Jean Galea

Evaluating an ICO

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The ICO madness continues, in 2017 a total of $5.6 billion was raised by blockchain startups, and only in the first quarter of 2018, $4.7b. Most of these projects receiving millions of dollars do not even have a working product.

Although most ICOs eventually fail, just like startups, they might be attractive to investors in the crypto space since it’s an area where you can experience high returns.

If you do decide to have a closer look at ICOs, I recommend keeping these five Ts in mind before taking a decision:

  1. Tech
  2. Timeline
  3. Team
  4. Tokenomics
  5. Telegram community

The technology needs to be solid and really revolutionary in its own niche. Some projects are just too early to succeed. They might succeed if launched in a few years’ time when the infrastructure is different, but right now they are highly unlikely to succeed. Other attempt to solve a problem that just isn’t best suited to a decentralized system. Other ICOs are pure scams that have no real technology behind them, but just have a nice white paper with lots of fancy wording. If you don’t understand the tech, I wouldn’t advise proceeding with ICO investing.

Secondly, the timeline. What timeline does the project have in place? If you understand the tech, you can have a rough idea whether the timeline they are describing makes sense or not. Are they promising too much too soon? If it’s a longer timeline, do they have sufficient funds to cover the longer timeline?

Thirdly, the team. Are the people heading the ICO a bunch of young kids trying to get rich quick? Have you considered how you’d feel if you were a twenty-something kid with a few million euros in your pocket? Would you still be incentivized to work on your ICO, or just go and enjoy the world? Does the team have a proven track record successfully bringing to market similar or relevant businesses/projects? Have they covered all areas of knowledge required to complete this project? One thing I like to do is look for podcast interviews with the founders of ICOs, or see them speak at conferences (YouTube if you can’t attend the conferences in person). Use your gut feeling to judge whether they are trustworthy or not.

Fourthly, the tokenomics. The three definitions of tokenomics are (1) a means of self-funding within the crypto economy, (2) the deployment of a token within the ecosystem of an ICO project and (3) the set of all economic activity generated through the creation of tokens. It’s important to understand the economic model underpinning the ICO, and what real value the tokens you are buying will have in this economic model. Read this and this.

Fifth, the ICO’s Telegram community. Most ICO communities are active on Telegram, and the size and quality of content on the group will give you an indicator of the potential that ICO has. Things to look at are the kind of discussions that are taking place, the kind of language used by the ICO founders and intelligibility of their replies. Updates on progress are also an important factor.

With those five factors considered, you should be well on your way to make an intelligent decision on whether you should invest in an ICO or not. Keep in mind that so far most ICOs have failed, and that this is probably the riskiest way to invest in cryptos at the moment. So proceed with caution.

Know What You’re Buying

If you are an ICO buyer, be cautious, most tokens are utility tokens, used as access rights or credits to use in a software. You are not buying any physical asset, or stock, nor any financial product that entitles you to claim dividends or voting rights in the company so make sure that there is a real need for this token, the project is feasible and the team behind it is skilled enough to carry out it.

If the ICO claims that its tokens provide profits and voting rights, the company is running a securities offering and if they are not complying with regulations they may be breaking securities and other laws and government agencies can and will prosecute them.

Do not skimp on investigating and analyzing the project you intend to participate in, make your own informed decisions and be aware of the risks that ICOs entail.

Here’s some further reading on ICOs if you’re new to them.

Do you use any other advice on evaluating ICOs? Let me know in the comments section.

How to Improve Your English Pronunciation

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These are my top tips, based on my experience, on how you can improve your English pronunciation.

Decide which flavour of English you want to concentrate on

The three big ones are American English, British English and Australian English when it comes to pronunciation. Most people will want to learn American English as it is the most widely used, and frankly, for business use, that’s the best one to learn. In the future, we might need to learn Mandarin, but for now, the US is the world leader in business and innovation. So go with American English pronunciation unless you have some specific reason to learn one of the other two. A typical reason might be acting in a movie where your character is supposed to have a British English accent.

Methodologies. Books, Courses, One-to-One Training?

There are several resources available to you for helping you improve your English pronunciation. An important factor is your budget. There is no doubt in my mind that the most effective strategy is to go for personal one-to-one training, which can be done online using Skype. It is unfortunately also the most expensive option. Refer to the recommended tutors list below.

Recommended Books & Audio CDs

Recommended Online Video Courses

Recommended Tutors for Private Lessons

Padel Points FAQ – Was it a Valid Point or Not?

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Many times while playing padel, we encounter situations where we have a doubt: was that ball a fault or not?

Let’s have a look and attempt to clarify some of the most common doubts that padel players face.

Case 1 – The ball bounces right in the angle between the back wall and the ground. Was it out or in?

This is known as huevo in Spanish, which means egg. I’m not sure why that is so, but that’s what it’s called. In order to understand whether it was in or out, we need to consider the angle of the trajectory taken by the ball after its bounce. If the ball’s trajectory forms a 45 degree angle or bigger with the ground, then it is considered in, while if it bounces off closer to the ground then it was out. It’s quite logical really, just applying the laws of physics.

Case 2 – We serve and the ball bounces on the ground and then rebounds off the part between the mesh and the side wall, called pico in Spanish, and border in English.

If the ball rebounds in the direction of the receiver, then it’s a valid serve, if not it is a bad serve. This is a rule that is very often confused at beginner level, and it is commonly given as a let. This is incorrect, and the rule just described should apply instead. It has to be either a good or bad serve, and never a let.

Case 3 – We run up to the net to return a ball, and we don’t manage to break fast enough and touch the net by mistake. 

The net cannot come into contact with our bodies or rackets at any point during the match, hence we automatically lose the point in this case.

Case 4 – In the attacking position, close to the net, we hit the ball while our racket is in our opponents’ side of the court. 

Whether it’s a valid point or not depends on the situation:

  1. If the ball hasn’t yet crossed to our side of the court, then it’s not a valid point and play is stopped as this is an infraction of the rules.
  2. If the ball has crossed to our side, rebounded against the walls and is heading back towards our opponents’ side, then we are free to invade our opponents’ court with our racket to return the ball. It is important not to touch the net while doing so.

Case 5 – In our attacking position, we hit the ball on our side of the court but subsequently our racket invades the opponents’ side of the court due to swing inertia.

It’s valid, keeping in mind that we can at no point in time touch the net.

Case 6 – We serve and the ball bounces more than one time in the receiver’s box. 

It’s a valid point for the server as the receiver cannot let the ball bounce twice in his side of the court.

Case 7 – We serve while stepping on the imaginary central line that there is from the center of the court till the end of our side of the court. 

It’s a bad serve as we cannot invade the other side of the court while serving, nor step on the imaginary line.

Case 8 – When serving, we bounce the ball inside the box. 

This is a bad serve, since we should bounce and hit the ball outside of the box. Keep in mind that you cannot step on the box’s back line either.

Case 9 – We serve and the ball bounces on the serving line or the center line of the receiver’s box. 

It’s a valid serve, the lines are included in the receiving box area.

Case 10 – The ball bounces on our side and rebounds off the fence at the back of the court, above the glass wall.

The ball remains in play, there are no issues. However you cannot bounce the ball off this part off the fence yourself, as you would when bouncing the ball off the back wall to return it.

Case 11 – We hit a high ball, or globo, and the ball hits the ceiling.

Play stops and a point is awarded to your opponents. The same thing happens if the ball hits the floodlight or any other external object.

Do you have any other questions or doubts about padel points? Let me know and I’ll add more Q & As.

Documenting Procedures Using Screencasts

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Following my earlier thoughts about systemization, in this post I’ll tackle a powerful tool you have at your disposal when creating processes: video.

Trello and Confluence are great repositories of internal processes. In my experience, they’re tools that are easy to learn. In fact, especially with Trello, it’s usually a case of love at first sight, and many team members end up using Trello to manage their personal processes and life.

Sometimes the best way to show how a process is done is by recording a screencast. These screencasts can then be embedded into Trello or Confluence.

Tools of the Trade

So what are the best tools for creating internal screencasts that are then shared on Trello?

Screenflow and Camtasia are very similar feature-wise, so it’s down to what you prefer and what works best on your platform. You’ll use this software to record your screencast.

Once you’ve recorded your screencast, you need to share it with the rest of the team via Trello, so upload it to YouTube and set the privacy settings to ‘unlisted’. That means that people won’t be able to search for it in YouTube, only people having the direct URL will be able to view the video. We then grab the video’s URL and paste it into a Trello card. Trello conveniently embeds the video for easy viewing.

That’s it, apart from the cost of acquiring Screenflow or Camtasia, the rest of the process is all free. Trello is a free tool and so is YouTube. If you decide to use Vimeo instead of YouTube, you’ll need to be a premium member to setup the unlisted videos functionality. I also know some people who upload their videos to screencast.com, so that’s another alternative for you. You can get 2GB storage and 2GB bandwidth for free and beyond that you’ll need to upgrade ($100/year) and become a paid user (200GB storage). Note that with Screencast you can’t embed the videos in Trello cards however, so it’s not as convenient as YouTube or Vimeo.

When is a Screencast Ideal?

If it’s something you can explain to somebody in just one paragraph, then chances are good you probably don’t need a screencast for it. But if it’s something that is going to take you several paragraphs to walk somebody through, then it’s worth making a screencast.

You’ll need to make an effort to really think about why you do things a certain way and then make sure that you explain your thought process during the screencast.

Don’t skimp on details.

It’s better to include some extra background information about a process than leave anything out.

Make sure you give it your best shot, you don’t need to record your screencasts in a studio but it doesn’t hurt to learn a few tricks that can really help boost the level of your output.

Videos will turn out to be especially useful if like us your team is all remote based. When someone joins your team you don’t have the luxury to sit him down next to you and explain what you do and why you do it. So screencasts and full-blown presentation videos are a must in such cases. Letting the VA see you in the presentation is a great way to build rapport.

If you’re training multiple team members and have time to build some extra rapport with them, a live training session via Google Hangouts can be another option to consider. Also, keep in mind that YouTube contains a ton of resources and tutorials that you can leverage in your business. If you want to teach your new VA or team member how to administer a WordPress blog, don’t reinvent the wheel and waste your precious time, pick one of the existing YouTube tutorial videos and you’re done.

Remember that every time you are creating a video, you are expanding your vault of company knowledge. This will cut the induction time and expense for future team members. Screencasts and presentation videos are easy and fun to create, keep in mind that every video you create is a further step towards liberating yourself from the nitty gritty details of running the business.

Other screen recording utilities that you might want to check out:

I’ll finish off with a guide to documenting business processes. It is of utmost importance that you break things down to their essence and make it very easy to understand.

  1. Notice (Notice which workflows are key to your business and repetitive in nature.)
  2. Document (Write down every step. Don’ t leave anything out.)
  3. Optimize (Once you’ve written the basic documentation, ask yourself three questions:
    #1: Which of these steps can be eliminated?
    #2: Which of these steps can be simplified?
    #3: Which of these steps should be done in a different order?)
  4. Test (Go through the workflow again, executing only what’s written down.)
  5. Share (One of the most powerful things about workflows is that they make delegation vastly easier.)

How I Found the Best Web Hosting for WordPress Blogs and Sites

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Searching for a web hosting company to host your blog or site can be a really time-consuming, frustrating, and draining task. That’s a fact. I know people who have been publishing sites for years and who have still not found a hosting solution that they are completely satisfied with.

Today I am sharing my experience to help you find a perfect host for your needs.

Yes, we need to focus on your needs in order to find the best web hosting solution for you. The biggest mistake you can make is to read page upon page of reviews on web hosting forums, without first carefully analysing your particular use-case. Sure, some web hosts are more reliable than others, some of them have great customer service and others seem hell bent on making their customers lives miserable, but that is not the most important thing to start from.

I started my adventure with web hosting many years back, and my first web hosting experience was far from positive. In fact, the first company I had chosen suddenly disappeared, taking with it all its clients’ data. Can you believe that? That cost me much grief as in those times I used to rely on backups provided by the hosting company itself. Which means that I had no access to my data and neither to the backups.

After that traumatic experience, I decided that I was going to change my strategy with hosting completely.

Here’s what I did.

First of all at that time I switched over to WordPress, and have been using this CMS for any website I build since then. If you’re building sites and haven’t used WordPress, you’re really missing out, go check it out immediately!

Anyway, the first step of my strategy was to take responsibility for my own backups. After much research I found a WordPress plugin that fit my needs perfectly: BackupBuddy.

With BackupBuddy I can backup all my websites easily and automatically, and send the backups offsite to another server, or even to my Dropbox account.

With backups taken care of, I proceeded to take a good look at the websites I needed to host. I had a whole range of sites, some of them my own, and others of friends of mine. Not all of them had the same requirements, a few would do with basic hosting while others like WP Mayor needed specialized hosting to handle a large number of visitors.

By now I’m sure you’re realising that you cannot go searching for the cheapest web hosting, the fastest web host, etc. because there ain’t no such thing.

There is no best web hosting provider.

But…

There is a best hosting solution for each of your sites.

What are we saying here? We’re simply saying that your search for web hosting needs to start from the needs of each and every website you want to host, and once you know what you want, it’s relatively easy to find a good web host.

I told you that for a site like WP Mayor I needed specialised hosting. Why is that? Well, that particular site has a global audience, so the site must be loading fast from any corner of the world. That suggests the need for a Content Delivery Network (CDN) so anyone can get the page elements loaded from a location closest to him.

What about server power? That site receives thousands of monthly visitors, and so I needed a server which packed a punch in its setup, and was able to handle sudden spikes of traffic. Caching was definitely on the cards here, together with raw computing power. Besides, I don’t have the time or knowledge to tweak a hosting setup for these specialised requirements.

A quick look around and it was fairly evident what the solution for WPMayor’s hosting was: a WordPress managed-hosting solution. I needed someone to host my site, someone who I could rely on and who had experience working with WordPress and tweaking the hosting environment to be perfectly optimised for this CMS. Turns out there is a hosting company which provides just that, and everyone who works there is knowledgeable at WordPress + Hosting. Just perfect!

Specialized Managed WordPress Hosting: WP Engine

WP Engine turns out to be the most reliable WordPress hosting solution out there, with an equally reliable support staff who are always ready to help you out with any issue you might have.

The guys at WP Engine excel in so many ways that I don’t really have much to say about them apart the fact that they are probably the top in WordPress hosting, you can’t get anything better than this.

If you have specialised requirements for your blog, or run a high-traffic blog, this is your ticket to great web hosting, look no further because WP Engine will give you all you need.

The cheapest plan at WP Engine, which caters for 1 site and up to 25,000 visits/month, is available at $35/month with a CDN included. This is especially great if your target audience is a global one.

If you want to host more than one site at WP Engine you can step up to the next package which will set you back $115/month but includes a CDN and hosting for up to 5 websites, with a maximum of 100,000 visits/month.

Now I’m totally convinced about WP Engine and think it’s a great deal for any website which is already making its own income. However, I know many of you are just starting out in the internet marketing business, creating their websites to test the waters or maybe creating a small website to advertise your off-line service/product.

In that case, you can probably save some money and go with something more flexible and cheaper. I’m talking about shared hosting packages, which are super common nowadays. You will find thousands of hosting companies offering these packages, and so it becomes really difficult to make your choice. Let me go straight to the point and tell you about my choice…

Shared Web Hosting Provider: SiteGround

I’ve been with SiteGround for around 10 years now (a little after they started off), and I’ve found them to be very reliable.

SiteGround shared hosting packages start at €3.95/month. Uptime is excellent and I support via chat is excellent. The technicians really do seem to know what they’re doing, compared to other hosting companies’ techs who appear to have only the most very basic knowledge of how WordPress works, leaving you to deal with everything else.

Over to You, Go Get Your Perfect Hosting Solution!

That’s my web hosting story with a happy ending. Nowadays I have my mind at rest hosting all my sites between WP Engine and SiteGround, and having them backed up via BlogVault. I’ve found this to be an absolutely fantastic setup that can be adopted by many of you out there, which prompted me to share my experience. Hope you can benefit from my experience.

Do you have any questions about hosting which I haven’t answered in this post? Please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Jean Galea

Online Entrepreneur. Global Citizen. Padel Player.
Founder of WP Mayor & WP RSS Aggregator.

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