Looking for an effective way to boost your online business sales? Here are some web tools & services you might want to consider using. Listed below are areas you can expect to learn more about from this article: [Read more…] about 50+ Web Tools & Services That Will Boost Your Online Business Sales
Web Development
30+ Web Tools & Services That Everybody Recommends
In this article, you will find out more about 30+ web tools and services that everybody recommends – web and graphic designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and freelancers.
There are many topics covered: WordPress support, website builders, WordPress themes and plugins, logo generators, web development services, the best font finder, and much more. [Read more…] about 30+ Web Tools & Services That Everybody Recommends
4 Of The Best Free Website Builders (You Might Not Have Heard Of)
Creating your own website or blog is very easy these days, WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for building one and very easy to install and setup on your own domain. There are also hundreds of fantastic themes available for as little as $30 and even many free ones that can give your website a slick and professional look with just a few files being uploaded. [Read more…] about 4 Of The Best Free Website Builders (You Might Not Have Heard Of)
Popular Code-Free Design Tools for Designers and Developers
The standard way of building websites is by using codes. It still applies today but with advancements in software development, there are now the so-called code-free web design tools that designers and developers can use.
By code-free, it simply means that designers even without the help of developers can easily create attractive websites without having to bother too much with codes and getting them right. There are advantages and disadvantages to using this latest software but it won’t hurt if you try them.
Muse
Adobe’s Muse is a great tool that easily creates websites. On the other hand, the experts have observed that its automatically generated code contains lots of “div” tags. As such, it can be a challenge to update the code when needed. [Read more…] about Popular Code-Free Design Tools for Designers and Developers
The Best Free iPhone Applications for Social Media Marketing
More and more consultants and professionals in the internet and social media marketing realm are using their smartphones (especially the Apple iPhone) to stay connected and maintain their online presence. There are several social media marketing applications available for the iPhone for free that can allow a social media marketing consultant or professional to stay connected and updated on the go.
Popular Social Media Applications
Twitter: Twitter allows the user to add multiple accounts and switch between them. You cannot post on two accounts at one time. However, the interface is easy to use and loads quickly.
Facebook: The newest Facebook update allows users to write wall posts and publish photos onto the pages they are administrator of, but they cannot delete posts or comments.
LinkedIn: However, the LinkedIn application only allows for one account to be logged in at a time. The LinkedIn application is good for reading posts by other users, accepting requests, and sending InMail. Users cannot edit groups or company profiles.
Blogging Applications
WordPress: The iPhone WordPress application has a lot of versatility and allows users to add, update, and view posts on multiple blogs through the one application. Users can also view and edit pages and approve blog post comments. Additionally, if users have added the stats plugin, they are able to view basic stats about their blog, including traffic.
Tumblr: Tumblr iPhone app users can post photos, video, audio, quotes, links, and text from their phone, as well as handle multiple blogs via the single application. Tumblr posts can also be scheduled or tweets can be customized. Users can search the iPhone contacts to see if they have a Tumblr account.
Blogger: The Blogger application allows users to monitor and edit more than one blog and add photos instantly to posts. Users can also labels, save drafts, or automatically publish posts.
Social Media Marketing Applications
Sendible: The Sendible user via an iPhone experiences a similar interface to the online computer version of Sendible.com. Users can send the same message from multiple accounts as well as schedule when messages go out. Sendible has a free account version, as well as paid monthly membership, depending on usage and accounts.
Tweetdeck: Tweetdeck is similar to Sendible, but most users use the free version of this service.
These are just a sample of the several iPhone applications that are available for internet and social media marketing professionals.
What are your favorite iPhone applications?
Why You Should Backup Your Blog
It would be nice if all bloggers had to worry about was coming up with the next great post. But in a world of constant security threats, even WordPress blogs need to up backed up once in a while. And it’s better if you can backup your blog on a daily basis if you are updating the content that much. There are several very good reasons you should be backing up your blog, but not all of them have to do with hackers or spammers.
Server problems
You may think that it will never happen to you, but servers do crash. And your webhost may not have all those files backup for you. I have heard many stories of those who have had dedicated servers that have crashed and they lost everything that was on their site. Don’t think this can’t happen to you. All of the hard work you put into your blog can be lost in a moment and it usually happens without any warning to prepare you for it. But by having a simple backup of your blog you can make sure that even if your server completely melts down, you will be able to get your site up and running again in a matter of minutes instead of days and weeks. [Read more…] about Why You Should Backup Your Blog
The 3 Blog Laws of Self Hosting (Ignore Them At Your Own Risk)
Despite the benefits of blogging upon Blogger, WordPress.com, OnSugar (for Drupal lovers), or a microblogging site like Tumblr, there comes a season in your life when you must embrace the trials and tribulations of self hosting your blog.
Fortunately in the age of social networking and blogs, most hosting companies offer clients “one click” installs allowing users to upload the blog software of their choice without having to resort to using the infamous FTP (which only geeks love).
Aside from finding yourself a decent host, there are 3 laws of self hosting that you should follow which will not only prevent damage to your blog’s data (as replacing it via Google cache can be a pain), but also of your wallet as well.
[Read more…] about The 3 Blog Laws of Self Hosting (Ignore Them At Your Own Risk)
The Case for Cloud Hosting
My internet connection had been crawling the past few days. I’ve checked with my DSL provider, and my account seems fine. And for some reason, it’s not with all websites that I’m having difficulties. Then I just recently learned that an earthquake has caused faults in undersea cables connecting my region to the rest of the world. This means that accessing certain websites running on servers on the other side of the globe will be slower. Being in the Asia Pacific, this supposedly meant most sites out there, with the popularity of inexpensive US-based datacenters.
Still, I can access my Gmail without much fuss. Google searches return results at the usual super-fast speeds. And then I remember that Google uses multiple datacenters spread around the world. When you run a Google search, chances are you get directed to the datacenter nearest you. This is advantageous in at least two ways. First, you get faster access time, since data packets travel through shorter distances. Second, you are assured of service even if communication through the the main line gets severed or disrupted.
Shouldn’t your blog be running on a similar setup?
I had recently moved some of my blogs into a new web host, and one of the things I had to think about was whether to go for traditional hosting or those cloud hosting services like Rackspace Cloud (previously Mosso). Cloud hosting essentially does what Google does with its datacenters–it distributes the load across servers in different locations.
So assuming your website is in a cloud hosting setup, you are more or less assured of service, even if there are traffic spikes and server outages. If you’ve been fortunate to have been frontpaged on popular social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious, you’ve probably experienced some server downtime either due to the sheer number of visits, or a bandwidth exceeded error on your account. And even if it’s not your site that experiences this slowdown, if another site hosted on the same shared server gets massive traffic, then chances are your site will also slow down.
Is cloud hosting for everyone?
Considering the scenarios above, I can say that cloud hosting is not necessarily ideal for everyone. For one, there are cost considerations. Cloud hosting companies don’t usually charge a flat rate per month. Rather, they charge based on usage: bandwidth, space and even CPU cycles used. If you have a small audience, you might be better off in a less-expensive shared hosting environment. And if a good majority of your audience is located in one place, then you may not have to worry about undersea cables failing.
However, if you are planning to run a web application in which uptime is an absolute must, you should consider cloud hosting. This would also be the case if you run a really popular blog with a decent-sized audience. Or perhaps you are planning to start small, but you foresee the need to scale in the near future–then in this case cloud hosting might be right for you.
From what I’ve read, some hosting companies are moving to cloud-based setups, but some are still holding out, focusing on improving their traditional hosting business. What’s important for me is that consumers have a choice, based on need, budget and opportunities for growth.