Bitcoins is a cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash. It was designed to a digital currency: the system was designed to work without a central bank or a single administrator. The bitcoins are created and held electronically unlike the other currencies which can be printed in physical form like Dollars, Euros or Rupees. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency which means it uses strong strong cryptography to secure financial transactions.
Bitcoin was motivated from the paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto. The idea was to create a means of exchange independent of central authority that could be transferred in a secure and verifiable way. Bitcoin supporters were sometimes criticized and seen as people trying to remove currency from the control of governments.
Bitcoin may be used to pay for digital transactions if both parties are willing. In that scenario it acts like conventional currencies. However it differs from traditional currencies in various ways.
It is not centralized: One of the important characteristic of bitcoin is that it is decentralized. There is no institution that controls bitcoin. The network is run by a group of volunteer coders and run by computers from around the world. This system attracts some people who are not comfortable over the control of banks and governments on their money
There is Limited Supply: Unlike the traditional currencies supply is unlimited, in case of bitcoin supply is limited. Central banks can print as many dollars they want. However, in case of bitcoin the supply is limited and controlled by an underlying algorithm. Every hour small number of bitcoins are released. This makes it lucrative as an asset because as demand increases with supply remaining constant, the value will increase.
Privacy: Whereas senders of electronic payments are usually identified, this is not the case in bitcoins. Bitcoins operate in semi anonymity. The user do not need to identify themselves while sending bitcoin to another user. The protocol checks the previous transactions to confirm if the user is eligible to send the bitcoin.
Fungibility: Each bitcoin is registered and publicly available in the block chain ledger. And this helps some users to discard coins coming from controversial transactions.
Divisibility & Immutability: The smallest unit of bitcoin is called satoshi. Also, the bitcoin transactions are irreversible unlike normal transactions.
At this stage, bitcoins are very controversial. This article is written to give an idea of what a bitcoin is. Many governments including social media networks have banned ads pertaining to the bitcoin. What lies next for bitcoin is something very uncertain.
Image optimization plays an important role in SEO. Image optimization creates many advantages of image assets including faster load time, smooth user experience and additional ranking opportunities.
Although image search technology has made great strides, search engines are unable to identify the content of an image. They depend very much on text associated with the image. Here are some tips for image optimization.
Stock Images Won’t Help SEO
There are many sites which provide stock images. The problem with filling your site with stock images is that your site looks pretty much unoriginal. If you think about a corporate website, a consulting firm or customer support firm you will notice that most use the same image of a smiling man. While stock images may be optimized it won’t have the same effect as an original image.
Using Original High Quality Images
The more the original pictures you have on your website better is the user experience. Original images produced by your company mates or taken by in-house camera work better than any kind of stock photo. Another thing is to produce high quality images. Better quality images can attract more people to your website.
Images Can Act As A Catalyst
Images should be used to better explain the posts. A significant size of the population learns visually. Images can have an emotional impact than large blocks of text. Using screenshots is another way to make the post more meaningful. Screenshots are a wonderful way to get the point across.
Do not use copyright images
You need to make sure that there is no copyright conflict. If you do not have a license to use then it’s better not to use it. For example, do not use Shutterstock images without license. Under DMCA ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act) you could be issued a DMCA takedown notice. There are plenty of ways to find copyright free images.
Best Practices for JPEG, PNG, GIF Images
JPEG image provides the best option for maintaining a quality image when it is resized or compressed. Therefore, even though there is compression JPEG will form a high quality image.
If you are designing a logo use a PNG Image and try to avoid GIF images for images and photographs.
Use Compressed Images Without Losing Quality
The file sized used in an image should be optimal. A larger file size will significantly increase loading time. The image can be compressed in photoshop or you can use bulk compression through an WordPress plugin.
Naming Image Files For SEO
For great SEO descriptive keywords rich file names are crucial. Image file name alert the crawlers as to the subject matter of the image. For example, if you take an image using your camera the name looks like IMG_776536 or something like this, change it to an appropriate name so that search engine understand your image . The SEO value of the image is increased.
Write SEO Friendly Alt Text
Alt Text are text alternative to images when browser cannot render them properly. It has been found that Alt-Text is beneficial for the overall SEO strategy. This is because Alt Text provides Google with useful information.
Add Descriptive Captions For Image
Another image optimization best practice is to add descriptive captions. Captions are helpful because not all image can be understood right way. Further it provides additional context to the image which is considered beneficial for SEO.
Creating An Image SiteMap
Creating a sitemap allows Google and other search engines to discover the images in your site easily. For WordPress sites sitemaps can be created by using the Google XML Sitemap for Images Plugin
Image optimizations can be time consuming but it greatly enhances your SEO.
Are you a singer or a song producer? Then you must be looking forward to sell your music and earn a profit out of it. Due to the advancements of internet and technology, it has become an easy task for you to sell your music online and earn a decent amount of money. However, it is important for you to have a clear understanding about the steps that are associated with selling your music online. Then you will be provided with the opportunity to stay away from the hassle throughout the selling process as well.
Where should you sell your music?
When you are about to sell your music, the first thing that will come to your mind is finding the right marketplace to do it. People in today’s world are provided with a large number of online marketplaces in order to go ahead and sell music online. However, all these online marketplaces are not in a position to deliver effective results. Therefore, you need to identify what the best marketplaces are.
SoundCloud can be considered as a great place available for you to get started with. If you take a look at SoundCloud, you will be able to figure out that some of the well-known artists have started their journeys on SoundCloud. You will be able to create your own account in SoundCloud and start uploading the songs and instrumentals. However, you need to keep in mind that SoundCloud is not a platform that you can use in order to sell your music. You will only be able to build up your audience with the help of this platform.
When you establish yourself as an artist by publishing few songs on SoundCloud, you can take a look at ReverbNation. It is an excellent place available for you to sell your music and start earning money. The ReverbNation platform is pretty much similar to SoundCloud. Therefore, you will not have to go through any difficulties when you are getting used to it.
You will also be able to take a look at BandCamp, while looking for the best place to sell your music online. You will be able to upload your music to BandCamp and define a price for it. The best thing about BandCamp is that the fans will be able to go ahead and pay a higher price to show their devotion and purchase your track. Hence, you will be able to increase your chances of making more money on the platform.
Selling music on Google Play Music, Spotify and iTunes
During the recent past, we were able to see an increase in the usage of online music streaming services. Google Play Music, Spotify and iTunes are perfect examples for such service providers. In fact, the popularity of these services was boosted in the recent past. Most of the people who are looking forward to get their hands on high quality music in a legit manner prefer to go ahead with these options. Hence, you can also think about getting your music uploaded to these platforms.
It is important to keep in mind that you cannot just go ahead and upload your music to these platforms. Before you do it, you will need to be equipped with a proper record label and music management. However, there are some alternatives available for you to consider about as well. You can go ahead following those alternatives and there is a high possibility for you to end up with better results.
You can seek the assistance of third party service providers such as TuneCore when trying to get your music published on iTunes. These services are working as a proxy for the record label. Hence, you will be able to stay away from a great deal of frustration when trying to get your music published. They will help you with not just getting your music uploaded to iTunes, but also for the other major music stores found online. With that, you will be able to make your music tracks available for the people in every corner of the world to listen.
DistroKid can also be considered as a perfect example for such a third party service provider, who can help you with getting your music uploaded and published to Google Play Music, Spotify and iTunes. However, they are offering their services for an annual fee. This is a reasonable amount and you will not have to go through any hassle while getting their services. Apart from the annual fee, you will not have to pay anything else. In other words, DistroKid doesn’t take a commission from the songs that you upload. Due to this reason, you will be able to go ahead and upload music tracks as much as you want as well.
When you are planning to get your music uploaded to Google Play Music, Spotify and iTunes, you should also keep in mind that several days are taken in order to propagate music. However, this is a simple and a slick process. Hence, you will be able to get your job done without any hassle. You will not be asked too many questions or you will not be asked to wait for weeks. Therefore, you can try that out without keeping any doubts in mind.
None of these services are in a position to help you make profits, unless your offered service is not good. Due to this reason, you will need to pay a lot of attention towards getting high quality music created. Then you will be able to have your music in demand at all times. With that, you will be able to get more people to purchase your music via the online platforms. As a result, you will be able to end up with amazing returns in the long run.
