We spend about a quarter of our life working. Other than choosing a job that provides food on the table and pays our bills, most of us also look for a career with meaning in our life, something which we are happy and passionate to be doing on a day-to-day basis. There’s a certain ideal which we aim for, and it usually takes some career advancement before we can actually reach there.

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Earning that promotion which you dearly want may seem like a daunting task at first sight, especially when you don’t know where to begin. Indeed, we reap what we sow, so it certainly takes some amount of hard work and dedication. However, there are certain aspects of work which you can focus on such that your effort can be realized.

Today, following the last post, we’re going to bring you 7 more valuable tips that cater about your reputation, networking, attitude and ultimately life goals in work.

1. Establish a Positive Reputation

Depending on what you are proficient in and what qualities the organization value for their employees, it is crucial that you build a positive reputation that others can associate you with.

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You can be known as a proactive employee who takes your own initiatives in your work and come out with valuable projects to tackle existing issues at work, or you can come across as a reliable and dependent person who gets work done way before the deadlines. Either way, people will start hearing about you and hand you tasks that allow you to grow professionally in your career.

There’s a catch here, however. Once you’ve develop a good reputation for yourself, the organization’s expectations of you would increase. If you should fail to meet these expectations, the harm to your reputation would be greater than if you didn’t build it in the first place.

Take for instance if you’re known for taking up assignments outside your scope, your fellow co-workers and bosses might start assuming that these are your work. What happens if you start rejecting them? They might think you’re skiving now!

Hence, there’s also a need to manage the expectations of the people who work with you. Make it clear that you’re doing something beyond what you are expected to do, so that your good reputation doesn’t backfire on you.

2. Networking

The amazing thing about networking is that it doesn’t seem to end. When you get to know your co-workers or get in touch with your ex-classmates, they lead you to their contacts as well and it just goes on and on. One thing is that you’ll never know when you’ll meet that somebody crucial that would offer you a job opportunity of a lifetime. The other thing is that it’s always good to socialize and get information on the latest development on each other’s career.

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Always maintain good relationship with people in your network because you might need their help for work someday. That doesn’t mean that you have to be pretentious when you don’t like a particular person; it just means you have to be polite on a professional basis and accept each other’s differences. There’s no concrete rule that says you have to be friends with him or her, so you still can draw the line clearly if you want to.

3. Having Good Relationship with Boss

Among the people you know and those you will get to know through your network, there is one particular person whom you have to work closely with if you want to climb up the ladder. That’s right, it’s your boss.

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Although some people may interpret this as “sucking up” to your boss, it doesn’t necessary have to be this way (if you don’t want to). It just means that you should always maintain a good communication channel with your boss so that he is aware of your aspirations, your progression in your career, your strengths and weaknesses, etc. In other words, he is like a mentor or even a wise teacher who will guide you where you want to go.

Talk to your boss on a regular basis and ask questions when in doubt. If you’re really serious about your advancement, you’ll definitely have some suggestions on how things should be done to improve the work situation. Let your boss see that you’re passionate about what you do and your own life goals, and you’ll earn his or her respect.

Again, you don’t have to be pretentious if you don’t want to. In fact, if you think kissing ass to your boss is a good idea, think again. When words get out that you’re a hypocrite, you might establish yourself a bad rep. It may turn out to be the greatest blow to the respect your co-workers, and even your boss, have for you.

4. Work Outside Your Scope

If you want to grow in your career, you must not constrain yourself within a small pond. Much as it is important that you fulfil what your job scope dictates, you need to step out of the comfort zone every now and then to learn more. Be ready to volunteer for work that will value-add you.

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It’s as if you’re a worker in the assembly line. No doubt every worker is valuable in itself for the entire process, but each worker cannot see the big picture of things because he or she is only assigned with one specific task. The person who oversees everyone and the process is the manager, and it is because of such insight that he has the power to switch the workers around to ensure optimal performance.

Therefore, if you expose yourself to tasks beyond your own, you gain the valuable knowledge on how things are run in the company. You will then make wise decisions and suggestions on how things should be done, thereby establishing yourself a good reputation of being proactive, efficient and insightful.

5. Adhere to the Organization’s Vision

A vision or a mission dictates the direction that the organization is heading to. It’s like the bio-feedback mechanism that exists in organisms to adjust and adapt to the changing environment to ensure survival. In other words, such vision or mission serves as a reference point for us so that the organization doesn’t stray away.

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In times when “the only constant is change“, such vision and mission are ever more practical for organizations. This means that more organizations are valuing them more and spending much resources to ensure that the employees believe in them as well.

If the company’s vision and mission makes sense to you, you will naturally do your work in accordance to them. Since the company believes in them, abiding by these guidelines would be an advantage for your career as you’ll be aligned with company’s progress.

6. Stay Humble, Ask Questions

This tip is especially applicable if you’re new to the organization/industry or a fresh on the job market as a graduate. There are bound to be loads of questions on the various existing work processes, office politics, management styles, etc. This is definitely not a time to be stubborn; this is the time to ask and learn as much as you can. Get familiar with the system and be sociable with your fellow co-workers.

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Even if you may not see eye to eye with certain company policies, accept them at the start. There is a reason why these policies exists, and you may not have been in the organization long enough to recognize their value. At the end of the day, try to adapt to the culture rather than change things initially. Question if you must, but stay open and receptive to what already exists.

If you’ve already been working there for some time, there are still things to clarify, learn and renew yourself. As the saying goes, “pride comes before a fall“, don’t let complacency get into you and end up making a grave mistake.

7. Set Career Goals

Apart from following the values of your organization, you need to have a direction for your life. But since we’re talking about career advancements, this tip will only touch on career goals. However, career and your other life goals can be intrinsically linked.

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What is your passion? What do you want to do in the long-run? What do you value in life? These are some of the questions you need to consider carefully as you progress along your career. Are you working towards where you want to be? If you are, what are the short-term goals you’ve set, and how are you intending to reach them? Answering these creates a greater sense of meaning in your career and motivates you to advance.

Sure, our needs and wants change with time, as we go into different phases of life: marriage, family, etc. Career goals, as with any of your life goals, are not meant to be cast into stone. They should be flexible and reflect what you truly value. The primary purpose of these goals is not to achieve them; rather, it’s a self-examination of our needs and wants and it sets a direction to head towards to.

In this post I’ll be sharing tips I found useful in speeding up the Mac. While most of the tips do not cost you extra bucks, they also help you to clean up your Mac to not only make it run fast like cheetah, but also keep it as powerful as lion. So spend some time to get really well with these tips, then you’ll be smiling happily as you run your Mac smoothly!

If you are not only looking to optimize your Mac but also seeking to optimize your workflow in Mac, below we’ve got posts with 200 useful applications introduced to you!

• Mac: 100 Free Useful Applications (Part I)
• Mac: 100 More Useful Applications (Part II)

And you can discover more about Mac in Hongkiat!

1. Clearing Your Desktop

Your desktop plays a part in how long it takes for you to boot the system because it’s the first screen that it has to load up. As much as possible, try to keep it simple by minimizing the number of icons from the dock and clearing up the amount of files you can see. You can either delete them or put them into folders so that the operating system doesn’t have to waste additional resources to load them upon starting your computer.

Doing this will take the toil away from your memory, especially if you’re using an older Mac system. This will not only ensure that your boot time will be shortened, but also improve the performance of your Mac in general.

2. Managing Startup Items

When you install some applications, they automatically configured your startup setting such that these applications would be loaded up when you boot up your Mac. Depending on your usage, such a setting can either make it convenient for you (if the first thing you want to do when you boot up is to use that application), or slow down the booting time with no additional convenience for yourself.

Leaving such applications can also draw some valuable resources away from your Mac such that it slows down the system. As much as possible, try to remove those which you rarely use. For Mac OS X Lion’s user, all you need to do is go to System Preferences > System > Users & Groups > Login Items, and uncheck the application(s) you want off from the startup.

3. Cleaning Up the Hard Drive

Mac operating system actually utilizes whatever free space you have on your hard drive as ‘virtual memory’, which plays a significant role in the performance. In other words, the more data you have in your hard drive, the lesser the amount of memory you would have for the smooth running of your applications. The obvious solution to a slow-running Mac operating system is to free up hard drive space to make room for the ‘virtual memory’.

I’m sure you know where to begin when you’re cleaning up your hard drive, such as emptying your Trash, removing rarely used applications, etc. Alternatively, you can also remove languages that you don’t use through programs like Monolingual. This would save at least several hundred megabytes of disk space. It may not be much, but why waste resources?

4. Monitor Your Activity Monitor

Sometimes you wouldn’t know what’s taxing your memory and slowing down the system in the process. This is where the Apple’s Activity Monitor comes in handy. You get to see the CPU usage, Random Access Memory (RAM) and virtual memory usage from the monitor, which the info will help greatly in optimizing your Mac!

When you notice that there’s a spike when you use certain applications, you can infer that these are the ones which are draining away your memory and making your system sluggish. That way, you can either choose to minimize your usage on these applications or make room in your memory like closing down other applications when you’re going to use them.

On top of that, the monitor lists down in details all the applications which are currently in use. You can see how much each application is eating up your CPU, real & virtual memory. You may choose to quit those that are consuming an awful lot of your system’s resources to speed things up.

If you need more explanations on the Activity Monitor, do check out this comprehensive guide.

5. Embrace Cleaning Utility Tools

Perhaps the most straightforward way to optimize your system’s performance is to run multifunction utility tool like OnyX. What it basically does is that it conducts system maintenance and cleaning functions to smoothen the running of your system. Temporary files stored as caches are cleared so that they don’t ‘jam’ up the performance of your system.

If your goal is to sustain a top-notch performing Mac, then such utility tools can be programmed to run as scheduled routines. This way, unnecessary files and browser history or any other cache files are regularly removed from your system so that it will run at its best most of the time. In fact, it is highly recommended that all Mac users do such consistent maintenance.

If OnyX doesn’t seem to cater to your maintenance needs, you can also try out others like CleanMyMac and MacKeeper.

6. Getting Hardware Upgrade

Worse comes to worse, if the above tips didn’t significantly improve your Mac’s performance to your liking, you can always consider purchasing hardware that would more or less guarantee a speed boost. This would, however, require you to throw money to resolve the issue, as compared to the previous tips which are all free.

Upgrading your RAM is probably the simplest way to ensure a faster computer. As compared to upgrading your processor, it is also much cheaper. If you only have one piece of RAM attached in your Mac, consider getting another one.

At the very least, your Mac should have a 2 GB RAM minimum, and 4 GB RAM is recommended for web designer who run premium graphic editor like Adobe Photoshop which eats up a lot of memory and hard drive space. If you are using 2GB/4GB ram and still finds it running slow, consider getting an additional 2 GB RAM that would logically speed up the performance by 50%. Of course, this depends on how much memory your Mac can support, so ask the professionals before you proceed.

Another alternative is to get a faster hard drive or use a Solid State Drive (SSD), but they don’t come cheap. One way is to get the SSD to run only your operating system and other applications, while leaving the other data on your old hard disk. Here is a good site on how to set up a SSD drive.

That’s all from us! What’s your personal secret to speeding up your Mac?

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It is not always the bigger notions that get noticed but a combination of small principles and actions that eventually make the difference. To begin with, here are 10 significant tips for you to practice in your work to make an impact to your company and eventually make yourself rise to the top, have a read and master them all.

More suggested posts:

• How to Balance Your Work Life
• 10 Most-asked interview questions
• 7 Great Ways to Get Your Resume Noticed
• 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Focused at Work
• Land Your Dream Job With 25 Innovative Resume Ideas
• 5 Crucial Aspects to Consider Before Accepting the Job Offer

1. Always Dress Impeccably

Formal dressing is a must. A dress code tells a lot about an employee’s attitude. You will be judged on the basis of your dress, and in most situation, formal dress means you are serious at your work. It also indicates your commitment in the affairs of the company. A person who wears a casual dress is always considered to be less dedicated and not focused in his work.

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2. Take Initiative

You should be more involved in any difficulty your colleague or boss encounter. You should be ready to take any extra yet reasonable help and work, which may not necessarily be your share of work, and that’s what makes the difference between a leader and a common employee. A leader is the one who is eager to go beyond his domain and helps others when they needed help. A leader is a person who takes initiative, and who helps to solve things before others. You should always be ready to help.

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Bosses also take a close look at those who are willing to take initiative and offer a helping hand, as it just looks like you’re not only work for the company, but you belong to the company. You work like as this is the precious company you are willing to work for, and this is the kind of person that bosses want to get into the manager’s realm.

3. Always Be Prepared

Do you have the training and presentation modules ready for the staff meeting? Bosses look at your eagerness about your work, and they will notice it though your presentation and materials. They will look at the presentation charts and notes that you had used while presenting your points, and judge you based on those materials. Prepare them well to impress your bosses.

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A good preparation helps you to stay focused on your agenda. It also shows the bosses that you are serious about your work, and you take company’s meetings seriously. Avoid being careless at the meeting, with no preparation whatsoever. A good preparation gives a positive message to the employers, and might lead to promotion.

4. Be Responsible

A good employee is a responsible employee. Adding up responsibilities should be your forte. You take care of responsibilities seriously once they are assigned to you. You should also be ready to undertake more responsibilities if necessary.

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When you failed at certain task assigned to you, you should be the one standing up to admit your fault and ask for the apology. A boss is always on the lookout for such a person who is not only ready to shoulder any responsibilities, but willing to bear the consequences of his failure or irresponsibility.

Being responsible should not only be your work’s ethic, but also your life principle if you aim to strive for tremendous success in your life.

5. Never Postpone

Although it’s better for you to help others when they have certain difficulties at work, you should also finish your task on time. You ensure that the tasks must be completed before anything.

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Postponing of work is looked upon as less dedicated, and not focused. There are millions of employees who work their whole life as a common employee. They only work what is needed for them. Some even go to the extent of postponing their work to later hours. Such individuals will hardly rise to the top. Instead, they will find it even harder to remain in the payroll of the company.

6. Communicate Effectively

Proper communication is an essential tool to successful career. If you are able to put your thoughts and opinion across in an effective manner, you will get the most attention. Your communication skills will lead you to sit among bosses and managers. You will be asked to share your views in company’s meetings.

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Communicating with a better style is half the work done. Ask politely. State clearly. Say friendly. Share your opinion carefully. When you’re in anger, try to say slowly. That said, you have to be emotionally stable, as bosses only look for the person who communicates effectively while keeping his emotion stable in any situation.

7. Act Properly

An employee must use his common sense to try to act properly. Those employees who have a higher level of common sense are expected to reach higher in hierarchical standings. First of all, always follow the rules and regulations in the office. Though, there will be days when a situation might get worse, but always show the right temperament, and impress the boss with the right attitude.

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Using slang languages, laughing loudly, look for job opening in the office or even sleeping in the office will keep you in the blacklist of the bosses, thus ruining the chances of rising up the ladder of professional success. Ambitious employees who look for a rise in the company should ensure that they stick to certain levels of decency.

8. Avoid Being too Smart

There are a number of employees who try to act smart, they carry an attitude that they are not just smart but they can get away with doing silly things in the office, and still not get caught. You should not be one of those “smart” guys

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Remember, someone would get the word to the bosses. Acts like these will never help. Playing Facebook at work and try to hide it while boss passes by is unprofessional, and most bosses take these kinds of acts as violation of office rules. Boss just doesn’t like someone who challenges his rules, be it directly or indirectly.

9. Speak Highly of Bosses

It’s a fact that human loves to be praised, especially the boss. It is important to speak highly of a boss, but, beware, it depends on how the praises have been showered.

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Praising in front of the boss sounds really fake and intentional, so don’t do it unless you are sincere. Choose a suitable time, and speak about his good traits to someone who is closer to him. A friend or a close colleague might pass the word to him. Praising behind a boss will sound spontaneous.

A boss is likely to get impressed more because the showering of the praises has been done at his back, and he comes to know through someone else. Praising should be genuine. However, it’s a best practice to not go overboard and praise him for something he doesn’t deserve it. Such an act will do nothing good but more harm.

10. Learn to Say No

Learn to say no. Of course you should not offend your boss, manager and colleagues, but you should sound your disagreement and opinion wisely. A more polished way of saying ‘no’ will not harm your relationship and position in the company. Disagreements are bound to exist among colleagues, but what matters is the way it’s done.

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There are a host of polite ways to say no, but what’s universal is to apologize before you decline anything, as it will make the person to feel that you’re sincere. When you disagree a colleague’s opinion, you can say your appreciation before you share your own opinion. Be sincere. Be honest. A boss will likely to take you into the leadership as he wants someone who has his own standpoint, and dare to sound his opinion.

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The phenomena has nothing to do with the God I worship, or any supernatural phenomenon, it’s just how brain works: we write fast and professionally if we can just limit something, abandon certain habits, and put up some beneficial habits. That’s all, it’s really easy, and I’m going to explain them clearly in this article, so master them all and write like a ninja from today!

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• Writing for the Web: Tips & Common Mistakes
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1. Freestyle Writing

To be honest, I hate this method. I’m one of those annoying writers who edits as I write. It just works better for me. I’m able to form better sentences, find my flow and generally write better if I take my time with it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for fast writing, and just because I hate free style writing, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work.

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If you’re pressed for time and really want get some writing done, open up a fresh Microsoft Word document, and start typing. Don’t worry about how it will sound, whether your sentences are grammatically correct or even if they make any sense. Don’t look at the clock. Get it all written.

Editing and cleaning up copy in 10 minutes is more than enough for you to produce a quality article. So you see, there’s really no magic here, you just let your brain has more freedom, and it rewards you a completed work. Fast and practical.

2. Set a Timer

I know a lot of people who don’t like setting a timer and writing till it goes off. However, I don’t know anyone for whom this hasn’t worked. So go ahead and try it. Set a timer for 10, 20 or 30 minutes, then sit in front of your computer and start writing. It’s okay if you can’t think of anything to write and you might be just staring at a blank screen. It’s totally fine.

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Chances are that as your timer starts to run out, your brain will jump-start and your fingers will start flying on their own. Like what I wrote earlier, it doesn’t have to be pretty and it doesn’t have to make sense. It just needs to be written! You can pretty it up later.

Once you timer is off, step away from your computer – even if you’re on a roll. Leave your brain wanting for more. If the timer proved ineffective in jump-starting your writing then take a break and come back to it later.

Your timer doesn’t have to be a clock. You can write after you’ve put a few cookies to bake in the oven and use that as your timer. Stop when the oven dings and treat yourself a cookie. After all, you deserve it! My personal favorite timer is the train. I write every time I use the metro and have no choice but to stop and take a break when the train arrived at the station. And let me tell you, my fingers fly as the train is about to reach the station. Suddenly I have so much to say!

3. Turning Off Spell Checker

One thing that really bugs me is seeing a red-underlined error while writing in Microsoft Word. I mean can’t it tell that this is my first draft? That it doesn’t need to be perfect right now? That right now, at this very moment, it just needs to be written?

Well, apparently it can’t. So if you’re one of those writers who get bugged by the spell checker, you need to turn it off. For Microsoft Word 2010, you can simply click on the dark blue tab on the top left side of the software, then click on the Option > Proofing, and uncheck “Check spelling as you type“.

You can also uncheck any other option that will interrupt your writing process, such as “Mark grammar errors as you type”. You can check all these errors later by click on the Review > Spelling & Grammar Check, which the options are existed on the top bar of the software. By doing this, you will find that your idea will flow more naturally and writing will be more comfortable.

4. Turning Off Backspace

Ever had one of those sentences which you typed, then you feel it’s bad, then you pressed backspace about a hundred times, just to delete it? Yeah, I had the similar experience. What’s worse is that after I’ve pressed the backspace key a hundred times, I realize that my original sentence was fine.

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To avoid pressing the backspace key for unnecessary changes, you need to make a determination to not touch the backspace key and stick to it. If you make a mistake, whether it’s a spelling mistake or a grammatical mistake, just move on.

If you manage to not hit the backspace key while writing, chances are you’re going to end up with some word combinations which have the potential to be composed into epic phrases that you might use after all.

5. Do Research Before Writing

One of the fastest ways to write is to stop the urge to check on your facts or refer to information for accuracy. Before you sit down to write, make sure you’ve done all your research and are well versed in it. This way all you have to do is write without stopping. Everything is already there in your head – you just need to put it down in writing to make sense of it all.

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Research before writing will also stop unnecessary actions like reading off-topic articles while you are writing. You might be even tempted to see certain Youtube video for “research” purpose and boom… another day well spent with nothing but procrastination completed. Surely we need inspiration from different kind of sources, but not for the time when you need to write fast.

6. Write Outline

This is absolutely my favorite tip for writing fast. Think about what you want to write, then outline it. If it’s an article, jot down the subheadings. If it’s a web copy, write down the points you want to cover. The process is pretty much the same for any writing you need to get done.

If you prefer, you can also write more detailed outline for easier writing later. Give some keywords to every topic or even paragraph in the article. Surprisingly this action will possibly spawn more ideas for you in the writing stage later. Most importantly, once you have the outline, writing will be a breeze and doesn’t take much time. Before you know it, the work is done!

7. Get a Writing Buddy

If nothing seems to be working, then teaming up with a writing buddy/partner is your best bet. A writing buddy holds you accountable, watches the clock for you and even writes with you.

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If you have a lot of writing to do or have a big project that needs to get done, partnering up with a writing buddy is going to keep you motivated and on track with your deadline.

Your writing buddy doesn’t necessarily need to be your friend. They just need to check in with you to see if you’re doing what you have decided to do. Set a few ground rules before starting. What time will you check in with each other? How will you compare notes? Will you exchange each other’s work and provide feedback?

For me, the best writing buddy is one who has to do some writing of his/her own. This way, it’s a two-way thing and I’m not just getting help but I’m helping someone too.

What About Writing Professionally?

Your writing can’t be professional if it’s not written at first. Concentrate on getting it written first, then spend a few minutes revising, editing and generally prettying it up. You’ll notice that there are really not much differences between the speed writing and the common writing, as you’ve done the research, wrote the outline, and edited the article to make it professional. You just took another approach which costs you less time.

So get it written first, then make it professional. Use these tips and tricks regularly and you’ll find yourself doing lesser editing with time, while enjoying more on writing great articles! Also do let us know your personal favorite tricks for writing fast and professionally!

Surprisingly, we are still able to find the information we need most of the time, thanks to the effective and reliable search engine, Google. Nevertheless, with that much wealth of information out there online, it’s easy to lose ourselves and not get the optimal results we could have.

There are fortunately methods of searching to ensure that we are digging in the right holes, and below we will cover 5 essential steps that include tips & tricks to help you refine your search. Learn them all and get what you really want from the Google while not wasting your time flipping the result page!

More: You may also interested in – Gmail Advanced Search – Ultimate Guide

1. 5 – 7 Keywords

Keyword searching is most often the first step to your online search. A common mistake made is that people often key in less than five keywords. Given that the Internet has millions of sites out there, the search results become diluted if you only input a few words.

For those who may not know, normally search engines would return the results containing any of the keywords you typed in search form, regardless of the order they appear. Of course, Google, being a smart tool, would list the results in the manner where pages consisting of most of your keywords, or pages consisting of your keywords in closer proximity will be shown earlier. In other words, an intelligent ranked ordering for your results.

Ironically, if you want to narrow down your search to get more relevant websites, you got to expand on the number of keywords to about 5 to 7 keywords. That way, Google becomes clearer to what is it that you are looking for.

2. Using Truncation

Not sure of what keywords to use? You might consider using the simple * to expand on your search. What it does is that if you place that in the query, then you’ll get results for the word combination you’ve keyed in, with * as variant. For example, if you type in cartoon * tutorials, you will get sites with the phrase “Cartoon Character Illustration Tutorials”, “Cartoon Coloring Tutorial”, “Cartoon Animation Tutorial”, etc.

This would be beneficial to someone who is out there looking for ideas, but isn’t sure of what keywords to use. Let’s say you wish to research on the color of web design. You want to know what are the colors web designers or clients care about, thus you can try entering * color web design, and the results will show sites or its posts that are related with the query “color web design”, such as “Warm VS Cool Color Website Designs”, “Beautiful Purple Color Website Designs”, “Stunning Blue Color Website Designs”, etc.

3. Exact Phrases

Sometimes, you can narrow down your search by simply telling the Google to search websites with the exact order of the words. For instance, if you want to find out who quoted “The unexamined life is not worth living”, then it is preferable that you type the whole line rather than putting in keywords like “unexamined” or “living“.

Quotation marks, ” “, should ideally be used if you want the search engine to only look for sites with exact phrasing. But as I mentioned in #1, search engines are capable of sorting the results in a ranked manner in accordance to how close the words are next to each other. You would probably still get your results if the quote is well-known.

At other times, you might want to use a combination of exact phrases and keywords to enhance your search. For example, you might want to search for sites that provide useful tips on leveraging social media for your business. Rather than using three keywords: “social”, “media” and “business”, you can type in “social media” business in the form and get more accurate results.

How so? “social media” is an inseparable entity, which makes sure that all sites listed must have the exact phrasing of “social media”. This is more useful than searching for “social” and “media” individually. “business” and “social media” have now become keywords that will be searched in any order of the wordings.

4. The “OR” and “-”

OR operator already exists in Google. When you type in any keywords, websites that contains any of the keywords will be displayed in the results. The difference with the OR operator is that you can define keywords or phrases with quotation marks rather than have the search engine search for all the words you typed in. This means to say that if you put “social media” OR “business”, you will get sites that consists of either “social media” or “business”, and not any of the three words per se.

The minus sign,-, is useful if you wish to exclude a particular word or phrase in your search. This is valuable when you are searching for exception to what search results would typically produce.

Let’s say you wish to search for someone with the name “Bill Gates”, but not the chairman of Microsoft who we are all familiar with. You know that sites with the name “Bill Gates” would usually come with “Microsoft”, so using the - sign like “bill gates” -microsoft would bring you close to what you really want to find.

5. Search Within A Site

There comes a time when you know there is only one site which you need to search for something you want, but chances are the site has either a broken search function or a confusing search result. The worst case: the site has no search function at all. In these cases, Google prove to be very handy as it allows you to search within certain site, as long as the site is indexed by the Google.

To search within a site using the Google, all you need to do is input the search query into the Google with the domain name, such as photoshop tutorial site:hongkiat.com. Google will then return the results only from the site you mentioned, such as photoshop tutorials only from the Hongkiat.com. Note that the site: must be added before the domain name, else Google will search for other sites as well.

It’s All About Refining Your Search

The above five tips are great by itself, but if you want a really customized and precise search, you should link a few of these steps together in a single search. This will ensure that those results you do not want will be sieved out, thereby enhancing your findings.

To further refine your search with these slightly complicated tips, you have to really know about what you want to search. You need to identify your keywords and consider what kind of phrase, word order, or special feature you need to use.

Be sure to try out every tip and feature covered above before you apply them in your daily search, so you know what are the best for certain conditions, and remember to keep the search query as simple as possible!

(Image source: Smashing Magazine)

Yes, all you need to concern is not about how much advertising revenue you can gather, but how much value you can provide to your precious readers and keeps them coming back for more.

How do you provide values, or inspire readers with your blog? This subject is so broad that I don’t think I can draw conclusion if I quantify it to a list. However, I’ve identified 7 essential approaches to make your blog inspiring enough to sustain a fair amount of readership, under what I termed as I.N.S.P.I.R.E:

1. Independent

If you’re thinking of plagiarizing your entire entry from another source, don’t. First of all, it’s absolutely not right to copy-and-paste what others have taken the effort to write, even if you manage to paraphrase most of the sentences, think about branding and reputation.

Secondly, it won’t make your blog stand out from the large array of copycats out there on the net. If you want to distinguish your blog, you’ve got to offer your readers what other blogs couldn’t. By that, you got be original and independent. Be the pioneer.

Write what others didn’t think of. Offer something unique. Sure, you can get ideas by reading from other blogs, but don’t reproduce them. Digest what they have to say regarding a particular issue and come up with your own hypothesis, solution or whatever in your entry, as long as it’s your own words. You can even gain reputation mentioned above from being the blog that stands up to its own opinions or ways of writing.

2. Noteworthy

Ask yourself if the article that you are writing is noteworthy to the reader, or even to yourself. Is it something that many readers would be dying to read about and know, even bookmark, be it as a solution or an opinion-based entry?

(Image source: Fotolia)

Simply put, unique is not enough, you have to write something attractive, and by attractive I mean the reader will even come back to read again when they need to, or they will introduce the article when someone is asking about the recommendation, that’s called noteworthy.

To put an example, you want to do a Photoshop tutorial which the methods discussed are seen everywhere but they are all difficult to follow. In this case, you can produce an easy-to-follow tutorial, with comprehensive explanation on the go. So whenever readers came across it and they want to do a Photoshop tutorial later, they will remember that there’s a detailed yet easy-to-follow tutorial in your blog. They will also introduce it to any Photoshop beginner asking for the kind of tutorial. Noteworthy achieved.

3. Specialized

It is advisable for you to set a target audience for your blog. This is to ensure that your entries would stay within the boundary of a selected few topics.

(Image source: Fotolia)

For example, if your blog is about providing troubleshooting for common computer errors, then it would be common sense to input entries regarding the latest computer issue that is currently affecting many of your targeted readers.

Why such constraints? Think about it: If you as a reader wishes to find out more about a certain area of interest, would you prefer to go through the search engines and get bits and pieces of what you want, or would you rather have a one-stop website where you can browse through all the related topics and learn as you go? This is the best way to get readers to come back for more.

4. Personalized

This bears some similarity with being independent and original, except that this one is more to do with your style of writing.

(Image source: Fotolia)

In order to differentiate from hundreds of bloggers like yourself who are writing about the same topic, other than inputting different contents, the only other way is to personalize your writing. Develop a personality for your entries, so to speak.

However, humans are also creatures of habits, in that they will feel comfortable when they sense consistency. Hence, once you get a steady base of loyal readers, make sure to stick to your style. You can deviate, but not too much. For further reading about the importance of consistency, I’ve written an entry earlier on improving blog traffic, which emphasizes about consistency.

5. Influential

The blog should be able to influence people with their words, which mean that it has to be persuasive in its writings. This is especially true for opinion or discussion blogs, where their primary business is to express a certain viewpoint and adopt a certain stance.

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This doesn’t mean that the entries have to persuade people to adopt their views; the priority should be on generating a buzz or creating a discussion topic among people. Get everyone to discuss and make the blog lively.

In fact, it’s hard to be very influential if you are pushing everyone to a certain perspective in this modern and informational age. Rather, strive to be influential by making your blog entries stimulating and invigorative enough to draw a crowd and make them stay. Influence people by making them take notice of what you say.

6. Relatable

This is especially crucial for blog entries that touch on everyday issues, such as my earlier entry on tackling the 10 most asked interview questions. Since such entries address commonly encountered problems, making them relatable to the reader will forge a connection between your friendly words of advice and the person seeking it.

(Image source: Fotolia)

Even when your entry is of a more technical nature like troubleshooting, you can make it relatable to the readers by altering the tone of your writing a little. Crack a joke or complain a little about the error issue. Even posing a rhetorical question every now and then can set the reader into a more casual and relaxed reading mode.

7. Expertise

When it comes to the credibility of what the blogger has to say, nothing matters more than the expertise of the writer. How can a person who had never written a blog talk about, say, the qualities of a good blog? Be the top of your niche, as people only seek for expert’s advice.

(Image source: Fotolia)

To make the blog more reliable, what the writer has to do is to incorporate elements of his experience and expertise in the topic. The writer can draw on his or her knowledge to impress the readers and develop a level of trust on the subsequent entries. Thereafter, the readers would use the site as a reference point when they wish to consult on the topic.

(Image source: Fotolia)

We talk about professionalism, but in fact all you need is to do it right. Choosing the right invoicing software, implement the right policies and charge method, asking for a right payment method, manage the invoice record right, this article is all about sharing the right tips for you to do the right invoicing. So learn from the tips right, then you’re on the right way on doing the right and most importantly, professional invoicing. Full detail after jump!

1. Using Good Invoicing Software

The first thing you need to do when preparing invoices for your clients is to select good invoicing software. There are plenty of invoicing software on the market that will help you create convincing invoices, so you probably don’t need to worry about choosing the right one.

It is better to use an online invoicing software as it will help you easily track your clients and the amount of money you are owed. Some of the invoicing software are paid service while others are free. Regardless of the software you decide to use, make sure it meets all your needs with the features you required.

Below are some great recommendations:

• FreshBooks
• LessAccounting
• BlinkSale

Alternatively you can check out our detailed post – Top Invoice & Accounting services for Freelance Designers.

2. Come Up with Your Policies

It is normal to want to be paid after working for a client. However, in the real world not all clients pay on time. As a freelance graphic designer, you will come across stubborn clients who pay half the amount then disappears. Some of your clients will even refuse to pay you. To minimize the occurrences such cases, you need to come up with policies regarding payments.

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As part of your work policies, you should consider the following factors:

• What payment mode will you use – cash, checks or credit cards?
• How much should the client pay as a down payment?
• Will you begin the work without any payments?
• How many days you will wait before the client pays?
• Are you going to impose penalties for late payments?
• When will the client receives the final work – before or after making payments?

Keep in mind that these policies are not written in stone but only act as a guideline. There will be occasions where you will be forced to be flexible and make changes to your policies to accommodate a client.

3. Stick to Your Policies

Clients do not like surprises. Let the clients know about your policies, including your pricing structure. They should also be informed if any changes are made on the policies.

(Image source: CodyYoung)

Clients can refuse to pay or might be inclined to make late payments if they are surprised by any information on your invoices. As a freelance graphic designer, you need to develop a trust with your clients, thus making everything crystal clear on your policies will not only bring you more trust to clients, but also more jobs to you.

4. Think about Your Charges

You have heard the first rule of pricing is never to undercharge. This is so true. Your prices need to be in line with that of your competitors. Do not dare to quote lower prices in order to attract clients.

(Image source: Fotolia)

The reason is if you underpriced your services, you are more likely to attract cheap clients who give you long and tedious jobs and then disappear without even paying a cent. Also decide your pricing method. Determine whether you will fix your pricing on the basis of the job done or per hour, inform the client so they have no doubt on how you charge.

5. Include Services and Charges

All of your invoices should clearly indicate the services rendered and the amount charged. This makes it easy for clients to understand what they are being asked to pay for. This will also help you and the client monitor what has already been paid and the amount outstanding, thus maintaining an up-to-date record of payments and completed tasks.

(Image source: Fotolia)

Besides, note that majority of freelancer graphic designers prefer their clients to pay upfront before beginning project. Thus, when creating an invoice clearly indicate whether the payment is for the entire or part of the project.

6. Accepted Methods of Payments

It is important for clients to clearly what payment services have been rendered. Some of your clients may be comfortable paying cash, while others might be willing to write checks or make credit card payments. It’s okay as long as you choose a method that is acceptable to you and your clients.

Some of the options you can consider include:

• PayPal
• MoneyBookers
• AlertPay

For most designers PayPal is their favorite choice as it’s convenient, fast and secured. Here’s an article you might be interested in – 10 Most Asked Questions About PayPal.

7. When Are the Payments Due?

Many freelance graphic designers fail to receive payments for projects done since they do not inform their clients when payments are due. Make sure to include a due date on every invoice you send to reduce the occurrence of late payments.

Note that including due dates on invoice is helpful even if your clients always make their payments on time, talking about security.

8. Include Your Contact Details

When designing your invoice, do not forget to include your full names, address, telephone number and email. Some of the invoices you send will pass through several people before getting paid. It is much easier if the person receiving the invoice knows where it is from. In addition, they might need clarification on a few items and including your contact information makes it easier for them to reach you.

(Image source: Fotolia)

Failure to include your contact information on the invoice might result in payment delays. Clients might also need your contact information as part of their record keeping policy.

9. Number your Invoices

As a freelancer, you will have to deal with many clients and in the process, you will send out lots of invoices. Thus, you need to come up with a way of monitoring and organizing your invoices.

(Image source: Fotolia)

Most of the invoicing software mentioned above includes a numbering system, which you can use to keep track of payments. A good numbering system allows you to monitor payments and keep track of late payments or clients who have defaulted. It simply saves you time and effort searching here and there, or ended up invoicing clients who have already paid.

10. Keeping A Record of Invoices

Always remember that backup is the savior of all business troubles. It is so essential that if you fail to do it and you lost your record of invoices, there will be no way to track which clients have been billed, and which are not.

(Image source: Fotolia)

Grow a habit, always do a backup of your invoice record. You can photocopy them, print them out or download them into your computer’s local storage, as long as you have a copy of them. Store any email and letter related with the invoice so when anything happens, you always have an extra reference, and you will thank yourselves for keeping them well.

Bonus: Make Follow Ups

Not all of your clients will respond to your invoices on time. As the due date approaches, politely enquire from the clients whether or not they have sent their payments. Yes, be polite when doing follow ups because while certain clients are willing to pay, they could have simply forgotten the payments.

(Image source: Fotolia)

Lastly, you need to be systematic when dealing with invoicing issues raised by your clients. Responding in time to your client’s concerns portrays your professionalism and will increase the likelihood of them giving you more projects.

(Image Source: Fotolia)

Business means trade, and trade means transaction. For Internet buyer, what they really care about is probably the security, as there are overwhelming fraud issues happening all around the world nowadays. So setting up web store is not like your regular Blogger blog, it requires careful planning and guided installation with hardened security in mind.

But hard doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to do it yourself. For any aspiring webmasters hoping to get into the e-commerce game, this post will serve as the guide mentioned above, to ease the transition a bit with full of helpful tips and recommended service, so don’t wonder anymore, let’s get down to business!

The Process of Building

Before even considering to launch your website it is crucial to spend some time away from the computer and build your idea. What kind of products will you be selling? Are there any competitors in this niche? Ideally how should your website’s user interface look?

(Image Source: Fotolia)

These are all very important topics of discussion which you should consider deeply. It will also help a lot to build a brand name in these early stages of development. You can purchase the matching domain name ahead of time to secure your company name and logo.

If you’re a businessman and interested in working online you may also wish to set up some profiles. A new Google account can help on multiple levels for a new corporation. With Google you’ll gain a brand new email account under Gmail and access to each of Google’s apps. This includes Google Docs and Google Analytics for tracking your web page traffic. YouTube accounts also tie into Google via OAuth, so it’s possible to market your store with video media too.

Registering a Domain

Once you have a rough idea of how your shop will work it’s time to make some bold steps. Registering a domain name and finding a web host aren’t very difficult tasks. Yet they are monumentally important steps in the overall launch process.

Spend a lot of time considering your domain before purchase. Once you buy one it’s usually set for 1 year (or more if you choose), so you’re stuck with it! Personally I am a fan of NameSilo for registering new domains. Their user accounts let you set up portfolios and organize your domain names into different structures. Their domain search is also quick and produces to-the-point results.

Choosing the Web Hosting Service

When it comes to hosting things get a bit more difficult. You’ll want to consider the backend language which your online shop will run, and to choose the proper server settings. If you don’t have any preference or just don’t care I recommend sticking with PHP. It’s open source and supported in mostly 99% of server environments. But just ensure that any hosting account you purchase will support PHP and MySQL databases.

Some companies Hostgator and Bluehost offer some incredible solutions for first-time webmasters. The average cost is $100-$150/year for unlimited storage and bandwidth. Now some web hosts do cap their storage and bandwidth limit. But for even the cheapest solutions you’ll generally be using well under their rules.

For more precise guidance, follow our post to help you choose the best web hosting service based on 10 essential factors, and consumer guide on understanding the very truth about web hosting and tips to avoid some annoying hosting troubles.

Choosing your E-Commerce Package

There are two main categories to choose from for building an online shop. Hosted solutions are companies which provide you with everything you need on the backend and host the e-commerce script on their servers. This means you won’t need to perform any programming or file uploads of any kind. You will however still need a domain name to redirect and give your shop a distinct URL.

Now you can also work with licensed scripts, both paid and open source. These kinds of e-commerce systems are easily customized and make up the majority of online web stores. Even if you aren’t a programmer at heart it’s a very simple process to download and re-upload script files onto your hosting server and follow some installation instructions.

But when you are working with money and payments online there are many security risks to consider. If you feel uncomfortable taking on that much responsibility it may be wise to choose a hosted solution. Many times you can talk with company representatives to figure out site security without any stress. The customer’s overall experience and safety should be held in regard to your bottom-line decision.

Hosted E-Commerce Solutions

Many of the hosted solutions can provide an amazing experience to your visitors with very little work on your end. The administration panel is also uniform to all other scripts, which should provide you an easy interface to upload photos and add catalogue entries.

There are so many choices out there it’s hard to pick just one. But I’ve included 3 below which stand out among the rest. They’re viable options for the average webmaster who isn’t interested in messing around with FTP and programming IDE’s. You do lose a lot of opportunity for customizations, but you are gaining added security and personal staff support.

Shopify

You can check out Shopify for yourself to see this amazing service in action. Their website is designed beautifully and contains some wonderful demos. If you are on the edge with choosing any company, Shopify may possibly be the best option. Their features include a personal app store, SSL security, unlimited server bandwidth, a custom mobile template and a whole lot more!

This is one script which offers a lot more user customizations than others. In the admin backend panel you may choose between dozens of themes to implement onto your live website. If you understand HTML/CSS it’s possible to edit the raw website design online. The editor is similar to WordPress theme’s editor and offers a very simple UI for beginners.

Shopify also includes live chat and contacts 24/7 for any support. Check out their huge examples page if you’d like to see a few Shopify-powered stores. By looking at some templates it’s difficult to even tell what script they’re running.

Pricing can range from very cheap to very expensive over the course of their 5 plans. Compare details and see if any would stack up to your credentials. Ideally I would recommend Shopify if you have some standard knowledge of HTML and are looking for a fully-accountable staff to back up your new launch.

Yahoo! Merchant Solution

For small businesses Yahoo! Merchant Solution may also catch your attention. The layout for your standard Y!MS account is fairly straightforward and easy to customize. They provide custom traffic analytics and split testing right from your admin panel. The most popular payment gateways are supported, including PayPal, money orders, checks, and credit cards.

Yahoo! is a great company to partner with if you’re choosing to go the hosted route. They spur large bouts of traffic through organic search and ad clicks, quite honestly only rivalled by Google. You can set up a small marketing account and help spread the word of your new store. Additionally if you’re looking to work with a skilled web designer or developer the small business network includes these features. Yahoo! can practically manage your entire store deployment and launch.

BigCommerce

The BigCommerce shop software could be compared to Shopify with trimmed features. They offer a clean user interface which clears up a lot of confusion in the signup process. It’s a breeze to add in new features, products, users, and take payments online in just a few minutes.

Granted if you are a developer the team has spent time building an online API. Check out the integration and API settings on their website for details about page plugins. You may include details from many accounts around the web such as Facebook, eBay, 2Checkout, MasterCard, and PayPal. The staffs offer plenty of template customizations to choose from so you’ll never be worried about branding.

To see a few stores in action check out their live stores showcase, updated regularly and spurring some of the finest e-commerce designs in modern Internet layouts. There are a lot of features to go through when you’re first working with BigCommerce. Consider e-mailing the developers or get in touch with somebody at the company to answer questions you may have. I have only heard very positive reviews about their customer service and support for clients.

Custom-Owned Scripts

On the flip side to pre-hosted solutions it may be easier for developers to work within their own boundaries. Of the many scripts online to choose from there are only a handful worthy of testing. Although I’ve included 4 of my personal favorites here, check Google and do a bit of research if nothing suits you, alternatively check out our featured open source e-commerce shopping carts.

Each website launch is unique and will require unique conditions which another e-commerce solution may provide. In popularity these 4 scripts rank very high, so I’m sure you’ll find most things you need.

Zen Cart

Possibly one of the best known brands for e-commerce scripts on the web, Zen Cart is written in PHP and supports mostly all hosting environments. It’s free to download and install on as many websites as you’d like. The only retributions which they require is leaving the “Powered by Zen Cart” link open in the footer area.

Working with Zen Cart provides connections into other services. Some of these are included as modules and it’s possible to download them from their website. Others are simply companies which have tied into the Zen Cart software. Check out their personal recommended services list to see if anything jumps out.

If you know API development yourself there’s a simple XHTML templating system applied onto each website. It is incredibly easy for your standard web developer to create a custom theme.

Additionally the support community is alive and constantly buzzing. Zen Cart has personally sponsored an entire wiki devoted to the script and common topics. Their support forums are also often active with helpful members. You can ask questions ranging from setup and installation all the way to custom module controls.

Magento

Magento has developed a very fine script for e-commerce websites. Their whole script is written on PHP and includes plenty of details for getting started. If you’re familiar with active development and FTP deployments check out the current SVN. It’s updated frequently and gives you a great way to access raw PHP files.

Certainly it’s possible for non-programmers to work with the Magento suite. But I would recommend checking out another option if you aren’t at least well-versed in HTML/CSS. Truly those looking to customize an amazing store with brilliant functionality should check out their product features and weigh the options. It won’t be a simple task to learn the Magento backend, however if you are familiar with PHP or a similar programming language you should be very comfortable within 2-3 weeks.

This is one company which provides a lot of support for users. Aside from the free edition there are many alternative options which you can pay per licence. Enterprise and Professional edition stand out as the two best-featured scripts. If you’re torn check their charts on the comparison page and choose what you think is best suited for your business need.

To get started with your learning spend a bit of time learning about their system, which includes screencast videos and some technical documentation. One area the Magento system isn’t lacking is in documentation.

WordPress eShop

Classic WordPress CMS has stood among many challengers in its day. Yet today there are millions of websites powered by WordPress, both static content and live blogs. So it only makes sense that over time a team of developers would create one spectacular e-commerce solution tied into WordPress. I believe WordPress eShop provides everything an e-commerce site would need, from orders to shipping to discount codes, all running within the WordPress admin.

If you’re a bit confused browse through a few of their tabs. The developer has provided amazing documentation and examples. Their installation process is also very simple, yet an elegant way of handling such a complex task. They have included a brief FAQ tab demonstrating some of their finer features.

With this method you will have to concern yourself with security and updates. It is of the utmost importance that your website stays secure and hack-free. SQL injections are all too common, and in this day personal user information and credit card numbers are much too important to lose. If you’re looking for a place to start on this, WordPress hosts support forums with many related topics. Try out their search feature to see if anybody has asked similar questions before.

Interspire Shopping Cart

Interspire is an Australia-based web development company. They create custom scripts with administrator backend support and CSS3 templates. These products include a general CMS, email marketing software, and a powerful shopping cart featured here. They do charge a hefty fee for their software out of the box ($295 per license), but you’re given amazing possibilities for customization.

Interesting enough the software which powers Interspire Shopping Cart is the same which powers BigCommerce discussed earlier. The only difference with them is a paid hosting account and you don’t have any access to editing the server files. But Interspire is such a complex system it may be a lot easier this way. For developers, Interspire is a goldmine of creativity.

They have released some brand new features in version 6 which will blow you away. They have hundreds of modules and templates to choose from. And their list of accepted payment gateways is enormous in comparison to many other scripts.

If possible try out their demo install, both frontend and administrator panel. You’ll fall in love with the features immediately and recognize if this is truly the best option for you. Your ideas will change depending on the needs of your shop, but for the average web developer the Interspire Cart is easily the best solution.

Taking Merchant Payments Online

Credit card payments are possibly the largest out of any other style. Many digital sources like Google and PayPal have started to corner the market, but credit card companies are still raking in the profits. And it’s obvious as credit cards provide a simple solution for your customers and you to pay online.

You’ll probably want to sign up for two different accounts and include your new business name on file. An Internet merchant account is used to receive funds over the web for goods or services. Similarly a payment gateway or payment provider is a service which connects your store with your merchant account. This means you’ll be able to accept instant payments via credit card whenever your customers buy something.

To sign up for a merchant account you may try checking your local bank. Banks offer a signup process to credit your website and create an Internet-based merchant account. But if this isn’t an option try a merchant account provider. These 3rd parties work as the middle man transferring payments from your site to the bank of your choice. There are a few merchants to choose from. I’ve listed the most popular companies below:

• Network Solutions
• North American Bancard
• MerchantPlus
• WorldPay

After you have successfully created a merchant account you’ll have to choose a gateway. These are companies which securely transfer the data your customers input into your merchant account.

Sometimes banks will provide you with the gateway, although there are plenty of options to choose from otherwise. The most credible company for those based in the United States is Authorize. Their website includes some standard information and forms which should help clear up any questions you have regarding their services. Additionally eWAY is a new launch targeting the international audience.

Alternative Payment Methods

If you won’t be taking such direct payments from clients, it may be easier to work in the short term. Digital payment methods have become a lot easier to work within the past decade. PayPal is the obvious leader among the pack and can be featured on almost all of the most popular e-commerce empires, with strong assisting guides laying everywhere, even from Hongkiat. Amazon and eBay are another two best known for this feature.

Many of the runner-up services work just as well as PayPal but haven’t gained enough attention. Specifically Google Checkout offers a very secure and speedy transaction process. If you’re already using Gmail or have a Google Account it’s simple to tie into a new Google Checkout account. Their backend supports widgets which you can add onto your page for a nicer design.

Both PayPal and Google Checkout support solutions for invoicing. This can be useful if you’re planning on purchasing modules or further domains. Try staying with a single account and use this for all your business transactions online. It’s a lot quicker than waiting for payments or working through shady non-secured payment pages.

Add Content and Products

After you’ve got a domain, hosting, and you can view your script live online then you’ve really made it far! Moving past this process you’re merely required to perform some maintenance and building of website structures. Not too bad for a first e-commerce setup.

Familiarize yourself with the administrator panel and how to work with product pages. It’s important for your viewers to receive the best user experience on your website and hopefully land the sale. If you notice any image size limits or set proportions consider spending some time pre-cropping your product images. Or at the very least standardize the image size so your products will display evenly in rows/columns.

Along with product listings you’ll want to begin working on your page copy. Written content on your website is vitally important to get your message across and land sales. Visitors will be interested to hear about your company and many will hope to get in contact with you. These are just a few base pages to consider building, but you may focus on a few more as time goes on. For example a privacy policy page is very important concerning how you’ll handle user information.

Marketing and Beyond

After this point your first shop should be online and full of new content. Congratulations! It’s a difficult process to build and launch a full-scale e-commerce solution. But now the fun really picks up as you start taking orders and marketing.

Nobody is going to find your website without some form of marketing. If you haven’t signed up for a Google account yet I highly recommend creating one for Google Analytics. They provide completely free tracking software which boasts some incredible features you can’t find anywhere else! With their tools you can find your most trafficked pages and biggest referring websites. Alternatively you can also try out some worthy analytic tools to find the one which best suits you.

If you feel that a professional marketing strategy would provide some prosperous results I recommend joining with a few publishing agencies. Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are the top 3 contextual ad publishers in the whole Internet. Google AdWords is obviously very well known and trusted amongst hundreds of marketers – and for good reason! Google AdWords provides large traffic numbers and laser-targeted click results for whatever products you’re selling.

Additionally Microsoft’s AdCenter and Yahoo! Advertising Solutions have really taken off the ground in recent months. These are viable options for smaller online stores with a much smaller marketing budget. You’ll be able to afford a lot more ad clicks and garner attention from a wide audience. Once you’ve run a few successful marketing campaigns your traffic numbers will slowly raise and you are sure to grow success in your online e-commerce shop.

Conclusion

This guide provides a conclusive walkthrough of the major steps to creating your first e-commerce store. It’s not an easy process to complete start-to-finish. Even professional web designers struggle when sitting down to create new e-commerce stores. But once you’ve gone through this a few times things seem a lot more efficient and will flow easier.

The solutions offered here are just some of the many opportunities for e-commerce developers. In addition if you have tips or strategies for launching an online store please share them in the discussion section below, we do appreciate them!

More

Here are more e-commerce related posts we previously published:

• E-Commerce Design Resources
• E-Commerce Shopping Carts (Open Source)
• Glossy E-Commerce Icon Set
• Hand-drawn E-Commerce Icon Set

It is important to understand how PayPal works; a person who knows how the service works will get their transactions done quickly and safely, but if you don’t, you may end up losing unnecessary transaction fees or facing unforeseen difficulties that requires the attention of PayPal Support.

If you have trouble understanding some issues about PayPal, we hope this will help you clear some clouds. Here’s 10 most asked questions about PayPal together with solutions and some useful links.

Shortcut to:

• PayPal Account Types
• Online Purchases vs. Personal Payments
• Using credit card with PayPal
• Withdraw to credit card and/or bank account
• Top-up PayPal account
• Receive credit card payments; Is it free?
• Creating PayPal Payment button
• PayPal currency exchange rate
• Turning PayPal into online credit card swipe machine
• Adding new currencies

1. What PayPal account type should I get?

In a nutshell, there are three main types of PayPal accounts: Personal, Premier, Business. But there’s also a Student account, which can be created under either one of the above mentioned 3 account types.

Wondering which you should be getting? Here are some characteristics of each:

Student Account

On top of Personal, Premier and Business account. PayPal also allows one to open a student-type account. It can be opened by the parents for their teen, or can be apply by the teen themselves as long as they are 13 years old and above.

Learn more about PayPal Student Account.

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2. Online Purchases vs. Personal Payments – What are the differences?

From PayPal’s perspective, payments (money) can be send in two ways. You can either send them as Online purchases, or Personal Payments and transaction fee may be applied.

On top of these, if the transaction requires currency exchange, additional fees will also be applied.

Learn more about PayPal domestic payments vs. International payments.

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3. How to use a credit card with PayPal?

PayPal supports all major credit cards – MasterCard, Discover, American Express (less favorable), and Visa. Linking your credit card to your PayPal account allows you to pay and send PayPal balane to your credit card.

To add your credit card, follow these following steps:

1. Login to PayPal account.
2. Go to My Account -> Profile
3. Select Add/Edit Credit card

Credit card verification process

As part of the verification process, PayPal will make a minimum refundable charge to your card to generate a 4-digit PayPal code which will be used to complete credit card verification.

In your credit card statement, you will get the 4-digit PayPal code where the description field will start with the word ‘PayPal’ or ‘PP’.

Once you got the code, login your PayPal account and go to "Overview" and click on "Confirm my debit or credit card" by entering the 4-digit PayPal code to complete credit card verification.

Within 24 hours, the minimum amount which being charged to generate 4-digit PayPal code will be refunded to your PayPal account.

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4. How to withdraw to credit card and/Or bank account?

PayPal has various ways for you to pay and get paid depending on your country. For some countries you may add a local bank and have money withdraw to your bank account; for some you can only withdraw to a U.S bank account or request for check payments.

Be sure to check with this list first before attempting any withdrawal.

Withdraw to Bank Account

1. Go to "My Account" > "Withdraw".
2. Click "Withdraw funds to your bank account".
3. Enter your bank information and click "Continue".
4. Click "Submit".

It will take 5 – 7 days to transfer the fund to your bank account. PayPal personal account members are restricted to withdraw more than $500.00 per month.

Withdraw to Card

1. Go to "My Account" – "Withdraw".
2. Click "Withdraw funds to your bank card".
3. Enter the amount and select a credit card to receive payment.

This transaction will normally take 5-7 days. However the length of time might be affected by card issuer’s policies. Withdrawals to your card must meet a minimum withdrawal amount.

PayPal charges a fee for withdrawals to your card. Currency conversion charges may also apply.

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5. How to top-up PayPal account?

It is easy to top-up your PayPal account – adding more funds to increase your spending limit. Topping up your PayPal account is free but charges may apply by your local bank.

Here’s how you top-up your PayPal account, in 3 simple steps:

1. Go to "My Account" > "Top Up".
2. Select your bank and click "Continue".
3. You’ll be redirected to a page to fill in your top-up amount. If you want to top-up US dollar, fill in the exact amount and click on "Recalculate" to update/refresh the total in your country currency.

It may take up to 1-3 days, depending on your bank, to receive the top-up payment in your PayPal account. You are not allowed to top-up for others; bank account and PayPal account must share the same person’s name in order to perform a top-up.

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6. How to receive credit/debit card payments via PayPal? Is it free? 

You have a PayPal account, you nailed a deal but how is your customer or client going to pay you? PayPal provides three options you can bill or request payments, respectively the following:

I – Website Payments Standard

Website Payments Standard is a quick and easy way to begin accepting credit card payment on Internet. It allows you to add various types of buttons on your website, providing client/customers to send payment in the following mode:

• Buy now, allowing client/customer to pay you instantly.
• Select multiple items, add to cart, and check out later.
• Subscribe and send payments in recurring (every day, week or month) mode.

II – Email Payments

PayPal Email Payments allows you to request payment from your customers via email. It’s a secure and quick way to accept PayPal payments online, bank payment or credit card payment. Your customers can easily make the payment with one click.

A low transaction fees will be charged to receive payment through PayPal Email Payments. Make sure you check out the complete features of PayPal Email Payments too.

III – Adding PayPal as Additional Payment Option

By adding PayPal as an Additional Payment Option on your website, you provide client/customer an option to pay via PayPal right from your website. This is an easy and convenient method to ask for payments.

Bear in mind that higher fees will be charged for Personal PayPal account to receive payment from a debit card or credit card.

If you have business/premier account, you can receive credit card payments from buyers even they’re not PayPal users. No PayPal account registration is required for payees.

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7. How to create a PayPal payment button?

This is one of the method discussed in the above "How to receive credit/debit card payments via PayPal?" but I’ve decided to go break it down and go into more details as this is one of the most asked question about PayPal.

Creating a PayPal button is easy, and its step is as follows:

1. Login to your PayPal account.
2. Go to "Merchant Services", select "Website Payments Standards" on your left.
3. Select one of the 3 button (mode) how you like payments to be made. Eg. Buy Now, Add to Cart or Subscribe.
4. Choose a button type and enter your payment details.
   
5. Fill in optional information for item name, item ID, price, currency and customize advanced features. Complete the process by clicking "Create Button" at the bottom of page.

Note: You can either click "Select Code" to select all the button code then copy the code and paste in your website or send the payment link via email.

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8. Is PayPal currency exchange rate same with local banks?

PayPal’s currency exchange rate is always higher than market and bank rates. It is out of the way how PayPal profit from services they provide.

You can find PayPal’s currency exchange rates with steps below:

1. Go to "My Account" > "Profile".
2. On left of the page, click "My Money".
3. Click "Currencies" next to PayPal balance.

Select a currency if you have more than one currency in your PayPal account. Enter the exact amount, the exchange currencies and click "Calculate". The exchange rate will be display with the total amount and PayPal exchange rate.

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9. How to turn PayPal into an online credit card swipe machines?

PayPal Virtual Terminal is an online credit card swipe machines; in short it allows you to turn your computer into a credit card terminal, enter orders and start charging your customers. You’ll be provided with a card swiper (USB) to plug directly into your computer upon successful application of the service.

This feature is only available for Premier and Business type accounts.

With PayPal Virtual Terminal, you can take an order by mail, fax or phone. Just log in to your PayPal account and enter the given credit card info. It works anywhere as long as you have Internet access. Majority of credit cards are accepted, and the payment reaches your account on the fly.

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10. How to add new currencies in my PayPal account?

Click on "Profile", then "My Money" on the left of the page. After that, click "Currencies" next to your PayPal balance.

At "Manage Currencies" section, you can add a new currency, and any future payment you receive in that currency will be credited to that balance. Your primary currency is the default currency for sending and requesting payment.

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References

• 10 Absolutely Useful PayPal Tips and Tricks You Should Know
• How to Use PayPal: Basics and Beyond
• 17 points every PayPal account holder should know
• How PayPal Works
• PayPal Help Center

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

Okay, if you are looking for a job now, then you’re in luck. This is a guidance post of ten most common interview questions that you might be asked for your upcoming interviews. If you’re still sending in your resumes to companies, I’ve also posted an earlier entry that you can refer to: 7 Great Ways to Get Your Resume Noticed.

Without further ado, here are the top 10 questions, let’s get started!

10. "Tell me about yourself?"

This is typically the first question the interviewer will ask once you’ve taken your seat. This is the opportunity for the interviewer to assess you as a person through what you say and how you deliver it. As they always say, first impression is at utmost important, so you’ve to make sure you’ve prepared yourself adequately to answer it. Keep it short and succinct, preferably within 2 – 3 minutes.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

How should you reply then? Like I said, you should have done your research on what the company expects from the candidates before heading for the interview. Your answer then, is to address how your qualities (e.g. qualifications, personalities and work experience) are relevant to the position in question. Therefore, you should only convey information applicable to what is required for the job, but not irrelevant ones pertaining to your family or personal events, for instance.

9. "What are your weaknesses?"

At first glance, this seems tricky. On one hand, you can’t reveal that you lack what it takes for the job; on the other, it will be an obvious lie if you claim you don’t have any weaknesses. What should you disclose then?

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

If you have thoroughly gone through the company’s profile and such, you will by now understand what qualities are considered strengths, and what are not. Now, there are several ways to answer double-edged questions like this.

With your knowledge of what constitute as weaknesses that are frown upon by the interviewer, you can admit to those which you have that are impertinent to the job requirement. Secondly, you can mask strengths as weaknesses. For instance, you can say you are a very meticulous person who gets picky with details of a project (for this to work though, the job must be one that is particular about specifics). Last but not least, you can confess to past weaknesses but show how you had triumphed over them.

8. "What is your greatest accomplishment?"

Although the interviewer is asking you about your greatest accomplishment, you still have to choose one that is more professionally relevant. This is a good time to illustrate how you can contribute to the company if you are successfully recruited, so it will be to your advantage if you mention an achievement that applies to the position.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

Let’s say you are applying for a position that requires a significant amount of problem solving and troubleshooting. You might want to talk about a time when you resolved a persistent problem that had plagued your company for years. You can explain how you initiated some research and made a useful suggestion that was eventually implemented to all departments. If possible, quantify your results in terms of savings made and increased productivity for instance.

7. "Why did you leave your last job?"

There are various legitimate reasons for leaving a job. Yet, when it comes to interview, try to answer positively rather than complain about what made you unhappy. Talk in relation to your career goals and how the job you are applying provides a better environment for growth than your previous job. As always, angle your reply in such a way that what you had learned in your previous job had enriched you with valuable skills for the current position.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

Here, the interviewer is trying to gauge how much the job fits to your expectations. You had probably quit your last job because you were unhappy about something. The interviewer wants to make sure that you will be committed to the job and not leave because your expectations are not met again.

6. "Why do you want to work with us?"

More likely than not, the interviewer wishes to see how much you know about the company culture, and whether you can identify with the organization’s values and vision. Every organization has its strong points, and these are the ones that you should highlight in your answer. For example, if the company emphasizes on integrity with customers, then you mention that you would like to be in such a team because you yourself believe in integrity.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

It doesn’t have to be a lie. In the case that your values are not in line with the ones by the company, ask yourself if you would be happy working there. If you have no issue with that, go ahead. But if you are aware of the company culture and realize that there is some dilemma you might be facing, you ought to think twice. The best policy is to be honest with yourself, and be honest with the interviewer with what is it in the company culture that motivates you.

5. "Why did you apply for this position?"

Even if it’s true to a large extent, don’t give them the vibe that you applied for this job because you were retrenched from your previous company. Or for that matter, don’t give the impression that you are here because you need to make a living. Any company wants someone who is committed to the organization and eventually developed a sense of belonging with it. It doesn’t help claiming that you’re here for the monthly paycheck.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

In fact, the best way to answer this question is to spend some time examining what you like or would like about your work and the company. It is likely you will find something, such as the culture, work environment, meaning of your work, etc. If you didn’t find anything, then you should seriously consider if this is the right job for you.

Once you know why you want this job, you can then answer them in a manner that’ll relate how well you fit with the position. For example, if you like the customer service work involved because you enjoy communicating with people, bring up that sociable personality of yours. Convince them that you’ll fit in very well here, and you’ll in turn convince the interviewer that you’ll be an asset to the company.

4. "What would you like to be doing five years from now?"

Again, this question is asked to find out whether you are committed to the job. The fact is that there are people who hop from job to job, and that is because they don’t really have a solid plan to follow.

Another reason for popping this question is to see whether you are someone who sets goals in life. It’s undisputable that people who set long-term goals are more reliable than those who don’t. I mean, knowing what you want in life says a lot about your personality, perhaps as a person who can lead and stay motivated.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

Your reply should assure the interviewer that your career progression goals are in line with the actual advancement route in the company. The interviewer wouldn’t want to disappoint you in the next five years and end up with you resigning. As such, it is crucial that you do your homework on the company’s prospects so that you know what to expect for yourself, and whether it will meet your long-term career objectives.

3. "Why should I hire you?"

This is the part where you link your skills, experience, education and your personality to the job itself. This is why you need to be utterly familiar with the job description as well as the company culture. Remember though, it’s best to back them up with actual examples of say, how you are a good team player.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

It is possible that you may not have as much skills, experience or qualifications as the other candidates. What then, will set you apart from the rest? Energy and passion might. People are attracted to someone who is charismatic, who show immense amount of energy when they talk, and who love what it is that they do. As you explain your compatibility with the job and company, be sure to portray yourself as that motivated, confident and energetic person, ever-ready to commit to the cause of the company.

2. "How much are you expecting for the salary?"

Salary negotiation is a tough and delicate matter. Preferably speaking, you should avoid going into this topic until the later stage of the recruitment when you are being offered the job. That said, some recruiters might be hoping that you’d yield in to this question and be the first to give the number and set the benchmark. The repercussion? You might end up making less than what the position is worth!

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

Hence, research on the salary range in your field to have a rough estimate of how much you should be earning. Give a large range rather than a specific amount if you have to answer it. An alternative is to pose the question back at the interviewer by asking what kind of salary does the position warrants. At other times, interviewers might just be testing you to see if money is the only thing that matters. So, do emphasize that your priority lies with the nature of the job and not the salary per se.

Remember that when the job is finally being offered to you, the interviewer would have to quote the salary. That will be the best time to negotiate your way because you will then become the one being sought after, and not the other way round.

1. "Do you have any questions to ask me?"

This is normally the last question posed to you, so it’s your chance to finish the interview elegantly. True enough, your doubts about the job position might already been allayed by this time when the interview is almost done. Nevertheless, you’ve got to say something other than replying that you’ve got nothing to ask. Doing otherwise might leave the impression to the interviewer that you are not exactly keen to get the job.

Unless an employer is interested in recruiting a passive employee, the interviewer is likely to be attracted to proactive candidates who ask intelligent questions. If you must ask, do make sure that they aren’t those with obvious answers that you can get if you have done the research thoroughly. Yes, there’s no such thing as a stupid question, except those that you ask for the sake of asking. Try to incorporate your knowledge of the industry and the company into a question that will address a genuine concern of yours. That way, you get to amaze your interviewer and assess for a final time whether the job aligns with your expectations.

(Image Source: Shutterstock)

One of the best responses to this question is to find out about your chances of landing this job. Thank the interviewer for the opportunity and express your enthusiasm for the position before asking if there is any reservation for hiring you. This will be your final chance to address any concerns the interviewer might have of employing you. Stay calm and reply objectively rather than taking any criticism personally.

Of course, you are free to ask any questions in your mind. It is, after all, you who is seeking a right job for yourself. Gather as much information about the position and have a feel of what it’s like working there day in, day out. If they offer you the job and it is what you are seeking for, go for it!

In today’s post, we are going to look into how to integrate Facebook Open Graph with a self-hosted WordPress in a detailed step-by-step guide. It will require editing your existing WordPress theme and creating a Facebook application (if you don’t have one).

Ready? Let’s fire up the browser and your favourite code editor. Full guide after jump.

Step 1. Create a facebook App

We’ll need an Application ID and to get that, you’ll need to create a Facebook App. If you already have a one, move on to step 2.

Creating an application is easy, here’s what you do:

1. Logon to Facebook, go to the Developer’s page.
2. Click "Set up a new app" button on the top right corner.
3. Give a name to your new app, agree to Facebook terms, hit Create app.
   
4. Go to Web Site tab, fill up Site URL and Site Domain.
5. Note down the value of Application ID somewhere and hit the "Save Changes" button.
   

That’s all! You can always come back later to fill up the rest of the information.

Step 2. Replace <HTML> Tag

Open up your theme’s header file (header.php) in your favorite editor. Always keep a backup copy just in case anything goes wrong.

Look for this following line of code, or one that starts with <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/…

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" <?php language_attributes(); ?>>

Replace it with:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#" xmlns:fb="https://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml">

Keep header.php open, we are going to need it for the 3rd step.

Step 3. Insert OG <Meta> tags

Paste the following code right after <head> tag, or before </head> tag.

<?php if (have_posts()):while(have_posts()):the_post(); endwhile; endif;?>
<!-- the default values -->
<meta property="fb:app_id" content="your_fb_app_id" />
<meta property="fb:admins" content="your_fb_admin_id" />

<!-- if page is content page -->
<?php if (is_single()) { ?>
<meta property="og:url" content="<?php the_permalink() ?>"/>
<meta property="og:title" content="<?php single_post_title(''); ?>" />
<meta property="og:description" content="<?php echo strip_tags(get_the_excerpt($post->ID)); ?>" />
<meta property="og:type" content="article" />
<meta property="og:image" content="<?php if (function_exists('wp_get_attachment_thumb_url')) {echo wp_get_attachment_thumb_url(get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID)); }?>" />

<!-- if page is others -->
<?php } else { ?>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="<?php bloginfo('name'); ?>" />
<meta property="og:description" content="<?php bloginfo('description'); ?>" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:image" content="logo.jpg" /> <?php } ?>

Here are some of the the values you’ll need to alter:

• Line 3: Replace your_fb_app_id with the Application ID from Step 1.
• Line 4: You can get your_fb_admin_id under your Facebook Insights page, (More info). Click on the "Insight for your website" green button, grab the entire string of code and replace Line 4.
• Line 12: This line determines the image that represents your post. If your theme supports WordPress Post Thumbnails, it should work fine. But if it doesn’t, it will fail gracefully without an image. Check out Step 3a for an alternative workaround.
• Line 19: Replace logo.jpg with an url to your blog’s logo. It will be displayed when a non-post page on your blog is shared on Facebook.

Step 3a – When "wp_get_attachment_thumb_url" Fail

When wp_get_attachment_thumb_url() failed to work, you are likely going to a content attribute with no value, like what’s shown below:

<meta property="og:image" content="" />

A simple workaround will be to replace Line 12 with the following code:

<meta property="og:image" content="<?php if (function_exists('catch_that_image')) {echo catch_that_image(); }?>" />

Next, open up functions.php and insert the following code:

function catch_that_image() {
	global $post, $posts;
	$first_img = '';
	ob_start();
	ob_end_clean();
	$output = preg_match_all('/<img.+src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"].*>/i', $post->post_content, $matches);
	$first_img = $matches [1] [0];
	if(empty($first_img)){
			//Defines a default image
			$first_img = "/images/default.jpg";
		}
	return $first_img;
}

This replacement code attempts to use a function call catch_that_image() to grab and output the URL of the first image it comes to encounter. Replace line 10 with URL to a default image if the function fails to find its first image.

Step 4. Insert Facebook Javascript SDK

The following Javascript gives you to access all of the features of the Graph API and Dialogs. It also allows you to integrate Facebook social plugins like the Like button, Facepile, Recommendations, etc with ease.

Place it in header.php, right after <body>

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>
  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
    FB.init({appId: 'your_fb_app_id', status: true, cookie: true,
             xfbml: true});
  };
  (function() {
    var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;
    e.src = document.location.protocol +
      '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
    document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
  }());
</script>

Replace your_fb_app_id in Line 4 with Application ID from Step 1 earlier.

Step 5. Let’s test it!

We are done integrating Facebook Open Graph to the WordPress blog. Let’s give it a couple of test to make sure we’ve done things correctly.

Test #1 – View source code

Take a look at the source codes of one of the blog post, you should have something like this:

Check the properties and its values, make sure they are correct.

Test #2 – Install a Like Box

If you haven’t install a Facebook Like Button, then it’s probably time to get one. Place the following code anywhere (preferably before content or after content) inside single.php:

<fb:like href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" layout="button_count" show_faces="false" width="450" action="like" colorscheme="light"></fb:like>

Next, get a friend to Like it. You should see something similar appearing in his Facebook profile:

Extra: WordPress Plugin

If somehow you failed to install the codes or need this to be done quick and easy – there’s a WordPress plugin for that.

Facebook Open Graph Meta in WordPress is a WordPress plugin that adds Facebook meta data to avoid no thumbnail issue, wrong title issue, wrong description issue, etc.

(Image source: ihtatho)

So how do we avoid all these evil attention seeking, unnecessary task and make sure we accomplish what we should be accomplishing on the day itself? Our minds are easily wavered and affected and it becomes extremely hard to realign your focus with goals at job task. Today we are showing you 5 ways to improve your focus at work and how you can possibly discard activity that can divert your attention. Now these tips can be subjective but it may be effective for you!

1. Work in chunks

It’s a scientific fact that our brains can only be attentive on a limited amount of information for a limited amount of time. Making sure the appropriate information in mind is the one that lines up with our duties at work is where the difficulty is. To lighten the load on your brain, it is better to segment your work into small manageable pieces. The idea is you do not want to spend an entire day working on one task non-stop. Breaking it up allows your brain to ‘breathe’ and it will reward you later with effective work. So work in small portions then leave your desk and if your lucky go outside breathe in mother nature.

(Image source: Shutterstock)

2. Reward yourself for your determination

It’s not really a bad thing to visit sites like Facebook, Meebo, or Twitter to get your social updates, but it’s important to not spend huge amounts of time on them, especially when your work is not complete. What I tend to do is create a set of tasks that I need to complete before I can visit any of those sites or leave my desk. I will work awhile, complete a task, then reward myself with some time catching up with a friend. This strategy relies on sheer perseverance and strong will. If you cant stick to goals that you set try another one of these methods.

(Image source: Shutterstock)

3. Find the right Music

As for me there is no way that I can push through an entire work day of coding or designing without the appropriate music to keep me motivated. For me its either intense techno or alternative music that sustains me throughout the day. I can be wrong about this but I believe its important that whatever genre you decide to listen to, to make sure its music that can be easily filtered out while keeping the work ethic at full throttle. For myself I can not listen to music that makes me think about the words or sucks me into wanting to fall asleep, both of which becomes a distraction. Finding the happy medium will increase your drive immensely and will make the day fly right by.

(Image source: Shutterstock)

4. Go Incognito

If all else fails and you just cant seem to get away from the Facebook and pesky co-worker emails, you have to hide yourself. Go invisible on the instant message clients, set the away message to “BUSY, DON’T BOTHER ME”. And for those workers who love to stop by your desk, throw on those head phones so they dont feel inclined to spark up a conversation. I often have to hide from being annoyed from others. It seems the moment one person starts talking to me that the floods of people come. I’ve learned to never put myself in conversational positions while trying to be focused or make sure that i’m in control if I am in those situations.

(Image source: Shutterstock)

5. Be interested/passionate about your work.

Finally the best way to be productive is to truly enjoy and be passionate about what your working on. We go to great lengths and hours of work for things that interest us. Yet we lose focus instantaneously if what we are doing is not important. It might take sometime finding interest in the work you do, you might have to just think about the big picture or maybe focus on impressing those around you (possibly a boss) to stay on track.

(Image source: Shutterstock)

(bellefoong)

Not deleting emails leads us to next potential problem – messy and unsorted inbox. Good news is, Gmail has a easy workaround. In short, not only you get to keep all emails, they can also be organized, sorted and retrieved easily – all with the use of Labels.

Today we are going to talk about searching and retrieving your mails. The simple "Search Mail" function right beside Gmail logo actually does more than we imagined. In this post, we’ll introduce you the useful Gmail search operators as well as examples on how you can search for almost any type of mails easily via the search text field.

Full list after jump.

Operators

Here’s a list of Gmail operators you can take advantage of when you search via the search box in your Gmail. Examples of usage is also provided.

"" (quotes):

Format: "keyword"
Example: "meeting agenda"
(Return only emails with the exact quoted keyword(s).)

subject:

Format: subject:keyword
Example: subject:Google Alert
(Return emails with keyword(s) in titles.)

from:

Format: from:<name>
Example: from:hongkiat
(Return emails received from a specific user, but not the email address.)

Format: from:<email@address.com>
Example: from:hongkiat@email.com
(Return emails received from a specific email address.)

to:

Format: to:<name>
Example: to:hongkiat
(Return emails sent to a specific user, but not the email address.)

Format: to:<email@address.com>
Example: to:hongkiat@email.com
(Return emails sent to a specific email address.)

in:

Format: in:<label name/inbox/trash/spam/anywhere>
Example: in:trash
(Return emails stored in a specific location. If you are looking for emails that you have no clue where it is, use in:anywhere.)

is:

Format: is:<starred/unread/read/chat>
Example: is:unread
(Return emails with a specific status. E.g, Starred, unread, read emails or even Gtalk chat logs.)

cc: & bcc:

Format: cc:<name> or cc:<email@address.com>
Example: cc:hongkiat or cc:hongkiat@email.com
(Return emails carbon copied to a user or specific email address.)

Format: bcc:<name> or cc:<email@address.com>
Example: bcc:hongkiat or cc:hongkiat@email.com
(Return emails blind carbon copied to a user or specific email address.)

Before: & after:

Format: before:<yyyy/mm/dd>
Example: before:2010/07/01
(Return emails before a specific date.)

Format: after:<yyyy/mm/dd> before:<yyyy/mm/dd>
Example: after:2010/06/01 before:2010/07/01
(Return emails after in range of or after specific date.)

label:

Format: label:<label name>
Example: label:Comments
(Return emails with a specific label.)

filename:

Format: filename:<filename.format>
Example: filename:presentation.pdf
(Return emails with the exact filename attached.)

Format: filename:<format>
Example: filename:pdf
(Return emails that have the same file type attached.)

has:attachment

Format: has:attachment
Example: from:hongkiat has:attachment
(A more general search for emails with attachments. Return emails with attachments, regardless of file type and format.)

Combining Operators

Here are some operators that allows you to yeild more specific and accurate results.

"-"

Format: operator:value -operator:value
Example: has:attachment -filename:zip
(Return emails with attachements, filtering away those with .zip attachments.)

"OR"

Format: operator:value OR operator:value
Example: from:a@email.com OR from:b@email.com
(Return emails received from either user(s).)

"AND"

Format: operator:value AND operator:value
Example: from:hongkiat@email.com AND has:attachment
(Return only emails received from a specific email that has an attachment.)

10 (more) Advanced Search Examples:

The possibility of manipulating these operators are quite limitless. Here are some of the combination of search queries use frequently or find useful.

1. Example: in:inbox label:facebook is:unread
   (Search for all unread emails labeled facebook inside inbox.)
2. Example: in:anywhere from:peter
   (Search for all emails regardless where it’s stored (spam, inbox, trash) received from anyone with the name Peter.)
3. Example: is:unread after:2010/06/01 before:2010/07/01
   (Search for all unread mails for the month of June. )
4. Example: from: peter@emailadress.com has:attachment
   (Return all emails with attachments sent by peter@emailadress.com)
5. Example: in:inbox "meeting"
   (Search inbox for any emails with the keyword "meeting" in it.)
6. Example: from:peter@emailaddress.com has:attachment filename:zip
   (Return only emails received from peter@emailaddress.com with .zip attachments.)
7. Example: "facebook" -from:@facebookmail.com
   (Return all emails with the keyword "facebook", excluding those sent by facebook.com)
8. Example: to:peter OR cc:peter
   (Return all emails sent to or carbon copied Peter.)
9. Example: label:google OR from:@google.com
   (Return all emails received from google.com or labeled "google".)
10. Example: "meeting" is:chat
    (Return all chat log files with keyword "meeting" in it.)
    

(bellefoong)

(Image by Paul Goyette)

But first: why do our computer and design files get out of control so easily? The same reason so many people have messy rooms and disorganized closets and physical work spaces. Except multiply by 100, since it’s so easy to create computer design files that don’t take up physical space.

Luckily, it’s not that hard to keep your computer and design files under control. Add a pinch of common sense, mix with a dash of self discipline, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Don’t worry – it sounds more work than it is. Just equate it to brushing your teeth: once you get into the habit of doing these things, you won’t even notice it. You’ll just naturally keep your computer and design files under control.

Alright, without further ado, here are the 5 effective ways to keep your files under control.

1. Ruthlessly Delete Old and Unnecessary Files

(Image by Mixy Lorenzo)

This one might seem forehead-slapping obvious, but sometimes the most common sense steps are overlooked. Forget any productivity software, and file streamlining workflows, and any other pat-on-the-back productivity nonsense: simply delete old and unnecessary files.

It’s the same as cleaning your room or organizing your physical files. You go through your stuff, and when looking at an item, you decide: is this relevant to something important? If not, you ruthlessly throw it away. That’s how you stay organized: by minimizing the number of stuff you have. No tricks or secrets.

This method is no different when it comes to your computer design files. When going through your files, decide if each one is still relevant to something important. If it isn’t, ruthlessly delete it – you won’t need it again, and it’s just cluttering up your digital work place. Usually these files are old project files such as earlier drafts of graphics and designs and outdated website files.

That’s nice and all, but when should you ruthlessly delete old and unnecessary files? After all, practically everyone hates cleaning their room.

Well, just like the way you can minimize having to schedule cleaning your room is by taking care of an object as soon as you encounter it, so too should you decide if you need to delete a file when you encounter it. Which leads us to #2…

2. Take Immediate Action on Files You Encounter

(Image by John Britton)

The best way to avoid having to schedule sorting and cleaning of your computer design files is to not have it be necessary. Each time you encounter a file, take immediate action on it.

But you’re no doubt a busy dude or gal. You’ve got things to do, places to be. You can’t drop everything you’re doing and take care of each file you encounter. So how do you decide when to take action? Use the 5-minute rule: if taking immediate action on the file will take 5 minutes or less, take care of it as soon as you encounter it.

Sound familiar? It’s because this is “influenced” by David Allen’s popular book GTD: Getting Things Done. In it, he says you can avoid accumulating a long to-do list by immediately taking care of a task you encounter as long as it’ll take no more than minutes.

This applies to your computer design files as well:

• Found a half-finished logo? Wrap it up and send it off.
• Almost done with a piece of code? Finish it.
• Have a group of files you’re not sure you need anymore? Go through them, decide, and delete if necessary.

So #1 and #2 helps to keep your files under control. But there’s another essential element, which is…

3. Have as Few Folders as Possible

(Image by Steve Ryan)

Create only a few folders for your type of work, and be as general with the category as possible. Instead of getting niche with countless folders being broken down (such as ‘vectors‘ or ‘photoshop’ or whatever), just have things like ‘logos’ and ‘websites’. Or you can have folders for each project, and any type of file that’s related to it goes in there.

Why do this? Two reasons:

1. No indecision paralysis: is the file a logo, website stuff, or part of a project? Just throw it in the respective folder and be done with it.
2. Anti-too-many-files filter: when you see the folder filling up with too many files, you’ll be more inclined to delete old and unnecessary ones. Similar to seeing too much stuff in your room, rather than hiding it in drawers and other rooms.

Avoid getting too specific with folder names and categories. The more specific you name a folder, the more categories you’ll have. And with more categories, you’ll have to decide where the new file goes. Chances are it won’t neatly fit into just one of them, so you’ll arbitrarily pick one. Then when it’s time to organize more files, you’ll think back to which category you choose with a similar file last time. Not to mention not clearly knowing which category each file belongs too.

Why not just use some tagging system? Then you can do away with folders altogether, right? While in theory this should work, in reality it’ll encourage you to create and keep way too many files.

Here’s what will happen:

1. You tag your initial files, feeling good that you’ll be able to easily find them later by searching via tags.
2. You become liberal with tags by creating too many tags that are too specific – this is due to indecision paralysis, since you couldn’t choose between two tags and decided to create a new one specifically for that one file.
3. You end up having too many tags which become overwhelming to find stuff with.
4. What’s worse is since you didn’t feel the need to keep your file count low, you now have more files than if they were constantly visible in a general folder you looked in.

4. Ditch Auto-Organizing Features

(Image by Mark Sebastian)

Auto-organizing features (think iTunes’ auto-rename-and-sort feature but applied to all files) are the nemesis to keeping files under control. They encourage liberal file creation and saving. While it seems fine at first, the more files you have, the less you’ll know where everything is.

Why not just delete files when they’re old or unnecessary? The auto-organizing feature will encourage you to not delete. Sort of like Gmail’s never-delete-just-search feature. But unlike email, where you only have one type of content (text) and thus easy to search, your files are hard to search this way. There’s no simple way to search inside the content, especially for visual and audio files. So the only thing you’ll have to work with is filenames and maybe some meta description tagged onto it. That’s a recipe for file overload.

By not using any auto-organizing features, you’ll be accountable for every file you create. You’ll see it and pay attention to it at least once, so you’ll be more conscious of each file on your computer. This way, you’ll get a better feel for when your files are getting out control – and when you need to ruthlessly delete.

5. Consolidate Files When Possible

(Image by Aldo Gonzalez)

This is a simple one. If you can somehow consolidate two or more files into one, then you’ll naturally have less files. And less files equals less clutter.

The other benefit of consolidating files is it becomes easier to find what you’re looking for. Your files become more organized. How? You’ll naturally have relevant content all in one file, so no need to hunt multiple files that pertain to the same project.

How do you go about consolidating your files?

• For text, simply copy/paste related content from multiple files into one main text file.
• For visual designs, you can copy/paste different elements and variations into one main graphic file.

Every major and minor graphics app supports layers and the labeling and grouping of them, so take advantage of that. It can be variations of a logo, or multiple aspects of a bigger design – all in one graphics file.

Granted, not every type of file or content can be consolidated. Code, for example. So that’s why the above is titled “when possible” – do the best you can, and any amount that helps to reduce the number of files is a net gain.

Effectively Keep Your Files Under Control

Hopefully these 5 ways weren’t just some productivity porn: things to read to avoid doing actual work that gets you desired results in your life. No, these were written with the intention to be actionable things you can start applying now to keep your computer and design files from getting out of control.

No one actively wants to organize and manage their computer and design files. So these 5 ways will help you to form habits that’ll avoid needing to do that. And as with any habits, the most important thing is to just start doing them.

To recap, here are the 5 effective ways to keep your files under control:

1. Ruthlessly delete old and unnecessary files
2. Take immediate action on files you encounter
3. Have as few folders as possible
4. Ditch auto-organizing features
5. Consolidate files when possible

Your turn: what other ways have helped you to effectively keep your computer and design files under control?

And I don’t mean things like this:

Nope, that’s no comics, these are just standard boxed illustrations meant to let users visually imagine the stuff they have to fight with. A comic guide is something absolutely special – unique combination of text and graphics where they are inseparable, there are plots and themes, balloons that makes a user manual interactive to catch attention and it will never fail.

Have a look at these 5 great examples of comic guide I’ve found:

1. Google Chrome Comic Guide

The most famous example of them is created by Scott McCloud. The Chrome comic takes 39 pages and has really many guys starring – the heroes are Google developers and they are using IT jokes and simple language to explain complicated web stuff to anyone. A very interesting and informative comic though someone might find it a bit too long and monochromatic.

Source.

2. Hackett and Bankwell Comic User Guide to Linux

Hackett and Bankwell takes even more pages than Google Chrome but it’s a multi-colored comics with a real plot where Hackett, a penguin (not Tux surprisingly), helps the Chinese girl in a serious mission. While saving the world Hackett keeps informing her on what actually Linux is (oh no, GNU isn’t an antelope) .

Well, seems like a good idea for non-linuxoid comic lovers to start a new life.

Source.

3. AdVantShop.NET. Comic Guide to E-Commerce

This one is less famous and less in size. The comic takes one html page but doesn’t make it less interesting or informative. The comic represents the company’s product (shopping cart script) to the user so that he can see how it is to work with it. No web interfaces, no difficult commands – only user impressions with a bit of nice humor.

Source.

4. User’s Guide to Proper Urinal Etiquette

Just thought that at least one funny-purpose manual should be included in the list – this comic provides step-by-step instruction of behaving when in WC). How serious can taking a loo be? still, comics are perfect for really any purpose you can come up with.

Source.

5. The Manga Guide to Databases

Unbeatable is the right word for Manga. Japanese art is just so popular that it’s also use for many different entertainment and educating purposes. From erotic to scientific you name it. The Manga Guide to database is a book created for students specially to make it easier to cope with learning databases. Here cute little princess with huge innocent sparkling eyes in the Business kingdom gets mysterious database knowledge from a smart Fairy.

Source.

Bonus: Oatmeal’s Guide to Using “I.E”

I guess this post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning one of theoatmeal’s comic guide so I decided to save the best for the last. This comic guide gives you an idea when you should be using “I.e.” instead of “E.g” in sentences and why printers are actually sent from hell. You should definetely check out other oatmeal’s comics!

Source.

Well, there are certainly much more of similar instructions but I’m trying to present the tendency in brighter examples. I believe that in the nearest future we’ll have most of the user guides comixed because it’s not only eye catching but also keep our eyes from straying. Which perfectly fits the purpose of any brand – to make us read to the end.

(bellefoong)