Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

Technically Blondish.net turned 3 years old during May. With the layout to be unveiled, it will be the 8th version. If all goes well with this version, I will be retiring the others (Premium Blondish and Mustang), and giving them out as free WordPress layouts. I have already been asked about the Premium Blondish layout and I will strip it of the ‘blondish’ information for the layout. If anyone wants customizations of it, I charge $50 and I allow you to do anything you like, plus you get support for your layouts. (Yeah, sorry, had to slip that in, but I have already done a few customs using this template.)

I am a bit late on a layout change, but the one previewed (It is just the top part), should be up and unveiled by Sunday evening! Some of the things on the site are getting moved to their more comfortable places, like another domain of mine. This is all tied in with the re-focus of the blog that I had mentioned months ago. Some of the pages will have their own templates. I am hoping with WP-PageNavi and Yoast Breadcrumbs to do away with the older navigation to come up with something more clean. From the preview, you can see that it will retain the black, white, pink and golden tones. The guitar is a vector I made. In fact, I will have a vector tutorial on it ready as a wonderful addition.

I have also asked a few people to please write some guest posts. I would not mind if anyone else wanted to. Just give me a shout out at Twitter or here in my comments.

So, what do you think? Does the preview image look promising?

A little strained for time, hence I did not update the layout page, but there are now 5 new WordPress layouts. All of the layouts are similar in layout format, but the graphics are different. I just felt like playing around with the same layout to do several things. I hope to have more of this type, as well as another layout format series too. I did this because it gives more choices, especially for those who may like the format, but not the graphics or one, but perhaps another layout.

Catty
2 column simple layout

Cherry Blossom Tree
2 column simple layout

Mousey Pencil
2 column simple layout

Pixel Chickadee
2 column simple layout

Winged
2 column simple layout

Yes, that is right… five more desktop wallpapers available for download.

All wallpapers come in JPEG format and 3 different resolutions: 800×600, 1024×768, and 1280×1024. The previous wallpapers were greatly welcomed. I even got tips in my paypal from them so I must have done something right.

Anyway… feel free to use them. If you want to use the images for layouts, you can. I even can provide the PNG format of each of them for clarity, but you will have to use the contact form to request the one you need.

Been busy at making graphics once again. In fact, 11 new emoticon smilies! After making the rounded smilies, I needed to make extras that matched all of the colors. Also, I added more colors to the bubble saying emoticon (ex: smilies that said ‘whoa!’ or ‘lol’.)

Here are examples of these:

This makes the total of different emoticons offered at 37! That is quite a bit, especially a variety of new characters that will be introduced soon too!

As internet users are finding rss feeds very convenient to catch the latest news of their favorite sites, I thought that making some creative RSS icons would be great to add to the site. Here are but a few examples:

There are 59 total rss icons available. Please, if you do use any, please remember to not direct link the images and to save them to your own computer before using.

Of course, If you have any ideas for more, feel free to leave a comment on this blog post and I will see if I can get more done soon. Since I am blogging from the library (phone is down due to someone running into the poll and taking down the line), I have had plenty of time offline to get a few fun things finished.

It seems I am always falling behind on some updates, but I did not forget the requests to try to make more avatar icons. Previous to March 2008, I had over 100, but due to the fact that some of them used celebrity images, I had to take them down. That left me with 35 that I could use.

I took the time to make 30 new icons for use. They can be used as avatars in forums or any other place. No real credit it needed, but if someone asks, be sure to link them here. All of the avatars are in GIF format. If you need it in PNG to retain the richness of the image, drop an email and I will send a copy in that format. I will probably put each in a zip file that will include a GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats. Of course, if you use them, save it to your computer. Do not direct link.

The new total is now 65 icons! I do take requests too, so feel free to email me if you have an idea for one.

Here are just some examples:

I added 2 more Computer Desktop Wallpapers to Blondish.net. Both are simple, but I think they are cute. They are offered for download in 3 resolution sizes (800×600, 1024x768x and 1280×1024), and are free to use. If you cut them up and use for graphics, please remember to give credit back.

One wallpaper is called ‘Ice Cream Cone’, and the other is ‘Paper And Markers’. So far Blondish.net offers 5 wallpapers, but since the beginning of February 2009, I have added the majority of them.

If you have any ideas for wallpapers, I can do requests, even fanart for celebrities, but only if they are using my vector method. I will not use the photos and do blends. I know most are girly, but most of the people who do visit Blondish.net are between 14 to 45. If you are a guy visiting, do comment here and make a request. I would like to face the challenge of making other types of graphics too. Again, just in case you missed it, you can view and download these wallpapers in the Wallpaper section.

As for more site news, there are a few WordPress Tutorials in the articles section of Blondish.net for your perusal.

The vectors tutorials I mentioned on the way will be ready this week. As usual, if you would like me to try to take a stab at creating a tutorial, I would be happy to hear about it.

Also, I may soon be a guest blogger over at WPThoughts. I encourage you to check it out as I think it is a promising site. I answer more han a dozen questions about WordPress in Twitter on a daily basis. Might as well write more about it, right?

As for Blogrity.com, I am thinking of making it a Blog directory. However, it will be using WordPress and submissions will be hand done. I would like to make a page on each site and then the page have stats like Google PR, Alexa Rank, and Technorati rank, Ability to leave a comment about the site and possibly a site rank and maybe editor rating. That is just the beginning of my ideas for it. I am thinking that perhaps the first 500 links would be free and the rest would be $5 submission fee. I just renewed it for its 2nd year and until now, I did not know what I wanted to do. What do you think?

Freelancing is becoming a popular thing with the internet especially for web and graphic designers. There are many places for individuals to place their own semi- portfolio for a fee and be privy to bid on projects listed by people needing a job completed. iFreelance, and Guru are just some of the sites that welcome freelancers like web and graphic designers.

What is a Freelancer?

Freelance is:
A person who sells services to employers without a long-term commitment to any of them.

taken from Free Online Dictionary

Being a freelancer takes someone who is tenacious and is confident in their work. A freelancer also must be honest with what they know, yet be resourceful to get the job done. With websites like the above, you also have to be willing to invest money and the time in bidding for available projects.

Being freelancer for some might not means making a lot of money. That comes with time and building a reputation with clientele. It is also not always a glamorous job. You will come on projects that people will want to only pay a price that is below the time and effort given. However, below are a few tips to consider if you are currently a freelancer, about to jumpstart yourself, or are considering to freelancr:

• 1. Make sure to build a portfolio that has your best work. It does not have to be just layout and theme screenshots, but anything like graphics that could give a potential client how versatile you are as a web and graphic designer.
• 2. Try as many freelance groups for a bit (a month or two) and then eliminate those that are not giving out enough projects to bid on. You may not get awarded any project, but you will at least have a steady flow of choices to bid.
• 3. If you do get a bid, conducting via Instant Messenger is okay. Playing cat and mouse with a client that is halfway across the world is better just by email. It is hard enough to get a decent time to meet up due to time zone issues.
• 4. If a client is wishy-washy and the project seems to not be progressing in a timely manner, be polite but tell the client that your time is money and you are losing money for a project half done or partially done and not even paid.
• 5. Consider requiring a partial non-refundable deposit for projects over a certain amount of dollars. I usually have exercised a 50% of projects over $1000 or $200 deposit for under $1000. There will be schemers you come across, but I hope not. However, you could be left with a completed project and pranked. If you do and it is with a website, report it.
• 6. Make a pre-made site and offer full support for your layouts. Make sure that you charge decently. Some premium WordPress themes are being sold over $50. To give an idea of what I would charge, the current layout at Blondish if it were for someone else would have been $50 for a supported theme (which is my standard quote.)
• 7. Keep on top of bids. If you use the internet daily, give your freelance sites a lookover at least once.
• 8. Join tech, web design, and graphic design forums that allow pluggage, but you must try to be active. Some forums have a required amount of posts that must be met before you can plug yourself. These forums will help you learn as well as set yourself apart from others. Try Twitter. There are plenty of people at Twitter that use the site for business and personal use. My advice is to join in hopes of attracting your visitors to your site (which should also be a class act example of your growing and/or existing portfolio.) Like forums, you might be able to learn more things like web tools and design tips.
• 9. Ask friends if they might be able to exchange a shout out on their blog for your portfolio or if they can just do you a favor. You never no, they just might do it.
• 10. If you have a portfolio, think about doing affiliation with a few web designers or pooling some together on a site to showcase their work and entice clients. What you might not know, may be something your affiliate/ web design team might know. It also might help with the ‘power in numbers’ rule where each can market one website.

Remember, above all, do not sell yourself short by underbidding, but in the same breath, do not overbid. Some stats out there in the market put web designers averaging 80K and graphic designers 40K. Obviously, this is from places that have done the statistics on businesses that hire these type of people. I am sure there are freelancers who make a lot of money, but it takes money, work, and time. If you can invest some of each, then it could be for you.