That’s not even mentioning more subtle issues, such as finding the right life/work balance, which can be very tough when you work from home.

In this interview, Brian Hoff, an experienced freelance designer, will share his thoughts on the topic.

In this interview:

• Why did Brian quit his job at Apple to start his own business?
• How did he build a popular web design blog that brought him loads of clients?
• How does Brian makes sure that he is getting things done as well as spending enough time with his family?
• How does he handle the lack of financial stability that is an inevitable part of being a freelance web designer?
• What is his advice one piece of advice for those who of you who want to become freelance web designers?

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Brian Hoff. I’m a professional web and interaction designer. Over the years, my work transitioned from logo design to web design to interaction design. I’ve always enjoyed various elements of design, not to mention I get bored easily, so this transition comes as no surprise to me. These days I mostly work on interaction design (iOS, web apps) though.

I also write for my blog, The Design Cubicle and work on my own products (I have two ideas in the works at the moment) when I can find the time.

IxD: what interaction design is all about?

Here’s how the Interaction Design Association(IxDA) describes it:

Interaction designers strive to create useful and usable products and services. Following the fundamental tenets of user-centered design, the practice of interaction design is grounded in an understanding of real users—their goals, tasks, experiences, needs, and wants. Approaching design from a user-centered perspective, while endeavoring to balance users’ needs with business goals and technological capabilities, interaction designers provide solutions to complex design challenges, and define new and evolving interactive products and services.

Here are few of the key concepts that drive IxD:

• Goal-oriented design. User usually have a specific goal in mind when using an application. This means that an application should be able to do that one thing really well. Conducting an extensive user research helps interaction designers to create the right balance between form and function.
• Usability of the design. Applications must be easy to use in order for people to want to use them. Interaction designers aim to create interfaces that makes the underlying systems easy to understand.
• Affordances. Many things are designed in a way that they are easy to understand even for someone who has never encountered them before. Say, you would probably be able to figure out how to use scissors, even if you would be seeing them for the first time in your life. Interaction designers aim for this same effect in their work.

Interaction designers stay involved throughout the whole development process: they form a design strategy, identify and wireframe key interactions, and then prototype interactions.

According to Andrew Maier, on whose article this short summary of interaction design is based on, one of the hardest part of being a practicing interaction designer is the speed at which the industry change.

You can read more about interaction design here:

• “Interaction Design” - Wikipedia
• “Complete Beginners’ Guide to Interaction Design” - UX Booth
• Free educational materials – made by world’s technology elite - interaction-design.org

You can also check out these books on Amazon:

• “About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design”
• “Designing Interactions” by Bill Moggridge
• Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way To Design And Refine User Experience” by Carolyn Snyder.

Still aren’t sure that you understood what it’s all about?

Take a look at interaction design section at Behance!

How did you get into design in the first place?

I took the traditional route. I went to school. Majored in Graphics and Interactive Design. Got my BFA. I’ve always been very intrigued and lured into design, though. While I did go to school for it, I consider myself self-taught for a large majority of it.

Starting my own business was another story though. I initially never planned on doing my own thing. At the time of graduation, the economy in the States was on a steady decline and there weren’t many jobs available, since companies were being more cautious I guess. The places I wanted to work weren’t hiring. There were opportunities for me in the big industries that were still doing well (pharmaceutical, etc.), but that wasn’t my thing. Pharmaceuticals? Me? I just couldn’t do it, so I slowly built up my business and reputation and jumped ship to a world of independence. Haven’t looked back since.

What is your professional experience prior to becoming a freelance designer?

I worked at Apple as a software and hardware trainer. I didn’t know it at the time, but the knowledge of how users interact with websites made me a better designer. It helped me approach situations differently. After a few years at Apple I found myself increasingly unhappy. After a year and some odd months of tinkering with the idea of starting my own business I put in my two weeks notice. It was at a time when my blog, The Design Cubicle, really took off and was gaining a lot of exposure. This made the transition much easier.

At one point, you were working 9-5 at Apple, freelancing on the side, and blogging on The Design Cubicle. How did you find time and energy to juggle a full-time job, client work, and a blog? What would you advise to people who would like to start freelancing on the side, but struggle to find time, energy, and motivation to do it?

Yeah, it was tough, but honestly, I just love design. And that’s all I needed. I mean, the people who I was working with at Apple were great, but I just wasn’t happy, because I wasn’t doing what I love to do. That’s why I was really excited to come home and work on a design project that I scooped up through my blog. That was what kept me going. Love brings out the best of people [laughing].

You had a stable job at Apple as software/hardware trainer, yet you decided to quit in order to become a full-time freelance designer. What were the reasons behind this decision? Wasn’t it scary to take a leap from a secure job at a big company to uncertainty of freelancing? How did you prepare for this transition? What would you advise to those who are thinking about becoming full-time freelancers?

The main reason was that I needed to design. It wasn’t even that I wanted to design, I needed it. I know, sounds like a typical artist’s statement, but it’s true. It’s my outlet. The itch that needs scratching.

Also, at that time, I wasn’t married, I didn’t have kids, so the risk for me was relatively low. Obviously, there was the risk of not making any money and being kicked out of my apartment, but I knew that in the worst case I could always go do something else. Plus, I made sure that I have enough money for a couple of months in case things are slow.

Keep in mind that it takes a lot of discipline to run your own business. Some folks are people who need to be managed, and some people are the ones who can do the managing. Everyone likes to think “Oh, I can do this by myself, I can be a freelancer!”, but you really have to think what kind of person you are. Are you able to juggle all these different tasks? Are you good at talking to clients? Are you good at managing clients and managing your own time? There’s a lot somebody needs to think about besides “I’m a good designer. There’s much more to freelancing than design.

One of the biggest challenges that freelance designers have to face is that constant need to get clients. What do you do to ensure that you have enough work every month? What would you advise to freelancers who would like to get more clients, but aren’t quite sure how to go about it?

I’m in a fortunate spot where clients come to me because of the popularity of my blog and other outlets (Behance, Dribbble).

Also, do good work. Always try to do your best at each project and then some. Goes without saying but doing good work and putting it out there gets more good work.

However, context is important, and a simple online portfolio doesn’t have enough context. I once had a portfolio that was basically a bunch of screen-shots and didn’t show who I was as a person. That’s why I started documenting the process of creating a particular design on my blog. This way, clients can see how I run my business, how I work, and so on.

That comes over time, I promise.

Nowadays I can tell how the client is going to react throughout the entire process. For example, there are clients that need to have their hand held, meanwhile other clients are very hands off. You can really get a feel for that just from talking to them.

Before I start working with any new client, I have them fill out a worksheet. It’s amazing how simply reading responses to the worksheet tells me. One example would be clients that give a one word answer to every question. Basically they are telling me ‘I don’t care about the project’. That’s just not the type of person that I want to work with. If they want me to care about the project, I feel that they should care at least as much, if not more.

There are still times when I find myself working with “bad” clients. However, I mostly find it’s the designers fault. I’m the one that needs to be managing the clients, managing their expectations, so it’s usually the result of me not doing something correctly. They choose to work with me not only based on my portfolio, but also my creative process and business process.

That’s why it’s important to be vocal. I’m not afraid to tell a client “Your idea won’t work and here’s why..”. The aesthetics of design can often be subjective so I don’t tell people “it’s crap because it’s crap”, but if I truly believe that it’s a terrible idea, the client is going to hear it in a way that has value.

And in regards to them being stingy with money.. Well, the way I see it, I have my price and I’m upfront about it. I base it on a set of deliverables. I don’t do hourly rates. I quote a project for deliverables over a time frame (like, you need these 6 pages over 6 weeks, here’s the price). Design is an investment of time and end value. My price is my price.

I feel like you have to have your minimum rate and a rate that you want, so if a client can’t afford the rate that you want, you can knock it down to your minimum rate if you really need the job. However, when you go below your minimum rate you are only hurting yourself, because in my experience, working on crap projects just brings more crap projects. It’s weird how it works like that, but it just does: bad clients breed more bad clients, bad works breed more bad work.

Also, hiring a designer for a very low rate is a bad investment for a client, which they need to understand. I’ve knocked down a price significantly few times, and I’ve realized that it just ruins my motivation, because I don’t feel that I’m being fairly compensated for my work. It kills the momentum and enthusiasm from the start. Good results don’t come from lack of enthusiasm.

People often don’t realize how hard it can be to have a right work-life balance when you are self-employed. Maybe you can tell us how does your day look like? What do you do in order to stay productive while still having a life? What would you advise to freelancers who struggle with getting things done?

1. Well, to get work done, you just need to be a good manager, you have to say “These are my work hours” and stick to it.
2. That’s exactly what I did when I started working as a full-time freelancer. My day starts around 6AM. I don’t work past 6PM (technically, my day ends at 4PM, but if I really need to I can extend it until 6PM). I also don’t work weekends. This leaves me plenty of time to go outside and do something outside (which I really enjoy). It’s good because it allows me to get my work done and then take a break by spending the rest of the day with my family. Breaks are good for creativity.
3. It’s hard though. I have an almost two-year-old, and my wife is home with our son, so if I don’t have my headphones on I can hear them downstairs, and it’s hard not to go downstairs and spend time with them. I do that sometimes, but I make sure that if I go downstairs to see what’s up, I spend no more than 10 minutes on that. I see it as basically an equivalent of chatting with a co-worker next to a water cooler in the office [laughing].
4. It takes discipline. You need to set your work hours at the very beginnings. I know some guys who work at night, who work weekends, and so on. I don’t know how they do it, especially if they have families. That’s just a way to burn out in my opinion.

One of the main disadvantages of being a freelancer is lack of financial security, you never know how much you’re going to earn, clients disappear, then your car breaks. What do you do in order to make yourself as financially secure as possible? What would you advise to people who want to become full-time freelancers, but are worried that it might lead to a financial disaster?

Many people think that when they have a job at some company they are financially stable, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. They can get fired at any time. Longevity is not in your hands. There’s nothing more or less financially stable in working for yourself vs. working for somebody else if you have a dependable business plan.

Also, when you work for a company, you get the same salary every month. It’s true that as a freelancer, you can end up making very little money on some months, but you can also make double or triple your usually monthly income on others. I think that’s what’s fun about running your own business. It pushes you to work little bit harder to make that extra money.

I’m a small corporation. That’s why, as weird as it’s sounds, I pay myself a salary. Me and my wife sit down together and see how much we need to cover our bills and have a little bit extra money left every month. That’s what I take out as a salary.

I also take out additional bonuses which is our savings. When you need only 10 000$ a year to survive, and you end up making 50 000$ instead of 10 000$, it’s easy to want to go party and spend it [laughing]. However, you need to be smart about it. We always make sure that we have money put aside for those rainy months.

You have experience of being employed by a big company and being self-employed. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both? Why did you decide to stay self-employed? What would you advise to our readers who are not quite sure which way they want to go?

Working on your own, and doing it successfully, brings a quality of life that’s difficult to comprehend. And I don’t mean that from a money profit standpoint. When I need a day off, I don’t have to go to my boss and ask for a day off, I just take it. Sure, it means that I will have to work harder the next day, but that’s okay. There’s nobody managing me.

Working for myself also gives me an opportunity to choose which clients I want to work with. I enjoy working with digitally focused people, with online, forward thinking goals. I get to pick and choose the people I want to work with.

Disadvantages.. I have many friends who work for respectable agencies. Every time I talk to them, they tell me how much they are learning at their jobs. I feel like I miss out on that experience by being self-employed. There’s that part of me that is always curious about that, but that’s what having friend is for, since our community is so helpful. Everyone is very open in our industry.

You run a popular blog, The Design Cubicle. Why did you decide to start a design blog in the first place? How did you get your blog to where it is now? What role did The Design Cubicle’s success play in your design career? Would you advise other designers to start their own blogs? Why or why not?

I started The Design Cubicle few months before I left Apple. I started it as a means to interact. I read a lot of design blogs and I felt like I could add something to the greater story. My blog was my creative outlet in written form and my way to share ideas.

Then, two articles of mine “hit the front page of Digg”, which got brought me a ton of traffic. I remember after that my traffic went up to 6000 visitors/day. It gained a lot of momentum for my work. I just kept on writing and sharing.

Today, I wish I would have more time to write, I really do. I have so much less time for it now than I had when I started a blog: my days are filled with client work, I work on more complicated projects, and so on. I need to write more, though.

And yes, my blog played a significant role in my design career. It was at the time the best marketing for me.

Okay, so you have a successful design career, a popular design blog, what are the future plans of Brian Hoff? Are there any interesting new projects that are you planning to take on? What is the next step in your career?

I want to build my own services and my own products. There are two ideas that I’m in the process of executing. I’d say that you can expect something new from me in the next 12 months.

Last, but not least, if you could only one piece of advice to someone who wants to become a freelance web designer, what would it be?

This is my one advice to anyone wanting to start anything (whether it’s to be a designer, a chef, or a construction worker): love what you do.

There’s no way that you can be as successful as you want to be unless you absolutely love what you do.

You can only get so far in life without this. It’s all about love.

Thank you for the interview!

In a nutshell:

• Keep in mind that freelancing isn’t easy. You have to consider whether you are good at getting things done, managing your clients, promoting yourself, and so on. Many people are much better employees than freelancers.
• Showcase your work online. Make sure that you have a decent looking portfolio which you can show to your clients. It’s even better if you include case studies that showcase your work process.
• Always focus on doing the best work that you can. This will help you get new clients through word of mouth. It will also keep your current clients coming back.
• Avoid working with low paying clients as much as possible. They are the hardest to deal with. Plus, doing low paid jobs will only get you more low paid jobs.
• Set your work schedule and stick to it. Overworking yourself is very counter-productive. Make sure that you get enough rest.
• Always make sure that you have money set aside for rainy days. There are times when you have a lot of clients, and there are times when you have none, and this is inevitable part of freelancer’s life. Don’t stress about it, prepare for it!
• Having a blog can accelerate your freelancing career. Providing value to other web designers helps you to become a recognized expert in the community. Keep in mind that running a blog is a long term project, though. You won’t get quick results.
• You have to love what you do if you want to really get ahead.

Interested in Brian’s blog? Start here!

Here are three great articles from Brian’s blog:

• How to get clients (and make your dreams come true) – In this article, Brian shares three things that will help you get client, and (hopefully) make (some) of your dreams come true.
• Dear Business, I’m scared for you – In this article, Brian explains why so many clients have “limited budgets” for their websites.
• Business design advice to keep you sane & prosper – In this article, Brian shares the lessons he learned while running his own business, many of which are invaluable for anyone who is starting out as a freelance web designer.

You can read more great articles at The Design Cubicle.

In the world of entrepreneurship, it’s becoming more and more trendy to outsource to developing countries, since this way you can hire skilled people for a fraction of the cost. I always had mixed feelings about this: is it really okay to pay someone a slave-wage only because they are living in the Philippines or India? It seems that most entrepreneurs think that it’s justifiable, therefore I was pleasantly surprised to stumble on an article by Janet, a Filpina web designer from USA, who called BS on this whole thing.

I know that many of you guys are from developing countries, therefore I decided to interview Janet, and ask her to explain her take on this outsourcing trend and share how she went from working for low paying clients to working for high paying ones.

In this interview:

• What was the difference between working as a web designer in the USA and working as a web designer in the Philippines.
• Why Janet presents herself as a location-independent web designer instead of a Filipina web designer.
• Why Janet thinks that web designers from developing countries should increase rates for their services.

How much web designers around the world are getting paid

When you hire web designers from developed countries, a good web design can cost thousands of dollars, especially if they are already established in the industry.

• Stephanie Hobbs charges $1,200 for a 4-page website. She charges more depending on the size and complexity of the project.
• Noel Green charges between $2,500 and $5,000 for a complete website.
• Artisan Pros offer different packages with prices ranging from $1,495 to $3,595.

Wondering what web designers from developed countries charge per hour? Many people start out with a low rate, for example $15/hour. However, over time they gradually increase their rates from to $60-70/hour.

• Mary-Frances Main charges $60/hour for most web design work
• Dixie Vogel charges between $60- $80/hour for most web design work

Web designers who are really established and well-known often charge $100/hour or more. Now, when it comes to web designers from developing countries, that’s a completely different story. Sure, there are some who managed to establish themselves and therefore can charge the same rates as web designers from the US or UK. However, the majority of them earn significantly less money for the same amount of work.

I don’t want to point out anyone in particular who is charging low rates since that might make them feel uncomfortable, therefore I suggest you to take a look at popular freelance boards like Freelancer and oDesk to get an idea about the differences in rates. Pay attention to average bids. Sure, there are some projects where average bids go over $1,000, but on many others they are in $50 -$250 range. There are also many jobs that offer $4-$7/hour rate. Why clients offer low rates like that? They know that there are people in developing countries who are willing to do the job for a that amount of money.

Here’s a real screenshot from a real ad on one of the freelance boards:

Yes, you read it right, they want a high quality homepage and logo, with three different versions for a website and six different versions for a homepage, and, of course, unlimited revisions in their selected version, all for $70.

Sure, there will always be a big difference between the rates of those who just started freelancing and those who are more established, which is perfectly fine. However, we all know that there’s something else going on. People who pay extremely low wages don’t target inexperienced people who are just out of college. They look for decent web designers from developing countries that are willing to work for a very small payment.

Now, here’s the question: is it okay to pay someone from India $70 when you would pay $2,500 to someone from USA for that same job? Is it about bringing more opportunities to developed countries or is it about exploiting people who are vulnerable due to their financial situation? Let’s see what Janet has to say about this.

Janet Brent is an intuitive graphic/web designer for holistic, creative and heart-based small businesses. She blogs at Purple Panda and tweets @janetbrent.

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Janet, an intuitive graphic/web designer for conscious creatives and heart-based small businesses. I’m interested in passionate people making positive change. I guess that’s my “elevator pitch” but like attracts like and I’m finding there’s no shortage of amazing people I make connections with.

Why did you get into design in the first place?

I knew I wanted to be a graphic designer since sophomore year in highschool when I job shadowed one who worked for a sewerage agency. Not a glamorous design job at all, but he talked with so much passion that really attracted me and made a big enough impact that I chose to make that my career path! Before then, I had no idea that “graphic design” existed but I was always interested in art since the moment I could hold a crayon at age 2.

What is your professional design-related experience?

I taught myself html when I was 13. So I became a “professional” web designer when I got on the WordPress bandwagon and slowly got into paid gigs. I now spend most my time designing e-books, opt-ins, logos and websites for solopreneurs. My first professional design job straight out of art school was a graphic designer for a souvenir company.

What is the difference between working as a designer in USA and working as a designer in Philippines? What about the difference between presenting yourself an American designer or as a Filipina designer? Do clients treat you differently depending on where they think you live or what nationality they think you are?

I have experienced day jobs both in the US and Philippines and I have to say that people in the US have it easy. In general, there is a lack of organization in Philippine companies and less worker protection. Working overtime is a norm, so it’s not just 40 hours a week, it’s also 50+ for less than you’d earn in the states. I definitely think there’s some influence as to presenting yourself as a US based or Philippine designer. It takes some branding skills to avoid getting taken advantage of. Since its often assumed that you outsource to Filipinos, I struggled with this early on.

You’ve mentioned on your blog that this month you will be breaking your personal record for income while self-employed. However, in the past you’ve had a full-time job that pays only $400/month, as well as your share of low-paying clients. How did you get out of this and started earning decent money?

It’s a mindset shift. As simple AND hard as that. I think I had collective cultural baggage of being a Filipina. I had never felt like a minority in the states because it never affected me until now. The poverty consciousness was something I had to work through emotionally. I trained myself to be in an abundant mindset. I’m big on personal and self-development so I’m grateful for this path because it’s been a big learning curve.

It’s also important to brand yourself in an empowering way. Rather than promote myself as someone who lives in the Philippines, I say I’m location independent and a digital nomad, and I work with clients from around the world. I reject the outsourcing business model. That’s not what I do. Slowly but surely, I’m learning how to stand in my power.

There are a lot of designers from the developing countries that feel that they are being massively underpaid. However, they feel stuck because they don’t know how to raise their rates, get better clients, and earn more. What would be your advice to people who are in this situation?

It’s tough because I’m fortunate to have the Western background of being raised in the US, which does help. There’s a sort of colonial attitude that we’re somehow ‘under’ Westerners and with outsourcing, it’s viewed as helping developing countries because it provides jobs. I don’t think its that black and white.

More designers should stand up to low rates and not accept them. The more you accept low rates, the more that you will continue to receive low rates so why not help the industry out and raise the standards rather than be part of the problem? Thinking outside the box is also good.

The time = money model isn’t very scalable so thinking more entrepreneurial in regards to solving problems and offering a product could be more rewarding in the long run.

Technology is empowering and it’s also the greatest equalizer. Most people in developing countries don’t see that because they’ve also been taught that they’re not equal, so you have to empower yourself and despite external circumstances, it starts from within.

Keeping in mind that there are low-paying clients who are tight with their budget and high-paying clients who are after quality. But high-paying clients are suspicious when hiring people, especially from developing countries. How can designers from developing countries present themselves in a way that would dispel doubts of high-paying clients?

That’s a great question because it addresses the fact that low-paying clients tend to hang out in this cesspool. People in developing countries tend to get this low hanging fruit. My advice would be to reject the outsourcing business model. It’s tricky, and I’m not even sure what that would entail. But “outsourcing” just has that connotation that attracts low-paying clients so it’s not the right brand to pursue if you want higher paying clients.

Many designers from developing countries feel uncomfortable with charging the same rates as their counterparts from developed nations because it seems “unfair” to them since the cost of living is higher for developed nations. How can designers from developing countries overcome this mental barrier that keeps them from charging more?

Yes, there’s some truth towards having a lower cost of living, so charging a US price seems counter-intuitive. But there are still ways to earn more and increase your livelihood because you DO deserve to live more than paycheck to paycheck. I’m not saying you should be making $100/hr. but you shouldn’t be making $2/hr either.

Ask yourself what’s a fair price to work towards. There’s this cultural emotional baggage that’s a collective experience, and you’ve got to break through the scarcity mindset. I’ve really benefited from personal development techniques like EFT.

If you are hiring someone for a minimum wage job, aren’t you justified in paying a person living in the USA $1,160/month and a person living in Lithuania $360/month for the exact same job. Many employers justify this by saying that they’re paying them the equivalent amount of what they’d make on their own country. What’s your take on this?

As I said, it’s not so black and white and I believe there needs to be more education on both ends; entrepreneurs and workers in developing countries. On one end, you shouldn’t be a “slave master” and I’ve talked to Western entrepreneurs who have outsourced and secretly feel guilty about that issue. And on the other end, you shouldn’t happily accept $300/mo. especially if you’ve got a full family to take care of. I don’t know how locals do it! I also love the phrase my VA friend said: “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!”

Outsourcing to developing countries is becoming more and more popular among entrepreneurs. However, the ethical side of it is quite a complex topic, since on one hand, it provides a lot of opportunities to people from developing countries, while on the other hand, paying someone from Philippines way less than you would pay someone from USA seems like outright racism+nationalism when you think about it. What is your take on the whole thing?

I see it as a kind of colonialized attitude. It’s a slippery slope and I think there’s a lot of room for improvement and education on both sides. And it’s not just Caucasians who are outsourcing. I know Filipino-Americans who are taking on this model and starting businesses to provide for Filipinos. The upside is they want to help raise the livelihood of Filipinos and create a stronger middle class. I don’t have all the answers and outsourcing is neither good or bad. But we are a globalized world and outsourcing is here to stay. There are still many opportunities for better solutions.

You’ve said on your blog that if you pay peanuts you end up hiring monkeys. Honestly, I never understood the obsession with hiring people who are willing to work for ridiculously low amounts of money, because it seems to be counterproductive in the long run. Would you agree that it’s penny wise and pound foolish?

Bob, why aren’t you working?

I agree that it’s counterproductive in the long run. It might end up costing you more money in the end, because it’s the difference of hiring a professional from the start, vs. outsourcing and then having to backtrack and hire people to fix it. The quality of work IS usually less because outsourcing businesses tend to hire people straight from college and train on the job just so they can pay their employees even less. You’re not hiring professionals. You’re hiring people who are still learning and who knows how organized their internal systems are!

What would be your advice to young people from developing countries who want to become professional designers (and get paid as such!), but are at the very beginning of this path?

On the job training can work if you’ve got good mentors, so look at the team before you decide to take on a job. Job interviews should be as much interviewing the company as they are interviewing you. Look for internships or apprenticeships. Don’t underestimate the internet beyond Facebook. As I said, it’s the greatest equalizer. You can find the latest Western-based design trends and learn from example. Read and learn as much as you can through design blogs. Find a niche that interests you so you can stand out. If you love outdoor sports for example, you could design specifically for outdoor sport companies and start to brand yourself within that niche. Don’t just be a designer. Be a designer for a particular passion. You’ll stand out & be less generic.

Last, but not least (and slightly off-topic), you have this crazy experiment going on right now, your “Live on $2/day” challenge. That sounds quite extreme! Can you tell us more about it?

I’ve been quite lenient about it. I’m living on $2/day but relying also on “gift economy” which also just means my boyfriend gets to pay for me. The idea behind it isn’t to limit myself with a poverty consciousness but see exactly how abundant we are if money weren’t a consequence. There’s a lot of options when you choose to simplify. It doesn’t become limiting, but very freeing! I’m also selling stationery for $2 and donating 30% to my favorite non-profit, Her Star Scholars.

Thank you, Janet!

In a nutshell:

• As a web designer from a developing country, you have to understand your worth and drop the limiting beliefs regarding your nationality, because only when you do that you will be able to successfully charge reasonable rates.

• You don’t want to be dealing with low-paying clients for the rest of your career. It’s okay to take on questionable jobs when you are only starting out, but it shouldn’t become a habit, and you should move on from that as soon as you can. Keep in mind that clients who pay the lowest fees are also the ones that are the hardest do deal with.
• There’s nothing wrong in charging your clients western rates even when you live in developing country. Think about it: if a web designer from USA would move to your country, would they start working for $2/hour, or would they keep charging the same rates as they did when they were living in the states (assuming they work with international, not local clients)? You are under no obligation to adjust your rates based on the country you are living in.
• Take time to figure out how you can present in a way that would allow you to attract high-paying clients. Good branding will help you to avoid being taken advantage of. What can you do in order to distance yourself from the “cheap labor from the third world” image?

• As an entrepreneur, it’s important to understand that when you pay someone low rates, you will not get the same quality as if you would pay someone a decent amount of money. People from developing countries are not living under a rock, they know what the international industry rates are, and therefore understand that you are being a stingy douche when you try to hire someone for $2/hour. People who know that they are being exploited simply won’t give you their best.

Recommended reading

Here three articles that are really valuable to web designers who want to increase their rates:

• Ramit Sethi explains how you can earn more money as a freelance web designer.
• Pricing your work: how to guarantee that the price is right
• Quality-price-ratio in web design (pricing design work)

Pay attention how important your positioning is. Charging lower rates doesn’t necessarily lead to more clients. Would you rather position yourself as someone who is willing to work for peanuts or as someone who knows their work and has their price that is non-negotiable? Think about which person you would like to work with if you would be a client with a decent budget.

Guys, what are your thoughts on this whole issue?

Have you ever struggled with being underpaid because you are from a developing country? Have you ever hired someone from a developing country for an extremely low rate?

Is outsourcing an ethical thing to do?

Let me know in the comments!

Does it even actually work as good as everyone is saying it does?
No, content marketing works even better than what you have heard about it.

As long as you use it wisely and don’t shoot blind.

So here are four guys from the web and graphic design industry who will make your doubts disappear.

But before you scroll down.
Remember – content marketing is not your average marketing strategy.

No Pushing, No Forcing, No Arrogance and No Spammy Attitude.

Keep that in mind and there is no reason why you could not be included in a list of successful stories like this one.

Ready?

Chris Spooner

Image Courtesy of  Richard Shepherd

Chris is a creative designer, avid blogger and is generally crazy about pretty colours and shapes. His two main hobbies/interests in life are design (obviously) and gaming. Chris also enjoys creating videos to capture exciting events.

Follow Chris On Twitter.

1. Do you believe content marketing (blogging) has contributed to your business’ growth? If yes – how exactly do you think it has contributed.

Absolutely! Since around 2008-2009 just about all my business was generated as a result of my blog. My blog posts and tutorials were gaining substantially more exposure than my portfolio website, so my work was being put in front of a much wider audience.

Not only this, but the quality of projects were often much higher. Instead of clients finding me through a generic Google search, they were choosing me because they enjoyed my content and saw how much was involved when creating a particular design thanks to the breakdowns I presented through tutorials. This meant projects ran much more smoothly without the usual client nightmares.

2. Could you tell me which one of your blog posts has received the most attention? And why do you think it happened?

The most popular article on my blog is “50 Illustrator Tutorials Every Designer Should See“. There’s a couple of major reasons this post is the most popular. Firstly it provides the exact result designers are searching for when they Google “Illustrator tutorials”, and saves people the leg work of finding these articles themselves.

This post has gained the number one position for “Illustrator tutorials” in Google search, so with it being a pretty popular search term it makes up a considerable portion of my overall traffic stats. Secondly the title is quite catchy with it including the “Every Designer Should See” wording. It makes it a little more intriguing and entices people to click it in the results page.

3. If you started blogging today would you do something differently? What would it be?

It would be much more difficult today, but I’d follow my basic rule of creating content that helps people out. I kind of started from scratch recently with my gaming channel on YouTube. I set myself up in a community where I had zero subscribers and built up exposure by creating videos to share my knowledge with others.

4. What is your advice and tips to others who would like to taste the benefits of content marketing?

My basic rule is to create content that provides answers to what people want to know. In my case this was in the form of Illustrator tutorials. A relatively untouched topic will be much easier to become the “expert” in, but above all it has to be a topic you’re thoroughly passionate about. Keep grinding through the early days when no one is reading your content and you’ll soon start to see your readership and exposure grow.

David Airey

Image Courtesy of  Herman Miller

David is a graphic designer and occasional author who specializes in designing brand identities. He has worked with companies like Yellow Pages, Giacom, Asian Development Bank, and Berthier Associates.

Follow David On Twitter

1. Do you believe content marketing (blogging) has contributed to your business’ growth? If yes – how exactly do you think it has contributed.

Undoubtedly. My blog used to be my only marketing tool. Now I have my blog and my books, but I wouldn’t have the books if it wasn’t for my blog, so that’s where everything started. Many new business inquiries arrive through my website as a result of organic search queries for relevant design terms. It’s my 24-hour promoter.

2. Could you tell me which one of your blog posts has received the most attention? And why do you think it happened?

Back in 2007, in the early days of my blog, a Gmail security flaw allowed a thief to steal my .com domain and try to sell it back to me. I blogged about it on my .co.uk domain and the story went viral, hitting the front page of Digg, Reddit, and on the New York Times website. With the help of the design community I got it back, and you can read the initial post here: Google’s Gmail security failure leaves my business sabotaged.

Why was it so popular? Because so many people use Gmail. It could’ve happened to them.

3. If you started blogging today would you do something differently? What would it be?

I’ve made a ton of mistakes along the way, so yes, I’d do quite a lot differently. It’s a topic I wrote about in another popular post from 2007: Seven blog mistakes to avoid. It’s old in blogging terms, but there are still some valuable lessons in there.

4. What is your advice and tips to others who would like to taste the benefits of content marketing?

It’s time-consuming. You need to be prepared for the long haul. I didn’t know what I was doing at the beginning, but in a way that helped, because you can plan and plan, but the best thing to do is start. The following post is another popular one, a bit more recent, and it covers a lot of the advice I’d give: How to get 87,698 blog subscribers in five years.

Paul Boag

Image Courtesy Of  Treehouse

Paul has been working with the web since 1994. He is now co-founder of the web design agency Headscape, where he works closely with clients to establish their web strategy, he is also a prolific writer.

Follow Paul On Twitter

1. Do you believe content marketing (blogging) has contributed to your business’ growth? If yes – how exactly do you think it has contributed.

Absolutely. My blogging and podcasting are the primary mechanisms by which my web design agency brings in new business. We estimate that approximately 90% of new leads come via my blog. The blog not only helps us rank well on search engines, but also demonstrates our expertise and establishes us as leaders in our field.

2. Could you tell me which one of your blog posts has received the most attention? And why do you think it happened?

My most popular blog post is “10 techniques for creating effective calls to action“. This post rates number one on Google for the phrase “calls to action” and for a long time was extensively linked to throughout my blog. Its success is primarily down to the fact that it is a list post containing solid practical advice that can be easily applied to any website.

3. If you started blogging today would you do something differently? What would it be?

I would more closely associate my blog with my company. Currently the blog exists on a completely separate domain name to my web design agency and so I do not believe the blog is as effective as it could be at driving traffic to my web agency.

4. What is your advice and tips to others who would like to taste the benefits of content marketing?

My advice is simple “don’t give up”. Too many people launch a blog and post for a few months before being demoralized and giving up. Others continue to blog, but do so on such a sporadic basis they never build up a solid readership. The secret to successful blogging is to put out content on a regular schedule and to do so over a number of years. Content marketing is not a quick win but it pays off over the long term.

Jacob Cass

Jacob is a self-employed graphic designer, specializing in the fields of corporate identity (logo) design, web design, print design, and branding. He is also the founder of ‘JUST™ Creative’.

Follow Jacob On Twitter

1. Do you believe content marketing (blogging) has contributed to your business’ growth? If yes – how exactly do you think it has contributed.

Blogging is really the backbone of my business… not only does it bring in traffic, passive income and freelance clients, but it has also got my name out there, and subsequently my services are now in more demand, thus allowing me to increase my costs. Essentially my blog has made me be able to “work less, but charge more”, meaning I can do more of what I love (designing) and less of the nitty gritty of business.

2. Could you tell me which one of your blog posts has received the most attention? And why do you think it happened?

The classic list posts get the most shares and traffic, but there are a number of other articles such as Branding, Identity & Logo Design Explained  that also get a lot of attention. I think this post stands out because of its simple explanations and it’s not just another list post.

3. If you started blogging today would you do something differently? What would it be?

This really is an extraneous question as the internet changes so much every year and you gain so much knowledge over time. This quote comes to mind: “Wisdom does not come with age, it comes with mistakes made.” I’ve made many mistakes along the way, and it’s all about learning from these mistakes and improving on them for next time.”

4. What is your advice and tips to others who would like to taste the benefits of content marketing?

Stick at it for at least six months, these are the hardest months and when you will learn the most. Be a sponge and take it all in, network with others like crazy and utilize all the resources available to you… it will pay off.

So, did these four guys open your eyes to content marketing?

I want to know, do you have any more questions left? If you do – please fire away. I’m here to listen.

If you don’t know this, well, seriously, what rock have you been living under last year?

• Sacha Greif wrote “Step by Step UI design”
• Jarrod Drysdale wrote “Bootsrapping Design”
• Nathan Barry wrote three e-books, “App Design Handbook”, “Designing Web Applications” and “Authority”.

When I saw David Kadavy’s “Design for Hackers: Reverse-Engineering Beauty” I was like:

Wait! This is a REAL book? Published by an actual PUBLISHER? And it hit #18 on Amazon? What is this?!

Getting a real book published by an established publisher is a big deal. There’s still a lot of prestige in being a published author. Nowadays, the entry requirement into the world of self-publishing is very low, therefore the fact that an actual publishing company is willing to take a risk on you signals that what you have to say is of some value. Having a book under your name can open many doors and provide many opportunities. Plus, it must be an amazing feeling to see your book on the shelves of a random bookstore.

However, getting that book deal isn’t easy, nor is selling a decent number of copies. I had so many questions. Why didn’t David go the e-book route? How did he get a book deal like that? How did the #18 on Amazon happen? How much money did he make? Was the whole experience worth it? Admit it, now you are wondering about the same things, aren’t you?

Well, it’s a lucky day for us, because today, we have David Kadavy here on 1stWebDesigner, and he will tell us all about it

In this interview:

• How David got a book deal by hitting  #1 in Hacker News.
• How he managed to write an entire book in only 6 months.
• How he promoted his book in a way that it debuted at #18 on Amazon.
• How “Design for hackers: reverse-engineering beauty” lead to speaking gigs all around the world.
• How David went from having to work miserable jobs to being able to work only on the projects that are interesting to him.

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m David Kadavy from Kadavy. Inc. I’m the author of the book “Design for hackers: reverse-engineering beauty”, a book that teaches people the fundamental principles of design. I speak about design in different conferences around the world. I’m also an adviser for several start-ups. You can find out more about me at kadavy.net.

How did you get into design in the first place?

Well, I’ve been always obsessed with drawing, ever since I could hold a pen.

In 1995, my brother left his computer at our house while he was away at college. I got an AOL account and made my first web page back then.

Then, I went to school to study graphic design and continued tinkering with HTML and creating websites.

Eventually, everything converged, and I ended up working as a web designer for a couple of startups.

What is your professional web design-related experience?

I graduated in 2002 with a graphic design degree, which was a classical design education, learning about principles, colours, and things like that.

I then started working in the graphic design department of an architecture firm. I was building websites and creating interactive CVs to showcase architectural work. I worked there for several years.

Also, at that time my work was published in “Communication Arts” magazine. I guess many web designers are not familiar with it since that was in print design. This was a big career milestone for me.

Then, I moved to Silicon Valley, and started working for start-ups. I worked as a creative services manager for WorkMetro where I did web design and managed all the branding. Then, I worked for another start-up called SustainLane, which was kind of like Yelp for green products. I also spent about a year trying a bunch of different projects. I built Facebook apps, participated in a couple Hackathons, and basically wandered from café to café just hacking away at different things.

Then, I started doing freelance work for start-ups, my clients were oDesk, PBWorks and User Voice.

I was blogging during all that time, and once I started writing about design for hackers, I was approached by a publisher and got a book deal very quickly.

Did your blog, kadavy.net, play a big role in your professional success?

Yes! I have been running my blog for 9 years now. I met a lot of interesting people, got jobs and clients, and got a book deal through it. I owe everything to it. Starting my blog was the best decision I have ever made!

You have written a book “Design For Hackers: Reverse-Engineering Beauty”. What is it about?

“Design for hackers” breaks down fundamental principles of design. It’s not a list of 10 quick things that you can do to make your site look better. It’s more of a framework that helps you to understand design, so that when you go about your day and observe things, you would see them in a different way. I do that by reverse engineering things like impressionist paintings, Roman architecture, and so on, and then weaving together the way that those same principles are still present when you are creating design with today’s technology (e.g. for websites or apps). The tagline is “reverse-engineering beauty” and that’s pretty much what I aim to do.

This book is for everyone who wants to understand the design better. It can be a developer who is building apps and wants to be able to create better designs, or a marketer who wants to use design to convey her message, or even a web designer who wants to improve his skills. You see, when you are learning about web development, you can google an error and get an answer, but there isn’t anything like that for design. You can’t just google “my design doesn’t look good” and get an answer for it. That’s why I’m trying to provide some sort of framework for people so that they can understand design better.

You started writing about design for hackers before you had a book deal. Why were you interested in this particular topic?

I was just sitting at a café with a friend. He said “You know, design is really a mystery, and whenever you talk to a designer and try to understand it, they just shrug their shoulders and say that they just feel it or something”. I immediately thought that this was not the way I see design: there are certain factors that come together that make good design.

I then did a talk “Design for the coder’s mind” at Barcamp (that’s an unconference where everyone can speak). In that talk, I covered the basic design things, like colours and proportions and typography.

Later, I wanted to speak at the SXSW conference. In order to speak there, you have to submit a proposal, and that proposal has to get a lot of votes. I didn’t feel like I had enough followers to pull that off, so I decided to write a really good post, and then submit it to Hacker News, with hopes of getting more votes. That post was “Design for hackers: why you don’t use Garamond on the web” and did really well. My publisher found me through that post and asked me if I was interested in writing a book about it. I was.

Here’s the funny thing: I didn’t get accepted to speak at SXSW that time. I did end up speaking there once I had a book deal. That particular proposal wasn’t accepted, though.

Okay, so you got an e-mail from the publisher, and what happened then?

Well, I was also approached by another publisher, but they wanted to change a lot of things about the book.

Also, I talked to some agents, but decided not to hire one. You see, agents take 15% of your earnings, and since I already had a book deal and was simply exploring my options, giving them 15% of what I’ve earned didn’t seem appropriate.

I got an attorney, who looked over the contract and made sure that I understood everything, and the publisher worked with me to make sure that I was comfortable with it. Plus, there was an advance.

How long did it take to go from that that initial e-mail to a book that’s available for sale?

It took 3 months to negotiate the contract and get it signed. I wrote a book in 6 months (my publisher originally wanted me to write a book in 4 months, which I definitely couldn’t have done). Then, there was the editorial process, which took about a month. “Design for hackers:reverse-engineering beauty” was released 3-4 months after that. So, from getting that e-mail to the book coming out, there were about 13-14 months. It’s a much faster process in the technology niche than in many others.

A book in 6 months, it’s pretty damn fast. How did you manage to get it done on time?

Well, I’ve been blogging for 6 years at that time, so I was used to writing at that point.

However, writing a book is a much more rigorous process than writing a blog post, so it was a challenge. Honestly, I simply dedicated my entire life to writing that book for half a year. It was winter in Chicago, it was very cold, so I wasn’t leaving my apartment a lot, and I wasn’t travelling. You know, I keep hearing this from people, and I have to agree: writing a book is a miserable process. On one hand, you kind of suffer, on the other hand, it’s a lot of fun. Brute force was the way “Design for hackers: reverse-engineering beauty” was written in 6 months. I just did that and didn’t think about anything else.

What is the process of writing a book look like?

Well, when we put together the proposal and got a contract, there was a preliminary outline that we agreed upon. I pretty much stuck to it. It was a matter of writing each chapter.

I have developed several categories of the things that I do throughout the writing process: rough draft, research, editing..

There’s what I call ‘scaffolding,’ which is writing down bullet-points that summarize what I want to say in that chapter, which really helps to make things clearer in my mind.

There’s also the rough draft, which is basically writing without worrying whether it’s good or nor, just getting stuff out of my brain.

Then, there’s research, I put things that I need to research further in the brackets while writing the rough draft, and then look them up later.

I also have this thing that I call exploratory research, which is basically going where my mind takes me, reading on various topics, opening up my art history book, and so on, and then seeing if any useful idea came out of it.

Also, throughout writing this book, I got a good feeling for my brain and my creative process. I’ve noticed that there are certain times when I’m more in the mood for certain parts of my process than for others. There are also tricks that I can use to get myself in the right mood, such as music, or drinking tea, or changing the lighting in my room. I really have a feel of how my brain works. That’s all because of the sheer necessity to be creative on command.

You’ve mentioned that your book hit #18 on all Amazon books and #1 in technology books on the launch day. That is really impressive! How did you do that?

Well, the most powerful thing was the support of the Hacker News community.

I got the book deal because my blog post was #1 on HN. Once I announced the book deal, people were excited, so much that, once I launched the book, both the post about it and the actual Amazon link to it ended up on the front page. I was really surprised when it hit #1 in the techonology books and #18 in all Amazon books. However, it makes sense that since HN was the community that made it all happen in the first place, they were eager to buy the book once it came out.

Okay, so let’s get to the part that everyone is interested in: how much money did you make from the book?

Honestly, I think that I’m not allowed to share that information, sorry.

I can say that it definitely isn’t a lot, though. When you go with a traditional publisher, they always take a very large percentage of  it, which is fine, since they make a lot of things happen. I knew that from the beginning, therefore my focus was to use that book to get people interested in my writing and to be able to eventually produce more things from which people can learn.

When it’s all said and done, I will probably make about as much money off of book sales as I might working at a solid designer job for 6 months. Keep in mind that this will be over the course of several years, and besides writing, I’ve been working to promote the book for more than two years now. Also, keep in mind that I was fortunate enough to have a book that did very, very well. The majority of authors (I think I heard 7 out of 10 somewhere) never sell enough books to see any money beyond their advance. It’s really a labor of love.

Traditional publishing is not the best choice if your goal is to make money. The way most people make money through their books is by having backend business, such as consulting or speaking, etc. Sure, someone like Tim Ferris, who has sold loads of books, makes a lot of money from the actual book sales. That’s not the case for most authors, though.

The book would have never happened without the publisher, from the get go it was about getting it out there and having a book as a calling card, and being able to use that to get more people interested in what I do.

Would you agree that whether you publish an e-book or an actual book, there’s a trade-off: with e-books you make more money, while with a paper book you get more prestige and opportunities?

I think that’s pretty accurate.

You do get more prestige and credibility going with a traditional publisher. However, they also provide some value: they gave me an advance to help me pay my bills while I wrote a book, there was an editor, a whole team of proofreaders, they did all the layout, they got books on the shelves, and so on. When I was in Singapore, someone was like “Yeah, I bought your book at this book store down the street”, which was amazing. There’s no way I could have done that on my own.

My publisher also handled all the foreign language deals. My book is now out not only in English, but also in Polish and Korean, plus the Chinese version is coming out this summer. Traditional publishers help you to get a book in front of a lot of people.

What opportunities did you get as a result of writing this book that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise?

Yes, absolutely, it changed my life.

I have traveled all over the world speaking about design. I have been lucky enough to have people approach me with offers. Lately, it’s been getting to a point where I get speaking fees, and that’s almost out of necessity, since I get so many invites that there’s no way I could do them all. I love travelling and I love speaking, so that’s amazing.

I’m also mentoring start-ups with 500 start-ups incubator. I’m basically an on call mentor, which means that I’m available for all the companies in that program, so they can e-mail me and arrange a time to talk. I’m also an investor in at least one company that I’ve mentored. It’s a good way to be a part of various start-ups without having to focus entirely on one particular endeavor.

Would you recommend writing an actual book to other web designers?

You should only write a book if you feel that you have something to say. I know that I felt this way, I had a point of view that I really wanted to present, and that was my motivation. You know, I think that it would be a much tougher road for someone whose main motivation is money, because I would have a harder time motivating myself with this reason.

You know, I think that the only reason that you should write a book is if you feel that you have something to say, and I felt like I have something to say and a point of view that I really wanted to present, and that was the motivation. I think if you have other motviation, such as oyu want to make a lot of money, or you want to get more clients, I think it would be tougher road. Personally, I’d have a harder time motivating myself with those reasons. I think if you have something to say go for it. However, first do the blogging, because if you can’t get people to intereted in a blogpost it will be really hard to get them interested in buying a book.

What would you advise to people who want to write a book, a real book, just like you, but aren’t even sure where to start?

I’d say write about what you know, even if it seems simple and obvious, because what might seem obvious to you isn’t obvious to somebody.

Do that you will be teaching people, and if you are teaching people, they will be interested in what you have to say.

Thank you, David!

In a nutshell:

• Patience and persistence pays off. David got a lot of opportunities through his blog. He has been blogging for 9 years now, though.
• Don’t be afraid to explore ideas that interest you. The whole design for hackers thing started as a conversation with a friend. Then, David made a speech on the topic, then wrote an article about it, and finally got the book deal. Meanwhile, most of us would simply forget that conversation, and go about our life as usual.
• Make sure that you create the best content possible. The popularity of “Design for Hackers: Why You Don’t Use Garamond on the Web” wasn’t completely random. Sure, luck played a part, but David put a LOT of effort into writing this article, and making it a great fit for HN audience.
• Create products that people want. Hitting #18 on Amazon is impressive, but it isn’t surprising, especially when you consider how eager the HN audience was to get the book. Pay attention what problems people are struggling with right now, and then try to offer a solution. This makes selling much easier.
• Keep in mind that you won’t make much money if you go the traditional publishing route. Yes, J.K. Rowling made more than $1 billion with Harry Potter,sure. That’s not very likely to happen for the most of us, though.
• Only commit to writing a book if you feel that you have something to say. Writing a book is really tough and for most people money alone would not be a sufficient motivation to go through with it. Plus, you are not likely to make much money anyway, so what’s the point then?
• Make an effort to meet interesting people on a regular basis. Don’t do it because you expect something in return, though, because you are not likely to make any friends this way. Meet people who are genuinely interesting to you. Maybe something will come out of it, maybe not, but at least you will have a great time!
• Educate people on the topic that you know a lot about. As David said, some things might be obvious to you, but they probably aren’t that obvious to many other people, so don’t be shy. Share your knowledge.

Interested in David’s blog? Start here!

Here are three great articles from kadavy.net:

• Design For Hackers: Why You Don’t Use Garamond On The Web - Yup, that’s the post we have been mentioning throughout the whole interview, the one that got David a book deal.
• Mind Management (Not Time Management) - In this article David explains the importance of aligning our mental state with what needs to be done (as opposed to obsessing over minutes and hours).
• The Way I Work - In this article, not only David describes his typical day, but also shares some thoughts about productivity. He works a bit differently now (article was written in 2009), though.

You can find more great posts at kadavy.net!

It means that there are a lot of people out there who are willing to spend money on a custom design for their blogs. How can you impress these potential clients and get lucrative jobs?

Talk to your potential clients  about what is important to THEM!

What Every Freelancer Needs to Understand: Features vs. Benefits

In copy-writing, there is a very important concept called features and benefits. What is the difference?

• Features are qualities of a product or a service (e.g. these shoes are made of waterproof material)
• Benefits are the benefits that a person will get because of using a product or a service (e.g. your feet won’t get wet if you wear these shoes).

People make buying decisions based on benefits and then rationalize those decisions to themselves using features. Consequently, if you want to sell something to someone, you should always emphasize benefits, not features. Now, how can you use this principle in order to get more web design clients?

Here’s how Ramit Sethi, a New York Times best-selling author and an A-list blogger who has  helped thousands of people earn more money as freelancers, answered this question:

Most people focus on features.

They say: “Here’s what you get with my web design service: you get a hosting account, you get ten pages design, you get this, you get that”.

Well…the client doesn’t care!

What do the clients want fundamentally? They want to make more money, they want to get more clients, they want to spend less time, they just want it handled. You can find this out by talking to them and doing research.

This is where you start doing your homework. You figure out what it is that they want and use it to present your services as a benefit. So, instead of saying “You get ten web pages”, you say: “Look, my goal is to help you increase the number of subscribers by 25%” or, better yet, “My goal is to help you increase your revenue by 15%”. That is a benefit. Nobody cares about how many pages it is, or how much time you’re going to spend on it or what software you’ll use. They don’t care about all that. They want more money, more clients, in less time. Focus on what THEY want, not what you want.

Look, I’ll be honest here: many web designers have absolutely no clue what their clients want. In fact, they are so bad, that they talk to their clients in a language that their clients don’t even understand (newsflash: most people who hire web designers are not web designers themselves and therefore they don’t necessarily care about HTML 5, Joomla, jQuery, CSS, etc.). No wonder web designers all over the world struggle with getting clients!

Good news is that it’s very easy to differentiate yourself from everyone else and impress your potential client if you know at least a little bit about online marketing.

What do bloggers want?

Well, unlike many other questions, such as what women want or, equally difficult, what men want, the question what bloggers want is relatively easy to answer.

Here are three things that almost all entrepreneurs who have blogs want:

1. More traffic.
2. More e-mail subscribers.
3. More sales/revenue.

You, as a web designer, can help them get more subscribers and more sales, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll focus on getting your client more e-mail subscribers (you would need some more advanced online marketing knowledge in order to increase sales by tweaking the design).

What’s up with the obsession with collecting e-mail addresses?

Look, in order to impress your client with your online marketing knowledge, you need to know at least a little bit of theory, so here it goes..

An E-mail list is one of the most valuable assets you can have as a blogger. That’s because it’s much easier to sell to your e-mail list than to random visitors to your blog. Also, the larger an e-mail list you have, the less you need to rely on external sources of traffic, such as Google. That’s why everyone is focusing on building their e-mail lists at the moment (I agree with Derek Halpern on this: if you’re not building an e-mail list, you’re an idiot).

Conversion rate is the percentage rate that shows how many people out of every 100 who were exposed to a call for action do what you asked them to do. In this article, I’ll use the term conversion rate to describe the number of people who subscribe to an e-mail list out of every 100 who visit that website, like, 5% conversion rate means that 5 people out of 100 subscribed to an e-mail list. This is the number that you will try to increase for your client. Why?

Most blogs are losing out on potential subscribers every day simply because they are not optimized for conversions. An increase from 5% conversion rate to 7% conversion rate might not sound like a lot, but it means that you go from 50 subscribers  to 70 subscribers for 1,000 visitors, and from 500 to 700 subscribers for  10,000 visitors. This really adds up over time, therefore increasing the conversion rate of a blog will help the blogger to build their most important asset faster, and therefore earn more money in the long run.

It’s not enough to talk to clients – you have to deliver what you have promised!

Here’s the thing: bloggers know how important their conversion rate is, and tend to obsess over that number, therefore the words “conversion rate” will immediately get the attention of your potential client. Your chances of getting the job will increase dramatically if you offer them a design that will  increase their conversion rate.  However, if you make promises like, you have to be able to deliver what you promised. How can you do that?

1. Add a feature box

Here’s what a feature box looks like:

This particular feature box increased the conversion rate of DIY themes blog by 51.7%.

Adding a feature box is an incredibly effective way to increase the conversion rate of a website.

2. Add opt-in forms to the “About” page

The “About” page is one of the most visited pages on most blogs.

Online marketing expert Derek Halpern recommends adding three opt-in forms to one’s “About” page following this layout:

• Section 1: A persuasive, benefit driven headline.
• Section 2: A short, reassuring benefit driven introduction.
• An opt-in form.
• Section 3: Social proof, testimonials, and other reassurance.
• An opt-in form.
• Section 4: Personal story.
• Section 5: The closer.
• An opt-in form.

Most people don’t even have one opt-in form on their “About” pages, so adding three of them there will definitely increase their conversion rate, and bring them more subscribers.

3. Add an opt-in form below each post

On the Internet, when people don’t like what they see, they leave immediately, therefore if someone gets to the end of a blog post, there’s a pretty good chance that they liked what they just read and are interested in reading more of your content. What could be a better time to offer them to subscribe to your blog’s e-mail list?

4. Add an opt-in form to the top of the sidebar

Now, most bloggers have an opt-in form on the top of the sidebar, so you won’t really need to add it there for them, BUT…

Many people make a mistake of cluttering their sidebar: they add their social media badges, Twitter feed, advertisements, and everything else that they can think of. The problem with this is that all that random stuff distracts people from the opt-in form and prevents them from subscribing to the e-mail list. Consequently, it’s easy to increase the conversion rate of a blog by simply stripping away all that unnecessary clutter: leave only the opt-in form and maybe an “About” paragraph or links to resources pages on the sidebar.

5. Add a pop-up window asking to opt-in

Okay, we all are thinking it, so I will just say it: pop-up windows that ask you to opt-in are incredibly annoying.

However, it seems that no matter how obnoxious these pop-ups are, they tend to drastically increase the conversion rate of a website (sometimes by 100% or even 200%). It might seem hard to believe, but adding a pop-up with an opt-in form is pretty much a guaranteed way to increase the conversion rate of any website.

Don’t make this mistake when pitching your client!

Now, all these things are not exactly the forbidden knowledge of a secret society, and you probably already knew that bloggers want to increase the conversion rate of their websites and maybe you even knew how you can help them do that. Are you sure that you convey this when you are pitching to potential clients, though?

Let me share one story from my personal experience. I’m not a web designer myself, therefore when I needed a landing page, I posted a job on one of the freelance job boards. I got a lot of responses straightaway. The problem was that most pitches I received were so terrible that they made me want to go and get a prescription for anti-depressant pills. Why?

Almost all of them looked like this (that’s an excerpt from a real pitch I got):

I am a freelance web designer with having more than five year experience in Website designs, HTML, XHTML, Web2.0, J-Query, HTML5, Layout, W3c Standard, CSS, iPhone and Android UI Design, environment with projects involving Requirement gathering, High level design, low level design, e-commerce, Maganto, Joomla Home page Design and theme integration.

You can probably guess by now that the most important thing to a person who wants a landing page is a conversion rate. However, NO ONE even mentioned the words “conversion rate”, everyone just kept throwing acronyms at me that I don’t even understand (what’s a W3c Standard?). That’s not the way to approach a client if you want to get the job. Remember, most clients don’t care whether you know HTML5 or not, they care whether your design will help them get more e-mail subscribers and sell more of their products or services.

Look, the easiest way to stand out from a bunch of people who are talking in sequences of acronyms is to talk to a client in a language they understand. Don’t talk about HTML5 and Joomla, talk about increasing their conversion rates, getting them more e-mail subscribers, getting them more sales. THAT is what’s going to get you clients (and possibly  keep them coming back for years to come if you do a good job). You will be surprised how much easier it is to get clients when you focus on benefits instead of features.

It’s not enough to be a good web designer anymore!

Many people don’t realize that times have changed. Today, in this global economy, you are not competing for jobs against web designers from your hometown, you are competing for jobs against web designers from all over the world. There will always be people who are more skilled than you or who are able to charge lower prices than you (or both).  You have to be able to bring something more than web design skills or low prices to the table if you want to get the job. What can you do to stand out from the crowd?

One of the best competitive advantages that you can have as a web designer is an in-depth knowledge of online marketing. It’s safe to say that most people who hire web designers are running some sort of a business and believe me, they are tired of dealing with web designers who don’t understand the basic concepts of online marketing, because it just makes everything  so much harder. Sure, entrepreneurs want websites that look good, but, more importantly, they want websites that convert, and if you can build websites  that are both beautiful and convert well,  entrepreneurs  will be more than happy to hire you. That’s why becoming savvy in online marketing might be one of the best moves that you can make in your web design career

Remember, if you want to be a successful freelance web designer, you have to understand that it’s not about you, it’s about the client. Talk to clients and understand the problems they have, come up with the solutions for them and learn to explain the benefits that they will get in a language they understand. This is what will allow you to get more clients, get better clients, and charge higher rates. The sooner you shift your mindset from “I, I, I,” to “client, client, client”, the better.

P.S. Guys, in case you want to learn more about online marketing, but aren’t sure where to start, read this article, it’s a list of trustworthy websites that will help you learn online marketing from scratch (compiled by yours truly).

What would Homer do?

For every article about how fun it would be to be a freelance web designer or developer, there is about ten more articles saying the exact same thing. This creates a bubble that easily attracts new freelancers, and will have them crying in despair after realizing how much they let the ideas inside the bubble control their outlook on the industry. It’s time to break that!

So in this article we’re going to go over some of the things the less friendly side of freelancing has to offer newcomers.

Client Fishers

Image Credit: padraicwoods

After spending some well spent hours in the comments of my articles, I find that a lot of our readers here view sites like Elance and Odesk as good client sources. That leaves me with one question, what are you guys thinking? For you to understand why I’m discrediting sites like these two, I’m going to use a term I like to use to describe the types of difficult clients on these site. This term being the Client Fisher.

A Client Fisher is a person who has a project and could care less about building a lasting relationship. In their minds it’s better to blast out to the web that they are looking for someone to work on their project, but will only choose the least expensive options that come their way.

Recognizing a Client Fisher

This is actually quite easy. To recognize a Client Fisher all you have to do is study how they approach you with their project. In my experience, the clients that actually want to work with me send me a message asking if I’m available to work on their project and if we could set some time to talk about this in further detail. Now a Client Fisher would ask for all the necessary information they need to make a decision on you within the first contact. This includes a projects background, asking for a quote, estimation of how long and when the project can be completed, and on average won’t reply back to you.

Non-paying Clients

Image Credit: U.S. Army Korea

I’m going to get straight to the point here, a lot of clients don’t like paying. There are a lot of reasons that could be brought up as to why some are like this, perhaps prior bad experiences with freelancers, but all that matters is they don’t want to pay and will try every seemingly way possible to avoid it.

How to Ensure All Clients Pay

It’s easy for new freelancers to not get paid fully for their work because the agreement between them and the client is a verbal/email agreement. Agreements like this are built on trust, rather than any real binding documentation on terms and conditions for the collaboration on the project.

So with that being said, make sure EVERY project you take on has terms and conditions to it that are stated in a document and agreed upon by all parties involved. Here are a few things to make sure you always include:

• upfront payment of a percentage of the quoted price, typically no more than 50%, used as a retainer
• don’t turn over the project until final payment is made
• a section going over consequences and possible legal actions that will be taken if payment is not received

A great online tool to handle these is Echosign, I’ve had my best experience with online signature tools with Echosign.

Introducing the Difficult Client, or Flaky Client

On the heels of going over a type of client that should make the use of legal documents with your clients a de facto move, let me introduce you to the flaky client. As you’ve probably from the many bad experiences from other freelancers on Twitter, FaceBook, or blog articles, there are clients out there that don’t know what they want. Can you guess what the real kicker is with them not knowing what they want? It’s that they expect you to know for them. Amazing right!?!

There isn’t a freelancer around that couldn’t tell you about a client that asked for a revision or restart in the middle of a project, complained about the final result even though it complies with everything they asked for and agreed upon during the process, blame you for their SEO ranking and traffic being low, and a whole lot of other similar things.

Dealing with Difficult Clients that are Flakes

Just like with the client that will try to weasel their way out of paying, the best way to handle flaky clients is with legal documents for the project. Here are some quick tips of things to make sure to include in your legal documents.

• set the number of revisions and/or complete project changes
• set a point in the project, ideally after the initial go ahead, where revisions or major code edits will not be done
• make sure all agreed upon desired goals for project are listed

Con Artists

Image Credit: Anders Adermark

Doesn’t it seem like everyone in the web industry is so nice and friendly? Everyone is eager to lend a helping hand with an issue when you ask, when someone goes through a tough project they share it in a blog post, and if someone created something cool for a project they turn it into a plugin. Sadly, though, because of the friendly nature of the web industry, it makes it a perfect target for Con Artists.

Why you ask? Well, Con Artists are people who prey on the false sense of security that people blindly have in others. Now what could be a better industry to take advantage of than one where people do business with others millions of miles away all the time? I honestly can’t think of one.

How to Spot a Con Artist

Con artists are very smart and tricky people, they’re impossible clients — and they only think of themselves. It can be very hard to figure out exactly if someone is a Con Artist if they are good. However, there are always tells that can show a person’s hand. Here are a few ways to tell if someone who comes to you may actually be trying to con you.

• Their names don’t match up through different contact platforms (Skype, email, etc.).
• They ask for your personal info by offering you gifts or trips.
• They are moving with their project introduction to you too fast.
• They use terms like “once in a lifetime”, “game changing opportunity”, and anything else to get you feeling like their project is going to change your life.

How I Almost Got Conned

Image Credit: Capture Queen

Awhile back I got an email about a project, it was to build the front-end of the web interface of an app. Everything seemed pretty legit. The guy had the standard coming soon page, mockups of how everything should look and function and was a nice person to talk to. I started to think that he’s not a difficult client to deal with. Then things started becoming questionable, when he said he would fly me out to the conference that would be used to showcase their product. Hmmmmm…

So the project was on a tight deadline, and needed me to be done with my share in about a week or two. The conference was like a few days before his desired deadline, and this just didn’t sit right with me. I mean, yeah, rush projects happen all the time, but how often do you get a rush project from a guy who is willing to fly you out at the end of it to the conference?

My odd feelings about this made me question who this person said they were, and prompted me to do a background check on him. So I headed to Google and started searching around, nothing was found. It didn’t help either that his Skype name was completely different from the name he gave me.

Long story short, I turned down the project. Now I never made the decision to remove him from my Skype contacts, honestly I’m just too lazy to do it. So not too long after that, a year or so, he contacts me on Skype. In his IM he comes clean about being a con man whose only objective was to swindle me out of my money, and possibly steal my identity. WOW right?

So whatever you do, make sure that every project you take on is on the up and up, even though we are really nice in the industry, it doesn’t mean that person you think is nice isn’t just plotting to take advantage of you.

What about you? What are your tips on dealing with a difficult client?

So, what would Homer do? Of course, Homer being Homer, he’ll work harder!

Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They’re about to announce the lottery numbers.

Web design has become a popular topic, there are a lot of guys changing careers or just starting out to as a web designer, and many of them are bad.

It sounds wonderful, why not? You would ask.

After all – more to choose from.

On the other hand, there is more competition.
Just like with every industry, web design industry does not develop as smoothly as we would like it to. It has its ups and downs, bumps and holes.

And one of them drives many people crazy, including me.

The bump I am talking about this time is those web designers who claim: “I’m an experienced web designer,” but certainly shouldn’t be calling themselves a web designer.

Bad Designers that Shouldn’t be Calling themselves a Web Designer

So here are four of them, with their mistakes, so you can learn from them and not repeat them yourself.
Otherwise you might end up being featured in an article just like this one.

Portfolio Under Construction

It is actually safe to say that the worst sentence you can have on your website is: “Under Construction”.
Or basically just have no previous work at all to show your potential customers.

I mean c’mon – if you really have not managed to attract a paying customer, do the work for free, just so you can have at least something to show.

Create a website for your grandmother, sister or even for your dog.

If, unfortunately, you are completely alone in this world, without relatives or friends (which would be hard to believe anyway), you can still create a website for an imaginary client’s company.

And that would be better than “under construction”.

Anti-Social Media

Social media is great social proof for your brand, work and services you provide, but guess what? It can become an anti social proof too.

Look at this web design studio.

Look above their logo – can you see that number 4 next to the Facebook’s thumb up?

Does it look impressive? Does it convince you to use this studio?

Not really… quite the opposite, am I right? The message here should be clear, do not show off with something you do not have.
If you are just starting out and have not managed yet to get a nice group of fans around your brand, please do not display it for everyone to see.

It is not something to be proud of at all.

Work hard, satisfy your customers, turn them into your followers and then you can show off with some numbers (which in my opinion should be a minimum of 100).

And not the other way around, got it?

Flash Equals No Cash

Who is still using Flash these days? If you follow up the latest technology news you should be aware of the fact that Flash is dying.
Apple stopped supporting Flash years ago, because now HTML 5 is the way forward, and even Adobe themselves admit it.

So the reason why I call it “Flash Equals No Cash” is because how can you call yourself a web designer if you build your own portfolio using Flash, a technology that is dying.
What does it say about you?

Will clients really be interested in hiring someone who uses old technology? 100% not.

Just like you would not go to a dentist who uses old fashioned tools.
Tools just like this one below…

So, I hope that picture scared you a bit and it will make you consider whether to use Flash or not.

Be clever, and save your career my friend, and learn HTML 5 instead. This is where our “Design Freak” Christian will help you with his HTML5 Introduction.

The Header is there for a Reason

You see, the header of your website is placed above everything else on your website – content, links, footer, etc. It is nearly always the very first part of your website a visitor notices. So the biggest mistake you can make is creating a low quality header.

I mean a very, very low quality header.
Have a look at this one below.

How does it make you feel? Does it remind you of good quality work, fast service or trust? I doubt it.
So here you go – once again. Do not call yourself a web designer if you cannot even look after your own website.

Conclusion

Nowadays you can have so many tools in your hands to promote and improve your brand. Social media, portfolios, testimonials, latest design trends, and others. Please make sure you do not use them against you, which inevitably will only damage your reputation.

Do you know any web designers or web design studios worth adding to this list so that everyone can learn from their mistakes?

If you own a product which you sell only on a subscription basis, then you will probably need pricing tables in order to showcase your product and the purchase options better. This tutorial will teach you how to do that.

The tutorial is based on lots of things we went through in the previous tutorials, but today you will also learn how to:

• Only style some elements of a list without giving a class to each of them.
• You will also learn how to apply different styles only on the first and last element of a parent (which could also be a list as well).
• Regarding transitions, which we’ve worked with since the second tutorial, you will learn how to scale objects up or down on hover by using CSS instead of relying on JavaScript, as we had to before.

At the end of the video I also make a promise to you regarding what am I going to come with next time. Sneak peek: it’s for mobile.

Until next time, I hope you enjoy the video and, as always, I am looking forward to your feedback and comments.

Comparison Table Preview

By the end of this tutorial you will be able to design a pricing plan like the image below.

Saw the demo? If you’re ready to design a similar pricing plan, free up at least 23 minutes of your time and get ready to design your very first pricing table!

Pricing Plans Using CSS3 Video Tutorial

When You Design a Pricing Plan, Keep in Mind the Following:

• Don’t over design it, people are after the information, not the design.
• Make it visually pleasing and easy to read.
• Don’t over complicate the code, be sure to always keep your CSS in check in case you will need to update it at a future date.

Tell us what you think about this video tutorial in the comments!

Today we are going to complete the basic structure of a plugin by learning how to create a WordPress plugin settings page for our slider. Stay tuned as settings are an important part in customizing the functionality of a Plugin.

So let’s get started.

WordPress Plugin Development Series:

• WordPress Plugin Development from Scratch, Part 1/4 - Basic Structure
• WordPress Plugin Development from Scratch, Part 2/4 - Integrate Slider
• WordPress Plugin Development from Scratch, Part 3/4 - Custom Post Types
• WordPress Plugin Development from Scratch, Part 4/4 - Settings Page

(note that in order to test the final version, you will have to install it on your WordPress installation)

What is a WordPress Plugin Settings Page?

In any kind of system, configuration settings define the data which needs to be initiated before the system starts working. These settings determine the functionality and features of your system.

Consider the SlidesJS slider, which we developed through the last three parts. We didn’t have any configuration settings and hence we had to stick with the default features. This slider is not going to suit every WordPress theme and not every designer is going to like the default features.

So it’s ideal to have some options which can change the existing behavior of the plugin to suit the requirements of each user. Let’s assume we need to auto play the slider or change the existing transition interval as it is too slow; unfortunately we don’t have settings at the moment and we need to use what the plugin offers.

In the next few sections we will be adding options in different ways to allow us to customize the plugin.

Planning Settings for SlidesJS Slider

SlidesJS comes with dozens of configuration options on its own. In this tutorial I am going to use a few of these configurations to help you understand the plugin settings creation process on WordPress.

Following is a list of configurations which we are going to implement in this tutorial.

• Play button – Sliders can contain a button for play/pause functionality. We can enable or disable play button in the common settings page.
• Autoplay – Most sliders will play automatically when they’re loaded. We can enable or disable autoplay in the common settings page.
• Effects – Sliders have multiple transition effects. Currently we are using the slide effect. We can allow the user to choose the effect from the common settings page.
• Transition Duration – is the time between slide transitions. Sometimes we need it to transition faster or slower depending on the type of content. We can use the common settings page to configure transition duration.

Now we have identified the necessary settings to be included in the plugin. Let’s move forward by building the common plugin settings page.

Creating the Admin Menu Page for Plugin Settings

WordPress does not come with specially designed pages for plugin options. We can either use the admin menu page or the options page to make the HTML forms required for configuring options. I am going to use the admin menu page to implement the options. First we have to use the following code to add the page to the left menu.

add_action('admin_menu', 'fwds_plugin_settings');

function fwds_plugin_settings() {

    add_menu_page('1stWD Slider Settings', '1stWD Slider Settings', 'administrator', 'fwds_settings', 'fwds_display_settings');

}

We have to use the action called admin_menu to add a new menu item and fwds_plugin_settings is the name of the function to add the page.

Inside the function we can use the built-in add_menu_page to create the menu item. You will be able to see a screen like the following, once you include the above code in the plugin.

Even though it’s not mandatory, it’s ideal to have a general idea about the parameters of the add_menu_page function.

• Parameter 1 (1stWD Slider Settings) - is the title used in your HTML page.
• Parameter 2 (1stWD Slider Settings) - is the title used for the menu item on the left menu.
• Parameter 3 (administrator) - is the capability needed to add the page. You can keep it as administrator in most of the cases..
• Parameter 4 (fwds_settings) - is a unique key used for the menu item.
• Parameter 5 (fwds_display_settings) - is the function name used to implement the HTML form.

Having learned about the parameters, let’s implement the HTML form required for adding settings fields.

function fwds_display_settings() {

    $slide_effect = (get_option('fwds_effect') == 'slide') ? 'selected' : '';

    $fade_effect = (get_option('fwds_effect') == 'fade') ? 'selected' : '';

    $interval = (get_option('fwds_interval') != '') ? get_option('fwds_interval') : '2000';

    $autoplay  = (get_option('fwds_autoplay') == 'enabled') ? 'checked' : '' ;

    $playBtn  = (get_option('fwds_playBtn') == 'enabled') ? 'checked' : '' ;

    $html = '</pre>
<div class="wrap"><form action="options.php" method="post" name="options">
<h2>Select Your Settings</h2>
' . wp_nonce_field('update-options') . '
<table class="form-table" width="100%" cellpadding="10">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td scope="row" align="left">
 <label>Slider Effect</label>
<select name="fwds_effect"><option value="slide">Slide</option><option value="fade">Fade</option></select></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td scope="row" align="left">
 <label>Enable Auto Play</label><input type="checkbox" name="fwds_autoplay" value="enabled" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td scope="row" align="left"><label>Enable Play Button</label><input type="checkbox" name="fwds_playBtn" value="enabled" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td scope="row" align="left">
 <label>Transition Interval</label><input type="text" name="fwds_interval" value="' . $interval . '" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
 <input type="hidden" name="action" value="update" />

 <input type="hidden" name="page_options" value="fwds_autoplay,fwds_effect,fwds_interval,fwds_playBtn" />

 <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Update" /></form></div>
<pre>
';

    echo $html;

}

First I have used five variables to get the current values of the settings from database. Initially all of those options will be empty and hence I have added default values as necessary. We can use get_option function to retrieve any option value from the database.

Then the most important thing is the form action. Since we are creating an options page, we can use options.php as the action.

Afterwards we create the necessary fields for our configuration settings. The transition effect is designed as a dropdown box to contain the two effects in the SlidesJS slider. We use checkboxes for both autoplay and play button options. A textbox will be used for transition duration.

In a normal scenario we need to save these values manually once the form is submitted. Fortunately WordPress provides a built-in method for updating options without using any additional code. All you have to do is specify two hidden fields in your form with predefined values.

The first field should be named action while its value should be update. The next hidden field should be named page_options. Its value should contain all the field names in the form separated by commas.

That’s it. Once you enter values and hit the update button, values will be saved automatically and your options page should look something similar to the following.

Now we have the values of configuration options to initialize the slider.Final task will be to use these settings to initialize the slider dynamically.

Initializing Slider with Dynamic Configuration Settings

Our slider initialization code resides in the slidesjs.initialize.js file. We need a method to pass the dynamically configured settings into the JavaScript file, so let’s see how we can alter the fwds_scripts function and pass the data to the JavaScript file.

function fwds_scripts() {
    wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
    wp_register_script('slidesjs_core', plugins_url('js/jquery.slides.min.js', __FILE__), array("jquery"));
    wp_enqueue_script('slidesjs_core');

    wp_register_script('slidesjs_init', plugins_url('js/slidesjs.initialize.js', __FILE__));
    wp_enqueue_script('slidesjs_init');

    $effect      = (get_option('fwds_effect') == '') ? "slide" : get_option('fwds_effect');
    $interval    = (get_option('fwds_interval') == '') ? 2000 : get_option('fwds_interval');
    $autoplay    = (get_option('fwds_autoplay') == 'enabled') ? true : false;
    $playBtn    = (get_option('fwds_playbtn') == 'enabled') ? true : false;
    $config_array = array(
            'effect' => $effect,
            'interval' => $interval,
            'autoplay' => $autoplay,
            'playBtn' => $playBtn
        );

    wp_localize_script('slidesjs_init', 'setting', $config_array);

}

The initial part of including scripts will be similar to the code we used in the previous part. First we need to get the configured option values from the database using the get_option function, as we used earlier. Then we have to assign all the values into an array to be passed into the script.

WordPress provides a method called wp_localize_script for passing values to JS files. First parameter of this function is the key used for the required js file. Then we can define the variable name, which is used to access the values from JavaScript file. Finally we pass the option values array to the function.

Then we need to alter the initialization script as following in order to accept values dynamically.

jQuery("#slides").slidesjs({
    navigation: false,
    play: {
      active: setting.playBtn,
      effect: setting.effect,
      auto: setting.autoplay,
      interval: setting.interval,
    },
  });
});

We can configure all the options we used in the options page using the play array defined in the SlidesJS configuration. You can access any value using the setting variable.

The initial plan also included the configurations for slider dimensions, but the width and height configurations in SlidesJS don’t work as documented. Dimensions are assigned from both CSS and plugin files making it hard to enable configuration and hence I have omitted it here.

Now we have completed our plugin with some basic configuration options. The final output of the slider will look like the following image once you enable all the options, including the play button.

Wrap Up

Throughout this series, we learned how you can build a design based WordPress plugin from scratch. Now you should have a much better understanding of developing a simple plugin. Now it’s time for you to move forward with the examples. Unless you practice these theories, you wont become a good plugin developer. So make sure to try out different sliders and configure different options to get a better understanding of plugin development.

Things to Take Away

We discussed lots of theories and techniques in detail. Now I’ll summarize the most important things to take away from this plugin development series in order to get you started practicing. You should know:

• How to define a plugin and the file structure
• How to include CSS and JavaScript files and pass the data dynamically
• Using Custom Post Types to create different types of data for components
• How to work with extra fields inside custom posts
• How to create a plugin options page

I suggest you try these techniques for at least another three sliders to understand the concepts. Once you complete that task you can move onto creating something like an accordion, tabs or another similar component using the same techniques.

In future tutorials I’ll show you how to use the same codes to create different types of plugins with minimal modifications.

Until then, I hope you will try these theories. Let me know about your experiences, questions, suggestions or any comments regarding this tutorial series.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Our method has been proven and tested, and it even went beyond expectations. We offer a free introductory lesson and a course where people can enroll on, and people are achieving success through it!

Ok…couldn’t wait to get home and post this. I got my first $600 check today (installment 1 of 2) for a site and it was from using the SIMPLE steps in the bootcamp!!!! BOOYAH. I think this is going to be a simple project with a nice turn around time and I can’t wait to have the client tell her friends and customers how easy it is to work with me. Keep you all posted. Thanks again.

- Leon Clinch, 1WD Bootcamp participant

Update: Thanks so much for coming on!

It was so much fun on the webinar last night, and I just wanted to tell, how thankful I am about everybody who actually showed up! We got close to 600 attendees this time! We decided to put up webinar slides for your pleasure – enjoy!

If you want to take action, join the community, get our newly launched membership product – Get 3 Clients in 3 Days And earn 300$! – http://1wd.com

* Dainis & Spencer

Webinar Invitation:

What: Proven 3-Step Formula on How to Get Clients

When: Thu, May 16, 2013 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Where: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1326235673805946368

Register now and attend the webinar to learn the secrets of freelancing!

Whether you’re a web designer, a web developer, or someone who wants to become one, this webinar is for you. You will  take home lots of useful stuff, all you need to do is attend. There will be a surprise at the end of the webinar, be sure to stay long enough!

Some Stats from the Last Webinar

• Run time: 2 hours and 40 minutes
• 462 questions asked
• 62 part-time workers from poll
• 42 full-time workers from poll
• 38 unemployed from poll
• 60% of the questions asked relates to how to find clients, how to keep a client, how to communicate

Surprising Revelation

The most surprising thing about the webinar for freelance web designers (and those who want to become one) is about how much full-time employees and those who are unemployed are thinking of taking a leap at freelance web design. Some would like to do it for a side income while some want to do it full-time, and they don’t know where to start!

The participants, including  those who have zero knowledge of web design, preferred to ask questions relating to freelancing rather than web design. It just proves that more and more people want to become freelancers, and that’s exactly what we’re doing, helping people get started!

Missed the Last Webinar?

Register now: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1326235673805946368

I don’t want to add more pain for those who missed the previous webinar, instead I’m inviting you to our next webinar this Thursday! Time to catch up.

Even if you attended the last webinar, feel free to attend this one if you have questions you need to ask from us. Although the contents will be basically the same, I’m sure you’ll pick up some new stuff again!

And there’s a surprise waiting for you at the end.

Oh and if you have any friends who would benefit from learning how to get more clients, do a favor for them and share this webinar with them! Join the conversation using #1wdwebinar special twitter hashtag!

Tweet #1WDwebinar