Mobile browsing is set to overtake desktop browsing by 2014, and with such a variety of smartphones, tablets and netbooks (all which feature web browsers in various shapes and sizes), how should we design to see our work shine from wherever it’s viewed?

Mobile-specific sites seemed like a great idea – creating a bespoke site for smaller screens – but then, along came Ethan Marcotte with responsive web design, a set of techniques that allowed websites to adapt beautifully along a gradient of different viewing experiences.

But what are these techniques? And how should we use them?

Here are five tips to get you started with responsive web design.

1. Use a Fluid Grid

The first technique to master in responsive web design is the use of a fluid grid. This improvement on the liquid layout responds appropriately to the huge number of screen sizes available in today’s market, and tomorrow’s, for that matter.

Fluid grids are designed in terms of proportions, so no matter what the screen size, the elements in the layout resize their widths in relation to one another.

The key to fluid grids lies in this handy little formula:

Keep that in mind for a moment. Now, create a high fidelity mockup of your site in a pixel based image editor. Using this, you can measure a page element (say, a title) and divide that number by the full width of the page.

Multiply that by 100, and you have the percentage of the page that element takes up.

Whatever answer you get, don’t round it up! Computers like mathematical precision a whole lot more than we do.

This percentage will now define the width of your element, and can be dropped into your style sheet to maintain the size of your element in relation to the size of its container. Big viewport? Big title. Tiny viewport? Well, this brings us to our next topic:

2. Use Media Queries

With screen resolutions ranging from 320px (an iPhone) to 2560px (a large monitor) simply scaling to fit isn’t always the answer. Text elements in fluid layouts can appear squashed and undecipherable on cell phones, and downright ugly and imposing on widescreen monitors. Media queries prevent this pesky problem from occurring by allowing us to adapt things such as the typography and layout of web pages according to the device viewing them.

They do this by identifying the device and checking for certain conditions in order to apply an appropriate style sheet. So, you could have one style sheet for large screens that will display elements in a certain way (say, double-column view), and another specifically for mobile that will display them totally differently (such as single-column).

Media queries allow introspection into the browsing environment based on:

• Browser Dimension
• Device Dimension
• Browser Orientation
• Color Information
• Device Specific Details (such as resolution or display base)

So that’s what they are, but how to use them?

Queries need to be incorporated into a linked style sheet’s media attribute to question the browsing environment. If certain conditions are met, the device will then load a corresponding style sheet; if not, the link will be ignored.

For a more detailed look at this, Smashing Magazine’s in-depth explanation is particularly useful.

At this point it’s important to note that CSS3 media queries are supported by a significant number of contemporary browsers but not IE8. Although, Microsoft has committed to media query support in IE9.

3. Use Responsive Images

Fixed-width images don’t flow so easily into different sized containers, especially if they’re too big. They simply aren’t aware of their surroundings, and with no constraints applied to them, will overflow and exceed the width of their containers.

This looks bad. Ethan Marcotte has written another excellent piece on exactly how bad.

But thankfully, it’s possible to apply the necessary constraints to force images to fill only the space available to them. All you need to do is set the width of your image as a percentage of its container:

img {
   width: 100%;
   height: auto;
}

Using responsive images in this way even works on older browsers, so it’s a pretty handy method. However, there are several factors to consider when implementing responsive images, including bandwidth and aspect ratio, which are essential to consider when designing for mobile.

4.Use Elastic Videos

Fixed-width videos will create the same problems as fixed-width images so need to be dealt with accordingly.

If you delved further into Ethan Marcotte’s piece on responsive images, you might have noticed the max-width: 100% rule (skimmed over in favor of width: 100% due to browser compatibility).

This rule works when using HTML5 video elements, which is great as a ton of mobile devices now support it. However, this rule doesn’t work if third parties force you to embed their content using iframe or object tag (like YouTube and Vimeo videos).

To get around this, iframes need to be wrapped in a container that can be targeted with CSS in order to allow them to resize fluidly, even if the iframe has fixed pixel values.

To examine the principles behind this, see Thierry Koblentz’ article on creating intrinsic ratios for video.

5. “Responsify” Your Navigation

Intuitive navigation through a website is imperative to great user experience, but you’re not just designing for landscape monitors and mouse clicks anymore. Your site needs to look and feel consistent across the gamut of devices it’ll be viewed in, so there are a few things to consider when it comes to responsive navigation:

• Make all your content accessible (don’t be tempted to hide a part of your website from smartphone users)
• Make icons easy to decipher (even on small screens)
• Make buttons easy to tap
• Take advantage of creative elements to hide/show content according to size
• Remember: You can’t hover on a touchscreen device!

There are lots of code samples available to help you implement responsive navigation into your designs, just remember not to get carried away and use what’s most appropriate.

There are still a lot of issues to be worked out when it comes to responsive web design, but the fact is, it’s not going anywhere.

Hopefully, these tips will have encouraged you to at least dip a toe into the responsive ocean, and for the braver amongst you, will have given you the nudge you needed to jump right in.

Fieldwork Flowers

Search for a local florist and you’ll notice all the sites look pretty similar. They don’t make the best use of the photos, they’re clearly a Blogger knockoff design and the chances of responsive design being utilized are slim to none. Enter Fieldwork Flowers, which looks more like a professional black and white photography studio than a florist. It’s elegance defined.

The Button Florist

Utilizing 2013 web trends such as sans-serif fonts and neutral colors, The Button Florist is everything a florist’s website should be, except the bouquets are made out of buttons. It’s simple and elegant and features incredible images that aren’t confined to thumbnails. In fact, with just the right amount of flash and plenty of white (green) space, it can be used as a model for any business. There’s no reason florists should pepper their homepage with images, because just a few of the right ones can draw in customers.

Artistry Florist

Besides the simplicity of this site, responsive design is clearly at the forefront with users being able to choose between the full flash site or the site designed for smartphones or tablets. For browsing purposes, I recommend grabbing the laptop and enjoying the beauty of the flash site. The photos are incredible and highlight the bouquets in the best way possible. Other florists can take some pointers on the importance of photography from this site.

Beautiful Blooms

With just the right amount of pastel colors and white space, Beautiful Blooms clearly demonstrates knowledge of web design best practices and trends. The side menu allows users to browse easily, and it’s clear the site will fit any size screen from a lumbering PC to the smallest smartphone. It’s timeless, just like a florist should be. It also shows off the options with plenty of high-quality photography.

Helen Olivia

This site follows the same general formatting as Beautiful Blooms but incorporates a little more flash into the mix. The contact page is especially impressive, making it easy for customers to reach out and place orders. The font choice is a little more old-fashioned, but it works when combined with a contemporary layout and other design choices. It’s a style that would work for any florist.

Ode A La Rose

Ode A La Rose uses a border on the top of the page that harnesses the use of dark purple and grey. The purple use throughout the website matches the theme, and continues to apply a sense of royalty on the page. The slideshow on the home page features photos and text that fit the theme and provide elegance to the eye.

Carl Alan

While most florists embrace a white background to set their photos against, Carl Alan lays out a black posterior that accentuates the color and vibrancy of the arrangements. The array of photos across the website are crystal clear and match the color scheme on the page.

Church Street Flowers

With a logo that catches the eye, Church Street Flowers uses colors that invoke floral want in the audience. Pink and green together create a sense of floral satisfaction that pleases. Throughout the webpage, these colors are used to make a concise site.

Conclusion

If you manage a floral shop, image is everything for your business. Redesign a website to include best practices, responsive design and a few trends that will stick. You’ll get many more customers placing orders if you have the right look. What about you? Do you know of any florist websites that should be included in this list? Please leave your comments below.

When it comes to typography, the font you choose can make or break your design. And fortunately for us, there are hundreds and thousands of free fonts out there, created by incredibly talented designers. To help show you some options that you can use for your next design project, we’ve brought together a showcase of some fresh, beautifully designed fonts that are all available for free. Please do check the licensing for some of these fonts, however – to confirm that you can use them for commercial projects.

And if you’ve come across any beautiful, well designed fonts that you think should be included – we’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Biko

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Biko-Font-Family-Free-Download/8063883

Kelson Sans

Source: http://fontfabric.com/kelson-sans/

Zwodrei

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/zwodrei-Free-Font/6509389

Musket

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Musket-Free-Font/5535461

Raleway

Source: http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/raleway

Broken Records

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Broken-Records-(Font)/1044195

Dekar

Source: http://fontfabric.com/dekar-free-font/

Muchacho

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Muchacho-Free-Font/8042679

Barkentina

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Barkentina-Typeface-and-Free-Font/6151175

Hero

Source: http://fontfabric.com/hero-free-font/

Lorena

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Lorena-Free-Font/2576379

RBNo2

Source: http://fontfabric.com/rbno2-free-font/

Open Sans

Source: http://opensans.com/

Code

Source: http://fontfabric.com/code-free-font-3/

Aleo

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/ALEO-Free-Font-Family/8018673

Jura

Source: http://tenbytwenty.com/?xxxx_posts=jura

Kilogram

Source: http://www.kallegraphics.com/freebies/

Zag

Source: http://fontfabric.com/zag-free-font/

Bamq

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Bamq-Typeface-Free-download/8173553

Intro

Source: http://www.behance.net/gallery/INTRO-free-font/3208179

Are there any well crafted, beautifully designed and thoughtfully laid out fonts that you think should be included in our roundup? Sound off in the comments!

The bestselling smartphones keep getting bigger—to the point that the line between phones and tablets is starting to blur. Industry voices have mocked the “phablet” as a ridiculous, clunky overreach (with an obnoxious name), but bigger phones are still flying off the shelves. Are we looking at a long-term trend? Or are “phablets” a bubble waiting to burst?

Tablets paved the way for larger devices

It’s hard to overstate the skepticism that followed the unveiling of the iPad. While everything else was getting smaller, sleeker, and less obtrusive, it was panned as “just a really big iPhone” that wouldn’t fit in your pocket (or even your purse), and couldn’t take calls. But with enough fanboys willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, the iPad got a foot in the door—and eventually became the most profitable product in Apple’s history.

The explosive success of tablets showed the industry that there was a market for bigger and better—that people were willing to tolerate a little inconvenience in exchange for a muscular, visually-impressive device. Without that leap, we would never have seen monsters like the Galaxy Mega (with a 6 inch screen!) or Nokia’s upcoming Lumia 920.

The rationale for tiny phones doesn’t exist anymore

In the era before smartphones, it made sense to shrink phones down as small as you could get them; a device used primarily for talk and text doesn’t need to take up much real estate, and the gee-whiz factor of miniaturization made smaller phones impressive and exciting. Today, according to research from Flurry Analytics, actual phone calls make up only a tiny fraction of the typical consumer’s interaction with their smart phone.

By a wide margin, most of what we do on our phones is tactile and visual—playing games, reading the news, checking email, and social networking—all of which are easier to do when you have more space to play with. Consumers who choose phablets aren’t buying a clunky phone; they’re buying a slim, powerful tablet computer that can fit in their pockets—and occasionally, if necessary, take calls.

The market is big enough for niche offerings

The popularity of various styles may ebb and flow, but smart manufacturers will keep their product lines diverse, and play to their strengths. Apple has earned their fame with sleek, elegant design, but the iPhone 6 will probably get broader and beefier in response to consumer demand. Blackberry’s pedigree comes from the 90s PDA scene, and they still cater to professional consumers—but new Blackberry phones are clearly targeted to a more mainstream smartphone market.

As of last year, there are over a billion active smartphone users in the world, and there’s no end in sight. According to NY Daily News, 1.3 million new smartphones and tablets come online every day. To put that in perspective, for every newborn baby, we get four smartphones. This tells us that there’s more than enough consumer base to justify offerings for every taste. If you strap your phone to your arm to go jogging every morning, a phablet might not be your best bet. On the other hand, if you love streaming video, playing games, and getting your news from your phone, a big, beautiful screen and a brawny processor is probably worth the extra heft.

So are phablets the future? Sort of.

While it appears the trend is toward larger, more powerful mobile design, there will always be consumers who prefer a lower-profile device. Even the smartphone, for all its success, hasn’t extinguished the traditional cell phone market. However, for the jobs that smartphones are most commonly used for, bigger is clearly better, and the industry leaders will be those who find the “sweet spot”, providing a beautiful visual experience without requiring users to hold a laptop up to their face.

Here are the 10 shortcode WordPress plugins to help you save time and extend your capabilities as its user.

Snippets Plugins

This WordPress plugin is very useful if you are using the same information on your website on different pages or places within the site. You can keep the information together and make them readily available as shortcodes for easy retrieval and posting. The plugin can be used for creating shortcodes for texts and images and may be used anywhere your WordPress content.

Store Locator Plus

This plugin contains shortcodes for a full featured location management system. This offers your website visitors to access a comprehensive and interactive store locator map that you can create using a shortcode for WordPress. You can also customize how the map will look like on your site from the control panel. Use this shortcode plugin for WordPress on your site and integrate an interactive Google map on your website with ease.

FX Image shortcode

If your WordPress site is highly optimized with images, using the FX Image Shortcode will provide you a plugin that will assist you in managing the image posts on your site with the ability to customize its style, size, layout and other features that will be most suitable to the WordPress theme that you use. You can mix the style from the photo gallery and pages of your website with some degree of control using shortcodes.

Promotion Slider

If you want to insert some slideshows on your WordPress site but is highly concerned that doing so may take some time, the Promotion Slider WordPress plugin offers a solution. This plugin allows WordPress users to manage and insert a slideshow presentation on their website using a shortcode. The user has an absolute control on how they want the slideshow to appear on their site. Using a straightforward shortcode, one has the ability to use flexible designs and wide range of customization options without the waste of time. You can create an effective visual promotional page slider that can be integrated on your webpage or blog

Shortcode Exec PHP

This plugin allows you to manage arbitrary PHP code that can be integrated with your WordPress site posts, RSS feeds, comments , widgets and pages. You can manage the PHP code through the plugin settings and you can possibly parse the shortcode parameters. All the PHP codes are collected in one place for better use and convenience. You also have the option whether you want to retain or delete the shortcodes on your site.

Video embed and Thumbnail Generator

This plugin makes the management of embedding videos and generating thumbnails more convenient for a WordPress user. It is also HTML 5 compliant. There are many options available in order to generate a shortcode which can be inserted in your post through the post editor. The plugin comes with a preview image of Flash video player that allows you to see the video before finally submitting it for posting on your site. You have some degree of control in customizing the dimensions of the video without much difficulty in handling the technical side. Using shortcodes from the plugin makes the task easier and convenient , allowing you to manage your website videos like a pro.

Display Posts Shortcodes

Using this plugin allows its users to manage shortcode within the website page or posts. You can manage your posts more effectively and display their listings to your WordPress site without any technical difficulty. Thus, even without knowledge about PHP and editing of your WordPress templates, you can easily manage your post title, images, texts and date using shortcode with better ease.

WP Datatables

If you need to use tables in your website, this plugin can make the task easier for you in creating multi-functional tables using shortcodes. The plugin integrates with other sources of data like JSON, CSV, and mySQL. You can also print or save the table in Excel, PDF or copy it to your clipboard as its advanced feature. There are various options that you can choose from the plugin. You can change the column type as URL links, date, integer or strings. There are some features that allow you to tweak the multi-functional table easily to display on your Wordpess site without the need of being a pro.

Lightbox Plus Colorbox

You can generate an HTML 5 valid code to create a larger version of your texts, images and slideshows that can be viewed by your website visitors in an overlay. Using shortcodes you can select to overlay images, slides or videos on your website thereby allowing your visitors to view them on a larger image without the need to leave your site.

Shortcodes Ultimate

This shortcode plugin for website allows you to easily create buttons and boxes on your site and even display sliders. You can possibly create a more premium looking WordPress site using the plugin through the use of shortcodes that will make it quick and easy for you to manage them on your current WordPress theme. It comes with a special widget and more than 30 shortcodes to choose from. You can easily generate the codes and use them as you please to your WordPress site, saving much time and effort.

Here are some common errors that web designers commit when using templates:

Following the mob

Let us start with one of most obvious. following a trend. By following trends, you are basically giving up that right of freedom in creativity. Chances are, when following a trend – it has already been seen in a lot of places. Hence the word “trend”. Using a template may limit you from what you may actually have the ability to create.

You may have that power to create your own trend. Uniqueness is what I vote for and it’s what separates us from others in the market. Web designers should not depend on popular and trendy design templates.

Over customization

The second most common mistake that a web designers make in templates is too much customization. This ultimately defeats the purpose of templates. If you were to spend fifty hours on customizing a template – I think you’re better off starting from scratch.

The whole idea is to save time and effort. When you use a template on a website, all you need to do is slap on a logo and maybe some color changes. Maybe shift things here and there – but major alterations is definitely a no-no. I’ll say it again – customizing a template too much defies the purpose of a theme.

What to put here? What to put there?

This has been seen many times. You fall in love with a “magazine” layout template, usually one that has three columns – multiple containers. A scrolling feature section, with five or more articles. But your project simply doesn’t have any content.

Furthermore, it takes years of dedicated writing for a blog to fill up with categories, archives and sections to “fill up” those spaces in a magazine layout. “But it looks so good in the demo!. This brings me to my next point:

Templates are made to look good in the Demo

That’s right. If you haven’t yet noticed, designers ONLY use “Lorem Ipsum”. In other words, they have no problem stuffing their demo with complete junk because it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it looks good in the demo.

Once you buy the theme – it doesn’t look the same!. That’s correct – now YOU have to come up with REAL stuff to put in that template. Or even worse, your client has to. Now you’re stuck with a nice skin – but EMPTY content. Now what?

Spark a Discussion?

I’m sure if you’ve been reading up to now that many of you agree and disagree. Like I’ve said in the beginning, I don’t discourage the use of web templates. I think they’re great! But I’ve seen these mistakes happen too many times. I’ve seen plenty of websites that has a recognizable template – customized too much beyond appreciation. I’ve seen a website – too many empty containers. And last but not the least, the typical “trendy” website – with that large slideshow – but no real substance in it’s content.

What do you think? Do you think templates are bad? Good? Let us know in the discussion below:

Agencies likely receive hundreds of job applications and you need to make sure that you stand out from the crowd.

But how exactly do you land your dream graphic design job? Is it all about luck?

The truth is that there are a number of ways you can do to increase your chances of landing the graphic design job you really want; here are just a few of them:

1) Get A GREAT Portfolio

Graphic design is one of those industries where you’ll need to prove your skills in order to have a hope of landing the job. The problem is, every graphic designer has a portfolio these days and therefore, employers will not only be presented with a tonne of CV’s but also, a tonne of graphic design portfolios showcasing the work of their applicants.

To be honest, this is one of the most important parts of landing your dream job as basically, the better you are at graphic design, the more chance you’re going to have of getting it. You need to make sure that you create a great portfolio for yourself and when I say great, I actually mean great.

Source: ChristHurman.com

You need to make sure that you include your best work and nothing else. You need to include projects that show the employer exactly what you’re capable of. Not only this, but your portfolio should represent your style of design and your particular skill set. If you’re great at using typography, show this in your portfolio.

If you’re great at minimalistic designs, show this. The bottom line is that your portfolio needs to be better than the rest of the applicants, so you need to be good at what you do.

2) Be Passionate/Determined

Truthfully, this point doesn’t only apply to jobs within the graphic design industry but within any industry. I wouldn’t want someone working for my company who wasn’t passionate about what they did, especially when it comes to something as creative as graphic design, so you need to make sure that your passion shows through (and also that you have some!).

Source: Shaun2nd.com

Clearly, it’s difficult to show this on a piece of paper but you can be clever about it. For example, you can do things to stand out from the crowd and show just how passionate about your job you are; you could create a well designed CV, a CV website (if web design is your thing) or even just write about how passionate you are in your covering letter.

Not only do you need to be passionate, but you also need to be determined. If the employer doesn’t feel that you’re as passionate or determined as the other applicants, it’s likely that you won’t be chosen.

So, don’t be afraid to call and check that they received your CV, and don’t be afraid to give them any extra information you feel might be necessary for the job. Remember, there’s a fine line between hassling and showing your determination.

3) Research The Company (and its employees/founders)

These days, it’s more important than ever to know about the company you’re working for. Sure, you’ll get asked the usual bog-standard questions during the interview process such as “Why do you want to work for the company?” and “To you, what defines us as a company and why do you think you’d fit in?”.

Research the Company

Yes, you get asked these questions at a lot of job interviews and a lot of applicants give answers that aren’t particularly tailored to any one company. So, to stand out, you should make sure to research the company before you submit your CV or make it through to the interview process. The more you know about the company, the more tailored your answers can be and the more impressed the interviewer will be.

You can use a variety of methods to research a graphic design company. You can look on their website, their portfolio or even their clients. You could also use a site like LinkedIn to research the founders of the company, their current employees and tonnes more.

The more you do your homework, the more you’ll make a great impression.

4) Get Experience

Again, this is a point that is not particularly tailored to the graphic design industry but is certainly useful when it comes to landing your dream job. While you might be able to prove your talent through your portfolio, a lot of companies also like to see that you have experience working within the industry.

Source: MadeBrave.com

For example, your work might be fantastic but if you can’t complete the work according to deadlines then they aren’t going to employ you. If you have experience within the industry, you’ll be able to show the employer that you have experience in a commercial environment which will most definitely increase their faith in your abilities.

Companies aren’t looking for employees that need “mollycoddling” these days, they want people that can work to strict deadlines, produce great work and work independently as well as part of a team.

If you don’t have any experience, find a graphic design internship or at the very least, some work experience. It goes a long way within the industry.

Conclusion

Essentially, it doesn’t matter what job you’re applying for these days, you’re going to be one of many applicants and if you don’t stand out from the crowd, you won’t have a hope of getting the job. Make sure that your work is great, that you have more than enough experience and that you’re passionate about the industry.

Sure, you might only have a piece of paper (CV) to prove your worth in the early stages, but once you get through to the interview stage, you’ll need to “wow” the employer.

Offering a free basic platform, Google Analytics is considered to be one of the best performing web analytics applications available.

To help you learn more about how Google Analytics works for designers check out the Analytics guide below and read on for more tips.

Click image to open interactive version (via Simply Business).

How does Google Analytics work?

In summary, by signing up for Google Analytics you will gain access to a tracking code that can then be added to every page of your website. The code collects visitor data and compiles it into reports for categories like traffic sources, content, and conversions that display your website’s data patterns within a chosen date range.

What can I learn from using Google Analytics?

Analytics offers quick and easy access to more in-depth information about your online customers, for example where they are coming from and what behavioral patterns they exhibit. This valuable data could help inform decisions about the effectiveness of your web design and potential areas for growth, development and enhanced usability.

How can data benefit my design?

1. You’ve no doubt focused a lot of time and attention on designing your home page so you think you’re home free, right? Wrong. A customer could access your website via any number of landing pages. Analytics data will tell you more about the performance of your home page compared to the rest of your site so you can tweak the other access points as required.
2. Visitor reports are a key feature of Google Analytics and can tell you a lot about the behavior of your users. Information such as frequency of visit, how long they visit for and which pages they search while on your site will help steer your design to meet user needs and patterns. If most of your visitors come to your site during the evenings, then upload promotions, videos or other content to reflect that. If they use mobile devices to search your site, make sure your design supports mobiles.  Analytics can tell you all of that and more.
3. Check your bounce and conversion rates. If a visitor only viewed one page on a website before leaving, that’s known as a bounce. Low bounce rates mean good web design, high quality content, and engaged visitors. Once users are engaged, you can gear your design towards driving conversions or purchase decisions.

What do I need to do now?

Once you have an overview of your website’s performance and users, you just need to ensure that you input the tracking code on every page to make sure every drop of data is collected. Then analyze and tweak your site designs and be even better at your job!

Altough, most of these websites will have some kind of a limit on the number of logos you can have for free, it is still good to try them out. After all, chances are you will only need one (or two at the most). So what do you say?

Keep on reading to discover these 5 awesome websites that will make your next business logo – for absolutely free:

Logomaker

This website offers users about 10,000 professionally designed images that can be best suited for their blog or own website. There are design tools that are available that you can use in order to create your own design by changing font color and size and edit the texts. All it takes is to download the logo you created from the site and you can instantly have a free web-ready logo to use on your blogs.

http://logomaker.com

The best thing about the website free logo creation designs is that the images are unique and are specially created by professional logo designers. Who would notice that your blog’s logo is only made for free? The caveat is you are only entitled to 6 free logo designs but may opt to create a high resolution logo version for a fee.

Online Logo Maker

This website offers logo designing tools that allow the users to create a professional looking logo for free within minutes. The steps involved in creating logo designs are very straightforward. Although you are creating sophisticated designed logos, you will not need any technical skills in logo designing to be able to create one.

http://onlinelogomaker.com

With all the basic logo creation tools that you need available from the site, you will certainly find the website to be very user friendly to those aspiring to have their professional logo to use on their blog or business websites without the extra costs.

Logo Yes

If you are looking for a website that offers you to create free logos that you can design yourself without any other form of assistance, this website is certainly a best option for you. The site allows its users to design their own logos with control over the whole process of designing and creating their design. There are over 20,000 design elements available to create your own professional logo design for free.

http://logoyes.com

You can enjoy more customization options and the process does not require any designing experience. Its do-it-yourself software will give you more liberty of creating the most suitable logo for your blog without making it hard on your part because of your lack of technical know-how in logo creation and designing.

Free Flash Logos

If you prefer to optimize your logo design with flash animation, using the animated logo designing tool of Free Flash Logos offers you a good option. You can create wonderful animated flash header bars for free from the site. There are varieties of flash banners that are customizable and make them fit to your own preferences and choice.

http://freeflashlogos.com

It only takes two simple steps such as editing the logo title texts and then the logo slogan texts as you start designing them in the designing tools available on the site and your flash animated logo is now ready for your blog site.

Free Logo Services

This website is well-acclaimed for the growing numbers of completely satisfied customers who take advantage of their free logo making services. Creating a good logo takes only a few simple steps that you can finish within minutes. About thousands of highly satisfied web users are using the logo creation tool from the site every week.

http://freelogoservices.com

Their services offer both free and paid logo designs that you can download either for a fee or for free. With its large number of growing customers, this website is worth trying to create a state of the art, professional logo for your blog or business website without the extra costs on your end.

Below are 7 Easy Steps on Setting up a WordPress Site

Setting Up Web Hosting and Domain Name

While there are many places where you can setup a domain name and hosting, hostgator.com is a preferred choice based on their baby plan. Their baby plan allows you to host as many websites as you want for one flat monthly rate.

Setup your host enviroment

After you sign-up for hosting, you can enter a domain that you want to register and if it is available, you can register that domain for a flat fee. Once your domain name is registered, it remains your property for the next year and you can renew your domain name for as long as you wish to continue with your site.

Installing WordPress

Hostgator and most hosting providers have a quick and easy setup for WordPress for any site hosted by their service. First, login to your cPanel for your website and then go to the software services section and click QuickInstall. On the left hand side you will have an option to select WordPress.

Install WordPress by QuickInstall

After selecting WordPress, you will be prompted for your domain name followed by your admin email address, blog title, as well as your admin username and your first and last name. After those fields are filled in, click install now. This will complete your install. You will want to wait two to four hours after installing for your site to work.

Installing Themes

Once you install WordPress, you will want to login to your admin page (ex. www.yoursite.com/wp-admin) and then go to your WordPress dashboard. From here, you can change everything about your WordPress site but first we are going to install a new theme which is basically a template for your site.

Install themes

In your dashboard, go to appearance and then themes. From here you will want to click on the install themes tab. You can either browse or search for a theme that meets your taste and once you find one to your liking, click the install now button for that theme and then click activate. If you head back to your main site, you will now see the theme you just installed.

Adding Pages

Adding pages in WordPress is simple. Go to your dashboard and then hover your mouse above pages, and then select add new. From there you will be taken to a Add New Page screen where you can enter the new page title, content, and attributes for the page.

Add Pages

Changing Homepage

If you wanted to change the page that your blog loads to, all you need to do is go to your dashboard, hover your mouse above settings, and then select reading.

Changing Homepage

From here you can change the page that shows up as your front page. The default is the last post you made on WordPress but you can change this to a static page, such as home.

Using Widgets

Widgets are various little items on your blog that increase user functionality and enhance the user experience. These range from calendars to comment boxes, search fields, and more. Go to your dashboard, highlight appearance and select widgets. From there you will be taken to a screen with your available widgets as well as boxes to drag them to.

Using Widgets

These may be labeled main sidebar, footer area, etc. Expand the box you want to install the widget in and then drag the widget to that box. You will then be prompted to give a title to the widget and once doing so you will want to save the widget. Refresh your page and your widget should appear.

Adding Youtube and Facebook Functionality

If you want your blog readers to follow you on Facebook or even subscribe to your Youtube channel, you will need to add this functionality to your blog through widgets. We already went over how to add widgets so now you need to acquire your widgets for Youtube and Facebook.

Youtube has a WordPress plugin and to access it, go to dashboard and then go to plugins. Search for the Youtube subscribe plugin and then select install. When you go back to your widgets section, you will now be able to add the Youtube widget to your sidebar or wherever you want on your blog.

Facebook and Youtube plugins

The Facebook widget will require a couple more steps. First, go to Google and search for “Facebook like box widget” and you will be presented a link to the Facebook developers page for the widget. There you will enter your Facebook page, enter the size you want the widget and then click get code. When the code is presented, select the Iframe code to simplify matters. Copy the code and head over to the widget section of your dashboard. Drag a text box widget to your sidebar and paste the code and click save. You will then have the “Like Me on Facebook” widget displayed on your page.

Wrap it Up

So there you go, I hope that we were able to help you get your WordPress site up and running. If you want a visual step by step guide, feel free to watch our tutorial below: