Adiakritos Journal



what accounting software do you guys find are useful vs. creating my own excel spreadsheets.

Take a look at freshbooks...it's cheap, minimal, allows you to log expenses and handles all of your invoicing BS. They have a free version, sign up and try it out.

I would try it before trying something beastly like Quickbooks, chances are QB will be way way overkill for what you need.
 
Downloaded a book for each program I'll be needing to use in order to make some decent designs. First, one on understanding design its self.

I'm not sure if I'll be really needing photoshop, fireworks, flash or illustrator but I've got them anyways except illustrator.

Mike is taking forever to get back to me. I've called him to no reply. So I'm moving on. I'll touch base with him later.

I've got another job with a lady who'd husband has his own medical practice and she wants a nice site.

The programming is, right now, my real strength in terms of knowledge. Although I think my talent is in the design. However my friend has the strength there in knowledge and talent.

I'm breaking down the process into three main parts, design, programming, and promotion. Promotion is the hidden extra perk I want to present at the end.
 
if you're wanting to learn all of those apps at once, don't. They all take a fair amount of time to really get used to, and if you're only doing web design so far, just focus on Photoshop. No one really uses Fireworks anymore, Flash can be outsourced, and Illustrator is really more for print/vector work (meh, for the most part, I'm right).

Go to psdtuts.com and follow their site design tutorials. get 2 or 3 under your belt and you'll be good to go
 
Also... see if you can find a designer you can team up with (local would be best).

I temed up with a guy from my office and he is delivering kick ass designs for my (few and far between) freelancing gigs where design matters.

I know I could not reach his level if I tried.

However, this depends on the pay. The guy makes Swiss money, so he only gets hired for the big gigs, where I can afford him. That means, if the gig pays 4* as much for me as I pay him for the design.

::emp::
 
Dont dismiss Fireworks if you already have it.
Design a wireframe in fireworks, export to photoshop for bells and whistles, then back to fireworks and all your slicing is done easy.

Tickle it in just the right spot and will even spit out a complete site with fairly decent html/css (no tables yay) which is fine for test runs & low budget static jobs.

Also check out:
960 Grid System

Might seem a pain in the ass to start with, but very usefull when you get to grips with it.

read these:
The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Design and Converting it to HTML and CSS | Nettuts+
 
I've got the book "From Photoshop to HTML" by Jefferey Way.
I didn't know what splicing was until I started reading this book.
I'm going to pick up a book on photoshop and spend some time with that as I create some designs for the two gigs I have going already.

My friend has a diploma from a graphics program he took in highschool, and I have one in programming. So we've teamed up to make sites. However I'm not sure I'd want to do work with him down the road, so I'm trying to pick up that part of the work myself. I love art and I'm not to shabby at it. Besides that I can spend hours upon hours playing with it... and miss meals all the time because I'm just so absorbed with it. I'll pick it up quickly like I picked up css and html in like a week and a half. Having a readable book is VERY helpful though.

I'm not entirely concerned with to many tools just yet. I'll use them when I'm able to really appreciate what they do, and understand what they are doing. But thanks for the 960 grid thing I3msip.
 
P202 still messing with my Theme even with Affiliate Theme. Dont know how to track individual posts without my widgets dissapearing when I place the tracking code at the bottom of the post... Gotta figure that shit out.

Not going to read the whole thread to see if someone answered this for you.

202 is screwing with your theme because you are marking your landing page as a "simple" LP. Make it an advanced page, select the offer you want to run on it, then copy the script code it spits out for you. Paste the code on your LP HTML and you are set.

Don't know why, but having a page as a simple LP screwes with the WP themes.

Hope this helps
 
thanks dragonhawk, I might use this info in the future. I've redirected my efforts to designing web pages for now.

BTW,
Does anyone have any recommendations on which language would be most useful to learn next?
I already know CSS and HTML.
I was thinking that PHP would be good for little server jobs and then taking on java for presentation.

got some money and I want to buy the appropriate knowledge.

thanks pheonix!
 
I've really enjoyed reading this thread, definitely hoping it continues. emp's and dchuk's advice is clutch.

While I'm still new to internet marketing, I have worked in sales and with clients for years and my advice would be to make your value visible. Lawyers, brain surgeons etc can charge huge amounts because there's a perception of value. Make sure your clients see yours.

One way is to articulate or demonstrate a process to them. That's huge. Show them a flowchart of steps. Include exactly where they're consulted and where/when they're delivered to. If you're someone's first foray into professional web design, seeing a clear process for how it all comes together will be huge to them.

If you're doing web design, make note of the conscious design decisions you make. These are things you could voice to your client, even if it's just in updates or a catch-up call.

Also I think it's admirable that you're learning the ins and outs of all of these programs and programming languages. "Learn shit then outsource it" is a good motto. Just make sure you aren't letting playing around with technology get in the way of you making things happen for yourself. I see far too many sales and business professionals fuck around with technology because they don't want to pick up the phone.

It's much easier to put a new hurdle in front of yourself then to jump the ones that are already there.
 
damn, thanks for that Hatwer.

I decided to let my friend worry about the design of our current project, and then just leave the css and htmling to me. That way I can work on learning more coding shit. I got "codin' for the Web" by Charles WykeSmith.. but its going to arrive in like 3 weeks. So I'm stuck with ebooks for the time being. Don't feel like dishing out 30 bucks when i can get the same thing for 11. I have other things to worry about anyways.. like this cigar thing I have on the side.
 
I'm taking Hatwer's advice and creating a powerpoint presentation of the entire process, chunking it up into 4 milestones divided into two parts.

I saw a selling seminar and they talk about opening with stacking benefits, making big promises, and thus creating a lot of curiosity, then laying down proof to remove the doubt, then removing risk...

I trying to figure how to present the value to the client visually.
 
purchased the book "Adobe photoshop cs4 classroom in a book" on amazon.

Working on a cigar site after getting my deposit. I've got no idea how to do nearly anything at all in photoshop yet. so I'm going to use the sites that have been refrenced to me from here until I get the book.

I'm also learning php when my brain can't take anymore knowledge of colors.