Apache Flink monitoring support is now available in the open-source OpenTelemetry collector. You can check out the OpenTelemetry repo here! You can utilize this receiver in conjunction with any OTel collector: including the OpenTelemetry Collector and other distributions of the collector.
Today we'll use observIQ’s OpenTelemetry distribution, and shipping Apache Flink telemetry to a popular backend: Google Cloud Ops. You can find out more on the GitHub page: https://github.com/observIQ/observiq-otel-collector
Data masking, as we know, obscures sensitive information by replacing it with realistic but fake values, making it suitable for use in testing, demonstrations, or analytics.
It preserves the structure of the original data while altering its values through sophisticated algorithms, making it impossible to reverse-engineer the masked data.
There is a common problem most backend developers face at least once in their careers: where should we store our secrets? It appears to be simple enough, we have a lot of services focusing on this very issue, we just need to pick one and get on the next task. Sounds easy, but how can we pick the right solution for our needs? We should evaluate our options to see more clearly.
The Test
For the demonstration, we can take a simple Spring Boot application as an example. This will be perfect for us because that is one of the most popular technology choices on the backend today. In our example, we will assume we need to use a MySQL database over JDBC; therefore, our secrets will be the connection URL, driver class name, username, and password. This is only a proof of concept, any dependency would do as long as it uses secrets. We can easily generate such a project using Spring Initializr. We will get the DataSource auto configured and then create a bean that will do the connection test. The test can look like this:
Do you want to add a mega menu on your WordPress site?
Mega Menus allow you to arrange dozens or even hundreds of links into user-friendly columns and rows. You can then add rich content like images and videos, to make your mega menus even more helpful.
In this article, we will show you how you can add a mega menu to your WordPress website, step-by-step.
If your site has lots of content then you may need to create a mega menu instead. These mega menus allow you to add multi-column dropdowns to the WordPress navigation.
You can use mega menus to organize your content under different headings and subheadings, so visitors can find exactly the page they’re looking for. For example, if you create an online marketplace then you might arrange all your product categories and subcategories in a mega menu.
This helps shoppers find the exact product category they want, and make a purchase.
Mega menus can also show rich content to your visitors, such as videos, text, search, and recent posts.
Many websites use images, too, because they make mega menus easier to scan. Even if you’re showing dozens of menu items, dividing them into columns and then adding a relevant image can help visitors find exactly the content they’re looking for in seconds.
That said, let’s see how you can easily add a mega menu to your WordPress website.
The easiest way to add a mega menu on your WordPress site is by using Max Mega Menu. This plugin allows you to add rich content to your mega menus, including images, text, galleries, and more.
In this way, you can create more engaging and helpful menus.
You can also style every part of the mega menu by adding different colors, changing the font size, and using different icons.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Enable Mega Menus on Your WordPress Website
Upon activation, go to Mega Menu » Menu Locations to see all the different areas where you can add a mega menu.
You may see different options depending on your WordPress theme.
To start, you’ll need to enable mega menus in every location where you want to use them.
To do this, simply click to expand a location and then check its ‘Enabled’ box.
After that, you can change the ‘Event’ that’ll open the mega menu.
The default setting is ‘Hover intent,’ which means the visitor must hover their mouse over the mega menu for a few seconds. This works well for most WordPress websites, but you can also open the ‘Effect’ dropdown and choose ‘Hover’ or ‘Click’ instead.
If you choose ‘Click’ then the visitor will need to click to explore the mega menu. This can be useful if you’re worried visitors might trigger the menu by accident, which can be frustrating.
Meanwhile, ‘Hover’ will open your mega menu as soon as the visitor moves their mouse over it. This can encourage visitors to explore different areas of your site, so you may want to use ‘Hover’ on landing pages or your website’s homepage.
After making this decision, you can change how the menu opens using the ‘Effect’ settings.
Max Mega Menu has different animations you can try, including fade and slide up. You can also change the animation’s speed. By trying different animations, you can create a mega menu that grabs the visitor’s attention.
If you don’t want to use any animations, simply open the first dropdown and select ‘None.’
By default, Mega Menu doesn’t use animations on mobile devices to prevent performance issues. If you want to create a unique animation for mobile visitors, then you can use the settings in the ‘Effect (Mobile)’ area.
Also, if you set the ‘Event’ dropdown to ‘click,’ then make sure you select the ‘Advanced’ tab next.
Here, you can use ‘Click Event Behavior’ to define what happens when the visitor clicks your mega menu. For example, the second click might close the menu or open a new link.
There are more settings you can look through, but this should be enough for most WordPress blogs and websites.
When you’re happy with how the plugin is configured, click on ‘Save Changes.’
To enable mega menus for more locations, simply follow the same process described above.
Customize How the Mega Menus Looks on Your Website
The next step is configuring how the mega menus will look on your website.
You can do this by selecting the ‘Menu Themes’ tab to the left of the screen.
On this screen, you can change the direction of the arrow icons, use a different line height, and add a shadow.
When you’re happy with your settings, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes.’
If you want to remove these changes at any point, then simply check the ‘Reset Widget Styling’ box and then click on ‘Save Changes.’
Next, you can customize the menu bar, which is the bar visitors see when the menu is in its default, collapsed state.
To make these changes, click on the ‘Menu Bar’ tab and then use the settings to change its background color, padding, border radius, and more.
You can even create a color gradient by selecting two different colors in the ‘Menu Background’ section.
If you scroll down, then you can change how the top-level menu looks.
This is the first row of items, which is visible when the mega menu is in its collapsed state.
Since they’re so important, you might want to make the top-level menu items stand out.
For example, in the following image, we’re using a different background color.
In the ‘Hover State’ section you can highlight the currently-selected top-level menu item.
For example, in the following image, we’re using an underline effect.
This can help the visitor see where they are in the menu, which makes it particularly useful for sites that need to have large mega menus.
If you do add a hover state, then scroll to the bottom of the screen and check the ‘Highlight Current Item’ box.
After that, you can change how the submenu looks.
This is the menu that appears under a top-level parent, as you can see in the following image.
To customize the submenu, click on the ‘Mega Menus’ tab.
You can now use these settings to change the submenu’s background color, increase the radius to create curved corners, add padding, and more.
You add content to your mega menus using widgets. For example, you might add a Gallery widget and display your most popular WooCommerce products, or embed a tag cloud inside the mega menu. These widgets can provide extra information, or encourage visitors to click on certain menu items.
You can customize how these widgets will look by scrolling to the ‘Widgets’ section. For example, you might change the color of the widget’s title, increase the font size, add padding, and adjust the alignment.
On this screen, you can also customize how the second-level menu items and third-level menu items will look on your website. These are the children of the top-level menu items.
When building your menus, it’s possible to add four or even more levels to create a nested mega menu. If you do this, then WordPress will simply use the third-level styling for all the subsequent levels.
You can see this in action in the following image. The second level has red text, and both the third and fourth levels use the same yellow text.
When you’re happy with how the menu is set up, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes.’
How to Add a Mega Menu on Your WordPress Site
Once you’ve finished customizing the mega menu using Max Mega Menu, it’s time to add it to your website.
Simply head over to Appearance » Menus.
If you want to turn an existing menu into a mega menu, then open the ‘Select a menu to edit’ dropdown and choose it from the list. Just be aware the menu you choose must be assigned to a location where you’ve enabled the mega menu feature.
If you want to start from scratch, then click on ‘Create a new menu’ and then type in a title for your new mega menu.
You can then select the location you want to use, and click on ‘Create Menu.’ Once again, this must be a location where you’ve enabled mega menus.
Add Content to Your WordPress Menu
After that, add all the pages, posts, and any other content you want to include in the menu. For step-by-step instructions, please see our beginner’s guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.
Next, you’ll need to arrange your items into parents and submenus. To create a submenu, drag an item below the parent, and then drag it slightly to the right before releasing it.
To create multiple levels, simply keep dragging items to the right so they appear indented below one another. This is similar to creating a dropdown menu in WordPress.
No matter whether you’re creating a new menu or updating an old one, at this point you’ll have all the items you want to include in the mega menu.
Enable the Mega Menu Feature
With that done, click to expand the ‘Max Mega Menu Settings’ and check the box next to ‘Enable.’
In this box, you can also override the default mega menu settings. This allows you to create unique mega menus for different areas of your site, so go ahead and make any changes.
After that, click on ‘Save.’
Create the Mega Menu Layout
Now, hover your mouse over the first top-level item and you’ll see a new ‘Mega Menu’ button. Go ahead and give the button a click.
You will now see all the settings for this top-level item.
By default, Max Mega Menu will use the flyout style, where the submenus ‘flyout’ from the side. To create a mega menu instead, open the ‘Sub menu display mode’ dropdown and choose either ‘Standard Layout’ or ‘Grid Layout.’
Standard layout shows all the submenus in columns.
Meanwhile, grid layout allows you to organize submenu items into columns and rows.
This is ideal if you want to show lots of content, or have a very specific layout in mind.
After selecting the standard or grid layout, you’ll see all the submenus assigned to this parent.
Now, you can go ahead and change how these items are arranged in the mega menu.
If you’re using the standard layout, then you can change the number of columns using the dropdown menu in the top right corner.
If you’re using a grid layout, then you can add columns and rows using the ‘+Column’ and ‘+Row’ buttons.
When you’re happy with the layout, you can arrange the submenu items into different columns and rows using drag and drop.
After that, it’s time to change how much space each item takes up in the column. Max Mega Menu shows the current size as a fraction of the total available width.
For example, in the following image, both columns take up half the available space.
To make an item bigger or smaller, simply click on its arrow buttons to increase or decrease the fraction.
Create a Mobile-Friendly Mega Menu (Grid Layout Only)
By default, Max Mega Menu will show the same content on desktop and mobile devices. This can be a problem with grid layouts, as smartphones and tablets typically have smaller screens, and scrolling horizontally can be difficult.
If you’re using the grid layout, then you can create different mega menus for mobile devices. For example, you might use fewer columns so users don’t have to scroll horizontally.
You can hide entire columns or rows using the ‘Hidden on mobile’ icon, which looks like a small mobile phone.
Simply toggle the icon on and off, to hide and show different content on desktop and mobile.
Add Rich Content with Mega Menu Widgets
With that done, you can start adding widgets to the mega menu. This allows you to show extra content in the submenu, such as WordPress galleries, text, videos, recent comments, and more.
For example, you might use images to promote a sale on your online store, or highlight your latest products.
To add a widget, simply click to open the ‘Select a widget….’ dropdown.
You can now choose a widget from the list.
WordPress will add the widget to a column or row automatically, but you can move it to a new location using drag and drop.
To configure the widget, go ahead and click on its little wrench icon.
This opens a popup where you can add content to the widget and change its settings.
You’ll see different options depending on the kind of widget you’re creating.
For example, if you added an Image widget, then you can click on ‘Add Image’ and either choose a picture from the media library or upload a file from your computer.
If you add a ‘Text’ widget then you’ll see a small editor where you can type in your text.
All widgets have a ‘Title’ field where you can add text that will be displayed above the widget.
When you’re finished, click on ‘Save’ to store your changes and then select ‘Close.’ To add more widgets to the mega menu, simply follow the same process described above.
Review the Default Mega Menu Settings
Next, just click on the ‘Settings’ tab.
Here, you can use checkboxes to hide or show different content in the submenu.
You can also hide or show the submenu on mobile devices and desktop, and change the alignment so the submenu opens to the left or right of the top-level parent.
If you make any changes to the default settings, then don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes.’
Add Image Icons to the WordPress Mega Menu
Image icons help visitors understand what a menu item is about, without even having to read the navigation label. This is particularly useful for large menus where a visitor may prefer to scan the content quickly rather than reading each navigation label.
You can use icons to make the most important content stand out. For example, you might encourage visitors to complete their purchase by adding a cart icon to the ‘Checkout’ menu.
You can now choose any dashicon from the built-in library. If you upgrade to Max Mega Menu pro, then you’ll also have access to other icon fonts, Genericons and FontAwesome, or you can choose a file from your WordPress media library.
Finish Configuring the Mega Menu on Your WordPress Site
After working your way through all these settings, you can close the popup window to return to the main Appearance » Menus page.
You can now repeat this process for each top-level parent.
When you’re happy with how the mega menu is set up, click on the Save Menu button to make it live.
Now, simply visit your website to see the mega menu in action.
The rise of microservices has enabled users to create distributed applications that consist of modular services rather than a single functional unit. This modularity makes testing and deployment easier while preventing a single point of failure with the application.
While applications begin to scale and distribute their resources amongst multiple cloud-native services, tracing a single transaction becomes tedious and nearly impossible. Hence, developers need to apply distributed tracing techniques.
Gatekeeping best practices within the developer community benefits no one. If there's a better way to deploy code, we should share it. Why? Because a developer community is just that: a community. What benefits one team will help another, creating more efficient processes, reducing hassle, and elevating software quality and performance across the board. We are witnessing increased collaboration in the DevOps space, a trend we should encourage.
What Is Gatekeeping?
Senior developers have learned many lessons over the course of their careers, and many developed innovative solutions to development cycle challenges. In the past, they may not have openly shared their experience and knowledge; whether it was intentional or not, they were essentially gatekeeping their practices.
Vendor security assessments can be very complex, especially when it comes to analyzing modern solutions. Obsolete threat modeling principles and frameworks become extremely unreliable and tricky as complexity increases. Security analysis also becomes further intricate as it is not limited to the application's inherent design but also how it is integrated with any organization's core network. Implementation and configuration induces vulnerabilities in the system if security is not a part of the development lifecycle. Recent trends suggest that organizations are now moving to SASE solutions, replacing existing vendors that provide services like CASB (Cloud access security broker), DLP (Data Loss Prevention), proxy solutions, etc.
RT-Thread is an open-source embedded real-time operating system with rich middle-tier components and an excellent hardware and software ecosystem, all delivering fantastic support for the Internet of Things industry. Since its inception in 2006, RT-Thread has powered 1.5 billion devices, including Wearables, Smart Home Appliances, Automotive Electronics, Medical Electronics, Consumer Electronics, Energy, and many other industries.
On March 15, RT-Thread is partnered with NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, and WCHElectronics to bring an IoT Webinar: Power the IoT Devices. Free Register Here.
REST, or Representational State Transfer, is an architectural style for building web services that use HTTP requests to access and manipulate data. REST APIs are widely used and understood by developers, making it a popular choice for building web services. On the other hand, GraphQL is a query language for APIs that was developed by Facebook. It allows clients to specify the structure of the data that they require and receives the exact data that they request.
Let's take a closer look at some of the pros and cons of using GraphQL and REST.
Transitioning to a managerial role could be hard. One day, you are developing and reviewing code. The next day, you are handling not just individuals but a multitude of teams, evolving into a people person and leading your squad toward maximum productivity. Each engineering manager is different, and so are their roles, responsibilities, and ideas to better their teams. However, across the spectrum, here are the common challenges every engineering manager faces as they step up their software journey.
What Does an Engineering Manager Do?
Apart from what an EM’s JD says, the ultimate goal of the position is the same throughout: helping devs become masters of their work. However, as a manager, the results and work items are not as tangible as an engineer’s. An EM ideally spends time leading retros, mentoring, and managing the well-being of team members. It is not easy to create a direct commit log for managers, much like engineers. Yet, there are some common grounds for most engineering managers across three categories:
React, Angular, and Vue.js are three popular JavaScript frameworks used for building complex, single-page web applications. While they all have a common goal, they differ in various ways. In this article, we will take a closer look at the differences between React, Angular, and Vue.js.
React
React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It was created by Facebook and is maintained by Facebook and a community of developers. React is based on the idea of component-based architecture, where a web page is built as a collection of small, reusable components. React is known for its simplicity and flexibility, making it easy to learn and use.
API-First is an approach to software development that emphasizes designing and developing the API as the primary focus of development. This approach offers many benefits, including increased flexibility, reduced development time, increased reliability, and easier testing.
By developing the API first, developers can create a stable and consistent API that can be used by multiple clients and platforms.
Security in software development is a critical issue that is often addressed late in the software development process (SDLC). However, with the increasing demand for secure applications and systems, integrating security into all stages of the SDLC has become essential. This is where SecDevOps comes into play, an approach that combines DevOps culture, processes, and tools with security.
What Is SecDevOps?
SecDevOps is a collaboration between development, operations, and security teams to integrate security into all stages of the SDLC. This allows security issues to be quickly detected and fixed before software is released to the market.
One of the most frequent integration questions we hear from SaaS teams is, "Which integrations should we build first?"
This question often arises as they start with our embedded integration platform (since it substantially increases how quickly they can launch new integrations). Still, it's relevant no matter how you build integrations to the other products your customers use.
So much goes into an effective landing page. It takes practice, testing, analytics, design skills, keyword research, and so much more.
Fortunately, there are plenty of landing page creation tools that take the guesswork out of building and optimizing your landing pages. This guide covers the best ones.
Landing Page Builders
These are typically websites or web-based services that let you build a landing page by using an HTML editor or drag-and-drop functionality. Some will give you a basic editor with different landing page templates to choose from.
Unbounce
Unbounce is one of the most well-known landing page builders simply because it was one of the first web-based services that allowed people to build and test landing pages without relying on the IT department.
Here’s the pricing breakdown:
Launch—$74/month billed annually or $99 billed monthly for sites getting up to 20,000 unique monthly visitors
Optimize—$109/month billed annually or $145 billed monthly for sites getting up to 30,000 unique monthly visitors
Accelerate—$180/month billed annually or $240 billed monthly for sites getting up to 50,000 unique monthly visitors
Concierge—$469/month billed annually or $625 billed monthly for sites getting more than 100,000 monthly visitors
Additionally, you can test as many landing pages as you want, and Unbounce offers a variety of templates for web-based, email, and social media landing pages.
Instapage
Instapage is a bit different than your typical landing page builder in that it does come with a variety of templates for different uses (lead generation, click-through and “coming soon” pages), but what sets it apart is that it learns based on the visitors that come to your landing pages.
You can view real-time analytical data and easily determine the winners of your split tests, while tracking a variety of conversion types from button and link clicks, to thank you pages and shopping cart checkouts.
Instapage also integrates with a variety of marketing tools and platforms, including:
Google Analytics
Mouseflow
CrazyEgg
Mailchimp
Aweber
Constant Contact
Facebook
Google+
Twitter
Zoho
And more
A free option is available if you’d like to try it out, and a Starter package makes landing page creation and testing a bit easier on the wallet of startups and new entrepreneurs.
Real features like the aforementioned integrations start kicking in with the Professional package at $79/month, but if you’d like to get landing pages up and running quickly, it’s hard to beat the stylish templates that Instapage provides.
Launchrock
Launchrock is not so much a landing page builder as it is a social and list-building placeholder. Combining “coming soon” pages with list building capabilities, Launchrock also includes some interesting social features that encourage users to share the page with others.
For example, get X people to sign up, you’ll get Y. It also includes basic analytics and the ability to use your own domain name or a Launchrock branded subdomain (yoursite.launchrock.com). You can customize the page via the built-in HTML/CSS editor if you know how to code.
Launchrock is free and requires only an email address to get started.
Landing Page Testers/Trackers
While many landing page builders also include testing and tracking, they usually do one or the other well, but not both.
Of course, when you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to take advantage of free trials and see which service works best for your needs.
Here are a few of the most popular ones available for testing and tracking your campaigns:
Optimizely
Optimizely is often touted as a good entry-level product for when you’re just starting out and working toward upgrading to something bigger and better as your business grows.
But with prices starting at $17/month and a free 30 day trial period, it’s a powerful product in its own right.
There are some limitations with the lower level packages. For example, multivariate testing is not available at the Bronze or Silver levels. It only becomes a feature at the Gold level, which will set you back $359/month.
On the upside, Optimizely lets you conduct an unlimited number of tests and also allows for mobile testing and personalization.
Although you do get an unlimited number of experiments, you can also edit these on-the-fly, but doing so will also cause you to lose count of which version of which page you were working on.
It can also leave some things to be desired when it comes to integration with Google Analytics, for example, it’s not able to segment custom data (like PPC traffic) or advanced analytics segments.
You can also tell Optimizely what you consider as “goal” points on your website — ranging from email subscription to buying and checkout, and it will track those items independently.
Overall, it does a great job with a simple and intuitive user interface and is ideal for those just starting to optimize their landing pages.
CrazyEgg
CrazyEgg is the definitive heat map and visualization service to help you better understand how your website visitors are interacting with your landing pages.
Reports are available as “confetti” style, mouse clicks/movement tracking and scrolling heat maps.
This gives you an all in one picture to see where your visitors are engaging with your pages (and where you could improve that engagement).
An example of a CrazyEgg click heatmap. Warmer colors indicate more activity
Although CrazyEgg doesn’t consider itself a landing page testing and tracking solution, it does take you beyond the core information that Google Analytics gives you to show you actual user behavior on your landing pages.
Pricing starts at $9/month for up to 10,000 visitors with 10 active pages and daily reports available. A 30 day free trial is also available.
Hubspot
More than a tracking/testing service, Hubspot’s landing pages offer extremely customizable elements that let you tailor each page to precisely match your customers’ needs.
This lets you devise alternative segments for each “persona” you’ve created — driving engagement and conversion rates even higher.
The packages are pricey ($200/month starting out) for first-time landing page optimizers, but larger companies and organizations will see the value built in to the platform.
Beyond its smart segmenting, Hubspot also offers a drag and drop landing page builder and form builder. This is all in addition to its existing analytics, email marketing, SEO and other platforms.
Visual Website Optimizer
If you’d like a more creative, hands-on approach to your landing pages, along with fill in the blanks simplicity, Visual Website Optimizer is as good as it gets.
Where this package really shines, however, is through its multivariate testing. It also offers behavioral targeting and usability testing along with heat maps, so you can see precisely how your visitors are interacting with your landing pages, and make changes accordingly.
You can also use the built-in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor to make changes to your landing pages without any prior knowledge of HTML, CSS or other types of coding.
Results are reported in real-time and as with Hubspot, you can create landing pages for specific segments of customers.
Pricing for all of these features is in the middle of all of the contenders, with the lowest available package starting at $50/month. Still, it’s a good investment for an “all in one” service where you don’t need the advanced features or tracking that other products provide.
Ion Interactive
Ion Interactive’s landing page testing solution, could set you back several thousand per month, but it’s one of the most feature-packed options available, letting you create multi-page microsites, different touch-points of engagement, and completely scalable options with a variety of dynamic customizable options.
If you’d like to take the service for a test drive, you can have it “score” your page based on an in-house 13-point checklist. A free trial is also available, as is the opportunity to schedule a demo.
Of course, once you’ve decided on the best building, testing and tracking solution, there’s still work to be done.
Before you formally launch your new landing pages, it’s a good idea to get feedback and first impressions — not just from your marketing or design team, but from real, actual people who will be using your site for the first time.
Here are a few tools that can help you do just that.
Optimal Workshop
Optimal Workshop actually consists of three different tools. OptimalSort lets you see how users would sort your navigation and content, while Treejack lets you find areas that could lead to page abandonment when visitors can’t find what they’re looking for.
Chalkmark lets you get first impressions from users when uploading wireframes, screenshots or other “under construction” images.
Through these services, you can assign tasks to users to determine where they would go in order to complete them. You can also get basic heat maps to see how many users followed a certain route to complete the task.
You can buy any of the three services individually, or purchase the whole suite for $1,990/year. A free plan with limited functionality and number of participants is also available if you’d like to try before you buy.
Usabilla
Usabilla allows you to immediately capture user feedback on any device, including smartphones and tablets – a feature that sets it apart from most testing services.
Improvement is done via a simple feedback button which can be fully customized and encourages the customer to help you improve your site by reporting bugs, asking about features or just letting you know about the great shopping experience they had.
Usabilla also lets you conduct targeted surveys and exit surveys to determine why a customer may be leaving a page.
They also offer a service called Usabilla survey which is similar to other “first impression” design testing services and lets visitors give you feedback on everything from company names to wireframes and screenshots.
Pricing starts at $49/month and a free trial is available.
5 Second Test
Imagine you want visitors to determine the point of a certain page. What if they could only look at it for five seconds and then give you their opinion? Five second test makes this possible and it’s incredibly quick and easy to set up.
Case in point — you can try a sample test to see what a typical user would see. In my case, I was asked my first impressions of an app named “WedSpot” and what I’d expect to find by using such an app.
It’s simple questions like these that can actually give you some invaluable insights – and that for just five seconds of your users time.
It’s free to conduct and participate in user tests through Five Second test.
Other Helpful Tools
Beyond usability testing and user experience videos, there are a few other tools that your landing pages can benefit from:
Site Readability Test
Juicy Studio has released a readability test that uses three of the most common reading level algorithms to determine how easy or difficult it is to read the content on your site.
You’ll need to match the reading level with your intended audience but these tests will give you some insight on simplifying your language and making your pages more reading-accessible to everyone.
You simply type in your URL and get your results in seconds. You can also compare your results to other typical readings including Mark Twain, TV Guide, the Bible and more.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Page loading time is a huge factor in your website’s bounce rate and lack of conversions. Simply put, if your page loads too slowly, visitors won’t wait around for it to finish.
They’ll simply leave and potentially go to your competition. Using Pingdom’s website speed test, you can see how fast (or slow) your website is loading.
Beyond the speed of your website itself, the service will also calculate your heaviest scripts, CSS, images, or other files that could be slowing down your pages.
You should note that testing is conducted from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, so depending on how close or far your server is from there will also factor into the equation.
It’s free to test your site on Pingdom.
Browser Shots
Although this is the last entry in our series of helpful tools, it is by no means any less important. Testing your landing pages in a multitude of browsers on a variety of operating systems is crucial to your pages’ overall success.
Fortunately, BrowserShots.org makes this process incredibly easy. You can test your pages on all current versions of the web’s most popular browsers, as well as older versions of those browsers.
It does take time for browser screenshots to be taken and uploaded for you to see the results. You can sign up for a paid account and see them faster, but for a free tool, it’s no problem to wait a little while and see just how accessible your page is to visitors on a variety of operating systems, browsers, and browser versions.
The Top Landing Page Creation Tools in Summary
The best landing page creation tools help you with keyword research, split testing, content creation, and everything else you need to drive conversions.
Remember, landing page creation is not a one-and-done process. So make sure you assess tools that will help you optimize your landing page after you’ve created them.
We all need a little inspiration boost every now and again. Maybe your secret is to go for a walk, have a chat with a friend, or listen to your favorite playlist. Whatever it might be that refuels your creative batteries, our new collection of desktop and mobile wallpapers could help, too.
To bring you a regular dose of inspiring wallpapers, we started our monthly wallpapers series more than eleven years ago. Each month, artists and designers from across the globe contribute their designs to it, and, well, it wasn’t any different this time around.
The wallpapers in this collection all come in versions with and without a calendar for March 2023 and can be downloaded for free. As a little bonus goodie, we also compiled some March favorites from our wallpapers archives at the end of this post. Maybe you’ll spot one of your almost-forgotten favorites in there, too? A big thank-you to everyone who submitted their wallpaper designs this month — this post wouldn’t exist without you!
You can click on every image to see a larger preview,
We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
Submit a wallpaper! Did you know that you could get featured in our next wallpapers post, too? We are always looking for creative talent.
The Power of Words
“On this Day Of Poetry, we celebrate the power of words, the beauty they create. We honor the poets who have come before. Their wisdom and insight, forever in store. So let us celebrate, with a heart full of glee. This day of poetry, let our spirits be free. For in these verses, we find solace and hope. And with each word, we learn to cope.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“Spring is here and what better than seeing its arrival from one of the most impressive buildings in the world: the Taj Mahal. We sit and enjoy this marvel as the sun rises.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela Jimenez from Spain.
“Spring and hope are definitely those things that inspired our designers to create such a wallpaper. It’s pure and beautiful — just like every month and every day of spring. We have way more options in our post with March calendars.” — Designed by MasterBundles from Ukraine.
“Thinking about March, I think of water, not only because of a famous song. In France, it’s usually a rainy period, but this year there is a serious lack of rain since February. We are beginning to pray for this sky water to come.” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.
Women’s Day, the beginning of spring, or, well, pizza — a lot of things have inspired the community to design a March wallpaper in the past years. Below you’ll find some favorites from our wallpapers archives that are just too good to be forgotten. (Please note that these wallpapers don’t come with a calendar.)
Spring Is Coming
“This March, our calendar design epitomizes the heralds of spring. Soon enough, you’ll be waking up to the singing of swallows, in a room full of sunshine, filled with the empowering smell of daffodil, the first springtime flowers. Spring is the time of rebirth and new beginnings, creativity and inspiration, self-awareness, and inner reflection. Have a budding, thriving spring!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“A day, even a whole month, isn’t enough to show how much a woman should be appreciated. Dear ladies, any day or month are yours if you decide so.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.
“March the 2nd marks the birthday of the most creative and extraordinary author ever, Dr. Seuss! I have included an inspirational quote about learning to encourage everyone to continue learning new things every day.” — Designed by Safia Begum from the United Kingdom.</p
“On the 17th March, raise a glass and toast St. Patrick on St. Patrick’s Day, the Patron Saint of Ireland.” — Designed by Ever Increasing Circles from the United Kingdom.
“Spring is round the corner. And very soon plants will grow on some other planets too. Let’s be happy about a new cycle of life.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.
“After some freezing months, it’s time to enjoy the sun and flowers. It’s party time, colours are coming, so let’s spring!” — Designed by Colorsfera from Spain.
“This March, we shine the spotlight on International Women’s Day, reflecting on the achieved and highlighting the necessity for a more equal and understanding world. These turbulent times that we are in require us to stand together unitedly and IWD aims to do that.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“When I think of March, I immediately think of St. Patrick’s Day and my Irish heritage… and then my head fills with pub music! I had fun putting a twist on this month’s calendar starring my pet rabbit. Erin go Braugh.” — Designed by Heather Ozee from the United States.
“I am the kind of person who prefers the cold but I do love spring since it’s the magical time when flowers and trees come back to life and fill the landscape with beautiful colors.” — Designed by Maria Keller from Mexico.
“Rays of sunlight had cracked into the bear’s cave. He slowly opened one eye and caught a glimpse of nature in blossom. Is it spring already? Oh, but he is so sleepy. He doesn’t want to wake up, not just yet. So he continues dreaming about those sweet sluggish days while everything around him is blooming.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“For me, every book has a new world in it. Whether it is a fairytale or thriller storybook, they always take us into a new world where we can explore new things, meet new people, and witness a new story every time.” — Designed by Suman Sil from India.
“If all you want is a little orange dinosaur MARCHing (okay, I think you get the pun) across your monitor, this wallpaper was made just for you! This little guy is my design buddy at the office and sits by (and sometimes on top of) my monitor. This is what happens when you have designer’s block and a DSLR.” — Designed by Paul Bupe Jr from Statesboro, GA.
“Jīngzhé is the third of the 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian calendars. The word 驚蟄 means ‘the awakening of hibernating insects’. 驚 is ‘to start’ and 蟄 means ‘hibernating insects’. Traditional Chinese folklore says that during Jingzhe, thunderstorms will wake up the hibernating insects, which implies that the weather is getting warmer.” — Designed by Sunny Hong from Taiwan.
“Doodles are slowly becoming my trademark, so I just had to use them to express this phrase I’m fond of recently. A bit enigmatic, philosophical. Inspiring, isn’t it?” — Designed by Marta Paderewska from Poland.
