Lucas Cobb Design

This has been a thought bouncing around in my mind for a while being a newcomer to the design community. I’ve really been wondering just how to break into the design community and get myself in with the rest of the bloggers in this niche. Is the best way through posts, email, social media (twitter / facebook / “buzz” – LOL) or just wait for them to find me? I’m going to list the pro’s and con’s of each and see what everyone else thinks.

Posting

How could I break in by posting? Well, write amazing content and you are sure to be noticed. Nothing spreads around the internet faster than a great story so I could try to write the best articles I possible can and wait to be noticed. Now the pro’s to this are great articles on my blog (win / win), more readership due to great reading materials, a lot of google food, help from content thieves (double edged sword) and a bunch of others that I just can’t put my finger on at the moment. Now the only con’s I can come up with are content thieves who steel my google love, readers, inspiration, etc. So you can see how there is a definite downside to having great content.

Social Media

Social Media is like the playground at school. So much going on and people running all over the place that sometimes it’s hard to stop someone and say Hello. Plus there is also the thought of virtual rejection. Sending your message out to the black depths of the internet and getting no response in return. *single tear* But there is some major pro’s to social media. You are always plugged into the design news of the second, minute, hour, day, etc… You also see newcomers on the scene on twitter being twitted about for the first time and it makes you feel like not such a noob. Feels good right. You can also connect with bloggers / designers on an individual basis and build up quite a friendship. Sadly there are con’s to social media as well. You have to stay up with the it all the time. It’s just like real life, if you don’t feed something it dies. You also will get ignored from time to time which hurts, but hey, get over it already. Social Media seems like the way to go this day in age, but what will the future hold in online interactions?

Wait For Them

Eventually you will be found if you just keep at it and stay focused. Once you are discovered by one you are then spread around like hot cakes enjoying your 15 minutes of fame until you in the community forever. But waiting sucks. How long it takes one person drastically differs from how long someone else has to wait to be discovered, if at all. Only the lucky ones can break in to the design community while the rest of us cower outside the circle looking for our big break. The only pro’s I can see with this method are honing your skills at blogging / designer and growing your business by yourself. Don’t get me wrong, these are not bad things at all, they are great and very valuable skills to hone in life. Now the con’s on the other hand with this one are much greater, especially if you are inpatient. You might never be discovered this way and if that statement scares you, either get out of the blogging business or try another method. You have to be in it to win it.

So I lay this out there as a challenge to the design community. If you see someone new out there on the web, promote them, give them tips, pointers, helpful advice. Shoot them a note of encouragement. Invite them in. Invite me in. Leave comments that will help noobs like me make a difference in the community and promote what we do just the same as the big guys. I’ll leave it at that, hope you enjoyed the read, now feel free to harp if you must or leave praise, but write something that shows this all matters.

All of a sudden the site you have been working on for months is approved and the client wants it live. However, things can still go horribly wrong if you are not prepared.

We’ve all been there.

After months of development, meetings, conference calls, protracted arguments over typography, photography, colour ways and copy. All of a sudden the site is approved and the client wants it live.

By no means is this an exhaustive list. Neither is it presented in any particular order. Your own checklist will be very much tailored towards your own individual clients and the type of project you are delivering.- BoagWorld

Print this list out and use it. Make sure all your checks and balances are in order and you will end up with a happy client and a check in the mail. Leave a comment if you find this post helpful. Cheers!

Continue reading this post on Boag World

Well I’m one of the lucky ones who have the Facebook rollout before everyone else. I’ll go into some of the features below so you can drool over the brand spankin’ new Facebook layout.

New Homepage
The new homepage design has moved your friends, messages and notifications up to the logo pane. Seems a better position than down in the bottom right corner.

Events
The events are all laid out nicely and you can see everything all lined up on the left side.

Photos
All the photos are displayed in a nice grid format and each folder is displayed on one page.

Applications
Look at all the apps and their big icons. Looking good.

Messages
Messages are now up by the logo and are an easy read.

Chat
Your chat list is still in the bottom right but is also conveniently in the list on the left. Slight change but they might be dumping the bottom right all together in the future.

If you find any new features leave them in the comments. Thanks.

Do you have a Facebook page or are you creating a new one? Do it right and be proactive in setting your page up so users can find you when they are searching. Many times, companies and brands don’t take the proper steps to be found and have to make adjustments in order to show up in the Facebook search. Whether you are setting up your first Facebook page, or tweaking an old one, the following tips will help you rise to the top of the search results.

Use your brand for your Facebook page name
When naming your Facebook page, you only have one shot at giving it a “name.” This is what shows up as the title of the page and is created when first setting a page up. This is currently the largest indicator for Facebook search and is make or break for your page being found.

While it might seem simple that you would choose your brand name, it is not always cut and dry. For example, let’s say we are making a fan page for Search Engine Land. Many times people could create the page with the name titled “SearchEngineLand.com” which would severely handicap your chances of being shown in Facebook search. Similarly, you should keep it simple and not get fancy with the name. Say that the NFL wanted to create a fan page. Well, instead of registering the “National Football League” keyword research should be done to see if “NFL” garners more interest. Don’t try to get cutesy with the naming of pages (like “Comcast Cares”) and make sure you use spaces and full words. While something like SouthwestAir would work for Twitter, you would rather have “Southwest Airlines” for being found in Facebook search in order for maximum visibility.

Build your following
If the Facebook page name is top criteria for being found in Facebook search, the fan count is second place. At SMX East in the Facebook Marketing Panel, Marty Weintraub really stressed this fact and couldn’t emphasize enough how important fan numbers (or group or application numbers) were for being found in the Facebook search results pages. If you have the same name as other pages (which is a common occurrence), the page with more followers should show up first.

Leverage Facebook Ads to help build a following as advertising your pages can help boost fans of your page. You can also leverage employee profiles or groups that you are a part of to really help boost your group numbers.

Create a branded Facebook username
While this may not play a major role in being found within the internal Facebook search, the URL structure can play an important role in getting ranked in the major search engine results pages. Being found within these pages can clearly help to boost your fan following from those who may be searching outside of Facebook. While we have not seen a direct correlation between usernames and internal Facebook rankings, having a keyword rich username could an indicator in the future and would be considered best practice.

Create fresh content regularly
Wall posts, events and “posts by everyone” can now be displayed in Facebook Search. By creating regularly updated content, you will significantly increase your chances for being shown. Simple wall posts with branded keywords or branded events will give you extra visibility in the new real time Facebook Search.

Leverage domain equity to boost Facebook pages in SERPs
Again, this is a bit of a secondary tactic, but providing a link from your homepage to your Facebook page should help to get your Facebook page ranking for branded terms. Think of it as proactive reputation management for your brand. Getting people to your page via Google, Yahoo! or Bing can really boost up those fans to your page thereby trickling down to those Facebook Search ranking factors.

Advertise on branded “interests”
While this won’t boost you into the natural Facebook search results, this will allow you to show up on selected terms. While Facebook ads still run off of “interests” rather than keywords, bidding solely on extremely targeted interests, you can boost your possibility of being found. In addition, Facebook does run select Microsoft-network ads, so advertising in adCenter could help you sneak in and steal some of that Facebook search traffic (if you know what you are doing).

Fill in all information about your brand/company
Whether it be the information boxes, mission statements, website or descriptions these could be indicators down the road. While the information isn’t currently helping your pages show in Facebook results pages, it can also help those pages in external Search Engines as most page content is indexed. The more relevant the content, the better. While these sections might not play a role in internal Facebook ranking, there is evidence that it can help the ranking of groups. This could be applied to pages in the future (and should IMO).

Spend a little time optimizing your site for bing
If you need one reason to pay attention to Bing, it could be for the sole fact that it displays the web results in Facebook Pages. You will always find those web results at the bottom of the Facebook Search, so spend a little time working your site for Bing and you could see a big payoff from the Facebook search platform.

These tips should help your visibility in Facebook search and help to take your fan page to new heights!

Despite the glamorous reputation, freelance design is no walk in the park. It takes an incredible work ethic, significant entrepreneurial prowess, and a little bit of insanity to pull it off effectively. This article will discuss how to effectively make a living as a freelancer (designer or otherwise). Since we are in fact a design blog, I’ll scatter in some well-designed freelancer sites along the way for inspiration.

Continue reading on Design Shack

Google now holds a 70% market share of the search engine game and increasing your visibility in Google Search is key to gaining new clients. In addition, you may have noticed that Google now displays 7 local listings and a map when you search for a local business or service. Guess what? Graphic design is a service and a business. You can immediately increase your visibility to potential clients in your area by registering yourself in Google’s Local Business Center.

Read the rest on You The Designer

Guest articles (articles written for a website other than your own) are popping up all over the place. Web design websites are rapidly growing at a rate that would not be possible without the help of guest articles. Many websites are delivering quality articles on a daily basis. It is hard to imagine one person, or even a couple of people, in charge or producing all of this quality content daily. Chances are they are not the only ones and have the help of guest authors.

Read the rest on OnExtraPixel

When you first come across a new design where does your eye go? What’s the first thing you see on the page? Where in the design is your attention drawn? The answer to all three questions is one of dominance.

Dominance through emphasis of one or more particular elements creates a focal point in your design. It’s where most people will instinctively go when first looking at your work. Dominance will create an entry point on the page from which you can lead the viewer to other parts of the page.

Continue reading on Van Seo Design

I am giving away ad spots on my blog this month and your ad will be up till the end of February! The spots are 125×125 and will be given away to the first 4 commenters below. I’d appreciate some feedback on making the blog better or what I should post on in the future.

Thanks all for reading and following Lucas Cobb Design Blog and look forward to more contests in the future. Good Luck!

Here is a slick list of several keystroke shortcuts to use when making a post in WordPress. This saves you a whole lot of time, especially if you post every day. With these simple keystroke shortcuts you can cut at least an hour a day out of posting. Hope these help and if you know any more leave them in the comments.

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