Photo from iStockphoto

If you’re like me and choose to accept more than one project at the same time, you probably faced the challenge of answering client emails in reasonable amount of time and also being able to get some work done. If you also have a blog (or more) and maybe a forum to look after, things can get even more cluttered!

I developed a system for dealing with incoming email, that seems to work pretty well for me. Nothing fancy! It’s actually a pretty low tech one, using folders in Mozilla Thunderbird. This is my email client of choice, but it works just as well with Outlook or even Gmail (especially with their new label system).

Before I go into any details about the folder system, I have to tell you a few things about how people can get in touch with me and how I deal with each individual new message:

Contact Form

I have a contact form on my blog that really started to take off a few months ago (probably cause I rank pretty well in Google for some WordPress related keywords) and that’s the main generator for all my work, along with client referrals. I chose to “outsource” this feature, so to speak, so I use Wufoo.

There are plenty of alternative solutions and at some point I might consider a change, but right now it’s something that works. So if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right? I had trouble with Wufoo only once, but only because I was stupid enough not to RTFM.

Bottom line is… get a contact form! If you’re a freelancer and don’t have a contact form (or other means of communication at least), it’s like you’re fishing without bait.

Sorting Messages

Ok, so messages coming from Wufoo land in my Inbox and they have a subject like “Quick Message [#462]“. Here’s my usual process:

1. Junk messages and some project requests (no proper name, unrealistic budget, little info, too much info, “@yahoo email” guy who wants an AdSense blog, etc.) get deleted on spot.
2. Uninteresting project requests that I know I won’t pursue (no matter what) usually get a friendly message immediately. Same goes for people who ask for help on a matter that is too time consuming or outside my area of expertise.
3. Potential project requests that I’m interested in are stored for later, whenever I have outstanding emails that I need to reply to first. You can read about the storage system below.
4. Messages that get a reply also get a relevant subject, instead of the initial subject that is ID based. Something like “PSD to WP Project” or “Custom WordPress Theme for YourWebsite.com”, etc. Makes communication easier later on.
5. Every message from Wufoo gets deleted after it’s processed. If I need the original for one reason or another, I can always login to Wufoo and run a search.

Basic Folder Structure

I use only two main folders for storing work related emails: “Clients” and “Pending” and I will explain how each of them works:

Pending

When I can’t reply immediately, this is where I move all emails that need my attention. They can either be a Wufoo message from a potential client (like I mentioned earlier) or an email from a client I’m already working with.

The messages are of course sorted by date and the only method I use to signal that a more recent email should be processed sooner is to mark it with a star in Thunderbird. This is rearely the case and when that happens, it’s usually one or two emails tops. More stars would mean I have bigger problems!

Clients

As you can imagine, this is where emails from current clients are stored. Each client gets a subfolder with his name when we have a deal and the project starts (after an upfront payment is made) and the subfolder is moved to the “_Old” subfolder when my job is done (usually 1 week after the last payment is made).

Besides these subfolders there is also a subfolder called “_Potential”, where I move all project requests that have been processed from “Pending” and for which I get a follow up from the client.

So as you can see, the workflow is Wufoo Message > Pending > _Potential and then the thread can be moved to either _Old or a brand new Clients subfolder.

Sometimes, when I get too many emails from the same client, I create a special “Pending” subfolder under his name, so that I don’t have to clutter things up in the general “Pending” folder.

Works for me!

This system allows me to quickly move stuff to Pending when I’m busy and I don’t want to rush a reply or process multiple email in a short period of time, by quickly replying and moving them to the appropriate client folder.

While I wrote this post, I processed more than 10 emails from 3 or 4 different clients! That way I kept my Pending folder empty. And trust me, there’s nothing like starting the day with a coffee and an empty Pending folder, knowing that you can focus on what’s important: work!

What about you?

Some of you might find this system useful and maybe adapt it based on your own needs. Some of you will tell me your system is better. Some might use a low tech system like myself, some might use a smart online tool. Whatever the case, I would love to hear about it! I love my system, but I always keep an open mind about ways to improve it.

So if you have a quick tip, leave a comment! If you have quite a story to share, post it on your blog or whatever and give me the heads up about the URL. Retweets are always wellcomed, but in this case they are highly recommended, as it would allow me to promote this post to more people and encourage them to share their own story.

In an effort to save time and have better informed clients, I will start writing a different type of posts than the ones you’re used to reading on my blog: I will discuss some of the basic aspects of building and updating a website. I will share some of the best practices that I learned along the way, the ones that I implement on every client project.

Of course there will be room for debate and I will do my best to make the comments section as interactive as possible. I hope you’ll join me there!

I got the idea for today’s post after I received this question from a potential client:

Can you tell me what is the difference between CSS and WordPress? I thought WordPress was for blog applications? What are the benifits of each? CSS I understand is very easy to update, etc.

So instead of writing a really long email, I thought I would write this post and do my best to keep it as non-geek and easy to understand as possible.

What I’m trying to do here is explain what HTML, CSS and WordPress are all about in way that even my mom would understand. So excuse me if the terminology is not always correct!

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

This is the language of web pages and it’s what browsers interpret in order to display information on your screen! At its core, an HTML file is nothing more than a text file with a certain structure (I won’t go into the specifics of HTML code editing) and the .html file extension.

Static Websites

In the old days, most websites were static websites built entirely using HTML. Throw in a couple of files, link them together and you have a site. The problem was that if you had 30 products, each with its photo, price and specifications, building and especially updating such a website became very time consuming.

The static website approach is still used for simple websites with just a couple of pages, but it’s usually a service requested only by those who have at least basic knowledge of HTML. People who want to update their website content on a regular basis need a dynamic website.

Dynamic Websites

These websites make use of a content management system (CMS) that allows website editors to edit content without knowing anything about HTML coding. Your knowledge of Microsoft Word should be enough for most situations.

A CMS can be a free solution such as Drupal, Joomla or WordPress (my tool of choice), a commercial solution (usually for large scale or corporate websites) or even a custom built solution.

The CMS is built using a scripting language like PHP and usually makes use of a database. You don’t need to know the details, what you need to understand is that the CMS basically takes the info you input and generates the HTML for you, dynamically.

Dynamic vs. Static Example

So if we take the example of a blog running on WordPress, writing a new post is just a matter of adding the title, text and maybe a few other things and the post page is generated for you. You could publish 100 posts a day if you wanted to and still be home for dinner!

The static approach would have been to actually create 100 HTML files, add everything from title, content, create comment forms (although you would need a database for that as well), add dates and hours (because they are not automatically generated anymore), etc. Like I said: very, very time consuming and pointless process.

To give you an even better idea, imagine how an automated production line compares to manually building something. And if you’re thinking “You know… hand crafted items can be cool”, trust me, in this case manual is not cool!

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

I will try a metaphore here: think of HTML as one of those flexible mannequins that you see in clothes stores and think of CSS as the actual clothes. The mannequin seems soulless without clothes on, not to mention creepy! HTML without CSS is also plain text and you might even think of it as being creepy!

It’s the CSS that really makes the content shine! Just take a look at css Zen Garden, a website showcasing user submitted CSS stylesheets, all applied to exactly the same content.

When designed by a professional, a website’s CSS file(s) should provide an easy way to update the website’s look and feel without having to edit too much code (whether it’s HTML, PHP, ASP or some other language).

Here is the official info on HTML and CSS and a good starting point for those who want to learn more.

WordPress as CMS?

While WordPress was initially used for blogging, more and more people started using WordPress as a CMS behind a regular website. You can check out even more examples here and here. Many designers (myself included) wouldn’t even think of using another CMS to power a dynamic website.

Even Automattic (the guys who created WordPress) picked up in this trend and every new version seems to have more and more functionality to support it. Not to mention there are more and more WordPress themes and plugins that simply make a WordPress designer’s life so much easier!

As for the benefits of using WordPress as CMS, four important ones come to mind:

• Cost – It is a free solution, with lots of free themes and plugins. You should really get a custom WordPress theme design if you’re serious about your image, but the cool thing is that you can spend close to nothing for something just to get you started.
• Usability – I tested a lot of CMS solutions in the last few years, but WordPress is definitely the one with the steepest learning curve! It’s no wonder, since they only worked with top-notch designers on the user interface design.
• SEO – It’s a known fact that WordPress websites get indexed much better by Google. Depending on how the theme is built, how the website is set up and what plugins you use, you can have even better results. Another reason to work with a pro!
• Support – WordPress has one of the biggest support communities I know of. Besides the official forum, there are many designers and developers who create themes, write plugins, tutorials, etc. Quality blog posts related to WordPress tips and hacks are published on a daily basis.

In conclusion

WordPress is actualy a CMS running on PHP and MySQL, while CSS deals with the presentation of web pages. I couldn’t say what the difference is between the two, because they can’t be compared.

I could have provided this answer, but that would have been too geek for a lot of people. I realized this now and that’s why I will address other aspects of web design such as Flash or databases in future posts. If you think you might find this info useful, please subscribe to RSS, subscribe by email or follow me on Twitter to see what I’m up to.

Photo from iStockphoto

It’s been a long time since I last wrote a post. I have a bunch of them in Draft, but I never get to write as often as I would like to. At some point the reason behind this was the fact that I had a lot going on, working on personal and client projects. But I have to face the truth now: I’m procrastinating big time!

I still have to deal with procrastination in regards to my personal projects, but in regards to blogging there’s something I want to try that will hopefully help me get more useful blog posts out there: write them as they come to mind, the same day. Don’t plan, just write!

The Rules Of The Game

Every game has its rules, so here goes:

1. When I get an idea for a post, I will make a note and I will have to write the post by the end of the day.
2. More ideas means more posts, that can be saved and published at a later date (only 1 per day max).
3. If an idea doesn’t turn into a post the same day, it means it wasn’t exciting enough and it’s discarded.
4. A discarded idea might be recovered later on if I have a new perspective on things.
5. Not every day means a new post, IF I have at least one post prepared for the next day.

I would like to make these ideas public as they come to mind, each and every day, so the best way to do this seems via Twitter. Like I said, some ideas will be discarded, but you can follow me and reply or DM if you think I’m tossing a precious gem.

Those of you who are subscribed for a while might know about my previous attempts to resurrect this blog by planning a list of posts and trying to make a blogging commitment. So you’re probably saying “Bull****ing us much?”.

You’re right, the whole planning and commitment thing didn’t work very well (although I haven’t given up on those titles yet), but I really think this new strategy will!

Today’s Specials

Here are some random ideas I had this morning. Still working on the titles, but I will turn these into posts by the end of the day:

1. Keeping Your Email Organized Using Folders – I receive a fair amount of email so it’s fair to say things can get… complicated. So I’ve put together a little system, using folders in Thunderbird. It’s definitely not rocket surgery, but it’s something that helps me a lot and might help others as well.
2. What’s The Deal With HTML, CSS And WordPress? – I got the idea for this post a potential client asked me what’s the difference between CSS and WordPress. And because I’m such a nice guy, I just had to set the record straight for him and for others who might ask and turn this into a post.
3. And the day isn’t over yet!

The Good

People who met me in the real world know that I not only tend to talk a lot, but I also tend to jump from topic to topic. Sometimes it’s more of a topic inside a topic and back (like recursion, if you’re familiar with this programming techniques) and sometimes it’s like clicking from link to link on IMDB, from movie to actor to movie, etc.

This doesn’t happen as often when writing (my fingers would have been on fire), but it does happen! So whenever I start writing a blog post I sometimes get to a certain paragraph and say “Hey, this is an idea worth building on!”. So plenty of new ideas each day!

The Bad (sort of)

One might think that the downside to all this is that I won’t be able to write so many posts and that I will eventually burnout. Or that I will post mediocre posts just to stick to a schedule. I don’t know… I hope that the refresh factor of my strategy (new ideas each day) will be the one that will prevent this from happening. I actually think the biggest challenge will be to keep these posts short and sweet!

The Results

I know I might not be able to sustain this effort on the long run, but I hope to be able to do this for at least 1 month (that’s 30 new posts!!!) and see how that affects my traffic and subscriber count. Stay tuned as I will resurect my Building Traffic for Your Blog series, with juicy charts and delicious statistics.

Click here to preview and buy the theme

Last year I began working on what was to become Visual, a WordPress theme aimed at bloggers and web publishers who wish to make more of the images they use with each blog post. The theme makes  use of thumbnails and post excerpts to offer visitors an overall view of the website’s content.

I consider this theme to be ideal for visual blogs (hence the name) such as  food blogs or travel blogs. I actually started designing this theme with my own food blog and travel blog in mind, thinking I would create personalized versions of Visual for each one, once I gather enough articles.

You’re probably wondering how can a theme’s design and development take so much time? Think of it this way: the first pixel was placed back in October 2008, but I didn’t actually work on the theme every day. Not even every week! I changed my mind a few times, then reconsidered, plus there was a lot of procrastination involved, so that’s where the huge time frame comes from.

Affordable premium WordPress theme without the “premium”

I don’t know how this heading sounded to you, but what I meant was that I’ve tried to put all my knowledge into a theme that’s really useful and easy to use and not just an excuse for using the word “premium”. I don’t really like the term “premium theme”, cause now everyone seems to be using it. Everyone is more “premium” than the next guy!

As for the affordable part, I’m gonna be honest with you here: I asked around, I did some research of myself when I decided to put a price tag on this theme. I really feel this theme is worth much more than what it’s being sold for (which is $25 at ThemeForest), but I chose this road for two reasons:

1. ThemeForest is an established marketplace, that can give theme developers a boost. Yeah, they set the price for you. Yeah, I only get 40% from sales, but I can live with that. This is not a “get rich quikly” scheme for me, so I plan to take my time and develop a few more themes for ThemeForest before maybe creating a mini-marketplace of my own.
2. The fact that they set the price was actually my second reason. I know theme usually get a price tag between $20 and $35, so this way the theme will be more accesible to more people. Those who want additional design or functionality on top of what Visual already offers can always contact me and get a nice custom design for a fraction of what a “design from scratch” type of theme would cost.

Screenshots

Home Page

Category Page

Single Page

Theme features

The theme doesn’t use a complicated admin panel and it doesn’t use a lot of effects either. It does however provide an easy way to edit all the content, as well as the look & feel. For more info please check the instructions provided with the theme. Here are some of the theme’s features:

• Three built in color schemes and and a very flexible skinning system that allows you to create your own skins, while keeping the layout intact. And you can do it in under 5 min!
• Very clean and simple artice carousel, allowing you to bring back some of your favorite articles or the articles you really want your users to read.
• Easy way to edit the categories that should be part of the main menu, the category blocks featured on the homepage as well as the posts that should show up in the Featured Articles section.
• Smart scripting that prevents duplicate article links, ensuring more of your content will be featured on the homepage.
• Two widget ready sidebars (one for the main category pages, one for the single pages and archive pages), as well as customization for WP-Polls and FlickrRSS.
• Clever visual navigation inside the single article page and thumbnail integration for the archive pages, both ensuring more page views.
• sIFR implemented for block and widget titles, for an even nicer look and feel
• You get all the main design source files (6 files), both in PSD and in layered PNG (I personally use Fireworks)

Preview and Buy

Click here to preview and buy the theme

You can check more screenshots, as well as preview and buy the theme on the ThemeForest page. Feel free to leave a comment there or on this page. I’m monitoring both and I will do my best to answer all questions.

If you buy the theme and pimp out your website, I would love to hear about it. I’m really looking forward to showcasing the best Visual based websites.

Check the new Rubiqube Forum I created for tips, tutorials and updates, subscribe to my RSS feed and stay tuned!

Photo by Todd Ehlers

This is the first part of an eight-part series of articles about designing clean websites that still make a big impact, by using simple layout, beutifull typography and striking photography.

It’s not enough to “know how to use” Photoshop in order to be a web designer, but you don’t necessarily need a degree in graphic design either (although it sure helps!). Basically what I am trying to prove (and it’s something I always believed in) is that common sense goes a long way when it comes to web design.

In this article I’ll talk about web page design planning, wireframing and creating layouts, providing some links to really usefull online tools and resources. Let’s go!

Know your audience, know the content

I bet you heard this plenty of times, right? Well, trust me: this never gets old! Proper planning, wireframing and layout will save you a lot of trouble down the road, so you want to make sure you get it right. Users and content should both influence the way you plan the website’s layout and I’ll tell you why:

Determine page width

While 1024px seems to be the standard nowadays, there are times when you need to use 800px. Or on the contrary… maybe 1024px is not enough. It also helps you determine whether a fixed (my favorite) or fluid layout is more appropriate. Your client know his target audience better, so make sure you ask him about it.

Resources:

• W3C Browser Statistics (if it’s a redesign of an existing website, it’s a good idea to check Google Analytics for real statistics)
• Extract: Know Your Site (told you, didn’t I?) – from
• Optimal width for 1024px resolution? (an oldie, but goldie)
• Fluid Grids (going into a bit of code already, but no harm in thinking ahead)

Prioritize top to bottom

There only so much content you can squeeze above the fold (although I’m not a big fan of the stereotype), so you have to prioritize. Sure, color, font size and other tricks will help you organize things later on, but first you need to determine what your layout looks like from top (important) to bottom (less important).

Use grid based design

Once you have the major vertical blocks in place, it’s time to think about how you will structure the content horizontally. In some cases you might want to use the full page width (header) or split the block into two columns (content + side panel) or even three columns (showcase work, services, etc. on the homepage).

Resources:

When it comes to prioritizing, grids, columns and wireframing, there’s just one article out there that you need to read: Redesigning the ExpressionEngine Site. Period! That’s all you need to know! If you don’t suddenly feel enlightened, with a big grin on your face after reading this article, then maybe you’re in the wrong business, my friend.

Use tabs, sliders, carousels

You want to try and keep your page (especially your homepage) as clean as possible, using a generous amount of white space. At least that’s my philosophy! But there are cases (like for most corporate websites out there) when you have to squeeze as much content as possible on the homepage. And these UI elements I mentioned can do wonders when used properly and with usability in mind.

Resources:

jQuery and JavaScript Coding: Examples and Best Practices – Again, no point runningaround the Interwebs for jQuery resources. This article from Smashing Magazine has everything you need!

Best practices in layout design

Cisco Systems

The layout is split into four main sections, from top to bottom, making use of a big carousel in the header (even though in Flash this time) and also a fews small ones in the bottom sections, as well as a dropdown.

It’s a perfect example of how you can make good use of available space, allowing a lot of content on the homepage, but also keeping a clean look. The Cisco website is a also a “short website” (as I like to call them), similar to what Apple is doing for quite some time. Landing page design at its best, if you ask me.

MailChimp

The MailChimp website has been showcased in design galleries and roundups many, many times. And it’s easy to see why! There are so many examples of design best practices in their homepage design (and throughout the website, for that matter).

This time we’re looking at a “long website” (you saw that coming, right?), but it’s also the perfect example to prove “vertical scroll critics” wrong! Vertical scroll is not bad! I agree, it depends on the type of website you’re building, but for a software product website, vertical scroll is not bad! (did I say that already?). You just have to master sections and grid design and you’ll be fine.

Look at Basecamp, for God’s sake! At first you might think they’re doing something wrong, but give that layout 10 seconds and you’ll say to yourself: “My God, this makes total sense!” . I’m not saying there isn’t any room for improvement, but the way they manage to squeeze all that info on the homepage and still keep it easy to digest is mondblowing. How they do it? Grid based designm that’s how!

FileMaker

Ok, so the recipe is pretty simple: split the page into sections, top to bottom, then each section into columns. But why stop there? Why not split the columns into more horizontal blocks? No reason why you shouldn’t! Just check how FileMaker is doing it: the third column from section four is split into 2 blocks as well. And if you look more closely, even the first two columns are split into (related this time) content blocks.

Is there a limit to this whole “divide and conquer” strategy? Well… yes there should be. How do you know when to stop? Simple! The content will tell you. Just remember that big means more important, small means less important. You’ll probably say “Thanks for the tip, Obvious Adrian!”, but you’ll be amazed at how many people fail to use this common sense technique properly.

More common sense web design tips?

You bet! This time I won’t stay hidden for too long before posting the next article from the series: Common Sense Tips for Using Web Design Color Schemes. I’ll be leaving on vacation next Saturday, but I hope to get a few more articles ready by then and put WordPress on auto-pilot.

Photo by kla4067

Once again, it’s been way too long since my last article (which wasn’t even an article, it was a free WordPress theme release), so I have decide to make public a short list of articles I’m planning on writing. That should help me focus better and give me a roadmap to follow. It should also allow you, the reader, to make an informed decision on whether you should subscribe / unsubscribe from my blog.

I wrote something similar a while ago and never made good on that promise. And quite frankly,  I probably never will (well maybe I will rethink some of those ideas). Why? Because some of those article ideas are really stupid! While that article was written a year ago, it sounds like the work of a 14 year old. Still, reading it puts a smile on my face, cause it reminds me of my first blogging steps, it reminds me of the journey. I guess we all have our phases, right?

But back to this list: I will group the article ideas into three main categories and I will try to write them by rotation. That way, you don’t (and I don’t) get bored of the same topic. So here goes:

Design

Some of you will remember my article 8 Common Sense Tips for Creating Clean Designs. It’s been quite popular and I’ve been meaning to write a follow up (actually a series), taking each of the 8 tips and writing an article around the topic, with resources from the web, practical tips from my own experience and projects.

1. Common Sense Tips for Creating Web Design Layouts
2. Common Sense Tips for Using Web Design Color Schemes
3. Common Sense Tips for Using Transparency in Web Design
4. Common Sense Tips for Using Contrast in Web Design
5. Common Sense Tips for Using Typography in Web Design
6. Common Sense Tips for Using Gradients in Web Design
7. Common Sense Tips for Using Images in Web Design
8. Common Sense Tips for Using Bling in Web Design

WordPress

I’ve completed lots of WordPress related client projects this year (note to self: update my web design portfolio), some of them involved using WordPress in really creative ways, so I have plenty of tips and tricks to share with you:

1. Customizing Empty Canvas to Match Your Branding Guidelines
2. Jump-start Your Blog or Small Business Website With a Free WordPress Theme
3. Practical Solutions to WordPress Problems (multiple part series, based on things I gather from my projects)
4. Visual – The WordPress Theme for Passionate Bloggers (surprise!)

I’ll update as I come up with new ideas.

Freelancing

During the last two years, they way I work, the way I handle my freelancing business and ultimately the way I make money and handle my cash flow has changed dramatically! I wouldn’t say I’m richer than I was two years ago, but I’m definitely more relaxed and definitely feeling more confident about being successful as a freelancer! Crisis or no crisis!

I went from running after projects to being overrun by project requests, from pricing that was lower than average (compared to the quality services I provide) to pricing I’m really comfortable with, while providing my clients with a hard to refuse “price / quality” ratio! These are two of the aspects that allowed me to play on my own terms and be able to focus on my personal projects / passions / life as well.

So these are probably the most interesting articles to look forward to. I know I would! I will be talking about:

1. Tips for Building a Strong Portfolio Without Resorting to Spec Work
2. Simple Productivity Tips Every Freelancer Should Know
3. The Art of Seduction: Making Clients Fall in Love With Your Services
4. The Art of Cash Flow: Freelancing Tips for Achieving Financial Freedom
5. The Art of Self Promotion: Do It Shamelessly, Do It Now!
6. The Art of Compromise: Learn to Meet The Client Half Way

Got your attention?

I said in the past that I would deliver some kick-ass articles, but I admit I haven’t always been true to my word. Probably the reason why traffic levels as well as the subscribers number stayed pretty much the same in the last few months. If you read some of my past articles, you’ll know I like seeing more traffic on my website (who doesn’t, right?), but I’m not one of those traffic junkies.

Subscribers and genuine people interacting on the blog are way more important for me! So if there was ever a time to unsusbscribe from my blog (for whatever reason), I’m telling you: this is not it! And if there was ever a time to subscibe to my blog, this is definitely it! So go ahead and tell your friends about this article, tweet it, stumble it or digg it (yeah, I finally fixed those social bookmarking buttons).

I will need all the help I can get, as I’m about to make another bet with myself, one that I intend to win: by the time I finish writing these articles, this blog will reach 1500 subscribers. Bold statement? Probably! Doable? We’ll see…

What would really encourage me to choose a certain draft and turn it into and article would be some feedback from you guys. I don’t know if using a poll is of any use (they didn’t seem to work very well in the past), but feel free to write a comment and motivate your choice.

Thank you for reading!

Note: If you just want the free WordPress theme, you might want to skip the long talk about who and how and why and just scroll to the preview and download links. But if you like a good novel, be my guest. Here goes:

About a year ago I released my first (turned out to be the only) free WordPress theme, called Corporate Sandbox. The theme is based on the Sanbox theme (no link, I think the website is being updated) and it’s the kind of WordPress theme that can easily be customized to match any brand or existing look and feel, making it ideal for corporate blogging.

It’s probably this minimalistic, “less is more” approach that made the theme so popular (4800 downloads and counting). In fact, I’m sure of it, as most implementations I’ve seen kept the same look and feel and only updated the theme with the proper logo / header / color scheme.

I used the theme myself on quite a few projects and for me it’s been a great way to save time and be more efficient when designing and implementing custom WordPress themes. But at some point, I realized that the whole Sandbox approach just doesn’t do it for me anymore. Of course I’m talking about “what’s under the hood”. I needed something even simpler, easier to adapt to my design needs.

Theme Frameworks

I won’t go into details about what a theme framework is and what it does, there are more capable people who have done that already. Justin Tadlock’s article is particularly interesting if you’re into the “behind the scenes” type of articles. Just check the links below.

Some WordPress theme developers will argue that theme frameworks are the thing of the future, while some will say they can get in the way. While I do acknowledge the power of a theme framework, I personally wouldn’t use one. I feel it would slow me down, rather than help me be more efficient. And I’m saying this from experience. So you could say I’m part of the second category.

Naked Themes

Not sure if this is the proper terminology, but there are also quite a few themes out there that have been stripped of almost all the styling. They are supposed to be the theme to start from when creating a new custom WordPress theme.

Some of them are pretty clean and are a step forward from the themes using hooks and and filters and other contraptions that 90% of WordPress designers probably don’t (want to) know about anyway. But now they were all too skinny for me!

So I had to choose between the high tech, state of the art WordPress themes that can even cook you dinner if you know how to ask nicely and the very simple themes, that would have you reinvent the wheel evey time you want to implement a new design.

Enter Empty Canvas

You know that saying: “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself!”. Well, that’s what I did. I created my very own canvas to draw on, allowing me to focus more on what counts: custom design, custom features, etc. I called it Empty Canvas, and you can now download it for free.

I always serve my articles with a pinch of humor, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all these other themes I mentioned are not done well, on the contrary: they were carefully crafted, I’m sure! But I wanted to do my own thing and the amount of projects I completed in only 4 months tells me I made the right choice.

Also, don’t download this theme and expect the Mona Lisa. It’s only a simple theme, that does wonders for me. My feeling tells me you’ll find it very useful as well, but there’s a possibility that you won’t.

Preview and Download

First of all, here are some features, so you know what to expect:

• compatible with WordPress 2.7.1 (sorry, no threaded comments though – I don’t like them too much)
• wider than Corporate Canvas, allowing better ad integration ( the days of 800×600 are pretty much gone anyway)
• same simple look as Corporate Canvas, but got rid of the comment bubble
• dynamic top menu (page navigation) and widget ready sidebar
• archive page, catering for most situations: categories, tags, search, authors, etc.
• valid, cross browser, minimalistic code
• following a “want more stuff? add it yourself!” philosophy

Preview Theme|Download Empty Canvas (2831) - 60.55 KB

Sorry for the long article, but I’ve been meaning to write it and share this theme with you for a long time.

LATER EDIT 1: Claudia from Chica Blogger pointed out something I’ve been meaning to address myself, since I forgot to mention this yesterday: yes, there are no credits in the theme footer and I’m ok with that.

The theme is free to use for your personal and commercial projects. Most people will probably use the theme for client projects, so the link in the footer might get in the way. Plus, I’m not going crazy about SEO and links right now, I’m happy just building a loyal readership (I know… link + SEO > readers, but you get the point).

So if you do something great with the theme or simply want to write about how it helped you be more productive, I would love to hear about it, so I encourage you to link to this page. Maybe even post a link on Twitter! Or you can just tell your close friends or clients about it and not share it with “the competition”. Whatever your channels are, I’m ok with that.

I almost forgot to give you the theme’s motto: “Work smart, work less, create more!”

LATER EDIT 2: If you are experiencing problems setting a static front page, you might want to redownload the ZIP file and overwrite your old sidebar.php and functions.php files.

Photo by Zach Klein

First of all, to get any doubt out of the way… No, I’m not retiring (not anytime soon anyway), that was just my lame attempt at an April Fool’s joke.

Now back to this post’s topic: sometime last year I redesigned my website and blog and decided to stop using a built in contact form (via a WordPress plugin), and go with a Wufoo form instead. I chose to do so for a number of reasons, that I’m not going to detail now.

What’s important is that in doing so, I made a stupid mistake that was going to affect my freelancing activity on the short term and that could have even jeopardized it on the long term.

What happened?

I forgot to activate notifications in the admin panel. Wufoo can send you updates via email or even RSS, but you have to enter your email in a box. You’re gonna say “Of course!”, right? Well, this dumb ass writing these lines forgot to do it.

Not only that, but I even sent myself a test message. Of course I didn’t receive it, but since I got carried away with some other things, I forgot to look into it. It seemed strange to me that I did not receive any sort of messages (cause I did receive a few in the past), but I never checked. I acted like an ignorant fool.

Then a few days ago I gave the URL to someone and told them to ask for a direct email there. The message never came (turns out that person never used the form anyway), so I went in and checked. I was stupefied to find out I had 5 months worth of messages: 304 in total! The Wufoo chart shows about 2 messages / day on average.

What did I miss?

If I were to give you a rough estimate of what was in there:

• 75% of the messages were the “I want a blog / website design. How much?” kind. You know… “supermarket shoppers”, as I like to call them.
• 15% were requests from people who gave little info (many simply didn’t know) about what they wanted to do and had very limited budget
• 5% were people asking for help / advice on design or WordPress related issues or people looking to advertise
• 5% were genuine leads. Some of them were really interesting project!

What did I do?

I went through every single message (took me a few hours), so if you tried to contact me and you didn’t hear from me until this day, your message was either too old (although I saved a few and will send replies next week) or it was one of the 75%.

I apologized to quite a few people, I sent replies to those who were looking for a design / redesign and didn’t seem to find it elsewhere and bookmarked a few interesting blogs in the process. Lucky for me, one way or another a few of the people who had trouble finding me managed to get in touch through other means.

The one that got away!

You all know those fisherman stories, about that big catch that got away: “Oh… if I had my … or my …” (fill in the blanks with state of the art fishing gear). That’s what they all say! For me, it wasn’t even something fancy, it was just a matter of pushing a button. But I didn’t, so I missed the chance of being part of a few really cool projects.

Even so, I had plenty of opportunities and interesting projects (maybe except for December 2008, which was a pretty low month – not sure I wanted it otherwise anyway), so I can’t really complain. But just for reference, here’s what I missed:

Jet Set Zero

I was contacted by Rob Ward from Jet Set Zero to help them design the website and give it that professional “pop”, as Rob said. Apparently, they managed to pull it off and the website looks awesome! So I’m not feeling too bad about this one. Great work, guys, you have a new subscriber!

You know how much I love to travel and that my dream is to travel the world someday. So this was one of the projects I probably would have done for free. But shhh… don’t go telling people about it!

The Knead for Bread

Chuck from CookingBread.com contacted me to help him with a design for a new blog he was about to launch: The Knead for Bread. Apparently, Chuck also did just fine in finding a replacement, so the blog looks great and the photography is amazing! Yet another blog in my RSS reader.

Tony Wu Blog

Tony Wu, underwater photographer with an impressive portfolio, contacted me to design his blog to match his portfolio website’s look and feel. I love scuba and snorkeling and I love photography, so putting my hands on all that great content (just check his portfolio, it’s mind blowing!) would have been lots of fun.

Richard Powell of Samedis Design did an outstanding job with the blog design, so at least I’m happy yet another great project turned out right!

Since I was out of the country for most of January, the first two project would have probably been out of the question anyway. Still… Rob, Chuck, Tony, sorry guys and good luck with your blogs! I’ll be watching you!

Lessons learned

This has been a pretty long post, so I’ll try to keep it short. Although I’m probably one of the few bloggers to flame himself (and on his own blog for that matter), I’m the type of guy that admits mistakes and likes to think he can learn from them. Maybe you can too!

Plus you know I’m all about connecting the dots, so it’s good to keep this on record:

• Lesson 1: it’s the simple, stupid mistakes that can do the most damage (how many times have you spent hours debugging some script or HTML, because of a typo?)
• Lesson 2: all that crap in my Inbox clearly shows I definitely have to rethink my website copy and maybe structure. The design / layout will probably stay
• Lesson 3: I’ve had confirmation that some of my recent decisions have been good decisions, that will hopefully shape my future “career”; more about this later
• Lesson 4: this isn’t something new, but there are still many people who think that starting a blog based on an idea, a cheap so called “custom blog design” and tons of AdSense is the key to success

If I think of any others, I’ll update this post.

Conclusions

So all in all, this wasn’t all that bad. It was a simple (although stupid) mistake. But what if this were something more important? Did you do something that you ended up regreting? Do you still regret that, or was it all for the best? I look forward tto your thoughts.

Photo by C.P.Storm

An extraordinary thing happened a month ago! It’s probably a once in a lifetime opportunity and I have been dying to talk about it ever since. Unfortunatelly, I was unable to blog or tweet anything, due to some confidentiality clauses.

But now it’s official and I can share some of that story with you. I’m sure you’re all wondering what event could be so important, that would determine me to quit may way of life (yeah, freelancing is a way of life for me).

The Premise

Those of you that have been following me on Twitter probably know that I was in London in January, on my way to the Dominican Republic, for a well deserved vacation. While in Londond, I got the chance to meet up with a client I worked with in December 2008, who was really impressed by my work (his words, not mine) and wanted to make me a business proposal.

The Proposal

Turns out that my client (for whom I designed a corporate blog) was actually Senior VP for a large company (not at liberty to tell, but it’s from the oil industry). Their plan is to build a corporate portal running on WordPress, that not only requires perfect integration with the corporate brand, but also a great deal of custom features.

After I got back to Bucharest in February, we kept in touch on Skype and after a few rounds of negotiations and discussions about the project, the result was a brief from them, a proposal from me, a signed contract and a kick off date for this exciting project: May 1st. The price for building such a bold website? Can’t say, of course, but it’s a six figure number! So now you know why I was so anxious.

Do you really retire?

Yes and no. Confused? Read on:

No, I won’t retire forever, because web design and freelancing is what I love most. Plus I’m sure the money will run out at some point. ;

I will however take a 6 month break from freelancing, during which I intend to do what I always wanted: travel the world and just blog. So while I didn’t win the Name Your Dream Assignment contest, I eventually got my big paycheck that would help me fullfil my dream, proving that hard work (and a touch of luck, I admit) can eventually have unexpected results.

What next?

One month from now I will start work on the big project. There is also another really fun project (pro bono work this time) I’m about to finalize, so I will be sure to keep you posted. And on July 1st, I will embark on my biggest adventure ever and you will hear all about it on my travel blog.

And remember: work smart, work less, live more!

I just found out via WPZOOM that the guys over at Deluxe Themes just released a new WordPress Theme, called Red Carpet. This is their best theme by far, no doubt about that and I personally like it. There’s only one problem: they say “Inspired by People magazine…”, but the design is an almost exact copy.

Which makes me wonder: how long will the theme last, before Deluxe Themes (or one of their clients) gets a lawsuit on their hands? If the theme becomes very popular, there will be a lot of People.com copycats out there, powered by WordPress. Think about it: how many people afford (or have the skills) to create a custom design? So they’ll be stuck with the copycat.

Wrong choice? What would you do?

Hope I’m wrong about this, but I’m afraid they made a bad choice by copying the design as well, rather than just using (some of) the website’s layout and functionality as a starting point and be more creative on the design side. I’m afraid this choice might jeopardize their chances of selling a theme that would otherwise have been a hit.

There are lots of great news websites and blogs out there that can be a source of inspiration (even I have a long list of bookmarks), and People.com is definitely a great source for inspiration if you’re building a glossy WordPress theme. But my question is: where do you draw the line? Is this good publicity or bad publicity? Will potential buyers be turned on or turned off by the similarity?

Just to be clear

I like some of their themes and I respect the fact that Deluxe Themes are one of the few WordPress theme developers (maybe the only?) that make their themes available for download and charge you only for a “copyright removal”. Bold move, if you ask me. So I’m not throwing dirt or anything, I’m simply raising a couple of business strategy questions here.

I encourage you to share your thoughts, but kindly ask you to do it in a constructive manner. Thanks!

P.S. Just noticed another theme, caled Google Mail.