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5 Advantages in using CSS

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Discover 5 Amazing Advantages of using CSS for your website!

When you create a website for your business, time and money are likely to be major concerns. Luckily, there is a web design method that can help you save time and money while also improving your visitor’s experience. Cascading Style Sheets, more commonly known as CSS, has fast become the preferred web design method for the benefits it offers web designers and website visitors alike.

 

What is CSS?

CSS is the key presentational technology that is used in website design.

Before it’s development, nearly all of the presentational attributes of HTML documents were contained within the HTML markup; all font colors, background styles, element alignments, borders and sizes had to be explicitly described, within the HTML.

As a result of, development of large web sites, where fonts and colour information were repeatedly added to every single page, became a long and expensive process.

CSS solve these problems, by allowing web designers to move much of that formatting information to a separate style sheet resulting in considerably simpler HTML markup.

 

Origin

HTML was originally designed as a simple way of presenting information intended for sharing scientific documents and research papers online.

Later on, as the Internet expanded from the academic and research world into the mainstream, and became more media oriented, the presentation of the web pages has become considerably important for a website’s success.

To improve web presentation capabilities CSS was introduced by World Wide Web consortium’s (W3C). It was intended to allow web designers to define the look and feel of their web pages, and to separate content from document’s layout.

 

Advantages

The biggest advantage of CSS is that it allows separating content of an html document from the style and layout of that document. It can thus make documents much easier to maintain and give much better control over the layout of your web pages, because content of an entire set of HTML pages can be easily controlled using one or more style sheets. Check out 5 additional advantages for CSS below:

 

Lots of time will be saved — Lots of flexibility is given to set the properties of an element. You can write it once; and then the same code can be applied to the groups of HTML elements, and can also be reused in multiple HTML pages.

Easy maintenance — It provides an easy means to update document formatting and maintain consistency across multiple documents. By making one change to the website’s CSS, elements in all the web pages will be updated automatically.

Pages load faster — CSS enable multiple pages to share formatting, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content. It significantly reduces the file transfer size, which results in a faster page loading.

Superior styles to HTML — CSS has much wider presentation capabilities than HTML, so you can give far better look to your HTML pages in comparison to the HTML presentational elements and attributes.

Multiple Device Compatibility — CSS can also allow the HTML document to be optimised for more than one type of device or media. Using CSS the same HTML document can be presented in different viewing styles for different rendering devices such as computer screen, mobile phones, printer, etc.

 

If you found this article interesting, check out our latest Software Development job vacancy by clicking here! It may be just right for you!

– TutorialRepublic

– NetworkSolutions

IT Jobs Feature: What is PHP used for?

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PHP is a popular server-side scripting language for the web and has common use in many IT Jobs

Generally, PHP is used to add a functionality to websites that HTML alone can’t achieve. There are many IT Jobs which require PHP knowledge as a key skill. But what is PHP capable of and what are the main functions in which someone seeking IT Jobs involving PHP be familiar with? Here are some examples:

Performs Calculations

PHP can perform all types of calculations, from figuring out what day it is or what day of the week a date in the very distant future will be, to performing all  types of mathematical equations. In PHP, math expressions are made up of operators and operands. Basic math addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are done using mathematical operators. The large number of math functions are part of the PHP core. No installation is required to use them.

Collects User Information

Using PHP, you can let your user directly interact with the script. This can be something really simple, like collecting the temperature from the user that they want to convert from degrees to another format, or it can be more extensive information, like adding their information to an address book, letting them post on a forum or participate in a survey.

Interacts With MySQL Databases

PHP is particularly good at interacting with MySQL databases, which opens endless possibilities. You can write user-submitted information to a database, and you can retrieve information from the database. This allows you to create pages on the fly using the contents of the database. You can even perform complex tasks like setting up login systems, creating website search features, or store product catalogues and inventories online.

You can also use PHP and MySQL to set up an automated picture gallery to showcase products.

Creates Graphics with GD Library

Use the GD Library that is bundled with PHP to create simple graphics on the fly or to edit existing graphics. You might want to resize images, rotate them, change them to grayscale, or make thumbnails of them. Practical applications allow users to edit their avatars or generate CAPTCHA verifications. You can also create dynamic graphics that are always changing such as dynamic Twitter signatures.

Works With Cookies

Cookies are used to identify a user and store the user’s preferences as given on the site so the information doesn’t have to be re-entered each time the user visits the site. The cookie is a small file embedded on the user’s computer. Using the programming language, you can create, modify and delete cookies and retrieve cookie values.

Are you seeking IT Jobs which involve working with PHP in a professional environment? Keep an eye on our vacancy page for the latest featured IT Jobs updates. Visit it by clicking here!

 

– Angela Bradley

24-Steps to becoming a Marketing Prodigy

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Content marketing has become a big part of consumer engagement and attracting the attention of the right audience online. That means that a lot more companies are doing it, and it’s getting increasingly challenging to stand out amid the sea of audio, video, images, documents, blogs, and more.

To make matters worse, virtually every marketer and business owner have found themselves in a rut trying to create enough marketing content, get the desired engagement, and find interesting ways to innovate.

Research shows that that 70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than they were the year before, and 54% find it difficult to produce engaging content.

There’s a distinct difference between B2B and B2C marketing, and each comes with its own unique challenges. Despite that, you can still benefit from these tips to get out of that rut and start to churn out something new and exciting.

 

Here are 24 content marketing tips you need to know in order to become a ‘Marketing Prodigy’:
  1. Use your content to gently guide your customers through your buying cycle. Don’t treat it like a speedboat, full-throttle through to conversion.
  2. Use social ads as a way to amplify the reach of your content marketing when you push it out through your social channels. A slight budget boost on Facebook can go a long way.
  3. Promote your content through a .com domain as often as possible.84% of top-ranking pages use .com as their top-level domain.
  4. “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing,”says Tom Fishburne of Marketoonist. If you have to force your audience to see the value in the content, or hard sell it, it won’t work. Build content around a takeaway for the audience.
  5. Don’t write short posts just to get the job done and over with. Write long-form content of 1,000+ words to help improve your search rank, traffic, and value to the reader.
  6. Create a buyer persona before you start planning or producing content. That way you have a better understanding of who is reading it and the answers they’re looking for. That leads to much higher conversions.
  7. Guest blog on popular industry sites and put a link back to your site within your byline or bio. This builds traffic as well as personal brand authority.
  8. Avoid verbose headlines and go with short, simple, optimized titles that get the point across. The closer you get to looking like click-bait, the more wary your audience may become.
  9. Never skip an opportunity to leverage email in your content marketing.80% of businesses report that email is directly tied to their primary revenue.
  10. Blog consistently, not sporadically. According to a recent survey, 82% of marketers who blogged daily reported acquiring at least one customer via their blog, compared to 57% who were only blogging monthly.
  11. Share your own content and use the social sharing buttons next to your content. You can use a plugin to make this process even easier.
  12. Re-purpose old content in a new way to bring something fresh to users who may not have seen it. “In the end, the re-purposed content needs to provide some level of unique value to people, or it’s not worth doing,” says Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing.
  13. Syndicate your content to reach a new audience and drive referral traffic back to your site.
  14. Always create a content strategy. The most effective content marketers are more likely to have a documented strategy in place.
  15. Create a strategy for content promotion. Use a checklist for each post that lists all of the social channels and applications you’ll use to promote your content.
  16. Always have a plan for building your audience. Use time-saving content marketing tools that work with you to help organically grow your following.
  17. Make reference to influencers by linking to their content or quoting them within your content marketing. Then reach out and let them know when you’ve mentioned them, either through manual social notifications, via email, or with an online marketing tool.
  18. Don’t generate one-off pieces of content. Create series pieces to drive repeat traffic.
  19. Remember to use the basic principles of conversion optimization so that all of your content, on every channel, has a higher chance of generating leads and sales for your team. Think about headlines, visual engagement, content layout, and call to action, just to name a few.
  20. Pay close attention to your analytics so you can keep track of the most popular topics and content types that are bringing in or driving traffic to your site. Do a lot more of what works, and cut the dead weight from your strategy.
  21. Trending content is important, but remember to include evergreen content that will continue to product traffic month after month, year after year.
  22. Always keep the focus on your audience when you produce content, no matter the type or channel. “Don’t focus on having a great blog,” says Brian Clark, Founder of CopyBlogger. “Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
  23. Talk and write as if you were having a conversation with a friend. Your audience is far more likely to relate to and engage with content that is conversational in nature. Speak on their level. You’re not a textbook.
  24. You can’t force good writing. Try different conditions, influences, and times of day for writing. Find the conditions that are most conducive to your creativity. If you can’t manage, you can always turn to freelancers to help you produce the content that your audience is hungry to find.

 

We hope you have found these 24 tips useful. Explore different ways of utilising them in your marketing strategy to see how they can work for you! The difference in traffic generation could be astounding and prove to be worth every effort. Good luck!

Are you interested in careers in marketing? We may have the perfect opportunity for you! Check out our latest Marketing Manager role by following this link.

 

– Sujan Patel

Intelligent Machines: AI art is taking on the experts

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In a world where machines can do many things as well as humans, one would like to hope there remain enclaves of human endeavour to which they simply cannot aspire.

Art, literature, poetry, music – surely a mere computer without world experience, moods, memories and downright human fallibility cannot create these.

Meet Aaron, a computer program that has been painting since the 1970s – big dramatic, colourful pieces that would not look out of place in a gallery.

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The “paintings” Aaron does are realised mainly via a computer program and created on a screen although, when his work began being exhibited, a painting machine was constructed to support the program with real brushes and paint.

Aaron does not work alone of course. His painting companion is Harold Cohen, who has “spent half my life trying to get a computer program to do what only rather talented human beings can do”.

A painter himself, he became interested in programming in the late 1960s at the same time as he was pondering his own art and asking whether it was possible to devise a set of rules and then “almost without thinking” make the painting by following the rules.

The programming behind Aaron – written in LISP, which was invented by one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence, John McCarthy, back in the 1960s – attempts to do just that.

Some of Aaron’s knowledge is about the position of body parts and how they fit together, while some of the other rules are decided by the machine.

It actually “knows” very little about the world – it recognises the shape of people, potted plants, trees and simple objects such as boxes and tables. Instead of teaching it ever more things, Mr Cohen has concentrated on making it “draw better”.

And it has been a great pupil.

“The machine had become a world-class colourist – it was much more adventurous in terms of colour than I was,” he told the BBC.

For many years the two worked side by side, but gradually Mr Cohen began having doubts about the partnership.

First, he decided to abandon the painting machine that was hooked up to Aaron.

It had been, he told the BBC, too cumbersome and had led too many commentators to regard the project as a robot rather than clever programming, which had irked him.

But he was also having bigger doubts – Aaron was both becoming too independent and also revealing some serious limitations.

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“I dreamed up a very simple algorithm and it obviously embodied a great deal of knowledge, but when I looked at the output I didn’t remember doing it because I hadn’t done it,” he told the BBC.

“It no longer needed me. I never intended to leave everything to the program, but it gradually came to me that it could do without me.

“It had become autonomous enough to disturb the guy who wrote the program.”

What had originally been conceived as a team project was becoming something else entirely.

“Works of art are like children – they go out into the world but you always have a connection to them and I’d lost that connection. I felt out in the cold,” he told the BBC.

At the same time though it was clear that Aaron, while excelling at colouring, was never going to be truly creative.

“It was not that autonomous, and the very little dose of autonomy that Aaron had only related to colour,” Mr Cohen said.

It led him to question whether a creative AI was ever possible.

“I don’t deny the possibility that, at some point in the future, a machine can make something approaching art – but it is going to be a lot more complex than teaching a car to drive around a city without a driver, and it isn’t going to happen next Wednesday or even in what is left of this century,” he told the BBC.

The partnership with Aaron is still “alive and well”, but it has changed.

Now, Aaron concentrates on the drawing, while Mr Cohen does the painting. And these days, he does it digitally, using a giant touchscreen rather than real paint – perhaps in a nod to the machine he created.

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