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The Top 5 Canva Courses For Growing Your Business

Canva is a great place to start if you’ve just discovered it. Canva is an incredible tool for designers of all abilities, both for those who want to start their own businesses as well as for those who enjoy designing graphics.

Using Canva as a marketing tool is a great idea for anyone. Templates are easy to edit and add to and are preloaded with hundreds of expertly designed templates. Even people without prior design experience can easily create marketing materials using Canva, which is designed to make it as easy as possible.

The following are 5 courses that will boost your confidence and help you design like a pro if you are interested in using Canva for your business or wish to brush up on your marketing skills.

Presentations from the experts to impress

With Canva’s library of multipage templates, it is exceptionally easy to create impressive business presentations, but the presentations do not perform themselves. This fifteen-minute course will help you plan your presentation, teach you what to include and what to exclude, and give you the confidence you need to deliver your finished presentation with pride.

Throughout this series of four short videos, Canva experts Guy Kawasaki and Gary Vaynerchuk, the CEO and founder of VaynerMedia impart their tried-and-true secrets.

There are many tools in this course that will help you create an outstanding pitch deck, keynote presentation, or something to send to a client.

Mastering social media

This Canva course is a must-attend for anyone who plans to design social media graphics using Canva. The Social Media Mastery course is one of Canva’s most popular courses and will teach you everything you need to know for a successful social media campaign.

In just under twenty minutes, you’ll see twelve short videos and hear from social media experts, including Rodolfo Otamendi, the social media and brand strategist at Examplacky, and Jackey Barker, a social media expert at Canva.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to create Instagram posts and stories in a flash.

Business Branding

With Canva, you can design a logo for your business, create marketing materials, and even create your own branding.

The Branding your Business course will teach you everything you need to know about designing your own brand, including creating a logo, choosing a font, deciding your tone of voice, and deciding the colors that represent your brand.

Within just over twenty minutes, you’ll be able to create your own business brand, and from there, your options are limitless. This is a great introductory course for those who are brand new to the idea.

Branding with Dr. Talaya Waller

Additionally, Canva is a great tool if you need to design your own personal brand. Developing a personal brand is increasingly important and isn’t exclusive to freelancers.

During these fifteen minutes, you will be taken through six lessons by the one and only Dr. Waller. Academic author of Personal Brand Management: Marketing Human Value, Dr. Waller is an international MBA professor. Her career has been spent working with personal brands at companies such as Google, Amazon, the NBA, and even the U.S. S Congress.

Her teachings can be applied to any stage of your business journey. You’ll be able to distinguish between a personal brand and a business brand after finishing this course. As a result, you’ll be able to start creating your own personal brand.

Basics of Graphic Design

The last course on Canva is Graphic Design Basics, which is another popular course. The goal of this foundation course is to help you think like a designer by working through a series of twelve lessons with four design experts.

It is a great way to get yourself into the mindset of working with Canva even if the course is relatively high-level.

In addition to learning about the power of color, alignment, mood boards, and fonts, you’ll also be introduced to the power of color and the importance of alignment. This Canva course gives you the confidence boost you need to start designing assets for your business if you are new to graphic design.

Using Canva to boost your business

Creating an account with Canva is free, but if you plan on using it as the core of your graphic design, then it’s worth looking into Canva Pro. In Canva Pro, you’ll find a wide selection of graphics, fonts, images, and videos of the highest quality.

With these Canva courses, you’ll soon be up and running with the software, no matter what your current skill level is. You can design stunning marketing materials for your business, amongst other fun things like photo books, stickers, and video greetings, by brushing up on your knowledge.

Top 5 Learning Blog Sites For WordPress User

As we all know that WordPress is rapidly taking over the web. Now it powers over 35% of the entire web and increases. There are thousands of developers who prefer to use WordPress for their website development. The thing is that WordPress equips you with almost everything to develop your own blog site, shop site, or your company website. If you go deep enough you will know that you don’t need anything else. Secondly, WordPress is very is easy to install and use. So it makes it more efficient.

When it comes to learning WordPress there are many websites and blogs available for you to give brief information about the working of WordPress. These sites help you out on how to set up your business or how to create your own blog site. Lots of websites mean lots of confusing minds because we don’t know which is the best one to rely on. For that, we have created a list of the learning blog sites that will help you with your WordPress free of cost.

1. WPBeginner

This blog site provides you with basic knowledge of WordPress. If you just began to use WordPress then I must say this is the best blog site to go through. This blog will help you to learn a few basic things like adding an image to a post or creating custom menus. In other words, this blog is very popular because it actually helps everyone to learn WordPress.

This is not it, WPBeginner as well keeps you updated with the latest stories, events, themes and plugins, and everything else that has to do with WordPress. Additionally, the blog is updated on a daily basis which makes it more efficient.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From WPBeginner

WPBeginner

2. WPMU DEV

WPMU DEV is the perfect blog if you are looking for expert recommendations and in-depth advice? It is one of the solid blogs for WordPressers out there. The Bloggers of this site cover each very eye-catching topics and somehow manage to make it more interesting. This blog is best for you if you are an advanced level developer.

Moreover, on this blog, you can find all the WordPress-related posts from multiple categories that include everything from the bottom to top. WPMU DEV will give you some of the best examples and tips in the community. That will help you achieve the best. There is much more if you go through the full blog.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From WPMU DEV

WPMU DEV

3. ElegantThemes

This is the company blog of Elegant Themes. But it is not just an ordinary blog it is much more than that. The blog on the website covers most of the important topics like how-tos on various WordPress topics, focusing on practical advice that anyone can apply. Moreover, the company also share their latest development and about their products and latest news. It is a very good place to start learning the working and secrets of WordPress.

The Elegant Themes also have their own theme named Divi. That you can install your WordPress to create an amazing website. There is more to it. You must check out the DIVI.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From ElegantThemes

Welcome To The Biggest Upgrade In Divi’s History

ElegantThemes Blog

4. CodeinWP

One of the biggest blog that covers vast varieties of topic WordPress content, that includes WordPress usage to the company’s transparency reports to plugin lists, to top theme lists, to in-depth research posts. This is everything that a developer can imagine. Almost all the things in one place.

This blog gives you an overall knowledge of WordPress, and find out not only about the platform’s tech-related workings, but also the business side of things. Which helps you set up your own business.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From CodeinWP

CodeinWP Blog

5. Chris Lema

Chris Lema is a developer, writer, and speaker. He is also the owner of one of the best on-topic blogs about WordPress. The site offers you many different tutorials on focusing on the easiest method to solve the problem. The blog not only covers the WordPress tutorials but more than that like marketing, social media, theme development, plugins, hosting, and much more.

In other words, the site allows you to keep tabs on the latest WordPress discussion and hot topics of the week. More to it, you can check out about the latest plugins and themes as well.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From Chris Lema

Chris Lema Blog

Career As A Web Developer: Role, Skills & Scope

Web developers build web pages as well as web-based applications that comprise the Internet. Starting your career as a web developer can either be about working independently as freelancers or for a company. Depending upon the nature of the job these professionals may focus on front end development or back-end development. Front end involves designing sites and producing content while back end development involves writing code to make website features work.

In some cases, web developers also become webmasters. As webmasters, they tend to provide maintenance, updates as well as troubleshooting services.

Also, click here to find the list of 2020 highest paying jobs in India for freshers & experienced.

Role of a Web Developer

Web Developers are generally a part of the marketing or IT departments in a company. A career as a web developer might require an overlap in web design as well. Web development is all about building technical front end code, back end code or both, for site function.

Front End Developers: Front end web developers are fluent in languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They build the visible parts of a website that we see when viewing through a web browser. Front end web developers can do everything from working for an established company to freelancing and being self-employed and strengthening their skills while working for individual clients. Hence, front end web development is a great and flexible way to break into the tech field.
Back End Developers: While the front end of a website incorporates everything that a user can interact with directly, the back end includes everything that users can’t see or interact with. However, back end web developers have to make those parts run smoothly for the overall efficiency of the website.
Full Stack Developers: A Full Stack Developer is a combination of front end and back end developer. They carry the experience of both the fields and also provide support for applications.

Skills of A Web Developer

The skills required to become a web developer can be divided into two broad categories, hard skills, and soft skills.

Hard Skills: Hard skills consist mainly of programming languages. Front end Developers usually are fluent in HTML, CSS as well as JavaScripts while back end developers use PHP, Python, Java, etc. They often use popular software like WordPress and photoshop as well. A list of some of the main programming languages used by web developers are:

HTML
PHP
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
JavaScript
ASP.NET
Angular.js
Python
Ruby

Soft Skills: In addition to learning the above programming languages, web developers also need to possess a bunch of soft skills to function efficiently. They often work individually and as a result, they must conduct quality control and manage their own projects. Some of the main soft skills that will be beneficial for web developers include:

Attention to Detail
Multitasking
Organizational Skills
Self Driven and highly motivated
Creativity
Communication Skills
Customer Service Skills

Duties & Responsibilities

The daily duties of a web developer depend strongly on the job position, as well as the project they are working on. However, in a general sense, these are the tasks they are responsible for:

Communicate with clients and understand their expectations
Plan web layouts
Compose code to enable site functions
Add verbal or visual content into the code structure
Test website functions
Take charge of building, maintaining, updating, as well as troubleshooting websites
Write well designed and dynamic code by practicing the best software development practices
Create the website layout or user interface by employing standard HTML/CSS practices
Combine data from various back-end services and databases
Collect and refine terms and conditions based on the technical needs
Design and maintain software documentation
Be responsible for maintaining, expanding, and scaling websites
Stay plugged into emerging technologies as well as industry trends and apply them into operations and day to day activities
Collaborate with web designers to meet their visual design intent

Career Outlook

In this new age of e-commerce, the demand for web developers is on the rise (there are a lot of IT companies near me). In fact, the employment of web developers is predicted to see a rise of 13% in the span of the next ten years. This is way faster than the average for all other occupations. Online purchasing is presumed to increase faster than the entire retail industry. In addition, the rise in the usage of mobile devices to search the web will also lead to increased demand for web developers. This is because instead of creating a website for desktops, developers will create sites that are compatible with mobile devices. Unlike desktops, mobile devices come with a wider variety of resolutions and screen sizes, which will lead to more work for web developers.

Since Web Developers can work from any location in the world, they must understand cultural differences and nuances that allow websites to interact with users.

Salary

Since a career as a web developer is so in demand, the starting salary of these professionals is around 3 LPA. With the right kind of exposure and experience, they can double this salary within a few years of working. These figures are however given on an average and may vary in terms of companies, job location as well as the candidate himself. A highly skilled fresher can easily earn more than an average candidate with minimal skill set. Additionally, relevant experience can add a good hike to the salary as well.

About the Author

Washija is a content specialist at Receptix. She has an MBA in Tourism and a passion for creating web content. She is an avid reader, a traveler, and a versatile writer. She has been writing on the topics of education, career advice, and related areas for the past 3 years.

Nine Must Try Social Media Sites for College Students

The world of social media has paved the way to a lot of developments and possibilities into our lives. Moreover, the younger generation has found new uses to create collaborations and connections online through various social media platforms. As a college student, there are a number of websites that can be very beneficial to your studies and your career. If you want to make the most of the time you are spending on social media and learn a few new tricks and life skills, you might want to visit the following platforms instead.

1. LinkedIn

This business and employment-oriented social media platform is mainly used for networking, wherein employees get to find new jobs and employers can find potential employees. If you want to start building connections with people within your chosen industry, this is the perfect place to start. LinkedIn allows you to connect with professionals and headhunters from different industries, allowing you to showcase your education, skills and experiences.

2. Chegg Study

Used by more than a million students, Chegg Study is an internet study community that provides students with online textbook and homework help for a variety of topics, including math, writing, science, humanities, business, and the like. Its board feature allows members to interact with other Chegg Study users to solve homework or study problems. By becoming a member of Chegg Study, you get to receive step-by-step textbook solutions for over 34,000 ISBNs, ask help from Chegg’s experts and study community anytime of the day, as well as 30-minute free online tutoring.

3. InternshipRatings

Looking for a good internship opportunity? Then you should check out InternshipRatings. This online resource allows its users to rate, compare and research different internships in all industries across the United States. It also surveys users about their salary, networking opportunities and work environment. InternshipRatings also provides users with a comment box to share more about the positive and negative aspects of their internship experience.

4. Twitter

Being a microblogging portal, Twitter serves as an extremely useful platform across academic applications. It offers a variety of educational advantages that teachers, students, and parents can benefit greatly from. It can serve as a communication tool to help inform parents and students about any changes on schedules, relevant news or safety hazards, and to help students collaborate with other students.

5. UniversityParent

This website is a perfect tool for both parents and students to easily find information about important dates, housing and campus resources. This website can also help users stay informed about school events, along with expert tips, answers to college-related questions and other resources that can help students succeed.

6. Evernote

Looking for a smart and efficient way of taking down and keeping notes? Evernote is an application software designed to help you take notes, organize them, create task lists, and archive old notes. With the app, users get to create notes, which can be in the form of texts, web pages or web page excerpts, voice memos, photographs, or handwritten “ink” notes. Notes can also have file attachments, and can be sorted into notebooks, annotated, tagged, searched, edited, and exported.

7. CampusBooks

Textbooks can eat up a big chunk of your college funds. In fact, about 30% of post-secondary students use financial aid money to buy textbooks. If you have a tight budget and would like to save on textbook prices, then CampusBooks is the solution. Through this website, you get to save up to 90% on new and used textbooks and discounted eBooks. You can also pay less by renting textbooks and just return them once you’re done. And to be able to reuse your textbook money, you can also sell your old books on this website for cash. This website is a great trove where you can find some of the cheapest textbooks online.

8. Graduway

Expanding your professional network is essential while you are still in college. This is a great way for you to prepare for a lucrative career path once you graduate. And Graduway is a perfect platform for you to take advantage of. Through Graduway, you can get involved in an online community that provides career guidance for students and gives you the opportunity to engage your alumni.

9. Equals6

If you are competitive by nature and are looking for some scholarship opportunities to support your college studies, then Equals6 is the perfect online platform to join in. This online community allows students to compete for exclusive scholarships, make valuable connections and discover exciting career possibilities online. It also serves as a social meeting place where students can form groups, share ideas and hold lively discussions. Equals6 works with select employers to provide student members with career opportunities.

The internet is filled with a lot of resources that can help you make the most out of your college experience. More than just making friends, sharing memes, watching videos and streaming music, this vast network of information and people can be a very useful tool for college students who are preparing to become a part of the workforce. With the right set of skills, a willingness to learn, and by building connections with the right people and company, you are on your way to building a great career after college.

Top 5 e-Commerce / e-Business Degree Programs

Without any exaggerations, online services govern the modern business world. Businesses that have solely brick and stone offices or run just traditional stores can hardly succeed in an information age because they will not survive in the context of competition introduced by online stores and businesses that utilize all the benefits of e-commerce. The development of technology in general and the internet, in particular, revolutionized the business world, erasing borders and bringing buyers and sellers into an environment where they can interact without any barriers. Simultaneously, these changes promoted the demand for particular skills and knowledge. E-commerce and e-business are not only buzzwords today; they are a new reality to which both entrepreneurs and potential employees should adapt in order to succeed. Completing the e-business degree program is one of the ways to remain on track and reach this goal. Here is a review of the top 5 e-commerce/ e-business degree programs that will bring you to personal and professional success.

Southern New Hampshire University – Bachelor of Science in Marketing/ Social Media Marketing

This program, which is available online, can benefit both entrepreneurs and marketers who want to build loyalty and increase business revenue using social media for consumer engagement purposes. In addition to traditional marketing strategies, students will learn about modern techniques and resources. They will dive deep into the continually evolving online social media marketing environment. Upon receiving a degree here, you will gain both theoretical knowledge and practical skills, that will enable you to spread brand messaging to new audiences, effectively targeting and engaging online communities.

Carnegie Mellon University – Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT)

This online degree program can benefit students from all over the world, providing them with outstanding IT and management skills. It not only allows but even encourages students to combine work and study. Although they may seem challenging, such combinations of work and study are rather beneficial for one’s professional success, and they are easy to maintain due to available online assistance. Students who lack of time to write their dissertations or those who have difficulties with their academic assignments can always get a reliable university dissertation writing help online. While maintaining their business activities, students can learn from the best at Carnegie Mellon University and apply their newly accumulated technological expertise and data-driven management strategies at work. In addition to new skills and knowledge, this program promotes careers because it helps people build new business relationships.

Purdue Global University – Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

This degree program is specifically designed for people who want to build their careers in e-commerce/ e-business. On the one hand, it provides students with essential knowledge in all the foundational areas of business. They learn business law, managerial economics, finance, and organizational behavior. While studying foundations, students gain understanding in such areas as supply chain management, human resources, finance, and operations. On the other hand, they simultaneously accumulate skills and knowledge applicable to any e-commerce/e-business project. Particularly, they develop technical competencies and gain marketing skills that enable them to become effective business leaders in the context of the business world governed by online services.

Southern New Hampshire University – Master of Science in Marketing/ Digital Marketing

Professionals who want to modernize their skills to be better prepared the challenges and demands of the modern online business world should consider attending this program, which is available online. Here, they can gain outstanding knowledge in branding and digital marketing, which is exactly what the industry demands. While modern technology provides businesses with access to an extended community of customers, it largely depends on the skills and knowledge of marketers whether they will engage an increasingly savvy audience or not. Digital marketing constantly evolves, and although available e-commerce books can significantly improve one’s understanding of the demands of the modern online market, this program will better inform you about the new marketing approaches that can engage customers effectively.

Walden University – BS in Business Administration

This online degree program well addresses market demand for business administration professionals by preparing experts who possess all the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in the modern business world. In addition to understanding fundamental business principles and practices, students choosing to study here will learn new strategies of technology application for competitive advantage in business. This program will particularly appeal to those seeking to find a well-balanced combination of general and e-commerce oriented business courses.

Each of the discussed 5 e-commerce degree programs exists because the modern business world continues evolving, and professionals who are able to effectively utilize the virtual environment for business purposes are increasingly in demand. The best way to succeed today both personally and professionally is by investing in one’s education. At the same time, it is important to choose disciplines that allow space for professional growth and bring noticeable financial rewards. E-commerce/ e-business degree programs fully correspond to these demands because online services are both a reality and a future of the modern business world.

Author’s Bio: Joshua Robinson is an SEO specialist, writer, and blogger. He participates in several e-business projects. Therefore, he is personally and professionally interested in modern e-commerce learning opportunities.

Top 10 PHP Books For Beginners

PHP is all set to rock 2019 as it did in 2018 and years before to it.

In case you didn’t know, PHP is one of the best programming languages to get a job in the present scenario.

However, having coding prowess is never enough in the world of programming. You need to keep getting better and learning new things to refine your craft. For this very reason, here we are with our pick of the best 10 PHP books that every PHP web developer must-read in 2019

1. PHP & MySQL Novice to Ninja

Author – Tom Butler & Kevin Yank
Latest Edition – Sixth Edition
Publisher – SitePoint

Throughout its 450+ pages, PHP & MySQL Novice to Ninja gives essential knowledge into PHP as well as MySQL. It does so in a fairly easy-to-read manner. The content is great because if it wasn’t then the book shouldn’t have made to this list.

Though primarily a book about PHP, MySQL is analyzed to a greater degree in the PHP & MySQL Novice to Ninja book. However, that doesn’t mean that PHP is left incomplete.

PHP &MySQL Novice to Ninja is beautifully written, informative and more than satisfactorily covers basics of PHP as well as MySQL. This book makes up for an excellent PHP book for newcomers.

Structured PHP programming, publishing MySQL data on the web, content formatting, and content management system are covered by the PHP & MySQL Novice to Ninja. Additionally, it also takes on relational database design, advanced SQL queries, and access control.

2. The Joy of PHP Programming

Author – Alan Forbes
Latest Edition – Fifth Edition
Publisher – Plum Island Publishing LLC

Like The Joy of PHP Programming: A Beginner’s Guide kicks off with basic HTML, newbies can get started easily. The book then escalates step by step into explaining how PHP works. It transforms a PHP newcomer into a professional dynamic website developer.

The reader starts with the easy stuff like how to create and run basic PHP scripts then move towards the concept of modifying web pages. At the later stage, the reader gets to put everything learned to test via a series of cohesive and fun exercises.

Important topics covered by The Joy of PHP Programming include installing and configuring PHP, basic PHP syntax, control structures, and using PHP and MySQL together. The PHP book also covers form creation, working with images, PHP tips, and security considerations.

3. PHP In Action: Objects, Design, Agility

Author – Daginn Reiersol, Chris Shiflett, and Marcus Baker
Latest Edition – 1st Edition
Publisher – Manning Publications

PHP in Action is one of the headmost books for advancing in PHP. Ever since its first release back in 2007, the book has helped hundreds of thousands of web developers looking to reap in the benefits from PHP.

The book excels in demonstrating the application of PHP techniques and principles for solving some of the most common challenges faced in web programming, including input validation, form handling, object persistence, and web presentation.

If you’re someone with a good understanding of Java, then you will greatly benefit from the book. This is because the author draws frequent Java references when talking about concepts pertaining to PHP.

To make things even better for the buyers, each print version of the PHP in Action comes with free ePub, Kindle, and PDF versions of the same. So, they can continue scanning through the book even when away from the paperback version.

4. Murach’s PHP and MySQL

Author – Joel Murach & Ray Harris
Latest Edition – Third Edition
Publisher – Mike Murach & Associates Inc.

Penned by Joel Murach and Ray Harris, Murach’s PHP and MySQL is yet another fitting book for learning and advancing in PHP.

Thanks to its self-paced approach, it is also suitable for newcomers. This 872-page book is for anyone who wishes to build and maintain websites using PHP and MySQL.

Those with some experience with PHP or programming, in general, will be able to quickly sift through the topics covered by Murach’s PHP and MySQL.

The book starts quickly with PHP and MySQL basics and then builds advanced skills on top of that.

In addition to presenting the key information required for understanding PHP programming, Murach’s PHP and MySQL allows the readers to gain mastery over PHP programming and MySQL deployment. It also covers advanced skills suitable for building dynamic websites.

5. PHP: A Beginner’s Guide

Author – Vikram Vaswani
Latest Edition – First Edition
Publisher – McGraw-Hill Education

PHP: A Beginner’s Guide is a 478-page long book detailing on how to write basic PHP programs and then enhance the same with the use of advanced features, including MySQL database integration, third-party extensions, and XML input.

The PHP: A Beginner’s Guide book not only allows newbies to get started with PHP development but also develop intermediate-level adequacy in them.

The book covers software installation, syntax, data structures, inbuilt functions, flow control routines, and best practices.
Other important topics covered by PHP: A Beginner’s Guide include handling errors, using classes, operators and variables, working with arrays, working with data from external sources, and securing and extending PHP. The book has something for the web developer of all skill levels.

6. Head First PHP & MySQL

Author – Lynn Beighley & Michael Morrison
Latest Edition – First Edition
Publisher – O’Reilly

If you are already aware of the Head First book series then you will instantly recognize Head First PHP & MySQL as one of the foremost PHP guides for beginners.

The 812 pages long book is meant to be an ultimate guide for learning to build dynamic and database-driven websites.

Throughout Head First PHP & MySQL, the reader gets delighted using fascinating real-world examples for learning how to harness the power of the popular server-side programming language and its beloved counterpart RDBMS i.e. MySQL.

The visually-rich format formula of the Head First series works for Head First PHP & MySQL equally well as with other books in the series. In addition to the quality content, the PHP book is full of mentally-challenging exercises and quizzes.

Head First PHP & MySQL explains the creation of MySQL database tables, transforming HTML pages into dynamic websites, creating images on the fly, and making use of cookies and sessions to get visitor information and use the same for personalizing the website for users.

Not only the book covers the basic concepts of PHP and MySQL, but Head First PHP & MySQL also takes a deep-dive into advanced topics to the likes of content management, database queries, file I/O operations, and form validation.

7. PHP and MySQL Web Development

Author – Laura Thompson and Luke Welling
Latest Edition – Fifth Edition
Publisher – Addison Wesley

With a total of 1008 pages, PHP and MySQL Web Development is one of the most detailed books about PHP programming. The book offers an effectual understanding of producing interactive and intuitive web applications.

PHP and MySQL Web Development talks about the basics of the PHP programming language and how to set up a MySQL database.

The book also demonstrates the interaction between the server-side scripting language and the database.

Authenticating users, generating PDF documents dynamically, and sending and managing emails are some of the common tasks pertaining to PHP.

The PHP and MySQL Web Development book explains these with easy-to-understand examples. Advanced PHP techniques, security, error and exception handling, and using PHP and MySQL for large projects are some of the main topics covered in the book. Other topics covered by PHP and MySQL Web Development include using arrays, debugging, and reusing code.

8. PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual

Author – Brett McLaughlin
Latest Edition – Second Edition
Publisher – O’Reilly Media

For those already working in PHP looking to further refine their craft, PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual is the real deal. The 546-page book helps developers to better their approach for creating dynamic and database-driven websites using PHP and MySQL.

The PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual educates readers about managing content, building a database, and interacting with users. The book is hailed as one of the best web development books to learn about the inner workings of a database management system.

What’s awesome about PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual is that it is full of step-by-step tutorials for each topic, may it be the basics or advanced concepts. In addition to telling about the basics of PHP and MySQL, it also tells how to connect PHP with MySQL.

Major topics covered by PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual book includes authentication & authorization, binary objects, image loading, and making dynamic web pages & web apps. The book is also a great guide about handling images and complexity, listing, iterate

9. Learning PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, & CSS HTML 5

Author – Robin Nixon
Latest Edition – Second Edition
Publisher – O’Reilly

Learning PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and CSS educates readers about building interactive and data-driven websites. The book is one of the best-sellers for learning web development.

The second edition of the book is even better thanks to following reader reviews gained on the first edition.

In order to ensure that the reader retains most of the learning imparted, each chapter follows a section with review questions. Furthermore, there is a sample social networking platform covered by the book.

Creating compelling and dynamic web pages, manipulating CSS properties from JS, and upload and manipulate files and images are also covered by this book.

10. Programming PHP: Creating Dynamic Web Pages

Author – Kevin Tatroe, Peter MacIntyre
Latest Edition – Third Edition
Publisher – O’Reilly

Everything that a web developer need to know for creating efficacious web applications is there in the Programming PHP book. In addition to syntax and programming techniques, the PHP book is full of examples illustrating correct usage and common idioms.

Programming PHP starts with an overview of the possibility of PHP programs and then moves on to cover the fundamentals of the web scripting language, which includes arrays, functions, objects, and strings.

In addition to detailing how to apply common web application techniques, the book also covers the concept of generating dynamic content. With Programming PHP one can also learn about the programming language’s interaction with relational databases.

Other noteworthy topics covered throughout the 550+ page run of the Programming PHP book includes error handling, performance tuning, secure scripts, and other advanced topics.

Top 10 Online Education And Learning Websites

Nowadays the development in the education sector is increasing rapidly with the platforms that provide free of cost and paid online education to learners and workers who want to increase their knowledge as well as their skills. After the launch of these online education websites, you don’t have to visit any universities or colleges now education comes to you, the only source you need in order to access these resources is the internet.

There are many websites that provide online courses like certificate programs and degree programs to choose from, learn from the professionals and talk to them if you have any queries. To save your time we have done some research and come up with the top 10 websites that provide world-class education and also have tie-ups with the world’s top universities and institutes.

1. Udemy

Udemy is one of the top utilized online education websites worldwide with millions of users. It provides learning courses for almost everything which is available for you which can be learned.

There are above 100 thousand online video tutorials and articles of the courses available for you to upgrade your skills. Got any queries to consult ask our experts.

Get lifetime access to the hub of online education where you can get courses in almost all fields and can you can also get experts to advise on your future plans.

2. Coursera

Coursera is one of the most popular online learning websites which collaborated with the world’s highest-ranking universities and top companies.

The interaction system of the learning very unique each module is like real-time book with exclusive video learning and also there also activities like quiz and project for better learning.

It is the revolutionary way of learning your favorite topics and enhance your development skills.

3. Lynda

Lynda is a top online educational hub for students and professionals who want to learn new skills related to business, creativity, and technology.

Everything you want to learn is available here like animation, designing, creative media, and much more. Get the unlimited access to the topics you want to learn and reeducate yourself anytime.

Signup for your 30 day trial period in which you get limited access to the Lynda but if you want full access you can choose from basic and premium membership. You can revoke your membership even after deleting your account and login it again.

4. Open Culture

Open Culture is also the one of top educational platform which provide learning courses free of cost. All the courses are list in the alphabetical order for you to easily find the your suitable course.

Website provide free access to all the audio & videos tutorials of the courses and you can even download these from the YouTube. Courses are provided by the universities all around the globe so that you can easily choose courses from the top universities.

5. edX

edX is an online learning platform which provides excellent quality educational courses provided by the world’s No.1 universities and educational institutes.

People who are not able to afford study in the top colleges and universities can get their desired education online by simply paying a little amount of money.

It is specifically run by the group of universities and institutes that’s it is the best website to get your dream education started.

6. Tuts+

Envato’s Tuts+ is for the people who always give their time in learning something new and exploring many different fields.

It is the best learning platform from where you can gain knowledge about the single topic in-depth, there are a lot of articles and videos available on the website for the users.

A monthly subscription can cost you USD $16.50 and it gives you access to Envato’s Tuts+ as well as it includes Envato Elements.

7. Udacity

Udacity offers both online courses and credentials that teach learners the skills that are currently trending and in demand by industry employers.

They claim to offer their education at very low cost very much less comparing with traditional schooling.

If you’re planning on working in technology, this could be the excellent platform to look into.

8. ALISON

ALISON resources are designed for absolutely anyone looking for any kind of new job, promotion, college placement or any business venture.

You can choose from a wide range of subjects to pick from over 800 free courses which are specially designed to provide you with certificate and diploma level education.

You’ll also be required to take assessments and you need score at least 80% to pass, so you know you’ll have the skills to move forward.

9. OpenLearn

It is one of the best option for online learning. OpenLearn offers both the interactive & topical content in a wide range of content formats, including courses.

You can easily filter free courses by activity, content format (audio or video), topic and other options.

All courses are listed according to skill level (introductory, intermediate, etc.) and the time length to give you an idea of what you can expect from that course.

10. CakeHR Blog

There are a lot of tips in this blog for HRs struggling to provide the most HR managers for employees by boosting their engagement, talent development, and use of technology for a personal advance at the workplace.

The results and success of any company depend to a great extent on its employees’ job satisfaction and ability to withstand any challenges and hardships. That is why it is very important for an HR specialist to understand what happens to people within an office and how to improve their working environment.

HR blog CakeHR provides many interesting and consistent tips for using technology, HR main principles, resolving issues.

WordPress Future – Predictions Made About The Leading CMS In 2019

From being a simple line of code eleven years ago, WordPress has now become the most used platform with 74 million websites running successfully on it. There is no wonder saying that WordPress has come a long way in this meantime. There are so many competitors who are offering all the services similar to the WordPress Content Management System. However, WordPress is still dominating the CMS market with 60.3 % of the global market share.

In the coming time, WordPress won’t be confined to just being a CMS; it will be evolved as a compelling framework that is capable of running all kinds of apps. Let’s know how WordPress will be in the future. There are four principal categories that we are going to be discussing in this blog post. If you are running a WordPress Development Company, then this piece of article with predictions made about the topmost CMS in 2019 is really meant for you.

WordPress Security

Security is always a foremost issue while dealing with website portals. One way you can avoid all the security-related hassles is by habituating with creating the necessary backups, frequently monitoring your sites as well as updating the sites with needed themes, cores, and plug-ins.

The management of a site isn’t going to take much of a time or hassle from you, but as the customer base of WordPress is expanding, the platform is updating their security norms.

You can expect the security tools that will keep your WordPress site securely proactive. As more beginners are expected to join WordPress wagon, it has been expected by to shoulder the burden of security. There are plans to introduce the Tide which will run automated tests on the themes and plug-ins that you download. It checks the authenticity of these themes and plug-ins.

WordPress is planning to implement various automated tools that will ensure your site’s security. This way you wouldn’t have to spend more time on the site for security purposes. But it is essential for you to have strong passwords and installation of an SSL certificate. You cannot ignore them under any circumstances.

WordPress Support

WordPress has been enjoying great community since its arrival. As the community of WordPress is large, more people offer support for beginner users. It is expected that the volunteers will grow in the future because of the size of the WordPress community. There are so many support forums and commercial services that offer extensive support to the beginners of WordPress.

As more people join the WordPress community, you can expect the entrance of more managed WordPress companies. The managed WordPress hosts will enhance their support and ensure to cater to the new changes that have been happening in the marketplaces.

WordPress Design

If you have worked on WordPress when it has started, you will observe massive changes in the site’s design. There are so many tools that are incorporated in WordPress to make it easy to use the CMS platform.

These tools will help in creating a professional website in some hours. There are so many visual page builders, themes and frameworks that will help in creating an exciting and beautiful site in minutes.

The WordPress interface is so friendly that the beginners will be able to use it without any hassle. The front-end design will become a lot easy, and if you brush up your Java skills, you will be able to do a great job with WordPress.

The one thing that is important for a website is user experience and mobile responsiveness. By adapting to the new concepts, WordPress is focusing on delivering an excellent experience for the users. They are focusing on a mobile-centric approach, and AMP is going to contribute significantly.

WordPress Functionality

The main reason why all love WordPress is the functionalities that it offers to the users. If a feature is not available in the WordPress theme, then you can go to a plugin to help you. The platform has been integrating various functions to provide current options for users.

WordPress has never depended on the traditional plugins, and it has incorporated some of the other plugins for better performance. Use of plug-ins is the most sorted out option of WordPress CMS that offers exceptional functionalities and supports essential features. They will help in better loading, and on top of that, you will have a great visual builder too.

Key Takeaways

If you are into WordPress development, then you can explore so many great options that have been offered by WordPress. The platform has a bright future, and it is shining even more brightly with every new update and tool. The platform isn’t going anywhere and is about to provide some great features that its competitors won’t be able to afford.

Nishant Desai is Digital Marketing Expert at Pixlogix Infotech Pvt. Ltd. He loves to write about the latest trending updates, WordPress, Web Design, SEO and other interesting information. He believes in Learning, Sharing.

Wix vs WordPress: Which Is Better?

WordPress and Wix both are the most popular website builder nowadays. The question is, which platform we should use for building a great website WordPress or Wix. Both may have some advantage and disadvantage.

What is the main difference between Wix & WordPress? Which Is Better?

WordPress is an open source CMS software so you need to upload it on your web server then you can use it, on the other hand, if you want to use Wix to build your website you have to go their website wix.com and sign up for an account and you can start building your site.

Ease of use

Beginner’s first choice can be Wix because you don’t need any coding knowledge to use Wix for building a website. Wix has Drag & Drop Feature so you can easily use that.

You can also use WordPress if you have no coding knowledge but in some cases, some coding skills are required to get desired output.

Wix

Wix has a really powerful drag & drop tool for building a website. You can select any element like image, text, video, content and rearrange on your desired position. you can edit with WYSIWYG interface. Wix is a time-saving platform free those don’t have any coding skills.

WordPress

WordPress comes with a visual editor where you can write edit or modify your content, add images, videos, audio. You can also use theme customizer to customize your theme and you may also found drag & drop feature in the theme customizer.

Design and Layout

Everyone wants to build a great looking website for which site builder gives the best design & layout for website.

Wix

Wix comes with more than 500+ pre-built modern & great looking templates. Wix uses HTML 5 for design their templates, So you can easily customize the template that fits your need. You can also choose pre-build templates from many categories like Business, Online store, Videos, Blog & forms, Travel and many more.

WordPress

You can easily customize your site with a wide range of free and premium theme. free themes have limited option for customization but many of them give a great look of your site. You can download free themes from WordPress.org. For the premium theme, there are many theme shops. like A WP life, Themify, StudioPress.

If you want something more than provided in theme, you can also use ad-ons or plugins available for WordPress website. These plugins like a Gallery, Portfolio, Forms, Blog Filters etc. can add extra features to your website with ease. Tons for plugins already added on WordPress.org and it keeps increasing daily. Just think about any feature or plugin for your website, whether it’s related with security of your website or it’s for speed, you can find almost everything.

Blogging

Blog features is one of the most important features for any website. It helps you to stay connected with your visitors through blog posts. Blog also help you to get traffic for your website and provide valuable information to your website visitor. Choosing the right blogging platform is really important. Blogging platform should provide ease of access, create and post content. So what should you use for blogging Wix or WordPress?

Wix

Wix has a blogging feature that allows creating blog add categories, tag, archive, video, audio. Wix is a quick and easy platform to start blogging but Wix has a lack with the comments system. Wix doesn’t provide any comment system for visitors, it uses Facebook comments instead.

WordPress

WordPress is a great CMS for blogging. It is fast, flexible and really easy to use and there are more options for blogging which are missing in Wix. It comes with the latest Gutenberg block editor which allows you to create beautiful layouts for your posts easily. WordPress powers more than 33% of all websites in the world and it has more features than Wix, specifically when we are talking about Blog. So here we can say WordPress wins clearly in the blogging section.

Pricing and Costs

Pricing completely depends on your needs. Wix and WordPress both have free as well as paid options. You can opt in for paid versions according to your requirement or can go with free. Prices varies according to various factors like storage, bandwidth, website designs, security etc.

Wix

Wix is available for free as long as you want but if you need the extra feature or you want to make your site more professional then they have six premium plans. There are different types of plans available for both Wix regular site and Wix eCommerce stores.

Regular site cost

Wix eCommerce stores

WordPress

WordPress is an open source CMS, and it is available for free for anyone to use. But you need spend small amount for a domain name and hosting to install it. WordPress has a wide range of free and premium themes & plugins. After getting domain & hosting, you can play around with tons of free themes and plugins available on WordPress.org. It gives you full freedom for customization but you may need to hire a developer or you must have some coding skills for it.

Conclusion

WordPress or Wix? There is no perfect answer to this question. Out of Wix and WordPress which one is better, it completely depends on what you’re looking for, a website builder? or something which fits your skill level.

If you’re pretty confident about your technical skills which can be used to build a large site, WordPress might be a good choice for you. However, if you’re not so tech savvy and looking for easier platform which can help you build beautiful websites in no time, Wix is for you.

5 Most Amazing Ways To Increase WordPress Speed

According to WordPress Statistics, around 33% of all sites in existence use WordPress and 60% of CMS-built sites are powered by WordPress. It’s a huge number that makes webmaster or developer more responsible to create a website with the great user experience.

Each one of us seems to be in a hurry these days and this applies those dealing with online work too. At times, one is not able to load content faster and WordPress initiatives seem a waste of effort.

If you are too among the lot who has developed this type of perception, the same needs to be changed. Research carried out so far on distinct aspects of WordPress websites points out that these websites perform optimally in terms of conversion rates, usability, Search Engine Optimization, likeability of the WordPress platform and the time that most people spend browsing.

However, another aspect that iE of prime concern is the speed aspect. Below are listed some quality tips and suggestions that will help 5 most amazing ways to increase WordPress Speed.

1. Updating Every essential

Before adhering to this tip a useful hint for all the WordPress users. As you hit the update button you should create a backup. If thinking of updating your WordPress installations, WordPress themes, and plugins, the process can be a fruitful and worthy exercise if the WordPress products are used keeping in mind the best practices devised by WordPress.

Remember that any WordPress theme should essentially cater only to the visuals and should not be thought about to be used for any other purpose.

If you update the WordPress installation, plugins and themes the speed will increase considerably as each of the update done in such a manner will improve stability and functionality of your WordPress endeavor.

2. Using A Theme That Is Not Bloated

At times you might have noticed that the WordPress website is loading slower than its original speed. This happens primarily because of the template. This might happen due to the reason that a lot of graphics are present on the site or the site has a range of bulky codes. Inefficient functions could be the other probable reason for this problem.

A viable solution to overcome this problem is to have a simpler theme.

The market is full of a number of heavy, bloated WordPress themes and it is much likely that you might get tempted to try any one of these. Consider the scenario where a theme might be having a built-in portfolio functionality feature.

You might consider using the same but you should remain prepared for the eventuality that the developer might pull his hands back and stop providing you all the updates and support that are vital for smooth functioning of the same.

The premium WordPress themes as available on Mojo themes can be tried but one has to be well conversant with the theme review guidelines else you could find yourself in a tight spot.

A better course of action to pursue is, to begin with, free default WordPress themes and add features and styles later on as the need arises. These can be added using CSS and various plugins.

3. Using Cache Plugins

You might have heard or come across this tip probably before also, but might not have tried using this tip for increasing the speed of your WordPress endeavor. The time for using this time tested tip has come now.

Using Cache plugins works wonder for your WordPress endeavor if given a chance. Two cache plugins, in particular, are of much significance. These include the WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache.

You will not need to enable all the essentials, just focus on basic stuff like page cache, and browser cache. You can also try enabling the CDN option for a better experience.

4. Using Text Advertisements

Given the advent of online business, chances are bright that your business runs on online advertisement component. These advertisements can be in the form of images, text, or in javascript form. There is a probability that these might be hosted on your own or someone else’s server.

If the advertisements are loading slower, you can well try using the link or text option. In case using images is imperative for the success of your endeavor, you must try hosting these images by yourself.

5. Switching The Hosting Company

You must do qualitative research on distinct hosting companies too. You can send each of the hosting company an email and get to know about their response time as well as the desired customer support before finalizing your priorities.

Additionally, you can try speed optimization tests for your WordPress platform. Tools as Pingdom and Webpage test will help you accomplish this objective.

Follow the above-listed tips and you will be able to increase WordPress speed remarkably. Doing so is imperative, given the tough competition that prevails in the online market.

Go for it and reap the benefits.

Author Bio: Arun is an experienced Technical content writer at Hopinfirst, a leading mobile app development company which provide best ios app development and Android app development Services.