16 posts written by Darren
Executive editor of FinderMind magazine, a people search website dedicate on helping you reconnect with friends/family members/relatives.
Why Focus on Money and Then Traffic (and How to Do That in Google Analytics)
DarrenIf you've ever had your own website, you probably know that the first thing you need to do in order to promote it is to get traffic. Then you can install Google Analytics and track that traffic, learn more about visitors, where do they come from etc. The need for getting traffic is emphasized a lot. Actually, it is emphasized to that extent that people forgot one fundamental thing:
Checklists: Why are They Important in Getting Things Right
What's the one single thing that contributed to lowering major complications in surgery by a third and cutting death rates (also in a surgery) in half? Was it a new drug? Not really. But if it was, there would certainly be an incredible amount of media attention, with the company/organization who invented it receiving incredible recognition. That single thing that contributed to lowering complications and death rates was...a checklist. It was a 19-point checklist that was used before beginning surgery that made sure people did the essential things, like give anesthesia and check for other basic problems before operation.
How to Get Started in Getting More Links to Your Website
Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It's about the trivial many (80%) and the vital few (20%), the trivial many that bring small results and vital few that bring most of the results. Guess where link building belong in the overall search engine optimization game? Link building a vital thing to do if you want to stay competitive in the search engines. There are many ways to get links (natural and non-natural ways), and I will outline some ways to get started below.
12 Creative Design Ideas That Went Viral (And The Lessons You Can Learn)
In this post I'll feature some web designs that went viral on StumbleUpon/Digg/other social media sites and the lessons you can learn from them. As you browse the designs, I'm pretty sure you'll find some common patterns I overlooked. If you see that, let me know in the comments :) For now, let's get started. One more thing before we start. The lessons I'll share are just principles and observations that come from my 3+ experience in viral marketing and getting over a million people to my websites. Feel free to disagree with some of the principles and let me know why in the comments below. Now, let's REALLY get started :)
5 Advanced Google Tricks to Help You Become a Better Web Designer
You can use some simple Google tools in very creative ways, as well as use some more advanced ones to:
- find high-quality tutorials for any web design software tool, and find them easier and faster
- find decent alternatives for the current web design software you're using
- search for what Spanish (or <insert your favorite nation here>) web designers are talking about
Data-Driven Web Design: How to Take Advantage of It
Web design should be all about creativity, right? Free flow of ideas, designing what you want etc...While all of that is important, there are various ways to use objective data to get the most out of your design efforts. In this article, I'll assume you're a freelancer and working on someones else project. What steps can you take to ensure your web-design is data-driven?
SEO Matters:How to Get Ranked for Your Website Name
There's a lot of advice out there on how to get ranked for some competitive keyword terms (like weight loss, credit cards and so on). What about first ranking for your websites name (if you have a new site)? If you create 2ndwebdesigner.com, for example, that doesn't mean you'll be #1 for '2ndwebdesigner' or '2nd web designer' immediately! Why?
How to Make Better Decisions (by Understanding Cognitive Biases)
According to Wikipedia, a cognitive bias is:
the human tendency to make systematic errors in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidenceThere are certain things you can do as a web designer to make better decisions by recognizing and thinking twice about these cognitive biases. My attempt here will be to make you familiar some of these common decision mistakes and offer suggestions on how you can avoid them.
How to Start Treating Your Web Design Business as a BUSINESS
Most of us treat our web design businesses not as a business but as a hobby. And hobbies are dealt with in a different way than businesses. Most of us don't know the exact definition of a business; even Wikipedia says: "the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of business, is a matter of debate and complexity of meanings." It definitely is. In my opinion, as a small business owner, in order to start treating your web design business as a business you need to focus on 2 things.
Freelancers: How to Get New Clients For Your Web Design Business
You know how important getting new clients is for your business. Getting a constant new stream of clients is often the #1 challenge for most freelancers. Unfortunately, most of the advice provided online on this topic is often filled with ambiguity and doesn't give you clear tips and instructions you can use to start getting web design clients NOW.
