7 Great Rip-offs—and How to Avoid Them! [Work Smarter] Almost all web developers find themselves chasing payments from certain clients in any given year. Some circumstances I’ve endured more often than others. In this article, I’ve identified seven of the most common ways web professionals fall into the payment trap, and suggest ways of overcoming these pitfalls. The Problematic Payment Equation (or Half + Half = Half) Common—and commonly frustrating—payment terms for site builders usually consist of this equation: half the total amount up-front, and the other half paid at the completion of the project. The remedy is a different payment structure. Know the Difference between Core Services and Extras A project needs to be clearly defined at the outset. For example, if a site’s CMS includes a blogging module, does it also cover social media integration with Twitter and Facebook? The “Pay When Paid” Proviso Developers often use subcontractors for certain aspects of a project. Can You Still See the Client from Where You Are?
Getting Clients: Approaching The Company - Smashing Magazine Advertisement A defining factor in any freelancer or agency’s success in gaining new business is their ability to market their skills effectively. In this three-part series, we will explore ways in which designers can strategically promote themselves to get new clients. Securing new business by approaching companies can be a very challenging process, full of pitfalls. Step One: Be Focused A focused approach to work is paramount for success. IndustryBy specializing in a particular industry, such as health care or retail, you build a portfolio of relevant experience. Step Two: Be Insightful Once you have established the kind of organizations you would like to work with, learn how their businesses work. Who do they work with? These kinds of questions will give you important insight into the services that an organization requires and, therefore, what services you can offer. Step Three: Be Personal The power of face-to-face contact should not be underestimated. Step Four: Be Prepared Conclusion
10 Awesome Techniques and Examples of Animation with jQuery jQuery can pretty much do anything you can think of. All you need is a creative imagination and some time to learn the simple and intuitive API. In this article, we share with you some innovative uses of jQuery in animating web design elements. 1. This example by Dutch web developer Gaya Kessler features an impressive animation effect of cartoonish smoke emanating from factory smoke stacks. Live Demo: Smoke Effect 2. Sam Dunn of the web development duo, Build Internet, wrote a tutorial on how to create an animated landscape using transparent PNG images. Live Demo: Animated Postcard 3. In this tutorial, you will learn how to animate image elements in a smooth and fluid manner. Live Demo: Realistic Hover Effect 4. The creators of the site youlove.us shares their code (and explanation) for making a seamless vertical scrolling CSS background; featured on the site’s header. Live Demo: youlove.us (web page header) 5. Live Demos: Freestyle Sample, Image Sequence Sample, Fade Text Sample 7. 8. 9.
Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices « Smashing M Advertisement Call to action in web design — and in user experience (UX) in particular — is a term used for elements in a web page that solicit an action from the user. The most popular manifestation of call to action in web interfaces comes in the form of clickable buttons that when clicked, perform an action (e.g. "Buy this now!") or lead to a web page with additional information (e.g. How can we create effective call to action buttons that grab the user’s attention and entice them to click? Best Practices for Effective Call to Action Buttons Designing call to action buttons into web interfaces requires some forethought and planning; it has to be part of your prototyping and information architecture processes in order for them to work well. Draw user attention with size In web pages, the size of an element relative to its surrounding elements indicates its importance: the larger the element is, the more important it is. Size of call to action button versus surrounding elements
Great Portfolio! One Page Portfolio Understanding The Concept Of Search Engine Marketing The concept of search engine marketing is slightly different from traditional marketing. A business that wants to take advantage of marketing potential of search engines need to understand various techniques used for this purpose. Marketing for search engines involves a combination of different types of marketing, advertising and optimization methods. It is already a known fact that people nowadays first search a product or service through the search engine before buying. Website owners need to increase traffic to their site using various traffic generation methods. Read More Choosing Between CSS And Flash Many website developers today are debating about CSS and Flash. What is CSS? CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Advantages of CSS Most beginners prefer studying and using CSS because it is easier to understand. What is Flash? Should I use Flash or CSS? Flash and CSS both have pros and cons. Benefits Of Using Organic Shampoo
How To Be a Consultant, a freelancer or an independent contracto This is a series of pages that guide you through the creation and operation of a successful consulting business. I’ve written this after running a fairly successful consultancy business in the mid-90’s and reviving this business in 2008. I’m primarily active in software, so some of the things in here will be skewed in that direction, but I’ll do my best to keep it general, and to make it ‘location independent’. The reason I wrote this up is because on the Hacker News forum people will post questions regarding freelancing, and given the nature of the medium it is not always feasible to put all the time and effort into writing an answer as good as possible. This book assumes several things: that you have a skill that this skill is marketable that you are willing to work reasonably hard that you have some self discipline If all of those are answerable with ‘yes’ then there is no reason why you could not run a business of your own. You will also make a half decent living.
10 Wonderful Letterpress Type Tutorials The letterpress type treatment (or as I call it, inset text treatment) can be easily done in Photoshop. In this article, you’ll find a collection of tutorials from various parts of the web that will teach you how to create this awesome text effect using common graphics applications (and a couple using just CSS). Check out my own tutorial here on Six Revisions called How to Create Inset Typography in Photoshop. You may also want to peruse the Beautiful Examples of Inset Typography in Web Design collection for design inspiration and usage examples. 1. The Line25 Web Design blog has a tutorial and showcase all-in-one article that features great examples of the text effect as well as a method for creating it in Photoshop. 2. MyInkBlog, a great resource for graphic and web designers, regularly publishes awesome tutorials and one of them that features a see-through letterpress text effect. 3. Creating your text in Adobe Illustrator lends you flexibility in resizing it without loss in fidelity.
CSS: Design Out Of The Box Are you tired of your typical columned and boxed layout? It is time to learn how to break out of the box and do something creative. In this post, I've collected some of the best examples that are designed out of the box. I've also provided some quick CSS tips with demo files on how to break out of the box by creatively using background images and the CSS position property. Example 1: Huge Inc What really captured my attention on the Huge site is the header design. Additional Screencaps: 2 , 3 Example 2: Jason Santa Maria With the amount of effort and details that Jason input on his site, no doubt it is one of the best designer sites around. Additional Screencaps: 2 , 3 Example 3: A Brief Message Similar to Jason Santa Maria's website, each post on ABriefMessage.com features a different image and CSS stylesheet. Additional Screencaps: 2 , 3 Example 4: Trent Walton TrentWalton.com puts the focus on the header, where each post displays a different background image and typesetting. Example 6: Fox