My Blog My Blog

17 of the Best Examples of Beautiful Blog Design

Website Design Examples
December 2, 2020/by
17 of the Best Examples of Beautiful Blog Design According to a recent survey, blogs have ranked as the third most trustworthy source of information, following only friends and family. That's right — bloggers are trusted more than celebrities, journalists, brands, and politicians. But how do you get people to fall in love with your blog in the first place? (Aside from remarkable content, of course.) Well, just as your website homepage is like the front door to your business, your blog's design — much like a welcome mat — is the front door to your business blog. If you're not attracting people visually, how will you get them to take the next steps to actually read (and, hopefully, subscribe to) your content?Once you're done creating the quality content, you still have the challenge of presenting it in a way that clearly dictates what your blog is about. Images, text, and links need to be shown off just right — otherwise, readers might abandon your content, if it's not showcased in a way that's appealing, easy to follow, and generates more interest. That's why we've compiled some examples of blog homepages to get you on the right track to designing the perfect blog for your readers. Check 'em out, below. 17 Inspiring Examples of Beautiful Blog Homepage Design 1. Help Scout Sometimes, the best blog designs are also the simplest. Help Scout, makers of customer service software, uses a unique but minimalist design on its blog that we...
Read Full Story

The 8 Elements of Modern Web Design (And Web Design Trends to Watch)

Website Design
December 2, 2020/by
The 8 Elements of Modern Web Design (And Web Design Trends to Watch) Every year, we see new elements and styles in website design begin to emerge. Some elements — when incorporated thoughtfully — help tell stories and explain your company. Other elements work to improve how content looks on a specific device. While it's not necessary to include every trend that comes about on your website, many of them have the potential to improve your visitor's experience. But with so many options to choose from, it can be challenging to determine which ones are really worth considering. To help you narrow your focus, we've detailed eight important elements of modern website design that you can include to improve your site's performance. 8 Modern Website Design Elements and Trends 1. Unique & Large Typography Most companies have a particular font or typography that they use to help their customers immediately identify them versus their competitors. In recent years, designers have received a larger selection of fonts to choose from, making it easier for brands to more accurately express themselves through typography.  For example, The New Yorker is recognized instantly through their use of unique font, Adobe Caslon Pro. While more unique fonts, such as Blokletters-Balpen, have begun to be used by startups and technology companies like Zero. Why is it useful? Typography uses one design trend across the website to lead readers to different parts of the page. For instance, The New Yorker website leads visitors from one section to another based on the...
Read Full Story

The Top 5 Reasons Brands Make Videos [New Research]

Video Marketing
December 1, 2020/by
The Top 5 Reasons Brands Make Videos Video is fast-becoming the preferred tool for most marketers to connect with and reach new audiences. Video marketing is undeniably effective, too — in fact, including a video on a landing page is capable of increasing conversion rates by over 80%, and the mere mention of the word "video" in your email subject line increases open rates by 19%. But, even if you already know about the importance of video, I'm willing to bet you aren't completely aware of how other brand's are using video … or, more importantly, why. Each business will use video for a completely different goal — ranging from increasing brand awareness, to boosting SEO. Here, we dove into new research from Wave.video to explore the top five reasons brands use video. Hopefully, these statistics will inspire you to use video in new, unique ways in 2021 and beyond. Let's dive in. 1. Brands use videos to increase brand awareness. Video can help your business reach new audiences and attract new viewers to your social media pages and website, which is likely why "increase brand awareness" is the number one reason brands use video. Take this video from Tasty, a Buzzfeed brand: Ultimately, Tasty's video isn't meant to sell any products (at least, not directly) — instead, it's simply meant to entertain new audiences and, ultimately, increase awareness of Tasty's brand. 2. Brands...
Read Full Story

How to Write About Your Professional Background

Resume
December 1, 2020/by
How to Write About Your Professional Background A great way to share more about your background is to have a prepared document, like a professional bio. A professional bio can be shared with prospective employers, your colleagues, included in your social media profiles, used for speaking engagement announcements, or used as an author bio on a blog. Writing about your professional background for the first time may feel challenging or awkward, but it doesn't have to be. Here, we'll explore some tips to help you feel more comfortable when writing your own professional bio. Let's dive in. What is a professional background? A professional background is a summary of your professional experiences —coupled with any relevant personal information, including interests or passions — that you'll use throughout your career as you network with industry peers, apply for new roles, or seek out thought leadership opportunities.  This includes previous jobs you've had, successful projects you've worked on, significant accomplishments like promotions or awards, professional networking organizations you belong to, and anything else you'd share with someone who wants to know more about you professionally. Not only is sharing more about your background a great way to tell more about yourself to others, it's also an opportunity to wholly reflect on your professional journey and the goals you've achieved — plus, what you hope to achieve in the future. Next, let's dive into how you can get started.  How to Write About Yourself 1. Don't start from scratch. If you're having trouble...
Read Full Story

How to Make Money on YouTube, According to 3 People Who Do

Youtube Marketing
November 30, 2020/by
How to Make Money on YouTube, According to 3 People Who Do Every day, over one billion YouTube videos are watched around the world. And they're not just being watched -- they're being devoured. In fact, the average YouTube mobile viewing session by any one viewer is roughly 40 minutes. If only there was a way to make money off of a website people spend so much time on ... As a matter of fact, there is! A few ways, actually, and the proof is in the people (and businesses) who've cashed in on their video strategy. Who's making content worthy of a nearly hour-long visit to YouTube? Well, YouTube isn't just for amateur filmmakers and people videotaping their zainy housepets anymore. Musicians, TV networks, small businesses, and the self-employed all find monetary value in posting their own amazing content on a YouTube channel. An active, entertaining YouTube channel -- which is free to make through a Google+ account (also free) -- strengthens these users' brands and extends their reach to new audiences. It can also build a base of subscribers that other companies using YouTube will actually pay to advertise their products to. Before launching a YouTube channel for the purposes of making money, you need to decide what kind of profit you're interested in. Are you looking to use YouTube as a promotional outlet for your own products and services? Or, do you want your video content to generate ad revenue right from YouTube? Here, we'll dive...
Read Full Story

6 Ways to Support Black-Owned Businesses During the Holidays

Uncategorized
November 28, 2020/by
6 Ways to Support Black-Owned Businesses During the Holidays 2020 has presented unprecedented challenges for businesses. COVID-19 has forced most to pivot their strategies online and adapt to a growing digital landscape. While some have been able to stay afloat, others haven't been as successful and many have had to close their doors permanently as a result. Black-owned businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the global pandemic. In the United States, 26% of Black-owned businesses closed their doors permanently between February and May of 2020, compared to 11% of white-owned businesses. That's why, this holiday season, HubSpot is joining Google, the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., and other companies participating in Black-owned Fridays — an initiative to drive visibility and support for Black-owned businesses. I spoke with Gianne Doherty, Founder of Organic Bath Co., to learn more about what businesses, and consumers, can do to support Black-owned businesses during this holiday season. Below are a few thoughts she offered during our conversation. How to Support Black-Owned Businesses 1. Tell someone about a business or product. Doherty started by saying that the simplest way to support Black-owned businesses during the holiday season is to tell people about their products. When you buy something cool or get a good deal, tell a friend. Online customer reviews are great, but a one-on-one interaction is usually the best way to convince someone to check out a business or product you love. If you don't know of any Black-owned businesses in your area, Doherty recommends...
Read Full Story

75 Stop Words That Are Common in SEO & When You Should Use Them

SEO
November 26, 2020/by
75 Stop Words That Are Common in SEO & When You Should Use Them From blog titles to URL slugs, you might not realize how frequently you use SEO stop words. But, to be fair, if Google doesn't pay much attention to them, why should you? Research shows that 25% of blog posts are made up of stop words. However, these words have little to no relevance to the topic of the post. These are words that help you compose sentences and connect ideas together, and they don't have much impact on Google's search results. But, excessive use of stop words can impact your brand in the long run. They make content harder for search engines to process which can end up negatively affecting how they index your pages. In this post, we'll walk you through exactly what SEO stop words are, how they can hurt — or help — your online presence, and which words are considered stop words by Google and other search engines. What Are Stop Words in SEO? We use stop words all the time, whether we're online or in our everyday lives. These are the articles, prepositions, and phrases that connect keywords together and help us form complete, coherent sentences. Common words like its, an, the, for, and that, are all considered stop words. While they're important for communicating verbally, stop words typically carry little importance to SEO and are often ignored by search engines. Let's review some of the most common stop words...
Read Full Story