All posts tagged web design

The Best Small Business WordPress Themes

Your business’s website is sometimes the first impression someone has of your company. WordPress is the platform over 32% of all websites use to build their site. Picking the best small business WordPress themes can be do-or-die for your success. You want to make sure your theme is not only an eye-catcher for your clients but also easy enough for you to edit and control. It is very important to put a lot of time into emphasizing your online presence. Business success is close to impossible without a great website, therefore you need to put some thought into which theme you invest in.

Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone.

Without a website, your business is likely to seem illegitimate. A business website is really the basis of all of your marketing. We’ve compiled a list of our go-to places to buy themes to represent your business the right way:

Elegant Themes

Advertising themselves as, “The Most Popular WordPress Theme In The World And The Ultimate WordPress Page Builder,” Divi with Elegant Themes is one of the most common routes people choose for the best small business WordPress themes. See the demo below:

ThemeIsle

Used by big guns like Groupon and Last Pass, ThemeIsle overs many of the best small business WordPress themes out there. This pirate-themed company does it’s best to make sure your site is easy to setup. You can also expect unique theme options to keep your clients coming back.

StudioPress

Used by over 200,000 people, StudioPress includes over 60 child themes with a lifetime membership that are some of the best small business WordPress themes. It is a great perk if you are a web designer or have a bunch of small businesses under our belt! It’s built as an all-in-one package and is commonly used alongside the Genesis Framework. The StudioPress themes are world-class and excel in both design and infrastructure all while being SEO-friendly to get your business higher in Google rankings.

CSS Igniter

CSS Igniter was started in 2010 and offers 79 premium quality WordPress themes for only $69. They have easy 24/7 support included. Also, they offer a great blog with insights into making a better website, freebies, and updates. Below are some unique themes offered with their plan:

Themify

Close to 100,000 people take advantage of the Ultra, Shoppe, and Music Themes as well as the Themify Builder and many addons with Themify. They offer 42 themes, 12 plugins, 25 builder addons, 5 PTB addons, all photoshop files, and a year’s worth of support and updates.

MyThemeShop

MyThemeShop constantly has great sales on multiple themes. They brag that their themes are a one-click install, one-click updates, SEO ready products available, built for speed, include HD video tutorials, 24/7 support, focused on conversion, and offer a 30-day money back policy. They boast, “Our recipe is simple, we succeed only when you succeed.”

TemplateMonster

For just $199, you can download unlimited themes from TemplateMonster’s huge collection of over 8,500 themes, plug-ins, and more WordPress perks. Typically, your theme purchase will include the PowerBuilder. It is a drag-and-drop page builder tool to help you create your website without knowing any HTML code. With thousands of different themes to choose from, TemplateMonster has some of the best small business WordPress themes you can pick from.

Apollo13 Rife Theme

You do not need to create your site from scratch with Rife. With just one click and within a few minutes, you can create your own website with ready-made designs. Their theme is a huge time saver! Constantly described as, “Relatively easy to set up, reliable, and always updated!”

TeslaThemes

For just $99 you can have access to all 68 themes offered on TeslaThemes. Over 125,000 websites trust TeslaThemes to give them the perfect theme for their WordPress site. There are also constantly coupons provided for 20% off on deals, which makes them a competitive option. You can sift through their blog as well for inspiration and great articles.

Themeum

With almost a whopping 300k downloads, Themeum has a large suite of premium quality WordPress plugins and themes to choose from. Easily preview an interactive version of every theme to see if it flows how you would like. You can purchase single themes, groups of five, or unlimited themes with their plans.

PremiumCoding

You can expect to find a range of themes great for blogs, businesses, multipurpose, eCommerce, and portfolios on PremiumCoding. You can use their page builder with all of their theme options. This ensures you will easily be able to make a website without any coding skills. They also have a team of experts to help you with any difficult tasks.

Before you can pick the best small business WordPress theme, you need to make surer you have chosen the best web hosting company for your website.

If you click on one of our links to a recommended web service, we may earn a commission.

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by alexiskadonsky on July 23, 2019 • Permalink

Posted in Website

Tagged design, graphics, hosting, how to, technology, templates, tutorial, web design, Website, wordpress

Posted by alexiskadonsky on July 23, 2019

https://alexiskadonsky.wordpress.com/2019/07/23/the-best-small-business-wordpress-themes/

Best Web Hosting Options for Small Businesses

A website is the backbone of most companies in this day in age. In order to have a website, you must host it online somewhere. After you’ve come up with your catchy and memorable domain name, its time to dive into the web hosting hustle. But how do you choose from all the best web hosting options?

Still need a domain name? We recommend Namecheap!

Web Hosting is a physical location where you can place your website on the internet, it’s kind of online storage which allows the user to store information, audio, video and other contents in your website. Then your website domain reaches out to that storage space and displays your website. Best web hosting options are primarily measured in terms of disk space allotted to your site on the server. The more content you have on your site, the more disk space you’ll need for the website hosting. In general, a shared hosting plan is what most small business owners will want.

Pro tip: do not fall for any Cheap Web Hosting Companies just because its rates are cheap. Many of them have hidden fees after your promo term ends and you could get stuck with them or sacrifice losing your website to switch to something more affordable down the line. Basically, you get what you pay for.

Hosting Overview:

SiteGround (Great ratings and recommended by the big guns like WordPress)

InMotion (Great for beginners and customer service)

DreamHost (Next best after the top two)

WP Engine (Most common for WordPress sites)

BlueHost (Widely popular)

StableHost (Transparent service and easy to use interface)

Things to Think About:

What are your hosting needs?

In general, a small business will start with shared hosting (cheapest and easy to maintain). Once you start growing though, you may need to upgrade to a dedicated server.

What are the upgrade options?

You may be starting small, but whats the whole point of a small business except to grow into a BIG business! Make sure you check out the deals for upgrading down the line when you’re business has really taken off.

Uptimes

All the companies we recommend have this covered, but if you choose to go elsewhere, make sure you look at their uptime. It should be as close to 100% of the time or else you’re paying for a broken website.

Signup promo prices vs renewal rates

This is a big thing that can really upset customers. A lot of web hosting companies offer GREAT intro rates for the first year or so, but people neglect to look at what the renewal rate will be. It’s pretty common for there to be a higher rate after your intro period and if it’s too high, you may be stuck with huge transfer fees or risk having to lose your web design to start over somewhere else.

Essential features

-A free SSL should be included

-access to .htaccess is a must

-one-click site install is a great bonus for newbies

Trial periods and plan cancelations

If you’re hoping to test the waters a bit, certain plans like DreamHost and InMotion offer long trial periods. It’s also smart to always check what cancellations fees you could have with any plan.

Will you need an e-commerce shop?

If you plan to sell anything right on your site, look into what e-commerce features your hosting plan can offer you. It may be worth upgrading to make sure you’re getting the right sales from your website.

cPanel and user-friendliness

The Control Panel is where all the magic happens. All of your files are stored here and you can access important files like your .txt robot and .htaccess files. The traditional cPanel is better for people with some knowledge of how web hosting all works so if you’re brand new to this, some plans like DreamHost’s customer friendly cPanel may suit you better.

Backups

Are daily backups included? If not are you willing to dish out the extra cash to make sure your site is always protected if something happens? Going without a backup really isn’t an option.

Our Best Web Hosting Options:

SiteGround

“Trusted By Clients And Industry Experts Alike” -A motto to be heard

With a 98% customer satisfaction rate, SiteGround is one of our top picks for best web hosting options for your small business. There is no compromise on their service and their technology leadership. This is a great plan but do be aware that their prices raise after your introductory time, but they are well worth it! They are one of the few platforms recommended by WordPress.

InMotion

InMotion is nice for beginners with great customer service. Many different plans to choose from or upgrade to when you need more punch to your website as your business grows. They also have a LONG 90-day money back guarantee so you can make sure you love the interface!

They advertise:

Our shared hosting is great for static websites, database-driven
content management systems, and custom applications
Work faster with SSH & develop in PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Ruby, Perl, and Python
Quickly build beautiful websites with our free drag-and-drop website builder
Get WordPress, Joomla, or PrestaShop installed for you during checkout
FREE Domain Name included – $15.99 value!

DreamHost

Starting at just $3/month, DreamHost is a great runner up to our top two picks above. They have the longest money back guarantee (97 days) and their own custom cPanel that they focus on making easy for their customers to use (while the traditional cPanel can be a bit daunting for the general user). They are independently owned and very customer focused.

WP Engine

“5% of the online world visits at least one experience on WP Engine each day” -That’s a number you cannot ignore

Widely popular and most used among the WordPress community, WP Engine is a great go to if you’re planning to create a WordPress site. They have educational articles as well to help you with any problems you may find along the way on your website journey.

Lots of stuff that most site owners have to manage with plugins on the front-end, WP Engine takes care of automatically behind the scenes at the server level: caching, security patches, core and plugin updates. The list goes on. This makes for a site that’s notably faster than what you’d get with even the best-shared web host, with virtually zero downtime or glitches.

BlueHost

BlueHost is widely used with over 2 million people depending on their service for fast and reliable quality. With a next to 99% uptime, the stats prove they’ve got your back. Their prices are comparable to most others out there but they could be better after the intro period. They are one of the few recommended WordPress hosting platforms and use their own easy-to-use cPanel system.

They may not have as long of a free trial period as DreamHost or InMotion (only 30 days), but are worth a shot since they are continuing to grow! Their customer service is good but could be a bit more knowledgeable as well.

StableHost

StableHost is exactly what they call themselves… STABLE hosting. They are a quality service that is easy to use. The support team is very knowledgable but could respond a bit faster at times. The interface is great to organize multiple domain names and hosting services with easy access into the cPanel.

They frequently have great discounts so check out their website for the latest deals!

Our content is well researched, which means if you click on one of our links to a recommended web hosting service, we may earn a commission.

1 Comment

by alexiskadonsky on January 25, 2019 • Permalink

Posted in Computer, Website

Tagged design, graphic design, hosting, how to, technology, web design, Website

Posted by alexiskadonsky on January 25, 2019

https://alexiskadonsky.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/best-web-hosting-options-for-small-businesses/

12 Fantastic Free Commercial Use Fonts

Credit to Ironwood Finance for letting em share their article!

Choosing the right font can completely change the vibe you give off to your clients, perspective job opportunities, and anyone that you want your content to be seen by. Use this list of 12 free commercial use fonts to spruce up your resume, small business advertising, and more. Explore brand diversity and catch more people’s attention!

1. Valencia

“Valencia Typeface is a bold script type font. This font is themed vintage and retro style and of course this font is perfect for a variety of other themes such as modern, and the addition of swash will be visible more interesting. This font is perfect for use in logos, posters, typography, cover books, clothing, branding designs, product packaging, and more”

Download it on Creative Market.

2. Kristi

The Kristi typeface is a bit more casual and would be great to use to evoke a handwritten look.

Download it on Font Squirrel.

3. Briberra

“Introducing Briberra, a rough bold script designed by Sarid Ezra!

Briberra is hand lettering script font that contains stylistic alternates & swashes that will help to create your own customized designs. You can use this font for quotes, t-shirt designs, branding, plus plenty of other projects. This font contains multi lingual characters, supports PUA and is available in OTF and TTF formats.

To add an underline to any word just type underscore + number (from 1 to 5). For example, Brib_3erra in the main preview.”

Download it on Pixelsurplus.

4. Champignon

Champignon is great free commercial use fonts for invitations, placeholders, thank yous, or titles. It is a classical looking font and is best used for headers rather than paragraph text.

Download it on Dafont.

5. Australis

“Introducing, Australis typeface created by Alice Whales. This font is beautifully made with a natural hand writing. As you can see the flow of the bold and thin lines creates a perfect hand lettering just by typing on your keyboard! This typeface is based on manual handwriting which is very suitable for any design needs you have especially for invitation project, wedding, fashion, etc.”

Download it on Behance.

6. Kely Rose

“Kely Rose is an accumulation of the ideas from a trend on the internet about handlettering style. Comes with the fancy style and made to give you ease in accomplishing the work of typography such as logotype, poster, headline, and other creative projects. Kely Rose comes with usability to use for Logotype, Letterhead, Poster, Apparel Design, Label and etc.”

Download it on Font Bundles.

7. Bukhari

“Bukhari Script is a bold monoline cursive font.
And also I called this face as a “Mouse Lettering Typeface”, because it’s start created from a bold line with a computer mouse.

Very usefull for various design projects, for web or printing, such as a Logotype, Posters, Badges, Signage, Business Card, T-shirt Design, or it can be anything. Bukhari Script contains almost 380 glyphs with several OpenType Features; Contextual Alternate, Stylistic Alternate, Standard Ligature & Fraction.”

Download it on Fontfabric.

8. Balqis

“Balqis is a feminine striped-rough calligraphy typeface that presents casual and natural feeling. It has a high contrast and very legible as a script font. Suitable for wedding invitations, greeting card designs, logos, or everything you may think it suits. Balqis Free Font available in OTF and TTF format.”

Download it on FDR.

9. Sophia

“Sophia a handlettered script font made by the super-talented Emily Spadoni. This font is sweet, saucy, and a little shabby. A new hand-lettered brush style typeface.”

Download it on Creativebooster.

10. Pinyon

“Pinyon Script is a romantic round hand script style font. It also sports swashes which are confident and showy somehow giving the type a feeling suggestive of the American west. Perhaps this is why, despite refinement and aristocratic style; Pinyon Script manages to feel so friendly. Pinyon Script uses a high stroke contrast and is very slanted making it most suitable for use at larger sizes.”

Download it on 1001fonts.

11. Learning Curve

“Learning Curve mimics traditional cursive lettering practice worksheets, but with a modern style that I developed from my handwriting.”

Download it on Font Squirrel.

12. Miss Katherine

“Miss Katherine script is a graceful, feminine, calligraphic handwritten script font. Its charming elegant style makes it perfect for use in your wedding invitations design, monograms, blog headlines or cards. Also, it will look great in gorgeous wedding stationery, typographic designs, posters and much more.”

Download it on Creative Market.

Use these free commercial use fonts to help build your advertising, brand strength, and catch people’s eye.