Web

5 Cost-Effective Alternatives to Photoshop for Professional Image Editing

Posted on | by moocow

When it comes to good design, we all love websites that are packed full of awe-inspiring imagery, and photos that really make you feel like you’re there in that exact moment. We can’t all have the skills of a professional photographer, but what we can help with is showing you how to edit your photos to a professional standard, without having a major price tag attached.

Don’t get us wrong, Photoshop is great. But not everyone wants to pay high prices when there could be a cost effective alternative. So after doing a bit of research, we’ve tracked down 6 Photoshop competitors, all with excellent editing tools and all at a much lower cost. And best off all, the majority of them are free.

Pixelmator (£28.99)

An impressive image editing app for Mac, Pixelmator offers fast powered tools to help alter and enhance images to make professional, high quality photos. The app has excellent retouching and special effects options, and tools to draw or paint. You can save to any format or upload on social media sites, and comes at the lower cost of £28.99.

GIMP (Free)

A free and open-source image and graphics editor, great for image retouching, free-form drawing, photo manipulation and adding graphic design elements. It’s available to download on a wide variety of operating systems, including GNU, Linux, OSX and Windows. A good option if you’re not in a position to invest any money on your editing tools.

Acorn (£28.99)

A nifty download for photo touch ups and edits with great options for creating photo collages, adding text and shapes, or creating new images. There’s plenty of instruments for editing, special effects and cloning. You can also remove image backgrounds and create logos with easy to use tools. Although not free, its price matches with Pixelmator and is still a fairly cost effect alternative.

Pixlr (Free)

An online photo editor that’s free to use and doesn’t involve a download. You can use this site anytime you pop online for quick image editing and touch ups. It’s equipped with all your general editing tools, and has options for creating fonts, logos, borders and backgrounds. A brilliant and cost effective alternative that will get the job done quickly too. You can download any images you create in various formats or upload online too.

Paint.NET (Free)

A free Windows download tool for image editing, Paint.NET is extremely easy to use and great for those with no image editing experience whatsoever. Although a fairly basic download, there’s still plenty of options for special effects, blending and layer adjustments. It also mirrors several of Photoshop’s classic tools such as curves and contrast control. A great download for minor tweaks and retouches.

 

5 of the Best WordPress Themes for Creating a Portfolio

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the latest web news, tips and trends. With technology and techniques developing daily, Moocow are continuously working hard to help find new ways to develop your business.

Our design team believe WordPress ranks above all the rest as a hosting platform. The open-source CMS works as an ideal model for creating a wide variety of sites for both small and large businesses, and is ideal for showcasing portfolios and products. Having a portfolio that’s professional, visually captivating and clearly showcases your work is vital for your business to achieve success and gain interest from new clients. So below, we’ve hand-picked some of the best WordPress themes for putting together a high end portfolio, that will grab your audience’s attention and gain you new clients and sales.

 

Oshine

Creates beautifully fresh and contemporary portfolios with 12 unique layouts to choose from. Comes with access to over 500 fonts, colour choices, shortcode modules and so much more. Oshine also supports a large variety of plug-ins, including WPML, BuddyPress and Gravity Forms. A great choice if you’re looking for a stylish and modern way to display work visually.

 

 

Adios

A great theme that’s easy to use, extremely fast loading and is ideal for those working within the creative industry. An elegant and artistic approach to portfolio design, you’ll have access to hundreds of fonts, colour choices, layout elements and designs and you’ll be able to use a variety of great options for animation. Adios allows for superb compatibility with all devices and browsers, and will ensure your site is noticed worldwide.

 

 

Art.

Perfect for colourful, chic and customisable design, this theme comes with a coding-free content builder for ease of use. Ideal if you’re looking for an artistic and simplistic portfolio design, it’s packed with beautiful layouts with drag and drop options, fashionable headers and plenty of options for blog posts. You can also create stylish home sliders to showcase large images, and with SEO by Yoast you’re sure to have plenty of great options for getting noticed in search engines.

 

 

Kalium

A sensationally designed theme for those looking for a cool and contemporary twist to showcase their work in style. With numerous options for layout, images and blog posts, this WordPress theme also includes Revolution Slider, allowing users to display work through slideshow. You’ll be able to personalise the slides and create your own unique animations and visual effects too.

 

 

Studio 8

Rated as one of the best WordPress themes on the market, Studio 8 has a superbly sophisticated and stylish design. Beautifully fast and responsive, the theme provides great portfolio options to businesses of all backgrounds. You can upload custom headers and access built in short codes to make editing and designing easier. Known for creating attention-getting websites, this theme will help put your portfolio on the map.

 

 

Tips to Help Your Website Show You’re A Business Clients Can Trust

Posted on | by moocow

At MooCow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on web design. With technology and techniques developing daily, take a look at our tips below to see how small changes to your webpage can help boost your recognition as a company your clients can trust.

1. Keep your website as up to date as possible, a professional website should not only visually show off your brand, but also be easy to access. Making sure your site is regularly updated, fast-working and mobile friendly are the best ways to ensure a reliable site.

2. Clearly outline who you are as a business, show your customers you have nothing to hide. Make sure your site has a clear ‘About’ section so your clients have a good understanding of what services you provide, your mission and goals. Always be true to the values advertised on your site.

3. Show off your credentials, make visible any companies you have partnered with or worked for. Provide proof of any qualifications or awards your company has received, recognition allows for your company to be seen as dependable as well as capable of providing an excellent service.

4. Be direct. No one wants to find out about hidden costs further down the line, hidden in small print. Make sure you stand by any promises stated on your web page. With online shops, make sure details like shipping, cancellation, return policies are all clearly visible with no hidden. Make sure customers can contact you easily, always have a contact number or email address listed on your site that is kept up to date so any queries can be dealt with rapidly.

5. A strong social media presence helps back up who you are. Social media sites such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram are the first place potential customers are going to head to, to check out your authenticity. Having a varied amount of reviews and testimonials from previous clients can help to give proof your company can be relied upon.

6. Vocalise your brand’s mission statement, personalise the values and ethics your company holds, speak to your clients in a relatable manner and get your audience interested in what you do. Use examples, statistics and present data visually that will showcase exactly what your company can achieve.

Why Marketing Through YouTube Can Help Boost Web Traffic and Sales

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the hottest web and marketing trends. With technology and techniques developing daily, Moocow are continuously working hard to help find new ways to market your business.

One of the most popular ways to help boost your brand is with the use of video content. More than 80% of all internet traffic is video, with both large and small independent businesses opting to target their audience members through channels such as YouTube. As it stands, YouTube currently has over 1 billion active users monthly, and despite the popularity of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, video is quickly taking the lead as an essential platform to successfully market your business on. Choosing to tackle video marketing could give you an advantage over your competitors as well as giving you a rise in your Google ranking.

Setting Up a YouTube Channel

Think of YouTube in the same way as you think of the layout of your website. Your YouTube channel represents your homepage, and the videos you add are like the pages you populate your site with. The more videos you post the more chances you will have at reaching a higher audience and potential new clients. The greater audience you achieve, the more likely you are to see positive changes to your ranking on Google. When getting started, be sure to make your videos relevant to the theme of your business and channel, ideally making each video no longer than 3 mins in length, or if necessary, stick to under 10 mins for training or ‘how to’ guides.

How Can a YouTube Channel Benefit My Business?

Wondering why you should bother? Having a YouTube channel linked to your business can benefit your company in several different ways. It can help to bring new viewers to your actual web page, help to show off your brand on a nationwide level, and even help you to make direct sales. Creating video reviews or filming ‘open box buys’ are a perfect way to generate sales by creating a link off the video directly to your site or online shop. The same as any social media platform works, the more views, likes and connections you make from posting your videos, the better ranked your channel and website will be on Google. With more and more companies making the switch to video marketing, 2018 is not the year to be camera shy!

 

 

Colour Trends and Bold Faced Graphics

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the hottest web trends. With technology and techniques developing daily, we take a look at what 2018 has in store for the world of web design

Dare to be different this year, with website designs offering bespoke graphics that dazzle with colour. Geometric typefaces, bright background layouts and block colours are currently a major trend, alongside typography that’s big and bold. Over–sized or hand drawn fonts make your brand name stand out from the crowd, and this year will see websites rejuvenating font favourites like Futura PT & Proxima Nova giving your site that retro feel.

Whether it’s luminous pinks and greens to cooler pastel shades, 2018 is all about re-branding your business through the use of colour. Make a statement, tell a story or even just have a backdrop that will wow your web page visitors. However you decide to give your site a makeover, be sure to get colour creative.

5 Brilliant Social Media Plug-ins for WordPress You May Not Know About

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we’re constantly striving to make sure we’re ahead of the game when it comes to having the most up to date tech and web knowledge. When it comes to digital marketing and social media, it’s important to fully take advantage of social media platforms, plug-ins and widgets to allow you to achieve greater sales potential and expand your following. Below we’ve compiled a list of what we believe to be the best in social media plug-ins for WordPress to give you a helping hand in getting started.

 

Social Snap

This social sharing plug-in allows you to increase engagement and take control of how well your social media performs. With over 30 social networks to choose from, you can place share buttons wherever is easiest, be it a floating side bar or via short-code or widget. You can also use animations and colour coordinate your layouts. Insights are easily available to track web traffic and you have the option to control how your social media posts look on any device.

Social Warfare

Great for speed and won’t slow down your site, Social Warfare has been specifically built by marketing and web developer experts. Although more limited in how many media platforms you can access, it’s an extremely well designed and powerful little plug-in. You can display how many times your content has been shared, pin images, use analytics to track your progress and use short codes to place social media icons anywhere you choose.

Add to Any

Increases traffic and works alongside over 100+ social media platforms, so this is the one for you if you’re connected to a huge variety of media channels. You can access share counters and floating share buttons, use email sharing and customize appearance. There’s also great analytics integration, with simplistic support for WooCommerce and other eCommerce platforms too.

Social Icons by WPZoom

A 5 star rated plug-in that supports both Skype and WhatsApp with over 80 social media platform choices to share from. You can edit over 400+ customised icons with FontAwesome integration. The plug-in has easy to use drag and drop options to help you position your sharing buttons across your site. There’s also newly updated colour options to help alter and mix and match the colour schemes for your social media share buttons too.

ShareGrapes

Easily customisable, ShareGrapes also has over 80 social networks you can access for your site, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. With multiple design options for sharing posts and links to social media, the plug-in comes with easy to use guides and help to get targetted traffic to your sites. It’s mobile compatible too, which means you won’t find the layout of your posts and share buttons suddenly changing when switching devices.

 

Facebook’s New Tool to Help Cut Down on Social Media

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we’re constantly striving to make sure we’re ahead of the game when it comes to having the most up to date tech and web info. If you’ve been keeping an eye on the latest social media news, you may be aware that there’s been some concerns on the overuse of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Facebook’s currently leading the way for change on this matter, and has recently taken steps to allow users to monitor how much time they are spending on the site.

The social media kings have rolled out new app tools that allow users to keep a watchful eye on how much time they are spending on Facebook. It will also enable users to set time limits for using the site to prevent them from overusing it on a daily basis.

The aptly named ‘Your Time on Facebook’ will use a live counter to calculate and show users the minutes or hours spent using Facebook from day to day. You can also set up and receive notifications to let you know when you’re about to reach your daily limit, to allow you to be more in control of your social media usage.

Facebook’s new changes have come about due to recent fears of people overusing social media to such an extent it is impacting their lives. The company hope that these alterations will allow for more meaningful and engaging interactions when users go online, instead of just endlessly scrolling through posts.

We’re all a bit guilty of that though… Perhaps give the new app a try and see how it works for you!

 

 

GDPR and The Launch of WordPress 4.9.6

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow we’re all about knowing what’s best for your business, whether it’s trending tech news, the latest updates, design tips or marketing tactics. And when it comes to getting you your perfect website, we pride ourselves on making sites that are both manageable and secure.

Following the launch of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation laws (GDPR) which began May 25, WordPress have made some important updates to privacy and maintenance options for site users. GDPR requires businesses or web page owners to be clear and upfront about how they’re using, collecting or sharing your personal data. It also means users have more choice and control over how their data is stored and shared.

Due to this, WordPress have decided to release WordPress 4.9.6 – the Privacy and Maintenance release. Features that can be found within the update include automatic changes to the comments section where users will be given options to whether their details will be saved on the browser. You can now also create a privacy policy page using a new default menu feature on the WordPress dashboard.

Although allowing for a speedier process, WordPress still recommends to add the privacy policy manually to the footer on each page of your website also. Webpage owners can also export or erase a clients data and send automatic requests asking for permission via email. WordPress have also created a handbook that guides you through privacy policies when using plug-ins which you can learn more about here.

95 other updates and modifications have been included in WordPress 4.9.6. including:

  • “Mine” included as a filter in the media library.

  • When displayed in admin, plugin-ins will now show the minimal PHP version required.

  • New PHP polyfills for forwards-compatibility and proper variable validation have been added.

  • TinyMCE updated to newest version (4.7.11).

Take a look at the WordPress site here to read up on the more in depth details on all the updates included.

 

Get the Party Started and Celebrate the WordPress 15th Anniversary on May 27th

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we love all things WordPress. It’s free, open source, available in 69+ languages with over 50,000 plugins. I mean, what’s not to love? Over the years the popularity of WordPress has grown immensely. W3Techs reports that WordPress now powers over 30% of sites on the web. And it’s no wonder when they have such great extras on offer.

On May 27th, WordPress with be celebrating its 15th anniversary of WP’s original release, and they’re holding a worldwide party, which you’re all invited to. To get involved, check out the WordPress 15th Anniversary website and find out whether there’s a party you and your mates can tag along to nearby, and RSVP to the event.

If there isn’t, then why not get cracking at setting one up yourself? Brighton has a huge creative network when it comes to design, and whether you’re a developer, copywriter or graphic designer, we all have one thing in common – we’d all rather swap a day at the office for an afternoon spent in one of Brighton’s many beer gardens. So why not get involved and get posting about your very own WordPress Birthday Party.

You can even get yourself some special 15th anniversary WordPress swag. In tribute to the anniversary, WordPress have added a money off code CELEBRATEWP15 to get 15% off all accessories till the end of 2018. So whether you end up hosting your own WordPress party, bake a WordPress cake or even just get your hands on lots of cool new merch, make sure you get posting using the #WP15 hashtag online to help celebrate WordPress worldwide.

 

Take a Closer Look at Your SEO and Avoid These Optimisation Misconceptions

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the latest web news, tips and trends. With technology and techniques developing daily, Moocow are continuously working hard to help find new ways to develop your business.

Myths in SEO are often formed when people are not up to date with their SEO knowledge, or when businesses create SEO ‘tips’ that are a con to get you to pay out big money for techniques that don’t really matter all that much.

Since the turn of 2018, we have seen rapid changes to the way SEO works across many web design platforms. Below we’ve cleared up a few fibs you might have been told previously in regards to your website’s SEO.

 

Keywords do not matter as much as they used to – TRUE

There is a great deal of focus put on keywords, however they may not be as important as many think. They are useful too have but do not necessarily need to be your primary focus. It’s a case of still having them but not making them the full focus. It’s still important to use keywords in meta descriptions tag lines and titles on your web pages, however there are a ton of other important ways that can get you discovered quicker.

 

You can reach the number one spot for a certain keyword – FALSE, you can’t anymore

It is no longer possible to reach the number one spot for a certain keyword due to the way Google has recently changed the way their rankings work. Unless you’re a big corporation like Apple or Coca-Cola where your search results would automatically lead you to a top spot, you can no longer predict what will be at number one for a particular keyword search. You could type in ‘mobile’ into Google search one day and it come up with a bunch of info on mobile first, but the next day it could just as likely come up with a page on baby toys.

 

Link building is dead – FALSE, it’s more alive than ever

It’s a common misconception that link building is “dead” however this just isn’t so, and has been largely discussed by companies such as Moz and Forbes. If anything, it’s link farms that are dead. According to Moz, using anchor text and links to “topic-specific”sites will still help to attract traffic to your site. The more attention your site receives, the easier it will be for Google to rank it higher in search engine results. Working alongside other companies through social sharing can benefit your company awareness greatly also.

 

SEO companies can guarantee to get you #1 ranking – FALSE, no one can

Despite what many companies would like to brag, no one can guarantee this. And this is the sort of con to watch out for when looking for a company to help with your SEO. A reliable SEO company will be able to work with you to make your site consistently popular on Google and improve its rankings. This will not necessarily mean being able to achieve that number one spot. When it comes to getting help with your SEO, look for honesty over false prophecies. You don’t want to be left out of pocket and without the results you wanted to achieve in the first place.

 

Different pages should have different keywords – FALSE

This really isn’t necessary, as although the importance of keywords are still relevant, it’s still only a minor part of what helps rank your website. It makes sense to have your primary keyword featured across your whole site, as that’s what Google picks up and makes searches relevant to your business. You don’t need to bother creating a ton of background pages each with different keywords, as it’s likely to make your rankings more confusing.