No one is alone in having to remember a ton of passwords for various accounts. A huge majority of people are also guilty of using the same password over and over again. This could be very dangerous!

I have come up with a solution that has allowed me to not have to record every single password anymore and I’ve made each password unique. How do I do it? The trick is to come up with your own pattern of generated passwords.

There is a very simple solution! Once you get into the habit of doing this, it will save you time and headaches! It’s not difficult to start implementing this at all, so let’s get started… Here are the steps for generating your own unique passwords:

Step 1:

Come up with the foundation of the password (at least 6 characters would be good) and make sure it includes both letters and numbers. Choose something that you will remember because you will use it for all your passwords.

Let’s create a password to use as an example. I’ll choose this as my password: thuglife2012

Step 2:

Come up with a solution that will allow you to make all the passwords unique. This solution must be easy to identify, regardless of the account you are creating the password for. Here are some example solutions to give you an idea of what I mean. Choose ONE of these solutions to use for all your passwords (or create your own):

1. Use the first letter of the website address you are creating the password for to integrate into each of your passwords.

2. Use the last letter of the website address to integrate into each of your passwords.

3. Use the second letter of the website address to integrate into each of your passwords.

And so on…

Keep it consistent by choosing one solution so you have a habit of using it. Let’s create an example. I need to create an account for Facebook.com. I’m going to use the first solution listed above for all my passwords. I simply take the first letter of the site, which is “f” and then I simply integrate it into my regular password. To make this example easy, I’ll put it as the first letter of the website for all my passwords. This would make the password: fthuglife2012

Step 3:

In this step, I suggest adding a punctuation. A lot of sites require a punctuation in your password because of added security and uniqueness to your password. Choose a punctuation character to use for all your passwords and then add it to end of your password (or wherever you want). Let’s say I’m going to use the dollar sign. This would make my password: fthuglife2012$

Whoalah! You have created a unique password! Let’s do another example. Let’s say you want to create a password for yahoo.com. Your password would be ythuglife2012$.

Tips:

1. You can spice it up and make your passwords even more unique by adding a capitalized letter to your solution. Let’s say you decide to make the first letter of your password capitalized. Your password for facebook.com would be Fthuglife2012$

2. Obviously, DON’T tell anyone what the base of your password is OR what solution you decide to choose. If someone figures it out, you’re screwed. So it brings us to the next tip…

3. You can add even more security by implementing more than one solution or a different solution depending on the type of site!

Once you get into the habit of doing this, it is actually very easy AND it adds a layer of security by making each password unique! The trick to generating your own password is the solution you decide to use. Since everything you need to create a password for has a website, it is easy to use the domain address somehow. Of course, you can be more creative and go a completely different route. It’s up to you! Just create a pattern that you can remember.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any suggestions or if you’ve had a great/bad experience using this technique. I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Backlink

(inward link/incoming link/inbound link/inlink)

A backlink is any link that sends clients back to your website, whether from someone else’s website or from another page on your own. They are used to assess a site’s popularity and are the means by which Google determines page rankings, putting good link building at the forefront of optimization. The more backlinks there are to your website, the higher your site will rank in search results. This does not mean, however, that spamming links will automatically lead to better page rankings – the quality of backlinks is also taken into consideration, and the PageRank system is constantly being updated to favour relevance over sheer quantity. Several backlinks from established sites specialising in your industry/market or related areas of interest, or from trustworthy domains (such as.gov) will be considered more favorably than a vast number of backlinks from sites with content irrelevant to your own.

Breadcrumb

A breadcrumb is a navigation system designed to help users find their way around websites with lots of content – the series of links after “You are here” at the top of this page are a breadcrumb trail. They are only really necessary for large websites or sites with hierarchical content structures. Breadcrumbs can be location-based, showing the user which levels of the site’s hierarchy they have navigated through to get to the current page. Attribute-based breadcrumbs show how a page is categorized – this is particularly useful if your business sells many products organized by type. Alternatively, breadcrumbs can simply show the path the user has taken to arrive at the current page. Breadcrumb trails are an easy way to make your site more user-friendly and can reduce your bounce rate, but they shouldn’t be used in place of a primary navigation system.

To see an example of a breadcrumb, look on this page and you can find it right above the title of this blog post where it says “You are here:”.

Cookies

Sorry to disappoint you, but this one isn’t about food either. Cookies are a way of storing data about site users so that they can be identified in the future. Whenever a user sets preferences or takes advantage of customizable features, this information is stored in a text file and saved onto their computer. The next time they visit, this information will be used to reinstate their chosen preferences. Cookies are used to log in to site accounts, remember the content of shopping baskets, show personalized content based on previous activities, and generally create unique user experiences.

RSS

<-- I bet you see this icon a lot. That's an RSS Feed icon. RSS is a useful way of keeping current and potential clients up to speed with sites that frequently produce new content (such as blogs), without having to manually check for updates. It provides a constant "feed" of your site's content; RSS users can subscribe to your feed and have new content automatically pushed to their reader as it is published. RSS readers are now commonly integrated into web browsers, as well as being available as desktop-based applications and on mobile devices.

To see an example, check out our RSS Feed here.

(Sans) Serif

These are two different styles of typography (font). Serifs are the little details on the ends of letters in serif fonts – the small crossbars at the bottom of a “p”, for example. The most widely known example of a font with serifs is probably Times New Roman, due to the years it spent as the default font on Microsoft Word. These fonts are intended for the body of an article or piece of text. Sans (without) serif fonts, such as Verdana, Helvetica, or Arial, are intended for use as headlines. However, this is not a hard-and-fast rule. Well-judged use of mainly sans serif fonts can give your site design a sharp and contemporary feeling, and considered use of mainly serif fonts can lend an air of authority. However, it is worth being careful – the wrong sans serif fonts will make your site seem like it is trying too hard to be cool, and too many serifs will just seem stuffy. There is, after all, a reason for why most news websites tend to use a combination of the two.

Think about how you seek out information and services on the Internet; while sifting through pages of search results there will be some instances where you instantly dismiss a website. A single glance and you already know to hit “back” or “close tab”, because the site is (or at least appears to be) of no use to you. What exactly is it about those sites that give a less than satisfactory first impression, and how can you avoid those missteps? This should be your starting point when thinking about the design of your website.

How often should you redesign your website?

Probably more than you think. It is common you’ll hear that people suggest you should redesign your site every 2 or 3 years to keep your business and marketing fresh. Think of it this way: Websites are NOT a product, they are a process. Your website is the process of updating information that you are serving to your clients or to the public. Your website should grow with you and your business, not be left behind.

Who is the customer?

Do you like the way your website looks? If not, who does? And are they who you are trying to attract as a customer? Only you know exactly who your target clients are, and if your website doesn’t appeal to you, there’s a decent chance it won’t appeal to them either.

How important is it to convert business from your website?

When your homepage loads, what do you think it is communicating visually to prospective clients about your business? If the website doesn’t look up-to-date, users will assume the content isn’t fresh. The visuals may seem secondary to making sure your content is useful, but a huge part of making a good first impression online is having a website that looks modern and well maintained – a clean, well-organised shop-front suggests a well-run business. If you’re worried your website isn’t doing all it can to invite clients in to take a look around, maybe it’s time to consider a redesign.

Is your website… ugly?

If your site was built 3 or more years ago, the design is most likely dated. Are you proud of giving people your domain name or are you embarrassed? Most website redesigns are initiated because the site just doesn’t look good. Compare your site to your competitors, do most of your competitors have a better site than yours? Are you comfortable with how your website is representing your business’s image?

A slickly designed website isn’t worth a great deal if people can’t find any useful information on it. How easy it is to navigate your website? Pinpoint what it is users will be coming to your website for and make sure all roads lead to that information. On the Internet every second counts, and clients won’t spend more than a few seconds looking for the info they need, so make sure they don’t have to.

How functional is your website?

There are more ways than ever for clients to connect with your business, so ensure the website is up to the task. If it only renders properly in some browsers, you’re losing potential clients. Can you view it properly on a smartphone or tablet? Do images display correctly? Are there elements not supported by certain platforms, and if so, how is this dealt with? If these are things that you feel need to be addressed, it’s probably worth considering a redesign.

Is your site’s content engaging or interesting?

Are you providing your clients with the right information? The information needs to make a compelling case for the use of your services above others, and if a potential customer comes away from your site still unsure about what exactly it is you offer or why they should choose your business, you may find yourself losing them to competitors. Additionally, relevant content means people will be able to find your website easily. If your search engine placement isn’t what you hoped, redesigning for optimisation may give you the boost you need.

Can your site grow as your business grows?

As your business evolves, your website needs to as well. If your website isn’t easy to expand and change as your company does then it simply isn’t designed to meet your needs. Make sure your web presence is showing customers what your business is right now, and not what it used to be.

Building an effective website throws up a lot of questions. If you think your website needs a redesign it can seem like a daunting task, but with the right help you can make sure that your business has an online presence that looks and works exactly the way you want it to.

Do you have any questions about whether or not you need a website redesign? Let us know by contacting us directly or by commenting below!

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of using different techniques and methods to improve the visibility of a website in search engine result pages (SERPs) with the aim of increasing the volume of targeted traffic to a website. Such high ranking is important since Internet users hardly browse through pages and pages of search results. Without visitors, a website is like a product that cannot sell. It is therefore important that a website properly integrates with SEO so as to rank highly in search engines, and therefore generate the desired targeted traffic. Some effective SEO practices include keyword research, SEO copywriting, and link building.

Check out our favorite SEO blog!

Citations

Citations are references or mentions of a company’s name and address on other websites. Citations on third-party websites may or may not include a backlink to a website. Citations on directory websites are important as they are one of the key ranking algorithms used by major search engines. Businesses that have greater citation numbers have higher chances of ranking highly on search engines result pages as compared to those with fewer citations. Citing your business on well-established and indexed portals will improve your high-ranking chances as search engines will have greater certainty about your contact information and classification. Citations or web references are mostly important in less-competitive niches such as electrical or plumbing, where service providers may not own websites.

Cloud

Cloud storage is a networked online storage model where third-party hosting companies maintain, manage, and back up data in virtualized pools of storage. Cloud storage hosting companies run huge data centers, and they sell or lease storage capacity to people or businesses who want their information to be hosted. Such services can be accessed through a web-based user interface or a web-service API (application programming interface). A business can either choose a public, private, or hybrid cloud storage model depending on its storage needs. The advantages of cloud storage services are it eliminates the need of installing a physical data storage device in a business premise, the service provider takes responsibility of storage maintenance tasks including purchasing additional storage, data replication and backup, companies are only required to pay for the storage capacity they are actually using, and cloud storage hosting companies provide their users with direct access to a wide range of applications and resources that are hosted in another company’s infrastructure through a web-service interface.

Check out DropBox or SugarSync

Responsive

Today, Internet users access information from various platforms including desktops, tablets and mobile phones. A website that has a responsive design is able to automatically adapt to any platform used, based on the size of the browser and not the type of device used. Unlike a dedicated mobile site that needs to be customized for different devices such as iPad or iPhone, a responsive website design effectively adapts to any type of platform. With a responsive design you can share links across different platforms, for example, from a desktop browser to a mobile site. In case of future changes in the designs and sizes of devices, you will not need to adjust your website as it will comfortably adapt to platform changes, thus making it future-proof.

Conversion

Success in Internet marketing is not fully achieved by simply ranking highly on search engines and generating heavy targeted traffic to a website. This is because such achievements are of no use if the website does not convert visitors to leads or customers. Conversion rate optimization is the process of enhancing a website to lower visitor “bounce rate” and instead, lead a visitor to take a desired action with the aim of increasing leads and sales. Conversion rate optimization can be achieved using various methods such as usability analysis and landing page optimization. When a website attains a high conversion rate, it is able to generate more leads and sales and spend less money on advertising, which will in turn lead to high profits.

Set Up

The setup of WordPress is fairly easy and only takes a couple of clicks. You would need to have your own web hosting company to host your website. Once you have access to your control panel of that host you are ready to install WordPress. Usually it just takes a click of the WordPress icon to instantly upload it to your server. No configuration is needed or required. With Squarespace it is a little bit different. Your website will be cloud hosted which means you don’t need hosting because Squarespace already provides that if you go with one of their packages. Package can range anywhere from $8 to $50 depending on the features you would like included in the package. That sounds like a good deal, but the price of having your own host and picking the least expensive package is about the same, more or less. Going the WordPress route seems to be the better option. There is no monthly fee besides your web host fee and you would not have to pay for additional features as you would on Squarespace.

Content Management and Functionality

Both WordPress and Squarespace work as Content Management Systems. They are also more than capable to work as blogging platforms as well. However, as a CMS program, WordPress just has better overall functionality. The fact that WordPress is 100% open source contributes to the way WordPress works. Both of these systems also offer WYSIWYG editors. WYSIWYG stands for what you see is what you get, just in case you are wondering. Editing on both platforms is not difficult and require little to no experience in coding. Getting use to the controls on Squarespace is seamless and won’t take long to get to know and work with. With WordPress it may take a little longer because you may have more options to choose from, but options are good. The more choices you have to develop your website the better visibility, and that is the main goal to attract more visitors and clients to your business.

Extensibility

It’s great to have the options to add plug-ins or modules into a website for different functions maybe like a calendar or a form builder. When it comes down to extensibility WordPress wins. As we mentioned before, WordPress is open-source which means more plug-ins and more themes. Squarespace is limited on its extensions because of the fact that they are in full control of their server. If you are looking for a more functional website then WordPress can give you that.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization

There is one important reason to have a website: visibility. The more visible you are online the more business you will get, simple as that. It is very important to be ranked high on search engines like Google for instance. It makes a HUGE difference from being ranked #1 on the first page to being ranked somewhere on the third page of a search result, that is a fact. With that in mind, content management systems try to focus on including SEO into their software. WordPress focuses a great deal on this. They have pretty much built their platform around this internet tool. Not to mention there are also plug-ins available for an enhanced SEO website. Squarespace is also SEO friendly however it does limit some abilities to improve search engine optimization like limited control on the title tags. If you’re looking for a way to boost visibility WordPress is the better option.

Whichever CMS platform you choose to use, whether its WordPress or Squarespace, take time to think which would suit your needs the most. The one you would want to choose is one that will be the most cost effective, reliable, most functional, and be able to build the business website you will need.

Here are our top 6 reasons to switch to webmail:

1. Professionally Manage Your Email Using Your Own Domain

One of the most beautiful things about Google Apps is the fact that they offer a free service to manage your emails using YOUR domain. Google Public DNS is now the largest DNS service in the world, handling 70 billion plus requests a day. From small businesses to big corporations, there is a reason why companies use Google Apps! Google has paid options for your business, but the free account works well for many businesses. Another plus with having your email served with Google Apps is that you can manage multiple users easily. Have a new member joining your team? No problem! Create a new email/account for your new employee in just a few seconds.

2. Access Emails Anywhere

Unlike a desktop client email client, you can access your emails anywhere without ever worrying about syncing anything. Web-based options simply need you to log in, and the rest is done. This means any computer, from anywhere in the world, is as good as your personal computer when you check your email. Having email in one location only is not an option.

3. Keep Good Records and Never Delete an Email

Save large volumes of emails without worrying about backing up your older ones, or painfully going through the list to find one when the time comes. If you rely on old messages to get things done, you will need to find a way to save and retrieve emails easily.

Admit it, we all rely on Google to help us find pretty much anything we need on the internet. Imagine looking for an email using Gmail… get the intelligent search feature for your web browsing AND for your email. Save your precious time and save yourself from headaches. With webmail, you also get more space, so there is no reason to worry about clearing archives or folders to accommodate new incoming mail.

4. Stay Organized and Work Efficiently

Organization is a breeze because messages are grouped in threads to make going back and forth, or rereading an extended conversation quick. The appearance tends to be “cleaner” when using web-based email options, unlike the messy “indented” look that desktop clients with the ability to group messages often have.

Personally, we hear a lot of desktop client users complain that “web based” emails do not have the same features to help them organize or manage their email. This is where they are wrong. Not only can Gmail do pretty much everything they think only Outlook can do, but Gmail can even do MORE. Create folders, filter emails, or whatever you need… Gmail can most likely do it!

5. Manage Multiple Emails in One Box

Many people may not realize this, but multiple domains can be streamlined and sent to the same web inbox. You can choose the appropriate “sender” to keep it personal or professional, depending on your receiver.

6. Access Your Emails Offline

The need to access your email offline is slim because wireless access is practically available anywhere. But some desktop clients persuade themselves to stay with Outlook because they are allowed offline access. They may not know this, but Gmail offers offline access if you use Chrome!

Conclusion

Gmail and other web-based email clients are more efficient, effective, and it caters to a number of needs a desktop client cannot meet. More specifically, Google Apps has made syncing your email, calendar, documents, and to-do list on multiple machines easier than ever. It is no wonder that so many businesses choose Gmail or Google Apps. Isn’t it time for you to make the switch?

Do you still use desktop email? Do you have more reasons why webmail is better? Let us know in the comments below! We would love to hear your thoughts…

SEO for your website can be very elaborate, since it requires seamless coding, architecture considerations, and user friendliness to get the best out of it. Search engines pay attention to sites more when people want to use them. Before you decide on SEO for you business, read how SEO can revolutionize your business.

1. Visibility

Search engines are designed to help people find things easier on the Internet; to do this they relate things to websites. These things show what a typical everyday search engine user looks for. This can vary from the latest gadget to how people find things in their local area. Some ways search engines categorize websites by include URLs, content, and relevance.

This means you have to choose the right key terms to describe and interact with your viewers. Since your competitors use SEO as well, being seen relies on who can answer their audience better. Search engines do this by categorizing the most likely content to answer a person’s question. Without doing anything like this, there is a great chance your website will sit at the back of the pack.

2. Customer Quality

SEO categories and relevance connect people to websites, but they do one other important thing: they attract targeted-traffic.

If you do not prioritize your SEO, your viewer hits will be sporadic and they will be effectively pointless to your cause. For retailers and ad marketers, this is the same as financial ruin. Improve your place on the web by making sure that the customers you need are looking at your site. There is a great chance that they will follow through on average.

3. Effective Budget Stretching

If your business does not have the funds to market itself, stay true to economics and settle for cheap effectiveness. SEO is the cheapest way you can stand out on the web without having to resort to expensive ad campaigns. Simply altering text can be enough to make headway in your field.

SEO has one great customer concept going for it: it’s viewer neutral in terms of opinion. Regardless of what you do, people will not be turned off by your advertising strategy; everyone is doing it. If you keep your future content in mind it is easy to support your site.

4. Adds Value to Your Site

Did you know daily that Google gets 2.5 billion searches? In 2011, there were an estimated 2.2 billion Internet users. This means that people are using search engines at least one time a day. It is the most popular way to find websites. Be a part of those 2.5 billion searches by keeping search engine optimization in mind.

Search engines love to help people find popular content and the latest products and information for their ad sponsors. The benefit to you is that your website can receive priority viewing when you do things other popular companies already do, such as matching algorithm criteria to pieces of the 2.2 billion internet user market. A well optimized website will tend to match the average keystrokes of your ideal user.

SEO derives its value from helping others find you. This is the best return in value because it costs nothing to market yourself this way and it returns value in your website several thousand fold.

5. Monitor What Works

Ad marketing and SEO have one thing in common: they use prediction to find their customers. Because of this, businesses are relying on data more than ever. SEO forces businesses to think how their customers are looking for information, which in turn helps them become more ideal business marketers. By understanding the information demand, you can alter how your website fits into consumer demand on the web.

1. Increase Traffic to Your Site

A blog is a great tool to generate more traffic to your business website. A blog that is regularly updated and filled with SEO optimized articles will rank higher on search engines. This means that a potential customer is more likely to see your website when searching for general terms related to your business. In addition, people will be able to quickly share your website with others by linking to it in an email or social media outlet. More website exposure means more people are seeing your information, which will lead to more sales.

2. Increase Credibility

A blog that has well researched information will show your customers that you are knowledgeable in the field you work in. You can also use new blogs to share important up-coming information that relates to your business. This will show customers that you stay informed and up-to-date. A blog is a great tool to set your business apart from competitors by proving that you know more about the topic than others.

3. Become the Expert

While you are using your blog to generate more sales you will also be learning. In order to write informative blogs you will have to constantly research your field and discover new information. Use this information to improve your business and restructure the areas that need work. Blogging three times a week is the equivalent to studying your business field three times a week. Well-informed business owners are better able to serve their customers and increase their sales.

4. Create a Conversation, Build Good Customer Support

Unlike with regular business hours, your blog will be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Customers will be able to find your business information anytime they need to. The comments section of your blog will allow established and potential customers to offer useful feedback that will instantly give you valuable information to better your business.

5. Be Heard and Keep Them Coming Back

Unlike a typical business website that rarely updates its information, a website with a blog creates continuously changing content. Customers will return to visit your website to read your blogs. This will keep your business name fresh in their minds. Customers will come to enjoy the blog as a source of reliable information. A blog will also make a larger company seem more approachable to potential customers. The more return viewers your website creates the more return customers your business will see.

A blog is a very cost-effective way for your business to increase income. The price of starting a blog will be minimal compared to the immediate results you will see. Starting a blog will create more pages for your business website, which will in turn make your site more visible and desirable to the public.

Need help building content for your blog and website?
Contact us, we have an awesome solution for you!

Social media is a term that covers both social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, as well as social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, and Google Bookmarks. Social media marketing is the use of these types of sites to promote a business. It promotes a business by increasing a site’s visibility on the web, increasing awareness of the business among people of similar interests, provides free traffic, and gains backlinks to the business website.

Initially social media was viewed as a gimmick and not much more than an ego trip for people with too much spare time. The emergence of two hugely popular social media platforms in the form of Facebook and Twitter has been a game changer. The use of social media is now at the heart of all good online strategies.

How does social media benefit a business?

1. Brand Awareness, Identity, and Protection

Social media is a fact of life and increasingly, a part of everyday life for billions of people. A business needs to be where the customers are and create an awareness of its brand. Online is now the equivalent of the old idea of “footfall”. Not being a part of this is to ignore the reality that this method of doing business is very much here to stay. By being part of the online community and creating a “buzz” businesses are able to place themselves at the center of all the activity.

Brand identity is a vital component of any business strategy. Having an active online presence through the use of social media is a highly effective and cheap method of promoting awareness of a brand. Using social media also allows a business to monitor and respond to positive, negative and even inaccurate mentions of a business online.

2. Niche Marketing

The assumption is often made that niche means small. It might often mean small in the offline world but due to the global nature of the Internet niche can often be massive. Conversing and forming relationships online with people of similar interests can be highly lucrative when done correctly. One of the great benefits in this area of social media marketing is the fact that because of the shared interests many visitors are already pre-sold.

3. Site Traffic Generation

Promoting and sharing a site using social media such as Facebook and Twitter can often mean substantial traffic to a site. Reports suggest that in excess of seventy percent of online referrals come via Facebook. Both Twitter and Facebook boast very high click through rates to content mentioned on their platforms.

4. Search Engine Results Pages

Increasingly the major search engines are displaying Facebook and Twitter pages of the relevant search term in their search engine results pages. A Facebook page that is properly search engine optimized is an excellent method of attracting free traffic to a business site.

Social media drives SEO.

Facebook and Twitter are the two main social media agents but there are many more. Google+ is being heavily promoted by Google in a determined effort to get a slice of the lucrative pie that is social media. The use of Google+ and Google’s own domination of the search engine results pages will surely see Google+ become a major force in this area of online marketing. If a business develops trust and offers real value to its online contacts it can greatly improve its bottom line.

A business needs to carefully promote itself online; it needs to offer real value. If a business “keeps it real” in its use of social media the rewards can far exceed anything the offline world could offer. If a business is to survive in an increasingly competitive business environment it simply has to have a prominent online presence. Engaging in social media marketing is at the core of securing a high profile on the Internet. Social media has taken the idea of networking to a far higher level.

Ask ShiftWeb how we can help you with social media marketing.
We designed packages that will add value to your business!

]]> http://shiftwebsolutions.com/why-is-social-media-important-for-your-business/feed/ 1 http://shiftwebsolutions.com/wordpress-vs-weebly/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-vs-weebly http://shiftwebsolutions.com/wordpress-vs-weebly/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 21:24:17 +0000 Sinoun http://shiftwebsolutions.com/?p=2503 Thinking of building a website with WordPress or Weebly? Doing research on both of these content management systems will help you with your decision on which one to choose. You can create a simple and secure website with both platforms. They both share quality customer support but it all boils down to which one will be able to fit your needs. Weebly was built with non developers in mind and WordPress provides limitless customization.

The popularity of WordPress

Over the years WordPress has gained a huge following and is still converting users to its incomparable blogging tool and impressive content management system. Many big companies and websites use WordPress for their businesses. It is completely open source and a great tool to use for monetization. It’s ease of use and it’s abundance of plug-ins makes it the platform of choice.

Weebly, the famous drag and drop

Weebly is a widget based content management system. Weebly is a simple system in that it incorporates a great deal of drag and drop features. Anything from picture galleries to paragraph placement is drag and drop. It is free to use and it appeals to the non-tech types. You may be able to create a website within a couple of hours using this CMS.

Set Up

To setup a Weebly website all you would need to do is sign up and create a username and password. Once you are done with that you can create a sub domain for your website like www.yourdomain.weebly.com. The one downfall of this is that you would have to obviously include Weebly into your domain name, which is not as professional as your website name set as the primary domain. This is usually the default unless you purchase Weebly Pro. WordPress setup and installation is about a five minute process, which is not long at all. Clicking on the WordPress icon in the control panel of your chosen web host is about all it takes. You have no sub domains to bother with or packages to purchase. Your website name will be the primary domain and you will have access to all of the unique features of WordPress.

Design

If you choose to go with WordPress you’re looking at endless amounts of customization. You have the option of choosing many different themes. The variety of themes is out there from simple static templates to a more e-commerce framework, that’s the beauty of WordPress. Weebly is not as flexible as WordPress. Of course they provide a variety of themes but sometimes you may be limited to the way you want your website to work. The amount of themes and plug-ins that WordPress provides versus the all inclusive Weebly is really no contest. If you want flexibility there is no other answer than WordPress.

Functionality

Weebly has a simple interface where everything is pretty much drag and drop. WordPress does not include many drag and drop features, however, you have total control on customization from endless amounts of plug-ins and themes. If you are looking to use your website for monetization, Google Adsense is usually a great tool to add to your site. Weebly and WordPress both make it possible to add Adsense to your website. However, with Weebly, you only get to keep half of the percentage you make off Google Adsense unless you sign up for their merchant account. With WordPress you do not have to worry about signing up for a merchant account or only keeping half of your profits. The plug-ins in WordPress makes this possible.

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