Affinity Designer software and Affinity Photo software are two powerful graphic tools to make professional, website and marketing graphics.

In my opinion, they give new graphic design capability to website folks like me, while also being less expensive to own, versus renting the Adobe design programs such as Photoshop and Adobe.

As I have mentioned in previous podcasts, I am a believer in owning your tools and owning your website. In website technology, software is a significant tool - we will all agree to that I am sure. Why rent graphic software when you can buy it for less?

Back in the day, Adobe used to allow purchasing Photoshop and Illustrator, but no more. Now you rent their programs - forever.

Every feature that Adobe offers in those two programs is matched or exceeded in Affinity software. Very recently, Affinity released a Publishing software and I have not used that one yet.

There are loads of tutorials and tips on the Affinity software, including YouTube videos, which add to the value and helps reduce your learning curve.

One excellent resource of Affinity tutorials is JenCoDesign.com

This is link to Affinity design software website: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/ where you can download a fully featured version - FREE - for 30 days.

This is the first podcast in our series of "30 Website Trends & Tools" and we are covering privacy.

What is the responsibility of a website owner in terms of protecting the privacy of website visitors?

What is the difference in privacy between my laptop and my smart phone?

As a website owner, what do I need to provide to website visitors about their privacy?

Do all computing devices collect data about what I see and view on the internet?

Article links to podcast material….

Google Analytics Cookies

EU High Court Ruling ON Cookie Notice

Apps Give Sensitive Personal Information

This month we are kicking off a new project to review website trends. In one podcast we will review a product or services that provides website technology.

The 30 podcasts will be filled with people having innovative products or services that make creating content, administering the website, and automating functions on the website easier and/or more automated.

Running a website is a full time effort. These 30 podcast sessions will help reduce your learning curve on taking the next steps to boost your webmaster skills, along with expanding your understanding of the best in class tools in website technology.

Building your Brand is fundamental to a new website and necessary to an existing website.

This is beyond SEO, Search Engine Optimization, since we are talking about establishing your Brand - your business reputation - in the hearts and minds of potential clients.

"The main benefit of branding tools, and the reason to imply them, is to boost profits."
~ Forbes

Yes, you need to build the audience at your website; that effort must take into consideration the forging of your Brand with your visitors, which creates the possibility they can share your business in their circle of influence.

All websites, that are owned not rented, are in one of three phases of website marketing. Once you know your phases then you can expand the characteristics that will improve your marketing results.

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is essential to making your website visible in search engine results.

Conversion Rate Optimization, CRO, is the degree of success that is accomplished when a website visitor takes action on one of your web pages.

Statistics website owners need to consider ….

"Only about 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates."
~ Econsultancy, 2016

"Using videos on landing pages will increase conversions by 86%."
~ Wordstream, 2018

"90% of searchers haven’t made their mind up about a brand before starting their search."
~ Status Labs, 2018

"For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them."
~ Econsultancy, 2016