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12 Best WordPress Themes for 2021 and their awesome features

In all likelihood, you’ve already discovered the benefits of WordPress, and worked with one or more popular WordPress themes or other design aids.

Top WordPress themes typically bring both advantages and limitations to the table. As a consequence, a web designer is confronted with finding a theme that maximizes the former and minimizes the latter when addressing the task at hand.

Finding “the best WP theme” among the large number currently on the market can be a daunting task.

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend hours sifting through and evaluating a lengthy list of potential candidates. This collection of 12 top WordPress themes should make it easy to find one that will help you get your New Year off to a roaring start.

  1. Be Theme

With its 40+ core design features that includes a selection of 600+ pre-built websites, BeTheme easily qualifies as being the biggest multipurpose WordPress theme of them all. In addition, more than 200,000 sales attests to its popularity.

Every one of the core features brings something important or even necessary to the web designer. While there’s insufficient space here to cover them all, this sampling should suffice:

  • BeTheme’s Muffin Builder is a powerful page builder that when used with its other core features makes website building a quick, easy, and coding free adventure.
  • The Admin Panel and Shortcode Generator gives users all the options andflexibility needed to make it a genuine “if you can think of it you can build it” tool kit.
  • BeTheme’s 600+ customizable pre-built websites make it possible to get virtually any project off to a quick start. These professionally-crafted design aids cover 30 business sectors, a wide range of small business niches, and the major website types.

Click on the banner. There’s much more to see.

  1. Total WordPress Theme

Total was designed with perfection in mind, but the author still managed to make it a fast, friendly, and extremely flexible WordPress theme.

  • Total’s multiplicity of useful features won’t slow you down. You can disable any feature you won’t be working with.
  • Total’s Dynamic Template Function gives you the flexibility to customize a layout exactly the way you want to
  • The Theme Customizer allows you to change fonts, colors, column widths, or section widths as the need arises
  • Total features the WPBakery page builder, a host of pre-made demos and page-building modules.
  • Total is WooCommerce and WordPress plugin friendly.
  • To learn more about this drag and drop website-building theme simply click on the banner.
  1. Avada Theme

Avada stands out for a number of reasons, one being sales. This WordPress theme is the all-time best selling theme on the market. It’s trusted by more than 450,000 users, which says a lot.

That alone might be enough to convince you it would be “the best” theme for you, but let’s dig a little deeper.

  • Avada’s portable one-click demos, pre-built websites, and design elements give web designers plenty to work with
  • The drag and drop Fusion Builder, and the Fusion Theme Options and Fusion Page Options enable users to build complex sites without coding
  • Free lifetime updates ensure Avada is going to continue to improve, and 5-star support is there should you ever need it.

Avada lets you design what you want and in the way you want it. Click on the banner to find out more about this best-selling theme.

  1. Rey Theme

Lightweight, highly modular, WooCommerce and Elementor integrations, and stunning design elements all contribute to make Rey one of the most innovative WordPress themes on the market.

Rey features:

  • A selection of specialized WooCommerce tools
  • A library of professionally-designed templates
  • Easy set up and powerful performance
  • Built-in SVG support

Rey is SEO friendly, and developer friendly as well.

  1. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

TheGem is the best-selling theme on ThemeForest, which isn’t surprising since its multiplicity of features has led to it’s being called the Swiss Army knife of WordPress themes.

  • TheGem WP theme includes more than 400 premium pre-built multi-page and onepage websites and templates with flexible customization options
  • Available for Elementor and WPBakery page builders
  • With extended WooCommerce tools & features for best online shopping
  • A large selection of TheGem blocks (pre-designed web-page sections) is also included in the package

TheGem is 5-star rated and is trusted by more than 50,000 customers.

  1. Uncode – Creative Multiuse & WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Uncode is a pixel-perfect multi-use popular theme that is ideal for artists and other creative types, agencies, and businesses.

  • Uncode is a ThemeForest best seller with 80.000+ sales to date
  • Uncode features a unique WooCommerce Custom Builder that gives site users supreme shopping experiences
  • This theme’s showcase of user-built websites is a “must see”. Click on the banner, visit the site, and be prepared to be impressed.
  1. Kalium – Professional theme for multiple uses

This top selling, highly rated premium theme is suitable for beginners as well a more advanced WordPress users.

  • Kalium features a large selection of professionally-designed demos and design elements that can easily be imported and put to immediate use
  • All of the popular WordPress plugins are supported. Slider Revolution, WPBakery, Elementor, WooCommerce and other plugins are included in the price.

Kalium is responsive, SEO friendly, and GDPR compliant.

  1. KnowAll – Knowledge Base Theme

If you’re spending an excessive amount of time answering repetitive questions and customers find your site’s FAQ page a source of irritation rather than an aide, it might be the time to invest in KnowAll.

KnowAll:

  • Provides instant answers to customers 24/7.
  • Provides detailed answers including related content suggestions
  • Helps customers formulate questions with its search capability

Customers will love what KnowAll does and your business will profit from it.

  1. Pofo – Creative Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

Pofo is ideal for use by creative types and agencies, and for creating portfolio, blogging, and eCommerce sites.

  • Pofo is extremely flexible, blazing fast, and SEO optimized
  • WPBakery and Revolution Slider plugins are included together with more than 150 pre-built elements and a large selection of home and demo pages
  • Detailed documentation is available online

Users can expect exceptional support.

  1. Hongo – Modern & Multipurpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

This modern multipurpose theme with its trendy demos, templates, and creative design elements is a good choice for company websites, eCommerce store owners, and bloggers.

  • Hongo’s out of the box features include premium plugins and WPBakery custom shortcodes
  • Product page tools include quick view, compare, wish lists, filters, catalog mode, and more

Hongo is well documented and offers first-class customer and user support.

  1. XStore – The Most Complete & Customizable WooCommerce Theme

The XStore theme is focused on those things related to WooCommerce. As such, it is to be recommended if your next project is going to be an online store.

  • A key feature is its selection of 100+ go-to-go shops
  • The package also includes a built-in WooCommerce Email Builder, a Full Ajax Shop, a Single Product page builder, and $500+ worth of premium plugins

Developed by an 8Theme Elite Power Author, XStore has more than 20,000+ sales.

  1. Typer – Amazing Theme with Multi Author Publishing Features

Typer can transform your blog website into high-powered multi-author platform. Front-end publishing, article bookmarks, and searches and recommendations for like articles are among Typer’s many features.

  • Typer is Elementor and Gutenberg compatible
  • Beautiful user profiles and multiple article layouts will dress up your site
  • Features include an activity feed and weekly digest

Typer was developed by and Elite Author and enjoys a 5-star user rating.

*****

Any selection from a above listing of great WordPress themes should put you in a good place for the website design challenges you may encounter going into the New Year.

Since each of these top WordPress themes features the latest website and website design trends, there’s at least one here for you, whether your project is for your personal use or for a corporate entity.

We hope you enjoy your shopping experience.

Read More at 12 Best WordPress Themes for 2021 and their awesome features

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7 Reasons to Use Illustrations on Your Website – And Examples of How to Do It

If you are encountering problems finding photos for your website, there’s a simple solution you might consider. Use illustrations. The examples in this post will show you various ways to go about doing so

Sound reasonable? If you believe that to be true, when you start building your next website you’re going to have to ask yourself this:  

What kind of visual style do you want to use? 

You don’t have to reject photographs out of hand. That’s not the point. Other options are readily available should you want or need to take advantage of them.

You might choose to take a more abstract, creative, and illustrative approach. That’s one of the approaches we’ve taken when creating our huge selection of pre-built websites for BeTheme; a selection you’ll find to be both informative and inspirational.

Today, we’re going to present a selection of them along with a number of great websites that have creatively used illustrations as we explore seven good reasons to use illustrations to spice up your websites.

  1. When a photograph is unable to fully capture a complicated subject

You may have already discovered that for some brandsit can be terribly difficult if not impossible to find a photo that fully conveys a message as to what that brand is all about or what it does.Taking a photo of you at your keyboard doesn’t necessarily convey the fact that you are a great copywriter (or even a decent typist).

The BeCopywriter 2 pre-built site shows why an illustrative style can be a much better way to tell your story: 

The design is definitely worth a second look while the text conveys a simple, yet powerful, message.

How about looking for a photo that accurately describes what a recycling services company does? Not an easy task.

Check out WeRecycle: 

Clean air, clean water, clean neighborhoods thanks to everyone’s use of blue recycle bags or bins. This image gives a website visitor important insight as to what the company does. 

  1. When a brand has a unique look that requires a similarly unique website design approach

When discussing brands, you’re essentially talking about styles and personalities. One of the challenges owners of a given brand often have lies in finding out how to differentiate it from a competing brand that features a similar style.

A brand with a far-out style can be easier to work with, especially for a web designer who enjoys taking on far out design approach. One such a design approach is one that cleverly blends photographs with images, which is how BeTheme’s BeFoodTruck pre-built site handles it: 

As you might expect, the illustrations used are a unique choice for this type of industry, yet a food industry websitewould have a difficult time engaging customers without real photos of food.

Handwrytten uses a similar balance between real photos and attention-getting illustrations:

Here, the use of animated illustrations gives the homepage an added twist. It is a good example of a unique concept with a website to match.

  1. When a company wants to stand out by breaking with tradition; in this case, photo-strewn sites

Businesses in a given industry can be expected to have websites that are similar in style to other businesses in that industry. A business selling in-person experiences such as travel and hospitality businesses, rely heavily on photos to get their messages across.

This is to be expected. If you want your website to stand out among the lookalikes in a given industry, the use of illustrations is a good way to do it.

BeJourney 2 is a case in point: 

This site isn’tcompletely devoid of photos. There are just enough to tell a story that helps to get the message across.

The Bateau Mon Paris boat rental company’s site takes a comparable approach:

You can plainly see why this website’s main use of illustrations with its peekaboo photo caneasily engage its visitors.

  1. When a new company wants to leverage the style of a brand that consumers already trust

This approach can be somewhat challenging but can also be very effective. If you have a brand-new company your objective would be to create a website style that reminds visitors of a popular established brand.

This approach can help to erase any doubts a visitor may have as to whether your product or service is really up to the task. Stripe’s website style became a standard that many other software companies entering the same space have sought to emulate:

It’s not hard to see why this illustrative style, with its ingenious use of gradients has been copied for years.

Our BePay 2 site also emulates the trust-building Stripe style; with a unique spin.

The blue color is symbolic of trust and stability, and the site design makes a good use of illustrations and mobile application images.

  1. When a creator has an interesting story and work worth sharing

Showing photos of themselves or their teams is a practice some web developers and design agencies use to give their sites a personal touch.  While it can be nice to see who you might be working with, it’s even nicer to see what they are capable of doing for you.

Illustrations tend to be much better at showing what a business can do for its clientsand do so in a more exciting way that a photo can do.

The BeBand 5 pre-built siteuses illustrations and animations to give its site a 1980slook: 

Photos can’t always convey the style of music the band plays. Illustrations on the other hand, can make it relatively easy to do.

Artist Polly Kole took this unique approach to building their illustrative website:

Besides exhibiting a dramatic look, the site is also interactive. It gives the viewer a sense of actually being there and able to examine works of art up close and personal.

  1. When a company is selling a smart app or tool

What a smart app does can’t always be captured in a photo. The experience inside the smart app, tool, or resource is what counts.

This experience typically involves a solution to a problem which can in turn require managing a good amount of data. This is where illustrations tend to shine.

BeApp 6 cleverly uses data visualizations to get its point across:

Swiggy Labs builds products that solve big problems for consumers. Its site uses illustrations rather than a series of screenshots to show how these problems are solved: 

Drag the “Swiggy It” toggle to the right and you’re sure to agree that this is much more than photos or screenshots.

  1. When a brand’s target audience is children or, in many cases, their parents

Employing an illustrative style is a no-brainer since that children love cartoons and games (parents do too for that matter).

Add the fact that illustrations can be used to simplify an otherwise complex subject, like learning a language, and it’s not hard to see why their use can be so effective.

BeLanguage 3 is a language learning website:

You don’t need to understand Italian or Japanese to understand what this site is all about.

See Make Play is another site that effectively uses illustrations to strengthen its sales pitch is

The illustrations on this section of the home page are static images, but animated graphics elsewhere on the page combine to give the site a youthful quality and a lighthearted touch.

Will you use illustrations to style your website?

If you’re finding it’s a real challenge to use photos to tell your brand’s story and are open to considering a little less conventional design style, illustrations might be the right fit.

As you can see in the websites from BeTheme and the other examples given, illustrated websites are relatively common. Still, when you come across one, it tends to have a unique look that can draw you in. 

If you want to make your website really cause a stir and even bring smiles to people’s faces, try experimenting with an illustrated website style.

Admit it. You love cartoons as much as the next person.

Read More at 7 Reasons to Use Illustrations on Your Website – And Examples of How to Do It

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10+ Examples of Responsive Websites That Nailed It

You would naturally like to see that your website will look good on every browser and device. Especially so if it’s an eCommerce website.

The following responsive web design examples are designed to provide you with information you can use to accomplish just that.

There’s more than just a few specifications and requirements to be attended to in today’s competitive climate; particularly in the area of responsive website design.

Meeting each requirement and checking everything twice to make sure you’ve left nothing out can be a daunting task.

It’s important however to make every effort to do so. According to data from StatCounter, mobile usage now accounts for more than half of all website traffic.

Yes, you can still focus primarily on desktop design, but don’t expect to get anywhere near the traffic responsive design allows you to experience.

Thankfully, a top-of-the-line WordPress theme like BeTheme makes it almost ridiculously easy to meet the myriad of technical requirements and specifications you might otherwise tend to consider to be somewhat of a bother.

You’d make Google happy too. Responsive, mobile-friendly websites have a habit of getting the high search rankings website owners covet.

Responsive web design is imperative.

Applying mobile design rules and specs doesn’t mean totally ignoring desktop usage.   Go about it right and you can enjoy the best of both worlds – as you will see in the examples presented here.

Let’s take a closer look at how to go about making good things happen.

Responsive web designs that encourage leaner desktop experiences

There are some that think that good design means making use of every pixel. Quite the opposite is true when you are designing for both desktop and mobile. The more informational content you try to cram onto a desktop page, the harder it will be to meaningfully display that page on a mobile device.

Rather than worry about “wasted” pixels, designers will benefit from creating simpler and more efficient experiences, as is the case with designer/developer Rob Grabowski’s site.

It looks like this on a mobile screen:

And like this on a desktop.

The lesson: consistency in design promotes seamless transition when viewing on one device, and then on another.

Mobile web designs that improve the decision-making process

Online users are occasionally (perhaps quite often) susceptible to experiencing information overload. A website page featuring an overabundance of information can actually make it more difficult for a visitor to find what he or she is looking for.

Good responsive design practices significantly mitigate information overload problems. As the screen size shrinks, it becomes easier and easier to find what you’re looking for.

BeRepair, one of BeTheme’s 500+ pre-built sites, provides an excellent demonstration of this.

Note how a responsive layout makes it much easier for a visitor to avoid distractions and focus on information of particular interest.

This design concept works with the BeRestaurant pre-built desktop site as well:

This desktop version is obviously an appealing design for a restaurant’s website.

What’s missing in the mobile version? Very little, if anything.

Granted, the menu on the right appears to be “missing”, but rather than trying to cram it into the mobile display it has simply been tucked into the top-right hamburger menu icon, from where a visitor can scan it without any distractions.

Responsive designs that eliminate the excess

Think about the kinds of paintings you’ve probably encountered in a museum or an art gallery:

  • The landscape paintings often feature a central focus surrounded by beautiful details that enhance rather than detract from it.
  • Portraits on the other hand typically have a singular focus; sometimes surrounded by intimate or relevant details.

Think of a desktop display as being akin a landscape and a mobile display as more like a portrait. To make the transition from desktop to mobile it’s usually necessary to maintain the central focus while trimming away many of the beautiful surroundings.

Which is what  BeITService does.

First, the desktop display:

Next, how the page is displayed on mobile:

Although the original image is not replicated in full, nothing of real significance has been lost. The message being conveyed is front and center and unaltered.

Culturally Connected takes a somewhat similar approach:

Like in a landscape painting, the central focus (the message) is surrounded by a beautiful background graphic.

On the corresponding mobile display, you get this:

The portion of the graphic that has been retained is moved to the bottom, where it nicely complements and underpins the main message.

BeTutor is another useful example. Its desktop version looks like this:

Center the graphic below the main message, and you get the mobile view.

The mobile view remains uncluttered and the primary subject matter has been retained.

Responsive websites that leverage their space

Although reducing desktop display content is often required when designing for the small screen, using different ratios to leverage the available space can be a good option.

1987 Masters provides a good example of this leveraging approach.

With a bit of astute leveraging, content has actually been added in the mobile version to provide the visitor with an option to learn even more about what the company has to offer.

As you can see, a mobile design doesn’t have to show the same or less content to work well.

Designers have the option to use this greater ratio of vertical space to their advantage; like in this example of BeCosmetics.

The desktop view:

The mobile, having more vertical space, allows the designer to show the button inviting the user to explore further, together with some added introductory content.

As you can see, less space doesn’t always mean the mobile user has to be satisfied with less meaningful content.

Responsive websites can also exhibit enhanced readability

When laying out a desktop website design you sometimes have to be careful about how much information you intent to show a visitor at one time. Putting too many words on a line or cramping letters together can make your message less readable and therefore easier for a reader to simply skip over.

Clear, easily readable text balanced by supporting visual elements should be the goal, a good example being the BeDanceSchool site:

This is a good desktop layout. The eye-catching images nicely support the text, but there’s simply too much information for a mobile display to handle without having a negative impact on readability.

This is how the message can be effectively presented on mobile:

The pared-back mobile design is just as readable and equally engaging. Proper uses of font styles and sizes are important as well; as Base Coat demonstrates:

You do have to be careful about using the added vertical spacing for your text. On mobile its important that the visitor can see where it ends without having to scroll down.

Mobile site examples in which the visual content is spotlighted

The effectiveness of storytelling is well known, and visual storytelling elements can be made to fit hand in glove on mobile.

Visitors see this BeBand website on the desktop:

While on a mobile display they see this:

Everything is there; just nicely rearranged.

Videos also work well on mobile. First-time visitors to The Scott Resort are invited to watch a video.

The type of device the visitor is on doesn’t matter since the video will automatically conform to the width of the screen.

Here is what it looks like on a desktop:

And here is how the same video appears on mobile:

With a mobile responsive design it can be easy to let your content adapt to a device in a way that allows users to have the experience you want them to have.

Examples of mobile responsive sites that have been designed to collect more leads

Try as you might, no matter how much traffic comes from your responsive mobile device designs, desktop displays still account for the majority of user conversions.

Don’t lose heart. That will change, and there’s nothing to keep you from creating responsive designs that will capture leads and improve conversion rates.

Check out this pre-built site for BeClub:

The “Newsletter” signup section is attractively highlighted and practically begs visitors to sign up.

You’ll naturally want to get the same visitor response on mobile. As the following example illustrates, that will not be a problem:

If anything, the mobile version might be more effective than the desktop. Making it easy for a visitor to get on your email list is a good way to increase conversion rates from users who prefer to work with mobile devices.

Responsive web designs that can make winning a habit

What do WordPress users look for in a theme that can help them design their website? They look for:

  • A flat or shallow learning curve and ease of use
  • Cost effectivness
  • Features that adequately address their needs
  • Flexibility and customizability
  • Overall design quality

Not every WordPress theme has each of these qualities, nor does every theme adequately address website responsiveness. Some are great for desktop users but fall flat with respect to providing mobile users with a satisfying experience.

BeTheme is different. Every one of its 500+ pre-built sites has mobile responsiveness baked in.

BeTheme has all the other design and performance features WordPress users look for, so when you use it you won’t be wasting time worrying about how to make your website emulate the responsive designs we’ve featured here.

You can let BeTheme do much of the heavy lifting and devote your time to getting your new website up and running and in front of those eager to see what you have to offer.

Read More at 10+ Examples of Responsive Websites That Nailed It

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Great WP Multipurpose Themes that designers and design teams should start using

One could easily put together a list of good reasons for choosing a multipurpose WordPress theme. Reasons that apply to web designers and website owners alike.

The approach we’ve taken is to present you with this list of 8 top-tier multipurpose themes. We give you the opportunity to let any one of them speak for itself. These themes are well-established best-sellers with each one. Also having its unique base of highly satisfied customers.

Browse the list, check into one or more of these themes and you’ll quickly discover the theme in question can not only do a wide variety of things, but do them exceptionally well.

The adage “Jack of all trades, master of none” does not apply.

Quite the opposite. Any of these themes is more than capable of taking your business or web design proficiency to the next level.

  1. BeTheme – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme

The list of BeTheme’s core features is long. There are 40+ of them in fact. Individually and in combination they enable first time users to not only get a project off to a quick start, but to successfully complete it in a relatively short time.

BeTheme will also prove to be a blessing for the website builder who dreads starting from scratch or is simply in need of a helping hand or a little inspiration to get started.

A BeTheme highlight is its selection of 500+ professionally-designed pre-built websites.

  • They cover 30+ industry sectors, all website types, and a wide range of small business niches and creative endeavors
  • They are responsive, highly-customizable, and have built-in UX functionality

These core features give users virtually limitless design flexibility; while eliminating any need for coding.

They include:

  • The Muffin Builder editor/page builder, Options Panel, and Shortcode Generator
  • Layout Generator plus a variety of grid, header, and footer options
  • Portfolio and Blog page layout options
  • A host of other design aids

Click on the banner to learn more.

  1. Total WordPress Theme

Powerful, versatile, and flexible are three must-have multipurpose theme characteristics. Add ease of use and responsiveness and you’ve struck gold as not too many themes can claim to satisfy all 5 attributes. Total does, and with respect to ease of use, it does so with a vengeance.

  • Users can edit from the frontend and the backend
  • Total’s building block approach featuring 80+ builder modules makes website design especially easy
  • Building blocks supporting Revolution Slider, LayerSlider, Templatera, and WooCommerce are included
  • The package also features 40+ pre-made demos and more than 500 styling options
  • You’ll find unlimited colors, header styles, a mega menu, and custom fonts and icons as well
  • Total is 100% developer friendly thanks to selections of custom hooks, filters, and snippets

Click on the banner to learn more about Total.

  1. Avada Theme

Avada is the #1 selling theme of all time. It’s super-fast and fully responsive and the intuitive front-end editing makes it ever so easy to use. Avada’s superb selections of pre-built websites, design elements, demos, and partial demos gives you the flexibility to build anything you want.

  • Fusion Code, the “heart” of this theme, gives you access to the tools that enable you to take full advantage of Avada’s flexibility and capabilities.
  • Avada’s Theme Options allows you to build even the most complex websites without coding.
  • To get a project off to a fast start simply pick a demo, import it, and customize it to your needs and specifications.
  • Custom settings put you in the driver’s seat by giving you full control over every page in your website.

There’s much more of course. Click on the banner to explore Adava’s many features.

  1. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme

If you’re a creative type this multipurpose theme is certainly worth a good, hard look. Uncode’s pixel-perfect concepts and easy front end editing are key selling points along with other features that are too many to list here.

The best way to see what Uncode is capable of is to click on the banner, visit the site, and browse Uncode’s impressive and inspiring showcase of user-built website.

  1. Kalium

Kalium is another all-time best-seller. This creative multiuse theme is especially well suited for portfolios.

  • Kalium’s full eCommerce support also makes it an ideal theme for online shopping experiences.
  • Kalium is responsive and GDPR compliant.
  • All the better-known WordPress plugins are supported and some of the most popular plugins like Elementor, WooCommerce, and WPBakery Page Builder are included.

Click to learn more about what Kalium’s 30,000 clients like about this theme.

  1. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

Aptly called the Swiss Army Knife of website-building tools, TheGem is a beautiful and customizable WordPress theme with 400+ pre-built websites that is chock-full of design tools, elements, and aids.

  • Unique feature TheGem Blocks contains more than 300 pre-designed section templates to speed up your workflow
  • Multi-purpose WooCommerce templates are included for creating online shops
  • The WPBakery page builder allows easy and intuitive front-page editing
  • A 45,000 strong customer base attests to TheGem’s excellent performance and five-star support.

Click to learn more.

  1. Movedo Premium WordPress Theme

Movedo is responsive, extremely flexible, and easy to use; three good reasons for choosing this multipurpose WordPress theme.

A fourth good reason is one that’s hard to resist – especially if you’re occasionally tempted to stray outside the envelope when designing a website.

Movedo-built websites capture and engage visitors using movement, created with:

  • Dynamic scrolling
  • Unique animations
  • Ultra-dynamic parallax effects

Movedo rocks! Your websites can also. Click on the banner to learn more.

  1. Hongo – Modern & Multipurpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Hongo is a modern, multipurpose eCommerce oriented theme. This highly flexible and customizable theme is also well suited for creating company websites and blogs.

Out-of-the-box eCommerce features include:

  • Product search, compare, quick view, and videos
  • Wishlist and catalog mode
  • Filters for product categories, pricing, and other attributes

The package includes 11 ready store demos together with a host of creative design elements and templates. Hongo is well documented and offers top-notch support.

Click to learn more.

***** 

Multipurpose themes are designed to enable you to create any type of website you have in mind.

Not all multipurpose themes can deliver on that promise however. That is why you should search extra hard for a theme that is guaranteed to deliver.

To make your search easier, we compiled this list of top-tier multipurpose WordPress themes; themes that will never let you down.

Read More at Great WP Multipurpose Themes that designers and design teams should start using

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Awesome Tools and Services that You Should Check Out

There certainly isn’t a lack of tools and services you could put to use to improve your website design, beef up your business, increase your productivity, or save time and money.

There are so many in fact, that finding something that will satisfy your most urgent and essential needs can sometimes be a seemingly insurmountable problem. Many of the tools or services you use today may have served you well, but in today’s hyper-competitive world there’s no guarantee they’ll continue to do so.

If you are to remain competitive, you have to keep up with the latest design trends. That may require switching over to new or more powerful tools and value-added services that will make it possible for you to do so.

We have assembled this list of top tools and services for 2020 to help you stay on top of your game and increase your productivity.

Happy hunting!

  1. UXPin

UXPin is a state-of-the-art prototyping and collaborative tool for UX and UI design teams. It has two versions available, a browser-based version and a desktop app. UXPin also provides features powerful and efficient real-time collaboration functionalities that allow teams to work in real time and in context from anywhere.

It allows you to preview designs, leave and get contextual feedback through comments, and provide prototyping and test and analysis results for team leader or stakeholder information and approvals.

Working in UXPin is similar to sharing data in Google Docs, except UXPin is obviously a great deal more powerful because of its multiplicity of prototyping and collaborative features that include:

  • Fully interactive text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and other form elements
  • Design components that can be used and reused to avoid repetitive prototype-building tasks.
  • iOS, Material Design, and Bootstrap design element libraries
  • Vector drawing tools that allow users to create anything from imaginative icons to stunning illustrations.
  • Web page and web page content importing that assist in getting prototyping off to a flying start.

Click on the banner to find out more.

  1. BeTheme

BeTheme is one of the safest choices you could ever make; not only because it’s the biggest WordPress theme of them all, and there are times when size really does matter, but because the 40+ core features it places at your disposal.

BeTheme is fast and super-flexible. It’s an ideal choice for both beginners and advanced website designers. You can create an award-winning website on your first try if you’re a novice or use it to completely satisfy the demands of multiple clients if you’ve been around the block a few times.

  • The highlight is Be’s 500+ pre-built websites. They are professionally crafted, responsive, and customizable with built-in UX features, and they address 30 industry sectors and every major website type.
  • The Muffin Builder 3 page builder is another highlight, and together with Be’s powerful Admin Panel gives you all the flexibility you need.

Click on the banner to check out the remaining core features.

  1. Mobirise Website Builder

Its users will be the first to tell you that there’s an awful lot to love about Mobirise. Not only is Mobirise an offline tool, it’s arguably the #1 offline builder on the market today. Since everything is offline:

  • You can download Mobirise and start building an awesome website right away.
  • No coding is required. Everything you need comes with the package.
  • Thanks to Bootstrap 4 and Google AMP your site will be 100% mobile friendly and lightning-fast to boot. Mobirise is Google-friendly as well.
  • Design aids include 2,500+ website blocks, 75+ HTMS themes, and 200+ home page templates.
  • Other goodies include Google Maps, data and pricing tables, counters and countdowns and more, an everything is customizable.

Mobirise is free for both commercial and personal uses with no strings attached.

  1. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme

Uncode is a creative top-seller multiuse theme for freelancers, agencies, bloggers, and just about anyone having an itch to get creative.

  • Design in real-time with a frontend editor on steroids
  • 70 inspirational pixel-perfect concepts to get your project underway
  • WooCommerce and WPML compatibility

The highlight is Uncode’s must-see showcase of user-built website that tells you at a glance what this creative theme could do for you.

Click on the banner and browse the showcase to learn more.

  1. LayerSlider

LayerSlider makes it possible for millions of website owners to create unique sliders and special effects for their sites. It’s a full-fledged animation builder rather than a just slider tool with features like:

  • Drag and drop visual builder without any need for coding experience.
  • A Popup feature to display important messages such as store offers, newsletter subscriptions or adverts.
  • Animated page blocks, which you can even build a complete website with.

Plus, LayerSlider is SEO friendly, and its dedicated support team stands ready to help you if and when needed.

  1. Dr. Link Check

Dr. Link Check tracks down broken and malicious website links.

  • This useful tool crawls through your site’s entire code and thoroughly examines each link for URL formatting, blacklisted links, server response time, and more.
  • You can check the results to identify necessary changes to your website.
  • You can also schedule automatic checks on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis, and be notified about problems via email.
  1. 8b Website Builder

8b is a new website builder with a futuristic, super-simple interface. 8b is also free and yours to download and host anywhere you like.

  • You can build a website on your desktop, on a mobile device, or both
  • Google AMP guarantees your site will be crazy-fast and 100% mobile friendly
  • 250+ website sections, and 16 starter templates give you a quick start capability

There’s more; but be sure to take advantage of the free download offer. It might not last.

  1. Stockfresh

Three things to look for in a stock photo service are inventory size, product quality, and friendly service. Stockfresh excels in all three areas.

  • Stockfresh offers millions of photos and vectors
  • The offerings are top quality, plus the pricing is competitive.
  • You can expect friendly service and the inventory is skillfully categorized to make your search as easy as possible.

In the not-to-distant future templates, fonts, themes, and other goodies will be added to the inventory.

  1. XStore | Multi-Purpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

This “King-Size” WooCommerce theme has more than you’ll ever need to create an online store, or quite a number of them for that matter.

  • For starters, there are 90+ good-to-go stores you can customize to get exactly what you want.
  • XStores’s single product page builder should more than come in handy.
  • There’s a page importer for the WPBakery page builder.
  • The package also includes live themes, 200+ PSDs and $300+ worth of premium plugins
  • Powerful header builder
  1. Slider Revolution

Version 6.0 of Slider Revolution is more than a slider builder. It’s a new way to create rich, dynamic website content.

  • With its visual editor, you can create Sliders, headers, content modules, and even complete websites.
  • There are 200+ beautiful and ready-to-go templates to work with.
  • A library of 20+ powerful addons is included
  • A library of 200+ design elements is also included

Slider Revolution has 7 million+ users around the globe.

  1. Movedo Theme

Movedo rocks!  Movedo, with its clean and modern design is a joy to work with, and the websites you can create with this top-rated WordPress theme can be a joy to behold. Created by a top-rated author who wasn’t shy about straying outside the box, this theme offers among other features:

  • Out-of-this world parallax effects
  • Special animations
  • Mouse, scrolling, and column movement
  • A knowledge base featuring a quick search option

Click on the banner and see for yourself.

  1. WHATFONTIS

WhatFontis.com is the #1 font identification service designers can look to for a quick response to their font identification needs.

  • Download a sample (letters or a line of text) of the font in question
  • Expect an answer in less than a minute
  • Obtain a close match if the font cannot be located
  • Be presented with alternatives if the cost of the font is an issue

Simple, powerful, and worth checking out.

  1. Goodiewebsite

Goodiewebsite is a WordPress frontend development platform that connects you directly with a web developer who is also an employee of a software house that was established in 2005.

Goodiewebsite is ideal for:

  • Small business owners looking to amplify their online presence
  • Designers looking for a reliable web development partner
  • Startups looking to test their business ideas and concepts

Goodiewebsite specializes in smaller WordPress websites and simple WooCommerce websites.

  1. Heroic KB – Knowledge Base Plugin

The ability to offer a speedy and informative response to a question is something every customer service operation should strive for. A FAQ page is one approach, but not always a very good one. Put the Heroic Knowledge Base plugin to work and you can:

  • Give your customers knowledgeable answers to their questions
  • Provide rapid responses 24/7
  • Help customers find related or supporting information

In addition, you will profit from Heroic KB’s feedback and analyses.

  1. Rank Math

Rank Math is the Swiss Army Knife of WordPress SEO tools and the only SEO plugin you need for WordPress. This plugin’s clean and simple UI makes it easy to work with in spite of the many features that can be used to make a site search engine friendly, including:

  • Elementor, Automated Image, and Local SEO tools and analysis
  • WooCommerce SEO
  • Sitemap and Redirections checking
  • 404 Monitoring

You can check the plugin for yourself and see what it is all about.

*****

There’s a whole host of tools and services available that not only help to keep costs down, but also save you time and help your business operate smoothly. The more useful these tools are, the more time you have to focus on your key priorities

The basis for choosing the above top 15 tools and services is that individually or collectively they can help you work faster, more efficiently, and even more intelligently.

Read More at Awesome Tools and Services that You Should Check Out

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8 Super Useful WordPress Plugins for Your Website

Although WordPress has become the most popular website-building platform thanks to its vast array of tools and features, it doesn’t cover all the bases. That’s even the case when designers choose a WordPress theme to help the process along.

Whether it’s a multipurpose theme or a specialty theme there’s often something missing. It prevents the designer from incorporating a key element into a website – like a review section, a powerful SEO capability, or a knowledge base to cite 3 examples.

  • The designer could resort to coding.
  • Or ask a developer to add the element
  • Or do nothing
  • Or search for a good tool to get the job done; like one of the plugins described in this article.

Here are 8 of the top plugins on the market as we 2020. Hopefully you can use at least one of them to solve a major problem.

One thing more. These 8 plugins are free to try or use.

  1. Brizy Website Builder for WordPress

Most WP plugins are designed to perform a certain specialized task in mind and to do that task well. The Brizy WP plugin is designed to perform a number of tasks, chief among them the its capability to help you build an entire website – and do it well.

  • This top 2020 plugin is easy to learn and not at all intimidating to work with.
  • Brizy is a drag and drop builder. You do not need any coding skills to use it.
  • You’ll have instant access to a wealth of documentation to help you along should you have a need for it; including tutorial videos.
  • With 500+ design blocks to work with right out of the box plus 150 layouts, 40 popups, and a popup generator, you can structure and build a page in mere minutes
  • And, to top it off – Brizy is free.

Checkout Brizy’s website for the full description of the available features, download it, and get started today.

  1. Amelia WordPress Booking Plugin

Many plugins are designed to add an important feature to a website, and by extension, enable the website to play a greater role in a business’s success. Amelia directs its focus more on the business itself by enabling the owner of certain businesses to automate a key operation

These businesses include health and fitness centers, trip planners, beauty parlors, and others that devote a great deal of time and effort managing events, appointments, and bookings.

What Amelia will do for you is this:

  • It will allow your customers to book appointments online 24/7 and cancel or change them if need be.
  • It will match appointments to customer preferences and employee’s availability
  • It will manage bookings and appointments from a central location and save you a ton of time and money in the process.

If the need for increased productivity is there, Amelia is worth a good, close look.

  1. Logic Hop – Content Personalization for WordPress

Content personalization is old news. Surely by now you know that personalized websites perform over 200% better than static sites. You’ve seen it on Amazon and countless other high-end sites. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed to have inspired you to fill out a form, be more engaged in content, and even make a purchase online. So knowing all that, you’re personalizing your site… Right?

Enter Logic Hop – The affordable, easy-to-use content personalization plugin for WordPress. That’s right, now you can have the personalization power those high-end sites have on YOUR site. With over 50 points of data, including geolocation, Logic Hop makes it easy to add powerful personalizations that will generate more signups, lower bounce rates, and make more sales. That’s why Logic Hop is one of our picks for the best plugins of 2020. What are you waiting for?

  1. wpDataTables

If you have the right tool, creating a table or chart from a single source of data may not be too difficult, but when you’re confronted with thousands of rows of data from several sources the task can be a nightmare.

wpDataTables will do with the same ease the heavy lifting for you, as well as easy tasks. It will organize data to produce colorful, informative, responsive, editable tables and charts in minutes. Additionally, you can allow users to edit their own data on the front-end.

  1. StarCat Reviews

A 5-Star Rating feature helps you better signify the quality of products or services offered. StarCat Reviews is an advanced WordPress Review plugin you can use to include review and/or rating systems in your pages and posts.

StarCat Reviews also allows you to make good use of multiple criteria and display overall scores in Google search pages. StarCat Reviews also includes premium add-ons for post type, voting, and photo reviews along with comparison tables to help you create a comprehensive review website.

  1. WordPress Review

If you have a service to provide or products to review, adding a helpful and informative review section to your website could give a significant boost to your business. Customers like this feature and the feedback they provide will benefit you as well.

WP Review provides several different rating criteria types, product comparisons, integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, and can be used with any WordPress theme.

  1. Heroic KB – Knowledge Base Plugin

The Heroic KB plugin with its live search, actionable user analysis, and article feedback capabilities will enable you to give your website users quick, informative answers to their questions and other information of interest to them as well.

This is the most popular WordPress plugin of its type. It integrates easily with any WP theme you may happen to be using, plus you can expect excellent 24/7 support.

  1. Rank Math SEO

Rank Math SEO is a powerhouse that will take your SEO design skills to the next level. Also providing you with a highly effective way to generate additional traffic to your website.

Rank Math will automatically add the metadata search engines look for to your site, assess 40 site SEO factors and provide you with actionable feedback. Plus, you’ll enjoy working with Rank Math’s clean and simple UI.

*****  

            Any of the above premium plugins could provide a feature or capability to a website that would effectively put it on steroids.  Few if any WP themes provide all the features and functionalities you’re likely to need in the long run. That can also include some specialty themes.

Most themes do not include review capabilities, knowledge base functionality, or content personalization features that enable you to effectively address multiple audiences.

Selecting a plugin that will make your site super SEO friendly is a good investment indeed.

Read More at 8 Super Useful WordPress Plugins for Your Website

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See what 15 of the Best WordPress Themes in 2020 Have to Offer

There’s no need to continue to stress yourself out plowing through a host of themes in hopes of finding something that just might suit your immediate needs.

“Just might” is not a very good description to hang your hat on.

If you narrow your search down to 15 or so of the top WordPress themes going into 2020 you should easily find what you need. Better yet, we’ve already narrowed the search for you. Add the fact that WordPress will take care of the administrative features for you, and you should be good to go.

If you won’t settle for anything less than a pixel perfect, 100% responsive, SEO friendly, modern, flexible and WooCommerce ready theme, you’ll still be good to go.

We can prove it; read on to see for yourself.

  1. BeTheme – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme

            This premium multipurpose WordPress theme, the biggest of them all, is hard to beat in terms of its huge array of tools, features and options, performance, flexibility, and its level of support. Visit BeTheme’s website and you’ll be well into your second cup of coffee by the time you begin to have a good understanding of what this theme can help you accomplish.

  • The highlight is the selection of 500+ customizable, responsive pre-built websites. These professionally crafted design aids cover 30 industry sectors, all the major website types like portfolio, one-pager, etc., and a wide variety of business niches.

They also have functionality and UX features embedded right into them, plus they are customizable and responsive.

  • The popular Muffin Builder 3 page builder, with the WPBakery page builder as an option
  • A Layouts Configurator if you decide to build a page from scratch.
  • A Shortcode Generator and a large selection of shortcodes that, together with BeTheme’s other features, eliminates any need for coding.
  • A powerful Admin Panel that serves to give you all the flexibility you want.

“This theme is the best for WordPress, the layout and flexibility are perfect to develop a site.” – Joso970

Learn more about Be’s 40+ core features by clicking on the banner.

  1. Total Theme

This WordPress theme has been around a while. It has helped more than 41,000 users build premium websites, and it comes with more useful features than you’ll find in most themes of its type and purpose.

Total is and has

  • Drag and drop and extremely easy to use
  • Developer-friendly hooks, filters, and 450+ snippets
  • A Theme Customizer that allows you to quickly change site colors, widths, font characteristics, etc.
  • 100+ page builder elements and extra design modules, along with 500+advanced customizing and styling options

Total’s package includes the popular WPBakery page builder, 40+ pre-built demos, and a quick start demo importer, Revolution Slider and Layer Slider; and Total is WooCommerce ready.

Total is also compatible with most of the popular WordPress plugins. So, you won’t have to be burdened down with an excessive number of third-party plugins.

“I’ve been a loyal customer of Total theme for years. Support is impressively quick, useful and accurate. The theme will allow one to build virtually anything you want. AJ and his team are terrific, and there is no reason to buy any other theme.” – donnieweaver

  1. Avada

Avada has been the #1 selling theme over the past 6 years. There must be a reason – or several. It could be

  • a Dynamic Content System that gives users tremendous flexibility
  • Flawless WooCommerce integration including the capability to drag and drop product designs
  • 55+ pre-built websites to help you build and launch quickly – without coding

You can also import full or partial demos with Avada or use sections from several demos.

“There’s really NOTHING you can’t do with the Avada theme AND they have the best support team of any Theme out there – really!” – MamaSara

Click on the banner to learn more about this best-selling theme.

  1. Houzez – Highly Customizable Real Estate WordPress Theme

Asking a multipurpose theme to provide a solution when a specialty theme is really what is needed is asking too much. Houzez has all the features and functionality a real estate agent or agency is ever likely to need, including

  • property listings formatting options
  • advanced property search capabilities
  • a property management system

Plus, the Houzez theme can be customized to fit an agency’s business model.

“Awesome and very flexible theme and customer support is excellent.” – mardenvato

In need of a specialized theme for realtors? Look no further.

  1. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

Some describe TheGem as having the most beautiful designs for WordPress. Others refer to it as being the ultimate WordPress toolbox for designers. In truth, both descriptions are true.

The package includes

  • 100+ pre-built, one-click installable websites plus 400+ trendy design templates
  • the powerful WPBakery page builder

a ready-to-launch fashion store

I love TheGem Creative Multi-Purpose High Performance Theme. I plan to utilize it for all of my clients. I’m getting some of them to change over as I update their websites.” – acreator7

The ultimate design toolbox is but a click away.

  1. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme

Agencies, bloggers, freelancers, and creatives can all benefit from choosing Uncode, as can businesses or anyone wanting to create a portfolio website, a magazine website, or any type of landing page.

Features include

  • a front-end editor on steroids
  • Adaptive image and grid systems
  • WooCommerce single product features

and more, but the star of the show has to be ThemeForest’s best-sellers showcase of user-created websites which tells a story of what this theme could do for you, why it claims 60K+ sales, and why it is a source of inspiration.

“Easy to use theme and customizable to ones need. I give 5 stars for theme support. Really happy!!” – rchakaipa

Click on the banner to visit the Uncode and its remarkable showcase of websites.

  1. Bridge

Rather than trying to list Bridge’s most likely benefactors, saying that this theme is perfect for just about anyone is more than sufficient. This best-selling creative theme’s features include

  • 420+ premade websites
  • open-ended customizability
  • huge collections of modules, design elements, sliders, and plugins including WooCommerce, as well as both the WPBakery and Elementor page builders
  • 5-star rated support

It should also be noted that Bridge serves a community of 120,000+ happy users.

“Very flexible, the demos are beautiful!” – rebecajobs

Click on the banner for a closer look.

  1. Brook – Multipurpose Creative WordPress Theme

The testimonial is typical and says it all. An abundance of cool features makes Brook a web designer’s dream. In the package, you’ll find a huge collection of premade templates, premium site-building plugins, shortcodes, and design elements. Also, Brook is

  • superfast loading
  • SEO optimized
  • easily customizable

As a bonus, there’s a library of support tutorials you can also view to find out more about Brook.

“COSTUMER SUPPORT 5++++++++++

Feature request 5+++++++++

Everything on highest level

This is first time I get this kind of experience.” – souldisco

Visit the site and check out a video tutorial or two.

  1. XStore | Responsive Multi-Purpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Could you use a ready-to-go shop to get an online business started? How about 80 of them? That’s what XStore brings to the table; and there’s more:

  • $300+ worth of premium plugins
  • a single product page builder
  • a powerful header builder
  • demos for a wide variety of products and retail items

In other words, everything you could wish for to get your show on the road.

“As a Graphic Designer, not a web designer, I base my purchases on quality and customer service. I’ve purchased XStore twice and they always have the best customer service if I have a question or problem. Also, the plugins they include for this theme are fantastic value.” – Chelsdevauld

Click on the banner to check out one or more of 80 stores.

  1. Typer – Amazing Theme with Multi Author Publishing Features

Typer may just be the ultimate WordPress theme for publishers in general and bloggers in particular. The 100% Gutenburg optimization provides powerful support for creating blog posts while the Elementor visual page builder enables Typer users to create attractive, professionally-design landing pages.

  • No coding knowledge is needed
  • Typer is optimized for speed + real lazy load images
  • unlimited Header style and unique page and post options

You can also expect to receive premium support should you require it.

“Theme is awesome! Exactly what I needed for my site!  Definitely recommend this purchase.” – chriscurran

Click on the banner if a premier publishing theme is on your wish list.

  1. Pofo – Creative Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

As its name suggests, Pofo is an excellent choice for anyone in need of building an attention-getting and engaging online portfolio. After all, a good portfolio design is often a key factor contributing to a business’s success.

  • Pofo is blazing fast, fully responsive and Gutenberg compatible
  • This theme offers a wide selection of home and demo pages, design elements, and valuable and useful plugins

Features include the WPBakery page builder, Revolution Slider, and detailed online documentation.

“Pofo is beautiful in design, layout, UX/UI, and color scheme. It’s truly 5 stars. However, with such a great product without a great customer support, it can mean nothing because it won’t allow you to achieve what your needs are. My 5 stars go to customer service!” – KARCIS

Click on the banner to discover more about this multi-purpose theme.

  1. Schema

Schema is not your run-of-the-mill premium multipurpose theme. It has many if not most of the features of other premium themes along with one very significant difference: SEO functionality

  • Schema knows what search engines seek
  • Schema guides search engines through your site – content element by content element
  • Schema checks for clean code and other factors that can affect website rankings

Schema is also fully responsive, ultra-fast, and is compatible with multiple page builders.

“Gorgeous design, super-fast response to my question too. thank you for a wonderful theme :)” simonehow

If SEO is a pain in the neck for you, click on the banner for a solution.

  1. Leadinjection – WordPress Landing Page Theme

With Leadinjection, you can do something well that can be very tricky or even impossible with most WordPress themes. Leadinjection is a landing page theme that is uniquely capable of adding a landing page to an already up-and-running website.

Leadinjection is

  • WordPress Multisite Compatible
  • Conversion Focused
  • WPML and Translation Ready

This is a good tool to have if you have one or more websites to maintain.

This theme has some very cool features, and most importantly it is pretty well-documented and very well supported. The developers have been very helpful every time I’ve had a question. -frankdl98

Add Leadinjection to your web design toolkit.

  1. TheFox | Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme

It may or may not be a stretch to call TheFox the smartest of ThemeForest’s WordPress themes. But, it certainly has the essential features and elements to back up such a claim.

Maybe it’s because TheFox’s design takes into account the tiniest of details. Whatever the reason, this multi-purpose theme has a solid track record and is a good investment.

“I have been very impressed with TheFox theme. The design and customizability are great and very straight forward. The Customer support is top notch.” – bc hughes

  1. Hongo – Modern & Multipurpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Hongo’s new look makes it especially noteworthy, plus the package features plenty of demos, templates, and other creative design elements, WPBakery, one-click demo import, and custom shortcodes.

  • Out of the box premium eCommerce features included
  • Conversion optimised and modern looking product listing and product detail page styles
  • Hongo designs are awarded at many well known awards like awwwards.com, cssdesignawards.com and many others

“Simply the great designs and best theme for WooCommerce, loading fast, customisable and easy to use with the detailed documentation. Their support team is technically sound and very kind to guide wherever needed. We have bought some other themes from ThemeZaa now and they have never lets us down, thanks!” – diyaatps

So don’t wait and start selling your products with Hongo!

*****

            The emphasis in this article is on multipurpose themes.  It is what many designers, and especially beginners, tend to look for. We’ve included several more specialized themes, one of which serves a particular niche, and others that can be used for a variety of website types.

All 15 themes have many things in common such as excellent flexibility and performance, speed, ease of use, and a large and varied selection of design aids. What this means to you is that you really can’t make a poor choice and should have little difficulty in making the best one.

Please feel free to share this article with a friend or on social media. We’d love to hear about your shopping experience.

Read More at See what 15 of the Best WordPress Themes in 2020 Have to Offer

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Top portfolio builders to build cool websites with

Showcasing your professional work, your products, or yourself, is far easier than it used to be. Appearing in person with a sheaf of papers for a prospective client, customer, or employer to sift through can get you poor results. Instead of that you can get far better results by using a website builder to create your personal portfolio website. It’s also far easier to create and present a portfolio this way.

Building an online portfolio is easy. Building the one that showcases your creativity is easy as well, especially if you’re a creative person to begin with.

There are plenty of platforms to choose from to build an award-winning portfolio site. To get top results you’ll be wise to select one of the top tools for the job. Below are described the top 6 tools, most of which you can use or try out for free.

Having said that, let’s get started.

Portfoliobox

Portfoliobox is especially well-suited for use by photographers, designers, artists, and other creative types – and for entrepreneurs as well. Portfoliobox is almost ridiculously easy to use, and as it isn’t theme-based it’s super flexible as well. You don’t have to worry about coding either. It’s simply not necessary.

As this tool’s name implies, it’s primarily designed to enable its users to create portfolio websites that range from highly-professional to out-of-this-world awesome. Just what you need to gain fistfuls of clients or make sales. Better yet, you can accomplish this in as little as a few hours if you have your content handy.

Portfoliobox offers a free plan and a pro plan. The free plan is recommended since it offers a great insight into what you can accomplish and has sufficient features to put a small to medium-size portfolio in place. The pro plan includes web hosting for a much larger number of pages, blog posts, products, and images. The Portfoliobox user base currently exceeds 1 million. A new version, Portfoliobox 4, is in the works.

Wix

Wix is a versatile tool that can be used with great effect to promote a business or create an online shop. It’s greatest strength however is what it brings to the table as an online portfolio builder. Wix is strictly drag and drop supported by the tools and features you need to customize any of the 500+ designer-made templates to your satisfaction.

If you can visualize a truly awesome and unique online portfolio, Wix enables you to build it; without coding. You’re not restricted to presenting one static image after another either. Scroll effects, animations, video backgrounds, and more can be used to make your portfolio come to life and keep viewers engaged and looking for more.

If you want the total freedom you feel is necessary to create an award-winning, crowd-pleasing portfolio website, Wix is for you.

Weebly

A common feature of many of the top website-building tools is ease of use; which is important if you would like to get something up and running in a relatively short time. With Weebly, you can plan your portfolio-building project over your morning cup of coffee and have the website up and running before dinner.

It’s actually that easy when you have a great selection of customizable webpage designs to work with plus a host of custom fonts, video backgrounds, and other special effects and useful tools to work with. Best of all, the Weebly website builder is free.

When you’ve built your website, you can host it for free. You can purchase a domain from Weebly, but if you already have one you can simply transfer it.

If your portfolio will display a line of products, Weebly offers professional quality photos if you ship the products to them. Whatever your needs, the tools and services are there.

Mobirise Website Builder

With a tool like Mobirise at your fingertips you don’t have to be satisfied with yesterday’s idea of a professional portfolio. This offline builder gives you an easy way to build a portfolio that you can take pride in, and one that will encourage others to spread the word.

For starters, Mobirise features 2000+ modern website templates and blocks and a whole host of icons, Google fonts, images, and more.

Pixpa

Pixpa’s website-building feature set, its 24/7 support, and its cost-effective pricing plans make it a great choice for creatives and small businesses in need of an attention-getting online portfolio. You can build the website you want without requiring any coding knowledge.

It’s simply a matter of starting with any of Pixpa’s templates and customizing them to your satisfaction via drag and drop. Pixpa offers a 15-day free trial.

8b Website Builder

8b is brand new, futuristic in its design and performance, and super-simple to work with. You can build a portfolio website from your desktop, from a mobile device, or both; and, thanks to Google AMP, your finished project will be lightning-fast and 100% mobile friendly.

8b’s collection of 18 slick starter themes and more than 250 website sections are all you need to get your portfolio-building project off to a lightning start.

Tips for creating a great portfolio website

You don’t have a portfolio website, and what you’ve been using seems to be getting the job done, so why go digital (even though everyone else seems to be doing so)?

  • For one thing, with an online portfolio you can showcase your work in a variety of unique and effective ways.
  • It can also give others a quick insight into what you do as well as who you are
  • It makes it much easier for people to find you (you become searchable) and see what you have to offer.

At a minimum, your portfolio website should feature a logo and a tagline, a sampling of your very best work, and contact information. You could also include testimonials and case studies, a blog, and anything else that you believe might gain visitor interest. It will look like a special project you have in mind or are currently working on.

Your online portfolio is like a shop window. It features a display that compels passersby to enter to see what you have of interest in terms of products, services, or creative works of art. In this case those “passing by” consist of clients or potential clients and future customers.

Your portfolio should:

  • Introduce you and showcase your best work
  • Be easy to navigate and be search engine optimized
  • Tell a story. The most effective portfolios are often those that can tell a story,

There are also several side benefits to creating an online portfolio.

  • Your talents are put on display for all to see
  • You’ll get better at organizing items for maximum effect
  • Your self-confidence should take a positive hit as interest in your portfolio takes off, and
  • You may learn a few new things or gain a few useful ideas as you proceed

It’s win-win for you and your customers/clients.

Conclusion

An online portfolio is a valuable asset. When it is done right, it can help any business to grow and any vocation or career to advance – including a tech industry career. This valuable asset doesn’t require a ton of study or effort to put in place either. When you can put a top-notch portfolio website in place in a day’s time, the ROI can be huge.

That’s where online builders like those presented here come into play. They are easy to use, produce excellent results, and are either free or offer free trials.

Read More at Top portfolio builders to build cool websites with

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Top Tools and Services for Developers in 2019

Looking to change your software development practices for the better? You already have the know-how and experience, and you always strive to improve your skills? But, if you feel you’ve hit a plateau, the tools you’re using could easily be the source of the problem.

Choosing the right tools and services is always a challenge, especially when more and more come on the market every year. Bridging the gap between development and operations has always been a challenge. That is one place where having the right tools can make your efforts much easier.

There are certain factors you need to consider when looking for a certain development tool. They are based on the type of the project involved. The products and services recommended in this article consider these factors.

Elementor

Elementor has proven to be an extremely popular web design tool. So popular in fact that some of its users might not be aware that it this open source project was created with developers in mind. While it’s has most features designers love, it’s literally packed with features you’ll love if you’re a developer.

As is the case with many open-source solutions, great ideas come from a range of contributors that, along with the Elementor team, work tirelessly to build on its already full stack of solutions you can use to address your own problems and create your own solutions.

Elementor’s development solutions include CLI Integration, Custom CSS, CSS Optimization, Version Rollback Capabilities, and Request Parameters for data tracking across multiple pages. Elementor is also RTL ready.

The developer’s documents offer a great place to learn how to extend this extremely extensible development tool and get the most from its editor, live preview, its frontend features, and the extensive library of useful widgets.

And Co

If you’re spending lots of time invoicing it’s probably because your business is doing well, but it stops being good news when it takes too much time away from your core development work. AND.CO is a smart development app that tracks time, creates your invoices for you, and alerts you when they’ve been viewed or paid.

This nifty invoicing app syncs across all your devices, so you can stay on top of your cash flow and billings and even manage your invoicing while on the go. There’s no need to spend time manually inputting billable hours either, AND.CO does it for you. You can even use AND.CO to create proposals and use the information contained in them as the basis for invoicing.

One more thing: when you receive a payment, AND.CO automatically deposits it in your bank account.

Atom

As a developer, you naturally lean toward or rely entirely on flexible and extensible open source tools to get your work done. Atom is precisely such a tool. This open source desktop application runs on Electron, which enables it to help you build cross platform apps and use it on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Atom also works with JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and Node.js integration, and the ability to choose among thousands of open source packages to work with makes it a super-extensible application. If you choose, you can build your own package from scratch, publish it, and share it with others.

Atom also promotes collaboration among developers. When developers work together and share knowledge as they do so, great things can happen. Collaborating with others on coding becomes no more difficult than coding on your own since Atom allows you to compare and edit code across files and view an entire project or multiple projects in a single window.

Testim

Is having to perform multiple tests on multiple applications starting to drag you down? Testim was developed to enable Agile teams author more tests while spending less time managing and maintaining them. This development tool allows you to run multiple tests on multiple browsers and receive the results in a matter of minutes.

With Testim, you can conduct testing in their cloud or your private cloud. Testim is a straightforward solution to the problem of being swamped by large-scale testing.

TMS Outsource

Whether outsourcing web development is an option or a necessity, doing so has many advantages. Outsourcing can save money, teams like TMS Outsource are experts at what they do, you can rely on on-time delivery, and you can focus on your core business activities.

TMS Outsource also relieves you of the challenge of having to search for a development team you can rely on; a team that adheres to SCRUM development methodologies in their work.

InvoiceBerry

Sending out invoices with InvoiceBerry is as easy as it gets. Select a professionally designed Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Open Source template, add your logo, content, and the customer’s email address, and InvoiceBerry will do the rest.

Customers can pay via Stripe, PayPal, or WePay. Since unpaid invoices appear on your dashboard, you’ll always know who’s paid and who hasn’t. Try InvoiceBerry for free for 30 days.

What makes a good developer tool?

Problem talented, hard-working developers often face to determine which of the many tools on the market would make good choices.

The tools come in many shapes and flavors. Making the right choices often depends on the nature of the project being worked on.

There are tools for:

  • Skill Development and Data Science
  • Project Management and Issue Tracking
  • Frameworks and Cloud Management and Storage
  • An Integrated Development Environment
  • DevOps, Prototyping, and Notifications and
  • Unified Modeling Language

These tools should be useful, integrable, and appropriate to the project environment and have a reasonable learning curve.

To choose a “best” tool it’s important to look for one that’s extensible, has a large user base, and is easy to use. A good choice can contribute to improved workflows and more productive project outcomes.

Conclusion

5 development tools and services might not seem like a lot to choose from. But if you look carefully there are probably one or two that could significantly improve your project workflows as well as the end results.

Each of these tools and services is designed to make you more productive, add to your skillset, remove a burden from your shoulders, or all the above.

Read More at Top Tools and Services for Developers in 2019

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Check out These 5 Must-Have WP Tools and Services

You do excellent work, but you’re always looking for ways to take your game a higher level, and we’re here to help you do just that.

Since there are roughly 55,000 WordPress tools services on the market, you would think finding solutions to some of your everyday problems, concerns, or issues that make improvement easier would be a piece of cake. The problem is, plowing through that vast array of potential solutions to find what will work best for you could take weeks.

That’s fine if you have plenty of spare time on your hands, but we can offer a better way. We’ve done most of the heavy lifting for you, and we’d like to share with you 5 tools and services that are the best of the bunch when it comes to improving website quality, maintenance management, and speeding up day-to-day project workflow.

Elementor

Elementor is a powerful page builder with endless advanced design elements and options that lets you create the ideal website for your clients.

You can start your pages from scratch and put Elementor’s library of useful widgets to work, or if you prefer you could choose from a large array of templates to get your projects underway.

Either way, Elementor can improve your workflow and increase your productivity, and the quality of your websites – big time.

To say Elementor is popular and widely used is a huge understatement when you consider there are already more than 2 million active installs, already explains why it might be the world’s best website builder.

You can use any theme and any WordPress plugin with Elementor. You won’t be bothered by design constrains some themes impose on you, and plugins won’t slow you down. Those two features alone could be reason enough to choose this powerful WordPress tool. Investigate Elementor’s capabilities further and you’ll discover even more reasons.

Brizy WordPress Website Builder

Website builders aren’t a lazy bunch, but as a rule they don’t object to working with a tool that’s almost ridiculously intuitive and easy to use, doesn’t require coding, or doesn’t require any special technical skills. Brizy WordPress page builder fits that description perfectly, and it has everything needed to enable you to create the most perfect websites you can imagine.

The Brizy package includes 150 layouts, 240 design blocks, and 16 popups, every one of which is ready-made and professionally crafted. 4,000 icons are also included, and you’ll find color-schemes and fonts easy to work with.

The blocks make great starting points, especially if you find starting from scratch is somewhat intimidating. With the layouts and blocks at your fingertips you could easily build a complete page in minutes.

Brizy is free to download, and you can build your first website on Brizy free of charge with no strings attached.

WordPress Site Care

Maintaining an up-and-running website can be a pain at times, and if you’re responsible for multiple sites, maintenance and troubleshooting it’s no fun at all. Newt Labs will be happy to take over those tasks so you can focus on designing and building websites, pleasing your clients, and growing your business.

The Newt Labs team will do any needed troubleshooting, offer advice or help you make small fixes, and take care of WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates, site security monitoring, backups, and other day-to-day management tasks. Since Newt Labs’ cloud hosting is WordPress optimized, you can upgrade to a proper hosting service if you need to speed up your website.

Newt Labs also gives you easy access to the latest WooCommerce and WordPress video tutorials, so you and your clients will be able to get the most from your use of WordPress and your website designs.

Wordlift

WordLift is a semantic platform that applies AI to SEO analysis and design. It partners with WooRank to measure the performance of your site content in terms of key factors influencing search rankings and organic traffic in general.

This SEO tool takes your site content and translates it into knowledge graphs and machine readable content that helps the search engines better understand what your content is all about and allows you to find out how to improve user engagement. A useful tool indeed!

Goodie

Launch your website design the Goodie way by working directly with an experienced developer. You’ll save time and money and avoid communications bottlenecks by avoiding middlemen. Whether your design is richly detailed or barely beyond the conceptual stage all you need to do is hand it over and Goodie will carefully code it for you at a special price of $999.

Goodie specializes in helping web designers and small business owners and coding WordPress websites and websites in the 1-10 page range.

 

Tips to Make Your WordPress Site Secure

Choose a Good Hosting Company

When you choose a hosting company you can expect to get what you pay for in terms of site performance and site security. If you go cheap, you’re putting your site and perhaps even your business at risk.

It’s far better to choose a hosting service that will treat your site as if it’s their own even if it costs a little more.

Install a WordPress Security Plugin

Do you rarely check your site security for malware, check it on occasion, or have you automated the process by letting a plugin do the work? The third option makes the most sense. The right plugin can monitor your site 24/7 which means less work for you and greater site security.

Update WordPress regularly

WordPress continually improves its performance and security through its upgrades. Malicious bugs are promptly taken care of when an update is released. If you don’t update, any latent malicious bug can be a source of mischief.

Periodically visit WordPress’s dashboard to check for new updates and hit the “Update Now” button when you see one.

Back up your site regularly

It’s simply a matter of creating a copy of your site and storing it in a safe place. Do it periodically. Some hosting sites perform daily backups.

 

Conclusion

This article covers 5 must-have WordPress tools and services you can use to build high-quality websites and built them quickly. plus 5 tips you should follow to keep those sites up and running.  One of the services listed can do that for you.

If you’re looking for a faster, more efficient, and easy to use website builder either Elementor or Brizy will be an ideal choice. If SEO design is giving you headaches, give WordLift a try or go to Goodie for your development needs. And, if you’ve been thinking about handing your site maintenance responsibilities to someone else so you can better focus on website design, Newt Labs is there to help.

 

 

 

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Events and appointments scheduling have gotten easier

Today’s users are quick to bounce away from a website if they can’t connect with a page’s content within 3 seconds. If your business features online appointment bookings, registrations, or making payments for events, you want the process to be super-simple.

Amelia is a WordPress appointment and event booking plugin that web designers love because it is easy to work with. Your clients and their customers will love it for the same reason since it provides a scheduling solution that is close to perfection.

We have created this article to show how Amelia keeps customers happy and can help a business to grow.

 

Events Functions in Amelia 2.0 

It’s common knowledge that Amelia was already at the top of the class for appointment bookings plugins. A new set of events functions in Amelia 2.0 has made it even better. Amelia already has made spreadsheets items of historical interest only.

With 2.0 it can be used for even more events and occasions; whether they be single-day events to multi-day travel tours, classes, conferences, or seminars. Whatever the event, you can easily manage day-by-day detail bookings, recurring events, costs, etc.

 

Payments for Appointment and Event Scheduling

Managing prices and attendance for multiple day events is something you would not want to have to track manually. So, don’t!

Amelia’s integrations with WooCommerce, PayPal, and Stripe allow you to schedule a mix of event types while automatically streamlining the payments process – a “must have” feature in any all-encompassing booking solution. Currencies won’t present a problem either and you’ll receive SMS notifications as the payments roll in.

 

Events Calendar

Once you’ve entered your events, the Events Calendar becomes a central powerhouse for boosting registrations and payments. As we mentioned in the beginning, it’s super simple for users to view the panorama of events you’re offering – just a click away.

And, when a potential attendee selects an event from the calendar, he or she is guided through a step-by-step booking process. The calendar will automatically update an event’s availability and make a note when its maximum capacity is reached.

A truly neat feature is the UI for the event booker, payment processor, and events calendar. It’s the same UI for the you and for event attendees; and since data can move freely between these functions, registering for and managing events is as simple, satisfying, and mistake-free as possible.

There are additional Events Calendar options in Amelia 2.0 such as the ability to personalize what events will display based on status or your selections, the ability to create “invitation-only” events, and more. Click to read more about events and the Events Calendar.

Classes Booking 

One of the things that makes the new Events Calendar such a powerful and useful feature is that the 2.0 version was built as a direct result of user feedback, a large part of which focused on the need for a specific solution. That need was for a solution that could streamline booking classes and payments in much the same way as appointments booking.

This was special. A variety of scheduling solutions and WP plugins for events already exist. But a practical solution of ongoing classes or group training, including payments, did not – until now.

Amelia 2.0 fully automates workshops, classes, and group training scheduling and payments. It doesn’t matter if they are single, multi-day, or recurring events. The scheduling and payments processes are streamlined, quick, and intuitive.

Spreadsheets are but a memory of times past.

 

Appointment and Event Scheduling You Can Really Use

Amelia has already been praised for its UI and UX. Did the Amelia 2.0 release make this plugin any better?

The short answer is – quite a bit.

New additions include the Gutenberg block and a pair of new languages – French and Dutch. As for the others; let’s take a look at what 4 of the most popular features look like now.

 

Admin Dashboard

Amelia gives its users an interactive dashboard summary of the business’s key performance indicators. KPI data is displayed in widgets, charts, and tables since KPIs are only of value when their actions are clear. It takes less than 5 seconds viewing Amelia’s dashboard to know where you stand.

 

Booking Wizard

The front-end view step-by-step booking wizard that takes Amelia users effortlessly through their booking or purchasing process is one of the more popular of this plugin’s features.

Visitors are naturally inclined to prefer a smooth UX that allows them to easily choose the services, locations, dates, and payment details they want, and even make changes without leaving the page.

 

Search Booking Widget

Choosing among highlighted events isn’t always enough. There will be times when users will have a need to search for an event they want to book.

The search widget makes searching easy and once an event is located, it presents all the options and preferences available including preferred time, place, service, employee, etc.

 

Multiple Front-End Views and Customizable Design

By inserting any of the following WordPress shortcodes into a page or post, users can unlock the following Amelia front-end views:

  • Booking Search
  • Step-by-Step Booking
  • Services Catalogue, or the
  • Events Booking view

No matter which view is chosen, the viewer is presented with a minimalist, non-intrusive UI. Where colors are used, they can be adjusted to match your brand or website theme.

 

Conclusion 

Amelia is a booking and payments plugin featuring front-end design flexibility and UX together with the back-end management tools and automation your business requires. Amelia goes about its business 24/7 in background mode so you can devote your time to other pressing business tasks and issues.

The key to using Amelia is knowing its features. With the version 2.0 launch, you can leverage this premier WP booking plugin to simplify events and appointments scheduling and payments.

There’s no longer any reason to have to work with multiple plugins or install a scheduler on your site that’s not quite up to the task. Amelia 2.0 does it all.

Select your industry’s demo and try it yourself.

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Portfolio WordPress Themes for Creatives: The best in 2019

When building a website portfolio involves little more than slapping a bunch of pictures on a page, the author can’t expect to get decent results unless the pictures themselves are exceptionally good. Image order, size, organization, and text placement are important, as is the text itself.

Building a decent portfolio takes thought, effort, and the right tool for the job, and there are plenty of themes on the market that will give you a head start toward building a decent portfolio website.

There’s absolutely no need to settle for “decent” though. What you need to create something that’s truly awesome can (1) either involve a tremendous amount of hard work or (2) finding a theme that’s either dedicated to the job or doesn’t have any of the more common limitations or constraints that could prevent you from doing so.

The second approach is far easier, and the results are just as good.

As is the case with the following 8 WordPress themes:

Be Theme

Bigger doesn’t necessarily always mean better, but in the case of premium multipurpose WordPress themes the biggest of them all, Be Theme, puts forth a pretty strong argument for being among the best.

Be Theme is easy to use and it gives web designers all kinds of flexibility thanks to its 40+ core features highlighted by a library of 450+ professionally- crafted, customizable pre-built websites. These pre-built websites cover specialty website types such as one-pagers, blogs, and portfolio websites. 30 industry sectors are covered as well.

A favorite among several pre-built websites that would be a portfolio website builder’s dream is BeAgency. While BeAgency can be used for a variety of business purposes, it’s beautiful Ajax portfolio has made it a favorite of many agencies seeking to showcase their work.

Be Theme is responsive and SEO-friendly and you can have a portfolio website you’ll be proud to own up and running in as little as 4 hours.

Kalium

Minimalist in its design, powerful, and flexible is a good description of Kalium. This highly rated theme features an impressive selection of top-quality demos, layout designs, and theme options, together with a wide array of drag and drop content elements.

Website portfolio creators have a rich selection of design features and options to work with. A great deal of attention is directed toward portfolio design. Options include 2, 3, and 4-column formats with or without titles, and with or without margins, plus several Masonry-style layouts and options.

Browse Kalium’s showcase of user inspired and created websites and you should get a good idea of how this WordPress theme can help you create the “Perfect” portfolio website, or at least one that stands head and shoulders above the competitions’.

Kalium is well supported with documentation even though it’s easy to work with.

Uncode

If building a pixel-perfect portfolio website is your goal, you’ll want a pixel-perfect creative WordPress theme to help you build it; which is precisely what you get with Uncode.

Although Uncode is a multipurpose theme, its real strength lies in helping users create superlative blog and portfolio websites. Its 50,000 sales to date and its standing as an all-time ThemeForest best seller more than suggest Uncode will be an outstanding choice for your upcoming portfolio website project.

Your portfolio will shine brightly and correctly on PC and handheld device screens alike, and the cascade options system guarantees you’ll have total control over your layout design.

If you have any doubts, visit the Uncode site and browse its showcase of user-created websites. Your doubts will vanish – guaranteed.

Hello

Hello is an excellent starter theme; and especially so for Elementor users. It’s worth noting that whenever Elementor tests a new upgrade, a major portion of the testing is done on Hello, the fastest and lightest WordPress theme on the market.

And, when you’re using Hello, you’ll pleasantly discover that there’s nothing to slow you down. Plugins can create problems, but not with this free, open-source theme.

Bridge

Bridge has established itself as the top-selling creative theme on ThemeForest. Its use by 110,000+ happy customers would seem to bear that out, but the real reason may be its 376+ pre-built websites backed up by a huge array of design aids and features and its open-ended customizability.

The Bridge theme is a perfect choice for building an engaging portfolio website, or any other type of business-oriented website.

The Gem

            TheGem has acquired a solid reputation as the ultimate website-building tool. Since a significant percentage of its design elements, features, and options are dedicated to creating portfolios, it could be described as the ultimate portfolio website-building tool as well.

TheGem’s package includes 20+ portfolio designs, flexible page layouts, portfolio sliders, masonry, metro, and other portfolio grid options.

Pofo

This multipurpose theme lends itself well to blog, portfolio, and eCommerce website building or, creating a website featuring all three entities. Artists, photographers, creative teams, and agencies have found a great deal to like about this premium theme.

An excellent selection of home and demo pages, a customizing tool, custom shortcodes, and the WPBakery page builder and Revolution Slider plugins are included in the package.

Movedo WP Theme – We DO MOVE Your World

You’ve decided on formats and page layouts for your portfolio website, but you’re not done yet. You still have to import content, an area in which the design process can really slow down.

That won’t be the case with MOVEDO with its clean, modern design and easy to use import features. There are plenty of other exciting features as well that will ensure your portfolio website avoids any look of “sameness” compared to other portfolio websites and will stand out from the rest.

Conclusion

It’s always good to know that you have a few hundred multipurpose themes to choose among that appear to have what you need to create a portfolio website. Searching can take time however, and you might even have to undergo some trial and error activity before find one that really meets your needs.

It’s easier when you have only 8 themes to choose from. Since any one of these 8 will be more than up to the task, you’re faced with a can’t lose situation. Pick what you think will work best for you and you won’t be disappointed.

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5 Steps to Building an Amazing App Website With 20 Examples for Inspiration

If you’re thinking of turning your focus more toward app website design, we have both good news and bad news for you.

The good news is, there’s a growing need for app websites, which could mean plenty of work for you. The bad news is, as more and more app websites are being built, visitors are beginning to suffer from “app website fatigue”. If your site looks like all the others, you’ll be lucky if you can keep a visitor interested for more than 5 seconds – not anywhere long enough to make a sale, much less convince that visitor to stick around.

The solution is pretty straightforward. Build a better website.

Easier said than done, right?

Follow the steps below, and you can start creating app websites that are not only attention-getting, but potential conversion powerhouses.

 

5 steps to Creating “Take Your Breath Away” App Websites

Step 1: Choose a “can hardly stop looking at it” color palette

Your choice may to some extent be a matter of taste. You’ll find it helpful to view a few examples, like those presented here. Whatever color palette you choose; it should follow these three simple rules:

– It should instantly attract a visitor’s attention

– It needs to be on-brand, and

– It also needs to visually support your website’s message

Over utilizes BOLD color touches in a way that instantly attracts attention.

This Be Theme pre-built website provides another excellent example of an eye-grabbing color palette.

Forest aligns its color palette with its brand with earth colors like greens and browns; a color scheme that makes the app visually memorable.

FlightCard uses a subtle, cold color palette to reinforce the message that boarding passes are so easy to use that you almost forget you’re even carrying one.

Looking for a color palette that will appeal to a larger audience? BeApp2 is a perfect example.

Step 2: Display crystal-clear product pics

If people can’t immediately see what the app looks like, the 5-second rule is going to kick in. They can usually tell at a glance if it will be easy to use or involves a not-so-flat learning curve. They can also see how it differs, if it does, from the other 400 or so apps on the market.

Pennies emphatically displays what their app looks likes on a smartphone. At a glance, you can tell how intuitive it is to use and even figure out how the color codes function.

You can create a similar app website with BeWallet as your starting point. This pre-built website was designed from scratch for financial apps; a potential gold mine since there are SO many financial apps out there in dire need of a decent website – and you can do much better than “decent”.

Or, you could choose a more general pre-built website like BeSoftware  if you want to display crystal-clear pics from inside the app.

JibJab takes things one step further by employing a simple yet persuasive tactic to show what its app does. It shows the before and after.

Step 3: Show visitors how the app works

If people can’t tell how an app works, they’re less likely to become interested. Helping them image themselves as actual users is a powerful marketing tactic

PeekCalendar has placed a video on its hero section. It demonstrates how people can use their app to better organize their lifestyle.

BeApp3 allows you to give visitors the full app experience by adding product images and a video that shows exactly how the app looks and works.

BePay has placed a Watch Video CTA button right above the fold, so visitors can immediately go to their product demo video.

CutestPaw is a pet-lover’s dream app. Everything is cleverly rolled up into a single hero image that shows how the app works AND what it looks like on a smartphone. Anyone who likes little kittens might be tempted to purchase the app.

Step 4: (Over)use “white” space

White space is sometimes a design element you just can’t use too much of. A page that’s 95+% white space can often do the best job of highlighting a message. White space is so important that it’s an app website’s #1 visual element.

Tha Fly Nation offers a clean, airy design that directs the eye toward focusing on the site’s key elements.

You can create a similar experience with BeProduct4 or BeHosting2— two pre-built websites where white space is effectively used to enhance the visitor’s experience and emphasize the critical elements on the page.

SpellTower is perhaps THE most extreme when it comes to white space. It’s part of their brand and it drives the message home like no other. Now, you can understand why 95% whitespace can be so effective.

Step 5: Make your CTAs grab them by the eyeballs

The next worst thing to forgetting to include a CTA button is to have one that doesn’t stand out—really stand out. A CTA button has to be so big, bright, and bold that a visitor simply can’t resist clicking it.

Big, bright, and bold hints at greater things to come.

Wire’s CTA button clearly stands out above the fold: it’s big and bold enough to draw your attention to it the instant you’ve finished reading the headline. It’s centered on the page, like a “gate” you can’t move around, but need to click if to move forward.

BeERP uses precisely the same bright-green button for its main CTA. A secondary, somewhat nondescript optional button is on the right.

You can also direct attention to your CTA by having it match other elements on the page. BeKids is a great example of this. You can see how the blue of the CTA button matches several of the hero section’s visual elements.

Summary

As you can see, these steps are not complicated at all. They give you a surefire means of building an app website that’s eye-catching. It will stand out from the competition and is built for conversion.

Use the most stunning visuals you can get your hands on, don’t skimp on the use of white space. You need to know what your audience wants, and you’ll be off and running.

As simple as these steps are, building a quality website takes time. That’s true for app websites as well. You might be juggling multiple projects and facing one emergency deadline after another. Then, you might try the following approach.

You’ll find a large and impressive gallery of 400+ pre-built websites on Be Theme. You can select from it and customize it to your liking. You’ve seen several in the foregoing examples.

They are functional and visually impressive.  They feature interactive elements, stunning effects, and intuitive navigation. Personalize one to fit your app and you’re good to go!

Read More at 5 Steps to Building an Amazing App Website With 20 Examples for Inspiration

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15 of the best tools & resources for web designers in 2019

Digital design technology waits on no one. It’s forever changing, and web designers are forever having to seek ways to keep up with it. If there are any “evergreen” tools and resources that keep pace with the latest trends they are few. Except for upgrades and updates, of course.

The latest tools, apps, and resources can cope with the latest design trends. They are not difficult to come by. There is, in fact, an embarrassment of riches. So many that finding the right ones can actually be a challenge in itself.

Not all of them are top-of-the-line of course, and the best of the bunch is what you want and deserve. To help you out, we’ve put in place this nice little collection of top tools, apps, and resources. They’ll individually or collectively make your job easier. They help you keep up with the times and maintain a competitive edge.

 

  1. Elementor

Elementor is a prime example of a WordPress website building tool that can do so many things and do them so much better than its competitors. Aside from its website design capabilities, businesses look to Elementor because of the way it can speed up design workflow processes and at the same time produce a maximum ROI.

If you can visualize it, you can build it if you have this premium web-building tool at your fingertips. Limitations and constraints that are common to many WordPress themes simply don’t exist with Elementor. Thanks to a powerful drag and drop editor, a ton of useful widgets, and hundreds of templates, you can produce an attractive, professional-looking page in minutes and a complete website within hours.

Since Elementor can be used with virtually any theme and any plugin it gives you almost unlimited flexibility. The user interface is a pleasure to work with, and several features like the Pop Up builder and Hover and Scroll animations allow you to do things that you once would have assigned to a developer.

 

  1. AND CO from Fiverr

AND CO from Fiverr is an invoicing software that saves you time so you can focus on growing your business. Its automated system helps you stay on top of your cash flow by reminding you when it’s time to send invoices, notifying you when they are viewed by a client, and letting you know when they are past due. With AND CO you can accept online payments by credit card, check, ACH, or PayPal and have the payments automatically deposited in your bank account.

AND CO also features a time tracking system which integrates smoothly with your invoicing, so that invoices can automatically be created based on the hours you’ve tracked at the end of a project, at specified project milestones, or periodically for customers or clients that are on a subscription basis. Relevant files or documents can be attached to invoices if you wish. With additional features like expense tracking, proposals, contracts, and task management, AND CO is the one app you need to run your freelance business.

 

  1. Houzez

Given its many advanced features, most users are led to believe that everything needed to conduct business is already included in this real estate application. The Houzez design team apparently thought otherwise as, based on user feedback, they have recently added a host of new options and features designed to give realtors and real estate agencies extended capabilities and greater flexibility.

The old favorites like the listings options, advanced search capabilities, and the property management system are still there. More listings options and formats have been added together with listings sorting by data, price, and property location, property status, and luxury home and special property showings scheduling.

Houzez is extremely easy to use and can be customized to fit an agencies business model and brand.

 

  1. Amelia

Businesses that rely heavily on customers booking appointments will like the time and money they can be saved with this powerful and award-winning plugin. Amelia automates the entire booking process. It takes appointments 24/7, matches them with employee availability, takes care of cancellations and changes, sends out reminders, and even accepts online payments.

More than 2,000 signed up for Amelia within 6 months after the launch date and gave it an average of 4.85+ user rating.

 

  1. Uncode

 

Uncode has all the functionality you need to build a breathtaking portfolio to showcase your work. You don’t need to create a design from scratch, although you can create your own template if you wish.

The best way to see what Uncode can do for you is to visit the website and view the showcase of user-created websites. You’ll see why this creative multiuse theme is a top all time ThemeForest best-seller with more than 50,000 sales.

 

  1. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

TheGem’s customers and Envato will tell you, and ThemeForest will agree, that this amazing multipurpose theme is capable of producing the most creative and beautiful designs you’ll find anywhere. Loading times are exceptionally fast, page speed scores are equally impressive, and customers particularly like TheGem’s 100% flexibility and 100% simplicity.

As far as customer satisfaction and support are concerned, TheGem scores 100% for these as well. The best product performance coupled with the best customer experience is hard to beat.

 

  1. Mobirise

Because Mobirise is an offline tool you’re not tied down to a specific platform or host during your website building activities. You’ll have total control over your website’s design, and because Mobirise is drag and drop it’s easy to use. Mobirise is 100% free to use for both commercial and personal uses.

There are plenty of website blocks, templates, and themes to work with and thanks to Google Amp and Bootstrap 4 your sites will be crazy-fast.

 

  1. wpDataTables

The wpDataTables plugin offers an all-in-one solution for summarizing data by means of interactive, responsive, and easily editable tables and charts. It doesn’t matter if the amount of data is small or huge, or if the data itself is quite complex. wpDataTables is, in fact, the only table and chart-producing tool of its kind that can easily manage MS SQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL database information.

Tables and charts are fully customizable, and key data can be color-coded or highlighted.

 

  1. Round Icons Bundle – 38,000 icons and illustrations

A bundle of 38,000 premium, royalty-free icons and illustrations is a nice resource to have handy. Roundicons’ bundle is the world’s largest and you can download it for a one-time fee.

The fee includes additional icons and illustrations that are added to the bundle monthly. A commercial use license comes with the bundle. Use coupon code “GETBIG” to receive a 20% discount.

 

  1. Logic Hop – Personalized Marketing for WordPress

One of the toughest challenges facing web designers is to personalize their message to a particular audience or audiences. Logic Hop overcomes this challenge by enabling you to provide targeted content to your audiences using display ad and pay per click results, social media posts, and actions visitors take on your site.

Personalized websites perform 200% better on average. Logic Hop can make that happen for you.

 

  1. 8b Website Builder

The 8b website builder is new, fast, fresh, and futuristic. 8b is also super simple to work with, and you can create beautiful, high-performance websites on your work or home desktop, or on your mobile device when on the go. 8b is free at the moment, a good reason to try it out.

16 slick starter templates and a large selection of website sections are there to help you get any project off to a quick start.

 

  1. WhatFontIs.com

At one time or another you may have come across a font you’d really like to use but had no way of identifying it and had to look for something else. WhatFontIs.com’s automatic AI system will search its database of 550,000 commercial and free fonts and identify that elusive font in seconds.

All that’s required of you is to submit an image (a string of letters is suggested).

 

  1. Savah App

This advanced prototyping tool was created to support web and mobile app design. In addition to enabling people to build high-quality, high-fidelity prototypes, Savah features a built-in design workflow and approval system making it a great tool to have for promoting and supporting team and cross-team collaboration.

Savah prototypes can be automatically synced with Dropbox, Google and Sketch App. Check the monthly plan prices. Note that a 30% discount is given on annual plan purchases.

 

  1. HelpJet

Reducing the number of support tickets saves time and money and makes customers happier – if you go about it right. With HelpJet, you can build a knowledge base that enables customers to quickly find answers to common questions rather than having to stand in line for an answer.

A customer that can get a good answer right away is always going to be a happier customer. You can easily customize HelpJet to fit your brand.

 

  1. Goodie

Launching your new website “the Goodie way” simply involves working directly with the developer. All you need to do is provide the details of the design you want and the Goodie folks will produce a high-performance website consisting of squeaky-clean code at a special $999 price.

This can be a perfect deal for owners of small businesses in need of a carefully coded website.

 

Conclusion

While it’s highly unlikely you’ll need all 15 tools and resources there just might be one, if not two or three you could put to good use immediately. It could be a website building tool that makes it easier for you to keep up with the latest design trends, and with your competition.

Maybe it’s a chart-building plugin that enables you to present data in ways you never could before, or a bundle of a gazillion icons and illustrations.

In any event, Happy Shopping!

Read More at 15 of the best tools & resources for web designers in 2019

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Finding the right multipurpose WP Theme just got easier: here are the top 12 examples

“Multipurpose”, “all-in-one”, and “universal” tools and products.  You heard of them before. They have a reputation for doing some things well, and other things not very well at all.

We bet you also proverbial “Jack of all trades, master of none” saying applies. it no longer does so in the world of multipurpose WordPress themes.

There are plenty of good ones out there. Admittedly, each has its unique strengths and weaknesses. But as you narrow your search to the best of the bunch, weaknesses are inconsequential.

Select one of these 12 multipurpose themes for your next project and guess what will happen.

It will nail it!

They’re not only that good, they’re the best.

1. Be Theme

When you go down the list of features of any premier multipurpose theme, you’ll usually like what you see. It feels good to have a theme that can handle anything you throw at it.

Be Theme’s list of features never seems to end. Its 40 or so core features make Be Theme the biggest WordPress theme of all.

The “key” features are naturally those you have the most use for; but a key feature for every user is Be’s library of more than 400 responsive, customizable pre-built websites. They cover 30+ different business sectors, website types, and styles, and just about any business niche you’re apt to get involved with.

Other features you’ll particularly like are the new Header Builder, Muffin page builder, Options Panel, Layout Generator, and Shortcode Generator. You’ll also have shortcodes and other design elements and options galore to work with.

Download a pre-built website with a single click, start building, and with Be Theme it’s not at all unusual to turn out a fully-functioning website in as little as 4 hours.

2. Jupiter

Jupiter X is a total makeover of the popular Jupiter WordPress theme; the creation of Artbees, a member of the Power Elite Envato Hall of Fame. This new version is super-fast, powerful, scalable, and extremely developer friendly. With Jupiter, you can customize design and content elements that are normally difficult or impossible to customize in other themes.

Users can for example totally reinvent their blog lists and portfolios, and the Shop Customize allows you to customize online shop elements that in most other themes are simply off limits.

Headers and footers can be built from scratch and you can customize every inch of your website using Jupiter X’s powerful visual editor, and creating special forms, popups, and unique menu styles is no problem at all.

3. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme

Visit the Uncode website and you’ll be introduced to its website-building features. Nothing new here. Virtually every WordPress theme, multipurpose or not, does the same thing.

Where Uncode, one of the ThemeForest’s top selling themes, is different from the rest is its showcase of user-built websites. You can actually see what others have been able to accomplish using Uncode, and you’ll be impressed – and perhaps inspired as well. We highly recommend visiting the Uncode site for this reason alone.

Uncode’s advanced adaptive grid system, adaptive images system, and more than 200 option-rich design modules should be mentioned however, as should the hierarchical options feature that gives you total control over your layouts and design content.

4. Brook – Creative Multipurpose WordPress Theme

More than 150 exquisite pre-made layouts. More than 35 pre-eminent homepage designs. Blend in a premium responsive drag&drop page builder, a slider creator, and a host of intuitive design elements, we have Brook.

This multi-purpose creative theme features a WooCommerce shop, numerable custom shortcodes, mega menus, one-page scrolling, parallax scrolling, and many more to be listed. You’re invited to pay a visit to their website for a full understanding of what Brook could do.

5. Kalium

This developer-friendly theme offers an impressive array of theme options, blog, header, portfolio types (7 main types with options – 30 in all), shop items, a one-click demo content import and a premium page builders such as WPBakery Page Builder or Elementor. Kalium is extremely easy to use and offers endless possibilities. You should in fact be able to showcase your work as you’ve always wanted to the first time you use this theme.

6. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

TheGem lays claim to being the ultimate web design toolbox, and everything we’ve seen about it would seem to support that claim.

With its 150+ stunning demos pages, 50+ multi-purpose design concepts, flexible page layouts, and other design aids and elements, TheGem is a great choice for startups looking for a way to let the world know what they have to offer, and a great choice for other businesses, large and small.

7. Bridge

This #1 bestselling ThemeForest creative theme’s open-ended customizability feature, coupled with the premier WP Bakery page builder makes it a great choice for creating a website for virtually any business niche.

Other plugins add to this software tool’s overall value as does its library of more than 376 pre-made websites that in themselves guarantee to get any project off to a fast, solid start.

8. Pofo – Creative Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

Modern, crazy-fast, and search engine optimized pretty much describes Pofo. Its 150+ pre-built websites, ready-to-go home pages and 1-click demo pages give you all the website-building flexibility you need. Pofo really shines in three key areas – portfolios, blogs, and eCommerce applications.

This multipurpose theme with its more than 200 layouts to work with deserves much more than a casual glance.

9. KLEO – Pro Community Focused, Multi-Purpose BuddyPress Theme

One way to describe Kleo would be to simply refer to it as an adventure. This professional community-focused website gives you everything you need to create a happy community of shoppers.

Blogs, portfolios, eCommerce, community forums and eLearning features – you name it. Kleo is also compatible with most plugins; extending your website-building capabilities even more.

10. Schema

This website theme gives you a little extra for your money. If you’re quite capable of building beautiful websites, but have trouble getting traffic, you can count on Schema to save the day. In addition to its selection of impressive website-building features,

Schema improves your page load times, has clean code, and guides the search engines through your site element by element.

11. Movedo – We DO MOVE Your World

This 5-star top-rated theme contains a few surprises that you will not want to let pass by; if you feel your websites could profit from an extra dose of sparkle and pizzazz. MOVEDO is the website designer’s answer to a magic wand.

MOVEDO takes ordinary images and makes them move and takes static images and makes them appear to move. Website users love it, and you’ll have fun figuring out ways to entertain them.

12. Crocal – Premium WordPress Theme

Crocal is the new kid on the block, having joined the neighborhood last January. It performs like an established pro thanks to an absolutely amazing adaptive grid system.

Created by a #1 rated ThemeForest Elite author, Crocal is Gutenberg compatible, WordPress and GDPR requirements compliant, and eager to strut its stuff.

Conclusion

          We’ve made your search for a better multipurpose WordPress theme a lot faster and easier. You’re quite not done yet. You still need to find the one that will best suit your needs. Or, the one that will take a little extra time and some careful thought.

Don’t worry too much about struggling to make the right decision. You really can’t make a wrong one with this group.

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The hottest UX and UI tools you’ll want to check out today

          Companies used to place the highest priority on delivering bug-free software. There’s nothing wrong with that of course. Bug-free software is a worthy goal. The problem is, these same companies neglected to address usability issues. They did that until their software solutions had been placed into service. At this time, resolving usability issues often involved significant expense.

Usability issues tend to be more common than many people realize. The good news is, they can be addressed during the design phase. Then, they can usually be dealt with at minimal time and expense.

The tools and resources presented here are precisely what you want to have access to. This is if your intent is to address usability issues or concerns during the design phase.

Let’s start with:

1. Mason

Mason provides teams with a visual front-end feature-building environment in which they can collaborate to create app and other digital product features and seamlessly integrate those features into the codebases of existing products.

Normally, it can be fairly expensive to make a change or add a feature to an existing product, even if either is relatively minor. With Mason, neither software product teams or clients are forced to wait for the next deployment cycle to make a change or add a feature. Mason makes software maintenance far easier, faster, and less expensive than what people have become accustomed to.

Since Mason takes care of the coding, developers can focus on larger and more complex tasks and leave it up to the designers to create and deploy robust and secure software features and fixes.

Mason is easy to work with, transparent, and completely non-intrusive, it’s there only when you trigger it, so it won’t wear your websites or apps down.

2. UXPin

          UXPin is a powerful cloud-based prototyping tool you can use from the very beginning of the design phase until it’s time to hand the design over to the developers. Design, prototype, collaborate all in one place. It’s one of the few design tools that allows you to design from coded components.  Its use is based on the principle that one of the best ways to create a top-tier UX is by using an iterative wireframing and prototyping approach.

UXPin enables teams to share design information as needed, including with their clients and other project stakeholders.

This design information can take the form of concept-proving wireframes, low-fidelity prototypes to share with others for feedback, and interactive high-fidelity prototypes that have the look and feel of the real thing for user testing and design approval and buy off.

UXPin is designed to help you significantly reduce design, development, and product time, while ensuring consistency of design from one software solution to the next.

3. Interfacer

          Interfacer not only offers a practical solution to your need for a comprehensive library of design aids, but it’s a fun resource to have at your fingertips as well. This resource “library” is actually a collection of mini-libraries that feature hundreds of Google fonts, icons, UI Design kits, images, and templates for websites, landing pages, special pages and more.

Best of all, the quality throughout is excellent and everything is free for commercial use.

4. Webflow

There’s no need to invest in separate tools or platforms to manage your website design, development, and hosting needs. Webflow gives you a code-free, all-in-one solution that includes building a client-friendly CMS for each website or app you create — not to mention completely custom layouts and interactions. Designed for creative web designers, Webflow is easy to work with whether you’re a long-time designer or a beginner.

Why should you concern yourself over UX design and these tools?

A friendly UX encourages visitors to see their journey to its end

We’ve all been there. Looking for a particular product or service on the web and finding several good websites.

They promote the same products or services, but one stands out from the others. It was quick and easy to find what we were looking for. The experience was in fact so enjoyable that we decided to bookmark the website.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the website or app in question belonged to you?

A compelling UX design can increase loyalty to your brand

The ability to provide a good user experience is key to the success of your business. It helps to build trust in your brand, your product line, or your service. The UX you design can also help to establish longstanding customer relationships. Seamless and enjoyable interactions that encourage customer participation should be your goal.

Great UX designs can encourage word of mouth referrals to new customers

Word of mouth has always been an effective way to generate new business, and it’s no different in the digital world. People like to share pleasant experiences. Provide a good online experience to your users and they’ll want to tell the world about it.

Make the buying process a smooth and pleasant one for your users. An opportunity will arise to recommend someone to friends over social media. Whose business will that be? Yours?

Conclusion

The four UX and UI tools and resources described above have several things in common. If you make a choice, it most likely be one that best addresses your particular needs.

These UX/UI tools are fast, efficient, and effective. The collection of design aid mini-libraries should help you. You can steer clear having to reinvent the wheel.  You can also avoid extensive searches for special fonts, icons, or UI kits.

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How many of these website building tools could make your work easier?

Website builders are having a lot more fun these days. This is thanks to the new technologies they’re able to tap. These technologies enable them to create websites that are more attractive. They feature better performance and more functionality and are flat-out easier to build.

It hasn’t always been this way. Website builders have been on the market for quite a few years.  Today, we have visual front-end website builders. These tools are more powerful and flexible than ever and more user-friendly to boot.

Web designers now have access to tools that enable them to use their creativity to the max.

Here are 7 of the best modern website and page building solutions for your 2019 projects.

Starting with –

1. Elementor

Elementor is the #1 website builder for WordPress. With more than 2 million installs worldwide, Elementor has proven to be extremely popular among web designers in the US, the UK, and Europe.

Why is Elementor so popular? Because it enables you to work in the most efficient way possible. Everything is WYSWYG, and every element is customizable. This means that if you can imagine it, you can create it.

You no longer have to struggle with theme limitations or constraints. Since you can work your magic from the frontend design panel, you can do all your designing without a single line of code. Elementor offers a powerful array of tools to help you build your site such as Theme Builder, WooCommerce Builder, and Pop-up Builder. To make a truly tailor-made look, harness the versatile functionality from the Header & Footer Builder, parallax & animation, dynamic content, sticky headers, to the countdown timer, star ratings & reviews – you name it.

So if you’re looking for a website builder that allows you to design, develop, and market simultaneously, and one you can master quickly, Elementor is for you and it’s an absolute steal.

2. Mobirise Website Builder

          One reason for giving Mobirise a try is because it’s free; for both personal and commercial use with no strings attached. That’s all well and good of course, but there are plenty of other reasons as well; like the fact that this is an offline builder.

Being offline means you won’t be tied down to a specific platform, you have total control over what you can do with this website builder, and also with your site, and you can host your site anywhere. Since Mobirise is Bootstrap 4 or Google AMP-based, your site is guaranteed to feature crazy-fast page loading and be 100% mobile friendly.

Mobirise is also a drag and drop builder. It’s easy to learn and use, and you can forget about coding because it won’t be necessary. A host of useful design aids come with the package, including trendy building blocks and templates, icons, Google fonts, and a half-million free images.

3. Portfoliobox

          Portfoliobox is another website builder that offers the advantages of not being theme-based. You’ll find it flexible and easy to use, it doesn’t require coding, and a worldwide user base of over 1 million attests to its popularity.

Portfoliobox offers three plans: a Free Plan, a Pro Plan, and a Student Plan; each designed to enable you to create a modern and unique website featuring a stunning portfolio in a few hours.

The Free plan offers hosting of 10 pages, 10 products, and 30 images. With the Pro plan, you get unlimited hosting of pages, products, and blog posts together with hosting of 1,000 images, custom CSS/JS, Google Analytics, and a personalized domain.

Those who qualify for a free Student plan get everything the Pro plan offers except the personalized domain. All three plans provide the complete set of Portfoliobox design templates.

4. Webflow

          The ability to design, build, and launch websites made easy pretty much sums up Webflow’s capabilities. The responsive web design platform translates your design decisions into clean, semantic code for you. And it’s not just for static sites, as you can build a fully custom and client-friendly content management system (CMS) for every site that needs it.

You can use Webflow to build ecommerce solutions, create prototypes, and add delightful interactions and animations, all without coding.   

5. WP Page Builder

WP Page Builder is another design, build, and launch website-building tool option. Everything is drag and drop with this real-time, front-end page builder so there’s no need for coding, plus it’s compatible with any theme you happen to be using.

The pages you create with the flexible and simple-to-use WP Page Builder will always be 100% responsive and mobile friendly.

6. 8b Website Builder

          This brand-new (January 2019 launch) website builder is futuristic in its design, it’s amazingly simple to work with, and you can use it with equal ease in your home on your desktop, or when on the go on your mobile device.

Since the 8b website builder is Google Amp-based, your sites will be crazy-fast and 100% mobile friendly.

It’s also free during this initial launch period.

7. Quix – Joomla Page Builder

          Quix – the first ever Joomla page builder that provides real-time SEO analysis of your pages, SVG support and provides image optimization for rapid page loading. This visual page builder allows you to develop your site at fastest pace and create pages, forms, headers-footers, and themes.

Other page builders in the market allow you to do only what a page builder meant to do. But Quix provides far beyond than that by understanding user needs.

               3 Key Tips for Successful Website Designing and Building

1 – Make your site mobile responsive

This was once a suggested option, but today it is not anymore. There are more than 62% of shoppers making purchases over their cellphones. Over 90% using smartphones to compare prices and check out product reviews.

2 – Place your contact information where it’s easy to find, e.g., above the fold

People will want to contact your business or sales team. Thus, you should put your contact information where it’s easy to locate. If you’re using social media, putting links at the header or footer serves the same purpose.

3 – Respect the need for speed

The typical busy shopper has little patience with a website page that’s slow. 4 in 5 won’t tolerate slow-loading sites and many of them will simply search for a competitor’s site. Nearly 9 in 10 will seriously think about looking elsewhere if a site is not behaving well.

Keep your site running smoothly by optimizing videos and images for quick downloads. Make sure you’re using a host that can easily manage your site’s bandwidth demands.

Conclusion

Finding a website builder that will best fit your needs can be a challenge. Only because the marketplace is saturated with them. The challenge can be especially great for beginning web designers. They may not always know what to look for.

The intent of this article is to narrow the search to a select few. Thereby, make it easy for you to find a website-building tool that’s efficient, flexible, and a pleasure to use.

Read More at How many of these website building tools could make your work easier?

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Top 6 productivity apps for design teams – pick your perfect match!

          Along with the rest of the world, we tend to be obsessed with productivity. We want to produce more in less time. We want to do so without negatively affecting the quality of our products or services.

The digital age has proved to be both a blessing and a curse in this respect. New technologies have provided us with high-quality productivity-boosting tools. At the same time, it has placed greater demands on us to become more productive.

The rat race is still with us, and it’s faster than ever.

We’ve discovered areas where technology is indeed a friend. One of those areas comes in the form of smartphone apps and other productivity apps. These wonderful creations help us manage our projects and our personal schedules. They help us organize errands, and even plan our meals.

We’re pleased to present for your consideration the top productivity apps for 2019.

1. Mason

          Mason provides increased productivity with a capital P. This front-end feature-building platform for product design teams allows them to quickly, economically, and efficiently create high-quality front-end features for their apps.

Mason’s feature-building process is a model of efficiency and high productivity, but where this tool really shines is where it enables teams to skip wireframing and prototyping, documentation, QA inspection and coding as they proceed through design and product deployment.

Teams can also make changes to their front-end creations quickly; even after a product has already been deployed and is in maintenance mode. In fact, any authorized product stakeholder who has a Mason account can add features and make changes to a product that’s up and running.

Mason’s building blocks and visual interface are key to designing and building software features for websites, apps, and other digital products. If you’ve been looking for a UI/UX tool that can create a software feature faster, with great precision, and save you time and money, give this productivity app a close look.

2. Proto.io

          Proto.io is an easy-to-use web application which designers, developers, product managers, and entrepreneurs can use for prototyping when designing mobile and web apps. Nor coding skills are required neither are any special design skills required to build either low-fidelity or high-fidelity prototypes.

Proto.io consists of three environments: the Dashboard, the Editor and the Player. Proto.io’s Dashboard provides invaluable version control assistance which is especially important during rapid prototyping activities. The Editor takes care of the entire process of prototype-building, and the Player displays in your browser what you’ve accomplished and in addition, it plays a major role in user testing.

Proto.io 6, the latest version of this productivity tool, features a redesigned user interface, new state transitions, easy sharing options, a new Proto.io app for Android and iOS integration with user testing platforms, and more.

3. monday.com

          monday.com is a centralized team management tool that helps teams manage every aspect and detail of their day-to-day tasks, and plan, organize, and track their work in a single visual and collaborative space.

Once you’ve decided upon what’s important and helpful for your team, monday.com will capture and visualize the requisite information so you can see who’s in charge of what, track time, and generally speed up workflow and throughput.

Project leaders and team members alike love this productivity-boosting team management tool because of the culture of transparency it promotes and supports. When all parties concerned can view the same information, it gives them a greater sense of importance and empowerment.

monday.com is currently managing the work of more than 50,000 teams in 76 countries. It’s an intuitive, beautifully organized team management tool that helps connect people to processes.

4. ActiveCollab

          The latest version of this popular project management software features a host of new and enhanced features and is better in almost every way you can think of. Of particular note is the task dependencies with automatic rescheduling feature.

In new Active Collab, when a change is made to a parent task, each child task is automatically updated and rescheduled – removing excessive busywork.

5. Nutcache

          Nutcache provides an all-in-one project management software solution that helps project managers and teams manage tasks smarter and with greater efficiency. It promotes team collaboration from a project’s initial planning and estimating tasks through final billing.

Nutcache also performs time tracking duties and automates expense management and invoicing. This app’s flexibility and simplicity has made it a popular and useful tool to help teams organize and deliver work on time and within budget.

6. Lucidchart.com

          Lucidchart belongs in your project management toolkit if your team is spread across different locations and team members are working on a mix of different operating systems.

Lucidchart also saves time and eliminates misunderstandings and misconceptions because of its ability to help you visually communicate complex ideas or make technically-oriented presentations to non-technical audiences. It does this by providing a library of useful shapes to create virtually any type of a presentation diagram.

Top 5 Productivity Tips to Achieve More and Create Peace of Mind

Tip #1. Write it down.

Make a habit of writing down every task to be done and every commitment you’ve made. Trying to remember something you committed to last week? Or, maybe, something you should have added to your to-do list? This can often prove to be distracting and energy-sucking.

Tip #2. Do the task you dread doing first.

Since you’re going to have to do it eventually, do it now. You’ll feel good about yourself once you’ve done it.

Tip #3. Take breaks – religiously.

You can devote your full attention to a task for only so long before the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Experiment with the Pomodoro (Tomato) principle. Take a 5-10 minute break every 40 minutes – whatever works best for you. Doing so will help you mentally and physically.

Tip #4. Exercise

We’re not talking about extreme sports training. Walk, jog, stretch, or practice some muscle-strengthening exercises. Do this daily or several times a week. Healthy people are more productive.

Tip #4. Learn to say no.

Say yes to everything and everyone and you end up letting everyone else control your life. Pick and choose tasks and commitments judiciously and you’ll be far more productive.

Conclusion

Take the above productivity tips seriously and make a habit of following them. You should start noticing some very positive results in a short time. If you can use one of more of the productivity tools listed above so much the better.

You’ll have more control over your work, you’ll be more productive, and you’ll feel much better about yourself.

Read More at Top 6 productivity apps for design teams – pick your perfect match!