David Nour is the thought leader on relationship economics, the quantifiable value of business relationships. The Nour Group, Inc. helps organizations drive growth through unique return on their strategic relationships.

By now, you have a robust profile on LinkedIn, you tweet several times a day with hashtags, you have a Facebook Page, several videos on YouTube, and you’ve even created several clever boards on Pinterest. You attend a handful of networking events every month, and you venture out to interesting events like SXSW a couple of times every year. But after all that, how do you build your social circle and influential contacts in key centers of influence?

How do you maintain, nurture, and ideally, bridge the gap between relationship creation and relationship capitalization? How do you turn friends and followers into active, interested social currency. How do you foster engagement to create valuable, lasting relationships?

Well, it has to do with the evolution of our on- and off-line business relationships. How do our business relationships evolve, why do we screw some up, and how can we repair them? Why do some partner, client, investor, supplier or even colleague relationships tend to accelerate naturally, while others fizzle and never fully materialize as you had hoped?

Quite simply, the manner in which we build business relationships has evolved. Find out how to keep the pace.

Initial Contact
You meet someone or, ideally, are referred through a trusted introduction. Tossing an unsolicited email over the wall is a losing proposition. Online and in-person relationships are getting more sophisticated, better protected and constantly pressured for efficiency and effectiveness.


The critical focus here is to add value in every interaction, to provoke, or to provide a contrarian perspective. In other words, if you want to elevate yourself above the noise, ensure that a person remembers your conversation. I recommend that you become well-read in a variety of topics, listen intently, question constantly, and capitalize on the value of brevity (aka Twitter etiquette). Finally, get to the point without pontificating.

Additional Interaction
If, during the initial contact, you made a strong, positive and value-centric impression, people will begin to seek you out. The conversation was impactful enough to warrant immediate action on their behalf.

Their follow-up email starts, “I left our visit excited about the conversation on X topic,” or “I enjoyed meeting you and discussing X technology.” The timeliness of their response should communicate that your interaction was a priority.

But what if the roles are reversed, and you’re the one following up? Here are my recommendations.

• Pre-Initial Contact: Research the event, the topic of discussion, potential attendees, industry trends, topical conversation starters and recent similar events. And get there early! If you’ve already been introduced online to the person you’re targeting, reinforce credibility by association. If you were engaged around an interesting topic, bring up a question to jump-start the next interaction.

• During the Event: Engage proactively, be present in each conversation, add value, don’t be a conversation hog, and don’t distribute business cards excessively. After speaking, immediately capture a couple of notes about the conversation. Be as diligent disengaging from conversations as you were proactive in initiating them. Finally, anticipate their needs; simply meeting their current or articulated needs is not enough. Don’t let them ask you for more.

• Immediately After: Send a brief follow-up note the same day, and include something of value, for example, a link to relevant data, a PDF of an article, a couple bullet points of interest, or an introduction to an influential relationship. Finally, proactively suggest a next step.Be interested but casual. Pace yourself — too much, too fast turns most people off. Be poignant, practical and pragmatic and always give them options, for example, “Can we meet or Skype next Tuesday or Thursday at these times? If next week is bad for you, let me know what the following week looks like on your calendar.”

• If the person’s business stature is higher, position yourself as a peer and don’t get delegated to others down the food chain. If the business stature is same or lower, be humble and make time. Most importantly, be candid: “Apologies in advance. I travel extensively, so please don’t take my unavailability as a lack of interest — it’s simply a lack of immediate bandwidth.”

• A Week Later: If you haven’t heard anything in a week, call and email to make sure they received your follow-up. Be professional and polished, and remember to add value at every interaction.If you don’t get any response, ask yourself whether you could have done anything differently. If you didn’t add sufficient value in your early interactions, pestering them won’t do much good. Move on and focus on working with, helping and adding value to relevant, responsive contacts.
  
  

Additional best practices: Demonstrate unquestionable integrity, have pride in the relationship, garner a personal passion to work together, and earn a person’s vested interest in the long-term viability of the relationship.

Never lose sight of the fact that your performance, execution and results rely on fostering relationships. Lack thereof will dilute your credibility and relevance. Remain competent within your industry and among your peers, and the resulting value will match the effort.

Social networks are flooded with potential customers. Therefore, today’s companies need to foster a socially engaged culture within company walls.

A business becomes more inherently social by going beyond the corporate Twitter account and Facebook Page. A social business engages the entire company, from CEO to executive assistant. Take advantage of the opportunity to foster your company’s internal community and teach valuable social media skills as the space rapidly grows and evolves. But how do you get everyone on board?

1. Give Interactive Tutorials


It’s hard to get people to tweet consistently when they don’t understand what an @mention is. By hosting a few interactive Facebook and/or Twitter tutorials across the company, you can provide a valuable service to your coworkers, both in and out of the office.

Have everyone bring laptops and phones to the session to keep it interactive. Try setting tasks at the beginning of the session, such as creating a special tutorial hashtag, and then ask everyone to tweet photos of the tutorial.

2. Focus on Fun Ways to Use Twitter

Show your employees how to use a hashtag that they can relate to. For example, follow funny Twitter commentary while watching an episode of The Bachelor. Or show the foodies on your team curated lists of food truck Twitter accounts and how to see where they are parked.

Provide examples that demonstrate how Twitter can organize information and news for just about any job or industry. Once they learn the basic tools and creative uses of social media, they will naturally see how they can gather more information applicable to their jobs as well.

3. Find Influencers Within the Company

Chances are you already have several employees that love social media, whether they’re Pinterest fanatics or live tweet their entire weekends. Recognize these employees internally for their mastery of social media by highlighting their content. For example, the team member with the most active Instagram account could be in charge of documenting your company’s product launch party.

Once you start finding ways to feature and utilize the social media prowess of employees, more of the team will chime in and participate. Encourage the team to @mention the corporate Twitter feed when they find pertinent industry news and content. This will generate more content and a larger social media presence for the company as a whole.

It’s important that your internal experts feel their social skills and expertise are appreciated by the company. These people will naturally start helping and encouraging other employees to do the same.

4. Launch a Fun Contest or Internal Campaign

Once you’ve taught employees the basics and highlighted the company’s influencers, it’s time to get everyone involved in some straight-up fun. Try launching a contest: Record everyone’s Klout score and see who can improve hers the most within a month. Or announce an Instagram photo contest, in which the office chooses the winning photographs, and frames the winning entries as office art. Or host a company room on turntable.fm and vote on the company’s best DJ. That person could DJ the next office party.

Be sure to follow up with incentives and recognition, crucial aspects of any competition. Social media allows for a great deal of creativity, so take full advantage and set the contest up as a fun outlet for the company.

5. Engage

As you encourage your company to become more social media savvy, make sure to foster a sense of community. People want to learn information from social networks, but they also want to communicate with one another. Social media channels provide a way to do this outside the normal confines of cubicle culture, and can boost overall company moral by augmenting the experience of working together.

Occasionally highlight team members’ tweets, Facebook posts and content from the corporate accounts (with content, make sure to get permission). If someone has an especially funny or relevant tweet, draw attention to it. This activity not only shows employees and onlookers that team members are valued, but also personalizes and gives your brand authenticity. Plus, company employees will be more excited to share and listen to the company within social media channels.

6. Get creative!

The opportunities to infuse social behavior into your company only increase with engagement. You’ll be able to create more advanced tutorials, educate about emerging platforms, launch new initiatives that bring everyone closer together, and much more. Ask your employees what types of contests and initiatives they’d like to be a part of. Social media provides a company a way to have some fun at work, so make the most of it!

Convincing newbies to jump headfirst into social media can seem challenging, but by demonstrating value and communicating enthusiasm, your company will take off into social media stardom. If you explain how to use a social media channel, show its potential, and reward creative participation, you are well on your way to creating a company with social values built into its foundation.

Mae Karwowski runs social media strategy and oversees community management at Gilt City, a subsidiary of the Gilt Groupe. She also consults for several startups. 

The four marketing P (product, price, place and promotion) is important in developing the entire marketing process for your home based business or small business. The 4Ps will be discussed in details in the following points in order to ensure a good marketing plan is developed.

i) Product
There are several aspect that the business owner should take into consideration for the product or service provided in relation to the marketing strategy. The business owner have to consider the benefit for the consumer or customer if they purchase the product or service and detail research in this area is a must. The business owner have to think of creating a outstanding packaging that it could be separated from the competitors’ packaging. The business owner also have to consider the warranty use of the product and how to make the customer feel that they are staying in the comfortable zone after they buy your product.

ii) Price
The next important P is the pricing strategy, if you set the price for a product high you will be facing a great resistance in pursuing people to purchase your product, if you set the price for a product low you will generate a perception of low quality for the product. The business owner have to do some home works to find out what is the best price to charge in order to convince the customer that they have a perception that they are not buying an expensive product with the same product quality which the competitors are able to provide.

iii) Promotion
The business owner have to think on how to promote the product or service provided in order to generate great sales projection. The activities that the business owner would go through includes identify the type of advertising medium that is to be used, the marketing effort that is to be carried out, discuss about public relation, describe the promotional and the plan for using advertising specialties or premium items such as pencil, flower and so on.

iv) Place
The word place means by itself indicate that where your product should be sell at and where your customer can purchase your products. Most of the home based business or small business are selling their product through website, auction or direct mail order. For example, if you own a SEO company and where you sell your SEO product should be through online marketplace like forum, online classifieds, webcart and so on. Place is not determined as where the product originated but is best determined as where you should sell your product.

Web or Visual design can be costly for designers; 
not only its process is time consuming, its tools involve hefty monetary investment too. Designers on budget are often hit with the same dilemma – powerful machine and lesser software, or settle with an average machine so you can purchase more design-related software, but in trade you suffer for the epic system lagging.

Graphics editors, code editors, file sharing and transferring tools, document and spreadsheet editors all cost money. These are future expenditures hard to anticipate. If you’ve went all-in into getting the best laptop, chances are it leaves you pretty limited in terms of budget for software. To give you an idea – Adobe Design Standard (comes with Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign) costs about USD $1299; Adobe Photoshop alone costs about USD $699.00.

Way out of budget?
No worries, good news is, you still can get projects kick-off without spending a dime. Sounds familiar somewhere? No we are not talking about download pirated software.

In today’s post, we are going to give you a guide of all Windows software you may need on your laptop or desktop, and all of them are free. We’ll also throw in our recommendation as well as more free alternatives to give you more options, so let’s dive into the heaven of free software and see what they have in stock for you!

Web Browsing Software
Don’t look at me like that, I know all web browsers are free, just want to make sure that you have all awesome browsers in your garage!

For web browser, we think the Google Chrome is the best browser for now. Why? Faster browsing, cleaner user interface, better HTML5 and CSS3 support, and awesome Chrome extensions are rising more and more these years.

Besides, as the mobile has taken over some acres of the land of Web Design these years, it’s really important for you to have Opera Mobile Emulator to test your website on mobile browser settings.

Recommend: Google Chrome
More Alternatives: Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera Web Browser, Opera Mobile Emulator, IETester

Graphic Editing
There are a lot of graphics editors released to challenge the realm of Photoshop these years, but the GIMP stands firm on top of them, mainly due to its extensive features.

From photo enhancement to digital retouching to file format support, GIMP will let you feel that it’s the best alternative to the Photoshop. Its cluttered interface might be a bit complicated at first, but it’s far better than the pain of having software with fewer features.

Recommend: GIMP
More Alternatives: Paint.NET, Chasys Draw IES, FastStone Image Viewer,Picasa

Vector Design
There’s a time when you just need to create some perfect shapes that form awesome icons, logos or buttons, and the job can be well done with Inkscape.

Inkscape includes capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, with the support of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Its main features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns and grouping, basically everything you need for drawing vector graphic!

Recommend: Inkscape
More Alternatives: Serif DrawPlus, Creative Docs.NET, Alchemy, Pencil, InsightPoint

Coding
Code Editor is one of the software you shouldn’t spend a buck on it, as there are just too many awesome code editors in the web!

For advanced coder, Notepad++ is your friendliest companion as it does not contain any complicated plugin or feature that drags the execution time and even your computer speed down. In short, it’s lightning fast.

If you would like to seek coding guidance from the editor, both Komodo Edit, Aptana Studio 3 and NetBeans IDE could be your good master. Also check out our list for CSS Editors.

Recommend: Notepad++
More Alternatives: Komodo Edit, Aptana Studio 3, NetBeans IDE, Bluefish, RJ TextEd, TotalEdit, ConTEXT, Geany, Sublime Text, Editra

FTP / File Transfering
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software helps you to transfer files from one host to another host over a network, such as your computer to your client’s website.

Filezilla makes sure you don’t spend any money on FTP software in your entire web design career. It not only allows you to browse the directories and upload multiple files real fast, but also provides secure connection to ensure that everything you do in the software is safe.

Recommend: Filezilla
More Alternatives: WinSCP, Cyberduck, FTP Rush, Core FTP Lite, Free FTP

Notetaking & Productivity
I’ve heard so many designers telling me the moment that the great ideas slipped through their mind, just because they didn’t take note of it. You probably don’t want this kind of incident happen in your life, and Evernote could prove to be a great helper in securing your precious ideas.

As its slogan says, Evernote helps you to remember everything, in everywhere. You can not only store text note but also audio note and even webcam note as well. What’s really awesome here is you can sync the documents to other devices of any Operating System such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and more!

We Recommend: Evernote
More Alternatives: Memonic Desktop, AllMyNotes, RedNotebook, EssentialPIM, KeepNote, Tomboy, WikiPad, Zim,CintaNotes, Personal Brain


Mind Mapping
You got to believe this: you need a mind map to organize, manage, and even spawn your ideas. Mind map makes you clear about what you’re doing, what you should not do, and what you can improve.

Most of the time we draw the mind map though papers and pen, that’s fine, but what if you want to carry the notes to everywhere, or you want to link certain ideas to the website? You need the mind mapping software, and XMind could be your best companion, as it got basically everything you need for doing a mind map, and the user interface is even intuitive.

Recommend: XMind
More Alternatives: Freemind, Freeplane,Blumind, SciPlore

Documents And Spreadsheets
From Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation and Database, OpenOffice is your reliable partner to assure your client’s confidence about your professionalism. The user interface is also intuitive enough that you can produce a presentation directly after the installation. Forget about Microsoft Office!

Libre Office 3 and Lotus Symphony 3 are relatively new but they also include certain awesome features as well, so do remember to check them out and choose the best for your office works!

Recommend: OpenOffice
More Alternatives: Libre Office 3, Lotus Symphony 3, SoftMaker Office, KOffice, GnomeOffice

File Sharing
Many of the computer users are still using the mail services like Gmail to send file(s) to other user. The method is fine, but now we are in the era of cloud computing, why don’t have a place in your computer, where you or your client can just put the file into a folder, and it will sync automatically on the other side?

Dropbox is the elf that allows you to share files with ease. The fact that this software is so awesome is that it actually requires no professional knowledge to setup the environment, it’s foolproof! Probably saved you tons of time on explanation part.

Recommend: Dropbox
More Alternatives: Box, SpiderOak, Ubuntu One, Windows Live Mesh, Wuala,TeamDrive, ZumoDrive, Tonido

Screen Capturing
They say a picture worth thousand words, and screen capture tools gotta help you capture any picture that you think it’s worth thousand words. There are a lot of screen capture tools in the web, but I found the Jing from TechSmith (the same company that forged SnagIt) particularly useful.

Jing allows you to not only capture screen, but also record 5 minutes of screen activities. After the capture, you can also put text, arrow, and frame to give the graphic some annotation, and that’s pretty much everything I need from a screen capture tool.

Recommend: Jing
More Alternatives: ZScreen, PicPick,Greenshot, DuckCapture, Shotty, PrtScr

Fonts Management
As a web designer, type is a big deal for us, as it’s one of the most essential elements that define the aesthetics of the web design you crafted, therefore knowing every type in your computer is important for you to choose the best one for your design.

While Nexus Font is not a font creation tool, it proves useful to provide you a glimpse of every font installed in your computer, making it possible for you to actually study, consider and choose the best font for your design.

Recommend: Nexus Font
More Alternatives: Cfont Pro, Dp4 Font Viewer, FontViewOK, Font Xplorer

Author: Alvaris Falcon

I long admired his entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen and was in sheer awe of his natural instincts for what appeals to consumers. On the other hand I bristled at what I saw as his — and by extension Apple’s — occasionally capricious and even contradictory actions (App store products in or out, inability to get in front of product issues, antennae gate) and super-secretive nature.

Now, having finished the 600-plus page Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, I think I finally understand Steve Jobs. Like most of us, his personality had many sides. He could be aloof, super-intense, odd, gross, passionate, creative, driven, unfair, conciliatory and deeply introspective. He lived a rich and unique life.

Here is the highlighted interesting, surprising and relevant passages.

Don’t Wait
When the young Steve Jobs wanted to build something and needed a piece of equipment, he went straight to the source.

“He began by recalling that he had wanted to build a frequency counter when he was twelve, and he was able to look up Bill Hewlett, the founder of HP, in the phone book and call him to get parts.”

Make Your Own Reality
Steve Jobs learned early that when you don’t like how things are in your life or in your world, change them, either through action or sheer force of will.

“As Hoffman later lamented, “The reality distortion field can serve as a spur, but then reality itself hits.” – Joanna Hoffman, part of Apple’s early Macintosh team.

“I didn’t want to be a father, so I wasn’t,” Jobs later said, with only a touch of remorse in his voice.

Control Everything You Can
Steve Jobs was, to a certain degree, a hippie. However, unlike most free spirits of the 1960s-to-1970s love-in era, Jobs was a detail-oriented control freak.

“He wants to control his environment, and he sees the product as an extension of himself.”

Own Your Mistakes

Jobs could be harsh and even thoughtless. Perhaps nowhere was that more in evidence than with his first daughter. Still, as Jobs grew older and began to face mortality, he more readily admitted his mistakes.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was twenty-three and the way I handled that,” Jobs said.”

Know Yourself

While not always aware of how those around him were reacting to his appearance or demeanor, Jobs had no illusions about his own formidable intellectual skills.

“Then a more disconcerting discovery began to dawn on him: He was smarter than his parents.”

Leave the Door Open for the Fantastic
Jobs was a seeker, pursuing spiritual enlightenment and body purification throughout his life. He wasn’t a particularly religious person, but did not dismiss the existence or something beyond our earth-bound realm.

“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.” — Steve Jobs

Don’t Hold Back
Apple’s founder was famous for his outbursts and sometimes over-emotional responses. In product development, things were often amazing or sh_t.

“He was an enlightened being who was cruel,” she recalled. “That’s a strange combination.”– former girlfriend and mother of Jobs’ first daughter, Chrisann Brennan

Surround Yourself with Brilliance
Whether he was willing to admit it or not, Steve Jobs could not do everything. Yes, he could have a huge impact on every product and marketing campaign, but he also knew that there were others in the world with skills he did not possess. Jobs’ early partnership with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak perfectly illustrated this fact. His early success with Wozniak provided the template for future collaborations.

“After a couple of months he was ready to test it. ‘I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked! The letters were displayed on the screen.’ It was Sunday, June 29, 1975, a milestone for the personal computer. “It was the first time in history,” Wozniak later said, “anyone had typed a character on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer’s screen right in front of them.”

Build a Team of A Players
Far too often, companies and managers settle for average employees. Steve Jobs recognized talent and decided that any conflict that might arise from a company full of “A”-level players would be counterbalanced by awesome output. He may have been right.

“For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn’t get along, they’d hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn’t like working with C players.”– Steve Jobs

“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them,” Jobs later explained. “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.”

Be Yourself
Steve Jobs was often so busy being himself that he had no idea how people saw him, especially in his early, dirty-hippie days.

“At meetings we had to look at his dirty feet. Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his colleagues.”—Mike Markkula, Apple’s first chairman.

Be Persuasive
While it’s true that early Steve Jobs was a somewhat smelly and unpleasant person to be around, this same Steve Jobs also trained himself to stare without blinking for long periods of time and found that he could persuade people to do the seemingly impossible.

“If it could save a person’s life, would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if there were five million people using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to three hundred million or so hours per year that people would save, which was the equivalent of at least one hundred lifetimes saved per year.”

Show Others the Way
Jobs wasn’t truly a programmer or technologist, certainly not in the way that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is, yet he had an intuitive understanding for technology and design that ended up altering the world’s expectations for computers and, more importantly, consumer electronics.

“To be honest, we didn’t know what it meant for a computer to be ‘friendly’ until Steve told us.” — Terry Oyama, part of the early Macintosh design team.

Trust Your Instincts
I have, in my own career, navigated by gut on more than one occasion. Steve Jobs, though, had a deep and abiding belief in his own tastes and believed with utter certainty that if he liked something, the public would as well. He was almost invariably right.

“Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?” — Steve Jobs

Take Risks
Throughout his career, Steve Jobs took chances, first with the launch of Apple, then in walking away from it and then returning in 1997. In an era when most companies were figuring out ways to diversify, Apple — under Job’s leadership — shed businesses and products, and focused on relatively few areas. He was also willing to steer the entire Apple ship (or at least some aspects of it) in a single direction if he thought it would generate future success.

“One of Jobs’ management philosophies was that it is crucial, every now and then, to roll the dice and ‘bet the company’ on some new idea or technology.”

“I had this crazy idea that we could sell just as many Macs by advertising the iPod. In addition, the iPod would position Apple as evoking innovation and youth. So I moved $75 million of advertising money to the iPod, even though the category didn’t justify one hundredth of that. That meant that we completely dominated the market for music players. We outspent everybody by a factor of about a hundred.” — Steve Jobs.

Follow Great with Great
In everything from products to movies (under Pixar), Steve Jobs sought to create great follow-ups. He wasn’t so successful in the early part of his career (see Lisa), but his third acts to Pixar and Apple proved he had the sequel touch.

“There’s a classic thing in business, which is the second-product syndrome,” Jobs later said. It comes from not understanding what made your first product so successful. “I lived through that at Apple. My feeling was, if we got through our second film, we’d make it.”

Make Tough Decisions

Good managers and leaders are willing to do hard work and, often, make unpopular decisions. Jobs apparently had little concern about being liked and therefore was well-equipped to make tough choices.

“The most visible decision he made was to kill, once and for all, the Newton, the personal digital assistant with the almost-good handwriting-recognition system.”

Presentation Can Make a World of Difference
The Apple founder hated PowerPoint presentations, but perhaps somewhat uncharacteristically, believed elegant product presentation was critical.

“Packaging can be theater, it can create a story.” — Jony Ive, Apple designer.

Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity
It’s unclear if Steve Jobs ever truly mellowed, but he did learn that a buffer between him and the rest of Apple could be useful.

“In a company that was led by a CEO prone to tantrums and withering blasts, Cook commanded situations with a calm demeanor, a soothing Alabama accent, and silent stares.”

Live for Today
Even as Steve Jobs struggled with cancer, he rarely slowed down. If anything, the disease helped him focus his efforts and pursue some of his grandest dreams.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” — Steve Jobs

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” — Steve Jobs

Share Your Wisdom
Steve Jobs was not a philanthropic soul. He had a passion for products and success, but it wasn’t until he became quite ill that he started reaching out and offering his wisdom to others in the tech community.

“I will continue to do that with people like Mark Zuckerberg too. That’s how I’m going to spend part of the time I have left. I can help the next generation remember the lineage of great companies here and how to continue the tradition. The Valley has been very supportive of me. I should do my best to repay.” — Steve Jobs

by Lance Ulanoff 

(Image Source: Mike Rohde)

It’s safe to say that with pen and paper, your creativity will truly be unleashed in a very fast manner, making your work more efficient than ever. What’s really greater is that they save tons of your energy and time, with the chance to decrease your head-scratching moment!

1. It Combats Designer’s Block
The first and foremost reason that you should sketch on paper before designing on computer is your idea will flow more naturally. This fact is even applicable to the Wacom pen tablet’s holder. It’s apparently not a preference issue but a predefined habit of the human, after all sketching on the paper is certainly more user-friendly than typing on the computer, as you can draw or write anything on the paper so freely and naturally.

(Image Source: Mike Rohde)

This is my first-hand experience. When I’m trying to come up with a short story I find it easier to generate the ideas on a legal pad than type the ideas out in computer. Even though I know that I’ll still be typing them on my laptop, I still wrote them via hand. Why? Because I noticed that ideas flow naturally with every letter I wrote.

So, are you having the writer’s block while you’re sitting in front of Microsoft Word, or Adobe Photoshop? Take some time off and bring out some papers and your pencil, then start sketching anything comes into your mind. If you’re trying to come up with a logo, you can start with a circle, and after several minutes you’ll notice that you’ve made several variations.

2. It Greatly Saves Your Time & Energy
This point is especially true for web designer. In web design we often have so many things to be planned, says home page, product page, contact page and even details like how the link button should look like. Sketch the ideas on Photoshop and modify them when changes are needed will prove to be exhausting and time-consuming.

(Image Source: Mike Rohde)

The question is: why waste your energy and time on the computer while some papers and a pen can do the same job? You can sketch on the paper any way you want, and tear the idea down any time you wantwithout pressing buttons here and there, talking about productivity!

What’s greater is that as you sketch faster, more ideas will pop up in such a short time and you can evenalter them to spawn more ideas, talking about creativity!

3. It Gives A Clear Perspective
There are many professional web designers and graphic artists who always bring their sketchpad to meetings with their clients. Because sketching is actually faster than using computer when brainstorming with the clients.

(Image Source: Mike Rohde)

Besides, in the design industry it is very important that the designer understands what the client wants to see, and the paper and pen come in really handy for this situation. Always bring a sketchpad and a pen/pencil to meetings, your drawing doesn’t necessarily need to be perfect, just the rough representation of what the client might see as the final product.

In terms of programming, sketching is like drawing a flowchart. In terms of writing a novel, it is like writing an outline of all the events and characters. Actually there’s a term for it in web design, it’s called wireframing. It isonly composed of lines, squares, and shades to represent how the website will look like.

4. It’s Here Whenever You Need It
There are times when a designer simply forgets what he/she has thought of. Having a pen and paper at ready will prove useful to record the great ideas which you might simply forget them in seconds. It also allows you to immediately get into the work like prototyping, even while you are waiting for the bus to arrive.

(Image Source: EddyMixx)

Would it not be perfect to have a sketchpad with you wherever you go so that those random ideas can be recorded? Like when you’re traveling or you’re waiting in a queue and a great idea comes to mind. You wouldn’t want to lose that precious idea just because you weren’t bringing anything that you can use to record your thoughts, right?

A great example of this is the writing of the poem, “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Samuel allegedly dreamt of the whole thing, and upon waking up he went to his notes and wrote down everything before he forgets them (but he was interrupted by someone in the end). What if he was not with his notes at that time? A great poem might not be born at all!

Modern Technology’s Take On This:

Sketching and writing with paper and pen is fun, but it can also be a pain especially when you hope to carry your ideas with you always, and you only want to bring a computer but not several legal pads to everywhere. Besides, in most cases, you certainly don’t want to re-draw or re-type the ideas into the computer.

The good news is that the technology is so advanced that certain digital products can help you tackle the issue of integration and sharing while you are still able to enjoy sketching on the paper.

Livescribe is a digital pen that is able to write on real paper like ordinary pen, with a twist! You can stick in Livescribe to your computer and everything you’ve written is converted into “searchable” images on your computer. Livescribe can also be used to record audio, and with additional apps it can do simple mathematical computations, and many others functions!

Certainty that you are acquainted with Wacom and its pen tablets for digital painting and sketching, but did you know that they have a product that actually uses an ink and paper? Inkling is Wacom’s product thatrecords every stroke and shade on a paper, and later on enables the user to transfer the whole art to Photoshop for additional improvements. Inkling can be used on any paper or any surface as long as it’s flat.

ConclusionAs the current technology advances intensively, I believe it is our duty to keep up with it while not leaving the traditional things behind, especially those from which creativity came from.

Marrying technology with tradition results to great things. While designing on the computer has its great advantages, it’s good for you to leave your mouse and keyboard for several minutes and get really creative by start sketching/writing on your paper!

Author: Rean

As freelance designers...
self-discipline is one essential characteristic to cultivate. Granted that you have the benefits of a flexible timetable, it is highly critical for you to be firm in your daily dealings to keep your business going well. Maintaining high motivation for your work is hence a topmost priority.

But hey, who doesn’t have the downtime? Sometimes it’s easy to lose heart when you’re not getting by with freelancing, or when it didn’t meet your expectation of flexibility. That is why it is crucial for you to know what serves as motivation for freelancers like yourself.

As a part-time freelance blogger myself, I could relate to a few common issues regarding the lack of motivation. Fortunately, I have found for myself a few solutions that I could apply when I feel I’m running low on battery, and I’m willing to share to you my remedies in this post, full sharing after jump!


1. Remember Why You Took Up Freelancing
When you remind yourself what was it that drew you into the circle of freelancers, you would be grateful that you got into where you are now even if things are going really tight. Typically, freelancers got here because they want more control over their schedule and more freedom over their choice of projects or tasks.

That said, it’s easy to fall into the trap of not following up with the client on time. It could be something to do with time management or simply just a lack of motivation. If it is the latter, then you have to acknowledge the fact that how much you earn is entirely determined by the amount of time and hard work you’re willing to put in. High productivity is what makes a freelancer success.

Not only does that affect your income, it also affects your reputation among the other freelancers. A good reputation of completing projects promptly with quality will translate into more offers from clients. What this means is that you’ll have more leeway in choosing those who you’d really like to work on!

As a freelancer, you will definitely have to start off from the bottom, which means that you may not get many project offers and thus unable to make a decent living at the initial stage. Well, one way to keep yourself motivated is to remind yourself that eventually, your hard work will pay off in terms of getting more and better offers. As the saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going."

2. Fanning The Flame
It’s easy to lose your creative sense when you’re kept busy by deadlines. When you place your emphasis on completing the project within a short timeframe, you become more concerned about getting the job donerather than doing it creatively or aesthetically. This leaves little room for indulging in your passion for freelancing.
You need to feed your passion or it will die off gradually! Losing your motivation? This could be the reason. Spend some time looking up for designs pertaining to your area of interest. Visit art museums or galleries. Draw something for fun. As long as you’re doing your art not for work’s sake, but for fun’s sake, you will keep the fire in you burning. It’s easy to extinguish it when you work day-in and day-out on your projects because you’ll associate the stresses with it.

As you can see, work can create a love-hate relationship between you and your passion. You are passionate about your work, but at the same time, you loath how your livelihood is now dependent on your passion. It’s no longer fun when there’s a huge responsibility laid on what had always been your hobby or favorite pastime.

The bottom line is, don’t turn your passion into work alone. You will still need to allocate some time to feed your interest outside of work. Some people can enjoy their work no matter how taxing it may be, but for most, they still have to make some time outside work to be inspired. Work is work; the demands are there to take the fun out of the equation.

3. Using Flexibility To Your Advantage
The wonderful thing about being a freelancer is that it allows you to make your own call. You can go for meals, take breaks or even leave your workstation anytime you want. Not many other jobs offer that kind of freedom. On the down side, you might be tempted to procrastinate when no one but you yourself is monitoring your work.

To curb those temptations and stay motivated, what you can do is you can give yourself appropriate time to rest. Just as dieticians would advise people to take many small, light meals rather than the standard three full meals to curb their cravings for unhealthy snacks, you should give yourself many small breaks while you’re working on the project. That way, you won’t get too overwhelmed with handling all the work in one long stretch and end up taking the rest of the day off from your work.

Besides the advantage of keeping you motivated this way, taking frequent breaks would also start you off refreshed each time you return to your work. In fact, psychologists have found that you can absorb and remember the things you were working on the most when you just begun to work on it. They call it the primacy effect.

So, if you are taking several breaks, you will perform better each time you get back to work after your breaks. This translates to better work performance and mood for the entire project you are handling, which then serves as good motivation to keep up your good work.

by Michael Poh

Experts agree that in the current employment climate, bad behavior is becoming less and less something employers tolerate -- and more of a fireable offense. "For every one of you, there are a 100 people lining up to take your job," says Kiki Weingarten, an executive career coach based in New York City. "Employers are more able than ever to be as picky as they want."

Here, four leading career coaches offer 10 bad workplace habits they've seen that send employees down the road to poor reviews. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Habit: You're addicted to email

In meetings, with clients, with your boss, you just can't stop scrolling through your BlackBerry. You think you're being productive by making sure you don't miss a message while stuck in the weekly sales meeting but your colleagues (particularly those speaking) see it as a personal insult. Constantly checking your smart phone conveys a real sense of arrogance, says Princeton, New Jersey-based  communication coach Matt Eventoff.

How to break it:
Put the BlackBerry down," says Eventoff, "especially if you're in a meeting." Turn it off, put it away, leave it in your office. "If you're waiting for a particular, time-sensitive email, let your coworkers know beforehand," Eventoff says, "Otherwise your BlackBerry has no place at the meeting."

Habit: You're a brown-noser

Nobody likes a kiss-up, and in the office one too many well-placed compliments could leave you with this reviled reputation. Say yes to everything a higher-up asks for, and your teammates will easily resent your enthusiasm. Even worse, your boss might see through your constant congratulations and think you more a nuisance than a constructive team-member.

How to break it:

Take a look at the last 10 things you've said yes to, whether opinions of your supervisor or tasks around the office. Is there anything you disagree to when you think honestly about them? Learning to say no every now and then will show both your supervisors and your teammates that you actually have a spine.

Habit: You're a busy-body

Do you mind your own business or is your ear constantly perked for the latest gossip or office happenings? Check yourself. You habit of needing to be in the know is likely a source of stress for your coworkers. Whether it's the movement of colleagues within the company or who's meeting who for post-work cocktails, making everything your business spells trouble.

How to break it:

If it's information you need to perform in your position, schedule weekly meetings with colleagues and team meeting to stay on top of pertinent happenings. Otherwise wait for information to come to you and avoid the urge to jump into overheard conversations. If all else fails, invest in some headphones.

Habit: Your email etiquette is lacking

If your outbox reads more like a firing squad than friendly exchanges, it may be time to take a look at your communication style.  "It's very rarely that emails are being perceived as too meek," says Eventoff. "As email has no tone, no emotions, no intonation, it's very easy for your short emails to be perceived as pushy, demanding or impatient."

How to break it:

If poor email habits persist, bad feelings are bound to brew in a team, Eventoff says. Make a habit of reading over emails before you send and gauge how they might be received, particularly if they're directed to someone outside of your office.

Habit: You're full of excuses

You may have forgotten the zip drive with your presentation notes, but you're not about to admit it. You don't know the answer to your supervisor's questions but try to talk your way around it. The result is that you've wasted not just your own time, but your manager's and colleagues' as well.

How to break it:

Set a reminder ten minutes before the start of every meeting on your docket, says Patrick Flannery, an executive advisor based in Arlington, Virginia.  "Better 10 minutes of your own time to gather necessary papers and gather your thoughts then 20 minutes spent making excuses in front of colleagues."

Habit: You're a multi-tasking mess

Technology has made multi-tasking the norm in most workplaces, but experts say it's causing more problems than productivity. If you've been caught more than once missing pertinent information in emails or correspondence  — especially deadlines, dollar signs or project elements—it might be a sign you're not as skilled at juggling tasks as you think, according to Roy Cohen, career consultant and author of "The Wall Street Professional's Survival Guide."

How to break it:

Make a conscious effort to focus on only the task (or phone call or email) in front of you. Read each email thoroughly and respond before moving on to the next. "And don't answer the phone until you're finished," Flannery warns. The habit of juggling different tasks is hard to break, but if your performance is suffering it's unavoidable.

Habit: You're a prima donna

"That's not in my job description." The problem with setting too many boundaries at work—whether it's saying no to tasks or assignments you feel aren't your responsibility, or keeping iron-clad 9-to-4:59 hours—is that when you think "self-protective," your coworkers think "jerk." And if that "somebody" are your colleagues and managers, you'll quickly find you've done yourself no favors by sticking to your guns. Chances are it's not in their contracts either.

How to break it:

The next time an unattractive task comes across your desk, ask yourself who'll have to tackle it if you pass it off. Recognize that in periods of downsizing, everyone must pick up extra slack—and your reputation will suffer if you make yourself the exception.

Habit: You're the office thief

If pens keep "appearing" on your desktop that are not yours, chances are you have a "borrowing" problem. Walking off with people's pens, staplers or favorite coffee mugs is never going to win you any love.

How to break it:

Label your own things, or at least stick to a certain, identifiable brand of pens. This may seem counter intuitive, says Flannery, but the second you see a pen on your desk that isn't "your brand," you'll make a conscious effort to remember whose it is -- and return it.

Habit: Your style does you no favors

Personal style is one thing. Questionable style is another. When your supervisor questions whether your look is "client-appropriate" you've got a fashion-work conflict that could cost you your next promotion.

How to break it:

Imagine the closet of the person you admire most at the office, Cohen suggests. How do they dress and why does it suit their position in the company? Imagine their daily wardrobe decisions. Then go shopping with your role model in mind.

Habit: You're quick-tempered

"An angry employee is a dangerous employee," says Cohen, who has spent twenty years coaching fiery execs. "Managers are wary of employees who are quick to anger. They know what 'going postal' means." If your blood pressure spikes every time the photocopier breaks down, or assistants scatter when you enter a room, it's time to reexamine your behavior. Uneasy or uncomfortable coworkers are unlikely to sing your praises.

How to break it:

To lose the reputation of a loose cannon, make an effort to pause before reacting to a stressful situation. Flannery suggests closing your office door and taking several deep breaths, and "by all means, avoid venting to coworkers before thinking it through." If all else fails, Cohen says to seek counseling. "Chances are you're angry about more than just the job."


by Meghan Casserly

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is machine readable and designed to be read by smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, a URL, or other data.

Common in Japan, where it was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994, it is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. The QR code was designed to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

The technology has seen frequent use in Japan and South Korea; the United Kingdom is the seventh-largest national consumer of QR codes.

Quick Response codes (QR codes) and other two-dimensional codes are expected to achieve widespread use this year – and for good reason. Consumers want immediate access to what’s relevant and QR codes are being used to make that possible.

QR Codes 101
If you’re not yet familiar with QR codes, they’re similar to the barcodes used by retailers to track inventory and price products at the point of sale. The key difference between the two is the amount of data they can hold or share.

Bar codes are linear one-dimensional codes and can only hold up to 20 numerical digits, whereas QR codes are two-dimensional (2D) matrix barcodes that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information. Their ability to hold more information and their ease of use makes them practical for small businesses.

When you scan or read a QR code with your iPhone, Android or other camera-enabled Smartphone, you can link to digital content on the web; activate a number of phone functions including email, IM and SMS; and connect the mobile device to a web browser.

Any of these desired functions are easily achieved by properly creating your QR code.  It’s a simple process of entering the appropriate data into the QR code generator, described below, and it all takes just a few minutes.

The ability of QR codes to connect people with each other and to multimedia digital content is very useful for businesses and consumers alike.

The Origins of QR CodesWhile QR codes are still considered a novelty here in the United States, they’ve been actively used for over a decade in Japan where they were invented.  QR is a registered trademark of Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota.  Denso Wave has elected not to exercise their patent rights of QR codes and that has encouraged their widespread use.

There are other software companies that have created 2D codes that work much like QR codes, with Microsoft being the most notable.  Microsoft developed their own proprietary software to create codes known as MS tags.  Unlike QR codes, which can be read by a number of different readers, MS tags can only be read by the Microsoft Tag Reader.

Choosing to use QR codes or MS tags is a personal choice.  It seems that MS tags presently allow for more possibilities for creative graphic designs, such as incorporating images and logos into the tag. 

How QR Codes WorkQR code Generators – There are a number of sites for generating QR codes and they’re all free.  An Internet search for QR code generator will offer many choices.

One that has worked well for me is Kaywa, a site created by Datamatrix, which is another pioneer of 2D codes.  You can use it to create QR codes that link to a web page, text, phone numbers, or SMS.  Another with even greater capabilities, including customizing the color and format of your codes is Kerem Erkan.

QR code Readers – The QR code reader app that works well on my iPhone is i-nigma, which claims to be the most widely used reader in the world.  It accommodates virtually any type of camera phone. For the android, you can also try Barcode Scanner. If you already own the popular price-checking app Red Laser, they’ve recently adapted their technology to accommodate QR code reading.

Applications for QR Codes
Sharing – There’s no limit to how, or even how much, you can share with QR codes.  While a video or landing page is easily shared, you could go further and share an entire eBook and even multiple pieces of content that share a common link.

QR code Like button to the author’s Facebook page.

Community – Sharing is how you build community, and one of the favorite arenas for doing this is Facebook.  You can use Likify to create a QR code that links your mobile device to a fully functioning LIKE button for your Facebook page.

Calls to Action – After building a community, the next logical step is to mobilize them to take action.   What are you trying to accomplish?  You can alternate special offers by simply linking your QR codes to new landing pages, and you can combine then with email opt-ins to build your list.

The QR code above takes visitors to a Facebook page welcome tab where the calls to action are Liking the page and a list opt-in.

SEO and SMO – Earlier this month I wrote an article on social graphs where I discuss how web objects such as images, music clips, and videos add valuable content to your social graph.  QR codes enhance both your search engine and social media optimization.  Now you can increase traffic to those searchable objects to further optimize them by encouraging more sharing.

Social Proof – To help build a community offline, it can be helpful to use your vibrant online communities as social proof of your influence and expertise.  As one example, you can use QR codes to link to specific blog posts that have earned an abundance of activity.

Analytics - QR codes most commonly link to urls, which is why link shortening services bit.ly and goo.gl now automatically generate a QR code for sharing your shortened links.  Using goo.gl as an example, you simply click on the “more” link after you create your shortened link, where you are taken to a page that not only gives you the QR code, but useful analytics.

MyQR.co is another site that provides analytics and the ability to customize the color of your QR codes

This screenshot shows how bit.ly serves up analytics and a QR code for a shortened link. Scan it to go to a list of recommended QR code readers.

Practical Uses of QR Codes
Here are some ways for using QR codes that are mostly in practice now, as well as we will be seeing in the very near future.

Where
QR Codes could be used:

• The back (or front and back) of your business card.
• Your brochures and other marketing materials.
• The sides of trucks and trailers.
• Product tags and packaging
• Convention and event nametags
• Restaurant menus
• Event ticket stubs
• Point-of-sale receipts

What
QR Codes could link to:

• Installation instructions
• Sources for replacement parts and service
• Directions to your business
• The process for hiring your professional services
• Valuable coupons and special offers
• Recommendations for complementary products and services
• Free mp3 downloads
• Customer feedback forms

How
You can you maximize your effectiveness with QR codes:

• Provide explanations about their use and benefits
• Encourage actions that support your marketing plan
• Assuage the fears of the technically challenged
• Give reasons to come back
• Experiment with the size, location, and color of your QR codes
• Study your analytics
• Make the process fun, such as a QR code scavenger hunt
• Experiment

Practical ExamplesUnited Airlines – Many of the major airlines are now using 2D codes as digital boarding passes.  I recently learned that by the end of 2011 all carriers will be required to provide this service for international flights.

Google Places – When you register your local business with Google Places, you’ll receive a decal for your place of business that includes a QR code to your company website. Be sure that QR code links to the most relevant information that potential customers are interested in – such as hours of operation and current specials and offers.

The Future of QR Codes and TagsThe potential for QR Codes is limitless.  What’s most exciting is how they take what social media is doing well now, bringing people together with technology, and extending it to enhance the experience.

The next generation of barcodes will hold even more information – so much that an Internet connection will not even be necessary.  The content will be effectively embedded in the code.  Imagine scanning a digital code to manifest physical reality?

Content Complied from Jeff Korhan

The spotlight is now on social media buttons that can be integrated into your website or blog. These buttons help visitors share the content on your site with friends, family and colleagues. As webmasters begin to unearth the hidden potential of social media and its use for business promotion, more and more websites are displaying such buttons.

A website must be developed to compete against the best in business; it needs to cover all bases and make sure that it uses every marketing tool available at its disposal, to promote its information and products and services.  Social share buttons have emerged as a new tool in the intensely competitive world of online promotion.

A one-click shortcut

As a website owner, you might wonder as to why integrate a social share button. If visitors want to share your content or link with somebody, they can always logon to Facebook, Twitter etc and do it. Why have buttons on your website? Yes, your website visitor can do this, but they won’t. Why would they waste time and effort in going through the whole process, after all, you aren’t paying them for it, are you? What social media buttons do, is that they offer a ‘shortcut’ for your visitors. All they need to do is click on a particular button, and they are done. They wouldn’t mind doing that.

Impact your marketing efforts

You want your website content to be seen by the maximum number of people. And for this to happen, you are using numerous online marketing tools and techniques. Using social media buttons will make your marketing efforts even more worthwhile. You will give relevance to your site content, by enabling users to share it across various social networking sites. If you get your buttons and content right, there is a good chance that your social media button will leave the kind of impact that you are looking for.

Promotes a Culture of Engagement

Unlike some of the more overt online branding efforts, integrating social share buttons on your website is a way of branding, but one that is not ‘in your face’. When visitors come across a social media button placed on a particular page, they are given to understand that you want to interact with them at a certain level.  For you, customer engagement is more important than just selling your products and services. This is one way of ensuring that your prospective customers see you as a credible and professional merchant, whose content they wouldn’t mind sharing with the people they know.

A word about the different Social Media Buttons

Some people are consumed by the benefits they see in Facebook and Twitter when it comes to social media buttons. No doubt, these buttons help share content and links, quickly and conveniently, but you must not forget that there are other social media buttons available. Take for example LinkedIn. If you are offering the kind of products and services that are targeting working professionals, this social media button might be better suited for your needs. Stumble Upon, is yet another button that can be used. It’s a popular social media platform, which means your content can be seen by many prospective customers. Google +1 is a recent entrant in the world of social media buttons, and helps people recommend the links and content that interest them.

There are plenty of options available. So, the best way to go about it will be to use a combination of social media buttons, which you think can effectively market your site.

Posted By - Evan