Having Your own Website

If you've been surfing the web for a while and you don't have your own website, you've probably thought about creating one.

There are two basic ways to do this.

The first is to use one of the many free webhosting services like Geocities, Fortunecity or Bravenet. These services often offer simple site building tools, but they also usually run their own banner ads on your website, which doesn't always look very good. They also often limit what you can run in the way of site features (they don't offer database support for example), plus they have limited storage space and limited data transfer. However they usually go to great lengths to make setting up a simple website very simple, and often have tools like counters and guestbooks which are easily integrated into a site. If you're a total technical novice, starting out with a free site might be a learning experience.

However using one of these services and having a URL like "mysite.geocities.com" doesn't portray a very professional image. It's really much better to have "mysite.com" as your web address.

So the second - and ultimately much better - way to setup a website is to register you own domain name and host your site on a commercial webhosting site. This isn't expensive. Registering a domain name costs less than £20/year and hosting for a small website can be done for £50/year. You can even host a pretty big website for under £100/yr.

The advantage of having your own domain is that it's portable - you can host it with any web hosting company you want to - and it's permanent (as long as you pay the registration fee each year). If you build up traffic, it still goes to your website even if you switch hosts. It's also up to you to run advertising of your choice (or not) on your website. In most cases you can also receive email at your domain, so your email address is "me@mydomain.com" rather than "me@someothersite.com".

If you build up traffic on a free hosting service, then decide to get your own domain and website, the traffic you have built and the search engine listings you have generated will go to a non-existent site! You might be able to get them to redirect your traffic for a while, but it's a lot better to start out with your own domain right from the start.

Succesful Freelancing!

Every designer wants to quit their 9-to-5 and ‘go freelance’. And why not? Going freelance means you’ll be master of your own destiny and that’s got to be a good thing. The bad news is that you will be pitching yourself against a slew of designers who have already made the leap to freelance-ville. The good news is that there’s a huge gap in the market for quality freelancers and it’s just waiting to be filled. Follow a few simple rules, and the next successful freelance designer could be you.

1. Keep your portfolio up to scratch: You could be the world’s greatest designer but if no one knows about it, you won’t make a penny. The best way to remedy this is to create a really good portfolio web site. Your portfolio site should be simple HTML (unless, of course, you’re a Flash expert in which case you’re allowed to go to town with Flash). Your site should have simple navigation, do away with anything fancy, confusing or unusable. The key is simplicity. Make it easy and quick for potential employers to learn what you’re good at and how to contact you.

Make your site reflect you and your design skills but be careful not to pigeonhole yourself into one genre of design. Ensure that you have examples of the full range of styles you are capable of. If you can work on web application interfaces just as easily as print media then ensure that you show examples of both. If you don’t have any examples from paying jobs, create some and put them under ‘personal work’. And please, please, spell check your site and re-read it at least once to check that the text makes sense. Spelling errors make you look unprofessional.

2. Promote Yourself: You need to get out there and put yourself in the public eye — start promoting yourself and your skill set. You could…

1. Speak at an event — Sounds a bit daunting I know, but it can be really refreshing and there are always people in the audience who will be interested in what you do. They could even be your next client or know your next client. (BD4D is always looking for fresh talent, so feel free to get in touch!)

2. Attend design events and pass out your business card like a mad man. This is great way to get the word out if you’re not very outgoing. Events are jovial affairs where people are usually having a good time. It’s the best time to catch them in a good mood and away from the office. Arrive early so you can chat to people before their second drink!

3. Network, network, network — This is similar to the point above but this time it can be anywhere and everywhere. You can pretty much treat any situation as a networking opportunity if you are genuine. In general people will like you and want to work with you. You don’t have to be on the big sell the whole time, be yourself.

4. Promote a cause — This can be anything from a political or social cause to gathering funds for a relief campaign. Be careful with this one though. Only promote causes that you believe in and are passionate about. If you’re not genuine it could backfire on you.

5. Add a blog to your site — You may think that you have nothing to write about, but you’d be wrong. Each of us has something about us that it interesting to others. You might start a blog about trying to go freelance, or starting your own business, or the software you use. Try to make it something design related so that you attract design-led people.

6. Make a killer business card — This speaks for itself. Make your business card memorable for its design — not its tackiness.
3. Pro-actively seek work: You’d be surprised at how many times I’ve seen a freelancer approach a potential employer with an idea and get hired. Make a list of the brands, or agencies, or the people that you want to do work with and go after them! Just remember, be positive and always think about “What’s in it for them? What do they need?” and try to meet those needs. Be warned though, being proactive doesn’t mean it’s okay to stalk people.

4. Be contactable: Always, always keep your mobile phone charged and in your pocket. Your phone is your lifeline. If a potential employer wants to get hold of you for some work, make sure they can reach you. This is important early on when your schedule isn’t fully booked yet. A busy employer probably won’t call again after the first time so make sure you’re available. And always answer the phone in a professional manner; either say your name, or your company name.

5. Be cheerful: This may sound obvious, but I’ve met a lot of freelancers who are miserable. Let’s face it - no one wants to work with someone who is negative and difficult to get along with. The more friendly, easy-going and positive you can be, the more work you’ll find walking through your door.

6. Continually improve and expand your skills: Whenever you’ve got a bit of spare time, brush up on your skills or teach yourself some new techniques. This will be especially important for web designers, as the technology is always changing and updating. A great man once said that you are 25 percent worse than you think you are, and your competitors are 25 percent better than you think they are. With this in mind you can never improve yourself too much.

7. Go nuts on the pitch: When pitching for a job, it’s worth spending the extra bit of cash to make the pitch really impressive. I’d always recommend finding a good local digital printer and getting your pitch documents printed up and mounted. Sure, you’ll lose a bit more cash on the jobs you don’t win, but the ones you do win will easily repay the extra cash you’ve spent, plus you’ll gain the reputation of really going the extra mile and putting the effort in.

If you take these seven things to heart, you should be well on your way to a successful freelance design career. In my next article, I’m going to talk about how to get repeat freelance work, how to market your skills, and how to manage your cash flow.

Introduction

Well.... 'Hello World' as they say, Welcome to my very own Blog, Here you will find many of useful hints and tips of Search Engine Optimisation and Subjects and Help on Creating your very own website that earns you a Decent Income!

First off let me say that I will not be keeping this Default Blog theme, However I do not have time to create my own at this very moment so lets get on to telling you abit about myself...

My Full Name is: Peter James Bennett
I am Currently from: Manchester (England UK)
I am 18 years of age and was born on the 21st of November 1987
I am a Professional Website Designer with many skills such as CSS, Flash, Actionscript and ofcource HTML

I first started off Website/Graphic Design for my friends and took it up everyday after school and then became fairly addicted, but I must say not as addicted to Flash! Then I got my first decent computer which would run the upto date Online Games such as Battlefield 2 and Delta Force etc... Which lead me into a Team or (Clan), Eventually with my expanding knowledge in Website and Graphic design I started designing "Signature" Designs for my fellow Clan Members and with their respect growing for me I was allowed an attempt at re-designing their website which ended up a success! Now knowing people respected and liked my designs I took it up more as a Hobby and when i finished school I activley seeked a Modern Apprentice job within the I.T Design Industry, It took me about a week to find myself a job, this job was working at a new company that specialised in Website Design called 'Qualitec I.T LTD' Which as time went by grew into an internet Discount Search site called 'after9 LTD' I was at this company for just over a year when it unfortunatly went bankrupt which left me without a job for about a month, while I was off during this time I did abit of freelance design work for a Pub, PC company and a Karaoke singer locally which bagged me a grand total of £800 for approximatly 1/2 weeks work!

Then one month after I was off work I found myself another job similar to what I wanted, 'Website Maintanance' - This job involves mainly Flash and CSS Design with 'abit' of graphic design work, When I say abit I mean vectorising Brake Discs and Brake Shoes only about 8 thousand in total!!! well to be honest im half way or just over half way I have just got to finish the Brake Shoes catagory off hehe! Well im sure you have guessed... I work for a Brakes company, This company is called 'Brakes International' brakesint.co.uk I am currently working here still....

Well that concludes most of the stuff I wanted to tell you but quite alot has just slipped of my mind, So keep watching and you will see more from me... Later

Speak Soon

Pete!

Websites I use for website design hints and tips...

http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/index.html
http://www.pixel2life.com
http://www.kirupa.com