Miley, Author at Daily Cup of Tech

All posts by Miley

Insights

List of the Best Websites That Can Help With Studying and Save Your Time

Miley on January 24, 2020

Everyday classes and academic assignments take a lot of time and cause stress for many students. If you have to combine getting a degree with a part-time job, the time becomes the most precious resource.

Luckily, innovations bring many benefits. Today, there are ways to spend time rationally while studying. There are hundreds of websites and apps in our digital world for efficient time management.

Take a look at our list of top options that will definitely may your student’s life easier!

EssayPro

Let’s start with the obvious. There will inevitably be situations during your studying when the deadlines appear too tight. You may face the possibility of failing an assignment or a few.

Luckily, there is a whole field of academic writing. The hardest part is to choose real pros. Whenever you require assistance with an essay or feel like you’re not going to make a term paper in time, you should know one thing.

Clicking https://essaypro.com/term-paper.html, you will be able to connect to the network of professionals and find an expert in the field you need. This company cares about reputation, so writers make papers plagiarism-free and unique.

Also, you can visit a social network of writers if you want to reach out to the world with your writings.

This is the best way for students to save time for personal matters without worrying about an unfinished assignment.

Quetext

Taking into account a strict policy of many institutions, students often use web applications and services to make sure their papers are plagiarism-free.

Quetext is a plagiarism detection software with more than a million users worldwide. The algorithm of this tool helps students compare their papers with billions of other sources and detect matching parts.

The free version runs on an easy-to-use platform. All that the user needs to do is copy the text, paste it into the field, and click the “plagiarism check” button. Wait for the text to compare with other sources, and get a report indicating the percentage of plagiarism.

However, the free version has certain limitations. The user cannot upload files and is limited to three searches and three reports. The premium version costs $9.99 a month.

Grammarly

Whenever you feel unconfident about your grammar or punctuation, you can check the text via Grammarly.

In general, the service is brilliantly simple. It checks papers in English for a wide range of mistakes, making them clear and well-written.

Grammarly is based on artificial intelligence. The service enhances the quality, clarity, and tone of the essay. There is also an editing option. Moreover, it explains how to avoid repeating mistakes in the future, advancing the writing skills of students.

MyHomework Student Planner

MyHomework website helps to organize the academic life of students at any level. This is a perfect planner that tracks classes, projects, tasks, and tests. Using it, you will never miss any deadline.

There are two options available: basic and premium for $4.99 a year. If you have never used myHomework, try it out for free. The premium package has more advantages and includes file attachments, enhanced app widgets, and other extra features.

Trello

Trello is a visual collaboration tool used in many entities all over the world. It facilitates the learning process, teamwork, and discussion. And all of this comes for free.

Trello is a system of boards with cards, which are organized into lists. Its integration with Google drive enables the creation of presentations from cards. You can attach documents and make folders. This extension saves time and excludes jumping from one service to another.

Here are a few other features and extensions:

Dropbox – attaches the corresponding files and folders from Dropbox to Trello cards;

Card snooze – helps to archive tasks for a certain time and focus on more important ones, and then return the cards once again;

Countdown – keeps track of deadlines;

Slack – connects different applications for communication with the participants of the board;

Zapier – connects Trello with over 1000 apps, including Google Sheets, Evernote, HubSpot, Facebook, and others;

Gantt Chart – is an extension for creating diagrams to monitor the level of tasks efficiency;

Gmail to Trello – is an extension that helps to transfer all tasks from Gmail to the desired board.

All these features exclude the need for using dozens of websites at the same time during studying. This way, you are more concentrated on the assignment and save time.

EasyBib

EasyBib is the service that helps in creating a citation for any kind of paper. It provides students of different academic levels with tools for working with the library.

Using it, you can easily generate the list of references in full accordance with the selected standards, such as MLA8, MLA7, APA, and Chicago. It is possible to add exact links to the sources, including books, articles, and websites.

Wrapping Up

With the digitalization of all spheres of our life, it’s becoming easier to study than ever before. Modern technologies are the best friends of current students.

Hopefully, you will find this list helpful and make a few more bookmarks in your browser!

Insights Martech

Do You Own an Online Business? Here’s How Social Listening is Your Ultimate Tool to Online Success

Miley on January 14, 2020

For a business to exist in the contemporary world, it’s crucial to have an online presence. Enterprises that lack an online identity are invisible to the world of business and a massive online audience.

However, I believe apart from access to high-speed internet and a chic logo, there’s far more that goes in for a business to become successful online.

Similar to traditional businesses, digital businesses also require customer feedback and response. However, sustaining the reputation requires the use of social listening tools and a lot of brainstorming before measures that lead to the success of an online business are taken.

What are Social Listening Tools and why does it Matter?

Let’s be honest, the internet is a great place to access. Especially if you have high-speed internet and undivided time to spend online; a multitude of benefits can come your way through this medium.

From your daily dose of news and gossip to the goodness of wholesome memes, the internet blesses an individual with more than he/she expects.

However, for online businesses internet has become more than just another place to sell their products or services. The medium provides effective platforms to channel and market a service or product. Through the internet, businesses can reach an entirely different audience that is more targeted, diverse and responsive. The good part here is that even the mightiest social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram that were essentially created for social networking, have updated their respective platforms in ways that benefit online businesses immensely.

And apart from all this, the internet also facilitates businesses with tools that encourage the seamless functioning of an enterprise. An example of this is social listening tools. Social listening tools not only make things easier for the business in terms of customer engagement and brand strategy but provide businesses with guidance on undermentioned aspects.

Social listening tools allow businesses to analyze, track and even respond to comments that are about your business or the online business industry as a whole.

To understand social listening tools more, consider it as a competent supervisor of a traditional set-up business who keeps an eye on everything happening at the workplace. Nonetheless, from keeping an eye upon how your business is functioning to receiving feedback from visitors and customers, social listening tools are more vigilant than an average human supervisor.

Now that we better understand how social listening tools basically work for online businesses, we shall address the part which must be very obvious by now.

So here are some of the reasons why social listening tools matter to online businesses:

1. Essential for Customer Engagement

The aforesaid benefits of the internet only presented the bright side, quite oblivious of due acknowledgment of its dark or downside. The internet might be the greatest place for entrepreneurs, small business owners and of course, for well-established brands and enterprises too, but what’s troubling is its ability to tarnish the well-built reputation of a business concern literally overnight.

In recent times you might have noticed the power of a single tweet or a Facebook post that’s accusing a brand of its poor customer service or below par product quality. Such content takes rounds on the internet while the brand’s award for great customer service or its efforts to boost revenue cry in the corner.

It is because of these horrifying days that a business needs to take all possible measures to maintain a good business reputation. And social listening tools come most handy in this regard. Social listening tools help businesses in identifying possibilities that allow them to engage in conversation regarding their brand, product or service.

2. Perform Action According to the Requirement

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, an online business doesn’t achieve success with only fast online connectivity and a stylish logo, a mammoth effort is required. Luckily because of social listening tools, these efforts have been rendered simple for smart entrepreneurs.

More than just a tool for customer engagement, social listening tools present a medium that helps observe and analyze social sentiment.

Social sentiment is known as an online response a business gets from customers. Social listening tools allow a business to keep an eye on the factors that trigger social sentiment in – positive or negative – in the first place.

Positive social sentiment can either be the result of a successful brand campaign or a powerful product marketing strategy. In any case, a business must keep into consideration all kinds of social sentiment that come its way. Because this is what symbolizes and presents, in a nutshell, the ultimate signals that tell how a product or service is impacting your existing and potential clientele.

Moreover, via analysis of collective response or customer feedback, social listening comes to help a business with altering brand strategy as per the requirement at any given point in time. As a result, an enterprise may come to understand how it should mold its brand strategy in order to work effectively at any appointed time.

3. Tells You More About Your Competitors

Social listening is one of the greatest tools that facilitate gain of information about how your competitors are working.

Business is all about having maximum knowledge about your competitors. Especially if its an online business, even the slightest information about a competitor is equivalent to a treasure.

Social Listening tools can help a business in knowing whether or not their business competitors are launching a new product; whether they are opting for a new marketing strategy or calling a press conference etc.

All this information about competitors assists a business in going one step ahead and eventually bagging more opportunities for success.

Final Words

In conclusion, social listening tools let you analyze data to find out what people are thinking and saying about your business and what you can do to improve the performance and reputation of your enterprise. Also, in case you came here looking for the best social listening tools, we will for sure mention a few you may find advantageous: Hootsuite, HubSpot, Buffer, and TweetReach are some of the best from the lot.

Development Insights Martech

Strong Online Reputation Management in Workplace Matters – Know Why

Miley on January 14, 2020

Undoubtedly, today, information spreads much quicker than before. It applies directly to product reviews or service made by consumers and clients. Social media’s growth coupled with the ability to access the net easily irrespective of where one is has produced the requirement for ORM or online reputation management. It is a process to monitor and influence the online presence of one’s business.

The Need for a Strong ORM in Place

Look at the vital steps that throw light on the need for a strong ORM in place

Put the Best Face Forward- The reputation of a company is how the investors, potential employees, and consumers view it. All or any of these can get impacted by a single unfavorable tweet, review, or post on Facebook. So, if one fails in having the right strategy, which includes a prompt reply to such complaints, the image of their brand can be tarnished.

It will indicate that their customer’s response indeed is not vital for the company; this is something no one desires to convey. It is through reputation management services from an ORM company New York that one can put their company’s best face forward. One needs to ensure that they are that go-to company for solving issues within their domain or the top service via overseeing reviews as well as replying to each.

Credibility and Building Trust – the day will arrive when one gets a negative review. Be it on Twitter, Facebook, or any industry-specific website, it is genuinely inevitable in keeping every bad comment at bay. Though unfavorable comments may sway the decision of purchase of a prospective client, yet not reacting or responding to such review can create a bigger impact.

Today people research companies much more compared to before. So, the moment they notice that any company has unanswered complaints, this will act as the red flag thus will be hesitant in doing business with them. Being capable of recovering from bad reviews will help in restoring the confidence that is lost in one’s company and thereby help in regaining trust with their audience. One should show their prospective business partners and customers that they genuinely value their feedback via acknowledging that they have appropriately seen it as well as letting them know of the fact they will mediate or consider the issue.

Analyze the Needs and Wants of Consumers- To check all the reviews will give one an insight regarding what is right and what is not for their business. Consumers surely will point out things which they cannot get enough along with the things which they can do without. Most companies in New York refine their business via spotting such complaints as well as tracking those which appear consistently. That, along with helping them with their bottom line, will also show that their business is adept in adapting the current times and is also innovative.

Apart from these, companies in New York are also putting efforts to maintain their thought leadership. To know more, contact the best reputation management service provider in New York today.

Development Insights Martech

The Guide to Sending Bulk Emails without Spamming

Miley on January 10, 2020

An email is a powerful tool for the modern marketer, but it’s easy to lose sight of its importance when juggling responsibilities. Before you know it, your meticulously-crafted emails can end up in junk folders all over the globe without ever being opened.

What’s worse, recipients may mark your emails as spam. When this happens, your mass marketing campaign may struggle against spam filters of major email providers.

Open rates may plummet, and all that time and effort will go to waste. Not to mention, you may end up with a poor return on investment (ROI).

In this article, you’ll learn how to avoid these pitfalls of email marketing. Instead, we’ll show you how to send bulk email without spamming your readers.

Why do Bulk Emails land up in Spam?

Bulk emails, especially if they contain promotional content have a higher chance of landing up in Spam. This can be due to a number of various reasons. And most common among these is the use of Spam trigger words, which leads to some emails landing up in Spam. Since your bulk email list is probably huge, it’s a good idea to use an email verifier to check for invalid emails as the number of Spam or low engagement rates have a very adverse effect on your IP and sending domain reputation. This can cause your triggered or transactional emails to land up in Spam too. Another reason the engagement rates are usually low for bulk emails is that usually people are bombarded with so many promotional emails in their inbox, they tend to ignore all emails which seem promotional in nature. Using a Bulk Email Service Provider goes a long way in making sure your emails land up in Spam. Also, keep reading to find some interesting tips to craft promotional emails in ways that can be more engaging to your users and get you better ROI on emails.

Here are 5 things you need to keep in mind before sending out Bulk Emails

1. Is your email content useful?

With your audience personas in mind, brainstorm some topics that address their pain points and personal goals.

Look for solutions to their problems, or opportunities to help them in the journey towards their goals. Sending people industry updates is great, but it must be relatable to them.

2. Is your template engaging?

Your templates add as much, if not more value to your emails as compared to the content you have placed in the email. Email templates that are very image-heavy and contain spam trigger keywords are going to land up in spam. It’s a no brainer. However, emails with a simple template having your company logo, containing maybe 1 CTA, are most likely to reach the inbox. Again, here the content you have placed in your email matters the most. If the user identifies your brand as one which is going to give them content that helps them, they will most likely open your emails as soon as it reaches the inbox. Keep your template simple, your content fresh and let the voice of your brand be clearly seen through your bulk emails.

3. Are you delivering on your promises?

As aforementioned, it’s important to set expectations for your subscribers. By delivering emails they weren’t expecting, you’ll deter recipients and lose subscribers.

After you set their expectations, there should be no nasty surprises, which means you can reduce the risk of spam complaints or a drop-off in subscriber numbers.

Just make sure that you follow through with the valuable content they need.

4. Are the emails in alignment with your business goals?

Your goal may be to build a bigger audience, sell a product, or drive more traffic to your website blog. Whatever it is, your emails should be intrinsically linked to your goals.

Every email you send to subscribers should be another step along the buyer’s journey, providing value for them, and also nurturing trust so that you can eventually get them to answer your call-to-action.

5. Are your emails adding value to your business?

You might want more people to sign up to your app, or more people to purchase stuff from your store, or you might be sending out email blasts to your customers just as a retention tactic so that they don’t forget your brand. All these emails serve a certain purpose which is contributing to your business achieving its goals. Email Blasts are not simple to execute, they require a lot of time and resources of your company and creates a brand perception among your customers/prospects. You need to make sure that these people only receive the best kind of email from you, which is beneficial to you as well as to your customers.

Wrapping Up

Knowing how to send bulk email without spamming is important for all marketers in the current digital landscape. As social media shifts towards being a paid advertising platform, the opportunities for cheap, easy marketing are dwindling.

An email has a lot of potentials, but only if you know how to use it.

Sending out a generic email that offers no value to the recipients will no longer cut it. You should treat all of your email campaigns as a direct extension of both your business and your brand.

Using a conversational tone is great, but above all else, you must be consistent and provide valuable content that your recipients find useful, interesting, and unique.

By setting expectations early, and then following through with valuable emails, you can build a list organically, and avoid being marked spam as people recognize your brand as one that delivers.

Development Insights Martech SaaS SEO

8 Warning Signs of a Bad Website Host Provider

Miley on January 5, 2020

Your web host is one of the most important aspects of your website. Thus, choosing a good web host is recommended to ensure that you can easily optimize your website, as well as provide an excellent user experience. A poor hosting provider not only hurts your search engine rankings but will also cost you a lot of money in the long run. It is because your web hosting can play a significant role in how search engine bots can crawl and index your website. By having a good host provider such as Verpex, you will avoid all of these issues and many others. Fortunately, you can spot the warning signs that will tell you whether or not you have a good web host.

Frequent downtime

While a web host could not precisely guarantee you a 100 percent uptime, it is not a good sign if it is frequently down either. Frequent site downtimes can decrease your site’s overall traffic and conversion, and eventually, your bottom line. You might have to pick another web hosting provider and migrate your site if that is the case.

Poor customer support

No provider in the market could guarantee that your site will not encounter any problems or issues along the way. However, a lousy hosting provider can create issues like having a reduced response time and inadequate technical support. If you cannot talk to anyone in your host’s support team as to why you are experiencing some issues, then it is high time that you switch to another web host.

Slow loading time

The amount of time it takes for your site to load is a determining factor whether or not you will be able to convert more sales. There is nothing more frustrating than having to wait for a site to load. So, if your website is taking too long to load, there might not be enough bandwidth across the host server. Cheap hosting companies will be selling shared hosting to numerous websites. They will bog down the processors and bandwidth across the server. The result? A slow-loading site. So, if your site is taking more than three seconds to load, it might be time to switch to another web hosting company.

Insufficient storage space

The amount of storage space that you need will usually depend on the type of website you are running. So, if, for some reason, your current web hosting provider is unable to meet your needs, you should start looking for a new hosting company. That way, you would not hamper your site’s productivity.

Inadequate security features

Your website should have top-notch security. A cheap web hosting provider will not provide you with security applications, leaving your site compromised and open to being hacked. If your current web hosting company is not offering security features like a firewall, anti-malware applications, and anti-virus software, then you could risk losing that information and get hacked. Choose a web host that will offer you strong security so that all your information and data are safe. Also, if you are running an e-commerce store, your data is not the only thing that is at risk ‒ your consumer’s data as well. Pick a web hosting company that will give you and your customers’ strong security features that will keep your data safe across all servers.

High renewal charges

There are some web hosting companies that will offer discounted rates for first-time customers. But they are also making it clear that they are giving discounts for the first year only. But here is the thing: They are also forcing their customers that have already subscribed to pay exorbitant rates to renew their subscription. In essence, old customers should continue paying for what they initially paid. It is the new customers that should pay for the new rate.

Bad user-interface

The primary purpose of UI is to make it easy for the user to do something on your site. But if they are encountering a lot of errors, and the content of the page does not make sense, then those couple of dollars that you saved with a cheaper host is not worth it.

Lack of features

The features that a web hosting company is offering should be on par with the price that you are paying every month. Being able to implement features like Media Wiki, Joomla, PHP scripts, or b2evolution technology is vital to keep up with the latest trends in the market. Moreover, other features that are common in the most excellent web hosting providers include WordPress, vBulletin, and Drupal. So, if you are working with a web hosting provider that does not have these features, then you might have to install these features on your own.

Final Thoughts

Web hosting is one of the most crucial aspects of your website. When you pick a cheap host, then you are putting yourself at a terrible disadvantage. So, do not rush in setting your site up and picking a web host. You should do your research, do a website hosting comparison, and carefully weigh the pros and cons of a specific web hosting provider. Remember that a poor choice can lead to negative consequences later on.

Development Insights Martech

Growth Strategies and Landmarks for Small and Mid-market Merchants

Miley on January 4, 2020

It takes unflinching determination and a will of steel to be able to start something of your own knowing the risks involved and the immense competition. Cheers to the never say die spirit of entrepreneurs.

Once you’ve set foot in the industry digital maturity is something that you must have planned to achieve considering the heights to which the internet can scale your business. It’s safe to say there would hardly be any small or mid-market merchant not thinking about digital transformation to shift their business to the web.

What are the Growth Milestones for small and mid-market merchants?

The journey of a business need not be accounted in terms of months, years or decades, rather in the milestones that it has achieved in the however limited time it has been running. What are these milestones now? Let’s find out.

The strategies, the working model that works for your competitor may or may not be the right ones for you. Investing enough time and dedicated energies towards your venture will help you get closer to the business model that would bring you success. The business model hence becomes the first and foremost milestone for your budding business.

Prepare your e-commerce business model keeping in mind the importance to stay relevant to your customers throughout the run. Identify your target audience and what exactly are their expectations for better product delivery. You might need to make changes to your model basis the changing needs but that’s alright till you have your finances managed. This brings us to another important aspect of a business model, i.e. financial management. Analyze, from where and how much revenue your business would generate, the part of it that would be utilized in business development and the part that remains as profit.

Source: blog.ibsindia.org

Once the model gets planned next up would be a struggle to find customers. Your first few customers are going to bring immense joy which will be another very important business milestone as a small and mid-market merchant.

Try to make sense of what the audience you’re targeting actually needs when it comes to not just the products but also the overall experience. If you tap the right nerve you’ll never again struggle for customer inflow.

Once you start getting your old customers back for new products, consider that you’re doing something right that’s bringing them back. Loyal customers serve as great testimonials for the products, services and the experiences you provide.

Striving hard and building strong relationships with customers is extremely crucial for you to look at success in the near future. Try to tap the right nerve and serve exactly what is required. And, as they say, do your duty and a little more, a small reward or loyalty bonus time and again for your customers would go a long way.

Another most important aspect of your e-commerce business would be to have a positive cash flow in check. A business that too a budding one would begin to struggle for finances without a consistently positive cash flow. Even with a well-paying customer base, stagnant cash flow would start to pose problems. If you have that managed you’ve successfully made your business reach another milestone.

It’s crucial for small and mid-market merchants to have a well-planned marketing strategy chalked out. It not only helps in well-constructed marketing but also ensures effective utilization of resources available at hand.

Source: http://websitemarketing.com.ng

If you’ve not yet come up with one, do it at the earliest. You might need to make changes to your strategy as you go on but that’s inevitable. Prepare the plan keeping in mind your resources and how far you are ready to stretch. Keep your goal in mind to come up with a plan that suits you best and ensures positive results. And, that would be another growth milestone for your business.

A good team consisting of people whose goals align with your business’ is the most important to constitute. Find time to recruit and train employees to understand your niche and the demands of it. Only a well-meaning team will give in their 100% to meet your targets. Would it be anything less than a milestone if you’re successful in constituting one such workforce?

When you’re all set with a business model at hand, loyal customers to seek your services, a marketing strategy at your disposal and even a good team, what comes next is your plan for expansion. If you’re not just sustaining your business but also expanding it however slow the rate be in the initial years you’re moving towards your next growth milestone.

The road to meeting these growth strategies can get somewhat challenging if you’re not following the best practices to mitigate risks and handle growth and expansion. As a business owner, it takes gallons of courage and effort to start your own venture. Take every step carefully to avoid any blunders. Some best practices followed by successful business owners can make your road to success smoother.

What are the key considerations and best practices for your e-commerce business?

Several risks may pose a threat to your business in the initial years. Let’s find out what they are and the prospective solutions for the same.

-Lots of Cyberattacks keep looming over e-commerce business dealings. Stringent security measures must be taken to protect your online website from such cyber threats. Obtaining SSL certificates, using strong passwords, deploying multi-level security and closely monitoring transactions are few ways through which e-commerce business websites could be secured.

-Customer disputes might arise which may need immediate resolution. These issues could be ranging from product quality issues, delivery concerns to clerical errors. Such problems could be dealt with by having a return/refund policy in place and prompt customer support service in action.

-Safeguard your IP and diligent audits performed regularly.

-Also, take care of regular tax payment and maintain consistency in marketing to avoid any glitches and experience the best results.

-Take measures for business growth and expansion from day 1. Make efforts to build a database of customer emails. Stay in touch with them and constantly update on the running deals.

-Choose the right platform and focus on making your website search engine friendly in order to attract traffic organically. Also, leverage the power of social media in the current age.

-Utilizing pay per click options, making your website mobile-friendly, deploying affiliate programs, providing for efficient subscription services are a few other extremely popular methods of keeping your website in the limelight and attracting customers.

Shared above are the key milestones along with the business considerations that you shall not miss. Taking informed decisions is way better than blindly following any popular trend that your competitors might be after. You know your customers and their requirements best. Keep experimenting and utilizing the best practices for amazing results.

About the author

Abhishek Jaiswal is a serial entrepreneur and a co-founder at CedCommerce. He is an e-commerce enthusiast and takes great interest in exploring different dynamics of the industry. CedCommerce is an e-commerce facilitator, founded in 2010 for abling Small and medium businesses to make an easy shift to the web. With over 10,000 satisfied customers to date, CedCommerce is a proud achiever of several industry accolades.

Development

Web Design News Roundup 2019: What 2019 Brought for the Web Design Industry?

Miley on December 28, 2019

The trends in the web design industry are a snapshot of where the industry is precisely heading. The trends that the majority of the designers look up to every year should not just be a reference to be followed blindly. The challenge is instead to come up with amazing features and cutting-edge concepts, entailing creativity and innovation, that ensure users have a better website experience instead of just creating apps and sites that look similar. This is what the best designers in the industry, like this team of web designers Melbourne, will do to stay ahead of the game.

In the past few years, we have seen significant advancements in technology that have undoubtedly helped us connect with new users efficiently. Apart from building secure connections, the industry has also given us some new styles with an emphasis on documentation that have pushed the boundaries to make the web a more accessible and convenient environment for everybody. However, with so many developments in the web design industry, it is now time to slow down and look back at all the trends that will stick around in the subsequent times, so that even better websites could be launched in 2020.

Below are the top ten web design trends 2019 brought for our industry!

The web design, just like other industries in technology, is an ever-evolving field. Thus, designers, as well as developers, need to have their fingers on the pulse of what is trendy and what is expected to occur in the industry. Having said that, as we are about to close the door on 2019, here are some of the trends for your ease that will continue to direct in 2020.

1. Monochromatic and Absence of Color:

Playing with a million colors is cool and fun, but what if you were limited to use one color or no color at all? Well, this might sound a little boring and not so creative, but if done well, the design constraint will not only enhance the overall design but also would be more memorable and easily identifiable.

The fact that you only have one color option for your design will give you a chance to solidify your branding by adding constraints in terms of the flexibility of design. There are many websites on the global web that have used more than two colors, and by using one color or no color at all, you have a great chance to stand out in the market.

Of course, it will be a daunting job to get the whole website done without adding more than one color or only keeping it black and white. But, if carefully thought and planned well, keeping in mind color-psychology, it can be the reason behind your brand’s success!

2. A Throwback to Retro Design Aesthetics:

The web design industry is just like fashion, as what is old suddenly becomes new and trending. As we have moved beyond the flat design where experimentation literally does not have limits, 2019 made us look back at the retro aesthetics with a hint of nostalgia.

All the designers and developers out there, here is the thing! Experimentation with nostalgia and the retro design can develop an exciting juxtaposition between then and now. What made 2019 an exciting year in this regard is that we saw more retro design styles reflecting time-cycles before websites were even accessible to everyone!

This certainly gives an idea of what we can expect to see – more of these retro-styled websites in the coming year with color schemes and typography that will make us think back to a different era.

3. Organic Design and Elements:

2019 has also taught us that slowly and gradually, we are pulling ourselves away from straight lines that come with a flat design, making the whole process boring and tedious. We have stepped into an era where experimenting with more shapes and lines has become a trend. All the forms that are not the typical straight-sided ones like the circle, rectangle, square, and triangle are called fluid shapes or organic shapes.

We are now accustomed to see these shapes replaced by elements drawn from nature, such as lakes, ponds, and types of forests. In the coming years, we expect to see web designers embracing a splash of natural elements in their designs, using the charm of mother nature to brighten up the screens.

4. Asymmetrical Layouts and Broken Grid:

The Broken Grid has been trending from the past few years and seems to prevail in the upcoming years as well.

In terms of design, the broken grid and asymmetrical layouts are imaginary planes with lines, both horizontal and vertical, that assist layout elements on the screen. Majority of the websites in 2019 had the grid positioned to the left side of the website. For instance, the title, content and logo design line up as the central part of a web design. In case of a broken grid, the items are pushed around on the plane in such a way that makes the layout look less rigid (or broken).

The broken grid design favoring unexpected pushing of boundaries has stuck in 2019 and is used as a technique to set your web design apart from the competitors. Let’s see if it continues to do wonders in 2020!

5. Elevated Image Treatments:

Images have undoubtedly given us various design opportunities when it comes to the web, and this is what we saw in 2019 as well. From graphics in a circle to making them colored (or black and white), designers have used all these techniques to draw attention and enhance the website UI/UX overall.

We not only came across websites that took the image treatment a step further by featuring a single and sizeable hero-style picture that took charge of the whole space of the site, but the year was also about shuffling up the way images were executed by cutting out the subject or adding a pattern on top. Looking at how successful these trends were in catching attention, all these techniques are likely to be more prominent in the industry in the following years.

6. Overlapping Design Elements:

Overlapping design elements can bring great visual appearance to web designs. Falling in line with asymmetrical layouts and broken grids, and making sure these do not touch each other and have their separate spaces, has worn out and become old-fashioned.

Yes, overlapping elements could cause confusion, and sometimes it will frustrate you when overlap in the wrong ways. However, 2019 showed us that if carefully done, the trend of overlapping all these elements on the web page can actually enhance the aesthetics of your site. In the next few years, we might also start more of experimenting with three-dimensional (3D) websites.

7. Header Areas or Reimagined Hero:

The “above the fold” area that often features a large image taking most of the space of the web design with a text on top is what catches attention at the very first glance. There was no experimentation with this area over the past few years, but 2019 changed it to some extent. Many of the websites started to push the boundaries and revised the content present along with minimizing the area comprising of the full-length image to grab the viewer’s attention in an efficient way.

8. Trends in Typography:

Pushing the boundaries of typography on the web is not as simple as it is in print. However, as coding has become more sophisticated in the past few years, experimenting with typography on the web has become a lot more natural.

The typography trends of 2019 were cutting or subtracting parts of words and letters, putting an image or photograph inside typography, animating the typography, and much more. Designers and developers can definitely benefit by keeping in mind this trend to come up with better web designs in the future.

9. Large and Experimental Navigations on the Web:

Navigation is one of the hardest elements that make up a web design. It is a daunting job, more of a challenge, to keep the web design appealing with functional aesthetics. 2019 was a year with a lot of experimentation when it came to navigation. Navigation was seemingly the focal point in web design this year as it occupied a considerable portion for the majority of the websites; instead of focusing on font size, placement on the page, and the layout only.

We can expect designers and developers to come up with even bigger navigations and website homepages in the coming years, or at least that is how sites can be made more sophisticated and alluring for the viewers.

10. White Space, More Than Enough:

The efficient usage of white space is one of the oldest tools in the web design industry. However, making this white space the focal point of attention is not as mainstream as it might sound!

While the white space used in an excessive manner was considered to be a symbol for wastage of space, 2019 has completely changed this idea. Now, it is looked at as a more critical part of the web design that not only enhances the overall looks but simultaneously makes it more noticeable for the viewers.

Need Help with your Web Design?

We live in an era where web design has completely taken over the industry, as even Disney is looking to create a good experience for its junior audience! However, designing the web is not as simple as it might seem. Though we have enough information about the trends in 2019 that can help you sketch a site of your own, we understand that there still is a need for expert opinion.

If you are looking for creative professionals from one of the best web design company, to assist you with your design ABCD, then UptownLogoDesign is the right place for it. Not only will the team of experts at Uptown help you with the basic designing, but you can also get your logos, apps, and other digital stuff crafted from them!

Insights Martech

6 Reliable Graphic Designing Tactics for Professional Appearance of your Website

Miley on December 18, 2019

Your goal as you provide graphic design services is to create stunning designs to appeal to visitors. If a website is poorly designed, it loses its attraction and credibility, and web visitors will not take it seriously. Effective web design, on the other hand, has all the right elements that a visitor requires to navigate the website and get the information needed. For a perfect web design that all the qualities to attract clients, you need a few web design tactics. Here are six tactics needed for stunning designs.

Study design theory

To understand web design concepts in-depth, you need to get acquainted with design theory. A useful design theory that you need to understand is the grid theory, which can help you transform your work. Since graphic designing is an art and not a trade, there are different ways to understand how it works. You don’t need to study for five years to get a degree so that you can practice graphic designing. With enough theory and practice, you will become successful.

Some of these theories include color theory, grid theory, typography, and the golden ratio. For those who went to web design college, this is where their education pays. The beauty of the graphic design is that there are a lot of avenues to try out. You can go with a full university degree, short courses, or distant learning. Many online courses offer free design courses.

Learn how to get more from the feedback

Since this career involves a lot of criticism and compliments, you should learn to appreciate feedback as it helps you improve your graphic designing skills. Try to understand why you received such criticism as they are not all about putting you down. Positive feedback is encouraging. However, it doesn’t push you to do greater things.

Negative feedback, on the other hand, helps you to improve web designing skills by pointing out what you are doing wrong. Therefore, when you are sharing your work with the design team, a forum, or social media, learn how to appreciate all sorts of feedback.

Start a side project

If you are working as a graphic designer in a company, and you are doing the same thing over and over again from 9 to 5, your designing skills may get stale. If you are not exploiting some of your many learned design skills, you may be undermining your potential. The best thing breaks out from boredom is to find a different side hassle that challenges you. You will be surprised by what else you can achieve with graphic designing.

A good way to gauge your progress as a graphic designer is by finding out what you have learned while handling your projects. Don’t settle or count on what you already know as a graphic designer. Remember, this industry is fragile and keeps changing now and then. What is relevant now, won’t be after a couple of years. Learning new graphic designing ideas that involve new technologies like AI, AR, and VR will secure your graphic design career in the future and also expand your repertoire.

Experiment

It is impossible to know what will work in your designs if you do not experiment by creating a website. Many startups are popping out every day, and they present a perfect opportunity to try out some of your best designs to how they pan out. The good thing about graphic designing is that anything can work nothing is perfect. There is always room for improvement. If you don’t try out anything, you will not get anywhere because in the creative industry is all about trial and error. This sort of experimentation can even help you quantify an ROI from your design work and win higher-profile clients by benchmarking specific results that business-owners can appreciate.

If it doesn’t work out as you wanted, you can rule it out and go back to the drawing board for another fresh idea. Either way, it’s a win-win because you have established what won’t work. When experimenting, you have tried out something that is slightly out of the ordinary and doesn’t go overboard and overdo it. It’s about new technologies, new media, or skills. Instead of using the same old font, layout, color scheme, or even software, try mixing things up a bit to see what happens.

Talk to other designers

Another way of staying ahead of the game is to associate with fellow graphic designers who have made it or need a helping hand and support from you. The ones who have made it will show you the right path to success and those who are just starting will benefit that you pass on to them. As I said, it’s all about ambition and what you are willing to do to get ahead.

Graphic designers don’t exist in a vacuum, and we need each other to succeed. You may find yourself as the only graphic designer in a company. Don’t worry as you can still reach out to other designers through forums and support groups. You can go to meetups, graphic design conferences, or even you can join graphic design marketplace like Designhill. When you get a chance to meet with your fellow designers, don’t waste time and begin interacting by asking questions, discuss proper solutions, and other challenges that you face in your day to day designing work. This way, you will gain incredible knowledge and also share it with others who don’t have it yet.

Read a book

Learning never ends, no matter what career you are pursuing. A college degree is not enough; you need to read every time you get a chance. It’s too bad nowadays people only care about their mobile devices and don’t have enough time to read real books. A wise graphic designer will set aside all the gadgets and expand his designing knowledge by reading a book about professional website designing or taking a free udemy course their spare time. This will develop your repertoire.

You don’t expect to get new gigs or projects from clients if you don’t have any value addition in your delivery. If it’s not about new skills, new techniques, or new software, a least learn a new language so that you can easily communicate with your prospective clients. Books make you think holistically and expose you to a lot of ideas and knowledge.

Conclusion

I hope that these six graphic designing tactics were helpful to you, and you are going to implement them in your graphic designing work. You don’t have to try so hard to acquire new skills and knowledge. Just commit yourself to learn something new about graphic designing once in a while and eventually gain a professional graphic designing status.

About the author

Naman Modi is a Professional Blogger, SEO Expert & Guest blogger at NamanModi.com, He is an Award Winning Freelancer & Web Entrepreneur helping new entrepreneurs launches their first successful online business.

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This is How Blockchain is Revamping your Entire News Feed

Miley on December 18, 2019

From waiting for the newspaper to arrive in the morning to having a 24/7 remote access to the news, the transition is worth a mention. The role that the World Wide Web has played at delivering the news on the go can be tagged as the biggest revolution of all times.

In earlier times, the print media was the only source for staying informed about the happenings around the world. Things got better with the internet but what made it face a downfall was the authenticity of the news being published over the internet.

Some online news portals publish fake and misleading information that pops up across the news feed. The portrayal of the news on such portals makes people believe it to be true. Where print media has always been a regulated sector that delivered filtered and verified news, online news portals are unrestricted sources that publish anything and everything to increase their reach.

This inaccurate news running across the online channels gave rise to a new term called, “fake news.” In fact, the term has been the Collins’“word of the year” for 2017.

For a fact, the invasion of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has been a trigger for the rise of fake news.

Have a look at this statistical report to get an idea about how fake news has been spreading globally:

Image Source

So is there a Solution?

Serving people with unproven facts and figures can be disastrous. Moreover, it should be a moral duty of every online authority to present the rightful news that promotes value readership.

But, in this world where different sources are showcasing different facts, how does one know whom to believe? Or, even what to believe? Start-ups like Snip and on G.social have stepped in to clear the mess.

Introducing Snip – A Blockchain Based Technology

The problem is that people have started trusting individual news feeders rather than authorized and centralized publishers. As an aid, Snip, i.e., a decentralized news feed platform has taken up the role of news policing.

Here writer enthusiasts can come up with easy to understand language in the form of short snippets of valuable information for the readers. In turn, readers can choose their niche before going about the corresponding set of snip posts.

How the Platform Works?

The entire system of Snip works around SnipCoin, a cryptocurrency token. The three parties involved in SnipCoin transactions include:

Writers, who are awarded SnipCoins when they come up with a fine snippet that reflects accurate information
Advertisers, who can own their dedicated advertising space by deploying SnipCoins
Readers, who can tip writers as a token of appreciation or even buy a premium version of the application using SnipCoins

The basic idea behind building a Snip-based platform is to connect avid readers and excellent writers. In other words, it is a great platform that boosts writers to deliver quality content.

5 Quick Facts About Snip

Each write-up is limited by word count
A one-stop hub for different topics
Focuses on delivering quality content
Focuses on saving time
Uses machine learning for a personalized experience

Introducing onG.social- A Fix for Social Media Platforms

According to a study, around four-in-ten US adults get news from Facebook. The same is the case with Twitter! But, is the information posted on these social media platforms, reliable? Is there any proof for the information posted on these platforms? Or is there a medium that filters out these random posts?

There have been instances of fake news on Facebook like “Former first lady Barbara Bush dies at 92.” And, you won’t believe how this fake news negatively affects the internet and, in turn, escalates political debates. Have a look at this statistical report:

Image Source

All in all, there is a need to regulate social media platforms too. This is where onG.social steps in. It is a digital blockchain based platform where real news is appreciated in the form of digital tokens (cryptocurrency).

If a reader finds the news informative and knowledgeable they can reward the account holders thus promoting quality in turn.

onG.social deploys a weighted compensation algorithm, “Gravity,” that measures and rewards truth based on community accepted information.

The platform has been a driving agent in filtering the impurities and presenting one true source of purified piece of information

Handing Over the Power to the Users

The major purpose of blockchain technology in the news feed industry is to keep the users on the top by giving them the badge of responsibility to post valuable content. Though the change is yet to dominate the world of the internet, it is surely going to make big in the coming times.

In simple words, users can post, users can like, users can authenticate, and users can promote the content by acknowledging the efforts of the initiators.

Lastly, with the blockchain technology in the lead, great content with embedded quality is not impossible to achieve. The only need is to spread the word across and let users know how real can overpower the fake.

In the end, we can say that “truth always prevails.”

Author Bio

James Wilson is a seasoned Content Writer at Net Solutions, Los Angeles for 7 years with an expertise in blogging, writing creative and technical copy for direct response markets and promotional advertising for B2B and B2C industries. Born and brought up in New York, Paige holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature. He has worked for industries like IT, Product engineering, Lifestyle, among others and written some great insights on technologies like mobile app development, php web development, and so on. Besides his technical background, he is a poet by heart, who loves to connect with people through a dose of creativity and imagination.

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Three Essential Factors for Choosing an Ideal Curved Screen Protector

Miley on December 16, 2019

As iPhone prevails across more municipalities, the demand for curved screen protectors which supply excellent transparency, while withstanding the test of external damage, becomes even more imperative. In the circumstances, learn to choose an ideal helper for your smartphone’s screen is quite necessary. Therefore, we’ll walk you through three essential factors in selecting the best curved screen protector.

It’s widely acknowledged that, it is the simple appearance and the smooth operation system that earn iPhones broad acclaim and support globally. However, apart from the purchase price, the maintenance expense can also cost those fans of Apple a lot. As the smartphone industry grows, so did the demand for the curved screen protector. Hence, countless manufacturers catch this great business opportunity and gear up for the considerable future profit. VMAX is one of the good examples.

Since 2005, VMAX has dedicated to building its brand up from scratch, in terms of curved screen protector manufacture, order fulfillment and brand image. At present, VMAX becomes a high-end screen protector company that specializes in designing and manufacturing curved screen protectors for tablet, iPhone, iPad, watch, camera and GPS with professional and exquisite technique. What’s more, this faster-growing Chinese company successfully establishes a global business network with a lot of strong and long-term partnership.

Given the fact that it is likely to drop or impact the iPhone accidentally and the result is severe and irreversible, you are never too late to prepare a robust curved screen protector for your iPhone. As for how to choose the appropriate one, there are three factors you should take into consideration.

1. Rate of transparence

In general, 95% transparency of a curved screen protector is recommended to customers because it can offer higher performance while you are using your phone. A curved screen protector with poor transparency will not only refract the light emitted from the screen, but also make it very hard for people to see the pictures as well as words on the screen, which will increase eye fatigue and strain. Especially when the screen lighting is insufficient and the user is hard to figure out the words on the screen, the ciliary muscle of eyes will keep the tension, the lens of eyes will maintain a large degree of convexity, and thus, eyes are easily overworked due to excessive regulation. Over time, myopia will form or worsen.

2. Stickiness

Usually, the high-quality curved screen protector uses static electricity instead of glue to adhere to the screen and provide edge-to-edge protection. There is an easy way to check the quality of the curved screen protector. If a screen protector can be stuck to the screen automatically without bubbles, this product is considered as a good one.

3. Wear-resistance

Actually, the better the wear resistance of the curved screen protector, the higher the smoothness of it. When it comes to choosing the strong screen protector, you are suggested to pick the tempered glass screen protector. Compared with others with different materials, tempered glass screen protector has higher scratch-resistance and anti-oil efficacy. On account of its top hardness, even if your smartphone falls, it can also play a buffer role to prevent the screen from damage. Besides, if you get an iPhone 11 recently, a tempered glass screen protector is the top pick for your phone. For example, 3D Curved Full Cover Premium Tempered Glass Screen Protector from VMAX features distinguished anti-fingerprint function which is ideally accord with the full-screen trait of your iPhone 11. Designed to keep your screen without any fingerprint, this curved screen protector can really make a difference. Most importantly, with precise touchscreen sensitivity, this product is only 0.33mm so that it can provide you with a comfortable experience to the fullest.