Don Lewis Designs

Website design customers in the UK tend to frown upon outsourcing and this is understandable. Almost every large utility company today outsource their back office and customer services are generally handled by non-UK staff abroad. A lack of personal touch, poor communication skills and accents means that these services are not welcomed by customers at large. We do not want to speak to somebody sitting thousands of miles away for services and products. How about your web site design? Would you outsource your web site design work to another country? Although you might be reluctant at first, there might be circumstances under which it could be interesting and even advisable to have your web site design done abroad or outsourced. A local project manager who communicates well, good value for money and excellent web site design support are just some of the key factors that you might consider before outsourcing your web site design.

Although communications technology has greatly improved over the past few years with cheap and quality technology and telecommunications services, you cannot beat talking to a local project manager in the UK when discussing and ordering your web site design. No matter where your web site is developed, you need to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a sales or project manager who, not only understand your language, but also who is familiar with your needs and the local web site design market. Someone looking for a web site is also looking for a friendly service and web site design advice from a professional who is available at local times and who is sensitive to your needs. This is not always easy to achieve when dealing with remote staff sitting in a foreign country with foreign customs and markets, no matter how much training they have received and no matter how good their accents.

If you are dealing with a local professional with whom you can talk to and develop a professional relationship, there is no reason why the actual web site design work cannot be outsourced abroad in the back end. As far as you are concerned, it does not matter where the web site is being developed. Your local web site design project manager will make sure that your web site is designed as per your request and amended to suit your needs. Once you develop this confidence, outsourcing your web site design work can prove to be very rewarding both in terms of value for money and the quality of the web site design.

Indeed, one of the main reasons for outsourcing web site design, or any other services for that matter, is the cost factor. You could get a lot more done for your money through competitive web site design prices. Like it or not, a lot of the web site design skills is actually sitting abroad where, for various reasons, the cost of labour is still reasonable low. If you are concerned about using ‘cheap labour’, rest assured that web designers and highly skilled personnel abroad are not underpaid. Typically, a web site designer abroad working for an outsourcing company will earn at least double the average pay rate of his/her country.

Another key factor is the service level. Web site developers abroad are hungry for work and will generally work odd hours, fast and efficiently to secure jobs and build confidence in their services. They have more to prove than their counterparts in the UK and therefore will generally work much harder on your web site design project.

More than likely, you will require changes to your web site design while it is being developed and even after the commissioning of the web site. The chances are you will have more flexibility on this issue with your web site designers abroad than with local web designers.

So, outsourcing is not a no go area, certainly not in back office web site design. In fact it can be a blessing provided you have an excellent project manager based locally who communicates well with you and his or her back office web site design team.



By: Imroz

About the Author:

Create a video blog

Did you know there is a new open source community project underway called the WordPress Plugin Database, located at wp-plugins.net, which is a user-friendly web site with about 2,500 WordPress plugins and counting?

“The WordPress Plugin Database is a categorized list of WordPress plugins, complemented by a WordPress Plugin Manager that allows one-click installs,” say the database developers. “For users, wp-plugins.net provides a browseable list of plugins, and RSS feeds you can subscribe to in order to get notified of new plugins and updates. For developers, wp-plugins.net makes it easy to publicize your plugin and keep users informed of new versions.”

As for us everyday non-developer WordPress fanatics who are constantly searching for cool new plugins to make our site attract visitors and earn some money, the WordPress Plugin Database is populated with plugins that can help generate web site traffic to your blog, sell your ebooks, share web site links, podcast your message, offer a public forum for returning visitors, and fight spam in the process.

Below is a short list of free plugins I discovered in this new database that can drive traffic to your blog, sell terrific products, and keep visitors on your site for a while – the perfect monetization strategy for every blogging entrepreneur.

Would you like to add a Public Forum to your blog? Simple Forum is a free plugin that is described as a “simple and straightforward forum that does the sort of stuff a forum is supposed to.” Simple Forum currently has 71 features you can use to develop a growing community of returning visitors who are encouraged to speak to each other, and who share common interests with you, the brilliant blog owner and forum manager expert. Search engine spiders love the fresh content provided by a community forum. Simple Forum can support your forum member’s comments in 17 languages: stuff.yellowswordfish.com/simple-forum/

Would you like to monetize your blog by selling your products and services with a WordPress shopping cart? The free WP eCommerce Lite shopping cart plugin is described as “an industrial strength, elegant, easy to use, fully featured shopping cart application suitable for selling your products, services, and or fees online.” You can upgrade to the eCommerce Gold plugin for just $15. If you don’t have any products to sell, you can set up this shopping cart to sell products offered by Amazon.com, Art.com, and so on: instinct.co.nz/?p=16

Reciprocal link directories create backlinks to your site that helps improve your site’s search engine ranking, and most shared link directories are not free. Plus, most blogs don’t offer a shared link directory. The free WP Link Directory is described as “the first and the only one link directory plugin on the Internet for WordPress admin to store and maintain a set of links in classified categories.” This link directory plugin can match your blog theme: alectang.com/wordpress-link-directory/

Podcasting is a web site traffic generation phenomenon that has seen over 6 million people download MP3 podcasts. That’s not including the millions of people who prefer to listen without downloading. Here’s an idea. Why not record your blog articles as a podcast, and then submit your articles to podcast directories? Even if you don’t like the sound of your voice, there are software programs online that you can use to speak your written words with a more pleasing sound.

PodPress is a free plugin described as “a dream plugin for Podcasters using WordPress,” and “a full-blown Podcasters Plugin for WordPress.” With Podpress, you can post a podcast along with your article for visitors to download, or listen to without downloading. Why not interview an expert in your niche by telephone, and post your conversation as a podcast with your article? mightyseek.com/podpress

And finally, every high-traffic blogger would love to find a way to eliminate spam. Spam Karma 2 (SK2) is a free spam fighting plugin developed by the WordPress Plugin Directory guys. SK2 is described as “an anti-spam plugin for the WordPress blogging platform. It is meant to stop all forms of automated blog spam effortlessly, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to regular commenters.” wp-plugins.net/doc/sk2/

By the way, don’t forget to upgrade your WordPress blog to the latest 2.3 version released in September of 2007. WordPress 2.3 offers new article keyword tagging features, which means improved search engine ranking and more web site traffic for you: wordpress.org/download/



By: Jefferson Hennessy

About the Author:

web resources

Learning how to interview is an important skill you should have — no matter what profession you plan on entering. There are many reasons why you should arrange an interview. First, an interview is necessary to apply for a job. Interviewing is a perfect way to introduce you to a potential client or employer. Finally, even if you don’t manage to get the job, an interview can be good place to receive feedback on your graphic design portfolio. Interviews require you to make a good first impression. Presenting yourself and your work with confidence leaves a lasting first impression. Here are some other tips to arrange and prepare for that big job interview.

1) How to arrange a job interview with a prospective employer

Let’s say you have created a portfolio, written your resume, and are starting to arrange for job interviews. What is the best way to arrange for an interview? First, you should know that you should never show up for an interview without previous arrangements. Here are some ways you can set up an interview. First, you can set up an interview by a letter. A simple letter of interest can allow you to inquire about job opportunities with a design studio, ad agency, or company. This is a good way to gently introduce yourself to a prospective employer. You may want to submit a small sample of your work, but by all means, keep any unsolicited letters short. Make sure you enclose a clean copy of your resume as well. You can also arrange a job interview by phone. Calling does not allow you to cover as much as a letter. You should only call if you have introduced yourself to the firm or company.

2) How to prepare for the big interview.

You can prepare for a job interview in many ways. First, begin by doing your fair amount of research. You can research art directors who will be conducting the interview. You can also find out more about the firm. For instance, if a small ad agency is interviewing you, you can find out who the firm’s major accounts are. You want to appear genuinely interested in the firm. If you are being interviewed for a job at a magazine, you will definitely want to check out recent issues. Look at the names of the people who are working at the magazine. These are usually listed at the very front of the magazine in the masthead. If you are being interviewed by a book publisher, make sure to visit a bookstore or go online to see which books the publishing firm has published. You want to appear interested and knowledgeable about the company.

3) What should you wear to your job interview?

The great thing about being a graphic designer is the casual dress code. You don’t need to overdo it during the interview, although you should make an effort to look presentable. The general rule of thumb is that you should dress about as formally as you would for a position at a national bank. Your dress code should be neat and precise. If you are unsure, it is best to opt for a more conservative dress code.

4) What to do when meeting your interviewer.

For most jobs in graphic design, you have a good chance to meet with the art director. Art directors tend to be the ones who look at portfolios. As the interviewer looks through your portfolio, you should avoid the urge to apologize for certain pieces or over explain things. Let the portfolio speak for itself. Sometimes the art director will ask to keep your portfolio for a day. This is relatively standard, as many art directors simply don’t have the time to look through all the art portfolios they get in one day of interviewing. If you have an online web portfolio, make sure the interviewer or art director knows how to find it online.



By: Brian Scott

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

If you really want to generate more business with a quality website. This may be the first line of communication between you and potential guests or visitors. The great advantage of website development company and website design company is that the website will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and can be viewed from anywhere in the world. Therefore anyone can collect suitable information from the website at any time.

In today’s business environment and to beat the competition large or small companies definitely need to develop a good website. Many business owners use the excuse that their business is “word-of-mouth” and they do not need a website. But a great way to reinforce the personal recommendations of other clients is through professional website development.

Web development services help your company to increase product knowledge, maintain communication between you and potential clients, sell your products or services, generate leads for the business, and increase the popularity of your company and much more.

Web Development Company has emerged as an industry in the last decade. In the field of website development, a company or a person develops web sites to be placed on the World Wide Web. The number of websites on the web are increasing at a very fast pace. The web developers and web designers make a good amount of money while constructing these web sites. Web development is a field which can pay you a lot if you are interested in taking it seriously. At present the number of web sites on the web is in millions. Thus website development can be used as a tool to make money online these days.

When you decide that it is important and in the best interest of your business to have a website, there a few important things you should consider for your web design and development.

a. Firstly, you need to consider the cost it will take to have your web design and development. The cost should be expensive or cheap, this is up to you. If you hire out it will be costly, or if you try to learn yourself it can be time consuming.

b. Secondly, it is important that you take your time to learn about web design and development.

c. Thirdly, you are going to need tools to build a website. With the proper tools and know how, it shouldn’t be too hard for you to construct a good website.

d. Fourth, knowledge is power when it comes to web design and development. Take the necessary time to do some research and find out what is best for you. Remember, you can always outsource this project to web designers, but it will be costly!



By: Ashish Goyal

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

When you’re coding or designing a complete website you use similar codes over and over again. Writing those can take time, and time is precious! the solution in to use the best webdesign tools available.

Let’s say you need to add a few drop-down menus for your site. The menus are not the same and you need to write the code for every one of them, or you can use a webmaster tool that can help you build a custom drop-down menu just by clicking a few buttons. By using a tool like that you’re able complete your website in less time and start other project.

There are lots of tools that can make your work easy. A powerful tool is Dreamweaver but this software solution cost money and most of the time we don’t want to spend extra money. So, we prefer free solutions and the best free solution may be code and script generators. A simple search on google shows you that there are lots of websites that provide you with html generators, javascript code generators or php code generators. Simple bookmark those pages and use them every time you need, saving time.

A script that required 1 hour of hard work can be completed in just a few minutes. More than that, you can find scripts that make your website look fresh and your user will be impressed by the design and the functionality of your web application. If you use jQuery and Javascript generators in the right way, your site will interact with the users and there’s a high probability that they’ll visit you later.

In script generator pages you may find drop-down menu generators, html redirect code generators, set home page generators or even banner and thumbnail generators. You’ll feel the difference and you’ll save time!



By: bozy12v

About the Author:

Create a video blog…instantly.

Flash is a powerful technology to improve any web design and add useful elements to any website. Being used wisely and appropriately, Flash gives you an opportunity to get utmost of your website without spending much time and efforts. There can be plenty of Flash elements which can be divided into several groups.

1. Interactive Flash animation and effects

All these flash menus, buttons, headers and other useful snippets and mini-Flash elements catch the attentions of your website visitors, make them set their eyes on particular part of your website you want to highlight. The only problem is to avoid overusage in order not to annoy your visitors. The best tools are:

IncrediFlash XTreme (http://www.incrediflash.com) – provides quick help in creating Flash animations without lots of Flash experience. Mix-FX (http://www.mix-fx.com) – simple-to-use Flash tool which allows to create Flash animations and Flash buttons in a minute. Amara Software (http://amarasoftware.com) - provides affordable animation software solutions to create a wide variety of Flash effects and web animations.

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2. Flash picture galleries

Flash gallery is a widely spread technique of web design. It enables user to view a series of images without opening other web pages. Modern Flash gallery tools give the opportunity to improve ordinary set of images with sound, text, animation effects and navigation buttons. Most of the tools are dynamic and use a XML file to load the pictures.

Origramy Gallery (http://origramy.com/gallery/index.html) – small-size tool for publishing and demonstrating images on the website. It has high level of interface customization, XML support, 2D and 3D solutions. dfGallery (http://www.dezinerfolio.com/2007/06/07/dfgallery/) – tool that support Flickr , Picasa , Fotki, Photobucket and custom Images. It’s easily customizable, support full screen mode, both RSS and custom images, liquid layout with multiple language support.

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3. Flash video and audio players

Today Internet is becoming faster and more accessible. Internet users are becoming more and more sophisticated. More and more people want to see something more than static pictures. That is why Flash video is becoming even more popular among the users. Flash technology helps you to embed both video and audio in your website with the help of special Flash media players for the website:

Flowplayer (http://flowplayer.org/) is an Open Source video player for the Web. It supports progressive download and true streaming. Wimpy streaming media tools (http://www.wimpyplayer.com) – easily present and control the flow of audio and video. Fun SoundPlayer Maker (http://funsoundplayer.com/index.htm) – fully skinnable Flash sound player for mp3 or radio streaming.

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4. Flash charts and graphs

There have been said plenty of words proving the idea of importance of data visualization. Indeed, the information from charts and graphs is much easier to understand than the plain columns of figures. Flash graphs and charts now support dynamic updates, interactivity and lots of other features.

AmCharts (http://www.amcharts.com/) – Flash charting tool that easily exports data from Excel, dynamically generate data file with PHP, ASP, .NET or other programming language. Its Flash-charts also have animation effects and have a possibility to export the chart as an image. FlyCharts (http://flycharts.net/) – scalable & flexible tool that can create compact, interactive and good-looking charts on the fly. It doesn’t need installation, works with any scripting language, can be used in any browser. Origramy (http://origramy.com) - Flash graph component for making diagrams and graphs. It has intuitive multilingual interface, several export formats and JavaScript support.

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By: Daniel Speser

About the Author:

web design tools

Search engine submission is a physical or manual task. Some of it is automated but it’s still a physical exercise. While submitting to search engines will ensure that search engines learn of your existence, it does not mean that you’ll get listed in their search results. In fact, not many people know that search engine submission involves having a web site first.

Get a web site first…then optimize!

Some people who have not established their web site go ahead and submit to search engines; if the search engines find out you don’t have a web site yet, they will ignore your submission. Worse, it can hurt your ranking.

Web site marketing, therefore, needs more than search engine submission. It presupposes the existence of a web site. That’s one. Two, that web site has to be optimized before any search engine submission can be carried out.

Web site marketing is a series of intricate steps that have to follow a logical order. A good web site marketing company will first provide your web site with visibility and a high ranking. The next step is to develop links (reicprocal and back end links) followed by a branding campaign for your product or service. Some savvy web site marketing companies know immediately, just by looking at a web site for the first thirty seconds, what is wrong with it. So you need the experts to tell you what ought to be fixed before you embark on a search engine submission exercise. Optimization precedes all other marketing efforts. Google, Yahoo and MSN have developed a complex system of search algorithms that will determine page ranking and web site ranking. These algorithms do not rely on how many submissions you’ve made; rather they rely on your selection of meta tags, your keywords and content. Using generic language won’t cut it either. By generic language, we mean language that is not normally used by customers when they search for your company. These mistakes can be costly and will pull you down in the hierarchy of search results. By asking the experts to help you with your web site marketing concerns, you stand a better chance of obtaining high quality traffic to your web site. If it’s done right, you could be enjoying high quality traffic with no extra fees and for an indefinite period of time. If sales is your # 1 goal, good search engine optimization techniques will generate those sales.

Web Site Marketing Goes Beyond Search Engine Submission

Before submitting to search engines, you will need to consider doing on-site page optimization and in-depth link building. These are crucial steps to web site marketing results. Don’t overlook the importance of a press release announcing your web site. Article-writing is a necessary ingredient and if your articles are written well with the right keyword density, the search engines will start noticing you. This is why web site marketing service companies partner with good copywriters who understand the principles of search engine optimization.

Don’t forget to update your meta tags and page titles, as well as position content strategically. Once you’ve created optimized pages, develop them further with good content. A good marketing company will show you how to choose your keywords, how to place them and how to define text attributes.



By: Joel McLaughlin

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

The styles in Fireworks are very useful feature which allows us to clone the style of one element and apply it to the new one with just a click of a mouse.

To start using styles, create the new document in Fireworks of your chosen dimentions and select the Rectangle tool (Fig. 01).



Fig. 01

With the Rectangle tool selected draw a rectangle shape on the stage (Fig. 02).



Fig. 02

With the rectangle still selected, apply some stroke (Fig. 03) and gradient (Fig. 04) from the Properties panel.



Fig. 03



Fig. 04

Your rectangle should now look something like in Fig. 05.



Fig. 05

With the rectangle still selected, go to the Styles panel and click the New Style button (Fig. 06).



Fig. 06

In the New Style dialog window type in the name for your new style, select the properties of the rectangle you want to save as the style and click the OK button to create new style (Fig. 07).



Fig. 07

You should now see the new style being created in the Styles panel (Fig. 08).



Fig. 08

Now create another rectangle on stage with the solid colour and without any formatting (Fig. 09).



Fig. 09

With the new rectangle (or any other shape) still selected, from the Style menu in the Properties panel select your new style – “my_style” (Fig. 10).



Fig. 10

You will see that your newly created shape has the new style applied to it (Fig. 11).



Fig. 11

Prepared by Web Design Tutorials – Sebastian Sulinski



By: Sebastian Sulinski

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

If you are making your own website, you should know there are some very important steps you need to take before you begin.

If you are spending the money to make a website (even though its very cheap), you probably want to make some money with your new website.  If this is the case, you need to do a few things to make sure your website gets the most visitors possible.  Traffic equals money on the internet.

Choosing your domain name

Most people jump right in to buying a domain name.  They have an idea, search for a name and buy it because it sounds cool…not the best way to go.  You need to do some keyword research before you pick your domain.  The domain name is a huge factor in getting to the first page of the search engines, where you will find the most traffic.

If you want to sell bananas, you might think yellowtoyou.com would be a good name, but it’s horrible.  You want to have your main keyword in your domain name, like buybananas.com or something like that.  This will ensure that people searching to buy bananas will find you.  Well, it’s not certain, but it’s a good start.

Got the domain, now what?

Now you need a website and a host.  The host is the company that stores the files for your website and makes it visible to the public.  It’s not too complicated at all.

Now for the website I would highly recommend Wordpress.  Those sites are easy to edit, come in a vast array of different styles that fit any webiste you can think of and they rank very well in Google.

There is a way you have to optimize these sites so that you can reach page on of Google and get enough traffic to make some cash.  It’s pretty easy and after you do it once you’ll have it down pat.

Ok, watch these video’s and you’ll figure it all out…

Writing stuff is boring.  You should watch these videos that tell you how to do everything I just talked about and more.  It’s a full video course on how to set up your website, market it and optimize it for profits online.

Just go to the website below and you’ll be able to watch everything step by step.  There is no better way to get started and it’s free!



By: Bob Mason

About the Author:

Website content

Are you a graphic design major who is worried about your future job prospects? If so, you are definitely not alone. Almost all college graduates worry about earning a living at what they love to do. Fortunately, graphic design majors have a bright future ahead of them. According to the Department of Labor and statistics, the field of graphic design is expected to grow fast in this decade. Here are some important projections to help you plan ahead as a graphic designer.

According to the Department of Labor and statistics, graphic design will continue to expand in this decade. However, it is important to know that competition for jobs is also expected to grow. What can you do to prepare yourself for the competitive job market of tomorrow? Graphic designers with a Bachelor’s degree will have more luck finding full-time jobs in the graphic art and design field. Graphic designers with advance knowledge of computer design software are also expected to prosper in the growing market. What else can you do to prepare yourself for tomorrow’s job market? Research shows that individuals with animation experience and Web site design experience will have an easier time finding employment in this field.

Just how fast is the graphic design market expected to grow? According to statistics, graphic design is expected to grow about ten percent in the coming years. As the demand for quality graphic design continues to grow, more publishers, computer design firms, an advertising agencies will enlist the creativity of new graphic designers. Individuals with the most number of transferable skills will have the easiest time finding employment.

Unfortunately, younger graphic designers just entering the field are bound to face disappointing trends that have plagued the industry. The current trend is for basic graphic design work, such as layout, to be sent overseas where graphic designers can do it for less money. Graphic designers attempting to enter the graphic design field in these entry-level positions may find it harder. The competition for higher-level graphic design jobs is projected to increase significantly, pointing again to how important candidates must learn to supplement their basic design education and skills with fluid knowledge of web site design and other related skills.

What can you expect to earn as a graphic designer in the coming years? The median annual income for graphic designers is $39,900. The lowest ten percent of this group earns less than $25,000, while the middle fifty percent earns somewhere in between $30,000 and $53,000. The numbers vary according to graphic design work and industry. Graphic designers specializing in design services earned $43,000. For those working in advertising and related industries, the median salary is $41,000. Graphic designers working in print, newspaper, directory publishers, periodicals and books earn around $34,000. Graphic designers working in printing and related services earn around $33,000. For those working in newspaper publishing, the annual pay is around $31,500.

How can you receive the highest compensation and increase your job outlook in the current graphic design market? You can do several things, including learning as many new programs and skills. With competition expected to reach an all-time high, young graphic design students are encouraged to attend many hands-on classes and get real-world experience before graduation.



By: Brian Scott

About the Author:

Website content