People Ask Me Stuff…
Permalink | November 17, 2008 by John in Freelancing, Web Design
…and here’s one of the answers: Google Releases Official Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
Google has released an official Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF). It doesn’t release any of Google’s algorithm secrets, but it does cover Google’s best practices for title tags, meta tags, URL structure, navigation, content, anchor text, headers, images and of course, Robots.txt, making this a good way to review the basics and make sure you have that stuff down correctly.
Now go forth and SEO!
SSDD Web Design, Why?
Permalink | November 4, 2008 by John in Freelancing, Of a Personal Nature, Web Design
As I further formulate and contemplate changes to my “online empire” I’ve been wondering why I bothered to set up SSDD Web Design as a separate endeavor. There are plenty of freelance web designers out there who just do work as themselves without creating a “storefront.” Some of the reasons I’ve come up with are superficial, some are deeper, and some just plain silly.
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Exit Strategy
Permalink | October 29, 2008 by John in Freelancing, Graphic Design, Web Design
This post, “5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting Another Freelance Endeavor,” on WebWorkerDaily is worth reading just for the last item, which I’m horrible/forgetful at addressing:
What’s your exit strategy? If your new venture doesn’t fare as well as you hoped, how will you get out of it? Will you be able to sell it? Or will you simply change your strategy? Also, how do you quantify if it’s a success or not?
Although I’m glad that I was never in the position to opt for an exit strategy, it’s always an important part of my initial planning. It allows me to have a Plan B if the venture doesn’t turn out to be as profitable or as worthwhile as I thought it would be.
I need to plan (with the prospective client) for my exit after project completion, especially for the positive/successful variety. I usually assume I will hand over a CD and be done with it, but I need to make sure the client understands that. The negative exit is usually/should be described in the contract.
SiteMasher
Permalink | October 20, 2008 by John in Freelancing, Web Design
This came across my feed reader from WebWorkerDaily:
I wasn’t sure what to make of Sitemasher when I first heard of it. With Sitemasher, you can build a web site, manage the content, get analytics, implement basic SEO, and you get managed hosting to boot.
Sitemasher is really meant to be a tool for Web developers to help them provide integrated Web services to clients and either hand over the finished site to the client or continue to easily manage the site for the client.
The price is a little steep but the article goes on to analyze the price vs. features and it seems a bargain.
This could be ideal for some of my future freelance clients (I can’t see migrating any existing clients). And by ideal for them I mean ideal for me. I’m finding that I want to be involved with ongoing maintenance less and less. For the relatively small billable time involved in maintenance it’s not worth the distraction.
Be Kind to the Color Blind
Permalink | by John in Freelancing, Web Design
Particletree has a great article on the issues involved in designing with the color blind in mind.
…I have a color vision deficiency. Like roughly 7-10% of all males, my deuteranomaly makes it difficult to differentiate between some colors, like red and green. Color deficiency, or color blindness as it’s commonly referred to, doesn’t mean that I or people with similar conditions cannot see certain colors. They’re not invisible and I don’t see in black and white (a condition that is actually very, very rare).
[Editor's note: I'm planning on rolling my web design related posts back into this blog from SSDDWebDesign.com soon (and spinning all my motorcycle related content off into a new blog using this design) but until then I'll start posting new web design related content here-JB]