The Benefits of Blogging for Businesses

Blogging has come a long way since it first began in the late 90’s. In the early days of blogs, it was necessary for individuals to have knowledge of HTML. In recent years, many sites have launched that provide anyone with basic computer abilities, the opportunity to blog.

This new trend has transformed from personal online journals, to a way people share a range of information and thoughts. With the intense competition in the world of marketing, every business is fighting to stay one step ahead of their competitors.

Businesses have adapted blogging as a way to connect with their customers and clients, as well as promote their business and products. The following reasons listed in this post are just a few ways blogs can benefit your business.

Communication

In any business where you offer a product or service, it is well known that the customers like to feel important, as well as empowered and in control. People are spending their money and want the best for what they pay for. Therefore it is vital to create a close relationship with your potential customers, in order to turn them into long-term ones. Communication is the start of this important business-customer relationship.

Creating a blog provides your readers the opportunity to find information easily and ask questions at their convenience. Posting important information and facts on a regular bases puts customers in an empowered situation. They have the knowledge readily at hand, and being able to leave comments opens the communication portal.

Updated Information

The cost, time, and effort a business has to put into advertising and printing is almost irrelevant when it comes to blogs. Internet has become the quickest and easiest way to access nearly anything, from nearly anywhere. Blogs are a way to provide information about your new products or service right at your finger tips. For example, if you have updated a service or policy it can be posted on your blog.

Every day the world changes and people search for something better than they already have. Staying consistent in providing information in you blogs show your readers that you have the customers as your main priority. This continues to build their trust in you as a credible business.

Brand Awareness

There are many other companies that probably offer the same service or product as you do, so it is vital that you find various way to stand out in the crowd. Having a blog is way to show how your business is unique compared to your competitors. Adding blogs to your current promotional tactics will only increase that chance of your business being noticed and remembered.

Visibility

Search engines have become the main tool for research, which is a positive factor for business owners who maintain blogs. Your visibility will increase due to the fact that search engines are text-based. As you consistently update your content and maintain focus on the information provided, you open the door to more visibility. This is one of the main reasons blogs are increasingly becoming the bottom line factor in marketing.

Collective value

Blogs are more than an informal way to share one’s thoughts and ideas. Instead, they are a form of marketing that can help your business grow and expand. Maintaining a regular blog can create a chain of positive outcomes for a business. It begins with opening the door for communication with potential customers and allows the business to provide accurate and valuable information to the public. This will save your business time and money, and gain you respect from your customers. As your business continues to drive additional traffic from blogging, you are growing your brand awareness, and in the end increasing your visibility.

With consistent dedication and proper use of blogging, your business has the chance to rise above competition. Taking advantage of this new addition to social networking will pay for itself in the end.

We recently launched Clothes Mates for Veronica McCain, an entrepreneur who developed an excellent product that allows you to quickly and easily manage your wardrobes. It’s excellent for those who like to stay organized or may be living in the fast lane. We built their entire brand from the ground up including their logo, packaging, and website. The works. One neat feature we included on the website was a dresser illustration on the sidebar of each page with sliding drawers. This effect could be created with Adobe Flash but I opted to use 100% CSS and jQuery.

Click here to see it in action

Creating the image

The dresser illustration is a drawing of a dresser with a flat front and two drawers on top of it that slide open. After you draw your dresser and drawers, we will be applying unique CSS to each piece. I drew both of these in Adobe Photoshop but the application used to design these doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you add a good 10px-15px piece of the inside of the drawer at the top of the drawer to allow for the sliding animation to work well. Test out the size of the drawer vs the dresser by placing two fully opened drawers on the top of the dresser to see how they will look together.

Markup and CSS

First thing we want to do is setup the HTML markup for putting your dresser on the page. I opted for making the dresser a CSS background-image for the top of the sidebar as it is static and will always remain there on each page.

HTML markup for the dresser

CSS markup for the dresser

#sidebartop {
	width:250px;
	float:right;	
	margin:0;
	height:272px;
	position:relative;
	padding:10px 20px;
	background:url(images/sidebartop.jpg) top left no-repeat;
}

The formatting is fairly simple and relevant to the particular site I was setting this up at. The important piece of CSS here is “position:relative;”. By making the #sidebartop parent element have a relative position value, and child elements, such as the drawers, can have an absolute position value and that will allow us to set an exact top and left setting. The drawer positioning can also be achieved using margins, but it doesn’t work in this particularly example as it conflicts with the sliding effect. We’ll visit that in a bit.

Next we need to setup the drawers. I’ll give the code for one code as an example and explain how you would work in the second one. The HTML markup for the drawer should be contained within the the div container of the dresser.

HTML markup for the drawers

CSS markup for the drawers

.drawercontact {
	position:absolute;
	top:125px;
	left:19px;
	height:73px;
	width:243px;
	background:url(images/drawercontact.png) no-repeat;
	background-position:0 -10px;
	text-decoration:none;
}

The drawer CSS has two important pieces you need to make sure you have.

1. First is the “absolute” value. Having an absolute positioned element within a relative positioned element allows you to use the Top and Left attributes to precisely position the child element. Here we have set the top value to 125px (the element is 125px away from the top of the parent div) and the left value to 19px (the element is 19px away from the left of the parent div).
2. The second important CSS attribute is the background-position. I currently have the default background position for the drawer set to “0 -10px”. This means that by default, the background image is moved up (negative) 10 pixels. By setting the height of the .drawercontact class to full image height and setting the margin to -10px, it effectively hides the top 10px of the drawer which is the inside of the drawer. This will be revealed when we add the jQuery to slide the drawer out though! It’s important make sure the div is the height of the entire drawer, inside included, as we will just be adjusting the background position with jQuery so that you see everything.

That is all the CSS you need to have your drawer properly positioned on the dresser with the inside of it hidden. The next step is the jQuery to allow a smooth transition from hidden to visible.

jQuery

The jQuery to make the smooth, Flash like opening animation on the drawers is very simple. We are setting a mouseover and mouseout state.

That’s it! You are done! The jQuery tells the browser to animate the background position from “0 -10px” to “0 0″ on mouseover. This reveals the top 10px of your drawer image, the inside of the drawer! on mouseout the background position is reset to “0 -10px”, it’s closed state. The duration attribute just says how long in milliseconds it will take to animate this effect. I opted for a slightly longer slide in animation so you could see it closing as you opened the next drawer.

Quick Tip : By putting the “.stop()” command in front of the mouse out animation, we are telling jQuery to stop it’s current animation effect in mid execution and begin executing the mouse out function. Using .stop() on most hover related functions works WONDERS because it prevents your effects from queuing up when quickly hovered over again and again.

Be sure to comment or share if you like the article! Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Click here to see this effect in action

As unfortunate as it is, I frequently hear horror stories from my clients about designers they hired that disappeared after getting paid. This alone is tarnishing designers reputations every where, but the saddest thing to hear is when a projects has been completed and the client has never received any of their project information or files such as host login credentials or original logo files. Just having your designer “complete” the project isn’t the last step. It is vital that you secure all of your project related files and data before closing out the deal.

Get your source files

Once a project is complete and you are completely satisfied with the end result, it is important that you receive the “end result” in it’s entirety. Too often have I asked a client for their logo file to put on their new website and they toss me a nice, low-resolution, .jpeg of their logo. When working with manipulating previously designed files, it is ideal to work with the original source file to retain as much quality as possible. Manipulating a JPEG version of a logo to get it properly integrated in a website is not only a hassle on the designer, but chances are you will lose a significant amount of quality in the process. All logo, illustration, or any form of design work, should be closed out when your designer sends you all of your “Source Files.” These Source Files are the original files that your project were designed in whether that was Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Indesign, etc. Regardless the program used by your graphic or web designer, you are entitled to these files as you are usually purchasing the piece of art in its entirety. Take in mind that most printers require the original source file or a very high resolution web ready file.

Some example of source file formats that you should ask your designer for are :

• Adobe Photoshop (.psd)
• Adobe Illustrator (.ai)
• Adobe Flash (.flv, .swf)
• Adobe InDesign (.indd)
• Corel Draw (.cdr)

Be ready for the World Wide Web

The source files are not the only files you need from your designer, you need all web ready formats possible. Take in mind, these files are not required as you have the source files but having a nice set of web ready versions of your artwork will save you a lot of hassle in the future. Most non-designers do not have the applications required to open or manipulate their source files so it is important to have accessible formats that can be uploaded to websites, emailed, or viewed on any computer. If you do not receive web ready formats of your project upon completion and your designer “disappears” on you, you may be left with an unusable final project, or at least unusable until you find a designer or printer that can open these file types for you.

Some example of web ready file formats that you should ask your designer for are :

• JPEG (.jpg)
• GIF (.gif *PNG and GIF files are ideal for transparencies)
• PNG (.png *PNG and GIF files are ideal for transparencies)
• Adobe PDF (.pdf)

Read the fine print

Be wary that some designers throw in the fine print that they will NOT provide you with your original source files and/or they are allow to resell your designs to others. This is a very uncommon practice and is something that you should avoid at all cost. Unfortunately, by putting this tidbit into a signed contract, you can be tricked into paying a designer for a product that they can turn around and sell to someone else. If your project does not need to be original/unique, by all means move forward. But if you are looking for something original and unique such as a logo to start of your brand or a website to help you stand out, this is not something you want. Make sure before hiring your designer that you are the sole owner of this design and read any and all fine print!

Don’t forget your information

Another key piece of closing a project that is often overlooked by designers and clients alike is receiving all of your project related information and credentials. This pertains mostly to Web Design and the like, but it is a tip invaluable to regardless what your project is. Make sure you always receive and save all login credentials for every thing that relates to your website and such. If you have your designer purchase a domain for you, host your site, and license out some type of CMS (Content Management System), make sure that you have a copy of all of your login usernames and passwords as well as license numbers before finishing the project. It is a story I have heard all too often, my clients will get a website done and their magic-prone designer disappears on them again, leaving them with no way to access their site admin or hosting to make any updates. Seriously, I really need to release some kind of thriller novel with all of these stories I’ve encountered over the years.

There is a solution

We here at Beta Images use a Project Management Tool, Base Camp, to ensure these final steps are never overlooked for our clients. All source and web ready files are uploaded individually as well as zipped and rared (.zip and .rar are file compression formats that allow multiple files to be compressed into one file) without our File Management area. We also make use of our write-boards to post any and all vital information for everything project related. All information and files are accessible at any given time from our client panel and we never take it done. Even when the project is over, you will always have access to the files you need. If your designer does not use a project management tool, make sure that they email you all credentials and vital info as well as source/web ready files before closing out the project. I’ve noticed that most people rarely “disappear” before getting paid, it always seems to happen after money has changed hands!

The web’s most popular resources in one location!

After repeatedly searching through my links again and again for useful resources I finally decided that I needed one location for all of them. First I clipped all of the useful resources I could find from tons of designer blogs and merged them using Evernote. I instantly knew this invaluable resource HAD to be shared with the world. You can now download the behemoth PDF of all of these combined resources! Don’t worry, all of the original links are cited for future reference. Enjoy!

The PDF is just a raw rip of all of the articles. A refined, web ready version will be available soon!

In this Advanced tutorial I will show you how to draw a really neat Galactic Being. It is done entirely in Photoshop using Layer Effects, Brushes, Blends, and some very useful textures.

Final Image

Step 1

I started off by doing a very quick sketch of my idea for the Being using a Wacom Intous4 Medium Tablet in Photoshop. This is the basis for the rest of the illustration.

Step 2

Next I outlined the Being sketch using the pen tool. Once you draw the shapes with the pen tool, open up your Paths window (Windows > Paths) and click the option button at the top right of the window. Click “Stroke Path” and choose Brush as the path stroke type and check “Simulate Pressure.” Press OK and it should automatically stroke your penned path with a pressure simulated brush stroke. Either press ESC or click your layer again to leave the Path Mode. This gives the outline a penned cartoon look. After you outline the entire Being, color the illustration using flat colors on a “base color” layer. I have a separate layer for the Being Body (the gray-blue color), Secondary Body Parts (brown extremities), Eye Layer (keep the black eyes on a separate layer for future purposes), and the Cane (brown stick in his hand). I created the background gradient to have some color contrast while working on the image.

Step 3

Create your Shadows and Light Source

Now it’s time to add some light and shadows. First I added a Gradient of White to Transparent on a light source layer on top of everything set to Screen at 75%. With my light source decided, I used a 25px 0% Hardness Brush to shade the shadows on the Being. Create a new layer named “Shadow 1″ above the body layer and set the Layer Blend Mode to Multiply at 50% Opacity. Hold ALT and click in between the new shadow layer and the base layer (Clipping Mask) to mask the top shadow layer within the body base color layer. This prevents your shadows from showing up outside of the body. Duplicate this step and shade the secondary body and Cane layer using the same technique. Select all Shadow 1 Layers and Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur at 13.0 Pixels. This will soften your shadows and give your illustration a greater feeling of depth.

Add your light source highlights

To add the border highlight to the Being I setup an Inner Shadow using Layer Styles set to Blend Mode > Color Dodge (to change the Blend Mode on a layer, click the drop down box on the top of the Layer Palette and select the Blend Type accordingly) at 100% with a White Color, Distance 3px, and Size 7px. Duplicate this Layer Style by holding ALT and dragging the FX icon to the right of your Layer in the Layer panel to the Secondary Body Parts layer and the Cane Layer. This is a quick way to copy exact Layer Styles.

Step 4

Add highlights

Next up is adding some of the lighting. The light source is coming from the top left so I use a 25px 0% Hardness White Brush to color the white highlights on the Being. Also use the “Alt+Click Between the Layers” technique for this new highlight layer to keep it masked in the original body and second body layer. Set it to Blend Mode Overlay at 75% to give it the soft highlight look. I decided to smooth out the highlights using Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur at 8px. The final highlight touch was drawing the circle white eye reflections on a new “Eye Reflection” layer above the original “Eye Layer.”

Touching up the eyes

Before moving on the the rest of the picture I wanted to finish some soft details on the eyes. I created a new layer “Eye Gradient” above the eye layer using the Clipping Mask technique. Using the Gradient Tool, I drew a soft White to Transparent Radial Gradient coming from the center bottom of the eyes. This and a soft 4.0px Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur on the eye highlights gave the eyes a softer feel. Using Layer Styles on the Eye Layer, I setup a Drop Shadow set to Blend Mode Multiply at Opacity 75%. Distance 4px, Spread 0%, and Size 0px. You always want to contrast a shadow with a highlight so I set another Layer Style on that same layer with Inner Shadow setup to Blend Mode Normal at Opacity 75% with Distance 2px, Choke 0%, and Size 2px. I set the Angle at 150 Degrees to leave the light source on the top left.

Step 5

Creating the Brain Abyss

Before working with the Galactic Stock Photo, I wanted to create the dark abyss in his head of wisdom. I simply used a 20px Black Brush with 40% Hardness and drew a circle in the top of his head on a new layer, Galactic Head BG. Don’t worry if it overlaps the eyes, we will be masking it next. Select the layer Galactic Head Bg and look at the bottom of the Layer Palette. There should be 7 icons, the third icon from the left should be “Add Layer Mask.” Press this and it will create a all white “mask layer” to the right of your layer icon. Wherever you color black in this layer will become “invisible in the image.”  Remember this as this will be used very often in all of my tutorials.

Now that you have the layer masked, select the Gradient Tool and setup a Black to Transparent Linear Gradient. Drag it Upwards to fade the Galactic Head BG into the rest of his head. The result should be as seen below. I set the layer to Blend Mode Multiply at 95% just to give the fade a softer feel.

Step 6

Putting the Galactic in Galactic Being

This step involves adding the “Galactic” look to the Being by both giving his body a starry and textured look as well as putting the universe inside his head. Using the Stock Photo Nebula 1 from Stock.Xchange, I achieved both of my goals with one image. I copied over the Nebula 1 stock to the image and put it in between the Shadow 1 Mask and the original Base Body Layer. By dragging images in between Clip Masked, it automatically includes the image in the mask, only showing the parts of the image within the original image shape. With the Galaxy now masked in the Being, I set the layer to Blend Mode Overlay at Opacity 50%. Resize the stock photo accordingly to get more lights/shadows and stars within the body of the Being. Now you have a a subtle Galactic feel to your being! Duplicate this layer (you can hold ALT and drag the layer somewhere else on the layer palette to instantly duplicate it or you can drag the layer to the “new layer” icon on the bottom of the palette.) and create a Clipping Mask above the Galactic Head BG layer. This should now place the Nebula within the black abyss you drew earlier. Change the new Nebula duplicate Blend Mode to Normal at Opacity 100%. Resize it so that the entire Nebula fits inside the head and Voila! You now have the core design of your Galactic Being!

To get a stronger shadow and highlight effect on the Being, create a new Adjustment Layer (the 4th button from the left on the bottom of the Layer Palette.) Create a Levels Adjustment Layer and set the 3 input numbers to 13, 1.00, and 211. Make sure you put this Adjustment Layer above all of your shadow and highlight layers on your Body layer and use the Clipping Mask technique to make sure the level only effects your body layer. You can duplicate this layer and apply a Clipping Mask to the Secondary Body layer as well.

Step 7

The Tentacles of Existence

To draw the tentacles I used a 25pt brush and a few custom settings. In the Brush option panel, check Other Dynamics to automatically set an Opacity Jitter which fades the Opacity to zero depending on Pen Pressure (if you use a Wacom Tablet) or at a set distance using the Fade Control option. I personally use a Tablet so experiment with Fade distances to get the perfect fade for your tentacle. Next you should check Shape Dynamics to ensure your brush fades off at the end. Once again, Pen Pressure for tablets and Fade for a set distance. I actually used Fade at 100 for my tentacles to ensure that all of the tentacles are the same distance. Use a White Brush and enable an Outer Glow Layer Style set to 75% Opacity and a Light Blue color. The default settings work pretty well.

Create a new tentacle layer and draw more tentacles with a 15pt Light Blue Brush and a Red Outer Glow. Set this new tentacle layer to 60% Screen. Create a Layer Mask on the Blue tentacles and use a Black to Transparent Gradient Tool to create a diagonal Gradient going towards the points of the tentacles. This will give the appearance of the tentacles fading into the light.

The Particles of Understanding

This particle technique is very popular now a days and extremely easy to do. Select a 5pt Brush and open your Brushes panel. Under the Brush Tip Shape tab, change the Spacing to 1000%. Change Size Jitter to 100% under Shape Dynamics and leave the other settings at default. Go to the Scattering tab and change Scatter to 1000% and Count to 3. With your new Particle brush, draw some partciles falling from his mouth. Create a new layer and draw some smaller particles with a blue brush. Copy the Outer Glow FX from your white tentacle layer to both of the particles layer (Hold ALT and drag the FX icon to the right of the layer thumbnail to the other layers. Set both of the particle layer’s Blend Modes to Color Dodge 100% and press CTRL+E to merge them. Duplicate the layer it should really increase the glowing effect.

The Light Source of Acceptance

Create a new layer and create a Radial Gradient from White to Transparent with the Gradient tool. Place it under where the light from the tentacles would fall on the body. Change the Layer Blend Mode to Overlay at 50% Opacity and Clip Mask the light to the body and secondary body layer.

Step 8

Ominous Backdrop

The background is actually very easy to do. First and foremost, you need to go to that light source layer you have above everything else and create and Clip Mask it to your Body layer. Duplicate it and Clip it to your secondary body layer as well. Next, I went through my huge Texture Resource folder and found a nice, swirly background to use as the backdrop. Place it below all of your other layers. Using CTRL+U (the shortcut for Hue and Saturation), change the colors to a nice strong purple. With that done, create another layer below this and color it all black. If your Foreground color is Black right now, ALT+Backspace completely colors the entire selected layer with the Foreground color. Likewise, CTRL+Backspace colors the selected layer with the current Background color. Go back to the texture background layer and create a Layer Mask

Step 9

Omnipotent Shadow

Next up is creating the shadow. Select all of the Being layers and merge them (CTRL+E). Rotate this layer to the right away from the light source and then go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Move each point accordingly to make the shadow skewed and growing at one end. Create a Layer Mask and select the Gradient Tool. Using a Black to Transparent Linear Gradient, create a Gradient from the top right corner towards the bottom left of the shadow on the layer mask. Now change the layer Blend Mode to Multiply at 61% Opacity and there you go, a quick and easy shadow!

Step 10 – Final Touches

Now that we have the gist of the image done, I decided to do a number in final touches to the image. Lets start from the top down.

Head

I felt I should put an emphasis on the Galaxy inside his brain so I duplicated the stock image layer and set it to Blend Mode Overlay at 50%. This gave it a more vibrant feel. I also duplicated all of the tentacle layers and it immediately give it a stronger glow effect. That is the value of using Screen and Outer Glow Blend Modes, when duplicated over each other, the effects dramatically increase.

Body

I reduced the Fill Opacity of the core Body layer to 80% This gave it a translucent effect. This gave it a “jelly” like effect. Since the body is now transparent, I want back to the Secondary Layer and cleaned up the shapes under the body. I chose to make them all end at a point like pieces inside the body.

Textures

I added a few other textures to the Secondary Body Part layer and the Cane. I chose a nice wood grain texture for his Cane and a miscellaneous texture for the Secondary Body Layer.

Shadows and Highlights

I went back and increased the shading on the correct areas of the image to make the lighting more emphasized. I put a shadow on his left leg where the arm would be covering the light source from the tentacles and some around the bottom of his legs and joints. This gave the image more depth overall. I felt that his left arm (your right) was missing the proper highlights so I manually shaded it appropriately using a soft white brush and set it to overlay. Once I got all of the shading and highlighting done properly, I duplicated all of the Body and Secondary Part layers and merged them together (Highlight all layers accordingly and press CTRL+E to do a quick Merge.) I set this new complete body layer to Overlay 75% and it increased the overall effect of the lighting and shadows. You now have your own Galactic Being!

Glowing Effect

I created a new layer set to Blend Mode Color Dodge above all of the layers. I also set an Outer Glow effect to Screen at 31% Opacity, Spread 0%, and Size 18px. Using a soft White Brush at 15px, I drew in the highlights at the at the edge of where the light hit each body part. This gave the body a nice glowing effect.

Not everyone realizes the value and necessity of backing up their data frequently. With the somewhat dependability of modern technology, we take our informations security and safety for granted. More often than not, your data is not in your hands as shared hosting, remote databases, and other cloud computing technologies are the popular and all too common method for storing data. Frequent scheduled backups using some very valuable free applications can save you hours of work and hardship that losing your data could cause.

Remote Server Woes

Few people realize that their hosts aren’t as reliable as they think they are. Sure, you may have never had a problem with your current host before and you recommend all of your clients to them, but that’s not to say that they don’t suffer from the fallacies of all technology. Sometimes things just go wrong.

For example, a few weeks back I was working with a client and I recommended dreamhost to them. Very low cost, met their needs, it was right down their alley. With my creative juices flowing in overdrive, I finished their entire website design and had it live on their brand new host. They spent a solid 24 hours populating it with the necessary content and we were on the right track for an accelerated launch. Lo and behold, I go to check their site one day and it’s not there. Zip, zilch, nada, nothing. It turns out that the server that dreamhost put them on (they were using shared hosting at the time) had fatally crashed losing the data for everyone on that particular server. I assured the client that this was not an issue as most hosts backup their data daily, or at least weekly.

This was not the case

It seems that Dreamhost did not have a backup of any of our data for whatever reason. Now this could have been due to the fact that we had only put our files on the server in the past few days, but this instantly the useless security blanket I had shielded myself with. This was not good. I followed up with support to make sure they didn’t have any backup images of our content, once I was sure they did not I went to plan B, putting her site back up and getting the information repopulated. Backing up data for quick launches like this are usually not an issue as you don’t think anything can go wrong during a 3-4 day project. It is important to understand that anything can happen it is better to be safe than sorry.

Luckily, we lost the physical content on the server but our MySQL servers were still functional an in tact. This separation of data was a life saver in our case as some of our key information was stored without the databases. Many people neglect the fact that your website, whether it is an eCommerce site or a Blog, depends heavily on it’s database for it’s content and the physical files for it’s design. Both should be considered when backing up your data!

Local Data Quandries

Another problem arose a few weeks ago when I got a call from an associate saying that they lost their “art” folder where they stored all of their original art files. After calming them down and letting them know things would be ok, I walked them through a few standard things to make sure they weren’t already buried in the grave they seem to have dug up. First things first, I set them up with an external hard drive and told them to manually backup their data monthly. Big mistake. The problem with manually backing up the data is that it requires remembering to do it every month. With the busy life of a designer, some things get tossed to the way side when rivaled with remembering if a client paid you or not. Well, their data was last backed up 4 months ago according to them and they had already gone to recover it from the external hard drive.

I really will not go into details as this is almost unbelieavable, but they deleted their outdated backup as well. They had been in the process of updating their external backup by deleting their most recent image and when they deleted their local directory of files and when they realized that was a mistake, they went and deleted the backup files as that was the correct file they were trying to replace. But wait… they just permanently deleted both sources of their files. Their current and backup. That’s when I got the call. You may think to yourself that this was foolish and you would or could never make this mistake, but mistakes do happen. It is best to protect yourself from the possibility rather than delude yourself with the security of the unlikeliness.

Backup Tips

Physical Files

A good habit for ensuring that you never lose you or your client’s valuable files is to login to the respective FTP accounts and download all of the files to a local directory. Set a routine out of this by setting a weekly day where you spend an hour going to all of your sites and the sites you still manage to backup all of their files. Once you store them locally, you should also set them up with a backup on an external hard drive. This means that you now have the files saved on the server, on the server backups that your host provides, and a weekly image in two different local locations as your hard drive could fail on you as well. This security Precaution could save you hours of work and save you from any cruel emails or voice mails from your clients blaming you for the problem.

Database Backups

Databases are just as valuable as your physical files as the generally store the actual content of a website. There are numerous wordpress plugins that you can setup to automatically backup your databases. You should make it a standard routine of backing up your databases both on the server in a directory created solely for this purpose and locally with your site physical files. phpMyAdmin also allows you to backup your databases and save them as a physical file on your computer. Adding database backups to your weekly routines should be a standard as most sites depend on both to function properly.

Saving Methods and Procedures

I found that it is personally best to save three versions of all of my backups. I save a daily, weekly, and monthly backup of my files, both my personal and art related, and my website backups. using SyncBack, I setup automatic nightly backups for all my local directories, including the folder designated “website backups.” This is overwritten nightly so if you are looking for changes for days prior, you would have to go to your weekly or monthly backups. This method allows you access file versions from a month ago at most, so if you are looking for a really old version of something it is best to just save a different copy of it if you feel you would ever need that specific version in the future. With hard drives being ridiculously cheap now a days, don’t horde your available space only to pay for it later.

Backup your files with Syncback

Download Now

After trying quite a few of automatic backup utilities, Syncback seems to do everything I need and it does it well. It is fairly hard to find the Free Version download link on the official site so I took the liberty of direct linking it above. Syncback is a very straight forward, easy to use, automated file backup utility. There are a wealth of features such as synchronizing different directories, FTP and Email backups, and even Version Snapshots which allow you to keep an image of previous versions of your backup. That is all fine and dandy but I just use it for good ol’ fashion external hard drive backups. The backup to FTP feature is top notch but for those of you on restricted monthly Bandwidth plans through your Broadband Provider, I don’t recommend it.

As I previously mentioned, I like to backup my data 3 times. Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. This is a safety precaution to ensure I don’t overwrite old versions that I may want to go back to. If it’s over a month old and you are just now realizing that you messed up, consider the problems that follow a lesson learned. First thing you want to do after installing SynBack is setup your directories you would like to backup your files. I recommend creating a folder on an external hard drive named “Backups.” From there, create 3 folders for each directory you want to back up, Resources Daily, Resources Weekly, and Resources Monthly. If you are backing up a directory that rarely changes you can settle with Weekly and Monthly, but always have at least to backup versions saved at any given time. Once you create your backup directories on your backup media of choice, it’s time to start create your automated backup Profiles!

Press the New button in the bottom left hand corner of the application to create a new Profile. A window should pop up giving you the choices of creating a new Backup, Synchronization, or Group Profile. For the sake of this guide, choose Backup and press OK. Enter the name of the new profile, FolderName Daily or Weekly, or whichever profile you are creating first.

Click the folder Icon to the right of Source and Destination and select the folders accordingly. You want the Source directory to be what you are copying to your backup media and the Destination to be the new Backup folder you created Corresponding to the Profile you are working on now (If you are creating the FolderName Daily profile, obviously choose the FolderName Daily folder you created.) Once you choose the Source and Destination, press the “Expert” Button on the bottom of the application to the left of the OK Button. This should reveal a lot more tabs for you to navigate.

Navigate to the Misc. Tab on the far right and click the big “Schedule” button now shown. Press yes to create a new Schedule and Click ok to confirm you understand how to set a password (No need to set one.) When the final popup finally shows, navigate to the Schedule tab and there you will see the area where you can choose the Frequency and Start Time of your Profile schedule. You can set it your files to backup every few days, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, At Logon or Startup, and you can even set specific days of the week or dates if you click the advanced settings.

Set up a Schedule frequency and time that best works for you, I have mine run at 2:00 AM for each task and I have all of my monthly routines set to run on different days each month to make sure there are no slow downs (I never have any problems with it slowing down my computer but I can’t vouch for others.) Once you hit ok, you are good to go! Rinse and repeat for the Weekly and Monthly Profiles of your directory and then move on to a new directory. It is completely worth spending 20 minutes setting this up as it pays off in the long run. Twenty minutes of your busy day is a good investment to prevent the potential loss of hours of work.

Work Locally and Update using an FTP

The best way to ensure you don’t lose any of your code if a server ever goes down is to make sure you code locally! Some people like to code in the WYSIWYG areas within WordPress and other popular CMS back-ends, this can lead to a lot of problems as you depend on accessing the server to work with your files. I found that using Notepad++, a light weight notepad replacement with Code Syntax coloring and a built in FTP is the best place to write your markup or programming. by working locally, you can quickly save your progress and not depend on the internet or host for working on your site. All you have to do is put your FTP info in the built FTP module and you can instantly upload your saved file whenever you are ready. With it’s tabbed interface, I can easily navigate and manage different pages of the site and the CSS Stylesheet without having to load a new page to edit it on the website. Also, Code Syntax highlighting is invaluable to any designer that works with intricate or extensive markup/programming.

If you are working with a CMS, simply save all of your page and css files to a local directory, preferably in your site folder in your web folder. This one thing to realize when working on your files locally is if you do any changes to these files on the website, you will have to download the new versions before working with your local files again as you can potentially overwrite any changes you’ve done. It is best to stick with either local or remote editing to prevent these problems.

A definition of low balling, according to the Miriam Webster Dictionary, is to give a markedly or unfairly low offer ( lowballed him in contract negotiations ).  I recently encountered this problem on a freelance site that I was used to getting a decent amount of work from.  I had established a good reputation and had an excellent portfolio to back it up. I even have a specialty (illustrations and illustrated logos) that practically guaranteed me those types of jobs.

I first realized there was a problem when I suddenly – and I do mean literally overnight – was not getting any jobs at all.  This went on for over a week before someone who had hired another person (on the site) emailed me and said they had accepted a bid of $75 (for a job worth at least $200) and the work was bad.

They hired me also, figuring it was worth it to take the $75 loss rather than having a bad logo.  This was direct from the client.  Within another week, two more people came to me with the same story and also hired me to do their illustrated logo. That was it on the jobs for those couple of weeks, however.

Who Suffers from Low Balling

I had been low balled and I didn’t like it at all.  True, this is a site that you bid for the job and everyone has a right to bid as they choose.  However, to go with such a low price is patently unfair. I am a freelance graphic designer and I have to make enough money to support myself. There are also certain price guidelines that are established among freelancers.

There are beginners or those still in school that can fairly charge a low price and the buyer is aware you get what you pay for. In fact, many ads request exactly that—a beginner with beginners fees.  By the same token, there are those at the top of their game who deservedly receive the high end of the payment “scale”.

In between are those of us professionals that have worked a number of years in the business, have established a level of professionalism that brings repeat customers (which by the way, is what kept me alive during this disturbing period) who deserve a decent fee for our professional work. We have the education, the experience, the dependability and the professionalism that should, by rights, guarantee us a good fee for our work.

Because the low ballers were an actual company with a number of people to support, that led me to believe that low balling for these people was in actuality a loss-leader to bring clients in for more expensive items, such as web design, etc. No agency could stay in business supporting a number of people with $75 fees. A loss-leader is an advertising ploy that gets customers in the door.  Doing work for virtually nothing and causing others to lose work is not an advertising ploy, it is low balling and it is considered a foul business practice.

The Harsh Reality of Low Balling

The True Face of Lowballers

Prior to the low balling, I was getting equitable fees from clients, in other words, fees that were fair to me and to them, based on the price sets of this site. I even received some outstanding fees for complicated illustrations and illustrated logos.

The aftermath of this low balling technique was that all of the jobs, even the $500 and plus jobs suddenly became worth much less. If $75 was bid on a $250 job, then what was bid on the $500 jobs?  $150?  We had no way of  knowing what others actually bid. But it certainly put the Fear of Bidding into me and I am sure many others. Overnight, the graphic design business as practiced through this site had undergone a drastic change and it seemed impossible to overcome the problem. No longer were we being judged by the quality of our work, of our presentation and our portfolio, but by the cheapest price available.

I couldn’t take this anymore.  I had to find a way to fight back.  I had to figure out what to do and figure it out fast, because I wasn’t making a penny this way.

Tips

Other than waiting it out, I knew I had to do something to get work.  I could hear the landlord knock knock knocking at my door!  I chose a four prong approach:

• I changed the way I presented myself.
• I changed what I offered. 
• I changed my prices.
• I started sending mockups.

First I changed my presentation letter.  Since we email the clients, I was sending these rather long, chatty emails.  I decided it would be better not only to simplify (to make sure they read my emails) but to get to the point fast.  After a polite hello, how are you (can’t throw the amenities out with the long winded spiel…) I mentioned how my specialty was what they were looking for, offered a concise sentence as to what I could give to them, gave my website and a thank you. That was it.  I didn’t offer a price yet, I wanted them to respond first.

Next, I offered something that normally I wouldn’t:  unlimited revisions.  I felt this was a selling point that was hard to ignore and I wanted to try it out.  With a company I had previously freelanced for I had offered this and found that rarely was it abused.  When it was abused, the client seemed to have a sixth sense about offering me a little more money.  So, I decided to boldly implement this change.  I then tried to think what my best qualities as a freelancer were, beside mad skills, of course.  My simple sentence then went something like this:  I offer speed, skill, dependability, professionalism, unlimited revisions and a great price. I also offered, in the next sentence, a 24 hour turn round for the first draft after the deposit had been paid.

If the client had given a description of what he/she was looking, I then created several mockups to show them what I could do. I had never done mockups before, having had the somewhat snotty feeling (I knew it) that my works should speak for itself and why should I waste time trying out something without pay.  Well, when you are hungry, you become a lot more humble.  I found this was one of the best things I did: more often than not I got the job I did the mockup for. It occasionally backfired, as the client would say that wasn’t even close to what he wanted, give me lots of changes and then never contact me again after I worked my butt off. However, I wrote those off as an “oh well” and continued to send mockups if appropriate, along with my new opening email gambit.

I then sat back and waited for the potential client to contact me, so I could offer my great price. (or contacted them by phone if I didn’t hear from them in a day or two). This was the hardest part, of course. To bid $125 on a $250 job or $200 on a $500 job…it was hard.  Very hard. I never went as low as the $75, however. I tried to keep a somewhat professional price range.

It took a couple of weeks, but I started to get jobs again. A number of potential clients contacted me and said they liked my work, but went with a lower price.  After that happened a couple of times, I realized that they didn’t think they could contact me to negotiate a price.  So I made one other small change that seemed to help.  I changed “a great price” to “I start the bidding at a great price”. I hoped it was enough of a hint to get clients that liked my work but didn’t want to spend so much to contact me with a counter offer.  It happened enough times (not that many, but enough) that I keep that in my presentation.

After about six months, it seems to have stabilized.  It never got back to the same good prices we had been blessed with before, but I was getting work.  I bid on the jobs that I knew I would be great at and I get a good percentage of them. My new strategies worked and I found myself thinking that I am glad this happened, I needed to learn more about presenting myself, what worked and what didn’t. Also, the landlord doesn’t have to knock anymore.