Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category

Going Beyond Arial – Web Fonts Choices Just Got Awesome!

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Wow, it’s about time! I mean don’t get me wrong, I really like the Arial font, it is very readable and can be used in both, professional and fancy projects but sometimes having to create a graphic for a fancy header is pretty inconvenient.

Now, finally, we don’t have to do that, thanks to who else? Google of course! They’ve released a font bank that you can CSS link to and use a font that is not installed on the user’s computers. It couldn’t be easier either, you pick a font from the not-so-big-yet Google Font Directory, get the link code add it into your page and it’s done. I am hoping that as this gets more and more popular, they will keep adding fonts to their collection.

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Is HTML5 Really Going To Replace Flash? Proof Is Here!

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Well for most of the practical uses, according to Apple, it just might. A new section on the Apple’s website dedicated specifically to HTML5 and the proof that “we” don’t really need Flash anymore. When I read about this first in a WebDesigner magazine, and even heard about this earlier, I thought it was just talk and propaganda Jobs was throwing around because he did not like Flash for some personal reasons, but after checking out what they’ve built and seen with my own eyes what can be done without Flash I could not believe my eyes.

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Top 3 Of My Favorite Web Design Creativity Inspiration Blogs

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Being a creative professional, the creativity bucket only goes so far before it needs to be refilled. Some like going out for a walk, some read a book, I like to visit the 3 of my favorite blogs. Why only three? Because, honestly, I just don’t have time for any more and these 3 consistently deliver the creativity ideas by the truck load. You may already have heard of them and you night have not, either way you should take another look and make sure you add them into your favorites and visit them often to reload.

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Excellent Guide on How-To Setup A Website!

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

As website guides go, I’ve never seen a better, more organized and easy to use how-to guide on creating a website. Daniel Piechnick put together all the details that anyone would ever need to setup  a website in his new site that is all dedicated to this guide. I was actually surprised at how nice and clean the design work was and how accurate and in-details the information is. All the info you will need but at the same time he does not overwhelm you with extra unnecessary information. This is perfect for people interested in creating a website that are brand new to this industry. I was actually thinking to create something like this but never got to it and it’s awesome that finally something like that is available now for the newbies that is easy to follow.

Excellent job Daniel!

Source: http://websitesetupguide.com/

I Sterted A New Internet Affiliate Business Blog

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

I finally started a blog on affiliate marketing… This is a little shameless promotion but I really think some will love the content, if I may say so myself.

There is lots to talk about in the Affiliate Marketing industry and I wanted to take the plunge and start sharing finds and tips from my own research. I’ve already posted some very useful information on there that covers some stuff that a lot of the WDI readers might already know but there are a lot of things that you will find that are new.

One post that I want to highlight is on improving click-through-rate (CTR) on image ads. It illustrates some simple techniques you can apply to the standard image ads that you see everyday online, that will instantly improve the CTR. Got to know this if you create banner ads for sure.

Check out my internet affiliate business blog at RemoteAffiliate.com when you get a chance. You might even want to sign up for my affiliate business newsletter where I will be sharing some secret information that will not be found on the blog along with the regular posts.

Ok got to go… till next time,

~ Valik

FREE Viral Email List Building Tool!

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

OK, growing an email list is one of the hottest ways to make money online right now and I just heard Russell Brunson has built a system that will grow an email list like a virus and he’s letting a limited amount of people get in on the fun for FREE.

Also he offers an awesome sponsored spot in there for only $47 to grow it even more and faster, but this is optional. You can use it FREE to a great advantage. I just signed up and actually got the sponsored spot. I am recommending my readers to get yours as fast as possible because once the word gets out about this this might not be as effective as right now while it is new.

Go here to check it out: TheViralSecret.com

Do Your Visitors TRUST Your Site?

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Among many things that can be done to make your website and business or brand trustworthy there are simple little things that most forget, or didn’t even know about. We as website owners go through endless processes and upgrades to protect our investment, to protect from security breaches, to protect our property and our customer information, but rarely do we think about how much of an impact it would bring if the customers would actually know about the efforts put into that. These procedures and protection layers are very important but it is also important to let the visitors know that we take serious measures to protect them and their privacy. This is done by simply adding some badges to the website. Badges from trust and security programs and companies that people are used to seeing and naturally relating them to safety and security.

Here are a few good badges you might want to think about adding to your website.

BBBOnline Reliability Seal


Thawte


TRUSTe


GoDaddy Secured


buySAFE


ValidatedSite

Why Life Isn’t Fair, The Freelance Pareto Principle

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

by Giancarlo Gallegos

gian1Two days ago, I was listening to a podcast sponsored by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program on the Art of Teaching Entrepreneurship. The speaker is Tina Seelig, a professor in Stanford University and the author of one of the best selling book, “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20”. In her podcast lecture, she talks about what distinguishes entrepreneurs from your average person. She said that entrepreneurs have a knack fo challenge themselves by looking at opportunities in everyday circumstances. They are in a constant lookout for things that will challenge their creativity.

Creativity for us designers is a given. We just have to be always creative. In fact, day in and day out, we tend to scribble ideas, create countless designs and offer various design concepts to our clients.  Sad to say, creative people tend to go overboard with designing ideas that we sometimes: 1) fail to maximize our time; 2) design things too perfectly for one client that we forget we have other clients to take care of; 3) miss our deadline because we have so much on our plate.

I plead guilty in some of these examples. I tried to search for a solution that could help me maximize my time well and luckily I found the answer from an Italian economist who lived 100 years ago, Vilfredo Pareto.

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The Mind Mapping Street: A Copy Cat Solution?

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

mindmap1

by Giancarlo Gallegos

One of the most difficult task that we face as designers is to be able to generate ideas. Just look around in the internet, the streets, magazines and you will find many design or logos looking very much similar but not quite. Often, I ask myself how much original content is out there? How do I create an original idea? Or, is it possible to create an original idea?

If you are like me, the answer was staring at my face the whole time. I have been using it but did not know what it really is. It is called Mind Mapping. To my surprise, it has been with us for the past four decades. What is mind mapping?

Mind mapping is a graphical way of presenting ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that helps us structure, analyze, synthesize, recall information and, more so, generate new ideas. (more…)

Why We Click? – Another Way of Looking at Web Design

Monday, September 21st, 2009

by Giancarlo Gallegos

quesHave you ever wondered why we choose certain web sites over other web sites? Let us take my case for example. Two days ago, I wanted to check for a USB stick that looks like a camera. I had only one intention, to buy a flash drive looking camera. As I typed it in Google, I had hundreds of listing of USB sticks with a REAL camera attached to it. WOW! How did I fair in my search? Let us say, I ended up wasting 2 hours of my time browsing websites and getting distracted with all the cool stuff I saw especially the retro cassette 4 GB usb flash drive. Did I eventually buy a USB stick? Nope, I totally lost interest when I saw cassette USB stick.

So what makes us chose websites over the others? Disclaimer. I am not a psychologist. However, I have always been fascinated with human behavior. Here is my theory: We are attracted to a site if it evokes certain emotions. I was reading this book on the psychology of web design. The author mentioned an interesting point that most human behavior are governed by the unconscious. The author said, “To get us to click, they have to persuade us. But donʼt make the mistake of thinking that the best way to persuade us is to make a logical presentation”. (more…)