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20 Questions to Know for Avoiding Website Project Disasters

20 Questions to Know for Avoiding Website Project Disasters
When working on a new web design project with a client, especially a new site launch, it is vital to have a clear definition of the project’s scope and the expectations of the future website owner. It’s far too easy for corporate politics and personal preferences to drive the features and processes of a website unless you consciously force the client — and yourself, at times — to focus on the needs of the users and the purpose of the site. Outlining the basic requirements and goals also helps to limit scope creep later on in the project. Especially because many clients are non-technical, they struggle to explain what they want in the context of websites. How to Avoid Website Project Disasters To help create the appropriate focus, I have developed a list of 20 questions you should ask prior to building any website. This list of questions is intended for small agencies and freelance designers who are working with small- and medium-sized companies. 1. 2. Tough? 3. 4. Is the audience young?

Inspiration: 6 Visual Identity Projects Visual identity is the “persona” of a company and creating one is a very changeling process. A designer must research and find the right inspiration to deliver an identity that will really represent a companies personality and philosophy. Today we will show you some nice images of different visual identity projects we found on Behance. You will find some details of each projects as well as some nice images about them. Vrrb Description: Vrrb Interactive is a California based web-developing studio. Designed by: Multiple designers, check project’s page Remember to visit the project’s page for more details. Description: Visual identity for a hungarian interior architecture and product design studio. Designed by: Hidden Characters Remember to visit the project’s page for more details. Adam & Eve Law Firm Description: Adam & Eve represents a group of creative professionals who share ideas, experience, knowledge, the understanding and commitment to achieve legal results for their clients. 103 shares

How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them! The media world is changing and its jobs are changing too. The rise of the blogger is an often-told story, but are the lucky few bloggers who do it for a living well paid? We did a survey to find out. We asked 20 top-tier tech bloggers and social media consultants to tell us how much they get paid, by the post, by the hour or by the month - however their rates are set. The end result is an anecdotal overview of what some of the top tech bloggers and social media consultants are making. There are a handful of people in tech blogging that make even more than this but the vast majority of people who get paid to blog get paid far less. Our methodology was to email people we trust to be honest and who trust us to keep their identities secret, and ask them to post anonymously their rates and the rates they can confirm of co-workers or employees they've overseen within the last year. Payment Per Blog Post Most people who are paid to blog are paid per post. How does this work out long term?

10 Simple Tips for Launching a Website The process of launching a website can be a daunting endeavor. There are many things you want to do, but not enough time and resources to do them. However, even though it might seem like a herculean task, as long as you keep some fundamental things in mind, you can ensure a hassle-free website launch. In this article, I’ll share with you some tips for launching a website based on the experience of our own launch of Design Instruct. This article is part of Design Instruct Week, a weeklong celebration of our newly launched site, Design Instruct. 1. With today’s high-availability and cost-effective content distribution solutions such as Amazon S3, and on-demand instant scalability offerings of hosting providers such as VPS.NET, you can affordably have web servers that can take a beating from high-burst traffic. Not only will having scalable solutions prepare you for the high-traffic that a website launch can generate, but it also future-proof’s your set-up as your website grows. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Essential Project Management and Collaboration Tools for Freelancers | tripwire magazine A while back I posted a few lists of Freelancer Tools for tracking time and collecting money. Great tools but they only take you half the way. There is more to delivering great projects to clients on time than these can offer. Advertisement Writeboard – As simple as it gets really.This this service provides free web-based text documents you can share, that save edits, so you can collaborate, roll back and compare. ConceptShare - If you need to share your designs and get feedback this is a cool tool. Wridea – “Idea management service and collection of brainstorming tools”. GoPlan – Goplan is an online project management and team collaboration platform. Toodledo – Simple and easy to use web based to-do list wit ha lot of features. Ta-Da Lists – a simple and free to-do list application that can be shared with the world. Backpack – Very easy to setup and use service that integrates to-do lists, notes, files, images, and a calendar with reminders that can be sent to your email or cell.

10 Must Know Tips for Creating Winning Visual Brand Identities Posted on 11 '12 Sep Posted on September 11, 2012 along with 24 JUST™ Creative Comments On Friday I attended the 2012 Brand New Conference , a one day event focusing on the practice of corporate and brand identity. The event went smoothly again (hat tip to Armin Vit for organizing) and the speakers shared some great tips and stories on a large variety of topics. The most notable talk of the day for me, was by Simon Manchipp , the CD & co-founder of Someone . Simon’s talk was built around ten things to consider when creating a new visual brand identity. Below are some of the notes I took from his talk. 1. A new logo is born useless. 2. The logo is dying so ask yourself how can you brand without badging? 3. A rubber stamped logo is not a brand. “A new logo should be a symbol of change, not a change of symbol.” 4. The big idea is not the big idea, but rather hundreds of ideas that form the brand. 5. 6. We are hired for our principles, so stick to them. 7. Weird shit creates monopolies. 8. 9.

Writing for DOLLARS! UK Affiliate Agencies that pay in pounds! uk affiliate agencies United Kingdom Affiliate Programmes that pay in pounds! Signing up to an affiliate agency is one of the quickest ways to obtain access to a wide variety of Affiliate Programmes. The Agencies listed below are UK Specific and pay comissions and earnings in pounds. Affiliate Window Trade Doubler Clix Galore Affiliate Future Paid On Results Zanox Click on the banners above for more information, or visit our tips section to help affiliates make the most out of their affiliate opportunities. 50 Freelance Job Sites For Designers & Programmers – Best Of | Web 2.0 Being a freelancer can be extremely advantageous and is probably a dream for many designers and developers who are tired of the cubicle lifestyle. Not only do you get to choose only the jobs you are really interested in, you also have total flexibility in terms of time, whom you want to work with, and where you want to work at. The problem now is where can you go to find work that will help you sustain your freelance lifestyle? To help you with this we have listed the best 50 freelancing job sites to help you in your project search. If you a company or individual looking to outsource or hire a freelancer, these sites will be able to serve that purpose as well. More: Check out our Guide to Freelancing series for more tips, pointers and discussions of what matters most to freelancers. Freelancer Find or post a project or post on this platform to get the best bids from a gamut of skilled web designers, copywriters or freelance programmers. Elance Upwork (formerly oDesk) Toptal 99designs Fiverr Guru

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