The dangers of Trading an Article for a Service

“If you’re good at something, never do it for free”, Joker, The Dark Knight Rises.

Even you would agree that the dialogue is super cheesy. Fortunately the meaning holds perfectly true for current blogging atmosphere.  Take examples of bloggers, the one of the things they’re good at is writing, so the obvious question, Why not use the skills and get something done for yourself. 

Usually bloggers benefit from their writing skills through advertisements. But new concept dictates the use of this indispensable skill as a barter system. In simple words, “You do something for me and I’ll write an article for you”.

The same was true until an unnamed blogger decided to barter his services for something he wanted. So he went in search for the same and one day found a suitable firm which was ready to provide a service unless and until he agreed to write an article for the firm.

What went Wrong?

But little did he know about THE PERILS OF TRADING AN ARTICLE FOR A SERVICE. Here is an email thread between the firm and the unnamed blogger, The names of the entities have been changed to protect identity. Find the Email Thread about Sam and Sue here.

How did it go wrong?

Let us discuss what went wrong and how could it be rectified. The major reason why such arrangements fail is because; neither party is willing to work with full efficiency in the beginning. This is because there exists no monetary transaction. This was the precise reason why barter system failed in history. For that failure the reason was you cannot equate fixing a window and a sack of rice. Similarly you cannot equate an article and a service unless there is professionalism in both the parties. What do I mean by professionalism? 

Professionalism in any task is shunning the informal way of working and adopting a mean result oriented approach towards things. It the main reason why corporates thrive and small businesses do not. 

How could it be Rectified?

So how do you get into professionalism? 

Easy, you make sure that you follow the following points.

Before agreeing to work

1. This is not a deal, neither the party is working for free, nor are you. It is best if you could determine the boundaries of your relationship, i.e.. What you are planning to do and what you are expecting the party to do.
2. It is better to create a proposal document (just one page) stating the responsibilities you and the party are going to undertake. Sign the document and send them the signed copy asking them to sign on the document. When both have consent for the jobs to perform on a paper, both the parties will have an incentive to complete the job in the best way possible. Also a signature would save you from legal difficulties afterwards (If they arise)
3. Preserve the email threads between the parties
4. Always set a deadline for the job to be completed. Break the job into parts. And include penalties in the proposal document if a part of the work is not completed within the stipulated deadline.
5. Also work out about the license of the final product, you can look at some articles on creative commons or thy types of licenses you can use.

On English and communication

1. You must write proper English. People won’t take you seriously if you write like a kindergarten student.
2. You write complete sentences and no abbreviations unless absolutely required. Remember you’re writing an email and there is a difference between email and a text.
3. Try and keep informalities out of the equation. This is a business deal and not a social network.

After and during the work

1. Periodically inform about the progress of the work. To keep things simple, try and give the progress report in a tabulated sheet at the end of the week.
2. Once the job is completed inform about it and ask about their portion of the work.
3. Always reply to a mail, a bucket full of misunderstandings can be avoided if you just reply or acknowledge
4. If you have made the proposal document, after completion of the works from both the parties, drop an email stating that the agreement has been carried on in the desired way and tell them it was a pleasure working with them.

Show your availability for future jobs if you genuinely find the party to be a delight.

Front image credit HDW

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How is bounce rate calculated?

First off, what is bounce rate? Google’s support pages have provided a very nice and crisp definition about bounce rate, 

“It is the percentage of single page visits in which a visitor leaves your website from the landing page”

Now how important is bounce rate to you? If you have a small business or a passion website containing few webpages then visitors bouncing off from your website will not have much effect because you have a few webpages only (What do you expect, The people will just hang around for a while?). 

But if you’re a professional blogger or have a business website containing many pages, bounce rate might just start to be a headache for you. For a large website you might have a high page rank and hundreds of pages with a book worth of content. But if the visitor does not read them, what use is the content anyway?

Looking carefully, for any professional website, the bounce rate threshold must be set to 40-60%, which of-course is a really tough target. If your bounce rate is less than 40% then you’re going in the right direction. But the moment it crosses a threshold you must understand something is not right. It is your SEO techniques, content or your keyword tactics or some others.

Let us understand how is the bounce rate is calculated. Let us suppose, 10 visitors landed on your site and 4 people left the page. So the bounce rate will be calculated as (4/10)x100=40%, so you will have a bounce rate of 40%, which is acceptable of course but can always be improved upon.

To know if your bounce rate is good enough read a previous article on the range of values your bounce rate might fall in, depending on the type of website you own.

If you have a high bounce rate, never be disheartened, there are 4 sure shot ways of improving your bounce rate. That too in just minutes.

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Is my Bounce Rate Normal or does it change with the type of my website?

Bounce rate is one of those web-metrics which have always baffled webmasters. Bounce rate determines the fate of a website, whether it will grow or not. Forums and comment boxes are filled with questions like "Is my bounce rate good enough?" or "Does bounce rate change according to website types" or "What should I do? My bounce rate is too high!!". 

Just know this, Yes bounce rate changes as per the type of website you run, and there is nothing high-class Google wizardry in it, just simple logic. As you know websites are of different types, the bounce rate for any website is different as per the functionality. So an online web store will have a different bounce rate than that of a personal blog. 

The following article is particularly useful if you doubt your bounce rate or if you are not sure whether your bounce rate is normal. Here is a complete range of bounce rates for different websites as per functions.

Online Shopping/Services Websites

You run a website which offers products and allows users to purchase the products online through a payment gateway.

Such websites are highly popular with the world swarming up with a huge number of examples like amazon, ebay etc.  An online shopping website should be having less than 35 % bounce rate. The obvious question is why such low value? The only logical answer is because of the huge number of steps in the transition. (For example, You select on a product to buy, you’ll be redirected to the webpage for selection/entry of address for shipping, then comes confirmation of order, then another webpage for the actual monetary transition where you will be directed to your credit card/bank’s website and then finally the confirmation of purchase). So bounce rate must be less than 35% for the website to prosper.

Offline Shopping/Services Website

You run a website that offers a catalog of products but allows users to purchase only through offline methods like money order, VPP, telephone etc.

A new business would not directly plunge into online services. They would have a tendency to keep their business out of the web sphere. Also certain services involve huge transactions which are highly risky for the client and the provider to be allowed on the website. So such transactions need to be done on phone or through email correspondences. For example a housing developer’s website looking for people to invest Or a mattress specialist not ready to indulge in online trading etc. Such websites must have a bounce rate of less than 40%.

Directories and online Encyclopedias

You run a website which functions like a dictionary where users can search and find information. You cannot expect to have a bounce rate of more than 20-25% for such type of websites. Since such websites have each and every thing a person needs or might need, he/she is not expected to leave the website for another one. So that explains such low bounce rate.

Blogs

You do not run a website but a blog which is updated regularly with new posts. If you have a blog where you publish content from time to time, you are in for a surprise. Content based websites and webpages tend to have huge bounce rates in the likes of 50 to 70%. If you have it below 50%, you’re in a very safe zone and you need not worry, cause with such low bounce rate, your PageRank would be high too.

Video Blogs or PodCasts

Though most people assume both are the same, one must understand that those are two different things. A video blog is a conventional blog on popular platforms like blogger or wordpress with video(s) hosted on it. A podcast on the other hand is a page with actually hosts videos only (like you-tube). You run a YouTube page or a website which hosts either video or music or similar media.

Websites which host videos/music or similar media, bounce rate tends to be very low. As one the user lands on the page, there are a lot of entertainment/infotainment options available to the users. Also the user is on the page for a lot of time which opens him up for new options. So a bounce rate of 20 to 30% is not a value to be raised an eyebrow on.

Some exceptions

If you have very high bounce rate i.e. near 90 to 100%, do not lose heart as there are some exceptions to the above mentioned rules.

1. A website with only 1-5 pages, will have a bounce rate near or above 90%. This is because; a website with low number of pages will not provide any incentive to the visitor to visit other pages. For example, a website with a single web page will have a bounce rate of 100%. So it is not a bad thing if your low webpage website has unbelievably high bounce rate.
2. New websites/blogs need not worry, as their bounce rate will stabilize in a few weeks. For new Blogs there is a problem, your bounce rate will not decrease unless you have a decent number of blog posts which users might visit after the landing page.
3. Certain Blogs also tend to have a bounce rate of near 70 to 80%. This depends on the number of articles already present on the blog and the amount of time the blog has existed in the web sphere. This is because; readers come to the website in search for information for a particular topic and leave when satisfied. So bounce rate tends to be high. For such situations, I would recommend using the related posts technique, where links to related articles is displayed at the end of the article.

Where You Went Wrong

After reading this, if you still think that your bounce rate is on the higher side, There might be reasons behind it. I have listed down a few of them, comment if you know another.

1. You are lazy, (either a potato blogger or a lazy one)
2. You are not posting recently (Learn what happens when a daily post blog is left untouched for a week)
3. Not giving enough attention to the content of your website or the steps that come after good content
4. Lack of External and Internal Links
5. Higher Page load time which might be, so high that your users leave before your website loads.
6. You have not read the article on 4 sureshot ways to improve your bounce rate.

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4 Concepts to Convert your Website into an App

The previous article spewed fire on the need for having an app for your precious website. Here we'll discuss the concepts you can use to create a new app from your already functioning website. According to data from mobithinking, currently 1.3 billion consumers are using android, this figure is expected to rise to 4.4 billion by 2017. As per Neilson report, huge number of people are now shifting towards mobile smartphones. An april Google Survey, show that people preffer mobile web than websites. 56 billion smartphone apps will be downloaded in the year 2013 as per ABI Reseach. Portio Research, however suggests that the revenue from app downloaded will increase to 64.5 billion in 2017. Now that you are on my side in creating an app, lets widen your horizon and see the different types of apps you can create. Lets have the four types of apps web developers always want for conversion.

The Functional App
A re-directional app on the other-hand, functions in a completely different way. For an app, the user just has to toil for once, i.e. during the installation of the app. 

After that, the person just has to click on the app in his phone and boom! your website, his smartphone, a match made in heavens. Regarding the concept  an app is usually known for its functionality. A website however is not. 

You can actually use your app to practically pull the users towards your website, confused? lets have an example, A very apt example for fitness lovers is an app called micoach at adidas. The app tracks your movements as you go jogging or walking or running with the help of gps on your phone.. Finally after the workout, the app give you the distance traveled, calories burnt and even speed. In a nutshell it is a complete app. but there is a facility of scheduling workouts in the app, . i.e. you can create  a schedule on which days you would plan to run and which days you would rather work on strength training. However the function can used only after you sign-up on the website. That would mean the visitors will have to visit the website and look at other functionality available, glance through their blogs indulge in forums and meet new people (See how the possibilities unfold)

2A. Website Redirection Type App
Other than a functional app which obviously provides a service, you can always go for the simple website redirection app. which opens a separate platform for viewing your website that too without opening the browser. This is applicable for podcast based websites too (like websites which host video clips or music composings) where users can select and view a video. a very nice example is the khan academy app, where separate videos are hosted for students to listen and learn.

Let us take the example of Mashable.com, an extraordinary website with huge connections and overflowing articles. What does it need, you ask? "I want to conquer the world" would be its answer. Why would an otherwise fabulous website need an app for. But they do have one, for the obvious reasons mentioned in the previous article. The app readily transforms into a full blown article based website which obviously relies on your ability to make a selection and touch.

2B. Website Conversion Type App
Another type of app is the one using a website and converting into an app. with separate functionality for buttons, image viewings and feedback systems, throw in a couple of simple games and you've got yourself a real winner. One really good website converted into an app is NDTV.com. The website is one of the most popular and trusted sources of latest news. let us look at the app.

Reader Type App
Other than website redirection and functional apps, there is a third type of app not very common but is still present. The particular app downloads content from the website and reads it aloud with the help of an inbuilt reader software. 

The app is particularly useful for commuters who do not have enough time to read or are unable to read. and prefer to listen to the article being read aloud by someone while on a bus or train.

Theme from your website

If your website is an insanely popular one with a lot of people backing it and a bucket load of fans just waiting for a piece of it. you can create a theme based app.

The theme consists of just duplicating the css style of the website into a theme pack which can be installed on any android or ios device. In short, your website structure and content is sooooo good that people are dying to replicate/copy it on their phones.

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How to create Water color effect in Photoshop

Today, we welcome our author Himanshu Sharma. Himanshu, an expert in Photoshop here explains all about How to create a Water color effect in Photoshop. So sit back and enjoy this detailed tutorial in Himanshu's words.

In this tutorial on Photoshop, you will understand how to create watercolor effects using Photoshop and how to make a photo look similar to watercolor painting. This watercolor effect is suitable for photos which has rich colors with high contrast rather than minute details, since the effect can eradicate many of the minor details.  

It is very easy to create the water color effect by duplicating certain layers, application of certain filters and making use of certain layer blend modes. The entire thing just takes few minutes for completion and you can save it in different forms (.jpg or .gif) as you wish. This tutorial will explain how to simulate watercolor effect using some brushes in Photoshop.

Step 1 : First create a new document by clicking File-- New and also create new layer. Now fill the layer with white background and rename the layer as texture. Now choose Filter and click Filter-- Texture-- Texturizer. You can use Canvas for texture with eighty percent scaling.

Step 2 : Now open the image from file menu and add it to the document. You should delete the background of the image by using both Polygonal Lasso (L) and Path Tool (P) or with help of magic wand.

Step 3 : Now use the Selection Tool to select the layer in which the girl is there. Now Go to Image-- Adjustments and choose Levels. You should enhance the whites here and choose Image-- Adjustments-- Saturation/Hue and change the level of saturation to -65.

Step 4 : Now use the Water Color Filter present in Filter-- Artistic-- Watercolor. You can make use of below settings, Texture 1, Shadow Intensity 0 and Brush Detail 9.

Step 5 : After selecting the layer of the girl’s image, Chose Layer-- Layer Mask-- Reveal All. You can select black color and mask the girl’s body using the Brush Tool (B).

Step 6 : Now you can use the Watercolor brushes specifically designed for this purpose from Bittboxx website. Now choose a new layer and select the Brush Tool. Now you have to create new layer and use the Water Color brush tool with black color selected. You are designing the hair of the girl in water color style to give a realistic look. You can resize or rotate the layer after you finish the brushing.

Step 7 : Now choose Blending options from Layer Style. Change the Opacity of the Layer to 0 and chose Color Overlay option. You can Use Red color and select the blend mode as Multiply. You can also use the Opacity to be filled as 70 percent. For Blend Mode use Hard Light and fill with Purple Color with Angle set as twenty degrees, Distance as 4 pixels and Size as 12 pixels.

Step 8 : Now create another layer and use the Bittbox brush tool for designing a hair-style which looks creative and beautiful. Try to make certain paint brush strokes in the center of the screen and then rotate or resize the layer to fit it with rest of the picture. You should be able to generate a decent hair style as described in below picture.

Step 9 : Now choose Blending options in Layer Styles and set Fill options as 0. Now select Color Overlay mode and Blend mode with Blue color selected and Opacity set as fifty percent. Now use Satin option for blending.

Step 10 : Now use the same Brush tool again and paint the hair with different color say Green. You can reduce the size and add more hair and rotate it if required. Again Go to Blending options and set Fill Options as 0. Now Choose Color Overly with Blend mode set as Multiply, Green Color chosen and Opacity set as 100 percent. Now use Satin for the image. You can use the settings as Dark green with blend mode as Darken.

Step 11 : Now repeat the process again with another Layer with different color. Then select the layer that has girl’s face and set blend mode as screen. Now you can make certain adjustments like adjusting the neck with regular brush and white color.

Step 12 : Now you can add some Title to the image. Use the same brushes and fill the text with different color. You can also use Filters like Sprayed Strokes form the Filters menu. You can change the appearance to water color by choosing Filter-- Artistic-- Water color. This will give a creative look the image.

Conclusion : Finally you have got the image of a girl which appears as it was painted with water color. This tutorial explains in a simple fashion of how to add watercolor effects to a photo and applying different blend modes. You should also remember that the artwork will appear original as if it was painted with natural water colors.

This is the entire procedure for creating Water Color effect in Photoshop. For knowing more about such graphics /design related information and tips, visit Design Graphica.

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The Secret to Organisation in Blogging (From the Backrooms of codemakit.com)

How do professional bloggers write such amazing articles every week? Some might even work on 5 to 10 articles at a time. Some work on just 2 to 3 really long articles with a lot of information locked up in a capsule. So the obvious question pops up, how can a blogger, manage to work on 10 blog posts at a time.

A professional blogger can work on up to 10 blog posts at a time. The multitasking allows them time and space to think about ideas both in quantity and in quality.

The average number is 8 however. Organizing is the key to better and efficient content creation. Once you organize everything you can hold large number of articles at a time. This herculean task is obviously difficult for any blogger who doesn't organize. Now organizing your blog posts is just like organizing a research, you need to divide information into chunks so that you can better manage it.

The Root Folder

Let’s have a look at a typical case of a windows blogger (i.e. at the backrooms of codemakit.com). The main blog folder is divided into 3 headers.

1. Blog Idea – It contains reading material, pdfs and pictures to help you understand the topics you’re working on.
2. Blog Pictures – Contains templates for new images, incomplete image projects etc.
3. New Articles – Contains all the new articles, that you’re writing, updating or written.

As is evident from the screenshot in the New Articles folder, the Posts Title is usually thought-of before the article is written and the complete post with images, article snippets, source articles and pages from other websites is then stored in the particular folder.

The Details

The folder system of storing the articles is presumably better and much more organized, so it removes the searching time and avoids the hassle.

Now the complete blog folder (i.e. main folder) is filled with such individual folders containing one article each along with the source media. The folders can then be divided into four parts.

1. Articles under construction – The majority of articles are under construction and most articles are either incomplete as per content or images/video or those which need more research.
2. Completed - The articles which have been completed in every sense in the author’s view. They are touched only on the day of publishing.
3. Articles to be Updated – It contains the articles which has already been posted long time ago but now needs a major remodeling, as with the passing of time, some articles become outdated and Some non-essential.
4. Update – There are pieces of information which is needs to be added to an already posted article. It contains updated media (i.e. an image to spice up the article or a video to make it more interesting). This update will not contain the article as a whole but just the media to be added.

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15 Things you must include in your About-Page

You have written or are planning to write an about page, but What are the things you should never miss while writing an about page? So, here's a list of thinks you should never miss out.

An about page, is one of the most important pages in  any website, It is this about page which leads the visitors to believe you're an authority on the topic and this about page converts call to action.

Thus you must not treat an About-Page as a normal blog post, but as a carefully written article which will remain on your website for years to come. But first you must determine which category do you fall into, so that you know which things are the most important in your case.

The complete article is divided into three categories

Red topics are the most important

Yellow topics are subject to the blog type (i.e. corporate blog, personal blog etc.) 

Green topics can be done without, but including them would add extra value to an about page.

So here it goes,

Your name – The author name for a blog is just as important as the blog’s name in on the landing page. For a community blog or a corporate blog with number of authors, it is good to add each and everyone’s name so that they feel important and the reader finds a sense of trust, thinking ‘I know the author so I’m sure the content is authentic.’

Social circles – Be sure to inform the visitors about your social circles and where will you be available. Facebook and twitter being some of the most popular ones, you can even think out of the box with other services. The user once in your social circle will become loyal and will come even more regularly. In short, it is a nice place to garner likes and followers.

Update Regularly – Just as it is evident, search engines always look for new content and would preffer pages with new and updated content. Regarding you, since an about page is a story of you and since time does not stops, you should be kind enough to update your about page with the latest activities and milestones in your life(only if you’re a timeliner).

Include links and buttons – You do not just want people to read your about page, you want them to explore and discover about you. So provide external links as well as internal links on your page. Give your users incentives to explore and learn. Also never forget the contact us button.

Include Photos – An about page is in many ways just another article which mainly deals with you and your creation. To captivate your readers and make them read the page, you must include multimedia and what better place is there to start other than an image?

Overachievers arrange yourself - An overachiever will have every reason to fill his about space with loads of achievements and accolades, but just as Mahatma Gandhi said ‘Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.’ So control yourself, because by mentioning everything, instead of impressing the visitors, psychologically you’re giving them inferiority complexes.

What do the reader wants – If you’re from a different field like me, writing about an entirely different field. Then do not make the mistake of including everything. The writer came to listen to the story of you and you creation only. Do not bore them with unnecessary details (read more) and never boast your PageRank.

Location helps – Though it is of relatively low importance for a content based blog to include a location for the author, the location of the service is of prime importance for a corporate website. It will go a long way in solving customer problems to find your address. So add a location through google maps or through text, if it helps your page.

Education – Many veterans usually prefer to include their educational and academic background in the article. The point is a good addition as it stirs up authority in the eyes of the visitors. But like everything this too has limitations, you must have some academics to talk about or else there will be a non-related statement dangling around in mid-air.

What am I good at? – Though blatant display one’s strengths is a misuse of web space for boasting your talents, a well written about page will always tell about the strengths/skill set of the author in a subtle way. You should tell the people about your skills; after all it’s your page.

Honesty is the best policy – It goes around without much saying but, users can normally pick out a lie. Though not consciously but subconsciously and so you lose some trust and thereby loyalty. But who’s stopping you to bend some facts.

Keep it under limit – Again you must remember, it’s not an autobiography, it’s a page which talks about you and your creations only. So keep it short, so that the reader can get on with their lives and not get stuck to your page learning about your life history.

Just an about page – Several people want to show off their talents, writing themselves as practically supermen. They use hyperbole adjectives like best, cutting Edge, world class, awesome etc. We all believe you’re awesome, but do you have facts? Just an extension of the previous topic, ‘A half-truth is still a lie’.

Try different multimedia – An image might be equal to a thousand words, but it is not the only thing equal. You can try using music or video to look original and a tad different.

Make up your mind – certain personal and professional blogs are written in first person (like Jeff Attwood). Also some are written in third person(like Amit Agrawal). But one of the characteristics of a wrongly written about page is, unsure person. The writer vacillates between first person and third person which is obviously not good.

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Best Free website Builders - Reviews Part II

Which website builder is the best? Whats the best website builder for creating your first mobile e-commerce website? The answers are evident in the second article of free website builder series. The second portion of the free website builder series presents to you a review on Yola and Wix.com. Both equally good in their respective USPs. Let us find who will win in this legendary duel between the kings of website builders of the 21st century.

FInd who wins between webs.com and weebly.com at the first article of the series.

Yola

Just as the name suggests, yola reeks of African aura in its website as well as in the company. According to website tool tester, the only USP of yola is its powerful yet elegant customer support. The website provides support to its customers (free and paid both, something not all websites offer) through telephone.

Though yola has been notorious for its hefty fees for domains, websites and emails, but it compensates by providing outstanding services. Yola has partnered with Ecwid to provide users a hands on experience with an online store. The store however is not available to the freebies.

Pros

1. Simple and easy builder
2. Nice collection of help videos
3. Moderate template variety
4. Comparatively high numbers of language is supported by the site builder
5. Moderate variety of widgets
6. A very powerful online store
7. Meta tags and description are customizable
8. Can add HTML code

Cons

1. Cannot handle complex templates or settings
2. In-house Blog comments are handled only through disqus
3. In-House Forums are handled only through Tal.ki

1.       The meta tags can be edited once throughout the website

2.       Blog hosted on an external website

3.       Erratic beahviour of the website builder sometimes

Codemakit’s Score – 6.6

Wix Editor

The corporate structure was created in 2006 by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan. With its headquarters in Tel Aviv it opened in beta mode after 2 years. Flash content on websites have always been viewed with contempt and confusion. Contempt because several services like apple do not support flash content, so the websites having flash content cannot be viewed correctly. Confusion  because there are no specific rules or information regarding the effect of flash on the website hosting it (usually search engines do not like it by SEOmoz and w3origin Blog). Wix’s USP is flash peppered with aesthetics and beauty. Unlike webs.com, the website builder is not clumsy and slow, it is powerful and fast.

Pros

1. Simple and easy builder
2. Drag and Drop functionality
3. Higher range of templates than its counterparts
4. Can modify images on the go
5. Mini pages on the same URL
6. Highly suitable for mobile websites
7. Added feature of designing and creating facebook pages, see how to do it
8. Never seen before widgets
9. 500 MB storage space

Cons

1. Very long URL for a free website
2. Complex process of page creation
3. The meta tags can be edited once throughout the website
4. Blog hosted on an external website
5. Erratic behavior of the website builder sometimes

Codemakit’s Score – 9.0

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