For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on a new mobile friendly version of my website but have been unable to launch it since my team  has been preoccupied with a lot of our offshore web development projects and my site just kept on being bumped in favor of client projects.

Then fortunately, in spite of the busy schedule during the holidays, we were able to finally launch version 3.0 of BenFrancia.com before end of the year! 🙂

What’s cool about this new version of my site is that it already makes use of “Responsive Web Design” (often abbreviated as RWD). RWD is an web design approach wherein the the whole design and layout of the website “responds” and changes depending on the size of the screen of the device being used to view the website for easy viewing and user experience. This means no more horizontal scroll bars, zooming and panning when viewing website on your smartphones. Cool right!

What makes it even cooler is that this Web Design Approach prepares your website for the Mobile Internet Era. Mashable.com no less has dubbed 2013 as the year of Responsive Web Design. With more than 30M Filipinos who are already online, 25% of which are already accessing the Internet through their mobile devices. And with the increased sales of Internet Ready Mobile Devices (even overtaking PC sales) due to the introduction of low cost smart phones, Mobile Internet Users are sure to grow significantly this year!

What does this mean to us doing business online? This means sure business loss if your website cannot be easily viewed by Mobile Netizens!

Responsive Web Design isn’t a Fad! It is a trend and a revolution that every online business needs to adapt to. And for those who aren’t taking advantage of RDW on their websites yet, Catch up… or Catch you later! 🙂

The post Responsive Web Design: Is Your Website Mobile Ready? appeared first on Ben Francia.

When I’m all set to try something new out in the Internet, I always do three things. These are:

1. Keyword Research
2. Buy a Domain Name
3. Make sure I use one of GoDaddy’s Promo codes

While the first step takes more time, the last two are pretty easy. Of course, keyword research is for you to get a reasonable amount of traffic from the search engines, so chances are domain names based off of broad keywords might’ve been taken already. And you also have to make sure that this domain name is very relevant to the way you market your business.

In any case, here’s a little video I made about the entire process. Check it out:

The post How to Register Your Domain Name with a GoDaddy Promo Code appeared first on Ben Francia.

There are literally thousands of FREE WordPress Themes out there. So to save you time in the finding the right theme the looks cool and professional at the same time, I’ve listed below some of the places that I go to for some awesome FREE WordPress Themes.

Check them out!

Noupe.com

WPLift

SloDive

Creative Overflow

WordPress Theme Shock

The post Ben’s List of FREE WordPress Theme Resource Sites appeared first on Ben Francia.

Using Promo Codes when Registering Domain Names with GoDaddy is a great way of getting huge discounts on your GoDaddy purchases. Discount rates range from 20% to 50% depending on the total amount of purchase, type of transaction (new or renewals), type of domain names being registered, and bulk of purchase.

I’ve listed below some of the sites I visit to get this valuable promo codes so I can save up on a a few dollars when registering domain names. Try them out and make sure that you use those promo codes with good user feedback. If you used one that isn’t working, just go and try another one. They normally work one out of five times.

If you know other good sources of GoDaddy promo codes, feel free to share them here by posting on the comments section below.

Fat Wallet

Domain Promo Codes

Retail Me Not

Teach Bargains

Go Promo Code

The post GoDaddy Promo Codes appeared first on Ben Francia.

1. Adobe Photoshop – Used by web designers to design and layout page comps to be used in websites.
2. Dreamweaver – Every web designer’s favorite WYSIWYG HTML Editor. Popular for its usability and powerful features and functionality.
3. Web Server – Since my preferred web scripting language is PHP, I normally use Apache as my preferred Web Server for web projects that I develop.
4. Database – Some websites are dynamic and would require interaction and interface with a database system. My personal preference is MySQL since it works well with PHP

Photoshop and Dreamweaver I would say are common denominator for Web Designers. But Web Servers and Databases would differ depending on the technology or web scripting used.

The post Web Developers’ Arsenal appeared first on Ben Francia.

I purchased this domain more than a year ago and it has been uselessly parked in my webhost since then. My initial intention was to use it for my online CV and portfolio. But never did it cross my mind that I will also  be using it to put up my own blog. I’m not a huge fan of blogging primarily because I don’t consider writing as one of my skills. (I suck in Writing and Composition was back in high school). But hey, It’s never too late to learn a new skill. I acknowledge the value of blogging not just because I see it as a channel of creativity and expression, but also as a way of promoting my website. Blogging is content, and content is what Search Engines “Feed” on. I wan’t my website to be known, and I believe that a Blog is a perfect tool.

So to whoever gets the chance to read through my first few posts, I plead for your patience. It may be a bit crappy(I know), but with a lot of practice I know it will be better.

Read on! 🙂

The post Welcome to my Blog! appeared first on Ben Francia.