I’m changing from self-employed to Limited CompanyJust a quick note to say in April 2010 I’ll be going limited. It won’t affect you, the client, at all other than all payments due on invoices after I go limited will be made out to a company and not me as an individual.
I’ll post details of the company registration number, etc on the about page as and when I get them.
Check the bottom of your invoice for more information as it’ll tell you who to make the cheque out to.
What’s in store for you in 2010?Well, it’s now 2010 and what a year 2009 has been!
The economic downturn has been quite kind to the web design industry; I guess lots of people have been smart and seen the importance of a website in a recession.
Version three of my website was launched in January 2009 and one of the new features was this blog. A year on, I’ve had some excellent feedback and it’s helped me present information that has been useful as a reference point to me and my clients. It has helped me explain the things you need consider before getting a website commissioned and also that oft–asked question: Why do web design quotes differ so much?
You can get lots more free advice from the blog too such as answers to the questions: Should you get your website built overseas?, What is the difference between web design and print design? and Should you use an open source CMS to build your website?
If there’s a specific web design question or issue you’d like addressing on the blog then I’d love to hear from you.
I was lucky enough to be involved in some varied and interesting projects in 2009. I built a CMS–driven website—including an agents’ portal—for a property company in the Cayman Islands, I created a bespoke eCommerce solution for a seller of rare and antique books and developed a new corporate site for a local infection control company. There are lots more; you can take a look in the portfolio.
2009 saw a big rise in the work I do for agencies (about a third of my workload). Although agencies are very different to freelancers, a lot of them use freelancers like me as it’s not viable for them to employ web people full–time. Are you an agency that is in need of a reliable web designer/developer? If so, call me on 07843 483 078 or get a free quote online.
What’s going to be new for me in 2010? More of the same, I guess. Building more great looking websites, growing my client list and generally spending my time finding more interesting things to do with websites.
So that is what’s new for me in 2010. How about you? Are you going to use your online presence to catapult you out of the global recession?
Make sure your website is a part of a prosperous 2010 for you. Call me on 07843 483 078 or get a free quote online.
New website, new blogWell, I finally got round to redoing my site. This is version three! I think – and hope – you’ll agree it looks much better than version two. Here are the fundamental differences:
I felt version two was too cluttered. The three column layout and all the icons – which were there to make the site look clean and easy-to-use – ironically made it look messy and confused. I’ve kept the logo and the dark bar across the top but have moved the menu there to save space. Looking back at version two I see now how much of the screen was eaten up by the header. Other than the portfolio pages this version has just two columns and unlike version two, every page places some emphasis on the portfolio.
I went a bit overboard on the copy on version two. I have consolidated the services text down to one page; I think it works much better that way. People just want to know you have satisfied customers and a good portfolio of work. After that, they just want to know how to get a quote, they don’t want pages of guff about what you do and who you are.
My portfolio was getting pretty big (which is a nice problem to have) so I have split this into sections. It works really well and I have added a neat AJAX loading feature that nicely binds all the categories together. The business/corporate section is by far the biggest, maybe version four will break them down even more.
I realised there was nothing particularly impressive on the home page; I wanted something that would really make an impact to prospective customers. I do get quite a lot of qualified traffic from Google so version three really aims to monetise on that traffic.
And finally there is the addition of the blog – and this is the first ever post of that blog. It uses WordPress, which I have to say is absolutely fantastic. I got the initial install running in a couple of minutes and soon had it integrated into the rest of the site; it’s a piece of cake if you know PHP. I added the blog because ‘Try out WordPress’ had long been on my to-do list and also I find as a web designer / developer there are certain issues I come across on a regular basis. The blog serves as a platform for me to address these issues and use them as a reference point for my customers. I don’t envisage blogging more than once a month or so but that should be enough.
That’s it – let me know what you think.
