most inspired

If you design website themes for clients and know how much effort it can be to start from scratch, you might be interested in WordPress frameworks. You’re probably already familiar with WordPress, a versatile, low-end CMS (Content Management System) which is often used for weblogs and a variety of types of websites as well. But are you familiar with WordPress Frameworks, which can reduce your website design time significantly by giving you a functional or near-functional WordPress theme to start with?

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Writing articles and tutorials is a great way to share your knowledge and experience. Even if you have a blog of your own to post on, it can be rewarding to submit articles to popular design blogs and sites.

Some sites will pay you for your writing, whilst others will include links in the article back to your website, which can bring exposure and help with your search engine ranking.

I’ve complied a list of 35 popular web sites that accept submissions of quality content. Get writing…

Most Inspired

Anyone with something interesting and relevant to say is welcome to submit an article, yes that includes you, even if you just getting started or you’ve been at this for years.

Yes you can see your articles right here on Most Inspired. We’re looking for anything web design or development related.

Pagerank: 6, Alexa: 35K
More Information

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For a web designer or developer getting credit for your work is hard. At a design studio or agency you might get a link at the bottom of a website you designed or develop linking to your web site. As a freelancer you probably won’t even get that. Even then a general link back to the organization won’t tell you the exact people involved in designing and building the website.

The television, movie and the music industries do a great job of giving credit to everyone who worked on the project. Plenty of time at the end of a movie or television show is dedicated to rolling credits for anyone involved in their production. Music CD inlays provide a similar roll call of people involved in the creation of what you’ve just listened too.

Sites like the Internet Movie Database have been furthering the access to such information, making those credits available online for everyone to browse or search. Until recently there was nothing comparable for people involved in web design and development.

The three sites below are aimed at getting you credit for your work.

I Worked On

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Image: Rankopedia

With unemployment currently sky high, competition for jobs is tougher than ever. Anywhere from 10 to 10,000 people can apply for the most hotly contested places. Your resume is the greatest marketing tool you’ve got at your disposal. If you’re going to stand out from the crowd and get that all-important interview, you need to make sure that your resume’s saying the right things about you.

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Even if you only designed the website for your client, chances are you’ll still get a call if the site goes down. There are a number monitoring services that can help you or your client get a jump on the situation, alerting you if the website is unreachable. But what then, you know the website is down, but why and how can you get it back up and running as fast as possible.

After the jump you’ll find a list of the common reasons that a website might be or appear to be down.

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Side projects are a good way to break up the routine of client work, which despite being necessary are not always the most inspiring jobs we have to do.

In his recent 24ways post, Elliot Jay Stocks covered the reasons you should make time for a side project, and provided links to some great examples.

With the exception of some very talented individuals who are very good at developing and designing, you’ll probably end up needing to find a partner to help you with your side project.

If you’re not fortunate enough to know someone who can help you with your cool side project, there are a number of sites that can help you find a collaborator for your project.

Build It With Me

builditwith.me

Collab Finder

collabfinder.com

Programmer Meet Designer

programmermeetdesigner.com

Where do you look to find collaborators for your projects?

In the dog-eat-dog world of freelancing and web design, SEO has ceased to be a cool trick reserved for the elite big boys on the Internet. It’s now for little guys who need to get noticed, too. Since the process is fairly easy, it’s probably time you get more SEO … and get more of everything else in the process.

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It can be tough at times for freelancers, especially those new to it all, when the number of clients they have requesting work are small. One can begin to get worried and worked up about how they’ll pay the bills, and get through the year, but don’t fret, just get your marketing hat on and follow the 10 points below to see instant results.

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During current economical times, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find and secure good clients. A “good” client is one who plays on time and presents his/her needs in a precise, and efficient manner. That’s why freelance designers need to work on their marketing a bit more to secure better clients, and this is where blogging comes into the mix.

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The branding and image of a company is extremely important, because ultimately a good image leads to more sales – period. Psychology dictates that a person is more likely to buy a product/service if they have an emotional attachment (which can be achieved visually) to that product or service in the way it is presented. In basic terms, if a visitor “likes” your website they’re more inclined to buy something from it. The way you can build an emotional attachment is through design aesthetics which create a feel of quality or affordability (dependent on which image you’re going for).

So, how do you go about planning and implementing a design such that you produce one that presents a positive image? Have you always wanted to adopt a technique that allows you to plan and develop the aesthetics of a website, logo, or poster design to a high degree? Well, I think mood boards are for you.

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