Social Media... A Fad?

The other day I was thinking about social networking and it has effected my life.

I remember when I first learned about myspace, it was "sooooo cool". It was very important to most people to have a profile that looked cool with tons of graphics/backgrounds/icons.  When I joined it was even more important for me to have a custom profile because I was this big hot shot graphic designer, I couldn't have anyone beat me in graphics. Maybe that sounds silly to you, but in my head I wanted to have the best and custom graphics/backgrounds/icons in the whole town.  I didn't want to look like a fool with generic stuff.

I remember using those websites to generate code, checking the page source of profiles to see their code, and who knows what else I did. All I know is that I just had to be the best. How embarrassing, but I would sometimes stay up late fixing code to my profile to make sure it looked it's best.

But in the end, I was learning how to code webpages better and better over time. I was also learning more on making web banners and stuff that people would like to see [marketing].  So, personally I think myspace has a lot to do with my website training. Sounds stupid? Well, I was always pushing to be the best trying to learn new things and it paid off. Now I know how to do a lot of things, that I would have never learned in school. Ha, I should add myspace to my resume [how funny would that be?].

Maybe not too funny... I ran into this video today and it is pretty serious on the social networking stats of the world. Hmmm... When you told your boss you should have a company myspace/facebook and they laughed in your face a year ago I wonder who is laughing now? Almost everyone has a facebook/twitter/youtube now and they could have gotten a head start.  According to this video, it looks like everyone is linked in via social networking.  Just watch and see. We are in a digital age and that's no lie. I'm glad I have knowledge that can help me succeed in the digital world.

FTP Information for Filezilla

If you're a web designer I'm pretty sure you already know this trick. It's called FTP!

My very first geocities website yearssss ago was free and I had to upload everything 1 at a time... CLICK CLICK CLICK... water break... click click click click... 2 hours later your site is live... Ugg!

Now days they have awesome programs like cyberduck and filezilla! Basically you just drag, drop, DONE! You just sit back and watch it upload.  The only tricky thing is figuring out your FTP settings.

1. Enter your FTP host in the "Address" field, like this: ftp.YourDomainHere.com (replace YourDomainHere.com with your own domain name). 
2. In the "User" field, enter your FTP user ID. Your user ID is a combination of your Yahoo! ID and your domain, such as name@YourDomainHere.com (replace name with your Yahoo! ID, and YourDomainHere.com with your own domain name). 
3. Enter your Yahoo! password in the "Password" field.

Heather Kant Releases her new website Today! [www.hkdezigner.com]

Zippity Do Da! I have been wanting to update my online graphic design website for a while now.  It has been about a year since I've updated everything including new artwork, new links, and many other things. This past week I've finally taken the time and updated everything.  I feel like I've been working non-stop for a week straight [Going to work on the computer doing graphic design and then coming home and jumping on the computer again doing graphic design]. Design coming out of my ears!  I am just happy to have everything up and live.

Things I've added and modified:

• Social Networking Links at the bottom (including this blog)
• Prices. I always have people asking about prices and it's always so awkward [The question is to little to much?? - I don't want to get ripped off but then again my services are top of the line professional quality and I deserve compensation. But if I charge to much I'll never get anyone to request my services].  So, now prices are located on my site. Hopefully it's easier on everyone if they are looking for my services.
  
• Testimonials. WOOT WOOT! I've added a few of them here and there [Note: All of them are on my blog in the comments section at the end of each article].  I'm pretty excited that I already have a handful of them. It looks like my blog gets people excited to comment. I really appreciate these kind words, it makes me feel like I've done a good job and I can continue doing more! Basically, It means the world to me, it's the highest complement I can get! I really give thanks to those of you who have given me the best comments ever! Keep'em coming!
  
• NEW ART! Well hello! It has been a year since I've updated my site.  I have so much more artwork that I am in love with that most of the stuff that used to be on my site got pushed back and the new stuff is front and center! I have really been a busy girl this year! 
• Lighbox Photo Preview. My friend Trevor does this on his site.  It's where the image pops up and darkens the screen so you can preview the image you selected. It's super cool! I tried to do it in the past and I couldn't get it to work [Honestly, I don't think I tried very hard because in all honesty it's the easiest thing in the world to do. If you know how to copy paste you can do it. If you are interested I found a pretty sweet tutorial link].  I guess this time around I caught on in a flash.  I'd like to give thanks to Trevor for providing me with the link I needed and having his site look so cool which made me remember why I wanted to do it in the first place.  If you'd like to see his website it is www.Trevorland.com. He's a great photographer and writer his articles will blow you away - go check it out!
  
• Homepage marketing. A lot of the time I get people asking me if I can do "this" or "that".  I just thought I'd advertise the main things I do so it's the first thing you look at when you come to my website.  If you look at all of the larger websites they do this.  Just thought I'd jump on the flash wagon! I think it turned out cute.

That's about it! My awesome graphic design website is ready to be looked at.  Let me know if you see any bugs or crazy stuff.