Archive for the ‘Web design’ Category

One of the first things someone thinks about when starting their own blog is how they want it to look; choosing the right template or theme for a blog is an important step! There are several different blogging platforms to use, for instance WordPress, Typepad, Blogger, etc. All you need to do is a quick Google search and you can find a long list. Probably the most popular blog available to all is WordPress, as it has thousands of contributors. It is free to use and is categorized as an Open Source project.

This article describes exactly how you should choose your WordPress (WP) theme. If you use WP, you are likely to have to choose a theme; this theme is simply a kind of software you use to create your blog. It gives you various options to choose from in order to make the blog look exactly how you want it to. Here are some tips that will help decide which theme you want to pick.

1. Choose your category: Your category is a description of what you are writing about. You can use this description to target a specific audience. Simply put, if you are going to write a blog on how to care for your pet ferret, the category you would choose would be Pets. Or if you are offering up a set of quick and simple recipes, you would categorize it under Food. If you choose the category correctly the first time, you will not have to go back and change it later, thus saving you time and energy. You can find a theme that applies to every major category, so no worries. If you cruise around on the WP Theme directory, you can get a good idea of some of the categories that are available to pick.

2. Layouts and color schemes: There are bloggers who like to personalize their blogs by using their favorite colors. If you have a favorite color, you should try to decide on a theme that matches that color; sometimes it isn’t possible to get this done, but there are hundreds of different WP themes to select from. There is another benefit of finding a theme that matches your favorite color, as you won’t need to make a lot of changes so that you can make it match. Although you should make sure you are happy with the appearance, you shouldn’t spend too much time on this because you can always change it later. You should be concentrating on the layout of the theme better. Choose the layout that you want the most. Make sure you take your time to find a layout that you want best by checking out the themes on the website. This way you will be aware exactly how you want your blog to look and can choose your layout easily. Although electrical power layouts to select from, some of the most used are:

Single Column Layout

Four Column

Fixed Width

Two Column (With Sidebar)

Four Column — one wider column with three sidebar areas.

Three Column

Single Column

You may also find layouts that are made especially for adding videos and photos. You have to decide on a theme you can look at again and again, as you are going to be the person who sees your blog the first and foremost. Run some experiment pages with different themes if you want. Select a category, comment on it, and decide then if you like the way it looks. This is the only way you are going to know if you’ve chosen the right theme. Think about being the other person reading your blog and if it would be appealing to them.

3. Reason for your blog: If you know the reason you are posting this blog, it will help you categorize it and decide on a theme. If this sounds like simply an opinion blog or something you are using to write down your thoughts, you won’t need to decide so much on the advertisements and other things like widgets. However, if you’re writing a helpful blog (like this one), or one to make a profit, you should think about some other aspects to choose what you’ve already learned. You should think about whether or not you will be able to provide seo, whether or not advertisements will be supported, if you’ll be able to use widgets like RSS feeds, Spam Protection, etc., and other things. Once you sign up with WordPress, you will already have default themes to work with. It’s not hard to use the default themes, or you can choose one you like better by going to WordPress’ free WP themes site or a number of other WP theme sites. Most of these sites are easy to work with and will provide you with the support you deserve.

4. Support: This could be one of the more important tips, because you need to be sure you can have access to support if needed when choosing your theme from a site. Too many times a blogger will download a theme and can’t use it, and when they turn to support for help they find they aren’t getting any help because the site wasn’t developed by the person running support, rather they are babysitting the site and helping to promote it. This can lead to unneeded frustration and anger on your part, so always be sure the support is the best available.

Good luck with your new blog.

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Many people love the idea of having a web site, but get scared when they hear the phrase “web design”. After all, don’t you need to be an artist with years of computer programming skill to make a great web page? Thankfully, making a good site is not as hard as it sound once you know the basics.

The first thing a good site has is good content. People visit web pages for what is on the page, not how the page looks. Ger out some paper and start listing things you would like on your web site. Things like “links”, “About me” and “Home” are always good starting points.

The next step is organizing your web page. If similar things are on your list they can go on the same page. For example, a webring banner and your links can go on the same page. Try not to have too many pages on your web site as people do not like to sift through 20 different pages for information. Keep it simple.

Once all the information has been chosen and organized, you can get your layout made. The three things that are the most important when designing your site’s layout are compatibility, visibility, and ease of use. That are what makes a good site great.

Visibility means that your site is easy to read and pleasant to the eyes. Picking two contrasting complimentary colors for your web site’s theme is a good idea. The greater the difference in shades between the colors, the easier it will be to read. Generally light text on a dark background or dark text on a light background is the best. Do not use patterned backgrounds as they make it heard to read.

Ease of use has to do with how easy it is for people to get things done on your site. All your main important pages should be on an easy to read menu that shows up on every single page. If you have a bunch of small subpages linked off your main pages (go easy on those, by the way!) adding a site map link to the footer of each page is a smart idea, too.

The final thing to think about is compatibility. Your web page should be able to work on any browser and not require any sort of special software to run. This means that silverlight and flash are both poor choices for the web site as they don’t work on every browser and every operating system and can cause lag or even crashing when they do work. W3C compliant code is a good idea to have to make sure your site will work well.

As you can see, web design is not as scary as it sounds. With a little planning and care taken towards visibility, ease of use, and compatibility your web site will be just fine. Do not be afraid to try to go out there and make your site yourself, there is plenty of help out there if you get “stuck”. Have fun with your web page, the world is waiting to hear from you!

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Advertisement is getting more and more expensive with the continuous media opportunities. However, the one free form of advertisement left which will ensure high traffic to your website as well as sales is email marketing. With the proper web design skills you can create beautiful emails which will keep the reader interested from the subject line all the way down to the signature.

In order to create an effective email marketing plan you must have the proper web design skills, which will help you build the best email for your needs. It’s vital that your email isn’t marked as spam and that the reader stays interested from the moment they read the title to down to the signature. The content and proper web design is what will keep them interested in your email and eventually visiting your website.

The web design skills necessary to create the perfect email marketing messages are quite simple. You will need to know how to enter in links, images, and other media and content which will ensure that the searchers attention is caught. Having a properly built email is very important when it comes to email marketing, or else all of your hard work will go straight in the trash or even spam.

You need to create an attractive title which summarizes the most interesting part of the email, to guarantee that it will be opened. Then when the email is opened the content must not only be well written but interesting. Include images, graphs, or other media pertaining to the subject of the email. It’s important to also have links, to your websites homepage, as well as various pages throughout your website. You want to make sure that as many emails you sent are read and viewed.

As with web design, having a web site marked as a spam website, in email marketing having your email marked as spam is just as bad. Once marked as Spam, it’s close to impossible to get the reader back. To avoid immediately being marked as spam you want to make sure that you avoid words and terms that cannot pass most spam filters. These words and terms usually are Free, $$$, Free Offer, and others which are associated with receiving something for free or money. Since most emails and websites that offer something for free or $$$ are spam, it’s obvious that even if you get past the spam filter, the email will most likely be erased. If you want to offer the reader something, offer it as a discount, in addition to other information. Don’t try and sell them the free offer, if it’s truly worth it, it will sell itself.

You will need at least basic web design skills in order to create a properly designed email for your email marketing campaign. Having an email marketing campaign is vital to any website, company, or organization. It’s the perfect form of advertisement which will bring in continuous traffic and interest to your website, and even sales. However, in order for this email campaign to be successful it needs to be done right, or else it will fail. Using web design skills you will be able to create an attractive enough email, in addition to proper and interesting content, you are on your way to success.

Aya Wilkinson is a Team Leader of SEO Company Writers, having a large number of articles published on various well reputed internet sites. Her writing about latest trends in Web Designing can be found at Email Marketing