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

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

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

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

Today, I’ve been working on getting a really nice professional look for KolaKube and I finally got what I was looking for. A really simple look. I’ve been reading WebMediaBlogger recently and really liked the idea of this article. Basically, I won’t be showing a link to my services, as WMB says it sounds crazy although it encourages the visitor to email and get in touch which is better than someone just simply browsing your work and possibly forgetting to contact you or even just hit the little red ‘x’.

I’d like to know what you think of the landing page.

Regards,

James

Today i’ve been brainstorming yet another project for mostly personal use although to a different kind of niche and market. I’ve been thinking over the past month to create a forum were young people like myself who go abroad to Magaluf for a complete party time can come and join and talk with each other. I know it’ll be quite a challenge, but I know literally hundreds of people would sign up.

My idea for this came across because this year I went and I met so many people from all over the country which made it the best holiday ever. I also went with all of my mates with no parents around which made it even better :)!

Ideas

Okay, so if you don’t know where Magaluf is its in Spain. Its a small town which comes to life at night and when I mean comes to life, it creates a party I tell ye! Theres the main attraction which is the BCM Nightclub, which you mostly hear people talking about. BCM is one of the biggest nightclubs in the world which one large room & dancefloor. At the beginning of your holiday, the rep’s of whichever hotel you are staying at offer you a deal which gets you free alcohol when your in the club which is good for the right party animals.

So ideas for the site would be to create a forum and market it locally (friends and family etc) and obviously get them to pass the word about the website. In Glasgow, most young people around my age all speak about ‘Maga’ (for short) and I think it’d be a great little website for people to go and chat.

If I market it properly and get good Google ranking I may attract members from down south aswell which would be awesome.

I’ve not came up with any design or anything just yet, just planning out first. If you have done something like this before, like a kind of local project. Please share with me how you have got on, I’d be glad to hear.

Regards

This post is sponsored by: Watch series: Heroes - Lost - Prison Break - The Office Online

Today I bought a really nice domain name RareTees.com from Ryan Amos over at Talkfreelance. Something about it has potential, so I quickely snapped it up for $30 which isn’t too bad considering its easy to remember, nice short domain and can be used for a t-shirt selling website like PrimalTees.com & HeartCrush.com

I have already started a design for it and hope to get it coded soon, I will think of joining with someone to make the project work or either sell the package as a turnkey. I reckon I could make mid $xxx on it, if it is done properly.

Some other news:

• Blogussion is just about to go into coding stages.
• A personal-type website coming soon
• EatFruitPlease - Is staying were it is. I love my blog, that little bit better.

Blogussion.com is just about to go into coding stages.

It’s been a long wait, although Blogussion is ready to go into its coding stages as the design has been finalised. I hope this project works out well as I have complete faith in it. Thanks to Oliver for coming up with some really unique ideas that will make us stand out compared to other forums like this. Financially it will be demanding, but if pulled off right, it will be a big…BIG money maker.

A personal-type website coming soon.

After the sale of Creativestl (still pending), I will be planning a fresh new start for myself. Introducing myself with new ways of earning money and finding myself more interactive on the web like learning new styles, learning some SEO and a few other things. I am going to continue my freelancing ways although do some different kind of work. I am still trying to come up with a new name for the site, but it shouldn’t take me long.

EatFruitPlease - Is staying were it is. I love my blog, that little bit better.

I was contacted randomly earlier on today and was asked if I will be selling EatFruitPlease.com, the answer to that question is… no. I love blogging to much to sell this and I have had ALOT of emails and PM’s regarding the sale of the domain which has taken the interest of many people, but I want to hold on to this website for as much as I can.

I guess thats all for now. Oh one more thing, you might have noticed the sponsored link at the top of the blog post, this is something I will be implementing to my blog posts. Currently it is my good friend Julians website, he has the spot for a month so I will announce once his time is up. If your interested in pre-booking then please contact me on info@eatfruitplease.com

Yes it’s true, I’m selling my one love. For a good year and a bit, I have been through many educational phases with this website and to see were it is now is a great thing for me. I’d like to now move forward into different online web development which is forum developement.

I said I’d never sell this website, but I’d rather sell it while I am on a high and while the website is doing good. Goodbye Creativestl

http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/14711?

Yep if your not a regular visitor to Creativestl it’s been updated. After a month, financially Creativestl has done great with an overall cash rake of $1500+ coming in which isn’t bad for the first month of opening. It has also featured on CSSMania a big CSS Advertising website, which is another great achievement.

Traffic and hit’s on the website have also shot up during it’s time online.

• Monthly Statistics
• Daily Statistics For This Month

Creativestl is also on the lookout to advertise on the main page. If you would like to read up on more information, then please visit here.

If you are really interested and want to get advertising on creativestl, then please email us.

info@creativestl.com

Future Plans? Promotions?

One thing that I hope to do soon is add a WINTER SALE, all prices will be deducted. Reason doing this is to obviously make a little extra cash, but the main reason is that I want to attract more visitors to Creativestl and also build a nice strong portfolio for 2007. I also have the time in my hands to achieve this aswell which is a plus.

Some possible future additions to Creativestl.com

The first thing I hope to do is have some sort of percentage cut on everything that Creativestl offers, I was thinking maybe a 25% cut for the month of December (Christmas Special maybe? Who knows? Hehe). I am also hoping to have crucial talks with Tom and Gary soon about adding a blog to Creativestl, it would have updates everyday on changes to the website from a template being added to a change in a price of something. I also hope to change the way you order something on Creativestl and changes to prices of items will differ aswell. How? Well, I hope to have the pricing so it shows my individual pricing then you would have a section for Tom’s coding prices, then the price of Gary’s vB coding. But don’t worry thats where my change comes in. I hope to bring the prices together and have some sort of deal overall, for example if someone wants a one page template designed coded in XHTML/CSS, I would look at my individual price for a one page template, lets say $200, then I would look at Tom’s coding price and lets say he charges $100, its overall price would $300, but there would be a percentage cut on it, so the overall price might end up $280 or something. I hope to integrate this idea so it saves everyone money in the end up and attracts a larger client base for creativestl ;)!

Blogging

Like mentioned above I hope to have a Wordpress blog added soon, letting every visitor know whats happening on a day to day basis. It will be a case of being determined and having the motivation of updating the blog if any changes are made. One goal for when I add the blog will to try grabbing as much readers attention as possible and having a nice traffic rate. I guess we have an advantage over that in some way as we have three people working for creativestl, but we all have to be determined, which im sure we will be. It will also be something different to come across on a web design company.

Anyways, I think thats about it for now, thanks for reading EatFruitPlease.