Web site builder SynthaSite rebrands as Yola

SynthaSite, a San Francisco-based company that lets users build Web sites with minimal technical expertise required, has changed its name: it has ditched the corporate-sounding moniker for the more Web 2.0-ish Yola.

"The name SynthaSite has brought us to where we are today, but it won't take us where we want to go," CEO Vinny Lingham said in a release. "We're reaching a global market and need a name that is easy to say, resonates in any language, and captures the creativity and excitement that our users bring to their Web sites."

Yola, which targets individuals and small businesses, comes from the Hindi word for "hatch." It launched early last year and now says it has more than 1.5 million registered users. The name change won't affect any of them, the company said, and if their sites are hosted on SynthaSite subdomains, the URLs will not change.

While still SynthaSite, Yola launched a new user interface last summer and more recently raised a $20 million series B venture round from Reinet Fund.

Build a Money-Making Website in 10 Minutes With DevHub

I’m always a little sceptical about online website building systems. Many make bold claims that anyone can build a professional website in minutes. If that were true, most of us would have been out of a job years ago.

However, the rise of blogging systems and social networks proves there are many millions of people who just want to write content and interact with like-minded individuals. It is a bonus if they can make a little money from their endeavors.

DevHub is a new system from the EVO Media Group that is firmly aimed at bloggers, entrepreneurs, topical experts, affiliate marketers, and users who would normally head to Squidoo or HubPages. The system is a result of 18 months development and was launched in February 2009. By the end of the first month, over 100,000 sites had been created on the platform.
How is DevHub Different?

Unlike some competing systems, DevHub offers:

* up to 10 different sites (you can request more if your existing efforts pass their quality-control inspection!)
* easy domain registration or a free devhub.com sub-domain
* multiple pages with integrated blogging
* a drag-and-drop page editor
* customizable themes and color editing
* SEO and statistics tools
* integration with Twitter, Google Analytics, and bookmarking sites
* zero cost.

Ultimately, DevHub has one goal: to monetize your site. The website builder has a selection of advertising modules including products, local directories, property listings, and job vacancies. DevHub takes a proportion of the revenue and gives you the rest.

The adverts are hard-coded HTML inside your webpage rather than remotely-hosted scripts or images. It certainly prevents Adblock Plus and other advert blockers from hiding the links. However, DevHub do not insist on adverts; the user can choose how many or how few they use.
The 10-Minute Challenge

My challenge was to test DevHub’s marketing claim and build a site in 10 minutes without prior knowledge of the system. I chose a subject - the 2009 Formula 1 season - and prepared a little content and an image.

Minute 1: sign up
Sign-up is quicker than most, although I was fortunate that the ‘formula1′ sub-domain had not been taken.

Minute 2 to 5: the home page
The editor is straight-forward: you drag a content box from the panel to the page and change its properties as necessary. One, two, or three-column layouts can be selected.

I probably spent a little longer than necessary experimenting with themes and colors. There are not a huge number of choices, but there are enough options to keep most people happy.

Minute 6 to 7: added blog articles
Clicking the blog link allows you to post, remove, or edit individual articles. I added two posts and placed a ‘blog entries’ widget on the home page.

Minute 8 to 9: additional pages
Two further pages were added:

* news - this shows an F1 RSS feed from the BBC
* pictures - a selection of photographs determined by keywords

I added several advertising blocks to both pages.

Minute 10: tidy up
I previewed the site and rearranged some content to make better use of the space.

The result can be viewed at http://formula1.devhub.com/. It will never win any awards, but it proved that a 10-minute site is possible.

The promise of easy money during a recession makes DevHub an increasingly attractive proposition. The community is growing exponentially and an API is expected shortly that will allow developers to build further modules for the platform.

Try it for yourself: click here to join DevHub.

What do you think? Is DevHub offering anything new? Are you earning any money from it? Will novices find the system easy to use? Can it succeed in an already-crowed market?

Article source: Sitepoint

Developing Personal Relationships With Clients

I’ve experienced the gamut of client relationship types — from all business to too personal — and it took me a little while to discover the right mix of business and personal that works for me. When I was just starting out, my instinct told me to be all business all the time. I wanted to be considered an equal, get respect from my clients and not be in a position to be taken advantage of. Once I had a little experience under my belt and some longer-term client relationships, I adopted a more personal approach, likely because I had more confidence in myself as a business person.

With the increasing popularity of social networking, I find myself crossing paths even more with clients on Facebook and Twitter, and many of the business/personal lines are becoming more blurred. For some, this may be too much client interaction, but this has created amazing opportunities for me. When you work virtually, like I do, it can be a challenge to create a personal element in your business relationships. And social networking sites create an outlet for personal interaction.

Why does it matter? Clients want to hire someone experienced and professional who can get the job done, but they also want someone they feel like they know and can trust. We’re all people first, and giving a little bit of yourself creates a foundation for a thriving relationship. It increases the likelihood that the client will want to work with you again.

Letting your business relationships get a little personal doesn’t mean you need to tell your client personal things about yourself or ask them personal questions. But if you give them a little more – mentioning your weekend plans, asking how their sick sister-in-law is doing, remembering birthdays – you can create a multi-dimensional relationship by which you can accomplish a number of things:
www.webfusion.com

* Create loyalty and trust that overlaps into work situations
* Give clients more reason to refer you because they feel they really know who you are
* Get to know each other better which makes working together easier and more efficient
* Develop opportunities for additional work within the company
* Become more approachable and be able to avoid miscommunication
* Show that you’re human, just like they are

Just like any relationship, the driving factor behind this is communication, whether it’s online or off. And also, like other relationships, this philosophy doesn’t apply across the board. There are some clients who you wouldn’t want to have this type of relationship with, either because of their personal preference or personality issues. It’s important to stay within the comfort levels of both parties, and adjust your relationship to fit each individual client.

Do you have personal relationships with your clients? Has it ever backfired?

Article source: Sitepoint

What is the Freelancers Union and Do You Need To Join?

I’ve been in the self-employed world for a number of years, yet I just recently discovered something called the Freelancers Union. If this is new for you as well (and if you’re U.S.-based), it might be of interest.

What is the Freelancers Union?

From their website, “Freelancers Union is a nonprofit organization that represents the needs of America’s independent workforce though advocacy, information, and service.” They are basically an advocacy group in the U.S. (based in New York), that conducts a number of activities to support freelancers, consultants, and the otherwise self-employed. Some of the services they provide include:

* Negotiate insurance rates on behalf of freelancers
* Offer health insurance to freelancers in 31 states
* Provide dental, life, and disability insurance nationwide
* Supply an outlet for networking, collaboration, and sharing knowledge
* Research the independent workforce, educate policy makers and lobby for change
* Offer events, seminars and workshops on a variety of topics
* Provide a job board for freelancers

Freelancers Union currently has 100,000 members nationwide. It is free to join and participate in the Union’s forums, job board, yellow pages listing, and receive membership discounts on a number of services. Events require a fee for participation.

Why join?

Freelancer’s Union does offer freelancers a lot of benefits, although most are not unique or different from other freelancer sites and organizations. By far, the biggest draw for joining Freelancers Union is the insurance benefits. As independent workers, insurance can be one of the most costly and difficult needs to fulfill, especially if you don’t have a spouse or domestic partner who has insurance you can benefit from. You can get insurance at more affordable rates through the Union, and that can help you continue to stay in business for yourself.

Why NOT join?

Freelancers Union developed quite a consumer uprising in 2008, when they switched to more expensive coverage without giving members much of a heads up. Then, Freelancers Union started their own insurance company in November, which introduced another set of potential issues for members. A message on the Freelancers Union blog from Sara Horowitz, executive director, talks about why they started their own company and what they hope to accomplish. There’s some additional information on the new company on The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog, but it seems that because the Freelancers Union’s insurance company is so new, the real value (and cost) to members is not yet apparent.

What’s Your Take?

The cost of finding insurance coverage on your own is astronomical, not to mention the effort required to apply and get accepted into a plan as a freelancer, so this concept is certainly food for thought. I am very fortunate not to need independent health insurance, as I am a dependent on my husband’s plan. But if I were not in this situation, I would likely consider the coverage offered through Freelancers Union.

Do you belong to the Freelancer’s Union, and if you’re outside the U.S., do you have a similar group where you live that facilitates health insurance for you? What do you do as a freelancer to manage health care?

Article source: Sitepoint

Open Source Image Editors…for Designers?

It would be really tough to convince me that there is an open source image editing application out there that can replace Photoshop or Illustrator. I’m just so used to Adobe, I don’t see myself being able to switch to an open source alternative permanently. But having said that, I believe there is a place for open source image editors, even for designers. Here are three examples why this may be the case for you.

Situation 1: You’re just starting out as a freelancer and don’t have the funds to purchase top-of-the-line software yet. And when you do, depending on the type of education and training you’ve had, there may be a very steep learning curve for getting up to speed on how to use them. Your work can’t come to a screeching halt as you learn the ins and outs of Photoshop.

Situation 2: You’re a developer or designer who doesn’t do much graphic work. You only need a limited amount of functionality in your image editor, and you don’t want to invest in an Adobe product.

Situation 3: You have a PC and a Mac, and you use one sporadically but occasionally need to do some light graphic work on the second machine. You can dish out the money to buy another version of Photoshop/Illustrator or you can find an open source application to meet your needs. This is actually my situation. I have a PC and a Mac, I use my Mac 75% of the time, but I do need to switch to the PC from time-to-time for various reasons. I’ve been maintaining versions of Adobe CS4 on both machines and it’s expensive.

So, you’re going to give open source image editors a try. Where to start? Here are three open source options and what you can expect from them.

GIMP
Probably one of the most used open source image applications, GIMP has a well-rounded list of features, and there is even a tutorial on how to setup GIMP to mimic Photoshop’s configuration. Some of the features GIMP has includes:

* Painting tools including brush, pencil, airbrush, clone, etc.
* Gradient editor and blend tool
* Unlimited number of images open at one time
* Full alpha channel support
* Layers and channels
* Editable text layers
* SVG path import/export
* Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip
* Supports all of the major file formats

It’s multi-platform, although on a Mac you need Mac OS X and X11 installed (it was developed under X11 on UNIX). I’ve downloaded and tried out the Mac version. It does have a lot of functionality, but there’s a bit of a learning curve, too. Some tools in GIMP are intuitive if you’re a Photoshop and Illustrator user, others not so much. GIMP doesn’t support CMYK, which may be a major downfall, depending on your needs. But the wide-range of functionality balances that a bit.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET started as a Microsoft-mentored project by a college senior and is no longer open source, so it doesn’t fit perfectly on this list. But it’s free and has a lot of features that make it a good alternative if you are working on a Windows machine. Features include:

* Simple, intuitive, and innovative user interface
* Layers
* Effects such as blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, noise, and embossing
* Adjustable brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, curves, and levels
* Simple tools for drawing shapes
* Unlimited history

It’s not made for a Mac so that may be a negative for some, but I gave it a try on my PC. It’s really easy to use…almost deceivingly easy with the amount of functionality it provides. I especially love the unlimited history feature and tool configuration. Coming from a Photoshop background, there is almost no learning curve, but I suspect even those new to image editors would be able to jump in without too much difficulty.

Inkscape

Inkscape is a multi-platform (with X11 for the Mac) open source vector graphic application for creating and editing SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) files. Like Illustrator, Inkscape offers a wide range of object-based tools and functionality:

* Drawing tools including pencil, pen and calligraphy
* Rectangle, star, spiral shape tools
* Text tool
* Moving, scaling, rotating, skewing transformations
* Layers
* Gradients and patterns
* PNG and PostScript export
* Perfectly compliant SVG format file generation and editing

I downloaded Inkscape and immediately loved it. It has a really nice UI, features that rival Illustrator and a very extensive website with tutorials, articles, showcases and lots of support. I would add Inkscape to your list if you want a fully functioning SVG editor. I’m not sure I’d entirely replace Illustrator just yet, but this is a perfect occasional alternative.

Have you tried these or any other open source image editing applications? I’d love to hear from the regular users. As you get more experienced with these programs, do you find they compare even more to the big names?