Tag Archives: dedicated-servers

Infographic: Digital Tech Triumphs

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Hosting

The post Infographic: Digital Tech Triumphs appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . We’ve come a long way, from Super Nintendo to Google Glass, in a short amount of time. Who remembers before everyone had cell phones in their pockets, that they had pagers clipped on their belts? Before iPods, there was the Walkman. Before compact disks, the mighty 8-track tape. TEchnology is moving so quickly, that if you blink you could miss an entire generation of communication or portable music device. The following infographic outlines the highlights of technological triumphs in recent history: Digital Tech Triumphs via HostGator Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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Eight Great Free Original Content Content Creation Tools You Should Be Using

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Hosting

The post Eight Great Free Original Content Content Creation Tools You Should Be Using appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . The strength of content marketing is well demonstrated, but creating strong content takes innovation. This means enlisting the help of some simple but powerful tools that combine user engagement and attractive presentation to facilitate brand perception. Here’s a look at eight great resources you can use to take your content to the next level.   ThingLink If engagement is the key, then ThingLink is the tool for the job. Research shows that images  engage customers and resonate to a notable degree on social networks  and, for this reason, should be used extensively. But images embedded on web pages should offer more than a reiteration of the graphic that curried the visitor in the first place. ThingLink can be embedded on web pages and used to mark up static imagery with accompanying videos, social networking buttons, annotations, and more. In addition to making already engaging content more dynamic, each image that utilizes the service comes with attribution, so that users who view your creation over social channels know who’s responsible.   Skitch Collaborating on content is no small task. Creative ideas bounce back and forth and expressing visual concepts in verbal language always seems to fall just short. Enter Skitch. The brainchild of note-taking powerhouse Evernote, Skitch allows designers, content creators, and managers to add robust indicators, color coded text, and shapes to screen captures, uploaded images, PDFs, and data copied to the clipboard. In addition to making content commentary more attractive, the myriad options enable visual communication that a Skype call or email simply can’t touch.   Word2CleanHTML Writing copy requires an effective Word processor. While hardly groundbreaking information, the caveats of each copy-writing platform can cause headaches down the road. Solutions like Simplenote offer format-free writing but no formatting options, and Word offers extensive formatting but in its own anachronistic language. Converting copy to web content should be easy and Word2CleanHTML offers exactly that. The platform not only remedies some of Word’s more frustrating idiosyncrasies, but also replaces tabs, bold text, italics, and smart quotes with HTML friendly alternatives, which should greatly facilitate the transfer to your blog.   Google Fonts With design rising in the minds of consumers and mobile screens offering unique display challenges, typography is seeing more consideration as a factor in effective web design. Unfortunately, previous attempts at customizing text appearance required that users have the designated font installed on their machine, leaving out many attractive and superior options and replacing them with lesser alternatives. Google Fonts uses their straightforward API to allow you to embed fonts on a page so that your text is displayed as you intended. In addition, the site offers a gage that indicates how their inclusion will affect page-load times, optimizing both appearance and performance.   Canva Attractive content is replacing informative content as tired eyes judge items on a moment’s notice, but attractive, informative content is the end game. Canva provides this marriage by offering en vogue design resources and a user-friendly interface that makes creating aesthetically pleasing visual resources a snap. The service does provide premium content for $1, but even at this expenditure, the value delivered per dollar may far exceed that of private design help.   Infogram Infographics are a hot commodity these days and for good reason. Communicating interesting and valid information through facts provides authority while presenting them in a pleasing manner attracts viewers. But while most of us have information to share, few of us have the design acumen needed to create something worth its salt. Infogram helps shortcut the process with an engine that allows for data entry, expression, and arrangement, meaning high-quality infographics in a short time. The solution is no substitute for distinctive design work, but for firms on a shoestring budget, it’s a resource worth a look.   Haiku Deck The boring PowerPoints of old team meetings are becoming a thing of the past. The din of content and information is requiring that firms both internally and externally adapt to the nature of the human psyche, which requires a little more than plain text to hold attention. Haiku Deck, like the previously mentioned platforms, offers high-end design knowledge so that you can leverage it to improve content. Offering a gallery of templates, beautiful typographic options, and embed capabilities, delivering high-quality presentations has never been easier.   Storify The web revolves around communications. Sharing on sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter may seem frivolous the lion’s share of the time, but real news and real events unfold on these social channels. Storify recognizes this phenomenon and harnesses it to create more engaging content that’s driven by users. By embedding tweets, photos, videos, and more from a wide variety of sources, your blog’s content can carry the extra element of involvement by directly citing web media. In addition, the platform notifies sources that their information has been shared, opening conversations and connecting you with customers. Putting content on the Internet is a needed first step to attaining greater market share. Doing so optimally, leveraging the power of interactive media and attractive design, will turn your words into meaning and your viewers into customers. Utilize these simple tools to enhance your blog posts and videos and open the door for conversation between your organization and your customer base in dynamic new ways. Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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Eight Great Free Original Content Creation Tools You Should Be Using

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Hosting

The post Eight Great Free Original Content Creation Tools You Should Be Using appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . The strength of content marketing is well demonstrated, but creating strong content takes innovation. This means enlisting the help of some simple but powerful tools that combine user engagement and attractive presentation to facilitate brand perception. Here’s a look at eight great resources you can use to take your content to the next level.   ThingLink If engagement is the key, then ThingLink is the tool for the job. Research shows that images  engage customers and resonate to a notable degree on social networks  and, for this reason, should be used extensively. But images embedded on web pages should offer more than a reiteration of the graphic that curried the visitor in the first place. ThingLink can be embedded on web pages and used to mark up static imagery with accompanying videos, social networking buttons, annotations, and more. In addition to making already engaging content more dynamic, each image that utilizes the service comes with attribution, so that users who view your creation over social channels know who’s responsible.   Skitch Collaborating on content is no small task. Creative ideas bounce back and forth and expressing visual concepts in verbal language always seems to fall just short. Enter Skitch. The brainchild of note-taking powerhouse Evernote, Skitch allows designers, content creators, and managers to add robust indicators, color coded text, and shapes to screen captures, uploaded images, PDFs, and data copied to the clipboard. In addition to making content commentary more attractive, the myriad options enable visual communication that a Skype call or email simply can’t touch.   Word2CleanHTML Writing copy requires an effective Word processor. While hardly groundbreaking information, the caveats of each copy-writing platform can cause headaches down the road. Solutions like Simplenote offer format-free writing but no formatting options, and Word offers extensive formatting but in its own anachronistic language. Converting copy to web content should be easy and Word2CleanHTML offers exactly that. The platform not only remedies some of Word’s more frustrating idiosyncrasies, but also replaces tabs, bold text, italics, and smart quotes with HTML friendly alternatives, which should greatly facilitate the transfer to your blog.   Google Fonts With design rising in the minds of consumers and mobile screens offering unique display challenges, typography is seeing more consideration as a factor in effective web design. Unfortunately, previous attempts at customizing text appearance required that users have the designated font installed on their machine, leaving out many attractive and superior options and replacing them with lesser alternatives. Google Fonts uses their straightforward API to allow you to embed fonts on a page so that your text is displayed as you intended. In addition, the site offers a gage that indicates how their inclusion will affect page-load times, optimizing both appearance and performance.   Canva Attractive content is replacing informative content as tired eyes judge items on a moment’s notice, but attractive, informative content is the end game. Canva provides this marriage by offering en vogue design resources and a user-friendly interface that makes creating aesthetically pleasing visual resources a snap. The service does provide premium content for $1, but even at this expenditure, the value delivered per dollar may far exceed that of private design help.   Infogram Infographics are a hot commodity these days and for good reason. Communicating interesting and valid information through facts provides authority while presenting them in a pleasing manner attracts viewers. But while most of us have information to share, few of us have the design acumen needed to create something worth its salt. Infogram helps shortcut the process with an engine that allows for data entry, expression, and arrangement, meaning high-quality infographics in a short time. The solution is no substitute for distinctive design work, but for firms on a shoestring budget, it’s a resource worth a look.   Haiku Deck The boring PowerPoints of old team meetings are becoming a thing of the past. The din of content and information is requiring that firms both internally and externally adapt to the nature of the human psyche, which requires a little more than plain text to hold attention. Haiku Deck, like the previously mentioned platforms, offers high-end design knowledge so that you can leverage it to improve content. Offering a gallery of templates, beautiful typographic options, and embed capabilities, delivering high-quality presentations has never been easier.   Storify The web revolves around communications. Sharing on sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter may seem frivolous the lion’s share of the time, but real news and real events unfold on these social channels. Storify recognizes this phenomenon and harnesses it to create more engaging content that’s driven by users. By embedding tweets, photos, videos, and more from a wide variety of sources, your blog’s content can carry the extra element of involvement by directly citing web media. In addition, the platform notifies sources that their information has been shared, opening conversations and connecting you with customers. Putting content on the Internet is a needed first step to attaining greater market share. Doing so optimally, leveraging the power of interactive media and attractive design, will turn your words into meaning and your viewers into customers. Utilize these simple tools to enhance your blog posts and videos and open the door for conversation between your organization and your customer base in dynamic new ways. Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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10 Fantastic Google Marketing Tools You Never Knew Existed

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Hosting

The post 10 Fantastic Google Marketing Tools You Never Knew Existed appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . The world’s largest search engine has established an impressive reputation for delivering quality data to relevant search queries. Between their extensive index and ubiquitous adoption, it’s no wonder the behemoth has risen to the top. But while the average user is searching for flan recipes and movie quotes, marketers have at their fingertips a bevy of useful tools for improving their efforts and gaining insight into their market.   Google Trends Understanding the cultural milieu of particular terms or trends is valuable when crafting copy or photographic content. To this end, Google provides the ability to check the frequency of searches by date. Top terms by category can be viewed in charts and the Explore function enables a chronological documentation of a term’s frequency in search queries. Between these views, marketers will have a better understanding of the zeitgeist and can avoid hitting any hot button terms in the process.   Google Public Data Explorer Understanding the public requires comprehensive data. Thanks to Google Public Data Explorer, marketers can peruse census data, unemployment rates, and any other publicly released information from international governments in line graph, bar graph, or scatter-plot form. With the ability to compare and contrast critical data between countries, you now have the ability to target your marketing and product positioning toward appropriate economic and social conditions.   Google Correlate The strength of data lies not in isolation, but in the ability to compare it for context. Google Correlate provides this capability, showing the trends in search results over the course of a few years or a few months. In a curious, though creative, feature, users of the solution can draw their own line graph and see search terms that match that pattern, thus providing the potential to determine seasonal trends or year-to-year fads.   Webmaster Tools Managing online efforts can be difficult, especially when your carefully crafted website is working poorly. Google Webmaster Tools gives you the necessary functionality to check site health, monitor valuable analytics, and run crawl requests to make sure your assets and articles are properly indexed. In addition, the platform provides structured data tools that check the “micro data” of pages and previewing how they will render in Google’s search results.   Google Fonts In an age of design-forward thinking, your copy needs to look as good as it reads. Google Fonts makes accessible a wide variety of high quality fonts that would previously require local installation to display. With this range of choices and easily accessed API, you’ll have more control over the aesthetic and readability of your web copy than ever before.   Google Ngram Viewer If Google Trends doesn’t provide the kind of insight you’re looking for, then Ngram Viewer most certainly will. The project documents the appearance of words over the course of millennia, showing side-by-side comparisons at the user’s behest. This historical context can make a big difference when dipping into the past for reference or citation.   Dart While marketing is not, at its heart, a programming endeavor, it certainly can benefit from a little knowledge. Marketers with an understanding of web code can help troubleshoot problems quicker and guide development efforts when the time arises. For those with an eye on the future and a penchant for the technical, Google’s Dart coding language provides an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an emerging tech trend. The true benefit lies in its simplicity, as the company has designed it from the get-go as a language capable of understanding, even by beginning coders.   Google Think Insights Not all of Google’s contributions boil down to raw data or code. Google Think Insights delivers a number of Ted-talk-esque treatises on changes in technology and business practices. Marketers with a desire to expand their horizons can examine the “Marketing Objectives” section for tailored advice, while a laundry list of tools provide key insights and lessons. Coupled with creative projects that teach highly-sought-after information, the platform constitutes a gold mine for ambitious marketers.   Get Your Business Online If you find yourself in the passenger’s seat of commerce instead of the driver’s, then this is the section for you. The step-by-step tutorial helps teach you the importance of getting your business on the web, along with the best practices in doing so. The project is tailored at small businesses, with a declared intent to help boost the local economy and grow mom-and-pop’s shops. Along with free web hosting for one year, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would pass up such a sterling opportunity.   Full Value of Mobile If, instead, you’re an established business and want to expand your reach, then understanding mobile is crucial. The Full Value of Mobile page provides a useful calculator for businesses to help determine how much their mobile property is worth. In addition, the tool helps analyze how customers interact with your business, giving insight into effective leveraging of owned mobile properties.   Between these tools and the existing means of market research provided by the search giant , it appears that no stone has been left unturned. Exploration and comparison of public data can help guide distribution and advertising efforts. Proper coding, webmaster tools, and fonts provide more control over owned properties. Finally, Think Insights, GYBO, and Full Value of Mobile provide valuable information for a wide range of experience levels. With successful marketing pacing the growth and success of many companies these days, this toolkit can help lift the weight off your shoulders and give you confidence that you’re making the right call. Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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The 10 Commandments of Effective Web Design and Development

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Hosting

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Web Design and Development appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . To the uninitiated, web design is magic. Transforming text into beautiful, responsive, and interactive creations is pure sorcery to those who don’t see past the one-way mirror. The problem is, you do, and for that reason, you know just how complicated and challenging things can get. When navigating the jungle (so that end-users don’t have to) keeping essential, core principles in mind can mean the difference between Facebook and MySpace. In this post, we’re outlining the ten commandments of effective web design and development.   1. Thou shalt code with care If you honor the integrity of your web page and the integrity of your sanity, this rule means everything. Poorly organized, un-commented, and messy code can create copious headaches as you develop your site or redesign your aesthetic. It is said that the skill of a master chef is indicated by the cleanliness of his apron; the same goes for coders. Keep things clean, organized, well labeled, and concise in order to save you and yours a little pain along the way.   2. Thou shalt be flexible Our relationship with the web is ever changing. From our standards for interaction to the platforms on which we view sites, the onus falls on web developers to make users happy at all junctures. For this reason, it is essential to observe responsive web design. The elegant solution will adapt your layout, your media, and your text based on queries to the observing platform. In doing so, your website maintains a coherent identity with common elements and shared page ranking; a win-win-win.   3. Thou shalt put the user before all else Developing your code and your platform is only part of the picture. Ultimately, the user is where the rubber hits the road, and failing to gain traction with a favorable user experience will see ambitious efforts fall heartbreakingly short. At every conjuncture, consider elements like typography, visual balance, navigability, communicability, and aesthetic to ensure that viewers appreciate all the hard work you put in.   4. Thou shalt remember scalability and keep it holy The term “web development” should give you an idea of what we’re talking about. Development is, by its nature, the progression and adaptation of infrastructure and design to your changing goals. For this reason, your web hosting infrastructure and underlying platform should be scalable in order to accommodate future growth. You may only see 100 users per day at present, but when your blog hits it big, you’ll wish you had sprung for a solution with robust upgrades options.   5. Thou shalt change with the times As stated, the web is an ever-changing cornucopia of visuals, content, contexts, and experiences. Failing to adapt to this changing world will leave your site feeling slow and looking old. These may not seem like huge issues at first, but considering  how quickly a user’s attention can falter , even a seemingly negligible drop in performance can turn them off. Aesthetic is not to be ignored either. The glossy buttons of web 1.0 have been supplanted by simple and elegant flat designs. Falling behind this curve means uninterested eyes and negative perceptions.   6. Thou shalt not take a domain name in vain Your docket is already full with technical concerns and design considerations, but ignoring the significant role that your domain name plays is an exercise in ignorance. In order for websites to garner organic traffic, they need to be eye catching when viewed in the context of search results. A good domain name can set expectations and entice wandering eyes even before your copy and layout make an impression. Choose something simple, creative, and interesting to reel in readers.   7. Thou shalt optimize thy search index In order for your domain name to have an impact, however, your site needs to appear in said search rankings. The search indexing system may not be perfect, but unfortunately, it’s all we’ve got. Optimize your SEO by focusing on Schema microdata, authorship, linkages to high profile sites, and strong keywords. Doing so we’ll not only bump your initial traffic results, but also make hay for years after publication.   8. Thou shalt hold design on high If the individual instances demonstrating the importance of design haven’t sold you on this concept, then let this commandment do the work. Design, once popularly considered to be a luxury of large companies with ample budgets, quickly became an integral part of startup culture, content formatting, and now, every aspect of the Internet. The new era sees design as a primary concern of Internet users, even if only subconsciously, and failing to recognize this can seriously derail your efforts.   9. Thou shalt be distinctive The Internet is big. To quantify it, research shows that monthly traffic in 2012 hit 44 exabytes per month. To put this volume in perspective, 1 exabyte is 1,000 petabytes, and 1 petabyte is 1,000 terabytes. For that reason, you need to make an impression. Web design is about functionality and impact, and when focusing on impact, aim to set your creation apart. This can be achieved in a number of ways, just remember to focus on being distinctive, not weird or annoying.   10. Thou shalt keep it simple Paramount to all of these concerns, make sure you keep things simple. Strive for elegance; the simplest, most effective solution. Cluttered code, busy design, and ham-fisted attempts at standing out are as likely to drive away users as they are to frustrate your stakeholders. In all things, strive for the simplest solution and enjoy the sophistication and intuitiveness that only elegance can provide. They may not have been handed down on the mount, but these commandments can help guide your web design and development efforts in profound ways. Code responsibly, focus on the user, develop flexible platforms, keep up with design innovations, optimize your data, and focus on elegance. Between these rules and your own dash of creativity and talent, you’re bound to build something notable, and that’s a valuable thing in an interconnected world. Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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