With the deadline for your personal taxes just around the corner (and your corporate taxes a few weeks ago), it’s time to review if you’re doing what you can to save on taxes. Even if it’s too late for some of these strategies this year, it’s never too late to plan ahead for the 2008 tax year. So let’s talk about what to consider at the end of each calendar year.

Spend your time concentrating on ways to reduce your tax bill, not merely defer it. Here are some basic ideas to consider:

• If you own your own building, raise the rent you are paying to yourself. As long as that amount approximates market rates, you’ll be legally saving yourself FICA and removing money from the business in a tax advantaged manner. (more…)

I know I’ve posted about it once, maybe even twice, but table-based web designers (myself included)… your days are numbered.

I’m always surprised when I see so many web designers using tables for layout, but I can understand it. Most designers started with tables, and while tabled layouts are so inflexible, they’re quick and easy to create. Making the leap to CSS positioning to create layouts means more to learn, and a potential slowdown in your work before you see the true time benefits.

I previously posted about CSS Zen Garden as one way to test your skills, but this works best if you’ve already got some experience with CSS layouts.

If CSS layouts are totally new to you (though I’ll assume that you have some experience with CSS text styling), think back to how you may have learned HTML. One of the best ways to learn HTML, back in the days of simpler sites, was to download an existing page and look at the code. Play with it. See how all those crazy tags worked.

For CSS layouts, you can do the same thing. But the trick is to start with ones that are written correctly. So avoid choosing any random site and downloading its code. Try existing templates from various free template sites.

Freecsstemplates.org is one of many sites that offers downloadable templates that you can play with to learn CSS layouts (or just use as-is for a quick blog design). At this site, all of the templates comply with W3C standards and contain valid XHTML code.

Templates at freecsstemplates.org comes in many layouts and visual styles.

These templates, and others from many different authors, are also available at opendesigns.org. Just download and start experimenting.

Simpler templates, also with valid code, are available at intensivistation.ch. In these, the code is displayed within each content area—this is great if you want to start new docs from scratch and simply copy, apply, and modify the given code.

When working with these templates at first, pay little attention to the graphics and colors—instead, focus on the positioning of page content areas. The content areas (more…)

Given how ubiquitous Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver have become, it can be easy to forget that Adobe has other offerings. If you create live presentations of your work, interactive training pieces, knowledge bases for your colleagues, or if you conduct web conferences with clients, some of these lesser-known tools are worth a look. Here’s a peek at what each one does.

Acrobat Connect Professional combines what was formerly the Macromedia Breeze product with VoIP and other features to create a web conferencing application. With Connect Professional, a user can easily create a conference room with video, audio, chat and polling capabilities. There’s also a large content area in which one can present slides and images created in other applications including Adobe Presenter, which comes with the package. Conferences are available via the Flash Player, so no additional software is required for playback. Compared to the rather complex Microsoft LiveMeeting, preparing a conference with Connect Professional is a no brainer, especially if you use the templates.

The demo at the Adobe site will to give you a sense of how the Connect web conferences look both and operate.

Captivate, another former Macromedia product, can be used to create interactive online learning tools such as quizzes, simulations and scenarios, even podcasts. Educational modules can be built using simple templates, and you can also record screen movements if a visual demonstration is necessary. This app is probably is probably more than you need if you’re just teaching some basic tasks to a few people, but if you’re e-learning needs are extensive or complex, Captivate can help you create some pretty robust interactive features.

RoboHelp is a bizarre name for a program that is used to build searchable, indexed knowledge bases, and most small-time and freelance designers will have little use for this app. But web developers and technical teams will appreciate its time saving capabilities (more…)

While I firmly believe that words and pictures are in most cases all you to need to explain a concept, assuming you know it well, I’ll admit that video tutorials do serve a certain purpose. Some ideas and techniques, like layers and use of the Clone Stamp, just make more sense when you see the action unfold on a screen.

The overall quality of most Photoshop video tutorials has improved dramatically over the years, and it’s now pretty easy to find a lesson that speaks to your specific needs. Below are a few tutorials that I found both interesting and useful. It should be enough to get you started.

ScreenFrog has videos about Photoshop as well as other imaging apps. Most of the programs focus on either interesting effects or often avoided tools. I really like this tutorial, which explains the Pen tool. The Pen tool scares a lot of people, but if you follow along and work with the floral download, you’ll quickly get the hang of it. And as an added bonus, you get to see the video’s creator work in the German Photoshop interface!

Master the Pen tool with help from this ScreenFrog video.

One should expect good things from a site called TutorialChamp, and thankfully, it delivers. Most of the site’s tutorials explain really useful techniques, like removing wrinkles or coloring comic art. You can even learn how to place someone’s head convincingly on someone else’s body. Personally, I love the tutorial about flyers, because unlike most Photoshop videos, it delves into design as well as technique.

TutorialChamp’s videos are captioned so you can read along rather than listen, which is great if you’re at work.

Not surprisingly, a search on YouTube for Photoshop videos returned loads of content, but most of it is, at least to my mind, best avoided. Still, there are some diamonds in the rough. For example, YouTube user tutvid has created a few videos that are definitely (more…)

If you’ve been paying attention to the current US presidential campaigns, you’ve probably aware that “47 million Americans are living without health insurance.” If you’re a freelance designer, you may very well be one of those people.

I know lots of freelancers who take their chances and go without health insurance. One of them now owes $30,000 in hospital bills due to some unexpected surgery. Now in all likelihood, that won’t happen to you, but perhaps you’re feeling some pain in your wrist, or maybe you’re just don’t want to get too close to that friend with strep throat.

Many freelance designers forgo health insurance because most individual plans are incredibly expensive. It’s a valid decision, especially if you’ve been waiting months for a client to pay for that big logo job.

Still, you may be surprised at how many health insurance options, including discount plans, are available to the self-employed. If you’re thinking about getting some coverage, these are the places where you’ll find the best deals.

Your local chamber of commerce. If you provide design services to local businesses, you should already be a member of the chamber of commerce. It’s a great networking opportunity, and members of most chambers are eligible for group health insurance that comes at steep discounts.

Professional groups. If you belong to any professional associations for small business owners, designers, or freelancers, you should ask about group health insurance. Many of these organizations have direct access to discounted plans or partnerships with other entities that do. For example, the Graphic Artists Guild offers group rates in 28 states.

Your accountant. If your accountant works mostly with freelancers, he or she may have some recommendations. (more…)

In my former office, there was a stack of old Emigre magazines. I spent countless hours paging through those back issues, and I can honestly say that most of what I know about design in the 90s–when technology was changing everything–I learned from Emigre.

The magazine ceased publication in 2005, ending a slow decline that began in 2001. Recently however, a selection of essays from some of the best issues were posted to the Emigre website, where the type foundry of the same name lives on. If you’re at all interested in 20th-century typography or graphic design, I suggest you take a look.

Flickr and the Library of Congress have joined forces and created an exciting new program.

If all goes according to plan, the project will significantly expand the reach of the Library by making its collections vastly more accessible. So far, more than 3000 photographs from two of the Library’s most popular collections have been posted to Flickr’s pages. Users are encouraged to tag, comment on, and annotate these images, just like they would any other Flickr photo. The hope is that this added information–courtesy of Web 2.0–will enhance the collection, benefiting researchers, the public at large and posterity.

Hundreds of color photographs from the 30s and 40s, including the one above, were recently posted to Flickr pages.

In addition, and as part of the project, Flickr has drafted a new usage statement for publicly held photographic collections called “The Commons.” It reads “no known copyright restrictions,” and it’s attached to every image that’s been posted to date. (more…)

In Part 3 of our series about Google’s Webmaster Tools, we took a close look at the Statistics Section. This time, we’ll discuss Links and Sitemaps Sections.

The Links Section

Pages with External Links. The pages listed here are those that have been linked to by others. Once again, this is important information that affects each page’s PageRank. There’s a lot of detail here because you don’t just see the links that lead to your home page, you see all the individual pages that are linked to from the outside. You can also view the outside pages if you click on the External Links number. You can check to see if they are real links, or just links from your test server to your real server.

Pages with Internal Links. The pages on your site that link to other pages on your site are listed here. Honestly, I’m not sure why this is useful information. I have a feeling Google provides these statistics simply because they’re available. If anyone has a better explanation, I’d like to hear it.

Sitelinks. You may have noticed that when you search with Google, the primary results often come with their own set of links. These are site links, and they’re created by Google when it indexes your site.

Let’s say you’re searching for information about Celiac Disease. Your initial search may return the home page of a site about the disease, but the info you really want is buried deeper within that site. (more…)

Last week, we discussed the Diagnostics section of Google’s webmaster toolset. This week, it’s Statistics, where you’ll find lots of information about how your site is indexed and how it appears in Google’s search results.

The various categories and sub-categories of data are discussed below.

Top Search Queries

You can get some of this information no matter what package you use for web statistics, but there are are a few special tidbits available via Google’s tools.

You can see the top 20 searches that returned your site and compare those to the top 20 searches where the user actually clicked through to one of your pages. Are there differences? You can also see how your site ranked on those searches. If you’re seeing numbers higher than 10, you may want to spend some time tuning your site to those keywords.

You can also sort searches by time period, type (what engine was used - Google Directory, Google News, Google Images or good old fashioned Google Web Search), and location (are the search terms different in the US and Canada?). It can be helpful to see how many people found you through the Google Directory as opposed to the main search page.

Unfortunately, none of this tells you what terms return sites similar to yours but not your own.

What the Googlebot Sees

Getting into Google is all about how the Googlebot indexes your site. This page provides some insight that process.

Phrases: The Googlebot looks at the phrases associated with links to your site. This can affect your search results because Google assumes that the links will correctly define the content of your site. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control in this situation, since the links come from outside sites.

Keywords: The Googlebot also looks at the text on the pages, and you can see what search terms will produce high-ranking results. You have some control over these keywords, so make sure the ones you want associated with your site appear in the list. For example, (more…)

If you’ve been reading the blog lately, you’ve probably noticed that I’m on a bit of an “(insert Apple thing here) for Designers” kick. First it was Safari plug-ins, then Dashboard widgets, and now podcasts. The is because I’ve recently discovered that though I’m an early adopter, I rarely take full advantage of the features that come with my new gadgets and software. I bet some of you are the same way!

Podcasts for designers, direct to earbuds everywhere.

I’m like a grandma when it comes to podcasts, (though come to think of it, many grandmas are probably more podcast-savvy than I). I’ve had an iPod since the first generation of battery-eating bricks, but only recently have I started downloading these little audio and video shows. Once I started looking for them, I found many that are perfect for designers. Here are some of the standouts.

There are many podcasts that focus on technology and software, one of the best being Photoshop Killer Tips, hosted by Matt Kloskowski, who also happens to be an instructor at Sessions! Photoshop Killer Tips is updated five days a week, so there’s no shortage of useful information here. But if you need even more Adobe tips in video podcast format, check out Terry White’s Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast. There’s a new episode at least once a week, and (more…)