The most effective web design tips for a good website?

posted on May 14, 2021

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Which are the most effective web design tips for a good website?

Jumpstart new projects and website redesigns with a few of the hottest elements in web design ideas for 2021. These trending styles are sure to help you create in a way that’ modern, fresh and perfect for the new year.

It only takes 50 milliseconds for visitors to form an opinion about your website. That’s right – in just a fraction of a second, they’ll decide whether your site looks professional, and whether they want to stay or leave. And 94% of those first impressions are design related.

Combining photography and illustration in one graphic is a stylish, modern, and – most importantly – eye-catching way of revamping images on your website. It’s a striking trend that is super effective for grabbing attention and saying something more interesting with your visuals.

Why Does It Work?

People like to look at beautiful things. As it turns out, your website visitors are shallow – 38% of them will stop engaging with a website if they find the content or layout unattractive. So what better way to keep them on-site than with an eye-catching image?

White Space

Using white space wisely can give a good look and uniqueness to your website. It creates a visual sequence where no element distracts from the whole. With white space, you can target what important information your visitor needs to look at first. The user will not be distracted and confused with that.

If you will use less white space within two elements, then the user will see them as one element. With that, they can miss important information or what they were looking for. User can be lost when he sees Crowded elements with each other. So try to use white space as enough to separate information. Knowing how to use white space on your website will help improve your site’s user experience.

Don't forget that a good website requires a good and reputable web hosting service provider!

What Is Website Maintenance?

posted on May 14, 2021

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Website maintenance is the act of regularly checking your website for issues and mistakes and keeping it updated and relevant. This should be done on a consistent basis in order to keep your website healthy, encourage continued traffic growth, and strengthen your SEO and Google rankings. Your ranking actually can be improved by your web hosting provider as well.

Keeping a website well maintained and attractive is important to companies big and small in order to engage and retain customers. It’s easy for businesses, especially startups, to cut corners and let a few tasks slide.

1. What Is Website Maintenance?
2. What Are the Steps in Website Maintenance? A Quick Checklist
3. A Proper Website Maintenance Plan Is a Circle
4. Why Is It Important to Do Website Maintenance?
5. How Much Does Website Maintenance Cost?
6. Paying for Website Maintenance Services: The Advantages
7. Determining If You Should Buy Website Maintenance Packages

Website maintenance can easily become one of those things as it doesn’t always present immediate issues. However, just like your health can fall apart if you go too long without a regular check up, so can the health of your website.

Regular monitoring of your website is a must for keeping your business running smoothly.

What Are the Steps in Website Maintenance? A Quick Checklist

There is a laundry list of tasks that should be done to keep your website running smoothly. The most time-sensitive of these are website security updates and patches. Without these, your website has the potential to be an actual danger to those who click on it.

With that in mind, here is a list of website maintenance tasks that should be completed regularly:

To be done weekly

  • Check that all of your pages are loading without errors
  • Run a backup and make sure a previous version of your site is stored
  • Make updates to website software and plugins
  • Check that all of your forms are running properly
  • Remove any spam comments from pages and posts
  • Check your pages to see if there are any broken links
  • Search for 404 errors and fix or redirect
  • Write one or more blog posts to keep your community engaged and encourage SEO traffic.

To be done monthly

  • Check the load speed of your website and ensure that nothing is bogging it down
  • Review your security scans and make sure nothing is out of place
  • Analyze website statistics from the previous month
  • Check your blog to see if there are any articles that could be updated

To be done quarterly

  • Review your website design and structure  – can be it improved?
  • Check graphics and images – should anything be updated?
  • Review SEO and meta titles and descriptions to ensure they are as effective as possible
  • Test and tweak popups, forms, and calls to action
  • Review your workload for efficiencies to see if anything can be automated
  • Test your website on all devices and browsers to see if it displays correctly
  • Review advertising and marketing campaigns to see if anything needs to be changed or updated.
  • Restore a previous version of the website to check your backup health

To be done yearly

  • Update any reference to the current year
  • Review each page for content accuracy, grammar, typos, and relevancy
  • Check any active email addresses and see if any are excessive and can be deleted
  • Ensure that your website domain name is renewed
  • Consider whether a website design update is due
  • Review all of your top performing blog articles and see if they can be updated with new content

A Proper Website Maintenance Plan Is a Circle

As you can see from our checklist, website maintenance should be a consistent part of your business. It grows on itself, and if not correctly implemented, can cause some serious problems and setbacks to your potential growth and business health.

Staying on top of website health takes awareness and organization. This is particularly the case for a large site with hundreds (or even thousands) of pages.

With the introduction of new tools to make website building easier, website sizes are growing each year. While it’s easy to add pages to most websites, it’s not as easy to keep all of your pages in a good state.

Why Is It Important to Do Website Maintenance?


Many new businesses already have a lot on their plates without worrying about constantly checking in on their website. It’s tempting to buy a domain name, throw up something temporary, and just worry about it later. There are many reasons why this is not a good idea. Maintaining a current, healthy, and active website is important for a number of reasons.

SEO

The whole point to starting a business is to have customers, clients, or an audience. To drive traffic to your website, you’ll need to keep it regularly updated.

Google wants to rank websites that have the most relevant and up-to-date information on their search engine results page . They may even de-index your website entirely if it hasn’t been updated recently enough and if they suspect it has been infected by malware. You must keep your website regularly updated with current content, news, keywords, and articles in order to rank well in search results. Regularly website maintenance is invaluable for SEO strategy.

Customer Attraction/Engagement


If your website is gaining traction and traffic, it’s important to keep those potential customers. If they aren’t able to find what they are looking for, current information and relevant content, there is a good chance you’ll lose interest quickly. In order for your website to be the useful tool you want, you’ll need to ensure it is free from typos and grammar issues, has any and all information a customer could want, and looks engaging and consistent.

Security

This is the single most important reason to keep website maintenance on your radar, particularly if your website is storing any form of customer information. If you are using a website building platform like WordPress or Wix, you must ensure that you are installing regular software updates and security patches. It can be easy and attractive for hackers to find and target websites that have sat dormant for too long.

Corporate Image

It’s becoming more and more simple to create a website that looks well-designed and professional. There is an expectation for a professional website from professional companies. If your website doesn’t deliver on the promise of professionalism, your customers will often go elsewhere.

Your Sanity


Your website is a very important element of your business. If it is up-to-date and running smoothly, it can be a valuable support and asset. If it is not in a good state, it can cost you dearly. Once you are behind on your maintenance needs, it can be quite the process to bring the website back up to speed. Sometimes, if your maintenance has been ignored for too long, it is easier just to scrap everything and rebuild from the scratch.

Do yourself and your business a favor by staying on top of your website. This will repay you with simple ease of mind.

Keep up with Trends in Design and Technology

The sleeker your website is, the more you’ll convince potential customers that you are their ultimate choice. If you’re staying on top of your website maintenance, you’ll also have the opportunity to be an early adopter of new website technology that will help the back-end run more smoothly. If you’re installing software updates regularly, you’ll be able to take advantage of new features that install along with the updates.

You’ll also be able to tweak your design to stay on top of the latest website looks. It’s far more tempting to employ a company with a polished and modern website than one that looks like it hopped on a time travel device from 2003.  

How Much Does Website Maintenance Cost?

There are different cost expectations based on what your website is used for, the size of your audience, and how much content is hosted. We’ve discussed the different pricing brackets below.

Small Personal Blog

A small blog typically does not have a lot of traffic and has very few needs. This can be hosted on a blogging site like Google Blogger with no costs whatsoever. Or, it could be self-hosted using a platform like WordPress with low monthly costs stemming from domain name renewal and hosting service.

Medium-Large Sized Active Blog with a Wide Audience

If you have a blog that is bringing in an income with an active audience, you will likely want to be self hosted with some customizations. This will require more frequent maintenance, updates, marketing and backups and a slightly larger monetary investment.

Company Website for the Purpose of Marketing Only

Similar to the medium-large size blog, this will need to be self hosted with a simple design template and limited content. It will be low maintenance for upkeep with with regular updates, marketing, and backups.

Large Customized eCommerce Websites

This will be a larger financial investment as you’ll need to be vigilant about website maintenance. You’re handling a lot of content, code customization, and customer data. If you do not have an IT team on staff, we would recommend finding a web maintenance package to stay on top of your website needs.

Custom Built Web Application

This will be your largest financial investment. Your web application was custom built from the ground up for a specific purpose and it needs to be in top-notch working condition at all times or your company will suffer. This likely needs a dedicated staff of developers keeping a close eye on the maintenance.

Paying for Website Maintenance Services: The Advantages

Now that we’ve established that website maintenance is a must for websites of any size, it’s time to discuss the advantages to employing someone else to do that maintenance. You can, of course, take on these tasks yourself, but it will save time and stress to pay an agency for several reasons.

  • You’ll be hiring a team of experts who take care of these tasks every day. They know what to look for and what to expect.
  • You can focus on other areas of your business that need your attention.
  • Hiring an outside agency is cost-effective and can scale with your company. Your package will reflect the needs of your company.

There are several elements that go into determining whether you should purchase a website maintenance package.

  • The size of your website
  • The purpose of your website
  • How much of your website is customized content
  • How quickly is your business growing?
  • How much experience do you have with website maintenance?
  • Is your website currently out-of-date?
  • How much time do you have to dedicate to website maintenance?

If you’ve read this whole article, you probably have a good idea if maintaining your own website is something you are currently capable of. If your website is simply sitting and taking up space on the internet, you should absolutely consider purchasing a website maintenance package. Your website should be a tool that is supporting and helping your business grow. It is a living and breathing entity that deserves your time and attention in order to fulfill its potential.

What makes a great website design?

posted on May 13, 2021

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Here are top 14 web designer skills that a web designer should master!

1. Design Tool


Craftsmen always have a set of tools. As the job descriptions listed above, a web designer must use several essential design software applications. Although it is now possible to design websites in a web browser, tools such as Photoshop, Sketch, and Mockplus are very useful tools for image processing, icon design, and prototyping. Using the right tools at the right stage will make your work more effective.

Adobe Illustrator: referred to as "AI", is a very good vector graphics processing tool, mainly used for font design, graphic design, product packaging design, book /magazine layout, and illustration design.

Adobe After Effects: referred to as "AE", is a graphic video processing software introduced by Adobe. In a nutshell, it is a dynamic version of PS, which is very powerful with a complicated operation.

Mockplus iDoc, a design handoff too for designers and developers. Get started for free here.

2. Design Sense

Having a good sense of design is very important for web designers. Web design is more than just making a good-looking website. You must have an understanding of design elements such as typeset, images, and basic design principles such as layout principles, form design principles and more.

3. UX Design

UX stands for user experience, or how people feel when they use the site. To provide a good UX, you need to research your users to help create user personas and use sitemaps to lay out pages and content. This helps you understand the user's path during actual site visits. Through repeated testing, a website’s design can be improved, ameliorating user experience, and thus increasing user conversions.

4. Responsive Design

With the growth of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, more and more people use small screens to view and read web page information. As a web designer, you should understand the principles of responsive web design to keep your web pages readable on small screens. (12 best responsive web design tutorials to get you started!)

5. Graphic Design

Web design is different from graphic design. If you are a web designer with graphic design skills, this will enhance your marketability.

6. Adobe Animate

Animation can make a dull web page dynamic. An appropriate animation will make your website more attractive. Especially for name-brand clothing, cars, film, and television websites, an animation is particularly important. Visual impact will help with brands identity and recognition.

Web Designer’s Technical Skills

With the rapid development of web development technology, the requirements for web designers are getting higher and higher. In addition to being proficient in professional skills, understanding the necessary web development language will have a longer-term benefit for you.

1. HTML

Some people might not think Web designers should master HTML, however, whether you are a developer or not, you should know basic HTML/CSS. This will help you to more easily read, edit and solve problems. However, depending on your actual work as a designer/developer, the level and scope you need to know may be even broader. In any case, you should be aware of how styles and colors are controlled and adjusted by code. These skills are extremely useful in the long run.

2. CSS

CSS and HTML are partners in website development and are the basic building blocks of web page structure and style. HTML determines the structure of the site, and CSS handles the visual appearance. For example, CSS lets you adjust colors, change fonts, or add stunning backgrounds.

3. JavaScript

With the ability to write design code in HTML and CSS, you can help render yourself more competitive by learning to program in JavaScript. As a web designer you know JavaScript, that may help you solve big problems in actual work. In addition, according to a survey by StackOverflow, JS is the most popular programming language for full stack developers.

4. Web Server Management

Most web designers think they can ignore the server, but the web server and downtime issues are inevitable. You don't need to be a back-end expert, but understanding how a web server and web hosting and their basic features work will help you solve problems faster.

Web Designer’s Soft Skills

Now that we’ve discussed professional and technical skills, we should look at adding some soft skills to help keep our web design work more organized.

1.Time management

Whether you are a freelancer or work for a company, time management skills are important. The rapid updating of project iterations means that the design must also be updated from time to time. Good web designers need to manage their schedules and follow up on project needs.

2. Project Management


Project management is a key job skill in almost every industry, and web design is no exception. Good project management skills not only benefit the project but also benefit your career.

3. SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is useful for anyone building a website. Web designers and web developers should at least understand the basics of SEO, and that will be a plus for your work.

Many factors can affect the ranking of a website in a search engine, from the content of the site to its inbound links to its download speed, performance, and its mobile-friendliness. All of these are factors that web designers should pay attention to when designing. Once you know SEO, you can use these factors to make the site more attractive to search engines, thus making it easier to find for customers.

4. Customer Service

Although customer service is not a technical skill, providing excellent customer service is a requirement in order for a good web designer to win customers and achieve better results. Even the best web designers/developers may fail.

Which is stronger: the Intel Core i3 (8th Generation) or the Intel Core i7 (2nd Generation)?

posted on May 13, 2021

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Which is stronger: the Intel Core i3 (8th Generation) or the Intel Core i7 (2nd Generation)

From a purely technical perspective, the Intel i7 from the second generation is stronger.

Around 6th gen, Intel decided, for whatever reason, that they would make the substrate (the part that goes between the silicon and the socket) thinner. All future processors (not used for HPC purposes) inherited this thinner substrate. On that basis alone, the 2nd Gen i7 is stronger than the 8th gen i3.

On top on the substrate differences, there’s also the use of solder to transfer the heat from the silicon to the integrated heat spreader. 3rd gen and later used thermal paste, while 2nd gen used solder; which makes it more rigid in that area as well, as solder is metal compared to paste, which is not.

Undeniably, if you had to use either one or the other as a building material, the i7 would be a better choice.

Addendum, June 11, 2020: With the arrival of the 10th generation, the latest i9s and i7s have reclaimed the title of Strongest Intel Processor from the 2nd generation. While the substrate remains thin, they use solder instead of the paste (something shared with the 9th generation). However, the 10th generation has thinner silicon as compared to the 9th generation (to aid in thermal performance). To compensate for the thinner silicon, the heat spreader is that much thicker as compared to all older processors, resulting in significantly better structural rigidity overall. Just don’t push too hard on the exposed substrate, that’s still thin.

Will Cryptocurrency Investing Become the Next Dotcom Bubble?

posted on May 12, 2021

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In fact, we’re already in the early stages of a crypto bubble.

Well take a look yourself.

paris-hilton

A) Paris Hilton loves crypto

lidsay-2


B) Lindsay Lohan NFT sells for $50k

cnbc-1

C) CNBC hyping up dogecoin and talking about crypto with the same suspense as sports events

D) Everyone wants to day trade crypto.
crypto4

E) NFTs sold for extreme prices.

Not to mention, my uncle, mum and aunt are all buying crypto. If that isn’t an early sign of a bubble, I don’t know what is.

How are these early signs of a bubble?


Well if you were around back in the dotcom days, you would find these signs all too similar.

Back in the 90s, the internet completely transformed communication forever and early investors saw this opportunity. They were salivating for profits.

This led to the dotcom bubble, which was a stock market bubble caused by massive speculation of internet stocks. The NASDAQ itself rose by 400% in 5 years, which is absolutely bonkers for a traditional stock market index.

The FOMO was very real back then. People were quitting their jobs and taking on loads of debt to day trade for a living.

And news media outlets were also hyping it up, similar to what we see today with crypto.

Much of what went on was speculative, pretty much every company was losing money and focused on marketing instead. (Everything in crypto is speculative)

But this did not stop people from investing in them. They ignored the weak cash flow and were mesmerised by the promise of this new technology. Who could blame them really. (Sounds familiar?)

This is the definition of a bubble by the way. When the price of something is waayyy higher than the actual real value of the thing itself.

Our view of the market is heavily warped

In crypto today, we can see many projects that seem to be great ideas on the surface. We look at their website, read all their fancy words and all their amazing benefits and we really do get a sense that there is great potential behind each one.

However, the prices of these projects are heavily warped.

Warped? By what?

Well, by us.

You see, when someone buys into a crypto, they become a mini-brand ambassador for the project. If you’ve been in crypto long enough, you will realise almost everyone is “shilling” their own bags in this way.

Everyone wears their cryptos like a badge and treat it like a religion. We already have different sub-communities such as BTC maxis, XRP army and LINK marines.

The crypto space is pretty tribal, but for marketing purposes, this is great for the cryptos. Each investor is providing free word-of-mouth, attracting developers and new investors to their project. (Similar to how marketing was such a big component of the dotcom bubble)

This creates an echo chamber and heavily influences new investors entering the market.

These new investors get distracted by prices and the very seductive chance of earning a huge amount of money, but do not base their investments on solid fundamentals. (Ignoring fundamentals, similar to the dotcom bubble)

Many just invest in whatever a You-Tuber or an Elon Musk tweet tells them to, thinking that they can get-rich-quick.

Many projects get pumped and hyped up because of this, becoming very popular, very quickly. And they use quality web hosts as well.

This then attracts more investors, and the cycle goes on.

Don’t take financial advice from a stranger on the internet. Investing is risky, period. Do your own research and invest only what you can afford to lose.

Top Ten Best Web Designing Companies in India in 2021

posted on May 12, 2021

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These are the top ten best web designing companies in India in 2021.

web-design-development

Unified Infotech

Unified Infotech is a technology company headquartered in New York with another office in Kolkata, India. Unified Infotech developed a home management platform that needed support creating a more user-friendly UI. They provided development, design, SA, and QA services for the client. They leveraged multiple technologies and went well beyond the original scope of work to create an improvement from the previous product.

KrishaWeb


KrishaWeb is a full-service digital agency based in Montgomery Village, Md., with an office in Ahmedabad, India. KrishaWeb provided development support to a digital marketing agency. They assisted them in development projects of all types, including website and app development, the creation of graphics and logos, and branding.

Cynexis Media

Cynexis Media is a web design and development firm based in Columbus, Ohio. A social fashion startup hired Cynexis Media for web and mobile app development. Handling everything from strategy to implementation, the agency was able to create two distinct but seamlessly integrated platforms. The client was impressed with Cynexis Media's commitment to the project.

Suffescom Solutions

Suffescom Solutions is an IT firm skilled in web design, web development, and e-commerce development. Suffescom Solutions designed a custom website for a small media company. The project included optimizing the website for search and integrating feed partners.

Virtual Employee

Virtual Employee is a remote staffing company based in Rockland, Maine, with a satellite office in Noida, India. Virtual Employee worked with a call center company to supply virtual assistant services that would assist the client in reducing redundancies while streamlining its tasks. The client was particularly pleased with Virtual Employee's communication and data entry processing tools.

Crantia Technologies

Crantia Technologies is a web design company based in Trivandrum, India, and founded in 2014. Crantia Technologies upgraded a website for a building materials company. They collected necessary information from the clients and used SEO best practices and PHP to advance and launch the site.

VirtusaPolaris

VirtusaPolaris is an international business consulting firm that offers a multitude of IT services ranging from web development and design to software development to IT consulting to business process outsourcing. With offices in Chennai, India, Westborough, MA, and New York, NY, VirtusaPolaris has been around since 1993 and is composed of an ever-growing team of nearly 3,000 employees.

A patron account services company hired VirtusaPolaris to build an answering service. VirtusaPolaris developed a fully automated answering machine that the client still uses to this day. The client was impressed with VirtusaPolaris's reliability and the success of the answering machine system.

Uplers

Uplers is a Sydney-based global outsourcing company specializing in web development, SEO, PPC, and digital strategy. Uplers provided software development resources to a marketing firm. The team was responsible for frontend development, using HTML, CSS, and WordPress.

Ray Creations

Ray Creations is a web design and development company founded in 2006 and located in Ghaziabad, India. Ray Creations upgraded a waterjet cutting machines manufacturer’s website and incorporated a WooCommerce store. The team also led SEO and web management efforts. They handled the project well and delivered a useful product.

MandyWebDesign

Mandy Web Design is a web design and development agency based in Punjab, India. Mandy Web Design provided SEO work for a leather goods store to enhance the digital presence. After reworking the site to be SEO compatible, they boosted keyword rankings to the first and second pages.

All these companise need quality web hosting services and that's why it's importnat for hosts to maintain good relationship with them.

How do I start freelancing as a computer programmer?

posted on May 12, 2021

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There has never been a more exciting time to start freelancing as a remote software developer. Many engineers all over the world are making the transition to remote freelancing every year, and more and more companies are following the same trend. You will need a good web hosting parnter for your hosting needs.

With remote freelancing on the rise, and projections that within the next decade the majority of the U.S. workforce is going to work as freelancers, many freelancers are achieving successful careers (see freelance millionaires).

Here are some of the best practices that we hear from freelancers that can help you get started as a remote freelancer:

  • Find and master the skills that are demanded for remote positions.
  • It’s recommended to have at least 2-3 years of full-time experience with the skills that you want to focus on.
  • Have savings to “survive” for at least 6 months in case of issues.
  • Sometimes the start can be slower, and it’s always good to prevent unnecessary stress and be on the safe side.
  • Before quitting your full-time job, make sure to have at least one long-term client.
  • Long-term clients help build a stable portfolio of freelance income. In order to find long-term clients, the best way is to rely on personal connections and word-of-mouth, and/or joining a talent network.
  • Make a plan, set a realistic goal for at least 12-24 months ahead.
  • Freelancing can get tense, maybe even overwhelming in the beginning, and having a clear objective helps to make sure you keep focused on the right objectives.
  • Give it a try – pick-up a side gig for just a couple of hours per week.
  • It’s always helpful to get a sense of the experience before taking the leap to switch to full-time freelancing.
  • Join a reliable talent network. Not only can you find both long-term clients and potential side gigs there, but you will also have a clear sense of what is currently demanded by various clients all over the world. The network takes care of all administrative, legal and financial overhead, so I will know you will always get paid on time for the hours that you spend working for clients by the rate that you set upfront.
  • If possible, work on multiple projects at a time.
  • This helps you get more experience from different projects and environments in a shorter time, while also helping you balance out some of the specifics of each of the projects - one might be more focused on collaboration, whereas the other project might be primarily individual work etc.
  • Learn from other freelancers and ask a lot of questions.
  • Find a local meetup community (meetup.com), check out some of the events organized by talent networks (e.g. toptal.com/community/events), attend conferences or reach out to different online communities.

After years of freelance work and listening to hundreds of freelance developers, the points above are the most important take-aways that can help you get started freelancing without taking too much risk. People that had never thought of finding the courage to get started with independent contracting work have followed these simple principles and now are working remotely for different clients all over the world.

Possible Ways for Website Monetization

posted on May 11, 2021

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Many people start a website with the intent of making money. Others do it for the enjoyment of building something or sharing their knowledge. Whatever the reason, there is an abundance of tools available to you to help you turn your digital content into an income generating machine. You will also need a good web hosting partner in order to achive your goals.

Whether you are looking to get rich or simply make some passive income, here are some strategies to get your online content to make the most for you.

1) Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

This one is probably the most widely known and used. So much that I hesitated including it in this list. But, if you’re new to the world of online advertising, this is a must-know, and it can certainly be profitable.

With PPC advertising, you as the advertiser lease out some of your space on your site to let companies advertise their products and services. There are even platforms, called advertising networks, that allow you to offload all the heavy lifting.

There are several programs available, varying in ease of use and payouts. Check out some of the following and see what fits your needs:

  • Google Adsense - simple to use/setup, high CPM and CPC rates.
  • RevenueHits -  variety of ads, simple to use.
  • Chitika.com - can use with Adsense, high CPC rates, less intuitive.
  • Clicksor - large variety of ads, works well with traffic from UK and CA.

2) Lead Marketing

Lead marketing is the process of generating qualified interest on behalf of a company. Many businesses are willing to pay you to help them with list building, growing their email lists, or gaining sales leads.

This is one that you can do yourself, if you have the connections and know-how, and a lot of time on your hands. If you don’t, however, there are tools and services to allow you to plug and play.

3) Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a way of marketing a product or service in a way that you get paid a commission for every customer that signs up for said product or service. Most affiliate programs will give you links to put on your website. Those links have parameters in the URL to track what signups and purchases come from you. If you can find a way to incorporate this into your website, it has great money-making potential.

  • Amazon Associates  -  this one is my favorite for it’s ease of use and high number of products to search.
  • Commission Junction
  • Others — there are so many niche affiliate programs that I wouldn’t be able to list them all in one article. Many websites have their own affiliate programs. No matter your website’s niche, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find some program that works for you.

4) Sell Your Own Products

Chances are, if you’ve started a website, it is because you are knowledgable or passionate about the subject matter on your site. Use that to your advantage and share your knowledge. You can very easily sell that knowledge in digital format (pdf book, instructional videos, access to premium site content).

You may also have some physical product that you could sell to consumers. There are many tools to help you sell online. Here are a few:

  • Woocommerce  -  this one is a Wordpress specific plugin that can help you sell online. If your site is built on Wordpress, this is a quick easy way to start selling products.
  • Paypal  - this is an oldie, but still, probably one of the easiest ways to sell digital content if you have minimal technological abilities. Paypal has a feature for easily selling those e-products.
  • Squarespace -  another option, if you’re looking to sell products. I haven’t tried this myself, but friends have told me it’s fairly intuitive. If you find you can’t fully build a Squarespace site yourself, they have a program to help you find specialists to help you (for a price, of course).
  • Stripe, Braintree -  if you’re more technically inclined and familiar with code, both Stripe and Braintree provide payment processing solutions and both have excellent APIs and documentation. I highly recommend both.

5) Donations

I’m not one to ask for handouts. But increasingly, I’m finding legitimate reasons for sites to ask for donations. Wikipedia, is known for it’s free service of providing a wealth of knowledge and asking for donations in return. If you provide some open source knowledge, consider allowing people to reward you for the benefit they receive.

  • Gratipay -  provides voluntary payments for open work.
  • Paypal - again, one you have probably seen before.

6) Sponsored Posts & Reviews

Just two days ago, I was looking for a review on Nordic Lifting’s knee sleeves
to help with my squat. The second link to come up in Google search was a YouTube video. Nordic Lifting reached out to this guy and asked him to do a review of their product.

Similarly, I know many bloggers who write reviews or sponsored posts for companies. If you have a large audience, consider reaching out to a company that you love and let them know that you’d love to promote their business.

No matter your choice for monetization of your website, you will need a realiable web hosting service provider.

How much does a responsive web design cost?

posted on May 11, 2021

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In terms of development, responsive design is not an order of magnitude more expensive than any other form of web development, the only issue from a design perspective is ensuring that your design scales or has appropriate break points to deal with different interaction modes (desktop mouse and keyboard, tablet tips of fingers or phone thumb), so you may want to mock up key features like mastheads, menus and tables to see how they behave on smaller and larger viewports.

The main issues and costs we find come around testing, both user testing and functional/ cross browser testing. You will need to make sure your built design works on the plethora of devices, OSs and browsers available. What you are trying to avoid is the situation where you have to maintain some form of browser/OS whitelist, detect this and send back different content, as this becomes very expensive to maintain going forwards.

The average cost for designing a website ranges from $1000 to more than $100,000. But Website Designing cost depends on the following things.

  • Domain and Hosting cost
  • Used Technology
  • Added Features
  • Theme or customized design
  • Logo, content, images, maintenance
  • Company's brand
Don't forget to look for the following website designer skills:
  • Strong creative design skills
  • Logo Designing
  • Banner Designing
  • Website Design
  • Sound HTML knowledge
  • Landing Page Designing
  • CSS knowledge
  • Good experience in web design
  • Ability to incorporate pre-written Javascript into web pages
  • Graphical user interface (GUI) design using HTML/XHTML/CSS
  • Design & layout of email newsletters

The best cloud-based collaborative design tools for 2021?

posted on May 9, 2021

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These are just a few of the best tools you can use today for design while you're working remotely with your team. Each tool performs specific functions, and some have more capabilities than others.

For 2021, you'll probably need a combination of tools to handle your entire design workflow, but in the future, more all-in-one tools are likely to become available.

1. Wondershare Mockitt


Sometimes the most effective way to get design concepts greenlit is to create a functional mockup. Wondershare Mockitt is a no code cloud-based prototyping tool to enable concepts and accelerate production workflows.


It's a capable tool for professional UI designers or even large scale developers. It even has a sketch plugin to import slices, animate, and use a share link for global annotation and collab.

Pros:

  • Built-in prototyping to create fully interactive designs
  • Annotation share links work for anyone to collaborate with, even outside your team
  • You can preview and share designs at any time and manage access
  • Free plan for starters including design resources, cloud storage, and backups
  • No coding required with automatic CSS generation for Swift and Android

Cons:

  • Cloud-based means you'll need a constant internet connection to use it

2. Visme

One such all-in-one tool is Visme. Visme is cloud design software built for both designers and non-designers.

It's best suited for centralizing team activities while creating presentations, infographics, web content, and more.

Pros

  • Built-in analytics to monitor user workloads, activity, and progress
  • Ability to create a variety of file types, including hosted animations and video stock footage
  • Massive library of templates, including Unsplash and media elements
  • Brand libraries like palettes and typography settings for each client

Cons

  • Not for fully custom designs requiring pen tool or extensive shape modification
  • Data-driven graphics are beautiful but sometimes glitchy.
  • Visme is free to use for up to 3 projects, then between $7-9 a month for premium options. It's a reasonably low price for what you get.

3. Vectornator

Vectornator is an empowering piece of software, enabling original creativity with vector design.

Vectornator has excellent tools for inspiration, logo design, infographics and illustration, lettering, and vector art. It's great for beginners and experienced designers alike.

Pros

  • Cutting-edge unified codebase allows for an optimized desktop experience on iPhone, iPad, or, well, desktop.
  • Apple Pencil, third-party stylus, and multi-touch features push the limits of the graphic design experience
  • Real-time cross-device collaboration is coming soon
  • Free pricing for all apps means anyone can have access to pro-level graphic design software

Cons

It is not as well integrated with the cloud yet as other collaborative design software, although it does allow sync across devices and import/export to common file types
It's free and includes genuine pro-grade features like Adobe Illustrator, like its new "learn" site to help new users with graphic design basics. For iPad, iPhone, and Mac owners, it's a must-have.

4. Basecamp

It's primarily project management software, but it's still an excellent tool for collaborating on both the internal and external elements of a design project.

Pros

  • Ability to integrate with many other tools.
  • It's an excellent solution for mostly remote teams, which makes it perfect for the design process
  • Ability to invite people outside your organization to view content and files
  • No fluctuation in subscription price thanks to the flat fee offered

Cons

  • A lack of design elements due to it being a project management software- some design documents don't preview well in-app
  • Basecamp offers a free trial but charges a $99 flat fee per month once the trial period is over.

5. Droplr

Droplr enables users to quickly share design ideas, whether that be through annotated visuals, screen recordings, etc. It aims to get work done faster and without the fuss that might come with project management software.

Pros

  • All files are saved to the cloud and can be accessed whenever needed.
  • Annotating on designs is much faster than sending chats, so it's a significant timesaver.

Cons

  • Droplr doesn't include design creation or editing software as part of the app. It's a collaboration tool that can help teams using desktop software to work remotely and on the cloud.
  • You're able to try Droplr for free for seven days. Individual users can get it for $7 per month, or teams of up to 15 for $7 per user per month.

6. GitHub

GitHub is a fit for teams working on design projects that are more code-oriented. Websites, apps, or front-end development designers need to collaborate with software to connect members worldwide.

Pros

  • Github includes a well-trusted version control system
  • It provides project management tools and customer support tools, too, so you can make design changes triggered by several stages of users, such as support tickets.
  • Wiki pages enable Github to be a center for unified knowledge bases across teams and to brief or onboard new members
  • Web-based code comparison and modification, but also bi-directional data synchronization to almost any desktop app.

Cons

It's highly code-centric, so if you don't have any code, it might not be a good fit.
The different user types and access permissions create a steeper learning curve than other collaboration tools.
There is a free plan for GitHub that accommodates most open-source users or private use. For business users or commercial development, users can upgrade with the $4/month plan.

There is also a $21/month plan, which primarily includes more cloud storage, and enterprise plans with the most capabilities. Or you can search for a cheaper alternative among the listed web hosting companies here at hostclue.com.

7. Moqups

Perfect for web designers specializing in UX, Moqups helps with wireframing and prototyping tools while also creating design mockups.

Because it handles several stages of the design process, it's a little more universally friendly for all types of designers.

Pros

  • It's an all-in-one platform, so perfect for streamlining work processes.
  • It's great for those who specialize in web design and user experience.

Cons

  • Some users complain about customer service and opaque renewal terms for the service.
  • The all-in-one capabilities appeal to non-designers, but some more in-depth capabilities like deep hotspot interactions are missing.
  • Moqups provides a free plan for new users to try out the tool as long as they want. The paid packages are $16 per month for three editors and $49 per month for unlimited editors.

Today, there are many cloud-based tools - with some specialized and some appealing to all-in-one users. In the coming years, it's undoubted that many more will continue to pop up.