I’ve been meaning to pick up this book in hardcover for a while.  But now that it’s available as a free PDF and (not free) iPad App, I’ll have lots to chew on until I do

Also check out this podcast interview with Scott Thomas, the design director for the Obama campaign.

What’s with the new design and all the down-time?

It’s a good question.  It deserves a good answer.  And here it is:

What was previously my personal blog residing at briancasel.com has now become the CasJam Design Blog.  This marks a re-branding, re-design, and re-focus of this blog.  You can still expect topics ranging from design and development to freelance business and dealing with clients.  But the plan is to put out more content, more depth, and more value than before.

Since this is no longer my personal blog, one of the goals is to bring other writers into the mix.  We’re now hiring writers for both one-off articles and ongoing positions.  If you’re looking to gain some exposure and make some cash while you’re at it, check out the guidelines and submit an article!

The slow-down in post frequency may continue as we slowly ramp things back up around here.  But be sure to keep your eye on our RSS feed and Twitter and join us in making this site a valuable resource for the design community.

I will be relocating, rebranding, and revamping this blog.

This site will soon go by the name of the CasJam Design Blog (location TBA).  It will be less of a personal blog, and more of a professional industry blog about the business of design (and other related topics).  Here are a few thoughts on why I’m making this switch:

The  CasJam Design Blog will a centralized point of investment in my business.

I’ve come to realize that building an audience and community is the most valuable long-term asset for any online business.  The CasJam Design Blog is where I plan to focus the majority of my efforts and resources moving forward.

Consolidate and enhance the CasJam brand.

Up until now I feel my efforts have been spread too thin in too many directions.  Between my personal blog here at briancasel.com, my portfolio site at casjam.com, my premium WordPress themes business (and blog) at ThemeJam.com, my special product release at WPBids.com, and of course my @CasJam Twitter account, it’s time to tie everything together with one core brand.

The CasJam Design Blog will become the primary hub for all of my other business ventures, the promotional hub if you will.  Of course, it will be much more than simply a promotional tool, but a high-quality publication of substance (much moreso than my often non-coherant ramblings here on briancasel.com).  Think in-depth articles, interviews, tutorials, resources, tools, etc.

Why get rid of the personal blog?

I’m not really getting rid of it since I plan to migrate the archives over to the new blog.  However, the new blog will certainly no longer be my personal blog – especially since I plan to invite and hire guest contributors to mix it up.

I considered simply starting the new blog and keeping the personal one going.  But I soon realized that simply won’t be possible.  Not enough hours in the day to devote myself to both.  So briancasel.com will simply become the new CasJam Design Blog.

When?

Hopefully by the end of this month you will see the automatic 301 redirect in place.  If you’re a subscriber to the RSS feed, I believe your feed should be automatically transferred over.

So stay tuned, and please forgive the slow-down in posts this month as I prepare for what will be a much better version 2 of this blog

We all have our systems for going about our business.  Things like your to-do list app and other GTD products you use to keep track of things.  Your calendar of upcoming appointments / reminders, whether that’s Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook or an old-school paper wall calendar.  Your systems have been working for you for months or years, so why change them?

Well, if it aint broke, don’t fix it.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on the lookout for minor improvements.  Things that don’t disrupt your entire workflow, but may have huge unexpected benefits.  Like a baseball player who’s batting average suffers for a week or two.  He doesn’t want to re-learn how to swing the bat in the middle of the season.  But he might make a tweak, like moving his back foot 2 inches closer to the plate or his elbow an inch higher than usual, and all of a sudden he’s seeing the ball again and finishes off the season with a hot-streak.

So what does this have to do with leaving business on the table?

This week, I came to the realization that I may have been missing out on some projects I should have signed.  Lately, I’ve been receiving inquiries for new projects more frequently than I have in the past.  Usually, the process would go something like this:

1. Potential client sends me a message via the contact form on this site, CasJam.com or ThemeJam.com.
2. I respond and we usually set up a time to chat over the phone or Skype.  At this stage, I conduct a needs analysis and discuss the goals for their website project.  Sometimes this is done over the course of several emails.
3. Once we’re both clear on what the project scope will be, I open up WP Bids and whip up a project proposal.  I send it to the client via email and wait for their response.

Most of the time they respond with a “Thank you, let us look this over and get back to you…” which may or may not result in them actually getting back in touch.  Sometimes, they don’t respond at all – possibly a sign my proposal was way above their budget.  Or perhaps they never even received it (that would be bad).

The key to securing these projects is to follow up.  I usually wait about 1 week, then check in to let them know I’m available to discuss the proposal and any questions they have.  Many times, this additional effort to touch base is all they need to know I’m reliable and ready to deliver on their needs.  Sometimes not, but that’s how this business goes.  You can’t win them all.

Earlier in my freelance career, I did a pretty good job of keeping track of all my ongoing new business leads.  I basically relied on no system but my own memory.  A few days after I send a proposal, I’d simply remember to check up on it and see if it requires a followup.

As time went on, I began taking on more and more projects simultaneously.  Needless to say, my memory system was beginning to crack.  So about a year ago, I added my first tweak to the system:  A GMail label called “LEAD”.  Every time a new email conversation with a potential client came in, I marked it with a bright red label, LEADS.  That way it would stick out like a sore thumb in my inbox.  I would periodically check my list of emails marked LEAD to see if there are any that need attention.

But over time, this system got tired and unreliable as well.  I would forget to mark emails with the “LEAD” label, and also forget to check up on my LEADS emails.  I was getting busier and busier and the Gmail label system fell to the back of the line of priorities.  Not good.

So I decided to stop relying on my own memory altogether.  Enter Google Calendar with email reminders

I’ve been using GCal for setting reminders that are crucial not to miss.  I set them up with email alerts because since I know I check email daily, I won’t miss it.  This system is perfect for setting reminders months in advance that have a high probability of being forgotten.

This week, I’m kicking my GCal usage up a notch by setting up reminders for all new business leads.  Every time I send a proposal off to a potential new client, I set a GCal reminder for a week later reminding myself to follow up on that lead.

But here’s the trick…

The system has got to be as fast and easy as possible, so that it’s effortless to add reminders.  Otherwise I’ll eventually forget to do it.  So here’s my set up:

I installed the add.2.cal FireFox extension.  This places a little calendar icon at the corner of the browser, which when clicked, launches a popup to quickly add a Google Calendar event.  The cool thing is that it pre-populates the title and description with the title and page URL you’re currently viewing.

So if I’m viewing a particular GMail conversation, I click the calendar icon, and within 10 seconds I’ve added a calendar event which contains the subject of this email as the title (usually a reference to the client’s project) and a direct URL strait to this email conversation in GMail.  In a week, I’ll receive an email reminder with a link strait to that conversation, ready for me to follow up.  Perfect.

One last note – I recommend you set up your Google Calendar to have an email reminder as the default notification for new events.  That way you don’t have to manually set each event to have an email reminder.

So far, it’s been working like a charm.  GMail + WP Bids + Google Calendar is my perfect client relationship management (CRM) tool.  And it requires zero monthly cost I might add

Unlike my other ThemeJam themes, part of the challenge in marketing WP Bids is I need to educate people about what it is.  Sure, it’s a WordPress theme, but it redefines how we use a theme in many ways (which I discuss here).

So my marketing plan for WP Bids is quite different than it was when I launched ThemeJam.  The primary strategy?

Press

I’m reaching out to bloggers in the freelancing, small business, and WordPress space about helping me to spread information about what WP Bids is and the benefits it offers to their readers.  I have offered to have my product reviewed on their site, participate in interviews to discuss it, and even write my own guest article outlining the benefits.  I’m delighted that a few have already accepted and will be publishing various forms of coverage in the coming weeks.  One already has.

Why is quality press coverage so important for WP Bids?

1)  Unlike a banner ad, CPC, or a promotional tweet, a blog article (or video) offers a longer, more in-depth medium to flesh out all the features and back story behind WP Bids.  Of course, it’s important to be able to summarize the pitch in just a few words: “Create (awesome) project proposals using WordPress”.  But that’s only a start.  Describing the benefits in detail helps to drive home what WP Bids is all about.  As far as I know, this type of WordPress theme hasn’t been done before, so educating the market is key.

2)  It’s targeted.  WP Bids was built to be used by freelancers and small business owners who use WordPress.  Luckily, there are lots of blogs in the freelancing niche.  There are also lots of WordPress development blogs, many of which are frequented by freelance web designers.  As a freelancer and WordPress junkie, these are the blogs I personally frequent every day.  That’s how I know these are the right places to find freelancers and small business owners like myself.

First to market vs. second to market

Now, I’m not saying WP Bids is a massively ground breaking phenomenon of a product.  But it is in some ways a “first-to-market” within the world of niche WordPress themes.  That means there are yet to be any direct competitors who offer the same type of product to the same market.

My other themes on ThemeJam, while unique in their design, wouldn’t be considered “first-to-market”.  There are many (too many?) premium WordPress themes who have paved the way for companies like ThemeJam.

There are benefits and challenges to each:

Being a “first-to-market” product, the challenge is you must spend much of your resources on educating the market.  First you have to sell your audience on the idea and why it’s worthy of a price tag.  Then you have to sell them on why they would want to pay for it.  In the case of WP Bids, I have created it’s own dedicated website complete with video walk-throughs and an extended FAQ.  Beyond that, I’m spreading the information through other blog coverage.  This is largely an investment of time, which does not come cheap.

In the case of ThemeJam, I didn’t need to work as hard at educating the public on what I’m selling.  Thanks to the other successful theme companies that came before mine, this effort was already done for me.  The challenge of course, is to showcase how my catalog of WordPress themes and support services are worthy of consideration alongside those of the larger, more established companies.  Needless to say, this is not an easy task given how crowded the premium WordPress themes market has become.

Over to you

So that’s my approach I’m taking during this first month of launching WP Bids.  I’d love to get your feedback about the product itself, these marketing ideas, and anything else you care to comment on.

I have to admit, it was pretty awkward to watch myself speak on video.  I was a little bit nervous, but I think I hid it well and it just resulted in me rambling on a bit.  Maybe that’s a good thing for an interview.

Big thank you to Dave for having the interview.  I first found Dave after watching his interview on Mixergy.com.  I highly recommend you follow his blog, Anywhereman, where he posts awesome tips and thoughts (both text and videos) about freelancing, working from home, and being your own boss.  Also check out his web development/WordPress work at Lift Development.

Here’s the video interview.  See the original post here.

I’m calling it a “WordPress App”.  It’s partly a WordPress theme, partly a WordPress plugin, and the whole concept is intended for one use and one use only:

Creating (awesome) Project Proposals Using WordPress.

Technically, WP Bids functions as a theme for WordPress.  You install it just as you would any other WP theme.  And what it delivers is a well-crafted design template for presenting project proposals to prospective clients.

But it’s also got a few functional enhancements which may inch it into the realm of being a WordPress plugin.  For starters, it builds on the new Custom Post Type functionality in WordPress 3.0 to create proposals.  It also has some very unique features like the ability to use one proposal as a template for new ones, a sortable list of proposals, and custom meta fields built into the edit proposal screen.

Put it all together, and you have a specialized WordPress App.  For all the nitty-gritty details about WP Bids, check out the newly launched product site:  WPBids.com.

It’s For Freelancers, By a Freelancer

As a freelance web designer, I spend a large chunk of my time creating proposals to present to new clients in hopes of winning their business.  These proposals need to be top notch in order to compete and win new projects.  Over time, the whole process of creating proposals started to wear on me.  I was using a combination of MS Word and later Google Docs to create and format proposals.  Needless to say, both of these left much to be desired in terms of design, usability, and control over my presentation.

Then I turned to a web-app called BidSketch (which I reviewed here).  This web-app brought some improvement to the look of my proposals, but I still wasn’t satisfied.  The interface was clunky, and it was hosted elsewhere meaning I had limited control to customize the appearance.  It was even missing the ability to add my own logo!  And of course, there was the pricing issue.  Like many other paid web-apps in this space, it’s yet another monthly expense to take on, which increases as you create more proposals.  I could do better.

So I turned to WordPress.

WordPress gives me everything I’m looking for:  A familiar user interface, strong content editing features, and the ability to include any type of content I want (text, images, video…).  But most importantly, it’s a self-hosted solution.  Since everything resides on my own web host, in my own installation of WordPress, and my own theme – I have complete control and flexibility to customize the output (the proposal) as well as craft my own user experience to my liking.

From a product standpoint, a WordPress theme is the perfect alternative to a monthly web-app.  It’s a one-time purchase ($59), and you own it forever.  Use it to create as many proposals as you want, for as long as you want.  Are you a web developer?  You can tweak it just as you would any other WP theme.  Create your own child theme for WP Bids!

I’ve already begun using WP Bids for my own client proposals (and won some too!) and I know other freelancers like myself will find this WordPress app useful.  I’d love to hear what you think!

Here are a few videos I put together to demonstrate WP Bids in action:

This holiday weekend is a rare deviation from that policy.  Today is the last day of the 4th of July 50% Off sale.  Believe me when I say, this kind of discount will not come around often, so if you’ve been on the fence about grabbing a theme, now’s the time.

Some Thoughts on Sales

It seems that in the world of premium WordPress themes companies (and many other businesses for that matter), there are generally three schools of thought when it comes to holding sales:

1)  Never have sales.

Your product(s) have one price and this price will never change.  This policy sends the message that there is absolutely no way to ever obtain the product at a discount price.  If you want it, get it now or get it later.  It will cost the same today as it will a year from now.

The upside to this approach is that it keeps buyers from waiting around in hopes that the product will go on sale.  The down side is you lose the excitement, vitality, and added exposure that a periodic sales event might bring.  Instead, you must focus on long-term slow and steady growth of your business and brand in order for this policy to be effective (which is not to say that this isn’t important no matter what sales policy you choose).

2)  Always have sales.

The second approach is one that I see many new theme companies resort to.  That is holding sales events early and often – like on a weekly or monthly basis.  As more and more theme companies pop up, this seems to be the most popular way to gain traction in a crowded market, which can work to build some early brand exposure.

The down side is that when sales happen all the time, buyers will learn not to pay full price for your product.  They’ll wait a week or two, knowing another sales event will likely come around.  As this trend continues over time, it can hurt the health of your business and might lead you to permanently lowering your prices.

3)  Do hold sales, but only on rare occasions.

This is the approach I prefer, and the it’s the one I feel is the most effective, at least in theory.  I should point out that I’m writing this on Friday, Day 1 of this past weekend’s sale, so the results aren’t in yet.

But the idea is to hold a high-value sale (50% Off everything), on a random and very rare occasion.  Create the impression that your company never holds sales events and surprise your audience when you do.  Part of the attraction of a sales event is the expiration date.  “This deal won’t last forever so get it now“.  The fact that you won’t offer another discount for maybe 6 or 12 months serves to add extra impact to the deal.

This idea comes back to building your brand over the long-term.  Not only in terms of  brand recognition and understanding of your product, but also spreading an understanding of your policies – the way your company does business.  Since this weekend’s sale is the first of it’s kind on ThemeJam, it may not be until the second time we hold a sale (who knows when…) that will really drive home the fact that sales events on ThemeJam rarely come along.  We shall see…

Over to you…

As a consumer, do you value or de-value a company that holds frequent sales events?

As a business owner, which of the three approaches on sales do you prefer?

If you’ve been following my tweets for the past few weeks, you know I’ve been preparing to release a new product, called “WP Bids“. Today I’d like to tell you about what it is, and what’s in store…

WP Bids is a special theme for WordPress, which allows you to create awesome web-based project proposals using the platform we know and love (WordPress).

Who is it for?

It’s perfect for freelancers, design agencies, and other contractors who aquire clients by presenting high-impact proposals, which serve to clearly and professionally outline the project scope, time estimate, price quote, and other relavant info.

It’s especially useful for web designers, because it gives you the ability to tweak and customize your proposals the same way you’d tweak any other WordPress theme.  It’s a self-hosted solution, giving you full control over every detail.

Redefining how we use WordPress

The idea is to use WordPress, not as a public blog available for the world to see, but as a dedicated proposal platform, which you selectively grant access to potential clients.  Let me explain…

You start with a fresh installation of WordPress on your own domain. You might want to designate a sub-domain, like proposals.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com/new-business.  Then, you install the WP Bids theme.

Create a proposal just as you would create a new post in WordPress, except thanks to WordPress 3.0, we use a custom post type called “Proposals”.  The theme takes care of all the formatting to perfectly frame the descriptions, sections, tables, lists, and the like that make up your proposal.

Click publish, then grab the URL or shortlink to the proposal. Email the link to your client for them to review, post feedback (in the form of comments), print a paper copy to show their boss, and review again on their iPhone or iPad.  Hopefully, by this point they have been wowed by the awesome presentation of your web-based proposal that they’re ready to hire you for the project!

A finely tuned feature set

Here are a few of the features to help you create the best proposals possible, quickly and easily:

• Optimized proposals for all web browsers, iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices, and print version.
• No tricky HTML formatting needed when creating/editing proposals. Use basic WYSIWYG controls found in the WordPress editor (H2, H3, lists, tables, etc.) and the theme takes care of the rest.
• Re-usable templates (this my favorite feature):  Designate one existing proposal to use as a template for future proposals. When you first create a new proposal, it’s pre-populated with all the content from your template. Then it’s just a matter of tweaking a few details and another winning proposal is ready to go!
• Controlled Access: Using built-in WordPress features like admin-only access, and password-protected posts, you can make sure your client sees their proposal, and nothing else.
• Theme Options: Upload your logo, Select a color scheme, Control text labels, and more from the theme options panel.
• Child Themes: Just like any other WordPress theme, you can create your own child themes for WP Bids and make your design completely your own.  In addition to the main theme, we’ll provide a “stripped-down” child theme if you’d like a helpful starting point.

Have a look

Here’s a taste of what a finished proposal could look like:

Pricing

The WP Bids theme will be priced/packaged the same way all of the other ThemeJam themes are.

For $59, you get:

• The WP Bids theme
• 4 built-in color schemes
• Layered Photoshop PSD
• Lifetime access to the customer support forum
• License to use the theme on as many domains as you want.

The nice thing about WP Bids is that unlike similar web-apps, this is a one-time purchase and you own it forever.  Similar web-apps all go with a monthly pricing model, which adds to your bottom line over the long term.

How Soon?

The theme itself is in the final stages of production.  I’m hoping to release it within the next two weeks on themejam.com, with a dedicated site at wpbids.com launched within the next month.

What do you think?

Could you see yourself using WP Bids for your business?  Is my introduction unclear?  I’d appreciate any and all feedback in the comments

Today I’d like to write about the importance of guest blogging, and how it has impacted my freelance business.

Traffic: Quality, not Quantity

The first obvious impact of having a guest article published on a large blog is an increase in traffic back to your site and an increase in RSS and Twitter followers.  The day I had my first article on Mashable published, I gained 100+ quality Twitter followers, had a huge traffic spike on all three of my websites, sold a few extra themes than usual, and significantly raised my online profile.  But it’s not just about the numbers. The quality of  those new followers is the real benefit.

Readers who are engaged enough to read your guest article, then click through your byline, and follow your feed (that’s 3-4 actions) are highly interested in your content.  Much more-so than random google searchers or clicks from sites like Digg and other social bookmarking sites.  There’s a good chance these readers are here to stay, spread your content, and potentially hire you or purchase your products.

Increased visibility and “web cred”

We know that personal branding is all about building credibility through sharing your expertise, experience, and ideas as they relate to your industry. As a web designer, guest blogging on popular industry blogs is one of the best ways to achieve this.

A 500-800 word article is the perfect medium to expose your depth of knowledge on a specific topic. You can flesh out your arguments and ideas in ways that other channels of exposure won’t allow.   A stunning portfolio can be a great tool for landing new clients, but a series of articles describing your design process, philosophy or expertise makes you much more likely to stick in the minds of potential clients. Speaking at conferences is a highly effective way to boost your industry profile, but you have a limited amount of time just to scratch the surface of a few ideas. Writing let’s you thoroughly flesh out those ideas, and really drive your point home.

It’s Not About Money.  It’s About Value.

Bigger blogs may offer payments for guest articles, but it shouldn’t be about the money.  The real value of guest blogging comes in the exposure and credibility you build for yourself by offering useful and insightful content. The more you put into it, the more you get out.

That was one of my quotes in a Mashable article (which was my step in the door to having my first article published on Mashable).  Roughly half of the guest articles I’ve done were paid posts.  My direct earnings from guest blogging ranged from $0-$150 per post.  Not much.  But it’s not about the direct earnings.  It’s the indirect earnings – boosting your profile, promoting your ideas, exposing your business to a larger audience.  But you don’t reap these benefits simply by having a link at the bottom of any article on any blog.

It has to be your absolute best, most value-packed content.  Remember what I said about gaining quality followers?  You have to earn every one of them.  Nobody will click on your link if you don’t give them a reason to.  You have to earn your bio links and encourage readers to click them by delivering a top quality read.

I spend way more time and effort writing guest articles than I do on my personal blog.  I do multiple drafts, extended research, and multiple rounds of editing.  I find additional images to support the article and sometimes design my own.  I’ve even written entire articles just to scrap the entire thing and start again.

And don’t sleep on the comments!

Sure, most (but not all) of us make a point of responding to comments on our own blogs, but many fail to follow along and respond to comments on their guest articles on other blogs.  I make a point of tracking all my guest article comments and following up with as many discussions as I can.  It’s fun.  There are so many more people to interact with, and serves to further solidify your commitment to your topic and your online presence.  Every bit counts.

Bottom line:  I care.

The last thing I want to do is add to the mountain of fluff that makes up so much of the blogosphere.  I want to add unique, interesting, value-packed posts that earn comments, re-tweets, followers, and increased business.