WordPress 4.8 coming out in June 2017

Leave a comment Website Development, Wordpress
WordPress 4.8 June 2017

WordPress 4.8 is already announced to be released in June 2017! This is not a security update or minor update like the past releases earlier this year. It is the first major release for 2017. WPbeginner.com has release an article with screenshots and an overview of what is coming out. If you are a WordPress enthusiast, you should check it out. Some changes that are coming: Text Widgets will now have a visual and text editor instead of just a text editor. New Image widget for sidebars New Video widget to embed videos from different sources such as Youtube and Vimeo Updated News & Events widget in the WordPress admin/dashboard page Full article below: http://www.wpbeginner.com/news/whats-coming-in-wordpress-4-8-features-and-screenshots/

How and why to use images on your website

Leave a comment Website Development, Wordpress
Images On Your Website

There are many reasons to add images on your website and blog posts. Besides illustrating your content, it makes your site look nicer, more user friendly and can help you with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You don’t want to have a boring page with just paragraphs and no images. It has been proven that adding images increase the chances of user engagement, social media sharing and can increase your site traffic. However, you need to do it right otherwise you won’t get the most benefits out of them. If your images are too large, it will make your page load slower and page load speed is an important factor for both user experience and SEO. You have to make sure you have rights to use your images, you can’t just do a Google search and grab images and put them on your site. Where to find images for your site You can use your own photos, design files or […]

Build a mobile app or a mobile web application?

2 Comments Mobile Apps, Website Development
Build a Mobile App

We often hear from our clients the following phrase “I need a mobile app that does…”, and sometimes there is a misconception of not knowing exactly how the mobile world works. So, do you need to build a mobile app or just a mobile website/application? First things first: What’s the difference between a mobile website and a mobile app? An app is a program you install on your mobile device from places like iTunes and Google Play whereas a mobile website is a site or application you open and use in the browser. What is a Mobile Website or Responsive Website? Website need to be responsive (mobile friendly), which means that it has to have a “mobile version” which probably looks a little different comparing to the “desktop” version  because it is adapted to work on small screens like a cell phone or a tablet. You can even have different versions between cell phone and tablets, meaning that you have […]

Mobile Apps For Your Business – are they the future?

Leave a comment IT Services, Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps for your Business

For good or for bad, thanks to technology leaders like Steve Jobs we have a high number of the global population always checking their phones day and night. Apps have become part of people’s lives regardless of age, gender, race or religion. You can find an app for almost everything (and really everything!), even for things you are probably thinking of right now… “there is an app for that”). But, what about businesses? Is it possible to have mobile apps for your business that are focused to help you to either grow or work better? For me, the answer is clear: why not? It doesn’t matter what your business does, there is a great chance that an app can be developed for your business and that mobile app, if properly used, can get you to the next level. It could simply help you out by saving time and making your life and business easier. Don’t think that an app as just […]

Steps to Build a New Website

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steps to build a new website

Have you wanted to build a new website but not sure how to get started? Or you hired a web team or developer to get your site done and want to make sure you will be happy with the results? Everybody has their style or approach. Some people are design oriented, others are content driven while others just start throwing things together to see what works. The following is an overview of our basic steps to build a new website with a web development team. When we work on a new website, we start with a questionnaire which helps both the website owner and the development team to understand or define what is wanted. This will help clear up many typical questions that come up in any website project. The following are the steps we follow when building a new website. 1) Website Questionnaire We attempt to find out what the website goals are. We start by defining what company is this […]

Plugins 101 – 5 Essential WordPress Plugins

Leave a comment CMS, Website Development, Wordpress
WordPress Plugins

What WordPress plugins should you have on your site? This is something a lot of newcomers or DIY (“do it yourself”) website builders ask when getting started with their WordPress website. This is a basic list to get you started, but I am sure you will come across many more that you will setup for your site. Each website is different and has different needs and different target audiences. Some sites need an image gallery, other sites need an e-commerce component (we suggest using WooCommerce), and the different options goes on and on. WordPress lists more than 40,000 plugins in their repository, so the possibilities are endless! Whatever the case, I am confident you will need the following plugins, so this is our list of 5 essential free plugins you need on your site. Each of these plugins have alternative options, so it is up to you which one to use, but we find these the easiest and most comprehensive […]

SSL is now a must for your website

1 Comment Website Development, Wordpress
SSL usage

There was a time when you only even knew what SSL was if you ran an eCommerce website or online store. Today, more and more people know what SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is or at least know that it is “something” that creates a secure connection between a website visitor and the server through which to send information. Some people would recognize it when seeing a “lock” symbol in the browser when doing online shopping or doing online banking. SSL is what encrypts the communication between the person who is browsing the website and the website’s server. All data/text submitted either way is encrypted. This way any prying person or software can’t see anything in this connection because it’s encrypted in real time. You have to be able to decrypt it with a “key”. Nowadays keys are very strong so it is very hard to hack.  You can notice you are using SSL in a website when you have to […]

Why Amazon AWS is a great backup option for anyone

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Amazon AWS Backup

Even though every day more and more companies are migrating not only their backups but also their infrastructure to Amazon AWS (Amazon Web Services), you may not know how insanely cheap and nice it is to have your backups in Amazon AWS. First of all, we want to clarify: “cheap” doesn’t always mean “bad”. Amazon does a great job setting up their infrastructure, so their availability and storage cost is cheap. This makes sense as cost of disk space and digital storage has gone down significantly over the last several years. With Amazon AWS there is a trade off: their backup services “are not easy to understand”. They have focused on setting up a DIY strategy geared to “experimenters” and early adopters that have the time and patience to understand their different backup services and how to set them up. They don’t offer a lot of readily available customer support, but because they are so well priced, it is worth […]

We are Web Consultants and We will Tell You the Truth

Leave a comment Website Development
web solutions consulting

Let’s talk about NearSource and what we do and do well: web solutions consulting. A consultant is someone you can rely on to help make the best decisions in a particular field or subject, it’s like having an adviser who tells you the dos and don’ts of a problem. You might have a lot of ideas or maybe you don’t even know where to begin. That’s where we come in, we know how to go from point A to point B developing web solutions for your business using the most appropriate technologies for each business case. You need to keep in mind: when you have an idea of a web solution/application or a web site you want to design, you may have a lot of ideas of you want to do with it. Let us tell you the ugly truth: not all of these ideas may be good, practical or even feasible. We have been doing web solutions consulting for 10+years […]

Should I go with WordPress for my site?

Leave a comment CMS, Website Development, Wordpress

You are thinking of developing a new website and you keep hearing of WordPress. As of now more than 25% of websites on the internet run on WordPress, so it would be hard to believe that all these people are wrong. However, it is not for everyone. WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) which allows users to easily setup and edit their website via a user friendly interface. When we first started developing websites for our customers, we did all kinds of sites from static HTML Websites, custom CMS systems to custom coded websites. Over the last few years we have been developing more and more WordPress websites because of it’s many benefits: Widely Supported: It is easier to find people and information on how to manage your WordPress website. SEO Friendly: It is built in a way that it is ready for you to optimize your website for search engines. Plug-ins: There are many plugins (free and paid) […]