Freelancefolder

10 New Guidelines for Web Designers for 2012

Posted November 25, 2011 in Design, Web Design

Web design has become a profitable niche for freelancers in the last few years, especially with the popularity of the WordPress platform. Tech blogs, e-commerce sites and general information sites all prefer to have a custom-designed blog to help sell their offerings worldwide.

To capitalize on the earning potential of web design industry there has been surge in the number of custom service web design providers. However, only a handful of freelancers are able to sense the change in the industry dynamics and add value to their creative ideas during implementation.

In order for you to stay competitive, effective, and yet innovative with your web designs I propose the following ten guidelines:

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6 Things to Do Before Sending a Site Design to a Developer

Posted September 16, 2011 in Design, Web Design

As web designers, sometimes it is far too easy to look at a completed design and think it is ready for production. But any developer will tell you that bringing a design to life in code takes more than just a pretty design. To expedite the coding process and ensure the product more closely reflects the design, make sure you do these six things before handing off your next design and your developer will love you forever:

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Web Design Basics You May Have Forgotten

Posted September 11, 2011 in Design, Web Design

In the aftermath of the latest Panda update, the Google team has encouraged webmasters to focus on user experience rather than algorithms.

As the battle for rankings in Google’s search results is growing, many web designers are losing focus on the essence of being a designer.

The path to achieving a design that would express beauty is now being put in second place to the path to good search engine results.

Exceptional web design requires ingenuity and technical expertise. It’s important to develop a site that is both results-driven and appeals to the masses. Yet, creating a visually appealing website is only half the battle in the world of Internet commerce. The website must also actively encourage website traffic through link building, web crawlers and other search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Not to mention, the website must be compatible with all major browsers, as well as, mobile browsers. Whether the user has Flash or HTML5 capability, the website must still function properly.

Achieving all of these requirements is no small order for a website designer. Planning is essential to exceptional design. Web designers must consider every aspect of web design and anticipate their customers’ navigational behavior to create a website design that will attract visitors and convert sales.

The question then becomes, “How can web designers successfully accomplish this goal?” This article will review some of the basic aspects of website design to help companies appeal to the masses and still increase revenue for their clients.

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Keeping Up with the Joneses of the Web

Posted March 2, 2011 in Design, Lifestyle

You’ve heard the saying “Keeping up with the Joneses,” right? It basically means that whenever your neighbor (or friend or family member) buys some new shiny toy, you have to buy one too. They have a bunch of big screen TVs, trucks and Sea-Doos, so you have to have them too.

But have you heard about Keeping up with the Joneses of the Web? Every day there seems to be some new cool trend out there than can be accomplished with CSS3, HTML5 or a bit of Photoshop trickery. Five minutes after one person accomplishes this, it seems that it somehow has made it on to everyone else’s site. You know, things like gradients and drop shadows were once just on one or two sites on the web.

Keeping up with the Joneses online is just as dangerous as it is offline. Yes, you may have something shiny and new, but does it really help your business? Does it hurt your customers? What do they think when they see on your site the same thing they’ve seen on 300 other portfolios?

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Which Content Management System Should You Focus On?

Posted January 11, 2011 in Design, Programming

The web is a fantastic place filled with everything anyone could ever want. The problem becomes though, is that there can be too much to choose from and we often suffer from choice paralysis–where we freeze up and are unable to choose anything at all.

Choice is not something lacking in the development world either and because of this, it’s important to choose one or two platforms to focus on otherwise you run the risk of not being good at any of them.

If you’re a front-end developer like me, it’s important to realize that it’s no longer enough to specialize in HTML and CSS.

Without some kind of CMS knowledge, you’ll find it tough to find normal PSD to HTML/CSS jobs, at least ones that pay over $80 an hour.

So the problem now becomes, which content management system should you focus on? It can be quite confusing, so let’s take a look at a few and the pros and cons of each.

[Editor's Note: the opinions expressed here are those of the author and not the entire Freelance Folder community.]

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12 Gifts Most Freelance Designers Only Dare to Dream About

Posted December 14, 2010 in Design, Web Design

Sure, there are a number of items you could purchase and wrap up to place beneath your beloved freelance designer’s tree that would bring a smile to their face and warm their heart. Anyone can take a trip to the local art supply or computer store, or shop online for that perfect gift. I don’t intend to discourage you from expressing your appreciation in such a wonderful way.

But, if you’d like to blow the mind of the freelance designer you so greatly value this holiday season, why not make an attempt to fulfill this wish list? I’ve taken liberty to share with you the 12 gifts most freelance designers only dare to dream of. Enjoy my version of the 12 Days of Christmas:

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Coming Soon: A Premium Resource Toolbox for Designers

Posted December 18, 2009 in Design, News

If you’ve been following us closely on twitter, then you probably already know about MediaLoot. If not, then we’ve got a huge announcement for you:

The people who brought you FreelanceFolder are teaming up to launch a brand new website for designers, called MediaLoot. In a nutshell, some of us have become tired of the existing design marketplaces out there. We don’t like having to pay for dozens of individual resources (since we’re always buying and using them), and we don’t like having to search through so many files to find the really good stuff. With that in mind, we decided to create something that we think is even better.

We’ve put together a new company, collected funding, and are working with a bunch of incredibly talented people — all with the goal of creating the ultimate ‘resource toolbox’ for designers. And we’re getting ready to launch in February.

Want to learn more? Check out http://medialoot.com and sign up for the newsletter to get all of the details. Oh, and we’ll also be releasing some free icons and other goodies before launch, so definitely sign up if you want to be notified :-)