OneDrive is a Microsoft product and the best Online Cloud Storage service, is part of Office 365 and included by default in windows 10 with 5 Gigabytes of free storage, with the option to upgrade for more storage space. It can also be used in Computer, Mac, Smartphone whether iPhone or Android, as well as a Tablet.
How OneDrive Works
OneDrive allows you to save in one place all your files, images, videos and any document you usually save on your computer. By saving your documents in OneDrive, they will be kept on the cloud in Microsoft highly secured datacenters somewhere on the world depends on your location.
OneDrive automatically sync with all your devices, whether a computer, tablet or smartphone. OneDrive offers an easy to use application and user friendly cloud storage system, allowing you to access and share any document to anyone having an email account.
Why Using OneDrive
OneDrive have may amazing features making your life really easy and managing your online business so enjoyable. It’s allowing you to manage all your data in one place, create, modify, save, share all your documents, whether it’s Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pictures, Videos, PDF and any kind of documents, applications, software, tools and more.
Access your documents from any device, whether your computer, tablet, smartphone, as well as from any location with internet access, the only thing you need is a browser and your OneDrive email and password account.
You can choose whether to preserve data on OneDrive or File Explorer. You can utilize OneDrive as a backup system and have your data saved in both places, in your computer and your OneDrive, or as a workspace and keep data only on your OneDrive.
Additional features like a built-in Ransomware Protection to keep your data safe, and a great tool called Personal Vault, permits you to conserve important files with more security with an extra password protection. Personal Vault allows you to access your data with a solid verification technique by including one more layer of identification confirmation, as a biometric, PIN, or a verification code sent to you by email or SMS.
How OneDrive Costs
OneDrive includes 5 GB storage for free. You can add more storage by upgrading to different plans, The Personal or Business planes offers different prices.
From $1.99 a month with 100 GB. $69.99 a year with 1 TB. $99.99 a year with 1 TB for a family, are available for a Personal Plan. The Business plan has three plans. $5 per user per month. $10 per user per month. $12.50 per user per month. These prices can change at any time by Microsoft, visit OneDrive website to have an updated information.
As you can see, almost all prices are very affordable comparing with the value OneDrive can gives to you for your online business. Our recommendation is to go with the most affordable and great plan for your online business, the 1 TB personal plan if you are managing your business yourself, to have enough storage for your data like pictures, videos, creatives and much more. If you have a team, take your time to find the best plan for you depend on the number of person you have.
How To Set Up OneDrive
Microsoft account is needed to use OneDrive. To start using it, open OneDrive website, choose the best plan for you whether Personal or Business.
The Personal plan gives you options to use for yourself if you are solo managing your business, or a family plan if your family are part of your business management. The Business plan gives you options to choose from if you have a team managing your business.
I recommend choosing the 1 TB (Terabit) storage plan to have enough storage space and be able to save all your data for long time to come, keep your multimedia safe, like pictures for your WordPress blog, banners for your affiliate marketing, photo and video creatives for your advertising, eBooks for your email list and e-Commerce, business documents, your family photos and videos, and much more.
When you select the best plan for you, follow the easy steps to “Sign in” if you already have Microsoft account, or create a new account if you don’t already have one.
As you should figure out by now that OneDrive is part of Microsoft Office 365, by getting your plan, you will not only have 1 TB cloud space storage for your business, but also the MS Office Suite like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more.
After getting your plan, you should receive an email with all information about your purchase, just follow the instructions. Open OneDrive in your operating system like Windows or Mac and connect using the same email and password you used when you purchased your plan. You should be connected and have access to your OneDrive as if you are accessing any folder in your computer. This will allow you to easily create and save all your data in one safe place, and you will have access to your data from any device, whether is a computer, tablet and smartphone, just connect with your account using the same email and password.
How To Start Using OneDrive
By now, you have your OneDrive up and running on your computer and ready to be used, even though is available and accessible, but your data are still in your computer. So far, is something happen to your computer, you will lose all your data. What is needed to be done now, is to move your data from your computer to your OneDrive, like this, they will be safe and secure, and if your computer goes down, all your data remain safe and available, since they are saved in the cloud and not locally in your computer.
To do so, the process is very easy, just copy and paste all your data including your documents, photos, videos …etc., from your different computer folders to your OneDrive. To keep this process secure, the best is to COPY and PASTE instead of CUT and PASTE. Since you are copying from your computer to the cloud, the copy is using the internet to move your data, and if you lose your internet connection during the copy, you can re-do the copy without losing any data by using COPY and PASTE.
When all data are moved from your computer to your OneDrive, you can either copy them again into an external hard drive and delete them from your computer, or archive them by keeping your data in your computer into an archive folder.
To avoid having two versions of the same document and lose control of your work, don’t use the files and folders in your computer anymore (they should be in Archive folder), since they exist in your OneDrive. Instead, use only data in your OneDrive and keep only one version of your documents. From now, your main workspace is your OneDrive.
The files on your OneDrive are private and only you have access to them, if you wish to share any folder with anyone, follow the steps listed below. Keep in mind that when you share folders with Edit permissions, people you shared files and folders with, can add the common folder to their own OneDrive. If they don’t have, they can access it using the shared link you sent to them on their browser.
Any updates will be done on the shared documents by anyone has access, will sync with the original folder you currently have, so, every person with access to the exact same folders and files are likewise updated with the same information. In other word, you are working in the same shared documents, any changes to any document, will be synchronized immediately.
To share any folder from your account, open your OneDrive account by sign in with your email and password if not already done. Pick the files or folders you want to share, right click and select “Share”, a new window open, enter the email address you want to share with and either send an email or the link. The person you shared with your documents will receive the link, click it and have access to the shared document. The access depend on the permissions you gave, either read only, or edit which means modification on the documents is allowed.
Final Thoughts
OneDrive is really amazing, I have been using it for years and have never ever have any issue with it, it synchronize automatically, you have access to all your data from anywhere, computer, tablet, smartphone and browser. No need to have many copies and take your external hard drive with you anywhere you go. With OneDrive, you can relax and have a peace in mind, don’t worry if your data is safe, just spend your time focusing on your online business and make money online, instead of thinking about the safety of your data. I highly recommend using OneDrive from now, don’t waste any second of your valuable time.
Please feel free to share your experience with us and leave a comment bellow. I would like to hear from you whether you already have a business, or want to make money online and don’t know where to start, we are here to help.
