Thursday 10 December 2015

GCHQ gives you homework in its 2015 Christmas card

GCHQ christmas fun
Keen codebreakers can have a crack at a brainteaser this festive season in the form of a Christmas card challenge set by GCHQ’s director Robert Hannigan. The traditional grid-shading puzzle invites those who dare (or care) to fill in the squares black or leave them white depending on the pattern indicated by the numbers on each column and row. Each number indicates there should be a black square, with at least one white one left in between. Some have already been filled in to give you a head start. Once you’ve filled in all the squares, the image you’re left with leads…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web » UK http://thenextweb.com/uk/2015/12/10/gchq-gives-you-homework-in-its-2015-christmas-card/

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Free e-Book: Web UI Design for the Human Eye

Web-UI-Design-for-the-Human-Eye1

Long before the Internet, scientists have been unraveling the mysteries and peculiarities of human sight. As a visual medium, web design has only to gain from their discoveries.

Aside from simply knowing their craft, designers can mine a variety of practical applications from the study of human sight. In the realm of visual hierarchy alone, knowing how to implement size, spacing, and contrast can influence the order elements are seen and the how important they appear.

Web UI Design for the Human Eye3

Colors, too, are a powerful tool in the hands of those that use them. With each color evoking different feelings (orange for playfulness, blue for trust, etc.), designers can quantitatively construct the right emotional atmosphere for their project. Even the way in which different colors are combined changes their effects.

Web UI Design for the Human Eye2

Source: Fanta

UXPin collects the most helpful resources on human sight for web design, and compiled them into their e-book series Web UI Design for the Human Eye. The guide describes practical techniques with visual case studies from 33 companies like Google, Bose, Intercom, Medium, Tumblr, and others.

Volume 1, downloaded by almost 40,000 people this year, covers advanced topics such as the use of spacing, the emotional affects of colors, and the principles of Gestalt (an early 1900s movement analyzing visual phenomena).

It’s not enough that people see your site — what matter is how they see your site.

Check out the free guide and let us know what you think in the comments.

Read More at Free e-Book: Web UI Design for the Human Eye



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/free-e-book-web-ui-design-for-the-human-eye

The “Better Than Christmas Morning” Winter Design Bundle

big-winter-bundle-2015-webdesignledger-blog-post

Ho, ho, HO-LY MOLY! That's a lot of design goodies.

There's enough stress during the holidays over what presents to buy for others, or whether or not your Christmas bonus is going to cover all your gift expenses. Not to mention, as a designer, everyone and their mother comes to you for that last minute, custom Christmas card for their dear aunt Sally.

You've worked hard to make everyone elses holidays special. Now it's time to treat yourself.

This collection contains thousands of creative goodies, like vectors, layer styles, textures, patterns, PSD templates, and much more. They are perfect for seasonal designs, not just this year, but each and every year to come. Many of the items in this bundle can even be used year round.

The best part is that this deal includes extended licensing, so you can use these items in designs you create for resale!

If you bought all of these items individually, you'd have to pay $1,342. For a very limited time, you can grab everything from MyDesignDeals for just $29. That's 98% off the regular price.

The MyDesignDeals team scoured the internet all year to put together a bundle better than Christmas morning itself, so make sure you grab it now before it's gone forever.

big-winter-bundle-2015-webdesignledger

Grab This Mega Christmas and Winter Bundle Now

Read More at The “Better Than Christmas Morning” Winter Design Bundle



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/the-better-than-christmas-morning-winter-design-bundle

Jetpack’s Photon Now Supports WebP Images

jetpack-photon

Introduced by Google, WebP is an image format that provides lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. WebP images are considered to be nearly 26% smaller in size as compared to PNGs, and as much as 25%-34% smaller as compared to JPEGs.

Recently, Photon, the image service module provided by the popular Jetpack plugin for self-hosted WordPress websites, decided to offer support for the WebP image format.

Since Photon is primarily used by website owners to serve images using WordPress.com cloud infrastructure, thereby saving the host website’s bandwidth and improving the overall loading times, WebP format is especially beneficial since offers smaller file sizes than both PNG and JPG, and can result in faster website performance.

jetpack-webp

By default, Photon will be compressing WebP images at the high quality settings. However, it must be noted that since many web browsers still do not support WebP image format, Photon will auto-detect the visitor’s web browser, and then pick the ideal image format, size and compression for better performance.

Jetpack is actively used by several WordPress websites, and the Photon module is a very useful feature as it provides CDN-like service for free. Since images form the bulk of content on most websites, serving them via Photon can improve overall website performance. As of now, WebP image format is not the most popular one out there, but for web browsers that do support WebP images, Photon will be able to serve images even faster.

To learn more about the WebP image format, check this out; and you can also go through the comparative study between WebP and JPEG image formats. Alternatively, if you are a Photon user, simply head to the Jetpack Settings section to learn more about how Photon will work with WebP images.

Read More at Jetpack’s Photon Now Supports WebP Images



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/jetpack-photon-supports-webp-images

WordPress 4.4 “Clifford” Has Been Released

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WordPress 4.4, nicknamed "Clifford" after the famous Jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown, is now available for download. This latest version of WordPress comes with several new features, such as support for responsive images, better embeds, a new default theme, and various other improvements.

WordPress 4.4 now supports srcset, which allows it to detect and display the ideal image size on the basis of the user's screen resolution. As such, responsive images are now implemented in WordPress 4.4 with no further tweaking or configuration required.

Plus, you can also embed content from other WordPress sites directly on-page, much like you'd embed a tweet or a YouTube video. Learn more about this feature here.

As always, this major release of WordPress comes with a new default theme of its own -- Twenty Sixteen. It is a minimal and clean theme, primarily meant for bloggers, with a right sidebar by default.

twenty-sixteen

However, the biggest and most noteworthy change that WordPress 4.4 brings to the table is the fact that it comes bundled with the first half of the REST API. If you are a plugin or theme author, you can start implementing REST API immediately, and read more about the implementation here.

WordPress 4.4 comes with several other new features as well, such as:

  • WordPress Multisite has a new class called WP_Network, that makes it easier to use it across multiple networks.
  • The WP_Comments component has been rebuilt. Now, the comment field will display first, followed by name, email and website. Earlier, users were shown the name, email and website fields before the comment field.
  • The headings hierarchy has been restored for admin screens.
  • Unattached media attachments can now have pretty permalinks.
  • While it was previously assumed that WordPress 4.4 will deprecate WP_Title, it is no longer the case and WP_Title is still the recommended method of inserting title tags in WordPress themes.

To learn more about WordPress 4.4, check out this video:

WordPress 4.4 is the last major release of this year, and it brings several new features to the table. Have you updated your websites yet? Be sure to share your feedback in the comments below.

Read More at WordPress 4.4 “Clifford” Has Been Released



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/wordpress-4-4-released

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Web Design Inspiration: Merry Quizmas

Merry-Quizmas

Merry Quizmas 1

The idea of Daniel Blaser and coded by Tad Thorley, Merry Quizmas is a delightful design made to be much more than fun design, it is also the ultimate challenge! The website is designed as a quiz game that test you on multiple holidays, pop-culture references.

When landing on the page the quiz begin, you are shown 60 different character illustration in a pleasant flat design. They are are very well done! We commend illustrator James Kenison on his illustration skills. Each of the characters is taken from different holiday entertainment references. You then have to identify the character either by name, source material. You will then be provided a score according to how well you did. The scores range from 0-10: Holiday Chump, lowest or 60: Grand Tinsel-Covered Viceroy of the Holidays, the highest possible score. Get inspired and get in the holiday spirit by testing your holiday knowledge on Merry Quizmas.

Merry Quizmas2

Read More at Web Design Inspiration: Merry Quizmas



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/web-design-inspiration-merry-quizmas

Christmas & Winter Design Bundle Savings

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 1.28.40 PM

Just in time for the Holidays and the Winter season, get these amazing design elements for a fraction of the price.

Snow generator text is 71% off. Lets you easily create 3D style typography with a snow and Ice texture. The pack comes with a PSD file, snow background, brushes, overlays and much more!Snow textAccompany your designs with a little Christmas cheer using these Christmas & New Year vector collection. A bundle of 120 high-quality vector illustrations created in modern design styles. Great holiday themes elements for Christmas retail sale design, holiday cards, and other personal projects.Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 1.33.19 PMDon’t wait, these deals are available for a very limited time! Get them today!

Read More at Christmas & Winter Design Bundle Savings



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/christmas-winter-design-bundle-savings

Predictions For Online Privacy and Security in 2016

Security-2016

In the past two years, we’ve seen massive cyber attacks and privacy issues surface in the US. The government has struggled to define a fine line between keeping its citizens safe without violating their privacy rights. Econsultancy’s Todd Ruback says that 2016 will be just as impactfuldigital-government-security. He shares his perdition and current initiatives in EU and US. He mentions Europe’s massive data protection framework legislation, which calls for better access and control of personal data as well as additional obligations for companies collecting and transferring data. He predicts that an improved US Safe Harbor Program will be proposed to propose data transfers between Europe and the US with limited government access to personal data.
He also predicts 2016 will continue to be in favor of the user with added regulation to cookie law enforcement and continued popularity of ad blocking for a faster mobile experience. Finally, the most exciting prediction is the growth of Video and VR, as current tech giants like Google and Facebook are investing in 360 video capability and life-like 3D Video.

Read More at Predictions For Online Privacy and Security in 2016



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/predictions-for-online-privacy-and-security-in-2016

Focus by Firefox, A Content Blocker For iOS

focus-firefox

Recently, Mozilla launched a new tool that works with Safari, not Firefox. Yes, you read that right.

Meet Focus, a free content blocker for Safari users on iOS 9 that gives you better control over your mobile browsing experience. You can use Focus to block trackers, such as those used for advertisements, analytics and social media.

By default, Firefox, running on Windows, Linux or Android devices, offers a Private Browsing feature that is similar to the Incognito Mode of Google Chrome. However, Firefox also adds Tracking Protection to Private Browsing, thereby blocking certain trackers, as based on Disconnect’s Open Source Tracking List.

Focus will do just the same, and block the same set of trackers. You can, however, configure it to do much more than that, and even block web fonts using Focus.

So why did Mozilla feel the need to come up with a new content blocker? Well, here is the answer:

We made Focus by Firefox because we believe content blockers need to be transparent with publishers and other content providers about how lists are created and maintained, rather than placing certain content in a permanent penalty box. We want this product to encourage a discussion about users and content providers, instead of monetizing users’ mistrust and pulling value out of the Web ecosystem. Focus by Firefox is free to users and we don’t monetize it in other ways.

Considering the fact that Apple does not yet allow content blocking features for third party web browsers running on iOS, Focus is available only for Safari, and not for Firefox running on iOS.

You can download and install Focus from the App Store, and since this is a relatively newer product, Mozilla is actively seeking user feedback for Focus.

What do you think of this new content blocker by Mozilla? Share your views in the comments below!

Read More at Focus by Firefox, A Content Blocker For iOS



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/focus-firefox-content-blocker-ios

Listable: the Best Modern Listing Directory WordPress Theme

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Listable is a listing directory and user-friendly WordPress theme which will help you to create, manage and monetize a global or local directory website. With Listable you can get your favourite spots online.

1-listable-wordpress-theme-1

The theme is perfect for city shops, restaurant listings, and events, hotel & lodging, outdoor activities, nightlife, and much more.

Its design is a perfect balance between elegance and minimalism.

Listable is flexiblу to fit your needs. It uses responsive design which looks awesome on any screen: from the largest desktops to small tablets, and is compatible with mobile devices.

Listable has powerful listing cards system with huge possibilities: each listing card can be a spot, an event, or an activity of any kind.

3-listable-wordpress-theme

It also includes a blog, login area and ‘Add Listing’ form to implement your plans in life.

Monetize Your Site with Listable

To make it easier to get money with your website, Listable was integrated with WooCommerce. You can charge for listing packages, sell subscriptions or charge a fee from reservations made with your website.

Also, you may work with vendors and let them sell s through your site and earns commission from them. Thanks to WooCommerce it has many ways for monetization.

More Features

Listable’s homepage includes explore page allowing your users to search for the listings including food, lodging, entertainment, stores, outdoors, and more.

2-listable-wordpress-theme

The footer of Listable has all social buttons to stay in touch with your audience and build new clients with social media.

The code is apparently very neat and clean.

One of the best features is the theme customization. It is easy to use, clear and has a live preview so everything you change shows live on your page immediately.

Recommended FREE Plugins

Listable is designed to not overwhelm you with features you don’t need. Thus, to add more functionality to your site you can use totally free plugins that can be installed in a minute.

Here is the essential list of the free plugins:

  • WP Job Manager by Automattic and Mike Jolley (Official Documentation)
  • Customify by PixelGrade
  • Comments Ratings by PixelGrade
  • Category Icon by PixelGrade
  • PixTypes by Pixelgrade

Please, note that these plugins need to be installed (or activated) separately. All of them are available on WordPress.org for free.

Tech Support

The team behind Listable lives to make their clients happy. So, if you have any issues with Listable theme, feel free to contact them at once. They are here to make your experience with theme as easy and pleasant as it’s possible.

Over to You

I hope this Listable review turned in handy for you. Please, let us know in the comments your feedback regarding Listable.

Read More at Listable: the Best Modern Listing Directory WordPress Theme



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/listable-the-best-modern-listing-directory-wordpress-theme

Pixate Partners With Google and Launches Pixate Studio 2.0

Pixate-and-Google

Pixate joins Google

Pixate, the native prototyping platform for creating high-fidelity iOS and Android Apps without code has joined the Google design team and launched Pixate Studio 2.0. The original Pixate was launched three years ago to help designer turn their app designs into reality with native mobile functionality. They are now joining Google’s big team of big ideas to reach millions of designers and product-oriented companies.

Pixate-Studio

As of today, the Pixate Studio 2.0 release is its greatest update yet. The latest version features better,  faster performance, the ability to zoom in and out of large projects and audio/visual capabilities. They have also improved on a lot of existing functionalities and with Google’s design team on their side, the sky's the limit! Pixate Studio 2.0 is completely free and their Pixate cloud service has been reduced in price in hopes to compete with the ever changing market of design tools. If you already have Studio you can update it to the 2.0 version or visit their site to download it.

Pixate-Studio

Read More at Pixate Partners With Google and Launches Pixate Studio 2.0



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/pixate-partners-with-google-and-launches-pixate-studio-2-0

Figma: A New Design Collaboration Tool

figma-wdl

For many years, Adobe Creative Cloud has been the de facto leader of design tools. While the name does have “cloud” in it, Adobe’s products initially began as desktop applications, and even today, many users feel that collaborative workflow is not up to the par.

To answer this problem, 23-year old Dylan Field has come up with a new solution: Figma, a new set of collaborative design applications.

In simple words, Figma is a design collaboration tool that, instead of relying heavily on desktop apps, runs within your web browser, and allows your team members to work together and collaborate freely on design projects. Any changes made to the design are saved and synced in the cloud, allowing users to track changes and work seamlessly with other members of the team.

Obviously, this sounds like a novel approach to design collaboration and, if rightly implemented, can prove to the Google Docs of web and graphic design.

The mainstay of Figma is a browser-based version of Photoshop, that focuses deeply on interaction design. Any change you make to the current project is saved to the cloud, and if you ever wish to revert back to a previous state, version control helps you do that. As such, when working with Figma, you do not need to constantly toggle back and forth between email, Dropbox and other such services -- instead, collaboration is built inside the design tool itself.

As of now, Figma allows you to share color assets with the members of your team. However, eventually, the plan is to offer shared asset libraries, with real-time simultaneous design editing.

Figma seems to have a promising road ahead, and it has already generated $14M in funding. Currently, it is in its testing phase, and you can signup for the free preview program by visiting Figma’s homepage. Later on, Figma intends to rely on a paid monthly subscription SAAS model.

Wish to learn more? Read the official blog post here.

What do you think of Figma? Share your views in the comments below!

Read More at Figma: A New Design Collaboration Tool



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/figma-a-new-design-collaboration-tool

Speedtest.net Moving Towards HTML5

speedtest

Speedtest.net is one of the most popular services for checking the speed of your internet connection. Thus far, the interface has relied on Adobe Flash to perform the test.

However, all of that is going to change soon, as the service is planning to abandon Flash in favor of HTML5.

For many years, Adobe Flash has served as a mainstay of the internet, powering several websites and apps. But in recent years, especially with the advent of HTML5, Flash has fallen out of favor. In fact, Adobe is not shying away from the fact that Flash in itself is a thing of the past -- Adobe has already rebranded Flash as Animate CC, and starting January 2016, the new Animate software, for all practical purposes, will focus more on HTML5 and offer Flash support only for the sake of backward compatibility.

So what happens when Speedtest.net moves away from Flash and switches to HTML5? To begin with, you will not require any plugins, and you can run Speedtest using any web browser with no additional requirements. Of course, this move in itself might probably not mean much, but it is another step towards the fact that Flash is dying, and the trend has now shifted towards more modern and less resource-hungry technology.

What do you think of this move from Speedtest.net? Much awaited, or came a bit early? Share your views in the comments below! Plus, you can also grab an early preview of what Speedtest.net on HTML5 will look like -- find the beta version here.

Read More at Speedtest.net Moving Towards HTML5



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/speedtest-net-moving-towards-html5

Facebook Discontinues Creative Labs Division

Facebook-Creative-Labs

Facebook Creative Labs

Facebook is no longer looking to support its internal startup Creative Labs. This division of Facebook was used as an experimental and creative approach to mobile software. A couple of the apps created made it to app stores, each with their own unique social sharing capabilities. Slingshot, featuring brief messaging and Riff, for sharing video stories both lost the competitive battle to Snapchat. There was also Rooms, a group IM app that also missed the mark. As of Monday all three apps have been removed from app stores.

Facebook is now applying their "Move fast and break things." mantra towards other emerging areas of technology like AI, drones, and virtual-reality goggles. The Social network giant hopes to continues experimenting with apps and continue to adding features to Facebook.com and the mobile apps like 320-degree video capability.

Read More at Facebook Discontinues Creative Labs Division



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/facebook-discontinues-creative-labs-division

The 43 Best Websites To Learn Something New About Marketing

Whether you want to learn more about A/B testing, conversion rate optimization, content marketing or paid ads, there’s a wealth of marketing knowledge being shared online every day.

Today I’m excited to share 43 of the best websites to learn something new about marketing.

These websites will teach you practically anything you’d like to learn. Ready to dive in and pick up something new?

Let’s go!

pablo (23)

Company Blogs

Unbounce

unbounce

The Unbounce blog offers expert advice on landing page and conversion optimization to help you crush your next online marketing campaign.

Recommended reading:

Vero

vero

Vero have a wealth of resources on their blog covering email marketing, automation and much more.

Recommended reading:

Moz

moz

Moz’s blog features advice, research, how-tos, and insights — all in the name of helping you level-up your SEO and online marketing skills.

Recommended reading:

Coschedule

Coscheudle’s blog features in-depth blog posts and resources on content marketing.

Check out CoSchedule’s blog >

Wistia

Wistia is a fantastic place to learn about video marketing and startup life.

Check out Wistia’s blog >

Econsultancy

Econsultancy shares the latest digital marketing and ecommerce insight from a team of analysts and experts.

Check out Econsultancy’s blog > 

Hubspot

Hubspot has a fantastic blog covering a range of sales and marketing topics, including A/B testing, content marketing and email marketing.

Check out Hubspot’s blog >

Contently

Contently’s Content Strategist blog takes readers on a dive into the World of content marketing, strategy and social media in a wide ranges of industries.

Check out Contently’s blog > 

KISSmetrics

The KISSmetrics blog aims to help you track, analyze and optimize your digital marketing.

Check out KISSmetrics’ blog >

Optimizely

Optimizely’s blog focuses heavily on landing page optimization and A/B testing.

Check out Optimizely’s blog > 

Groove

groove-blog

On their blog, Groove share everything about their journey to $500k in monthly revenue.

Recommended reading:

Check out Groove’s blog > 

AdExpresso

AdExpresso’s blog focuses on social media marketing and paid advertising channels. It’s an especially brilliant resource if you’re looking to learn a thing or two about Facebook Ads.

Check out AdExpresso’s blog >

Close.io

Close.io’s blog is a great resource for sales tips and tricks.

Check out Close.io’s blog >

Ghost

Ghost is an awesome blogging platform and their blog focuses on how to create a blog people will love.

Check out Ghost’s blog > 

Convince & Convert

Convince & Convert is led by Jay Baer. Their blog covers an interesting range of social media, marketing and content.

Check out Convince & Convert’s blog >

Individual Marketers

Seth Godin

seth-godin

Seth Godin is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, and marketer. His blog features short, daily posts on marketing, business and leadership.

Recommended reading: 

Justin Jackson

justin-jackson

Justin Jackson is a product builder and his blog focuses on helping you reach more people with the things you create.

Recommended reading: 

Gary Vaynerchuck

gary-v

Gary Vaynerchuk builds businesses. He co-founded VayerMedia and grew his family wine business from a $3M to a $60M business in just five years. He creates brilliant content on a daily basis.

Viperchill

On Viperchill, Glen Allsopp covers viral marketing, search engine optimisation, and blogging advice.

Check out Viperchill >

Neil Patel

Nei Patel’s blog, Quicksprout, is a fantastic resource for marketers and covers many aspects of content marketing and social media marketing.

Check out Quicksprout > 

Jon Loomer

On his blog, Jon Loomer shares advice and tips on how to become a better Facebook marketer.

Check out Jon Loomer’s blog > 

Heidi Cohen

Heidi Cohen’s blog provides you with marketing insights on social media, content marketing and mobile.

Check out Heidi Cohen’s blog > 

Brian Dean

Brian Dean’s Backlinko blog is an awesome resource for actionable SEO and content marketing advice.

Check out Backlinko > 

Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan is an author and marketer. His blog is one of the leading resources for marketing, lead generation and customer acquisition strategies for businesses.

Check out Chris Brogan’s blog >

Nathan Barry

Nath Barry is the founder of Convertkit. On his blog he posts regularly about both design and marketing.

Check out Nathan Barry’s blog >

Noah Kagan

On his blog, Appsumo and Sumome founder, Noak Kagan, shares tips and tricks on how he started 2 multi-million dollar businesses.

Check out Noah Kagan’s blog >

YouTube

Video Creators

video-creators

Video Creators discuss how to leverage YouTube as a social media platform and use it to build an audience that cares about your message.

Check out the channel >

Savvy Sexy Social

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Savvy Sexy Social is a marketing lifestyle blog – led from Amy “Schmittastic” Schmittauer – for brands who want to learn how to show off their amazing personality online.

Check out the channel >

Sunny Lenarduzzi

sunny-youtube

Check out the channel >

Sue B. Zimmerman

This channel teaches entrepreneurs, business execs, and marketing professionals how powerful Instagram for business can be.

Check out the channel >

Reelseo

ReelSEO’s YouTube channel offers YouTube tips and tricks for video marketing.

Check out the channel >

Vidiseo

Vidiseo helps YouTube channels and brands drive targeted viewers and measure the success of their YouTube channel.

Check out the channel > 

Communities

Inbound.org

inbound

Inbound.org is where the world’s smartest marketers convene to discuss & share what’s trending in the marketing world.

Check out Inbound.org > 

GrowthHackers

growthhackers

Premiere destination to collaborate and get inspired to help grow your business.

Check out GrowthHackers >

Podcasts

Mixergy

mixergy

Mixergy is a great podcast where can learn from a huge range of experienced mentors and entrepreneurs through interviews with host Andrew Warner.

Check out Mixergy > 

The Fizzle Show

The Fizzle Show is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs and honest business builders who want to earn a living doing something they care about.

Check out The Fizzle > 

StartUp

StartUp is a podcast series about what it’s really like to get a business off the ground.

Check out StartUp >

Entrepreneur On Fire

A brilliant podcast for entreprenuers and marketers. Host and founder, John Lee Dumas, interview today’s most inspiring Entrepreneurs 7-days a week

Check out Entreprenuer On Fire >

The Lede

Each week, The Lede answers your questions about copywriting, content marketing, email marketing, conversion optimization, mindset, and much more.

Check out The Lede >

Six Pixels of Separation

Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Seperation podcast covers digital marketing and media hacking.

Check out Six Pixels of Seperation >

Online Courses

CreativeLive

creativelive

CreativeLive is an online learning platform that broadcasts live classes. You can also join old classes and re-watch the lessons. The site has a wealth of awesome marketing classes.

Check out CreativeLive >

One Month

one-month

One Month is a school for entreprenuers and delivers high-quality educational content on a range of topics, including marketing.

Check out OneMonth >

Ryan Holiday: Growth Hacker Marketing

ryan-holiday

Growth Hacker marketing is a short course on the future of PR, marketing and advertising by marketer, auother and former Director of Marketing for American Apparel and an editor-at-large for the New York Observer, Ryan Holiday.

Check out the course >

*Some of the courses in this section are paid for courses. 

Over to you

I’d love to hear your favourite sites to learn something new about marketing.

Where do you go when you want to check out the latest tips, trends and strategies? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be excited to check out your recomenedations.

The post The 43 Best Websites To Learn Something New About Marketing appeared first on Social.



from Social https://blog.bufferapp.com/marketing-resources

The Anatomy of An Invoice (That Gets Paid)

Anatomy-of-an-Invoice

 

anatomy-of-an-invoice1

Earlier in the Billing Like a Boss series we covered how to talk about money in a way that isn’t as awkward as that time you realized (mid-conversation) that you didn’t know the name of the person you were talking to.

Now we’ll dive a little deeper into the world of invoicing. You’ll learn how to not embarrass yourself if you’re a billing beginner, the bare minimum if you want to be taken seriously, and a few easy ways to leverage your invoicing to become the biggest boss on the block.

Buckle up.

The Man Behind the Curtain

Man behind the curtain

Remember how scary the Wizard of Oz was before before the curtain was drawn and we all discovered he was just an adorable senior citizen? That’s kinda what you want your invoices to do for you. (Go with me on this.) Even if you’re just a lone solopreneur working out of your parent’s basement in your housecoat and slippers, that doesn’t mean you can’t present a polished, professional curtain that portrays you as the boss you are.

Just like the way you bill (hourly, flat, value-based) makes its own statement, the appearance of your invoices will also speak on your behalf.

How to NOT Embarrass Yourself

Some of this stuff is going to feel obvious, but there are so many levels of invoicing prowess out there that I just wouldn’t feel right not including it. So here we go...

  1. Know whom you’re invoicing and how many times you’ve sent your invoice. This is easier to mess up than you might think. Especially if you don’t have a system for your invoicing. Do whatever you need to do to state on your invoice whom the invoice recipient is (sometimes your client, sometimes someone at your client’s financial department) and when your invoice was sent to them.
  1. Include the basic information such as a date and a description of what you’re billing for. This helps remind your clients when and why they are forking out money, and also covers your assets later in the case of late payment or confusion over what the invoice was for.
  1. Proofread your invoices. Make sure you’ve got the right person, the right date, the right dollar amount—the right everything. Again, it sounds simple, but it’s the simplest of things that slip through the cracks. So do your future-self a favor and start looking over your invoices for embarrassing mistakes that detract from your boss-like persona.

The Billing Bare Minimum

Once you get into the habit of including the basic information in your invoices, take things up another notch by including:

  1. Clear payment terms that cover when and how you want to be paid
  2. Your contact info
  3. Your client’s contact info
  4. A numbering system for easy reference for both you and your clients

anatomy-of-an-invoice2

Lastly, and don’t get mad, but your design software just isn’t good enough for making your invoices. Yes, it absolutely makes invoices look better than a simple spreadsheet or text-based document, no question, but what it doesn’t have is a way to help you stay on top of when you sent your invoice, if your invoice has been paid or not, how long your client took to pay the last invoice, your total income for the month—see where I’m going with this?

There are tons of tools out there to help you achieve both beautiful billing AND total knowledge of your freelance finances. Best of all, they all provide the perk of keeping everything in one place for easy reference (insert shameless FreshBooks plug).

Taking it up a (professional) notch

Here are some surprisingly simple ways to become even more boss-like in your billing:

Say “Thank you for your business”. Why? It adds a dash of positivity, which never hurts the speed of your payment, and adds a dash of professionalism to the relationship.

Accept online payment from your clients. Another thing you can do to make your client’s life easier (and thus keep them longer and maybe even get more) is to make the payment process as easy as possible. So when you send your invoice (promptly) after finishing a project, let your clients pay their invoice from the comfort of their home/office by accepting online payment. Yes, there will be a transaction fee, but think of it this way. You’re making the payment process so convenient for your client that you could likely increase your rates a touch for being so delightful to work with (just like the price difference between economy and business class on a flight).  

Request advance payment (aka Deposits). Ok, here’s one that’s less about your client’s happiness and more about your own well being. Before you begin working on a project (especially a big one) request a deposit.

If you already do this—fantastic!

If you don’t request deposits, that’s totally OK. Many industries don’t need to because they have a physical item they can withhold in lieu of payment.

But this is not the case for us (I’m speaking specifically about web designers).

If we put in the work and the client skips town (proverbially), you are left with nothing. You’ll never get that time back, you could have been making money working on something else, and the final product you have is rarely resellable.

Before you say “Woah now! That’s too much to ask”, think of framing deposits this way. By requesting deposits, neither you nor your client ever has to take on 100% of the financial risk. At the beginning, your client has to trust that you’ll put in the work. At the end, you have to trust that your client will come through with payment. Make your case on the platform of mutual trust because we all know the world of commerce can sometimes be far from fair.

Follow up with clients. Give a quick check in to see how they are enjoying your product/service after the project is completed. Nothing extensive, just a quick check in. Your clients will be appreciative that you’ve taken the time to show you care and will form an even stronger, more positive association with you, thus making it easier to remember you the next time they need something.

Now onto what you get out of client follow up (other than warm fuzzies, of course).

By checking in with your clients to see how things are going post-payment, you’re secretly doing research for areas of improvement in your own work/process. I’m not saying you should give clients a full survey (although that would be smart), it can be as simple as a how’s everything going? email. You’re not committing to extending the contract (although that would be the smartest) or doing more work for free. You’re simply looking to ensure things are up to standard and there are no areas of improvement that are completely off your radar.

Curtain Call

So there you have it. The inner workings of an invoice that fully lives up to its higher purpose of creating a curtain of professionalism that says to the world “I’m a total boss at what I do”.

Just as you would put thought into what your website says about you (be it with words or not), you absolutely want to take time to consider the impression your invoices give off.

Why?

Because your invoice is the predecessor to your paycheck.

Next, we’ll leap even further into Billing Bossdom with a few crafty hacks to get your invoices paid lightning fast!

Read More at The Anatomy of An Invoice (That Gets Paid)



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/the-anatomy-of-an-invoice-that-gets-paid

Monday 7 December 2015

WordPress and State of the Word 2015

wordcamp-2015

Recently, the inaugural WordCamp US was held in Philadelphia, wherein Matt Mullenweg delivered his 10th annual State of the Word address.

A lot many things were mentioned in State of the Word 2015 by Mullenweg, with the highlight of the speech being the fact that WordPress now powers over 25% of the internet.

Furthermore, Matt Mullenweg also mentioned the rate at which WordPress is growing, and further highlighted some of the major improvements and milestones, such as:

  • Adoption of Slack for team collaboration
  • The code for WordPress.tv is now open source
  • All themes and plugins now support language packs
  • Plugin directory crossed over a billion downloads
  • Twenty Fifteen is now active on over 1.6 million websites
  • There were three major releases of WordPress this year: 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 (with 4.4 being ready for release soon)

Going further, Mullenweg stated that JavaScript interfaces and PHP APIs are the future of not just WordPress, but the internet:

I believe quite strongly that JavaScript and API-driven interfaces are the future of not just WordPress but the web. Perhaps there could be a future where there might be something on the other side that is worth breaking backwards compatibility for.

Looking forward to 2016, Mullenweg admitted that WordPress needs to focus more on customization, and further added that in near future, JavaScript interfaces are something that WordPress needs to rely on. In fact, Mullenweg even pledged to himself contribute a JavaScript patch to the WordPress core in the coming year.

WordPress had humble beginnings in the form of a simple blogging platform, but today it has evolved into the world’s most popular Content Management System, and it continues to grow at a steady pace. IN 2016, WordPress is expected to grow even more, and here is what Matt Mullenweg had to say to conclude his speech:

I think we can use this opening up, API-driven development to actually open up more of the web. We have a very exciting year ahead of us making the web a more open place.

What do you think of State of the Word 2015, and how does 2016 look to you from the point of view of WordPress? Share your views in the comments below!

Read More at WordPress and State of the Word 2015



from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/state-of-the-word-2015-wordpress