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I asked something among the lines of this question and I'm going to leave the best of what I got here:What are the most useful gems to use in Rails?Check out the Ruby Toolbox for better feedback:The Ruby Toolbox. But here is a rough list that is collected from Marc Anguera's Github repo and most of the ones I recall to be recommended.Also, to learn more about the following gem, I've made a list of Ruby podcasts that actually talk about some of the following gems in depth:Yad's answer to Are there good alternatives to Ryan Bates' RailsCasts?AbstractionActiveInteraction - Manage application specific business logic.Cells - View Components for RailsInteractor - Interactor provides a common interface for performing complex interactions in a single requestLight Service - Series of Actions with an emphasis on simplicity.Mutations - Compose your business logic into commands that sanitize and validate inputReform - Form objects decoupled from models.Admin Interfaceupmin/upmin-admin-ruby Upmin Admin is a framework for creating powerful Ruby on Rails admin backends with minimal effort.ActiveAdmin - a Ruby on Rails framework for creating elegant backends for website administrationRailsAdmin - A Rails engine that provides an easy-to-use interface for managing your dataAnalyticGabba - Simple way to send server-side notifications to Google Analyticsactivenetwork/gattica Gattica is a Ruby library for talking to the Google Analytics API.Ahoy - A solid foundation to track visits and events in Ruby, JavaScript, and native appsLegato - Model analytics reports and queries against the official Google Analytics Reporting APIAPI BuilderActiveModel::Serializers - JSON serialization of objectsCrêpe - The thin API stackGrape - An opinionated micro-framework for creating REST-like APIs in Rubyjbuilder - Create JSON structures via a Builder-style DSLJSONAPI::Resources - JSONAPI::Resources, or "JR", provides a framework for developing a server that complies with the JSON API specification.Jsonite - A tiny, HAL-compliant JSON presenter for your APIsPliny - Opinionated template Sinatra app for writing excellent APIs in Rubyrabl - General ruby templating with json, bson, xml, plist and msgpack supportRails::API - Rails for API only applicationsRoar - Resource-Oriented Architectures in RubyAssetsLess Rails - The dynamic stylesheet language for the Rails asset pipeline.Less - Leaner CSS, in your browser or Ruby.Sass - Sass makes CSS fun againManagement:Rails Assets - Bundler to Bower proxySprockets - Rack-based asset packaging systemAuthentication and OAuthAuthlogicClearance - Small and simple email & password based authenticaton for RailsDevise - A flexible authentication solution for Rails based on WardenOmniAuth - A library that standardizes multi-provider authentication utilizing Rack middlewareSorcery - Magical Authentication for Rails 3 and 4OAuth:Doorkeeper - An OAuth2 provider for RailsOAuth2 - A Ruby wrapper for the OAuth 2.0 protocolAuthorizationAuthority ORM-neutral way to authorize actions in your Rails app.CanCanCanPundit - Minimal authorization through OO design and pure Ruby classesCachingAction caching for Action Pack - Action caching for Action PackDalli - A high performance pure Ruby client for accessing memcached serversRecord Cache - Cache Active Model Records in Rails 3CLI BuilderCommander - The complete solution for Ruby command-line executablesGLI - Git-Like Interface Command Line ParserMain - A class factory and DSL for generating command line programs real quickRake - A make-like build utility for RubySlop - Simple Lightweight Option ParsingThor - A toolkit for building powerful command-line interfacesCMSAlchemy CMS - A powerful, userfriendly and flexible Open Source Rails CMSLocomotiveCMS - A simple but powerful CMS based on Liquid templates and Mongodb databasePublify - A self hosted Web publishing platform on RailsRadiant - A no-fluff, open source content management system designed for small teamsRefinery CMS - An open source Ruby on Rails content management system for Rails 3 and 4Code Analysis and MetricsBrakeman - A static analysis security vulnerability scanner for Ruby on Rails applications.Flay - Flay analyzes code for structural similarities. Differences in literal values, variable, class, method names, whitespace, programming style, braces vs do/end, etc are all ignored. Making this totally rad.Flog - Flog reports the most tortured code in an easy to read pain report. The higher the score, the more pain the code is in.fukuzatsu - Complexity analysis tool with a rich web front-end.MetricFu - A fist full of code metricsrails_best_practices - A code metric tool for rails projectsReek - Code smell detector for RubyRubocop - A static code analyzer, based on the community Ruby style guide.Rubycritic - A Ruby code quality reporter.SimpleCov - Code coverage for Ruby 1.9+ with a powerful configuration library and automatic merging of coverage across test suites.Coding Style GuidesRails style guide - Community-driven Rails best practices and style for Rails 3 and 4RSpec style guide - Better Specs { rspec guidelines with ruby }Ruby style guide - Community-driven Ruby coding styleConcurrencyCelluloid - Actor-based concurrent object framework for RubyConcurrent Ruby - Modern concurrency tools including agents, futures, promises, thread pools, supervisors, and more. Inspired by Erlang, Clojure, Scala, Go, Java, JavaScript, and classic concurrency patterns.EventMachine - An event-driven I/O and lightweight concurrency library for RubyConfigurationConfigatron - Simple and feature rich configuration system for Ruby appsConfigus - Helps you easily manage environment specific settingsdotenv - Loads environment variables from .envEconfig - Flexible configuration for Rails applicationsFigaro - Simple, Heroku-friendly Rails app configuration using ENV and a single YAML fileGlobal - Provides accessor methods for your configuration dataRailsConfig - Multi-environment yaml settings for Rails3Core ExtensionsActiveSupport - A collection of utility classes and standard library extensions.Ruby Facets - The premiere collection of general purpose method extensions and standard additions for Ruby.AttributesActiveAttr - What ActiveModel left outFastAttributes - FastAttributes adds attributes with their types to the classVirtus - Attributes on Steroids for Plain Old Ruby ObjectsHashHashie - A collection of tools that extend Hashes and make them more usefulCountry DataCarmen - A repository of geographic regionsCountries - All sorts of useful information about every country packaged as pretty little country objectsi18n_data - country/language names and 2-letter-code pairs, in 85 languages, for country/language i18nnormalize_country - Convert country names and codes to a standard, includes a conversion program for XMLs, CSVs and DBsDashboardsDashing-Rails - The exceptionally handsome dashboard framework for Rails.Data VisualizationRailRoady - Ruby on Rails 3/4 model and controller UML class diagram generator.Rails Erd - Generate Entity-Relationship Diagrams for Rails applications.Ruby/GraphViz - Ruby interface to the GraphViz graphing toolDatabase DriversCassandra Driver - A pure ruby driver for Apache Cassandra with asynchronous io and configurable load balancing, reconnection and retry policiesDataObjects - An attempt to rewrite existing Ruby database drivers to conform to one, standard interface.mongo-ruby-driver - MongoDB Ruby drivermoped - A MongoDB driver for Rubymysql2 - A modern, simple and very fast Mysql library for Ruby (binding to libmysql)Redic - Lightweight Redis Clientredis-rb - A Ruby client that tries to match Redis' API one-to-one, while still providing an idiomatic interfaceruby-pg - Ruby interface to PostgreSQL 8.3 and laterSQLite3Database ToolsDatabase Cleaner - Database Cleaner is a set of strategies for cleaning your database in Ruby.PgHero - Postgres insights made easySeed dump - Rails 4 task to dump (parts) of your database to db/seeds.rb.Seed Fu - Advanced seed data handling for Rails.Date and Time Processingbusiness_time - Support for doing time math in business hours and daysChronic - A natural language date/time parser written in pure Rubygroupdate - The simplest way to group temporal data in ActiveRecord, arrays and hashestime-lord - Adds extra functionality to the time classtime_diff - Calculates the difference between two timevalidates_timeliness - Date and time validation plugin for ActiveModel and Railsyymmdd - Tiny DSL for idiomatic date parsing and formattingDebugging ToolsByebug - A simple to use, feature rich debugger for Ruby 2.debugger - A port of ruby-debug that works on 1.9.2 and 1.9.3.DecoratorsDraper - Draper adds an object-oriented layer of presentation logic to your Rails applicationDevOps ToolsBackup - Provides an elegant DSL in Ruby for performing backups on UNIX-like systemsCapistrano - A remote server automation and deployment tool written in RubyChef - A systems integration framework, built to bring the benefits of configuration management to your entire infrastructureLogstash - Logs/event transport, processing, management, searchMina - Really fast deployer and server automation tool.Puppet - An automated administrative engine for your Linux, Unix, and Windows systems, performs administrative tasks (such as adding users, installing packages, and updating server configurations) based on a centralized specificationRubber - The rubber plugin enables relatively complex multi-instance deployments of RubyOnRails applications to Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).DocumentationAsciidoctor - A fast, Ruby-based text processor & publishing toolchain for converting AsciiDoc to HTML5, DocBook, EPUB3, PDF & more.grape-swagger - Add swagger compliant documentation to your Grape APIInch - Inch is a documentation measurement and evalutation tool for Ruby code, based on YARDRDoc - RDoc produces HTML and command-line documentation for Ruby projectsYARD - YARD enables the user to generate consistent, usable documentation that can be exported to a number of formats very easilyE-Commerce and PaymentsActive Merchant - A simple payment abstraction library extracted from ShopifyPaypal Merchant SDK - Official Paypal Merchant SDK for RubyPiggybak - Modular, Extensible open-source ecommerce solution for Ruby on RailsROR EcommerceShoppe - A Rails-based e-commerce platform which allows you to easily introduce a catalogue-based store into your Rails 4 applicationsSpreestripe-ruby - Stripe Ruby bindingsEbookBookshop - Bookshop is a an open-source agile book development and publishing framework for authors, editors.Eeepub - EeePub is a Ruby ePub generator.Gepub - A generic EPUB library for Ruby : supports EPUB 3Git Scribe - Basically the best way to write an ebook.Mobi - A Ruby way to read MOBI format metadataReview - Re:VIEW is flexible document format/conversion systemEmailIncoming - Incoming! helps you receive email in your Rack appsLetterOpener - Preview mail in the browser instead of sending.Mail - A Really Ruby Mail LibraryMailCatcher - Catches mail and serves it through a dreamMailman - An incoming mail processing microframework in RubyPony - The express way to send mail from RubyEnvironment Managementchgems - Chroot for RubyGemschruby - Change your current Ruby. No shims, no crazy options or features, ~90 LOCfry - Simple ruby version manager for fishgem_home - A tool for changing your $GEM_HOMErbenv - Use rbenv to pick a Ruby version for your application and guarantee that your development environment matches productionruby-build - Compile and install Rubyruby-install - Installs Ruby, JRuby, Rubinius, MagLev or MRubyRVM - RVM is a command-line tool which allows you to easily install, manage, and work with multiple ruby environments from interpreters to sets of gemsError HandlingAirbrake - The official Airbrake library for Ruby on Rails (and other Rack based frameworks)Better Errors - Better error page for Rack appsErrbit - The open source, self-hosted error catcherException Notification - A set of notifiers for sending notifications when errors occur in a Rack/Rails applicationNesty - Nested exceptions for RubyRaven Ruby - Raven is a Ruby client for Sentry.File UploadCarrierWave - Classier solution for file uploads for Rails, Sinatra and other Ruby web frameworksDragonFly - A Ruby gem for on-the-fly processing - suitable for image uploading in Rails, Sinatra and much more!PaperClip - Easy file attachment management for ActiveRecordrack-secure-upload - Upload files securelyForm BuilderAbracadabra - The gem that swaps out text with a fully-compliant Rails form in one clickFormtastic - A Rails form builder plugin with semantically rich and accessible markupRails Bootstrap Forms - Rails form builder that makes it super easy to create beautiful-looking forms with Twitter Bootstrap 3+Simple Form - Rails forms made easyGame DevelopmentGosu - A 2D game development library for the Ruby and C++ programming languagesYeah - Practical Ruby video game frameworkGeolocationGeocoder - A complete geocoding solution for Ruby. With Rails it adds geocoding (by street or IP address), reverse geocoding (find street address based on given coordinates), and distance queriesGeokit - Geokit gem provides geocoding and distance/heading calculationsHTTPexcon - Usable, fast, simple Ruby HTTP 1.1. It works great as a general HTTP(s) client and is particularly well suited to usage in API clients.FaradayHttp Client - Gives something like the functionality of libwww-perl (LWP) in Rubyhttp - The HTTP Gem: a simple Ruby DSL for making HTTP requests.httpartyPatron - Patron is a Ruby HTTP client library based on libcurl.RESTClient - Simple HTTP and REST client for Ruby, inspired by microframework syntax for specifying actionsSavon - Savon is a SOAP client for the Ruby programming language.Sawyer - Secret user agent of HTTP, built on top of FaradayTyphoeus - Typhoeus wraps libcurl in order to make fast and reliable requestsImageryMiniMagick - A ruby wrapper for ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick command linePSD.rb - Parse Photoshop files in Ruby with easeRMagick - RMagick is an interface between Ruby and ImageMagickSkeptick - Skeptick is an all-purpose DSL for building and running ImageMagick commands.Internationalizationi18n-tasks - Manage missing and unused translations with the awesome power of static analysisi18n - Ruby Internationalization and localization solutionr18n - Advanced i18n library for Rails, Sinatra, desktop apps, models, works well with complex languages like Russian.twitter-cldr-rb - Ruby implementation of the ICU (International Components for Unicode) that uses the Common Locale Data Repository to format dates, plurals, and moreLoggingCabin - Structured+contextual logging experiments in Ruby.Fluentd - Fluentd collects events from various data sources and writes them to files, database or other types of storagesHttpLog - Log outgoing HTTP requests.Log4r - Log4r is a comprehensive and flexible logging library for use in Ruby programsLogging - A flexible logging library for use in Ruby programs based on the design of Java's log4j library.Lograge - An attempt to tame Rails' default policy to log everything.MongoDB Logger - MongoDB logger for RailsScrolls - Simple loggingYell - Your Extensible Logging LibraryMachine LearningPredictionIO Ruby SDK - The PredictionIO Ruby SDK provides a convenient API to quickly record your users' behavior and retrieve personalized predictions for themRuby Datumbox Wrapper - It's a simple Ruby Datumbox Wrapper. At the moment the API currently allows you to build applications that make use of machine learning algorithms.Markdown Processorskramdown - Kramdown is yet-another-markdown-parser but fast, pure Ruby, using a strict syntax definition and supporting several common extensionsMaruku - A pure-Ruby Markdown-superset interpreterRedcarpet - A fast, safe and extensible Markdown to (X)HTML parserMiscAASM - A library for adding finite state machines to Ruby classesAXLSX - An excel xlsx generation libraryBetty - Friendly English-like interface for your command line. Don't remember a command? Ask BettyForeman - Manage Procfile-based applicationsGollum - A simple, Git-powered wiki with a sweet API and local frontend.Guard - A command line tool to easily handle events on file system modificationsJsonCompare - Returns the difference between two JSON filesplay ► - Your company's djPry Debugger - Pry navigation commands via debugger (formerly ruby-debug)Pry - A powerful alternative to the standard IRB shell for Rubypygments.rb - A Ruby wrapper for the Python pygments syntax highlighterRuby Operators - A webpage showing awesome names for different Ruby operators.Termit - Google Translate with speech synthesis in your terminalTreetop - PEG (Parsing Expression Grammar) parserYomu - Read text and metadata from files and documents (.doc, .docx, .pages, .odt, .rtf, .pdf)Mobile DevelopmentRuboto - A platform for developing full stand-alone apps for Android using the Ruby language and librariesRubyMotion - A revolutionary toolchain that lets you quickly develop and test native iOS and OS X applications for iPhone, iPad and MacMoneyeu_central_bank - A gem that calculates the exchange rate using published rates from European Central BankMoney - A Ruby Library for dealing with money and currency conversionNatural Language ProcessingTreat - Treat is a toolkit for natural language processing and computational linguistics in RubyORM/ODMActiveRecordDataMapper - ORM which works well with legacy databases. Last release (1.2.0) was on 13 October 2011.Guacamole - An ODM for ArangoDBMongoid - An ODM (Object-Document-Mapper) framework for MongoDB in RubyMongoMapperMongoModel - Ruby ODM for interfacing with MongoDB databasesohm - Object-hash mapping library for RedisSequel - Sequel is a simple, flexible, and powerful SQL database access toolkit for RubyORM/ODM ExtensionsMongoid Tree - A tree structure for Mongoid documents using the materialized path patternPackage ManagementGemsBundler - Manage your application's gem dependencies with less painRubyGems - Community's gem hosting servicePackages and ApplicationsBerkshelf - A Chef Cookbook managerCocoaPods - The Objective-C dependency managerfpm - Effing package management! Build packages for multiple platforms (deb, rpm, etc) with great ease and sanityHomebrew-cask - a CLI workflow for the administration of Mac applications distributed as binariesHomebrew - The missing package manager for OS XPaginationKaminari - A Scope & Engine based, clean, powerful, customizable and sophisticated paginator for modern web app frameworks and ORMswill_paginate - A pagination library that integrates with Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, Merb, DataMapper and SequelPDFGimli - Utility for converting markup files to pdf files.Kitabu - A framework for creating e-books from Markdown/Textile text markup using Ruby.Pdfkit - HTML+CSS to PDF using wkhtmltopdfPrawn - Fast, Nimble PDF Writer for RubyRGhost - RGhost is a document creation and conversion API.Shrimp - A phantomjs based pdf rendererWicked Pdf - PDF generator (from HTML) plugin for Ruby on RailsWisepdf - Wkhtmltopdf wrapper done rightProcess MonitoringBluepill - Simple process monitoring toolGod - An easy to configure, easy to extend monitoring framework written in RubyProcesses and ThreadsParallel - Run any code in parallel Processes (> use all CPUs) or Threads (> speedup blocking operations). Best suited for map-reduce or e.g. parallel downloads/uploadschildprocess - Cross-platform ruby library for managing child processes.forkoff - brain-dead simple parallel processing for rubyposix-spawn - Fast Process::spawn for Rubys >= 1.8.7 based on the posix_spawn() system interfacesProfilerbullet - Help to kill N+1 queries and unused eager loadingPeek - Visual status bar showing Rails performanceperftools.rb - gperftools (formerly known as google-perftools) for Ruby coderack-mini-profiler - Profiler for your development and production Ruby rack appsruby-prof - A code profiler for MRI rubiesQueueactive_job - Declare job classes that can be run by a variety of queueing backendsDelayed::Job - Database backed asynchronous priority queueResque - A Redis-backed Ruby library for creating background jobsSidekiq - A full-featured background processing framework for Ruby. It aims to be simple to integrate with any modern Rails application and much higher performance than other existing solutions.Sucker Punch - A single process background processing library using Celluloid. Aimed to be Sidekiq's little brother.RoboticsArtoo - Next generation robotics framework with support for different platforms: Arduino, Leap Motion, Pebble, Raspberry Pi, etc.RSSFeed normalizer - Extensible Ruby wrapper for Atom and RSS parsers.Feedjira - A feed fetching and parsing library.Ratom - A fast, libxml based, Ruby Atom library.Simple rss - A simple, flexible, extensible, and liberal RSS and Atom reader.SchedulingClockwork - Clockwork is a cron replacement. It runs as a lightweight, long-running Ruby process which sits alongside your web processes (Mongrel/Thin) and your worker processes (DJ/Resque/Minion/Stalker) to schedule recurring work at particular times or dates.resque-scheduler - A light-weight job scheduling system built on top of Resquerufus-scheduler - Job scheduler for Ruby (at, cron, in and every jobs)Whenever - A Ruby gem that provides a clear syntax for writing and deploying cron jobsSearchattr_searchable - Search engine like fulltext query support for ActiveRecordelasticsearch-rubyhas_scope - Has scope allows you to easily create controller filters based on your resources named scopes.pg_search - Builds ActiveRecord named scopes that take advantage of PostgreSQL's full text searchransack - Object-based searching.Rroonga - The Ruby bindings of GroongaSearchkick - Searchkick learns what your users are looking for. As more people search, it gets smarter and the results get better. It’s friendly for developers - and magical for your users.Searchlogic - Object based searching, common named scopes, and other useful named scope tools for ActiveRecordSunspot - A Ruby library for expressive, powerful interaction with the Solr search engineThinking Sphinx - A library for connecting ActiveRecord to the Sphinx full-text search toolSEOFriendlyId - The "Swiss Army bulldozer" of slugging and permalink plugins for Active RecordMetaTags - A gem to make your Rails application SEO-friendlySitemapGenerator - A framework-agnostic XML Sitemap generator written in RubySocial NetworkingCampo - Campo is a lightweight forum application, base on Ruby on Rails.diaspora* - A privacy aware, distributed, open source social networkDiscourse - A platform for community discussion. Free, open, simpleForem - Rails 3 and Rails 4 forum engineState MachinesAASM - State machines for Ruby classes (plain Ruby, Rails Active Record, Mongoid)simple_states - A super-slim statemachine-like support libraryStatesman - A statesmanlike state machine libraryWorkflow - A finite-state-machine-inspired API for modeling and interacting with what we tend to refer to as 'workflow'Static Site GenerationHigh Voltage - Easily include static pages in your Rails appJekyll - Transform your plain text into static websites and blogsMiddleman - A static site generator using all the shortcuts and tools in modern web developmentNanoc - A static site generator, fit for building anything from a small personal blog to a large corporate web siteTemplate EngineCurly - A template language that completely separates structure and logicHaml - HTML Abstraction Markup LanguageLiquid - Safe, customer facing template language for flexible web appsMustache - Logic-less Ruby templatesSlim - A template language whose goal is reduce the syntax to the essential parts without becoming crypticTilt - Generic interface to multiple Ruby template enginesTestingFrameworksRSpec - Behaviour Driven Development for RubyFormattersEmoji-RSpec - Custom Emoji Formatters for RSpecFuubar - The instafailing RSpec progress bar formatterNyan Cat - Nyan Cat inspired RSpec formatter!Bacon - A small RSpec cloneCapybara - Acceptance test framework for web applicationsCucumber - BDD that talks to domain experts first and code secondCutest - Isolated tests in RubyKonacha - Test your Rails application's JavaScript with the mocha test framework and chai assertion libraryminitest - minitest provides a complete suite of testing facilities supporting TDD, BDD, mocking, and benchmarkingRR - A test double framework that features a rich selection of double techniques and a terse syntaxshoulda-matchers - Provides Test::Unit- and RSpec-compatible one-liners that test common Rails functionality. These tests would otherwise be much longer, more complex, and error-prone.Spinach - Spinach is a high-level BDD framework that leverages the expressive Gherkin language (used by Cucumber) to help you define executable specifications of your application or library's acceptance criteria.Spork - A DRb server for testing frameworks (RSpec / Cucumber currently)Test::Unit - Test::Unit is a xUnit family unit testing framework for RubyFake DataFabrication - A simple and powerful object generation libraryfactory_girl - A library for setting up Ruby objects as test datafaker - A library for generating fake data such as names, addresses, and phone numbers.ffaker - A faster Faker, generates dummy data, rewrite of faker.Forgery - Easy and customizable generation of forged data.Machinist - Fixtures aren't fun. Machinist isMockActiveMocker - Generate mocks from ActiveRecord models for unit tests that run fast because they don’t need to load Rails or a database.TestXml - TestXml is a small extension for testing XML/HTML.WebMock - Library for stubbing and setting expectations on HTTP requestsWebDriversSelenium WebDriver - This gem provides Ruby bindings for WebDriver.Watir - Web application testing in RubyExtraAppraisal - Appraisal integrates with bundler and rake to test your library against different versions of dependenciesRuby-JMeter - A Ruby based DSL for building JMeter test plansSpring - Preloads your rails environment in the background for faster testing and Rake taskstimecop - Provides "time travel" and "time freezing" capabilities, making it dead simple to test time-dependent codevcr - Record your test suite's HTTP interactions and replay them during future test runs for fast, deterministic, accurate testsThird-party APIsdatabasedotcom - Ruby client for the Salesforce's Welcome to the world’s most trusted and secure cloud database, salesforce.com. - Salesforce.com and Chatter APIsDropbox - Dropbox API Ruby Client.facy - Command line power tool for facebookfb_graph - A full-stack Facebook Graph API wrapperflickr - A Ruby interface to the Flickr APIgitlab - Ruby wrapper and CLI for the GitLab APIgmail - A Rubyesque interface to Gmail, with all the tools you'll need.hipchat-rb - HipChat HTTP API Wrapper in Ruby with Capistrano hooksinstagram-ruby-gem - The official gem for the Instagram REST and Search APIsitunes_store_transporter - Ruby wrapper around Apple's iTMSTransporter programlinkedin - Provides an easy-to-use wrapper for LinkedIn's REST APIsOctokit - Ruby toolkit for the GitHub APIPusher - Ruby server library for the Pusher API.ruby-gmail - A Rubyesque interface to Gmailruby-trello - Implementation of the Trello API for Rubysoundcloud-ruby - Official SoundCloud API Wrapper for Rubyt - A command-line power tool for Twittertweetstream - A simple library for consuming Twitter's Streaming APItwitter - A Ruby interface to the Twitter APIwikipedia - Ruby client for the Wikipedia API.youtube_it - An object-oriented Ruby wrapper for the YouTube GData APIYt - An object-oriented Ruby client for YouTube API V3VideoStreamio FFMPEG - Simple yet powerful wrapper around the ffmpeg command for reading metadata and transcoding moviesWeb Crawlinganemone - Ruby library and CLI for crawling websites.LinkThumbnailer - Ruby gem that generates thumbnail images and videos from a given URL. Much like popular social website with link preview.Mechanize - Mechanize is a ruby library that makes automated web interaction easy.MetaInspector - Ruby gem for web scraping purposes. It scrapes a given URL, and returns you its title, meta description, meta keywords, an array with all the links, all the images in it, etc.Upton - A batteries-included framework for easy web-scraping. Just add CSS! (Or do more.)Wombat - Web scraper with an elegant DSL that parses structured data from web pagesWeb FrameworksCamping - A web microframework which consistently stays at less than 4kB of codeCuba - A microframework for web developmentLotus - It aims to bring back Object Oriented Programming to web development, leveraging on a stable API, a minimal DSL, and plain objects.Padrino - A full-stack ruby framework built upon SinatraPakyow - A framework for building modern, realtime web-apps in Ruby. It helps you build working software faster with a development process that's friendly to both designers and developersRamaze - A simple, light and modular open-source web application framework written in RubyRoda - A routing tree web frameworkRuby on Rails - A web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) patternSinatra - Classy web-development dressed in a DSLVolt - A Ruby web framework where your ruby code runs on both the server and the clientWeb ServersGoliath - A non-blocking Ruby web server frameworkPhusion Passenger - Fast and robust web server and application serverPuma - A modern, concurrent web server for RubyRack - A common Ruby web server interface. By itself, it's just a specification and utility library, but all Ruby web servers implement this interfaceThin - Tiny, fast & funny HTTP serverUnicorn - Rack HTTP server for fast clients and UnixWebSocketFaye - A set of tools for simple publish-subscribe messaging between web clients. It ships with easy-to-use message routing servers for Node.js and Rack applications, and clients that can be used on the server and in the browser.Firehose - Build realtime Ruby web applicationsRails Realtime - Adding Real-Time To Your RESTful Rails App.Sync - Real-time Rails PartialsWebsocket-Rails - Creates a built in WebSocket server inside a Rails application with ease. Also support streaming HTTP

It’s hard - if not impossible - to succeed at content marketing without creating blog posts on a regular basis. Every successful blog is built on a solid foundation of content, but it’s consistency that’s the real key to successful search engine rank. According to HubSpot, marketers who are consistent with blogging are 13 times more likely to get a positive ROI.For example, if I hadn’t been consistent with my strategy, you probably would never have heard of Quicksprout.com or KISSmetrics. I wouldn't have shown up in any search result.The truth is that writing a compelling blog post that drives traffic and leads is no easy task. Sure, you can easily churn out 300 - 500 word generic blog posts that won’t impact any search query need, let alone grow your business - but I’m sure that’s not what you’re looking to create.Blogging is an inbound marketing strategy that truly works. You can generate more qualified leads through blogging. Recent statistics reveal that marketers who blog consistently will acquire 126% more leads than those who do not.No matter what industry you’re in, you can set up a WordPress blog and start creating high-quality content. But, to rank well in Google and drive leads to your business, you need more. You need a system that you can implement on a consistent basis that will help you build up your brand, reach your target audience and build your search engine ranking.I’m going to show you the step-by-step process that I personally use to create my blog posts. The process is basically the same for any kind of blog post, no matter how long or short it is - although it obviously takes more time to write a 2,000+ word blog post than one that’s only 1,000 words but the longer post gets a better search engine rank.Step #1: Understand the Anatomy of Top 10 Blog PostsBlogging has helped a lot of people to build profitable businesses. Industry experts, like Guy Kawasaki, Dan Kennedy, Rand Fishkin, Brian Clark and many others have embraced blogging and succeeded.They have come to understand that all blog posts are not created equal. A well-planned blog post could go viral and drive thousands of referral visitors to your blog though you can still get solid search engine ranking with systematic quality blogging.To me, the underlying philosophy of blogging has to be rooted in a commitment to giving massive value. I’ve seen the impact of this approach when writing content, no matter what topic or industry the content concerns.Since 2007, I’ve invested heavily in creating this kind of in-depth, high quality content, while following a proven plan. Initially, I didn’t get huge organic results. But, over time, traffic grew - in one month, I generated 262,169 search visitors.Sure, targeting long-tail keywords contributed immensely to that search result. But, the real key to that success was a strategic blogging plan that I followed consistently. This is a good representation of the blog post structure, or anatomy, that I use for my content:For each post, I made sure to identify what my readers want to read and to define the problem that they want to solve. Additionally, I challenge myself to always produce quality content. That should be your #1 priority; search engine ranking will follow.Step #2: Understand the Proven Blog Post On-Page SEO ProcessAccording to Search Engine Journal, 70 - 80% of users ignore paid search, focusing solely on organic results. When done correctly, on-page SEO can powerfully improve your site’s search result performance.Learning how to do SEO like a pro will eventually pay off in more direct ways, too. One B2C company saw a 42.4% revenue increase, when they started driving more organic customers to their site.The process of laying out your page, structuring your content and optimizing the various elements of the page is what ‘on-page seo’ is all about. It concerns both the content of individual pages as well as the HTML. The purpose of on-page SEO is to help pages rank higher and drive the right traffic from search engines.One of the core concepts behind current SEO best practices is improving the user experience. When it comes to optimizing your individual web pages, the user comes first.From the chart on the right below, you’ll notice that three on-page SEO factors stand out in particular: depth & value of content (15%), use/repetition of primary keyword (40%) and page user experience (30%).Using your keywords in a natural way in your post isn’t a bad SEO practice. But, don’t overdo it: that’s “keyword stuffing” and it could very well get you penalized by search engines.Let’s talk more about keyword research, headline writing and how to prepare a blog post that will likely rank in Google’s top 10 results:Keyword research: An important step in on-page search engine optimization, keyword research tells you what your target audience is searching for and what their intention is - i.e., comparison shopping, just browsing, ready to purchase, etc. Their search query is your often starting point.When researching keywords, your objective is to metaphorically look over the user’s shoulder and see things from their perspective. That’s the quickest way to create blog posts that are relevant and timely.Say you write about angel investors on your blog and you want to create a blog post that would rank highly for that topic. Here’s how to find long-tail keywords that you can use to optimize your page:Go to Google AdWords Keywords Planner. Plug the main keyword (e.g., angel investor) into the search box. Click “Get ideas.” Here’s the result:Now that you’ve found the keywords to target, include them in your headlines:How to Find Angel Investors - 5 Simple Steps That WorkAngel Investors List - Top 35 List of Angel Investors You Need to Know20 Top Angel Investor Forum Boards You Should Definitely Check OutOnce you’ve included the keyword in your headline, the next step is to optimize your post with it. However, this time you’re going to make sure the keyword doesn’t disrupt the user or appear stuffed or unnatural in any way.You will also use the key work in your meta title or meta tag to help the search engine better categorize your post based on consumer search query phrases.When doing on-page optimization, you want to pay attention to these elements of your page and communicate your topic to your audience - and to Google - in these sections:Title tagMeta tagContent of pageURLImage alt textHere’s a typical example of a good on-page best practices page, as presented by Moz:Bottom line: Optimize within reason, but always at the service of the user. Your job is to write a blog post that will solve the user’s problem or answer the user’s question. This is referred to as search user optimization - the new SEO.Step #3: Create Blog Posts Full of Practical ValueFor your blog posts to truly deliver value, you’ve got to make them practical. Remember that your readers are tired of reading generic blog posts. They want something useful and relevant - a post that will not only answer their questions, but nudge and inspire them to implement what they read.One tactic used by successful bloggers, to ensure their posts address the right topics on a consistent basis, is the editorial calendar. This tool enables them to keep their blog stocked with valuable posts, even when they’re not present to run the blog for a period of time.Your blog post has to be high-quality (I can’t say that enough). According to Social Media Examiner’s report, over half of all marketers agree that unique and useful content is the most vital type of content.Obviously, the more unique and actionable blog posts that you’re able to create on a consistent basis, the more power your blog has to pull in traffic. This then further increases your search traffic, community engagement levels and leads.Ranking in Google’s top 10 almost certainly won’t happen overnight. But, with time and consistent effort, you’ll see a huge improvement in your search rankings.In writing your blog posts, adopt a plan, a written strategy and use it consistently - similar to the way that you would go about writing a full-length book.Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Learn from what works for others in your field and you’ll increase both your organic search and referral traffic in 90 days.Start with a strong introduction: Book authors understand that the preface, foreword and introduction are important pages that can’t be ignored. The same is true for blog posts, so learn to make your introductions stronger to be relevant to consumer search query phrases.The conclusion is equally essential, as it wraps up the idea that you introduced at the beginning of the post. Together, the introduction and conclusion form the ends of the bridge that propel your reader from Point A to Point B.Remember the old saying: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression?" Your opening paragraph is your chance to draw readers further into your post. It usually asserts a point or thesis that hooks the reader and makes them want to read more.Here are few things a good introduction should do:Warm up the reader and inform them what benefit they’ll get from the postMake a thesis (give a statement that summarizes what the the blog post is about)Restate the problem or solution that was in the headline, to show the reader you really do understand their problemThe purpose of a good introduction is to stimulate the reader’s interest. As readers stay on your content longer, the search engine rank improves. One mistake I see a lot of bloggers making is to try to answer the question that was stated in the headline, without first restating the problem.While it’s true that you shouldn’t spend too much time on the introduction, as the University of Toronto suggests, you also shouldn’t be too hasty here. Just like your headline, your post introduction determines your content’s performance to a large extent, especially when you target long-tail keywords in this section.Depending on your topic or industry, an introduction can engage the reader in several distinct ways:Ask a questionShow statistical resultsMake a comparisonIdentify a debateClearly explain a situationDescribe the current problemQuote an expert or authorityCite a typical exampleLet’s explain a few of these tactics, with examples:i). Ask a question: In his book, The Art of Asking, Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, Terry J. Fadem says that asking questions can breathe new life into an endeavor and that the right questions will help you get straight, useful answers from an evasive audience.Follow the same approach when writing a blog post, particularly in your introduction. Use the right questions to engage your audience and motivate them to read further.Avoid obvious questions like “do you want blog traffic?” or “how can you become a writer?” When you ask an obvious question in your introduction, according to Julie Neidlinger, you’re actually telling the reader, “yes, this is the post you’re looking for, but I don’t know how to start it.” You are matching their search query before they ever type it.Instead, ask questions that create a discussion in the comments section.Specific, compelling questions build up interest and persuade readers to read more. A good example is Ali Luke’s introduction on Zen Optimize:Popular web design blogs also tend to write question-based introductions. Here’s how a recent post was introduced at 1stWebDesigner - Helping You Build a Better Web:Personally, I’ve found that each time I start my post introduction with a specific and thought-provoking question, I engage my readers more. Questions draw readers into the post and keep them engaged until they find the answer to that question.Here’s one final example, from Brian Clark, that’s compelling and highly engaging:ii). Show statistical results: Data-driven blog posts will always attract the most targeted blog readers. Start your introduction by stating data and the results that you got from conducting market research and experiments.For example, if you targeted long-tail keywords and improved your blog’s rankings as a result, show those facts in your introduction.On average, people will only read about 18% of your blog post, due to short attention spans. So, if you state a great result outright and the reader keeps reading, then you know that this is a targeted reader, not a casual visitor. You’re more likely to convert that kind of reader into a loyal fan.You can see how I did this, in a recent blog post, where I quickly summed up my results for an ongoing challenge. The post garnered over 200 comments in less than 24 hours.Peep Laja, founder of ConversionXL, occasionally uses the data statement strategy as well:Another blogger who sums up data in his introductions is Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko:Google wants to know what happens to your visitors when they visit your site. It wants to know how users moved from one page to the other, how much time they spent reading your post and whether they visited again or abandoned your site for your competitors. Your search engine ranking will be evaluated, in part, by this data, that also includes the bounce rate, social media posts and conversion data.Writing a data-driven introduction for your posts helps to ensure that the visitors who keep reading and stay on your site are actually the readers that you’re targeting. That impresses Google.iii). Clearly explain a situation: You can also write a blog post introduction that restates the problem addressed by the headline that matches a user search query. Clarity helps you here and reassures readers that you know what they’re struggling with.This is one of the most popular methods used in writing introductions, because it’s relatively easy and there’s no need to be “clever” or terribly creative. It’s the equivalent of those “how-to” headlines that continue to deliver great results for both sales copy and online courses.Your meta description should match the fulfillment of the search query to best optimize your search engine rank.If you don’t have data to share or a specific question to ask, do a brilliant job at explaining what the current situation is. Here’s how Marie Forleo wrote her recent blog post introduction:David Risley, founder of Blog Marketing Academy - Blog Smarter, Make Money, clearly explained the situation with most blogs in his recent post. His introduction, together with his use of cognitive visual assets, make his posts enticing to read:Remember that when writing your headline and introduction, you want to create a conversation. In reality, it’s actually easy to accomplish, especially when you understand your target blog readers.That’s when you can easily put yourself in their shoes, make a promise in your introduction and, by using the KISS principle, you’ll be able to write a useful blog post that will dazzle your readers and get search results.Step #4: Use the AIDA Model to Captivate Your AudienceYou’ve probably been introduced to the AIDA model for marketing. It’s not new - it’s been around for years, in fact - but it pretty accurately reflects the marketer’s series of tasks, when trying to persuade a prospect to buy.AIDA is also an effective model for writing persuasive and engaging blog posts. And, of course, the more engaging and persuasive your posts are, the better their chances of achieving Google’s top ten search engine ranking.AIDA is an acronym for:A - AttentionI - InterestD - DesireA - ActionJason Demers noted, in his post for Forbes, that using the AIDA formula will increase your conversions and guide consumers along the experience funnel. Basically, what you want to do is to attract attention, create interest, increase desire and then finally call the reader to action. That reduces bounce rate.i). Attention: Grabbing the reader's attention is crucial, if you want to win their trust. It’s the first step that you have to take, when building relationships with potential customers. Part of your job here is to nail the meta title with organic keyword phrases.If you’re a content marketer, blogger or online business entrepreneur, you’re the CEO of your business. No matter what you actually sell - products or services - your primary responsibility is to solve your readers’ problems. Start by attracting attention with your post headlines to improve search engine rank. They have something that needs to be solved in their search query - solve it.The headline is so critical that 73% of buying decisions are made at the point where readers come in contact with it. And, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline, if you make it powerful and relevant for them.Search Google for any internet marketing topic that you can think of and you’ll likely see catchy headlines nudging you to click them.Without a doubt, the headlines of these top-ranked pages are part of why they rank so well for the keyword “grow blog audience.” So, instead of wracking your brain, why not model these instead?Let’s quickly create three unique and compelling headlines that will attract search clicks as your page moves up Google’s ranked list of results:15 Ways to Grow Your Blog Audience Using My Guest Blogging StrategyHow to Grow a Blog Audience to 10,000 in 5 Months (Step-by-Step Guide)Do You Want to Grow Your Blog Audience? This 3-Step Formula Will Help!One blog post headline that drew my attention today was written by Dvora Goldstein. Notice how attractive it is and how she played with power words in the headline:One other element that made the headline attention-grabbing is the odd number included in it. Several research studies have shown that headlines with numbers generate 36% more engagement, on average, than headlines without numbers.Furthermore, this research shows that odd numbers will get 22% more clicks than even numbers, improving search engine ranking. In a nutshell, if you want to attract more visitors, put odd numbers in your headlines.ii). Interest: The second letter in AIDA stands for “interest.” In your blog post, you’ve got to build interest.Copywriters normally use the sub-headline to further explain the headline and the copy that follows, in order to stimulate the reader’s interest.But, you should also use the subheadings to drive home the benefits that people will get from reading your content.Smart bloggers don’t wait for readers to discover their posts in a search query, before educating or giving them a reason to stay. The use the subtitle..A typical example is Pat Flynn’s smartpassiveincome.com landing page:Once you’re able to clearly restate and expand on what you promised in the headline, you’ll build your reader’s interest in your site content. Here’s another example, from a blog post at Dtelepathy.com:iii). Build strong desire: You can’t get your blog posts shared on social media, if the desire is not there. The best way to build strong desire in your post is to use bullet points. In fact, a bulleted list can be the copywriter’s best friend to build search engine rank. Most persuasive copy, whether on the web or in print, will contain bullet points.But, if you want your bullet points to effectively ignite your reader’s passion, don’t overdo the bullet points. Limit their options - 3 to 7 points is ideal. This helps with social media shares where people have a shorter attention span.Experiments conducted by two University of Washington academics, Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper, found that people are more likely to make a choice when those choices are limited.Whether the choice is to purchase gourmet jams or chocolates, or to undertake optional essay assignments, more people made a choice when presented with a limited array of 6 choices, rather than a more extensive array of 24 or 30 choices.What’s more, those participants reported a greater satisfaction than those who faced the greater number of choices. It just goes to show: More choice isn’t always good thing.When I write a post, I like to break down complicated topics or facts into a simpler structure and form in my site content. That’s easier to do - and also easier for the reader to understand - when presented in bulleted format:You may prefer using ordered or numbered lists, as opposed to bullets. That’s fine - it works just as well. That’s what Michael Hyatt did with a recent post:iv). Call-to-action: According to Statistic Brain, the human attention span is 8 seconds, which is 1 second shorter than a goldfish. Possibly as a result of that startling fact, only 4% of page views hold readers for 10 minutes or more.What does this mean for your blog posts? It means that you need to call your readers to action as clearly and as quickly as possible. You can't wait until you get to the conclusion.If you’ve succeeded in getting the right person to click your blog post headline, read the all-important first line and scroll down to read further, don’t lose them.The call-to-action (CTA) is all about explicitly asking readers to do a particular thing. You’re giving them a new way to learn more what they presented a search query for. A CTA tells the reader the next action to take via the site content. It's the next step.Of course, you may not want to ask readers to buy products immediately after reading your posts - they may not quite be ready for that level of commitment. But, you can ask them to subscribe to your list, share your post or leave a comment. This will all help your search engine ranking.The challenge is how to drive the message home without annoying your reader. There is no need to shout your CTA or use manipulation or tricks. As long as you give value, people will respond.Most SaaS companies use a free trial period as their call-to-action, because they want to get people in and show them the benefits of their product before asking for their money. An example is Getresponse:If you run an ecommerce site, offering discounts and coupon codes are effective ways to structure your call-to-action site content. Discounts aren’t only for online stores and Amazon anymore - authors, bloggers, public speakers and marketers can use them to sell their products, too.Just recently, Seth Godin wrote a blog post in which he offered his readers a 40% discount, if they bought his freelance course immediately:Every serious marketer has a call-to-action strategy that works for them and helps them build the most engagement with their blog posts, so that they can attract more clients and improve social signals - which in turn improves search rankings.On my consulting page, I use a different kind of call-to-action. I don’t ask potential clients to fill out my contact form, email me or book a free strategy session, the way most content marketers and digital consultants do. Rather, I simply ask for their blog URL and help them analyze their site content. Then, I’ll show them why they’re not getting enough search traffic and how to improve their search engine ranking.Step #5: Building Inbound Links to Your Blog PostsLink building is the spine of SEO - it’s what supports every other optimization tactic and strategy. You can’t just ignore it. Despite all of the new Google algorithm updates that we’ve seen, trusted and quality incoming links still dictate 20.94% of what ranks and what doesn’t.Most bloggers are challenged by earning or building links to their post pages. Yet, an effective site content marketing campaign is expected to generate trusted links.When the right links and useful content meet, the result is a significant increase in search rankings.Even if you’re not struggling to write and publish blog posts consistently, getting other bloggers to link to those posts isn’t easy - but it’s definitely worthwhile. When done correctly, external link building will boost your rankings fairly quickly. That’s the reason why 59% of SEOs do it.Here are some proven ways to build or earn a high-quality link to your blog post:1). Use the broken link strategy: “Broken links” no longer pass any value to the page. They usually redirect to a 404 page.A broken link is dead and useless. Unless it’s fixed or replaced, excessive broken links could harm the site's search engine rank.And, that’s your opportunity. If you’ve written a relevant blog post, you can find links that are no longer active on other blogs and request to have your own link there instead.So, let’s find broken links in a few simple steps:Step #1: Go to brokenlinkcheck.com. On the homepage, plug in the URL for the site that you’d like to have your link on. For example, right now I want to get a link to my blog post from Mind Tools: Online Management, Leadership and Career Training:Step #2: Analyze your results. The software will probably check only distinct 404 pages that are broken. But, while it’s still processing, you can easily analyze some results for link building opportunities to improve site content:Better yet, you could find a web page that lists several sites or resources similar to your own blog post, but which contains broken links. That’s your opportunity to get your links there, in place of a broken one.For example, if you want links on a blogging related blog, you could just go to Google and plug in any of these search strings:blogging resources and linksblogging + resourcesblogging + link roundupWhen I searched with the first string, here were my results:Next, I clicked on the 5th search query result, because getting a link on their resources page might be easier:Next, let’s check for broken links. Just copy the exact URL and paste it into small seo site tools:From the screenshot above, you can see that you’ve got a couple opportunities to get a link from the resources page.Step #3: Launch an outreach campaign. Contact the blog owners and notify them about the dead link. You can use this email template:Note: When you’re contacting someone for the first time, address the blogger or site owner by their name (preferably their first name). If you don’t know their names, a simple Google search will reveal their Twitter account or Facebook page. Or, you can visit the “about” page through their site content.Focus on building authority links in a natural way. Apart from the above link building strategy, you can leverage targeted guest blogging. Also, repurpose your content and distribute it on other platforms like docstoc, Scribd - Read books, audiobooks, and more, SlideShare.net and so on.The more that you’re able to spread your reach to the right blogs with great domain authority, the more valuable link juice you’ll pass onto your blog pages, thus improving your chances of ranking in Google’s top 10 search engine ranking.ConclusionMaybe you’ve been working hard to improve search results, but haven’t been actively promoting your blog posts. I think you should give it a try. That’s why it’s called “content marketing” and not just “content.” Start working smarter, not harder with your site content..A renowned blogger once said that if you want to gain huge traction with your blog posts, spend 20% of your time writing and 80% marketing and promoting your writing. This is where search engine ranking results come from.The ironic reality is that if you stop focusing so much on ranking in Google’s top 10 and instead focus on the user, while targeting more long-tail keywords, you’ll notice a huge boost in organic search traffic and rankings. This is because Google is passionate about users and will reward a good user experience.

If you are interested in how to create a website on WordPress, a simple guide will guide you through the necessary steps. WordPress is a common choice when creating websites because it offers the opportunity to create a nice and functional website for laymen (non-programmers). In addition, if you go the route of free templates, you will create a website that will cost you only a few hundred crowns a year (domain and hosting). So what are the main reasons why to choose the WordPress content management system and how to create your own website through it?Simple WordPress sites: Can anyone handle them?Creating a website is a scarecrow for people without programming skills, but there are ways to work around complex programming. And just such possibilities are offered by the WordPress content management system.In other words, WordPress allows you to create websites without the ability to program or design.This system is used for private and commercial use. With its help, blogs, e-shops, company websites, magazines, portfolios, and other types of websites are created, which is easy to manage thanks to the developed content management system.According to statistics, WordPress is used by up to a quarter of the world's websites, including well-known brands such as Vodafone, Coca-Cola, etc.The main advantages of WordPressWordPress is free for personal and commercial useYou can use thousands of available templates (ie graphic forms of the website) for freeThere are hundreds of paid ($ 30- $ 90) premium templates with a professional web lookVariabilityEasy operation and installationA decent level of personalizationMany features and plugins availableExtended options thanks to premium templatesResponsivenessA large community of users creating useful tutorials and reviewsYou can find some flies in everything, and WordPress has them by itself.For example, if we look at free templates, their disadvantage may be slower speed or a limited number of features. Due to the popularity of some types of templates, they are used by thousands of other websites and the design can be repeated for different pages.Sometimes you need to install a number of other plugins into WordPress for the site to work properly. As a disadvantage, you can also see the solution to the problems encountered in the case of free versions that do not have available customer support.In general, however, WordPress is one of the most popular content management and publishing systems. Thanks to constant updates and evolving possibilities, it offers a wide field of activity.Why WordPress is better than Webnode and MIOIn my opinion, WordPress is better than pre-built systems like Wix, Blogspot, Webnode or MIO web. It allows more options, is more flexible, you can transfer web content more easily (export, import), there are hundreds of professional-looking templates and if you need help, you do not have to rely on one supplier. Freelancers in the Czech Republic can help you with WordPress problems easily and often within blog articles or Facebook groups.How to create a website on WordPress for beginnersIf you would like to try WordPress and create your own website with WordPress, below you will find instructions on how to do it.1. DomainBefore you even get to installing WordPress and creating a website, you need to register your domain. This is the URL of your site under which the site will run. This is the address that looks like něco.czThe domain name should be carefully considered so that it is not complicated and reflects your intention and content. A website with your own domain is the real foundation.How to choose the ideal domain name?Contains the keywordIt's shortWell memorableNo hyphensWithout two identical letters next to each otherOf course, a lot of good domain names will be analyzed, because the name must not be duplicated. You need to try different shapes and variations until you come across a free domain. The name can also be provided with various endings. In the Czech Republic, it is most often the suffix .cz, but the A Trusted SEO Service Provider Company in the World .net and others are also widely used. If you will be operating on the Czech market and your clients will be Czechs, I recommend choosing the .cz suffix exclusively.In terms of price, .cz domains range from about 120 CZK per year, while .com domains can cost about 250 CZK per year.Where to register a domain?You can register a domain with various providers, with the proviso that this registration sometimes goes hand in hand with the hosting discussed below. The option of domain registration and hosting with one provider is the simplest and most ideal for beginners.It is better to choose to host providers according to quality services and positive references than according to prices. Good providers also offer various advanced settings and domain administration, the advantage is a larger selection in the types of domains (cz, com, net, eu, etc.).The first step is to register with the provider and then verify that your name is no longer in use by someone else. If you manage to find a free domain, pay for it as soon as possible after ordering it, so that you don't miss it.2. Website hostingHosting or web hosting is often offered when registering for a domain. At the same time, this is another necessary step that you have to solve when creating a website anyway. Hosting is a service that allows you to rent space for your site. In other words, the data that your site will contain must be stored somewhere. And to do that, you need this hosting, a server that stores your web data.Without a hosting service, the website could not be operated, hosting is also a kind of site administrator in terms of their accessibility.Like a domain, web hosting is paid. Sufficiently high-quality annual rent for beginners and new websites ranges from around CZK 350, but can cost around CZK 1,000. It depends on how complex and demanding the website is or how much it is visited. Quality hosting should ensure that the website works around the clock and that there are no outages.What to look out for when hosting?Antivirus protectionFrequency of outagesThe size of the storage spaceHttp protocol supportBackup frequencyFree hosting is also available, ie free hosting, but these are not recommended for functional and professional websites. They work very limitedly and the site may have frequent outages. Another disadvantage is foreign ads, which are mandatory on such sites. This will not contribute to the professionalism of your business plan. Another disadvantage is the minimum size of storage space.For the creation of pages via WordPress, WEDOS hosting is most often used in our country, which directly offers the installation of a content management system. Webs offer the cheapest prices in the Czech Republic.A certain disadvantage of Wedos is the speed of web pages, which can take longer to load. However, if you are not planning to start a professional project with thousands of visitors a day, your website, or extra dynamic with the demands of variable elements, Wedos hosting will be enough for you. Personally, I use Wedos for my web projects and this website also runs on Wedos hosting.3. WordPress installationSo now we come to the actual installation of the WordPress content management system. Once you have resolved (ie purchased) hosting and domain, nothing prevents the installation.WordPress can be installed automatically directly through hosting or manually. I do not recommend manual installation (ie via FTP) for beginners. Beginners should choose hosting that offers WordPress installation automatically with a few mouse clicks.Installing WordPress on WEDOSYou can install WordPress very easily and quickly via the WEDOS hosting provider.Log in to your hosting and find the application installer.Select WordPress from the list and start the installation.After the installation is completed, you will receive an information e-mail and then you can log in to the content management system.4. Template installationAfter installing WordPress, another important decision follows. What will your website look like? The magic of WordPress and its friendly user availability lies in the fact that it can be operated even by a person without programming knowledge.The creation and appearance of the page are determined by WordPress templates, through which it is possible to create a specific page design and de facto arrangement of all elements, ie what the website will actually look like. If we are dealing with the graphic design of the website, then it is a matter of WordPress templates.The content management system already has several templates in its base, but these are usually insufficient and users prefer other templates.You can choose between free WP templates or premium versions. It depends on what you intend with your website, whether it will have personal or commercial use, or how much you want to invest in it.Whatever variant you decide on, you must first install the external template in the content management system.How to choose a template?When choosing a template, the following features, in particular, should be taken into account:Range of functionsCustomization optionsNumber of columns (one page, side widgets, etc.)Update frequencyResponsiveness (responsive display of pages means that it will be possible to display on a mobile phone)Focus (e-shop, magazine, portfolio, etc.)How to install the template?Templates are available directly from Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS - WordPress and can be obtained free of charge. For beginning websites, this is an ideal solution, but over time you can move to more professional paid versions.The rankings on the site can help you choose the right template. The results can then be filtered according to the focus of the templates. For example, if you're looking for a suitable blogging template, you can find the best-rated templates in that section.The first step is to register at Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS - WordPress. Then you can step through the individual themes and designs and mark your preferred ones.If you choose one of the templates, follow these steps:After logging in to the administration of your WordPress, click on the Appearance tab and then on Templates.Then click the Favorites button and fill in the Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS - WordPress login information in the blank.Then click View Favorite Plugins on the page and click the desired template.Click the Install button that appears on the template.Template activationAfter installation, you still need to activate the template directly in your WordPress. How to do it?Go to the Appearance tab and then Templates.You will see a newly installed template here. Hover over it and click the Activate button that appears on the template. Activation is complete.Free templates are so sophisticated that you can just play with them and try different color combinations and styles, for example. Prefer quality features, follow the leaderboards, read reviews, and thanks to that you will find a wp template that will be ideal for you. Paid premium templates have a professional look and can often engage a client and sell with a conversion rate much higher than free templates.Take a look at the review of the Divi WordPress template, which is multifunctional and offers preset variations for both the blog, company website, portfolio, and e-shop version.5. PluginsSelecting a WordPress template does not end everything. In order for the pages to "run like butter", they need to be supplemented with suitable plugins. These are add-ons that extend the functionality of your site.The most used plugins include BuddyPress, which is used to manage registered users, WooCommerce to create an e-shop, Responsive Lightbox for image responsiveness, WP-Optimize to clean the database, and more.Personally, I recommend the best SEO plugin Yoast, which I use on websites.However, you must always make sure that the template you select is compatible with these plugins. If you are not proficient in this, I recommend using the plugins that are the most downloaded and most popular among users.How to install plugins?There are three ways to install plugins. Through administration in WordPress, installation from a computer, and installation via FTP.Below we will introduce probably the simplest and most used variant through administration in WordPress:In the WordPress administration, go to the Plugins tab and then to Install plugins.On this page, you will find a menu of available options, but if you know what you are looking for, type the name of a specific page in the search box.The results from the Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS - WordPress catalog are displayed, so select your preferred plugin.Then click Install and click Activate when the installation is complete.The procedure is so similar and simple as in the case of activating templates.6. Web designOnce you have the template and all the necessary plugins installed, you can start creating the site itself.It is not possible to write a general guide valid for all templates, because each of them is different and each will serve a different purpose.However, it is possible to highlight some basic adjustments that you will probably get to anyway.You can edit it by opening the updated template and clicking the Customize button.First of all, you need to choose the basic look - colors, and font.In the basic settings, it is then necessary to set the name of the website and its description, fill in the e-mail address or choose the homepage.It is also important to work with widgets, which are usually located on the sides (so-called sidebar) or in the footer. These are, for example, various menu items such as a search engine, registration button, links, images, static text, advertising banners, and the like. However, each template will guide you step by step.The first subpages of the siteIn the WordPress administration, click Pages - New Page on the left. Here you can create new web pages, most often it will be Contact, About us, Services, Portfolio, Price list, etc. These are static pages that are a kind of pillar of the web.How to create a blogIf you want to create a blog, then the most important bookmark for you in WordPress will be Posts - Create a new post. It is de facto the creation of new articles, news, tips, recommendations, reviews, etc. You can then assign each post to a different section (category) and create diverse but clear content for your blog.Insert a preview image that will visually enrich your text content.How long does it take to create a website?If you want to create your own website yourself and if you are a beginner, creating a website can take several tens of hours before you are satisfied with your work. In the first few hours, you will learn how to buy a domain, hosting, install WordPress, a template, and plugins. Then you will try different templates and their functions and options. You will probably spend a few hours doing that. And then you will spend the next few hours creating subpages and web posts. Overall, however, it is a meaningful use of time, if you do not have the financial means to pay a programmer and a graphic designer who will build a website for you according to your assignment.Tips for a successful WordPress siteWe send interested parties by e-mail tips and recommendations on how to set up a WordPress website so that you can present or sell as soon as possible. Whether you want a personal or corporate website, blog, or e-shop, certain steps need to be followed on all WordPress sites. We send you tips on better website performance, SEO adjustments, tools that will make your work more efficient.Sign up below for free tips on a successful WordPress site. The guide is suitable for those who are new to WordPress and want to quickly learn how to work effectively with it.WordPress tutorial for a simple websiteThis WordPress tutorial on how to create a website, blog, or e-shop was written for beginners who have already decided to use WordPress to create websites. Personally, I am convinced that WP is a suitable solution even for beginners. Create sophisticated and functional websites with sophisticated templates and plugins. Professional looks and features are available with premium templates for tens of dollars. This is an incomparable price compared to a tailor-made website, and the price/performance is the absolute winner here.Custom web designContact me if you do not want to create and complete the website yourself. We create a custom website with my team according to the individual needs of the client (tailor-made or WordPress with premium templates). Prices on request, according to the scope of work.What is The Creative Ways to Make Money with WordPress