We all want to have a beautiful website. One of the keys to making your website beautiful is great looking photos. But we're not all professional photographers and don't all have fancy equipment. So here are 5 steps you can take to taking better website photos with your smartphone.
1. Make sure the lens is…
Facebook now lets you share live video broadcasts directly to your timeline. This provides a whole new way to engage with your audience. Here are 8 ways to get the most out of your Facebook Live experience.
1. Tell people when you're broadcasting.
Build up anticipation by letting your audience know when you're going to be…
A recent study found when people were asked what's the most important in a website's design they said "the website makes it easy for me to find what I want." And not just by a little bit either. 76% responded with that answer, while the next most important factor, "looks" was…
In the last two years a lot has changed about the web, and WebStarts has changed along with it. Here is a list of features we've rolled out that will help you design a modern website.
Parallax
Parallax scrolling gives your site a three dimension feel. The parallax effect can be enabled on any full width…
WebStarts is by far the most feature rich website builder. In fact, one of the biggest challenges we face at WebStarts is helping people know about all the great built-in apps we offer at no additional charge. So today I'm going to share 10 WebStarts apps you didn't even know about.
1. Calendar
Whether you're a…
Over the years I've seen and heard so many people speak about the virtues of promoting your business on social media. What I never hear anyone talk about are some of the reasons promoting your business on social media may not be a good idea. Here are 5 reasons you should avoid promoting your business on…
Designing a website can be a daunting task. After all, it often times requires you to not only create something highly functional but at the same time remarkably beautiful. Here are 5 principles you should be using in your web design to help you achieve those goals.
1. Establishing a goal
It's important before you begin…
Whether you're a professional or doing photography as a hobby there's a good chance you want to show off your work. And what better way to show off your best photos than a website? In this article I'll walk you through some of the powerful features that make WebStarts the perfect place to create your…
I know Wordpress is popular but the most popular thing isn't always the best thing. That's certainly the case if you're looking to create a website with Wordpress. Wordpress was originally created as a blogging platform but matured into more of a catch all CMS (Content Management System). Now you'll find people creating blogs, websites,…
I know Wordpress is popular but the most popular thing isn't always the best thing. That's certainly the case if you're looking to create a website with Wordpress. Wordpress was originally created as a blogging platform but matured into more of a catch all CMS (Content Management System). Now you'll find people creating blogs, websites, and even online stores using Wordpress but let me give you ten reasons that's not good idea.
1. Wordpress is difficult to install.
Wordpress was designed to be self-hosted. That means you'll have to find a server to host your Wordpress installation. It also means you'll need to be familiar enough with computers, software, and hosting to deploy a hosting environment. Sure you'll be able to find steps to do this online but they different from provider to provider and that won't change the fact you'll have to manage a couple of different bills. One for your hosting and another for your domain. You'll have to figure out how to connect those as well.
2. You'll have to know how to code if you want something original.
If you can figure out how to get Wordpress installed on to a server you'll still need to know how to write code in PHP, HTML, and CSS if you want to customize the look and feel. There are a number of websites where you can purchase themes for your Wordpress website, but each of those themes still need to be installed and configured. That process is technical and complicated. The average small business owner just doesn't have the time to acquire the skills necessary to create a website with Wordpress.
3. You'll be spending a lot of time on forums looking for "the right plug-in".
The reasons Wordpress is popular have to do with it's openness. However, strengths are also weaknesses at times. For example, since anyone can create a plug-in for Wordpress there are tens of thousands of plug-ins out there that do all types of things. But since many of these plug-ins require regular maintenance, and often times require their own hosting the creators stop maintaining them. If you have one on your website and it stops working it can bring down your whole system.
4. If something goes wrong you won't have anywhere to go for support.
When you do find yourself having a problem with Wordpress there's nobody you can call to get your problems fixed short of hiring a so called expert. These experts don't work for Wordpress, they're just people selling their skills on the web. It's possible you'll find someone to help you that's honest but they're still going to cost you money.
5. Your plug-ins and Wordpress version will need constant updates.
Anyone that's ever had a Wordpress website can attest to the fact it requires updates. Wordpress itself comes out with frequent updates but once you put some plug-ins in the mix you're almost always requiring an update. This costs more time and of course if something goes wrong during the update, good luck getting help.
6. Plug-ins will randomly stop working and your site along with it.
I was recently editing a site that was using Wordpress. When I went to make a post on the site the whole server would lock up. I spent hours diagnosing the problem. Eventually I had to give the problem to someone who knew more than me. Eventually they found one of the plug-ins stopped working and it disabled the ability to make new posts. Heaven forbid this happens to someone with limited technical knowledge and resources.
7. Your comments box will get bombarded with spam.
Your Wordpress install will have comments built-in and that seems great. That is, until the comment spam rolls in. There are so many bots designed to spam the comments section on a Wordpress website virtually every site gets bombarded with constant spam. You can slow this down by installing a plug-in, until the guy who made that plug-in decides to get a day job and stops supporting it. Hopefully at that point the out of date plug-in won't bring down your site.
8. If you forget your username and password good luck ever getting access to your site again.
This is one of my favorites because it's so obvious. When you use Wordpress, it's self-hosted so if you change your username and password to something you'll forget, you'll likely never get back in and be able to update your site. There's nobody to call or email. Maybe you think to yourself, I'll just use the same password I use on every other site so I won't forget. If you do that and someone hacks one service they'll have access to all your services including your Wordpress account.
9. On your own when it comes to hosting and backup.
Since Wordpress is self hosted you won't automatically have a backup if something fails. That means you'll have to spend more time and money purchasing additional server resources and configuring regular back ups. If you use a website builder like WebStarts they already have systems and people in place to take care of it for you.
10. Security risks and vulnerabilities.
Security risks and vulnerabilities are a huge problem with Wordpress. Because Wordpress is open-source and it's generally self-hosted that means it's innately insecure. Any web developer has access to the code, the infrastructure, the configuration. It's simply made available to the whole world. There's nothing to ensure your Wordpress won't get hacked. These are just a few of the problems you'll run into while using Wordpress. So the next time you see some wanna be techie proclaiming it's virtues on a form, you'll know the true risks of using a product with no central backing or support.
If you're selling an entire catalog of products online then Shopify has you covered. They provide a slick way to create an online store and display it as a catalog. However, selling products online is a lot more difficult than simply providing people a way to browse products and add them to your cart. To…
Are you on Snapchat yet? If not, you may be missing out. If you are, then you probably know it can be a little difficult connecting with people you know. Unlike other social media networks Snapchat doesn't go above and beyond to try and connect you with everyone in your contact book. Instead they rely…
1. Copy and paste comments into Youtube.
Maybe you've seen those decorative comments that say something like "Who's listening to this in ____" on Youtube. People love to post those under music videos. You can copy and paste those decorative comments into the comment section of any Youtube and it really stands out. After you've…
