Tutorial Blog » Michael Alexander

Deciding to Become a Freelancer is Easy, the Hard Part Comes the Day After

Michael Alexander — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:00:05 +0000

Becoming a freelance designer or writer is so easy my elderly father’s girlfriend, who also is 80-ish and who doesn’t have a clue what freelancers do, could set up shop within 24 hours, including the time it would take to hang a shingle outside the door of her condo and get her business cards printed.

The fact is, anyone can become a freelancer. The trick is making a living doing it. If you’ve been successfully working as a freelancer for any length of time, you know what I mean. You spend more time hunting for work and dealing with clients (few of them are appreciative sweethearts) than actually putting a stylus to a tablet, a mouse to a screen or your fingers on a keyboard.

Freelance designer and author Jeremy Tuber has written two e-Books: Being a Starving Artist Sucks and Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers. Both a similar (they overlap in many sections). While the emphasis is on making a go of being a freelance graphic designer, much of these two e-books apply to most kinds of freelance work. They’re not just for designers, in other words. (...)
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Plug into Smartphones and Use Google Analytics to Track Your Traffic

Michael Alexander — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:06:21 +0000

The growing popularity of smartphones, and of mobile computing in general, is already starting to change the way visitors interact with your site. It’s not too soon to start laying out the blueprint for a version of your site designed expressly for pocket-sized screens.

Times may be tough, but the smartphone market isn’t hurting because of it. According to market researcher, NPD Group, 23 percent of cellphones sold in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2008 were smartphones. That’s up from 12 percent of sales in the fourth quarter of 2007. And, for the first time, last year, sales of smartphones exceeded those of laptops, even as netbooks exploded on the market like fragmentation grenades.

Web browsing on the iPhone, which undoubtedly offers the best mobile experience at the moment, is still a pain. Viewing Web pages over anything but Wi-Fi is molasses slow; it’s damn hard to see what you’re looking at; and scrolling makes my finger ache. It’s 1994 all over again.

There’s only so much smartphone makers can do with the platform. The rest of the heavy lifting will have to come from Web site makers.

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Use Infographics to Help Readers Visualize Data

Michael Alexander — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:44:09 +0000

I‘m a fan of GOOD, a site that is “a collaboration of individuals, businesses and nonprofits…who have been making a magazine, videos and events for people who give a damn.”

One of the things I like about the site is its use of infographics to explain complex ideas. If you’ve ever looked at an issue of USA Today, you’ll know what infographics are about.

Back in December, GOOD decided to sponsor a contest for the best global finance infographic as determined by an economist. Judging is underway. GOOD will announce the winner, who gets $500, on March 11. In the meantime, GOOD has been showcasing some of its favorite entries.

Here’s part one of a two-part infographic I like (click on the image to enlarge it):

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WordPress Plugins Everyone Should Try at Least Once

Michael Alexander — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:34:58 +0000

Is there anyone who has tried WordPress and not liked it? I’m fond of WordPress because it’s relatively easy to use and highly customizable with themes and plugins. There are something like 4,200 plugins in the wild! I figured I’d give you a list of plugins I like to use. First things first, make sure you’re running WP 2.7 (the latest version).

TinyMCE Advanced–This plugin enhances WP’s editor in several ways: switch to full screen mode, insert media, search and replace, support for tables and at least 10 other goodies (some with their own options). This used to be one of my most valuable plugins. When I switched browsers to Firefox a few years back, I started using Scribefire to write and upload copy to the blogs I work on. If you’re not a Firefox fan, you’ll want this.

cForms–If you need to create a contact form, I can’t think of a more flexible or easier-to-use plugin. cForms has a wizard to help you create your forms and supports AJAX for drag and drop, widgets, integration with TinyMCE and on and on.

Google XML Sitemaps–This plugin makes it easier for Google and other search engine bots to crawl your site. Think of it as a road map for spiders. Just let it rip and it will create a compliant sitemap. You don’t need to configure code or figure out much of anything else. You need this.

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Tools for Monitoring a Website’s Popularity

Michael Alexander — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:00:22 +0000

Six Revisions, a blog for Web designers and developers, has a good piece called “15 Tools for Monitoring a Website’s Popularity.” Web metrics give you insight into how many people visit your site each day, where they came from, what they were looking for, whether you succeeded in achieving your goal — a purchase, download, registration or other objective. There’s a lot more to it than that, which is why I’m pointing you to the post.

Jacob Gube, who writes Six Revisions, lists the obvious Web metrics tools such as(...)
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If You Use WordPress, Put a Premium on Your Themes

Michael Alexander — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:52:04 +0000

When I launched my first blog about 3 years ago, I used a free WordPress theme called “Cutline,” designed by Chris Pearson. At the time, it was among the most-downloaded free themes available for WordPress. It’s a terrific-looking theme and it was designed with the reader in mind.

Cutline uses plenty of white space, which makes pages more accessible; it’s easily customizable; the typography is just right for reading online; and it puts usability and clarity ahead of frou-frous. Free, premium themes like Cutline are rare.

That’s not to say there aren’t any free premium themes worth considering either. There’s a whole bunch of sophisticated, well-designed themes out there. However, you won’t get much in the way of support, a forum where you can exchange ideas, and frequent updates that add new levels of customization. (...)
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Eye-Tracking Measures the Sight Unseen

Michael Alexander — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:39:42 +0000

I read on Google’s Offical Blog about an eye-tracking study the company recently conducted and that got me thinking about eye-tracking in general and about how to use that information to create more effective Web pages and enhanced usability.

First, let me tell you a bit about eye-tracking, how it’s performed, and how it’s used to analyze a Web page’s usability. I’ll get back to why Google’s results are so interesting after that.
When I first read about eye-tracking (maybe 15 years ago) I was surprised to learn that our eyes move so fast–about 30 milliseconds–that we don’t actually see anything when they move. It’s when our eyes fixate that we’re able to process visual data.

Eye-tracking technology looks at when our eyes move, when they fixate and what they fixate on. Researchers mount a sensor, identical to the CCD (charge coupled device) used in a video camera, on top of a computer display and aim an infrared light beam at the test subject’s eyes. The CCD captures the infrared’s light as it reflects off of the viewer’s eyes, using these reflections to detect motion, fixation, distance between the subject’s eyes and the screen, pupil diameter and other data. The areas where the subject gazes the longest are interpreted as hot spots, like those you see on a heat map.

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Why You Should Focus on Widgets, Gadgets and Social Nets in Tough Times

Michael Alexander — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:10:43 +0000

In these tough economic times, the smartest companies are using everything–including sticks and rocks–to get the attention of prospects and customers. The most potent weapons in their marketing arsenals include Web 2.0 tools and services, social networking, mobile apps, desktop widgets and gadgets, based on a recent Forrester Research study. Their main objectives are to improve customer service (73 percent) and acquire new customers (71 percent).

Help your boss or client tighten their relationships with existing customers and to acquire new customers is a sure way to prove your worth and to protect your own job from extinction!

Sales of smartphone applications also are going gang busters. For example, Apple reported the other day that the number of iPhone and iPod touch apps sold by the App Store went from 10 million in July to 500 million in December. Most of the apps are free or $0.99. They cover everything from restaurant reservation systems to financial apps that put access to all a user’s accounts under a single interface.

“This is a clear indication that companies facing the current economic conditions are investing in engaging customers wherever they are already spending their time online,” says David Lavenda, VP marketing and product strategy at WorkLight, a developer that designs software to help businesses reach customers using Apple iPhone app, desktop widgets, iGoogle, Windows Live, RSS readers, Facebook and more.

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Web Monitors Uncover Top 100 Blogs and Platforms

Michael Alexander — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:31:40 +0000

Pingdom, a service that monitors Web sites and servers on the Internet, looked at the top 100 blogs on Technorati to find out which blogging platform is used most often. Pingdom distinguishes between blogs that are self-hosted and blogging-service hosted.

The top two self-hosted platforms are WordPress (27 percent) and Moveable Type (12 percent). The top two platforms that sit on a service are Typepad (16 percent) and Blogsmith (14 percent). When hosted and self-hosted are combined, the top two blogging platforms are WordPress (32 percent and Typepad (28 percent).

Pingdom compiled the following list of the top 100 blogs, starting with the largest first:

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Roundup: Even More Sites Where You can Find Images Free and Clear

Michael Alexander — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:53:28 +0000

I wrote about using Flickr a while ago as a good source of images that you can use free and with few or no copyright limitations.

Lately, I’ve been organizing my database of places to find free and unrestricted images. Keep in mind that “free” often requires your giving the source credit and a link back to the image provider’s site.

No, this list does not include every site in the universe. If you have some favorites, please add them as a comment and I’ll add them to the next list. Thanks.

Here’s what I’ve come up with recently:

Springfield Township High School Virtual Library–It seems odd, I know, but you can find a long list of sites where you can find free images and videos. Many of them have a historical aspect. I’ll probably wind up mentioning some of the same ones on this list, so apologies in advance for any overlap.

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