Have you ever had a problem with a menu showing up behind other content on your webpage? Most of us had. In this article, I’m going to explain how these problems can be avoided by using the CSS z-index property, which controls how elements are stacked in your pages. You’ll learn to use the z-index property to ensure that the right content always ends up on top.
The unfortunate reality is that we all get sick and face unexpected events that keep us from working. As a freelancer, it’s really tempting to let these interruptions become the source of stress, events that turn our schedules inside-out for weeks. Or, we “power through” sickness and end up prolonging the illness for weeks.
It shouldn’t be this way. In this article, I’m going to help you create a plan that allows for downtime and recovery time on those occasional days when you really need it.
Inadvertently working for free is one of the biggest dangers of freelancing. In this article, I’m going to cover several different variations on this tune, including spec work, client-specific samples (including free samples), and pro bono work. More importantly, I’m going to help you create a framework that protects you from getting tangled in the working-for-free trap, yet helps you proactively leverage specific types of free work to build your business.
Deadlines are quickly approaching, but instead of feeling uber-confident as you normally feel, you start feeling a little behind. A few days later, the deadline is tomorrow and it feels like there is still so much to do. Now you’re overwhelmed and stressed. You forego breaks and meals just trying to get done on time.
It doesn’t have to be this way. With some planning and organization, you can meet those deadlines without working in a pressure cooker.
As webpages become longer, you often need to link to specific sections on the page. Instead of instantly jumping from section to section, adding smooth scrolling improves your pages’ usability. Use our free script to make the process drop-dead easy.
When you use an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver to create an HTML document, you’ll likely see a special line at the very top of your file’s source code, before the opening <html> tag. For example:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
Perhaps, though, your pages don’t have a line like this. If you’re coding HTML by hand, maybe you usually start directly with the <html> tag. Or, maybe your HTML editor isn’t configured properly to add a line like this.
So, what is this mysterious line, why is it there, and why is it so important?
Are you still primarily using Arial, Verdana or – please not! – Comic Sans MS on your websites? Until recently, beautiful typography and the internet didn’t play nicely together. Using fancy fonts meant embedding all of your text in images, or risking incompatibility with many users. It was a royal pain!
Today, however, there’s hope. As browsers have matured, support for embedding custom typefaces in webpages has advanced. Many new online tools and services have popped up to make web fonts easily accessible to web designers. Unfortunately, though, most services are rather expensive, and most do-it-yourself tools aren’t easy to use.
In this quick tip, I want to share an option that’s both free and easy to use. Google Web Fonts is a free service offered by Google as part of their effort to help beautify and improve the web. They’re working together with the community and typography specialists to create special fonts that are 100% free for you to use on your commercial and non-commercial projects. Best of all, they handle all of the messy technical details to get them onto your webpages. Adding these special fonts to your pages is as simple as adding one line of code to your page and updating your CSS’s font-family declaration.
In my work with small technology and web companies, I see certain problems over and over again. One of these is how to get paid fairly for work produced. In this series we’ve been looking at five common reasons why tech and web professionals don’t get paid what they’re worth. To review, the 5 reasons are:
Last time we looked at how to escape the trap created by fear and a misguided marketing strategy. Today, we’ll wrap up with Reasons #4 and #5.
Many professionals of all kinds will be raising their rates for the new year. That’s why during this last week of 2011 we’re looking at the issue of rates for professional services and 5 reasons web and tech pros often underprice themselves. To review, the 5 reasons are:
Last time we looked into Reason #1 – Benign Neglect. We also started to explore Reason #2 – Fear of Loss. We’ll go into more depth on that today, and consider how it relates to Reason #3 – Misguided Strategy.
I watched her mouth tighten slightly, and her voice became a little tentative as she spoke. This was clearly a difficult subject for her to talk about. The seven of us, all small business owners and professionals, were seated around a small table. We listened intently as she began to explain her problem. "I’m considering a rate increase and need some guidance," she said. This successful young counselor was asking us, her Mastermind group, whether she should raise her rates in the new year. We started asking questions and she answered. She had been practicing over 10 years and had never raised her rates. Other professionals in her area were charging 25-30% more. Her practice was respected and received many referrals. "Would a 20% increase be too much?” she asked us. The uncertainty in her voice and body language betrayed her anxiety about making this change.
As a financial advisor to small web and technology firms, I see a similar scene played out again and again as business owners wrestle with the core issue of “how much do I charge?” For perspective, consider your CPA. If she’s like most of her colleagues, she will start the new year with a new, higher rate for the beginning of a busy tax season. Many other professionals also adjust their rates at the beginning of a new year. How about you? As a web professional, have you made plans to roll out a new rate structure in January 2012?
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