Hiring a Subcontractor

As a web designer or web developer, there may come a time when you have the need or desire to subcontract a portion of a web project to another web developer.

Tips:

1. Since you are responsible for this website as the designer/developer, be sure to research the credentials of the subcontractor you intend to hire as your reputation and name are on the line.
2. As with any professional relationship, do not pay any money or give out critical site information without a signed and detailed contract.
3. Pay your subcontractor a deposit prior to beginning the project, with the remainder due only after the project has been thoroughly tested and approved by you and your client.
4. Once the project is complete, pay your subcontractor promptly.

Tip to selecting your domain name!

If your business name is not available for selecting as a domain name, try incorporating your main keyword phrase that you wish to optimize your entire site into the domain name. Can you create a domain around that keyword phrase?

For instance, if my business name was Climb Mount Everest, the domain name climbmounteverest.com is not available. But since my business is focused primarily on giving "tours on Mount Everest, the keyword phrase Mount Everest Tours is a good place to start. Voila, the domain name mounteveresttours.com is available!

Since search engines seem to favor sites with keyword phrase-rich domains it's a nice tip to remember.

Save time with Actions

Do you ever get bored of repeating the same tasks over and over again in Photoshop?

Save time by using Actions. Actions are sequences of events that you can save and then repeat at the click of a button.For example, you have an Internet shop and take pictures of your products on your digital camera. However, the images are too big and need compressing. Create an Action that downsizes the image, fixes the levels and save the compressed image in your web folder all with one click!

To do this, open one of your images and click the "Actions" tab in the history palette and click "Create New Action". Give your Action a name, then perform the following tasks:

• Go to Image/Image Size, and downsize the image by your specified amount, I chose to make the image 30% of its original size;
• Go to Image/Adjustments/Auto Levels, and click;
• Go to File/Save For Web, and choose your settings, I chose JPEG and High, and then click Save. Choose your web images folder and press OK;
• Close the image;
• Back in the Actions palette you should see a button is selected with a small red circle, this means it is recording. Click the square next to it to stop recording;
• Your Action has been created.

To test your Action, open another image, click on the Action and click the play button. The Action should take place and the repetitive task is done in one click!

Once your Action is set up, you can apply it to all files in a folder by selecting File/Automate/Batch