Generating revenue through websites is not impossible. Whether it is through blogging or simply as an “avenue” to promote goods and/or services offered. A good-looking website is one of the contributing factors to online earning success.
In this digital age, think of websites as the equivalent of business cards or yellow pages. And more often than not, potential customers or partners will decide whether to pursue doing business with you based on your website’s “looks”.
Simply put, a poorly-built website is often ignored the same way we get away from a dubious-looking stranger across the street. And if you are after the “big fish” in this vast ocean called the Internet. It takes a little bit more effort to make sure your site is attention-grabbing and professional at the same time.
Luckily, one doesn’t need to have a degree in IT in order to accomplish this. You just have to make use of compatible pre-built plug-ins and tools easily accessible from a number of web-development websites!
Creating a professional-looking website is not overly complicated and you might be surprised it doesn’t cost as much as it used to. However, with a lot of options out there in the market, it is easy to get overwhelmed and might end up being a recipe for disaster.
So in case you are just starting out and wondering which tools to consider for your site? Here are the top 10 web development tools other websites have more likely taken advantage of!
Template Creator – Make Your Own or Select from Pre-built Options
Depends highly on the chosen niche and content of your site, a plain and boring background simply won’t make the cut. Of course, there are ready-made templates you can choose from platforms such as WordPress or Blogger.
However, these “convenient” options will not help to make your landing page distinctly appealing especially if ALL your competitors (or any other website for that matter) use the same template. Simply put, generic templates make you and your site forgettable – and I bet it is something you don’t want.
Custom-made templates specifically give your audience the perception that your website and business (brand) as one-of-a-kind. Using a tool to make your own template is great but some may find it a bit complicated or overwhelming. Especially if you are not naturally gifted with design skills.
The great thing about the Internet is that there are a number of pre-made creative templates not overly used as a “default” by other websites and created by real designers, too! And the chances of seeing another website using exactly the same template is very unlikely given that sites offering these types of services regularly updates their design range regularly.
Inviting Subscription Box for website Sign-ups
One of the proven ways to generate “regular” traffic to your website is making use of newsletters. Apart from promoting content, newsletters also ensure that your target audience will not forget about you. And for you to be able to send newsletters, a cleverly implemented subscription box is necessary.
Enticing subscription boxes strategically placed in your landing page makes people seeing your site for the first time to enter their email address and receive promotional content from you! Doing so ensures that if you want to advertise a great deal or posted new content. Your target market will see it, pay a visit to your site, and possibly end up with you generating revenue as a result.
Custom-Made Banner
Banners are one of the first things people see when they visit your website’s content. The photo used as well as the image’s size affects your target audience’s “first” user experience on your site. And if you are not aware of it, the way you created your banner contribute heavily to your website’s success rate.
So don’t think of banners as just “another photo” in your content, but rather, a teaser. And as a teaser, banners should keep your audience scrolling through the entire content until the end or even browse on a few more pages.
Apart from adding a pop of color, banners should serve its primary purpose to keep your audience interested and make them crave for more. Not leave before it even started!
Easy-To-Use and Safe Log-In Page
Selling merchandise online is a great way to earn. Especially if your product can be easily shipped worldwide (or available in digital format). An online store has the potential to be an endless money-making channel for you. Just imagine being able to do business from the comfort of your home but your merchandise capable of reaching far away places (and countries) you probably haven’t physically visited yet!
Online stores make use of log-in pages for one thing: keep personal details secured. And as a consumer, there is nothing more frustrating than to see a log-in page poorly built, slow to respond, confusing, or requiring a lot of fields filled up for account access. Data security is one thing to think about when creating your website’s log-in interface but should be designed in a way that will not discourage them to continue, either.
Luckily, there are a lot of pre-built login UI pages for selection to have one less thing to think about.
Photo Editing Apps
Images contribute greatly to your website’s success. Just think of the number of times you clicked on a promoted content on your Facebook feed or bought a cute item promoted in Pinterest because the image used was something appealing.
High-quality and visually attractive images are a proven way to generate traffic to your website. Much so if you used social media as a way to promote, images are the first thing that potential readers see. However, it won’t do you any good to upload a photo that is blurry and unattractive!
To make the images “pop” with color and entice your readers, make sure that you post-process your photos. A lot of photo editing applications are available that are also compatible with different types of operating system that are competitively priced and includes creative filters for use, too.
Font Generator
Some websites use custom-made fonts for their content. It is a nice way to add a creative flair especially if it’s an art-related page but only if not overdone. Overdoing it would be choosing a font that looks great for a banner, a quoted text, or article title but difficult to read if used for the entire text.
So be careful how you use a custom-made font for your site. Run a few tests or read through during “Preview” to see how it looks from your readers’ perspective.
Interactive and Responsive Menu Options
Interactive menu options are a great and fun way to have on your website. Apart from the cool way to navigate around the site, interactive menus have visually attractive icons, too. Hyperlinks for menus are so outdated and considered ancient. And if you want to make your website modern looking, using interactive menus is a way to go!
However, some interactive menus are super slow to respond or worse – crash frequently! And for somebody visiting your website for the first time. This experience is a major turn off. So make sure that you get the “best deal” by testing that the menus respond quickly when clicked.
Cute Icons
Icons are definitely a cute and colorful way to communicate. Just imagine social messaging websites such as Facebook without the emoticons. It will definitely look a bit dull, won’t it? Apart from the default icons such as “smileys” available on most web development platforms. Icon bundles are also available for easy download so your website can have added icons for use!
Additional icons can be beneficial for you especially if your website includes interaction such as forums or comment forms. Having these installed encourages your website users to interact more and have fun while doing it! And in effect, improve your website’s ranking in the search engines because of the increased activity.
Encouraging (and Strategically Placed) Buttons
Buttons encourage your readers to “do something” while they are at your website. Whether it is to buy an item from your eStore or to share an article on social media, buttons are an easy way to do the next step with ease. Similar to interactive menu buttons, “click to” buttons should respond quickly. Nothing is more annoying than to keep clicking without seeing any progress!
Template “Bundles” – Time Saver Option!
All the plug-ins listed in this article so far are easy-to-use, downloadable, and configurable. However, even if these options are user-friendly and with step-by-step instruction on how to integrate. There are still some who will prefer the easiest way possible to have a professional-looking website.
To put it simply. Choosing individual plug-ins and testing whether it is compatible with other plug-ins already in use is an experience similar to putting together a jigsaw puzzle. And for some who don’t want to deal with all these things, template bundles are the way to go!
Template bundles let you select the features you want for your website from a single source. Whether you want an interactive menu option only or want menus plus icons plus email subscription box, this option allows you to select the “package” that suits your taste and budget.
Apart from this convenience, bundles are already carefully selected and made sure that every element included works seamlessly together. And with that, the risk of crashing plug-ins and tools is greatly reduced, if not eliminated.
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