1. Skills
Probably all of the clients would like to see a full set of your skills, i.e. all the techniques you are capable to work with. The thing is your portfolio may contain works which do not cover all your knowledge and skills so the client may think that you are unaware of the technologies which you didn’t use in your projects. That is why it is advisable to provide a list of skills you possess. You may add a short description about techniques you have used for creating each website from your portfolio and add a list of additional skills you are proficient with. This will be a winning approach taking into account that you have already included some dates and tools to your portfolio. You can also mention the following points in your capabilities list - the way you can use your skills to make the website stand out and to speed up its production.

2. Textual context
In order to make your portfolio more informative you can add some textual context in addition to the screenshots of the websites you have created. This means some brief descriptions explaining the goal of the project, some special challenges that have appeared in the process of creation and the ways you have overcame them, some peculiarities about the website you have created if there are any. You must captivate the potential client by the context he somehow can not see in images.

3. Responses
Most of the clients would like to know about the way your previous works were received by the clients you worked with before. So apart from describing the reaction of your past clients don’t forget to include some testimonials if there are any. This will give you more chances as when your potential client sees how high you were estimated he is likely to think that you are a really good and reliable web designer.
Another effective way to make an expression on the potential client implies displaying any awards your designs received if you have some. Even some comments and short reviews may come in handy so try to gather as much information about your works as you can.
In case you don’t have any testimonials or reviews you can try to get some additional points by submitting the websites you have created to different critique sites which are of great variety nowadays.

4. Portfolio design
This is one of the aspects responsible for making a first important impression on your potential client. The thing is your portfolio design will also appear to be a sort of your skills example. It must look not less stylish and up-to-date as the works showcased within it. However, it doesn’t mean that you must obligatory use Flash effects and other advanced web design technologies but you should make your portfolio layout as attractive as possible.
Apart from creating a stunning design for your portfolio try to make it functional and usable as well. It means that you must make sure that every link works properly before the client will stumble upon some broken one. Moreover, having your own domain name can be a factor that will make your potential client put you on the top of the list.

5. Best projects
Looking through your portfolio almost all clients tend to think that the works showcased within it are your best ones. This can influence the client’s opinion towards the level of work he may request from you as he sees what are you capable of and decides to work on this very level. That is why you must be very careful with the works you select for your portfolio and the projects you display there. You must not only attract the potential client but show your best skills as well.
Sometimes it happens that you can not show your best work because of different reasons - either this very website is under an NDA or your previous client have asked you not to showcase this project within your portfolio. But you must use every chance to create your best work which you will be able to show to your new clients as the most successful implementation of your skills.

So now you are aware of all the 10 points clients may look for in your portfolio. And if you feel that something is missing do not delay and improve your portfolio right away working hard towards new achievements and profits in future!

1. Experience
It is important to include some significant dates in your portfolio in order not to make your client ask additional questions concerning your experience. Besides, some of the clients may express no wish to ask these questions and thus you will get nothing. So it is better for you to include the dates which may show your real experience - the date of completing projects, how contemporary your skills are, how often you create websites and how long you are actually involved in web design as a developer. These are not the question of the first importance but answering them may influence your client’s opinion greatly.
Of course, projects which were created long time ago may not appear to be a winning aspect as most of the clients are looking for up-to-date experts to create a website which will correspond contemporary trends. But if your works are modern and are created in compliance with up-to-date technologies your chances to find a lot of clients increase.

2. Live projects
When a potential clients looks at the websites you have created he is likely to check it online and to see whether it is live and functional. When the client opens your website and clicks around it he see at once how good it works and how smoothly it loads which usually appears to be one of the most important aspects which influence client’s decision. if the client will highly estimate your website there is a big chance he will start working with you. So it is better to provide a link to the live website you have created if you can, especially if you are sure of its quality and know that it can make a great impression and bring you benefits.
However, there are some cases when displaying a live examples of your work may be a controversial issue. Foe example, if you have designed a website which was your student work or created something to try your hand at development. Nevertheless, showing your real skills to the potential clients is always good and if you have something to show, show it!

3. Tools
Sometimes a clients have some certain toolbox which he wants to rely on during online cooperation. If the tools used for designing your website correspond those ones preferred by the client it may appear to be an additional benefit for you. Of course, if you have used some other tools it won’t mean that you will be put off the client’s list but using tools which your potential client knows increases your chances greatly. Unfortunately, this happens by occasion and you can not predict which particular tool your clients want to see but the more different tools you work with the more chances you have to satisfy your client’s requirements.
Sometimes it happens that a designer knows more tools than is used in his works so in this case it is advisable to create a list with descriptions of all the tools you can work with for your client to see your abilities at once. Don’t be afraid to mention all the techniques you are capable to implement - this will help you to increases your chances to get a good work.

4. Niche
Some designers got used to creating websites for some particular niche, e.g. shopping, education or sports websites, and it may also have certain benefits. If your clients are members of some niche you have created projects for it may be easier for them to interact with you and they are very likely to choose you among others. Of course, creating websites for only one niche may appear to be a drawback as well as your development experience may seem to limited or even scanty - it depends on the client’s preferences and views. you need to take into account that there is some common opinion according to which designers with diverse experience may be estimated higher than those who have been creating websites for only one particular niche. So if you have multiple works to show which concern different aspects and are related to various niches, even if they are not so advanced as your single-niche projects, let your clients see them.

5. Style
Some clients are looking for a designers with certain style of projects for their needs. It is explained by the fact that the client have in mind some specific style for a website he needs to establish. Sometimes these are some unique ideas and sometimes they just want to follow the look of some pages seen of the web, but nevertheless you may be asked to create something concrete. But interacting with web designers some clients can not effectively describe the very style they want and thus they will be looking for something similar in your portfolio to show it as an example of what they want their own website to be. In this case offering a variety of styles will be a benefit for you as the client will be able to choose something that more or less matches his needs.

1. Premium design and functionality
The templates you get from the commercial provider must be distinguished by high-grade quality and premium design which will make your website look attractive and unmatched. So look at the templates offered by the provider you have chosen and make sure that their design is visually appealing and unique. If it impresses you it will impress all of your website visitors beyond doubt, especially if the design is not only stunning but functional as well. But you shouldn’t obligatory rush for the complex design crammed with lots of various functionality features as such templates very often appear to be too complicated to maintain them with comfort - you may find it hard to apply such template and then your website may seem to be too difficult to manipulate and navigate it. Remember that complex design does not always imply premium quality and perfect functioning. Sometimes it is better to find simple but flexible and easy-to-use design which will be both creative and functional looking pleasant to the eye and allowing you and your customers to work with your website without any obstacles. The templates you buy from a commercial provider must be usable for you to manage them easily even if you are not experienced web designer and don’t possess a lot of development skills. So be attentive with this aspect and don’t let your money be wasted on something that isn’t worth your expenses at all.

2. Special functions
Another feature that may show you that a commercial templates provider is trustworthy and successful implies some additional functions for specific purposes built in the templates it sells. It means that the provider offers designs with not only standard and common features but also have solutions for specific applications related to some concrete areas, i.e. templates which are supported by plugins and extensions which allow you to implement some specific functions within your website depending on the topic and purpose of the web pages you are going to create. For example, if you are in need of the template with Community Builder component, a template created to integrate with Phpbb or Virtuemart or something like that you must find it within the items offered by a successful commercial templates provider.

3. Valid coding
if a commercial web templates provider is successful it offers templates of quality coding which are at least HTML valid. But the reputation of the provider increases if it also provides XHTML and CSS validity, Search Engine Optimization facilities, correct types of graphic used within the templates and cross-browser compatibility which means that the website established on the basis if the templates you are offered will work perfectly in any major web browsers.

4. Price model
If you are going to purchase templates from a commercial provider you of course need to check its price model to decide whether it fits you or not. Some providers offer you to pay for every template you purchase separately, some sell templates on the basis of templates membership conditions which means that you have to pay a certain sum of money to get access to the templates package which may contain thousands of designs. According to the templates membership you usually pay not more than you’d pay for a single template but are allowed to download hundreds of various templates at a time without any additional fees. But this price model will fit you in case you are going to develop a lot of different websites for which you will apply the templates from the package you have purchased. But if you need only one design to construct one particular website all other will be just surplus so this is where per-item payment will be an appropriate solution.

5. Reliable support
Commercial templates provider should always grant you with reliable and qualitative support service both when you purchase a product and after you have bought it. You must be provided with necessary help every time you may need it - the responses should be timely and helpful, the issues must be solved properly in order for you to cope with any difficulties which may arise. Qualitative customers support is very important as it means mutually beneficial interaction between you and your templates provider and is one of the main factors which establishes a winning cooperation which may continue in future. Support service may also include some additional elements, such as useful tutorial on installation and customization of the templates, FAQ section and support forums.

Successful and trustworthy commercial templates provider should always keep abreast of the new web development technologies and offer contemporary web design techniques for websites establishment. Moreover, it must provide you with tools that are not only technologically advanced but secure and stable as well. These tips will become useful both in case you are in search of a trustworthy commercial templates provider or want to become a templates distributor yourself. So take them into account and let your goals be achieved successfully!

Viral advertising is also known as a word-of-mouth marketing that is why such campaign is an astounding way of generating brand awareness and a great buzz concerning the issue under promotion. Apart from being effective viral marketing is considered to be one of the most affordable advertising techniques used on the web. If you haven’t tried to implement your own campaign yet and stumble upon the viral marketing issue for the first time here are some useful ideas which will help you. So in order to get the most profit out of the viral advertising it is advisable to:

1. Create a forum
There are several advantages you can get from the forum establishment. First, it will help you to get great rankings from search engines and a huge amount of traffic from the users who will visit it. Second, the forum you set up will attract a lot of new people in your niche encouraging them to comment posts, review the listed products, ask questions etc which means a lot for you viral marketing campaign. Forums are a great way to let people know about the stuff you promote.

2. Write an ebook
If you have enough writing skills you can write your own ebook concerning the issue you know much about. This will appear to be a winning way of getting credibility and recognition immediately as spreading your book for free you allow millions of people to pass over it. If you are not experienced in writing books on your own do not get upset - you can always find some skilled author who will do the work for you for some affordable price.

3. Brand an ebook
There are some books which allow you to rebrand them due to the rebranding rights included. All you need to do in this case is to buy such book and distribute it for free but with your name as an author. Such technique will help you to attract a lot of attention, promote your name among the web surfers and get a lot of traffic to your web pages.

4. Design templates
Free website templates have become a very popular thing nowadays so you can also try your hand on constructing your own ones. You can design templates both for websites and blogs including a link to your website in the footer. This will appear a great way to market your website viraly as most of the webmasters won’t remove your link and thus you will be able to get both backlinks and popularity.

5. Use Facebook
Facebook is known to be one of the most powerful social networks nowadays with over 70 million of users involved worldwide. you can also take part in this online communication promoting your products and services at the same time. This can be achieved through free applications and games establishment as well as organizing groups with information about the issue you promote. Apart from Facebook you can make use of other similar social networking websites as well.

6. Write articles
Apart from writing an entire ebook you can try creating some separate articles and spread them among the webmasters and publish them to various websites. Moreover, if your article contains a backlink your website will always get a credit so your viral marketing campaign will get more chances for success. If you have no time or skills to write the articles on your own you can hire a content writer who will do all the necessary work for you.

7. Create a video
There are online video services, such as YouTube, which allow you uploading your video files for free. you can easily make use of this option in order to attract the attention of million viewers and visitors to the stuff you promote. you can post any video content you consider to be relevant, e.g. advertising messages, tutorials and so on. But don’t forget that including your website link in the video is your main task.

So now you are aware of the benefits viral marketing can bring you and know how to implement viral advertising techniques for the most profit.

1. Amaya
Amaya is an open source WYSIWYG web editor available for free download and use. It is known to be lightweight which means that it does not require a lot of computer resources and allows you to implement the editing fast and easily.
First it was a structured text editor which later was improved to support HTML, CSS and even XML facilities. Amaya fits Linux, Windows, Mac operating systems and other platforms.

2. Aptana
Aptana is created to provide every webmaster with advanced facilities for web page development. Being focused on JavaScript it allows you to create Rich Internet Applications supporting also HTML, DOM and CSS and providing such options as JavaScript debugging, integrated documentation, errors notification and much more. Moreover, there are special plugins which help you to extend the functions of Aptana for the most advanced web development experience.

3. Bluefish
Bluefish is a web editor aimed at creation of dynamic websites supporting HTML/XHTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL and more. the editor will work in all major platforms being lightweight and easy-to-use. It provides a lot of contemporary facilities for website establishment and is absolutely free of charge.

4. jEdit
jEdit is a free Java based text editor for web developers which is distinguished by advanced functionality features. The editor supports a lot of file formats and encodings and stands out for support of many plugins for various application areas which means that you can customize jEdit and extend its functionality greatly making it a highly advanced XML/HTML editor. jEdit runs on Windows, Linux, Mac operating systems and other popular platforms.

5. Kompozer
Kompozer is an open source HTML editor which was developed from a Nvu editor and possesses great WYSIWYG editing facilities. It allows to implement direct code editing and supports split code-graphic view being compliant with the web standards of W3C. Working with Kompozer a webmaster can choose different settings such as strict and transitional DTD’s, HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, CSS styling or the old font-based styling. Kompozer also includes an integrated HTML validator which is responsible for uploading web pages to the W3C Markup Validation Service and checking the compliance.

6. NetBeans
NetBeans is known to be a platform framework for Java desktop applications and an open source IDE (Integrated Development Environment) supporting JavaScript, Ruby, PHP and more. Being written in Java NetBeans IDE will work perfectly in any platform with JVM installed. The functions performed within NetBeans are provided by different modules each possessing a certain function referred to the development and editing of applications.

7. SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is an open source free all-in-one Internet suite of the Mozilla project. it consists of the web browser, newsgroup and email client, chat client and the web page editor. One of the main distinctive features of SeaMonkey is a built-in browser which allows implement testing at ease. moreover, this WYSIWYG editor includes FTP support for publishing your web pages which adds comfort and ease to your work. SeaMonkey Composer allows you to format and style the text, insert images and hyperlinks, create tables etc.

All you need to do now is to choose one of the free HTML editors listed above and start constructing web pages on your own!

Marketplaces are usually called resources that provide space and services selling products from multiple authors online. There are a lot of marketplaces in the sphere of flash components, the conditions they offer vary slightly, but the general idea remains the same. ActiveDen is one of the most popular ones, and I can say that previously  I had some good experience using it, but I can’t say the same about now.  The problem is that it has become too overcrowded with products, and it is almost impossible now for the person that is trying find a flash component there to make a choice. The marketplace is  stuffed with crappy flash files, because there is no sorting done.
My disappointment with ActiveDen forced me to start looking for more marketplaces, and this is how I happened to come across Flash Scope. In fact, Flash Scope is a brand new marketplace, and it’s not too popular yet, but assuming their conditions and  rules I believe they have all the chances to become a leading marketplace resource in the sphere of flash components. Their benefit is that they are good both for developers and those who buy flash components. These guys offer great conditions for developers, and at the same time they care about quality of the flash components that are presented on their website.

As for me personally Flash Scope is great, because unlike other marketplaces there is a flexible percent for non-unique products, and I prefer submitting my flash files to several marketplaces at a time. The conditions for unique products are also better than on most of other resources. And still due to the way the products are organized on Flash Scope I can be sure that my flash components do not get lost among thousands of other products: besides advanced search, the components are managed according to their quality.
I know what is really important for developers that do everything themselves, and I had to share my experience on this. Hope it will be helpful

The solution you choose for your website construction may depend on your particular skills, likings and your experience. You may long for something complex and astounding which will amaze every visitor who opens your website pages but you can go for it only in case you can be responsible for the result. But if you don’t have enough skills it is better to stick to simplicity and try your hand at creating minimalist website which will be both attractive and easy to establish. If you have never made efforts to construct a website with minimalist design our guide will help you to cope with this task and make you understand the principles of minimalist design.

What is actually minimalism? Every web developer may see something particular and individual in this kind of design though the general name of minimalist design is reduction - reduction of images, colors, structures etc. Moreover, minimalist design is known to contain less surplus elements and more meaningful ones which adds to the elegance and quality of your website design. The main advantage minimalist websites are distinguished by implies the absence of noisy elements which often distract the attention or even annoy. Minimalist websites allow you to concentrate on the most important issues it concerns and delve into the very content interacting with it effectively.

You must always remember that visitors come to your website not for an impression from flashing ads, widgets and other visual elements, they actually come for the content kept within your web pages with its idea, meaning and usefulness. That is why minimalist website will come in handy in case you need to make your visitors focus on your web pages rich content. However, there are several points to take into account while estabishing a website with minimalist design.

1. Follow your purpose
If you decided to stick to minimalism in your website design you need to remember that it requires imlementing only necessary elements to get the most effective result. You should avoid complex techniques and heavy graphics - though they are very impressive that is not the main point of your minialist website. Your customers will buy your items or subscribe to your services not because of interactive and amazing design but because your website will prove you are reliable and trustworthy partner.

2. Follow successful examples
Searching a bit you will see tht a lot of the most winning websites which get much traffic and income are also created in minimalist style. These websites may look simple but remain among the most rated on the web because they provide their customers with comfortable and fast browsing allowing to find what the clients are looking for easily. So take into account the experience of those who have gained recognition and popularity using minimum design and maximum usability and follow such examples.

3. Make the navigation simple
Instead of implementing comlex interactive menus try to make your website navigation as simple and convenient as possible. Do not forget that your aim is to establish a good minimalist website which must provide your clients with most usability. That is why making your website navigation simple and comprehensible will be the most brilliant idea every visitor can’t but appreciate.

4. Try to use HTML and CSS
It is known that HTML and CSS techniques allow creating easy-to-use websites effectively. They will appear to be the most appropriate solution for your minimalist website and, moreover, do not require extra skills so you won’t find it hard to use them even if you are not an experienced web developer. Moreover, avoiding more simple web development techniques will help you to avoid errors in website running and provides faster loading time which is very important for your minimalist website.

So if you are going to establish an attractive website with usable minimalist design to provide your customers with fast and easy browsing you should take into account the aspects listed above.

What implies printer-friendly web page? There are many suggestions concerning this issue as web developers make use of different methods to write the printer-friendly page. Some of them decide to remove the navigation and advertising, some include the text links and some leave only the title and body of the written content. But there are several tips which will come in handy in any case and will help you to create web pages which will be printer-friendly for sure. So take a look at the steps you need to take.

1. Change the colors
If your web page is multicolored, i.e contains colored background and fonts, you need to make the background white and the text black in order for your web page to be printer-friendly. This is the most winning combination for your pages content to be read easily on the paper, moreover, a lot of your site visitors make use of black-and-white printers so you will help them to use the ink economically.

2. Use proper font and font size
The most appropriate font for your printer-friendly web page is probably serif one as it is very easy to read both online and when moving to print. As for the size - if your web page is of the small font size, e.g. 11px or smaller, you need to increase it for printing. It depends but you better make your page font size not less than 12pt.

3. Highlight the links
The links you place within your web pages won’t be clickable on the paper so you need to highlight them for your printer-friendly page. The easiest way is just to underline all of the links in order for the viewer to identify them when he printers the web page.

4. Remove surplus pictures
If your page contains related images you need to limit them for the printed version. Remove all the pictures that are not so necessary and leave only those ones which are important, e.g. images which the article requires or brand logos.

5. Remove advertising and navigation
Advertisements placed within your site make it difficult to print the page so you better remove them taking into account that they will probably be of no use on the printed page and may only distract the visitor from the main content. The same thing concerns your website navigation - it is useful only when the visitor browses your pages but on the paper it will appear to be unnecessary. Removing it you will provide more space on the page for the very written content a user needs.

6. Add a by-line
The articles your website contain may not have a by-line but you should definitely include it for the printer-friendly version. This will allow the user to find out the necessary information about the author without rushing and opening your site again especially when there is no opportunity to do it at the moment.

7. Add the URL
Including the original URL of the printed article is a very important aspect. This allows your customers to follow the link in case of necessity and get additional information from your website. Moreover, this will help you to promote your web pages as well as the users will probably share the source of the article they have printed.

8. Add a copyright notice
Don’t forget to protect your writing as you are the sole owner of what you write on the web. So adding a copyright notification will protect your rights and avoid using your web page printed version as someone’s creation.

So these are the steps you should follow in order to create a printer-friendly web pages for your website and assure your customers of the quality of your services once again.

Nowadays there is a lot of methods you can make use of in order to promote your products and services on the web and one of the most popular ways implies Google Adwords campaign. No matter whether it is your first efforts of Internet marketing or you have already obtained an experience in this field you can not avoid this step especially when you decide to try your hand at some mew niche. Your main task is to implement such advertising campaign that can provide the highest performance in your target market and there are several steps you need to follow in order to get the desired results.

1. Always use keywords in the ad copy.
Building your Google Adwords campaign you must pay a lot of attention to the use of keywords which implies putting them not only in the headline but in the very advertisement copy as well. If you want to get additional benefits you need to make your ad copy keywords rich and relevant as possible as it can be. At least 2 keywords will be enough so spend some time to add them.

2. Send your visitors to the promotion page.
If you want to get more attention and higher rates your ad should link directly to the landing page where your promo is. So make sure your advertisement contain the URL of your promotion page and not the home one.

3. Use more Google Adwords functions.
Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool offers a lot of facilities to get the most qualitative and sufficient list of keywords. So do not stick to only one, use more options for the best result.

4. Use keywords with high performance.
Avoid using keywords which performance is poor and try to choose those ones which can bring real benefits. Generate a list of main keywords which the web surfers may use for searching for your products and services and pick up synonyms for them as well. This will help you to optimize your campaign in the better way.

5. Highlight your offer benefit at once.
The user should get interested in your offer from the first lines so invent the headline which will allow your visitors to understand all the benefits they may get from the deal. You must captivate the potential clients so they will click for more information after reading the headline. Attract the attention from the start and your chances for success would raise significantly.

Now you are aware of the aspects which may help you to create the most beneficial and profitable online marketing campaign. So don’t delay and make the most out of the Internet promotion!

1. Design

There are several ways you can create your first website. One of them implies the use of WYSIWYG editors which can be either commercial or free of charge. The abbreviation stands for What You See Is What You Get and means that you are allowed to design your web pages in visual mode and are not required to deal with any technical issues. All you need to do is to choose the most appropriate tool you will need for work. If you are ready to spend some money you can make use of one of the paid high-quality editors such as Dreamveaver. But in case you want to save your money there is a lot of free software available, e.g. KompoZer, CoffeCup etc.

If you want to minimize your efforts in creating a website there is a great solution - ready made website templates. These are premade website designs which require only content and certain customization to become a fully functional website in the result. Nowadays there are tons of website templates which are presented in wide range of types and categories and are created for various purposes from personal to commercial. As well as web editors website templates can be either purchased or downloaded for free and your choice will depend on your particular requirements and goals you pursue. For instance, if you need to launch a personal home page you will definitely find the solution among free website templates but professional e-commerce websites require advanced design and functionality which are possessed by premium layouts.

2. Domain name

After your website design is completely ready you need to think over its domain name - the name your website will have on the Internet. In order to get a domain name you need to sign up for this special service to receive the right to use this or that name for your website. Choosing a domain name you need to select a topical one which will reflect your website goals and give an idea of its content. Though try to be laconic and choose some short but attractive and informative name for your visitors to remember it better. Avoid using any brand names in order not to confuse the web users and be involved in copyright infringement.

3. Web host

When your website is finally ready to see the world it needs to be hosted on the web so your next step is to choose the web hosting service. Nowadays there is a lot of web companies which deal with website hosting and offer you their services so you need to do a thorough research to find the most appropriate solution. There are two main types of website hosting you can subscribe to - free and paid ones. Free web hosting provides limited facilities (bandwidth, disc space, uploading files of different types) but sometimes they can be quite enough to satisfy your needs. In case you are in need of more advanced services you need to choose between various types of paid web hosting. This may be either dedicated, shared, managed, resellers web hosting service or co-location. Before selecting one of the paid hosting types learn the main features of each one and decide which the most suitable solution is for you.

4. Website testing

This aspect is an additional step you have to take in case you are going to start up a website which will run smoothly and work perfectly. As you design your web pages you should test them in all major web browsers as you can’t tell beforehand which particular browser will your every visitor use. That is why you must make sure that your website loads properly in every popular web browser existing nowadays.

There is also the chance for your website to run without obstacles in the future releases of the web browsers - website code validation. You need to make sure that the code of your web pages is clear and valid. A lot of free CSS and HTML editors will help you to cope with this task fast and easily.

After you have followed all the steps listed above you may start promoting your web pages attracting new visitors and customers for the most success of your newly-fledged website!