Another year is ending. And what a year it has been! Have you been struggling to meet your goals amidst the chaos the world has brought? Are you even sure what you truly want your goals to be? If that sounds like you, then there’s never a better time than …
When you’re hustling, time is money and that money comes in coins, not bills. It’s why we made our Website Terminology Glossary for web pros. This free resource for designers, developers, marketers or anyone else makes it easier explaining technical stuff to clients. Rather than a lengthy back-and-forth, use this glossary …
Web Design in 2021 – A look at the trends that will shape the year to come. An Early Look at Full Site Editing in WordPress – Take a tour of one of the biggest new features for WordPress themes. Front-End Performance Checklist 2021 – Everything you need to know …
As cities and states face pandemic-induced budget shortfalls, they’re struggling to create playbooks to help businesses get back on their feet and put millions of unemployed Americans back to work. The Brookings Institution projects that state and local government revenues will decline $167 billion in 2021, and $145 billion a …
New analysis by the Institute for Employment Studies has found that low paid workers are more than twice as likely to have lost their jobs during the pandemic and are at far greater risk of being temporarily laid off or having their hours cut. The research, funded by Standard Life …
With primary and secondary schools closed to the majority of pupils as of 5 January 2021, many working parents have found themselves with an impossible task. How to juggle a full day of home schooling with a full day of work, all whilst in lockdown? Most employers have become familiar …
A new report by Fasthosts claims that cyber criminals have identified remote workers as easy targets with two in five employees having not received any caution regarding COVID-19 scams whilst working from home or had any video-call security training. The data suggests over half of the UK (54 percent) are …
If you want to wait until you graduate to launch a startup, there’s a chance someone will enter the market with your idea. Most startups are initiated by those who have full-time jobs. If you are looking for inspiration, there are plenty of examples around us of students who launched …
Sawadi krub, everyone! If you haven’t heard, I’m stuck in a hotel room in Bangkok for a 15-day quarantine. This is mandatory for anyone coming into Thailand. I’ve been here for a week and it hasn’t been too bad. I get 3 meals per day, a good internet connection, AC …
The past year will go down in history as one of dramatic change. One of the most notable upheavals was the almost overnight transition to full-time remote working for millions of ‘non-essential’ employees. With England now in its third national lockdown, many of us will likely not be going back …
With six weeks still to go until the Chancellor’s Budget, the CIPD is urging the Government to act early to extend the furlough scheme to protect jobs, support incomes and enhance skills development. Its calls are outlined in a report called The Future of Furlough – Recommendations for now and …
Smart Building Certification, the organisation behind the smart accreditation, awarded its first platinum building. The founders of Smart Building Certification handed the first official platinum certification over to Coen van Oostrom, Founder and CEO of EDGE. EDGE Olympic Amsterdam has been called the smartest building in the world since its …
Email design continues to evolve. Email has transformed from simply serving to communicate a message to also being aesthetically pleasing. Sooner or later, email creators will experiment with combining different design elements. Additionally, they will experiment with new effects that will take email design to a whole different level. With …
Daymon Hoag is the owner and operator of Buckeye Web Development, LLC, based in Kenton, Ohio. We caught up to him for a discussion ranging from his pride in the Buckeye State, to a love of ecommerce, to the power of believing in yourself. The who: Given a business name …
This article explores different video player controls, their purpose, and which controls to pick for specific use cases such as learning platforms, social media platforms, power users, or mobile users. Did you know how many cool power-user controls YouTube has? Read on! An engaging video player can attract more viewers. …
Having a local development environment for WordPress websites is incredibly useful. It allows you to design, develop and experiment with projects – all on your own computer. This is both a powerful and efficient way to create websites. File edits are reflected with a refresh of your browser as opposed …
Being a part of the business community plays a critical role in the success of small business owners. If you look at the thriving small business owners, you will find that most of them are outstanding community players. To be a part of a community offers you much-needed guidance to …
There’s a common saying in the fiction-writing world: kill your darlings. No, this isn’t some morbid encouragement to do bodily harm to your loved ones. Killing your darlings means that you should never get too precious about what you put down on the page. If something is not working – …
One of the most powerful search engines in the world is probably a site you don’t even consider to be a search engine. Falling just behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world. Yes, you read that right. The same site you watch funny cat videos …
There was a time, early in my freelance days, when I gleefully accepted any client who came a-knockin’ at my door — no client screening or preliminary fact-finding recon necessary. However, I quickly learned that it pays to be selective, and moved to using a rigorous screening process early in …
Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of business leaders and 90 percent of CEOs across Europe see organisational agility as critical in driving business performance and growth, yet many are overestimating their capabilities, according to new research from ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW). The survey of 873 senior decision makers from large businesses across …
Research by Ezra, digital coaching provider, claims that work-life balance is the driving factor behind happiness in the UK workplace. The survey claims that a notable 78 percent of those in employment are happy in their current job. The current pandemic also seems to have had little impact on happiness …
Launching a new career can be daunting, but if you’re good with people and words, digital marketing freelancing may be an excellent option for you. Small businesses need a tech-savvy marketer who can handle advertising and communication while they focus on their core mission. Digital marketing includes any advertising that …
There was a time, early in my freelance days, when I gleefully accepted any client who came a-knockin’ at my door — no client screening or preliminary fact-finding recon necessary. However, I quickly learned that it pays to be selective, and moved to using a rigorous screening process early in …
Launching a new career can be daunting. However, if you’re good with people and words, digital marketing freelancing may be a good option. Small businesses need a tech-savvy marketer who can handle advertising and communication while they focus on their core mission. Digital marketing includes any advertising that happens online. …
As developers, we’re always looking for tools, libraries, and frameworks that will make our lives easier. It’s no different for Laravel developers. That’s the reason why we love this framework to begin with, as everything is made easy for us — allowing us to focus on building awesome applications instead …
For over two decades, I’ve been fortunate enough to work from home. No maddening commute and all the coffee I can handle. Sounds pretty cool, right? And, even when a global pandemic sent the world scrambling to work remotely, things stayed relatively the same here (save for my child enrolling …
Ramon Ray got to host the Verizon Small Business Webinar Series with special guest Lori Greinger. You may know her as the warm-blooded shark from the Emmy-winning ABC series, Shark Tank. She’s also an inventor with 120 patents and the author of the bestselling book Invent It, Sell It, Bank …
As SME leaders plan for the year ahead, Vistage’s latest CEO Confidence Index claims that more than half (54 percent) of small and mid-size enterprise (SME) members in the UK and Ireland are optimistic that the economic conditions will improve in the next 12 months. The top reasons given for …
Perceptyx, the employee survey and people analytics platform, has released new data focused on the role of the COVID vaccine in return to work scenarios. As the world nears 10 months of quarantine and other restrictions, organisations grapple with deciding if and when it will be safe for employees to …
Improving air quality in the fight against COVID-19 could give businesses the edge over their competitors and attract more customers, according to a top UK university scientist. Writing in a new report for facilities services provider phs Group, Cambridge University Professor Paul Linden highlights the growing evidence for the airborne …
React developers need a code editor that enables them to write React code productively. There are thousands of free extensions in VS Code’s marketplace that can help supercharge your development workflow. In this article, I’ll highlight a selection of extensions and settings that will drive your React coding productivity to …
Amber Khan-Robinson, the daughter of the first African American athletic shoe designer in the U.S., has always had entrepreneurship in her blood. So when she was looking for ways to keep her three children from staring at screens all day, she decided to help them “start a business.” Working at …
The never-ending road of entrepreneurship is about a constant flow of ideas, rethinking existing methods, and putting them into practice to see a business thrive. If you’ve been on this path for years, you know exactly what it entails. Being an entrepreneur, you’ve already realized that just a few of …
Icons are among the most versatile tools in a web designer’s arsenal. They can be used as attention-grabbing visuals just about anywhere on a website or app. Whether they’re alerting users of a flash sale or a new social media notification, they usually get the point across. Thus, utilizing icons …
Whatever your opinion of JavaScript, everyone thinks date handling is a mess. The Date() object implementation was copied directly from Java in 1995. Java scrapped it two years later but it remained in JavaScript for backward compatibility. These are the problems we face with Date(): it only supports UTC and …
Have you ever wondered how media outlets, bloggers and other professionals are able to write about major brands with such speed and accuracy? Most writers couldn’t do this without the help of a media kit. What is a media kit? It’s the not-so-secret source of high-resolution images, detailed information …
In less than 10 years, digital careers have had a real transformation in society and in the ways of working, buying and interacting. Tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix have revolutionized the way we live. According to a 2019 report by Hootsuite and We Are Social, people spend …
Why do people buy what they do, when they do? Understanding why the customer does anything is important in delivering the right product or service at the right time. That’s one reason learning how to anticipate needs with consumer psychology and micro-moments is key in building a successful business. Business …
I recently discovered that a popular WordPress plugin had enabled automatic updates without explicitly informing users. How did I find out? I received emails from each site where the plugin was installed informing me that an update had been completed. But it gets better. Over a holiday break, a colleague …
When professionalism matters, it’s time to turn to the experts. But don’t think that means hiring a video producer and breaking the bank. Instead, use a professional intro video template for After Effects to set the stage. You could use professional video templates for many purposes, like: Start off a …
Here’s an existential question for web developers: How much separation should there be between a website’s content management system (CMS) and its design? For a lot of the DIY services out there (Wix, Squarespace, etc.), just about every facet of a website can be edited visually. Whether it’s content, design …
The JavaScript ecosystem evolves at a rapid pace, and you know your toolset will be superseded the moment you choose it! It’s impossible to keep up with all libraries, frameworks, and techniques, but you can observe trends and directions of movement within the industry. React.js, Vue.js, Svelte, Node.js, and Express.js …
As per the nature of 2020, many businesses downsized or have fewer full-time staff. On the bright side, increased online traffic led to other businesses pivoting to digital or offering more virtual products/services. No matter the case, business owners and entrepreneurs still need support, a gap that can be easily …
You may not know all the best practices for website navigation, but you can probably tell when they haven’t been followed. Have you ever landed on a website and been unsure of where to click in the top navigation? Or, felt overwhelmed by crammed stacks of links in the footer? …
In the spirit of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), let’s talk about a security basic that many people overlook: passwords. These are one of the most fundamental aspects of website security, yet we too often see webmasters taking a lax approach to secure passwords. In fact, the online security …
In much of the world, 2020 started off like any other year. January 1 provided a reason to celebrate and look forward to good things. You don’t need to be a historian to know the rest of the story. The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with social and political unrest, made 2020 …
Ready to get started with WordPress eCommerce? This guide will take you through the entire process — from the first idea for your domain name to your last plugins added — to start selling products on a WordPress website. Whether you plan to build an empire or just sell a …
With the right analytics plugin, a WordPress ecommerce merchant can access extensive data to track visitors and discover what they like and what they don’t, to convert more visitors. Here is a list of analytics plugins for WordPress. There are solutions to track visitors, create page and post reports, track …
When winter slowly melts away and a hint of spring floats in the air, consumers will be feeling optimistic and ready to try new things. And for savvy businesses looking to promote their products, services or online store, these spring campaign ideas offer the chance to boost the bottom line. …
Resolutions aren’t just about reading more books or getting to bed earlier or finally breaking your addiction to oatmeal creme pies. Resolutions, like the marketing resolutions here, are also great tools to help you make critical decisions and improvements in your business. Try out these marketing resolutions Here are five …
Do you have a knack for creativity? Are you constantly making amazing crafts for birthday gifts and holidays? Or perhaps you just make them for yourself and folks frequently tell you that you should sell your handmade awesomeness. Maybe you’re starting to wonder about the best websites to possibly sell …
If you’re thinking about ways to win your customers’ trust, you should strictly consider safeguarding your customers’ data. According to the latest survey conducted by CRM Essentials and commissioned by Zoho, 62% of small businesses don’t inform customers that they are allowing tracking codes from third parties on their websites. …
Hey everyone, Happy New Year week! Whew, 2020 is almost over. What a crazy year. I’m so glad 2021 is almost here. It can’t get any worse than 2020, right? Hopefully, we’ll all be vaccinated by June so we can have a great summer. Anyway, let’s put 2020 behind us …
2020 has been… shall we say… an interesting year. It’s certainly been a year of surprises in the eCommerce industry. (All those people who mocked you back in 2016 for starting a store that only sold toilet paper and banana bread baking supplies—now who’s laughing?) Customer spending has been transitioning …
2020 was a chaotic year, especially when it came down to traditional marketing strategies. But while we saw plenty of business and marketing changes in 2020, it’s time to also look at new trends emerging for 2021. Here are six key marketing trends to watch for your business. 6 marketing …
Whether you’re ready or not, it’s time to start your business planning for 2021. Even if you’re a one-person business, don’t underestimate the importance of having a business plan for the next year to help guide your decisions and keep you on track, especially as we all try to navigate …
A year “like no other” is about to come to a close. 2020 was certainly unique for everyone – web designers included. And it challenged us on several levels. Our daily grind was complicated by shutdowns, kids invading the home office, and clients who needed our help in rapidly changing …
Ecommerce continues to grow steadily worldwide, creating higher competition, especially with dropshipping. Each year and season comes with its unique issues. Retailers who wish to succeed in this highly competitive environment must be in a position to keep up with these changes. By following up on ecommerce statistics, you can …
Many business owners, entrepreneurs, and even veteran marketers devise their strategy for the New Year starting in January. I’m here to make a case for developing your 2021 marketing strategy now, or more specifically, throughout the last quarter of the year. 7 steps to develop your 2021 marketing strategy Developing …
ClickFunnels Alternatives If you’re looking for more leads and want to build more sales, you pretty much need a sales funnel. It needs to be optimised and it needs to work. Oh, and you also need a landing page and lots of other cool stuff, such as an email marketing …
Marketing your business rarely comes easily. There’s always room for improvement and new things to learn. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make marketing a little easier on yourself for 2021. Let’s talk about seven ways to make marketing in 2021 easier — including marketing planning, marketing systems and …
It starts with a sinking feeling that something is amiss with your WordPress website. Maybe your security plugin has alerted you to a changed file that you know you didn’t touch. Or you see some unfamiliar content within your post listing. Whatever the indicator, it leads to one conclusion: Your …
Keeping up with content creation can be challenging. One of the only ways to ensure that you execute and consistently publish high-quality content that drives results for your brand is by using a blog editorial calendar. Let’s look at what an editorial calendar is, why it’s important, and how to …
Whether you are a mentor, mentee or interested in getting involved in this type of relationship, it’s important to understand the qualities that make for a great mentor. A high-quality, motivated mentor makes the experience a winning endeavor for everyone involved. 14 mentor qualities that separate the good from the …
This sponsored article was created by our content partner, BAW Media. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible. Some WordPress users tend to avoid using multipurpose themes. They do so for reasons that would seem to make common sense. They subscribe to a popular saying – “jack …
Ecommerce has dramatically grown in 2020 due to the pandemic’s effects. The industry has hit about $25.6 trillion in sales. More retailers have gone online. Other entrepreneurs have taken on eCommerce ventures like dropshipping. Such effects are, therefore, likely to spill over into 2021 and influence online businesses. Ecommerce is …
One of the most effective ways to grow your venture online is to perform well in search, which is why small business SEO (search engine optimization) is a skill that’s worthwhile for entrepreneurs to know. You’re already well on your way to establishing your business’s credibility if your website is …
Technology researcher Gartner has highlighted the top strategic technology trends it believes organisations should be aware of in 2021. Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with ‘substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are …
Brand awareness is one of the fundamentals of any marketing plan. It goes hand in hand with search engine optimization (SEO). As the cornerstone for your brand exposure, it’s essential not to overlook a thorough SEO strategy. Solid SEO means better user experience and improved rankings. Here are five ways …
Building and securing a WordPress website is always a challenge. Developers take great care to write solid code and implement features such as security plugins to mitigate the inevitable attacks. Even so, we’re not out of the woods. To paraphrase the old saying: a website is only as secure as …
ClickFunnels Review – Is It Worth It For eCommerce? So, you want to convert website visitors into customers. And you’ve read that ClickFunnels might be the best way to do that. It sounds like a tantalising prospect: A sales page builder that does all the hard work for you …
Among the reasons so many people choose WordPress is that it can run on just about any web server. The requirements are fairly basic and something that most web hosts and local servers can handle. But simply installing WordPress in its default state is far different from running a high-performing …
For small and medium-sized organizations, content is usually the trickiest part of putting together a website. That often results in it being the one thing web designers are left waiting for when trying to finish off a project. Even if the overall design and functionality are a go, a lack …
With a rapid shift to online presence this year, many companies are having to explore digital options now that they hadn’t considered in the past. One business function quickly making the move to digital is public relations (PR). If you own a business, you might be asking yourself, what is …
All released this year, each of these free web-based apps offers a time-saving solution to many of the web design tasks you will need to perform from time to time. Without ever having to install anything, all you have to do is bookmark and save them for that day when …
A landing page is the first page a visitor sees on a website. When you set up your Facebook ad or AdWords campaign or share that Instagram post, your landing page is the first point of contact after your marketing piece. So, every business could benefit from a few landing …
With all of the changes and rapid advancements CSS has gone through over the last few years, we should not be surprised at the vast volume of open-source resources and tools that are continually being released. These time-saving CSS libraries, frameworks, and tools have been built to make our lives …
As your certificate authority, it’s our responsibility to share shifts in the industry with our customers. One major change that’ll be coming into effect is around the shortening of term changes. We’ll briefly go over potential impacts to your site and how GoDaddy is adapting to better serve you. Maximum …
What Is Affiliate Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide To Making Passive Income Ever wondered what is affiliate marketing? Today we are going to answer this question for you and show you why we think affiliate marketing is an income stream worth mastering. As we believe affiliate marketing is one …
The GetResponse platform contains a suite of email marketing and online campaign management tools designed to help you grow your sales, maximize ROI, and succeed in online marketing. From unlimited broadcasting and top deliverability to 5-star customer service and over 50 easy yet powerful features – we’ve got you covered. …
To call 2020 a turbulent year for business would be a severe understatement. With an evolving set of rules by various state and local governments, businesses are having to think on their feet and take drastic steps to increase sales to stay afloat. By August 2020, 29 prominent U.S. retailers …
The year 2020 being full of trials and tribulations may be an understatement. As we know, small businesses have experienced major challenges and setbacks while others closed their doors forever. At the same time, brand new businesses have opened their doors in faith. With some of us – ok all …
Around 90 percent of CEOs state that they are displeased with returns of their investments into innovation. Companies invest in innovation projects, hire innovation consultants, run innovation workshops, and send their best and brightest to conferences and courses on innovation, yet fail to see the magic appear. Angered by this, …
I/O 2019: Our Definitive Guide to Design – Check out coverage of Google’s annual I/O conference. CSS can do that? – 11 cool things you can do with just a little bit of CSS. Animated Image Columns – An experimental layout where columns are animated “out of the way” to …
Lewis Carroll’s second best known work The Hunting of the Snark is a long nonsense poem that describes the pursuit by a group of adventurers of an elusive creature called a Snark. This turns out to be a much more dangerous Boojum when it is finally seen, causing one of …
One in five dads says their working schedule means they are missing out on seeing their children growing up, claims Quinyx. The research highlights the importance of opening up flexible working to all members of the workforce, including working dads and the impact the rigidness of the current system is …
When you see articles and social media posts about digital nomads, the image portrayed tends to be of millennial men. But a recent FlexJobs survey of 500 digital nomads found that the average nomad was actually a married female GenXer — a full 70 percent were women digital nomads! So we …
