How to Use Sympaphonic Ads to Boost Your Digital Marketing Campaigns

How to Use Sympaphonic Ads to Boost Your Digital Marketing CampaignsHave you ever felt annoyed or frustrated by the ads that pop up on your screen while you are browsing the web, watching a video or playing a game? If you are like most people, you probably have. In fact, according to a survey by HubSpot, 91% of respondents agreed that ads are more intrusive today than two to three years ago.But what if there was a way to create ads that are not only less intrusive, but also more relevant, engaging and valuable to your audience? That’s where sympaphonic ads come in.What are sympaphonic ads?Sympaphonic ads are a type of digital advertising that are in harmony with the content and context of the user’s experience. They aim to reduce the disruption and annoyance of traditional ads and instead provide value and relevance to the user. Sympaphonic ads can include native ads, contextual ads, interactive ads and immersive ads.Native ads are ads that match the look, feel and function of the platform where they appear. For example, sponsored posts on social media, sponsored articles on news websites or sponsored videos on YouTube are all examples of native ads.Contextual ads are ads that are based on the content or keywords of the webpage or app where they appear. For example, if you are reading an article about travel, you might see ads for hotels, flights or tours related to your destination.Interactive ads are ads that invite the user to interact with them in some way, such as clicking, swiping, tapping or playing. For example, you might see an ad for a game that lets you try it out before downloading it,…

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Improve Your Workflow with These Productivity Boosting Apps for macOS (2018 Update)

Rystedt Creative is powered partially by Macs. Whether you like them or hate them, Macs have remained a favorite of creative professionals since Apple and Adobe brought vector graphics to laser printers in 1985. Today you are likely to find at least a couple of Macs in the offices of graphic design freelancers creating logos and business cards out of their homes; print-shops sending items to the presses; and web developers and writers (like us) delivering the creative digital content you need.  I (Joshua) have been a pro-user of multiple platforms and there are pros and cons to every operating system available (don't be surprised if you catch me with a machine that has multiple operating systems installed). Yet macOS has become Gabrielle's and my daily driver. We have spent a lot of time developing productive workflows with powerful apps to get us through our hectic schedules. To help our fellow Mac users, here are Joshua's favorite productivity boosting apps for macOS. On Linux or Windows? Consider my alternative recommendations under each app. Work faster, use more of your screen and keep your fingers on the keyboard using these apps: If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share ? Calcbot Calculator apps are the sort of things that most of us take for granted. But the basic premise can be improved on to make your life a bit more pleasant. Calcbot is a smart calculator app that includes everything from a history tape to scientific functions. If you're running a business or nonprofit you probably find yourself punching numbers into a calculator of some sort more often than you would prefer. Calcbot is for those of us…

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Should I Use a Slider on My Webpage? Slider Pros and Cons

So you want to use a “slider” on your webpage. But should you? Find out here. What is a Slider? An image slider (or carousel) is a popular webpage feature - especially on homepages. A slider is basically a slideshow of images, text, and/or videos that may either automatically scroll or allow visitors to scroll through the content. Sliders are usually powered by JavaScript, used on the top of webpages, and automatically advance at time intervals. But, like most popular webpage features, there are a variety of slider solutions. You’ve probably seen sliders used before. This ecommerce store, for example, uses a slider to show off the variety of custom products they offer: Slider Pros Some trends defy explanation - the slider trend isn’t one of them. Here’s why sliders took over the web: Pro: More content in less space. Sliders, by nature, make portions of your content visible at different times. The upside to this is that you can pack a lot of content into a small space. Want to tell a visual story about your new product (but don’t want to use a lot of vertical scrolling to do so)? A slider solves this. Pro: Text on image layering without image manipulation or writing code. Before popular slider plugins layering images and text required either image manipulation or code. Sliders have eliminated this need for most users. A robust slider plugin will handle the image changes and coded functionality for you - so you can focus on design. Pro: Interactive content that draws your visitors’ attention. The best sliders give the visitors control (either through forward and back buttons or with scrolling). Such functionality makes sliders interactive. Interactive…

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Get Your Time Back and Reduce Your Stress with a Web Maintenance and Support Retainer

Maintaining a website is no easy task. From security to backups and software updates to new content, a website can consume a lot of your time. Worse, if you aren’t a web professional, maintaining your website may become yet another stressor. No wonder so many small businesses and nonprofits leave their websites unattended for months (or even years). Your website isn’t a billboard or a Yellow Pages listing - it doesn’t perform well if it is just created and then left behind. Your website is more like a digital storefront or office. It doesn’t only exist to be seen. As a digital location for your business your website also needs to maintained, secured, visited, and shopped. But are you the guy or girl to do it? If you haven’t been maintaining your website it’s about time to leverage it and get noticed. If you have been maintaining your site but it’s taking too much out of you it’s about time to delegate. A web maintenance and support retainer with a web professional may be just the thing you need to get the most out of both your website and your time. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Why Did You Launch Your Website? Perhaps you launched your website to drive more leads to your business. Maybe it was to invite more foot traffic to your storefront. Or maybe it was just so you would be perceived more professionally when people searched for you. (Why did you launch your website? Let us know in the comments below.) Regardless of the reason, you need to get back…

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Should I Let AI Build My Website?

What is AI? “AI” stands for Artificial Intelligence. But what is that, really? What People Think AI Is:   What Developers Want AI to Be:   What AI Actually Is (to date): Alright, humor aside, here’s what AI actually is: Colloquially, the term “artificial intelligence” is applied when a machine mimics “cognitive” functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as “learning” and “problem solving”* True Artificial Intelligence, a machine that can learn and evolve beyond its programming, does not yet exist. When we speak of “AI” today we’re actually referring to machines and applications that mimic human learning and problem solving. Such applications are indeed sophisticated but they only mimic intelligence. They are not, in fact, demonstrating independent learning. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Can AI Build Websites? Numerous companies are now boasting website building AI. These web based applications ask users questions, compile data from external sources, and design a website using the criteria and input given. Some website AI builders are more sophisticated than others. The best website building AIs generate a unique site template for each user. The worst, are nothing more than a well crafted skin atop a handful of templates. AI really do build websites. But are such sites ready to publish after the AI is done? After all, you want AI that builds you a website you can launch the day you see it - a cheaper and quicker replacement for web-developers. But does that type of AI exist yet? Which AI Build the Best Websites? Some of the best AI website builders available today include:…

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How to Properly Format Your Blog Posts in an Offline Editor

You've been blogging - which is great - but formatting your blog posts is getting you down. Blogging is a time investment. If done well it's a rewarding investment. But you shouldn't spend more time than you need to. Many bloggers spend almost as much time formatting their blog posts as they do writing them. It doesn't have to be that way. This how-to guide is going to show you exactly how to format your blog posts the right way, the first time, offline, on any operating system, and for nearly any blogging platform. There is only one thing you need to learn, it's easy, and we're going to teach you. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] How You're Probably Drafting Your Blog Posts If you're like most bloggers you're drafting your posts one of two ways. Online in the admin panel of your content management system (CMS - like WordPress) Many bloggers draft their blog posts right in their CMS post editor. Perhaps it's WordPress, Weebly, HubSpot CMS, or something else. The upside: You know your posts are formatted correctly and you can preview them as you draft. The downside: You need to be online to write, you can lose your content if your connection is interrupted or your browser crashes, and your entire archive is located exclusively on that blogging platform. Or offline in a common word processor (like Microsoft Word) Many bloggers avoid the downsides of drafting in their blogging CMS by drafting offline in a word processor - like Microsoft Word. The upside: You can write anytime, you're only going to…

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6 Elements of an Outstanding Small Business or Nonprofit Website – Quiz and Checklist

There are currently over one billion websites online - that's almost one website for every four Internet users - but few of them stand out from the crowd. Many have a sense that their websites blend into the background noise of the Internet more than they should but they don't know precisely why... or what to do about it. Yet how to stand out from the rest of the Web is not a secret (and if it was a secret we're about to break the story). The majority of those 1 billion + websites are poorly maintained, difficult to navigate, not up to modern Web standards, and don't offer their visitors much value. It isn't difficult to get your website to truly stand out. Follow this checklist and do whatever it takes to get a 100% and we guarantee that your website will get more visitors and more conversions than it has previously. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame]   #1. Well Maintained Is your website well maintained? Web standards change over time - and so must your website. Does that upset you or make you feel pressured by our ever-evolving computerized society? We feel for you. We really do! Our own company has to keep up with the changes and that means constantly reeducating ourselves. The good news is that you probably don't need to be constantly re-learning the Web's virtual landscape. Your web-developer or friendly drag-and-drop-site-builder-app should be doing that for you. You can tell that your site isn't well maintained without getting technical if your site has: Broken links Broken images Visible…

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