Uses for iPad by Businesses

As we started to get into above, there are a number of different ways for businesses to leverage iPads for interacting with their community. Here are a few ideas for using an iPad to interact with your community at a physical location:

• Use iPad to display your website
• Use iPad as a customer survey tool
• Build your own iPad app for whatever purpose you feel is necessary
• Show videos to your community on iPad
• Collect email addresses on iPad
• Display your social media updates on iPad
• Turn iPad into a menu in your restaurant
• Use iPad as an educational brochure

The uses are many, and yet we are still at the very beginning of what we see as a HUGE coming trend.

The Benefits of Using iPad as a Customer Engagement Tool

Image from OnSpotSocial

Using iPad for customer engagement is such a simple idea, but it packs a powerful punch. Here are a few of the many benefits that businesses will receive if they start using iPad for customer engagement:

• People are naturally drawn to an iPad. The tool itself captures attention…
• Branding
• Display educational content
• Engage your community when they are at “peak attention”, which is when they are visiting with you at a physical location
• Increase your social media connections
• Collect customer email addresses
• Show off your website
• Survey your audience
• Encourage them to make a purchase through sales promotions

This is just the beginning of the list of benefits. There are many more once you determine how you want to use iPad as a customer engagement tool. More and more companies are building their own iPad apps, as well as, 3rd party companies popping up with iPad business tool apps.

Companies Using iPad to Engage Customers In-Store

As seen on USA Today

There are already a lot of organizations out there that have jumped on this new iPad trend. Most of these companies have built their own custom apps to use with customers in their stores or at events. With that said, there are also more and more iPad apps being built around this new trend, which means more businesses will begin to buy 3rd party iPad apps to use for engaging their customers at a physical location. Here are a few companies that are currently taking advantage of this new trend:

• Stacked Restaurant – Stacked is a new California-based restaurant chain that’s putting iPads on every table to use as a menu and allow customers to place orders.
• OnSpot Social – OnSpot Social is an iPad app that allows businesses to collect Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers, and Customer Email from customers while in their store.
• Lebron James Unknwn Store – Unknwn is Lebron James’ new apparel store. He’s put iPads next to every sneaker so that customers can access information like pricing, stylish clothing combinations, tech specs, etc.
• Puma - Puma has built their own iPad app and is using iPads in-store to allow customers to create their own shoes.

As you can see, there are companies out there who are already using iPad to engage their community at a physical location. You might be thinking, “I don’t have the money or the skills to build my own iPad app”. That’s OK. Again, there are more and more 3rd party apps coming out that you can buy. You can also use iPad for more simple branding tactics, like playing educational videos or displaying your website at an event or in your store.

3 Web Browser iPad Apps for Displaying a Website In-Store

If you want to display your website to your community at an event or at a physical location like a store or trade show, be sure to thinking about downloading a web browser app for your iPad. There are some limitations with using the built-in Safari browser. These apps expand your web browsing capabilities, which will aid the customer experience when they’re interacting with your website on your iPad.

1. Night Browser – What’s nice about the Night Browser iPad app is that it gives you the ability to adjust your device’s brightness, which is nice when using your iPad in your store. Everyone businesses lighting is set up a little differently. Make sure your customers don’t have to strain when trying to interact with your website on an iPad in your store.
2. Skyfire - Are you frustrated by being unable to play Flash videos on your iPad? No more is that an issue. Download the Skyfire app and play all of the Flash videos you want for your community.
3. Duo Browser – Have 2 web browsers opens simultaneously with Duo Browser. Have both Facebook and Twitter open. Have your website and your Flickr page displayed. There a lot of combinations that you can take advantage of with this browser.

Use an iPad in Your Store for Social Media

Do you have a Facebook page set up for your website? How about a Twitter feed? If so, then why not use an iPad in your store to display real-time social media updates to your customers while they are in your store. Using iPad at a physical location like your store or an event is a great way to increase your social media following. Social Media for business really caught fire in 2011. 2012 should be the year of using iPad as a retail tool. Let’s combine these two trends to find ways to allow your customers to interact with your social media through an iPad. Collect Facebook Likes at an event on iPad. Display your Tweets in your store on iPad. Get those who visit your booth at a trade show or conference to opt-in to your email newsletter program by having them input their email address into a form on iPad. With these two trends seemingly converging at once on the business world it’s inevitable that we will begin to see more and more people using iPad for social media marketing.

Will You Use iPad for Customer Engagement?

What do you think? Is iPad coming to a retail store near you anytime soon? Have you ever considered using iPad to engage your community at live events? What other iPad uses can you come up with for businesses? Leave your comments below. We look forward to hearing what you think.

Starting a web design business might seem something anybody can do, but is definitely a difficult task. Note that this discussion is purely theoretical, if you wish to read a real opinion, then find someone who owns such a company and ask him how it was in the beginning.

The difficult part about starting your own company is that you need to be patient – the good stuff comes to those who wait. It is a long-term commitment and results might not come right away. Actually, it might be a bumpy ride up until the results come; or worse, they might not come at all and you will fail miserably.

Image by kristja.

In the beginning it sounds nice. You are your own boss, make lots of money and do pretty much nothing besides sign papers. This might be the life of huge company owners (although I would like the right to disagree), but it will not be yours. You might have to work even more than your own employees, you will not really make that much money and yes, you will be your own boss, but the clients you work with will still decide whether or not to hire you – they have the money, right?

Statistics say 80% of new businesses disappear within their first year. It takes a lot of determination and it is not the path to take for people without drive and stamina. If you’re still reading and think you have a fairly good chance of being one of the 20%, then continue reading, this is for you.

Owning a company

Great, are you ready to embark on this journey? Then you need to know things will change for you. Your career will not be a 9-5 job and won’t even be similar to the bits of freelancing you experienced before. Expect to get a feeling of accomplishment when things happen as you wish them to – expect to put your head down and be disappointed when things don’t turn out the way you want. Now you are on the other side of a business. You control what is happening and you give jobs, order people around and decide on wages. Landing a big project will mean much more for you now than if you were working in an agency, where you just get assignments and, when you deliver them, you get new ones. Your life has changed!

Now you can also employ people and let them do your work, while you spend time with your family or doing whatever else you wish to. However, most designers or developers who start their own businesses have no, or a limited, amount of money in the beginning and choose to do some of the work themselves, to save up until they have a bigger budget. You will most definitely have to do this in the beginning, unless you find a partner who is willing to contribute to the finances.

Advantages of owning your business are many. You are able to schedule your own time and have more freedom to experiment; even more freedom to hang out with your friends. You get total control, price up jobs as you think and have a different feeling knowing this time everything you do is for your own purpose. You are in charge of everything. But challenges arise at any minute too…

Get ready for problems

The first part of the article was about the nice stuff. Now it comes the ugly. Just because you are a great web designer doesn’t mean you are a great entrepreneur. There is a whole new path for you to learn and there is not much free time for you after you throw yourself out there. As in freelancing, you need to be able to motivate yourself and the ones you work with and be the boss, not just a friend or co-worker.

Unlike in a company, there is no one who takes care of other things for you. Unless you hire people for it, you will need to do the bookkeeping, taxes, client meetings, project presentations, project management and so on. This doesn’t allow too much time for hanging out with your friends.

Image by iprole.

Working on your time and whenever you want is an advantage – like in freelancing. But in both careers you need to be able to motivate yourself and start working right away instead of doing laundry or walking your dog. Also, you need to be good at following a schedule. If you slack off a day, the second day you will find yourself in a lot of trouble. Distractions are also something difficult to deal with, from social media to e-mails and, if you work from home, to kids and family members.

Maybe the most time-consuming task is email. This time you need to create them yourself; from scratch! There are no short answers to your project manager anymore. Now you are also in charge of communicating with the client and there is a reason why every company hires specialized people to do this – because it requires special skills. Now go and ask yourself, will you spend the necessary time to learn them or will you hire someone to handle the external communication? If you prefer to do it alone, get ready for some difficult challenges. Not every client is a joy to work with and you need to learn how to get the best out of them. Your job will be even more stressful if most of the clients are difficult to work with – and you probably already know most of them are difficult to work with.

Some good tips I can give you for when you decide to start your own design company is getting an accountant and focus on smaller tasks. Having an expert to keep control of all the stuff you have no idea about will pay off because it will allow you more time for the things you know how to do. It is not really possible to keep track of everything and doing both administrative and technical tasks will only give you sleepless nights.

If you are out there always looking for clients and you do it well, keep doing it and hire somebody at the office to actually turn the ideas into projects. Chasing clients and doing the work is quite impossible to do at the same time. It is possible for freelancers, as they have more free time than you do, but don’t forget – there is no real free time for you in the following months or even years. On the other hand, if you’re really good at completing the design briefs, then do that and hire someone else on commission to land projects. All big companies have several departments for a reason: keep sales, finance, design and technology apart from each other.

What’s in for you later?

Now we talk about the future. What are your opportunities in the future? Well, there are actually only two: success and failure, but we all know failure is never an option. Forcing yourself to be successful is the only way to actually reach your goals. If in the beginning you only run a business, in the future you have the opportunity to own it and hire people to run it – this is the dream, I would say. It is as far as it will go for you.

Image by cobrasoft.

You will pick up business skills along the road that might help you get back in with another agency. If at some point in time you wish to start working again, nobody will reject you – with the experience of leading a small project to running a company everybody will be delighted to have you around.

If you fail, however, the only thing you can do is go back to an agency or freelance. You can still have the company on your CV, but is it really worth? How likely are you to get a job if you state your small business failed? If you disagree with this, you are more than welcome to share your opinion with us; I would love to hear them.

Bottom line

Well, now you’ve heard it all. You know what is good about owning your own business and you know what challenges to expect. I would be glad to hear that some of you still want to pursue your dream or maybe start or continue on this path. I can’t wait to hear about your results.

Until next time, let’s hear your opinions on the topic…

There are many habits that contribute to business failure online, but these seem to outline the top 5:

1. Fear of Failure

Failure is an inevitable fact of life. The unfortunate thing is that people often associate failure with a blow to their own identity.

No person starts a business and says, “I can’t wait to fail”. Failure never feels good, but if you spend your time and resources trying to avoid it, you will also avoid finding success.

You have to take a few chances to get what you want in life and the same goes for your business. By taking more chances, you will have more opportunities to make mistakes, but you will also have more opportunities to succeed.

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan

The only time you will ever truly fail is if you don’t take a chance and try.

2. Paralysis of Analysis

Paralysis of analysis is when you spend so much time analyzing and planning a decision that you never take action.

The ability to plan is a fantastic trait. I struggled with planning years ago and started to pay more attention to the details as a result. My life got a whole lot easier. The problem, though, is that we can get stuck in the planning stage and over think everything.

There comes a time when you must shut your brain off and get moving. I believe that the fear of failure is the driving force behind getting stuck in “paralysis by analysis”. We all want things to run smoothly and be perfect, but if we continue to analyze, we will never make decisions. Without forward progress, goals remain unfulfilled.

If you wait for a perfect plan, you will be waiting forever. Take the gun and pull the trigger…what’s the worst that could happen? You will make a mistake and you will learn the right way to do it the second time.

3. Jack of All Trades, Master of None

In online business, “Jack of all Trades, Master of None” refers to the act of spreading your energy in so many different directions that nothing actually gets accomplished.

Consider this common scenario: You start a website and you are ready to market it online. You start doing some search engine optimization. With SEO you are concentrating on linking with article marketing, videos and press releases. Into your inbox you see a new SEO strategy and the headline catches your eye “Top Google Rankings in 48 Hours or Less”. How can you pass this up? The more the merrier, right?

You buy the product and get moving. You realize that it takes more work than you expected and you start and finish half way…back to the drawing board. This continues over and over until you have 20 half-finished new strategies in addition to your original strategies which aren’t producing results because you are too busy getting distracted.

You don’t need to master EVERY marketing strategy to get results online; you just need to follow through with what you have.

Even if a strategy fails, it’s important that you followed through with it so you learned what works and what doesn’t. It may sound easy, but this issue is one of the main reasons people fail to produce an income online.

Focus your efforts on a few marketing strategies at a time. If you want to do more, consider hiring an assistant. Try not to be distracted by the next new thing unless you have the resources to take it on.

Tip: I often get distracted by my email inbox and all of the new strategies and products. A good tip is to unsubscribe from most of the marketers except for the few you feel are worthy of attention. This way you will not be as tempted to open emails.

4. Unique, not Copycat

With billions of websites and businesses online competing for attention, it’s important to remember to be unique to separate yourself from the pack.

I guarantee if you take a look at most of the websites in your industry, you will find mediocre brands without clear messaging or a unique selling point.

It’s easy to follow the businesses that are making all the money in your industry, but if you copy what they are doing, you will never stand out. It’s wise to research your competitors and listen to what the “gurus” say, but it’s not wise to follow without defining yourself as a brand.

Many success stories evolved from people who went against the grain and did something they felt in their gut. Their ideas were unique but they succeeded even if it did not line up with the industry standards.

This may sound cliché, but we are all different and we have a unique selling point. This especially applies to those who are branding themselves.

Ask yourself these questions:

What makes you unique?
What are your strong qualities?
What are your hobbies?
What do your friends and family say is your greatest personality trait?

I often revert to Mari Smith as a prime example of a unique brand. Mari is an expert in her field and though she offers information that other experts offer, she injects her own unique personality into it and this is evident in her website, social media profiles and everything else she offers. She is fun and energetic, and people value what she says because she is comfortable enough to share the essence of who she is with her audience.

There will never be another Mari Smith. And there will never be another you.

Find out what makes you great and capitalize on it.

5. Right Brain vs. Left Brain – Losing Balance

Right-brained activity includes the side of your mental processing that is creative, flexible and takes risks. Your left brain is associated with stable actions, organized and logical thoughts. One isn’t better than the other but the right balance of the two is very important.

Right-brained activities are beneficial regardless of your type of online business. Creativity is more than painting and sculpting. It refers to a way of viewing the world and a specific type of thought process.

Creativity in business means generating fresh ideas, looking to the future with hope and visualizing your goals. Left-brained business activities involve evaluating the ideas, organizing thoughts to determine what works and logically making sense out of them.

Many businesses start the creation process (right-brained) and end it abruptly because they do not see the value from a dollar standpoint. The left brain kicks in and says, “Let’s get going so we don’t waste time when we could be making more profit”. Yet, this creation process is paramount because in it, you will create ground-breaking ideas that could skyrocket your profits.

Spend a little more time creating new ideas and allow the process to complete. Then apply the right logic to make a decision over what the next step should be.

One Step at a Time

No person has mastered all of this information. We all deal with a form of these habits at one time or another. I work on them daily and as I write I am inspired to take my own advice. If you can manage to take a look at your business and be honest about your progress and where you can adjust…as long as you are moving forward, you are on the right track.

This article is here to help you and presents 45+ of the most useful, efficient and awesome apps to keep you on top of the edge every time you use your iPhone – be as productive as possible wherever you go. The apps collected in this article range from advanced bookmarking services to simple photo effect tools. These fantastic apps will help you increase your productivity greatly and get the best from your iPhone. You might ask if you can afford all that? Don’t worry, most of these apps are actually free or at a ridiculously low price for the value you get.

Organizing

These apps will help you to organize your notes, photos, bookmarks and synchronize them across your computer and other compatible devices. The USB flash era is over – DropBox is the new ultimate service for transferring files quickly and efficiently.

1. Evernote (free)

Evernote for iPhone lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos that you can then access any time from your iPhone, computer, or the web.

2. ZooTool ($1.99)

Zootool for iPhone makes it easy to bookmark, organize and share your favorite images, videos, documents and links from all over the web.

3. Dropbox (free)

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go.

4. inClass (free)

inClass, the amazing student organizer, is here to help you survive school. No matter how complex your school schedule is inClass will help you keep track of all your courses and even alert you before class so that you are never late again. Not only that, but it will help you keep track of your tasks by reminding you that one is due soon, so no more procrastination.

Business

Take your business with you in your phone. These apps will help you track, manage and take care of your finances and business.

1. Mint (free)

Personal finance tools from Mint. Track, budget and manage your money on-the-go. Sign up for a Mint account, add your online banking accounts and access your personal finances — all from your iPhone. Get started for free.

2. Billings Touch (free)

Billings Touch takes the Apple Design Award winning time tracking and invoicing experience from the Mac and puts it in your pocket.

3. Outpost 2 ($19.99)

If you use Basecamp, you use it because you want to be productive. You use it because you want a simple solution to what once was a big problem for you. Now, you can use Basecamp on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad just as you’ve always wanted to.

4. MiniBooks for FreshBooks ($14.99)

MiniBooks puts the popular web invoicing software FreshBooks in the palm of your hand. Manage your clients, send invoices, run timers, and record payments, all while on the go. Plus, MiniBooks fully synchronizes with your FreshBooks account, so you have access to your account even when you’re off the grid. All this for less than FreshBooks’ monthly subscription fee.

5. Scanner Pro ($6.99)

Scanner Pro transforms iPhone into portable scanner in your pocket. It lets you scan multipage documents, email them and even upload to Dropbox, MobileMe iDisk or any other WebDAV enabled server. Evernote integration is there too.

Task Management

To-do lists, RSS readers, project management, brainstorming – keep track of your everyday life in your pocket. These amazing apps will help to get things done right.

1. 42tasks (free)

42tasks is a tasks management and collaboration app, with cloud synchronization. The 42tasks app will boost your productivity. You can organize your to-do lists and tasks, assign them to other people, share projects and view custom reports.

2. Remember The Milk (free)

Take your to-do list anywhere with this feature-packed app; never forget the milk (or anything else) again. Remember The Milk (RTM) for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad connects with the popular online service of the same name. With millions of users worldwide, Remember The Milk is everywhere you are: from mobile to the web to apps including Outlook, iCal, Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, and more. Learn more at www.rememberthemilk.com

3. Springpad (free)

Springpad is a free application that lets you quickly and easily save ideas and information you want to remember on the web, on your iPhone and on your iPad.

4. Instapaper ($4.99)

Save web pages for later offline reading, optimized for readability on your iPhone or iPod touch’s screen. Featured by Apple and critically acclaimed by top blogs, newspapers, and magazines.

5. Things ($9.99)

Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager. Other to-do applications either oversimplify or are too difficult to use. Either way you are not getting stuff done. Things instead has the right balance between ease of use and powerful features.

6. Quickie to Do ($1.99)

Fastest to-do list in the store, perfect for ad-hoc, spur of the moment lists. Simple and efficient, a pleasure to use.

7. LocationMinder ($1.99)

LocationMinder allows you to set reminder alarms that trigger based on location. Even when the app is not running, you will receive the reminders when you reach the area. Designed specifically to work with a new technology in the iPhone 4 for very low power consumption and high accuracy.

8. Wunderlist (free)

Wunderlist makes it downright simple to organize your daily life. Just create a list and start filling it with things that need to be completed. Keep track of your more important tasks with reminders and notifications.

9. Reeder ($2.99)

Google Reader client with dozens of useful features.

10. MobileRSS (free)

MobileRSS is a fully-featured Google Reader client for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. We’ve built a ton of powerful and exclusive features onto an elegant and familiar design platform which makes reading the news fun again. We think you’ll like it! This free version of MobileRSS has ads which can be removed by upgrading to the ad-free MobileRSS

Designer

Are you an author on Envato marketplace or just need quick access to your FTP server? These apps will suit designers, developers and other creatives who just love to paint on their phone.

1. cliqcliq Colors (free)

Colors is an easy-to-use color picker for discovering, converting, and managing colors and palettes.

2. WhatTheFont (free)

Ever seen a great font in a magazine ad, poster, or on the web and wondered what font it is? Whip out your iPhone and snap a photo, and WhatTheFont will identify that font in seconds.

3. Leaflet ($1.99)

Leaflet is an iPhone app designed for Envato marketplace publishers. Keep track of all of your account related information including comments, earnings breakdown, statement list and receive push notifications for both new sales and comments. You can also respond to comments and view individual statement entries all in one beautifully designed interface.

4. FTP On The Go (1,59 €)

An FTP client for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

5. Zen Brush ($2.99)

Zen Brush is an app that allows you to easily enjoy the feeling of using an ink brush to write or to paint. It allows anyone to easily perform fluent strokes while not compromising on the fascinating texture of a real ink brush. Create works that radiate the right atmosphere by choosing the best background template from our large collection.

Photography

Picture can save a thousand words. These apps will help to keep your memorable pictures safe, share them with your friends and enhance them with cool effects right in your phone.

1. Instagram (free)

3.75 Million users love Instagram! It’s a free, fun, and simple way to make and share gorgeous photos on your iPhone.

2. Adobe Photoshop Express (free)

Adobe Photoshop Express software lets you use simple gestures to quickly edit and share photos from your mobile device. Enjoy having your photo and video library right in your hand — without wasting your device’s valuable storage space.

3. Photopod ($0.99)

Take all your photos from Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Tumblr and Dropbox everywhere you go, on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Find the photos you want to see in seconds, edit and crop them or instantly upload the photos you just took with your iPhone to multiple networks without the need to open a new account.

4. PhotoSync ($1.99)

PhotoSync will transform your photo handling forever. It‘s the first app that makes wireless transfer of your photos/videos from or to your computer and other i-Devices – a breeze. PhotoSync also transfers to Dropbox, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, SmugMug and FTP. You need never use a cable again.

5. QuickShot with Dropbox ($0.99)

QuickShot simplifies the process of uploading photos to Dropbox. Every picture you take is immediately uploaded without the need for any additional actions. It has all the familiar camera features found in other apps, plus a few not found anywhere else. Queue multiple photos, upload photos in the background, and access all of the standard camera functionality from QuickShot’s simple interface.

6. Camera Plus (free)

Camera Plus is a free camera app for your iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G and iPod touch to capture photos instantly with some great controls, add cool effects and share them with your Facebook, Twitter or Flickr friends on-the-fly!.

Social

Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only social networks out there. Play photo games, write diary, listen to thousands of mixes straight away from your phone.

1. Piictu (free)

Part photo game, part social camera, piictu is a fun + simple way to talk and play with piics from your mobile phone.

2. Momento ($2.99)

Momento is a unique diary/journal writing application which provides a quick and easy way to privately record moments throughout your day. Connect with popular web services, such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare, Gowalla, YouTube, Vimeo, Digg and Last.fm, to collect and display your online activity as part of your diary.

3. 8tracks Radio (free)

8tracks is handcrafted internet radio — a “social” alternative to Pandora. Featuring hundreds of thousands of mixes created by people who know and love music, the 8tracks iPhone app gives you easy, free and mobile access to the best collection of playlists on the web.

4. Skype (free)

Call, video call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free with Skype for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

5. Path (free)

Path is the simple and private way to share life with close friends & family.

6. GroupMe (free)

Free group messaging with anyone you know. Works on any phone.Now works over data—no text plan required.

7. Spout ($0.99)

Introducing Spout, the newest way to enjoy news, messages, tweets and comments; delivered to your screen as a beautifully rendered up-to-the-second display of social content.

8. Bump (free)

Bump makes sharing with people as simple as bumping two phones together. Just pick what you want to send, then hold your phones and gently bump hands with another Bump user. And now, you can message with your friends who aren’t near you – just add them as a friend inside of Bump and start messaging immediately — it’s kind of like a long-distance “virtual bump”.

Other

All the other fantastic apps that doesn’t fit in any other category. Check out Ben the Bodyguard trailer to find out what I’m talking about.

1. Fast ($1.99)

Fast is an innovative writing system that will save you time when typing your sms, mail, or more generally any text. The feature that differentiates Fast from other writing systems is that Fast learns from what you write, and updates itself by drawing from your vocabulary.

2. Ben the Bodyguard (3,99 €)

Ben protects photos, contacts, passwords and other sensitive stuff on your iPhone or iPod touch. He’s your own personal security expert. Peace of mind on the go with a distinct attitude and opinion. Ben’s guarantee — “Your secrets are safe with me.”

3. Gas Cubby ($4.99)

Gas Cubby is the ultimate tool for tracking gas mileage and vehicle maintenance. Whether you’re a hypermiler, or just want a reminder to change the oil, Gas Cubby will save you money and keep your vehicle operating at its peak.

4. blip.me (free)

blip.me is a fun, useful, and free way to turn your mobile phone into a push-to-talk walkie-talkie.

5. Find My iPhone (free)

Find My iPhone is free for anyone with an iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch (iOS 4.2 or later required).* Just sign in with your Apple ID on your qualifying device and turn on Find My iPhone to allow you to locate it. Then use the same Apple ID to turn on Find My iPhone on your other iOS 4.2 (or later) devices including iPhone 3G, 3GS, or iPod touch (2nd generation or later). Find My iPhone is also included with a MobileMe subscription.

6. Rowmote Pro ($4.99)

Rowmote Pro is the ultimate wireless remote, trackpad, and keyboard. A gorgeous universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, with everything from a multitouch trackpad to full extended keyboard support, and with no-configuration control of dozens of the best Mac applications, it is a must-have for any home media center or presentation.

7. Free Full Screen Private Browsing (free)

Finally, you can view all your websites privately and in full screen for free. This is the simple, no frills web browser you’ve been waiting for.

8. Where (free)

Join more than 4 million people who rely on Where everyday to answer the question, ‘Where should I go next?’

9. quiQR ($1.99)

quiQR — Real-time QR code reader and creator

If you’re a small business owner, your website is a pivotal part of your marketing and branding, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s integral to not just focus on appearance – but usability – as this will play a major role in how long your customers stay around.

In this article I will address the areas that factor into whether a small business website is ultimately successful or not.  Pay careful attention to these areas in your next design for a small business, as they will reap benefits for your clients in the long run.

Articulate Your Mission

In today’s society buzz words are a thing of the past. Freely express your vision for your business with the world on your website. You can start by asking yourself (or your client) these three questions:

1. Who are you?
2. Who are your potential customers?
3. How can you tell your potential customers who you are?

After answering these three questions your can begin to develop a creative strategy for your website that will ultimately make it more effective. These questions hold the key to making marketing decisions, branding your business, building fierce loyalty within your customer base, and a lot more.

You’ll find mission statements for some well-known companies here.

Keep these tips in mind in creating copy for your site:

• Employing overly sophisticated language or industry-specific jargon could confuse, isolate, and frustrate clients. Use words you would use when speaking to someone in person.
• Read your marketing material to a child in late elementary or middle school. Do they understand your product? If not, what did you need to tell them before they did?

A Call to Action

You’ve spent hours upon hours designing a beautiful website for your clients, complete with custom illustrations and a flashy new slideshow, but your client isn’t getting any new business. A fundamental error of many small business websites is they fail to include a clear Call to Action. If you aren’t leading users to commit to an action (buy a product, contact you or subscribe, for example), then you are losing them.

You may have spent a lot of time driving traffic to your client’s website, ultimately to only have these customers not convert into new business. If a call to action is a small link buried in a sea of text, it’s easy to see how these customers got away. To achieve a business’ goals, creating a successful call to action to guide users where they need to be should be at the forefront of your web design check list.

The call to action button above is placed in a prominent location; it’s large and has a distinctive color with respect to surrounding elements. To provide additional context on what it means to “Purchase the book”, the call to action button is followed by text explaining cost and available format (traditional book or PDF).

Keep the following in mind when creating the right call to action:

• The design of a call to action can be broken down into 4 simple elements —size, shape, color, and position. Each plays a vital part in determining how effective the call to action is in directing the user.
• Don’t overdo it with multiple call to actions on each page.
• Provide access to the call to action quickly. Your visitor is most interested in accessing this information as quickly as possible so don’t create any unnecessary hurdles!

Content

We all love a beautiful website, but when that website loads slowly or gets in the way of accessing pertinent information, it’s time for some restructuring. It’s important to address what is the ultimate goal you wish your visitor to achieve in visiting your site. Your site should ultimately draw focus to the content, and all those bells and whistles are just icing on the cake.

Most people won’t read everything on your page, so it’s critical to decide the most important content that needs to be there. This can be achieved through a visual hierarchy that guides the user through the page and creates a more enjoyable user experience.

Here’s an article on Eye Tracking to give you a better idea of how to structure content.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when structuring your content:

• White space is necessary. Giving your content room to breathe allows the user to focus on the most important aspects on any given page.
• Break up lengthy blocks of text into digestible blocks. Heading, sub-headings, bullets, blockquotes, and paragraphs are all necessary components of a well-structured website.
• For every flash animation or widget on your web site, your site’s loading time will increase while your screen real estate decreases.
• Challenge every item on each page and ask, “Does it really need to be there? Does it serve a specific purpose? Can I live without it?”
• Crisp layouts, cohesive colors, and well thought-out design elements give off a sense of know-how and experience.
  

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should also be addressed in your overall website strategy. Quality content with legitimate mentions of key words and topics related to your business will help to bring more business your way. What’s best is results are now consisted of all kinds of content, including videos, images, maps, business listings, tweets and even Facebook Page posts.

• Add a Blog. Search engines love fresh content and if your client updates it regularly, they will experience a distinct SEO advantage. The interactivity also increases the likelihood that potential customers will social bookmark it and share it with their network.
• Consider creating a YouTube channel. Every video you post to your channel can be tagged and indexed, increasing the odds your brand name will appear in natural searches for keywords associated with your business.
• Remember to add footer links to every page, use meta description tags, and make each page unique.

Examples

Mailchimp
MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. In addition to a user-friendly navigation, a prominent call to action button is displayed, encouraging users to get started.

Craft Coffee
Craft Coffee is a coffee discovery service that explains the value it brings to customers as soon as they enter the website. After highlighting their services, they direct users to “Buy a Tasting Box” with one of their highly visible call to action buttons.

Your Web Job
Your Web Job is a hub for job-seeking web professionals — project managers, copywriters, SEO experts, usability folk, social media gurus, and designers and developers — and for those who want to hire them. A call to action button is placed right at the top of the page, encouraging visitors to submit jobs right away.

These simple procedures in web design are just stepping stones on your way to creating a memorable website for your business. These are just a few rules, have you found any others in creating small business websites for your clients?

You should by now have been educated that there are several business formats available for today’s entrepreneur. Should you launch an online business or go with the traditional brick and mortar setup? The decision is yours to make alone, but this article will help guide you through a wiser and more profitable decision.

Traditional Brick and Mortar Business Setup

A traditional brick and mortar business, first of all, can be very costly. The start-up costs and overhead costs include the lease, inventory, taxes, utility bills and the labor.

Apple is among the top brick and mortar electronic stores (Photo by Apple Insider)

Location is very important for a brick and mortar business–it can bring about the establishment’s success or demise. Because of this, you need to set aside a lot of time for market research to know more about the market’s psychographics and demographics where you plan to establish the business. This means doing the legwork for surveys, interviews, etc. within the area.

Finally, if your main intention for having your own business is to escape the 9 to 5 hour grind, you are in for a surprise: having your own brick and mortar business will cause you plenty of sleepless nights, and a work day that is usually much longer than the usual 8 hours. This is especially true during the first year of the business.

Pros:

• There is a sense of trust and reliability that comes with having your own brick and mortar store. Many customers still feel safer buying from a store. There are shady websites everywhere, so having your own physical store adds a touch of professionalism.
• Walk-ins are another benefit that comes with having your own store. This is the old-fashioned way of buying products. In high traffic locations, you can have plenty of walk-ins in a day.
• Many customers still want to see, feel, and touch the product physically before purchasing anything.

Cons:

• Business is only open during business hours. You can’t do business when you’re closed, obviously–since no one can accommodate your customers during that time.
• Huge startup capital and overhead costs come with having your own brick and mortar store.

Virtual Online Business Setup

A virtual online business is arguably easier, but the work you need to do is just the same. You still need to do market research for your specified target demographics. However this time you are no longer limited to a specific area or location. Instead of exhausting legwork, you can do the research sitting comfortably in front of the computer; using all the necessary online tools, social networking tools, forums, etc.

Startup capital for an online business is dramatically less.When it comes to the costs for marketing and advertising, there is a huge difference between online and brick and mortar. Advertising is relatively cheaper, and in some cases even free. You just need to make some noise in forums, chat rooms and social networking sites and people will come to your site.

Overhead costs are also comparatively less. You only need a computer, decent internet connection, cellphone or telephone so that clients can contact you. You will need to have your own website, so you need to pay for your own domain name and web hosting. That’s pretty much it and you’re ready to open for business.

While it is far easier and less expensive to start an internet business versus launching a brick and mortar business, the work is just as hard. You’ll have to conduct market research, spend hours in front of your computer, and learn techniques that may be unfamiliar to you. However, you can do this from the comfort of your own home at any hour of the day or night. Yes, you can earn money even while you are asleep.

Pros:

• Low costs for start-up, but open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
• High number of visitors in a day. It’s easy to create some noise to get people to click your link and visit your site. However, turning these website visitors into customers is another matter.

Cons:

• False sense of security. While the internet can be a great gold mine, you should remember that the work to make money is just as hard. Internet entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs are both hardworking, and persevering.
• No personal interaction with the client. Sometimes it’s better to talk to your customers one on one, it gives them a better shopping experience.
• There are too many distractions with operating an online business. You can easily get lost and distracted about what you want to sell. Just be sure to know what products you want to sell and stick to that niche.

How about Brick and Click?

But if you are up to it, why not get a little bit of both by making use of the Brick and Click Business Model? The Brick and Click is a business format that integrates both traditional brick and mortar (offline) and clicks (online). This means that they have both an online and offline presence, where customers can buy products traditionally through the store or they can just go online, order, and have it shipped straight to their door. This business model is already popular especially with clothing, retail, electronic and popular ‘big box’ stores.

Forever 21 is one good example of a company implementing the Bricks-and-Mortar strategy

Your first thought probably was ‘I can’t take a vacation. I have work to do!’

The most annoying thing about freelancing is our inability to take vacations. Sure, theoretically, we can take them. Practically, it’s nearly impossible. After all, who’s going to run the business if we’re on leave?

Running a freelance business means that there is no paid leave. If a freelancer wants to take a vacation, he can’t just pack his suitcase and leave for two weeks. There are clients to answer to after all!

Unfortunately, if you don’t take a break, you’re going to burn out faster than a tire on a race car. And to avoid burnout you need to– you guessed it – take a vacation.

But ‘How?!’ you ask me. How am I supposed to leave my work? There are so many people depending on me. The world as I know it will end if I don’t answer every email I get within a few hours!

Newsflash, my friends. The world will not end if you take a break. The world will realize you’re human and tell you to go have fun.

If you’re still not convinced, here are a few ways you can handle your work obligations when going on a vacation.

Submit work early

I take my vacation seriously. Every year I take one long break to travel and submitting work early is my favourite method of taking care of my workload.

Complete any work due during your vacations beforehand and send it off to your clients before leaving. Let them know you’re going on a vacation (and when you’ll return) and don’t accept any more work during your break.

Keep yourself available via email in case of (work) emergencies.

Yes, it will mean extra work for you. It will get hectic and you’ll probably work nights and weekends to get things done in time for your vacation. But think of the alternative – two or more weeks of complete and utter bliss.

You’ll be able to sleep in late if you want with no tension about work because you’ve already taken care of it!

It’s also an excellent way to impress your clients. After all, which client doesn’t like receiving work in advance? You’ll stick out as a freelancer who is dependable and conscientious and guess what? Clients love working with freelancers like that!

Delegate/Swap

If you’re working on a project with a team, consider delegating your work to them. Team members are usually open to dividing extra work between them, as they know you would do the same when they go on a vacation.

Even if your work isn’t their area of expertise, you can swap deadlines with them and submit your work earlier or later.

Ask for an extension

If you can’t submit work early, ask for an extension for your deadlines. Letting clients know beforehand means they know what to expect and can work around your vacations. Most clients have no problems granting extensions for a vacationing freelancer – as long as you’ve been consistently meeting deadlines.

Just give them enough time to make decisions. Sending them an email asking for an extension two days before your vacation will probably get you fired.

Let them know a month before. Give them enough time to make any changes required. Like you, they’re on a schedule too so they might need to move around projects because of your vacation.

If you’ve planned your vacation a few months in advance, then it’ll be easier for you. You can simply negotiate the deadline at the start of a project when discussing it with your client so that it’s after your vacation and not before or during it.

Hire another freelancer

If you’ve got a big project that absolutely can’t cope with you taking time off, consider hiring another freelancer who can work for you. Get the freelancer to start a week or so before you leave for your vacations. This way the freelancer you’ve hired will be familiar with your work and you’ll be confident that he’s going to do a good job.

One drawback of hiring a freelancer is that you can’t completely plug off on your vacation. You will need to check in regularly to see if your freelancer is on schedule. If he faces any problems, you’ll need to work in order to sort them out.

Chances are, if you hire a freelancer worth his salt, you won’t need to spend more than 30 minutes or less per day with him.

Refer someone else

Referring another freelancer to your clients is a good idea. Talk to a freelancer whose work you admire and trust to deliver results as well as you. Let your client know you’ve assigned the project to someone else in your absence and assure them that they won’t have any problems.

Give them a personal guarantee that you will go through the final version and make sure that it’s in accordance to the client’s wishes.

When choosing another freelancer to take over your work, make sure that it is one you’ve worked with before. To assuage your client’s fears about the project changing freelancers, you need to believe in the freelancer you’re recommending.

That can only happen when you’ve worked with the freelancer before. Remember, this is your reputation on the line so recommend someone you trust.

Take a working vacation

If you still feel that you can’t take a vacation, then as a last resort, consider taking a working vacation.

Work only a few hours a day and leave your smart phone and laptop in the office when you’re done.

Set up an email auto responder letting people know that you’re on a break and include the date you’ll be back. This way you’ll be able to choose what to work on and what to leave till after your break.

Before you go on a working vacation, let your clients know that you’ll be meeting their deadlines but working reduced hours so might not get back to them as promptly as you usually do. For everyone else, there’s no need to let them know that you’re on a working vacation. If you do, you’ll be working all day before you know it!

All set to take a vacation

There is no reason for you not to take a vacation. Choose any of these tips to organize your work before taking a break and you’ll be enjoying a stress free vacation before you know it.

Just remember, planning is the key to a successful break. Make sure you’ve covered all your bases and prepared for all eventualities. But even then your best laid plans go might go awry – so keep allowance for that and take it easy.

In this article I wanted to scratch the surface about several well known, and not so well known, monetization techniques that you could implement in your own business. Even if you don’t have your own business blog yet – no problem, because even a simple understanding  how other people earn online will be a great help to boost your confidence to start! Yes, online business can be very profitable if you follow certain rules to monetize your site!

I consider there are three categories of people venturing online:

1.Dreamers

Most people just complain about their life and keep reading success stories but don’t do anything on their own! Remember that dreaming will not make your goals a reality! These people may earn some money to survive, but nothing impressive, they’re just afraid or too lazy to actually start something. If you are there – don’t worry, you are stepping out from that reality to discover a new reality! This is how I started, because I didn’t want to accept the reality everybody else had! What’s the Secret?  - Take action!

2. Average business (making a living)

Here I would rank fairly successful people, including freelancers who own blog businesses and share their thoughts and expertise to their established readership (50,000-100,000 unique visits per month). Most online businesses fall in this category, because the actual project idea is good, but there is something missing. Mostly it’s because such business owners are just hard working and have experienced in their own niche – be it design, web development, writing, but not so much in marketing, social media promotion or money management. They are just lacking motivation or expertise in some areas that are crucial for their business to grow. They probably don’t have enough money to hire people who could take on the tasks required to market a blog and take it to the next level. Most freelancers don’t have enough time to learn these new skills because they are doing everything themselves.

My answer to fix this – implement better monetizing techniques to earn more (the old saying goes ‘work smarter, not harder’) so you can afford to hire someone that has the knowledge and skills you may not! Another solution could be to change the vision – maybe you’re doing what everybody else is. Are you doing anything different, or unique,to grab more people’s attention?

3.Good, profitable business (enjoy living)

And then there is  the third category where the business seems to have everything it needs – established team, great content, social media promotion, marketing and some classic monetization techniques implemented. Most people do not make it to this level of success and those that do often stop here because they don’t know how else to improve! I myself face this challenge and I’m slowly moving forward and making improvements. I was at this stage for close to a year and I considered myself highly successful. I was comfortable, and because I felt successful I didn’t actively seek ways to improve.  I paid for this mistake – I lost a lot of loyal readers, who just saw the content wasn’t at the same level anymore.

My point?

Well, there are so many online businesses, but most of them are missing great monetization! Project ideas are great, but you need to show how the idea can make the money; what will make this new business profitable!  Ok, everybody can make money from Google Adsense, selling image banners, but this type of monetization is limited (rare exceptions)! You need to get more and more traffic to keep your income growing and that’s the problem because there are some limits in traffic growth.  For example 1WD was growing rapidly for 2 years, but then growth became much slower and when my income stayed the same for several months I started to worry!

How can I grow my business, if I cannot increase the income? All I can do is invest my money more carefully, but opportunities are very limited! Oh, and I didn’t mention that once your blog is huge you cannot increase your ad prices that much, because nobody will usually buy those ads (there are a few exceptions to this, namely the major blogs that are considerd the top of their respective niches).

How do you increase income then? Well..here are some other monetization techniques. There are a lot smarter ways to make money (like I said earlier, work smarter, not harder). I’m going to share with you some different techniques and options, explain how they work and can help you make the most of your blog.  This Bullet Proof guide will show you how to make money from your design blog! These tips were written specifically for design blogs, though the principles and methods can be applied to any blog.

Image Banner Advertising

Advertising, no doubt, is the most popular and classic way to earn money with a design blog. You can see a couple of banners on almost every design blog. Selling banner space is one of the main ways many blogs earn an income (they’re still the top income source for 1WD). BuySellAds is the top choice for blogs who want to sell their unutilized space. It simplifies the process of buying and selling advertisements so you don’t have to attract advertisers yourself. Instead you can just focus on the blog’s content and let BuySellAds do the work for you. However the biggest drawback is that BSA take 25% of your profit. Of course you can try to sell advertising space on your own, though it can be really frustrating and time consuming, so the majority of blogs use BSA.

Well, there are a couple of good alternatives though:

DeckNetwork

The premier network for reaching creative, web and design professionals, The Deck serves up over one hundred million ad impressions each month and is uniquely configured to connect the right marketers to a targeted, influential audience.

What makes this ad service stand out from the crowd is they accept only top design sites, ensuring that traffic is very targeted for advertisers. They also only accept high quality advertisers who are selling good products, not just any old thing. The downside in my opinion, is that if you want to use their service, you cannot use other monetizing options, for example: Google Adsense.

CarbonAds

Carbon Ads is an ad tech company behind a new kind of advertising network. Carbon connects advertisers to highly-relevant users through targeted verticals we call Circles. These circles are made up of influential publishers who lead, or are actively engaged with, their industries. To their audiences, Carbon brings well-designed, value-focused ads, displayed one per page above the fold, for quality brands, products and services that readers actually need and want.

Another promising new ad network is FuelBrandInc – very relevant for designers.

Affiliate Programs

If your blog generates a lot of traffic you should really consider affiliates as a serious source of income. If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing –  it’s the type of advertising where you, for example, with your blog send potential buyers to a direct merchant. If done right it can be a win-win situation for both you and your audience.

ClickBank

Clickbank is one of the most popular affiliate networks which we use here at 1stwebdesigner because they offer the biggest payouts if you sell something. It’s not easy to convert visitors to actual buyers, but this is the best place to start. There are also good alternatives: CJ, which is very similar to Clickbank. Basically these two networks are the biggest ones and you’ll find the greatest variety of products, some of which could be really appropriate for your site.

Why to choose Clickbank:

• Commissions of up to 75% — much higher than other affiliate networks
• Digital products mean instant delivery and faster commissions
• More reward for your efforts
• Tens of thousands of products

Envato Marketplaces

Well, at least for our site, the Envato marketplace referral programs have worked really great. Why? Because their marketplaces are extremely relevant to our site – for themes we use Themeforest, for design elements we use GraphicRiver, for code snippets we use CodeCanyon sites!

I definitely suggest you check out the Envato markeplace referral program to get started easily. In my experience the image banners from the marketplace don’t work very well. Don’t over optimize articles, but it doesn’t hurt to add few premium selections for example to big slideshow gallery article. The reason people actually go to these marketplaces is because the products offered there are extremely high quality, something worth paying for! In my opinion, free isn’t always the best option and if I find something that can greatly save me hours of work for only $10-30, I will buy it without hesitating! Learn more here:  Envato Wiki site.

Another alternative is Mojo-Themes, which is kind of similar to Themeforest selling premium themes and templates.

Amazon Associates Program

Well, I haven’t earned millions there, because at least 1stwebdesigner isn’t focused so much on hardware and physical products. I would suggest if you’re in the design niche to seriously consider promoting popular design books, bestsellers on Amazon from time to time. While such promotions won’t make you a lot of money, it definitely doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on Amazon’s products.

Amazon is different because they offer very little, only 4% as a referral fee at the beginning, if you sell enough products in a month you could maker 6% or higher. What’s cool with Amazon is that though your referrals may not end up buying what they saw on you site, they may end up buying something completely different, and you’ll still make some money. The main task here is actually just to get people to go to Amazon, and they’ll do the rest! There are several ways to make money with Amazon, learn more here.

Other Monetizing Techniques

Premium Content: Memberships

Premium content is another great way for design blogs to earn some money. You can see many design blogs offering high quality content and tutorials for money. This is a great and effective way to make money if you’re able to deliver high quality content regularly. Nowadays when you can find almost anything on the internet, people are not willing to pay for mediocre content or content they’ve seen in ten different places. You have to be able to provide unique and high quality content so that people will be willing to pay for it. In most of the blogs you can access all their premium content for a fixed monthly fee. Check out Tuts+ and WDL premium programs to see what I mean and what kind of content people are paying for.

Tuts+ makes most if its money from their membership program, not advertising, not referral programs, but their membership program!

Selling Premium File Memberships

A similar way of earning money to what we just talked about.

Similar to blog premium membership, there are websites in which you can get access to high quality design resources for a fixed monthly fee. Some of the best examples are WeGraphics and MediaLoot. WeGraphics also has an affiliate program so you can earn some extra cash if you refer new people to their site. As you can see these websites are very specialized,but that doesn’t mean you can’t establish something similar on your own design blog.

Selling Books, Themes & Other Premium Products

Another popular way to earn money is by selling themes, icons, e-books and other design related material. It’s similar to the premium membership model, but the difference is that with this method you sell one specific thing for a one fixed price.

Smashing Shop is a great example how to make money online by selling e-books. If you have the time and knowledge to create a magnificent product, this can be very profitable.

You can learn a lot from them about how to go about selling a printed book. SM just released their new ‘Smashing Book #2′ and it has sold extremely well which proves that this approach can be profitable.

WP Plugins is a revolutionary WordPress project, aimed at improving the quality, support for, and standard of plugins. They’re just like the App Store for the iPhone, except for WordPress. They assess, check and scrutinize every plugin to ensure that you get the highest quality product.

Elegantthemes is a small marketplace selling premium WordPress themes. They differ from similar marketplaces is that here you get unlimited access to all of their themes for a fixed price. You’re not just purchasing a specific file once, you are obtaining access to a strong and healthy community, frequent theme updates as well as full access to the support services.

IconEden is a premium icon marketplace which helps you save time by offering well-designed stock icons for your projects. They’re one of the best in icon creation and with stock icons picked from IconEden, you’ll never worry about the consistency, usability or simplicity. You can buy the icon sets separately or you can access all icon bundles for a single payment.

Case Study:PremiumPixels

I wanted to show you the site for someone who ties his design blog to his marketplace at Themeforest. Orman Clark offers premium free PSD files on his personal site almost twice a week – visitors love him for that and keep coming back. But how does he make money offering things for free?

He also owns very successful Themeforest account, where he regularly offers new and high quality WordPress themes for sale! And his work is really amazing, definitely worth buying. He is marketing himself and his products very well by cross-promoting his premium themes through his blog in a non-obtrusive way (which I love). He doesn’t trick people into buying his themes, just reminds them about his premium themes on his sidebar and right before you download any of his free psd files! PremiumPixels is great case study for graphic designers and developers who want to make their living doing what they really love the most!

Job Boards

Job boards are a great way to earn some extra cash and increase your traffic as well. They can also be very useful for your readers, but the trick is you need to have a good user base before you think about creating your own job board, otherwise no one will use it and you’ll just get an extra headache and make no money. Before you start,  investigate what others in your niche are doing right and most importantly – what they are doing wrong! If you have a chance to create a better job board then you might become successful without a huge blog presence, but in most cases I still would suggest to have a good reader base first.

Where do you earn money from job boards? Well, you can charge people for placing their job advertisements on your job board or vice versa, you can collect money from job seekers. Once you’ve built an effective and trustworthy job board, the ads will come naturally and it will turn into a great source of passive income. Not as easy to do as it sounds though.

Resource Bundles

Bundles are becoming more and more popular nowadays. Design bundles are premium resource packs which usually contain various apps, themes, icons, e-books and premium memberships for a price that can be as low as 10% of the bundle’s real value. BundleHunt is the most popular service offering bundles they call “treasures”. If you check out their About section, you’d see that some well-known design blogs (WebDesignerDepot, for instance) are contributing to this project.

Where is the money? Well, you may be able to sell your product as a part of a bundle. If you have something in one of these bundles, the irresistible price of the bundle and the quality of your product may drive a significant amount of traffic to your site, which may result in higher sales of other products you offer. If nothing else, at the very least you’ll be known by a much wider audience. Some bundles offer an affiliate program if you post a great article about the bundle.

MightyDeals

MightyDeals offer unbelievable deals and discounts for creative professionals for a very limited time. The deals include products and services that are heavily discounted, usually 50% to 90% off.

I like their marketing technique, how they cross-promote their deals through many popular design blogs by placing advertisements in unique spots, which get really good attention because of their placement.

BundleHunt

Bundlehunt is owned by a bunch of developers, marketers and social media experts who, once in a while, like to put together bundles of high quality software, aimed at empowering the creative community. Because we are fond of our bundles, they call them “treasures.” Some call them “premium resource packs”. Maybe because it is a premiere service within the design community offering outstanding apps, templates, icons, eBooks, hosting plans and premium memberships for usually less than 10% of it’s real price.

Well I must say their deals are impressive and this kind of thing can be done by anybody! Well, there is a trick – you need to know the right people and get those people and companies to trust you to actually get these deals.

Do you want to know where this bundle idea started? It started with Groupon just a few years ago. Groupon’s founder just figured if companies can unite to buy something for lower price…why not use this same idea for individuals? It’s a win/win situation!

Email Newsletter

Every blog and business should have its own email newsletter and contact list! Why? Because email marketing is the most immediate way to promote your products, resources or new sites! Before you start promoting anything you of course need to provide value and build trust, but once it’s done – possibilities are limitless! Those bundle sites actually rely a lot on their email marketing, where they promote their latest releases to people who actually are interested in their deals!

Build an active list of at least 500 people and you have a very targeted and profitable business! I am just explaining the basics here though, there are a lot of hidden techniques how to make income from email marketing, how to do super successful product launches with an email list alone! Some successful examples are the SmashingMagazine Newsletter and actually 1WD is also working on building a list by offering free e-book and a seven day email course to encourage people to subscribe!

When you sign up to Graphic Design Blender’s newsletter you get access to a free ebook.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve got a little insight about how to make money with your blog. These techniques can not only make you some money, they can also increase your traffic and attract new visitors. Try not to overdo it with monetization; don’t forget about your blog’s primary goals. Relevant, high quality content is what will draw people to your site and keep them coming back, if you have the content and the readership, the money will come.

Well, if you enjoyed this article, let us know because it only scratched the surface of how some people make money on the Internet! If there is enough interest and demand I am considering doing some case studies and interviewing successful designers and developers who have turned their hobby a full time business!

Do you want more case studies? Do you want detailed guides:

• how to set up your job board?
• how to approach companies to get good deals from them?
• how to build relationships?

Let us know, I would be happy to show you how to have a rewarding and successful future! I have been passionately researching and trying many different ways to monetize 1WD and I have very good relationships with some of the biggest and most successful design blogs – I believe I can teach you something and I would be happy to teach you (and learn a few things myself, no doubt) by doing case studies and interviews with successful people!

While that’s not totally relevant I just wanted to back up my claims with some real achievements, so you know I don’t pull stuff from thin air. Either way, we got the introduction to the article underway – we will try to figure out the good and the bad startup ideas.

What this article will not be is another list of things you need  to have to create your own startup. You probably can get tons of those from uncle Google, so let’s not be repetitive and try to dig deeper. This article is going to be more about the factors you need to take into consideration. Launching a startup is actually not that hard, the tricky part is not letting it die.

So let’s begin with an optimistic question:

Why will you fail?

You really need to be realistic with your own project. Otherwise you may end up wasting not only your time, but the time of others and that hurts your reputation for future cases. Ask yourself what are the weak points of your projects and try to patch them up as good as you can. The issues will vary depending on individual projects, but let’s try to look at some general ones. You might think that you don’t really need to do it and that you will somehow manage everything on your own. That may be true sometimes, but in the majority of cases, if you have not planned out everything beforehand, you might as well not even start.

Same ideas

When we had talks with some investors on one of our startups, they were very keen on asking how our project brings something new to table. The “new” factor is a very important element in today’s market.

Don’t get the wrong idea though. Copies of different, successful sites are a common practice. If yours is one of them, ask yourself  - does it have elements in it, that will make it better than the rest? It’s very important that you have something different, new, or better to offer. Even with a great and innovative idea you will still have problems with generating website traffic, with a bad idea it will be much harder.

Either with a new or existing idea you still face the same follow-up problem:

Do we really need it?

If you copy somebody else’s idea than make sure there is still a need for another website of its kind. Take a look at your future competitors and find out why they are successful and why some of them failed. You will need to learn from both if you want to have a shot. Sometimes patent issues may become a problem as well. Facebook has sued some of its local ripoff like StudiVZ in Germany. Wizards of the Coast have extensive patents on Trading Card Games which resulted in many lawsuits over the years, recently Nintendo has settled on undisclosed terms with Wizards regarding their Pokemon Card Game. Keep that in mind if you’re trying to copy ideas from different sites. If you have a new, brilliant idea you can try to get a patent on it yourself.

So what if your idea is a new one out there? In that case you need to do some research. Pitch your idea to some people and ask them if they would be interested in your service. Try to ask a variety of people, people that are different ages, gender, race etc., you want to get as much info as possible. You’re not only looking for the amount of interest, but also specifying your target audience. Going after the wrong type of folks with your project may very well be the difference between it being successful and dying a quick death.

The “need” of the market leads unavoidably to looking at the market itself.

Know your market

You may choose to have a startup targeted at a local area, to one country, a few countries, or even the whole world. Whichever it is, you need to know not only the audience in it, but gather knowledge about the market itself. For example, if you want to create a portal about racing games, you will want to find out as much about the market for racing games as possible. How much people play racing games, what figures do the units sell in, where are the best buyers etc. but the most important factor you might want to look at is: is the market going up or down and what are the future predictions in that regard. If you manage to step in during the early stages of the market developing then all the treasures later will be yours to take. On the other hand if the market is going down than it’s not really looking for more products, but rather to close down the least efficient ones and if you’re just starting, then you are one of the least efficient ones.

Another important factor we should look at closely is – how many people are there in your target audience. Try to come up with an estimate. It doesn’t have to be very accurate, anything close to 30% correctness is all right really. Then take this number and find what percent of this audience your competitors attract. Low numbers mean there’s still a lot of space for improvement and for you to come in. High percentages mean the contrary, but they also mean, that lot’s of the target audience is already aware that the Internet can expand their experience of their hobbies etc., which is a good thing as well.

Would you be interested?

That’s a question you have to ask yourself and answer it as honestly as you can. Actually not even that, answer it as skeptically as you can. Write down thoughts why you hate your own project, your fears with it etc.
When you have them down, you know what you still need to work on. Nothing can be too perfect and nothing really is. The flaws which you miss now will come out eventually at which point it maybe hard to counter them.

Innovation

Finally we come to what we started with. You just absolutely have to have this checked. If your product will not be superior ‘on paper’ to the ones already out there, then your just wasting your time. While you work on your project, your competition is already working on making theirs better, so by the time you launch, they will be already way ahead.

Your only advantage is that your project is still flexible and you can take care of some core problems. Functioning projects don’t have that flexibility and the bigger they are, the longer and harder it is to make decisions about changing them.

That’s how you get ahead, or at least how you try.

What to take into consideration?

So now that we’ve got your start-up working on paper, let’s figure out if it will work in real life… or at least the virtual one.

The lazy crew factor

If you’re working alone, than you can skip this one all together, as only your motivation to work will impact the project. But chances are, you have a crew to work with you. In any project I’ve led/been a part of there always was a problem with some people being less motivated to work than others. You would imagine that this problem is non-existent if you choose to pay the crew to do their work. It’s not the case though. Even if their wages depend on it, some people will just not work at 100% or anything close to that and some will not work at all.

The problem is quite hard to tackle and will probably be one of your main issues. We can read coaching books, threaten, torture (in some countries at least) and so on, but the problem will remain. What you want to do, is minimize it as much, as possible. Demanding work reports from everyone including yourself at specific intervals of time (maybe once a week for example) seems to work quite well. Remember though to keep the balance between fighting laziness and becoming a despotic tyrant. If you push your crew too much, they will start to push back. You can’t expect too much from folks who don’t enjoy doing what they do. Startups are about vision and passion. Not only yours, but your teams as well.

Necessary skill set

So what do you really need to get the project up and running? There are some essential skills and some optional ones. In a perfect world you want all of them at the highest level possible, but in the real world that’s not likely, unless you have enough money to hire the very best (at which point you probably wouldn’t need to create a startup in the first place).

Designer – somebody has to prepare the mock ups of what the site will look like. Without a Graphic Designer, who knows what they’re doing you probably will not only end up with a site that looks non-professional, but you run the risk of your project being very hard to use. Reading three design books per day is one thing, but you won’t get anywhere without experience. Knowledge is one thing. The ability to adapt to various situations people gain by doing, not seeing.
The first impression of your start-up a person has is usually the design. In that crucial few seconds your visitors will decide if they want to stay for a bit or move on. If your landing page can’t catch their interest, then it doesn’t really matter if you have the most brilliant coders on the clock.

Coder – making it look nice is one thing, making it work is another. There are many programming languages out there and many ways to get you to your goal. You really need to be able to trust your programmer(s). If you have multiple coders on your project, initiate a brainstorm between them so they come up with the best solutions between themselves. You will avoid many complaints of one programmer saying about another “I could have done that better.” They just love to point this out.

Project Manager – someone has to coordinate the work of your team. In most of the cases it will be you. It helps a lot to know a thing or two about the limitations and capabilities of each technology. Without it, you might request things that are actually more harmful than helpful. Don’t be afraid to listen to your “minions”. Their input may not only help you, but will keep them feeling happy and valued.

Public Relations – most people think they can do that by themselves, most of them can’t, or do a poor job. You need a diplomatic skill set and an open mind. When on the phone or other “live” chats, you need to be quick on your feet and come up with the best answers and solutions on the spot. Too many pauses, too much “I have to consult with a colleague about that” and you’re going to lose your client or partner. At some point you will need someone who can speak with other people. There are many valuable assets that can make a big difference, the art of persuasion is high on that list.

Writers – you probably think I mean people who write articles for your website etc. While this is true, there’s more to it than that. If you need people to write articles or not depends really on the project you undertake. But you will need someone to write official documents, letters, summaries etc. It’s beneficial if your PR person can do that, it helps to keep things running more smoothly and coordinated.
If you’re thinking of pitching your idea to investors at some point, creating documents one after another will be demanded of you and you want to have those made correctly if you are to succeed getting some extra money. Not to forget, The European Union loves start-ups and they have special programs to fund those, but more on that later.

Accountant – when the money starts flowing you might want to keep track of it. Make some mistakes and your IRS counterpart will find them. Not only that, a good accountant will help you to actually get more money with the knowledge of various laws and workarounds.

Language

If you’re natively an English speaker, then the problem is non-existent for you. But if you’re starting in a country with a different language, then you have to decide which people are your primary concern.

The home field advantage of your own country is a big help. You know the culture and customs of your own nation, which can be very helpful. It puts you in front of any “outside” projects trying to make it in your region.
But of course, you’re restricting yourself to a smaller audience. English is pretty much the basic language of the Internet now and if you choose to use it, you can get exposed to a much broader audience. But with a bigger field comes more players, so your competition will be much more fierce.

Another downside to choosing English, is that it may prove hard for you to find team members which will be able to contribute any written content to your website. Understanding the language and writing it correctly are two separate things.

Project Profile

This comes back a bit to the Target Audience factor. We’re going to build on it a bit more. Depending on your primary audience you should build and design your start-up accordingly. Like, you won’t put Ponies on a site selling heavy metal accessories (though it’s probably coming…). But that’s just the most simple example, the implications are really very vast.  The idea is that you have to find a way to get to your audience whenever possible. Attention to the smallest details separate the wolves from the sheep.

Recently on one of my projects we implemented ClickTale , a software which tracks what your visitors do on your website and puts it into various graphical statistics and videos. I guess how useful it can be is self-explanatory. Being able to see where your visitors struggle and what parts of the website they tend not to be interested in at all is helpful in improving your business. It takes a lot of time, yes. But the data you get is invaluable.
I encourage you to try different software of the sort as well, by no means have I enough information to claim that ClickTale is the best one out there, but we like it.

Do you need funds?

Depends on who you know. Theoretically, you can get away with creating a start-up without putting any money into it, but you need to convince some people to do it with you for the promise of future gains.

Your chance at doing that depends on what you have achieved so far and who you already know. If you have friends you can ask directly, do so. Nothing really to lose, is there? If you’re short-handed though and don’t want to spend money you might try advertising your idea on various forums or places which allow you to search for specialized people for a project.

I have tried all of the above and all of the above actually work. The problem is (obviously), that you don’t really know anything about the people you get from the Internet. Nothing really stops them from walking away after a month and leaving you on ice. You don’t know how reliable or fast they are. So it’s a bit of a crap shoot.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to put up some money for the work, you have a better chance of more serious people coming forward. Don’t take it for granted though. Trial periods and work history checks are your friends. Contracts are another thing that keeps you safe.

You need a server and a domain. Although nowadays there’s so many hosting companies fighting for clients, that if you look around enough you might get a year or two of both for as little as a few cents. It may not be something you want for the long run, but it’s definitely going to be enough to get you started and see if it goes anywhere.

Can you get funds?

Another thing, which is often missed, is the fact that you can actually try to get money for your start-ups. Ever seen the Dragon’s Den TV Show? There are investors out there willing to give you money for equity in your company. More often than not, you’ll get not only money but you’ll get their help as well, which can be the real difference between success and failure.

The best part is you don’t really need your start-up working! If your idea is really good, you can pitch it as that – an idea, for which you need funds. I know of several projects which got funds without having a working website. Most of them are doing well now, some of them even very well.

Be prepared though. The investors will most probably want you to create a lot of documents and provide a lot of data during your pitch. It is a pain to create tons and tons of pages of documents, but hey, you want the money – earn it. Especially since the money we’re talking about usually starts with tens of thousands of dollars.

Where to look for your Dragons? Depends on where you live. It’s impossible for me to tell you where to go, because it will vary depending on where you live. Your investors will probably want to meet you in person a few times before they make their decision, so you probably want to look for someone fairly close to where you are.

I mentioned before that the European Union has its own programs to help you as well. You need to create a good business plan for them though. There are some people out there that specialize in writing them exactly for that purpose, some of them have a high success rate. You need to provide some financial input yourself though, if you want to ask the EU for money. So it’s your choice really if you want to go that way.

Good luck then

That would be it. Now get out there and show people what you are made off. If you don’t make it, you’ll have gained valuable experience should you ever want to try again.

This is where effective networking comes in. Networking simply means the act of creating, extending and maintaining personal connections with different types of people in the business. It is a way to seek sources for opportunities like extending business to more clients and how to gain technical expertise.

Networking is easily achieved if the person steps out of his normal work environment. This is because most people are so engrossed with what they work and the people that surround them. If they just only start breaking loose from what they are accustomed with, it is the only way towards building an effective network.

Why the need for networking?

Image by Laura Leavell

1) Finding jobs easily through connections

Networking can help you land jobs of your dreams. Take for instance a manager who has sought another employment. With networking, he is able to extend jobs to his former colleagues even if distance has kept them apart. With the right connection, he gets to choose his own team in the current employment. Hence, this could be another step to achieve the company’s objectives.

This also applies to freelancers working through networking. Because people are aware with what you can extend to them, existing contacts like friends and associates recommend you to where they might be right now. This is because they need your service and therefore, a network is built out from staying closely connected with them. It is also in this way that you prolong your career.

2) Getting people who can help you improve your craft

Another advantage of networking is its ability to train or provide mentoring programs to people who need it. If you are a freelancer and find yourself inexperienced or have no idea of certain fields, networking can help you find the right contact that can help you train for the job. In this way, a better perspective of the job is understood and attained.

How you should enhance your networking skills effectively?

You need to know certain ways to improve your networking skills. This will prove helpful as you need to establish contacts for your business to work. Having an effective networking skill drives you the thrill to gain more contacts with possible clients and people who can help you carry out your freelancing job.

1) Practice positive networking

Positive networking is discovering what you can do for someone else – take for instance meeting a possible business partner or client. Somebody gets to introduce him to you about what he has to offer and how you can benefit from it. You get to share similar views and opinions as he also introduces you to few of his colleagues who can possibly work closely with you. This could start a new business for you; hence a possible partnership may be infused.

2) Handing out business cards

If you have existing business cards with you, it is suggested to disseminate it to people you have met in networking groups. It is a way of showing them that you are offering services they just might be interested. In the same way, it also provides you with pertinent information of people you need and want to work closely with.

3) Saying yes to invitations

When people in the networking group invite you to certain events or functions, just immediately say yes. In this way, you welcome meeting other people who can be possible people you can work with. It is also in this way that you meet people who share similar views with you and get to receive feedbacks on how to improve your craft.

Take for instance a possible client who invites you to attend his business gatherings. One way to know what he has in store for you to do is by mingling with his staff and associates. In this way can your services come in and how it can benefit his company.

Another way is by joining social networking sites. These people tend to show their products and services so you know how they work. It is also in this way that they know what you can do them.

4) Make people feel comfortable with you

Most people seem uncomfortable during networking situations. This is because you are unfamiliar with the people around you need to find a topic that will perfectly suit their interest. If you have that host mentality or the talent to start a skillful conversation, it could be an advantage to provide ease and comfort to these people. They can begin find relevance and enjoy the discussion you just started.

5) Make follow-ups short and fast

Whenever business has began and is being transacted, you will be writing several correspondences periodically. It is important that you should reply to these communications the fastest way and in a concise manner. In this way there is mutual interest from both parties. Also start to make it a habit.

6) Cure networking nervousness

Build your confidence by joining social networking groups. In this way you can meet people that have similar traits like you do. Similar views and opinions are shared and rapport is easily established. When you have met quite a number of people that share similar sentiments like you, you tend to overcome nervousness.

When you have built an efficient business network, you tend to be successful with your career as a freelancer and with life in general. Study shows people who stay close with other people in the networking business live healthily and happily.  So besides doing it for your career, try to apply it to your personal life for guaranteed fulfillment.