neilp

I wanna be brutally honest with you here but i don't think i should. So the only advice i can give you is to 'stick with the norm' as is: Logo on the left? = No! Everything is aligned nicely? = No! colours clashing? = Yes! I recommend using Kula to help get the colour scheme right.

I would love to help you out but i can't even look at in IE7 as it keeps crashing? Very strange and something i have never come across before? However please let us all know if you ever find the bug?

Thank you very much. I am in the process of mocking up my business website - 'south creative' and should be able to start the build next week? Getting back on the subject matter.......your speed will certainly be a slight problem when pricing work as you need to be careful not to overcharge and not being able to meet deadlines. Last thing you want to do is ruin your reputation for being over priced and unreliable. I was told to start off cheap(or as cheap as you can) and then build up your reputation and then use that rep to up your price. Eventually you will get faster and faster and better and better, your prices will creep up and then BINGO! your driving around in that sports car you promised yourself!

I am now starting to take on more and more freelance work and because of this i am gonna take the plunge and start my own company come August. My old work mate is going to team up with me and we discussed pricing the other day. I always found it hard to set myself a decent pricing structure but now i know how long websites take me to complete, i can charge either by the hour or by the day instead of a rough estimate by looking at the brief. Most decent designers wouldn't ask for no less then £25 an hour and some can ask up to £60! But i know a basic six to ten page website wouldn't take me no longer than 1 week to complete, if i was on it everyday. For me that would be £600 - £800. An ecommmerce site and wordpress themes are a little different as they can be unpredictable? But i do know how roughly they can take. This however is without the flaming "know it all" client getting in ya FLIPPING WAY! So, hope that helped and good luck

Not quite sure what it is your after but try looking at using 'em' instead of 'px'? So.... .container{ display:block; width: 10ems; } .divs{ float:left; }

single-portfolio.php....? is that a new template file you created? If so did you define it correctly with the Loop and template tags? <?php /* Template Name: single-portfolio */ ?>

Not really as Wordpress isn't based on those languages and iVenki wanted to learn a Content Management System. However, i have heard some great things about Ruby so i wouldn't discourage anyone.

Carry on learning CSS but start learning the basics of PHP now. Then I would say after a month or two you can starting using my favourite open source software of all....Wordpress!

No, all you need is a good portfolio. I have two web design qualifications(CIW) and back when i was looking for my first role, not once was i asked about what qualifications i had. And that was out of ten or so interviews. It is tough getting that first position but if your portfolio is good and you can demonstrate that you are on the cutting edge(HTML5, CSS3, jQuery) then it will only be a matter of time before you will be taken on. Don't give up though. It took me about two years to find my first junior position but it was at the start of the recession, and i did have plenty of interviews because of my portfolio!

I think this is what your after: http://tutorialzine.com/2010/12/client-testimonials-xml-php-jquery/ I use it all the time!

It all depends on your contract of employment? I few companies wouldn't like the idea of you running a part-time web design business whilst working under them(as my contact stated) and they would place a condition within the contract. My contract states(and I can't remember the exact words) that I am forbidden to do any freelance, talk about running a web biz with colleagues, taking a new position with an agency that is in direct competition for at least twelve months (yes I couldn't believe it either) and some other crap that I couldn't be bothered to read. So...that's why, after two ****e years, I am off to work for another company that is NOT in direct competition with them! But i wouldn't even think about going freelance until you have at least seen what it's like to work in a commercial environment, working to deadlines and talking to clients - stupid arrogant ones at that! What was it that someone told me....."Going freelance fresh out of uni or with little commercial experience was like jumping out of a plane and then asking how the parachute works!"

Wordpress is definitely the best CMS, in fact i would say it's probably the best open source software on the planet! Bold statement i know but the documentation is superb(codex) and once you get the hang of theme development, you can move on to plugin development thus giving you more chance of earning good money as a Wordpress developer.

Try here - codecanyon

Yep, very nice indeed!!

Nice!

I would question any web designer who doesn't know how to convert PSD to HTML. It's fundamental stuff and html/css are the easiest languages you will ever need to learn. Takes a while to master but you should be able to pick it up within a few weeks. On a personal note, i consider myself a front-end developer and i do most of the design and backend stuff and i have developed intermediate PHP skills. Why? Because i can build better websites that way and my job prospects will always be good. Go and try and find a web designer position without the recruiter asking for HTML/CSS, PHP, jQuery/Javascript skills? Not on your nelly!

I have a suggestion and one that will no doubt sound arrogant? but i have been working along side an SEO company(not my choice) for the last few months and my directors are obsessed with our page ranking but it never ceases to amaze me how anyone could honestly charge for such a service as these con artists couldn't code a modern day website if it slapped them in the face! Let me explain..... Google have already admitted that it will rank websites higher according to their speed, fresh relevant content and well structured(coded) pages. The problem with SEO is that the good advice is plain obvious, the rest just doesn’t work, and there is no way to con google due to their top secret algorithm. We had one of their so called experts come into the studio to give us some juicey secrets and i was shocked to hear what i already knew. Look under the hood of any SEO plan and you’ll find advice like .. "make sure to use keywords in the headline, use proper formatting, provide summaries of the content, include links to relevant information". All of this is a very good idea, but none of it is a secret. It’s so damn obvious, anyone who pays for it is an absolute fool. Any web designer worth their salt would know how to code their pages(proper formatting), optimize their images and separate content from presentation(fast pages), all good for SEO! As a web design company you shouldn't rely on google to get you work! My company do and probably always will but we nearly went under last year because of that. So finally to my suggestion.... Make something great, and usable. Tell people about it. Do it all again and again and again! Your reputation will win you more work then google! I just wish my company would see it that way! EDIT: Oh and another suggestion.....fresh relevant content? get a blog and use it!

If anyone reads the papers, you might have come across the story of how the FBI has admitted that aliens really did land here on earth in roswel - 1947. The FBI published a document along with thousands of files available in a new online archive called The Vault. So, what's your take on this. Are we finally gonna find out the truth?

If only my director would see it like that! Most of the time(and i mean 90% of the time) all i get is a few links to sites that the client likes the look of or a brief description of who they are and then open up Photoshop and try and wave the magic bloody wand! I have to ask and ask for content and then they wonder why it's taking so long! If only i could talk to them first and explain how i roll, then i wouldn't be sitting here writing this with tears rolling down me face. So, when i get a new project i create at least three concepts and overlay speech bubbles on things that need explaining which can only be seem once a button is clicked - using a bit of jQuery magic. I have done that twice now and things went as smooth as a baby's bum!

At work we only supply two concepts, sometimes just the one. But i believe(and i have suggested this to my boss) that you should give the client at least three page concepts which include a description of WHY you have designed it like that. In other words, explain to them the importance of usability, like why you have put a web form in the footer and why the search field is in the top navigation bar - things like that? I have found adding a description helps prevent confusion and the inevitable "i know best" attitude from the client as it shows that you know what your talking about and your the pro, not them! How would they know about your crafty hidden feedback form that only shows itself when the user clicks a button(and any other jQuery animation)? It's all good saying just do the one mock-up and hope the client likes what you have done, but without an explanation of the methods, they will most definitely ask you to change something, then something else and then perhaps something else? Thus, making more work for you and dragging out the project beyond the deadline.

Okay, thanks for the reply.

Great tutorial, thanks. But...what's the difference with using this snippet to yours? if (function_exists('register_nav_menus')) { register_nav_menus(array( 'main_menu' => 'Main Navigation' )); } I know it works perfectly fine but it would be nice to know what the difference is...?

Harwich, Essex. Very rural and i only know one company that does web design here and they are crap and very much dated. The nearest town to me is Colchester and it's teeming with designers and development companies and of course....that's where i work(full time)

I really got into all this 2012 business last year and done a lot of research and came to the conclusion that nothing much will happen and all the natural disasters we are seeing is only.....well.....natural? Global warming(even though it very slight) could be to blame, but it certainly isn't anything to do with 2012. 2012 is just a money spinning business, nothing more ) The year 2012 is referring to the last year of the Long Count(like we call our own long count a decade) from the Maya calendar. The current Great Cycle, as the Mayas call it, is set to end on the winter solstice of 2012: 21 December 2012 but it will start afresh and begin a new long count on December 22 - 2012. But many people believe that on 21/12/2012, the world will change and never be the same. Some predict terrible events resulting in the destruction of our world and some predict that it won’t necessarily end, but that we will enter a new era and massive changes will occur. People find it easy to believe in this theory because Maya civilization is known for advanced writing, mathematics and astronomy(without broadband!...what else is there to do?). It can seem like they really know what they’re talking about, but the truth is that the end of the Great Cycle is not the end of the world, it’s in fact a great celebration for the Mayas: The mayans believe that on the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This special alignment is also called 'The Dark Rift" and means that the usual energy that typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed be disrupted on 21/12/2012 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time. Scientists are actually in great doubt about the fact that the Mayas even knew what they were talking about. Nasa has said that this alignment will happen, but not for at least another two to three thousand years and can't be exactly predicted - even with modern technology. Hollywood and writers however have done what they always do and twist things around and turn it all into a business - very lucrative one at that! So, that is what i found out and hope you enjoyed the read.....? I have another theory of my own, but i will leave that for another thread...)