MaxBlogPress have recently just designed an amazing new plugin which I found out by viewing John Chow’s latest post. The plugin allows you to add advertisements or any link source you wish to the very top of your screen. This is really useful as it is the first noticeable thing that a visitor lays eyes on, so I’m going to take this further and will be selling 5 text links all with a Weight of 4 for $20 each per month. Basically all the ‘Weight of 4′ means is all advertisements will be rotating the same and will be displayed equally. The higher the weight the more exposure it’ll get - 10 being the highest.

You’ll notice i’ve added links already, these are just link backs to my recent blog posts which I have all set them with a weight of 2.

Statistics:

• January 2008
• Last Year Statistics
• January Days of Month

So if your interested in buying a text link please email me or use the contact page.

Update: Sorry I have to laugh, if you look at John Chows post. He’s already made $500 since installing the MaxBlogPress Plugin hehe! Crazy!

Regards

Okay, so I don’t know if you remember this post a couple of weeks ago but i’ve been using EntreCard since and its a really useful way of getting traffic. Since using it i’ve been buying alot of good advertisement spots on some really nice websites and blogs, although my rss readers haven’t really budged but my traffic has increased to around an average 220 unique visitors a day.

But what I want to investigate about Entrecard today is this - Is it worth buying lots of advertisement spots which cost less ECC (entrecard credits) or saving your ECC’s and spending it all on one advertisement?

Buying Many Ads With Your ECC’s

Okay, so say you have 100 entrecard credits saved. If your like me your a bargain hunter looking for quality and the best out of it (in this case traffic). Common sense lets us know that the least expensive the advertisement is on EntreCard the less traffic your going to get, whereas the more expensive it is the more traffic you’ll get. But why not think sensibly and buy more for your ECC’s. After all EntreCard is like a guess game, you don’t know any of the websites traffics or statistics - unless you asked right enough - but thats going to take time! I judge on buying an ad by guessing on the websites design, comments they’ve got on posts and just overall feel when I enter the website - it takes two minutes and can save you alot of ECC’s.

Buying A High ECC Ad On EntreCard.

First of all the main advantage for buying a high ECC advertisement is the fact that there are many well-known bloggers using the widget such as John Chow, John Cow, Tyler Cruz and so on. So straight away your guarenteed traffic if your blog or website is approved by these big names. Secondly your advertisement on these big named blogs will mot definitley be placed on a high-exposed area, which again guarentees the traffic. Moving onto the disadvantages. Comparing it to the ‘Buying Many Ads With Your ECC’s’ straight away the difference will be traffic. Your probably going to get healthy traffic from only the one high paid advertisement and the traffic from this would probably be higher than possibly 3 or 4 smaller paid advertisements. But moving previously to the point about your ad or site/blog being accepted. You could be saving ECC’s for about a week maybe two to try and get this high paid advertisement and it all ends in tears when the webmaster of the site/blog doesn’t accept your advertisement - so again this is another thing to think about.

Overall my time with EntreCard has been enjoyable and I will continue to use it. I would love to hear your thoughts on it and if you agree or disagree with what this blog post has been talking about.

Kindest regards and thank you for reading.

I thought following my interview over at Lushable I came up with the idea to giving me people a little insight to what goes on in a day of my life. I’ll do a day-description for a usual weekday and then one for Saturday day & night.

James’ Weekday Happenings 

• Wake up for around 8 o’clock.

• Go downstairs and make some breakfast usually toast & tea.

• Once i’ve finished my breakfast i’ll just back upstairs and switch on the computer, then i’ll check my emails and write on a little post-it of what work needs to be completed for that day.

• I’ll then come off the computer and jump in a quick shower. After showering, i’ll get dressed and pack my things for university.

• In University i’ll do four hours, consisting of Multimedia (Art, Product Design based), Multimedia Graphics (Photoshop, Printing etc) and Video Editing (Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Audition etc).

• After University i’ll come back home and go straight onto the computer and wait for dinner which is usually around 5 - 6PM. On the computer i’ll usually check my emails again and do the work that needs to be done. I’ll also check my websites/blog.

• After tea and being on the computer for a few hours, I’ll probably put on a DVD or go pay a little visit to my gran or something.

Alot of other things happen during the week, like football training, the gym and have nights in with the girlfriend although the above are the basic things which happen on a weekday.

James’ Weekend Happenings (Saturday)

• Firstly i’ll usually wake up a little later around 1ish due to probably staying on the computer late from the night before.

• I’ll get up and i’ll check emails or whatever but not for long.

• I’ll then jump into the shower and get dressed and hit the city centre with a few mates. In town we’ll buy some alcohol, grab a bite to eat and most definitely buy some new clothes for that night.

• Around 5 o’clock i’ll be home and i’ll have dinner. After dinner i’ll jump on the computer and talk to a few folk until around 7ish.

• I’ll jump in another shower about 7 and then after this come out and get dressed for going out clubbing.

• After i’m all dressed and set i’ll usually head down to my mate garys and we’ll drink for about 2 and a half hours. After this we’ll get a taxi and jump into town and find a pub to go to until hitting the club that we’ll be in for the rest of the night.

Basically thats what happens on my saturday, I’m a student so I love my nights out and I make the most of them when they happen. If me and my mates are lucky enough we’ll hopefully find a party afterwards and just crash at someones house!

Visit the site here.

Lushable | Technology News

I’ve recently been contacted by a good friend of mine Jason to be interviewed on his new blog Lushable. So if you would like to have a look, do so by clicking here.

What a year its been, this post is just dedicated to 2007 and some of the things which have been eventful in my freelancing career.

CreativeSTL | Skins, Templates & Logos 

Firstly and most important was the beginning of CreativeSTL. Myself, Tom & Gary all working on it together to adventure the world of freelance. We done quite well over the three or four months being online raking in around mid $x,xxx which isn’t too bad. After selling I felt quite bad, although good things come and good things go. Gary & Tom weren’t too fussed, they had other things happening at the time and couldn’t delve their time into helping with CSTL and neither could I. So looking on the brighter note, it was probably best to sell it.

The changing face of EatFruitPlease.

Some of the designs below have been used in the past year as the main blog design for EatFruitPlease, although some I have designed and not bothered my arse getting coded… so have a peak!

• Design 1
• Design 2
  
• Design 3
• Design 4
• Design 5

Becoming a student at Glasgow Caley Uni.

After so much hard work in school, getting the highers and grades that I needed I eventually went into University in September. But in 2008, I plan to look for a full time job and take a year out, although this has definitley been a turning point in my life.

Blogging Like Mad 

This has only been happening recently, around the start of december I decided that I really needed to update and blog more and i’ve been doing just that. I am trying to get at least 2-3 blog posts online a day, equalling to 14-15 posts per week. Now we’re in 2008, I plan to give my readers something to read about in these three posts a day, not just some short updates, the posts I plan are to be informal and give tips and advice to other freelancers.

Thats it really, nothing really much else to say. If I think of anything else i’ll be sure to add it!

1. Give as much detail as possible

Okay, so you’ve just registered or purchased a domain and your a designer like myself and you feel like designing a logo & a website design to sell off as a package. You do all the designing and then it comes to selling it off. Firstly before even purchasing the domain, you should briefly think of what the sites features may be? What niche will the site come under or how you plan to monetize the site?

When thinking about this you should write it up somewere and keep it until you have the design etc completed, then when it comes to selling the package add all that additional information in so it gives the buyer more knowledge and ideas of what to do with the website if they buy.

2. File sources

When you design the template or logo wheather it be in Photoshop or another program, you want to let the buyer know which file formats the package consists of. Theres no use in someone buying the package and they want to make additional changes but don’t have the program to do so. Again give detailed information.

3. Offer paid/free changes to the buyer

To further advance your chances of selling, you should offer a paid or free service to whoever buys the package. This meaning when someone buys the package your willing to help in anyway to make changes to the layout or logo so that it fits the buyers needs. This is a great way to get a sale although don’t over charge someone for changes, be honest and give a rough estimate on the changes needed. Obviously if its a huge structural change to a layout needed maybe a mid high $xx is needed although don’t overcharge anyone, it’ll keep you in the good books with buyers

4. Discounted prices on future packages

Offering a discount on anything you know yourself is a great way to get regular and future buyers. But don’t cut yourself short. You don’t want to offer a huge percentage off the next package because you don’t know if the next package will be more expensive or less expensive.

Personally, I’d offer a standard discount of 10% off the next buy for the buyer.

5. File Organisation

When selling the package you don’t want to be selling a folder full of revisions or files that the buyer really doesn’t need. Spend 15 minutes or so sorting out the folder in which your going to sell by organising for example - all .PSD files together, then if the template is coded, get all the images and code sorted into one folder and name it ‘Coded Version’. It saves the buyer so much time and effort trying to find files and also helps you to get in good habits.

Earnablog.com

Win 1200 Entrecard Credits

Earnablog are doing a competition to win 1200 EC’s which will enable you to advertise on the really high traffic blogs. If you don’t know or want to know about Entrecard read my recent short review on it.

To win the competition on Earnablog the basic and only rule there is, is to simple blog about their blog post on it. So here it is.

FreelanceSuite.com

I registered this domain over at GoDaddy and had plans for it to be a blog offering web design support and also offer resources and articles which were web design related. Although like always I have always got something else on which I have to put my time into. So I’ve put this up for sale at Sitepoint and also over at TalkFreelance.

If your interested and want to know more, then please contact me via email.

Kindest Regards

If your a designer and have a creative mind you will always look for ways to spice something up if its rather dull or boring. What i’m talking about is using design to display or showcase something differently. I have a few examples of this on EatFruitPlease. Firstly, theres nothing like a good ol’ change of theme, so over the past couple of days i’ve had a Christmas header which I created, this just obviously to settle the theme of the festive period and always try and keep a smile on peoples faces which it literally does.

Over the next year I’ll do my best to change the header and some other images to create a theme. I personally always check websites I visit regularly for it. If a website changes its theme now and then visitors are always interested in checking back for it. I don’t know if this is just a designer thing but I love visiting websites regularly to notice a change of image or whatever. For instance if its approaching Halloween changing the header to like a pumpkin or whatever sets a theme and tone for the website or blog which attracts visitors.

A different way of introducing design to people is by going that extra bit further with your creative mind. An example of this would be the new RSS image i’m adding to each blog post that I publish. Now I could have simply added a simple rss feed icon, but do you think that would have had the same effect? Personally I don’t think it would, I think the current one gives people the incentive to click it and subscribe rather than having the same old boring feed icon which bloggers see everyday, so spicing it up can have a different interpretation.

Another fine example are Google. If you haven’t noticed before but i’m sure most of you have, Google always change their main Google logo all the time if there is a special event or a special time of the year. This basically just adds to the theme trying to be created.

Imagery and showcasing something creatively can really have a knock on effect on your readers. Keeping them upto date by designing new images and introducing new images can attract new visitors and keep current ones. This article is a short one, but its been written to give designers the urgency to start using their creativity more and give their readers something to look at and enjoy.

Kindest Regards.

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