Webmaster Tips : Web Development, Design & Marketing

Although WordPress is one of the most ubiquitous platforms that is available for blogging and other Internet functions, it is not universally compatible with all web hosts. They are not all created equal! Here are a few of the biggest mistakes that webmasters make when choosing a WordPress host for a blog.

1. First, you must understand your own needs when it comes to hosting.

Different kinds of WordPress blog websites require different types of hosting solutions. What kind of blog are you building? Do you need to incorporate third-party applications into your site in order to make it work? Most importantly, what do you expect the size of your audience to be now and in the future?

Answering these questions will allow you to understand the resource allocation that you will need. In turn, this will determine the kind of web host that you take on.

2. Choosing a hosting platform based on price is a huge mistake.

Many people will pick the wrong type of website based solely on the price of the service. If your budget is your bottleneck, then you need to hold back your selection of a web host until you have enough money to afford any package. Your main concern should be a customer acquisition strategy and research and development for your product.

If you pick a plan that does not have the resource allocation that you need, you will obviously lose customers. These customers will never come back. When a server gets overloaded, a host will find a way to bottleneck your information flow. Because people come to the Internet for information primarily, they will simply go somewhere else. You will lose the respect of your audience. This does not take long to do if your potential customers see a 404 screen when they come to your page.

3. WordPress does not have proper internal security; do not rely on it.

Many people believe that the WordPress platform itself is somehow protected from outside malicious threats. This is not true. Most of the protection that you receive will come from the web host that you choose. There are some basic things that you should know about different web hosting packages and the security that they offer.

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Blogging may have once been a great way to share your passions with the world or expel some excess thoughts in your free time, but these days having a corner of the Internet to call your own has become closer to a necessity than ever.

Of course, merely having a blog is no longer quite the status symbol that it used to be in the professional world. Instead, you need a blog that will stand out. One that represents both you and your qualifications in the best way possible.

In short, you need to master the use of plug-ins.

The trade-off to a higher level of expectations regarding blog design quality is that even the most user-friendly websites can produce incredible results if they are used to their full potential. Oftentimes, that full potential will only be realized by those that master the use of website plug-ins to increase both the effectiveness and visual appeal of their site.

So if you’re just starting to dip your toes into online waters and are looking for blog advice – or if you’d like a refresher on what is hot right now in the plug-in world – consider this 10 factors when choosing your next plug-in.

1. Start With Necessity

Comb over your web host features briefly and really consider what is – and, more importantly, what isn’t – available to you. Should there be any feature that is missing from our backend that is either of necessity to your particular website model or generally needed, these will be your first plugin downloads. Everything else that will come afterwards will be built around these features design-wise, so you want to have them in place ASAP.

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Logo design is a topic relevant to any business — whether it’s a small business that needs a logo design to establish its brand or a larger company seeking to market a new product or service. The need for good design may be universal, but it can be hard to know where to start. On Quora.com, you can find answers to questions about design work as well as many other topics. Here are some of the best Quora answers to logo design questions.

What Makes a Great Logo Design?

The reason this answer is so great is that it goes into detail about the various components that make up a logo. Instead of offering an answer that only lists the components, each component is explained. This Quora logo design answer breaks down each element into detail, which makes it extremely informative.

What Makes a Logo Design Effective?

This answer is awesome because it discusses all of the various elements that make a logo design effective. It begins by breaking down the effectiveness of models into three types of stimuli and then describes how these models can be used to provoke an emotional response. This answer also discusses different ways you can achieve these responses. Its value as an answer is directly reflected by how thorough the author was when answering the question.

What is the Thinking behind Cutaway Logo Designs?

The top answer to this question is to the point. It goes on to discuss Gestalt visual theory, the completion of simple shapes, and the time the brain uses to process the visual. The best part about this answer is the author’s take on the logo, which is spot-on. It will be interesting to see if cutaway logo design is a passing trend or a tactic that will withstand the test of time.

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1. PhoneGap

PhoneGap provides you with tools that support 7 various mobile platforms giving you an opportunity to create applications for popular mobile OS such as iOS, Windows, Android etc.

2. DHTMLX Touch

If you are eager to build HTML5-based mobile web application then you should definitely take a look at this open source JavaScript library that produces a sterling framework with a lot of features and facilities.

3. JQUERY MOBILE 1.1.1

JQUERY MOBILE is really easy to use toolkit that make use of basic HTML5 interface system. Moreover, touch-optimized web framework provides you with drag-and-drop UI builder in order to save your precious time and make your experience pleasant.

4. WebApp

WebApp supplies with both light-weight and powerful mobile framework aimed at quick building professional mobile web applications with a great deal of ready to use stencils.

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1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a good place to start building your portfolio/resume.

2. DoYouBuzz

DoYouBuzz – an online resume builder, is known for its extreme simplicity and enjoyable user experience. You can design your resume to the color scheme you desire or choose pre-made templates.

3. Resume.com

Store your resume online (resume.com/username ). Edit your resume online, or use an easy wizard to create a new one

4. CV Maker

CV Maker uses a very simple format and customizable editor, which lets you rearrange sections (Work Experiences, Qualifications, Education).

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1. Taskbar task switcher

Slide your taskbar and select the previous task you were doing to get back to it immediately. Additional (optional) “return to desktop” button – you can do everything without pressing the home button. Half a second. Simple yet powerful.

2. Swapps

Swapps! launcher is always there. When you play, read or listen, you can always swipe and switch to another app.

3. Visual Task Switcher Free

Quickly switch between running apps by choosing from a thumbnail view containing screenshots of the currently running tasks

4. Notification Toggle

Notification Toggle creates notifications in the Android status bar to let you quickly switch WiFi, Bluetooth, Silent mode, Screen rotation and Flight mode on and off or to adjust the screen brightness (and many more…)

5. 1Tap QuickBar

1Tap Quick Bar is the best notification customization app for Android. It helps you to do most common tasks in a shorter time, such as changing Wifi settings, calling your wife, adding an event, launch a favourite game with just in 1-click. It also offers a way to create a beautiful notification bar.

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1. Figure out the brand

Whoever ordered a logo has some brand he/she’s trying to establish – find out just what it is that they’re advertising, selling or trying to make popular. The first step in making a logo is figuring out what is appropriate. A well designed and carefully laid out bunny logo can be a masterpiece, but it will just not look well on a site of a funeral home.

Talk with the client, ask him what does his brand represent, what are the best points of it, what are it’s weak points (You want to avoid that. Imagine if, for instance, EA Sports reinvented it’s logo in the form of a friendly handshake, when they’ve done nothing but annoy their customers with poor customer support and poor overall attitude towards their customers. That would do more harm than good, even with the sound reasoning behind the idea).

Do not ask the customer what kind of logo does he/she want – it is the designer’s job to create something, and if you know your job, you will present a good logo. You can use the already existing logo as a basis if it is any good, but designing a logo is not something a customer should be a part of.

2. Do the research

Look at what the competing brands have done in the field, and think about what they did wrong and what can you do better than them. Are their logos too colourful? Did they pick the appropriate typeset? All of these things must be taken into account when designing a logo.

Feel free to look around for some inspiration. Logo Moose is a great place for you to look at the works of others and figure out if you can do something like that and if the brand you’re working with can use some of the things you see.

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