Filed under News | June 5, 2009 | No Comments »
I have become part of the Twitter revolution.
I have always been reluctant to use Twitter. I am not sure of the exact reason why, I think it is mainly due to the combination of the beliefs that it would be a time waster and having a lack of time to be wasted.
I always had the understanding that Twitter was merely a short messaging service for teenagers or celebrities (or teenage celebrities for that matter). I could never understand how it could be of real use to anyone over and above normal SMS texting or a blog.
Increasingly, as I read the many posts on the many blogs that I have in my RSS feed (mostly web-design related), I started to notice that the vast majority of these web designers, web developers and small business bloggers were asking to be followed on Twitter.
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Filed under Inspiration, Small Business | May 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Recently there have been a number of “showcase/inspiration articles” relating to business cards. I thought I would take this a step further and provide a list of resources that will help you design, create and print your own high quality business cards. I have separated these articles into sections, however some do crossover into more than one.
The Design Process
The aim of a business card is simple. It must convey who you are and what you do. But, you must also ensure that your business card stands out from the rest. These links provide information around the process you should undertake when designing your business cards.
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Filed under Small Business, Web Design | May 24, 2009 | 6 Comments »
If you have read my previous article, I mentioned that I was working on bringing you a list of essential WordPress plugins for a small business website. Well, here it is.
I have a preference for using WordPress to power a website. Not only is it a powerful blogging platform, but its ever-growing list of plugins can mould its usage into just about any purpose. It is the combination of this blogging capability and plugins that make WordPress the perfect solution for a small business website.
This article is not about a blogging site. There are a plethora of posts on the web that provide an endless list of plugins that could be useful for your WordPress blog, depending on what you are trying to achieve.
This article is about a small business website. It may or may not have a blog. It may or may not have a recent news section. I certainly recommend that any small business that has a website implement a blog. This may well be the subject for a future article but, suffice to say, the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) benefits are huge, providing that you regularly update your site with quality content. Let’s face it, this should be relatively easy if you are passionate about your business. read more…
Filed under Small Business | May 12, 2009 | No Comments »

I haven’t had enough spare time to write the next article that I had planned - Essential WordPress Plugins for a Small Business Website - but in the meantime I thought I would share with you a couple of articles that took my interest recently.
The first article relates in way to my last post Separation Anxiety. Whereas my article posed questions about the way a designer must take into consideration the client’s views and separate your own biases, Aaron Fruit’s article on 5 Mistakes Business Owners Make, When Considering a New Website looks at the other side of the equation.
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Filed under Web Design | April 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I was originally interested in graphic design at school (without giving too much away, over a decade ago!), but never really pursued it as a career. I have never received any formal training but always enjoyed using graphics programs (such as Photoshop), teaching myself via the many tutorials found online and in books.
More recently, I have jumped into the world of web design, and I would like to share the biggest lesson I have learned (so far). Before I go further, I would like to clarify that I am speaking from my experience only, and that my experience is as a newcomer to the web design industry, and dealing with clients at the smaller end.
You see, in all my years of dabbling and creating, it was always for me. I created certain elements because I wanted to, images that inspired me, and designs based on my emotions at the time.
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