40+ Useful Free Online Books for Web Designers

Today, Web site Design is a very important part of current Graphic Design. To keep up with the fast-paced web design industry you must look out self education sources, such as books, books are very important, helps us to build our spirit, give information, helps us to write and think… read more

What’s new for designers, April 2012

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Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.127)

This is our weekly column were we share our favorite design related articles, resources and cool tidbits from the past week. Enjoy :)
If you would like to receive our daily updates and keep up to date with the latest and greatest articles and resources from the… read more

Need an Instagram Alternative? This Photo App Has Old-School Filters, Private Sharing

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Pinweel

Quick Pitch: Pinweel is a free iPhone app that lets you snap photos, apply filters and… read more

Buying an App From a Developer is as Simple as Ebay

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Apptopia

Quick Pitch: Apptopia is a marketplace where developers can sell their apps.

Genius Idea: A… read more

5 Tips for Creating and Maintaining Customer Loyalty

Guy Nirpaz is the CEO and co-founder of Totango, which provides a customer engagement platform for software companies.

Selling cloud and software-as-a-service applications is all about driving usage, adoption, and customer success—not about selling. This is obviously true for onboarding new customers, who start with a free trial and will only… read more

Netflix Starts a PAC. Will It Lobby For a New SOPA?

Netflix has a new feature: Instantly streaming thousands of dollars to lobbyists and candidates through a Political Action Committee.

The company has formed a committee named FLIXPAC, according to Politico. Put simply, a PAC is an organization that lobbies for a certain candidate or piece of legislation. Via FLIXPAC, Netflix can… read more

Use Dragon Logos and Create some Attraction in your Business

Use Dragon Logos and Create some Attraction in your Business

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Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom: The $400 Million Man?

Just how wealthy are Instagram‘s nine employees after Facebook acquired the two-year-old startup for $1 billion?

Ridiculously wealthy, according to one report. A source “close to the company” — likely an investor — shared some of Instagram’s 2011 financial data with Wired. According to the data, Instagram cofounder and CEO Kevin… read more

6 Ways Social Media Can Bring Your Next Event to Life

Trevor Jonas is director of social media at Access Communications, where he develops digital communications strategies for clients spanning the financial services, consumer electronics, and food and beverage industries. Follow him @TrevR.

Earlier this year, Microsoft brought in an acapella group to sing tweets from CES 2012 and last month Skype… read more

Dear Facebook, Please Don’t Ruin Instagram

For Facebook, buying Instagram looks like one of the smartest acquisitions the company has ever made. But when the news first broke that Facebook had acquired Instagram, my immediate instinct was dread.

I tweeted that my favorite mobile app was now destined to be ruined. Given the stunned reaction from… read more

Attend an Intimate Breakout Session at Mashable Connect

Mashable Connect is only a few weeks away! Now’s a better time than ever to get your pass to our biggest conference of the year.

There are many reasons to attend Mashable’s largest conference of the year, and now we have one more: breakout sessions.

In addition to a diverse… read more

Toggl: Time Tracking You’ll Actually Use

Whether you’re a freelancer, billing your clients by the hour, or are working with your team on an awesome idea, It’s always a good idea to track your time. Tracking time lets you plan your tasks better, period. But most of the apps available are riddled with bugs or confusing… read more

Facebook Instagram Acquisition: 20 Witty Reactions

Comparing Instagram to Kodak

On April 9, Facebook announced plans to acquire popular photo-sharing app Instagram. Earlier this year,… read more

How to Think Big in Business

Alex Goldfayn’s new book is called Evangelist Marketing: What Apple Amazon and Netflix Understand About Their Customers (That Your Company Probably Doesn’t). He is CEO of the Evangelist Marketing Institute, a marketing consultancy with clients that include T-Mobile, TiVo and Logitech.

Experience is the enemy of thinking big. So is fear,… read more

Touchscreen Directories Are Coming to NYC Phone Booths

New York City’s dilapidated phone booths are getting a high-tech makeover. Hundreds of phone booths will soon be outfitted with iPad-like touchscreen devices for directions and hyper-local news.

New Yorkers will see 32-inch smart screens in neighborhood phone booths starting next month, as part of a Department of Information Technology and… read more

45 Fresh Collection of High Quality Free PSD Files

What else can be so great for a designer than finding out high quality Photoshop PSD files? This is because PSD file format allows designers to add their own personal touch to an already designed work while saving loads of time that will be required to create that work from… read more

5 Social Entrepreneurship Startups You Should Know Right Now

In our new series, The World at Work, Mashable interviews the faces behind the startups and projects that are working to make a global impact.

By harnessing the power of digital technology, these five companies have offered resources to citizens in need, helped to eliminate landfill junk and funded social… read more

20 Creative Minds to be Following on Pintrest

20 Creative Minds to be Following on Pintrest

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Behind the Scenes at 9 Hot Tech Startups [PICS]

For the Startup Spaces Series, Mashable got to scope out the spaces of some of the hottest startups around.

Unsurprisingly, the offices of these companies have just as much personality as the products themselves. Full of killer perks, like ping-pong tables, kegs of beer and endless snacks, startup founders know… read more

Could CISPA Be the Next SOPA?

A bill introduced to the House of Representatives late last year could become the centerpiece of the next SOPA-style struggle between the tech community and Washington, D.C.

The bill already has over 100 co-sponsors and the backing of some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies, including Microsoft and Facebook — support… read more

What to Do When A Potential Employer Asks for Your Facebook Password

Tony Morrison is the Vice President of Business Development at Cachinko. Find him on Talent Connection and connect with Cachinko on Facebook or Twitter.

Could you imagine a job interview during which your interviewer asks you for your Facebook password? Well folks, it’s happening and you should know what to do… read more

43 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

If you missed any of Mashable‘s resources this week, hopefully it wasn’t because you were dealing with that nasty “Flashback” virus (make sure you check if your Mac has been infected by using this nifty script).

Once you know you’re not one of the 600,000 unlucky ones hit with the malware… read more

About.me iPhone App Launches With ‘Who’s Nearby’ Feature

The simple one-page profile platform About.me is now available on iPhones.

Since its 2010 launch and acquisition by AOL, around 1.5 million people have built a splash page, a collection of their social media handles. An About.me page consists of a background photo, as little as two or three lines of… read more

Why Gamification Can’t Be Stopped

From recycling, to personal health, to corporate culture, gamification is seeping into all aspects of everyday life. The practice of applying game mechanics to non-game contexts — for example fandom, separating trash from glass or meeting company goals — has exploded in the past few years.

Since the beginning, the… read more

Simple Secrets of Successful Sales

Selling is the most important element of any business and ranges from selling online products to selling groceries. The success of any business depends on a strong, unique selling point and the correct attitude to sell. You might be a freelancer or a salaried employee; you cannot avoid selling, as… read more

Manage Events Like A Pro With WordPress

If you’ve ever tried working with, coding for or just thinking about anything to do with events, you know they are a total nightmare in every possible way. Repeating events, schedules, multiple days, multiple tracks, multiple prices, multiple speakers, multiple organizations, multiple payment options — the list goes on on… read more

Quincy Creates Clothes for Your Shape, Not Your Size

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Quincy

Quick Pitch: Garments based on your cup size, bust measurement and torso length.

Genius Idea: Clothing for… read more

4 Ways to Rethink the Press Release

Jonathan Rick is a director at Levick Strategic Communications. He contributes to Levick’s Bulletproof Blog. Follow him @jrick.

Every year, for the last ten years, someone has proclaimed that the press release is dying. While the rumors of its demise are exaggerated, they are not totally unfounded. That’s because the… read more

Crowdfunding: What it Means for Investors

Bill Clark is the CEO of Microventures, a securities broker/dealer that uses a process similar to crowdfunding which allows backers to invest $1,000 to $30,000 in startups online. You can follow him on Twitter @microventures.

The crowdfunding feature in the recently passed JOBS Act will not only impact startups, it… read more

Etsy Will Send 20 Women to Summer Hacker School

Etsy, the handmade goods marketplace fueling the online community of crafty entrepreneurs, wants to give women in technology a boost.

The ecommerce network is driven by a large community of female vendors and buyers, but Etsy’s own engineers and operations managers don’t reflect its audience.

It’s a constant effort for Etsy… read more

TeamGantt: Stunning Project Management With Gantt Charts

There are way too many project managements apps in the market. In fact, project management web apps are one of the proud inventions of the Web 2.0 era. These apps come in all shapes and sizes, with most of them having almost identical featuresets. I often wonder if they all… read more

Google Tops List Of Most Popular Companies, Survey Says

A survey commissioned by ABC News and Washington Post shows that Google is the most popular company in the U.S. — above Apple, Facebook and Twitter.

Eighty-two percent of Americans expressed a positive opinion of the world’s top search-engine site, with 53% saying they strongly favored the company.

The results… read more

9 Ways to Engage Your Employees on Pinterest

Social media is all about user/customer interaction — that much we know. But many businesses value staff engagement as well. Pinterest‘s collaborative approach encourages employees to not only get to know each other, but also to communicate their personalities and tastes to the wider public.

Marketing and communications agency Red Door… read more

Learning Experiment Sparks Student Imagination With Cute Robots

The World at Work is powered by GE. This new series highlights the people, projects and startups that are driving innovation and making the world a better place.

Name: Reboot Stories

Big Idea: With a trilogy of experiential learning projects, Reboot Stories aims to engage children from low-income school districts with imaginative… read more

Are You a Journalist?

I remember sitting in a grad school course in journalism school listening to a twenty-something talk about how important blogging was going to become and how it’s changing the essence of journalism. I was so in disbelief as to what I was hearing that my chin was basically resting… read more

New Branding: The FreelanceSwitch Facebook Page Facelift

The FreelanceSwitch Facebook Page has almost 12,000 Likes and an active following. This is where we post links to our published material, as well as to freelance related posts from across the web. If you’d like to follow what impacts freelancers daily, our Facebook page is a great way… read more

3 Content Marketing Tips for Building Your Client Prospect List

It’s no secret that freelancers face real challenges balancing self-promotion and client demands. That’s why it’s important for you to optimize your time and make smart decisions that produce real results.

Content can be the hook that attracts visitors and engages them.

Using your time to grow your list of… read more

Preparing for Disaster

Imagine waking up one morning, booting up your system and realizing that your hard drive is dead. Or maybe you returned from vacation to see that your office has been flooded.

These scenarios would be difficult for anyone. But, for a freelance designer, it could put you out of… read more

ParkWhiz Makes Parking at the Baseball Game a Cinch

You’ve got your glove, you’ve got your hat, you’ve got your tickets. But where to park? Driving in circles around crowded lots can be a huge hassle that takes the shine off a day at the ball game.

ParkWhiz aims to change that. The Chicago-based platform function as a reservation… read more

Waygoz, a Social Network for Trading Video Games

Waygoz, a new social network targeted at gamers, encourages them to play more used games, but it wants to cut out the middleman of the used-game retailer altogether.

The secondary market for video games has become a monstrous profit machine. Used video games make up about 25% of game retailer Gamestop’s… read more

8 Tips To Maximize Your Brand’s YouTube Presence

Michael “MJ” Jaindl is chief client officer at Buddy Media, maker of the social-enterprise software of choice for eight of the top ten advertisers in the world. Visit Buddy Media’s blog for more on social marketing.

Creating an account on YouTube is simple, and building a channel for your brand… read more

‘Texts From Hillary’ is Your New Favorite Clinton-Themed Tumblr

“Texts From Hillary” is the latest Tumblr blog making waves on the political web, and for good reason — it’s downright hilarious.

The meme blog is built around two photos of a sunglasses-clad Secretary of State Clinton checking her cellphone on a military C-17 aircraft from last October. The original… read more

How One Non-Profit Aims to Create Open-Source Government

As a non-partisan, non-profit organization, the Sunlight Foundation is taking the ethos found among the open-source software movement and applying it to government. It’s one goal is to publish the government’s public data in an easy-to-access location, at no cost to users.

Unlike similar services, its data is free. The foundation… read more

Sorry, Larry Page. Steve Jobs Really Wanted to Destroy Android

Steve Jobs passed into legend a little more than six months ago. Now it seems the arguments over his intentions for Apple are just getting started.

In the Jobs-approved biography by Walter Isaacson, the Apple founder is seen railing against Android toward the end of his life. Insisting that Google stole… read more

Twitter Sues Five Major Spammers

Twitter’s had it with spammers and wants to send a message with the help of law enforcement. On Thursday, the company filed a suit against five separate web tools and providers that allegedly make it easier to spam people on Twitter.

“Twitter now has more than 140 million active users,… read more

Video Inspiration #63

Video Inspiration is a weekly(ish) post where we either feature a specific artist or show a sort of “best of” list of videos we’ve discovered during the week. Everything here may not be brand new, but we felt it worth sharing with the community. If you have good… read more

MLB Fan Cave: The Core Of Major League Baseball’s Social Strategy

On Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, the MLB Fan Cave was alive with energy. Nine baseball uber-fans, still pleasantly reeling from their meeting with former New York Yankee Bernie Williams, were watching three important things occur: The Boston Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers game, the Atlanta Braves vs. New York… read more

35 Cool Business Cards To Inspire You

35 Cool Business Cards To Inspire You

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Google CEO Releases ‘Mega Ambitious’ Letter, Still Not Evil

Integration, integration and more integration. That’s the theme of a lengthy state-of-Google blog post by CEO Larry Page, which was published on the company’s Investor Relations blog on Thursday.

“We have always believed that it’s possible to make money without being evil,” Page writes, echoing the company’s recent statements to… read more

Obama Signs ‘Game-Changing,’ Crowd-Funding JOBS Act

President Obama called the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act a “game-changing” bill moments before singing it into law Thursday afternoon.

The JOBS Act is a bipartisan bill which aims to make it easier for startups to grow, hire employees and contribute to the United States’ sluggish economic recovery.

The bill… read more

Facebook Coming to Nasdaq With the Ticker ‘FB’ [REPORT]

Facebook will be traded on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “FB,” according to a report.

Citing “a person familiar with the matter,” The New York Times reports that Nasdaq won a battle with the New York Stock Exchange for Facebook. Nasdaq is home to Apple, Google and others, but NYSE scored… read more

Mashable Launches New Events Board

We’re delighted to announce the launch of a new Events Board, which aims to bring together event organizers and the Mashable community.

We have long recognized that one of the great challenges for the Mashable community is that it’s difficult to discover all relevant regional, national or international events for… read more

10 Incredible eCommerce WordPress Themes

In the past, creating your own online store would have cost you thousands of dollars, or more likely tens of thousands, to cover the cost of developing a powerful, eCommerce site.  Not only would the site need to have the store front consumer side created, it would also need a… read more

7 New Creative Ideas in Modern Business Card Design

7 New Creative Ideas in Modern Business Card Design

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6 Freelancing Tips from Han Solo

Unlike some couples, my husband actually reads some of the blog posts I write for FreelanceSwitch. Which makes me really happy considering my own parents hardly read the articles I write for the regional magazine I work for. Heck, Shane even reposts some of my blog posts on his… read more

The Art Of Launching An App: A Case Study

You’ve made your first app!

Now what?

Anyone in the app business knows that marketing an app is tough. And according to a recent article on TechCrunch, “Getting a mobile app noticed in the increasingly crowded mobile app market is more difficult than ever.” Some titles and concepts are truly unique. Angry… read more

Types of Posts and How to Successfully Combine These on a Web Design Blog

Having a blog could be dangerous because, for many of us, the entire process of administering and maintaining can turn into an addictive task, one not being happy until a new post is published; moreover, the addiction may be acute and one will wait for the first reaction of the… read more

Is Part-Time Freelancing a Good Deal?

It’s incredibly common to freelance on the side: if you’re working a day job, it’s inevitable that you’ll come across someone who wants you to exercise your skills off the clock. Some folks take it farther: actively seeking out freelance projects to do after they get off from their… read more

How to make more as a freelancer

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What to Do When You Get Sick

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Getting sick is no fun for anyone. For a freelance designer (and other freelancers), getting sick (or injured) might spell financial disaster. That’s because freelance designers who don’t work don’t get paid. There’s also the risk of losing a client.

In this post, I examine some of… read more

Selling Your Photographs Through Stock Libraries: A Primer

Before the advent of digital photography, there was no micro and macro in stock photography, royalty free was a little used term and image catalogues were large glossy books with just a selection of the best images. To purchase an image you either asked one of the library’s researchers to… read more

Freelance Bootcamp: Advancing Your Career

The last installment in Tut+ Premium’s freelancing course, Freelance Bootcamp, is all about advancing your career. If you’re a Premium member and following along, this is your space to share your ideas with fellow FreelanceSwitch readers!  The section starts with Marketing for Freelancers. In the last section of the… read more

Bringing Your Dog to the Office

The author's dog, Miles the Chihuahua.

The International Journal of Workplace Health Management recently published a study investigating the presence of dogs in the workplace on employee stress and organizational perceptions. As a dog owner, I was interested to see what the results were.

The study focused on studying three groups… read more

Free Clean Business HTML/CSS Template

We have a fantastic freebie for you today. The team from Egrappler have been kind enough to release their free Clean Business template exclusively for Speckyboy readers. Built on the 960.gs framework, the feature-rich and very clean template is perfect for any business or as a personal portfolio… read more

Last Minute Tax Tips to Make Your Life Easier

There are a lot of last minutes when it comes to freelancers and taxes. If you freelance full-time in the U.S, you’re expected to send in quarterly estimated payments, in addition to doing your yearly routine.

Even though taxes can be fairly routine, it’s worth making sure that you’re… read more

Manage Appointments With SetMore, and Win a Free Subscription

Do you keep putting off those trivial tasks just because you don’t have any time? Is your salon flooded with customers and you don’t have the bandwidth to handle the crowd? Trying hard to reduce the waiting time of your patients at your clinic? An appointment manager would be an… read more

Instagram and Pinterest: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Marketing has taken more evolutionary leaps in the past two years then it has in the time since cave men adorned their spears and clubs with rocks and bones to differentiate their awesome possessions. Throughout the history of marketing and advertising, there have been a couple of commonalities: The first… read more

Go Forth and Sell!

I got a call from a friend a few days ago and it seems his small business is getting smaller by the minute. Not only is he on the brink of collapse financially, his one major customer looks like they will be folding up shop soon and that will… read more

10 Amazing Responsive WordPress Themes

Responsive web design is a web development philosophy that has rapidly spread through the design community.  A responsive web site is one that is built using W3C and CSS3 media queries to allow the site to perform optimally across various platforms and screen resolutions.  Meaning the site will look correct… read more

Turning 2D Into 3D: Seeing The New Angle

If you haven’t seen the viral pictures of English artist Julian Beever’s work, then you aren’t on the web enough. Mr. Beever started as a street artist who figured out how to make his pastel chalk drawings on hard sidewalks turn into three-dimensional scenes that amazed and delighted passersby. Beever… read more

StarCast: Digital Auditions Changing How Aspiring Actors Get Noticed

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: StarCast Auditions

Quick Pitch: Actors can be noticed by top producers without leaving their house.

Genius Idea: Submit… read more

Fly Baseball Star Brian Wilson’s Beard on This Awesome Airplane [VIDEO]

It’s a beard! It’s a plane! It’s Brian Wilson’s beard on a plane!

A Virgin America aircraft that began regularly scheduled flights on Tuesday has a painted-on homage to the San Francisco Giants closer’s bushy beard. And there’s a social media tie-in too; travelers who spot the plane — dubbed Fly… read more

Hang Ten! How the History of Surfing Went Digital

For the typical land-locked folk, all one needs to learn about surfing can be found on the Wikipedia entry for surfing. The page is filled with a bulleted history, surfing physics, maneuvers, dangers, locations and of course, a photo of the correct way to make the universal surfing Shaka sign… read more

Strike a Pose: Rachel Zoe Invests in Fashion App

Amid the fashion inspiration, advice and bookmarking apps that have wrangled for the attention of shoppers over the past two years, a few leaders are beginning to emerge.

Last month, Pinterest-lookalike Fancy stepped more directly into retail by beginning to process transactions directly on its site. Fashism, a style feedback… read more

80 unique business cards for inspiration

80 unique business cards for inspiration

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iPhone Case Helps Players Play Safely

A new case hitting the market soon will help owners protect a little more than their iPhone. Called “Playa case,” the iPhone case has a special compartment in the rear that can hold two condoms.

Designed by Annex products, this isn’t the company’s first interesting iPhone case. Annex has previously created… read more

Scanner Will Capture Your Room, Give You 3D Replica [VIDEO]

When the Xbox Kinect came out in 2010, most people drooled over its ability to read gesture-based commands.

Matterport founder Matt Bell, however, was more excited about the prospect of low-cost, high-quality 3D imaging.

As a co-founder of a company that makes gesture-based interactive display advertising (such as virtual soccer… read more

Stumble Into StumbleUpon’s San Francisco Office [PICS]

The Startup Spaces Series is supported by Turnstone, a Steelcase brand. Running a small business is hard enough, having a great space to work in should be easy. myturnstone.com.

StumbleUpon is all about discovery, and if you happen to stumble upon the company’s San Francisco headquarters, you’ll have plenty to see.

The… read more

Facebook vs. Yahoo Round 2: Social Network Files a Suit of Its Own

The Facebook-Yahoo grudge match continues.

Now Facebook is countersuing Yahoo, denying Yahoo’s allegations that Facebook infringed on the company’s patents — and claiming Yahoo is actually infringing on Facebook’s patents.

Facebook’s counter-claim, filed Tuesday, denies Yahoo’s statements that many of Facebook’s tools and features on the site stem from developments… read more

iPhone 5 Coming In June, Says Foxconn Employee [REPORT]

According to a Foxconn recruiter, we’ll see a new iPhone in June of this year.

The recruiter suggested the iPhone would be headed our way this summer in an interview with TV Tokyo’s “World Business Satellite” broadcast Monday.

In the interview, a reporter asked the recruiter how many people the… read more

Apple, Microsoft Spark Antitrust Investigation of Motorola in Europe

Two separate complaints filed by Apple and Microsoft accuse Motorola Mobility of overcharging for its products in Europe.

The European Union’s antitrust enforcers are investigating the charges, which Microsoft was the first to bring last month. The software giant says Motorola was charging exorbitant prices for its 2G and 3G patents,… read more

Students More Likely to Apply Directly to Companies Than Via Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

Students approaching graduation are chasing after the companies they want to work for directly, a new survey shows. Applying directly to a company outweighs finding opportunities on LinkedIn, the top social media platform used to find jobs.

According to a new survey from Experience and Achievers, about 88% of college students… read more

White House: Yes, We’re Still Anti-SOPA (But Pro-ACTA)

A White House annual report on Intellectual Property reaffirmed President Obama’s stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA): American intellectual property needs to be protected, but SOPA was too broad a bill.

This new report indicates that the White House is willing to support new intellectual property legislation in Congress,… read more

3 Twitter Rumors and What They Could Mean for Brands

David Clarke is CEO and co-founder of BGT Partners, a 2010, 2011 and 2012 Ad Age Top 15 Best Places to Work in the U.S. honoree. BGT creates interactive marketing and technology solutions for global corporations that strengthen brands, develop more engaging relationships and transform businesses.

With increased competition for… read more

Change Your Point of View for Success

I really liked what blogger Emily Heyward had to say on her recent FastCompany.com blog post called Desks, Where Creativity Goes To Die. The SXSW attendee stepped outside of her comfort zone at the conference and learned a thing or two.

Initially, I tried to attend talks or panels directly… read more

More Great Business Card Templates from GraphicRiver

It’s been almost a year now since I did my last business card template roundup. As design trends tend to come and go, I thought it might be a good time to have another.

Here’s are a few of my favorite business card templates from our sister site GraphicRiver. Enjoy!

Quirky… read more

The ROI for Project Management Tools

It’s easy to see the financial benefits of using certain tools: for some freelance niches, not having the most recent copy of the Adobe Creative Suite is the same thing as walking away from every client who is more up to date. But project management tools don’t have such… read more

90 New High-Quality Free WordPress Themes (2012 Edition)

WordPress! is an award-winning CMS, which enables you to build Blogs, Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made WordPress the most popular blog software available. Best of all, WordPress is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

There are… read more

YouTube’s 20 Most-Shared Ads in March [VIDEOS]

1. Two-year old dancing the jive

… read more

Tips for Planning your own Design Studio

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Getting started in freelance web design is an exhilarating process. Along with the added stresses of daily work you actually become your own boss, set your own hours, and even choose who you will work with. It’s truly a great way to earn a living!

Now consider… read more

Social Network Built for Apartment Dwellers is a Renter’s Dream

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: RentSocial

Quick Pitch: RentSocial is a new social platform aiming to makeover the apartment hunt process…. read more

4 Facebook Features Marketers Can’t Afford to Ignore

Justyn Howard is the CEO of Sprout Social, a social media management platform that empowers leading companies to effectively manage their social channels. Follow him on Twitter @justyn and read his blog at SproutInsights.

If you have a brand or a business to market chances are you’re using a social media… read more

SpinLister Creates Online Hub for Bike Rentals in NYC, SF

When it’s 70 degrees out and the sun is beaming, you just might be in the mood for a day-long bike ride. Online bicycle renting hub SpinLister.com lets you do just that.

SpinLister is an online startup that launched on April 1 in New York and San Francisco. Urbanites can… read more

This Is Your Last Chance to Win a Pass to Mashable’s Biggest Conference

Our biggest conference of the year, Mashable Connect, is returning to Orlando, FL from May 3-5, and this year we will explore the future of digital with some of the brightest minds in the industry.

This is your chance to spend three days away from everyday life, surrounded by leaders… read more

7 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Web Design Clients

7 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Web Design Clients

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Thanks to Our Weekly Sponsor: BatchGeo Pro

Our sponsor this week is BatchGeo Pro, the simplest, fastest way to create a custom map with your own data. Whether you need to present detailed info on a map, create private maps for your team, or download customized maps to use as you want, BatchGeo Pro is a great… read more

Branding Your Freelance Business

If you are a solopreneur, branding yourself is key. You want to make a statement and interest people while being true to who you are as a person and a professional. No matter your niche, creating a brand for yourself is important! But how do you do that as… read more

Cut the Cheese: 5 Tips for Photographing Kids

Note: all images in this post are copyrighted to Natalie Norton, unless otherwise indicated. 

Photographing kids can be a real pain adventure! They’re busy, they’re squirmy, they’re fast, sometimes they’re cranky, but guess what? Comparatively, all of that stuff is a total piece of cake. The real challenge? The cheeeeeeeeeeese. Never have… read more

5 News Sites For Your Design Inspiration

For many people, designing a content-based website is not unlike being the layout editor for a digital newspaper. It involves presenting headlines, stories, and images in a way that can cleanly convey a bigger picture and appeal to the reader – all while establishing a template suitable for constant updates… read more