Ben

How Much Do Freelancers Charge for Web Design? Demand for web design services continues to grown exponentially. If you’ve been searching for a “freelance web designer near me,” you’re likely wondering about the cost implications. This article aims to shed light on how much freelancers charge for web design and what factors influence these charges. Understanding Web Design Pricing Web design pricing can […]

How to Start & Grow a Business on Facebook You are in the right place with the social media buzz we have seen over the past decade or so. The future of social of Facebook is hard to predict but one thing is clear. It remains one of the best places to sell your products online. But, how do you build a profitable business […]

How to Create (& Hide!) WooCommerce Seasonal Products & Pricing Most eCommerce stores sell the same products all year round. But what if you want to sell seasonal products which are hidden for the rest of the year?

8 Plugins to Improve WordPress Search Of course it's no secret that WordPress doesn't work alone. Coupled with the right Plugins it's possible to build amazing websites with some really cool features.

‘Send Mail As’ with Gmail – Fixing the Authentication Failed Error (UPDATED March 2021) Learn how to fix the Gmail Server error which appears when adding a Google Workspace account inside of a personal Gmail account. Full tutorial is below along with a step by step video at the end of the post.

Your Freelance Toolkit – Essential Tools For Project Work What do you think a freelancer needs for a successful career? Top-range gadgets? Executive furniture? A year’s supply of Post-It notes?

What Services Should A Freelancer Offer? If you’re a freelancer, you’re no doubt up against agencies and big bad conglomerates which offer a wide range of services.

Creating Valuable Content For Your Business Your potential customers aren’t interested in content that has no connection to your company, industry or the products or services you’re selling.

What Counts as Quality Content? Speak to any SEO expert in 2021 and they’ll tell you the key to ranking highly in Google searches is to have ‘quality content’ on your website.

Free Website Builders – Are They Really Worth It? Getting your business online can be a daunting process. Let's look at some of the free builders out there, and how they stack up.

The Ultimate Guide to Building A Successful Freelance Business It’s been estimated that over 1.88 million of us in the UK are currently working as freelancers. Probably more thanks to Covid.

How to Become a Star Client with Your Web Designer Maintaining a great relationship with your designer has its perks. Large design projects can be a pleasure for both of you to get stuck into, and having someone who already knows your business well for future design projects can give your business a thorough visual continuity which will impress your customers. I’ve gathered a few […]

How To Price A Project Setting your price for your services is always stressful for new freelancers. Getting it right first time puts your new career on good footing – getting it wrong means you’ll be struggling to make ends meet. Here’s a few tips to help you price your projects right. Understand your industry Firstly, identify what kind of […]

Streamline Your Email – Tips & Tricks for Gmail Newbies Ah, Google. Formerly the darling of the internet services industry, nowadays it gets plenty of flak for its apparent cavalier attitude to privacy (not to mention its plans for world domination…). Whatever your opinion of the tech giant, you can’t deny they offer some fantastic services – and their free email provider Gmail is no […]

Dethroning the King: Does Your Site Have Too Much Content? ‘Content is king’, as the marketing kids say these days (or as I said back in 2013), and having a regular stream of good content is certainly recommended for achieving and maintaining good search engine rankings. But what if all the content you’re proudly displaying on your website is actually having a detrimental effect on […]

What to Look For In Your Web Designer? Choosing the right web designer for your next web project is no easy feat if you’re unfamiliar with the world of web design. Even if you manage to decipher all the industry jargon, it can still be tricky to work out what one designer can offer you versus another. To help you out with your […]

Agency or Freelancer – Who Should You Work With? When you’re planning a creative project, It’s always best to leave it to the professionals. The question is, do you choose a team of professionals, or a single professional? The answer’s obvious, right? Two heads are better than one – surely it’s best to pick an agency, rather than a freelancer? Actually, it’s more of […]

Batten Down the Hatches: Google’s Mobilegeddon is Coming Google has announced that mobile optimisation will become a more important factor in its search engine algorithm – the big, secret set of maths equations that determines which sites match with which particular search terms. The good news is that for searches performed on mobile devices, websites with mobile-friendly sites might be seeing a boost […]

A Cheap Content Delivery Network with a Wealth of Features – MaxCDN Review Today’s web users expect a rich multimedia experience when they’re browsing the web. High-resolution photographs, animated graphics, videos. sound, user posts and other interactive features are practically essential for the modern website. But as we know, every new element on a page increases its load time ever so slightly – and those load times are […]

Getting your name out there: Networking for Freelancers Paradoxically, networking is both essential to running a freelance business, and also much harder to do as a freelancer – especially if you’re working from home. Not only is finding people a struggle, but convincing them of your value isn’t as easy when you’re a lone wolf But there are still plenty of opportunities to […]

When to Say Yes to a Client, and When to Say No Getting leads can be tricky as a freelancer; so when they land in your lap, it’s easy to simply say yes to every one. The truth is, there are times when a polite but firm ‘no’ is actually the best option, both for you and for the client. Here’s a few tips on when to […]

How to Get Through Designer’s Block How long have you been staring at that blank space on your screen? The sad truth is that everyone in every creative field will get that familiar mental block from time to time – the one that slows your productivity to a crawl. You could sleep on it – but that’s maybe not an option […]

Sucuri Review – Website AntiVirus + Firewall and Post Hack Cleaning Service Sucuri Review – Internet security has never been a more important issue. In this review of Sucuri’s internet security suite, I’ll be taking you through some of my experiences using their cloudproxy, website firewall, antivirus and post-hack cleaning service. As well as giving you an overview of all of Sucuri’s bells and whistles. In recent […]

The Best Musical Accompaniment to Your Freelance Work Freelancing can get awfully quiet sometimes. Listening to your music while working can be a great stress release and a concentration booster. But could you be unwittingly slowing your own productivity by listening to the wrong stuff? Of course, music is all a matter of preference, but studies have shown that certain genres are better […]

How to Work From Home – Without the Distractions! Working from home as a freelancer. It’s an attractive prospect, isn’t it? No more sitting in a sparse, cold, neon-lit box every day. No more sharing your space with the same people every day. No office chatterbox bleating on and on about their thrilling personal life. No mysterious thief stealing your lunch. Instead, you’re free […]

What Makes a Good Logo? Look at these icons below- arguably the most recognisable logos on the planet. Do you know who they belong to? Of course you do. You could probably also tell me what products/services they sell, what sorts of people buy from them, what values they stand for, perhaps whether or not you would buy from them… […]

What is Responsive Web Design? If you’re a new business owner tackling the setup of your company website for the first time, you might have heard the term ‘responsive web design’ bandied around, but you’re not sure what it actually means. To understand what a boon responsive web design can be to your new company site, we have to take […]

The Big Bang Web Designer’s Resource Pack This week I’ve got another top quality bundle for you all courtesy of Inky Deals. Once again they’re offering a staggering bundle of resources for a knock down price, and you’ll own a full extended license to use the designs for whatever you like – you can even use these designs for commercial projects merchandising. […]

How to make Contact Form 7 Work with WordPress on GoDaddy Hosting If you’re having issues with your WordPress Contact Forms, It might not be a plugin or code issues, it could well be your host. This post is specifically targeted at people experiencing problems with their WordPress contact forms, and sending/ receiving mail functionality who happen to be hosting their site with GoDaddy. This fix may […]

My secret weapon for collecting more client Kudos We all want our work to speak for itself… and sell itself. We want it to shout from the rooftops about just how amazing we are. That, unfortunately, doesn’t always happen. Client reviews and client testimonials, though, can do that for you. Getting those reviews can be intimidating. You have satisfied customers – you just […]

The Best Free live Chat and Help Desk Software I’ve been using Zopim Live chat for a little over 3 months now to help me pull in more qualified web design leads. I had dabbled with other helpdesk and live chat providers, but a lack of support for mobile and older browsers meant that my search continued. Zopim makes it easy to engage with […]

The Best Job Board Theme for WordPress Thanks to a really positive response from readers of my recent review of The Best Classified Ads Themes for WordPress I’ve decided to continue the “theme” (excuse the pun) and write up another WordPress product driven article about my experiences working with the overwhelming expanse of Job Board themes and plugins for WordPress. What is […]

FreeAgent Review – The best online accounting software for freelancers In this FreeAgent review I’ll take you over some of the fantastic features offered by FreeAgent, I’ll tell you about my personal experiences using FreeAgent, and why I prefer it to all of the other online accounting tools I’ve tried. 10 Discount for Life with Promo Code: 42ql612n If you sign up with the above […]

The Best Classified Ads WordPress Themes The classified ads business model is one that has worked for many people, in a range of different markets, for people who want to buy and sell cars, or sell CD’s & Mini-disks or those looking to take their piece of the second-hand market. Many classified ads websites are built and nurtured into thriving communities, […]

Web Design Trends to watch out for in 2013 Although the year is only partially complete, a number of new Web design trends are already becoming popular. Many of the top ideas of 2012 are catching on and new ones are increasing in popularity for 2013. Many design trends reflect a growing tendency toward intuitive user interfaces, others just seem to be following the […]

The Best WordPress Plugins – 24 Plugins That’ll Make Your WordPress Site Awesome! WordPress has revolutionized not only the blog but also the content management system, which is why it now runs approximately 20 percent of the world’s websites. While the software is a workhorse right out of the box, with a little TLC and a few extra plugins you can make it a thoroughbred. Below is a […]

The 10 Best Freelance Tools That No Web Designer Should Be Without Whether it’s due to the longer hours, the uncertain nature of the job, or the requirement to self-manage, many people understand freelance web designing to be among the most challenging jobs there is. Of course, it can also easily be the most rewarding job on the market. With the right tools for every aspect of […]

My First Website I’ve touched on this topic before, in an article I wrote a little while back on how to start a website. I had actually been planning to elaborate further on this topic for a while – going a little further into how it all started for me. How I got into this crazy world of […]

Content is King! A website is never finished – it’s always going to be a work in progress. Although the hosting and main designs are going to stay the same (as long as you’re happy with them, of course) your content needs to be kept fresh, interesting, and relevant to your business plan. Here are my top tips […]

How to make images appear in WP Favourite Posts Plugin & Widget Just a quick one for today. I’ve been working with the WP Favorite posts plugin and whilst it’s a fantastic plugin to quickly allow your users to build up a notebook of their favorite articles from your website or blog, it was missing the ability to include images either on the notebook page or the […]

How to get more customers & win more contracts? Do you find yourself playing every trick in the book to try and win a project? Often ending up with a project that you’re not comfortable with, or even a project that winds up taking you hours and hours to complete that you’re not paid appropriately for? If you and your potential client are right […]

12 Free New Years Eve Flyer Templates [Updated October 2020] Updated: 31st October 2016 New free New Years Eve flyer templates added to the list courtesy of StyleFlyers. As New Years Eve 2012 approaches, the resulting array of parties is inevitable. For those needing to save some time or money on promotional costs this year, here’s a list of 10 awesome Free and premium New Years […]

The Pros and Cons of Using WordPress. Is it the best CMS Solution? From Blogging tool, to multi-faceted CMS Platform WordPress has come a long way since it’s humble beginnings as a blogging tool, transforming itself into a full blown content management system. I’ve been using WordPress for years, though it’s certainly not where I began my journey. I had attempted to use Joomla, Drupal and a huge […]

25 Beautiful Banner Ad sets that will sell your product! It’s easy to just cast display and banner ads off as part of the annoying rubbish that plagues the internet. Quite simply, I don’t believe that to be true. Banner Ads have their place, and if done right, they can be a tasteful and useful addition to any website. A beautiful, relevant display ad can […]

How to start a website Starting your own website can be an exciting and daunting process. Something which initially seemed like such a simple idea can become overcomplicated, confusing and cause a blinding headache. You might want to start a website for any number of reasons. To promote your favorite band, to promote your new business, to sell stuff online, […]

Free Magazine style Website PSD Download I’ve been working on a concept recently which i have decided to give away as a free download. This full Photoshop PSD template is free for personal or commercial use – obviously a credit is appreciated but not mandatory. This Magazine style layout features latest news, contact information and a great looking lead banner with […]

Getting WordPress Custom Post Types to work on Category Archive Pages I’m sure many of you are familiar with the awesomeness that is WordPress custom post types. For those who aren’t, since WP 3.0, we’ve had the capability to add and use custom post types in a variety of different ways. Stored inside the wp-posts table, with a unique post_type identifier, creating custom post types is […]

12 best Apps for Google Android Phones (In this web designer’s opinion!) Coming towards the end of my two year iPhone 4 jail sentence, it was safe to say I was falling out of love with Apple. Whilst the honeymoon period did last a little longer than I expected, by the time my 24 months was up my app-happy fingers were itching for something new. It’s not […]

How Google Uses Headers – Tips for optimising your website for SEO HTML header tags are some of the most abused of all among the W3C specifications, and often to little avail. Here’s an SEO myth: headers are treated as more important by Google, so you should stuff them full of keywords. That’s a lie! Here’s the truth about header tags, and how you should think about […]

Change the Order of the Product Tabs in Woocommerce Another super quick solution to a really annoying problem. I’ve never liked the short vs long description supplied out of the box with Woocommerce. Honestly I’ve never had the need for it – I nearly always leave the long description blank and have all the relevant information in the short description. That then typically leaves […]

Ajaxify your WooCommerce shopping cart widget WooCommerce is probably one of the most valuable and useful plugins in any WordPress designer’s arsenal. Offering amazingly simple integration and a plethora of features and bolt-ons. Truly you can create a hugely complex e-commerce solution that’s elegant and lightening fast. I’ve been adding e-commerce to this site using the wonderful WooCommerce, and had set […]

How to display a specific custom field from a specific page on any other page template in WordPress This little number had been bugging me for a while. Specifically I have been creating a site for a client using the awesome Woocommerce plugin. In this case, i have made some significant changes to the “loop-shop.php” which is set up to use the page entitled “our services” in the woo commerce settings. By default, […]

Quick fix for when MAMP won’t start MySQL server I often use MAMP for local PHP/ WordPress development on Mac OS X. It usually works really well and offers a streamlined way for me to develop locally. Occasionally the server errors out when restarting after quitting out of the application a few times, giving me an “Error: Could not connect to MySQL server!” notice. […]

How I earned a modest but very real $1,200 on the web last year. The web is full of scams, schemes, touts and con-artists all trying to get you to invest in some hair brained bound-to-fail get rich quick endeavour , we’ve all see the sites with the hugely overplayed use of stock photography and the typical browser-crashing video usually on auto play as soon as you load the […]

WordPress Tips – Building your Website with WordPress Whatever your niche, the key is to be individual, and to stand out from the crowd. With all the thousands of new WordPress themes out there, it seems as though sites are becoming a little standardized, with new sites being created in hours instead of weeks – it’s important that your website looks like some […]

A Few Fantastic Ways To Enhance Interactions With Consumers On The Internet Establishing connections needs to be a number one goal when doing business.  By simply developing relationships you build trustworthiness and when your visitors trust you they are very likely to decide to buy.  Conventional advertising can make it just a little simpler to build this trust for the reason that the customer is able to […]

How to change the length of the_excerpt() in wordpress Time spent as a freelance web designer often means i come across problems – this particular one was driving me crazy for a while! – Often is the case, you’re in WordPress you’ve created your index page, your featured post content slider and your page is coming together… but the WordPress post excerpt is either […]

40 Awesome premium wordpress themes! I love designing websites using wordpress, as a freelance web designer it’s probably as important to me as the adobe suite of applications, here’s a list of some of the most stunning wordpress themes by other web designers that i’ve come across. A collection of 40 stunningly beautiful and carefully crafted awe inspiring wordpress themes […]

Crowdsourcing. Is it wise for crowds or just for business? In December 2007, just like other leading consultancy firms like Boston Consulting Group[1] and Booz Allen Hamilton[2], McKinsey & Company revealed their predictions for 2008: their ‘eight business technology trends to watch out for’[3]. Like Boston Consulting Group and Booz Allen Hamilton, the McKinsey Quarterly focused on the priority for innovation and in particular on […]