designer of the web » Erica

17 Must Have iPhone Apps For Freelance Web Designers

Erica — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:04:42 +0000

Here is a collection of the iPhone Applications that I have found useful as a Freelance Web Designer. I am all for FREE – so most are the “Lite” versions.

Google Analytics

Analytics Agent Lite >>
By: Global Agent Inc.
(FREE)

SEM Calculator

SEM Calc >>
By: Julio Barros
(Free)

Keyword Comparison

WebFight Light >>
By: Van Art Consultancy
(FREE)

WordPress Editor

WordPress 2 >>
By: Automattic
(FREE)

Freshbooks Invoicing Integration

MiniBooks Lite >>
By: Groovy Squared
(FREE)

Basecamp Project Management Integration

Encamp – Basecamp for iPhone >>
By: Alexander Batalov
($9.99)

Color Picker

Palettes Lite >>
By: Richard Maddy
Integrates with COLOURLovers
(FREE)

FTP for iPhone

FTP On The Go >>
By: Headlight Software Inc.
($6.99)

Send Free Faxes

iFax >>
By: Crowded Road
(Free)

Evernote

Evernote >>
By: Evernote Corp
(Free)

Cheat Sheets

Coding Cheat Sheets >>
By: Concentric Sky
CSS Cheat Sheet
HTML Cheat Sheet
JavaScript Cheat Sheet
PHP Cheat Sheet
JQuery Cheat Sheet
PHP Cheat Sheet
MySQL Cheat Sheet
(.99 each)

Have I missed an app that you can’t live without? Tell me about it!!

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Post tags: applications, apps, developers, freelance, iPhone, web designers

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Freelance Presentation

Erica — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:28:45 +0000

I spoke to a group of Web students tonight at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh about Freelancing. I wanted to try to be as informative as possible and present as many resources as possible.

View Slides on SlideShare >>

Text Version (sorry powerpoint exports badly)

Working for Yourself as a Web Designer
Why, How, When… and all that jazz.

About Me

Erica Volkman
BLOG: http://www.Designeroftheweb.com (new)
COMPANY:
http://www.GoodImpressionsMedia.com
Interactive Media Design Grad @ AIP 2006

What Were Talkin’ About

Freelance Pros and Cons
What would help you get started
Generating Leads
The Freelance Process

The Pros of Freelancing

Work From Anywhere in the World
Set Your Own Rate
Somewhat Flexible Hours
Variety of Projects (Reject the Rejects)
Reduced Transportation Costs
Tax Write Offs

The Cons of Freelancing

You really aren’t your own boss, You have many bosses, and they all want something the same day
Time Management
Self-Discipline (Focus)
Lack of Financial Security
Accounting and Taxes
No Health Benefits (buy your own)

Getting Started

Choose a name
Make yourself a site
Create a Proposal / Quote / Contract template document and USE IT.
Choose Your Rate
Create an Invoice Template or set-up an account for invoicing

What’s in a Name?

Use your own name
(Does not need Registered and can use your social security as a Tax ID or EIN.)
Create a Fictitious Business Name ($70.00) and get a Tax ID (EIN) so you can open a Business Checking.

Fic Name Requirements (PA): http://www.dos.state.pa.us/corps/cwp/view.asp?a=1093&q=431168

Fic Name Registration (PA): http://www.dos.state.pa.us/corps/lib/corps/20/7/311.pdf

Other States: http://www.business.gov/register/business-name/dba.html

Tax ID Registration: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html

Doing Business In PA Web Site >>>

NOTE: I wanted to elaborate on naming your business for any students who might stop by.. @JessProgresses made a great point to me – using your own name for your business will build recognition of you in the industry.

I said while presenting that my personal preference is to create a fic name cause i feel it’s catchier, but it really is personal preference!

Get A Portfolio or Business Site

People will argue its not needed.
Makes landing clients easier
If your skills are not where you would like them to be as designer, use a template for yourself and your clients. Also consider a content management system (CMS) like Joomla or Wordpress.
Include links to your work, or screen shots, or even just information for now. It makes you look much more serious.

Get A Proposal Template

Sample Project Proposal HERE.
Very simple, Not sure how it would hold up in court (even though I believe it would!) so please use update and details for each project.

Choose Your Rate

Determine your rate with: FreelanceSwitch Rate Calculator

OR Choose how many hours you would like to work per week on freelance and how much you would like to make from freelance per week. – Remember if you think a project will take 12 hours… it’ll take 24!

Invoice Them

http://www.FreshBooks.com (suggested)
Download Word Invoice Template
Make your own because you’re a designer!

AIP – Renee McCafferty<
5th quarter or above with a minimum 2.5 GPA

Finding Clients

Friends and Fam are #1
CraigsList.org under Web or Gigs
Bidding Sites Such As:

GetAFreelance.com
Lime Exchange
Elance.com
Grass Roots Marketing – Hand out fliers, Send out post cards
Networking – Join Business Meetup groups.

The Process

1 . Find Client
2 . Meet / Speak with Client to find out the scope of the project. You need to know exactly what they want – how they want it to look, how they want it to function, what their goals are. EXHAUST all questions.
3 . Do brief competitive review to discover ways that your client can excel over the competition.
4 . Create your Proposal / Be as detailed as possible with EVERYTHING. – get approval
5 . Create Screen Shots and Wire Frames – get approval
6 . Break it out – make it function. Give the client a test site to visit while they wait for the magic.
7 . Test and Revise x 1000
8 . Deliver Project & Promote if applicable
9 . Invoice

Blog Posts:

Web Design From Scratch

The Web Design Process

Evaluate Your Process and Results

AWESOME FREELANCE BLOGS:

FreelanceSwitch.com (with awesome podcast!)

FreelanceFolder.com

THE END

Thank You!

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Post tags: aip, clients, cons, freelance, invoicing, process, proposals, pros, quotes, students, web design

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Remove Related Videos on YouTube

Erica — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:16:04 +0000

I ran into quite the pickle about 6 months back while working on a motorcycle site that used tons of YouTube videos. One night my client called me pretty late, distressed that one of the videos on their home page was advertising for another “related” YouTube video involving naked woman and sexual acts. It was EXTREMELY important that I get these creditability destroying images off of their site ASAP.

At first I had no idea that YouTube saw these videos was related, so it took me some time find the solution as I didn’t know they were called “Related Videos”. Since then I have had to look this up a few times as I don’t need it often and keep forgetting. Here it is, I wish all my problems were this simple!

YouTube Video With “Related” Videos

YouTube Video WITHOUT “Related” Videos

Simply add rel=0 to the end of the YouTube video link in the object embed tag.
For example: http://www.youtube.com/v/OjfpGTCHjf4&rel=0

Hope this helps someone somewhere

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Post tags: embed, related, video, YouTube

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Affiliate Ad on Facebook “WHERE IS YOUR BOYFRIEND?”

Erica — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:34:33 +0000

I always see “scam-like” advertising on Facebook, but this ad caught my attention right away… this ad was funny. “WHERE IS YOUR BOYFRIEND? Do You Think Your Boyfriend is Cheating? Find out INSTANTLY where he is RIGHT NOW.”

Wow, Google Maps FINALLY implemented my boyfriend tracking device suggestion… AWESOME.

I just had to find out who was behind the craziness..

Upon clicking the ad I was taken to http://www.themobilespy.com/US/Spy-LTB/ – A MATRIX looking site where main text reads: “Are You Being Searched For Online?” – Is this not the OPPOSITE of why a person would click on this particular facebook ad?

Not very well thought out at all.

The Mobile Spy site firsts asks if you are a male or female. Then your age range. And lastly YOUR mobile phone number.

Reading the small print will inform you that:

You will receive a report of the three most recent phone numbers to have searched for your location with our service.
You will be able to search three phone numbers by area code and prefix and
You will be enrolled in a periodical fun facts subscription on your cell phone.

This led me to ask this question – HOW are these people making money??? What is the point of this site and WHY waste money advertising on facebook?

I NEEDED to get to the bottom of this.

I filled out and submitted the form and was taken to http://www.mylife.com. AH-HA! MyLife.com is is self proclaimed as America’s #1 People Search who make it a point to say: “The other websites referenced on this site are owned and operated by their respective companies…”

MyLife.com offers an affiliate program – which is where “Mobile Spy” comes in.

So, thats that… my fun investigation for the night! Has anyone else seen or taken part in advertising such as this? I would LOVE to know how much MyLife pays their affiliates - it must be pretty decent since someone is paying to advertise their off-shoot site on Facebook.

I am an affiliate for amazon.com and other non-sleazy sites, so I know how affiliate programs work… I just have never imagined making a substantial amount of money for something as shady and obviously FAKE as this site. GOOFY.

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Post tags: Advertising, affiliate, facebook, scam

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Using RokQuickCart – Joomla Ecommerce Component

Erica — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:24:53 +0000

I have recently installed RokQuickCart from RocketTheme for a pro bono client’s web site and I have to say this was one of the easiest Joomla extensions that I have ever used.

We needed to get the site up quick, and RokQuickCart was very easy to install, customize, and test. Plus, it looks pretty damn nice!

This component was not created for stores offering a large selection, as it has few options for customization. But it was exactly what I needed for a small online shop – that like most projects, needed to be live “yesterday.”

RokQuickCart allows you to customize the following:

The Name / Title of your product
Price
Shipping
Allows you to “Pick Image” which pulls images from your “images/rokquickcart that it very lovingly created upon installation.
Description
Sizes and Color options are available in the “Custom Fields” on the right.

The extension uses PayPal and Google Checkout as its payment systems.

Notably, RokQuickCart only asks for your paypal email in order to be set up and functioning, and upon installation is automatically in sandbox mode for testing.

Features that RocketTheme will Tell you about:

Payment Systems: use PayPal or Google Checkout
Currencies: use up to 16 different currencies for your store
Tax Rate: automatic cost calculation based on a tax rate
Shipping: configure shipping costs for auto-calculation
RokBox: product images use RokBox to display larger previews
Style: inbuilt styling for rapid deployment

Really great extension for small shops!

Comparison to VirtueMart:
@jbayone asked how RokQuickCart compared to VirtueMart. For me VirtueMart was a battle the first time I used it. Learning how it functioned and getting things set up to use sell only a few ebooks was a real pain. I am not saying I would never use it again by any means, I definitely will in the future, and it is a very powerful extension for sure. I just had a hard time setting it up my first time.

RokQuickCart is not meant to replace extensions like VirtueMart. The functionality simply is not there. RokQuickCart does not allow you to create categories for your products or sell online goods like ebooks or audio books, but it is awesome for your neighbor who had an awesome idea for a t-shirt he’d like to sell!

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Post tags: ecommerce, joomla, rockettheme, rokquickcart, shop, store

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