Chances are you could use some places to get inspiration for those days when the pixels aren't aligned and your mouse finger isn't clicking like it should. I've compiled a list, to serve up everything from logos to icons to art to fashion to just inventive ideas to get your mind ticking.
So kick back and let your senses run wild as I bring you 15 websites full of inspiration, 10 must-have books and 9 things to do to get inspired.
10 Time Savers While Building a Website
As a freelance web developer, time is money. There are many different tricks to increase productivity and these are my top selections for saving time. Please make your own suggestions for other time savers in the comments.
Are You Charging Too Little...?
Finding the right price where you make a great income without scaring clients away is not easy. So, here are ten signs you might have gone the other way and are charging way too little...
An Online Business is an Inexpensive Way to Get Started
Starting an Internet business online does not have to be a difficult task. One of the biggest struggles people deal with when starting a business is getting started. This is key when starting an Internet business, as it will aid you in creating your very own web site, page-by-page. Running a business is not for everyone, but if you want to follow your dreams, work at home, and make good income, starting an Internet business is a great place to start.
15 Free Open Source Ecommerce Platforms
When it comes to open source e-Commerce platforms, there are plenty to choose from. Here, I will be taking a closer look at the 15 best available, which should help guide you in the right direction. I'm not going to lie - finding the perfect platform is not easy.
How to Track Your Projects, Key Areas of Project Management
To succeed as a Project Manager, you need to "watch your projects like a hawk". This means tracking every aspect of your project to ensure you deliver on time. To help you do this, read these 5 tips on:
How to Track Your Projects
It's a tough challenge; juggling people, equipment, time, money and materials to complete your project on time. To do it successfully, you need to keep an eye on 5 key areas of your project...
How to Track Your Projects
It's a tough challenge; juggling people, equipment, time, money and materials to complete your project on time. To do it successfully, you need to keep an eye on 5 key areas of your project...
5 Simple Steps to Small Business Success on the Internet
For years, the website design market used to fall into three separate entities for website design and development:
Nowadays, however, you get to see a fusion of these three entities in several Dynamic Web Development and Promotion companies operating from any part of the globe. These web design, development and web promotion firms are virtually all rounders that cater to a diverse range of clientele, include those coming up for creative web design, web databases CRM / ERP as well as for SEO (search engine optimization) needs.
- graphics and animation studios, specializing in custom graphic design and creative animations
- website marketing/promotion firms
- Web programming companies specializing in database-driven website development.
Nowadays, however, you get to see a fusion of these three entities in several Dynamic Web Development and Promotion companies operating from any part of the globe. These web design, development and web promotion firms are virtually all rounders that cater to a diverse range of clientele, include those coming up for creative web design, web databases CRM / ERP as well as for SEO (search engine optimization) needs.
How to use Drupal
How to start a Drupal Site
All you need is a hosting account with a PHP enabled server. Copy the Drupal files downloaded from their website to your web server and enter your domain name. The installation is quick and easy.
All you need is a hosting account with a PHP enabled server. Copy the Drupal files downloaded from their website to your web server and enter your domain name. The installation is quick and easy.
BuddyPress WordPress Plugin
The BuddyPress plugin provides a large variety of features for your WordPress website. It is free, open source and complete customizable. The main function of BudyPress is the greatly increase the capability of WordPress in building a community website. It will give your website members the ability to create groups and invite their friends, check activity feeds, create discussion boards and much more.
How to Create a Blog Site
The most effective way to share your thoughts and opinions is to create a weblog , or a blog. But where do you begin? Fortunately, it's an easy task to get started.
Freelancing on oDesk Pt.2
This is a follow up post to Freelancing on oDesk.
Click here for Part 1.
So you signed up, completed all your profile details and are now ready to apply.
Click here for Part 1.
So you signed up, completed all your profile details and are now ready to apply.
Freelancing on oDesk Pt1
I am writing this artice from my own personal experience on oDesk. I started out at the beginning of 2010 and since then worked with numerous clients around the world. More and more clients are offering jobs, and so long as guidelines are followed, the process is more secure than ever.
If you are after some job experience or have time on your hands and would like to have a go at a project (and obviously make some $$), then oDesk is perfect.
If you are after some job experience or have time on your hands and would like to have a go at a project (and obviously make some $$), then oDesk is perfect.
5 Google Tools You Must Have
Google is more than just a search engine. It offers a diverse range of services from productivity applications to instant messaging. If you need to improve how your organisation operates, take a look at Google Apps. Google Apps offers communication, collaboration and publishing tools, including email accounts to help your staff work more effectively.
Valuable Career Advices for Graphic Design Graduates
Graduation day is a very crucial day for every graphic designer. It is the point in life where you make the all-important decision regarding your graphic designing career. Believe me, if you're still about to graduate, now is the ideal time to start thinking about your future and career prospects.
Having spent nearly a decade in the field of graphic design, I believe it is my duty to impart knowledge and guidance about the practical world of the young and aspiring graphic designers. I would like to give a few career advices for graphic design students that you will want to remember your entire life.
Having spent nearly a decade in the field of graphic design, I believe it is my duty to impart knowledge and guidance about the practical world of the young and aspiring graphic designers. I would like to give a few career advices for graphic design students that you will want to remember your entire life.
Practical Tips for New Graphic Designers
One of my friends recently joined a design agency as an entry-level graphic designer. For the first few weeks, he was running around like a headless chicken. Being relatively new in the professional field, he was unaccustomed to working in an office environment. As an experienced professional of graphic design, I helped him by providing some insightful tips that I picked up during my stint as a graphic designer.
Planting CSS Sprites
Spriting is a term that many web developers and designers have come to know over the past couple of years. But what are sprites, what are they used for and what exactly is their purpose? The word sprite has many meanings, the word sprite originated from fairy tales and was later adopted by game developers. Spriting was a technique game programmers used to make use of one graphical image and only show it in sections inside a screen. Think of 8-bit Video Games, they had their limits, game programmers had to decrease processing by use of sprites, to request one image took less resources then it took to request anything more than one, this made for smoother game play and happier customers.
Site Navigation: Best Practices
Navigation is a topic that's almost never taken into detail and great consideration when designing, but no one can deny that navigation is one of the most important elements on a website. They have the important roll of helping people find their way around a network of website pages, pages that are important on a website. Yet there are still a number of sites that don't really understand the importance of how a good navigation system works, and how it should be designed to promote user experience through structuring navigation into something simple to understand and use.
5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Ranking on Google
It's clear to see that Google is the search engine of choice today with around 60% of Internet users using it daily, there's good reason for this. Google has a good way of weeding out the best websites or web pages relevant to a search query. It's every search engines main focus, the more relevant the content in your site or web page, the more likely it is to rank higher in a Google search.
38 Tools for Web Designers
I've used a fair share of tools and websites to help streamline the process of designing websites. Nowadays I try to stay as efficient as I can in the web creation process. Just about every tool/website listed here I use on at least 90% of my projects.
Don't Freelance if...
Freelancing has treated me very well. I've been able to make some decent money while doing something that I love to do. However, freelancing isn't for everyone; here is a list of reasons why you'd want to avoid it
10 "No's" for Freelancers...
When I first started freelancing as a college student, I was eager to do any website and would say "Yes" to anything, regardless of my skill set or the time involved. It was just nice to know that someone needed me for a skilled task. Unfortunately, I quickly found myself working all the time, eating noodles, and not getting anywhere in terms of paying off my wonderful debt. To make things worse, these people were also giving my contact info out to other such people
Hiring a Freelance Graphic Designer
Creativity is the most important quality needed for a Graphic Designer. Organizations may hire a graphic designer for marketing, advertising, or for any other purpose. There are some criteria based on which any organization would hire a freelance graphic designer. These are some of the guidelines to be followed while hiring a Freelance Graphic Designer.
Top Reasons to Hire a Freelance Professional
Sometimes outsourcing your business needs is the best way to cutting costs. That also frees you up for more (or less) important tasks. And the question is - who is more preferable to hire, a freelance individual (or a small firm) or a large company?
oDesk Readiness Test: Why it Matters
oDesk Readiness Test
from oDesk website:
from oDesk website:
What is it?
oDesk is a unique place to work. As such you are expected to familiarize yourself with our policies and best practices so your can take advantage of everything that oDesk has to offer. The oDesk Readiness Test is a straightforward tutorial, designed to be a quick introduction for users new to oDesk. It has the following specifications:
Social Networking & Your Blog
If you've set-up an Internet business but you're not blogging about it, then you're missing out on one of the best ways to get free targeted traffic to your website. However, getting a blog up and running and keeping it updated is only part of the story. One of the most successful blog strategies involves taking advantage of web 2.0 social networking sites to publicize your blog posts.
An Investment That Paid Off - Go freelance
Karyn Martin was cautious about launching her freelance career online, but she soon got results:
"I remember the days when I dreamed of being a freelancer," she says.
"The word seemed magical to me somehow. Romantic, almost. Now, after having actually been a freelancer for a while, the scales have been lifted from my eyes and I have seen the light. You pay for being able to manipulate your time. You pay by working more, working harder, and - hopefully - working smarter. But what you get in return is priceless. Now I can call the shots bout when I work, for whom I work, and how much I make."
"I remember the days when I dreamed of being a freelancer," she says.
"The word seemed magical to me somehow. Romantic, almost. Now, after having actually been a freelancer for a while, the scales have been lifted from my eyes and I have seen the light. You pay for being able to manipulate your time. You pay by working more, working harder, and - hopefully - working smarter. But what you get in return is priceless. Now I can call the shots bout when I work, for whom I work, and how much I make."
What is the oDesk Gaurantee
oDesk is the only virtual marketplace to gaurantee that an hour billed is an hour worked and an hour worked is an hour paid. Hourly work done using the oDesk Team collaborative software lets us take a lot of uncertainty out of remote work. To learn more about the oDesk Gaurantee, click here.
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