As such, it is natural to wonder which platform is best for your storefront. Each platform has strengths and weaknesses, so it ultimately depends on what you need and your technical skill level.

That said, it is worth pointing out one big difference right at the start. Etsy is only for hand-crafted or vintage goods, while WooCommerce handles everything. That simple fact may be the most important difference to keep in mind.

Today, I will compare WooCommerce and Etsy to decide the best platform for selling your products.

What Is Etsy?

Etsy is an online marketplace with a strong reputation and passionate community around selling and buying hand-crafted goods. With Etsy, you do not need to build a website, but instead, list your products on the marketplace.

As such, it is often one of the first options recommended to beginners because Etsy does most of the technical work for you. That way, you can focus on creating products and marketing them.

Sellers gain the advantage of being able to tap into an existing market that is passionate about buying handcrafted goods, thus sellers can make sales faster than they would on other eCommerce products.

However, it is worth pointing out that selling products outside of handcrafted goods is possible on the platform, but let’s just say they are not the most popular items sold on Etsy.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin for WordPress, that powers 35% of all online shops. This makes it the most popular eCommerce in the world and it is continuing to grow each year despite strong competition.

There are two reasons why WooCommerce is so popular. The first is that WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world making up more than 46% of all websites on the internet. Naturally, those websites are going to choose an eCommerce solution built for the platform.

The second reason is that it is really good at eCommerce. You can sell any kind of product including digital goods and subscriptions, scale your business to any level, and support virtually any payment gateway.

As such, any kind of store can utilize WooCommerce for any purpose. This has led to its widespread adoption and insane dominance across the eCommerce market. Simply put, it’s a platform that does everything well.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Ease of Use

When it comes to picking an eCommerce platform, or anything for that matter, ease of use is without a doubt the most important factor to consider for most users, especially beginners. If you can’t figure out the platform, you cannot sell products.

Let’s take a look at how Etsy and WooCommerce stack up to one another.

Etsy: Ease of Use

Etsy is perhaps one of the easiest platforms to sell products on and just requires three simple steps from the user. First, create an Etsy account. Then create a shop. And third is to fill that shop with products.

Unlike other eCommerce platforms, there is not anything to set up because you are simply listing your products on an established market where users can see them. In reality, you only have a few options that you can configure.

These include things like customizing your store page with your branding, setting up the price and stock of products, and choosing the shipping options. As such, it is one of the best options for beginners and users who are not tech-savvy.

WooCommerce: Ease of Use

As far as eCommerce platforms go, WooCommerce is rather simple to use but can feel overwhelming at first. This is because WooCommerce has an insane amount of options that allow you to customize your online store.

On top of this, it’s not just WooCommerce you need to learn how to use. Woocommerce is a plugin for WordPress, so the first real step is to build a website using WordPress, and then install WooCommerce. While WordPress is easy to use, building a website is still difficult.

While I won’t go too into depth on building a website, you’ll need to choose the theme, design the pages, choose a web hosting company, and more. That said, having your own website is usually the natural progression for most sellers online.

Results: Etsy Wins

Etsy and WooCommerce are very simple platforms to use, but there’s no contest between the two when it comes to accessibility. Simply put, Etsy is easier to use because it simply runs on basic input – list your item and sell it.

Meanwhile, WooCommerce requires you to build an entire website. While the process has been streamlined, it is still something that will require a significant time investment to achieve, as such Etsy is the winner.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Pricing

When starting a new business, every penny counts, thus finding the platform that fits your price range is one of the biggest factors. And make no mistake, eCommerce is no different. Each platform has its own series of costs that you need to keep in mind.

Let’s examine how Etsy and WooCommerce compare when it comes to the cost of doing business.

Etsy: Pricing

Etsy feels like a subscription with a variety of fees you need to pay. Firstly, while there is a free option that allows you to list 10 items, you will still need to pay a listing fee ($0.20) per item. 10 items is not a lot so most user often purchase a subscription ($10 per month).

You then have a hefty transaction fee every time which is a whopping 6.5% of the total product cost. This is on top of the payment gateway which is about 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction.

When starting, this would end up being the only cost associated with Etsy. However, if you are a big seller, that’s not the whole story. Once your shop exceeds $10,000, you can no longer opt out of Etsy advertising.

This will place a flat 12% on top of everything else. Sellers under $10,000 can opt out. Or, if users choose to enroll, the fee is 15%. While Etsy does not have a lot of upfront costs, the fees will quickly add up.

WooCommerce: Pricing

WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress. As such, there is no cost associated with using it, but that doesn’t mean you won’t spend money.

Remember how I said you will need to build an entire website with WordPress? Well, that will cost money.

WordPress itself is a free platform, and you can build a website using free plugins and themes, but one thing you can’t avoid is paying for a web hosting company. Luckily, a month of web hosting will cost less than a cup of coffee.

Web hosts allow you to rent a server on which you can store your website. Whenever a user accesses your website, they are connecting to that server. The web host will maintain the server for you, so you only need to worry about running the site.

Now, the upfront costs are only one side of an eCommerce platform. You will also be subject to the transaction fees. In the case of WooCommerce, that equates to what the payment gateway you choose uses.

For example, WooPayments will take 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction made. Or PayPal will take 2.9% + $0.49 per transaction. Again, you can use any payment gateway, but these are the real costs that are associated with WooCommerce.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

This is a tough one because realistically, Etsy does not have any upfront costs and everything is associated with fees, but they are extremely high fees compared to most eCommerce solutions.

WooCommerce on the other hand is also free and does not have any transaction fees outside of the payment gateway, but does require you to build a website and host it. Again, web hosting is cheap and you can build a website for virtually nothing.

As such, I think WooCommerce wins this category, but I think an argument can be made for either one.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Appearance

When you look at most online shops today, each one has a style that users recognize on sight. Most businesses spend hours fine-tuning their store’s appearance to maximize sales and build brand recognition.

Let’s compare what design options Etsy and WooCommerce provide for online stores.

Etsy: Appearance

While each seller can create a store page, they cannot significantly customize the appearance of it. Most users can add multiple banner images (Etsy Plus required), which is essentially just adding static images that rotate on your store page.

You can also adjust the layout of the store page with a variety of grid layout options to choose from. However, no matter what you do, virtually all Etsy store pages look identical. The only other thing you can add is your branding (adding a logo).

There are also some more general options like choosing the color scheme and font that is displayed in your store. Outside of this, Etsy offers very little as again, you are just listing your products on their site.

WooCommerce: Appearance

WooCommerce itself does not have any customization, but the WordPress platform that it requires does. You can choose from thousands of themes that were built for eCommerce and customize each one to your liking.

That said, it is worth pointing out that many of the themes are ready for use without you needing to customize them beyond just adding your text and images. As such, you can have a website that looks professionally made without much effort.

You will also have access to page builder plugins like Elementor that allow you to build a page from scratch using a drag-and-drop interface (no coding required). All of this is free to use, although premium options do exist.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

WooCommerce takes this category hands down. The level of customization you can achieve using the WordPress platform exceeds everything offered by Etsy. Having access to thousands of themes that you can customize yourself makes it infinitely better.

On top of this, many themes today will come with pre-built templates that have a professional quality to them. In comparison, Etsy gives you the bare minimum when it comes to design, and ultimately, most Etsy shops look identical.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Marketing

You may think you are done when you get your store up for business, but that’s not true. You need to market your store to the world to help drive sales. For many businesses, marketing efforts are make or break.

Let’s take a look at how Etsy and WooCommerce stack up to one another when it comes to marketing.

Etsy: Marketing

Etsy has a built-in marketing system that you can use to promote your store on and off of Etsy. However, that does come at a steep price for your business due to the flat 12% or 15% rate depending on your store size.

That said, larger stores do not have a choice. They are forced into Etsy advertising. It’s important to point out that you will be directly competing with other sellers on Etsy, thus those ads could show your handcrafted mug, or someone else’s.

Buyers on Etsy can also follow specific sellers on the platform. That way, when their stores are updated with new products or launching a deal, they can receive notifications about it directly on Etsy.

Naturally, you do not just need to rely on Etsy. You can also market your store offsite by posting on social media.

WooCommerce: Marketing

WooCommerce does not have any marketing tools. Instead, you would need an individual marketing plugin that can reach the masses. Simply put, if you are using WooCommerce, you are going to have to promote your store yourself.

Luckily, this has never been easier to achieve due to social media. You can create store pages on every social media site, work with influencers, and directly purchase ad space on Google, Facebook, and more.

Your most powerful weapon is your search engine optimization or SEO. This allows you to rank as the first result on Google when a search is done, and if you focus on a niche, you can reliably rank high.

WordPress also has a variety of plugins that can help. For example, you could use a newsletter plugin to create a weekly email for customers to see the latest items and deals you are offering.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

This is a tough one to decide because, while Etsy has a built-in marketing system that just requires you to opt in, the high fees associated with it can scare away many stores. And your actual options are very limited in how your store is displayed.

You also have to rely on users following your store on Etsy for them to receive updates, which are only visible on Etsy. In comparison, WooCommerce simply gives you more control over your advertisement options.

You can create dedicated ads and put them on other platforms (for a fee), create weekly newsletters that you can opt users into more easily, and have a higher level of control over your brand in general. WooCommerce wins.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Inventory Management

Keeping stock of your products is one of the most challenging aspects that businesses need to do. This is something you will need to keep an eye out for every day to ensure you have products to sell, but also avoid overstocking a product.

Let’s compare how Etsy and WooCommerce handle inventory management.

Etsy: Inventory Management

Etsy has a simple, but highly effective inventory management system. When you list a product on Etsy, you can input a variety of information. This includes the price, quantity, SKUs, sizes, shipping options, tags, and more.

The product listings can be updated at any point as often as you need to without any additional cost. Just keep in mind that listing a new product will incur a $0.20 listing fee. Everything is straightforward and only requires a few clicks to access.

One drawback of Etsy that is worth mentioning is that you cannot schedule product releases. So for example, let’s say you want a new product to go live at a specific date, the only way to do this is to post it on that date manually.

WooCommerce: Inventory Management

WooCommerce has a far more robust inventory management system than most eCommerce solutions, yet, it still manages to remain easy to use at any skill level. You can manage all of the products on your storefront from a single location.

You can either do a full edit here, which allows you to change product parameters like price, quantity, SKUs, shipping, and even select product sizes (small, medium, large, etc.), or do a quick edit from the list itself.

Perhaps the most notable feature of WooCommerce is the ability to bulk edit products. This is extremely useful in a variety of situations, but as an example, if you were having a deal, you could bulk edit all of the products on sale and apply a flat discount rate.

Results: WooCommerce Wins

Etsy is a great inventory management system for what it is, but it lacks bulk editing capabilities, which makes it more tedious to use. You need to manually edit each product, which takes a lot of time for larger stores.

Many users who do not sell with WooCommerce will connect their store to WooCommerce just to utilize the inventory management system. As such, it is the clear winner, and you can even do this for Etsy.

Etsy Vs. WooCommerce: Shipping

Making a sale is not the end of your job as an online shop. Instead, you need to ensure the product gets to your customer promptly and that they can send it back without much issue in the event of a return.

Let’s compare how Etsy and WooCommerce handle shipping operations for your business.

Etsy: Shipping

Etsy has a great shipping system in place that is easy to use. You can create shipping profiles for multiple delivery services like USPS, FedEx, UPS, or the Canada Post. This allows you to quickly choose a shipping method and already have the info filled in.

Once an order is placed, you’ll be able to print out the label and get the goods out the door the same day. You can customize the shipping options based on the user’s location. For example, if your shop is in the US, you can select the USPS as the default option.

If you’re in Canada, you can select Canada Post. For other countries, international options like FedEx or UPS are excellent options. It’s a really smart way to make the shipping process intuitive for all users.

It’s also worth discussing your return options. Sellers are not required to accept returns, but users can request them from you, and then escalate it if they are not satisfied with the result. If a return is agreed upon, it is the customer’s responsibility to ship the product back.

WooCommerce: Shipping

WooCommerce shipping is another robust option that allows you to fine-tune your shipping options. It supports local pickup, flat-rate shipping, and free shipping. Each one can be set up individually to save you time and apply the correct one to each product.

And yes, you can use bulk editing to apply shipping options to products.

Virtually all shipping methods are possible with WooCommerce like USPS, FedEx, UPS, and so on. It also has a variety of international options that are easy to understand.

As such, even if you are unfamiliar with options in a country, you can set them up to customize how products arrive. And you will be able to print shipping labels directly from the WooCommerce dashboard the moment a sale is made.

When it comes to returns, you have full control over it. Most stores will set up a return order form where users can request a return. In most cases, stores will require the customer to handle shipping arrangements. WooCommerce has return forms you can use.

It’s also worth pointing out that you can install a dedicated form plugin that will give you even more options on the forms you create.

Results: It’s A Tie

Both platforms have excellent and intuitive shipping options. WooCommerce might have a slight advantage due to bulk editing options and more integration, otherwise, they are nearly identical in practice.

When it comes to returns, generally speaking, they are also identical. But since WooCommerce is a self-hosted site, you have free reign to deny or accept returns as you see fit without having to worry about Etsy forcing them on you.

Since this is so close, let’s just call it a tie.

Etsy Vs WooCommerce: Final Verdict

Ultimately, both platforms are excellent choices for small businesses to utilize. However, Etsy is a very specific kind of platform that deals exclusively with hand-made or vintage goods, thus what you can use it for is limited.

Yet, if that is what you are selling, it is perhaps one of the best platforms to use due to an established audience that is interested in those types of goods. Meanwhile, WooCommerce is the more robust option that allows you to sell anything from shoes to furniture.

It even supports digital goods like ebooks, music, and more. As such, WooCommerce will offer you more room to grow.

Speaking of growth, as your business grows, you’ll likely want to avoid the high fees on Etsy. These can cut into your profits as transaction fees stack on top of marketing fees, which isn’t an issue on WooCommerce.

As such, while Etsy is a great platform to test the waters and see if customers are interested in your products, WooCommerce is the better option as far as long-term growth is concerned, as well as just having more options for stores in general.

Etsy Vs WooCommerce FAQ

Naturally, you may still have some lingering questions when it comes to Etsy and WooCommerce. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions. If you have any more, feel free to ask them in the comment section.

Start Building Your eCommerce Presence Today

The eCommerce market is massive, which means the longer you wait to get in, the harder it will be to make a name for yourself. Regardless of what you choose, Etsy and WooCommerce are excellent platforms that focus on different audiences.

One thing we did not cover in this comparison is the outside challenges between Etsy and WooCommerce, and that’s because they are identical.

Regardless of what platform you choose, you are still going to need the capital to purchase or produce goods on a scale to meet customer demand, a place to store those goods, and the materials to ship products.

Neither platform will help you with this, so make sure to research this aspect carefully to ensure the best results.

Which platform do you think is the best option for beginners? What is the hardest part of running an online store?

The post Etsy vs WooCommerce: Best Platform to Sell Your Products appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

While this may seem like a simple choice, it is a lot more complex than it is on the surface. Free and paid SSL certificates have their advantages and disadvantages that site owners should be aware of.

Today, we are going to look at how free and paid SSL certificates stack up against one another and see which one is the better choice.

What Is an SSL Certificate?

An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that encrypts the information sent between the website and the user and helps authenticate who owns the website. You can easily tell if a website has an SSL certificate by checking the site’s URL.

If a website has an SSL certificate, it will begin with “https://” whereas if it does not, it will start with “http://“.

Both search engines and web browsers expect websites to have an SSL certificate today. If they do not, these platforms send several warnings that will scare away the majority of users from the site. In the case of search engines, many these sites simply fail to appear in search results.

It’s also worth pointing out that a lesser-known feature of SSL certificates is that they can essentially act as insurance for fraudulent activity. SSL certificates mean the website is legitimate, thus if they are issued incorrectly, money is paid out to users who were wronged financially.

The value is different for every certificate. You will need to find the right one for your needs. As such, every successful site today has an SSL certificate.

What Do Free SSL Certificates Include?

Let’s start with the obvious – a free SSL certificate does not require any payment method. This means any website can have an SSL certificate without having to pay a penny for it. Generally speaking, these certificates work great in nearly any situation.

However, like most things, there are a variety of options you can choose from, even when it comes to the free option. Let’s take a look at some of the major factors you’ll need to consider when picking a free SSL certificate.

Authority

The first major factor of an SSL is where its authority is issued from. Let’s be honest, no one will believe an SSL certificate that was made by your uncle. No, instead, you need an actual organization that has a track record to ensure authenticity.

Simply put, when another business scans your SSL certificate, they are trusting the issuer, not you.

While there are several options to choose from, the most widely accessible and used option is Let’s Encrypt, which is owned by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). As a GreenGeeks customer, you get access to an automatic installation from Let’s Encrypt.

Again, there are other options, but when it comes to free SSL certificates, Let’s Encrypt is the most widely used.

Validation Type

In total, there are three types of SSL certificates that are differentiated by their validation level. When it comes to free SSL certificates, you can only get the first level of validation, which is Domain Validation.

Essentially, this form of validation confirms that you do own the domain and nothing more. It only takes a few minutes to obtain this validation, which is why it is the most common form of SSL certificate seen on the internet.

The other two levels, Organization Validation SSL and Extended Validation SSL are not available for free as they have greater verification requirements. Usually, you will need to pay an active subscription to maintain these levels.

Site/Trust Seal

You may have scrolled down to the bottom of a site before and seen a list of badges and seals that tell you about what powers the site, what it is protected by, and so on. One of those seals may have been a site or trust seal that comes from an SSL certificate.

Realistically, these seals do not have any actual importance in protecting your site. They are simply a visual representation of the SSL.

When it comes to free certificates like Let’s Encrypt, they do not have one for you to display. They believe having the “https://” in the URL is enough, thus you won’t have anything you can place on your site to prove you have one besides the URL itself.

Warranty

A warranty can help protect you from any fraudulent activity performed on or against your site like data theft or other security breaches. In the event these occur, the warranty will provide the site with a small sum to help pay for the damages incurred.

As you might expect, free SSL certificates do not offer a warranty.

Support

This is a bit of a tricky one because technically speaking, Let’s Encrypt (or many other free options) does not include any level of technical support you can access. Instead, they provide all of the information you need and leave the rest to you.

However, that isn’t really the case. In truth, most web hosting companies offer customers free installations of their SSL certificates. Thus, you essentially get free support alongside your free SSL certificate if you pick a good web host like GreenGeeks.

Just to be clear, not every web host does this.

What Do Paid SSL Certificates Include?

There are multiple premium options for SSL certificates. SSL certificates are not a one-time purchase but usually work as a subscription. How often you pay generally depends on the plan you select, with the most common kinds being annual.

The cost is also dependent on the plan you choose. Naturally, an SSL certificate with a warranty of $10,000 will cost less than one for $1,000,000, and there are many other variables to consider. Let’s take a deeper look into paid SSL certificates.

Authority

In the case of a paid SSL certificate, it is nearly identical to how a free one works. A Certificate Authority (CA) will issue you a certificate after receiving your payment. The main difference here is that generally speaking, these CAs who issue paid SSL are very trustworthy.

While there are many to choose from, the most popular is Sectigo. It is trusted by major brands and handles all types of validation levels for sites of any size. Choosing the most trusted name in the industry makes the most sense for anyone looking to buy an SSL.

Validation

Unlike free options that only offer domain validation, paid SSL issuers can offer all three types. We’ve already discussed domain validation, so let’s explore the other two options, Organization Validation and Extended Validation.

Organization validation is the next level of SSL that not only confirms ownership of the domain but also confirms that it is a legitimate business. This usually only requires simple information like verifying the business name, confirming the address, phone, and so on.

Unlike domain validation, because this process is more extensive, it typically takes around three days to receive your SSL.

Extended validation is the most comprehensive form of SSL. This is because, unlike organization validation, this one requires a human specialist. They manually review all of the information, which makes it less likely that it is a fake business or proxy.

Naturally, this also takes more time due to the manual review of the information, and can take around 5 days at most to receive an SSL.

Site/Trust Seal

Paid SSL options almost always offer a site seal or trust seal that you can display on your site. For example, Sectigio includes a seal that you can download and add to your site at any time. These seal images are typically placed in the footer area of pages.

That said, they are not limited to the footer. You’ll also see them placed in forms, checkout areas, and so forth.

The point is to let users know your information is secure and safe from prying eyes. This can create confidence from shoppers that the site is legitimate and they won’t face any problems in the future.

Warranty

Unlike free SSL certificates, most premium options come with some form of warranty, although some do not. Generally speaking, this is where plans come into play when choosing a premium SSL (alongside validation level).

Warranties can cover as little as $10,000 or cover as high as $2,000,000. That said, there are probably even higher warranties available on enterprise-level sites, but that information is not available.

So how does this work? Well, the money does not go to the site owner, it goes to the visitors who lost money by making a transaction on a site that was given an SSL certificate by mistake.

This helps make CAs more accountable and raises standards to ensure only legitimate businesses receive an SSL.

Support

This is another big advantage of paid SSL certificates. Since you are paying for a service, it is only natural to receive support to help you make the most of it. In many cases, these services will help you set up the SSL certificate in a wide range of environments.

They can also help you access resources when needed related to your SSL. One thing that isn’t often mentioned is that an SSL can cause serious errors on your site. As such, the support team can help you identify the problem and provide solutions.

The kind of support depends on the business, but you can expect all of the normal support channels, such as email, live chat, and phone support. Simply refer to your CA for information on what support options are available.

Which Is the Best SSL Certificate?

Well, simply put, you get a lot more from a paid SSL in comparison to a free one. If we were looking at them objectively, yes, the paid option is simply the better option for sites, especially those that deal with financial transactions (eCommerce).

With that said, that’s not the whole story. Truthfully, most sites will do fine with a free SSL license from Let’s Encrypt.

Again, the main advantages are really for eCommerce sites that sell products, collect user data, and so on. The SSL is meant to add security for the visitor, which it does even at a free level.

When just starting out as an eCommerce site, having a visible trust seal from a respected company like Sectigo is a great way to show you are a legitimate business. Let’s face it, customers are less likely to purchase from a site they’ve never heard of.

Now, in the case of a blog, it is not necessary to go beyond a free SSL certificate. Most users will create an account to leave comments or sign up for a newsletter, with the only piece of information given out is an email address.

Thus, I would say the best SSL certificate for blogs is free, while eCommerce is paid.

Free Vs. Paid SSL FAQ

Get An SSL Certificate on Day One

An SSL certificate is not optional. Search engines and web browsers have made them mandatory to protect users against scams and other nefarious things you can find on the internet.

Not having one will ensure you do not appear in search results, and users who do manage to find your site will be met with warning messages instructing them that the site is unsafe. Naturally, this is a death sentence for any site.

Thus, when you launch your website, make sure you have an SSL certificate. Your website cannot succeed without one.

Which SSL certificate do you use on your site? What was the biggest factor when deciding between a free and paid SSL certificate?

The post Free vs Paid SSL Certificates: Pros, Cons & Best Choice appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

This may help improve your website’s privacy and safeguard important information. However, it isn’t all positive. As you might expect, doing this can harm your SEO as you are intentionally giving out incorrect information to any search engine bots.

As such, each user needs to weigh the pros and cons of URL masking before deciding if it is right for their website. Naturally, there is no correct answer as it comes down to what your website is trying to achieve.

Today, I will cover what URL masking is, how to use it in WordPress, and if you should.

What Is URL Masking?

In simple terms, URL masking allows a site to load another page’s information while displaying a different page’s URL.

In less simple terms, URL masking is a form of redirection where the user is redirected to another page’s content, but the URL itself does not reflect this. It is perfect for displaying your URL no matter what page the user views.

Thus, it is typically used for marketing purposes when you want your main URL on full display, or when you want to hide the URL, the information is coming from.

For instance, some affiliate marketers will use URL masking to hide the fact the user is going through a specific affiliate agency or referral number.

There are several types of URL masking, so let’s cover them.

Domain Masking

Domain masking is a method in which a domain or subdomain directs users to another URL in an effort to hide the original URL or to simplify the URL being displayed by shortening it to make it more user-friendly.

You see this quite often as an Amazon affiliate or while using services such as Bitly.

JavaScript Redirection

A JavaScript redirection is a method that takes place when a user accesses a website, a JavaScript will be executed that redirects the user to another location while keeping the original URL visible in the browser.

Server-side Scripting

JavaScript is not the only option you can use. Developers can set up server-side scripts using PHP, ASP, and more to load a different page’s content when a URL is accessed without changing the displayed URL.

Proxy Masking

Proxy masking is a technique where a proxy server is used to fetch another page’s information to display on the original page without changing the URL address. The request is made the moment the user accesses the URL which prompts the proxy server to begin.

URL Rewriting

URL Rewriting works by editing the .htaccess file in WordPress to modify the URL structure. The goal is to assign a URL to the content from another page, that way the URL remains the same when viewing a different piece of content.

Frame Masking

Frame masking is a technique that utilizes an HTML frame (iframe) to display a different page’s content without changing the URL. It makes it seem like the content on the screen belongs to the URL being displayed.

Why Use URL Masking?

There are a lot of ways to achieve URL masking, but the big question is why a website would want to do this in the first place. There are several key reasons why to do this, but their importance relies heavily on the website itself.

Here are some of the major reasons why you may want to consider using URL masking in WordPress:

Improve Brand Recognition

One of the main uses of URL masking is to ensure that the user knows the content they are viewing is from your brand. One of the best ways to achieve this is by making sure that the URL includes your brand name.

Unfortunately, this can sometimes get lost as users explore a site and end up viewing very long URLs that make it difficult to determine where the content originates from. For example, consider your homepage URL which is usually https://www.YourDomain.com.

Then consider what happens when you go deeper into the website. The URL will might look something like this:

https://www.YourDomain.com/Category/WordPress-URL-Masking/aghebhqsdgyihedbn

Not only is this link not something someone would share on social media, but by the end of it, they are likely to forget your domain name. For this reason, URL masking is a popular marketing tactic when done in a way to minimize SEO damage.

Hides Affiliate Links

Many websites will use plugins that hide affiliate links from users to avoid making it obvious they are trying to make a commission on the sale. While I don’t recommend doing this, as it is a bit unethical, URL masking is another way of achieving the same result.

Essentially, when an affiliate link is followed, you should notice that the end of the URL usually contains the Affiliate ID. This is a long string of letters, symbols, and numbers that is a dead giveaway that it is an affiliate link.

Thus, by masking the URL, the Affiliate ID is no longer visible, and users may not realize it is an affiliated web address.

Again, I don’t recommend this because it is a grey area legally. In the United States, if you are making money from affiliate links, you are required to make it clear they are an affiliate link. Besides, in many cases, users are more likely to make a purchase if they know it helps the site.

The same logic applies to other tracking codes for analytical tools. Many sites will have link tracking that can capture how a user interacts with a page. Some sites try to hide this because they want the most organic experience from a user.

Again, hiding tracking information is not ethical, and some users will avoid sites that do this.

Improves Privacy Protection

Generally speaking, when you create a website and register it with WHOIS, your information becomes publicly available. While this isn’t a big deal in most cases, some users want to keep their personal information private.

Or at least as private as information can get in a public space.

Domain masking can hide sensitive information and replace it with a domain masking service. In many cases, you can use these services for free as it is a very common practice among site owners that value privacy.

That said, there are premium services that offer more in-depth protection, but that is a topic for another day.

Hide the Use of Subdomains

Many developers will utilize subdomains to create content for a specific topic. While this can help provide developers with more options, it can also make the user experience feel fragmented. URL masking is a solution to this problem.

Instead of leaving the site you are on, URL masking allows you to easily display information on the subdomain without actually leaving the main site. This allows you to get the benefits of using different tools on your subdomain without the URL mess it creates.

Just remember that subdomains are treated differently by search engines.

As such, their use can dilute the authority of your main site if used incorrectly. This can easily create duplicate content problems for the site, so stay vigilant and look at how Google is ranking your content in Search Console.

Problems with URL Masking

As I have pointed out already, there are some major drawbacks to using URL masking. As such, many sites will actually avoid using it entirely for some of these reasons, which isn’t a bad choice.

Here are some of the main problems sites will encounter when using URL Masking:

Confusing For Users

We’ve talked a lot about how URL masking can be beneficial for marketing, but the truth is that there is a much bigger problem that marketers face and that is shareability. Think about it, if the URL displayed is not the content they are viewing, how do they share it?

Well, simply put, they don’t. Users will often share the URL in their browser, which will lead to another location.

Obviously, this hurts any chance of the content a user is looking at from being shared on social media sites. However, sharing is only half of the problem. What if the user just wants to bookmark that page?

For instance, let’s say you own a cooking site, and the user is looking at a recipe they want to make tomorrow. Naturally, they bookmark the page so they can come back to it. The next day, when they use that bookmark, it doesn’t lead to the recipe.

This can create a frustrating user experience because the user will have trouble finding what they were previously looking at because the true URL was hidden from them. As such, this isn’t a great option for most sites.

URL Masking Damages SEO

Users are not the only ones negatively impacted by URL masking. Search engine bots also do not like being deceived by using a different URL for the content displayed. Each URL has its own authority and rank for the content being shown.

Naturally, when a single URL is displaying content from other pages, that disrupts how the authority is distributed.

However, the much bigger problem is that search engine bots will determine that the content is duplicate. After all, the content that is being displayed does have its own URL and a search engine bot will eventually find it.

Thus, when the content is detected twice, it is classified as duplicate content, which will hurt your rankings significantly.

However, these problems are the least of your concerns compared to this next one. Google can remove your site from appearing in searches if it thinks that you are trying to deceive users with the URL masking.

If this happens, there is no coming back from it. It is a death sentence, which is why most websites will avoid using URL masking.

URL Masking Can Damage Your Reputation

So, one thing I failed to mention in the benefits of URL masking is that it is a great way to scam your users. Obviously, this is not a positive thing, and over the years, sites that use URL masking have gotten a bad reputation.

As a result, users who can recognize URL masking often think the site is trying to scam them, which results in them not using it.

And once users start associating your site with scamming, regardless of whether it is true, your reputation will be permanently damaged. From the user’s perspective, you are deceiving them about the URL being displayed, thus you can make it look like an official page.

This is why URL masking is widely used by scam sites. They can create an official-looking URL and display real content from official pages and trick you at the last moment during a sign-up process where they steal your information.

How to Perform URL Masking in WordPress

I mentioned earlier all of the ways you can achieve URL masking. However, I’m not going to cover them all as most are a bit too difficult for users or are likely to cause problems for your site if done incorrectly.

Instead, I am going to cover two of the simpler ways to do this in WordPress. The first way is by editing the index.php file and the second is by editing the .htaccess file. It’s worth pointing out that a typo could mess up your website.

As such, I strongly recommend creating a backup of your site before following this tutorial. This will ensure you can restore your website if a mistake is made.

Method 1: Using the Content Mask Plugin

The Content Mask plugin is a simple way to mask content in WordPress. It is far easier than any other method and just requires entering the URL addresses into the plugin. It essentially embeds the content from another page on the page you want it to display.

As such, this should realistically only take a few minutes to complete. That said, you will have to set this up for every post or page you want, thus, it could take more time if you are adding URL masking to a lot of content.

Start off by searching the plugin directory for Content Mask and install and activate the plugin.

With the plugin activated, go to the post or page where you want to mask the URL. Scroll down below the editor and you will find the Content Mask Settings section at the bottom. This is where all the magic happens.

You should see a big text box for the Content Mask URL. Enter the URL of the content you want to display on this post or page.

Next to this text box is a switch that is set to Disabled by default. Flip the switch to Enabled.

To the right of the text box, you can select what kind of masking method you want to use. The plugin provides three options. The first is to download the content directly. The second is to use an iframe (HTML). And the third is to use a redirection.

All three methods will achieve the same result. The only unique option is for the download method, which will ask you to choose a cache expiration time. Otherwise, the method you choose has no extra settings.

Below this, you will find a series of checkboxes that allow you to choose which user roles will not see the content masking. By default, they are all unselected. If you want a specific user role to not be able to view the masked content, simply check the box for their role.

Below this, you can also choose if you want to mask the content based on whether the user is logged in or out. Again, just check the box that suits your needs. Leave both unchecked if you do not want a condition.

Finally, at the bottom are two larger text boxes. This is where more experienced users can place header and footer scripts respectively. Unless you know what you are doing, you can ignore these.

Once you have configured everything, be sure to save the changes to the post or page to finalize it.

And that’s it. If you visit the page, you should see a different page’s content appear under the same URL. Just remember that if you selected any user roles, you should test out multiple views to make sure it is working correctly.

Simply repeat this on as many posts or pages as you want. If you are not a fan of using a plugin, the next method is for you.

Method 2: Editing the .htaccess File

This method is the manual approach to URL masking in WordPress. Realistically, there are several ways to pull this off, to keep things simple, let’s look at the easiest way to do this, editing the .htaccess file.

Once you are in the cPanel, locate the Files section and select the File Manager option.

Upon doing so, you should see a list of all of the files stored on your server. Start by selecting the public_html directory on the left side of the screen. This is where all of the files related to your WordPress install are located.

If you look through the files within the public_html directory, you should spot the .htaccess file. Right-click on the .htaccess file and select the edit option.

Important Note: It is possible that your website does not have a .htaccess file. Sometimes the file does not generate, so if you do not see this file you need to take a minute and generate it. This tutorial will help you do just that.

A small window will appear reminding you that something can go wrong, and as a precaution, you should create a backup of your website before making any changes. Click on the “Edit” button to proceed.

This will bring you to the file where you can edit it. Scroll down to the bottom of the .htaccess file and add the following lines of code:

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteRule ^displayedpath/?$ /filepath/original/ 

All you need to do is edit the second line and enter the file path for the content you want to be replaced and the file path for the content you want to appear. Since this is specific to your site, I can’t tell you the file path to use.

With a little trial and error, you should be able to get it working in a few minutes. The end result should be visiting that page and viewing another page’s content. If something does go wrong, use the backup to restore your site.

Are There Any Alternatives to URL Masking?

Absolutely! I said at the start that URL masking was a form of redirection, thus, the simplest alternative a site can use is to set up a URL redirection. While the URL will change once it’s accessed, the user is brought to the correct location.

And unlike URL masking, when done correctly, URL redirection does not negatively impact your SEO.

If you were thinking of using URL masking to hide your affiliate links or tracking codes in the URL, a better alternative is to use a URL shortening service. These services allow you to enter a URL, and then create a shorter version of that URL that is easier to share, such as what I mentioned earlier – Bitly.

WordPress is home to a lot of great plugins that can shorten your links for free, but there are paid services that you can try as well. In some cases, these services can create brand-specific URLs that are more effective than URL masking entirely.

If you were considering using URL masking to protect your privacy, there are other solutions. In most cases, your web host will offer some form of protection. Here at GreenGeeks, we offer ID Protect which you can add to your account for a small fee.

Essentially, anything you would use URL masking for can be achieved in a different way, and for the most part, that’s what sites choose to do. The risks associated with URL masking are too high to consider for most.

Is URL Masking Right for You?

We have talked extensively about the pros and cons related to URL masking. The truth is that there are some compelling reasons to use it, but for the vast majority of sites, the cons outweigh the pros.

As such, each site needs to make this decision for themselves. However, if you choose to implement URL masking, the above demonstration should help you set it up in a matter of minutes.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful in setting up URL masking in WordPress.

Why do you want to set up URL masking in WordPress? Were you aware of the risks of using link masking?

The post URL Masking: What It Is & How It Works appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

This is creating a bottleneck as even if we create more solar capacity, the electric grid cannot incorporate it at the same rate for a variety of reasons.

As of 2023, solar makes up about 5.6% of the total US electricity generated. Yet, as more companies seek to net zero energy emissions, solar is poised to make up 58% of all new electricity generation installed.

That is going to overwhelm what our electric grid is capable of handling and will ultimately create a bottleneck.

Why Is Solar Energy Growing So Fast?

While solar energy started out more expensive than traditional fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, that has changed over the years. Today, solar energy is cheaper than natural gas, and coal has become nearly extinct.

Naturally, that has raised the demand for solar energy as companies are looking to increase their capacity.

In the past, one of the major criticisms was that the sun is not always out, which can disrupt how much energy is generated. This can cause rolling blackouts if it is the sole energy source used.

However, battery storage technology has proven to be the perfect solution to this issue. And just like solar, the technology is being produced on a massive scale. This is rapidly shrinking the costs, thus making it more competitive with natural gas.

With this said, most companies are not planning to rely entirely on solar. Natural gas and nuclear energy are still going to play a big role.

Unprecedented Energy Demand

If you have been paying attention to the technology sector, you have heard everyone talking about AI. Perhaps the only thing you don’t hear about it is the incredible energy demand that it has created as nearly every business is rushing towards artificial intelligence.

AI is going to cause data centers to see a 160% energy increase by 2030. This is because of the computing power needed to operate the AI. For reference, a ChatGPT reply takes 10 times the energy as a Google search.

While this will be one of the largest contributors to the demand shift, it is not the only one. Another pivotal change in achieving net zero emissions is replacing our car fleet with electric vehicles (EVs).

EVs need to charge the batteries inside of them to operate. Naturally, this is going to have a massive impact on the energy grid. You don’t have to wait as you can already see it happening in real-time.

Consider for a second a typical 9-to-5 job. Someone drives home after work, parks their car, and plugs it in before heading inside. You have just added an extra power demand for possibly millions of homes during peak hours.

And cars are really just one thing that have been electrified. Nearly all appliances today use electricity as more stoves, ovens, heaters, and water heaters are turning from gas.

The demand is constantly growing.

Connecting to the Grid Takes Time

It is well known that there is currently a massive backlog of solar and wind projects awaiting to be connected to the electric grid. However, between 2000 and 2018, only 19% of all requests have been connected to the grid by 2023.

Naturally, this is a bad sign for all companies that are backing major problems as even if the projects are completed, it typically takes at least 3 years before they are connected to the grid.

This bottleneck has been nicknamed gridlock, as it will be the deciding factor. So why does this happen?

There are a variety of factors. Most of these all stem from transmission, which is the process of delivering the energy from the source (solar panels, wind turbines, power plant) to the grid.

Outside of seeing a solar panel on a roof, how often do you actually see a solar or wind farm? Realistically, probably never unless you specifically travel to one. This is because they are built away from most urban settlements.

They take up a lot of space, and in the case of wind turbines, generate a lot of noise. As such, to connect these farms to the grid, you need to create transmission lines that connect to the grid. While this doesn’t sound complicated, it is.

This is because these companies need to get approvals for every county, city, or state they pass through, which can be numerous. This legislative process by itself can take years, not to mention the actual construction efforts.

For this reason, even when a project is completed, it can take several years before it is connected to the grid.

Battery Technology Will Play A Huge Role

One of the biggest talking points with the electric grid is batteries. Currently, lithium batteries do not have the capacity to store the energy required for the grid when not enough energy is generated from renewables.

For example, if the sun wasn’t out, you could face blackouts if that was your only source. While that is a bit of an exaggeration, there is some truth to it. But a battery would solve the issue as you could store the excess energy generated and use it to cover this disturbance.

Today, the batteries could store about 4 hours worth of energy for the grid, with some ranging upwards of 8 hours. The technology is advancing fast, but it will take years before the necessary capacity is achieved.

The bigger problem is the cost. While solar energy itself is cheaper than natural gas, when you add battery storage, the story changes. Battery technology is expensive, but that is quickly changing as EV production is ramped up.

The mass production of lithium batteries has driven the price down significantly, and it will only continue over the years.

The Electric Grid Will Be the Biggest Hurdle

The world is racing towards a net zero future, and for that to happen, we need to use renewable energies exclusively. This will take time, but nearly every new major project is renewable, and that won’t be changing anytime soon.

This is because it aligns with many major corporation’s ideals, which are paying for the projects.

Unfortunately, the problems facing the electric grid will not be overcome quickly. This will require actual legislation that can help streamline the process of connecting electricity generation to the electric grid quicker.

With this said, natural gas will also play a key role in bridging the gap while the transition takes place. With any luck, the energy grid will be a very different place by 2030.

The post Grid Connection Crisis: Renewable Energy’s Growth Challenge appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

Today, the Paris Agreement is signed by more than 190 countries with 184 of those countries submitting their climate pledges to lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Yet, the vast majority of those pledges are not being met.

What’s even worse is how some of those countries are going in the opposite direction with GHG emissions. In some cases, members have not even pledged to begin with. As such, the world is not on track to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement.

According to some reports, we have already begun seeing temperatures exceed 1.5°C, or will within the next 5 years.

What Is A Climate Pledge?

Simply put, it is a commitment by the government to curb emissions by a specific date. In most cases, these pledges lack specifics on how they will achieve the goals set out, and most importantly, they cannot be enforced.

As such, there is no penalty for members who submit climate pledges that are not met or actively get worse.

For example, China, the world’s largest emitter, had planned to lower emissions by 60-65% by 2030. Currently, emissions have risen by 80% from 2005 through 2018, which is likely to continue as the economy of China grows.

With this said, some members submit plans with every detail planned out in them and achieve the goals. One example of this would be the European Union. As a collective, the 28 Member States pledges to lower emissions by 40% by 2030.

Currently, the European Union is not only on track but will exceed its pledge and reduce emissions by 58%.

Unfortunately, there are still members like Russia that have not even submitted a pledge.

How Do Countries Plan to Reduce Emissions?

While there are a variety of ways for countries to reduce emissions, nearly every pledge focuses on two specific areas. These include electricity generation and the electrification of their existing car fleets.

If you look at virtually any developed country, electricity generation and transportation are the biggest emitters.

For reference, in the United States, electricity generation accounts for 25% of all emissions, while transportation accounts for 29%. That’s 54% of the entire country, thus it makes complete sense for these two areas to be the major focus.

On top of this, we already have the solution for both. Electricity can be generated cleanly by switching to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydro. Meanwhile, we already have electric vehicles to replace traditional combustion engines that use gas.

That said, even if we identify the problem and have the solution, implementing it is a completely different story.

The truth is that switching how a nation generates electricity and replacing all vehicles with EVs is not cheap. Most nations simply do not have the funds to do so, and as economies continue to grow, they need to continuously increase the amount of power they generate.

Thus, the finish line is constantly getting farther away for all developing nations.

Companies Also Make Climate Pledges

While the Paris Agreement focuses on governments, many corporations fully support the measures of the agreement. As such, nearly every major corporation has made its climate pledge to reduce emissions.

However, similarly to governments, many companies have made pledges that they are not keeping. And similarly to the governments, there is no real enforcement of repercussions if they fail. Thus, many companies make a net zero pledge without meaning it.

In some cases like Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, and more, the scope of the company keeps increasing, which results in their emission targets being missed every time, or even increasing.

While these companies are making efforts, others are just making pledges without meaning them. This is known as business greenwashing. Essentially, the business lies about going green to attract customers who place a value on such.

Why Are Climate Pledges Not Kept?

The simple reason is that countries are realistically under no obligation to keep the pledge they made. If a country fails to keep a pledge, it is not penalized for failing. As such, countries are free to make any pledge without any fear of repercussion.

And the truth is that in many cases, it is better for the countries to fail these pledges.

That may not make sense, so let me explain. Underdeveloped nations will often receive funds to help them achieve climate goals. If they achieved those goals, they would no longer receive the funds.

Naturally, some nations make a genuine effort but purposely propose goals that are not achievable to receive funding for as long as possible. However, this is just for the underdeveloped countries that barely contribute to climate change.

The real issue is with developed nations. If you look at a nation like the United States, the amount of power it needs to generate to support a growing industry and population is enormous. In 2022, the energy demand grew by 3.2% from the previous year.

This is for several reasons. Developed nations rely more heavily on technology that is constantly evolving. Let’s take AI, for example. AI has been the biggest talking point for most businesses recently, but the dark reality of it is that the technology will skyrocket energy consumption.

To put this into perspective, the average ChatGPT search uses the same amount of energy as performing 10 Google searches.

Naturally, this will continue to increase the electricity demand in the United States for years to come. And that’s just a single source. We also talked about the electrification of the car fleet being a solution, but it only contributes to this growing demand.

Make Your Own Climate Pledges

While governments and companies continue to fail the planet, we can still ensure that we do our part by making our climate pledges. Here are ten simple ways you can reduce your carbon footprint.

1. Recycle

Recycling is one of the simplest ways you can lower your carbon footprint. Search for your local recycling plant and identify what materials can and can’t be recycled. In some cases, you need to separate materials from one another.

For example, if you order pre-made meals, sometimes you need to separate the insulator material from the cardboard for the recycling center to accept it. If you don’t, they will just discard the item, even if most of the material is recyclable.

Another example is if you order out a lot. You will receive plastic containers for your food. These are recyclable, but you should take the time to rinse them. Depending on the contents, they can be seen as contaminated and turned away.

2. Unplug Your Appliances When Not In Use

The typical household contains a variety of appliances that make our lives easier and more comfortable. However, every single one of them uses electricity to operate, thus they are contributing to your carbon footprint.

We have been conditioned to leave appliances on. For example, imagine a microwave. You might use it once or twice a day, but it is plugged in 24/7 in most instances. Even if it is not in use, it is still consuming power.

The simple solution is to unplug your appliances when they are not being used. While this can sometimes mean needing to set them up again, not only will this reduce your carbon footprint, but it will save you money on the electricity bill.

3. Reduce Your Screen Time

The average citizen of the United States gets just over 7 hours of screen time a day. This can be from sitting in front of a computer at work to watching Netflix after work. The devices we use to consume content are a big source of emissions.

For example, whenever you visit a site online, your device is connecting to the servers that house that website. Unless the website is using a green web hosting company, that visit is contributing to your carbon footprint.

Reduce your screen time by spending more time outside where your impact is minimal. Or, take up other hobbies like reading books, completing jigsaw puzzles, and so on. Not only is it better for the environment, it’s better for your mental health.

4. Dry Your Clothes Outside

While each household has a variety of appliances, they do not all use the same amount of energy. Clothes dryers are the biggest energy hogs in most households because it takes a lot of energy to produce heat, but there is a solution.

If you have the ability, drying clothes outside is a great way to reduce your energy usage and save a lot of money. Since 80% of American households have a clothes dryer, that could save the equivalent of seven nuclear power plants worth of energy.

And let’s be honest, clothes just smell better when they have been dried outside. This is, once again, another solution that can help save you a lot of money from your energy bill. Even if you can’t do it all of the time due to the weather, it is a great option.

5. Purchase Sustainable Products

When shopping, you should be on the lookout for sustainable products. These products can be identified by looking for specific labels. For example, in the case of appliances, you should be looking for Energy Star to ensure it uses the least amount of energy possible.

If you are shopping for fruits and vegetables, look for the USDA Organic label. Each country has its own labels, so be sure to refer to your government for a full list. You should also be on the lookout for greenwashing packaging.

Many companies understand consumers are willing to pay extra for sustainable products. As such, they use packaging and vague language that makes the product look and sound like it is sustainable. Only trust verified labels.

6. Shop Locally

It is worth pointing out that in many cases, even if a product is grown using the most sustainable practices, during the transportation process, it can accumulate a huge carbon footprint. As such, you should also try to shop locally.

Visiting farmer markets that allow you to buy directly from a farm is going to be a better purchase than buying organic veggies from another country. And this applies to virtually all goods like clothing, furniture, and so on.

If it is made locally, not only are you supporting your community, but you are also lowering your carbon footprint. And in some cases, you can save a lot of money by avoiding shipping and handling fees for online products.

7. Have Plants In and Outside Your Home

Plants are a natural carbon sink. They absorb carbon dioxide from the air, thus lowering your emissions. There are a variety of indoor plants you can keep that require very little maintenance and can brighten up a room.

If you do have a yard, consider planting trees or taking up gardening as a hobby. Not only can you grow your own veggies, but everything acts as a natural carbon sink that can lower your emissions.

You can even expand this to start composting leftovers to use as fertilizer for your plants. This easily reduces the amount of waste your household produces. If you are looking for something simple, try one of these plants.

8. Use Reusable Bags and Water Bottles

Single-use plastics are a major problem for the environment. Not only do they produce greenhouse gases and other harmful toxins, they end up in our oceans, where they take thousands of years to break down.

Two of the most common forms of single-use plastics are plastic shopping bags and water bottles. If you live in an area that still uses plastic bags, bring your own reusable ones. Not only are these more fashionable, but freezer bags can keep your frozen goods cold.

Water bottles have the same logic. Reusable bottles look better, can hold more water, and can save you money. Many businesses will fill up your water bottle for free if you ask. Find the one that fits your personality.

9. Eat Less Meat

Aside from electricity generation and the transportation sector, agriculture comes in at number three as far as emissions are concerned. While this may come as a surprise, the truth is that cows and other farm animals produce a lot of carbon.

A single cow can produce 220 pounds of methane each year. Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon, and when you consider that there are well over one billion cows kept as livestock around the world, it is a problem.

As such, reducing the amount of meat you eat can help reduce the demand, thus shrinking the population of cows in the world. At the very least, eat other meats like chicken that are less impactful on the environment if you have the option.

10. Drive Less

Since the EV adoption rate is so low, odds are that if you own a car, it uses an internal combustion engine (ICE). As such, anytime you can choose to not drive somewhere and instead walk or bicycle there, it is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint.

Not to mention it is just a healthier way to get around. Even if you do have an EV, charging it still impacts the environment since we rely on natural gas for most energy production. With this said, it is not always possible.

In cases where it is not, try to see if there are any carpooling options. Many jobs may have small carpooling groups you might be able to join. It helps reduce the number of cars on the road and free up parking at a business.

Make Your Climate Pledges Today

Now is a great time to come up with climate pledges you can follow. Just be sure to keep it reasonable. For example, it would be easy for me to say buy an Electric car, but that is not realistic for most people.

Take a look at your everyday life and try to identify areas where you can reduce your carbon footprint. Start with small things and work towards larger goals. If more citizens take a proactive approach, governments would be sure to follow.

And maybe more importantly, companies will take notice and create products that align with those goals.

The post Climate Pledges Fall Short: Urgent Action Needed Now appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

Sustainable delivery comes in a variety of forms and is both the responsibility of the food delivery service and the restaurant that is making the food. Yet, it is no secret that the industry is struggling to adopt more sustainable options.

Food delivery is one of the biggest contributors to single-use plastics. These include things like plastic straws, utensils, food packaging material, and the bag it is delivered in. This doesn’t even factor in the gas used during the delivery.

Today, we are going to explain the problems that the food delivery service faces when it comes to sustainable delivery options.

How Does Online Food Delivery Work?

Online food delivery has become a staple of modern life due to its convenience. The actual process is simple enough.

Customers begin by visiting the food delivery services website or app if using a smartphone. They then browse a series of restaurants that the delivery service supports and place an order that is sent to the restaurant.

While the restaurant is preparing the food, a delivery driver is selected and sent to the restaurant to pick up the order. When they arrive, they pick up the food or wait until it is ready, and then make the final journey to the customer’s address.

Once the food is delivered the transaction is complete. While the process is simple to understand, it is far more complex behind the scenes. For example, the app will locate drivers that are already in the vicinity of the location and not on a different order.

In some cases, it will try to group up orders if there are multiple at a single restaurant to reduce the number of trips a driver makes. They also calculate fees that customers pay based on the availability of drivers in certain areas, or the volume of orders.

With all that said, from the consumer’s point of view, it is simple to order food online, which is why the services are so popular.

How Does Online Food Delivery Impact the Environment?

The truth is that it is not as simple as pointing at one aspect of food delivery and saying that is the problem. There are a variety of factors that come together to create a major problem for the industry.

Let’s take a look at some of these issues individually.

Plastic Waste

The food delivery service is one of the largest users of single-use plastics. Utensils, straws, packaging, bags, and more are all examples of single-use plastics. Naturally, this is adding to the world’s plastic pollution problem.

A report in 2021 found that 44% of plastic waste found in the ocean came from takeout food and drinks. While there is no way to distinguish products from food delivery and regular takeout, it is safe to say a portion came from food delivery services.

Now, you may be thinking, it’s not a problem if I recycle everything I use, but you would be mistaken.

The truth is that while most food containers are recyclable, most consumers do not bother to clean them. In many cases, if a food container contains too many remnants of food, it can be seen as contaminated. Instead of being recycled, it ends up in a landfill.

And it’s also worth pointing out that recycling rates in general are not very good. On average, the recycling rate for residential areas in the United States is only 21%. Thus, there’s a good chance it just gets thrown out regardless of whether it is recyclable.

Car Emissions

Since the food is delivered to your home, in most cases, it is done via car. Naturally, this will lead to an emissions problem. And it is no small amount.

DoorDash alone has over 7 million drivers and couriers that deliver food to customers. Not every driver uses a car, but many do. DoorDash is not the only delivery service in the market.

Uber Eats, Grubhub, Instacart and more exist. With millions of delivery drivers on the road, this adds more to the emissions problem. The average passenger vehicle that these drivers normally use produces 4.6 metric tons of greenhouse gasses each year.

The routes drivers take are getting more optimized, but the industry is still facing an efficiency problem. For example, it is very common for multiple drivers to show up at a restaurant collecting different orders.

It is worth pointing out that many drivers work for multiple food delivery services. That means there is most likely a very big overlap between the drivers for each business. As such, the true number of unique drivers is lower than the number suggests.

Food Waste

Food waste is a very common problem in the delivery industry. In fact, I am willing to bet anyone who frequently uses these apps has run into an issue where they were handed the wrong order or got extra items they never ordered.

In some cases, customers are happy when this happens, but it creates a tremendous problem for the industry.

For example, imagine your typical order pickup. The driver enters the restaurant is directed to the bag they need to pick up, and accidently grabs the wrong one. The driver leaves and drives to the customer’s location to make the delivery.

The customer opens the bag and realizes it isn’t their order. As a result, they call the delivery service, and their order gets remade and another driver is sent to pick up the food and deliver it again. This simple mistake not only wastes the food but results in repeated trips.

Server Emissions

Data centers around the US make up about 2% of the total energy usage. Naturally, the delivery services websites and phone apps all use access on top of the technology behind the scenes that customers don’t see.

For example, the industry employs powerful logistics software that utilizes AI to help locate the closest drivers to a restaurant to make a delivery, plot out the course for them, and in some cases, assign multiple orders together for greater efficiency.

Customers can follow the entire process by viewing a driver’s location at any time.

Naturally, all of that uses an enormous amount of power, and as AI becomes more powerful and a bigger part of the industry, it is expected to grow energy usage substantially. Thus, emissions will also increase as a direct result.

How Can They Achieve a Sustainable Delivery Model?

While the industry has a lot of problems to solve, the truth is that there are solutions to all of them and most food delivery services are moving towards a more sustainable delivery model.

Here are how these problems can be addressed by both companies and consumers.

Reduce Single-Use Plastic

One of the simplest ways to reduce plastic waste is to reduce the amount of plastic delivered with every order.

A simple way to do this would be if stores required consumers to check a box to receive utensils with their order. In fact, this is already done by many restaurants as it not only reduces plastic waste but saves the business money.

One of the most famous introductions of this would be in China, which saw utensil orders decrease by 600%. It did this by simply making the default option to not include utensils. The same concept can be applied to straws.

Another solution includes replacing plastic packaging with more sustainable options like cardboard. While this is not always an option for certain types of food, it does work for many popular items like burgers, pizza, and so on.

It’s also worth pointing out that in many cases, packaging is unnecessarily large. Not only does this create more plastic waste, but it also just makes delivering the food harder as it takes up more space in a vehicle.

Businesses should have their packaging optimized to perfectly fit their products. And in the case of food, it can help make your portions look bigger. After all, no one likes opening a container and seeing that it is only filled halfway.

Use Electric Vehicles & Bicycles

Reducing the emissions of millions of drivers is already achievable and many delivery services are trying to do just that.

Instead of using traditional internal combustion engines (ICE), these vehicles should be replaced with electric vehicles (EVs). Or in some cases, could be replaced with a bicycle in urban areas to eliminate emissions.

Uber Eats already has plans to reach zero emissions by 2030 and electrifying its car fleet is part of the plan. DoorDash is also moving in a similar direction and is helping its drivers (Dashers) secure affordable EV leases.

It is worth noting that while using a bicycle is also a very eco-friendly option, it is not always a good option in more rural locations where orders will typically require multiple miles before they can arrive.

However, in an urban area, bicycles are the best option. Not only from an emissions perspective but in crowded cities, reducing the number of cars on the road helps reduce the amount of traffic, thus shortening trips for all drivers.

Improve Delivery Efficiency

Perhaps one of the most impactful changes this industry can make to achieve a sustainable delivery model is to improve the efficiency of the delivery system. Ensuring that drivers close to a location get first pick at an order is a great way to reduce the distance goods travel.

Even more importantly, ensuring that drivers can pick up multiple orders at once can help reduce emissions drastically.

Without a doubt, this is where AI can help improve the delivery experience. AI can be utilized to quickly determine the most optimal route food will travel and the closest driver to take it. This will not only help ensure deliveries arrive faster but travel less distance.

It is also worth pointing out that stores can do a better job to help ensure drivers take the correct order, and that drivers deliver the right meals when handling multiple bags from the same location.

Naturally, this will require more training for employees at these restaurants, but it is something worth striving for as it will save money.

Power Data Centers with Renewable Energy

Virtually all businesses today utilize data centers around the globe to host their website. Users connect to these servers whenever they access the website, or use the app on their phones, thus these servers are on 24/7.

The electricity usage of these servers is massive. The computing power required continues to increase as AI is further incorporated into most businesses, and the power they require will also increase. Luckily, we already have a solution to this issue: renewable energy.

The good news is that most larger data centers are already moving towards renewable energy sources like solar and wind to power them.

Data centers are very large, thus the roofs make the perfect location to place solar panels and are typically far enough away where wind turbines can be present without issue. Many data centers are already built in locations with these factors in mind.

Most tech companies, the primary customers of these facilities, also want green energy. Because of the demand, the transition is already underway.

The Most Sustainable Delivery Is From Home

It’s worth pointing out that as a consumer, perhaps the best way to have a sustainable delivery is to not have one in the first place. While this may not be the best move, the truth is driving to a restaurant yourself is far more efficient.

You’ll order exactly what you want from where you want it. And you can choose to dine in the restaurant and avoid plastic packaging altogether. Or even better, don’t eat out as often.

A home-cooked meal is a superior option when it comes to a carbon footprint. You don’t have to travel, completely avoid plastic packaging, and you can even have leftovers for the next day.

How often do you order from a food delivery service? How important is a sustainable delivery model for you?

The post Food Delivery’s Hidden Cost: Rising Emissions & Packaging Waste appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

In 2024, less than 3% of EVs on the market were priced below $37,000. And those are budget variants. On average, EVs cost $56,351 in comparison to ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles which average $48,397.

Vehicles are currently at the highest price they have ever been due to a variety of factors from high financing rates to manufacturing costs. While these prices will eventually return to normal, even in as inflation returns to normal, EVs are still more expensive.

Let’s take a look at what is slowing down EV adoption rates and when that will turn around.

Why Are EVs So Expensive to Produce?

There are several factors that go into determining the price of a vehicle. The price of an EV is no exception as it is a major concern for sales. Companies are trying to optimize the process to reduce costs, but there are a lot of moving parts.

Here are some of the reasons why EVs are still so expensive to produce:

Batteries

This probably won’t come as a surprise, but the batteries that power EVs are the most expensive part of the entire production process.

Batteries are composed of a variety of materials, but the two biggest are lithium and semiconductors. The world is rapidly expanding lithium mining operations to keep up with the unprecedented demand that EVs have caused.

However, currently, the world does not have enough supply. As a result, lithium prices are very high. Yet, the good news is that prices are rapidly falling. In 2022, the price for 1 tonne was $81,360, whereas in 2023 the price for 1 tonne was $41,166.

That’s nearly a 50% decrease in the price of lithium as more supply has been added. And 2024 is likely to see another big decrease.

The other major component for batteries is the semiconductors. These are what help the batteries deliver better performance and can help optimize the electricity distribution throughout the vehicle.

It’s no secret that in the wake of the pandemic, there was an incredible shortage of semiconductors that increased the price. Naturally, this ballooned the cost of EVs as not only do batteries require them, but nearly every component in an EV does as well.

Not Mass Produced

While there is a lot of buzz about EV sales making up a larger portion of total auto sales, the truth is they only accounted for about 8.9% of cars sold in Q3 of 2024. In most cases, automakers still mass-produce ICE vehicles.

As a result, the limited production of EVs keeps prices higher than if they were produced at the same scale as ICE vehicles.

You might think that this is an easy solution to fix, but that’s not really the case. Car manufacturing is an extremely complicated process and to build factories that can mass produces EVs is a very expensive process.

Combine that with the high production costs, and you will quickly realize it is a big financial risk to anyone that isn’t Tesla. And as we have just discussed, while EV demand will grow, it just isn’t high enough for companies to put this level of resources in yet.

R&D

Traditional ICE cars have been around since 1886, and while cars look different and perform better today, the truth is that combustion engines have not really changed that much, but instead, have optimized their performance.

The same cannot be said for EVs. The technology is still effectively in its infancy and creating major breakthroughs is expensive.

For example, Tesla, the most recognizable name in the EV market spent over $4 billion on R&D in 2023. Naturally, businesses need to recoup those costs, which lead to higher-priced cars to make up for what was spent.

And R&D is likely to continue increasing as more models are made available. Each one requires testing to ensure a high performance, and more importantly, to meet the safety standards that customers expect.

Import Tariffs & Labor Costs

Perhaps one of the more expensive issues that the US faces would be the amount of protection it provides to the US auto industry.

The United States imposes a 100% tariff on all EVs produced in China. This is to prevent China from over-flooding our car market with cheap EVs that home producers cannot compete with. And just to be clear, other nations do the same.

For reference, the average price of EVs in China is $34,400 and has budget models as low as $12,000.

If these were to be allowed into the country, it would completely overwhelm home producers. At the same time, it would force consumers to pay for more expensive models. One major reason why the EVs can be built so cheaply in China is the labor costs.

In the US the average auto worker’s hourly pay is $18.46, whereas in China, the ranges are from 14 yuan ($1.93) to 31 yuan ($4.27). While this is just one advantage China has, it can explain the substantially lower price tag.

Another major factor is that most car components are made in China. Thus, unlike US automakers that need to import the materials from abroad, China already has them being produced in their own country, further reducing the price.

Repairs

Not all of the price concerns are directly related to the initial purchase of an electric vehicle. EVs have become rather infamous for expensive repairs. On average, EVs are around 28% more expensive to repair than ICE vehicles.

For comparison, an EV would cost around $6,018 to repair as opposed to ICE vehicles at $4,696.

That said, repair fees are coming down on EVs, and actually increasing on ICE vehicles, so this may change in the future. However, there is one huge problem you could encounter with an EV, and that is the battery.

Depending on the make and model, if you find yourself in a position where you need to replace the battery pack, you could be looking somewhere between $5,000 and $20,000 to replace the battery.

It is worth pointing out that as long as you don’t get into any major accidents, this shouldn’t be a concern, but it’s best to be aware.

Don’t EVs Save Drivers Money on Gas?

Perhaps one of the most well-known aspects of EV ownership is that you save a lot of money by not having to buy gas. And this is completely true. In the US, EV drivers save about $2200 each year by driving a fully electric car.

In the case of hybrids, drivers save $1500 per year, so it is pretty significant.

However, the problem is that someone needs to buy that EV first before they can start saving, and unfortunately, most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, which means they have trouble making a downpayment and swinging those higher monthly payments.

As a result, for most Americans looking to buy a new car, the money you save after making the purchase is something that is generally ignored. And this is a common trend for more expensive purchases that could save people money.

A great example of this would be homeowners purchasing solar panels. In most cases, a solar panel will pay for itself in around 9 to 12 years. Solar panels typically last 25-30 years, so the ROI on solar panels is incredibly high, but installing them is too much for many.

As such, many Americans miss out on saving because of the higher initial price that most simply cannot afford.

On the other side of that coin, though, you would have to consider the increase in your electric bill for charging an EV. If you have solar panels, then this isn’t much of an issue. But the power for the vehicle has to come from somewhere, and that usually means increasing power demands of the household.

Luckily, these additional charging costs at home are still cheaper than a full tank of gas. An average full charge for an EV will cost around $6 while a full tank of gas could set you back $50 to $60, depending on the size of your tank.

This means that EV owners are still saving quite a bit of money from gasoline every year even after plugging an electric car into their power sockets.

Is Price the Only Thing Holding Back EV Sales?

While price may be the single most important factor for most shoppers, it is not the only factor to consider.

One of the main advantages of an EV is that it doesn’t need gas. Instead, users charge the batteries and can travel. However, there is a lot of misinformation when it comes to how often you need to charge your car and how long it takes.

While a lot of this depends on the car model you buy, on average, an EV will get 200-250 miles per charge. This average is quickly rising with some of the latest models able to travel 600 miles.

To put that into perspective, the average driver in the United States drives 39.7 miles per day.

This means that for the average driver, you can comfortably do an entire day of driving without even going below half of your charge. And you could charge your car at night while sleeping, thus you would never be waiting around.

However, if you are planning for a road trip, this is where things get a bit messy.

EV charge stations are not as plentiful as gas stations. As such, it requires more planning from drivers to find a charge station on their route. And then comes the charging itself, which varies greatly on what model you are driving and the charge station you use.

Charging is broken up into 3 levels. The first is Level 1, which is not quick and intended for home use overnight. Level 2 is what you will typically see at charge stations can take 1-2 hours to charge a battery to full.

And then there is Level 3, which is often dubbed “Fast Charging” that can see you with 80% charge in just 20 minutes.

Unfortunately, many people do not like to wait, and that presents a problem for EV adoption. But the perception is changing as fast charge stations become more popular across the country.

What Are the Most Affordable Models in the US?

EVs are a crucial part of the US as the world works to achieve climate goals. Purchasing an EV is a great choice and can save you money over the long term once gas is factored into the equation. For those struggling to find the right model, here are the 3 cheapest models to buy.

Note: Prices may vary depending on location and financial rates. There are also taxes and other fees to consider when purchasing a new car, but these are not exclusive to EVs.

These three models fall well below the national average for EVs and are competitive with traditional ICE vehicle prices. It is worth pointing out that these prices represent the cheapest models. Prices can vary wildly as you add different features to your order.

It’s also worth pointing out that shoppers can score some major discounts by aiming for sales during holiday weekends like Labor Day or July 4th. Many dealers offer lower rates, but it really comes down to location.

How Do EV Subsidies Impact Sales?

Another huge component of EV sales is that the government will subsidize your purchase. This comes in the form of a tax credit that typically changes yearly and is highly dependent on the current administration.

Currently purchasing a new EV will result in a $7,500 tax credit, while purchasing a used EV will result in a $4,000 tax credit.

The reason governments subsidize EVs is to help incentivize people to purchase them. EVs help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and lower air pollution when compared to traditional vehicles, thus they benefit society.

However, since it is difficult to get consumers to purchase more expensive goods, the government offers a tax incentive to sweeten the deal. As EVs become more popular, subsidies will undoubtedly get smaller and eventually disappear as they are no longer needed.

That will take many years, however. Be sure to look into the current tax credit you may be eligible for in your area and if your car qualifies.

Where Do Hybrids Fit into This?

Hybrid vehicles are those that use both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. The electric motor helps the vehicles move short distances by expending the energy that was charged, thus increasing fuel efficiency.

Price-wise, hybrids typically exist as more expensive than ICE vehicles but are cheaper than EVs.

They are also growing in popularity. They offer many benefits to drivers including better gas mileage, but also don’t have the charging station restrictions that intimidate buyers. And the price tag is more reasonable.

While ultimately hybrids will fall to the wayside like ICE vehicles, they have several advantages and offer a reasonable purchase for many Americans today.

If you cannot afford an EV, hybrids are the second-best solution.

EV Sales Are Imperative to Achieve Climate Goals

The transformation of the world’s car fleet from ICE to EV is going to be one of the most significant ways the world can lower greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2023, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles made up 16% of the global total. By incentivizing EV sales, we can help bring that to zero, but as we have discussed, there are many hurdles.

Yet, the future is clear. EV sales will replace ICE vehicles around the world over the coming decades. But today, prices remain the biggest obstacle.

The good news is how that will change in just a few years as estimations point that EVs will be price-competitive by 2028.

And remember, it’s not just big purchases that matter when going green. Purchasing other green products and services like web hosting, solar panels, and more can help make a huge difference.

Do you plan on purchasing an EV or do you already own one? If not, why?

The post EV Sales Drop: High Prices Block Electric Car Market Growth appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

While on paper, this makes a lot of sense, however, this ban has not only not worked but has actually introduced more plastic into the environment as a result. In 2021, California dumped 231,072 tons of plastic from grocery stores, more than when the ban started.

And this problem is not limited to California. Twelve other states also introduced a similar plastic bag ban and ran into the same problem. This raises the question of how a plastic bag ban could end up causing more plastic usage.

Today, we are going to cover why the plastic bag ban failed and how reusable bags contributed to it.

Why Ban Plastic Bags?

For many shoppers, the banning of plastic bags was a very confusing decision as it made the experience more complicated, and in many cases, more expensive for consumers. Yet, it made a lot of sense from an environmental standpoint.

The plastic bags that were used at grocery stores in 2014 were meant for a single use. Although, plenty of people would reuse them as garbage bags for smaller trashcans. After the use, you were supposed to recycle them.

While this might sound like a good practice, the truth is that less than 10% of plastic bags are recycled.

The rest are thrown away and end up in landfills or find their way into the environment, most notably the ocean, because they were improperly discarded. Once in the environment, these bags would negatively affect the wildlife.

For example, many fish would eat the plastic bags. Their stomachs are incapable of breaking down the bags, which would result in the fish thinking it was full. The reality is that the fish would starve to death because its stomach is full of plastic.

As such, a decision was made to ban such bags as a way to prevent this from occurring.

What Are Single-Use Plastics?

Plastic bags are synonymous with single-use plastics. By definition, a single-use plastic is an object that is used one time before it is discarded. While there are many cases of single-use items being reused, it is not the norm.

Plastic bags are such an example as it is very common to use those bags as trash bags for smaller bins at home.

However, there are many instances where that is not the case. Similarly to a plastic bag ban, California has made efforts to limit plastic straw usage. This is through a law that prohibits restaurants from providing a plastic straw unless asked for by the customer.

This has resulted in the infamous rise of paper straws that just don’t work for most consumers. And similarly to the plastic bag ban, many companies ended up moving to even worse alternatives.

For example, Starbucks switched to strawless lids you drink from. They simply replaced a single-use plastic with another one that requires more plastic to create, thus making the problem worse.

The Recyclable Plastic Bag Myth

If you ask plastic bag manufacturers what they think of the ban, naturally, they are against it. Most state something along the lines that a single-use plastic bag is fully recyclable and is the best option for groceries.

And technically, they are correct that plastic bags are recyclable, however, it isn’t as good as it sounds.

The truth is that recycling a plastic bag is actually more expensive than making a new one from scratch. As such, there is no incentive to actually recycle them unless legislation requires it.

On top of this, a recycled plastic bag cannot be reused to create a new plastic bag. Instead, they are transformed into low-grade materials for other products, thus, there really is no way to recycle plastic bags like other goods.

Why Did the Plastic Bag Ban Backfire?

Unfortunately, when the law was written it included a loophole that allowed grocery stores to offer customers thicker plastic bags for a small fee (10 cents). This was included as thicker plastic bags are reusable.

The idea was simple. Shoppers would pay a fee to get these reusable bags, bring them home, and store them for their next visit. The reality was that the average consumer ended up relying on these thicker bags and using them once before discarding them.

This essentially created a more expensive and more environmentally impactful single-use plastic bag.

Naturally, these thicker reusable plastic bags were much more harmful than the traditional bags when they were discarded after a single use. The law would eventually face an even bigger problem in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the lockdown commenced, shoppers were not allowed to bring their own reusable bags as it could risk contamination in the store. This led to a hold on the ban as single-use plastic bags were the safest way to transport groceries during the pandemic.

This was eventually lifted, and the plastic bag ban began to be enforced again throughout the state as lockdown measures ended.

As a result, the law will be rewritten and go into effect on January 1st, 2026, to fix this problem.

What Does the New Plastic Bag Ban Do?

The new law that California has passed in 2024 will close the existing loophole. Meaning that grocery stores will no longer have the option to sell customers thicker plastic bags. Instead, customers will have three options to choose from when they go shopping.

1. Pay 10 cents to purchase a paper bag
2. Bring their own reusable bag (stores can sell these separately)
3. Carry out their groceries by hand

It is important to point out that the reusable bags sold will be the more traditional totes and not thicker plastic bags. These are your freezer bags or bags that are composed of thick fabrics instead of plastic.

The law also has a condition that by 2028, the paper bags that stores offer must be composed of at least 50% recycled material. With these changes in place, the state hopes that the bill will now have the desired effect of lowering plastic pollution.

The bill has been praised by over 70 environmental organizations and is expected to be an example for other states to follow that also introduced a plastic bag ban.

Will Paper Bags Create A Similar Problem?

There is a concern that paper bag waste will simply replace plastic bag waste. While there is some merit to that claim, the impact of paper bags is vastly different than plastic for one simple reason.

A plastic bag takes somewhere between 10-20 years to decompose naturally, during which it will break down into microplastics that end up in every living organism, humans included. Whereas a paper bag takes 2-6 weeks to decompose.

Even more importantly, unlike plastic bags that cannot be recycled into new plastic bags, paper bags can.

This is a big reason why the new law has a mandate to require paper bags to contain at least 50% recycled material. This will create a greater incentive for recycling because producers will be forced to use recycled material during production.

It’s also worth pointing out that many advocates of the bill ultimately want stores to stop offering single-use options of any kind. At the end of the day, single-use products create a tremendous amount of waste.

While plastic is far more damaging to the environment, even paper could become problematic with a large enough amount.

However, the truth is that most consumers simply do not care and want the most convenient option. This is why the original bill’s loophole was so widely used within the state of California.

Why Do Shoppers Not Use Reusable Bags?

One simple question is why are shoppers in California not using reusable bags?

The truth is they are not as convenient as having the store provide them. Think about it for a second, you are in a rush, leave the house and go to the store. You get to the store and realize you don’t have your bags with you.

Your only options are either to drive back home or use what the store has available. As you might have guessed, most choose the latter because it is more convenient. While we can all say that this is bad planning and preparation for the shopper, it does highlight an issue.

Shoppers will always pick the cheapest and easiest path. Our lives have become extremely busy with most households consisting of two incomes. People simply do not have the time or do not want to deal with bringing their own bags.

While this is sad, it is a real problem that needs to be addressed. The simple answer is to just keep reusable bags in your car to avoid the situation from ever happening. But let’s just be honest, people are always going to forget their bags at some point.

Why Plastic Pollution Is a Major Threat to Humanity

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest threats that face the world. While it may not seem like a big deal for plastic waste to be everywhere, it really is. Here are some of the major reasons plastic pollution threatens the world.

Health Risks for Humans

There are countless studies being conducted to understand the impacts of microplastics on humans. Microplastics are created as plastic naturally degrades and can get dangerously small enough to enter humans without our knowledge.

While the science behind it is not fully understood, a look at workers in the plastic industry shows big problems. Workers in this industry are at an increased risk of leukemia, lymphoma, brain cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, and have decreased fertility.

This is due to the toxic chemicals used to create plastic, and as microplastics break down within humans, those chemicals are released inside of us, and the same effects can be seen. However, the data is still not conclusive.

On average, it is estimated that humans will accumulate over 50,000 particles of plastic throughout their lifetime.

It’s also worth pointing out that while I am focusing on humans, the same is true for animals. And it is far worse for those that live in the ocean where plastic concentration is much higher.

Contaminates Soil, Water, and Air

You may be wondering how exactly humans can accumulate over 50,000 particles of plastic. It’s in the air you breathe, the food you eat, and the water you drink. Microplastics are so small, that they are naked to the human eye and have no taste.

Naturally, the microplastics enter our soil and water supply, which in turn exposes everyone who drinks from the water or eats crops grown in that soil to the carcinogenic chemicals that are released as the plastics continue to degrade.

This is what causes most humans and wildlife to suffer the health consequences we previously discussed.

They also get blown through the wind and end up in our respiratory systems without our knowledge. A terrible example of this would be “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana. The air is thick in gases that are discharged from plastic plants.

Impacts Biodiversity

Plastics have impacted wildlife in very horrifying ways. As I mentioned earlier, fish, sea mammals, and birds often eat plastic objects which fill their stomachs. As a result, they do not eat actual food and starve to death.

This is just one example of the impact plastic has on biodiversity.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about microplastics, but the truth is that sometimes plastic pieces are quite large. And as they are dumped and transported around the world, some species will take up residence inside of them.

A good example of this is how large pieces of plastic float across the ocean. The Asian Shore Crab would ride these objects to new lands. These crabs compete for food with local crabs causing problems and can be found in America today.

How Can You Help?

The simple answer is to avoid buying and using plastic objects whenever possible.

For example, instead of purchasing bottled water, purchase a reusable water bottle that you can fill up. Not only will this save you money, but it will also help reduce the amount of plastic waste you are exposed to.

For those unaware, a recent study examined a one-liter bottle of water to see how many microplastics were inside of it. The report found an astounding 240,000 microplastics. This is because the examination looks at plastic particles that were measured in nanometers.

When plastic products are unavoidable, be sure to recycle them properly. If you are unsure if something is recyclable, take the time to search for information from the producer and check with your local recycling center to see if they can break down that item.

Another great piece of advice if you cannot avoid plastics is to look for products that use recycled material. This helps create more incentive for recycled material if producers see a rise in sales and need more materials to keep up with demand.

Another approach to take is a much more direct one. Volunteer with local groups to help clean up where you live. Removing loose plastic objects from the land and sea helps create a clean place to live and reduces exposure to chemicals from plastics as they degrade.

By taking these steps, you can help mitigate the damage plastic does to the environment.

The post Plastic Bag Bans: The Hidden Environmental Cost of Reusable Bags appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

All of the hurricanes in 2024 had something in common; they were all fueled by warmer waters created by climate change. There is no better example of climate change than Hurricane Milton which went from a Category 1 Hurricane to Category 5 in less than a 24-hour period.

This was only possible because the water was abnormally warmer for this time of the year. According to the World Weather Attribution, climate change made winds 10% stronger and rainfall greater by 20-30%.

As the world continues to warm up, the greater the impact hurricanes will have on the economy, and more importantly, human life.

How Do Hurricanes Form?

Forecasting allows us to prepare for a hurricane’s arrival, and over the years, forecasts have become extremely accurate. This is because we understand exactly what conditions are necessary for a hurricane to form.

That said, pathing a storm is an entirely different thing, which is where a lot of the frustration lies with forecasters.

Hurricanes form when humid air flows upwards in a low-pressure zone over warm water. This will generate clouds that turn into powerful storm clouds. As they rise, the air begins to rotate from right to left due to the Coriolis effect.

This is the start of a hurricane, and it will continue to grow in size or maintain its current size as long as there is a constant supply of warm water. Warm water acts as fuel for the hurricane, which is why hurricanes weaken as they make landfall.

Once they hit land, they lose access to their fuel source.

How Does Climate Change Impact Hurricanes?

Since warm water acts as the fuel of a hurricane, climate change has a direct impact when it comes to their formation. Climate change is causing the world to get warmer, which by extension is creating more warm water, and pockets of water much warmer than normal.

This creates more fuel to aid in the formation of hurricanes, more fuel to help them rapidly intensify, and more fuel to maintain that level of intensity. Simply put, the warmer temperatures from climate change allow them to form more often and become more powerful.

However, while many think of hurricanes as just swirls of intense wind, the real threat is the storm surge.

Storm surge is created by the force of the wind pressing down against the ocean underneath it. The stronger the winds, and the lower pressure, the stronger the storm surge. In extreme cases, a shoreline could face 15-25 feet of storm surge.

Climate change has made coastal areas that regularly face hurricanes far more susceptible to storm surges due to the rising water levels. Climate change is causing the ocean to rise because it is melting glacial ice sheets.

That water is returning to the ocean causing sea levels to rise. Since 1880 the global sea level has risen by 8-9 inches. While this might not sound like a lot, for coastal regions, this is the difference between your home flooding or not.

The higher water level makes it easy for storm surges to be more impactful and reach further inland. And as the temperature continues to rise, the melting of ice sheets will only intensify causing the problem to be more severe.

Is Hurricane Season Getting Longer?

While officially, hurricane season remains the same length (June 1st through November 30th), there is no denying that major storms are forming before and after the season ends, and that is expected to continue due to climate change.

Over the last eight years, seven years had named storms formed before the beginning of hurricane season (June 1st).

As stated earlier, climate change is causing waters to warm faster and remain at higher temperatures for longer durations. This translates into hurricanes being able to form earlier than normal because warm water is available.

Decades ago, the water would have been too cool for major storms to form, and the water temperature needed to be at least 80F.

Climate Action Is Needed Today to Prevent Catastrophe

It is clear and without question that climate change poses one of the biggest threats to humanity. Action today can save lives and billions of dollars in preventable damage to coastal infrastructure.

Unfortunately, the world is currently not on track to limit global warming to 1.5C.

In fact, it is far worse than most think. If current climate pledges were carried out, emissions would only drop by 10% by 2030. And in many cases, many countries have not even created a plan to do so.

However, the reality of the situation is that emissions are still rising. Fossil fuel production is higher than it has ever been with energy usage at an all-time high. Even as renewable energy generates more electricity, the overall demand is too high.

And as technology continues to evolve, that energy demand will continue to evolve. Look no further than AI. One question on ChatGPT uses the same amount of energy at 10 Google searches.

With every company racing towards integrating AI into its existing systems, that demand is going to balloon to unfathomable heights.

A nasty hurricane is going to be the least of our worries if climate change persists.

Here are some ways you can help:

Buy Environmentally Friendly Products

When shopping, we need to be more mindful of what we are purchasing. Many products today have labels that can help identify more environmentally friendly products. Amazon actually has an entire section dedicated to these types of products.

What to look for depends entirely on the product type you are trying to purchase.

For example, if you are purchasing an appliance that uses electricity like a Washer & Dryer, you should be on the lookout for an Energy Star certification. This tells you that the product will use less energy than similar appliances.

In a different case, let’s say you were purchasing groceries. You should be on the lookout for the USDA Organic label. This indicates that the vegetables or fruit were grown using environmentally friendly practices.

That said, it is also worth considering where something comes from.

Buying goods that were locally sourced will outweigh anything, and the emissions from transport are negligible. If we vote with our wallets, more companies will make changes to qualify for these types of labels.

Recycle

Recycling is the process of breaking down existing products into their base materials so they can be used again.

Most commonly we recycle metals, plastics, and paper goods. Unfortunately, we are all guilty of not separating or garbage and recycling things we can. If we take the extra effort, it will make a massive difference.

However, it is important to point out that just sorting the goods is sometimes not enough. The truth is that many items that can be recycled are not because they are still dirty and could risk contamination.

In fact, one in four items recycled is discarded because of contamination. One of the biggest culprits is food contamination.

If you order out a lot, odds are you are receiving a ton of packaging materials to store your food during transport. If you finish your meal and toss them into the recycling bin, you are part of the problem.

In many cases, these containers need to be rinsed out to properly be recycled. Refer to your local recycling center for more information.

Conserve on Power

Power demand is a huge factor when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. And while truthfully the average household is not a huge contributor, when you have billions of them, it begins to add up.

That said, in many cases, households can lower their average by 10 to 30% by following some simple tips.

First and foremost, if you are not using a device, turn it off. Let me say that again, if you are not using a device, turn it off, and do not leave it in rest mode. Rest mode only puts the device in a low power state, but still draws power.

In many cases, you may also want to consider unplugging the device entirely. Devices can still draw electricity when off, which is often referred to as a phantom load. If you are not going to use the device again on that day, unplugging it can help.

Another huge factor is controlling the thermostat. Air conditioning and heating make up a massive part of most household’s electricity usage. Avoid putting the thermostat too low or too high can save you a lot every month.

Everyone Needs to Do Their Part

Climate Change is having a massive impact on hurricane development. And while data suggests we are not on the right track, it doesn’t mean we can’t turn it around. As more people become more climate conscious we can have a positive impact.

That said, we really need governments to step up and start regulating businesses to enforce green practices. Without that, we are headed in a very dark direction for humanity.

The post Climate Change Fuels Record-Breaking 2024 Hurricane Season appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.

Luckily, there are ways to make money quickly with affiliate marketing if you already have an established audience. That said, if you are starting a website from scratch, the prospects of making money fast are almost non-existent.

Affiliate marketing relies on linking your large audience to a product or service within your niche. When done correctly, some of your audience will buy that product or service, and you will receive a small commission.

The bigger the audience, the better the odds you will be able to capitalize.

With that said, let’s take a look at how you can make money as fast as possible with affiliate marketing.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the process where a business will offer incentives to other sites or influencers (affiliates) for sharing their product with their audience. In return, the affiliates get a small commission for every purchase made by using a set link or code.

The process is very simple and can be extremely lucrative for both sides.

Normally, a business would pay for ad space on platforms like Google, Facebook, and so on with the hopes that users see the ad and interact. While this is effective, affiliate marketing presents businesses with better results.

This is because influencers will create their own ad to promote the product, which is likely to resonate with their specific audiences, thus resulting in higher engagement. And influencers can create these ads in a variety of ways.

For example, one of the most prominent places you will see this is on YouTube. Most content creators get paid to advertise a product or service and include a link or discount code in the description. They get paid every time someone uses them.

Of course, this isn’t exclusive to video content. Many blogs will write product reviews that include an affiliate link at the end. This way, they can tell the user all about the product and entice them to buy it if they like it.

How to Make Money Fast with Affiliate Marketing

Generally speaking, affiliate marketing is rather simple. You sign up with a company to become an affiliate, share that affiliate link with your audience, and hopefully profit.

Yet, nothing is ever as simple as it appears. Depending on the platform, it can get a bit convoluted.

Trying to get someone to click on a link and spend money in 2024 is not easy. Most visitors are on guard to avoid this type of content, which is why you are going to need to put in some effort to make it work.

Step 0: Build a Following

To be successful at affiliate marketing, you need a following. There’s no getting away from this, and building one takes time.

As such, this is the real first step. You need to have an audience to whom you can market the product or service. And if I’m being realistic, you need a sizeable one to make any significant amount of money from this.

While building up an audience, you need to make sure you are building a great reputation that people can trust. Affiliate marketing relies heavily on people trusting you, thus if you fail to achieve this, you will have a hard time convincing users to buy something.

The following steps are built around the assumption that you already have an audience in place, whether it’s on social media or through a blog.

Step 1: Understand Your Audience

The first thing you need to consider is the interests of your audience. Affiliate marketing relies heavily on putting a product your audience is already likely interested in right in front of them.

As such, understanding what your audience likes is vital. For example, if you have a website dedicated to cooking, you probably won’t have any luck trying to push a VPN service to your audience.

However, you would be in a really good position to push cookware, recipe books, oven mitts, and so on. Anyone on a site about cooking will be interested in equipment that can help them cook.

It’s easy to see why knowing your audience is important, but the real question is how to figure out their interests.

There are several ways you can collect this information. The first, and probably most obvious, is to check out what content does well on your site. Do you notice that a specific content topic does better than another?

If so, your user base probably prefers that topic, so finding an affiliate deal you can advertise makes a lot of sense. A more direct approach is to just ask your audience what kind of content they want to see.

Creating a poll or survey for your audience in WordPress is easy and many users will give feedback, especially if they want to see more of a certain kind of content. Understanding your audience is vital to all aspects of your website, so be sure to research it.

Step 2: Find or Embrace A Niche

Once you know what your audience is interested in, it is time to zone in on a niche within that topic. You may have heard that diversifying the content you offer is a good practice, which it is, but when it comes to affiliate marketing, niches are your best friend.

This is because it is much easier to find products or services your audience is interested in when you focus your efforts on a single topic.

Let’s start with the basics, niche content is content built around a singular topic, which is usually a smaller part of a larger topic. This content targets a specific audience that is interested in that niche and all content related to it.

For example, take a broad topic like reading. Making reading recommendations is a great way to market new books to your audience. However, it’s no secret that readers typically favor a certain genre like fantasy or sci-fi.

A niche would be focusing on one of those genres within the broader topic.

You would be in a better position to advertise new books to your readers and merch related to those titles if it exists.

For instance, The Lord of the Rings is still one of the most popular fantasy franchises to ever exist. Covering this franchise would allow you to recommend merch related to it, collector book sets, and more. And you can branch out to other books or franchises within the genre.

This makes it much easier to find affiliate partners.

Step 3: Find Affiliate Programs to Partner With

Now that you have an idea of what your audience likes, it’s time to find an affiliate program that sells what they like. Choosing an affiliate program can directly affect how long it takes to make money with affiliate marketing.

There are several key factors you need to keep in mind when selecting one.

The first is the conversion rate. Some products or services are just more likely to sell, and when you are focused on making money fast, choosing a program that has a high conversion rate is critical.

This doesn’t just come down to the products, Things like if the business works with a platform like PayPal that allows customers to quickly process their payment are also a factor. The fewer barriers there are, the more likely a sale is made.

Next, you want to ensure that the business is trustworthy. You may have found an excellent affiliate program, but if it’s from a brand that no one knows on a shady website, it’s not gonna do very well.

A great example would be Amazon. Nearly anyone who uses the internet knows what Amazon is and that it is safe to buy products from them. They also have fast shipping options that ensure shoppers get their goods in a few days.

This makes users more likely to purchase from an affiliate link from them. Now, there are two main ways that you can find an affiliate program, so let’s go over both of them.

Manually Search For One

The most obvious way to find an affiliate program is to search for one. Most companies have some form of affiliate program, regardless of whether they are big or small.

Keeping with the same example, if you were to visit the Amazon Associates web page, you can go through the signup process. In this case, it can take somewhere between 1 and 3 days before Amazon approves you to be a partner.

Every program is unique, thus the time can vary. Some are quicker than Amazon, while others are longer.

It’s worth pointing out that some companies are very exclusive with their affiliate program. Some programs may decline to work with you if you fail to meet certain criteria. Others may not make the program public and reach out to you.

One of the nice things about manually finding an affiliate is the payout. A lot of companies are open to negotiation, especially if you have a large enough following that can prove lucrative to both of you.

Use Affiliate Marketing Networks

An Affiliate Marketing Network is essentially a hub where brands can look for partners to advertise their products, or for partners to look for brands they can advertise. There are dozens of these platforms, and they can significantly help speed up the process.

Most of them allow you to search for brands based on a category like fitness, cooking, beauty, and so on. One of the more well-known networks to use is Impact. It has a great interface and a lot of brands to choose from.

It’s important to mention that many affiliate marketing networks are not free to use. However, most make their money directly from affiliated sales, so it doesn’t cost you anything upfront.

They act as a middleman, but if you are looking to speed up the search, they are a great tool that can help you connect with brands.

Step 4: Optimize Your Content For Affiliate Marketing

Once you are part of a program and are ready to start adding affiliate links to your site, you need to understand that you can’t just drop a random link to a product and expect users to follow it. Instead, you need to start building content around these links.

Now, there are several ways to go about this so I will cover some of the more popular options.

Product Reviews

95% of customers read an online review before making a purchase. Naturally, this makes affiliate links within a product review on your site a great choice. The goal should be to accurately describe a product that can lead a customer to use the link.

If you can build up a reputation within a niche, you can become a trusted source for product recommendations within that community. That said, this relies heavily on you choosing quality products to promote.

Let’s face it, if you reviewed a product and said it was horrible, would anyone buy it? Probably not. Sometimes this happens, and being honest is important in a review because users become warry about your reviews when you recommend a bad product.

Coupon Areas

Everyone is always looking for a deal, and in some cases, affiliate programs act more like providing coupons to users. For example, you may get 50% off your first order if you use a certain code, or just get free shipping.

Building a coupon page that contains all of your affiliate deals in a single location is a really good tactic. There are entire sites dedicated to just offering users discount codes online that are funded purely by the affiliate income.

Just be sure to refresh any deals. Sometimes the promotional code has an expiration date and users can find a different one if yours does not work. Essentially, you lose a sale every time one fails.

Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing strategies a website can use. Naturally, this makes it a great option for affiliate marketing as you can include affiliate links in an email.

In most cases, the affiliate product will be a small section within the email. Remember, users didn’t sign up to be bombarded with affiliate products in their email, so they should never be the primary focus.

A great tactic is to create a “My Weekly Picks” area, or something to that effect, in the email that can be used to show a product you like. You can include an affiliate link or a link to your review of the product.

Show the Product In Use

Perhaps one of the simplest ways to promote an affiliate product is to use it. For example, if you run a cooking blog, make sure all of your images contain the cookware you are partnering with in use.

At the end of every post, you can include the affiliate link telling users that they can get the same cooking ware by using this affiliate link. Also, be sure to mention that it helps you produce more content, so users feel more inclined to use the link.

Or perhaps you run a podcast. You may have a partnering deal with a headphone company, be sure to wear those headphones to show them off. There’s a reason product placement in movies is so important, and affiliate marketing is no different.

Use Social Media

Virtually all businesses today have social media accounts on platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, and more. They allow companies to reach a wider audience than their websites ever could.

These platforms all support affiliate links, although each platform has its own rules that you must follow. Refer to their documentation to learn what is allowed on the platform and what isn’t, as a violation can get you banned.

As such, creating tweets or posts about a product that includes an affiliate link is very common, so go for it. Just make sure you have a lot of other content to engage users. After all, no one is going to follow an account that only releases updates or affiliate posts.

Step 5: Optimize the Way You Deliver Content

One of the most important aspects of any affiliate marketing strategy is the call to action (CTA). The CTA is essentially telling the customer to do an action. This can be simple like signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product.

Have you ever noticed a site that you visit one day and see some form of a CTA and the next day see a different one for the same product? Well, that is called A/B testing, and most sites today utilize it to optimize their content delivery.

Let’s face it, creating a successful CTA is difficult, and a lot of your affiliate marketing relies on it.

As such, if you want to make money fast with affiliate marketing, you need to quickly optimize your CTA to increase the number of clicks you get. A/B testing allows you to do just that.

On a simple level, you create multiple CTAs to use on your site, and you then set up A/B testing where different users will see one of those CTAs. You can then collect that data and see which CTA is the most popular.

The more engagement a CTA gets, the higher the chance someone will make a purchase using an affiliate link on your site. Then, you simply discard the one that isn’t working out.

Step 6: Increase Your Traffic

I mentioned right at the start you need a large audience to be successful with affiliate marketing. When it comes to speeding up your growth, optimizing your site for search engines will not cut it in such a competitive market.

Instead, many sites will invest in PPC or paid advertisement to grow their audience as fast as possible. This is not cheap, but if you want to grow quickly, there is no better way.

What is PPC you ask? Well, simply put, it’s buying ad space to advertise your website to a wider audience. This can help you grow much faster than waiting for your site to rank high naturally.

With this said, it doesn’t mean you should ignore SEO. Optimizing your site for search engines is a great way to naturally grow your audience. It is especially helpful to have high-ranking pages that have affiliate links in them, as they are more likely to make a sale.

Creating great content that ranks well also means that other sites are more likely to link to your site. This can help improve your authority and increase your traffic. In fact, link trading is another great tactic to grow fast.

Continuous growth is critical for you to continue reaching new users, which allows you a better chance at making sales.

Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a booming industry that continues to grow, with spending surpassing $8 billion in 2022 and expected to reach $27.78 billion by 2027. This growth is driven by low-cost entry and high potential returns, making it an attractive option for content creators and businesses alike.

One of the key strategies for successful affiliate marketing is to launch your affiliate site with existing content.

Stacey MacNaught, an experienced affiliate marketer, emphasizes the importance of having a substantial amount of content before going live. Her team typically creates 20-plus pieces of content before launching a site, ensuring a strong foundation for attracting and retaining an audience.

Diversifying affiliate partners is another crucial strategy. By partnering with multiple brands, marketers can spread their risk and increase their chances of earning commissions. This approach also allows for the promotion of a wider range of products, catering to different audience preferences.

Owning the relationship with your audience is vital. Building trust and providing valuable content can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. Disclosing affiliate links and sharing discount codes are effective ways to maintain transparency and offer added value to your audience.

Social media platforms play a significant role in affiliate marketing. TikTok, for instance, has emerged as a top platform for income generation, with its Creator Fund paying creators based on views and engagement levels.

Instagram, while not offering direct payments for views, allows influencers to earn through sponsored content and affiliate links, with potential earnings ranging from 1 cent to 5 cents per 1,000 views.

The average affiliate marketer earns around $8,038 per month, with some generating six-figure monthly incomes. However, earnings can vary widely based on factors such as niche, audience size, and marketing strategies.

For example, business-related affiliate programs tend to offer higher commissions compared to those for books or clothing.

Affiliate marketing can be particularly profitable in certain niches. Education/E-Learning, Travel, and Beauty/Skincare are among the most lucrative niches, with high demand and substantial commissions.

On the other hand, niches with lower conversion rates may require more effort to achieve similar results.

Real-life case studies highlight the potential of affiliate marketing. The website “This Is Why I’m Broke” earns over $20,000 per month from Amazon affiliate links, demonstrating the power of high traffic and effective monetization strategies.

Another example is “Money to the Masses,” which generates significant revenue from financial product affiliate commissions by regularly updating content and leveraging YouTube videos for SEO.

Statistics show that affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of all internet orders in the U.S., with 81% of brands using affiliate programs to boost brand awareness and drive sales[4]. This highlights the effectiveness of affiliate marketing in generating revenue and expanding reach.

The average annual income for an affiliate marketer is $54,251, with 10% earning over $73,000 annually. This demonstrates the potential for substantial earnings, although it also underscores the variability in income levels within the industry.

Affiliate marketing is not without its challenges. The industry is highly competitive, and success often requires a long-term commitment and continuous learning.

For instance, SEO is a critical component of affiliate marketing, with 78.3% of affiliate marketers using it as their primary traffic source. However, SEO can be complex and time-consuming, requiring ongoing optimization and adaptation to algorithm changes.

Despite these challenges, the future of affiliate marketing looks promising. Experts predict an annual growth rate of 7.7% between 2024 and 2030, driven by increasing adoption and the effectiveness of affiliate marketing in driving sales and brand awareness.

This growth is further supported by the rising popularity of social media platforms and the increasing number of content creators entering the industry.

Affiliate Marketing FAQ

Affiliate marketing is a complicated subject, as such, I’m sure you still have some questions.

Here are some of the most frequently asked:

Start Affiliate Marketing Today And Make Money

Affiliate marketing is a powerful way for websites to passively make income by including links to products or services your user base will find useful. Luckily, it is not overly complicated to implement on your website.

That said, the time it takes to generate money varies wildly. Some websites can have overnight success, but in most cases, that won’t happen. Usually, only 1-5% of your traffic will ever purchase a product or service through an affiliate link.

As such, increasing your total traffic can help boost your earning potential exponentially. Do not get discouraged if you do not find success overnight. Like most things, even if you do everything right, it can still take some time.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful in learning how to make money faster with affiliate marketing.

How long did it take you to earn your first dollar from affiliate marketing?

The post How Fast Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing in 2024? appeared first on GreenGeeks Blog.