Category: Wordpress

Think of it, you get to be the brain behind that successful website, you can create the best user experience for over 2 billion users. Also, websites are here to stay for the next decades, therefore you’d still be relevant in the field as long as you’re growing.

What’s amazing is that you can learn web development just on your own. When you’re done reading this post, you’d have very clear directions on how to become a professional web developer. The steps explained here are achievable and proved over years by several expert web developers, you can become one by following through.

Before starting the steps, it’s important you understand the following…

Who is a Web Developer?

Based on the process of web development, a web developer is a programmer that creates web-based applications to be accessed through the internet. These websites would have specific features and functions that the web developer is responsible to build through his programming skills.

Web development consists of 2 major sections; as an aspiring web developer, you can choose to specialize in any of the sections.

• FrontEnd Web Developer would be responsible to build and design layouts, features, and appearance of a website. This role is also called client-side developer.
• BackEnd Web Developer is responsible for building the driving system of a website. They are responsible for building the best framework that allows data to be easily transferred from the web server to the web browser – as seen by the users.

Honestly, no crime combining both roles, being an expert in both FrontEnd & BackEnd development, only that you’d have to learn a lot more. People who are skilled in Front-end and Back-end web development are called Full-stack developers – they are highly respected and well-paid. Deciding on a specification is important as you’d see in coming sections.

So, how would we define a perfect Web Developer?

The Perfect Web Developer.

Primarily, you have to be interested in writing codes. The programming language is the building block of a website, every website solution you will ever create will be written with programming languages.
If you’ve not written a code before, it’s quite easy to learn. There are great resources online to learn coding for beginners – where you’d be taught step by step towards becoming a great programmer.
To be a perfect front-end web developer, you need to learn the following programming languages:

• HTML & CSS
• Javascript
• jQuery
• Bootstrap
• Flash
• Microsoft Silverlight

These programming languages are regularly updated, therefore be sure to learn the most recent.
In the same way, the perfect back-end web developer must be skilled in the following programming languages:

• PHP
• MySQL
• Java
• Ruby
• Node.js etc

Note that some of these programming languages perform the same role, it’s not necessary to learn all.
If you’re already familiar with some of these languages you can use them, however, for newbies I’d suggest you learn HTML & CSS, jQuery, Javascript and Bootstrap for Front-end development and/or PHP and MySQL for Back-end development.
Every successful web developer carefully went through the following process I’ve curated for you to follow.
Here it is…

7 Steps to become a professional web developer.

1. Choose a specialty. As explained earlier, you can choose FrontEnd web development or BackEnd development and specialize. If you want to be a Full Stack developer, you should start with FrontEnd.
2. Acquire the needed programming language skill. Each web development specialty has the necessary programming languages that you should learn. This has been highlighted above.
3. Take on small projects. You need to start small, take on small projects, complete them and move on to bigger ones. No need to rush, big and complex websites are built on simple principles you’d encounter in these small projects.
4. Be very patient in testing and debugging. After you’re done writing those codes, ensure to test them. Also, as you debug the codes, do it patiently so that you’d learn not to repeat such errors as you take on bigger projects.

1. Join a web developers forum and interact. An active web developers community is good for you. You get to learn from others’ errors, judge others’ works, get informed on important updates and several other benefits.

1. Learn from other websites. Checking up websites that you find appealing is a good way to also become a professional. You can incorporate their codes into your projects to help you learn faster.

Lastly…

1. Practice! Practice!! Practice!!! Behind every successful website are hours of training and practicing of the same. You get better in repetition.

In conclusion, web development is a great skill anyone can have. No university degree is needed to become a professional. All that’s needed is a willing mind and following simple directions like this post has provided. Good luck to you as you start your journey! Cheers!

This is a guest post by Rokas Malakauskas.

Clients expect animated web design. Some of their ideas might make you cringe, but it is part of your job to moderate the design proposals the client has given you so the finished website will achieve the desired purpose.

No designer is going to go along with multi-colored dancing headers. Yes, they were a thing 25 years ago, but expectations have changed, and every aspect of your design must serve the customer’s purpose rather than showcasing the designer’s cleverness the way dancing text used to do.

Why Animations?

Animations work. Period.

Good uses of animations include GIF sequences to explain multi-step processes.

Unique animated ads work well on some sites because visitors will not have seen elsewhere, so the ads catch their eye even though the user has become blind to the ad they have seen one hundred times before.

Animated GIFs are a great alternative to embedded videos because they use less bandwidth and do not require the visitor’s undivided attention. Mobile users react better to GIFs than video because GIFs are faster. Users are also more likely to share or to interact with the web page in other ways.

What Animations?

Ask the client about any advertising they intend to put on their pages because the ads will influence your page layout and the color palette.

Your color choice is not limited to the colors in the ads, but the ads must stand out without clashing horribly. If you are working with pink ads, then blue or grey palettes will often work, but you would need to be more careful with pink, red or green colorways.

Everyone loves a GIF, even if they loathe videos. You can use a GIF to demonstrate what a tool does or how to interact with a web page. A GIF is easier and faster than reading a long-winded text paragraph of explanation.

How Animations?

When you have completed the design project you want to be able to hand it off to the client and for the client to perform any minor updates without contacting you.

Part of your job as a designer is to make the client happy ever after, which means making site maintenance drag-and-drop simple. Simplicity means using tools the client will be able to use without taking a six-month-long total immersion course in video production.

Most of your animations will be animated banner ads and GIFs.

Resist the temptation to use your favorite software. No business owner needs to become a Photoshop® expert to produce everyday web content like banners or memes; not when there are tools that any non-designer can use without any training.

Screenshot source

The screenshot above shows how animated banner software lets your client create multiple ads at the same time, saving you hours of repetitive work.

Test animations

Neither you nor your client can say with certainty how target users will react to any design feature, including animations.

Explain the principles behind split testing and illustrate the possible results with numbers.
If you run A/B tests and you allow each to run an average of three days, you will run 120 tests in a year. If each test results in a 5% improvement in conversions, the results after one year will astound your client

1.05¹²⁰ = 348.9

Which means 348.9 times more conversions compared to sticking with the original untested idea.

With numbers like those, any client can see the logic behind paying for an A/B testing tool that makes it easy to set up tests.

Limit Animations

You could put six animated banners or GIFs on every page. Resist, even if it’s the client who is pushing. Few customers that will appreciate all that busy-ness on their screens and most will recoil in horror – Gone forever.

If you have four warning lights on the dashboard, you take your car to an auto-electrician, and you expect expert advice on all aspects of your vehicle. If the radiator is leaking, you expect to be told, even though you haven’t asked, because the auto-electrician is an expert in all things related to cars.

Your client thinks of you the same way. You know everything about websites, hosting and the Internet. You know more than 99% of clients, so share your knowledge. If the client has a silly idea, say, “That’s not going to work.”

The Short Version

The design is about the client, not the creator, so resist the temptation do something just because you can.

Animated GIFs and banner ads are quick to set up with the right software, and clients will see the advantage of using them, especially if you explain how well viewers perceive them. You can incorporate these elements into UX-focused design, if you know your client intends to use them. Client communication is key to a good project outcome.

This is a guest article by Roy Salomon.

Many often wonder why despite putting up new posts at least every day, nothing ever comes out of it. No shares, no comments or even subscriptions. And this usually leads to the question; does one needs to find thesis writing service to which content creation tasks can be outsourced or there is a way out for a more personalized approach to blogging?

Blogging for fun versus blogging for income

There are clear-cut differences between those who publish posts on their blogs for fun and those who do it for money. Usually, the former group do it as a fulfilment of a hobby. For instance, a good writer may decide to engage his or her skills in order to share with friends what they do best. It could also be a world traveller who simply wants to provide readers with information regarding certain destinations. The same goes for someone who loves cooking and as such, decides to set up a recipe blog.

However, when it comes to success in the blogging world, there is always a strong link with generating revenue. In other words, how can one turn a simple WordPress blog into an income generating platform? Those who blog for income thrive for continuous improvement and as result, look out for ways of turning posts into money. It could be through Clickbait, Clickbank, Google Adsense or simply turning a whole blog into an eBook. The question is and especially for those who are already into this kind of blogging; are you doing it the right way? So, it is time to start making money doing what you love.

Blog, have fun and earn money

Thus far, I unravel the treasure troves of successful blogging. The following are tips worth trying out as soon as you finish reading this post:

1. Write more for more success

For the most part of it, blogging is all about writing. There’s no stopping once you get started. Do it 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. What this means is that the more you write, the better you become at sharing information out to the world in a more engaging way. It is actually very easy to forget about how to craft compelling content the moment you take a long break of weeks or months without publishing something new. But while you can get such tasks across to paper writers, never stop writing.

2. Keep learning and read about new things

The internet is a home to everything imaginable and as a WordPress blogger who wants to stay ahead of the game, you have to dig out information about anything and everything. This way, the learning curve progresses exponentially and sooner than later, you become an authority in a certain niche.

3. Lead generation through email marketing

There are many ways to let the world know about your blog but a big difference is between those who stay back as loyal readers or post subscribers and those who are simply passing by. An email list of all these people brings the money home through leads generation. There are tons of emailing software to help with this.

4. Outsource some tasks.

Getting professional writers on board who understand such things as SEO, blog marketing tools and landing pages could help you turn your blog into a huge success. You simply cannot do everything and therefore, make use of academic writers online .

In summary, there are more ways of becoming a successful blogger apart from what is explored in this post. About us page, Post headlines, personalized way of writing, a greatly designed website, being creative and educative are among other things which will stir your blogging experience into success.

This is a guest post by Alice Yoon.

A Word About SpringBuilder

SpringBuilder is a cloud website builder, which comes with an intuitive dashboard, an extensive set of built-in features, customization tools, and convenient drag-and-drop editing options. Working with the website builder is simple for newbies and web design professionals. This is due to the powerful customer support team, rich knowledge base and hints that help solve the entire spectrum of questions users might face when exploring the service.

When you just start working with the website builder, you realize that no special programming skills or web design expertise are needed to enhance the quality of the project and get decent results. You control all the steps of the web design process and decide when it is high time to make the edits, update website content, change the layout or do other actions to boost your website performance.

SpringBuilder Highlights

The fact that SpringBuilder is mostly a gaming web building solution is explained by its rich feature set. When you reach the control panel of the service, you notice that it comprises four major sections, namely the Dashboard, the Elements, the Colors and the Progress. Each section comes with certain parameters and corresponds to the completion of specific tasks.

The Dashboard is the place, where you can get access to multiple design customization tools to give your project the desired appeal. The Elements is the website part, where you can come across widgets you can choose and integrate into your gaming website. The purpose of the Colors section is clear from its name as this is the place, where you can select and modify the color palette of your project. Finally, the Progress section is important, when it comes to the accomplishment of your website design process and control over it.

Having explored the control panel of the service, you should definitely have a look at the design customization tools and general features the system has. These are the elements, which have a notable impact upon the way your gaming website will look and work. Thus, it makes sense to point out the following SpringBuilder highlights:

• Designer Tools. This is the set of elements, utilization of which can give your website the required color scheme and will help you edit the project typography, modify the design, style, background, and layout of it. SpringBuilder Designer Tools encompass Typography, UIKit and Layout.
• Multi Language Support. Making your gaming website multilingual is certainly an advantage. This is a surefire way to attract the gaming audience from abroad and make it convenient for them to browse the website in the language they know or speak.
• Logo Maker.The website builder allows you to create and upload your own logo to the website, which will represent your business and goal to the advantage. You can either design your own logo or upload the existing one to further integrate it into your website.
• Integration of External Apps. Effective integration with third-party applications and services can boost your website performance. It is up to you to deice, what extensions your website currently lacks. As of today, you may choose between multiple external services like Hotjar, Google Analytics, Zendesk Chat, Disqus, Intercom and what not. The list is quite long and there are many apps to choose from.
• Casino App. This is one of the most crucial SpringBuilder highlights. It allows adding and managing an online casino. The app is available in the website builder dashboard. This is where you can browse several tabs (Games, Types, Categories, Providers), each of which correlates to the major parts of your casino website.
• Articles App. The application is handy if you have an intention to add a blog to your website. This is important when it comes to connecting with the target audience. In the Articles App, you can write, add, edit, modify and schedule posts to make your blog a success with the public.
• Team Access Rights. This feature will be useful to web agencies and teams of website developers, who work on the project development together. By granting access to the website dashboard to all the members of your team, you will contribute to its more effective and quick development.
• eCommerce Feature. Connecting a web store to a gaming website is a nice idea that will surely pay off. In the eCommerce section of the dashboard, you will be able to add and edit new web store pages, create product lists and their detailed descriptions, add images, discounts, and special offers, select the most suitable payment solutions and perform other actions related to eCommerce.
• SEO App. Websites built with the system are SEO-friendly. To boost their search engine rating, you can fill out the required meta tags for texts, pages, and images. It’s also up to you to make up a human-friendly URL for your website to make it recognizable for the audience.

Gaming Design Options

Apart from the general website features, it also makes sense to consider the set of gaming features SpringBuilder offers. This matters a lot because the website builder is mainly oriented on the gaming niche and, thus, industry-specific features have notable meaning. SpringBuilder currently comes with the following list of gaming features:

• Selected Sports Games
• Winners Chart
• User Account
• Mini Games
• Fantasy Sports
• Events
• Betslip
• Casino Games
• Casino Favorites
• Casino Games Category
• Casino Search

These specialized gaming features will give your website niche-specific design, attracting the attention of users, who are interested in this topic.

Website Design Options

The system allows creating and adding different types of web pages, which will become a useful addition to any gaming/betting website. The Pages section is the place, where you can add and edit the types and the number of website pages, such as:

• SportsBook (Live and PreMatch). The page, which will be a great contribution to any SportsBook website. It is possible to choose between Live and PreMatch page modes here and adjust the settings based on your web building needs. The default SportsBook page comes with the following ready-made sections: Sports List, Search, Betslip and Live Match. They feature pre-designed content you can change any time with regard to your design preferences.



• Casino Page. This is where you can add different popular casino games, create your website design, add and manage casino sections and perform other related actions.



• SportsBook Calendar. Gaming fans always tend to be aware of the upcoming games, schedules, and news updates. This also helps drive the target audience to your gaming website and add a calendar to your SportsBook site.



• Other Types of Web Pages. To give your website enhanced functionality, you may also consider adding other types of gaming pages to it, such as Pools Betting, Virtual Sports, FinBet, Games etc.

SpringBuilder is mainly used to launch gaming websites and, thus, it has a nice collection of thematic templates. They fall into several sections depending upon the topics they reveal. SpringBuilder template collection currently encompasses the following categories: Sports, Game, Casino, FinBet, Skill Games, SportsBook, Poker, Promotions, Fantasy, SportsBet and more.

The templates are responsive, developed by the system web designers and are initially filled with content you can always change with regard to your website specialization. If any of the available templates don’t come up to your needs, you can make use of a blank theme to design your website from scratch. Apart from gaming or betting websites, the service also allows launching other types of projects.

Customer Support

SpringBuilder ensures 24/7 customer support, which is ready to provide users will any kind of information and assistance they currently need. Whatever problems you face during your website creation, you can always contact LiveChat support. The corresponding icon is available in the lower right corner of your website. They answer each question immediately not to keep you waiting.

Apart from that, the website builder has an extensive knowledge base, which comes with multiple tutorials, how-to instructions, niche-related articles and FAQ that cover the prevailing amount of user inquiries and needs.

Conclusion

SpringBuilder is a cloud website builder, which comes with drag-and-drop editing options, niche-specific template gallery, versatile design customization tools and abundance of outstanding features. The website builder was developed by BetConstruct and, thus, it has a strong niche focus on the creation of gaming or betting websites, even though, it is also possible to create any other project from scratch with it. The highlights of the platform are different page types you can launch with it and specific gaming features, which will give your website unique personalized look.

The website builder allows designing SEO-friendly websites with multilingual support, eCommerce and blogging options. Its customer support team quickly reacts to user inquiries. This creates a fast, convenient and hassle-free web building environment for beginners and experienced web designers.

This is a guest post by Howard Steele.

What is BuddyCSS?

BuddyCSS is a relatively new CSS framework, created by French developer Loic Sciampagna.

The idea behind BuddyCSS is to keep the coding fun. Therefore, the framework is mostly made for front-end developers who enjoy to write their own code and see a CSS framework as a starting point instead than a complete solution. The name Buddy comes from the fact that its creator sees the framework as a work buddy, helping you with tasks, but letting you work your own way.

As a result, BuddyCSS is pretty lightweight, which is very good news now that website speed optimization is so important in order to guarantee a good usability for your visitors as well as to keep your SEO rankings high.

Pros and cons

Now that I’ve introduced you to BuddyCSS, let’s have a closer look at its main features, pros, and cons.

For starters, BuddyCSS looks great. The look and feel is what users generally notice first when using a website, so it’s great news that BuddyCSS looks amazing out of the box. The framework uses Google fonts and FontAwesome 5 (free), for a beautiful end-result.

Secondly – BuddyCSS is well written, easy to use and well documented. If you have some HTML/CSS experience, no way you’re gonna get lost. Featuring the most used website components (navigations, flex grids, fullscreen, paginations, form elements, etc) BuddyCSS will help you make websites that look great, quickly and efficiently.

BuddyCSS is not dependant on jQuery. While I really like jQuery, I love the idea of not being forced to use it in just like any projects, as you sometimes just don’t need it.

And at last but not least, BuddyCSS is free and updated frequently, so there are many things to expect in the near future.

Usage

So now that we have seen what we can do with Buddy, how about using it and get a new project started?

There are two main ways to use BuddyCSS in your project. The first way is the “ready to use” mode, which simply consists of importing the BuddyCSS files into your project. Buddy’s website features a HTML starter, which I’ve reproduced below:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>BuddyCSS</title>

    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">

    <!-- Go to  http://realfavicongenerator.net/ to get your own favicon readable on all platforms -->

    <meta name="author" content="Loïc Sciampagna">
    <meta name="description" content="CSS responsive framework to build awesome websites easily.">

    <meta property="og:url"                content="https://www.buddycss.com" />
    <meta property="og:type"               content="Website" />
    <meta property="og:title"              content="BuddyCSS" />
    <meta property="og:description"        content="CSS responsive framework to build awesome websites easily." />
    <meta property="og:image"              content="https://www.buddycss.com/images/sharer-1.jpg" />

    <link href='//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,300,600,700,800,900,300italic,600italic' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

    <!-- All CSS files which are not included in NPM -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/buddy.plugins.min.css">

    <!-- Header, see component menu to know how it works -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/buddy.header.min.css">

    <!-- All SCSS files compiled into one CSS file -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/buddy.min.css">

    <script type="text/javascript" src="js/buddy.min.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

If you have little experience with front-end development, you should already know what to do: Download Buddy, put it on your server and start editing the HTML starter provided. Simple as that, your project is ready and now only needs your creativity.

The second mode is for more advanced users and is provided with Gulp, SASS, and Babel. Installing the full-mode version isn’t complicated, all you have to do is to follow the following steps:

• You can go to the github repository page or just copy/paste the URL below:

  git clone https://github.com/BuddyCSS/BuddyCSS.git

• Once BuddyCSS is on your computer, use Yarn or npm i to install it.
• Now use the command line gulp to build your project and open automatically a new tab with a ready website.
• Don’t forget to check the files structure.

That’s it. Now you can explore the documentation to see how BuddyCSS components work and how to use them in your own projects.

Conclusion

So what to think about Buddy? Well, I must admit that I had a very good time playing with it for this review. The ease of use, flexibility and its gorgeous look are, in my opinion, its biggest strong points. If you enjoy making websites, give it a try – You won’t regret it.

• BuddyCSS website with downloads and documentation
• BuddyCSS on GitHub
• BuddyCSS on Twitter

How did the trend appear? Simply look around. How many people staring at the screens of their smartphones do you notice? There are some, I bet. The popularity of smartphones and the stats of the Internet access from handheld devices over-passed the PCs and laptops usage back in 2016. People tend to access the web on-the-go, so making all pieces of content provided on your site’s pages adaptive to smaller screens is the must-follow rule for every business that wants to achieve a success in the modern competitive world.

Mobile-Friendly vs Mobile-First Design

We’ve got used to the terms responsive and mobile-friendly design. Isn’t this just the same as mobile-first web pages? Although the two terms sound somewhat similar, they bear different meanings.

A mobile-friendly web design is a smaller version of a desktop website that displays just about everything on a smartphone screen the way the content would appear on a desktop, with minimal enhancements concerning the loading speeds and functionality of a website. After it was first introduced by Ethan Marcotte in 2010, the technique gained its popularity among the webmasters worldwide. This became a better alternative to the development of mobile apps since a web user attained a chance to access all of the major pieces of web data while simply navigating to a specific web page in the browser window. Simply put, a responsive web design is the one that changes every piece of data and layout element depending on the width of the browser window from which a web page is accessed.

Mobile-first web design is an independent technical approach to building websites, which was introduced by Luke Wroblewski in 2009. Instead of building a site for the screens of larger devices primarily, the technique suggests that you put a smaller smartphone screen in the heart of your web development strategy. This allows you to focus on the essentials mainly, bringing the primary focus on the design elements and pieces of content that bear the major importance for your brand and your audience.

When a user accesses mobile-first web pages, additional layers of content are added further. This makes your site well thought-out and content-centric.

Mobile-First Websites Importance

One of the biggest advantages of building mobile-first websites is their flexibility and possibility to advance to larger screen sizes. Such layouts are limited in space, which makes you select the elements for your future site more selectively.

A mobile-first website is a strong foundation for the tablet and desktop versions of your site. Featuring the progressive enhancement technology, it scales up to the larger screens while being enhanced with additional layers of content. When it comes to the mobile-first web design approach, the content is made more important than navigation. This makes it easier and quicker for your visitors to come up with the necessary pieces of data.

Mobile-first websites do not only deliver a more seamless browsing experience on smaller screens. These can make your web page more findable in the search engines. Google ranks for mobile-friendliness, giving preference to mobile-first websites over desktop-only web solutions.

Containing fewer design elements, mobile-first websites are speedy enough, which allows the web audiences to access the necessary data much faster. The major benefit that site owners can derive from faster page loading speeds is the conversions boost and better user engagement. Even a 1-second delay can cause your site a 7% loss in conversions. Avoid this while opting for mobile-first websites.

How to Create Mobile-First Websites

One of the best and quickest ways to build mobile-first pages is to use a responsive website creator that allows you to build unique designs code-free. The popularity of drag-and-drop page builders grows at the fast rate. There is no need to spend time at the learning curve in order to be able to create versatile web pages without tweaking the code.

Moreover, you can use ready-made web themes that include all essentials that are needed for a quick start of your web project. All you need to do is to select a web theme that suits your topic, adjust it with the help of the drag-and-drop admin panel, upload the pages with your content, and bring it online.

Conclusion

Neglecting to use mobile-first designs can equal a sin in the modern-day digitalized world. The usability and intuitiveness of browsing your web page are the fundamentals that every UX designer should keep in mind in order to make his site appeal to the demanding web users.

Taking into account the popularity of the modern handheld devices and the growing number of mobile web users, it’s indispensable to opt for mobile-first websites. This will hardly make the lives of web designers easier. However, it will make your web page look more appealing to the audience and easier to navigate. And what do you think?

This is a guest article by Tim Ross.

Don’t fear mistakes

We live in a society that often tells us that making mistakes is wrong. There’s no doubt that some mistakes can end up being very costly, especially in the realm of business. However, failures are also valuable learning opportunities. The number one thing that holds many companies back is the fear of taking that first step. It’s too easy for a company to lapse into a state of paralysis out of fear of making an executive decision.

As with any content platform your business might use, utilizing WordPress to its full potential requires some understanding of how it works. It will inevitably take time to build up the experience and knowledge, so before you can use the platform like a professional, you will have to put in your time as an amateur.

In fact, many WordPress instructors advise their students to deliberately mess up their first WordPress site a couple of times. This forces the students to uninstall and reinstall WordPress a few times – something that you want to be comfortable with before you need to actually resort to it.

Choose a theme to match Your brand

One of the big selling points of WordPress, particularly for small business owners, is that it automates much of the website building process. One of the first decisions you will make for your WordPress site is the theme you will use. It dictates the overall appearance of your website, and while there is some room for customization, you will want to choose one that suits your brand by default.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a complicated visual layout is automatically better. Nor should you spend ages trying to find a theme that speaks to you artistically. A business website should, above all else, be informative and easy to use. The layout you choose should be relatively simple and uncluttered. Don’t be afraid to try out a few different possibilities.

Consider your mobile users

Most of your audience these days will be browsing the internet on a smartphone. When you have the convenience of an internet browser in your pocket, you’ll take your phone out and hop online given the slightest chance. Your users will, therefore, expect to be able to access your website on their mobile devices.

Most websites today are dynamic and able to rearrange themselves according to the device on which they are being viewed. If a potential customer finds that your site is all but unusable on their smartphone, they are more likely to leave and go to a competitor than to wait until they can look up your website on a computer.

Make sure that whatever WordPress theme you choose looks just as good on mobile devices as it does on a desktop internet browser. As a small business, you cannot afford to sacrifice traffic, and therefore potential customers, to poor design choices early on in the process. If you are unsure, look online for other people’s experiences using particular layouts. Make sure to check your website on a variety of devices, each with different display sizes, resolutions, or aspect ratios. Your theme should be equally usable on all devices.

Make security your no. 1 priority

Finally, it’s vital that you not only consider security but make it your number one priority. Just because you run a small business, does not mean that it’s immune to hackers. In fact, some hackers will purposely attack small business websites, believing it is easier to gain access to them.

WordPress is, on the whole, a secure platform, so how do hacks occur? Well, the number one reason of security problems is human error. When creating a website, a lot of WordPress admins choose easy passwords that they also use on other sites. When creating a password, make sure to use a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols. Also, ensure it’s not something that you use on any other site. You can also use password encryption to secure your login even further.

In addition, you should also check that your site is updated to the latest version of WordPress and that all plugins are fully up to date. This is done to ensure security. Also, make sure to scan your PC or laptop for malware as this can as well lead to security issues. If there is malware, you can find out how to remove it.

When used correctly, WordPress is a powerful platform for small businesses that need web presence. Investing in a professional website is a great idea, but it is unaffordable for many small businesses. Services like WordPress put the same power in the hands of business owners who have no website building experience.

This is a guest post by Harold Kilpatrick.

The good news is that there are a number of web design hacks that can help you develop mind-blowing sites. Not only will clients rave, but also you’ll have more stunning aesthetics for your professional profile. Let’s dive right in!

1. Leverage colors

Color is one of the most important elements to implement into your web design creative flow. Not only do colors have psychological value, they also serve as a branding tool for future marketing assets.

The best way to use color is to use two colors. Each color should have a specific purpose though. For example, one color could be all about logo and branding, while the other color is used to break up the flow of the site for a better user experience.

2. Focus on fonts

Fonts are possibly the second most important aspect of a mind-blowing website. Pick two fonts you feel is a good fit for the site and the industry it serves, and don’t turn back.

Just like color, each font will have a specific role to play. For instance, one font will serve as the header font while the second font is for paragraph text. This keeps everything uniform for users.

3. Line height is important

While we are on the subject of words, think about the line height of your content. After all, typography serves as the catalyst for nearly 95 percent of website design. The best line height per the pros is 1.6 for paragraph text. You may have a website builder with line height options, or you simply add it into the CSS code.

4. Keep column character count low

No one wants to read a long-winded gaggle of content in a column. It simply provides a poor user experience. To combat this bad design practice, use a nice rounded number for column content, like no more than 50 words. Also be sure the columns are level with one another to avoid mismatching.

5. Know how to use white space

Understanding how to use white space effectively can really make the content in a website pop. When you feel good about a certain section, image, or video, leave ample white space around it to emphasize aesthetics.

6. Keep it organized

To provide the best user experience for the site’s target audience, be sure to organize like-minded sections, columns, etc., together. This improves navigation, as well as the flow of a webpage. However, don’t jumble things together, remember the rules behind white space and don’t be afraid to use line separators and on-brand colors.

7. Think about user navigation

You might design the best website on the planet, but if users can’t navigate the site properly and accomplish their reasons for landing on-page, it’s a lost endeavor. This makes user navigation vital. Look at what your competitors are doing when it comes to menu and footer. This will provide a productive roadmap for navigation success.

8. Separate text using lines

To provide a powerful user experience, separate text with lines. This can keep the message clear and concise. For instance, if you have a H3 tag that is too long for the section, put a line under the main words and add the rest of the text under that. This keeps everything clean and concise, as well as highly readable for the user.

9. Background photos and overlays

If your web design project just doesn’t seem right, add in background photos and see if that will do the trick. Background photos with an overlay to make text pop is also a useful web design hack.

10. Leverage image layouts

This is a web design hack that many e-commerce sites are using to showcase as many product images as possible in a tight, organized way. Image layouts are also great for pairing horizontal and vertical images together. Just be sure to ensure optimal WordPress speed optimization by compressing images. No one likes a slow loading page.

11. Use style guides for web design

In order to provide the best and most mind-blowing user experience, you should either get a style guide from the client or create one as you go. This will keep every page looking and feeling consistent for users. It doesn’t have to be anything lengthy, just a quick outline of brand colors, fonts, font sizes, line height, and more.

Design websites with user experience in mind

Providing a powerful user experience is a very important part of web design. Not all that shimmers is gold, so be sure to keep the target audience in mind during design. The above are just a few web design hacks to get you started, but you’ll pick up more as you go. What is your number one web design hack?

This is a guest post by John Mason.

Keyword research

Search engine optimization is key to getting traffic to your site. This first thing that you should do is to do keyword research. Your goal is to find one primary keyword and a few secondary keywords that people type into Google when their intention is to find products or services like yours.

If you don’t sell anything but only have a blog, find keywords that people would type in when their intention is to find content like yours. Use online tools like Google AdWords to do your keyword research.

Start a blog

The next step is to create a blog. When your blog page is live, get into the habit of creating content as often as possible. It is very important that the content you create should be filled to the brim with value. Include your keywords, but refrain from keyword stuffing. This will only make your blog seem spammy, which can be bad for your search ranking. When you create an article for your blog, remember to include images, videos, and links to other websites.

Start a link building campaign

Now that you have your blog up and running with a few pieces of high-quality content, you can start a link building campaign.

When a link to one of your blogs appears on a high-ranking page of someone else, Google will boost your search ranking. Your goal is to get links to your blogs on other sites. There are many tactics that you use to do this. The most prominent one is with guest blogging on complementary blogs.

Contact the author and ask them if you can write them a guest blog. You may have to do some networking and relationship building here. You can then add a link to your own blog in the content of the guest blog. When the guest article appears on the high-ranking blog, it will have a positive effect on your own PageRank.

You can also create infographics with your link and publish them on sites, you can ask influencers to contribute to some of your content so that they share them on their own platforms, or you can ask reviewers to review one of your products and place the link on their blogs.

Link building is a long-term SEO strategy, but it is incredibly effective and it can benefit your business for years to come.

Build a funnel

Sales funnels can be used for many different things. It can be a source of traffic to your site, you can use them to build your email list, and you can use them to sell products directly to your customers. If you have a new website, you can build a funnel to siphon traffic from social media to your website or blog.

SEO Audits

Regular SEO auditing ensures that your website always meet the latest optimization criteria. Use an SEO audit checklist to make sure that you don’t miss anything. SEO auditing can also ensure maximum lead conversion.

Build an email list

Growing an email list is crucial when you have a new website. Building one using a funnel or welcome mat on your website is an automated way of growing your list. All you have to do is send your list regular emails. Emails are similar to blogs in that you should send your list valuable content and not spam.

This is a guest post by Sarah Saker.

This illuminates a lightbulb in your brain: If I can keep customers around for longer, I can make more sales! Below there are a few tips for increasing e-commerce customers’ visit duration.

Update your homepage regularly

What’s the first thing someone sees when they visit your homepage? Sure, there are the essentials such as your logo, brand name, navigation bar, and the like.

What about the rest of the page?

One of the best things you can do to keep customers on your e-commerce site is to ensure your homepage is lively and welcoming. There are multiple ways of doing this. An image carousel is great for showcasing hot products. Be strategic with this method, though. Don’t just throw photos in willy-nilly. Select several products on clearance or the latest batch of new items; whatever you want to move off your figurative shelves.

If you don’t like image carousels, that’s fine. It’s not about that – it’s about creating a welcome page that puts your most important offerings in front of the customer. Updating your homepage regularly creates a new and exciting experience for online shoppers. It also helps your site rank higher in search engine results.

Keep things simple & streamlined

Nothing kills a consumer’s enthusiasm quicker than a poorly designed e-store. Are your buttons difficult to find? Do your product pages take ages to load? Does your website render poorly on mobile? These hiccups will drive your visitors mad and prevent you from making sales.

The solution? Learn the basics of web design and improved website usability. The internet has been around for a while, which means that people are used to encountering certain functionalities in specific ways. For instance, your checkout button should be in the top right corner. If you place it at the bottom of your page, people will likely miss it. And, it wouldn’t hurt to compress your images to ensure quicker load times.

Of course, the best and coincidentally simplest solution is to use an enterprise ecommerce website builder. These nifty services include all of the features and functions you need to succeed without having to deal with tech issues or DIY web design.

In short, a well-built e-commerce website keeps users engaged longer than a poorly built e-store.

Offer product suggestions

Let’s say a shopper is looking for a birthday gift for her 14-year-old son. She knows he likes baseball memorabilia but isn’t totally sure what to get him. She’s also not very familiar with the sport but wants to get him something special.

She clicks on a San Francisco Giants jersey. Eh, but he already has a jersey, she remembers. Just before she leaves your site for good, she notices a list of suggested products. It reads, “customers have also liked…” And there she finds the perfect gift; a signed baseball from his favorite player in a commemorative case. Perfect! She says as she hits the checkout button.

The moral of the story? Adding a suggestion bar to your website will help retain customers and guide them in case they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for. It’s like having a sales associate to help convert a window shopper into a buyer.

Leverage great customer service

Speaking of sales associates, answering questions on-site will keep people there longer and increase your chances of closing a sale. If shoppers can’t find the answers to their questions on your website, they might jump to a competitor for an answer.

And, while they’re there, they could also make a purchase — from them instead of you.

Don’t let this happen. Use a chatbot to answer customer questions in real time. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to have an on-site blog set up which anticipates customer questions and provides guides to common queries.

Feature an on-site blog

Blogging adds a number of benefits to your e-store. As mentioned above, it offers you a space to share answers to common questions and issues your buyers might experience with their products. For instance, you may want to include tips on cleaning and upkeeping your wares. If you leverage the basics of SEO, you can actually increase the number of web users who visit your store.

With that said, the real reason you should run a blog is it is a relatively easy way to engage with your audience. Your blog gives visitors something to read, so they’ll stay on your site longer. It also invites them back to your website, even if they don’t want to buy right now. This keeps your brand on top of their minds. It’s also a clever way to leave embedded links to your products and offerings — thus driving in more sales.

Give shoppers a clear path to checkout

This is the only time you’ll want to decrease the number of time shoppers spend on a specific webpage. Studies show shoppers are more likely to buy when they have a clear path to checkout. If you include a bunch of product suggestions, unnecessary page redirects and (heaven forbid) advertisements, you will see a high rate of cart abandonment. Keep your checkout simple, clean and concise!

So, there you have it. These tips for increasing e-commerce customers’ visit duration will help you keep them on your site longer, provide more product information, which gives them what they need to make better purchase decisions. Taking an honest look at your creation and asking yourself the hard questions will help you tremendously in this regard. And ultimately, everyone involved will be better off thanks to the effort.

This is a guest post by Susan Smith.

Below, we are reviewing almost 30 web tools and services which are recommended by web designers and developers.

1. ListingPro – #1 WordPress Directory Theme

Built from scratch to meet the difficult requirements of entrepreneurs, web designers and developers, ListingPro remains the No.1 Best Seller since its launch in early 2017 and it has received 5 stars for their outstanding support, design, and features based on 400 reviews. It’s pretty clear why it has become one of the most popular choices.

ListingPro is a complete package where people don’t have to pay extra for additional plugins for the core directory features. It’s super easy to use, there is no need for special skills or previous experience with building directories. Anybody can do it, including you.

The business owners can now take full control of their business listings from a single pane of glass, so you can focus on what matters the most. It can help attract more businesses and grow your directory three times faster by enabling your users to submit a listing, upgrade plans, run ads campaigns, track recent visitors’ activity, reply to reviews and even get alerts on the low ratings to respond quicker.

The pricing is $69 for the basic license and you will get everything you need: updates for lifetime, easy setup assistant, support for 6 months and more.
Link: 1. ListingPro – #1 WordPress Directory Theme

2 Userfeel.com | Test any Website or Mobile App

Remote usability testing is the most modern and effective way to improve your website or app, and Userfeel has an interesting and different way to do it. You are “hiring” one or more testers that will test your website. In less than 24 hours you will get a video and comments in which you will receive the tester’s thoughts and see exactly how he “feels” about your website. This is the way to see how real users are seeing your website. You will know what they are thinking about your website and WHY they get attracted to make certain actions.

Userfeel has a vast network of testers that you can choose from. You can filter testers by various demographic criteria like age, gender, country, language, and web experience. If you want, you can even use your own panel of testers. They will provide you with a special link which you will send to whoever you want to take the test. No registration is required for this process.

The price is $49 per user session for desktop testing that includes the video with voice comments, their mouse movements around the site and the tester’s written answers to the questions you have asked when posting the project.
Link: 2. Userfeel.com | Test any Website or Mobile App?

3. DealJumbo – Discounted design bundles with extended license

With tons of deals and hugely discounted items for web professionals, DealJumbo is a powerful name since 2013. Designers, developers, and many others are using it to get their graphics, fonts, mock-ups, and more for a fraction of the normal cost.

On the website you will also find deals that can be found only on their website, being exclusive sellers. The design bundles are coming with an exclusive extended license which means that can be used for unlimited commercial projects, including digital and physical items.

Before leaving the website, check the freebies and “on sale” sections. Very good stuff can be found there, for free or for a tremendously small cost. You can download 1580+ free fonts & graphics. All come with a standard commercial license.
Link: 3. DealJumbo – Discounted design bundles with extended license!

4. Brizy – Creating WordPress pages should be fast & easy

Brizy is a powerful WordPress page builder that you can use to create stunning websites without skill or effort. This is not a marketing text, but a fact. There is no need to have any coding skills or previous experience whatsoever.

You can start from the predesigned 150 blocks that are covering pretty much any need or from scratch and build everything you want or need with the tools available.

Brizy comes with 4,000 beautifully designed icons out of the box. The interface is brilliant, minimalistic, and you will always have only what you need in front of you. Forget about cumbersome options that are making your life complicated.

It’s free to use as a WordPress plugin and they are also having a pro version that contains a bunch of premium options that will make your life even better.
Link: Brizy – Creating WordPress pages should be fast & easy

5. Deeezy.com – Freebies for web designers

Deeezy is a powerful web design deal website where useful stuff with huge discounts can be found. Designers and developers will save tons of time and money by getting supplied by this website. Beautiful free and premium fonts and graphics are available on their website.

All the items are coming with an extended license which means that you can use them for unlimited commercial projects, including digital and physical items.
Link: Deeezy.com – Freebies for web designers

6. actiTIME

actiTIME is a powerful time tracking and scope management software, highly appreciated on the market for the powerful features and easy-to-use interface. It is a great fit for any kind of company – Philips, Xerox, Cisco, and many others using it with great success.
Try it for free for 30 days, all the features are included in the trial period.
Link: actiTIME

7. Notism – Design & Video Collaboration for creative teams

Notism is a popular and great design collaboration, prototyping & workflow app for creative teams where collaboration is super simple. Communicate via notes or sketches – right on your uploaded work. It’s the best way for all the included parties.

Notism is packed with tons of powerful features like real-time presentation, video collaboration, live notifications and many others. Pricing starts from $9 / month.
Link: Notism – Design & Video Collaboration for creative teams

8. Goodie website – Get your website designed and coded by professionals from only $999

Goodie has powerful developers who will help you make a stunning website for prices that start at $999. It’s a perfect fit for small/local business owners wanting to amplify their online presence, designers looking for a reliable web development partner, but also for many other scopes.
Get in touch with Goodie and discuss your next project.
Link: 8. Goodie website – Get your website designed and coded by professionals from only $999

9. Codester.com – Buy Code, Scripts, Themes, Plugins and more

Codester is one of the best marketplaces for web professionals. They have tons of items on the website, starting with all kind of scripts, website themes for all the used platforms, plugins, and ending with graphics. Anything you are looking for can be found here, it’s a one-stop shop for designers and developers.
Link: Codester.com – Buy Code, Scripts, Themes, Plugins and more

10. Designhooks- Free Resources for Web Designers & Developers

Designhooks is an excellent resource website for designers and developers where they can find and use for free PSD mock-ups, sketches, HTML templates, WordPress themes, and much more. The website is loaded with very good stuff, and everything is free.
Link: Designhooks- Free Resources for Web Designers & Developers

11. Uncode – You deserve a stunning website

Uncode is a brilliant, pixel-perfect multipurpose WordPress theme that will help you create stunning websites. It’s loaded with the powerful Visual Composer that will help you build and customize everything without writing a single line of code and over 40+ pre-made concepts ready to go or combine (full-screen, full-width, boxed, one-page scroll, landing page).
Link: Uncode – You deserve a stunning website

12. Pixpa – Portfolio websites for creatives

Creating portfolio websites with integrated e-commerce can be super simple. Pixpa has an excellent drag-and-drop builder that will help you create and customize everything you need. Try it for free for 15 days.
Link: Pixpa – Portfolio websites for creatives

13. Format – Free Website Template Using Bootstrap For Portfolio

The format is one of the best free website templates that I’ve seen recently. It’s packed with great features, a great interface to customize it and superb graphics that are giving the theme a premium touch usually found on expensive templates.
Link: Format – Free Website Template Using Bootstrap For Portfolio

14. ContentSnare – Gather Content From Your Clients Without Hassle

Waiting for content from your clients can be a real nightmare, as it can cause delays in your projects and it can be very time-consuming. ContentSnare will chase the clients for you. You select a template or build one for your email, specify a due date and a follow-up schedule and get notified when the clients are sending you stuff. The pricing starts at $29 / month.
Link: ContentSnare – Gather Content From Your Clients Without The Hassle

15. uSocial.pro

uSocial.pro allows you to attract visitors to your website with the help of social tools. “Share” buttons, the metadata builder, and custom invitations to popular social media groups will make your website easily reachable for social network users. An account with uSocial makes it possible for you to create an unlimited number of button sets and provides access to views and shares statistics.
Link: uSocial.pro

16. Instant Logo Design

Instant Logo Design is exactly what the names says, a logo platform where you will get your design on the spot, for a price starting at $29. The quality is very good and you can use the service anytime you are in a hurry or you don’t have a big budget to spend on your logo.
Link: Instant Logo Design

17. uCalc

uCalc.pro is a calculator and form builder for any kind of business. uCalc can be useful no matter whether you are running an online store or an entertainment website. Coding skills aren’t necessary at all, as a drag-and-drop builder allows the creation of a calculator in 15 minutes. All you have to do is to set up form fields, paste their values into a formula, add some pictures, enable collection of contact details, and your calculator is ready.
Link: uCalc

18. Inkydeals

InkyDeals is a major digital design deal website where designers, photographers, and freelancers can find the best deals on the market. Everything is being sold with huge discounts and affordable prices that will help you save money and get awesome stuff for your projects.
Link: InkyDeals

19. Crello

Crello is a visual editor launched by Depositphotos. It allows creating social media images, ad banners, posters, email headers, and other popular formats. Crello is easy to use — it doesn’t matter whether you are an experienced designer or a beginner. This tool is made for marketers, social media specialists, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and anyone who needs a simple solution for their creative projects. There are 12,000 free templates and more than 60 million stock photos available.
Link: Crello – Create your own project

20. MailMunch

Converting visitors into customers, and subscribers into long-time readers is a mandatory task for every website. Unfortunately, the competition is huge and every detail counts. MailMunch will help you create all kinds of forms that quickly convert, without writing a single line of code.
Link: MailMunch

21. Elementor

Elementor is one of the best WordPress page builders on the market, packed with awesome features and a brilliant interface which is super simple to use. Everything is done in real time.
You can use Elementor with your favorite themes, the design will remain in place, even if you change the themes.
Link: Elementor

22. Controlio

Controlio is a powerful computer and internet monitoring software that will help you keep an eye on your employees from small companies up to enterprise levels. Among the features are real-time surveillance, screen capturing, keylogging, and many more. The pricing starts at $7,99 per user per month.
Link: Controlio

23. UptimeRobot

Having your website up and running is one of the most important things for any site owner. UpTimeRobot will put 50 monitors in action to check your website every 5 minutes and the service is totally free. There are more than 500,000 users including MINI, Expedia, and Staples.

If you need more monitors, the pricing starts from $4,5 per month (billed annually) or $5.50 (monthly) Note: 20% discount is already applied.
Link: UptimeRobot

24. InvoiceBerry

InvoiceBerry is an excellent invoicing platform that everybody can use to create invoices, track expenses, create reports, and much more. The pricing starts at $15 per month and it includes 35 clients, 2 users and 15 invoices templates.
Link: InvoiceBerry

25. StickerYou

Use StickerYou to brand yourself. Stand out from the crowd by creating custom logo stickers. Stickers are always a cool giveaway at events or to your friends. Make your message stick and become memorable wherever you go. You can create custom orders of any size, shape, and quantity.
Link: StickerYou

26. Foxy.io

Foxy.io is a powerful hosted cart & payment page that allows you to sell anything, using your existing website or platform. It integrates with WordPress, Wix, Webflow, Squarespace, and anywhere you can add a link or embed HTML.

It supports more than 90 different payment methods (ex: Stripe, Braintree, Authorize.net, Amazon Pay, Bitcoin, Apple Pay) and is loaded with a ton of features. Be sure to sign up for their unlimited free trial.
Link: Foxy.io

27. Pofo – The Best Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

Pofo is a stunning WordPress theme that you can use to create a portfolio, a blog or even e-commerce websites. Graphics are gorgeous; it is loaded with the latest technologies, intuitive to work with, highly flexible and optimized for speed and search engines.

Pofo offers 25+ beautiful homepages, 150+ pre-built design elements, and more than 200 demo pages, which is more than enough to get a project off to a quick and solid start.
Link: Pofo – The Best Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

28. RumbleTalk

RumbleTalk can be used to quickly add a web chat to your website, without writing any code. Having a direct contact line with your customers is very important and it will be rewarded with higher conversion rates. 1 room with up to 5 seats is totally free for an unlimited period – try it.
Link: RumbleTalk

29. WrapPixel

WrapPixel is a great place where you can find admin templates, UI Kits, Mega bundles and even freebies. Everything is handpicked, that’s why there are fewer items available, but the quality is outstanding. Check it and pick what you need.
Link: WrapPixel

This is a guest post by Alex Ron.

After reading this article, you’ll learn how to interact with the mobile users and make their customer journey more comfortable. The central question is how to simplify the payment process for mobile audience and grow the revenue.

First and foremost, you need a mobile-responsive website or a mobile app for iOS and Android. Both alternatives have their pros and cons: mobile apps are user-friendlier and give access to users’ data simpler and quicker; however, they take more effort to be downloaded and are more expensive to develop (starting $5.000 according to Elinext app developer). Anyway, no matter what you have chosen as a mobile payment platform, these tips will come in handy:

1. Don’t overpay for payment acceptance

The native iOS and Android payment services charge a significant commission for payment processing – up to 40%, which makes it unprofitable for SMEs. That’s why the first advice is to research the market and find the best payment solution.

Moreover, there might be some limitations to the payment systems in apps, depending on whether you sell real products and services, or virtual goods, such as gaming attributes. In the latter case, the payment acceptance via third-party services may be banned.

2. Make a payment page seamless

As for the payment page in an e-commerce app, it’s vital to make sure that it looks organic in terms of design and development. The most secure way to integrate payments into an app is to customize a payment form for mobile apps and implement it using built-in browser. The smooth and seamless design makes users feel like their actions are protected – they are not signing out to anywhere and pay where they order.

3. Mind desktop vs. mobile differences

The devil is in detail – besides screen sizes and mobile OS limitations, developers should consider psychological and physical user experience. For example, users should be able to reach all the options with their thumb, regardless of screen size.

The payment form fields should not ask for more than it’s required to make a transaction. Automatically switch to digit, use credit card visual cues, and replace complex menus with drop-downs which are easy to scroll on a smartphone screen.

4. Avoid overwhelming

Plenty of mobile users bounce because of the high-load payment sections which take dozens of seconds to be available. That’s why lightweight checkout pages ensure the better conversion rates. Meanwhile, users may need to check their order before they pay, so leave the critical info on the payment page (number and price of items, dates of delivery, etc.)

If your app implies frequent orders, let customers add payment card data to their account. Loyal customers would appreciate the minimum effort for data input limited to the CVV code.

5. Provide the customer with details

As long as checkout, authorization, and verification may take some time, it’s critical for users to know which stage of payment process they’re at. Let them know whether there is an error, why it has happened and how to fix it or what alternative methods might be used.

Security information is also a must. To convince users that their bank data is protected, place the appropriate message on the payment page. Make sure to include PCI DSS, Verified By VISA, MasterCard Secure Code and other icons indicating secure payments.

In a nutshell, simple and lightweight interfaces are a future of mobile payments which is becoming a standard rather than a competitive advantage. However, entrust this to a reliable vendor with financial development expertise, as payment integration requires the advanced level of data security and legal compliance.

This is a guest post by Alexy Sysoff.

SITE123

SITE123 is a cloud website builder you can use to develop different types of websites. Whether you need a landing page, a portfolio, a business website or an online store, the platform has much to offer you. It offers hundreds of free website templates for the client to choose from, that will save him time and money. SITE123 comes with a powerful design customization tools, rich set of fonts and styles, free image and icons library. The website builder also offers an advanced email marketing tool. It lets you stay in touch with your clients. This matters a lot, when it comes to beating niche competitors. One of the most crucial SITE123 highlights is its multilingual tool. It allows creating several versions of the same website, if needed. The website builder has one free plan and four paid plans, which differ in terms and features included.

→ https://www.site123.com/

Mobirise

Mobirise is the downloadable software, which requires installation.The service was created with the needs of newbies in mind. It also works great for web design pros. You can build simple yet functional websites with it. Mobirise comprises more than 600 content blocks, which can be repositioned and adjusted on a web page based on the needs and ideas of a user. This is what makes the web building process quick and intuitive. What’s more, the service has distinguished itself due to the availability of the AMP Website Builder. The tool allows creating and customizing AMP website pages, which load fast on mobile devices.

→ https://mobirise.com/

IM Creator

IM Creator is a free website builder, which works great for the development of portfolios, landing pages, business websites. The service is a nice solution for users with no web design experience. Web design pros can also make use of it, when working on complex client projects. An advanced White Label tool will come in handy to them here. The website builder can boast powerful blogging and eCommerce engines, a collection of responsive website templates and design customization tools. It is absolutely free for creatives, artists, students. They can even launch web stores with the system at no cost. Owners of small-to-medium businesses will have to pay for using the website builder.

→ http://www.imcreator.com/

Ucraft

Ucraft is a drag-and-drop cloud website builder, which comes with a set of web design features and tools. The system makes it possible to launch landing pages, business websites and online stores. They have modern look and decent functionality. Ucraft offers a full-featured eCommerce engine, which lets you build a nice online store with minimum time and effort investment. It also has a set of Designer Tools, a free Landing Page Creator and a blogging platform. Ucraft multilingual app allows creating websites in any language of your choice. The website builder also offers a White Label solution to web design pros, entrepreneurs and other users, who aim at generating profit by using the system. The tool is of great help to users willing to start their own website builder business. You can build and host as many websites as you need with it, choose between several payment options, integrate third-party services etc.

→ https://www.ucraft.com/website-builder

uKit

uKit is a popular WYSIWYG website builder. It has distinguished itself due to the simple, intuitive and convenient web building process. The platform initially works great for the development of small business websites. Newbies and web design pros can also use it to launch other projects. You don’t have to possess coding skills to work with the system. Just select one of 350 responsive industry-specific templates and use it as a basis for your website. With uKit, you can also build an online store either by integrating a corresponding widget or by using the Ecwid plugin. Connection of a free SSL certificate to each website guarantees protection from unauthorized access. The website builder has the most affordable pricing policy as compared to other popular services. Its pricing plans will certainly surprise you.

→ https://ukit.com/

Whatever service you will eventually choose or, if you, for example, have already decided to switch from CMS to website builder, you should undoubtedly test its features prior to start working on your project. The thing is that each platform has its special parameters, pros, cons and nuances you should be aware of to make your web design process a success.

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The author of the article is Howard Steele. Howard is the owner and chief editor of https://superbwebsitebuilders.com. He is an expert in the web building niche and has around 10 years of website creation and Internet marketing experience.

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Node.js is one of the most sought-after back-end scripting languages on the current technology market, downloaded over 25 million times in 2017 and used and trusted by names such as Netflix, eBay, Paypal and LinkedIn. It’s a JavaScript runtime environment for executing server-side code, optimized for scalability and throughput when used with browser applications with many input/output operations. This high level of efficiency means it’s also great for real-time applications, such as communication programs and browser games.

There are many guides on how to get started with Node.js; here’s a few of the best, to help you on your journey from Node.js beginner to knowledgeable coding maestro.

Start at the beginning – the Node.js homepage.

The Node.js homepage has all the latest version for use with various operating systems. It also has a comprehensive section of guides on everything from getting started to debugging and module related guides. The starting point for anyone interested in working with Node.js, and for news and information about issues and updates.
Link: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/guides/

Nodesource.

The go-to consultancy source for organizations using Node.js in the course of their business. For developers, their blog is a great source of regular Node news, updates, articles and resources for all Node.js users.
Link: https://nodesource.com/

Rising Stack.

RisingStack provides training and tutorials, as well as providing professional commercial 24/7 Node.js support. They have this handy beginners’ tutorial on their site to help you get started, and a series of articles on how to use Node.js with larger installations – useful to refer back to once you’re up and running, and scalability becomes an issue.
Link: https://blog.risingstack.com/Node-hero-tutorial-getting-started-with-Node-js/

Codeburst.io.

Codeburst.io has a wealth of articles on working with Node.js written by professionals. Their guides are well-explained and illustrative of concepts from the basic to the more advanced, such as this beginners guide to working with Node.js. The guide does a great job of explaining the development and context of Node.js in today’s scripting marketplace, with clear graphics and concise information.
Link: https://codeburst.io/getting-started-with-Node-js-a-beginners-guide-b03e25bca71b

Nodeschool.

Nodeschool is a global organization of open source workshops with workshops run all around the world, as well as a comprehensive set of courses you can take online. Their courses are available in many languages, and they have nearly 200 chapters around the world.
Link: https://Nodeschool.io/

Java T Point.

Java T Point is a site with information on many different languages and systems. Their Node.js tutorial is a great step-by-step guide to using Node.js, easy to navigate and with a wealth of information on all aspects of working with Node.js. There’s a great section comparing Node.js to other languages and runtime environments on the market, including information on how to translate from to the other.
Link: https://www.javatpoint.com/Nodejs-first-example

This is a guest post by Krystian Szastok.

What is WZone?

WZone is a premium WordPress plugin designed to help site owners and bloggers monetize their website and make money online using the Amazon affiliate program. The plugin allows you to import your choice of Amazon products, and, paired with the free WooCommerce plugin, turns the Amazon items into product pages, on your own site.

Before we get started and install the plugin, I invite you to check the video below, for a quick understanding of what you can expect with WZone.

The WZone plugin is 100% compatible with Kingdom, a premium WordPress theme that allows you to turn WordPress into a powerful Amazon affiliate website.

Download and installation

In order to use WZone on your WordPress site, you first have to buy the plugin from Code Canyon. Once you have downloaded the plugin in .zip format, log into your WordPress website, navigate to Plugins, and choose Add New. Click on the Upload Plugin and select the plugin .zip file from your hard drive. Activate the plugin to finish the installation.

After the plugin is successfully installed, a bit of configuration needs to be done. Don’t worry, the process is fast and smooth, thanks to the plugin configuration wizard. The most important part of the configuration is to enter your Amazon affiliate ID, in order to make sure you’ll get rewarded for your sales.

Once you have finished the configuration process, you can access the plugin options and start importing products into your site.

As you can see from the screenshot above, WZone is fully loaded with tons of options to help you maximize your profits. A full list of available features can be found here.

Usage

Now, let’s get our hands dirty and test the plugin in a real environment. Once the plugin is installed and activated, you’ll be able to access its dashboard, where you can select actions you want to perform.

As you can see from the image below, the plugin dashboard is quite cluttered but gives you an easy access to the numerous options offered by WZone:

It’s time to import some products from Amazon into our very own WordPress website. To do so, click on the Insane Import Mode from the plugin dashboard. The Insane Importer is a tool created in order to allow you to look for products on Amazon and import them into your website. You can choose to search for specific products (like WordPress-related books for example) or automatically grab Amazon’s best sellers.

The Insane Import module can also automatically import Amazon products based on predefined keywords, best selling performances, and more. You can take a look at the extensive documentation for a more detailed overview of the import possibilities offered by WZone.

WZone website claims that importing products takes less than a second. While this depends on your server speed, I can testify that importing products is extremely fast. I have tested the plugin on my test server (provided by Kinsta.com) and it took me more or less 1.5 seconds to import 10 Amazon products into my WordPress site.

Once you have successfully imported the products of your choice, each of them will be turned into a WooCommerce product that you can edit just like any other WordPress page or post. I was positively surprised to see that the HTML generated by the plugin is very clean, which is a good thing for your website speed and ease of editing.

Now, what about the front-end? Since WZone works with WooCommerce, your freshly imported items will be found on your Shop page. Great news, the products display looks good without any additional styling, as shown below:

If you want to see the product display with your own eyes, you can check my test site here.

Once WZone is properly configured and you have successfully imported some Amazon products into your WordPress site, you might want to take a look at the reports generated by the plugin. To do so, in your WordPress dashboard, navigate to WZone and click on the Product Stats link.

There’s way more in WZone, though. Amongst all possibilities offered by the plugin, I have really enjoyed the automatic reports that can be configured as desired and then automatically sent to you via email – a great way to effortlessly keep track of the performances of your products.

Conclusion

Since the Internet is around, affiliate marketing has always been a steady way to make money online. As Amazon is one of the largest online store, it is obviously an option to consider for every internet marketers. WZone makes the process of having Amazon affiliate products on sale on your own website very easy, and provide a large number of tools to maximize your sales and commissions.

So, if you are a blogger or the happy owner of a WordPress-based website and you are looking for some extra income, WZone is definitely an option you should seriously consider.