Alice In Wonderland is a novel written as far back in time as 1865. It's a strange and colorful story of the girl Alice who falls into a rabbit hole, to discover a whole new world populated with many a strange creature. A Walt Disney animated production was made in 1951, and it's been popular for many years. The story was again made popular this year, by famous director Tim Burton. This story is what has inspired today's article.

Inspiration is an important thing for most artists and this time we've chosen to have a look at some pieces of fan art that feature Alice In Wonderland – a story known by many. Several art styles are included and many different artists are represented. Several of the movies colorful characters have been included.

29 Pieces Inspired by Alice In Wonderland

Click the images to be taken over to the originals and see them full size.

Alice by FERNL

Burton's Alice in Wonderland by mrDExArts

Nightmare Alice by Nishi06

Alice in Wonderland - A Cheshi by vladstudio

Caterpillar concept from Alice by imaginism

Cheshire Cat by StArOkSi

Wonderland by mareishon

Alice in Wonderland: red queen by chemcial23

Burton's Alice and hatter by bri-chan

Alice in Wonderland by daekazu

Alice in Wonderland by chemcial23

Alice in Wonderland by il-panda

Alice in Wonderland-Madhatter by michaelkutsche

Wonderland costume switch II by bri-chan

Wonderland by naiyoblue

Cheshire Cat by tioandria

Alice In Wonderland by karookaroo

Alice In Wonderland by RM73

I Think I'm Going Mad by zacharyxbinks

It's tea time... by s-a-n-d-m-a-n-n

Tweedle Hatter Twins by 3alola

Alice in Wonderland by shibakaien

Wonderland By VanEvil

The White Rabbit by vampirekingdom

The White Rabbit: Revised by MirrorCradle

Mad Hatter Cover by david-nakayama

Burton's Mad Hatter by rochel-chan

The Mad Hatter by fayrenpickpocket

The Mad Hatter by Beloved-Creature

Conclusion

Those were our picks of artwork from Alice In Wonderland. We hope these can help you gain some inspiration and maybe even make you smile. This story is unique and we think it will stay popular in some form for at least another 150 years!

We'd love to hear what you think of these, which is your favorite? And don't forget to share the article.

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Written by: Hilde Torbjornsen for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | No comment
Post Topic(s): Inspiration

One person can only do so much, and therefore a business consisting of one person can only grow so much. Yet, many of us in this industry love to work alone; we love to call all of the shots and give ourselves full creative freedom. So how can a freelance business have the best of both worlds?

Image credit: Office Now

The power comes from working with others, while still maintaining a one-man or one-woman operation. Working with other freelancers by outsourcing, or otherwise known as subcontracting can be a powerful source of business growth for any freelancer. In this post we're going to discuss some of the benefits of working with others in the field, how to find others to work with, and how to successfully manage a freelancing business that may be actually run by multiple individuals.

The Benefits of Working With Others

All freelancers enjoy working on their own for one reason or another. For some, it's to set their own hours. For others, it's to work on the kind of things they want to work on. Then, for the introverts, a solo environment may just be more appealing. Whatever your reason, as freelancers we all take on the same challenges. Working with others in the field can combat these challenges - both the emotional and business related problems.

Combat Loneliness & Isolation

It doesn't matter how much you say you enjoy working on your own, even the most extreme loners need socialization. Isolation can come quickly when working on one's own, and some freelancers even run back to a part-time job purely for the interaction with others. Working with others is a great way to socialize with people in your field. Simple interactions between individuals, even if just over email, can be the fine line between the sane and the isolated insane.

The best types of interactions involve more than email, though. While it's great to create a wide network via email and other simple forms of online interaction, it can be beneficial to one's mental (and physical) health to get out of the home office and meet with others face-to-face. Network with other local freelancers as well.

Learn More

We learn 80-90% of what we do based on experience and interaction. Only that remaining 10-20 percent comes from studying resources. By working with others in similar fields, we can expand our own skill set. One can gain exposure to things we've never heard of, or have heard very little about. We can learn more about how to work with someone specializing in a field we know nothing about. Interactions with others in similar, yet still varying specialties is a great passive way to learn more about your own profession.

Image credit: foundphotoslj

Networking

You may begin working with someone through a random event; perhaps they contacted you first, or perhaps you found them somehow. Maybe you two met at a conference. It doesn't matter how you ended up working with them - when you're done with the group project, then what? Does it all end there, for you to find others to work with?

The great thing is, probably not! Through working with others you may meet people in their circle. Or, just like how clients work, they may refer your partnership to others. Best of all, they may refer you to more direct clients when their load gets too heavy!

Outsource the Things You Don't Like to Do

Maybe you don't like to do everything with a project. Are you a web designer who doesn't like to code? Or are you a developer who doesn't like to design? Some types of projects require a lot of different phases, if you prefer not to do one or the other, feel free to subcontract that part. This can keep your stress low, and it can help to get projects done faster and more efficiently.

Image credit: BuddhaMunx

Grow Your Freelancing Business

There are plenty of personal benefits described above, but if that's not enough to get you interacting, then hopefully the desire to grow your business and create more income will. Nobody can do it all, so that's why many freelancers feel limited when it comes to taking on some clients. Have you ever had a client approach you with a project you weren't sure if you could do? What about a client who approached you with a project you know you didn't have the ability to do?

It can definitely be frustrating. This is especially true when you either desperately need to build your portfolio or need some income now. Why won't clients that need projects in your specialty just contact you instead? Well don't get mad at the client. If you were not in this industry, you likely wouldn't know either why calling out to all 'web designers' wouldn't get you the logo design you need. Many clients have no idea what you can and can't do, even if you seemingly spell it out for them on the front page of your portfolio.

In order to grow your business, stop rejecting these clients! If you need more clients, take them on!

Image credit: Unhindered by Talent

If they request services you don't know how or are not willing to do, even if they are related to your field, outsource those portions to other freelancers. By doing so, you accomplish a few things:

• The job gets done and the client is happy.
• You've now just expanded your network, and have one more freelancer to work with in the future. (They may bring work to you next time!)
• In the future, that same client needs a service you can do. Who do they go to? You, of course, because you're the person that helped them out successfully last time.

Whether you outsource part of the job, or need to outsource all of it, the point is that networking is taking place and jobs are getting done. Don't put it into your own portfolio if you didn't do it, but rather cite the correct designer or developer who did do the work. Much of the time, though, you'll find that you can do large pieces of a project that you thought you couldn't get done in the first place.

Expand Your Services

There are definitely some services that go well together. For example, many clients want a web design service that comes with some SEO marketing. Others need a logo for their new website, and then some others need a custom-coded backend. Sell packages to win over more clients, and outsource the areas you don't specialize in. You'll get more projects done overall, and obtain more work doing what you love.

Image credit: saaam

Get More Done

By steadily outsourcing big parts of projects, you can take on more clients. If you find yourself overworked and with too many leads, put more focus on turning those leads into clients, and driving through more projects quicker by subcontracting the work. You still get much of the income, if not more, plus the experience.

How to Connect with Others

The best thing about finding others to work with is that it's relatively easy. Below are some tips for beginning to make connections.

• If you already have a job you need to subcontract, post a job listing and let them come to you. Or, select from portfolios just as a client would do and get in touch. After the project is completed, keep in touch with the other freelancer for future work.
• Cold-email. This can be annoying to agencies and clients, but not so much for freelancers. The freelancing lifestyle just has more time available for these types of emails, and they are far more welcomed. If you admire another freelancer's work, feel free to shoot them an email introducing yourself, and asking if it'd be alright to subcontract some of your work to them in the future. Also let them know what you do and offer them the same from your services.
• Write for blogs, get involved in the community, and compliment on other's works. Just simple interaction like this can get your name out there and that exposure can influence others to get in touch with you. This is especially true if you build your name as someone who's an expert in the field.

Conclusion

Working with others has so many benefits that it's difficult to spell them all out here. Many freelancers work in too much isolation, which is just a recipe for disaster. The loneliness cannot only make you less productive because of the psychological downsides, but it can also limit your business dramatically. Do yourself and other freelancers a favor by getting involved!

How often do you work with other freelancers? Is it through subcontracting work or by other means? Please share your habits and experiences of working with others - we love to hear varying lessons learned.

• Freelancers Working From Home – Cures to Common Problems
• The Freelancer’s Survival Kit: How to Continue Being a Competitive Freelancer?
• A Freelancer’s Eternal Dilemma: Full Time or Part Time?
• Freelancer Custom Quoting: How to Quote per Project by Secretly Charging per Hour
• Reeling in Clients: Hook, Line and Sinker

Written by: Kayla Knight for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 6 comments
Post Topic(s): Articles

If you're a freelancer or have a small business, it's very common to work out of your own home. Some bigger companies also offer this as a full or part-time solution for some of their workers. This type of work can be both a blessing and a curse in many ways. Here I've listed some of the most common problems you may run into, and some suggestions to how you can turn these into something you can live with.

Image credit: EHPhoto

When you think about working from home, many positive things come to mind. You can work wearing your pajamas and walk to work in less than a minute - regardless of season and weather. You can also set most of the rules yourself, schedule personal appointments and vacations to fit with your work, listen to music as loud as you want and be in an environment you feel comfortable with. What you should be prepared for though, are the things that aren't as glamorous.

In this article you'll get to know some of them, along with some suggestions on how to make them work for you and not against you.

Cures to Common Problems

You're Too Close to Your Work

This can be something that makes it harder to feel that you can rest and do other things. If you have many ongoing projects and know they're just sitting there in your office waiting for you - it could be very tempting to go work for an hour or two. Working an extra hour occasionally doesn't hurt, but the feeling of being at work can for many be overwhelming.

Image credit: Picture by Royce Hansman

Fixing this problem can be a bit challenging. First of all you have to try sticking to set hours. Close your office door when you're done for the day and don't allow yourself to go back in there. If you feel the need to work extra, allow yourself to do this on one scheduled day of the week – but not too often. Practicing this over time will have you feeling calmer about the whole situation, but especially in the beginning this can be tricky.

You're "always" at Work

The previous point is about what you feel yourself about being in your work-environment during your spare time. This point is about what others feel. You could have people calling you after work hours or dropping by for work-related things, because you're always there. If you have the required discipline to put all these things aside until your next day at work – great! If you don't – you will feel as if you don't have much private space.

By being very specific about working hours from the start, you will gain a lot of more respect from your clients. Let business related calls go to voice-mail, don't check office mails after hours and be clear.

Lower Overall Efficiency

In general, working from home lowers your overall efficiency as there are so many possible distractions. Many of the tips in this list touch that subject. Let it be said though that the lower productivity is rarely a result of bad work effort. From the cases I've seen this is more likely because of all the new distractions and challenges that are added once you step out of the standard office scene. To be aware of how much you get distracted you should take a day of being extra attentive.

Image credit: Picture by Alfonso Romero

This can give you a good pointer to which things you need to be aware of. In my case it has been Twitter and e-mails that kept popping in all the time – for you it could be something else. The important thing is to reveal where those lost work hours are and take it from there.

People Think You're Living Life in the Easy Lane

My own experience is that a lot of friends and family think that working from home is almost like having a vacation. I've been really annoyed by this quite a few times and it has been draining my energy at times. Friends and family thinking they can call all the time, come unexpectedly during work hours and so on. I've also had comments about people thinking I make a billion just by sitting at home watching soap operas. The truth, as we know, is completely different. There can be a few ways to solve this if it starts to become a problem for you.

Having a conversation with the ones involved can be a great place to start, - or maybe have them spend a day at work with you to see what it's like? Most times no one means to hurt you, they just don't understand that it can be a problem.

Family Members Disturb and Interrupt Your Work

If there are other family members at home when you work, or pets for that matter - the noise level can be a bit high at times. Make sure your family knows when you're working, and make agreements with them on how to solve this. If you have your own room you can have rules for when they're allowed in or not. Other options are that they can leave the house for other activities when you are at your busiest - or you can work elsewhere every now and then. This can be solved many ways.

Image credit: Picture by EHPhotos

A simple thing like keeping your radio on or a headset with music (if you work well that way) can help you get that extra distance from what's going on around you.

The Lack of a Dedicated Workspace

To keep your productivity at the desired level along with keeping distractions away, you could do with a dedicated workspace. Ideally you want your own room for this purpose only, with a door that can be closed. Then you can form your office space to fit what you need and be sure that no one makes a big mess for you. If you lack a space that is yours to work from, you have to make it. If you can't have your own room, at least have your own desk. Be creative about finding somewhere to set up the desk; the guest room, kitchen corner, the garage and so on. Use what you have but try to stay away from your own bedroom and the most noisy areas of the house.

No Space for Meetings

Not many of us are lucky enough to have a room that can be used for meetings with contacts and clients if we work out of our own home. This can be challenging as you'd ideally in some cases want that option, especially on larger projects with local clients. One solution to this can be to put a table and some extra chairs into your current office (if you have one).

Image credit: Picture by Abdulhamid Al Fadhly

If you have meetings at home, make sure to schedule them to times of the day when you are alone in the home. This also could leave room for using other rooms that could fit. An alternative way could be to have your client meetings over the phone or on Skype. The third option, which is my personal favorite, would be to go have the meeting at a library, rent a conference room or a coffee shop. Which fits best for you is something you'd have to decide, just remember that there are always options.

Not Having Everything You Need Available

A challenge can be to make sure everything is where you need it to be at all times. It could be a notebook, pens, the phone and so on. I always start my day making sure I have everything I need within close range - including making coffee and having all my papers where they're supposed to be. The problem is if you have to get up and walk around the house to find something. Then the distractions can be many - from kids wanting to play to a pile of laundry. So start the day by making sure you have what you need in your office to minimize the need for running around the house when you're supposed to be working.

Home-Related Tasks Get In the Way

Image credit: Picture by Fussy Onion

As earlier mentioned there are many things that can get in your way. The dog needs to go out, the laundry is piling up or maybe you feel the need to help someone with what they're doing. The only way to solve this is to keep a good discipline. Stick to your schedules and offer to help after your work hours if it's needed. You do need to get your breaks at times and if there are smaller tasks then, like taking the dog outside or getting the mail - you can do this during those small breaks. But anything that takes more than 5-10 minutes should have to wait until you're done working.

You Don't Get Out Much

When you work from home you have less, if any, social contact with others. This can be very hard for many people, but there are solutions. If you spend most of your day alone working, you could look for social activities and hobbies to take up in your spare time. Make sure to stay in touch with friends and family when you can, to get those doses of human contact. This can both help you relax better and get your mind off work. Social contact can do wonders to both your creativity and productivity.

A "Professional" Environment is Missing

When you work out of your home this gives other standards than having an office in a commercial building. Just imagine you calling up a client and a kid answering the phone or a dog barking in the background. This doesn't show much professionalism and can give you a less professional view of that client. You don't want to give that impression to your clients. To solve this you have to look at your options. Having your own phone line for business-related calls is a must. Some sort of space for meetings has to be solved somehow. Coming across as professional can many times make or break a deal. Keep this in mind.

Image credit: Picture by North of Brussels

Sacred Workspace

Someone else using the room and computer? Having a dedicated office space is one thing, but what happens there after your work-hours? Using part of your bedroom is usually a bad idea, as is other rooms that are being used regularly. Make sure to have a walk through the house and think of solutions before choosing a place to set up your workspace. Maybe some smaller enhancements to a room can make it work for you. Sometimes it can pay off in the long run to spend that extra money in doing changes to a room that is off limits to others both day and night. Waking up to a stack of documents soaked in milk or eaten by dogs can be a very expensive affair.

Having a Not so Professional Address

For that professional look and to avoid personal and business related bills to mix up, you should consider getting a serviced mail address and/or mailbox for business purposes only. Use this address on your business cards, pick up this mail and look through it during work hours. Personal mail should be left until you're done at work. One less distraction and a more professional look. Remember your e-mail too, don't mix personal and business e-mail.

Image credit: Picture by Gary Scott

You Need Equipment or Furniture

If you work for someone else in a proper office you rarely have any costs related to equipment, furniture and so on. When you work from home these costs are yours completely. This has to be considered when making budgets. One solution can be to use your personal computer and personal furniture. You could look for good deals on used equipment or leasing. These costs can't be avoided. It's all about being open to different solutions and planning ahead.

Image credit: Picture by Bill Rose

Safety & Insurance

Make sure you have an insurance that fits your business. Don't expect your work equipment to be covered by your personal insurance. Get advice from your insurance agent on how this can be solved in the best way. Have quality backup-solutions in case equipment is ruined or stolen. Do all you can to be on the safe side in case anything goes wrong.

Personal and Business Finances get Mixed Up Easily

A challenge financially can be how to divide the costs between personal and business. Make sure to read up on tax policies, book-keeping and so on. Keep all receipts and set routines for writing down how much you use the car. By having an office phone the bills for this one can easily be kept away from your personal phone. Go through your day and write down everything you use during a day. Get help in making estimates from a professional bookkeeper if needed. All these smaller things can add up to a decent amount of money, and possibly tax reductions. Make sure you know all these things before you start.

Image credit: Picture by Sigurd Decroos

Working From Home

These were my tips for some of the common challenges you will meet when working from home. It's hard to cover all aspects with one article as many of these can be more individual. I hope I've managed to cover enough things to give you a good idea of how you can try to think and plan to get the best possible environment to succeed.

If you have any tips of your own or other comments we would love to hear them.

• Working with Other Freelancers: The Power of Outsourcing
• The Freelancer’s Survival Kit: How to Continue Being a Competitive Freelancer?
• A Freelancer’s Eternal Dilemma: Full Time or Part Time?
• Freelancer Custom Quoting: How to Quote per Project by Secretly Charging per Hour
• Reeling in Clients: Hook, Line and Sinker

Written by: Hilde Torbjornsen for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 17 comments
Post Topic(s): Articles

WordPress is a popular blogging platform with its ease of use and development by many experts on the web in the way of themes, plugins, and many more features that we can use for free or under a commercial license. WordPress work-flow basically is about storing the blog's content data to the database and then retrieving it with PHP and finally displaying it to the visitors. However, if the contents that we're trying to retrieve no longer exist in the database, as a result there would be a 404 error page.

You can imagine how frustrating it can be when you have clicked on a link from an article page or from a search result on Google, you're in a bit of a hurry and want to see the content, but the page you’re waiting for couldn’t be found! Disaster! How can this be happening? We will discuss this in this article.

Overview 404 Error Pages

Error 404 is a standard HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) status code. The "Not Found" respond code, shows that a client (browser) isn’t able to make contact with a server, this happens because the server can’t complete the request made by the client, or the browser configuration wasn’t properly setup to fulfill the request.

Image credit: Ben Heine

The 404 "Page Not Found" failure message is an error page which is displayed each time a client/browser requests an unavailable page from a website. How could this be unavailable? Below are the common factors causing the visitor to reach the 404 error page on a website:

• The Wrong Address Link: Often caused by typing errors or truncations.
• The Lost Page: Possibly it happened because the site’s content had been deleted or it’s in a reconstruction progress.
• The Contents Blocked (Private/Restricted Pages): The filtering system of a server is also capable of returning an HTTP 404 response when users are trying to access a blocked content through a browser.

Read more detail through the links below:

• HTTP 404 - Wikipedia
• 404 Error Pages

How to Deal With 404 Error Pages

For some visitors, it is quite annoying to be faced with a 404 error page from a website that fails to display the content they wish to view. They will usually assume that the content is no longer available on the website as it may have been deleted by the owner. If they think this, they will move onto what they consider to be more reliable sites. But what if the content has just had the address/URL redirected?

Image credit: Twoeyes

Of course, it’s a loss for the visitor and especially the site owner as he/she is losing traffic from their site, disappointing visitors by displaying a content error. Below are some tips to help site owners to keep their visitors on their site longer.

PHP Redirect

If your 404 error page is formatted in PHP, then this PHP redirection method will be very effective, because it's supported by all browsers on the web. These are the sample codes:

header ("Location: url");
exit();

JavaScript Redirect

Below is the sample codes for JavaScript to redirect visitors to the pages which you think will attract their attention. These are the sample codes:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- window.location = http://your_url_name/ //-->
</script>

That will lead to this:

<a href=”http://your_url_name/”>click here if you’re not redirected automatically.</a>

The purpose of “Click here if you’re not redirected automatically.” message is solely to alert the visitors when they’re not activating the JavaScript function on their browser.

Redirect with a .htaccess / htaccess.txt

This is a good choice, because the effect would globally touch the sub-domain that you own. This is the line which should be added to your .htaccess/htaccess.txt file:

ErrorDocument 404 error/http://www.yourwebsite/

So, we have at least 3 ways above that we can use for handling 404 error page. But generally it’s been automatically configured for a website/blog which is based on Content Management System like WordPress. In addition, we just have to add one from the two codes above (JavaScript or PHP) onto its 404 default.

Image credit: Ezu

Or perhaps you intend to make your own error page for your site, this can also be done. Below are the sample instances in PHP:

<?php
/* Error page: ErrorPage.php */
?>
<html>
<head><title>404 Error Page</title></head>
<body>
<p>
<h1>Error 404</h1><br>Sorry, Page Not Found.
<p>
<?php
$ip = getenv ("REMOTE_ADDR");
$requri = getenv ("REQUEST_URI");
$servname = getenv ("SERVER_NAME");
$combine = $ip . "tried to load" . $servname . $requri;
$httpref = getenv ("HTTP_REFERER");
$httpagent = getenv ("HTTP_USER_AGENT");
$today = date("D M j Y g:i:s a T");
$note = "Sorry, nothing here!";
$message = "$today <br>\n
$combine <br> \n
User Agent = $httpagent \n
<h2> $note </h2>\n
<br> $httpref ";
$message2 = "$today \n
$combine \n
User Agent = $httpagent \n
$note \n
$httpref ";
$to = "you@yourdomain.com"; \\ change to your email address
$subject = "Error Page from Your Site"; \\ change email subject
$from = "From: wordpress@yourdomain.com\r\n";

mail($to, $subject, $message2, $from);
echo $message;
?>

Visit our <a href="yourdomain.com">Home Page</a>

</body>
</html>

Done. You can now refer users to 404 error message substitutes on your website. Further, it will send an email to you automatically when visitors reach a 404 error page on your website, so they no longer need to report to you by email. Yes, just like that! You can copy and put it on the server. Remember you have to configure your .htaccess file on the server by adding the line below that will refer to your error page file, here is the code:

ErrorDocument 404 error/ErrorPage.php

When you're finished with the codes, you can now try it.

Tips In Designing 404 Error Pages Effectively

Sometimes it looks poor showing the standard design of 404 error pages. There are some points to consider in designing a 404 error page for your website.

Images credit: Feeling Croppy

Tell Them It's Not Found (Lost/Missed/Anything!)

It's obvious that you have to impart this message to your visitors so they’ll understand that the content/information they’re searching for isn’t available on the website. You can say it in brief, like "We’re sorry, the page is not available” or maybe like this “OMG, how could this happen? This is embarrassing”. Try other words that you think suit your visitors style/taste. And remember, do not use sentences that impose the blame on your visitors.

Display the Main Menu

Yes, it’s correct to display the main menu, so that visitors have more access to the contents on your website, not just a link that refers them only to your homepage. Thus, the visitors exploring passion would spread to the various topics of contents or categories.

Combine With The Available Content

If you think that with offering other content to visitors on your website is pretty catchy, then go for it! Try to combine with actual content that you have. It could be a popular article on your website, featured content or archived content that you have on your site? You’re free with your ideas, the point is to make the visitors interested for as long as possible in your website.

Use Your Site's Theme Design

I’m sure you don’t like to see your 404 error page appear in plain and unformatted design like the other sites. By using the theme design of your site, your 404 error page will look much more creative and user friendly with your logo, color scheme, perhaps cartoon characters that you like and many more ideas you can use to make your visitors no longer feel in exile when they couldn’t find what they were searching for on your website. They can immediately refer to what you’ve offered them in point 2 and 3 above.

Show The Search Box!

This last point shouldn’t be an option, you should have a search box on your 404 error page. The reason is if the visitor isn’t interested in point 2 and 3 you’ve offered above, they could still do a content search, based on the topics they’re interested in on your site. This will make visitors feel more at liberty to explore your site and you as the site owner will also get benefits from gaining traffic to the content that is found by visitors through this search box facility.

Yes, these should be the things to consider when you’re designing your 404 error page effectively to hold the attention of your visitors when they can’t find something on your site. You can also configure your 404 error page to send you an email automatically when your visitors reach it on your site.

Examples of Error 404 Pages

Below is a list of links to 404 error messages from various sites with creative graphics and taste. Perhaps you can learn something from these, or are there any other elements that you think are worth adding to make it even more attractive? I think this has its own value to your visitors that you are taking care of your website neatly and with attention to detail.

Jamie Huskisson

Mundofox

Henrik Hedegaard

YouCastr

Rocket Theme

InstantShift

Koller Media

Ateaseweb

Cut and Taste

45royale Inc.

Heinz

OnWired

Abduzeedo

Wufoo

Rush68

Tele2

Centerd!

Fotolia - Royalty Free Stock Photos

Surfing On Static

RegTag

WordPress Plugins to Keep Tracking Error 404 Page

Luckily for WordPress, they have huge support from many developers out there. There are many WordPress plugin developers created plugins that help us to keep an eye on our site, monitor how many visitors have reached the 404 error page. Here are some WordPress plugins that will help you to manage, monitor and customize your 404 error page more efficiently, so your visitors don't need to leave your site right away.

Image credit: Truanty

404 SEO Plugin
This simple plugin will give you a customized, smart ‘Page Not Found(404)’ error message. It will automatically display links to relevant pages on your site, based on the words in the URL that was not found.

Google 404 Error pages
The Google 404 plugin is a quick and easy way to embed a search box on your custom 404 page and provide users with useful information designed to help them find the information they need. Where it can, the Google widget will suggest other ways for the user to find the information they need, thus increasing the likelihood that they’ll continue to explore your site.

Redirection Plugin
This is a great plugin that handles all sorts of errors. Includes 404 error monitoring – captures a log of 404 errors and allows you to easily map these to 301 redirects.

404 Notifier
Detects and notify you of all the 404 errors that might creep in on the site unknowingly.

Smart 404
This plugin will perform a search of your posts, pages, tags and categories, using keywords from the requested URL and the search term. If there’s a match, it redirects to that matched content instead of showing the 404 error.

Permalinks Moved Permanently
This plugin is helpful if you change the permalink structure of your blog and don't want to lose out on incoming links going to your old pages.

AskApache
AskApache Google 404 is a must-have WordPress plugin that uses some ajax and a couple tricks to display a very helpful and SEO Error Page. The default displays Google Search Results for images, news, blogs, videos, web, custom search engine, and your own site.

Dunstan style 404 error page
This plugin makes your 404 error pages more interactive giving the user various options like recent posts, feedback forms etc.

Useful 404’s
As the name suggests, creates a more useful 404 error page, including email notifications for bad links.

Summary

It all depends on you where you want to redirect your visitors when they reach the 404 error page on your website. Many sites redirect visitors to their homepage, there are also some sites that redirect visitors to the membership registration page of their website, or maybe you have other ideas?

There are also some sites which creatively place a pre-direct as an advertisement page along with a message to the content page that they are referring the visitor to. Thereby, the ad revenue will be increased through this 404 page. If you want to, you could also increase your other website traffic, by redirecting the visitors to your other website where you want the traffic to be increased. But I don’t recommend this idea, these are only examples of ways that we can be seen on the web. Apart from ethical considerations and other things, the potential traffic we can obtain from 404 error pages is pretty fair, more so for the newly CMS migrated, or in progress of reconstruction websites.

And now it’s time for you to share what you know about 404 error pages, or tell us what you have done differently or maybe you have seen a different, inspiring, funny or pleasing page. Please feel free to let us know, don’t hesitate to leave your comments.

Further Reading and References

Eleven steps to creating a killer 404 error page
Which brings up what many webmasters have been pondering… what exactly should go on a custom 404 page? Here are eleven things that should go on your custom 404 page.

How to Create an Informative “404 Error” Page
Before you start messing with your 404 page, or even before I really get into further detail, you need to remember the K.I.S.S concept (Keep it Short and Simple, or Keep it Simple, Stupid). That’s basically saying to keep your design simple and away from anything that may serve complex. So just remember that through this post.

Creative 404 Error Pages With Characters
You can use a 404 error page to communicate with your visitor and tell them what to do next. Here I have collected creative examples of 404 error page designs in which you will find characters communicating with you in their own way.

404 Error Pages: Reloaded
The choice wasn’t easy, so evaluating the quality of the entries we’ve considered – among other things - the communication with visitors, precise and clear navigation, the use of graphics, creative ideas and some outstanding solutions. Some of the solutions presented below might not be as helpful as they could or should be, however they include some creative approaches you should be aware of designing your 404 error pages. Here is what you’ve come out with: over 40 working examples of user-friendly, creative and outstanding 404 error pages in a brief overview.

404 Error Pages – 30+ Examples
When you have been trawling around the internet for hours researching or searching, it is quite likely you will make a mistake inputting a website address, or somehow get lost on a site. How lovely, under those circumstances, to be directed to a custom 404 error page that makes you smile or think ‘that’s a bit different’.

• The Real World Development vs The Optimum Way
• 4 Dangerous Mistakes Web Designers Make When Presenting Content
• How to Improve Your Website With A/B Testing
• A Startup Guide to Selling Premium Wordpress Themes
• Freelancing: How to Deal with Long Working Hours

Written by: Bima Arafah for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 12 comments
Post Topic(s): Development

So you've got a great idea for a new online tool, and you seemingly have many of the skills to create it. It can be as basic as Ta-da Lists, or as robust as Basecamp, all you know is that you can design and code (or hire someone to do the parts you can't do), and want to make your own idea for a web app come to life.

There are likely millions of ideas for great web apps floating around, and yet many of them never come into existence because that one person with the idea doesn't know where to start. With every great project, designers can be hired, and developers will come as well. The real problem that needs to be solved is the planning of a web app.

Image credit: sssdc1

Creating a Custom Web Application

In this post we're going to go over the work flow of creating a custom web application. We're not going to cover best practices for designing its interface, or the best way to organize the backend of the code - that's all for another article. Instead, we'll cover how to design and plan for the functionality of a web app, and discover how effective planning can make for a much easier process to its completion.

The First Few Ideas

Planning to build a web app is no different from planning to build anything else - whether it is a business, a product, or a service. Every successful web app has a solid business plan behind it, and is well-built around business principles. So you have a good idea, what is that idea worth to others? The first step is to analyze this question and create a solid business approach to its answer.

Luckily, the theory is that if you think it's a good idea, it probably already has a lot to offer to others. Below are a few essential questions one must ask in order to organize the first few thoughts planning a web app:

• What problem(s) will this app solve?
• How will it solve those problems?
• Who are your users and what are their traits?

Image credit: boetter

Let's look at these three a bit closer:

What Problem(s) Will This App Solve?

Nobody sells products, and nobody sells services. Nobody sells subscriptions to web apps either - every business focuses on selling solutions to its buyers. Does your idea for the next app solve a problem common among its intended users?

A popular web app idea that has flourished lately is an 'all-in-one' freelance management app. Basecamp, Freshbooks, and the like are examples of these. They solve many problems freelancers face, usually relating to organization. They solve the 'difficult' part of freelancing, in that they are aimed at making a freelance business easier to manage. Note that the most successful of these apps are not those with the most features, not those with the most unique features, but rather those that solve the problem the best. They are the apps that are simple, and do what they intend.

How Will It Solve Those Problems?

Now is the time to begin brainstorming specifics. You've defined the solution, or set of solutions you hope to provide, but how will you now go about implementing them? What tools do you need to provide to the user of the app to solve their problem? Lay out what they are and how they should function.

Who Are Your Users And What Are Their Traits?

Every product, business, and even web app needs a well-defined target audience. Define who they are just as you would when working with a client. What do they prefer, what are their strengths/weaknesses, and what do they need?

Goals: For You and For the Users

The next step in planning a web app is defining your goals. With goals, one can always be striving for something in particular, and it can help keep track of where one is going. Take a sheet of paper, and write down the goals you'd like to reach, both short-term and long-term. Short-term goals could be related to the launch of the web app, its functionality, or as simple as getting it's first few users. Long-term goals could be related to revenue if charging a subscription fee (i.e. make a full living off of the income from said web app), gaining a large, specific number of users, or being well defined within the related community.

Image credit: angietorres

Also write down what some potential goals for your users would be. This can help you to better plan the application's features, interface, and so much more. What is the community going to ultimately achieve from this app? Remember, the better your users goals are reached, the more successful the app is, and the more successful you are as its developer.

After brainstorming, setting goals, planning features, and creating a business plan around your intended web app, we're finally done with the planning stage. Now is where the real fun begins: the app's development. Whether you do the design and code yourself, outsource some of it, or even all of it, you still have to do some of the development work. Below is where we begin to decide on the specifics of the web app, specifics that we can build some code around, and eventually get something real launched.

Sketch the User Sequence

Planning out the user experience through sketching is something UI designers often do to achieve the best results. However, even though we're not at the design phase yet, and while the final UI design may be far off, we can use a similar technique to plan out how an individual user may navigate throughout the web app.

To get started, we'll want both a textual and visual sequence. Let's use a sample: a fictional web app for a to-do list.

The User Sequence in Text

1. The user enters the website and logs in.
2. User is taken to a list displaying all of their previously created to-do lists, organized by title.
3. User may click on one to-do list and it will expand / open in new window.
4. User can do three things: create new list item, check off list item, or delete list item.
5. User can go back to all lists, and repeat the process.
6. User logs out.

The User Sequence Visually

Note that we can get a bit more detailed in a visual sequence:

This is an incredibly simple example for a very simple web app. However, with multiple features and variations in goals, both the textual and visual plan for the web app can be much different. More complex web apps will require one to plan out decisions, multiple sequences and different directions the user may take.

Know What the Admins Need

It is also important to note what the admin will need on their side. For our above example, the admin may need to keep track of the users that have signed up and keep track of their information. The admin may also want to have control over some layout options. If there is a premium version, the admin will want to know what users have the paid version and which do not, and a statistics section to visualize the growth/decline of the app.

In a similar way to planning what features the user will need and how they will go throughout the app, use the same process to plan the admin's sequence as well.

Conclusion

Whatever your idea, keep it strong with a solid plan first, and a good start to its design. The first few sketches and wireframes are essential to the overall process for the web app, both in terms of design and functionality. After the base has been set up, the app tested and successful, one can begin to focus on more detailed user interface concepts.

Also, while still maintaining originality, check out some other popular web apps that are within your idea's competition. What works for them, and what doesn't? Determine why some features work better than others - is it the interface's ease of use, the speed of the tool, or the simplicity of the entire app? Take note on other apps strengths and integrate them into your own masterpiece.

• 45 Interesting Web 2.0 Online Services And Applications That Can Make Your Life Easier

Written by: Kayla Knight for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 9 comments
Post Topic(s): Development

In this article we'll have a look at some websites that are a bit different to what we usually see. Web design sure has come a long way in recent years, and we can see all kinds of creative and unique websites popping up.

This collection is comprised of websites offering many different services/merchandise. They're colorful, funny, artistic and more. What they all have in common is the fact that they do stand out a bit - at least they did to us.

Unique and Inspiring Website Designs

Click on the images to check them out yourself and be inspired!

Jar Design

Red Bilby

Veerle's Blog

Story Pixel

Carsonified

Batman 3d

Joulie Poupèe

31Three

Project Fedena

Christopher Meeks

Mike Condrick

Stripes - Freelance Web Designer

The Portfolio of Casey Britt

Taylor & Ives

Artlemon

Digital Podge 2009

Matthias Dittrich

Veboo Labs

I am Jamie

Emmanuel Pelletier

HTML5 Readiness

The Value Engineers

Eutem

Matt Mullenweg

Xhtml Cafe

Pieoneers

Grzegorz Kozak

Catapuple

Brizk Design

Meomi Cloud House

Fusebox Creations

McMillers Sweets Emporium

Joel Califa's Online Portfolio

Marshall Haber Creative Group Inc.

Talita Pagani

Real Visuals

The Ship and The Sea

Academy

Berengere Monin

Jumbalaya

Allen Solly

Kingdom Magazine

Synch Media

Club Penguin

Osvaldas Valutis

Alexarts

DBA

Diego Salas

Vuvuzela Tee Shirt

Harry Ford

Get Inspired

Those were our 50 picks for this time. We hope you've been amazed and inspired by these great web designs and we would love to hear your opinions in the comments!

• Texture Used in Web Design: Examples, Best Practices, and How-To
• 4 Dangerous Mistakes Web Designers Make When Presenting Content
• A Closer Look at Hierarchy in Web Design
• Building A Cross-Cultural Web Design For A Wider Audience
• Part 2: How to Turn a Design Image Into a Working Web Page

Written by: Hilde Torbjornsen for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 13 comments
Post Topic(s): Inspiration

Within the last ten years, web design has impressed us with glossy gradients, smooth reflections, and even plain and bold colors. With this new trend in simplicity and open space, came a better understanding and appreciation for adequate user interfaces. Now, though, in more recent designs we're beginning to see these minimalistic and well-laid out designs come in not so plain ways. Modern designs are beginning to use more texture than before, but still using texture in an intelligent way to keep web spaces clean, organized, but just much more aesthetically pleasing.

In this post we're going to look at some of the greatest uses of texture in web design today, and see how it can be used in so many forms. We'll explore how the use of texture has evolved over the years in web design, and how any designer today should use texture to make designs really pop.

From Sleek to Textured-Sleek

The early era of modern web design is still widely used today. Gradients, beveling, and solids all still come into play - and it can still look modern and sophisticated.

Yet, a few years ago, many modern looking websites used these techniques, and there was little variation from one to another. With being such a fairly new industry, it probably came down to a lot of young designers just trying to get it right. All everyone was trying to do was get out of the 90's web design era (And we don't blame them).

Now, though, we're finally starting to see great, modern-looking designs coming out in all shapes and forms. While we still love simple, sophisticated, and sleek, as designers we can now be much less afraid of color and texture:

Above are two great examples of the very opposing styles, although some designers choose to take a different approach to the recent evolution of web design. Instead of going in polar opposites, some choose to stick with a clean and sleek look, while still adding just enough texture to add some great appeal:

Texture used in the above design is much more obvious than the use of texture below. While still being clean and using gradients and solid colors, the main image contains a strong use of texture that gives it a lot of attention and interest. Furthermore, the headings use texture as attention-grabbers as well. Also note how in this design, texture was used to unify a theme throughout the design, and connected some of the main elements of the design together.

The use of texture above is much more subtle. If one were to look at the full-size live version of the site, one will notice some textural 'noise' within the footer's background. Texture, along with some more visual interest, is added in the header with the subtle clouds in the background.

Why Use Texture Anyway?

In our very first example we saw a very successful web design work without hardly any texture at all. Even in our last two examples, the uses seem so subtle that it's barely worth it. So why go through the hassle of adding texture at all? It's almost obvious to say that it can add more time onto our design workflow, and make any design even more difficult to code during the development phase.

So why bother? Texture adds depth and even a sense of realism to designs. By adding depth, we can grab the user's attention. Let's look again at the Reichweite example below:

The two places where texture are used are the header and footer. The middle portion of the design is void of texture, and instead uses gradients, size and icons to grab attention. Because we are naturally attached to depth (and the resulting sense of realism), the header and footer can fairly compete with the middle section of the website. By using texture in these two areas, and using the other forms of creating hierarchy in the middle, we come up with a well-balanced design.

By either adding texture to the middle section or leaving texture out of the remaining two, the middle portion may have become too overpowering, allowing the user to ignore the header and footer information.

So, we use texture because texture is a very strong attention-grabber. It can help a designer create correct hierarchy to correct balance, or even imbalance to create focus. Its addition of realism can also make a viewer feel more connected and in-touch with the design.

Texture Strength

The wonderful part of using texture in web design is that it can be fun. There is so much variety, and different textures can create different strengths in its attention-grabbing power. As an example, the contrasting texture to the left that also contains more variety in shape is much stronger than the subtle texture on the right.

Always think strategically about adding texture. Depending on where texture will want to be added in a design, how strong does it have to be? Always use plenty of whitespace when using heavier textures, and use larger sizes for overlapping content to make it distinguishable between the texture and itself. For more simple textures, while not as strong, designers have fewer restrictions because it will also not conflict with much.

Themes and Texture

Texture is the most distinguishable element one can add to a design. This again comes from the amount of variety we can obtain from it. Drawing themes from textures is relatively easy. Our example below shows how the texture on the left can create for a very grungy style and theme, and on the right we can create a cleaner, sleek theme.

Themed textures often go great with imagery that supports the texture. Common uses of hardwood textures use desk objects or imagery of something that would be found on a piece of hardwood furniture, while something like an old paper texture would support a retro or classic theme.

Conclusion

Just like size, balance, contrast, and color, texture is an essential feature in design. It is essential to understand how to work with texture correctly, even if sleek and glossy designs are still a designer's niche. Web designs come in many forms from heavily textured, to just hints of textured elements. No matter how it is used, it is easy to see how texture can add so much visual appeal to a web design.

Always remember that texture, like any other design element, has a purpose. It can add depth and realism, and even enhance the theme of a design. Use texture intelligently, and not just for the sake of using it. This is how one can create a textured design that makes sense, rather than a design that is over-cluttered and too busy with this important design element.

• Part 2: How to Turn a Design Image Into a Working Web Page
• Part 1: How to Turn a Design Image Into a Working Web Page
• Hints, Tips And Tricks For Web Design Part 1: Beyond The Visual
• The Real World Development vs The Optimum Way
• 50 Unique and Inspiring Website Designs

Written by: Kayla Knight for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 4 comments
Post Topic(s): Design

Everybody these days knows that content is king. No website ever sold anything without content to persuade its readers to buy. And it’s the job of the web designer to present that content as effectively as possible.

Unfortunately, presenting content to sell well is kind of glossed over in web design school. Most designers don’t know a lot about it. In fact, most designers don’t even know they don’t know. And nowhere is this more evident than on their own websites.

Image credit: Abd Al-Raham Al-Terkit

Today, I’ll run through four of the major content presentation mistakes freelance web designers often make - errors which can kill the effectiveness of your site’s content. By learning about these mistakes, you can not only avoid them yourself and get better returns from your own website, but you can also provide a lot of extra value to your clients by advising them on these issues. And if you take the time to learn further, you’ll have the ability to really set yourself apart as a designer.

The Four Mistakes

1. Taking up valuable headline space with a "GFI".
2. Setting main content at sizes smaller than 16px.
3. Using too many pages.
4. Leaving readers hanging.

Let’s get right into it, and take a look at why these things can scuttle an otherwise promising site.

1. Taking Up Valuable Headline Space With a GFI

A GFI is a Generic Friendly Introduction. It’s the term I use to describe the welcome messages you see on every third or fourth freelance designer’s site. I won’t name any names, but you know the ones. They’re set in a large font, and they say something like, "Hi! I’m a web designer with a passion for web standards, and something else specific yet unlikely, which I mention to sound unique but is really kind of obvious."

Why Is a GFI So Bad?

Firstly, it’s generic. It’s meant to seem personable and unique, but in reality it’s so overused that it just seems lazy and thoughtless. It tends to create the opposite impression in a prospect than it’s meant to.

Secondly, it’s friendly - but prospects aren’t coming to your site to be your friend! They’re coming to see if you can help them with a problem they have. A GFI focuses on you. But there’s only one thing your prospect cares about and that’s his/her problem. You should be talking about this, and about how you can solve it - not about yourself. In short, your big, friendly welcome blurb is costing you clients.

How You Can Fix This

Rework your GFI into a proper headline. Focus on your prospect’s problem, and why you are uniquely qualified to solve it. If you can, provoke his curiosity so that he’s drawn into reading the rest of your text.

If a client ever wants to use a GFI on a site you’re designing, take the opportunity to expand your role in the project from that of a mere designer to a valued adviser. Help him to understand why a GFI is a bad idea. If you can save a client from himself without making him feel foolish, you’ll be a real hero in his eyes - which could mean repeat work, great testimonials, referrals and so on. In time, establishing yourself as an expert consultant means you can command higher fees and better projects.

2. Setting Your Main Content at Less Than 16px

You’re probably wondering about this one. What could possibly be so bad about using a smaller font size than the ridiculously large default? Well let me give you some perspective.

On most computer displays, 16px text displays at about the same size at 12pt printed text. And at least one in ten people has trouble reading printed text that’s smaller than 12pt. That’s the number of people who have poor eyesight but my own experience is that more like one in five adults complain about having to read text at less than 12pt. So how do you think those people feel about 13px text on a screen? Are you willing to have 10% or 20% of your prospects leave your site without reading it, just because it was too hard?

Image credit: tuanrobo

I have 20/20 vision (with my glasses on). But when I’m working on my laptop, which has a 15.6 inch 1920×1080 full-HD display, I pretty much always find myself zooming text which is set at 15px or below. It’s just too much of a strain to read otherwise. High resolution laptop displays are becoming increasingly popular, too.

Now sure, your users can zoom. But do you find yourself wanting to zoom text you find hard to read? Or do you find yourself wanting the designer to have made it legible in the first place? Remember, if your prospect can’t read your site easily, he’s going to assume that he’ll have the same problem with any site you design for him. I don’t know about you, but pretty much every client I’ve ever had has wanted to be able to read his own site without difficulty.

How You Can Fix This

Generally speaking, treat any text below 14px as illegible by default. Always set your main content at 100% (16px). You can even go higher if the visual style of your site accommodates it. And don’t forget your line-height. The default single spacing is too narrow to read easily. I find a line-height of 1.5 works pretty well in most cases.

3. Using Too Many Pages

This is another mistake which might have you scratching your head. Yes, I do mean simply having separate pages for things like your services, portfolio - and of course your individual portfolio entries. But this is one mistake which can really make a huge difference to a site and of course it’s a major one you can advise your clients on as well.

Why is breaking up your content bad? Isn't it a good thing to be able to logically divide everything on your site into sensible, separate pages? I mean, isn’t that what information architecture is all about, for crying out loud?

Image credit: optikalblitz

Let me answer a question with a question. In usability studies, what happens over the average when you give users the choice to do something? The answer, of course, is that some will and some won’t. So when a prospect must decide to click through to a new page to find information he wants, is that a choice to do something?

You’d better believe it is. And this is really just common sense. After all, how many websites do you visit, then check out the page you land on, scroll down, look at the links and then close it? If you’re like me, it must be heaps.

It could be that the information I wanted - the information that might have even made me a buying customer - was just on another page. But I was checking out my options, and had a dozen other competitors’ pages open at the same time. So I wasn’t in a browsing mood - I was in a buying mood. And when I didn’t find what I needed to make the decision to buy, I closed the page on the assumption that another site would have it. This is exactly the mood that your best prospects are in when they come to your website.

How You Can Fix This

Make sure that everything your prospect needs to choose you is right in front of him. Make sure at least one portfolio piece - your best one - is right out front for him to see. And not a small thumbnail; make it big and bold. Make sure that all the important information about what you do (remember: how you can solve his problem) is in his face straight up. Don’t hide stuff away out of some coy notion of organization or structure. It’s quite possible to organize and structure long homepages. That’s what heading levels and internal anchors were invented for.

Don’t go too crazy with this. Don’t try to cram everything onto your homepage. But think about whether some of your currently separate pages would work better if they were integrated into it.

4. Leaving Readers Hanging

This leads me into the fourth and final mistake I’m going to talk about. You don’t see this as much as you used to, but it’s still a major problem on a lot of sites.

What do I mean by "hanging"? Basically, I mean not giving your reader something to do. If you’ve presented your content right, and your prospects are finding you in the right way to begin with, a good number of them should want to at least talk to you about what you can do for them. Yet, at this crucial point, a lot of designers just stop. The content ends and the reader has to find his own way. If your analytics are showing you a high bounce rate, it could well be simply because you aren’t asking your reader to do anything. So he isn't.

Image credit: zurbinc

How You Can Fix This

Simple. Use a call to action. Decide what you want your prospect to do, and ask him to do it. Make sure you start your CTA with a verb (that’s an action word for those of you who skipped school) - it’ll almost invariably perform better. And don’t be too proud to start your calls with that old classic, click here - it still generally out-pulls anything else.

Remember that calls to action should not be confined to your homepage. They should appear on every page. Every single part of your website should work toward your overall objective or objectives. For example, your homepage and portfolio items are probably intended to drive conversions. So you might ask your reader to contact you at the bottom of each. On the other hand, you also publish articles to establish yourself as an expert (right?) So on those pages you might ask your reader to share what they’ve been reading via social media. Either way, always have a call to action on every page.

Keep on Learning

These pointers just scratch the surface of a huge topic. Learning more about what encourages sales when you’re presenting content (and what depresses them) can significantly increase your value to your clients - and of course the rates you can command.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to make your content work as hard as it can - as well as what content to include, when, and why - there’s a great deal of good, free information out there. Two that spring to mind are Jakob Nielsen’s Usable Information Technology, which contains a lot of great hard data which you’ll need to interpret through your designer’s lens; and Copyblogger’s landing page tutorials and case studies, which are excellent practical guides. If you’re really dedicated, you’ll want to dig deep into the world of direct marketing, and particularly online direct marketing. The resources for that are pretty scattered, so I’d suggest our old friend Google. Becoming an expert in this field can be hard work, but the results can be extremely rewarding.

• A Closer Look at Hierarchy in Web Design
• Building A Cross-Cultural Web Design For A Wider Audience
• The Real World Development vs The Optimum Way
• The Ultimate Essential Guidelines for WordPress 404 Error Pages
• 50 Unique and Inspiring Website Designs

Written by: D Bnonn Tennant for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 33 comments
Post Topic(s): Design

In this article, we're going to show you a collection of 40 hand-picked drawings of celebrities. Not only do we want to show you these great works of art, but we also hope you can draw some inspiration from them. No matter what kind of artistic/creative department you belong to, looking at other peoples work can be a good place to get inspired. Here you'll find a broad range of celebrities from Russell Crowe to Bob Marley.

There are many celebrity drawings that can be enjoyed in various online galleries. This time we've looked at the ones to be found over at deviantART – one of the biggest online communities dedicated to art and creativity. There are many more good drawings there to have a look at. Click on the previews in this list to be taken to the original, full-sized versions.

40 Celebrity Drawings

Morgan Freeman

Nicole Kidman

Daniel Radcliffe (as Harry Potter)

Audrey Hepburn

Meg Ryan

Elijah Wood (as Frodo)

Jeremy Irons

Madonna

Patrick Swayze

Robert Pattinson

Johnny Depp

Heath Ledger

Russell Crowe

Sean Connery

Mel Gibson

Emily Deschanel (Bones)

Bruce Springsteen

Michael Jackson

Matthew Fox (Lost)

Will Smith

John Wayne

Bob Marley

Lady Gaga

Liv Tyler

Britney Spears

David Bowie

Taylor Swift

Natalie Portman

Julia Roberts

Orlando Bloom

Angelina Jolie

Tyra Banks

Marylin Monroe

Brad Pitt

Marshall Mathers a.k.a Eminem

Cameron Diaz

James Dean

James Hetfield (of Metallica)

Jennifer Garner

Drew Barrymore

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed these 40 great drawings as much as we did. Let us know what you think! And remember to share this showcase if you've liked it.

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• The Remedies For A Great Designer Online Portfolio With 25 Impressive Showcases

Written by: Hilde Torbjornsen for Onextrapixel - Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch | 15 comments
Post Topic(s): Inspiration

In recent years, competition on the Internet has grown fiercer, and many businesses are looking for anything that gives them that competitive edge. Online marketing methods such as SEO and PPC are a good way of improving a company's ability to compete, but increased traffic alone doesn't make for a successful business. When it comes to a website, it all comes down to number of conversions and thus, revenue generated; this is where a/b testing can help.

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What is an A/B Test?

A/B testing is a method of marketing testing by which a baseline control sample is compared to a variety of single-variable test samples in order to improve response rates. - Wikipedia

As the Wikipedia quote above describes pretty well, A/B testing is a method whereby an alternate version of an element within a website can be displayed to a group of users in order to track its effect on conversion rates.

Multivariate Testing

When using A/B testing it is recommended to make only single changes to an element in order to track its success in isolation of any other factors. What Multivariate testing does is allow you to track a wider range of changes in order to see which is the more effective combination of changes. Although it tends to return better results in the long run, it is more difficult to analyze any results returned.

How to Perform an A/B Test?

If you're a whizz at coding then it's possible to create your own A/B tests, but be sure to do the following:

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• Drop a Cookie: It's always advisable that a user sees only one version of a site, even on return visits. If a user were to see the multiple versions of the site then it's more difficult to determine which version led to a conversion.
• Cloaking: Traditionally this is when you have two versions of a page, one targeted to users and another to the search engines. A/B testing, although strictly for user testing, can be implemented in a way that appears as if the site is being cloaked. Be careful to avoid this.

For those of us that prefer the simple life, there are a few tools already available that help us create and track A/B tests as well as take out some of the dangers such as cloaking:

• Google Website Optimizer
• Adlucent
• Omniture
• SiteSpect
• Mailchimp (for email campaigns)
• Vertster
• Visual Website Optimizer

The Prerequisites

A/B testing appears to be an awesome tool to play about with and in truth it is, but like anything, it can't simply be used for the sake of it. For A/B testing to be a worthwhile exercise, there are two prerequisites that a site must have:

A Conversion Point

The way in which A/B testing works is that for each conversion a site receives, a check will be carried out to see which version of the tested element was visible to the user. If this conversion point doesn't exist then there is no way of telling how a test is performing. Common conversions that are easily tracked are a sale through an ecommerce website or the submission of a form.

Traffic

A/B testing is all about the numbers, and to be truly accurate A/B testing needs to gather a decent amount of results, which means the site needs a decent level of traffic. Although a result can be gained with low levels of traffic the data gathered is likely to be less reliable. To really benefit from A/B testing you ideally need visitor figures in the hundreds if not thousands per day.

Image credit: th.omas

What to Test?

With A/B testing you pretty much have free range to test just about everything. It might be that you change the color of a button or the headline of a page, nothing is impossible, but it is best to target a few key areas. Primarily, anything you do change should be on the path to conversion. So in the case of an ecommerce website this could include the home page, product page, basket and checkout as well as a few others.

But it's not just what to change but how to change it. For some clarity I'm going to focus on a Buy button as an example of what can be changed to affect conversion rate.

Micro Copy
Tone of voice plays a big part here, would your users respond better to a more forceful tone by changing the buy button to read 'Buy Now' or would they prefer something a little less committal like 'Add to Cart'? Think also geographically as UK visitors might respond better to 'Add to Basket' with cart being a more American term.

Color
For a buy button you'd really need to use a color that contrasts the background of the button to ensure it stands out, but would green be a better color than red?

Position
Yes there is a fold, and most certainly your buy button should be above it, but is it better placed to the left or right, maybe next to the price or quantity input. On such pages you want to guide the user’s eye in a specific way with the buy button the end point.

Size
Maybe your buy button is a little small, would increasing the size lead to more conversions? Maybe your button is huge and you could afford to make it a bit smaller without losing too many conversions. Making it smaller might not seem like a good idea but if it increases the white space around it, you may actually see positive returns.

Complexity
Is the buy button too simple? Could a border improve conversion, how about a shopping cart icon? The addition of complexity may help a wider range of users quickly identify what the purpose of a given element is.

Simplicity
The opposite of complexity, it's possible your buy button is simply overcrowded with design elements such as gradients, bevels, shadows and the like. Maybe a user will appreciate a more minimal design.

These just highlight the changes as they could be found on a single element, but can apply to almost every area of a website.

What can Go Wrong with A/B Testing

The benefit of A/B testing is clear, given the right conditions it will provide data to allow you to make a decision as to whether or not an altered element converts better than the baseline. Then this new element becomes the baseline and the tests continue. But there are a few pitfalls to be aware of when undertaking A/B testing.

Stop When The Benefits Are Too Small

You might be lucky enough to already have a high conversion rate, or find that one change raises your conversion rate by a healthy amount. If either of these are true then consider the benefits of undertaking or continuing with any further testing. The time and effort involved in A/B testing may simply not be worth it if the benefits are so small. If you have a good conversion rate then resources are better focused on increasing traffic to make use of these good conversion rates.

External Factors

Whenever possible it will always be more beneficial to undertake A/B testing in as clean an environment as possible. What this means is that the test results are likely to be more reliable if external factors have not affected the behavior of users. External factors that could play a big part include traffic spikes due to offline advertising or seasonal shopping such as Christmas. Testing in these periods can also affect overall revenue if any tests don't return a positive result.

Start Small

Negative results from testing is a clear possibility, you might simply have the best conversion rate possible already. If this is true then any tests you carry out can only negatively affect the website's revenue. So to reduce the impact, it's best to start small, testing on a lower number of users, maybe 10%. If this test goes well then crank up the numbers to ensure accurate results are obtained, if not then kill the test and try something else.

Image credit: BWJones

Newly Launched Websites

If you have a brand new website then A/B testing is something you should be wary of undertaking. With a new site it's likely that the changes already made to the website are interesting users, leading to month by month increases in traffic and conversion rates. It may be a few months until the site normalizes and you can get a clear picture of how the site converts in normal circumstances and whether or not there is potential for improvements through A/B testing.

Going in Blind

To get a good understanding of what it is you should be testing then it's best to have a good amount of data to help inform your decisions. Analytics and heat maps of user activity are invaluable here in helping to indicate the actions of users and where they might be dropping out. Having such information allows you to better target the pages of concern where the biggest increases might be found.

Image credit: lupinehorror

Testing for Every Decision

In design it's sometimes difficult to justify the smaller aspects of a design, why a particular color is used or why a border is 2 pixels instead of 3. Such small elements won't be noticed by the average user but within a company A/B testing might seem like a solution to solving such discussions over a design.

Famously, Google tested 41 different shades of blue to ensure they got the best conversion rate, though the results weren't released. Would the average Google user have noticed such a difference, and if so would it make them more likely to click on a link or visit Google more often? Sometimes decisions are best made in-house rather than opened out to the public.

It Can't Give You An Awesome Website

Sure, A/B testing can help increase conversions for a website, but for the most part you need a well designed and usable website from which to start. If your website looks like it's from the 1990's then A/B testing simply isn't worth it. Instead, any website owner’s money would be better spent hiring a good web designer to get their site modernised and then approach testing afterward if deemed necessary. Simply modernizing an old website should lead to an increased conversion rate.

More Reading

To learn more about A/B testing there is nothing better than to actually read the experiences of others and how they have approached A/B testing, and how their tests have performed. A great site exists called simply ABtests.com where users can upload their own case studies for everyone to read.

Also check out the Conversion Rate Experts Blog for more in-depth analysis.

Image credit: moriza

Conclusion

Improving conversion rates is an expert field just like design, SEO and copywriting. Yet some simply can't afford to employ the experts in every micro field of the web. So frequently it's left to the web designer or developer to learn the skills for every field in order to please a client. A/B testing gives us the ability to be conversion rate-people and help both clients and ourselves obtain higher conversions.

A/B testing affords us a safe environment where the changes we make can be reversed if they don't perform as we expected. Over time A/B testing will give you the ability to increase a website’s conversion rate, and thus the revenue generated by the site, if you can achieve this your clients will be most appreciative.

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