Both new and established designers will benefit, I think, from a thorough read of: Stop Client Abuse of Web Designers Now Some excellent things to remember (scan the comments, too) so that good clients can remain good clients and the other kind can be avoided.

Read (or in the last case, watch) these posts by web designer/developers. What do you think? Are they on track? Valid points? http://zachinglis.com/2010/response-to-clients-from-hell/ http://numerosign.com/notebook/stop-reading-clients-from-hell/ http://www.ngenworks.com/blog/clients_from_hell_blame_yourself/ I’ve paused the video (the third one) and am finding some really solid business food for thought.

I am sold on WordPress; don’t get me wrong. But sometimes a client needs a way to manage their site content and even WordPress is a bit of overkill. Recently I went browsing archives and this site for a good sampling of simple CMSs in light of a new prospective client: she’s savvy but her [...]

Do you always have a good written document to fall back on should your client suddenly get amnesia? Even in the best of worlds, clients are busy people like the rest of us and a bit of critical information from a phone call six weeks ago is not going to be necessarily retained if it’s [...]

I’m three paragraphs into this article and it rings as true as a bell and as solid as a stack of bricks. One thing. One thing to be a good designer. Want to know what it is? Read the article then pop back over here and comment on whether it rings true with you or [...]

Do you employ wireframes as part of your web development process? If you’re like me, you might sketch out ideas on paper. Or at other times I’ve gone into a graphics program (Photoshop) and moved labelled blocks around to approximate where this or that page element should be. I’ve also used OmniGraffle (disclosure: I’m on [...]

Those very nice people at Litmus (the site and email testing service) have launched a free help site called Doctype. It’s a question and answer site for those of us whose profession requires regularly wrestling with CSS esoterica. Here’s what they say: Each question has browser (or email) compatibility screenshots All content on Doctype is [...]

Well, you know what I mean. This great post from FlyingSolo.com.au reminds you that as an entrepreneur, you are a business. And there’s some things that the big companies do that are good to keep in mind, including #1 (Be Firm) and #3 (Turn Away Customers). It’s brief but great reading.

This recently happened to Chris over at CSS-Tricks.com (a great site awash with tutorials and other helps; subscribe by RSS and also in iTunes). It looks like it’s caused him some Google problems at least temporarily, but his action steps are a great guide for if your WordPress site is hacked or otherwise security-compromised. In [...]

I came across this excellent post the other day on Twitter, dragged it off to read on my break, and just find it perfect. Are you thinking of making a career in web design and development? Read it. Are you currently a professional web designer and frustrated with prospective clients who want it all on [...]