Webmaster Tips & Tricks - The Webmaster’s Blog

I started working more seriously on my blog so expect entries, if not daily, at least every 2-3 days. Today I am at peace. I don’t want to rant about anything (well, I do, but I save myself for other blog posts ). I just recalled my blog is also my design journal, so today I’ll bore you to death with a “designer” entry.

Tomorrow night I am meeting with a former coleague on the previous radio station I worked on. He is a distributor for the famous Sennheiser audio products and he tried to make his own design for years. I have to admire him for this since he learnt web design (or at least some HTML) by himself (like I did years ago). He is not “strong” into design, so his former site is very simple and not that visual attractive, but it’s not bad either. He did some SEO for the site to and basically he has done an awesome job as a person who’s not a designer.

It has come the time for a facelift. I promised last week that we’ll meet again in few days and I’ll present him a mock up design. For me this means a “wrapper” made in Photoshop with the design elements in place. All the text and other “bells and whistles” will come afterwards. I don’t put mock up texts on the design since I’d just lose time. I know how to make the site in the end and luckily the clients are smart enough to “feel” the site too.

I wanted to have the kid and father image (home entertainment and business conferences at the same time) to convey the idea of the availability of any kinds of audio systems needed. The firm sells audio equipment to be used at home and also systems for conferences and business activities. We have a “dirty” blue (more like a grey) since it’s a tech related site and I have spiced up the theme with some bright green. More additions will be made after I start coding the layout.

I don’t know for sure what script we’ll use for the online shop: oscommerce or zencart? Will see after the design gets eventually approved.

Keep your fingers crossed. We’ll see tomorrow night what tweaks we need to make on this design.

Well, that used to be a nice song and even my radio show years ago. Time has passed and now I am thinking about this title while having a not so lazy at all sunday afternoon. Yesterday was lazy indeed. Went to the pool, got some serious sun tan and now I have to “pay” for this lazy day.

I had to finish 2 shopping carts for 2 clients before I start a new one. I added some products and made some more changes. While I had to modify the script once again I got an idea for a tutorial: How to remove the price in the New Products box in oscommerce. I didn’t write anything in the articles section for quite some time, so it was a good thing to prepare this tutorial for our visitors.

Now I have to prepare some more changes on another site in the Dojo Design portfolio and also try to work on some pages in the portfolio itself. I wanted to put the new design very fast and didn’t get the chance to finish all the pages. In few minutes we’ll make an upgrade on BaniVechi (Old Coins) - My BF’s numismatic site and then I’ll start working on other projects too.

My friend Adi is already working on some translations for a site in the network after she translated files from the MyBB package. And something tells me she’s gonna get more work soon

Z Componenti is one of the latest oscommerce sites I made. For an Italian client, with Italian content. He wanted some animation too, that would explain the moving stuff in the header. I also had to re-create some content based on his material and also modify the script a bit so that we can use it according to his requests.

Centru ATV would be the other site I had to work on today.  We wanted a simple yet pleasant design for this one too … New content will be added soon, but the site is already working OK. Again .. we had to make some changes since the client didn’t want some features and wanted others, but overall it’s all done.

And if all goes well, tomorrow the work starts for another shopping cart

As I worked on some client site it hit me .. I have my own design firm, I wanted it so badly and still … I never got to celebrate it. After all the problems I faced when trying to start it I promised myself I’d get drunk from happiness. Even if I don’t drink at all …

Still .. the day came. My lawyer called to tell me I am on the track and the firm was approved. I called my folks and told them that yeah, after 2 months of problems and nerves I made it. Called my boy friend and also my boss, the one who sent me to this lawyer.

Then went home and was ready to think about spending a nice evening with my close friends Caius and Adriana and celebrate the small victory by ourselves eating some nice icecream and drinking natural orange juice. I know I should be more mature than this, but I don’t like coffee, cigarettes or alcohol .. so this is our treat.

I had something to do that night and we weren’t able to celebrate and the second day I had to meet with my lawyer and get all the papers and I also had a prospective client to meet with.

That night my grandmother fell ill. We rushed her to the hospital that morning, she had a heart attack and also pneumonia. I spent the day running from the hospital to the business meetings, back to the hospital and then to the dental clinic to also do some maintenance work on their computer. After 4 hours of sleep that night and almost no food eaten till late in the evening I just didn’t have the time to celebrate anything.

I had one of the best days of my life followed by some of the worst. The problems lasted for 2 weeks and then we got her home. Then I was already working with clients and so stressed that again I missed the chance to celebrate my firm.

2 months have passed. I have all the paperwork done now, a nice logo, clients and already a lot of work .. and still don’t know when I should get some time for a small celebration. Who knows, maybe when we have the 100th client? But who counts them anyway?

The previous message wasn’t that happy. I wasn’t happy. I had some issues with the new firm to be born and I just thought I’ll never make it in the end. I had to switch the counselor and pay some of the fees once again.

Still, on 18 april I got a call from my new lawyer who wanted to tell me I have a new firm. I was so extatic. At last. She didn’t have to lose too much time with this, she moved fast and effective.

I called my BF, other friends, my family (I was at the stomatological clinic at that hour and they didn’t know about this). I even planned a “party” for us to enjoy the good news.

But all good news bring in some sad ones too. In that night my grandmother fell ill and I had to bring her to the hospital with the ambulance, the next day. She was very sick and for a moment I thought I’d lose her. Here I was .. tired and hungry, stressed to death and still the brand new owner of my dream firm. A small firm, but my own. I couldn’t even enjoy my happiness and I wasn’t happy at that moment at all. I had to postpone any possible celebration dinner and just focus on my family.

I met with a client that very day and with my lawyer to take my papers from her and thank her for such a good job. Then go to the clinic again (they’re also my clients) and then to the radio.

Almost 2 weeks passed and it looks a bit brighter. My grandma is coming on Wednesday back home and I got a new client to work with. I cannot focus on my work that well anymore since I have many things to work on, but I have an understanding client who can let me work at my own snail pace.

Last night I went to sleep at 2-3 in the morning (again). I worked on the new logo for the firm (was quite hard to make the kanji for dojo in Corel), a nice set of business cards and my own price offers to give to some clients or fellow advertising firm owners who cannot design a site and would like to work with me.

Now it’s the only time in these weeks I can kinda live my happy hour and enjoy the joy of being my own boss. I know this means a lot of work (I have worked my self to death these days and I am willing to work till I drop), but at least I am the one to decide what’s done and how to manage this. So far I am the only one to do all the job, but maybe in some time I’ll be able to pay someone to work and focus on design mainly (I am not that pleased to let go of designing the layouts myself or at least controll this) and let another developer code and place texts and so on… But that’s a thing for the future. So far … it’s only me.

Yesterday I was able to at least get that paper I needed and then got to my accountant’s home to discuss what we need more. We settled what my ‘topic’ was and tried to get into the Romanian list of possible activities (the so called CAEN) something related to my topic. For those who don’t know, it’s an old and almost not updated list of jobs .. web development related activites are hard to find and placed wrongly. To be able to create/publish/admin a site (a normal thing we do in site’s case) I have to cover 3 such codes. Illogical, that’s the word.

After spending that quality time there I got home and worked some more on my sites. Trying to recover some of the mess my VB upgrade did to the forums and also posting in other places.

This morning we had to meet to start going to the places I need to “visit” so that I can have my firm start. But the day started in a wrong way. My accountant said there’s a problem with my home contract and she things we’ll have some issues about that. If that’s true, I’ll have to solve that issue first (at least 1 month to solve it and more money) and then just be able to resume the firm’s creation.

I am waiting for some news from her this evening. I assume it’s gonna be bad news and I’ll have another hinderance to get my own firm. But I am willing to solve anything and everything and be able to just start the business.

I am not in such a good mood as you can guess, but that’s life.

Right now, it’s one step forward 2 steps back in my firm’s case. If only I was able to go with my back turned to my walking direction .. then the movement would be forward …

This is one of the “graphical” sayings in Romania. Meaning that till you achive the bigger goal you are constantly put to the “test” ..

In my case … it’s the block administrator.

I was told by my accountant, the one to help me with all the firm’s paperwork to get the neighbours agreement to have my design firm in my apartment. Well, it’s a bit weird since my computer work has nothing to do with them, it doesn’t make noise, there are no dangerous chemicals .. but that’s the Romanian law and we have to do it the right way.

There are 2 ways to get this paper: you can make a list of all neighbours and have them sign individually, or have the administrator sign as the representative of the entire block’s community.

We chose the second option. I contacted my administrator and told her I need that paper. Well, it seems she doesn’t have that. It’s a “template” I can get from the Commerce Camera in my town. I have my accountant there and look for the paper. There is NOT such a thing. All people who had started a firm like that said that a handwritten declaration is OK. But no .. she wants a “paper” .. an official one.

After spending 2 hours on the internet trying to seek such a paper I get to the conclusion that indeed, there’s not such thing. So I have my boss (a specialist in such papers) dictate me one, I print it at work and get home with it.

She sees it and says: “Well, told you there’s a paper at the Commerce Camera”. Yeah, sure.

I just didn’t have the nerves to explain to her that it’s a total lie, there is not a paper like that and she sent me WITH NO USE to that Commerce Camera to come back empty handed. I won’t mention here any details of the fact she has a similar firm and I am sure she tried to make it harder for me.

But I already paid for the firm and I want to have it. With her “dead or alive”.

This would be my first post in the category I dedicate to my business venture I call Dojo Design.

Some of my members know that I am on the verge of getting my own official firm. I have been freelancing for 5 years already, created many personal sites and some for other people and as I grew my skills I realised THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO in this life. I am also working as a radio DJ, so, for some time, I’ll work in both places. I know it’s gonna be very hard, but so far I am not yet prepared to leave my regular job. I think I need all the contacts there. And in the end, that’s a more relaxing job than that of a web designer, so I’ll think of this as spending some time with friends far from the actual work

Today I had a chat with the accountant that will create my firm. I already told her that I would like the name Dojo Design since after 5 years I was able to kinda establish it as a brand. The Dojo Design portfolio is under re-construction (it’s been a year since I made the layout, what would you expect? ). And this would mean I can keep the name and also try to make it even better known.

She had 5 options and it looks like I was lucky enough. My new firm will be called Dojo Design. I was so happy when I heard this. Now I have to work on the logo (I need to re-think it a bit and also put it together in a vectorial format.) It’s gonna be quite used in many occasions and I need to have it set right.

I paid almost 300 USD already for the firm to start (small fee in other countries, for us Romanians these are 2 salaries). But the good thing is that I do earn more from my radio job, so I don’t feel this expense as painful as I would with a smaller wage. I still cannot believe I am doing this, I have high hopes based on my willingness to work like crazy to make it, but still worries.

What if I don’t make it?

But … in the end, as I told my folks, I am not starting it to fail. I want to open myself new horizons and also have the freedom I always wanted. I am not willing to work for anyone anymore as a designer. I feel trapped and it’s not something I like. But working on my own means a lot more work (I know that), but also the chance to run my own projects and make my own decisions. Good or bad, doesn’t matter. I’ll learn from all of them and try to become better.

That would be the end of my first post in this category.

Dojo Design .. the firm is now just a name. I have come a long way to this and I hope it will have a nice future. I want to make it something special