The 8 basic types of breadcrumb-based layouts are:

1) Linear Breadcrumb System

2) Vertical Breadcrumb System

3) Horizontal Breadcrumb System

4) Tree-Based Breadcrumb System

5) Cascading Menu System

6) Off-Canvas Menu System

7) Hamburger Menu Design Pattern (aka Side Drawer Pattern or Sliding Panel Pattern)

8) Pivot Menu Design Pattern

When it comes to typography, most people think that setting a typeface and font size is enough. However, typography is much more than that, and if someone is practicing it, then there are some important points they can’t ignore.

If they know how to make their typography design better, then this gives them more control over their message. If the message of the text and the typography match each other, then you have successfully grabbed the attention of the reader.

For those who don’t know what typography is, it is simply an artistic technique of arranging type or text. The designers pay extra attention to the typeface and font, but if they learn some more things about typography, they can do better in sending a message to the reader.

Measure of Characters

When you are making a poster, for example, you have to make sure that the length of the main line is short. If a line is long, then that can be very distracting for the reader.

For example, if it is a Halloween poster, then the typography expert would write ‘Creepy Haunted House’, instead of ‘Welcome to the haunted house, which is creepy’.

You want to assure optimum readability which is why the characters in a line should be between 40-80. In most designs, 65 characters are considered the ideal way to improve typography. In simple words, make your message short and sweet.

Choosing The Right Font

Fonts are the most important thing when it comes to improve typography in your designs. As fonts can change the appearance of your design. If you are desining a professional graphic design and choose wrong fonts then they will distory the appearance of whole design that’s why choosing a right font is very important for your design.

There are number of fonts available out there and as you know each font has its own design and you will get a different look by usig it but as per our analysis we have fount the futura font is one of the leading font in design industry. It’s one of the most used font out there and has been already used by many graphic designers.

If you are going to design a professional brochure or mockup then you should also give a try to this font.

 Leading

This is another way to improve typography. When you write a paragraph or a short message, make sure to leave space between the lines. If there is no space between the lines, then it will be difficult for the reader to focus on them. Moreover, leaving space between lines, improves the appearance of the message.

The factors that affect leading are type size, weight, measure and word spacing. If the measure is long, then you need to leave more space between lines. If the type size is larger, then not much leading is required. A good tip here is that, if you set leader twice more than the type size, then that would look appealing. However, this depends on the typeface as well.

Content’s Mood

You must have noticed how some notices have the same typeface. For example, the typeface of coffee houses is the same; they use the typeface which people see often, so they are able to recognize the nature of the place. Every typeface in typography has its own personality, and that has to match the mood.

The biggest mistake a person can make, when it comes to typography, is that one size and typeface can fit all. Choosing a typeface gives an individual the chance to decide, what they want to deliver through their design. When a reader is reading a message, the typeface sets a mood and impacts how the reader absorbs and process information.

Hierarchy of the Design

Like every organization has its hierarchy, typography design also has a hierarchy. It is important for individuals to follow a well organized design, because it will make it easier for the reader to navigate the page they are reading. Whether it is a magazine, or a newsletter, there is a basic hierarchical design that each has to follow.

There are five things that you need to focus on when it comes to hierarchy; creativity, proficiency, usability reliability and functionality. In creativity, you are supposed to show the aesthetic beauty to the reader, and interact with them. In proficiency, the individual has to do better, by designing something of a high level.

When it comes to usability, the reader should be able to use the design of the typography, easily. The reliability of the hierarchy of needs means a stable and consistent performance design of the typography and in functionality, the typography meets the basic functional needs of the design.

Thus, it is best to reach the creativity level. At this level, quality typography is produced and the individual is able to share the aesthetic beauty of the design with the user.

For example, when magazine issues are released for the public, the information is prioritized according to its importance. Each piece of information has a different text size. The structure has to be easy so that the reader can scan it easily; for example, putting headings and subheadings.

Vertical Rhythm

If your work has continuous flow and rhythm, only then will it make sense to the reader. Designers use the baseline grid as the foundation, and then follow the exact same pattern throughout. If there is a continuous rhythm, then it makes the content more readable. Here, the text has to be balanced, of equal size and measure. If you have paragraphs, then make sure that they have the same measures.

Spacing & Alignment

If your typography doesn’t have good details, then it won’t appeal to the audience. There are two elements which are very important for typography design; spacing and alignment. If there is no spacing and alignment, then the text will look cluttered and oddly designed.

If you want to save space in designs, then you have to decrease tracking, which is not the same as the margin. The blank space around the edges of a page has an impact on the text. However, make sure that you use the white space appropriately, and it doesn’t send a wrong message to the reader. If a page doesn’t have balanced white space, then it will be really hard for readers to read a page, as it will appear to be cluttered.

For example, if you want to place a logo on the top of a page, then you need to leave white space around it. This way, the reader will know that there is a logo on top, and it will be easier for him to concentrate. This type of typography design can be seen in business cards and at the marketplace.

Kern

Kerning is different from tracking. While tracking is about leaving white space around the text, kerning is the space between letter and characters. However, most people don’t focus on this aspect of typography, which is why they face problems in getting the attention of readers. When you are using large and visible typography, for newspaper headlines, then you need to check the headline visually. There should be cohesion between the letter of the headline so that they stand out.

Typos

The one mistake that most typography individuals make is that, they stretch words and letters too much. It is alright to think that they need to fit in a space, but if you stretch them too much, then they lose their appeal. It is best not to use any fake italic, in case the font doesn’t have an italic style. Moreover, after you are done, check the spellings and grammar of your text.

Typography involves making text more presentable and appealing. If you are using the wrong spellings and grammar, then nobody is going to care about the design.

Background Color

Now that you have learned about improving typography by focusing on the typeface, the next thing you need to do is learn about colors. Have you ever seen a restaurant billboard? When you do notice them next time, observe how they have used colors. The background color and the text color can’t be mismatched, because they won’t give an appealing look to the reader. For example, the background color and the text color that McDonald’s use, is very eye catching.

Make sure that you don’t use clashing colors. If you want your text to become noticeable, it is not necessary to use neon colors. Neon colors should not be used without any purpose, because they often come across as striking colors and don’t appeal to everyone. Moreover, make sure that your background is not too busy, because that can be very frustrating for the reader. You can use warping and transparency effects on your background, as they are fun text treatments.

Observation Skills

It is alright to look at other typography designs, and then decide what you should do. There are so many typography designs on the internet, that you can get inspiration very easily. If you are opening a coffee shop, for example, then make note of the common use typography designs. When you use a commonly used design, then customers notice you right away. This is because, the typography design for coffee houses is similar, and it is fixed in the mind of customers.

One Typeface

It can be very appealing to use two typefaces in a single layout. However, this may confuse the reader and it will clutter the page as well. Don’t use two typefaces of the same classification, like using sans serif and slab serif together. This is because, they won’t create a contrast, and will appear to be very odd. This is a great way of improving your typography skills; just focus on one typeface, until you understand all of them.

Double Point Size

This point is something most people don’t consider, and it is the size of the typeface you are using. If you have headings on your paper, followed by body paragraphs, then it is best to use a double on headings. For example, if the size of your heading is 30, then the size of your paragraph’s text would be 15.

Group Blocks

This is not the same as building a hierarchy of your page. This is about creating a group of related information, because that would make a magazine or newspapers appear more orderly. You can use lines to further classify information, like dividing a page into two columns or rows.

Corners of a page

You might be tempted to place text in the corner of a page, but that doesn’t improve readability. Don’t put any sort of notes on the edge or comers, because that is negative space. Negative space is a good thing, because it lets the design you have chosen for your page, breathe properly.

Widows and Orphans

This is a typography design mistake that most people make. A widow is a short line or a single word, which you often place at the beginning of a column or at the end. This happens because of lack of space, but it looks very odd on a page, and doesn’t create a good appeal. It is best to finish lines properly, and if a word is remaining, then you need to paraphrase. To avoid such a problem, you also need to learn about leading and measuring.

Emphasis

If you want to place emphasis on some specific words, then you can do so without any interruption. It is best to italicize a word if you want the reader to focus on it. However, people can also bold a letter or use uppercase, so that the word becomes more prominent. However, don’t do two things at the same time, like bold and caps, because that will make the word look very clumsy and disruptive.

Practicing Handwriting

You must be wondering as to why you need to practice handwriting when you can simply use digital means to write something. However, if your handwriting is good, then you can make unique things by giving them a personal touch. Imagine a digital headline and a headline made with calligraphy writing. Both headings will have a different impacts, and you can even scan your headline if you want.

There are many ways through which you can improve your typography design. Typography is a skill, and it is not just limited to the type and font size; it is much more than that. If you want to do typography, then it is best to learn about it first. You can take an online course, watch online tutorials, or take an actual class. This way, you will be able to learn about the most commonly used fonts and how you can be good at typography.

Although stop motion was in its prime before the widespread use of CGI in animation, it is still considered an appreciative art form in the filmmaking industry. Movies today can be made entirely from special effects without any human characters, but back in the day the only way to create 3D models was by using stop motion animation.

A Brief History

Considered to be one of the oldest filmmaking techniques, the frame by frame motion picture was first discovered in the late 1800s. The first person to uncover this was Eadweard Muybridge, who essentially lined up a bunch of cameras and took pictures of objects on after the other. This illustrated a trajectory of movements and was the very first stop motion technique used. The real time action of these moving images was seen properly in 1888 when Louis Le Prince was given the patented design for the first motion picture camera.

This early device could only demonstrate the basic concept of these motion pictures but in a few short years, filmmaking became an exciting new venture. That is when stop motion made its mark. The first documented film made this way was The Humpty Dumpty Circus, released in 1898. This commercial release led to the modernization of this technique. Today, television and filming techniques are widely different. There are no dark rooms for processing film, or long hours of editing and composition. The new age is entirely digital.

Is Stop Motion Still Relevant?

There are at present so many faster and easier ways of making motion pictures. However, despite the complexity of the art, stop motion is still widely being used today. The continued appreciation behind it lies in the fact that it is a form of expression that has been pushing boundaries for decades. Although it is no longer the preferred technique of creating special effects, it has been reborn in the technological advent of the 21st century. With fluid presentation, classic characterization and a meticulous process, the relevance of stop motion is still present today.

Stop Motion and Animation

The precision it takes to create a stop motion film has an unbelievable effect, which we have seen in early 2000s animated movies. Some of these films took small ideas and innovative techniques to create an art form that is still marveled at. The following are a list of successful films made through stop motion and the ideas that led to their success.

The Nightmare before Christmas (1993)

This American film was completed in three years through stop motion. Twenty five years later, it is still considered an iconic work of art. The complex puppets used by Tim Burton were made entirely from hand and did not have support from CGI or fancy set design. The models were made to move like puppets throughout the film, which meant that there was plenty of drawing, sewing and sculpting involved. The measures and proportions of each character were also significant, which made for a classic holiday film with an aesthetic theme.

A Close Shave (1995)

Aardman Animations are responsible for most stop motion animated movies in the UK. With eccentric motives and themes, the film features classic clay animation that people were used to seeing on the silver screen. The pliable materials from which the characters were made gave them an almost luminescent look. Along with adequate lighting and shaping tools, the background was focused on to ensure the set appeared life like.

Chicken Run (2000)

Another fantastic achievement of clay, Chicken Run was the exception to the computer animated Toy Story hype in the new millennium. With quirky characters made from clay, intricate set design and tenacious work put into a 2D idea, the film became the benchmark of how good stop motion pictures were supposed to play out. The trick was to employ a range of camera angles for each shot and frame, which made the objects of clay look like they were moving at a fast paced.

Corpse Bride (2005)

Burton used the digital age to create an unlikely stop motion picture. Frame by frame procedures were used in combination with 3D animation, and the manipulation of the clay puppets was made more realistic. The repositioning of the claymation was new in this upcoming age of computerization, but the thin and slender puppets were a classic testament to the style of the majority of the director’s films. Around 40 experienced designers and creators were recruited to make this movie a possibility, who all focused on incremental movements alongside the traditional design.

Coraline (2009)

The first combination of old fashioned stop motion animation and modern 3D was seen in this groundbreaking film. The unusual storyline aside, the film had 28 animators create around 6,000 physical faces from scratch. It used puppet animations styles with backup clothes and parts to ensure the wear and tear would not slow down production. Fabrication of these characters to make them appear alive was done through the ball and socket joints of the models used. Their skin was wrapped in silicone substances and intricate details like the painted hair of the characters gave adequate detail and definition to the human touch of the movie.

ParaNorman (2012)

This was the second feature film from the animation house Laika, after Coraline. The distinction of this film was in the fact that it became the third stop motion animation film made in stereoscopic 3D. Every frame of ParaNorman was handcrafted and shot over two and a half years, complete with visual effects and combinations of 2D and CG. The models were handcrafted and their look was made bolder following the success of Coraline. Physical tools were used to complement the characterization of the models, which were engineered puppets with specific features. Furthermore, stereo 3D animation was also employed for a more dramatic effect. This meant that two lenses had to be used to replicate the space between the width of the model’s eyes, which made frozen frames all the more detailed.

Frankenweenie (2012)

We live in a world dominated by computers and technology. The ratification of stop motion, however, is still persistent next to CGI and commercial films. The passion behind this art form was seen in Burton’s 2012 venture, Frankenweenie which was a resurgence of traditional stop motion animations. Filled with puppet mastery and artistic class, the film features detailed set designs, high grade cameras and handcrafted intricate models. Designers, artists and technicians were hired to create the puppet cast. The size of the characters and adjacent sets were of great import while making the film, since it followed a specific pattern and storyline. To achieve the realism within the puppet animation, designers took real life inspirations from animals and humans to really get into the characterization. The energy of stop motion combined with CGI in this film gave life to these physical objects which is considered to be the actual role of a stop motion animator.

In Conclusion

Stop motion is a traditional technique that led to the commercial success of cinematic films. Although it started off as a way to give physical figures the illusion of movement, it is still popular today in animation films with captivating themes. The old fashioned take on film is an ode to how animation actually started, and today it is undergoing changes such as being used with 3D models and CGI.

If I were to take you back in time, not a lot, just a few decades back, what do you think we would have seen? We would have seen that the television was still the most exciting and the most appealing technology in the market. It had truly captured people’s minds, especially the urban population.

SOCIAL MEDIA’S RISE

Lately, we have seen the meteoric rise of another technology that has taken the world by storm and has transformed the society in ways that were never thought possible. Yes, that’s right. I am talking about the power of social media and the effects that it has had on the world. Not just locally, it has brought the entire planet together. And the interesting thing is that it is still going strong and doesn’t look like stopping.

SOCIAL MEDIA’S EFFECTS ON MARKETING

Marketing has been around for a long time. Longer than we can imagine. Even though social media is a relatively new technology as compared to other ways of marketing, we cannot deny the fact that it has affected the field of marketing in an unprecedented way. Below, we are going to discuss some of the ways that social media has influenced marketing and how it can help you better communicate with your potential customers and turn them into loyal customers.

WHAT STATISTICS SAY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

According to Statista, as of the second quarter of 2019, there were around 2.4 billion monthly active users on Facebook alone. This makes Facebook the biggest social media platform in the entire world. Almost all other networking platforms have seen growth in the recent years. According to Marketing Sherpa, 95% of adults aged 18-34 are more likely to follow their preferred brand on social networking sites. Also Smart Insights has reported that 63% of customers now expect customer service from businesses through their social media channels.

FILLING THE COMMUNICATION GAP

The best way that social media networks have influenced marketing is by greatly enhancing the communication and bringing down the barrier that was there between brands and their customers. Whether we talk about B2B communications or B2C communications, social media has affected both.  The most important thing to consider here is that thanks to social media, there now exists a perfect two-way communication channel between the brand and the target audience.

This channel works both ways. On the one hand, it helps the marketers reach their target audience in a better and reliable way. On the other hand, it has helped customers reach out to their favorite brands or the brands that they have some beef with and communicate their expectations, complaints, and praise.

Facebook and Twitter allow the marketers to easily connect with their target audience and ensure that the message is delivered. Social media also allows instantaneous feedback, which could be a good thing or a bad thing for different vendors but the important thing to consider here is that based on this feedback, marketers can immediately know whether their strategy was right or wrong. If they encounter negative feedback, they can alter their strategy and re-apply it.

A VOICE FOR THE LITTLE GUY

Before the emergence of social media, there were and still are a whole lot of options for marketers to get their messages across. The only issue with them was that they all were expensive and every business couldn’t afford them. This greatly impacted the small to medium businesses as they had no way of competing with the giants in the industry.

Ever since social media stepped into the arena, the situation has changed. It does not take a whole lot of money to use social media to connect with your target audience. This has really given the smaller companies a voice and has leveled the playing field in favor of SMBs.

Because of this equal situation, companies that didn’t have huge capitals but were unique and knew how to attract customers have really taken their place at the top of the industry. Also, since the competition has become tough, all the companies in the market right now have to keep their game up to date otherwise they will lose their position just as easily as they had taken it. Gone are they days when a company could ensure its way to the top just by throwing huge piles of cash into its marketing strategy and block the other less privileged guys.

FINANCIAL BENEFITS

Since social media is a lot cheaper than other traditional means of marketing, it has also allowed businesses to branch out into different areas. Something that a business couldn’t even think of before. The more profit that businesses make on social media and the more marketing finances that they save, the more they invest in research and development or other things like better products, better stores, more rewards for their loyal customers or a host of things.

DATA-CENTERED APPROACH

There was an old adage about marketing that “50% of marketing works; we just don’t know which 50%”. Well, social media put a stop to all that. It has brought heaps of data for the companies about their target audience and their behaviors. Now marketers can really base their strategies on proven data instead of guesswork. They can learn what their target audience love, what they want, what they spend their time on, and they can learn all of this by using just a fraction of the money that they would have had in the past.

There are different ways now that marketers can collect this data from their customers. They can use the analytical tools that different social media platforms have for marketers or they can go directly to the end user and ask them. There are various ways to do that like Facebook posts, twitter posts among others. Using these real-time tools, marketers can easily find out what actually works and what doesn’t.

Before social media, marketers used to conduct researches and studies which cost a fortune and there were no guarantees that they would yield the expected result. There was no way of knowing that a person who has taken part in a study is telling the truth or not.

ACCESS TO THE CUSTOMER

Before the advent of social media, marketers had just a few ways in which they could target the customer and it was time-specific. There was television, but that had a lot of noise. There were billboards, but they had a more scattershot effect rather than a direct approach. And even if they were effective, there was no way that a customer would drive in front of a billboard and look at it long enough to get the message. There were flyers that cost a lot and there was a lot of wastage and not a lot of results. There was door-to-door marketing but again, if a business wanted to do things properly, it had to invest a lot of money in hiring a huge number of sales people and then an additional cost of training them and giving them the proper promotional material to be effective.

Social media put an end to that with its ubiquituosness and easy access to each and every customer no matter where they were in the world. Now, a company that has its office or store in Perth can easily market and sell its products to a customer who is in South Africa, or anywhere else around the globe.

So, there you have it. Social media has truly penetrated all the aspects of marketing and if you are still not using it to leverage your brand then you should start right NOW!

A Content Delivery Network or CDN can improve your page load speed and site engagement. Read this article about how you can use this tool to speed up your website.

CDN

A content delivery network is a system that pulls information from a server and pushes it on to the user through the shortest path.  When you set up a website, there are several servers located between you and the user, in this case, your website visitor.  These servers are located in different geographies; some are close to the user while others are far. A CDN basically uses the server closest to the user while accessing the information.

This means there is a faster flow of data from the server to the user.

CDN and website speed

A CDN stores multiple types of content like JavaScript, videos, text, audio, style sheets, web fonts, various file types like jpg, png, zip , etc. Because it can handle several formats of files easily, a CDN is also able to ask for information, retrieve it and send it to the user quickly. Having a CDN is good because reducing your page speed by even seconds can lead to increase in conversions.  Even a minor improvement in your page load time can translate into a significant number of sign-ups.

These days, most web hosting plans include CDN because of a very high demand for this functionality. If you are a hosting reseller, ask your web reseller hosting provider whether they have this feature in his package.

When your website is down

Having a CDN helps particularly when your website server is down. What a Content Delivery Network does in such cases is; it copies your site content quickly and pushes it to multiple data centers. This process is exceedingly fast and helps you retain your website visitors.

Make your site searchable

When your site loads quickly, it attracts Google and other search engines to favour its content. Faster load time means that your site can be ranked higher up in the search engine rankings. This also leads to an increase in crawl frequency. If you run a web-based business, it means more and faster conversions. For people in the E-commerce business, it is great news, because it leads to more conversions.

Summary

Having a CDN is essential for your business. Not only does this feature improve your page load speeds, it also ensures that your website is always up and running in front of your customers even when your web hosting server is down.

1. Reward yourself for studying.

If you’re not feeling motivated to read your boring class materials, promise yourself a gummy bear at the end of every chapter. You’ll be reading with speed to get to your tasty treat.

2. Learn to cook in a mug.

With a mug, a microwave and a few simple ingredients, you can make a whole boatload of tasty meals. Best of all, each recipe only makes enough for one, so you don’t have to worry about your friends or roommates horning in on your tasty meal.

3. Use Visa and MasterCard gift cards when you need a credit card.

If you want to pay for something online but you don’t have a credit card, or you don’t want to leave your information online, use a Visa or MasterCard gift card. Load up any amount you want on it, register it in your name and use it as a credit or debit card.

4. Get money for those used textbooks and save on new ones.

As tempting as it might be, don’t toss those old textbooks onto a bonfire. You can get back some of your money by selling them online at a site like BooksRun. They’ll take all your old books and pay you with a check or through PayPal. It’s also a good place to buy used textbooks and rent e-books at reasonable rates.

5. Make a cheap air freshener.

Don’t spend money on scented candles or toxic sprays. Tape or drape a dryer sheet over an air conditioner vent or a fan. It’s a cheap way to freshen the air in your dorm room.

6. Use the Pomodoro technique.

Yes, it’s the Italian word for tomato. But it’s also a method that increases productivity when working or studying. It’s very simple. You work or study hard for 25 minutes and then you take a five-minute break to walk around, pet your cat, grab some coffee or do whatever gives you a little mental break.

6. Go “cold turkey” on distracting social media.

The Cold Turkey and Self Control programs will block out distractions while you’re on your computer. You can set them to block whatever you want, from e-mail and message alerts to any or all web sites. You can also set study and break timers and use other productivity tools with these programs.

7. Don’t watch the movie instead of reading the book.

Even the best-written and most faithful adaptations frequently leave out key characters or change the ending. They might even change the setting and time period. Don’t rely on Hollywood to replace your reading.

8. But do watch historical documentaries.

Most historical documentaries are factually correct and offer a good view of the historical events in context. They can deepen your understanding of your reading material. Check out YouTube for a good selection.

9. Use colored pens and pencils to take notes.

In fact, go a step further and use the different colors for different types of note-taking and highlighting. This improves retention and makes it easier to study. Don’t mark up your textbooks. This could make them hard to sell when you’re done with them.

10. Get into a walking habit.

Start a habit of walking or bike riding instead of automatically driving every time you need to run out to the store for something. You’ll clear your head, get some fresh air and get a little exercise.

11. Use an expanding file instead of separate folders.

Instead of stacking up dozens of folders for every class, keep all your class papers together in one expanding file with several pockets. Most of them come with a handy snap that will keep everything from falling out.

12. Get earplugs and sleep like a baby.

If you have a roommate, chances are good that your roommate either snores or likes to watch television at weird hours of the night. You can let them have at it while you snooze the night away with your comfy earplugs.

13. Make sure you wake up.

Are you worried that you’re going to oversleep one morning? If you use your cell phone as your alarm clock, try this easy trick. Pop the phone into a clean, empty glass. The glass will magnify the sound and ensure it’s good and loud.

14. Carry spare chargers.

There’s nothing worse than being away from home with a phone or a tablet that is on its last gasp. Keep charged even on the go with spare chargers that live in your purse or backpack. While you’re at it, throw in some spare headphones, too.

15. Lock that laptop.

It’s sad but true. Leave a laptop or other electronic device lying around, and someone is bound to walk away with it. Avoid the heartache and the expense by attaching a laptop lock. You can get one for around $20 and it will be worth every penny.

15. Cool that soda or beer quickly.

If your beer, soda or wine didn’t make it into the fridge in time to chill properly, use this quick fix. Wrap the bottle in a damp towel and place it in the fridge. It will get cold in about five minutes.

16. You can hang-dry everything.

Save money at the laundromat and make your clothes last longer by letting them hang dry instead of tossing them in the dryer. The spin cycle will take most of the water out. They’ll dry in a few hours. You might still want to use the dryer for heavy items like sheets and blankets.

17. Sleep after you study.

Do you need an excuse for more napping? Now you have it. Studies have found that taking a nap after learning new material helps you retain it. In one study, subjects slept for 40 minutes and had much better recall than the subjects who continued studying.

18. Check and double-check your time planning.

Are you feeling frazzled by everything you have to do? It might be worth doing an overhaul of your study schedule to see when you’re most productive. Try getting up earlier. Try taking breaks during the day. Shake things up and see if you can streamline your daily grind.

Below I compiled favorite tools of SEO community members along with my own suggestions.

BTW, you are also welcome to participate and contribute to the list.

Please get ready, we are getting started.

UberSuggest — Can find hundreds of keyword ideas from a seed keyword for you. It doesn’t require to sign-up. You can export all keywords to a CSV file. I recommend you to try out the awesome word cloud feature. UberSuggest has a couple of very similar alternatives. They are Keyword.io and Google Keyword Suggest Tool.

Answer the Public – The tool fetches Google Autocomplete queries in bulk and sorts them out into various lists. It is really useful if you want to cover the questions people are actually asking in Google.

Hemingway Editor — I use this tool myself and believe it’s an absolute must for bloggers. It highlights sentences that are difficult to read, “weak” words, and so on. Getting rid of stuff like that significantly improves the clarity of your writing.

Soovle — The tool scours Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, and Answers.com and gathers hundreds of keyword ideas from a seed keyword. It’s rather powerful, although the UI leaves much to be desired.

Chrome Developer Tools — This is the built-in Google Chrome’s web page debugging tool. You can use it to debug page speed issues, improve web page rendering performance, and many more. Actually, it has endless possibilities from a technical SEO point.

Beam Us Up — This is an SEO crawling software. It’s safe to say that it is a great free alternative to Screaming Frog. The tool integrates with Excel and Google Drive but is only available for Windows.

Google Keyword Planner / Trends / Webmaster Tools / Analytics / Sheets — All these are must-use SEO tools for all marketers. You can find and research keywords with Keyword Planner and track the Trends. Webmaster Tools will help you identify and fix website issues. Use Analytics to figure out how many people are visiting your website, who they are, and where they come from. Gather, process, and analyze all kinds of SEO-related data with Sheets.

Bing Webmaster Tools — This is Bing’s official toolkit for webmasters. It is very similar to Google Webmaster Tools. The suite is complemented by a sitemap, identify issues with web pages, and some other features.

LSIgraph.com — LSI is an abbreviation for Latent Semantic Indexing. The tool is LSI keywords generator. When you enter a seed keyword into it, it generates a list of LSI keywords, which are keywords and topics semantically related to it. BTW, TextOptimizer does almost the same job.

Keyword Shitter — The tool will generate hundreds and thousands of keyword suggestions from your seed keyword(s). Requires no sign-up. Allows downloading all keyword suggestions to a .txt file in a click.

SERPs.com’s Keyword Research Tool — Use the tool to find thousands of keywords in seconds. Filter them and export to a CSV file. The tool doesn’t require to sign-up.

Small SEO Tools Plagiarism Checker — Use this tool if you need to identify those who’ve stolen/copied your work without attribution. The checker scans billions of documents across the web for you.

Bulk Webpage Word Counter (by SEO Review Tools) — Bulk does exactly what it says on the tin, checks word count for up to 10 URLs.

Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool — The tool helps to avoid truncation issues with meta titles and descriptions identifying them. It also generates a live preview of the current look of your web pages in Google search results. The tool by SEOMofo.com does the same.

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer also shows how your title tag looks in the SERPs. Besides, it gives you advice on how to make improvements and get more clicks.

SEO Hero — Use this tool to finds all concepts, entities and N-Gram’s related to your topic or keyword. In other words, the tool uncovers “LSI Keywords”. You can add them to your content to increase its relevancy.

iSearchFrom.com — The tool lets you emulate a Google search using any location, device, or language. Customise everything you need – from SafeSearch settings to personalized search.

RankTank.org — These are open source “DIY” SEO tools built into Google Sheets.

Delim.co — The tool allows to convert a comma-delimited list, in other words, CSV, in a matter of seconds. Delim can be used not for SEO purposes only, but it may be helpful in many SEO-related tasks.

Keyworddit — The tool pulls out the most frequently used keywords and phrases from any subreddit. Additionally, it provides the monthly search volume for each keyword.

Drop My Link — The tool combines your keywords with advanced Google search operators to show you link building opportunities. It is great for finding guest post opportunities, link/resource pages, link roundups, etc.

What does my site cost? — Would you like to know how much it costs a person to visit your website on mobile round the globe? The report is very insightful for people got used to unlimited 50 mbps+ 4G web browsing.

Keep-alive Validation SEO Tool — The tool enables you to check if a website/websites support a persistent connection. The ones that do load faster than those that don’t.

Am I Responsive? — The tool shows you how a website looks on the desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile. This way you can check its responsiveness.

HEADMasterSEO — The tool checks response time, response headers, and HTTP header fields (X-Robots-Tag, Link, Vary). Offers filtering and a bunch of other advanced features. All you need to do is simply bulk status code (e.g. 200, 301, 404, etc.) and redirect checker.

Varvy — The tool checks whether a web page is following Google’s guidelines. It prompts you what you need to fix in case your website drops short.

SERPLab — This is a free Google rankings checker. It updates up to 50 keywords every 24 hours if server permits.

JSON-LD Schema Generator — JSON-LD schema is a markup generator. It supports six markup types at the moment. They include product, local business, event, and organization.

KnowEm Social Media Optimizer — The tool analyses your web page to see if it’s optimized for social sharing well enough. It checks for markup from Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Where Goes? — The tool shows the entire route of meta-refreshes and redirects for any URL. It is extremely useful for diagnosing link issues like complex redirect chains, for instance.

Search & Extract Twitter Users + “Find Influencers in Any Niche” — Use this tool to find influencers who have shared any piece of content on Twitter during the last 7 days. It is also useful for finding influencers who have shared content from a particular domain or on a particular topic. Detailed is another tool that analyses the last 2K tweets for any Twitter account so that you could see who influences a particular person.

Google Business Review Link Generator — The tool generates a direct link to your Google Business listing. It gives you the opportunity to choose between a link to all current Google reviews and a pre-filled 5-star review box.

Side Note: SEO tools significantly simplify our lives, however, no tool can replace the human mind. We should have at least basic SEO knowledge to succeed. Watch this video to learn major SEO tips that ACTUALLY work in 2018 and Beyond.

Wrap Up

Putting this list together I got to know about some new cool SEO tools myself, so I hope the compilation was useful for you either. Maybe you will even bookmark it in order to have free SEO tools at hand whenever you need some of them.

Would you help me keep these list up-to-date? Please feel free to point out to the tools I have missed/your favorites/new discoveries in the comments.

About the author

Helga Moreno is a passionate content creator and marketer at Ahrefs bold enough to believe that if there’s a book that she wants to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then she must write it herself.

However…  Designing Your Own Logo is Expensive… Or is it?

… logos are expensive. To hire a graphic designer to produce your business’ logo is to say goodbye to a huge amount of money. Not only that; there’s no guarantee you’ll even be pleased with the finished result. Hiring a designer means taking an (expensive) punt. You hope it will work out for the best and the return on investment will be worth it, but it’s still going to be a nervous time.

For some established businesses and almost all startups, spending a small fortune on professional logo design is an unrealistic idea. If your budget is limited, then there are far more vital areas of a business to invest in. These are areas that are crucial to the everyday running and organization of the company. Graphic designers do wonderful work, but their time is outside of the budget for many up-and-coming businesses. Choosing to go without is a reasonable decision, and will allow you to spend your money where it is needed more.

Yet…  there’s no denying you do still need a logo, because logos genuinely are very important to brand cohesion and identity. So you now find yourself stuck: you’re not able to hire a graphic designer, but you need a logo— who is going to design that the logo you need?

You are.

If you are lacking in experience when it comes to graphic design, the idea of designing your company’s logo might sound preposterous. However, lack of experience need not be a concern when it comes to designing your business logo. If you can use a computer, then you’ve got all the expertise you need to design a custom logo with Wix.

When you design a logo with Wix, all you need is time to experiment. You don’t need to worry about paying the sky-high fees of graphic designers. Instead, you can create a logo for yourself using the simple, easy-to-use tools available to you. When using Wix to design your own business logo, you have full control. You will be able to change a variety of settings, too. These include the text, font, color, and many other design elements that are crucial for producing the end result you want.

Comfortably, the entire process has been designed to be as easy to complete as possible. You don’t need any prior design experience! A willingness to experiment with the Wix site is all it takes to deliver outstanding results. You’ll be amazed at what you can create with a little patience. In fact you’ll soon realize that choosing to DIY design your company’s logo was an excellent decision.

Incorporate additional Wix features

Wix is able to help you design the perfect logo for your company, but that’s not all it can do. With Wix, you can also help to control the costs of another infamously high business expense: website design. Again, all you need is willingness to learn and to spend some time custom-creating your site; and, again, as with logo design it’s remarkably simple to do.

Wix allows business owners to reduce their costs substantially. The expense of graphic designers and web designers is instantly removed from your outgoings list. This immediately helps to free up funds to use in other vital areas of your business. As well as helping to ease your budgetary concerns, using Wix also benefits you personally. You will learn a new skill— and perhaps discover a hitherto unknown talent for graphic design into the bargain!

To conclude

If your budget is tight and a professional graphic designer is out of your reach, then you may be surprised how effectively you can design your own logo. You may even be a little surprised how much fun you find it, too! With Wix supporting you, your lack of experience simply doesn’t matter, as Wix is able to provide the support you need. As you seek to design the perfect business logo for your company,  giving Wix a try is sure to be a decision that you won’t regret!

The book cover is one of the most considerable elements of the printed book’s production when it comes to the sale. Its appearance depends on the author’s idea and may be completely different. However, a special attention should be paid to this, especially the notable part. Very often the cover material is made of plain dense paper. If the more rigid material is used, this cover is called a binder. Some particularly expensive specimens (for example, gift editions) are put into a special cardboard case. This greatly increases the price of the binder, so it is rarely used and only with respect to some books. All information displayed on the cover items should help identify the book and with its content.

Here we will discover main tips on how to make the book cover unique and interesting for readers.

1. Make a research of the market and discover the target group of readers. For example, feminine romances and biographical novels must have different covers: paper cover is more suitable for the first, hardcover – for another. In other words, some books can be read during the trip by subway, but libraries prefer hardcovers.
2. Determine what the design should embody. Find out the main features of the book that makes it unique: interesting characters, style of writing, a place of the story or anything else. Then think about how you can reflect these objects on the cover.
3. Be sure to place the name of the book and the author’s name. The cover and cover text should be in large print. It is possible to supplement the cover with other titles that can influence the reader’s choice. Note that you can place much more information on a paper cover than on a binder, lined with cloth, leather or other materials.
4. Include pictorial elements in the composition on the cover, including the relevant ornament, emblem, symbols that are relevant to the subject matter of this publication and its content. Such inserts should be not only highly artistic, but also functional, bearing semantic load.
5. Choose the right font that will be suitable for book’s design. For example, soft fonts are often used in feminine fiction.
6. Use a cover image when designing that may cause the necessary associations, and not just talk directly about the content. This is especially important for popular science and propaganda publications. For the artistic edition, the selection of a picture on a blanket is essential, since it opens up the entire composition, presented in the edition itself.
7. Do not try to make the design of the cover and the binding extremely bright and striking. For the potential reader who takes the book into his hands, the appropriate emotional mood is relevant. If the design of the cover is harmoniously and gently combined with the artistic features of the text and illustrations to it, such a book will want to read.
8. Think about the design of the root of the book. When choosing a book on a shelf or in a stack of table, the reader sees the root. Place the name of the publication and the author’s name on it. For serial publications, please also indicate on the root the issue number and year of publication. It will be attractive to decorate it with ornament without cluttering it with superfluous small details. This is especially important for mass-media editions, united by common themes.
9. Use the color decoration in the design. Make a cover in several colors that are interconnected. Dynamic design requires contrasting colors, for a more relaxed design suitable not too sharp combination.
10. In the presence of technical ability you can choose the embossing covers printed with variable relief of the binder cover. Especially successful looks are stamped on bindings of fabric or durable quality paper. The gift edition, executed in two or three copies, can be made with a leather cover.
11. Prepare the final version of the book cover as one flat file that has all the relevant objects of the cover to make it possible to print on the printer. Most printers prefer PDF files, but others accept .ai or .eps.

Very often, to sell a book, publishers use stereotypes and clichés: using classic art on covers for classical novels, pictures of a loving couple on the cover of a feminine novel. Clichés in book covers are used because of business strategy. Many readers decide what to buy right in the bookstore: so the cover should show what genre the book is and often – what gender is the main character. Say, if on the cover there is a man among fog – everyone considers that this is some kind of detective story.

Book covers are one of the most controversial areas of design. On the one hand, they are truly beautiful and original, on the other – boring and similar to each other. Sometimes the appearance can make a book a part of the collection and a self-sufficient artifact even without opening and reading it.

A simple logo can give you only a few bucks of money from the client. Well, if you want to earn a huge sum of money then you will have to take this simple task seriously. This article will reveal few of “don’ts” that you must have to avoid in order to design a professional and eye-catchy logo.

Draw logos in vector format

After doing all your designing and when you are about to deliver the logo to your client, your client may ask you to deliver the logo in vector format. On listening to such a request of your client you may feel panic. Therefore, it is always recommended to draw the vector logo. Vector format makes it possible to edit the image as many times as you can.

It is not necessary that the client will like your work at the very first submission, he may need few changes in it. As the vector format images are not resolution bounded, therefore you can easily resize the designed logo without compromising on the quality of an image. the

A logo is a reflection of a company, that’s the reason that client will prefer that designer who is not limited to making changes in the logo. For your convenience as well as for client’s approval, vector format is recommended.

Do not look for inspiration on logo stocks

The logo is a foundation of a brand or company. When a logo is such an important part of any company, therefore it must be unique as well. Logo designing needs a creative mind in order to make brand prominent in the eyes of customers.

A unique logo will distinguish the brand from other similar brands in the market. A BIG NO to looking at stock images and taking ideas from them for your logo. Stock images are free and open to all the individuals. You may think while designing that the stock image, you are taking as an inspiration, is not used by anyone but you can be wrong. Even if it is not yet used by any brand, then sooner or later you will see it being used in the logo of any other similar brand.

Even after working so hard and trying to come up with something amazing, a single mistake can ruin your whole designed image. Most of the local brands do not spend much on these elements and go for already available images. Having similar or even close-to design of the logo can affect the brand image. Take some time, let your tortoise mind come up with some creative ideas and end up with a magical design.

Avoid unnecessary complexity

You just started working on a big project with a tight deadline. Your mind is full of ideas that are bursting out of your head right on the sketchpads. While mapping all the innovative ideas, the deadline is approaching closer. In order to complete your work on time, you combine few strong approaches and make a logo. Well, the problem that arises here is your logo design is very complex and communicating a number of messages to potential customers.

Keep in your mind, the major aim of designing a logo for the company is to communicate ‘what the company has to offer’ to its customers. While looking at the logo, if people are not able to understand that what the brand is about then they may switch to the other brand.

Most of the designers while designing a logo are so enthusiastic in making a unique logo that they end up in a designing a complex one. The solution is that keep your logo simple. You can add up interesting elements but do not complicate it.

Choose reasonable fonts

While your logo is under construction, one of the important decision that a designer has to make is a font of the logo. Most of the logos are unsuccessful and misunderstood due to poor choice of font.

One of the best ways of selecting a font for your logo is to look at the style of a logo but it is quite a tricky job. If both font and style of the logo are very close, then it can result in competition among both. If style and font are opposite then one can overshadow other. None of these conditions are suitable for your logo. Try to find out balance among both the elements. Both style and font should be reflecting each other. Font and style must act like pieces of a puzzle, and when both are combined, then give a clear idea and message.

Most of the time bad selection of font is due to the non-serious attitude of designer while choosing one. As a designer, you must have to take this decision seriously and select a reasonable font.

Less follow trends

One of the biggest mistake that logo designers make while designing a logo is relying on trends. Keep in mind that logo of your company or your client’s company is for a lifetime. Trends changes with the passage of time. If you follow current trends, then on changing of trends your logo can face serious issues. It is better to follow less or even no trends while designing logos.

As a designer, it is your job to play safely while designing a logo. Your logo must be unique and appropriate for a lifetime. It is not easy for a brand to change their logo with changing trends. As frequent changes in logo design can result in confusing potential customers. You must be aware of the latest trends in order to avoid them.

Do not copy anyone’s ideas

One of the most common mistakes repeated by most of the designers is to copy logo designs. A logo is a representation of a brand. If the logo of any certain brand is similar to other, then it will not be able to fulfill its purpose.

Copying the ideas of other people may save your time but is not in yours as well as the client’s favor. Copying a logo can also take you into copyright claims. As a designer, you must know that copying ideas of others is a crime.

Choose the right colors

A color palette is one of the most important considerations for your logo. Color has meaning as well as communicate messages.

In few cases, you may have to stick to the color of the brand while designing a logo. Contrary to this, in other cases, you may have the freedom to choose colors as per your choice. Colors can bring life to a simple image and can communicate a strong message. You can make a just two-tone logo or can add various colors, depending on the nature of the brand.