Sydney, Australia – Technology Hub

Sydney is the place to watch for new Technology. As the home of upcoming Technology hub Silicon dock and the birthplace of many famous and soon-to-be-famous giants of software development, it is certainly earned its place on the tech radar.

Whether you are a developer looking for work, an investor looking for the best centers of innovation or a Sydneysider interested in what is going on in your city and what useful apps are out there for you, there is a lot happening in the Sydney technology front.

Sydney, Australia is a unique, iconic city situated in an idyllic location surrounded by sandy beaches on one side and the crisp, clear blue mountains on the other. But the climate and outstanding natural beauty is not the only thing which draws people to this place.

Sydney has a vibrant, expanding technology community and it is the birth place of many exciting new technology startups, many of these Australian businesses are developing innovative software.

Sydney is also going to be home to one of the worlds most prominent new tech hubs – Silicon Harbor. Backed by a solid group of Australian Businesses and started by PureProfile CEO Paul Chan, Silicon Harbor, is quickly drawing traction among small and large technology companies alike. It is currently in the development phase.

There are several famous Business applications which have been created by Sydney-based companies. Atlassian is probably the most famous Sydney tech company. Their software development applications include project management tool Jira and code management tool BitBucket, both used on a worldwide scale.

But it is not just established businesses which thrive in Sydney. The city is also home to some very innovate and clever start up companies. There are a few interesting new Business applications and ventures coming from Sydney.

On of the most successful of these is Coinjar, a company for trading bitcoins. Coinjar has now over 700,000 customers.

Another success story is Persolla, a software development company which has taken the world by storm and changed the face of e commerce. Persolla provides an easy way for small businesses and individuals to sell their work online without requiring any software development at all. A customer simply adds an image and description of their product and gets a link which can be used to carry out the checkout and sale.

Sydney is also a fast growing hive of apps created specifically for people living in Sydney or traveling around Australia. App development in Sydney has increased dramatically in the last few years with many useful apps being released which make life easier. One popular app in Sydney is tripView, an app which shows real time information for buses and trains. Very handy for anyone living in Sydney.

Doing a bit of traveling? A very practical app to have is wikicamps, which provides an active database of all the campsites in Australia.

Another handy app, an absolute necessity for a night out, is Clipp. This easy to use app allows you to leave your cards at home (or keep them safely in your wallet) as the app can be used to start a bar tab and pay for the drinks at the end of the night.

If you are a parent with a child in creche, Kinderloop is a must. This app allows you to communicate with the carers about your child, whether it be issues at creche, development notes or anything you need to know.

All in all, there is a lot going on in Sydney, both from a global tech perspective and also as a consumer, looking for practical, every day solutions to make life easier.

How Responsive Design Affects Online Marketing in a Positive Way

Responsive design is a concept that we hear in the online marketing industry, but never paid attention to. As an online marketer, we are only concentrated on particular tasks such as content creation, link building, social media network update and email development campaigns. In the absence of a responsive design, all these marketing strategies are considered ineffective and useless.

This post aims to cover the importance of responsive design in the field of online marketing and on how this applies to your work whether as a boss or a client.

dps-216x300Mobile Statistics: An Overview

Here are figures on the influence of mobile in social media marketing, search, email and content:

60% of Internet Access is done on mobile devices. (InMobi)

51% of emails are now being accessed on mobile devices. (Litmus)

48% utilize search engines (Google). Majority of mobile consumers performing online shopping use ‘search’ as their platform.

70% of mobile searches directly go to various websites in a span of one hour. Ideally, this is the kind of system that works if the website is mobile-friendly. If this is not the case, 40% will just choose a different result. (iAcquire)

60% of time used for social media is spent on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as compared to desktops and laptops. (Business Insider)

So what do these figures say? Basically, the abovementioned data is an indication that all facets of online marketing are affected by mobile usage. In simpler terms, people are drawn to using their mobile devices in accessing their emails, searching on information and engaging with activities on social media. There is dramatic increase in mobile usage this year from last year; hence, responsive design has an effect to this escalation because mobile-friendly websites tend to be more interesting and inviting

What benefit/s can you get from responsive design?

Responsive design applies to any type of device. Whether you are using a desktop or tablet, responsive design creates the same experience. Although some businesses prefer a one-sided interface such as ‘mobile-only’ and ‘desktop-only’ approach, these platforms produce inconsistencies in their usage.

There is a difference between desktop page and mobile page when dealing with a business site. The problem seen in here is that ‘mobile-only’ shows a few details on screen because of its size whereas desktop page shows more details that a user would need.

Through Responsive Design, marketing strategies can be improved in the following ways:

Content Marketing

Responsive design provides social sharing buttons that can be used by the viewer when reading the contents of your site using any mobile device.

Email Marketing

Responsive design allows users to read emails on any form of mobile device. They can easily access an email and click on a link without encountering any browsing issue.

Search Marketing

Responsive design allows viewers to click on a link and it will be directed to that specific website. By being able to open the link, viewers get the information they need.

Social Media Marketing

Responsive design permits viewer to click on a promotion offered on social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Even if the viewer uses a smartphone or tablet, he or she can avail of that promoted item by making a purchase like that of what transpires on a desktop browser.

As a result, websites with responsive design won’t run out of visitors no matter what kind of online marketing technique is implemented. Should there be paid advertisements on your website, you can actually benefit from a responsive design especially that these visual concepts also appear on mobile devices.

How can your website be responsive?

The first thing you need to search for is a responsive website design. If a responsive design is applied on your website shopping cart interface, visitors will have the convenience of viewing more products and eventually make a purchase. Desktop users who wish to continue a transaction using their mobile device can always do so.

You don’t need to be an expert website designer or spend much to pay for a service provider to acquire a responsive design. There are various options that can make you avail of this.

If you use WordPress or any form of content management system, you can obtain a responsive theme design through ThemeForest or StudioPress.

You can also search for responsive templates on website design services such as Weebly, Wix and IM-Creator.

Any of these platforms are effective as long as they are considered responsive. To ensure that these responsive designs are user-friendly, test demo themes can be viewed using your mobile device. In addition, responsive templates must include additional features such as account logins, comparison buttons, on-site search, shopping carts and other functional tools that will make every visitor’s viewing more convenient.

Responsive design does not end on websites alone but also on email marketing. With responsive email templates, you can create an email design that stimulates interaction with the viewer. The email design that is seen on a desktop screen appears to be the same on mobile devices. As a result, user finds interest in responding to that mail.

Conclusion

Responsive design can make wonders for your business. Apart from making website visitors happy, you can expect that your website will earn good revenue.