Since my last post on the same topic, Facebook has streamlined the Page Tab creation process, so I thought an updated tutorial is long overdue. I have prepared a 3-part tutorial where I will teach you how to create a custom (1) Facebook Page using (2) Facebook’s Page Tab application, and finally I will show you how to serve the tab content using (3) WordPress.

Part 1: Create a Facebook Page

Step 1: Head over to http://www.facebook.com/pages/browser.php and click on “Create Page”.

Step 2: Select the type of Page you want to create, fill up the information and click on the “Get Started” button. In this tutorial I will be working on a “Website” fan page, which you can find under “Brand or Products”.

Step 3: If you have a profile photo ready, you can upload it on this page. Be creative about this space and make your profile photo full size, which is about 180px wide and 540px tall. Click on “Continue”.

Step 4: If you want to tell your friends/network about your page right away, you can do so in this page. However, I suggest not to do it yet since your page is still empty of content. Click on “Continue”.

Step 5: Enter the name of your website and description. Click “Continue”.

Step 6: Your page is ready.

Next: Create a Facebook Page Tab application

Post URL: How to create a custom Facebook Page (1 of 3)

If, like me, you rely mostly on PayPal to collect payments from clients, then you know that PayPal deducts fees from the total amount you billed and you do not actually get the original fee you asked for. The amount that PayPal deducts is calculated as 3.90% of the total (for recipients in the PHL with monthly sales volume of less than PHP 150,000) + fixed fee of USD 0.30. Now that seems to be a trifling amount, but small things do tend to add up to a considerable sum overtime. (Let’s not even talk about the lower exchange rate from PHP to USD when withdrawing funds to local banks!)

For the past few years I have been absorbing the cost of PayPal fees, but after reviewing my annual sales report from last year, I realized that I lost to PayPal an amount equivalent to one medium-sized project, enough to cover my overhead and living expenses for a month.

So this year, I have decided to be more diligent about money matters and to start including PayPal fees in my invoicing. If you are one of my clients, you are now probably worried about the extra cost on your bill.

But don’t despair. There is a way to avoid paying the fees and in this post I will outline how you can do just that. And if you collect payments via PayPal too, then you can use the same trick for your own clients.

There is one caveat though. For this to work, your PayPal account must contain funds, and not pulling the amount from your credit card or you bank. (In my case, when I receive USD payments from clients, I keep enough amount in PayPal to cover services that I need to pay for at the end of the month. This way, PayPal will not deduct the amount from my card, and I don’t lose on the exchange rate from PHP to USD.)

So here’s how you do it. Login to your PayPal account and click on (1) Send Payment. You get a page like the screenshot above and in that form, click on the tab (2) Personal payments then select (3) Others under Purpose of payment. Fill up the recipient field with my PayPal email address (if you are my client, you have that info from my email invoice), the amount you are to send and click Continue. In the next page, you get a confirmation message and you should see that the fee amounts to zero. Send.

The only disadvantage for me, is that this method will not notify my invoicing tool that you have made your payment. So I have to add your payment and close the invoice manually. But I think that is a minor hassle.

Post URL: How to avoid PayPal fees when sending payment for freelance work

If you are using Gmail and you need to quickly send an image to someone, you can do a screenshot using the print screen key and paste directly into the message body. Caveat: it only works in Google Chrome.

Post URL: bITs: Paste image from clipboard directly into Gmail

Recently in a Facebook group I belong to, an interesting discussion thread was started by my former creative director. The discussion revolves around a designer’s ad promoting his web design services for a low price of PHP 5,000. That’s USD 113.27 by today’s exchange rate. Not a few members reacted that designers who price their services this low are undermining the market, a fact which I agree to.

Last night I was mulling over this situation. He is not the first case of low-priced designer I have encountered, and definitely he will not be the last. I have also lost potential clients to other designers who undercut my quote. And I fear that designers who offer lower than prevalent rates are no longer confined to just within developing countries like the PHL or IND. I had a prospective client shoot down my proposal saying: I can get that project done for your price in Australia. In Australia! Really.

The Philippines’ golden age of web design business

Sorry but it’s over.

There was a golden age of web design biz in the Philippines, about ten years ago, when you can design a website and charge as high as PHp 2,500 up for a SINGLE PAGE for your services. But that age is long gone. One reason that fueled such high price was the fact that there were only a handful of web savvy professionals back then. Not even professionals in the real sense–(profession) an occupation requiring special education (especially in the liberal arts or sciences)–since many were not schooled in web design from a college or with a diploma to back the claim as “professional” (I hold a double degree in Med Tech and Fine Arts, weird mix I know). But eventually everyone got wind of this lucrative business, even the schools, and they created IT and multimedia departments to churn out hundreds of designers every year.

Then there is the outsourcing trend. Riding on the wave of ever increasing internet speed, tools were created that finally allowed real time collaboration between clients and suppliers from opposite sides of the globe. It enabled people to work outside traditional venues, and soho/remote working became a possibility. Online services sprang up around this new work paradigm–oDesk, eLance, etc.–and a client can now go online to find a supplier for almost any work required, from anywhere around the globe. He has the power to shop for the lowest price range he can get for a project. Designers everywhere logged on to these services, and there began a race to the lowest hourly rate just to attract clients. I have seen rates as low as USD1/hr, but that designer is in IND, and perhaps USD 1/hr is more than enough to live by in that part of the world.

Which brings us to the present. A saturated market with more designers coming in–not just local but global–more than willing to undercut the others to get a client.

The bad news: Cheap is in

Nowadays, the business news on tv center around the almost daily rise and fall (mostly fall) of US and EU economies. Should Filipino designers be worried? Frankly, I am. Most of my clients are from abroad. And if feedbacks from recent quotes I made for prospective clients are any indication, my current pricing rates seem unsustainable.

But I am not going to lay the blame solely on designers with lower-than-market-average rates. I believe that clients gravitate to them because current economic situation demands it. Everyone is looking for ways to cut overhead cost and stay afloat. Even big companies are cutting costs, so shouldn’t our clients be?

The good news: There is a market for affordable design and services

At least we can rejoice in the fact that the web design industry is not slowing down (at least I don’t think it is, I’m still getting a lot of inquiries just that more clients are turned off by my quotes). It’s just going to the lower price range. Our clients are rushing to the cheapest designers they can find. We can go into denial-mode if we like, but unfortunately that’s where the market is going. So should we join the rush and lower our rates? This is where things get touchy.

IMHO, yes.

But I believe there is a proper way of doing this. And most designers are doing it wrong, mainly because they simply look at the competitors’ pricing then undercut it mindlessly. This is the practice that is undermining the industry. What I am going to present here is what I think to be the proper way of lowering one’s price.

The price i$ right

I am not going to teach you how to arrive at a quote. There are many tutorials for that, and there’s not one standardized way to do it. When I compute the cost of a project, these are the basic variables that I consider:

1. Design and features;
2. Hours to be spent;
3. Extraneous expenses;
4. The client;
5. My monthly overhead and how much profit I want to make to live according to my set standards.

Looking at these variables, I know that I can control nos. 1 to 4 to bring my pricing lower without compromising on no. 5 (which should be non-negotiable if you want to maintain a certain standard of living).

I am not going to teach you how to present your quote to the client either. Let just jump to the point where he says: it’s too high, I can get my grandson to do that for USD —- (insert some bullshitty price here). If you get this response, just walk away. I’m not kidding. But if you find yourself with a more reasonable client who understands your work but just doesn’t have the budget in this tough economic times, then try these suggestions on where to cut hours and arrive at a lower rate:

Design and features

Does the design require all the bells and whistles? Identify the must-have’s from the nice-to-have’s design features, and try to stick only to the absolute necessities. Same with site functionality. Sometimes, the client is not aware that what he is requesting will take a long time to build without adding much to the website’s usefulness. Communicate this clearly to the client and see if you can get him to take unnecessary embellishments out of the project scope.

Hours spent

Make your development process more efficient. This is a touchy topic to some–and there is also a right and wrong way of doing this, something I will blog about for next time–but I found that using frameworks and even commercial themes significantly decrease dev time. If you are against using frameworks and commercial/free themes, how about starting your own? Maybe you work in a niche market where clients ask for websites with similar layouts and features. Then start a base theme with all the similar layout and features built-in and use this for all your client sites. Offer clients a lower price if they agree on using the base theme with minimal modifications. You can even sell this as a commercial template and earn extra without you doing actual work.

You can also outsource parts of the project to someone with a lower hourly rate than you! Hire the guy who’s advertising his services for PHP 5,000 and let him do the boring, repetitive tasks like adding content to completed pages, etc.

Extraneous expenses

If your client demands face-to-face meeting, tell him you can lower your rate by doing Skype conference instead and save on gas or transportation expenses.

Need stock photos? There are still cheap stock photo sources out there, or look for willing suppliers from flickr. There are still people who will not mind you using their images in a design for free as long as you give them proper credit. Same for other media resources. But whatever you do, don’t steal other people’s work in order to save on expenses.

Your client

Go over your pricing. Maybe you are charging too high for your target market/prospective client. You cannot give the same quote for Aling Nena’s Online Sari-sari Store like you did for SM Supermart. Aling Nena will need a more modest set of features, so trim down your proposal and lower your quote.

Your monthly profit goal

Like I said this should be non-negotiable. After all, you cannot negotiate for a lower condo dues or apartment rent when times are tough. But if you must lower this (maybe you’ve done everything but still you lose out to Mr 5000), then you know where to cut corners: like don’t upgrade that iPhone until gen 10. Stuff like that.

Killing me softly with your price

And then there is Mr 5000. But maybe we are being too harsh on the poor guy. After all, I have not really seen the deliverable included with his price range. I can think of various cases where PHP 5000 is reasonable.

But if, for example, you have gone ahead with the cost-cutting steps I outlined above and somebody else came along and offered to do the same set of features for some ridiculously low price, what should a designer do? Well if your client went along, and the designer did deliver… then god help us all but I guess this industry IS in a downward spiral and will not be sustainable for long. Time to look for a new job.

BUT. The forums are rife with situations like this:

Client X gave his project to designer Y because he offered such a temptingly low price. Designer Y was ok to work with at the start but as the project dragged on he started to get flaky and ultimately disappear and the project not completed.

I can imagine designer Y’s nightmare scenario playing out behind the scenes, unseen by the clients who decide to work with this guy. Designer Y has to pay the rent like the rest of us, so in order to stay afloat he has to take on more projects, double than what the rest of us handles at a given time. Often he delivers sub-standard work. By juggling simultaneous clients, more than he can handle, at some point the balls start to fall. With too many projects going on, he burns out bringing his clients down along with him.

I should know. In a past freelance life I was a Mr 5000.

Post URL: A case for affordable web design: How to lower your price without killing yourself, your business, the market or bringing on the ire of other designers

Need to check how your website looks like on iPhone and iPad but you don’t have either device on hand? Fire up Safari, go to the Menu > click on Develop > User Agent > and you will see a list of browser agents to choose from. Among the list are iOS devices and if your website supports switching to a mobile theme, then you should see your site reload to the theme you assigned for iPad or iPhone.

Post URL: bITs: How to check how your site looks like on iPhone and iPad using your desktop Safari

Web designers will find that the Apple iPhone offers a variety of handy apps and tools to use when designing and accessing websites. All a designer needs is access to the best mobile broadband connection available and they’ll have some of the finest iPhone apps for web designers’ right in the palm of their hand.

What the Font

What the Font is a versatile iPhone app that allows the user to take a picture of fonts found in magazines, posters or other artwork and connect to the My Fonts website to identify the font. Fonts found in graphics accessed through the phone’s web browser can also be used. This is very useful for web designers that want to incorporate different fonts into their web pages.

Photobucket

Recognized as one of the web’s most comprehensive photo collection sites, Photobucket offers an app that gives web designers access to its site. Users can create, upload, manage and browse the extensive amount of photos directly from their iPhone. By using the best mobile broadband, accessing the photos will be a snap.

Word Press

The Word Press app gives users access to their Word Press web pages with many of the features available right on their iPhone. With the best mobile broadband access pages can be updated, shared and created. Posting and commenting are also available.

ServersMan

Using Wi-Fi or the 3G connection, the ServersMan app turns the iPhone into an extension of a web server. Most common file formats are supported including text, PDF, HTML, CSS, XML, Word, Excel and Powerpoint. With this app, designers can use the power of their iPhone to connect to their server.

Palettes 3.0

The iPhone can be used to access colour palettes found via photos, graphics or the web with the Palettes 3.0 app. Colour palettes and colour themes can be created directly in the app. Different colour formats such as RGB, CMYK, and HSV are supported.

CSS Cheat Sheet

This is a simple app that allows designers to determine the colour code for a particular element of their webpage design such as background, colour or border. The CSS Cheat Sheet app is very useful when doing CSS layouts.

Python Cheat Sheet

This coding language app provides helpful information to designers when developing pages using the Python language. It gives help with the format and layout information in a simple to use manner.

My Database Manager

This app allows the user to access the database on their server directly from their iPhone. It’s a very versatile tool for making changes to the database tables, running queries and gathering information about their databases. Having the best mobile broadband connection makes this app easy to use.

Ego

For web designers that need to keep track of their web page stats while on the go, Ego does the job in a user-friendly manner directly on the iPhone. Ego supports a variety of web stat formats such as Google Analytics, Tumblr, Feed Burner, Vimeo and many others. Hourly, daily, weekly stats are available via the Ego iPhone app.

FTP On the Go

Accessing files on the server is critical for web designers who are constantly on the go. Just as its name implies, FTP On the Go gives them the ability to upload and download files, create directories, rename, move and delete files, and perform other tasks directly from their iPhone.

Post URL: Guest Post: Web designer apps for the iPhone

A quick way to create a mobile-optimized
WordPress site without changing your theme

Consider these findings from a Google study:

71% of smartphone users search because of an ad they’ve seen either online or offline; 82% of smartphone users notice mobile ads, 74% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase as a result of using their smartphones to help with shopping, and 88% of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day. (Source)

Because of these findings, Google recently implemented a change in the “ads quality” ranking, as reported by AdWeek:

As of Wednesday, mobile optimization will now be included in Google’s “ads quality” ranking, which (along with pricing) determines what ads get served when. So—all other things being equal—an ad that links to a mobile-friendly website will get served alongside Google’s mobile search results before an ad that doesn’t. (Source)

Even if you do not use Adsense to drive traffic to your site, it’s obvious that the same arguments work for unpaid search results too. If your website does not work properly in mobile devices, you may be losing out on traffic. Therefore, make your website mobile-friendly. If you are using a Flash-only site, consider migrating your site to html5. If you have a website that is heavy on images and javascript effects that do not work in mobile devices, create a leaner mobile version.

If you are using WordPress to power your website, you are in luck. You can make your website mobile-friendly right NOW! The quickest way to make your WordPress site mobile-ready is to use a plugin that detects whether the user is viewing your site from a desktop or a mobile device and serve the appropriate theme depending on the result. The best plugin I have worked with so far is WPtouch. You can get the free version here.

The free version allows you to serve a mobile-optimized theme to iPhone, Android devices and a host of other smart phones, and includes customization options that should cover most WP website owner’s needs. You can customize the following options:

WPtouch Pro

But if you want more advanced options, WPtouch also has a Pro version that extends the plugin features. Some of the notable enhancements I found in the Pro version includes:

And if you want to view WPtouch Pro version in action, try viewing my site in iPad, iPhone and Android devices.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

Post URL: How to make your WordPress site mobile-ready

Pinoy bloggers are on the rise. Surf the web today and you find many of our kababayans publishing blogs on a variety of subjects, some of the more popular topics being: travel, fashion, photography, gadgets, and business. Check which platform their blog is running on and more often than not you will find that WordPress is the engine powering many of these sites.

The growing interest in blogging has also extended to pinoy professionals and companies, especially because blogging is a good way to attract audience and potential buyers. Businesses are also becoming aware that WordPress is more than a blogging tool. It can serve as a content management system for business and commercial websites, and the hosts of available plugins can easily convert a site to an online store, events portal,  online collaboration tool, media streaming site, social network… almost anything you can think of. And if you can’t find a plugin to suit your business needs, there are many savvy developers out there who can build a customized solution for you.

Without a doubt, WordPress is driving even my freelance business. These past two months, I have had several emails from people inquiring about using WordPress for a professional portfolio, to set up an online store, or to convert an old company website into a content managed system.

But despite its popularity, WordPress can be a daunting subject for those without a background in internet technology, and most people who approach me belong to this group. They are business owners, or the marketing officer in a company or solo professionals, people who are not in IT and who would rather concentrate on managing their business than agonizing over geeky stuff. But they do wish to know if only a superficial understanding of WP and its machinations, just enough to feel secure that this is the tool they need before committing themselves to it.

And so I occasionally receive emails inquiring about the more technical aspects of WordPress, from dealing with domains and web hosts, to installing  and managing WordPress, themes and plugins. To help my clients and to stop myself from repeating my answers over emails when somebody asks me a question about WP, I have decided to write a guide on setting up WP and to direct future queries to these posts.

I will break up the posts into the following topics:

1. How to choose and register a domain name;
2. How to select a web host;
3. How to install WordPress using cPanel;
4. How to manually install WordPress;
5. Where to find themes for your blog, niche-specific themes and how to install themes;
6. Essential plugins for content management, performance, SEO and security and how to install them; and
7. How to tune your WordPress site for performance and security.

Post URL: WordPress for the clueless:How to build a WordPress site

You can secure your Facebook browsing by turning on https, a feature which is sadly not the default at the moment. Go to your “Account Settings”, click on “Security”, and edit the “Secure Browsing” option by checking on “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) when possible” box.

Post URL: bITs: How to secure your browsing activities in Facebook

Speeding up my WordPress site with W3TC and CloudFlare

As far back as 1997, Jakob Nielsen was already saying that slow web page speed turns off visitors. The main culprits then were big images from graphic-intensive websites carried across slow modems.

Fast forward to 2011, the age of broadband internet, and studies prove that users still prefer fast loading websites over slow ones (but naturally!). A snappy website makes happy web visitors and happy visitors are more likely to turn into customers. Today however, the choking points of most slow websites are server delays and overly fancy web widgets.

One of the things I remember from Nielsen’s usability articles is that web users have an attention span of no more than 10 seconds. That means, optimally, your website must load and users must be able to interact with your page within that time frame or else they click away to other sites. It seems that patience limit has decreased from 10 to 5 seconds over the years. I assume that’s the reason why Google marked 5 seconds as the sweet spot for acceptable page speed.

I’m not exactly a speed junkie like other bloggers, but I have W3TC installed on my WordPress sites, including this one, for some time now. I stumbled across this plugin while researching about ways to improve website performance and to reduce bandwidth back in the old days when I was still on shared hosting (I am now on 6 nodes of vps at vps.net yay!) Then recently, a link to CloudFlare showed up in the W3TC options panel, so I researched about this service, liked the idea behind it and signed up for that too.

So now I have a plugin and a web service that supposedly should speed up my site. But do they really? My site does seem fast but I want numbers to prove it. So last night, I decided to test my website using the page speed tester at Pingdom Tools and Google Labs.

First I had to revert my site to an un-optimized state, so I cleared all cache (plugin and CloudFlare), I deactivated Pingdom and W3TC, then ran the tests. Here are the results:

Pingdom Result

Google Labs Result

Next, I activated W3TC but instead of just accepting the default settings, I tweaked it further by specifying the css and js scripts to be minified. I also have an Amazon S3 account with CloudFront, so I added that into the CDN setting, and uploaded the files into the Amazon cloud. Then I cleared the plugin cache to make sure the tests will load from an uncached page and ran the tests again:

Pingdom Result

Google Labs Result

Finally, I re-activated CloudFlare, but stopped before making the last test. I thought it might need some time for my minified scripts and cloud files to propagate across the globe, so I decided to go to sleep and do the test in the morning.

Ten hours later, I was back online tweaking my CloudFlare setup. On top of the usual setup, I activated the minify and CDNJS settings. So now I have W3TC minification and CloudFlare minification; Cloudfront CDN and Cloudflare CDN; how they all work together without breaking my site confounds even myself, but my website loads fine so I let it be.

Running the tests one last time yields these results:

Pingdom Result

Google Labs result

My next goal is to see if I can improve the results further. Reading the suggestions from Google Labs, I think I can lighten the load some more by removing unnecessary page widgets (do I really need a Facebook Like box on the homepage?), or hosting external services in my server (e.g., replacing typekit with self-hosted webfonts and @font-face css). Will keep you posted on how that will turn out.

Post URL: I feel the need, the need for speed

Noticed anything different on my site today? It’s very subtle but it’s there. The texts are anti-aliased and have none of the jagged corners like they did previously. Well, not “anti-aliased” in the real sense of the word but the effect is pleasing. And this can be done by adding this property to your css.

In my website I added the property to the body {}header tags. The text shadow color should be the same color as the text, and in RGBA.

Post URL: bITs: How to make web fonts smoother with css

One of the selling points that Samsung pushed when advertising the Galaxy Tab was its use as navigation instrument. The video on the Galaxy Tab microsite shows a guy walking around, tablet in hand, following a green line on a satellite map on the screen.

I did not imagine how true that video can get in real life until a recent holiday in Thailand. In a city that sprawled an area as far as the eye can see, where places of interests are spread far and wide, and where people look at you with bewildered/embarrassed faces when you ask for directions in English,  I became the guy on the ad video, the tablet in my hand being my only aide in navigating a strange land, and trusty interpreter in communicating with locals who did not understand a word of English.

When I bought my Galaxy Tab, I had that guilty feeling that came with yet another impulse-driven, totally unnecessary and expensive purchase. After Thailand I can say that I am glad I bought one.

These are some of the situations where the Tab was most helpful during my travel:

Navigation. Google Maps is definitely a traveler’s best friend. Especially if, like me, you are the type who hates packaged tours and prefer making your own itinerary. It certainly beats walking around with a paper map. You can rotate, zoom, find landmarks and, if you are online via 3G, get more information about places.

The walking direction feature in Google Map was especially helpful. I used it to find my way from Khao San to Grand Palace and surrounding areas, to the night market and Wat Lokayasutharam (reclining Buddha) in Ayutthaya, and around Chiang Mai.

Google Maps provided the shortest route going to the destination. Good in  theory, but in reality I imagine this can get you in scary situations. The direction to the Ayutthaya night market passed through dimly lit narrow streets. The one to the reclining Buddha cut through a gravelly muddy path, across a poor residential area. And then sometimes the direction fails. The end-point of the walking direction to the Chiang Mai night market was almost a kilometer off mark, which can get you very pissed if you’ve been walking all day and badly need food.

Translation and visual communication. Communicating the name and address of your destination to a taxi driver who does not speak English or read anything except Thai script can be a challenge. It does not help that Thai words are often mis-transliterated in English–like for example “Suvarnabhumi” is supposed to be spoken as sù.wān.nā.pʰūːm (suwanaphum)–so most likely you end up saying the names of places wrong. It’s best to know how to say the names of places before you travel, or else have your hotel concierge write down on paper in the local scripts the names of places you plan to visit.

If you don’t have the places written down and your driver cannot understand a word you are saying, Google Maps may most likely have the street names in the local Thai script. The information page reached by clicking on places often have the names written in the local scripts as well (bless all the people who keep adding info into the Google database). And when none of those helps, try Googling a photo of your destination and showing this to your driver.

Calling home. The 69THB sim card bought in Khao San gave me 300 minutes of internet time. I only turned the 3G on when necessary and connected to wi-fi while in hotels or wherever it’s available. 300 minutes lasted me 10 days. I was able to chat with my father while on the move. Skype calls worked too. My sister called me up from East Timor–she works as a pediatrician in Dili’s government hospital–although the audio was choppy.

Killing time. A 12-hour train ride is a cheap way to travel across Thailand, but it can get boring. Same with waiting for the flight home at the airport. Luckily, there’s always Facebook or Angry Birds (the goal is to have three stars in all levels) on the Tab to while away the time.

The Galaxy Tab helped me in various situations while on holiday. BUT, I do realize there is one big requirement that made this possible in Thailand: a strong and reliable 3G signal even outside the skirts of the capital city. It’s something that telecoms in other developing countries, including the Philippines, may not always provide specially in remote areas. I also found the screen lacking in brightness when viewed outdoors and reading the map can be difficult under bright sunlight. Otherwise, the Tab turned out to be useful purchase after all. My only wish is for an upgrade that will allow me to use the Tab to transfer photos from my camera’s SD card to a portable drive via USB, so that I can ditch the netbook (I only brought it to store photos) and lighten my backpack further.

Post URL: How to travel with an Android

In any business, it is wise to keep one’s overhead costs low in order to maximize profits. For freelancers like me, this proves a big challenge as we pay everything out of our own pocket. That is why many of us rely on free tools to get our businesses going without adding to the cost.

I have tried and experimented with different services in the past, both free and commercial. But as my freelancing work grew, I have found myself relying on just a few dependable tools/services that are either 100% free or charge only a small/reasonable amount.

1. Google Apps is definitely top on my list. What I have found especially useful in the suite of applications are Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Mail. These three free apps working together saves you from buying an expensive project management/collaboration tool.

Google Docs. Who needs costly office software when you can have similar tools for free from Google. I now do most of my word processing and spreadsheets in Google Docs.

Its being an online application is what I found most useful about this app . I like the fact that I am able to get access to Google Docs anywhere there’s a computer and an internet connection–and if you are a web worker like me, I assume you are wired to the net most of your waking moments.

I find it useful that I can sync my files to my Samsung Galaxy Tab and have access to the documents whenever and wherever I need them. I can edit files, read documents and stay productive while in a mind-numbing 10-hour bus ride from Manila to my hometown, for example. Or quickly open my list of professional fees or a ready-made résumé to send to a prospective client even when I am out.

The collaboration feature allows me to share my files with clients or other project team mates and have them edit the files if needed. I can even upload and share entire folders with images, pdfs, or videos.

Google Calendar. Just like Google Docs, its being online is what I find a plus in this app. I can add events on my work PC using Thunderbird (iCal) and be assured that I can also access the same calendar on my netbook, on other PCs via  browser, and specially in my Galaxy Tab. It can send alarms to my email inbox or even to my phone via SMS. I can share schedules with my clients, or import their calendar into mine. If I need to be reminded about US holidays, or PH holidays, there are ready-made calendars I can plug into my own.

Gmail. When I learned that Google Apps allows custom email hosting, I decided to move my email accounts at jasperespejo.com to the Google MX servers. Then I stopped the mail service in my own Linux server and freed the CPU resources and storage space for other use.

OK, that might be too techie for a web designer, but I have hosted my own websites–and that of a few clients–on my own servers for some time. I decided to set up my VPS once I realized I could not do certain improvements to my dynamic sites or upgrade my WordPress sites because my hosting provider did not allow me root access to update my PHP or to tweak server settings. If you are running your own server, having one less web service to manage means less headache and more time to devote to design projects.

By allowing Google to manage my email server, I can depend on their efficient SPAM and virus filters to sort my messages from the junk. Similar services would cost me a hefty sum in license or subscription if installed on my server.

With Gmail’s IMAP connection, I am able to sync my emails on my work PC using Thunderbird, to the mail app in Galaxy Tab, my netbook (via Jolicloud) and when I don’t have access to any of these I can still go to any PC, fire up a browser and check my emails at gmail.com.

I like Google Apps so much I have started to include Google Apps integration in some of my project proposals especially to clients who need to give email accounts to people within their company. Google Apps comes with a free version, while a business version with more features and bigger storage can be had for as low as USD 5.00 per month.

2. Zoho Invoice. For sending invoices to clients, I rely on Zoho Invoice–a no frills online billing app that I can integrate with Google Apps. I can pull the client info from Google Contacts, use customized invoice templates, automatically follow-up on recurring or late payments and direct payments to PayPal. Recently Zoho has added a time tracking feature that I can start or pause with a button. When work is done, I can convert the logged hours into an invoice.

Zoho Invoice comes free but with limits to the number of invoices you can create in a month. You can pay a monthly subscription for as low as USD8.00 to increase limits. Go here for more information (yup that’s an affiliate link.)

3. Moneydance and HandyBank. I have never been very good with managing my finances, much to my parent’s chagrin.  Part of my recent efforts to solve that problem is keeping track of my cash inflows and outflows using Moneydance, a finance manager. There’s nothing like a series of red numbers on the HandyBank (an android app that connects to my desktop Moneydance via wifi) while inputting yet another expense to hold me back from making another useless purchase. Moneydance can import .qif files from PayPal so I am able to track my earnings and payments from there. It can also import .qif files from my bank. I am able to gauge my financial standing with all money accounts via the graphs. The reports are not always favorable.

You can download Moneydance and test it with a fully functional installation. The only limitation is that manual inputs max out at 100. Imported transactions from PayPal or your bank do not count to the maximum.

Post URL: Free (or cheap) online tools that help with my freelance business

It is fairly easy to create custom tabs for Facebook Pages using static FBML app and a few codes of html. Copy-and-paste FBML codes abound on the web and numerous services–both free and paid–have grown around this app. The popularity of static FBML rests on the fact that it is an easy and the ONLY way to put a unique brand/personal touch to a Facebook account; so you can imagine, everyone from big companies (Coke keeps cropping up as example) to small-time Filipino web designers ;-) have used static FBML app to brand their own Facebook Pages.

But recently, Facebook announced that they are going to deprecate the use of FBML in favor of iframe for Page tabs. Starting March 11, 2011, reports say you won’t be able to add static FBML apps as Page tabs. Although all existing FMBL tab and apps will continue to function, and will still be able to be edited for the immediate future, it is believed that Facebook will eventually remove FBML entirely.

So what does this mean to people who want a custom Facebook Page but are not html savvy?

I headed over to the Facebook developer area to assess the difficulty of creating a custom Page tab using the new iframe. The result of my first attempt ended with this: a Feedburner list of my latest blogs embedded right inside my own Facebook Page (view).

My verdict is that, yes, it will be quite difficult for non-web-savvy folks to deal with the new iframe compared to static FBML. Not only do you need to go thru the hassle of first connecting the developer app to your account before you can create an iframe tab; but you MUST also have a remotely hosted web page, then have to go thru several steps creating the apps settings, before you can finally add the app to your Page.

But it did hit me, one good thing about having an iframe–and probably the main reason why Facebook has decided to go down this route–is that now you can embed a remotely hosted website inside Facebook. And for many people who are not knowledgeable in html, there are already a host of online tools and services that help create a website without html know-how. And naturally, the first application to come to my mind is WordPress.

So I did another test. I created a WordPress page template that will fit inside the constrained layout of a Facebook Page and added an image (via WordPress’ built-in media uploader), a flash slideshow from flickr, javascript from feedburner, and a post tab plugin to the content. Then I created another iframe app in Facebook with the source pointing to the WordPress page I created earlier, and added the iframe app to a Facebook Page. The result is this sample demo page.

It works. And I see a lot of potential for this new way of connecting WordPress content and Facebook Pages.

The initial hurdle for many people will be the extra steps in creating the iframe app; but, if you already have a WordPress site for publishing html pages and you are not intimidated by the technical jargons while creating the Facebook apps settings, you will see it’s really not that hard to create a custom Facebook Page using the new iframe method.

Ok if you have read this far and are now wondering where the f#@!ck is the tutorial, it is not here! :-) I published the tutorial on my hubpage. Go take a look. If you can read and you are smart enough to follow step-by-step instructions, you can have your first iframe app in Facebook up in no time.

Post URL: How to create an iframe Facebook Page with content from WordPress

Home Studio Photography: Your Complete Guide To Building A Photography Studio At Home

Filipinos are a beautiful and creative people. And we live in a country that boasts of many picturesque sceneries, most of it in remote places still largely undiscovered by the mob of Lonely-Planet-toting tourists. It’s but natural that we would want to capture all that beauty into a digital image that we can share with everyone.

I believe that is the main reason why in the past few years, there has been an explosion of photography as a hobby among Filipinos, aided further by the release of semi-professional DSLRs into the market from brands like Canon and Nikon.

It’s not exactly a cheap hobby. Although many can now  afford to buy a decent dslr, the cost of additional photo equipments easily escalates once you get hooked. First, you will want a tripod and a nice bag, next a flash for better lighting in dim situations, then professional lenses for sharper images and more versatile compositions. Before you know it, the total cost of your hobby easily runs to over a hundred thousand pesos.

And then some get really hooked into photography and after a few years of honing their skills in workshops and free photo shoots with friends, decide to take the leap from life as an office-worker to that of a full-time professional photographer. I know some friends who dream of eventually quitting their office jobs and setting up a photo studio but one common factor holds them back: the high cost of professional lighting equipments.

If you are like my friends, you maybe interested in an ebook that I recently came across. The ebook is called “Home Studio Photography: Your Complete Guide To Building A Photography Studio At Home” from www.diyphotography.net.

Don’t let the “Home Studio” title fool you. I believe the lighting equipments you can build using instructions from this ebook are good enough to start a modest business in studio photography.

The ebook explains that “light is light, no matter how expensive your modifiers, and there are countless ways to get the same or nearly the same look as pro equipment, for a fraction of the cost” and continuous on to present page-after-page of invaluable information on building your own light sources–from softboxes, reflectors and diffusers to light tents.

“Home Studio Photography: Your Complete Guide To Building A Photography Studio At Home” is available for immediate download at only USD19.85.

Here’s the table of contents to give you an idea of what is contained in the ebook:

23 Home Studio Projects For Every Modifier Imaginable

With 16 Full Tutorials, 5 Quick Tips, 3 Ghetto Setups and 3 Cheat Sheets, the book provides a stepping stone into the world of cheap, fun studio building and then studio shooting.

Projects Included:

• The Easiest Softbox In The World
• DIY Strip Light
• The Best Softbox Ever
• Continuous Light Softbox
• Turkey Pan Beauty Dish
• Foamboard Reflector
• V Cards
• PVC Diffusion Screen
• The ‘Oh So Famous’ Cereal Snoot
• Coroplast Gridspot
• Black Straws Grid
• PVC Light Stand
• Pony Clamp Stand
• Stick In A Can
• Light Tent
• Underlight With A Cardboard Box

Home Studio Photography In A Nutshell:

• Walks you through the relevant projects for building all the modifiers needed for a studio
• Shows how to build cheap, yet fully functional versions of expensive lighting modifiers
• Detailed step by step tutorials, with images and diagrams to illustrate the build process of each project
• Quick Tips: Short and fun projects that require little craftsmanship

Post URL: Setting up an affordable photo studio

My new Facebook page. Do "like" me when you visit.

Like many other web professionals, I have my portfolio website linked to my Facebook profile. Facebook has become the latest go-to place to advertise one’s business on the internet. I send work-related posts and other work updates to my fb profile and this setup has worked very well. Next to Google search, Facebook is the second biggest source of traffic referrals to my site.

I have always been aware of one big mistake in this setup. My Facebook profile friends are a chopsuey mix of freelance clients, colleagues from past jobs, relatives, friends, and even total strangers. In real life, nobody would want to mix private life with business, but my Facebook profile is exactly that. There have been a few cases where I needed to delete embarrassing comments or untag photos made by friends which I thought were inappropriate for work (or just plain inappropriate, period).

I considered two solutions to this problem: setup another Facebook profile just for freelance work, or setup a business page under my current fb account. The first solution was not particularly attractive. I do not want to maintain two separate accounts. The second solution sounded better. After all, Facebook pages were created exactly to promote businesses on Facebook.

And so this week, I went ahead and created a page for my freelance work.

For some time now, I have been reading articles on the Facebook Developers website and have tinkered with using fbml and iframe tabs. I decided to apply what I have learned so far to give my page a customized look and make it stand out from the boring Facebook default. This is another feature that made me decide to go for a page instead of a separate profile. Facebook pages allow tabs with content that can be customized using plain html and css.

I created a simple welcome tab, a navigation menu linked to other tabs on my fb page. I configured the page setting to direct everyone who visits the page directly to my welcome tab instead of my page wall. Using my mad fbml skillz further ;-) I also embedded a Slideshowpro player for my photos and a blog section containing the latest posts from my portfolio site. I created my own blog tab vs using readily available rss/blog apps because I wanted to bring my own stylesheet and also to be able to embed affiliate links.

Recently, Facebook made an upgrade to pages that I find really useful. It is the ability to interact with other Facebook pages as a “page”. I can now switch from using Facebook as my profile to using fb as my page–”Jasper Espejo – Web Design”–and “like” or leave comments on other pages as “Jasper Espejo – Web Design”. I see in here an opportunity to promote my business page when I leave comments on other pages with similar interests. My avatar and fb user name are linked back to my business page instead of my profile.

Another thing I like about a Facebook page is that it is viewable by the public, including non-friends and even when you are not logged in (although there seems to be a bug with the latest implementation of iframe tabs, where iframes are currently not visible when a user is not logged in). A feature that’s great for promoting a business to everyone, but definitely scary when applied to a private individual profile.

Other features that are available only to pages, and not to profiles include:

1. Insights – Insights provide useful data about user activity on my page, including how many likes and comments I received each day, demographic break-downs and much more. Any business will find this data useful for understanding customers.
2. Like box - Profiles don’t offer a way to embed a Like Box on a website.
3. Unlimited fans - Profiles limit your friends to 5,000 (seriously, who has that many friends) while pages get unlimited fans.

And here’s my brand spanking new Facebook page. Hope you “like” it.

I will be reading some more articles from the Facebook Developer page with the goal of further improving my skills in custom page building. I want to make a business out of this new skill. I learn best by hands-on training so I am thinking I will contact 5-10 friends and offer to create a custom business page for free and add then later to my portfolio.

Post URL: Why I moved from a Facebook profile to a Facebook page

I started blogging in 2001 at blogger.com. When I got my first web host, I moved my blog to Movable Type and forced myself to learn the basics of perl so that I can design my first custom theme. I was there when WordPress first came out, and I remember not liking it one bit. Compared to the elegant layout of MT’s admin, I thought WP looked clunky. Besides, I was just not ready to learn another language (php). I was hellbent on becoming a designer not a programmer!

Blogging was an on-and-off thing for me, with my most productive blogging period being during my stay in Kuala Lumpur (fueled by homesickness, I guess). By the time I purchased the domain jasperespejo.com, it seemed every Tom-Dick-and-Harry was ranting about something online via personal blogs while I, on the other hand, lost interest. I decided to use my new website to feature only web projects using (then) snazzy jquery effects and my blog faded into oblivion, or rather into a backup sql file.

But sometime last year, I started toying with the idea to resurrect my blog. In the intervening years since I closed my blog, the main reason that stopped me from having one in jasperespejo.com has disappeared–the notion that a blog is a personal journal and not a professional tool.

So I remodeled my site around a new WordPress… yes WordPress, the one I rejected years back for being ugly but which I have eventually grown to love and master (including learning php) after discovering its many good points (not least the fact the people will pay me to make their WP sites)… a new WordPress platform that caught my interest, PlatformPro from Pageline, and put a blog on the frontpage.

The effect of this addition on my website has been very positive.

1. Surge in web traffic. Unlike before where I was getting only a handful of hits per day, my Google Analytics chart peaked like a sharp mountain cliff since I opened my blog and never hit 0 again.
2. Increased inquiries about my freelance services. Not all of which I can accommodate, unfortunately.
3. Sales from affiliate links (finally!). I’ve tried a few affiliate links displayed here-and-there among my social network sites but I never really made a single sale until recently. And those sales all came from my re-designed website. Now I know that the formula traffic + targeted content = sales does work and I am thinking of other ways to leverage this.

I have to thank social networks for the good outcome. The first thing I did after completing the re-design and before posting my first blog was to setup dlvr.it to forward my posts to all my social networking sites. And believe me I’ve signed up to plenty. Sometimes, I think too many for my own good.

And also, I seemed to have hit a jackpot when I blogged my reaction about a Lonely Planet article mentioning the Philippines. That post got me the most search referral from Google. Now I’m thinking I should do more stories about my travels around the PH. I’m beginning understand why a lot of people seem to want to be travel bloggers.

So now I’m stoked to blog more. One of my immediate to-do is to find the sql backup file of my old blog and rescue some of the noteworthy travel posts I made in the past and import them over to their new home.

I will also write about my freelancing job which is going into its 4th year by June 2011. A fact which surprises even myself, because when I quit my day job in a US-owned company four years ago, I had so many fears about working outside the traditional office setting and I thought I would not last a few months working from home.

And, of course, I will blog about my other interests in life: photography, keeping fit, transitioning into my 40s, personal projects. Now and then, I might try to sell some stuff via promotional posts ;-).

So here it is. My new blog-life.

Post URL: What a difference a blog makes

As promised, here is the link to buy Photo Nuts and Shots: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY from Digital Photography School (dPS).

Click the image above to buy Photo Nuts and Shots: Tools and Techniques for Creative Photography

The ebook is now available for immediate download. There is a 25% discount ($14.97, down from $19.97) if you buy within two weeks. And for the first week only, early buyers will be included in a draw to win a DSLR camera.

And to give you an idea about the content, I have included a screenshot of the table of contents and a gallery of some of the pages below.

Click to view larger version.

And if you are looking for the first installment of the Photo Nuts series, you can also buy via the banner below.

Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos

Post URL: 25% OFF Photo Nuts and Shots: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

Digital Photography School (dPS), my favorite go-to website for tips and tricks concerning digital photography, will be launching a new ebook this Wednesday. The ebook is the second installment of their very popular Photo Nuts series and follows on from Photo Nuts and Bolts. Like the first ebook, it is written by Neil Creek.

Click the image above to buy Photo Nuts and Shots: Tools and Techniques for Creative Photography

Where the first ebook explained the workings of the camera, how to control it and what that understanding means for improving your photos; the second ebook Photo Nuts and Shots “continues the learning process in photography, building on your knowledge of the camera, and turning its attention to helping you become a better photographer. This doesn’t just mean knowing how to expose or compose, but also how to think.”

Yours truly was given the opportunity to preview the ebook today via an email from the man himself Darren Rowse. And being an amateur photographer myself who is past the beginner stage, I can say that I have more use of this second ebook compared to the first one.

Like the book has pointed out in the introduction, photography is more than just technical skills. “Photography is also a way of thinking. It’s about understanding and appreciating art, as well as creating your own. It’s about feeling a mood, capturing it, and conveying it to your audience and even telling a story with the frame.”

If you are already comfortable working with the dials of you camera and lenses, and still looking for ways to improve your photos beyond mere technical knowledge, then I suggest you try this new ebook from dPS.

I have embedded a copy of the table of contents below plus some screenshots of pages. The ebook will be available by January 26 and I will post a link to where you can buy online as soon as I receive the information. The launch will come with a 25% discount for the first two weeks and first week buyers will be included in a draw to win a DSLR camera.

Click to view larger version.

If you are looking for the first installment of the Photo Nuts series, you can also buy via the banner below.

Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos

Post URL: PREVIEW dPS Photo Nuts and Shots: Tools and Techniques for Creative Photography

Last week, two belated holiday presents arrived by parcel: Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body book which I pre-ordered on Amazon before Christmas and  a couple of Photobook albums that I designed and sent for printing right after Christmas.

The 4-Hour Body

The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Workweek

Truth is, I am not really sure why I got Tim Ferriss’ new book. Brand loyalty, I guess. I’m a big fan. Or maybe because it was discounted and came bundled with the updated The 4-Hour Workweek (PDF) and another ebook from Ramit Sethi.

The stub to claim the Amazon parcel at the post-office arrived while I was still on vacation. The post office at Mandaluyong City Hall is just one short tricycle ride away, so I immediately went to claim my shipment the day after I returned back to Manila.

The first time I had books shipped from Amazon, the post-office employee I dealt with asked for grease-money to have the books released without me having to pay tax which in his computation amounted to double the price of the books I bought. I only learned later that no payment was needed since books were not taxed at all. So this time, I was ready to put up a fight in case I had to face a similar situation, but fortunately no such thing happened. Transaction was smooth. I gave them the stub and my ID, they gave me a logbook to sign and right after they handed me the brown Amazon box. Fast. Efficient.

So far, I have browsed the chapter about gaining muscle mass and exercise tips. My initial impression is that there is nothing new in this book that you have not heard or read before if this is your thing and have googled it extensively on the internet. A friend of mine read the chapter on losing weight and he is of similar impression about the ideas contained in the book about weighloss. But then again, the point of The 4-Hour Body is not to present new ideas but to collect those ideas scattered all over the web into a book (no more googling) and, especially, for Tim Ferriss to test these ideas using his own body, and to inspire us with his personal results.

And we are inspired enough to at least follow some suggestions in the book. My friend decided to follow the 6-days-no-carbs-1-day-binge-diet for a month, and ditch going to the gym like the book says (to my disapproval). I on the other hand is following the book’s suggestion to increase calorie and protein intake. But as for the exercise tips, I find those a bit hard to follow at the neighborhood gym where I go now because the place gets pretty crowded and doing slow movement exercises might annoy some. Maybe I can start on Tim’s exercise sets when I am back at Eclipse Fitness. In the meantime I will stick with a more conventional exercise routine.

Photobook

The Photobook albums (hard cover with image wrap) that I created as Christmas gifts for my sister and niece.

I purchased a couple of discounted offers from Photobook Philippines before Christmas hoping to give photo albums of my niece as gift to my sis. But I was too busy with work to finish the layout in time, and only managed to complete the design right before the NY holiday break. Printing took about a week, and the photo albums arrived a few days after we were back from a family vacation in Baguio City.

Quality of book material is good. I don’t really like the paper, but my budget prevented me from upgrading to better paper stock. I don’t quite like the way some of the colors came out, but then that is the risk of desktop-to-press and no fault of Photobook. There really is no sure way of knowing how monitor colors will translate to print unless you proof your work.

Sister and niece looked happy when I gave these to them, so I guess in the end it was worth it.

Post URL: Two belated holiday presents: “The 4-Hour Body” book for me and Photobook albums for my sis and niece