Writing Better Blog Posts Using YoastSEO

As someone who is more visual, I sometimes struggle with writing blog posts. For designers and photographers, content & blog posts are a valuable tool in attracting an audience to your website. One of the tools that I use in writing blog posts is a Wordpress plugin called YoastSEO. This Wordpress plugin provides a great structure for writing better blog posts using YoastSEO. The YoastSEO plugin functions as a checker that assist in getting more traffic from search engines like Google.

Price

The YoastSEO plugin for WordPress offers a free and premium versions to feature in your website. At the time of this writing, the premium version of YoastSEO cost $89 for a single license. To purchase additional licenses the rate is as follows:

• 1 site: $89 - 1 license
• 2 sites: $169.10 - Buy 2 licenses
• 3 sites: $253.65 - Buy 3 licenses
• 4 sites: $338.20 - Buy 4 licenses
• 5 sites: $400.50 - Buy 5 licenses

Benefits of Using YoastSEO

The YoastSEO plugin appears as part of your WordPress "Posts" dashboard":The most noteworthy parts about this view from the dashboard are the two tabs:

• Readibility
• Keyword

The Readability tab provides a checker to determine how well your content is readable. This tab analyzes your post in terms of Problems, Improvements, Considerations, and the Good about your posts. For example, if your sentences exceed more than 20 words, the readability tab will be highlighted as a Problem.In addition to Readability, the Keyword tab provides a checker that provides feedback for your SEO. Similar to the Readability tab, the tab analyzes your SEO Keyword use in terms of Problems, Improvements, Considerations, and the Good. This tabs purpose is to make sure your SEO Keyword appears in key areas of your posts. Most notably they recommend that the Keyword appears in the title, a subheader, and in the paragraph of your post.

What Needs Improvement

One thing I would like to see in future versions of YoastSEO is live error reporting. This would be similar to how spell check works in a word processor. In both the free & premium versions of YoastSEO you have to manual check the Readability & SEO tabs. I have found that having Grammarly installed helps in terms of having an additional readability checker. But having YoastSEO provide a similar function would be extremely helpful to its user base.

Summary: Writing Better Blog Posts Using YoastSEO

In conclusion, I recommend the YoastSEO plugin to anyone who writes regularly in WordPress. You can install the YoastSEO plugin through the WordPress dashboard. In addition to using the WordPress dashboard, you can also download the plugin through the YoastSEO website. The YoastSEO is an effective plugin to make sure you're on the right path to SEO for your website.

The 2017 San Francisco Auto Show

I am a huge fan of cars and car shows. Throughout the year, there are several car shows that are held throughout the country and also internationally. As a Bay Area local I am always excited when the San Francisco Auto Show comes to town. The 2017 San Francisco Auto Show allows attendees to browse over 100 cars & SUVs from over 30 different manufacturers. Attendees can browse the insides and outsides of the new vehicles and explore many of the new features.

Price of The 2017 San Francisco Auto Show

Ticket prices to the San Francisco Auto Show cost $10 for that particular day. This ticket will get you access to most of the cars on display in the exhibit. Typically, the San Francisco Auto Show is scheduled towards the last week of November around the Thanksgiving Holiday. This year, the event was held from November 18th - 26th at the San Francisco Moscone Center. On average, the hours for the show are between 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

What You Get

With your ticket to the San Francisco Auto Show, you gain access to several vehicles from popular car manufacturers. These manufacturers include Acura, Audi, BMW, Ford, Land Rover, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and many more. Several of these manufacturers also hold test drives for their new cars. I signed up for a test drive for Land Rover fairly easily on the day I attended the show. During the test drives, attendees can function as the driver or opt to be the passenger during the duration of the drive.

What You Won’t Get

Some things that you won't get at the San Francisco Auto Show are somewhat positive. For instance, when people tend to think of car shows they tend to think of pushy car salesmen who will do anything to get you to buy a car. Luckily this isn't the case with these types of auto shows. If anything auto shows such as these are more marketing and informational related. Another negative is that some of the exotic car models tend to be off-limits to attendees. For example, at Porsche's exhibit access was unavailable to their car lineup.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, the San Francisco Auto Show is an amazing event to attend. In addition to the available cars and test drives, manufacturers hold games and prizes for attendees to win. Whether you are planning on buying a car now or in the future, your time will be well spent. I look forward to attending next years San Francisco Auto Show.

Responsive Web Design Course

Why I choose to Enroll in the Responsive Web Design Course

In January 2017 I decided to take the Responsive Web Design course to learn more concepts about interaction design. Responsive web design has become increasingly important now that audiences view websites on various devices. Responsive web design is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a variety of devices and/or screen sizes. This course is the second in the Responsive Web Design specialization from the University of London. In the following review for the Responsive Web Design course, I will discuss thoughts and opinions on the course below.

Price & Length

In terms of cost, you have two options to choose from. The free option allows you to take the course without the benefit of a grade or credit. Coursera refers to this as Auditing. The paid option is $79 USD in which you get the chance to earn a certificate upon completing this course. As a result, you can add the certificate to your LinkedIn profile and use it to aid in your job search. The length of the Responsive Web Design course is four weeks.

Workload

I thought the workload for the Responsive Web Design course was manageable. During the four week course, you can expect quizzes, assignments, and peer-reviewed projects. There are four quizzes in total from the four-week long course. There are two projects and two peer-reviewed projects. Each of the video lectures last under ten minutes. On average there are between ten to twenty videos each week.

What You Get

I found the Responsive Web Design course beneficial in terms of providing hands-on project experience. There are two potential projects that you can add to your portfolio. The first project is to design a website using the responsive framework called Bootstrap. Bootstrap is an open source front-end framework. It is helpful for faster web development and to create quicker responsive web designs. The second project is an image gallery using javascript to dynamically display images.

What You Won’t Get

I felt that the projects could have been more intensive. A week to complete a project feels short in my opinion. I think more priority should have been put into the projects in this course rather than quizzes. Since the course is four weeks long, the class moves at a fast pace. I would have thought it would have been useful to dive into the subject of templates more thoroughly.

Final Thoughts on Responsive Web Design Course

In conclusion, I think any web designer would benefit from taking the Responsive Web Design course.

Three Best Compact External Monitors

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Three Best Compact External Monitors for Your Camera

Having an external monitor for your camera has many benefits. Many external monitors are larger than the built-in lcd that come with a camera. The external monitors also have screens that are easier to view in broad daylight. Many provide additional benefits such as being able to flip the screen and confirm shots are in focus. Here are the three best compact external monitors for your camera.

1. SmallHD FOCUS 5

I personally love the SmallHD FOCUS 5. SmallHD makes one of the best hot shoe attachments for external monitors. It fits easily to a camera and is extremely stable when flipping and turning the screen.As HDMI ports vary depending on the camera manufacturer, the SmallHD Focus offers different adapters to choose from:

• Canon Cameras
• Nikon Cameras
• Panasonic Cameras
• Sony Cameras

For the monitor by itself, the SmallHD FOCUS 5 retails currently for $499.

2. Ikan 5" Field Monitor

The Ikan 5" On-Camera Field Monitor is among the mid level option on this list. I found the shoe attachment the Ikan 5" On-Camera Field Monitor uses to be wobbly compared to the SmallHD focus. But if you're on a budget and looking for a dedicated external monitor the Ikan 5" On-Camera Field Monitor is the one to choose.For the monitor by itself, the Ikan 5" On-Camera Field Monitor retails currently for $299.

3. Your Own Mobile Device

The drawback of having an external monitor is that it is another device you need to charge. Both the SmallHD Focus and Ikan have huge batteries so they add size to your setup. You also have to contend with HDMI wires that you will have to attach to your camera.However, if your camera has a WiFi connection, an alternative is to use your own mobile device such as an Apple iPhone 8 Plus or Samsung Galaxy S8 phone. Several third-party manufacturers make hot shoe mounts for smartphones to hook onto cameras:

• Neewer 3-in-1 Hot Shoe Mount Adapter Kit - includes Hot Shoe Mount
• ChargerCity Periscope DSLR Camera Tripod Hot Shoe
• Ivation Durable Pro 1/4" Hot Shoe Mount

The smartphone hot shoe mounts will typically cost between $9.99 to $15.99.

Results

Depending on your camera, the easiest option from this list would be using your mobile device. The drawback with this method is that it uses your WiFi connection and you may notice some monitor lag. The SmallHD FOCUS 5 and Ikan 5" On-Camera Field Monitor use a HDMI connection so you won't notice too much lag when using the external monitor.