Email Is Not A Tool, It's A Platform

The new age startups would have you believe that email is dead and would convince you to move on and adopt a multitude of tools in its place. The truth though is that email is not going anywhere and that is because email is not just a business communication tool - it is a platform, a platform where you can market your business, attend to customer support, manage your projects, make cold calls etc.
It is a platform that, with right enhancements, can help you run your entire business, especially for small businesses and startups.
It is, in fact, an open, and a multi-faceted platform on which innovative things are being built.
Email is not dying but is transforming, tremendously. It has gotten much smarter and easier to use, without losing its interoperability or its ubiquity.
If you are wondering why the hell should I try and enhance email through add-ons and extensions when I can simply use tools that don’t depend on email, consider this - instead of using a separate tool for each operation such as customer service, task management, email marketing etc., if you were to enhance your email and base your operations on this platform, it can serve as the common centre for all your business operations. Instead of having to shift from one tool to another, all the information you need will be right there, in your inbox.
Why do I call email a platform?
I call it a platform because of its ability to let us conduct multiple operations right out of the inbox.
Project management
Emails contain a lot of information essential to running a project. For example, a request from a client via email is a task you will assign to one of your team members. You will either do this by forwarding the email to the team member or by using a task management tool.
On that note, there are some innovative tools out there, which can partially or completely integrate with email and work in tandem with the inbox. These enhancements allow you to design your project management workflows, delegate tasks to team members, monitor the status of these tasks and more.
We anyway conduct most of our project management operations from the inbox; complementing this process with the right set of tools can help you perform better. In fact, you can run a whole bunch of virtual teams quite effectively, if you equip yourself with the right set of tools.
Customer support
We already conduct a number of customer support activities through email. Especially for small to mid-sized businesses, email is the go-to customer service platform. You can use an email response management solution to ease your job. You can also enhance your service by using simple features such as email templates (which maintain consistency across all reply emails) or use automation to follow-up on customers after you provide your customer service.
You can also make use of tools with features like Shared Mailbox which allow you to maintain a centralized inbox from where you can assign customer support emails to you team members.
Client management
Email is the best way to manage your relationship with your clients/customers. Here’s why:

• It’s ubiquitous - everyone uses email, you can be sure that all of your clients have an email ID.
• It’s interoperable - doesn’t matter which email client your customer is using (Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook etc), you can still reach them.
• Unlike other Instant messaging options like text messages or Whatsapp, email doesn’t butt into the personal space of the customer/client (which can be quite annoying!)

Sales management
Sales management is another important aspect of your business and yet again, with the right set of tools and features, email can turn into a powerful sales management tool.

• Features such as email templates can make the job easy for your sales team and can help you maintain a consistent tone in all your email replies.
• Using email, you can maintain your relationship with old customers either through follow-ups or through email newsletters.
• It is definitely easier and more appropriate to make cold sales outreach via email than any other means.
• Personalization is an important aspect of sales emails and by equipping your inbox with tools like Rapportive, which provide additional information on a lead, you can personalize the content of the email.
• Tools with features like shared contacts allow you to maintain a centralized list of  contacts for the team.

Also, consider this - email is well-suited to the mobile age.
Another remarkable aspect to consider is that email does mobile really well. Emails are generally lightweight and they can easily be downloaded in the mobile inboxes of the readers and they can respond to these emails (forward, reply, delete etc) with just a couple of clicks - very mobile user-friendly.
Also, for email marketers, the newsletters, if optimized well, will load without any format disruption as email is generally mobile ambient and convenient.
Wrapping up: Email is evolving rapidly and unbundling itself to meet the changing demands of the people and is absorbing more of the technology around it. More often than not, it’s the simple email management tricks like using labels, filters etc. that can help you boost your performance by many folds.
Additionally, don’t underestimate the power of using right tech tools that integrate with your Gmail. They can help you get through the day faster, manage email quite efficiently, communicate better, and run your business effectively.

Google CHanged World How

It’s incredible that it took just 18 years for Google -- the company reached this milestone of adulthood on Sept. 27 -- to create a market capitalization of more than $530 billion. It’s perhaps even more amazing to recall how the search engine has changed life as we know it.
Google, now a unit of holding parent company Alphabet Inc., began in Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s Stanford University dorm in 1998 before campus officials asked them to find a real office after the Stanford IT department complained Page and Brin’s were sucking up all the university’s bandwidth.
By the time I joined the company in November of 2001, it was apparent that we were changing the world. As an early employee at Google -- the second attorney hired there -- there were times when shivers ran up my spine thinking about what we were building. Democratizing access to information, and bringing the real world online -- it was an inspiring place to be.

Having grown up in a working class neighborhood, I had to travel to an affluent neighborhood to access a good public library, spending countless Saturday afternoons with volumes of reference books to learn how to apply for financial aid to attend college. In those pre-Internet days, a good library and a kind-hearted librarian were my keys to advancement.
After the printing press, the first major democratization of access to information had been driven a century ago by steel baron Andrew Carnegie. He became the world’s richest man in the late 19th century and then gave it all away, donating $60 million to fund 1,689 public libraries across the United States. To my mind, Google took Carnegie’s vision of putting information in the hands of the general public and put it on steroids, creating a virtual library akin to those found only in sci-fi movies in 1998.
Google indexed the internet extraordinarily well without human intervention, unlike previously curated outlets such as Yahoo! or LexisNexis, and in such a way that the user did not have to know how to use the index or Boolean search methods. Google enabled free searches of words or terms, making all manner of information instantly retrievable even if you did not know where it was housed. With Google, you could find any needle in any haystack at any time. Unlocking that data has indeed been a great equalizer: any individual can arm him or herself with relevant information before seeing a doctor or applying for government assistance, housing or a job.

Machines Impact on Financial Services

This includes the hassle of accepting payments in India which still remains in cash. However, merchants today have realized that accepting cash is not the most seamless way for payments. “Merchants have realized that while it may not have an upfront cost but the overall lifetime cost of handling cash is really expensive compared to going cash less,” says Harshil Mathur, Co-founder, Razorpay. Bengaluru-based payment gateway solution provider, Razorpay was part of winter 2015 batch of world’s top seed accelerator Y Combinator.

“With the launch of unified payment interface, Aadhaar etc., in the next two years, the way payments are done will be changed in India. It will also be critical as more and more people enter the banking ecosystem,” adds Mathur.

Gurgaon-based Eko India Financial Services that offers payment and money transfer services to customers and retail merchants believes that data generated by these digital transactions will in-turn help merchants cope up with their working capital issues. “We share the data generated by merchants’ earnings with alternative lending companies who can offer working capital loans to these merchants based on that data as traditionally merchants have been unable to raise working capital loan from formal institutions like the bank,” says Abhinav Sinha, Cofounder & COO, Eko India Financial Services.

Clearly, fintech is the way forward in such cases even as vast Indian population remains bereft of banking services. “A government in favor of dematerialization and online on boarding of the rising rural middle class could only augment the fintech growth,” says Nikhil Kamath, Co-founder and Director, Zerodha – Bengaluru-based discount brokerage firm. However, banks too are undergoing digital restructuring to avoid being on the edge of their seats courtesy fintech start-ups that have been unbundling
banks’ various services. On the face of it, banks, however, term fintech start-ups as partners rather than their possible nightmare.

“Banks have the wherewithal of putting the right governance structure, audit mechanisms, settlement and reconciliation processes in place where as start-ups are good at knowing how to work on the user interface and user experience design. This is a perfect combination to offer better services. I often joke about it saying that if fintech start-ups are to be WhatsApp of today then banks have to play the role of Internet service providers. So both have to go hand in hand,” concludes Ritesh Pai, Senior President and Country Head - Digital Banking, Yes Bank.

There is no astonishment as to how meaningful push notifications have become for mobile. We all understand that a significant amount of a company’s success hinges on their presence in the mobile world. This means that a plausible portion of your business strategy should be based around mobile marketing, while push notifications should be a front runner within that section.
What I learned while managing push notifications at Facebook is that there are a few things to consider when trying to create a mobile presence through push notifications. You should be able to measure it, increase the impact of your program once established and also determine what other channels you should utilize.

1. Measure success.

The question many have is what metric should you use as your KPI to measure the success of your push notifications? The open rate of your notification is the biggest performance indicator when utilizing push. In other words, what percentage of push notifications were opened by users?

The higher the better.

Of course, it’s inevitable to not lose users as they go down the funnel. However, getting users to open your notification to begin with at least brings them into the funnel. Push notifications are more effective when going down a funnel anyway. Therefore, open rate is the metric that is crucial for you to examine, and optimize accordingly.

Open rate does, however, depend on the platform they’re getting delivered to.

Android Vs. IOS

When deciding which platform works best for push notifications on mobile, we can analyze data from Android and IOS. Leanplum.com shows that the open rate for push notifications is roughly 1.77 percent for iPhones, and 3.48 percent for Androids. Meaning, delivering your push notifications to Android Users will create more engagement with your brand and/or app by placing them in your funnel.

This statistic is due to user experience, another important part of making push notifications successful on mobile.

Android and IOS notifications function in different ways. With IOS, as soon as a user unlocks their phone, the notification is out of sight. While Android users have no other option but to acknowledge the notification eventually since it sticks in their notification section.

2. Personalize.

When increasing the impact that your push notification program has, your first objective should be to educate users on the benefits of receiving these notifications. This allows them to think about whether or not they want to opt out of receiving these.

Your second objective should be looking at how many people you currently send them to. While there’s no right or wrong push frequency, you need to experiment and see what frequency works best for your particular platform. If you notice that users are opting out, then maybe you’re being to spammy and need to lower how many you send. If not, you should increase the number you send out.

However, my recommendation to guarantee a much more prodigious impact is personalizing your notifications. It has been discovered that brands who personalize their push notifications leads to an increase of open rates to roughly 800 percent.

3. Leverage all channels.

After you’ve developed an app for your brand, you begin sending push notifications and utilizing techniques to increase the impact of your program. Now what? Do you stick to this method of bringing individuals into your funnel or do you utilize other channels as well?
Many companies are wondering whether or not they should send an email, after they’ve already sent a push notification. The fact is that you should be utilizing multiple channels besides push. You want to send these notifications to every channel possible to maximize reach.
What other channel can you use? As I mentioned above, email notifications are one, along with SMS and in-app notifications.
Email notifications is second to welcome emails when it comes to open rates as well. A push notification coming to a user’s phone is fine and all, but how about also sending it to their inbox, a tool many Americans check every day. By doing so, you maximize deliverability as well.
But what if you’re scared that you may annoy users by sending to multiple channels?
It would be worse if a user missed a piece of information than if they got it twice. Ultimately, you should think about your notification channels (email, push, in-app, SMS) holistically as a “universal inbox.”


Push notifications are influential drivers to maximizing mobile presence. Measuring the open rate, utilizing multiple channels to reach your users, and personalizing your notifications are surefire ways to receive the full benefit of push notifications.

Samsung Gear 360- Catch Any Angle from 0 to 360

Until now, virtual reality footage could only be produced with one of two extremes: high-end rigs that cost thousands and require a film degree to figure out, or cheap cameras with more blur than a Britpop festival.
The splash- and dust-resistant Samsung Gear 360 camera is a much-needed Goldilocks option: It’s smaller than a baseball and mixes pro-level HD video with a consumer-friendly price point, and footage is instantly editable (when paired with select Samsung smartphones, of course).
Don’t be mistaken: A decent 360-degree camera for the masses is a big deal—especially when new YouTube and Facebook features also let viewers explore these videos from their web browser. “As more consumer 360 cameras become available, more content producers will bring us past the current landscape of kitsch and cliché,” says Dillon Morris, a director at Pivot Studio, which creates 360 content.

Low Cost Businss Ideas

These are few franchises with lower costs of entry can make it easier for you to plan to be your own boss. Here's a look at the strategies behind low-cost franchising and some resources on where to find successful opportunities.

Creative Ideas

• Arts & crafts business
• Creativity consultant
• Interior designer
• Jewelry

Doing What You Love

• Freelancing your expertise
• Hobby business
• Sports business

Product Sales

• Cart/kiosk
• Direct sales
• eBay
• Gift basket
• Swap meet sales

Even More Ideas

•  Senior Care Ideas
•  Pet Businesses
•  Part-Time Business Ideas
•  Service Businesses
• Weekend Businesses Ideas

B-to-B Businesses

• Bookkeeping
• Business support
• Consulting
• Desktop publishing
• Manufacturer's rep
• Medical claims
• Security specialist
• Seminar production
• Transcription service
• Virtual assistant business

Personal Services

• Child-care
• Elder Care
• Financial Advisor
• Organizer
• Personal concierge
• Personal shopper
• Remodeling contractor
• Tutoring service
• Wedding consultant

Other Services

• Cleaning
• Event planning
• Mobile photography

Google Allo and Virtual Assistant Introduced

Google has launched its new chat app with weaker privacy protection measures than previously promised.

The company had originally said conversations within Allo would be only temporarily stored on its servers, restricting the authorities' ability to request access.
However, the Verge news site revealed that Google now holds on to the data unless users take active measures to stop it.Google has confirmed the U-turn.Privacy campaigners say the public must be kept informed about how their records are handled.

"It's important that citizens are given enough information about what will happen to their data for them make an informed choice about whether or not they want to use this service," said Daniel Nesbitt, research director at Big Brother Watch. "This includes who may be able to access it and where the data will be stored".

Virtual assistant

Allo was first announced at the Google IO event in May.
At the time, it said chat records would be "transiently" stored on its servers.
This was required to provide the app's standout feature - the inclusion of the Google Assistant, a tool that provides context-relevant suggestions.

For example, if two people are discussing Italian food, the Assistant can be asked within the conversation to give details of nearby restaurants or how to prepare a dish.
Google's support documents state that a user can opt to wipe their chat history and add that it holds onto people's data to provide them with "a more personalised experience".
But when first asked, the firm was unable to clarify whether it had abandoned plans to delete chats without being prompted.
Allo itself handled privacy queries by providing a link to the Verge.

Image caption Allo refers requests about privacy to the Verge's news site

However, a spokeswoman later confirmed the change of policy.
"We've given users transparency and control over their data in Google Allo," she told the BBC.
"Our approach is simple - your chat history is saved for you until you choose to delete it. You can delete single messages or entire conversations."

'Smarter experience'

Allo does offer an Incognito mode - which encrypts the chats in a form that prevents the Assistant listening in or the authorities being able to get an unscrambled copy - but this is not enabled by default.
That contrasts with the approach of Whatsapp, which holds on to messages only until they have been delivered, and Telegram and Apple's iMessage, which promise never to scan users' communications.

"Google has a challenge as there are already a lot of big players with chat apps with very established audiences," said Jack Kent, from the IHS Technology consultancy.
"With messaging it's not just about acquiring one user, it's about acquiring the network of users.
"Google is trying to do that by offering a smarter messaging experience, and to do that it needs the data to learn about its users.
"But it needs to be careful about how it communicates that."

Google Smart Phones

Google has placed a virtual assistant at the heart of its latest smartphones and first voice-activated speaker.

The two Pixel handsets are the first mobiles to trigger Google Assistant by pressing their home buttons, somewhat like Apple's Siri.
The Home speaker lets the same artificial intelligence tool be controlled without use of a touchscreen. It rivals Amazon's Echo.Google also unveiled new virtual reality kit and a 4K media streamer.


The Assistant has two key advantages over rival systems:

• it can hold a conversation, in which one question or command builds on the last, rather than dealing with each request in isolation
• it draws on Google's Knowledge Graph database, which links together information about more 70 billion facts, and has been in use for four years

However, the US company will have to overcome privacy concerns and convince users that chatting to a virtual assistant has advantages over using individual apps.

Google already offers the Assistant as part of its chat app Allo - but the software has been installed on only a small minority of phones that support it as yet.

 

Smarter phones

The decision to brand the phones with the Pixel name, rather than Nexus, marks a break with the past, and is intended to signify that they were designed in house rather than by another manufacturer.
The devices come in two sizes - with either a 5in (12.7cm) or 5.5in (14cm) OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen - but otherwise have similar specs.
Google said the 12.3 megapixel rear camera they share was the best on the market - basing its claim on an independent test by DxO Labs. And as further enticement, it is offering unlimited storage for the photos.

Google also drew attention to the devices' glass-and-aluminium bodies, and specifically noted they featured a headphone jack - unlike Apple and Motorola's latest models.
Unlike most Android phones, the Pixel and Pixel XL will automatically install operating-system and security updates as soon as they are released.
But it is their ability to access Assistant as a standalone facility that makes them unique, at least for now.
"It goes one step further than tapping on the microphone in the Google Search app and getting a bunch of responses - it gives a conversational feel to what you are doing," Google executive Mario Queiroz told the BBC.

How to Start Networking your Small Business

For successful small business owners, it’s not what you know -- it’s who you know. Networking is crucial for growing your customer base and professional connections. You need to have contacts, not only for possible customer referrals, but also for professional resources you can turn to when you have questions or issues related to your industry.
It’s always a good idea to build a relationship with your customers in order to increase word-of-mouth referrals. But reaching out in various ways to build new relationships with others in your industry will make you look more trustworthy, and ultimately help your business grow. Here are six easy tips to help you make that happen.

Be Active in Online Forums
As a small business, your online presence is crucial. It’s the first place potential customers will look when they’re in search of a specific product or service. But, it’s also where other small business will turn to for information.
Staying active in various online forums will not only build your reputation as a knowledgeable industry leader, but it will also allow you to build relationships with other industry professionals. Sure, it may feel like you’re being friendly with the competition, but the chances are that their small business, even though it’s similar, isn’t close enough to your location to steal any potential customers.

Stay in Touch With Your Local Community
For SMBs, sometimes the local community is the biggest and most active customer base. For that very reason, it’s important to stay in touch and engage with the local community and give them a face behind the business. It’s more personal, and it makes your place of business seem more open and inviting to questions or inquiries.
Plus, you might be surprised to find out how many other small business owners are in your area. Building a relationship with fellow business owners gives you the opportunity to collaborate on “shop local” campaigns that can build awareness and benefit everyone involved.

Go to Networking Events
For some, going to a networking event may be too impractical or expensive. But, if the opportunity arises, networking events are a great way to build professional relationships with others in your industry, especially if they aren’t necessarily close enough to be your competition.
By networking in the same industry, you’ll be able to discuss various strategies that have or haven’t worked, and the reasoning behind these successes or failures. But remember, at a networking event, it’s quality over quantity. You don’t have to meet everyone. It’s best to scope out the people that would be most beneficial for you to meet, and then focus on building a relationship with them.

Look for Opportunities Everywhere
Networking doesn’t only happen at a special event or gathering. Sometimes, a networking opportunity can arise just from striking up a conversation with the person standing behind you in line at the coffee shop. Networking can happen at any place and at any time, so it’s important to be open to them, and try to strike up a conversation whenever possible. Be sure to keep some business cards handy wherever you go.

Join Social Networking Sites
There’s no denying that social media is essential to a strong online presence. If you haven’t joined any social networking sites, you should. Facebook and Twitter are great customer service platforms. But, social sites are also useful for finding and interacting with new industry leaders.
While LinkedIn is better for the more professional side of networking, Twitter and Facebook are great for sharing content and interacting with what others post. You can also join various industry-related groups where you can discuss small business tactics or any recent changes in the industry with fellow owners.

Follow Up
It’s extremely important to follow up, not only with customers, but with new connections. For any new professional connections, you should reach out within 48 hours. You can start by connecting on LinkedIn, and then call or send an email. With professional networking, it’s all about speed. You want to make sure you follow up quickly in order to keep your business front and center in your contact’s mind.
When you’re following up with either customers or new connections, the most important aspect of the follow up is to give back. Yes, the ultimate goal is for you to improve your business and gain more customers. But the most successful networkers are the ones who give back to their customers and network, either through promotional offers or educational material.

How Google Transformed Our World

It’s incredible that it took just 18 years for Google -- the company reached this milestone of adulthood on Sept. 27 -- to create a market capitalization of more than $530 billion. It’s perhaps even more amazing to recall how the search engine has changed life as we know it.
Google, now a unit of holding parent company Alphabet Inc., began in Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s Stanford University dorm in 1998 before campus officials asked them to find a real office after the Stanford IT department complained Page and Brin’s were sucking up all the university’s bandwidth.
By the time I joined the company in November of 2001, it was apparent that we were changing the world. As an early employee at Google -- the second attorney hired there -- there were times when shivers ran up my spine thinking about what we were building. Democratizing access to information, and bringing the real world online -- it was an inspiring place to be.


Having grown up in a working class neighborhood, I had to travel to an affluent neighborhood to access a good public library, spending countless Saturday afternoons with volumes of reference books to learn how to apply for financial aid to attend college. In those pre-Internet days, a good library and a kind-hearted librarian were my keys to advancement.
After the printing press, the first major democratization of access to information had been driven a century ago by steel baron Andrew Carnegie. He became the world’s richest man in the late 19th century and then gave it all away, donating $60 million to fund 1,689 public libraries across the United States. To my mind, Google took Carnegie’s vision of putting information in the hands of the general public and put it on steroids, creating a virtual library akin to those found only in sci-fi movies in 1998.
Google indexed the internet extraordinarily well without human intervention, unlike previously curated outlets such as Yahoo! or LexisNexis, and in such a way that the user did not have to know how to use the index or Boolean search methods. Google enabled free searches of words or terms, making all manner of information instantly retrievable even if you did not know where it was housed. With Google, you could find any needle in any haystack at any time. Unlocking that data has indeed been a great equalizer: any individual can arm him or herself with relevant information before seeing a doctor or applying for government assistance, housing or a job.

Getting archives online

Soon, Google could trivially retrieve any piece of data on the World Wide Web. Crucially, Google started indexing information that was previously offline, such as far-flung archives (imagine a very old text in a tower in Salamanca) to make that knowledge searchable. People’s photos and videos followed. Then, of course, Google cars began cruising and mapping our streets. That paired with GPS granted us all a new superpower -- being able to find our way in almost any small town or big city in the world.
Now Google is a global archive storing our history as it is made. It is as though a virtual world is being created right alongside our real world, a simulation of reality that grows more robust by the day. Because of Google, the creation and storage of information itself has expanded exponentially as people and scholars have access to information that enables them to make new discoveries. Those discoveries, in turn, are shared with the world thanks to the culture of sharing that has been central to the internet and Google’s philosophy. All this has sped the pace of discovery.
Of course, there have been casualties. Google has changed the business of newspapers forever and virtually single-handedly run most publishers of maps out of business. It transformed advertising, using and perfecting A/B testing to understanding our tastes and what makes a person click on an ad. Sometimes I worry that technology companies have become almost too good at this, building upon and applying these lessons to other ways of collectively sucking us into our devices more and more.
This access to information without the curation of trained journalists carries other costs too, leading to an internet rife with misinformation and untruth. Nowhere is that more evident today than in our rancorous U.S. presidential election, where it seems little value is placed on objectivity, making organizations such as factcheck.org essential reading. The growth of Google and the diminution of the role of the established media in our society at such crucial moments might cause Alexis de Tocqueville, who believed newspapers “maintain civilization,” to turn in his grave.

One thing’s for sure: With Google, the future will bring the unexpected and sometimes delightful. Autonomous cars, robots, gesture-sensing fabrics, hands-free controls, modular cell phones and reimagined cities are among the projects that lie ahead for the search giant that even as it is one of the world’s largest companies, has maintained a startup culture at its offices, which now employ more than 61,000 people.
In breaking out beyond the constraints of the online world into the physical universe, Google has made us believe (and even expect) that when one is inspired by some great purpose, we can transcend limitations. Anything becomes possible.

How waterproof is the iPhone 7?

Apple touted that its newest iPhone finally has the ability to withstand water. The company's official claim is that the iPhone 7 is "splash and water resistant" instead of being full on waterproof. This means that if you drop your phone in a toilet, you don't have to dive your hand in quick to retrieve it and rush to find a bowl of rice. However, you still can't go scuba diving with your phone case-free.
The iPhone 7 is rated IP67. Having tested against the Ingress Protection (IP) standard means the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is fully dustproof and fine with water as shallow as 15 centimeters and as deep as one meter. So basically, this phone can survive being submerged, but don't leave it in water deeper than three feet.
Your phone will survive but don't expect your speakers to work properly right away. After tossing our iPhone 7 Plus into the big, concrete water fountain in Bryant Park, New York (which left our jet black-colored device with a couple very noticeable micro-abrasions), we dried off the handset and held it with the Lightning port facing down. Apple advises that users dry off their phones shortly after it resurfaces, and not charge them until 5 hours later. The one we submerged worked perfectly fine after leaving the water, except for the speakers. After our iPhone finished its swim, the bottom speakers just didn't work in the same way: Keyboard clicks were hard to hear and the the sound of an iMessage being sent was a bit off. Luckily, this new iPhone offers stereo speakers--one at the bottom of the device (which existed in the previous iPhones) and an improved speaker at the top above the screen. Sounds at the top sound noticeably clearer and louder than the bottom.
After 24 hours, the bottom speakers sound less muddled when turned up loud to play music. But when volume is turned low, iOS's various sound effects may as well not be there.

Future Is of Artificial Intelligence

Amazon, Google's DeepMind, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft will work together on issues such as privacy, safety and the collaboration between people and AI.
Dubbed the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, it will include external experts.
One said he hoped the group would address "legitimate concerns".
"We've seen a very fast development in AI over a very short period of time," said Prof Yoshua Bengio, from the University of Montreal.
"The field brings exciting opportunities for companies and public organisations. And yet, it raises legitimate questions about the way these developments will be conducted."
Bringing the key players together would be the "best way to ensure we all share the same values and overall objectives to serve the common good", he added.
One notable absentee from the consortium is Apple. It has been in discussions with the group and may join the partnership "soon", according to one member.
The group will have an equal share of corporate and non-corporate members and is in discussions with organisations such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
It stressed that it had no plans to "lobby government or other policy-making bodies".
"AI has tremendous potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from healthcare, education and manufacturing to home automation and transport and the founding members... hope to maximise this potential and ensure it benefits as many people as possible," it said.
It will conduct research under an open licence in the following areas:

• ethics, fairness and inclusivity
• transparency
• privacy and interoperability (how AI works with people)
• trustworthiness, reliability and robustness

Microsoft's managing director of research hailed the partnership as a "historic collaboration on AI and its influences on people and society", while IBM's ethics researcher Francesca Rossi said it would provide "a vital voice in the advancement of the defining technology of this century".

Another Feather Added

Today on very this day IIT-Bombay has another feather in its cap with a micro-satellite designed and built by its students being part of ISRO's launch of eight satellites through PSLV C-35.

PSLV C-35, carrying India's SCATSAT-1 meant for ocean and weather studies and seven other satellites, including PRATHAM academic satellite, from IIT- Bombay, lifted off yesterday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.

Started in 2008 by Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay and Shashank Tamaskar, then third year students of Aerospace Engineering course, the project took almost eight years to get materialised.

Since then, as many as 80 students from various batches joined the project and worked on it.

Dreams of the alumni and the current students, who worked on the project came true with launch of PRATHAM at 9.15 am from the space centre.

The 10-kg Pratham microsatellite will measure the total electron count (TEC) in the ionosphere that can improve the accuracy of the global positioning system in India and predict tsunamis, an official of the IIT-B said.

Designed to fit within a 30-cm cube, the Rs 1.5 crore microsatellite will orbit at an altitude of 670-km and orbit over India at 11.25 am every day. The life cycle of the mission is four months, but the satellite will be able to continue collecting data on the electron count, a professor of the institute said.

It is the first satellite to be designed and launched in the space by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.

Beside SCATSAT-1 and PRATHAM, the 44.4 metre tall workhorse PSLV rocket also carried another academic satellite developed by BES University, Bengaluru; three from Algeria and one each from the US and Canada.

Before PRATHAM, six educational institutes such as IIT-Kanpur, Pune-based College of Engineering and Chennai's Satyabhama University succeeded in launching academic satellites between 2009 and June this year.

Keep In Mind What Not To Do ????

One of the things I like most about search engine optimization (SEO) is the diversity of different approaches it offers that can work for it. You don’t have to use a one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter approach, and in most cases, you can’t.


Still, there are some approaches that almost never work, to the point of being counterproductive or destructive for most brands that attempt to wield them. Why are they still around? Some of them are obsolete practices, serving as remnants of strategies that used to work; in these cases, companies may not realize that search engines and best practices have changed. Others are the product of wishful thinking, created by a logic that on the surface seems sound, but doesn’t reflect reality.
Following these five approaches will almost certainly burn you, so stay away from them at all costs:

1. Keyword stuffing

Keywords are a somewhat divisive issue in the SEO world, with some people arguing that keywords are no longer a relevant consideration, while others claim they still have value for audience targeting and performance evaluation. In any case, no matter whether you’re using keywords as the strategic basis of your strategy or you’ve abandoned them altogether, stuffing keywords into your content in the hopes of ranking for queries containing those keywords is a bad idea.
You won’t stand much better chance of ranking for those queries, thanks to the semantic search of Google’s Hummingbird update; and to make matters worse, your content will be evaluated at a lower quality. Your users won’t be happy reading keyword-stuffed content, either; there really is no victory here.

2. Engaging in link schemes

Link-building is an essential component of an SEO strategy. However, participating in link schemes as a way to build your authority faster is going to hurt you. Google explicitly warns webmasters against the use of link schemes, which include paid links, link exchanges and exotic tactics like link wheels. As a general rule, any link built with the deliberate and exclusive purpose to increase search rankings may be considered an unnatural and harmful link; it could therefore be flagged as spam and drag your authority down.
Stick with organic link building tactics like guest posting to stay safe. For help, see SEO Link Building: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide.

3. Publishing fluff content

Each piece of content you create adds a new title and a new page to Google’s index, provides more content for your users to read and search engines to index and provides more opportunities to acquire conversions and inbound links. So, it stands to reason that having more content is a good thing. The problem is, many novice search-optimizers are blinded by this thought, and start churning out content in high quantities rather than paying attention to that content’s value.
Related: 6 Essential SEO Strategies to Incorporate in 2016
This is colloquially referred to as “fluff content,” and in the early days of SEO it might have helped you. Today, it will only bring down your search rankings and irritate your users, decreasing traffic and conversion rates.

4. Fixating on rankings

Keyword rankings are a good metric to measure for the health of your SEO campaign -- but they’re only one of several metrics you need to pay attention to. Assume, for a moment, that you hold 10 number 1 rankings for various keywords. That sounds great on the surface, right? But what kind of search volume are those specific keywords seeing? Are those people even clicking through to your site?
Assuming they are, are those keywords the kinds that would be input by future potential customers, or tire kickers? There are too many variables and metrics that influence the overall “value” of a position for you to obsess over a single metric like keyword ranking. That tunnel vision can compromise your interpretation.

5. Hiring cheap agencies or freelancers

Speaking generally, in SEO, you get what you pay for. Expensive agencies are expensive because they work hard, have more experience, offer more tools and spend time to make sure you’re satisfied. Cheap agencies are cheap because they blitz through their work without care, take shortcuts and probably outsource the work to even cheaper (and less qualified) people. Trying to save money this way could leave you with an inexperienced service provider, and if you aren’t careful, could land you with a Google penalty.
You have a degree of flexibility and forgiveness in SEO. You can piecemeal your strategy together based on your unique goals and circumstances, and even if you mess up, you’ll have enough time and freedom to correct your mistakes and still see a positive ROI in the long term.

Startups == Keep Up With Innovation

Globally, there are over 100 million new businesses, which are launched every year. Considering the statistics, it translates into roughly 11,000 startups launched every hour! In this fast paced environment, it is essential for startups to keep innovating, if they want to survive.
With thousands of new companies being launched every day, startups can't afford to rest on their laurels and take the chance to not experiment or innovate. They need to keep their eyes and ears firmly on what is happening around them in the market and keep a check on what their competitors or new players are doing. Considering the pace at which technology gets obsolete today, one new or disruptive technology is all it could take to wipe out a complete business overnight, thus leading to a complete waste of all the resources, time and effort invested in building the business. So, there’s little chance you can count on ‘so-called’ innovative product to keep your startup going, if you don’t continue to make innovation your priority on a day-to-day basis.
Here are some of the biggest advantages any business can derive from innovation:

Gives you a competitive edge

Innovating gives startups an edge over their competition and helps them become and remain a market leader. Many companies have managed to grab a new market or niche by launching a totally disruptive or new technology, but failed to retain their edge later since they were unable to keep up with the pace of innovation in the market. Take for instance the case of Apple Inc., which has remained the industry leader since it's launch nine years back, but is now witnessing a decline in revenues due to lack of innovation in its latest smartphones.
On the other hand, Uber, which completely disrupted the cab sharing industry, has managed to remain a market leader as it is constantly innovating. Right from ride sharing to premium cars, the company has grabbed a foothold in every market it operates in. To take things a notch higher, Uber is doing a pilot run with its autonomous cars in Pittsburg. The company is thinking ahead, and focusing on the latest technology and innovation to remain the industry leader.

Makes start-ups more efficient

If innovation is the lifeblood of your business, it makes it easier to solve problems as well as huge challenges. With every mind in the organization focused on bettering the end product or the process they are associated with, it will eventually witness greater efficiency with regard to systems, processes and products/services, which can be a huge advantage for the business.
Did you know, Google assigns a special hour or day in each office for people to experiment and innovate! Rather than looking outside for new companies, the Internet giant has created a monopoly in the online space by encouraging employees to innovate from within. It has also set up an in-house incubator to nurture ideas that have merit. Many of its innovative products like Hangout, Maps, etc. have all been a part of its in-house born ideas.

Creates entry barriers for competitors

Being an innovator or a disruptor is the best way to stay at the top and become an industry leader. However, one good idea leads to a thousand followers! And some of them may even be good. So if you want your company to remain the leader, it is ideal to keep thinking about the next step, the next level of innovation and experiment. This will ensure that you stay far ahead of your competitors.

Compete with larger well established companies

Big companies have more resources at their disposal and can easily implement and adopt new technologies. Large-scale companies have access to bigger platforms, which startups may take years to build. Big companies can out-innovate startups by adopting a systematic approach to innovation and learning. In order to compete with them, start-ups need to be a step ahead and adopt a culture of innovation.

Conclusion

95% of startups fail within their first year due to lack of any new ideas. So clearly, every startup needs to make innovation a part of its DNA, if it wants to get ahead of competitors and retain that position.
Innovators should be encouraged and rewarded, so that each and every individual in the organization is inclined to solve problems and experiment without having to worry about failing, since ultimately this will make the startup more efficient and give it an edge over others. When every single person on your team is focused on innovating, there is no way anyone can stop you from reaching the top and staying there.

Ideas Are Important

Having a good look at Apple’s latest shopping list, there no denial with the fact that Tim Cook has big plans for the artificial intelligence industry. What seems like a shopping spree, only months after buying Turi, and also recollecting that Apple bought Perceptio at the end of 2015, rumors of the firm buying another machine learning startup have resurfaced.

This time it’s India/US based machine learning startup called Tuplejump.
Though the representative from Apple neither denied nor acknowledged the buzz going around, but they didn’t either shy away from giving their standard response when they do acquire a company:

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Coming back to the startup, Tuplejump was founded by Rohit Rai, Satyaprakash Buddhavarapu and Deepak Alur. The Hyderabad-based firm helps companies to store, process and visualise big data. According to media reports, apple was particularly interested in “FiloDB”, an open source project that Tuplejump was building to efficiently apply machine learning concepts and analytics to massive amounts of complex data right as it streamed in.

The important thing is that big companies are now a days are focusing on different ideas that can be implemented to improve the consumer satisfaction through providing new and improved services.   

Which social marketing tools support Twitter’s expanded tweets

Some social marketing management platforms fully support Twitter's expanded tweets, while others are working on updating their software.

It's true that  Twitter officially expanded the length of tweets by not counting photos, videos, polls and quoted tweets against its 140-character limit. But that doesn’t mean every brand has access to the bonus character space yet. Depending on which social marketing software they use, some marketers may already be able to take advantage of the extra text, while others must wait.

Below is a rundown of some social marketing management platforms and whether they support the expanded tweets. It’s worth noting that none of the social marketing management platforms are currently able to support polls in extended tweets because Twitter hasn’t extended that capability externally. If there’s a relevant social marketing management platform you’d like to see added to the list, please email editors@marketingland.com.

Get Lenovo Z2 Plus with Snapdragon 820 launched in India; priced Rs 17,999 onwards

In fast launching mobile arena Lenovo has launched the Snapdragon 820 powered Z2 Plus in India. The phone is a re-branded version of the Zuk Z2, which was recently launched in China.

The Lenovo Z2 Plus comes with a Snapdragon 820 SoC paired with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage. Storage isn’t expandable.

The devices boasts of a 5-inch, FHD screen developed by Sharp. Connectivity comes in the form of dual-SIM support (nano-SIMs) in a 4G+3G configuration. The usual assortment of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS options are present. The phone apparently runs a close-to-stock version of Android 6 with the Google

Now.
Lenovo claims to have implemented an “alloy rollcage” to give the phone rigidity, this is encased in fibreglass. A U-Touch 2 fingerprint sensor doubles as a home button. The phone apparently supports gestures via the fingerprint scanner.
The rear camera is a 13MP, f/2.2 unit with a 1.34 micron pixel sensor. The front camera is an 8MP unit. Also included is a U-Health app which is functionally similar to Apple’s Health app. Lenovo claims to have worked hard on the app to ensure that it consumes as little power as possible while harvesting as much health-related information as possible from you.
The app will track steps, running, distance covered and other such information. The 3GB model with 32GB storage is priced at Rs 17,999 and the 4GB variant with 64GB storage is priced at Rs 19,999. Both models will go on sale this Sunday, 25 September, at midnight exclusively on Amazon.

Think Again About Future of Retail on Mobile

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Can you count how many phones have you owned over the past five years ? My guess is that it would be  more than one. Actually, my guess is probably more than five. It is for me at least.
Did you know that consumers engage with their mobile devices between 150 and 200 times each day. That adds up to over 30 billion mobile moments each day in the US alone.

In the mobile age in which we live, the ever-connected customer is swamped with retailers vying for their attention, and they can become fickle. So, how do you grab the attention of potential customers and engage existing ones?

Customers are engaging with brands across an increasing number of touch points – websites, social media, in-store, mobile and tablets. At each touch point, customers expect a customised and personalised experience optimised specifically for them.

The new levels of flexibility and convenience that improve their experience are great for the customer, but the increased customer expectation continues to be a challenge for businesses, which have to manipulate enormous amounts of data to try to understand how to effectively engage each individual.

Neither can the influence of mobile technology in retail be understated. We are all becoming mobile connected consumers with the majority of purchases in retail now happening on mobile. We are seeing mobile technology take a huge leap forward as consumer adoption increases. Furthermore, retail businesses are embracing apps even more to connect with their valued customers.

Retail businesses are using mobile to enable staff with tablets to help engage with products and customers on the shop floor. We are seeing new mobile usage in-store for things like mobile payments collected via tablets also. The influence is sparking a trend from 'mobile first' to 'mobile only'.

We are still on the curve, further adoption by all demographics will increase the development of the industry. Retailers are still learning how to engage the 'connected consumer', but different strategies need to be introduced to create a wider reach. Millennials who understand 'mobile only' will help the industry develop even quicker.

We have seen new innovation in mobile within retail, where mobile has helped the connected consumer find, engage and execute the content they really want, at the time they want it and in their current location. This means that adoption has improved as the content is more personal to the user, ultimately improving purchase decisions.

We see leading brands now delivering personalised discounts and vouchers to their users' smartphones while they are in-store, and cinema chains sending personal notifications to movie-goers once they have left the cinema - "Rate the X-Men movie and we will enter you in a competition to win free cinema tickets."

Above all consumers want to receive the right content across all the channels they choose to subscribe to. This could be online, tablets, mobile desktop, social media and apps; they should all be connected. The information and content we receive across these channels can be delivered by the retailers in a seamless way.
This means a piece of content should be posted once and remain available to the consumer across all these channels while creating the same experience and reaction. People are time poor, especially when shopping - if we can send a more personal message at the right time to a consumer, they are more likely to purchase the product or service.

New technology and innovation come and go, the retail pioneers who embrace this culture represent the test bed for what becomes mainstream. This could be using new marketing technology like beacons or augmented reality (AR). The business will drive the need to use this technology and the consumer will be the one to experience this new engagement.

Businesses should not be scared of technology innovation. If you do not try then you risk falling behind; it's far harder to win back a customer who has moved to another brand because the rival brand trialled a beacon in-store campaign.

I see many businesses that wait for others to trial new technology and see what the results are first before committing. However, these days is it much easier, cheaper and quicker to get a trial of mobile innovation rolled out to customers. You only need to test a small audience to evaluate what a bigger strategy would look like.

Technology and social media are changing things rapidly in the retail environment. Businesses can see this as a huge challenge to overcome or they can see it as a huge opportunity that they can embrace. By embracing change and catering to the needs of their customers, companies will be seen as relevant and their messages will resonate with the people they are trying to reach.

You can discover how in a new webinar from SmartFocus & Forrester Research. Save your space here.
Kym Reynolds is Head of Mobile Marketing for SmartFocus. SmartFocus is an innovator in messaging and communications, enabling the world's largest brands – including Nestlé, Mercedes-Benz and House of Fraser – to understand and connect more closely with today's connected consumers; whether that be via web, mobile, email or social channels. 

Through The Message Cloud solution, SmartFocus genuinely listens to and learns from customers using patented algorithms and unique location-based marketing tools. Using The Message Cloud, SmartFocus customers have the rich data, intelligence and the tools for contextually unique engagements, through any digital channel.

GoPro launches Karma drone and voice-controlled Hero5

Great to grasp camera-maker GoPro has unveiled  a foldaway drone that matches in an exceedingly backpack.The fate craft additionally options a clastic device which will be accustomed build hand-held shots a lot of steady.

In addition, the firm unveiled  a brand new action camera which will be controlled with voice commands yet as a pay-to-use video sharing service.GoPro hopes the launches can circle its fortunes.

Foldable drone

GoPro initial declared that it planned to form its own drone in could 2015 and had planned for it to travel on sale within the half of this year.

The move presents a chance for it to make the most of a aggressive market.

But it additionally helps the firm address the actual fact that DJI - the bestselling drone complete - has ditched support for GoPro's cameras in favour of its own, whereas 3D AI - another widespread manufacturer - is currently promoting the utilization of a rival camera created by Sony.

The Karma is not the first commercial foldable drone, but the feature is still relatively unusual.
GoPro says the move allows its aircraft to be carried about in a relatively small backpack that is "so comfortable... users will forget they've got it on".
The Karma's other distinctive detail is its removable three-axis stabiliser, which can be fitted to a bundled grip and then held in the hand or attached to a helmet to film Steadicam-like shots.
Normally, filmmakers would be required to buy a separate device known as a gimbal, to achieve this.

The drone will cost $799 (£612) and will be released on 23 October.
When bundled with the new Hero5 Black camera, it will cost $1099.
That is $100 less than DJI's Phantom 4 - which includes collision-avoidance sensors, which the Karma lacks - but $100 more than the Chinese company's last-generation Phantom 3 Professional.
The research firm IHS Markit predicts sales of consumer drones will rise from three million units this year to 6.7 million units in 2020.

"The target market for consumer drones and action cams is very similar, so it makes sense for GoPro to do this," commented its senior director of consumer electronics, Tom Morrod.
"And maybe it can carry it off because of its brand.
"But what differentiates one drone from another is its flight control and navigation systems, which are typically developed in-house by the different companies.
"That technology is very different to what GoPro's done before and can be complex to develop.
"So, GoPro must convince consumers of its abilities or will not find this an easy sell."

Upgraded Hero

The announcement of the Hero5 Black camera comes two years after that of the Hero4 Black - the longest GoPro has taken to refresh its top-end model to date.
The new $399 (£306) device features a 2in (5cm) touchscreen and can also be controlled by speaking to it, which might be useful in situations where the owner is wearing gloves or does not have a free hand.
"It opens up a whole new world of possibilities," said the firm's chief executive Nick Woodman at the launch.
"You just think it, say it, do it."

The firm suggested that the facility would also help users avoid missing critical moments.
As an example, it said an owner could say "take a photo" to snap a picture while they continued to simultaneously film video with the device.
Its 4K video and 12 megapixel photo capabilities are the same as the last generation.
But the new camera gains:

• Waterproof protection without a case, up to depths of 10m (33ft)
• Stereo sound recording via three microphones
• Automatic electronic stabilisation of its footage
• GPS location data

In addition, the camera can be set to automatically upload video and pictures to the firm's new video sharing service, GoPro Plus, if its owner takes out a subscription.

The add-on also includes access to a library of music the owner can use for their edits as well as a discount on further accessory purchases.
The new camera - and a smaller HERO5 Session, which takes 4K video but only 10 megapixel photos - will be released on 2 October.

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Analysis: Dave Lee, North America technology reporter

Three hundred. That's how many people GoPro have flown and driven in for this event. 100 of its own staff, 100 athletes and 100 reporters (for the record, the BBC has paid its way).
We're at around 6,000ft (1.8km) above sea level, in a jaw-dropping ski resort that hosted 1960's Winter Olympics.
GoPro is still the most recognisable brand in action cameras, so much so that "a GoPro" has become shorthand for any brand of small camera.
But the issue isn't whether GoPro is performing well in the market. They are. Problem is, the market isn't as big as they, and their shareholders, had perhaps hoped.
Today's launch of a drone and camera is designed to inject a bit of energy back into the firm.
Its new easy editing and publishing tool cement its ambition to not only dominate hardware but also the means of consumption for extreme footage.

A totally wireless iPhone?

No headphone jack? What about no wires at all?
One of the big points that Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing chief, tried to convey to audiences at the iPhone 7 launch event last week was the push toward a greater number of wireless experiences.
"Up till now, no one has taken on the challenge of fixing the things that are difficult to do in your wireless experiences," Schiller said onstage. "It makes no sense to tether ourselves to our mobile devices."

Though Schiller was talking about the wireless AirPod earphones, that comment could be taken as a mission statement of sorts for the entire device. Between the AirPods and the removal of the headphone jack, Apple is forcing your hand to give up on wired headphones -- or at least consider it.
That may be just the beginning. Next year's iPhone could do away with the last physical wire: the Lightning cable needed for charging. Yes, Apple may finally embrace wireless charging, a feature found on other marquee devices, like Samsung's Galaxy S7.
"All the talk about wireless at the event definitely signals a future intent to move to wireless charging," said Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research.
The Apple Watch already uses a form of wireless charging. And the Qi standard, embraced by the likes of Samsung, already drives wireless charging stations in thousands of public spaces and 50 models of cars. Those stations are just waiting for an iPhone.

Better Bluetooth

Bluetooth 5, meanwhile, promises to quadruple the range and double the speed of existing Bluetooth technology. It may be the answer to those skeptics who still shun wireless headphones. With Bluetooth 5, those headphones should work more reliably.
The new version of Bluetooth, which could come as soon as this year, could also mean more things in a home being paired, or faster communication with the Apple Watch.
WiGig, meanwhile, is another intriguing wireless standard promising extremely high speed, shorter-range connections that can be used for 4K video streaming, sending data to second displays and syncing. Could a short- and long-range wireless overhaul let a future iPhone seamlessly connect to even more devices?

Examples of Communities & Membership sites

Why it is Important ??

A surefire way to build trust and foster brand loyalty is to establish an online community or membership site. It provides your audience with a sense of belongingness, exclusiveness, and the reassurance that your company is looking out for your valued customers. However, before you get ahead of yourself, remember that a successful community is not easy to establish. It requires extensive planning, research, and time and effort in order to set up an engaging platform.
The first step in creating an evergreen community is understand the how the best in the business have done it in their respective markets. Below are seven of the best online communities or membership sites operating today:

1. Blogging on Your Own Terms

It is a community built specifically for bloggers who need guidance and support in their careers. It worked on a simple premise of bringing like-minded people together on a single platform.

If you want your platform to garner opt-ins, then you should make the entire process simple and convenient. While some membership sites work on a paid subscription basis,

2. Exposure To Photography

Another example of a simplified membership site is photography. As the name suggests, it is a photography community based on the Google+ social platform. However, a noticeable difference between the previous example and this site is the strict set of rules that manage the community.

You see, this group is more of a professional community that is built for passionate photographers. In this case, the use of Google+ is perfect because image sharing, feedback, and networking are all integrated within the platform.

When building an online community, you need to carefully choose a platform that can highlight what your group is all about. Community managers also need to leverage any built-in features (image sharing, comments, and “+1”s) to foster a tight-knight community.

3. Deily

While some of the best online communities connect like-minded people, Deily nurtures a unique experience that unites people from different religions. The genius behind Deily’s platform is that it encourages people to contribute user-generated content for the purpose of discussion or debate regarding a person’s faith. Users can upload audio clips, videos, full articles, and photos that share their religious views and opinions.

The more quality UGC gets posted on Deily, the more discoverable they are in social channels and search engines. Sure, your brand may not deal with a field as big as religion, but you can borrow inspiration from Deily’s full-blown site structure and features.
Takeaways:
Since there is a number of different religions that may have opposing views, Deily did not force everyone to interact in a single channel. To better manage your community, make sure you offer different “subgroups” that segregate your audience. Besides, by giving every subgroup equal privileges on the site, users are encouraged to respect and learn from each other.

4. YouMoz

Moz is a popular, authority website for all things SEO. It is the go-to place for digital marketers looking to demystify SEO and keep up with the ever-growing competition. Additionally, it is a place where SEO professionals and gurus can share their knowledge. In the YouMoz blog, any member can post articles on SEO news, tips, strategies, and case studies.

If there’s one thing YouMoz accomplished for the brand, it is to aggregate all the best, experience-based tips and insights by the SEO community in a single location. As an incentive, quality posts will get promoted on the Moz website itself – granting exposure to dedicated members who pour their heart and soul in their submissions.
Takeaways:
YouMoz’s success strategy hinges around user-generated content or UGC. This type of content is deemed trustworthy by the online community since they mostly made from firsthand experiences. You can also promote UGC in your membership site to make users feel more involved with the community’s development.

5. YouPreneur

The path to entrepreneurship is a rugged road full of uncertainties and challenges. As an entrepreneur, you need all the help you can get when it comes to making informed decisions to make the most out of your investments. YouPreneur is an entrepreneurial community by Chris Ducker tailored to give aspiring entrepreneurs a helping hand.

This particular example proves that monetization can be easy if you as long as you target a profitable market. The YouPreneur is full of battle-hardened marketers and entrepreneurs – including Chris Ducker himself. Given it is a paid subscription, entrepreneurs and startups need to consider membership as an investment. They need to learn and make time to use the platform regularly to get the most out of them.
Takeaways:
Paid membership sites need to offer a lot of value to retain subscribers. Fortunately for YouPreneur, Chris Ducker’s experience along with the submissions of other qualified individuals were leveraged well and translated into useful information. Make sure your site offers a ton of valuable content to users; outsource from different contributors if necessary.

6. Geeks Life

If you are planning a paid membership site, the first thing you need to consider is your pricing model. Geeks Life managed to hit the nail in the head by working with a "pay with what you can" basis. This means users can specify their pricing to suit their usage needs. This process eliminates the need to formulate packages that give your audience fewer options for a subscription.

Today, however, Geeks Life tweaked their flexible pricing model and settled for a donations system. Upon signing up, members can choose how much they are willing to donate, which will give them access to behind-the-scenes content, printed newsletter subscription, and a 10% discount for other products.
Takeaways:
Giving the audience more control over their payments is a great way to attract more subscribers. This strategy basically gives everyone with different budgets the opportunity to join. You don’t need to do exactly this, but you need to make sure you have flexible membership options to suit your audience’s different needs.

7. Quiet Speculation

Finding an idea for a membership site can be a lot harder than setting up the site itself. A great strategy for this is to look at niche products, services, or brands in a new angle. Observe trends and issues that people already talk about. Quiet Speculation is a great example that identified a gap between the demand for information and the availability of sources. It is a growing online community that tackles the “money-making” aspects of Magic the Gathering. Yes – the trading card game.
Takeaways:
As the internet continues to grow, new opportunities arise for bringing communities closer together. If you’re planning to build a new membership website, pay close attention to the latest trends in popular industries—preferably something you’re genuinely interested in. Look to fill the gaps between the demand for information and the availability of resources.

Taking above examples in mind , you should have more than enough ideas for a successful membership site that rally your audience together – providing them with a community with your brand as the herald.