Wondering How to Start a Blog? - Choose the Best Blogging Platforms First!

Learning how to start a blog is a great way to get your opinion out there, promote your small business, or gain a dedicated readership. Your blog is only as good as the platform it's based on, however. That's why it's so important to compare the available platforms before you get started. If you're ready to find out how to create a blog, you should know this information first:

Blogger

This Google-owned service integrates neatly with any pre-existing Google products you use, such as Gmail. That lets you go from registration to your first post in just about 15 minutes. Template editing and tagging are also very easy and you'll have the ability to post from Word and Google Docs.

The downside is that Blogger is a little more limited than other options, and its market share has been dropping in recent years. While Blogger may not be on top anymore, it's still a viable free service that makes setting up easy, even for the inexperienced.

WordPress

As of 2012, WordPress is the giant of free blogging platforms. Most people wondering how to create a blog start here, due to the platform's high expandability. If your blog ever grows beyond the capacity of a free WordPress subdomain, you can download the main WordPress installation and set it up on your own independent website. WordPress also offers a wide range of themes, many plug-ins, and extensive customizability.

All this is great if you have a little bit of experience under your belt, but while WordPress is fairly easy to set up, it can be intimidating for people who've never had a blog before. You may need to look up a few tutorials or get a little outside help to put together the perfect WordPress blog for your situation.

Tumblr

This platform is a little different from Blogger or WordPress, in that it's a hybrid of a blogging platform and social media options like Facebook or Twitter. Like many social media sites, Tumblr is best suited to relatively short thoughts and is very image heavy. It makes connecting with and following other users very simple, and is a great choice for anyone who wants to make short, sweet posts on a regular basis.

Setup is extremely easy, though navigating the system itself may take a little bit of practice. Customization can also be a problem. Tumblr is great for sharing thoughts, but not the best choice if you want to integrate ads or put a shopping cart link in place. You may need a main website as an auxiliary to your Tumblr blog.

No matter which option you choose, a little planning is all you'll need to put together the perfect blog. Take a few minutes to think it through, and you might be delighted by the results.

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What Web Design Mistakes Are Hurting Your Conversion Rates?

Have you ever considered whether elements of your web design work is actually hurting the conversion rate of a website? Believe it or not, this is entirely possible and can lead to many visitors looking elsewhere for your products and services, meaning that you see a considerable drop in revenue. Often, this is due to a mistake or two in the design, and it is very easy to fix them up and start seeing a boost in your conversions once again. So, what are some of the most common of these mistakes?

Placing calls-to-action below the page fold When visitors view your web design for the first time, they'll give it a very quick scan and judge whether it is worth their while or not - and all this takes as little as 5 seconds. If your call-to-action is placed below the page fold (which is the name given to the area of the design that visitors can see without having to scroll), it's likely that they won't even see it. Make sure that you place calls-to-action where they can be seen. Underestimating distractions Whilst your promotional banner or headlining images may look really cool, they could actually be distracting your visitors from the information that they need or you want them to be reading. Your web design needs to be structured in a way that improves eye flow and does not distract visitors from the most important information on the page. Try to avoid animated images or large photos that are quite busy. Choosing to be cool over being usable It is an occupational hazard of working in web design that you will want to be creative and innovative with your work. You must be careful, however, that you don't break usability standards in the creation of your cool designs, as this can lead to visitors becoming confused by the purpose of your website. When you come up with some great new way of doing something, have someone else test it before you decide to use it.

There are, of course, a number of other mistakes commonly made during the web design process that have a detrimental effect on your conversion rates; the three outlined above, however, tend to be the most common and the most damaging in terms of revenue. You should also be wary of using large blocks of text, variations that don't vary enough, and a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to your next designs to ensure that your conversions are right up there.

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Web Design: Optimizing for Conversions - Part 1

With the boom and flourish of the Internet, marketing online to grow or start a business has become a huge industry. Many people try to get up a website and then drive traffic to it for sales leads... much like a telemarketer might make lots of calls for leads, or a door-to-door salesman knocks on doors to see people. There are many companies that also specialize in helping people drive traffic to their website. This can be done through paid ads, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and search engine optimization, to name a few strategies.

While it sounds logical to learn how to drive more traffic to your website to increase sales or build a mailing list or get more leads, there's a key ingredient missing. If you're driving tons of traffic to your website but the site is not optimized for conversions, then the extra traffic is useless.

What does it mean to optimize a site for conversions? It means that the site is designed and organized around a consistent goal or idea and leads people to take an action. The action may be subtle, like clicking to another page to learn more. Or maybe it's to click and watch a video. Perhaps it's to get in contact with an email.

Regardless of the action you might want people to take on your site, one of the first things to do to optimize your website for conversions is to let people know where they are.

Where am I?

If you think of your prospect that may have found your site link from a search result, another site or an ad, they don't know much or anything about you or your site. They may know only the keyword that they used in Google got them to find your site, or they know they saw an ad that looked like it had a headline that caught their attention... and they clicked to get to your site.

Many times, people do not get to your site by directly typing in your domain name. Or, if they do, they may have heard it or met you in person and have your website address on a business card. But other than that, they may have no other information about your site and why it is interesting or useful to them.

So having your name to identify the site--name and logo--is a good start. But the name and logo may be meaningless to the new visitor. Or, you might have your face. But this may or may not be relevant to the visitor... does it hold meaning or significance to them? How can you convey identifying information in your name/logo, your imagery and then your content?

Think about what you might say to someone if they met you at a networking event or if you're approaching someone new you want to ask on a date. You have a few seconds--maybe a minute--to say hello, introduce yourself and be interesting or compelling enough to hold their interest.

Website home pages or landing pages are a lot like dating in many ways!

What can people find on your site? What is your site about? Who is it for? Having a descriptive tag line can help a lot too. For example, "Natural nutrition coaching for people over 50" or "Real Estate for Second-Home Buyers in Miami". This targets your audience---and can make your message much more powerful when you are clear on what your site is, what they an do there and and who it is for.

Look for my Web Design: Optimizing for Conversions Part 2 and Part 3 for more on creating a compelling website that converts leads or drives people to take action instead of clicking away.

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5 Reasons Why Responsive Web Design Is Critical For Your Business

Nowadays, it's a well-known fact that a slow-loading website might be the death of a business. If it takes any more than 10 seconds to load then it appears that something is wrong, and any longer than that and we're looking somewhere else. Here are the top 5 reasons why responsive web design will really elevate your business. That means increased sales, enhanced reputation and more besides, so let's take a closer look...

Reasons 1, 2 & 3: Responsive Means Dependable

The first reason to use responsive web design is simple: every web company out there now has the capacity to offer this, so not taking them up on the offer would seem like virtual suicide. The second reason to use responsive web design is also obvious - it's a great reflection on the responsive nature of your business. A fast-moving website implies that you'll be as responsive with customer service as your site is about loading-up the About Us page. The third reason to use responsive web design is less obvious but by far just as important - being responsive enables the thoughts and feelings of your visitor to flow rapidly, building up a comprehensive idea of the identity of your company. If a site doesn't use responsive coding, for example, then it's going to be confusing their visitors. Like bad writing in a well-plotted book, this perplexing little number could make the potential customer think something is amiss with your business, and that's likely to make them ponder the worst question of them all: can they handle payments and do the job effectively or should I go somewhere else?

Reasons 4 & 5: Responsive Web Design Examples Prove That Speed Is Key

Speed is critical to responsive web design, but that doesn't mean that it should be used above all else. The golden rule every website should follow is this: never use speed at the expense of quality. There are plenty of ways to remind your visitor that the site is loading. Think of a novel way to keep them entertained while the information appears - the best responsive web design examples out there are great for 2 reasons: firstly, they combine a mass of information and data in a highly responsive way that never leaves the viewer bored, which means that potential customer never thinks twice about clicking away to another site, and secondly they use colour and responsive coding to make boring data like graphs and numbers look intriguing. If you can intrigue your visitors with the dullest of information that uses up-to-date, responsive solutions, then imagine what you might be able to do with video or images that really blows them away!

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Web Page Designer - Making Your Site Unique

If you are hoping to have a professionally designed website in the shortest amount of time, one popular option is to look for a good template that suits the theme of your site and work from there. The only problem is that the template won't exactly make your website original unless you know how to make a website and use your knowledge in heavily modifying the template. Otherwise, you have to get a web page designer to do the handy work for you. While this path is likely to cost you some money, you are very much guaranteed an original design where your site content should be able to fit right in. When looking for a person or freelancer to hire, make sure you know the difference between a web page designer and a web developer.

Web page designers are actually the people that you should be looking for no matter what your needs are because you can tell them what type of design and layout you like for your website and what functionality you want to provide to your visitors. The designer will then determine if the work can be done in your set time frame. Web page designers usually have basic coding skills because designers that are well-versed in coding normally refer themselves as web developers. Web page designers that cannot handle your needs will most likely refer you to a web developer.

Because a web developer requires more skill, web developers tend to charge more so it is very important to know your budget. If you really need website for your company, you can always opt for a simple version where you shouldn't have to pay a web designer very much. Once the site is all set up, you can at least host it online and get people to check out your site. This also gives you time to save up while you are marketing your new website to others.

Once you are ready to give your site an update, you can go ahead and look for a more experienced web developer. Since your site already has a foundation, the web developer shouldn't charge so much unless you have a long list of needs for your site. The point is, it will most likely be more expensive if you let a web developer handle both the design and the features of your site. Plus, development will take longer as well.

Of course, going the web developer route from the start isn't always a bad thing since the developer has more flexibility. Depending on what you need on your site, it can be beneficial if the designer codes everything and then builds a design around it. This ensures the stability of your site as well as the security. Then you can finally announce to your subscribers that you have a huge update and that could be enough to attract even more traffic.

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Web Design

Web design deals with the area of designing a good website and in the long run updating and maintaining. With the internet boom, every company wants to have an online footprint and a website is the best way to showcase one's skills and business and kindle the curiosity of potential customers.

The layout of a website depends on its functionality and use and hence what applies to one industry cannot be generalised to others. But at the same time, it is important to choose a good web design company to ensure that one's ideas are translated into reality and a friendly and positive image is created in the virtual world. In businesses where the customer base is worldwide, a website is the first gateway to showcase the reputation and capability of a company.

Every web page needs to be functional and aesthetic while at the same time being easy to navigate and comprehend. Content needs to be precisely written with good sentence structures and grammar to ensure that the viewer interest is not lost. It is easy to put in fancy visuals and have all the colours in the palette incorporated on a webpage but essentially, the message needs to be delivered. Incorporating SEO or search engine optimization ensures that the website is noticed by search engines and as the number of visits to a website increase, better are the chances of business expansion and reputation enhancement. Thus a good business needs a work of online art to showcase itself.

Web design companies need to be chosen carefully and the following points are some of the key indicators that can help you make a good choice.

• Experience in the business area • Market reputation and promised capability • Client Portfolio • Responsiveness to requirements and demands • Delivery time • Latest project samples • Proven track record in the given domain • Company policies and client interaction procedures of the web design company • Extent of services offered in case of future expansion • Website maintenance & redesign services • Cost effectiveness, efficiency and value for money

Thus when making a choice, one has to strike a judicious balance with one's own budget and requirements in mind. At the same time, the web design company must be capable of translating ones vision with minimum supervision and guidance since frequent discussions take a toll of valuable time.

Some companies have made patented software so that the clients can communicate their requirements effectively. Through this program, the clients can decide the basic content and layout of the website. Everything right from the number of tabs and pages required to the type of design, animation etc. Thus a fairly accurate idea of the client requirements is got without any hassles. Once the requirements are got, work begins earnestly towards finalising the design. Using this kind of advanced technologies has helped companies cover greater distance within a short time under all weather conditions!! After the initial design, client meetings are held and real time testing carried out to ensure complete customer satisfaction.

The best way to attract traffic to your website is by using a good SEO (search Engine Optimising) provider in your city who has a good reputation. SEO is not merely adding keywords but also deals with enhancing the content and capture the imagination of the readers.

Designing and Creating Effective Landing Pages   7 Navigation System Elements Your Website Should Have   Hire Java Developers With Experience in Top 10 Java Frameworks   Grow Your Businesses Revenue From Having A Mobile Website   PSD to OsCommerce: Fuelling Better Ecommerce Websites