Alright a user of mine contacted me. Well I do not know if this person is a user of mine, but since she came to my website, she is a user. Well this was a different type of offer. Most of the times people email me asking me to link to them. This time it was more like hey can I link to you.

Well first I thought it was spam, but I decided to check it out. I saw the website and basically what was going on is Corey is reviewing your design in a video. I said sure go ahead. She put out a review of Balkhis. I liked it and it was definitely more helpful to me. Not that I have plans to change Balkhis anytime soon, but I will surely use her advices and reviews into my future designs.

OK Now you are wondering well this is a review post, so It must be paid. No I found this the most suitable category because I am technically reviewing her services. Now what do you get… How is it free advertising for every blogger…

Well she is not just targetting top blogs. Because than I wouldn’t be in the list eh. But what she wants to review is a unique theme. A theme that is not a free theme. Some what modified version at least. She will review your website as what a first time user would see it.

From her about page, these are the things she would review: Layout, Colors, Branding, Number of ads, Positioning of ads, Content hierarchy, Overall Organization, Overall Presentation, Flourish. More on her about page.

I think this is a great way to get some link backs from a website which I see some potential in. All you have to do is fill out a simple Submit form.

I am not saying you will get 100s of visitors from her site, but the 20 visitors she do send you are 20 visitors that you wouldn’t have gotten if you didn’t get that review.

Get your free links from her site now.

O by the way Don’t forget to Check out

Balkhis Review on Blog by Design

Consulting is a profession that a lot of bloggers do as a side job. I do it a little bit more than on the side because I have a number of clients that I am working with and ensuring that they rank well in search engines, giving them advices and suggestions as their business grow. If you consider yourself an expert in the industry or have a lot of experience in a specific industry then you should consider consulting.

Consulting is just a few extra bucks, but you have to prove yourself to the client. I mean all you have to do is talk. You need to know how to present yourself to the client or a board of directors. Some people might think it is hard, but really it is not. I go by the following quote:

“Just Stay one step ahead of your client.”

You do that and you will be considered an expert. Companies hire me to present their idea to a group of investors or a board of investors because a lot of companies have a hard time convincing the investors to invest. I know the secrets of that, or so called secrets of that. So here are my tricks!

Make a Bold Statement

At the start of each presentation, you need to make a bold statement. A strong Pitch that will get the investors interested. Those who can’t do that learn how to highlight the important part of the campaign. Think to yourself if you can define the whole campaign in one or two sentences. If you can’t then this campaign is not going to work.

Explain their Benefits

You need to tell them what they get out of this deal. People really don’t care what is your benefit. Everyone wants to know what they are getting out of the deal. So you need to explain the profits, and stick with the profits. Once you explain them the benefits, they would be eager to know how this will work.

A Very Brief Explaination

You need to give a very short description of how it is going to work. Why? Because you want them to be interested. You make it long, it will be boring. But when you make it short, they will ask questions. If one ask questions, the others will get more interested. That is a psychological fact.

Conclusion with a BOLD Statement

End it with a strong pitch. You want to make sure that these investors give your client the money. Because your client will be paying you. Not only will that make you look good, but you will succeed.

Each time you make a good impression you will get more referrals.

Now one of the main quality as a consultant you need to have is calm and patient. Because you will have to explain the same thing over and over. You need to know your topic inside out, and have different ways of explaining it because not every human mind works the same way.

Well Why Am I telling you this? Well this will make you an extra 60,000 a year. Or at least that is what this is doing for me. You get paid to talk on hourly rates. Not a bad thing for a talkative person like me.

Designing a website is a piece of cake for a good designer. Really for me it is as easy as writing an essay. I open up Photoshop make a PSD, slice it and code it. Does not sound very hard, then why good designers charge a lot of money? Well because good designers offer Cross Browser Compatibility for all their designs. You should always ask when you are getting a design coded, for cross browser compatibility and confirm it by checking it once the project is done and before paying.

What is Cross Browser Compatibility?

It is exactly what it sounds like. It basically means that the output of your website should look the same in all browsers. That is the ultimate goal so you do not lose any audience due to non-compatibility. You might wonder why would the browser show it differently anyways?

Think of your browsers as a translator of HTML language. Now you ask two Spanish Speakers to translate a long essay, they will translate it using different words, but give you the same idea. Browsers work similarly. They would represent the same idea meaning your header would be at the header, but the space between your images might differ.

Now we would wish that there was only one browser so designers won’t have to work a lot, but there are a lot of browsers and a lot of versions of those browsers. Take in consideration the main ones like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. Then there are versions of these main ones like Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 then Firefox 2 and 3 aside from all the other minor browsers. So what should you do as a designer? or as a client? How do you check all these browsers if you don’t have them in your computer.

Well there is a website called Browser Shots which will let you check all browsers.

Now most top of the line designers have more than one operating system and a lot more computers using all sorts of different systems. I mean I personally have two Windows Notebooks, one running Vista, and the other XP. Then a Power Mac with all Macintosh browsers, and then Linux on another PC. So I can check the website all in my computer but those who can’t use the site above.

There will always be a time when you would have to settle with some differences but try to get them to the minimum possible if not none.

How do you ease the process of Cross Browser Compatibility?

Cross Browser Compatibility is a frustrating process because it requires a lot of trial and error. When you are experienced you get an easy go, but often for new designers it is a tough process. I think you should always start with having your codes w3c Valid.

A w3c Valid website means that your codes does not have any error according to the standard web guidelines. I have written a detailed article with tips on w3c Validation for your website. Use it for your advantage if you need it.

Next Step would be setting a goal. When I start coding, my goal is to get IE 6.0, and Firefox 2 to match. I have noticed that if I get the older versions to match, the new ones almost always match. Once I have these two to match, Firefox 3 usually do not give a hard time. The problem comes with Internet Explorer 7.0 and if you can get that then IE 8 won’t be any hassle.

So set your priorities and analyze your stats. See what browsers are being used by your users. If majority of your audience uses IE you want to make sure that you make your website compatible with IE. Always try to get the majority of users satisfied and then move towards the minority.

Another major reason of problem during this process is font-availability. Not all of your users are using the same system, so if you decide to use a Vista font it would work on all Vista Users, but a XP user who does not have that font will not see the font, and often times the sizes in the font would differ and it will cause your spacings to get messed up. Which in all results in a not compatible website. I suggest you check out the list of Browser Safe Fonts when you are coding.

One of the common mistakes new designers make is using programs like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. It is ok to use them for learning process, but when you enter the next level you have to know that these program adds codes to your coding and make your site w3 invalid which can also result in a non-compatible website.

While you are in the process of Trial and Error you must make sure that you keep a back up copy of the most stable version. So you always have something to fall back on. Also make sure that you take frequent breaks because when you stare at the same codes for a long period of time, you don’t see the simplest errors.

Learn from the Best and Forget the Rest

The best websites on the web are the top ones. Like ebay, amazon and others even though they use so much applications on their website, they are almost always cross browser compatible. The reason is they are not using flash and other fixed applets. They are using dynamic technology. If they are using JavaScripts then they are using it with CSS files that governs the script. Avoid using the applications that does not give you control because that is when you will lose.

At the End Day, Don’t feel disappointed or hopeless if you can’t get this to work because browser bugs exist and there is nothing you can do about it. Just do your best and enjoy while you work. If you get stuck and think you need help urgently shoot me an email, and I might help if time permits.

Bloggers are you being distracted by some tasks which might be essential for your blog? Well I have always been a firm believer of priorities. You need to know your priority! For a blogger, the number one priority is write quality blog posts. Everything else comes afterwards. Now just blogging never got anyone anywhere. So in this posts, I will talk about some tasks that we all need to do, but watch ourselves because some of these can get addicting and then distract us from our blogging.

Social Media Networking

YES, it is important. But sometimes bloggers get distracted in updating their twitter, plurk, or something else like that. Maybe they are too busy interacting with their friends on facebook, or creating profiles at other networks. While they are all necessary, always know your priority and for bloggers it is blogging. Another common one is bookmarking. Bloggers are too busy becoming a power digger or a high profile social media celebrity on stumbleupon. Do that, but don’t let it distract you.

Design and SEO

For people who are extremely crazy about designs like me, this is a huge distraction. You worry too much about your blog design. You spend hours upon hours developing a new design, and then more hours on coding this new template, but is it necessary. You can spend this time searching for good resources to write an awesome post. Learn how to stick with one design which is good. Same thing goes with SEO. Yes Search Engine Ranking is important, but do I try to optimize my site daily? NO! Write a good meta tag and description. Work on your titles rather than checking your rankings and so on.

Interacting with Readers and Fellow Bloggers

It is very important to reply to all your readers emails and interact with them in the comment box. Same goes with your fellow bloggers. It is essential that you make good relationship with them. But since there are thousands of blogs out there, it becomes an endless task. Learn how to allocate your time and focus on writing good blog posts first.

Monetizing and Analyzing Stats

Alright now this is where it becomes trouble. This step is extremely important if you are running some affiliate marketing campaign on your blog and you are using adwords because you better be checking stats otherwise you might lose some money, but don’t let it distract you. Same goes on with checking your subscribers daily or updaing your traffic stats every 2 hours. It is essential to check your traffic, and see how and where are you getting the traffic from, but this can often become very distracting, and it effects your writing.

Being Emotional/Upset

I have learn’t this the hard way but being emotional and upset with others don’t really work on the blog because it kills your blog’s life. So it is pointless to get into argument with other bloggers. Might be some linkbait, but not all link baits work. It also drive your readers away. Another time when bloggers really get upset is when their content is being copied. Stop worrying about it because you can’t stop these guys. How many sites are you going to send a DMCA notice. You will get one shut down, and ten others will pop up. It waste your time, and time is money for us.

I am not saying that these tasks you shouldn’t do, but I am saying is that allocate your time. Blogging for every blogger should come first, and everything should come second in business. Learn how to prioritize your actions. Set goals for the day, so you know exactly what you want to accomplish each day. Keep track of time for everything that you do because that will make you more aware of what you are doing, and you can knock yourself in the head if you waste time.

Last Tuesday I was at Market Leverage Bowl a Thon for Niemann-Pick C Disease which is also known as Childhood Alzheimer. Two kids of a Market Leverage staff member have been diagnosed with this fatal disease. We helped raise $4,000 on the tuesday, but that should not be enough. If you could not make it there, you can still contribute by donating to Bripardun.

I was bowling for team Affiliate Summit with Tim Jones from The Real Tim Jones, Richard, Myself, Amanda, and my cousin.

We had a blast, Missy Ward showed up a bit late thats why she didn’t bowl with us. Or atleast that is what I think.

Anyways our team won 2nd place and we got little trophies. Check out some pictures of us bowling.

Well we had a blast and we supported these kids. You can do the same by donating to Childhood Alzheimer’s Fund