80+ Free Awesome Web Design Resources You Must Know

This post was originally published on 1stwebdesigner. I found this very useful and worth sharing.

Let’s face it: no matter how creative and knowledgeable you are in web designing, you cannot come up with the best web page design if you don’t have the right tools, codes, and resources.

A. FREE DESIGN RESOURCES

Unlock your design potentials with these free design resources that will surely enable you to achieve a web design that is not only visually appealing but user-friendly, too.

The following are some of the best free design resources:

• Freebbble: Should you want to have more freebies for your web design, visit Freebble. It offers a lot of high-quality designs that are for free.
• Dribbble: Dribbble search results for “freebie”. An absolute freebie treasure.
• Graphic Burger: Graphic Burger offers tasty design resources that are high resolution.
• Pixel Buddha: If you are working on websites for professionals, you should consider Pixel Buddha. It is loaded with premium resources that are for free.
• Premium Pixels. Is your website meant to showcase your creative works? If yes is your answer, then, you should download Premium Pixels for free.
• Fribbble. This offers you PSD resources that you can use in more ways than one.
• Freebiesbug. If you want to incorporate the latest PSDs and other resources in your website, you should download Freebiesbug.
• 365 PSD. You can have numerous PSDs and use a different one every day as you can download a new one on a daily basis.
• Dbf. This is Dribbble & Behance best design freebies that can help you in more ways than one.
• Marvel. These are free resources from designers who have the respect of their colleagues and clients. Certainly, you need to check this resource out.
• UI Space. You can get excellent quality freebies that are hand-crafted.
• Free Section of Pixeden. You can get free design resources from here.
• Free Section of Creative Market. You can get freebies every Monday.
• Teehan+Lax. This is the best resource for DiOS 8 GUI PSD for iPhone 6 and iPad.
• Freepik. You can get iFree graphic resources here.
• Tech&All. This offers PSD, Tech News, and other resources without any charge at all.
• Tethr. Without question, this is the most impressive IOS design KIT ever.

Fill your design with the right colors using these color pickers

B. COLOR PICKERS

With the following free color pickers, getting the best color for the images, fonts, or background of your web design is a walk in the park.

• Material Palette: This is very helpful for you in generating and exporting the color palette of your material design.
• New Flat UI Color Picker: Without question, this is a must-download, especially if your UI makes use of the trendy flat design. The colors can simply make your website more attractive despite its flat design.
• Flat UI Colors: This is another must-download for the believers of the flat design. The colors are simply amazing.
• Coolors: Without question, you should download Coolors if you are the kind of designer who wants to get the colors of your website done not just impressively but fast, too. This is a must-download for cool designers.
• Skala Color: If you want the color of your images and fonts to stand out and contribute to the overall appeal of your website, you should not dilly-dally in downloading Skala Color.
• Couleurs: This resource makes it easy for you to grab and tweak the colors you see on screen. Playing with colors has never been this easy and fun with this app.
• Material UI Colors: Whether the website that you are working on is for the web, iOS, or Android, you can easily use this Material UI Colors. This will not only make things easy for you; your web design can be a standout, too.
• Colorful Gradients. This is another must-have because you can effortlessly have color gradients that are generated automatically by a computer.
• Adaptive Backgrounds. If you have this resource, you can easily extract and copy dominant colors from the images that you have.
• Brand Colors. If you go for this resource, you can easily achieve the look, especially the colors, of the famous brands.
• Paletton. Coming up with your website’s own color scheme will be a lot easier with Paletton.
• 0 to 255. Finding any color variation becomes a lot easier for web designers with this resource.
• Colour Lovers. With this resource, you can easily come up with your own colors, color palettes and patterns. You can share what you have created, too.
• Adobe Color CC. This gives you color combinations that have been created by the Kuler community.
• Bootflat. If you are working on a website that has flat designs, you should try this resource.
• Hex Colorrrs. Converting Hex to RGB is easy with this resource.
• Get UI Colors. You can have awesome UI colors with this tool.
• Coleure. This is a nifty color picker tool.
• Colllor. Useful color palettes generator.
• Palette for Chrome.This enables web designers to create a color palette extracted from any image.

Why bang your head for inspiration when it is just a click away

C. INSPIRATION

At times, the most difficult part of any project is to start it. You may already have ideas floating in your head. Of course, banging your head against the wall won’t help. Hence, why not take inspiration from some of the best design resources on the web? With these sources, coming up with a trendy and standard web design is a piece of cake.

• MaterialUp. Get your daily material design inspiration from MaterialUp.
• FLTDSGN. Are you working on a flat design website? This resource gives you a bountiful of inspirations daily with the exceptional showcase of the UI apps and design websites.
• Site Inspire. Are you running out of creative juices on how to make the best website for your client? Go to Site InspireWeb design inspiration.
• UI Cloud. You should check this out as it is the world’s largest UI design interface database in the world. This can really help you come up with a good UI design that will provide a great deal of ease to the users of the website you have designed.
• Moodboard. This resource can help you create an impressive and useful moodboard, whose result can be shared to others.
• Crayon. Are you working on a website design that is meant to market a product or a service? Check out Crayon to get the most important and helpful ideas with your design.
• Land-Book. If you are working on the product landing page gallery of a website, Land-Book can surely help you come up with a design that will surely entice prospective clients to go for the products that the website is offering.
• Ocean. Aren’t you sure of the design that you are contemplating on using? Visit Ocean and learn from other web designers as it is a community where designers let their thoughts known.
• Dribbble. This resource can also help you learn from or teach other web designers regarding various design issues.
• Behance. This is another resource where you can showcase your works or learn from the works of other web page designers.
• Pttrns. This is one of the best resources that you can check out, should you be in doubt about your ability on using mobile user interface patterns.
• Flat UI Design. This a useful inspiration board that can help you in more ways than one.
• Awwwards. Learn and take inspiration from the awarded websites for their creativity and innovation. For all you know, your work will be the subsequent multi-awarded website design as you learn from those that have been recognized.
• The Starter Kit. This is another helpful resource for both web designers and web developers.
• One Page Love. If you are working on the design of a one-page website, you should check out One Page Love and be inspired on how to make your work more visually appealing and user-friendly.
• UI Parade. Apart from knowing various interface design tools that you can use, User interface design tools and design inspiration.
• The Best Designs. This is another resource where you can find only the best web designs.
• Agile Designers. Whether you are a designer or a developer, this is one of the best resources that you should consider checking out.
• Niice. Without question, this is a search engine with taste. With only one search, you can already gather hundreds of sources. You can search the best sites in just one place. Coming up with smart and impressive moodboards that can make your concepts stand out is a breeze with Niice. It is so nice, indeed.

Get high resolution images for free

D. FREE STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, photography has always been a vital component of web design. However, many websites have made use of crappy images in their design. Additionally, these photos come with a high price tag. Thanks Heavens, though, there are now numerous websites that offer strikingly awesome photographs that you can incorporate in your web design. The best part is that these stock photography websites offer their respective images for free; you don’t need to worry about copyright restrictions. This simply means that you can copy, modify, or distribute the images that you have downloaded.

Here are some of the most common stock photography websites that you can visit for a free download of stunning images:

• Stock Up. This is one of the best stock photo websites that offer a wide range of appealing images.
• Pexels. Without question, Pexels has the best free photos in one place-from summer, business, abstract, sunset, art, black-and-white, car, building, people, vintage, technology, street city, nature, and many more, you can surely find an image that you can use for the website that you are working on.
• All the Free Stock. This website offers not only free stock images and videos, but music and icons as well. As this website is also listed under the Creative Commons Zero license, you are free to use its photos even for commercial purposes, even without spending a single centavo.
• Unsplash. Again, this is another stock photo website that enables you to use its high resolution stock images. For every 10 days, you can download 10 new photos.
• Splashbase. Finding the photo that you need and discovering other high resolution images and videos are all possible with this website. They are free, too.
• Startup Stock Photos. You can easily start something and go with the free photos that you find in this website.
• Jay Mantri. Apart from being free, you can do anything that you wish to do with the downloaded pics from Jay Mantri. With its high resolution photographs and a little imagination, creating magical images is a breeze.
• Moveast. There is no need for you to worry about using photos from this website for free as this is about the journey of a Portuguese man traveling East, who believes that every photo on the Internet should be used by anybody without any cost at all.
• Stokpic. If the other mentioned stock photography websites cannot give you the photos that you are looking for, you might just find it here. They’re totally free, as well.
• Kaboompics. Without question, this is the best way to download free photos that are absolutely stunning.
• Function. This website offers free photo packs.
• MMT. This website offers some of the most impressive free stock photos on the Internet as the photographs are taken by Jeffrey Betts.
• Travel Coffee Book. This website abounds with high resolution images taken from travels around the world. Yes, they are for free, too.
• Designers Pics. You can easily find engaging photographs here, whether for your personal or business use.
• Death to the Stock Photo. This website sends you great images every month for free.
• Foodie’s Feed. Working on a food-related business website? Foodie’s Feed has a lot of high resolution food pictures that you can use and make your website users salivate.
• Mazwai. High definition video clips and footages are available for free in this website.
• Jéshoots. If you want to avail of new and modern photos for free, this is the ideal stock photography website for you.
• Super Famous. This stock photography website features the works of Folkert Gorter, a Dutch interaction designer.
• Picography. This website, likewise, features free hi-resolution photographs.
• Pixabay. This is another website where you can get free high-quality images.
• Little Visuals. You can get 7 hi-res photos in your inbox every week. That’s one new high-resolution photo every day.
• Splitshire. Mouth-watering free stock photos.
• New Old Stock. If you want to use vintage photos from the public archives, check out this site.
• Picjumbo. This is another site where you can download completely free photos.
• Life of Pix. The photos from this website are not only for free; they are high resolution, too.
• Gratisography: If you can’t find the free high-resolution photos that you want, this website might just have it.
• Getrefe. More free photos that might just be of big help to the design that you are working on.
• IM Free. This website boasts of a curated collection of free photograph resources.
• Cupcake. This is, without question, a photographer’s treat, specifically by Jonas Nilsson Lee.
• The Pattern Library. If you are looking for free patterns for your projects, this is the website worth checking.
• Public Domain Archive. This website offers new 100% free stock photos.
• ISO Republic. This stock photography site offers high-quality photos that are for free.
• Paul Jarvis. Paul does not just give you valuable tips on design, but his site also teems with a lot of high-resolution photos which you can use for free.
• Lock & Stock Photos. Before deciding on what photographs to use, check this website for more free stock photos that you can choose from.
• Raumrot. This website also offers a wide array of choices for free high-resolution images.
• Bucketlistly. This website offers a wide array of travel photos that can surely make your web design more visually appealing.
• Magdeleine. You can get a free high-resolution photograph every day.
• Snapographic. You can pick from a wide array of photos featured in this website and use your choices either for personal or business use. Free stock photos for personal & commercial use.

Use the right typography and improve user experience

E. FREE TYPOGRAPHY

Whether you realize it or not, your typography helps to create an experience for users before they even read a word or clicked a button. Typography has the potential to go beyond merely telling a story; it shows the user who is behind the website and what you’re about. The treatment of type creates an atmosphere and elicits a response much the same way as your tone of voice does.

• TypeGenius. With TypeGenius, you can easily find the most suitable font combo for your next project.
• Font Squirrel. This offers 100% free commercial fonts.
• FontFaceNinja. This browser extension enables you to find what type of web font a particular site uses.
• Google Fonts. This is a free and open-source fonts that are optimized for the web.
• Canva – Know more about your fonts with this concise but helpful glossary about fonts
• Beautiful Web Type. You can find the best typefaces from the Google web-fonts directory here.
• DaFont: This site houses fully downloadable fonts that are for free.
• 1001 Free Fonts. This site has a wide selection of free fonts that can make the website that you are working on more user-friendly and visually appealing.
• FontPark. Without question, this is the web’s largest collection of free fonts.
• Font-to-width. This source contains fit pieces of texts that are neatly within their containers.

Generate free icons with Fontello

F. FREE ICONS

As you already know, icons are a great way for you to grab a website user’s attention, hence, they should be part of your arsenal. While it is true that you can create your own icons, there is no denying that doing so is time-consuming. So, why don’t you just check out the following sites that offer attention-grabbing icons for free?

• Fontello. This site generates icons.
• Flat Icon. This is a search engine for 16000+ glyph vector icons that can help you choose the best icons to make your website standout.
• Material Design Icons. This site offers 750 open-source glyphs by Google that are for free.
• Font Awesome: Without question, this is the best resource for the iconic font and CSS toolkit.
• Glyphsearc. This is meant to help you search for icons from other icon databases.
• MakeAppIcon. With just a simple click, you can already have app icons of all icons.
• Endless Icons. If you are into flat design, you should visit this resource as it offers free flat icons and other creative stuff.
• Ico Moon. This is an icon generator that can generate more than 4000 free vector icons.
• The Noun Project. This offers thousands of glyph icons made by different artists.
• Perfect Icons. This is a tool for the creation of social icons.
• Material Design Icons. This features 750 open-source glyphs by Google that are for free.
• Icon Finder. This offers free icon section of the website. Without question, this is a must-try.
• Free Round Icons. This includes a Doodle Set, Flat Set, and Vector Line Set. Very useful, indeed.
• Icon Sweets. This includes 60 free vector Photoshop icons that can, without question, make your website more fun and entertaining.

You can use this name generator for your mock-ups

G. OTHER USEFUL STUFF

Here are some of the other resources on the Internet that can help you with your design with its free offerings:

• UI Names. This generates names for use in designs and mock-ups randomly.
• UI Faces. With this, you can find and generate sample avatars for user interfaces with ease.
• UI Blurbs. This offers quick user bios that you can use for your mockups.
• Copy Paste Character. This enables you to come up with an easy click-to-copy.
• Window Resizer. This can help you monitor how your design works on various screen resolutions.

With the above-mentioned resources, coming up with an engaging design that is fun and easy to use is, without question, a breeze. As an adage goes, “Sometimes, the best things in life come for free.” Apparently, the same thing can be said when it comes to web designing resources.

Resource: The  Next Web

99 Sites That Every Professional Should Know About and Use

With an endless number of sites, tools, and resources out there, how do you know what’s worth your time? Well, we know just how busy you are, so we did the legwork for you and found 99 websites that’ll add value to your life and your career, guaranteed.

From productivity advice to places to go when you need a distraction, these sites will change the way you do things, inspire you, and, well, generally just blow your mind.

Organize Your Work

1. Trello

Trello helps you manage all your ideas and due dates and keeps track of what you’re in the process of completing. Plus, it looks nice—it’s like the Pinterest of to-do lists.

2. Hackpad

Think Google Docs—only better for collaboration. Invite as many people as you want to contribute to your docs, or set them to private so they’re just yours.

3. Coffitivity

What is it about a coffee shop that gives you such laser focus? Coffitivity streams the background noises of a coffee shop so you can get your creativity A-game on.

4. FaxZero

FaxZero lets you send and receive faxes through your email—because nobody likes the fax machine.

5. RescueTime

RescueTime lets you monitor how you spend your time on your computer and mobile devices. (The truth is sometimes ugly, but necessary.)

6. Unroll.me

You know all those email newsletters that you accidentally opted into, but don’t really read? Use this site to clear out your inbox.

7. Remember the Milk

A to-do list manager with several key bonuses: You can sync it with your all your devices, share tasks with others, and get email or text reminders of things you need to get done.

8. Springpad

Springpad lets you organize all of your notes, favorite websites, and online inspiration into different folders. It gets bonus points for looking nice, too.

9. HabitForge

Forming a new habit isn’t easy, so HabitForge keeps track of how well you’re doing with simple reminders and check-ins.

10. Evernote

Evernote helps you remember everything using text, photo or audio notes, and clippings of websites.

11. Hemingway

How does that email (or any of your writing!) come off to readers? Plug it into this ingenious app to get the breakdown.

Streamline Your Life

12. Feedly

The greatest RSS reader on the market right now, Feedly is the place to keep up with all the latest from your favorite blogs and publications.

13. Pocket

Don’t have time to read that great post your friend just put on Twitter? Send it to Pocket where you’ll be able to read it later—even offline on your phone while you’re commuting home!

14. TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit helps you open up time in your schedule by making it easy to outsource any task you really don’t want to do, from running errands to planning the details of your next vacay.

15. IFTTT

Standing for “if this then that,” IFTTT helps different apps, online programs, and services work together to make your life way easier. Think getting the weather texted to you every morning or having your photos automatically save to Dropbox.

16. Lifehacker

Lifehacker is always coming up with solutions to problems you didn’t even know you had. From how to handle tech woes to the most pro productivity tips, you’re sure to find it here.

17. ZocDoc

Scheduling doctor’s appointments is one of those things that seems to never quite get done. ZocDoc makes it simple to stay healthy by allowing you to schedule and manage your appointments online.

18. Handybook

Need some help around the house? Handybook makes it easy for you to book cleaners, plumbers, movers, and the like—all online.

19. Seamless

Whether you’re stuck late at the office or just don’t feel like cooking when you get home, Seamless is there for you with super-streamlined online takeout ordering.

Learn New Skills

20. CreativeLive

Whether you’re trying to pick up a new creative hobby or boost your creative career, this site broadcasts live classes by accomplished professionals in each field.

21. Duolingo

This Apple “App of the Year” will help you learn a new language—for free. If you’re super-busy (and we know you are), this is a great one for your commute, a few minutes on your lunch break, or between commercials on your lazy day.

22. Eventbrite

We talk a lot about the importance of networking and professional development, and Eventbrite is one of our go-to places to find out about upcoming conferences and events.

23. Conference Bites

You know those one-liners that you hear at a conference that get you seriously inspired? Conference Bites rounds those up for you.

24. Skillcrush

Skillcrush is dead-on with its philosophy that digital skills will help you no matter what you do. The site’s free email bootcamp is a great way to polish your tech skills.

25. Skillshare

Skillshare has classes on everything from fashion design to HTML to branding. The classes are a project-based format with accomplished teachers, so we’re sure you’ll never be bored.

26. Codecademy

Codeacademy breaks down learning to code into small, manageable lessons, so you don’t need hours to get started. Even better news? It’s free.

27. Coursera

With courses from Yale, Stanford, and more, you know Coursera gives you access to top-notch learning. Classes are several weeks long, and free.

28. MasterStreet

Think of it as a professional development search engine, helping you find both online and in-person classes and conferences.

Editor’s note: This site is no longer available.

29. Udemy

Udemy has a mix of free and paid online classes with a huge range of subjects. Though the paid classes can be pricey, there’s a solid rating system so you can be sure you’re getting your money’s worth.

30. Mediabistro

Media professionals (or those looking to break into the field) will find Mediabistro to be an awesome resource on everything from event planning to travel writing to grammar.

31. Muse University

At Muse University, we help you find out what you want to do with your life, and then be awesome at it. Our free classes for professionals at every stage are delivered straight to your inbox so you can check out the lessons at the time that works for you.

Expand Your Brain

32. Upworthy

The place to go to learn about the social issues that matter most. Chock-full of viral videos and images, you’ll be entertained and growing your brain.

33. TED

Need to get majorly inspired? Head over to TED to hear inspiring talks from people doing big things in the world—the perfect spark to keep working on whatever it is you’re passionate about.

34. Sporcle

Sporcle is still the best place on the internet for testing your knowledge. You can take quizzes on any topic imaginable, which is a pretty fun way to learn new things (and also to challenge your co-workers to see who knows more about obscure TV references or countries of the world).

35. Lumosity

Lumosity is like a gym for your brain. Using the site’s fun games, you’ll be able to keep your brain sharp and even improve certain functions, like memory, problem solving, and thinking on your feet.

36. Quora

When you have a question and your Google abilities don’t seem to be getting you any closer to the answer? Quora is the place to go. You can crowdsource answers to any question or browse other people’s questions to learn a thing or two.

37. Mental Floss

Every day, Mental Floss publishes articles with the most interesting facts and information about things you didn’t even know you wanted to know. From pop culture and geeky information to science and history, you’re sure to find something that piques your interest.

38. FACTSlides

FACTSlides allows you to click through a variety of random facts that not only feed your curiosity, but are also perfect fodder for the break room. For example, did you know that UPS delivery trucks save 10 million gallons of gas every year by making no left turns?

39. GOOD

GOOD is a community of people trying to live well and do good. Follow different change-makers for a steady stream of ideas for things to read and activities to do to make your life even better.

40. Change.org

Make your mark on the world by starting or signing petitions in support of issues you care about. It’s so easy, you can take action during your coffee break.

41. 99U

Head over to 99U for great strategies for turning your ideas into action. From a daily stream of articles to videos of talks from the site’s annual conference, you’ll leave ready to make your ideas happen.

42. Medium

Medium is like an online think tank where people can share their best stories and workshop their biggest ideas. Reading a few articles on here is a great way to get yourself thinking.

43. Goodreads

Goodreads is the social network for the bibliophiles of the world. You can save books you want to read, rate and comment on books you’ve finished, and even keep up with what your friends are reading when you’re looking for a recommendation.

Foster Your Creativity

44. Squarespace

When Squarespace says it’s “giving voice to ideas,” it’s not kidding. Having your own personal site is awesome for your career, and Squarespace makes it easy.

45. Creative Market

Your go-to place if you need to download anything from fonts to WordPress themes for your personal website. Or, if you need to add a creative boost to your day.

46. Visual.ly

Create your own infographic to deliver visual news, or expand your brain with info from the gallery of those already on the site.

47. Behance

Showcase your own design work, or discover what some seriously creative people are making out there.

48. Pinterest

Don’t count Pinterest out if you’re not planning your wedding—there are endless creative possibilities to browse and discover. Get inspired by anything from tech and gadgets to travel destinations.

49. Bubbl.us

The best way to gather your thoughts? Using a mind map on Bubbl.us. Save it for later to continue the thought process, or print or email it to help you stay organized.

50. The Creativity Post

Want to expand your creative mind? The Creativity Post has high-quality articles on innovation, creativity, and imagination.

51. Inspiration Grid

Updated daily, Inspiration Grid fulfills your daily need to look at something beautiful and awesome—including architecture, art, design, and more.

52. Flickr

Need a photo for a design project? Check out Flickr’s Creative Commons archives to find beautiful photos you can use (or just get wanderlust browsing amazingly beautiful destinations).

Manage Your Career

53. Huntsy

On the serious job hunt, and applying to more positions than you can count? Huntsy streamlines the process by keeping your applications in order and your to-dos on track.

54. Newsle

When anyone in your network makes the news, Newsle makes sure you know. In other words, it’s a networker’s best friend.

55. LinkedIn

Um, enough said.

56. Sumry

The coolest, easiest way to transform your resume from a piece of paper to an interactive work of art.

57. About.me

The absolute easiest way to get a personal website up and running in minutes.

58. PayScale

Whether you’re negotiating a salary or asking for a raise, PayScale is the best source of data out there to find out what positions pay in different areas.

59. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Do you know your MBTI type? If not, find out now: It can provide clues into everything from how you work to what kinds of positions will make you happy.

60. Simplewash

The internet never forgets, which becomes a problem when you’re looking for a new gig and those photos from Cabo are splattered all over your social media profiles. Luckily, Simplewash makes it easy to clean ’em right up.

61. MyPermissions

Similarly, MyPermissions makes it easy to scan what apps have access to your email and social media profiles, so you can better control what you’re putting out for the world to see.

62. The Muse

OK, we know you know our publication, The Daily Muse. But did you know that you can find amazing places to work, save and apply to jobs, and even explore career paths, too?

Manage Your Money

63. DailyWorth

A daily publication targeting ambitious women, DailyWorth offers tips for everyone on saving, spending, advancing, earning, and entrepreneurship.

64. LearnVest

Go for the smart, savvy financial advice, stay for the awesome and (very) reasonably priced personal financial planning services.

65. Larky

Keeping track of all the perks and discounts from your various credit cards, professional organizations, and memberships can be tough, but Larky’s online dashboard makes it easy.

66. Mint

Link your credit cards, bank accounts, and loans to the site (yes, it’s safe), and you’ll have a total online system that tracks your spending, saving, and financial health.

67. SigFig

Want to get started with investing? SigFig makes the process simple, fun, and personalized to your risk tolerance.

68. FutureAdvisor

Self-described as “premium investment management for everyone,” FutureAdvisor not only helps you set up your portfolio, it reviews and rebalances your investments to help you achieve your goals.

69. Wise Bread

If you’re looking to cut your costs, head to Wise Bread for tons of tips on how to “live large on a small budget.”

70. She Negotiates

Sure, the name says “she,” but we think anyone in the world can benefit from the negotiation advice, worksheets, and research-backed advice offered here by negotiation gurus Victoria Pynchon and Lisa Gates.

71. CNNMoney

The most complete site for everything money-related on the web, from markets and investing to your personal spending.

Achieve Work-Life Balance

72. Greatist

Greatist is the go-to source for all things health and happiness. The advice site is all about having a healthy body and mind and gives great tips for the worker who needs a little break.

73. Third Metric

One of Arianna Huffington’s personal projects, Third Metric is a great source to help you redefine career success beyond just money and power.

74. Time Out

Time Out has one mission: Help you make the most of your city. With suggestions on where to eat, drink, and play, you’ll always have something on your weekend to-do list with Time Out.

75. Tasting Table

Tasting Table is a dangerous rabbit hole for food lovers. Aside from all the food porn, it has an extensive list of restaurants and recipes you need to try, now.

76. TripAdvisor

Go! Get out of the office and take a trip. And use TripAdvisor to research locations, plan where you’ll stay and eat, and do pretty much all the legwork for your vacation.

77. Hipmunk

Then head to Hipmunk, where you can find deals on flights and hotels. Not sure where you want to go? The site will send you notifications on deals from your city.

78. Blue Apron

Do you want more cooking in your life? Blue Apron makes it easy by sending you all the ingredients and recipes you need to whip up amazing meals in your kitchen.

79. Apartment Therapy

Make your living space a place where you love coming home to relax and unwind. Browse beautiful apartments and tips to beautify your own space.

Get Your News

80. Fast Company

Think of it as the Virgin America of business news: the coolest, most creative corporate reporting around.

81. NPR

Not just a radio program: Today’s NPR offers everything from up-to-the-minute news coverage to smart podcasts for your commute

82. Mashable

The “leading source for news, information, and resources for the Connected Generation,” Mashable reports on our digital lives. Which is, increasingly, our lives.

83. Inc.

The first place we head on the web for productivity tips, management advice, and secrets of the world’s most successful people.

84. Harvard Business Review

HBR is where the world’s leaders head for tips on everything from corporate strategy to managing people, but we think careerists at any stage can find great advice.

85. Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Smart, in-depth reporting about the biggest business, financial, and stock market issues of our time.

86. theSkimm

Don’t have time to read the news? theSkimm distills the day’s top headlines into one awesome, fun-to-read newsletter, making staying up on current events a piece of cake.

87. Good Noows

Consider this your personal news stream—all the stories and topics you care about compiled into a personal online newspaper.

Get Distracted

88. Thought Catalog

Thought Catalog describes itself as a magazine that represents the worldviews and rhetorical styles of as many people as possible. We think it’s just a great place to read amazing, personal, and interesting writing

89. The Onion

We’ll warn you now: Please, pretty please do not end up on this list after reading The Onion.

90. Had One Job

The most facepalm-inducing site on the web.

91. The Nicest Place on the Internet

Need a little love and a virtual hug? This is the place for you.

92. Buzzfeed

Lists on lists on lists. You won’t spend less than 900 hours here after you click through.

93. The Oatmeal

Amazingly funny comics that pretty much nail life. Think the bizzaro version of Family Circus.

94. 22 Words

22 Words is the perfect blend of all the greatest things from the internet. Guaranteed to make you feel every emotion within a half hour of reading.

95. StumbleUpon

Get lost online—in a good way. You tell Stumble your preferences, and it offers up great reads. Every time you Stumble, you get a new read.

96. Longreads

The best storytelling on the web. As the name implies, perfect for a long read, when you’re tired of the 40th animal picture list from Buzzfeed.

97. So Bad So Good

Everything you need to stay up-to-date on pop culture.

98. xkcd

The smartest, funniest comics you’ll ever read. And totally addicting.

99. Deadspin

Not quite sports news, but probably everything you need to know about what’s happening in the sports world.

Should You Create a Personal Website?

This post was originally published on LinkedIn by J.T. O’Donnell CEO, CAREEREALISM

I got this question from a LinkedIn user:

I’m actively looking for a job. I have a LinkedIn profile. A friend suggested I create a personal website. The idea of publishing a website to promote myself seems so self-important and narcissistic to me. What do you think?

I get it. For many people, the thought of building a website dedicated to presenting their professional selves can seem a bit over-the-top. If you aren’t focused on being an author, thought leader, or industry expert, why would you go to such great lengths, right? And, if you already have a LinkedIn profile, it could even feel redundant. But….

Times have changed. Now, more is expected of you as a professional.

Early on, when personal branding was first becoming popular, I didn’t think the average job seeker needed their own website. It did seem to be a little much. Plus, the options were limited and some of the sites I saw job seekers had created on their own weren’t doing them justice. However, times have changed. The technology has gotten a lot better and job seekers are more savvy at branding themselves properly. Now, I actually think personal sites are a good idea for all professionals. Here are two reasons why…

#1 – Think of your LinkedIn profile as the resume, and the personal website as the cover letter. They each serve a different purpose.

Your LinkedIn profile enables you to quantify your experience and keyword optimize your career so you can attract the attention of recruiters. When done right, your LinkedIn profile can help a recruiter quickly locate you and see if you’re a match for their open position. In short, an optimized LinkedIn profile is a must-have for all job seekers. However, if the recruiter then wants to get to know you better, they’d also benefit from a second online source. A place where they could get a glimpse of your values, beliefs, and approach to work on a deeper level. A personal website gives you the chance to create a persona that a recruiter can use visualize your expertise and get even more excited about you as a possible fit for their job.

#2 – Brand or BE branded. If you don’t create a robust set of online search results for your ‘business-of-one,’ you could send the wrong message.

Recruiters do their homework before investing time and energy in reaching out to a potential candidate. The more they can learn online about you, the better. Failing to create some good search results for your business-of-one could actually send the wrong message. A lack of online presence could translate into recruiters thinking:

A) Your not tech-savvy.
B) You have nothing interesting or worthy of sharing about your career.
C) You have something to hide.

Wouldn’t you rather control what they see? By developing a personal website, you can take ownership of your brand to make sure the message about your professional self is accurate and compelling.

Even if you aren’t actively looking for a job, creating a personal website proactively is a good idea. As we say at CAREEREALISM, “Because EVERY job is temporary.” Better to get the website up and optimized now, just in case.

That being said, I offer this one word of caution…

Like any online tool (i.e. social media profiles), our personal website is only as effective as it is current. It’s not a one-and-done task. It’s important to remember when setting up your personal website that you’ll need to update it regularly. Which means, you should consider the following:

• Creating your own site from scratch offers you the most control over the look and feel of your brand, but will also be the most time-consuming and expensive to keep updated.

• Outsourcing it to a personal website platform is cheaper, but the design and functionality will be limited to what the platform offers. So, be sure to pick a platform that is updated and focused on staying cutting-edge.

Now, there are plenty of personal website platforms out there. The amount of time you spend setting them up and the cost associated with them varies widely – so, do your homework. Some of the more popular ones are:

WordPress
Tumblr
Wix
Weebly
Squarespace
About.me
Workfolio
Branded.me

I encourage all readers to explore their options and choose what’s best for them.

One last thought…

If you are still uncomfortable with the idea of promoting yourself online with a personal website, then hold off. You should always feel 100% confident with what you are putting out there about yourself online. But, I encourage you to focus on finding your comfort level and getting to a place where you can offer more of your professional self to the public. This is not a trend that’s going to go away. The longer you hold off on building your personal brand online, the harder it will be to catch up later.

Each of us has different needs and preferences when it comes to presenting our professional selves online. It’s worth taking the time to see which platform you feel most attracted to.

4 Web Design Trends for 2015 That Will Change Your Job Forever

As web professionals we often look at other industries with disbelief at their failure to adapt to digital. The downfall of music retailing, the demise of companies like Kodak and the challenges faced by newspapers.

But are we aware of the changes happening in our own sector? The web is now over 25 years old. Are we beginning to get set in our ways? Are we just as blind to changes as other industries?

I am aware I maybe sounding melodramatic and I don’t mean to be. We are not about to see our roles disappear. We may not see many travel agents or encyclopaedia salesmen around these days because of digital. But that doesn’t mean we are in immediate danger.

That said, there are certain trends that are worthy of our attention. These are trends that might not make us obsolete, but they will change what we do from day-to-day.

The four trends I’m talking about are:

• The move towards in-house teams
• The automation of code
• The rise of software as a service
• The decline of the website

01. The move towards in-house teams

The way businesses perceive the web has changed a lot in recent years. Once seen as another marketing channel, it is now perceived as business critical for a lot of organizations.

Many companies have decided it is unwise to rely on an outside suppliers for business critical operations. Instead they are building internal teams to take on the role. This is strategically wise, but also provides significant cost savings over the longer term.

We are beginning to see this impact our sector as agencies compete for a shrinking number of opportunities at the top end of the market. Some agencies such as Adaptive Path and Mark Boulton Design have sold to their clients. Effectively they have become in-house teams. Others are being forced to downsize.

Of course no in-house team is going to have every skill they need to operate. There will still be work for the specialist. But, whether specialist agencies are sustainable is hard to tell. Instead we might see the growth of specialist contractors who work on short term contracts with in-house teams.

This means that those of us working in high-end agencies need to think about our long term position. The chances are we will see a growing number of agencies close their doors over the coming years. Those of us who work for those agencies may well find ourselves joining in-house teams. That or becoming much more specialised in our role.

But it is not just those working at the top end of the market who will experience change.

02. The rise of software as a service

The rise of software as a service is threatening the lower end of all kinds of sectors. For example, services like FreeAgent are replacing traditional book keepers. In fact SaaS is eroding traditional models in everything from recruitment to customer management.

Unfortunately for some, web design is no exception. There was a time when self employed web designers could produce cheap websites from home and make a reasonable income. Today that is becoming hard with services like Squarespace allowing people to build their own website.

But this doesn’t just apply to ‘build your own website’ services. It would now be insanity to build a custom content management system in the vast majority of cases. Once this was big business for many developers. The same is true for ecommerce platforms. Services like Shopify means the days of building shopping carts for most are over.

What this does is push those low end web designers up market at exactly the same time as the high end agencies are lowering their prices. This squeezes the middle.

Software as a service is commoditising much of what use to be bespoke work. But even bespoke design is becoming easier than ever before.

03. The automation of coding

There was a time when being able to code good quality HTML and CSS was enough. That is no longer the case. Not only is there a surplus of people able to do this, the need to code is waning.

Tools like Macaw and Adobe Reflow are enabling designers to do much of the work of front-end coders. Now I know what you are thinking — these tools create terrible CSS. You are right, but they are a sign of things to come. Over time these tools will become more sophisticated. It wouldn’t surprise me if eventually hand coding HTML and CSS becomes a skill few still need.

Although these tools will never produce code as good as a person, it will be good enough. In the end it will come down to return on investment. For many ‘quick to market code’ that is ‘good enough’ will be a better investment than hand-coded.

But even if that does not happen, these tools are already having an impact. Creating working prototypes has become much easier. A job that used to keep a front end coder busy for days if not weeks.

It’s easy to dismiss the impact of these tools. They don’t replace a good coder. But, I remember graphic designers saying the same thing about desktop publishing. DTP didn’t replace the graphic designer but it did thin the herd.

If you are a designer, you might be feeling a little smug at this point. After all we will always need people to design websites no matter how we code our sites. But perhaps longer term even that will change.

04. The decline of the website

Have you noticed the gradual decline in the role of the website? Take for example going to see a movie. You know what you want to see, but you don’t know where it is showing.

In the past you would have visited each movie theatre website one at a time to see if they were showing the film you wanted. Each website was different, crafted by a busy team of web designers.

My betting is that is not how you look up movies anymore. The chances are you have a single app on your mobile that aggregates movie listings from many sources. Perhaps you even ask Siri or just Google it.

This creates a much better experience as users don’t have to deal with different interfaces. Unfortunately it does start to undermine the role of the designer crafting these different sites.

I am sure it won’t be long before you ask Siri and she tells you when and where your film is on. The whole thing done by voice command, no user interface at all.

Content is being set free from design. Instead we are sharing content via APIs between applications and sites. Sometimes business owners are choosing to put their content on Facebook, Yelp or Foursquare. They are abandoning the idea of having their own site. This is something that is particularly prevalent in China.

Don’t panic!

This might leave you feeling despondent about your future prospects. It shouldn’t. As somebody who has worked in the web over 20 years, I can tell you that as long as you are able to adapt then none of this will be an issue. Sure, your role will change but you won’t find yourself homeless.

The danger is that the transition could prove painful if you are not aware that change is coming. Whether I am right in my predictions or not you can be sure of one thing — the web will continue to evolve. As Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Source: http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/trends-2015-101413303

Words: Paul Boag

Co-Founder of Headscape and host of the Boagworld Podcast, Paul Boag has spent more than 20 years of helping organisations manage digital change.

6 Things They Don’t Tell You When You Leave the Big Corporate World for Your Own Business

After working in the glossy world of corporate life, a business professional who goes it alone might at first find the change a shock.

You might have sleepless nights, even after their biz are cashflow positive? Cos even after we are profitable, it seems like there is always this nagging fear at the back of my head. When we grow, I fear we are hiring too fast. When we don’t hire, I fear we are stagnating. When the biz comes in, I fear we don’t have the resources to fulfill, when a contract negotiation fell through, I fear the sales targets will not be met, and we can’t pay the staff bonus. When we spend on R&D, I fear it will be a waste. When we don’t invest in R&D, I fear we will lose our edge. When investors don’t invest, I fear they see something we don’t. When investors invest, I fear we are shortchanging ourselves. How much do we need before we can feel safe? When will this fear of imminent doom ends?  – facebook comment by Louis Chua on post by Guy Kawasaki

Here are a few of the things nobody thinks to mention until you’ve already set up shop.

1. Being an entrepreneur is lonely.

Because the company is a startup, there’s no HR division, accounts department or administration team. So it’s just you, the company founder, overseeing all these administrative tasks.

And when you’re out on the road meeting potential clients, nothing gets done because you’re not there to do it.

With several key departments missing from your workforce, outsource some of these tasks. These contractors will need to be fully briefed to work to your specifications. That saps time but, without the manpower to get things accomplished in-house, you have no choice.

If you need someone to brainstorm with, find a business partner or hire your first team member.

2. Talent doesn’t queue up.

As passionate as you may be about your enterprise, the person you might try to hire may not be. Top people rarely want to join a company they don’t know for less pay, fewer benefits — and less certainty.

You need to market yourself and your brand. Share your vision and woo potential employees so that they will see the positives of a startup: more responsibility, the opportunity to learn new skills and possibly an equity share.

Once you have an employee on board, keep that person.

It’s crucial for the team to bond, otherwise discontented employees will quit.

3. Even in a buoyant market, investors are hard to find.

You might think you’ll be tripping over angel investors or venture capitalists who want to buy into your business. But finding the right investor for your needs may be tricky.

Before you start raising capital, ask yourself some hard questions: What’s the true value of my business? What share should I give away? What terms will be fair?

Consider what else you need from an investor. Some come with a wealth of experience that a startup founder can tap into and can offer a mentoring relationship as well as cash.

4. Convincing customers to buy your product is hard.

Marketing a new venture is no walk in the park. You want clients to buy into your business. But they don’t know your brand, so you have to work extra hard.

You’ll find yourself talking to the guy at the bottom of the chain of command at some organizations and it can be like walking through a minefield trying to figure out which discount to offer to get your foot in the door.

Gaining recognition for your brand requires persistence. You also need patience: Deals take much longer to close than you might initially realize. Resilience is necessary for bouncing back if you lose a client.

But that’s just a small setback. So get up and get back out there selling.

5. Cash is king.

A healthy cash flow is key for a startup and success at securing financing from a  bank is far from guaranteed. This means getting paid is crucial but customers don’t always respond to bills on time.

It may be tempting to threaten to cut relations with a nonpaying customer, but is it the right move? Will this burn a relationship that you took so much time to build?

Set automated reminders to help you remember to gently chase after payments owed. Sometimes customers just have so many other bills that yours — from a small player — ended up at the bottom of the pile.

6. There’s a big personal toll.

While entrepreneurs go it alone because they’re passionate about their business, they must consider the costs to their personal life.

There’s no such thing as a 9-to-5 schedule for the company founder and no holiday when he or she can take a complete break from work. Unless you have a business partner to share the workload, you cannot just hand over the reins and head out the door.

And when it comes to maternity leave, forget it. When my second child was born this past summer, I took one week off. This is where having a co-founder or # 2 becomes so valuable.

Source: This post was originally published on Entrepreneur.com by Ambareen Musa (CEO and Founder, Souqalmal.com)

Logo & Web Design Trends for 2015. (Infographic)

There’s no denying that appearance matters. Everything about a company’s logo or website is chosen for a specific impact; promotional materials are discussed and planned for months.

While some design strategies are timeless, trends change. The visual layouts and pictures that worked five years ago won’t necessarily resonate with customers today.

Thankfully, the folks at Coastal Creative Reprographics have put together an infographic of the big styles that swept the industry this year, as well as a look at what’s coming next. From semi-flat graphics to hand-drawn illustrations, here’s what you need to know.

Click to Enlarge

Source: Entrepreneur

12 Online Marketing Blogs Every Small Business Owner Needs to Read

Online marketing is an industry that is constantly changing. The search engines are constantly rolling out updates and data refreshes, pay per click advertising platforms are always revealing new features and social media marketing is always evolving.

Reading the top online marketing blogs is a great way to keep up with industry news, changes, helpful guides and “how-to” posts. With so many blogs out there how does the average small business owner know what ones are worth his or her time? In no particular order, here are 12 online marketing blogs that provide excellent content that every small business owner can benefit from reading.

1. Copyblogger

Content marketing is such an important part of online marketing, and Copyblogger is a great resource that talks about all things content related. Their content covers everything from attracting more traffic via content to converting more of that traffic into revenue for your business. This is a great go-to online resource for every small business owner.

2. Moz Blog

With over 10 years of SEO industry experience, Moz is a great daily read for search engine optimization tips, insight and discussion. The posts on the Moz blog are some of the most in-depth available, diving heavily into the technical aspect of SEO. Small business owners that are serious about learning how SEO really works should bookmark this blog and check-in on a regular basis.

3. HubSpot Blog

The HubSpot blog is, as they put it, “Your Daily Dose of Inbound.” This blog is a great source of marketing and sales information, all presented from an inbound marketing perspective. The HubSpot blog is constantly updated with new content throughout the day — and it is definitely a great source of information for small business owners.

4. Search Engine Journal

One of the most popular SEO blogs in existence, SEJ delivers a nice balance of SEO news as well as “how-to” posts that really provide their readers with helpful information. They have also started a new podcast series called #MarketingNerds that features interviews with online marketing experts.

5. Search Engine Land

This is one of my favorite blogs to read for daily breaking news related to SEO. Updated several times throughout the day, Search Engine Land is usually the first search engine optimization media outlet to report on algorithm updates and other important news.

(Bonus: Check out Marketing Land, which is Search Engine Land’s sister site for even more online marketing daily news and information.)

6. Search Engine Watch

SEW is a great daily reader, as it features some very insightful SEO and PPC posts from industry experts. Several of the contributing authors featured on Search Engine Watch are in-house online marketing experts for some of the biggest brands in the world. If you want to learn from the best-of-the-best then make sure to add this to your daily-reader list.

7. Google’s Official Blog

This is a must-read for anyone that wants to stay up to date on what Google has going on. You aren’t going to find SEO tips or anything like that here — but when an announcement is made here you know that it is 100% accurate and straight from the source. Google commands the biggest piece of the search engine pie so staying current on their latest products, culture and technology is a smart move.

8. Duct Tape Marketing

This blog is popular for presenting readers with small business marketing strategies that are proven winners. From budget-friendly marketing tactics to full blown social media and content marketing, Duct Tape Marketing puts a wide range of useful topics right at your fingertips.

9. MarketingProfs

This blog has a little bit of everything — from advertising and email marketing to brand and career management. MarketingProfs publishes quality content and has created one of the most extensive online marketing resources available. This is a blog that should definitely be bookmarked on your computer.

10. Social Media Examiner

There are a lot of social media marketing bogs and Social Media Examiner is my preferred daily stop for my social fix. They have very strict publishing guidelines and their quality is always top notch. There are great articles with plenty of insight that cover all of the popular social media platforms.

11. Market Domination Media Blog

This is my company’s blog and I am including it in this list because we update it every day during the week with helpful information. Our blog and newsletter are designed to help small business owners succeed and educate them on the many different online marketing disciplines.

12. PPC Hero

This is a blog dedicated exclusively to PPC (pay per click) advertising. Small business owners and marketing agencies alike can benefit by reading this blog. People of all skill levels can find value here, with beginner tips all the way to advanced strategies along with helpful “how-to” blog posts.

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

The Complete Guide to Build Your Sensational Personal Brand

Introduction

What is branding?

My parents like to tell a story from my childhood. When I was a toddler they would put me in the backseat of the car in child’s car seat when they would take me somewhere like to the store or to a friend’s house. When we would drive down the highway, I would see golden arches through the car window and yell, “Donald’s!”

Now, I was only two or three years old at the time. I wasn’t old enough to read. I could barely see high enough to see through the car window. But when I saw those arches it meant something to me.

My parents would sometimes take me to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal. I would associate the burger and fries with the golden arches.

That is branding.

A brand is anything—a symbol, design, name, sound, reputation, emotion, employees, tone, and much more—that separates one thing from another. In the case of McDonald’s, the golden arches became part of the brand. Those arches separate their product from all other fast food restaurants and they’re a recognizable symbol even with kids.

Branding on a business-level is common, but today branding is becoming just as important on a personal level. After all, you might work for a business that works with other businesses, but it’s people working with people and that’s what makes business relationships valuable.

Why should you build your personal brand?

Building a recognizable personal brand opens professional opportunities.

Creating a vision for your future and implementing that vision can lead to:

• A better job
• Better contacts and clients for your company
• Industry recognition
• And more

If you’re looking for a better job, you want your potential boss at your ideal company to associate your personal brand with something that she needs on her team.

If you’re looking to grow the sales for a company, you want potential clients to associate your personal brand with a feeling of trust and long-term success and satisfaction.

This guide will take your through all the steps you need to take to create a your unique personal brand. In today’s job market and entrepreneurial landscape, there is no room for being another face in the crowd. You have to separate yourself from the competition. You have to be more appealing to your target audience and you can achieve it by creating a recognizable personal brand.

Not Everything In This Guide Will Apply To You

This is an advanced guide to building your personal brand. There is a lot of information covering many different steps you can take to build your personal brand.

However, not everything in this guide needs to be followed to reach your goals. Not everything in the guide applies to everyone so if you notice something that doesn’t fit your vision or your goals it’s okay.

The purpose of this guide is to cover as much as possible about the process of building a personal brand. In the final chapter, we discuss why it’s important to be yourself. You can take the information here as a guide, but use the information in your own way. Follow steps exactly or use certain information and create your own steps for finding success.

Expert Roundup: Quotes From Successful & Influential Individuals

For this guide we wanted to include quotes from well-known individuals in the online world. These are people that have been the reason for the success of some of the most successful brands in the world. They know what it takes to succeed and that includes their feelings on building a personal brand.

We asked three questions:

1. What one action, decision, or choice has had the single biggest impact in the growth of your personal brand?
2. If you were building an online presence from scratch today, what 3 things would you consider to provide the biggest ROI on your time and money?
3. For those looking to create a strong online brand, which 3 online influencers would you recommend they follow?

Throughout this guide you’ll find the answers along with actionable steps you can take to follow the advice of these experts.

1. Chapter One How To Create Your Personal Brand Vision

   Businesses create vision and mission statements. Creating a personal brand begins much the same way by creating a personal vision.

   Only you can determine how you want your life to unfold. You can’t control every aspect of your life, but you can create a long-term vision and develop steps to achieve that vision.

   Your life’s vision should include how you see yourself in 10, 20 and even 50 years. Consider the elements in life that would make you happy—a family, a beach house, a challenging corporate job?

   There are no right or wrong answers and in this chapter we’ll guide you through the steps necessary to create your personal vision.

   Take Me To Chapter One

2. Chapter Two How To Define Your Target Audience

   Once you have your vision, it’s time to determine who your target audience is. Most professionals are selling something to someone. If you’re looking for a job, you’re selling yourself to a potential employer. If you want to start your own business, you’re selling yourself to potential clients.

   But your target audience goes beyond an employer and customer. You’re looking to build a community of people—employers, peers, influencers, etc.—who can all be assets in different ways.

   In this chapter, we’ll show you how to define your target audience. Knowing the exact person you’re selling to makes it easier for you to communicate your brand message.

   Take Me To Chapter Two

3. Chapter Three How To Build Up Your Online And Offline Assets

   Thee are a number of assets that require attention when you’re building your personal brand. You’ll need to secure domain names and websites to help control your personal brand on search. You’ll need to secure social media accounts to control your personal brand on social networks.

   And you’ll need to know how to build these assets so you can build your overall network. In this chapter, we’ll go over the most important online and offline assets for building your personal brand and give you step-by-step instructions for securing and building each up with a strong community.

   Take Me To Chapter Three

4. Chapter Four How To Build Your Brand Through Outreach

   When you start building your personal brand it’s difficult to get exposure. It’s necessary to get exposure in the places where your target audience is spending time.

   In this chapter, we’re going to explain how you can gain exposure through earned media, advertising and a few other strategies. Following the steps in this chapter will give you formulas for creating content that is appealing to your target audience while establishing you as an authority.

   Take Me To Chapter Four

5. Chapter Five How To Get Free Press Coverage

   Another way to gain exposure is to get free press coverage. There are a number of tools that make it easy to build connections with journalists, bloggers and moderators. Building these relationships and understanding what the press wants gives you the power to get free press.

   Take Me To Chapter Five

6. Chapter Six How To Connect With Mentors

   One key to success is continued learning. Even the smartest people in the world can become smarter and more skilled in certain aspects of life.

   Mentors are great assets for professionals looking to build a personal brand. You can learn how they became success or how they view the world and use the strategies to build your own success.

   In this chapter, we’ll show you how to find mentors and how to approach them so they will help you with your personal brand.

   Take Me To Chapter Six

7. Chapter Seven How To Monitor Your Brand

   Once you’ve established what you want personal brand to be and you’re working to grow it you’ll need to monitor the growth and the perception. It’s important to see how your target audience associates you with your industry and how they feel about you in general.

   In this chapter, we’ll share monitoring tools with you and we’ll show you how to use those tools so you know what your audience thinks about you.

   Take Me To Chapter Seven

8. Chapter Eight Be Yourself Because Everyone Else Is Taken

   We’re going to close the guide with an important chapter on being unique. You want to take influence from others including your mentors, but it’s important that you be yourself. That’s how you’ll separate yourself from the competition.

   In this chapter we’ll give you steps for further identifying why you’re different and how to embrace differences to attract people to you in a positive way.

   Take Me To Chapter Eight

---

Define What Makes You Shine

Defining and consistently sharing your unique message creates differentiation. It is an identifier, relaying the special skills, talents and magic that is the brand called you.

Whether you are a writer, a marketer or a small business owner, controlling that perception is vital. Begin to develop your personal brand by asking a few questions:

• What is my greatest strength/weakness?
• What unique ability do I bring to the table?
• What differentiates me from my competition?
• Am I innovative or traditional in thinking?
• How do I prefer to communicate?
• What are the needs of my consumer that I can solve?

Create a Credible Website

A website can help establish credibility and should be hub or center of your online presence. With it you can showcase your individual talents and provide insight into who you are, what you are passionate about and what niche or group you and your business serve.

Allow your website to complement all that you are doing both offline and online. Add it to your marketing, newsletter, email and any other location where you are eager for consumers to find and connect with you.

Your website is establishing your reputation. Do not miss the opportunity to create thought leadership through your content, design and branding.

Embrace Social Media

As the use of social networks within business continues to evolve, having an established social media presence that connects with potential customers is a crucial element to building your personal brand.

Gain a voice in the over-saturated online world by getting involved in the conversation. Determine where you can share and discuss topics that matter most to your business and potential clients.

To begin building a presence across various social networks, consider these tips:

• Spend time identifying where your target market spends their time. Is it Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or Pinterest? Once you know where they want to receive your message, then begin to craft it.
• Take time to determine what you will talk about. This is not a time or place to be spammy or promotional. You want to offer insight and give away your knowledge freely to begin boosting personal brand awareness and establishing a solid reputation.
• Like, circle or follow competitors and other local businesses. This is a great way to elevate the conversation and create strategic relationships, even with your competitors. As the saying goes, keep your friends close and your enemies (aka “the competition) closer.
• Ask questions! This is a quick and easy way to find out what matters most to those connecting with you online.

Merge Offline with Online

While business seems to be more Internet-based than ever, you never want to neglect your offline efforts. Merging your offline and online is a perfect way to  take an established reputation and introduce it to your new online audience.

Take your brochures, email marketing, flyers and direct mail campaigns and repurpose the content across your social media channels. You can also take much of that content and turn it in to blog posts.

Did you answer a question or solve a problem in your latest email? Expand upon that and post it to your blog.

Don’t forget to include links to your online profiles within your traditional marketing to cross-promote your online networks. You want to make sure that no matter where your audience spends time, they can find you!

Invest In Your Brand

Whether it is time spent creating content or an investment into a new marketing tool, investing in your personal brand provides growth opportunities.

Spending money on the development of your brand can also build credibility, boost visibility and create a higher overall perceived value.

For example, spending money on your look and feel – a logo, custom website and branded social media channels tells your story and sends a consistent message to potential clients.

Set Measurable Goals

Setting periodic goals for your personal brand is a good way to analyze your achievements and adjust your strategy as necessary. Set daily, weekly and monthly goals that support your dream.

What is it that you want to achieve? Once you decide what you are working towards, put it in writing.

For example:

Are you looking to sell more product? Determine how many people you will need to get in front of to meet your goal. Then analyze what your conversion rate is and what the cost is to market to each individual.

This will help you begin to formulate the cost of your time and resources.

 Stay Fresh and Relevant

Keep your personal brand fresh and exciting. Consistently take stock of your marketing and your message. Ask yourself who you are marketing to and whether your content is what they want and need.

There is no sense in putting yourself out there if you are not willing to go the extra mile.

Stay on top of trends and make sure your personal branding is relevant, but also a reflection of all that your business is and is striving to be.

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Once you’ve designed your personal brand and have a personal brand name, use this handy list of suggestions to implement your personal branding strategy.

General purpose

• Show your expertise as much as possible.
• Publicize your brand-related successes and achievements.
• Make yourself easy to contact for thoughts and questions via email, Twitter, Skype, internet messaging, etc.
• Help other people in your industry such as bloggers, Twitterers, colleagues, advice seekers, etc.
• Give people a reason to talk about you in a positive way that also matches your brand.
• Follow other people in your industry and anyone else who can teach you how to spread your message.
• Create and apply personal design guidelines that will share the values of your brand and are reusable online and offline.
• Keep in mind that where you interact online also conveys messages about you, and then stick to the websites and communities that will help most in reaching your goals.

Tactics

• Choose an appropriate avatar.
• Consider using a personal logo.
• Join brand-related communities on social media (such as LinkedIn Groups), in discussion forums, newsgroups and mailing lists.
• Be helpful by sharing links and resources that you know people will enjoy.

Kinds of websites you could create

• An ‘ask an expert’ website to answer questions about your profession or area of expertise.
• Discussion forum about your industry that you would moderate and participate in.
• Wiki about your industry
• A social media resume
• A personally-branded version of a free online tool that your audience will find useful.
• Personal blog
  

  

Blogging

• Register your own name as a domain name. If not available, use your personal brand name or some variation that won’t confuse people and will still reinforce your brand.
• Syndicate your blog in brand-related sites and networks.
• List your blog in pertinent website, blog and RSS directories.
• Exchange blogroll placements with industry bloggers.

Places to put your personal brand information

• Email signature
• Forum signature
• Website personal profiles (like Ning’s) that allow you to fill in a short bio and list your website or blog.
• Software-based personal profiles, like Skype’s.
• The name field in blog comments forms should mention your personal brand name.
• The website field in blog comments forms should point at the website that best brands you, whether your blog, social media resume, LinkedIn profile, or anything else.

Social media

• Considering the time investment involved, be selective in choosing the right social media for you, and then complete your personal profiles with your branding messages.
• Use Twitter or other micro-blogging services to network, ask and answer questions, share and learn.
• Create a social bookmarking account (e.g. on del.icio.us) specifically for articles related to your profession or interest, and then encourage people to help you find related arti cles.
• Arrange to have bios posted about yourself on Wikipedia, Knol, Squidoo and other user-generated media.
• Launch a Facebook Page about your industry niche.
• Tie together everything in a dedicated FriendFeed profile that allows people to follow your online activities from one source.

Personal brand-reinforcing content

• Produce your own podcasts (audio or video).
• Dedicated video channels for you on sites like YouTube.
• Launch an online initiative related to your profession.
• Participate in other online initiatives to get noticed.
• Put out press releases when you have a newsworthy accomplishment to share.
• Write op-ed articles for mainstream media.
• Start a newsletter about your field of expertise.
• Conduct (free?) webinars about up and coming topics.
• Create your own products.
• Grow an affiliate network to promote your products, which means they’re also promoting you.
• Likewise, promote products that you can recommend honestly and whose buyers will appreciate you bringing it to their attention.
• Leave insightful comments on related blogs.
• Have online chats or Q&A sessions about brand-related topics.
• Guest post on pertinent blogs.
• Interview industry celebrities, trendsetters and other people of interest.
• Be one of those people of interest and get interviewed on related topics.
• Post presentations you’ve given on topic, such as by publishing them on your LinkedIn profile and blog.
• Write an eBook.
• Release free reports about latest events in your industry and your predictions for the future.

Sources:

1) http://www.quicksprout.com/the-complete-guide-to-building-your-personal-brand/

2) http://rebekahradice.com/build-a-sensational-personal-brand/

3) http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/50-tips-to-brand-yourself-online/

16 Ways to Double Your Website Speed in 2015!

This post originally appeared on incomediary.com  By: Stavros Papadakis

Speeding up your website is the only guaranteed way to get more traffic and make more sales.

In 2010, Google confirmed that site speed is one of over 200 indicators that impacts search rankings. Their data shows that when pages load slowly, people spend less time. Yet most of us put little focus into making our websites faster.

Maybe fine-tuning the inner speed triggers of your WordPress website is too daunting.

To shed light on cutting your load time in half, we invited Stavros Papadakis to lay out his process for speeding up client websites.

Note: Stavros is one of over 300 AwesomeWeb designers and developers that you can hire today. He is our resident expert on website speed optimization.

If your load time is more than 3 seconds or your page size is over 2MB, that can be a big problem that’s costing you money, both in lost sales and server fees.

There are many free online tools such as WebPageTest, GTmetrix, Google PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom that can help you identify issues that cause slow loading times and bad user experience for your site.

Here’s how to take charge of your website’s performance.

Table of Contents

• 1. Enable compression
• 2. Optimize your images
• 3. Move Javascript files to the footer
• 4. Make sure that you have KeepAlive enabled
• 5. Merge CSS files – Inline small CSS files
• 6. Enable caching
• 7. Use a Content Delivery Network
• 8. Minimize the number of HTTP requests
• 9. Choose the correct file type for your images
• 10. Fix your 404 errors
• 11. Take care of your page size
• 12. Scale images
• 13. Leverage Browser Caching
• 14. Optimize your database
• 15. Select your hosting company wisely
• 16. Hire an expert
• Conclusion

1. Enable compression

Compressing your CSS and Javascript files will help browsers download them faster.

Gzip compression can easily reduce file sizes from 200+KB (non-compressed) to less than 40KB (compressed). As long as your server has compression enabled, take advantage of it.

You can be sure that your users will experience a drastic speed up of your site for both desktops and mobiles by enabling compression at your server.

Add the following snippet of code at your .htaccess file in order to enable compression for static files.

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-php text/php text/html text/plain text/css text/xml application/x-javascript text/javascript application/javascript text/x-js

BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
Header append Vary User-Agent

2. Optimize your images

Images are the main culprit for slowing a website. Always optimize your images (especially those above 50KB) before uploading them to your website.

The optimal way of optimizing them is to use Photoshop or any other image manipulation software. Save images for web with image quality up to 60%.

You should also use progressive images for JPG files because progressive rendering of images provides a smoother user experience.

Please check the following two images, they look the same but the left one is non-optimized and is 80KB and the one to the right is optimized and it is only 18KB, 4 times smaller.

3. Move Javascript files to the footer

Although Javascript libraries such as jQuery, Mootools and Prototype are awesome because they extend your website’s functionality, they can also block the rendering of your pages.

Browsers don’t start loading the content until all the Javascript files in the header of the page have been downloaded.

An easy way to solve this problem is to move your Javascript files, those which are not required during the initial page rendering, from the header to the footer of the page.

If you use WordPress, you can move script calls from header.php to footer.php at your theme and use true as the fourth parameter whenever you use the wp_enqueue_script function.

4. Make sure that you have KeepAlive enabled

Apache (the most commonly used server for shared hosting plans at low-cost hosting companies) has a great “feature” called KeepAlive which keeps connections open for more than one HTTP request.

Make sure KeepAlive is activated at your hosting company.

If you have access to your httpd.conf file, enable KeepAlive by making sure that you have “KeepAlive On” in it, otherwise just add the following piece of code at your .htaccess file.

<ifModule mod_headers.c>
 Header set Connection keep-alive
</ifModule>

5. Merge CSS files – Inline small CSS files

Browsers only handle so many HTTP requests at the same time. When this limit is reached, some files wait while others are downloaded.

By merging all your CSS files into one CSS file only, the page renders much faster.

If you have CSS files which are less than 2KB, then you should inline them instead of making an extra HTTP request.

WordPress has a few great plugins such as Autoptimize and Better WordPress Minify that can be help you merge or even inline your CSS stylesheets.

6. Enable caching

Caching drastically improves the load time of pages that do not change that often.

By enabling caching at your site, your code doesn’t keep generating the same page over and over again. This way the user experience is much better and your server can handle more traffic.

W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and WP Fastest Cache are just a short selection of free WordPress plugins that provide different kind of caching e.g. page caching, database caching and object caching among others.

7. Use a Content Delivery Network

Whether you use a CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal or a custom-made PHP or HTML site, I highly recommend configuring a Content Delivery Network (CDN).

A CDN is a distributed system of servers deployed in multiple data centers across the internet.
When a client visits your site, static content like images and CSS files are served from the server that is geographically closest them so they are rendered much faster.

By the way, the load on your server is also drastically reduced thanks to a CDN.

CloudFlare is a free CDN and DNS provider among others. MaxCDN is also a great and affordable option to optimize the loading time of your site. They are both as good as they can get.

8. Minimize the number of HTTP requests

The more HTTP requests you have, the slower the loading time of your site will be.

Combine your CSS files, merge Javascript files, and combine images in data sprites among others to make as few HTTP requests as possible.

When I work on a client’s site, one of my major goals is to minimize the number of HTTP requests loaded per page.

9. Choose the correct file type for your images

Use JPG as your default. It’s the smallest and fastest loading file type.

Use PNG only for images with text (JPG rasterizes text which makes it blurry) or if you need a transparent background.

Minimize or even eliminate any heavy GIF files because they can drastically slow down the loading time of your site.

Although the following two images look the same, there is a huge difference between them. The one to the left is saved as a png file and weighs 102KB and the other one is a JPG file with a size of 18KB, that’s right, 6 times lighter!

10. Fix your 404 errors

Believe it or not, any missing file generates a 404 HTTP error and will definitely slow down the loading time of your site.

Always check for any 404 errors during the rendering of your pages to achieve the fastest loading time.

If your “waterfall” (the way the browser renders your site) looks like that (watch out for any red rows), then 404 errors are ruining the loading time of your site.

11. Take care of your page size

Although it is tempting to display a lot of content in each page, you should try to keep your page size to the minimum.

This is even more crucial for mobiles. Having to load a 2MB site via mobile in a 3G connection is a recipe for disaster. Take into account that users do not like to wait for more than 2-3 seconds for a page to render.

Does a new image add value to the site? If not, then you should not add it to your site. Simple like that.

12. Scale images

Never scale images on the fly in HTML. Create a thumbnail of the image that you need at the exact dimensions that it will be used in your pages.

For instance, if you have an image that it is 1200px x 675px and you want to use a “scaled” version at 480px x 270px, create a new resized version of the original image and use that instead.

This image links to a “big” version of the image using a scaled thumbnail instead of changing the dimensions of the image in HTML.

13. Leverage Browser Caching

Google recommends a minimum cache time of one week and preferably up to one year for assets that change infrequently.

Set a caching policy for all server responses to static files (images, CSS and Javascript) so the browser can determine whether it can reuse a previously loaded file or not.

This is usually done by adding this snippet of code at the .htaccess file for shared hosting plans

<ifmodule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType text/html “access plus 7200 seconds”
ExpiresByType image/gif “access plus 864000 seconds”
ExpiresByType image/jpg “access plus 864000 seconds”
ExpiresByType image/png “access plus 864000 seconds”
ExpiresByType text/css “access plus 864000 seconds”
ExpiresByType text/javascript “access plus 864000 seconds”
ExpiresByType application/javascript “access plus 864000 seconds”
</ifmodule>

14. Optimize your database

As long as you have a database-driven site (which includes WordPress and all other CMS-based sites), then be sure to optimize your database.

Monitor your code for slow queries. If you are on a VPS or dedicated server, enable query caching and optimize your database server configuration.

Although full database optimization can be a really tricky and time-consuming process, phpMyAdmin offers you a few basic optimization options  by “optimizing your tables”.

15. Select your hosting company wisely

Choose a hosting plan that meets your site needs.

Most hosting companies apply limitations to their shared hosting plans and host hundreds of sites per server to keep the fees to the minimum.

You get what you pay for. If you have an Ecommerce site, a heavy CMS, a lot of traffic or traffic spikes, avoid shared hosting plans.

I highly recommend WPEngine managed WordPress hosting company for any eCommerce WordPress site or any WordPress site with traffic spikes.

16. Hire an expert

My goal is to give you enough information to get started optimizing your website speed.

But as you know, it’s best to hire an expert when it’s important to get it right.

One of my clients contacted me in order to optimize the loading time of his website (http://goo.gl/u8noK). The website pages were taking a long time to load and visitors were complaining because the user experience was bad.

I updated WordPress to its latest version, migrated the website to a reliable hosting company and applied speed optimization tweaks to achieve the best feasible loading time.

The loading time went from 8.2 to 2.6 seconds. The first byte and start rendering time was optimized down to 0.147 and 0.384 seconds respectively and the number of HTTP requests was reduced from 96 to 78. Google PageSpeed Insights was also optimized to 88%.

Bounce rate decreased by about 10% within a few weeks. The client and more importantly the website users were happy and maintaining the site became a great experience.

To sum it up, optimizing the loading time of your site is a win-win situation for you and your potential clients.

Imagine how happy your users will be to see super fast loading times!

If you want to hire me, I’m happy to help. See my portfolio and contact me on AwesomeWeb today!

Conclusion

Everything improves when your site loads faster.

Google ranks you higher. Users are happier. Bounce rates decrease. Conversion rates increase. And you make more sales.

Stop losing traffic and money. Start optimizing the loading time of your site today.

Today I’m offering a $497 package special for IncomeDiary readers. This is half my normal rate. If your site meets my minimum qualifications, I’ll take care of everything listed in this post. Mention IncomeDiary in your message and I’ll be in touch with you shortly. Start off 2015 with the fastest website you can possibly have!

10 Web design trends you can expect to see in 2015

This article was originally published on TNW

Every year, Web design grows and so many awesome things are being published daily. I can only imagine that the best is yet to come in 2015, including many of the trends we predicted for 2014.

While many of those trends will still be around in 2015 (and probably 2016), it’s time to see what new trends are likely to emerge in 2015.

While everyone is reflecting on the year that was and looking ahead to the year that will be, let’s take a look at some Web design trends we will likely see when we turn the calendar to 2015.

1. Longer scrolling sites

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that most new site designs published today tend to be longer in length when scrolling through the page. As mobile devices become more popular, it’s becoming more commonplace for sites to opt for scrolling instead of linking as a means to display content, especially on their home pages.

It is easier for users to simply scroll through a page to get their information than it is to constantly click to find information.

Homepages aren’t the only place where the long scrolling trend can be spotted. While long scrolling sites have been popular for a while (hello, one-page websites), the benefits of scrolling have multiplied and found themselves in other places other than the home page, such as about pages and even product pages as a means to elegantly display a wide variety of content.

For example, Apple’s page for its iPhone 6 showcases the long scrolling page trend outside of the home page. It’s designed the main iPhone 6 page to be a long scrolling site, showcasing all of the product’s specs and features.

In addition, the site added some slick animations to make the scrolling experience visually attentive.

2. Storytelling and interaction

While having amazing content is always crucial for your website, being able to tell a story through your content is a big plus. Web design in 2015 will likely focus around helping tell a story for users.

For example, the Space Needle’s website beautifully tells the facts of the Space Needle through the use of storytelling and a design that helps support it (it also goes in line with the long scrolling trend discussed above).

The Space Needle website also demonstrates another trend for 2015 – interaction. Web designs are becoming more interactive and animated to help present content in a unique and appealing way.

Interaction paired with animation used in website design – when tastefully done – can bring the wow factor to your site. For example, the Impossible Bureau’s website is very interactive in that it responds to your scrolling and hovering over different elements (instead of the normal clicking).

3. Absence of large header background images

The trend over the last few years have been large header background images, often with text on top, and it is the first thing most visitors see when they come to a site. So how can you stand out from the crowd that has embraced the large-header-background-image trend? By doing the opposite.

Some recent site designs have decided to buck this trend by keeping their large headers, but making them background-image free. My guess is that not only do they want to not follow a trend, but they are also looking at the performance and speed of their site (see trend #10 later in this article) as a reason to ditch the large images.

The New Wave Company’s site showcases this well. It has a large header welcoming visitors to the site and large typography centered in the page. What it doesn’t have is a large background image behind that heading.

This is tastefully done and doesn’t fall in line with other trendy site designs using large background imagery.

4. Removing non-essential design elements in favor of simplicity

There is an idea in design that a design is complete when all of the non-essential elements have been removed. In 2015, I believe we could be seeing more of this idea come into fruition as sites look to find ways to simply their designs by removing non-essential design elements.

The New Wave Company’s site mentioned in trend #3 above did this with opting for not having a large background image in its header.

Another great example of removing non-essential design elements to keep its site simple is the new Rareview Digital Agency website. It also doesn’t have a large background image header to greet visitors with.

Designers have practically eliminated many design decisions that most current websites have (i.e. background colors, lots of images, sophisticated layouts, etc.). Instead, the team opted for a clean and simple site design, and it stands out among the crowd of design-heavy, image-heavy, and color-heavy sites.

5. Fix width centered site layout

Most websites over the last few years have used the “banding” or width: 100 percent design element so that things like images and sections visually stretch the full width of a browser’s viewport. Before this trend became popular, most sites were fix-width and centered in the page. You could tell where the site ended on either side.

That fix-width trend seems to be trying to come back in a more modern way. Instead of sites and their content sections going all the way to either side of the viewport, some sites are opting for a max-width to keep their content centered in the viewport.

Michele Mazzucco’s site showcases this well. When viewed in a viewport wider than about 1350px wide, you can see that her content (and the background colors for those sections) end on the left and right side of each section.

It provides a nice focus for the site content and bucks the width: 100 percent trend with sophistication.

6. Professional high quality custom photography

Stock imagery still has its place in design, but for most new websites these days, stock imagery has taken a back seat to professional photography of high quality and unique and custom to the site and purpose.

Using custom photography takes the design step a bit further than just picking stock imagery, and it makes you unique in that no one else will have those same pictures on their site.

For instance, Grain and Mortar shows off this trend very well. Its site features custom photography used in the main header of the site. This gives a personable effect because they are of the real people behind Grain and Mortar.

Its about page is even more engrained (pun intended) with high quality and professional photography taken of themselves and the office space. No stock imagery of fake office spaces here!

7. Flyout/slideout app-like menus

Responsive Web design has been around for a while. Up until recently, most design emphasis was placed on making the site look great on desktop devices, and just ok on mobile and tablet devices. RWD has moved toward making every experience look great no matter the device.

With this move, we are starting to see design elements that take what works on mobile devices and implementing it site wide.

For example, 24ways and Rawnet both showcase this idea of bringing an app-like and responsive menu to their entire site, and not just on devices with smaller viewports.

In the case of these two sites, they’ve opted for a vertical menu on either the left or right side of the page (instead of the typical horizontal menu at the top of the page) that acts more like a flyout/slideout menu – a technique carried over from web apps and responsive design on smaller viewports.

8. Hidden main menus

Much like flyout/slideout menus discussed above, I anticipate seeing more sites hiding their main menus all together when visitors first visit the site. These hidden menus will only become visible when the visitor is ready to move on and clicks the appropriate icon.

This is also a technique of responsive design that is starting to be carried over into all of a site’s design instead of just small viewports.

Brian Hoff Design’s new site is a great example of this. He uses the hamburger icon in the top right of his site to hide the main navigation until the visitor clicks on it. This behavior has been conditioned over the last couple of years with visitors using web apps and apps on their phone and tablets, as many of these apps use this same behavior.

He took this approach and used it for his site no matter the viewport size to help keep the design of the site clean and functional.

9. Very large typography

For 2014, typography was very important in many site designs, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. For 2015, however, I see large headings and typography getting even larger. I mean large enough a plane can see it on the ground (ok, not that big, but you get the idea).

Tiny Giant’s website showcases very large typography right when you visit the page. It makes a visual statement that isn’t likely to be missed.

Large typography is likely going to be key in 2015 as a way to enhance the visual hierarchy of the page by ensuring visitors read the largest type on the page first, because that is what grabs our attention first. Tiny Giant does that extremely well.

10. Performance and speed

Some design trends have been motivated by the need to make sites load faster and consume less bandwidth. Most of the trends discussed in this article more than likely came out of the need to reduce the size of the site and find ways to quickly load the site for those using mobile or tablet devices or those on slower networks.

Site designers and developers are becoming more keenly aware of the weight of their sites and how their users interact with them. Responsive Web design has helped bring to light these concerns. Things like slow network speed (either on mobile networks or home ISPs) and device type have forced designers and developers alike to pay close attention to the size of their files and sites, how fast those sites load on different speed networks, and mindful of users and their situations such as limited data plans.

It will be no surprise that the need to be faster and perform flawlessly with no lag time will drive design decisions on many new websites launching in 2015.

What other design trends do you think will rock the Web in 2015? Let’s discuss in the comments below.