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Archive for January, 2010
My Favorite Website This Week
This is one of the most useful generators I’ve come across recently. Finally a generator that will create CSS sprites automatically, no more loading images in photoshop and piecing them together (although I love photoshop). This makes it quick and painless to reduce the number of http requests on the page for smaller images.
Question for the Freelance Designer World
I’ve been trying to figure this out, maybe somebody can help me.
For most freelance web designers designing comes easy. That’s what we’re here for…to design! It would be nice if that was all we had to do, but it’s not. Sure we get to be our own bosses but we also have to be entrepreneurs, accountants and much much more.
An important aspect of freelancing is deciding how much to charge for web design. Here’s my question:
Is it okay to charge differently depending on who wants your services?
Let me explain. Say I charge $30 per hour on average (I don’t actually charge by the hour buy I make sure it comes out to that) because I’ve calculated that’s how much I need to live off of plus expenses. Is it okay to charge more for bigger companies and less for say an individual? Or should I keep it a flat rate?
My moral standing on this is that for most individuals this might be breaking their wallet where as it won’t for a big company. But another factor in this would be that most design work comes from referrals from past jobs. Individuals know other individuals. Big companies know other big companies.
So more specifically my question is should I change my rates depending on the wallet of the client in hopes of any work and pick and choose or should I keep my rates at a comfortable level and potentially not get a lot of work?
Discuss.
So you’re thinking about switching to Wordpress, huh?
Wordpress is great for anyone looking to become a professional blogger. If you’re still stuck with one of those on-site blogs like blogger and would like to switch over to a blog that has more control and flexibility Wordpress is for you. Here’s why:
Control & Flexibility
- Wordpress is a free blog platform that you can self host on your own domain.
- Wordpress makes for a great CMS (Content Management System). Wordpress is not only a blog platform you can also add static pages that you can edit anytime you want with no knowledge of html. Conceivably you can have your entire website on wordpress if you choose.
- Trackbacks is a feature that allows you to see what other blogs are linking to your blog in your comments section.
- 3 gb image storage compared to the blogger 1 gb.
- Wordpress allows you to monitor your comments. It protects against spam and even allows you to edit your comments.
- You can choose to have a public or private blog. Wordpress allows you to restrict access to up to 35 wordpress users, it’s unlimited with a paid upgrade.
- The support forums are phenomenal. I almost always find an answer to my questions through them. If not then I just post the question myself and some more knowledgeable person comes along to solve it.
Customization
- If you know some html and php or know someone who does the limitations of the appearance of your Wordpress are virtually endless.
- Widgets have been around on Wordpress since the beginning so you can always find a reliable one for any of your needs be they for statistics, integrating twitter or making your wordpress more SEO friendly. Also if there is a demand for a certain kind of widget you can be sure that it will be made if it hasn’t already.
Already an established blogger and want to switch to Wordpress?
Here are some simple steps:
- Install Wordpress. Most web hosting sites that support it have an easy way to install wordpress on your domain of choice so this step should take less than 5 minutes.
- Import. Once you have installed and set up your account sign into your dashboard and go to Tools >> Import just pick the blog system that you are currently on and follow the directions from there.
- Don’t leave you’re followers hanging! Let them know that you are making the switching to wordpress and ask them to update their bookmarks and RSS feeds to your new blog.
- Coax them. Start leaving excerpts of your new blog posts on your old blog and link them to your new blog where the full post is at.
- Time to say goodbye. Once you’ve got a good chunk of your followers to start reading and commenting in Wordpress it’s time to say goodbye. Either you cancel your blog all together or you do a redirect. The redirect is a more technically difficult thing to do but it can be done. Here’s a couple websites to help you figure it out:
What are some other reasons that Wordpress is so awesome?
My Favorite Website this Week
DesignBump:
Just found this website this week that lets designers submit your articles and “bump” them up if they like them. I believe this has been the thing behind my boost in traffic, so I’ll be continuing to use it to get myself out there.
Farr Designs is proud to present…
I’ve recently just finished and launched the redesign of author Lisa Lipkind Leibow’s website and wordpress blog.
Lisa Leibows Homepage
Lisa Leibow's custom Wordpress theme
Lisa Leibow's contact page
Let me know what you think!
What can a redesign do for you and your company?
An organization’s Web site gives visitors a first impression. A professional and stylistic look to your Web site is crucial to having and maintaining an online presence. Upgrading your Web site’s overall layout, design and look leads to more creative credibility that can lead to fewer page exits, higher Web site traffic, greater number of return visits and more overall interest in what your company has to offer.
My Beautiful Workspace
Since I don’t have much time to write today. I thought I’d show off my workspace. As a freelance web designer that works from home it’s always pertinent to have your own quiet workspace. Currently mine is in my dining room, and my husband often plays WOW on the PC, forgets that I’m in the room working and yells at the screen. But currently it’s the cheapest workspace I can afford right now. As you can see I’ve already got the best computers, so I couldn’t afford an office if I tried.
Oh yes, it comes with a cat too!
Equipment:
Micro Velocity PC with LG screen Windows 7 OS
uses: Gaming, IE web design troubleshooting
Dell Laptop with Linux OS
uses: Some serious programing!
iMac with Leopard OSX and Wacom tablet
uses: All my designing goes on here along with web surfing.
Oh yes, that poster in the background..I’m not supposed to talk about it. :)
I love my set up. I get a good couple hours of it to myself while my husband is at work as long as my cat isn’t sitting on the keyboard that I’m using (she has to use the one I’m at, seriously?)
So what does your workspace look like?
20 Amazing CSS Resources and Time Savers
Here are a few CSS resources and time savers that I find really helpful.
CSS Inspiration
For those days when you can’t quite figure out what you want to do, it’s nice to look at other people’s work and who knows what will trigger your muse! Just be careful not to be a copy cat.
Web Tricks that I’ve Learned Today
On my adventures through Web Design I often find myself stuck on certain things and how to do them. Thanks to the world wide web and it’s many many blogs often a search or two on the great Google will help me figure things out.
Here’s a few that have helped me out today:
How to Add Twitter to your blog (step-by-step)
This one was great! I hate the clunky look of the widget twitter generates for you and wanted a simple way to add / customize it for a website. This is so simple, two plugs and you’re done.
I was having trouble figuring out how to have double quote image to line up with text. This tutorial provided an easy fix to my hour of frustration.
IE Conditional Comments
So you’ve created this beautiful design and it works in the most up to date browsers (Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome) and then you look at that little runt in the family IE and your design looks like it’s been made by a 12 year old. You can’t just ignore it because 80% of your clientele use IE (Why do they still use it? Don’t ask.) That’s where IE conditional comments come in.
IE conditional comments are a way to selectively “comment out” any portion of your page in a way that only IE can interpret or the other way around.
Here’s a general example of what you would see in your code:
<!–[if (conditional) IE (version)]>
comments here
<![endif]–>
Conditional variables:
! The “not” operator.
lt The “less than” operator.
lte The “less than or equal to” operator.
gt The “greater than” operator.
gte The “greater than or equal to” operator
example:
<!–[if lt IE 7]>
<link href=”style.css” rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” />
<![endif]–>
In this example style.css would be used on any browser less than IE7.
Filed under: Web Design, tutorials by Afarr
Tags: code, comments, conditional comments, IE, if, Internet Explorer
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