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6 Tips to Stay Focused on Project Deadlines

business | client | company | deadlines | focus | Freelance | Inspiration | Tips | Web Design 0 No Comments

Staying focused on your goals may be difficult at times as a freelancer. Not having a nine-to-five job, selecting your own clients, setting your own rates and deadlines and also doing PR work for yourself is quite different than being a full-time employee in a web design agency, where many of the things above are done by different individuals or departments. One of the most difficult things I encountered when I started as a freelancer was staying focused on the deadlines. And not only keeping my focus, but also meeting the deadline and delivering the project on time – at the end of the day, this is one of the most important things alongside the quality of your work.

 

You can do this by following some of these techniques. It is not physics, chemistry or math. They’re all easy to follow, therefore I think you should give them a try if you struggle with keeping yourself on schedule. As this has something to do with personal and time management, and not with the field we work in, it suits both designers and developers.

1. Be a perfectionist

Designers and developers usually need to hold perfectionism at bay, as we are creative individuals. All artists in the world have a tendency to try reaching for perfectionism. You need to know when your piece of work still needs more polishing, or when it is done. Wasting time with improving something that can’t be improved will not make help you manage your time.

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İyi bir sistem analistinde olmaması gereken 10 işaret

Analist | Analyst | business | Business Analyst | İş Analisti | İş Zekası 0 No Comments

 

ABD’deki iş bulma kurumunun öngörüsüne göre 2014 yılına kadar sistem analistlerine olan işgücü ihtiyacı, ortalama işgücü ihtiyacının üzerinde olacak. Bunda en önemli etkenlerden biri kurumlarda kullanılan teknolojik sistemlerin iş ihtiyaçlarına paralel olarak sürekli daha karmaşık hale gelmeleri.

#1: Müşterilerinizin IT’ye ayak uydurmasını bekliyorsunuz

İş ünvanında “analist” sözcüğünün geçiyor olmasının sebebi, sizden beklenenin iş ihtiyaçlarını analiz etmeniz ve IT’nin müşterilerine daha iyi hizmet veriyor olmasını sağlamanız olmasıdır. IT tarafında işlerin Read More

Should designers do personal projects?

business | Design | Graphic Design | How to | outsourcing | personal projects | Productivity | Web Design | workflow 0 No Comments

As creatives, most times we feel like we can do it all, or we are put in a position to do it all. We typically take on a ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ mentality, that can either help or harm us.

For some odd reason, there seems to be a discrepancy of sorts when it comes to doing the work for ourselves. Some designers feel like of course we should take on that Jack-of-all-trades mindset, while others just feel like it makes sense to pass the work off and let someone else do it.

The truth is, they’re both great ideas but vary depending on your situation. How creative are you? What is your skill set? What kind of things stress you out? All these questions should be taken into consideration when determining whether or not designers should do their own personal projects.

Keep in mind, that for the purposes of this argument, we will say that a personal project is any type of work that contributes to yourself and your services. For example, we are talking about business cards, websites, etc. Read More

45+ iPhone Apps To Keep You On Top Of the Edge Wherever You Go

Apple | applications | apps | business | iPhone | Productivity | tools | Web Design 0 No Comments

iPhone has gained popularity rapidly and is a must have gadget for nearly everyone now. Even I, an old clumsy Nokia owner, have finally realized it. iPhone is not your typical phone you pull out only to make a call. It can do much more than that. And with over 350 000 apps it would be silly not to fully use the potential this phone’s offering. But which apps to choose and which are worth the money? It can be rather frustrating to pick the right ones for you in all that mess.

This article is here to help you and presents 45+ of the most useful, efficient and awesome apps to keep you on top of the edge every time you use your iPhone – be as productive as possible wherever you go. The apps collected in this article range from advanced bookmarking services to simple photo effect tools. These fantastic apps will help you increase your productivity greatly and get the best from your iPhone. You might ask if you can afford all that? Don’t worry, most of these apps are actually free or at a ridiculously low price for the value you get.

Organizing

These apps will help you to organize your notes, photos, bookmarks and synchronize them across your computer and other compatible devices. The USB flash era is over – DropBox is the new ultimate service for transferring files quickly and efficiently.

1. Evernote (free)

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Evernote for iPhone lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos that you can then access any time from your iPhone, computer, or the web.

2. ZooTool ($1.99)

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Zootool for iPhone makes it easy to bookmark, organize and share your favorite images, videos, documents and links from all over the web.

3. Dropbox (free)

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Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go.

4. inClass (free)

Inclass-useful-iphone-apps

inClass, the amazing student organizer, is here to help you survive school. No matter how complex your school schedule is inClass will help you keep track of all your courses and even alert you before class so that you are never late again. Not only that, but it will help you keep track of your tasks by reminding you that one is due soon, so no more procrastination.

Business

Take your business with you in your phone. These apps will help you track, manage and take care of your finances and business.

1. Mint (free)

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Personal finance tools from Mint. Track, budget and manage your money on-the-go. Sign up for a Mint account, add your online banking accounts and access your personal finances — all from your iPhone. Get started for free.

2. Billings Touch (free)

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Billings Touch takes the Apple Design Award winning time tracking and invoicing experience from the Mac and puts it in your pocket.

3. Outpost 2 ($19.99)

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If you use Basecamp, you use it because you want to be productive. You use it because you want a simple solution to what once was a big problem for you. Now, you can use Basecamp on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad just as you’ve always wanted to.

4. MiniBooks for FreshBooks ($14.99)

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MiniBooks puts the popular web invoicing software FreshBooks in the palm of your hand. Manage your clients, send invoices, run timers, and record payments, all while on the go. Plus, MiniBooks fully synchronizes with your FreshBooks account, so you have access to your account even when you’re off the grid. All this for less than FreshBooks’ monthly subscription fee.

5. Scanner Pro ($6.99)

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Scanner Pro transforms iPhone into portable scanner in your pocket. It lets you scan multipage documents, email them and even upload to Dropbox, MobileMe iDisk or any other WebDAV enabled server. Evernote integration is there too.

Task Management

To-do lists, RSS readers, project management, brainstorming – keep track of your everyday life in your pocket. These amazing apps will help to get things done right.

1. 42tasks (free)

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42tasks is a tasks management and collaboration app, with cloud synchronization. The 42tasks app will boost your productivity. You can organize your to-do lists and tasks, assign them to other people, share projects and view custom reports.

2. Remember The Milk (free)

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Take your to-do list anywhere with this feature-packed app; never forget the milk (or anything else) again. Remember The Milk (RTM) for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad connects with the popular online service of the same name. With millions of users worldwide, Remember The Milk is everywhere you are: from mobile to the web to apps including Outlook, iCal, Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, and more. Learn more at www.rememberthemilk.com

3. Springpad (free)

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Springpad is a free application that lets you quickly and easily save ideas and information you want to remember on the web, on your iPhone and on your iPad.

4. Instapaper ($4.99)

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Save web pages for later offline reading, optimized for readability on your iPhone or iPod touch’s screen. Featured by Apple and critically acclaimed by top blogs, newspapers, and magazines.

5. Things ($9.99)

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Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager. Other to-do applications either oversimplify or are too difficult to use. Either way you are not getting stuff done. Things instead has the right balance between ease of use and powerful features.

6. Quickie to Do ($1.99)

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Fastest to-do list in the store, perfect for ad-hoc, spur of the moment lists. Simple and efficient, a pleasure to use.

7. LocationMinder ($1.99)

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LocationMinder allows you to set reminder alarms that trigger based on location. Even when the app is not running, you will receive the reminders when you reach the area. Designed specifically to work with a new technology in the iPhone 4 for very low power consumption and high accuracy.

8. Wunderlist (free)

Wunderlist-useful-iphone-apps

Wunderlist makes it downright simple to organize your daily life. Just create a list and start filling it with things that need to be completed. Keep track of your more important tasks with reminders and notifications.

9. Reeder ($2.99)

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Google Reader client with dozens of useful features.

10. MobileRSS (free)

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MobileRSS is a fully-featured Google Reader client for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. We’ve built a ton of powerful and exclusive features onto an elegant and familiar design platform which makes reading the news fun again. We think you’ll like it! This free version of MobileRSS has ads which can be removed by upgrading to the ad-free MobileRSS

Designer

Are you an author on Envato marketplace or just need quick access to your FTP server? These apps will suit designers, developers and other creatives who just love to paint on their phone.

1. cliqcliq Colors (free)

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Colors is an easy-to-use color picker for discovering, converting, and managing colors and palettes.

2. WhatTheFont (free)

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Ever seen a great font in a magazine ad, poster, or on the web and wondered what font it is? Whip out your iPhone and snap a photo, and WhatTheFont will identify that font in seconds.

3. Leaflet ($1.99)

Leaflet-useful-iphone-apps

Leaflet is an iPhone app designed for Envato marketplace publishers. Keep track of all of your account related information including comments, earnings breakdown, statement list and receive push notifications for both new sales and comments. You can also respond to comments and view individual statement entries all in one beautifully designed interface.

4. FTP On The Go (1,59 €)

Ftp-useful-iphone-apps

An FTP client for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

5. Zen Brush ($2.99)

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Zen Brush is an app that allows you to easily enjoy the feeling of using an ink brush to write or to paint. It allows anyone to easily perform fluent strokes while not compromising on the fascinating texture of a real ink brush. Create works that radiate the right atmosphere by choosing the best background template from our large collection.

Photography

Picture can save a thousand words. These apps will help to keep your memorable pictures safe, share them with your friends and enhance them with cool effects right in your phone.

1. Instagram (free)

Instagram-useful-iphone-apps

3.75 Million users love Instagram! It’s a free, fun, and simple way to make and share gorgeous photos on your iPhone.

2. Adobe Photoshop Express (free)

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Adobe Photoshop Express software lets you use simple gestures to quickly edit and share photos from your mobile device. Enjoy having your photo and video library right in your hand — without wasting your device’s valuable storage space.

3. Photopod ($0.99)

Photopod-useful-iphone-apps

Take all your photos from Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Tumblr and Dropbox everywhere you go, on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Find the photos you want to see in seconds, edit and crop them or instantly upload the photos you just took with your iPhone to multiple networks without the need to open a new account.

4. PhotoSync ($1.99)

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PhotoSync will transform your photo handling forever. It‘s the first app that makes wireless transfer of your photos/videos from or to your computer and other i-Devices – a breeze. PhotoSync also transfers to Dropbox, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, SmugMug and FTP. You need never use a cable again.

5. QuickShot with Dropbox ($0.99)

Quickshot-useful-iphone-apps

QuickShot simplifies the process of uploading photos to Dropbox. Every picture you take is immediately uploaded without the need for any additional actions. It has all the familiar camera features found in other apps, plus a few not found anywhere else. Queue multiple photos, upload photos in the background, and access all of the standard camera functionality from QuickShot’s simple interface.

6. Camera Plus (free)

Camera-plus-useful-iphone-apps

Camera Plus is a free camera app for your iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G and iPod touch to capture photos instantly with some great controls, add cool effects and share them with your Facebook, Twitter or Flickr friends on-the-fly!.

Social

Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only social networks out there. Play photo games, write diary, listen to thousands of mixes straight away from your phone.

1. Piictu (free)

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Part photo game, part social camera, piictu is a fun + simple way to talk and play with piics from your mobile phone.

2. Momento ($2.99)

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Momento is a unique diary/journal writing application which provides a quick and easy way to privately record moments throughout your day. Connect with popular web services, such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare, Gowalla, YouTube, Vimeo, Digg and Last.fm, to collect and display your online activity as part of your diary.

3. 8tracks Radio (free)

8tracks-useful-iphone-apps

8tracks is handcrafted internet radio — a “social” alternative to Pandora. Featuring hundreds of thousands of mixes created by people who know and love music, the 8tracks iPhone app gives you easy, free and mobile access to the best collection of playlists on the web.

4. Skype (free)

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Call, video call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free with Skype for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

5. Path (free)

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Path is the simple and private way to share life with close friends & family.

6. GroupMe (free)

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Free group messaging with anyone you know. Works on any phone.Now works over data—no text plan required.

7. Spout ($0.99)

Spout-useful-iphone-apps

Introducing Spout, the newest way to enjoy news, messages, tweets and comments; delivered to your screen as a beautifully rendered up-to-the-second display of social content.

8. Bump (free)

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Bump makes sharing with people as simple as bumping two phones together. Just pick what you want to send, then hold your phones and gently bump hands with another Bump user. And now, you can message with your friends who aren’t near you – just add them as a friend inside of Bump and start messaging immediately — it’s kind of like a long-distance “virtual bump”.

Other

All the other fantastic apps that doesn’t fit in any other category. Check out Ben the Bodyguard trailer to find out what I’m talking about.

1. Fast ($1.99)

Fast-useful-iphone-apps

Fast is an innovative writing system that will save you time when typing your sms, mail, or more generally any text. The feature that differentiates Fast from other writing systems is that Fast learns from what you write, and updates itself by drawing from your vocabulary.

2. Ben the Bodyguard (3,99 €)

Ben-bodyguard-useful-iphone-apps

Ben protects photos, contacts, passwords and other sensitive stuff on your iPhone or iPod touch. He’s your own personal security expert. Peace of mind on the go with a distinct attitude and opinion. Ben’s guarantee — “Your secrets are safe with me.”

3. Gas Cubby ($4.99)

Gas-cubby-useful-iphone-apps

Gas Cubby is the ultimate tool for tracking gas mileage and vehicle maintenance. Whether you’re a hypermiler, or just want a reminder to change the oil, Gas Cubby will save you money and keep your vehicle operating at its peak.

4. blip.me (free)

Blip-useful-iphone-apps

blip.me is a fun, useful, and free way to turn your mobile phone into a push-to-talk walkie-talkie.

5. Find My iPhone (free)

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Find My iPhone is free for anyone with an iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch (iOS 4.2 or later required).* Just sign in with your Apple ID on your qualifying device and turn on Find My iPhone to allow you to locate it. Then use the same Apple ID to turn on Find My iPhone on your other iOS 4.2 (or later) devices including iPhone 3G, 3GS, or iPod touch (2nd generation or later). Find My iPhone is also included with a MobileMe subscription.

6. Rowmote Pro ($4.99)

Rowmote-useful-iphone-apps

Rowmote Pro is the ultimate wireless remote, trackpad, and keyboard. A gorgeous universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, with everything from a multitouch trackpad to full extended keyboard support, and with no-configuration control of dozens of the best Mac applications, it is a must-have for any home media center or presentation.

7. Free Full Screen Private Browsing (free)

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Finally, you can view all your websites privately and in full screen for free. This is the simple, no frills web browser you’ve been waiting for.

8. Where (free)

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Join more than 4 million people who rely on Where everyday to answer the question, ‘Where should I go next?’

9. quiQR ($1.99)

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quiQR — Real-time QR code reader and creator

5 Tips for Group Deals Success

business | Facebook Places | features | foursquare | groupon | Groupon Now | LivingSocial | mashable | yelp 0 No Comments



This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

While many small business owners have considered offering a group deal, only 10% have actually run one, according to recent research from MerchantCircle. And while the results have been promising for these early adopters — and 77% say they would run another one — group deals don’t work for everyone. Among the people who said they wouldn’t offer another deal, 42% said it was not effective in customer acquisition, and 24% said they lost money.

Given these mixed results, it is critical that entrepreneurs do their homework before embarking on a group deal to make sure they’re positioned for success.

Here are five tips to help you get the best results:


1. Shop Around


While Groupon and LivingSocial may be the most we Read More

10 Tips for Better B2B Community Management

b2b | business | Business Lists | communities | community management | contributor | features | forums | List | Lists | online communities | Social Media | social networking 0 No Comments
Business Network

Maria Ogneva is the Head of Community at Yammer, where she is in charge of social media, community programs, internal education and engagement. You can follow her on Twitter, her blog, and via Yammer’s Twitter account and company blog.

The communities most of us are familiar with tend to be customer or fan-facing. However, business-to-business (B2B) communities are also an important part of the social media experience.

Social media has changed the way we relate to each other, and even when you talk to business users, you are interacting with people inside those companies first and foremost. To ensure success in managing your community of business users, here are 10 best practices.


1. Know When to Create Your Own Community


It doesn’t always make sense to create your own community. Depending on your intentions, you may opt to join an already existing community. If you plan to lead conversations focused on serving your industry in general, just join that community and take a prominent role there. If, however, your community is more narrowly focused around your product, you will probably want to create a unique destination.


2. Think Through the Purpose


If you opt to create one, remember that each community should have a purpose and a vision — otherwise, chaos will ensue. Are you creating a user community or a broader best practices forum for your industry? Do you want to foster a better dialogue between customers or inform the product road map and gather feedback? Or both?

How will community members interact, contribute or learn by being a part of your conversation? Will it revolve around vertical applications of your product? If so, you may want to think about having several vertical-based communities.


3. Establish Membership Guidelines


Think about whom you want to invite and how people should join. If you’re aiming to create an industry-wide best practices exchange, you may opt to have a completely open community. If your community is more of a value-add for VIP clients, with personalized help from their account managers, you should opt for a private, invite-only community. You should also figure out if your membership will be open to employees of your company, and if so, which ones. Your community’s purpose should drive these guidelines.


4. Understand Your Members


It’s imperative that you understand what business users and their employees need from your product. When your community serves business users, its job is to help those people get their jobs done. Think about how you can make them look like rockstars in front of their peers and managers.


5. Outline Roles


Depending on your type of community membership, you’ll need to structure participants’ roles. This is especially necessary for a newly launched or relaunched community. In a large community, a subset of superusers can become moderators or take on an advisory role. This status promotion should be aspirational. Make it clear how someone can achieve that status, and empower the community to “self-police.”

If you have a more intimate community where both employees and top customers participate, place employees in consultative roles, but beware of clashing objectives.


6. Establish a Vision and Charter


The clearer you are from the beginning, the better off the community will be. Establish a charter and a set of goals driven by your community’s purpose. Let members know which behaviors are frowned upon, and which will not be tolerated. Share all of this with the community as well as internally with your company.


7. Success Metrics


Now that you’ve stated your purpose, membership and roles guidelines, decide how you will measure success. You should track community health metrics, such as growth, engagement and the percentage of active users. Additionally, make sure you align your success metrics to overarching business objectives. If a better customer experience is the primary goal, you should measure the impact of your community on satisfaction scores and customer sentiment. If education via best practices is a goal, you should see fewer support tickets and higher usage and renewal rates.


8. Have a Community Manager


Each active community should have a designated community manager. Although you should empower your community to self-sustain, active community management establishes accountability.


9. Establish Internal Processes


You should work cross-functionally to ensure that the community doesn’t operate in a vacuum. You will probably have amazing insights and feedback coming from inside the community. Ensure you are sharing insightswith the right teams internally to facilitate dialogue.


10. Enable Sharing


People love to share their successes, whether for bragging rights, to be viewed as an expert, or to help others. On the other hand, listening to others’ successes helps people visualize success. This is especially key for business users who are often tasked with proving ROI and who need to point to demonstrable examples of someone else’s success. In your community, encourage members to share their successes publicly and point these stories in the direction of other community members who are grappling with a similar problem.


Of course, there are basics of solid community management that apply across both consumer and business communities. You should be building up community advocacy, facilitating (not forcing) the conversation and monitoring engagement. Ask yourself if your community helps people do their jobs. If the answer is no, course-correct, and you will be on your way to success.

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, studiovision, max_carpenter

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