A Little History

As an individual, I have been actively blogging, whether for informational, personal, or professional reasons, for 10 years. In the beginning, it was purely for personal satisfaction. It gradually grew into informational, and it is now at an informational/professional level. I am not a professional blogger in the sense that I do this for income, but more in the sense that my blogging is based on the professional field of web design and development.

Starting out, a little before Blogger became popular, I used self hosted scripts much like Wordpress, but in the form of a flat-file storage system, rather than a MySQL database. (Scripts/software like NewsPro, Coranto, and Greymatter.) All of which have gone undeveloped for some time now, aside from Greymatter, which after years of abandonment, has been resurrected. Eventually I made the move to MovableType, followed by Text Pattern and finally landing here with Wordpress. Which is the best by far, thanks Matt.

When I started blogging, the word “blog” or even “weblog” was not an every day noun like it has become in recent years. LiveJournal was huge, and finding regularly updated blogs, with worthwhile content was a rarity. There was no real revenue to be found in advertising on your blog, aside from some of the pyramid style advertising schemes, and most of the advertising you did see was for affiliate programs and link trading, simply to drive visits and gain popularity. In it’s simplest form, it was a popularity contest and not a path to quitting your day job.

Doing Without

As stated previously, advertising on design blogs was absolutely something to be seen in the past, but it was never an integral part of nearly every design blog you came across. Once-popular design and development related sites, such as Spoono(deserted?), Lounge72, and SurfStation, have never been what some would refer to as “fans” of advertising. They have always maintained a focus on content. Although they were/are all somewhat community based efforts, they are still very much a time consuming activity, yet still remain true to their purpose.

Drawing a line between doing what you like and making a profit from it is not at all the objective of this article. It is the extent to which some design sites have interfered with the user experience and the worth of their content by advertising to the point of insanity.

The Uprising

A couple of years ago, a company named BuySellAds.com Inc. was born. It simplified the daunting task of selling advertising on your web site, taking it from your inbox and onto their web site. Although you do lose a little cut of your profit, the process is so simple that it is well worth the small loss in income. At the time, almost everyone thought “This is great! My hobby can now make me some money!”

For full-time bloggers, this company is heaven sent. For everyone else, it is a way to make a little additional income, but not a service that is integral to the operation and funding of your web site. Now that they have grown, the requirements that must be met for your website to be accepted have also grown. You must be bigger and better to be worth their time. However, this is understandable. If you have no visitors, who is going to buy your advertising slots?

On the negative side, this made it so incredibly easy to advertise, that almost everyone took part, and some even sacrificed the experience of their visitors in doing so. Years ago, when they were at their peek, we all despised pop-up windows full of obnoxious advertisements. They aren’t as much of a common occurrence as they once were, so now we have replaced them with fancy floating advertisements at the bottom of the browser window. No matter where you go, it’s there, taking up anywhere from 25 to 100 pixels of precious browser real estate.

Sidebar advertisements that consume any area Above The Fold. Tiny animated gif’s that tantalize your retina, distracting you from the information of general interest. This is the point though, is it not?

But let’s look at it this way. Of course I want advertisers to buy my advertisement slots. After that, I collect a monthly payment. From here, do I even care if anyone clicks on them? In most cases, the answer is no, I don’t care. As long as I get my money, then why should I care if anyone clicks on them or not? And that is where the real problem lies. I should care. I should be concerned and hopeful that my visitors will take advantage of these wonderful advertisements on my site. But how can I feel so inclined, if I could care less what service these advertisements are offering? Of course, it should be in a field related to my blog, but other than that, I don’t care. Have I tried every one of the services my advertisers offer? Most likely not. Why would I? I am a designer myself. I need not be concerned with PSD to XHTML services. For my personal clients, I do that on my own.

Does that make us guilty? We are advertising products and services that we have never even tried. Sure, some of them we have, but all of them? I doubt it. And not only are we advertising companies and services that could be fraudulent for all we know, we then place their advertisement banners on our site in such a way as to distract from what the real purpose of our web site may be.

Do we try all of the services? I don’t think that is even possible, not with how many new companies pop up each day. However, what we can do, is not push them in our readers faces. Let us remain focused on our content. Focus on offering something of true value; knowledge. Then, maybe make some money on the side.

Again, let me make it clear. I am in no way against online advertising, or even making money from your blog. What I am against, is becoming the middle man in an online visual spam-fest.

What is your opinion?

Web Developer

“A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over the HTTP protocol from a web server to a web browser.” – Wikipedia

“A web developer creates web sites. Development may be done by a single professional or a team of professionals who deal with the overall look (design) functionality (programming), optimization, organization (architecture) and content (writing and images) of a web site.” – Winterhoff Internet Solutions

My Opinion

A Web Developer, is any person who specializes in the creation of web sites or web applications, using either server-side or client-side coding. This may be with, or without, the use of a database. Although this individual may be proficient as a web designer, they often prefer to maintain a focus on code and back-end functionality. This may also include controlling the placement of text and/or content.

Web Designer

“The skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext or hypermedia) that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of a Web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients, microblogging clients, and RSS readers.” – Wikipedia

“The person or people that designed your website’s content. They are also referred to as a web admin.” – Flawless Web Design

My Opinion

A Web Designer: someone who creates graphical elements to be used in the design of a website. A Photoshop Guru. A Web Designer would usually maintain a focus on the design, color, typography, perspective etc… but would then forward this design, and all details regarding it’s implementation, on to the web to a Web Developer, who would then slice, and code the website in case. Although this Web Designer may have some knowledge of xHTML and CSS, they prefer to focus on the visual appearance of a website, more so than the back-end functionality.

Graphic Designer

“A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design.” – Wikipedia

“Someone who creates commercial art such as advertisements and brochures. Often, designers use high-powered computers to create their products.” – Reynolds House, Museum of American Art

My Opinion

A Graphic Designer is someone who focuses on designs for print, packaging, logo design, and advertisements etc. Many times a Web Designer is also a Graphic Designer, but it is not always the other way around. In most cases a Graphic Designer, is in no way related to a Web Developer, or has any knowledge of the inner working of a website. However, this is not always the case.

Summary

As you can see, there are clear divides between these three professions. Yet in many instances, they do become blurred. These are only my opinions of each field, based off of my professional opinion, as well as definitions. So, which one are you?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

1. Open a New Document, with a size of 500px by 300px. Using a white background, of course.
   
2. For the frame, I simply searched for “aluminum frame” and found an image I could use as a source.  This is what I found:
   
3. I used the top piece from the stock image and just stretched a section and duplicated/rotated it three times to form the frame. Then simply use the polygon selection tool to trim the top two frame pieces at a 45° angle.
   
4. Now, Ctrl+Click each of the layers (Cmd+Click on Mac), and press Ctrl+E (Cmd+E on Mac) to merge the layers. Go to Layer> Layer Style> Blending Options… And click on Drop Shadow. Use the settings as shown below.
   
5. Now click on Gradient Overlay and use the settings below.
   
6. This will add a subtle shadow to your “white” board, and the frame to give the illusion of it being 3D.
   
7. Create a new blank layer above your background layer, but below your frame layer. Now grab a large blurred brush, 300px or so, and create a halo around the edges of your white board.
   

   Drop the opacity of this "halo" layer to around 10%.

8. For this part, go ahead and download these watercolor brushes. Using brush number 12, set it’s size at 20px, and it’s opacity at 20-30%, and it’s color to any red. Create a new layer and go crazy! Create two more layers, one for using a blue, and one for black. This will help us to create the illusion of a “used” dry erase board with ink remaining on the surface.
   
9. Give each one of these layers a Gaussian Blur of 7px, and adjust the opacity according to taste.
   
10. Head over to DaFont.com and download Hand of Sean. Just so happens to be the font I used for this project, but you can chose any font you would like. When putting text onto your board, be sure to drop it’s opacity a bit. Too rich of a color will make the text look fake on the board. Here is what you get when you are finished! Download the PSD below.
    

    

1. Do Not Guarantee A Completion Date

“What?!” you say? Yes, that is what I said. Never guarantee a client a completion date. By this I mean, never tell your client that under no circumstances will their project go beyond the date specified on the contract. It is unwise to do this, because although your client may cause significant delays in the project development, they will seldom see it as their fault, or responsibility. This is not to say that some will not, but most clients see designers as over priced and under worked and are not willing to take responsibility for their actions, or lack thereof.
In your contract, state an “estimated completion date”, while listing reasons why going beyond this date may be acceptable or expected. Thus, although the client may deny it, if a project does go past an estimated completion date, you can specify what was not done on the client’s behalf in accordance with the contract that caused this delay.

2. Project Completion Is Not The Client’s Decision

As designers, we have a natural will to please our clients, and to give them as much freedom within their projects as possible. We don’t want to be considered “an institution”. Yet, we do have our limits. Be sure to specify within your contract that the project’s completion is at your discretion, so long as all of the items within the contract are completed. Be sure you explain this to your client when presenting your contract.

3. No More Than Two Payments

The economy isn’t great right now, we all know this. But do not let any client, large or small, rich or not so rich, deliver more than two payments on a project. Take half of the payment up front, and half when you deem the project complete. You could even go so far as to ask for %60 up front, and %40 when the project is completed.
Some clients will wish to pay three payments, which may not be bad for you in the long run, as this is money more often rather than lump sums. But this works out to the clients benefit if they chose to be dishonest and skip out on the third and final payment. Again project completion is not the client’s decision.

4. Do Not Allow Late Payments

Although you may be a freelance designer, and not an institution, there must, or “should” be penalties for late or delinquent payments. If there is not, then a client can continually state that they “haven’t had time” or “will pay you as soon as they can”, without consequences. This is not to say that some reasons are excusable, but in most cases you will be able to tell from conversations with your client, if they are being truthful or simply dragging out your final payment. A fixed amount or percentage of their final payment as a late fee, tacked on to their current bill weekly is what I would suggest. This must be stated in your contract to be considered legal. Check your local regulations as there may be limits to how much and how often you can charge these fees.

5. Client’s Cannot Use Their Hosting

If you are designing a website for a client, especially a new one who you have yet to develop a professional business relationship with, be sure to specify in your contract that their website will be hosted on your server and what the fees will be. Whether you charge a monthly hosting fee, or a yearly fee is up to you. Remember to mark it up a bit from what your vendor sells it to you for, as you will be responsible for any and all maintenance that will need to be performed outside of your vendor’s responsibilities.
This is a good idea, since sometimes you have a website that may be running on a CMS or other software that you cannot, or would rather not have to, install twice: once for your own design purposes and again on your client’s server. In addition, this will keep the project under your control until the final payment is made, and the website/hosting turned over.
This can become another term regarding late or delinquent payments and the status of the website until this payment is made. If a client is delinquent, to a certain extent, on a final payment, their website can and will be removed.

6. Do Not Skimp On The Details

Any and every detail regarding the designer/client relationship, the details of the project itself, payments, late payments, the hosting, proofing schedule, hours etc…should be listed in your contract. Even if you must write out two pages just to contain the details of the project, this is a good idea. This will prevent any assuming by either party. Assuming will usually cause some bit of confusion or frustration.

7. Do Not Give Unlimited Proofs

For most projects, I would not advise giving an unlimited number of proofs once the brainstorming step is out of the way. Unless you have an extremely well paying project that is worth any and all proofs possible, I would limit the amount of proofs you are willing to provide. Some projects may require more proofs than others, while some should only require a few. Outline this in your contract, so a client knows what you are willing to provide. This will often prompt the client to be more descriptive, detailed, and explanatory of changes they wish to see in a project. In turn allowing you to get more done at a time.

8. Do Not Work 24/7

Some designers, like myself, keep pretty random hours, sometimes working at projects at 3am. This does not mean that these are your working hours. My hours are from 8am-4pm Monday-Friday. This makes it known to my clients that within these hours, if something is needed, then I am ready to be contacted, and unless obligated to another project, can complete their request promptly.

9. Do Not Wait On Each Other

Along with your proofing schedule, specify a “reply” schedule. Within all of my contracts is stated, that whether it be a phone call, email, or some other form of communication or proofing, a reply is required within 24 hours. This goes for both parties, and is only in effect during the normal Monday-Friday work week. If a client calls me at 6pm on Monday, then I am required by my contract to reply to their phone call by 6pm on Tuesday.

10. Clients Are Not Friends

Let me explain, as I know this sounds terrible. Almost all of my past clients and I have had wonderful relationships. But this is more focused toward current friends or family members who become clients. A discount is one thing, when it comes to doing work for friends or family, but everything else in your contract should stay the same. You are still a freelance designer, and this is still your job, so retaining your professionalism and consistency in your contract is very important. Although friends and family can be some of the more enjoyable clients to work with, they can also be some of the most difficult, as maintaining that divide between business and personal can be a challenge. Just remember…This is your job, this is your livelihood, and you are responsible for your own success.

If you have anymore items to add to this list, please comment!

Full Page Body & Background Image
Currently the Wordpress login page has an “active body” that only extends to the bottom of the form div. If you are logging in to Wordpress is it currently at 400px. When you login out and are taken to the login page with the confirmation message at the top, it is at 459px. This is the area that you can customize through our plugin with a custom background image.

To edit this you can simply insert some custom CSS in the Custom CSS area of the plugin.
Here is what I have used for this client:

Your height should represent at least the vertical resolution of your monitor so that your background does not get cut off. If you know CSS in the slightest you know that all this does is assure that the body portion of the document extends at least 1000 pixels vertically.

Since you have done this, now all you have to do is specify your background image in the top portion of the plugin’s page, and set it’s repetition to “repeat”.

Included in those features is the ability to customize:
- Form label font color.
- Form text area border color.
- Link color and hover color.
- Login button background image and hover image.
- Login button border color.
- Login button font color.

So please visit it’s official page and give it a download. If you are running an older version, simple deactivate it, upload the new version and reactivate it. Your settings will not be lost.