Podcast – Killersites Web Design Magazine

How to Manage your Money

Stefan Mischook — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:47:43 +0000

A key part about having a successful web designed business is properly managing your money. This may seem like a boring topic, but it still crucial.

In the following podcast, I walk you through some of my basic rules of money management.

Managing your money.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

Judging a Person’s Character

Stefan Mischook — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:49:37 +0000

Hi,

In this session of the Business of Web Design, I teach you a few tricks that you can use to get an glimpse into the character of people you deal with.

This may seem like a strange thing to talk about in a business course, but it is actually very important because who you deal with, will have a huge impact on the success or failure of your web design business.

My four tips to judging character:

Look for lies or exaggerations.
Pay attention to how they treat other people.
Trust your first impressions.
Look at what they’ve done in the past.

Listen the to podcast for all the details: Judging Character.

Getting Paid for your Web Design Work

Stefan Mischook — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:03:22 +0000

Getting paid is a huge part of a web design business … actually any business!

In this podcast, I go over a bunch of details about how to collect from and bill clients.

… And a bunch of other stuff too.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Do Web Designers Need Drawing Skills?

Stefan Mischook — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:51:03 +0000

Most of the ideas for this series come from actual email questions put to me. Some of the questions delve into the basics of web design, while others may go into more advanced topics.

This time around, I’m answering a question from someone just looking to learn web design, that wanted to know if they needed traditional pen-and-paper drawing skills in web design.

Along the way, I explore a few other similar questions about web design related design skills.

The podcast: Web Design and Drawing (MP3 running time: 4:40)

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Ajax vs Flash

Stefan Mischook — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:08:59 +0000

In this podcast I talk about the differences between Flash and Ajax.

… I get into things like when to use one technology over an other, the pro’s and cons of each and I also give you hints with regards to how to choose which one to learn – based on who you are.

Ajax vs Flash Podcast

Download the MP3 (Running time: 16 minutes): ajax-vs-flash

Quick note: let me know what you think of the style of my presentation. I’m thinking that I may be a bit … shall I say, underwhelming? Anyway, any comments good or bad are welcome!

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

Managing Lazy Clients

Stefan Mischook — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:28:51 +0000

In this session I introduce you to the ‘lazy client’ and then I get into how to manage them.

… Just in case your wondering why you should care, lazy clients can turn into a big pain in the butt and can cost you time and money. Not cool.

Managing Lazy Clients:

Thanks for listening.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

The Web Design Contract

Stefan Mischook — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:15:54 +0000

Hi,

In this session of the Business of Web Design, I go over what you need to have in a typical web design contract.

There are important elements that you must include to avoid problems down the road, things like:

Payment terms.
Delivery dates.
Project specifics: how many pages, functionality etc…

… and a whole lot more.

Thought the contract is there to protect you from any problems, whether intentional or not, you should never get into any business arrangement with people you don’t trust.

To learn more, you have to listen to the session.

The Web Design Contract

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com

The Initial Web Design Proposal

Stefan Mischook — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:53:35 +0000

The initial proposal is a document that provides a basic outline of the web site project.

It contains enough detail to give the prospective client a general idea of what you would be delivering, but it leaves out the specifics that you would later detail in the actual web design contract.

Initial proposal contains:

Basic page counts.
Estimated total cost.
What you charge per hour – all clients seem to want to know this.
Major functionality – PHP, Flash etc …
Proposed delivery dates.
Payment terms.

Check out the session for details:

Getting your first web design client and your web design portfolio.

Stefan Mischook — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:45:09 +0000

In the following session, I outline what you need to have on your web design business web site. So we are talking about contact phone numbers, examples of your previous work etc…

For many though, since they are just starting out, they may have no commercial work to show – no worries, I provide you with a couple of strategies to make up for that.

Finally, I also get into how you can land your very first web design client.

Database Basics – a little non nerd theory

Stefan Mischook — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:54:21 +0000

Databases are backbone of so much these days (on the Web and in business in general) and as such, any self-respecting nerd should know at least a little bit about them.

In a nutshell:

A database is typically just a piece of software that acts like a virtual filing cabinet. Depending on the TYPE of database, they can come equipped with all kinds of extra features that make managing a lot of data easier.

As I just mentioned, there are different types of databases. The most common being:

Relational databases
Object databases
Flat file systems

To learn more about databases, listen to the podcast.

Database Basics:

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook