February 27, 2018

7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Growing any business is, well, tough business. You’ve got your hand in every pot while simultaneously wearing every hat. You’re worrying about marketing strategies, product creation and growth plans, all in the same day.

Related: 39 Quick Ways to Increase Your Website’s Conversion Rate

With so many ongoing tasks, it can be far too easy to let a little thing like digital presence fall by the wayside. However, that would be a grave mistake.

The Harvard Business Review recently conducted a study on what exactly makes people want to complete a purchase from a particular website, and the results were a resounding “trustworthiness.” By making consumers feel safe, comfortable and at ease when they visit your online destination, you stand a much higher chance of not just encouraging them to complete a purchase, but convincing them to become longtime users.

A strong website design is paramount in creating this trustworthiness. By presenting an online destination that is straightforward and easy to navigate, users will have a more positive experience throughout your website, making them more likely to complete a purchase. 

So, while things like company transparency, great testimonials, and a solid product are obvious ways to ingrain familiarity to potential customers, website design clearly ranks particularly high when determining if a brand seems trustworthy or not.

In order to stand out from the crowd, there are a few tried-and-true design elements that will transform your website visitors into loyal customers. Don’t worry, I’m not going to say something obvious like “responsive designs” — elements like that are a given.

Related: 10 Steps to Creating an Engaging Digital Experience

Here are five top web design and UX trends that will grow your business fast.

1. Video landing page

Incorporating video into your website design is a no-brainer. I mean, 78 percent of internet users watch videos online every week. 

But, don’t just embed any old YouTube video. Instead, take your website design to the next level by creating a video landing page.

You could target this video to a direct call to action on a particular web page, a la Salesforce. Or you could take a page out of Baesman’s book and create an immersive video that auto-plays on your homepage. Either of these approaches can provide information or drive home the brand’s identity — but both will improve UX and users’ impression of your company as a whole.

Not sold? The proof is in the pudding. According to Vidyard and Demand Metric’s The State of Video Marketing 2017 study — which surveyed 159 B2B and B2C professionals and entrepreneurs — it is predicted that 69 percent of website traffic will be video, while 70 percent of professional participants reported that video converts better than other forms of information and content.

Related: 50 Must-Have Features for Small-Business Websites (Infographic)

2. Parallax scrolling

While digital experiences have no doubt improved many aspects of our daily lives, it has had one negative impact: People are lazy. So lazy, in fact, that clicking a button is often too far out of the realm of possibility.

Enter parallax scrolling.

This uneven-like scrolling effect has combated consumers’ general laziness while remaining engaging and visually appealing. With a simple swipe (a la Tinder), users have easily consumed your information as they make their way down the page.

The popularity of parallax scrolling has also introduced more deep-scrolling and single-page website designs, and renders what information is “above the fold” a little less necessary, since it is easier to see what’s below, too. Ultimately, that makes prioritizing content easier for you to manage and increases your user’s likelihood of seeing everything anyways.

Make Your Money Matter took its parallax scrolling to the next level, with effects spanning an illustrated timeline that goes both horizontally and vertically, ensuring it captivates users.

Related: Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rates With These 6 Design Tips

3. Animated calls to action

Calls to action are a necessary evil in website design. The fact remains that your consumers won’t know what to do unless you explicitly tell them. Many. Many. Times.

However, simply telling your consumers what to do just isn’t enough anymore, either. They’re seeing stimuli and instructions from all corners of the web, so you need a little something extra to help your goal stand out.

Adding a little animation to your important action items might be just the ticket. Whether it’s a micro-mini interaction (such as “liking” a Facebook post and seeing the many reaction animations) or a simple effect to catch users’ eyes, consumers are more likely to execute the action you’re pushing when the call to action grabs their attention and provides confirmation of completion.

Need some inspiration? Airbnb uses its animation app, Lottie, to incorporate subtle graphics animations atop its calls to action throughout its website and app designs.

Related: 4 Ways to Make Your Business Website More User-Friendly

4. Custom typography

Every website needs text, but the days of boring Times New Roman, Arial or any other basic stock font have long-since passed. Instead, take your message to the next level with unique typography that encompasses your brand identity while simultaneously communicating to users.

This unique typography can take many shapes (literally) or be found in different areas of your design. Some brands may choose to utilize this in their logo design, while other businesses (like mine) will sprinkle custom font throughout the entire design to draw attention to important content, like this newsletter signup call to action (below). Ultimately, the choice in how and where you utilize this trend is up to you.

Related: 10 Tips for Web Design That Drives Sales

5. Artificial intelligence

Despite the surge in ecommerce sales over brick and mortar storefronts, people still crave connections, which is likely one of the reasons that artificial intelligence in all its forms is so popular.

AI in website design can take many shapes, but some popular examples include machine learning, personalization and chatbots. Machine learning and personalization are cut from the same cloth to a degree and ingratiate a feeling of “being special” with users that, in turn, fosters brand loyalty.

Chatbots influence user experience much more directly, though. While they provide an engaging element, the biggest draw to incorporating chatbots into your website design relates to customer service. Users can ask questions and receive answers in real time — which is easy to visualize — and acquire information quickly.

Quartz is a stellar example of chatbots within immersive app design. Through a conversational interface and hilarious memes, users are more likely to return to consume the entertaining content than they are to read a boring news article on another app.

Related: 10 Best WordPress Themes to Choose From for Your Next Website Project

By investing in website design, you can cultivate a broad and dedicated consumer base that will use your product time and time again. While there are many more design elements that you can incorporate into your designs, ultimate each choice should:

• Make users feel comfortable.
• Represent the brand.
• Clearly draw attention to important calls to action.
• Give users the information they need to make an informed choice.

February 25, 2018

2 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When it comes to business, the tides are always changing. And to be successful as an entrepreneur, it’s important to keep up to date with what’s trending in the startup world. To identify and understand what’s hot and what’s not right now, Kempler Industries analyzed data from 200 of the world’s top startups, as ranked by the website Startup Ranking.

Related: 18 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018

Wondering what the most popular categories are amongst startups today? Based on what businesses are helping customers accomplish, the study found that 21 percent help customers “find,” meaning discover content and recommend places to go and people to help. Following the “find” category, another 11 percent of businesses are helping consumers “buy” goods and services online and 9 percent are helping people and businesses “organize.” The study uncovered a total of 16 other top categories including “reading,” “creating” and “collaborating,” to name a few.

Related: 10 Social-Media Trends to Prepare for in 2018

Overall, the United States was found to be the country with the most startups. Following the U.S. is India, Canada and Japan and Spain. So, which startup is on top? Airbnb, which has millions of hosts and guests using the platform worldwide. Following close behind is Uber, Medium, 500px and Hootsuite.

Check out Kempler’s infographic below to learn more on what’s trending in the startup space today.

February 24, 2018

3 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s pretty standard for people in tech to take home some big salaries. But just how much money are these people making? A recent study by Hired.com analyzed data from more than 69,000 job seekers and 10,000 companies, as well as surveying more than 700 tech workers, to uncover salary trends among tech workers in major cities around the world.

Related: 4 Winning Salary Negotiation Strategies

It’s no surprise that some of today’s highest-paid tech workers reside in the Bay Area — home to companies including Facebook, Google and Apple. On average, a tech employee makes an annual salary of $142,000 in the Bay. However, workers in cities including Seattle, Los Angeles and New York aren’t far behind. Seattle comes in second for highest-paid tech workers, with an average of $132,000 annually. Tech employees in the Big Apple and La La Land each take home an average $129,000 a year.

Thinking about moving to one of these cities? Before doing that, it’s important to take into account the typical standard of living costs in each of these places. While a $129,000 salary might sound like a dream-come-true, people in New York City are actually worse off than any others because of the high cost of living. In fact, after adjusting the salary with the average total cost of living in New York, researchers found that NYC techies are the worst off compared to people in other cities and that their average salary is still $6,000 lower than that of residents in the Bay Area. So, if you want to save money, take a look at Austin, Texas.

Related: Fixing the Pay Gap Starts With Your Salary Negotiation Skills

Austin is making its way onto the map in the tech world, with average salaries there increasing between 2016 and 2017 by 7 percent, with an average $118,000 in 2017. However, after taking into account living costs, the adjusted salary winds up being more like $202,000. “This means the average Austin tech worker would need an $84,000 raise to maintain their same standard of living in San Francisco,” the study explains.

Overall, the global average salary for tech workers in major cities is $135,000. And the tech industry that’s paying workers the most is transportation, which has an average $145,000 annual salary. Unfortunately, these numbers tend to plateau for people 45 and older. According to the research, the salaries of tech workers usually peak around $151,000 in their mid-forties, and decline to $150,000 or less for people 45 years old until retirement.

Related: Level-Up Your Salary With These 5 Simple Tips

For a closer look at the tech salary trends of major cities, check out the infographic below.

Image credit: Hired.com

 

February 23, 2018

7 min read

You can’t please everybody, and the people who design tech interfaces know this truth all too well.

These folks have to consider conflicting suggestions from users to improve the experience on their favorite platforms, but their customers aren’t the only ones whose preferences they have to take into account.

They’ve got advertisers who want their images and videos prominently displayed. They’ve got academics, activists and governments scrutinizing how tech features manipulate the masses. They’ve got various other egos, from investors to executives, chiming in with their two cents. And they’ve got competitors that they’re trying to either copy or out-innovate.

Related: Why These People and Brands Are Fed Up With Facebook

The users who express their grievances with updates don’t consider this. It seems that every time a major tech platform introduces a new feature or redesign, people get mad. Think this is an exaggeration? Check out these tweets from 2007 through 2012 containing the words “hate Facebook update.” Or these tweets containing “Instagram changes suck” from 2015 through 2017. Or the most recent tweets about “the new Google calendar.”

Or take Snapchat, which recently rolled out a redesign of its interface that separates brands from friends and fills a tab that used to house stories with branded content. Putting partner content front-and-center, in a section of the app users habitually visit, was meant to boost engagement with that paid content. In fact, the number of daily users watching stories from publishers grew 40 percent in tests of the redesigned version of the app vs. in the old version.

It pissed people off. A Change.org petition titled “Remove the new Snapchat Update” circulated and received upwards of 1.23 million signatures. On Feb. 21, 2018, celebrity influencer Kylie Jenner tweeted that she no longer uses Snapchat to her 24.5 million Twitter followers. The comment tanked parent company Snap’s market valuation — it fell by $1.3 billion in less than a day. Jenner, mind you, was the most popular person on Snapchat for a period in 2015.

sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.

— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018

still love you tho snap … my first love

— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018

 

Image Credit: Google

Ironically, content about Kylie Jenner was among the featured posts on Snapchat Discover on Feb. 22 and 23 — “still love you tho!”

In the past, Snapchat has listened to users’ requests and implemented changes, such as when it stopped autoplaying consecutive stories in late 2016. And it listened to the Change.org petitioners, too, posting a response on Feb. 20 (before Jenner dropped her damning tweet). “We hear you,” Snap told the concerned users. “We completely understand the new Snapchat has felt uncomfortable for many.”

Related: 5 Stats That Show Snap May Be Turning Its Struggling Business Around

Snap then explained the goals it had with the redesign: To make interactions among friends more accessible and for both friend and branded content to surface according to what the user is most likely to want to see. It also announced that tabs in both the Friends and Discover sections are on their way, to allow users to customize what they see.

“This new foundation is just the beginning, and we will always listen closely to find new ways to make the service better for everyone,” the statement concluded. “We are grateful for your enthusiasm and creativity. We are very excited for what’s ahead.”

Although user feedback would suggest that Snapchat really messed up with its new redesign, it’s getting at least two things right with this statement. The company has told its users it’s listening to them, and it’s explained why it made the changes it did.

That’s what Basecamp designer Jonas Downey advised in a Medium post, “How to launch software changes without pissing people off,” last March:

“It’s bad enough to be forced into an update you didn’t agree to, but it’s even worse if you have no idea what happened or why things changed. Make sure you have a way to introduce and explain what’s new when you launch, either via in-app announcements, a mailing list, a blog or whatever method you have to communicate with customers.”

Developers and users need to empathize with each other. It’s hard to roll out a redesign that won’t be jarring to users. It’s also difficult (not impossible, but it requires extra work) for companies to maintain two versions — old and new — just so users can choose to opt out of an update.

TechCrunch contributor and FreshBooks Creative Director Jeremy Bailey suggests taking a proactive approach to considering customer feedback. Companies should research customer wants and needs before and during development to prevent backlash upon a rollout.

“Design teams must learn to become a group of ethnographers, learning to spot the unmet needs of customers and adapting to meet their concerns,” Bailey writes, noting that “every product design — or redesign — should start with customer research, generally in the form of interviews to understand customer needs and gather insights that inform a ‘problem statement’ — a series of issues that must be addressed in the design process.”

It’s also important for companies to be receptive when users point out unforeseen issues with product updates, says Sara Wachter-Boettcher, author of Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech.

“Oftentimes, those complaints highlight real failures,” Wachter-Boettcher told Entrepreneur in an email, “failures that could harm people or leave them open to abuse.”

She sites Snapchat’s June 2017 Snap Maps update as an example of a new feature that users flagged as having potential for abuse in the form of stalking, as well as a Google Maps update that associated walking distance with calories burned, depicted with cupcake symbols. She explains how users found the latter update to be harmful to people with eating disorders or who could not or chose not to walk, not to mention that calorie counts aren’t the best indicator of fitness, among other issues.

“Most of all, they complained that this is not something they signed up for,” she says. “The app was meant to map things. They hadn’t opted in to a health tracker. Google turned off the features.”

A final example she provides happened with Twitter in early 2017: The company temporarily stopped notifying users when they were added to Twitter Lists. Women, in particular, wanted to know, “because lists are one way trolls and abusers share targets” by adding women to lists with names such as “stupid bitches.” Twitter reinstated notifications after people raised these concerns.

“If companies care about the safety and wellbeing of their users, then they can’t write off criticism that might seem superficial or change-averse at first blush,” Wachter-Boettcher says. “I think that loud, massive outcry is actually a gift to a tech company. It’s free feedback that may allow them to uncover a problem that they hadn’t anticipated, before it hurts people.”

Entrepreneur will update this story amid outcry about future tech updates.

Related video: Why This Business Leader Says Feedback Is the ‘Breakfast of Champions’

February 22, 2018

11 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

With a net worth of more than $86 billion, Bill Gates is known for being one of the richest people in the world. But there’s a lot more you probably don’t know about the Microsoft co-founder.

Gates was born in Seattle in 1955 and discovered his passion for technology early on. In school, he met long-time friend and future co-founder Paul Allen. Together, they launched another small-business venture before coming up with the idea for Microsoft.

Related: 5 Life Lessons From Bill Gates, One of the Most Influential Philanthropists on Earth

Until he realized his desire to pursue computers, Gates had planned to become a lawyer and studied pre-law at Harvard. He eventually dropped out, launched Microsoft and met his employee and future wife, Melinda. Today, Gates is not only a self-made billionaire and tech leader, but he’s also a philanthropist, an author and even a knight.

Check out these 20 surprising facts about Bill Gates.

Additional reporting by Nina Zipkin

Image credit: Joe McNally | Getty Images

1. Gates developed his first computer software program at 13 years old.

After spending a few years in public school, Gates later attended the Lakeside School, a private preparatory school in Seattle. It was there that Gates discovered his passion for computer programming and met Paul Allen, who became his close friend and later Microsoft co-founder. He also developed his first computer software program at age 13. Using BASIC computer language, the program was a tic-tac-toe game in which players could compete against the computer.

2. Gates fixed his high school’s class scheduling software so he was in all-girls classes.

The Lakeside School recruited Gates to help code its class scheduling system. Gates took advantage of his new task and his coding abilities, and he and his long-time pal and later Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen tweaked the school’s scheduling software and placed Gates in all-girls classes.

“Paul did the computer scheduling with me. Unfortunately for him he was two years ahead of me and he was off to college by then. So I was the one who benefited by being able to have the nice girls at least sit near me,” Gates shared with BBC.

Image credit: Bruce Glikas

3. Gates and Allen formed a business partnership before Microsoft.

From the moment they met in middle school, Gates and Allen became friends — likely because of their common interest in computer programming. While in school, the two formed a company called Traf-O-Data. They put together a small computer based on an Intel 8008 chip that measured and analyzed traffic data for the Washington state highway department. Gates and Allen made about $20,000 from the venture, but it slowly dissolved as Allen went on to work for Honeywell in Boston and Gates enrolled at Harvard.

4. He almost had a perfect SAT score.

It’s hardly shocking that the genius got a near-perfect score on his SATs. Gates scored a 1590 out of 1600 on the college entrance exams.

5. Gates originally studied law in college.

In 1973, Gates began studying pre-law at Harvard University, planning to follow in the footsteps of his lawyer father. Although by his sophomore year, Gates’s plans changed and he began taking some of the school’s most rigorous math and science courses. Then, two years into his Harvard career, Gates dropped out to pursue Microsoft.

6. Gates was arrested twice for his driving.

In 1975, in his Porsche 911, 19-year-old Gates was arrested for speeding and driving without a license. But he didn’t learn his lesson — two years later, Gates was arrested again in Albuquerque, N.M., for another traffic violation and for driving without his license.

There’s speculation that the generic user icon in Microsoft Outlook 10 is actually a silhouette of Gates’s mugshot.

7. His wife, Melinda, used to work for him.

After graduating from Duke University in 1986, Melinda Gates landed her first job at a startup — Microsoft.

“I just thought, ‘Oh my gosh. I have to work at this company. They are changing the world. And if I get an offer, there’s no way I’m not going to take it,’ ” Melinda told CBS News.

Melinda scored the job, and shortly into her time working there, she made a great impression on the boss.

Related: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’s Top Secret to Success

“I met her at a New York City sales meeting,” Bill told CBS. “And then it was only a week or so after that, that I went up to her in the parking lot and asked if she wanted to go out.”

Image credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images

8. He was once the youngest billionaire ever.

Gates made his first billion in 1987 at the age of 31, making him the youngest billionaire ever at that time.  

9. On his wedding day, he rented out every room at the hotel.

To ensure privacy, Gates rented out all 250 rooms at the Manele Bay Hotel in Lanai, Hawaii, where his wedding party was staying. At the time (1994), Gates was the second-richest person in America. Taking an extra precaution to keep the media and paparazzi from flying overhead, Gates reportedly hired all of the helicopters on Maui, too.

10. He used to memorize his employees’s license plate numbers to keep tabs on them.

You’d think a simple punch card or check-in system might suffice — not for Gates. Gates memorized the license plates of his employees so he would know when they arrived at and left work.

“I knew everyone’s license plate, so I could look out in the parking lot and see when did people come in, when were they leaving. Eventually I had to loosen up, as the company got to a reasonable size,” he revealed in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs program.

11. Gates bought Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester manuscript for $30.8 million.

Besides his private plane, Gates’s other big splurge was Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester manuscript, which dates back to the 16th century. In a 1994 auction, Gates won the manuscript for $30.8 million, making it the most expensive book in the world. Gates sometimes puts the book on loan to museums.

12. In 1995, Gates became the richest man in the world.

In July 1995, at 39 years old, Gates became the richest man in the world with a fortune of $12.9 billion. He has since lost that title a few times, but he held the top spot on the Forbes World’s Billionaires real-time ranking in March 2017.

13. He got pied in the face during a trip to Brussels.

During a 1998 trip to Brussels, Belgium, Gates was on his way into a meeting with more than 400 Belgian educators, business leaders and government officials. Upon entering the building, Gates was struck in the face with a pie. After the incident, Belgian prankster and personality Noel Godin took responsibility for the prank, and Gates didn’t press charges.

“The pie wasn’t even that good,” a Microsoft spokesperson reported Gates as saying.

Image credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images

14. Bill and Melinda Gates run the largest private foundation in the world.

The couple launched the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. With donations from major investors, public figures and celebrities such as Warren Buffett, Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Jack Nicklaus and Big Sean, it has become the largest private foundation in the world. In 2015, it reported a $39.6 billion trust endowment.

15. He was knighted by the Queen.

In 2005, Gates received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth of England for his charitable work and achievements in technology. Gates and his wife, Melinda, met the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace for the ceremony, during which he received his “KBE” title — Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Gates is unable to be referred to as “Sir” because he is not a British citizen.

16. The number-one thing on his bucket list is not dying.

In 2013, Gates held an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit. During the session, Gates was asked if he had anything left on his bucket list. His response? “Don’t die…”

Related: How Bill Gates Became a Leadership Legend

17. His bedtime routine involves reading … and washing the dishes.

Even the richest man in the world makes time to complete his house chores. In a 2014 Reddit AMA, Gates shared that he washes his family’s dirty dishes every night. He even finds the task enjoyable. “Other people volunteer but I like the way I do it,” he said.

In addition to washing the dishes, another part of Gates’s bedtime routine involves reading for an hour. Even if it’s late into the night, he makes sure to get in a solid 60 minutes before bed, because for him, “It’s part of falling asleep,” he once told The Seattle Times.

18. If he could have a superpower, it would be “more energy.”

In their 2016 annual letter, Bill and Melinda shared the superpowers they wished they could have. The first things to come to mind for the average person might be x-ray vision, invisibility or time travel — but Melinda and Bill said they wanted more time and more energy.

Bill said he wished for more energy, explaining that many people underestimate the importance of energy access — from turning on a light switch to pressing the power button on a laptop. “Without access to energy, the poor are stuck in the dark, denied all of these benefits and opportunities that come with power.”

19. Bill and Melinda Gates’s favorite number is 122 million.

In their 2017 annual letter to Warren Buffett, who donated a chunk of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the couple wrote that 122 million is their favorite number. It is the number of children’s lives that have been saved since 1990 as the mortality rate has declined.

Image credit: Matthew Stockman | Getty Images

20. To disguise himself, Gates wears a hat.

To ward off any unwanted attention, Gates resorts to an old-school tactic — wearing a hat. During a 2017 Reddit AMA, Gates was asked if he ever disguises himself in public.

“I sometimes wear a hat,” Gates wrote. “For example when I did college tours with my son I wanted the focus to be totally on him. A lot less people recognize me when I have a hat on or else they realize I am trying to be incognito.”

21. Bill and Melinda Gates are giving $10 million to each of their kids.

As of March 2017, Forbes reports Bill Gates’s net worth to be $86.6 billion. That’s why it comes as a surprise that he and Melinda are planning to give only $10 million to each of their three kids. It’s a massive figure to most of us, but it’s pocket change for this billionaire. Most of the Gates’s fortune will go to charitable foundations, including their own Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

22. He doesn’t do his own grocery shopping

During a visit to the Ellen Show, host Ellen DeGeneres put Gates through his paces to see if the billionaire, who by all rights is very knowledgeable about the state of the world, could guess the prices of everyday grocery items. When was the last time the Microsoft founder set foot in a store to do his own shopping? “Long time ago,” he admitted. Spoiler alert: He very sort of passed the test, with a little help from the audience.

23. He typically doesn’t do big purchases, with one exception.

In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Gates shared that even after he became a billionaire, he always erred on the side of caution. “I always wanted to have enough money in the bank so that even if our customers didn’t pay us for a year, we could still keep paying everybody and do the R&D,” he said. While Gates confessed to not having particularly extravagant tastes, he said that he has used his fortune for some transportation-related purchases — a porsche in the early years and a plane for Gates Foundation travel. But there is one whimsical exception to the rule. “We have a trampoline room in our house. The kids like that. Indoor trampolines. I recommend it,” Gates said. “It’s a room with a very high ceiling.”

In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Brian Tracy breaks down seven simple techniques you can use to improve your memory. Whether you just want to make sure you nail your next presentation or need to have a long-term system, these techniques can help you have the most important information in your hip pocket when you need it most. 

All of the techniques Tracy cites to improve memory are fairly simple, but many of them require dedication in order to be effective.

For example, Tracy’s first piece of advice on how to improve your memory is to over-learn the material. If you are overprepared, then even if you forget tangential points, you will have such a firm grasp on the fundamentals that you won’t need to worry about remembering. 

You can also revise your study techniques by finding ways to make the information meaningful. If it applies to you or your current circumstances, you will be more motivated to learn the material. You can also recite the material, or develop a study system that works for you. You can even start using four-color pens, and assign a specific meaning to each color. Or, if you really want to improve your memory, you could use all of these ideas together.

Click play to learn more.

Related: 6 Reasons You Might Actually Be Afraid of Success

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With email, social media and today’s technology, it can be hard to separate life inside and outside the office. Sometimes it even feels like achieving work-life balance isn’t even possible, especially if you’re working upwards of 50 hours a week.

Related: 5 Secrets to Achieving and Maintaining Work-Life Balance

A recent study by Family Living Today and Now Sourcing uncovered surprising stats about work-life balance across the country. Right now, the United States ranks 30th out of 38 countries who have positive work-life balance. Maybe that’s because, according to the research, more than 11 percent of American workers say they work 50 or more hours a week. In fact, many people (33 percent) even find themselves working weekends or holidays too. 

Related: How the Side Hustler Life Is Redefining ‘Work-Life’ Balance

While work is extremely important, so are other things, such as getting enough sleep, taking care of yourself, eating and spending time with friends and family. So, how much time do Americans spend on activities outside of the office? On average, people spend nine and a half hours a day on “personal care” and that includes everything from sleep to showering. After work and personal care, that leaves few hours in the day for people to get other things done such as eating and drinking (1.17 hours a day), caring for family members (0.52 hours) and doing even more work (3.61 hours).

Related: Adopt These 12 Habits for a Better Work-Life Balance

Some of the biggest factors impacting work-life balance are bad and overbearing bosses, too much work, inflexible schedules, bad co-workers and long commutes. Unfortunately, if people don’t get a handle on some of these things, they could be setting themselves up for challenges in the future. In the long-term, work-life imbalance can lead to higher stress levels, higher risks of heart disease and depression and anxiety.

To learn more about work-life balance, check out the infographic below.

For any business, it’s more important than ever to have an online presence — and that goes beyond just having a website. In order to get your company out there and traffic to your website, you’ve got to have some stellar SEO practices in place.

Related: These 9 SEO Tips Are All You’ll Ever Need to Rank in Google

While the idea might sound daunting, it’s easier than you think. But first, do some research and know exactly what’s in store when it comes to search engine optimization. According to recent research from graphic design firm Milkwhale, Google is likely your best bet when choosing which search engine to focus on. Google accounts for 81 percent of desktop search traffic worldwide, getting an average 57,000 clicks per second, 100 billion searches a month and 2 trillion searches per year. That’s a lot of opportunity.

Related: SEO Tutorial: 12 Immutable Laws For Dominating Google’s Search

Great SEO practices are incredibly important to your business because according to recent research, 89 percent of customers start their buying processes through a search engine, with as little as 20 percent actually scrolling down the search results page. That means you want your website to populate as high on the search results as possible.

SEO is not only good for getting traffic to your website, but you’ll likely get more customers into your doors and more followers on your social media accounts. Nearly three-quarters of consumers who do a local search online end up actually visiting the store if it’s within five miles of them. And when it comes to social media, sites such as Facebook help lead customers to your pages. Facebook produced 61 percent of all website visits from social sites in 2016, so it’s no wonder a majority of businesses incorporate social media in their SEO strategies.

Related: How to Pick Your First SEO Keywords

For more, check out the infographic below.