Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! Running a design business, either as a freelancer or a small agency, is a big challenge. Getting the most efficiency out of your time is essential, but it's also very difficult for those who wear many different hats, like freelancers. One of the most common ways of dealing with this challenge for efficiency is to outsource work to others. It could be anything from design work, front-end development, back-end developme..
Vandelay Website Design (3 days ago)
15 Amazing Twitter Tools for Increased Productivity
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! Twitter provides designers (and other service providers) with the ability to communicate and network in a way that can be really productive for business. However, spending too much time or not having a specific purpose with social media can become a major drain on your time. There are plenty of tools and resources available that can help you to get more out of Twitter in less time. In this post we'll profile 15 of tho..
Vandelay Website Design (4 days ago)
Design Inspiration: Blog Design Showcase
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! Creating a quality blog design can be a significant challenge, because the design should add to the usability of the blog and should not overpower the content. Browsing through examples of beautiful blog designs can provide inspiration that can be put to good use in your own design work. In this post we're showcasing 25 outstanding blog designs from various designers for your inspiration. Cookiesound Art of Attention ..
Vandelay Website Design (5 days ago)
20 of the Best jQuery Slideshow Plugins
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! jQuery sliders , slideshows, and galleries are extremely common on a variety of different types of websites. Portfolio sites, blogs, e-commerce sites, and about any type of site can make use of a jQuery slideshow. Fortunately, there are a number of great plugins already coded that make it easy to add a slideshow in a matter of minutes. Each one offers different features and has it's own style. In this post we'll showc..
Vandelay Website Design (6 days ago)
How to Create a Set of Highlighter Brushes for Illustrator
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! A few months ago at Vandelay Premier we recently released a set of highlighter brushes for Adobe Illustrator,and in this tutorial we'll show how you can accomplish the same thing on your own. We'll scan some lines made by a highlighter and that will give us a nice brush for using whenever highlighter or marker effects are needed. What you will need to complete this tutorial: Highlighter Paper Scanner Adobe Illustrator..
Vandelay Website Design (10 days ago)
Ultimate Roundup of Photoshop Custom Shapes
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! Photoshop presets like brushes and patterns get more attention, but custom shapes can be equally useful. Because custom shapes are vectors, they can be scaled to larger sizes with no decrease in quality. In this post we'll link to some of the best custom shapes sets that can be downloaded for free. As always when working with freebies, be sure to read the terms of use or license details to make sure that you are using..
Vandelay Website Design (11 days ago)
Showcase of Outstanding Portfolio Websites
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! Portfolio websites are a major marketing tool for most designers and design agencies. The portfolio site allows you to showcase your work, provide information about your services, and receive inquiries from those who are interested in your services. Portfolio sites are often examples of quality design work, as every designer wants to make a positive impression through the design and usability of the portfolio site. In..
Vandelay Website Design (12 days ago)
25 Amazing Nightscape Photographs
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! The same scene captured in a photo at night will have a completely different feel than one taken during the day. Night photos can be intriguing and amazing, but the low levels of light make them a challenge to master. In this post we'll showcase 25 examples of beautiful nightscape photos taken by various photographers. To see any of them in a larger size simply click on the image to be directed to the source. You may ..
Vandelay Website Design (13 days ago)
7 Keys to Effective Blog Re-Designs
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! Many blogs get re-designed every couple of years, if not more frequently. Re-designing a blog brings a number of challenges because more content is being added to the site all the time, new types of content may have been introduced since the last design, and the priorities and goals of blogs often change or evolve over time. This means that when re-designing a blog you'll need to take some time before jumping into the..
Vandelay Website Design (17 days ago)
13 of the Best Hosted CMSs
Get a free icon and vector bundle (worth $54) just for subscribing to our weekly newsletter! Open-source content management systems like WordPress and Drupal get a lot of attention on design blogs, but they are not the only options when it comes to choosing a CMS. There are a number of hosted CMSs available that are popular with designers and their clients. While the features vary form one hosted CMS to another, several of the primary benefits are common to all or most of them. Things like having the hosting ..
Vandelay Website Design (18 days ago)
Software used in Learning Web Design and Building Websites
Hello Everyone!! Once in a while I use an email conversation as a blog post – I get good questions from people all the time. So, in this email, someone wanted to know about software used in building web sites – check it out: … This is the 60 thousand dollar question that no one I ask seems to be able to answer. What programs do you need to be a functioning professional web designer? (Adobe, Dreamweaver,etc.) And do you know price ranges? I want to have the programs before I get the program s..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (30 days ago)
Youtube Upgrades HTML 5 video player as it moves to replace Flash.
It seems that Google and Youtube are moving quickly to replace the Flash video player; they just released a new HTML 5 video player for Youtube that does a bunch of things: enable annotations and captions copy embed code and URL native full-screen support for Firefox and Chrome 480p and 1080p options Read more: Youtube Upgrades HTML 5 Player. I know the Flash people are going to be pissed at me (again!) for suggestion the obvious: Flash is quickly moving into obsolescence. From PC Mag: Adobe confirmed Monday ..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (74 days ago)
Building a CMS from Scratch
Every so often people ask about building a CMS (content management system) and so, I decided to included a snippet from an email I recently sent. One point I want to make clear; you can build a CMS using any server side programming language (PHP, Ruby, Java etc …) I just recommend PHP because I think that for most people out there, PHP makes sense. From the email: Before you can Build a CMS, you need to understand PHP basics … I would recommend either you get some of the basic PHP courses or you g..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (75 days ago)
Best Computer for Web Design?
I get this all the time: Stef, You're a nerd and professional web designer, what computer would you recommend for someone wanting to get into the web design or web programming business? My answer: Being a professional nerd presents many challenges, and one of them shouldn't be fighting with your computer, viruses or installing hardware! You also need something very fast and what most people don't know, a huge part of a computers speed is not found in the processor (everyone just thinks processor!!) … no..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (79 days ago)
Android Crushing iOS
Hey Nerds! This just out: Android Market Share Doubles, iOS Drops In Q3 Android's share of the worldwide smartphone market was 52.3% for Q3, double what it was a year ago, according to fresh data from Gartner. Apple's iOS dropped on a year over year basis to 15% market share for Q3. The culprit for Apple's drop? The iPhone 4, of course. People were waiting for the iPhone 5, or as it turned out, the iPhone 4S. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/android-market-share-2011-11#ixzz1dmzpfS6Y I'm no Android f..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (82 days ago)
Adobe Officially Kills Flash
Well, it seems that the combination of Steve Jobs + HTML 5 = Flash is Dead. … No, the above is not a great sentence but it does clearly proclaim the death-sentence handed down to Flash – a soon to be forgotten technology in the ever growing bin of dead and dying technologies: Cobol Macromedia Director Java Applets … And many, many more. Adobe Officially Kills Flash Adobe Systems Inc halted development of its Flash Player for mobile browsers, surrendering to Apple Inc in a war over Web standa..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (86 days ago)
Top 3 Reasons why Google+ is Better than Facebook
It has been a while since my last post … just busy with things. Ok, let's get to it. What are the top 3 reasons why Google+ is better than Facebook? Here you go: Privacy Privacy Privacy Facebook is pretty much in the game of selling all your information to anyone. They (in my opinion) are doing whatever they can to mine your personal data and more importantly, I think they are purposefully trying to make as hard as possible for you to have any privacy. Just look at their privacy system, it is set up in ..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (86 days ago)
How to Find Free Pictures for Your Blog
This is a guest post by Mandy Barrington. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here. Adding visual interest in the form of images is a widely-used method for attracting readers to blog articles. If you're holding back from spicing up your blog for fear of cost or (gasp) copyright infringement, here's some advice to get you informed and comfortable with posting images: Get to Know the Terminology Unless explicitly noted, any image you find on the internet could be copyrighted, which..
Daily Blog Tips (116 days ago)
Steve Jobs has Died
Statement from Apple: We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts. As a nerd entrepreneur and a recent Mac user (just the last few years) I have to say we lost one of the tr..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (122 days ago)
How To Start A Blog For Free
This is a guest post by James Ingles. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here. Learning to blog is fun and easy, and it doesn't even have to cost a cent. In this post I'm going to show you how to start a blog for free (maybe you don't need this info, but I am sure you know someone who does). One of the great things about blogging is that anyone can do it and the barrier to entry is nill, nought, zip, zilch assuming that you have or have access to a computer with an internet conne..
Daily Blog Tips (158 days ago)
Learning Web Design with Projects
What is the best way to learn web design? Well, I've learned over the years that the best way to learn anything is to just do it. I would say that the theory-to-practical mix, should be say 20% theory and 80% practical. Yep, academic shills (regardless of profession) are not only useless, they're down right dangerous!! To avoid becoming an evil useless shill, you need to step it up and actually build websites, write code, make mistakes and learn from it. We build our courses with that in mind. If you check ou..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (180 days ago)
Web Design Help … in the Forums
Hi, I know you're busy, so I will get to the point: if you are having problems building your website or, you are thinking of building a website for say, your small business, then a great place to go is the online forums . Besides being a place frequented by web nerds of all skill levels, the forums are also a treasure trove of information on web design and web programming. We have forums on subjects like: HTML and CSS PHP and Javascript Dreamweaver and Photoshop Best of all, our video tutorial authors frequen..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (187 days ago)
Google's Page Speed Service Wanna Make The Web Faster
How would you like to have Google grab all your site files, host them on a Google server, optimize the loading time with several tweaks, and then allow your visitors to visit your site directly on Google's servers all around the world? I sure wouldn't mind (except maybe for the aspect of losing control). The good news is that soon this will be possible, as Google just announced a new service called Page Speed Service . According to the announcement post: Page Speed Service is an online service that automatica..
Daily Blog Tips (192 days ago)
3 Elements of Your Blog Design That Need Simplifying
This is a guest post by John. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here. WordPress is one of the most versatile blogging platforms out there with tons of options to not only customize the look and feel of the experience but also the interactions that your users have with your content. That's why it's one of the most widely used platforms as well! But a constant challenge that you have is “bloating” your WordPress blog with too many features because the options are near ..
Daily Blog Tips (205 days ago)
Reduce Your Bounce Rate In One Second
So, how do you get visitors to spend more time on your site and reduce your bounce rate, without spending more than one second trying to do it? It's simple. First of all get inside the control panel of your website (e.g., WordPress admin dashboard, or the equivalent on the software you are using). Now go to the section where you can tweak your CSS and other design aspects (in WordPress this is under the “Appearance” menu). Now find the line controlling the font size on your site, and increase it ...
Daily Blog Tips (284 days ago)
