The Change Creative
You may have designed the best website in the world, but it may not benefit you or your business at all unless you have a great web host, too. With all of the options that are available, it can be difficult to figure out what web hosting service will meet your needs. There are several different characteristics that you should look for when you are choosing the best web host for your website.
If you look up email marketing online you’ll see lots of people talking about why it is so effective and why they use it. What you won’t see much of is people talking about the types of emails that they send and why they send them. When it comes to any type of marketing or advertising a lot of it will depend on your industry and who you are trying to target. Realistically you will need to monitor what you are doing and see what is actually working. It is all well and good reading and guide to see what works for other people, but your business is different so you need to check what you are doing is working for you.
So, what email sending strategies and topics should you be looking at sending?
People want to buy from a company that they trust to be an authority figure. When you send out emails don’t always send them out as a way of generating sales, sometimes you need to just give people information. You want to give people a reason to read your emails so if you fill them with relevant and useful information they are more likely to want to open it and have a read – especially in the future. Of course by showing them that you know what you are talking about and are knowledgeable in this area you have a better chance of encouraging them to buy from you in the future because if they trust you then they are going to trust your products.
If you have an event coming up or you have heard of something that might be useful and relevant to the people on your mailing list then send them an email with the details. This should be done in a way that simply tells them what is going on, rather than encourage them to buy – remember emailing marketing is about building up your reputation as well as sales! Of course sales are good, but if every email you send out is trying to get money out of your customer then the chances are that they will stop reading. Make sure that you send out informational emails too, so that they see you as a helpful figure not just someone who wants them to buy something!
Of course an element of email marketing as to be about generating sales and this should not be forgotten. One of the best things you can do is send out emails to your list to let them know about special offers and sales that you have happening. Remember these are users that have signed up to your email list so they are already interested in what you have to say – this means you have a good chance of turning this around and making it a sale. What a lot of companies do is opt to tell mailing list users about a sale first or give out exclusive mailing list voucher codes as this will also encourage people to stay on your mailing list long term which is always a good thing!
Depending on the industry you are in or the nature of your business you could look at sending out email newsletters. Generally speaking you should look to do this no more than once a month. You can use this as a news roundup of what has been happening in your industry and at your business. You can even have fun sections such as introducing the team or running a competition. Try to keep the newsletter relevant as well as fun, because after all people have signed up to your mailing list for a reason and that is to receive news and information from you.
A big part of the emails you send will vary on what is happening with your business and even the time of year. Make sure you monitor the success of any emails you send so that you know what has worked well and what type of emails you could be looking to mimic and send again in the future.
My name is Nicola and I have a keen interest in social media, SEO and internet marketing.
If you ask any web designer then they will tell you that they are currently programming websites while keeping HTML5 and CSS3 in mind. It really is the way to go in this day and age. Just what are they though? Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Now, every single website is constructed from HTML and CSS code. There may be a few more programming technologies behind the site (PHP for example), but it is only HTML and CSS which has the capability of displaying information in your browser. JavaScript can do this to an extent, but it will still need to be used in conjunction with one of the other technologies.
HTML is the technology behind the layout of the page. CSS is the technology behind the aesthetics. There is a degree of overlap which you will see if you learn the languages. However, if you are employing a Phoenix Web Designer to carry out the programming for you, you will not need to know about this in too much depth.
Now, just like any programming language, HTML and CSS are regularly updated. New pieces are added into the code to make it far easier for them to create certain features. HTML5 is the 5th incarnation and CSS3 is the third incarnation. The idea is that these are the new standard. If you want your website to display properly in modern browsers then you will need to use both of these technologies.
HTML5 and CSS3 are modern standards. They have been designed in such a way to be much cleaner code. This ensures that sites that utilize them are very fast to load. Some of the features found in these new technologies, HTML5 especially, replaces items on websites where you would normally need a special plugin to display them. Take Flash for example. With HTML5 this has pretty much been ruled old technology. You can do everything that you want to do in flash with HTML5, and it does it much more effectively without the need to install any plugins.
Amongst the many features, both HTML5 and CSS3 have made it far easier to create websites that look fantastic on mobile devices. In fact, if coded well, you will have responsive design built in as standard to your site design. As mentioned before, HTML5 and CSS3 have ensured that old technologies with needed installation of plugins are now defunct. As a result, almost every website that follows HTML5 and CSS3 protocols should look fantastic on mobile devices. You are going to most likely need to wait until the mobile browsers are fully updated though.
As you can see, this is a very brief guide to HTML5 and CSS3. Sadly it would take up a whole book to go into depth on these. However, I do hope that the information here is more than enough to give you a nudge in the right direction and start to understand why your web developer is going to utilize them in your site design.
Author Bio: Kory Chesier is a professional blog writer, writes for HireaWiz a leading Phoenix web design specializing in custom web design, PHP development, Pay Per Click Marketing and SEO services.
Strategies and techniques used in marketing today have almost taken on a life of their own, especially with the use of the Internet as a substantial tool in any company’s marketing arsenal. While you are worrying about effective link placement, properly designed landing pages, lead generation, blog content, and how to increase your visitor-to-customer conversion rates, don’t forget about the often underutilized marketing tools that still pack a powerful punch.
5 Tips For Getting Better Results From Mobile
People are using more diverse devices to browse the web than ever before and more and more of these devices are tablets and smartphones. Browsing behavior on such devices is different than on laptop and desktop computers. Because it is very likely that a lot of the traffic to your website will be coming from mobile devices and that this will only increase in the future, it is important that you devise a mobile advertising strategy that tailors ads for these devices and consequently improves your online advertising results. Here are some tips for getting better results from your mobile advertising efforts.
These days mobile devices aren’t limited to just iPhones and iPads. You need to make sure that your website displays correctly on a number of different Android and IOS devices. If a person lands on your website and finds that scrolling doesn’t work properly on their device or that they can’t read the text on your site because it is too small, they will quickly move on. Creating a great mobile user experience is very important so make sure to test on different devices and alter your website if necessary. A good responsive design is a must for any website these days.
If you are using Google search ads, you can activate mobile preferred ads through the Advanced Campaigns feature in the Google AdWords backend and use specific ad texts for mobile devices.
Use Google Analytics to measure how well your mobile ads are performing and how users on different devices are behaving on your site. Investigate how your ads and site performs on mobile devices compared with desktop performance. If you find that some pages on your website aren’t performing very well on mobile devices according to the key performance indicators you have identified, make some changes and measure whether your results improve.
Creating a specific sales funnel for mobile users can significantly improve your conversion rates. People on mobile devices don’t want to search around on a page to see where they need to click, nor do they want to click through 20 times and fill out information on 5 pages before being able to actually buy something or get the information they are after. Your mobile sales funnel needs to be easy, fast and straightforward. That way you’ll lose fewer potential customers along the way.
Many mobile device searches have some geographical intent. People who research products want to buy often still prefer to buy them in a physical store. If possible you should take advantage of this. For example, if your business has physical stores and one happens to be near where the user is performing their search, you can show this information in your advertising message. You can do this using the location extension feature that Google AdWords offers. If your business is using online advertising, but you haven’t set up any specific ads for mobile yet, the time to start doing this is right now. Your competitors are likely already on top of this, so make sure you don’t lose your competitive edge by ignoring the importance of mobile devices. Zane Schwarzlose is an SEO Specialist at Fahrenheit Marketing, an Austin Internet marketing firm. Zane thinks that a mobile-only Internet marketing strategy could be easier to implement and quantify.
The CIW Web design Professional Certification program
As the 2014 has started and the wed designing field has become very advanced and in order to cater the demands of the increasing requirements as well as standards of the web designing sector, the need for certified and competent professionals have also accelerated so that they can handle the complex mattes and criteria for this sector. The companies, enterprises as well as the firms are in search for the professionals who can develop and design cutting edge web pages and designs for them. The CIW is a popular vendor of many webs designing certification series. The CIW Web Design professional certification is one of them. This certification is a very important and powerful web designing certification which is also recognized and accepted by the best employers of the world.
Getting the Certification
In order to get certified in this valuable certification, the individuals have to pass the two exams:
The CIW web design specialist exam is considered more important for the web designers. By passing each of these exams the individuals can get certified in each certification. But by passing both these exams successfully the individuals can get the status of CIW Certified Wed Design Specialist. This status is very important for getting several secure career options. The exam preparation is for the CIW web design specialist professional is very crucial and the individuals must prepare themselves for the certification.
The Targeted Audiences of certification
This certification is a professional and advance level certification program. The certification successfully targets the wed designers for advancement of their career. Several other individuals related to this field can also take certification for securing several higher paid designations with job security. The following are the targeted audiences of this certification:
These individuals can take this certification program for advancing their current employment status to a secure way and can also gain several other professional advantages. By getting this certification the individuals can also increase their competency and credibility in web designing services even in the complex and critical environments.
The scope and value of the certification
We can summarize that in the current market situation, the CIW wed Design Specialist Professional Certification program can offer a wide range of occupational benefits to the individuals. This professional level certification programs are also recognized by the best employers around the world and top organizations. The employers hire and prefer the certified professionals to develop cutting edge designs. The web designing services offered by the certified professionals can provide advantages to the employers so, they provide higher salaries to these certified professionals. But in order to get this useful and important certification the candidates can take help from the Selftest Training website. This website is considered as the best certification exam preparation website. Individuals can get sample questions and preparatory references by visiting this website and can get guaranteed results.
License: Image author ownedBy Mary Desilva
The Writer is Internet Marketing guru, blogger and writer, She is writing from last 3 years on many different topics, she also loves cooking, dancing and movies.
Many people believe that creativity will come to you, and that inspiration is something you must wait patiently for — and that’s simply not true. If you have a creative job, you’ll know that waiting around for your muse is impractical and unproductive. Thankfully, making a few small changes to your daily life can mean the difference between feeling despondent and feeling inspired. Here are five tips to improve your creativity and concentration using exercise and diet:
[divider style=”1″]
Drink more water
Sitting at a desk all day can be thirsty work, but most of us reach for the coffee, which dehydrates us even further. A glass of cold water can wake up your brain just as efficiently — without the crash that comes with caffeine consumption. Rather than setting yourself a target amount of water to drink, just make sure you’ve always got a glass on your desk, and refill it whenever it gets empty.
Take short walks
It doesn’t matter how cold it is outside — you’ll definitely feel the benefits of a brisk walk when you return to your desk. Some people find that it helps to think about creative problems whilst walking, whereas others find it best to let their mind wander. Taking a shower has the same effect, but is somewhat less practical!
Have a smaller lunch
Struggling to keep your eyes open after your lunch break? You might be eating too much. It’s almost impossible to concentrate when you’re drowsy, so prevent this by avoiding carb-heavy food like bread and pasta. Instead, opt for something lighter like a tuna salad. Fish is excellent brain-food, and can help you feel more energised and inspired for longer.
Try yoga
Yoga exercises your mind as much as your body, and can dramatically increase focus and concentration. Mindfulness, better posture and deeper breathing can prevent work-based frustration from building up and blocking your creativity. Even if you work better under pressure, stress can still be bad for mental well-being and creative thinking.
Go swimming
Swimming is an excellent form of exercise, and isn’t too strenuous — and this is exactly what you want when trying to solve a creative problem. If you swim too fast, you’ll be too focused on the activity to think of anything else, but a calm and leisurely swim can really free your thoughts and help you make difficult decisions.
Snack
Nuts and seeds are the perfect work-day snack: they improve cognitive function, boost your brain power and can even help stabilise your mood. Walnuts, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews and pumpkin seeds are best for this, and are delicious mixed with energy-boosting dried fruit.
Of course, food can only do so much to alter your mood. If you’re constantly finding yourself down and unmotivated when at work, it might just be that you’re doing the wrong job. Many people find that their creativity returns upon finding a more rewarding profession. There’s no such thing as the perfect job, so don’t feel that there’s something wrong with you if you don’t enjoy work as much as your colleagues. What suits one person won’t necessarily suit the next, so don’t be afraid to find a career that works for you!
License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1126222/?forcedownload=1By Sam Wright
Sam Wright is a freelance writer working for Brand Republic. He’s been freelancing for six years, and faces a constant battle to keep focused.
Freelance designer work in different roles depending on the skill set they possess. These days most of the designing jobs are advertised for freelance work. In this competitive industry it is not only your skills that matter. You should be alert to other aspects of the business. Although you can hire other people for help but it will take a heavy toll on your budget. Generally freelancers commit many mistakes when they are relatively new in this field. Some of these mistakes can be devastating for your career and reputation. To follow are some of those mistakes and ways of avoiding them.
Freelancers have to deal with clients in acquiring the project, contracting and payment collections. It is suggested to bid around the average value. While contracting make sure the paper work is done. In contract deed ask for running payments from the employer i.e. paying after each phase of completion of the project. Asking for down payment is not a bad ploy provided that you have a good standing in the industry, no matter you are new in the freelancing mould.
This mistake is mostly committed by amateurs in this field. It is easy to forget about the target audience when you are concentrating on other design aspects. Whether you are designing for the website or a logo for a certain company the paramount factor for your success is the viewer. Take into consideration the age, gender, culture and in some cases the geography of your audience.
One of the dilemmas of freelance jobs which generally are home based is the lack of learning opportunities. It is very important to keep yourself updated with the latest trends in the industry. Join discussion boards, subscribe to technology newsletter and read e-magazines to keep in touch with the latest trends and practices in the industry.
In freelancing the main hurdle is lack of communication. If your client can’t understand your demands and see the output then your relation can deteriorate. So don’t shy away or presume yourself to be perfect in whatever you are doing.
The basic skeleton of website design is pretty important in deciding the course of your work. You should have a clear mind about the needs of the client and how they fit into the design you made. Don’t allow for excessive information on a single page, especially on the main page. Use links to direct the user to such information.
Another problem the cyber world faces is compatibility between hardware and software. You might have designed a website which runs perfectly in one browser but poses problems in another. Similarly it is better to work with vector format that .png or .JPEG in graphics designing.
Choosing the wrong color mix or format will affect your design badly. Use non irritating colors to eye. Similarly use simple fonts which are easily readable. Most of the websites allow for a lot of white spaces just to improve readability.
Freelance designers who are new in the field commit certain errors in dealings and working. With the passage of time they learn from such mistakes but it is better to know them beforehand to ward off any losses.
[divider/]
Anne has studied Graphic Design and she loves sharing awesome graphic designing and logo designing tips with her readers. She enjoys playing with colors and thinks learning about latest technology trends is very useful these days.
Graphic designers are always looking for new and interesting apps to help with their work, and Canva is the latest cloud tool to fit the bill. Canva is designed for people who have no interest in Photoshop yet need attrative graphic design and illustration for their work. If you can work in Canva, you can sell your services to a whole new audience.
Here’s a quick guide to the brand new Canva site. It’s still in beta at the time of writing this review, but it’s slowly bring opened up to new members.
Canva is essentially a graphic design toolkit boiled down to its simplest components. Users can combine text, images, layouts and more into quick graphics for practically any purpose. It’s of particular interest to marketers because its presets support sites like Facebook and Twitter, so you can quickly knock up a header image that will fit.
Canva is built on presets, but you can expand the library of images for a small fee. You’re not limited to the Canva selection; you can upload your own graphic design work and play around with it on the Canva site. Canva supports your creativity with layouts that can be adapted, or you can start from a blank canvas and build your design from the ground up. There are thousands of fonts available for designers to use, and Canva says that its images are compatible with popular graphic design software. (We assume that this comment refers to Photoshop).
Need to get approval on your design or show off your ideas before they’re developed? Canva makes sharing simple. Just send your ideas to the client before paying for the content you need from the Canva library.
The really clever thing is the fee system on Canva; it’s free to share and create, but you have to pay to download the finished image. That means graphic designers can protect themselves; their clients could be asked to sign off a creation before its paid for to ensure they’re 100 per cent happy with the work. Only then can they use it on the web or in print. If they don’t like a font or a component image, you can swap it out before you’ve paid for it, keeping your client happy in the proces.
Graphic designers can also make money from Canva by uploading their own design work. Every time a Canva user chooses their uploaded content for a graphic, the original designer gets a cut of the licensing fee.
If you want to join Canva’s rapidly growing designer network, it’s easy to get started. But remember: your content will be jostling for attention among more than a million other library items. In order to make serious cash, you’ll need to spend time developing quality content.
Canva is prioritising access to professional graphic designers; the information is on its Designers page. There’s also a page for illustrators and photographers. Get started now.
Photo provided by: Guest blogging communityBy Sam Wright
Sam Wright is a creative writer with an interest in new gadgets and apps. He writes on behalf of Brand Republic.
What do you know about some of the most famous paintings in history?
[divider style=”1″]
From Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper to Pablo Picasso’s The Dream, each work of art has its own backstory and legacy that not everyone is familiar with. As you learn more about the paintings that you see on display in galleries, you may decide to purchase reprints to hang in your own home. It can be tough to find just the right painting, but when you see something you like that speaks to you it is that much harder to say no. The top ten most popular fine art reprints that people purchase include The Mona Lisa, Starry Night, and Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe. You can learn more about each as well as the rest of the paintings on the list by reading through the infographic below. This way you can get a glimpse of pieces that you can add to your personal collection.
Created by Coastal Printworks, provider of provides Museum Quality T-Shirt Screen-Printing, Digital T-Shirt Printing and embroidery.
