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40 Networking Tools for Frelancers

Posted by LEMBAR Thursday, April 30, 2009 1 comments

Vendors


Being a freelancer definitely has its perks — having the freedom to pick and choose projects, clients and schedules to name a few– but it can be a lonely profession. Many deals are struck through emails or even IMs, and close, personal relationships don’t often exist. If you’re a freelancer, there’s no need to get discouraged, however; this list of 40+ networking tools will connect you to a new world of both solidarity and professionalism, where you can find jobs, vendors and other freelancing friends.



Finding Support

These networking tools will help you find support and assistance within the freelancing community.

Writers-Editors Network: This community connects writers and editors with special tools for finding inspiration, mentors, jobs and more.
All Freelance Work: All Freelance Work provides freelancers with articles and messages boards about creating a marketable portfolio, pursuing work-from-home assignments, starting your own business and finding gigs.
Freelance UK: Freelancers based in the UK use this network to learn about the business, get tax and insurance advice and meet up with other freelancers through the site’s forum.
Freelance Mom: Freelance Mom sponsors “a support network for women working from home.” Get tips on finding a job and marketing your business or link up with the Freelance Mom Network to promote your work and meet other moms through blogging.
FreelanceSwitch: This go-to website provides a wealth of resources for active freelancers. Visit the job board to search jobs, read and comment on blog posts to get great advice from the pros, or network on the site’s inclusive forum.
Freelance Folder: Become a part of this freelance and entrepreneur community by linking up with its blogroll or contributing blog posts of your own. You’ll also find tons of articles about dealing with clients, setting up a home office and networking.
Freelancers Union: Becoming a member of the Freelancers Union grants you access to insurance deals, new jobs, and plenty of community support.
Canadian Freelance Union: Empower yourself as an independent Canadian writer against large media corporations by joining the Canadian Freelance Union.
The Society of Professional Journalists: The SPJ provides all kinds of support and resources for journalists, including freelance journalists. Discussion boards, blogs, special events, mentor programs and other networking opportunities abound.
Media Bistro: This online community welcomes all kinds of media professionals who want to learn how to improve their craft, sign up for classes, meet other professionals or search for jobs.
Breaking Out of Solitary Confinement: Networking Tips for Freelancers: The Washington D.C., chapter of the Society for Technical Communication has put together this podcast that shares valuable networking tips for lonely freelancers.
Write From Home: This “freelance writing community for parents” shares tips for finding jobs, finding a work-life balance, and managing a career and parenting schedule while working from home.
National Writers Union: All kinds of writers are eligible to become members of the NWU, and payment plans are available. Members enjoy access to a job hotline, various seminars, copyright guides, grievance assistance and more.



Getting Hired

Search for jobs by visiting these sites and connecting with other professionals.

Guru.com: This popular site lets freelancers search for projects, post resumes, place bids on interesting projects, and get paid safely and securely.
Elance: Elance is “the world’s largest professional services marketplace.” Post your resume and bid on projects to meet new employers.
iFreelance: This professional network of freelancers and employers caters to both the job searcher and the headhunter. Create and post a project or resume to find your next gig.
Sologig: Find freelance, contract and consulting jobs with the help of this networking website.
Freelance Marketplace: UK-based freelancers can check out Freelance Marketplace online to help them search for jobs and connect with new clients, vendors and other freelancers.
Freelance India: India-based workers seeking part-time projects can network and post resumes on Freelance India.
Contracted Work: Professionals in the Web design, software, writing and graphics industries can find jobs and employers with the help of ContractedNetwork.com.
HireGeeks.com: This site encourages companies to “hire geeks” to obtain “freelance support from technical to tutoring.” Freelancers can get together on the forums, catch up on industry news and culture on the blog and set up a personal geek account to safely store funds.
Xchangeteam: This site not only connects freelancers with new jobs, it also supports a solid community of freelancers that includes an annual Freelancer of the Year Award, flexible benefits package, expert advice and more.
TheWorkNet: TheWorkNet is a “marketplace for skilled contractors, freelancers” and other independent workers to meet and find quality jobs.
GoFreelance: This “freelance work exchange” helps freelancers in many industries find work.
Freelance Job News: Use the job bank to search specific postings, or visit the “For Writers Only” page to find publications that are currently accepting submissions from freelancers.
Freelancers.net: This site helps British freelancers find jobs, but freelancers everywhere can benefit from the active forum community.



General Networking Tools

These articles and websites are designed to help independent professionals link up to find support and improve their businesses.

Weekend Writers Cafe: This weekly discussion group sponsored by the Grow Your Writing Business Blog brings freelance writers together for a chance to inspire each other, rant about projects and clients and learn how to improve their businesses.
Networking: How to Network Offline and In Person: Stop hiding behind your computer and get out in the real world! This post shares ideas for networking offline.
Diva Networking: This blog hosts a networking group one hour each month. Work-at-home professionals can connect, communicate, and even market their projects to amp up their business.
Talkfreelance: Join in the discussions on Talkfreelance’s many different posts. Over 12,000 members in the Web design, SEO, programming and hosting industries visit to network and share support.
Network Freelance: This British site sponsors a tight freelance, PR and marketing community, provides links and articles about industry news and allows members access to open contracts up for bidding.
Networking for Freelance Writers: Check out this resource for help mapping out a networking strategy that will help you meet more people, land more jobs and become a more confident, in-demand writer.
How to Successfully Network Online: This article gives lots of tips for freelancers who want to increase their networking presence online.
The Fast Track to Freelance Success Includes Networking and a Strong Portfolio: This article from Associated Content explains how and why freelancers can improve their networking skills to augment their careers.
LinkedIn: This popular networking tool maintains that “relationships matter.” Meet up with others in your industry to find support or search for new jobs.
ecademy: This online business network brings together professionals who want to further their careers by meeting new people all over the world. Join clubs, sponsor networking meetings or events and get marketing tips from other experts online.
Meetup: Meetup is the “world’s largest community of local Meetups, clubs and groups.” Join an existing group or search for clubs in your city to organize activities and events for freelancers like you.
Ryze: This free networking community assists forward-thinking professionals “make quality contacts…re-connect with friends” and find jobs.
Ziggs: Ziggs is a popular site “that organizes the Internet around your people, your work, and your life.” Join for free to manage a profile and control the way others view your business and “online identity,” as one user testifies.
hi5: Create a personal Web page on hi5 to advertise your business for free. Freelancers can network freely to share information about jobs, marketing strategies and more.

Who said the life of a freelancer is a lonely one? Now that online communities are cropping up all over the Web, freelancers can network to achieve solidarity, find jobs and market their businesses.




Remote Widgets




To find a free file hosting is not a problem at all but to find a great high speed website that can help you to send or recieve your large files in an easier way is not that easy.

Some file hosting sites are really handy and make sharing data even simpler than sending a file via email. This is a list of 7 New And Useful Free Sites With Unique File Hosting Features.



Easy Share is the easiest way to upload your files. You can upload files from your PC or from a remote server. Upload via ftp, http, software or web embedded widgets.




Gazup is the leading website for social file mirroring online. By using this service you’ll be able to upload files to multiple file hosts in one go thus saving you time and bandwidth. Simply upload a file to Gazup service and their servers utilizing gigabit speeds will rapidly mirror your file to 8 hosts, including RapidShare, MegaUpload, FileFactory, zShare and many more.


rarhost is a unique new file hosting site, only for winrar .rar archives. They offer much more than just basic file hosting, their system has advanced information about each rar file, therefore they have decided to specialize in .rar files, for example you can see what the archive contains before you download, ensuring it contains the files you want.





upit.to is an easy file hosting service that you can use in just one click to host your files. This service is absolutely free and you can upload your files upto 5 GB.




DepositFiles offers free storage of your files on their servers for any period of time. The largest possible size of stored file is 2Gb and the total size of the stored files is unlimited. You can also send free emails with downloading link for your file to all your addressees.



YouShare enables you to upload up to 500 MB at a time without any registration. If you want to upload 1024 MB at a time and organize your files, you can register for free. You can add your friends and give them permission to upload to your albums.



Senduit is one of the great file hosting service. This is a free service that allows you to upload up to 100MB files and then send a link to your friends or relative to have them download it.

Innovative Services

Looking to improve how you communicate? Check out these six great options in free e-mail and phone services.

You'll find ways to delay the sending of an e-mail, easily set your favorite e-mail service as the default for Windows to use, improve your free PC phone calls and find the real phone number behind annoying blocked calls.

BEST BET: Gmail Labs: Google's popular e-mail application releases its best new features in Gmail Labs, so make sure to keep tabs on the Labs option in your Gmail settings for access to cool features such as Offline Gmail and Gmail tasks. It is compatible only with Internet Explorer 7.0 or newer; Firefox 2.0 or newer; Google Chrome; and Safari 3.0 or newer.

The Affixa download bridges the gap between your desktop and services such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail, setting your Web-based e-mail application as the Windows default for quick and easy handling of mailto: links and file attachments.

So you finished the big report at 3 a.m. but you don't want your boss to know how late you stayed up? Keep up the appearance of professional cool by using

DeferredSender (registration required), a service that delivers e-mail messages exactly when you want them sent.

If your inbox is packed with attachments, try Postbox, a downloadable desktop e-mail application that's chock-full of awesome tools for organizing messages and attachments alike.

While you're on business trips, you can see and talk with loved ones easily using the recently updated VoIP download Skype 4.0, which boasts seriously improved video and sound quality.

The simple but effective service TrapCall (registration required) unmasks the phone number behind virtually any call whose number doesn't display on your phone.

Online Video Editing Tools

Posted by LEMBAR Wednesday, April 29, 2009 0 comments

Most Popular


These video editing sites are generally characterized by a great ease of use, which makes it a breeze to do both basic and advanced editing even for the non experts. Most of them allow users to publish their edited videos on any web page, embedded in a video player; however, only few of them let users save their edited videos on their computer.

In this mini-guide I have collected for you the most popular sites that allow users to edit videos online. Characterizing traits that I have taken in consideration while reviewing them are:


  • Input file formats: which are the supported file formats of the video that can be edited online.
  • Output file formats: in which file formats can be saved the videos edited online.
  • Embedding support: the possibility to post the edited video on any webpage.
  • Upload from HD, Mobile or URL: whether the videos can be uploaded from the hard disk, mobile phone or URL.
  • Max video size: the maximum size of the video that can be uploaded.
  • Transition effects: the capability to add transition effects to separate different video clips.
  • Audio dubbing: the option to edit audio, reduce noise and add special effects to it.
  • Titling: the possibility to add titles and captions within the video.
  • Special video effects: the availability of special video effects that can be applied to the video.
  • Save video to desktop: the capability to save the edited video on the computer.
  • Price: information about the cost of the service.

Please note that this mini-guide is only a collection of the online video editing tools available in the Web and in no ways intends to represent a complete resource.




Online Video Editing Tools :


Eyespot

Input file formats: .avi, .mpeg, .mov, DivX, .wmv, .mp3
Output file formats: .flv
Embedding support: YES
Upload from HD, Mobile or URL: HD and mobile
Max video size: You can upload up to seven items at a time, with a 100 Mb file size limit.
Transition effects: YES
Audio dubbing: YES
Titling: YES
Special video effects: YES
Save video to desktop: YES (both Windows and Mac)
Price: free

Eyespot is an online video mixer that makes it easy to upload, organize and share video, photos, and music. It allows you to apply special effect and add transitions to any videos; audio dubbing is supported too. You can also send your cell phone videos to your account via MMS. Eyespot organizes all your videos in albums and lets you embed them in any webpage. Eyespot works on any platform and within any browser.

Link: http://eyespot.com/




Jumpcut

Input file formats: .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, .avi, .mov, .wmv, .flv, .rm, 3GP.
Output file formats: .flv
Embedding support: YES
Upload from HD, Mobile or URL: HD and mobile
Max video size: 100MB
Transition effects: YES
Audio dubbing: YES
Titling: YES
Special video effects: YES
Save video to desktop: NO
Price: free

Jumpcut is an online video editing and remixing tool that lets you edit your videos, create slideshows and post them on any webpage. You can easily add and arrange content in your movie by dragging and dropping thumbnails, select the best parts of your video clips, change duration for your images, add your music or sound effects, choose transitions, add titles and special effects.

Link: http://www.jumpcut.com/




Motionbox

Input file formats: .avi, .mov, .dv, .mpg, .mp4, .wmv, .asf, and .qt.
Output file formats: .flv
Embedding support: YES
Upload from HD or URL: HD
Max video size: 100MB per file.
Transition effects: YES
Audio dubbing: NO
Titling: YES
Special video effects: NO
Save video to desktop: NO
Price: free

Motionbox is a web-based video editing service that features the ability to link to a very specific point or “segment” within the clip itself. The integrated video sharing support gives users the power to select any number of highlights in their online videos, assign them with tags, and share them with friends, giving Motionbox a temporary space under the spotlight. Motionbox works on the most popular browsers, both with Windows and Mac.

Link: http://www.motionbox.com/




Photobucket

Input file formats: .avi, .mov, .dv, .mpg, .mp4, .wmv, .asf.
Output file formats: .flv
Embedding support: YES
Upload from HD or URL: HD
Max video size: Max 10 minutes.
Transition effects: YES
Audio dubbing: NO
Titling: YES
Special video effects: YES
Save video to desktop: NO
Price: free

Photobucket enables video editing within a browser using Flash and lets users remix their photos and home videos with other elements, such as music, video captions, and transitions. Photobucket also provides a simple service that enables you to store, share and publish your visual digital content online. Images and videos can be directly linked from Photobucket to any site.

Link: http://photobucket.com/




StashSpace

Input file formats: .avi .mov .wmv
Output file formats: .flv
Embedding support: YES
Upload from HD, mobile or URL: HD
Max video size: Not relevant
Transition effects: YES
Audio dubbing: NO
Titling: YES
Special video effects: YES
Save video to desktop: NO
Price: free with 5 Hours of Video / 500 photos. The Nickel Stash plans costs $5/month or $50/year with10 hours of video / 1,000 photos. The Dime Stash plan costs $10/month or $100/year with 25 Hours of Video / 2,500 photos.

StarterStash is a web-based service that allows you upload, store and edit your videos online. You can also record directly from your camcorder or digital camera with StashPad to create a library of video that you can organize on your local computer and sync with your online StashSpace. You can mash together scenes from any video in your stash to create new movies on the fly.

Link: http://stashspace.com/




Cuts

Input file formats: .flv
Output file formats: .flv
Embedding support: YES
Upload from HD or URL: URL
Max video size: Not relevant
Transition effects: NO
Audio dubbing: NO
Titling: YES
Special video effects: YES
Save video to desktop: NO
Price: free

Cuts is a service that makes it easy to create and share your take of any online video. With Cut it’s only a few clicks to insert sound effects, add captions, loop the best parts and in minutes you can share your creation by embedding it on any webpage and blog, or emailing it to your friends. All you need is the page URL of your favorite video. Cuts works on any platform and within any browser.

Link: http://www.cuts.com/




VideoEgg

Input file formats: .mpg, .mpeg, .mp4, .avi, .mov, .wmv, .flv, .rm, 3GP.
Output file formats: .flv
Embedding support: YES
Upload from HD, Mobile or URL: HD
Max video size: N/A
Transition effects: YES
Audio dubbing: N/A
Titling: YES
Special video effects: YES
Save video to desktop: N/A
Price: To be discussed with VideoEgg

If you want to build a video community, VideoEgg is a video editing platform that you can add to create a social network and offers opportunities for monetization. Users can take any file format, from anywhere (their hard drive, web cam, camcorder, etc.) drag it into the editing platform and then create a movie. And thanks to the publishing platform, users are able to edit, add effects, make slide shows, create mash-ups, etc- all within the context of your site.

Link: http://www.videoegg.com/

Live is not fear


With the economy struggling, every business is trying to cut costs to make ends meet. Small businesses, which have fewer resources, especially feel the burn.

Not to fear. I’ve come up with a mega-list of ways to trim the fat off your enterprise so you don’t become a casualty of the latest economic downturn.



Technology

1. Go green! Energy-efficient technology will save you money over the life span of your computers, phone systems and other tech tools. There are often tax benefits to green technology, too. Not to mention it’ll help out the environment.
2. Switch to open-source software. An open-source solution isn’t the scary, “You’re on your own!” proposition that larger software providers lead you to believe. Open-source software costs a fraction of the price as commercial products while still offering all, if not more, of the features.
3. Consider a smaller ISP. If you don’t have a big-business budget, smaller ISPs offer good value for their cost. Check out The List to compare prices.
4. Check out VoIP. VOIP is basically a phone service that uses the Internet. Many small businesses are opting for this cheaper alternative that can save them up to 60% over their traditional telecom costs.
5. Get a cheaper business phone service. Try a hosted PBX system, like Virtual PBX. Unlike a standard PBX, there is no hardware or software to buy or maintain, so costs start low and stay low.
6. Switch from a merchant account to an online payment service like Paypal. Say goodbye to statement fees and monthly fees. These services, however, do have a higher “per transaction” cost, so do some number crunching to see if making a switch will really save you money.
7. Reduce the number of phone lines. You could accomplish this simply by configuring office PCs to send and receive faxes. The Windows XP operating system and Small Business Server both make it easy to set up fax services.
8. Look for cheap or free web hosting. Check out this list of free Web space or read the reviews of hosts at Web Hosting Unleashed to see which providers have saved businesses money.
9. Buy recycled printer cartridges. Printer ink is one of the most expensive liquids on the planet. Much of it is margin, so find low-cost sources.
10. Reassess your phone plan. Even if you don’t switch to VoIP, you can get service for cents per minute depending on your call volume.
11. Eliminate unnecessary lighting. Install motion detectors to control lighting in frequently unoccupied areas, such as restrooms and copy rooms.
12. Turn off equipment when it’s not being used. This can reduce energy consumption by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent.
13. Lighten up. Dark walls require more power to produce the same amount of light.If possible, repaint your walls or lighten up your office space with wall hangings to reduce the amount of energy you use.
14. Time yourself. Install timers on outdoor lighting systems so they only operate from dusk to dawn.
15. If appropriate, use laptop computers. These portable computing machines consume 90 percent less energy than standard desktop computers.
16. Stop paying for software. Visit sites like Download.com to try hundreds of software products for free through trial downloads, freeware and limited versions. Also check manufacturers’ Web sites for free trial downloads.
17. Do it online. Do all of your sales calls need to be in person? Internet-based technologies like Web conferencing and tools like Microsoft Office Live Meeting let you make online presentations to customers.
18. Share printers. If you purchase and maintain multiple printers at your office, you could save money by setting up a network that allows employees to share devices. Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 is an easy-to-use and easy-to-operate server solution that allows you to share printers and create a more secure and productive computing environment.



Overhead

19. Reduce your variable expenses. Variable expenses change depending on your consumption of a good or service. They can add up, so see where you can regulate or scrap spending all together.
20. Do house cleaning on your weekly unneeded expenses. If you’re spending $50 a week on pizza for the office, you might want to consider brown bagging it.
21. Get a freelancer. Don’t let Larry in accounting eat up your electricity as he checks his fantasy football league stats. Hire freelancers, consultants or contractors to work for you from home.
22. Keep a close watch on energy consumption. Set your thermostats to a lower temperature, turn off all appliances when they’re not in-use and encourage staff to shut down their computers when they’re out of the office.
23. Sublet office space. You’ll always need to pay rent, regardless of the economy. But try to avoid any additional bills and contracts that will come with having your own office. Subletting is a great way to accomplish this.
24. Keep it in the family. Got kids? Hire them! You’ll get cheap help, your kid will learn responsibility and you may get some tax breaks, too.
25. Hire college students or interns for credit. An internship program is a win-win situation for your business. You get bright, young and ambitious employees to do your dirty work for little or no pay.



Office Items and Office Space

26. Take advantage of member rewards. Maximize your rewards points by double-dipping on programs for many of your office and electronics purchases. You can get points from your credit card provider as well as stores like Best Buy.
27. Plan shipping or mailings. You can schedule your shipping, mailings or deliveries to take advantage of bulk transactions.
28. Don’t pay retail. Get purchase orders at trade shows, buy wholesale or even check out the local offerings on Craigslist to save big bucks on office essentials.
29. Eliminate unnecessary paper waste. Implement paper-reducing strategies such as double-sided printing and reusing paper. You’ll save some trees, too!
30. Barter. Thought the days of trade were over? Think again. You can now exchange countless number of goods and services online on sites like Barter.net.
31. Free form it. Don’t waste time and resources finding writers to produce forms for your business. Search online for free forms you can download and print. Entrepreneur.com specifically has ones for small businesses.
32. Buy used equipment. One person’s trash is another guy’s treasure, right? Sites like Capasset.com sell used computer equipment and copiers.
33. Check out going-out-of-business sales. You’re business isn’t going to tank because you’re reading this article. But other companies are bound to fail during this recession. Update your business’s digs by capitalizing on the misfortune of others.
34. Get creative and recycle. Refurbish old treasures with ideas from sites like Suite 101.com.
35. Opt for industrial space over commercial office space. True, you won’t be in the trendiest neighborhood in town, but you’ll save a wad of cash each month.
36. Clean up your mailing list. The U.S. Postal Service will clean up your mailing list for free, correcting addresses, noting incomplete addresses and adding ZIP+4 numbers so you’ll be eligible for bar-code discounts.
37. Use online coupons. Scour the Internet for coupons and promotion codes hardware, software and electronic equipment.



Advertising

38. Word-of-mouth marketing works. Use your associates to get referrals.
39. Create an e-newsletter. It’s much cheaper to market to previously acquired customers than creating new direct-marketing collateral.
40. Use YouTube. YouTube is a great free way for you to get the word out on your business.
41. Place an ad on local television stations. If you’re not into YouTube, or want to reach additional audiences, local shows are amazingly easy venue to access. Advertising rates for local TV stations are much more negotiable than what you’d expect.
42. Communicate on online forums and message boards. You’ll interact with potential clients and customers — for free.
43. Start a blog. You can advertise, review your offerings and give free tips as often as you’d like without worrying about running up your budget.
44. Use email. Similar to the newsletter, email marketing campaigns will let you interact with specific customers about new products that might interest them.
45. Get to know your neighbor businesses. They might be up for splitting local advertising and promotion costs, such as sidewalk sales and mailing lists.
46. Get your clients to advertise for you. Ask them to write a testimonial on your Web site or tell their colleagues about your products or services.
47. Be a guest speaker. Speak at a community meeting or teach a business course to reach new potential customers.
48. Join trade associations. You’ll get industry-specific information, advice, sales opportunities and other member benefits.
49. Prune your mailing list. Direct Marketing Association offers this checklist of cost-cutting ideas. Eliminate nonresponders and marginal prospects; print “Address Correction Requested” on your mail; investigate comingling your mail with that of other small businesses to take advantage of discounts available to large mailers; and stockpile mail to build up larger volumes.
50. Be an early bird. Send mail early in the day, and you can usually expect to get one- to two-day delivery for the price of a first-class stamp.
51. Shop around for an overnight courier. Overnight delivery rates for the major couriers are competitive; however, if you’re willing to wait a few hours — or even an extra day — you could save.
52. Piggyback your advertising. Include advertising material in mailings such as invoices and sneak announcements or coupons into newsletters and other promotional fliers.



Insurance and Finances

53. Re-evaluate your insurance coverage and policy costs. Ask your provider about an umbrella policy, which can be cheaper.
54. Consider a four-day work week. Who’s going to object to a three-day weekend?
55. Bank on an early deposit. Make bank deposits early in the day so you get credit (and start earning interest) that day.
56. Consider outsourcing your HR, benefits and payroll to an external provider. Handing over administrative responsibilities to another company will save you time and money.
57. Order your checks from a printing company. Printing companies often charge less than banks.
58. Consider raising your deductibles. Assess your risk against cash flow benefits by reviewing your insurance deductibles.
59. Ask about cash management or sweep accounts. Visit Bankrate.com’s Small Business account search for a comparison of corporate checking accounts.
60. Take a stand on property taxes. If your business is new in the neighborhood, you may be at a higher tax rate than those who have been there longer. “Go to city hall to determine what your neighbors are paying, and use this to negotiate a better rate,” advised Pete Collins of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “Expanding businesses can often negotiate with community authorities, who want them to stay in town rather than move and take jobs elsewhere.”
61. Check up on your medical insurance. Before choosing a medical insurance carrier, ask for information on past claims and the loss ratio of paid claims to premiums.
62. Consider a PEO (Professional Employer Organization). PEOs take over the administrative and legal responsibilities of managing your employees, effectively becoming “employers of record.” This translates into lower HR costs, better benefits packages and reduced legal liability for your company.
63. Try to bargin. The professionals with whom you work regularly are often amenable to bargaining, thanks to the rapport you’ve developed with them. Ask your insurance agent, accountant or attorney how you can cut back on their costs. You’d be surprised at their suggestions on ways to cut your premiums, reduce billable hours or avoid huge retainers. You might also barter your services as a substitute for payment.
64. Time your payments. Ask suppliers if they give discounts for early payment. If not, it’s to your advantage to pay your bills — including utilities, taxes and suppliers — as late as possible without incurring a fee.
65. Seek at least three bids on everything. Even mundane purchases merit shopping around. If you quote a competitor’s lower price, a supplier or vendor will often match that price to win your business.
66. Commission your sales force. Overhead, salaries, incentives, training costs, fringe benefits and expenses add up when you’re hiring your own sales representatives. Contracting independent manufacturers’ sales reps, paid on commission only, is less expensive and often equally effective.
67. Form a buying alliance. Join with another business or a trade association for bulk purchasing discounts.
68. Don’t overlook crucial tax deductions. In addition to being able to deduct a portion of your rent or mortgage interest and utilities as business expenses, you can also deduct a percentage of various home-maintenance expenses, along with a portion of the cost of services such as house cleaning and lawn care. Check out the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)’s Web site, or check with a knowledgeable tax adviser for more information.
69. Save by association. When looking for insurance, check with your trade association. Many associations offer competitive group insurance.
70. Temp it out. Rather than paying for employees who sit idle when business is slow, consider hiring temporary employees to handle surges in activity.
71. Get the best business credit-card deal. Whether it’s cash back or travel rewards, the right business credit card can yield big dividends.



Travel

72. Shop for discounted fares online. Scour popular travel Internet sites for specials on major air carriers. Don’t forget about regional and budget airlines, however
73. Get your rental car through a discount broker. Companies like Rent-A-Wreck of America offer reduced rates as compared to mainstream rental-car businesses.
74. Sharing is saving. Employees should share hotel rooms and rental cars as much as possible when traveling together.
75. Go dutch. On the executive end of the spectrum, many private jet legs are empty or can be split with other business travelers.
76. Don’t eat where you sleep. Hotel restaurants are usually more expensive than other nearby options.



Think Outside the Box

77. Get an “executive suite.” You don’t have to run your office full-time from an executive suite to benefit from its services. Many home-based entrepreneurs find executive suites meet a range of needs, including access to a private mailbox and a receptionist to answer or forward calls to your home office.
78. Don’t scrimp on disaster-recovery planning. It’s cheaper to bend than break.

100 Resources for Graphic Designers

Posted by LEMBAR Monday, April 27, 2009 2 comments

Easy Ways


Organizations,Design Tournaments,Generally Useful,Networking & Freelance Work,Stock Photography,Color & Charts,Inspirational Sites,Portfolio Sites,Design Magazines,Fonts,Tutorials,Photoshop Brushes,Printers,Blog Hosts,Web Hosting,Blogs,Web Design Forums,Graphic Design Forums,Keyword Research,Search Engine Optimization,Advertising,Computers & Electronics,Art Supplies,Graphic and Web Design Books


Organizations

1. http://www.gag.org/

The Graphic Artists Guild promotes and protects its members and is committed to improving conditions for all graphic designers and the whole industry. They also produce the well known Graphic Artists Guild Handbook which is an essential part of any designers library.

2. http://www.aiga.org/
AIGA, the professional association for design is dedicated to protecting and advancing design and its importance to society. AIGA now represents more than 19,000 designers through national activities and local programs developed by more than 55 chapters and 200 student groups.


Design Tournaments
3. http://www.cutandpaste.com/events/Cut&Paste is a world wide live digital design tournament that goes on every year in multiple locations award prizes to the worlds best anonymous designers.


Generally Useful

4. http://www.lipsum.com/
This is a pretty famous site within the design community; you can generate dummy text on this site to put into your designs until the real copy is available.

5. http://www.alexa.com/
Alexa is a traffic ranking site that is widely used to research other sites. It’s not the most accurate tool but it has become common place and your Alexa rank is often a variable when determining advertising costs or site popularity.

6. http://www.csstype.com/
An incredibly useful site that shows you exactly how web fonts will look on your screen.

7. http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/
This is the ultimate branding library with thousands of the worlds most famous and popular logos. Great for researching corporate identity.

8. http://www.blogsearch.google.com/
An easy way to weed out site and just find blog on the topics you are interested in.

9. http://www.digg.com/
Digg.com is a great place for offbeat news and can be in indispensable weapon in your arsenal of traffic getting tools. You can submit well written articles to dig and if it is dugg a lot and becomes popular it can bring in a substantial amount of traffic to your website for free.

10. http://www.bloglines.com/
Bloglines is a great way to organize all the blogs you read into one place instead of having to visit a bunch of different websites and is a good time saver.

11. www.mozilla.com/en-US/
Arguably the best web browser out right now. I use it for most of my web browsing but don’t forget the other browsers when it comes to optimizing your website. Not everyone uses the same browser.

12. www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
This is my favorite email client to use. It’s simple, efficient, and easy to use with solid email alert features. Very handy if you get important emails often.

13. http://www.adobe.com/
Home to the well known design software we all know and love. Good site to check out once in a while for updates and help regarding software such as Photoshop and illustrator.


Networking & Freelance Work

14. http://www.craigslist.org/
Craigslist is one of my favorite forums to use. There are tons of new design jobs and gigs added every day but the competition is stiff so bring your “A” Game.

15. http://www.getafreelancer.com/
If you are looking for an affordable but professional coder this is the place to go. Freelancers bid on projects you post.

16. http://www.facebook.com/
Facebook is growing incredibly fast and is a great way to network with other people and advertising your design services. Many professionals are moving to facebook over other social networking sites.

17. http://www.myspace.com/
Myspace has tons of potential when it comes to snagging freelance gigs or networking. They have a decently active classifieds section that you can use to market your work.

18. http://www.linkedin.com/
Linkedin is a very popular site for professionals and is a valuable networking tool.

19. http://www.krop.com/
Krop.com has a database of jobs for designers, artists, and developers with an instant and easy to use search feature.

20. http://www.coroflot.com/
Corofloat.com is a site where you can promote and host your design portfolio, search for jobs and post to hire some one.


Stock Photography

21. http://www.istockphoto.com/
This stock photography site has incredible photographers and even better prices for illustrations and photos. It will make your life way easier as a designer and has many other benefits such as making money selling your illustrations and photography, networking with other design professionals, promoting your portfolio site, access to active forums and much more!

22. http://www.corbis.com/
Corbis is one of the leading stock photography sites with millions of images online, featuring historical, fine art, business, technology, celebrity, travel, sports and nature photography.

23. http://www.shutterstock.com/
Shutter Shock is a subscription based stock photography site with over two million royalty-free stock photos available.

24. http://www.bigstockphoto.com/
Big Stock Photo lets you upload and download low-cost digital stock photography. They have well over a million photos organized into categories.

25. http://www.gettyimages.com/
Getty Images offers a large searchable collection of rights-managed or royalty-free images and films. Getty Images is a great site if you are looking for current event and public figure related photography.


Color & Charts

26. kuler.adobe.com
Kuler is a useful site to go to find color themes for your projects. Users can submit their own themes to be rated and you can search for many type of color themes.

27. http://www.colourlovers.com/
Colour Lovers is a great site with user submitted color palettes and even cooler is their blog that creates color palettes based on each blog posts at the end of every post.

28. http://www.logoorange.com/color/color-codes-chart.php
Nice chart that converts PMS colors to CMYK and RGB color codes for you.

29. http://www.ideo.com/


This extremely useful but simple web safe color chart lets you easily see exactly how different colors will look on your screen.


Inspirational Sites

30. http://www.cssbeauty.com/
CSS Beauty provides its users with a database of well designed CSS designed sites, as well as news and happenings related to the CSS Community.

31. http://www.thecoolhunter.net/
The cool hunter looks for the coolest and craziest stuff from around the world. Be sure to check out the design and art sections on the site.

32. http://www.logopond.com/
The Logo Pond is a great site to go to if you are looking for inspiration while designing a logo. You can even submit your own logo designs to be voted on and reviewed. Good way to get exposure for your studio or freelancing portfolio.

33. http://www.go2web20.net/
The Web 2.0 Design style is the big thing right now and many websites are redesigning their look to get with the times. This awesome site has a massive collection of all the new web 2.0 logos and links the websites.

34. http://www.cssvault.com/
CSS Vault has a collection of spectacular CSS websites and resources including: Articles, Demos, Layouts, Tutorials, and more.

35. http://www.stumbleupon.com/
After selecting topics of interest you can stumble upon quality sites related to those topics. I have found countless amazing sites doing this and not only is it great for finding new sites but it can be a killer way to promote and drive traffic to your own portfolio site or blog.


Portfolio Sites

36. http://www.altpick.com/
Altpic.com is a great portfolio website for artists and designers where many people come searching for the best oif the best. It is a great place to showcase your designs and talent.

37. http://www.portfolios.com/
Portfolios.com is a portfolio search site where viewers can easily browse through thousands of free artist and designer portfolios.

38. http://www.deviantart.com/
DeviantART is a large community of artists and designers who share their work with each other via an online portfolio. Many digital artists and illustrator flock to this site and you can even buy prints of your favorite artwork.


Design Magazines

39. http://www.printmag.com/
PRINT magazine is a very famous bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design.

40. http://www.howdesign.com/
HOW Magazine covers many areas of design such as the business aspect, new technologies, up and coming designers and is a place for creative inspiration.

41. http://www.idonline.com/
I.D. magazine is an International design magazine that covers products, graphics, environments, interactive media and other design related areas.

42. http://www.computerarts.co.uk/
Computer Arts is an informative site with free downloads, tutorials, galleries, competitions, a published magazine and much more.

43. http://www.maclife.com/
MacLife.com provides news and analysis of the popular Apple products and also has daily blogs from Mac Life magazine editors and a nice selection of articles to read.

44. http://www.pcmag.com/
This magazine is definitely handy for any designer. The hardware we use is the back bone of most of our work and PC Magazine has solid reviews of the leading equipment. I always look up products on their website before I buy anything.

45. http://www.pcworld.com/
PC World is a great place for Computer and Internet news and information, Resources, how-tos, downloads, products and more.


Fonts

46. http://www.dafont.com/
Dafont is an easy to use free font site with a large collection of fonts to download it. It has been around a while and is updated often with new fonts.

47. http://www.urbanfonts.com/
Urban Fonts is new to the font world but has quickly established itself as a leader in the free font community. It has an excellent design and is right up there with dafont.com in my book.

48. http://www.fontshop.com/
Font Shop offers great font collections on CD, free fonts, downloadable fonts, typography tips and more.

49. http://www.linotype.com/
Linotype has a massive collection of the most popular and well known fonts available for download. They also have a font lounge with many interesting font related resources.


Tutorials

50. http://www.pixel2life.com/
Pixel2life is one of the largest tutorial search engines on the internet providing great tutorials to graphic designers and programmers.

51. http://www.good-tutorials.com/
Good Tutorials is a massive tutorial website with tens of thousands of tutorials for Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, and more.

52. http://www.w3schools.com/
If you need to brush up on your coding skills then this is the place to go. The information is accurate and up to date and its def worth taking all the tutorials.

53. http://www.tutorialoutpost.com/
Tutorial Outpost has a vast collection of thousands of tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, 3D Studio Max, and more!


Photoshop Brushes

54. http://www.brusheezy.com/
Brusheezy is a very useful site with lots of great sets of free brushes varying in style.

55. http://www.psbrushes.net/
PS Brushes is home to over 500 Photoshop brushes that are all free to download and categorized for easy searching.

56. http://www.getbrushes.com/
Get Brushes has sets of Photoshop brushes made up of various swirls, ornamental designs, and flourishes. flowers, dots, circles, and various other ornamentations.


Printers

57. http://www.4over4.com/
4over4 is a good balance between quality and affordability and can handle most of the print jobs you would require.

58. http://www.modernpostcard.com/
Modern postcard is known for its quality printing but can be a bit pricey compared to other sites. If you are looking for top notch printing though look no further.

59. http://www.vistaprint.com/
Vista Print provides custom full color printing services. You can print business cards, Christmas cards, stationery, postcards, magnets, brochures, address labels, and even more.

60. http://www.clubflyers.com/
Club Flyers is an easy to use online printing service with many options available and fast shipping times.

61. http://www.alocalprinter.com/
If you are looking for a way to help the environment as a graphic designer then check out the new age of eco friendly printing.


Blog Hosts

62. http://www.wordpress.com/
Wordpress is my blog host of choice. It’s free and easy to set up on a server and there are tons of great themes and widgets available to use. I use Wordpress for all my blogs.

63. http://www.blogger.com/
Blogger is another very popular blog host. It has many of the same features Wordpress offers.

64. http://www.twitter.com/
Twitter is a surprisingly fun, easy to use and useful site when it comes to letting people know what you are up too.

65. http://www.squidoo.com/
Squidoo is an easy way to put up a quick and free website page about any topic you want. It is very popular in the affiliate marketing industry.

66. http://www.tumblr.com/
Tumblr is another super easy blogging tool that is very similar to Squidoo and twitter and just as good as both of them.


Blogs

67. http://www.designobserver.com/
Design Observer is a well respected site in the design community that features writings related to all aspects of design and culture.

68. http://www.lifehack.org/
This great site is dedicated to hacking your life by providing you with tips and tricks to get things done quickly by automating, organizing and increasing your productivity.

69. http://www.ilovetypography.com/
I Love Typography is a great web site devoted to typography, type, fonts and typefaces of all kinds. If you love typography you will enjoy this site.


Web Hosting

70. http://www.hostgator.com/
Host Gator is a well known, reliable and affordable web hosting company. They have a wide range of hosting services to take care of all your websites bandwidth needs.

71. http://www.godaddy.com/
Go Daddy is one of the biggest and most affordable web hosting and domain registration services. They have excellent customer service and quality servers. It is also very easy to mange you domain names and this is important if you have a lot of them.


Web Design Forums

72. forums.digitalpoint.com
This is one of the biggest and most popular programming forums around; there are many thread topics raging from coding and servers to search engine optimization and graphic design. It’s a great place to ask questions, find help or promote your services.

73. http://www.webmasterworld.com/
This is a very active and informative forum on the world of web design. It is a great place to learn and have questions answered.


Graphic Design Forums

74. http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/
This is a discussion forum dedicated to all topics related to graphic design.

75. http://www.graphic-design-forum.com/
This is another active design forum that allows you to chat about graphic design and post designs for a review.

76. http://www.steeldolphin-forums.com/
This is a fine art and graphic design forum where many users showcase their work and discuss fine art and graphic design with fellow community members.


Keyword Research

77. http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
This is an extremely important free tool for keyword research. If you don’t use this tool before you launch a site or blog then your missing out. They also have a more extensive paid version.

78. http://www.wordze.com/


This is another powerful keyword research tool.

79. www.google.com/trends
Google Trends is another good way to research keywords. Some keywords tend to be seasonal so you can check to see if certain keywords tend to fluctuate traffic wise at certain times of the year.


Search Engine Optimization

80. http://www.seomoz.org/
SEOmoz serves as a central hub for search engine marketers worldwide, providing education, tools, resources and paid services related to search engine optimization and marketing.

81. http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/
This is probably one of the most informative sites I have ever come across in terms of search engine optimization. It literally changed my life.

82. http://www.seroundtable.com/
SEO Roundtable reports on interesting threads taking place at the SEM (Search Engine Marketing) forums. They also write many articles on the topic of search engine optimization and marketing.


Advertising

83. www.google.com/adsense
Google Adsense is a powerhouse in the advertising industry. If you are looking for an easy way to monetize our website or blog then you will definitely want to check this site out.

84. http://www.adbrite.com/
Adbrite is a popular and easy to use text link advertising website where you can buy text link spots or make money by selling advertisement space on your site.

85. http://www.adengage.com/
A place to buy and sell text link ads on popular websites related to your website or blog.

86. http://www.text-link-ads.com/
This is another very popular and easy to use text link advertising site where people can easily purchase advertising space on your blog or website.


Computers & Electronics

87. http://www.apple.com/
Apple computers are a standard in the design industry and they are a great choice if you are looking for an alternative to personal computers.

88. http://www.newegg.com/
I love checking new egg for products because of their fair prices and customer reviews.

89. http://www.tigerdirect.com/
Another great site if you are shopping for anything electronic. They have affordable prices and a wide selection of products to choose from.

90. http://www.amazon.com/
Amazon is fast and reliable and is my favorite online store to buy books from. Delivery is always top notch.


Art Supplies

91. http://www.dickblick.com/
Dick Blick Art Materials has been providing artists with the best supplies since 1911. They have a huge selection of merchandise and good prices.

92. http://www.pearlpaint.com/
Pearl Paint is one of the world’s largest discount art suppliers and has a vast selection of art supplies at very affordable prices.

93. http://www.aifriedman.com/
A.I. Friedman is another great business that has been serving the artist community for over 70 years. Their products range from basic art supplies to studio equipment and furniture.


Graphic and Web Design Books

94. How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
By Adrian Shaughnessy

95. Thinking with Type
By Graphic Artists Guild

98. HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition
By Elizabeth Castro

99. Bulletproof Web Design
By Dan Cederholm

100.Smashing Magazine
Pioneer of Web 2.0

Time to reach

It’s time to toss the old tube to the dumpster. Well, not if you have one of those 47” plasma ones, but…you know what we mean. The future of media is the Internet, and television is no exception. Instead of browsing through the channels with your remote, you could be browsing through the free online TV providers on your computer - hell, if you like, you can watch them all at once (in really tiny windows). It’s time to reach out and see how much free online TV we can find.

YouTube
Well, duh. We had to start with the big one. Not much to say here except: user uploaded videos, lots and lots of them, all free. Yeah, and lawsuits, too.

Joost
Another much-hyped favorite from the authors of Skype is still in beta stage, but i actually delivers on all fronts: P2P system for delivering content; solid amounts of good content, great GUI, almost glitch-free work, quality video. If you can snag an invite, you’ll be in for a treat.


Babelgum is similar to Joost in two ways: P2P-based content delivery, and free but ad-supported content. The service is in open beta, and everyone is free to try it out, although the amount of daily downloads is limited. Channels include news, music, documentaries, sports, animation, and others. The content plays smoothly, and the interface is great, although not as polished as Joost’s. Hint: don’t give up if the video doesn’t start immediately; it takes some time to buffer it and there’s no visible indication that it’s happening.


Zattoo
A p2p-based online television with a downloadable client focused on European (over 50) channels. Unfortunately, it won’t work if you’re not from one of the supported countries.

Veoh
Veoh has a slightly different concept than other services on this list. Their downloadable player acts like a VCR: you can save movies to it for later viewing. Although it’s possible to watch videos online on the Flash version of the Veoh player, the focus is on offline (or at least desktop) viewing, and videos longer than 45 minutes can be viewed only on the desktop player. Available videos include both user generated content as well as professionally produced, sometimes copyrighted stuff.

NGTV
NGTV, which is short for No Good TV, is the television you don’t want your daughter to watch. Or at least it tries to leave that impression: in reality, it’s similar to what kids see on TV everyday: lots of music & entertainment, lots of foul language, and long, long intros for every episode.


Democracy is actually a media player which you can use to watch media files on your hard drive. But, the difference is in that it also lets you connect to all of the big video hosting sites and many independent publishers. Finally, it’s a media organizer, which lets you bundle all that offline and online videos into one neat collection. The result is a great online video experience that’s not quite as effortless as Joost, but it sure beats visiting all those video sites and podcasts and looking for stuff by hand.




EpisodeNetwork
Episode network is a large link list, pointing to videos around the web. They’re not hosting any of the videos on the site; but bear in mind that since the material includes blockbusters and entire TV series downloading the stuff might be just a tad illegal.

Dailymotion
One of the biggest video sharing sites around, Dailymotion is as old as YouTube, and nearly as successful. Unlike YouTube, it’s still not sued by every media powerhouse under the sun, so you can still find a lot of good stuff there. For a list of TV series available at Dailymotion, check out this site.

Google Video
Although Google has bought YouTube and Google Video is slowly fading out of the picture, it’s still a very large video sharing site with tons of content and an UI that wouldn’t mind a makeover.


BlinkX is a video/audio search engine which claims to have indexed over 12 million hours of video. Since it’s a search engine, you’re hardly gonna be able to sit back, relax and enjoy the shows, but it’s great for finding that elusive video you think you saw three weeks ago but you were too drunk to remember what’s it’s called or what’s it about.




ChannelChooser
A windows media player based video portal offering a large selection of TV channels. Simple layout and interface, very little annoyance.

Freetube
Freetube is one of those sites that keep it simple: no downloads, no subscriptions: only lots of neatly categorized shows. It didn’t work all that well for me, but some users say that it’s their favorite service, so try it out.

Televee
A shoddy and confusing (actually, largely nonexistant) interface on this one ruins much of the fun, but if you manage to find them, there are some good shows here (watching Prison Break as I write this).


Guba is a combination of video sharing and video rental, which means you’ll have to pay for some of the content. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of good stuff to be found in the free part of the site. GUBA enables download of the videos to your PC, iPod, PSP, and other portable devices. The site is also unique for the fact that it finds content on USENET groups.





WWITV
A directory of links to TV streams, organized by country. You might get a bit frustrated using it because many of those streams don’t work, and they come in a variety of formats. The directory itself is quite comprehensive, covering most of the world’s countries with at least one channel.

Blip.TV
Blip.TV is a video sharing site that focuses on user-crated shows. This means less noise and more coherence than YouTube, and some of the stuff on here is, indeed, quite enjoyable. A great place to find the next Spielberg, or at the very least the next Larry Clark.

ChannelKing
Another list of streams with an insultingly tiny Windows Media Player to watch the content in. Use only if desperate.




Stage6 is a video sharing site built to demonstrate the quality of the DivX codec. It sports a sleek interface and a large selection of videos. You’ll need a special plugin to access the videos - the DivX web player - but the quality of DivX-encoded videos makes it worth your while.


TVUnetworks
TCUnetworks is a China-based P2P TV company, which means you’re mostly be able to find Chinese channels there, but some of the content is in English, too.

Don’t Watch Me
A very rudimentary list of links to various video content.

Tape It Off The Internet
Tape If Off The Internet, or shorter TIOTI, is a service for tracking your favorite TV shows. The service has been around for a long time - since 2005 - and it’s still in beta, which is not a good sign. Read our initial coverage here.

Streamick
While the page itself is just a (quite ugly, we might add) collection of links to various streams, there is some good content to be found here.

TV Links
TV Links is another one of those which fall under the “can this possibly be legal?” category. It’s a nicely organized collection of links to episodes to popular TV shows. Enjoy it while it lasts.

ABC
A selection of ABC shows, will work only for visitors from the United States.

Free Movies Cinema
A carefully handpicked selection of rare and interesting movies collected from various online sources. It’s a small but intelligent selection, and most movies on the list are definitely worth watching.

PeekVid
A selection of downloadable TV shows and movies, including some very popular ones like Buffy, 24, Pimp My Ride and others. Also includes a quite comprehensive selection of anime.

Fox MySpace
On its MySpace page, Fox is offering several of its popular TV shows for free - if you’re located in the United States. Some love for the Europeans, please?


TV Video
A nicely organized list of episodes from the most popular current shows, like Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, and 24. Is it legal? We don’t know, but it’s there. Make sure to expand that tiny video player to (almost) fullscreen size.


Choose and watch
Another one of those long lists of categorized streaming content that opens in a Windows Media Player. They index over 300 channels, and, as they say, some of them have to be good.

Streaming TV Episodes
ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX free TV episodes in one place. It’s not much, but it’ll save you some time.

Your TV Links
An ugly, but quite comprehensive list of TV shows, cartoons, anime, music and commercials.

ITV
ITV is the biggest commercial television network in the UK, and you can watch some of their content for free on their website. Unfortunately, it’s nothing like the real thing; instead of full episodes and shows, expect highlights, trailers and short clips.

Working Project



We all want to become faster and more efficient – but it often seems like there’s no time to make improvements to the way we work. We can laugh at the self-defeating nature of this circular logic, but that doesn’t get us any closer to a practical solution.


Five easy ways to boost your productivity

1. Zero your inboxIf you can, answer emails right away. If not, file them into folders for bulk-reply sessions. Don’t just let your inbox mushroom, or important emails may get lost in the flood.

2. Don’t reinvent the wheelIf some high-quality, proven and suitable mechanism already exists for something you’re trying to do, and you’re legally entitled to use it, do so, be it a coding library or CMS. If you can create components usable over multiple projects, do so to save working on the same thing over and over.

3. Hone things downIf a client wants a 50-page site and you can see a way of doing it in 10, tell them and convince them to do so. Smaller sites are typically more creative, and offer more clarity and focus.

4. Avoid interruptionsQuit your email client and browsers when you want to fully focus on some design work. At all other times, work with passive communication, so you communicate when you want to. Avoid interrupting others, unless the matter is extremely urgent and simply can’t wait for an extra hour.

5. Get away from your computer

Inspiration rarely comes from staring at a monitor for hours. So walk, visit exhibitions and read, rather getting all your ‘inspiration’ from other websites. Also avoid the temptation to start with the computer. Instead, design and plan freely with paper and a pencil. Work fast and don’t linger – you may find ideas come surprisingly easily.


Five tools to help you design better sites

1. Basecamp

Of 37signals’ portfolio, it’s web- based project management tool Basecamp that comes in for the most praise. “We couldn’t work without it,” says Happy Cog’s Jeff Zeldman. “We use it to collaborate with local and remote partners, keep track of deadlines, and even handle the bulk of our client communications.”

2. Firefox Web Developer toolbar

If you work on standard web pages, you’ve probably already got this installed. If not, you’re missing the means to efficiently and effectively test page components from within a standards- compliant browser.

3. Subversion
This popular open source version- control system enables designers and developers to maintain versions of code. As Andy Budd notes, “This enables you to keep up to date with the latest version of project files, which is especially useful if you’re working with external developers, or if you’ve got a distributed team.”

4. Silverback
This new kid on the block is a ‘guerrilla usability testing app’, enabling you to run low-cost usability tests with hardware you already have in your Mac. It records screen activity, video, audio and mouse clicks, and you can use the Apple remote to define chapter markers when usability problems are encountered. Once tests are finished, video and data is exported to QuickTime for analysis.

5. Pen and paperSeriously. Turn off your computer, go for a walk, and sketch some ideas, rather than staring blindly at Photoshop or Fireworks, gradually turning your mouse hand into a gnarled claw.

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When I couldn't fly, you gave me wings. When I couldn't see, You being my eyes. When I couldn't breathe, You be my parting lips. Thank you, Thank you and thank you for all the attention you have given (Society). My Email : Clenoros@yahoo.com
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