PSPINC Official Company Blog

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 175 “High-Quality Web Hosting”

7月

6日

Web hosting is about more than just getting your website online. Investing in a good web hosting service ensures better security, better customer service, and better maintenance support. A good web hosting service provides an SSL certificate for your site. That way, users won’t encounter an error page, warning them that their connection isn’t secure when entering a URL. And the service should also include frequent backup services. If something were to happen, like accidentally deleting an important file, you’ll still have your backups to rely on.

Dreamersi is our premiere web hosting service with email hosting, VPS packages, and more robust SSL certificate options, available as add-ons. In all our Dreamersi web hosting plans, our customers get a free domain, free access to WebdeXpress, our easy-to-use web builder, data backups, domain validation (DV) SSL certificates, and world-class support. We’ve had over 20 years of experience providing high-quality web hosting services to small businesses everywhere. Get started today.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #ecommerce #hosting #marketing #marketingdigital #newsletter #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #security #smallbusiness #tech #technology #webdesign #webdevelopment #webhosting #website #websites #webtools

Adobe’s $20 Billion Acquisition Deal for Figma Explained

6月

27日

Last year, Adobe, the company behind the invention of the PDF and popular programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, announced its plan of acquiring the cloud-based design tool, Figma, for $20 billion. One that even our web designers use here at PSPINC. Adobe has a history of acquiring more than 50 companies in its 40-plus years of existence. So, if this is so standard for Adobe, why are people making such a big deal out of it? For starters, this is the most money Adobe’s ever spent in acquiring a company. About four times more. Their second largest acquisition behind Figma was Marketo in 2018 for $4.75 billion. So, the real question is, why is Adobe investing so much in buying out Figma?

Adobe has a rich history of acquiring companies and either adopting them as their own or letting them slowly die out. For example, Photoshop is arguably the most lucrative acquisition deal Adobe’s ever made. They purchased Photoshop for $34.5 million in 1995, right when computer technology and digital photography technology advanced. But Adobe has also bought out companies just to eliminate the competition slowly. An example would be FreeHand. And there’s a reason you probably don’t recognize the name. Adobe acquired FreeHand in 1994 for $525 million and by 2007, Adobe announced the end of FreeHand.

What it Means for the SaaS Industry

turned on silver screen macbook air on wooden desk

Figma, as of June 2021, has a valuation of $10 billion, but because Adobe sees the value in it, they offered double the amount. And it’s for a good reason; Figma allows for greater collaboration between designers. And it’s something Adobe hasn’t figured out how to do effectively yet. While Adobe has the Adobe Creative Cloud, many designers have expressed their frustration with its lack of collaboration features. Figma, however, has browser functionality, which is something Adobe doesn’t have with any of its design products. Including the program they created to directly competed with Figma, Adobe XD.

Because of Adobe’s history of products like FirstHand, Figma users are worried about what Adobe will do to what’s become an essential design tool. One of those worries includes making Figma a paid tool rather than a free one. The fact that Adobe’s offer is double Figma’s value speaks volumes, and it has the potential to create a big impact in the SaaS (Software as a Service) industry. Unfortunately, the Adobe-Figma deal is now facing anti-competition concerns. EU authorities are pushing for a formal investigation. And the U.S. Justice Department is preparing an antitrust lawsuit, which, if successful, would effectively block this deal. So, only time will tell how this will pan out.

December 18th, 2023 Update:

Adobe and Figma have reached a mutual agreement to terminate their merger agreement after facing pressure from regulators.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#acquisition #adobe #adobexd #blog #branding #business #collaboration #creativecloud #design #figma #firsthand #history #illustrator #marketing #pdf #photoshop #saas #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webtools

WebdeXpress: New Privacy Policy Feature Available!

5月

17日

We’re happy to announce that WebdeXpress, our web-building tool, now has a new feature! Now, while building your website, you can add a privacy policy notice above the contact form submission button. You can create this new privacy policy in English or Japanese and add a title, description, and an agreement checkbox description.

For website owners, privacy policies help set data privacy expectations with your website visitors. Adding one will give users an idea of what kinds of data you’re collecting from them, why you’re collecting it, and how they can contact you if they have any questions or concerns.

When you add your privacy policy form field, it’ll look like this:
privacy policy settings in wdx

Once you complete your privacy policy contents, it’ll appear on your contact form at the bottom like this:
privacy policy checkbox contact us form in wdx

privacy policy checkbox contact us form in wdx

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstool #dataprivacy #ecommerce #feature #newfeature #pacificsoftwarepublishing #privacypolicy #pspinc #smallbusiness #tech #technology #wdx #web #webbuilder #webdesign #webdexpress #website #websitebuilder #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 165 “Custom Web Design Solutions”

4月

28日

An important part of developing a business’s brand identity is its website. The elements that go into designing a business website include a logo, a simple navigation bar, a clear call-to-action (CTA), a product and services page, and an about us page. The web designer’s job isn’t just to create these components, but it also involves making the site look attractive using specific colors and overall imagery provided by the client. Those colors and imagery help create the overall brand identity of the site and business.

Now, to make it easier than ever, we’ve created budget-friendly web design plans perfect for your business needs. Whether you’re just looking for a basic web presence or a site with everything you’d ever need for your business, we’ve got you covered. To learn more about our web design packages, head over to our custom web design page.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #ecommerce #marketing #marketingtips #pspinc #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webdexpress #websites #webtools #wordpress

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 158 “Company Blogs”

3月

10日

It may be more work, but there’s a reason why many companies have a blog; they allow businesses to demonstrate their expertise and establish credibility. Customers aren’t just looking at the price and quality of products anymore; they want to know who they’re buying from and compare it to others before deciding who to purchase from.

For blog posts, businesses should look to create informational content about their company, industry, and customers. Businesses can feature their blog on their website, which will help increase the company site’s overall website traffic. Or they can use a separate blogging platform like Bloguru, which is what we use for PSPINC. If you need more help setting up a company blog or brainstorming content ideas, we have experts who would be more than happy to help.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #bloguru #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #website

What is Web Development?

3月

8日

Web development refers to all actions required to build, maintain, and manage a website. There are three types of web development: front-end, back-end, and full-stack. Front-end development is the clint-facing side of the website, app, or digital product, and refers to everything users will see and interact with. This usually entails designing the site and developers use their knowledge of HTML, CSS, and sometimes JavaScript to do so.

Back-end development refers to everything that happens behind the scenes, ensuring a site works the way it’s supposed to. This usually includes creating a site’s basic framework, like database interactions, server, network, and hosting configuration, and business logic. To do so, back-end developers use their knowledge of server-side programming languages, which include PHP, Ruby, and Python. Lastly, full-stack development combines knowledge and tasks from front-end and back-end development, so full-stack developers usually take on more leadership roles on projects.

Steps in the Web Development Process

1. Acquire a domain name

Domain names are the unique URLs users will type into their browser windows to get to a website. Good domain names can be hard to come by, so doing this step first helps lower the chances someone else will snatch the one you want first. But the name of your domain will also heavily influence the overall design of the site.

2. Form a plan

If you’re building a website for a client, the planning steps include meeting with said client and figuring out what they need. Even if they’re not entirely sure what they’ll need, as the developer, you’ll need to determine the site’s overall purpose and goals. That will then help inform the kinds of content that will be on the site and how it’ll be arranged.

3. Create a mockup

To give you and your client a better representation of what the site will look like, create a mockup. This will generally start with a wireframe, which is a two-dimensional skeletal outline of a webpage or app. And it’ll also involve creating a sitemap, which lists files on your site to help search engines like Google crawl and index your site’s context. In addition, you may also need to create a prototype that takes the mockup a step further to show how the site will function.

4. Research your client’s target audience

Learning more about who the website’s meant for will give you a better idea of what content will be on the page. And that will then help inform how the site should look. Again, the site’s overall design should appeal to the client’s audience, encouraging them to take action like purchasing a product or staying on the site longer.

5. Build the back-end

Back-end developers will start by building the back-end of the homepage first and move on to the other pages by creating a “shell”, which front-end developers will later fill with content. During this step, developers will add functional elements like contact forms and shopping carts and make sure they work properly.

6. Build the front-end

Working on the front end of the website will focus more on the design aspect of the site and will include some basic coding using HTML and CSS, as well as JavaScript, if needed.

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

desktop and mobile view of pass wizard's website

7. Test your site features

To ensure everything works the way it’s supposed to on your site, test your site features. This will prevent users from coming to your site and clicking on a broken link or encountering other issues. Another thing to look out for is seeing how different the site may look on different devices and different browsers.

8. Launch your site

After finishing the development phases, it’s time to launch your site!

9. Promote your site

While having a site is a great first step, no one will come to your site if no one knows it exists. That’s where promotion comes in, which you or the client could do in-house or outsource marketing work to an outside agency like PSPINC. Web development work doesn’t always involve a lot of marketing, but it’s important to remember that the site you’ve built and the marketing work it’ll take to promote that site directly correlate; the site needs to stand up on its own once the marketing team leads users to the site. A good marketing strategy will bring users to the site, but the site and its offering will determine if users stay and convert.

10. Monitor your site

Lastly, your web development duties may also involve monitoring the site, which includes checking website traffic, adjusting content to better optimize the site, and updating content as needed as time goes on.

If you’re looking for custom development, custom design, or even marketing services for your business, reach out for a free consultation on our website so we can work together to find the right solution for you and your business.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdeveloper #webdevelopment #website #websites

Bloguru: Rich Text Editor Now Available!

2月

21日

With Bloguru, our ad-free blogging platform, you can now stylize your blog’s text easily without any coding knowledge! We’ve updated our blogging platform, which includes adding a rich text editor to the post content editor, making it easier to bold, italicize, underline, strike-through, align, and add links to your text. You can even stylize your blog even further by changing text color and adding background color to text as well.

We’ve even added Undo and Redo buttons for when you accidentally make a mistake or want to restore your previous content. But for users with coding knowledge, there’s now a source code icon in the top right, letting you edit the look of your blog even further.

Sign up for Bloguru for free today.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #bloguru #business #contenteditor #css #editor #html #pspinc #richtexteditor #smallbusiness #sourcecode #style #technology #text #update #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webhosting #websitebuilder #websites #webtools

The Difference Between Building a Site from Scratch Versus Using a CMS

2月

1日

As of November 2022, there are nearly two billion websites on the internet, according to How to Geek. Before content management systems (CMS) existed, users created sites from scratch, which took a considerable amount of time. But it gave web developers a lot more control over all elements of a website, and that continues to be the case today. But creating websites with a CMS is even more popular today. In fact, more than 84 million websites are built with a CMS. The reason why is simple: it lets anyone create a website easily. Web developers have knowledge of coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, among others. With a CMS, users can create websites without the need for a web developer or designer.

While using a CMS can be easier and faster, there are still reasons why some may prefer to build a site from scratch. A CMS will generally offer a free plan, but they’re relatively limited feature- and storage-space-wise unless users upgrade to a paid account. Building a website without one gives developers more control over the hosting environment, giving them more freedom to add unique features to their site. Templates featured on a CMS are attractive, but it also results in multiple sites with the same or very similar site designs. Starting from scratch results in a much more unique site design as well as the ability to add other features that may not be available through a CMS.

Building a Website from Scratch

To create a website from scratch:

Add text, images, navigation bars, and other site building blocks with HTML

Add styling elements with CSS to design your site. A business site should match the look and feel of your brand.

Add more advanced functionality to your site by writing some JavaScript.

Upload the HTML file to your server to be filed away in your database.

From there, you can update the content or make other changes by downloading the files from the server and changing the HTML code by hand. Then upload the files back to the server after checking to make sure the code changes you made don’t result in an unexpected or undesirable result, like breaking a link.

Building a Website with a CMS

A CMS, or content management system, allows users to create, edit, and publish content online without any coding knowledge or experience. To build a site using a CMS:

Create an account on a CMS platform. We recommend WordPress or WebdeXpress, which is free with our Dreamersi web hosting.

Open the content editor to create and edit the content on your site. Without needing to write out any code, you can bold text, add links, and insert images among other things by dragging and dropping blocks or clicking a few buttons.

When you’re done creating or editing content, click on the Publish button and the CMS will display it for your website visitors.

To customize your website even further with unique features or design elements, invest in custom development or custom design services. For more informational videos, check out our "What Is" series on our YouTube channel.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cms #contentmanagementsystem #dreamersi #hosting #seo #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webdevelopment #webdexpress #webhosting #website #websitebuilder #websites #webtools #wordpress

Why Your Images Need to be Optimized for the Web

1月

18日

One of the most important aspects of Google’s algorithm when showing websites is page loading speed. Users today won’t wait more than two seconds for a site to load before moving on to another if it’s not fast enough. So, if you want your site to show up higher in Google’s organic search results, you should prioritize making sure the images you add to your website are well-optimized.

Lossy Versus Lossless Image Compression

Turned on Screen Silver Macbook Air on Wooden Desk

When creating or even saving images, the image size will be relatively larger, and larger image files inadvertently slow down your site. So, the best solution is to compress those image files. But there are two ways to compress data in relation to images: lossy and lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces some of the information in an image to reduce the file size while maintaining as much of the image quality as possible (Ex: JPEG image types). Lossless compression reduces the image file size without compromising the image’s overall quality (Ex: PNG image types).

When comparing the two image compression types, it might seem obvious to just use PNGs or lossless compressions, but it’s important to remember that PNGs are larger file sizes when compared to JPEGs. So, even if you compress all the images on your site to PNG images, you might still be slowing your site down more than you need to. While you may want to keep some of those images as PNG image types, you can, more than likely, reduce your image file sizes even further to speed up your site’s overall loading speeds.

How to Optimize Your Images for the Web

What Types of Image Files to Use

JPEG, or Joint Photographic Experts Group, image files are best used on images shot with a camera because JPEGs can combine some of those millions of colors by using lossy compression. While it reduces an image’s overall color palette, it’ll still produce an acceptable image for the web.

PNG, or Portable Network Graphics, image files are generally recommended for images that utilize a limited number of colors. PNGs are also great for images with transparent backgrounds, so they’re generally used for logo and icon images.

SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphics, image files, like the name suggests, allow developers to use vector-based images. SVG image files, unlike PNGs and JPEGs, won’t lose any clarity when resizing them. While this file type works great for images that don’t use a lot of colors, they’re generally just used site logos or backgrounds. We should also mention that some older browsers don’t support SVGs. But all the latest versions of major browsers have basic SVG support.

WebP, or Web Picture format, image files were created by Google in 2010 to provide superior lossless and lossy compression. They’re much smaller file sizes compared to the rest, but there’s one catch: Safari doesn’t fully support this file type, which means some iPhone users may not be able to view them.

For more informational videos, check out our "What Is" series on our YouTube channel.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #image #images #imagetype #jpg #photoshop #picture #pictures #png #seo #smallbusiness #svg #tech #technology #tutorial #web #webdesign #webp #website #websites #webtools

How to Add a Website to Your iPhone Home Screen

12月

21日

While there are many apps out there, if there’s a site you frequent when you’re on your iPhone, you may want a way to get to it faster. The best way to do that is by adding the website to your phone’s home screen. Let’s use the site for our password manager, Pass Wizard, as an example

Go to the website on your iPhone. For this example, we’re going to PassWizard.com/login.
Tap on the share icon.

pass wizard site screenshot on mobile with share icon circled

Scroll down until you find the “Add to Home Screen” option.

add to home screen on iPhone screenshot option circled

Rename icon, if needed. For this example, we’ve named it Pass Wizard.

add to home screen rename icon screenshot

See the new icon on your home screen.

pass wizard icon on iphone home screen screenshot

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.