Hello buddies,

first off thanks a lot to all the people who gave me feedback on the previous test.
Would you be so kind of helping me again? It will be just 10 seconds

What I need?

Just visit this [link] and let me know if you can see the Youtube videos in the sidebar. If you see a red cross, please let me know what browser are you using.

I went to a buddy´s house and the videos are not showing for any reason, not sure what is wrong. I would like to see if it happens very often.

Thanks a million
Sergio

Hello buddies I just need you do a quick checking for me.


Just visit this [link]


And tell me what is the language of the site, Spanish or English?

Im using a wordpress pluging for bilingual text and English must be the one you see when you acccess the site for first time, not sure if its working properly.

Thanks a million!!!!!!!
Sergio

Ladies and gentlemen, SOSNewbie is dead... well, not exactly . After long time of hesitation, I've decided to reunite the two versions in English and Spanish of SOSNewbie, with SOSFactory. It will be fully working in a few weeks.

By now, you can visit the blog in SOSFactory Blog, if you have any suggestion or improvement please comment.

Change of domain

All the content of SOSNewbie.com will be available in SOSFactory.com/blog. So you better change your favourites and register to receive all the incoming news.

SOSNewbie will stop working gradually and, previous notice, I'll redirect all the trafic to SOSFactory Blog.

Benefits of this change

1. Economy: instead of working in the promotion of 3 different sites, now I'll work in just one. The Spanish and English blog will be the same one.


2. More power: I'll have just one site with much more content, since I'll reunite the English version of the blog, the Spanish version and the Portfolio under the same domain.


3. Improved image: by unifying my image, I'll earn notoriety. The blog will benefit from the portfolio and vice versa.


4. New functionalities: pay attention to all the incoming stuff.

Disadvantages of this change

1. I'll probably lose the comments of the Spanish version of the blog. I'm trying to fuse them with the ones in the English version.


2. I'll lose all the registered users of the Spanish version too, so you'll have to register again


3. Many of the pictures in the blog have SOSNewbie logotype on them. I won't update them, at least in a short period of time.


4. I'll have to create a new Youtube Channel, since the previous one was named SOSNewbie, although this is not a priority.


5. All the traffic has to be redirected to the new site. I'll do that through .htacess with 301 redirections, so I won't lose my rankings in Google.

Updates

SOSNewbie was the first Wordpress theme I made when I had no idea about what a blog was, so I made lots of mistakes. The first one was to create the theme from scratch when there are superb themes, very easy to customize at very affordable prices.

But I've gone further. I've customized it and I've added lots of functionalities and characteristics that will improve user's experience. I'm commenting some of them here:

• Design: we have now 1024px wide, more space to read more comfortably.


• Wordpress: I'll use the last version, more secure and easier to update and manage.


• Language: You will be able to read the post in English or Spanish just pushing a button.


• Content: new categories system, much more precise and organized.


• Feeds: We'll have feeds from Wordpress and Feedburner with email subscription.


• Newsletters: I'll have a newsletter for notifications in special cases.


• Social: I've added a link to my accounts in Youtube, Deviantart, Twitter and Facebook.


• Advertisements: I'll keep Adsense in the posts, and I'll change to BuySellAds in the sidebar.


• Discussion: Possibility to subscribe to the comments


• AntiSpam: I've added new anti-spam and anti-bots systems.


• And many many things...

Well mates, I'll keep you updated until disconnection.

My friends of Gomediazine asked a very interesting question in their blog, this is a question I’ve been turning it over in my mind for some years. Someone asked whether is good or not for a freelance designer to show your price list in public.

Pros of displaying your prices:

1. The clients can make a pre-selection: This way only the ones who are really interested in your services will contact you.


2. You can save up in negotiation: The client will be disposed to pay your price, so the negotiation will be quicker and more effective.


3. If your price list is cheap, you’ll attract more clients.

Cons of displaying your prices:

1. “Fast food” effect: Looks like your work is mass-produced, lacking personal attention. Not smart at all.


2. You lose some negotiation margin with high-profile clients.


3. You are giving information to your competitors.

Conclusion: Showing your prices you sacrifice your image in exchange for time and stability. Depending on how advanced your business is, and what your objectives are, this can be more or less recommendable.

This is my story

In my personal case I started without any knowledge about marketing or design, without any resources and completely on my own. My objective is to reach the highest levels of quality. Profitability is an important thing to me, but secondary.

Phase 1: Beginnings

When I started designing by order, my main problem was to get clients who purchased my work. Besides, my quality and my prices were quite low. My goal was working cheap to get a stable clients list, to improve my portfolio and my skills as a designer.
In this stage it is a good thing to publish your price list because, to be realistic, we will only get clients more interested in a low price than in a good quality. Competitors won’t be a problem either, because no one will notice you. On the other hand, we’ll save lots of time when making estimates.

I would sacrifice your image in exchange for time and stability. In this stage you don’t really have an image.

Phase 2: Setting up

When you already have a stable clientele, managing your time becomes very important. By increasing your presence in the net, you’ll have to deal with lots of clients with very low budgets (even without a budget at all), so the ideal would be to show your price list. This way those not-desirable clients will discard themselves. It’s a good idea to make your price list as ranges of prices, which can give you some negotiation margin with the rest of the clients.

This would be the mid point, I would sacrifice some of my image in exchange for time.

Phase 3: RockStar

I still haven’t reached this stage but I can imagine how it will be. In this stage my image will be very important, so I would hide the prices and I would hire an assistant to manage the costumer service and negotiate with clients.

It’s time to invest in image and time.

What’s your experience?

I’m aware that this is not valid for all fields. In the case of a web programmer, the tasks are very complex and everything will depend on the requests of each client. In this case maybe we could show the price of one hour of work… Discussion is open

TAMBIEN PUEDES LEER ESTE ARTICULO EN ESPAÑOL

Hey buddies,

I just wanted say Hey! and ask you another small favour

After some years playing with Wordpress Im working in a new version much more professional with lot of cool features and a better design, wait to see the final version!.

The design is in progress but the core of the site is 90% finished, so I would like to test it with real users.

So... would you like making me happy? The reply is yes, you do

JUST CLICK ON THIS [link] and browse my blog, please feel free to click on every little graphic or link, the idea is reporting any bug you have.

Also if you have any suggestion to improve the design its welcome.

Thanks!
Sergio