The WebSite of the future is already here. WebSites are like clothes. Consumers and web designers need to realize that. I don’t know about you, but I don’t get my clothes from a tailor. Tailor made clothes are for rich people. I buy my clothes off the rack. I don’t have a problem with that, either. It’s easy, I have a choice of prices, they’re easy to maintain (I can’t...

What Is It? The most important document a freelance web designer or web developer has to create is a contract with their client. The contract is the written mutual agreement between you and your client stating what you will deliver, terms of your payment and what happens if things go awry. In part, it consists of all the items that were discussed beforehand. These items may have been mentioned in...

As I said previously, There are a couple of ways to go when you go with web hosting.  The true do-it-yourselfer might want to think about installing you’re own web server and hosting your website yourself.  However, most of you will take a more orthodox end-user route and host your website with somebody else. You can find companies that will host your site for free. Traditionally, the primary...

Twitter is popular and gaining popularity every day. The number of users is in the millions. But, is it useful? That’s like asking if a knife is dangerous. The answer is, “Well, it can be.” If you want huge numbers of followers, you’re on your own. That is not my goal. For me, Twitter is a great source for news and ideas. SEO gurus, marketing wizards and prostitutes just clog-up the stream...

For whatever reason, there are a lot of people who think the internet, and their participation in it, should be free. This is a huge problem for those of us who try to make a living providing the valuable service of creating websites. One of the main reasons I started this blog is to give you, the web professional, some insight on how to survive in this business. This is such a great article, I wanted...

I’m still moving in so please pardon the mess. There’re still boxes to put away, furniture to move around and things to buy. You know how it is. But, please feel free to look around and offer any suggestions. I like bright colors. I also have a thing for old fashioned printers ornaments. So, you’re likely to see a lot of both on this blog. On a personal note, I am not disabled. However, I’ve...

This is for all you freelancers and web professionals. It’s really very funny, in a true and sad kind of way. To survive in the website biz, you absolutely must avoid bad clients. Seriously. Here are a few of my personal tips to help you weed them out: Post your rates on your website. Be explicit. Stay away from anyone who says their previous designer split on them. Don’t answer classified...

We’ve all heard the stat from the SBA: 50% of small businesses will fail within 1 year and 95% of small businesses will fail within the first 5. Why are we so good at failing? What in our DNA makes those failures stumbling blocks for some (those who give up) and building blocks for others (those who keep going)? After a lot of thought on this topic, my conclusion was fairly simple: you’re a wuss...

Really interesting findings in a Citibank/GFK Roper small business survey that was released on Friday. The survey of 500 small businesses (less than 100 employees) found that found very few small businesses in the U.S. are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for business uses: * Three-quarters of the small business owners surveyed say they have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter...