Gary Thomas – (9swords) he tweets cool stuff for web designers.

Aaron Irizarry – (aaroni268) is a User Experience Designer for Harte-Hanks/PennySaver.

Angie Bowen – (angbowen) is a web designer/developer from Colorado.

Adam Smith – (atsmith) is the president and creative director of Advent Creative.

Andrew Wilkinson – (awilkinson) runs the interface design agency MetaLab.

Barry Madden – (BarryMadden) is a freelance web/GUI/graphic designer.

Brian Gardner – (bgardner) is the founder and CEO of StudioPress.

Brian K. McDaniel – (bkmacdaddy) is a web and graphic designer from San Francisco.

Paul Boag – (boagworld) founded web design agency Headscape and runs boagworld.

Brad Colbow – (bradcolbow) is a freelance web designer who also creates a weekly comic strip.

Brian Cray – (briancray) is a Colombus based web entrepreneur and consultant.

Rachael Furn – (calmbanana) is a web developer based in Northants, UK.

Chetan R – (cheth) is an indian based web/graphic designer.

Chris Spooner – (chrisspooner) is a blogger based in Sheffield, UK.

Liz Andrade – (cmdshiftdesign) is a web/graphic designer and a regular blogger.

Collis – (collis) is CEO/Co-Founder of Envato.

Walter Apai – (DesignerDepot) is a web designer who runs Web Designer Depot.

Emma Taylor – (emtaylor) is a freelance web designer based in Cyprus.

Hannah – (ErisDS) is PHP developer based in Northampton, UK.

Mike Rundle – (flyosity) is software developer based in Raleigh.

Glenn Hilton – (glennhilton) is a web designer/developer based in Vancouver.

Gopal Raju – (gopalraju) is an indian based web designer/developer and blogger.

Grace Smith – (gracesmith) is a freelance web designer/developer who also runs thefreelancefeed.com.

Janko Jovanovic – (jankowarpspeed) is a UI designer, software engineer, blogger, speaker and artist.

Dainis Graveris – (1stwebdesigner) is a web designer who runs www.1stwebdesigner.com.

Jason Walz – (jasonwalz) is Milwaukee based web designer.

Jeff Croft – (jcroft) is a Seattle based web designer/developer who has also authored books.

John O’Nolan – (JohnONolan) is a UK based web designer who regularly blogs on many different sites.

Jon Phillips – (jophillips) is a web designer who runs Sprye Studios.

Liam McKay – (liammckay) is a UK based web designer who is currently working on WPBundle.

Mark Jardine – (markjardine) is a San Jose based who designer who works for Tapbots.

Marko Prljic – (markoprljic) is a croatian based web designer who founded Twinkle Tap.

Meagan Fisher – (meaganfisher) is a Salem based web designer who works at SimpleBits.

Mike Lane – (mlane) is a Minneapolis based UX designer.

Ronald Bien – (naldzgraphics) is a Philippines based graphic designer and also founder of Naldz Graphics.

Nishan Joomun – (nishanjoomun) is a Montreal based web designer.

nourayehia – (nourayehia) is web designer who also founded Noupe and Bundle Hunt

David Perel – (obox) is a South Africa based web designer and co-founder of Obox.

Amélie Husson – (othella) is a web designer from France but currently based in Germany.

http://www.twitter.com/paddydonnelly is an Irish web designer currently based in Belgium.

Rob Hawkes – (robhawkes) is a UK based web developer.

Rogie – (rogieking) is a Montant based web designer and founder of Komodomedia.

Veronica Domeier – (ronicadesign) is a San Antonio based freelance web designer.

Sarah Parmenter – (sazzy) is a UK based web designer and founder of You Know Who.

Thomas Ulbricht – (sharebrain) is a web deigner based in Germany, he also founded Sharebrain.

Jacob Gube – (sixrevisions) is a web developer/designer, he also founded Six Revisions and co-founded Design Instruct.

Luca Soffici – (Soffici) is an Italy based web & graphic designer.

Tom Kenny – (tkenny) is a UK based web designer/developer and he founded Inspect Element.

Tony Chester – (tonychester) is a web designer from Cary and owner of OnWired.

Umut Muhaddisoglu – (umutm) is a web developer and blogger from Turkey.

This list was just a small section of the web design community there are 100’s if not 1000’s of more designers worth following so feel free to leave a comment with a link to your link twitter profile if you think your worth following!

About The Author

Thomas Hardy is a freelance web designer from Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), here is his portfolio. He founded Design-Heaven and Work-Killer, where he regularly blogs. You will also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

But you need some feedback. So, here’s the question: how can you keep from having to waste hours upon hours getting feedback from largely unhelpful sources, while still making sure that what you are creating actually makes sense, looks good, and doesn’t end your career?

Here are a few strategies for getting feedback as well as some tools that have been proven to help web designers simplify the feedback process:

Community Driven Feedback

Imagine walking into a big room of graphic and web design professionals (much like yourself). These folks are smart and on top of their respective games (again, much like yourself). Now imagine standing up in front of all of them, showing them your latest work, and then asking for feedback. While there is the potential to get some great input on what you’ve created, the whole process would likely be highly disorganized and nerve-wracking. Fortunately there are some tools that get pretty close to the benefits of standing up in front of a roomful of like-minded professionals, without any of the disorganization or (as much) potential humiliation.

Concept Feedback is a web based community of graphic and web designers that give input on submissions of each other’s work. Anyone can join and post their own “concept” and get advice on how to improve their work from the user community through the site’s innovative rating tools (while in turn giving your own advice on other people’s work). In addition to getting feedback from the thousands of users on the site, you can also receive feedback from smaller panels of industry experts hand-selected by the Concept Feedback staff. Finally, the site also offers tools so that you can privately share and receive feedback from your clients and team.

One less comprehensive yet innovative take on community driven feedback is Five Second Test. It’s just like it sounds- users look at your site for five seconds and then report back on their first impressions of your work. While you aren’t going to get in-depth existential analysis of what you’ve created, you will be getting input akin to what actual site visitors will be thinking when they visit your site in the future.

Alternate Tools:

• Usabilla
• Clixpy
• ClickTale
• Crazy Egg
• Userfly

In-Person User Testing

While online community driven feedback is great for getting a whole lot of different input in a short amount of time, there are other methods that can help you get more detailed and personalized responses to your work. These methods are also helpful for getting feedback from people outside the web and graphic design world (people that, while clueless about the specifics of your field, are nonetheless buying the junk that your site is selling or logo is promoting, which in turn is providing you with the income you need to keep going to Comic-Con year after year). These methods are also good for getting the interweb proletariat to explain what they actually mean when they make statements like “I hate that logo” or “This page needs to be more, um, you know, snappy.”

In-person user testing is as simple as sitting someone down in front of a computer with you and having them browse your site or look at your designs. There aren’t any hard and fast rules for in-person testing, but it is very important that you have the right people doing this work: each tester should be selected and their opinions weighted based on how well they fit in to your target audience.  Another important thing to do with in-person testers is to ask questions. Getting testers to explain their criticisms will not only get you beyond simple yes/no responses, but their elaboration will probably let you know quickly whether or not to trust the user’s feedback.

One tool that can help you with in-person (or remote) user testing is screen recording software Morae from TechSmith. In addition to capturing all on-screen activity, Morae can also record audio and video of your tester while they browse. Screencasts and the accompanying audio are easily shared with co-workers or clients via YouTube, Quicktime, or Windows Media.

Alternate Tools:

• Camtasia Studio
• ScreenFlow
• Jing
• Silverback

Remote User Testing

If you don’t have the time to have testers sit down with you in person to give you feedback (or if your office happens to be your bedroom, complete with Green Lantern posters and seven month old Filet-o-Fish packages), remote user testing might be a better option. The principle is basically the same as in-person testing, and with the right screen sharing and recording software you can do your own testing with your own users. However, there are some great tools out there that can keep you from having to hunt down new testers and provide you with more useful info than you could obtain by yourself.

UserTesting.com provides you with screen and audio recordings of their testers interacting with your site. You can start seeing testing results in as little as one hour, and you can request users that meet your target demographics. The per-user testing cost isn’t cheap ($39 per user), but you get helpful, comprehensive feedback fast with no hassle on your part.

If you want to better understand how website users are seeing and comprehending your site, utilizing the eye tracking features of GazeHawk might be a good move. You simply provide GazeHawk with a URL and they use some fancy webcam trickery to track what test visitors are drawn to on your page. The result of the test is a heatmap that is easy to understand and would make Predator jealous. This tool is especially helpful for landing pages.

Alternate Tools:

• Feedback Army
• Ethnio
• Open Hallway
• Loop11

Polls and Surveys

The nice thing about user testing is that you get a personal response quickly; you usually come away with some type of helpful information about your work, even if it is something simple. However, there is no replacement for hard data collected over an extended period of time. And even if polls and surveys and the cool charts and graphs they produce aren’t your thing, they are sure to impress clients and give weight to your brilliant suggestions.

While pop-ups that ask “Do you have time to tell us about your experience on this site?” translates for some people into “Can we ask you some boring questions for 5 minutes and give you nothing in return?”, there are indeed others that actually click “Yes” on those things. And believe it or not, they actually can provide some helpful information. Three providers of useful on-site polls and surveys are KISSinsights, Kampyle, and PollDaddy.

In my experience I’ve found that the amount and quality of feedback from your site’s users improves if they can expect something in return. Try offering a 10% off coupon code or entry in a drawing for a gift card in exchange for a completed survey. Not only will you get larger amounts of better feedback, but you very well could increase sales or submissions of prospect contact info.

Alternate Tools:

• SurveyMonkey
• 4Q from iPerceptions
• ForeSee Results

Conclusion

As frustrating, time consuming, and expensive as obtaining quality feedback can be, doing so should be a standard step in the design process for all web and graphic designers. All it takes is a couple of simple mistakes to derail a project for an important client.  A little time and money spent could very well save you embarrassment and angry clients. So what strategies and tools do you use for website feedback? Let us know in the comments!

About the Author

Aaron Griffith is part of the Concept Feedback team, a free website review community for designers, developers and marketers. You can learn more at Concept Feedback or follow the team on Twitter.

Twitter

Twitter definitely has its haters – not everyone wants to hear you describe your lunch in 140 characters or fewer. But it’s a highly searchable tool that is free and takes moments to manage. Once you set up your account, search for your favorite designers and studios as well as friends, businesses you frequent and companies you’d like to hire you. This alerts potential customers to your existence – they might in turn follow you and seek you out for future jobs. Tweet your blog, news about your business, a fun project you’re working on, artwork you find inspirational, a handy tutorial – keep your tweets short and informal. Twitter is not the place for heavy copywriting, though it IS a great place to offer exclusive deals.

Facebook

Unlike Friendster and MySpace, Facebook hasn’t shown signs that it’s going away anytime soon. Therefore, like Twitter, it’s another social-networking tool that is easy and free. Be sure you set up a business page and not a profile – Facebook can be strict with noncompliance and take down profiles that do too much promoting if they’re not billed as businesses. Include all your contact information as well as upload photos of your office space, your logo and select works. You can add tabs to the top of your page. For example, you might want to add one for your works in progress or portfolio pieces. With NetworkedBlogs you can link your blog to your Facebook page so that it automatically appears on your page and in your followers’ news feeds. Encourage comments by asking questions – as with Twitter, be conversational, not stiff.

Foursquare and Gowalla

These are location-based social-networking games that allow players to “check in” with their phones at businesses, public places and homes. Check in enough places, and users earn “badges” and other items. So where does the marketing step in? Businesses can opt to offer incentives to players when they check in. For example, Chili’s offers free chips and salsa to people who check in on Foursquare, and Best Buy hosted a contest encouraging folks to check in on Gowalla to have a chance of getting a free Eye-Fi wireless memory card. With location-based social networking, you can participate on both sides – make yourself seen by checking in places as well as offer your own rewards.

Yelp

Yelp certainly has its detractors, but whatever your opinion of the site, it pays to at least monitor your business profile. Look yourself up regularly to be sure your contact info is correct and a link back to your site works. Most important, read the reviews posted about you. Tweet the good reviews and perhaps ask those people if they’d like to contribute a testimonial for your website. Respond to negative reviews to see if you can make things right. Remember that for a lot of people, Yelp is the new Yellow Pages, and your business profile might be the first impression a potential customer gets.

Postcards

Sometimes it pays to get back to basics – not all promotions need to be web-based. A postcard was and still is a multiuse marketing tool. Design a postcard with one or a few of your best works on one side and your contact information on the other. A batch of hundreds can often be printed cheaply. Then ask to leave the postcards at businesses such as cafes, bars, clubs and gyms. Your eye-catching design should attract new customers, whether they contact you immediately or come across your postcard they’re now using as a bookmark. If anything, a postcard gets your name out there, and recognition is a key to advertising.

Conclusion

Let’s face it – for freelancers the trade-off for freedom from a 9-to-5 cubicle job is a sometimes unsteady paycheck. There just isn’t a lot of extra time or money for advertising. But with the Internet comes great opportunity – the chance to take a risk with different types of marketing. If one campaign doesn’t work, try another. You’re a creative pro, so why not exercise that creativity with unique promotions?

About the Author

Jennifer Moline writes about freelancing, small business and design for the PsPrint Blog. Follow online printer PsPrint on Twitter and Facebook.

Clear and Concise

Because the majority of Internet users scan websites for the information they are looking for, good website writing must be clear and concise. A good general rule of thumb is that the word count for websites should be half that of traditional writing. You want visitors to be able to locate the gist of each paragraph as quickly as possible. Flowery language and complex sentences have no place on the web.

Divide into Chunks

Good web copywriting isn’t only about the number of words on a site. Organization is just as important. Break your text into chunks that are easily digestible for readers who are glancing through your page. Divide these chunks up with clear subheads that tell the reader what the next paragraph is about. Readers can then quickly decide whether your site is right for them without even having to read any of the “finer print.” Bulleted lists are a great way to provide the most important information in a quick and easily understandable format.

It is also important to understand how your website looks in each different browsers and with different screen sizes so that you know what visitors see when they come to your site. Know how much of your home page is seen before having to scroll down, and make sure that the most important and eye-catching information is placed at the top of the page before the scroll.

How to Draw Readers In

Often, website homepages are organized so that users can click on several options that will take them to another page of the site. Whether or not users click on a particular item usually depends on the attention-getting ability of three things: headlines, deks and accompanying photos or multimedia.

Magazines and newspapers rely on their headlines to attract newsstand buyers, and website copywriters should think of their headlines in a similar way. Headlines and deks on the homepage are the only chance a writer has to “sell” that story to a visitor, so they should be simple, clear and attractive to readers. Headlines should emphasize verbs that connote action, something that will inform or entertain readers. But they also must reflect what the article is about. There is nothing more aggravating for an Internet reader than clicking on a link expecting to get one type of information and finding something different.

Who, What, Where, When, Why

Once users have clicked on an article, Website writers should follow the inverted pyramid style of newspaper writing. This style means that the most important information in the article is presented first, then expanded upon throughout the rest of the article. In other words, the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why” need to be answered first. The “how” will make up the rest of the article. Another reason to use the inverted pyramid style is because the majority of readers will not click to the second page of an article. Place the most important information to readers before the page break.

SEO

The 90s are over and search engine algorithms have evolved. Keyword stuffing is no longer necessary, but SEO literacy is just as important as ever. Consider the keywords most relevant to your page, and think of ways to include them in the title and body of your article. Today’s web copywriter will use applications such as Google’s Keyword Tool to add a scientific dimension to their intuition.

Hyperlinking

Web writers should understand the function of hyperlinking. Hyperlinks provide attribution and more information to readers without bogging them down. For example, if you mention a specific fact, but you don’t want to explain the details, simply link to another article that explains that fact. Either highlight one specific word, which will clue readers in about what information that link will provide, or write something like “for more information see this study,” and link on the word study. Make sure that you set the link to open in a new tab or window so the reader will be able to get back to your website easier. Otherwise, readers will be whisked away to another site and may forget they ever began on one of your pages.

Another reason to hyperlink is for attribution. If you are quoting another source or lifting an idea from another writer, it is best to provide the reader with that information. Then if the reader is more interested in a particular point you mention, they can find more sources about it. Sites that hyperlink to other well-written and helpful sources will become invaluable for readers, and they will return to your site if they know you will provide more sources and information they can use at their own discretion.

Style

Style will make your website stand out while drawing readers in. For most websites, an informal yet lively voice is the best, helping you achieve simplicity and easy readability. Internet readers prefer sites that are written in a conversational and informal style.

Make sure you write in active rather than passive voice. Active voice will also force you to be concise.

Use of Multimedia

Finally, remember that the appeal of the internet is its ability to mix all forms of information and entertainment. Use photos, graphics, videos and flash to grab readers’ attentions. You don’t want to distract the reader by relying on these things too heavily, but make sure you are always thinking about how to best illustrate your text with multimedia.

About the Author

Sally Jacobs is a web copywriter at Cooper Murphy Webb, the website copywriting agency.

Answer: Be different.

Face it – there are plenty of talented designers out there. Allowing for the fact that you are one of them, the only differentiating factor you may have is the random chance that one particular item in your portfolio will cause the prospect to think: “YES! That’s exactly the kind of design I’m looking for. I must have this person working on my project.” Alas, eureka moments like that do not happen very often. Most times the prospect will select someone whose work is attractive and offers the fairest, not necessarily the lowest, price.

Here’s where that red nose comes in. What if there were magic words you could put into your proposal that were so different, so far beyond what any other designer proposed, the prospect was almost hypnotically drawn to you as if you had a red nose? Wouldn’t that be special? There are magic words. Most designers don’t use them. You should. “I can help you increase conversions.”

Conversion is what every business web site is all about – turning browsers into buyers. The organization works hard to attract visitors with the hopes that a great number of them will convert to buyers, members, subscribers, or whatever the action is the site owner wants a visitor to take. And when you use the phrase “increase conversions”, you just showed up with a red nose.

Many designers put all of their effort into selling how attractive their work is and how “one picture is worth a thousand words.” Maybe that’s true, but you can bet that in addition to your lovely pictures, your prospect’s web site is going to have words. And links and offers. After all, that’s what business web sites are all about. So what you need to do, if you want to be different, is to convince your prospect that you understand how website design works hand-in-hand with copywriting, click stream, and all of the humans psychological triggers that have to be activated in order to reach that Holy Grail known as conversion.

Here is what you else should say to make your proposal zing.

• I design with usability in mind. A visitor should never be left wondering what to do next. High conversion rates require a clearly defined and intuitive funnel that leads the visitor from where they are to where you want them to go.
• I optimize for a minimum number of clicks to arrive at that destination, and provide breadcrumbs or other clear indications of the path for the user to follow.
• I integrate my design with your web copy so the visual and written elements work together to lead the visitor to the ultimate destination.
• I ensure that each page delivers the information a user would expect to find there. If I notice inconsistencies between the content on a page and the presumed purpose of the page, I bring those inconsistencies to your attention so you can decide what action should be taken to address the issue.
• I avoid delivering “eye candy” graphical elements that deliver no value and do nothing to generate trust in your brand and contribute to increasing conversions. Your website will look pretty and deliver results.
• I realize that the purpose of website design is to contribute to the conversion process and not to showcase my leading-edge design skills for ego gratification.
• I design and place graphical elements with the goal of highlighting and calling attention to product or service features that are an important part of your offering.
• I recognize that not all of your visitors will have 20-20 vision, so I choose font sizes and typefaces that are the most likely to be easily seen by visitors of all age group and with a variety of different eyesight issues.
• I incorporate W3C disability design standards into the sites I create or the specific standards required by the laws of the country your web site operates in. This ensures legal compliance and a wider potential audience.
• I understand the concepts of Search Engine Optimization and keep those concepts top of mind when I design a web site. If I observe any inherent SEO issues with your site, including copy-related issues, and I will bring them to your attention so they can be addressed.
• I believe in teamwork. That’s why I check my ego at the door when I’m working on a project. I realize that your copywriters, SEO consultants, marketing staff and me are all “partners” who need to work together seamlessly in order to deliver a web site that raises your company’s visibility and meets your conversion goals.

Now you don’t have to use these words. Use whatever words work best for you. But do cover these topics either formally or informally. I guarantee that if you do, your proposal is going to be the one that stands out most in the prospect’s mind when it’s time for them to choose their designer.

And the best part is, you won’t have to change the color of your nose at all.

About the Author

Jeff Foster is a co-founder of WebBizIdeas, a corporate web design company specializing in internet consultancy and social networking development.

Reasons for clients (and you!) to spend locally

Spending money locally helps build your own community. If you spend your money locally, your tax dollars stay there, helping to fund schools and road construction. When a local client commissions me to do a project and then I buy something from a store down the street, our money circles through the community, boosting everyone’s business. We’re all helping each other by spending locally.

Networking in your community

There are tons of ways to network within your community. Large metropolitan cities offer more options but you can certainly find other businesses to network with anywhere. Search online for small business groups, they provide an excellent avenue for quick leads. As a designer, tons of startups and new businesses need our help right away. They need a logo, business cards and a website to get off the ground. Even after they have been in business for a while they may need help marketing their services or a website redesign because they went the cheap route in the beginning. Even if these business don’t need your services, if you make a good impression they may refer you to someone that does need a designer. Meetup.com has lots of small business groups that meet and trade business resources and opportunities, and can be found in tons of cities.

Getting your name out there

Tons of people are looking for quality businesses to work with and a growing number of people are looking for design work, especially websites. Spreading the word that you have a great business that creates high quality work is the key! Hold a booth at local shows, conferences and expos, it’s a great way to spread the word to a large group of people in a short amount of time. People at these types of events are looking for businesses to work with, so you’re hitting a good target audience of people that are focused and ready to do business. You can hand out flyers and business cards as well as talk to people directly about the services you offer. A less direct method that spreads the word to a number of people is to set up a fishbowl at a local restaurant or coffeeshop. Ask people to leave a business card in the bowl and then draw a winner at the end of the month, giving away a free dinner or some movie tickets. Also leave your information with the fishbowl, so people can see who sponsored the giveaway.

Show your expertise

A great way to market yourself and find business is to establish yourself as an expert in the field. You could teach a class at a community college or be a guest speaker at an event. College classes and community groups are always on the lookout for knowledgeable people to come in and do guest lectures on marketing, advertising, and other business-related topics. You could also set up a workshop for people to learn from you. You could teach people how to use Photoshop, the basics of html, or any topic that would be relevant to a group of people in the community. Business may not come directly from the workshop, but it will get your name out there and show that you’re a knowledgeable business person worthy of a referral down the line.

Directly solicit business

Cold calls and emails are usually not the most fun way to get business but it’s a great way to target specific people. If you have a niche that you work with, like restaurants, get a list of all the restaurants in your area and call them, asking if they are in need of a new website. Be sure to look at their website before you call and find something new that you could offer them. Maybe you offer a content management system, which makes it really easy for clients to update and maintain their own content. Or maybe they have a small site with hardly any content, tell them you could assist them with a new search engine friendly design and some SEO advice. Make sure they understand what it is you offer, and how spending the money with you will benefit them.

Be on the lookout for business opportunities

I love collecting business cards and I have a large stack at home of good and bad cards that I’ve collected over the years. So I’m always on the lookout for a business card when I walk into a new business. If I don’t see a business card or their cards are less than stellar, I offer to leave my card with some kind words (it’s very important to not insult them here!) about how I could help with any design services they need. Be sure to have a great 10 second pitch ready about what you do, but don’t insist that they call you. They’ll contact you if they’re ready.

There are so many ways to find business locally and network with people in your community. You just need to get your name out there and find avenues available in your town. Marketing your business creatively and effectively is the key to succeeding as a small business, and helping to build your community is an important step for anyone.

About the Author

Shannon Noack is a designer in Arizona and the Creative Director of Snoack Studios. Designing is her passion in life and she loves to create websites, logos, print work, you name it. She also blogs regularly here and you can connect with her on Twitter as well.

Your Name Says it All…

Most of, if not all, renowned graphic designers use their own name to shine and create a lasting personal brand. Rather than having a website named “CeativeDesignServices”, how about giving it the most important name in your life: your own! Soon enough, your name will be equally important to your niche market after you deliver quality work.

Why AUTHENTIC Branding is the Way to Go…

Out of all the marketing jargon I came across, “authentic branding” struck me the most. When I say authentic, I mean that you need to honor the essence of how you really are and embrace it. As a result, your artwork will reflect your personality, character, values, ambitions, vision, you name it. While in some fields people could get away with false pretends, that’s impossible to achieve in graphic design in particular. You simply can NOT ”fake” creativity or tailor it to become something else. It’s a clever idea to focus your branding on at most 3 values based on your core personality definitions. You might ask me: what if my authentic branding is not appealing to my niche market? I would say: you chose he wrong niche. Change it!

Too much too soon versus slowly but surely…

Quite often some designers, especially beginners, fall into the trap of taking on too many projects, hoping to create a rich and versatile profile as quickly as possible. That’s a HUGE mistakes because you will be scattering your energy and out of the pressure of meeting endless near-future deadlines, you’ll end-up producing “so and so” work. One of the obvious shortcomings of such approach is that your existing clients will be unhappy and yes you will build a big “so and so” portfolio in 2 months! How effective is that?! What if, instead, you FOCUSED on two projects and did an outstanding job on them? Yes, you will take longer to build a portfolio, but you will be creating it slowly but surely and it’ll standout eventually. Even better, your satisfied customers will not only use your service again but will gladly do some marketing on your behalf and refer others to you. Sweet!

CONSISTENCY is a keyword…

In order to stand on the front lines of the fierce web design war, you must establish yourself as a passionate designer who consistently delivers quality work. In other words, you must continually produce great work that’s linked to your name. Don’t ever compromise quality under any circumstances. If your work value starts dropping, so will your name alongside your brand! Moreover, you need to be consistent in establishing your personal brand. For example, I always use the same avatar and main website picture so that the public will connect that picture of myself to my brand. I might change my logo zillion times along the way but my picture will never change. (Unless I get hit by a truck and 6 surgeons have extensively remodeled my face)

When it comes to visibility, work smart not hard!

Here are some intelligent ideas to get your name out there and create massive visibility easily and effortlessly:

• Start guest posting on high-traffic blogs about web design
• Establish yourself as an expert in your field by blog-commenting on relevant posts. (CSS3, jQuery, Photoshop or even MS Paint)
• Introduce yourself to other people in your niche. Get yourself out there and get to know the big players around. It wouldn’t hurt to make a few phone calls would it?
• Learn how to become recognizable and increase your added value by taking advantage of popular social websites in order to spread the word about your brand and expand your network
• Build your personal equity while offering meaningful contribution to your community. For example, you could volunteer to give free tutorials or give some design work for free to an organization that you support. Even better, do the same for an organization that your niche is likely to support
• How about some offline presence as well? Face-to-face communication is very powerful. Make it a habit to attend relevant media events and try out some public speaking. Public speaking is very effective in creating the “expert” image

What do you think? I can’t wait to read your comments. Good luck!

About the Author

Davy Kestens is a motivated young lunatic from Belgium with a highly entrepreneurial vision on his life. Currently working as a freelance creative director and continuously starting up online projects when he’s not out trying to take over the world. His latest published tool for world domination is RunAddicts.net – A professional blog about running. Want to keep up with him? Go ahead and visit his website. You can also follow him on twitter.

The drama comes when you actually become a full time designer. The friends and family who drew upon your talent during your newbie years are still standing around with their hands out, and now you also must contend with two more groups of favor askers: clients and anonymous foreigners who contact you through Twitter.

Here are 8 of the most common and eye-rollingly annoying favors all designers encounter at one point or another. For ease of reference, we’ll call the offending party “Dude.”

1. “Hey, can you take a look at my site and tell me what you think?”

At first glance, this seems like a harmless five to ten minute project. Dude asks for your opinion, and you both know that you are an esteemed and dedicated design pro. You optimistically click on his website link, and you’re teleported back in 1998 with a Geocities-reminiscent design so horrifying it makes MySpace look professional. After you try hard not to lose all respect for Dude, you carefully suggest that he get rid of the Flash intro. You are then met with an uncomfortable defensiveness, where Dude refuses to accept your professional advice.

Lesson learned: Decipher whether your friend is looking for actual advice or just a pat on the back.

2. “Um, would you mind designing my site… for free?”

It’s shocking how many people feel truly entitled to a free web design. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of introducing yourself as a web designer, you may notice the wheels instantly starting to turn in your acquaintance’s mind. Everyone, even those without any product or any relevant thing to say, want, demand and need a website. These are the people, especially, who will want such a website produced for free. They may lure you with the distant hopes they use to fuel their own insanity: “Once I get some visitors, I’ll direct them to your services” (Standard practice, regardless).

Lesson learned: Limit your charity cases to those you can do in your free time and only do it for charity because the only reward you’ll reap is psychological.

3. “Can you help me design my site to look like ______?”

This request is closely related to the first two requests. Perhaps Dude has taken it upon himself to designed a website, already had a moment of epiphany and now realizes that it sucks. At least you’re on the same page. Then comes, “I’d like my site to look just like Avatar. You know, all 3D and stuff.” Once you realize that Dude is serious, another realization also sinks in. If you take on this “consulting” project, all of your time and energy will be engulfed by this vortex, and you won’t be getting paid for your trouble. What’s the solution? Direct Dude to Yahoo! Answers? No, he’ll never go for that, because this is a top secret idea.

Lesson learned: Find your inner ineptness and apply it to this situation. Feign ignorance, suggest peripheral design ideas such as blue color palettes and wait for your friend to get bored of the idea and come to his senses.

4. “I think I have a virus.”

No one likes to hear these words, and if someone’s sharing this information with you, they usually want one of two things: sympathy or help, sometimes both. When you hear these words come from a client, you must assume they are referring to a computer virus (let’s hope). This your client’s passive/ aggressive way of getting you to offer assistance. If you, wisely, remain silent, he or she will shamelessly ask you for your help. Just because you work in front of your computer all day does not mean that you qualify for tech support. You have to Google things just like everyone else.

Lesson learned: Get the courage to finally direct someone to Let Me Google That For You. However, for professional relationships, avoid the snark and actually lightly research the problem, but make no promises and waste no longer than 15 minutes.

5. “Let me help you with any of your extra work.”

This favor comes in the form of a donated favor. In other words, Dude is suggesting that he’s doing you a favor, when he’s actually just trying to get paid. One morning you open your email box, and there’s an email from some dude you’ve never heard of. He wants you to lend him some of your work. Depending on your level of job-related stress, you may be inclined to offer him some work, but what’s this? No portfolio? No website? No spell-check. Wait, is Dude even located in the same hemisphere as you?

Lesson learned: You get what you pay for.

6. “So, it’s been a minute… How much longer is it going to take?”

Just when you’ve got your Good Samaritan on and decided to help Dude during your free time, he starts becoming a diva. Never mind the impossible requests to make his website look just like *let your imagination run wild on this one,* or the countless revisions to a perfectly designed logo, or the endless hours you spent over IM trying to explain why putting an invisible list of keywords at the bottom of the webpage is unnecessary. When you least expect it, expect to receive a phone call, email, direct tweet saying, “Hey, so, um… when’s the project going to be finished?” You reply back, “Dude, I told you I was going to fit this in between my actual work from actual clients that actually pay.” To this, Dude replies, “I didn’t think it was going to take this long, maybe I should just get this professionally done.” Oh, that’s a killer. First of all, Dude has no consideration for the amount of time you’ve invested in this project. Secondly and more importantly, you are a professional. Why not offer you money so that you can prioritize his project?

Lesson learned: Clearly state from the beginning that it will take you some ridiculously long amount of time to complete the project for free and if Dude’s still on board, he’ll be happy if you finish it sooner than expected.

7. “Can I use your server until I get my own hosting?”

What’s so wrong about this request? You have extra space and you can afford the bandwidth. The problem is that Dude will never get his own hosting, and eventually he’ll forget about his site. A year later, you’ll remind him, “Hey Dude, you know you still have your stuff on my server? I’m moving to another server, so is it alright if I get rid of it? You have a back up, right?” Dude will do one of two things: he’ll respond with indignant anger, upset that you’re rushing him to get his act together or he’ll pretend to be okay with it, all the while, holding a grudge.

Lesson learned: Friends don’t let friends use their servers.

8. “Hey, I volunteered you to re-do my co-worker’s step-daughter’s wedding album.”

You can replace this with any task in which your mom volunteers your services for free. It’s always lovely to deal with someone who’s happy to accept your honest labor for free, because we all know they won’t make any unreasonable demands. The most difficult part of this ordeal is having to contend with your mother in her role as the merciless middleman who nags you for quality, timeliness and her good reputation.

Lesson learned: Grin and bear it? There’s no real way to avoid this nightmare.

What are some of the most annoying favors your friends and family have asked from you?

About the Author

Jacqueline is an artist and a writer who spends an inordinate amount of time playing Super Nintendo and watching Star Trek. You can find out more about Jacqueline on her website, and follow her updates on Twitter.

HTML Mistakes

Forgetting to Close a Tag

This is very common, especially in beginners. Several tags require closing tags such as divs, strong tags, and links to name a few. Other tags require a closing slash to end the line such as an img tag.

<div>Text inside the div.</div>

<img src="images/imagename.jpg" />

Incorrect DOCTYPE

HTML requires that you start out the document with the correct DOCTYPE declaration. It needs to be before anything else in the code, starting the document by declaring what type of HTML you’re using. Here’s the DOCTYPE for XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

Improperly nesting tags

It’s very important to open and close tags in the proper order. Once something (for example a div) has opened, it must close before anything above it can close. The following is incorrect.

<div><strong>text</div></strong>

Capitalizing tags

This is just considered bad practice, but won’t result in your code not being validated. You should always use lowercase for tags like divs, links, and images. The following is incorrect.

<DIV></DIV>

Forgetting to open or close quotes

I’ve seen this a lot in beginners and will result in broken code and things not functioning properly. HTML requires double quotes that open and close correctly. Here’s an example of correct usage.

<img src="images/headerimage.jpg" />

Using Inline Styles

This is another one that is considered bad practice. Inline styles do work but will result in headaches later on! Items should be styled globally through an external stylesheet. It will be much easier to edit and add styles to in the future. An example of inline styles:

<a href="link.html" style="color: #000; text-decoration: none;">link name</a>

Not Encoding Special Characters

Characters like “©” and “&” should be shown with the proper HTML code for the character. Here’s a great list of characters and their HTML counterparts that you should use.

Confusing Classes and Ids

Classes are for items that are used more than once on one page. This can be a link style that you’ll call in multiple times on one page but doesn’t follow the global link styling. Ids are items that are called in just once, like the header div. Classes and ids are often overused and used in unnecessary places as well. Stick to the minimum amount of classifications that you need.

CSS

Forgetting to Close Things Properly

Each div or item called in starts with the opening curly bracket and ends with the closing curly bracket. Each style called in needs to end with a semicolon. The last declaration within an item doesn’t need a semicolon, but it’s best to use it in case you plan on adding more items later on, you may forget to add it back in. An example of proper use:

#divname {
width: 40px;
height: 30px;
}

Condensing your stylesheet and putting all declarations for a div on one line is up for debate. I prefer to put each declaration on its own line, I think it’s easier to edit that way, but some may say that it just produces longer code.

Not Using Global Styles

Many things should be styled globally like paragraph and heading styles for text as well as link styles. This will reduce the risk of mistakes and will also cut down on the amount of code in your stylesheet.

Not Using Unique Names for Ids and Classes

It’s very important to choose names that are unique so that it’s easy to edit later on, and easy to identify in your stylesheet. Name your divs specific things like #home-left-column which is better than just #left.

Not Using Shorthand Code

Shorthand code is another way to condense your stylesheet, which is helpful for speeding up user load times as well as finding things when you’re editing later on. Instead of calling in padding-top, -left, -bottom, and -right you can just use:

padding: 5px 10px 0 10px;

Shorthand code can be used for many declarations including: padding, margin, border, and font.

Not Using Shortened Color Declarations

Hex numbers that repeat like #ffffff and #000000 can be condensed to #fff and #000. This is another way to condense your code and keep things short and easy to look at.

Incorrectly Using Positioning

Positioning is tough to understand when you’re first starting out with CSS. Your choices are static, relative, absolute, and fixed. Static is the default option and is positioned according to the normal page flow. A relative item is positioned relative to itself, meaning you can move it up, down, left or right, based on where it would normally sit. Absolute allows you to place an item anywhere on the page, and is the most misused positioning statement. The values you set for it will be relative to the last parent item with relative or absolute, and if there aren’t any, it defaults back to the html tag, allowing you to position it anywhere by declaring top left right or bottom values. Fixed is positioned relative to the browser window, so an item will stay in place if a user has to scroll. Learning how to use positioning correctly is important, but shouldn’t be used excessively. I rarely use these at all in my stylesheets.

Validate

Validating your HTML and CSS files will help in reducing errors and figuring out where a problem might be coming from. Your website may function correctly with some of the common HTML and CSS mistakes, but it doesn’t make it good practice or valid code. The validator will help identify these problems and you’ll be able to adjust the way you code for the future.

More Resources

• 12 Common HTML Mistakes
• 10 HTML Mistakes that Should be Avoided
• Ten Common CSS Mistakes
• CSS Shorthand Guide
• CSS Beginner Mistakes
• CSS Cheat Sheet

Many of us are guilty of these HTML and CSS errors, myself included! We can only strive to learn from our mistakes and practice better coding in the future. Cleaning up your code will help you further your coding skills and allow you to create better sites with more functionality for your users.

About the Author

Shannon Noack is a designer in Arizona and the Creative Director of Snoack Studios. Designing is her passion in life and she loves to create websites, logos, print work, you name it. She also blogs regularly here and you can connect with her on Twitter as well.

Customize the Logo of Your WordPress Login Page

After constantly having to visit your WordPress login page, having to see the same logo and design over and over can be a bit boring. This is where this hack comes in handy. All you have to do is place the following in your functions.php file, and replace the image.

function my_custom_login_logo() {
    echo '<style type="text/css">
        h1 a { background-image:url('.get_bloginfo('template_directory').'/images/custom-login-logo.gif) !important; }
    </style>';
}

add_action('login_head', 'my_custom_login_logo');

Source

Detecting Mobile Devices Accessing Your Site

Mobile web surfing is continuing to evolve on a larger scale. This is why detecting those users who are visiting your WordPress blog through a mobile device and redirecting them to a mobile version of your site is important. In order to achieve this, you first have to get the code from detectmobilebrowsers.mobi and upload it to your theme directory.

Then, all you simply have to do is open your header.php file and place the following at the top of the file. Remember to edit line 5 to where you’d like to redirect mobile users.

include('mobile_device_detect.php');
$mobile = mobile_device_detect();

if ($mobile==true) {
  header( 'Location: http://your-website.com/?theme=Your_Mobile_Theme' ) ;
}

Source

Automatically Resize Images

If you’re accustomed to displaying large quantities of images on your blog, then you know how tedious it can be to have to always resize your images manually. Now you can use this hack to automatically resize any image you’d like to whatever width and height you choose for a more organized look. To do this, copy the following script and create a folder for it anywhere on your site (i.e. scripts) and name it “timthumb.php“. Now, you can use the following syntax to add an automatically resized image to your blog post:

<img src="/scripts/timthumb.php?src=/images/whatever.jpg&amp;h=150&amp;w=150&amp;zc=1" alt="" />

Direct Source

Displaying Your Tags in a Dropdown Menu

Tag clouds are often hard to read, especially for a more busy site. Eliminate this problem by using a dropdown menu to display your tags. You must place the following code in your functions.php file.

<?php
function dropdown_tag_cloud( $args = '' ) {
	$defaults = array(
		'smallest' => 8, 'largest' => 22, 'unit' => 'pt', 'number' => 45,
		'format' => 'flat', 'orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'ASC',
		'exclude' => '', 'include' => ''
	);
	$args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );

	$tags = get_tags( array_merge($args, array('orderby' => 'count', 'order' => 'DESC')) ); // Always query top tags

	if ( empty($tags) )
		return;

	$return = dropdown_generate_tag_cloud( $tags, $args ); // Here's where those top tags get sorted according to $args
	if ( is_wp_error( $return ) )
		return false;
	else
		echo apply_filters( 'dropdown_tag_cloud', $return, $args );
}

function dropdown_generate_tag_cloud( $tags, $args = '' ) {
	global $wp_rewrite;
	$defaults = array(
		'smallest' => 8, 'largest' => 22, 'unit' => 'pt', 'number' => 45,
		'format' => 'flat', 'orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'ASC'
	);
	$args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );
	extract($args);

	if ( !$tags )
		return;
	$counts = $tag_links = array();
	foreach ( (array) $tags as $tag ) {
		$counts[$tag->name] = $tag->count;
		$tag_links[$tag->name] = get_tag_link( $tag->term_id );
		if ( is_wp_error( $tag_links[$tag->name] ) )
			return $tag_links[$tag->name];
		$tag_ids[$tag->name] = $tag->term_id;
	}

	$min_count = min($counts);
	$spread = max($counts) - $min_count;
	if ( $spread <= 0 )
		$spread = 1;
	$font_spread = $largest - $smallest;
	if ( $font_spread <= 0 )
		$font_spread = 1;
	$font_step = $font_spread / $spread;

	// SQL cannot save you; this is a second (potentially different) sort on a subset of data.
	if ( 'name' == $orderby )
		uksort($counts, 'strnatcasecmp');
	else
		asort($counts);

	if ( 'DESC' == $order )
		$counts = array_reverse( $counts, true );

	$a = array();

	$rel = ( is_object($wp_rewrite) && $wp_rewrite->using_permalinks() ) ? ' rel="tag"' : '';

	foreach ( $counts as $tag => $count ) {
		$tag_id = $tag_ids[$tag];
		$tag_link = clean_url($tag_links[$tag]);
		$tag = str_replace(' ', '&nbsp;', wp_specialchars( $tag ));
		$a[] = "\t<option value='$tag_link'>$tag ($count)</option>";
	}

	switch ( $format ) :
	case 'array' :
		$return =& $a;
		break;
	case 'list' :
		$return = "<ul class='wp-tag-cloud'>\n\t<li>";
		$return .= join("</li>\n\t<li>", $a);
		$return .= "</li>\n</ul>\n";
		break;
	default :
		$return = join("\n", $a);
		break;
	endswitch;

	return apply_filters( 'dropdown_generate_tag_cloud', $return, $tags, $args );
}
?>

Now, to finalize your dropdown menu you have to open the theme file where you want the list to be displayed (i.e. sidebar.php) and insert the following code:

<select name="tag-dropdown" onchange="document.location.href=this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;">
	<option value="#">Liste d'auteurs</option>
	<?php dropdown_tag_cloud('number=0&order=asc'); ?>
</select>

Source

Custom “Read More” Links for Your Posts

This is a really useful hack if you want to better define or customize the look of your “Read More” links for posts. The first thing you have to do is to edit your posts and create custom fields. Give them custom_more as a key, and whatever text you want to be displayed as the value. Then you have to edit your index.php file (and also your category.php, search.php, etc) and find a line similar to this:

the_content("Read more");

Now just replace it with this code:

<?php $custommore = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'custom_more', true); ?>
<?php if (!$custommore) { $custommore = 'Read More &raquo;'; } ?>
<?php the_content($custommore); ?>

Source

Scheduling Posts for RSS

If you regularly publish articles and you care about the quality of your posts then this is a good hack for you. The main purpose of this hack is that it lets you schedule your posts to be viewed in your RSS at a later time, this will allow you enough time to get those last minute fixes and additions in before your post is forever published in your feed. Place the following code in your .htaccess file. In order to change the length of the delay, change the value of the $waitvariable on line 9.

function publish_later_on_feed($where) {
	global $wpdb;

	if ( is_feed() ) {
		// timestamp in WP-format
		$now = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s');

		// value for wait; + device
		$wait = '5'; // integer

		// http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_timestampdiff
		$device = 'MINUTE'; //MINUTE, HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, YEAR

		// add SQL-sytax to default $where
		$where .= " AND TIMESTAMPDIFF($device, $wpdb->posts.post_date_gmt, '$now') > $wait ";
	}
	return $where;
}

add_filter('posts_where', 'publish_later_on_feed');

Source

Display the Most Commented Posts of 2009

As the New Year is about to role in, it would be fun and resourceful to let your readers know which of your posts were most popular in the past year. This hack will allow your visitors to view the top 10 most commented/popular posts of 2009. This is a great way to give your posts a second shot at being noticed. In order to do this, you’ll need to place the following code on your sidebar.php file, or wherever else you’d like on your theme:

<ul>
<?php
$result = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT comment_count,ID,post_title, post_date FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_date BETWEEN '2009-01-01' AND '2009-12-31' ORDER BY comment_count DESC LIMIT 0 , 10");

foreach ($result as $topten) {
    $postid = $topten->ID;
    $title = $topten->post_title;
    $commentcount = $topten->comment_count;
    if ($commentcount != 0) {
    ?>
         <li></li>
    <?php }
}
?>
</ul>

Source

Allow Only Your IP Address to Access the wp-admin Directory

If you don’t have multiple writers or contributors to your blog, then realistically speaking only you should be allowed to visit the wp-admin directory. Especially since a great deal of security risks entail the wp-admin directory. All you have to do is enter your static IP adress on line 8. You can add more IPs if needed, by creating a new line. Place the following in your .htaccess file.

AuthUserFile /dev/null
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Example Access Control"
AuthType Basic
<LIMIT GET>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from xx.xx.xx.xx
</LIMIT>

Source

Styling Your WordPress Comments

When your blog has lots of comments, then it’s a great way to get visitors to interact more by styling the way your comments are displayed. If this is what you’re looking to to, then open your comments.php file and replace your comments loop with the following code:

<ol id="commentlist">
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
	<?php // The extra stuff to get commenter's role
	$user_id = $comment->user_id;
	$role = ( isset( $roles[$user_id] ) ? $roles[$user_id] : '' );
	?>
	<li class="<?php echo $role; ?>">
	<p>By <?php comment_author_link() ?> - <?php comment_date() ?></p>
	<?php comment_text() ?>
	</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ol>

Now to structure your comment you’ll need to open your style.css file and place the following code:

#commentlist li { border:2px solid white; } /* not logged or subscriber */
#commentlist li.administrator { border:2px solid red } /* blog admin */
#commentlist li.editor { border:2px solid blue } /* editor */

Source

Remove Widget Areas on Your Homepage

If your WordPress powered site is more than just a blog, then you probably want to get rid of the widget areas in your default sidebar and create your own. This hack doesn’t require any editing, just code insertion. Now, all you need to do is add the following to your functions.php file:

<?php
add_filter( 'sidebars_widgets', 'disable_all_widgets' );

function disable_all_widgets( $sidebars_widgets ) {
	if ( is_home() )
		$sidebars_widgets = array( false );
	return $sidebars_widgets;
}
?>

Source

Insert Author Bio for Each Post

A multi-writer blog usually means everyone who writes or contributes a post will have section that speaks about them. If your blog doesn’t have this feature, then start giving your authors proper credit by inserting the following code into your functions.php file. An author bio will be automatically be displayed at the end of every post.

function get_author_bio ($content=''){
    global $post;

    $post_author_name=get_the_author_meta("display_name");
    $post_author_description=get_the_author_meta("description");
    $html="<div class='clearfix' id='about_author'>\n";
    $html.="<img width='80' height='80' class='avatar' src='http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=".md5(get_the_author_email()). "&default=".urlencode($GLOBALS['defaultgravatar'])."&size=80&r=PG' alt='PG'/>\n";
    $html.="<div class='author_text'>\n";
    $html.="<h4>Author: ".$post_author_name."</h4>\n";
    $html.= $post_author_description."\n";
    $html.="</div>\n";
    $html.="<div class='clear'></div>\n";
    $content .= $html;
    }

    return $content;
}

add_filter('the_content', 'get_author_bio');

Source

Remove Certain Categories From Being Displayed

Place this code inside The Loop and whichever category you choose, it will not be displayed. This can be an interesting hack for those who only wish to display a certain category to chosen or registered users.

<?php
if ( have_posts() ) : query_posts($query_string .'&cat=-1,-2'); while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
?>

Source

Redirect Your WordPress Feed to FeedBurner

If you’ve found out how useful FeedBurner really is after you’ve set-up your WordPress site, and you have a few RSS subscribers on your default WordPress feed, then you’ll need to redirect your feed to FeedBurner. Every time a user follows a link to your default feed (i.e. http://www.yourblog.com/feed) they will be redirected to the location of your FeedBurner feed ( i.e. http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourblog). This way, even if a user manages to somehow subscribe to your old RSS feed, they will always be redirected to your new feed. Place the following code in your .htaccess file.

# temp redirect wordpress content feeds to feedburner
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 RewriteEngine on
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner    [NC]
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedValidator [NC]
 RewriteRule ^feed/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?$ http://feeds.feedburner.com/WebDesignLedger [R=302,NC,L]
</IfModule>

Source