Not very often do I find an ecommerce site that is truly unique. Max Furniture, while it uses standard navigation options as you would see on any ecommerce site, really looks nice. Love the vivid colors and use of CSS in the text font options.
Max Furniture Screenshot
Using color in web design has seperated those average designs to those that make viewers come back for more. As web designer, there are many diffrent things that you should take into account when choosing colors for your design. Having the appropriate colors is very important for readability along side ensuring that the colors you select are viewable by persons with vision deficiencies such as color blindness which is a good practice to follow when thinking about web accessibility.
I’ve been heavily involved in site flipping lately as I’ve taken my design business to new levels. I thought I’d write a short article with some tips.
Firstly, why I think it is a good way to start out for noobs (please note, you need to be able to afford at least a domain and hosting, approx $20) is because it’s a fantastic way to learn a little bit about every area of IM: web design, programming, servers, content creation, marketing, finding the right products, SEO, Reputation Managers, etc. If you can build and sell a site for profit, chances are you can do most methods on the forum.
Depending on your budget there are a few ways you can start.
* Noob/poor man – $20, buy domain and hosting, use free software to build site, use PLR content
* Mid-level – $150, buy domain with some PR and hosting, outsource everything
* High roller – $any, buy an established site, spruce it up and sell it
For a start, with every site you build and expect to sell, install Google Analytics and make sure you can track your specific income for this site – whether it be channels in adsense or whatever.
Now personally, I like to buy established sites cheap from places like DP, but I’ll start with how to do it from scratch. I’m not going to explain the technicalities of building a site, that’s what Google is for.
There are loads of different types of sites that sell but here are a few ideas for noob/mid-level:
* Do some keyword research, find a good niche, get a domain, throw up some articles (tons of tutorials in the adsense section)
* Buy a tool, learn to use it, offer as a service on your website. When you get bored of service sell the business
* Write an ebook, write a sales page, buy domain, sell some ebooks, flip the site when sales start to drop
* Buy a domain with page rank, add some content and sell (people love PR)
As a rule of thumb, don’t expect much for a new site – DP you won’t get much more than $50 whereas Flippa you might get $200 but have to pay the fees.
I would recommend starting out on somewhere like DP where there is no listing fee and learn how the business works with a few small transactions etc. If you can use escrow for all transactions, it is a lot safer than Paypal and at some stage you will get stung using Paypal (plenty of threads complaining about them)
Now for most of you that will be nothing new or anything earth-shattering so let’s move on to bigger fish.
For bigger sites (anything over $200) I would always recommend selling on Flippa. It has the most traffic of standalone marketplaces and a large number of qualified buyers with cash on hand. There is still a lot of crap listed on there, but that’s not a problem as you are selling a site not buying one.
What I tend to do, is browse DP for sites selling cheap (look for 2-3 months revenue as price), do all my checks against their stats (chances are if their stats don’t add up, they are lying so move on to something else no matter how good the deal sounds)
Once you’ve chosen your site and paid for it, got the domain etc time to get to work. I tend to buy sites that I feel I can add most value to. So if you’re specialisation is monetisation and you feel you can double the revenue, you’ve got a perfect site. If you can make kick ass designs, pick up an ugly site, spruce it up, happy days. If you’re a good writer, buy a site with no content, add content. You get the drift.
It’s not rocket science but I would recommend starting out small as it does take a while to get used to, and ultimately it comes down to judgement and experience not clever tools or checklists.
I would recommend doing some good SEO on the site once you have it. I tend to have a blast with scrapebox although SEO is by no means my speciality. Sites that sell well on Flippa tend to have organic traffic and earnings through adsense.
This is important: if you have bought your site on DP chances are the site/auction has got indexed for the site name. So if anyone looks up your site they will see the auction, and where you bought it. This isn’t good
Make sure BEFORE you list on Flippa you can’t be found in search engines, or you’ll have problems selling.
Now a few tips for Flippa:
* 100s of sites get listed, so you need to stand out. You have to SELL the site to them, so use catchy titles with good selling points such as my site, 5 years old – NO RESERVE” – you get the picture.
* Buy auction upgrades. Don’t be tight, get a front page listing! You will get 10x more traffic and 10x more likely to sell. Not to say you can’t sell without it, but if you think about it in monetary terms: with 10x more people viewing your listing, will you get $30 (cost of featuring) extra back? The answer 9/10 is yes
* Write a good description. Put as much [good] detail in your listing as possible. Make sure you are transparent with stats – Google Analytics (or at least awstats) and as much historic revenue as you can.
* If you can, avoid telling people you bought the site 3 days ago! People like to see a consistent history with a site so no need to ruin that for them.
* If you have a unique traffic/revenue source – DO NOT tell people in the auction/by PM how it works. You lose your unique selling point and premium you can charge.
* Flippa buyers like page rank and alexa rank – don’t ask me why, but they do.
* Unique is good – unique content, unique design etc, adds a lot of value to buyers.
* Offer free hosting/free transfer with the site – either let them take over your hosting account or buy a reseller package with Hostgator and charge them 10 bucks a month to host with you (most won’t bother moving to their own server, especially at lower end).
* Incentivise the BIN price – offer some free articles, SEO services, hosting, support, other crappy domains etc if the BIN price is reached.
* Don’t worry if you’re site doesn’t get bids early – the number of watchers is the important part (over 20 is very good). People like to see the auction run, and don’t like to make the first bid, so get a friend to bid early on to get it moving. Most sites on Flippa tend to sell for BIN (in my experience anyway) so be patient. If bidding is made towards the end of the auction, it is extended by 4 hours to prevent “sniping”.
* Don’t auto-accept bids. Especially if it is a BIN. If the buyer doesn’t pay then it takes time and effort to relist. Check the buyer out (join date, feedback etc) and if in doubt PM them to confirm their bid is genuine.
* Selling price: general rule of thumb – sites with search engine traffic, age and adsense earnings will go for anything between 10-24 months revenue. Newer sites: 2-3 months revenue. Brand new sites: depends on design, content etc – aim for around $200 on Flippa or $50 on DP.
* Answer questions honestly and promptly. Whether in the listing or by PM answer them today not in 5 days time, you never know who is serious or not.
Most of my flips are relisted in a couple of days, and will be up on Flippa in no time. Work fast, and you should be able to make a good profit and all you need to do is answer questions and see the money come rolling in.
I recently co-published a course on Site Flipping. You can read more about it on my Flippa article or visit the Killer Flipping Secrets website direct.
References: www.reputationmanagers.com , www.dannydemichele.com
A couple of years ago, I was young and naive so I made the error of reading Rhonda Byrne’s book
“The Secret” which tries (and fails) to explain an idea which it calls “The law of attraction”. After wasting a good few hours of my life reading about this “law” i realised that it was complete and utter rubbish and the only “secret” about the book is that it is terrible!
As with any self help books there were a few valid points, for example the book explains excellent ways of motivating yourself, however i would strongly urge you not to waste your time with this pile of junk that calls itself a book. All of the remotely decent points found in this book can easily be found elsewhere, so trust me, elsewhere is where you want to look. Try reading some genuine work by Tony Robbins or Timothy Ferriss.
SET TARGETS
Whether it’s a better hourly rate, more money or just more free time to enjoy yourself that you want, the key is visualisation.
Visualise what you want then break it down into small acheivable steps, dont make the mistake that many make and jump straight in at the deep end. Smaller, bite-sized chunks enables you to take that extra step towards your goal.
Start working through your bite-size steps one at a time, making sure you focus on the important tasks first and in no time you’ll on the road to achieving yours goals.
Picture this; your a new Freelancer with the ultimate goal to gain an income, therefore it’s clear that you need some clients.
Step 1, ‘create a sample portfolio’, ‘start your own blog’, ‘do some market research’ and so on. Eventually this will lead to ‘get yourself a client’, keep going step by step and you will soon find yourself acheiving your goals.
VISUALISE
I know i’ve mentioned it already, but visualisation is key! In order to motivate yourself to work towards your goals, visualise what you will achieve by getting there. If your a freelancer who’s dream is to drive around in a Lamborghini Gallardo or own a villa in the Bahamas, dont just sit around thinking ‘it will never happen’, instead think ‘how can i make it happen’. Get a picture of the car or that villa and put it on your notice board, spend 5 minutes a day looking at the picture and think how it would feel to own it, visualise how you are going to get it! This should set you up for the day and give you the motivation you need so to achieve your goals.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
Who says you’ll never afford that Villa? That Lamborghini? The answer? YOU! If you sit around thinking you can’t achieve great things, then you won’t. Beleive in your ability, beleive that you have the ability to make the money, get those clients, retire early. This is not to say that this won’t require hard work, but by beleiving and actively focusing on your goals you will find yourself armed with the drive to achieve what you want. Believe in yourself and you’ll find your clients more satisfied, your time better spent and yourself enjoying what you do. Remember, your are in the position you are because you have skills that
other people do not. You are a freelancer for a reason and that reason is talent, beleive in this talent and you will soon be on your way to acheiving your goals!
GO OUT AND DO IT
“The Secret” may be a waste of time, but a clear message throughout most decent self help books has been summarised above.
If you want to be a successful freelancer then the key is action!
Take the steps talked about above now!
Don’t think ‘I’ll do it tommorrow’ as tommorrow will becoming the next day and the next day will become never. Take control of your career, take control of your life and push yourself to acheive what you know you can!
As you will all know, choosing the right Content Management System (CMS) is an essential element in becoming a successful web developer. With hundreds to choose from it can be a nightmare knowing which one could be right for you. Some are commercial (paid) and others are free (open-source). This article will discuss the merits of using an open-source CMS for your next project.
What is open-source?
Open-source is a pragmatic methodology that encourages development of a product through the opening of source materials. It has been an important factor in the growth of the Internet with many software vendors benefitting from the effects of crowd-sourcing and collaboration to improve and add features to a base code.
According to OpenSource.org, there are a number of other criteria software must meet in order to be classified as “open-source”. I have discussed all of these below, with my own thoughts in regards to the justification.
Free distribution: no party should be restricted from giving away the software either on its own or as a paid aggregation of products. I like this particular point as it encourages value-adding, long-term growth rather than the get-rich-quick mentality adopted by so many these days.
Source code: must be included and allowed to be freely distributed. All forms of source code should be accessible in some way, preferably via Internet download. This seems like an obvious prerequisite but some software distributors may be tempted to keep some code “secret” which is not in the best interests of easy modification.
Derived works: must allow modifications and derived works. This is another interesting point as it means that software may end up being distributed with a different usage or purpose to its initial developer’s vision. This makes open-source limitless with its advantages: thousands of perspectives can make an extremely versatile product. As a designer and developer, it gives you the opportunity to use your artistic and creative license – adding value to the product and for yourself.
Integrity of the Author’s Source Code: the license must allow for the distribution of the software, but always maintain the credit to the original developer/firm who produced it. This is essential to encourage firms to distribute open-source rights to a product as ultimately they will be credited with its success.
No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: does exactly what it says on the tin. Removing restrictions and discrimination adds diversity to the process and in my opinion will ultimately lead to a better end product for the end user. Certain cultures and people may have different tastes and therefore a wide variety can only be beneficial in the long-term.
No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavour: whether it be for business or research there should be no restriction. Similar to the other points regarding discrimination I believe this is essential to maintain originality and embrace the true spirit of open-source, with the potential benefits of the initial product release being hugely influential on others, whether it be a commercial purpose or a charitable cause.
Distribution of License: distribution rights must apply to all those who redistribute the product. This is an interesting point as it stops the product/software creator from limiting certain parties from distributing.
License Must Not Be Specific to a Product: “The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.” Slightly more technical, but this would prevent vendors restricting distribution based on bundling products/software. In the case of a CMS, this is obviously less of a problem as generally speaking a CMS download is standalone and not part of a bundle of products.
License Must Not Restrict Other Software: cannot restrict software that is distributed alongside the open-source software. This is great as it encourages developers to create commercial products to sell alongside open-source software. A great example of this would be paid WordPress plug-ins. An open-source CMS, distributed alongside a paid product.
License Must Be Technology-Neutral: “No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.” Not so relevant in the case of a CMS but does help ensure compatibility across platforms.
All of the above need to be adhered to in order to qualify as an open source product. With the sheer volume of open-source CMS’s on the Internet today, it is tough to know which one(s) are right for you and your business.
What is a CMS?
It is a Web application that uses a central database, such as MySQL, to create, edit and store content in a simple way. An administration panel is then used to edit the content in the “backend” which is then displayed to normal visitors on the “frontend”.
Why use a CMS?
There are various reasons why you may choose to use a CMS, but the primary reason cited is to make the creation and editing of content simple. Depending on the purpose of your project, you may need to use a different CMS each time – so it is vital to understand the needs of your project before deciding. If you are creating a site on behalf of a client, a CMS can be essential. Most clients will have little to no coding knowledge, so the ability for them to edit content with the click of a button is extremely beneficial.
Okay, I want to use a CMS, what choices do I have?
Four of the most interesting are: WordPress, Joomla or Drupal and ZykeCMS.
Here’s a short overview on each:
WordPress needs no introduction. Launched in 2003 it is one of the most widely used CMS’ and can be seen on millions of blogs around the world. With the ability to be self hosted or hosted on WordPress, it has become the choice of many wannabe bloggers with limited experience. WordPress started out as a blogging platform, but has quickly become extremely versatile it its uses. You can find plug-ins for virtually anything, and the beauty of it being open-source is that you can easily build on anything that fits your needs until it is perfect. Google also loves WordPress, so if you want to combine SEO and design for yourself or a client, it is often a sensible choice. As a standalone CMS WordPress is great; but combined with a combination of plug-ins, can be an extremely powerful solution.
Recommended for: blogging; review style sites.
Not recommended for: quick and simple sites; clients on low budgets.
Zyke is newly launched and as such is still at V1.0, but is extremely lightweight, so allows you to pump out small sites in a matter of minutes unlike some of the other options which have higher learning curves. The SEO friendly URL’s and Web 2.0 feel is a particular benefit of this CMS. Being new it means you can help develop the product as you build and learn about the code. The Zyke developer community is where the owners hang out and ask for any feedback. Much like any other open-source software, if you have any suggestions, improvements or ideas – you are free to build them and offer them in the forums to the users. Being a new launch, if you get in today you could soon become one of the lead developers and come widely respected in the community – a great opportunity for the up-and-coming Web developers among you!
Recommended for: quick and simple sites; clients on low budgets.
Not recommended for: big, complex sites; blogging.
Joomla has mixed reactions in the web development world. With a huge developer base comes a number of problems: to every problem there are hundreds of “solutions”. This can bring about even more problems. Out of the four CMS’ mentioned Joomla probably has the highest learning curve but can be extremely versatile when used correctly. I would only recommend Joomla to the most experienced developer and/or designer – it can be disheartening when first used. In terms of SEO it is also weak, with system generated URLs being poor for SEO. There are plug-ins to fix this but it is always useful to have the base software ready to go, without the need for sometimes bulky and buggy additions.
Recommended for: membership sites; larger sites that don’t require a blog.
Not recommended for: the faint hearted; those who dislike high learning curves.
Drupal is another popular choice, widely cited as being one of the most user-friendly CMS options. With a large number of add-on modules it can be adapted for a range of purposes. Creating templates for Drupal can be problematical, especially for the less experienced developer. PHP knowledge is required, which for the more experienced among you will be no problem, but when starting out it may be best to avoid. The back-end itself is very intuitive, and as such is handy for clients who are not overly tech-savvy, and would like to be able to add content themselves.
Recommended for: clients who are not tech-savvy; nicely designed sites.
Not recommended for: large sites requiring complex code; blogs.
Overall, it all comes down to what suits your particular needs for a project. Each CMS has a number of advantages and disadvantages so it is important to lay out the specifications first and then match them to a CMS. Open-source allows you to do whatever you like with the code, so eventually you will have perfect option you can use over and over again.
As a professional web developer you will all understand the headaches endured by explaining over and over to the same client how to add/edit content on their site. By choosing the right open-source CMS you can remove this hurdle from your projects, empowering your client to do more with less input from you. This will enable you to get your hands dirty with your next project and take away some of the hand holding that many clients require!
Of course, a commercial CMS is always an option too. The best element of open-source is the pure volume of developers working on the product. In the case of commercial software, it is impossible to have paid teams that match the size and diversity of the open-source developers. This means it is always likely that whatever specific need you may have, it has probably already been tackled by someone else in the field.
Not sure which one to pick? Ask your local PHP Developer for more information.
As it’s a Sunday I thought I’d keep today’s post fun. I found most of these browsing around the net – comments welcome with anything I may have missed!
You know you’re addicted to web design when…
So I guess at least half of those apply to me… what about you?
Typography is always a fascinating aspect of design and some designers are better at it than others. Each and every designer has had to develop and learn their own techniques to be able to produce some of the great typography art work they do. Luckily enough, the design community is active and many designers are nice enough to provide us with tutorials on how they create their typography.
In this post, Designussion showcases 18 outstanding typography tutorials to get you started.
The web, computers and mobile phones would be nothing without the humble icon. We use icons to navigate our way around computers and the internet and, on the whole, would be absolutely lost without them. You’ll be amazed by how many icons are firmly lodged in your brain: when presented with a Search, Mail or Battery icon, for instance, you’ll instantly know exactly what it means and what it does.
Icons are tiny, but powerful; underestimate them at your peril. Internet giants like Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live Messenger rely heavily on icon design to boost user numbers, and Microsoft and Apple are constantly refining and redesigning their icons in a fierce battle to stand out from one another and define their respective brand identities.
As an essential element of website navigation, you need to ensure that your icons are polished and attractive. Fortunately, there is a wealth of icon design tutorials available to help you create stunning icons in Photoshop or Illustrator. We’ve scoured the web to bring you the very best. Some are more suitable for experts, while others are accessible to anyone with the most limited graphic design experience. Take a look below and find the ones that are right for you.
Taking your business card to the next level has become the latest craze on the web. Started by Tim Van Damme, Vcards are electronic business cards that allow a company or individual to display basic information online in a minimalistic manner. Most have decided on a simple, one page design that focuses its design around the Vcard content. From the designs showcased below we can see that they all seem to follow Tim’s original layout displaying some basic information, contact details and a list of their social network accounts.
There are those who often enjoy change and those who don’t. As a web designer using a computer is often a task that fills most of our day so sitting looking at the same screen can often become tedious and boring. Changing your desktop wallpaper often can not only bring a whole new look to your workspace but also spark inspiration and creativeness.
In this post, Designussion showcases 30 exotic wallpaper sites that are sure to land you with a new desktop wallpaper. Why not take it upon yourself to change your wall paper each month and spark some inspiration from within to help you with your web design projects and become a better and healthier designer.
