Website

DIY Don't: 7 Reasons You Shouldn't Design Your Own Website

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, August 14, 2020

There are over 1.7 billion websites in the world today and new ones are launching every second. With so many people competing for attention, how will you make your business website stand out from the crowd?

If you're just starting out, it's easy to think a free website will save you money, but in fact, the opposite is true. A professional website is an investment in your business and will help you attract high-paying clients and customers.

Why You Should Not Design Your Own Website

Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn't design your own website and hire professional web designers to do it for you.

It's well said that Developing a website is not just a technical skill, it's much more than that!

1. Professionalism

If you're a serious business owner or a brand, your website is your business card. It's the first thing people will look at online and judge your brand accordingly. If you use a free web design platform or don't personalize your domain name, you won't attract any clients or turn a profit.

Consider hiring web development agency services to make sure you have a professional website made to attract and convert clients.

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for ranking high on search engine pages. For example, in order for Google to find your website and decide how to rank it, the website needs to be properly optimized.

This includes using special plugins and tools that not all free web design platforms offer.

Not only these, if you're going to design your own website, but you also need to understand many common website errors and attributes as well. Some of those are like-

• 301 redirects
• Backlinks
• 404 error pages
• Schema markup
• Domain authority, Page authority, MOZ score, Domain Rating, and more such parameters
• Anchor Text and more

All these come under on-page SEO techniques that need to be done in order to rank a website.

3. Website Management

Having a website means you'll need to manage and update it constantly. Whether you want to add new images, blog posts, or pages, or want to view your analytics, most free platforms offer only the basic tools.

For example, if you want to design your own ecommerce website, you'd need to constantly update the products you offer. You'll need to migrate your website to a more powerful platform. This can end up costing you more money than professional web design.

4. Ownership

Before you create your own website design free of charge, think about the ownership. Web design platforms like Squarespace and Wix own your website because they own the software you used to create it.

If something happens to these platforms and they stop working, your website stops working with them. There are many other aspects as well like you're not the client of yourself. That means, even if you won't like many things, you will go with it as you have developed yourself. And usually, developers fall in love with what they do.

Further making changes on it will be difficult for you. But at the same time, if you are getting it developed from some professional agencies, you can be strict with the requirements. And even if your developers are not making as expected, you can always get it changed. With a professionally designed website, you can be sure it's always safe and secure.

5. Customization

Most free web design platforms offer a certain level of customization, but to truly personalize your website, you'd probably need to pay huge monthly fees.

For a good website, along with the programming skills, you need various tools for the different works. These may include image design, graphics, SEO analysis tools, Email marketing, and more. And getting all these one by one can be a tedious job and expensive as well.

A web designer can create the website of your dreams, exactly like how you imagined it. This way, you don't have to compromise between functionality and design - you can have both.

6. Timing

Let's say you have decided to launch a website in the next 6 months and instead of going with professional developers, you're creating yourself. Most of the time you will see the project is not on time. Although there are many free and paid project management software are available to manage the time but still it is very difficult. 

 

This might be due to various reasons and some of those are-

• You're stuck somewhere in technical errors
• You're not good in graphics designing
• Website load time is more
• You are not getting enough time to work on it
• Logic is not as expected and many such errors

Any of these issues can simply increase your project timeline and you will end up creating a huge mess. At the same time, if you are getting it developed by some agencies, it's their full-time work and they will follow your timeline.

7. Ads and Banners

If you're creating a website you must be either creating it for some services or some information. If you're creating for sharing some information then you may want to monetize website using some kind of ads.

Here also, if you are not much work in the area, then you will end up increasing the website loading time. This will again impact the website SEO and also the user experience will be impacted a lot.

At the same time, if you're getting it developed from professional developers, they know how to generate the revenue from the website without impacting the user experience.

Conclusion

Now You Know Why You Shouldn't Design Your Own Website and Leave It to the Pros.

Before you attempt to design your own website, think about the time and energy you'd be wasting. If you're serious about your business, it's best to leave web design to the pros so you can focus on more important things.

Want more business and entrepreneurship tips? Check out the other articles we've written on these topics and stay tuned for the newest industry trends and updates.

Website

Designing a Website Blog From Scratch- A Complete Guide

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, December 1, 2019

Did you know websites with a blog receive 434 percent more indexed web pages compared with websites without a blog?

If you want your website to rank high on search engines, creating a blog is a great place to start. However, starting a blog can also feel like you're designing a website from scratch.

Guide While Designing Website From Scratch- 10 Steps

Not to worry. In this article, we'll reveal how to get your blog up and running quickly with these simple tips going forward. Let's go!

1. How to Pick Your Blog Name

You might be panicking already cause you can't come up with an interesting, catchy and awesome blog name on the spot.

Remember, this is your brand name which needs to be relevant to the topics you're expecting to cover in your posts.

But also, you can always change your blog name later if you change your mind. If you're really struggling, then choose your name or nickname. For example, sillyharry.com.

You need your blog name to stay simple and to the point. You want to appeal to your audience, while also considering how the name appears to search engines. So always include SEO keywords.

2. Register with a Hosting Provider

Once you're ready with your blog name and domain name, it's time to register with a hosting provider.

This ensures your data files are accessible and secure. You can take advantage of free hosting providers. However, they always come with risks and low-quality services.

Alternatively, you can go with one of the many hosting providers which charge a subscription fee. These can usually save you money along the way by providing you with better website design, too.

You can discover more and compare the different hosting provider options available for your blog.

3. Picking a Blog Platform

You need to select a blog platform to write your articles and design a website from scratch. This is called a CMS (Content Management System).

A Content Management System (or CMS) is where you'll be writing, designing, and publishing your blog posts. You should be able to upload content here and select themes for your blog.

There are tons of blog platforms from Wordpress to Squarespace. You need to choose which is right for you.

4. Decide on a Blogging Niche 

Your best chance of becoming a successful blogger is to establish yourself as an influencer in your niche.

How can you do this?

You need to write about something you're already passionate about. But that's not enough either. You also need to know your stuff!

Research what your audience would actually be interesting in reading about. The more interesting your blog to your readers, the more effective you'll be at driving web traffic to your website. You can check most profitable blog niches to get some ideas.

5. Design a Blog Website

It doesn't matter what your content is about if you can't get your audience to stick around long enough to read anything.

Attention web designers - you've got 50 milliseconds to make a good impression with your website.

You need to instantly connect your audience on an emotional level. This requires an awesome blog design which draws you into reading the content.

That's not just about the aesthetics of the blog web pages either. While this is important, it's not everything.

It's also got to be easy to navigate around the web pages. Over 94 percent of users say that an easy to navigate website is a deal-breaker.

Users want your website to be intuitive to browse. They shouldn't have to second-guess each click. It needs to be obvious how it works.

6. Include Essential Web Pages

You've got to remember the boring bits of your blog website, too.

It's not only about fascinating blog posts and intriguing design. You also need to include the essential web pages, such as "About Us/Me," "Contact Page" and also, "Store/Shop".

Your "About Me" page should focus on who you are and why you're writing this blog. Talk about your background (why your opinion matters?) and what's your motivation (why you want to help?) to build authority.

Your "Contact Page" should simply include a basic email address and social media accounts. You can also include an option to call via telephone. You could also include a message box to encourage interaction.

7. Establish a Strategy

It's important to establish a strategy to connect with your audience.

First, consider what you want to achieve with your blog. Do you want to drive web traffic to your online store? Or, do you want to build your authority?

Make sure you learn who your audience actually is. You can discover information via Google Analytics and other tools. Knowing the location and demographics of your audience is important for engaging with them more effectively.

8. Make a Blogging Commitment

Your audience doesn't want to read a one-off blog post without ever hearing from you again. You need to show that you're reliable with a regular blog post.

Tell your readers that you're going to post every week or bi-weekly to maintain enthusiasm for your blog activity. Keep yourself organized to make sure you meet this commitment to maintain trust.

9. Include Images and Videos

Your audience doesn't just check into your blog for the words. You could also add videos to your blog to spice things up.

Your audience also wants images! In fact, blogs with images receive 94 percent more views than those without images.

10. Promote Your Blog

It's not as simple as "write the blog and they will come". You need to go out there and promote your blog yourself.

The best tools at your disposal are definitely social media networks. Whenever you publish a blog post, post it on Facebook and tweet about it Twitter. This is a sure-fire way to build your audience for your blog articles.

Designing a Website From Scratch

Now you know the tricks of designing a website from scratch to make a blogging success. Starting a blog can appear a lot of work at first. However, breaking it down to 10 steps makes it much easier to get going.

If you want to learn more about how you can make your blogging website successful, check out our consulting services here.

How To

How to Add Star Rating in Blogger Post

By Ashutosh Jha → Saturday, May 18, 2019

A couple of days ago I was having communication with one of the clients for the review post and after finalizing everything he asked whether I will rate their product or not. As TricksRoad is on Blogger platform so I have many limitations. But I started searching for it and finally, I am able to implement it. That review post will be live in a few days where the first time I’ll add star rating in blogger post.

After adding a star rating in blogger post, it looks quite nice and so I am sharing the details as to how to add star rating in blogger post so that you can also do the same. Till now I have published many review posts but no one demanded the rating so never worked on it but it’s well said-

Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

But before going through the simple method to add star rating in blogger post, let me tell you few benefits about adding star rating in blog posts.

Benefits of adding Star Rating in Blog Post

There are many benefits of adding a star rating in blog posts. Below I am listing few of those.

• It increases the faith of your visitors on the product

• While reviewing you provide a rating (Usually 1-5) so the users simply can estimate how much that product worth of without reading the whole review.

• Increases traffic to the site

• Provides value to your clients

Now as you know the benefits of adding a rating system in blog posts, let me tell you how to add star rating in blogger post.

How to Add Star Rating in Blogger Post?

As we know adding star rating in WordPress is damn easy due to its rich plugins but in blogger, it is a bit difficult. Here difficult mean just it is not possible directly but with just a couple of minutes of work, you would be able to add star rating in blogger post as well.

Also Read: 5 Best Techniques to Increase DA of a Website

Once you’ll add a star rating, it will look like the below in search engine.

To add the star rating in blogger post, just follow the below steps and within a minute you’re done.

Step1: Go to the blogger post in which you would like to add star rating and click on HTML view.

Step2: Now at the end of the post, add the below code.

<div>  <span> <span>Post-Name</span><br/> </span> Reviewed by <span>Reviewer-Name</span>on <span>August 25 2015 <span title=”YYYY-MM-DD”></span><br/>  </span> Rating: <span>Your-Rating</span></div>

Step3: Just change the items listed in bold in above code write post name (you may write product name if you are reviewing a product), Reviewed by, date and rating. Enter these values as per your convenience and hit the publish/update button of a blog post.

Also Read: How to Index New Blog Post Quickly

That’s all. Once your article is crawled, you can check the star rating in Google search engine.

Hope you liked this article, how to add star rating in blogger post. Do implement and let me know how it works. Also, please share this with your friends.

Software

Top 6 Stages of Mobile App Development

By Ashutosh Jha → Monday, March 18, 2019

People spend more time and money on apps than ever before. The average person uses nine apps per day according to TechCrunch. Meanwhile, Apple and Google rake in billions of dollars each year in app market sales.

If you're considering entering the app market with your business, now is a great time to learn the app development process.

6 Important Stages of Mobile App Development

Here's a rundown on each step of the app development process and with what you can expect along the way.

#1 Concept And Research

Before you can create a world-changing app, you'll need a great idea along with some data to back it up. Start brainstorming fun app ideas.

Once you have a concept you like, conduct a bit of research.

Take the temperature of the current app market. Are there other apps like yours already published? If so, how can you improve on the concept and do something new?

As you conduct market research, create a business document. Outline your core concept, the app's purpose, your target audience, programs and languages you'll use to code your app, and a development timeline.

#2 Wireframe Creation

It's time to put your ideas into action. The first step in the design process is known as wireframing. During this step, you'll create a skeletal version of your app.

Create a wireframe for each screen. Include any text, boxes, or interactive buttons for a given screen.

If you're not a great artist, don't worry, you can still create an effective wireframe. Google posted a fantastic example of how to wireframe an Android app, so use that as your basis.

#3 Design

Using your wireframe as a basis, it's time to get creative and flesh out your app.

The design process is the meat of the app development process, so don't feel bad if it takes longer than any other step.

Take your time and put yourself in the shoes of your users. Design your UX around what's easiest and most enjoyable for them.

#4 Prototype

By now you should have a working prototype of your app. It doesn't need to be finished. This is just the first draft, so you can change design elements or add or remove elements later on.

Still, your prototype needs to serve as a representation of your final product. Do your best to deliver a polished prototype.

#5 Testing

Spend a few days testing every aspect of your app. Give it to your family and friends and let them play around with it, too. Ask for their feedback and refine your prototype until it's perfect.

You'll want as much feedback as possible, so you may want to use Mobile App Testing software like pCloudy, which offer a detailed report of any bugs.

#6 Release And Post-Release

Once you're finished testing your app, you're ready to submit it to Apple and Google. After getting the all-clear, take a deep breath. You're officially an app developer!

But this isn't the end of your journey. Now you'll need to outline the life cycle of your app. Add new features and experiences to keep users coming back for months. Decide how long you'll support your app and continue updating it accordingly.

Your Guide to The App Development Process

If you've never developed an app, the app development process can seem rather intimidating. Don't worry, you've got this.

Remember what you've learned today and stick to your outline. You'll have a five-star app in no time!

If you have any questions or want a professional consultation, reach out today.

Website

5 Web Designer Skills Every Blogger Must Have

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, March 8, 2019

With the average small business now spending around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, even small blogs have to struggle to compete. If you want to have a standout blog, you need to have a few web designer skills to stay ahead of the competition. Even if you're not using it as a marketing tool, to get the readers you're looking for, you need a solid design.

5 Web designers Skills Bloggers should have

Here are five skills that every blogger should have.

1. Mobile Optimization

Given that mobile browsing has far surpassed desktop usage for several years in a row, you need to make sure your blog looks good on mobile devices. It's vital to have a design that's optimized for mobile devices given that's where a growing population of your audience is going to be.

Reading on a mobile device introduces more challenges that are found on a laptop or a desktop. However, there are some great design solutions that have allowed more bloggers to stretch and scale their pages to optimize reading. If you're using a CMS like WordPress, there are a lot of plug-ins to help make things easier.

Make sure you're not causing your readers to squint or to have to stretch or scale your text. The text shouldn't be cluttered and should be in a standard and easy to read font. Avoid using white text on a black background or any majorly contrasting colors.

Don't crowd the space with ads, videos, and images. They can be used to break up text blocks but placing them side by side makes it harder to read. Make sure things are scaled to fit on any kind of mobile device without any awkward margins.

Mobile traffic is increasing day by day and being a website owner or business owner, you can't ignore this at any cost.

2. SEO

Search engine optimization is more than just adding the right keywords. Search engine algorithms now know how to tell if your site is well organized and designed properly. They can tell if you're adding images that are too big or too small for devices you're displaying your information on.

There are also a lot of opportunities to connect your site to search results. You can add undisplayed text to the "alt" tags behind each imaged. You can also add keywords at the header of every page to help direct searches to you.

When people are using a search engine, they're either looking for specific service or the answer to a specific question. Your blog can answer those questions while offering your talents or specialty as the solution at the end of each post. If you don't offer services, you can use links to other posts to keep them engaged.

The longer that you keep people on your URL, the higher you'll rank on search engines. With lots of quality content that's all linked together, you'll get a high ranking on your favorite search engine. Combine all of these elements and you'll get lots of valuable traffic.

3. Integrating Media

Given that video is slated to account for more than 80% of internet traffic in the coming years, you need to give the people what they want. Even if you're a much better writer than a videographer, you need to add some media to your blog. People want to see video explainers, how-to videos, or get an introduction to who you are and what you're about.

If you can't get it together to make a video, you can accent your posts with videos or gifs. They bring content alive and allow readers to see another perspective on what you're writing about. When you're looking to engage with your audience, you need to offer the kind of content that they're looking for.

Images and videos are good for engaging with your readers in a memorable way. While some people can remember and recall text exactly as they read it, pairing ideas with an image helps to solidify the idea in their minds. When you're able to integrate your text with images, you'll build a dedicated audience who understands your style.

You can build a unique style through all the elements of design and some well-placed pieces of visual media.

4. Designing Logos

Your logo is going to be what becomes your brand. People will look at your logo as a way to get an idea of what you're about. The way you design your logo is going to influence how people treat you and the content that you post.

If you're designing a fun and friendly website for kids and families, you want to have a colorful logo with lots of images. You can turn your letters into fun shapes and use a more playful font.

If you're creating a site for professionals to get advice about succeeding in their industry, you're going to want to play it cooler. Add a minimalist logo with a simple color scheme to ensure that people take you seriously. You can check- how to create free business logo online.

5. Adding Links

Links are part of the way that you design your website and attract an audience. Part of the way that you design your website needs to include links that are cleverly and carefully integrated. Your links should be clear, but not too distracting and not overly promotional.

If you're going to promote other products, other writers, or your own writing, you need to do so in a way that isn't distracting. There are other link styles that aren't as ugly and garish and still let people know they can find more information.

Check out this site for a how to on creating a custom WordPress.

Web Designer Skills Take Practice

When you're trying to hone your web designer skills, it'll take some trial and error to get it right. Just make sure that if you get better at what you do, that you revisit some earlier posts to get everything up to the standard you're trying to meet. You never know when an old post might suddenly take off.

If you're looking to generate some leads that turn to sales, check out our latest guide to make a little bit of money from your blog.

Design

How to Find (or Make) the Best Blog Photos

By Ashutosh Jha → Thursday, January 31, 2019

Whether you're a fashion blogger, a content manager, or a blogger that writes about your rare comic book collection, you need compelling photos for every blog post you create. Why are photos so important when blogging is mostly about writing?

Well, a blog post looks naked without imagery and it may be less appealing to readers. Blog photos help break up text and can be used in a humorous or another compelling way to connect with your audience. A Socialbakers study also found that Facebook posts that contain photos are more likely to get noticed and shared.

Good blog photos are just as important as writing a SEO friendly blog.

If you have no idea what kind of images work best, here are some pointers and best practices that will help your posts appeal more to your readers.

Choose Good Resolution Images

Whatever images you include when writing a blog post, you want to make sure they're large enough with decent resolution for a computer screen. Chances are your blogger platform will automatically resize the image to fit the post width or give you the option to resize it yourself. If you want the image to fit the width of your post, make sure it looks good at that size.

Images with a minimum resolution of 72 PPI (pixels per inch) will display properly on computer and mobile device screens as long as their size is large enough for the post. If the image is tiny to begin with and you want to increase it, choose a larger image or one with a much bigger resolution that you can enlarge.

Put the Post's Title in the Lead Image

Putting the blog post's title directly into the featured image serves two purposes.

It reminds readers what the post is about (and is more likely to get shared.) It will also help drive traffic if the image is pinned to Pinterest.

You don't need Photoshop or another purchased photo editing software to accomplish this. You can create a compelling featured image with your post's title in minutes using Canva or another free photo editing app.

Have Fun with Memes and Gifs

If appropriate for the subject matter, you can break up the seriousness of a post with a humorous image such as an animated gif or a meme. GIPHY is a good source for animated gifs, while memes can be created with sites such as Imgur or Livememe.

Try a Collage

You can also have some fun with creating a collage of similar images for your blog post. This collage maker is just one type of software you can try.

Avoid Copyright Infringement

Perhaps the most important tip to remember when including photos in your blog posts is to make sure you have permission to use them. Search for reusable images on Google by clicking on "tools" and then "usage rights."

A drop-down menu will appear; you should select "labeled for reuse" and "labeled for reuse with modification" to search for license-free photos.

The Best Blog Photos Draw Readers In

Taking the extra bit of time to find or create interesting blog photos can make a huge difference in how your posts get noticed and shared. Don't be afraid to use multiple images to make it easier for people to read your post.

Here at TricksRoad we have everything you need to know to make your business successful. Read our content posts to learn more about optimizing your blog's performance.

Website

Live in the Now: Tips to Get Your Website Updated for 2019

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, January 27, 2019

With the average small business set to spend around $75,000 a year on digital marketing, it's important that those dollars go to the right place. One of the places they have to go is to get your website updated on a regular basis. An outdated website makes it look like you don't care about your audience or your overall web presence.

Here are four tips to ensure it's clear you know how to communicate online.

1. Focus on SEO

If you want more traffic on your site, you need to ensure that you've got your search engine optimization plan in place. Search engines rank sites based on how relevant their keywords are, how much new content they're regularly creating, and whether they have a far reach. If people are not only visiting your site but hanging out for a while, you're going to have a strong SEO ranking.

If you want to get a good SEO ranking, you need to find ways to have your site constantly updated. The best way to do this is by starting a blog.

When people jump on a search engine, they're either looking for a specific product or the answer to a question. By writing a blog, you get the opportunity to capture both audiences by answering questions where your products and services are the solutions. A regularly updated blog with lots of great content is going to be shared multiple times and ensure that your reach expands.

SEO also comes into play across your site in a variety of ways, through metadata and undisplayed text. When you have images or videos on your site, there are elements of code to help describe what the videos and images are on your site. This descriptive text goes undisplayed and often gets tracked by search engines, helping to add to your ranking online.

SEO changes constantly so you need to update it to ensure that you're on top of the latest changes.

2. Have a Call To Action on Every Page

If you have call to action buttons already, you're on the right track. You may have them and not even realize. However, many web designers skip them altogether because they don't see the value.

A call to action button entices visitors to explore your site more by directing them to another article or to leave a comment.

Once you have your call to action buttons in place, you might think that you can set them and forget them. The thing is, as you seek repeat visitors and an ever-changing clientele, it's vital for you to change your calls to action from time to time. You need to keep your first-time visitors as interested as your repeat visitors.

If you want to keep your website updated, your calls to action need to have updated language from time to time. If you have the perfect language, you can change the SEO around your call to action or update your landing page. The more time you devote to improving, increasing, and updating your calls to action, the more of a response you're going to get.

You also need to avoid the same call to action on every page. Unless all of your pages have the same goal—in which case, why do you have repeat pages?—you should have different calls to action on each page. Vary them based on what each user is doing on each page, even if they end up in the same place.

3. Try a New Template

If you're using a tool to help you build and maintain your website, there are probably a wide variety of templates available. Each one has their own merits, but it's vital that you try out as many of them as possible. Don't deploy each one, but try them out so that you can see what else your site could look like.

If you have to pay for a new template, it's probably not that much and the rebranding could be well worth it. After a while, it's hard to ensure that your old site, with all of its foibles, is still as easy on the eyes as it once was.

Another issue is whether or not your current template is the best one for mobile devices. It's vital to think about how mobile devices display and load your website as your company grows and we get ever deeper into the mobile era. With mobile taking so much more traffic away from desktops, this is an absolute necessity.

Templates are offered with the need to do too much tweaking. Usually, you can just plug in your data and it'll populate like you'd built the site with that template initially in mind.

It so much more affordable to try out a new template than to redesign your site from scratch. If this is an option for you, it's the best one that money can buy, hands down. When adding things to your website update, consult this checklist to make sure you've got everything you need.

4. Use More Visual Media

If you look at where the internet is headed, it's soon to be a video-dominated medium with a few images and a little bit of text. In the future, the content you'll be looking at, much like this article, will be a video, even if it's just voice synthesized over generalized infographics.

For now, you need to make lots of useful content and media for your visitors. With video set to become more than 80% of all of the traffic online in the next few years, it's important to consider what this medium means.

On top of videos and photos, create lots of infographics to try and grab your audience on another level.

Keep Your Website Updated All Year Round

When you're worried about keeping your website updated, you need to follow the latest trends and styles. If you're feeling like you're behind what's hot right now, hire a consulting agency to help you.

Check out our guide before you hire anyone to help you.

Internet Marketing

10 Reasons Why You Need a Website

By Ashutosh Jha → Thursday, January 24, 2019

71% of small businesses have a website.

This may sound like a high percentage. But this statistic means that 29% of small businesses don't have a website.

Given the fact that there are 30.2 million small businesses in the U.S., that's quite a percentage!

Websites are valuable components of every company's marketing scheme. In this digital age, they should be a staple for every business.

There are many more reasons why you need a website. Keep reading to find out more!

1. Stay Available to Customers

The majority of customers won't even look at a business that doesn't have a website.

Why is this the case?

Websites tell the world what your business is all about. They are the equivalent of digital business cards, in a way.

Without a website, a business may not even make it onto a customer's radar. This is equivalent to attending a huge networking event without bringing a stack of business cards!

By creating a website, businesses make themselves fully available to all potential customers. They indicate their willingness to provide a product or a service to all interested individuals.

Make yourself 100% available to your customers by creating a website to showcase your business.

2. Showcase Your Work

Websites are incredibly versatile. They are ultimate marketing tools, giving business owners a chance to virtually display their wares.

What's more, websites enable you to showcase your work to an incredibly large audience. Anyone can navigate to your site, provided they know how to get there.

If you run an e-commerce company, a website is paramount to displaying what you have to offer. But the same goes for any other business that has something to offer customers.

Showcase your work easily to every visitor with a website without them having to set foot in your brick-and-mortar building!

You can even use a site as a means of showcasing a portfolio, particularly if you operate in arts or architecture industries.

3. Most People Find Businesses Online

There's no doubt about it--in this digital time, most consumers find businesses online.

Gone are the days of flyers and signs (although these still have their place). The internet is a vast platform designed to connect individuals with the information they crave.

By creating a website, you are directly targeting the biggest market with the biggest potential. Failing to meet this standard may simply mean sacrificing crucial brand visibility.

4. Outpace Competitors

Are you looking for a way to stay ahead of the goliaths in your field? Look no further than a website.

A professional website, if designed correctly, can catch the eyes of potential customers and lure them away from your competitors.

You also don't need to invest in expensive web design services in order to do this. Business owners can hire freelance developers or even implement DIY design to have the same result.

Your competitors likely have websites, too. Check out their sites to see what you could do better. Even a simple glance can be helpful in this regard.

5. Attract Local Audiences

Most small businesses are locally based, meaning that they cater to very specific communities. As such, it can be tough to build a customer base.

This is particularly the case for businesses that are new to the corporate scene.

There's no better way to attract a steady stream of local customers than to have a website.

For one thing, local customers are likely browsing online to find businesses in real time. They also likely use their phones to search for products and services nearby.

With a mobile-friendly website, you can be at the ready to meet the demands of local audiences. You can also implement digital marketing schemes like local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to ensure your content is reaching the right people.

Pairing your website with Google My Business will also ensure that your online content appears for specific local searches.

6. Educate Your Clients

Websites aren't just for showcasing and marketing purposes. You can use a website to give people what they often crave most: education.

No matter what industry you are a part of, chances are someone has questions about how to do something. You can use a website to prove your authority in this respect and give customers the answers they seek.

You can do this by keeping a blog on your websites. Blog posts are short articles designed to inform readers about very specific subjects.

Websites themselves can be informative, what with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages and educational content.

You can even embed educational video content into your site, helping visitors acquire the knowledge they desire easily.

7. Web Design Influences Purchase Decisions

Yes, web design can play a huge role in how your customers are making their purchase decisions!

Much as we judge books by their covers, visitors may "judge" your web design and accordingly decide whether or not they want to stick around.

Without a website, you miss out on the power of web design when it comes to marketing funnels.

Learn more about that here.

8. Get Visible on Google

Google processes about 40,000 searches every single second. Given the astounding size of search engine traffic, a website is paramount to getting brand visibility.

Business owners can optimize their sites for search terms their customers are likely to type into Google.

Optimized, mobile-friendly sites can rank highly on Google, earning sites valuable clicks that could turn into conversions.

9. Social Media Isn't Everything

If you've forgone creating a website because you're on Instagram, think again! Social media is a powerful tool, but it is best paired with a website.

In fact, you should think about your website as your prime marketing tool. Use social media as a secondary campaign designed to send leads back to your site, where the real magic happens.

10. Meet Mobile Users' Needs

Most people have access to a smart device of some kind. Mobile users make up a huge percentage of internet traffic, and by having a website, you can take advantage of this.

In fact, a lot of business-specific searches happen on mobile devices. If you don't have a website, you miss out on the opportunity a single local search can have.

Cater to a mobile audience by creating a mobile-friendly, informative site.

Why You Need a Website

Websites are the foundation of every savvy business owners digital marketing scheme.

Now you know why you need a website. But how about using that website to bring you cash?

Check out this post on improving website conversions to learn more!

Design

Websites for Dummies: 5 Web Design Basics You Need to Know

By Ashutosh Jha →

There are currently over 1.5 billion websites on the world wide web, and this number is growing every day. Are you interested in adding your own website to the mix?

If you're going to set up a website (and want people to actually visit it), you also need to know a thing or two about web design.

Brand new to the world of design? Listed below are five web design basics everyone ought to know.

Why Does Web Design Matter

Good web design matters a great deal, no matter what kind of site you're setting up. Some of the benefits of good web design include:

• Better first impressions on visitors
• Visitors can easily read and understand your content
• Visitors are more likely to stick around and make purchases from you

Good web design is also good for search engine optimization (SEO), which allows more people to find your site

Web Design Basics

Okay, you're convinced web design matters. Where do you begin when it comes to designing a website, though?

These design basics are a great starting point:

1. Make It Responsive

One of the most important things to consider when setting up your website is making sure it's responsive on mobile devices.

Essentially, people need to be able to access is just as easily from their mobile phone as they can from their computer. Not only does this easy access lead to happy customers, but it also improves your site's search engine rankings.

2. Factor in Social Media

Be sure to include buttons that visitors can click to follow you on social media.

You'll also want to make it easy for them to share your content on sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. This is a great way to get more traction and bring in new visitors.

3. Make Navigation Easy

Make sure visitors can easily find their way around your site. Include easy-to-spot headings and toolbars so people know where to go for different pieces of information. If they can't navigate your site easily, they'll click away and go somewhere else.

4. Focus on Flat Design

Two of the most popular web design styles are flat design and realistic design.

Flat design is simple and more minimalistic while realistic design is, you guessed, more realistic and detailed. Some visitors aren't concerned about these differences, but choosing one style over the other can have a big impact on others.

For your first website, sticking to flat design is often a better option. It allows you to avoid making your site look cluttered.

5. Test Regularly

Finally, make sure you're testing your site on a regular basis. This will help you identify glitches and fix them as quickly as possible.

You'll also be able to fine-tune your navigation and presentation to ensure it appeals to the greatest number of people.

Learn More About Web Design Today

Now that you know more about these web design basics, it's time to put the information into practice and create your own website!

Are you interested in learning more about web design? Do you want to learn about other factors that will influence the number of people who visit your site?

Whatever information you're looking for, we've got resources to help you learn everything you need to know.

Start by checking out this article on the key elements of professional web design.

Design

Why Good Packaging Design is So Important for Your Products

By Ashutosh Jha → Monday, January 14, 2019

Do you have a product that you're excited to share with the world?

Creating and distributing a new product into the market isn't always a simple task. In fact, nearly 95 percent of products introduced into the marketplace fail each year.

While sometimes the primary issue may be the product itself, this isn't always the case. Instead, the leading issue may be that the packaging design simply fails to catch the attention of the consumer. When this happens, the product within the packaging becomes irrelevant and eventually lost.

If you're creating a product or designing your packaging, it's essential that you read this. We're uncovering six of the most significant reasons why good packaging is so important for your product.

While what's on the inside is what matters the most in life, it's typically the outside that grabs the initial attention of others.

1. The First Point of Contact

First things first, your outside packaging is the primary point of contact for consumers.

When a consumer approaches a shelf that contains a number of similar products, your goal is to create a product that naturally jumps out. In the event that your product is hidden within the packaging, use your packaging to tell a story about your product and prove it's worth.

Remember, good packaging doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, the majority of consumers today will opt for packaging design that is clean, simple and contemporary.

Are you looking for inspiration for how to create an eye-catching brand? Check out these packaging design tips and tricks.

2. It Tells a Story About Your Product 

In today's day and age, the bests products are associated with the best stories.

Let's keep in mind that consumers today are interested in learning more about how a product came to fruition and what the company stands for.

Learning more about the brand helps the consumer feel a personal connection with the company. When this personal connection takes place, the consumer is more likely to support your business and invest in your products.

With that said, be sure to use your packaging design to tell a story about your product. This is a story that is going to resonate with your target audience and persuade them to believe in your product.

3. It Contains Information 

As much as your packaging design is focused on the desire to be visually appealing, remember that it also must contain information.

Your packaging design is your opportunity to provide text to your audience that speaks to the product. This is where you can list the qualities of the product that will appeal to the consumer and differentiate it from the competition.

If your product is produced locally, ethically or has a charitable component, this should be displayed on the packaging. These are factors that speak to consumers today and carry significant importance. When choosing between two similar products, a consumer is more likely to select a product that has an ethical component.

4. Can Justify a Price Increase

If you're looking to create a top-notch product, it's essential for it to be followed by top-notch packaging.

Without quality packaging, your consumers will simply not be willing to pay a heightened price. That being said, many consumers today are willing to pay more for a product that has a great brand and packaging design.

Remember, these are often products that are showcased throughout one's home. That being said, it's important for these products to be eye-catching and resist the temptation to be a visual burden. As a result, consumers are willing to pay more for a product that is visually superior to the competition.

5. Helps Showcase Your Brand

Today, the packaging design of your product is the best way to showcase your brand.

Consumers like to associate with brands that are a reflection of themselves and their beliefs. So, use your packaging to showcase even further what your brand is all about. In a way, this is a platform to communicate with your consumers without a direct line of communication.

Always ensure that your brand is entirely represented in your packaging. In the event that you have multiple products, it's also important to ensure that each product follows a similar packaging design. This will help to ensure that your products are recognizable to your consumers.

6. It's Part of the Experience

At the end of the day, your packaging design is all part of the experience of your product.

Nowadays, the experience of your product is more important than ever before. This due to the fact that so many purchases today are made online and the actual shopping experience can feel lost. In the online world, purchases are typically made quickly and the consumer must invest enough faith in the product.

Without the ability to see and touch a product in person, consumers today rely on the opening experience of their package. When a product arrives at the consumer's home, the packaging design is now their first point of contact for the product.

This is now where the experience starts for many shoppers and why the packaging is so important.

Uncovering the Importance of Packaging Design 

Are you in the process of designing your product packaging?

Today, branding and packaging design are more important than ever before. With advances in technology and a focus on creativity, the packaging of a product is a serious consideration for businesses today.

If packaging design was not a primary focus in your marketing plan beforehand, it's time to change that. After all, the outside packaging is how you are going to catch the initial attention of any potential consumers.

Let's consider that 7 in 10 consumers agree that packaging design can influence their buying decisions. Without a top-notch design, the product is unlikely to differentiate itself from the competition. As a result, the product will become lost and it's unlikely that the business will survive.

Are you looking for more tips and tricks for marketing your business? If so, be sure to visit our blog specifically designed for business!

WordPress Plugins

5 Best WordPress Landing Page Plugin- Create stunning LP without coding skill

By Ashutosh Jha → Monday, December 17, 2018

We bloggers keep on writing the good post which should be attractive, impressive and meaningful. But always the content doesn’t simply work.


Most of the times you would be hearing to write the impressive content which should convince your reader to buy the product you recommend. In such cases, a landing page works much better than a WordPress page.

As you can see with a landing page, it is much easy to convert your visitor into a subscriber.

If you want your reader to take action like signing up for an offer you are promoting or buying a product you recommend, then you need a perfectly optimized landing page. I am not saying, a standard page can’t convert, but the conversion rate with the landing page is far more.

But don’t worry! You won’t have to get into the technical and coding glitches while creating a landing page.

In this article, I will show you some best WordPress landing page plugin which will make your journey to create landing page easier and without writing a single line of code.

These top WordPress landing page plugin not only help you to design great looking landing page but also provides many features for best conversion and maintenance.

So let’s get started with some of the best landing page WordPress plugins.

Best WordPress Landing Page Plugin: Top 5

Here are the five best WordPress landing page plugin for your use. You can use these plugins to design landing pages for your newsletter subscription, sales page, summary page, etc.

Top WordPress Landing Page Plugin #1 Leadpages

Leadpages is currently one of the best landing page creators. They have fully functional drag and drop landing page creator which you can host either on your server or even you can host at Leadpages server.

They too have WordPress landing page plugin which you can install at your WordPress dashboard and can add as many landing pages as you want.

It is an easy, stylish, appealing and converting landing page. One of the best things I liked about Leadpages is, you can even publish your landing page on social platform like Facebook.

It is easy to use, and if you have used any template builder with WordPress, then you can also use Leadpages easily.

All you have to do is, just drag and drop the fields and designs as per your need and create an excellent landing page without any coding skill.

Here are some of the impressive features of Leadpages-

• Over 350 landing page templates
• Mobile friendly
• Drag and drop customization
• Easy A/B testing
• WordPress plugin that makes integration easy

Leadpages is also cost effective, and many top bloggers and internet marketers use Leadpages for their campaigns and blogs.

For a single user, the license just cost $25 per month, and you will be billed on a yearly basis. You can create as many landing pages as you want with this option.

With a higher plan, you can also get the feature of A/B testing which is indeed required for the sales campaigns.

So if you are looking for a perfect solution for the landing pages, Leadpages is your destination.

Top WordPress Landing Page Plugin #2 OptimizePress

OptimizePress is another demanding and useful WordPress landing page plugin to create stunning landing pages.

Unlike Leadpages which was platform independent tool, OptimizePress is exclusively built for the WordPress platform.

Again you don’t need any coding knowledge to work with the OptimizePress, and you can just drag and drop from your WordPress dashboard.

OptimizePress also provides 30+ landing page templates which you can use and edit as per your need. By this way, you won’t have to start from scratch. Although it is far less than Leadpages’ templates but still sufficient to initiate the journey.

OptimizePress is very cost efficient and just charge $97 as a one-time fee, and you won’t have to spend anything else to use. The license can be used on three websites.

Here are some of the features of OptimizePress-

• 30+ templates
• Mobile responsive designs
• Drag and drop editor
• 40+ elements
• One-time fee – no monthly charges

If you have some subscription based business, OptimizePress can work best for you!

So if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee for creating the landing page, OptimizePress can work best for you. It is easy, effective and can create some cool landing pages.

Top WordPress Landing Page Plugin #3 Thrive Landing Pages

Thrive landing page is new but getting huge popularity in the blogosphere and online space. Thrive landing pages is a WordPress specific landing page plugin, and you can create some stylish and optimized designs from your WordPress dashboard.

Thrive also have Thrive builder using which you can design your standard pages super awesome. I am using it for one of my blogging niche sites, and the result is just super, and your website will also look better.

Thrive landing pages provides around 150+ landing page template, and you can simply select the one and start editing it as per your demand.

Here are some of the unique features of Thrive Landing pages-

• 150+ templates
• Theme template sets
• Drag and drop editor
• WordPress-specific – do everything inside WordPress
• Mobile ready
• One-time purchase – no monthly fees

It is more economical than OptimizePress and just cost $67 as a one-time fee. So far I found Thrive as most economical WordPress plugin with these many features and design.

Top WordPress Landing Page Plugin #4 ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is not just a landing page creator, but you can say it is more of a complete choice for internet marketers with the following features-

• Landing Page
• Email Responder
• Shopping cart option and much more…

Landing page creator is a major part of the ClickFunnels tool and comes up with a WordPress landing page plugin to manage all of your need.

Here are some of the excellent features those ClickFunnels provides-

• 40+ templates
• Drag and drop WYSIWYG landing page builder
• Email autoresponder software
• WordPress plugin
• A/B testing
• Full sales funnel support and much more…

Their video tutorials will help you a lot to set up the landing pages and other features easily, and in the case of any further issues, you may contact their support team.

The only drawback I found with ClickFunnels is the price. It is a bit costly compared to other Wordpress landing page plugin and comes at $97 per month.

But as many other features are also incorporated into the tool, so this price can be justified for those who uses all the features.

ClickFunnels also provides 14 days of free trial, and anytime you can switch to the premium plan.

Top WordPress Landing Page Plugin #5 Ultimate Landing Page

Once a blogger thinks of starting with the landing pages, the Ultimate landing page is among the first few they try. It is a fermium WordPress landing page plugin specifically available for the WordPress platform.

You can start with the Ultimate landing page free and is a great landing page WP plugin for beginner to start with.

Once you want to switch to the advanced version, just pay $27, and you will get access to all the advanced features.

It also provides some basic but good landing page templates which you can use and edit as per your need. Although it has not many features as other landing page WordPress plugin still an ideal choice to start with.

Which is the best WordPress landing page plugin?

The above listed top 5 WordPress landing page plugin will be very helpful if you are considering your blog as your business.

It helps you to optimize your newsletter, subscription, sales pages and any other money making pages for better leads and conversion.

If you are just looking for the landing page that can be used with WordPress, then Thrive landing page can be the best option.

But if you are an internet marketer who creates the landing page for your sales funnels as well, then I would suggest you go with Leadpages. Hope this list of best WordPress landing page plugin will help you to create a sales funnel.

I would love to know which landing page creator you are using.

Top 10

5 Points to Take care while creating a responsive website

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, August 17, 2018

Now a day mobile compatibility is a basic requirement for nearly every web development project today. Of course, the effort involved in creating a mobile optimized, responsive website differs from scope to scope – a static website requires significantly less effort to be made responsive than a dynamic website with user interaction features and content in multiple formats. But the increase in mobile traffic has made it more demanding. This is the time when people like to use mobile devices, tablets for all of their work and so to increase engagement and business, one will need mobile optimized or you can say responsive design.

Below are some of the basic points you should consider while creating a responsive design. Especially if you are a company and developing the site for your client. Usually, nowadays people are so busy that they even don’t have some specific time to check your design on laptop or PC. So you should develop the application in such a way that it can work on all type of devices. You can also take help of some website builder to create the site for you. Here all you will have to do is, just drag and drop the component and rest will be done by the tool.

1. Screen Resolution

Screen resolution is the most basic thing that you should take care while creating a responsive design. Each manufacturer has their own list of screen sizes & resolutions they believe to be ideal, which in turn increases a developer’s effort. On top of that, both portrait and landscape modes have to be considered while design. Web design Mexico or web design new York or in any part of the world these should be taken care of.

Also Read: Where to Promote Blog Post After Publishing

2. Design matters a lot

After the screen resolution, the later that should be taken care of is design. It’s well said that “what is seen is sold”. So to attract the customers, you should have a good design. Either you can hard code it or you can use the templates available in the market. Depending upon your requirement, choose the one.

3. Content is King

I am sure you must have heard this line..right? Yes, content matters. You have done a good design and have good resolution but what about content. With just design you can’t express the feeling, you won’t be able to convey your message to customers. For this, you need something which sales and what can be better than few sales pitch.

If you can write those by yourself, it’s well and good else hire some freelancers and get it developed so that it can sell and make an impact.

4. Loading Speed

A good web designer has to take care of loading speed as well. There are many reasons behind it.

• Web loading speed has a great impact on search engine ranking. Google give great importance to loading speed while deciding SERP. So lesser the loading time, higher the SERP. Work in a way to reduce blog load time.
• From the user point of view as well, no one likes to wait and so if the loading time is more, you are losing your business.

An ideal site has the loading time of 6 sec. If it is more than 6 sec, you should focus on reducing. To reduce it, you can check the CSS, images, and JavaScript files and work to compress those.

Also Read: How to Add Star System in Blogger Blog

5. Important Pages

Suppose you have developed some website for some client. But why you have developed? There must be some specific requirement of the client like it may be their company’s website or some product related site or for a specific reason. No matter what is the reason and purpose, there are some pages which must be there.

I am sure you must be knowing about the importance of leads in online business. So there must be something which can capture leads like a contact page or any form which can save the member information. Similarly, you should have about or few other important pages.

These were the 5 basic points that you have to consider while developing a site for your client.

Have I missed any?

Templates

How To Choose An Effective Template For Your Blog Or Website

By Ashutosh Jha → Wednesday, August 15, 2018

How to choose the best template for your website

Whenever you are going to start your online venture, no matter it is a simple portfolio or a large e-commerce application, you should take care of its design. So it is always necessary to spend some time while selecting the design templates for your website, as this gives a good impression to your visitors. And it is always said that-

First Impression Is The Last Impression

So take care of your website design very carefully. Today I am going to discuss some key parameter you should take care while selecting the templates for your website. Below are those and I am sure with the help of these points you will be able to select the best template that will suit your business.

1. Know Your Purpose

This is the very first criteria that you should think before selecting anything for your online dream. You should be aware of the purpose, your motive of the online platform that you are going to create.

Suppose you are going to book store and in the front of the store some cloths are hanging, how will you feel. The same applies to your visitor also. If you are going to create a blog, the template should be like a blog. Show it’s always good to first decide your need before selecting any template.

2. Your Template Should Be Responsive

Responsive templates are those templates which supports all the devices VIZ Desktop, Laptop, Tablets and Mobile Phones. Sometimes people have confusion that responsive means those which have faster speed, but it’s not. I will talk about the speed of your template in the next point.

Try to choose responsive templates

So spend some time while selecting the template and it should be such that, it should support all the devices and should look good in all.

3. Template should be fast enough

The internet giant, Google Inc. says-

The Web Should Be Fast Enough –Google Inc.

And if some precaution is asked by the Google, definitely one should take care of it. After all Google has more than 80% control of search traffic.

Also it’s really frustrating for your readers, if your web page will take much longer time to load and they may switch to the other blog and you will lose a valuable visitor.

So focus on reducing the loading time of the website and select the template according to it. Also a slower site will prevent you to increase the domain authority.

4. Proper combinations of Images and Sliders

Images play a very important role. After all a single image can says thousands of words.

Recommended: Common mistake done by the bloggers

Depending on the nature of website, you should have proper images and sliders. Like if you are going to start a fashion store or a news website, you should have a slider which will show the summary of the news. And your visitors who have less time can simply have a glance to the slider and they can get all the important news just in few seconds. And that will be the beauty of your website.

The same applies to your blog also. I don’t think it needs a slider but a proper image is necessary.

So whenever required, you should use the images. But be careful while selecting the images, as if you will use the HD images or image of large size that will reduce the performance of the site.

And it will increase the web page loading time and so it will violate the above point (Template should be fast enough). Try to reduce blog load time as much as possible.

5. Avoid using too many widgets

This is one of the common issues that I have seen on many websites/blogs that the admin uses many widgets. I think the idea behind that they are thinking is, it will attract the users and bla bla..

But this is not correct. Use only those widgets that are required. Like you can use subscribe option, recent posts, achieve, recent comments and few social media widgets. You can check this site, only the required and above mentioned widgets are used over here.

This makes the website beautiful and simple also, which attracts the users. Also if you have many widgets (Those are exactly not required), your website loading time will increase and you will face issue while doing SEO.

6. Avoid modifying the templates too much:

Usually whenever you select any template for your website, you customize it. It’s good and necessary also to customize the templates as per your need and use.

But as it’s said, excess of anything is bad and the same applies here also. Don’t change or modify the template that you have selected too much. It will look not too good.

To avoid this, the best way is too change the template each time and check the preview of the changes design and decide whether it is looking good or not.

You can even check the output in browser also, each time you change something. And by this way you can control it too get over modification and can prevent to give bad look.

7. Use good combination of colors:

I had read a good quote about the colors and I would like to share that over here-

Colors Speak All Languages

Color combination of your website makes a great impression on the visitors

It’s completely correct. Colors speak about the nature and it matters a lot when we talk about the online business. Use those color combination in your website, which suits your eye and can attract your visitors. Never use too much dark or too much light color for the site.

Also, fonts should be good enough. if you don't like the default fonts, you can try for the Google custom fonts for blogs also.

8. Don’t flood your blog with ads:

First of all, what a blog is?

A blog is a website where we share our thoughts and ideas with the online world. And of course if we want to earn from our work, it’s not bad (At least this I think).

But again excess of anything is bad and so same here. I have personally seen many websites which is having lots of ads and you won’t be able to differentiate where the content is and which is ad.

Try to avoid such scenario. Because due to this, you will lose the confidence of your visitors.

So it’s a best practice to use at most 3 ads in a web page. This will maintain the balance between your income and the quality of your blogs too.

And even in three ads also you can earn much more than the crowd. I will talk about this in later topic.

So this was all about How to choose an effective template for your blog. Hope after reading this article, you will be able to choose a best template for you as per your requirement. Hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Thanks for reading it friends. Keep visiting and i am eagerly waiting for your comments!