Freelance Follies/ Link Mania!

Im back into having more free time to code what I want, having only the XC project on my plate. Here is what I have so far:


I also did finish the Lost Trekker project, pretty much on time. However, communication was not always in the best balance. Until this client, I had only heard about the kind of incidents that can make freelancing a nightmare.

Most of it was my fault because, in a moment of expensive car repairs, I had to break 2 business-oriented principles--lowballing myself and not having it all done in writing

As Im further realizing that my freelance business can have online prescense again (due to the contributions of a friend for server space), I have been going over some sites that give me an idea of how I want to present myself both visually and how information is displayed. Here are a few sites with designs that inspire me:

• FictionalHead Design
• Shape Shed - They are also using the Portfolio Extension in Joomla and have good ideas on how to utilize everything for what it is worth

As well, I am also finding articles that cover more of the marketing side of things....

• Jonathan World Pricing Info - A part-time template designer's rates. Listed with some extensive detail to ensure proper communication
• Van SEO Design - Another good guide that gives me an idea of how people with higher skillsets than I are putting some detail into figuring costs.

I will continue to get more ideas about marketing, presentation of information and how to give the best pricing for what Im worth without over or undercharging. Until then, I leave you with this:

Article: What Web Designers Can Learn from Print Designers

Restructuring Deadlines

No sooner did I get some of my working groove back, and my personal life presented me with many challenges. Namely, very bad luck with cars and a sick dog. Im not a big believer of astrology but I sure wondered about Mercury in Retrograde having anything to do with my car woes.

Shortly after getting back, I did come across a job. Its going to pay me far less than I normally would take for a Wordpress Template, but this is one of those times where any money is good and so I was willing to lowball myself. :(

Things are almost done. After this one is done, I am going to make a point to look up what other good self-hosted gallery plugins can work besides NextGEN Gallery. I really like NextGEN but sadly most adblocker browser plugins do not like the slideshow part of things.

Im determined to make some headway with other projects but, I admit, Im a bit behind.

In the Meantime

Back from my vacation and slowly getting back into some productivity flow, Im finding myself with new projects already. Money is tight for a freelance web designer I suppose. It is sort of a letdown. This time should be used to work on my portfolio at some point now that I got some hosting for it.

Still, I have taken on a few projects and re-prioritized others. Its giving me more portfolio material so I guess it is not all bad. Still, I had hoped to have my .com site up sometime before this month ends.

Because of the length of my Labor Day Getaway, I used the time to kind of reset myself. It seems like it might help me clear some clutter and balance aspects of my daily fill of tasks and activities.

Mary's Mindmap

Portfolio Site for Rosettes and CSS

Honestly, Im almost never attached to the idea of using this blog to express personal opinion outside of code, layout methods, opinions on CMS tool, etc... Here is one of those rare occasions where Ill be a bit frank. Excuse me.

My portfolio could be ready soon, and Im pretty tongue tied. A portfolio is about showing your work to whomever comes across your site. Trust me, even the audience you are not sending your marketing tools towards could stumble upon your site. Thats why my portfolio project is at a standstill....I dont know what to say!

I am just a bit curious on how I might market myself properly on my professional graphic and web design portfolio site. Marketing is not one of my strengths to be honest. Talking about myself in a promotional way always seems strange when I try it. I never know what to say and, fear giving out too much information. When I have to talk about myself I usually babble and I am not a fan of "filler"/fluff content.

I'm using this Joomla Module and I seem to have room for:

1. A basic "Hey, this is my portfolio" paragraph

2. Short intro under the title of each Category.
   

3. Footer Content that is throughout the portfolio's sections
   

4. Category specific information paragraph

5. Potential Header Content in each category (what is this for? Title?)

The link above shows how it all lays out and comes together. These fields are the fields that are provided in a CMS extension Im using on Joomla. They are all optional (I could leave them blank). Still I ask, what could I provide for these above areas?

Honestly, when I think about the audience I am attempting to reach/market my services to....I dont have any specific audience that Im looking to market to. Im game for anything. I want to cater to small business, big businesses, people who need a personal website, and any type of person.

For example, I will admit here that I have done some sites that have to do with "fetish" or are on the "adult" side. *blushes* If Ted Christian was to stumble upon my porfolio, how would I keep from alienating him? Should I seperate that kind of content out to keep it getting mixed in with with eveything else (most of my content is very general)? Is disclaimer of "This content does not necessarily reflect my views" necessary to assure a "squeaky clean" client that Im not some perv with code?

Or, am I just reading too far into this? Please comment below if you have a good idea or suggestion. I would love to hear from you guys out there.

Mary's Personal Summer of Code

Among a part time gig as a mascot down at the local ballpark, I am using this summer to start getting a bit back to me. Despite that I had my Drupal project get revoked (again!) I found myself a bit more indifferent to it. Other projects (some overdue) were awaiting me and I had enough of this. Besides, I did gain a contact who may be able to provide a hosting solution for Rosettes and CSS. My week long vacation looms at the end of this month so I can see using it as a time of "breaking character" and rebuilding anew upon a rested mindset.

Due to these things, personal projects are the order of the day when put up against doing work for other people. I wont lie and say that I have enough portfolio material, but I know that if I keep taking on everyone else's projects than none of my stuff gets done and this blog will continue to be stuck on Blogger vs actually having it on my own domain with portfolio.

Im finding out more quirks involved with Joomla modules, components or plugins. In K2, CAPCHA was enabled but without the reCAPCHA registration key set. Thats why stylesheets were being ignored. That still seems like a strange bug rather than human error to me but I guess K2 is that new. I mean, look at the lack of documentation in the backend's Documentation buttion within the K2 sub-sections. Seems the social bookmarking problem also righted itself.

Speaking of K2, 2.0 is officially out. I already was tweaking with the July release and found it to make me feel that much better about using Joomla as my portfolio's site. Stepping outside my comfort zone is important to me, and blogging with Joomla is that much easier with K2 around.

Joomla sure is a different animal. I have done at least one re-install/recovery due to human error. Lots of clunkyness to someone with my background of other programs that I have learned. Joomla must represent a different way of thinking that seems convuluted to other people. It seems that you have to use the Menu system to set what loads in the Front Page (if you dont want to use the standard "load newest article" method of creating the dynamic front page content.

So, all going very well. I have yet to work on a template but I figure Ill do that once I get time in my workweek to put some blog entres there and start on my portfolio. I imagine with Joomla's quirks, that Ill be surprised/confused again and again until I reach the peak of the experience.

K2 Extension for Joomla

Yesterday I got an answer in the Joomla forums that recommended K2 as a solution for the personalized blog aspect ot my site. The demo video on the K2 site got me intrigued. It had all the kinds of things most blogs need such as socialbookmarking, tag clouds (although not as nifty looking as Joomulous), and commentary complete with CAPCHA. Overall, K2 acts like a mini-Joomla inside Joomla.

Speaking of that, it was nice that the categories I could set for my blogs could be seperate from the sections/category madness of the original in-the-box Joomla. Overall, it helped me decrypt some of the logic behind the Joomla interface that drives me crazy. Yes, Drupal spoiled me with how changes for something are always in one single place.

I am still left with a few questions and things to troubleshoot:

• Can I promote featured K2 items to the front page? Where does the category template "blog" comes from? How do I add more? (see screenshot below)
• Glitch: Social bookmarking symbols dont show up even if I have enabled them
• Glitch: Clicking on a K2 item's individual page leaves me with an entry devoid of a stylesheet. This happens no matter which of the Joomla starter templates that I use. (see screenshot below)

Still want to give this extension a chance. It might be the closest to blogging Im going to get.

Choosing A CMS For My Professional Site: Decisions...decisions....

While Im not short on projects to speak of, I want to still get myself into working on something related to the website that this blog is named after. Rosettes and CSS shouldnt be stuck on Blogspot forever. Since my hosting (when I have the $$ for it) is going to have database capabilities, I want to use a CMS.

....but which one??

Wordpress seems to be the easy choice these days. For sites that are just about blogging and posting a few pages here and there, why wouldnt you use such an easy CMS? However, I am always having desire to step outside the box and go with something else.

Joomla is another CMS installed on my computer after seeing a few friends who used it for thier company website. Since Rosettes and CSS is the company/professional website (between another domain that I own), that seems perfect. On the other hand, some might say that Joomla is overkill for something as simple as a portfolio website.

Showing a big change in skillset by using Joomla or keeping a portfolio site simple with Wordpres (a simple CMS)....

Of course, I have both installed on my localhost so I suppose I could do both and find out from there. Feedback is encouraged.