Web Solutions

Top 8 plugins to Leverage The Power of Social in WordPress

Rafel Nadell — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:39:07 +0000

We all would agree with the fact that social networks have become an imperative part of our lives and we have somehow are addicted to it as well. Social media is the best and the most effective medium to make news or post viral by sharing it with millions of users active on social networks. This is why almost every website today includes social media sharing options. The best way to make your blog go viral is by including social media sharing options in your blog posts. By this, it will enable the readers to share your post through different social networks. It is always advisable to include more options; the more options you include, the better it gets for you and your post as well.

Hence, we have assembled some of the most effective and useful WordPress social network plugins to help you leverage the power of social in WordPress.

1. Pinterest “Pin it” Button

2. Digg Digg

3. Get Social

4. BuddyPress

5. Social Toolbar

6. Add Link to Facebook

7. ShareThis

8. Socialize

About Author:
This post is contributed by PixelCrayons, a web development firm, that specializes in Social Networking Website Development. You may hire cms web developers here for effective website development services.

Save your Precious Time and Money with Open Source CMS

Rafel Nadell — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:48:25 +0000

In this revolutionary age of digitization, having a stylish and attractive website has become a must. It doesn’t matter whether you run a large organization or a small business, the only thing that you need to have in this tech-driven world is an amazing and modern website that can fulfill all the needs and requirements of your organization.

Coding and programming that is required for developing a website, is the most common problem which is often faced by many organizations, as it requires a lot of time and money of the organization. Nowadays, creating a website is no big deal as it used to be in those early days. Thousands of CMS platforms are available out there that cut down the work pressure of developing a website. Out of all the available CMS, some would be difficult to work with because of the basic programming and coding knowledge that it would require, while others would be easy to use and easy to manage which would not require any programming or coding skills.

Today in this article we will discuss how open source CMS website development can save your time as well as money.

Time Saving

CMS consists of some amazing built in organizational features that make it really easy for the users to find content. You will not have to waste your efforts as well as time on performing simple tasks as all content will be created, managed, published and edited from a single area, only with the help of some easy to use tools. Not only this, it even allows to create a website in a very short span of time. Open source CMS does not require any programming or coding skills as you will be able to provide great functionality to your website with the help of plethora of plugins available on the CMS. Thousands of themes and plugins are available by every CMS that you can easily install for your website as per the needs and requirements of your website.

Money Saving

You must be wondering how can you save money from an open source CMS? Well, many of you would be thinking to hire a programmer to build your website. Hiring a programmer would hurt your pockets badly and moreover, why to hire a programmer to build a website when there are thousands of CMS available out there on the Internet to build your website from which some of them are absolutely free of cost. There are many themes and plugins also available out there for free to beautify your website and enhance the functionality of your website as well.

Why to go for traditional web development services that require coding and programming skills when you have thousands of CMS available on the Internet for free. Choose the best open source CMS solution for your website and get set to enjoy all the benefits out of it.

Online Reputation Management with Google Alerts

Rafel Nadell — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 09:40:01 +0000

Wondering what people think about your online business? Protecting the company’s reputation is very important for a business to grow. Online Reputation Management refers to online analysis and research about the company’s reputation. Online reputation management involves the teamwork and management strategy, but to begin with, nothing can be better than feedback from Google Alerts. Google brings a free service that would help you know what people say about your brand.

Google Alert is a terrific tool to help you monitor what is being said, shared or spread about your business on the Internet. Moreover, Google Alert allows you to monitor your competitors or companies associated with you and information among the public about your industry. Basically Google Alert is a stored search that emails you the search results the way Google gives new matches. When you create Google Alert for your brand, Google will continue to monitor web about new mentions of your specified keyword and will notify you through emails.

Working with Google Alerts is as simple as creating a Facebook account. First create a Google account if you do not have one and specify how much you need to be notified after you have entered a search term. Depending on the time you can give to online reputation management using Google Alerts, you can choose notification period to be daily, weekly, bi-weekly or so. You can also filter parameters to refine your keyword search on the type of platform like news, blogs, discussions sites, videos et al. Daily updates are suggested for real time updates about your company’s reputation and your competitor’s growth. Additionally, real time updates help you address complaints or any concerning issue instantly.

Once you start using Google Alerts, you can easily manage the information and reputation of course on the web. For instance, when you receive an alert about the negative review of your company from a customer, you can give a professional convincing response that could encourage him to try your brand again. If someone is deliberately trying to spread rumors or wrong information about you, you can contact him or report him. Whatever the topic of concern is, Google Alert allows you to engage on public site which is definitely in your company’s interest.

No doubt there are many paid services offering reputation management but why choose them when Google offers you a free yet effective tool to ensure that you never miss a beat. In fact, Google Alert is a must-have tool for online reputation management of your company.

Google Alert is indeed great to protect and promote your company’s, product’s or brand’s reputation by enabling you to respond immediately to the posts. This is an important tool for a company to know what customers are saying, positive or negative, about their company and then allowing company to respond accordingly. To enjoy plenty of benefits of Google Alerts and getting advantage of those, start using Google Alerts now!

Conclusion

It is important that consumers spread a positive message so as to strengthen your company’s reputation. Online reputation management is an effective way to assess company’s reputation and make sure it is always favorable. Google offers a free service of Google Alerts that monitors your brand reputation online. Basically it is a content monitoring tool that enables individuals and businesses to monitor the news, video, blog or discussions going on around the world on web about your company.

This post is shared by Markupbox, which is a specialized PSD to HTML Conversion Company, backed with years of experience and diligent professionals. MarkupBox offers PSD to HTML/CSS, PSD to HTML5 and software implementation services like PSD to Joomla, PSD to Magento, PSD to WordPress, PSD to Drupal, PSD to Email and much more.

12 very Popular and Easy to use URL Shorteners

Rafel Nadell — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 06:53:24 +0000

URL Shortener tools play an important role in social media promotions. They not only help in making your urls compact but also stop link breaking problem in emails from line character limits. Here we have introduced 12 best url shortener tools. Have a look:

PixelCrayons, a web development company, is the contributor of this post. The company specializes in CMS and Ecommerce solutions, mobile apps development and more. You may hire ecommerce website developers here at affordable rates.

WordPress Development: Change Your Blogging World!

Rafel Nadell — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:48:22 +0000

Blogging is no longer a poor man’s medium of expression. It is a perfect platform to let the world know your views and ideas and also a great tool to promote your business over the Internet. It is very important that you select the perfect blog development tool when you start out with your blog. This is where WordPress development has caught the imagination of Internet users. WordPress developers have truly changed the blogging world and made it into one of the most powerful instruments of communication across a large section of audience. Thanks to WordPress that blogs aren’t mere text and picture post but an interactive and engaging Internet product which have changed the rules of online marketing.

Why Choose WordPress for your blog:

It is Free - WordPress is an open source content management system thus you can virtually start your blog for free. It offers you the domains to start your blog and also choice of themes for it. There are thousands of free and premium themes for you to choose from. However most businesses blog over customized domains and hire WordPress developers to get a customized theme developed.
User-Friendly - You don’t need to be an Internet geek to start a blog in WordPress. All that you need is basic computer skills and can easily update your blog using a web based interface. There are no coding requirements as the WYSIWYG editors allow you to post text, images and multimedia elements with ease. The admin section allows you to make changes to the appearance and functionality of your blog easily.
SEO Friendly - WordPress generates clean codes which attract search engine crawlers and help you attain high rankings in the search engine results pages. The codes undergo W3C validation which ensures there are no errors which affect the performance of your blog and harm its marketing potential. A WordPress developer can hand code the website using semantic coding techniques to make it friendlier towards the search engine crawlers.
Huge Plugin Library - This is one of the biggest advantages of WordPress blog. There are variety of wordpress third-party plugins that offer unmatched advantages than any other blogging platform in the World. You can easily achieve advanced functionality, security and robustness in your blog with the use of these plugins. These plugins can be customized to meet the niche needs of your personal or business blog.
Community Support - WordPress is supported by an active community of developers who constantly update the platform and review all the new plugins and development which take place. This community is also very helpful when it comes to troubleshooting any problems relating to your blog. You can post your doubts and queries and get reply from the expert WordPress developers.

Easy Website Development Ideas without any Coding Knowledge

Rafel Nadell — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:51:08 +0000

Does the idea of coding a website give your goose bumps? Well in today’s Web 2.0 environment you can create and manage a website without any coding knowledge. Content management systems with their advanced HTML/CSS codes and JavaScript have simplified web design and development. You no longer have to write hundreds of lines of codes in a text editor to develop a website. Web based WYSIWYG editors allow you to develop websites with images, graphics and multimedia elements. Let us take a look at some of the most popular CMS solutions which allow website development without any coding knowledge.

WordPress - This is by far the most popular content management system in the world. Initially developed as a blogging platform it allows you to develop full scale websites without touching the codes. You can choose from hundreds of free and premium themes to develop your website. There are also thousands of plugins which allow you to achieve high levels of customization in your website.
Joomla - Another content management system which is known for its excellence is Joomla, which is preferred by businesses which look for large websites with complex functionalities. Here too you can make use of a variety of themes and plugins to develop your website. It is search engine friendly allowing you to increase the marketability of your website.
Drupal - If you are looking for a large scale website with multiple databases, Drupal is the perfect solution for you. The learning curve in Drupal might be steeper compared to WordPress but nonetheless it helps you in achieving highly functional websites using web based interface. There are a lot of themes and plugins that you can choose from which will meet the end needs of your business.
Magento - When it comes to developing an ecommerce website Magento is the undisputed market leader. You can choose a theme for your online store and get started. There are many third-party plugins which allow you to manage carting, payment gateways and shipping. All these can be managed without touching the codes of the store.
Homestead - This is a web based solution which allows you to develop websites without having to write a line of code. All that you need to do is choose from a wide variety of designs and customize the website to give it a unique touch. You can create all genres of websites using this platform including ecommerce and networking websites.

Pixelcrayons offers best CMS design & development services & opensource content management system solutions which includes joomla development, wordpress development, drupal development services at affordable price.

Requirements for PSD to HTML Conversion

Rafel Nadell — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:45:22 +0000

It is a fact well known that PSD to HTML conversion is one of the most reliable and highly preferred methods of converting design to HTML. This conversion provides a well structured, user friendly, dynamic, feature rich and a highly functional website. Also, it ensures that a site is completely error free so that it functions smoothly after it is launched on browsers. Read further to find out about the requirements to convert PSD to HTML.

Although this is a sophisticated conversion, but if one follows the right strategy, this conversion can be done easily. The time taken to convert PSD to HTML depends entirely on the skill, experience and the knowledge of various programming languages possessed by the person who is converting design to HTML. If one has the requisite skills and an appropriate strategy, this conversion can be done in no time.

The first requirement for this conversion is the PSD based design. You can get a design ready for your site from a good web designer. You can get it within two or three days. Once you have the PSD design ready with you, it is time to concentrate on coding. For this, you first need to slice the PSD based design into various layers. This task requires thorough precision. If you are good at it, it will be like a cake walk for you and you will be able to do it quickly. However, for an inexperienced person, it may seem like a herculean task and may take a lot of time.

After slicing the image in various layers, it is time to add several elements like buttons, links etc. This can be done effectively if one has the proper knowledge. After adding or removing the elements, the next step is to code the design into markup. Coding can prove to be a very cumbersome, frustrating and a time consuming task if you do not have the proper knowledge of HTML and other related technologies. Therefore, it is better to hire a professional PSD to CSS/HTML designer.

It is always in your best interest to hire professional conversion service providers for your website development project. They guarantee a cutting edge website within a stipulated time period. You can rest assured that you will get a well coded website within the stipulated time period. In case, you need the code urgently, these developers can also provide you with the markup in a short notice.

3 Tips to Create an Attractive Drupal Web Design

Rafel Nadell — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:43:37 +0000

Designing a webpage through Drupal, which is a free and open source content management platform can offer you a well-organized and elegant website. While creating a cms web design, there are various tips that should be taken into account by the designers in wake to ensure search engine friendly and interactive website construction. Drupal can act as the most important cms to offer you with strong, polished and optimized webpage. Reprocess, suppleness and regulation are the major elements in the process of designing an enhanced web designed via drupal. The major tips to create an attractive drupal web design for your website are mentioned further down.

Tips for Creating an Attractive Drupal Web Design:

1. Consider the content placement on drupal website: Placement of content is very significant for having a flawless and impressive webpage. This is the reason that it is strictly suggested to the drupal developers to take care of the organizing and representation of the content on the webpage. It should be in elegant manner and styling of content should not be done in such a way that it fluctuates from one page to another page of the website. It creates instability on the webpage. Planning the content perceptively leads to structuring of an interactive website.

2. Make use of refillable graphical components: The very first guideline designed to modify the process of drupal development is to make use of graphic designed elements such as bullets, arrows, buttons, icons etc. It is suggested to standardize these elements to the utmost possible level. Frequent components on a nymph appearing on numerous backgrounds should be taken on different layers. These elements can be used again at any section of the webpage if required. This leads to prompter construction of the webpage.

3. Avoid using Photoshop techniques which are inappropriate for web: For the purpose of designing vibrant menu of website, generally Photoshopâ€™s dynamic elements are preferred. But in case of drupal website design it is recommended to avoid using the specific Photoshop methods, which are not applicable for web. Using such techniques can cause issues during the slicing of menu and it is very time taking process too. Developers need to understand and accept the fact that using inadequate techniques can be problematic for future.

Hence above are three key concepts which a drupal developer must keep into mind while structuring a website based on this content management system. These tips help the developers to have a trouble-free designing process offering a flawless website.

How to Convert any Design Theme to Markup Language?

Rafel Nadell — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:46:02 +0000

A website is the backbone of an online business. It works like a bridge between the business owner and the customers. An attractive website is quite helpful to increase the sales and profit of an online store by attracting a good number of visitors. Thus, having a professionally designed website is imperative for the success of your online business. Due to this reason, design theme to markup language conversion, like PSD to HTML/ XHTML/ CSS conversion, came into the picture. If we talk about PSD to HTML conversion, it ensures unique looking websites with effective representation of various attributes of the business. This conversion method has become an integral and essential part of every website development program. If you want to obtain a truly functional and feature-rich website, convert PSD to HTML.

Let’s see the simple steps involved in PSD to HTML conversion procedure.

Analyze PSD File: The first step is to analyze your PSD design. Carefully examine your PSD design and identify the hurdles which may occur during the conversion procedure.

Slicing PSD File: This is the most important step which should be performed very carefully. In this step, you need to slice the PSD files into various layers by using an image editing software. Slicing is nothing but dividing the PSD file into various segments like header section, footer section, body section, navigation menu, etc.

PSD to HTML Conversion: This is the vital part of website development where depth knowledge of coding and programming is required. Thus, you have to make sure that you have integrated PSD file into a high-quality and pixel perfect HTML code. The correct coding and conversion of PSD to CSS/HTML will surly improve the quality of your website and will make it completely web dynamic and compatible with different web browsers.

Adding Content: In this step you have to insert the content in your website. This is very critical and should be performed in a proper manner. Always insert accurate and relevant content which highlights the idea and theme of your website and firmly communicates all the information regarding your products and services to the visitors.

Testing: Test your website on various popular browsers to ensure that it is accessible through different browsers and functioning correctly without any hitches.