However one of the great presentations from the conference reminded me not only how easy they are to implement but also reminded me of the benefits as well. As a result I have started to write them into the web development standards at 3.7 and have also posted an article with more information on the company blog. If you are at all interested in Microformats give it a read.

Now pair Google Analytics with another free (and this time open source) solution like WordPress and well, it is hard not to get a warm fuzzy feeling.

What you may not realize is that you can get a lot more out of this Google and WordPress pair than simply sticking the tracking number into the footer. There are quite a few rocking Google Analytics plugins that really kick up the functionality of your Google Analytics up a notch. Check them out.

1. Google Analyticator

This is my favorite plug-in in this area. Not only does it add the javascript needed to start tracking your site, it turns your WordPress site into a tracking monster! Rather than just tracking the normal "default" elements it also covers:

• Outbound link tracking of all links on the page, including links not managed by WordPress
• Download link tracking
• Event tracking with outbound links / downloads instead of the old pageview tracking method

It also has plenty of great additional features such as a dashboard widget, front-end visitor widgets, localization and more...

Download Google Analyticator Here

2. Ultimate Google Analytics

This plug-in is on par with Google Analyticator in that not only will it put the necessary google analytics javascript on every page, but it also will track outbound links, downloads and mailto: links. While the default configuration will work for 90% of the users it pays to go through and customize it for your own needs, everything is customizable for your specific situation or need.

The plugin is highly configurable. Read trough the list of features below to get a feeling of what this plugin can do. You can enable and disable all features individually, although the default configuration will suffice for 90% of the users.

Download Ultimate Google Analytics Here

3. RSS Link Tagger for Analytics

On many blogs the conversion point is getting new subscribers. Even with services like feedburner you don't always know what is most effective in getting new subscribers as there is no clear way to track an RSS subscription. However with RSS Link Tagger you can actually track your RSS feed using Google analytics to get a better idea as to what types of articles and posts are most effective in recruiting new subscribers.

Download RSS Link Tagger Here

4. Google Analytics for WordPress

Much like Ultimate Google Analytics and Google Analyticator this plugin automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links and other downloads. It even lets you track Adsense clicks! This plugin is great for tracking downloads as it allows you to specify what types of file prefixes should be used as downloads.

Download Google Analytics for WordPress Here

5. Google Analytics Dashboard

This would be my favorite plugin for client sites. Rather than trying to teach your clients how to login and use Google Analytics (which is an extra step and cumbersome) this plugin puts a view of your analytics data right from your WordPress dashboard.

Even for savvy users this plugin is a great way to keep track of your sites performance with out having to log into Google Analytics every day.

Download Google Analytics Dashboard Here

One of my main issues with most content management systems is that they are simply too large, bloated and complicated for 90% of the sites out there. They focus too much on functionality and not how it is executed. The result is bloated code, poor administrative interfaces and complicated configuration. With WordPress this is not the case, out of the box you can build and manage a simple site and when needed you can extend it to do anything from run a social network, do e-commerce or work as a full functioning web application.

In order to fully harness WordPress for my projects (and my company projects) it is critical that I have a clear and efficient understanding of what WordPress can do. From there it is also important that my employees have the capability to develop with the WordPress platform to make this happen. Now I could come up with a training program or try one of the off the shelf books (which I have read through and were not impressed), but I have found Digging Into WordPress to be an excellent solution.

What You Get

Digging into WordPress is available as a PDF download or as a print version. If you are like me and have no problem reading through a book on screen, the PDF version is an easy reference guide and has the added feature of searching and chapter click through. However I am sure there are plenty of people who would rather have a hard copy to reference while they are working away on their computer.

The book is a whopping 434 pages of content and on a broad level covers critical WordPress concepts such as:

• How to set things up
• Building themes
• Keeping sites secure and optimized
• Making the most of WordPress

More specifically the book has chapters on:

• WordPress basics (how to install, optimize and maintain it)
• Setup and optimization (permalinks, categories and tags, publishing, users, themes and plugins)
• Building WordPress themes (Theme files, page views, header, the loop, comments, sidebar, foots, functions & search)
• Advanced theme design (customizing the loop, sidebars, footers, side content, child themes, styling, widgets)
• Functionality (plugins, custom functions)
• WordPress as a CMS (custom content, page templates, dynamic menus, roles & permissions, great Plug-ins)
• Working with RSS Feeds
• Comments and customizations
• Search Engine Optimization (duplicate content, permalinks, appeasing google, tracking)
• Maintenance (security, comment spam, upgrades, backups)
• Bonus Tricks (option panels, free themes)
• WordPress Updates

As you can see the book is packed with just about anything you could possibly want to know about WordPress. Well Beyond what I had the time to read and learn about my first time through, but I am sure there will be instances where I will need to know how to really customize my RSS output and this book will be the perfect reference manual to do so.

The Excellent Points

There are several incredible parts of this book regardless of your skill level. Having used WordPress for about four years now I have gotten to a fairly high level of fluency, however I still found lots of great information about how to do things that I either didn't know how to do or wasn't even aware was possible. However there is plenty of great content for beginners as well, I was able to hand the book over to one of my new interns and by the end of a few days she had developed her first WordPress theme. Considering it was the first "non-static" site she had ever worked with this was extremely impressive.

Additionally the book does a great job of not only teaching the technical elements of WordPress, but also the practical elements as well. You will learn how to maintain, protect and optimize your blog for faster page loads, higher rankings and more stability. All of these are critical elements to the success of a site after it has been developed and launched (the longer portion of the site life cycle).

What Could Be Improved

The book is a huge wealth of information, that is for sure. However I wonder if this made it difficult to organize. There were more than a few points where the book seemed to jump around a bit in terms of the content and how it all fit together. The first chapter for example, seems to cover a bit of a variety of different topics that range from beginner to advance despite it's label of "WordPress Basics." That being said I would rather have more information and have to hunt a little bit for it than getting a book that left me searching the internet for what I need to know.

Overall...

If you do ANYTHING in WordPress you really should purchase this book. You will not find a more comprehensive reference guide or set of tutorials anywhere. The small cost of $27 will be outweighed by the time saved and the increased capabilities you will gain by reading through and understanding the book.

The Voices That Matter team contacted me about going and also wanted to provide an offer to readers of this blog for early bird registration. See the details below:

New Riders’ Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference, now in its fourth consecutive year, will take place June 28-29 in San Francisco and the timing couldn’t be better! Web design is undergoing an historic transformation: while the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript haven't changed, the new and evolving functionality in the HTML5 and CSS3 specs, the number of new ways in which people access the Web, and the rise of social media mean that Web designers need to know more than ever.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meet face-to-face with industry greats and discuss Web design’s most critical topics! We’ll open with a keynote address from Jesse James Garrett, author of The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and close with a keynote address delivered by Steve Krug, author of the well known book Don't Make Me Think and the brand new book Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems. From start to finish this conference will blow you away.

SPECIAL SAVINGS! As someone that reads this blog, you can save $150 off the conference fee by providing priority code WBNBLGA when registering. Register before May 14th and save $250 as this $100 discount is combined with the early bird pricing!

If you plan on going let me know so that I can plan to say hello and thank you for being a reader of this blog!

According to the release notes the new version has the following new features:

• Insane new SEO controls and detail
• Options Manager
• Completely reorganized options pages
• Increased efficiency from every angle
• Include a slew of JavaScript libraries!
• New home page controls
• Flexible new comment system
• Easy 301 redirects for affiliates!
• New hooks
• New headline filter
• Beefed-up internationalization
• Improved core element defaults
• Dramatically improved code quality

Quite a long feature list, I will be installing the new version on a few sites later today to check them out in more detail.

If you are interested check out the Thesis site for more information.

But being that I am going through a phase of product development myself I figured I would read through the e-book and see what insight I had to offer.

First Impressions

The e-book is well laid out, has legible type and is a whopping 223 pages long. While I am no expert in e-books this does seem to be significantly larger than I expected. The book covers the 10 steps of online promotion and covers everything from developing your marketing strategy to building a website and maintaining your client base.

Content and Information

After reading through the first few chapters it became pretty clear that this ebook was not targeted towards me. Having been in the freelancing / agency owning business for about six years now I have already figured out our USP, developed our website, built a base, etc...

However despite the fact that I didn't personally learn anything new from the book I can honestly say that through out the chapters I was nodding my head in agreement. I get people asking me how to jump start their freelancing business or get new clients all the time and typically I offer some convoluted half-assed answer like "You need to think in curves rather than straight lines, sometimes the shortest distance between two points is reached by going up and down stairs..." It keeps people thinking and in the mean time you can get back to work.

Because let's face it, there is a lot that goes into building a successful freelancing career and I can't simply explain 300 pages worth of information in any sort of sensible timeframe. I digress. My point is that this book covers all the essential and basic information that someone would need to know through the first 2 - 3 months of their freelance career. Now when people seek me out for advice I would feel comfortable pointing them to this e-book as a way of learning all the basic information required to start getting business in the door.

Suggestions and Thoughts

While I feel the book is a good high level overview, personally I think it would be a bit more effective if it had lots of detail on a few core techniques rather than an overview of every possible promotion tactic. If you are a one man shop and tried to do everything suggested it would likely take up most of your time leaving very little time to actually bill. Instead it would make more sense to pick promotion methods that are going to have a high success rate and hone in on how to use them successfully. For example a really detailed blogging strategy, or a twitter referral system.

That being said it is a good quality book for all of you aspiring and new freelancers and creative professionals, worth the price tag if you fit in that category. It will surely bring in more revenue than it will cost you.

You can learn more about 10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives here.

Rate Deflation

Typically what I have seen happen is that while people improve their abilities, gain experience and become more established their rate increases but at a slower and slower pace. I think this happens for several reasons, although none of them are an excuse to undervalue your time. I would venture that one of the most common reasons is that an appropriate billable rate simply sounds like a lot of money. When working for "the man" you are probably used to making somewhere between $8 - $20 an hour... some people may reflect upon their previous wages and be unable to justify charging almost 10 times what they were previously told they were worth.

The truth is that even if you are a small time freelancer you have expenses that you probably are not acknowledging. Business development, marketing, training, vacation, health care, equipment, software, etc, etc, etc... previously your employer covered this but now the burden is on your shoulders. What I mean by this is that you were actually getting a higher wage (in theory) with your previous job than you may realize.

Additionally with inflation and efficiency improvements (over time you will get faster and more efficient) you actually make less money over time.

It may sound like I am digressing, but I have a sneaking suspicion that before anyone actually doubles their rate they will need to be convinced that they should in fact double their rate.

Why Double Your Rate

Rather than rant in paragraph format that I am sure no one would actually read (I know I wouldn't) I will just do the whole list thing... that way I will satisfy the list people out there and get mad digg traffic.

1. You can do a better job on your projects by focusing on less at one time
2. You can better serve your clients by giving them more attention
3. You can work less and achieve the same amount
4. You will have more time to learn, practice and improve your skills and adopt new ones
5. It will increase your perceived skills and value (people assume that more expensive means better)
6. People will place higher value on your time and bug you less
7. At best you will probably bill about 60% of the time you are working, you have to cover the other 40% (however it is more likely 50/50 or worse)
8. You will be able to be pickier about the types of projects you work on, vs having to find the next 5 - 20 projects
9. If you ever decide to go back to a normal job, being able to prove that companies valued your time so high will be a compelling reason to have a higher salary
10. If you keep doubling your rate you can put all your cash into a room and swim through it Scrooge McDuck style

How to Double Your Rate

This is where fear typically sets in. I will admit that I too worry about that e-mail saying "guess what your gonna be paying me more," as my mind is filled with dreams of rioting clients, my competitors snatching them all up or a stack of unpaid invoices. However the truth is that yes, some of your clients may say "We can't afford it" but plenty of them will understand and be OK with it. The balance will most likely cause a balance in revenue if not increasing it.

But what type of post would this be if I didn't give you some hints and tips on how to smooth out the process? A shitty one, that's what type of post it would be.

Set Yourself Up For Success

One of my favorite authors Tim Ferris writes about the importance of making yourself irreplaceable in your job. There is no reason you shouldn't be doing this with your business or freelancing career as well. The truth is that if you do such high quality, critical, knock it out of the park type of work you can charge what ever you want. You will be added so much value to your clients they would be foolish not to pay your rates. This means you need to go above and beyond in every project you do, but it will also make it really easy to significantly hike up your project rates.

Do it Gradually

I don't mean over a period of five years, but there are several ways to let clients adjust to it. There are a few different approaches to this:

• Give them a few months of grace before you increase your rate
• Increase your rate by 25% per month for four months
• First increase your rate for new clients, inform your existing ones they are getting a deal for awhile
• First start by increasing your time estimates so they are used to paying a slightly higher rate (probably mildly dishonest, use with discretion).

Explain with Care

Rate increases go bad when they are not properly explained. If it comes off as a "stick it to you" sort of decision, guess what? Your clients will be pissed. However if you explain it in a way that it sounds like a benefit to them you can even end up in a situation where they would be ecstatic. What a concept, you can charge more and your clients will be excited about it! Here are some things to mention:

• You want to focus on their company, this is a way to cover your expenses with out as many projects
• You can now provide faster turn around
• You can now provide more detailed work
• You can now spend more time on learning the latest changes which will help their business improve
• You can spend more time becoming efficient so the overall price per project doesn't have to change

It also doesn't hurt to explain your situation and how you are being fair to your own business as well, such as:

• You have acquired experience
• You have acquired skills
• You have more expenses associated with proper service
• Inflation has over time, reduced your effective rate

Pick Your Medium

There are a variety of different ways to deliver your message. The more personal the better, which means typically e-mail is out of the question. Instead you could consider the following:

• Letter with a follow up phone call
• Letter with a follow up meeting
• Phone call
• Meeting
• Basket of flowers with a note
• Basket of cheese with a note (who doesn't love cheese?)

Go Forth and Concour

I hope that most of the people reading this do actually increase their rates today. When I see surveys like this in which the average hourly rate is less than $50 it frustrates me. This clearly shows that people are undervaluing their time as well as creating a perception that skilled web professionals and agencies are not worth more than $25 - $50 an hour.

Thoughts, strategies, approaches are all welcome.

This year I suggest you not only show appreciation to your friends and family (and do this first and foremost) but also your freelance career. Sure your career probably hasn't purchased you a gift and it might not directly say "thank you," but I assure you that karma will take care of you in the end.

All jokes aside your freelance or business needs constant love, attention and appreciation. It is easy to get into the mindset where you are comfortable with a long term contract or a specific set of clients with out thinking about how you can continue to grow and improve your practice.

Gifts of Education

One of the best ways you can improve your business, freelancing or career is to improve on your skills. This can be done through practice (which you should be doing constantly) and by making an effort to learn new theories, techniques and skills.

1. Buy the Web Design Business Tool kit

This is probably the best all inclusive book / kit I have come across when it comes to building a successful web design business. Filled with plenty of great information, sample documents and new ideas you can be sure that you will find at least a few great ideas to build your business.

Read more about it on sitepoint.com

2. Attend a Conference

Sure they can be expensive and often times there are podcasts that you can check out afterward but you can't put a price on the networking and connections that you can make by attending just a few good conferences. Becoming a part of the web design community on a personal and real level can do wonders for your career.

I suggest looking into:

• An Event Apart
• SXSW
• Future of Web Design
• Wordcamp

3. Read Some Books

There are a lot of great books out there on all aspects of web design. You just need to take the time to read them and expand your skills. This year I see more and more emphasis on web analytics, web strategy and other forms of online marketing. Some books to check out:

• Web Analytics 2.0
• Landing Page Optimization
• Sexy Web Design
• 4 Hour Work Week (expanded)

Gifts of Efficiency

Being more efficient is a long standing hobby of mine. If you are like me, you have lots of ideas and aspirations to do great things but are severly limited by the amount of time you can dedicate. Not only will you be rewarded with more time and less stress, but being more efficient will help you keep your clients happy and increase revenues. Hard to argue with those perks eh?

1. Improve your Book Keeping

Yes I know, for creative types doing accounting is probably the last thing we would ever want to do. However the insight that you can gain by having a clear picture of your cash flow and expenses is invaluable. It can help you work harder to hit your revenue goals and keep you apprised to how much you are spending. If you don't want to take the plunge and hire an account consider signing up for one of these services that will save you time and makes accounting easy:

• Freshbooks
• Blinksale

2. Improve your Project Management

I used to discount how important project management was. As long as projects were moving forward things are great right? ah if it were only so easy. The more time spent planning the smoother projects will go. Here are some options:

• Basecamp
• ActiveCollab
• Zoho
• Getting Things Done

3. Hire help

If you can pay someone less than your billable rate for any task you are doing then by all means do it. The increase in time will let you find more and better projects as well as spend more time on what you are really passionate about. I recommend either finding interns, contractors, virtual assistants or full time employees.

• Authentic Jobs
• oDesk
• Find a Virtual Assistant

4. Impove your Process

It is always a good idea to evaluate and try and improve your internal process. Is there something you could spend time on now to save more time later. I take time quarterly to try and look at what activities we perform at 3.7 DESIGNS constantly and try and improve our approach. I recommend the following books:

• Website Redesign 2.0
• Getting Things Done
• 4 Hour Work Week (expanded)

Gifts of Promotion

When you provide a service as opposed to a product you are faced with a situation where people are paying for something that seems intangible. You can't hold, feel or look at a website. One of the great ways to make your service feel tangible is by getting actual tangible items that carry your brand. This can be everything from business cards, folders, coffee mugs, letterhead, etc...

By providing several items to a client or potential client that are tangible items from your business it builds confidence that you have an established and credible company.

1. Paper Products

• Overnight Prints

2. Create a Portfolio

• Mixbook

3. Schwag

• Cafe Press
• UberPrints.com

Gifts of Reoccurring Income

Doing some work to develop some reoccurring income streams will allow you to be more selective about what projects you take on, who you hire for help or what other investments you are willing to make. Because a lot of time these can be developed so that the income is not specifically tied to an amount of hourly work (which is typically how we price our services) it provides a whole range of options that simply getting more projects does not.

1. Resell Services

Reselling services is a great way to make reoccurring income with out having to dedicate time to generate it. By providing them training and support they are having an added benefit of purchasing through you rather than directly so it still remains a win / win.

• Hosting - We use Dreamhost
• E-mail blasts - We use Campaign Monitor
• Project management software - We recommend Basecamp
• Client Relations Management (CRM)  - We recommend Highrise

2. Sell Relevant Advertising

If you have a company or personal blog putting relevant advertisements on your site is a great way to generate direct income in addition to awareness. Now days most advertising networks give you all the control you need over which companies advertisements show up on your site. You no longer have to worry about competitors, spammers or irrelevant ads.

• Google Adsense
• Buy/Sell Ads

3. Sell a Product

Create a product you can sell that doesn't require an exponential number of hours is a great way to start a stream of reoccurring income. At 3.7 DESIGNS we created the web designers sketchbook. Other bloggers have developed e-books, job boards and even subscription based services. There are lots of potential ideas for products, just think about your core skills and how you could use those to solve a need.