Flosites

The world of web has truly been turned on its side; revolutionized not only by functionality, options and social media, but now mobile. The average traffic received by clients from mobiles users varies from 18-32%, usually to direct links, mainly blog posts. With this in mind, more and more people are using sites as a reference example to show past work, but even more so now as the initial interface for new clients, with the increased numbers of people using tablets for browsing over regular computers.

This begs the question: is your site optimized for mobile devices or not? To take it further, if so, which type of optimization do you have? Many do not know the differences or the benefits of what a mobile version can offer your visitors.

Whether your site is flash or fully html, your mobile version will fall into one of these four categories:

1 – Browser Friendly

This is the most common. Any browser friendly mobile site has been coded with mobiles in mind, making sure that all content, navigation is available and workable via any mobile device.

This is the most common option also for flash sites that use html interfaces other than the mobile app itself to work on non-flash devices. Whilst it is a good option and represents your sites full design, it lacks the fluidity and interaction that a fully responsive, or mobile version of your site would allow for visitors to easily navigate throughout your site with simple clicks and procedures. eg. without having to zoom in to navigate.

2 – Mobile App

This was the most common option when customization of sites, especially flash based sites was introduced. Usually these sites had a strict un styled interface, though worked as a regular mobile application to easily navigate between information, gallery or blog posts within a site. The problem with these sites was that the personality that you may have invested heavily in for a custom styled site will be lost simply because of the restrictions implemented by the mobile app template.

And of course you have to develop an application for almost every mobile platform to let allow your visitors to access your information from every platform. iOS, Android & Windows Phone are the most popular systems for mobile devices. Though there are also several others such as the Blackberry OS, Palm OS, even Symbian and so many others. To develop these kind of mobile applications also isn’t cost efficient.

The benefits are that you can present your information in any type you want. Push notifications for iOS are one of the most popular examples – you can send a message to your clients any time anywhere. Promotions are also a good way to improve potential client conversion and improve traffic. However, this is a common option for large sites, there are also many templated options that can be purchased and customized to fulfill the same option for your business.

3 – Mobile Version

Mobile versions are a beautiful option to allow very custom styled sites to have a fully automated mobile interface with a custom design. What makes these different than a mobile app site, is that they still hold the design style of the site design though act as a responsive version though with customizations to the design which would in fact make it impossible to make the design scalable due to design elements. Mobile Versions also work very well for strategically targeting content you would like your visitors to view, which allows organization and filtering of content for mobile and pad users, vs monitor visitors.

The benefits are that you can easily change the way the website would look like. For example you don’t show your mobile visitors advertisements or load smaller pictures that can save some traffic for your clients, it also allows you to simplify the navigation and direction clients and visitors to the exact places you would like clutter free. The downside is keeping the mobile version up to date, as you change content on the front end, if the mobile version is not designed with automatic content, you will have to change and update your mobile version also which will lead to making your updated information harder to present.

4 – Responsive

Takes full advantage of what html 5 and css3 can offer in todays coding. it is what makes it unique, and why many businesses market that other businesses have failed to show what html 5 can do. Whilst it is true, there are design limitations that not all boutique clients would like to yield to, simply because it restrains the layout and styling which makes the mobile version more appealing. Though on the flip side, a responsive design is the “king” of all mobile options, for full content flexibility, and it truly represents your site with fully cutting edge design and coding alike. This is in our view what the web is shaping up to be for most portfolio and brochure information based sites, as it won’t deliver the full requirements that a functioning site such as an airline registration site would require, though for content, news deliverability would be the core for the future.

You don’t hide information you control it. You make your website accessible through almost every device without any problems of resizing, small texts and so on.

After months of planning we have finally released our first John Doe Theme from Flothemes. 

We are currently accepting only 10 first clients, as an early bird special before a full release. We will be releasing only one theme at a time, with a limited number of sales to keep our themes fresh and premium.

The John Doe Theme is not just a blog, but a blog site, with galleries, styled information pages, dynamic contact form, blog with social integration from Facebook, twitter, pinterest and google+. These are among a few neat options under the hood of the new John Doe Theme. Hop on over to the main page to take it for a test drive, or sign up to be one of the first 10 to own a Flotheme!

Once again we want to thank everyone for helping us with ideas, beta testing! this is just the start of something that will surprise and benefit many in our industry! But for now, it will be just one step at a time! Thank You!

Also look out for the chance to win a free download of the John Doe Theme from the Flothemes home page through the tweet to win option!

Flosites Team

Ever wonder what it would feel like if you lost all of your content? Imagine: images, texts, even seo that you have spent months, or perhaps years building up for your business, only to find that you have no method to get it back? Sadly, we know these stories all too well.  After realizing that many clients weren’t being provided with back up options, we felt it necessary to provide a secure additional system for anyone (Flosites client or not), who would like to be guaranteed that their content is safely being backed up. And not just once, but daily, weekly and monthly, acting as a secure time capsule, safely in an off-site, secure location. If the worst-case-horribly-horrific-nightmare strikes, just knowing that everything will be retrieved within 24 hours, will undoubtedly provide a peace of mind for you, and hardly a notice of a problem with your clients.

INTERESTED? This is how does it work?

In fact its rather simple, it will literally only take a few minutes of your time.

1. Visit the site – click here

2. Choose your package, and follow the instructions to sign up (You can see which may work best for you below)

3. After you have signed up, you will then need to login and input your information of your hosting criteria, which we will then confirm and notify you as to when your first backup will begin.

4. Sit back, and know that your content is being securely backed up, and safe, for whenever and if you need to access it in an emergency.

Choosing the Right Package is important! 

We have put together 3 packages that we feel work for the majority of businesses in our industry:

1. Basic:

If you are new to hosting your own site, or started fresh. e.g. you used blogger only, and now use movable type or wordpress, this option is suitable for you.

2. Regular:

If you have used a blog on your host for a long period of time, and have collected several months… or years worth of content, as well as other important files on your server that you would like to make sure are not lost, then this is a suitable option.

3. Premium:

If you have more than 3 years of content, or more than 10gb of content on your server, or you have a directory or e-commerce site, with a lot of content, or just generally a lot of important information on your server which you would like backed up, then this is the right solution for you.

If you are unsure as to what works best for you feel free to drop us an email and we can notify you which will best for you.

Win a Free Years Subscription

As it is exciting for us to launch a New Service for our customers, we would love to offer you a chance to win a Free Years subscription to our service, no matter what package you fall under, we will select someone randomly via your twitter tweets.

All you have to do is copy and paste this line below to help us spread the word about our new service, and for every 50 tweets we will give 1 person a free years subscription to FloBackup.

“Tweet to Win the Ultimate Backup Solution for your site & Content for a year via @FloBackup RT”

Its the Biggest Birthday of the Year, Congratulations to the USA.

In celebrating this great day, we are offering 10% off all of our interactive services, which includes all blog and portfolio blog site packages until 5:00pm EST, Tuesday 5th July.

To take advantage of this offer, simply send in your message with the offer code: FLO0704

If you would like to read more about our interactive package options, click here: http://tinyurl.com/3zc7v9y

We want to wish you all a Great Holiday from everyone here at Flosites.

So what exactly is a Blog Site?

You have probably heard about them several times, and have a general idea as to what they are, but still many people do not know the options and flexibility of a blog site, generally because of how the old setup for a portfolio and blog used to be.

The first blog sites, where essentially a blog with galleries. The layout was a blog, the galleries where either html or flash, usually from a drop down… which is still a great solution, if your primary model of gaining clients is through blogging, but still showcasing your gallery portfolios. However, since wordpress has progressed and will continue to adapt and change options over time, the new concept of a blog site, is more of a portfolio style site, but the blog will be within it, in the same layout.

Now what does that mean for most people:

- You may keep the conventional marketing technique of having a site, and a blog separately, but for management it is all one system.

- Improved seo, as everything is in one place, linked to each other from the home page to the blog.

- Mobile Friendly, as everything will be html, and connected it will allow for seamless viewing on mobile devices, or if you plan to take it a step further, being on a wordpress platform you have many third party plugin options to convert your site to a full mobile version.

- Flexibilty, with your blog site on wordpress it will allow many options over time to upgrade, and add new plugins to improve your social media, seo, and over time being able to update your design theme on wordpress will be more cost efficient, and save time in development, without having recreate your content as long as you keep the same functionality.

All in all a blog site is a very smart solution if you want to bring everything under one roof, to be easy to manage, enhance your google juice, and adjust with upcoming trends which being on WordPress will allow you to do this easily.

Flosites Offers several Blog Site Packages, and our most popular all in one Package which are separated as follows:

So there you have it, a broken down list of the portfolio blog site options, as well as the all in one Package. For those who really want to revolutionize their visual branded business with a new logo and portfolio blog experience online, the all in one package offers every client that.

If you are interested, check out a few of our all in one client examples:

Ed Atrero

Perez Photography

Robert Wagner photography

Jared Rey Photography

Tony Ku Photography

Benjamin Scot Photography

Chantelle Moore Studio

It has been a while in the making, but we are finally happy to start receiving signups to Beta Test our new wordpress Blog, BlogSite and Site Themes. We will firstly be testing only our first theme, but we have several others ready to release officially after the Beta Testing Session is completed.

There will also be some awesome discounts for those who Beta Test and decide to sign up over at FloThemes.

So, you may be asking what is involved in the Beta Testing? It will be really easy… we promise!

> Simply enter your details into the signup form on Flothemes homepage.

> On Tuesday May 10th and Thursday May 12th, we will be sending login details to signed up Beta testers who are chosen.

> We simply ask you to try your best to destroy it! But, also to report any issues, or bugs to us at info@flothemes.com.

> We would also love to hear your thoughts on what you would like to see improved, or new options or functionalities added to the theme, and also for new Themes.

After we have finalised any requests, fixes or updates we will then update the rest of our pretty new themes to then release for everyone!

As a Beta Tester you will be eligable to an early bird Thank You discount, as well as several other bonuses!

We just want to thank everyone in advance, and for helping us help you in our new adventure!

The Flosites Team.

UPDATE: We just want to update everyone and let you know that we are very thankful for our new Clients who signed up as we have been able to donate just over $3000 to help the cause in Japan. Thank you so much!

……………………………….

Original Post:

It is pretty hard to believe what we have been witnessing in Japan over the past few days on the news with the destruction from the earthquakes and tsunamis and after shocks. It really is a catastrophic, and we can only try to imagine how many lives have been affected by this and will for years to come.

In times like this it is amazing though to see how people can unite and join to help others in need. In doing so, we felt that it was time that we try to help with whatever way we could. So let’s help!

We will be donating 10% from all packages/services (brands/blogs/sites/stationary) purchased from Flosites between Friday 18th – Friday 25th March to the Red Cross to go towards helping those in need in Japan in this crisis.

Please help us spread the word by sharing this on facebook or twitter mentioning @flosites

So if you have been wanting to get a new brand/blog or portfolio blogsite recently but would also like to know that you will be helping donate to a much needed cause in the process, now is a great time.

Even if you do not require any new services, we do know that every little helps even by a small donation.

You can also check out some other great causes from other friends/companies in our industry helping this cause:

> Our friends over at motibodo offer a great product for effective processing workflows. They currently have an offer for 100% of proceeds to go to the cause in Japan.

> We also recommend to check out this amazing site dedicated to relief in Japan :: For Japan With Love

We do appreciate everyone’s help! and if you have any questions about any of the above please feel free to email me directly at ross@flosites.com. Thank You!

If you would like to share our offer, please feel free to use these. Simply link to this blog post.

Every now and again we at Flosites like to back up some incredible artists who we feel that when they have a workshop its a must go to. Especially with the market completely saturated with workshops and much contraversary about the people behind them as a fad etc its great to know when special ones pop up, and with the amazing husband and wife couple of Daniel and Davina, and the well known wedrocker Fer juaristi will be joining their ideas together theres a lot you can learn in the business principals, techniques, and new vision and ideas for your creative field. As a small bonus, theres gonna be some pretty cool offers given away at the workshop by ourselves and other sponsored vendors.

Want to find out more? check below:

Hosts:

Davina + Daniel & Fer Juaristi

Their sites:

http://davinaplusdaniel.com/

http://ferjuaristi.com/

Get Connected on their twitter:

@davinapalik @danielkudish @ferjuaristi

or facebook:

Davina Palik, Daniel Kudish, Fer Juaristi

Check out the workshop page to signup or send any questions here.

DATE: May 10-11 2011, in Toronto

We just want to thank everyone for their support during 2010! It has been a great year for our business, and we have enjoyed working with so many of you.

We are excited to release new products and services in the first months of 2011, but until then we hope you have a great festive period and enjoy your time with your friends and families.

We also want to share our closing dates during this holiday period, as we will not be in office or able to answer any emails.

December 24-25th, December 30th-January 2nd, and January 6-7th.

We will be working fully again from January 10th next year in a new office also :)

Once again, Happy Holidays!

Flosites

This is one of our most popular packages with several peoples signing up each week. So in order to make it easier for anyone else pondering about this package we put this information together for you to help you understand whats included, what to expect and what limitations to expect. Of course, if you have any questions you can always reach us by a quick phone call, or email!

So the Customized Rebrand package includes a premade customized blog, and a full custom brand logo.

The premade customized blog is basically a regular blog skeleton – now by that we mean, it is your regular vertical blog layout. Header, navigation, optional welcome, title of post, post content, comments and then at the bottom the archives and footer. This is general for most blogs, and what we have found is that whilst as many clients want custom functionality, many clients just want a custom design, and this is why we started the customized blog package.

The package includes:

- A custom design with your brand, style throughout the entire blog.
- 2-4 sub text pages
- A contact page with your chosen dynamic contact fields
- Setup of the new blog with optional transfer from your old blog to the blog on a chosen server.

Who is the premade customized blog suitable for?

- Anyone who wants a simple but unique blog to stand out from the their competitors, but with limited unique functionalities.

- If you are on a tight budget, but want to have a consistent brand throughout your online and offline collateral.

Examples:

- Brandon Wong

- Chelsey of Mach C Photography

- J Castro Photography

- Brett Butterstein (with additional features)

- Lara Jade

- Whitney Elizabeth Portraiture

- Joey L

You can also read the differences between the customized and custom blog package here: http://flosites.com/2010/06/10/custom-or-customized-what-is-the-difference/

The full custom brand is a new logo type, which you are provided with 4 full concepts, but over 3 stages. This allows you to have several options spaced out, so if you are unsure as to what you would from the beginning this process is very comfortable.

After choosing your logo, you are provided with a vectored version, jpg, png and psd format, along with any fonts which may have been used, plus a short intuitive mini brand book which explains the colors, fonts and the terms of use.

You may see many examples of our brands by going to our home page at Flosites and clicking the brands tab on the top viewer.

Of course if you have further questions about this package or any other, please feel free to leave a comment below, or send us a quick message on the right side column or feel free to click the Get Started link to find out what is needed to sign up!

Flosites.