A recent blog post that caught the attention of readers included a summary of the annual report from online employment platform Elance. Another Web employment marketplace, oDesk, has released its own year-end report with similarly positive views of both the year in review and the year ahead. The report from oDesk says that employers spent $115 million on online work in 2010 and that job opportunities doubled from 2009 to approximately 602,000. Mobile was the best bet for job-seekers, and positions involving Android expertise shot up 680 percent from 2009 while iPhone-related jobs increased by 152 percent. Social media was…more»

Advertising designers walk a fine line. They must design ads that are attractive but direct and engaging. Often, success depends on the venue for which the ad will be designed and displayed. That being said, there are some places where display advertising has a significant edge over any other form of advertising – well worth the time and effort to design stunning ads. Display advertising has a distinct advantage over search. It doesn’t require searching. Display ads can be seen without a single keystroke and on just about any digital surface. That fact alone has helped reenergize the entire industry.…more»

While I wanted to slowly move everything over to the new host, I was hoping that it wouldn’t take over three weeks.  So I’ve decided to cash in on my 30 day money back guarentee and I’ve already got myself signed up with a new company that seems to have half a brain.  The downside is I typically would prefer to work with a company that’s located in America but I think Canada will do just as well at this point in time.  The resources that I need are pretty minimal so having to pay out of the nose for…more»

For the past six months I’ve been a member of Vista Print. I haven’t spoken about them very much but I can honestly say that if it weren’t for their services, I probably wouldn’t be able to effectively run my design business. I have everything from personalized stationary to business cards and I’m even in the process of creating car decals as well for those interested in advertising for me (which there are a few of, thankfully). Working with Vista Print has been amazing for me and now is the time to give back and let the rest of the…more»

I’m currently in the process of paying off a personal loan that I took out back in October. The initial reason behind the loan was so that Sean and I could successfully moved out to Ohio but with changed plans we’re still in Delaware. Now, while we don’t mind being in Delaware it would have been nice to fulfill the dreams we had with that money, instead of just staying where we currently are. Unfortunately the income I had back in October is no where near what I’m making so I’m in the process of looking into Small Business Loans…more»

I’ve been pretty productive today. I’m now a member of a new design company on a contract basis and based on how things have been going so far, I have to say that I’m feeling pretty confident that my time with this company will be well spent. A previous company that I out-sourced for wound up screwing me out of not only money but valuable time that I could have spent somewhere else. It’s a shame that I had to deal with that for so long but it’s another thing to add to my portfolio because I have to admit…more»

While living in a tourist town means horrible numbers for business owners in the area, Sean is still trying to convince me that I should start up a restaurant. He knows how much I love to cook and in comparison to the Italian-style eateries in the area I think a touch of New York would be the proper way to do things. I will admit, however, that the water down here has a lot to do with the final outcome of the food. I’ve noticed that my tastes have changed because of the public water, I’ve gradually slipped over to…more»

For the past few months I’ve explained numerous ways on how to go about bringing more business to your company. Now, naturally since this is Internet based, this is the main topic I’m going to stick to. For those outside of the Virtual World, your options are flyers, business cards, word of mouth, billboards (if you’ve got the cash for it), magazines, newspapers and other paper-based means that will cost you quite a bit of money depending on who you go through for these bits of advertising. When it comes to the Internet? Sure, word of mouth is an excellent…more»

Those running a larger scale business where the exchange of products are involved, more often than one would realize, are going through a fulfillment warehouse outsource service. This is one of the easiest methods to quickly fulfill customer orders. Products, through more companies than one would realize, are warehoused, inventoried, packed, and shipped by a company with experience in fulfillment outsourcing. Most of them can process telephone and mail orders as well – if you so choose. An example would be AMS Fulfillment. They’re a 3rd party company for warehousing, assembly, and fulfillment services. Most outsource fulfillment companies that I’ve…more»

An important aspect to any business is keeping in touch with your clients. I personally keep everyone in my address book but I’ve found that keeping a Mailing List of your addresses works great if you’re running special promotions, even from clients you hadn’t heard from in a while.