People often ask us, how do I get my site "out there" on the web? Here are the 3 most popular methods that we have seen:

• Word of Mouth
• Like-minded Web Sites
• Advertising Services

Above all, promoting your site will cost, either in terms of time or money, perhaps both - but you generally get back what you are willing to put in. We often underestimate how spending a little time and money on our business may pay off...

We see good design all around us - whether it be on a website, a flyer or a business card - and in response people often underestimate how much effort goes into getting the finished product into that state. Of course for any graphic designer - design is fun, but that does that mean it is merely child's play to create something beautiful?

This short little video explains how non-designers typically feel they know more about how to design (courtesy of makemylogobigger.com):

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Some people even try and cut corners by avoiding use of a graphic designer for their design needs - they realise very quickly that creating even a simple flyer is much more difficult then they first imagined.

In response to all the graphic design skeptics and critics - please let the graphic designers do the design work - the world will be a more beautiful place as a result .

For a number of projects I have been working on recently, I needed to have access to some Hindi text online - unfortunately, I could not view the text in my browser. Below are the steps that I took to remedy that.

Many sites use a unicode compliant Devanagari font. Unicode is a 16-bit encoding standard that allows all characters of every major language in the world to be represented. Unicode is platform independent, meaning if you typed something in Windows, it would appear the same way on a Macintosh machine. Most modern systems have built-in unicode support and often require nothing more than a unicode compliant font for any particular language.

If you can see the following sentence, then your computer should have no problems viewing such sites:

हिन्दी भारत की राष्ट्रभाषा है | (Hindi bhaarat kii raashtrabhaashaa hai)

If you cannot view the sentence above, try changing the font encoding to "UTF-8" in your browser. Most users should find this option by going to View > Encoding.

If you still are not able to view the sentence above, please try the following suggestions for your particular operating system.

Finally, an author who practices what he preaches - this book is both short and easy to read (it is only 200 pages) and surprisingly full of wisdom. It is packed with colour screenshots, cartoons, and well laid out pages. All of these elements make it a pleasure to read.

The basic premise is quite simple: the less a user has to think about getting around your website, the more likely it is that they will stick around to use it. Krug covers site and page layout, navigation design, usability testing on a shoestring as well as a broad and engaging model of how people really use the web.

Although the book does not cover any details on getting a site online - it captures the principles every web designer should be aware of, and this makes it an invaluable read or refresher. A real breath of fresh air!

Some time back, I was blissfully unaware of the fact that (in the UK at least), we have many different types of phone numbers. Most companies typically have an 0870 number (known as a non-geographic number) for their customer services or after care lines, and this can cost a great deal more then local rate numbers.

So I was quite chuffed when a friend told me all about a marvelously useful site called http://www.saynoto0870.com/ - which lists alternative geographic numbers instead of 0870 numbers for well known companies. It has a handy search function to help you find a number or a company. It helps me save a little cash, especially in the current financial squeeze.

Say it with me now - SAY-NO-TO-0-8-7-0...

We all tend to "burn the midnight oil" at some point - it is just the nature of the work we do. However, this can quite easily become a habit that becomes difficult to break unless we know how to do it.

Here are a few sleep tips from a BBC documentary, that will help to get your body clock in line with nature again:

1. Warm bath an hour before bed - though its actually the cooling down that occurs after a warm bath that makes us sleepy.
2. Beat Insomnia - follow sleep restriction programme, wherein you do not sleep until 2am everyday and then wake at 8am regardless of the amount of sleep you have had - this breaks bad your bad sleep pattern and then you will naturally feel sleepy earlier within a week or two.
3. Beat Snoring - use mouth piece or moisture pad in mouth (see Pharmacist).
4. Power naps between 2-5pm - for upto an hour, much like siestas abroad - very refreshing for body.
5. Avoid coffee and alcohol - ruins quality of sleep.
6. Avoid Jetlag - fasting on plane journey and instead having first meal in country of arrival.
7. Tense and relax muscle exercises from feet to head - 20 mins before sleep.
8. Herbal Teas - lavendar and valerian - 20 mins before sleep.

As a web developer and designer, the "Swiss Army knife" in my web development toolbox is Firebug - the defacto add-on for my Firefox browser. If you have not got yourself Firebug installed on your copy of Firefox, then click here.

Firebug has created such a storm, that it has cemented Firefox as the preferred browser amongst web developers and designers. This has no doubt caught Microsoft's attention, whose previously vice like grip on the browser market has been slackening as Firefox has steadily grown in popularity. Microsoft (bless them) have only just begun to ffer something similar in their latest browser.

Be sure to keep an eye out here for forthcoming Firebug releases, including one for Google Chrome.

Here is a scenario for you:-

You have just finished a spectacular project after burning the midnight oil for a client who came to you last minute. In order to send your lovely InDesign composition (which by the way -looks the business!) to the printer, you export a high-resolution press quality pdf and email it as an attachment. Now your work is done.

The following morning, you are abruptly awakened by an early phone call from the printer telling you he is having problems with the file due to missing fonts, the linked artwork being in RGB format (and not in CMYK) and also not having enough of a bleed. DOH - that is what happens when you burn the midnight oil!

Below is quick reminder of the typical things printers often have to remind designers of:

• create outlines of all the text in your designs or send a copy of all fonts used (even if they are standard fonts).
• convert all artwork to CMYK colour space, although some printers do now accept RGB artwork if they have a digital printer.
• include a bleed, an extra allowance where artwork goes beyond the edge of the required size to ensure consistency after trimming - typically 3mm to 5mm.