You might not have thought about it, but the reason why you like a particular website is because you are able to connect to it at an emotional level. Rational functionality and efficiency of the website is all well and good, but if you want to capture user attention, look no farther than emotional design. You want your website to be both usable and pretty, but what you also want is that it will be able to stir up the right emotions in the target users.

So, let’s take a look at five emotions that help build exceptional user experiences:

Humor

If a website makes you laugh, you immediately connect with it. As can be imagined, such websites are difficult to create as designers need to have a funny bone to create such websites. The problem also lies in the fact that there is a thin line between frivolity and humor and at times, there are websites that cross this line in an attempt to be humorous. Also, humor is largely subjective; I might find something funny, but I can’t expect my wife or my best friend to laugh at the same joke.

So, as a designer, you will need to generalize the humor and assign certain parameters to it. For e.g. it must be evident but not insult the intelligence of the user; it must be purposeful meaning it must make a point; humor should make your users feel at home; it shouldn’t be goofy and it must be the kind of humor that users can share with everybody. The last bit is very important.

Something else that you need to understand about bringing humor in your website is that it should never get in the way of the website’s work flow. Humor must involve, but not annoy. In order to create a website packed with humor, you will need to understand your users, and the way they think. For this, you will need to do a fair bit of research; you will also need to understand the context in which the website is going to be used.

The best way you can go about injecting a bit of humor in your site is by using a product centric funny phrase that people remember every time they see or use your product. Something else that you can do is that you can use images and an associated catch phrase that taken together create humor.

It’s important to remember that your website doesn’t need to be‘laugh out loudfunny’ in order to make an impression. All it needs to do is make its visitors smile and your job is done.

Let’s take a look at a few examples and see how they add an element of humor to their designs:

People of WalMart is a site that allows people to upload pictures, videos and stories about their WalMart visit. It’s funny but its design is not laugh out loud. The home page features images or videos, and also has a section called The Loop that offers links to the latest posts, with a short description. Every image used on the home page is funny. But, the overall design also exudes a bit of sophistication. It’s not crass; it just tells everybody it’s a humor site.

Another of my favorites is Fat-Man Collective, a website that only uses content to make its point, and has a crazy illustration of a ‘fat man’ on all its pages. It’s just text and that one image of a fat man that injects all the humor in this site. It’s simple, straight forward and funny. The design, in spite of its simplicity, makes you want to go through the site.

Empathy

All great websites empathize with the needs and requirements of their target audience, especially their problems. Such websites are designed to say, “we are there when you need us most, why go anywhere else”. When you empathize with your target visitors, you are actually building trust and extending your credibility.

To bring a bit of empathy to your website design, you need to put yourself in the shoes of the user. Think about their state of mind when they are suffering from a particular problem. What have they lost while suffering from the problem, monetarily or otherwise? What are they looking for, from their solution providers? The answers to these questions will help you choose the right images, write the appropriate content and chart a user flow that empathizes with the needs of your target users.

Here are few website’s that I believe showcase empathy best:

wikiHow needs no introduction. It’s a prime example of a site which empathizes with your problems and offers a solution for the same. It uses normal run of the mill text and images to showcase empathy, but the focus is on relevance. Forget about the popularity of this website for a moment, and imagine you have just come across it while browsing the internet. One glance at it and you will realize it’s a site that wants to help you. Tell me, that isn’t true. That’s what empathy is all about!

Let’s take a look at a colorful example all the way from Nigeria. Hellofood instantly empathizes with people who want to order out. Such people are hungry and that’s the question it asks and answers at the same time through its Home Page. It makes an instant connection with anybody who is hungry. The image of the delicious look meal that forms the background of the Home Page doubles the impact of the website’s design.

This is an award winning website of St. Louis Children’s Hospital that showcases empathy in all its glory. Its images, content and various design elements come together in a nice little package. Together, they say in no uncertain terms that the hospital understands the concerns of parents and is the right choice for child care and treatment.

Passion

Bringing to your website design a sense of passion helps energize your website users. The tone of the voice you use on your website has a big role to play in bringing out this emotional quality. You will need to communicate with your users with urgency; give them time to make up their minds, but make sure that they don’t have a lot of it, make sure they understand that you mean what you say, tell them they are missing out on something really good, if they don’t make a buying decision from your site, keep things real time, do everything possible to bring in more energy and a sense of purpose to your website.

The choice of your website’s image should be exciting, interesting and actionable. If your site is offering website design services, then you must make visitors think, you are passionate about website designing. The use of actionable content, call to action images and the right color combination will help give your website design just the right amount of passion to make a great impression.

Here are some websites that are all about passion and make their point exceedingly well:

Nike Vision is a website that showcases eyewear from Nike. It’s a site that exudes passion, through the right choice of images. Each page has an image that is exciting and makes you want to purchase the eyewear. These images are the site’s most important design element and make the site what it is. They display a one-of-a-kind passion for sports and the right eyewear.

How’s that for a supremely passionate image on your Home Page, that’s the Red Bull website for you! It’s good on the eyes, very upfront about what it wants to portray (passion, energy, and power) and it does so in the best manner possible.

Envy

I am sure there are people who will dispute this fact, but envy in large part drives our need to achieve something in life. You look at somebody’s mansion and say, man that’s a great house – There is bit of appreciation there and a lot of envy. It is this envy that will see you making an effort to build the house of your dreams.

Now, juxtapose this thinking to websites. You see something on a website, you see an image of somebody using a particular product, and you also notice that the person is enjoying using that product, result – you want it. Whether you will actually go ahead and buy it is another thing altogether, but at least the thought has been allowed to germinate in your mind. This is why bringing about a feeling of envy in website designing is a great idea.

Your website’s design has to do a balancing act between envy and desire. First, show images that make your visitors want to buy a product or use particular service, and then you show somebody else benefitting from the use of that product. This creates envy. A mix of envy and desire is the perfect emotion that helps you sell your products or services.

Some websites that bring out the envy in you:

Ten little monkeys is a site crafted to create a feeling of envy amongst parents. “I want my kids to look that smart”, “I want my kids to be that well dressed”, “I want my kids to have fun”, that’s the feeling brought about with the images used on the site. The use of catchphrases and engaging content that’s short and to the point makes things even more interesting. Also note the use of high resolution call-to-action images. The design definitely makes you want to buy the clothes on offer, for your kids.

I love cookies and so do you, but one look at theFamous Cookies Home Page and you will want to eat that drool worthy cookie, that has pride of place on it. The intelligent mix of content and delicious imagery sparks envy and desire. You are envious of anybody eating those cookies on the website!

Sympathy

Have you gone through a charity website or a website that’s asking for donations?They use images that elicit immediate sympathy so much so that you are immediately thinking about helping out. In order to make sales, such websites instill a deep feeling of sadness in their target audience. After all you won’t feel like contributing to the cause if all they show are happy faces, having fun. Even their content is configured to make you feel sad and some of these sites are so good that there is a catch in your throat when you are going through them.

So, sympathy sells. The next time, you are designing a website, don’t forget that.

Here are some websites that are selling a cause that you will become immediately sympathetic to:

Cross you heart and tell me you don’t feel like making a donation when you visit Care. That’s because the website design exudes sympathy through the right images, their proper placement and perfectly worded content. Each face, each design element, makes you feel sympathetic to the cause.

The World Wildlife Fund website is both stunning and humbling. Some amazing images and related catchphrases bringing to light the problems facing the wildlife, make for what at times is an interesting and at other times a gut wrenching read. It induces immediate sympathy for the wild animals through its majestic images and a simple straightforward narration of the problems faced by them.

End Words

Contemporary website design is a coming together of aesthetics and emotions. The design must look good, and get the necessary emotion out of the visitors. For this to happen, you will first need to identify the emotion that you want to get out of your visitors and work towards it.

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Unfortunately, a large percentage of freelancers quit once faced with one of these challenges listed below. The truth is that if you want to succeed as a freelancer, you must choose to pick yourself up and start again after failing.

This post examines the main factors that contribute to the failure of first-time freelancers.

1. Allowing Fear to Control You

Allowing fear to control your feelings is the beginning of failure. Fear plays a big role when it comes to de-motivating you. Once you are de-motivated, you will definitely not be able to complete your work.

You may even end up rejecting projects with higher earnings potential, hence losing a good amount of cash. You could be frozen into immobility and find yourself unable to start freelancing as a result of just being afraid. Although freelancing is very risky, you should be courageous and try to tackle some projects that seem difficult to execute. Success doesn’t come easily and you won’t lose anything by just trying; what someone can do, you can do even better. Just have confidence and face your fears.

One of the good things about freelancing is that you can take your time and perform enough research before even beginning. Research can enable you to work on projects which you previously had no idea about. With confidence and hard work, you might even deliver better quality than highly-experienced experts in the field.

2. Poor Organization

In order to succeed, you must be very organized. Being organized will enable you to start your projects effectively, execute them with diligence and deliver superb quality. As a freelancer, you are supposed to determine which system will help you keep things straight and keep clients coming your way. Do not be forgetful; keep everything in order and execute one project at a time. If you have a team, ensure that you supervise and manage the team well to deliver quality work, on time, to your clients.

3. Failure to Prioritize

For you to succeed in the freelance industry, you must prioritize it as a true job. You cannot expect anything to be at the top of the list in terms of your success if you place it last on your own priority list. This does not mean that you center your entire life on freelance work and become a workaholic; but you must devote a good amount of time and energy to your freelance projects in order to succeed.

4. Too Much Competition

Working in a highly competitive environment is unfavorable for the first-time freelancer. Being more creative will help you become more confident and face your competitors with both courage and determination. The freelancing industry has a large amount of highly-qualified and talented people; they form a very strong competition which you may find it difficult to beat. Even if you are very determined and talented, you may find overcoming the challenge of competition very tricky.

In order to overcome the issue of competition in freelancing and ensure that your rivals do not eat you up, you must hard work to have employers convinced that you can deliver. Ensure that your work stands out from the rest; this will attract many employers and help you land well-paying jobs.

5. Failure to Create Good Publicity

If you actually want to succeed in your freelance work, take time and think of the most successful self-made people in the world. You will then realize that nothing comes easily; every successful person had to start from somewhere and through hard work and determination, they eventually made it.

Hard work and patience pays off when it comes to freelancing. Since popularity is the main factor that could help you boost your services, ensure that you sell yourself well to potential clients. Your freelance business will die if you lack enough clients to work for; therefore seek enough attention to help you become popular among potential employers.

Failing as a freelancer does not imply that you lack enough money; you may just lack attention and exposure. Here is where good marketing strategies come in.
To market your freelancing services to potential clients, you must come up with great ways to break through obstacles such as completion, clutter, and confusion. Create a highly reliable and very effective brand that will help you stand out. Then ensure that your brand is well represented in your market niche and promote like crazy.

6. Failure to Be Diligent and Time-Oriented

Delivering your work timely is one of the most important pillars of freelancing. You must change ideas into reality by working on the project and delivering according to the expectations of your clients. To ensure success, it is strongly recommended to avoid mixing a lack of prioritization, lack of organization, and laziness in your freelancing work. Ensure that you beat all the deadlines and try to never disappoint your clients.

Keep all of your promises and do what is expected of you. You must discipline yourself and ensure that each day you set a hard task which you must complete. When working on your freelancing projects, keep in mind the instructions and the requirements of the client. Keep everything professional; never get personal in your work.

7. Failure to Demand a Price Relative to Your Output

Rates are one of the most crucial elements to success in freelancing. Price rating can be very challenging, especially if you are new to freelancing. Setting your price will entirely be determined by the following three main factors:

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• Client’s Budget: You cannot charge the same amount when working with small and large businesses. If you are working for small or non-profit organizations, your price rate should be lower than when working with big brands.
• Experience: If you are a newbie, you will be expected to charge less. However, as time goes on, you will acquire more experience and be able to demand higher rates.
• Client’s expected profit: If you are working on a project that will highly benefit the client by enabling him to reap more profits, you should charge higher. Otherwise, charge less.

Incorrect pricing is one of the main factors that cause a first-time freelancer to fail. High prices tend to keep away potential clients. Start charging less and then through hard work, you will soon be making much more per job or project.

Remember to negotiate your price with your client before working on the project; this will ensure the satisfaction of both parties.

8. Failure to Negotiate on Terms

Negotiation plays an important role when it comes to helping you avoid creating conflicts with the client. Many successful freelancers made their way to the top of the list through working under negotiable terms. Never try to work in an unbearable environment; it will affect the quality of your work. Always debate with your clients and come into agreement on all the terms and conditions of the work before starting to work. This will enable you to work at peace and deliver to according to the expectations of the clients.

Negotiation tries to create a win-win relationship between you and your client. The following are some of the policies of negotiation: always try to go high, shut your mouth when necessary, suck in your teeth, and create value before mentioning your price.

To negotiate, you must have guts and confidence to do it. Respect your client, but never fear him. Try all you can to avoid the client taking advantage of you and misusing your skills.

9. Failure to Stand Your Ground

Freelancing calls for patience; you must give yourself time and follow all the success tips before finally being successful. Working hard and being determined is the only way you can succeed in freelance. However, even if you work hard you will never see yourself through without being patient; never give up. Success does not happen overnight; you must try several times in order to achieve the best.

10. Failure to Consider Your Expenses

Even after being convinced that freelance is the best option for you, you should never join it just like that. You must always have a plan B and a good clue of what you are getting yourself into before making such a critical plan. Follow the appropriate ways of starting your freelance career.

If your living expenses are higher, then you must consider keeping your day job. Select a few freelancing jobs and work on part-time basis. However, if you want to quit your job completely and start freelancing, you must consider several factors before doing so. You must save enough pay from your day job to help you survive and also to cater for the costs of starting a freelance job. For instance, you must accrue enough cash to advertise your freelancing services to potential clients. You must also consider the relationship, as well as emotional toll, that working as a freelancer will take on your family members and yourself. Analyze all of the costs involved to help you forecast what might happen financially.

11. Failure to Focus

The best way to handle freelance jobs is by working under your own supervision and under your own schedule. Distractions can cause many downfalls in freelancing. Distractions can lead you to spending the whole day on unnecessary tasks that will not benefit you in any way. You may also be tempted to keep postponing work on a certain project so that you can instead focus on a fun project.

Working at home can be very tricky since you will be distracted by the people around you. Your friends will come to visit or invite you to get out and do something together. Or your children will need you to devote some attention to them. To avoid these distractions, you will need to set some boundaries to enable you to focus on your projects.

12. Failure to Separate Emotions from Realities

Being a freelancer is no easy job, though most people typically think so. There will be times that you will feel emotionally stressed and tired because you are possibly worried about having enough money to pay your mortgage, as an example. There may be instances when you think that it is the end of the world because you have no more means to finance your expenses and you have no more projects to work on.

Being a freelancer demands a lot from you. It is more demanding compared to working in an office. You may need to work double-time if there are rush jobs that needs to be written. You will have to work an extra shift if the client demands more work from you. Sometimes, you will have to scrimp on sleep in order to finish on a project. Indeed, being a writer requires an individual to accept the demands of the work.

Despite all of these sacrifices and hardships, you cannot guarantee that you will even stay in the job. Even if you are working extra shift in your project, in just the blink of an eye, you could be laid off.

Imagine the complexity of this scenario. This is where you have to separate your emotional bearings and stand up again and think straight; because if not, you will fall face -flat and feel beaten up as a freelance writer.

Sometimes, it is also essential to take a breather and enjoy life. Smile and stand up. Take a walk in the park and feel the breeze of fresh air. You can also relax with a bottle of beer in hand and soothing music in the background. Let loose. A secret to enjoying life is for you to not always be too serious, but rather learn to accept the irony life has to offer. This will bring strength and renewed sense of individuality that is necessary for the demanding and strenuous life of a freelance writer.

13. Failure to Deviate from the Stereotypical

Freelancing is very flexible and many people are quitting their jobs to join this industry. It is very attractive and can easily seduce thousands of people. You can work at any time of the day and you choose which days to work. Freelancing serves as the perfect way through which many people are earning their living. Even those with an 8-hour job can become a part-time freelancer and make an extra income to supplement their salary.

However, in order to reap large amounts from freelancing, you must think, behave and work maturely. To achieve this, you must be organized, confident, and disciplined. Never handle job matters outside of the professional environment, even if the client is your brother; keep everything professional.

Conclusion

Many people think that freelancing is the only option that will enable them to succeed overnight. This is totally untrue; it entails hard work, determination, and persistence. This is the reason why it is strongly recommended that you take your time and research it before making a drastic decision. You can succeed as a freelancer if you take the time to learn some important success tips and tricks.

If you want to succeed in freelance as a career, you must follow several rules which serve as a backbone of success in this career. High quality, as well as always meeting deadlines should be your first priority to enable your freelancing services to thrive.

After being hired by a client, it is good to prove that you are not only trustworthy but also honest and professional in carrying out your tasks. It is not an easy thing to succeed as a freelancer.

Start your freelance work by drafting a highly professional and good business plan that will guide you to succeed. In the business plan, make a list of what you expect from this career as well as your goals and objectives. You should also include the methodologies you will use to achieve these goals and objectives. Additionally, write down the possible challenges you might face in freelancing and how you will tackle them.

You will also be required to set the days you will be working on projects. This will entirely depend on whether you want to work on a full-time or part-time basis. When documenting your days of work, you should also remember to allocate the time you want to spend working on each project. This will enable you to carry out tasks in a more organized manner and ensure that you meet all of your clients’ deadlines.

Having the ability to say “no” to a client can really help you in your freelance work. Although it may seem like a good idea to take on a large amount of work, it is very unhealthy and it can easily ruin your reputation. Therefore, it is very important to control yourself and work on the projects that you were allocated first before taking on others. This will help you deliver the best work that satisfies every client. As a result, you will gain positive feedback which will attract more clients. However, if you have many clients who want you to work for them; you can create a team of highly qualified experts in the field to help you in delivering your services.

In addition, if you work from home you can consider giving yourself a break by going out to libraries and even having coffee with friends. Changing the environment once in a while plays an important role when it comes to enabling you to deliver high-quality projects. You will get motivated by your friends and you will also acquire new and interesting ideas on how to better your freelance services.

Image Credits – Dead End By Scott Ableman

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For this collection, we are presenting 40 fine looking WordPress themes for food and recipe blogs so that restaurants and other food related businesses can take advantage of it. These WordPress themes come with a huge plethora of customization options so that you can easily customize your food and recipe blogs and websites according to your own taste.

1. Cooking Secrets WordPress Theme

This WordPress theme is for cooking secrets, with this theme you can make your website more enjoyable and pleasant.

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2. Caffeine WordPress Theme

If you have a Caffeine blog or website and you want exciting theme for your business then use this WordPress Theme.

Demo Download

3. Hassiumize – Food & Restaurant WordPress Theme

Hassiumize is the WordPress Theme which gives you all the details that you may need you’re your food and restaurant website.

Demo Download

4. Lobster’s Reviews WordPress Theme

This is elegant and easy to use theme but packed with powerful features. Enjoy browsing this theme.

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5. LightCafe

This is another easy to use theme and with this theme you can make your site wonderful and appealing.

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6. My Recipe

With this WordPress Theme you can easily post your tasteful cooking recipes. So, enjoy browsing everyone.

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7. Thanksgiving

This is another exciting WordPress Theme through this theme you can create your own attractive bolgs.

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8. Zylyz

This theme is packed with all features that are required for your food blog. Use this theme and make your food blog more pleasant and attractive for your visitors.

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9. Kitchener

With this theme you can create your own clean and stylish food blog. Enjoy everyone!!!

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10. Foodiet

This is also another easy to use theme and you can build your blog with the use of this WordPress Theme.

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11. Winter Cravings

With this theme, you can post your winter cooking recipes and give your website a superb look.

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12. YummyBlog

Yummy Blog is another easy to use WordPress Theme which gives you a chance to post your yummy and taste food recipes.

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13. Strawberry Blend

Another free WordPress Theme called Strawberry Blend which gives you superb result and terrific features so, enjoy browsing.

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14. Fresh Fruits

If you have a blog which is based on healthy food then this theme is perfect for you. Check out this theme.

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15. BlackWine

This WordPress Theme is very elegant and easy to use as well as have some interesting and useful features which definitely help you in your work.

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16. BonAppetit

BonAppetit is a WordPress Theme and this theme is packed with useful features. Check out this theme.

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17. Whole Wheat

In this theme you will find all the latest features and it is easy to use theme. You should see this theme and use it as it helps you a lot.

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18. Cappuccino

If you have a Cappuccino blog then use this theme which helps you very much in your blogging.

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19. Restaurant Pro

This is another simple and elegant WordPress Theme, with this theme you can create your own wonderful and stylish restaurant website.

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20. Coffee Desk

Coffee Desk is one of the best and superb WordPress Themes which gives you awesome results and this theme is packed with all latest features. I hope you like this theme.

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21. Diet Recipes

Use this superb theme if you have a blog which is based on diet recipes.

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22. IRestaurant

This is another restaurant theme but this time is for IRestaurant. Check out this amazing theme which helps you in your business.

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23. CookingBook

Cooking Book is another simple and interesting WordPress them. With the use of this them you can create your own food blog.

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24. Pizza WordPress Theme

This theme is a treat for those who want to create their pizza blog. Use this theme because this theme contains so many useful and helpful features.

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25. OrganicFood

This theme is simple but professional you can use this theme in your business.

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26. Diet WP Theme

This is another diet base theme with some new and fresh features. I hope you will like this theme.

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27. Drimon

Drimon is one of the commonly used WordPress Themes.

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28. Ice Press

This is another WordPress Theme which is perfect for food with various useful features.

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29. OrganicFood

This is another Organic food theme with some new features; hope you will like this theme.

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30. Recipes Magazine WordPress Theme

This WordPress Theme has so many interesting and exciting features which make your food blog more attractive for your visitors.

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31. Italian Restaurant WP WordPress Theme

For Italian Restaurant websites this WordPress Theme is perfect. This theme makes website colorful and eye-catching.

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32. Herbal Medicines WP 1 WordPress Theme

With this WordPress Theme you can create your Herbal medicines blog because this theme provides you various useful features that help you.

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33. Eating Healthy WP WordPress Theme

If you have healthy diet related blog so, you should see this WordPress Theme which definitely helps because this theme has very exciting and helpful features.

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34. Vito’s Restaurant WordPress Theme

This is another restaurant theme but for Vito’s Restaurant. This theme is simple but elegant and you will see lots of exciting features in this theme which please you.

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35. Food and Drink

If you have a Food and Drink blog or website then use this theme. This theme is best for your blog or website because this theme provides you numerous useful features.

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36. Delicious Evenings WordPress Theme

This WordPress Theme gives your website visitors a delicious evening feel. Again this theme is also packed with so many helpful features which help you.

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37. Grilling and Barbecue WordPress Theme

This theme is a treat for those of you who have a grilling-and-barbecue blog or website. This theme is perfect for your business because it gives you lots of interesting features.

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38. Delicious Dusk WordPress Theme

Here is another useful WordPress Theme called Delicious Dusk. This theme provides you so many helpful and exciting features.

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39. Chocolate Theme WordPress Theme

If you are chocolate lover and want to create your own chocolate based blog or website, then this theme is perfect for you.

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40. Summer’s Best WordPress Theme

If you have a blog or website based on summer’s, then see this WordPress Theme is for you which offers you numerous useful features.

Demo Download

Conclusion:

Enjoy looking into this collection and choose a theme that suits your food and recipe blog the most. With this collection, we want to share with you some of the relevant WordPress Themes so that you can customize your blogs the way you want.

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Websites have unknowingly become an integral part of our lives as they have helped businesses to communicate and facilitate with customers/users better than ever before.

Understanding the Purpose of Building A Website

Websites, in the recent times have become more communicative and an excellent resource for information. Not only do they add to the branding of a website, but also help visitors looking out for quality information. So if one does not find accurate, comprehensive information they are seeking, they are ought to move over to some other website that serves their purpose of communicating the exact information.

The purpose of websites is also to facilitate. So, it is by large a two-way communication where visitors after being impressed with the communicative approach of a website are increasingly willing to contact a business through its website by way of inquiries, bookings etc. thus serving the next key purpose – facilitation. Moreover, websites can facilitate efficiency by saving your time, helping you multiply your customer base and automate a few processes as well.

Nonetheless, the real purpose of a website is ultimately to bring value to your visitors, which besides encouraging customers to be interactive and participate in the business process should offer greater understanding to assess information, evade queues and be empowered to get a wider perspective on products and services offered by the website.

Presenting a step-by-step guide to building a professional website that will help you understand the intricacies of creating a successful website and the various do’s and don’ts associated with it.

Step 1. Website Specification

Creating a viable website specification is an integral part of building professional website. It is one of the most crucial document that helps a business reflect it’s priorities, responsibilities and create a brand image. While essential planning and precise information is foremost to develop a winning website specification, the success of search engine marketing and successive optimization efforts is concurrently dependent on your approach and ability to deliver a cohesive plan at present.

Besides stressing on accommodating pointers like budget, delays, deliverables, intellectual property, the purpose of the website, the site architecture, domain, the (standardized) languages used and mainly the content besides information on content management and hosting; a successful website specification should include:

• Intent of the document
• Project description
• Front-end functionality like common features, sitemap and website structure, each website page description, wireframes (home page and at least 2 other important pages), miscellaneous functionality
• Back-end functionality like use cases and conclusion

Step 2. Requirement Gathering

Requirement gathering is an intrinsic part of professional website building process. The right amount of requirement gathering after due understanding of the project deliverables plays a crucial role in the success of a professional website. One of the basic rules of requirement gathering is, to be realistic to customer/project requirements and not rely on assumptions.

Define and understand the scope of the website and create clear and concise requirement document, without filling it up with technology jargon or offering an instant solution to possible problems until the requirements are fully understood. It is suggested that you create a prototype if required to refine or confirm the customers’ requirements.

Step 3. Process understanding and Planning

Process understanding and planning is strategic to creating a successful professional website. It is indispensable to clearly state the mission for website creation – identify and analyze the requirements and goals, understand the marketing objectives of the business, so as to successfully caters to the needs of the target market and create a development process to achieve an appropriate endpoint.

Creating a project charter document is recommended for process understanding and planning. This will help you chalk out a blueprint of the process – what you intend to do and why, the technology and content required, the proposed timeframe for the process, budget and the appraisal of deliverables. Therefore, a viable procedure for strategic process understanding and planning would be to:

• Defining the objectives of the website
• Customer Conversion Architecture: the process which structures a website to facilitate users in achieving their end goal.
• Interaction design and Specifications: the process that involves website design testing, including the proposed forms and interactivity of the website.
• Website Development and Usability testing: the process of website building, based on the final specifications.
• Website Deployment, Marketing and Review: the delivery of the final product and deployment to a live website environment, inclusive of monitoring and review of the website for understanding customer flow and its success ratio in achieving the requisite business objectives.

Step 4. UI Design

A good UI design is the one that is user-friendly, responsive and lets users to be at ease with the interface, stay engaged and most importantly achieve goals. Therefore, it is important that you first know and understand your target market, i.e. the user and create UI design that lets them achieve their goals.

Study UI patterns that your target market is used to, and create familiar interfaces for them to feel at home and keep coming back. Create a conventional UI design that speaks your user’s language and ensure to keep it rather simple. Remember, the best UI designs are sensible, concise and devoid of unnecessary bling.

Also, a key principle of UI design is not to be apprehensive about making mistakes or be inhibited of failures, but to move forward and learn from analyzing user’s UI pattern.

Step 5. UX

Building a successful professional website cannot be complete without the right UX or user experience. UX is mainly about a visitor’s response and perceptions about using the website. Considered to be one of the most crucial aspects, user experience and usability if applied correctly in website design can give you the much required edge over your competitors.

In short, UX plays with the emotional quotient and experience of your customer; because the highly competitive market calls for ‘knowing your customer’ and their pattern of using the web rather than just concentrating on the functional aspect of your website (product).

A few of the most notable elements that contribute to optimum user experience are content, usability, branding, functionality, accessibility, pricing, reviews, site architecture, and design. The rewards of creating a superb UX is nonetheless tantamount to ensuring brand loyalty for your business, as well as boosting website traffic and consequently conversion rates.

Step 6. Development

A strategic web development process is paramount to the success of building a professional website. Website development requires a great amount of focus on meeting user requirements. Because, remember you just have 8 seconds to retain a visitor on your page. It is important that a proven development methodology is adopted so as to ensure that besides generating unique and repeat visitors, they help convert into customers, so as to achieve the set business objectives.

This requires initiating the website development process after meticulously setting the objectives of the website and defining the target audience and policies for information development. Thereafter, due analysis needs to be done so as to evaluate information consistency and verify correctness of domain information.

The next to feature in the methodology of a website development process is Design, where you can isolate information into page-sized chunks; connect pages along routes of use; cater information, context and navigation cues; besides creating a consistent look and feel. Thereafter, comes the process of Implementation where you can create an extendible directory and file structure, use HTML tools as and when required; use templates for supporting consistent look and feel; as well as check implementation in various browsers.

Step 7. Testing & Review

One of the most critical part of a website building process – testing and review, ensures that a successful endpoint is achieved so as to meet the business objectives of the company. The main areas that need to be addressed is to understand the website functionality and usability from the user’s perspective and then offer constructive and actionable recommendations on problem areas. A strategically performed testing and review ensures that the professional website developed is in accordance to user expectations, while keeping the objectives of the company intact.

Step 8. Convince Visitors

Convincing customers to trust on your online business courtesy your website is one of the most important aspects of building a professional website. You cannot expect people to do business on your online platform if they are not sure of your credibility. One of the first rules is to be accessible to your customers.

Make sure that your website provide information about the history of your business, experience in the given field and most importantly include detailed contact information – so that in case they have a problem and require solution, they can get in touch with you.

Most businesses in the recent time are connecting to their customers via social media networking like Facebook, Twitter, etc. This is in fact one of the most convenient way to give your customers a sense of acceptance to your online business, while getting instant feedback that may contribute to your understanding of UX. Consider offering guarantee on your products and services; include testimonials in your website while making sure they invoke trust and not sound trivial.

However, nothing can beat the credibility factor that can be garnered by placing Portfolios of your products and services in your website. Not only will it help visitors preview the quality of products/services offered by your business, it in fact gives your business the edge of legitimacy and establishing credibility online.

Step 9. Tracking and Evaluation

The convergence of success in building of a professional website can only be achieved through skillful tracking and consequent evaluation or analysis of visitor (traffic) activity in your website. Not only is it important to keep a track of the unique visitors in your site over a given period of time or the number of requested pageview, besides other variables; analyzing of site user behavior and pattern courtesy the server logs of your website can help towards developing quantitative data on the success of your website.

It is recommended that site logs with readable site traffic reports, complete with data graphics and charts be archived for long-term analysis, so as to understand user needs and interests change, for making the necessary changes.

Step 10. Maintenance

Website maintenance is a crucial part of professional website building, as the actual job of making your website a success begins only once after it is launched. It is important to understand that site maintenance is not just limited to constant monitoring of the aesthetic and functional aspects, but also a coordinated effort on the part of the site editor to streamline new content, maintain the graphic and editorial standards, while ensuring that the programming and linkages of all pages remain intact and functional.

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So, this Intermediate content typically covers the crystal clear information about the basic knowledge of landing pages covering the fundamental steps whichever preferred most.

Brief review on what is landing pages?

Landing page is also known as a “lead capture page”. Landing pages are the foundation of great inbound marketing strategies where you should be prepared to persuade visitors to complete certain actions. Like;

• Subscribe the newsletter through E-Book or Product Demo
• Buy your service or product
• To register for webinar
• Ask for a free Demo

Landing pages serves as the location which considers your visitors “Land “ In your website after clicking on a call-to-action. If you are trying to generate new leads or sell products online then landing pages are the only place to make it happen. I know, that’s far from being an easy task, landing page creation is an art which is very hard to master and even when you think to do, you need to do a lot of “A/B testing” for adjusting your assumptions about how your visitors think and to see what works and what doesn’t.

You should need to ensure that every piece of your landing page is well planned and working correctly, because with such a short time you need to make your first impression in front of your visitors.

As a thumb rule, a landing page usually includes a compelling header, interesting copy, minimal navigation and an optimized form.

In addition to a good design, an excellent landing page engages with a “Great strategy”. The most effective landing page focuses on a specific audience, such as traffic from an “Ask An SEO Expert “providing a free service to ask questions for search industry which directly connects through a landing page from where you can directly submit a question.

It is crucial to build a unique landing page for each offer you create. You can develop landing pages that will enable visitors to download or opt in to receive your content offers like coupons, E-Books, Webinars to name a few. Or sign up for more offers further down the tunnel like free trials, product demos, contacting a sales rep and many others.

Why are landing pages so important?

Landing pages is a milestone of an effective marketing campaign. The goal landing pages is to get conversion, but genuinely to develop relationships by instilling confidence and credibility with your audience.

So, a landing page is all about capturing your sales opportunities or to sell your products. Therefore designing an outstanding landing page experience is crucial to effectively renovate a better fraction of your site visitors directly into leads or sales. The best marketing is about delivering the correct information towards the suitable person at the suitable moment. That’s how you create a marketing campaign.

According to 2012 Marketing Benchmarks Report companies see a 55 % increase in leads when increasing their numbers of landing pages from just 10 to 15. Landing pages are generally a sensible way to direct any visitor towards the most related web page on your site from them – the exact page with providing offers and the form which they need to complete to get what you promoted. This enhances the chance that they will convert on that page.

Tips to Create a Landing Page with Better Conversion

Study signifies that companies with 30 or more landing pages generate seven times more leads than those with fewer than 10. Here, I will explain you the most important tactics that makes easy to build sophisticated landing pages to enhance your conversion rates along with more leads.

#1: Contain all Critical Elements

Landing pages play an extreme Role to driving leads and revenue to your website. It converts the visitors into leads through buying your product and services or by gathering contact information from them. However to make these kind of deals transpire, It’s really essential that your landing pages include these elements:

• Headline and Sub-headline
• A brief description of the offer which evidently emphasizes its value
• Contains at least one image
• Add elements such as testimonials or security badges
• A Form to capture visitor’s information

Image Source: franklinmint.com

This is the perfect example of a landing page. Let me explain some most interesting points that I have circled out. It has a perfect timelines, a perfect directional code shown with giant arrows, directs you to the purchase direction and CTA colour that helps you to receive a great conversion Rate.

Image Source: danwoolley.net

This is a very simple landing page of Unshaken E-Book, but it contains all essential elements like Simple headlines, an Emotional video, suggested uses that will definitely affect a buyer, an attractive testimonial that includes instant credibility and many more.

#2: Call to Action is Vital

You need to come up with a clear Call to Action. This is most important part of any landing pages. Your call to action should tie up with your landing pages from headline and body copy images and overall layout. If people click on CTA for a free offer then it must have the whole information about plans and pricing instead of going straight for the sign up. In short, describe your landing page which consistently reflects what you promised in your call-to-actions and vice versa.

Image Source: godaddy.com

Image Source: jetsetter.com/sales

Image Source: zynga.com

Given above are the examples of Call to Action on landing pages which are circled. You can see all the landing pages are aligned, and the colour of text or buttons promptly draws attention where required. Every Call to action aligns with the sales process and you need to make it clear what actions could be performed on your landing page.

#3: Remove Navigation Element

It should be essential that your visitor will receive right information through your landing pages. You have to make only clickable action should be your Call to action rather than mention links on the page that enable visitors to move about your website. If this happens, than you run the risk of distracting them that creates lead generation friction and increases the chances that your visitors will abandon your landing page. One of the best ways to solve this problem is to simply remove the main navigation from the page and one more thing you can also link your logo to your homepage can also be a good idea.

Image Source: watchmouse.com

Image Source: tapmates.com/dribbblr

These are the examples of landing pages which are avoided to keep navigational element in your landing pages which is circled above. It should be really very easy for visitors while they are visiting your site and doesn’t distract with other information. Removing navigational element is one of the best parts that should be implemented in your landing pages.

#4: Keep it Simple

Make your landing pages as simple as possible without extraneous information. This can be done through the graphics, general look, colour schemes, font choices, contain simple text and images on the page. The simpler your page and its design, the more likely it is to convert.

Image Source: eventfinds.com

I am sure now you will get the idea on how to keep your landing pages simple? Given above is a great example of a simple landing page as they use very crystal clear information and good action area in contrast with good colour combination.

#5: Add Social Proof

Don’t forget to include social media sharing widgets that allow the leads in order to address your content and offers. Be sure to only contain buttons for the social platforms the target audience makes use of. Also keep in mind to provide an email forwarding choice to make easy for visitors to get different sharing preferences.

Image Source: benthebodyguard.com

Image Source: ubervu.com

The above given examples are all mentions the Social proof. You could see that every landing page has a social button either in the footer or header. It proves to be helpful to your visitors to make direct connection with you in every social media networks. It is an effective tool to convert your visitors into leads.

#6: Necessary to Keep Proof Elements

Nowadays, people are becoming more resistant to give up their personal information. Luckily, there are many features you could contribute in obtaining internet pages in lessening visitors’ from complete stress and anxiety. You could add privacy message that indicates visitor’s email address will not be shared or sold. Keep any sensitive information in a form which includes security seals, BBB rating or certification so that visitors would at least believe that their information is safe and secure. One more thing you could add testimonials or customer logos a great way to leverage social proof.

Image Source: natureshealthresource.com

These are the examples of landing pages which are notified by necessary proof elements, so that at least you are sure that you are part of a safer side. Do not stress too much as all your private information will be safe and secure.

#7: Make a Form That Looks Shorter

It is obvious that people fill stuck to fill out a form which looks long and time consuming. If your form contains a lot of fields then try making the form appear shorter by adjusting its styling. You can reduce the spacing between fields or align the titles to the left of each field instead of above it, so that the form appears shorter. Implement the smart and dynamic form fields that automatically adjust to a shortened version if a visitor has become the part of your marketing database.

Image Source: squareup.com

Image Source: band-demand.com

Image Source: cleverscale.com

Keep your form simple and short that will be really very helpful for your visitors, which is shown in the above red circle. The reason is, sometimes it happens that people feel boring and get frustrated after filling so much information from the website form. That is why I will mention some great examples of landing pages form that looks shorter and does not ask for so much information.

#8: Ask for the Information that You Really Need to Love

The best practise to make your landing page for better conversion is that to ask the information that actually should be required. In general, the fewer fields you have on a form, the higher the conversion rate. This is because with each new field you add to a form, it creates more work for the visitor and therefore a lesser number of conversions. Essentially, the best way to determine What style time-span is ideally suited for the organization is to test it for yourself.

Image Source: oxfamireland.org

Image Source: 1888mammoth.com

This the last factor that you should follow, and that is to keep your landing pages quite simple as circled above, mentioning only the details which should are required. In the above example, you could see the landing pages that contain the form field which is actually necessary. So, make sure your form field contains useful and necessary information.

Closing Thoughts

Landing pages are essential for effective lead generation, yet optimizing them doesn’t stop after choosing clear wordings and deciding how to design your current forms. Once you’ve implemented the basic principles, you can take your landing pages to the next level.

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A billboard should be great enough to attract onlookers. Now the question arises that what makes a great billboard. Well, a great billboard should have something that causes the drivers to put their lives in danger to take a look at them while they are driving. To be precise, a billboard should be creative, visually appealing, and graphic oriented as well as informative enough that it grabs the attention at first look.

Here, we have gathered 45 extremely creative and brilliant billboard ads that not only grab your attention but also convey their message quite cleverly. We hope that you will like this collection and find it inspiring for you. Have fun!

1. Belt Up

This ad shows that backseats are also no safer so one should always belt up with safety belts.

2. Berger: Sky

What a perfect shade Berger can provide you is evident in this billboard ad that showing the perfect match of sky color.

3. Formula Toothcare: Bite

Build strong teeth with Formula tooth care; teeth can be so strong that you can even bite billboard.

4. Heineken: 3D Billboard

This 3D billboard ad was designed for Heineken and it gives the impression as if the bottle is being about to grabbed.

5. Koleston Naturals: Change

Very brilliant and creative idea for a billboard advertisement that not only looks good but also grabs the attention.

6. Leica binoculars: Brown bear

This creative billboard ad of a binocular shows the power of binocular that makes things clear and vivid.

7. Liquor-billboard

This is one of the most creative and imaginatively designed billboard ad that were named as Liquor billboard.

8. Nike: Barge resistance

The tagline for this ad is Ready for your :45? 45 seconds is the average time a hockey player spends on the ice before being switched out.

9. Oldtimer Restaurants: All you can eat rest stop

Another creative and extremely appealing concept has been portrayed in this billboard ad that grabs the attention of the onlookers.

10. Donatos Pizza: Model

The idea being presented in this billboard ad is good but somehow somewhere the execution is not that great that it can induce the desire for pizza.

11. Prestige Omega Cookware: Strong handle billboard

This billboard ad was designed for Prestige Omega Cookware and it portrays a strong handle of Prestige cookware.

12. Anando milk: Building

This creative and clever ad was designed for Anando milk showing that a kid can be so powerful that he can even displace a portion of a large building, if he drinks Anando milk.

13. Colorado State Patrol: Billboard Collision

Another creative and cleverly designed billboard ad is presented here that showcases the creativity of the designer.

14. Dairy Milk billboard

This Dairy Milk billboard ad shows that Cadbury lovers cannot resist themselves to have Dairy Milk chocolate.

15. Frontline: Mall

This creative ad was created for Frontline Mall portraying a very nice and creative idea.

16. TV3: Law & Order outdoor lamp

This was created for TV3: Law & Order outdoor lamp and has been created quite intelligently.

17. Adidas: Petr Cech

This ad for Addidas was designed to celebrate the opening of the EuroCup 2008 where Adidas installed a 60m tall image of Petr Cech on the Prater Ferris wheel, the main tourist attraction in Vienna.

18. Real Hip Hop: Black power

This creative ad will surely grab the attention as it executes a very brilliant idea.

19. Mars Chilled: Tongue.

This creative and clever billboard advertisement was done for Mars Chilled: Tongue.

20. Car Outdoor Advertising

This creative billboard design was created for car outdoor advertising.

21. Billboard

Here, you will see a very nice and fresh idea for billboard advertising, I specially like the idea of the swans flew out from the billboard.

22. Lacrimare Billboard

This particular advertisement shows the product i.e. Lacrimare as if it were on an actual billboard!

23. QUITPLAN Services “Big Butt” by Clarity Coverdale Fury

Clarity Coverdale Fury has created 30 ft cigarette for QUITPLAN Services “Big Butt”.

24. Nationwide Insurance: Spilt Paint

Another brilliant and excellent idea for billboard advertisement that says ‘ Life Comes At You Fast’.

25. Floralp Butter: Bread

This ad for created for a butter and some butter was left on there in order for the ad to make sense.

26. Martor: Razor Blade.

This ad was created for Martor: Razor Blade and shows the sharpness of the Razor.

27. Nestle.

This billboard advertisement is simply amazing and out of the world. This is called memorable and effective ad.

28. Tylenol Ball

Tylenol brand has posted a large and backlit billboard on a very popular location with a brilliant execution of a man suffering from a bad headache. And in order to emphasize the effect, a large wrecking ball is suspended from a 3D crane above the board and has smashed though and stuck in the man’s forehead.

29. Outdoor: Miele vacuum cleaner

A very nice concept has been portrayed here for Miele vacuum cleaner.

30. Rope Ladder Coca Billboard

This rope ladder coca billboard does not any description as it is quite clear and unique as well.

31. Penline Stationery: Strong tape

See the stickiness power of the tape that it can even tape a billboard.

32. Smart: Corner billboard

Smart: Corner billboard was designed for the purpose of reinforcing steel structure.

33. The Naval Museum of Alberta: Billboard

Now this one is something that we call groundbreaking creative idea and on top of that execution is quite close to the perfect.

34. Craftsman Tools: Wrench billboard

This billboard was designed for craftsman and showing that they should always trust in their hands.

35. Mitsubishi i-Miev: iMiEV Electric Billboard

This billboard was designed for iMiEV that is the Australia’s first volume produced electric car that is now available on sale.

36. Groupe E: Four

This looks cute with a good idea and good execution and completes with a catchy tagline saying ‘The energy to always do more’.

37. Denver Water: Sprinkler

The ad says ‘Broken sprinklers waste water. Use only what you need.’

38. Rapala Fishing Equipment: Cats

This is another great example of clever billboard advertisement that was designed for Rapala Fishing Equipment.

39. Danerolles: Mega Croissant

This huge croissant is a rolled up billboard poster for Danerolles, the ready-to-bake puff pastry for making your own fresh croissants.

40. Serve: Escape Clever Billboardads

This innovative billboard as completes with a tagline saying ‘if only every child could escape sexual abuse.’

41. Calgary International Film Festival: Crying billboard

This billboard was designed for Calgary International Film Festival and conveys the message quite interestingly.

42. Denver Water: Channel

This clever billboard ad says that strong electricity at night is a waste of energy anyway.

43. Denver Water: Hose

This ad was designed to show that no watering between 10am and 6pm. Use Only What You Need.

44. Asian Paints: Chocolate

This ad for Asian paints says that every color of Asian paints tells a story like this one.

45. Ford Mustang: Fast, 3

Constructed from GE Lexan EXL semi-transparent resin, the billboard accurately blurs the scene behind it regardless of day, weather or season.

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Uptime is defined as the amount of time for which your website will remain accessible and runs smoothly. This time is generally known as a percentage; for instance “99.9% uptime.” If a website maintains good uptime that indicates how well you are at keeping their systems up and running. When a web hosting provider records a great uptime percentage, then it indicates that their servers are always up and running at the same time. We all are aware of the fact that web pages fail to engage clients if they are experiencing downtime issues, hence uptime is of viable importance.

It is very crucial that a website is accessible 24/7, otherwise if a visitor encounters with problem frequently then that visitor will never come back, and you will lose a potential user in turn. If your website and/ or web applications are suffering from poor uptime on a regular basis then your existing users will even lose their confident on your service and product. If your website and applications are suffered constantly with availability issue, they will probably look for a new solution that isn’t as problematic.

The Working Agenda

Companies dealing with website monitoring will check your websites on a consistent basis and that too within as short intervals as one minute. You get alerts in the form of RSS feeds, emails and text messages if the website is down. The reliable monitoring companies will also inform about the reason for your site’s downtime. Besides, it will also provide the detailed reasons/reports of the issue on a weekly or monthly basis.

Issues with Assessing a Web Host on Uptime Stays

The greatest challenge with grading a web host on their uptime is simple; you have no choice to validate it independently. If your host mentions they provide 99.9% uptime, you have no choice left but to take their views as the final word.

When a monitoring company claims to provide 99% uptime, it implies they record only 1% downtime. Now, considering this percentage, within a week, the downtime would come to 1 hour, 40 minutes, and 48 seconds and over one year, that would imply that your server is down for as much as 87.36 hours annually.

Beware of Misleading Uptime Guarantees

Uptime assurances are not generally what you may consider they are. Unless the monitoring agreement is way different from other monitoring agreements, it is usually observed that the uptime assurance works somewhat like this:

Some web hosting companies assure to refund if your site experiences downtime for above 7 hrs 18 min every month under unscheduled outages, then they refund you for the excess period of time after they authenticate that your website was actually down during that time as you have reported with them.

Now let’s now break it down to get a clear idea:

• The length of downtime – According to majority of the website monitoring companies, 1% of downtime amounts to 7 hrs 18 min of downtime every month. This means that they are still adhering to their agreement and providing customers with 99% of uptime.
• Scheduled outages – The term “scheduled outages” may differ from one hosting to other, but the meaning is simple- planned down time, if they will be executing a server upgradation next weekend, and for the same your website will be down for 3 hours, then it won’t be included in their uptime assurance as you will be informed well in advance so that you can inform your users as well. Most of the web host companies prefer not taking their websites down for more than four hours at a time.
• Cost refund – This forms an important part of the agreement. For instance, your website earns $2000 every month by generating sales and is down for 4 hours as a result of which you incur a loss of $11.11 approx as an average. Now, majority of the monitoring packages cost somewhere around $10-20 every month. Hence spending this money is really worth to prevent losing sales due to frequent downtime.
• Outage Reporting – Although it is rare for website companies to refunding your amount when you report for the outage. Moreover they will only refund the amount of time for which you had noticed your website was down. This works absolutely fine if you’ve monitoring systems to alert you the very moment your website goes down and is available again. But then, in majority of the cases, people don’t report for outages, as a result they aren’t reimbursed for the complete outage if you aren’t aware of the time for which the downtime took place.

Uptime Significance in a Website Monitoring Server

Most online business professionals take uptime for granted. But then, it is something that you need to aware of. Uptime is the time span when your server runs smoothly without any interruptions.

Uptime vs. Downtime: the Know Hows

Downtime is certainly the opposite of uptime. .This is absolutely normal, and as discussed previously you’ll be informed about the same in advance. Rather, downtime becomes troublesome whenever it takes place unexpectedly. This may occur for a variety of reasons, starting from technical glitch to power failure. An ideal website monitoring organization will make sure to help you to deal with downtime issues effectively.

Downtime affects everyone from large business houses to a small enterprises and single consumer as a result of which most online business professionals lose their revenue and potential clients. In case their servers crash for a prolonged period of time, their clients will leave them as well.

How to maintain uptime and deliver best results?

Downtime though an inevitable, can be managed effectively if you are to come up with a reliable website monitoring services. Let us now take a look at some of the factors that will help you maintain maximum uptime:

Total Clients on a Server

If the server where you have hosted your site is loaded with excessive website then chances of experiencing a downtime is quite likely. A server can be overloaded if you have excessive clients; as a result you might have to compromise with your bandwidth and processors usage. So, make sure to keep off from this issue to enjoy maximum uptime.

Website Monitoring

If you want to make sure that your websites are running smoothly or your customers are having no issues navigating through your site, then the first thing that you should do is monitor your website. By resorting to website monitoring services, you can focus on other important tasks you have as the monitoring company will notify you in case they encounter with any fault. They do so through email, RSS feeds or text messages. The sooner you are notified about the issue, the better it is for you. Make sure to resolve the issue at the earliest even before your customers come to know about it. After all, the true success of your smooth business operations depends on how well you manage your online business transactions.

The bottom line is that website monitoring companies ensure to keep a watch on your website and server on a consistent basis and notify you no sooner than they found any technical glitch. As mentioned, you will be alerted through RSS feeds, emails or text messages so that you can get access to minimum interruptions.

Website monitoring tools ensure identifying issues quickly that can cause prolonged spans of inactivity, thereby leading to a loss in revenue. Make sure to hire a renowned monitoring service provider that run consistent monitoring checks to make sure that your websites are performing optimally, and are secured from malicious attacks.

Regular Backups are needed

In case a server experiences a catastrophic failure, make sure to take a complete backup of all data on a regular basis.

How Reliable Monitoring Solution Works?

Website monitoring facility ensures to deliver high quality monitoring services by lowering your risk as well as restoring your information at the earliest. The primary objective of a website monitoring company is to ensure that your business operations are running consistently without any technical glitch.

By choosing a reliable monitoring solution provider, you can sit back and relax; besides they will also track failures and let you know at the earliest through RSS feeds, emails and text messages in case they sense a technical flaw. The best part about an ideal monitoring solution provider is that they will help you with round the clock support and assist you whenever you experience some problems. As a result, you will be able to resolve the issues even before your customers are able to know about the same.

The Bottom line to Your Solutions

Face the fact- downtime cannot be ignored. But then, you can certainly take up some stringent measures to increase the uptime and keep downtime at bay. And to help you in this effort, make sure to hire the services from global website and server monitoring solution to keep you informed about the potential downtime challenges through RSS feeds, emails and text messages so that you are able to resolve the issue even before your clients come to know. With our round the clock customer support You will be assured that we are there by your side and will help you always to come out of the technical glitch and help your clients with a smooth performing business.

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Week after week, we are told of companies that have gone bankrupt, let staff go, or simply ceased trading due to a lack of sales. The underlying reasons for this are clear, in an economy stuck in recession, shoppers are becoming more discerning and ultimately more shrewd in their buying decisions.

Simply put, if they can get it cheaper somewhere else, they will. Brand loyalty has next to disappeared. So if they are going somewhere else, where are they going?

They are going to the Internet.

A Brief History Of Shopping

image credits: @Nigel Chadwick

Shopping has greatly evolved over the years. Arguably, trading and bartering has existed as long as we have been a sentient race on Planet Earth, but shopping in its current form, especially in the UK, can be traced back to an American named Harry Gordon Selfridge, and the opening of his self-named shop in a then quiet area of London, known as Oxford Street.

Selfridges, which opened in 1906, was the first truly “modern” department store, with vast open areas for the customers to browse, goods that could be handled and tested, and areas for reflection such as the Quiet Room, installed with state of the art, “Double Glazing” shortly after its invention in the 1930s.

This in itself was a radical departure from the more conservative and uptight attitudes that London and the UK had previously adhered to. The traditional role of the shopkeeper was to stand behind a counter and fetch goods as the customer asked for them. For the customers themselves to have free reign of the shop floor presented a quandary for the traditional values that most sellers held dear. They had been previously there to sell to the customers, and now with Selfridge’s new store, the staff were merely there as customer assistants, to aid the shoppers as was needed in the shopping experience. In Mr Selfridge’s own words, “The customer is always right”.

Bring that forward to the modern day however and the situation has changed. The shopkeeper has been replaced by the online shopping basket and the only reason that Selfridges remains an exception is in the fact that it remains open, whilst similar stores around it are closing with reckless abandon.

How The Amazon Came To The High Street

image credits: @Jeff Sandquist

It is clear from the statistics that the High Street is under threat. At least 30 major brands, including Woolworths, Jessop’s and Blockbuster, have either gone into administration or disappeared from the high street altogether since 2008, and the signs of the recession ending, and halting this spate of closures is unlikely. Instead online giants, such as Amazon, The Hut and Play.com have taken huge chunks of the market away from the town centres and made it their own. In a time where roughly 7 in 10 Internet users now shop online, the High Street can offer no competition for these intangible retailers.

The issues the high street sellers have to contend with are myriad. High rental prices in prime inner city locations, staff wages, exclusivity rights on new releases and geographical limitations all pose economical problems for the retailers, which have to be reflected in the prices they charge for goods. For global online companies like Amazon, the complications are less binding. Their website takes most of the labour out of shopping for the company and the customer and cheap warehouses in out of town locations deal with the packaging and delivery of the goods. Amazon, which opened in 1994 as an online book store, operates websites for 10 countries, delivering to many more, and is eating up competing companies at a rate of knots.

The shift is noticeable. Waterstones, still operating at the time of this post has been forced to drastically change its market strategy after Amazon and other e-retailers introduced E-Books. Viewable through devices such as the Kindle or Nook, the E-Book is a totally digital, faithfully reproduced copy of a book, at a fraction of the price. Without binding and printing costs to affect the pricing, Amazon can sell as many copies of the books as they like without having to recourse to re-prints, or restocking.

For Waterstones this means that their tangible goods need to be even more appealing, as eventually only those seriously opposed to making the move to digital will remain as their customers. Hardback and paperback sales are under threat for more than just this reason however, Amazon is now able to pass its saving through E-Books to its printed volumes, undercutting high street prices a second time.

For the average consumer this means a trip into town is more likely to be a browsing occasion where goods are evaluated and not bought, before being purchased online at a lower price.

Could The High Street Take Its Business Back?

image credits: @LaserGuided

For the main retailers the answer is not simple, but there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Retailers such as John Lewis have launched their own websites, offering a comparable range to their stores, with the added benefit of home delivery and slightly improved prices. This strategy does seem limited however, in that only stores, with their own exclusive ranges, can take advantage on online space. Stores such as HMV and Zavvi, the latter of which closed 2 years ago, still will face stiff competition for more established e-retailers, who can offer the same stock.

The gambit has paid of it seems however, with John Lewis reporting a 40% increase in online sales year on year, which will pay them dividends in the future.

For the more generalist retailers, for whom online competition is too fierce, other strategies must be considered. Game for instance, is offering its customers the opportunity to play soon to be released games before anyone else, instore, in “Lock In” events. These events, widely publicised on the social media networks, have proved popular with vastly growing market of gaming consumers, and has been repeated for high profile releases such as Gears of War: Judgement, Dead Space 3 and the most recent Nintendo console, Wii-U.

It has provided gamers with something which they cannot get online, and as such has added value to the brand. This coupled with loyalty card deals and a strong high street presence, has helped stave off initial worries of the company going under, and increased footfall, which is vital in this day and age.

Exclusivity of experiences is the key. By offering something the no consumer can get online, the shops have more of a chance of increase both brand awareness and sales within the stores. If a customer can compare prices they will, so bricks and mortar stores need to remove the internet from the equation and deal strictly in unique products and opportunities.

Who Will Be Next To Leave The High Street?

image credits: @Stephen McKay

This is a tricky one to predict, with so many stores rapidly changing, altering their selling focus and being bought out by other companies. There are however, three main contenders for the rather dubious crown:

• Argos

  With a history on the high street that dwarfs many other retailers, Argos’ business set up harks back to the pre-Selfridge’s era of shop keeping. The now well known process, of looking through a catalogue, filling in a slip of paper, and waiting at an assigned counter for your products has now become associated with the rather old fashioned and quaint ideas shops had before the Internet came along. Although Argos reported a 2.7% sales increase in 2012, it has still resulted in falling margins as the retailer struggles to keep up with competitors online.

• Mothercare

  The child and baby store has reported a 7.4% fall in total group sales over the last 12 months, which includes both the Early Learning Centre and rival Blooming Marvellous, which it bought out in 2009. Recently Mothercare has integrated the ELC into its own stores in an effort to cut down on rental and stocking costs and has announced major restructuring plans in an effort to stave off closure. Some stores, in the 38 countries in which it operates, will consider themselves lucky if they see this year though.

• WH Smith

  Remaining on the high street since Henry Walton Smith first opened his News Vendor shop in 1792, WH Smith has struggled to maintain its relevancy in an age of digital consumerism. The brand has faltered in the 2000s, initially losing out to supermarket chains such as Tesco’s and Morrisons, who were able to undercut their book prices, and is now suffering as online retailers take their book, magazine and newspaper revenue through digital channels. The brand even went so far as to allow QualitySolicitors to set up stalls within the shops in the hope that this would yield further trade. More recently, developments have found the retailer focusing on gift giving and Christmas promotions in their advertising, trying to score hits within festive market, and the inherent difficulty of giving an e-book as a present.

The Future For Both The Web And High Street Stores: Working Together?

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It remains to be seen what will become of the high street in coming years. The most recent festive period in 2012 saw online sales increase by 20% with a further 17% rise on Boxing Day 2012, compared to the previous year. To combat this, bricks and mortar retail outlets are bringing their Boxing Day Sales forward to start in to mid December, forcing down prices across the board, but ensuring that some of the Christmas money they so dearly depend on is pushed their way.

Retailers such as John Lewis are leading the way in terms of innovation online and their year on year increase has shown that it is possible for a store to cohabit the virtual and real retail sectors with a degree of success.

In the long term, the question that must be asked is what stores can we simply not do without on the high street, and as recent closures and sales patterns have shown, that might not be that many at all.

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Companies hire freelance writers for a number of reasons. When a company downsizes, for example, writers often are among the first to be let go. It isn’t because the company doesn’t need them. It’s just that management often considers documentation to be secondary to the actual product the company produces.

Even after the fulltime writers are gone, though, the work they were doing still has to be done. And so, companies turn to freelance writers.

You might be asking why companies would lay off their staff writers and then turn around and hire freelancers (who sometimes are the very writers the company just laid off). There are many economic and business reasons for hiring freelancers instead of employees. For one, although freelancers make more money per hour than employees do, the company’s actual cost is less for freelancers than it is for full-time employees. With employees, the company has to pay for vacation time, sick days, and downtime when there just isn’t that much for the employee writer to do. In addition, the company has to provide benefits, such as health insurance and pay half of their FICA.

When you add all of this together with the employee’s salary plus providing a space and equipment, you’ll see that companies pay a lot of money for their employees. When companies hire freelancers, they’re only paying the fee that the freelancers charge, which is only for the time that the freelancers are actually working.

Second, full-time employees can be a legal problem for companies. If a company hires an employee who doesn’t work out for any reason, there’s a chance that the employee may sue the company when let go. Some of these lawsuits are fair, but some aren’t. Regardless of whether the lawsuits are fair or not, companies have to pay lawyers to resolve them. Also, disgruntled employees could damage the company’s reputation or property.

Working with freelancers is less risky for companies. Your clients hire you to work for a very specific amount of time or a specific project. You are eager to do your best in hopes of getting more contracts in the future, but when the project is done, if the company doesn’t have another project waiting for you, the relationship is ended. It’s a clean and simple business arrangement.

Another reason companies hire freelancers is that sometimes they simply have more work to be done than people to do it. It makes more sense to hire people who will be available only when they need the extra hands, and then will be gone when the need no longer is there.

Freelancers also can provide skills that companies only need occasionally. For example, if a company is applying for a grant and doesn’t plan to do this more than once, it makes more sense to hire a freelancer to write the grant proposal than to hire a grant writer, then let that person go when the grant proposal is written.

Start With the People You Know

One of the best ways to find clients when you’re first starting out is to look at the people you already know.

Many freelancers find their first client by looking at their last job. If you left your job on good terms and were honest about why you were quitting your job, there’s a chance that the company you left may pay you to continue working for them as a freelancer.

If you’ve kept In touch with co-workers who have gone to work for other companies, call them, even if you weren’t the best of friends. Tell them about your new business, and then ask them who you might contact at their new company about your services.

Always remember that all business is basically “people” business. Don’t overlook anyone when you’re trying to find clients. Do you work on volunteer projects? (By the way, volunteering is a great way to get to know influential people who can help you with your freelancing career – especially if you volunteer to do the writing and promotion duties for those projects.)

Think about the people you’ve worked with on those projects. Are any of them affiliated with companies that you’d like to work for? Ask for their help in getting your foot in the door. The worst that can happen is that they say “no.”

Think about the organizations that you belong to. Are there people at your church, for example, who work for companies you’d like to work for? Call them, tell them about your business, and then ask for suggestions about how to do work with their company. You’ll find that most people will be happy to help you.

Join the Chamber of Commerce and go to their meetings. Chambers of Commerce is great place to meet other business people and gain new contacts.

Above all, network, network, network! Tell everyone you know about your business. You never know where your next job might come from. Mention that you freelance at parties, when you’re standing in line at the grocery store waiting to check out, and so forth. Be sure to carry some of your business cards with you at all times so you can hand them out if anyone is interested.

Online Job Offerings

Don’t forget resources for freelancers on the Internet. Here are the best freelancing sites that every freelancer should check out today:

• freelancer.com
• elance.com
• odesk.com
• guru.com
• vworker.com
• scriptlance.com
• getacoder.com
• fiverr.com

Also, there are several job boards that don’t charge a fee to let you see advertised job openings. This is a great place to find out which companies use technical writers. If a company has a listing for a technical writer job, there’s a chance that they might hire freelancers too. Here are the best job boards that every freelancer should check out today:

• jobs.problogger.net
• bloggingpro.com/jobs
• jobs.freelanceswitch.com

There also are several websites that say they offer listings of freelance projects that you can see and bid on after paying them a fee. I’m not a fan of these sites, and here’s why: Because they’re charging you a fee, they generally aren’t charging the company or individuals who are listing jobs. They let them list jobs for free so they can get more listings, but they don’t appear to screen the types of jobs being listed or the people who are listing them. Often, the listings are for jobs that don’t have anything to do with writing, or are listed by individuals who don’t have the money to pay you to do the work. Even if there are legitimate writing projects listed, there are so many people bidding on the jobs, the jobs pay so little, they’re not worth your time.

While it’s difficult to find sites that provide good job leads for free or a reasonable price, they do exist. Because new sites start up and old sites are deleted, you should use your search engine to find websites that list jobs for freelance writers. Be aware, however, that you may or may not find great projects there. Some people make their living writing web content and blogs, but if that isn’t what you want to do, you may have to be persistent to find work that you want.

In recent years, though, you have to be more careful about the jobs you accept over the Internet. Be especially wary of companies that ask you upfront to send them money or ask you for personal information, such as your checking account number. Above all else, remember the old caveat: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Companies That Hire Freelancers

According to the Society for Technical Communicators, the largest sector hiring technical writers is the computer industry.

All types of companies hire freelance technical writers, though, so if there aren’t any software or computer manufacturers close to you, look to other areas. Large telecommunications companies use a lot of computers and software. They often need technical writers to write their user manuals. Banks also hire technical writers to write the documentation needed to meet Sarbanes-Oxley requirements or procedures guides for their employees, or user manuals for their computer systems. Small companies often hire freelancers to write company newsletters, advertising brochures, and training courses.

When you’re looking at the types of companies that might hire you, you can categorize them by industry or size. It may be easier to get your foot in the door with a smaller company, but eventually, you’ll probably want to move up to medium-sized and large companies because they usually are more stable and pay better.

To locate companies that you might be interested in working with, go to your local library and check The Advertiser Red Book and the Thomas Register, Both of these are valuable resources that can provide you with a wealth of information about companies that you might want to contact.

Before you send information to any of the contact names you find in these books, however, be sure to call the company and make sure those people are still there and working at the same jobs.

Another way to find out the names of people to contact is to call the companies and ask. If a company has a technical writing department, ask for the name of the supervisor. If the company doesn’t have a technical writing department, ask for the name of the head of the marketing or communications departments.

Contact the Human Resources department as a last resort, since they often act at gatekeepers for vendors. They may tell you that they’ll pass your name on to the right person, but often, this is more involved than necessary. The person you’re talking to may have good intentions, but he or she has many things to do and it’s easy to forget to pass along the name of a potential vendor.

Human Resources can help you best in another way. Ask them what the company’s vendor policies or who you should contact to find out about the company’s vendor policies. Since nearly all companies and prime contractors have preferred vendor lists, getting on the approved vendor lists of several different companies can get you a lot more work, especially government contract work.

To get on an approved vendor list, you usually need to fill out an evaluation form. There may be other requirements as well. There’s no standard form to fill out or standard procedures to follow. Each company has its own requirements for their preferred vendors.

If the company has a purchasing office, that’s often who handles the vendors. Contact the purchasing department and ask what their requirements are. Minority-owned businesses often are given some preference in contracts, so be sure to look for that and any other advantage you can give yourself!

When you receive your evaluation form, be sure to fill it out carefully and thoroughly, especially if you’re applying for preferred vendor status with a government agency.

Websites

Today, companies expect businesses to have websites. Even If you plan to do business only with local companies, you still should have a website. Who knows? You may attract customers in other locations, including some who may be interested in working with you as a telecommuter.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to build a website. In fact, since most clients expect technical writer, to be able to use HTML editors, such as Microsoft Expression or Adobe Dreamweaver, building your own website gives you an opportunity to showcase your skills.

If you don’t have the skills to develop a distinctive template for your website, you can purchase one on the Internet and customize it. Then again, if you don’t want to do the work yourself, you can either hire a professional graphic artist who develops websites or you can contact students at a local community college to see if anyone would like to take on your project.

At minimum, your website should tell people about your company and what services and products you offer. It also should have a contact page that enables people to send you an email from your website. You want to give people a reason to visit your website, so offer some information (such as tutorials) and refresh your content often.

A website is a great place to showcase your portfolio as well. Sea writing samples, and then save them as PDF to preserve the formatting and get the best resolution, and then upload them to your website.

Instead of printing a paper newsletter to mail to your customers, consider publishing your quarterly newsletter on your website. This is one way to add fresh content to your website and give visitors a reason to visit your website more often.

Don’t forget to publish your press releases on your website, even if you mail paper copies to the media. Writers and researchers often search website press releases to see if there is a story worth telling.

You also can use your website to find out more about your customers and potential customers by conducting polls, customer surveys, and questionnaires.

Another way to make contact with more people is by starting a forum, users group, or message board on your website. For example, you might start a message board that enables people to get quick answers to questions about business writing. Groups such as these quickly become a community and their users will come to your site more often and stay longer.

Finally, add “feeds” from your Facebook and other social media accounts to your website to expand your audience even more.

So, Who Will You Work For?

You can have the best skills in the world, but if you’re living in an area where there’s no demand for those skills, you’ll have to adapt to the market or move. In cities that have little technology, there’s very little demand for technical writers, for example.

If you live in a low-tech city, you’ll probably have trouble finding work writing user manuals. You might however, find a lot of work writing ad copy for the local businesses. If you live close to a city where a lot of large corporations are based, you’re more likely to find work as a technical writer and a copy writer as well.

The first places to look for clients are the jobs you’ve held, the companies provide products or services you’re familiar with, and the organizations belong to. These are the places where you’ll have the most contacts and the most knowledgeable when pitching your skills.

Take out a piece of paper and make a fist of ail of the types of documents you could write for the industry that you’re most familiar with. After you’ve made a list of the types of documents that are written in your industry, take it a step further and identify other types of projects you could work on, such as multi-media presentations, website content, and advertising copy. Try to list all of the services you could provide that companies in your industry might need.

Although I’ve advised you to be careful about working with smaller companies, you may need to do so when you’re starting your freelancing career. Smaller companies need the same products and services that large companies need, but they often can’t offer enough work to make it worthwhile for large PR agencies to work with them. Just be sure that you have a good understanding with them about how much you charge and other conditions of working with them.

Protect yourself when working with a new client (big or small) by limiting the amount of work you do for them in the beginning. If you only do one small job for them and the client doesn’t pay you, it’s not as devastating as taking on a large project that demands your full attention for several weeks, and then not being paid.

If people like you, your work ethic and your writing style, they’re likely to ask you to work on projects other than those you’re most familiar with writing. You may get your first job with a company writing user manuals, and then be asked to write annual reports or marketing copy, for example.

While you should identify the type of writing that you’d like to do, don’t shy away from doing other types of writing. You may find that you are even better at that type of writing than you are at technical writing.

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Known for their lasting dominance in the mobile world, Nokia’s Symbian Operating System has now lost its appeal. The decade-long control by the platform has now come to a standstill with the venture of more interactive platforms like Blackberry, which never made a step, and Apple iOS. The iOS has been known to create a high profile amongst users though not their best option. The platform comes with enormous limitations ranging from vulnerability of operations, cost of owning and use to the unthinkable limit of memory use. Put together, Google Android system took chances to develop an all-inclusive operating system.

Android is an Operating System that has been driven by various open source software like Linux. This allows for customizable screens, easy user navigation as well as creativity. The need to tune various handsets to accommodate various versions of Android systems has, however been imminent. To begin with, fragmentation is a situation where disk files are stored in a noncontiguous way and thus scattered all over the disk. This may happen due to frequent use of a disk as well as creating, modifying and deleting of such files. Worth mentioning is the autonomous view of these files as seen by users; the Operating System ensures these fragments are seen as one by users. However, the speed of operations slows down since finding a single object requires searching throughout the disk thus making it very slow.

Android fragmentation is known to cause multiple and incompatible versions of the system that are specific to the brand. This is a major challenge facing Google innovative Android operating system today stems from their own approach to massive apps creation in their apps store. Some of the major issues with Android fragmentation include;

App Testing Galvanization

For a reliable and continued customer base loyalty, application developers have relied on well tested apps. The growth of any platform is known to anchor on such testing steps, which eventually results to stable applications. For Google Android, there has been a growing fear of untested apps due to the use of services such as TestDroid, AppTwack and most recently, TestFlight. Being a market leader in the world of mobile phone operating systems, Android owns the largest applications base. This, however, stems from a number of level considerations including base OS version, OEM OS modifications, hardware, end-user environment, network carriers and also the carrier OS changes.

Worth understanding is the limited window availed for an older version testing of apps once one has upgraded his or her device’s system. This has become a concern for most users thus resulting to most of them not opting to do so. Consequently, Android developers have been forced to test various versions of their hardware, which are using older Android Operating System versions. This is a major challenge since it hinders or rather galvanizes effective, efficient and timely testing of applications. This is an adverse effect which has been caused by fragmentation of the system. It has gone further to impose the use of specific systems for certain hardware versions.

OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) control

Various market analysts have predicted Google approach to be the most effective of all times. Developing software alone and leaving the hardware issue to other manufacturers. However, the whole idea is poised for a big challenge: fragmentation. The problem has never been complicated as it is now. When Android was tested and launched, it emerged the most promising open source idea form Linux. The idea brought in a sandwich of affordable and massively created apps. This left their archrivals, iPhone, sweating for their market share. It is now a common idea that Google venture has posed threats to all mobile system developing companies not to mention Apple iPhone dominance. Most systems like Blackberry, MeeGo and Symbian, as well as Windows Phone missed the point altogether. This show how stable is the android place in the ever-growing mobile system world.

The fact that Google does not develop both software and hardware has come with a mixed reaction: both positive and negative. It is important to note that the approach has allowed them to catch up so fast since theirs is to create systems and apps alone. On the contrary, iPhone has become a poised competitor since they have both software and hardware. This is a limiting aspect for Google because the hardware manufacturers are known to have a bigger control over their handsets. Take for instance their largest OEMs: HTC and Motorola. They always have their Sense UI and MotoBlur above Android. These sauce applications from the carrier hardware seem a stumbling block.

Fragmentation has thus become an option for the operating system since multiple versions of Android have to be created for the different levels of the hardware in question. The problem is really pathetic when it comes to the massive development of Android apps. For any ISV (Independent Software Developer), developing various versions for different hardware versions becomes hectic. This is a big challenge caused by the uncontrollable Android ecosystem fragmentation. The carriers are now becoming a major hurdle for Android since they are causing fragments, which results to multiple, incompatible versions of apps which are brand-specific.

Switching the control of operating system updates between phone makers and Google is difficult

The unity of Google systems has been considered a strong point by most analysts. In the recent days, Google Android chief, Andy Rubin has been under intense pressure to ensure a stable operating system platform. Surely, he has been able to deliver substantially. This hasn’t come for free: many developers have had to deal with the complexities posed by the uncertainty of the operating system’s future. This and other factors are believed to have seen the Android chief step aside and Google chrome Sundar Pichai taking the steering wheel of the two services combined.

According to analysts, this might be an overwhelming task though an achievable job for Pichai. Various issues need to be addressed for the success of Android and chrome unity. Some of the hurdles facing the world’s most impressive Smartphone system, Android, include varied versions of the same OS which have been created. Unfortunately, phone makers do not install the most recent versions. This is blow to Android since there is a fragmentation in the versions and the hardware used. Updating software or operating system version also has been faced with a couple of issues. Phone makers are known to be the controllers of these updates and not Google. The unfortunate thing is that due to fragmentation, various versions are to be created for a single hardware model. This only becomes difficult for the phone makers since they are not always up to date with such changes.

The next Google conference will manifest the debut of android next version; version 5 or rather Key Lime Pie. On the flip side, most phone makers are still running on 2.x operating systems. The switch is thus difficult due t the fragmented ecosystem. The delivery of all updates should be prioritized for the continuity of Android. This is a sentiment echoed by most techno analysts. This way, the app builders’ confidence will be upheld and thus a task ahead for Pichai. To gain the system’s overall confidence amongst builders and end-users, Android should deal with their major OEMs approach. These include Samsung, HTC, Motorola, HP, and Dell among others. This will ensure their participation in platform changes as well as OS level device management for enterprise security, unlike the current overlay.

Google Services’ Variations

Developing a common platform is an idea which has been tipped to bring enormous benefits to Google. It is thus a challenge for the Google Android and Google Chrome operating systems to jointly operate in the near future. The challenge, however, remains that of fragmented ecosystem. This makes it hard for applications developed to work in a certain Android version as well as Chrome to be used in another version of Android. This is a blow since it is understood that create-once deploy-anywhere apps are known to ease the complexity of search integration, context delivery, ads, and location based services. It is needless mentioning the cost attributed to such fragmented systems since every update or version has to be created for every change.

A unison use the two Google services are thus limited by Android fragmentation. This brings services’ variations, which are unfavorable for the use of cloud. It is important that Android handles the issue of fragmentation with urgency and caution. The problem could cost them their market share let alone contributing to their backlash. The future of mobile technology is so potent, and Google should ensure a sustained share and appeal lest they risk losing to their rivals; Windows Phone, iPhone and even Symbian among other competitors. Joint use of their major operating system services, Android and Chrome, would thus come to their rescue. However, Android fragmentation comes as a shock pull over and thus calls for immediate address.

Limitation of App Development and Market Growth

The hurdles presented by Android fragmentation may be as devastating as limiting app builders’ efforts. This may come as a discouragement due to the incompatibility issues. Since every new version or updates must call for a new application, developers may find it unreasonable and not conducive to thrive in Android app development. With the current Original Equipment Manufacturers policy very unfriendly, the carrier hardware remains very unhealthy for Google Android market growth. These problems are all anchored on the Android fragmentation issues. IPhone and Windows phone are now changing their gear and so should Google OEMs approach.

The idea behind android success has always been the open source aspect. App developers can have their applications on the market and users have them for free. This has encouraged many Smartphone users to use Google enabled phones. In the recent past, Android came under intense criticism for uncontrolled entry by developers who even introduced malware and other security threats to their store. While Android allowed for free and easy access to their apps store, iPhone limited it for the creation of premium apps. This led to a stiff competition in the market and surely, Google gave Steve Jobs’ Apple a run for its money. However, complexities introduced by incompatible Android versions which required specific hardware brands meant a slow to their market growth pace. Fragmented ecosystem is now the biggest threat to the future development of Android operating system. The various issues posed by fragmentation have to be dealt with very cautiously and urgently.

Dealing with Android Fragmentation Issues

Android fragmentation has proved to be a stumbling block to the future growth of the operating system. As a contingency measure, Google has come up with various tools and approaches to end the threat. The issue of interoperability amongst applications created for different devices stems from the potentiality of the various custom versions of Android operating system. Some applications are said to be platform specific thus making it difficult to operate across other devices. This fragmentation can be handled by use of the Android Compatibility Program. The recent blog release from Google has indicated the upcoming end to these concerns. Android fragmentation has been noted to pose a dead end for Google Android, but the program has come as a sigh of relieve.

Creating applications on mobile platforms have now become a commonplace for both novice and guru mobile app developers. Google Android Software Development Kit has been the largest hub for such. With the Android fragmentation problem still proving adamant, new app builders find their confidence shaken and thus making Google undergo intense pressure. To remain on the top bench, Android must consider an amicable solution to the fragmentation problem lest they risk losing both end-user trust and market appeal altogether. Android’s open source advantage is now under siege if the fragmentation issues persist.

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