Fundamentals for a good website

A website is like having a business card. Only difference is it’s online, with a lot more information than a business card and no expensive printing involved(yay to that).

Websites are very important in todays marketing strategies. Before getting your business card, people ‘google’ for a website (atleast, thats what I know when I am looking up a new restaurant or someone’s choice recommendations). Your online presence (website) is the first impression you make on potential clients. What kind of impression are you making online?

The following text on what makes a good site, is ofcourse, my opinion and is not written in stone (its been tried and true in my experience).

1. When designing a site, first comes the site map. After this, comes the design (GUI). Design the site keeping in mind one day or the next hour you might have to make some changes or additions to it. Your webpage should consist of the header(with logo), content and footer (somewhere in there should be your navigational buttons).

2. Most people are very visual and like to look at images. Have a good balance between text and images (I strongly recommend hiring a photographer for ‘your’ own shots or open up a stock image account online). If thats still not an option, use colour, just don’t be tacky about it.

3. Once you have text and images which is the meat of the site, make sure you have a good enough whitespace. You need whitespace or some of it so the reader or viewer’s eye isn’t jumping all over the screen.

4. Flash is really nice. My first website was done all flash. I am a fan of it. However, lets not have a million moving things on the website, you might think it’s ‘cool’ but it might just be too distracting and take away from the content on your site. Personally, when I see a lot of moving elements on a site, I think to myself, the company must not be confident about their product and need fancy things to keep the viewers interested.

If you MUST have moving elements or music, minimize as much as you can, otherwise just walk away from it.

5. Make your site accessible. Try some ‘meta-tags‘. Can’t hurt to get yourself some google adwords or those facebook ads. Heck couldn’t hurt to start a blog, visit other blogs and make sure to participate in comments and leave a link to your site.

Canaca – Worst web hosting company ever

This is my first rant and Canaca deserves to be #1!

I am a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. So, if I like or have had a great experience with a company or service I will blab about it. Same goes for if I feel it was a horrible experience! I’ll blab!

I signed up with Canaca back in 2006 when I was in my last year of school and putting up my first website. It was recommended and cheap, totally ideal for someone starting out online. I was please with them and didn’t have any issues where I needed to get in touch with them. Soon, I started getting clients and I highly recommended Canaca, since I thought I could vouch for them. I had one client who asked me to purchase a package through Canaca, on their behalf. A year later, the domain expired and they never bothered to renew.
Fast forwarding to Jan 2008. I get a random email from them saying my web hosting was renewed, for(you guessed it!) this site whose domain expired 1 year ago! I call them up, a bit outraged they are charging for something that has an expired domain name! To actually talk to someone, I had to choose sales (they have a ‘call-back’ customer service). The sales person was able to access accounting, sales as well as technical details (I have a feeling its one person for all those different categories). I told her my issue, she told me if I wanted it canceled, I had to inform them before the date of renewal. Just a month ago I renewed my personal site for 2 years with these hacks. Now I had to wait for 2 years to get away from them.

What struck me as really weird was, when my domain was expiring I got at least 10 different emails in a span of one month, telling me to renew it. For the web hosting, I got no such warning, just BAM! an invoice, with the amount they take from your credit card and a link. Their excuse fro not sending reminder emails are, ‘we don’t want to bother the customer so we do it for them’.
The person I spoke with made me fill out a form through their site, thats the ONLY way they would address the issue. So I did, I got pretty much the same response…

====== Please reply above this line ======
AUTOMATIC RENEWAL

Dear Clarice,

I do apologize if this has caused any inconvenience, but I hope you understand that automation of renewal is the only way to keep customers’ sites online on renewal date, and avoid bothering them to confirm renews.

Invoice xxxxxx is for the automatic renewal of “mysite.com”, via the on-file Visa card (starting in xxxxx).

Since our billing system is automatic “Cancellations must be done on or before the renewal date, by e-mail and sent to accounting@canaca.com or billing@canaca.com” (our contract http://canaca.com/contract.html).

If you have requested that, please provide us with the related ticket number and we will investigate the issue.

Best Regards,
Canaca-Com Inc.
Billing Department.

I responded to their email above- no response. I sent the emails through their online forms, no response. I asked to speak with a manager or something- no response. I’ve been sending them the same email for about 2 months or so, no response. So they rip people off and can’t face the music, so to speak.

Soon after this I googled these people and theres a ton, i mean a TON of people out there who have had a lot of issues with these guys. I’m surprised the are still allowed to rip people off so badly with their automatic renewals and cutting service off for no reason (read their contract, its ridiculous, you’d never want to go with them!)

I was a loyal customer, who enthusiastically recommended them, but now, I’m ready to spread the word of what type of business they really are. Someone needs to get this hacks out of business!

Freelancers Guide to Blogging

Another awesome post, explaining the madness behind ‘blogging’! This post is brought to you by Robert Janelle, an avid writer and contributer on Freelance Switch

Everyone with a blog, please raise your hand.

Alright, those of you with hands up can leave the classroom and hit the bar early. The rest of you, stay here, because this lesson is important.

Lets start with the quick summary of what a blog is. Short for Weblog, a blog is a website that displays posts by the author in chronological order. Their popularity is immense since most blogging platforms make it insanely simple for anyone to publish their thoughts on the web.

You’re reading one right now.

But why do freelancers need one?
It’s an extension of your portfolio

First and foremost, a blog is yet another place to show off your writing, design, photography or coding skills.

As such, it’s another place for potential clients to find you.

The ideal freelancer’s blog should be another part of his or her portfolio site (you already have one of those, right?)

But a key difference is showing off a little more personality on the blog since I’ve found most online portfolios to be a little on the sterile side (I’m just as guilty on that front.)

Along with a different method of posting from a more traditional portfolio site, most blogging platforms allow readers to leave comments giving you quick feedback on what you’re showing off (once you have readers, more on that later.)
Networking and marketing

One of the biggest advantages to having a blog is being able to build relationships with fellow freelancers who also blog by linking out and leaving comments on each other’s sites.

I’ve met people who’ve expanded their business into other countries thanks to relationships they’ve built up through blogging.
Now start one!

Getting a blog is easy and for the most part, free.

Go to one of the major blogging platforms like Blogger or WordPress and sign-up for a blog. If you can’t think up a clever domain name, just go with your own name.

Using one of the free providers by default will give you a .blogspot or .wordpress domain but both providers support domain mapping (Blogger does it for free, WordPress charges $10 per year though for $15 they’ll deal with registering it as well.)

Many people suggest that having a stand-alone domain makes you look more professional, but personally I don’t think it’s that big of a deal — especially since I’ve met company CEOs who have .blogspot.com domains.
Blogging away

So, now you’ve got your own little soap-box on the web that can be updated quickly and easily, what do you do with it now?

Well, an introduction post is usually good. Who are you and what are you doing?

Since we’re looking at this as a marketing tool, after that you should be writing about your field of work. Write with authority and establish yourself as an expert on what you do.

Post sketches and doodles of what you’re working on (or the equivalent in whatever you do) to show off your work.

As an example, I tend to use mine to post material that my current roster of clients aren’t buying but I still feel like writing. These days my bread and butter comes from monthly publications so I’ll also write up topics that will be stale by deadline which kind of brings back the feeling of being a daily newspaper intern (it even includes the glorious feeling of not getting paid!)

I’ve known programmers who’ll post about whatever platform they’re currently coding on along with whatever they love or hate about it along with giving progress reports on various projects. There are lots of possibilities.

Most important of all though, inject your personality into it. This should provide a good opportunity for potential clients to get an idea of the person behind the work.

While blogging isn’t a form of passive marketing, it also doesn’t need to take up that much time. Generally, it’s best to aim for one post per week at a minimum and try your best not to let it go stale.
Promotion

Finally, having a blog is pretty useless if the only one reading it is your mother, so let’s talk about promoting it.

Now, we’re not trying to build the next big web publication here, so there’s no need to go into all-out spam mode. Adding the link to your e-mail signature, your business card and leaving it when you comment on other blogs (most of them have a separate field to do this in the comments) should suffice to build a moderate readership.

Brooke Fraser of Hillsongs LIVE at El Mocambo July 2nd 2008!

I would like to take some time to shed some light on this amazing talent from New Zealand, Brooke Fraser.
Brooke Gabrielle Fraser (born December 15, 1983 in Wellington, New Zealand) is an award-winning New Zealand singer-songwriter. She is also one of the principle worship leaders of the Christian worship band Hillsong United.

Brooke started taking piano lessons at seven years of age, continuing until seventeen. She started writing songs at age twelve and taught herself the acoustic guitar at fifteen. Notably, she has never taken any singing lessons. She has been on tour with John Mayer and David Bowie, on different occasions. She is currently on tour in Canada and the US.

The humanitarian side of her is revealed through her sponsoring children (World Vision). She clearly has a heart for children because during one of her trips to Rawanda she wrote the song “Albertine” about a young child (named Albertine), whom she met while there. This song later became the album’s title track, which also landed #4 in the New Zealand single charts. Her album Albertine is commercially released in North America on May 27 on 2008.

Fraser attends Hillsong Church. She is a worship leader and collaborator on the Hillsong United series of worship albums.

Looking forward to seeing her in action July 2nd 2008!

What Designers Can Do #1

Experimental Design Piece featured on istock.com by designer, Karen Mc Dade

Original Image by Iconogenic

The Google ‘g’

Over the past month or so, I noticed the lowercase ‘g’ appearing as google’s new favicon. It reminded me of my orange lowercase ‘g’ favicon, with a slight font change…Ofcourse now theres no way to prove I came up with it first and maybe people will be reminded of the google ‘g’ when they see mine and think, ‘hmmmm she must’ve gotten this idea from google’. Anyways, below is an article on the google ‘g’, that I came across on Freelanceuk.

Google uses its ‘g’ for design

Google can be tight-lipped when it comes to talking about its technology so it is refreshing that it does more to undo its secretive ways when it comes to design.

Its users may have spotted that the small icon in their browser next to the URL – known as a favicon – has undergone a nip and tuck, it’s first in fact in over eight years.

The blue lower-case ‘g’ of ‘Google’ has emerged because the company wants its icons to scale better to new platforms like Apple’s iPhone and other mobile devices.

Google web designer Michael Lopez said Google has unveiled not just a new favicon, but also a whole new set of logo-based icons that hang together as a unified set.

Over 300 permutations were tried, some of which Google has released, in a “rigorous” design process that was “much harder than we thought at first.”

The process had to be creative because, as Lopez admitted, “we don’t really have a symbol that means Google,” making the Google logo and the letters within the main inspiration.

“We wanted something distinctive and noticeable,” he wrote in a blog post, co-authored by Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products & user experience.

“So we aimed toward transparency or semi-transparency, so the image would have a more distinctive noticeable shape than just a block.

“We wanted something that embraced the colorfulness of the logo, yet wouldn’t date itself.”

From the permutations released, it’s clear the ‘block’ design fails to clearly convey the Google brand, as does a single coloured ‘G’ even when a lower case ‘o’ is added.

In fact, observers say the latter approach comes close to resembling the ubiquitous ‘Go’ box seen at the side of any search tab, and forms the name of Web-based and offline companies.

However, there’s no guarantee that the current favicon will be Google’s definitive one, as the company is calling for other doodles which optimise its brand on mobile devices.

“By no means is the one you’re seeing our favicon final; it was a first step to a more unified set of icons,” Lopez said.

“We really value feedback from users and want to hear your ideas that we may have missed. If you have your own notions about the Google favicon, please send them to use. We’ll do our best to work them in, and maybe your idea will be the one that people see billions of times per day.”

Steps to becoming a Successful Freelancer

Are you serious about your life as a freelancer? Then you might be interested in reading this post below. This is taken from “The Five Most Common Mistakes of Female Freelancers” by Marie Baca, featured on Freelance Switch. Maria makes some excellent points that really should be considered and taken seriously, not just for women but even men who are serious about moving forth. I’m sure these can be applied to almost anyone trying to take their business to the next level, and be successful.

1. Being afraid of self-promotion. What is it about self-promotion that freaks out so many of my female colleagues? You are your business, and you’ve got to market yourself just like any business would market its flagship product. Hand out business cards, attend networking events, create a personal website yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

Top-notch clients aren’t going to come knocking on your door, begging for your services. Landing an assignment is a competition, and you’ve got to treat it as such, using every marketing tool you have in your favor.

2. Not separating work life and home life. The freelancers I know who make this mistake make it in one of two ways: either they work way too much and end up burning out, or they allow their home responsibilities to get in the way of their business obligations. Boundaries between one’s career and personal life are important in any business situation, but when you work at home they become even more essential.

Be realistic about how much work you can do in a given day and don’t take on projects that will require more than that amount. Conversely, once you agree to an assignment, you’ve got to meet your deadlines or risk ruining your reputation. Non-emergency excuses about kids, husbands, or pets just make you look unprofessional.

3. Getting bullied into a lower rate. I hate negotiating. I wish I was one of those people who could just put on their game face and haggle until I got what I wanted. But I am not one of those people, and on a number of occasions my good nature has been taken advantage of and I have been bullied into working for peanuts (or, and I hate to admit this, even for free with the promise of some reward that never materialized).

Now, there are plenty of female freelancers out there who are incredible negotiators, but if you aren’t one of them, it is imperative that you set a minimum rate and NEVER EVER allow a client to talk you down. As a freelance writer, I find that a minimum hourly rate has worked best for me; that way, I can take per-article and per-word rates, divide them by the hours of work they will require, and easily compare projects.

4. Not re-investing in you and your business. As freelancers, our paychecks often don’t arrive in a timely manner, and when you do finally get that envelope in the mail it’s tempting to run to the bank to save the money for a rainy day.

Although saving for the slow times is an important activity, it’s equally important to re-invest some of your income back into your business.

Although saving for the slow times is an important activity, it’s equally important to re-invest some of your income back into your business. The trick is to spend that money on things that will have the greatest impact on your work.

One of my freelancer friends used the money from a big assignment to hire an intern to take care of invoicing, looking for gigs on Craigslist, and keeping track of expenses—all the things that she hates to do herself and can now delegate to the intern while she focuses on her writing.

I, on the other hand, am going to use my next paycheck to buy an enormous computer monitor, which I hope will reduce eyestrain and allow me to work more efficiently. These expenditures can be as “practical” as a new desk chair, or a little more untraditional, like my friend who bought a Nintendo Wii to use during her breaks. She claims her stress has never been lower!

5. Being intimidated. The meek may inherit the earth, but they aren’t going to become successful business owners. If you want to maximize your earning potential while being your own boss, you can’t be intimidated by anyone or anything. If that sounds a little beyond what you can handle right now, just do what I did when I was first starting out: fake it.

No, don’t lie—that will come back to bite you in the butt. I’m talking about pretending that you are more confident than you actually are. Create a work persona you can easily slip into once you close the office door. Eventually, that confidence won’t feel so fake anymore and it will become one of your most valuable assets. What have you got to lose?

Marie is a San Francisco Bay Area-based freelance writer and editor. Visit her website at www.mariecbaca.com.

Fun Creative Hats

Yay! It’s finally friday Can’t wait to wake up late saturday morning.

Below is a collection of interesting hats, sported by members of the royal family and other.

Whitespace Beauties (A collection of ads with good use of whitespace)

Aren’t the OMAC ads the cutest?

White Space, Love of my life

As a designer, I feel whitespace is a very very important factor in design. It’s what makes the design a masterpiece. However, there are many whitespace haters out there, and I’ve had my fair share of them. Below is an article I came across, about whitespace. Hopefully I can convert the haters into lovers…My next post will be a collection of successful/witty ads/posters with whitespace

Please note, this article is from Design Matters.

The space surrounding this block of text is just as important as other factors such as appropriate use of color, type and graphics. I know, there is a tendency, specially on the web, to fill every single corner with text. “White space is evil,” seems to be the rallying cry,“it must be removed!” “Down with white space!”

The funny thing is that, most of us have been taught since elementary school to use white space. I remember how my teachers would always insist that we draw a 1.5″ margin on the left hand side of every page. They drilled it into our minds, until it became a habit that I have been unable to break, even to this day. Which is actually a good thing, since my handwriting is atrocious.

So why is white space so important? Part of the reason is pshychological, and part of it is physical: the text needs room to breathe. When text crowds all the way to the edge, it leaves us feeling crowded and cramped. Long passages of text, written edge to edge can actually tire the eyes.

Try it for yourself. Take a sheet of plain paper, and write several lines of text from one edge of the page to the other, without leaving any space at the top or the left and right margin. Now take another sheet of paper and right in the middle, write a few lines of text right in the middle, leaving a generous amount of white space on all sides (say 21/2″ on the left and right, and 4″ on the top.) Now compare the two pages. Which one is easier to read?

By the way, note that white space doesn’t always have to be white. It can be any other color. White space refers to any empty area (colored or white, opaque or transparent) that is devoid of text.

This column itself, you might notice is surrounded by a generous amount of white space. This combined with a smaller column width, improves the readability of the text and makes it that much easier to read.

Another reason for using white space is related to a topic that I will revisit in more detail in a later column: contrast. Surrounding a block of text with a lot of white space, can actually draw the reader in, especially in a crowded layout such as a newspaper, where every nook and cranny is jam-packed with information.

Like this text, for example.

You might find your eyes being drawn to the text above. That’s the power of white space. Often times, in newspapers like the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, you will find full page ads with almost nothing else on the page except one lone sentence of text. You might think it rather silly, that a company would pay thousands of dollars to pay for this full page ad, and then not take advantage of it by filling it with text, messages and what not. And yet, you might find it impossible to skip that ad, as you browser through the paper, try as you might. That’s the power of white space, baby (and contrast.)

So the next time, you find yourself preparing a report, a newsletter, or an ad for a garage sale, think about white space. The first time you do it consciously, you might find it difficult (I know. I did.) But eventually you will get used to it, and wonder how you did without it.