1. Brand yourself. Nearly any company or organization falls apart without an established style. Without a impressive personalized logo you will simply fade into the background where literally thousands of freelance designers wander.

2. Create an effective online portfolio. It is nearly impossible to be successful in graphic or web design without having an impressive inline presence. Any potential clients or employers will want to see your work and most of them will prefer to type in a URL and click on what they want to see.

3. Create an equally effective print portfolio, business cards, resume, etc. This is somewhat a combination of the previous two steps. Be sure to create an impressive tangible portfolio that you can give to those who want to see your work “in person”. Also use your branding and identity to create business cards, stationery, etc. Any time you can slap your personal logo on something, do it.

4. Be brave, bold, and professional. Don’t be afraid to call people, offer services, email businesses and more. Recently, I was printing a job for a client and at the printing shop, a man complimented me on the design of the piece. After engaging in friendly conversation, he asked me for some tips on the piece he was printing for his own business. Although I was short on time, I was happy to help him and when I got ready to leave, I offered my future services and handed him a card. Have confidence that people will appreciate your skills.

5. Go the extra mile for your customers. Word of mouth is the most important tool you have. Nothing can help you or hurt you more than rumors and compliments spread by those for whom you have done work before. About 90% of the freelance work I do comes from word-of-mouth advertising.

6. Take the small jobs first. Doing well at a small job for someone can help open doors for your client to do bigger, better things. I entered a logo contest for a particular organization and out of the four logos I entered, two tied for first place pick. They were so impressed, I offered to design their website as well. Similar offers can be made for an organization’s stationery, business cards, etc. Find a niche and then take courage and offer more.

7. Don’t underestimate yourself. This goes along with Number 4. Be sure to believe in yourself. No one will ever hire a designer that thinks he may not do as good a job as the next guy. Be sure to reflect your confidence in your pricing. If your work is good, charge good money for it.

8. Network. Graphic and web design are rapidly changing. Every day new techniques and styles are developed and the designer found sleeping on the job is left in the dust. Sign up for social networks like twitter, linkedin, facebook, digg, and more. Start a blog and frequently add meaningful comments on others’ blogs. Creating a name for yourself in the design world takes some time but can be done using social networking resources.

9. Practice, practice, practice. Nothing will help you increase in confidence and ability more than practice. If work is a little slow, nail down some of those personal projects you’ve been meaning to finish. Join a group at school or in the community where you can freshen your skills. Participate in design forums, contests, and workshops. Nothing can take the place of real life application and experience.

10. Pay attention. I like to carry a small notebook around with me. Whenever I see an advertisement, photograph, building, person, etc. that influences my creative thinking, I try to write it down. When you go places, pay attention to new trends. Collect successful design pieces that you find at restaurants, at the mall, or anywhere you go just to relax. Always be on the look out for creative inspiration.

7 Deadly Sins – A Designer’s Frailty at Its Worst

Gluttony
The sin is gluttony. The consequence is obesity. The solution is moderation. One should practice the saying ‘everything in moderation’. Even in the world of web design, gluttony is a sin that is a serious matter with rather enormous effects. Gluttony comes about when you consume or take something in excess. And sometimes, designers can go overboard by putting too much into a design or make their designs overly complex. We all want to create an inch perfect design. However, being excessive and over the top is not the way to perfection.

Less may not necessarily mean more all the time, but more doesn’t immediately equate to a good design as well. Sometimes, we might want to include unnecessary features just because they’re cool or pretty or just so we can try something new. Putting too many good elements into a design can have the opposite effect of good.

Be clear about what is best for the user, the clients as well as for the design. Don’t waste your time piling everything onto your design plate only to have to throw them away after realizing they might not necessarily go well together or make any design or practical sense.

Gluttony kills more than the sword. – Proverb

Greed
Greed and gluttony go hand in hand but are really quite different sins. Greed is the excessive desire to obtain something, usually referring to money or power. However, because of greed and the excessive need to gorge oneself, one becomes a glutton.

Focusing on the greed, we refer to the sin as the greed for money and power. Many say that ‘money makes the world go round’ or that ‘money is the root of all evil’. These sayings come about because of greed. As designers, we are also susceptible to this sin. When dealing with clients, we ultimately want payment for our services, and naturally so. As mentioned in a previous article – Freelancer Custom Quoting: How to Quote per Project by Secretly Charging per Hour, we usually pad our quotes before quoting our clients. The danger of being greedy is if we over pad because we want to earn more money from our projects.

If you don’t over pad and charge your clients exorbitant fees for your services, that is very professional of you. However, greed can also be in the form of you taking on more projects than you can actually handle. If you overwork yourself, you are not only harming your own health, but your many projects will all suffer as well. It is common to take on multiple projects at the same time. It is not wrong. However, be sure not to bite off more than you can chew.

Each project requires a certain amount of time, energy, effort, and research to complete. If you shortchange any of these projects so that you can take on more projects to earn more in the same period of time, that greed has gotten the better of you.

Steer clear of greed, it will harm your working relationships, affect the quality of your work and also ruin the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build.

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all. – Democritus

Sloth
Everyone has a lazy bone in them. Procrastination is a common problem that often arises. Humans are great at making excuses so that they can avoid responsibility and action. The lack of time, creative blocks, and little sources of inspiration are most often cited as excuses. The project is prolonged and delayed. Then everyone will start playing the blame game and pointing fingers at everyone else but themselves. Yes, inspiration can be a slippery fish, but if we work only according to when creativity hits us, then working in the industry is a career path we should really reconsider.

Designers always have deadlines to meet. Deadlines and laziness do not go well together. Work out a balance in your own schedule and play hard as much as you work hard. If you find a good working rhythm, don’t break the momentum. Set reasonable work schedules and goals per working timeslot and stick to them, this will help you keep track of your work and counter the lazy bone.

Diligence overcomes difficulties, sloth makes them. – Benjamin Franklin

Envy
Each designer’s success is dependent on their own talents and capabilities. It is pointless to be envious of other people’s success or their designs. It is of course normal to look up to, admire, and be inspired by other designers. However, don’t let the jealousy monster get to you. Being bitter about another person’s success will do you no good. There is no reason for your envy and resentment of their successes. They have worked hard to get to where they are.

If you spend the time wasted on envying them into learning more skills to better yourself, you won’t be envying them anymore, but perhaps become the envy of others. Use this yearning to be like them and fuel your own desires to become a better designer. Don’t just be envious, do something about it. Beware of envy, it often leads to lust.

Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own. – Harold Coffin

Lust
Lusting after another designer’s designs is not a good trait one should have. Being lovers of creative and beautiful things, we know how to appreciate a good design. And while we drool over something another designer’s come up with, we are tempted to learn from them. Learning from someone better or more creative than us is a good thing. However, be careful not to end up coveting the original so much that your own creation becomes too similar to it.

We should let it inspire us but not copy from it. To copy is to pirate, to pirate is to steal. We should contribute to the world of design, and producing too close a replica of the original is not contributing much or anything new to the industry at all. Keep your lust in check; be inspired to be creative and innovate, not steal.

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment. – Thomas Otway

Pride
If you do not have pride in your work, you will not find success or achieve much. So why is pride in the list of sins? Pride in one’s work is necessary; however, being overly proud, becoming arrogant and obnoxious is not. When you have pride and confidence in your work, you can achieve and do great things. It is these character traits that will help push you forward to becoming better at what you do. However, always remember that pride comes before a fall. If you are too proud to accept other people’s opinions and feedback, you run the risk of not just alienating yourself from others, but also succumb to the sin of pride.

We are not always right, and we must recognize that fact if we are to continue learning and improving. Do not be too proud to learn what you can from others even if you’re at the top of your game. If you encounter any problems, don’t let pride get in the way of you asking for help. Insisting on resolving a problem you obviously cannot fix will only make matters worse. Arrogance is a no-win situation.

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real. – Thomas Merton

Wrath
Violence never ever solved anything. Design work is tedious and time consuming. After staring at books, the computer and sitting for hours on end trying to achieve perfection in our creative designs, anyone would be cranky and short tempered. However, if we turn that anger and frustration on others, we have surrendered to the sin of wrath.

Wrath isn’t just about being excessively angry, but also being vindictive and forceful because of that anger and frustration. Don’t let your everyday frustrations build up to become a fury that cannot be stopped. Nip it in the bud. If you encounter an issue you disagree with, communicate amicably about it instead of giving in to your anger and lashing out at the client. Giving in to your wrath is a surefire way of getting a bad reputation as an unprofessional designer.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. – Bible

The most basic goal of any website is to generate targeted and motivated traffic. Doing this requires an ongoing digital marketing plan. So where do I start?

Whether you are just beginning the design and development of a new site, or are wondering why my existing web site is not generating the leads you were hoping for, these 8 tips are sure to provide the ground work that will help increase targeted traffic to your site.

Keyword Research:
Whether you hire an SEO firm or do it in house, be sure to uncover the exact phrases that your potential customers are searching for. This is by no means a guessing game either. There are a variety of keyword research tools that can provide insight into what people are searching for and how competitive it will be to rank for those particular words. Wordtracker and Google Keyword tool are a couple of the more popular options.

Copywriting:
Nobody knows your business better than you. But sometimes it takes a talented writer to take what you know and “buff it up” to really make it shine. Good web copy can be the hardest part of the entire digital marketing equation because compelling web copy is based on a unique set of rules. It must draw readers into your site effortlessly giving them the information they need as they navigate around. It must be clear, concise and benefits-centric; using language readers use. It must also flow well within its layout and design. When writing for the web you need to consider at least two audiences: humans and the search engines’ that visit your web site.

Optimize your site for the Search Engines:
Onpage optimization involves populating your site with the keywords you’ve determined as your most critical. Other then ensuring your keyword phrases appear throughout the body, items such as title tags and meta descriptions are the place to start. It is also very important to make sure your site is visible to the search engines. Things like full flash interfaces and graphics for navigation are impossible to be read and indexed for search.

Inbound Link Creation:
Inbound links are links that point users to your page and content. Search Engines see them as a vote of confidence that another site has given you. When a high page rank site has a link that is pointing to you, particularly one that uses your pre-determined keywords, this is SEO gold. In our case, whenever we comment on a blog or submit our link to a directory, we always use the words “Calgary web design” and link those words directly to our site. Search Engines in turn read that link and see us an authority on “Calgary web design”, or Kelowna, depending on the origin of the link.

Social Media Optimization:
Not only are these easy to get powerful inbound links, but this is an incredible tool to talk directly to an engaged and typically supportive audience. Social Media has created a dialogue back and forth not only with the company but also the people that are brand advocates and fans. Experiment with this. Find your voice and take advantage of a communication tool unlike any before.

Offline Advertising and collateral materials:
Ensure that any offline activities like traditional advertising or Direct Mail are in sync with your online messaging. They should always be working together and not inefficient money wasting silos. All offline communication tools are either driving viewers to the website or to simply pick up the phone.

Public relations & article marketing:
Get the word out through both traditional channels and online news and article sources. Write a press release announcing the new venture and submit to both local media as well as online sources. Online news and article sites are typically free and offer two main benefits: they get your story out to the masses and they also offer those important inbound links back to your site. Are you starting to see a common theme? Everything you do, ties directly into your online marketing strategy, and most of it happens outside of your corporate website alone.

Get out and shake some hands:
I’d be remiss if I suggested that all this will benefit your business without getting out and making some personal connections. Face to face relationships for most small business will never be replaced completely by any amount of internet marketing. Public speaking builds credibility, volunteering builds character and networking builds backbone. J Clients that know and trust you, are that much more likely to buy from you.

This may seem like a lot of extra work, especially if you were one of those who thought, “If I build it, they will come”. But the reality is, if you have a plan, work at it consistently with passion and integrity… they will come.

Your site doesn’t need to be the biggest, or even the best. It just needs to be effective in helping you reach your goals. Start small, stay at it, but most importantly, start with a plan.

The PHQ1 for smaller cameras will cost $230, while the PHQ3 will sell for $290.

(via Wired)

Adobe CS5

intended to facilitate the work of designers with regard to creation of interactive content. From now on designers will have possibility to create expressive Web application interfaces and design interaction without writing code.

Read more: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-use-facebook-for-business#ixzz0mXP7gjMG

• The plan is to make Facebook Connect, which is already being used by 100 million people, bigger. This is the system where you can log in to other sites (such as this one) using your Facebook credentials.
• If you like content, you can just hit “like.” It will be noted by Facebook. If more of your friends click “like,” it can be added to your stream on Facebook. This may then send traffic back to the originating site, which gives publishers an incentive to put more Facebook buttons on their pages. Zuckerberg expects 1 billion “likes” for Facebook in the first 24 hours.
• Facebook showed someone using CNN and seeing what his friends were just reading on the site via a widget. The “like” button and other features are making the Web more social.
• The biggest applause was when Zuck said they were killing the policy that made third-parties delete all info after 24 hours. This gives sites to access to more data for longer. But there could easily be privacy concerns about this.
  Facebook is also introducing a social toolbar for sites to add at the bottom of their page. With that you can share plenty of things on Facebook more easily. You will also be logged into Facebook and be able to chat with people.
• In addition to all this, Facebook and Microsoft are collaborating to kill Google Docs. (And to give Microsoft’s online version of Office a chance.) Docs.com is Microsoft’s online version of Office. It will be tightly integrated with Facebook. If you want to share a doc, you can send it to a Facebook inbox. (More data here.)
  And finally, Facebook has 400 million users sharing 25 billion things a month.