Hiring Freelancers

The biggest pro about hiring a freelancer is that they are generally cheaper than hiring an agency because they don’t have any overhead. They often work from their home or on the go, so there is no need to pay for an office, HR expenses, etc. so you usually get their labor at cost.

Of course this benefit can quickly become the biggest reason why not to hire a freelancer. Lack of structure, consistency, and redundancy can quickly become a headache. Many of us who have hired freelancers can tell story after story of freelancers that we’ve worked with that have taken on too much work, did poor quality work, or who simply stopped communicating altogether in the middle of a project.

Hire a White Label Agency

Hiring an agency solves the problems that you might have with individual freelancers. An agency essentially works at your HR department doing all of the personnel management for you. Generally, you’ll have one Project Manager or Representative that will be your “go to” person and manages all of your projects for you.

True, hiring a white label web development company can be more expensive than hiring individual freelancers, but the time you’ll save in managing your projects can be well worth it. I’ve personally known of at least one web agency who nearly doubled their business after they started using white labeled web services because they were able to focus on sales and customer satisfaction instead of the nitty gritty details of the actual projects themselves.

How to Outsource Your Next Project

Step 1) Find a White Label Firm: Contact a white label web firm like ours here: http://splashingpixels.com/ and get in touch about what kinds of projects you do and what kind of work you are looking to get off your plate.

Step 2) Do a Test Project First: In addition to showing you some of the projects a white label agency has done, you should do a test project first. Select a smaller client project or a project of your own to test an agency to make sure you and them work well together and to get the processes of communication hammered out.

Step 3) Do a Bigger Project: Once an agency has proven that they can do a good job with your projects, go ahead and let them tackle a bigger web design or development project for you. Continue to refine the process of communication being sure to clearly layout milestones, points at which feedback should be solicited from you and your customers, payment schedules, and work flows. Continue to work on this process through the next few projects to make sure the system becomes a well-oiled machine.

Step 4) Set it and Forget It: Now that you’ve built a trusted partnership with an agency, you can effectively “set it and forget it” – that is, you can get back to work scaling your company through sales and networking knowing that you can handle the increase in workload that will come about.

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What is an app theme? An app (or application) theme is simply a theme that has advanced functionality for a particular purpose. Among those classified as “app themes” are real estate themes, band themes, coupon based themes, city guide themes, voting themes, directory themes, and a few others. Building upon the usability of WordPress, these app themes often include multiple pages of theme options, built-in custom fields, custom post types, and custom taxonomies, as well as payment gateways or other ways to monetize the sites (such as ad management).

Many of the most popular sites have now been “cloned” and are available as app themes for WordPress. Yelp clones like this one exist, as do clones for Pinterest, Fat Wallet and Retail Me Not, Digg and Reddit, Groupon, and many others.

Two of the most well known companies that are only make application based themes are App Themes and Premium Press. Both companies boast half a dozen or more themes that have tons and tons of extra features. Other companies are catching on though. Another company that only makes app themes is SiteMile, and they are quickly becoming popular as well. Other theme makers such as Tokokoo and InkThemes are jumping on the bandwagon as well, though their themes include a wider range of categories outside of app themes as well.

There are approximately 150 app themes in existence right now (not counting e-commerce themes!), and there is little doubt that the WP industry will see more and more of these types of themes in the future.

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Recently, a blog has re-launched in an effort to help struggling networkers build a sustainable income in their MLM businesses. The Sponsoring System is bringing together tips, tricks, and techniques from top experts in the industry from the likes of Magnetic Sponsoring, MLSP, the Empower Network, and everywhere else networking information can be found. A frustrated networker’s dream, The Sponsoring System offers Free training on everything from SEO to Facebook marketing to Twitter marketing to Email Marketing and many other ways of generating leads.

The blog will likely meet with great success because of it’s zero-hype approach. Nearly all other bloggers in the same industry lack quality information or quality presentation where as TSS gives both. The creator of the site, MarketerMatt has had a lot of success with his internet marketing company already and is not bringing all of his expertise to bear on this industry. Having failed miserably in past companies years ago, Matt is back with a vengeance looking for redemption and is quickly establishing himself and his blog as a leader in the industry.

The blog itself sports a clean-looking theme from MyThemeShop, which is perfect for the task at hand offering making it easy to offer a balance of content and promotions on a mobile-friendly site. The blog is still in it’s infancy, but already has some great mini-series going such as “Crap My Upline Told Me” and “Link Building for Leads and Profit” which are sure to be found valuable by other networkers.

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If you would like to share your opinion on a site that you really enjoy, please share so that everyone can check it out. And now onto our choices for the Top 10 Web Design Blogs Of 2013:

1) Smashing Magazine

Well probably one of the more obvious inclusions in this list of site Smashing Magazine is a amazing place for developers, designs, marketings, and more. They offer some of the best freebies, tutorials, articles, and other useful web design information.

2) TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a site that has gotten a bunch of heat because of all the BS commenters over the past year but is still one of the best web design blogs and they have announced that they are tightening up their commenting system. They should be a blog that you keep your eyes on throughout this year.

3) Tuts+

Well Tuts+ a network of sites that are all amazing and they offer some of the best tutorials, articles, freebies, and more. If you don’t know who they are check them out. They are great for beginners and experts.

4) Webmonkey

Another great site and one that not everyone has went to but should. These guys have a little bit of everything web design, web development, software, apps, platforms, API’s, and more.

5) Colour Lovers Blog

Maybe a site that you use every so ofter but probably have not checked out their blog. They have a great place for you to get tutorials and freebies to help you become a better developer and designer.

6) Fuel Your Creativity

Probably not one of the most notable website out there but site a great place to get some information. They have contests, freebies, tutorials, news updates, and more. You should put them in your 2013 check list.

7) CSSBeauty

Probably not one of the best designed website but these guys have some great information and a ton of free stuff.

8) Six Revisions

This is probably another website that a ton of people have not visited but should. With everything from freebies, tutorials, articles, and more.

9) Web Design Dev

I chose Web Design Dev because I really love reading all the different articles that they post. They have a little bit of everything on the site so anyone that is involved in the web industry that is either a expert or a beginner would love to read some of their articles.

10) Just Creative

Just Creative is one of those site that offer some great stuff but really is a business page. They do sell services on this site but still have some great articles for you to read and learn from.

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Looking For Blog Writers

We are looking to build a blog that can rival some of the biggest blog and websites out there. Some history behind Media Blog Stuff. New owner Shane Strong purchased a domain that had went extinct but had a great track record and needed to be revived. Originally Media Blog Stuff was started in early 2008. Now we are looking to bring this domain back to life and build a great following and group of writers. If you would like to be part of this website please feel free to contact us with any questions you have.

What are some of the major things that we are going to blog about? Well most of our writers come from the web marketing industry so you will find a ton of information about marketing, seo, social, web design, and web development. Even tho that is our backgrounds that does not have to be yours, we are looking for everything. We would love to have some people in the music, movie, cooking, fashion, books, poetry, radio, jobs, and other stuff. If you have something you would like to blog about let us know and we will set you up with your need.

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