Source: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/google-handwrite/
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012
30+ Awesome Pixel Logo Designs for Inspiration
30+ Awesome Pixel Logo Designs for Inspiration
Source: http://design-newz.com/2012/07/31/30-awesome-pixel-logo-designs-for-inspiration/
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WordPress Theme Releases for 7/10
Melba is a two column theme using natural, neutral hues of pastel colors. PinBlack is ideal for photo galleries and portfolio sites.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogtoolscollection/UXMP/~3/n7B7rhf8-nA/
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The role of branding in London 2012
The 2012 Olympic Games are soon to start, and there are a growing number of�bloggers and�websites, especially those from the�social media sphere, raising awareness to the controversial role branding is playing in London 2012. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, or LOCOG for short, have put in place some really aggressive [...]
Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/07/the-role-of-branding-in-london-2012/
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Top 20 Typography Plugins to Increase the Readability of WordPress Blog
Top 20 Typography Plugins to Increase the Readability of WordPress Blog
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The future of online presentation
Recent technology developments have sent traditional media into a tailspin, turning nearly every proven marketing strategy into a gamble. Across the world, in every industry, companies are scrambling to update the marketing tactics on which they’ve relied for generations. At the same time, consumers are craving engaging, relevant content that complements both their interests and [...]
Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/07/the-future-of-online-presentation/
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WordPress Theme Releases for 7/22
Embrace is a classy and sleek theme ideal for your latest website, whether is a blog, magazine or business. Max Responsive is a super-awesome theme best suited for newspaper or magazine websites. Snowberry is a simple and clean wordpress theme with nice contrast headers. Spray is a one column theme with bright, vibrant colors from the primary spectrum including lemon yellow, lime green, orange, fuschia, purple, aqua blue and white.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogtoolscollection/UXMP/~3/00ZLWwibZ1A/
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MODX: Total creative freedom
Many web site builders shy away from the MODX CMS because they think (or have heard) that it’s primarily for developers who are skilled at PHP and JavaScript coding. While MODX has powerful components for skilled coders to use, there are many advantages for less tech-savvy designers too. The most important of these is the [...]
Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/07/modx-total-creative-freedom/
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30 Free Icon Packs from the Dribbble Community
30 Free Icon Packs from the Dribbble Community
Source: http://design-newz.com/2012/07/30/30-free-icon-packs-from-the-dribbble-community/
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Splendid Logos For Inspiration In July ? 42 Examples
Splendid Logos For Inspiration In July ? 42 Examples
Source: http://design-newz.com/2012/07/30/splendid-logos-for-inspiration-in-july-42-examples/
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Monday, July 30, 2012
Use YouTube Videos to Turbocharge Your Marketing
Now is the perfect time to make a customized video that plays on your website. Most computer users now have broadband, so using video in your marketing isn?t the issue that it was a year or two ago.
YouTube is currently the world?s second most popular search engine and the number one site to watch video. Over 85% of Internet users view 15 minutes of video per day, and YouTube hosts almost half of those. YouTube is owned by Google, so using YouTube video is a surefire way to boost your Google rankings as well.
Take a look at this video that spotlights the benefits of using YouTube to market your videos.
And here?s the kicker?videos hosted on YouTube use its servers for free, so there are no bandwidth worries for you! YouTube is also continually increasing its presence on mobile devices.
Learn how to start using YouTube to boost your freelance marketing efforts.
Targeting with Professional YouTube Videos
YouTube has made it easy to push potential clients directly to your site, and they have taken pains to make your videos look professional.
When creating video, be sure to use video editing tools that will give your videos a professional polish. Your video should be content rich and relevant to your target customer. Watch out for newbie video mistakes freelancers make.
Create compelling content. For example, a writer could make a video on grammar errors that cost businesses money. Try using humor in your videos, because funny and unusual content has a better chance of going viral. Of course, only take this approach if you really are funny, otherwise shoot for being informative. Teach something insanely useful and you?ll get plenty of views for your video.
Uploading Your Video to YouTube
Uploading video is easy when you use YouTube?s upload page, which allows you to drag and drop, upload more than one file, record from a web camera or select an FLV, MP4 or MOV file from your computer.
Promoting Your Videos on YouTube
As soon as you post your video to YouTube, ?it gets a unique URL that you can paste into social network postings as frequently as you wish,? according to Stu Sweetow of Audio Visual Consultants. This one action will boost your social media presence.
Use the Action Bar on your unique URL to easily post video on multiple social networks, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. As if that weren?t enough social networking power, YouTube itself is a social networking site that allows you to add friends, subscribe to channels and comment on others? videos. This means a closer relationship with your target customers.
Embedding Your YouTube Videos
In four easy steps, you can embed a YouTube video into your blog or site. Why is using ?embed? so important? You want to keep potential clients on your website, not take the chance that they will follow a competing freelancer?s link.
After posting a video, click on the Share button displayed at the bottom of your video. Click Embed, and a box will appear with html code in it. Copy it, and paste it into your website?s html code. That?s all there is to it.
Using YouTube?s relatively new Video Manager, you can change your content?s privacy status (private, friends only or public). To enter Video Manager, click on your user name in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You will then see a series of thumbnails. Click ?Try It Now.?
Analyzing Your YouTube Video Results
To view demographic information about your viewers, use YouTube Insight, which will also tell you where in the world your viewers are. You can also see how many people watched your video, which will help you to calibrate your marketing efforts.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreelanceSwitch/~3/GpZB6SUgzro/
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MODX: Total creative freedom
Many web site builders shy away from the MODX CMS because they think (or have heard) that it’s primarily for developers who are skilled at PHP and JavaScript coding. While MODX has powerful components for skilled coders to use, there are many advantages for less tech-savvy designers too. The most important of these is the [...]
Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/07/modx-total-creative-freedom/
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30 Inspirational Typography Designs
WordPress Theme Releases for 7/10
Melba is a two column theme using natural, neutral hues of pastel colors. PinBlack is ideal for photo galleries and portfolio sites.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogtoolscollection/UXMP/~3/n7B7rhf8-nA/
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Mastering CSS3 Text Shadows
Our
journey to the world of shadows continues. If you missed the article, we
explored the basics of using the box-shadow
property. Today we are going to focus on the text-shadow.
Preview Text:
Our journey to the world of shadows continues. If you missed the article, we explored the basics of using the box-shadow property. Today we are going to...
journey to the world of shadows continues. If you missed the article, we
explored the basics of using the box-shadow
property. Today we are going to focus on the text-shadow.
Preview Text:
Our journey to the world of shadows continues. If you missed the article, we explored the basics of using the box-shadow property. Today we are going to...
Source: http://feeds.dzone.com/~r/zones/css/~3/7hooeoTFZZs/mastering-css3-text-shadows
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WordPress 3.5 Scope Proposal
The scope for WordPress 3.5 has been proposed. Of note, the planned release date is December 5, with release candidates landing around November 14, and a feature freeze at the end of September. WordPress 3.5 will also be introducing the new default Twenty Twelve theme, full support for Apple’s new super-high-definition Retina displays, and improved user experience and image handling. Of course, WordPress 3.5 is still in the planning stages, so these are all subject to change at any time before the feature freeze in September.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogtoolscollection/UXMP/~3/BYglsSZcJ-Q/
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jQuery.Spritely: Create Dynamic Character & Background Animation in HTML & JavaScript
jQuery. Spritely
is a jQuery plugin for creating dynamic character and background
animation in pure HTML and JavaScript. �It's a simple, light-weight
plugin with a few simple methods for creating animated sprites �and
dynamic scrolling backgrounds. �You can use it on any HTML web page, and any part of the page can interact with a sprite.
Preview Text:
...
is a jQuery plugin for creating dynamic character and background
animation in pure HTML and JavaScript. �It's a simple, light-weight
plugin with a few simple methods for creating animated sprites �and
dynamic scrolling backgrounds. �You can use it on any HTML web page, and any part of the page can interact with a sprite.
Preview Text:
...
Source: http://feeds.dzone.com/~r/zones/css/~3/0bW-lA-1PGU/jqueryspritely-create-dynamic
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Sunday, July 29, 2012
WPNuggets: A New Plugin Review Site
WPNuggets, a new site dedicated to reviewing WordPress plugins, has launched. The site has already hit the ground running with three reviews posted, and submitting a plugin for review is as simple as sending an email. There are thousands of WordPress plugins out there, so they will be understandably picky with which ones they choose to review, and it sounds like the overall format is still in flux, but this looks like a very promising site to follow if you enjoy trying out new plugins.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogtoolscollection/UXMP/~3/CBsCR5WZj38/
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Comics of the week #139
Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD. The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers. These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who?s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world [...]
Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/07/comics-of-the-week-139/
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Lean Tools: Conceptual Integrity
In the article preview image: Gnucash uses accounts for amounts of money but also for expenses, consistently with the double-entry bookkeeping model.Conceptual integrity is the property of a system to work on a consistent set of concepts, such as entities (user, groups, posts) or operations (transfer money to an account or convert it in different currencies). If a railway system has three...
Source: http://feeds.dzone.com/~r/zones/css/~3/OnB-P70qAko/lean-tools-conceptual-0
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Top Freelance Jobs from Job Board ? Week 3, July
Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and come from a wide range of potential clients. The job board is hand-moderated by dedicated staff and volunteers from the freelance community.
Each week, we’ll feature a selection of the best job opportunities posted for the week. This week, we’re featuring jobs in WordPress Development, iOS Development, Web Development and more!
To apply for any of these jobs, simply pick up a FreelanceSwitch membership for an affordable $7 a month. See something you like? Join now!
Dual Designer / Developer – WordPress Expert
Budget: $2,500 to $5,000
We would like to acquire the services of a dual designer/developer with strong experience and expertise in WordPress. One should have solid knowledge of plug in integration, programming, and sound code development. Other skills i.e. PHP, Java Script, E-Commerce etc. should be adequate and sound. We are interested in a individual team. We have no preference of your location as long as you make the necessary adjustments providing services to a US based firm meaning communication through email and Skype.
To be considered please provide rates per hour and/or weekly, hours you can provide per week. Also provide samples of both design and development work. Only provide design work in which all elements are created, and authentic works produced by yourself.
You must be reliable, efficient, a self-starter, professional in conduct and independent.
iOS Developer (Objective-C)
Budget: $5,000 to $10,000
We are looking for an iOS Developer, who is comfortable working on Objective-C if need be. The product we want to put out is an iPhone app that provides users with up-to-date info on music gigs happening.
How? Is sort of our secret selling point that we’d be happy to discuss generally via email and hopefully more thoroughly once the job is approved! Ideally the candidate we’re looking for should also have an appreciation for video games.
Freelance Web Developer
Budget: $100 to $500
We are looking for a kind web developer who is good at jQuery, PHP, WordPress and AJAX. We build premium themes and need someone to help us on fixing bugs and improving existing scripts. Please note that this is not a regular job, we will only get in touch when we need assistance, the frequency may vary, depending on need.
Need a PHP coder with extensive MySQL experience
Budget: $500 to $1,000
We have 5 or 6 projects we need to complete.
We really need a very very experienced php coder, to take a site we have designed from flat files to dynamic awesomeness ! You will need experience of mysql, and creation of secure db and utilising economical server resources.
So clean efficient secure code.
We currently have 2 fulltime PHP / OOP coders , but they are absolutely inundated with work and we cannot pull them off their current projects, so you will be in good company. We prefer if you are Australian based but it is fine if you are on an entirely different continent, just not a different planet !
iOS Developer
Budget: $2,500 to $5,000
I’m a UI designer, and am looking for an awesome iOS developer to start building even awesomer apps(both client and personal) with.
I don’t care how much experience you have, just show me why you’re cool and we can start working on projects right away. But a link to your online presence would be much appreciated.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreelanceSwitch/~3/ZJJkzWuOy8g/
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WPNuggets: A New Plugin Review Site
WPNuggets, a new site dedicated to reviewing WordPress plugins, has launched. The site has already hit the ground running with three reviews posted, and submitting a plugin for review is as simple as sending an email. There are thousands of WordPress plugins out there, so they will be understandably picky with which ones they choose to review, and it sounds like the overall format is still in flux, but this looks like a very promising site to follow if you enjoy trying out new plugins.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogtoolscollection/UXMP/~3/CBsCR5WZj38/
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MODX: Total creative freedom
Many web site builders shy away from the MODX CMS because they think (or have heard) that it’s primarily for developers who are skilled at PHP and JavaScript coding. While MODX has powerful components for skilled coders to use, there are many advantages for less tech-savvy designers too. The most important of these is the [...]
Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/07/modx-total-creative-freedom/
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MODX: Total creative freedom
Many web site builders shy away from the MODX CMS because they think (or have heard) that it’s primarily for developers who are skilled at PHP and JavaScript coding. While MODX has powerful components for skilled coders to use, there are many advantages for less tech-savvy designers too. The most important of these is the [...]
Source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/07/modx-total-creative-freedom/
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Google Webmaster Tools Adds Advanced Site Indexation Information
Recently, Google announced the addition of indexation data within Webmaster Tools. To see the newly revealed indexation information, simply log in to your Google Webmaster Tools account and select ‘Index Status’ under the ‘Health’ menu. After clicking on Index Status, you will see a graph that displays the total number of pages indexed by Google: [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SearchEngineJournal/~3/sa7WKt8K02s/
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Saturday, July 28, 2012
How to Be a Successful Speaker at a Conference: Advice From the Experts
It is a big step to speak at a search conference and nerves always come with public speaking. However, getting suggestions from those that throw some of the biggest search conferences can lessen your stress. I asked Brett Tabke and Matt McGowan for some suggestions and tips that might help you when you decide to [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SearchEngineJournal/~3/qaq4PEk_By0/
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Lean Tools: Conceptual Integrity
In the article preview image: Gnucash uses accounts for amounts of money but also for expenses, consistently with the double-entry bookkeeping model.Conceptual integrity is the property of a system to work on a consistent set of concepts, such as entities (user, groups, posts) or operations (transfer money to an account or convert it in different currencies). If a railway system has three...
Source: http://feeds.dzone.com/~r/zones/css/~3/OnB-P70qAko/lean-tools-conceptual-0
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Why $.extend(someObj, anotherObj) Might be Dangerous!
You often have the need to merge two objects. A common use case is that of combining parameters for a $.ajax call. jQuery has a nice function for that, namely jQuery.extend. The function definition is something like jQuery.extend(target, [object 1], [object 2]). But attention, this might have dangerouse side effects if not used properly!Suppose you have an object, obj1 defines like
...
...
Source: http://feeds.dzone.com/~r/zones/css/~3/ksNApsS8huU/why-extendsomeobj-anotherobj
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22 Hilarious Animated Gif Images That Will Definitely Make You Laugh
22 Hilarious Animated Gif Images That Will Definitely Make You Laugh
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30 Paradoxical Ideas ? Creative Photo Manipulation works created by Nancy Fouts
30 Paradoxical Ideas – Creative Photo Manipulation works created by Nancy Fouts
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How to Launch Your Freelance Site, a Step-by-Step Guide
So you have worked hard to align every pixel, harmonize the white space, and to finalize the perfect logo. Now to launch your website….hmmm, how exactly?
I was getting closer to launching my first website. The site launch checklist had more and more lines scratched through the tasks. And yet there was a slight sense of doom gathering. I didn’t really know how to announce to the world that my site was about to go live, so I could then sit back and let the clients come knock’n at my door.
So you have worked hard to align every pixel, harmonize the white space, and to finalize the perfect logo. Now to launch your website….hmmm, how exactly?
In fact, I was sure that I couldn’t throw all my files into the FTP client and cross my fingers. I was also pretty sure that all the angst and anticipation of working hard on my ready to be launched site would end up a small squeak and a fizzle with me checking every 5 seconds to see if anyone had looked at it. I knew I needed a comprehensive plan on how to launch my freelance website.
I began searching every day for advice. Many articles online talk about the checklist of your website launch, the invaluable SEO keywords, etc. Ideally it would be nice to read how other people launched their sites without too many generalities.
So after working with clients to launch their start up sites, collecting tidbits from online, and preparing to launch my own site, I brainstormed different techniques and listed the steps I used to successfully launch my freelance site. Let’s take a look at this comprehensive list.
Here was my overall plan:
- Schedule Your Freelance Website Launch
- Build Up Your Site Launch Hype
- Handle Week Before Actions
- Attend to Site Launch Day/Week
- Schedule Momentum Material
- Monitor Your Site Launch Results
Schedule Your Freelance Website Launch
It’s important to pick a specific launch date to work towards, then draft how long you have before you plan to launch your website.
- Decide the best day to launch. Grab a piece of paper, or get into your monthly planner. Set a date. You will use each week and most days to prepare a variety of launch material. Once you have a date, it feels real and keeps you focused.
- Consider the best timing for the site launch. I avoided any major events (like 4th of July). Friday was out as people were in “I’m about to relax” mode. Monday sounded good – the start of a new week. Online viewers were probably still in the “weekend wind down” mode. Looking at galleries and new sites could fit in with this.
You could spend a year building a solid base to launch your freelance site to, for me I chose to launch about a 1 month out on a Monday. I felt this would be enough time for me to work hard at networking and allowing for other preparations such as researching and producing graphics for promotion. Websites can vary in how long they take to make. Planning for your new website launch should happen before it is completed.
Build Up Your Site Launch Hype
When launching a freelance site, part of building hype involves building your online presence, as you are the product. As a no-namer, here are some things I did to spread the word. One of my goals was talking to the right people, my ‘community’ (other designers and freelancers) and my ‘market’ (people that would potentially like me to do online design work for them).
It’s important to reach out to people, and once they are familiar with you, then you can start to introduce the launch of your site to them. Here are some website launch marketing tactics I used to hype the launch of my freelance site:
- Make a Mind map of the types of people you are targeting. I targeted my niche freelance community and target market of potential clients so I could befriend them. As an example example, I looked up all the main logo designers, then befriended them. I then scrolled through and started conversations where I could.
Mind maps are a creative tool that helps push past blocks and they are excellent for creating free flowing plans. I used mind maps to plan out who to contact and where.
- Make a list of niche conversations to interact with online. I made a break down of many popular conversations happening in my niche. I noted different types of comments popular web designers were making on Twitter (for example).
Guest blogging is a particularly effective method of building buzz for your site. Start pitching articles to blogs early and identify forums you can post in.
I planned how I would initiate conversations to these posts and maintain those conversations. So when I did start talk about launching I would have a better chance they would look at it. It’s important to be engaged in your community.
- Add important RSS feeds to Google Reader. I read articles that I thought I could comment and contribute to over the month, remembering to always sign it the same way. Instapaper is also helpful to save articles that are particularly noteworthy, which you could engage with during your site launch.
- Create your avatars. Despite having the brand and identity ready, I spent time creating profile pics of my brand that would fit different online stamping for when I was writing online, such as LinkedIn graphic, post icon, Twitter avatar, etc. Having a consistent identity when commenting, blogging, and interacting in your niche helps to make you and your brand memorable.
- Find the blogs you like. I found blogs that I enjoyed so that I could remember to go back to them. You can add thousands of sites and articles to your favorites, but some you will end up reading regularly. It’s easier to comment pitch once you understand their tone.
Guest blogging is a particularly effective method of building buzz for your site. Start pitching articles to blogs early and identify forums you can post in. Many blogs will accept different article types and their needs can vary, so it’s good to contact multiple blogs that fit your niche. Make sure they have a strong following that you can leverage.
- Create profiles on the social networks that are right for you. Pintrest, Dribbble, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. decide on the most suitable for and your site. Facebook for example, I felt would be too difficult to get volume in the beginning, and I was operating on a short enough time frame, so I focused more attention on Twitter.
- Interact on social networks. This area can be a sucker for time and energy. It can leave you feeling like you’ve ‘worked hard’, but also feeling like you’ve achieved very little work wise. So after befriending people I felt fit in with my definition of my community and my market I developed a simple goal to spend 10 minutes each morning and night interacting on social media.
Add value, add advice or provide an answer on a forum in your field.
Add value, add advice or provide an answer on a forum in your field. I made sure I was consistent in signing each response with my business name. The morning and night part was to cover different time zones. It’s less of a time suck if you stick to a limited social media schedule, but participate consistently.
- List your business. Google Places is useful especially if you have a physical location. Find other local business listings you can utilize.
- Coming soon page. Prelaunch you are not trying to drive traffic to your URL. However if people do end up there it can be a useful place to add to your hype. Make sure your launch date is clearly displayed. If you have a newsletter setup, and are looking to promote it early, then you can have a signup already in place on this coming soon page. Depending on the site, you could also offer an incentive to signing up, maybe a discount, or a useful eBook.
- Make associated sites. I used support portfolio sites such as Behance and Carbonmade. There are support sites for many categories; an ecommerce fashion site could use Etsy or Chictopia, a fashion social networking site. You can post other work by your brand to generate interest, or sell your work before you launch your official site.
- Blog before you launch. This can build hype, but that itself takes time, years even. So if you are going to use one to announce the launch, it won’t help if you make a blog the day before. I felt I needed a blog months before I had a site up, to build that hype (pre-pre launch).
At the time I was cycling across continents, so I thought I could integrate that story with design. To write content of value can be a time consuming job, so that one went on the back burner. It’s important when launching a blog to put in place a reasonable publishing schedule that you can stick to.
Handle Week Before Actions
You’re getting very close to your new website launch day. It’s time to make sure you have the tools you’ll need to analyze your site traffic results. You need to organize your best article and portfolio work to promote right away. There are plenty of galleries and groups to consider joining as well. Here are some week before launch day actions to consider:
- Understand your monitoring tools. Spend your ‘free’ time reading about some of the tools you will use. After you launch your freelance site, important to understand if it is going well. You’ll want to analyze results post launch and have techniques in place to tweak your site as it grows. These tools will help you git the ground running: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster, Google Adwords, and Open Site Explorer.
- Select striking work to post first. I held my very best work back to post once viewer numbers were on the rise. For launch I selected strong, attention grabbing work to use as teaser material.
- Submit a teaser to portfolio galleries. I submitted to supporting portfolio galleries. Now the photographs used are on the first page listed by Google for my brand. These all include helpful backlinks to my site.
For launch I selected strong, attention grabbing work to use as teaser material.
Creating material for supporting sites takes quite a bit of effort. The site was to be launched soon, so I used the branding and researched the best ways to present it online. I bought some prop supplies. Then I photographed 101 different angles! After choosing the best shots and color correcting each I uploaded them onto portfolio sites. This helps create organic backlinks. The piece I chose can be found on Creattica and on Carbonmade.
- Find all the web galleries. Once you have collected your list, prepare screenshots and angles, be sure to display the images in the correct sizes for the different sites. Write a consistent bio to be used on the sites.
Take note of when you submit; some do not notify you when work is posted. I did this to coincide with the launch and used this as another source of material for momentum to keep the site views strong a few weeks after launch.
- Check your continuity. Cross check everywhere online that references your brand. Same look, tone in writing that your site will have. It’s important that you keep your branding and work message on target.
- Sign up to LinkedIn groups. I signed up to related freelance and design groups. This will allow you to add your freelance site to their listing of soon to be launched sites.
- Update all online details. LinkedIn, Skype, or anywhere my profile was online needed to be current, accurate, and on target.
Attend to Launch Day/Week
The day arrives, yes it’s website launch day. It’s time to make your presence felt, reach out to your contacts, jump into social media, post your site in directories, and work to expand your network while promoting your new freelance site.
- Make direct contact. I emailed all family and friends to announce the launch. I asked them to go view my site and to tell all their loved ones! I made the contact a personal email, asked them to check out my new portfolio site, and to let me know if anyone needs help with design.
- Make formal direct contact. Then I sent another email, basically saying the same thing, but more formal to past colleagues, companies, and past clients.
- Social media. On launch day I used all the social media platforms to tell everyone to go have a look. Unless you have 1000′s of friends on these platforms already, I would not anticipate too much attention. People on these sites get told to “look at my stuff” all the time. Doesn’t mean they will.
- Directories. Submit your URL to local business directories – e.g. Golden Pages, Ireland and international business directories such as DMOZ.
- Change your backlinks. I used Open Site Explorer to find all the places that referenced my associated portfolio profiles or anywhere I had a listing that I could change and add a web link to. Go through and change each link to your real site URL.
- Web galleries. Post to web galleries as soon as launched. These will take time to spread.
- Technology specific galleries. If you used a specific technology for your site, such as OpenCart, you can display your site on their own forums – OpenCart Forum. Then get chatting to other users about your techniques and the technology you used to create your portfolio site.
- The power of pictures. Photographs can have a stronger impact than text. So post with photos, use photographs of your own work that you have carefully crafted in the best possible way.
- Socially expand. After launch, keep chatting and keep adding contacts. You can also directly ask online contacts for feedback for more interactivity.
- Reminders. Repost links and announcements from the support sites.
- Ask for links. Ask to be included on related blog rolls and listings. You can also participate in interviews. You can cold email and propose why you are valuable for them. People need a reason to do this. You can offer exchanges or services. This is a long-term strategy and hard work, but well worth the effort..
On launch day I used all the social media platforms to tell everyone to go have a look.
Schedule Momentum Material
One thing for sure is that with all the new stuff going up online each day and with the ‘noise’ that is already there, you will need to get on top of content.
For freelancers, you will not have a new project to release to the world every day. This is why in Hype phase you were collecting material. Take time to plan out when to release the material you have made, and when you need to have more written, designed, and collected by. I try to keep a week ahead, and in the mean time build extra if I find time. Here are a few points to keep in mind with planning momentum material:
- Releasing your strongest material. I searched for blogs that are the most popular according to Google blogs. Then I scanned articles that I had some knowledge on. One example is Graphic Design Blender, which is a design blog I decided to pitch an article to.
Keep in mind, when guest blogging you don’t need to stick to your specialty every time. I found one article about hand illustration, which is outside my main area of expertise, then I offered information about a book that was used as part of our curriculum while I taught design. I explained some of the techniques from the book and offered a link with more information. You can leverage existing ideas, just add your own opinions and change the context of the information.
- Get your ideas flowing and out there. I made myself a ‘pyramid’ sketch to remind myself to always be working on content. It consisted of Gold at the top, which reminded me to create new information and original content at least once a week. The next level is Silver, which reminded me to improve upon an existing question and solution a couple times a week. And Bronze reminded me to Chat, respond (countless times a week). Tough enough to maintain, but again well worth the effort.
- Don’t forget that blog. So if you didn’t have time to get that blog happening pre-launch, you know what to be doing now right? Tumblr is easy to begin with. If you’re looking to build a professional blog though, then jump into WordPress. After pitching a bunch of articles, if any did not get accepted for publication, then you have your own content to start with on your new freelance site blog.
- Continue pitching articles. Now that you have a site, you can open your article ideas to places like Envato’s Tuts+ network or design magazines like Computer Arts. There are a number of places to propose ideas to where you could do tutorials, submit articles, and these will differ based on your freelance niche focus.
Monitor Your Site Launch Results
After your site is launched, you will want to know if it is attracting attention, and is searchable by the search engines. These tools will help you to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses of your site for you to build upon. Here are some common tools to help:
- Do you need a newsletter? For me I didn’t see it as a must have to launch with. You could create a newsletter to send out about your freelance site launch. Include any benefits. Keep in mind building an email mailing list can be helpful to building your freelance business long term. MailChimp is a common one to help you do that.
- Monitoring software. I set up Google Analytics on my freelance site. Understanding how it works before your site is up and done is beneficial. Setting goals specific to your site needs should be thought about and put in place. One of my favorite features in Analytics is being able to write annotations each day. So I can noted down when I posted an article, or submitted work to an online gallery, and then review the response.
- Google Webmaster Tools. This shows you if Google is crawling and referencing your pages correctly.
- XML site map. Create this to help Google index the pages of your site. Submit it through Google Webmaster Tools.
- Understand and utilizing SEO. This is a complex topic, and a phase that starts well into the production and building of your site. SEO can be maintained throughout the life of your freelance website. Here is a nice design friendly way of explaining the basics Beginners Guide to SEO.
- Social Media manager. I set up Hootsuite to help me search for tweets that I could use to talk about my freelance niche. There are a variety of similar products; such as: Tweetdeck, Tweetie. etc.
In fact there are lots of different avenues you could add to this list. These principles can be applied to launching portfolio websites of different freelance niches, whether you’re a writer, web designer, audio engineer, some other freelance specialist. Always take into consideration your specific needs and tailor the advice in this article to your specialty. Work to build an effectively branded freelance site, promote it consistently, hype your launch to the best of your abilities, and put in a place the tools you need to perform well and to accurately track results.
What are some of your own freelance site launch techniques? And what tools and strategies do you recommend? What is on your site launch checklist?
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by SKot.
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