Dootch

A new year is upon us and it’s time for those of us who took some time off from client work for New Years and Christmas to get back to work. Here’s what I’m doing this year to get back into the swing of things. Build routine – For me it’s worth making the extra [...]

This article is taken from the first issue of the monthly VDP Websites newsletter.  Shoppers are increasingly using the internet to research, but still prefer face to face purchases An article published in “Business Wire”, has shed some light on emerging buyer behaviour. “According to a new study by Harris Interactive(R), a global leader in [...]

One thing I find a lot of freelance designers, especially young designers, have trouble with, is the concept of designing for clients. I recently had contracted a designer to design a website for a client. The designer didn’t like the look of the clients logo, so he made some changes to make it fit with [...]

Every freelancer has had them – the client that wants things exactly different. Sometimes they ruin the design and don’t make sense, sometimes it’s personal preference. What we need to do, is educate our clients from the beginning. Feedback has to be objective and customer focused. If you’re dealing with a committee, get one person [...]

A large part of effective freelancing is effective selling. While we might think we are designers or writers, we are actually salespeople. Here’s an example of a repeat sale opportunity that could easily go begging. A year or two ago I made a simple website for a small magazine. It’s just a basic website with [...]

I was speaking to the owner of an internet cafe in shepparton about marketing and the various advertising methods he has tried. Like all good businesspeople, he tracks his advertising as best he can. Also like most businsespeople, he hasn’t yet been made aware of how the internet can powerfully enhance word of mouth, keep you [...]

One of my goals for this year, and part of my philosophy, is to minimize work. The best way I’ve found to do that is outsourcing. There’s also a number of other reasons outsourcing is good. Get skills and expertise you otherwise wouldn’t have If you break down what’s involved in building a website, you [...]

I’ve been reading a couple of self development books that I was given for Christmas, so I thought I would review a couple here. The 4-hour work week – Tim Ferris What it’s about: The 4 hour work week opens up a new perspective on life and work. Tim Ferris recommends streamlining your life, eliminating [...]

It seems a bit counter-intuitive, that you can grow by turning down work. Let me explain. I’ve recently been approached to do some work on a small startup ecommerce website. Basic type work like making things line up, but also there is a need for a marketing plan as well. So we scope out the [...]

In a previous article I wrote about the Adwords Quality Score and in it I wrote that one of the factors that Google takes into account is the landing page. In this article, I give some tips on how to increase the effectiveness of your landing page to both increase your Quality Score and increase [...]