MotoCMS is happy to announce the release of the longed-for Version 1.8, which introduces powerful new capabilities for website development and management. With this major update, MotoCMS expands the opportunities for the system based Flash websites by bridging the gap between Flash and mobile devices and releasing the advanced Mobile Editor. MotoCMS based websites are no longer just to be viewed on a traditional “computer”… From now on, mobile users will view your website!

We know guys that you have been awaiting this release with the same impatience as we have been working at it, so let’s congratulate each other. Gosh, we finally did it!

This new release reveals brand new features and tools that make the system more advanced and user-friendly. There are a number of new hooks and improvements, and everyone will benefit from the system improvements provided by some really useful options added.

So, what’s inside the Version 1.8? Read on.

1. Mobile Editor has been added.

The new Mobile Editor is a special appeal of this update. It allows the users to make their Moto CMS based websites visible on iPhones, Androids, and other mobile devices.

1.1. To create a mobile-friendly version of your website, switch to the Mobile Editor within the control panel:

1.2. The new Mobile Editor’s control panel contains a default HTML template that can be easily edited by the users according to their needs. The standard HTML template is 620px wide; it contains one page and one pop-up.

After the upgrade to the Version 1.8, the existing users will get the default HTML template for their websites for free.

The HTML default template is stretchable – you can specify the height for the page.

1.3. The Mobile Editor contains the following widgets:

Contact Forms >

Galleries >

General >

Maps >

Menus >

1.4. The Preferences > Website Preferences section of the Mobile Editor’s control panel allows you to manage and edit the HTML template: set the website preferences, access Media Library and Fonts Manager.

• Website Settings. You can specify the website title, select the home page, set width and height for the website, choose the preloader as well as a page for it, and change the background.

• SEO & Analytics. To prevent double indexing, the SEO options are disabled in the HTML version for mobile devices.

• The Under Construction and Password Protect options are also available for the HTML version for mobile devices.

1.5. A new object “Block” is available within the Mobile control panel.

This option makes it possible to place other objects to the block, set the “Show Effect” and “Hide Effect” for them as well as specify horizontal and vertical alignment.

Note: when an object is in the block, its placement is changed; this object cannot be placed in multiple blocks.    

1.6. You can set the “Style” options for any object: choose the type, color and image for the background, its stroke color and width as well as corners and padding.

1.7.  To activate the mobile version of the website, there is an option in the Main control panel “Redirect mobile devices to alternative version of site”, which should be activated after you finished editing the HTML template. The mobile version of the website will be available for all mobile users.

The mobile version of the website is placed in the root folder > “M” folder.

Main control panel > Preferences > Website Preferences:

2. The “My Account” option has been added to both Main and Mobile control panels.

Due to this option, you can easily go to your cms-guide account.

Preferences > My Account:

The login page on accounts.cms-guide.com will open in a new window:

The Version 1.8 is free to upgrade for the existing users; it also goes for free with all the templates from the MotoCMS collection. If you are a Moto CMS user, you will be suggested to install the latest updates when you open your Moto control panel.

With that said, that’s a look at the Version 1.8, the latest release from MotoCMS. We hope you will approve our job of packing in the features in this version, and the overall experience for the customers will be a positive one given the consistency of functionality throughout the product.

Feel free to register a 30 day Free Demo by choosing one of MotoCMS templates and evaluate a new functionality of the new control panel!

We highly appreciate your feedback and offers concerning Moto CMS. Please leave your ideas as for new features and options on MotoCMS Forum in the Feature Requests section.

What are the secrets of making an e-shop successful? What do convince customers to purchase in a particular e-shop? There are some fundamentals that an e-commerce designer needs to focus on when creating a website for an e-shop. Let’s talk about them.

1. Give the customers what they are looking for

The most important reason e-shops fail is when the customers don’t find what they are looking for. Indeed, an e-commerce’s popularity doesn’t depend on lower prices or your support service. To find the answer to the question: “What exactly are your customers looking for?” means to understand your users. Your task is to help your visitors find the products they need in as fewer steps as possible.

2. Usability, not aesthetics, comes first

Believe it or not, very few e-shop owners care about design itself. When it comes to e-commerce designs, building a pretty website should not be the designer’s primary goal. What do means much is an effective design – the design which stimulates visitors to shop. The captains of e-commerce industry like eBay and Amazon became giant due to effective design.

3. Make your visitors trust you

Image by Terry Johnston

How can you make your customers trust you? Give them an experience. A successful combination of great design, usability, text content, psychological methods and metrics is able to create an experience through which the clients will trust you.

Privacy is very important for everyone. If the shopping on your website is secure, the data they enter is highly protected, e-commerce transactions are absolutely private and you prove your company is absolutely reliable and delivers its promises, you will gain your visitors’ trust very soon.

One more point a good user experience is built on is to forgive customers for a lifetime. Give your clients more than they expect and your brand will easily gain popularity and trust.

4. Make security and checkout process painless

One of the biggest obstacles a buyer has to overcome is checkout process. Shopping is always fun, but spending money is not. So, your task is to make the payment process as easy and quickly for the customers as possible.

There are some very simple, but really powerful ways to make the payment process painless and unobtrusive:

• Create a one-page checkout instead of long forms. It will increase conversion for sure.
• Keep track of all your customers. If you are able to get the customers’ e-mails in first steps, you will have a chance to catch them later in case they decided to quit.
• Arrange a 24/7 customer service. The customers should always have an ability to ask for help in case they have some technical problems.
• Don’t ask for registration. Most of the users don’t like it, and you may lose many customers.

5. Give your buyers something special

“Give your customers all they want plus a little more” – this is one of the main secrets of a successful e-shop that converts. Think out something that the visitors won’t find anywhere except your e-shop. For example, you can offer some services for free (e.g. free wrapping along with purchasing a gift). Be sure, good customers’ feedback will do its business.

Selling online is an art and a science. Only the right combination of marketing and design will be able to attract customers and make your e-commerce website convert.

***

The good news is that finding the e-commerce which the best fits your needs is not that difficult as it may seem first. Please take a look at the complete design solutions for e-shops powered by MotoCMS:

Clean Style E-commerce Flash Design

Fashion E-shop Flash CMS Design

Computer Store E-commerce Solution

Flash E-commerce Design for Your Gift Shop

Flash CMS Template for Photo Store

Stylish E-commerce Design for Bag Store

Lingerie Store Flash Website Design

Flash CMS Design for Watches E-shop

Stylish E-commerce Template

Gadgets Store with MotoCMS Control Panel

You have a great opportunity to test any of these e-commerce designs before purchasing by registering a 30-day free Demo. 

]]> http://www.motocms.com/blog/flash-cms-templates/tips-creating-ecommerce-website-that-sells/feed/ 2 http://www.motocms.com/blog/marketing/choosing-images-website-minimalist-guide/ http://www.motocms.com/blog/marketing/choosing-images-website-minimalist-guide/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 06:56:22 +0000 Tina Zennand http://www.motocms.com/?p=6809 Choosing images is one of the most important and exciting tasks for a web designer. The right images are able to capture a visitor’s attention, inform him about important things and persuade him to act and shop. The wrong images can break the concept by confusing, annoying, even repelling your website visitors. The images make your visitors’ mood.]]>

Choosing images is one of the most important and exciting tasks for a web designer. The right images carry a necessary message; they’re able to capture a visitor’s attention, inform him about important things or events and persuade him to act and shop. The wrong images can break the concept by confusing, annoying and repelling your website visitors. The images make your visitors’ mood.

Choosing of images is crucial, so in this article I am going to touch the most important points of the image selection process, and I truly hope these guidelines will do some good to you.

Determining the purpose… Marketing?

What kind of images would be effective for your website? To answer this question, think about the primary purpose of the page. If you need an image for delivering artistic effect, go ahead and use your artistic sensibilities for choosing a right one. If, instead, your primary purpose is marketing, there are some points that it would be nice to keep in mind when selecting images for your website…

As John Caples, a talented teacher, lecturer and writer, described in his  Tested Advertising Methods, the most effective pictures for gaining attention are:

• pictures of brides, babies, animals and famous people;
• people in odd costumes or odd situations;
• pictures that tell a story;
• romantic pictures;
• catastrophic pictures;
• news pictures;
• timely pictures (e.g. pictures related to Easter).

The images that sell products are the ones that are related to the product. The most effective types of the product are:

• pictures of the product, the product in use, or a benefit received by using the product
• picture of an enlarged detail
• pictures of the attainment of an ambition
• dramatic pictures

Understanding the product essence will help you to make a right choice of images which will have an impact on visitors and create the lasting impression associated with the product/service you offer.

“Good” or “Not Good”?

It‘s not difficult to determine if the image is good enough for being used for your website. “Good” images have a clear concept, they are well perceived visually and psychologically. A good image talks to you.

The images that are used for designing websites are usually fallen under two categories…

Lifestyle Images

This type of images provides content to the website visitors. What does it mean? If the information you want to carry down to your readers is about a place (e.g. vacation tours to Europe), an image can help the visitors to imagine and visualize the place of destination. If, for example, the website is about footwear, you can use an image that would show how they are in use.  On the whole, lifestyle images help the visitors to have an idea on how the product/object/service looks like, how it’s used and who it is for.

Example: The lifestyle image below has been chosen by the website designers to promote a holiday destination Hamilton Island in Australia.  In addition to the beautiful piece of nature on the photo, the photographer included a happy family having fun on the seashore. This makes the website visitors imagine themselves relaxing on that beach.

Images that Present a Product (Service)

The images that help to sell products are the ones related to the product. For the best impact, web designers use the pictures with the product in use or a benefit received by using the product. In real life we can observe a product from many angles, see how it looks on our body (clothes), etc.

To make the product look lifelike on the image, there are some tips that may help you to attain that:

• Use several images to show the product from multiple angles;
• Think over the context how the product should be shown to the potential buyers;
• Make sure you allow the visitors to view the product images at a large size;
• If the product is available in various sizes and colors, make sure you’ve shown it in all the variations.

Example:  It’s really beneficial for the products that can be worn to be shown when real people wearing them. If we look at the True Religion online store image below, we’ll see beautiful people wearing nice clothes. The image creates an impression that the people feel comfortable wearing those jeans and shirts…

Here are the pages that actually present women’s stretch cord. We can see the collection at a glance and then explore the model we selected in detail:

Color, context, mood…

The quintessence of these three aspects performed successfully in an image will ideally work for the website. Such images sell the power of imagination. Let’s explore each of these aspects more detailed.

Color

Color is a very powerful tool to touch the emotions of the website visitors. It creates a physical and emotional reaction of the viewers and is able to carry a concrete message to the visitors. When it comes to expressing emotions and attracting attention, color is the essential means.

Example: The image below demonstrates the “selective coloring” effect, when a colored image is changed to black-and-white with keeping certain parts of the image in color. This is the case when color is used as an accent to amplify the certain element of the image. This method is used to draw the viewer’s attention by specially using bright images like red, green and blue to make the necessary elements of the image to stand out.

Photo by Shawn E

Context

If you need to make an accent on a particular detail of an image, emphasize a definite place or time, it can be achieved by some not difficult techniques…

Example: Below is the image from the Restoration Hardware website. By using the same background, the photographer provided visual and psychological consistency, by making an impact on the products.  

Mood

What is mood for an image and what elements are needed to create it? Mood is something a viewer receives when he looks at the resulting image. For me, mood in an image tends toward the feeling of being there. Just the same way a person can vary moods, a person who creates an image can make us experience the feelings of solitude, intense action, serenity, danger or relaxation.

Mood is less tangible than color and context, but surely not less important. For a website, it’s extremely useful to establish visual and aesthetic feel.

Examples:

1. The designers of this website for a hotel chose to take as a background an image with a place where the hotel is located. A beautiful view conveys a sense of what it was like to be there. Other images of the website also tend to evoke this feeling.

2. Restoration Hardware’s Baby and Child always presents its products in an unusual and really catching way. Who would resist and skip their “gift registry” after looking at this image?:)

Choosing right format…

Use JPEG for photos. I sometimes see images in JPEG format with text, and they look not too good. If it’s not a photo, but an image with graphics, I’d recommend using PNG. A PNG is usually of smaller size than the equivalent GIF and will not lose quality like a JPEG image. A PNG as an alternative of JPEG can be larger. But in some cases, this is still more likely to use JPEG despite its larger size.

In brief…

PNG is used when:

• You need transparency (either 1-bit or alpha transparency);
• Lossless compression will work well (such as for a chart or logo, or computer generated image).

JPEG is used when:

• Lossless compression will not work well (such as a photograph);
• Full color is needed.

GIF is used when:

• PNG is not available, such as on very old software or browsers;
• Animation is necessary.

For those of you who would like to study this subject more detailed, there is a good article written by Ian Gan on how to choose the right format for your images.

Stock photos: worth using?

If you spend some minutes on the web, you’ll probably see images of beautiful office people laughing together and pointing at some office object. Or the photos of a solid smiling girl with a headset on, or two picture look businessmen shaking hands. Do you think such pictures with plastic models really convey professionalism and trust to visitors?

David Meerman Scott, a talented marketing, leadership and social media speaker, said in one of weekly marketing casts:  “When companies use photographs of happy, smiley models to represent either their clients or themselves, it’s just silly. It’s almost like telling a lie about your company.”

So, what images work well for business web pages? The photos of your own employees may be a good choice – such a picture will look natural and trustworthy. As an alternative it’s not bad to use authentic pictures that will arouse creative associations in the viewer’s mind (a vintage phone, headphones, a marker, etc.).  For that, you can try to find something from Creative Commons (the copyrighted images that are allowed for distribution). Read/comply with the license when searching for images – these images may not cost money, but might have limits or require a backlink or attribution.

A good advice: when using a Creative Common’s image, send the URL of the page to the image creator and thank him for the image. You’ll see that most of the image creators will write you back with a nice “thank you” message. 

So, you’re going to use Stock photos anyway…

For me, there is only one excuse of using stock photography for presenting you or your brand: low budget. Yeah, there are times when hiring a photographer may be too costly, and we have to turn to Stock imagery. On the other hand, stock photos may save you much time and efforts…

So, what should we look for when selecting images from Stock photos:

• A well recognizable subject;
• Quality (clear, with a good light);
• Good proportions;
• Lively colors.

Stock photography websites:

Getty Images  Flickr  iStock Photo  Sxc.hu  Veer  Shutterstock Images  Alamy  Fotosearch  Photo Library  Reflex Stock  Stock Vault

 Some more tips in the end…

• Use images with people (animals). Images that include people are relatable therefore more memorable. Strive to choose an image that includes a face (human or non-human) whenever possible. Ideally, that should be an individual eye-contact with a viewer. Thus, the viewer is engaged in a sort of “conversation” with the image.
• Images that have people’s heads as the main focus, are good attention getters.
• Men tend to look at the pictures of men, women – at the pictures of women.
• Avoid being too clever. If you’ve written an article about bicycles, use a picture of a bicycle in it – not a stylized version of a concept related to riding a bicycle.

So, would you like to try creating a website with right images yourself? For an easy start, you can choose one of Moto Templates, register a 30 day free Demo and modify the website with no limits. Good luck!

That’s because it will teach you how to get more visitors to your website while spending less money. On the other hand, armed with this method some new people may sign up to BuySellAds, so I guess I’m doing the right thing sharing it with you.

There’s my previous post where I talk about getting the biggest possible CTR (Click Through Rate) on BuySellAds. I encourage you to read it first if you’re new to BuySellAds.

Not ROI, but still…

How do you measure if the ad you’ve paid for is effective? It should bring SALES!

Well we ain’t going to take sales into account this time. There are tons of things on your website that may prevent even the most engaged visitors from making a purchase. Thus, to secure myself from questions like “Tim, I’ve followed your method, where’s my money?” I’m going to focus on a different metric – visitors.

So I’ve just analyzed our monthly results with BuySellAds and discovered that the highest price we were paying per visitor was $0.83 while the lowest was $0.11 (I wonder why BSA doesn’t show you this metric in their report? I had to calculate it manually for each of my ads.)

I’m sure you’re like me and prefer to pay less where possible, but how do you know what would the CPV (Cost Per Visitor) be before you buy the ad and run it for sometime?

You can’t get the exact number unfortunately. But raw number – easily!

Do the maths!

Oh please… Don’t pass out as you hear the word “maths”. If you’re smart enough to buy yourself a cup of coffee I’m sure you’ll handle this:

Where…

And so the resulting formula will look like this:

The only variable here that BuySellAds doesn’t show you is CTR. It’s not possible to know the CTR before you publish your ad, but I’m sure the guys at BuySellAds have some nice estimates that may have helped us a lot!

Unveiling the Unknown

When I need to know the CTR before publishing an ad I usually call David Copperfield.

C’mon! You know I’m just kidding. Just run your ads on different spots for a few months and I’m sure you’ll get the idea of the CTR you can expect from each ad placement.

Here are some of my own observations that might help you out:

• 125×125 pixels Ads won’t have a CTR more than 0.03% (even if they are above the fold) – Examples: graphichive.net (above the fold) & graphicmania.net (below the fold)
• 200×125 & 260×125 pixels Ads placed below the fold will have the CTR of 0.04-0.05% – Examples: smashinghub.com & cruzine.com
• 300×150 pixels Ad placed above the fold can have a CTR of 0.12% – Example: web3mantra.com
• 200×90 pixels Ad (and this is just CRAZY) can have a CTR of freaking 0.22% if it’s above the fold on a website with no other graphical content (such as a web forum) – Example: designerstalk.com (those ads are crazy visible as the rest of the page is pretty dull)

Putting it to the test

I bet many of you are lost at this point. Don’t panic! I’m about to guide you through the whole process of picking the best ad for it’s money.

I’ve picked three sites with somewhat similar pricing. Let’s see what we know about them:

speckyboy.com – 265×150 pixels ad – 1,940,000 Estimated Impressions – $350
webdesignledger.com – 125×125 pixels ad – 1,850,000 Estimated Impressions – $400
hongkiat.com – 257×125 pixels ad – 4,230,000 Estimated Impressions – $600

Now lets guess the CTR based on our past experience:

 
And here goes the maths! Calculating what’s the cost of a visitor from each of the sites:

 
Whoa! Isn’t this amazing? The most expensive banner turned out to be the best deal as it brings you the cheapest visitors!

That’s it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this little research and it will help you a lot in promoting your website online. In case you have any questions in regards to the ramble above – feel free to use our comments section!

What’s the point of building a website anyway if no one is able to find it? Lately we’ve talked about banner advertising and educated you on how to get more bang for your buck. Well this time you’re going to learn why visitors from Google are a hundred times more valuable than those brought by banners.

Place Your Lemonade Stand Where People Are Thirsty

If you were to pick one single advantage for your “Lemonade Business” what would it be? The best taste? The cheapest price? Maybe a well known brand? I’d definitely pick a crowd of people who are really thirsty! Unfortunately that’s not possible in “real life”.

But not on the Internet…

Google is a magical place where people shamelessly share all of their intentions.

• When you want ice cream to be delivered right to your doorstep – you search for “ice cream delivery in Dallas“.
• When you need to book a hotel in Barcelona – you search for “hotel booking Barcelona“.
• When you need to know how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood – you obviously search for “how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” (no kidding, people search for that stuff)

Since you’re reading this post you might understand that there are tons of people on Google “thirsty” for what you have to offer. That is totally different to banner advertising where random people see your banner and you can’t tell if they are “thirsty” or not.

So the question is – “How to get yourself in front of your audience on Google?”

To Pay, Or Not To Pay: Not A Question

By looking at the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) you can tell that there are only two ways of getting your business there: “natural search results” and “paid listing”.

“Natural search results” are considered to be free as you don’t have to pay Google to get there, while with “paid listing” you pay Google a certain sum each time someone clicks your link.

But lets take a closer look…

Natural Search Results

Google uses a sophisticated algorithm to rank web pages depending on the keyword being searched. The process of optimizing your website in accordance to this algorithm is called SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Do it right and you will rank higher.

In fact SEO is plain simple but it takes a lot of time and effort to get to the front page of Google and that is why most people prefer to pay some SEO agency to do it for them. So it looks like “natural search results” are not really free.

Paid Listing

Now this one sounds easy, but it’s not! The whole system reminds of an auction where you bid the highest price you’re able to pay when someone clicks your listing. But the trick is – you can’t see what other bids are. Confusing? Totally!

Many people will blindly burn $100-$500 in Google Adwords just to become convinced it’s ineffective, which is not true. I really don’t want you to get into this trap as well so please do a thorough research on SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and learn the Google Adwords system before spending any money on it.

What Next?

This post is the very top of the iceberg by the name “SEO & SEM“. I know I didn’t share any specifics of getting your site on Google’s page 1, but at least now you have two roads you may take to get some potential customers visit your website.

I’d love to educate you further and help to get your website in front of your customers, but I really need your feedback to move forward. Please post your questions in comments below and I will build further posts around the topics that bother you most.

We’re happy to inform you that our Moto Flash CMS has been updated to the Version 1.7! This major release includes only a few innovations, but be sure that all the improvements will be of a great use for you.

From now on, all the new features are available within all our Flash templates. So, here you’ll find a short description of each feature of our new MotoCMS version.

1. The speed of files loading has been increased

This news is really great for developers. Due to some technical improvements within our control panel, a size of SWF files of the Flash CMS has now been reduced by more than 50%. Thereby, the entire Flash pages’ loading time has been increased.

All these improvements are forced by our update to Adobe Flash CS5. From now on, all the FLA files of our Flash CMS can be opened only using this software. Please note, if you want to use Adobe Flash CS3, you should convert back FLA files from CS5 to CS4 and than to CS3.

2. The ability to pin objects to screen edges has been added

This new option enables you to pin different objects to screen edges. It’s especially good for images. You can stretch them horizontally and/or vertically by checking a proper item. It’s also possible to edit an offset by changing its value manually or moving an object with your mouse. To disable this option, you should just double click it.

You can also select the Scaling Mode of images to make them look better. You can choose one of the following options:

• Fill;
• Crop;
• Fit;
• Resize;
• No scale.

Using this option, you can also place images on the background layer of a Flash page or entire website. For reaching the best results, stretch an image vertically and/or horizontally (1), choose the fill scaling mode (2) and select the background holder as a placement (3).

The ability to fix current errors by yourself has been improved

This major update also makes it easier to fix some errors which can happen while working with our control panel. There are several easy to use instructions which will help you to solve the most common problems without a need to address the support team.

We hope these significant improvements will help you to gain a success while using our Flash CMS. We really want to make your online presence more pleasant. If you have some remarks or thoughts which will help us to be better for you, we’ll be glad to know them. Please don’t hesitate to drop a line in the comments field below. Your feedback is very valuable and will enable us to serve you better.

I bet this thought have visited every website owner at least once.

And it is very reasonable actually. Free traffic from Google is what most amateur site owners would go for, but it may take years of hard work to build up this source to some reasonable numbers. So the easiest way to bring quality traffic to your website in no time would be the ad networks (in case of course you have some money to spend).

And we’re about to share our experience with getting a high CTR in a well known banner ad network – BuySellAds.

I never click banners! Do they really work these days?

That’s a really good question and that is something I’ve asked myself before uploading any funds to BuySellAds. But then I noticed the amount of expensive ad spots sold out…

This is what the ad zones of Hongkiat look like for example:

I think if someone is ready to pay $800/month for a single banner – it definitely pays off.

5 Tips That Drastically Improve Banner CTR!

In a fear of being totally biased I’d like to mention that the “average CTR” (Click Through Rate) of a banner at BuySellAds is somewhere about 0.04% (this number is purely based on the numbers provided by random people I know who run some banners at BuySellAds)

Well we managed to get a whooping CTR of 0.22% as we tested different ad spots and sizes. Let me share some things we’ve learned along the way:

1. Pick the right niche.

When dealing with Google organic search or Adwords (paid search) you have to focus on keywords that might be relevant to your website. And the problem is that there are TONS of related keywords to pick from.

With BuySellAds you just have to determine if a certain website is relevant enough to promote your business (or whatever you have to promote). Luckily they have an extremely handy filtering system and all the properties were already divided into a number of major categories:

2. You should be “above the fold”.

Placing your banner in the part of a webpage that’s visible without scrolling might sound as a “no-brainer”. Yet some people think that their “advertising creative” (i.e. banner design) is so awesome and eye-catching that people will notice it no matter what.

“Each time you opt to buy a banner that’s “below the fold” you consciously decrease your CTR.” – make sure you read this sentence at least 5 times.

3. Know who you’re talking to.

Once you have a list of websites related to your niche the next logical step would be to spy on their audience and see if they are of the same kind with your “typical customer”.

Don’t have a clue of where to get that data from? Here, grab the tools:

• Alexa;
• Quantcast;
• Google Ad Planner.

4. Size matters!

The smallest banner size you can purchase at BuySellAds would be 125px*125px and it’s obviously the cheapest option. But except for the well known argument of bigger things being much more noticeable, there’s more…

Smaller banners lead to more advertisers cluttered in one place. And you have much better chances of being noticed purchasing one of the three big banners as opposed to buying one of the six small ones.

That’s what I call a “Battle For Attention“:

How can you possibly stand out in a banner carnival like this?

5. Do something CRAZY!

That would be the answer to the aforementioned question. These days it’s really hard to grab the attention with some fancy banner design or a catchy slogan – every banner is exactly like that.

In our quest for higher CTR we decided we should try something crazy.

This is how the idea of using meme faces in our banner design appeared.

There was an empty banner slot at DesignersTalk Forum, and we decided that “Me Gusta” Face is rather well known among designers and should definitely grab their attention:

And apparently it did, getting us that 500% increase in CTR from 0.04% to 0.22%.

That’s basically our “success story” with BuySellAds and the tips we’ve learned along the way. we invite you to share your own BuySellAds CTR in comments and suggest any tricks you’ve been using to improve it!

Creating interactive strips of photos is a very convenient way to preview numerous photos in a few minutes. Probably you’ll find it very easy to hover the mouse pointer over galleries and to move them here and there.

All the Flash templates include our powerful Flash content management system which will help you to edit your website easily and very quickly. We hope you’ll appreciate it (in case it’s your first acquaintance with MotoCMS) and you’ll never be disappointed over it.

Now it’s time to enjoy 10 Flash photo galleries with photo strips. Relax and go ahead!

Real Estate Website Design with Splash Page Buttons

This clean style photo gallery template can be a great solution for real estate companies and other businesses which want to showcase their works on the web.

The first thing you see entering the template is a simple white splash page with two buttons: normal or fullscreen mode. This feature will show your customers that you take care of them on every turn.

The image gallery of the template is also very simple. There is a photo strip of large thumbnails which move to the left and right. There is no limit on the number of images to upload.

And if there is a picture you’re interested in, you can click it once and a big image preview will be opened.

Flash Photo Portfolio Template with a Zoom Option

This absolutely black Flash photo portfolio is a great example of minimalist style in web design. Several web pages which are navigated with the accordion style menu are very easy to use and look really attractive. Surely you can create new pages and popups at your liking but there are already created several website sections which are irrepleacablefor photo portfolio websites.

The template also includes a separate image gallery menu. It displays gallery categories in a very convenient way, so that you can easily find any image you need. It’s also possible to create new sub-galleries or rename existing ones. And if you want to view thumbnail images you should just click on a pictures’ category and a photo strip will appear immediately.

And another adornment of this photography web template is a photo gallery. Its well-done design pleases the eye, so you’ll probably appreciate it without any changes. The gallery is also easily navigated within the right vertically oriented toolbar. It allows you to download, to print, to zoom in and out photos and to play videos (you can combine photo and video galleries in one media gallery).

Vertically Oriented Flash Photo Portfolio

This photo portfolio template looks like a fashionable masterpiece. Its deep background glow makes it look mysterious and fascinatingly.

The photo strip of gallery thumbnails is placed on the home page directly, so website visitors will always find your latest photos on the fly. Also there is a menu button which hides menu items when they are useless. So your website visitors won’t draw their attention away from images while viewing the gallery.

When you open the gallery you get into the world of beautiful full size photos. With an ability to zoom in and out images you get a chance to take a closer look at their smallest details and to take a delight in reviewing them. The interactive gallery’s sub-menu also allows you to get an additional description for every image from the gallery: you can include images, videos and texts there.

Flash Photo Gallery Template with a Great Zoom Option

This photo gallery is a real godsend for professional photographers and photo studios which have numerous scattered photos. This template will help you to easily classify all shots you have and to showcase them on the web.

The central logo box will help you to look through gallery’s sub-categories and to switch over to other ones. When you hover the mouse pointer over the home page of the template its parts start being colorized and you can take a clear view on every thumbnail.

When you click on an image preview, the photo will be opened in a full size. You can easily flip photos using navigation arrow buttons, zoom in and out, download or share them on social networks.

There is also a web page which you can use for advertizing. It includes a grid of pictures with descriptions. There are short descriptions which are visible under every picture. You can choose any photo at your liking and view it in a higher resolution.

Multilevel Photo Gallery in a Flash CMS Template

This photo portfolio template looks like an ordinary one until you don’t touch its menu with the your mouse pointer. Click the Portfolio menu item and you’ll see a strip of thumbnail images with short descriptions. You can scroll them by hovering a mouse pointer here and there.

You can also get more detailed descriptions of every image if you click on it. This mode also allows you to quickly look through photos in a low resolution.

But if you want to have a good look at pictures without additional useless and irritating details you should just click it and the photo will be displayed in a full screen mode. Using the left and right arrow buttons you can look through the entire gallery. And you can also use a small gallery toolbar to browse the gallery.

Multistoried Flash Photo Gallery Template

This Flash photo gallery looks like a cyber skyscraper or a huge cake made of images. Small navigation arrow buttons look like splashes of sweet cream and you can’t take your eyes off of the template.

It’s very easy to open images for viewing – click them and enjoy the art of photography. Interactive navigation arrow buttons will also help you to look through gallery items.

Travel Flash CMS Template

Want to create a travel website? This Flash CMS template combines a strict business style design with a rich functionality of image galleries. It has an interactive image gallery at the top of the splash page. Every image has a short description with a price and a link to the page with more detailed information about the product.

There is also a background image gallery which arranges different backgrounds for different Flash pages. It allows to make your website more attractive for end-users.

As it was mentioned earlier the template includes an eye-catchy image gallery which can be navigated manually or in a slideshow mode. Every image can be supplemented with a short description at your liking.

Flash Gallery for Widescreen Photos

This Flash portfolio template was created for those people who appreciate creative and unconventional ideas. The home page of the template can be colored see-green, red or light green. And sub-gallery previews look like photo frames.

When you choose a photo to take a closer look at (click it once), it is opened in a full size. The image gallery has a separate toolbar which allows to zoom in and out images, to download or to print them from a website directly. You can also view photos by means of the left and right arrow buttons.

The Ready-Made Flash Photo Portfolio

This photo portfolio template was created for professional and amateur photographers with numerous photos of different sizes and resolutions. An interactive strip of small thumbnails locates under the preview image and allows to choose which photos you want to look at. You can also set a slideshow mode and view photos automatically.

Capacious Photo Portfolio

This type of photo portfolio templates is very popular among photographers and web designers. It looks very stylish and it’s very simple in use. All photos’ categories are visible on the home page directly and to browse them you should just hover your mouse pointer over the page.

The photo gallery of the template is very simple. Every sub-category has a vertically oriented photo strip of thumbnails and one big preview. Above thumbnails there are two arrow buttons, so that you can quickly navigate through the gallery.

We hope you’ll appreciate all the photo gallery templates above. And if you have any suggestions and creative ides on how to improve our products for you, our dear friends, we’ll be glad to know them from the comments field below.

And if there is a Flash CMS template you like you can always register its 30 days free demo version and try it in practice.

So now we’d like to draw the line of our most important achievements of 2011 (from our point of view of course).

From January 2011 professional customization services from Moto CMS are available. From now on, it’s possible to modernize separate widgets of MotoCMS, to add new widgets into your Flash CMS templates and to create custom ones at your liking. If you want to know more about our customization services you can learn it from here.






On April 12, 2011 MotoCMS updated to a new version 1.4. This major release made the Flash CMS even more convenient and user-friendly, improved its functionality (Contact Form module and object manipulation in the control panel were improved, content saving process was optimized) and presented new feature-rich options (News Widget and font smoothing for the custom fonts were created, automatic content recovery on errors were added). To remember this update please look here.




On April 2011 Facebook Flash CMS Templates were launched. We tried to create really convenient Facebook layouts, so that you can spend every day on social media profitably. These Facebook fan pages are very flexible and easy to customize via the built-in control panel. And now we’re glad to see an army of Facebook users who have already appreciated our templates. To learn more about our Facebook templates follow the link.




On July 7, 2011 MotoCMS updated to the version 1.5 This release presented significant improvements such as an ability to create stretchable Flash websites, Media Library Integration (YouTube) + Video Gallery, YouTube Quality option, Property dependencies, placement attributes, and others. Also the 1.5 version presented new HTML Widget and Social Network Sharing Slot, so that we can satisfy more of your business needs, dear friends.




On August 2011 new Flash templates categories were created. Now we’re glad to announce that the most asked-for Flash templates categories – Stretchable Templates and Online Stores – are now available in out templates store. Not so long ago it was almost impossible to imagine that an online store website can be built on Flash and now it’s a reality. Moreover MotoCMS is proud to offer you a new type of Flash templates with a dynamic page height. To read more about these templates categories click here.




On August – September 2011 MotoCMS versions 1.5.1 and 1.5.2 were launched. These minor updates made it possible to enable the non-Latin input compatibility mode and to separate your Facebook content for fans and non-fans. So now you probably won’t have problems with the non-Latin characters in different browsers. Also now it’s possible to hide your Facebook pages from visitors until they are not your fans and to show them some other page instead. Here is a more detailed description of these new features.




On November 11, 2011 there was the last MotoCMS update of the 2011 – the new version 1.6 was totally based on our users’ feedback and included new Search Widget, Buy Now Button, Background Widget and an ability to protect pages and popups with a password. Also there were made some significantimprovements: Contact Form Widget functionality was enriched and the connection of widgets with content was simplified. It is also possible now to integrate popular online services (Picasa, Flickr and Facebook) into Moto Flash CMS. For today it’s an active version of Moto Flash CMS and we promise to improve our system for you again and again.




On December 30, 2011 the innovative e-Commerce Widget was launched. In a few days before the New Year we want to present you an ability to create Flash-based online stores. The e-Commerce widget includes 7 components: Category Menu, Products List, Banner Rotator, Shopping Cart, Shopping Cart List, Product Details and Add to Cart Button. Here you can find detailed information about the widget.




So that’s the end of the year 2011. It was rather kind for us and we hope it was good for you too. We wish you good luck, dear friends, let all your cherished dreams come true!

From now on you can insert an online store module into your MotoCMS-based websites wherever you want. You can order e-Commerce widget while buying new Flash CMS template. On checkout there are several special offers which you can choose or skip before filling the billing details form.

You can also buy the e-Commerce widget separately from the template purchase. From now on if you have a Flash CMS template you can easily create an online store based on Moto Flash CMS.

There are 7 components of the e-Commerce widget:

• Category Menu;
• Products List;
• Banner Rotator;
• Shopping Cart;
• Shopping Cart List;
• Product Details;
• Add to Card Button.

Category Menu

When creating a website you can easily link it to your actual online store which is already created. But it’s better to create a products catalog on the home page of your website (or choose another website page on your liking). A products catalog is one of the most important features which site visitors are looking for first of all, so don’t neglect this chance to grab their attention at first sight. Open ‘Widgets’ – ‘e-Commerce’ – ‘Category menu’ and place it on a page. Double click will open the widget for editing (the ‘Edit Widget’ button on the lower right corner of the control panel will do the same).

The ‘Category Menu’ window allows to create new products’ categories using the ‘Add New Item’ button and rename them. Double click on a category folder will open it for the further editing.

Now you can create Subcategories and Products using the ‘Add New Item’ button. There are also the ‘Add New Items’ button which allows to add several products at once.

When the product is created you can complete its description:

• Product code;
• Regular price;
• Sale price;
• Brand name;
• Model;
• Product thumbnail;
• Short description;
• Full description;

Choosing a product thumbnail you should better give preferences to square images, they will look better in the Product List.

To fill in a preview information double click on the product and create a new item there. You should upload a preview picture for the ‘Image Thumbnail Lightbox’ (we cropped a 250 square pixels), a small preview picture for thumbnails list in the ‘Product Details Lightbox’ (it is also a product thumbnail we already used) and the large preview which is for the ‘Product Details Lightbox’ fullscreen preview (it can be an image or a video).

Now you can easily make some style for the ‘Category Menu’:

• Orientation (Vertical/Horizontal);
• Category button style (Text padding, vertical/horizontal spacing, Button colors, Button alpha, Button corner radius, Button stroke thickness );
• Subcategory button style (Width/Height, Text padding, Button colors, Button background alpha, Button corner radius, Button stroke thickness ).

Products List

This widget was created to display items from the ‘Category Menu’ (and it should be placed on the same page as the ‘Category menu’ and ‘Products Details’). Please place it on the same page with the ‘Category Menu’ widget and connect them with each other with the help of the e-Commerce connection ID. On the screenshot you can see the ‘store1′ connection ID but you can choose any letters and numbers you like (just make sure that this ID is the same for ‘Category Menu’, ‘Products List’ and ‘Product Details’ widgets.).

All products items which you created in the ‘Category Menu’ will be automatically displayed in your ‘Products List’.

Also you can easily edit widget settings, such as:

• Navigation style (Navigation text style, Text over color, Products count label, Next/Previous labels, No products message);
• Sort style (Text style, Sort background color, Sort button style, Sort stroke color, Sort by label, Default sort method, Labels names);
• Product style (Width, Height, Content padding, Background color and alpha, Corner radius, Stroke thickness, color and alpha, Title style, Description style, Sale price style, Regular price style, Price placement);
• Product image style (Width, Height, Vertical/Horizontal padding, Background color and alpha);
• Buy button style (Button label, Button width and height, icon settings, Background style, Corner radius, Stroke thickness, Stroke color, Over top color, Over bottom color).

The default currency of the e-Commerce widget is the United States dollar (USD, $) but you can choose other currency. Choose ‘Preferences’ (from the main top menu of the control panel) – ‘Website Preferences’ and change the currency label.

Banner Rotator

If you have some featured products on your store or there are several hot deals you probably would like to advertize on your home page then you should definitely appreciate this new component. Go to the ‘Widgets’ – ‘e-Commerce’ – ‘Banner Rotator’ and find the best place to locate the banner, then double click it and add a new item for the banner. The image you need to display is a medium size preview picture. You can link it to any page or popup or even to an outside resource. Please don’t forget to press the ‘Add’ button to add the item to the ‘Banner Rotator’. Thus you can add several items in rotation.

Now we have the ready-made banner with two products in rotation. You can adjust it’s settings:

• Background style (Background color and alpha, Corner radius, Stroke thickness, Stroke color);
• Text style (Corner align, Content horizontal/vertical padding);
• Image style (Image align, Image scaling mode);
• Pagination style (Spots horizontal/vertical padding, Spot color and alpha, Selected spot color).

Shopping Cart

A shopping cart is a must have part of every e-Commerce website, so here it is into the MotoCMS e-Commerce widget. All you need to do is to find the ‘Shopping Cart’ among others e-Commerce components and place it on the website.

This widget shows how many items there are in the customers’ Shopping cart list. To display items which are already into the shopping cart please create a new page/popup where the ‘Shopping Cart List’ will be located and then link the ‘Shopping Cart’ to a new website section.

Shopping Cart List

Now it’s time for the ‘Shopping Cart List’ component. Open the page or popup you’ve previously created for the ‘Shopping cart List’ widget. Find this widget among other components of the e-Commerce widget and place it on the page.

There are some properties for editing:

• Basic settings (Table title style, Item text style, After checkout redirect, Table fields labels, Footer X/Y offset, Table border color, Remove icon item, );
• Payment Settings (Payment system: PayPal, Google Checkout, Robox, Using email);
• Checkout button style (Label, Width, Height, Icon placement and padding, Background style, Corner radius, Stroke thickness).

So here is how your shopping cart list will look like:

Product Details

The ‘Products Details’ widget is a very useful one which will display a detailed information about store products when you click on their images. This product description will be opened in a new popup. To make the widget work correctly please connect it with the ‘Category Menu’ widget within the e-Commerce connection ID.

In stead of the fact that the ‘Products Details’ window is automatically arranged there are numerous settings which can be adjusted:

• Basic settings (Image X/Y offset, Title text style, Short description style, Regular and Sale price style, Image width/height, Image background and border color );
• Close button settings (X/Y offset,, Width/Height, Icon settings);
• Background style (Height, Corner radius, Stroke thickness and color, background color);
• Description style (Track width and padding, Description width and height, Description vertical padding);
• Buy button style (Close button width and height, Icon placement and padding, background style, );
• Thumbnails settings (Images number, Stroke thickness);
• LightBox settings (Slideshow delay, Background color or alpha, Button color and alpha, Video sound volume);
• LightBox thumbnails style (Images number, button colors, Stroke thickness and color);
• LightBox close button (X/Y Offset, Width, Height, Icon placement and padding, background settings);
• LightBox mediaplayer skin (Background color and alpha, elements color and alpha, Active color, Fonts style).

Clicking the ‘Preview’ button under the ‘Product Details LightBox’ you can view style changes which were made to the window. Please note that this option schematically shows how the information will be displayed on the website.

Add to Cart Button

You can insert the ‘Add to Cart button’ on any page of your online store. The component’s settings allow to specify all product information you need and to attache an image there.

Now when you know all the smallest details about our new widget we want you to watch a short video tutorial on how to install and adjust the e-Commerce widget powered by MotoCMS. We hope that this step-by-step instruction will convince you of the simplicity of our system.

Dear friends, from now on all these e-Commerce widget components will be presented in all our Flash CMS Online stores templates. You can also buy them separately and easily install to your current template in a matter of couple of minutes.

We hope that this innovative widget will help you to create a successful and profitable online shop. If you have any wishes or comments concerning the further improvement of the widget you’re welcome to write them in the comments field below.

Also we’ll be glad to see your e-Commerce websites in the New 2012 Year! Good luck guys! Let your dreams come true and let your products sell well on the web!