To run a successful ecommerce website, you need to make your web store as attractive as possible and display your product range to the best advantage.

You may incorporate an online catalogue that provides detailed information on each product and make it easy for the online shopper to make a purchase. Perhaps it would be nice to have organized categories and use thumbnails to give faster load time. Just let the visitors learn about your product, win your customers’ interest before they will actually shop online.

Note that for a fail-safe eCommerce project it is highly recommended that the retailer is physically present in the web store having a real name instead of pseudonym, putting a personal picture and being ready to communicate with customers, explain the process of placing the order and proceeding with it. Simply let your customers feel that they know at least something about you to be certain that someone will take care of them.

Additionally, you should give clear and accessible information about your company, your contact information, customer service. It’s highly preferable to present these options as links on your eCommerce website’s main navigation menu. What’s also important here is to provide the answers to the commonly asked questions using FAQs, for instance. Your customers will feel comfortable with a fully developed customer service policy. They will also feel secure in your store if there is SSL on your online payment pages, some visible signs that your site is secure and online payment systems are safe. Plus you can show credibility signs like 3rd party trust logos, security audits of your website, accreditation logos included in strategic points on your site, etc. The above-mentioned factors are actually the prime concern of every potential online shopper.

Do you know that the visitors are sure to give up shopping with eCommerce websites that have large sections under construction or offer coming soon banners, stores that never offer any new content, littered with dead links, hosted by providers that provide slow or inconsistent services? Be sure, all this will kill online shopping and a business eventually. It is extremely important that you, as a solid online retailer, could afford to professionally maintain your eCommerce website, otherwise the visitors will leave you.

To make your eCommerce website a high converting machine that not only has top-quality look, but also builds tremendous credibility, you may apply to Template Monster that’s having this killing promo currently – their eCommerce Templates are 20% off starting August 25th. Out of such product categories as osCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, Zen Cart, VirtueMart, and CRE Loaded Templates, online retailers can pick any design and purchase it with a guaranteed discount. Every eCommerce Template developed by Template Monster expert designers has a professional-looking, fully functional design that will build exceptional credibility with potential online shoppers. So make the click that matters! Follow this source to get a professional eCommerce design at a 20% discount and make your eCommerce site visitors actually shop with your new shiny store.

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One such online source is MaYoMo.

MaYoMo is a great user-generated news website. It derives its name from “Map Your Moments.” Visitors to the site find a map on the homepage with red dots spread out geographically.

These red dots represent active news in the areas they are placed on. You can hover your mouse pointer over any red dot and a preview of the news will be shown.

You can click on the red dot to display the news details which can include text, pictures, audio, and video. The news might be in a non-English language; you can figure this out by reading the text in the preview.

If you would like to view news according to your interests, you can filter the global news according to the category that interests you. Choose the news genre at the top of the global news map. The website also provides visitors with the option to filter news by their date. This can be done via a slider present at the bottom of the global news map. You can create an account on MaYoMo to submit news you have.

Overall, MaYoMo is a wonderful news website that can help you stay aware of what is going on in the world. Check out MaYoMo.

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Below you will find my gathered list of 15 online tools for sketching and drawing. Try out each one and see what service best suits your tastes. You are welcome to share if you know more useful drawing and sketching tools which our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.

1. Flame

This tool is simply brilliant. It gives you simple tools which create flame-like textures. These textures can be adjusted according to your preferences: you can change colors, saturation, opacity, etc. Even random mouse gestures can end up creating wonderful patterns. Visit Flame here.

2.  Scribbler Too

Scribbler Too is another greatly engaging sketching tool. Its web-like drawings are easy to create. Many color options are available for you to modify. Learning the tools is quite easy and once you have learned them, creating masterpieces is quite easy too. Visit Scribbler Too here.

3. Flash Paint

Flash Paint is a full web based drawing tool with many drawing features. The feature I liked best was its ability to create complex geometrical drawings with ease. This was achieved through a combination of lines and curves which you can modify easily. Click here to visit Flash Paint.

4. Odosketch

Odosketch supports brush-based drawing. Brushes of varying thickness are provided; these can be used to form brilliant drawing on the virtual canvas. Visit Odosketch here.

5. Sketch Swap

This sketching website has only drawing tool: a thick dark brown pencil. You draw a sketch and then swap it with somebody else on the site. When you view the other person’s sketch, a replay is shown of the sketch was built from zero to completion. It is quite interesting to see an empty canvas take the form of a finished product. Click here to visit Sketch Swap.

6. Draw.To

Draw.To lets you draw simple small drawing and share them on Twitter and Facebook. The small canvas can be used to show off your creativity. Click here to visit Draw.To.

7. Penolo

Penolo is a somewhat similar to Draw.To. You are provided with a small canvas and some basic tools to draw with. The result can be shared on your Twitter account. Visit Penolo here.

8. Canvastic

This online drawing tool is quite basic and very suitable for children or for quick time passing. If you want, you can accompany your pictures with explanatory text. Your brush strokes are recorded and a “replay” button can be used to see exactly how your sketch came into being. Visit Canvastic here.

9. Queeky

Queeky lets you create simple drawing with tools that are seemingly basic but provide comprehensive drawing options. Finished drawing can be saved and share. Browsing others’ drawing is also possible through Queeky. Visit the site here.

10. SketchPad

SketchPad is a simple sketching tool with wonderful colors of canvas and brushes. The results you get are quite interesting because of the amazing color combinations. Click here to visit SketchPad.

11. Viscosity

Viscosity makes it very easy to create abstract art. If you have great drawing skills, you can use Viscosity to create something truly unique. Click here to visit the site.

12. Doink

Doink is another site which I thought made it a lot easier to create complex geometrical drawings through straight lines and curves. Apart from that, basic tools on the site make sketching fun and quick. Visit Doink here.

13. Flock Draw

Flock Draw is a collaborative drawing tool which can be a lot of fun if you have a partner to draw with on another computer. Click here to visit Flock Draw.

14. My Oats

This is an absolutely amazing website to create symmetrical circular drawings. You will get the hang of the available tools and mouse gestures rather quickly and easily create wonderful drawings. Visit My Oats here.

15. Draw Things

Draw Things is another simple drawing tool which lets you create simple sketches via variable pen thickness. The provided color range is not very vast but it does the simple sketching job fine. Draw Things is ideal for quickly killing some time. Visit the site here.

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Below you will find 10 websites which I feel are great for brainstorming and working as a group. Check each one out and see which one suits your group project best.

1. Zoho

Zoho is the name for a collection of services. The entries you see in the image above are only few of what Zoho has to offer. We can sign up for an account and use Zoho’s services to easily gather ideas and create plus modify files / documents / images / presentations as a group. Click here to visit Zoho.

2. Mind42

Mind42 is free to use website that lets us brainstorm individually or as a group. We can create an account and record our ideas through simple mind maps. Mind maps can be group brainstorming a lot more effective because they save time when it comes to filtering our ideas. Click here to visit Mind42.

3. Imagination Cubed

Imagination Cubed is a very simple to use website that facilitates group drawing. We are provided a canvas on which we can draw with a red virtual pen. We can insert various shapes and text, draw straight lines, and change the canvas’s color. Our pen’s motion is also recorded and a “replay” button shows us exactly the motion our pen followed. We can invite our friends to our canvas via their email address. Once they join in we can draw simultaneously on the same canvas. Click here to visit Imagination Cubed.

4. Edistorm

Edistorm is a website that lets us add notes to a very large canvas. We can move around notes to prioritize them and sort our ideas. Under the free account we can create public and self brainstorming sessions. For a fee we can create private brainstorming sessions which let us share our canvas with users we invite only. Our invited users can view our canvas and add notes to it as well. Click here to visit Edistorm.

5. WiseMapping

WiseMapping is another website that lets users create mind maps as a group. The interface is user friendly and saves users’ time in figuring out the controls. We can embed ready mind maps in any website. Through WiseMapping we can also save our mind maps as image files or PDF documents. Click here to visit WiseMapping.

6. Think

Think is an online tool that lets users create interlinked mind maps. We can link one node of our map to many nodes and then shift them around as we see fit. The simplicity of use is what makes Think unique. Click here to visit Think.

7. Bubbl.us

Bubbl.us lets users sign up for an account and create mind maps as a group. The mind maps created on the site are colorful and have a variety of colors differentiating map nodes which makes them easier to spot and read. Click here to visit Bubbl.us.

8. Sneffle (Virtual Paper)

Sneffel gives users a whiteboard to draw on. The URL of the whiteboard can be shared with our friends for collaborative drawing. We can embed the whiteboard on our blog or website as well. Click here to visit Sneffel.

9. Glinkr

Glinkr, another online mind map creation tool, is great for online collaboration. We can create colorful mind maps that are easy to read. Plus we can attach additional descriptions and links to our nodes. The interactive interface lets us easily move the nodes of our map. Our maps can be exported to an XML file. Click here to visit Glinkr.

10. Solvr

Solvr is a free to use website that lets us post a problem and then share that URL with our friends whom we want to ask the solution from. This can be helpful when we want to reach a solution as group. The approach is that of an online forum but dedicated to problem solving. Click here to visit Solvr.

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eType is a freeware currently in its beta. The downloadable app is compatible with Windows and sized at almost 5 MB. Installation is quite standard and you will have it up and running in no time.

Once the program has been installed, you can have it run in the background as an icon in your system tray. You can right click on the icon and enable / disable eType’s function.

So what exactly does eType do?

eType monitors your typing activity in any application. Whether you are using notepad, Microsoft Word, typing in your web browser, chatting, or doing any other typing activity, eType will be monitoring what you type. As soon as you type in a few letters, word suggestions will pop up in a floating window. From this floating window you can select the word you wanted to use. A word can be selected by pressing ENTER or SPACE or clicking on the word. You can choose to skip the word selection by pressing the ESC key. To revert to typing the old way, you can always disable eType from its system tray icon.

By completing a user’s words eType will help many computer users who want to type fast and save time.

eType is a freeware program and currently in beta. There are 1000 instant beta invites exclusively available for SmashingApps readers. You can get eType from http://www.etype.com/v.aspx?id=smashingapps

We do not need anything in return but would appreciate a lot if you can guys can spread the word and tweet it.

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1. Topics you can subscribe to

In the left pane of Google News, you will find a topics list. Click on any topic to find news related to it. When the news open up, you will find a button which lets you add that topic to your personalized news page thereby subscribing to the topic.

2. News For You

News For You is a brilliant idea by Google. You can edit the news topics by filtering them out of your news feed. New topics can be added by entering keywords in the search bar provided in the News For You box. You can also specify the frequency with which you read about each topic so that news is correspondingly arranged.

3. Selecting / Deselecting News Sources

If there is a certain news source that you prefer, you can click on “Settings” at the top of the page, select “News settings” and start typing the sites you’d like to see more often in Google News. On the other hand if there is a news source you do not like, you follow the same procedure and eliminate the news source from your feed.

4. Social Network Integration

Clicking on the small arrow in the top right corner of each news cluster will drop down networks on which you can share the current news. This is a great way to let your friends know of anything interesting you read.

5. Keyboard Shortcuts

Some keyboard shortcuts have been added to enhance the user experience. The following keys apply: j or n (next story), k or p (previous story), / (search), s (star), . or f (share), Enter (open the headline article for the current story).

Google has clearly improved its News page by giving more control to the user. A full list of new features can be read here, on Google’s official page on the matter.

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This is why I thought I should create a list of 5 online font recognizers. These tools are must-haves for every website designers. Give each of them a read and decide which one will suit your usage best.

We would love to know what you are thinking while checking this post. If we missed any tool you are welcome to share with us. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.

1. Identify Fonts

Identify Fonts is a free to use website that gives you the most simple way to find out what font is used on a website. When you are on the website having the font you like, simply take a screenshot of the text-included portion. The screenshot should not be greater than 1.8MB in size, must have the text in one line only, and must be in JPEG/JPG, GIF, or PNG image format. You then upload this screenshot image onto Identify Fonts and the site displays all results. You can choose to filter the results as free fonts only, commercial fonts only, or both. Click here to visit Identify Fonts.

2. Identifont

Identifont asks you a series of simple questions in order to determine which font you are looking for. The questions are easily answerable and are like “What type of tail does the upper-case ‘Q’ have?” There are diagrams provided so that we can select an answer. If we have only a set of characters of our desired font, we can answer character-specific questions to find the font. Click here to visit Identifont.

3. WhatTheFont

WhatTheFont recognizes fonts in the same way as IdentifyFont. The image we upload can be of GIF, JPEG, TIFF or BMP image format and must not have more than 25 characters. As the characters are scanned by the website, we are asked to confirm if the right character has been confirmed. The site then proceeds to analyze each character and find our font. Click here to visit WhatTheFont.

4. Font Trainer

Font Trainer will help you view fonts in various styles. It acts as a font recognizing quiz for the user. You can train yourself to recognize many popular fonts and reduce the need of font recognizing websites. Moreover knowing the names of many fonts will definitely help you impress your fellow website designers. Click here to visit Font Trainer.

5. TypeNavigator

TypeNavigator is a font searching tool that lets you go through a series of options in order to reach your font. The options to choose are much like the questions asked by Identifont. Alternatively you can search fonts by their names or by their designers. Click here to visit TypeNavigator.

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In case you are not familiar with the spill, it is one the most threatening environmental hazards of today. The Deepwater Horizon was a $560 million floating oil platform constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries; the platform was owned by Transocean and leased to BP (British Petroleum) till the year 2013. The platform was located in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20^th this year, the drilling rig exploded. The explosion caused a massive fire which later resulted in the platform sinking. The incident has also resulted in a massive ongoing oil spill which we now know as the BP Oil Spill.

The world does not fully recognize the seriousness of this oil spill. To help them understand the gravity of this situation, Andy Lintner created “If It Was My Home.”

If It Was My Home is a free to use website that aims to spread awareness about the BP Oil Spill. It contains a Google Map and shows the current situation of the spill and help you demonstrate the seriousness and severity of the BP disaster.

You can type in your geographical location and check what impact the spill would have in your area. If you are using Chrome, Gears can automatically convey your location to the site and you can view how much of your local area can be covered by the spill.

You can shift from simple map view to satellite, hybrid and terrain views from the available buttons.

At the bottom of the map, you can view some useful information and tips on how to spread knowledge and awareness about the spill.

Oil from the spill is exponentially spreading. By June 4, 2010, the oil spill had fouled 125 miles of Louisiana’s coast, had washed up along Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, and was found for the first time on a Florida barrier island, at Pensacola Beach, with part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Websites such as If It Was My Home are trying to help the environment recover from the damage we have caused it. You should visit the site and share it with your friends.

Check out “If It Was My Home”

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A friend of mine Syed Balkhi at WPBeginner recently created and launched a really useful and directive slideshow to make the new blog owners lives easier than ever. As the title of slideshow says everything “I’ve Got a Blog, Now What Do I Do?”, it would be enough good if someone will really want to do something to establish their blog in decent period as after reading this you guys would not need to invent the wheel again. huh! I mean he put all of his experience and mature understanding in this slideshow to deliver the actual knowledge that anyone could wish.

This slideshow consist worth-checking 50 slides which covers decision to start a blog to setting up and launching then content selection to excellent copywriting. After this, using all the possible platforms to spread out the word about your blog like getting you active on social media e.g. twitter, digg, reddit, stumbleupon etc for getting massive feedback on your posts. In short, it has so many things that you can learn to enhance your blog’s future and increase your reader base.

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Below you will find a list of 7 tools to prevent wasting electrical power. I believe that each entry in the list serves a useful purpose; read about each one and choose the one (or more than one) that suits you best.

If you want to share more tools that can Save Electrical Power so please comment about them below. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at  smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.

1. MonitorOff

MonitorOff is a freeware application that lets a user fully control when his / her monitor turns off. CRT monitors in particular take up a lot of power. The operating system usually has built in time durations for the screensaver to begin or for the monitor to turn off. But these settings will take a little longer to reach; with MonitorOff we can access / modify al time durations and even setup hotkeys. The application is for Windows and sized at nearly 400KB. Click here to get MonitorOff.

2. SetPower

SetPower is a unique power management application for Windows that lets us set three different power plans: Balanced, Power Saver, and High Performance. We can edit the details of these plans (such as when the monitor will turn off) as well as assign the times when these plans will come into effect. For different hours of the day, we can assign our computer with different plans, according to our usage. Click here to get SetPower.

3. AppliancesEnergyUse

AppliancesEnergyUse lists the power input of almost 50 household appliances. By finding out how much power we are using simultaneously we can see if we are wasting energy. We can also set a personal power goal for ourselves and vow to never cross that wattage at a given time. Whether or not we are crossing our goal can then be determined by AppliancesEnergyUse. Click here to visit AppliancesEnergyUse.

4. Edison

Edison is an installable application for Windows. It offers the same features as SetPower, with multiple power schemes that can set to be implemented on different times of the day. An additional feature of the application is its ability to estimate the power we are saving and use the electrical unit price to calculate our savings. We can enter our own price was more accurate results. Click here to get Edison.

5. HomeEnergySaver

HomeEnergySaver is a free to use website that lets us answer a few question to learn our electrical power usage pattern. It then suggests ways in which we can reduce our power usage. We can view the report of each of these suggestions and see how much each would cost. Click here to visit HomeEnergySaver.

6. Microsoft Hohm

Hohm is Microsoft’s version of HomeEnergySaver. It requires users to have a Windows Live ID to register for an account before visitors can use the site’s services. Once the account is formed, we answer elaborate questions so that Hohm can fully understand our power usage patterns. We are then presented with suggestions of how we can cut back on our electrical power usage. Using Hohm’s service is free but restricted to users in the US. Click here to visit Hohm.

7. FuelCharts

FuelCharts is a free to use website. We can use the site to enter our electricity bills’ amounts over a two years’ period. Bar graphs are created of each bill. These bars provide us with a good enough comparison of our last year’s energy usage and this year’s energy usage. We can change electricity with anything we like (oil, biodiesel, etc.) and achieve an energy comparison for various resources. Click here to visit FuelCharts.

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