Companies and individuals are largely hiring freelancers, which offer striking benefits. Thus, freelancing has been successfully adopted by the professional world given the advantages of both sides. Whether working from home or from an office space, it is always important for freelancers to maintain professional etiquette in order to gain success. Freelancers should follow a certain regime to be perceived as a professional. Only those with a professional attitude can handle themselves effectively while working from their own comfort zone. In this article, we discuss certain points that are important for a professional freelancer to follow in order to succeed.

Being a successful freelancer requires both hard work and planning. One needs to focus on productivity; for that, a freelancer needs a proper workplace. A proper working space, a system, and the zeal to work hard are the beginning guidelines for freelancers. Although freelancing refers to working from one’s own comfort zone, the comfort level should not hamper the productivity level. Therefore, it is important to organize a proper space for work. Let’s discuss planning or designing one’s working space.

Planning a Working Space at Home:

A freelancer can work anywhere, from a bedroom to a public café. However, it is important to ensure a plan much before you start any work. Many modern individuals prefer using a study or an office space in their home; however, this might not be possible for everyone. Therefore, let’s look at the factors necessary for your office space regardless of whether it is an exclusive study room or just any other room of the house.

• Private work space: Private work space in this case means an uninterrupted area where you can sit and work with concentration. You cannot work amidst the hustle and bustle of family or friends. Therefore, the room should allow for privacy, either by being completely isolated or by locking the door during work hours. Maintaining a private working space will allow you to concentrate and focus on your work and help in productivity.
• Pleasurable environment: A pleasurable environment is an important criterion for any work space. The temperature should be mild for you to be in comfort while working. Too hot or too cold will distract you from work. On the other hand, fresh air can be a relaxing alternative. It is preferable to work in a well-ventilated room where there are options to relax your body and your eyes beyond the computer screen and the walls. It is beneficial both health wise and production wise. Thus, it is important to confine your work space within a pleasurable environment.
• Adequate facilities: For your work you need to have certain facilities such as a computer, outlets, Internet access, and available phone lines. When working from your own space, you need to take care of your own requirements. A proper system and outlets to connect it are the foremost necessity. To research well and be connected with your employer, it is important to have a proper Internet network system as well as a phone line for staying in regular contact with your employer. These are adequate facilities that are a must for every freelancer’s working space.

In addition to these basic needs, other important factors need to be considered to design a proper working space. Comfortable furniture is an important requirement for your working environment, especially when you are dedicating long freelancing working hours. It is not necessary to go for high-priced cozy furniture; you can also go for budgeted furniture that is comfortable and healthy for long hours of use. Lighting is an important factor for your work space. It is important to maintain a healthy level of lighting in your work space to save your eyes from any damage. You can go for a table lamp or lighting for your entire work space. Avoid backlighting and strong lighting to avoid stress on your eyes. You should also go for anti-glare spectacles in order to save your eyes from harmful radiation from your system.

Ergonomics to Improve Working Life for Freelancers:

Ergonomics is another important element for a freelancer to focus on. If you are working for long continuous hours, you might end up causing health issues like back pain, headaches, and visual problems. You can avoid these side effects by maintaining good ergonomics. When working in an office, employers are responsible for good chairs and desks; freelancers need to manage these items themselves. Look for an adjustable office chair where you can adjust your sittings as per your comfort without stressing your body. Choose a desk that is spacious enough for your computer system and other working requirements. Maintain a proper distance between the desk and chair for comfortable work and to relax your eyes at the same time. When you are working on a laptop, use a separate keyboard and mouse, which will help you to maintain a comfortable position while typing as well as manage the proper distance between your screen and your eyes. You should also maintain good posture when sitting for working in a healthy way. When you work from home, you will be working alone and sometimes the silence may not be enjoyable. You can play your favorite music in the background to prevent external noises from interfering with your work and to avoid complete silence if it bothers your during work.

Many options are available to relax muscles from the strain of continuous work, such as workout balls. It is important to change your sitting posture after every 30 minutes. You can work out simple neck and leg exercises in the middle to relax your muscles. You can change your chair adjustment after several hours to create a balance in order to avoid straining your body. Relax your eyes often during work by blinking. You can shut your eyes for 2 to 5 minutes after every half an hour to avoid causing visual strain. Avoid looking continuously at your screen and incorporate often breaks to relax, looking through the window or just shutting your eyes for a few minutes. Using clean water to wash once or twice a day during work is beneficial as it helps your eyes refresh and clear the dirt and continuous stress. Use ergonomic mouse pads for comfortable wrist support. If you use phones very often for you freelance work, try to use a hands-free headset in order to avoid crunching your neck. Consider such ergonomics in your work space in order to keep yourself healthy for a healthy productivity in return. Also remember to take breaks after stressful hours. You can plan for tea and lunch breaks in order to relax from the stressful work.

Separating Professional and Personal Life:

Freelancers have the choice of managing their own work time per their comfort zone. However, it is beneficial to follow an organized schedule for work. You can work whenever you choose, but try to follow a proper and organized work time in order to work better. The most important thing while managing timelines is to separate work and life. You might think you can work and live your personal life simultaneously, but this might lead to confusion and you ending up at complete loss from both sides. In addition, you might work too hard, neglecting your personal life; however, missing sleep and rest will lead to mental disturbance and less productive work. Therefore, fix your time for work and don’t bring it into your leisure time. This will help you balance your work life and personal life properly.

In order to maintain your work and personal life, create a balance in both. It is necessary to create a comfortable work space at home, but don’t equate that comfort to luxury. Don’t indulge in television or games during work as these things might distract you from your work. Meanwhile, don’t bring work into your personal life as it might frustrate you. Thus, distinguish between your work and play hours. For example, suppose you need to work eight hours. You can work from 9 to 6, taking a one-hour break in the middle. You can also manage it as 9 to 5 or 5.30 if you don’t want to take a one-hour break. If your prefer working in the evening, you can also define your work hours as 12 to 8. This is the greatest advantage of freelancers; you can manage your timeline according to your desires. The goal is to define a schedule and stick to it. If you find your work monotonous, shift your schedule for a change. This will give you a change and offer you a refreshing mind to work better.

Freelancers should be upfront about their timelines. Your family and friends might not understand the seriousness of your job. They might feel that, as a freelancer, you can work at any period of time, so they call you to go shopping or do some other work during your office hours. You need to make them understand about the seriousness and schedule of your work. Do so from the very beginning to avoid misunderstandings in the future.

If your work requires you to use the phone, use a separate working line to avoid friends and families interrupting your work hours. Such calls might distract your space and hamper your productivity. Similarly, you do not was a work call during your leisure time. Using different phone lines will balance your work and play properly.

For freelancers one of the other advantages is that they don’t need to maintain any dress code during work. However, it is preferable to maintain personal hygiene etiquette at home too. Define freshen up and bathing time for yourself. You are of course free to wear comfortable outfits unless you expect a client.

Taking Breaks is Necessary:

As previously mentioned, it is important to take breaks during working hours. When you are working for 7 to 8 hours, it is very important for you to take a lunch break to refresh your mind and relax your body. However, don’t make yourself so relaxed that your mind and body refuse to go back to work. Sometimes you need to stretch your work hours and work late during deadlines or peak times Go for it, but maintain your health during those hours as well. Health comes foremost in your life because if you are not fit enough, you cannot work productively. In addition, illness might cause you greater loss. Therefore, take good care of your health along with being professional. You can go for regular meditation and exercise session to maintain your health. Also eat good food at appropriate times. Ultimately, while dividing your work and leisure times, do not compromise either side.

Importance of Tracking Time for Freelancers:

Another important factor for freelancers is to track their time, particularly when paid per hour. Tracking your work time perfectly will help you include that in your invoice or budget and gain benefits. Tracking time also helps you plan your freelancing regime as you realize how much time certain work needs. It definitely takes longer when you first start, but once you become accustom to the flow, you require lesser and controlled time. Suppose your job is to write 300-word articles and you need about 15 to 20 minutes to complete one. You can make determine how many articles you will be able to complete by the end of the day. This will also help you declare future commitments for such articles. Thus, tracking time helps you improve your professionalism and work style. However, a common mistake that freelancers make is failing to track research time. When you write an article in about 15 to 20 minutes, that is the time required for actual writing. Extra time is required for research and study prior to the write-ups. Failing to track that time might lead you to unwanted commitments and failure. It might also hamper your productivity due to the lack of time. Therefore, make sure that you include your before and after work timing as well tracking your actually work time.

There are many ways to track your work hours. You can use paper, email, spreadsheets, and so forth, although these methods require extensive manual work. You can also get widgets for your computer for recording such data. A few of the popular sites that provide this facility are Getharvest.com, Tickspot.com, and Basecamphq.com. These sites offer facilities for tracking your work hours, accounting, and so on. Many such sites offer a trial pack for free; others offer it for affordable prices. These features help you to record your time simply and without much effort.

Clarify Your Work Schedule:

You might get work on a project or daily basis but need to report it daily, weekly or monthly. It is important to maintain a scheduled time, as previously mentioned. You might choose to work in the morning or late at night as per your comfort but do make sure that you inform your employer of your schedule and timelines. You should focus on clear and appropriate communication. For example, if you need to report on a daily basis and your employer is uninformed about your scheduled time, he or she might expect your report by the evening. However, if you enjoy working late at night, this might create unnecessary confusion. Therefore, make sure that you are clear about your time with your employer.

In addition to these guidelines, many other factors should be addressed to succeed as a professional freelancer:

• Organize work: Organize your time and work properly. You can make use of Google Docs and spreadsheets for recording your work. Keep your file system organized and keep your work data arranged. Try to maintain a separate work folder to keep your work-related data and files organized.
• Actively respond to emails: Actively respond to emails so that you don’t miss updates from your employers. Maintain at least minimum contact with your employer on a regular basis. Respond to their emails quickly and speak up clearly on issues. Only straightforward communication is healthy in this situation. Avoid unwanted notifications and preferably use a separate account for work purposes. Most importantly, check your emails regularly.
• Update software: Keep you software and browser updated for better and faster work. Nowadays you can get updated versions of software and browsers via the Internet immediately after their launch. Keep yourself updated to be able to access new features and benefits.
• Keep backups of work: You need to maintain backups in the case of a crisis. It is very important to keep backups for your work—be it writing articles, writing codes, or designing sites. Many online tools are available, such as mozy.com and idrive.com. You can use this to backup your work and records.
• Build contacts: One of the important tasks in freelancing is building contacts. It is not a salaried task that you will be offered work at your desk. You need to build up contacts and present yourself to others to get work. Keep your profiles updated on freelancing sites and professional linking sites. Try to keep your past employers as contacts and find prospects for future contacts.

Finally, but most importantly, commit to work as much as is possible for you. It is preferable to take one job at a time and have another job lined up after completion of the first one. Don’t stress yourself with much work because that will hamper your productivity. You will be a successful freelancer only if you offer a quality product. More work might lead to a lack in quality and hamper your reputation. Therefore, be deadline conscious and quality conscious at the same time. Quality work is the secret of success in any work. All these are the guidelines for succeeding as a professional freelancer. Follow these guidelines and your hard work will lead to success.

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Fortunately, finding your audience can be done with a few tried and true techniques. And with only a few changes to your blog, you can fine-tune it to better meet the needs of your readers. By making it easier for visitors to find content, you build trust and they will be much more likely to return for more information later. Keep reading for some steps you can take to find your audience, target your blog design to this audience, and hopefully increase your visitor count.

How to Target Your Audience

Know Your Audience

Before you can tune your blog, you really need to know your readers inside and out. Why do they visit your blog? What answers are they looking for? Can you anticipate questions they might not have thought of and respond preemptively? These questions help you understand your audience so you can ask the right questions and build the proper solutions later.

One way to understand your readers better is to study analytics. Most analytics packages, like the free Google Analytics suite, allows for keyword tracking. This tells you how readers are finding you and lets you see what keywords they are typing in to get to your website. Often the very question they are searching for can be found in the keywords people use.

Another way to get to know your audience is through question and answers. As people leave comments or you start building relationships with your readers, take the time to ask questions. Get their feedback. You may get new ideas that give your readers more ways to solve problems with simple changes to your blog.

You can also very plainly ask your readers to drop you a line to tell you what they’d like to see more and less of on your blog. You could even ask them to fill out a simple survey and email them a free package of helpful information or tools as an incentive.

Layout

One immediate problem with many blogs is the layout. We’re not talking about how many columns, necessarily, although two columns is the standard format. What is more important, though, is that the layout of your information and mix of ads can be an instant turn off to readers.

While it can be much more difficult to generate ad revenues with a blog these days, don’t compromise your blog design with poorly placed ads. There are two general ad issues: poor placement and trickery.

Poor placement is generally just the mistake of cluttering blogs with advertisements. Whether they are text ads or graphic-based ads, too many ads can be very distracting. Track which ads perform the best for you and remove the others. Most of the time, specific ads far out-perform the rest, meaning the others aren’t necessary.

Never, ever try to trick your readers into clicking ads. A common method is to replace the navigation bar with ads. Another technique is to bury ads in the body of the content telling your readers that the ads are related content or resources. Trust is the most important thing you have with your readers. If they think for a split second that you are trying to trick them, you’ve lost all credibility and they won’t come back.

Remove any ads that aren’t generating revenue. Make sure your layout makes it easy for your readers to find answers, not ads.

Typography

An often overlooked design element when it comes to blogging is the typography. How your fonts display is a critical way to make sure your readers can find and read your content. Simple updates can have a huge impact.

With the advent of CSS, updating your fonts across the site is no longer a major undertaking. But often a change to the font family itself isn’t the issue. You just need to adjust how the font functions.

For example, small adjustments to the line-height CSS property can dramatically improve the whitespace of your blog. Try adding a few pixels to the code and looking at how it changes the way your blog reads.

Another simple change is the font size. Don’t be afraid to go a little bigger than you think necessary. Some websites now stick with 18pt and even 24pt fonts for body text. So there is no need to assume that the standard 12pt font is automatically perfect for your blog.

Lastly, if you want to give your entire blog a quick face-lift, consider incorporating the @font-face CSS property and using free web fonts from places like Google Webfonts for a major change in your blog’s look. Some of the fonts are not appropriate for body text, but there are a number of really great free webfonts you can quickly implement for page titles or menus.

Headings

Notice how on this article you can quickly scan the headings and find what you are looking for with very little effort? Each section is labeled with a heading that allows you to visually scan the page and pick out the sections of interest.

Headings serve another purpose: search engines. The keywords in the headings are weighted heavily and help search engines know what the content of the article is about. If you skip headings, search engines have to rely on the title of your document and keyword percentages in the body of your text. Take the guesswork out and put important keywords in the headings of every article.

If you don’t normally use headings, get in the habit of using them every time you write a new post. In the HTML, you simply wrap a heading with an <h1> for the main title, <h2> for headings, and <h3>, <h4>, etc for subsequent sub-headings and sub-sub-headings.

Remember, the real goal of all of this is to answer the question your readers want answered. If you were looking for information about “headings” when you got to this page, the headings would have helped you find the answer much more quickly than having to read through the entire post.

Front Matter

The home page of your blog is a very important piece of digital real-estate. This is where knowing your audience really comes into play. Making it as easy as possible for your readers to find the answers they’re looking for is what the home page is all about. In fact, guiding your visitors to content is the primary function of the home page.

Like the table of contents in the front of a book, the home page offers a high-level overview of your site. Use this space to make it very easy to get answers. If the readers made it to your home page, it is often through a referral or even word-of-mouth. Search engines typically send visitors to a specific page. So they have arrived at your site with a purpose in mind. Don’t make them scroll through pages of introductory material. Save that for specific pages like the “About” or “Who We Are” pages.

An easy way to tell if your site is performing is to check your analytics. If the entry page is your home page and the exit rate and/or bounce rate is high, you are not making it easy enough to find the right content. The concept of a table of contents is an excellent way to approach your home page. Can they quickly find answers and drill into your content or are they stuck looking at ads and introductory material first?

Commenting

People have an opinion and generally love to share it. Commenting on your blog is an excellent way to get conversation going and to build relationships with visitors. But commenting can also be a huge distraction, too.

We’ve all seen those comments left by angry, disgruntled, or just generally argumentative people. Sometimes they are insightful, but most of the time you can tell pretty quickly you’ve got someone looking for a fight and they’re hiding behind the anonymity the Internet provides.

Then you have spammers. They leave everything from incredibly generic responses to medicine to porn. Again, this is very distracting and never helpful to your readers.

One solution more blog owners are reaching for is to only allow commenting through Facebook. So the visitor has to be logged into Facebook to leave a comment on your site. The upside is that this will eliminate any and all spam. The also eliminates most people who might hide behind an anonymous user name.

The downside of this approach is that you will scare away non-Facebook users and those who are not comfortable with putting their name on your site – even if they have legitimate feedback to provide. So think through adding Facebook only comments carefully as this may not be a good fit.

Other options include keeping the standard commenting systems, but adding a Captcha phrase that must be entered. This works for the most part for spam, but doesn’t keep out the users looking to argue.

Ultimately, this boils down to your readers. If your audience is a group that loves to comment and gets very involved, make sure leaving comments is very easy for them. For those blog owners who struggle with the fighters and the spammers, consider switching to the Facebook comment system. A simple WordPress plugin you can reach for is Facebook Comments by Alex Moss.

Advertisements

We discussed this in the layout section above, but ads bear a more detailed discussion. If you are like most blog owners, you need the ad revenue you generate to keep the blog running. Options abound for ways of making money with ads, but not all methods of getting the income are worth it.

Ads should be placed carefully to let readers know they are ads. Never try to trick them into clicking. That’s a lost cause in the long-term as it’s far better to have returning visitors than to get a quick click and lose them forever.

Text ads are fine, but consider graphic-based ads as well. Avoid ads that have rotating images as these are incredibly distracting. Instead, explore selling ads directly using a fixed banner size and location. While this can be a bit more work, you have control over what ads are on your site, making sure that ads are relevant to your readers.

Graphics

Any easy way to make your content more visually appealing is to include graphics whenever possible. At a minimum, you should have one image per post. This sets the tone for the article and breaks up the black and white block that posts can take on.

Graphics do not have to be highly customized. Using resources like SXC.hu, Flickr.com, or even Wikipedia.org, you can quickly upload images that you can use legally on your blog. If you have the ability to add typography to your graphics, then this only helps tie the graphic to the article.

If you can, use an image of some kind every 4-6 paragraphs. This is only a rule of thumb, but it helps break up the content and can keep readers engaged.

While you’re adding images, take a few seconds to add meta descriptions to your images. This helps readers who have accessibility needs understand what the images are doing and it also helps search engines understand the content of the images, which also helps with SEO purposes.

Subscriptions

You can encourage readers to subscribe to your website by providing premium content. Some sites charge for this feature while others hide content from users who have not yet subscribed for free. Still others simply provide subscribers with content updates any time they publish new posts.

Make the subscription process easy and ask for as little information as is needed. A name and email is typically fine for keeping readers updated. The more you ask for, the less likely they are to subscribe as people are more concerned than ever with giving their personal information away.

Another common way to keep up with all the content on the web is to use RSS feeds to track new content. RSS feeds allow readers to automatically download and aggregate content from many different websites from free RSS readers, like Google Reader.

Most WordPress and other blog platforms automatically generate RSS feeds, but that doesn’t mean your readers have easy access to your RSS feed. Put a link to your RSS feed in a prominent location on your site. A good spot is the same location that you place your other social media links.

Social Media

Social media has two general functions within your blog: extending the lines of communication and making it easier for readers to share. Most blogs only do one of those well, but you should take advantage of both.

Open up the lines of communication outside your blog commenting areas into the social media arena. You can provide deeper insights, more fulfilling conversation, and context dependent feedback when you engage your readers through social media.

You can also use any number of social media plugins within WordPress and other blogging platforms to make it easy for your readers to share your content. Your readers benefit because they are able to send relevant information to their contacts. They use this to establish themselves as experts or simply to pass relevant information on to friends.

Featured and Popular Article Widgets

Featured and popular article widgets make it easy for readers to find key information quickly. These widgets are installed either on the home page of the website, the sidebar, or even in the bottom of posts to guide readers to the next set of articles.

You can spend extra time on key articles and use these as your feature pieces to draw readers into other areas of your website. WordPress and other blogging platforms have the ability to mark articles as featured articles by using categories or tags.

The same works for popular articles, except the widget detects which articles are getting the most visits and puts these at the top of the list. This helps readers find articles that are trendy and works as another way to drive people to more content on your site.

Summary

The key to giving your readers what they want is to first understand their needs and then make the resources they want available. When readers find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently, they will continue to come back and you will build trust with them over time. So always look for ways to better understand your visitors’ needs and never do anything that might cost you their hard earned trust.

It is the easiest and the fastest way to update all in one’s network about what one wants to convey and also to receive updates from others about what’s happening in their lives, have access to what the others share.

If you are looking forward to sustain your followers in the long term, it’s very important that you tweet the content relevant and of interest to them. The tweets made by a person would reach the timeline of his/her followers instantaneously. Instead if one needs to communicate with a specific person, he/she could use the Direct Message (DM) feature, wherein one could tweet to that particular person, and none of the other followers would be updated about this tweet. Also, if one doesn’t want to explicitly follow a person, but has an inherent motivation to receive updates from that person, he/ she could make use of Lists feature, wherein one could add people to the list (similar to that of labels feature in Gmail) and one can regularly visit these lists to check the updates.

The ‘tweet’ has to be worded in just 140 characters! Be it a company or a person, the message has to be well drafted, to convey accurately and grab attention, with the challenge of putting it together in just these few characters. This channel has also been used efficiently by individuals to promote themselves, their blogs, their professional and personal achievements etc. Like other social networking channels, Twitter empowers individuals to build their identity in the virtual world. Listed below are some tips (Do’s) that can help individuals build their social identity using Twitter. Also listed is behavior which should be avoided (Don’ts) to have a valuable experience on this channel. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of Do’s and Don’ts but surely covers some of the most important ones.

If you are yet to use Twitter or even if you are already using it, it would be a good idea to browse through http://support.twitter.com/ to understand more about the features and their judicious use.

Twitter Do’s and Don’ts for Individuals

Do’s

1) Prepare an authentic bio

Anyone on the internet, who is unknown to you and by some chance lands at your Twitter handle, is likely to first go through your bio. It is the only source of information to judge your credibility and which may decide if the person is going to follow you or not. Also, given the limitation on the character space to express yourself, you should make judicious use of words to present the information. The most likely information that could gain interest is your profession and key interests. It would be advisable not to include lingo/jargon (like “geek”, “cool” etc) to describe oneself if you want to use Twitter for a serious purpose (business networking, building a brand etc). Also, it’s absolutely essential that you state your real name and preferably upload a recent picture of yours.

2) Follow relevant people

Twitter has certain restrictions on number of people one could follow. Once a person follows 2,000 people, he/she may not be allowed to follow any further people unless the ratio of following/followers meets certain criteria set by Twitter. When you choose to “follow” someone on Twitter, your timeline (Twitter updates from people you follow) includes the updates from this person. Instead of just about following as many famous personalities as possible, you should have a defined focus and follow relevant people. Following excessive number of people may clutter your timeline and create confusion. Even in an area of interest like social media, business or sports it would be sometimes difficult to identify relevant people at the first go, but following them for certain period of time, you can decide which of them are sharing information that is relevant or interesting to you. So it’s good to be selective and keep reviewing the list of people to ensure that you follow only those who are adding value as sought by you. It’s strongly recommended that, you should follow major personalities in one’s field, to remain updated about the field. This will help you in best utilization of your time on twitter.

3) Acknowledge every source

When you are tweeting (posting an update on Twitter) or retweeting (sharing an update posted by someone whom you are following, further to your followers), you should acknowledge the source from where the information is retrieved. The source could be a blog, news portal, or even an offline magazine or newspaper. This reaffirms your belief in ethics and will create a positive impression on those in your network. It becomes more vital in case you are retweeting a particular tweet. This builds your credibility in the minds of the source and there are chances that person will start following you. Also, if you appreciate a particular tweet, you should make it a point to thank that person and acknowledge his/her efforts.

4) Use appropriate hashtags

Hashtags (#) are an important feature of Twitter which facilitates searching the information you seek in the vast ocean of numerous tweets. Someone who is searching for information relate to a particular topic will search for appropriate hashtags. Hence, when you are tweeting about an event, person, etc. use of hashtags should be encouraged. This increases the chances of your visibility in a particular area of discussion and would help you in gaining more followers.

5) Maintain focus on your domain

If someone is following you, the person most probably has certain expectation from you on a particular professional domain for e.g. mobile phone software, digital marketing, automobiles, financials etc. This expectation gets build based on the twitter bio you have prepared and the past history of tweets. Hence, it would be unjustified if one tweets on unrelated topics that may irritate the followers. One should ensure that quality information and steady tweets is provided with respect to one’s field to fulfill the expectations of the followers. Else, one could easily notice that followers will start unfollowing (voluntarily stop receiving updates from you).

6) Engage with community

Tweeting doesn’t mean one should involve in just one way bombarding of information on your followers. This would be just one way information flow and does not help a person to build relationship with others. Hence, when someone replies to your tweet or retweets or shows interest in the tweet, one should take this opportunity to engage with that person and build relationship with that person. In short two way information flow should be the objective. Showing gratitude when others appreciate what you post is a good starting point.

7) Use “direct message” feature judiciously

As of now the “direct message” (DM) feature is available only to those who you follow. By using this any of those that you follow can send a DM to you instead of posting on your timeline. This is an amazing feature, which guarantees privacy even on the social channel. It may not be advisable to get into argument with someone in open channel, or approach someone for some specific objective publicity. In this case you should make it a point to use the DM feature and get into personal communication with the concerned person.

Don’ts

1) Don’t automate

There are quite a few Twiter tools on the Internet, which could be used to automate one’s account for variety of purposes. For instance automated applications are available to send a ‘thank you’ message to new follower, or to unfollow someone who has not been active for a certain period of time, or to stream tweets at regular intervals of time (this is often practiced when one has followers from different part of the world) etc. Though it makes managing your Twitter account easy, it does not form a favorable impression. The personalization touch is lost with the usage of automated tweets using applications and the person on other side will be more often than not smart enough to differentiate an automated tweet and a real-time tweet.

2) Don’t ‘tweet’ unnecessarily

Tweeting regularly is a desirable activity, however tweeting unnecessarily is not perceived positively. It may not be necessary to tweet what you’re eating, or whom are you going for a date with and more such extremely personal information. This may result in privacy issues and also cause your followers to lose interest.

3) Don’t ‘retweet’ unnecessarily

You might be very interested in someone’s tweet. It doesn’t mean you retweet everything that this ‘someone’ tweets to your own followers. Your interest might not necessarily match that of your followers, so you should avoid retweeting unnecessarily and avoid spamming timeline of your followers.

4) Don’t tweet personal messages on your professional account

If you are an author, freelancer, consultant etc. most of your followers might be interested in your professional domain and not in your personal life aspects. So you should avoid tweeting about personal life on professional account. It would look unprofessional to tweet about personal life on professional account.

5) Don’t get involved in unnecessary arguments

If by some reason you end up in an awkward situation of someone picking on you, don’t get into arguments in public. In the heat of the moment you might write some untoward words, which might impact your image and send across wrong message to followers. Hence, it is advisable to pacify the situation and intimate openly that you would like to have a personal communication with the person who has created this situation. In order to avoid such arguments/awkward situations tweets regarding a person’s religion, relationships, career, salaries, professional issues etc shall be avoided.

6) Don’t urge people to follow you

In order to have good amount of followers, some people try hard to convince their friends and people around to follow them (which is often referred to as cyber bullying). This is an absolutely unwarranted social activity and one should avoid this.

7) Don’t delete your tweet

It just takes seconds for your tweet to reach the timeline of your hundreds or may be thousands of followers. So, if you delete a tweet from your timeline it doesn’t mean it won’t reach the wider audience. Hence, if by mistake one has tweeted wrong (not the correct wording etc) information, don’t feel shy to apologize in public. Accepting the mistake will result in respect for you. We all make mistakes. However always remember the golden rule ‘Think long enough before tweeting’.

Twitter Do’s and Don’ts for Firms/Brands

Firms (a for-profit organization, or any other type of organization. including non-profit, non-government etc.) can have a Twitter handle for them or specific brands to engage with their customers. There is no special requirement, it is as simple as one needs to have a personal Twitter handle. However, in maintaining the firm’s or brand’s account special care needs to be taken, because after all it’s managed by specific (or multiple) human beings. Though the interaction on behalf of the firm/brand is carried out by the executives, customers perceive ‘personified’ communication with the brand. The consistency message on behalf of the brand should be maintained. Conventionally, when a user has an issue/complaint about a product/service they talk to customer care representatives on phones and email. This is just a problem resolving approach, however social media is much more than just to answer customer queries or resolve customer complaints. It should be efficiently used to interact with customers, identify brand evangelizers, promote word of mouth for brand and enhance the positioning. Listed below are some of the key Do’s and Don’ts for firm’s or brand’s Twitter handle, which the social media managers need to take care of.

Do’s

1) Optimize your message well

Firms and brands would ideally love their customers to read tons of pages about them. The ‘Twitter generation’ however is very different. The Twitter users more often than not look forward to crisp information that would help them familiarize with the product/promotion or for that matter anything else seeking their attention. Also, Twitter has a common rule for everyone, be it an individual or a brand, of 140 characters per tweet to communicate. So, firms/brands need to strategize their message accordingly and try to maximize the value of their message in the given restricted space. There may be a few iterations as you figure out what’s working out and what’s not. It’s a good idea to therefore take feedback from internal as well as external sources following the brand or firm and work out a process of frequent checks and balances to ensure effective messaging.

2) Decide your objective

Twitter is just a channel or a stage where a brand can do whatever it likes to do. A brand might use it for providing product information, promoting new products, sourcing new ideas, handling queries, responding to complaints etc. Hence, a firm/brand needs to decide well in advance the objective it wishes to attain through Twitter and accordingly messages should be strategized. The messaging should not be cluttered as it may confuse those who follow the brand. The firm has to handle complaints, provide product information, feature promoting offers and give other relevant information. The priority of which information is to be shared/catered has to be decided based on customer’s preferences and a firm’s strategy. This would avoid cross-pollination of messages and keep the messaging focused.

3) Tweet relevant information

The followers of a brand/firm could be any of the stakeholders. It could be a stock broker, a supplier, a customer, legal advisor, or in fact even competitor brand. The brand should stick to the tweets related to its brand/firm rather than providing updates about weather, riots happening in the city etc. Tweeting such unrelated messages just to garner attention would indicate that firm/brand doesn’t have enough content to be delivered to their followers, and it will not create a positive impression. A ‘congratulatory’ message on a famous victory in cricket can be a one off affair as this may add some ‘personification’ to the brand.

4) Use social media dashboards

When firms/brands have multiple accounts, it would be advisable to make use of social media dashboard to maintain these multiple accounts. Dashboards are applications that allow community managers to manage multiple accounts on a single medium, with a single login. Some of the common dashboards used often in the industry are TweetDeck, Hootsuite, Ping.fm, Digsby etc. This would allow one to track the happenings on multiple accounts and react on real-time basis.

5) Be responsive to both positive and negative comments

One cannot expect customers to always shower praise on the firm/brand. There might be some unsatisfied customers out there in the market, or some intentional competitor agents who might be trying to bad mouth the brand. As it is a social channel everyone has a right to speak and express, so there could not be a legal way to curb such comments. The community manager needs special skills to handle such comments. Avoiding such comments might provoke the tweeters to tweet further, hence, one should try to clarify the brands response to a negative comment and apologize/rectify if there has been a genuine complaint case.

6) Identify appropriate brand evangelizers

This should be one of the major objectives of firm/brand to identify appropriate brand evangelizers, engage them in discussions and encourage them to spread word of mouth about the brand. These brand evangelizers need to be handled very carefully else, they might also be powerful enough to spread negative word of mouth.

7) Gain customer insights

In the process of discussions with customers, brand should consistently look for opportunities to improvise their offerings based on the constant feedback via Twitter. When such an opportunity arises firm should make use of it and engage further with the customer to get to the depth of the issue.

Don’ts

1) Don’t become too eager for followers

It may be easy for well known brands to attract huge crowd instantaneously and have a large number of followers. It might not be possible for a local brand or a regional brand to replicate this. But, it doesn’t mean the brand should make untoward efforts like spamming to gain followers. A brand should respect others’ privacy and accordingly make a suitable pitch.

2) Don’t hard sell

One should not ideally look to Twitter only as a selling medium. Customers tend to get saturated of many channels through which a brand reaches them. They perceive Twitter as a unique form of communication and not yet another mode to disturb their privacy. So, this medium should be ideally used to listen, track and monitor the conversations about the brand, which often goes unnoticed through other medium. You may ‘tweet’ about some special discounts and new product launches but should not try to ‘overdo’ the selling else, users might perceive your Twitter handle as a yet another selling medium.

3) Don’t tweet remarks on your competitor

Like in any other public forum, a brand should restrain from commenting on competitor’s brands. This would create very wrong impression in the customer’s mind. And, if the competitor brand retaliates, it would be damaging both the brands, with no one gaining anything out of this ‘tit-for-tat’ exercise.

4) Don’t tweet about yourself

The community managers, who are handling the brand’s Twitter handle, should be very careful while tweeting. Customers are following the account to know about the brand and not about the community manager. Hence, community managers should not make personal updates on their professional account. This would damage the impression of the brand.

5) Don’t automate your tweets

Some firms try to automate their tweets with the help of various Twitter tools available on the Internet. It is not advisable to tweet via such automated tweets, as firms should always try to build a one-on-one relationship with each customer. Each customer should be individually addressed and sending automated tweets may be perceived as disrespectful by the customers who are following the brand. One more drawback is if a user posts negative remarks and there is an automated response, the user may feel further disgruntled Therefore it is a must to customize and personalize the message, however always remember “Never to get involved into an argument on a public forum like Twitter.” Get in personal contact with the user by a direct message and resolve the issue.

6) Don’t make personal contacts

Some community managers may also tend to make personal contacts with the customers and use them for personal gain. It should not be allowed at any cost and strictly prohibited by the firm. The Twitter handle should only have the focus to build relationship with customer and brand.

7) Don’t reveal key firm secrets

The community managers should also not reveal firm secrets on the Twitter handle, as there is high chance the competitors are following the brand. It might result in reducing differentiation for the firm. Twitter provides you an option to give permission to follow your tweets to only the people you approve. The moment you start using this option, your tweets will not be available publically.

Image Credits

• Twitter image by Annette Shaff
• Two cute birds
• Funny businessman cartoon
• Funny casual man cartoon

You simply have to experiment and play with different effects by making use of huge free brushes and textures collection to create your own world.

Here we tried to pick and showcase 70 best photo manipulation tutorials of all time. Just go through and imagine how your own world should be.

For those, who don’t know what is Adobe Photoshop? And what it can do? Then follow the link below for detail introduction.

• Adobe Photoshop | Adobe.com
• Adobe Photoshop | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The next generation, representing two decades of excellence. This application contains everything you need to create high-end images and graphics. For those artists whose work demands more than the basic application, There is a Photoshop to satisfy their every needs that utilizes Image editing & photo manipulation.

You may be interested in the following related articles as well.

• 100+ Fresh and Excellent Photoshop Tutorials
• 77 Excellent Photoshop Tutorials For Designing Posters
• 145 Ultimate Round-Up Of Photoshop Tutorials and Resources
• 65+ Smoking Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials
• 66 Excellent Photoshop Web Design Layout Tutorials
• 125+ Ultimate Round-Up of Illustrator Tutorials

Feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your thoughts that our readers may find helpful.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed and follow us on Twitter — for recent updates.

Best Photo Manipulation Tutorials of All Time

The demand for Photoshop tutorials are too much in these days and finding the best tutorials from the pool with tens of thousands of tutorials is not a easy job to perform. Designers love all kind of Photoshop tutorials that can help them to easily learn more and more everyday and give them ideas and directions to design more beautiful and attractive creative works. This list contains some of the Best Handpicked Photo Manipulation Tutorials around for your Image editing & photo manipulatio related needs.

1. Create Honey-Covered Objects

A Honey-Covered effect looks fantastic. This tutorial tells you how to create this cool effect.

Tutorial Link

2. Combine Photo Elements to Create a Surreal Photo Manipulation

Surreal Photos always make wow effect. In this tutorial you will learn how to combine objects for creation of this surreal photo manipulation.

Tutorial Link

3. How to Create Glass Transparency in a cute Photo manipulation

Every designer has to know how to create a transparency effect. It’s a must read tutorial for beginners.

Tutorial Link

4. How to Create a Fantasy Photo Manipulation

Fantasy photos always look amazing. In this tutorial you will learn how to create this wonderful artwork.

Tutorial Link

5. Dazzling Dance Photo manipulation

In this tutorial you will see the process of creation of this dazzling dance photo manipulation.

Tutorial Link

6. Create a Touching Story Scene in Photoshop

This tutorial will tell you the methods of creation this beautiful illustration by means of photo manipulation and color adjustments.

Tutorial Link

7. The Police Officer_Photoshop Tutorial

This tutorial is devoted to work with colors and abstract objects. Find out how to create this cool police officer in Photoshop.

Tutorial Link

8. How to Make a Musical Giraffe Digital Illustration

This is a famous illustration of a giraffe fading away into musical notes. In this tutorial you will learn how to create it.

Tutorial Link

9. Mysterious Hallow

In this tutorial you will see how one can create this Gothic photo manipulation in Photoshop.

Tutorial Link

10. The Making Of Mystic

This is a fantastic artwork, a lot of Photoshop techniques were used during its creation. This tutorial is for advanced designers.

Tutorial Link

11. Making Of Imaginary Paint Dancers

This is a beautiful and unusual artwork with the splashes effect. In this tutorial you will learn step by step how to create it.

Tutorial Link

12. Scared Photo manipulation Tutorial

Creation of horror illustrations is always interesting. In this tutorial you will learn several techniques for creation of a scared effect.

Tutorial Link

13. Create a Dynamic Distortion Effect

This is a classic tutorial for creation of a dynamic distortion effect.

Tutorial Link

14. How to Create an Imaginative,Magical Painted Scene

In this tutorial, a few basic tools and stock images are used to create a fantasy artwork where everything seems to come alive from what is being painted on an old piece of paper.

Tutorial Link

15. Surreal ocean scape In a Bottle

In this tutorial, an entire ocean scape is fitted into a tiny little bottle. Several advanced Photoshop techniques are used to create this photo manipulation.

Tutorial Link

16. Transforming the image of a girl into a milk figure

This Photoshop tutorial shows several techniques of transforming any image into a milk figure. All that you need to make this milk illustration are photo manipulation tools, like transformation tool, burn tool, layer mask, and few stock images.

Tutorial Link

17. Discover the Undiscovered

In this tutorial you will see how to create an amazing landscape photo manipulation.

Tutorial Link

18. Create a surreal apocalypse

In this photo manipulation tutorial you will see how to create a surreal apocalypse image. You will see how to balance colors, integrate stock images and also how to create realistic looking smoke trails.

Tutorial Link

19. Fairy Night

In this tutorial you will see how to create a fairy night beanstalk using various transformations of combined images.

Tutorial Link

20. Create a Fantasy Photo Manipulation

This tutorial guides you on the process of creation a fantasy landscape using simple techniques.

Tutorial Link

21. Create a Human/Robot Hybrid in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will create a detailed composition of a human and robot by means of a combination of tools and effects in Photoshop.

Tutorial Link

22. Confused Pear

In this tutorial you are going to learn how to create a confused pear with an elephant nose.

Tutorial Link

23. Drawing My own Picture

In this detailed Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create this cool photo manipulation.

Tutorial Link

24. Mysterious, Dark Horror Scene Tutorial

In this tutorial, you will see the process of creation this mysterious and dark horror scene image in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial as some steps are tricky.

Tutorial Link

25. Create a Greek Sculpture

This Photoshop tutorial demonstrates how to create a Greek sculpture using several stock images. It covers how to add blood, cracks and other elements that give the image texture and depth.

Tutorial Link

26. Create Cool Abstract Waves In Skate board Jam

Learn how to create this beautiful artwork with abstract waves. In this tutorial are used such tools as Warp and various brush effects.

Tutorial Link

27. Create a Dramatic Fisheye Sparta Scene

In this tutorial you will see how to blend and distort various desert landscape stock images in order to create a dynamic fisheye-like perspective.

Tutorial Link

28. How to Split an Image into Polaroid photos

Learn how to divide an image into a group of Polaroid photographs in this wonderful tutorial.

Tutorial Link

29. Create a Surreal Scene With a Cool Snail That Flies

In this tutorial you will see how to create a surreal mother nature scene by combining stock photos and seamlessly blending them. You will also learn how to fix and enhance the lighting of images.

Tutorial Link

30. Create a Fallen Rain Soaked Angel

In this tutorial you will walk through the process of creation a lonely, fallen, rain-soaked angel artwork in Photoshop.

Tutorial Link

31. Create a Beautiful and Dramatic Scene

In this tutorial you will learn how to add drama to a photo manipulation.

Tutorial Link

32. Create a Dynamic angel Falling Scene

In this tutorial, you will discover how to draw fuse, wings, and digital renders into a fallen angel.

Tutorial Link

33. Magical Forest Scene

In this Photoshop tutorial, you will see how to create this realistic fantasy image. It covers composing an image by using multiple photos, simulating depth of the field, and wrapping a persons ear to an elf ear.

Tutorial Link

34. Vivid color Effects

In this tutorial, you will learn how to combine various mediums – abstract art and photography – in order to create visually wonderful effects.

Tutorial Link

35. How to Create a Cyborg Leopard

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a cyborg leopard.

Tutorial Link

36. How to make high Impact poster

This tutorial shows how to use shapes and other objects to create a unique fashion poster.

Tutorial Link

37. Making a Book of magical playground Scene

In this tutorial, you will see how to create a fantasy book scene by using various advanced Photoshop techniques.

Tutorial Link

38. Serene Fantasy Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial, you will learn how to combine various stock photos to create a calm landscape photo manipulation. This tutorial utilizes such Photoshop techniques as blending, changing lights and shadows, color adjustments.

Tutorial Link

39. Photo manipulate and Explosive magical Reading Scene

Learn how to create this magical reading scene by means of photo manipulation techniques.

Tutorial Link

40. Gun Shot Through Glass

Here in this tutorial you can learn how to create a suspenseful photo manipulation. You will learn how to create realistic distortions with the displace filter and then apply photo effects.

Tutorial Link

41. How to Create Fantasy Heaven For Travelers

In this tutorial, you will see how to create a secret heaven in the sky. You will learn how to blend images seamlessly and work with lighting and shadows.

Tutorial Link

42. Great Looking, Easy Collage Effect

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a collage effect in Photoshop.

Tutorial Link

43. Living Paints

In this great tutorial, you will learn how to create this amazing painting artwork.

Tutorial Link

44. Out of Bounds Photo manipulation

In this tutorial you will learn who to combine several images of water, animals, and people to create a surreal out of bounds photo manipulation in Photoshop.

Tutorial Link

45. How to Create a Flying Land Illustration on Fire

This tutorial will show how to create a fantasy illustration using some dragon images and a few cliffs for creating the land.

Tutorial Link

46. Create a upside Down Mountain Painting

In this tutorial you will see how to create a surreal upside down mountain illustration by using digital painting techniques in Photoshop.

Tutorial Link

47. Create a Magical Floating Women Scene

In this tutorial, you will learn how to combine various photos and textures to come up with a colorful and surreal scene. This tutorial is intended for intermediate and advanced Photoshop users.

Tutorial Link

48. Create an Urban Tiger Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial you will see the how to create an image that contains a window to another world within it. This tutorial involves several basic techniques that are cornerstones of creating any mixed media composition.

Tutorial Link

49. Deep and Moody

In this tutorial you will create a moody image using several simple effects to create an image with depth and composition.

Tutorial Link

50. Create a Lost fantasy micro world

In this fantasy tutorial you will see how to create your own micro society using various pictures and several cool photo manipulation techniques.

Tutorial Link

51. Age progression

Very famous Photoshop tutorial showing how to create an aging woman’s face.

Tutorial Link

52. How to place a Fantasy Creature in mystic Land Scape

In this tutorial, you will create a fantasy mock-up of an unreal creature. You will learn several non-destructive techniques, apply photo filters to adjust the lighting.

Tutorial Link

53. Create an incredible Story Coming Alive

This fantasy photo manipulation tutorial will show you how to quickly create an incredible story-based artwork. You will learn how to manipulate images, add effects and build an amazing artwork.

Tutorial Link

54. Design a Conceptual Album Cover in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will see the step-by-step process of creating a conceptual album cover.

Tutorial Link

55. Create a Surreal Floating Eiffel Tower Scene

In this tutorial, you will see how to create this magical, floating Eiffel tower artwork in Photoshop. You will use a lot of layer masking techniques, blending options, selection techniques, pen and dynamic brushes.

Tutorial Link

56. Create a Fantasy Sea Monster

In this tutorial you will see how to create a sea monster from a sketch and then combine it with a dark, manipulated seascape. You will use dodge and burn tool for creating light and shadow along with basic drawing techniques.

Tutorial Link

57. Create Frozen Liquid Effects

In this tutorial you will see how to bring this cool effect to your illustrations. After you read this tutorial, you will be able to transform almost anything into what looks like water or frozen liquid.

Tutorial Link

58. Na Vi Avatar

This Photoshop tutorial will walk you through the process of transforming yourself into Na Vi.

Tutorial Link

59. Vibrant Blackberry Inspired Ad

In this tutorial you will create a Blackberry inspired artwork.

Tutorial Link

60. Surreal manipulation Artwork

This is a very simple Photoshop tutorial, you will be working mainly with adjustment layers.

Tutorial Link

61. Create an Elephant Sundae Using Photo Manipulation Techniques

In this tutorial, you will create an elephant sundae using several stock photos.

Tutorial Link

62. Combine 3D Renders With a Stock 3D Model

Here you can learn how to make an amazing artwork combining 3D renders with a stock 3D model.

Tutorial Link

63. Design an Intense Particle Illustration

In this Photoshop tutorial you will see a process of manipulating an image with lighting effects and incorporating brushes.

Tutorial Link

64. Create a Face Shattering Effect

In this tutorial you will see the process of creation of a face shattering effect which is highly creative if you like playing with your own images.

Tutorial Link

65. The Creation of “A Life In Aquatic sounds”

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create this artwork using a variety of blending mode tricks, photo filters and other useful Photoshop techniques.

Tutorial Link

66. How to Tidy Up and Smoothen Skin, and Do Eye Makeups in Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will see how to create this photo manipulation. You will see step-by-step how to effectively produce smooth skin and get rid of black spots on face.

Tutorial Link

67. Water Effect Photo Montage

It’s a very interesting Photoshop tutorial in which you will see how to convert any object into a water look like effect.

Tutorial Link

68. Create a surreal Land scape

In this tutorial, you will see how to make a surreal photo manipulation.

Tutorial Link

69. An Urban Style Piece of Artwork

In this tutorial you will learn how to create an urban style artwork.

Tutorial Link

70. Create a Dark and Mysterious Fantasy Portrait

In this tutorial you will combine several stock images, adjust color, use retouching and make custom brushes to create a dark and mysterious blue portrait.

Tutorial Link

Other Resources

• Adobe Photoshop | Adobe.com
• Adobe Photoshop | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Find Something Missing?

While compiling this list, it’s always a possibility that we missed some other great tutorials. Feel free to share it with us.

Sending mails keeps your site active among your audience and increases visits and clicks on your site, which positively impacts your site’s business. However, while good emails increase traffic, bad ones can have the opposite effect, so be careful while creating your email content. It should attract readers and bring them to your site. You should ensure your audience likes your emails and finds them convincing. Below we discuss positive and negative aspects of emailing, which will help you understand the importance of good email content.

Aspects of good email content:

• A good email helps build up a relationship with your readers.
• A good email will make you active in your readers’ minds.
• A good email will increase your site’s visits and clicks.
• You readers will forward your mail and refer your site to their friends.
• A good email will attract your readers and convince them of your ideas.
• A good email will build trust between you and your readers.

Aspects of bad email content:

• A bad email may not enable you to connect with your readers and may harm your relationship with them.
• A bad email may not say what it is supposed to and thus create confusion.
• A bad email may bore your readers and make them ignore future emails.
• A bad email over-pitching the sales aspect may make readers feel they are being forced into buying something.
• A bad email may irritate your readers and lead them to unsubscribe to your emails.

After looking through the aspects of good and bad email content, it’s clear to see the importance of good email content, so planning such content is essential. In deciding the best content for your emails, consider the following discussion, which will help you plan accordingly.

Whenever people share their email ids with you, they expect quality information from you through mails rather than repetitive ‘buy it’ kind of messages. They will never value emails with irrelevant content that do not offer them value and only expect them to buy. Repetitive and multiple emails might bore your readers, so it is very important to maintain the content quality and frequency of sending mails. Here are a few factors to be considered while planning email content.

Your emails should contain informative and useful content that offers value to your readers. The content should be direct and focus on the readers’ interests. It should announce your deals and their benefits without overemphasizing the sales pitch. A repetitive pitch on buying can irritate your readers, so avoid it. Your email should be simple and straightforward. A complicated email will confuse your readers and serve no purpose. Maintaining simple language will be helpful, and announcing offers and giving away gifts at intervals will attract more readers. Your emails should be strong and convincing and the offers should be valuable for the readers. Below we discuss some tips to make your content valuable.

Make valuable offers

Ensure your email contains a variety of valuable offers that attract readers. Different types of offers can be made in emails including conditional emails that offer incentives to buy immediately, such as discounts, luxuries, or free gifts. Such offers make your audience decide immediately rather than postponing their decision. However, you should make sure the offer relates to an immediate decision. Only then will the conditional offer work. Free gift offers via email work for many readers. In this case again you need to ensure the free gifts are valuable to the audience and are the best available in the market at the time. The Internet rules in today’s world. Innumerable sites use the same marketing techniques in the same field as yours. Consequently, your audience will compare the gifts you and your competitors offer and go for the one that offers more value. Therefore, if your audience finds your competitors’ offer more attractive, it might ignore your offer and all your emails will be in vain. Therefore, it is important to announce the correct type of offers for your audience.

Research your competitors

Research your competitors and the offers and discounts they offer. This information can be easily accessed via the Internet. List the sites your audience is [competitors are?] likely to search for and check through their offers. You can also sign into those sites and register for emails. This will keep you updated on their offers and latest news. After researching your competitors’ offers, decide upon yours. Try to offer something better than your competitors; maybe a bigger discount or a better gift, even though this might not be possible all the time. In other situations try to qualify why your offer is a better choice, even if the discount is not significant. Provide good reasons to convince your readers to chose your offer.

Put links directed to you

Another important factor is maintaining links in emails. While mentioning links in your emails, make sure you give only your own links so your audience will follow you further and get to know you better. If you need to link some other site, then make sure you are present in their advertising space or banner ads. This will remind your audience about your message with every click and will make you present throughout their follow ups. This will also avoid the chance of your competitors reaping benefits from your email subscribers. Therefore, make sure any link mentioned in your email is directed to you and speaks about your message or idea.

Understand your audience

It is very important to understand your audience in order to send them valuable emails. Offers or information that is useful to some may not be useful to others. Everyone will have different choices and therefore you need to address everyone differently. Addressing each individual independently is impossible; therefore, you can divide your audience into groups according to age, interest, and so on. An offer that attracts a young boy may not attract a middle-aged man. By splitting your readers into age groups you can send them separate offers according to their requirements and interests. Interests vary from person to person. Analyze your readers and divide them according to their interests; when you email them keep in mind their respective interests. For example, suppose you own a sports Web site. You can offer cricket match passes to cricket lovers or badminton passes to badminton lovers. The bottom line is you need to understand your audience’s requirements and interests and base your offers on them. You can also group your audience in terms of their attitude towards money and time. Some people value convenience over time and money. Others value money and are more likely to settle for a lower offer to save money. Others value the offer and quality over price. Others again value time more than money and offers and settle on something that can be processed in a short time. You can divide your audience based on these differences and address each group, keeping in mind their respective preferences.

Make valuable content

A valuable offer doesn’t always mean a discounted price on a purchase. People always tend to postpone their decision to pay, so try making an offer that deviates slightly from the purchase and payment issue. Create interactive and valuable content for your email. Whenever you are promoting an idea or a message through your mails, express it through some interaction such as interesting descriptions or images. Such descriptions and images will support your promotional ideas and connect better with your audience. The following points will help you enhance your interaction with your audience through emails.

• Put images or videos that speak about your products or promote your ideas. People have a tendency to respond to images and videos faster than words. Therefore, using interesting images and videos to support your ideas will help.
• Get feedback from your customers. Ask them for reviews and suggestions. This interaction will help you better understand your audience and their interests. You can improve your products with their suggestions.
• Ask your audience for tag lines or descriptions for your products and involve them more in your business.
• Analyze your audience through their questions and reviews and improve your content according to their tastes.

Give away coupons or gifts

One of the best ways to attract an audience through emails is by giving away coupons or gifts. A coupon that can be printed out and used or a coupon code that can be used in any online purchase can be mentioned in your emails. You can also offer free gifts to former customers and declare lucky winners. This will satisfy your audience and they will refer you to their contacts. You can also offer your coupons to unlimited persons with a copy or printed form. Thus, customers who avail themselves of the benefit of your coupons can forward them to friends who will reap the benefit too. This will increase referrals and help your audience grow bigger. However, such coupons and free gifts should also serve you. An unlimited offer could exploit you, so it is advisable to put an expiry limit on such coupons and gifts. This will restrict your audience from exploiting your coupon’s basic idea.

Declare privileges or incentives

Through your emails declare incentives like special discounts, points, or any other such things. For example: offer a cold coin to the first 10 customers who buy from you. Or give away a free membership to a gym along with the purchase of a cycle. You can also offer special privileges for your older members, such as a 5% discount on purchases. Such privileges will help you in two ways: first they will let your older members realize you value their presence, which will make them more loyal to you. At the same time, your new members will realize the benefits of staying with you for longer. Thus, it will help you satisfy older members and convince new members at the same time.

Giving away incentives and free gifts will motivate your audience to stick with you and realize your value. This will not just motivate them to purchase and continue with you but will also encourage them to share your site with their friends and relatives, respond to quizzes and surveys hosted by you, and also develop their trust in you, which will make them share more information about themselves.

Aim for greater benefits with few losses

You need to aim for greater benefits with few losses. This is important when your business is new and your email audience doesn’t know anything about your products. In such a case you need to give away products at a much lower price than any of your competitors. This will invite the audience to try out your products; once they know you, they can refer you to their friends and colleagues. Taking such a step in the initial stages of your business will help you attract an audience, which will lead to further traffic and future benefits.

Highlight your offers and privileges

It is important to highlight your offers and privileges in your emails, otherwise they may fail to serve their purpose. Your offers should be visible and striking enough to attract your audience. Ensure they don’t ignore your emails as useless promotional offers. To highlight your offers you can put the area of the offer in bold, bordered, or colored fonts. You can also add images to attract your audience.

Call for action

This is one of the most used techniques in email marketing. Call for action is inviting the audience for an immediate action. Putting a call for action within your email makes a striking impact on your audience. It provokes your visitors to make an immediate decision. This is necessary because sometimes, even though you have quality content, people seem to delete or ignore your emails. Therefore, your mails need to be provoking and active; calling for action does this. A call for action is something that prompts your audience to take one or more decisions immediately in favor of your objectives. “Click here” is a very common phrase used in emails but it is not a very strong call for action. An effective call for action is one that allows your audience to visualize the advantages in your email content and convince them to make a decision. Many words are used to describe a call for action; some are mentioned below.

• Visit
• Call
• Download
• Read
• Print
• Share
• Follow

You can make a call for action more provoking and striking in several ways You can put additional words along with the action word to make your call for action more effective. There are four basic ways of doing so. Firstly, you can add the subject of action with the main action word. For example, Download (action word) this file (subject of action). Secondly, you can mention the place of action. For example, Download this file online (place of action). Thirdly, you can mention a time limit to signify its urgency. For example, Download this file online before the 30th of this month (signifying urgency). Finally, you can add adjectives to make the call for action more provoking. For example, Download this important (adjective) file online before the 30th of this month. You need to make your call for action a click in order to make it convenient and more effective for your audience.

Examples of using a call for action

Lengthy emails can bore users, so keep them short. However, to get your full message across can make the email long. In such cases, provide an attractive outline or summary and put in a call for action, such as “read more” or “see below.” This will maintain a balance between you and your audience’s requirements. Maintaining a list with links to its description within your email will keep your email short yet link to other necessary details. Mention action words in the subject line of the email to make it more striking.

Your emails should be aimed at delivering maximum impact to your audience. Therefore, prompting your audience to share your email content with their friends, dear ones, and colleagues is a good way of trying to reach out to people beyond your email lists. Your audience can share your email content by forwarding it to their contacts. Otherwise, you can provide a call to action to share within the email. When you put a term such as “share” to invite the audience to share your email content, ensure that your call for action is striking enough to attract readers. Add words in such a way that they grab the attention of your audience. As mentioned earlier, different people have different perspectives. All of your audience might not be interested in your “buy now” call for action. In such cases, offer them multiple calls such as: buy now, read more, or share as three options for the same product. This gives the audience a number of choices to act upon.

The best way to make your audience read your email is to make it interesting. In addition to the above- mentioned techniques, other elements can add value to your emails. These include: Providing tips for the audience through your emails; adding a field within your email content to interact with your audience through questions; and so on. It is very important to create an impact on your audience through your content, so try to interact more with your target audience by using offers, asking for reviews, or making calls for action. Read your emails as an audience would and think from their point of view. Also try to experiment with your skills in improving interaction with your audience. These are the tips to plan the best content for your email. Finally, make sure your email content is crisp, clear, and direct. This is because only a crisp, clear, and direct email will invite a crisp, clear, and direct response from your audience.

Image Credits

• Time gifts
• Teacher and children
• Savings coupons and scissors
• E-mail client close-up

The world is filled with amateur and aspiring designers who never quite make it. So to not be one of them you really need to focus and get the best design education possible.

What a Traditional Education Is and What It Isn’t

For most people, in the US at least, we get a traditional four year degree after high school. As much is it has it’s flaws for people looking to pursue design, especially web and other highly technical areas of design, the degree is a piece of paper we need in order to get a lot of entry level positions. There are of course many self-taught designers who lead successful careers but I’m sure there are countless others who try it on their own and fail.

What It Isn’t

A traditional education is not real world training. It isn’t technical skills. A system based on lectures and grades is set up to teach people subjects but not really the best way of getting a person prepared for a specific job. You won’t learn how to deal with clients. You won’t learn much about billing or the other day-to-day aspects of conducting business.

If you are looking to learn the latest design technology, universities are not the best place for it. If you look to the leaders in most emerging fields, they do have degrees but they are also self-taught on the technical aspects. I know more about web design than the majority of people teaching it. It isn’t that I am that smart, it is the fact that I do it every single day. Teachers teach, and their curriculum are updated once a year, at the most. So chances are the people teaching web design courses are probably a little behind the times.

It isn’t a guarantee you get a job in the design field. Design jobs are still handed out to the people with the best portfolios and communication skills.

What It Is

While university might not be the best place to learn the latest software or web design techniques, it is still a good place to get a solid foundation. A solid foundation in design can give you the knowledge you need to pursue the other areas of knowledge required to be successful in your field.

Universities are also great places to learn, make mistakes, and grow. You not only get a foundation for your career but you grow as a person. You learn how to communicate about your work, which honestly, is more important than being able to create it. Anyone can learn Photoshop, and most people can put together a half-decent looking design, but very few people can communicate an idea well through their work. You also need to be able to talk about your design in order to persuade and pitch ideas to clients. Design is all about communication and you don’t learn that working alone in front of the computer.

Getting a degree in one field doesn’t mean you have to work in that field for the rest of your life. Most people never get a job in the field they studied in school. But if you want to get into design there are a few Majors that can help you on the way.

Learning to Learn

The best thing you will get out of your design education, is the ability learn. You will find the best ways to get work done. The best ways to soak up new information. Some of which you will forget the next day but you will also learn how to retain the important stuff. Everyone is different but going to school gives you those hard deadlines needed to push yourself to the point where you must know a subject, or fail.

If you try to learn everything there is to know about graphic design on your own you can do it, but it is really hard to push yourself and do it in a timely manner, without first learning how to learn. School gives you focus and a structure to follow. You won’t learn everything you need to know but you’ll find out what it is you are missing, and how to teach yourself those missing pieces.

A formal education isn’t necessary to learn or perform as a web or graphic designer. Everything you need to know you can teach yourself for free online. But having a degree has some obvious advantages.

Many positions, especially corporate or in-house, require one, to get an interview. You may have a great portfolio but it never gets seen because your resume/C.V. was tossed in the waste basket for not meeting the minimum requirements.

The other benefit of a degree are some of the more intangible ones. You become a more well rounded person. You learn how to build a network and can gain a strong foundation in design principals and/or art. You get to spend a ton of time experimenting and failing with your designs. You also can get valuable feedback on your work, something definitely worth the money. And although it is not quite the same, dealing with professors, fellow students in group projects, and having assignments is a step closer to what working with clients is like.

But ultimately you need to think not about getting your first job or what the minimum requirements are, but getting the job that you want. And be set up to get that ideal job five, ten, fifteen years down the road, if not right out of school.

Finding A Career Path

It seems odd that most people go to school and study something they like, without really considering what they can do with their degree once they graduate. Personally, I spent four years almost getting a degree in business before seeing how bad the entry level positions were and deciding I’d rather do something I could enjoy (design). Even when I did decided on design I shifted around from motion graphics/video to Flash to packaging design before finally settling on web design.

It can be hard to pick a career path without doing the work. For design careers it can be especially scary because we are judged by the quality of our work more than most professions. If you don’t know if you are good enough to make it as a professional designer it can be scary starting out. But if you want it bad enough you can make it.

To plan for your education is to plan your career path. Make a list of what is required for entry level positions and what you will need to know when you get to the highest positions you want to work at in the field. You education will probably include getting a degree but there are a lot of other ways to learn the technical aspects of the field.

Doing the Research

To start out, ask yourself these three questions:

What job/position in the design field do you want to work at?

Essentially, what do you want to do. Do you want to be a graphic designer, videographer, editor, motion graphics artist, photographer, package designer, logo designer, web designer, interface designer? Or maybe you want to get into advertising, marketing, social media or some other related field. You might see yourself doing two or three of those things or you might know you only want to do one.

Don’t worry about how hard it is to get these jobs, or how much school is involved, just pick based on what you really want to do.

What are the requirements to get there?

The easiest ways to find this out is to simply ask the people doing the work. Send out some emails to local companies who do design you like and ask them what kind of education they have, and what jobs they did that lead up to gaining their current position. You can also check job websites to see some basic requirements.

The funny thing is, no one fresh out of school has the requirements for an entry level design job. They usually ask for 2-4 years experience for entry level positions. They also like to post a long, ridiculous list of things you should know. For an entry level web design job I’ve seen lists requiring proficiency of: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Final Cut Pro, Java, PHP, ASP .Net, Javascript, Ruby, Drupal and whatever else they can think of even remotely related to the field. Essentially they try to eliminate as many people as they can to make the process of finding applicants easier. Or Human Resources is putting the job description out and they have no idea what a web designer needs to know, so they just copy things from other job listings they see.

If you can talk to people in the field they will be able to tell you what the real requirements are. Most times it just takes a good portfolio, good communication skills and a willingness to learn and work hard.

But there are definitely some things that stand out on the resume more than others. Some schools are more prestigious than others. It could be an internship that you do, a specific firm or client you work for, or an extra curricular activity you do.

How much you can afford to spend?

This is the last question you should ask because you shouldn’t put any restrictions on yourself at the start. But when it comes down to it, it can be pretty expensive getting an education, especially if you need to get a four year degree.

Many people qualify for student loans but you really want to consider whether you want to fall seriously in debt for a design career, because in case you weren’t aware, designers don’t make very much money. And in the United States at least, there is no way of filing for bankruptcy for student loan debt, it is yours until you die.

If you know you want a four year degree, do your homework. Find out all the various options: transferring from a junior college, going to a cheaper state school, or going to a private or design school. Add up the costs along with living expenses and see which one you can afford or are willing to go into debt for. A design school might provide a much better education and look better on your resume but it could also put you in serious debt.

If you do plan on taking on some debt figure out how much your monthly payments will have to be before agreeing to anything. Subtract that number from what you will be making with an average designer’s salary. If you are going to be living in poverty for the next 15 years, trying to pay off your debt you should find a better option.

Another thing people don’t think about it software and hardware costs. Most computers don’t last more than four years. Mine seem to only go about two at the most. So you have that cost. You also have a lot of expensive software to buy. Being a student allows you to get heavy discounts on a lot of it, but it still is a lot of money for someone not really making any.

There are some ways to get a design education for a lot cheaper. The internet is free and has all the resources you need to learn pretty much anything. Many adult education centers offer classes on photography and Photoshop for cheap. Or you can go to a junior college and take some Photoshop courses. Some online courses can have lower unit prices as well.

What to Study at a Traditional University

There are plenty of people out there in the design industry without degrees. But the trend has been swinging toward more with them. Not all, but any companies require them.

It isn’t necessary to get a degree that directly benefits your career but it certainly helps. For a traditional school, stick to the basics: Business, Art, Communications, English, Advertising or Graphic Design. These are all thing you can use for a number of different careers and serve as a nice foundation.

I would try to avoid things like Web Design, Video, or other majors that are heavily reliant on technology, even if that is what you want to do. Most schools are behind the times on technology and much of it you can learn from better, more current sources on the internet.

For any design career you will not be done learning, ever. You have to learn how to teach yourself, and there is no better time to start then while you are still in school. Take your regular courses and learn your trade skills in your free time. If you can fit in a couple of classes, try and take Photoshop, a basic web design course, basic accounting, copywriting, the things that are relevant to your career.

A degree is just a piece of paper but there is no reason why you cannot get the most out of it. Focus on the classes that are meaningful to your career and just barely pass everything else. C’s earn degrees. Grades really don’t for designers. Your work does.

Treat School Like A Job

There is no student design, there is just good design and bad design. Take every assignment and every design project you work on seriously. Developing a solid work ethic now is so important for when you get out into the work world and have real clients and deadlines.

Use Every Resource to the Fullest

Talk to your councilor early and often. Have them find the easiest path for you to graduation. Do whatever you can to replace your general education courses with those that you want to take. You might have to create your own major and you might have to be a pain in the ass, but it is your education, get the most out of it you can.

One way schools keep you from taking the courses you want is to make prerequisites for them. If you talk to the professor and explain how you are in a different major but plan on having a specific career, they should let you in. If not, just sit-in on the class. You can listen to the lectures and get most of what you need just by being there.

Networking with professors is good practice and may lead to a good internship or a job after school. Professors can be good for letters of recommendation as well. If you want to know something about a subject but don’t want to take the course, see if you can talk to the professor during their office hours. You can learn a lot in a one-on-one conversation, sometimes more than in a classroom setting.

Also, network with your fellow students, especially those in different majors. Find people with skills you don’t have and keep in touch. You don’t have to know everything and don’t want to. Just have a skill they don’t and trade services.

You should relish every group project you get. This is the best way to learn how to communicate design, being amongst peers, working on solving a problem. It doesn’t matter how lame the project, you should put your full effort into each and every one.

Student loans can be a gamble, but while you are in school you don’t have to pay interest. So if you need some money to start up a small business or buy equipment, the option is available to you. Just remember you can’t file bankruptcy, so if you really mess up you are stuck.

Where to Learn the Technical Skills

School is good for learning design but it isn’t very useful for learning technical skills like front-end development. So you need to learn how to teach yourself. The tools of the design industry change every year so you will be learning new things all the time anyway, might as well learn how to do it while still in school.

The internet is full of blogs, forums and general websites on every topic imaginable. There is really no design software you cannot learn completely for free online. Of course some of us learn in different ways. If you are a visual learning you might be more interested in video blogs and such. And you have to consider how much time you have to spend. Some of the paid resources can be pretty good.

Conclusion

Getting a solid design education will help you get on the right track to a successful career. Just don’t plan on learning everything you need to know.

Image Credits

• University sign in Italy
• Late night study
• Money, Bills
• Cap & Diploma

The proper selection of typography can convert your normal design into very attractive piece of art. Among other things, effective typography manages to achieve three necessary objectives of web designing are Look, Appearance and Outcome which helps you to keep apart from normal wave.

Below you’ll find Collection of Fresh High-Quality Free Fonts to Enhance Your Designs by which you can save money and focus on making great applications.

The basic purpose behind this post is to show you Popular, Artistic and most importantly Free Downloadable font types to save your time searching them online. Direct download link available for the entire fonts.

You can also find some related free references at the end of the post. Just make sure to read the license agreements carefully as they can change from time to time.

You may be interested in the following related articles as well.

• 40 New Free Fonts for Your Designs
• 40 Fresh Free Fonts For Your Next Designs
• High-Quality Free Fonts For Your Designs – Part II, Part II, Part III
• 50 Free Handwritten Fonts for Web Designers and Logo Artists
• 105 Free Grunge Fonts for Web Designers and Logo Artists
• Most Used Fonts By Professional Designers – (Free), (Commercial)

Feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your thoughts that our readers may find helpful.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed and follow us on Twitter — for recent updates.

Fresh High-Quality Free Fonts For Your Designs

We know that typography can be used as a way of mutual understanding between you and your users. To communicate effectively, typography requires appropriate typefaces as there are a lot of unsung fonts out there that have really inspired us. Color and size of type elements are much more prevalent than in text typography. Most display typography exploits type at larger sizes, where the details of letter design are magnified. Color is used for its emotional effect in conveying the tone and nature of subject matter.

01. BEAVER

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02. Casper

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03. Archive

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04. Corki

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05. Thesis

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06. Hagin

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07. Accent

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08. Manteka

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09. Bispo (Registration Required)

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10. Savant

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11. Static

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12. Lemon

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13. Miso (Registration Required)

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14. PLSTK

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15. Aquarius

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16. Poly

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17. Vastagurly Display

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18. Banana Brick

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19. COM4t Rouder Regular

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20. Glegoo

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21. moby

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22. Modular Sans

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23. Enie

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24. Garagin Rock (Registration Required)

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25. Changa Italic

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26. Diplomata

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27. Pasrgada

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28. Insider Medium

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29. Sina (Registration Required)

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30. Meander

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31. Haikus Script

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32. Sn-Blinds

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33. Villa Didot

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34. Neo Deco

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35. Origram

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36. Nantua

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37. Limberg

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38. LUCREZIA (Registration Required) FREE until 18th of February

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39. perplex

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40. Bad Script

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41. Vagebond

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42. Encrypted Wallpaper

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43. CRONOS

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44. Ananda Namaste

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45. Sleepy Bubbles

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46. Veles

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47. Good-Intent

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48. Adamas

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49. The Graffiti

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50. Magical Unicorn

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Find Something Missing?

While compiling this list, it’s always a possibility that we missed some other great fresh fonts. Feel free to share it with us.

Unless you’re a professional photographer, the chances are good that the camera you’re using – whether film or digital – has a built-in flash. Typically, when shooting indoors, the flash will work adequately if the subject you’re shooting is within ten to twelve feet. Although your built-in flash will permit you to take a photo in a low-light environment, it will not provide the same effect as natural lighting. Rather, pictures taken with an on-camera flash tend to look similar, since the flash produces a flat light that minimizes surface textures.

Flash Units

A flash may be inbuilt in the camera, or separate flashguns may be attached to the camera’s hotshoe. Electronic flash consists of ‘xenon’ filled glass tube. It works on the principle that a sudden discharge of electrical energy through the gas produces an intense flash of light.

The light produced by a flash is harsh, which can cause strong shadows and also makes people to squint. This problem can be reduced by use of a diffuser or with a piece of thin cloth, covering the flashgun.

The duration for which the flash fires, is usually very small. With a manual flash, it may be 1/1000 sec; while with automatic flash units, it may be 1/10,000 sec or even lower. Such short durations can be used to freeze very fast moving subjects, such as a splash of water.

When the ambient light is low, only flash duration is of significance in freezing the action (provided that the shutter speed is correct for flash-synchronization).

Guide Number

Flash power is given by a ‘guide number’ which is the product of aperture and camera to subject distance for correct exposure. For example, if a flash is having a guide number of 32 (in meters), an aperture of f8 will be required, when the camera to subject distance is 4 meters.

Most flashguns incorporate a scale, which gives the value of correct aperture for various distance/ film-speed combinations.

Flash synchronization

The camera’s shutter should be fully open, when the flash fires. At shutter speeds of about 1/125 sec, the shutter begin to close even before the flash has fired, thus exposing only a part of the frame. In order that the frame is properly exposed, the shutter speed should not be (typically) higher than 1/125 second, when using flash. This is called ‘flash synchronization’ speed.

Flash synchronization speed is normally indicated in red color, on the shutter speed dial.

Inverse Square Law

For a point light source, the intensity of light is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the light-source and the subject. This is known as the ‘inverse square law’- It means that, an object, which is at double the distance, will receive only one-fourth the light’.

When using flash, it should be ensured that all the subjects are approximately at the same distance from the flash.

Limitations

You will need to experiment a bit to see what your digicam’s flash can and cannot do. Most built-in flash units are small and are designed to light up subject close by. If you’re in a situation where you’re shooting a large area, such as at a sporting arena, the flash can’t possibly illuminate the whole scene. If you try to shoot the entire stadium, you’re likely to end up with an underexposed photo.

Some more expensive models have stronger flashes that work at longer distances. Or they may have a hot shoe, a mounting device that enables the addition of a flash unit.

Try out your flash in several different situations. Take a series of indoor shots with your subject standing or sitting at different distances horn your camera. Take shots of your subject in front of a light source, such as a window, with and without the flash to see how a flash can “fill” in darkened areas.

Settings

Some cameras allow you to adjust your flash unit to one of the following modes:

Auto Flash

The camera gauges the available light and fires the flash if needed. In certain situations, the resulting image can be well lit, but the background may be almost black. Some high-end cameras avoid the problem of silhouettes by firing the flash if they detect a backlit situation.

Because every flash has a useful range, the effects of the auto flash will depend on how bright a light it produces and how far the light has to travel. Flash light becomes dimmer the farther it has to travel. The further away the subject is from the camera, the less light will be reflected to the camera. Objects closer to the camera will appear lighter than objects in the background.

When you are taking a photo of a scene with multiple subjects at different distances from the camera, the exposure cannot be correct for all of the subjects. Usually those closest to the camera will be properly exposed. The farther the subjects are from the camera, the darker they will appear in the picture.

Fill Flash

When shooting in bright daylight, the sunlight may cause dark shadows in certain areas (e.g. under the subject’s eyes). In such conditions, the flash may be used to brighten up the dark areas. This is called ‘fill flash’.

The fill flash mode allows you to add light to an image without affecting the exposure settings. A photographer will turn on the fill flash mode when he wants to add light to the backlit (shadowed) areas in the scene he is shooting. For instance, if a subject is standing in front of a large window, turning on the fill flash will help illuminate the subject’s face so that he or she does not look like a dark shadow. A photographer can also use fill flash in normal sunlight when he or she wants to fill in the shadows on the subject.

Generally, the flash exposure for fill-in flash is kept one-half than that required for exposure solely by flash. (It means that aperture is kept at one stop less).

Night Flash

Night flash, or night portrait mode, combines a flash exposure with a longer capture speed. This mode is ideal for shooting room lights or an evening sky with a brightly lit subject. If your camera does not have night flash, the next best thing is to use fill flash, although the results will not be quite as good. Another option is to take separate pictures of the foreground and the background and blend them using editing software.

Red-Eye Reduction

When inbuilt flash is used, or flash is mounted directly over the camera, it causes the light to reflect from the retina of subject’s eyes, causing the problem of ‘Red eye’. This problem can be eliminated by using the flash to one side of the camera, using a flash-synchronization cable.

Some cameras also have a red-eye reduction feature, in which a series of small flashes fire, before the actual flash. This causes the iris to contract, thus reducing the problem of red eye.

This mode helps to reduce the “red eye” effect that occurs when a flash is reflected in the subject’s eyes. Red-eye reduction works by low-power flash, or burst of flashes, just before the primary flash is fired. The low light causes the iris of the eye to close slightly, diminishing chance of the flash being reflected there.

There are five ways to combat red eye in pictures:

• Move the external flash farther away from the camera lens.
• Tell the subject not to look directly at the camera.
• Increase the overall lighting in the area where the picture is being taken.
• Use the red-eye reduction mode on your camera.
• Use image-editing software to remove red eye.

Slow-Sync Flash

If the flash is used at low shutter speeds (slower than that required for flash synchronization) it is called a slow-sync flash. In such a case, the main subject is exposed by flash as-well-as ambient light, while the background is exposed by ambient light only. If the subject is moving, its path of movement will be recorded as blurred.

Some cameras offer a slow-sync flash, which increases the exposure time beyond the normal flash. This mode helps illuminate background shadows that normal flash mode misses. The slow synchronized mode works by allowing the shutter to remain open longer than normal so that the background appears lighter.

Sometimes when using slow sync, fast moving objects or a shaky camera will cause images to blur. To avoid blurring in your photo, use a tripod and/or photograph stationary objects. If you want to make lemonade from lemons, use blur creatively for interesting effects. For instance, using slow sync to photograph moving cars can create blurry trails in the resulting image, conveying a sense of speed in the photo.

Some camera have features like front curtain sync, or rear curtain sync, which means that the flash will fire at the beginning or at the end of exposure, respectively.

External Flash

This mode lets you use a separate flash unit similar to ones used with 35mm SLR cameras. In this mode, the camera’s built-in flash is turned off and you must manually set the correct exposure to work with the flash.

Additional Light Sources

Hot spots and red eyes are some of the problems that can arise when shooting with a flash. If your camera works with auxiliary flash units, you can move the flash away from your subject, which will help reduce these problems. However, if your digicam does not accept an auxiliary flash, your best may be to turn off the flash and use another source of light.

Slave Unit

Your digital camera may be designed with a built-in flash and no connection for an additional flash unit. You can still get the benefits of an external flash by using a device known as a slave unit.

A slave unit is a small battery-operated flash unit with built-in photo-eyes. The slave unit fires a flash when it senses another flash of light. There are some slave units that are designed specifically for use with a digital camera. If you’re taking photos at your brother’s wedding reception and the room is dimly lit, you can sprinkle slave units throughout the space.

Then, when you take a picture, all the slave units will go off time, allowing you to get a great shot in the well-lit room.

In studio photography, two or more flash units may be required to be used for providing main, fill-in and background lights. All the flash units must fire in synchronization. This can be achieved by use of slave units, which are built into flash-heads, or separate slave units may be used.

A slave unit contains a photoelectric cell, which senses the light from main flash and fires other flashguns, in synchronization.

Additional Lights

If you already own studio lights for use with your film will come in handy with your digicam. If not, you may decide to purchase some inexpensive photoflood lights, the same kinds that are used with video camcorders.

Another option is to use what you already have at home. Look around the house for creative solutions. Placing a subject near a window may provide enough light to do the trick. Turn on small table lamps or purchase clip-on lights at the hardware store for extra lighting. Or create a backdrop using a white sheet or board and-voila! -you’ve created your own mini photography studio.

Getting the Correct Exposure

Controlling the amount of light that hits the CCD in your digital camera is one of the necessary components of capturing an image successfully-and it is one of your biggest challenges as a digital photographer. Too much or too little spoils your final image, rendering it too light or too dark. Having certain tips and tools at your disposal, along with lots of practice will allow you to wrestle with the unpredictability of light and come up a winner.

Photographers use gray cards, available in camera stores, to help get correct exposures. Place the gray card in front of the subject so that it is in the same light as the subject. Move in close to the card so that all you see in the viewfinder is the gray card.

Film Speed

Conventional film cameras use film of different speeds, or ISO ratings. In a similar way, CCDs in digital cameras have ISO ratings that indicate their sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO rating, the less light is needed for full exposure. For instance, a CCD with an ISO rating of 400 needs less light to achieve full exposure than a CCD with an ISO rating of 100.

If your digicam allows you to change the sensitivity of the CCD from one shot to the next, you can adjust the ISO setting as the lighting dictates. For instance, in a low-light situation you can increase the ISO setting to get as much light as possible striking the CCD.

Backlighting

When you are photographing a subject with a bright area behind him that is casting him in shadow, you’re encountering the challenge of backlighting. Most folks know that when shooting outside on a sunny day the sun should always be behind the photographer. But sometimes it is simply not possible for you to set up the shot this way.

A problem arises when backlighting occurs because the camera’s light meter reads the scene as being overly bright and shuts down the aperture to compensate. The end result is a photograph that is underexposed.

What’s the solution? First, if your camera has an exposure override, you can easily correct the problem by opening up the aperture or slowing down the shutter. By giving your subject a few more stops of light, your image will come out looking good.

You cannot always avoid backlighting, but there are ways to take a great photo anyway, even if you can’t move the sun or other source of light. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Start with the rule we all learned with our first cameras: Position your subject so that the sun is behind you, not him.
• Let the subject stand where he is but move yourself so that the sun is behind you.
• Turn on your flash. Your camera may refer to this mode as fill flash mode as it allows you to use your flash in any light condition.

Shooting at Night

Taking photographs at night is easier today thanks to digital cameras and a few good accessories. Because you can preview your shot using the LCD screen on your digital camera, you can be quite certain of what your exposure should be. When shooting at night, be sure to use a tripod to hold the camera steady and a cable release or self-timer. Experiment with different shutter speeds.

Image Credits

• Woman taking photo in summer
• Digital Camera Hot Shoe Flash
• Control Panel on SLR Camera Flash

Through many complaints from my school to my parents, it seems it was all based on my belief that every one of my teachers was an idiot and knew nothing of what they taught. As an adult, I can look back with fairness and mature reflection and assert that I was right. Like a manager who rises up the corporate ladder through nothing more then being no threat to those above him or her, ultimately attaining a position of power that they could never handle with any amount of training or psychological help or medication, teachers were assured a lifetime of destroying young, inquiring minds only through tenure and parents who had forgotten that teachers were also human and open to human frailties.

Think about your own childhood schooling. Did you ever tell your parents that you got bad grades because your teacher hated you? Of course you did and your parents most probably answered that your teacher didn’t hate you and was fair to all students because that’s what teachers do!

Judging by the daily news, teachers also sleep with underage students, molest students, do incredible amounts of drugs and, yes – hate some students. They are, after all, human.

Testing The Boundaries Of Leadership

People hate, love, lie, cheat, steal, make rationalizations about others and yes, do wonderful things, too. It is those wonderful things that push civilization forward.

I never thought about my role as a leader while being an art director, creative director or studio manager. Everything seemed to be natural and work in a certain rhythm. A day arrived when I was tested as a leader. Not through an impossible deadline or tragic circumstances, when most people prove leadership qualities but through a written test known as the McQuaig Word Survey.

I was being interviewed for a creative director position for a mid-sized company when the staffing director informed me I would have to take the online test for my personal interview. Basically, the test asks the same questions several times in several different forms, which, in some ways gives a result of truthful results and insight into the psychology and make up of the candidate for the position of a leadership role.

I flew out to my interview and was met in the lobby by the staffing person who had set me up with the McQuaig test. She handed me an envelope with the results and asked if I wanted to read it so I could answer any questions from the company owner during my interview.

“No!” I replied. “I’ll just tell the truth because he has to take the good and the bad if he decides to hire me.” I thought that answer was suave and slick. I hadn’t interviewed for many years as I was firmly entrenched in a corporate position that was comfortable but just didn’t hold any future growth and wasn’t really comfortable with all the advice I had read about on interviewing techniques and tips. I just figured if I were to be myself, I would either end up with a terrific work situation or not have to worry about being trapped in a bad workplace with daily emotional and psychological torture.

The owner entered the conference room after making me wait for an hour and propped his legs on the table while he fiddled absent-mindedly with a rubber band. “I think you just wouldn’t make a very good creative director,” he said right off the bat.

I don’t know if my face showed the shock I felt. “You want people to like you,” he continued. “I need someone who can fire people!”

My first thought was that he was insane and I wondered what sort of shape his company was in. Would I have to make my first act as creative director firing the entire staff?

I spoke at length about my experience in leadership roles and assured him that I had indeed fired many people. Some who had to be axed due to budget cuts and others who deserved to be fired – executed, if the law had permitted it!

To make a long, weird story short, he offered me a lower position as a senior designer and told me he would just hire an office manager to do the firing. Luckily he also wouldn’t actually name a salary, instead just asking “what kind of risk was (I) willing to take?”

The answer was none and he excused himself to “go to another meeting.” I left, walking down the long hallway and out the front door by myself. No goodbyes, no escort and no further word from anyone at the company. I had spent an entire day on planes, in cabs and all for a very strange half-hour interview in Middle America.

On the flight home, I opened the envelope with the results of the McQuaig test. It rated me as an “empowering leader.” According to the test, I helped people rise up the ladder, empowered them to be better and among other qualities I blushed at, was an “in the trenches” leader with my staff, which they appreciated and would return with loyalty and hard work. It said nothing about taking pure joy at firing people.

Firing people is never a joy or an easy task. When cutting a budget and having to release someone who did a good job was the hardest. I would try to soften the blow with a recommendation, calls to my network to se if the person could be placed elsewhere and offering whatever support I could. Those who deserved to be fired was a bit easier but still, destroying a life and dashing hopes is never really easy. Crushing the hopes of those who deserve to crawl through the mud, begging for a mercy bullet to the brain can be… pleasurable, more for getting them out of one’s world and ending the drama and psychotic behavior.

One of the many things Mr. Rubber-band didn’t see in a leader, which meant, as I suspected, made him a bad leader was the emotional side of leadership. The McQuaig test saw and probed it, as was obvious from the questions and label – “empowering.”

Daniel Goleman, in his article in the Harvard Business Review, writes:

The most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but mainly as “threshold capabilities”; that is, they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions. But my research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won’t make a great leader.

“Bad” Leadership?

As with those school teachers who showed obvious favoritism, dividing students into the “liked” and “hated,” there are leaders who, as humans, do not look to the best interests of the business and divide workers into an “A” list and “D” list. The first get raises, leeway in workloads and other perks not bestowed on others. The latter can just never please.

While a young designer, I started work at a magazine with a small art staff of a dozen people. The art director was rarely seen in the art department and the daily running of the staff fell upon the associate art director. When it was time for lunch, the associate ad would round up half of the staff and exit for a group lunch. After a few days, a couple of those left behind opened up to me, as I was obviously on the “D” list, too, that they were extremely offended at never being included in the “popular group.” Of course they felt left out. It’s one thing when it happens in elementary school but as adults we all expect such childish behavior to be left in the schoolyard. Often the manager who divides workers is making up, in their mind, for a popularity or power they have never felt in life. Abusers of power feel powerless. Leaders who share power are comfortable with themselves and their place in the world and they don’t mind sharing it with others.

Within two weeks, an invitation to lunch was extended to me and at the urging of several other designers, I joined in. It was, as I had suspected, an organized worship session of the associate art director. It was also a childish bitch session about coworkers and those not invited. As it always took place at a nice restaurant, it was also expensive for all but the associate art director, who was treated by all present. After two or three of these lunches, I made excuses to not go anymore. This, of course, put me back on the “D” list.

Eventually, the associate art director was fired and I never heard any further word about her in the professional community. Both the “A” list and “D” list people knew what she was and trustworthy and caring were two words that would never be attributed to her.

There have been other managers I’ve known who faced the same fate. If you are known for being unfair, then it follows you as people come and go in your life. Your reputation follows you. Your future will be overshadowed by a network of people who not only won’t lift a finger to help you but will also be there to tell those making hiring decisions that they didn’t care for your management style.

Aside from making those under you miserable, being a bad leader will effect your department and the company itself. For some it takes years in the same position to be discovered as a poor leader. For some, once discovered, there is no regaining the same level of a professional position ever again. At my last corporate position, there was an odd method of promotion. Those who couldn’t make it as designers were put in a position of a line planner. Those who couldn’t plan were made art directors. Those who couldn’t art direct were made creative directors. Creative directors didn’t actually direct – they went to meetings and shuffled papers. Those that couldn’t shuffle papers were given secretaries who could. At the bottom were the designers who came up with initiatives, new lines, creative ideas and thought up the processes that made the whole thing spin in greased grooves.

Sure, that sort of power structure led to problems. Problems, of course, led to inner strife and discontentment and when those at the bottom stopped innovating and improving on process, the company started to lose money and market share. Naturally, those at the top got rid of those that scared them – the smart employees… those with leadership qualities. As time went by, and not a lot of time in the scheme of things, further loss had the upper management of the company seeing cause and effect and many of the “leaders” also lost their jobs. A quick look at the “people you may know” section on LinkedIn tells me that these “leaders” have not been lucky enough to find employment and it doubtful they will.

There are many clues to bad leadership. One is in the words used by a leader. In an article in Inc., “7 Things Your Employees Never Want to Hear,” author Jeff Haden, writes:

“We” is a powerful word—except when it’s not. Employees can tell when you pay lip service to “we.”

In public, say “I” when your company makes a mistake. Say “we” when your company does something well.

Inside your company, say “you” when employees do something well. Say “we” when you do something well—because your success is always built by and based on the efforts of your employees.

What Is The Cost OF Bad Leadership?

The cost of bad leadership is obvious on the surface: Discontent, lack of employee engagement, high employee turnover and a bad reputation in the industry for replacement employees.

While in a very bad position, I awoke every work day to dry heaves before heading for the subway on my ride to hell. I dreaded having to see my boss and awaiting signals of what kind of mood he would be in and what surprises each mood would bring. In an article published by Psychology Today, the author writes:

Bad boss behavior seems to be pandemic and now, a new survey reveals that self-oriented bosses are more prevalent than ever. In a survey Taylor commissioned of 1,002 adults, 86% of Americans felt that too often, bad boss behaviors fly under the radar until it’s too late, affecting too many people. According to an earlier study, 70% of workers said they believed employees must be careful when managing up with bosses, or they could lose their jobs. A five-year, national study compared bad, childish traits, including stubbornness, self-oriented, overly demanding, impulsiveness, interrupting and tantrum-throwing in bosses between 2004 to 2009, and found “self-oriented” spiked by 50% to the top spot in that period. In the same study conducted by a global research firm, seven in 10 Americans said “bosses and toddlers with too much power act alike.”

Swedish researchers, led by Anna Nyberg at the Stress Institute in Stockholm, have published a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine on the issue of leaders’ behavior and employee health. They studied more than 3,100 men over a 10 year period in typical work settings. They found that employees who had managers who were incompetent, inconsiderate, secretive and uncommunicative, the employees were 60% more likely to suffered a heart attack or other life-threatening cardiac condition. By contrast, employees who worked with “good” leaders were 40% less likely to suffer heart problems. Nyberg said, “for all those who work under managers who they perceive behave strangely, or in any way they don’t understand, and they feel stressed, the study confirms this develops into a health risk.”

A study of 6,000 British office workers found employees who felt that their supervisors treated them fairly had a 30% lower risk of heart disease. A 2008 meta-analysis of the connection between health and leadership by Jana Kuoppala and associates concluded that good leadership was associated with a 27% reduction in sick leave and a 46% reduction in disability pensions. The same study concluded that employees with good leaders were 40% more likely to report the highest levels of psychological well-being including lower levels of anxiety and depression.

In an article by Richard Williams, Wallace Higgins and Harvey Greenberg, published in the Boston Globe, they cited numerous research studies regarding leadership style and the health of employees. They concluded “your boss can cause you stress, induce depression and anxiety or even trigger the onset of serious illnesses. It is not just bad managers who can negatively affect employee health, but it is also the lackadaisical and mediocre who put employees on the sick list.” And the cost is huge in terms of lost productivity, healthcare costs and employee turnover. The authors argue that a whole new field of litigation in the U.S. is developing-”lawsuits against ‘bad bosses’ and the organizations that negligently allow them to supervise.”

There are, of course, costs to the company in addition to those listed in the Psychology Today article. As Christian Claudio points out in a piece on leadership:

Companies spend close to an average of $2,000 to $8,000 or more per non managerial employee for on boarding. Then depending on the position, there a “ramp up” period before the employee actually becomes profitable for a company. I would argue, no matter how much money you spend on an individual, if the company or even office culture is not equal to the standards of talent resides in those desks, you will not keep your talent. From financial incentives, benefits, training and daily operational costs, its no wonder why companies spend in the millions of dollars to maintain their human capital. Employee turnover, especially before you recoup the investment is a huge problem. The direct costs to your bottom line of employee turnover can cripple your business. Think of what it costs you to recruit, train, and get a new employee up to speed. Although the actual cost may vary depending on the job or industry, the cost per new hire can average $2,000 to $8,000. Even if you only turnover 10 employees per year, that is $20,000 to $80,000 off of your annual profits. This doesn’t even take into consideration the indirect costs listed below. Turnover adds to indirect costs as well. It affects employee’s morale, on the job injuries due to lack of personnel or lack of experience, customer relationships, productivity of other employees and increased theft.

Add in the costs of lawsuits and brand damage to the company and the costs go even higher. One firm I left, on less then good terms, had some very bad racist behavior by managers (covering many different groups). Human resources did their utmost to protect these horrendous managers not because the company as a whole believed in the racism that was happening on a daily basis but because to correct it would mean to admit it had occurred and that would affect consumer confidence. Instead, HR covered it up as much as possible as if it was never present. There was little choice for the company as if word of what transpired ever got out, it would translate into millions of lost revenue dollars when organized ethnic groups started boycotting the products and services provided by the company. The side effect was, however, internal. Employees who saw these problems withdrew from a feeling of loyalty and engagement into a state of fear and loathing. The leadership showed the worth of the average employee and so, every employee clearly knew where they stood when it was their turn in expecting fair and balanced treatment.

Different thoughts on leadership

In a joint article, “How leaders kill meaning at work,” Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer write:

Senior executives routinely undermine creativity, productivity, and commitment by damaging the inner work lives of their employees.

As a senior executive, you may think you know what Job Number 1 is: developing a killer strategy. In fact, this is only Job 1a. You have a second, equally important task. Call it Job 1b: enabling the ongoing engagement and everyday progress of the people in the trenches of your organization who strive to execute that strategy. A multiyear research project whose results we described in our recent book, The Progress Principle, found that of all the events that can deeply engage people in their jobs, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.

Even incremental steps forward—small wins—boost what we call “inner work life”: the constant flow of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that constitute a person’s reactions to the events of the work day. Beyond affecting the well-being of employees, inner work life affects the bottom line.2 People are more creative, productive, committed, and collegial in their jobs when they have positive inner work lives. But it’s not just any sort of progress in work that matters. The first, and fundamental, requirement is that the work be meaningful to the people doing it.

Rajeev Peshawaria, a contributor to Forbes, in his article entitled, “There Is No Such Thing As Bad Leadership,” writes:

Nelson Mandela was regarded a great leader long before he became president. How could he be a leader during the long years in prison? Clearly, he had no position or power while in prison, yet ultimately he overturned apartheid. Mahatma Gandhi never occupied any political office and never had any material wealth or power of any kind, yet he succeeded in sending the British back home without firing a bullet. Gandhi’s impact was so profound that among millions of others, none other than Albert Einstein called him one of the greatest leaders to have ever walked upon this earth. Countless mothers around the world work tirelessly every day and every night to groom their children with the hope that they (the children) will one day become responsible citizens. Many unsung middle managers in companies around the world coach their subordinates selflessly so that they (the subordinates) can be as successful as can be. Many such mentor-managers are relatively powerless in their organizations, and often have very bad bosses above them. Instead of passing down the same bad behaviour they receive from their bosses, these managers choose to behave differently with their subordinates. They make this choice knowing very well that their efforts will not be recognized by the higher ups, but they do it anyway because they have a deep desire to ensure that tomorrow is better than today. They are the real leaders.

So if leadership is not about position power, then what is it? Leadership is about first visualizing, then working endlessly towards creating a better future. The key is in the word better. The better future leaders strive to create is not for themselves alone, it is for others around them as well. If all you work towards is getting a better deal for yourself alone, you are not a leader. If your goal is to simply win an election or to get promoted to the next level, you are not a leader. To be a leader, you need to have a clear picture of the better future you want to create, and an even clearer picture of what is ethically right and wrong. I often refer to these two things as purpose and values.

Mr. Peshawaria does, add:

The problem is, some people have a very self-focused purpose, and they are able to work very hard to achieve it. They do not however have an equally clear sense of values. They go after their goal no matter what the price. Furthermore, as they taste initial success, they get hungry for more and more. Without a moral compass, they become what many people call bad leaders. The point I am making is simply this – people with just a self-focused purpose are not leaders at all. They may occupy important and powerful positions but they are not leaders. They are demagogues, dictators, thugs, dons, or bullies. At best they are heedless. And even if their purpose is not self-focused, they still don’t become leaders until they are able to clearly articulate and act upon their moral values. A narrow purpose, and/or the absence of values can make you a boss, but not a leader. A broader purpose (one that goes beyond self interest alone) together with enduring moral values makes a leader. In this sense, there is no such thing as a bad leader. There are leaders, and there are good or bad bosses.

Mike Henry, “Founder and Chief Instigator of the Lead Change Group,” has an interesting insight into leadership:

Let’s agree today that good leadership is not the same as effective leadership. Let’s agree that the word good is an evaluation of the end result rather than the leader’s actions. Did it achieve good purposes? Did it create value? (By value I mean benefit in excess of cost). Did the benefit to all parties exceed the cost to all parties? Let’s agree that good leadership is that authority or influence that creates a good outcome. If the outcome is not generally good, it would be bad leadership. Using this model, “bad” becomes a big word. Any leadership that doesn’t create positive outcomes for the contributors and stakeholders can’t be good.

An effective leader is someone who manages to get people to do what they want. It could be defined as one who exerts influence to get others to achieve the leader’s objectives regardless of the quality of the outcome. It will be effective if people allow themselves to be influenced. The outcomes can be good or bad.

As with many assertions on bad leadership, Mr. Henry agrees:

Ineffective leadership is just plain Ugly. We won’t even try to clean it up. If you have to stoop to manipulating or threatening or bullying, that’s ugly leadership.

With all of this in mind, I still assert that the best leadership I have seen and experienced is management of and by the people. The “we” in leading people – and truly being one of the workers with understanding for human failings, strength for when people are weakened by overload and emotional insight when the best needs to be pulled from those who have it within themselves but need a firm and kind hand to reach out to them.

In my last full-time position, I was relieved to be just a designer, no longer having to deal with the strength and drama a leader must endure and to not have the responsibility leadership entails. After dealing with some really awful leadership above me, I swore that my next position would be as a manager once again. I was a great leader and, I thought, in a world of bad leaders, I owed it to the workers to provide a workplace they would feel engaged, purposeful and part of a team. I will empower them because apparently that is my leadership style. I could lead no other way. I wouldn’t change it because, that is who I am as a person.

Image Credits

• Dominoes isolated
• A businessman with thumbs down
• Fingerpainting with various colors

Most website owners try to handle freelance staff for their convenience, but many times freelancers fail during the early stages. This article discusses all these factors about managing money, including why most freelancers fail early to provide guidelines about monetizing your business.

Before moving into the details about managing finances, you need to understand that any business or website needs time to grow; only after a period of time will money come in based on the generation of the value of your product. You need to sell something useful and valuable and that will bring you money in return. If you want to make money, quality is the main requirement. Managing finances is vital once you start earning money from your business. The following discussion explains the issues faced after money starts coming in and how to handle these issues. In addition, tips for handling money as a whole across your business will be included.

What is There to Manage?

It takes time for a business or site to grow, and you should always be prepared for the early failures that will result from a business. An owner needs to be patient enough to overcome such failures in order to sustain and work harder to welcome success in the future. If you are the only one maintaining your website, then losses will not be as financially significant; instead the loss will be in your effort, hard work, and time. However, if you are managing a staff, you will face financial losses as well. In the latter case, you need to handle your monetary issues carefully and manage your finances cautiously. To overcome such a crisis, it is imperative to have sufficient capital—long before you start a website. In addition, it is imperative to analyze and develop a strategy to balance your finances. Research your competitors, discuss the issues with experts and make your own plan. Do not be afraid to experiment. You need to experiment with new things and take some risk at times to succeed, subsequently analyzing the outcomes. The risks are important pebbles that need to be considered in order to move further.

The first important factor to bring money through your website is to make it popular and accessible to the audience. You can do so by advertising your site in a variety of ways, such as newspapers, other popular blogs, advertising banners and posts, and emails to generate name recognition. You can also use Google adsense which is currently one of the major marketing tools, although it comes with its own challenges.

There are many ways through which you can make your products sell and your effort count. One of the important factors in blogging is to brand it. One can brand a blog using various techniques, such as deciding the correct name and the correct content. In order to sell your content or products, you can try selling related products, thereby attracting an audience and offering them something valuable to share. You can experiment with selling products online. The following examples will help you understand this better.

• If you are an educational website, try selling books or ebooks online. You can also make a smaller attempt by selling solved question papers or term papers, research projects, and so on. There are many sites that earn revenues by selling related products, such as Lifehacker.com, huffingtonpost.com, and zenhabits.net.
• If you are a website focused on custom products, you can sell a few custom products online. For example, provide options for users to customize a t-shirt, mug, or card online; after you create it, deliver it to them. This is an easy way of generating reviews and has been used by many merchandise sites.
• If you are a website related to digital goods, you can sell digital products online such as software, music tracks, videos, and images. One example of using this method is photojojo.com.

All these ways of selling products do work for earning revenues. In order to sell these products online, you need to use certain resources to deal with the payments. Thus, you can generate revenue by advertising and selling products online. Both of these methods do work, and many sites benefit from them. These are ways of earning revenues or making efforts to create an income.

Once you are generating revenues, suppose you are making a sum of money and are handling a staff of employees to make it greater. Many website owners choose freelance staff over regular salaried staff in order to avoid factors like office space, holidays, and provident funds. However, there are many incidents where freelancers fail in the early stages. Before encountering this failure, first let’s understand the reasons why most freelancers fail early. Such understanding will help you resolve such issues and handle the finances for freelances in order to ensure success.

Major Reasons for Freelancers Failure

While dealing with a freelancer team you might face a host of financial issues. Even after paying your freelance staff you might see failures. In that case, first try to understand why your staff is failing and then try to resolve the identified issues. The following points summarize the most frequent reasons for freelancers’ failures.

• When you hire freelancers, you are not interacting with them face to face. You either mail or phone to speak about your requirements. If you are not clear and direct in making your initial points, you might fail to ensure that the freelancers understand your goals, which will lead to failure. Even if you feel that you are making yourself clear, the other parties might fail to understand that the information. Therefore, make sure that while sending information or listing your requirements you are mentioning guidelines with clear and simple language. Also highlight the major guidelines. Moreover, keep interacting with your team regularly and ask them for feedback in order to improve the understanding between you and your employees.
• Freelancer teams usually work in their own space and might not be as target and time conscious as a salaried team. Therefore, clarify the deadlines before assigning the project itself. Mention the target and specify the time limit. Do ask about the team’s convenience, but make sure that you define a time limit as well. This will help them to be aware of the deadline and complete the work within the fixed time.
• Defining a time limit helps a freelance team be more time conscious; however, it might also hamper your quality product. Therefore, try to strike a balance between the two. Also make the need for quality clear to the team during the initial stage. You can also do a quality check before handling the project to verify how your team will work in the future.
• Freelancers often fail due to a lack of financial security or payment issue. If you are maintaining a freelance team, make sure that you pay them at the correct time. Otherwise, they might feel a lack of security, which will lead them to quit or adopt a less serious attitude toward the work.
• Most freelancers use their own personal computers or laptops to complete their work. Their computers might not have enough RAM to support high memory software, which might cause a host of issues in the middle of the work. Therefore, if your project requires high memory software or files, clarify with your freelance team before starting the project. This will help avoid messy issues in the middle of the project.
• One of the major reasons for freelancers’ failures is the lack of reliability from both sides. Mutual trust and understanding are always required between an employer and an employee, and the importance becomes more evident in the case of a freelance team. Appoint persons you trust and try to assign small projects initially to check both efficiency and quality. You can hire from referrals or go to online sites that provide good freelancers, such as odesk.com and freelancer.com. In addition, when you hire a team, it is your responsibility to take care of their finances and maintain them in a timely manner. As they are not your regular salaried employees, they might fail to trust you if you ignore your responsibilities.
• Handling a freelance team is not very difficult if you follow certain rules. One of the most important rules is to interact with the team regularly. You need touch base with you team throughout the project to ensure that they work efficiently and build up their trust. Even after completing the project, maintain a minimum level of interaction so that your team does not feel left out and move away, which might hamper your future projects.
• While building regular interactions with your freelancer team, make sure that you do not overdo it. You do need to interact regularly, but you should understand your limits as well. Don’t make your interactions an irritation for your team. This might again result in losing your team or other adverse effects.
• Most freelancers also fail due to lack of quality checks throughout the process. If you are dealing with daily or weekly reporting, it is your responsibility to make a quality check regularly for every report. If you fail to do so and complain about it later or after completing the project, it will hamper the process in two ways. First, your project will be affected and might lead to wasted time. Second, when you ask the team to rework a project after its completion, your team will take it as an extra headache and you might end up losing the team.
• Freelancers also fail in many cases due to a lack of interest stemming from many problems. Therefore, it is important to keep a clear picture of everything in the beginning so that they can effectively respond if they are not fascinated with the project.
• Freelancer teams work from their own space and use their own resources. However, there might be a time when you can help them with resources without much effort. Don’t hesitate to do so. For example, if your freelancers require some references to work on your project, try to provide them yourself, thereby reducing their extra work. This will help them work more comfortably on your project.

These are the major reasons that freelancers fail. The points mentioned above and their supporting solutions are some of the more common issues. Try to analyze the factors and make your list of do’s and don’ts to make sure that your freelance team doesn’t fail. As the previously discussed factors indicate, interacting with the team and demonstrating reliability are keys to success. The latter is related to managing your finances with your freelance team, as discussed in the following section.

How to Manage Your Finances

Most website owners hire a freelance staff during the initial stages of the business for their own convenience and to avoid issues related to employing a regular salaried staff. Freelance staff members are definitely helpful, although they are not without their disadvantages. Freelancing comes with its own demerits (and can fail early in the process, as previously demonstrated). One of the most difficult issues in managing freelancing is based on monetary issues. The following recommendations make managing your finances easier.

Time is one of valuable assets for freelancers; as their work is based on time, time counts against the money they earn. Your failure as a website owner to finance your freelance team on time might hamper your business. Unlike a regular office team, freelancers work in their own space, meaning face-to-face contact is limited; consequently, both sides can lose trust in the other side. Therefore, from the beginning of your project, maintain invoices between you and your freelance team, which will help deal with payment issues professionally and will avoid misunderstandings. Invoices are used for accounting purpose and contain an invoice number, the amount payable, and details of freelancers’ name and address as well as the status of the payment. Manage your invoices even after payment is completed for future reference. You can also mention clauses on your invoice regarding payment modes so that neither you nor your team faces any payment issue while or after completing the work.

Freelancers often fail due to miscommunication. Both the employee and employer should share interactive sessions and build a good foundation of understanding. Failure due to misunderstanding can cause freelancers to abandon the work in the middle of the project, which will harm your business both financially and professionally. You might not be able to afford the loss of the team in the middle of the work. Therefore, it is beneficial to sign an agreement or contract with the freelance team, stating the major requirements therein. Such a contract might identify the time by which the work has to be completed, payment to be made in installments or at the completion of the work, and repercussions for leaving the work in the middle of the project. Maintaining contracts or agreements will help you avoid future monetary issues by helping you manage your finances better and will enable you to control the quality of the work through your own quality check efforts. Moreover, it is always beneficial to maintain paperwork along with your freelancing team. This will be helpful not just for you but for your team as well. Such an agreement or a contract will help them gain trust in you and also make them serious about the work, promoting the feeling of responsibility, which they will work hard to maintain. This approach will further avoid failures of freelancing due to the lack of seriousness.

You should also make the most of online banking or PayPal accounts, which is a very easy way of transacting money. When you are managing quite a number of freelancers, maintain a separate account for their payment. It is beneficial to maintain separate accounts for personal and professional dealings, which will help you maintain a balance between payment and income.

If you are new to hosting a website, you might need certain guidance regarding managing salaries for your freelance team. Consult with your friends and colleagues regarding payment issues. You can also check through salary.com, which helps both employers and employees make salary decisions. You can get an idea regarding how much to pay for a particular job against a specific time. The salary you offer or request might slightly differ as well based on experience, so keep track of your salary history to ensure a balance over time. Although more pay will cause you losses, less pay will make your team less serious about your work and result in more losses in the long run. Thus, it is always advisable to decide on a salary together (i.e., employer and employee). As money is the main root of every business, managing it properly will help build a healthy relationship with your team.

Conclusion

This article has outlined some of the fundamentals for managing finances for you freelancing team. Ultimately, quality is the only way to bring money to your website. Focus on providing quality work for your website and don’t compromise based on finances. Maintain accurate records for your entire business, including expenditures, investments, payment records, and income sources, to avoid monetary issues in the future. Most importantly, understand that it will take time to grow your business. A few losses in the early stages are natural; analyze such losses to understand and address them as quickly as possible. Interact with your freelance team, and do not panic if they make initial failures; rather, try to make them understand their faults and overcome them. Trust them to gain trust from them and be responsible toward them as an employer to make them responsible for their work. Managing finances will be easier and simpler within a healthy relationship; therefore, try to build one with your freelance team and maintain it throughout the process to build a healthy and successful business.

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