Browse Email Marketing Campaigns on Emailium for Inspiration and Ideas
Emailium, an inspiration database for designers who create email marketing campaigns, opened their public beta today. The site is free to join for now, although it makes no mention of what the prices might be once the public beta is over.
The company describes itself as “A filterable, sortable, categorizable, global database of email campaigns for competitive research, design inspiration and industry analysis.” In other words, Emailium is to email marketing what cssmania.com is to web design. Read more
Design Creative Holiday Gifts for Your Clients
As a freelancer, you are in charge of everything—from invoicing and collections to fun stuff like giving yourself an annual bonus. So, when it comes to giving holiday gifts to your clients, the choice is entirely yours. On the one hand, most clients don’t expect to receive gifts from small vendors or independent contractors. On the other hand, unexpected extras are a great way to remind your clients why they love you.
Just one note of caution: Don’t fall into the trap of “promotional gifts.” Nobody wants to receive a gift that is an obvious gimmick. Steer clear of the cheap and cheesy. This means: No refrigerator magnets; No desk calendars with your logo on the front; and by all means, please, no plastic letter openers. These things aren’t gifts they’re marketing. I’m not saying that promotional gifts don’t have their place, we all love free schwag, but holiday gifts shouldn’t scream “Look at me!”
Instead, give your clients something that shows how creative you can be without looking like an advertisement—in other words, something they’ll appreciate that won’t wind up in the garbage the minute after they open it. Here are some unique gift ideas for clients to spark your imagination. Read more
Design is in the Details: Using CSS Selection Pseudo-Classes to Declare Your Team Spirit
I’m hesitant to admit it, but I’m not a huge football fan. My boyfriend, however, loves “his” team — the USC Trojans. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that football fans will use any excuse to dress up or decorate with their team colors. Actually, real fans don’t even need a reason to show team spirit.
So, in honor of football fans everywhere and to kick off the fall football season in America, I thought it would be fun to show how to use one of the new tools in CSS3 to decorate a web page with your team colors. Let’s play with the selection declaration.
There are many neat design tricks in CSS3. The selection declaration — ::selection — is a quick way to add some polish onto a design and give a website the “wow” factor that really makes clients happy. Using a .selection class can override the operating system’s default highlight color with any color you specify.
As with so many of the best html and css goodies, browser support varies. Safari and Firefox both recognize the selection declaration, but you’ll need to implement the code a bit differently for each browser. Here’s how to use CSS3′s new selection declaration to add a dash of unexpected color to your web design. Read more
How to Choose a Web Design Agency to Build Your eCommerce Site
These days, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can build a website. The question is, what kind of website will you get? Will your new website function well and be able to expand as your company grows? Your website is often the first impression that clients have of your business, so you need a professional web design agency—not some guy who pirated a copy of Dreamweaver with a stack of business cards using a VistaPrint template.
There are a few things which you need to check before signing a contract and handing over a deposit—especially if you are building an eCommerce site. Below are some of the key points to check before deciding which design agency to use. Read more
How to design websites that appeal across cultural divides
When you’re designing websites for a global audience, you need to be aware of cultural differences that will affect the way they are viewed in different parts of the world. You cannot expect the exact same website to be well-received around the globe. You need to adapt your websites to allow for cultural differences and make sure they are equally effective in whichever region you are targeting. Read more
Beginning Photoshop Tutorials: Start Here
Photoshop is one of the most versatile tools available for the graphic designer or artist. Many people don’t realize how truly powerful the program can be when it comes to altering and enhancing images, but the fact is that most commercial images have been touched by Photoshop at some point. When it comes to using the application, well, anyone who has ever opened the program knows that Photoshop’s versatility comes with a somewhat steep learning curve. Fortunately, Photoshop tutorials are available for those who would like to learn how to use the program but need a little bit of extra help.
Here are some of our favorite Photoshop tutorials suitable for beginners pulled from the TutorialBlog.org archives: Read more
Beyond the Blog: Get on the WordPress Bandwagon
WordPress, long known as one of the most popular blogging platforms, has turned into so much more. With the release of WordPress 3 “Thelonious”, the platform really steps into its own as a powerful content management system for writers, designers and everyone else to create or manage stunning, cutting-edge websites.
Most people prefer WordPress because it is not only is it easy to use, it’s totally free. You can host your WordPress blog on your own servers or use free hosting with WordPress.com. Either way, using WordPress to manage your website is easy—add pages, delete pages, schedule content, add functionality with plugins and connect to the WordPress community.
The first thing most WordPress users learn to do is change their theme. There are hundreds of free WordPress themes available to download as well as many premium WordPress themes with special features such as built-in SEO. Installing and customizing WordPress themes is your ticket to creating brilliant websites that are also user-friendly. Changes to WordPress in the last year make installing new themes easier than ever. For newbies, it’s a good idea to start with a WordPress tutorial on how to install a new WordPress theme or change an existing WordPress theme.
In fact, most users will get the most out of WordPress by using and learning from the many free WordPress tutorials available online. Finding useful WordPress tutorials on the web will show you to create stunning websites with this free platform, and even add unique features to make your website stand out. Read more
6 Tips to Secure Your Joomla Site
It has been a boom year for hackers and web hacking. Tom Canavan, Joomla web security expert, identifies an increase of greater than 600% in overall hacking this last year. Tom’s book “Joomla! Web Security”, a Packt publication, expands on the threats of web security.
Hacker issues bothered a couple of our clients this year and if it didn’t do anything else for us, it sure kept us all on our toes. Hacking comes as more of an embarrassment than a true threat, however the results are damaging to intellectual property, brand identity and most of customer confidence. Hacking is a common occurrence on all public web platforms and CMS systems, however we continue to win the battle and have the ability to leverage one of the largest global networks of expert Joomla developers and programmers and are proud to say that the Joomla community is one of the fastest to respond.
It continues to be a battle to keep the bad guys out so we’ve gathered some tips and links to help you keep your Joomla website secure and safe. Read more
How to Create a Hover Effect Using CSS
Hover effects, rollovers, super-fancy link styles — regardless of what you call them — are a great way to get extra bang for your buck when putting together a website.
Today we’ll be learning how to add a unique and creative feature to your website’s links using CSS. Using CSS Pseudo Classes, we can alter every aspect of a link when a visitor “hovers” over it, or puts their cursor over the link. Read more
Getting Work Done for Free: Best Microsoft Office Alternatives
Microsoft’s Office suite has long been the king of productivity software. And with good reason—it is the most full-featured office suite available. Not only is MS Office deployed extensively throughout enterprises, but many consumers rely on it for their day-to-day word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation needs, too.
But Microsoft Office isn’t cheap. Office Home and Student 2007 sells for $149.95 at the Microsoft Store (the 2008 Mac version is the same price). There are some discounts available for University students, but unless you’re in college you might be stuck paying the full price—which is why many folks are starting to look for alternatives.
Fortunately there are several quality, free Microsoft Office alternatives that are completely compatible with the famous word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation software. Each alternative product has its own strengths and weaknesses depending on how you prefer to get your work done.
If you’re looking for a free Microsoft Office download, good luck. However, we do have the next best thing. Here are our top choices for free Microsoft office alternatives: Read more
