Blog

DataSpace.xyzGoDaddy customer (United Kingdom)

Conferences and events are powerful networking and educational opportunities for professionals. Attendees can mingle and learn from those in their industry through special guest speaker presentations, breakout sessions, and social functions. With many conferences being on hold during 2020, you may have extra time to get a head start on planning one for the upcoming years. This week’s #WebsiteWednesday features an upcoming conference with definite star potential, DataSpace.xyz.

DataSpace.xyz

DataSpace.xyz is the online home for a space conference taking place in Glasgow, Scotland in February 2021. According to the DataSpace.xyz website, its mission is to raise awareness of global solutions and commercial opportunities that can be found through space exploration and research. They say that they hope to provide a networking and space discovery platform for professionals across start-ups, investment firms, governments, and businesses. The conference has been attracting attendees from space technology, data, energy, agriculture, and more since 2017.

The promotional conference website of DataSpace.xyz skillfully communicates the benefits of its conference. Take note of these five standout features for your next conference or event website.

1. Clearly display the name, location, and date on the homepage (above the fold)

This tip may sound obvious but it can be easy to get wrong. When you have an exciting event to share online, you may be tempted to pack your homepage with details. This creates an overwhelming experience for the viewer and your most important information could get lost. The name, location, and date of your event should stand out to the viewer right away.

DataSpace.xyz effectively displays this important information, along with their event tagline “Space for Everyone,” above the fold on the homepage. They even include a live countdown clock that tracks the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the conference commences. This design ensures that the most basic information is easily accessible to their website visitors.

2. Share a video from a past event

The easiest way for a potential attendee to get a sense of what your event is like is through a video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth even more. If you have exciting video footage from a past event or a video created to hype a new event, consider sharing it on the homepage of your website to entice visitors to sign up to attend.

The DataSpace.xyz video instantly gives viewers a taste of the conference location, attendees, and events. It also includes interviews from past attendees and speakers that share their testimonies, so the viewer can hear from the experience of others. A video from a past event can be a powerful selling point for your potential attendees.

3. Create a page that communicates the event’s major benefits

Once you have hooked a potential attendee with your basic information and an engaging video, it’s important to share more details. Creating a page for the benefits of attending your event makes this information easily accessible. Share all of the reasons why your audience would want to attend your event on this page.

DataSpace.xyz calls their benefits page Why Attend. On this page, you can find a description of the conference and important statistics from 2019. Website visitors are able to learn more details about the conference to help them decide if they would like to attend.

4. Promote your event’s biggest draw with its own page

Other than your benefits page, the other most important page to include is what your biggest draw is. In other words, the portion of your event that is the deciding factor for your audience’s attendance. Your biggest draw depends on what kind of event you are having. The biggest draw for a music festival would be the musical artists that are performing, while a wedding trade show would be the bridal brands that are participating.

For a conference like DataSpace.xyz, the biggest draw is its speakers. They have a whole page set up for the speakers that will be at their 2021 event, as well as those who have presented in the past. Attendees of the 2021 conference can look forward to Graham Turnock of the UK Space Agency and Adina Gillespie of satellite greenhouse gas monitoring service GHGSat.

5. Sell tickets on your website

It’s important to make it as easy as possible for website visitors to convert into event attendees. That means including a ticket checkout process right from your website, if you’re able to. You will also want to make the button for selling tickets featured prominently on your website.

DataSpace.xyz makes the ticket selling button accessible on all website pages by putting it into the top navigation bar. By putting the Register button on the top right-hand corner, viewers can get to the ticket page with only one click, no matter where they are on the website. From there, they can select the type of conference ticket best suited for them.

Creating a website for your event is one of the most effective ways to share your event information and sell tickets to a worldwide audience. It gives you control over your message and allows you to promote the biggest draws of your event exactly how you want. Follow these five tips to get a head start on throwing an amazing event. Go to DataSpace.xyz to see more and follow along on Twitter with @dataspacexyz.

6 Essential Personal Website Design Tips from Standout Professionals

Making impactful connections online is crucial right now. That’s the reason our sixth anniversary celebration featured .xyz domains for less than $1. We aim to help entrepreneurs, innovators, and creatives everywhere achieve their dreams with a strong and memorable online presence.

Our support for the next generation of internet users doesn’t stop there. Through our new RGP Restore Fee Waiver Program, we’re waiving Redemption Grace Period (RGP) Restore Fees through the end of the year. In addition, our sponsorship this quarter of Hack in India and CitrusHack allowed us to continue our ongoing mission of supporting the innovation and creativity of young developers.

In keeping with the theme of our sixth anniversary, this quarter’s installment of our guide to Creating Your Ultimate .XYZ Website will provide tips on how to design a personal website that will get you noticed.

A professional website is one of the best ways to demonstrate your skills and experience online. Job-seekers, entrepreneurs, and established industry professionals can all benefit from having a personal website that stands out to potential clients, employers, or collaborators. When you start designing your personal website, you’ll need to give it some planning and thought to make it as impressive as possible. Use these six tips when building your online resumé or portfolio to create your ultimate personal website.

Market yourself and your achievements

1. Market yourself and your achievements

No one knows you better than you, which means no one is better equipped to market yourself to potential collaborators or employers than you. Marketing yourself is like selling a product or service, it starts with an elevator pitch. You may focus on pitching your impressive portfolio of past work, or highlight prestigious jobs and internships you have had. Whatever you think your strongest asset is, your elevator pitch should focus on that element so it shines through on your website.

Advait.xyz is a good example of this tip, as Advait Ubhayakar built his website around his impressive qualifications. Advait has both an MBA in Communication Management and an MFA in Creative Writing. He shares this impressive educational background front and center on the homepage, putting it as the main focus of his portfolio for potential employers. As a business consultant, he has worked with a number of global corporations and growing start-ups. This experience is another powerful selling tool for potential new employers, which is why Advait features each company’s logo to highlight how impressive his resume is through brand association.

advait.xyz

Advait.xyz functions as a sales pitch for Advait’s services and has a proven track record.

“Within a month of going live, it got me an interview for my first full-time copy-writing job for an ad agency in the U.S.,” says Advait, “And in the three years since then, it continues to bring me exciting new opportunities to work on creative writing projects from around the world.”

You can follow this same principle with your professional website. Create a 30-second pitch about yourself and pay attention to what you mention at the start. No matter what level of experience you have, you can still make your best qualities and skills the focus of your portfolio. Those traits should be the core of your professional website’s overall pitch to visitors, as it highlights what you can offer to a potential employer or partner.

Structure your site around your work

2. Structure your site around your work

Once you have hooked your audience with your homepage, you will want to explain your abilities in further detail. A great way to do this is by creating additional pages for the projects and achievements that you have worked on. This may include professional experience, education and academic achievements, awards and accomplishments, training and certifications, or other projects relevant to your desired job. Structure the layout of your website so that it’s easy to navigate through your work.

Award-winning writer and journalist Melissa Hung shares her portfolio on her personal website, MelissaHung.xyz. Melissa’s outstanding work and admirable experience are organized neatly on three main pages. You can view the stories she’s written for publications like Vogue and Catapult under Essays. Head to Journalism to read her San Francisco Chronicle and NBC News features. Under Editing you will find information about the many books she helped develop and line edit, as well as the magazine where she held the highest-ranking editorial title of Editor-in-Chief. On her About page, she lists notable press she’s received as well as prestigious accomplishments like being awarded a White House National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

melissahung.xyz

All of the pages Melissa has on her website are purposefully laid out to be simple and contain little extra content that would take the focus from her writing. This puts the focus on the pages that do feature her work and avoids creating distractions for visitors to get lost in.

Whatever aspect of your work you choose as the centerpiece of your website, remember to create a site navigation that guides visitors toward it. This makes your chosen skill the main focus of your site, and uses that skill to illustrate your full abilities and the true quality of your portfolio.

Communicate your message clearly and concisely

3. Communicate your message clearly and concisely

Time is precious for your potential clients and employers, so it’s important to communicate your core beliefs and mission as effectively as possible. If you can, make use of recognizable companies and people you may have worked with. You may also want to consider sharing some data and metrics that prove the success of your past projects. This type of language will get their attention and increase your chances of sticking in their minds.

Esteemed business professional and author Juan José Delgado shares his personal website on JJDelgado.xyz. On the homepage, JJ welcomes website visitors with an eye-catching description of himself: The leader behind the biggest sales day in Amazon history. With a PhD in Digital Economy and Online Human Behavior, and over 12 years of business experience at well-known brands across Europe and Latin America, JJ could have described himself in many impressive ways. To make the most immediate impact on visitors, he chose to lead with a powerful statement that references ecommerce behemoth Amazon.

https://www.jjdelgado.xyz/

Further description of JJ on JJDelgado.xyz mentions his status as one of LinkedIn’s Top 15 Influencers of 2018 and Top 50 Worldwide Human Behavior Experts to Follow in 2017. This reference to yet another recognized brand and inclusion in these rankings further prove his notoriety in his field.

Employers and potential collaborators are coming to your website to learn more about you and what you offer. When you convey that information clearly and concisely on your website, you increase the chances those visitors will identify with your personal message and want to work with you.

Make a visual impact

4. Make a visual impact

Countless social media and other online platforms prioritize video and pictures over all other content. This is an indicator that images and video are more engaging. Using eye-catching imagery on your website is a quick and effective way to draw visitors into your page and get them interested in you. This could mean using a rotating slideshow of past projects, sharing business logos when listing the companies you’ve worked for, and sharing a professional photo of yourself with your description.

Video game character designer Soa Lee has crafted many beautiful characters for the popular game company Naughty Dog Games, including characters in the newly released and highly anticipated The Last of Us Part II. Her personal website, SoaLee.xyz, prominently features these amazing designs. Soa uses both video and images to showcase her work as if it were a digital photobook.

https://www.soalee.xyz/

Soa’s strategy of including vivid imagery of her work is effective. She explains “My career and fame as a 3D artist have been growing with my personal website. Now, my website has become the most important way I spread awareness about myself.”

When you can, try to show your skills and past work through well-placed pictures and video. This will grab visitors’ attention and keep them on your page. It’s also a clever way to draw visitors’ eyes to specific blocks of text on your site you want them to read.

Keep your target niche or market in mind

5. Keep your target niche or market in mind

Creating your website with your target audience in mind helps you focus your design choices to better appeal to that specific group. It helps you attract collaborators or employers who best match your interests and skills. Whether you’re a musician looking to find collaborators in a certain genre, a writer pursuing stories in a specific field, or a trained professional looking for a job in a certain industry, your website should appeal directly to others in that same niche.

One great example of this in action is JovelRoystan.xyz, personal website of an ASOS fashion executive. Jovel created his personal site to share his thoughts on fashion, music, and lifestyle to “all the ambitious twenty-somethings who desire more than 9-to-5s and Netflix.”

jovelroystan.xyz

He makes frequent use of aesthetic photos showing his personal style and the places he’s visited to appeal to young professionals who dream of a similar lifestyle. He utilizes his blog to offer his thoughts on music, fashion, his industry, and current events that are relevant to his audience. All of this creates a unique style on the website and puts forth an image that will appeal to others who think and hustle like him.

Work backwards from who you want to visit your site, then build it to appeal directly to that group. This helps you maximize your reach to your specific audience and increase your influence in your target market, like Jovel did.

Paint a full picture of yourself

6. Paint a full picture of yourself

Think for a moment of the many different skills you have. When your website reflects your full range of abilities, you give a more complete picture of what you can do to potential collaborators, employers, and clients. You might have lived in a unique place, possess a special skill, or come from a specific background that adds depth to your experience. Displaying that part of yourself on your professional website lets employers and collaborators understand you better and helps them visualize how you can fit into the culture of their company.

Multitalented professional Karen Wang has many capabilities, from writing to UX design to teaching yoga and mindfulness. On her portfolio website, KarenJWang.xyz, she showcases each of her skills to paint a full picture of herself to visitors. Karen does this through her website design by using three tabs at the top of the site corresponding to the three main skill areas of her life: Work, Art, and Wellness.

karenjwang.xyz

With KarenJWang.xyz, Karen hopes to inspire others to pursue their hobbies and interests outside of their career. She explains “Creating a website that showcases my eclectic interests has always been a priority of mine. Besides being an aspiring UX designer, my free time consists of cooking vegan meals, teaching vinyasa yoga, dancing, blogging for music festivals, and lots of time for being silly.”

Your personal website can be about more than just your professional accomplishments. Include the skills and passions you have outside your professional life to make your personal website have a more human feel. This can show potential employers you can be both a work and culture fit for their business.

Conclusion

In summary, if you want a great portfolio website that will stick in the minds of your website visitors, then make your design choices carefully so you highlight your work in the most efficient way. Show the full scope of what you can do and inspire your website visitors with your exceptional words and creations. Use your website design to accentuate the best parts of your portfolio and present what you do clearly and concisely. Remember to paint a complete picture of yourself so that site visitors see the “professional” you and feel like they’ve met the “personal” you as well.

These tips will help you make a website that is memorable and presents you in the best light to the potential employers or collaborators you want to reach. Your personal website is a way for you to express yourself in all your creativity, complexity, and fullness to potential collaborators and employers. Put your best foot forward using an inspired design like these .xyz adopters.

Apostrophe.xyzCrazy Domains customer (Australia)

A key approach to attracting potential customers online is to have a standout design for your business website. Creating a website that puts your brand above the competition requires attractive design, memorable messaging, and informative content. Apostrophe.xyz utilized innovative design to create a business website that they use to separate themselves from others in their industry. In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’ll highlight five points from their strategy and show you how to apply them to your website.

apostrophe.xyz/

Apostrophe.xyz is a copywriting collective from Melbourne, Australia that provides award-winning content writing services to clients around the world. Their mission, as displayed on their website, is to “solve problems through words because we believe real change begins with thoughtful communication.” Apostrophe.xyz says they achieve this thanks to their collective team of award-winning writers whose content “goes deeper than copy alone.” The brand lists many notable clients, including Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, VICE Australia, Virgin, Greenpeace, and Volkswagen.

Apostrophe.xyz’s website design shows potential customers the heart of their brand while outlining what they do, how they do it, and why they are the right choice. Try these five methods to help your business website stand out from the competition.

  1. Put your brand tagline or mission front and center on your homepage
  2. The first thing you’ll see when visiting Apostrophe.xyz is the company’s simple yet powerful tagline, “For the words you’re missing.” The tagline clearly conveys what they offer in a memorable way so that it leaves an impression on the reader. A tagline is one of your brand’s best opportunities to make your business stick in the minds of potential customers. Featuring that tagline front and center on your website shows any visitor what your business is about within seconds of them reaching your website.

  3. Introduce your business in a style that matches your brand voice
  4. Apostrophe.xyz uses a light, humorous tone balanced with inspiring language to show their copywriting abilities to potential customers. The language on your website is one of the first introductions customers will have with your brand. Make sure it accurately reflects your business and shows your capability, like Apostrophe.xyz’s does.

  5. Showcase your past work in a memorable way
  6. The third section on Apostrophe.xyz’s homepage showcases the company’s portfolio of work in a special way. They list 26 past clients they’ve learned from, one for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. This design choice shows the creative thinking of Apostrophe.xyz while promoting some of their most impressive projects. Displaying your previous work in an out-of-the-box way such as this helps to make it stick in the minds of your potential clients.

  7. Show your process to sell your service
  8. Having a domain name that exactly matches your brand name allows you to use your URL in creative ways. One way Apostrophe.xyz does this is by linking a portfolio of their work on an expertly branded subdomain, Folio.Apostrophe.xyz. Right below this section on the main Apostrophe.xyz page, they list out their copywriting workflow and process. Giving potential clients a peek into your daily operational flow like this can boost credibility, as it shows you have a plan that can work for them.

  9. Build your website so it guides visitors to the actions you want them to take
  10. Apostrophe.xyz’s website flow shows they put careful thought into how customers would experience the page. They choose a single page scroll design, which guides visitors through an introduction of their brand, their services, past work, and their process. Each section builds on the one before it, all leading to a call-to-action section where potential clients can contact Apostrophe.xyz via email or connect with them on social media. Apostrophe.xyz leads potential customers down the path they want them to follow from the outset, and as a result, have structured their site with the goal of converting visitors into leads.

    When building a website, it’s key to consider the goals you have for your visitors. Then you can build your website to achieve those goals. A “contact us” call to action like this at the end of your informative website can be a simple and easy way to convert more site visitors into potential leads.

As the tips above show, Apostrophe.xyz is a great example of a creative .xyz adopter who has built their website so they are set up for business success. They pitch their service in memorable ways while attracting potential leads with a well-planned website design. Use the five design strategies we’ve highlighted above as you build the ultimate website for your own business.

TheLudicCreative.xyzeNom / Open SRS (United States)

Creative expression is known to relieve stress and improve mental health and well-being. However, it’s common for adults who grew up with coloring books and music classes to lose touch with their creative sides. It’s never too late to jump back into an artistic hobby or try out a new one, whether that means knitting a scarf, jamming on the guitar, or doodling in a spare notebook. Sharing what you make online can inspire others and connect you to other like-minded individuals outside of your usual circle. That’s exactly what this week’s #WebsiteWednesday did with her website TheLudicCreative.xyz.

theludiccreative.xyz

TheLudicCreative.xyz is the online portfolio of San Francisco artist and healthcare professional Tara L. Chen. As a child, Tara was an avid student of painting, drawing, and Chinese calligraphy. She temporarily set her artistic abilities aside in pursuit of her career as a clinical pharmacist in hematology and oncology. Tara advanced to become the associate director for a pharmaceutical company working on treating many forms of cancer. After graduate school, Tara reconnected with her creative talent and rediscovered her passion for abstract acrylic painting.

Tara created TheLudicCreative.xyz to share her new creative outlet with the rest of the world. The joy Tara gets from art is evident with the .xyz domain name she chose. As the website homepage defines, “ludic” means “showing spontaneous and undirected playfulness.” Her domain name serves as a wonderful representation of her abstract artwork.

The design of TheLudicCreative.xyz is a great example of how to showcase your artwork online. The homepage features a fullscreen image of her painting in a slideshow, so the viewer gets to experience a number of her works immediately. Once you enter the website, you’re taken to her Gallery page, where you’re able to see the entirety of her work.

http://www.theludiccreative.xyz/gallery#/summer-on-cape-cod/

Summer on Cape Cod. Mixed media piece by Tara L. Chen

Close-up view of top half.

When you click on an image on the Gallery page, you’re able to see more photographs of each painting, along with a title and description. Through the description, you’re able to learn more about Tara and her inspiration for her work. One favorite of ours is a dreamy blue and yellow piece entitled Summer on Cape Cod. In its description, Tara describes fond memories she has growing up going to the vacation spot. Tara says that when she looks at the painting, it is “so evocative of our summers on the cape that I could almost smell the salt in the air.”

Go to TheLudicCreative.xyz to enjoy more of Tara’s works and to gain inspiration from a polished art website. Follow Tara and her work on Instagram with @TheLudicCreative to stay up-to-date with her latest work.

One of the key steps in establishing your brand is bringing it online with a memorable website. It’s important to choose a name that will appeal to potential customers and users while also presenting your brand in the best light. This week’s #WebsiteWednesday will introduce you to three .xyz adopters who established brands for their typography services with expertly branded domain names: Undercase.xyz, FutureFonts.xyz, TypeSpecimens.xyz. Each one utilizes a unique strategy to establish a creative brand, and can help inspire you when creating your new website.

1. Introduce your brand by telling your story

Undercase.xyzGoDaddy customer (United States)

undercase.xyz

Sharing the story of your brand helps you make a more memorable and emotional connection with your target audience. Phaedra Charles and Flavia Zimbardi, the founders of font design and distribution service Undercase.xyz, use this storytelling marketing strategy immediately on their homepage. The first thing you’ll learn from Undercase.xyz is about the brand’s creation, when Phaedra and Flavia met at the Type@Cooper Extended Program and began their partnership. They also introduce themselves and their impressive past experience. Phaedra is a former partner at a boutique typographic and illustration studio. Flavia has collaborated with renowned foundries like Frere-Jones, Commercial Type, and AdobeFonts, and was the first Brazilian woman to have a typeface awarded by the Type Directors Club in 2018.

After using the homepage to make a deeper connection with the audience, Undercase.xyz uses clear call-to-action buttons to note where to purchase or download custom fonts. The site also cleverly uses a black and white color scheme to reinforce the “typeface” theme of the brand. Flavia and Phaedra complete their branding with a very memorable and perfect name for their industry, Undercase.xyz.

2. Get creative with your domain name

FutureFonts.xyzeNom/Open SRS customer (United States)
FutureFonts.xyz

FutureFonts.xyz, as you may be able to tell from their descriptive brand name, is a forward-thinking font foundry. They specialize in fresh fonts that are new to the market. Their modern marketing approach can be seen in their use of a subdomain, Hypertext.FutureFonts.xyz, to showcase their separate offering of special “hypertext” fonts. They created these fonts utilizing pop culture references as a celebration of font culture. This allows them to use their well-branded domain name to launch a new product category and create a dedicated page for it. Using their domain this way also makes the URL easy to remember, so customers can easily navigate to the hypertext offerings FutureFonts.xyz has.

The FutureFonts.xyz website itself employs a very modern and bold look, which immediately grabs site visitors’ attention. They feature a host of font contributors from around the world, along with a photo, location, and taste of each one’s personal style on the Foundries page. FutureFonts.xyz also features journal posts with updates from the members of their font foundry service. This touch of personalization is a great way to get customers to engage with the FutureFonts.xyz website regularly.

3. Embrace the culture of your industry

TypeSpecimens.xyzGoDaddy customer (United Kingdom)

typespecimens.xyz

Mark Boulton is a design director, writer, and speaker who uses his website, TypeSpecimens.xyz, to curate type specimens and journal his thoughts on them. Mark has labeled the TypeSpecimens.xyz service as a “research & design project, a publication, and a community resource.” The website provides a list of type specimens, which are created by font designers as tools to help other designers choose fonts and make stylistic choices. Mark then draws on his experience working with clients like Conde Nast, Al Jazeera, and ESPN to analyze these specimens. In his posts, Mark investigates the specimens’ usefulness as marketing tools and muses on their effect on “type culture.” This unique angle helps Mark make his service stand out by offering a new perspective on the industry.

Mark shares most of his thoughts on these specimens and their cultural impact in his journal, and also provides a link to sign up for the TypeSpecimens.xyz newsletter featuring “specimens, interviews, blog posts and more.” The keyword TypeSpecimens.xyz domain exactly matches Mark’s niche service as well. Securing a domain name that exactly matches your product as Mark did helps make your URL more memorable.

These three typographers show that incorporating personal style, helpful features, and creative use of your domain name are all ways to differentiate your unique service in a large industry. When you start with a branded .xyz domain, as these entrepreneurs did, you make it easier to promote your website and have potential customers remember it. A memorable and short domain also gives your service an extra air of professionalism that can help attract clients.