It is the way of life for many students to be on a perpetually tight budget. It is widely known that students are not the best at saving money, and many people believe what they do save gets spent on alcohol, takeaway food and nights out. However, there are many essentials that you will have to budget for as a student, and you’ll need to find the best deals in order to save as much money as you can. Living arrangements change all the time at university, so there are always household items which need to be bought, as well as things for your course, and a budget for some spending money for you on the side. Therefore, you need to find the best deals on your purchases to try and reduce the amount that you spend, and really limit yourself to only buying necessary items most of the time. Here are a few things you may need to budget for as a student, and some examples of methods you can utilize to try to save money.

Textbooks

Depending on your course and how long you are going to be studying, it’s likely you will have to spend a lot of money on course books alone each year. There may be some part of you which believes that your textbooks might not be a necessity, but unfortunately, your textbooks are recommended to you for a reason. While there might be a lot of other things you would rather spend your money on, don’t forget that your number one priority at university is to learn and achieve your full potential, and your textbooks contain a lot of the information which you will need for the course. Therefore, textbooks should be the first thing which you consider spending your money on. Compare prices of textbooks across a range of different sites and stores to try and reduce the amount you will have to spend. It is also possible that your university will offer a package price if you buy all of your textbooks for the year in bulk, or alternatively, you could purchase second-hand books from older students who don’t need them anymore.

Travel

It is likely that you will want to travel back and forth between university on occasion, so it would be worthwhile to put some money aside to pay for your travel costs. If you drive, then you will need spare funds to maintain your car, and also to pay for regular costs such as maintenance, MOTs, and petrol expenses. Alternatively, you can always travel home via public transport, and you can utilize a variation of methods to try and save money on train fares. There are normally different discounts accessible to students to reduce travel costs and make journeys more affordable, so have a look to see what is out there and available to you. You can also compare fare prices on different websites to see what the cheapest ticket price you can get is. Booking at least a few weeks in advance of your travel date will also save you money and ensure that you get the best deal available.

Clothing necessities

Everyone needs new clothes, so don’t feel bad about creating a clothing budget for yourself. However, you should take into account that there is a difference between buying yourself a new pair of jeans after you spilled something on them on a night out, and buying those £200 shoes that you’ve had your eye on just to ‘treat yourself.’ As a student, your treats will unfortunately now be limited to an early morning £2 coffee after a late night of studying. Try and find cheap clothes through clothing swaps and supermarket brands, rather than purchasing high-end fashionable clothes. If you are a fan of fashion, you might be able to find designer clothes for a lower price in charity shops and thrift stores.

Food shopping

Despite what many students believe, you cannot live your entire university life off of frozen chicken nuggets and takeaway pizza, especially as takeaways will cost you a lot of money in the long run. Doing weekly shops in a local supermarket will save you money on food, and there are certain buying tips which will help you to keep to your budget. Firstly, you should write a strict list of essentials you need for the week, and work out the meals you plan on making, as this will stop you from buying unnecessary purchases. Look for reduced price items which are close to their use-by date, and then you can freeze them at home and keep them for at least a month after you buy. Don’t forget that widely recognized brands are more likely to put their prices up, so look for own-brand alternatives.

Stationery 

Stationary is a must have for every student. Depending on your course, you may need more stationery than other people, such as art supplies for a fine art degree. However, the basics that everyone will need would be an assortment of pens, and a few different notebooks for each module of your course. You may also want to invest in items such as highlighters and colored pens, as these make good study aids. Get yourself a few bookmarks for your textbooks. It could also be beneficial to you to buy a diary in which you can write down any important dates, deadlines and events. You may find it worthwhile investing in your own printer, as otherwise you will have to pay to get any work printed through your university or at your local library. Alternatively, you could pitch in with your flatmates to buy one between you. Student discounts, such as UniDays or an NUS card will give you money off of stationary in a range of different stores.

Kitchenware There are a few kitchenware essentials that students need for university, such as plates, bowls, cups and glasses. Due to student antics, it is possible these may be broken or become lost, so you may need to replace them from time to time. You may also need to invest in cutlery, saucepans, cutting boards and other utensils such as bottle openers and can openers. If you plan on doing a lot of baking, then you may need more unusual items such as whisks, or you may want other cooking apparatus like a toasted sandwich maker. However, you should consider what essential items are, and what you can do without buying.

Bills 

Living away from your parents can be a big learning curve for many students, especially as you will have to start taking on more responsibility. There are several bills you will have to start paying for yourself, such as your rent. Decide with your landlord what payment plan works best for you to pay your rent: often that will be a choice between bi-monthly, monthly, a sum per term, or a paying for the year upfront. Sometimes it can be beneficial to pay as much upfront as you can, so that you don’t have to worry about keeping up with large monthly payments. You will also have to pay water and electricity bills, so it is important that you monitor your usage of these commodities to try and keep bill prices as low as possible.

Remember that you will need a Television license if you plan on watching live TV, and that includes on computers. Try and stick to Freeview rather than buying TV boxes as this will reduce your costs. If you want more channels, consider subscriptions like Netflix, and you will also find that student deals are available to you; if you and your college friends all use Netflix, then you could share an account and split the costs. You will also have personal bills to consider outside of the household. Your phone contract can be an expensive bill, especially if you use minutes or data outside of your plan. Sites such as HandsetExpert allow you to compare different phones and plans through price comparisons and deals, which is a great way to keep your costs down.

Other household items

Depending on whether you are sharing a bathroom with other people, or if you have your own en-suite, the things that you will need to buy could vary. You will definitely need your own towels, but for items such as bath mats, you can decide between you and your flatmates who buys what. There are other household items which you could benefit from, such as a drying rack if you don’t have a tumble dryer. If your bed is uncomfortable, then you can always invest in a mattress topper to help you get a better night’s sleep. In order to make your student accommodation homelier you can add a few home comforts such as plants, ornaments and photographs, but again you need to decide what where you can save money but not buying these items. There are also a few miscellaneous items which you may find it worthwhile to buy, such as a first aid kit, and a lockable box to keep your most valuable items in.

There will always be a temptation to spend large amounts of money on items that you don’t truly need, so really try and stick to a strict monthly budget, and consider how your purchases will affect you in the long run.

Technology is making big waves in the construction industry, and although sometimes met with reluctance, this innovative platform is creating new opportunities for both established and growing businesses. Trends in any industry change each year but there are some big things to watch out for, with new and exciting advances that can’t be missed in 2018. Some technological implications are tried and tested favorites that are being developed for specific use in the building industry, whereas others have several real-world applications that have been adopted to make construction and infrastructure projects run smoothly and cost-effectively. Take a look at some of the top construction trends helping to make processes and project tracking more efficient than ever.

Autonomous equipment

Equipment is one of the areas where the construction industry invests heavily. Effective equipment is a key part of getting a project right and on cost. Older machinery and outdated equipment could have major impacts on profitability due to maintenance costs so choosing replacements may be a solution. Although this area can cause debate due to workers job security, autonomous equipment is starting to be implemented on many sites. This trend is likely to increase in the coming years as organizations look at the effects this type of machinery has on productivity and reducing costs. Autonomous equipment is also looked at to improve safety, as in 2016 21.1 percent of worker fatalities happened in the private construction sector.

3D printing

3D printing may not be a new concept, but it is rising in popularity amongst the construction industry. Although it may take a little more time to catch on in general, there is still some excitement about what could be achieved with this technology. Looking at what has already been created with 3D technology, Dubai’s first 3D printed office is an example of the scale that can be undertaken on building projects. There is still some scope to improve the scalability and agility of 3D printing on a grand scale, but it may be a huge talking point for the future of construction. 

Construction management software 

Managing a project effectively is a key element for the construction industry. As a largely fragmented industry, technology is starting to change the way organizations can assess and monitor tasks from planning through to completion stage. Construction management software is one area that is increasingly aiding this area, whether is project management or contract management software. With advances in software and functionality, elements such as project tracking, job costing and estimating are offering the industry more visibility and accurate information on projects. As this trend develops, organizations are looking at viable options so their whole workforce can use this software with ease to ensure quick onboarding. With the advances in this technology, workers in many areas of the business will gain visibility on all projects they are contributing to. From improved accuracy, streamlining processes and project monitoring, each person can highlight areas for improvement or implement action points more effectively.

Mobile Technology

It’s no surprise mobile technology and the key developments in this field are a current talking point in the industry. The advances in technology have seen improvements in each business sector including construction. There are many construction businesses that rely heavily on mobile applications to run operations in their organization including common areas such as field reporting, photos, plans, project costing and scheduling.

In the coming years, the ability to bring all this information to multiple devices and report in real-time is going to see stark improvements in the way businesses operate. Many larger organizations have already implemented such systems, but smaller construction firms are also starting to take hold of this improved technology. Even using classic mobile devices such as the fluke multimeter on Tool Nerds or handheld equipment such as barcode scanners and radio-frequency identification readers, each provides a starting point for accurate and timely data on construction projects.

By bringing workers and information together in perfect synergy, the industry is encouraging the effective use of information for cost-effective and time-efficient project management.

Trust the cloud

In the past, the construction industry has been hesitant to adopt new technologies for a variety of reasons. One such issue is trust in their abilities and overall security. For businesses large and small, keeping your data safe is a top priority and can have a hugely negative impact if this information is corrupted or lost. Traditional servers and systems in modern business have started to become a thing of the past and the movement to cloud-based software is taking over. The construction industry has taken this onboard and with innovations in security and accessibility, trusting the cloud is a huge part of business today.

Cloud software is helping to change the way the construction industry works and makes it easier to implement other areas of technology with fluid information exchange. Integrating this software is simple and cost-effective, and many other systems such as mobile devices, construction management software and BIM technology can be linked efficiently for real-time data sharing. 

Self-flying drones

Drone use is an increasingly popular trend, and it’s not hard to see why. The construction industry is more readily using this technology to enable better mapping and photogrammetry to reduce the time and resources of traditional surveying. Drones can also be used to monitor large-scale projects and give greater visibility to other areas of the business for tasking and be costing aspects.

More advanced drones are able to capture 3D elements of a project and report back visuals from many perspectives. This style of technology is particularly useful in the architectural design and assessing sites for suitability. Although there are some restrictions on drone use for public safety and privacy, they are becoming a well-used piece of equipment that is greatly reducing project timeframes, labor costs and improving accuracy significantly.

The construction industry is embracing a wide range of new and proved technology advances. With the help of updated software and equipment, this sector is transitioning into a more efficient and innovative way of working, which will reap the rewards for both organizations and consumers for years to come.

There’s so much SEO advice on the web nowadays that it can be difficult to know which pieces of advice to follow. There’s a huge focus on links, however, changes to the algorithm make it more challenging to know which type of links are working for and against you. There’s also talk about the need for content, even though there are sites that rank well with barely any content. And then there’s the technical SEO, in which people will focus on crawling issues or HTML markup.

Having too many options can cause distractions. That’s why, in this post, we only want you to focus on 6 specific tactics that will improve your site’s SEO over time and compliment your overall digital marketing strategy.

Niche keyword selection

This is the most critical step that keeps on getting overlooked nowadays. If you don’t aim to rank for the niche keywords that can yield a quick win, it will be difficult to get your website to rank well. Select a portfolio of keywords and assess the number of competing websites as well as the types of websites that are competing to rank for that keyword.

Add Schema to markup your site’s HTML.

Schema markup has been around for a few years now, however, there are still several websites that aren’t using it in a way to help Google and other search engines better understand the content that appears on their web pages.

Google’s Search Console gives webmasters the option to highlight HTML elements that appear on a website and then to implement it using the Schema code that it provides. Implementing the schema markup correctly can improve the site’s keyword ranking performance, as well as the click-through rate from the organic search listing.

Create compelling, shareable content.

Google has been saying this for years. If you want to get people to link to your website’s content, you need to publish content that people are willing to share with their audience. Whether this is in the form of an informative article, images, web tools, videos etc., people need to be incentivised to share the content out of interest or value that they can share with others.

Commit to an online publishing strategy.

The key to ‘breaking through’ on the web is getting published. The easiest way to get published is by publishing informative blog posts for an audience on the web. This can then be expanded into guest blog posts, contributing to web magazines as a columnist or even participating or hosting interviews.

Improve the page loading time on your website.

The technical structure of your website can be your own worst enemy at times. Put your website into tools such as GTMetrix or Pingdom Tools to see how the loading time and sequence is. If it is loading much slower than the competitors, it could be a factor that is preventing your site from ranking in a higher position.

Page speed becomes more important as website’s start to rank towards the top of Google. The reason being is that Google starts to preload the websites that are in the first position since they expect the web user to click on the first result on Google.

What kind of impact should you expect to see?

Within a couple of weeks, you should start to see the site’s overall keyword visibility increase in the Google Search Console. The niche keywords should start to lift in their organic search performance and the knock-on effect should see the main keywords that you are trying to rank for improving. This should naturally lead to an increase in organic search traffic for your website.

Author bio

Nathan Elly is the branch manager for the digital marketing agency Digital Next. When he isn’t busy optimising online marketing campaigns, you can find him on the futsal pitch.

While we are in the midst of somewhat of a shift when it comes to work environments and more employers are pulling employees back from remote work situations to encourage more face-to-face interaction and human collaboration, there are still a huge number of companies that have remote employees.

This can refer to employees who work at international offices far from the home office, as well as contractors.

One example of people that often work as contractors are digital marketers. They very infrequently will be in the home office working, and as a result, it’s essential to have the right tools and technology in place to facilitate a productive work environment.

The following are some of the tools businesses need in 2018 if they have employees working remotely in any way.

Expense Tracker

Expense reimbursements are hard enough when all of the employees of a company work within the home office, but with remote employees, it can be even tougher to keep up with expense management.

This is why having a robust expense tracker solution and protocol in place are so important. If your remote employees are working around the globe, it needs to have international capabilities as well, such as different language and tax settings.

Collaboration

Collaboration software and platforms have improved by leaps and bounds in recent years, and one of the best tools for this is called Asana.

Asana is used by large companies who need to manage widely dispersed teams including Deloitte and Airbnb.

This is by no means the only great collaboration tool out there, but it is a good one.

Time Tracking and Project Management

Worksnaps is a time tracking tool for remote teams, and it features the ability to automatically track time and computer activity, which is then added to the Worksnaps server.

What’s unique about Worksnaps is the fact that it shows employers in real time what team members are working on. It’s a live view of what’s being done at any given time, so it’s almost like having an employee in the home office. Worksnaps also integrates with a very of other project management services, which include Harvest, Basecamp, and Freshbooks among others.

Employee Feedback and Performance

Finally, 15Five is an excellent tool for management teams that want to provide feedback to even remote employees.

Regular feedback is an essential component of successfully managing human capital because it allows employees not just to see where they need improvement, but also to engage them by showing them what they’re doing right.

It can be tough to streamline how feedback is provided to remote employees, which is where 15Five comes in.

15Five is a tool that’s based on research and concepts of positive psychology, and the objective of the platform is to move businesses forward using particular methods of employee development.

This tool is useful throughout the employee life cycle, and it has the features necessary for alignment around company objectives, with quarterly and weekly performance monitoring.

One of the greatest technological advances that have been made in the 21^st century is the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This technology can be used for making calls via the broadband internet instead of using the traditional analog phone system. Sound is converted into digital voice conversation in the VoIP system and then transferred through internet broadband. Essentially, when you are using VoIP phone systems, you are simply making calls over the internet. Lots of businesses have adopted this technology, but there are others that are unsure of what to make of it.

Listed below are some great reasons for a business to start using VoIP phone systems:

Reason 1: VoIP can reduce your costs

One of the most notable upside of VoIP phone systems over traditional ones is the cost reduction they can offer. In most cases, domestic calls can be made free of charge or are inexpensive. In addition, you can also make cheap international calls rather than paying huge sums in a landline system. A VoIP phone number is also considered a virtual number because it is not associated with a physical landline or network. This allows people from different countries to call you at a local rate rather than paying a higher rate for international calls because the virtual number appears to be in their local range.

Reason 2: VoIP is convenient and versatile

You can make it so the virtual phone number rings on several devices such as a cell phone, landline phone, a home phone or even a work phone. In fact, multiple phone numbers can also ring on a single handset when needed. This makes it incredibly versatile because you don’t have to worry about missing calls if you are not in the office. Furthermore, VoIP systems are also convenient because you just need a computer and an internet connection to access them. You just need to download the software and you can start making your calls in a few minutes.

Reason 3: VoIP systems allow multiple functions

Any kind of communication can be conducted over SIP (Session Initiated Protocol)-enabled VoIP handsets, regardless of whether it is data or voice. You can make your regular phone calls, cheap calls abroad, conduct web conferences, and send emails, faxes, voicemails and lots more. This means that you can record a voice message that can be sent to a fax machine. Furthermore, you will find that the handsets are also quite scalable, which means that features can be added or  removed without having to switch the hardware.

Reason 4: VoIP offers security and efficiency

You will see a substantial reduction in the corporate infrastructure costs when voice and data communications are run on a single network thanks to VoIP. The savings are higher, depending on the size of the company. Moreover, businesses that are concerned about security will find that VoIP can use standardized encryption protocols that are typically not available on a regular phone connection.

Thus, VoIP phone systems can be turn out to be immensely useful and can also be a great way of reducing costs and boosting efficiency.