Ahad Bokhari » » niche

The Economic Practice Of Web Design — Free Document Included

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:47:14 +0000

I very much liked what IA on Twitter said about The Practice of Web Design:

In my eyes, web design is neither an artistic exercise nor a scientific discipline but an economic practice…

He has a great point here as and this is a team who really excels in the niche that they belong to – WEB DESIGN. Taking inspiration from this singular quote i’ve listed some items that might help you start developing your design work into a full time business – so you can earn the money you worked so hard for.

A little background here before you read onwards: I started out as a freelancer taking on all sorts of projects – it took me about 3 years to understand the game and build my client base, and i registered my company in early 2009 – www.fluidnewmedia.com. From small Flash Micro Sites, to the Joomlas and WP’s of the world we can now build our own applications from ground-up for our clients. I couldn’t have gotten this far without concentrating on the following points:

Don’t Give Up Your Freelance Work: With the state of the current economy going freelance is your best bet, people these days are turning to independent freelancers for quality projects and you can charge a good amount of money – this depends on your client and the scope of the project. For now stick to it until you position yourself as a company. Take into consideration your day job as well and how many hours you can set aside for your freelance work.
Keep Your Eyes On The Money: We all have the tendency to over involve ourselves in design work – Point is to find a happy medium with your quality of work and amount you charge your clients. Don’t let yourself get carried away with the details – concentrate on charging your client for the quality of work you bring to the table.
Start Thinking From A Business Perspective: Not everyone is a business man/woman by heart but this is an area to concentrate on now. It’s more important than design itself, chalk out a plan, meet with people – start mareketing your services and products to a targeted market; look for your niche in the market and supply the demand. You can do this I know, so start now!
Learn How To Outsource Work and Keep Your Margins: Interestingly enough most passionate web designers don’t like to outsource to Third Party’s – they get too emotional with their own work. While i can understand this, my advice is for projects that require alot of work (coding, design, database) try and find a team or another individual that can cover the areas you can’t. This way you can manage the project, do what you best within the scope of the project and still have room for other work on the side. This is the first step to thinking like a business person – You might not like it (I didn’t) but you’ll reap the benefits monetarily in the long run.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: This is an extremely important point. If there is a system out there that you can use, use it – there is no sense in designing and coding up your own. Especially when open source developers from all over the world have worked hard at one platform – use it to your benefit.
Concentrate on Re-Occuring Income: There are two ways of looking at this. One is a income generated on a monthly basis from maintenance fees, or finding a good client who can give you a certain amount of work every month. The point here is to have income in your pocket from your design business every month.
Learn How To Say No: Saying “No” is tough at times but extremely necessary in the design business. If you always say yes to your clients then they will expect that each and every time they ask you to do something – then if you say no after agreeing with them time and time over you’ll look like a hard-ass. You don’t want that to happen..
Learn How To Tone Down Your Ego: Even if you are a top notch designer try to be humble with clients. Ask them what they want first, then give advice where appropriate.
Always Charge 30% More Than What The Project Is Worth: Simple equation here. Most people like to bargain with the price and will bring you down off what you quoted initially.
Provide Bullet Proof Documentation: Show your clients where their money is going, list out the features and activities of the web design and development practice.

Try sticking to these steps for a couple of months. You can only try, and it doesn’t matter if you fail (if you haven’t failed then you won’t be a leader; I’ve failed time and time again till i got it right). Get up and try again till you get it down to a science.

By applying these steps i really feel you can bump yourself up to another level. End of the day we are all passionate about our work, but it all boils down to the dollars at the end of the day – no matter how skilled or awesome we are at our job. You could be the best designer in the world, but if you have no clients you’ll be there twiddling your thumbs asking yourself what went wrong. Know what i mean??

As a bonus feel free to download THIS SAMPLE DOCUMENT to get an idea of the structure for a project over $3,000. Keep in mind this is a rough draft of the final doc, but its a good start. Feel free to use it any way you like..

If you feel you can add to this list feel free to do so, would love to hear your opinions. What do you think will help your business grow besides whats already stated?

Empowering Content: 15 Eye-Grabbing Niche Bloggers

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:14:50 +0000

Over the past couple of months I’ve enjoyed reading powerful content from a feed of 100 niche bloggers around the web. What I really like about this particular group below is that the way they attract and align their internet users’ behavior with the content they present.

Whether these great content creators are helping people get something done or reflecting on past and personal experiences, there’s certainly something for everyone in the following excerpts. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Get to know these Content Masters: Posts included.

Henrik Edberg author of The Positivity Blog writes about improving your social life, health, happiness and general awesomeness a few times a week. He writes a great deal about positivity and wisdom, and his posts are inspirational to say the least. One of my personal favorites from Sweden, Henrik will grab your attention in seconds.

Robert Scoble is an early adopter of social media and blogging demon. His blog and insight into the tech world and beyond has proven to be a vital source of information I scurry to read on a daily basis. Look out for this titan amongst bloggers, ever popular blowhard on the web and Chief mischief maker over at Rackspace!

At On Simplicity, Sara offers a range of posts. Some are how-to pieces, some are sharing helpful ideas or insights, and others are simply meant to be inspirational. You can find ideas designed to help you grow as well as posts that are all about celebrating life’s imperfections. On Simplicity is about enjoying the journey while keeping an eye on the destination.

Dragos Roua’s blog is just a continuous story about all the crossroads he wants to overcome, to solve, to discover, to find, to explain, to understand, to build, to create, to share or to complete, in order for my travel to be as fulfilling as possible. A great read for any one looking to get motivated quickly.

Steve Rubel is charged with helping clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs. He also explores these topics on his lifestream site and in his bi-weekly AdAge column. He is famous for blogging on the Posterous platform and his prolific content is always well worth the read.

>Jennifer Slegg began as a freelance writer, and then turned to writing content for the web ten years ago. She is definitely a writer at heart! She has created numerous content-rich and community based sites in niche markets since initially venturing onto her first website, and as a result, Jen is well versed in the many ways to monetize content online.

Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the Internet, attracting more than two million monthly readers to his website, StevePavlina.com. He has written more than 900 articles and recorded many audio programs on a broad range of self-help topics, including productivity, relationships, and spirituality.

Derek Sivers is a musician, blogger and entrepreneur. He is ”I’m ridiculously positive and optimistic,” and always up for the challenges that this life has to offer. His blog, www.sivers.org is a constant explosion of new concepts, free advice and encouragement on many levels.

Maki is one of first people i met on twitter. His professional interests lie in online marketing, social media, blogging and anything which results in copious amounts of money. Dosh Doshis a blog offering internet marketing and blogging tips, alongside social media strategies.

Jeremy Dean is currently a researcher at University College London, and his website is all about you and me. It’s about understanding how our minds work and why we think and act the way we do. His site has one crucial difference with much of that material: PsyBlog focuses on scientific psychology.

Lauren and Emira started their website as a living guide to business, our way. You can expect to find their thoughts and ruminations on business, updates on our book-writing and -publishing adventures, profiles of women-run businesses, resources for women entrepreneurs, and more than likely ideas on a few other assorted topics.

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. He is a power-tweeter and co founder of AllTop and has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA.

“Marc and Angel Hack Life” enjoys sharing practical thoughts on a broad range of topics pertaining to life, hacks, productivity, aspirations, health, work, tech and general self improvement. We promise you will not find a regurgitation of someone else’s point of view on our site.

Skelliewag is a blog about planning, creating and growing the online projects you’re obsessed with. If you have big ideas that keep you awake at night (in a good way), this is written for you. Skellie is a blogger, writer, occasional entrepreneur, sometime freelancer and Envato worker-bee. Most of all she likes to build things on the web.

In essence, Nik Karil’s blog is about being independent, simplifying life, creating your own version of happiness, avoiding unnecessary drama, increasing productivity and finding genuine love and peace in this era of reduced polarization of society. New articles are available consistently on his blog.