Design Cocktail, a bundle of various professional design resources, is giving away 10 licenses of the bundle ($29/each) to WebResourcesDepot readers.

Details of joining the giveaway can be found at the bottom of this post, but before that:

What is Design Cocktail?

Designious, a website offering creative resources like vectors and Photoshop brushes, has created a bundle named Design Cocktail which includes:

• 40 vector packs (959 vector elements)
• 10 pattern packs
• 20 brush packs
• 15 tees designs
• design tutorials with sources
• a metalique font
• 3 Photoshop + Illustraor add-ons
• 3 un-released/fresh vector packs
• a WordPress theme

all priced for only $29 which would normally cost $724 if purchased one-by-one (it is also possible to get a 10% discount by simply sharing the resource – details can be found on the resource's web page).

How to join the giveaway?

In order to get a chance to win one of the 10 licenses Design Cocktail is giving away, simply comment to this post and/or tweet this article. You can do both to increase the chances.

Winners will be selected randomly on 7 February 2011 (1 week later).

Good luck to everyone.

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Microformat Shiv is a cross browser JavaScript library for parsing Microformats.

It supports multiple formats including hCard, hCalendar, hResume, geo, tag and more.

The usage is pretty easy with various JavaScript files for every job (so you can only insert what you need).

And, there are converters provided like converting a microformat shiv hCalender JSON object into an ical text string or .

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

Advertisements:
Professional XHTML Admin Template ($15 Discount With The Code: WRD.)
Psd to Xhtml
SSLmatic – Cheap SSL Certificates (from $19.99/year)

A business owner loves to put up a website. In fact, this is the way to reach millions of people in the market to buy your products and services. But the problem you might encounter once you have the website is how people or online visitors will discover it. Whether you have a big or small company, having a website makes a difference. In prominent search engines, so long as your site is ranked on the topmost pages, you have every which way to compete with big online stores like Amazon, Microsoft and eBay.

What you need to establish a website?

Image by: Svilen Milev

1) Having sufficient resources to support a website

First and foremost, it is important that in establishing a website, you have sufficient resources to support it. This is because you will need manpower to work on your behalf. You will need them to create and design your website. You will need people to help sustain your business and keep your website on the business. As all websites work equally in search engines, competition is tough and you can work on it even if you have used minimal resources.

2) Designing the website that portray your products and services

For starters, you will need a competent worker to design and lay-out your website. This must be really attractive or appealing to online customers. Ten seconds are all that it takes to make your online customer stay to your website. How it will appear should portray all the products and services that your customer will need and how he can benefit from these. It should also be user-friendly and must offer few incentives to keep him coming back for more.

3) Value your website by referring to an SEO specialist

It is not just enough to simply think of how good your website is. Do take note that there are millions of online stores that offer similar products and services like you do. You need to have more people notice your site. Now take note of something really, really important. Hiring an SEO expert or service provider will make your website get noticed in prominent search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Of course, you have always the option of doing it yourself if you are familiar with how it works. SEO people take your website to the topmost pages of these search engines. In this way, possibilities are higher that you can draw online traffic. This means online visitors can easily access your online store. And this also means more sales revenue for your business.

This is truly a wonderful experience once you create your own website. It is the magic of making your website hit big in the Internet industry. You need to realize that it is just not enough to simply create a website and let it stand on its own. Or else, its goal and objective is not met.

Creating your Desired Website

1)  Identify your niche market

Now that important resources have been identified in establishing a website, you will need to carefully create and design your site. This should be based on your perspective, like its goals and objectives. You need to find a niche market for your website. Like for instance, if you want to offer all types of rags, you should never be offering apparels or lingerie for that matter. This has to be specific because it is impossible to become jack of all trades.

2)  Using of flashy introductory pages

You should also refrain from using flashy introductory pages. This may attract the online customer's eye for a few minutes but he is not there to watch the outcome of the website. He is there to get what he needs. Besides, there are other dial-up users who may get disappointed waiting for your flash pages to load. They might move on to the next competition.

3) Why say no to wallpapers and dark colored background

Wallpapers and dark colored background should be a no-no when creating websites. It is merely a distraction to what you might just offer to online customers. Instead of looking to what products they really need, they might find amusement in the shades of your website. Besides having a dark colored background would mean these people will have a hard time reading the content of your website. Hence, the purpose of selling is defeated.

4) Your website's easy navigation

It is also essential that online visitors can easily navigate your site. It has to be user-friendly and the shopping cart should also be safe and reliable. In this way, they can easily find what they need and get what they want. Hence, there is fast access to your website and trust is developed. It is also best to keep your website neat and clean so that it runs attractive to online customers.

5) Showing a contact information in your website

Your website should also contain contact information just in case there are queries or complaints on the products and service you have to offer. It is important that customer service works on the allotted 24/7 to build trust and confidence from these customers. Good service may lead to referrals and more sales revenues.

Hiring an SEO service provider

Image by: Wilton Rodrigues

Now you have designed your website to the capacity that it will be recognized by online visitors. This time, you will need professional people who will make your site visible to eminent search engines. With this, you need to confide with an SEO expert or service provider who will take you to the topmost pages of these search engines.

But you should never take drastic actions to easily choose one SEO service provider. Note that there are lots of them and you need to be sure that they carefully perform the expected results of search engine optimization. All of them claim to increase your rankings in these search engines but not all of them do the expected task.

In doing so, you need to evaluate their SEO action plan. There must be constant interaction between the provider and yourself on the status and developments of your rankings in search engines. They should be able to explain the many different methods they have installed to achieve your goals. Also, you may seek information with other clients that have benefited from their service. In this way, you can be sure that you are paying for the right service at the right time.

So you see that setting up your own website or online store could be a tedious process. It includes:

• knowing the importance of having sufficient resources to support a website
• what factors you need to consider while designing it
• why the presence of SEO support helps you get your website noticed in search engines.

This literally means you need to divulge a lot of time and resources to make your online business successful. This though is vital as you want the best service for the people you call customers. And it is in this way that you can keep them and generate more income for your business. Having a successful website is indeed tiring but a learning process.

Photography is a technical and practiced form of art. It's not an easy form of fascination, since several aspects are at play in a photograph: lighting, focus, composition, subject and more.

Post processing is just as important as the photo shoot. No matter how good a photographer is, everyone needs to tweak a few flaws and emphasize details. Glamour, landscape, events, micro and portrait photographers need a handy photo editing software to improve their photos. Adobe Photoshop is a must have program for designers, artists, art students and now photographers as well.

After the birth of digital photography, photo processing is no longer done in a lab, but in a computer. As a photographer, you don't need to learn Photoshop inside and out; you just need to know a few Photoshop tools that will help greatly in your picture taking hobby or profession.

Cropping

Cropping is an essential Photoshop tool for all digital photographers. You can improve your picture by leaving out unnecessary or bothersome elements through cropping.  With the right cropping skills, you can make any ordinary shot into a noteworthy, interesting photograph.

Photo by Rachel Arandilla

Photo by Rachel Arandilla

Cropping can be used to increase focus of the subject. It can improve the composition of the picture. During a shoot, you may not have the right lens, the time or the position that allows you to take photos with perfect framing all the time. Cropping through Photoshop will later save you from that.

Dodge and Burn

Dodge and burn are common techniques used in the traditional film dark room, and now you can manipulate photos by dodging and burning through Photoshop.

The Dodge and Burn tool is found on the Photoshop tool box. The burn tool is used to make an area of the photo darker, while dodge tool blocks the light to make the area of the photo lighter. The Dodge tool can even create the photographers’ favorite ‘Glassy Eyes’ effect in photos.

Photo by Rachel Arandilla

See how different and beautiful it looks when dodging and burning is applied? Dodge and burn is used to improve photos by:

1. Improving the exposure
2. Bringing out details
3. Directing your viewer's eye movement and
4. Adding drama and impact through the use of highlights and shadows

Clone Stamp

Repairing photos and hiding flaws are now made easier through Photoshop's Clone Stamp tool. Clone Stamp could remove annoying phone wires, leaves, freckles, people, and other unwanted elements. You can even clone other items to make the photograph more interesting–maybe add books, fill in background with people or add more flowers–these are all possible through the Clone Stamp Tool.

Photo by Rachel Arandilla

As you can see in the picture above, the rock and leaf are removed by cloning the grass into the area.

Blur / Sharpen tool

The Sharpen tool in Photoshop increases contrast in areas you want to emphasize. You can sharpen edges, or pop highlights on shiny objects for effect. It can save a blurred photograph, but don’t use the sharpen tool too much or it will end up overdone.

Blurring can also create creative effects to a photo. It sounds ironic, but too much sharpness can be too much of a good thing. This is true especially if a sharp background distracts viewers from your real, intended subject. When you blur unneccessary details, your subject pops, creating focus. Gaussian blur creates the soft, blurry look while Motion blur creates the impression of movement.

Photo by Rachel Arandilla

Black & White Tool

Black and White provides a dramatic and gritty effect that cannot be found in colored photos.

Photo by Rachel Arandilla

Unlike other editing softwares where they simply desaturate the image and throw away valuable color information, Photoshop provides you full control of how your final output will look like. It separates lightness values per color through the Black & White adjustment. The tools allows you to emphasize and de-emphasize areas of your whim.

Have full control of the black and white tones of your image. Light is separated by color: reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues and magentas.

If black and white is too extreme for you, you can also try Photoshop’s Photo filter tool and adding color tints. You can see how a tint can change the overall mood and feel of an image: Sepia tones make it look nostalgic, blue tones make it look cold and unwelcome, and so forth.

These are not the only tools for photographs to utilize, but in my opinion, they are the five crucial tools to master – they’re easy to learn and very important. If you feel confident on learning more Photoshop skills to use for your photographs, try to experiment which you can use for your hobby or profession. However, don’t overdo post processing – your main objective is to improve or enhance your photo, and not to digitally alter the whole photograph from scratch.

ZEN is an audio player that is built with HTML5, styled + animated using CSS3 and makes use of jPlayer.

It has a very simplified interface with play or pause buttons according to the state and a chic progress circle.

The player can run only a single track but can possibly be improved pretty easily to support multiple files.

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

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Professional XHTML Admin Template ($15 Discount With The Code: WRD.)
Psd to Xhtml
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Being a freelancer is no regular job to do. It takes a lot of hard work to become successful in this field. And as a freelancer, it is essential to build contacts for your business work. You need sufficient references – people who work out as your clients. You need people to help you deliver expected results. So what drastic steps should you do in establishing contacts for your business?

This is where effective networking comes in. Networking simply means the act of creating, extending and maintaining personal connections with different types of people in the business. It is a way to seek sources for opportunities like extending business to more clients and how to gain technical expertise.

Networking is easily achieved if the person steps out of his normal work environment. This is because most people are so engrossed with what they work and the people that surround them. If they just only start breaking loose from what they are accustomed with, it is the only way towards building an effective network.

Why the need for networking?

Image by Laura Leavell

1) Finding jobs easily through connections

Networking can help you land jobs of your dreams. Take for instance a manager who has sought another employment. With networking, he is able to extend jobs to his former colleagues even if distance has kept them apart. With the right connection, he gets to choose his own team in the current employment. Hence, this could be another step to achieve the company's objectives.

This also applies to freelancers working through networking. Because people are aware with what you can extend to them, existing contacts like friends and associates recommend you to where they might be right now. This is because they need your service and therefore, a network is built out from staying closely connected with them. It is also in this way that you prolong your career.

2) Getting people who can help you improve your craft

Another advantage of networking is its ability to train or provide mentoring programs to people who need it. If you are a freelancer and find yourself inexperienced or have no idea of certain fields, networking can help you find the right contact that can help you train for the job. In this way, a better perspective of the job is understood and attained.

How you should enhance your networking skills effectively?

You need to know certain ways to improve your networking skills. This will prove helpful as you need to establish contacts for your business to work. Having an effective networking skill drives you the thrill to gain more contacts with possible clients and people who can help you carry out your freelancing job.

1) Practice positive networking

Positive networking is discovering what you can do for someone else – take for instance meeting a possible business partner or client. Somebody gets to introduce him to you about what he has to offer and how you can benefit from it. You get to share similar views and opinions as he also introduces you to few of his colleagues who can possibly work closely with you. This could start a new business for you; hence a possible partnership may be infused.

2) Handing out business cards

If you have existing business cards with you, it is suggested to disseminate it to people you have met in networking groups. It is a way of showing them that you are offering services they just might be interested. In the same way, it also provides you with pertinent information of people you need and want to work closely with.

3) Saying yes to invitations

When people in the networking group invite you to certain events or functions, just immediately say yes. In this way, you welcome meeting other people who can be possible people you can work with. It is also in this way that you meet people who share similar views with you and get to receive feedbacks on how to improve your craft.

Take for instance a possible client who invites you to attend his business gatherings. One way to know what he has in store for you to do is by mingling with his staff and associates. In this way can your services come in and how it can benefit his company.

Another way is by joining social networking sites. These people tend to show their products and services so you know how they work. It is also in this way that they know what you can do them.

4) Make people feel comfortable with you

Most people seem uncomfortable during networking situations. This is because you are unfamiliar with the people around you need to find a topic that will perfectly suit their interest. If you have that host mentality or the talent to start a skillful conversation, it could be an advantage to provide ease and comfort to these people. They can begin find relevance and enjoy the discussion you just started.

5) Make follow-ups short and fast

Whenever business has began and is being transacted, you will be writing several correspondences periodically. It is important that you should reply to these communications the fastest way and in a concise manner. In this way there is mutual interest from both parties. Also start to make it a habit.

6) Cure networking nervousness

Build your confidence by joining social networking groups. In this way you can meet people that have similar traits like you do. Similar views and opinions are shared and rapport is easily established. When you have met quite a number of people that share similar sentiments like you, you tend to overcome nervousness.

When you have built an efficient business network, you tend to be successful with your career as a freelancer and with life in general. Study shows people who stay close with other people in the networking business live healthily and happily.  So besides doing it for your career, try to apply it to your personal life for guaranteed fulfillment.