How to Create a Job Board with Gravity Forms
Published August 11th, 2011 in WordPress - 9 Comments
Niche or industry-specific job boards are highly useful for job searchers who are looking for work in a specific field, and they’re also great for allowing employers to reach a targeted audience of job searchers.
For those who want to create a job board or add a job board to an existing website or blog, there are several options for creating and managing it. There are several different WordPress plugins and themes that have been developed over the past few years for running job boards.
I have used 2 commercial plugins and 1 commercial theme for job boards with very mixed results. In some cases setting up the job board was rather complicated, and in other cases the support was poor and the developer disappeared. If you’re building a website or a critical part of a website on a commercial plugin or theme it’s important to have confidence that the product will continue to be supported in the future, otherwise you could have major problems as new versions of WordPress are released.
Gravity Forms is a very popular commercial WordPress plugin for creating forms and it includes all of the functionality needed to create a job board. Although it is not specifically a job board plugin there are a few significant reasons why you may want to consider using Gravity Forms if you are looking to create a job board for yourself or for a client:
- Gravity Forms is well-established and due to it’s popularity it is not in danger of becoming unsupported.
- The inteface is easy to use and manage.
- A PayPal add-on is available to those who have a developer’s license of Gravity Forms, so you can easily charge a fee for job submissions.
Project Management Apps for Freelancers and Designers
Published August 10th, 2011 in Tools - 32 Comments
Managing client projects is a major requirement for efficiency and for creating a positive experience for clients. Regardless of whether you freelance, work for a small agency, or work for a large agency, there are a lot of details and communication involved in client projects. Having an efficient system for managing those projects is essential.
In this post we’ll look at 10 project management apps that can help. While many of them have similar features, each has it’s own unique way of doing things. Some are web-based apps that involve a monthly fee, and others software with a one-time fee, and others are open source and free.
Basecamp
Basecamp, from 37signals, is one of the most popular options for project management. Communication with other group members is easy with Basecamp, making it much more efficient than email. Other features include file sharing, to-do lists, assigning of due dates and responsibilities, project templates, and more.
Pricing for Basecamp is based on the number of projects and the amount of disk space needed for storage. The basic plan starts at $24 per month (15 projects, 5 GB of storage). A limited free plan is also available.
Comment to Win Free PSD to HTML Credits from Markup-Service.com
Published August 9th, 2011 in Site News - 59 Comments
Many designers outsource PSD to XHTML coding in order to increase efficiency and to be able to focus their efforts on design rather than coding. Markup-Service.com has offered to provide free services to two readers of the Vandelay Design Blog!
25 Free Vintage and Retro Fonts
Published August 8th, 2011 in Design - 10 Comments
Last week we posted a showcase of vintage advertisements, and so we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of some resources that can be used in your own vintage or retro-inspired design.
These fonts are ideal for creating that vintage feel in your work. If you find some fonts that you like, click through the links and you’ll be able to see more about the font and download. The license and terms vary from one font to the next, so be sure to check those details before using.
17 Tips to Get More Exposure for Your Blog Posts
Published August 4th, 2011 in Blogging - 30 Comments
The most significant challenge that bloggers face is attracting visitors. For new bloggers nothing can be more frustrating than trying to figure out how to get people to see the content that you’ve spent time preparing.
Getting visitors to your blog is possible and quite realistic if you’re willing to put in some effort to get the exposure that you need. If you’re spending hours on blog posts and you feel like that work is being wasted because not enough people are seeing the posts, we’ll take a look at some things that you can do to get the right exposure.
Here are some things that you can do to get your blog posts in front of more people and to get more impact from each post.
40 Vintage Advertisements for Design Inspiration
Published August 2nd, 2011 in Galleries - 17 Comments
Design inspiration can come from anywhere. Web designers tend to look for inspiration from the design of other websites, but there is a lot that can be gained by taking inspiration from a variety of different sources. Print design, advertisement design, packaging design, photography, architecture, and the list could go on.
In this post we’ll showcase 40 vintage/retro advertisements. The ads shown here represent a wide variety of different products, and they showcase different design styles as well.
20 Highly Useful Google Chrome Extensions
Published August 1st, 2011 in Tools - 14 Comments
When it comes to extensions and add-ons, Firefox has been far ahead of other browsers for quite some time. But as Google Chrome has taken an increasing share of the market over the past year or two we have seen a significant increase in the number of Chrome extensions that are available.
Many users have been impressed with Chrome’s speed but have been hesitant make the switch from Firefox because of add-ons that they use regularly. In this post we’ll take a look at 20 Chrome extensions that are available. This is just a sampling of what’s out there, and more extensions are being released all the time, especially with Chrome’s growing user base.
Mail Checker Plus for Google Mail
This extension allows you to easily manage your Gmail accounts. Features include:
- Mail preview window, read mail without leaving the current tab
- Delete, archive, spam, star and mark as read functionality
- Desktop and sound notifications when new mail arrives
- Support for multiple Google and Google Apps accounts
- Mailto-links open in your Gmail or Google Apps Mail account
- Monitor all your labels or priority inbox
Customer Service Lessons Learned from Outsourcing
Published July 28th, 2011 in Business - 3 Comments
Offering quality customer service is critical to running a design business, and really to any type of service-oriented business. When working with clients on design and development projects it’s easy to see things only from our your own perspective, but being able to look at customer service from the client’s point of view can be very helpful for evaluating and improving your own level of service.
One way to work on changing that perspective is to outsource some of your work. When you outsource you will be in the client’s position, and you’ll likely realize some things that you could do to improve your own level of service. It could be something you like that you could implement with your own clients, or it could be something that frustrates you, leading to a recognition of something that may have a similar impact on your clients.
There are a lot of opportunities and types of work that could be outsourced. It could mean hiring a virtual assistant to help with your finances and organization. It could mean outsourcing PSD to HTML coding to one of the countless companies and designers that offer this type of service. It could mean outsourcing the work to design custom icons for a web design project. The possibilities could go on as you can outsource just about anything.
Since last year’s launch of Vandelay Premier, our premium design resources site, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of designers who have created some of the resources released on the site. Some of these designers are people that I have known for a while, some contacted me to offer their services, some were sought out and approached to work on specific types of resources, and others were hired through project listings on Elance.
Getting this experience outsourcing work to other designers has been very helpful for getting a look at the client process from the perspective of a client, and I think many designers could benefit from a similar experience. If you’re not currently outsourcing any work I recommend that you give it a try if it fits within your workflow, and pay attention to the type of service that you receive and how it impacts your feelings about the project and the person that is doing the work.
Showcase of Patterns in Web Design
Published July 26th, 2011 in Galleries - 12 Comments
Patterns can be used in web design as a visual focal point, or they can be used subtly to add character to a design. The use of subtle patterns is very popular at the moment. In many cases subtle patterns are used on backgrounds instead of a flat, solid color or a heavy texture that might dominate the design.
In this post we’ll showcase more than 25 websites that make use of visual patterns in their design. You’ll notice that subtle grids in particular are very common, and the sites in this gallery use them effectively.
30 Free Script Fonts
Published July 25th, 2011 in Fonts - 8 Comments
Most designers can never have too many fonts. When it comes to script fonts, there are a lot to choose from. If you’re working on a design that needs a script font you may find one here that would be a good fit for your project.
In this post we’ll feature 30 script fonts that can be downloaded for free. As always when you are downloading and using freebies, be sure to read the license details to make sure that you are using it in a way that is allowed by the creator.
