational training, academic tuitions, cooking lessons, music lessons, fitness classes, and yoga training, etc. Chefs, DJs, teachers, and trainers are turning into new celebrities in this lockdown period.

Strategic entrepreneurs can tap on this need and offer live online classes with video conferencing solutions. You can set a simple business model, not only to hire subject experts to teach from their homes but also to receive your payments digitally:

You can build a live learning platform with live classes via video conferencing and live streaming.
You can hire subject experts on your platform to teach the students right from their homes.
Using class-scheduling features, students can enroll in live classes, schedule, and pay for it digitally.
You can adopt a pay-per-session model or ask monthly subscriptions of courses from the students.

Niche model: If you are a subject expert in any valuable field with decent demands, you can build a platform and teach students in the above-explained business models. For example, if you can cook well, you can give cooking lessons. Whether it’s Dalgona Coffee treat in the lockdown or Pineapple pizza memes, home-cooked food has become a massive topic of discussion in this lockdown. In short, there has been a massive surge in the consumption of cooking videos on social media during the lockdown. You can tap on this trend and start a dedicated cooking lessons site.

What else can you teach live?

Live Gym training
Live Yoga classes
Live academic tuitions
Competitive exams preparation
Hobby training
Painting lessons
Music lessons etc.

Marketplace model: You can build a marketplace site of live video classes and hire subject experts to teach from home. In this case, you will earn from the commissions that subject experts will pay you for bringing the students. You can focus either on a niche (say Yoga training, Cooking lessons, etc.) or can add classes from all kinds of domains to attract more learners.

How to build a live tutoring website from home?

You can use a ready-made script like LiveLearn to build your live tutoring site on the go. You need not code anything, as the script comes inbuilt with features that you need to run a live tutoring business:

Live video classes
As many tutor accounts
Dedicated tutor dashboard
Classes scheduling feature
Interactive whiteboard software
Inbuilt online payment gateways
Pay-per-session revenue model

It’s an open-source script. You simply need to install the script on a web server of your preference and use the graphical user interface to set up the website.

2. E-Learning Marketplaces like Udemy and Coursera

Not just live classes but the demand for ready-made, self-paced courses has also surged during the lockdown. Almost all types of courses where one can enroll in the live environment are feasible in the self-paced mode either. An eLearning marketplace site holds self-paced courses from different domains created by different subject experts. It’s a feasible business model in the lockdown with everything being possible to manage right from home. From website development to tutor sign-up, course-creation, and online learning for students, you can manage everything from home digitally.

Night school Model: You can create an eLearning marketplace like Udemy for selling micro-courses on specific skills. The laser-focused courses can allow you to upload lessons on specific topics, for example, Java Servlets, photography, banner designing with Photoshop, etc. Anything that one can learn in a self-paced environment in a smaller time- frame would be a perfect fit for this model. Learners will purchase individual courses and pay for them.

Academic model: Anything that a ready-made course cannot accommodate can fit right into a more comprehensive model. Take Coursera for instance. Instead of ready-made courses, the website uses a combination of self-paced and live classes to sell subscriptions of course curriculums. For instance, it is possible to teach ‘Keyword Research’ from an individual course, but teaching the concept of entire Digital Marketing would need a continuous learning environment for longer durations. That’s where MOOCs and Distance Learning courses accommodate the needs. Learners pay on a monthly basis rather than purchasing a ready-made course at once.

How to build an eLearning marketplace from home?

You can use Coursera or Udemy clone scripts to build an eLearning marketplace. Building an entire eLearning site from scratch would be an extremely expensive and time-taking process. For example, a decent Udemy clone script like “SmartSchool Script” can build a fully functional eLearning marketplace in the Night School model for a much lesser cost and time. Tutors can create and upload courses, and learners can purchase right from there.

3. VOD Streaming Platform like Netflix

There has been a great surge in the demands for OTT streaming in the lockdown. People are spending majority of their time in the lockdown streaming content from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and other VOD platforms. In fact, Netflix went down a couple of times because of massive loads on its servers during this lockdown.

Source: Via Twitter

In many of the regions, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube had to downgrade their streaming in SD quality to cope with the amplified load on their servers and ISPs.

Source: Via Reddit

Before the pandemic, VOD streaming was already in its golden era with so many OTT streaming platforms sharing the market. It seemed like new entrants in the market would hardly survive the competition from the giants. However, the new surge during lockdown is a clear indicator that the market is still open for more entrants. If the same trend holds for a few more weeks, the existing players in the market might find themselves short on content.

In short, the appetite for on-demand content is on the rise. More and more people are growing fond of it. In fact, big production houses from around the globe are releasing their movies on OTT platforms, as the theaters seem not to open any time soon. It is the right time to invest in a VOD platform and make some money. The newly found love for OTT content is going to continue long even after the pandemic would get under control.

How to build a VOD streaming platform from home?

Netflix is the best example of an ideal VOD streaming platform in the subscription revenue model. Users pay for a monthly membership and enjoy OTT content on demand. What could be a better way to build a VOD streaming platform than using a Netflix Clone Script?

You can use the StreamView -Netflix clone script to build your VOD platform right from home. It’s an open-source, ready-made script with a subscription-based revenue model. You can create custom membership plans like Netflix and sell them to generate revenue. It has a complete collection of solutions with Admin panel, website front, mobile applications, and Smarts TV Apps. Just install the script, set up the platform with media streaming servers, upload your content, and start selling memberships on the go.

4. Live Video Games Streaming like Twitch

According to a Germany-based Internet Exchange, the overall internet traffic has grown by 39.53 % in this lockdown. Beside VOD and Live streaming, online gaming is one of the major contributors to this surge. People are not just playing online games but also watching live game streams on YouTube and Twitch. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the increase in the popularity of video games is a clear indicator that the number of people looking for related content on the streaming platforms would surely increase.

A major population is watching live video gameplays on social media from game streamers. At any time, you can see millions of viewers watching live gameplays on YouTube and Twitch.

Source: Via YouTube

Video game streaming was already in trend before the lockdown. Now, the niche seems to turn the lockdown boredom to its side. Platforms like YouTube and Twitch are doing a great job giving gamers some home entertainment via live streaming. You too can turn the trend into your favor and start a live streaming platform for video games.

A simple business model that uses tips from the users to regenerate income would be all to make decent money from video game streaming. If you have seen the Superchat feature on YouTube Live, you know that video game streamers get them a lot. YouTube takes about 30% cut from the Superchats. You can start a similar platform like YouTube Live or Twitch and generate revenue from commissions.

How to build a video game live streaming platform from home?

You can use an open-source, turnkey solution like “StreamNow – Live Streaming Software” to build your game streaming platform. StreamNow is a ready-made live streaming script that supports low-latency real-time streaming and multiple monetization channels such as tipping, premium chats, and membership subscription-like YouTube’s Join button. It’s almost a Twitch clone with even better features and customizability.

5. Podcast and Music Streaming like SoundCloud

Even before the lockdown, music streaming was already a stable business with decent traffic and demand. However, the lockdown has changed the way in which people are listening to music these days. According to a source from Spotify, “the morning routines have changed significantly. Every day now looks like the weekend”.

Source: Via BBC

While there has been a decline in streaming from cars, wearables, and web platforms, more and more people are now using their smart television and gaming consoles to stream music, as they stay in their homes. In fact, the platform has seen almost a 50% boost in traffic. However, the major business opportunity is not in the platforms like Spotify but the likes of SoundCloud:

SoundCloud is a community-based music streaming platform; just like YouTube Music. It allows users to upload their content, rather than labels and big names.
It’s also free to use and uses Ads to generate revenue. However, it also offers premium plans for those who want to avoid Ads.

As people are stuck in their homes, they are exploring streaming platforms for not just consuming content but also to upload their content. Not everyone can feature their content on proprietary platforms like Spotify and iTunes. A community-based alternative like SoundCloud gives everyone a chance to show his or her creativity. It is making money from not just Ads but also premium subscriptions.

How to build a platform like SoundCloud and YouTube Music from home?

You can use StreamTunes -Audio streaming software to build your music-streaming platform. The script comes with a collection of WebRTC streaming, native Android, and iOS mobile apps. With advanced features and community uploads, you can create both Spotify-like and SoundCloud-like audio streaming platforms with StreamTunes. A large number of artists and creators are already using this script to make money. You too can join the league with the same ease, customizability, and speed.

6. Adult Pay-Sites like Brazzers and RealityKings

The adult industry for some is taboo while many others look at it as a massive $92 billion industry to make big money. Amidst the lockdown and social distancing, traffic on adult websites has skyrocketed. Looking at the opportunities, even Pornhub recently offered free premium membership for a month to the users worldwide.

What Pornhub presented as its contribution to hook people on their mobile and computer screens in the lockdown was a clever marketing strategy from the brand. It acquired millions of unique registered users, out of which so many would definitely renew their membership in the rest of the lockdown.

It is just one example. A large number of adult pay sites had already been accepting cryptocurrencies, but the surge in the number of users has encouraged even the rest of the websites to follow the trend. According to data released by Pornhub, there has been a massive increase in worldwide traffic after March 2020 compared to normal days.

In short, demand for adult content is on its all-time peak. Now is the right time to invest in the adult content industry and make some money. In the next few points, including this point, we will be talking about many other adult content business ideas that you can build right from your home. Starting your adult paysite is one of them.

An adult paysite is nothing but a similar platform like Netflix, except it offers adult content streaming for a membership subscription. Examples of popular adult pay-sites are Brazzers, RealityKings, Pornhub Premium, etc. One needs to subscribe to a premium membership to unlock content from such websites. However, an adult paysite may also adopt a hybrid of revenue channels, such as-

Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and yearly Memberships to one site or a network of multiple pay-sites via a single subscription
The extra premium for value-added services such as 4K streaming, VR Porn, Download access, etc.
Pay-per-view for the whole website or just a few extra premium content

How to build an adult paysite from home?

You can use an adult membership site builder like xMember script to set up your website from home. Entrepreneurs also call such scripts as clone scripts of popular adult paysites. For example, Brazzers clone script and RealityKings clone script, etc.

The xMember is a ready-made script with inbuilt revenue channels and adult payment gateways integrated. You need not do anything but install the script on a web-server to set up your website, upload content, and start selling memberships. You can create multiple membership plans and add some content on the Pay-per-view model, just like the porn sites do. With a decent web hosting plan and media server, the script is capable of handling the massive surge in the traffic at any given point in the time. If you have been planning to start a premium porn site, now is the right time to use this script.

7. Adult Tube Sites like Pornhub and Xvideos

If the traffic on premium porn sites has surged massively, the same on free porn sites, AKA adult tube sites, have grown beyond expectations. If you cannot curate premium content for your paysite, you can start an adult tube site with even more ease. This entire spike in the traffic of free porn sites means just one thing: you can in-cash this traffic as a free porn site by showing Ads. The best part is, you need not even worry about content, as the users will take care of it via community uploads.

You can follow a freemium revenue model like Pornhub, Xvideos, YouPorn, and others:

Free with Ads: Show content free of cost with Ads from adult Ad networks. You can also restrict the streaming quality and download access in the free version.
Premium: Show all content without any streaming and download restriction or Ads in return for a membership subscription.

How to build an adult tube site from home?

You can use adult tube scripts. Also called with names like Pornhub clone script or Xvideos clone scripts, these scripts can build adult tube sites in minutes without any coding. One such solution is xStreamer, which is open-source and comes with integrated video grabbing and embedding features. That means you can embed content from other tube sites as well. Users can create channels and upload content from their dashboards on the front-end. The admin can track each content right from the back-end. You can use the following ways to make money from your adult tube site:

Pre-roll and post-roll video ads
In-video text Ads
Banner Display Ads
Different premium memberships for users and channel owners

Hence, you can embed Ads from not just popular adult networks but also create and run your own Ads, just on your website, to make additional Ad-money.

8. Webcam Modeling platform like Chaturbate

The fact that adult websites are experiencing a spike of traffic is not limited to porn websites alone. This surge is presenting an ideal environment to make money with webcam business too. In fact, starting an adult webcam site is one of the most practical and beneficial business ideas in the lockdown. You can set up your webcam site from home and build revenue channels using pure online methods. How do adult webcam sites make money?

Well, adult webcam sites onboard mainly two types of users: Adult webcam models and Adult webcam site visitors.

The models are responsible for engaging the users via their live webcam shows, while the users pay them in various kinds. It’s very similar to models performing in strip clubs. Having said that, it would be a great idea to attract strip club models to your webcam site. Since they have lost their jobs in the lockdown, they would surely work hard to make money from a pure online channel like a webcam site. Users will purchase tokens, just like in casinos, and use them to make on-site transactions such as-

Tip a model
Place a special request
Purchase a private session
Send direct messages to a model

Besides, you can add other revenue channels for models to make additional money. For example, sell model’s video clips, nudes, phone-sex, taking care of sugar daddies, and sell used panties, etc. Eventually, after calculating the monthly revenue generated by the models, you can conduct payouts respectively post deducting a percentage cut as your commission. Most of the webcam sites take 20-30 percent commissions from the models’ earnings on their sites.

How to set up a webcam website in the lockdown?

To own a webcam site, you need not go physically anywhere to build or even manage your business. You can use turnkey solutions from the market to set up your website without writing a single line of code by yourself. Just install xCams website builder on your web server, and you can set up the entire website using a graphical user interface from the back-end.

You can even customize the front-end, as the script is completely open-source. The main reason for choosing xCams over other webcam scripts is it comes with a webcam model API. You need not hire your models, as the model API will give access to hundreds on live models already enrolled with model agencies and performing from their homes. It’s a good start to go live with your website until you learn the basics of how to hire webcam models by yourself.

9. Sell E-Books and Digital Magazines Online

The demands for e-books and digital magazines have seen an equal surge during the lockdown. As people stay in their homes, they have found their new love in eBooks. In fact, Libraries across Europe have reported a flood of online borrowing and sale of e-books during the coronavirus lockdown. As reported by BBC, Leicestershire County Council said the number of people borrowing e-books had gone up 35% and audiobooks 20% in the past two months.

Besides, selling or borrowing of eBooks and Digital Reading Resources is independent of any physical contact. Thus, one can easily tap on this trend and start selling eBooks and magazines digitally. It’s a highly versatile business model with the ability to accommodate innovative revenue channels:

Pay-per-sale: Sell eBooks individually and get paid for them
Magazine Subscription: Sell monthly subscriptions of digital magazines
Library subscription: Sell memberships in return to monthly access to all your books

Adult Magazines have been in the market for long before video adult content was popular. There is still a significant population that likes to read adult magazines. Especially in the lockdown, when most of the adult content niches are in great demand, offering an adult magazine site could unlock many other doors to revenue generation.

How to build an eBook or Adult Magazine site in lockdown?

You can use a script called xMagazine to build the site on the go. Although it’s a script for selling both digital and physical adult magazines and their subscriptions, it can accommodate all kinds of mainstream eBook businesses with little customization. In fact, it is also an open-source script, so customization wouldn’t be an issue. It supports both pay-per-sale and subscription revenue models.

10. Adult Content Aggregation and Affiliate Marketing

Making money running an adult aggregator site is the easiest business to start on this list. You can start affiliate marketing for tube sites, pay sites, and even webcam sites on your aggregator. All big adult websites run affiliate-marketing programs, under which they allow adult content aggregators to embed their content and drive traffic. The adult websites pay handsomely to the aggregators for every visitor they direct their way.

How to build an adult aggregator site from home?

If you have heard of sites like Tubegalore and GiantTube, you would know how you could make money in quarantine from home aggregating content from other adult sites. You can build a similar website like Tubegalore or GiantTube using a script like xAggregate.

Just after installing the script on your web-server, you will get access to over 10 million content from hundreds of adult content websites. You can embed these videos on your website and build a large database of content to attract visitors. Besides affiliate commission for driving traffic or promoting paysites, you can also embed banner Ads on your website. You can also promote adult affiliate products from eCommerce sites like Amazon, Lovehoney, etc.

Conclusion

No doubt, not all these business ideas are feasible without stepping out of your home. However, you will need some assistance from B2B businesses and services, which may range from the technology providers to business tools, payment solutions, analytics, digital collaboration, suppliers, marketing tools, and others. Fortunately, the current infrastructure in the market allows an entrepreneur to fulfill all these requirements digitally while maintaining the social distancing norms.

With every business idea, we have mentioned the best turnkey solutions in the market to build the respective websites. You should visit those links and test the solutions to learn more about them. For any assistance, we would be just a comment or email away. Feel free to drop your questions.

Top 10 Challenges in Mobile App Development

The technology-oriented start-ups are growing all over the world with the cutting edge technologies. As smartphones are widely used among the users, many development companies are investing more money into mobile app development to take the advantages of the growing demand for Apps.

The world of the mobile app has seen substantial growth in the recent past. Thus, many entrepreneurs are planning to build mobile apps for their business keeping as the top of their business strategies. Understanding the challenges and creating a strategic solution to overcome them is very important.

Millions of mobile applications have submitted to Apple and Android app stores since the last couple of years and became an important parameter for a successful business. Here in this article, I am going to explain and highlight the biggest challenges in mobile app development.

Validating and Evaluating user needs:

Assessing user needs is one of the biggest challenges in deciding the direction and figuring out what to develop. There is a vast competition in the mobile app industry in the market and it is a tough task to get the stand and noticed by users. The app developers always working to create innovative apps that users want. Determining the quality of an app depends upon a few factors and you might have few questions before evaluating a process.

What is the purpose of the application?
What are the functionalities need to be addressed while developing the app?
Does the idea make you stand out from the crowd?
Does the app easy for the users to use?
Does the app get into the market according to the users need?

Defining the target/competitive market:

The competition in the market is so aggressive as thousands of mobile apps trying to approach with innovative things to stand out from the crowd. To reach out to the users in the market with shorter span is tricky. The app developers should understand which new idea will appeal the highest values to the users for a longer time. They should research deeper to figure out how they can keep their users more engaged and interactive.

The app developers should take the challenging task to innovate app with a high quotient to ensure building a loyal customer base. This will impact in outlining the target market from a business perspective and the product will get sufficient monetization with a definitive market.

Managing the resources:

You might have a nice and innovative app idea, but it will go in vain if you are not trying to convert into a marketable capital. The cost of development for an app always depends upon the nature of the app. To monetize the app and manage the resources and finances will be a challenging problem for some entrepreneurs or developers.

If you don’t figure out a proper channel for investing in your app idea, you will again include taking a loan or joint venture your product with someone to raise funds. Managing the funds effectively can be a challenging task to produce a profitable return on investment.

Choosing development technology:

Choosing a core, constructive, and suitable development technology for an app will be a deciding factor for the developers. This gives you an idea of whether to make a native, hybrid, or a cross-platform app.

There are lots of innovative technologies scattered on the market. But to gain a good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages offered by each technology that suits your platform can be difficult. Choosing an outdated technology can result in more expenditure, poor app performance, and a more user experience. Building an app that is flexible and adaptable according to the client’s target is really a challenging task.

Compatibility with different OS versions:

With several operating systems existing these days, the developers need to plan accordingly to make their apps in such a way that the application runs on various devices and compatible with all versions of operating systems. Many industries limit their emphasis to only one platform that decreases the range of app to users. Thus sustaining and making the apps efficient across several platforms is really a tough and challenging task.

The app developers face another challenge while dealing with different screen sizes and devices that the app should fit into it. It is not a good option to develop an app for selected, few devices, and particular screen sizes. To develop an app to run smoothly across many devices and many screen sizes is a principal challenge for developers. The developers need to look across the platforms while encouraging it for higher adoption and ensure the main logic remains unchanged across different platforms.

The developers need to consider a different OS as well. Each operating system has its own respective UI objects and patterns. The developers require to conduct bug-fixing across all the popular operating systems- iOS, Android, and Windows.

When the application is easy and simple to use and gives a good experience to users, then only it will have many implications in the market. To build a better app, a good UI/UX design is necessary which makes the app more interesting, simple, and gives more clarity.

Security:

Security issues in-app will be a troublesome concern for developers. The app should be free from malware problems, otherwise, it can create software or hardware disintegration which will require more time and money to address such issues.

There is no proper instructions and guidelines available for Android apps. Google is trying to do much protection to overcome from such kind malware strain in the Play Store.

But Apple provides enough strict rules to follow. The lack of security may cause misuse, manipulation, and poor UI which leads to unusual issues.

With the widespread operating systems and device variants, ensuring security on applications can be a tough task to reach optimum security norms. Establishing a connection with end users is a challenging work for app developers. If the mobile app fails to connect with the end users, the complete efforts and money will go in vain.

Application performance:

Along with the design and interaction, performance is also an important aspect of mobile development. To design a well performing and bug-free app that runs on minimum battery consumption.

Performance is always considered as a post development feature. Different users see their performance differently. It completely depends on the user’s device. It depends upon which latest device they are using. The app might function on the latest devices as compared to older devices. Many images, visual effects, caches, and integrated sensors also disrupt the performance of the devices.

The productivity of the application:

You might have noticed, often mobile apps quickly discharge the battery of your phone. This causes an unwillingness for the customers to use them. Thus, it is necessary to approach seriously to the solution of this complex issue and need to be solved.

The battery life of the device has to be considered with sincerity by the app developers because the users never want to experience the overheating of the device and much consumption of power while using the app. Thus the developers need to test the battery performance for their app and check whether the app drains the device battery quickly. To design a bug-free, high-performance app that doesn’t consume excessive power is a challenging task for app developers.

Customer Reviews & Experience:

During the development of a business app, it is necessary to keep in mind for the developers that they are making the app for the users and not for themselves.

All the in and out related to your mobile app is need to be analyzed before developing the app. Thus, your customers won’t find any issues while navigating your app.

If you make your app complicated, it may lead to negative customer reviews. Thus the number of downloads and active users will be reduced. So keep your app as simple as possible. Include all the resources in app stores like images, videos, and files. Use icons and thumbnails which will help you to improve the user experience.

Marketing and promotion of App:

Marketing is a vital thing when you build an app. Most of the developers don’t give much focus on marketing. This is challenging for mobile developers at a completely different level and requires business savvy to be successful. One can develop an app with a great interface, graphics, and functionality, but they are not going to get the returns of investment if they don’t do better marketing.

The following top challenges and goals marketers need to define for app marketing.

Discovery of App: How to make the app discoverable in every app store
User acquisition: How to make the users install the app easily
Customer retention: How to keep users involved through the app
Monetization from App: setting the monetization model whether its free or premium model and in-app advertising

Final Thoughts:

With the ever-changing landscape of technology, the mobile app development getting tough for app developers to keep up with. They must uncover the challenges to be successful in the competitive market. There are boundless opportunities available to build better user experience for the mobile app. By exceeding the challenges with innovative technological insight and flexible skillset gives app developers a strong competitive edge to build a vast user base for app.

If you can overcome all the advance developmental sprints, the app to the end user will definitely much successful. If you find any of the above challenges in your app development project, then we can help you out to overcome them.

Why You Should Outsource Software Development?

Business transformation programs driving at an unprecedented pace to improve the business space. Resource allocation is an important factor in developing a business. When planning a new project, the preliminary task is to evaluate its scope and to allocate the resources accordingly. This is an essential prospect for business optimization and company growth.

Outsourcing is considered as a well-rooted practice both in our professional lives and daily routines. For example, we call plumbers to fix the pipe issues, order food from online delivery apps and even pay people to look after children when we’re away. However, outsourcing in corporate sectors allows the business to distribute assets more effectively, achieve core competencies, and widen the product portfolio with saving the resources.

Outsourcing software development is not like just confined on offshoring to third world countries, but to bring the business into the next level. In today’s world of apps and software, user experience is the key to success in any business. Here in this article, we will discuss how outsourcing software development transforms and revolutionizes your business.

What was the state of software development outsourcing?

Since the past decade, many enterprises and software organizations are experiencing a rising demand for qualified software developers for growing their businesses.

Many developed countries face a challenge in finding skilled resource in technology. They also face serious concerns due to the expensive amount of resources and skilled manpower. Moreover, multiple issues connected with business development occur irrespective of the business’ size whether it is a start-up, mid-level enterprise, or a large scale company. The entrepreneurs always in search of qualified specialists with good knowledge, creativity, and flexibility. To encounter these alarming signals, the outsourced software development came into the picture and has become a trending industry.

Look at these market size of outsourcing software development services from 2000 to 2018 according to Statista.

Benefits of outsourcing software development:

Time is crucial: Get your products to market even faster

How many times have you heard about the penetrating words from your employees: This will take a few more days to complete the project: We are trying to meet the deadlines: Often right? You’re not alone. However, you have to constantly manage these things to cope-up with your competitors and to be on the edge. To reach an edge in the dynamic competitiveness environment, timing is the key factor.

As we know, software development is a prolonged process that requires attentive care in every step. If your internal programmers don’t finish a project before the deadlines, the sales & marketing department will face bottleneck to launch the new products to the market. In turn, the whole pressure comes under the coders to get ready for the product. At this time of adding a few coders into the team will prove priceless for the company.

To overcome such things in your company, outsourcing software development helps with a rapid effort, adaptive planning, and timely delivery. Most businesses require the need for speed to leverage their competitive advantage. There is no point of dependency on the in-house resources for a product launch. The software outsourcing team will provide the services timely and in accordance with the schedule. With outsourcing the software, your application is guaranteed to have a timely market delivery. This obviously improves the effectiveness of your product.

Diverse technological advances: Access to the latest technology

Technological partnership with a good software development outsourcing company provides a perfect business relation along with maximizing the profit. This is because one needs a robust software as a fundamental foundation for the company. The loyal users, successful marketing elements, and sales of products will completely depend on a great software product.

To get exposure to global talent, many countries outsource software development. They need expertise in new skills and techniques that cannot be demanded in-house because of huge resource allocation.

The business will get a brand effect across the world by expanding technical capabilities and broadening the horizon. This provides additional relaxation as the whole development to deployment is being taken care of by the outsourcing companies. With the advancement of technology, you can rather focus on marketing. You will get enough time for managing the resources and project.

The software outsourcing partners not only saves time and money but also bring innovation into the process. It is very hard to keep up with all the tech trends, but a software development partner can help you to take your product into the next level by leveraging cutting-edge technologies.

Cost Savings: Reduced cost lead to maximize profit

When you think of outsourcing software development, you will find a substantial difference in wages in developed and developing countries. Most developed countries believe to outsource their software to minimize their expenses.

There are many economically strong countries that provide top-notch services with a marginally lower cost. Instead of spending dollars of money on their own programmers, they can get the same quality service for half of the price. The companies can save almost 30 to 35% on operating costs by outsourcing their software development.

The companies just need product quality while offshoring to developing countries. Also, companies can save a bulk amount of money in the form of employee salary and many resources when they outsource.

Streamline your business process: Focus on your core expertise in organization

Many companies often neglect the core expertise and constructive vision that brought them success. Either that may be a distinctive service, unique business model, or a better idea that helps to distinguishes it from the crowd from its competitors.

It’s better to focus on the core competencies that will increase the growth factor. For example, if coding is not your cup of coffee, and you are well suited with advanced marketing skills, then choose the best option for outsourcing your software development. Then start focusing on your marketing skills without wasting valuable time and money.

Even if you invest in hiring skilled IT engineers and manage the projects simultaneously, it will only result in late product release and delay in project submission in the workspace. Regardless, you can speed up your time in the market if you are outsourcing the projects. Thus, most start-ups, mid-sized companies, or even large scale companies tend to outsource to generate the highest value. It allows them to allocate their assets and prevent from wasting the resources.

In today’s time, businesses need innovative tricks for development in order to survive in the market. The outsourcing of software development enhances and strengthens the core process. The in-house team will get more alignment towards business with more strategic goals. This will help in streamlining the business processes.

Better efficiency and higher effectiveness:

People often think when they conjointly hear the words outsourcing and quality. The quality of the software will completely depend on the providers. Thus choosing a better outsourcing service is necessary.

Good software contractors follow the effectiveness and quality assurance to meet customer requirements. They work deliberately for you and your clients to identify the needs of your customers.

By allotting all the related components of your business to an outsourcing vendor, you are free from resources, time, funds, and other needs associated with the project which in turn make your business more effective.

Outsourcing software development to a third-party vendor will free up a few assets and streamlines better infrastructure. Outsourcing partners hire skillful and experienced professionals to their teams. Taking advantages of your outsourcing partner’s experience will sail to a successful product.

Provides flexibility:

Outsourcing software development saves the recruiting, hiring, and training time for your projects. You need not worry about the scaling your employees in case the labor size changes for different projects.

Final Words:

Software outsourcing maximizes flexibility. It is a great option to outsource software development projects to get the digital transformation and growth of a business. It also increases profit while reducing risks. If you want to achieve the software development goals with cost savings and project success, find a better outsourcing services company that offers digital innovation.

How to Double Your Website Traffic Using Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a buzz phrase these days. It helps marketers reach more target audience effectively. It is not only a time saver but also helps to grow businesses significantly. The credit goes to the recent advancements in technology.

Marketing automation can be a powerful lead generator if you apply the proper strategy on the right platform. On average, 49% of businesses are using marketing automation and more than 55% of B2B companies have already adopted automation technologies. In this article, we will learn how marketing automation invariably leads to increased web traffic, leads, and sales.

Say you have your landing pages ready to convert visitors into customers but you are not ranking in organic search nor in the paid traffic sources. If you want to increase the volume of web traffic for your site, check the following key points on how marketing automation can help make that happen.

Sounds cool, Right! However, what exactly is marketing automation, how it helps you and your business, and how hard is it to master? Let’s get started to know.

What is Marketing Automation?

In simple words, the use of software to automate the manual business activities in the marketing and sales is marketing automation. It is a new concept emerged from the developments in the last decade, paving path for new strategies every day. When marketing strategies implement correctly, automating a campaign can produce impressive results. For example, it is becoming increasingly common to automate email campaigns.

Marketing automation software brought a revolution in the digital marketing environment. Most businesses employ automation in email marketing, lead generating, and software integrations with auxiliary systems such as CRM, mobile, and social media. These activities drive up sales productivity and reduce marketing overhead. All actions are automatically triggered and executed through marketing automation software that nurtures leads and conversion paths. The automation has made marketing faster and efficient than ever before.

Goals of marketing automation:

Just like any other marketing technique, marketing automation gained acceptance in the online market. It attracts organizations with certain business goals like generating qualified sales leads, converting qualified leads into profitable customers, and increasing the lifetime value of your customers through better customer engagement. The ultimate goal of marketing automation depends on marketing efforts.

Automation is firmly connected to various aspects of digital marketing programs such as your website, landing pages, and email campaigns. Check the number of strategies you can implement to help optimize your website for higher conversion rates:

Optimize your website for conversions: Marketing automation helps to increase the number of visitors to your website. It makes sure that your website has what it takes to convince a visitor into profitable actions.
Ensure fast page loads: A slow page can be a major turn off and drive the visitors away from your site. So check your page load times regularly to make sure they’re quick.

Once your website is optimized, funnel up your marketing automation software to attract more visitors and convert them to valuable customers.

Check the workflow for marketing automation software:

How to incorporate marketing automation into your strategy?

Personalize your emails:

Email personalization effective only if you implement the right marketing strategies:

Prioritize the subject line. This is the first impression which recipients read. Make it well documented and address the recipients by their name, which can make a big difference. You can use automation to send welcome emails to subscribers, or send newsletters adding a discount on their next purchase.

Let’s say a client comes to your website and makes a purchase. If you get their email address, you can send a thank you email and discounts for future purchases.

You need to leverage data such as demographics, past purchases, and online behavior of customers to offer the right products and services. The automated emails help in reminding the customers of the items still in their cart, or products they have watched but are in low stock currently.

Reminders can also be sent out about various upcoming activities or special sales on different products. Send offers based on recipient locations. Limit your personalization mail two or three times, or else it might annoy your recipients.

Use dynamic content that is relevant to the customers’ interests.

Segment your Mailing List: Segmentation helps in choosing the right audience with the right email. According to a report, the segmented email campaigns have 14.32% higher open rates. You can segment your audience by demographics like age, gender, and location. You can check the customer’s email history, activities, behavior to send them relevant offers. Segment the users by purchase amounts and you can up-sell and cross-sell based on the opportunities.

Social Media:

Like email marketing, social media is a way to contact customers automatically across platforms.

There are several automation tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, Crowdfire, etc. available online to send out the same or multiple messages, and even ads across all the social media channels simultaneously.

These automated messages can also be programmed to send birthday messages, thank you notes after purchase, or suggested info to check out after they like your page.

Provide interaction and enhance customer service: The social marketing software also ‘like’ the posts from your fans, invite friends to like or share pages and events, or comment on posts mentioning your brand.

For example, Domino’s Pizza does this on Facebook. It lets the dissatisfied customers solve their complaints and by giving them an opportunity to contact the customer support directly on the issue.

Track engagement and notify the users if a post goes live:

You can also integrate the marketing automation software with your CRM to track activities and campaigns. When you post a new blog on your site, the software sends a tweet or message on your social media platforms.

Inspiring content: Newsletters

As the drip campaigns help in increasing the prospects of landing on your website, endorsing great content can help bringing users back to your website.

The relevant, informative, and genuine content on your website will attract visitors, keep them there, and encourage them to go deeper into your site. You can also send your content in infographics, educational videos, and entertaining posts through newsletters sent monthly or quarterly to opt-ins from your database.

Optimize the Landing Pages:

Automation tools easily create new landing pages and forms for your website. This is done by copying an effective landing page and creating a duplicate of it with new demographics, keywords, etc.

You can connect specific campaigns and search keywords to your landing pages to increase conversion. The marketing automation tool makes sure to connect analytics tools and email marketing to track and monitor visitors.

You can also automate your landing page through a messenger window or small pop-up that allows the visitors to contact directly.

The automated software can also be programmed to offer answers to common problems raised by customers that may have with the products or website through a tech bot.

Measure the success of your marketing automation strategies:

Measuring performance is crucial as it helps you to find out different strategies and weak spots to improve. The way you measure the marketing automation performance must be aligned with your goals.

You can measure the performance based on the following goals:

Lead generation, sales, and customer retention. The top metrics help you to check if you are on the right track based on the targeted goals.

You can also measure the Ad Campaign Effectiveness of your website. The tools like IFTT and Zapier helps in tracking the leads from Facebook Ads. When a person subscribes or clicks on your Ad, the contact information is automatically stored. By keeping track of this information, you can find out the most effective target audience. You can use this to improve on Ads targeting and keywords later.

A/B Tests on different channels with an automation software will evaluate how certain aspects of your campaign can be enhanced to get maximum engagement.

Conclusion:

With the right objectives and key strategies, you can easily increase your website conversions and grow your business with marketing automation doing away from the manual processes.

All Hands Meeting – December 2019

Last week was the first all-hands meeting of 2020. Held on January 8, 2020, it’s was a fun and interesting event for our Instarama family. Ranging from managers to junior interns, all came together to discuss our report card for the December month and plan our roadmap for the upcoming year.

Marketing and Sales Accomplishments

Inclusively, it was a decent month on both the marketing and sales fronts. We could have done better on some projects. Nevertheless, we learned a few things, which definitely will help us to excel better in the upcoming events.

Adent:

Overall, there was a 0.9% dip in the inclusive traffic as compared to the same during the previous month. It’s mainly because of a slight variation in the referral and Quora sources. Thanks to a significant improvement in the Direct Traffic and Social-media Sources, we could have lost much more than 0.9%. Considering it was the holiday season, even a slight dip in the traffic means thousands of dollars lost. Yet, Adent is driving over 73% of the traffic from direct sources, which means the brand name is gradually becoming popular among adult industry entrepreneurs.

We could see a significant improvement in the number of valid sign-ups, which indicates that Adent received some high-quality traffic. Nevertheless, it was a well-brought-up month in terms of sales, yet we could see a slight impact of the dip in traffic on the sales figures. The sales figures remained on the borderline of the target values, which mean we achieved the targets, but it was not easy. Nonetheless, Adent remained one of the best performing projects, both on sales and marketing fronts.

ShopyGen:

Shopygen too faced a 0.92% dip in the overall traffic, but luckily, we were able to curb the bounce rates by more than 4%, which helped us achieve some good sales figures. Although, ShopyGen faced a slight drop from all the sources, except referral, the team’s efforts in driving quality traffic helped the sales team funnel-in some quality leads. We could maintain a stable in-flow of valid sign-ups, which revealed some new prospects in unexplored markets like Nigeria.

Both pre-sales and post-sales teams did an excellent job of cashing-in the leads. We could achieve our best sales figures for the past 3-4 months. The holiday sale, where we offered a flat 50% OFF, went pretty well. We not only sold a significant amount of base products but also closed some good customization deals. ShopyGen is gradually moving towards stability, and we hope the eCommerce solutions brand will soon set some new milestones.

StreamHash:

As one of our top-performing projects, StreamHash has been able to maintain a stable flow of revenue for the past few months. There was a significant improvement of 10% in terms of overall traffic. Excluding a slight dip of 0.8% on the referral front, the team was able to boost the combined traffic coming from most of the targeted sources. We have also been running Display Ads for our Holiday Sales. We saw a significant improvement in the number of sales through this channel as well. Although it wasn’t a month for customizations, we sold some good amount of base products, which maintained a balance in the revenue stream. The Netflix clone, StreamView, was one of the most soled base products.

Feedback and Improvements

The QA team is on the constant move to collect feedback and improve the quality of all our products. Besides, the team does regular testing of the products in live and development environments. This month, we have been working on the improvements in most of Adent’s and StreamHash products. Products such as Gentask, xFans, and GenX were the highlights of this month’s QA.

Targets

As we enter into a new year, we have made big plans to boost not our sales and marketing but also the internal operations. We have some big projects in the pipeline. Beside regular team building activities, the HR department is planning a few big events to celebrate our Anniversary and Pongal festival.

Star Performer of Month: Sriram B

For a long time, Adent has been one of our fastest-growing projects. However, this month, it was ShopyGen, which created new milestones. Despite being a new product in a highly competitive arena of eCommerce business solutions, ShopyGen’s performance during the past few months is inspirational.

All credit goes to the sales and marketing teams of ShopyGen. Sriram, who has been handling the sales department, is undoubtedly the best-deserved contestant for this month’s recognition. It was a close competition between Sriram and two others from the team, but Sriram’s brilliant project management skills made sure that his contributions don’t go unrewarded. Well done Sriram, you have done a great job. You deserve the title of “Best performer of the month”.

Instarama All Hands Meeting – November

The one-way broadcast from powers is a bad way to manage a business. Executives talking from the stage while the audience listens to them dutifully are not all-hands meetings at all. What we care about is a chance for everyone from interns to executives, team-leads, managers, and senior managers to ask questions, raise concerns, and display enthusiastic participation. Our monthly all-hands meeting aims to connect those who work in different teams and make them feel linked to the company on a broader and professional level.

Following the same tradition, we conducted our November’s all-hands meet to bring the entire organization together and share updates on all fronts, raise queries, and know how everyone is contributing to the growth of the business.

People Management:

We value our people and their contribution. Our HR department helps us to undertake the very same thing. The team has been working constantly to only make working at Instarama fun but also acquire the best new talents. Thanks to the team, we have been able to conduct some successful fun and team building activities during the festive season, and it continues. From office space administration, grievance management, daily needs, and talent acquisitions to binding every one of us together, the efforts from the HR department are worth cherishing.

Marketing and Sales Accomplishment

Overall, it has been a precious month in terms of marketing and sales. As we moved in the festive season, every team gave their best to bag-in the greatest values; we could see the results in their analytics.