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Affordable Web Design’s First 20 Years

December 3, 2010 By

I was just talking about the last 20 years of affordable web design with my good friend and web design mentor Charlie Frederick, owner of LakeFront Media Inc., in Ramsey NJ. I’ve known Charlie for 6 or 7 years and he’s been building and selling websites for 20 years in Northern NJ. During that time I’ve mostly worked as a Senior Technical Officer at Fortune 100 firms on Wall Street – building and maintaining PC servers. But of course I’ve worked professionally with the leading edge technologies since 1985, and it was great looking back at the last 20 years in the history of affordable web design.

My first professional experience with the “internet” was using a dial-up called Compuserve to access Purdue University using a protocol called Gopher. That was around 1989 when I was a Technical Officer at the World Headquarters of Kidder Peabody in NYC. Compuserve allowed PC’s to dial a phone and access file sharing networks and eventually use email. Subscriptions cost 20 or 30 dollars a month but some of the higher speed file transfer options cost 5 bucks a minute back… then so it was corporate use only. But it was not until around 1993 when the Mosaic browser hit the street that the internet and the “World Wide Web” (WWW) took off. So prior to 1993 web sites were essentially file sharing systems and after Mosaic, they took the modern form and general appearance we know today.

In 1993, the internet, HTML hyper text markup language, and Mosaic combined to give birth to the first modern HTML based websites we are familiar with. Prior to that I witnessed a brilliant guy named Richard A. Lucas invent a language that was eerily close to the later development of HTML. He did it 6 years earlier too, in 1987. He called it “RAL” and it was an add-on library of Pascal language modules he created for Turbo Pascal. I believe Rich Lucas also invented the first system outside Microsoft facilities where he could make PC based programs that appeared to behave like “Windows”. So Rich invented his own “markup language” where he literally used “tags” to pull in programming subroutines, and they looked like “Windows” commercial applications. There were a hand full of brilliant programmers in the world working on similar projects, but the HTML markup created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and 1990 became the default language of the internet and modern web sites. Tim is known as the “Inventor of the World Wide Web”. Rich used to like quoting Tom Cruise lines, and I have to repeat a phrase from Cruise’s latest action movie Knight and Day to describe why Rich did not become one of the early giants in the industry, although unquestionably in my mind Rich Lucas did have the true genius level intellect to do it… it was “just one of those things”.

So after Mosaic was developed it quickly was commercialized by the initial software developers who were paid by the NCSA. They formed Netscape Navigator and Microsoft worked on their own proprietary version which became Internet Explorer. This has been one of the biggest problems facing web developers since the beginning. When we make a website using HTML, we have to make sure it is “cross-browser compliant”. That means the website will look and act the same whether it is being rendered by IE or other more popular modern browsers like FireFox. So right from 1993 it became almost a nightmare in some cases to build websites that were cross-browser compliant because Microsoft veered away from the standards that HTML was based on. But in the middle of all this… affordable web design was born.

In the mid 1990′s an average website would cost between $7,500 and $12,00 for a 15 page site according to Web Page FX. That was the beginning of affordable web design. And like the price of computer processing power and the price of RAM memory chips, the cost has gone down every year since then as development tools have become better. Now the average cost of a 15 page website is between $2,000 and $7,500 according to the same reference. But in reality there is a big difference in “play” websites and “professional” websites. The “Big Box” web design companies frequently charge up to $32,000 for a custom made 15 page website. And that’s exactly why Web Design Workplace was formed in the first place. Because web design should be affordable and prices should not be jacked up by hype and sales people who make a living on commission. Web Design WorkPlace IS affordable web design. We charge a fraction of average prices because we don’t pay for or condone the hype, and we don’t use sales people that work on commission.

So during our conversation, Charlie mentioned several times that “web design ain’t what it used to be”. That’s so true and Charlie’s the voice of experience talking. There are 10 times the number of businesses, and non-profits, and professionals that buy custom web design now. There are also so many providers of all different levels that the price range now is between $300 and $32,000 with every price in between being offered.

What’s affordable web design now?

Contact Web Design WorkPlace owner Mal Milligan to find out. Prices starting at $500. 201-696-5375.

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner

Comment Spam

November 27, 2010 By

First of all, what is comment spam?

When you see a comment in a blog it could be a spam comment if it meets any of these criteria:

  • a hyperlink in that comment that has no relevance to the blog post,
  • the link is a “dofollow” link
  • the text in the comment appears “spammy” as if the writer did not even read the post and they threw up something totally generic and rather useless

Spam comments are like all forms of internet spam in that they take up valuable space and time and they contribute nothing. They are disingenuous tricks by spammers to increase their Google PageRank or to get more traffic.

There are surprising numbers of remarkably high quality internet publications that allow comment spam… to the detriment of their readers. Here is an excellent example of a top shelf site with a huge PR8 on their homepage that unfortunately allows comment spammers to drop spammy links until other readers flag them. Foreign Policy no less: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/

And note some of this comment spam garners a massive PR5 link back to the spam target site before other readers flag it. I’ll show you an example of that… a successful PR5 linkback from a spam comment. That is enough to trick Google into giving PR to the target site in many cases. Sometimes the spam is never flagged…

And these links are still passing PR as I write the article… http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/12/16/nauru_recognized_abkhazia

What does the Spammer get by dropping Spam Comments?

Here is why the “comment spammers” do it. One of the most important factors Google considers in “the Algorithm” for giving your web page “PageRank” is the inbound links to your page. Google looks at their PR (PageRank), their “anchor text”, and their “relevance”. Google only ranks your page based on “DoFollow” links (which pass PR to the target page) as opposed to “NoFollow” links which do not pass PR. So the more inbound links you have with high PR and high relevance, the higher the target page gets pushed in PageRank and in rankings for the key phrases that page are about. Sometimes even when a link is not really relevant, Google still credits the target page with “link juice” and that boosts their PR. So comment spammers just have to find the juicy unregulated spam spots to use Black Hat SEO successfully… although it is usually somewhat short lived it still works for a time.

Want some proof? Check this very successful spammer:

And here’s the goods on this Comment Spammer. They have dozens of PR5 spam comments and believe it or not, even up to PR7 spam comments.

This guy is a really good comment spammer – very prolific.

Now what does all this mean for Affordable Web Design and SEO?

When you hire a firm to work on your SEO, you must keep tabs on exactly what they are doing unfortunately. Some firms and even big box SEO vendors use comment spamming to temporarily boost your PR and they won’t tell you about it because it’s ethically wrong and it goes against the Google Webmaster Guidelines. When you ask them about the inbound links they are generating for your site they frequently respond that it is a “Proprietary Formula that they cannot divulge”. What it really means is that they are ripping you off and telling Google on the long run that you are a comment spammer. Yeah, Google is a little slow to recognize these tricky comment spammers in some cases. That’s why when I catch one competing with one of my clients, I report them using my Google WebMaster Tools account. So when Google verifies that these are non-relevant dofollow links and they follow a pattern of comment spamming, they downgrade the target page to PR0. Yeah !! The moral of the story is “don’t pollute the internet with comment spam”. Affordable web design and SEO are totally legitimate if you go to the right group… like us at WebDesignWorkPlace.com

Filed Under: Learn About SEO, Web Designer's Corner

Making a Case for Affordable Web Design

November 22, 2010 By

I have a lot of friends in the web design business that think I’m crazy for charging only 500 dollars for a basic WordPress site. On some promotions I also throw in an additional $500 bonus… Google, Yahoo, and Bing / MSN local listings. They all charge a minimum of $2,000 for a website and an additional $500 for local listings with no discounts ever. So they do a lot less websites than I do but they charge a lot more. For essentially the same thing.

Web Design WorkPlace makes affordable web design for 3 main reasons:

  1. We sell to more customers and we get a lot of new business from people who were referred from existing clients or they saw the link.
  2. There is a great advantage to being very experienced building websites, we’re fast.
  3. Our customers are super happy with the incredible Value they got from working with us. And we’re happy to provide such a great product at a price that’s as little as 10% the cost of the big box rip-off artists.

The expensive web design companies have a lot in common. Many times they have a sales person who works on commission. That means they will try to get you for as much money as they can. The more they can get you to spend the more they make. They really could care less whether you need something or not, their focus and main drive is to sell more to make more. We are just the opposite. We only sell to customers who sign a contract and who pay up front. Our customers are almost always thrilled to get their site launched for a low price with tons of great features.

Expensive web design companies try to sell the same product at 5 to 10 times the normal price to make it appear to be more valuable! What a crock! A total lie and sales ploy. And with a lot of customers, it works like a champ. People pay big box vendors 30 grand every day for an attorney web site that we would give them for around $2,000. Take your pick but choose wisely. Same product… one costs X amount and the other is 10X. If you choose to spend 10X on a product that sells down the street for X, you won’t last too long in business.

Expensive web companies like to hook a client for a sale then they jack them up for all kinds of add on extras at additional costs. They try to charge for everything. Some charge $100 for hosting. So they just marked up their cost by 100 times or 1,000%. Wow !! Our company will be the first to tell you when you don’t need something. We give an expert opinion backed up with 25 years of Wall Street level performance.

Shop around with every web design company you can find then come back here and find out why Web Design WorkPlace is simply the best and why we have the best prices too.

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Latest WordPress Site: StudioPress Executive

November 10, 2010 By

My friend Tim from the Sharp Shop in Midland Park NJ and I have been talking about websites for a long time. I’ve known Tim for about 25 years or so and he’s the best small engine repair man anywhere. His shop has had at least 10,000 customers since 1962. So I had a break in the action from doing attorney sites last week and I asked Tim if he wanted a new website and he agreed this would be a good time to do it.

We arranged a time to meet when his constant stream of customers would not be an interruption and we talked for over an hour. We mostly discussed his business and things I might design into the site. We looked at Google and he was not listed anywhere except for a reference in insiderpages which Google had picked up on and used to create a Google Places listing. So we agreed on the basic things Tim wanted in his website and set a price. Since this was a job for a friend or family member… Tim did not have to sign my new NOLO Creative Contract. I was going to do a lot of work for a small fee, but the exposure to other potential clients by doing a site for a place like the Sharp Shop was well worth the low price in money I was getting. Plus I owed Tim for all the good work he had done for my family for more than 2 decades. I might mention here that Tim was one of those rare customers that are very flexible and go into a first website without preconceived notions. He might be a perfect client in that regard.

So I picked the Studio Press Executive Theme because I’m constantly impressed by the clean lines and examples I have seen in the wild. I have mostly used the Lifestyle Theme followed by the Serenity in the Genesis Framework series but I thought the Executive would be a perfect match for the Sharp Shop’s identity. They are a Master dealer for 4 of the biggest landscaping power equipment vendors and they also sell many other brands… but the big 4 would all look nice right on the homepage of the Executive. In terms of the color selection I discussed with Tim that since he sold to landscapers and resedential homeowners in Northern NJ, we might pick a style that can be converted from fall colors to winter and spring. So I setup the site with that in mind. All the .psd files are carefully setup to allow new backgrounds and colors to be added.

After I got the basic site up on a test URL, I added placeholder images that I made in Photoshop with their sizes prominantly displayed to help me size out the design. Then I made a basic header file and started playing with colors. This is the part that takes me the longest. And I also need to ask others for their opinions a lot at this stage. My kids helped for an hour as I changed colors and found a combo that worked. This particular palette combo not only worked, but it really blended beautifully and immediately, the web design started to pop. I don’t know if there is an artistic term for that but it was a point in the project that I felt we were onto a beautiful design. Along the way I used Adobe Kuler a few times for suggestions but since I’m still on CS3 I can’t use it to it’s full advantage yet. Anyway it helped.And here is the final product:

So I can change the main image quickly because it’s a “featured image” on a WordPress page. Or I can replace it with WP-Cycle and replace the image with a slider window in the future. I can also change the header colors and the nav bar and the backgrounds on the content windows quickly in the future if we want a seasonal change. I circulated the link to 3 of my WordPress builder buddies and got a thumbs up from all my professional friends. More importantly, my client Tim was impressed and grateful. Now this front page is only a fraction of the work I did. I also did this:

Items Completed with new WordPress Website from Web Design WorkPlace:

  • 1. WordPress Installed on protected IP
  • 2. Studio Press Executive Theme Installed
  • 3. General Settings – no www
  • 4. Writing – Remote Publishing OFF for security reasons
  • 5. Discussion – users must be registered – commenting turned OFF for security reasons
  • 6. Permalinks setup for SEO – OK
  • 7. Minimum plugins installed, all from highly regarded industry leading authors
  • 8. Google Analytics OK
  • 9. Google Sitemap OK
  • 10. dB backups set @ 12 hours
  • 11. fresh posts export to XML
  • 12. fresh file system backup to PC
  • 13. .htaccess contents verified
  • 14. robots.txt verified
  • 15. favicon working OK and verified
  • 16. all files rights rights checked and verified
  • 17. Google WebMaster Tools verified
  • 18. Yahoo SiteExplorer verified
  • 19. Bing WebMaster Tools verified
  • 20. snippets for meta tags for all SE in Genesis header
  • 21. Google Places Local Listing Updated and Verified
  • 22. Yahoo Local Listing Claimed – Updated and Pending
  • 23. Bing Local Listing Entered – Used Mail Verification

So there is a huge difference in what you get when you go to different web designers. At Web Design WorkPlace we are at the very top of the pyramid in terms of getting it all done right. There is a tremendous amount of work in the background that a client never sees. Getting the site looking good for web surfers is only a small part of the work. Most of the work goes into the structure and operations aspects that drive rankings on Google, Yahoo, and MSN / Bing. A great looking site is absolutely worthless if the search engines don’t like it. So when you are looking for a great web designer make sure all the items in the background are covered too. And unless it’s a “friends and family” type job, get it all in writing and in a contract before the work is started.

Filed Under: Learn About WordPress, Web Designer's Corner Tagged With: ,

Web Design Under a Contract

November 6, 2010 By

Some look at web design as 2 different worlds… one is web design done by a freelance artist with no legal contract. The other web design world usually involves a consultant or a firm and before they begin work, they require a signed contract. That is to protect both the buyer and the seller from future loss due to misunderstanding. So we can also look at web design without a contract us somewhat “unprofessional”. Web design done under a contract is in fact more “professional”, and almost certainly more expensive, and hopefully better done but not necessarily.

As a Consumer Do You Want Web Design With a Contract or Without a Contract?

So the bottom line for the consumer is in terms of quality, on-time delivery, and reliability all balanced against the cost. For less expensive web design a consumer is usually willing to risk any legal guarantees for quality, on-time delivery, and reliability by with-holding payment until the terms are fulfilled. But this is not always possible. And more web design agreements without contracts end in half completed, low quality work that was only partially paid for. After building websites for businesses for 10 years we can tell you the amount of time wasted in pursuits like this is monumental. Time is valuable. And wasted time means wasted money. So if your time is not worth much then securing web design work without a contract might be the way to go. If your time is valuable, it’s just not worth the risk or the stress to agree to web design work without a contract.

A Good Web Design Contract Protects the Client

A client can specify every detail of their design up front when given an opportunity to enter an agreement with a contract. That’s a great way to guarantee the job is done right and exactly the way it’s desired. It can also cover maintenance and changes going forward. So a contract can be like insurance that a job will be completed on-time and within written specifications.

The Web Design Contract Also Protects the Web Designer

There are a lot of businesses that want a website but most don’t have a lot of knowledge about the design or the costs involved. They may feel they are supposed to get $10,000 worth of web design and 100 hours of work from a web designer for a couple hundred dollars. Building a website for customers like this almost always ends in disaster – lots of work being done and no money being paid. The well written detailed contract eliminates this kind of disaster. Everything is spelled out in writing about what is being produced and how many hours are being spent doing the build. As a web designer you should not have to risk your time and your business dealing with clients who are incapable of understanding concepts even after you explain everything to them several times. You need insurance that clients like this won’t make a monkey out of you and the signed contract is exactly what’s prescribed. We learned this one the hard way.

Here’s an example:

A Master Builder is working on a house and the owner asks him and his helper to build a custom closet in her guest bedroom. The builder and his helper take 2 days to complete the task. The owner takes a look at the finished job and she says “Wow that’s great work, but I think I want to move the closet into the back corner”. So the builder and his helper take the next day to remove the closet and fix the wall, then they take 2 more days to build and finish the next closet. The owner looks at the 2nd closet and she says “OK I like the work, but I think I want the location moved to the original spot again”. So the builder and his helper take another day to remove the 2nd closet and fix that wall, then they take 2 more days to build the 3rd closet in the original location. So all together it took 8 days of labor. If the builder charged the homeowner a flat rate of $1,000 to build a new closet, he would have lost a huge amount of money in labor costs although the homeowner would have gotten the work done at pennies on the dollar for the real value of the job. If the builder had billed the homeowner $100 per hour, he would have made $6,400 for the job. So if the terms of this job were spelled out in writing and signed by both the seller and the buyer before the work was started, there would be no conflicts and hopefully the builder would have known enough to write in terms to allow the homeowner to make changes but in a way that he would get paid for his labor. He may have flat rated the original closet with the provision that it could be changed in the future at the rate of $100 per hour. That would have given the homeowner a bargain if she took the original location (half priced in fact) but the builder would get paid for all the changes she wanted to make later.

When is a Contract Advisable for a Web Design Job?

There is never a client / web designer relationship that does not benefit from a contract. Sometimes with family members or friends there is no way for a web designer to get out of a job and there is no way to get a contract. So those jobs are in a different category… “friends and family” category. With phone calling plans, “friends and family” save you some money but for web designers they always cost money and valuable time. So try to manage these projects carefully. Another category that does not fit into the normal client / web designer is the jobs a web designer does for charity sites where the payment is a High PR link. Those jobs even though they are for nice charity organizations are best done under a contract. A web designer can do a lot of work to build a beautiful site for the linkback, and if the charity organization later decides they don’t want the footer link that points to the web designer’s website, they can remove it unless it’s covered under a contract.

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner Tagged With:

Affordable Web Design Does Not Mean Cheap

October 30, 2010 By

Many times I get inquiries on this website it’s from someone who might be better off filtering through the trash on Craigslist rather than looking for a super professional like myself to do a web job for them. They have vague notions of what they want, they think they can get it for 8 bucks an hour, and they really truly believe the latest 1997 design is fantastic. Wow. These are the people I politely answer questions for and never hear from again. Which is actually a good thing.

Affordable web design is done professionally and artistically but above all else, with no over inflation about value. Web Design WorkPlace gives incredible VALUE to our customers and we usually do it 4 times better than the so called top company in the business, and we do it at one tenth the price. That’s what makes it affordable. It is not cheap. It is not less in any way except the cost in dollars to the customer. And it’s only available like that because I broke off as the top ranking SEO with a huge mega company making the top custom attorney web sites around, and now I’m doing it on my own with some friends. So that’s why it so affordable. Because my business is young. And actually I will never be able to lie or cheat as well as the big companies so I will never charge even half of their rip-off prices.

I have a half dozen web designer friends that all came from the mega company that I still chat with on a daily or weekly basis. One is a real artist and she sells template sites much like I do. She says over and over again that most of her customers have no idea what WordPress is. They have no idea what a template is. Even after she explains it to them, they still have no idea what a template site is. Except for about 10% that really get it. Now those 10% are usually clients that have had websites for a while. They may have had a number of different websites like plain HTML, or Flash, and they may have used WordPress or other blogs before. Those are the customers she makes the most money from and they are also the customers that ask for the most in terms of making the website work with Google ranking. They can appreciate excellent web design and they understand pricing having been there several times before.

The clients that get to my site usually type “affordable web design” on Google. I’m usually on page 2 now but I’ll push it up to page 1 when I’m good and ready probably before Christmas. Most of those surfers actually want “cheap web design” and they have no idea what the difference is nor do they care. They just want to get on the web for as cheap a price as possible. So they don’t care if their company name does not appear on Google, or Bing, or Yahoo searches. That escapes them. They want cheap. That is their focus. Not an inch further toward a goal for example. A goal like “obtain more internet exposure to get more customers and impress current clients”. They don’t get that far. They only get as far as goal: get a cheap website. And you know with websites as with many other things in life, you frequently get exactly what you pay for.

So for the record affordable does not mean cheap. Affordable is well built, good looking, fully featured, and it costs less because the company that made it is discounting the product for some reason. Affordable is sometimes mistaken for cheap. Products that are cheap are not well made, they are made to meet minimal standards but cost less. People who are looking for cheap websites should really go dumpster diving on Craigslist where they will find all kinds of the lowest form of vendor. And I am not recommending it but I tried advertising there a few times and got the worst clients and had to get rid of them all.

Filed Under: Learn About WordPress, Web Designer's Corner Tagged With:

Affordable Embassy Website System

September 24, 2010 By

Web Design Workplace announces the immediate availability of the new Embassy Multisite Website System. Another Web Design Workplace first, we’ve taken the super reliable WordPress platform and used the multisite feature to produce a system that can be used by dozens of countries wishing to expand their Ministry for Foreign Affairs or State Department website systems. The list of features is impressive but the most obvious feature is that these sites are visually stunning.

There is a demonstration system up and running at EmbassyDemo.com

We used the fictional country of Shangri-La for the demonstration with Embassy Websites in 5 other capital cities… London, Beijing, Ha Noi, Phnom Penh, and Washington. The reviews so far from our peers in the web design community have been incredible and over-the-top positive. We’ve gotten a lot of great comments about how beautiful the sites look. Here are a few screen shots from various sites in the Embassy Multisite Demonstration System…

Foreign Embassy in Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Foreign Embassy in Ha Noi, Viet Nam

Foreign Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Some of the things the Embassy Multisite Website System can do are:

  • Influence World Opinion. Instead of an outdated old style HTML site which is difficult to update at best, this Web Design Workplace system can be updated from a cell phone when new important news from the government becomes available. There is no better way to influence world opinion than to make statements from the Prime Minister, the President, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs available to the world’s media.
  • Control Embassy Websites in dozens of countries from a single dashboard.
  • Cut Costs by as much as 90% to build and maintain new Embassy Websites.
  • Build new sites in the local language of the Embassy.
  • Add high quality images effortlessly. Make the site look great or even stunning.
  • Increase Tourism and Foreign Investment. With a professional looking MOFA or State Department website system, foreign travelers will be more likely to visit the country and investors will become interested about possible business deals and investment opportunities.
  • Change the look and feel of the website just by clicking a single button to switch WordPress Themes.

The truth is there are literally dozens of features and this list is only the first few. But we feel this Embassy Website System should have a dramatic and positive impact on the lives of millions of people in the countries that purchase the package from Web Design Workplace.

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What Are Website Validation Errors?

August 18, 2010 By

Website validation errors are like building code violations. Would you move into a house that the building inspector said had 78 building code violations? No way. Well look at the annotated screen print below. There is a website homepage with 78 validation errors. That means the official website inspector (which is called the W3C Markup Validation Service) said there were 78 violations of the rules that all websites are supposed to adhere to.

Can Website Validation Errors Cause You Problems?

You better believe it – the answer is yes. Absolutely. Here is a list of reasons why validation errors can cause you and your business problems…

  • First of all the errors are an indication that the web design team was “less than professional”. If they made this many mistakes here where else did they make mistakes?
  • This many errors is almost a guarantee that the site is not “cross-browser compliant” meaning it’s going to look different or broken on different browsers.
  • There is a good chance the search engine spiders will get confused and not be able to crawl your site completely. When they hit lots and lots of errors they just give up trying to crawl your site and they put you on the back burner in terms of crawling it again.
  • Forget about Google PageRank. The site might actually rank for some of it’s key phrases, but it most likely will have a PageRank of zero. If Google can’t crawl the site they are not going to give it a lot of PageRank credit.
  • Security problems? You bet. A site with this many problems also probably has left big opportunities for hackers to do malicious damage using your website.
  • If your web designer tells you the ton of validation errors in the website they build for you are normal or they aren’t doing any harm… pack up and leave (politely). They are lying or they know so little about building websites they actually believe the errors are a joke.
  • SEO problems. Use the validator errors as a Red Flag. Look for a complete lack of Search Engine Optimization and you will probably find your misgivings were correct. Having no clue when building a website usually means they have no clue when charging you for SEO as well.

Now that is a bit horrifying to programmers that know what they’re doing. A lot of what we do at Web Design Workplace is to save companies from code that looks like that. But this is a good time for a “before and after” look at website validation.

Here is a picture of the Web Design Workplace homepage after running it through the official W3C Validator… Perfect with no errors. Just the way we deliver websites to you.

Filed Under: Learn About SEO, Web Designer's Corner Tagged With: ,

Chris Brogan Endorses Studio Press

August 5, 2010 By

I use Studio Press Themes and I’ve purchased 3 Developer Licenses for Studio Press since 2008. And now in 2010 there are a lot of celebrity social media pundits like Chris Brogan that are going with Studio Press and for very good reasons. It’s the best supported Premium WordPress Theme in the world. Bar none. There is a team of brilliant and above technical people involved with Studio Press and I know 5 on the team personally. Great bunch. For a person that builds out websites all day and half the night, Studio Press is like getting car racing parts directly from the Ferrari Factory.

Well here is a video from a presentation Chris gave last year:

Now if you are a DIY “Do It Yourselfer” go ahead and give Studio Press and WordPress a try. If you don’t want to get involved with HTML, and graphics, and hosting, and domains, and SEO, and PHP, then call Mal Milligan at 201-696-5375 and talk about your web design options. Web Design Workplace is a group of long time web design professionals that can give you a complete website in a week or two at a fraction of the cost most of the big design companies charge.

Web Design Workplace uses only top shelf components like WordPress and Studio Press and HostGator and Adobe. We are world class experts in every phase of web design and roll out. This is where affordable web design lives now. It’s here at Web Design Workplace.

Filed Under: Learn About WordPress, Web Designer's Corner Tagged With:

Free Web Design Tools – Gimp

August 4, 2010 By

Another Open Source and Free to use web design tool – this time we look at GIMP. Graphical Image Manipulation Program. If you can’t afford Photoshop CS5 I would normally recommend Photoshop Elements which is around 70 dollars. If you want to go into the free zone, GIMP is one of the top choices. I had it installed on my laptop right now. Gimp takes a while to learn how to use. Its got almost all the same tools that PS has, but they work a little differently. The time spent learning how to use GIMP is all on the interface.

One of the places I got stuck was during the “save as” phase. The default save will make a huge file like Photoshop does with the .psd files. To save an optimized .jpg you have to go through the steps for “save as” then you manually tag the .jpg at the end of the filename. Whoa. OK well it works so once you know how to do it there is no problem really. It took me about 20 minutes to get that one.

Here is the GIMP Download page:

I found a couple resources to help cut that learning curve down to – say about 1 hour. Check out this video tutorial site for GIMP:

http://www.designyourownweb.com/gimp-tutorial.htm

There are also a couple good ones on YouTube:

This tutorial has almost 500,000 views… check it out.

Filed Under: Web Designer's Corner Tagged With: ,
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