Archive for category: Random Stories

Original Source: http://inspiredm.com/online-ads-simple-mistakes-might-costing/

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The world of online advertising is segregated into publishers and advertisers. The publisher is the owner of a site who allows somebody else to advertise on it, while the advertiser is obviously the one doing the advertising.  In some cases the publisher may also be the advertiser, and when this happens it is called internal advertising.  Everything else is external advertising.

Why these terms need to be defined is because they strongly affect how much tolerance and acceptance an audience is likely to have for being exposed to the ad.  In general, an audience will have much higher levels of trust and acceptance in the case of internal advertising, and in turn they are more likely to let their guard down and potentially engage with the advertisement.

On the other hand, external advertising can generate a wide range of responses, but many people report feeling annoyed by external advertisements, and some are even enraged by them. How this came to be is largely due to the collective behavior of a majority of the marketing industry in the early 1990s.

Why internal advertising is more accepted

Users who arrive at a website as a result of a conscious choice to engage with the brand represented by that website are also likely to engage with internal advertising on the website.  Fast food restaurant chains such as McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King are good examples, as they normally contain a lot of internal advertising, and users are quite willing to engage with these, because they’re already tuned to receive the marketing message. They’re on a site that is relevant to their interest and they want as much information as possible, especially if the ad is promising some kind of incentive like discount coupons.

Why external advertising is less accepted

Due to the shady techniques used by unscrupulous marketers, users quickly developed an aversion to what was seen as invasive advertising. At that time the main source of antagonism was that the ads severely affected the user experience, but gradually as users became aware of the potential for cookies to track and identify them, it triggered an enormous backlash.

The result of marketers going too far

Among other things, these abuses gave rise to the ludicrous European cookie laws, which don’t actually solve any problems and do create new ones. It is also the reason why there’s an entirely new industry dedicated to blocking ads (and ironically many of the systems created to  block the ads are advertised online).

But users don’t really hate ads

The greatest misunderstanding in the marketing industry stems from the idea that users hate ads and this is the reason why they use ad blockers. The truth, however, is different. In reality what users hate is having their privacy invaded. Ads that don’t employ tracking or attempt to “personalize the user experience” are acceptable to the majority of intelligent internet users. Ads that are helpful or provide benefit to the reader in any form as a result of engagement with them may even be viewed with favor, except when the ad appears to be personalized, regionalized (falsely), or making use of tracking techniques.

Advertisers and publishers need to consciously avoid the mistakes that lead to failure

Wouldn’t it be great if there were some simple rules that could tell you what to avoid doing, and how to be more successful in online advertising?  Well hold onto your hat, because those rules actually do exist. Now let’s take a look at the common mistakes that may be costing you money and good will.

Mistake 1: Publishers generating negative cash flow from ads

There are certain types of publishers that have ideal sites for hosting external advertising. In general, they are non-corporate sites. If you have a site that is somehow tied to a brand, it may make your site seem unprofessional if it contains ads for things not related to your business.

Imagine if McDonald’s had ads on their site for a shoe sale at the mall. Such an ad would definitely be out of place, and would detract from the user experience, even if the user was really in the mood to buy some shoes.  They didn’t come to the McDonald’s website expecting to be shown an ad for shoes.

If the ads on your site have a negative effect on your professional appearance and reputation, those ads may be costing you more in terms of lost business than they can possibly generate for you as advertising revenue. In that case, you’re much better off not hosting the ads.

Mistake 2: Utilizing pop-up or pop-under windows for advertising or tracking

This is one of the most annoying things an advertiser or publisher can do. Hardly anyone ever clicks on ads contained in pop-ups or pop-unders, and when they do, it’s often by accident. You don’t win if you get somebody to click through to your site as a result of an accident or through deception. It just annoys the user.

Even major sites like TripAdvisor have used pop-unders, and that has generated a lot of complaints from users who are frustrated by them. One reason why it matters is that pop-unders are stealthy. The user may not even be aware that one has been opened until they go to close the browser window. But it can also impact more seriously on the user, because your pop-under may prevent Firefox from offering the user the opportunity to save their browsing session.

Mistake 3: Nag screens

These are common on commercial blog sites, but have also sometimes found their way onto corporate sites as well. These are modal windows that are triggered on certain events such as the user entering the site, attempting to leave the site, or scrolling past a certain point on the page. The modal usually nags or begs the user to subscribe to a mailing list or something like that. It’s incredibly rude.  It’s like blocking the door of your shop until the customer tells you where they live so you can send them catalogs.

The problem is that these nagging pop-ups actually do work. Various idiots (and the occasional genuinely interested person) actually fill them in, and what eventually happens is the advertiser gets lots of email addresses, so marketers still believe they’re good to have.

What they’re not considering is that the majority of users find them annoying and even when email addresses are harvested and spammed to the hilt, you won’t see a dramatic rise in sales. You may even see a decrease in your sales. That’s because hardly anyone reads the newsletters and other solicited spam you send out.

Nag screens are not the only way to acquire subscribers, and there’s evidence that they’re less effective than the alternative methods.

Mistake 4: Promising one thing and delivering another

This is just plain dishonesty, and it usually backfires. A variation on this is disguising an advertisement as genuine content, and only revealing quite late that you’re trying to sell something to the user. Both types of ad are likely to result in the user taking a negative view of you. Certainly you may make some sales regardless, but you’d probably make a lot more if you were honest in your intentions.

An example is when you offer the user a free trial or free sample, but then they discover it’s not really free. There is a big difference between a free trial and a money back guarantee, but there are plenty of marketers who will happily overlook that difference and call a spade a shovel. Other examples include raising the price above the advertised price by adding more charges where it wouldn’t be justified, showing a product that isn’t actually the product being sold, using obviously fake testimonials, and so on.

Mistake 5: Blatant dishonesty and misrepresentation

This is where the advertiser presents false information to try to convince the consumer to buy. Apart from the fact that it’s illegal in many jurisdictions to do this, it only takes one person to expose the fraud on social media, and your entire reputation could be in ruins. You may even face prosecution and lawsuits.

Mistake 6: Tracking

This is why people use ad-blockers and privacy tools like Ghostery. It’s why more people are using anonymizers, rejecting cookies, and using online personas. And it’s why Europe created their crazy cookie laws. Now that President Trump has approved the selling of browsing history, users are likely to be even more resistant than ever to being tracked. When you use tracking there are two things that happen. The first is that many users perceive this as inevitable, and the second is that nearly all users resent it.

Mistake 7: Over-reliance on display ads

Advertisers often make the mistake of thinking that what works in the offline world is also most effective online. Display ads are not as effective as inline content ads, except where the inline content ads are SEO links pretending not to be ads. When a blogger who is popular among runners makes a recommendation for a certain type of running shoe, readers are more likely to respond favorably to this ad than if it was simply a graphical banner ad displayed on the page or a deceptive link that was only added to get you a click.

header image courtesy of justyna stasik

This post Online Ads: Simple Mistakes That Might Be Costing You was written by Inspired Mag Team and first appearedon Inspired Magazine.

Original Source: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/school-education-icon-sets-free/

From official websites of universities, schools, and colleges to study consultancy sites and portals, the internet is brimming with websites related to education. Usually, there’s a lot of information on an education website, however, in order to make the navigation of a complex education website easy and interesting, icons prove to be the perfect elements.

30 Free Medical Icon Sets You Can Download

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30 Free Medical Icon Sets You Can Download

Icons are one of those seemingly trivial elements that put a rather huge influence on the overall look…Read more

Though there are many multi-pupose icon sets that can go with just about any website, but a specifically education-related website would be best suited with special education icon sets. And what more can you ask for if you get such high quality icons all for free!

On that account I am sharing a list of 30 free school and education icon sets that can be a useful addition to your icons repository or be used in your next education-related web project. Do make sure to check the licence for each icon set and mention the author, if it’s required.

School & Childhood Icons Set

Format: SVG, PNG [Download]

School Icons Vector

Format: AI [Download]

School Icon Collection

Format: EPS [Download]

Education Icons

Format: PNG, SVG, PNG, PSD [Download]

Line Education Icons Free

Format: AI [Download]

6 Modern Education Icons

Format: PSD, EPS [Download]

Becris Freebie Outline Icons

Format: PNG, SVG, AI, EPS [Download]

School and Education Hand Drawn Icons

Format: PSD [Download]

Science and Education Icons

Format: SVG, AI [Download]

Education Elements Vector Icons

Format: SVG, AI [Download]

Minimal Line Icons

Format: AI, EPS, PDF, SVG [Download]

Jolly Icons

Format: AI, EPS, PDF, PSD [Download]

Graduation Icon

Format: SVG, EPS [Download]

60 Education Vector Icons Freebie

Format: AI, EPS, PNG [Download]

Education Icon Set

Format: PNG, PSD, EPS, SVG [Download]

Education Vector Icons

Format: EPS [Download]

Education Icon Set

Format: SVG, EPS [Download]

School Icons Vector

Format: AI [Download]

Knowledge Icon Set

Format: AI, EPS, PDF, PSD [Download]

Education Icon Set

Format: SVG [Download]

Education Icon Set

Format: AI [Download]

20 Free Vector Education Icons

Format: AI, SVG [Download]

Education Icons Collection

Format: EPS, AI [Download]

A free Education Icon Set

Format: PNG, AI, TTF, SVG [Download]

Academic Icon Collection

Format: EPS [Download]

Back to School Icon Set

Format: AI, EPS [Download]

Education Icons

Format: AI [Download]

Vector School Stuff Icons

Format: AI [Download]

Icons About Education

Format: EPS [Download]

Pencil Icon Set

Format: EPS [Download]

20+ Free E-Commerce Icon Sets to Download

.no-js #ref-block-post-25471 .ref-block__thumbnail { background-image: url(“http://media02.hongkiat.com/thumbs/250×160/free-ecommerce-icons.jpg”); }

20+ Free E-Commerce Icon Sets to Download

Editor’s note: For a newer, updated version of this post, check it out here. Looking for shopping icons…Read more

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/YIFeyeChPJE/

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Machine Learning Mindmap / Cheatsheet

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Fuzzysort

Fuzzysort is a JavaScript library for fast SublimeText-like fuzzy search.

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How to create a Neural Network in JavaScript in only 30 lines of code

A tutorial by Per Harald Borgen where he shows how to create and train a neural network using Synaptic.js, which allows you to do deep learning in Node.js and the browser.

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Towards a JavaScript Binary AST

David Teller introduces the JavaScript Binary AST, an ongoing project for faster web page loading.

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All the fundamental React.js concepts, jammed into this single Medium article

Samer Buna’s practical introduction to the fundamentals of React.js for those who are already familiar with JavaScript and know the basics of the DOM API.

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Vim isn’t that scary. Here are 5 free resources you can use to learn it.

Fatos Morina shares some great resources for getting started with Vim.

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An Intro to Compilers

Learn about what a complier does in this introduction by Nicole Orchard.

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Puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome over the DevTools Protocol. It can also be configured to use full (non-headless) Chrome.

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Songbird: Spatial Audio Encoding on the Web

Songbird is a real-time spatial audio encoding JavaScript library for WebAudio applications by Google.

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Desktop Kit

A Sketch template of macOS UI elements from Facebook Design.

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Integrating Animation into a Design System

Alla Kholmatova writes about the challenges of creating a cohesive system and ensuring consistency when it comes to integrating animations into a design.

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A Gulp Workflow for Frontend Development Automation

A tutorial by Andrew Welch where he shows how to use Gulp for frontend development.

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Chunky Gradient Along SVG Path

An interesting animated chunky gradient that uses stroke-dasharray and stroke-dashoffset.

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Draw a horizontal tree using CSS pseudo elements

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Collective #342 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/PCBRmDY–is/

What makes WooCommerce such a compelling eCommerce platform is that, just like other WordPress plugins, it can be extended to perform more and more tasks. For example, complex functionality (advanced reporting, rewards programs, etc.) that used to be reserved for high-end SaaS providers is now within everyone’s reach.

Even so, shopkeepers don’t always need something complicated. In fact, they often need to add more basic functionality that makes life easier for both them and their customers. And plugin authors have excelled at extending WooCommerce in this area, as well.

Here are 10 plugins that you can use to build the WooCommerce store you’ve always wanted:

WooCommerce Wallet

WooCommerce Wallet is an interesting solution for shops who want to allow customers to keep a balance on hand.

Customers can deposit funds, earn cash back and even request a refund. The plugin also allows for partial payments which could be handy for big-ticket items. Site admins can directly add funds to a user’s account from the back end, as well.

WooCommerce Ultimate Reports

WooCommerce Ultimate Reports serves a very important need. It generates a variety of reports to help you make sense of your sales. You can view reports for product variations, taxes, inventory, and coupon use, along with various profit types.

Overall, there are 55+ reports included. Data can also be exported to XLS, CSV and PDF formats. Finding trends and analyzing data isn’t a strongpoint of WooCommerce out-of-the-box, so adding it in is critical.

XL WooCommerce Sales Triggers

While XL WooCommerce Sales Triggers doesn’t add big-time functionality, it does specialize in adding the little details that help to drive sales. Many of the seven included sales triggers are staples of major eCommerce retailers.

The Countdown Timer, Stock Alert and Potential Savings encourage action. The Most Recent Sales Activity, Guarantees, Best Sellers and Satisfaction Rate increase consumer confidence. They may be little things, but they can add up to something big.

WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards

WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards enables you to set up a rather sophisticated customer rewards program.

You can reward customers based on their purchases, referrals, posting comments or just for signing up. As an admin, you can assign cash value to points and customers can then redeem them via a coupon. Various settings allow for tweaking the program to meet your specific needs.

WooCommerce Products List Pro

While WooCommerce looks great by default, creating a custom product layout can provide a huge boost to UX. WooCommerce Products List Pro provides an attractive and highly-customizable product listing table for your shop. You’ll be able to create custom lists and filter products in numerous ways.

Choose which product data you want to display with your listing. A simple Shortcode can be generated so you can display your lists anywhere. Developers will like that the plugin includes several hooks and filters for even further tweaking.

WooCommerce Product Variations Layouts

Taking custom layouts one step further, WooCommerce Product Variations Layouts makes variable products much more attractive. Variable products require the user to select options – think of a T-Shirt with multiple sizing and color options.

Their default layout consists of boring old HTML select boxes. This plugin lets you display them in a more visual way. Choose from Table, Grid, List or Boxed layout. The result is better usability and maybe even better sales.

WooCommerce Support Ticket System

If you’re running an online shop, then you need to think about how you want to handle customer support. WooCommerce Support Ticket System is a clever plugin that integrates both orders and customers with support tickets.

Also included is Pay Per Ticket, which allows you to sell blocks of support tickets for premium service. Tickets can include front-end formatting via TinyMCE and customers can even upload attachments.

Stock Synchronization for WooCommerce

Stock Synchronization for WooCommerce allows for automatically synching product inventory from an outside source.

This provides a whole lot of convenience for shops that sell in multiple places with the same inventory. Syncing occurs through a remote CSV file (Google Drive, Dropbox and password-protected files are supported). Set synchronization to run hourly, daily or twice daily.

WooCommerce Simple Bulk Discounts

Offering bulk purchase discounts is a great way to create loyalty. With WooCommerce Simple Bulk Discounts, shopkeepers can create custom percentage or fixed bulk discounts.

Discount rules can be set on a per-product basis. You can even assign bulk discounts based on a user’s role. For example, you might set things up so that only registered customers have access to a deal.

ARG Multistep Checkout for WooCommerce

ARG Multistep Checkout for WooCommerce enables you to customize and enhance the checkout process.

The multistep process can do wonders for UX and can be customized to achieve the look you want. The tabbed layout is responsive and is ready for tweaking. Colors, button and label text can be easily changed. Specific steps can be hidden if desired.

Power Up Your WooCommerce Shop

If you’re using WooCommerce to power your online store, you have an almost unlimited selection of additional functionality to choose from. The plugins above are only a small sampling of what is available.

No matter what type of shop you run or the type of features you want to implement, chances are that there is a WooCommerce extension out there to make it happen.