Today in Design - Top Articles RoundUp 6 August 2015

The day’s best and most impor­tant design- and design business-focused arti­cles, tuto­ri­als, and resources hand-picked by Pariah Burke.

  • 7 Secrets About Editors Every Freelance Writer Should Know

    Editors – most of them any­way – are try­ing to do their jobs and look­ing for peo­ple who can help them do that. One of them could be you.

    Many edi­tors worked as writ­ers before trad­ing places. A lot still do both. I fall into that cat­e­go­ry. Since 2009, I’ve worked as the free­lance edi­tor for a cor­po­rate finance web­site and on a blog series. I’ve edit­ed whitepa­pers and helped train, man­age and edit oth­er free­lancers for an employ­ment news startup.

    Based on my expe­ri­ence on the oth­er side of the desk, here are some secrets about edi­tors that free­lance writ­ers should know:

  • Do you need a side­bar on your blog?
    Does your blog need a side­bar? Should the side­bar be on the left or right? Here we ana­lyze what will work best for you.Tags: WordPress
  • 10 Of The Best Tools For Creating Infographics
    The his­to­ry of this visu­al sci­ence (or art) and tells us that info­graph­ics is by no means an inven­tion of the dig­i­tal cul­ture. The only dif­fer­ence between then and now is the amount of infor­ma­tion we are swamped with. Infographics gives us a tool to c…
  • Why we need to be wor­ried about the next gen­er­a­tion of designers
    Is a lack of fund­ing affect­ing our valu­able problem-solving skills?Tags: HigherEd Business Design
  • Why Hiring An Editor For Your Self-Published Book Is Unavoidable

    Over the past few years, I’ve read quite a few self-published books. Most of the books have been won­der­ful and I thor­ough­ly enjoyed them. Yet some have been painful to read. Others have been good, but could have been great with the assis­tance of an expe­ri­enced edi­tor. Too many self-published authors don’t think read­ers can tell if their nov­el hasn’t been pro­fes­sion­al­ly edit­ed. Trust me, most of us can. As for authors who skip uti­liz­ing beta read­ers and cri­tique part­ners, that shows as well.

  • Leave Freelance Writing for a Full-Time Job?
    Should you leave free­lance writ­ing for a full-time job? This post exam­ines mon­e­tary ques­tions as well as ques­tions of free­dom, fam­i­ly, and happiness.Tags: Writing AmWriting copywriting
  • How To Write A Book That’s Painful To Write!
    This post will share how to write a book that’s painful to write. If you’re writ­ing a self help, mem­oir, or biog­ra­phy, this post will help!Tags: Writing AmWriting self­pub epub
  • 3 Questions to Ask When Writing a Non-Fiction Book Proposal
    The non­fic­tion book pro­pos­al is a unique crea­ture. It’s an essen­tial pack­age that you must cre­ate to attract the atten­tion of pub­lish­ers and “sell” them on your book, but most writ­ers balk at the thought of spend­ing weeks and even months devel­op­ing and hon­ing it.

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  • Pay-What-You-Want Pricing for Self-Published eBooks

    Pay What You Want pric­ing can work – or not. The dif­fer­ence lies in the exe­cu­tion. (Writing real­ly good stuff is a given.)

    Here’s a 6‑step frame­work you can use to apply PWYW pric­ing to your work to start lever­ag­ing the upside of your fanat­i­cal readership.

  • How To Run The Best Virtual Meeting Ever

    My col­league Ken Perlman shares his tricks for run­ning incred­i­bly effec­tive and enjoy­able meet­ings – from 3,000 miles away.

  • How To Finish Your Damn Book
    It’s all well and good for me to tell you why you should fin­ish your book (nut­shell: a fin­ished book is the one thing every­one who ever got published/successfully self-published has in com­mon) but how do you do it? How do you over­come pro­cras­ti­na­tion? How do you fin­ish your damn book?

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  • How many design options do you give your clients?
    “I’m at a point in my design prac­tice where I don’t want to waste time pre­sent­ing more than one logo pro­pos­al. I feel con­fi­dent enough to say that after weeks of work­ing on a logo and apply­ing a care­ful­ly test­ed method I don’t need to present two or three pro­pos­als. Instead I can fine tune the one I’m work­ing on. Do you present your clients with more than one option?”

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  • Your Book As Your Business Card
    One of best ways to gain author­i­ty as a busi­ness own­er or expert is by pub­lish­ing a book.Not only is your book an asset to your busi­ness, it can do far more for you in the rep­u­ta­tion depart­ment than just about any­thing else.Tags: Wri…
  • Explaining graph­ic design to four-year-olds
    50 min­utes to explain graph­ic design to a recep­tion class at a pri­ma­ry school. How do I do that?
  • A Freelancer’s Guide to Dealing With Illness
    As a free­lancer, on the oth­er hand, the con­se­quences can be dire. Even a quick cold or flu that knocks you out for a cou­ple of days could have a huge impact on your busi­ness. You could eas­i­ly find your­self miss­ing dead­lines, pos­si­bly for­feit­ing your p…
  • 20 Gorgeous Next-Level Personal Portfolios To Inspire You
    The port­fo­lios we includ­ed in this list belong to some tru­ly tal­ent­ed and unique design­ers, artists, and pho­tog­ra­phers who real­ly have real­ly upped their online port­fo­lio game. Not only are their port­fo­lios full of amaz­ing work, they are also presente…
  • Graphic Design 101: The designer’s guide to Gestalt Theory
    Utilising the Gestalt prin­ci­ples can make designs more coher­ent, con­nect­ed or uni­fied – this guide explains how.

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  • The Complete Guide To Evernote Notebooks
    The bot­tom line is nei­ther strat­e­gy is wrong; how­ev­er, you need to know every­thing about Notebooks and Tags before you can prop­er­ly decide. Below is every­thing you need to know about Evernote Notebooks.Tags: Evernote
  • Promote Yourself AND Another Author with a Social Media Swap
    When you are try­ing to build an author brand and mar­ket a book, it’s impor­tant to keep in mind you’re not the only one try­ing to build an author brand and mar­ket a book. Reach out to your fel­low authors and make a pro­pos­al that could help you both.Tag…
  • 10 Websites for Finding Free Photoshop Textures
    Textures are cru­cial in every­thing from graph­ic design to web design, from poster art to archi­tec­tur­al visu­al­iza­tions, from 3D ani­ma­tions to com­put­er games. Here’s where you can find some free tex­tures to use!Tags: Free Freebie Freebies Photoshop
  • LinkedIn changed an impor­tant fea­ture — and its users aren’t happy
    LinkedIn has removed the abil­i­ty to eas­i­ly export con­tacts, and its users aren’t hap­py with it.Tags: LinkedIn
  • 5 Ways to Punch Fear in the Face as a Freelancer
    Are you more afraid of suc­ceed­ing or fail­ing? Many free­lancers are afraid of both. Use these 5 ways to punch fear in the face and do it anyway!Tags: Entrepreneur Freelance