Banner ads are some of the most effective digital marketing tactics that more and more businesses implement in their marketing strategies. There were times when banner ads were not as effective as they are today, but they can significantly impact your sales and bottom line now a day.
What has changed? Business owners who want to advertise their products or services online have realized the importance of adjusting their banner ads to adapt them to their target customers’ interests and preferences. They realized the impact marketing tactics based on customer behavior could have on their business, since this can enable them to attract more quality leads and convert them into customers.
With that in mind, take a look at the top creative graphic design tips you should apply to design the best banner ads that people will actually want to click.
1. Embrace the Hero Image Trend
Since you want to attract as many customers as possible, you need to use strong and eye-catchy images. Your images must grab the attention of your target customers, so you need to make sure they stand out and truly engage people.
Hero images are very effective tools in creative design, so make sure you use one that perfectly represents your brand. The best images for banner ads are images of people, preferably their faces, but, if you are selling clothes, for instance, make sure you use one specific clothing item that will instantly capture attention.
2. Include Your Logo
The logo of your company shows your identity, so you need to include a logo in every banner ad, as it will help you with brand consistency. It needs to be clearly visible, but make sure it does not take too much space because, after all, you need to include more elements in your ad to attract your target audience. You can easily hire a Freelance graphic designer from Upwork, Artworkadobe, Freelancer, etc.
3. Brand Consistency Is Key
It’s crucial that your banner ads are always consistent with your brand, so that people can instantly recognize it.
It’s crucial that your banner ads are always consistent with your brand so that people can instantly recognize it. They are to have the same color schemes, typography, and images as all of your other marketing materials, including your website. Maintaining visual consistency will help you maintain brand consistency.
4. Make Sure Your Ad Copy Is Consistent
If you think that your ad copy has nothing to do with the design of your banner ad, think again. It is the key because it is exactly what drives conversion rates, so it must be consistent. It must reflect the content of your landing page because, if people click through and find out nothing on your landing page that they came for, they will leave your website, never to return again.
As far as the text of your ad copy is concerned, make sure you work together with your copywriter to create the most compelling message you want to convey.
5. Make the Headline Really Strong
The headline of your banner ad is as important as the image you include, so it must be strong enough to instantly grab the attention of the viewers. You can use some of your keywords in the headline, especially if your banner ad is product-specific since it will tell your target audience what your ad is actually about.
6. Create an Enticing Call-to-Action
The goal of your banner ads is to make people want to click through and engage with your brand. Therefore, you need to include a clear call-to-action to compel them to take the exact action you want them to take.
Your CTA may refer to visiting your website, checking your new products, subscribing to your email list or downloading your eBook, for instance. What’s important is to create your CTA in the form of a button, so that people can easily click on it. Also, make sure it stands out from the rest of your ad by using a different color than the color of your background.
7. Include a Promotional Message
Including a promotional message in your banner ad can lead to higher click-through rates and, thus, higher conversion rates. Therefore, you should include some promotion, such as free shipping or a particular product discount, since those are certain to make people want to click through and find out more about what you have to offer.
8. Provoke a Sense of Urgency
Including something in your banner ad that provokes a sense of urgency will certainly help you get higher click-through and conversion rates, because people are more likely to click on ads that promote a limited-time offer than on those that have no end date of the promotion in question.
Therefore, you can instill a sense of urgency by offering a limited-time promotion, since you will get much better end results and succeed in making your banner ads more clickable.
9. Make Sure the Font Is Easy to Read
If your target customers cannot read your headline or your entire ad copy, they will simply continue scrolling and not even bother to click through. That is why it is crucial that the font you use is easy to read – it must be big enough (but not too big) and it needs to be different than your CTA buttons.
10. Keep It Simple
Simplicity is very important when it comes to banner ads because if you make your ads cluttered or include too many colors and more than one message, you will overwhelm the viewers, who will have no idea what your ultimate message is. Therefore, keep everything simple, and you will hit the bullseye with your banner ad every single time.
Designing banner ads can be quite challenging but, once you get the hang of it, you will know exactly what to do to attract more quality leads and convert them into customers. Make sure you delve deeper into this matter and explore even more ideas that will help you make the best banner ads. There are many creative design inspirations from award-winning print ads, so you can check those out as well, as they may inspire you to create the most effective banner ads possible.
Linking apps from within articles is a task that is becoming more and more common. After all, there are close to no serious websites or use cases that don’t have an app. If you want to tie in these links in an elegant fashion, use WP-Appbox.
This is How WP-Appbox Works
WP-Appbox was penned by the German blogger, and developer Marcel Schmilgeit, aka Marcelismus. The plugin has been operating under the name WP-Appbox since 2012; before that, it was called “Google Play Appbox,” and was limited to the Play Store from Mountain View. The plugin is taken care of very actively. The latest update is only three weeks old.
In the current version 3.4.7, WP-Appbox supports a wide variety of online shops for apps, namely:
Amazon App Shop (Android)
App Store (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and App-Bundles)
Mac App Store
Chrome Web Store
Firefox Expansions/Add-ons and Marketplace
Good Old Games (GOG.com)
Google Play Store
Opera Add-ons
Steam (specific games only)
Windows Store (Universal and Xbox Live)
WordPress Plugins
I permitted myself to highlight the stores that I consider the most relevant. Now, I’ll use the plugin itself to demonstrate what the output of the WP-Appbox can look like:
This is a lot better than the simple placement of text links on the article in the respective store, isn’t it? The plugin is especially invaluable for posts that deal with nothing other than the presentation of small tools from one or multiple app stores. To get an idea of what I mean, take a look at my article “35 Useful Chrome Expansions for Designers and Developers” over at t3n. Here, the display using the WP-Appbox looks highly homogenous and supports the reading flow, as related information on each respective extension is displayed differently, but always in the same way.
If I were to present my current favorite Mac app, being Affinity Photo, I’d do it like this:
I think the principle should be clear now. In the easiest variant, you type the shortcode [ appbox nameofstore idofapp ] (without the blanks after the opening and before the closing square bracket), and you’re done. In his related blog post (German), Marcel explains how to extract the IDs. But you’ll also find this information under the item “Help” in the plugin settings, once you’ve installed it.
WP-Appbox: Installation and Configuration
As WP-Appbox has been enjoying its presence in the plugin repository for years, you can comfortably install it from your WordPress backend. To do so, select Install > Plugins from the left navigation. This leads you to the screen “Add Plugins.” On the right side, you’ll find a free-text search bar, in which you enter WP-Appbox, and confirm with the return key. Now, click on “install now” on the only search result, enter your FTP access information, and confirm with “continue.” At the end of the procedure, you have the option to immediately activate the plugin, so do that.
Now, you can define settings via Settings > WP-Appbox. Here, I want to mention that you don’t necessarily have to make any changes. The plugin works great with the default settings.
However, it is possible that you want to place some affiliate IDs, or want to exchange the default banner with a larger one. Maybe you don’t want to access the German stores. All of this and a lot more is done via the plugin configuration.
WP-Appbox: Simple Integration Via Shortcode
As I’ve mentioned further above, the integration of apps is done using a shortcode. If you can’t remember it, don’t fret, as manually writing the instruction is not mandatory.
In TinyMCE, the WYSIWYG editor of your WordPress, you’ll find icons for every supported app store in the mode “Visual.” By clicking on the respective icon, you can make the WP-Appbox add the respective shortcode to the text. Now, you only have to add the App’s ID, as well as other remaining parameters. Type screenshots before the closing bracket, if you want to integrate screenshots into the banner, for example.
I already mentioned how you get access to the ID you need to implement. To make it clear, I’ll show you two examples from the plugin help:
As you can see, this is not rocket science but follows a logical system.
If you have knowledge of CSS, you can also give your banners a unique look. In this article (German), Marcel gives a detailed explanation on how to do that.
To me, WP-Appbox has turned into one of those small, but vital plugins. Of course, if you never have to place any links to app stores, the plugin won’t feel useful to you. For all others, it is a must.
Anyone can be a designer: we all know how to match a jacket with a shirt, or pick out a color for a new car, or even just how to stack a burger. Making something look good, is something we all know how to do. What we sometimes lack, is the specialist know-how to make our design vision a reality; especially when it comes to something as complex as web development. That’s where Squarespace comes in.
Squarespace is a pioneering creative tools company that enables anyone to make their design vision a reality. In fact, around 70% of Squarespace sites are run by small businesses that care about quality design.
Squarespace’s engineers take away the headache of running a site, by providing all code, security, and asset management. There is even 24/7 customer service, so if something does go wrong, support staff are always available to get you back up and running. All of which leaves you free to focus on your creative vision.
Widely known as a WYSIWYG-style website builder, you might be surprised to learn that Squarespace delivers a far greater range of services that any designer might benefit from.
Squarespace domains
Squarespace runs a domain registration service that allows you to register a domain for your site from between $20 and $70 per year (depending on the TLD).
There are over 200 TLDs to choose from, so you’re not restricted to .com, .org, and .net. If you’ve got the perfect name, but it’s not available, Squarespace’s extensive list of TLDs give you far more options to work with.
In addition to simple registration, Squarespace domains come with domain privacy by default; domain names are added to an online database with the registrant’s details available for anyone to see, domain privacy swaps out your details for Squarespace’s own, keeping your contact details confidential. That means you can start your business from your parent’s basement, without having to give out Mom and Pop’s address.
Renewals are predictable too. Domains are automatically renewed, at the same price that you registered them at, with no hidden fees. So you can feel confident that you’ll always know where you stand.
Squarespace websites
Starting from just $12 per month, Squarespace’s core product is one of the most popular site builders with creative professionals worldwide.
Constantly evolving, Squarespace websites are design-led, and the service comes with 45+ website templates for you to start from. Most importantly, Squarespace websites are mobile-friendly, so you can be sure that your customers will see your site, just as you intended, however they choose to browse it.
As an added bonus, if you pay for a full year in advance, you’ll get a free domain registration, making this one of the simplest ways to move your business online.
Squarespace online stores
Ecommerce is the last great frontier for site builders, and Squarespace has developed one of the most successful solutions for selling online: since launching in 2013, Squarespace’s ecommerce option has earned its customers over $1billion in revenue.
The platform continues to evolve as a fast, secure place to sell goods. The latest additions are advanced analytics, providing merchants with a detailed understanding of online sales.
Using Squarespace
Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder with a love of design at its very core. It’s the choice of thousands of creative professionals worldwide. Its flexible design tools, easy site building process, and attention to design details make it one of the first options to shortlist when considering creating your own website.
We’re happy to say that Squarespace has provided WDD readers with a 10% discount of their first purchase. Simply enter the coupon code “WDD” at checkout to take advantage of this offer.
[– This is a sponsored post on behalf of Squarespace –]
Of all the projects I’ve worked in the last few years, there’s one that stands out as my favorite: I wrote a WordPress plugin called Great Eagle (Tolkien reference) that allows my team to install and update themes and plugins from our private Bitbucket repos, via the normal wp-admin updates UI.
This plugin has blasted our dev shop through the roof when it comes to development best practices, in ways we never expected or intended. It forces us to use proper version numbers because now we can’t deploy without them. It forces us to store our work in Bitbucket because now we can’t deploy without it. It forces us to use the command line en route to deploying our work (by which I simply mean, git push origin master), which then led to us using phpUnit. Now we can’t deploy unless our tests pass. We’ve arrived at the nirvana of test-driven development, all because we started with the unrelated step of deploying from git.
If this all sounds standard and obvious, great. I’d love a chance to learn from you. If this sounds like exotic rigmarole, guess what? This article is for you.
Disclaimer: My work in this plugin is heavily influenced by, and in some cases plagiarized from, the excellent GitHub Updater plugin, by Andy Fragen. The reason I wrote my own is because we have hundreds of themes and plugins in Bitbucket, and I was having some scale issues when I was auditioning GHU, which have since been addressed. I probably bailed too early, as that plugin has been under active and expert development for years. More than anything, we just wanted a version that was totally under our own maintenance. I’ll be featuring some gists from my plugin, but ultimately I recommend that users defer to GHU because it’s likely a better fit for most people, and also I don’t want to take any momentum from that awesome project.
Prerequisites
My examples demonstrate a multisite install, but that’s not particularly important. This works fine on a single-site install as well. I’m on WordPress version 4.8-alpha-39626 at the moment, but that’s not terribly important either.
Of chief importance is my assumption that all of the themes and plugins in your workplace are each stored in their own Bitbucket repo. This is quite an assumption! No joke: When embarking on this, we hired a company to manually create a repo for each of our themes and plugins. We were using SVN (poorly!) prior to this migration.
How does it work?
There are three(ish) steps:
1) Create a UI for the user to make an API request to Bitbucket and mirror all of our repository data into the WordPress database. Not all the data about each repo, really just the slug name, which we will use as a key for deeper queries.
A form for the user to mirror our Bitbucket account to the database.
An alternative would be to build this automatically whenever it’s empty, but for now, I’m happy to have complete control over when such a large series of API requests gets run.
2) Once we have a bit of information mirrored for all of our repos, we can offer a jQuery autocomplete to choose a few repos for data drill-down, where we make several more API calls for each of them, giving us access to deeper information like version number and download url.
Now that we have a local mirror of our Bitbucket repos, we can populate an autocomplete for selecting some of them for installing or updating.
Why not just gather all of those details for all repos right away? Because we have hundreds of repos and it takes several calls per repo to grab all of the pertinent information such as, say, the version number. It would probably take 15-30 minutes and over 1,000 API trips.
3) Once we have detailed information about the handful of repos we want to use at the moment, we can determine two important things about them. First, is it installed in WordPress? If not, it will appear in a UI for us to install it. Second, if it is installed, is it on the latest version? If not, it will appear in the normal wp-admin updates UI.
Some of the plugins in our Bitbucket account are not installed in our WordPress network.We used Great Eagle’s UI to install one of them.Our plugin is hosted in a private Bitbucket repo, but here it is in our normal update queue.
On the off-chance that a repo is not readable (maybe it lacks proper docblocks or naming conventions), it gets omitted from all of these steps. This has only happened to us with a small handful of poorly named plugins, but it can be annoying since changing the plugin folder and file names can deactivate the plugin.
Huh. How does it work, exactly?
Fair question. I’ll explain what the tricky parts were, and share some code from my plugin.
Building the list of repos
The maximum number of repos per API call is 100. That’s just how the Bitbucket API works. We have far more than that in our account, so we have to call Bitbucket in a loop:
<?php
/**
* Store a "shallow" list of repos.
*/
public function set_repo_list() {
...
// Let's get 100 per page, which is the maximum.
$max_pagelen = 100;
....
// Get the first page of repos.
$page = 1;
$call = new LXB_GE_Call( 'api', "repositories/$team", $max_pagelen, $page );
$get = $call -> get();
$out = $get['values'];
// Now we know how many there are in total.
$total = $get['size'];
// How many pages does that make for?
$num_pages = ceil( $total / $max_pagelen );
// Query each subsequent page. We already got the first one.
while( $page < $num_pages ) {
$page++;
$next_call = new LXB_GE_Call( 'api', "repositories/$team", $max_pagelen, $page );
$next_get = $next_call -> get();
$next_repos = $next_get['values'];
$out = array_merge( $out, $next_repos );
}
// Sort the list by most recently updated.
$out = $this -> sort( $out, 'updated_on' );
$this -> repo_list = $out;
}
Determining the “main” plugin file
WordPress is very unopinionated when it comes to naming plugins. In most cases, a plugin folder does, in fact, contain exactly one plugin, and that plugin will have a “main” file of sorts, that contains a docblock to convey the plugin name, description, author, and most importantly, the version number. Because that file can be named anything, determining which file is the main plugin file is something of an open question. The approach I’ve taken is to assume that the plugin will conform to some naming conventions we try to use in our work.
<?php
function set_main_file_name() {
// Grab the slug name for this Bitbucket repo.
$slug = $this -> slug;
// Grab the list of file names in this repo.
$file_list = $this -> file_list;
// There's a good chance that there is a file with the same name as the repo.
if( in_array( "$slug.php", $file_list ) ) {
$main_file_name = "$slug.php";
// If not, there's a good chance there's a plugin.php file.
} elseif( in_array( 'plugin.php', $file_list ) ) {
$main_file_name = 'plugin.php';
// If not, it's probably a theme.
} elseif( in_array( 'style.css', $file_list ) && in_array( 'functions.php', $file_list ) ) {
$main_file_name = 'style.css';
// Else, oh well, couldn't find it.
} else {
$error = sprintf( esc_html__( 'Could not identify a main file for repo %s.', 'bucketpress' ), $slug );
$main_file_name = new BP_Error( __CLASS__, __FUNCTION__, __LINE__, func_get_args(), $error );
}
$this -> main_file_name = $main_file_name;
}
Determining the version number
Given the main plugin or theme file, we can dig into the docblock in that file in order to determine the version number. Here’s how I do it:
<?php
/**
* Get the value for a docblock line.
*
* @param string $key The key for a docblock line.
* @return string The value for a docblock line.
*/
function get_value_from_docblock( $key ) {
// Grab the contents of the main file.
$main_file_body = $this -> main_file_body;
// Break the file into lines.
$lines = $this -> formatting -> get_lines_from_string( $main_file_body );
// Let's save ourselves some looping and assume the docblock is < 30 lines.
$max_lines = 30;
$i = 0;
foreach( $lines as $line ) {
$i++;
// If the line does not have the key, skip it.
if( ! stristr( $line, $key . ':' ) ) { continue; }
// We found the key!
break;
// Whoops, we made it to the end without finding the key.
if( $i == $max_lines ) { return FALSE; }
}
// Break the line into the key/value pair.
$key_value_pair = explode( ':', $line );
// Remove the key from the line.
array_shift( $key_value_pair );
// Convert the value back into a string.
$out = implode( ':', $line_arr );
$out = trim( $out );
return $out;
}
While I’m at it, allow me to applaud php’s helpful version_compare() function, which can parse most common version syntaxes:
/**
* Determine if this asset needs to be updated.
*
* @return boolean Returns TRUE of the local version number
* is lower than the remote version number, else FALSE.
*/
function needs_update() {
$old_version = $this -> old_version;
$new_version = $this -> new_version;
$compare = version_compare( $old_version, $new_version );
if( $compare == -1 ) { return TRUE; }
return FALSE;
}
Parsing the readme.txt
We actually don’t use the readme.txt for anything in our plugins, and therefore my Great Eagle plugin does not do much parsing of it either. However, if you wish to incorporate readme information, I’d recommend this library from Ryan McCue for parsing it.
The deal with private repos
Our repos all happen to be private – that’s just the way we do business at the moment. In order to query them, we have to filter in some creds. In this example, I’m doing so via basic auth:
<?php
/**
* Authenticate all of our calls to Bitbucket, so that we can access private repos.
*
* @param array $args The current args for http requests.
* @param string $url The url to which the current http request is going.
* @return array $args, filtered to include BB basic auth.
*/
public function authenticate_http( $args, $url ) {
// Find out the url to Bitbucket.
$call = new LXB_GE_Call( 'web', FALSE );
$bb_url = $call -> get_url();
// If we're not calling a Bitbucket download, don't bother.
if( ! stristr( $url, $bb_url ) ) { return $args; }
if( ! stristr( $url, '.zip' ) ) { return $args; }
// Okay, time to append basic auth to the args.
$creds = $this -> creds;
$args['headers']['Authorization'] = "Basic $creds";
return $args;
}
I’m doing this via filtration, rather than passing args to wp_remote_get(), because I need WordPress to be prepared with these creds when it makes its calls during its normal theme and plugin update calls, which now happen to be going to Bitbucket.
It would be better to do Oauth instead of basic auth, but after quite a bit of research, I’ve concluded that there’s not a way to do so. The roadblock is because raw file content is actually not part of the Bitbucket API at this point, it’s just hosted on their website like any other static asset, such as this public test theme for example (it’s public for demo purposes, but again, if it were private, you could access it via basic auth). I do have this humble feature request to show for my efforts. As a security measure, I recommend using Bitbucket’s new application passwords feature to create an account specifically and only for scripted calls like this, where that app password only has read access. So, to be clear, with basic auth there is a universe (maybe this one) in which a packet-sniffing foe is reading our plugin files. I’m okay with that, at least for the moment.
Adding our repos to the update queue
If there’s one key to getting a foothold in this whole process, it’s found in the wp_update_plugins() function. That’s a huge function the core uses to loop through all of the installed plugins, determine which ones have an update available, and save the result to a transient. The key is that the transient is then exposed for filtering, which is exactly what my plugin does:
<?php
add_filter( 'pre_set_site_transient_update_plugins', array( $this, 'set_plugin_transient' ) );
/**
* Inject our updates into core's list of updates.
*
* @param array $transient The existing list of assets that need an update.
* @return The list of assets that need an update, filtered.
*/
public function set_plugin_transient( $transient ) {
if( ! is_array( $this -> assets_to_update ) ) { return $transient; }
foreach( $this -> assets_to_update as $asset ) {
if( empty( $asset -> transient_key ) ) { continue; }
if( ! $asset -> transient_content ) { continue; }
$transient -> response[ $asset -> transient_key ] = $asset -> transient_content;
}
return $transient;
}
It took me forever to break into this, and it took me months and months to write this plugin. You should probably just use GHU instead. It’s pretty damn similar. That said, if you want to tweak some things and you don’t like running 3rd party plugins, maybe the above code will help you write your own.
So what’s the point, exactly?
The point is not so much how to build your own git deployer plugin, or which existing one you should use. You can figure that stuff out yourself. The really interesting thing is to look at what happened to us when we started deploying from git. Some of the side effects were profoundly surprising and positive.
So long, FTP
FTP stinks for so many reasons.
FTP access is an attack vector.
No easy way to track or revert changes.
No easy way to allow multiple people to work on the same project at the same time.
Human error. It pretty easy to mis-drag-n-drop, leading to a WSOD or worse.
I never expected this, but it’s apparent when updating a plugin across many installs, that this git method is much faster than FTP.
With a git deployment system like the one I’m advocating and explaining in this article, you can go so far as to disable all FTP access to your production environment. Seriously: ou won’t need it.
Hello proper versioning
I recommend using a git deploy tool that uses docblocks in order to determine the version number, and uses the version number to determine if the theme or plugin is in need of an update. This forces your team to use proper version numbers, which is a nice first step down to the road from crankin’ out themes to maturely managing a long-living codebase.
I’m so stoked about unit testing now
If you’re not unit testing, you probably know you should be. With git deployment, it can be both automatic and required.
We use the command line to move our work from our local MAMP to Bitbucket, as in, git push origin master. Each of our plugins carries a Grunt task to execute our phpUnit tests upon git pre-commit, and if the tests fail, so does the commit.
We bind Grunt to our commit using GitHooks and we execute our unit tests via Exec. If the tests fail, so does the deployment.
There’s no way to sidestep the tests because there’s no way to sidestep git for deploying!
Rollbacks
There are no rollbacks per se with this method. Rather, you only roll forward. Whatever you want to fix or restore, get it in master, boost the version number, push, and deploy.
Staffing
This kind of maturation can have business-wide ramifications. Picture this: You have non-dev support folks on the front lines, trying to debug a problem for a client. In the past, they would have had to place this request in a dev ticket queue, while the customer waits hours or days for a resolution. Not anymore. Now, your front-line support agent can navigate to network admin and see that on this environment the plugin in question is outdated. They’re free to update the plugin right away via the normal wp-admin interface. The ticket is resolved by front-line support with no dev team involvement. Perhaps those front-line folks cost less than developers, or perhaps they carry a deep skill set in account management. Either way, you no longer have to open a dev ticket to deploy updates to your in-house plugins. Pivotal.
Rise of the machines
Before this process, we were very much an ordinary dev shop churning out themes and plugins for clients, cowboy-FTPing, not versioning our work. Why? Because we were lazy. Why? Because we were human. We’re no longer lazy because we are no longer human, at least when deploying. We’re a command line script and a series of API requests, and no matter how lazy we are, we have to follow proper deployment practices because we nuked the FTP creds for our developers! On top of all that, it’s a faster way to deploy, free from any click-n-drag misfires.
Can you get on board with this overnight? Okay, no. It’s a long and expensive process, and it might not be for you, but honestly it probably is. I think there are about 1,000 dev shops out there that should give careful consideration to this.
It is funny to read and find SO many articles on the internet about how long does it take to learn to write code. Even Flatiron Schools talks about it.
The above video is great and you should watch it, but I always thought this heavily debated question was interesting to me. When I was in high school, we had to take two years of a language, being from Arizona, Spanish it was. Also being a high school student, damn you former self, I did not want to learn, but float through. This being said I did not care to learn Spanish it was no interest to me, but a requirement. So I worked through the material, passed the class, and then moved on with my life. This is because, blatantly, I just did not care to learn it, it did not interest me. Learning Ruby or HTML or whatever is exactly like this. Even if you work through the material and at the end of the tunnel if you truly do not care and uninterested, then you most likely not you will not progress much further than what school has taught you. Just like me with Spanish. Programming disciplines are just another language, and it takes years to perfect and get right, just like spoken languages.
Find something that you care about, and take the time to learn, prepare, and want to be the best at. If you want to build… a shelf for instance, if you have never done it before and have never picked up a tool before, it is going to take you forever, and most likely it is going to look like garbage. But after working through that learning process, then your next shelf is going to look a heck of a lot better. Logic and Conditionals:
This week we were learning about logic and conditionals, more specifically boolean values. Like I stated before, there is no such thing as a boolean value in Ruby, but values can equal to true or false. Booleans, if you forgot, equal true or false. This is not always the case, for instance in Python, which equals yes or no, but we won’t get into that. These come in very hand when you want to implement control flow.
Control flow is the idea that we can tell our program to execute certain lines of code based on certain conditions and are predicted on these true or false boolean values.
Within Ruby only false or nil are false, and everything else is considered thruthy including 0. Below are values that equal to either true or false.
Value
True
0
True
” ”
True
“hello”
True
Nil
False
4.4
True
true
True
!true
False
false
False
!false
True
[2,2]
True
{:hi => “there”}
True
Remember the single bang operator ( ! ) will negate the boolean if it is placed in front of the value.
Placing a double bang operator ( !! ) will return true or false based on whether a value is truthy or falsey.
Booleans in Ruby are the true and false data type, defined as their own data type.
True is a Ruby programs instance of true class.
False is a Ruby programs instance of false class
Classes serve as templates for Ruby objects, which we will get into later.
Boolean Operators:
Boolean operators are really just methods which mean they have a return value which is either true or false. Three boolean operators are:
! ( “single bang” ) which represents “not”
&& ( “double ampersand” ) which represents “and”
|| ( “double-pipe” ) which represents “or”
For && to evaluate to true, both values of either side of the symbols must evaluate true.
For || ( or ) to evaluate true only one value on either side of the symbol must evaluate to true.
Understanding booleans and what they do and how to use them will greatly benefit you in your programming career and are used almost in every instance. For further clarification please leave a comment below. For further reading that helped me please visit the LINKHERE.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed when attempting to select a theme for a WordPress site that will work for you, you’re not alone. There are so many to choose from, that after a while, all the good candidates begin to look alike.
The real problem could be that you’re unsure of what theme characteristics to look for. After all, you want to build more than just websites; you want to build web experiences.
Here’s what to look for:
A theme featuring aesthetically pleasing designs. These are designs that are attractive, and have a good deal of lasting power; themes that won’t quickly become outdated or passé.
A theme that produces SEO-friendly sites. SEO friendly is mandatory if you expect a site to draw good traffic.
A theme that is easy to customize. This characteristic gives you flexibility; plus, ease in customizability can be a genuine time saver.
Theme’s authors who provide top quality support. When you choose a premium theme, you have a right to expect top-notch support.
To make things even easier, we’ve compiled this selection of 14 Best WP themes for 2017:
Be Theme is multipurpose. It’s the biggest WP theme ever. It has the features you need. And, it’s ridiculously easy to use.
Be gives web designers the capability to produce any type or style of website, and the ability to precisely meet the needs of their clients. Be’s page-building tools, along with an outstanding selection of pre-built websites, also gives designers the ability to create pleasing and engaging experiences for end users.
Be’s 230+ pre-built websites are definitely the highlight. They provide you with a niche or theme-based concept to work with, they help you get any project off to a fast start, and the elements they contain are what are needed to create a pleasing UX.
Other highlights include the two fast and efficient page builders: Muffin 3, and Virtual Composer. Shortcodes allow you to add detail and functionality, without having to resort to code; there are plenty of grid, header, and layout options, and Be’s support is superb.
There’s much that you’ll like about this WordPress theme. The Core is fast, flexible, and user-friendly. No special skills are needed on your part, nor do you have to worry about coding.
It’s hard to say what this WP theme’s 154,000+ users like best, although they’ve really taken to the Visual Page Builder, and the way it speeds up the entire design process. The thematic demos are another plus. They are easy to install, and easy to customize.
Even though this WP theme has been designed with the professional web designer in mind, working with it is so intuitive that it doesn’t require an experienced designer to provide a client with a truly sharp deliverable.
100+ informative articles are included in The Core’s documentation, and there’s a nice selection of video tutorials to help you one your way.
Enfold is super flexible, it’s a top ThemeForest seller, and a time saver as well. Enfold is Designed for every skill level.
You can either start your design from scratch, or use the Content Importer to set up a preliminary site that closely matches the demo you’ve selected. With that approach, you can be on your way to completing a website in record time, or providing a client with a prototype of your proposed deliverable.
Enfold demos are customizable, and you can pick and choose elements from more than one demo while you design a page. There is also a selection of portfolio templates to work with. Once you’ve customized one of these templates, you can save it for future projects
There’s much more of course, including a wide selection of header and menu options. ThemeForest also has a hosted version of Enfold.
Hestia PRO will be a good choice if you have one or more one-page website projects in mind, and/or you are trying help a startup client that is badly in need of a top-quality website based on a Material Design theme.
Hestia PRO is WooCommerce ready, it’s responsive, and its authors are dedicated to giving its users quality support.
If your client or clients deal in real estate, you won’t find a better and easier way to meet their website needs than with the Houzez WordPress theme.
This specialty theme has the functions and features needed to quickly build websites with all the functions and features real estate agents require. A specialty theme enables you to deliver a better product, and do so more quickly, than is generally the case with multipurpose themes.
Divi attracted a large following when it first came out of the gate. With the later release of its state-of-the art frontend Divi Builder, sales for Divi 3.0 have increased by leaps and bounds.
The Divi Builder is one of the fastest and most powerful page builders you’ll find anywhere, and it is well worth a close look, as are the other features that make up this premium WordPress theme.
To build a stunning website, you must start with a well-defined concept. This is where Uncode shines. This pixel-perfect WordPress theme offers several concept categories, with each concept designed to get your project off to a quick start.
Once underway, you’ll be able to make good use of Uncode’s enhanced Visual Composer, its Adaptive Images system, the Advanced Grid System, and other powerful features.
A quick way to see what TheGem offers is to check out a few of the demos (don’t forget the “Others” demo). Then, check out the features, to see what all can be done with any of the demos.
TheGem may well be your ultimate tool for building WordPress websites; especially if you’d rather not spend your valuable time attending to various technical details, or coding.
The Themify Builder is a feature that sets Ultra apart from most other WP themes. Ultra also offers a post type builder, a highly-useful selection of builder addons, including the clever typewriter animation and infinite scrolling background image, plus a host of plugins, including flappable Tiles, and the WooCommerce Shopdoc.
Ultra is a theme you can have a great deal of fun with as you go about creating pleasing user experiences.
Community-oriented features is an area where many, and possibly most, WordPress themes fall short. KLEO gives you precisely the kinds of tools you need to incorporate widely-used community activities.
They include profile search, Facebook Login, and forum functionality. The rtMedia feature lets you add audio/video and photos to a page. This fast, easy-to-use WP theme is just right for creating a community-oriented website.
Its name says it all. XStore is a WooCoomerce theme devoted to building online shops known for their awesome user experiences.
XStore’s creators wanted to provide web designers with a comfortable tool to work with; and they succeeded admirably. You’ll have a great selection of demos to works with, plus the plugins you need to create an eye-popping online shop.
Kalium is clean, minimalist, and well-organized, and its demos are visually stunning. This WP theme was built for professionals, although it is also well suited for beginners.
The page builder is Visual Composer, and Kalium comes with the WooCommerce plugin and other commonly used plugins as well. Shortcodes obviate any need for coding, plus they give you great flexibility and more design possibilities. Valuable bonus elements are included in the package.
TheFox bills itself as being the smartest WordPress theme on the market. Once you’ve tried it, you may agree. This is a clean, good-looking multipurpose theme.
It’s remarkably easy to customize, and the package includes a souped-up version of the popular Visual Composer page builder. Just as you should do with any theme before you make a purchase, try out one or two of the demos. You’ll be impressed with what you see.
The easiest way to see what Impreza can do for you, is simply submit your email address. In return, you’ll receive an invitation to test drive this multipurpose WP theme. Impreza is clean as a whistle, it’s frequently updated, and it’s perfect for building business websites, blogs, and portfolios.
As far as ThemeForest buyer ratings go, Impreza comes as about as close to 5 stars as a theme can get.
Conclusion
As you’ve no doubt noticed, there are 14 great selections listed. Hopefully at least one of them is the solution to your immediate needs. Whether you’re in the hunt for a multipurpose theme to get you started in 2017, a specialized theme, or something in-between, you should find it here.
If you’re looking for a one-page theme, a real-estate specialty theme, or an eCommerce theme, you’ve hit the jackpot. If you haven’t found exactly what you need, please let us know.
As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Human beings are highly visual creatures who are able to process visual information almost instantly; 90 percent of all information that we perceive and that gets transmitted to our brains is visual.
Images can be a powerful way to capture users’ attention and differentiate your product. A single image can convey more to the observer than an elaborate block of text. Furthermore, images can cross language barriers in a way text simply can’t.
Why should you spend money on a screenshot program when one of the best of its kind, ShareX, is available for free? However, you have to be a Windows user to enjoy it.
ShareX: Landing Page (Screenshot: Noupe)
ShareX Creates Screenshots From All Angles
ShareX, a Turkish-Australian team effort in the open source section exists for nine years already. This experience becomes apparent when using the software. This article’s title doesn’t contain the word “Monster” for nothing.
ShareX allows you to take any screenshot of static screen contents. Screen recordings of moving images as videos or GIFs are possible as well. However, ShareX does a much better job with screenshots than it does with screen recording. Any editing is possible, including highlights, annotations, or other elements.
ShareX: Different Capture Methods. (Screenshot: ShareX)
ShareX Grants Access to Different Cloud Services
As the name suggests, creating and editing of screen captures can’t be the only job ShareX does. In fact, one of its strengths is that it also allows you to share the created captures with others.
ShareX supports more than 80 different services, including giants such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, but also smaller more targeted providers like Imgurl or Pastebin. Purists use FTP or their ownCloud. It’s also possible to directly access URL shorteners as well as pure sharing services.
An extensive portfolio of configurable keyboard hotkeys makes it easier to control the feature monster. ShareX also integrates itself into the context menu, making it available in Windows Explorer via right click.
Small Tools Complete ShareX’s Features
The scope of functions also contains an image editor, allowing you to directly edit the created shots. Other smaller productivity helpers, like a QR generator, or a screen color selector, as well as a screen ruler round out the feature set.
ShareX is available for free download under the GPL v3 on Github. You can use it entirely for free or spin off your own fork. The source code is available for free as well.
I saw this little web app (live demo) by Das Surma going around the other day. It’s funny, but it’s also a really compelling demo app for a bunch of modern technologies. I’m sure that’s the whole point of it.
Minimal build process. Just Gulp to use Babel and PostCSS. It’s heavy on ES6+ and CSS custom properties.
Loads of custom elements, like , with the Polymer polyfill for those.
Icons are super tiny SVG, they look hand-golfed.
ServiceWorker for offline cache.
Mobile and performance-first design and interactions.
Maybe it’ll be like the HTML5 Boilerplate of the future.
As you can see, this is not rocket science but follows a logical system.
