Found this really cool social media icon set online and thought I’d share it with all of you.
Jasmina is a self-taught vector illustrator from Serbia who has been working as a freelance designer for over five years now. Her biggest passion is in vector illustrations and motion graphic design. In her spare time she likes to read comic books and playing Call of Duty 2. You can check out her portfolio for more and also follow her on Twitter.
For a modern lesson on a classic fundamental, let’s take it back to elementary school for the 5 W’s (and 1 H) for a moment shall we? Who, What, Where, When, Why & How…although not in that particular order.
WHO…you of course! Don’t think blogging is for you or beneficial to your company? Read on my friend…
WHAT’s the point of business blogging? To communicate clearly to a wide variety of readers (either from your business sector or to one who is interested in acquiring your company’s expertise) and reach them on a virtual yet tangible level that says 
wanna do lunch…via Skype?
HOW can a blog work for your company? Let me pass on what I’ve come to understand. Basically, if you are a small to medium-sized company, more than likely you have a limited advertising/marketing budget if any. This may in turn affect your ability to rub elbows with your industry-related business colleagues and the frequency of networking opportunities. But guess what? If you have a semi-talented employee who can write pretty well or hire a content writer like myself (hint, hint-plug, plug) you can be well on your way to leveraging social media to your advantage and profit margin.
WHY and the WHAT points are somewhat synonymous. You (or your superiors) want to have a corporate blog which elevates you/your company to a WORLDWIDE PRESENCE. This taps you into the local and global business market by creating dialogue via your company website to an UNLIMITED number of people for almost FREE. Need I say more? Ok but just because I can hear the anticipation…
WHERE is Waldo, Jane, Bob or whatever your name is? Where do you pow-wow and have your swank & usually expensive lunch meeting to seal your deals? Your couch if you’re lucky! In 2012, most freelance and small business owners work from home or out of a local Starbucks. You can save time and money with this fantastic networking tool by using a little of Father Time and a smidge of talent to take your business to the next level and into an unlimited marketplace. No expense account required.
WHEN you choose to use social media to your advantage, you win-plain & simple. Oh and today is a great day to start.
Still saying blah, blah, blah?????
Who doesn’t need icons for their design projects? Here are some sets to save you some design time.
So you’ve been hearing a lot, a LOT, about cloud storage of lately. Even with the latest news about Apple’s iCloud system, just about every major name brand has their hand and foot into this arena. By now you should already know all the benefits of cloud storage right? No, let me give you a quick run down:
Now before I give you my reason for why the idea sucks, let me tell you about the one service I use. Dropbox. It’s a great service that offers free accounts that start with 2 gigs of online storage. You can install their free application on mobile devices and your PC or Mac computers. When you add or change a file that’s within your Dropbox folder, it automatically syncs the change across all your devices (so long as they’re powered on and online). Sure there are others out their but between my colleagues and I, we all use this the most if not exclusively.
So why do they suck? Well for one, not many have been around for a really long period of time. Also space is quite limited for the free ones. I remember years ago Yahoo used to have a “Briefcase” feature that offered free space up to a certain amount of megs. It wasn’t much, maybe like 10-50mb in space if I remember right. I stored resumes in there, pictures, and other files. Well a company as big as Yahoo, who would have thought they’ve ever get rid of that. Well they did. That void was quickly solved by thumb drives and portable media. So what if:
Again, storing some of your data in the “cloud” is a great benefit. I think eventually it will be a much bigger market as more major brands incorporate storage in their devices and software. Cloud computing is getting bigger by the day and there doesn’t seem to be a ceiling for it as of yet. For me, its like having an old school floppy disk. You can work on your 15 page biology report on it for days at the library and as soon as you take it home to your own computer, the disk is unreadable. And just like that you lost all of your time and effort by relying on one medium for file storage. Use cloud computing and accompany it with your own physical storage device. It may be a bit of a task but you’ll thank me later if/when that online website gives you a 404 error or server not found message.
We’ve all had different types of jobs referred to us by all different types of people. Some referred by other business associates, and some by friends and family. However, one could easily assume that a job for a friend or family member would be easier than one for an unknown client with no strings attached. Doing word for family and friends comes with a host of warnings. I’m going to lay out 5 quick ones:
1. They may expect you to give them the world and in return expect you to do it for free. This is dangerous because it treads on your patience. If you’re just starting out and need to beef up your portfolio this may be a great idea. But if you’re a bit seasoned and have actual paying client then decide on this “charity” work, you may end up in more work than you originally planned.
2. Your work may be subject to difficult scrutiny. Because this is for a “buddy” they are obviously closer to you than your clients. This closeness presents an open arena for them to nit-pick every little thing they possible can about the work you’re doing for them.
3. Actually getting paid. Most designers charge a deposit or retainer for new projects. No work gets started without that. A family member could easily tell you that they’re going to pay you when they “get their check” or give you excuses about all the free things they’ve done for you in the past.
4. Liability. This is a strong warning here because if something goes wrong during the project development, or even after, you’re on the hook not only as a producer but also as a friend. You may be expected to pay for some unseen expenses or even damage control when it may not even be your fault.
5. The separation of friend and client. This may be difficult because you may have daily conversations with this person and part of those conversations need to be cut short in order to talk about business. Its easy when business talk is daydreaming and forecasting on the end result of the project, but when it needs to be about payment, deliverables, due dates, and other key elements of the project it could cause for some phone silence.
I personally have a few experiences dealing with family. I’d say out of four, 1 was truly successful. The other three I’m still wondering what happened or what is going on. And they range from missed payments to projects that were assumed to be free just because.
Your time is valuable, remember that. As a freelancer you really need to focus on what actually makes you money. You don’t really have time to get involved with extra stuff that distracts you from what really matters. Now I say that with a grain of salt, because exposure is exposure. You could have a friend or relative that could render your project some great media attention that gives you a huge boost. That boost may be worth looking over my 5 warning signs above.
I’d love to hear you’re responses to work you’ve done for friends and/or relatives. Had great experiences, let me know your best. Had some bad ones, I’d sure love to gripe with you.
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