Ravi Saive: A Technology Blog For Newbies

Whether you blog for your passion or deal with some other issues, you are likely to encounter one road bump that come in the way of every blogger and writer– the boredom. When any blogger loses the charm of writing for his or her blog, it could simply become a desperate task and thus would simply convert into an avoidable thing. Blogging is a serious business and it takes time to establish you as a good blogger.


You need time, creativity and consistency in your work, however, when you become bored about writing a blog, it simply becomes specialized kind of torture. If you lose the interest in writing for your blog, even your readers would do the same. If you are blogging on any specific issue then you put your time and efforts for writing creatively. However, when your blog writing becomes a burden then you are bound to hamper the quality of your blog. It’s time to get rid of the bored blogger blues. The below are tips for blogging out the blues. Let’s check them out:

1. Change your focus

As a blogger, you may be writing on the same topic for weeks or even months, which finally reduces the amount of creativity you want to put in your blog posts. However, if you reach at such junctures, remember it’s time to change your focus. Changing your focus often work wonders as it quickly helps you in looking back in your life and end up improving your writing on multifold things. Hence if you see yourself writing on the same subject for a while, it’s inevitable to get bored out of it, hence better change your focus by coming up with a new blog and start writing for a brand new topics. Once you get bored on this, you have the option of returning to your first topics. This may appear weird to you, however, it will help you in giving both your reader and search engines to catch your constant content stream.

2. Take a break

If you blogging become boredom, it’s time to stop writing and take a break. In fact, you should take a break much before you start seeing the boredom creeping inside you. Taking a break could be anything, right from having a few minutes break to several hours of it could work wonders for you. Take some time to socialize and eat outside with family and friends or simply read a book or go for a good walk. Make sure you try something really different than writing and then you return to the feeling of being refreshed. If you are really tied up at your workplace, make sure you schedule a proper break time. For instance, if you are working on your blog for the entire day, don’t forget to take a break for an hour taking rest or doing something different. This will refresh your mind and body.

3. Find inspiration

Getting bored about your blogging task could be diminishing the motivation in it. Check out the things, which helped in moving your blogging wheels smooth during the time when you started. You could think of visiting your similar niche blogs and check out a few new blogs to get the inspiration to get rid of the boredom. Invest your time to re-focus over your blogging objectives. The other way to get inspiration is to join a blog carnival. It is basically an event wherein the bloggers are given the same topic to write. The blog groups often organize such events on a monthly basis, by participating in these carnivals; you could get the motivation to write new blog posts. You get a topic to write, which reduces your stress over it along with getting good backlinks for your blog since the hosting blog often end up linking the blog carnival entries to the blogs.

4. Get organized

Another reason why you could feel the boredom in your blogging task is due to the messy things you have created by going unorganized in your blogging. Being messy you may not find the things, which you look out for your blogging leading to frustration and boredom in your blog. By simply keeping all your things up to the mark and at proper places over your PC or laptop, you will never seen boredom entering in your blogging sphere. Make sure you take time to clean up the mess and making things organized to avoid things like boredom or frustration enter in your blogging activities.

5. Think of a workout session

By having a high intensity blogging you simply mean that you brush all the non critical activity under the carpet. These include the exercises, which fall under the non critical activity for the bloggers. Exercises help to keep you healthy and fit and as said a healthy body would always have a healthy mind. Hence it will not only drive away the health problems from your body but at the same time help you a lot in your creative activities like blogging.

Final word

The boredom blues could hit every blogger and writer in some way or the other at various junctures of their life, however, you could think of surpassing it. The above tips could help you in beating the blogger blues and bring your back to blogging.

About The Author: Margaret is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, traveling and reading books. She contributes to Hydroxycut.

Getting the highest page rank possible for your company's website can set you apart from other businesses in your industry. With so much written about advanced search engine optimization (SEO) tips, as a beginner how do you indicate where to start?

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website in a search engine's organic search results. Generally, when a website is listed on the first page of a search engine such as Google, the greater number of visitors they'll receive. Understanding the basics of SEO can greatly impact the success of your website and number of hits you get. By following these three basic tips, you can improve your ranking and get a greater amount of traffic to your website.


You might also be interested in reading following SEO articles :

1. Basic SEO Tips and Tricks
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Cheatsheet
3. Secret Benefits of Search Engine Optimization
4. The Benefits Of Search Engine Optimization
5. Understanding SEO Correlation v/s Causation

1. Create Original Content

When the search engine spiders are crawling your website's content, they are extremely partial to originality. This means that re-posting articles from other websites is going to do nothing for you. When it comes to driving traffic to your website, content is king and you have to make sure what you're writing is relevant to the industry you're in.

Make a goal of writing topic-focused articles that are between 400-700 words, include keywords and add a meta description that is 165 characters or less. Another great tactic is using your keyword phrase in the title of your post. Clear topic-focused titles create an easier re-distribution for readers to post your content on their networks.


Breaking content up into small paragraphs is another tip to follow when writing for your page. Readers online have the tendency to scan rather than actually read, so by breaking up your thoughts into small sections it allows readers to focus more than they would if you had a few long paragraphs.

Read also :

1. 6 Types of Content That Increase Website Traffic
2. Why Guest Posting Is Good For SEO
3. 5 Reasons to Don't Get Banned by Google
4. 8 Top Features To Make Your Blog Fully Functional
5. 5 Best Ways To Increase Website Traffic

2. Keywords

When writing posts, your goal should be to solve your readers problems and be a thought leader in your industry. Focus on keywords that your target audience is searching for and from this point, you will be able to attract targeted readers to your site who could potentially become customers.


A great tool to use when looking into what people are searching for is the Google keyword tool or Copyblogger keyword research tool. Once you're familiar with what your audience is searching for, you can build those keywords into your post. Remember to be careful, search engines don't like keyword stuffing, so don't go overboard when inserting keywords into your articles.

Read also :

1. How To Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts
2. Importance Of Post Title Limit In Search Engines
3. Traffic Travis: A Free SEO Keyword Software

3. Links

It's proven that search engines take into account how many links are following your post and site. The more links you have, the more credible you appear to a search engine and you'll receive more traffic from searches.


In order to earn links back to your site, it's important that you distribute your posts to all of your social media networks and news sites, create guest posts, continually add new content and link to yourself.

Read also :

1. Why Buying Links is Banned and How To Remain Search Engine Friendly
2. 6 Initial Link Building Strategies for New Sites
3. How To Tag External Links As NoFollow

Distributing posts across social networks is one of the easiest ways to earn linkbacks. You can actually even set it up so your content is automatically distributed. Guest posting allows you to get in front of a completely new audience, and you'll earn a link back from a site that may be more established than your own. Be creative and engaging to catch people's attention, especially when writing your bio.

For the newbie in the SEO world, it may appear to be daunting, especially when there's so much information out there on how to start. By following the tips above, you will be able to easily optimize your website for better traffic and a higher ranking in search engines.

Google's Search Results Algorithm

Back in February 2011 Google released the Panda update which put the community in a state of uproar as it caused many websites to be dropped from the search engine's rankings. While of course the algorithm was far from perfect and had a few false positives, in the end it accomplished its purpose: get rid of low quality websites which try to exploit the search engine's criteria. Up until then, many people on the internet used black-hat techniques, such as keyword stuffing and cloaking, in order to trick people into visiting their sites.


Don't Miss : Google Penguin Updates Expected Soon

The problem however is that many people out there make use of certain techniques to improve their rankings… techniques which, on one hand, don't really harm anyone, but on the other hand, they don't bring anything useful to the table. In other words, many honest people ended up having to change the way they function because of that update, and so here is a brief guide for how to beat Google Panda update.

Don't Miss : How Does Google's Panda Update 3.3 Affects SEO?

Quality Over Quantity

Google is trying harder and harder to set a "quality over quantity" trend amongst website owners, and if you want to keep on getting traffic from them, you will have to comply. To do that, you need to understand that the algorithm is based on how a person evaluates a website manually… it is made to look at it the same way a human would. And so, the first thing you need to do is up the amount of original content on the your site's pages. In order to do that, it is possible to use a different template footprint to give your content more space, not to mention that you can use a duplicate content analysis tool which analyzes your page and compares it to other ones out there. It is recommended that you use a threshold of about 90% for your pages, meaning that if 90% of the code on a page matches another one, it should be considered as a duplicate.

Also, it's very important to keep a proper ad-to-content ratio, because even though Google's Adsense team tells you to put as many as possible, the fact remains that Panda will penalize you for having too many of them. Just put a few banners here and there, some on the side, and you should be good.

Don't Miss : What is Google Penguin? and 5 Recovery Tips

Make it Feel as it was Made by a Person

An important factor for how to beat Google Panda update is to make sure you don't have pages devoid of content. Empty pages are a burden on your website as Google doesn't particularly like them, and that's because pages without content are often used in black-hat SEO techniques. In other words, simply delete those pages, or add some content in there. Also, avoid auto-generated content and don't use too many affiliate links; the former is a telltale sign of a poor website (and consequently, an owner you don't want to do business with), while the latter is simply a matter of differentiating your website from the auto-generated junk floating around out there.

Link building is one of the ways to drive traffic to your website. A link works like a street leading up to a home. People will get to your place easier and much quicker if there are more streets leading up to it. The same is true with building up links. Having other websites linking to your website will make it easier for people to find your webpage.


The process of link building is both an art and a science. There are countless ways to add links but not all will work for a particular site. When putting up a new website, it is advised that bloggers and publishers try out as many techniques as possible to see what works.

1. Post Regularly

Post great content on a regular basis. Having a good stream of articles posted on your website has several advantages for a new website. A new website may not have a lot of readers at first but once people start coming in, it is reading great content which makes them stay and want to share it with other people. When writing content, try to direct your reader to other posts in your website by creating internal links. You can also choose to link to posts on other websites that you own, as long as the topic is relevant.

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2. Research

Try to do some research on your competition and determine what their link building strategy is. You may get a few useful tips such as finding niche directories.

Don't Miss : 5 Reasons to Don't Get Banned by Google

3. Build Relationships

Whether you are just starting out in creating a name for yourself or if you already have a large base of followers, it is important to build and maintain relationships. Get to know the people who are working in the same niche as you are. You can start by leaving valuable comments about the post you have just read or the website in general. Most websites will allow you to include a link to your website. Other than building a relationship with the website owner, you may also get a few of the followers to check out your website as well.

Networking has many benefits. Once you start building good relationships with people in your field, it becomes easier to ask for or exchange links. You can also get more opportunities to create guest posts on other websites. Mingling with the crowd is one sure way to help promote your website and get your name out there.

Don't Miss : 5 Great Tips To Become Professional Blogger

4. Profile Links

Other than guest posting, you may want to consider creating profiles and posting content on websites that have high page rank such as Wikipedia and YouTube. With Wikipedia, you can create a company profile and include a nofollow link to your website. Getting listed as a resource on any article posted on Wikipedia will help make people see it as an authority on a specific topic. The same goes with posting a video on YouTube. Other than getting more people to come and browse through the website, it also helps create diversity in your content. Also consider posting an article or two on popular article directories and ezines. These websites will allow you to create a profile and include a link to help direct people to your website.

Don't Miss : Why Guest Posting Is Good For SEO

5. Create Link Bait

A link bait piece is a type of content that goes viral and generates massive attention. It can be an article, a video or a simple image that is designed specifically to be shared. Generating more attention to the content increases the likelihood of getting other websites to link to your website. It sounds simple in theory but it takes a lot of time, effort and planning to pull it off. You need to know what people might get interested in and create content based on that. If you do pull it off, it creates wonders for your website.

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6. Live Blogging

Another interesting tactic to try out is blogging while attending a major event. Write about everything that is happening around you. The technique is similar to covering a live news event. The fewer there are covering the event, the better. Having little to no competition available at the event means you will get more people reading your content and linking to your website. Just make sure that the event you are covering is related to your website to make it effective.

Don't Miss : 7 Top Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog

The Internet world is always evolving. Every day, new technologies are created to respond to the demands of consumers. As a web designer, you need to face these changes with open eyes in order to excel in your field. If you want to attract more visitors and succeed as a web designer for SEO, then here are some new and fresh applications that you ought to try for web designing.

1. Adobe Ideas

You don’t need to work on a bulky computer anymore because Adobe Ideas allows you to design a website with the use of a portable gadget that runs on either iOS or Android. With this program, you can design impulsively and later transfer your work on Photoshop or Illustrator.


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2. iMockUps

This program, which can be installed in your iPad, is a simple web designing tool that provides your website the functionality that it needs. Most designers focus on the design, but iMockUps allows you to create an ergonomic website that browsers will love visiting.


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3. LiveView

If your web design work is focused on mobile applications, then LiveView is the program for you. This software allows you to design and test your website on the device itself, rather than running it on a PC. Because you can already see it as how it will appear on the mobile device, there is no need for further adjustments once you have finished with the website.


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Dont Miss : 7 Color Palettes Apps For Web Designers

4. Sketchshare

As a web designer, you need to update your client with the design and graphics of the website as needed. If you’re on the road and need to show your work, you can do so with the help of the iPad program SketchShare. It allows you to share your design, so you can proceed with it or make some revisions according to the feedback of the customer.


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5. Textastic

Web design is not just about graphics, for the text element is important as well. With the iPad program Textastic, you can edit codes, color syntax, and search and replace some text. Just like conventional computers, your iPad can act as the best device there is with its additional programming keys incorporated on the virtual keyboard. With Textastic, you can create and edit website text wherever you go.


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Dont Miss : Top 4 Mobile Apps for Web Designers

6. Buffer

In web design, you need to consider SEO as well in order to attract more visitors. One way of increasing browser traffic is by creating a Twitter account, and with the Buffer program, you can automate tweets as needed. If you don’t have the time to post everyday, then Buffer can do the work for you.


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7. Loads.in

It is a fact that not a lot of web browsers are patient. If you have a slow-loading page, chances are, your visitors will leave your tedious website right away. Remedy this problem by testing your website on Loads.in. It can show you how fast your website loads from more than 50 countries across the globe.



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As a web designer, you should know the importance of thinking outside the box and grasping new ideas for better outputs. With these new and fresh applications for web design, you can create the perfect website that will appeal to the ever-changing tastes of web browsers everywhere.

When it comes to promoting your site, there are a number of tools that you may want to learn about. One of the relatively new tools that you can use to help yourself is the Rel="author" tag. What exactly is this tag and how can it help you in the future?

What is Rel="author"?

This is a tag that was introduced by Google last year. With this tag, you can put it in the header of your webpages and be featured as the author of the content. When your site shows up in the Google rankings, you can have your name featured in the rankings as the author of the content. If you've seen any pictures of people and their names featured in the Google rankings lately, it's because of this tag.

Integrating the Tag

The tag works in conjunction with your Google+ profile. When you use this tag, you have to include a link to your Google+ profile behind it. In your Google+ profile, you also have to include a link back to the site where you want to be featured as the author. This connects your Google+ profile with your website. Once you do this, the author tag pulls the profile picture from your Google+ profile and uses it in the search results of your pages. To acheive this, just follow my below article.

Don't Miss : Add Author Profile Picture Next To Google Search Results

Importance of Google+

Google has been promoting the Google+ social network a lot since it came out. They want to be able to integrate it more into the search engine results over time. This is one step in that direction, and shows that they are serious about making search more social. If you want to be able to use this feature, you're going to have to sign up for a Google+ account and set everything up properly.

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Credibility

One of the big advantages of using this tag is that it can lend you some credibility in the search engine results. Instead of seeing some link to a faceless website without any clue of who wrote the material, users can see a picture of a friendly author. This gives your articles a little bit of credibility and shows people that someone real actually put some thought into the content.

Help With SEO

The Rel="author" tag also has the potential to help you with SEO as well. When you have a picture and your name featured in the search engine results, it can increase click-through rates. If your site's click-through rate increases, Google takes notice of this. This is one of the factors that Google uses to determine how your site is ranked in the search engines. If you get a good ranking in the search engines, it increases the number of people who click on your link, and makes it so that you get more traffic. While this isn't the only factor that search engines will look at, it does come into play.

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Considerations

If you are not currently using the author tag, you may want to start. It can give you a little bit of credibility as an author and make it so that you can develop relationships with your readers. People like to know who wrote the content that they're looking at, and they will be much more likely to click on a link that has this tag.

A phone is not only restricted to make calls or send texts, it caters many more interesting and entertaining things in it. Specially when we talk about an iOS or Android phone, we do not need to enlist it's exciting and fascinating features. It is known that iOS and Android phones deliver the best and effective features and apps. Many people use internet in their mobile phones for many purposes like grabbing information, surfing internet, using social networking sites, watching videos and many more. But all these desired actions are not always fulfilled by various phones as they cause a lot of hindrance while surfing internet and do not provide easy access to all the above mentioned tasks.


Most importantly, many videos take a lot of time while buffering or sometimes their format is not supported by some phones. But no need to worry my friend! A lot of apps have been introduced especially for iOS and Android phones that allows you to view any type of video without any complications or hindrance and moreover will save your time and efforts as well. Enlisted are some exciting and intriguing apps that you would never want to miss downloading for your android or iPhone.

1. TV.com

Do you often miss your favorite show's episodes? Do you often take help of iTunes or Amazon to watch your favorite show? Enough of sacrificing now! Tv.com has come to the rescue. Apart from enabling you to watch your favorite shows on CBS network, it allows you to watch them from the affiliated media outlets as well like Showtime, CW, etc. Designed and released by CBS interactive, it is a free download app that is applicable to almost all mobile browsers and platforms including IOS and Android phones.


Download for iPhone Download for Android

2. HBO Go

It is an app which is free to subscribe and enables you to watch HBO content anywhere, but only after authenticating the subscription to your service provider. Authentication is required in only few large cable companies like Comcast and cox, but in the case of smaller companies subscription can be tricky.


Download for iPhone Download for Android

3. YouTube Mobile

Those of you who are using Apple phones are lucky enough as Apple phones already have the YouTube app inbuilt in them. And for those who are using an IOS, Android or a Smartphone, they can easily download YouTube app from Google plus. It is free from YouTube to download and automatically chooses the most applicable resolution of your phone for video.


Download for Android

4. Dropbox

This is an excellent app that allows you to upload all the saved movies from your pc on Dropbox and then directly streams up to your Smartphone. Support formatted files can also be streamed directly on Smartphone browsers. This app allows you to watch your favorite shows any time and at any place.


Download for iPhone Download for Android

5. Pocket Casts

To follow an individual or any group on net and to keep yourself updated with their new updates or podcasts, you will need to create pocket casts. This app enables you to automatically save any new updates or podcasts of any particular site just by entering and saving the web URL's. You can get a free version of this site and you can also buy it from the App store or Android market for $1.99.


Download for iPhone Download for Android

6. PC to Mobile Streaming Apps

This app definitely needs a high-speed internet for setting up a video server at home. This app allows you to set up a service provider and enjoy all music and videos on your home computer or laptop by using the PC or MAC app. You can also stream from your home computer by putting the IP address of your computer in your mobile browser and then you can log in by your mobile browser's username and password. As you will log in, you will be welcomed by a list of media availabilities.

We are sure you would not like to miss such an amazing chance to grab such exciting apps that would definitely make you experience a change.

Google is at it again with their Google Penguin algorithm update, first announced in April 2012. The update was live on April 24 and had no name until two days after announcement. During its release, Matt Cutts, the head of the Google’s anti-spam team, said that the Google team was still adjusting and improving the Penguin algorithm, which allows for the penalization of spamming sites on Google.

The role of Penguin update algorithm

Due to increased levels of spamming, Google is using the Penguin update to ensure that you get to spammers. However, it is important to understand that the algorithm is not a penalty but an adjustment that will stop sites from getting rewards for spamming. The Penguin algorithm has also done away with some linking activities that were in use for credit generation in the past.

The websites that violate the guidelines by Google Webmaster have their search engine rankings decreased. Such violation includes keyword stuffing, link schemes, content duplication, cloaking and more.

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Google came up with a Penguin feedback form after the release of this update, which was aim at giving people a chance to report web spams that are still ranking highly or to petition for sites that have are being hit unfairly by the algorithm.

Many webmasters are happy because of the introduction of the Penguin update because it will keep their websites free from spammers. This ensures that there is no violation of any guidelines, allowing websites to compete equally in the rankings and in getting traffic.

Penguin update upgrade

As it is still new, the Penguin update has to go through upgrading. Cutts says that the update will face big adjustments to increase the efficiency of its purpose and will therefore shake out those it hits.

Google has already announced one Penguin update, the Penguin 1.1, whose release was in May, a month after the release of the initial Penguin update algorithm. The name Penguin 1.1 is so because Google says it affects only 0.1% or less of searches.

Due to the fact that Penguin is new and in its early stages and it needs improvement, the Penguin updates are most likely going to take longer time for release. This will allow for incorporation of additional signals that will create a noticeable impact.

This leaves many webmasters anxious to know the next Penguin update and the kind of impact it will have. Is it a major revision? You will know that when the release of the next update happens. In this case, there are webmasters who will be on the losing end and some on the winning end. Soon, the Google Penguin update will be here and the impact is something to note.

When it comes to driving traffic to your website, content plays a HUGE role. However, what most people do not realize is that content needs to be specific and consistent. Successful websites generally have a very specific timetable for releasing certain types of content. They do this to both keep things fresh and to have variety. However, making it consistent means that people will know what to expect, which gives them a reason to come back.


So, if you are having trouble coming up with different types of content to publish, here are some ideas that might give you some inspiration. Of course, you can embed keywords or phrases into any of these to attract your target audience, just don't go so crazy that you sacrifice the quality of the article for them.

1. Informational Articles

This is perhaps one of the most common types of content on any website and for good reason. One of the main reasons for someone to visit a website is to seek out information about a certain subject, which is why posting informational articles on your website relevant to your target audience can earn you not only web traffic visitors, but also regulars who come back to your website because they can plan on you posting more articles in the future that they might be interested in.

Just make sure to keep your facts straight, to keep the quality high, and to make the information relevant and portrayed in a way that will attract and hold attention.

2. Blog Posts

Blog posts are a very popular form of content for any website, but they also have to be done well. For every popular blog post you read or browse through online, there are many, MANY more that will never attract more than a handful of visitors. The internet is saturated with blogs on EVERY different subject you can imagine, so the key here is to stick to a niche subject that you can do well, and to be consistent with it.

Be yourself. Be creative. If there was ever a time to give your own opinions or your own views on something, it would be in a blog post, just don’t offend EVERYONE, unless, of course, you can do that very well and attract visitors in the process! (Blogs are especially easy to use and implement, making them a perfect first choice if you know how to build a website for free and need to start from the ground up.)

3. Product Reviews

Product reviews are a great way to attract web traffic because a lot of people genuinely want to hear what others think about a product before they spend money on it. This is an especially useful type of content to publish if you keep it consistent and have the trust of your readers, if you say that a product is good and your customers buy it and they like it, then they will trust you!

Just remember to be honest. You might get offered a deal to endorse a certain product, which is fine, but make sure that by doing so you will not lose the trust of any of your readers. In other words, don’t endorse anything that you wouldn’t honestly recommend to your faithful readers.

4. How-To Articles

How-To articles are great for web traffic, but they will only work long-term if the quality is high. Make sure that they are useful and not just filled with fluff. If you can build up a pretty good archive of how-to articles, then you will find more and more visitors coming back to your site who just happened to ‘find it’ while they were trying to learn how to do something. If you have published other interesting content relevant to them, then they might be more inclined to return, and might also become a regular reader! You could also include one or more of the following with your How-to article...

1. A video
2. Pictures
3. Links to sites with more information on the subject

5. Videos

Websites like Youtube make it easy to embed videos, which are fantastic for keeping visitors on your website for a longer amount of time. You can write a little blurb before and after the video, perhaps talking about it or giving your opinions about it. Then, visitors can view the video without leaving your site, which is MUCH more advantageous than simply posting a link to Youtube, where a reader will be less likely to return from.

6. Pictures

Photos are very similar, you can generally embed photos from other sites, giving your readers something interesting/funny/amazing to look at when they visit.

Are you new to the iPhone community? Or are you an old hand with a device full of apps you don't need or want? The top five apps are leaders in their fields for a reason, popularity in style and innovation! Play iPhone Bingo with your friends by seeing which apps you all have and if you have all the same apps you get a full house.

1. Angry Birds - £0.69/$0.99

Angry Birds is probably the most iconic iPhone game there is as one of the first games to become internationally successful. It reached the top spots on both British and American charts in early 2010, and remained the top selling paid app until almost the end of the year. The game itself consists of players using a slingshot to catapult birds into structures. Knocking over the structures is key to killing the enemies inside them, and you are awarded a star level (out of three) for the efficiency of your victory. Users gain access to birds with different abilities as they play through the levels. The success of Rovio’s Angry Birds has prompted them to release upgrades and new versions, namely Season, Rio, Space and Magic.


Download for iPhone

2. Instagram - Free

Launched in October of 2010, Instagram was one of the first multi-national free photo sharing social networks. Integration into other networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter came later, but the original purpose of Instagram was for users to take their own photos via their smartphones, edit them on the device and then upload them for the online world to see. Instagram’s 80 million users are lovers of the app’s interface, which displays the photos like a vintage Polaroid camera.


Download for iPhone

3. Tiny Wings - £0.69/$0.99

Ting Wings draws a lot of comparisons to Angry Birds in its intuitive, simple and addictive gameplay. Graphically similar and even using a bird as the playable character, it’s easy to see where the similarities lie. But whereas Angry Birds was developed by games developing giant Rovio, Tiny Wings is the brainchild of independent designer Andreas Illiger. Rave reviews were handed out for Illigers brainchild, scoring 8/10 from IGN and 4/4 from Slide to Play. Ousted only by Angry Birds Rio, Tiny Wings occupied the highest grossing game for a brief time in early 2011. The game consists of a bird simply sliding down hills and up the other side to gain speed boosts. You collect coins and race against the setting sun, when the sun sets; the game is over. The goal is to complete each island as fast as possible to stave off the coming of nightfall.


Download for iPhone

4. WhatsApp - Free

WhatsApp was a revolutionary instant messaging application for smartphones. It took advantage of internet connections and allowed users to send free texts to each other, foregoing the need for SMS messaging as long as both parties have the app. Whilst some saw it as a waste of time considering most monthly plans offer unlimited texts, WhatsApp also supports the free transmission of images, video and audio files. MMS messages are notoriously expensive add-ons and WhatsApp cleverly tapped this market. Users of the iPod Touch could now download WhatsApp and it would allow them to communicate with other users as if th


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5. Facebook - Free

The mega power of social networking that is Facebook wasted no time in getting onto the smartphone app store. Facebook is an impressive port, losing almost none of the features that users were familiar with on their PCs and Macs. An intuitive and original feature that was exclusive to Facebook Mobile was the ability to ‘Check-In.’ Users could update their status with a geographical tag of where they currently were, this tag would then be visible to anybody in the vicinity and was a handy way to find friends nearby.


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As far as web designers are concerned, mobile apps have become an integral part of their toolbox. The nature of the web designer's work dictates that he or she will lean on several tools to speed up their creative process and work flow, and apps are a great way to achieve that. This article covers four apps that, whether on a tablet or smartphone, are capable of greatly improving a web designer's productivity. The apps listed here were judged based on how much they were able to improve productivity: Do they speed things up, or are they just a more interesting way of doing things? They were also graded for how frequently they came up during a designer's work, meaning that an app to quickly arrange color palettes was considered more valuable than, for instance, an app specifically geared towards making pet hair look smooth. With that in mind, these are the top four apps.

1. Adobe Ideas

Adobe Ideas is, like the name implies, a sketchbook for drawing out ideas. Adobe bills it as a companion for its Creative Suite, including Photoshop and Illustrator. According to Adobe, Ideas features support for multiple layers, vector sketching and more. The main selling point here is that it covers the most important part of a web designer's job, which is the actual creation process.


Because it's almost like a mobile Photoshop, it's a tool that many web designers have found to be their go-to app when working on a computer just isn't feasible. It's ideal for use during a meeting or a trip, while simultaneously producing results that have enough quality to be used in professional publications. An Android version of Ideas is also available, although it's received much less favorable reviews than its iOS counterpart.

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2. What the Font

In a world of apps where newcomers arrive and disappear on a daily basis, What the Font can almost be considered a legacy app at this point in the life cycle. First introduced in 2008, What the Font uses the iPhone's camera to take a picture of the text in a graphic or any other piece, then scans a vast database to see what font is used. Typography has become increasingly important in web design over the last few years as the world moves towards text-driven metro designs, and What the Font's utility has increased as a result. Designers love to draw inspiration from as many sources as possible, and What the Font makes this easier.


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3. Air Display

Air Display is another one of those apps that many web designers will find themselves utilizing on a regular basis. Actually, it's an app that most iPad owners would use on a regular basis, as AppleNApps.com is quick to point out. The app lets an iPad function as a second display for a Mac or Windows PC.


More screen real estate is almost always a good thing, but it's especially useful for web designers, who frequently keep reference images or inspiration open. Air Display becomes a truly valuable app because it brings touch screen elements to desktop applications. Photoshop window can be drug over to the iPad's screen and then edited using a stylus or fingers. That kind of precision isn't available with a mouse, so the fact that Air Display makes it a possibility means that the app is quite powerful for web design.

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4. ColorSchemer

Just as What the Font lets designers find inspiration anywhere for typeface, ColorSchemer enables designers to draw inspiration for color schemes. Rather than encourage users to pull from random sources, ColorSchemer takes a community approach. Users of the app share palettes they've designed with one another, meaning that new users can access millions of different palettes and build new ideas for their next website or graphic project. It's an indispensable app for anyone who carries a smartphone.


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Pinning down the best apps in any category is always difficult, considering the subjective matter of the topic. These four apps, though, have received almost universal acclaim. They bring a level of functionality to the table that couldn't have been imagined just a few years ago, and for that they deserve to be in any web designer's toolkit.

With the launching of Pages, Google+ has finally opened its arms wide to brands and companies aiming to increase their online presence and expand their business network. Are you one of these aspiring entrepreneurs? Then it is time to step up your game and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity that Google+ has created. First, though, you will need to know a few (or more) things about Google+ Pages. Check out the information below.

The Basics of Google+ and Pages

Google+ is a multilingual social networking service owned and operated by Google Inc. It is sometimes written as Google Plus or abbreviated as G+ and was launched in June 28, 2011. It has been described by the company as an overarching “social layer” which covers many of its online properties, not just a single site. On November 7, 2011, Google+ Pages was launched, allowing companies and organizations to set up profiles or “pages” for the posting and syndication of posts.

Google+ Pages Features

First off, with Google+ Pages, you can separate your contacts into different circles. You can market to just your VIP customers, relay communication only to Team Members, advertise to your Customers, and reach out to anyone you are Following. This particular feature of Pages presents a load of possibilities in collaboration and advertising.

Another plus with this latest from Google is the ability to edit or make changes to the settings AFTER you have posted. Typos need not leave a lasting bad impression on the online community, and if you suddenly decide that a post should not be shared with others, you definitely have that option.

How Brands can Get More out of Pages

Aside from the obvious benefits that Pages’ features can offer, here are a few other ways you could take advantage of Pages.

Higher Ranks on Search Engine Listings

Social presence is already being incorporated as one of Google’s ranking criteria. With the option to +1 your brand, similar to Facebook’s like, users can show their approval of your brand and help land your brand on the top of the search pages. Create an engaging brand experience on your Google+ Page; your social visibility has never been more important.

Huge Mobile Audience

Since most Android phones come with Google+, you have the potential to pull in a vast mobile audience. Most people are on the go, nowadays. They simply do not have time to pull out a chair and spend time with their desktops or laptops. Imagine announcing a sale on a specific product that will only be good for 3 hours. Your mobile user (who has assigned your brand to one of her circles) could read the flashing message in the “Nearby” stream and call up driving directions to your store with Google Maps. This is just one example of how Pages can drive traffic to your business.

Reach Out to Massive Audience Using other Google Apps

As mentioned earlier, Google+ consists of not just one site but acts to cover many of its online properties. Put in plain words, by using Google+, you can reach the huge, existing audience of Google consumer app users. Think of Gmail, Maps, and YouTube users. That should give you a clear idea of how great the opportunity is. You must look at the integration with these apps as another chance to hook the audience and lead them back to social experiences on Google+ Pages.

So there you have it: everything you need to know about Google+ Pages for your brand. Go on and leap into the welcoming arms of Google+! This might be your best business move yet!