As you’ve probably read before, only the potential domain buyer really knows what domains mean to them.  Sellers, too, possess some inkling of an idea what they’re willing to sell aftermarket domains for. For all others unsure what ‘professional’ indicators are used to determine true domain value in dollars, we’re pleased to bring today’s domain valuation standards abreast in case you’ve mulled over buying domain names at the hottest hubs.  Remember, my friends; domain names only have what value individual marketing pros plan to extract from them.

Search Volume

The most obvious indicator revolves around the number of consumer searches, both annually and monthly, for whatever keyword the domain represents.  By utilizing several keyword queries through the Google Keyword Research tool, one can locate high search volumes of key phrases used daily, discover the competition, and from there determine the worth of current domains held.  Since search figures are updated often, Google’s KWT becomes the NYSE of keywords, per se.  Many pros lightly base their figures off Google and Bing, yet aren’t ready to fully base domain valuation off the unknown searches of tomorrow since consumer interest fluctuates with other markets.

Popularity

Over the last several years, premium domains sold – on average – around the $15k clip.  Pretty impressive, considering many names weren’t popularly searched terms.  What, then, becomes the operative definition of ‘popularity’ when leveraging this metric in your domain valuations? Number of registered TLD’s, of course, since having the .COM and .ORG of single-worded domains means the .NET instantly becomes hot, and so forth.  Remember, if all TLD’s are available for keywords, the niche probably began its downward spiral several years ago or has heavy market saturation for synonyms of the keywords.  Again, this dynamic is loosely based off what each buyer wants premium domains for.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Marketing efforts chomp considerable dollars – even before an official business launch commences. Add the rising costs of keywords, and premium domain names suddenly aren’t so appealing.  No worries, my friends; the average CPC of domains sold over the last year is roughly $1.79.  Sounds expensive, indeed; what drives up costs, of course, are individuals bidding for keywords which aren’t exact domain matches.  For example, you’ll eventually rank well for dog.com (provided your content is related to the dog). While waiting for organic gods to bless you, ‘canine’, ‘puppy’ and other dog-related words are getting heavy traffic in Adwords.  Expect premium domain valuation costs to grow with the CPC rates of domains being sought.

Other ‘Arbitrary’ Factors

Many smaller factors, like domain length, age and backlinks, are often used to gauge how quickly new businesses could setup shop atop the domain.  Domain length would be the most arbitrary of the three since some keywords in our English language have longer lengths which cannot be helped.  Of all domain valuation standards used, perhaps one’s best tool is common sense bargaining; what you believe to be worth $5000 may only have $400 worth of use, especially if traffic stats lack girth.  With newer ccTLD’s and ‘category’ extensions rolling out soon, .COM’s will drop considerably in value.

About the author
Roger Klawinski is a freelance writer and seasoned domainer from Indiana who enjoys following domain and search trends. You can follow him on Google+.

jQuery lightbox plugins are a great way to present your videos, HTML content and images in an appealing way. A page fused with lightbox enables elements such as modals, which is a box that users are able to click to get a glimpse of a larger eye catching glimpse of the original image. First introduced as rather hard to implement JavaScript, these plugins have come a long way and most of them today are powered by a robust intuitive jQuery library. Here’s our take of the top 50 jQuery lightbox plugins, which will definitely come handy for any web/blog enthusiast.

Lightbox 2 (2.04) [ Demo ]

Lightbox 2 allows to you render images in an appealing window, while darkening the unused part of the page. It also helps lower page load times, and does not require any additional browser plugins to work its magic.

ColorBox [ Demo ]

There are many reasons to use ColorBox including support for slideshows, photos, grouping, inline, Ajax and iframe content. The overall appearance is controlled by CSS, which allows users to restyle any box as they see fit. Generates W3C valid XHTML and is written in jQuery plugin format, making it compatible with other jQuery commands.

FancyBox [ Demo ]

This Mac-style lightbox displays images and website content, and floats above other web pages. With support for fancy transitions and completely customizable through CSS, FancyBox is compatible with iframes and various other HTML elements.

PrettyPhoto [ Demo ]

This intuitive jQuery plugin not only provides support for videos, but images, flash, YouTube videos, and iframes. With a setup that’s quick and easy combined with a robust interface, prettyPhoto is extremely flexible and can be launched from anywhere.

Litebox [ Demo ]

This modified version of Lightbox v2.0 is designed exclusively for size reduction. Powered by prototype.lite combined with 3kb Javascript library moo.fx, Lightbox is reverse compatible and can be expanded if necessary.

Lightview [ Demo ]

If you’re looking for a way to change the way you overlay content, Lightview is the plugin to explore. Some of its features include customizable without CSS, clean design to compliment your website/blog, ability to resize content to fit various screen sizes and one button slideshow.

ThickBox [ Demo ]

Written in JavaScript, and with its ability to show a single image, multiple images, iframed content and inline content, ThickBox ranks high in terms of functionality. This plugin automatically resizes images bigger than the user’s browser window, and will conceal unwanted elements in IE 6.

JQuery lightBox plugin [ Demo ]

This simple, elegant and unobtrusive plugin is used to overlay images and requires no additional markup. Powered by the jQuery JavaScript library, the jQuery lightBox plugin uses just two Javascript files in the header and eliminates the need to modify or amend your existing HTML markup.

Slightly ThickerBox [ Demo ]

This plugin can be used to create image galleries and groups of galleries, and is an amended version of Cody Lindley’s Thickbox script.

Slimbox 2 [ Demo ]

This plugin is a clone of the popular script by Lokesh Dhakar and is fully customizable, friendly, efficient, small and even compatible with its original version. Compatible with horizontal scrolling websites, Slimbox 2 is more responsive and more robust than its predecessor.

Facebox [ Demo ]

This Facebook style lightbox displays divs, images and entire remote pages. Facebox is easy to use and is powered by the jQuery library and can also be used to display external images using Ajax.

Boxy [ Demo ]

Boxy is a versatile Facebook-style dialog box for jQuery that provides support for size tweening and ragging. For simple user scenarios, this plugin also automatically sets up forms and links.

ModalBox [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to create modern wizards and dialogs, without using conventional page loads and popups. ModalBox can handy when trying to display bigger versions of images, and is inspired by inspired by Mac OS X modal dialogs.

Shadowbox [ Demo ]

This web based media viewer application is written entirely in CSS and Javascript, and allows website/blog owners to render various kinds of media in all browsers. This plugin supports a host of options and popular web publishing formats including Windows Media Player, QuickTime, HTML and Flash video.

SimpleModal [ Demo ]

If you’re looking for a powerful interface for modal dialog development, SimpleModal is a great choice. It offers you the flexibility to build whatever you desire, while protecting you from cross browser issues resulting from UI development.

GreyBox [ Demo ]

This plugin can be used to display content, images and websites in an appealing way. There are many reasons to use GreyBox including its size of only 22kb, ability to be controlled with CSS, easy to use and setup and its compatibility with pop-up blockers.

Highslide JS [ Demo ]

This open source gallery, media and image viewer is elegant and quick looking, and requires no additional plugins such as java or Flash to work its charm. With a single click, users are able to scroll down and there’s also excellent user support for commercial and non-commercial users.

WordPress jQuery Lightbox Plugin [ Demo ]

As the name suggests, this is Word Press’s take of the jQuery Lightbox Plugin, and is fully compatible with K2 and WordPress 2.2 and up.

Picasa LightBox [ Demo ]

If you’re looking to display Picasa images on your WordPress blog, this plugin is an excellent choice. Picasa LightBox does not require any additional or custom tags to add images to your pages and posts, and its ability to use pure HTML code, makes it extremely easy to customize in any way you see fit.

Flexible lightbox [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to create thumbnails, and allows you to insert them as a simple gallery to your blog. You can also upload, insert and organize images with a few clicks, and can be easily activated through the WordPress interface.

PIROBOX EXTENDED V.1.0 [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to choose between three styles, and also has a slideshow and multiple image set option. This new enhanced version of this script only weighs 15kb or 40% less than its predecessor.

Floatbox Plus [ Demo ]

This plugin can be used to overlay videos, display images, and to automatically correct the overlay on images. Floatbox gives you the ability to showcase video content, pop up thumbnails and context menus, and is easy to deploy and highly customizable.

ImageZoom Mootools plugin [ Demo ]

This plugin is based on the lightbox JS and can display large images on the top of the page. With Imagezoom, users are still able to open multiple images at the same time, and can group multiple images in one set.

TopUp Javascript lightbox [ Demo ]

Topup is an easy to use JQuery plugin for showing WebPages and images in a web 2.0 style. This absolutely free plugin even for commercial use is cross browser compatible, and is complimented with fancy layouts, transitions and animations

iLightBox [ Demo ]

This plugin uses the jQuery JavaScript library to create beautiful responsive windows, and provides exceptional browser support. The iLightBox is not only limited to browsers, but works well with tablets and Smartphone browsers as well.

Lytebox [ Demo ]

Written from the lightbox class, Lytebox supports HTML content, themes and images. This lightweight, cross browser compatible plugin is fast, easy to use and best of all, its open source.

CeeBox [ Demo ]

This jQuery based plugin creates a pop-up style overlay for images, flask movies, and iframes. It also creates prev/next buttons and also supports auto-embedded popups for YouTube, Google video, Dailymotion and iFilm.

Zoomimage [ Demo ]

This jQuery lightbox plugin preloads images and presents them in a stylish way. some of the features of Zoomimage include the ability to group images in galleries, scaling images to fit user screen sizes and keyboard navigation.

Visuallightbox [ Demo ]

This free wizard programs allow you to create beautiful lightbox photo overlay effects without writing any code and with a few clicks. Some of the appealing features include cross browser compatibility, lightweight (12kb), Picasa, Photobucket and Flickr support, and an astounding 31 language interface.

ppGallery [ Demo ]

This advanced jQuery lightbox system is lightweight and installs with ease. Some of the features include compatibility with CSS, elegant yet snappy tool, easy surfing and navigation and thumbnail preview.

html5box [ Demo ]

html5box adds stylish lightbox effects to YouTube videos, images, webm videos. It is easy to install and works well with Windows Android, iPhone and all modern web browsers.

jQuery Speedo Popup [ Demo ]

This small yet robust customizable jQuery plugin allows you to play videos, and render mixed content in almost any browser, tablet or Smartphone.

Showcase v1.2 [ Demo ]

This plugin in complimented with over 60 animations that can be implemented with each bullet. This amazingly fast and lightweight script is compatible with all modern mobile devices and tablets, and also writes your own HTML directly inside each lightbox and tooltip.

Titan Lightbox [ Demo ]

This amazing jQuery lightbox script is both easy to customize and implement.

Smart Notification [ Demo ]

Smart Notification is a cross browser compatible jQuery plugin that features toggle mode, sound effects, video support and is extremely easy to use.

Repose [ Demo ]

This innovative Javascript plugin is creates an amazing showcase for different stuff including photo galleries. Some of the features include well documented, eight demo templates, well styled captions and various styles and captions.

JQuery Thumbnail Gallery With LightBox [ Demo ]

This ultimate thumbnail gallery is available in two variants ¨C vertical and horizontal and grid and line. Some of the features include support of HTML, thumb orientation, and ability to specify size limits.

Dynamic Lightbox [ Demo ]

This plugin is complete with a visual editor and allows you to customize literally anything you can dream of. Some of the features of Dynamic Lightbox are ability to edit your own design, works in all major browsers, 5 different layout in the box, smooth animations and HTML, YouTube, Google maps, Vimeo and iframe support.

Megafolio Pro Responsive Grid JQuery Plugin [ Demo ]

This plugin is a fully responsive plugin and is compatible with all modern web browsers. With intelligent and dynamic grid layouts, Megafolio includes 2 lightbox plugins and is the ultimate smart animation solution.

JackBox ¨C Responsive Lightbox [ Demo ]

Jackbox boasts of real social sharing, deep linking and retina ready graphic abilities. Being 100% compatible with responsive websites, this application works with mobile devices and even Smartphone’s.

JBMarket Image Gallery [ Demo ]

This jQuery based plugin can display thumb images, big images for the lightbox and supports full screen mode.

MetroBox ¨C Responsive LightBox [ Demo ]

This plugin can be used to display photos in their best form, and also features a custom content box for HTML, text and PHP. Some of the features include responsive design, easy to implement galleries, ESC key to close the application, and the ability to create infinite galleries.

Flare [ Demo ]

This plugin is easy to setup and comes with full documentation. Some of the features include touch capabilities, easy setup, easy lightbox plugin, optional thumbs and two full screen gallery variants.

CSS3 Lightbox [ Demo ]

This plugin is driven by animate.css and can be used to display your images in the most pleasing manner. Being mobile and tablet friendly, CSS3 Lightbox is definitely an excellent choice for both beginner and advanced web designers.

Lightbox Evolution [ Demo ]

This plugin can be used to display HTML content, images, video in a Lightbox style that renders above web pages. With this plugin, users are able to showcase a wide assortment of media in various devices and all browsers.

Lightbox JS [ Demo ]

This unobtrusive script comes handy for those looking to overlay lay images in the most appealing form. It’s easy to setup and works on all modern browsers.

jQuery Superbox [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to display windows with the lightbox effect. JQuery Superbox is an open source plugin that is easy to implement and use.

Fancy Zoom (jQuery) [ Demo ]

This plugin is powerful and flexible and works with any headings, text, images, flash and HTML.

But as all good marketers know, having an online facet of your business isn’t enough. If you want to drive traffic to your site, you need to start looking towards SEO.

Thankfully, WordPress is the ideal solution. Here, we tell you why.

Adding a blog to your site is simple

Fresh content is essential for good search engine rankings, and a blog is one of the best ways to do this. With WordPress, regular blogging is extremely easy. It’s just a matter of logging into the backend and writing your post. Of course, any old blog won’t do. You need a strong content strategy, backed up with thorough keyword research.

You can update your content as often as you like

Many businesses rush into having a website developed by a professional, but then later realise that they can’t update the content themselves. When you have a WordPress site, whether created by yourself or someone else, you’re in control. Whether it’s your latest products or details of an upcoming event, it can be changed by just about anyone who knows how to use the internet. Current information is essential for winning rankings.

It’s cheap

If you’ve ever had a quote from a web developer, you’ll know how expensive it can be. But with WordPress, the costs are extremely low. You can go for a free site, or if you want great flexibility, you’ll just need to go for the self-hosted option and pay a few pounds per month for hosting. This leaves you with a bigger budget to really drive your SEO campaign.

It’s user friendly

You don’t have to be a web expert to be able to use WordPress and carry out the tasks you need to for SEO purposes. Once you’ve learned the basics, you’ll realise that it really is quite simple.

You can add SEO plugins

To give you an added helping hand, there are several plugins out there that can be added to the backend of WordPress and will help you to make sure that you’ve ticked all the necessary boxes. These plugins could save you literally hours of messing about with coding and tags.

It’s easy to find professional help

If you do come across problems and decide that you need some expert help, you won’t have to look far to find someone who’s good with WordPress. You might use the services of a professional SEO company, for example, who will easily be able to access your site and optimise your pages.

It’s super speedy

Google has started to use loading times as an indicator of just how good your website is. In short, if it takes ages for your pages to load, your rankings are going to suffer. WordPress is really quick, so this just gives you one less thing to worry about.

You can make your site look however you want

WordPress is flexible, and the amount of themes and templates out there make it easy for you to create a site that looks exactly as you’d like it to. This is important for SEO purposes because it means that your traffic will have a pleasant browsing experience. If you aren’t converting them into paying customers, your SEO efforts have essentially been wasted.

Link building is easy

Link building is an essential part of any SEO activity, and WordPress comes with several features that make this process easier. Blogrolls, pingbacks, and trackbacks are built in and help you to link to other sites, which will ultimately build positive relationships with other corners of the web.

It’s open source

WordPress is an open source tool, meaning that anyone can develop add-ons or functionality packages that can be used by any other user. This means that there are always new and exciting ways to take your site to the next level and boost your rankings. You never know, you could become so much of an expert that you start developing your own tools for others!

You can create several log-ins for your site

When you’re running an SEO campaign, it’s likely that you’ll have several people working on different tasks at any one time. If you’re using blogging as part of your strategy, you probably have at least one article writer who creates content for you. With WordPress, you can control who has access to certain parts of your site without even having to compromise on security.

As you can see, WordPress makes a very sensible choice for anyone who wants to launch an SEO campaign. With all the tools and support easily available, it’s no wonder that it’s the favoured choice of many businesses.

Are you using WordPress for your site? What have you found to be the benefits so far?

About the author
This article was brought to you by Ruth Hinds on behalf of WebSearch SEO. WebSearch SEO offers pay-on-results services and link building packages for businesses that are ready to take their online presence to their next level.

WordPress gallery plugins are a great way for blog publishers to boost the visual effect of their blog, and in today’s day is an absolute essential for photographers and artists looking to showcase their best work on their WordPress websites. These plugins help exemplify the artists work in the best light, and integrate seamlessly with your existing blog design. Listed below are the most popular WordPress gallery plugins that will be an excellent addition to any WordPress blog or website.

NextGen [ Demo ]

After nearly 8,000,000 million downloads, the NextGen Gallery speaks for itself. It’s one of the most robust plug-ins to use and is appointed with a plethora of display options that are suited for the novice and professionals.

This template by NextGen allows you to customize, resize and seamlessly add a thumbnail gallery to your WordPress blog/website. Some of its features include responsive layout, control slideshows, change thumbnail size, backgrounds, borders and spacing.

FlippingBook [ Demo ]

FlippingBook is a convenient way to create a photo gallery on your blog. It seamless leafs out the pages and coverts it into an enviable album that is interactive and is easy to use with no extra navigation or interface.

WP Easy Gallery [ Demo ]

By installing WP Easy Gallery, users can set custom dimensions, sort order of images, include multiple galleries, and even short codes for easy integration. With an easy to use interface, this plugin is a preferred by many definitely publishers with several bug fixes to improve its usability.

RoyalSlider [ Demo ]

With RoyalSlider, you get a powerful content slider and powerful image gallery that creates staggering image galleries with photos from Flickr or your image gallery. Its core features include touch compatibility with Windows 8, Android and iOS.

SlideDeck2 [ Demo ]

This gallery plugin allows you to create appealing content sliders without any coding. Embed your own custom HTML, add video and text or simply grab funnel content from Instagram, RSS feeds or YouTube.

OmniGallery [ Demo ]

OmniGallery allows you to easily add photos from Picasa, Facebook, Pintinterest and Instagram with as simple to use interface. All you have to do is select the post page where you would like your gallery displayed and then simply select OmniGallery.

Lazyest Gallery [ Demo ]

The laziest gallery plugin simplifies the process of adding captions, comments and descriptions to all the photos of the album. When moving the photos from one location of the blog to another, the plugin safeguard and preserves the information associated with the individual photos.

Fancybox [ Demo ]

Fancybox is a versatile interface that lets offers you a plethora of customizing options. This plugin uses J-query by default that can be applied to posts, sidebar etc.

Awesome Flickr Gallery [ Demo ]

This fast, simple and seamless plugin provides a clean way of customizing Flickr galleries. It supports both private and public photos and is SEO friendly so your photos are ready for the web when you are.

uSquare [ Demo ]

This square grid interface displays your content in a unique way, and can be used for blog posts, designs, services, or anything you desire. The live folder includes 3 edits of the original file so you can see if this plugin works for you.

DZS ZoomFolio [ Demo ]

ZoomFolio is the ultimate gallery plugin for WordPress and the possibilities are literally endless from boasting your vacation photos to recent posts on your blog.

Showcase [ Demo ]

Showcase refines your current WordPress bland gallery and makes the whole process of ordering, uploading and editing your images literally seamless. After which your gallery is presented in a captivating lightbox slideshow.

RoyalSlider [ Demo ]

RoyalSlider features touch swipe navigation and allows for CSS3 banner rotators, custom slideshows, and horizontal thumbnails all from one simple interface. There is also support for Vimeo and YouTube video galleries.

Gallerix [ Demo ]

Gallerix is an easy to use plugin that is basically a simple replacement to your traditional WordPress gallery. It offers an intuitive interface that is literally seamless to use.

Media Grid [ Demo ]

The new Media Grid is completely revamped to feature a structure that is compatible with IE8 users. This simple fast category sorting system is arguably the best feature of this plugin, and allows you to set numeric values on the fly.

GRAND FlAGallery [ Demo ]

GRAND FlAGallery packs a lot of punch for a subtle plugin with a combination of a banner rotator and music album, and a photo and video gallery plugin.

Global Gallery [ Demo ]

Global Gallery is combination of four lightboxes, three gallery layouts that are compatible with a Macbook or an Android Device.

TouchCarousel [ Demo ]

TouchCarousel is a content slide that is highlighted by its touch navigation features for mobile devices. You can customize tags, categories, post types or anything you see fit.

Thumbnail Gallery [ Demo ]

If you’re looking to add a thumbnail gallery to your blog, this is it. This plugin allows you to resize and customize photos that are compatible with all browsers.

SlideDeck2 [ Demo ]

This feature rich slider solution allows you to create SlideDecks with video, HTML, text and images. There’s no coding required to create stunning content sliders and you can even display content from RSS feeds, Instagram, etc.

Fancy Gallery [ Demo ]

After a tremendous amount of tweaking, Fancy Gallery is now available with an excellent Ajax admin panel, and a gallery that can accommodate unlimited albums. You can even add different types of media such as images, websites and videos.

Dynamic Content Gallery [ Demo ]

This plugin creates a dynamic gallery of content and images and can be added to your theme as a template tag or as a widget. The plugin dynamically creates a gallery of your content either by specifying image URL’s or/and connecting to the first image attachment.

Complete Gallery Manager [ Demo ]

With Complete Gallery Manager, creating and managing galleries is fun as it allows you to cater to large galleries with a lot of plugins and an intuitive interface.

Social Gallery [ Demo ]

Social Gallery is appointed with a fantastic interface that features social media button to attract and stun visitors to your WordPress site. With Facebook style image viewing, improved media navigation for users, fullscreen mode, lightweight JavaScript and its compatibility with themes, posts, pages and widgets, this plugin definitely ranks high on this list.

Lightbox Gallery [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to extend the default gallery options, switch to JS display, gives you a tooltip view of images, and divides your gallery into several pages.

PhotoMosaic [ Demo ]

PhotoMosaic is compatible with the all new WPv3.5 gallery system, and allows you to create customizable columns, width, & padding. With its masonry layout and widget support, this plugin transforms your traditional WordPress gallery into an appealing design piece.

PhotoShow [ Demo ]

PhotoShow makes it easy to add elegant style to your WordPress gallery with a simple shortcode. The plugins options page is easy to configure and you get widget support, template tag support, and HTML image captions.

CCGallery WP [ Demo ]

If you’re looking for a plugin that’s compatible with CCGallery HTML5 Multimedia Gallery, CCGallery WP is an excellent choice. It displays all your video and audio files and video files and images in an appealing interface. You can filter items by categories and can between two display modes.

CataBlog [ Demo ]

CataBlog is a rather effective tool that allows you to create catalogs, galleries, stories and anything you want to share through you blog. You can use your galleries to sort items into multiple catalogs and is easy to keep track of them.

WP Photo Album plus [ Demo ]

With WP Photo Album plus, you can create as many photo albums as you like as well as sub albums simultaneously. Also, you with photo album plus, you are able to resize the photo accordingly to your preference.

nRelate [ Demo ]

This is not your average WordPress plugin. With its innovative technology, it analyzes the content on your site and displays relevant post from it. The plugin is seamless to use, and once it’s up and running, it begins to analyze your content almost immediately.

Slider Evolution [ Demo ]

This J-Query based plugin creates excellent transition effects with the help of JavaScript sliders. You can make your website unique by adding a unique slider and as many as you like.

PhotoSmash [ Demo ]

PhotoSmash puts you in complete control of your WordPress blog/site by creating custom form layouts and photo galleries. Some of the features include contributable photo galleries, link gallery thumbnails, Ajax photo uploads and star ratings for images, to name a few.

Slider Gallery Shortcode [ Demo ]

This plugin creates a shortcode for your WordPress blog/website, which allows you to create an excellent slider gallery in minutes. This is done intuitively by typing the ¡°slider¡± while you’re composing your post or page.

Justified Image Grid [ Demo ]

This J-Query based plugin replaces your traditional WordPress plugin with eye catching features and options. With the new upgrades, you are able to pull images directly from Facebook, and are in control of every aspect such as appearance, color overlays, captions and ligtboxes.

Video Gallery [ Demo ]

Video Gallery is claimed to be one of the most stock video galleries around. You get a custom admin panel that fits seamlessly into your current WordPress design, and advanced HTML functionality so it is cross browser and iPad/iPad compatible.

Video Player [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to control the player look and feel through a user friendly interface. Available in two versions, the player can be resized through the WP admin and easily integrated using the shortcode.

LayerSlider [ Demo ]

LayerSlider allows you to create any number of layers and sub layers and you can use unlimited links and images. With a user friendly script, you can change delay times, add global settings and much more.

WordPress DZS Flipbook [ Demo ]

This plugin is compatible with all types of media including audios, videos and in-line content. Powered by jQuery, it provides lightbox support and neat effects for your presentations.

Slideshow Gallery [ Demo ]

This JavaScript powered slideshow gallery showcases your content in a beautiful format and has the capacity to display multiple galleries. Being extremely versatile, this gallery can be easily configured, with easy hard coding or embedding.

Smooth Slider [ Demo ]

If you’re looking pages, pages and media images on your WordPress blog/website through a dynamic slideshow, Smooth Slider is your best bet. The slideshow is text and javascript based, making your SEO friendly without any extra effort.

Premium Gallery Manager [ Demo ]

With multiple upload support, Premium Gallery Manager has a smart crop option and is also lightbox enabled, and you can choose from 5 effects and create unlimited galleries.

Lightbox Gallery Manager [ Demo ]

Lightbox Gallery Manager allows you to embed as many lightbox galleries on your site. You can organize your images in single sets or in categories with a simple shortcode.

Yet Another Photoblog [ Demo ]

This WordPress plugin converts your photoblog within a short span of time. You can create multiple thumbnail images and control them right from the theme. You also get a ready to go configurable sidebar widget and latest images that transforms your WordPress site/blog into an intuitive photoblog system.

Content Slide [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to customize the size color and styles of your slideshows, and the fading effect is created with the help of Jquery inner fade.

Wall Gallery [ Demo ]

This plugin allows you to easily add a grid style gallery to your WordPress blog/site. The gallery is completely customizable and can be inserted in any page or post.

GRAND Flash Album Gallery [ Demo ]

GRAND Flash Album Gallery is a powerful Jquery media plugin for WordPress, and allows you to edit your media in a number of ways. You can create photo galleries, music descriptions and is compatible with Google Reader and Feedburner.

AWSOM Pixgallery [ Demo ]

AWSOM Pixgallery is a great plugin for artists that want to showcase their work in a sheer elegant interface. With the New Image/Gallery RSS system, you can alert visitors when new pictures are available, and can be easily installed with no theme editing.

TS Display [ Demo ]

TS Display is a WordPress plugin that is appointed with a number of appealing features, which include a flexible layout, unlimited frame color, cross browser compatibility, flexible column and well documented.

Jigowatt Gallery [ Demo ]

Jigowatt Gallery allows you to insert themes into posts and pages and create customizable galleries. Backed up by WordPress 3.0′s Custom Post Taxonomies and type, it is easy to extend and seamless to use. Some of the other features include creating unlimited galleries, assigning images to galleries, uploading images from the WordPress admin panel and displaying galleries on the front end using the shortcode ([jigowatt_gallery).

jGallery [ Demo ]

jGallery for WordPress features a seamless way to create a gallery on any page sidebar or post. You can choose between a wide range of shortcodes, widgets, or simply embed your gallery directory into the template files.

Flickr [ Demo ]

Flickr Photo Album allows you to pull your Flickr stash and display them elegantly on your WordPress blog/site. This plugin is extremely versatile and can be customized in a number of ways such as linking it to lighbox style galleries, third party commenting services, and a widget for your sidebar.

Foobox [ Demo ]

Foobox works hand in hand with NextGen to create responsive image lighboxes that are compatible with social sharing. It is designed to make your images raise eyebrows with their elegance and is compatible with all devices. With intuitive slideshow functionality, images can be resized to any resolution, and seamless forward and backward navigation is available. Your images go viral and can be easily shared by your visitors across the social media plateau.

Shutter [ Demo ]

Backed up by a feature called custom, which is technique that is becoming increasingly popular with WordPress plugins. This plugin has the ability to make photographs larger with simple lightbox technology, and proofing can be enabled with a simple add-on.

G4B Photo Gallery [ Demo ]

G4B Photo Gallery is an open source flexible plugin for WordPress and provides a simple way to include a complete photo gallery anywhere in your blog. Some of the features include effectively creating and managing and creating albums, thumbnail and cropping support, uploading editing and deleting photos, PHP 4 and PHP 5 support and smooth compatibility with CSS.

Fotobook [ Demo ]

Fotobook is simple to use and will link seamlessly to your Facebook accounts with the Facebook API. The list of features of Fotobook is extensive, but some of the appealing ones are displaying photo albums on your WordPress page, importing pictures from multiple Facebook accounts, validating XHTML 1.0 Strict through the frontend, easy to use Ajax album management panel, inserting photos into specific posts/pages, creates a specific album for tagged users and a sidebar widget to display recent or random albums and photos.

Cincopa [ Demo ]

Cincopa is all in one plugin that does everything from resizing, delivering, encoding, skinning and tracking through a slick interface. This plugin includes a number of video players, galleries, slideshows, music players, podcasts in many different shapes and sizes.

Cleaner Gallery [ Demo ]

Cleaner Gallery gives you complete control over your WordPress galleries with a valid XHTML solution that requires WordPress 2.6+. Some of the features include displaying specific images, adds support for multiple lightbox scripts and control of your images through CSS.

PhotoXhibit [ Demo ]

Formerly Benjamin Sterling Galleries, PhotoXhibit streams photos from Picasa, SmugMug and Flickr accounts to your WordPress blog/site and also allows you to build and upload albums to help you create appealing galleries anywhere you like. Although the list of features is extensive, the ones that make this plugin appealing are an independent gallery creator, easy to use interface and the ability to customize each gallery.

Gardening Mask on Premium WordPress Themes

However, if you spend a little time and go through this tutorial, you would get quite familiar with Pen tool and selecting and cutting the portion of the image as you wish won’t be of any tension any more. You could easily be a Pen Master and would surely wonder how would anyone simply does not know how to use something so simple!

So, let’s get started…

Where to Find Pen Tool?

Before we start using Pen tool, let us take a look at where this tool is located in Photoshop. You can easily find it in the Tool Palette which is grouped within the shape tools.

By selecting this option, you have full control of which section of your image to be cut out and make various changes accordingly. Well, this is one of my favorite methods to isolate an element from its background and put it in some other backgrounds.

Getting Started With Pen Tool

Step 1:  Select a picture first. In this tutorial, the following image is used. Our task is to cut out the whole maple leaf.

Step 2: When the picture is open in Photoshop, we need to zoom in so we can work comfortably. Next, select Pen tool. What we need to do is to click on the outline of the image where we want to cut out as the first anchor point. Once that is done, choose the second anchor point, then hold and drag the point so that it fits the outline of the image.

Next, repeat this process until the whole leaf section is selected.

Step 3: When we arrive at the area where the first anchor point was placed, click on the first point to complete the path. Now, zoom out and notice that the leaf image has been surrounded in path.

Convert Path into Selection

Step 4: In order to convert a path to selection, you need to locate a button containing a dotted circle at the end of the path panel (If you are not sure where the path panel is located, go to the Window tab and select Paths). Selecting and pressing this button would help to turn your image into a selection. Another way to do is to drag and drop your path onto this button.

Step 5: Once the selection process is over, you can copy (Ctrl+C) the portion of the image and paste (Ctrl+V) it on any background you want. When you do that, a new layer will be created and you are all done.

Let me backtrack a little. After you convert the path into selection, you can choose to feather the selection to give it soft focus at the edges. To do this, go to Select >> Modify >> Feather and enter the number of pixels. Then proceed with the copy & paste process.

Pen tool can be used to cut out all kinds of images. I personally feel that this is the best selection tool for both newbie and professionals as it is simple to use and implement on any kinds of pictures. I hope by going through this tutorial, you would challenge yourself by using Pen tool in your image selection. If you feel it is difficult and confusing to use, after a bit of practice with concentration, you will never want to go back using other selection tools anymore.

About the author
Aditi Datta is a Professional brochure designer who loves to craft out new and unique design for her business. She also works in a leading company and also provides helpful and essential design related tips and tutorials through her write ups.

Infographics are now considered as the fastest growing type of content on the World Wide Web. For this reason, business-to-business (B2B) marketers believe that this format is the best way to influence their target audience. In fact, based on the recent surveys conducted, infographics are now used as a marketing strategy by about 20% of B2B companies. The yearly growth of this communication tool suggests that it will continue to become popular in the coming years.

This trend is not really surprising because with today’s digital world, people are more attracted to colorful, eye-catching content than boring, long blog posts. It engages the company’s target audience, allowing them to spread information about their company, brand, and product. In addition, the audience can easily understand and retain information because the data are presented in a simple method using graphs, images, and short texts.

Infographics And E-Commerce

Infographics are the newest trend in sharing information. This communication tool gives people visual figures of information and facts on a wide variety of subjects. In the past couple of years, a number of companies have tried reaching consumers overseas. These companies used infographics to appeal to an international audience and they have enjoyed great success. Today, infographics play a critical role in overseas sales by informing consumers about the potential of the overseas market. In addition, this communication device helps companies establish their brands and inform new audience about their products and services without spending thousands of dollars.

Ways To Use Infographics As A Marketing Strategy

1. Present The “Big Picture”: In can be quite challenging to present and explain information to prospects. An infographic, with its images, graphs, and eye-catching design, is a great way to present pieces of information. For instance, you can show who does what and when; and visually present the interaction of all the contributors. Basically, you can present the “Big Picture” in a single content which prospects can understand and refer to regularly.
   
   
2. How-To Presentation: “Internet users are always looking for help and advice; thus, presenting a step-by-step process through visual content is a very effective way of communicating information. You can turn your infographics to a step-by-step instruction guide that can help your potential consumers understand, appreciate, and accept your product and brand. This is very helpful, especially for those products that are quite complicated.
   
   
3. Present Brand Superiority: Infographics are also excellent mediums for demonstrating how your product can be beneficial for your potential consumers, and how it is superior over other brands. Traditionally, these pieces of information are presented through lifeless and dull white paper; however, with the use of infographics, you will be able to present the same information in a more interesting and engaging way.

Now that you are familiar with how you can use infographics as a marketing strategy, you must then consider why you should include it in your online content marketing. Knowing how you can use this communication device is one thing, but having the motivation to use infographics as a marketing strategy is another thing entirely.

• Infographics Are Attractive: With the amount of information available online, you have to make your content eye-catching and engaging or else, your target audience won’t even look at your content. Using infographics will help you catch your audience’s attention through images, graphs, and compelling designs.
• Capacity To Go Viral: The main objective of using this communication tool for marketing is for it to go viral. This means that the infographics is shared and read across various social media and blogging communities. If the infographics go viral, you will be able to reach more prospects.
• Brand Awareness: If you create a visual content with your logo or brand, it will be a powerful method of creating greater brand awareness. This will help your potential consumers recognize your brand.
• Worldwide Promotion: With this communication device, you can aim globally when advertising, and all you need to do is push a button. Infographics can provide you with global coverage that local print and advertising media could never accomplish.

With e-commerce slowly becoming the future of international trading, infographics help that trend by being comprehensible across global markets. This communication device is the perfect tool for worldwide trading.

About the author
Kris Bennette is a writer for Designer Infographics, which is a company that specializes in infographic design.

Vector Mask on Premium WordPress Themes

What is Responsive Design?

Responsive design is simply creating a website that looks good on a wide variety of devices. That is the simple answer. The more complex answer lies in making it work. Web designers and developers have to plan their designs carefully and test them using either software that simulates different devices or on the actual devices. Just as designers have to test their sites in various web browsers to check for compatibility issues, they also have to test using different mobile operating systems such as Android and Apple’s iOS.

Does My Website Have to Be Responsive?

Well, technically, no. You can have a website that only works well on standard personal computers, as long as you are willing to ignore 25% or more of the potential visitors your website could receive. The market for smartphones and tablets has grown every year since 2007 and there are no signs it will slow down anytime soon. As a matter of fact, most analysts predict the number of mobile web surfers will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. Therefore, if you don’t have a responsive website, you are alienating more potential visitors every year.

How Do I Make My Website Mobile-Friendly?

The answer to this is different for everyone. For example, if you have an existing older website, trying to convert it to a mobile website is typically more expensive and more trouble than simply having the website redesigned. If you are building a new website, then your best option is to start from the ground-up with a responsive design.

For a new project, you should find a designer who includes responsive design as part of the project. If you are building your website on WordPress, we highly recommend you to try ElegantThemes as a lot of their themes are responsive. Some of their responsive themes are even built using ThemeMask’s concept that offers design in various topic.

Responsive design is more than just a buzzword in the web development industry. For today’s businesses, blogs and other websites, it is a necessity. Responsive design isn’t a trend that will eventually go away. Now that Pandora’s box has been opened, you can be assured that the need for websites that are viewable on a wide variety of devices is only going to become more important as time goes on. If you don’t want your website to get outpaced by your competition, then having a responsive website design is absolutely critical.

About the Author
Chris Scarborough loves to build ecommerce sites that are targeted to mobile customers. He incorporates responsive design with Bigcommerce checkout platforms and aims to create a stellar user experience.

About ElegantThemes

There are many theme marketplaces for WordPress, so it can be difficult to know which to trust. Here are a few reasons why ElegantThemes products are rated so highly.

Powerful ePanels Theme Options

ElegantThemes products all come with a variety of settings that can be edited without touching a line of code. If you don’t understand PHP, HTML and CSS, or just want to edit settings quickly, the Elegant Themes control panel makes customizing your site much easier. Whether you want to change a color scheme, edit the navigation panel, alter the layout of your site or manage SEO options, many settings can be customized with the ElegantThemes ePanel. Even if you’re a professional web designer, being able to edit settings quickly is always welcome.

Drag and Drop Page Builder

Page Builder is another bonus of using an ElegantThemes product. By using Page Builder, you can edit the layout and design of your posts without knowing HTML. Complex layouts, which are usually difficult to create in WordPress posts, are easy to achieve in the drag-and-drop way.

Predefined Page Templates

With most themes, if you want to add a gallery or sitemap page you need to install an additional plugin. Standard themes often don’t support multiple page templates. Elegant Themes products do support this feature, and you can switch between them simply by selecting from a list. Layouts for each page can also be set individually. Examples of page templates include image galleries, contact forms, member login pages and full width pages. Page templates provide a much greater control over how your content is displayed.

Large Shortcodes Collection

ElegantThemes products include shortcodes for buttons, boxes, toggled and tabbed content, slideshows and image sliders. You can also create columns with shortcodes and add author info to a post.

Variety of Layouts

ElegantThemes understand that WordPress is far more than just a blogging platform. Many of the company’s themes aren’t designed for basic blogs. Magazine themes, for example, are perfect for large content sites that display a variety of media. Portfolio themes are far less cluttered, and are designed to show off recent projects with a simple and crisp design. Whether you’re using WordPress for a blog, multimedia portal or personal site, there’s sure to be an ElegantThemes product that fits your requirements.

Cheapest Price Scheme

Unlike most theme companies, ElegantThemes is priced on a yearly subscription basis. Instead of paying $80-100 for just one theme, a $39 per year subscription to ElegantThemes provides access to all 80+ themes in the directory. That means you are just paying less than $0.5 per theme.

Excellent Support

It doesn’t matter how secure and reliable a theme’s code is – there’s always a chance of problems during installation or usage. ElegantThemes provides excellent and fast support, along with regular updates. If you have a problem, the support staff will help you to overcome it as quickly as possible.

Unlike other theme providers, which often let their themes become outdated when WordPress is updated, ElegantThemes believes in longevity. While you’re a member, you have access to the latest versions of each theme. All themes are updated if they become incompatible with WordPress, so you’ll never be forced to run old or unsecure versions.

ThemeMask on ElegantThemes

Several years ago WordPress sites were mainly used as blogs, and extra features like page templates and shortcodes weren’t as important. Today, WordPress has become a versatile platform that supports many different types of website, including eCommerce stores and portfolios. ElegantThemes produces themes to cater for all types of websites.

The result is a highly versatile catalogue of themes, with functions and features that make each product suitable for a variety of purposes. This means that it’s common to find a theme with the perfect layout or structure for your site, but with an appearance or design that you don’t like.

This is where ThemeMask can be so valuable. By purchasing masks for an Elegant Themes product, you maintain the functionality and content layout of a theme but completely change the header, background and footer design. Masks are available for a number of ElegantThemes themes, and each completely alters the “feel” of the basic design with new and exciting images.

As we mentioned earlier, ElegantThemes products are updated regularly. ThemeMask always keeps masks up to date too, so you’ll never have to worry about being left with incompatible products. Masks don’t make permanent changes to the code of a theme, so you can add, remove or replace them whenever you want.

ElegantThemes makes some of the best themes in the WordPress industry. With ThemeMask, you can add beautiful styles to the already excellent functionality of ElegantThemes products. The combination can really make your WordPress site stand out.