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BuddyPress is free plug-in for WordPress that will convert your WordPress website/blog into fully fledged social network. BuddyPress is an excellent choice for bloggers that have good knowledge about web development. Even the plug-in is free and open source, there are many things that require some PHP knowledge, WordPress/BuddyPress theme development and extensive understanding of WordPress core. BuddyPress Features BuddyPress out of the box features are: user profiles / extended profiles activity streams user groups private messaging notifications It is easy to extend the features with plug-ins which you can download from BuddyPress Plug-ins page: https://buddypress.org/plugins/. Pay attention on supported version of BuddyPress and WordPress, many plug-ins are outdated and can crash your website. Here is a link to list of recommended plug-ins, but again keep in mind to check version supported and possible conflicts with other plug-ins: https://buddypress.org/extend/recommended-plugins/. Web hosting Requirement As it is build over WordPress core, system requirements are the same, however keep in mind, that for large social network, you will need at least mid-level VPS. How to Install BuddyPress Installing BuddyPress is very easy, the same as you are installing new plug-in for WordPress – navigate to Pluins>Add new and search for “BuddyPress”. Hit “Install” and...

When you decided to open a graphic design business, you probably had grandiose ideas of being your own boss. You would have more time to spend with family and friends, make more money, and get away from your overbearing boss. If you are still struggling with time management, lost under a sea of bills, business and insurance paperwork, and dealing with hard to please clients, your graphic design business may not be as healthy as you want it to be. Establish a Marketing Plan Your flow of business may be all over the board. You take each and every job that comes your way because you want your business to be successful. The only problem is, you no longer enjoy what you do. Take a step back and figure out what kinds of graphic designs you want to work on and go from there. What is your creative edge? Who is your target demographic? What kinds of businesses do you want to work with? How are you going to keep your name out there? These are all questions that you need to answer honestly to determine if your graphic design business is healthy and mold it the way you want so that...

JJ Social Slider is a free module for Joomla. It work on all latest Joomla releases on either left or right hand side at fixed position. JJ Social Slider is developed by JoomJunk. I've decided to write review of this superb module, as many times, I was asked on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn, what I am using at WebmaisterPro. This social slider use jQuery or CSS3 animations and on hover images pop-up, bringing impressive effect and high visibility of social media profiles on pages selected. This extension is well maintained and there are regular updates. Quite easy to find similar component in WordPress, but I think JJ Social Slider is unique extension for Joomla, that every website should have installed. You can see the demo on right hand side at WebmaisterPro.

SEO in 2014 looks almost nothing like it did even just a year ago. Thanks to Google updates like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird -- which influences more than 90% of global searches --  content creators need to get away from tactics that used to be successful, like keyword packing and link building, and provide content that is created with the end user in mind. This year, the Moz Industry Survey brought that point home. It states, “Across the board, content marketing is on the rise and fewer and fewer of you are actively link-building.” The study found that content marketing is now the second most common activity, after analytics. What does this mean for web designers? Essentially, the shift to content creation that has readers and topics, rather than keywords, at the core means that website developers need to follow suit if they want to earn and sustain high rankings. For the most part, that means designers will need to provide an easy-to-navigate, highly accessible site that allows visitors to find the information they need quickly.  As a result, there are a few things that should be kept in mind when trying to build an effective website. Cognitive Dissonance That term...

Ghost the “next big thing” in blogging or not? If you are a blogger, web developer or tech enthusiast probably you have already heard about Ghost open source publishing platform. There were many reviews on blogs and magazines, so I decided to check it myself. I prefer writing positive reviews, but let's call review of Ghost neutral. The project have started at Kickstarter with original goal of £25,000, though the project have exceeded the expectations and have gathered £196,362. Ghost – The Technical Part Ghost is written in JavaScript, it rely on Node.js framework. This is one of the main advantages and at the same time the main disadvantage. Ghost work with SQLite3, templating engine is based on Handlebars.js As you can see all these are new technologies, that are not wide supported currently. The first problem you will face is related to web hosting. There are probably just 2-3 shared hosts that support Node.js. So practically you a looking at least mid-level VPS to run super-simple blogging CMS. Getting Started with Ghost – Options Everything looks very much straight forward at first, but options are very confusing, you can choose between: Hosted Self Hosted Virtualbox Vagrant If you don't have...

At the end of the 2005 blockbuster film Batman Begins, police officer Jim Gordon makes a point about crime and escalation. In a nutshell, he points out that no matter how sophisticated law enforcement becomes, there will always be those criminals who who are willing to take things to the next level, and as both sides work to gain a clear advantage, very little ever actually changes. In few areas does this seem to apply more than in cyberspace. As computer systems advance and grow, virus protection firms work tirelessly to create new defences intended to keep sensitive data safe from the criminals who would steal it. And as they do so, black-hat hackers around the world put just as much effort into defeating these new security measures. And so, as we enter a new year, we’re faced with a new crop of potential cyber threats. Anti-virus giant McAfee has recently released its own report on the kinds of cyber-threats we may begin to see in the next twelve months, and the top contenders to make the list may surprise you. Here are seven cyber-threats to look out for in 2014, and how to protect your information from them. 1. Mobile...

More and more, consumers are choosing to do most, if not all, of their shopping online, rather than heading to brick-and-mortar retailers. In fact, according to data compiled by Invesp, estimates suggest that Americans alone will spend some $279 billion online by 2015, while consumers could spend up to a staggering $1.4 trillion globally. Because of that, businesses looking to attract new customers and grow will have to find ways to establish a strong online presence, one that allows online shoppers to easily research and buy products. Building a great new website is usually the best way to do that, and using the latest graphic design trends can help owners make sure their site stands out. Bold Graphics Web users tend to move quickly, and will make a decision about whether or not a site they visit has any value in just a matter of seconds. In order to draw shoppers in and make sure they are able to find exactly what they are looking for, site developers need to use creative and engaging graphics. Sites that are bland and too text-heavy will fail to draw interest, even if they have lots of great content or the exact product or service...

Since mobile technology became main-stream, many trends have dominated the mobile application development space. While we can’t ignore the rise in the number of mobile devices, we certainly cannot ignore the fact that it is mainly because of the huge number of mobile applications. In fact, not many people even have a smartphone without a wide array of applications. Considering the fact that apps attract big investment and generate billions of dollars, developers are now focusing on introducing new applications, making use of the latest resources available to them. With technological advancements, the Mobile Application Development process has evolved over time. New platforms have surfaced, giving birth to new trends. For instance, the concept of mobile money introduced by these applications is becoming more popular with time. It is enabling banking and financing via mobile wallets, which is more convenient than handling cash or plastic money. Similarly, as the trend of tablets spread, we’re witnessing the traditional ways of education being replaced by tablet computing. Many experts are predicting that 2014 will be a great year for mobile application developers. Let’s take a look at some of the trends that are most likely to get attention. Emphasis on privacy Recent revelations...

Designing a mobile friendly website is a challenging task as the design must suit a variety of screens across multiple platforms. The design must be impressive for tablets as well as must deliver a positive user experience for the smartphone users. Web design for mobile is a tricky business where certain aspects must be taken into account. While designing mobile websites, two approaches are very significant. The two approaches are: Build an exceptional mobile website. Use Responsive Design trend to design the existing website to match various mobile devices. Following these two approaches will bring fruitful result for the business but knowing where to start and what to do are equally important. Hence, here are the three key areas for an effective mobile website design.Understand Mobile Website Usage and Behaviour PatternsThe misconception that mobile usage is based only on certain definite things may lead to a misleading web design for mobile. The fact is that most of the mobile usage is to kill the time or to spend some leisure time. Today, people are increasingly using the phones for the same purpose as the desktop. So it is better to plan the web design for mobile keeping in mind the theory...

So you have already decided to get AdWords-certified. Speaking as one who has taken the AdWords certification exam, it’s not easy – let’s get that straight. You have to go through tons of paperwork, and information overload is quite common. So I am telling you right now: You need help – specifically, help from an AdWords training partner. But don’t just go for any AdWords training specialist which can promise you adequate training. You need to be selective with the help you choose and the training you undergo.  Since there are dozens of AdWords training courses to choose from, I’ve narrowed it down for you. Here’s what you need to consider when choosing an AdWords training partner:  Choose a partner which has been certified  Obviously, it is in your best interest to go for AdWords training from those who have themselves been certified – those who have gone through it and know exactly what to expect. With this, you can attain complete peace of mind with the knowledge that you are relying on a partner which can speak from experience. Additionally, what you can look for is an AdWords training specialist which has experience managing AdWords accounts as well, which is...

There is no doubt that we’re living in a world where technology is increasingly becoming a central focus of our daily lives, often if we like it or not. Many of us have definitely embraced a lot of what modern technology has to offer, especially when it comes to all things digital. The rapid increase in use of smartphones and tablets across the UK has been paralleled by a dramatic rise in e-commerce sales, as people begin to use their mobile devices to make purchases. But our world is changing fast, and the yearly meeting of the tribes, so to speak, is in Las Vegas every January, at the extravaganza known as the Consumer Electronics Show.  The Rise of Alternative Devices  You may have heard that we may someday find our smartphone is a quaint relic of the past. Our beloved tablets may be also. What is appearing on the horizon are smart glasses, devices that actually function like a smartphone or tablet while looking like a pair of glasses. Last year, Google introduced their version, appropriately called Google Glass, but there are competitors. An Israeli company called Lumus showed off their latest creation, the Lumus DK40, which on the outside...

Emoji abuse. Chances are you’re guilty of it or you know someone who is. It’s tempting, of course, to play around with those colorful little creations available right on the keyboards of our smartphones and tablets. And you should, mostly because they’re fun and allow for a wider range of expression than boring old words or even photos. But emojis have also made for a heck of a challenge for web designers. If you’ve been on Twitter on your desktop or laptop, you can tell when someone you follow uses an Emoji in a tweet -- it always shows up as a misplaced, ugly, empty box. Emojis are becoming hugely popular, and not just in tweets, but also in blog posts and other traditional web content. That’s prompting the main players on the web to start experimenting with multicolored (and even animated) fonts. Mozilla, Abode, Microsoft and Google have all begun researching the possibility of more engaging typography as 2014 progresses, CNET reports. It makes sense; the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the web design industry is slated to grow 22% between 2010 and 2020, meaning more innovation is already on its way. So, what other kinds of typography breakthroughs...

If you are anything like me, whether to push or pull doesn’t always come naturally. Signs which strictly or even helpfully inform us to push, often result instead in a pull, with their counterparts receiving exactly the reverse treatment. With such a plethora of visual cues available to us, why is it that so many people have issues when simply existing or entering a building? Clearly I have too much time on my hands because after a life time of imbibing lattes in a variety of cafes, I think I may have happened on an answer. Door handles. Yep, that’s right, door handles. When they exist we are oh so tempted to pull. When they don’t exist, pushing really seems to be our only means of escape. Put a pull sign on a handle-less door and where would we be? Stumped. Shocked … terrified even? Similarly, put a handle where there is a push sign and before we know it we are doing a version of the hokey cokey that would definitely not impress the judges on Strictly. When finally we emerge on the right (or even wrong) side of the door, we are left red, sweaty and more indeed of...

Mobile social networking is one the fastest growing areas for mobile content. The number of people accessing their favorite social media network through their smartphones is increasing at a frantic pace, and experts are of the opinion that this trend is only expected to get even better with time. It has been estimated that at least 80% of smartphone users access the internet from their phones every month. Some access their social network profiles through browsers but many are now turning to special apps to make mobile networking easier. Many customers are adopting mobile phones and hence you need to find ways to leverage your mobile marketing tools to optimize their experience. You can connect with many people by taking advantage of the mobile apps already installed on their phones.  Mobile devices are very common and cannot be ignored. It is estimated that over half of residents in the US own smartphones or tablets, with half of this population using the social media apps present on their devices. With the world today slowly moving towards mobile technology, social strategies require business owners to incorporate mobile networking, but this can prove a challenge.  Here are top 5 strategies for a successful mobile social networking....

Every company wants high quality website, that is highly visible in search engines. As everything is interrelated, to achieve this, it is necessary to pick the right web hosting provider. That guarantee low downtime, high performance and security. The first question always come first – “How to find a reliable web hosting provider?”. This exists since the dawn of Internet, but if you want to keep up with latest technology, the best choice is SSD cloud web hosting. Why SSD? Most of today's website are database driven, based on some of the most popular open source CMS like Joomla, Drupal, vBulletin, Magento, etc... All these content management systems require intensive Input/Output operations and fast connection with Database. Realistically for small blog based on WordPress, you probably might not have much of a problem with any cheap shared hosting, but one middle of the road e-commerce website or high traffic blog need a bit more in terms of speed and security. Advantages of SSD Web Hosting One of the main advantage, of SSD web hosting is fast speed, especially on high number of simultaneous connections, at that point SSD web hosts are about 300% faster compared to "old school" HDD. This is...

As the saying goes, first impressions are everything. If you’re on a blind date and you trip and fall within the first 10 minutes of the evening, you’re probably going to seem like a klutz for the rest of the night. If you spend the entirety of a job interview complaining about the bosses at your last gig, you probably can’t count on starting at that company anytime soon. The same thing goes for running your own web-based business. If your site looks like it was designed all the way back in 1995, your potential customers are likely going to doubt your company’s credibility -- not to mention your choice of outdated gifs and word art. So why give them the opportunity to second-guess your service at all? It’s 2014 now, and more than ever, successful and strategic web design has become paramount to a website’s general success. Studies estimate that 94% of a web visitor’s first impression of a site he or she has never clicked on before is related to the overall design. In other words, if the average web surfer thinks your site could use a few tweaks to better improve its functionality, it probably could. And you...

Scrolling can improve usability of website dramatically. Scrolling with mouse can be a painful experience for visitors, especially on long pages. Probably the easiest way to get things done fast is with the help of jQuery. There are many plug-ins for jQuery that can easy this job, but technically you don't need a plug-in just some of these reusable snippets. Scroll to Anchor Text Create the anchors within your page, easy way to make jumps in relevant content or guide/tutorial pages. // HTML: // <h1 id="anchor">Example</h1> // <p><a href="#anchor" class="topLink">Back to Top</a></p> $(document).ready(function() { $("a.topLink").click(function() { $("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: $($(this).attr("href")).offset().top + "px" }, { duration: 500, easing: "swing" }); return false; }); }); Scroll to Top Scroll to top have become a standard, every website need this. $("a[href='#top']").click(function() { $("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: 0 }, "slow"); return false; });   Scroll to Bottom $(window).load(function() { $("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: $(document).height() }, 1000); }); Note the use of window.onload (when images are loaded...which occupy height) rather than document.ready.To make things proper, you just need to check the page height and substrack. $("html, body").animate({ scrollTop: $(document).height()-$(window).height() }); Load content on scroll Simple code that does the effect similar to Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus –...

Mobile is bigger than ever and only going one way – up. In 2014 we can expect to see a notable increase in queries and searches on mobile – again. However, though the constant is mobile search growth, the variable is going to be in preparing your site for search. So, let’s look at what we should we expect from mobile SEO in the coming twelve months? Responsive Sites and Mobile Sites If you don’t have a mobile site or a website that’s responsive, then you’re going to need to get on the bandwagon in 2014. SEO is changing and Google has alluded that it will begin to favour sites searched for on mobile that offer the mobile experience. Currently, sites with no mobile optimisation rank well in its mobile search – this will most likely change this year. Expect to see responsive and mobile sites rise to the top and be rewarded for providing the optimised experience. Load Times Of course, it’s not just about a site being mobile. Page load times look like they could be a big factor too. Matt Cutts of Google has mentioned on a number of occasions Google’s preference for faster page load times for...

Contact Form 7 for WordPress is one of the most popular multiple contact form plug-ins. It is extremely flexible, easy to integrated with 3rd party plug-ins and it is free. Contact Form 7 plug-in is mature, regularly update and documentation is well written and complete. The plug-in is moderately easy to use and can create very complicated multiple contact forms. In this review, we will give you few tips, how to use it and how to combine Contact Form 7 with other plug-ins. Installation is straight-forward and doesn't differ from installing any other WordPress plug-in. Personally, I would suggest to check the documentation https://contactform7.com/docs/. Process of creating contact forms is traight forward, though non-experienced webmasters or bloggers, might get a bit confused. Contact Form 7 – Form Tags As I mentioned above, this plug-in is very flexible and there are several form tags that you can use out of the box: Text Fields Number Fields Date Field Checkboxes, Radio Buttons and Menus File Uploading and Attachment CAPTCHA Quiz Acceptance Checkbox Submit Button As well as Contact Form 7 can integrate 3rd party plug-ins to customize your form even further. For instance, one of the screenshots, include plug-in called “Contact Form 7...

It’s no secret that the web is becoming more mobile by the minute. In fact, studies project that in only a year or two, mobile web use -- that’s browsing on your smartphone or your tablet -- is poised to overtake the entirety of desktop computer use. Data like that would seem to make one thing abundantly clear. Whether you’re a blogger, a browser or a business owner, the mobile frontier is your new destination. But research from KissMetrics, a web analysis group, reveals that 60% of all mobile web users run into at least one problem while trying to visit a site via a tablet or smartphone. In an industry where first impressions are everything, a bad introduction to a poorly optimized mobile site can be quite a bad omen. The fact that some sites still not optimized for mobile viewing can typically be blamed on poor web development or negligent maintenance of a site’s operations and navigation. It’s clear that the more time you spend ensuring your user can find his or her way around your site (especially on an iPad or Android tablet), the better off you’ll be, whether you are a business, a blogger or a casual...