I sometimes joke with my clients in an attempt to make light of an over-billing or duplicate invoice disaster by trying to cover up my mistake by proclaiming “I ACCEPT TIPS!”… but it’s really just a bad joke; An attempt to make light of the fact that I’m human and running a one woman show here, and sometimes mistakes are made, or my billing system decides to have a mind of its own.

In actuality, I’ve been doing Freelance Website Design for over 10 years, and i’ve gotten tipped once.
It was unexpected, and even though it was only $20 bucks or so, it was a welcomed “bonus”, and gave me the confidence to carry on my chosen career path. It was a pat on the back that I needed early on.

So the question is, should you tip your freelance website designer? 
Simply put – Yes! But it doesn’t have to be money. Let me explain.

1. We don’t expect monetary tips.
Yes, we are providing a service, but we’re not a waiter. We’re billing you according to your project specifications and providing an end result that you’ve already paid for. Sure, I’ve contemplated adding some type of “tip jar” to my website, but I have other ideas for that besides you paying me money, on TOP of what you’ve already payed me. Will I accept them? For sure! It’s a kind gesture, but just know, it’s not expected AT all!!!

2. A potential client hiring me is enough.
I’m honored every time I’m hired by a client. After 10 years, I still feel extremely proud that a potential client likes my work enough to trust me with their project and pay me for it. Without my clients, I’d be a penny-less singer/songwriter.

3. Word of Mouth is the best tip ever!
If the freelance designer your working with has met your needs, or exceeded your expectations, do them a solid and refer them to your peers and colleagues. Even more gratifying and reassuring than receiving a $20 tip was having potential clients emailing me saying they were referred by a previous client who had an awesome experience. That more than anything lets me know that I’m doing my job and I’m doing it at a level that people are satisfied with.

4. Send over a testimonial!
Whether it’s during your checkout process, or just jotting something down and emailing it over to your designer letting them know that they can use you as a reference anytime is priceless. No dollar amount can replace a solid testimonial and reference for future clients. It’s that whole “teach a man to fish or give a man a fish” saying.

All in all, if you’re happy with your freelance website designer, show them in whatever way you can. Remember, they don’t have a boss to pat them on their back and keep them motivated, so any little bit of encouragement that comes their way goes a long way.

(Oh, and if you’re freelance website designer sucked?! Make sure they know that too.. it’ll either help them wise up or change careers.. I’ve heard so many horror stories over the years of freelance web designers giving us all a bad wrap.. It urks me to the core!)

As a freelance website designer of over 10 years, the hardest part of becoming self sufficient was making sure I had the clientele to cover what I’d have to spend each month on bills and surviving. My job choice really wasn’t taken seriously for quite some time by my family and friends, and that made me want it even more.

But success isn’t measured by your page rank or your position in google. Does it help? Hell yeah it does, but it’s not everything. You can have a page 1 Top 3 google position for your keywords and suck at what you do, in which case, your just a waste of space, but luckily i’ve been able to prove myself in this market to the clients that are awesome enough to hire me, and I can never see myself doing anything else.

So how did I do it? Here are a few tips some people will choose to keep to themselves, especially if there in the market of selling SEO services. However, if you’re good at searching for content online, it’s really public information, so I’m not giving away the farm.

First things first.

I’m “Aged”.
What that means is 2 things.. First it means my domain name has been registered for quite sometime with a developed website attached relevant to my keywords.. It also means I’ve registered my domain name for a few years and not just one. This tells google and other search engines that I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. You’re domain name DOES NOT have to be relevant to your website. Look at ebay.com? Where in that domain name says anything about auctions?.. sure they have millions to advertise the crap out of it so it becomes a household name, but that’s not the point. The point is, it’s website content is relevant to it’s keywords.

Next.
Blog like you’ve never blogged before.
I’m not a writer by any means. Me and punctuation don’t get along at all. English is obviously my first language (hopefully that’s obvious!), but i’ve taken it upon myself to add punctuation to the things I write on my own terms. Needless to say, the english teachers of the world probably hate me, but never the less, i write. Oh, and see the first sentence of this post? Note it! I bolded my key word and linked it to my website. “But Steph! You’re on your own website! It doesn’t count as an incoming link!”… umm, yes it does . Sure, not as strong as an incoming link from another website, but it’s an incoming link.

Lastly.
Meta Tags. Yeah Yeah, some people will preach google and other search engines don’t even look at these anymore.. Well if you hear this, you’re being lied to. If they weren’t a big deal, then they wouldn’t be coded into websites still. They ARE a big deal, and they’re important. Don’t overlook them. If you don’t know what they are, hire someone that does. Like me! (Insert shameless self promotion here)

So there you have it.. My easy 3 tips on getting a good position in google search engines. Does it work overnight? No, nothing does when it comes to search engine optimization. Will it take 10 years? Maybe, but if you’re committed to what you’re doing, it’s worth it! And if you’re scared of anything I said, hire someone that knows what they’re doing, cause even though these are very important tips, it’s only a part of  getting a good google position.

And in conclusion, what NOT to do:
Do not hire someone for $99 guaranteeing you’ll be on page 1 in a month. A) If it’s too good to be true, it is. B) They’ll probably try and use a program to get you on the top of the search engines, and when google gets a wiff of that, they’ll black list you from their database all together.. That means you won’t even come up on page 1003923890823. And, DON’T BUY A PROGRAM YOURSELF EITHER!! These programs are bad news!
Do things organically, not automatically.
Organic SEO is the only seo you should be considering. It means things are being done manually and actual work is going into your SEO.

Steph has spoken. Hope this helps someone!

As a freelance website designer, let me be the first to tell you, it’s not easy keeping up with the latest and greatest in what the internet has to offer. After doing what I do for almost 10 years now, i still have to google some things that clients request in order to learn about it, since they’re so new. Don’t get me wrong, as a self acclaimed computer nerd, I’m usually on top of most things that are popular and going on, but I’m only human and have the same amount of hours in a day as everyone else.. As much as i’d love to be supergirl and have the power to get a constant RSS feed of the latest internet technologies plugged in to my brain, I don’t think that’s a technology that’s out yet..lol

So how do you do it?! There are several websites out there that keep you updated on whats new and exciting on the web. As a website designer, i do a lot of webinars, and read tech blogs to make sure i’m as up to date as humanly possible. Read read read. That’s how you do it. There’s no way to be a step ahead of the internet, cause it’s always a step ahead of us!

Press Release

Infusionsoft Acquires CustomerHub Product & Team

Web-based app that provides membership site and content delivery tools to small businesses now part of market leader’s product offering.

(Phoenix, Ariz. Nov. 1)—CustomerHub, a web-based application that provides an easy to use membership site and customer portal platform to small businesses who market and sell content online, today announced it has been acquired by Infusionsoft, the leader in all-in-one sales and marketing software for small business. CustomerHub, one of the top app integrations in the Infusionsoft marketplace, allows users to share unlimited password-protected content with subscribers.

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As a freelance website designer that likes to keep things simple and keep edits in the hands of my clients, it’s easy for me to recommend and use wordpress for all my clients. In this day in age when adding content and making changes to a website are so vital, I don’t see how any website designer would leave out such a crucial feature.

In the web design world, we call wordpress a CMS. A CMS is a content management system, and is vital to non-internet saavy clients that need to update their website on regular basis. Even if you dont need to update your site on a regular basis, you should, and here’s why: SEO.

CMS SEO, i know, all the abbreviations are a pain in the a$$, but they’re important to know if you’re gonna invest in a website. Search Engine Optimization is something, that even done on a small scale, shouldn’t be avoided. Search engines LOVE change. They send out “spiders” to visit your site, and create a screen shot of your websites look and code, and when it comes back to visit a month or so later, your code better have changed or it gets bored, and see’s your site as a static uninformative piece of html.

So what should you do? When getting a website designed, make sure your designer is creating it on top of a CMS, whether that be wordpress, joomla, or any other CMS that makes it easy for you to add content to it on a daily basis. Also, if you’re going to stay on top of things, ask for a blog also. It gives you a place to write and add content to your website so it’s ever changing. Then WRITE! Don’t let a blog just sit there and collect dust.

Any Questions?

Quick Tip: Be a website designer because you love it. Long hours aren’t for everyone, but at the end of the day (which there never seems to be), you’re your own boss and THAT my friends, is priceless! Stressful as a mo’ fo’, but PRICELESS!

Always a good idea to keep tabs on these kind of things. Something so simple can sometimes cause chaos!

The image explains everything. Works in WordPress 3.0

In the last month, I’ve received 5 counterfeit checks from supposed ‘potential clients’ for deposits. They’ve all looked really legit, but there are some signs to look out for.

1. The amount on the check is NOTHING near the deposit you specified.
As a freelance designer, a $2400 check looks great! Bills can be paid, rent, etc. but when you only asked for $250 deposit, horns begin to sound that this is a little much.

2. Associates send you the check.
If the check is not in the name of the potential client, then obviously there is an issue.

3. The scammer acts like a potential client to the T, constantly checking up on the status of the check being received and so on.
I even received a fraudulent check via UPS with tracking ID. They’re not holding back now a days so be on the look out.

4. If you think you may be getting scammed, you most likely are.
Follow up with the client and let them know the deposit was too much by thousands. If they tell you to send them the rest via western union or the like, its a scam. No if’s, and’s or but’s about it. Don’t get caught up in the zeros on the check, if you cash it, you can get accused of fraud yourself!

So to all my fellow freelance website designers, BE AWARE!! Scammers are finding you now, and they’ve taken it further than craigslist.

A lot of people think that if a web designer is busy, they are busy..done deal. However we have our times of the years where we’re really slow just like every other business out there.

The holidays are a great time to get some good deals from website designers. Interested in hiring me? Ask me what kind of holiday deals I have! Most don’t start until December, because of course that’s the slowest time of the year!

This year i’ll be offering Web Design & Hosting Certificates! Give the gift of web design, or web hosting, domain names, whatever you choose! Contact me for details!