PHP Technology to Improve Business Growth

PHP is an open source technology leveraged to build dynamic websites that enhances the company's brand image and spreads its popularity. It is a rich platform to generate creative web applications and it delivers the best results capable to attract business clients to the site. It is a server-side scripting language that brings unlimited possibilities for attractive web development.

A business website needs to portray a professional touch to customers and clients. Web designing and development undergoes rapid changes as new trends in the market evolve. PHP is a robust platform to build websites with a different look and feel. It is easy to maintain the websites developed with the PHP framework and developers can easily make modifications on the web page. PHP offers incredible features and varied functionality for developing websites with a difference.

Importance of PHP for web development

1. PHP is a flexible framework that supports multiple platforms like Mac or Linux. It runs effectively on varied platforms which makes it a useful tool for web development.

2. PHP is an open source technology that is available freely for developers to build exciting new applications. It proves to be a cost-effective platform for organizations and saves their money, time, and efforts spent behind the work of web development.

3. It is a secure platform devoid of any problems or risks in the process of web development. With PHP one can be sure that all the content is fully secure over the web.

4. PHP is a versatile platform and has umpteen features to provide rich web development. It is possible to introduce variations in web development and make the field vibrant.

5. PHP is compatible with Ajax and Flash which increases its scope. The language can also be used to make changes within HTML websites. PHP helps to make innovative websites and enables to increase business prospects.

6. It supports different databases like Oracle and Mysql. PHP is a reliable platform and it supports all major operating systems. It is a constantly updated platform and newer versions have only made PHP a more dynamic platform for web development.

PHP is popularly used to build plenty of websites and it has always produced the best results for the industry. It has an extensive group of users and developers who share their views over the web. The internet is filled with lots of resources and developers, who encounter difficulties in the process of development, find lots of information over the web to solve their problem. This makes PHP the best platform to work on for developers.

SharePoint 2013 - The New Way to Work Together

According to Microsoft - SharePoint 2013 is the new way to work together. SharePoint 2013 is the next version of SharePoint that includes simplified user experience helping users to organize, sync, and share all their content. Also, new social capabilities are being integrated that makes easier for users to share their ideas and keep a continuous track of colleagues on-going work.

SharePoint is a powerful and rapidly growing platform and the newly launched 2013 version brings many beneficial features for the enterprises. It also introduces the new modes of sharing work with others, organizing projects as well as large teams, and discovering information and insights.

1] Share

With SharePoint 2013, users can share now their stuff or update their activity feed with people inside the organization or even people from outside. They can now publish their content from any Microsoft Office application easily.

2] Organize

Now with SharePoint 2013 users can -

- Organize all their tasks and projects for getting visibility into upcoming deliverables across SharePoint, Outlook and Microsoft Project.

- Bring together all the emails, documents and team members at one single place.

- Sync their content in SharePoint to their desktop with SkyDrive Pro, so as to access docs even in offline mode.

3] Discover

Users can now connect with other people present in an organization and discover their interests, projects and documents. Moreover, now users can create reports using Excel sheet and publish them easily to SharePoint to share statistical data with others.

4] Build

With new Cloud App Model of SharePoint it is now possible to build apps on common web technologies like HTML or JavaScript.

- Users can publish their app and make it available for everyone to try or purchase via Public Store.

- Users can build dynamic intranet and internet websites to share their organization's insight with everyone.

5] Manage

With SharePoint 2013, the management of costs, risks and time has become easier. By running SharePoint in the cloud with Office 365 the infrastructure costs can be reduced. This will also help users to spend more time in quality maintenance, performance and innovation as there will be no load of managing infrastructure.

With this release, keeping up-to-date with all the activities of colleagues in SharePoint has become simpler as it was never before. Microsoft has tried its best to bring improved user-experience with SharePoint 2013 along with making much easier for administrators to deal smoothly with complex and long programs.

Spotting the Gemstone Among the Many Web Application Development Companies

Businesses planning to create a strong online presence should be well-versed with the latest technological updates. Since, promoting your product and services in the huge world of the internet is certainly not a 'child's play.'

Your decision to strengthen your business's online presence is definitely worth appreciation. There are a few things to remember in order to run your train on right track. Planning for a customized web application is suggested. Every business is unique and so are its problem and requirements, in such situation a custom solution is needed. For instance, if you are planning to start an e-book store for women, where you want to attract only females, you should consider having a customized web application for your business.

A customized web app is one of the best ways you can provide a comfortable, hassle-free and wonderful shopping experience to your customers or visitors. Not only this, a customized web application also helps in reducing input cost and increases the output or revenue. You would not require hiring additional force to take care of the tasks, which an app can do. However, to develop such an interesting application you would need to hire a professional company.

Selecting a web application development company:

Choosing a web application development company is like searching mustard in the ocean. It is even tougher when you are new in the field and have no idea about the arena. Many hire wrong companies and later regret. Remember; do not hire a web application development company without proper background research.

There exist plenty of ways, which you need to follow in order to select the most reliable web application development company. Here are some of the noted points one should bear in the mind before jumping into the sea:

Hire an application development company that has a reputed stand in the market from a long time. Make sure you request quotes from the ex as well existing clients. Every online company has a website (even offline for that matter); take a virtual tour on their website to check out the services and projects undertaken by them. If possible talk to the customers and urge them to give their valuable quotes about the company. Budget is one of the vital parts that you should discuss with the company. Let them know your budget and expectation. Remember, a reputed company won't charge you high and neither will it deliver a poor quality product. Since, for such companies, reputation is more important than money. They want you to make repeat dealings with them or at least spread good experience with others in the market.

Five Ways to Decrease Load Times for Your Website

Today it's possible to put together a pretty impressive company website, complete with all manner of digital bells and whistles. But in doing so it's important to remember that not all of your customers have access to a high speed broadband connection. When using your 'no-holds-barred' site, users lacking lightning fast connections may suffer long load times. At worst, they may click away in search of your less fancy competitors.

While you should of course incorporate modern design elements into your website, it's important to find a balance between creating a slick website, and one that won't put too much of a demand on slower connections. Here are five tips for reducing page load times:

#1 - Check your speed

When trying to improve load times its important to check your progress along the way and see how much difference your improvements are making. There are many useful online tools which will help you in this, and Google's 'PageSpeed Insights will give you personalised tips on how your site's speed can be improved.

#2 - Find the optimal resolution for images and graphics

Images can increase load times significantly. In order to reduce load times while maintaining the quality of your images, it's essential to use compressed formats (such as.gif,.jpg and.png), and to use the lowest image resolution and size that will still look good. As a general rule, the higher the resolution and the larger the image, the bigger the file will be that is downloaded to the user's computer.

#3 - Don't use Flash

Though it can deliver some attractive and innovative results, Flash can result in long load times on slower connections. On top of this, if the user doesn't have the latest drivers installed this can result in further annoyance and delays.

#4 - Don't use unnecessary code

The leaner the code, the faster the load. Eliminate any unnecessary website code, and use more efficient methods where possible.

#5 - Use browser caching

Changing the 'expires headers' on your web pages can have a substantial impact on load times. These effectively tell Internet browsers such as IE and Chrome whether they can retrieve images and other resources from their own cache, or whether they must be retrieved directly from your website. This is most effective if you have lots of static content.

If you're concerned about your websites load times and your visitors browsing experience, speak to your web design agency to ensure that your website is delivering on all counts.

View Google's 'PageSpeed Insights here: www.pagespeed.googlelabs.com

Give Your Website a Competitive Edge With PHP Web Development Services

PHP is the most suited framework for developing innovative websites with rich features and functions. It is an open source technology which contributes to lowering the developmental costs. It is the most reliable framework and is widely used across the globe for building different types of websites like eCommerce sites, corporate sites, and personal blogs.

The best advantages enjoyed over this framework are -

1. User-friendly

It is a user-friendly platform providing developers great ease in building attractive websites. So, it is an apt tool to build all kinds of websites with high performance and high-quality.

2. Cost-effective

Using PHP enables to reduce the costs incurred on development work as it is a free platform. It contributes to making world-class websites with the minimum of expenses. For start-up business this platform proves to be a blessing as they can risk investing the bare minimum on this framework.

3. Attractive appearance

Businesses build an official website to have a competitive edge over its competitors. So, the website design needs to be visually striking and developed flawlessly. Experienced PHP developers can provide the best development services and increase the site traffic.

4. Reliability

This framework is suitable to build both simple as well as complex websites with a heavy load. It is the most reliable platform and many organizations prefer to get their official sites developed on the PHP platform.

5. Efficiency

It is an efficient framework which enables to save the developmental time. It is possible to complete the web development process within a stipulated period of time. It helps the developer to enhance his productivity and handle various projects.

6. SEO Advantage

PHP is a highly scalable platform. It provides SEO compatible websites within no time. Websites build on this framework tend to rank higher among the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. This helps to drive more traffic to the site and keeps it occupied with a constant flow of visitors.

7. User Interface

You are easy to create clean, neat & creative design in PHP. It should immediately understandable to user what service we will be providing and some development features for developers such as simple payment Gateway integration, Fast response using AJAX, easy to manage sales for ecommerce sites.

The best advantage of this platform is that it gets updated regularly, providing new features to its users. It has a wide community of developers and users worldwide. So, it is easy to find resources online and get problems related to the development work solved.

Decoding the Menace of Distributed Denial of Service and How to Ensure DDos Protection

If you are into online business and it is your only source of income, you need to be aware of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Otherwise, you can find your site crumbling one fine day making you incur huge losses and compelling you to shut shop. A Denial of Service attack is one made deliberately for the purpose of overwhelming your computer's processing power so that service is denied to legitimate users. When the same attack is done from distributed sources, it takes the form of Distributed Denial of Service attacks. Its victims include the end targeted system as well as the ones used and manipulated by the hacker in the process.

DDoS attacks can either be application-based or network-based. In the latter case, the victim computer is flooded with information by the attacker so that its communication lines are clogged up and it becomes unable to process the vast deluge of information. Let us have a look at some of the historically common methods of attacking:

Ping Floods: This is quite simplistic compared to the other techniques. Here, a flood of pings or requests are sent to the targeted computer by the attacking one seeking approval for communication. Sending of excessive ping requests often succeeds in overwhelming the victim.

Fraggle or Smurf Attacks: In this case, the Internet Protocol address is spoofed or falsified by the hacker making it appear the same as that of the computer of the victim. He then poses as the victim himself sending requests to a whole network of systems and asking for an acknowledgment. This acknowledgment is then sent by the entire network to the targeted computer thereby resulting in an information overload.

ACK or SYN Flood: This has the capability to exploit the manner of acknowledgment done by different computers during their first communication over the Internet. Introduction is made by the attacking computer with the help of a SYN message following standard Internet Protocol. This is responded by the targeted system with a SYN-ACK message after which it waits for the ACK acknowledgment to be issued by the attacker. However, such an acknowledgment is never issued which results in the usage of its resources waiting by the victim computer.

How to Stay Protected From Distributed Denial of Service Attack

You cannot eliminate distributed denial of service attacks with the help of short-term solutions. Proper DDoS protection comes from making networks and computers more resistant to attacks and threats. Each system has its limits. The trick lies in increasing them so that it is able to survive or withstand an increased requirement for usage. For instance, the number of connections to be accepted by a web service can be increased by the webmaster so that the increased load is spread over more number of computers.

If you still haven't shielded your site with DDoS protection it is high time you do so because you can be attacked any time. Some of the warning signs include a slower computer, slower internet connection and the activity lights on the high-speed modem being continually on or solid.

How Your Ideal Software Development Company Should Be?

If you have decided to outsource your software development needs, you may be in search of a good development company who can provide you with the required solution. You might have also asked different people, "what makes a good software development company," and probably you would have got multiple answers to the same question. This is because in those ad-visors, some are customers, and few business professionals, who may have a different perspective towards the same question.

Don't get confused. Here are some of the traits that make a perfect software development:

1. Should have good planning skills - A good business is one who's planning is powerful. A complex planning cannot make your business successful. Proper business planning is one that is well-thought and executed. The plan should be perfect from both financial and marketing angles. Test the selected options (companies) on this parameter and qualify the one who you think is right.

2. Technically sound - A software development company should be well-versed with the technical knowledge and updates. The team should be knowledgeable in the project that you are planning to outsource. It would be great if you choose a company that specializes in a particular area that your company is related to.

3. The performance and credibility - Check the company's background and performance history. It would be good if you can do a little research about the company that you want to hire. Talk to colleagues, clients (present or ex), customers, or business partners and get information about the company. All these activities are necessary to make sure that the company will be handling your software development project with full dedication and will outperform.

4. Attitude and Ethics - A background check of the company you want to hire can give you a clear picture of its attitude and stand in the market. Having a good attitude plays a significant role in deciding the fate and future of your project. Check whether or not the company follows ethical standards before delivering the product to the clients or customers.

5. Provider of customized solution - The software development company should have the capability to provide custom-made software solutions. A customized solution helps add value to your operations and guarantees the smooth functioning of the business. A good software development company is one that understands your business and offers a unique solution to it.

If a company possesses all these qualities, hire the same instantly for the great business earnings.

Powerful Dot Net Framework Extended for Windows Phone 8

Dot net is the most powerful platform for building incredible websites and creative web applications. It is a reliable and scalable framework that offers rich possibilities to developers for the purpose of application development.

This strong platform is made available for Windows Phone 8 along with the Windows Phone SDK 8.0. It brings the full capacity of Dot Net development for the Windows and has enhanced functionality. It proves exciting to developers working on this framework as it increases their development scope.

The major updates made to the platform for making it the perfect tool for the Windows Phone specifically are-

1. Asynchronous programming model

This model is advancement from the Dot net 4.5 update. This improvement is useful as Windows Phone 8 intends to run on multicore hardware. These improvements can be accessed by developers with the use of the 'Asynchronous' and 'await' language keywords or by exploiting the most popular Task Parallel Library. This provides users with a highly responsive UI experience and keeps them enchanted with their phone experience.

Developers can work smoothly on this platform. Many task based Asynchronous methods are added to the Dot Net libraries to facilitate the creation of asynchronous code easily. It enables to create innovative phone apps with this model to provide the best user engagement on the Windows Phone.

2. CoreCLR engine

The CoreCLR engine is included in the Windows 8. It has similar features and optimizations as the CLR in the 4.5 version. The runtime and the code generation process has been improved and updated for the Dot Net framework. This has contributed to an improvement in the start-up time by almost 50%. This feature makes programming faster and smoother than the .Net Compact framework. This particular engine includes the efficient garbage collector system which too helps in the development process. CoreCLR is the Common Language Runtime in the Dot Net framework delivering stability and improved performance to create .Net apps. CoreCLR forms the main attraction of the .Net framework for Windows 8.

Building apps on the Windows Phone 8 platform is going to be much quicker with Dot Net technology. This tool has many fascinating features for app development and is a secure platform. It is possible to entrust all confidential data to the Dot Net framework as it is sure to keep the data from all known dangers.

The advantages of these updates for the Windows Phone 8 platform are -

Improvements in the start-up time performance, which enables to avoid the wastage of time for application development Improved responsiveness of web apps Smooth development of apps for Windows Phone 8 platform Asynchronous programming model that extends numerous functionality for the development process

Windows Phone8 has created waves of excitement among developers and the .Net framework has been made suitable to match this platform. Developers can engage in building attractive apps for this platform to provide the best user-experience.

Four Benefits in Hiring Web Designer and Content Writer

If you are putting up an e-store through eBay or Amazon, chances are you'll bump into the reality of needing a professional website. Though eBay and Amazon provides functional tools to get you started on business, having your own website is still the most convenient way to do what you want for your business.

Putting up a personalized or customized website is hard work. You'll have to buy your own domain, build your own website by structuring it through html and CSS. If you are good enough, you can edit your own photos or make your own videos. However, for many who prefer to concentrate on the business per se, hiring a web designer and a content writer is a convenience and an investment.

It is a convenience because you save time and effort in doing it, and an investment because you put in little money that will reap profits after. Consider it as a task for today in order to conduct better commerce online.

Again, hiring professionals to build your website is preferable if you are busy enough to manage it on your own. Hiring ones who have established themselves in the industry can give you better services. However, not all professionals may provide your needs; and apprentices may also provide you same quality services. The key point is to define what you want for your website and find the right (human) resources for it.

To give you an overview, here are some of the benefits of hiring a web designer and a content writer:

1. The cost for paying talents outside your company costs less than hiring them. Because you pay for the actual output, you save money for overhead production cost.

2. It saves you time. Because you pay per output, the talents aim for more production to earn more. This gives you leverage in determining actual timetable for web design and content needs.

3. You can customize a lot. Because the talents regard you more of a customer than a boss, you can lead the project at your own pace and discretion. This means you'll be able to chart your plan, pull talents to deliver results, and manage it.

4. You are free to determine the duration of the project. You will just have to set the project period at the initial conversation with the talents and be free afterwards. Once you have fulfilled your obligations in the agreement, you are then released from giving financial responsibility.

These four benefits give you more leverage in managing business projects one at a time. If website creation is your priority this month, you can shift to another priority the month after.

Hiring talents is more convenient for busy owners, but it might not be practical for those who can opt for free e-commerce sites first. Determining the right personnel for your website creation depends on your own capability and resources. If you can do it, try it. If you can't, better hire professionals.

Whichever way you choose, a well-designed website with well-written content remains a productive way to do business in the internet.

Taking Your WordPress Website To The Next Level

The great thing about WordPress is that it is so easy to use. If you have read our previous article, Start Your Work-From-Home Website With WordPress, you'll already know how to install WordPress, find a great theme and create a range of pages and posts.

But the simplicity of WordPress hides an advanced system that, with a little bit of extra knowledge, can be made to do incredible things. Just looking at a few of the websites that are powered by WordPress as a content management system (CMS) says it all - WordPress makes building a site easier, but never limits what you can do.

Read on to find out about some of the advanced features of WordPress and how you can use these tools to take your work-from-home website to the next level.

Build A Work-From-Home Website With A Blog

Since WordPress was initially launched as a blogging tool, even the latest versions assume that your blog is the heart of your website. Although a blog is important, most professional business websites take a different approach, with pages as main content and blog posts as an additional feature.

If you want a static page to appear as your homepage, you can change a single setting within your WordPress control panel. First, make sure that you have created the page that you plan to use as your homepage, and a different page where your blog posts will be located. You can leave your blog page blank, as WordPress will automatically pull in every post that you add.

Then, from the Settings menu, select Reading. The first setting defines what your front page, or homepage, will display. Simply select the static page that you want visitors to see when they land on your website, and select your preferred posts page for blog updates or news items.

This relatively insignificant change can make a world of difference to how professional your website seems. Even better, you can still integrate your regularly updated posts into your homepage using widgets - WordPress includes a Recent Posts widget as standard.

WordPress Plugins - Making Your Website Do More

Although WordPress comes complete with the most commonly used tools and widgets that you will need, you can easily add new features using plugins. Plugins are installed through the WordPress interface, using the Plugins menu in your control panel.

There are plugins available for just about any task, most of which are available free. At the time of writing, the WordPress Plugins database features 21,500 plugins, all of which are searchable by category, rating and name.

Here are just three must-have plugins for any work-from-home website.

1. Use Akismet To Stop Spam

WordPress supports user comments right out of the box, and your visitors will be able to post their thoughts on the content that you publish. For your blog posts in particular, this is a great way to build a community around your business, improve your visibility on the web, and improve your search engine rank.

Unfortunately, as you begin to attract attention from visitors and potential customers, you will also attract attention from spammers that will fill your comments section with rubbish. Spam comments are easy to spot, but time-consuming to remove one by one.

Akismet is by far the most popular and most effective anti-spam plugin for WordPress. Akismet automatically detects the signs of spam comments, including lots of links to other websites and content that does not make sense. When Akismet finds a spam comment, it quarantines it and prevents it from cluttering up your website. Akismet is available free of charge for personal blogs, or at a low cost for business use.

2. Automate Search Engine Optimization with WordPress

Once your website is up and running, the hard work really begins. Now it is time to get some visitors! Search engines are a great source of traffic, but only if you manage to achieve a good search engine rank. Simply put, the nearer the top of the results you are, the more likely that somebody will click through to your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) is optimizing your website so that it is easily understood and preferentially indexed by search engines. A good WordPress SEO plugin can provide you with everything that you need to optimize your site.

One great SEO plugin is Yoast WordPress SEO. This multi-featured plugin carries out a number of automatic tasks to help improve your position, including internal links and suggesting the most appropriate keywords for you to target on each page.

3. Find The Plugin That Suits Your Website Content

As well as adding new functionality to your existing types of content, some WordPress plugins are designed to suit specific types of website. The Plugin search tool that is built into WordPress is very effective, and a good tip is to simply type in the kind of content that you want to add to your website.

You may want to add a portfolio to your website, showcasing the work that you have done to date. If so, a search for 'portfolio' brings up a plugin that is called, unsurprisingly, Portfolio. Portfolio gives WordPress the ability to run a portfolio section of your website, with images of projects and descriptions of what was involved. Whatever kind of content you have in mind for your website, you'll find a plugin to help you create it.

Are You Taking Advantage Of The Permalinks Settings?

By now, your work-from-home website is taking shape. You've started to write pages of content, perhaps got the blog started with a few posts, and added the right functionality for your specific goals. All of this is great for search engine optimization and attracting new visitors, but there is a specific setting that can be used to help search engines find their way around.

When you create a blog post, it is added to your main 'blog' page, and also published as an individual page. This page is known as the Permalink page, because it is located at an address that will always point directly to the specific post in question.

Confusing Permalink addresses can cause search engine crawlers to miss great content on your site. Fortunately, you can customize your Permalinks to make them both search engine and visitor-friendly.

Under the Settings menu, select the Permalinks option. You will see that, by default, each page that you create is given a unique number. As you reach your hundredth or thousandth post, keeping track of these numbers is difficult!

There are a few different alternatives that WordPress can implement automatically - simply pick the one that you prefer. Ideally, choose a Permalink setting that includes the title of your post. This means that you will always recognize what the link is pointing to, and search engines will value the inclusion of keywords in your web addresses.

You can even define your own custom Permalink structure. For more information on doing this, visit codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks.

Backing Up Your WordPress Website To Protect Your Data

Launching your work-from-home website is a proud moment, particularly when your content is well organized and your design looks great. Conversely, there is nothing worse than the feeling in your gut when you realize that you have lost all of your hard work! So many WordPress users do not back up their websites on a regular basis. Don't take the risk!

WordPress makes backing up your database and related files easy. One feature is under the Tools menu, named Export. This will save all of your posts, pages, comments and menus in a single file that can be imported back into WordPress.

Alternatively, why not consider a plugin to take care of back-ups for you? There are a number of back-up plugins available, including some that back up locally to your server and some that back up to external services, including Dropbox.

Finally, your web hosting control panel should offer the functionality to back up your files and MySQL database.

For complete peace of mind, use all three methods together.

You Have A Great Website - Now Make It Social!

A good business website is not just a showcase of what you can do. Successful small businesses use their website as a part of a much bigger online strategy that covers a wide range of social media. Your website should not be an island. Instead, it should be connected to every part of your online persona.

It is easy to integrate your WordPress website with social media using plugins. One great social media plugin is the aptly-named Social Media Widget. This can be added to any widgetized section of your website and displays icons that link to your social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

You can also add social media sharing buttons to each of your posts, giving visitors an easy way to share your excellent content with their own followers. Check out Slick Social Share Buttons for an all-encompassing tool that can help your content go viral.

Finally, remember that your website can also send traffic outwards to your social media. You want potential customers to get in touch with you, so make doing so as easy as possible!

You can add your most recent tweets or Facebook fans to your website using plugins, or by copying and pasting ready-made code.

For Twitter, visit twitter.com/about/resources/widgets

For Facebook, visit facebook.com/badges

New Content, All The Time - The Secret of Online Success

You've installed WordPress. You've spent hours searching for the right theme. You've customized your installation with widgets, plugins and bespoke settings. Now it's time to make the most of WordPress's best feature - the fact that it disappears.

Over the coming weeks and months, you will notice WordPress less and less. It is a tool that never gets in the way, but just makes maintaining your website easier. So don't fret about the details - WordPress will take care of those for you. Instead, take advantage of what WordPress can do and get to work creating the best possible content that your customers will love.

Mobile Is The New Mandatory

Success-minded businesses are already there, but only a minority has tested their apps or sites.

"The old model - a stationary customer sitting at a stationery desk - no longer applies." That's how The New York Times tersely describes the dilemma "old school" companies like Intel, Google and Microsoft are facing as they try to transition their old, desk-bound revenue spigots to the new mobile world. 1

It's hard to think of any new technology that has had as swift and profound an impact as the smartphone. The Web took a decade or more to achieve a truly transformative effect. But it took just five years for smartphones to land in the hands of more than 100 million Americans - fully one-third of the total population, and nearly half of adults - and the pace of adoption is still accelerating. Worldwide, smartphone users just passed the one billion mark, and it's projected to take just three years to reach the second billion. 2

Apple consciously follows a "one Web" strategy - no separate mobile site - but offers an app for mobile shoppers. So visitors who just want to browse the website are stuck zooming in and out to navigate the full desktop site.

A slew of statistics validate the importance of mobile channels, from time spent on devices to data consumption to shopping behavior and on and on, and the numbers keep moving aggressively in a positive direction. So it begs the question: Why is it taking so long for businesses to get serious about mobile? And why is it taking those who do have a mobile presence so long to organize a testing program to make sure their apps and mobile websites work the way users expect them to work?

Mobile MIA, mobile missteps

Some observers estimate that half of the Fortune 500 do not have a dedicated mobile presence.

It's baffling that so many businesses are dragging their heels to stake their mobile claim, when consumers are so enthusiastically embracing mobile connectivity. It's perplexing, too, that those businesses that have taken the mobile plunge are doing it with their eyes closed.

Lack of proper QA in mobile is in some ways understandable. Some businesses may be rushing their mobile properties out the door because they do feel the pressure to be where their users are, and where their competition may not yet be. And the reality is that mobile testing is a much more messy and complicated process than testing for desktop browsers or operating systems.

Footnotes:

The New York Times, "In Mobile World, Tech Giants Scramble to Get Up to Speed," by Claire Cain Miller and Somini Sengupta, 10/22/12 ReadWriteWeb, "Know What's Cool? A Billion Smartphones. And They're Changing Everything," by Dan Rowinski, 10/17/12

How to Make Your Website Useful

There are tons of websites on the Internet but not all of them are useful both for a visitor and the website owner. And I don't even mention here the websites created by amateurs on their kitchen just to tell their friends they have a website on the Web. There are many websites created on the by-order basis that don't carry any information.

This article is written for those who want to create a website for business and for fun. Here are some tips for your website to be useful both for you and your clients:

Always choose a design for your website not according to your preferences, but thinking of the end user. Don't use bright colors, lots of flash animation if your potential clients are serious people. For them, it will be an indicator of your bad taste. But if you sell something like mobile themes, then you clients will be glad to see lots of graphics.

Website content is also very important. I've seen a lot of sites that made me think "Why this website was created at all?" Many websites just don't contain the information their visitors are interested in. E.g. websites of factories that don't contain a catalog of their products. And even if such catalogs are added, the prices are hidden as if it's an underground workshop, and not a factory. The same is with small businesses that don't want to confess how much their products cost even under threat of death. Such sites are simply useless. Because a website should not only help a user make his choice, but also save the time you spend answering the questions «How much does it cost?». If you offer a good product at a good price, don't be afraid that your competitors will know your prices. They can find them out in other ways, so do not cause inconvenience for your clients, they won't appreciate it.

I'd also like to say a few words about navigation on a website. Don't create sites where a user will spend half an hour and lots of money on Internet traffic to find what he needs. Some websites have the structure that is not clear enough both for the users and the developers. And it is almost impossible to find the necessary info without a sitemap, and in some cases with its help as well. There are websites that contain much more information but it can be easily found. Think over the easiness of getting information by your users.

Add only useful modules to your website. E.g. voting, newsletter, articles and other modules are useless for most websites. They clutter a site and turn it into a toy, and not the source of information. Decide on the modules and their usefulness according to your website audience. See the examples in paragraph 1.

Follow these simple recommendations to make your website much more useful for yourself, and more attractive for the visitors.

So, if you are going to create a useful and interesting website, but you don't know what you should start from, I suggest that you use the free website builder. It's a powerful and at the same time simple tool to create blogs, online stores, forums etc. It takes only several minutes to create a website and requires no coding skills. Even a beginner will be able to create a website easily.

What Are Meaningful Website Maintenance Services?

Web design companies have only recently started offering meaningful website maintenance and monitoring services to their clients. Most of the times, these services only include website performance monitoring, reports of visits and hits and uptime monitoring.

In today's competitive world, websites play a very important role in deciding the future of a business. It can make or break a company's reputation and identity in the online market. While it is important to give importance to design, content and SEO of a website, it has become important for companies to look into website monitoring services

Importance of Uptime Monitoring of a Website

Your site must be up and running at all times. It will not be good for your business if your website is down when someone finds a link to you website or decides to check you website out and finds that your site is down. This may create a negative impression of how your business works among your potential customers. Websites that are down often are not liked by search engines as well. For them, the site may not be reliable if it is not up for most of the time. If your site is down more often than not, it can lead to decreased search rankings.

Monitoring of Site Performance

People today do not have patience and will not wait forever for a website to load. Hence, if your web pages don't open quickly they will not stay on your site. In most cases, they may not return to your site either. Search engines also favor websites that are fast and push them higher up in the search results. There are two things that can affect the performance of a site.

• The speed, setting and configuration of the server

• The design and code of the website

When you do an analysis of your site's performance, you have to monitor the page load time and server speed of your site.

Monitoring Traffic

Monitoring the traffic of your site can help in determining the different trends and traffic and visitors to the site. Besides this traffic monitoring can help in many other ways:

• It can help you to decide if you want to expand your business in new areas by letting you know if a large part of your traffic is coming from just one region or country.

• It can help you determine your social media strategy if most of your traffic is coming from social networking sites.

• It can help you find out if there are specific sites that send more traffic to your site. This can help you identify potential alliances.

• It helps in fine tuning and tweaking your site by letting you know which are the most popular pages among visitors, which pages are least visited by users and how long they stay on your site.

Web traffic monitoring can help you determine what terms rank well for your site and if they are relevant and what kind of content you should generate for your site.

Monitoring Content

Assume you have added new content to your site through blog posts, articles and news. How will you determine if the content is benefiting your site or not? Content monitoring helps you to analyze your content and lets you know if you need to change, remove or add anything to the existing content.

Most of the above mentioned points are a necessity to various website owners today than just regular points that are read to increase one's knowledge. There are various website design companies that offer meaningful monitoring services today.

Buying a Website Domain: Keeping Up With Business Trend

If you have a new business and you want to launch it, wouldn't it be wiser if customers can reach you through phone call, email, and chat? Wouldn't it be more convenient if they can track their order online? Wouldn't it be best to view their desired product/service in just a click?

If you answer yes to all, then having an online store is the solution to your account management and marketing needs. But, having an online store means having your own website. And this requires you to acquire your own website name/address, called domain.

A domain is your unique website name and address in the internet. It is the recognizable group of words that is equivalent to your computer's IP Address. It is your I.D. in the World Wide Web where people can recognize and reach you. It is your ticket in venturing into website business. Having a domain name entitles you to start building your online store.

To emphasize, you need to register your "online business name" first. This is like applying for business permit at government, but this time, from accredited domain registrars such as GoDaddy.com, Enom.com, and TuCows.com. These three enlist your unique name in the internet and provide you with other services such as web hosting support, database recovery, SQL databases, sub domains, and free email accounts.

To restate, why you need such website domain? Simply because this is the first step in having your own business name in the World Wide Web. You can register through any domain registrar and pay a minimal fee each year. After that, you can start building your website by putting images and data. You may need a professional to do the website administration for you, if you are not proficient in using applications such as cPanel, Plesk, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

After availing a domain name and hosting service, you will be asked by your domain registrar to pay annual fee. It starts at a minimal fee and it gets higher as you demand for higher bandwidth or more features. When things are set, you are ready to launch your business website.

By having a business website, you will be able to display your products and services online. It can be accessed by the virtual market 24/7. This gives you leverage in capturing at least 200,000,000 people worldwide who are almost online 8 hours a day. That's an instant catch especially if your product caters to the needs of young people such as games, fashion, sports, technology, and academics.

By having your own website, you literally can attract your target market to purchase in just few clicks. That's instant commerce at minimum effort.