Productivity
The Day A.I. Solved My Phone Bill Nightmare
It seems like everyone’s wading into the AI pool these days, wondering if it’s a revolutionary tool or just a shiny toy. Count me in—I’ve already learned at least six different AI programs that I can combine to make my life easier. What began as a playful experiment back in late 2022 has evolved into…
Read MorePart 4 of 4: Graphic Design — Answering 20 Burning Questions
Client needs vs. creative vision—how do you balance? Client needs are the foundation of all projects. Creativity helps communicate that message, and being given boundaries is not a bad thing. You look at the client needs and add as much creativity you can without mucking up their needs or the goals of the piece. I…
Read MorePart 3 of 4: Graphic Design — Answering 20 Burning Questions
Quick summary of your design process? Discovery: I have a quick conversation (phone or email) with the client to understand the job and the goal. I ask about the end-product (web page, flyer, will it be digital or printed, how many copies, etc.) to ensure the design makes sense once it leaves my hands. Understanding…
Read MorePart 2 of 4: Graphic Design — Answering 20 Burning Questions
Biggest challenge in freelancing? Staying organized. Your job never really stops outside the hours of 8 to 5. You have to figure out how to manage your temporal boundaries so you can take care of your clients and yourself. How do you juggle design and business tasks? Chunking, scheduling, and a good project management tool.…
Read MoreThe Science (and Science Fiction) of DPI
Don’t use inches when talking about digital images. Only use pixels. Remember when Han Solo claimed he made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs? And you thought your head was going to explode, because YOU know that a parsec is a measure of distance and not speed? Okay, maybe you aren’t that nerdy.…
Read MoreTools for checking your domain name and email for deliverability
Checking your domain and mail for problems often starts with running some tests. This is a list of places I have found useful: https://dmarcian.com/dmarc-inspector/ – Checks for a valid DMARC on your DNS http://mail-tester.com – sends a test mail https://redsift.com/products/ondmarc/investigate – checks for DMARC, DKIM, SPF https://mxtoolbox.com/DMARCRecordGenerator.aspx – DMARC Generator https://mxtoolbox.com/SPFRecordGenerator.aspx – SPF Checker and…
Read MoreBox.com can bite me
How do you turn off box.com on startup? I have the answer. I have customers that use box (a shared file service). We don’t use it much and I noticed that it was auto-launching on my Mac. I went to the preferences to tell the app not to launch upon start up. There was no…
Read MoreHow to Make a PDF of an Entire Website
You have a couple of ways to make a PDF from a website. Actually, there are more ways than that, but I will be outlining two. Adobe Acrobat Pro (not the free version) — Lots of professionals have this suite already and you won’t have to buy an extra software PDFmyURL — This is a paid…
Read More7 ideas to improve your client’s experience on your website
Back in the day, I used the yellow pages to find the type of business I needed. There were usually a lot of choices. I tended to pick the best looking ad that seemed the friendliest. Today, I use Google or ask my online friends for recommendations and I usually end up with a pretty…
Read MoreCould you use a booking program on your website?
Do you spend a lot of time making appointments for phone calls and meetings? A few years ago I realized that I had a pain threshold regarding making appointments with clients. After an email or two, they would want a meeting or a phone appointment. Then they would want to know what times I had…
Read MoreCreate a Shared Family Address Book with Contacts and iCloud
NOTE: “Apple Family Sharing” is good for sharing the in-app purchases, iTunes, iBooks, and iCloud storage. But, it doesn’t share address books well, at least not yet. I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this lately. I figure Apple will solve this problem eventually by changing the way the address book works. But, for now,…
Read MoreAre you as tired of all those telemarketer and robot telephone calls as I was?
I have a home office, and I used to get phone calls all day long that were just garbage calls. Scammers and robot calls. If I spied the caller ID and it said, “Out of Area,” I knew it was going to be a call I was sorry I answered. I have done many things…
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