Smashing Buzz » Advertisement

Amazing Gilt Imaginative AdWords More Prickly for Designers

Anupama Rao — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:21:05 +0000

Every product has a complete success story, yes I means “advertisements” a method of communiqué used to encourage or persuade an spectators, also best way to convey a strong message, we have amazing advertisements as graphically well-designed using different way of communications, these of all leave an amazing impression on me when I was exploring but now I would like to share my advert inspirations to you all our respected visitors and readers.

I know business owners always spent money on their product, brand or services to get user interaction and spread their message through figure of speech and peoples always recognize them to their corporate identity as so many oldest brand have same as they carry on initial stage like coca cola, McDonald, pizza hut, Microsoft, Google and technology giant Apple Inc. how much you would need more on this way to get inspiration, hopefully you will be more exciting when you start scroll down.

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Maintain a Catchy Blog in Limited Time

Arfa Mirza — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:14:20 +0000

Whoever is on the Internet and reading this post might know what blogging is, and many of us are regular blogger too. A research showed that almost 75% of Internet users read blogs on daily basis which shows how popular blogging has become. Different people seek different benefits from blogs. These benefits can range from information, entertainment, learning, inspiration to advertisement and social interaction.

A decade earlier, blogs were considered nothing more than a random diary of a person who likes to write about himself and his opinion every now and then. Now, blogging has become an important source of business and money-making and since it has a huge market, it is now being used as a marketing tool. Companies and individuals are taking advantages from the popularity of blogs and it is a good way of promoting your business as well.

So Many Things in So Little Time

The blog business requires a lot of traffic for its popularity and to reap benefit for the owner. Increased traffic means increased benefits and popularity of your blog. However, either we are on-job employees or freelance graphic designers, maintaining your blog in a way that it catches and then retains reader’s interest in it can be pretty difficult at times. For those who are managing a full time job and still want to maintain their design blog in a catchy way, following tips will be very helpful..

Create an Interesting Topic

Blogs are for readers and the only thing that can attract reader’s attention is an interesting topic. Bogs give you freedom to discuss anything or everything in them. Keeping in the bounds of your field of graphic design, you can discuss the whole universe and the interesting topics never run out.

Even if you write about some serious issue or are up to teaching something, the key is to explain it in an interesting way. Always keep in mind that blogs are meant to be informal and intimate. However, informality does not mean that you go out of limits and turn obnoxious. Content attracts the largest chunk of readers to your blog, so keep it as catchy and friendly as possible.

Share the Relevant Insight

Well, in order to make your blog catchy for your target readership, you need to share the interesting insight through your blog. This insight can be tips and suggestions related to graphic designing, reviews of products and services of the field or it can even be your personal opinion about a certain topic.

Also, when you are writing something, it should have a meaning and whatever you would want to share, make sure it has a point of view. This will not only attract a reader’s attention but it will also create a respect for you in the eyes of the reader.

Add Images and Pictures

It is not possible to have a graphic design blog and not having images or pictures in it. It should be rather said that a graphic designing blog is absolutely incomplete without having cool images and pictures in it. Images attract readers to the content and (in the case of design blog) images a great source of design inspiration for the readers. If your blog will have a reputation of having a collection of great images, it will tempt the readers to keep coming back for more and they would clamor for every new post on the blog.

Design Your Own Icons and Theme

Your graphic design blog should show that it belongs to a graphic designer and not just any other person. For that you can make a custom designed theme, out of some original design of yours. Also, you can design your own customized icons of Twitter, RSS and Digg etc that will add to the uniqueness of your blog.

Involve Your Online Business Links

If you want your design blog to be successful, you need to work on your networking. If you like someone or admire them for their skills, you can mention them in your blogs. You can promote their ideas or link your blog to their blog. The good thing about blogging is that you can market yourself and that too without handling and financial issues. Imagine marketing yourself without any finance, isn’t it interesting?

Give Importance to Keywords

Let’s talk sense here. You want your blog to be catchy right? This means it is important for your blog to show up in search engines more frequently. For this, you need to give importance to keywords. Use the keywords that you think users will use in order to find a relevant topic. You can also check your Site Stats on Word press to check out the words that have been used by readers which lead them to your blog. Also, never forget to add tags in your blog. The advantage of having a blog is that you can use a keyword as long as you want which can make your blog more visible during various searches.

Write with Facts and Figures

Do not write about anything unless you are very sure about it. Your blog should make sense to the reader so write about something which you know. You can take help from the bundles of informational data available on the Internet. Never write on something which is not clear to you as blogs are a kind of open forums, you won’t be able to have a healthy conversation with the readers if you are not fully aware of the topic which can give a negative impact of your blog. Facts, figures and stats catch human interest, so it is good to add them in your content where suitable.

Make your Blog a Part of Your Signature

In order to attract readers to your blog, you need to advertise it. The best way is to make your blog a part of your signature. If you are interested in blogging it is pretty obvious that you are someone who spends a lot of time online. You must be sending loads and loads of emails everyday for one thing or the other. Add your blog’s link into your signature. This will surely increase the number of visits to your blog.

Stay Up-to-Date

Keep yourself and your blog updated on what is happening around your world. People should find something new and interesting to read every time they read your blog. If they really like your blog they will bookmark it in order to read it whenever they want to. But that does not mean that your blog will be bookmarked forever. If you will fail to keep it regular and up-to-date, you will lose your bookmarking. So by keeping it updated, you have become a part of social book marking.

Avoid Too Much Marketing

Promoting yourself every now and then can be a little annoying for the reader. Do not utilize every opportunity to market yourself. Give your readers a break too and discuss something else. Remember people are not visiting your blog to learn about you. They are more interested in reading some useful articles which will increase their knowledge so do provide them with that.

Cozy Writing Style

If it is a blog, you should not be using a language which is way too formal. For blogs, informal or comfortable language is always better. As said earlier, people can relate to blogs and their content only because the writing style is simple. Your writing style also depends on your target market. If you are targeting corporate class then obviously you will have to use a bit of formal language. If everyday readers are your target market then make sure you stay connected to them by using every day tone.

Be Genuine

If you really want people to like and appreciate you, you have to sound genuine in your blogs. Sounding fake or making up various stories to make things exciting will put off the reader and there are high chances that he would not visit your blog again considering it to be useless. If you are posting your blog on social sites, in a way you are promoting your blog on social media which is a great thing. Thousands of readers will go through your blog so be genuine to them.

Serve the Purpose

The main purpose of blogging is to market yourself and the main purpose of marketing is to develop long term relationships between your business as design house or yourself as a designer and the general public/ potential clients. Once they will start liking your blog and will trust you, they will eventually end up buying your products or start marketing your blog which will be very beneficial to you.

Active Archive

Give readers an opportunity to read your previous work as well so create a good archive. Readers should be able to read previous topics and discussions. Also, make your blogging site more interesting by making the site a little attractive. People should want to stay on your website.

I hope all, or some of these tips prove helpful for you and your graphic design blog in future.

Happy blogging!

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Tips To Make Money From Your Design Blog

Arfa Mirza — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:38:41 +0000

There is so much information flowing all around the Internet and everyone of us is being bombarded with it every day. The enormous amount of information intake leads us to its expulsion after making an opinion on the basis of provided material. The complex network of World Wide Web, in general, and blogging, in particular, enabled us to express our opinions through this unique medium. However, most of us do not really know that our opinions based on our observation and expertise can actually pay us!

There are thousands of blogs on the Internet and millions of people are indulged in blogging. People blog, on the basis of their opinion, knowledge or expertise about a particular subject regarding a particular industry. Similarly, there are hundreds of design blogs on the Internet, managed by designers and artists. Such blogs have tips, techniques, tutorials, how-tos and general informative articles which turn out really useful for a great number of readers. However, here we are looking at it the other way round, i.e. the many ways an owner of a designing blog can benefit from it well.

There are some easy techniques of filling up your pocket with money generated from your blog:

Sell the Unused Space

The most common and quickest process of earning money from your blog is to sell the unutilized space on your page. The question which must have come in your mind is how to sell it? Well it is not that difficult as it sounds. Google Adsense is the key to put the first dollar in your pocket without even moving an inch from your seat.

Google Adsense allows you to post its ad on your website. The ad will be consistent with the kind of content you upload on your site. However, earning comes when your reader clicks on the ‘Ads by Google’. The more the user clicks, more it generates money in your account, but there are some precautionary measures one needs to take before getting greedy.

Story of selling your free space does not end here as there are few more tricks of the trade are going to finance you. If your blog generates good traffic every month then you can sell ads for your blog site on your own. It will eliminate the middleman’s role and enables you to come up with your own pricing formula based on your readership or traffic. The above method is certainly a good way of earning money but it is a bit slow and takes month and even years to reap benefits.

Affiliate Your Blog

There is no harm to affiliate yourself with others especially when this relationship gives some money in return. Affiliate marketing is one of the few popular techniques to make your site earn money. In this kind of marketing your blog serves as bridge to let your readers route to other direct selling sites. The common examples of such direct selling sites are Amazon, ClickBank and Link Share etc.

This kind of advertising is usually called CPA (Cost Per Action). The affiliate in this kind of advertising sends potential buyers to direct selling merchants. Then if the potential buyer purchases something, the host web sends some profit to your blog as well.

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are not new in the Internet world. It allows the subscribers to receive the information for which they have attained the subscription. In order to do some online business you can have RSS feed ads. There are a lot of companies working in this area and can give you the ads on the basis of your CPM (Cost per Milli).

Sell your Services

On your blog site you have the opportunity to market your own services along with the general content. In the case of design blog you can make your reader or potential client aware of your abilities through your design. In this way your blog can act as your online business portfolio. You can also put your portfolio of previously done tasks which can be helpful in marketing your services.

Premium Price for Premium Quality

It is possible to charge your readers for your premium quality content. There are numerous websites which upload quality content and to let its reader read the complete article, they ask for a monthly subscription. This kind of monetization requires experienced and high quality content for which your reader feels like giving his money to you. The design blog can upload tutorials of different design software which can be sold once become popular.

Job Announcements

Finding a job through your blog can be a real treat for your readers. Job announcements are all time hit technique to increase your traffic as well as ensuring the reader to re-visit the site for more opportunities to look on.

You can contact to various job portals to post their jobs on your job announcement section by proving your worth through fancy statistical data of daily traffic. The task can be taken up to the next level by approaching for potential employers for specific industry keeping your traffic in mind to get more job advertisements.

You Tube-ing

You Tube is the biggest video data platform with videos from all around the globe. It is easy way to make your design blog look more fancy and furnished with variety of content. According to the nature of your blog you can upload videos embedded from You Tube. These videos can be interviews of famous designers or artists and also tutorials which will certainly give your blog stats a boost as people find videos more interesting than reading the content.

Reader’s Opinion

All the above mentioned methods will certainly give your website a good boost in traffic and some weight to your pocket. The increase in traffic can give you benefit in so many ways. One of its benefits is to let your readers respond to paid surveys. There are various paid surveys available which you can post on your blog and with every complete survey you will get paid. However, in order to have those paid surveys you need to have subscription of that paid survey site.

Reader’s Contribution

Putting a donation button on your site does not harm you but gives reader an opportunity to support your blog through their generous donation. This is very good and easy way of earning some money. The reader would like to support you if you are supporting a particular cause or you have been vocal about some social issue.

Sell Design Templates

Design websites can really take advantage from this technique by putting up various design templates or Word Press themes for sale. Here you can benefit from a huge number of new bloggers looking to buy some fancy templates for their websites.

E-Newsletter

It is new yet very useful technique to keep your reader updated and having one more opportunity to earn money from your online business. In your e-newsletter the chances of selling the space available on it can earn you good money with less effort.

Usually, you just need to make a newsletter, put some very useful content on it and let your potential client know about its quality. The ad you will get from this technique will be dependent on the number of readers or recipients of it, so make sure you have the good number of readers to present before your client.

Final Words

The aforementioned techniques are not only useful in making money but these will serve to increase your page rank as well as traffic. The key to get benefit from all these techniques are to bring some extraordinary content for your blog. The content which should be novel, have your target audience’s interest and most importantly gives reader an insight about a particular issue or concept.

Earning money from your site is not difficult as long as you play good with words and kick every opportunity at right time to score a goal.

Happy blogging!

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Inspirations – Unforeseen Creative Print Advertisements

Vidiya — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:49:48 +0000

In this world every new and famous brand need some way for publicize their products for more aware of his business and product quality so we are here with some Unforeseen Creative Print Advertisements. Advertisement, regardless online or offline, if they don’t catch your attention within seconds they are considered failed. These creative communication based advertisements creations have everything that takes an ad to be the successful one. The base, concept, idea, storyline and the design of these ads truly delivers the message and have the strength to create a buzz about their product/service.

I believe that in order to have a good marketing campaigned of any product or service humor is the route to take, people always remember something which brought a smile to their face, Such ads are true material for viral marketing, and thus attract lots of attention. Hope you all like really and will share your comments or experience.

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Cooking an Effective Print Advertisement

Arfa Mirza — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:06:35 +0000

Right from the beginning, print advertisements have been an important part of advertising. This is an ages old medium and still prevails in the ad world. Although with the introduction of online advertisement and electronic mediums, print ads have lost a chunk among the audience, however, there are millions who still rely on advertising through printed ads. Following is process and tips that will help the designers (and other people as well) cook an effective print advertisement and let your customers savor from it:

The Recipe

Know What You Are Selling…

To make anything, one should keep in mind its end usage or consumption in order to make it effective. Similarly, when designing a print ad, don’t forget its main objective, i.e. to sell. You have to give your target audience a clear path to take. Know either you selling a specific product of your client or the company as a whole. In both cases, you need to work out as what makes your commodity/service special and valuable to the potential buyers. Customers and consumers are quite aware of the ‘tricks of trade’. Telling your customer through your ad that you are “the best in town” does not work at all.

You need to have some stats, something quantifiable in order to catch the attention of your reader. “500 houses sold on the first day” is something impressive to be told by a real estate advertisement. Similarly the claims like “The most cars sold in the city” or “The most widely read newspaper in the country” are quantified and therefore can establish a true leadership position.

Also you need to judge as which element of the ad should be selling your client’s stuff. This element can be as small as placing the contact number in a prominent place in the press ad, or it can be more detailed and can include such elements a promotional item, special offers, or even a URL. This should be the most prominent part of your print advertisement design. Know before you start what your objective is, and end by critically examining your ad to make sure that it meets that goal.

There may be other tactical objectives to sell through your advertisement too. Most effective one is Leadership. Leadership can take two routes, one, it is a great selling point because people are comfortable with buying your product or service if everyone else buys it too. Secondly, leadership can be taken as “first ever product in the country” or a certain service “being offered for the first time”.

However, this discussion will be of no use if you would not know or you wouldn’t be focused on what should be the objective of your advertisement. Sit with your client and ask them about their attributes and which route they would want to take in order to tap the target audience. Also ask them as what do they want to reap from this ad, because their final objective may be very useful to you as a designer. So knowing the purpose of your ad is the very first thing to do before cooking a print advertisement.

…And Whom You Are Selling To

Like knowing what you want to sell in your ad is very important, you should also know as whom you want to sell your ad to. Not everything being sold is for every consumer. Your client’s product or service will not appeal to everyone and, ultimately, neither will your ads.

There is always a specific group of people, belonging to a specific age bracket, financial position, gender, class, religious group, nation or any other particular thing that differentiates them from others. This particular group of people is called your ‘target market’. In order to get the most success out of your ads, you must make them appeal to your target market or the people who are most likely to be affected by your advertisement.

So before making an advertisement for your client, do some research on what is your target market? You client can help you in this matter as the target market of your ad will the same people whom your client has been aiming to sell his stuff. Following are some common factors you can use to gauge your target market:

Basic demographics (age, sex, orientation, nation, income, interests, marital status, employment, and hobbies)

Behavioral patterns regarding shopping

What is the general reputation of your brand/product/service?

How do they behave?

What are their needs, desires, and fears?

The Curry of Concept

After sitting with your client on his requirement for this ad and after researching about the target audience you want to address, you need to formulate a concept for your advertisement. Always remember, whatever you create, it needs to have a concept behind it. Likewise, advertisement created without a concept end up grotesque!

The simple way of creating a concept is to look at your client’s competing companies and do something like they are doing. Produce something similar, but not same. On the other hand, the tough way to lay a concept is to look at your client’s competitors and produce something entirely different.

The basic concept is that if you will be just like everyone else, why would anyone pay attention to your ad? The objective is to set yourself apart. Also, remember in order to make something different, you should not lose your attention over the main objective of the ad and also the target audience.

Your concept has to make sense for the publication and the audience being targeted. You can take reference from some of the most successful advertising campaigns. So the catch is to think outside the box, but be smart about appealing to your particular target audience.

Copy Writing Ketchup

Copy writing is the most important part of any advertising material, after the design. Either it’s a brochure, flyer, post card or even a business card, copy never loses its impact over branding and brand imaging. Design and copy both go hand-in-hand in order to convey a certain message through the advertisement. However interestingly, copy writing is something everybody thinks they can do but in reality, they can’t. So for the designers, I would suggest them to hire a professional copy writer instead of scratching their brains off themselves.

However, no matter who writes the copy, there are some important points to consider.

Do not talk about how great your company or product is, emphasizing on what’s in it for the potential buyers.
Don’t quibble! Focus on the element you want to sell and avoid extra information. Once again, people don’t have time and interest to read all what you want to tell them.
Call-to-action is a ‘must’ for the copy of the advertisement. You have to persuade your potential consumers to buy your product /services by writing things like “call us” or “visit our website” or “visit your nearest branch now!”
Your copy should be clear, simple and elegant. Avoid buzzwords, rough language cliches and puns. However, using slang in ad copy is a cool approach. Also, take a personalized approach for the intended i.e. speak to one person, not the masses.

Gravy of Graphics

After getting done with copy writing, ponder upon the graphical elements of the ad. This graphical element can be a real picture, a computer graphic, an icon or any image. Layout can also be termed as a graphical element. Some ads may have only a single visual while others might have several pictures. Even text-only ads might have some graphics in the form of decorative bullets or borders.

Visual is one of the first things readers look at in the print advertisement, even the uneducated ones. So if you use a good visual in your ad, then you already communicate to twice as many people as you otherwise might. Another suggestion is to use photographs instead of illustrations whenever possible. People tend to relate to realistic photographs more easily than unrealistic ones.

Mix It All, Make It One

When you are done with all the thinking, writing and designing, mix all these things into your concept in a fine composition. A good composition of the ad is best done with white space the first thing you need to consider is white space. White space or free space can be of any color and at any part of the layout. Make sure your headline, imagery and copy all complement each other and flow well together.

The Ingredients

Consistency

Consistency and uniformity is vital when making a print advertisement. Choose a simple yet recognizable logo for your product or brand and include it in everything, and similarly place it in each ad. The basic theme, layout, visual and copy of the advertising campaign should be uniform in all communications.

Charisma

Within the capacity of your basic design layout, your design must have an eye-catching detail that will attract the viewers. The charisma of the ad lies in both the visual and the copy. Use words and images in ad that convey. While the focal point of your design must be eye-catching, make sure it retains clarity in its message.

Clarity

Advertisements are viewed by potential consumers for only a few seconds and only clarity can make them understand the message well. Increase your ad’s readability by arranging text and artistic elements in a clear composition. If your ad design is polluted with confusion, distraction or questionable manner, viewers will certainly attribute these negative characteristics to your product, company’s or message.

Call-to-Action

The advertisement you design should be a ‘persuader’, in other words it should immediately generate a call-to-action. Consider your print ad a success when you start having calls or email next day after its publication.

The point of your ad is to generate interest in your product or service. You are not trying to win awards, or conquer the ad world. Advertising can be visually stunning as well as effective, but don’t get so caught up in the details that you forget that the point is to sell.

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A Freelance Graphic Designer’s Burnout and Ways to Avoid It

Arfa Mirza — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:48:12 +0000

Writer’s block, exhaustion, anti-productivity, creative clog, fatigue and boredom all of these terms refer to one single mental condition of creative minds, called the ‘burnout’. Creative minds sometimes undergo dry spells, which affects their working ability in general and creativity in particular in a very negative manner. However, the trouble actually begins if they’re not aware of what’s happening to them and let the situation take them over.

A burnout can happen to anyone, whoever is involved in creative thinking process at any platform at any time of age. However, this post specifically addresses to the burnout that hits a freelance graphic designer’s mind. We will discuss this problem in detail in the following.

Viewing inspirational brochures and other graphic designs used in flyers can help provide a new perspective.

What Causes A Burnout

When looking into a certain issue, one should start off with its root cause. Burnout of a freelance graphic designer may have many causes. In many cases, burnout stems from the work itself i.e. being over-worked, work being undervalued or having a responsibility greater than one’s capacity. Other factors contribute to burnout of a graphic designer can range from your lifestyle to certain personality traits, like being unsatisfied from your work and even being socially hostile or not getting enough sleep. Whatever the reason of your burnout may be, it is important to avoid it in the first place in order to have a more fulfilling work life.

Burnout Indicators

Like sneezing is the most obvious symptom of Influenza, in case of creative burnout, stress is considered as the very first indicator. Burnout doesn’t happen without stress. Stress may come from too many meetings, work imbalance, social hostility, projects, responsibilities, unrealistic deadlines, improperly set expectations, distractions etc. In order to analyze if you are going under stressful condition or not note if you have the following feelings:

Every project turns out bad

Losing interest in your job or the work you’re doing

You feel unappreciated or do not feel like you’re making a difference in your job

Disconnect between your personal values and what is expected of you

Self-defined goals or those imposed on you are unrealistic or unreasonable

Significant amount of incomplete projects

Ways to Avoid A Burnout

As a freelance graphic designer, a burnout can strike you anytime. The main reason may be the free-wheeling involved in this kind of work pattern. However, like every other physical and psychological disorder, creative burnout, if left uncured, can lead you to a permanent inability to do creative tasks.

Although I am not a psychologist or something, but being able to successfully take over such kind of burnout once in my life, I am mentioning some tips that can help my freelance designer fellows to avoid the burnout situation in the first place and to maintain an efficient, rewarding and creative work process.

Set up Balanced Work Hours

As I have mentioned earlier, one of the most crucial causes of creative burnout for the freelancers is the imbalance in working schedule. In avoiding burnout, the first thing is to have some sort of a set schedule that involves only working a reasonable number of hours each week. Most freelancers do try to set a solid timetable for work, however, there are few amongst us, especially the newcomers do not care for the time they spend on their work. For such people working longer hours is a symbol of hard-work and dedication. However, this should not be the case. There are times when upcoming deadlines may force you to work longer hours, but that should be your routine. You can work flexible hours that change from one week to another, but the important part is that you set a schedule for yourself that will help you avoid working hectic long hours on a regular basis.

Say No to Sharp Deadlines

Deadlines are not bad in themselves, infact for freelancers, deadlines provide them a specific time-frame to finish their task and start working on another projects. However, what is bad is an unrealistic deadline and a limited time to finish your task in. While you cannot eliminate deadlines altogether, you should only accept deadlines that are reasonable and realistic. If a client wants to give you a project but with an unrealistic deadline, do not accept the job (even if you don’t have any). Instead, take the time to explain to them why it is not realistic and how it can hurt the quality of your work. Also suggest a reasonable time line that will allow you to get everything done without working around the clock.

Charge Equal to the Time Spent

Evaluate the rates that you are charging, once every 6 months, to make sure that you are not under-charging your services. Many freelancers charge less than they are worth or the time they spend on the project. If you set a value for your services lower than the time and hard work you put in your tasks, you will ultimately fall a prey to creative burnout and at some point in time your ability to think creatively will die off. If you are able to increase your rates and still retain the same interest level from clients, you can reduce the number of work hours and will automatically have enough time for other things too.

Accept Projects that Match Your Interest

This is a universal fact of the world of creativity that one can only give his best to his work if it is done with greater interest. So always try to consider the type of projects that match up with your own interests. Every designer has something that they are passionate about. So try to finding work that interests your passion and keeps you fallen in love with your project. Although it is quite inevitable that you come across different kinds of projects, some of which may not interest you very much, but you can at least try to find the job that you feel comfortable with. Your interest can be related to doing work for a particular type of organization, working within a specific industry, or specializing in a particular type of design or development.

Set Priorities

Setting priorities can be synonymous to getting organized. Prioritizing your daily work is really just as vital as setting working hours. To-do list is the best tool you can make use of to prioritize your daily tasks each day that shows you exactly what you need to be working on and what is most important. If you don’t set priorities to your daily, weekly or monthly tasks, you’ll end up in an emergency situation in order to meet a project deadline and a hurried situation absolutely kills creativity. So, make it a habit to knowing exactly what you should be working on and what you need to get accomplished.

Outsource Services of Other Designers

If you feel like you don’t have enough time for a certain project deadline, consider outsourcing the services of other freelancers. There are plenty of opportunities for designers to outsource. However, it needs to be done carefully since their work puts your reputation is at stakes. Outsourcing can help to speed up your development time and leave you with more time to do other things, or just less time for work.

Give Yourself a Break!

Last, but not the least, free time or vacation is very important to keep a freelance designer’s mind away from burnout situation. Time away from work is necessary in order to re-charge and refresh your capabilities. Freelancers often deprive themselves of adequate free time because they don’t want to miss out on potential work. One thing they should understand is to create a balance in work and taking vacations is important. A proper planning and preparation a vacation does not have to hurt your business.

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Marketing is Everything

Daniel Pintilie — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:21:08 +0000

Introduction
Tips to build a marketing strategy
Conclusion

Nowadays as the economical crisis still has a bad influence on many countries the possibilities of a freelancer to gain more and good projects are increasing. This statement is based on the latest studies regarding the market and the large opportunities of the online medium; the companies have the tendency to hire very good specialists, for high quality tasks, paid in high amounts of dollars only for projects and not as full time employees. This sounds as very good news for all freelancers.

As a reaction to this fact the entire strategy of a freelancer should be modified…it is very true, and maybe unfair but expensive and interesting projects are taken in most cases by good freelancers who have a very active strategy of marketing and not by the most qualified or talented ones who do not promote themselves.

Here, I want to propose some good tips that will probably increase your opportunities to be hired, but the most important is still your work and not the strategy of promo; following my rules will make you more attractive but not a better freelancer.

1. Use social media

Every freelancer is almost inexistent if he/she hasn’t a Twitter or Facebook account, to socialize in these world wide networks is a “must” even if some of us do not like them. One important reason of using these can be found with a simple search on Google…the average period of time spent on socialization websites is more than 5 hours per month …hope that the result is enough to convince you. It really doesn’t matter that you have few friends…all started with 0 friends and also your network of friends shouldn’t include only freelancers, designers or developers, anybody could need sometimes the services provided by you.

Another very good example is the great numbers of stars who have accounts on these websites and have a good communication with fans. Surely if they wouldn’t keep their accounts updated they wouldn’t have results, isn’t it?

2. Back to work…portfolio

Let’s suppose you have an intense activity regarding socialization, but to have a real effect over your chances of getting hired is in the same time necessary to show your skills. The best way of showing your skills is to create an impressive and super high quality portfolio; obvious it must contain your best works.

Very important: I am a logo designer but my portfolio is various: I posted my best logos, but I uploaded some websites layouts, nice retouches, some business cards and posters. Having a large palette of activities, the chances of getting hired are increasing.

Here are some good websites to post your portfolio.

1. http://www.behance.net/

2. http://www.deviantart.com/

3. http://logopond.com/ (only for logo designers)

3. What about a website?

This tip supposes that you are experienced and want to get well paid projects. A high quality website that presents you and your projects represents “the last frontier of freelancing”, I believe that it defines a complete freelancer. Much more, having a website allows you to keep in touch with a lot of potential customers, let them know your skills, preferences and prices.

4. Do not be shy to try

Probably one of the most important tips: try to offer your services to everyone who needs it, but do not avoid proposing yourself to potentials customers. The number of freelancers is great and nobody that is searching for the services of one of them can’t check all the portfolios, but if you express the demand of taking the project surely the chances of having the portfolio verified by the client are increasing.

Take my example, to post this article here I submit my offer to almost 100 websites which have the section “Write for us” and I am sure that I won’t ever be emailed by many of my customers that are content with my articles if I didn’t contacted them.

5. Ask everyone to judge your works

This tip is generally valuable: having multiple points of view over a specific drawing gives you more chances to notice the strong and weak points of it. It is a better solution to ask for these opinions people who are specialists in the field and take care of their advices. Personally, I used to put my logos on various websites and ask a lot of logo designers for their opinions…it was a big surprise…I have just uploaded the logo and instantly the comments came. It could be a problem: some of very qualified artists are rude with the small mistakes of the beginners. Pay attention to their observations, but if the comments are mean or unkind don’t let your hopes down. I really passed this situation; it was very difficult but somehow necessary. Anyway, by asking all people you are promoting yourself and a good work has many chances to be noticed by the clients.

6. Be patient and do not hurry

Maybe it seems to be a mother or grandmother advice, but I have passed the situation of being neglected by clients (I should take courses of modesty!) and really know how you are feeling. In my case all friends told me to give up my dreams of being a freelancer…the dream of having no chief! There were some moments when I believed that they were right, but fortunately they weren’t so. Keep in mind: a complete and effective strategy of marketing doesn’t mean that the result will come tomorrow or in the worst case the day after tomorrow…it could be a matter of months or years, and that means hard work and patience. Having multiple retweets or a website that is rarely updated doesn’t mean that you are promoting, it means that you are cheating yourself; a strategy is a long time plan that contains multiple actions.

Once again this tip can look as a very general one, but is definitely in your future activity, it is very important because it helps you to pass/overtake the very difficult situations.

Good luck and leave a comment with your opinion about my pieces of advices.

Gagandeep Singh is working for Go-gulf.com, a Dubai based web design company that provides web design solution in Kuwait, Bahrain, Sharjah and Middle East.

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Professional Logos Inspiration for Jobs and Recruiters Website

Vidiya — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:40:49 +0000

With these listed “Professional job and recruitment companies logos” you may get inspiration and make your site’s identity more attractive and valuable, particularly on your promo items and business stationery. these listed logo designs helping for graphic designers about modern inspiration for make their more professional, just have a look and if you think that this collection can be useful for your own or others so pass this link or socialize to your friends, your comments always helpful for us and we are always happy to hear from you.

jobangels

coworkers

hoot

Clearleaf

recruitingangel

recruitmentjuice

job-search-engine

beenverified

15talents

hrdaily

naukri

jobmarket

springraise

TALENTTRADER

retiredbrains

Human Resources Logo Design

indeed

Charter Staffing, LLC

jobfox

jobbound

knackbag

careereco

eggsprout

ADMIN Jobs in London

jobster

canadianjobforce

muslimjobs

i-job

personal-match

jobsite

hrworld

Poseidon Jobs

glassdoor

hcareers

careeronestop

jobsinpods

hrmetrics

redrocketresume

jobkabob

hrpeople.monster

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115+ Famous Resources for Promote your Design Articles/News

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:25:48 +0000

Everyone want more visitors on your website is a very multifaceted process with a lot of variations, there is many ways as examples: SEO, valuable content, link exchange and advertising on different resources. As per today need of most design and technology based bloggers who want to promote design or tech related news and want to get more traffic we presenting most active resources where you can submit your news, articles, design posts and technology news for get valuable visitors.

We just need your response on this valuable list which is verified and you may get help for more traffic, if there is another resource you should leave as comment.

Submit Design Dazzling | Registration Required

CreativeFan | Submit Design News

Tutorials Palace | Direct Submit

Design Dazzling | Direct Submit

faqpal | Registration Required

Psdtuts | Submit Link Page

NetTuts | Direct Submit

Vectortuts | Direct Submit

AeTuts | Direct Submit

cgtuts | Direct Submit

Activetuts | Direct Submit

WPArena | Direct Submit

Myinkblog | Direct Submit

Design Newz | Direct Submit

PsDeluxe | Direct Submit

10steps | Direct Submit

Fuelyourcreativity | Direct Submit

InstantShift | Direct Submit

Colorburned | Direct Submit

SmashingPost | Direct Submit

Designm.ag | Direct Submit

Devsnippets | Direct Submit

Tripwiremagazine | Direct Submit

Psdfan | Direct Submit

WebandDesigners | Direct Submit

Psdlearning | Direct Submit

HelpDeveloper | Direct Submit

Kailoon | Direct Submit

CssStyleme | Direct Submit

Crazyleafdesign | Direct Submit

Script&Style | Direct Submit

CssDrive | Direct Submit

Knowtebook | Direct Submit

Thecreativitywall | Direct Submit

CssLeak | Direct Submit

EliteByDesign | Direct Submit

DesignYourWay | Direct Submit

FBrushes | Direct Submit

Speckyboy | Direct Submit

Hongkiat | Direct Submit

thedesignmag | Direct Submit Middle Sidebar

Designshard | Direct Submit

Desizntech | Direct Submit

ChethStudios | Direct Submit

Webdevcodex | Direct Submit

Woork | Direct Submit

Dezinerfolio | Direct Submit

BrushKing | Direct Submit

Dzone | Registration Required

Designfloat | Registration Required

Propeller | Registration Required

Zabox | Registration Required

Joyoge | Registration Required

Stumbleupon | Registration Required

Reddit | Registration Required

Digg | Registration Required

Delicious | Registration Required

Graphic-design-links | Registration Required

Mixx | Registration Required

CssCreme | Registration Required

Designmoo | Registration Required

Deviantart | Registration Required

Abduzeedo | Registration Required

Pixelelement | Direct Submit

Designbump | Registration Required

BoogiesBC| Direct Submit

Tutorio | Direct Submit

tipd | Registration Required

scarletbits | Direct Submit

favshare | Direct Submit

pvmgarage | Registration Required

tweako | Registration Required

bloground | Direct Submit

design-newz | Direct Submit

webdesign-ne | Direct Submit

Top Roundups | Registration Required

servefault | Registration Required

The Web Blend | Registration Required

DesignrFix | Direct Submit

Mister-Wong | Registration Required

pswish | Direct Submit

inspiredn | Registration Required

QuandtNet | Direct Submit

tutsaz | Direct Submit

GraphicMania | Direct Submit

Design Jojo | Direct Submit

DeveloperFox | Direct Submit

visual-blast | Direct Submit

DesignsHards | Direct Submit

espreson | Direct Submit

pixelactic | Direct Submit

indeziner | Registration Required

2twitt | Direct Submit

Tutorial Out Post | Registration Required

folkd | Registration Required

favtutorials | Registration Required

cypherbox | Registration Required

buildinternet | Direct Submit

blogengage | Registration Required

arbent | Direct Submit

wpscoop | Submit Article

thetutorialist | Sidebar Submit

freelancereview | Submit News

tutorialking | Submit Tutorials

undrln | Submit News

psdvibe | Sidebar Submit News

whofreelance | News Submission

developersniche | Submit Articles

designbeep | Sidebar Submit News

designfollow | Submit Design News

artfans | Submit News

bloggerden | Submit News

cssreflex | Community News

bestdesigntuts | Sidebar Design News

animhut | Sidebar Design News

aceinfowayindia | Sidebar Design News

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45+ Corporate Design Examples from Famous Designers Gallery

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:15:17 +0000

Its not easy to find quality work of graphic designers, but one of our team membar find some famous graphic designers work as “45+ Corporate Design Examples from Famous Designers Gallery” there is really creative awesome print designs.

We have to choose some selective designs which belong to famous graphic designers gallery where many corporate identity campaigns, brand marketing campaigns, brand brochures and amazing art work in print designs.