If you have spent the time and money following your dream or goal of one day being a web designer or working hard towards a web design degree, you might just be waking up now to the reality of your situation.  Due to the current state of the economy, web industry, international business and many other factors, the web design world will not you let enter this market easily. Outsourcing may seem a bit intimidating at first and you might even have a moral conflict with it but you really shouldn’t if you are serious about making money one day. What’s happening is the United States is open for business for anyone with an internet connection and the ability to speak English. Since HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and most other web based technologies have free online tutorials this makes web design one of the most competitive industries ever. Beat the odds and begin outsourcing now.

From a project manager’s point of view, web design, development and marketing are really close to home development and construction.  The article  “Web Property Development” explains how both the web industry and construction industry are the same just one is digital and the other uses tangible,real-world materials. No matter what you still need a blueprint, to purchase land, to aquire a physical address, setup internal utilities, lay a foundation and structure, do the aesthetics and lanscaping, etc. Currently there is no union or organization to help us web designers out so until then your only hope to make decent money just might be to outsource.

Your web design degree is not a 100% scam but the industry is so new and dynamic that it’s almost impossible to find a school with lessons plans that are up to date. It’s hard to find teachers that can really hand code HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and the rest of the server-side nd client-side technologies because of the vast amount of skills it takes to design user friendly GUIs, proper valid HTML code, cross-browser CSS styling, secure PHP and server-side engineering as well as database architecture, Linux skills for the administration side, SEO techniques and about 200+ areas critical to most projects. If you want to dedicate your life to this or you might end up looking like a starving artist to your family, friends and possible clients. If your teachers are able to give up to date lesson plans why wouldn’t they be working on their own million dollar site instead of a teacher’s salary? Proof this industry is very hard to actually compete in.

Outsourcing could be your only option. One client that is willing to pay $1,000USD for a website normally will require 1-2 weeks of your time if you’re real good. At this rate, you eventually will only be able to handle 3-4  projects per month.  If you were to begin outsourcing parts of your design, dev or marketing you can now play project manager, hire some talent for cheap and raise your capability to 5-10 projects should your business begin to take off. You also can’t spend forever doing the work all yourself. When you hit a roadblock during the middle of a project, picking up the book and trying to become a pro overnight on a new technology or protocol is just not rational and often can result in disaster. Your best time and money saving option is to outsource to someone who already knows what you need to implement.

If you are stuck on a roadblock, outsourcing is probably the only option you have.  Finally you can get your projects completed within a reasonable budget and time frame. Let us know if you need help, our How to Outsource articles are here just for that reason. Good luck and don’t ever stop optimizing the process!

Blogs have increased popularity over this past months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists. Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend’s blogs, their favorite author’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn’t reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company. Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales.

Blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name. You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites. This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging. A writer who has just launched his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site. Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues. This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design. You may develop your blog’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

The blog’s layout and design also plays a big role. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

* Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog. In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.

* Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page. Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page. It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog’s templates.

* Add a favicon

Don’t you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website’s URL are cool? Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL. These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.

* Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.

* Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines. Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

* Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

* Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers’ ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.