Some of my readers may know that I am a web & graphic designer and I have been for over four years now. Just up until this year I have been meaning to write out a contract agreement and I finally have done so. Basically this will guarantee me protection against any scamming clients that I may come across. But hopefully this is not the case but it is a good thing to have.

What is a contract agreement?

If your a freelancer like myself a contract is a really good thing to have by your site. It prevents scammers from trying anything unusual and work threatening. It also guarantees you protection with any down payments or payment transactions in general, for instance if you said on the contract something like ‘You must agree that sending the final down payment within 24 hours of the completed design’ this would be something that the client would have to do. If the client breaks any rules on a serious matter you can go further and complain and even claim a chargeback.

It is recommended that every freelancer has one because you don’t have a clue who is behind the screen that you are dealing with. Having people steal your work and scamming you really isn’t a nice thing to deal with especially if you have no documentation of ‘that’ person working with you.

You’ve probably heard the saying - ‘Always have something in writing’. Well this saying can relate to this article. The importance of having some sort of documentation is crucial especially if you are handling business with really high-end companies and dealing with money which passes the $x,xxx mark.

Advantages of having a signed Contract

The first main advantage is one I have mentioned above and that is protection. It protects you against any scammers or what have you. They can still steal your work, but if you have some sort of document with an agreement it helps you so much further. Another advantage of having a contract is that you can write your own rules and regulations when that person is dealing with you. For example, you could say in the contract, ‘You must agree that if you want a refund and a revision has already been completed of your design, 60% will be refunded and 40% will be kept’. This is an advantage because you have stated that your client will get a refund but you are also letting the client know that in working with you, you will also keep part of the money as a result of completing a revision. The last advantage I can think of is that clients will realize that you work in a professional manner and like to see you do so. This will also most definitely guarantee you that they will come back to work with you.

So if you haven’t already done so, then I personally would recommend you write out a client contract agreement and keep safe from now on. If you would like any help on what kind of things to write in your brief I would be happy to help. If you have a contract agreement written already and would like to share with me and my readers your experiences with it, be sure to do so by simply commenting!

Kindest regards - James

I say its been a good week for my under-dog project PhotoBoothGallery, it has now been featured on CSSCatwalk an up and coming top drawer CSS gallery. CSS Catwalk is owned by a good friend of mine Gareth Hodson and he was delighted to publish PBG on there to get it a little bit more exposure.

Not only that, EatFruitPlease had also been published on CSSCatwalk when it was first opened! So, now two of my websites have been published on the same CSS gallery which is great news.

If your looking for a bit more exposure and would love to feature on such a high standard css gallery such as CSScatwalk, then try your luck and see if your website is worth being advertised.

Kindest regards and thank you Gareth,
James

It’s true. PhotoBoothGallery has been featured on CSSVault today. Once PBG opened I searched ‘css galleries’ on Google and I got a huge list of course with lots of sites, so I went through one by one submitting PhotoBoothGallery to them and its CSSVault who are the only one of those 10-15 websites that I applied to.

“PhotoBoothGallery is a website which enables mac users to submit their favourite PhotoBooth images and display them for people to see. Its a great way to have fun and show other apple mac users your images.”

Currently PhotoBoothGallery is for sale. If you would like to know any more info on it then please don’t hesitate to contact me through the contact form.

Kindest regards,
James

This article is aimed at the freelancers in the industry who have a one sided opinion on whatever it is they do. I would also like to thank Sled (if your reading Sled give me your website - if you have one - and i’ll link your name to your site) for giving me the inspiration to write about a debatable talking point.

Sled commented on the article about ‘Unreliable People’ and said the following;

“Be polite if you hire someone, don’t try to show you are the boss when you ask for a quote. Because really, the coder couldn’t care less, if he’s a decent coder - and that’s what you’re looking for right? - he’ll survive without your pathetic money.
Say a fucking “no thanks” if the quote is to high. It won’t shorten your life. It’s just fucking nice to know!

One more thing, for every designer, “quality coding” isn’t worth less then “quality designs”.“

I would just like to elaborate a bit more on the point which I have made bold type in Sled’s comment. I believe this is a really good point. I have heard about it way too much times before, design related freelancers getting into the mindset that coding is somewhat ‘less expensive’ than designing. Why? Where does this commonly used term come from? I totally agree that coding is the secondary part of creating any sort of online media, but I don’t believe it should be cheaper or less expensive than designing.

The way I look at it is this. Without a design, coding can’t be executed well without any graphic elements what so ever… yes designs can be established through creating simple css stylesheets but not as effective as graphic elements, so I can see were people are coming from, but without the coding part on a design its useless really right? Unless the design is sold off and sold off and sold off - but its highly unlikely.

A simple breakdown and comparison between coding & designing

- To begin with I will take coding as my first example. As a coding freelancer, being up to date with the latest, most commonly used internet language is vital. For example, one of the latest leading most used languages to date is strict XHTML/CSS. Now I am not a coder, but over the years this is how I have compared coding to designing.

Coding is the backend function and clockwork if you like. It is what makes your website tick and become live. Without coding, there would be no internet at all so this is something that has to be taken into account while comparing it to designing. When coding, a lot of various things need to be tested out before it can go live, things such as checking to see if the code is valid and has no errors or bugs. Testing the code on various browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. All these different stages have to be taken into account when pricing your coding and obviously .

- As a designer, it is you who makes the impression, the visual impact and the immediate interaction with the visitor. Coders do not do this. Well to a certain extent they do with rollover images, fading on certain images etc but not to the extent of designers. You can see how people immediately think designing is more expensive due to the innovation of certain graphic elements which creates the overall aesthetic appeal to someone and I can see how people think designing is ‘worth more’ due to the more thinking knowledge that needs to be implemented when designing to make something unique and custom. When coding, this isn’t really the case. When a coder gets a design or graphic to code they then have to know ‘which certain code’ to use and how it will effect the final functionality of whatever it is that they are coding. Basically in simpler terms, the code is already there, its just implementing it to a design to make it work - whereas designing its different, you actually have to come up with a certain design element and then figure out a way to design.

I hope that all made sense and how you can see how immediately people can have a certain opinion on something. I’ll personally admit that I immediately thought there was more money in designing but it is not the case. More common nowadays are Custom Management Systems (CMS) which are basically custom backend functional scripts which can be coded and sold for $xx,xxx.

I would love to know your input on this point and would like to thank Sled again for making this point a while ago on my previous article. If you have any opinions on this point and would like to share it, then please do by commenting, they’re always appreciated here at EatFruitPlease.

Thanks again,
James

It’s hard to believe that it is now February in the year 2008. Christmas day seems like only yesterday away, time has really flown by. I have to say though, what a year already. Firstly, I’d just like to start by letting you all know that I have passed my minor and major coursework in one of my modules in university. Basically the minor coursework was to develop a mini interactive portfolio using the Photoshop skills that we had learned and Macromedia Director, a program which I had never used before. In doing this it was really play time for me. Due to my understanding and experience in Photoshop I really found this module a fun and learning experience - by using my skills in Photoshop and combining them with another peice of software and one which I picked up fairly quickly. I came up with a really nice clean concept and usability, you can check out some snapshots I got on my camera over on my flickr account.

Client Work

I’d say overall the month of January has been a really successful time for me personally in my whole entire freelancing time. I’ve had so much fun with really great clients recently.

Fulfilling Goals

If you can remember back to the end of december when I was talking about my goals, well I can safely say I am fulfilling some of these goals. I signed up with local gym in January and manage to go at least twice a week.

I have also been talking with a good friend of mine Andy who works at a design firm situated near him called 383project. They are currently recruiting and if you remember correctly, one of my goals for 2008 is to find work in a design firm. I have been thinking over this goal though. If I could I would love to get a job which is relatively close to home because firstly, I don’t really have the financial benefits of leaving Glasgow to rent a flat or whatever and secondly a major factor would be driving (if I couldn’t get a place near the firm). I have been speaking with Andy and we were talking about a possible internship with the company - meaning I could do a contract basis over the summer and if I enjoyed it a lot I would possibly stay there and work full time. I have been reading about internship deals lately and they really help you gain experience in a company and can lead to a brighter future with the potential of landing a full time job.

I guess thats all I have for now folks. Check back soon as I have a really nice article lined up.

Kindest regards,
James

Hello everyone,

I am going to talk to all you freelancers reading about a little special deal I have been running in the past couple of months. Starting from December 07′ I started a little - private - deal and wanted to see how it would go along. For some selected individuals who purchased from me since December, I would give them a ‘coupon’ if you like for 10% off the next purchase that they take from me.

Well i’d like to say that its been such a success. I was lucky enough to speak with a really nice guy who loved my work (thanks Darren) and he was the first guy who I let into knowing about the 10% off deal. After designing his first project, he was back 2 weeks or so later with another project in hand. Now into around about 2 months speaking occasionally with Darren he know has a third project lined up for me.

This blog post is aimed at freelancers who aren’t really getting any business at the moment. I’d like to give you a few tips on how to increase your chances of doing so.

Firstly start of by going through your prices and doing a little research into whats selling best at the moment.
Then re-think your prices that you are charging (but don’t underprice, you don’t want to be selling yourself short).
Last but not least, advertise your services and see if you get any luck with clients. TIP - Don’t just advertise on one place, advertise on as many places as possible, you’ll be guaranteed at least one client!

If your not into the whole advertising scheme, then try what I did and give your best clients some personal deals, although remember to impress on the first project, so that the client WILL come back. Also when I say ‘best’ clients I mean the clients who have always came to your services for work and have trusted you no matter the project. I have some really loyal clients that I am grateful for because if it wasn’t for them, i’d probably be broke. Thanks again guys!

This is just a quick one just letting you know that a small deal can bring in more clients at once. I have been currently under the wind with projects at the moment, but I love the challenge at getting them done on time and satisfying my clients. If you have any stories to tell which you have encountered recently, please let me know by commenting on this post - I’d love to hear em’!

Regards

Guest blogging is beginning to pick up in the blogosphere and is something which is really useful for your blog. If you are a blogger and your writing lets say a post a day. Why don’t you take a break yourself and let someone else have a pop at writing some decent content for your blog?

Guest blogging is also a great way to get your readers involved which is something that I am looking into doing in the foreseeable future. Another reason how guest blogging can be effective is, maybe you have a busy week ahead and your most likely not going to get some posts online - with guest blogging you can ask nicely if someone who has participated before or maybe one of your readers to write a few posts while your working away.

Whats in it for the guest blogger themeselves?

Exposure For Their Blog - If you have a blog yourself then it is most likely the owner of the blog of which you are guest blogging on will allow you to plug your blog/website near the bottom of the actual post. This is a good way of getting traffic to your blog.

Link Back To Your Blog - If your lucky and you get to guest blog on a particularly well known, high income traffic blog then this is good for having a link bank to your site and will most definitely increase your pagerank and SEO.

Getting Your Name Out Into The Blogosphere - If your relatively new to the blogosphere and haven’t written much and you want to build up your reputation online and impress with your writing skills then guest blogging for ‘free’ and if your lucky ‘get paid’ to blog on other peoples blogs then it is a good way to get your name out there and build a starting structure for your blogging hobbie/career.

EatFruitPlease - Introducing Guest Blogging

Over the course of the next few months I will be extremely busy working and will also have a lot of coursework to juggle about with university started back. So. I am on the look out for extremely talented writers. I am not looking for much. If you think you can do the majority of the following then please apply:

• Write For Free (I am not really looking to pay-out loads for writing at the moment)

• Write For Fun

• Write At Least 500-700 words on one of the following topics - ‘Web Design’, ‘Web Development’, ‘Marketing’, ‘Blogging Tips’ and ‘SEO’.

• Show examples of at least two of your writing work.

I am willing to let you have a link to your blog (preferably down the bottom) as long as it is appropriate (no porn) and the occasional blurb (1 or 2 sentences) about your blog.

How Will It Work?

Simple. Just basically open your word processing program (Microsoft Word, Notepad) start writing about each of the topics I have listed above. You can then send it over to me and I will verify it and stuff to see if its suitable to go online and then I will publish it as a post. Viola.

Remember to include your link to your blog.
Thats all for now. Thanks for reading EatFruitPlease, will have some more blog updates soon.

Regards.

Hello everyone, personally I don’t like to brag and go on about how much uniques or whatever I get. But I thought I would let you into some backend cpanel stuff. I purchased a $10.00 advertisement from YayClick from a friend of mine who owns the site on Tuesday night and I never had access to the internet the whole of yesterday. So today I came back in and checked emails and stuff and then checked my statistics (traffic etc) and noticed that on the 30/01/08 (yesterday) that EatFruitPlease overall had 668 unique visitors, 995 page views and 11,496 hits which really is a good thing personally for me.

This has set a record for EatFruitPlease and it has also set a new record for overall monthly traffic. Each month I always aim to get more and more traffic to my blog - like every blogger does.

Last Months Statistics:

This Months Statistics

So as you can see a slightly bigger difference since last month. Average hits per day this month has accumulated to around 250 unique visitors per day which I pleased about.So plans for next month, I’d like to hit around 4000-4250 unique visitors.For this month aswell, I’d like to thank the ‘free advertisements‘. They are as follows:

Sentences.org - Sentences is the online personal/business marketing blog of Bryan Le. His posts are simply inspiring and helpful. I would recommend you go over and have a look at some of his work.

HostedFX - HostedFX is a reliable and affordable web host and one of the best on the internet to this day. Owned by a good friend of mine Gareth Hodson, i’d recommend his host to anyone.

Anyway folks, thats another update for EatFruitPlease - thank you for reading should have another update soon.
Regards folks, thats another update for EatFruitPlease - thank you for reading should have another update soon.Regards

Recently, I have speaking with one of my best friends (Andrew) and hes always aiming high with goals etc and he wants to be a rich business man just like myself one day. He is currently studying Fashion Business in college and he is very interested in what I do with my time online. So we were speaking the other day and we are thinking of starting our online business sometime this year by selling off clothing.

Business Plan

Andy himself is a very creative guy. An example of his creativity and innovative thinking was that weekend just there. On the saturday night we both had an 18th birthday party to go to and he didn’t tell me what he was getting the birthday, turns out he designed and made from scratch a beautiful scarf.

At the party we were chatting about university and college and we ended up talking about the ‘imagine if we were rich’ topic with a few of our other mates. After about half an hour it was just myself and Andy that were still on the same topic and we ended up chatting about joining forces this year and setting up a little company. I thought it was a great idea. Myself and Andrew have always been very business-alike and we’ve always wanted to make money, so I believe this could be our best oppertunity. We spoke about setting up our own website - which led us to decided which role each of us would take up. We decided that I’d set up the whole website, coded and what have you and Andy would do all the manufacturing, obviously getting help from either myself or a few other friends. The more the merrier.

We’ve kept it secret for now until we have the right amount of funds to tackle this challenge. Both of us are really looking forward to working on it and we are really motivated to do so. One of the main reasons why we can’t start until a few months yet is because of our holiday. Andy is one of the guys going on holiday to Magaluf with me this year, so we are all saving at the moment rather than spending!
But once we are back, we will definitely be going through with this project.

Keeping it local.

During our conversation we were talking about target market and we’ve decided to start with aiming it towards the people who go to the following night clubs in Glasgow: The Tunnel Nightclub, Karbon, The Garage, Campus, Sin Club and Play Nightclub. Why nightclubs you might be thinking to yourself? Basically we are targeting nightclubs because we are taking music as our inspiration for this project. The website I am hoping for it to be flash based with a shopping cart of some sort integrated. We will also be getting flyers and banners made and giving them out around the city of Glasgow and also giving it too our family and friends.

What our project won’t offer.

Due to mostly my lack of knowledge in the field of e-commerce online, we won’t be offering shipping overseas at the beginning. We will be keeping the project local and when I say local I mean our neighbourhoods, friends and family. Why? Simply because we won’t have the finances to take on such large orders and Andrew probably won’t have enough time to devote to creating so much clothing!

I hate to be negative about that, but I think our project will grow naturally and develop over time. We came up with some ideas. I’ll let you in on one. We were thinking of creating simple collared t-shirts with a neat, attractive logo on either the left or right side - just like brands such as Armani, Lyle & Scott etc.

I know for a fact, if a few people get wearing them, people will ask were they got them from. This then leads to word of mouth traffic resulting in more money and a unique brand. Our colours in t-shirts will also be limited to save us money and easy manufacturing.

It all sounds like a project waiting to happen… and it will. Myself and Andrew have agreed that after our holiday, we will sit down and brainstorm some ideas. We came up with a rough estimate (around mid £xxx) which we are going to save up and completely put it all into getting the site online and get a few first orders on the go. Once we get a few sales, it’ll gradually pick up through word of mouth.

I guarantee you all a post nearer the time for developing the site.
Thats all for now.

Kindest regards,
James

So it’s been almost a week now that i’ve had my macbook and its been amazing! Picked the usability of it up quite quickely and know my way around. Still finding it difficult to get used to the keyboard although its coming on.

 A few things I love about the Macbook is the speed and overall sexy look. I knew from the first minute of actually messing around with a Macbook that I wanted one, and now luckily enough I have one. A week on now and its been great, the look, the feel the browsing the applications everything is so different from Windows.

Obviously I will be using my PC to design on but even only a week in i’m finding myself on my Macbook more and finding it so much better to work on, so is this the time to switch to Apple completely?! Maybe so. I will be purchasing an wireless Apple Mighty Mouse soon so I can do my designing on my Macbook aswell.

Some things that annoy me on the Macbook are the fact that it only has one click rather than two (like a right click on any other laptop). An example of this is when I am designing and sometimes I want to right click and simply copy the image but can’t. Another thing is the ‘@’ key. Why has it got to be there!? (Rhetorical question - I know why) I always find myself typing in my email address and end up typing ‘info:eatfruitplease.com’… something i’ll get used to though.

So overall, already i’m loving my Macbook. I’m using iMovie and messing around with GarageBand, both two amazing applications. I also love the Chess game - haven’t won a game yet though - but its great! Anyways just a quick update letting you guys know how the Macbooks treating me. I’ll update next month to see how it’s going and to see if i’ve converted completely to Apple.

Kindest regards,
James