All Posts, Web Design
The word “NO” may be one of those forbidden words in the vocabulary of most freelance designers. We may be used to hearing it from time to time from prospective clients or recruiters, but actually saying “no” to someone is something we seldom do. Why is that? For me, I’ll say it’s because deep down I’m in business to help people. It’s not all about the money – though the money is a factor. Really it is about helping people understand why they need my services, and how I can make their dreams come true. Essentially fulfilling a worthy need. This comes with strings that may be harmful to that blissful and wonderful life we know as a freelancer though. Let me explain why.
There are a growing number of design freelancers out there either straddling the line of full time or part time work, and the main dream is to one day only work for self. In working for self, there are some preconceptions about how tasks and work will be from day to day. This may include getting up a bit later in the morning, watching the news, going to the gym, hours or work, quick snack for lunch, then more hours or work into the wee hours of the night. Sprinkle in some emails, phone calls, social media engagement, and research; and that would complete a typical day.
Here’s where things can go wrong. When you’re currently juggling a few projects and a new prospect is eager to work with you and ready to pay – but their project isn’t really within your scope of work or expertise. Obviously you want to take the job because you’re thinking of the money and maybe some bills it would pay, or new iPad you’ve been craving. I won’t call it greed, but you accept the job. Things seem to be ok at first, but after a few days or weeks the project takes a turn for the worst. The client is very needy or lacks feedback you need to continue. Their requests are over your head and out of your know-how. You’ve spent entirely too much time contemplating how to do or what to do. And my favorite, you’re now running behind on your other projects that are completely within your realm of service.
By now you’re thinking, “I shouldn’t have taken this assignment.” Hence, you should have said “NO.” I’m here to tell you its quite ok to just say no to a project. The level of stress you endure when taking these non-essential gigs can start to ruin your ideal day of work. You remember that blissful feeling you had when you first starting reading this and reflected on your perfect day? Well that’s what keeps you doing what you do.
Here are some tips for saying “no” and being polite about it:
Increase your prices: Provided that you don’t have your prices listed on your website or posted service, you can accept a project, sub-contract it to a known associate that you trust, and still make a little money while retaining a new client.
Delay the project start date: Chances are that client may be looking to get started yesterday. (which is already a bad sign) Explain to them your current workload and defer to a date in 30-60 days. If they’re still interested you can contact them back. This also works when current projects are about to expire and you’ve got nothing else lined up.
Admit to your limits: This is a bold step here but can be accepted as a humble gesture. Explaining to the client that their project is out of your scope of work and that you wouldn’t want to accept it without full confidence in what you’ll be able to produce in the end.
Offer a recommendation to another freelancer: This may seem like your passing them off, but if you can explain to them softly why they will understand. Especially if the recommended person is an associate of yours that you can make a warm introduction to this client. Now their project can be done with confidence, your associate will be happy with the referral, and you can keep your day bright and shiny.
Bottom line is that you have to respect people when they come to you for work, and also respect your existing clientele to ensure adequate service is kept for them. One common complain I hear with people I’ve met is that their current or past designer doesn’t seem care about them. Either by not responding to emails, phone calls, missed deadlines, and more. Word of mouth is so powerful and a kind word goes far; while a bad word goes even further and impacts a lot deeper. As a freelance designer, we’re a dime a dozen. What sets us apart is our reputation, keep this in mind with the projects you do take and the ones you probably shouldn’t.
As always, your thoughts are appreciated. Please leave a comment and let me know if you agree or have different views.
Social Media, Web Design
I have some goals I set out for this year and one of them is meeting new people. Specifically business professionals and entrepreneurs. By now most of them have websites created which is great. If you’re in business you should have a website, period. Well I used to preach that and actually that’s not all of it. Your website needs a few more elements than just content and contact information.
By now you should have already heard the term Web 2.0 already. Basically it means a new way that websites use to communicate and interact with visitors. You’ll see this with short videos, social media, instant chat, blogs and comment options. These are great ways to mine information from your visitors but also create a more personal connection to them while keeping them engaged to stay longer on your website. Obviously the longer they stick around the higher the chance that they will use or purchase your services and products.
Lets start with Social Media. Depending on your business and service, you may want to use a few of the many social media services that are currently popular.
Facebook I would recommend starting with. Setting up a Fan Page isn’t difficult and may take up to an hour to do. Add some pictures and comments and anything else of interest to your page and profile. Once properly setup with all your profile and contact information, you then need to suggest this page to all of your friends on your personal side of Facebook. This is so that whenever you post from your Fan Page, they will see your post and hopefully comment on it – but also their friends will see it and hopefully become fans too.
Twitter is another great service that helps get your business to people who otherwise would never know you. So whenever you have a new blog post, or sale, or promotion, or event, you post that info in a Tweet. Now Twitter isn’t the place for only trying to make a sale, its a place to make new connections with people who are in all types of likes and industries. Most connections are with people you never met before, but engaging in brief conversations develops a relationship going forward which can lead to sales and referrals. Twitter is also a form of Micro-Blogging which then leads into Blogging. If you’re not a writer, you can train to be by using these means.
Blogging. If you’re not doing it yet, you’re missing out on creating wonderful and meaninful content about your industry. I make the analogy with blogs to how having a website years ago was like being ahead of the game; and now having a website is vital. Same thing with a blog. Your posts should be about tips and information about your industry and services. Things that would appeal to people who seek your services and people within your industry. These posts get indexed into search engines and when people are looking for such information your website may pop up. Create valuable content and build your reader base. In turn, they’ll pass along your posts via social media links and draw in more readers who could then be potential clients and customers of your trade. Are you seeing the pattern here?
Call to action. I have said it before in previous posts, but you have to give your readers something for free if you want their contact information. A website that receives 2,000 hits a day but gains no information about the visitors and converts none of them to leads is not a functioning website. Most sites with great call to actions have items like free e-zines, newsletters, image downloads, website analysis, and more. But everything they offer is free. The only string attached is a vistors email address and maybe their name on a simple form.
None of this should be done over night. Proper implementation does take a bit of time. I strongly suggest a web consultant if you’re not versed with the “lingo” to make these adjustments yourself. Or if you are you can always Google you way through it I suppose. Just know that these things are important to your bottom line if you want to see a greater ROI on your website. If you have any ideas to add to this short list please leave a comment below.
All Posts, Web Design
We’ve all been there. Ball drops in Time Square, and a few hours later we’re promising to change certain parts of our lives. Well as a designer, we have new years ambitions too. I’ve comprised a short list of some key ones we should all take a bit more seriously for 2011 and plan to accomplish as the weeks and months start.
1) Utilize a contract with all customers. This should be a no brainer, but I can personally tell you times where I’ve skipped it because I had “good vibes” about a prospective client turned nightmare. Not only does a contract protect you as a designer, but also your clients. Everyone understand their rights and ownership to data and content. Among all else, it should prevent any legal activity should a situation escalate those heights.
2) Hit the books. You know you’ve reached your comfort zone when you can’t remember the last time you read a book about your trade or a known trade leader. New techniques, programs, and such are coming out just about every week. If you’re not “in the know” you could be missing out on ways to make your life easier, more prosperous, and save some headaches.
3) Socialize. If you’re still a one man show, and haven’t met anyone else outside of your neighbor and cousins to bounce ideas off of, you’re missing out. Most other designers I’ve met happen to be the best support group I could ever ask for. In terms of knowledge, experience, and collective though processes all at your disposal and for FREE. All that’s required is that you pitch in and help whenever they need it. Great friendships can be birthed out of socializing too. Not just online, but offline too.
4) Marketing your best assets. If you’re a web designer and your the best in your area at Joomla or WordPress, you need to get the word out around your community that you’re the authority on these. Graphic design logo’s are your thing and no one else holds a candle in your local market? Well it means nothing if people can’t find you. And even worse if those that do can’t refer people to your website when you don’t have one. Get out there to networking events, trades hows, and even your local media outlets. You’d be surprised if you showed up and proved yourself.
5) Update your portfolio. Sure this sounds redundant, but I bet you slap your head when you think of the last time you really made some sensible changes to your dossier. It’s mainly because we get busy. Going from one project to the next, or juggling multiple projects along with life, we tend to place our own work on the shelf for “a later time.” That time never comes unless you make time for it. So schedule in a weekend to update your website, media kit, business card, email signature, brochure, whatever. What good is it to new prospect clients to hear you talk about your excellent work and you can’t show your newest work.
6) Get feedback. Your doomed to repeat past mistakes if you never learn from them. And who better to tell you, than your current clients. Poll them, email them, or survey them. Get them to tell you how they feel/felt about your services. Take what they say and look at it from an outsider perspective. Maybe get a colleague to weigh in. Also look back a year from now at some of your work and gauge that against what you are doing now. There should be notable differences and sizable improvements. Time, technicality, price, value, etc.
7) Execute. You’ve got plan, you’ve got goals, you’ve got great ideas all floating around in your head. Put them on paper, put a time stamp and date them on when they should be completed. Sometimes we’re our own biggest enemies when it comes to our advancements. No more procrastinating on those good ideas, even if they don’t all lead to the heights as a Facebook. You’ll never know if you don’t execute those ideas.
Have some other resolutions you’ve come up with? I’d love to hear them and discuss further. Comment back and lets here some of those ideas. Happy New Year everyone!
All Posts, Web Design
This may be a question that strikes a bad feeling through your spine if you’re not really sure. But a very important question I ask when coming across a new client that wants an overhaul on their current site and transfer hosting companies. A hosting company is a business that has large amounts of servers that store your site information, data, and files. A hosting company can also register your domain name. Some well known hosting companies include MediaTemple, Register.com, GoDaddy, and 1and1. I use 1and1 because they’ve been around for a number of years, and I’ve been hosting my websites with them for over six years without an issue. Their up-time is guaranteed at 99%, and they’re technical support is available 24/7. This is important when trying to add features or get help on settings.
Now upon logging in to their current hosting website control panel (if they have access to it), I’m able to see who the site is actually registered to, who the technical contact is, and who the domain is registered to. There has been a few occasions where the business I was working with had no direct access to their site or hosting company. The reason why this is so important is that without being properly listed as the owner of a domain, the current registrar actually legally owns that domain URL. Sure there can be some loopholes and legal tricks to fight this, but this is something that can be easily avoided. Let me show you a few ways to look up and check your own information.
Visit a website called Whois.Net. They offer free website look up information that shows the hosting company, domain creation date, last edited, expiration date, contact information and of course domain registration information. See this screenshot below for the look up information for WordPress.org:
By looking at the information above you can see the domain ownership information and contact information. There is more to see here and if you’re interested, click here to see the full description. It’s also worth mentioning that the information is open to the public to see. So if you don’t want people knowing where you live, real email address, and home phone number you may want setup a mailing address and separate contact information. Other free websites for looking up website information are Domain Tools and Network Solutions. Both offer the same information as far as domain contact and ownership information.
Your homework from this post is to look up your own domain and see who is listed as the contact and owner. If it isn’t you, contact your web designer or hosting company and be sure to have it updated with YOUR information. If you have troubles or need help, give us a call and we’ll surely help. (888-603-1090).
All Posts, Web Design
I’m going to let you in on a few secrets most web designers may not willingly tell you. A lot of the work we do isn’t all that complicated. Sure there are plenty of things we do that can get complicated; coding, developing, image splicing, and more. However there are some elements of your website you can make changes on or update on your own – provided that you have HTML or WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing programs.
ALT TEXT/TAGS – This is a pretty simple but also vital piece to each page of your website. Reason being is that whenever you scroll your mouse over an image, a small window pops up to give you a description of what that image is. That’s ALT text. Search engines use this for search and site relevance, but more importantly, this is web accessibility. There are programs that read aloud what the images are based on the ALT text. This is especially helpful for people with handicaps.
PAGE DESCRIPTIONS – Each page of your website should have it’s own description. Say your website is a cooking baking shop in downtown. Well your services page should have a description (in short) of the overall concept of that page and what people will find on that page. The wording should be quite short and NOT contain the same “keywords” or meta-tags for that page. I’ll explain more on those in a bit. For example: “ACME manufactures 100% iron anvils to fit all types of Road Runner traps.” From reading that page description I know exactly what the content on this page is going to be about.
SPELL CHECK – A simple enough concept here, but often overlooked. I remember my early days of web design, and thinking I was hot stuff. I focused more on the overall design and very little on the context of each page. Though my editor Dreamweaver (from Macromedia – now Adobe) had a spell check feature, I rarely used it or remember too. It wasn’t till a clients friend or the actual client pointed out some misspelled words on a freshly launched site that I would notice. You don’t necessarily need Dreamweaver to do spell check, but most of us all have a document editing program that does include spell check in it. Use it!
DOMAIN EXPIRATION’S – HubSpot talks about this issue and recently highlighted an example from the Dallas Cowboys. Apparently there website Dallascowboys.com hosting expired, and therefore was down. The geniuses at HubSpot advocate for domain registrations in excess of 5+ years. Most domains are registered for a year or two then are set to expire. There are options to “auto-renew”, but not all hosting companies set domains to do so. You can easily update this by logging into your hosting account and updating your hosting package/information for a longer hosting period. May cost a bit more up front, but like your driver’s license, you never know when it will expire till you get pulled over and the office informs you.
META TAGS and KEYWORDS – Another key element of valuable SEO information is your page meta tags and keywords. These are two separate elements, but closely related. To view what your current tags and words are you can simply “right click” on your web page then “left click” on “view page source”. Here is an example
<meta name="Keywords" content="ACME, Traps, Anvils, Loony Tunes, road-runner, desert, somewhere-remote,
warner, brothers, studios" />
A really good “cheater” tip about this, if you Google your services in your area and find that your competition from one town over is always on page one, and you’re on page 4; look at their keywords and modify your own close to theirs. I’d like to say copy there’s but I’ll get hate mail. So be a little more creative with your own to stay legit.
BROWSER COMPATIBILITY – This is an easy one to troubleshoot but may be a bit harder to fix. There are probably about 7 – 8 difference browsers you can use these days. Most of these are pretty popular and widely used. They include Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and of course Internet Explorer and its many versions. Let me start with IE. I should really start by saying as a designer; I loathe Internet Explorer, regardless of the version. Microsoft currently has IE 9 out right now. Though most people will be automatically updated if PC users have their Window updates set to automatic, not everyone will. The problem with IE is that each version will give you different views of your web page depending on how it is coded. I know, it shouldn’t be that way, it’s not fair, but it’s true. Check it out for yourself and see. Once you’re done with that, see how your site looks on smart and mobile phones. Studies show that more sites are being viewed on mobile browsers and if your site is horribly rendered on one it could cost you a sale.
There are plenty more tips I could put up, but I dare not scare you further into calling your designer or better yet using your Batman signal for an emergency meeting. If you’d like to know some free editing apps click here to contact me and I’ll email you a free list. I’ll most likely post about a few soon if the interest is there.
All Posts, Web Design
There is something to be said about the designers that have been around for more than 10 years. They’ve been through the dot com burst and the bust, but a lot of them are still around to this day. Still creating new user experiences great cutting edge designs to this day. How do they do it? How do the newbies to the scene learn and understand the old school ways to then gravitate to the new school tactics? In a word; growth. Or I should say constant growth.
I think year ago there was a defined line between web designers, developers, and graphic designers. Projects were done in a sort of assembly line of steps where a project was piped through stages. Now a days you may find a graphic designer turned web designer, or software developer turned web developer in the same person. As time changed, the economy changed, and the requirements changed. So they adapted.
Staying inspired:
This is a good one because if you can find inspiration while working on a project, chances are you’ll be able to lay everything out in good enough detail that you’ll easily be able to plug in the necessary work in a short period of time. At times, inspiration may come at the rarest times of day or night. If you’ve been around long enough, these bursts of influence aren’t to be taken lightly!
Creating and sticking to a habit:
A seasoned freelancer will have their typical day scheduled out in advance. They know what their doing or planning to do hours or days prior to that day. Phone calls, email checking, researching, book reading, coffee breaks, lunch, etc. Each part of their day is productive and in some ways scripted. Otherwise they run the risk of falling behind on projects, losing clients, and eventually loosing business.
Challenging your expertise:
Pushing some of your personal or comfort boundaries is a must. If you spend too much time doing the casual and normal projects you’ve been doing for the past few years and haven’t embarked on anything new in terms of skill or technology, you run the risk of falling behind. There may be easier or simpler ways of drafting your designs, or coding your work that could save you time and effort.
Gauging your past projects:
You should be able to look back on your previous work from a year ago, and now and see a big difference of improvement. It’s a great feeling by the way. To say to yourself; “Wow, I came a long way from that old project!” If you’re not, spend some time reading some newer books within your trade. Network with some other freelancers in your trade both locally and online. Also purchase a few subscriptions to some trade magazines; they’re worth the few minutes of reading in your downtime.
Do you have some tactics that you use(d) in your professional career that you’d like to add? We’d love to hear it, so type your comments below.
