Memorial Day Online Sales and Coupons You Won’t Believe

feat-imgWith Memorial Day coming up, one can’t help but wonder what sales will look like this weekend.

If you’re planning a yearly shopping spree or a simple stroll through the mall, you can’t miss these offers that will blow you right out of the water.

From clothing to home furnishings, let this be your ultimate coupon guide for smooth sailing.

In an effort to facilitate your hunt for the finest coupons, I compiled a list of stores that offer discounts of all sorts.

Let’s get started.

Clothing

Forever 21


Designers and Artists: Key Differences and Consequences

art-vs-designTrue confession: I am no artist.

I’m not. I never really have been. I’m neither lucky, nor skilled enough to bear that title. I remember sitting in grade school art classes, next to friends drawing and painting life-like portraits, while I struggled to doodle stick figures. For this reason, I had never even considered design as a potential career path.

In all actuality, I fell into design. In college, I was searching for an elective to help round out my course load one semester, and Graphic Design-I seemed like an interesting choice.


Google+ Rolls Out Its New Look And Feel

don't miss google+ new featuresI don’t tend to like surprises, but I love them when they involve Social Media.

Today, as I walked in the office, settled down at my desk and attempted to indulge in a little Social Media fun, I bumped into a pleasant surprise:

Google+ had a whole new look and feel.

While this design change is going to be exciting for many of us, there are some people who will find it a bit daunting – especially if you were just getting comfortable with the previous design. It may seem like right when you were starting to finally feel comfortable with the platform, Google went behind your back and changed everything.


Outsourcing Design Work: Learning To Let Go

outsourcing-designNearly all designers have an outsourcing-nightmare under their belt. It happens to the best of us. We become overwhelmed by a heavy workload, an impossible deadline, or some other circumstance that’s simply out of our control. Whatever the situation, we come to a point where we can no longer avoid the fact that, well, we just need a little help.

For some of us, this is easier to admit than others. I’m one of those people, for example, who finds it incredibly difficult to ask for help. I’m not sure what the reason is for my all-around stubbornness, but I absolutely hate owing people, asking for favors, and – most of all – admitting that I simply am no superwoman.


Tips for Design Students: What I Wish I’d Known During my College Career

willy-wonka-memeAs many students near the close of the school year, I find myself reflecting upon my time spent in college. It really wasn’t that long ago that I juggled work, extracurricular activities, school, and family but looking back, it all seems like a faraway blur. Projects and deadlines that seemed impossible to complete on time, outrageously priced textbooks and equipment, and time searching for that elusive student parking space all seem to fade further into the past with each passing day.


How to Kick Start Your Facebook Business Page Engagement

revamp your facebook strategy with these tipsIs your business’s Facebook page suffering from lack of engagement? Thanks to Facebook EdgeRank, businesses are reporting that at most, only 10% of their audience is seeing their updates (Forbes). And with the new Facebook newsfeed coming out, that percentage may be less since users can opt to see a stream of their friends’ updates only, leaving updates from pages they follow in the dust.

The secret to getting your posts seen by more of your audience is to win with EdgeRank. Essentially, the more engagement you receive, the more likely your posts will be shown to your fans. Here are some tips that can help you boost engagement and beat the EdgeRank algorithm.


The Ultimate Link Earning Guide for 2013 – Tips from Industry Experts

buidling relationships is an important part of link earningI remember the day I created my first website. I thought that with a little promotional impact, and a reasonable amount of Social Media engagement, I was going to be able to attract all the traffic I needed.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The success of a website depends on many factors. One of the most well thought out and researched of these factors centers on “earning backlinks,” a phrase coined by SEOMoz’s Rand Fishkin.


Tips for Designing Landing Pages that Convert

conversionThis week, I had the opportunity to work on a few landing pages for one of our newest clients. As always, I started with a bit of research to see what types of trends designers are following in regards to PPC. Now that I’ve finished my research, and completed the set up for the pages, I thought I’d share some of my findings in my article this week.

1- Responsive Design


Dealing with a Web Virus on WordPress

Dealing with a Web Virus on WordPressIn the online world, a virus is used to negatively affect the people who own or view a website. Whether or not you own a website, it is possible for your personal information to be stolen when the site is infected. However, protecting yourself from viruses doesn’t require a Ph.D., nor do you have to be a developer or designer to do it. Informing yourself and having just adequate internet surfing skills is enough to allow you to identify them and keep your information safe.


Top Reasons Why Software Projects Fail and How to Avoid Them

failure-blocksSoftware development requires one of the most difficult and essential project management skills – the ability to plan ahead. Statistics show that 68% of software projects fail.

Now that’s an incredibly high number. However, the reasons that many software development projects fail might not be as obvious as you think. So let’s explore some of the major factors that lead to failure.

Management May Push Timing


It’s no secret that management wants deliverables ready as soon as possible, especially if it’s for a client. More often than not, management will implement a timing schedule to ensure that major project milestones are completed within a certain period of time so that the project may be delivered to the client on the date promised in the deliverables.


8 Tips to Make Design for International Clients a Breeze

globeIf you ask any designer what the most difficult aspect of his or her job is, you are most likely to get a response that concerns client relationships. If we lived in a perfect world, all clients would understand grids, Helvetica, color theory, and visual hierarchy. However this is by no means a perfect world- which actually does work to my benefit, because if we did live in a perfect world and all my clients knew what I know about design, I’d be out of a job.


How to Increase Backlink SEO Authority for Local Health Care Businesses

How to Increase Backlink SEO Authority for Local Health Care BusinessesThere is probably no category of purchase decisions that is more personal, private and intense that those that are focused on our personal health, especially considering the choices available across the spectrum of health care providers, technology and much more.

Think about it… if you’re a patient seeking medical attention, logic and common sense should influence you to first thoroughly research before making any final decisions. Why? Simple. It’s your health, well being, and life on the line! In today’s technologically savvy world, your first and many times only option will be to search online for the best health care provider to suit your own personal needs.