Default Theme:
Wordpress now comes with a new standard default theme, theme 2012. Is it great, not by a long shot, but its a great start for anyone new to WordPress. Then you can get sunk into a really challenging theme.

Responsive Theme: (AKA – Mobile Friendly)
The 2012 Theme which is installed as default has a responsive theme design allowing for mobile functionality. See below for some interesting facts on Mobile consumer interaction stats:

Media Uploader:
The media uploader has been overhauled to be a much more functional system that not only allows multi image uploading now. But a gallery interface that is easy to use and simple to create.

Not only has all these cool things been changed, now you can edit your uploads right within wordpress itself.

oEmbeds:
WordPress now allows an Iframe functionality principle where you can add the code from the site you are trying to take content from and WordPress automatically populates content. A great tool for anyone looking to host videos etc

That’s it for now on this update, we are certainly happy and are confident it will make our job of Web Designing much easier. Let us know what you think.

Having been an avid iPhone fan for 2 years, there was never a doubt in my mind that I had the best smartphone on the market… until just recently that is!

It all started with the launch of the iPhone 5.  Like most applemaniacs I could not wait for this launch, as my iPhone 4 was starting to feel seriously outdated and slow.  As usual I was impressed by the videos posted on Apple’s website and immediately wanted one, though in retrospect I can’t remember why now. the only real significant tweaks for me was a slightly larger screen, a faster CPU and a thinner design.  Look don’t get me wrong, Apple really needed to do above mentioned upgrades, as they were long overdue, but what a bout the software?

iOS 6 is hardly a breakthrough system, and at first glance you won’t easily spot a difference from iOS 5 or iOS4. Pretty much everything has stayed the same.  The same boring home screen, the same boring lock screen, still just one button which is annoyingly difficult to double click, and eventually doesn’t work at all. The technology innovators seemed to have just released an iPhone 4SS instead of an iPhone5 simply cause they just couldn’t be bothered.

So how did I finally see the light and see the iPhone for what it was?  Simple, I got impatient!  In South Africa the iPhone 5 isn’t even here yet, although they promise to have it here by X-Mas, but if it’s anything like the other releases you wont get it until 2013. Having come to the end of my contract and having the option to upgrade, I started shopping around again.

The Samsung Galaxy phones were obviously the only real competitors, and I was quite sceptic at first that they would live up to my expectations.  I mean how could their phones really be better I thought. Boy was I in for a surprise!

Then one night I went out for drinks and saw someone’s Galaxy S3 and it got me really intrigued.  Suddenly I was lying awake at night weighing the pro’s and cons and trying to decide between the 2 platforms.  To make the indecision even worse I got to play around with someone else’s Galaxy tab and I immediately found it easier to use than the iPad.  The price of the Galaxy phones was another factor which grabbed my attention, as there was a notable difference.

That was it, I was going to make one last effort at weighing the 2 platforms up against each other, so I went to the nearest MTN store and to view their live demo’s   At first I was interested in the S3, but I found out quickly that I would only be able to update the software once and then no more! I was a bit disappointed to hear this, and was not too keen on the size of the Note2, as it is just frikken huge!  Reluctantly I asked the sales guy to lay down the differences between the S3 and the Note2(which could handle a few more software upgrades), and it became very clear, very quickly that the S2 was the big daddy al round!  But was it going to fit in my pocket?  Surprisingly it does! It’s only 20g or so heavier than my iPhone as well!

With that I placed my order for the Note2 and waited. Got called up the very next Monday(I was at the shop on the Friday) and my phone was ready. Brilliant!

I hadn’t even seen the Jelly Bean operating system yet, and I’ll admit it took a bit of time getting used to, but in now time at all I was completely blown away.  Another nice pro is that I haven’t had to purchase a single app yet. Not even Whatsapp!  the sheer speed, ease of use and the gigantic screen had won me over in less than a day.  I haven’t even gotten around to rooting/jailbreaking it because I just haven’t found a need yet.  Everything just works, my apps don’t crash, photos and video looks amazing and the extra back button makes life so much easier. I hardly ever use the stylus but I was quite impressed with how well it works, as it feels very natural.

Two weeks in I’m still loving it and whenever I pick up my old iPhone it feels absolutely tiny! It feels the size of a Galaxy Pocket, which I might add is a very nice little phone for it’s price.

Now I know this isn’t a spec for spec match up type article you were expecting, because there are millions of those on the net already, but if ever you were contemplating the move from iPhone to Android, I’d say this much: There is nothing to fear and the grass is greener on the other side sometimes.

Halloween isn’t traditionally celebrated by South Africans, and can be seen as a “Pagan Holiday” by some, and if you are one of these people we would just like to wish well and hope you have a great day! Webfanatix believes in the spirit of fun and what could be more fun than dressing up as a ghost, goblin, witch or even harry potter!  Happy Halloween to everyone else, we hope you have fun dressing in costume, trick or treating or cutting out pumpkins!

What is SEO?

So SEO(search engine optimization) is just the exploitation of the ways in which Google or other search engines display information.  Like back links from creditable websites, keywords in your content and links and how many times those keywords appear, as well as where those keywords appear.  Plus there is the added variable of competition.  Even if you have a totally unique product, you probably have some competition out there on the web, because although your product might be unheard of, the chances are good that someone has talked about the problem it solves on the internet somewhere, or talked about something similar.  The less competitive your market the easier it is for you to see the results of SEO, or the more likely it will be to see any result without SEO.  SEO is more than just finding tricks to fool Google(indecently Google is making it harder and harder every day to try and fool them).  It requires a strategy and is not dissimilar from normal marketing practices.  Just like a offline business would, your online marketing strategy should consist of Advertising, PR, Marketing Material and Publications.  The way these are used or work just differs slightly to conventional methods.

So how do I get my website on the first page on Google?

Now I know you thought this article was going to give you the secret to getting to the first page of Google, and in actual fact it does, but it might not be the answer you were looking for.  The secret simply is to get someone knowledgeable to do it for you.  That is the key! As a business owner you simply do not have the time to mess around with SEO.  You need to be concentrating on running your business, and marketing it.  Although SEO is a marketing exercise, we would exclude it from conventional marketing and advise any business to outsource this or hire a professional.  If you are already knowledgeable, and we mean truly knowledgeable, in this field then you are probably already doing SEO in a professional capacity.  If you truly want to increase your rankings and drive traffic to your site then you should get a professional and reliable SEO company to help do this for you.  Feel free to contact Webfanatix for a quote in this regard.

We hope this article and the video was useful and informative. Feel free to contact us or post a comment if you have questions. Like the article? then don’t forget to share!

1. dlvr.it

This nifty free app allows you to post your publications to various and multiple social networks, automatically.  It can monitor an RSS feed for new post and repost them to other networks.  Currently it supports: Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler, Linkedin, Statusnet, RSS and Delicious.  Too bad there is no support for Google+ yet, but we’re sure they will catch on eventually.

2. Buffer

This is also a tool that allows you to post to multiple accounts, but with the added feature of scheduling automatic posts.  They also boast an Android and iPhone app as well as a Google Chrome plugin, but yet again no Google+ (we are sensing a conspiracy…). Another negative was that the free account is limited to only 3 social accounts, which I guess is fair, as they need some way to pay the bills.

3. Social Mention

Want to know what people are saying about you or your brand? Or if they are talking about you at all? This tool can help you find find out and even has a sentiment gauge to see if the talk on the town is positive, neutral or negative. It also claims to somehow measures the passion of your communications(don’t ask us how).

There are hundreds of little tools out there like these but we have found that there still seems to be a market for an all in one total encompassing solution. Data X-Ware in Partnership with eMarketing Solutions are working on something special in this regards to help solve the problem, but a little more about that later…

1. Browsers must know what the site is about in seconds

Imagine that the Internet is full of browsers that have ADD and like little children have a very short attention span.  To make things worse most people browse during the day when they are at work and actually need to be working, so every minute of browsing time they cram in between their tasks is precious to them.  So you can imagine that any site which doesn’t communicate it’s purpose to them immediately will just be left and forgotten.  There is way too much Internet and so little time to browse it. Visit your own website and ask yourself what you think it’s communicating to you within the first 5 seconds.  Is the communication fast and clear? Ask someone else to visit the site who have never before and study their reaction.  If they sort of look confused and ask you “what’s this about” then you know there is some work to do.

2. Make your Content Scanable

Remember the internet is already overloaded with what your kids nowadays would call TMI (Too Much Information).  Your website is a brochure not a book, so don’t overload it with large blocks of text. Rather use bullet points or lists or even icons to help readers scan through the site and figure out what you offer.  Obviously you can use more text in articles and other pages that do require the information, but for your home page keep it short and sweet.

3. Must have a Clear Call to Action

Too often we get lost in all the ideas for the design of our site and concentrate on making it beautiful and listing all your services, which are important don’t get me wrong, but we forget to take the users to the next step. Say they have gotten the idea now of who you are and what you do and they are interested, how do they take the next step.  Do you have clear call to action signs or buttons guiding users through your registration process or getting them to give you a call or fill in a contact form?  Because ultimately that’s what you want, isn’t it?  Life is busy and if the user can’t find how he can sign up or contact you quickly enough something else might just grab his attention and you’ve lost him forever.

4. Don’t have any Barriers to Entry

The route to your home page should be the shortest possible and nothing is shorter than having no pages or steps before it.  So even if you are the world’s best Flash designer, don’t prolong the entry of your site by giving people a choice to view the Flash site or the HTML site first. Take them directly to the Flash one(if it doesn’t take too long to load) and detect if users are connecting via mobile devices to direct them to the HTML version. If you can avoid using flash then please do so.  There are a lot of AJAX alternatives that you can use to wow your visitors with rather than using slow and bulky Flash animations.

5. Do not place Ads on your Company Website

A few types of websites are exempt from this rule like blogs, business directories, news agencies etc.  Basically these types of sites are online magazines or newspapers in the end, and as we all know there is no other way to make real money through these vehicles, but to advertise on them. But if your site is about your business and you don’t fall into this category, putting ads on your site just reduces your creditability. The first thing users think when hey see ads is that you are an exploiter, and that you possibly might exploit them. It also raises the question whether your business is successful or not, why would you need the extra few dollars a month?