Is Your Website Mobile Friendly

April 18, 2013

The number of tablet computers and smartphones is growing at an  astounding rate.  There are currently about 1 billion smartphones around the world with another billion expected in the next 3 years.  And those are just smartphone statistics!  Add in the tablet numbers and more often than not, people are using mobile devices for work and entertainment.

Is your home or small business website ready for mobile users?  If you want to sell from your site, it better be!  Home and small business need to be flexible, nimble, and ahead of the technology curve. If you are not, competition will be and you will lose sales.

What to do?

Start by reading this article -http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/dont-put-off-making-your-web-site-mobile-friendly/8223?tag=content;siu-container

Tablet

Tablet

Read the rest of this entry »


Fast and Free Website With Webs.com

January 28, 2013

Last week, we blogged about getting a free website through Wix.com and this post shows you another free deal on a website, this one through Webs.com.  It is also very easy to use, based on drag and drop.  Perfect for Home Business, Webs starts with 6 pages: Home, About us, Photo Gallery, FAQ, Contact Us, and Testimonials.  Each can be changed as needed or desired.  The theme of the website can also be changed even after the initial selection.

Free website through Webs.com

Free website through Webs.com

Read the rest of this entry »


Create a Fast, Free Website with Wix

January 16, 2013

Your home business needs a website – fast and cheap.  Here is a great idea – Wix.com.  For testing purposes, I built and published a test website within 20 minutes.  Wix provided a one page site for free and muti-page sites are available too with Home, Bio, News & Events, Books, and Contact pages.   If using the free version, you will have to accept minor advertising, a horizontal banner ad at the bottom of the page.

After completing the editing, click on publish and answer a few basic questions to complete the SEO process for search engines.  The test web page I created is http://homepreneurs.wix.com/home .  Click on that link and it will take you to:

Homepreneurs Wix Page

homepreneurs wix site

Read the rest of this entry »


Get Paid to Test Websites from Home

July 2, 2012

This is not a get rich quick job, but a way to make a little extra money on the side to help family finances.  Website owners need to view their websites on various browsers to see how they look.  Website owners also need testers to ensure the site is user-friendly and error-free.  Companies like the ones listed below are hired to design testing and provide reporting to the website owner.  These testing companies contract with interested and qualified applicants to follow testing criteria.  Testing often involves navigating a test website while speaking into a headset and describing the experience.  Testers get paid for websites they test.  This is a great work at home opportunity and can often be done during spare time or at ones convenience.

Website testing companies

User Testing

Qualifications:

-        Must be at least 18 years old

-        Must own a PC or Mac (with OS X 10.5 or higher)

-        Must have a broadband Internet connection (cable, DSL or satellite)

-        Fill out a one-page from with demographic information (age range, gender, experience, etc.)

-        Must use User Testing’s browser-based screen recorder to record screen shots and verbal comments while navigating a test website

-        Have a PayPal account

Get paid $10 for 15 to 20 minutes of testing work!!

Analysia

Qualifications:

-        Anyone with an Internet connection and a microphone

-        Fill out a demographic profile

-        Have a PayPal account

Get paid $10 for 10-15 minutes of testing!!

Try My UI

Qualifications:

-        Provide demographic information

-        Create a sample usability video

-        Prove sample written usability summary about your experience

-        Have a PayPal account unless getting paid through Amazon Turk

Get paid $10 for 15-20 minutes testing!!

User Feel

Qualifications:

-        Register and take the sample test

-        Speak clearly into a microphone

-        Explain confusion if found

-        Answer questions in writing at end of test

-        Have a PayPal account

Get paid $10 per test, up to $100 to $200 per month!!

Please note that these jobs are in high demand.  Requests for testing are based off user profiles.  Testing companies don’t want young men giving opinions on women’s shoes.

These companies will likely offer a few tests per week, not multiple tests per day.  It is not a full-time job, but a way to make extra money from home.

By Dion D. Shaw

Dion D. Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2010 – 2012, All Rights Reserved


Test Your Website on IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari

June 6, 2012

Does your home business have a website or blog?  Have you ever tested it in different browsers to see how it looks in each?  In many cases, a website or blog is the client interface.  Since several browser versions are used, at least the major ones should be tested.  Nothing is worse than creating a negative first impression a customer receives about your business.

I learned about a website – BrowserShots.org – that runs these tests for you.  I ran a simulation of 103 browser versions to see how Homepreneurs looks to our readers.  The results were interesting for the major players: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, with some definite issues (see below).

MSIE, version 7.0 on XP MSIE 9.0 for Windows 7
Firefox 13 on Windows XP Safari 5.1.2 for Windows XP

Chrome 19 for Windows XP

Browsers are constantly updated and patched, so we won’t mention the latest versions.  Suffice to say that several versions of each exist in the world.  These versions will display pages differently (as noted above) and Browsershots.org is open source software and free for testing.   Browsershots.org tests your website’s compatibility on different browsers by taking screenshots of your web pages rendered by real browsers on different operating systems.  This is a wonderful service for web page designers and website owners to test add-ons and verify incompatibilities with various browsers.

This is another free utility for your virtual toolbox.  Satisfy yourself that your home business is represented well on the different browsers your customers might use.

By Dion D. Shaw

Dion D. Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2010 – 2012, All Rights Reserved


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 23,428 other followers

%d bloggers like this: