How LinkedIn Can Link Your Web Design Business With Success

How LinkedIn Can Link Your Web Design Business With Success: "




Today has become an era of social networking websites. They are not only popular but these websites prove to be a best platform to stay connected with everyone around the globe. LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networking websites; however, what makes this networking website different from others is that it is a professional networking website. You might have an account on LinkedIn already but are you making the right use of it?

Like every other networking website, Linked in has changed a lot too hence introducing new applications and various features to help professionals in achieving their goals. If you are a designer, this article can help you a lot in revamping your profile completely and different ways to find new clients and maintain a good relationship with the existing ones. Since you can find pages especially dedicated to designers, it will be a lot of easier for you to stay connected with people in the relevant field and learn something new. The next time you need a business card printing order, include your LinkedIn details in your business card layout. It can help build up your network quickly.

How it all started?

Every thing has its own history and same goes for LinkedIn. LinkedIn was introduced almost 8 years back in 2003. The main concept of linked in was to give business community a platform to stay connected professionally as other networking websites are for social and personal usage. Initially it was compared with job websites as people were not really able to differentiate. People need to understand the difference between LinkedIn and job search websites. LinkedIn is mainly to build healthy relationship with other professionals and does not offer proper platform for searching a job.

As a LinkedIn user you can always discuss about what’s latest in business world and if there are any openings in your organization, you can discuss about them with other professionals as well. You won’t be allowed to make your contact information viewable to everyone but you can certainly find ways to connect to people and give people a way to get connected to you.

As LinkedIn faces a lot of competition with other social networking websites, the developers of LinkedIn have been working on their toes to come up with new and exciting applications which would be of professional’s interest. Now, if you are a web designer, we can provide you with a few tips to update your LinkedIn profile and make some new contacts and get new projects.

Update Your LinkedIn Profile as a Designer

It doesn’t matter if you are freelance designer involved in making smaller articles of design like calendars, flyers, brochures, posters, postcards or business cards, or if you are an employed designer making bigger advertising campaigns, you can always use LinkedIn to promote yourself and your creativity.

The most important thing to start off with is to complete your LinkedIn profile as profiles which are 100% completely are likely to appear on the top of the searches. In your LinkedIn profile you will have to mention your current job and two of your previous experiences. It also gives people an option to write recommendations for you. This feature works like testimonials and professionals who have worked with you can mention their experiences with you in recommendations.

In order to complete your profile, upload a professional picture of yours in your LinkedIn account; update your education, professional summary and skills/specializations. Once you are done with updating your profile do make sure that it says ‘100% complete’ on the right hand side of your editing page.

The most important thing that you need to keep in mind while updating your professional summary is using relevant keywords to your field. If you are a graphic designer or a web designer, make sure you use keywords that revolves around your field for instance, freelance designer, logo designer, web artist etc. Also, LinkedIn provides an option to create your own URL for your profile and it would make searching you a lot easier.

Regular Update on New Applications and other Developments

In order to move with the time, LinkedIn too is making changes and developing new applications to make the website more interesting for the people. Such applications are a great way to provide more information about yourself and since you are a designer, your profile should be an example of your creativity. LinkedIn gives you an application to create your own portfolio and this is the best way to let people know about how creative you are.

There are a lot of other applications and procedures that have been introduced to make lives of designers easy. For instance, a designer friend of got to know about a new technique of printing. So he used LinkedIn to spread the word about it. Therefore, all you need to do is a little bit of exploring here and there and LinkedIn has a lot of interesting applications to offer to you such as Slide Share presentations etc.

Introducing New Sections

It is human nature to get bored easily and this is why even on websites people are always looking for something new and interesting. This is exactly why LinkedIn has come up with a lot of new sections to give your professional profiles a whole new dimension. There is a separate section where you can add your work if it has been published somewhere. You will also have a section to mention your fluency in different languages. Not only this, there have been separate sections designed to specify your skills, certificates and patents.

Once you have mentioned all of this on your profile, you can pretty much imagine how impressive your profile will appear to another professional. Not every website gives you an opportunity to show off your skills, abilities and your achievements.

Join Groups and Participate in Discussions

Groups are considered to be one of the best features of LinkedIn. People belonging to different walks and professions of life can simple search for the group relevant to their field and interact with people of the same interest. You can even create your own group. You can normally join a group without any issues but for a few groups you might need to provide additional information or any professional association.

If you join various groups, you will be able to contact members without any issues and this way you can always increase your professional circle and you can get to know people are in the same field as yours.

Improvement in Privacy Settings

If we have to talk about best features of LinkedIn, privacy settings are one of them. They have recently made a great improvement in their privacy settings. Other than this, analytics and recommend button are among the new features introduced by this professional website. They are working on implementing some new and more informative features on the website and lot of them are developer and are being tested by QA department.

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn can be considered the best platform to introduce yourself, as a professional to other professionals. This can be your perfect representation as a professional. All you need to do is work a little hard on updating your profile. As you must have read, LinkedIn has a lot of features and applications to offer to you as a user in general, and a professional, in particular. In coming months there will be a lot of improvement in the website so you need to use it on regular basis to stay updated with what’s next and latest.

If you want to stay updated on the news and views regarding your own professional field, you can subscribe to LinkedIn blog, where you can also get information on latest happening on LinkedIn. Not only this, you join fan pages or follow LinkedIn on Facebook and Twitter. So, create a profile, get active on LinkedIn and start interacting with other designers to learn more and to get new projects as well. Get noticed as a professional!



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How to Land a Great Internship in Web Design

How to Land a Great Internship in Web Design: "

Internships can provide invaluable experience to the novice web designer who is still getting their feet wet in the design world. Companies oftentimes need an extra set of hands even moreso in hard times than if the economy is in a better shape. Although there are a host of unpaid internships out there, a great internship can prepare you enormously for the working world while giving you real world experience that the field demands. How do you go about finding the perfect internship in design? I’ll briefly touch upon some important steps to take in landing a great internship in this article.

Make an Online Portfolio

The easiest way to get attention from a potential employer is to put your work up on a free portal such as Coroflot, Behance, Deviantart, and Carbonmade. These sites are designed as a platform to showcase the leading talent in the creative industry. The more exposure you get, the more potential employers. Remember to feed your online portfolio with your best work instead of every project you’ve completed. This makes updating much easier, and gives the prospect an easy overview of your skills. With all the options available, there really isn’t a reason to not take advantage of a free online portfolio site. You never know where your internship requests may end up coming from. Many of these websites also have a job board dedicated to finding jobs, so your likelihood of snagging an internship increases with each sign-up.

Diversify your Skill-Set

In this economy, it is often smart to expand your skills into areas that you wouldn’t necessarily specialize in. You may be a top-notch coder, but can you write fluently? Everyone knows you create stunning visuals for the web, but are your oral communication skills up to par? These are just some areas to think about in making yourself a great candidate in the eyes of an employer.

One way to improve your writing skills is to host your own blog on your website and keep it up to date with the topics that are important to what you specialize in. Doing so not only shows the employer that you’re interested in the industry, but it may also help you think more critically of what is out there and improve your writing skills in the process.

If you’re a great visual designer for the web, it can be beneficial for you to try your hand at HTML/CSS or another programming language. Doing so makes you look much more rounded in the eyes of an employer, too! Conversely, an excellent programmer can get their feet wet learning advanced Photoshop techniques to round out their skill-set.

Scour Online Job Boards

One of the best places to look for an internship in either graphic or web design is on the internet. Job boards provide you with instant access to the latest openings in internships and with a myriad of them popping up, it can be beneficial for you to check them out!

• Coroflot
• Behance
• Authentic Jobs
• AIGA Design Jobs
• Krop
• Design:related
• Freelance Switch
• Smashing Magazine
• Fresh Web Jobs
• Simply Hired

Network

Networking is often easier said than done so I’ll propose a method of finding leads to internships (and even jobs!) that is relatively stress-free. Join LinkedIn and search for as many people you know as possible. They can be friends, teachers, coworkers, and even relatives. Invite them to connect with you. Then do an Advanced People search of the web design studios or companies you’re interested in interning for. Look at the profiles of those that are in your network and kindly ask for an introduction through your connection. It’s that easy.

Join Twitter: Get on Twitter to share links, converse, discuss. It’s great for networking. And it’s usually the first place you’ll hear about a company looking for interns. Intern jobs come and go, they come and go and sometimes aren’t relegated to job boards, especially at smaller studios. So twitter is perfect for companies to let people know they’re hiring short-term.

It’ll also be to your benefit to check out your college’s career center and see if they’re teamed up with any local agencies or have alumni that can vouch for a certain company. You’ll never know if you don’t try.

Make your Cover Letter Standout

In writing, be passionate about why you would like to intern for a certain company – Why does their work interest you? Is this a web design studio whose work falls into your own personal interests that you can grow from? Make sure to tell the individual you’re addressing why you feel you’ll be a great intern for them following that criteria.

You can then go on to explain why you are qualified to intern for them. Do you have experience with school projects that are in the same industry as theirs? Are you interested in exploring career possibilities in your chosen field further? Include at least five high-resolution pdf examples of your best work in web design to back up your claim.

Resume Mistakes to Avoid

At all costs, avoid these errors in your correspondence:

1. Dear Sir or Madam
2. So-and-so recommended I call you
3. “I’ll call next week to follow-up”
4. “My work speaks for itself”
5. Not including a permanent way to reach you

Include your Professional CV

Remember to tailor the design of your resume to the individual company. If you’re applying for an internship at a large, corporate company, a cleaner design is usually your best bet while smaller studios usually allow for more creative freedom. When creating your resume always include:

• Name and Contact Info
• Your Experience
• Education
  
  - Your Degree and Major (e.g., BFA in Graphic Design)
  
  - Date of Graduation (Month and Year)
  
  - College You Attended
  
  - Location of Your College (City and State)
• Capabilities
• Software Skills
• Awards (as applies)
• Organizations
• References

Try an Informational Interview

If you’re still in school it can be worth your energy to get a couple informational interviews. They allow you to see what’s out there, hear firsthand what they’re looking for, and get interview experience. The interviewer will likely offer helpful feedback for you that will benefit you in going forward. At the end politely ask about future openings and try to be open and receptive to everything they say.

Thank Them

After your interview at your potential internship, remember to send a handwritten thank you note that sincerely expresses your gratitude. If that’s not available to you then an email should do just fine. Just remember to reflect back on the interview and express key points on why you’ll make their work lives easier for the next few months as their intern. And, as always, use proper grammar and punctuation for a great impression.

Be Persistent

Of course every company you contact isn’t going to accept you with open arms. Landing an internship with your dream employer usually isn’t an easy feat. But always remember to follow-up! Art Directors and head hunters are busy people so the best way to get under their radar is to gently remind them of your interest. With a bit of persistence and following through, you will soon find yourself that much closer to getting the internship you want. Good luck!

Have you found other methods for landing an internship? Let us know in the comments section!
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Tips for Buying Websites

Tips for Buying Websites: "
If you want to succeed on online business, you must have at least one well-established website that has thousands of visitors. Naturally, it takes years to establish a good website and generate thousands of daily traffic. Unfortunately, many people usually want to earn money immediately and they do not want to wait for years. In the beginning, all webmasters must pass through years of struggle to finally earn large amount of profit every day.

Fortunately, now selling and buying websites is possible because there are many market places for website trading. If you are among people who have large amount of funds and you want to see immediate profit, buying a well-established website is the best solution.

Place to Buy

There are many online market places for selling and buying websites but it is recommended to make a transaction at reputable market place such as Flippa.com. This market place is recommended because it has higher transaction security. Other market places usually have many scams and fake websites. Although Flippa.com is a reputable market place, you must also know all factors that you must consider when you want to buy a well-established website.

Return on Investment (ROI)

A well-established website is like an investment. Therefore you must consider the return on investment when you buy the website. Fortunately, website is an investment that offers the shortest ROI. Other ordinary investments usually need at least 4 years to pay back your investment. Most webmasters who buy websites usually only need less than 1 year to pay back their investments. If you are a beginner on website trading, it is recommended for you to buy a website that offers less than a year of ROI. It is also important for beginners to start trading by buying inexpensive website to know how website trading works. Over the time, you will know how to choose profitable websites to buy and you can buy those websites at lowest prices.

Check the Actual Condition of Website

There are many scams and fake websites being sold at many market places. Some people even dare to sell fake websites at Flippa.com. In order to avoid fraud, you have to perform triple check (even more in some cases) the information accuracy provided by the seller. The first to do is go to the website. If the website is real, you can check the website through several page rank checkers and website popularity checkers such as Checkpagerank.net and Alexa.com. If the result of page-rank check is good, you still have to check the correctness of the number of visitors and monthly income data. To check the number of visitors, you can ask the seller to give you his Google Analytic account, so you can check the real visitors to the website. To check the monthly income, you can check by asking the seller to provide video-shot instead of screenshot. Several sellers try to manipulate screenshot but if you ask for video-shot, the sellers cannot cheat you. You must avoid sellers that do not give access to this information.

Are You Ready To Manage A Website?

Managing a website is not easy, even when you buy an automated website. The benefit that people get when they establish websites from zero position is that they know how to manage the websites. They know every part of the website so whenever there is a problem, they can immediately fix the problem. If you want to buy well-established website, you must understand every part of a website such coding, content, etc, so you can get income as you have expected.

The Actual price of a Website

The price of a website is tightly related to the quality. For beginners, it is better to buy website which is sold at 12x of its monthly income.

Payment

Payment system is very important for both buyers and sellers. Both sides do not want to face fraud. Using middleman such as Escrow.com to secure all payment activities will guarantee that all transaction is safe for both buyers and sellers. Using Paypal is also recommended because this online payment system has freeze payment feature to help get your fund back when the seller try to cheat you.

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Sole proprietor vs Corporations: Determine your freelance design business structure

Sole proprietor vs Corporations: Determine your freelance design business structure: "
You’ve done it! So you’ve made the decision to embark on the tumultuous journey that is starting your own freelance design business. Now what? Hopefully you’re working on developing a foolproof business plan, and you’re excited about getting to work doing what you love.
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Preparing For a Web Design Project

Preparing For a Web Design Project: "
There are several stages during the process of a web design project, and every stage is important to achieve a positive end result. In order to proceed to the research phase, you need to gather information and know what the project is about, which technology is required, the target audience, goals, content, etc.

There are great articles out there explaining theory aspects of a web design process, stages, and how you should proceed. Those articles (which I recommend reading) can give you a good understanding of this matter and they are usually very theoretical, which is not the purpose of this article.

Do you ever felt curious about how other designers build their web sites? How do they organize things while working? What tools do they use beside Photoshop?

Every professional designer or developer work in different ways, however, the goal is to give you good insights about how you can prepare and deal with some practical aspects of a web design project.



The points that you will read about are:

• Folder Structure
• Inspiration
• Wireframes/Structure
• PSD
• Layers
• Tools

Folder Structure

So you have 150 projects on your hard drive, and most of them have a folder structure that you decided to use according to your mood, so some have PSD files mixed with AI files, and you have 3 CSS folders named “CSS_old[1]”.It will take some time to organize, now that some of those clients are interested in a redesign process.

Having a nice and organized folder structure, and getting used to it in every project can really speed up your work flow, you also receive positive points if you start working with a team, and it keeps your sanity intact.



I like to have my folders named correctly and everything separated.

Site – Everything related to the web site implementation. It contains assets folder described below and HTML/PHP files, or other type of files depending on the language it is being used.

Assets – Contains “css” folder for stylesheets, “js” for JavaScript files, “imgs” for images, “classes” is used usually for PHP classes, “includes” for some other PHP files, and “fonts” are used for @font-face purposes.

PSD – It is pretty self-explanatory. It will contain all PSD files of your project.

AI – Same thing as “PSD” folder but for Illustrator files.

Ref – I always like to have a “Ref” folder, which I use to store Image prints of web sites that will later be used for inspiration and brain storming.

Data – I use this folder to store documents, old logos or other files that will be needed for the project, usually the ones provided by the client.

Inspiration

Inspiration is mandatory and a key factor for every project, no matter of what nature. However, since this is a practical article, the goal is to give you work methods and not theoretical points, so let’s get started.

Now that you know how I organize my folder structure, you can see that I have a folder called “Ref”, which is where I store all the references I like and consider important for the project I’m currently working on. First thing is to open your favourite showcase galleries, and google keywords related to the work you are looking for. Let’s assume you are looking for nice portfolios, in this case I would do a google search with keywords like ”portfolio web design inspiration“, and if you try it you will see hundreds of expected results showing up. Keeping my folder “Ref” open, I just need to take a screen print or drag (if available) the web site image to my “Ref” folder.



I usually dedicate 30min or more to research and inspiration, no distractions allowed. This is something I always do, even if I already have the design in my mind. Storing your favourite designs on your “Ref” or “inspiration” folders, can also give you a great collection of layouts and ideas for your future projects.

Wireframes/Structure

Most designers care less than they should when it comes to wireframes, which I consider underrated. A wireframe illustrates the layout of a web site, representing its structure in terms of content and usability. If you’re dealing with clients, wireframes can be particularly useful to communicate and define some ideas.



Personally, I love to create wireframes in my Moleskine, however, when needed, I also like to use iPlotz which is a nice and very complete web application, but I am pretty sure that there are dozens of other great tools out there.

Last year, Dainis wrote a very useful article where you can find useful tools for Wireframing – 18 Wireframing, Mockup And Prototyping Tools To Plan Designs

Advantages

1. Save potential time lost

2. Easily revised

3. Fix and study usability flaws

PSD

For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume you use Photoshop, as most of us do, if not, the general idea is the same.

When I am designing and creating a project’s layout, one thing I do is having an extra PSD file open. This PSD file is essential in big and small projects, and can increase your work performance tremendously. I usually call it Elements.psd, and it’s where I store common elements of every layout page, like text, colors, buttons, lines, and all the other graphic elements which can be of common use. It becomes easier to edit, especially if you have more than one template color in your project.



When you start designing a sub-page and you have every element organized in your Elements.psd file, than you just need to drag the layer you want to your sub-page, instead of having to open the homepage to look for the file and copy to the new sub-page.

Layers

This is probably the most time-consuming mistake that beginners, and some advanced designers, still do. The reason is because designers immediately start creating their concepts keeping their focus on the design, and nothing else. Believe me when I say that having three layers named “Layer 1 copy” among ten other layers named “layer 2 copy”, isn’t very helpful for future edits.

Before start designing the layout, I like to organize my layers by folders and colors.



I do not use colors on all projects, however, it only takes a few seconds to make and can be useful later on. Every designer have different uses for colors, so if you are going to use colors, be sure you find a good use for them or don’t use them at all.



Let’s say you have colors for different sections of your Content like I have on the image above, if I drag by mistake a layer from “Image slider” inside “Top bar”, I will have a yellow layer between orange layers. This is particularly useful for big projects where you need to have your layers in order.

Tools

This is one of those topics that could generate a new article. I will tell some tools, web applications, and frameworks that most designers and developers (including me) use for their projects. If you any have suggestions, feel free to comment.

Adobe Suite

No need for introductions.

URL: Adobe







Coda (Mac Only)

URL: Coda

Top Web development application for Mac OS X.



jCodeCollector

jCodeCollector is a multi-platform application that helps you to manage your code snippets.

URL: jCodeCollector



EasyPHP

EasyPHP is a WAMP package including the scripting language PHP, the web server Apache, the SQL server MySQL, as well as easy development tools such as the database manager PhpMyAdmin and the debugger Xdebug.

URL: EasyPHP



Adobe Kuler

Web-hosted application for generating color themes.

URL: Adobe Kuler



Typekit

Gives designers and developers a subscription-based library of hosted, high-quality fonts to use on their websites.

URL: Typekit



iPlotz

With iPlotz you can create clickable, navigable wireframes to create the experience of a real website or software application.

URL: iPlotz



jQuery

jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development.

URL: jQuery


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