CREATING A CROSS-PLATFORM MOBILE APPSo, you want to develop a new and amazing mobile app but you don’t have a clue where to start. Well, you may have already started your research by way of reading web pages, comments, and blog posts, and if that is the case the chances are that you've stumbled upon jargon such as “native”, “hybrid”, and “Xamarin”. If you don’t understand the terminology, it can feel as though you’ve hit a brick wall before you’ve even started, and it's particularly important to understand these 3 keywords because one of ...

Today I faced an issue with Web Forms for Marketers (WFFM). We had taken a copy of a customer's system and were trying to test some changes we'd made to it. This involved making sure that the system sent email correctly, and we wanted it to send them to a mail-trap, rather than sending them to actual users. However, when I tried to change the mail server settings, the forms of the system seemed to continue to try to use the customer's live SMTP server. This was surprising.I've noted before that Sitecore has a set of mail settings in ...

One of the most interesting features of Sitecore is the Personalisation tool. But with such a big website to look after, you might struggle to see where to focus your efforts first. 3chillies recommend that you start with your homepage, and target repeat visitors.Repeat visitors will typically bypass search engines, typing your website’s domain name directly into their browser. In such an event, the visitor will almost certainly land on the homepage of your website, and since that visitor has interacted with your site before, Sitecore ...

Bryan Archer, from 3chillies, has recently upgraded the 51Degrees device detection extension for Sitecore to work with version 8 and beyond. The new extension uses the on-premise device detection service adding all 51Degrees properties to Sitecore's Rule Conditions engine. This enables website administrators to tailor content to different device types, physical screen sizes, input methods and over 100 other device properties.Unlike other device detection solutions, which acknowledge an up to 100 millisecond overhead, 51Degrees can process ...

If you’re a digital marketer there is a good chance you pay close attention to the analytics of your website, and you’ll be doing everything you can to increase the number of leads that you’re passing through to the sales team each month. It’s always possible to increase your conversion rate through website improvements, but it comes to a point where the rate of return vs. the resources invested starts to slow.Prospects that complete your online forms are like gold dust - they’ve  shown clear interest in your products and services, and ...

According to a recent study, the total costs of using an open Source CMS typically outweigh the total costs of using a more sophisticated platform such as Sitecore CMS.When introducing a new CMS, the software costs typically account for 5% of the total implementation costs. Open Source Content Management Systems typically have higher ongoing costs, which usually results in higher total expenses over the life cycle of the CMS.“too often the temptation is to focus on the cost of the software. In the real world, that software cost is almost ...

In recent years, the term "cloud computing" has become much more than just a buzz word. In fact, Microsoft Azure are currently 10,000 new customers every week! If you've not yet considered moving to the cloud, we encourage you to continue reading about the main benefits of Azure (Microsoft's cloud platform):1.VARIABLE COSTS VS. FIXED COSTSOn-premise servers are expensive. Whether it’s the initial investment or the ongoing maintenance cost, your on-premise server is likely to be burning a hole in the company pocket, even whilst you ...

As 2014 drew to a close, Microsoft announced the discontinuation plans for the SharePoint Online “Public Website” feature, and these changes came into force on the 9th March 2015. Existing customers, currently using the Public Website feature, will continue to have access to the feature until at least 9th March 2017. For new Office 365 subscribers, the feature is no longer an available option. Instead, new customers are encouraged to use the recommended third-party offerings that provide a complete solution for building an online ...

A/B testing is a great way to gauge which content yields the best results for your business, so before you go ahead and replace a block of content, why not run an A/B test on it first!A/B testing the link text on your website can be a particularly efficient way to boost visitor engagement. To ensure maximum impact start by finding a webpage with high traffic, relatively low engagement value, and a high bounce rate. You can find these pages using the Sitecore analytics tool, or through the use of Google Analytics (under the “Audience” tab, ...

On 21st April 2015, Google announced the roll out of their mobile-friendly update, a transformation that will boost the rankings of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results.Needless to say, the announcement comes as a welcome change to organisations with a mobile friendly website, but what about the rankings position of those organisations that haven’t yet developed a separate mobile site / introduced a responsive design into their existing website???What about all those years of hard work you’ve put into improving your website’s ...