Sponsored – Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com By Web Designers for Web Designers Wed, 13 May 2020 23:25:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://webdesignledger.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/cropped-Web-Design-Ledger-512x512-Pixel-32x32.png Sponsored – Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com 32 32 See what 15 of the Best WordPress Themes in 2020 Have to Offer https://webdesignledger.com/see-15-best-wordpress-themes-2020/ https://webdesignledger.com/see-15-best-wordpress-themes-2020/#respond Thu, 09 Jan 2020 07:30:00 +0000 http://webdesignledger.com/?p=49297

There’s no need to continue to stress yourself out plowing through a host of themes in hopes of finding something that just might suit your immediate needs. “Just might” is not a very good description to hang your hat on. If you narrow your search down to 15 or so of the top WordPress themes […]

Read More at See what 15 of the Best WordPress Themes in 2020 Have to Offer

]]>

There’s no need to continue to stress yourself out plowing through a host of themes in hopes of finding something that just might suit your immediate needs.

“Just might” is not a very good description to hang your hat on.

If you narrow your search down to 15 or so of the top WordPress themes going into 2020 you should easily find what you need. Better yet, we’ve already narrowed the search for you. Add the fact that WordPress will take care of the administrative features for you, and you should be good to go.

If you won’t settle for anything less than a pixel perfect, 100% responsive, SEO friendly, modern, flexible and WooCommerce ready theme, you’ll still be good to go.

We can prove it; read on to see for yourself.

  1. BeTheme – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme

            This premium multipurpose WordPress theme, the biggest of them all, is hard to beat in terms of its huge array of tools, features and options, performance, flexibility, and its level of support. Visit BeTheme’s website and you’ll be well into your second cup of coffee by the time you begin to have a good understanding of what this theme can help you accomplish.

  • The highlight is the selection of 500+ customizable, responsive pre-built websites. These professionally crafted design aids cover 30 industry sectors, all the major website types like portfolio, one-pager, etc., and a wide variety of business niches.

They also have functionality and UX features embedded right into them, plus they are customizable and responsive.

  • The popular Muffin Builder 3 page builder, with the WPBakery page builder as an option
  • A Layouts Configurator if you decide to build a page from scratch.
  • A Shortcode Generator and a large selection of shortcodes that, together with BeTheme’s other features, eliminates any need for coding.
  • A powerful Admin Panel that serves to give you all the flexibility you want.

“This theme is the best for WordPress, the layout and flexibility are perfect to develop a site.” – Joso970

Learn more about Be’s 40+ core features by clicking on the banner.

  1. Total Theme

This WordPress theme has been around a while. It has helped more than 41,000 users build premium websites, and it comes with more useful features than you’ll find in most themes of its type and purpose.

Total is and has

  • Drag and drop and extremely easy to use
  • Developer-friendly hooks, filters, and 450+ snippets
  • A Theme Customizer that allows you to quickly change site colors, widths, font characteristics, etc.
  • 100+ page builder elements and extra design modules, along with 500+advanced customizing and styling options

Total’s package includes the popular WPBakery page builder, 40+ pre-built demos, and a quick start demo importer, Revolution Slider and Layer Slider; and Total is WooCommerce ready.

Total is also compatible with most of the popular WordPress plugins. So, you won’t have to be burdened down with an excessive number of third-party plugins.

“I’ve been a loyal customer of Total theme for years. Support is impressively quick, useful and accurate. The theme will allow one to build virtually anything you want. AJ and his team are terrific, and there is no reason to buy any other theme.” – donnieweaver

  1. Avada

Avada has been the #1 selling theme over the past 6 years. There must be a reason – or several. It could be

  • a Dynamic Content System that gives users tremendous flexibility
  • Flawless WooCommerce integration including the capability to drag and drop product designs
  • 55+ pre-built websites to help you build and launch quickly – without coding

You can also import full or partial demos with Avada or use sections from several demos.

“There’s really NOTHING you can’t do with the Avada theme AND they have the best support team of any Theme out there – really!” – MamaSara

Click on the banner to learn more about this best-selling theme.

  1. Houzez – Highly Customizable Real Estate WordPress Theme

Asking a multipurpose theme to provide a solution when a specialty theme is really what is needed is asking too much. Houzez has all the features and functionality a real estate agent or agency is ever likely to need, including

  • property listings formatting options
  • advanced property search capabilities
  • a property management system

Plus, the Houzez theme can be customized to fit an agency’s business model.

“Awesome and very flexible theme and customer support is excellent.” – mardenvato

In need of a specialized theme for realtors? Look no further.

  1. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

Some describe TheGem as having the most beautiful designs for WordPress. Others refer to it as being the ultimate WordPress toolbox for designers. In truth, both descriptions are true.

The package includes

  • 100+ pre-built, one-click installable websites plus 400+ trendy design templates
  • the powerful WPBakery page builder

a ready-to-launch fashion store

I love TheGem Creative Multi-Purpose High Performance Theme. I plan to utilize it for all of my clients. I’m getting some of them to change over as I update their websites.” – acreator7

The ultimate design toolbox is but a click away.

  1. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme

Agencies, bloggers, freelancers, and creatives can all benefit from choosing Uncode, as can businesses or anyone wanting to create a portfolio website, a magazine website, or any type of landing page.

Features include

  • a front-end editor on steroids
  • Adaptive image and grid systems
  • WooCommerce single product features

and more, but the star of the show has to be ThemeForest’s best-sellers showcase of user-created websites which tells a story of what this theme could do for you, why it claims 60K+ sales, and why it is a source of inspiration.

“Easy to use theme and customizable to ones need. I give 5 stars for theme support. Really happy!!” – rchakaipa

Click on the banner to visit the Uncode and its remarkable showcase of websites.

  1. Bridge

Rather than trying to list Bridge’s most likely benefactors, saying that this theme is perfect for just about anyone is more than sufficient. This best-selling creative theme’s features include

  • 420+ premade websites
  • open-ended customizability
  • huge collections of modules, design elements, sliders, and plugins including WooCommerce, as well as both the WPBakery and Elementor page builders
  • 5-star rated support

It should also be noted that Bridge serves a community of 120,000+ happy users.

“Very flexible, the demos are beautiful!” – rebecajobs

Click on the banner for a closer look.

  1. Brook – Multipurpose Creative WordPress Theme

The testimonial is typical and says it all. An abundance of cool features makes Brook a web designer’s dream. In the package, you’ll find a huge collection of premade templates, premium site-building plugins, shortcodes, and design elements. Also, Brook is

  • superfast loading
  • SEO optimized
  • easily customizable

As a bonus, there’s a library of support tutorials you can also view to find out more about Brook.

“COSTUMER SUPPORT 5++++++++++

Feature request 5+++++++++

Everything on highest level

This is first time I get this kind of experience.” – souldisco

Visit the site and check out a video tutorial or two.

  1. XStore | Responsive Multi-Purpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Could you use a ready-to-go shop to get an online business started? How about 80 of them? That’s what XStore brings to the table; and there’s more:

  • $300+ worth of premium plugins
  • a single product page builder
  • a powerful header builder
  • demos for a wide variety of products and retail items

In other words, everything you could wish for to get your show on the road.

“As a Graphic Designer, not a web designer, I base my purchases on quality and customer service. I’ve purchased XStore twice and they always have the best customer service if I have a question or problem. Also, the plugins they include for this theme are fantastic value.” – Chelsdevauld

Click on the banner to check out one or more of 80 stores.

  1. Typer – Amazing Theme with Multi Author Publishing Features

Typer may just be the ultimate WordPress theme for publishers in general and bloggers in particular. The 100% Gutenburg optimization provides powerful support for creating blog posts while the Elementor visual page builder enables Typer users to create attractive, professionally-design landing pages.

  • No coding knowledge is needed
  • Typer is optimized for speed + real lazy load images
  • unlimited Header style and unique page and post options

You can also expect to receive premium support should you require it.

“Theme is awesome! Exactly what I needed for my site!  Definitely recommend this purchase.” – chriscurran

Click on the banner if a premier publishing theme is on your wish list.

  1. Pofo – Creative Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

As its name suggests, Pofo is an excellent choice for anyone in need of building an attention-getting and engaging online portfolio. After all, a good portfolio design is often a key factor contributing to a business’s success.

  • Pofo is blazing fast, fully responsive and Gutenberg compatible
  • This theme offers a wide selection of home and demo pages, design elements, and valuable and useful plugins

Features include the WPBakery page builder, Revolution Slider, and detailed online documentation.

“Pofo is beautiful in design, layout, UX/UI, and color scheme. It’s truly 5 stars. However, with such a great product without a great customer support, it can mean nothing because it won’t allow you to achieve what your needs are. My 5 stars go to customer service!” – KARCIS

Click on the banner to discover more about this multi-purpose theme.

  1. Schema

Schema is not your run-of-the-mill premium multipurpose theme. It has many if not most of the features of other premium themes along with one very significant difference: SEO functionality

  • Schema knows what search engines seek
  • Schema guides search engines through your site – content element by content element
  • Schema checks for clean code and other factors that can affect website rankings

Schema is also fully responsive, ultra-fast, and is compatible with multiple page builders.

“Gorgeous design, super-fast response to my question too. thank you for a wonderful theme :)” simonehow

If SEO is a pain in the neck for you, click on the banner for a solution.

  1. Leadinjection – WordPress Landing Page Theme

With Leadinjection, you can do something well that can be very tricky or even impossible with most WordPress themes. Leadinjection is a landing page theme that is uniquely capable of adding a landing page to an already up-and-running website.

Leadinjection is

  • WordPress Multisite Compatible
  • Conversion Focused
  • WPML and Translation Ready

This is a good tool to have if you have one or more websites to maintain.

This theme has some very cool features, and most importantly it is pretty well-documented and very well supported. The developers have been very helpful every time I’ve had a question. -frankdl98

Add Leadinjection to your web design toolkit.

  1. TheFox | Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme

It may or may not be a stretch to call TheFox the smartest of ThemeForest’s WordPress themes. But, it certainly has the essential features and elements to back up such a claim.

Maybe it’s because TheFox’s design takes into account the tiniest of details. Whatever the reason, this multi-purpose theme has a solid track record and is a good investment.

“I have been very impressed with TheFox theme. The design and customizability are great and very straight forward. The Customer support is top notch.” – bc hughes

  1. Hongo – Modern & Multipurpose WooCommerce WordPress Theme

Hongo’s new look makes it especially noteworthy, plus the package features plenty of demos, templates, and other creative design elements, WPBakery, one-click demo import, and custom shortcodes.

  • Out of the box premium eCommerce features included
  • Conversion optimised and modern looking product listing and product detail page styles
  • Hongo designs are awarded at many well known awards like awwwards.com, cssdesignawards.com and many others

“Simply the great designs and best theme for WooCommerce, loading fast, customisable and easy to use with the detailed documentation. Their support team is technically sound and very kind to guide wherever needed. We have bought some other themes from ThemeZaa now and they have never lets us down, thanks!” – diyaatps

So don’t wait and start selling your products with Hongo!

*****

            The emphasis in this article is on multipurpose themes.  It is what many designers, and especially beginners, tend to look for. We’ve included several more specialized themes, one of which serves a particular niche, and others that can be used for a variety of website types.

All 15 themes have many things in common such as excellent flexibility and performance, speed, ease of use, and a large and varied selection of design aids. What this means to you is that you really can’t make a poor choice and should have little difficulty in making the best one.

Please feel free to share this article with a friend or on social media. We’d love to hear about your shopping experience.

Read More at See what 15 of the Best WordPress Themes in 2020 Have to Offer

]]>
https://webdesignledger.com/see-15-best-wordpress-themes-2020/feed/ 0
5 Steps to Building an Amazing App Website With 20 Examples for Inspiration https://webdesignledger.com/5-steps-building-amazing-app-website-20-examples-inspiration/ https://webdesignledger.com/5-steps-building-amazing-app-website-20-examples-inspiration/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2019 22:27:28 +0000 http://webdesignledger.com/?p=48493

If you’re thinking of turning your focus more toward app website design, we have both good news and bad news for you. The good news is, there’s a growing need for app websites, which could mean plenty of work for you. The bad news is, as more and more app websites are being built, visitors […]

Read More at 5 Steps to Building an Amazing App Website With 20 Examples for Inspiration

]]>

If you’re thinking of turning your focus more toward app website design, we have both good news and bad news for you.

The good news is, there’s a growing need for app websites, which could mean plenty of work for you. The bad news is, as more and more app websites are being built, visitors are beginning to suffer from “app website fatigue”. If your site looks like all the others, you’ll be lucky if you can keep a visitor interested for more than 5 seconds – not anywhere long enough to make a sale, much less convince that visitor to stick around.

The solution is pretty straightforward. Build a better website.

Easier said than done, right?

Follow the steps below, and you can start creating app websites that are not only attention-getting, but potential conversion powerhouses.

 

5 steps to Creating “Take Your Breath Away” App Websites

Step 1: Choose a “can hardly stop looking at it” color palette

Your choice may to some extent be a matter of taste. You’ll find it helpful to view a few examples, like those presented here. Whatever color palette you choose; it should follow these three simple rules:

– It should instantly attract a visitor’s attention

– It needs to be on-brand, and

– It also needs to visually support your website’s message

Over utilizes BOLD color touches in a way that instantly attracts attention.

This Be Theme pre-built website provides another excellent example of an eye-grabbing color palette.

Forest aligns its color palette with its brand with earth colors like greens and browns; a color scheme that makes the app visually memorable.

FlightCard uses a subtle, cold color palette to reinforce the message that boarding passes are so easy to use that you almost forget you’re even carrying one.

Looking for a color palette that will appeal to a larger audience? BeApp2 is a perfect example.

Step 2: Display crystal-clear product pics

If people can’t immediately see what the app looks like, the 5-second rule is going to kick in. They can usually tell at a glance if it will be easy to use or involves a not-so-flat learning curve. They can also see how it differs, if it does, from the other 400 or so apps on the market.

Pennies emphatically displays what their app looks likes on a smartphone. At a glance, you can tell how intuitive it is to use and even figure out how the color codes function.

You can create a similar app website with BeWallet as your starting point. This pre-built website was designed from scratch for financial apps; a potential gold mine since there are SO many financial apps out there in dire need of a decent website – and you can do much better than “decent”.

Or, you could choose a more general pre-built website like BeSoftware  if you want to display crystal-clear pics from inside the app.

JibJab takes things one step further by employing a simple yet persuasive tactic to show what its app does. It shows the before and after.

Step 3: Show visitors how the app works

If people can’t tell how an app works, they’re less likely to become interested. Helping them image themselves as actual users is a powerful marketing tactic

PeekCalendar has placed a video on its hero section. It demonstrates how people can use their app to better organize their lifestyle.

BeApp3 allows you to give visitors the full app experience by adding product images and a video that shows exactly how the app looks and works.

BePay has placed a Watch Video CTA button right above the fold, so visitors can immediately go to their product demo video.

CutestPaw is a pet-lover’s dream app. Everything is cleverly rolled up into a single hero image that shows how the app works AND what it looks like on a smartphone. Anyone who likes little kittens might be tempted to purchase the app.

Step 4: (Over)use “white” space

White space is sometimes a design element you just can’t use too much of. A page that’s 95+% white space can often do the best job of highlighting a message. White space is so important that it’s an app website’s #1 visual element.

Tha Fly Nation offers a clean, airy design that directs the eye toward focusing on the site’s key elements.

You can create a similar experience with BeProduct4 or BeHosting2— two pre-built websites where white space is effectively used to enhance the visitor’s experience and emphasize the critical elements on the page.

SpellTower is perhaps THE most extreme when it comes to white space. It’s part of their brand and it drives the message home like no other. Now, you can understand why 95% whitespace can be so effective.

Step 5: Make your CTAs grab them by the eyeballs

The next worst thing to forgetting to include a CTA button is to have one that doesn’t stand out—really stand out. A CTA button has to be so big, bright, and bold that a visitor simply can’t resist clicking it.

Big, bright, and bold hints at greater things to come.

Wire’s CTA button clearly stands out above the fold: it’s big and bold enough to draw your attention to it the instant you’ve finished reading the headline. It’s centered on the page, like a “gate” you can’t move around, but need to click if to move forward.

BeERP uses precisely the same bright-green button for its main CTA. A secondary, somewhat nondescript optional button is on the right.

You can also direct attention to your CTA by having it match other elements on the page. BeKids is a great example of this. You can see how the blue of the CTA button matches several of the hero section’s visual elements.

Summary

As you can see, these steps are not complicated at all. They give you a surefire means of building an app website that’s eye-catching. It will stand out from the competition and is built for conversion.

Use the most stunning visuals you can get your hands on, don’t skimp on the use of white space. You need to know what your audience wants, and you’ll be off and running.

As simple as these steps are, building a quality website takes time. That’s true for app websites as well. You might be juggling multiple projects and facing one emergency deadline after another. Then, you might try the following approach.

You’ll find a large and impressive gallery of 400+ pre-built websites on Be Theme. You can select from it and customize it to your liking. You’ve seen several in the foregoing examples.

They are functional and visually impressive.  They feature interactive elements, stunning effects, and intuitive navigation. Personalize one to fit your app and you’re good to go!

Read More at 5 Steps to Building an Amazing App Website With 20 Examples for Inspiration

]]>
https://webdesignledger.com/5-steps-building-amazing-app-website-20-examples-inspiration/feed/ 0
Top 6 productivity apps for design teams – pick your perfect match! https://webdesignledger.com/top-6-productivity-apps-for-design-teams-pick-your-perfect-match/ https://webdesignledger.com/top-6-productivity-apps-for-design-teams-pick-your-perfect-match/#respond Thu, 21 Feb 2019 16:49:05 +0000 http://webdesignledger.com/?p=46499

          Along with the rest of the world, we tend to be obsessed with productivity. We want to produce more in less time. We want to do so without negatively affecting the quality of our products or services. The digital age has proved to be both a blessing and a curse in this respect. New […]

Read More at Top 6 productivity apps for design teams – pick your perfect match!

]]>

          Along with the rest of the world, we tend to be obsessed with productivity. We want to produce more in less time. We want to do so without negatively affecting the quality of our products or services.

The digital age has proved to be both a blessing and a curse in this respect. New technologies have provided us with high-quality productivity-boosting tools. At the same time, it has placed greater demands on us to become more productive.

The rat race is still with us, and it’s faster than ever.

We’ve discovered areas where technology is indeed a friend. One of those areas comes in the form of smartphone apps and other productivity apps. These wonderful creations help us manage our projects and our personal schedules. They help us organize errands, and even plan our meals.

We’re pleased to present for your consideration the top productivity apps for 2019.

1. Mason

          Mason provides increased productivity with a capital P. This front-end feature-building platform for product design teams allows them to quickly, economically, and efficiently create high-quality front-end features for their apps.

Mason’s feature-building process is a model of efficiency and high productivity, but where this tool really shines is where it enables teams to skip wireframing and prototyping, documentation, QA inspection and coding as they proceed through design and product deployment.

Teams can also make changes to their front-end creations quickly; even after a product has already been deployed and is in maintenance mode. In fact, any authorized product stakeholder who has a Mason account can add features and make changes to a product that’s up and running.

Mason’s building blocks and visual interface are key to designing and building software features for websites, apps, and other digital products. If you’ve been looking for a UI/UX tool that can create a software feature faster, with great precision, and save you time and money, give this productivity app a close look.

2. Proto.io

          Proto.io is an easy-to-use web application which designers, developers, product managers, and entrepreneurs can use for prototyping when designing mobile and web apps. Nor coding skills are required neither are any special design skills required to build either low-fidelity or high-fidelity prototypes.

Proto.io consists of three environments: the Dashboard, the Editor and the Player. Proto.io’s Dashboard provides invaluable version control assistance which is especially important during rapid prototyping activities. The Editor takes care of the entire process of prototype-building, and the Player displays in your browser what you’ve accomplished and in addition, it plays a major role in user testing.

Proto.io 6, the latest version of this productivity tool, features a redesigned user interface, new state transitions, easy sharing options, a new Proto.io app for Android and iOS integration with user testing platforms, and more.

3. monday.com

          monday.com is a centralized team management tool that helps teams manage every aspect and detail of their day-to-day tasks, and plan, organize, and track their work in a single visual and collaborative space.

Once you’ve decided upon what’s important and helpful for your team, monday.com will capture and visualize the requisite information so you can see who’s in charge of what, track time, and generally speed up workflow and throughput.

Project leaders and team members alike love this productivity-boosting team management tool because of the culture of transparency it promotes and supports. When all parties concerned can view the same information, it gives them a greater sense of importance and empowerment.

monday.com is currently managing the work of more than 50,000 teams in 76 countries. It’s an intuitive, beautifully organized team management tool that helps connect people to processes.

4. ActiveCollab

          The latest version of this popular project management software features a host of new and enhanced features and is better in almost every way you can think of. Of particular note is the task dependencies with automatic rescheduling feature.

In new Active Collab, when a change is made to a parent task, each child task is automatically updated and rescheduled – removing excessive busywork.

5. Nutcache

          Nutcache provides an all-in-one project management software solution that helps project managers and teams manage tasks smarter and with greater efficiency. It promotes team collaboration from a project’s initial planning and estimating tasks through final billing.

Nutcache also performs time tracking duties and automates expense management and invoicing. This app’s flexibility and simplicity has made it a popular and useful tool to help teams organize and deliver work on time and within budget.

6. Lucidchart.com

          Lucidchart belongs in your project management toolkit if your team is spread across different locations and team members are working on a mix of different operating systems.

Lucidchart also saves time and eliminates misunderstandings and misconceptions because of its ability to help you visually communicate complex ideas or make technically-oriented presentations to non-technical audiences. It does this by providing a library of useful shapes to create virtually any type of a presentation diagram.

Top 5 Productivity Tips to Achieve More and Create Peace of Mind

Tip #1. Write it down.

Make a habit of writing down every task to be done and every commitment you’ve made. Trying to remember something you committed to last week? Or, maybe, something you should have added to your to-do list? This can often prove to be distracting and energy-sucking.

Tip #2. Do the task you dread doing first.

Since you’re going to have to do it eventually, do it now. You’ll feel good about yourself once you’ve done it.

Tip #3. Take breaks – religiously.

You can devote your full attention to a task for only so long before the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Experiment with the Pomodoro (Tomato) principle. Take a 5-10 minute break every 40 minutes – whatever works best for you. Doing so will help you mentally and physically.

Tip #4. Exercise

We’re not talking about extreme sports training. Walk, jog, stretch, or practice some muscle-strengthening exercises. Do this daily or several times a week. Healthy people are more productive.

Tip #4. Learn to say no.

Say yes to everything and everyone and you end up letting everyone else control your life. Pick and choose tasks and commitments judiciously and you’ll be far more productive.

Conclusion

Take the above productivity tips seriously and make a habit of following them. You should start noticing some very positive results in a short time. If you can use one of more of the productivity tools listed above so much the better.

You’ll have more control over your work, you’ll be more productive, and you’ll feel much better about yourself.

Read More at Top 6 productivity apps for design teams – pick your perfect match!

]]>
https://webdesignledger.com/top-6-productivity-apps-for-design-teams-pick-your-perfect-match/feed/ 0
Visual Composer’s New Name and the Confusing Story behind It https://webdesignledger.com/visual-composers-new-name-and-the-confusing-story-behind-it/ https://webdesignledger.com/visual-composers-new-name-and-the-confusing-story-behind-it/#respond Tue, 15 Jan 2019 15:02:02 +0000 http://webdesignledger.com/?p=46208

The Visual Composer users have found themselves quite confused lately, and we are here to clear the things up. You have probably seen two new names in our offer; WP Bakery and Visual Composer Website Builder. So the big question is “Which one is the original Visual Composer?” If you think that the WP Bakery […]

Read More at Visual Composer’s New Name and the Confusing Story behind It

]]>

The Visual Composer users have found themselves quite confused lately, and we are here to clear the things up.

You have probably seen two new names in our offer; WP Bakery and Visual Composer Website Builder.

So the big question is

“Which one is the original Visual Composer?”

If you think that the WP Bakery is a new product while the Visual Composer Website Builder is just the new name behind which is the old Visual Composer – unfortunately, you are wrong.

We admit that the whole thing is quite confusing and we understand why so many of our users, as well as long-term partners, are upset with us.

Which brings us to the reason we decided to publish this post in the first place. Above all, we want to apologize for the confusion around Visual Composer, and we want to explain the whole story of what happened here.

We are sorry for the mess we have created around Visual Composer.

We admit that we should have explained what caused this situation at the very beginning before it escalated.

So let’s finally do that and dive deeper into the mind-twisting story behind this huge mess that got even worse as we tried to fix it along the way.

It all started with one thing that caused a big domino effect of issues that went down one after another:

Changing the name of the Visual Composer Page Builder

On every major WP theme, you have probably noticed the name above. After all, it was included as a premium plugin in the majority of the all-time favorite WordPress themes.

So the big question is: Why would we change the name in the first place when it was so well-known and easily recognizable?

The truth is – because we had to; we did not have a choice.

If you want the whole story, check out the video below.

It all began with our new product, the Visual Composer Website Builder. It is worth mentioning that the Visual Composer Page Builder and the Visual Composer Website builder are two entirely different products used for different purposes.

The Page Builder is an Envato-exclusive product with a lifetime license (like all products sold with Envato). The Website Builder, on the other hand, was meant to move away from the lifetime license model. We wanted to create a product much more complex in features and specially designed for the users whose building needs have rapidly evolved.

However, the new features came hand in hand with much higher development costs which that could only be sustained with a yearly license model. In addition to that, we wanted to be in the direct touch with our users because we recognized the need for the best support we could possibly provide.

However, our plans took a wrong direction because

We overlooked a crucial detail that forced us into a difficult decision

And that detail in question was the contract we signed with Envato and all its limitations.

Long story short, we were not allowed to sell another product under the Visual Composer name outside their platform.

At that point, we had to choose our next step. We had two options:

  1. We could adjust our new product to fit the lifetime license model and put it up on Envato.
  2. We could change the product name to lift the contractual limitations.

It was not an easy choice to make, and we knew that both options had significant downsides. We weighed our two options over and over again, and eventually, we decided to go with the option 2. We decided not to compromise the quality of our new product, and this was the only way to do it.

And that is how the Visual Composer Page Builder became WP Bakery

And that is where the whole confusion started. Not only were we buried in the developing process of our new product which required our full attention, but we also had to deal with a whole new set of unplanned changes.

Dealing with all that work, we did not immediately notice the vast confusion we created.

Not only were people confused about the name change, but they also didn’t understand what our new product, Visual Composer Website Builder, was. Was it a new product or just a rebranding of the old one? And what about WP Bakery?

So let’s take it step by step and explain the difference between the two once and for all.

What is Visual Composer Website Builder and what does it do?

The Visual Composer Website Builder is a live-preview editor with drag-and-drop features. It is not the same thing as the Visual Composer Page Builder. It is an entirely new tool. It comes in two versions; the free and the Premium version.

There are hundreds of ready-to-use content elements to choose from that will help you turn your ideas and visions into reality. It is easy to use thanks to the drag-and-drop features, and you can see all the changes instantly.

It can be used with any theme, including your existing themes. On top of that, you can choose from a variety of WP templates for different types of pages (landing pages, portfolios, corporate websites, product pages and many more).

Page editing works in two ways; frontend editor and tree view. With the tree view, you can navigate through the elements available on the page which will save you a lot of time during the process.

One big perk of the Visual Composer Website Builder is the fact that there is a header, footer, and sidebar editor available in the Premium version of the product.

In addition to that, you can access numerous useful add-ons that you can get from the third-party developers or the Visual Composer’s dedicated Hub.

Are Visual Composer Website Builder and WP Bakery the same thing?

Short answer: No. These are two entirely different tools. Let’s take a moment to explain the main differences between the two.

Some people believe that the Visual Composer Website Builder is merely a premium version of the WP Bakery. It is not.

Visual Composer Website Builder’s code was built from zero with React.Js. It does not use any of the WordPress shortcodes. It was developed using the feedback from our users to offer them the best experience possible.

However, the most significant difference between the two products is that WP Bakery is only for the content part, while Visual Composer Website Builder allows you to build a complete website (with Headers and Footers).

Like mentioned before, Visual Composer Website Builder does not use any shortcodes, while WP Bakery is shortcode-based.

In practice, this means that the VC Website Builder:

  1. allows you to generate clean code
  2. doesn’t get messy if you disable the plugin (like it happens with shortcode-based plugins)

On top of that, VC Website Builder comes with a cloud-based Hub from which you can download all the elements you find useful. Basically, you can handpick the elements you need and download only them rather than bloating the website with a bunch of unnecessary assets.

There’s a full list of difference between the two products that you can check right here.

That being said, we also have to point out that WP Bakery is still getting the same amount of work and attention as it did before we developed VC Website Builder. Both of the products are equally as important to us, and we want to offer the best user experience possible.

Thank you for taking a moment to go through this story with us. If you have any additional questions regarding our products, please leave a comment, and we will try to give you the answer as soon as possible

Read More at Visual Composer’s New Name and the Confusing Story behind It

]]>
https://webdesignledger.com/visual-composers-new-name-and-the-confusing-story-behind-it/feed/ 0
Monday.com – The Project Manager’s Paradise https://webdesignledger.com/monday-projec-management-review/ https://webdesignledger.com/monday-projec-management-review/#respond Tue, 02 Oct 2018 19:20:54 +0000 http://webdesignledger.com/?p=45254

Project management can be a time consuming and stressful job. Other than the fact that your entire team relies on you to make tough decisions and guide them on the path to success, you have to schedule and manage every project. monday.com exists to make project management a breeze. With a hefty list of features […]

Read More at Monday.com – The Project Manager’s Paradise

]]>

Project management can be a time consuming and stressful job. Other than the fact that your entire team relies on you to make tough decisions and guide them on the path to success, you have to schedule and manage every project.

monday.com exists to make project management a breeze. With a hefty list of features and tools, you’ll find yourself managing and collaborating with the best without even breaking a sweat.

At its core, monday.com is an Agile project management software. Historically, agile is one of the most used and effective methodologies that’s ever existed in project management, and that’s nothing to shake a stick at. But, besides all the history and features, what makes monday.com so great? Well, I’m glad you asked:

monday

Collaboration at it’s finest

One of the biggest reasons anyone uses a project management software is to collaborate with the rest of their team. All your planning and scheduling means nothing if you can’t deliver that information to everyone else. Not only can you share the plans with everyone on the team, you’ll be able to receive direct message, easily edit timelines as the project goes forward, and keep an eye on what everyone’s up to.

“A company’s structure is the result of leadership that creates a culture. We wanted a culture of togetherness, of people getting recognition. Today, at Wix parties, I can approach any employee and talk to them about their work. It blows their minds. They’re like, ‘How do you know?’ and the answer is monday.com! Do you know what that does to their motivation?” – Avishai Abrahami,  CEO and founder of Wix.com.

Let’s not forget about the most important people in this whole operation – the clients. Remember, the clients are the reason you get a paycheck, and they deserve to be in the loop, too. With monday.com, you can add your clients as guests for the project so that they can get constant, real-time updates as soon as everyone else.

monday

Simplicity is the key

Often times, softwares like this overwhelm the user. monday.com thought about this and condensed everything into one space. You can manage everything from one single dashboard. Instead of trying to navigate the entire website for one tool, you have the full arsenal of tools at the click of your mouse.

Having trouble finding info from that project you worked on from last year? A simple search will quickly lead you to any image, update, project, or assignment your team has ever worked on.

monday

 

On top of this already massive pile of impressive highlights, you can integrate many of your favorite apps into one place. monday.com is truly a one-stop shop.

They also offer a mobile version so that you can stay updated on the go. Many project management softwares don’t offer any way to get real-time information unless you’re in the office. With the app, you’ll never miss an important update again.

monday.com

Why you need monday.com

monday.com is one of the most widely used softwares on the market. Everyone who’s familiar with it will agree that there’s nothing else like it. Nowhere else will you get this sort of usefulness, versatility, and simplicity.

With their impressive list of features, all-in-one dashboard, user focused navigation, and constant praise and reviews, it’s easy to see why so many people chose and continue to choose monday.com.

 

Read More at Monday.com – The Project Manager’s Paradise

]]>
https://webdesignledger.com/monday-projec-management-review/feed/ 0
It’s UltraWide Time! https://webdesignledger.com/its-ultrawide-time/ https://webdesignledger.com/its-ultrawide-time/#respond Mon, 17 Sep 2018 19:54:29 +0000 http://webdesignledger.com/?p=45466

(The UltraWide Time of Alan Walker – LG UltraWide Festival 2018) For all you creators out there! LG understands there’s more to the final output. There’s also the “process.” All the hours spent working, toiling, creating, that no one ever sees. The endless brain-strain and ideating a creator dedicates to their goal is what makes […]

Read More at It’s UltraWide Time!

]]>

(The UltraWide Time of Alan Walker – LG UltraWide Festival 2018)

For all you creators out there! LG understands there’s more to the final output. There’s also the “process.” All the hours spent working, toiling, creating, that no one ever sees. The endless brain-strain and ideating a creator dedicates to their goal is what makes up their UltraWide Time. Few will ever see or understand the process, where all the work and magic happen. But LG understands.   

One of the highlights of this year’s LG UltraWide Festival is Alan Walker, a multiple-platinum DJ/Producer. Alan says he spent years wondering if the countless hours at his computer desk would ever be rewarded. “Making music takes a lot of time and effort, not something that just happens with a snap. It takes time but is a very fun road to go.” He still spends long nights composing on his UltraWide monitor.

Then there’s Action Movie Kid. Daniel Hashimoto and his son created a smash hit YouTube channel. It features a kid surrounded by eye-popping special effects. For this dad and son, “quality time” is spent in front of a camera and computer. Daniel says “my UltraWide Time is for imagination. Every afternoon we come up with something amazing.”

The theme for this year’s LG UltraWide Festival is “My UltraWide Time.” LG focuses on the long hours and tireless effort of passionate creators. This year, instead of your final product, LG wants to know about your nitty gritty “process.” Who would have ever thought? It’s simple to enter. Take a short quiz, describe a moment, or share a story about your creative process. Get all the rules and details at LG UltraWide Festival event page, or simply do a search for ‘LG UltraWide’.

LG actually understands the hours it takes to create just a few moments of work, and is excited to show creators some support through this event. This is the 4th straight year since 2015 that LG has given a boost to deserving creators through the UltraWide Festival.

In fact, LG’s support for creators extends beyond the LG UltraWide Festival. LG equips world-class DJs with UltraWide monitors through the UltraWide Studio program. Also, LG’s UltraWide Academy Sponsorship nurtures the next generation of international artists. Top design, art, and animation schools are provided with state-of-the-art equipment and space for all things creative. The UltraWide Academy Sponsorship first sponsored a brand-new computer lab at Parsons School of Design in 2016. Next was the Royal College of Art in 2017. This year, LG decked out the Vancouver Film School, recently ranked the No.1 International Animation School, with an academy lab. LG is clearly showing its long-term commitment to gifted students in the process of honing their talents.

 

The new facilities impressed Vancouver Film School’s Head of Animation, Colin Giles. He says, “The creative digital art is an exciting canvas for any idea you can create with the possibilities being endless. The students will benefit from this strong partnership with LG and the LG UltraWide Monitor Academy Lab by having access to a literal canvas that removes any possible barrier to their imagination. With a wide, seamless screen that allows for a more immersive use of the software at hand and a color range that meets their own imagination their creations will jump into reality. ‘The more you see, the better you create’ has never been truer than at VFS.” To see photos of the VFS Academy Lab, head over to @LG_UltraWide Instagram account

Once in a great while, a company truly understands creators. It’s nice to see LG focusing on the long, hours of work others rarely see. It’s especially heartening that the process is getting some respect. It’s time worth cherishing, as much as the result.

Read More at It’s UltraWide Time!

]]>
https://webdesignledger.com/its-ultrawide-time/feed/ 0
10 WordPress tools & services you need to try (You’re welcome!) https://webdesignledger.com/10-wordpress-tools-services-need-try-youre-welcome/ https://webdesignledger.com/10-wordpress-tools-services-need-try-youre-welcome/#respond Fri, 17 Aug 2018 15:34:35 +0000 http://webdesignledger.com/?p=45100

The WordPress design team set out to build the ultimate website-building platform. That time, they had several things in mind. Among them, they wanted to make building websites as easy as possible. Also, they planned to allow web designers to build exactly what they want down to the finest detail. Users can do so without […]

Read More at 10 WordPress tools & services you need to try (You’re welcome!)

]]>

The WordPress design team set out to build the ultimate website-building platform. That time, they had several things in mind. Among them, they wanted to make building websites as easy as possible. Also, they planned to allow web designers to build exactly what they want down to the finest detail. Users can do so without having to work around restrictions.

It’s an obvious fact that not only did they succeed, they also empowered a lot of web designers. With each new tool or service, web designers are able to build advanced websites.

Take a few minutes to go down this list of 10 top WordPress tools and services. Chances are, you’ll come across a product or service you’ll wish you had to work with a long time ago.

 

  1. Elementor Page Builder

If you are looking for a powerful web design solution that is also open source and based on WordPress, Elementor is your best choice. With Elementor, you can reach the most astounding results that professional web designers charge a fortune for. It solves most of the limitations imposed on users by the various WordPress themes.

Elementor, with its visual frontend page builder, is the genuine article if you’re looking for a product that enables you to build anything you want down to the minutest of details, without having to write a single line of code. Better yet, this open source page builder is super-fast, it works with any template. Did we mention it costs you nothing to get started?

With Elementor, you can start a page from scratch, use any of its 130+ templates, use your own, or download one from another source.

Elementor’s ranking as the #1 WordPress page builder is entirely justifiable in terms of performance, capabilities, and popularity. With respect to the latter, its user base has grown from a mere handful a little less than 2 years ago to over 1 million users today.

 

  1. Brizy

Two of Brizy’s top assets are its ease of use and the UX it provides. An additional top asset would have to be that it is free to download and use by anyone having a WordPress website.

Brizy has managed the seemingly impossible in that it provides users with an impressive number of website-building features and options while at the same time presenting them with a user interface that is remarkably free of clutter and distractions. If you need a particular function, setting, or option it’s there when you need it. You don’t have to conduct a search among a host of sidebar items for each and every action you take.

The best way to introduce yourself to Brizy is to test it on their website. The HTML you generate is free and yours to keep and to use however you wish.

 

  1. Posts Table Pro WordPress Table Plugin

The Posts Table Pro plugin is one you’ll wish you had long ago if your website efforts have included building tabular listings of posts and pages, document libraries, member directories, and the like. This dynamic plugin would have saved you many hours of data entry, which like most manual processes can often be somewhat error-prone.

Now, you can perform the same tasks quickly, error-free, and with the flexibility you need to create tables that exactly meet your requirements. With Posts Table Pro, you can select the pages, posts, custom post types or multimedia items you want to tabulate, order and sort them as you wish, and adjust column parameters, load times, and other characteristics as you deem necessary. Maybe it’s time to start using a tool that lets you build tables your way and do so with relative ease.

Posts Table Pro works with any WordPress theme and comes with expert support from the plugin developers.

 

  1. WordXpress

Unless you have a very small and simple website to maintain, you might be unaware of the time you spend performing edits and updates, eliminating malware, optimizing plugins, and performing backups. How much is your time worth? Would it be better spent building your business?

The WordXpress team of WordPress maintenance experts will do all of these for you. They will save you time and effort and relieve you of a ton of unnecessary stress, just as they’ve been doing for other website owners for the past decade.

 

  1. Logic Hop – Personalized Marketing for WordPress

Personalized marketing makes websites much more effective, and Logic Hop is the personalized marketing solution that can help you acquire more leads and generate more sales and conversions than generic marketing solutions are generally capable of. Personalized call-to-actions, for example, convert twice as well as the generic alternatives.

Logic Hop integrates with the tools you’re already using – like Google Analytics – or can collect its own data. All this opens up your WordPress site for personalized marketing and a more effective website.

 

  1. Goodie

Goodie appeals to small businesses who wish to have their design ideas directly converted into working code without having to go through a middleman. Goodie’s team of experienced developers can completely code your website design for $999. Whether you submit your design in digital file format or sketched out on paper, they’ll work with you to give you precisely the website you want.

 

  1. Starfish Reviews

Starfish Reviews is a plugin that works with any of the common online reviews platforms to enable you to encourage customer and follower reviews of your business. Having more 5-star reviews on Facebook, iTunes, Google, TripAdvisor, etc. can significantly increase sales since consumers look at and trust online reviews when buying. Ratings also has a positive effect on SEO.

Starfish Reviews sees that positive reviews get published and routes negative reviews back to you as feedback.

 

  1. Fixmysite.com

Here’s your opportunity to make Fixmysite.com your trusted neighborhood website garage. The Fixmysite.com web mechanics will fix on demand whatever is ailing your website to your complete satisfaction or give you your money back.

The Fixmysite.com team can also help you with web migration, speed optimization, malware removal issues, and provide installation services and perform site audits.

 

  1. WP Review Pro

Some review styles work better for a given type of product or service than others. WP Review Pro gives you the options

of summarizing reviews as approval percentages, stars ratings, ratios, and thumbs up and down depending upon what has been reviewed. This WooCommerce compatible best review plugin also enables you to generate product and service comparison tables.

 

  1. WordLift

WordLift is an open source software tool for bloggers, journalists, content marketers, SEO specialists, and web designers. It allows artificial intelligence work for you by translating your website’s articles and pages into machine-friendly content that search crawlers and personal digital assistants use to serve users the right information and help them take action.

This results in a richer and more engaging website UX and a growth of organic traffic.

 

Conclusion

Have you been looking for ways to build a better website? Or, maybe you’d like to improve a website’s performance, or extend its capabilities? Anyway, there’s something here for you.

More than a few of these tools enable you to add functionality to your websites. It would cost you an arm and a leg to have someone do it for you. Each of these top WordPress products and services is worth is worth its weight in gold.

Read More at 10 WordPress tools & services you need to try (You’re welcome!)

]]>
https://webdesignledger.com/10-wordpress-tools-services-need-try-youre-welcome/feed/ 0