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My idiot’s guide to keyword research

So what is keyword research? “Keyword research is a practice used by Search Engine Optimization professionals to find and research actual search terms people enter into search engines when conducting a search”. Good old Wikipedia! But, I used to think, what has that got to do with me? I’m a graphic designer. People who want [...]

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How to get freelance graphic design jobs

One thing I am often asked by designers – old and new alike – is: “how do you get work” or “how do you get clients”. Here are the principles and practices that I have used and found successful over the years. Put most of your effort into developing your own site Building and maintaining [...]

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How to win traffic and influence markets

How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the bestselling self-help books ever published. Written by Dale Carnegie in 1937, it has sold 15 million copies. “[Dale Carnegie] changed my life” Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest people and most generous philanthropist of all time. The book isn’t about how to be [...]

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How to publicize your blog posts

The job isn’t over when a blogger publishes a blog post. Indeed, for some it has only just begun. Many bloggers will try to maximize the exposure for each post through submitting the post to various social media sites. I will be talking about social media a lot but before that there are also a [...]

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8 books that have helped me run a design business

I recently sent a newsletter to the subscribers who had downloaded my free How to Market Yourself Online ebook asking a simple question: “What would you like me to write about for you?”. The answers that came back were many and varied but one I address here. We’re all hungry for knowledge and sometimes the [...]

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Designers, how to avoid client disasters!

There is a game in this industry: the trade off between graphic designer and client. I have heard this expression in large design agencies many times: “this would be a great job if it wasn’t for clients!” I disagree, I think it’s a great job period. If you don’t like your clients, get out of [...]

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Teach yourself graphic design

This article comes with a warning: easily offended graphic designers please do not read on! Graphic design is not rocket science, nor does it depend on artistic talent – it just takes a lot of practice. Some designers love to say that graphic design is a God-given talent that only a select few special people [...]

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What you need to be a freelance graphic designer

I wasn’t always a freelance graphic designer. I used to teach English to Brazilian businessmen but that’s another story. I started by working for newspapers and magazines so my background is in print. By a mixture of application and good fortune I taught myself how to create usable, aesthetic, standards-compliant websites and discovered how to [...]

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10 things I wish I had known about web designing 10 years ago

10 years ago I had a big problem. I was a print designer but I loved the internet and desperately wanted to work with it. I wanted a software package that would let me mess around with drag-and-drop functionality and when I was ready I could click “GO” and miraculously produce perfect code. I was [...]

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Recommended VPS hosts for WordPress

So you’re using WordPress and you are getting a nice amount of traffic, say a few hundred visitors a day. Maybe you love running many of the great plugins that add extra functionality for your visitors. There’s just one problem: your server is struggling with the load and your site isn’t just slow, it’s ssslllooowww! [...]

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Everything you will need to know about self-marketing on the web, including:

  • Creating websites
  • Setting up WordPress
  • Writing blog posts
  • Getting links
  • Driving traffic to your site
  • Using social media
  • Offering RSS feeds and subscriptions
  • Getting found on Google
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