1stwebdesigner

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• How to Use Squidoo to Increase Your Website’s Traffic
• Answering a Designer’s Question: Should I Choose Web or Print?
• 18 WordPress Themes for Creating an Awesome Online Résumé
• How to Avoid the 6 Clients that Could Hurt Your Business

How to Use Squidoo to Increase Your Website’s Traffic Posted: 31 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT Are you looking for new ways to increase traffic to your website? Have you ever considered creating a Squidoo Lens to help drive more traffic to your site? Squidoo is a really cool tool that’s been around for years, but it’s never really taken off, so a lot of folks have never heard of it. That said, because it has built-in SEO tools, it’s an amazing tool for search engine optimization and for driving traffic to your website. In other words, it’s a great “top end of the funnel” tool for your website. In this article, we will explain what Squidoo is, the benefits of using it, how to build a Squidoo lens, the different types of Squidoo lenses out there, and finally how you can use it to increase your site’s traffic. If you’re ready, let’s dig in! What is Squidoo? What is Squidoo? Squidoo is a free online tool, and brainchild of the incredibly talented Seth Godin, which allows ANYONE to create a web page or “Lens” on any topic in which they would consider themselves an expert. According to Seth Godin, perhaps the greatest marketer of our time, everyone is an expert in something. Use Squidoo’s templated platform to create a Lens on any topic you’d like. Create as many Lenses as want. Once you build your Lens you can publish it to the web. You get to pick the URL. For example: Squidoo.com/Your-Lens-Name. Benefits of Using Squidoo Squidoo is a great tool that for some reason has just never gone mainstream. There are millions of Squidoo Lenses out there, many of which can be found at the top of Google searches for their given topic. Here are some benefits of building a Squidoo Lens: It’s FREE You can make money through affiliate links and banner ads on Squidoo. You can choose to have your revenue transferred to your bank account or you can donate it to a charity. You don’t need to know how to build a website, but you can still build yourself a Squidoo Lens. That said, website owners can build a Squidoo Lens, or a few Squidoo Lenses, to use as a funnel for driving quality traffic to your website. SEO tools are built-in and easy to use, which allows you to rank higher on search engines for your topic Building a Lens doesn’t take a lot of time. You can have a quality Squidoo Lens up in a few hours! These are just a few of the many benefits of taking the time to build a Squidoo Lens. How to Build a Squidoo Lens Building a Squidoo Lens Building a Squidoo Lens is easy. Follow the steps below and you can have your very own Squidoo Lens published to the world in just a few hours. Create an account on Squidoo Create a Lens What’s your lens going to be about? Set a topic for your Lens. *HINT: Make sure it has something to do with your website topic so that you can use it to drive relevant traffic to your website. Create a Title for your Lens and set a URL. Be sure to include your keywords in both. Set a Title for your Squidoo Lens Tag your page so people can find it! Set keywords for your Squidoo Lens. Determine if you want to earn money from your Squidoo Lens Start building your Squidoo Lens. Add modules (building blocks) to your Lens. There are modules for everything you can think of. A few examples are: Select Modules You Want to Add to Your Lens Text box – Add copy, images, and hyperlinks to create the main text areas of your Lens. This module is great for providing copy/information about your topic to your Lens readers. Link List – Add a list of links to other supporting website that your readers might be interested in. Guest Book – Allow your Lens readers to leave comments on your lens. RSS Feed – Add your blog feed to your lens Poll – Survey your readers Video – Add videos to your lens! This module supports Revver, Vimeo, Howcast and YouTube. Add Tags to your Lens. Tags are like keywords. Add all of the relevant words and phrases that you think people will be using to search your topic. Save your Lens as a Draft and Preview it. Make any changes so that it looks just right. Be sure you have links throughout your lens to your website. Finalize Your Squidoo Lens Publish your Squidoo Lens. It’s really that easy. If you found this article then you’re web savvy enough to create a great Squidoo Lens and use it to drive quality traffic to your website. Different Types of Squidoo Lenses There are almost too many types of Squidoo Lenses to name. Here are some of the top ways to use Squidoo or different types of Squidoo Lenses: Informative/Educational Lens – This is a lens that someone with a passion for a given topic creates as a way of helping others learn more about that topic. Money Maker – These types of lenses come in many shapes and forms, but at the end of the day, it’s a Lens that’s trying to sell you something or get you to click on their affiliate links/banner ads and make a purchase so that the Lens owner can make a commission. Charity Lenses – Charity Lenses are exactly what they sound like. A charity creates a Lens to build awareness for their cause, promote an event, etc. Event Lenses – Do you host a recurring event? Why not create a lens to you can post pictures to, generate buzz for the event with, promote it each year by updating the lens, etc.? Many people take advantage of Squidoo to promote events. Lead Generation – Squidoo Lenses are GREAT for lead generation. The in-built SEO allows Lenses to rank high on search engines. This usually helps you take traffic away from some of the top sites on your topic, have them land on your lens, qualify them, and then funnel them through to your website. Sports Lenses – People love sports, both professional and youth sports. Squidoo Lenses are great for promoting a sport, sports team, local sports leagues, etc. And the list goes on and on. For those who know about Squidoo, Lenses are the answer to a lot of questions. Example Squidoo Lenses Would you like to see a few Squidoo Lenses that are using Squidoo as a tool for funneling traffic to their website? Here are a few Squidoo Lenses currently being used to funnel web traffic to other websites: Using iPad in My Store for Marketing to My Customers Vinart Dealerships Offer Mobile Coupons to Lehigh Valley, PA Customers How to Use Squidoo to Increase Website Traffic Hopefully by now you’re pretty psyched about building a Squidoo Lens to use for funneling quality traffic to your website. So, how exactly do you do that? Well, it’s pretty simple actually. Almost all of the modules allow you to either insert copy, which you can then use to link to your website using HTML code, or upload an image, which you can also link to your website. I recommend that you link to your website in the first module, which is text-based module that everyone uses as their first module. It’s a module for explaining what your Lens is all about. You can also use the RSS feed module to feed your blog articles into your Lens. You can use the Video module to embed your YouTube videos into your Lens. You can link to your Facebook and Twitter profiles. You’re limited only by your creativity. The important thing is that you build a Lens around a topic similar to your website, you optimize it with keywords related to that topic, make it valuable for your readers, and then hook it up to your website so that you can transfer traffic from search engines like Google and Bing, to your Squidoo Lens, and then onto your Website.

Answering a Designer’s Question: Should I Choose Web or Print? Posted: 31 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Print and web are both huge areas of design and mean a lot in today’s world. Print has been with us for more than 100 years and we know pretty much everything about it, while web is a new area of design that became mainstream about 10 years ago. Before this, web design was totally unknown and only experts and developers knew its potential and helped it grow to how we know it today. Both areas of design have advanced so much in the past 10-15 years that they started to cross each others paths and while this can be beneficial, it can also create problems. We will talk about the advantages and disadvantages in this article and also about how the two areas of design differ from a designer’s perspective. Main difference The biggest and easiest difference to spot is the experience you get from them, which are quite different from each other. Reading a newspaper is totally different than browsing a website. Even reading a book is different than reading an ebook, although the process is the same. While web design is usually made to be displayed on a screen, which can vary in size, print designs can be huge such as posters or ads. And while the user interacts with a website, it is impossible to interact with a newspaper or a poster. While web design creates an experience based on the user movements (clicks and scrolls) and can’t exist without user interaction, print design creates the experience through readers’ eyes moving around and searching for information. Image by josephbradleycooper. Canvas versus screen Both mediums take into account the demographics of the audience, as they are very important while designing, creating, advertising and selling content. A detail worth mentioning is that designers use the same elements and concepts in both mediums: fonts and colors are the best example. While it is easier to play with them on a computer, therefore easier to use in web design, don’t forget that newspapers are also created on computers before being printed out. This means that pretty much everything you can do on a computer can also be done in a newspaper. Yes, to some extent. Monitors come in different sizes, therefore designs have to look good on all of them, or at least on most of them. Moreover, there are even more browsers and operating systems, all with their own rules which influence the way the code is interpreted. While those issues exist and don’t seem like they’re about to disappear anytime soon, all web designers learn to work around them and just move on. Being able to provide cross-browser websites is actually an asset for a web designer today. There are, indeed, some restrictions on the web due to technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 or JavaScript, but great design is created within restrictions given by a client or by the medium. And there are constraints in print as well, such as the size of any given newspaper, book or canvas. You can’t scroll on it. While the print uses a lot of paper for only a newspaper, the online magazines use bandwidth, a host and a domain which need to be renewed periodically. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but since the web went mainstream, less and less people became fond of print. Regarding the things that need to be learned, both industries have their own standards. I would however say that it is much more demanding to be a web designer than a print designer. While typography, colors and concepts such as negative space are as important in web as in print, the second one doesn’t have technologies like HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP.Net and so on. Sure, there is some Quark, InDesign or Photoshop to learn, but the technical part is more demanding for web designers. This is probably the reason behind graphic designers who work on web not knowing how to code: it is not possible for everybody to know that much stuff without a hell of a lot of work. Being a complete designer is not an easy task. When a print designer transitions to web he has some tough challenges to encounter. The first one is, as said before, learning to code. But wait, there are more. The canvas is fixed in print – each newspaper or publication has its own standards. It is quite different from the web, where experts debate for a long time what should the right width of a website be? Making things appear on a website like they did in Photoshop can also be a challenge. Doing this in InDesign is easy – you just move elements around with mouse. Web design doesn’t work the same way, so knowing code is crucial, as WYSIWYG editors usually add lots of junk and unnecessary code to your files. Image by bcmng. Moving the other way around might also be a challenge. There are no pixels anymore; print designers work in inches or centimeters, depending on the region or country standards. A new concept is introduced to them as well: bleed and margins, things that do not exist in web. Printing is also a challenge of its own and a job that needs to be mastered. Navigation is also a new concept for print designers, as flipping through a magazine doesn’t need such a concept. In web design it is totally different. Not having navigation is confusing and makes a website useless. And just having navigation is not enough. Designers need to make it stand out, while making sure the content is still more visible and important in hierarchy. The general web architecture is different than the one in print, therefore a print designer would need time to learn and adapt if switching careers from print to web. Typography is also huge in both disciplines. However, in print it has always been important, but it has been ignored in web design until five years ago. When typographers had a boost of inspiration and showed the whole web industry how well used type can change a website, then many web designers started to experiment and play with fonts. In print it is quite different. Once a publication sets some standard fonts, they are pretty much used all over the place and in each issue. Changing them doesn’t happen too often in print; it does, however, happen on the web. Since the introduction of Typekit, a web font service, and Google Fonts, the restriction to the fonts on the computers stopped. Although not difficult to get used to, size is also different in web and print. While a type of 10 or 11 is suitable for print, the web demands larger sizes such as 12 or even 14. But with so many designers out there, there is not really a standardized font size for the web. If the font looks good, the size doesn’t matter. The style is also important, as in print serif fonts are suitable for blocks of text, while sans-serifs are suitable for text on web. Images are an important part of design too. But there are some differences between how we handle images on the web and how we do it in print. The first difference is the color format. CMYK (for print) and RGB (for web)  are the standards. CMKY stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (which is usually black) while RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue, which every monitor, TV or digital equipment uses to create color. Images need to be formatted and exported in CMYK if they will be printed out, otherwise the colors will not be shown exactly as on the computer screen. While this is not a difficult process, when moving from a domain to another it might take some time to get used to. Image compression is also something worth mentioning. There is no need to have an image with more than 72dpi (doth per inch) on web, with level 8 or 9 (which equals “high”) JPEG files or PNG. In print it is good to have images of up to 300dpi in order for them to look good and have high-quality. Image by birdfarm. Another disadvantage of the print industry is the lack of interactivity. The content on web is not only readable, but also interactive, which makes the experience better. While newspapers do not have any interaction at all, this can also be their advantage. Interactive elements are often not usable in all browsers; there is no such problem in print, where things are kept simple. If something is clearly similar between the two industries, then the grid system is it. Now I know not all web designers use it, but it is something which is becoming more and more popular on today’s web. While in web design it is still not a standard, a grid system is crucial in print. Mastering both People usually throw the same question out there: is it possible to master both print and web? Well yes, I think it is. If you understand that both industries have their own standards and are quite different, then mastering both of them is definitely possible. However, mastering only one of them might be enough for a career as well, so if you are interested in both of them, go for it. Otherwise it will not be a big issue. The fact that you don’t know how the print industry works will not be an issue if you deliver your work for the web in time and your employer is happy with you. Bottom line Designing for print and web are two different things, although they are bound by the same concepts. If your background lies in one of them, I am sure you will have no problem in switching to the other one if needed. You just have to keep in mind that while the print industry stalls (or at least drives forward very slowly), the web develops itself a lot year by year and this will only make the whole industry more challenging. Both domains have their own advantages and limitations and understanding them will only make you a better designer. Until next time… how do you see the web and the print industry? Do you see yourself working in both at some point in time, or one of them is just not for you? Why do you think that?

18 WordPress Themes for Creating an Awesome Online Résumé Posted: 31 Mar 2012 04:00 AM PDT As web designers/developers, you need an online portfolio or a landing page, wherein your potential clients can take a look at your works. Further more, it helps to have a resume or Curriculum Vitae online — so that if a client seeks more info about you, he/she can simply head to that page, instead of asking you for a CV in email. In this article, we take a look at some of the best Resume or CV themes for WordPress. ResumePress Major Features: Fully customizable design and layout Custom fields like Career History, Summary and Education Gallery cum portfolio support ResumePress Home Page | Currently under Beta release (stable release due date April 4th, 2012) Precision (Regular License: $20) Major Features: Unique "brochure style" design Custom image slideshows 6 shortcodes; 2 custom post types Cross Slide image slider Precision Demo | More Info Cascade (Regular License $20) Major Features: Uses jQuery and Lightbox 2 skins; 8 tab colors; 10 tab icons 20 predefined backgrounds; 10 social media icons Custom contact form Google Maps shortcode Cascade Demo | More Info Circlus (Regular License: $25) Major Features: jQuery Nivo slider plugin Custom 404 Error Page Custom contact form Custom favicon Circlus Demo | More Info Vue (Regular License: $35) Major Features: 7 different skins Multiple portfolio layouts 2 homepage sliders Unbranded theme options Vue Demo | More Info Aurel (Standard License: $12) Major Features: 2 different layouts Valid xHTML 1.0 Transitional jQuery scroller Aurel Demo | More Info zeeBizzCard (Free) Major Features: 7 color schemes 3 Featured posts’ sliders Font Manager with over 20 fonts Translation ready Localized in English and German zeeBizzCard Demo | More Info Profile (Free) Major Features: Minimalist design Custom menus and logo Can also serve as a website with static pages (instead of posts) Profile Demo | More Info MyResume (Club Membership: $39/year) Major Features: jQuery tabbed content Social media integration 5 color schemes Smooth tabbed design Automated thumbnail resizing MyResume Demo | More Info Get Hired (Standard License: $18) Major Features: 6 color schemes Social media integration In-built contact form Print-ready CSS Get Hired Demo | More Info Super Slick vCard (Regular License: $20) Major Features: 8 color schemes 27 pre-built translations 2 navigation styles 7 PSDs included Showcase/Portfolio page In-built contact form Super Slick vCard Demo | More Info MiniSite (Regular License: $25) Major Features: Minimal clean design Ajax/PHP contact form 4 color schemes Pre-defined shortcodes jQuery and Lightbox based gallery/slideshow MiniSite Demo | More Info MiniCard (Free) Major Features: Support for hCard micro-format Multiple social networks Portfolio support MiniCard Demo | More Info Visiting Card (Free) Major Features: Support for multiple social networks In-built contact form Ideal for non-bloggers Visiting Card Demo | More Info Creative Zodiac (Regular License: $30) Major Features: No page reloading (even when using features such as ‘Search’) In-built contact form Detailed Theme Options Custom page templates Creative Zodiac Demo | More Info The Digital Business Card (Free) Major Features: 50+ social networking sites supported Ideal for non-bloggers Easy to use Theme Options panel The Digital Business Card Demo | More Info BizzCard (Standard License: $69; Free Version also available) Major Features: Independent Twitter gadget Flexible widgets FAQ template Huge logo In-built contact form Custom Branding BizzCard Demo | More Info vCard (Free; Pro version also available after Club Membership) Major Features: Supports hCard micro-format Downloadable vCard Supports multiple social networks Translation-ready Pre-loaded plugins vCard Demo | More Info With that, we come to the end of this round-up. Which theme do you use for your online resume/CV? Share your thoughts in the comments!

How to Avoid the 6 Clients that Could Hurt Your Business Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT As freelancers we have a love/hate relationship with our clients. Without them we would be penniless, but at times they can make our work unbearably difficult. How do we handle the clients who don't pay us, take all our time, and make our job harder than it needs to be? In my career I have worked with hundreds of clients and thankfully most have been amicable. But, every once in a while, one will come along that takes the wind out of my sails and this can potentially hurt my business if I let it. Knowing how to handle these unmanageable clients has helped me avoid potentially toxic situations. These 6 client types top my list. Have you worked with any? 1. The Indecisive Client Image by cobrasoft Indecisive clients change their minds part way through the project. They add services and expect you to jump through hoops to get the work done. This client expects you to discard what you completed and start on an entirely new project while adhering to the same timeline. Back to the drawing board! Here's how to protect yourself: Pad your initial quote with some extra time. Every one of my projects has taken longer than I initially expected. It's just the nature of the job. Work out every detail before starting the project. Craft an agreement that states exactly what the client will expect with additional time billed at xyz / hour. In your contract, include the number of revisions and a statement that breaks down the fees for any rush job, cancellation, or additional request. 2. The Expectant Client Image credits Did you ever work with a client who wanted Cadillac-type work on a Wal-Mart budget? We are freelancers, not a subsidiary company of Donald Trump. I like to work within my clients' budgets. Some hail from startups or a bootstrapped situation and I am perfectly fine working with them as long as the rate makes sense for both parties. But, if a client expects a "song and a dance" for little to no money, you can say "no". Unless you are bartering your services for more exposure, or you are giving to an organization as a charitable contribution, you should be paid for your services. Tip: Get the budget and payment agreement out of the way first. If you let a relationship progress before you talk budget, you will be more inclined to do the work for a lower rate. Beware of clients who do not openly discuss rates. 3. The Obnoxious Client This is the client who took one web design course in college and thinks as a designer you are not doing the job exactly right. Or it's the client who will never be satisfied with your work because she wants the results of a million-dollar agency on her meager budget. How do you deal with these clients? Be patient and don't take it personally. Sometimes people are insecure and they need to inflate their egos to feel better about themselves. Do your best job and kindly separate yourself from their negativity once the project is complete. Tip: If you are not confident in your services, your clients will not be as well. You don't have to be the “top dog” in your industry to give your clients an excellent product. Be confident in your level of expertise and you will attract a higher quality of leads who will appreciate the value you offer and pay you accordingly. I have first-hand experience with this. 4. The Insistent Client Image Credits In the beginning of my freelance writing career I had a client who wanted to work with me on her content even though the project was outside my comfort zone. After looking over the subject matter of the work, I decided the project was not right for me since the industry was out of my expertise and the client needed an expert on the subject. The client insisted that I work with her so I took the job anyway. I spent hours on the phone gathering the details of the project and a lot of time researching this particular industry so I could become familiar with the copy. Once the project began, I sensed the client changing her mind and she no longer wanted me to write for her. Here are some lessons I learned from dealing with this type of client: If you feel the job is outside of your skillset, do not take it. No amount of money is worth it because an unhappy client creates more problems in the end. You are self-employed and do not work for a company. You have the right to turn down a contract if it does not suit your needs. TIPS: Accept money upfront, especially if extensive research is involved. The percentage will depend on the project. Gather as many details about the project beforehand as possible. Many of my clients fill out questionnaires and sign an agreement so both parties are aware of what is required before we begin. If you are applying for freelance jobs, don't let dollar signs influence the bulk of your decision making. If you can't supply your client with excellent work, pass on it or hand it off. Gather a network of trusted professionals you can access when a project is outside of your scope of knowledge. The people in your network will also send clients your way when the project is better suited for someone with your skillset. 5. The Talkative Client This client will email you in the wee hours of the morning and chat with you on the phone about everything from his dog's name to where he wants to take his business. Some projects will require more client communication than others but it's important to set the time boundaries before you begin the project. Add your time commitment into your price quote. If you sense the client will be a time-sucker, add some money to your quote to make up for the extra time. Limit communication or charge for it separately. I tend to err on the side of "free" communication for my clients because I want them to feel like they have an open door policy. When I feel clients are taking more of my time, I will nicely tell them I am busy and will get back to them as soon as I can. Train your clients to respect your schedule just as much as you respect theirs. 6. The Magician Client I call this client the "magician" because he disappears once a payment is due! No contact; no correspondence; no request for further work; no explanation. You spend hours designing a client’s website or writing copy and communication is going well. But once you request payment… Client is missing and out of touch Client mentions a family issue and tries to push off payment and is unreachable Client provides excuses and hopes you will eventually give up asking for money I had one client who paid for partial services and owed me a final payment. I sent email after email and received word that she would send a check in one week. The week passed and I never received it. After numerous emails, she gave me an excuse about hardships she was facing. I offered my sympathy and told her I would be expecting payment. After more time had elapsed, I threatened to take further action. I received my payment days later. Even with contracts, it's hard to fight payment issues. Most of the clients are out of state or out of the country and fighting it in court is almost more headache than it's worth, especially if you are only dealing with a few hundred dollars. If the situation escalates out of control, threaten to complain about their business whether on social media or any other media outlet., but only in extreme cases. Assess this on a case by case basis. I had one client with whom I worked for a few years and her business went under. She owed me a lot of money but I haven't escalated it because we had a good business relationship. Do everything you can not to escalate the situation, but know that you have options should the issue warrant it. Here are some tips: Maintain steady communication throughout the project Communicate by phone – Clients have a harder time saying "no" on the phone. Request 25%-50% payment upfront. Prepare for the Worst The best way to prevent working with these clients is to learn from your mistakes and prepare for the difficult clients within your contracts. Your contract should include: The scope of the project Deadlines and deliverables A detailed description of your services Revisions and fees for additional work Terms which include upfront payment, cancellation fees, etc. It's OK to turn down a project if something doesn't feel right. Over time, you will develop an instinct about a client even before you submit a contract.  Remember that you are hiring the client too.  In the beginning you may need the money, but once you start building your business, choose your client similar to how they would choose you. Your client is your customer and your goal is to please them. Do everything you can within your limitations to give them your best work. If all else fails, communicate that your working relationship is not beneficial for both parties and chock it up to experience. Hopefully no money is lost and you can move on from the negativity. Have you worked with any of these clients? How did you resolve a client conflict?

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