When designing a website, logo or other business document, so much attention is placed on the content or message you want to convey, Could you be missing one other important factor? COLOR…

Color is a powerful form of non-verbal communication. Color can motivate, create emotion, show personality, set a mood and even create negativity.

What Colors Should You Choose?

With so many colors to choose from, how do you narrow down the choices? The first step is to determine who your target market will be. Are you targeting women, men, young, old, certain cultures? Secondly decide what mood you want to create. Are you striving for excitement, comfort, harmony, urgency?

Once you have determined those two factors, it’s time to explore what people like and what emotional and psychological responses colors create.

docstoc is a user generated community where you can find and share professional documents. Find a vast quantity of high quality legal, business, technology, educational, and creative documents for FREE. docstoc allows users to upload their documents for all the world to share. In addition, users can store their documents in their own personal online folders for anytime, anywhere access.

Some really useful resources are:

• Web Development Contract
• Web Site Design Agreement
• Web Site Privacy Policy

There are many documents, ready to use for FREE.

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Blog authors around the world, Google would like to remind you that it’s your blog, your data. Now that Blogger allows users the ability to export all contents of their blog, the Data Liberation team would like to announce the Google Blog Converters project. This new Open Source project provides the ability to easily move blog posts and comments from service to service. This initial release provides Python libraries and runnable scripts that convert between the export formats of Blogger, LiveJournal, MovableType, and WordPress.

In addition, the source code includes templates for hosting these conversions on Google App Engine. Future additions to the project will include support for BlogML and synchronization tools between various services that do not provide a import/export feature but do provide APIs for accessing and modifying blog contents.

We’re excited to provide this level of control for your personal blog data. Contributions to the project are always welcomed and encouraged, so check out our source code (download, 2.7 MB zipped) and let us know what you think. We look forward to your feedback in our discussion group.

Download: http://code.google.com/p/google-blog-converters-appengine/downloads/list

Via: Google Blog

Simply put, usability is making your website easy for your visitors to find the information they need when they need it.

A common misconception about usability amongst web companies is that usability is expensive. Yes, there are multi-national companies that spend thousands of dollars on usability tests and research, but for an everyday company usability is achievable without the knowledge of usability experts or without expensive equipment for testing.

Web designers have an even easier job to do, just by reading usability articles they can accumulate a fairly good knowledge about usability basics and how to implement them on a website.

1. Include a Tagline

A tagline is a statement or a motto that represents a company’s, or in our case a website’s, philosophy and mission. It should be the most obvious element on a website’s front page and it should clearly describe the website in one phrase.

Here are my top 5 creativity killers and how I manage to stay focused, productive and creative.

1 — Multi-Tasking And Distractions

I know some people have mastered the art of multi-tasking and working on tons of things at once. I tried and it’s not for me. There is no way I can focus on a project while trying to reply to emails, talk on the phone and chat on Skype. In order to get my creative juices flowing I absolutely need to focus all my attention and energy on one thing: work on that project.

Multi-tasking is not for me, but I can get just as much done in a day as someone who multi-tasks. It’s actually really easy and it’s nothing new, all you need is a schedule and you have to stick to it. When I need to work on a project and I find that I’m not inspired (say it’s a design for a client) I simply turn off my phone, close my emails get rid of all distractions and then get back to work. It works every single time.

I find I get much more done in 2 hours when I’m focussed than I do in 8 hours multi-tasking.

2 — Lack Of Sleep

One of the cool things about freelancing is that you can work your own hours. That’s great! But for many of us it also means working evenings and week-ends and sometimes not sleeping much! There is always work that needs to be done, and clients that need our attention.

Lack of sleep can be a real creativity killer! How can you focus on something and be inspired when you’re dead tired? Work is still gonna be there tomorrow! Get a good night sleep and come back the next day with new ideas and a fresh perspective!

3 — Fear Of Rejection

I’m sure it happened to all of us at some point, the fear of rejection. It’s not fun and it can definitely kill your creativity. There is no way you can please everyone and it’ll happen you will present something to a client and it’ll get rejected. It happens.

By all means, do not take it personally! Instead, try to use that (sometimes negative) energy and use it in a productive and creative way. Learn from that experience and go back to that drawing board and kick some ass. Always remember that if you got hired to do some work it’s because that person thinks you’re talented and remember that you’re probably not the first freelancer this person contacted for the project.

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The Video is a very informing video revealing the big brothers stealing your personal information and selling it to other Corporations….Its really a shocking fact….

Your comments on this?

Whether you’re freelance, employed or a business owner, we each have our own daily routine, which usually involves doing work to please someone else, whether that someone else be a client, end user, reader etc. But every once and a while I think it’s important to work on your own projects.

Why bother with side projects?

1. Take a break

Take a break from your normal routine and refresh your head. Exploring different ideas can get you out of a creative block and bring inspiration.

2. Expand your skill-set

Try out new frameworks, see what you can do with different APIs, test your design skills. The creative community never stops moving so you need to make sure you stay up-to-date.

3. Brand awareness – raise your profile

Whether you’re a freelance designer or a large corporation, side projects can help raise your profile simply by having your name associated with it.

4. Contribute to the community

It’s always good to contribute something to the community. It’ll be appreciated.

5. Have fun

You can have a lot of fun working on your own stuff because you’re in control of the brief and there’s no one to tell you what to do.

6. Passive income

It’s hard to beat an application that makes money while you sleep or get on with the rest of your life. You might not make a fortune, but a few extra bucks a week to fund your Saturday night on the rip is a welcome addition

7. Try stuff

If you want to be successful in life I believe you have to try stuff. If it works, happy days! If it doesn’t, learn from it and move on. “Luck favors the people who try stuff”, says entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki.

Where to start

a. Take notes

Take notes when you think of projects and put them on your to-do list. I carry around a small notebook in my laptop bag and constantly add ideas to my ‘Someday’ list in Things.

b. Talk to other creatives

Talking to others will spark new ideas.

c. Read

Read a book from an inspiring designer or look at a book of visuals to get ideas.

d. Mashups

APIs make it very easy to launch small apps. Look at all the Twitter mashups now available. Think of different uses for Google Maps, Flickr, YouTube.

e. What would you find useful?

Chances are that if there was a website or tool that you would find useful, then there are 100s or 1000s of people who would also find it useful.

Finally, remember.

Luck favors the people who try stuff.

Funeral for Mohsin Naqvi at al-Fatima Islamic Center

Imam Hashim Raza leads mourners in prayer during a funeral for Mohsin Naqvi at al-Fatima Islamic Center in Colonie, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 22, 2008. Naqvi was a Muslim, a native of Pakistan (he emigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was 8 years old and became a citizen at 16) and a U.S. Army officer. He was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Xuecheng Martial Arts School in Zaozhuang

Students practice martial arts at Xuecheng Martial Arts School in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, China on June 11, 2008. Around 300 students from all over the nation, aged from 5 to 17 years old, receive martial arts training as well as cultural courses at this school, local media said. (REUTERS/China Daily)

China Central Television headquarters building

In this Jan. 23, 2008, the construction site of the new China Central Television headquarters building is seen in Beijing. The building’s two angled towers were connected in December to form a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical sections. The 230 meter (755 foot) building, one of Beijing’s tallest, houses more than 10,000 staff. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

A Bull Sarcophagus

A bull sarcophagus in which a member of the Ubud royal family was cremated burns during the funeral ceremony Tuesday July 15, 2008 in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)

oConomy: Live info & charts on global outsourcing trends in Pakistan. View trends by skill, industry growth and popular IT & admin providers

Overview

Pakistan is a hot new offshore information technology destination because of a combination of favorable economic circumstances. Funds invested into building educational institutions in Pakistan (when there were not enough jobs to absorb all the graduates from those institutions) are paying off as Pakistan begins to field a modern, highly productive labor force that is the envy of more prosperous but less tech savvy nations elsewhere in the region. Pakistan has a large English-speaking population and a huge community of emigres with experience in technology. It has a culture that values education and hard work. Pakistan may face a shortage of IT workers. Over 75,000 people work in the sector today, and the government believes a further 7,000 will be needed each year to keep the industry growing at current rates.

Useful Statistics

Time Zone: PST (UTC+5)

Population: 164 Million