Published December 10th, 2009 in Web Development
Web designers have the opportunity to increase their income and to help brand their business by taking advantage of private label (or white label) options that are available. A private label means that you will be able to brand it as your own. For example, you can use a re-branded CMS that appears to clients as though it is your own system, rather than displaying the name and branding of the CMS.
In this post we’ll look at some of the leading private label options for web designers and agencies in a few different categories. We’ll look at content management systems, shopping cart/ecommerce systems, hosting, and email marketing.
Private Label Content Management Systems:
Most clients today want to be able to manage their content without paying a designer every time changes need to be made. There are a number of content management systems that offer private label options. A private label CMS could be a cornerstone for your business that includes residual income each month. Here are some of the leading options.
LightCMS
LightCMS is Element Fusion’s CMS that is created especially for designers (the same CMS is available to businesses through WaterCMS). LightCMS aims to provide designers with a CMS that will provide clients with everything they need while not limiting the design, and also providing designers the opportunity to earn a residual income from monthly hosting fees. There is no cost for designers to become resellers, and you can determine the prices that your customers pay. Earlier this year we published a tutorial for setting up your first site with LightCMS.
Published December 9th, 2009 in Site News
Last month we announced a partnership with Fanurio Time Tracking and Invoicing and offered a $10 discount ($49 instead of $59) on Fanurio’s software. This is just a reminder that the discount period ends in one week, December 16, 2009. If you’ve already downloaded the 30 day free trial and you want to purchase the license, be sure to do it before the 16th and use the coupon code “vandelay2009″ when purchasing.
If you haven’t downloaded the trial version, there is still time to try it out for a week before the offer expires. You can get the free trial from Fanurio’s website.
Published December 7th, 2009 in Design
Designing a quality portfolio website is a must for any aspiring designer. In this post we’ll look at 25 tutorials that will lead you through the process of designing a portfolio site in Photoshop. Hopefully these tutorials will teach you some new tricks and techniques that will be useful to you in your own work.
Awesome Tutorial Portfolio Design
Published December 6th, 2009 in Site News
If you’re a regular reader of the Vandelay Design blog you’re probably aware that we launched a small network of five gallery sites about six months ago. We’re happy to announce the addition of a sixth gallery, Icon Fever.
Published December 2nd, 2009 in Tools
Tooltips provide opportunities to give website visitors additional information without creating added clutter on the page. There are plenty of tooltip scripts available that can be used in your own work. In this post we’ll feature 35 options.
Prototip 2
Allows you to easily create both simple and complex tooltips using the Prototype javascript framework.
Published November 30th, 2009 in Web Development
Site search functionality is extremely important for ecommerce websites, especially larger ones. In order for the site to make sales, visitors must be able to find what they are looking for as effectively as possible. While many shoppers will prefer to use the standard navigation on the site, searches are very common from visitors who aren’t able to quickly find what they want.
In this article we’ll take an in-depth look at the trends in site searches of ecommerce websites, and plenty of examples will be included for each point. Of course, not all of these points are going to be relevant to every ecommerce site, but it should help to serve as a guide to those who are designing and developing ecommerce sites.
1. Located at the Top of the Page
The most common location for a site search on ecommerce sites is at the top of the page, and generally on the right side. Many ecommerce sites have a site search, user login, and shopping cart info all located in the same general area. Keeping the site search in a location that is pretty common will help it to be easier to find for some of your visitors who are accustomed to this trend.
Chicos
Published November 24th, 2009 in Design
Photoshop provides photographers and designers with almost unlimited potential to edit photographs to achieve the desired results. In this post we’ll feature 35 excellent tutorials that teach various tricks and techniques. If you like these tutorials you may also be interested in an older collection, 45 Photo Editing Tutorials for Photoshop.
Handy Techniques for Cutting Out Hair in Photoshop
Published November 23rd, 2009 in Design Process
Getting feedback and making use of it is essential to a successful design project. However, the communication process with clients and with team members can become quite cumbersome to manage with the amount of emails that are sent back and forth and the various revisions and versions of the project. Fortunately, there are some very helpful resources out there that can improve efficiency and organization with feedback.
In this post we’ll look at 21 useful resources. They are categorized by purpose.
Feedback from Clients:
Of course, every successful project needs to involve communication and feedback between the designer and the client. These four resources can help in this area.
ProofHQ
ProofHQ simplifies the design review, feedback and approval process for you and your clients. Clients can provide feedback conveniently through ProofHQ and you can benefit from better organization through the process. Prices range from $17 – $499 per month, with a free trial available.
Published November 19th, 2009 in Galleries
Many blogs are using excerpts to display content on the front page. The use of excerpts gives designers a little bit more freedom and some opportunity to create an attractive and unique front page. In this post we’ll showcase for blog front pages that are using excerpts.
Work Awesome
Published November 17th, 2009 in Site News
Our friends at IconShock have designed another set of icons especially for the readers of Vandelay Design. This pack includes five icons with a business theme. As you will see from the preview, it includes a briefcase icon, a calculator icon, a phone icon, a coins icon, and a pie chart icon.
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