Thankfully, there’s a product out there called WebStudio that is a full-fledged website builder with ecommerce capabilities. With WebStudio you can build your own online store using their browser-based application in a matter of minutes. There are templates to pick from for your site so that it has a professional look to present to your customers. All of the site maintenance and updates are handled by the storeowner themselves so they always know that they’re in control and responsible for the content on their own site.

a

Build Your Own Ecommerce Store

I find myself relying more and more, as the demand for my development services increases, on finding an outside website design company to help me with the graphical front end to my own personal, side projects. This has proven especially true with the growth in my web development career where I’m more interested in getting side projects done quickly and efficiently so that I can get back to focusing on client work.

The vast improvement in free web design templates has also helped me out a lot lately. Again, for personal projects, a free or low-cost design template is a great way to get an alpha or beta version of a site idea out and into the wild quickly. I find myself prototyping layouts and admin panels for my projects using free templates more and more. When the project hits a certain point where I’m happy with the behind-the-scenes action I can then go back in and worry about improving the look and feel of the site for visitors.

a

Transitioning From Web Design To Web Development

CREATE TABLE new_stuff LIKE old_stuff;
INSERT new_stuff SELECT * FROM old_stuff;

This is a great and quick way to make dummy tables of data for testing purposes or for making regular table backups inside your own database for easy comparison or a million other uses that come up every day when working with databases.

a

Copy MySQL Table Structure & Data

PSP provides a low cost alternative for printing custom postcards, business cards and even greeting cards. You supply them with a photo, or a prepared advertisement image, and PS Print will print your item for you. They have a simple ordering process that makes it easy for anyone interested in printing their own cards for Christmas, birthday parties or weddings to get the job done.

For my purposes, business card and brochure printing is available for cheap prices. I’m also thinking about getting some postcard printing done for some direct mail work to area businesses to promote my services in programming and web site design. Outside of work I find a lot of the services offered by PS Print to be useful when the holiday come around and my family is looking for a change of pace from the typical store bought greeting cards.

a

Custom Postcards For Your Business

Recently, over the course of the last few months, as the economy has taken a nosedive I’ve seen a similar drop in the number of quality sites being listed and sold at these sites. You can take a quick look yourself and see that people on SitePoint and DP that are selling anything are more or less pushing spammy junk for cheap prices. It’s a rare occurrence when something good comes along and when it does it isn’t on the market for long before someone snatches it up.

Finding Good Sites For Sale

Since the people normally involved in the buying and selling of websites trade are slowing down their activity it’s time for people looking to buy in this market to get proactive.

If you’re looking to buy a real, quality web site you should no longer be looking on SitePoint and Digital Point with any hopes of success. Instead, go out and find sites you like and contact them directly and ask if they’d be willing to sell.

You might be surprised to discover not only the number of people willing to sell their site to you but their asking prices as well. I certainly recommend giving it a shot and seeing how things go. The worst thing that can happen is someone says no.

a

Good Web Site Sales Are Evaporating

In my own business, building a custom content management system is definitely not a rare request but I also offer other services so I’m not always in a position to fill that need. There are companies, such as DPCI, that specialize in building and selling digital asset management software.

By going with CMS experts, like DPCI, you can be assured you’ll get the system and assistance you need. There are so many content management options on the market today that it’s important to find a vendor or consultant that knows how to separate the good from the bad and get you a working system that will help your business or project succeed.

a

The Rise Of Content Management Systems

An alternative to an in-house Exchange server is a hosted solution. SherWeb is one of the providers I find meets the needs of most companies looking for Exchange hosting. At just under $9 per mailbox the plans are affordable and come with no minimum number of users. That’s a big plus for smaller sized businesses looking for the benefits of an Exchange Server without the normally high costs associated with one.

SherWeb also provides hosted Sharepoint for those businesses looking to take advantage of Microsoft’s popular collaboration environment. The Sharepoint web hosting that SherWeb provides its customers comes with built-in integration for Microsoft Office and their hosted Exchange service. With an online collaboration environment it’s easier to keep offices in proper communication on their projects.

SherWeb offers a complete set of hosted business tools and applications and better than competitive pricing. I highly suggest businesses of any size, or freelancers looking to make recommendations to their clients, give SherWood’s product line a good, hard look.

a

Find Exchange Hosting

The majority of my freelance business centers around the sports industry with a particular focus on baseball, although 2009 will see expansion into other North American sports. As summer draws to a close and teams wrap up their seasons I begin to see a dramatic increase in work requests and project proposals. In the fall, teams shift their focus from the happenings on the field to the happenings off of it.

The Downside of the Busy Season

Of course, the inevitable downside of the busy season is the opposing slow season. When we near the end of spring next year, my sports work will more than likely dry up unless I establish connections with new clients. This is something I’ve had to deal with every year since 2004.

Because of this downswing I’ve developed to growth strategies during these times for my freelance business/ With such a reliance on a cyclical industry and work schedule it is incredibly important for freelancers caught in that kind of loop to find “offseason” clientele or use that time to develop income generating side projects to help you supplement your income.

Finding new clients in a pinched economy isn’t always easy so building sources of passive income might be easier for you. There’s a great quote I heard last night on CNBC in reference to IBM’s business model. A talking head said that IBM “eats while we all sleep.”

A Slowdown Solution

That’s exactly what you want to be doing in your freelance career during down swings in activity. I’ve been an advocate of side projects here on this blog since I began writing it and now, during these potentially difficult times, they are even more important than ever.

There’s something satisfying about building a product, or web site, that generates hands off revenue for you 24 hours a day. If you can begin to generate your own revenue, without relying on constantly churning new clients and getting paid by current ones, you’ll be able to buckle down and make it through the ongoing uncertainty.

a

The Busy Season And Surviving Slowdowns

One of the most positive points of project collaboration software is that it gives a possibility to improve the overall work on numerous projects. For example, many managers of your group fulfill different functions and work on different parts of the project. It would be a hard task to estimate the work of everyone and also see the work in progress. Only imagine what will happen if just one of them does not work properly or makes mistakes. It can spoil the work of all members of the group.

But if you have special online project collaboration software you can see the work of every manager online and of course correct their work online. Another advantage of this particular kind of custom software development is that it works with the help of Internet thus it gives a possibility to connect all your offices which can be situated all over the world. As you see there are numerous advantages of installing PM software.

a

Why Do Companies Order PM Software

VNC, or Virtual Network Computing, is a method of accessing a remote system. It’s basically a simple way to do desktop sharing. I use it to help troubleshoot client problems by logging directly onto their computer, taking control of that machine’s keyboard and mouse and walking through the problem live with my client. It’s an invaluable tool that every freelancer needs to become intimately familiar with.

This whole setup is very easy to install. I use RealVNC on each client machine and then, since I’m a Mac user, I connect to them using a program called Chicken of the VNC. Chicken of the VNC also has one of the best application icons of all time, as you can see on the right.

Anyway, if you have clients and find yourself in need to some hand holding with them you should definitely look into using VNC.

a

VNC Is A Technical Support Lifesaver