Thirteen privacy-focused companies, including Thexyz, Proton, and Mozilla, have signed a letter asking House and Senate leaders to bring the American Innovation and Choice Online Act to a vote as soon as possible to allow for more competition and therefore more privacy options for consumers. This is in relation to the #AntitrustSummer campaign, from Fight For The Future and DuckDuckGo, that coordinated various technology companies representing more than 100 million users in the United States alone.

The letter is available to see on the Spread Privacy Blog by DuckDuckgo and in this post, I am to simplify what this bill means for people.

What is The American Innovation and Choice Online Act?

Big tech are not fans of the legislation

More choice and less data-driven targeting and manipulation

To qualify, platforms must also involve user-generated content

How will the antitrust bill affect online services?

Big tech would no longer be able to design algorithms to favor their own products: The bill would end a platform’s dominance to “self-preference,” or favor its own products over those of competitors in rankings, search, or marketplaces. 

You may finally be allowed to uninstall the default app

Google installs its default apps on Android. Fair enough, but what if you wish to use another app? Sure, you can use the other app but you can’t remove the default Google software. Even if you click uninstall, it takes you on an endless loop, of Uninstall, then Update, once you press Update, you can click Uninstall only for the Update option to reappear.

This is the same for Gmail on Android, it cannot be uninstalled, confusing many that they actually need to create a Gmail mailbox just to use their phone. Google adds its own bloatware apps to your Android mobile devices, these are added at the system level and locked by Google to prevent users from uninstalling them.

Removing dark patterns from the sign up process

Google is quite fond of Dark Patterns, you can see evidence of this when you sign up for a Google account. Many people think they need a Gmail mailbox to create a Google account. This leads to all sorts of problems when using technology as they may lose access to the Gmail account and not be able to reset a password. It often leads to Contact duplication on a mobile device as Google makes itself the default for Contact synchronization. This helpful GIF shows people all that is needed to do, to allow for creating a Google account without Gmail.

More choice and competitive pricing on flights

Search for any flight in Google and you will get a Google search box with deals Google wants you to see. These deals include a commission for Google and may not be the price. Google uses cookies to see when you’re looking for flights and will bump up your prices accordingly. Sure, you can use a VPN and make yourself appear to be in your destination city or country, and also block cookies. Does the average internet-user go to these lengths when booking a flight? With this antitrust bill, they simply won’t have to.

Favored search results appear at the top

Do a search for the term “email” on Google search and 4 out of the top 6 results point to Google. Amazon employs a similar practice with its marketplace and so does the Microsoft Store with its Marketplace.

Tech giants will no longer be allowed to block alternative services

Our blog post on Zoom alternatives has some reliable options if you are blocked from using Microsoft Teams. We also have listed several alternatives to Microsoft Office, including some free, open-source projects.

Apple would not be able to make things difficult for people and environmentally unfriendly for the planet

Apple is known for its higher-priced products. People who use Apple products are often more conditioned to purchase things that they can otherwise get for free. This is great news for iOS developers like myself who may offer an application or software for free on Android, but make it only available for purchase on iOS. There is a reason for this, to join the Google Developer Program, there is a one-time fee of $25, whereas Apple charges developers $130 per year to keep their applications listed on the iOS app marketplace. It is also much more difficult to build for Apple due to its proprietary policies. For example, when the app is ready to be uploaded, you are blocked from uploading unless you use a recently purchased Apple computer. I experienced this problem recently as the Apple computer here is over 3 years old and now past Apple’s long-term support cycle. I had to get someone else to upload it for me.

Paying a subscription to unlock features you already have

Companies also couldn’t impose “pay to play” restrictions as in the Vice documentary on farmers fighting John Deere’s repair monopoly, called “Tractor Hacking.” The AICOA bill would prevent big tech from requiring that businesses buy additional goods and services or use specific payment processors in order to access a platform. 

The Inventor, Steve Mann, often referred to as the father of wearable computing created a seat that demonstrates these kinds of paywalls in a piece called “SeatSale.” 

Continue the conversation on Twitter

There has been a lot of discussion on these antitrust bills over the past few days, here are some tweets and articles in the press to continue the discussion. 

As a privacy-focused company, we support the AICOA.

What is The American Innovation and Choice Online Act?

This thread aims to provide a simple explanation 👇#AntitrustVoteNow @SenSchumer pic.twitter.com/lgjCK9u8fx

— Thexyz (@thexyz) September 14, 2022

Congress must act now to restore competition online and allow people to freely choose the products and services they want.

It's time for a vote.

Join us in calling on Congress for an #AntitrustVoteNow. https://t.co/kDGVvdNKCi

— DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) September 12, 2022

Big Tech claims it doesn't self-preference its own products and services. But all it takes is a Google search to prove otherwise. It's time for @SenSchumer to call a vote on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. #AntitrustVoteNowhttps://t.co/2nBpbxc9Ac pic.twitter.com/Y1DEc78V45

— Proton (@ProtonPrivacy) September 14, 2022

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act will rein in #BigTech practices that hurt #SmallBusiness. Small business owners are asking Congress to act now. #AntitrustVoteNow

— NFIB (@NFIB) September 13, 2022

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, spotted in Senate subway

— John Bresnahan (@bresreports) September 14, 2022

What is SEO?

SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization and is a process of tasks taken to help a website rank higher in search engine results.

The main difference between SEO and other digital marketing techniques, such as paid advertising is that SEO will improve your websites “organic” ranking, so there are no costs involved, it just requires the effort of SEO to help the page rank higher up the page in search results. 

With more than 252,000 new websites created every day, getting a website to appear at the top of search engine results is extremely difficult for any business website. SEO plays a key role in attracting potential customers to your website; good or bad SEO can make or break an online business.

As online advertising ROI continues to decline, many organizations are noticing that online advertising is not having the same effect as it once did. The former CMO of Wag and before that the head of performance marketing, and CRM for Uber, Kevin Frisch, recently spoke to Alan Hart about a case of Uber discovering they’d been defrauded out of $100M of ad spend. Further back eBay noticed there was no decline in sales after Google ads were turned off. 

What is cPanel SEO?

cPanel has recently launched its SEO tool and it is already gaining traction in the web hosting and digital marketing industry. cPanel SEO helps you increase website traffic and optimize your website content using some of the latest technology available.

cPanel SEO has three main sections, all of which are accessed via the top navigation bar: Keywords, Projects, and Advisor.

Getting started with cPanel SEO

cPanel SEO is now integrated with Thexyz so you can order either the Starter or Professional plan directly from the Client Area. One of the great reasons to try cPanel SEO is that is has a much lower price point than comparable software on the market.

• Semrush entry plan monthly cost: $119
• Ahrefs entry plan monthly cost: $99
• cPanel SEO entry plan monthly cost: $18

Once you have ordered the product, the management and configuration can be accessed directly in the Client Area, by navigating to your active services.

Analyzing a domain with cPanel SEO

It all begins by analyzing a domain, either your own or a competitor’s; you can analyze any domain or URL using the domain analysis tool in the upper right hand corner of the cPanel SEO interface. Just like you can with Semrush or Ahrefs, you can do a search for any domain name or URL to bring an analysis of the domain’s SEO. 

Keywords  Research – The Key to Success with SEO

cPanel SEO is a powerful keyword research tool, that provides access to a database containing more than 53 million keywords. To get started researching some great keywords for your website, simply enter a relevant topic at Keywords > Keyword Research.

This is the default page you see upon logging in to cPanel SEO – it’s essentially a daily report of your website’s SEO performance. You can quickly see how your site is doing, and what your next steps could be, as well as get lists of keywords and rankings that may need your attention. Overview is structured into four sections:

1. Key Performance Indicators: Five KPIs that sum up your current SEO performance, and any changes as compared to last week.
2. Your To-Dos: Recommended next steps to optimize your website and improve your search engine rankings.
3. Visibility: The higher your Visibility score, the more rankings your website has which increases the likelihood of new visitors finding your website. This is a great metric to compare against your competitors.
4. Keywords: Compare your site against your competitors’ total rankings. Be sure to also view the Interesting Keywords, Winner Keywords, and Loser Keywords tables.

This table lists matching keywords for your topic, sorted by relevance. You can use Search Volume, CPC, and Competition to identify potentially interesting keywords. To do this, you can sort the table by clicking on a desired metric in the header row and use Filters to narrow down results according to your needs.

This will result in a lot of information, all structured into four tabs:

• Keywords: A list of relevant keywords, including KPI and position.
• Ranking Analysis: The top 100 ranking URLs for the given keyword.
• Competitor: A list of high quality, competing web pages within the top 100 search results.
• Questions: User questions featured in search results; “Users also ask” structured data element.

Once you identify some interesting keywords, you can add them to the Keyword Planner and then organize them into groups that you create

Projects in cPanel SEO

A Project is a foundation for the comprehensive analysis of a website. That sounds complicated, but it just means that you’ll need to create a Project for any website you’re going to analyze within cPanel SEO. You’ll find that a Project was automatically created for your website when you signed up. The Starter cPanel SEO plan will include just one project, whereas the Professional cPanel SEO plan includes 5 projects. The Projects section contains these tabs:

• Rank Tracker – to monitor keyword rankings for any location or device.
• Site Audit – to create and manage your website audits.
• Text Optimizer – to optimize and perfect your content.
• Planner – to collect and group interesting keywords.

You’ll also find a section to specifically manage your Project’s settings.

Rank Tracking – Start knowing just how well your SEO is going

Now that you’ve got your keywords added, go to Rank Tracker > Tracked Keywords to see:

• Which URL has the best ranking for a tracked keyword.
• What position that URL ranks on and its development over time.
• What type of search result it is, organic or universal.
• KPI for each keyword.

With your keywords in Rank Tracker, you can go to your Rank Tracker Overview to see a breakdown of your website’s performance; visit Projects > Rank Tracker sidebar and use the charts to determine:

• The ratio of tracked keyword rankings in and outside of the top 100. The goal is to maximize top 100 rankings.
• The number of rankings on each search engine result page (SERPs). The goal is to gain as many pages one rankings as possible.

Adding Keywords to Rank Tracker

You can easily add keywords from anywhere in cPanel SEO or upload any keywords you think of. You can do this Under Projects > Rank Tracker, click the blue “Add Keywords” button. There is also the option to define the domains you want to track these rankings for; this would likely be your own domain but could also be a competitor’s as well.

Site Audit

The Site Audit analyzes your entire domain. Or, if you wish, you can also analyze a single URL. To do so, simply paste the URL in “Start URL”, when creating a new Site Audit. The Site Audit looks at the entire content of your domain or page, including

1. Text
2. Headings, meta tags and page titles
3. Internal links
4. Images
5. JavaScript & CSS documents

Text Optimizer – Optimize your Content for Search

In the Text Optimizer, you’ll find a list of relevant keywords that if included in your page content with help your site improve search rankings. Priority shows how important it is to include a keyword, while Status instructs you to add, increase, or reduce keywords. 

Switching to the Analyzed Texts tab will show you the top 10 ranking URLs for your keyword, and whether or not your analyzed URL is among them. By clicking on any URL to have a look at your competitor’s content strategy. 

The Text Optimizer is structured into Filters, Text, and Analyzed Texts tabs. In Text Optimizer, you’ll find a list of relevant keywords. Priority shows how important it is to include a keyword, while Status instructs you to add, increase, or reduce the number of occurrences of a particular keyword.

As you optimize your website copy in the editor and add, increase, or reduce keywords, the Keyword list will adapt; I find this a very effective way to improve your website search rankings. 

Advisor

With an intuitive and user-friendly interface, Advisor helps to optimize a website by providing step-by-step instructions based on the site audit results; there’s no more guesswork on what needs to be changed and how to best change it. Advisor translates the results of your site’s analysis and general SEO best practices into individual recommended tasks for you. The advisor is always available in the top navigation bar but, is also integrated throughout cPanel SEO to help streamline your workflow by allowing you to always keep an eye on your tasks.

Keep in mind that you do need a Project for the Advisor to work; if you manage more than one website, you’ll need a Project for each of them.

Comparing cPanel SEO to Semrush

Another SEO tool that I have used before is Semrush, it is a very powerful tool and is often regarded as the industry standard tool in SEO. While Semrush is considerably more expensive than cPanel SEO. There are quite a few more features in Semrush that are not included in cPanel SEO, such as the social media poster and the ability to export data and reports. From using the two tools side by side, there are actually quite a few things I found to be better with cPanel SEO. This canonical error found below can result in duplicate content being detected through Google Search Console and is a good idea to fix right away.

A canonical error found with cPanel SEO

Duplicated canonical URL found

Text Optimizer with cPanel SEO or On-Page SEO Checker with Semrush

If you’re going to start doing SEO on your website then, you will likely be involved with optimizing your website keywords within the content of your page. Technical SEO will only go so far and once you have fixed all the technical issues, what next? Well, most of the work, and ongoing work will be related to optimizing the keywords. Both Semrush and cPanel SEO have a tool built in for recommending keywords. In cPanel SEO it is called the Text Optimizier, and in Semrush they can be found as Semantic ideas within the On-Page SEO Checker. I did a test on this URL (https://www.thexyz.com/email/) for the term “email hosting” with both cPanel SEO and Semrush. 

10 keywords found with cPanel SEO

Just 1 keywords suggestion with Semrush

10 recommendations with cPanel SEO, just 1 with Semrush

As you can see from the images above, the cPanel SEO tool generated 10 keyword ideas, while Semrush only generated 1. I find these tools in particualr some of the most powerful in an SEO tool so it is interesting to see how they both perform and shows a lot of potential for cPanel SEO as an SEO tool. 

Comparing cPanel SEO Site Audits with Semrush

A site audit is a crucial component of an SEO tool as it can often be the first warning of a potential issue with a website. Let’s take a look at how cPanel SEO compares to Semrush in regards to an SEO Audit. 

cPanel SEO Site Audit results

Semrush Site Audit results

SEO Site Audits Results

cPanel SEO

• Errors: 135
• Warnings: 570
• Notices: 1875

Semrush

• Errors: 2
• Warnings: 646
• Notices: 781

From looking it this data, it appears running a cPanel SEO Site Audit will find more things wrong with your website. 

Site Audit Meta Descriptions

Though meta descriptions don’t have a direct influence on rankings, they are used by search engines to display your page’s description in search results. A good description helps users know what your page is about and encourages them to click on it. If your page’s meta description tag is missing, search engines will usually display its first sentence, which may be irrelevant and unappealing to users. The site audit tool for cPanel SEO and Semrush detects any pages with a missing meta description to help you improve user experience. Let’s take a look at how each tool performs with the same URL.

Site Audit Meta Description Results

cPanel SEO

• Pages with missing meta descriptions: 246

Semrush

• Pages with missing meta descriptions: 90

From looking it this data, it appears running a cPanel SEO Site Audit will find more missing meta descriptions than Semrush. 

Conclusion

cPanel has created some excellent computer software that facilitates not only internet web servers (cPanel WebHost Manager and WHM), but now also website marketing tools that have abilities to take on current vendors on the market. While more established tools like Semrush have a lot more features to offer, sometimes you just want to cut to chase and spare yourself from the bloat. This tool is just exactly that and at a much more affordable price point than other software, I highly suggest trying cPanel SEO for your website marketing strategy.

If you have any questions about your SEO strategy or would like to find out more about cPanel SEO, we invite you to contact us or leave a question in the comments below.

There are some new improvements available to our VPS servers as we have introduced new billing plans that will offer our customers more resources and features as well as lower costs.

Here is how we are adding more value to our VPS plans. We have previously offered 10 VPS hosting plans and will now offer only 5 plans. These plans will all be individually upgradeable so you can add resources to your VPS instance as required. 

If you currently have a VPS plan with us, you will receive a support ticket in your control panel with details of when your service will be upgraded. On your next billing date, you will also be billed the new reduced rate for your VPS.

As well as improving our VPS plans, we have also been working with Cloudflare to offer customers the choice of DNS host that be managed from within the Hepsia control panel. This is available not just on our VPS plans but on our shared and dedicated servers too.

As of today, we have created native Cloudflare integration in your hosting control panel.

You can now manage all DNS operations and the most popular domain settings from just one place. Please see the guide on adding your domain name to Cloudflare to get started.

We will also notify all customers about this migration via a support ticket in their billing panel.

If you have any questions about this process, don’t hesitate to ask, we are here to answer all your questions.

We all know how Big Tech giants are violating our rights and undermining our democracy by putting their products and services above everyone else. There are currently two new bills  Congress is considering that will challenge Big Tech’s monopoly power. Do we want an internet where big gatekeepers abuse their monopoly power to stifle competition and enforce censorship or do we want the internet to be an open, super-highway of democratic information? These new bills will help fight back against big tech and build an internet that’s competitive.

That’s why we are joining Fight for the Future, DuckDuckGo, Protonmail, and other privacy-focused organizations and internet companies to call on US policymakers to pass much-needed legislation that aims to make the internet open so that everyone has a shot. Big Tech is scared of these bills and has already spent over $36,000,000 on ads to discredit these bills. Amazon has tried to persuade people into thinking these bills have negative consequences for American consumers and small businesses. Google also put out a blog post, claiming these new bills would compromise user security.

The truth is, that we have not seen these levels of monopoly since Germany in 1940’s when the power of the monopolies was seized by the nazi party. Let’s look at some actual facts…

The evolution of US antitrust law

Between 1982 and 2012, market concentration across these industries increased, while the number of companies has fallen. 

Source: The Hamilton Project

Companies on the stock market are falling

From 1996 to 2016 the number of companies on the stock market has fallen by half. 

Source: Credit Suisse

Many companies now have significant influence over entire industries through take-overs and mergers.

Source: CNBC

Summary of the Bills

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act – S. 2992, H.R. 3816
This bill prohibits certain large online platforms from engaging in specified acts, including giving preference to their own products on the platform, unfairly limiting the availability on the platform of competing products from another business, or discriminating in the application or enforcement of the platform’s terms of service among similarly situated users.

The Open Apps Markets Act – S.2710, H.R.5017
This bill establishes rules related to the operation of an app store by a covered company (i.e., the owner or controller of an app store with more than 50 million U.S. users).

Show your support of #AntitrustSummer

#AntitrustSummer on Twitter

There is also a helpful tool to help find your lawmakers Twitter handle with just your Zip code. Enter your zip code and the tool will find your members of Congress and pull their handles into your tweet.

📺WATCH: John Oliver’s latest @LastWeekTonight perfectly describes how Big Tech uses monopoly power to shut down competitors, obliterate consumer choice, and suppress innovation. https://t.co/DnxGn4tVRH pic.twitter.com/thDTTlO6t6

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) June 13, 2022

Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Rule the Future of the Internet. Chuck Schumer Must Stop Himhttps://t.co/i1A1zDXTA8

— TIME Ideas (@TIMEIdeas) June 22, 2022

A ground-breaking bipartisan bill aimed at reining in Big Tech now has the support of smaller tech companies like Spotify, Yelp, DuckDuckGo, and several other businesses https://t.co/l7bN3AahMh pic.twitter.com/yxUoPqHwmP

— Reuters (@Reuters) June 13, 2022

It's the first day of Antitrust Summer 😎✊ We’re going to end Big Tech’s monopoly power over our digital lives when Congress passes #S2992 and #S2710.
Contact Congress NOW to make it happen: https://t.co/8hoYCg8MlD

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) June 21, 2022

The non-profit panel at the Tech Antitrust Bills briefing notes that these bills have strong public support and would help small businesses and the public. #antitrustsummer pic.twitter.com/X0rDJGcgN4

— Katie McInnis (@katielmcinnis) June 14, 2022

✅ Sunscreen
✅ Beach towel
✅ Ice cold drink
🔲 Antitrust legislation…
Tell your lawmakers to rein in Big Tech this #AntitrustSummer: https://t.co/HWb6WP54hh pic.twitter.com/CAvoRinkbT

— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) June 21, 2022

Big tech lobbyist are freaking out

Because they know we are going to win

Big tech lobbyists are freaking out

Because they know we are going to win

Big tech lobbyist are freaking out

Because they know we are going to win

Let's go!!!https://t.co/eRLSeaVJMz

— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) June 8, 2022

Organizations in support of the AntiTrust Bills

• Automattic
• Basecamp
• Brave Software
• Coalition for App Fairness
• Disconnect, Inc.
• DuckDuckGo
• Efani Secure Mobile
• Fathom Analytics
• fuboTV
• Function X
• Kelkoo Group
• Libro.fm
• LI Toy & Game
• Malloc Inc.
• Match Group
• Mio
• Neeva
• Presearch
• Proton AG
• Sonos
• SparkToro
• Spotify
• StartMail
• Thexyz
• Tinder
• Travel Tech Association
• Tutanota
• Yelp
• YMOZ
• You.com
  

Show your support of #AntitrustSummer

With 2021 being the most volatile year for businesses around the world in recent history, we would be mistaken to think that the disruption is over. Rather, as we move into 2022 and beyond, it could potentially trigger an increased rate of disruption as the implications from 2021 play out.

2022 is still probably the best year to start a business, here’s why…

1. Capitalize on working from home 👩🏻‍🏫
2. Innovative industry trends 👩🏼‍🌾
3. Business void due to closed businesses 🚫
4. Incentives, tax credits, and easy credit 💵
5. The world is changing and spinning faster than ever before 🌎

Some tips on starting a business

1. Find a niche 🤹
2. Keep it simple
3. Budget 💰
4. Ask questions 👂🏼
5. Have a plan and vision 👈🏼

How can Thexyz help?

1. Free website, email forwarding, and SSL 📧
2. Plenty of domain extensions 🔎
3. Enhanced security 🔒
4. Big tech alternative 🏪
5. Private email and encryption 💌

Why 2022 is a great year to start an online business 👩🏻‍🏫

Capitalize on working from home

Working from home has become the norm since the pandemic and this has allowed many businesses to lower overheads of business operations by cutting back on office space. It has always been possible to operate a business with remote employees and various types of businesses have been doing it for years, now there are a lot of tools and services to help operate a business remotely.

Remote work is nothing new, it is part of a trend before the coronavirus pandemic, individuals have been leaving institutions for many years in favor of the creator or gig economy. It is now easier than ever to setup and run home-based businesses. With remote work and remote learning, conducting an online meeting has become a very important skill. Last year there were some concerns raised about the security of Zoom and we tested some excellent viable alternatives to Zoom. A few weeks back I tweeted through @thexyz how impressed I was with the open-source Nextcloud offering. It is a great solution for organizations that are concerned with where their data is stored. It also allows for try data portability as you can host a Nextcloud instance wherever you wish, including with Thexyz!

Innovative industry trends

Other than working from home, COVID has changed IT forever in the sense that many industries that have always been reluctant to move to the cloud, have started embracing third-party cloud-based tools. For example Banks. They usually always run IT in-house and on-prem. For example, banks have recently started to embrace eSigning services for virtual document signing. While this technology is nothing new, a mainstream interest for widespread adoption is forcing many smaller cloud services to scale up their operations. I expect this trend to continue as there are genuine costs that can be cut also when an organization moves to the cloud. 

Mental health spending has been another growth industry even before the pandemic experiencing rapid growth, Gartner research revealed that 45% of well-being budget increases were being allocated to mental and emotional well-being programs. By late March, 68% of organizations had introduced at least one new wellness benefit to help employees during the pandemic. In 2021, employers are expected to go even further by working to de-stigmatize mental health by building awareness across the workforce about this critical issue.

There are some very promising trends introducing some truly innovative new products. These are happening with A.I., cryptocurrencies, drones, transportation, renewal energy, and online services. These are freeing people too from being tied into industrial education, mainstream media, traditional banking finance, and the 9 to 5.

I recall hearing a talk about innovation from Alan Cucknell who had some insightful remarks on Innovation and what actually is innovative. Few things actually are and you can read more about Alan’s thoughts on innovation through a recent blog post: Do you know your (innovation) mountain lion?

During the talk, Alan gave the example of Elon Musk, he didn’t just create an electric car, it was an innovative idea. Elon knows that car ownership is likely going to start declining as more people opt for living in cities. Cars are also unused and idle most of the time. Car sharing is going to become a lot more common in the future and that is why all Tesla cars have a car sharing component already built-in – true innovation! 

A recent example of innovation that comes to my mind, is the Brave browser. A private web browser with a built-in ad-blocker. While it has become increasingly popular to block ads from appearing for many internet users. It also introduces a problem that when ads are blocked, publishers, news sites, magazines, etc lose out often on their primary source of income. The Brave browser has introduced its own ad network where users of the browser can opt-in to view ads. When these ads are displayed or clicked, the user is also credited in the $BAT cryptocurrency. Users can then bank their earnings or automatically share them with their publishers of choice. An interesting model that could help many media companies that are struggling with declining ad revenues become a profitable and successful business entity.

Business void due to closed businesses 

With many businesses forced to close due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, it has driven many businesses to quickly adopt online ordering. With so many businesses closed as a result of the devastating impact of the lockdowns. It has opened opportunities for others looking to capitalize and offer a tailored service to help fill the void.

With many turning to online marketplaces such as Amazon to shop online, local governments have often encouraged residents to shop local to save local businesses. Many businesses have also received interest-free loans, grants, and subsidies to help stay afloat during a tough economic time.

As we have seen in the past year, just how dramatically life can change in the space of a year. People are changing too and keen to adopt new technologies and solutions to better deal with changes in business operations. Even as we come out of the COVID-19 crisis, there will be a frantic appetite for IT modernization that enables new growth opportunities.

Tax incentives

As industries affected by the pandemic continue to suffer economically, governments have introduced various grants and business growth programs to help accelerate the recovery of businesses. There could be some grants or incentives for setting up a business in a particular industry. There may also be a reduction in typical licenses and permits required for small business administration. You may be also able to get a free trial on a product or service that may not always be available.

 A fast-changing world

The world is changing and spinning faster than ever before, there are many new opportunities arising. Here are few small business ideas that could be successful and simple to operate…

• Web designer – More people are looking for an online presence now more than ever, it is also easier than ever to build a professional website without code.
• SEO – Search engine optimization is going to become increasingly important as the influx of new online services strive to stand out amongst the competition with content marketing and digital marketing.
• Local delivery service – It is now easy to set up an online store selling products. People are looking to shop local now more than ever and it is easy to set up an eCommerce business.
• Content writer – Websites usually require a lot of written content, from SEO, to blogs, to terms of service, I expect writing to be in demand.
• Online meetings – As meeting online has become widely adopted, it is much more efficient for a consultant to engage in meetings. Whether a yoga class, a business meeting or remote screen sharing session, it is now an option for people to work remotely doing meetings online.
• Urban grower – As people quickly adopt online ordering for groceries, there has been more demand than many services can cope with. I helped a restaurant supplier transition from supplying restaurants, to start supplying households with specialist foods at the start of the pandemic. Brexit has caused many delivery delays for goods being shipped in and out of the UK. There is a shift towards more local produce. If you need ideas on how to produce food with modern techniques, just look at what they do in Holland or check Fresh Greens where you can open a free franchise. 
• Wellness – As lockdowns drag on, the effect it is having on people’s wellbeing and mental health is clear. People have some time to focus on themselves right now and are seeking information to improve their well-being. 
• Transportation – The way we move is also changing, innovative cities in the United States and Europe are starting to make plans for cities without cars. 
• App Developer – App use on mobile devices continues to grow, so too does the need to develop and update them. Various types of developer jobs often make the top ten lists for most in demand jobs. 
• Graphic Designers – Another important role in the move to a predominantly online world is the work of Graphic Design. 
• Online learning – As educational systems hastily adopted online learning and online courses, online instructors are becoming ambassadors to education technology and effective online design.

Some tips on starting an online business 👩‍💻

Find a niche

There are plenty of opportunities online to generate passive income and no, I am not going to tell you to open a drop shipping Amazon or Shopify store selling phone cases. Instead, I am going to list some more niche ideas for products and services that I think could really grow into an established business.

After helping many people get online with a website, I have seen thousands of different websites start, flourish, grow, diminish, go viral and I also have gained an eye for what ideas seem to work when it comes to running a business as a small business owner. Niche businesses work well because it is much easier to find your target audience and define an appropriate marketing strategy to promote your business with the customer base. This strategic planning is one of the best growth strategies to quickly grow your bottom line. 

Before I run down my list of some fairly unique online business ideas, here some tips for executing a bootstrapped niche online business.

Don’t start another drop-shipping website selling similar products to thousands of other websites. Make a twist on an existing idea, improve on something or start something new altogether.

• Make the use of blockchain more environmentally friendly
• A carbon-neutral delivery company
• Modern recycling solution for 2021
• An online marketing coach for a marketing strategy or personal trainer
• A bicycle delivery company
• An online customer service role or virtual assistant
• Helping healthcare transition to the cloud and eHealth services
• Helping people digest big data analytics and market research
• Helping people of the late majority navigate dependence of an increasingly online world
• Niche content blog or social media group
• Niche affiliate marketing expert or manager for affiliate programs

Keep it simple

Too many things are too complicated for people. When it’s easy it’s so much better for both you and your customers. Strive to keep it simple.

Apple is a great example of a company that has achieved great success by simplifying its business model. I recently finished reading Insanely Simple by Ken Segall, the former creative head of Apple ads. One thing that I remember sticking out from the book was the chapter titles: Think brutal, think small, think minimal, think motion, think iconic, think phrasal, think casual, think human, think skeptic, think war, think different. 

Maintain a budget

There are now many online services that allow you to start a website for free which help keep startup costs down. Cash flow can be tight so this is a great way to start out to gain a web presence while maintaining financial planning responsibly. Thexyz has a website builder offering powered by Weebly and hosted by Thexyz, it includes SSL, custom domain, and eCommerce for free. In the last year, we have helped thousands of small businesses gain an online presence with our free Weebly offering, which allows anyone to get into web development without learning how to code. There are also several other services to build an online presence for free without the cost of web hosting.

Blogger – free custom domain blogging service from Google to start a blog.
GitHub – the code repository service includes a free hosting service for projects.
Tumblr – a blogging platform to share posts is used to host many websites for free.
Carrd – a free platform for building a one-page website.
Weebly – a popular website builder integrated into Thexyz.

-Ask questions

Every now and then you will talk to someone who can provide you with some highly relevant and valuable answers to some questions you may have. It is hard to say who these people may be or where you will find them, it is just important to be aware of when you are talking to someone that has some very insightful knowledge of a topic that can potentially be very valuable for mission of running a successful online business. Asking to right questions here can be very beneficial if done correctly. This could be as simple as asking friends and family for ideas on what products to sell. Or other business owners how if they manage their own pay per-click online ad campaigns.

And don’t just leave it to having to talk to someone directly to get questions answered. It is as simple as typing a search term into YouTube to see a demonstration of how to do something. 

Have a plan, a vision and stick with it

Businesses often need to change, adapt and reinvent product lines etc. The main focus of the business should not need to change, even if you are running a side business.

Another problem I see many new businesses experience is not following the primary focus of the business structure. There are so many products and industries these days, it is easy to carried away with something new and exciting, only to be lost in the sea of many others also offering the same service or product. This is why it is key to focus on the vision as you grow your business. Write a business plan whether your are planning to open a short-term sole proprietorship or more long-term limited liability company (LLC).

How can Thexyz help? 🦾

Free-extras to go along with your domain name

Included with each domain registration is the use of our free DNS hosting service to manage where you point your domain name. You can also enable free email forwarding and forward to an existing email address. This will save you from having to purchase a premium email account.

Free SiteLock security seal

Online shoppers are becoming increasingly concerned about security, and for good reason too. As a website owner, it is important to take a proactive approach as opposed to a reactive security approach. In today’s world, internet security is not something that can be set and forgotten but rather constantly worked on, thought about, and fine-tuned.

A free SiteLock security seal is available to all existing customers of Thexyz. Once you have signed up for your free Weebly plan at Thexyz, you will be a customer and therefore have this security seal available to you for free.

Build a website for free with Weebly

Weebly is a well-known website building tool that has been around for a while. Due to its stable functions and numerous integrations, Thexyz integrated with Weebly last year to offer Weebly plans both hosted with Thexyz and Weebly. We also offer a free plan that is great for people to try out the builder and see how easy it can be to build a website in minutes. These are not just simple websites too, with integration to Square payments, you can be up and running taking online payments in a matter of minutes, with zero monthly fees. As your business grows you can upgrade to a paid plan anytime, which basically removed the ‘powered by’ footer credit and allows you to sell more than 4 products. 

Each month there are new discounts published on domain names, they can be found on the special offers page. Any paid Weebly plan will include a free .XYZ domain name.

Plenty of domain extensions available

Through many registry partnerships, Thexyz now offers hundreds of different domain extensions. You can now register .deals or .company, .lawyer or .app. There are also many country-code domain (.ca, .us, .ch, .de, etc) options that will help give your search engine optimization a boost if you are looking to reach a local market. There are also always some coupons available for new domain name registrations.

Thexyz has made various enhancements to increase security of domains, websites and email accounts hosted within our environment. Take advantage of these security features by making Thexyz your email, domains, and website hub.

Thexyz offers hundreds of different domain name extensions. This ensures you can find a suitable domain beyond the traditional extensions of .com, .net, and .org.

Enhance the security of your online presence

Thexyz has always been a strong advocate for privacy and following best security practices. Enabling Two-Factor Authentication on your logins to all your services at Thexyz will greatly improve security. We also support Yubikey’s, so as well as 2FA, you can also secure your account with a physical encryption key.

With domains registered via Thexyz, we offer domain theft protection and privacy protection to mask your private contact information from public view. This will significantly reduce the amount of spam you will receive when you become a domain name owner.

Staying secure online is something that needs to always be worked on. For more tips, please read my 5 tips to stay online.

An alternative to big tech

When setting up a business, people are expected to set up a lot of new services, these often come in the way of a recommendation or referral. For example, most IT companies usually set up clients on the same cookie-cutter cloud solutions from well-known big tech names. When setting up email on a custom domain, many people are usually given the choice of Google or Microsoft. They then decide on which one they prefer, if Google then they use Google Workspace and Microsoft Office 365 on Microsoft. 

At Thexyz, we strive to do things differently and offer a completely alternative solution for a lower cost, with enhanced privacy and security. 

Many people signup at Thexyz because it is an independent company and alternative to mainstream big tech services. Many people have been the victim of censorship when using big tech. I have heard from many people, charities, and organizations who have recently had their Twitter accounts suspended without reason. Thexyz has too been targeted with unwarranted suspensions on Twitter. Our email marketing service, GroupList had its Twitter suspended last October for offering a free email alias service that protects people’s privacy. Many people invest a lot of time and money in their social media profiles, only to see them shut down without a reason. 

Avoiding big tech allows you to regain your freedom and free speech when publishing online. 

Secure email on your custom domain

Email is the key to your online world. Almost every login to an online service is verified through an email account. It is often also the method used for resetting a password. Hackers know this and email is the most common type of compromise when it comes to security. For this reason, you should not compromise when it comes to email security.

Many new businesses often use a gmail.com email address for business inquiries, without realizing the unprofessional impression it can leave on potential customers. Many people know avoid Gmail as an email service and avoid businesses that ask them to contact them through Gmail. Make your email address look professional with a custom domain email address (yourname@yourdomain.com). You will then be able to configure and manage the email address exactly how you wish and also control the security settings on the account.

Our email application allows for remote collaboration with integrated team chat built right into Webmail. Email can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection and the Webmail Calendar will help you stay organized. Upgrading to  Cloud Drive, users can remotely work on files together simultaneously.