I read an article recently that helped me decide to do something I knew needed to be done. I’ve decided to change the focus of this blog. The former focus was “Free Web Design, Hosting, Browsing, Blogging, SEO, and Business Tips”. Now I’ve changed it to “Tips For Starting A Web Design Business”. I’m going to draw on my experience as a professional web designer to share information to help people wanting to set up a web design business for themselves. I want to show people who are getting started as web designers how they can organize their time and develop their talents to create a profitable business.
When I started my business a few years back, there wasn’t much information on the web focused on helping me get started. Though I knew enough about web design, I didn’t know much about starting a business, making contracts, copyright considerations, and lots of other things. I self-educated with time and experience, and got through it. Now I’ve closed the doors of that business and for the first time in eighteen years, am working outside my home for someone else. This site was converted from a web design business - to this blog.
Actually, I started blogging here in 2002, but have dropped most of the old content of that blog. It was originally started to keep track of my business development and when I moved the blog to the front page of the site, I decided the old content must go. I’m starting something new here now. I’ll be showing potential and beginning web design business owners how to get into business, find and enjoy working with clients, and prosper.
So that is my new focus, which will draw not only on my experience as a former web design business owner, but also on my skills as a paralegal and marketing analyst.
And by the way, that article that explained why I should narrow my focus is found here: Blogging in an Oversaturated Market is Usually a Poor Decision. Though there are scads of people sharing SEO and web marketing information on the web, there aren’t many web design business owners using their blogs to divulge the secrets of the trade to newcomers.
I’m offering royalty free stock nature photography on this website. These photos are intended to be used on websites only (personal or commercial). For any other photography use, email me for permission.
For those who use my nature photography on their websites, a link back to this site is requested, somewhere on your site. Also credit for the photographer would be appreciated. All these photos were done by me: Linda Martin of Happy Camp, California.
My nature photos such as the one on the left here are all linked to a much larger version of the same photo, so you can click on the picture, wait for the large free photo to download, and save it to your hard drive.
These nature photos are all taken here in the Klamath River Valley where I live. I’ve got a collection of nature photos of the Klamath River, Klamath National Forest, Klamath River Valley, Klamath River Highway, and other nearby places.
If you don’t see what you want and think I might be able to get it, feel free to ask - I might have just what you need in my nature photo collection.
If you need a free photo utility to crop the photo, I recommend IrfanView… a small, free photo utility that’s easy to use and quick to download. I’ve used IrfanView for years to crop or resize photos and also find it helpful for browsing through the many nature photos on my hard drive.
I am exchanging Technorati Favorites with other bloggers. This is something I learned about from Daryl W.T. Lau and Dosh Dosh.
The goal of the exchange is to help one another up toward the top-100 favorited blogs list at Technorati. This is an experiment to see what effects it has on overall blog traffic and popularity. I’m hoping, by doing this, to help other people who have web design or SEO blogs, but if you have any other type of blog you can join in too.
2. Leave a comment to this post telling me you favorited me. And leave me a link like the one above so I can favorite your blog; it looks like this: http://technorati.com/faves?add=http://www.YourBlogsURL.com
3. I will favorite your blog, and everyone who comes after can favorite it too.
Also if you want to host a favorites exchange in your blog, post something about it there and link to this posting. When I notice your post from trackbacks or Technorati, I’ll add a link to this posting, to your blog and link exchange post.
Have fun with it.
Here are some other Techno-Fave exchange postings. You can favorite them, and go to their exchange postings and ask them to favorite you back:
If you’ve browsed the web for long, I’m sure you’ve come across sites where, when you click on links, a new browser window opens. If you want an example try this link: Blog Top Sites.
This is done by adding the attribute, target=”_blank”, to the link anchor tag.
How do you feel about having a site designer choose to force you to open a new browser window?
Lots of people don’t like this at all, and in fact I’ve seen it featured in lists of the most annoying things people have seen in web design, along with animated graphics and being caught inside someone’s frames. Many if not most people do not like having a site force the opening of a new browser window. It is intrusive.
Now, with the tabbed browsing used in Firefox and Internet Explorer v.7, I too find it annoying because I like to keep all my sites opened in tabs, in one browser window.
There’s a simple way to get around these types of links. If you realize you’re at a site that is opening browser windows you don’t want, just right-click on the mouse, right over the link you want to explore, and choose “open in new tab”. Voila! No more browser windows opening!
This tip is also very helpful for sites that use frames and force you to stay inside their frames while you explore other sites they’ve linked to. About.Com does this, though it also gives an option to click to get rid of their frame at the top of the page, so it is much better than many other framed sites we’ve seen. In the future if you find you’re at a site that keeps a frame open on the new site you want to see, just hit your back-arrow, and then right-click on the link for the new site you want to see, choosing “open in new tab’.
I read an article recently that helped me decide to do something I knew needed to be done. I’ve decided to change the focus of this blog. The former focus was “Free Web Design, Hosting, Browsing, Blogging, SEO, and Business Tips”. Now I’ve changed it to “Tips For Starting A Web Design Business”. I’m going to draw on my experience as a professional web designer to share information to help people wanting to set up a web design business for themselves. I want to show people who are getting started as web designers how they can organize their time and develop their talents to create a profitable business.
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