Jean Galea

Health, Wealth, Relationships, Wisdom

Spotlight Review – Easily Add Instagram Feeds to Your Site

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Spotlight

As you might have noticed, I include the latest photos from my Instagram feed in the footer of my blog. I’m no Instagram celebrity, but including the Instagram shots help my readers get a glimpse of another side of me, namely my experiences as a padel player competing in Spain and my journey in this sport.

Spotlight for WordPress offers a simple and effective way to add your Instagram feeds to your WordPress site.

Instagram has become one of the most used social media platforms. It is now becoming as important as ever to harness its power and use it to your advantage. By integrating your Instagram feed on your site, you can increase social engagement and brand awareness while also building social proof.

As one of the main social media platforms in 2020, Instagram is a place where you can connect with your audience in a very different way than you would on Twitter or Facebook. While Twitter is mostly used to express your views and Facebook to connect with friends and family, Instagram is unique in that it is a space where you can tell your story. Used in the right way, Instagram can be a very powerful tool for bloggers, businesses, and brands alike.

Instagram for me is a place where I can share my passion for sports – in particular my padel and tennis journey. It is a way to showcase a different side to my personality that adds a personal touch to my blog. In this post, I will be taking you through the process of installing Spotlight on your website, just like I’ve done in my footer. Let’s get to it.

Whether you have a blog, product or service page, run events, or a business, Spotlight can help you take your Instagram game to the next level.

Instagram itself, surprisingly, does not make it very simple to embed such a feed and customize it on your site. Instead, we have to use WordPress plugins that facilitate this task. My favorite plugin for this is Spotlight, so in this post, I’ll review Spotlight for WordPress and cover some of its best features.

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What are Good Monthly Operating Margins for Software/SAAS Businesses?

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If you operate a software business (such as WordPress plugins) or a SAAS, it is important to benchmark your operating profit with that of other similar businesses.

Before we start, it’s important to clear up some definitions:

Gross Margin – Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold (or Cost of Sales)
Operating Margin – Gross Margin minus Sales, Marketing, General and Admin expenses
Net Margin – Operating Margin minus Interest & Taxes

I’m looking at operating margin % here.

You can take a look at some open metrics over at Baremetrics for a start.

I also asked several of my friends in business and there isn’t one clear answer. The most common percentage I could identify is around 80%, but it’s not always clear what margin they are referring to.

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How to Start a Blog with WordPress

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how to start a WordPress blog bluehost

Starting a blog is a fun and rewarding experience. However, on the other hand, it can also be portrayed as being as daunting as it is interesting. Often, people are very interested in starting their own blog but struggle to get to grips with how to go about starting one from scratch.

The purpose of this post is to provide you with insight and guidelines into how you can start your own blog using one of the most powerful platforms for this purpose – WordPress.

STEP 1 – WordPress as the chosen blogging platform

WordPress is a self-hosted platform and is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) available. Millions of posts are created using this platform and it can be used for building many types of websites, ranging from a personal blog to business-level sites. The main advantage of WordPress is its user-friendliness, easy to understand interface, as well as being completely customizable.

The WordPress software can be downloaded from wordpress.org.

STEP 2 – Choosing a Web Host

Once you have decided to use WordPress as your blogging platform, you will need to choose a web hosting company to host your site. Web hosting can be a very complicated and technical topic, and it’s what trips most new bloggers up in their initial steps.

My suggestion is to keep things simple and don’t get too obsessed about finding the best possible host and configuration.

You will see that thousands if not millions of bloggers out there start off with a platform like Bluehost. The reason is that this company has been in the industry for over twenty years and provides one of the most simple ways to starting a WordPress blog and keeping it running without any issues.

If you choose Bluehost, you don’t even need to download WordPress yourself, instead you can use their interface to get it installed, with the big advantage being that you can get started in 5 minutes without worrying about MySQL databases and editing any PHP files.

Get a Bluehost hosting account

Here’s a quote from my cousin, who was able to get his own blog up and running after a short chat with me that consisted of me telling him the guidelines that I’m sharing with you in this blog post:

I have personally just started WordPress an Bluehost for blogging and was able to understand how to use it and its functions fairly quickly! The main reason for this is that the back end is intuitive, straightforward and relatively easy to navigate around. Moreover, there are many fora, tutorials or blogs which can help one acclimatise to this CMS.

One helpful site for tutorials is www.lynda.com, offering basic and more advanced tutorials WordPress guides. Check it out!

STEP 3 – Selecting a topic for your blog

OK, so you have decided to create your own blog. Now you must determine what your blog will be about.  What topic best suits the need for creating this blog? There are many topics one can select. It is important to keep in mind that you don’t need to necessarily pick a topic that is seemingly the most popular, but you may also opt to select a topic that is interesting to you, enjoyable and one in which you are interested in learning further.  However, do remember that if you manage to strike a balance between the two aforementioned approaches, you will increase the likelihood of increased traffic to your blog!

Keep in mind also that you need not be the expert in that field when you first start out!  You need only have a keen interest and passion for the topic and ultimately learn as you go along.

One other important factor to keep in mind is that the blog topic chosen should not determine that your entire blog will be tied to that topic.  Feel free to switch around a few topics or spread your topic into other areas of interest.  Feel free to experiment and mix it up a bit. Ultimately, you will definitely find the topic, or topic, which will definitely be to your liking and best matches your interests or passion.

So we have so far determined that we want to start a blog, identified WordPress as our blogging platform and chosen our web host. We also identified our chosen topic of interest. Let’s move on to the next steps…

STEP 4 – Setting up your WordPress blog

In order to start your blog, you need a host and a domain name.

The domain name is the main URL, or the address, for your website.  Choose wisely as this is what will identify and distinguish your blog from others!  The following are a number of tips when selecting your domain name:

  • Keep the name simple and relevant to your blog
  • Keep it as short as possible
  • Make it easy to type and pronounce
  • Avoid using number and symbols, like hyphens, as this can make it confusing and hard to find for your visitors
  • Try to use words that can be easily picked up by search engines to improve your visibility on the web

We touched briefly on hosting earlier, and I hope you took the chance to get that set up right away. If you did, then great, you can skip to the next step.

If you’re still unsure, let’s talk a bit more about web hosting.

Every website needs web hosting in order to function.  Without having a web host you would not be able to take your blog live on the web.  The web host’s function is to store your files and data on their servers so that people visiting your website can access the content of your website using their web browsers.

There are a number of different web hosting options available.  Below is a shortlist of hosts I’ve tried over the years and can recommend for beginner bloggers:

So if you want to compare and contrast, by all means, visit those hosts and take your pick. You can’t go wrong with any of them. 

STEP 5 – Customizing your blog

So you have now taken your website live on the web! The next step is to start customizing your blog’s design to make it visually appealing, easy to navigate, and attractive to your visitors.

Themes

WordPress gives you the ability to select amongst thousands of themes for your website.  There are free themes and the premium themes which often provide more advanced features and functions for your website.  Navigate through the library to select the theme which best suits the content of your blog.  Keep in mind that when selecting a theme try to opt for a theme that is simple to use and offers a clear and clear design for your visitors to view and navigate through.

The following are a couple of good WordPress themes and page builders suitable for blogs. My favorite combinations are:

Plugins

Plugins are a function in WordPress that have the ability to improve the design and functionality of your blog.  They are essentially add ons that you can install on your site that focus primarily on adding new features to your site.  The type of plugin required depends on the type of blog you are writing and the type of extended function that you are after.  Much like themes, there are a plethora of plugins available to the community. For blogs, in particular, you can check out plugins like Spotlight (Instagram and Social Media) as well as WP RSS Aggregator (importing news items from other sites via RSS).

STEP 6 – Writing your first blog post

Congratulations! You have set up and customised your WordPress blog.  Your next step it to start writing your first blog post!

To write your first blog post, click on the Posts menu in the left hand menu of your dashboard, then select Add New.

To begin with, start with choosing a title for your blog post.  Posts are structured into various ‘blocks’  Each block you add can contain different types of content.  For example, text, images, videos, headers, lists, etc.  Proceed by writing your blog and inserting the different types of content as necessary for your blog.

You may notice that on the right hand side of your dashboard when writing a blog there is an option to assign ‘Categories and Tags’ to your blog posts.

Whilst writing your blog post you may choose to save the blog as a draft or to preview it as it will look on your website.  Furthermore, when you have finished writing your blog you can click on the Publish button to make your post live on your website, either immediately or set it to go live on a certain date and time.

Once you have written and published your first post, set yourself a timeline as to when you would like to start publishing your next posts to your blog.

Happy blogging!

Let me know in the comments section if you have any questions about starting a new blog and I’ll be happy to help out. It can certainly take a lifetime of learning to run a successful blog, but now it’s easier than ever to get started thanks to hosts like Bluehost and the WordPress software.

🔥 Swaper Review 2024 – A Top P2P Lending Platform

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Swaper P2P lending platform

In this review, I’ll be taking a look at Swaper, one of my favorite P2P lending platforms in both function and design.

Swaper is one of the latest entries into the P2P lending space in Europe, having started operations in May 2019. They have found success pretty quickly though, amassing more than 4000 active investors, 160m euro in investments and 2.1m euro in interest paid back to investors.

What is Swaper?

Swaper is a P2P lending platform, where you can earn up to 16% annually. The minimum investment is €10. There are no fees for investors, including the secondary market.

Swaper differs from other platforms by operating with only one loan originator, Wandoo, as well as offering all loans at a fixed 14% interest return. If you’re a VIP investor (details below) you will earn 2% more, therefore 16% annually.

You can invest in either EUR and GBP to avoid money transfer fees.

A buyback guarantee is also in place, whereby when borrowers are late for more than 30 days, Swaper will buy back the loan from the investor.

As an investor, you can also make use of the auto-invest system to invest money automatically, for example a set amount every week, or also to reinvest the interest received.

Swaper operates and provides its services under the legislative acts of the Republic of Estonia. Swaper is not a regulated financial institution and the claim rights offered for purchase on Swaper’s website are not considered as securities or any other regulated financial instruments.

Therefore the business activities of Swaper do not fall under the supervision of any Financial Supervisory Authority. Your investments are not guaranteed in any way. This is pretty normal for P2P lending platforms, although if this is your first P2P lending investment I would advise that you take this into consideration and make sure you’re comfortable with the risk before taking the plunge.

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🔥 The Best Bitcoin and Crypto Interest Accounts in 2024

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Crypto loansEarn interest on crypto

Did you know that you could earn interest on Bitcoin, Ethereum and other crypto-assets that you own?

Bitcoin has been criticized by certain people in the past for being an asset that does not yield any dividends, but this argument no longer holds any water.

Many crypto investors store their digital assets on exchanges like Coinbase and Binance for long-term safekeeping. Doing so means they are assuming counterparty risk, however, so in my opinion, if you’re going to opt for keeping your crypto with a third-party custodian, you might as well put it to work.

These are my favorite crypto lending platforms where you can earn interest on your crypto and also obtain loans by providing crypto as collateral.

  • YouHodler – biggest number of cryptos supported, lowest fees
  • Nexo – best all-rounder in terms of provided services

Alternatively, you can store your crypto in cold storage, but you won’t be able to grow your wealth in that way unless your crypto asset prices appreciate over time.

In this post, I’ll show you how you can earn 5% and upwards on your Bitcoin by using the interest accounts on the platforms featured here.

Most of the platforms I will describe help you earn interest on your crypto by implementing some form of lending. I have written extensively about my P2P lending experience and my favorite P2P lending platforms, but today we’ll add the crypto factor into the mix – hence we will be talking about crypto-backed loans. In my opinion, as an investor, the addition of crypto as collateral marks a huge improvement over the traditional P2P lending platforms, which can lack transparency and that mostly work with no collateral.

Crypto lending is becoming a huge industry, and we can take a look at Google trends to verify this. Have a look at the chart showing a strong worldwide uptick in interest in crypto lending options over the past three years.

crypto lending interest

Let’s take a look at the best platforms available. One of the important things to note before we start is that these platforms exclude fewer people than traditional P2P lending platforms. While the traditional platforms operate within very strict geographical limitations, with crypto lending platforms basically anyone who holds crypto can participate.

YouHodler

Youhodler

YouHodler offers an extensive set of crypto-fiat financial services. In its essence, the platform intends to help investors take advantage of cryptocurrencies, without having to actively trade them.

YouHodler has managed to make crypto-HODLing an active strategy. For investors, access to a crypto-exclusive savings account and interest-bearing loans are preferable ways to expand your portfolio.

This solves an instant issue with digital currencies – opportunity costs. That is to say, rather than leaving your digital coins sitting idle in a private wallet, YouHodler allows you to earn a yield on your holdings. At the same time, you get to keep hold of your investment and thus – you can cash out your coins whenever you see fit.

YouHodler implements some innovative strategies to boost your returns, so it is an ideal platform for those who like to tweak things and see what works best. The company is registered in Cyprus and is regulated in Europe, while client funds are stored securely within the Ledger Vault platform.

You can also use YouHodler as an exchange to trade cryptocurrencies. If you’ve already made some amazing profits on your Bitcoin, perhaps it’s time to give yourself a break. For example, YouHodler savings accounts pay 12% annual interest on stablecoins. Hence, you could do a Bitcoin to fiat exchange with just a 2% fee right on our platform, and then convert fiat to your favorite stablecoin in orer to start earning interest.

You can read my full review of YouHodler if you want to learn more about this platform, or just click the link below to go to the Youhodler website directly and get started.

Earn interest with YouHodler

Binance Savings and Staking

Binance savings

With Binance, you have several ways of earning money on your cryptos.

Flexible Savings

The easiest way is probably using their Flexible Savings product. Flexible Savings is your Crypto savings account. Subscribe your crypto to earn interest, with the flexibility to redeem your funds at any time.

To quote a few estimated annual yields available at the moment, we have:

  • BUSD at 2.44%
  • USDT at 2.11%
  • DASH at 1.83%

There are 24 coins you can use for the flexible savings account.

Locked Savings

For higher returns, you will want to opt for the Locked Savings product. By subscribing your crypto to locked savings periods you will in return get higher interest earnings. You can choose from several durations depending on the coin you are using, but it’s typically one or more options from the following:

  • 7 Days
  • 14 Days
  • 30 Days
  • 90 Days

For example, with BUSD you get an annualized interest rate of 7.42% at the time of writing, while USDT gives you 6.79%. Both of these are stablecoins that can be easily bought from the Binance exchange itself.

See also: How to earn interest on crypto with Binance

The range of coins available for locked savings is more limited, we can only choose between 6 coins: BUSD, USDT, COCOS, ONE, EOS.

Earn money on crypto with Binance

Nexo – The All-Round Financial Service

Nexo is an excellent platform for those investors seeking an active strategy for their crypto holdings by providing access to a crypto-exclusive savings account, interest-bearing loans, crypto exchange and a Nexo card which will give you access to fiat without needing to sell your crypto.

Once you top up and buy crypto you can start earning up to 17% annual interest immediately without further action being required from your side. Apart from earning interest on cryptocurrencies, you can also earn up to 12% APR on USDx, EURx and GBPx stablecoins. The actual APR is determined based on Loyalty Tiers depending on the ratio of Nexo Tokens against the balance of other assets in your portfolio.

Read my in-depth review of Nexo’s plethora of services here.

Nexo also offers crypto-backed loans where your digital assets act as collateral without any further need for a credit assessment. Put simply, Nexo gives you fiat or stablecoins, and you provide crypto as security for repayment. Apart from the tax benefit associated with not selling your crypto, Nexo provides you with the opportunity to access fiat funds at the touch of a button, something that with legacy banks is unimaginable.

Invest with Nexo

Concluding Thoughts

I’ve tried out all these platforms and found YouHodler and Nexo to be the ones I liked most. The platforms mentioned in this post all work fine, but you’ll need to find the one that has the best branding and user interface for your tastes. Some of them also reward you in their native tokens, but in general, I prefer going for Bitcoin rewards.

Read more: The Best Books about Bitcoin and Crypto

What do you think of P2P lending platforms that provide crypto-backed collateral? I think it’s a nice upgrade on the traditional P2P lending platforms and as an investor, it gives me more security.

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Jean Galea

Investor | Dad | Global Citizen | Athlete