An Hilarious Interview with Reza Farazmand of Poorly Drawn Lines

Today we have amongst us, a very unique professional. Unique not by the website, but by the work. Ofcourse he belongs to the class of creative individuals who seek an outlet through a web portal, but, he isn't one of the bland insensitive bloggers we see now. Yes, He is different. If a picture can say a thousand words, meet the man who writes 6000 words a week. 

The name Reza Farazmand, always creeps up in my mind whenever I think of comics. My brother and I have been following a ritual. Every sunday we would sit infront of the computer screens and browse through comics which included Ragestache, xplosm, pearls before swine and ofcourse poorly drawn lines. We would always start with pdl because we wanted our happy hour to start with a bang. So imagine my delight on getting a reply from Reza aggreeing for an email interview.

I wouldn't start with an introduction to our guest, as you would figure that out from my questions itself.

An Introduction to our Guest

Mohit: Tell us about yourself, I gather you were a student at UCSD, who used to publish comic strips in the Campus magazine. How did it grow to an online comic giant with a page-rank of 4?

Reza: I started publishing Poorly Drawn Lines as a weekly comic strip in the UCSD Guardian my freshman year. At the time I was beginning to read a few webcomics, and I realized I could reach a wider audience if I published PDL online as well. So my friend built me a website and PDL became a webcomic. I didn’t take it very seriously until after I graduated and started drawing three comics a week on a regular schedule. From there the site slowly gained a small readership, and it’s been growing ever since.

Mohit: It must have been more than 5 and half years since you started the website. How did you and the website change during these years.

Reza: My drawing and writing styles have both changed quite a bit compared to five years ago, or even just one year ago. I’ve found a lot of new influences and inspiration in that time, whether it’s my surroundings, my social life, or discovering other artists. I aim to keep growing in that way. 

The site itself got a brand new design a couple years ago. It also aims to keep growing, but it’s happy with the way it looks right now.

On Work

Mohit: Tell us about your process of comic creation. How do you do it? And what is the thought process when you start with a comic?

Reza: I draw everything with pencil and paper first. Then I ink the lines, scan the whole thing, and add the color in Photoshop. I use a graphics tablet for that part. The thought process is usually me chuckling at silly ideas with a serious look on my face until I land on something I like. It’s the most serious chuckling face you’ve ever seen. 

Mohit: You have invested in advertising as well as online merchendising, Which of them contributes to a better part of your earnings?

Reza: Advertising currently outpaces my merchandise earnings, but the two are slowly growing more equal as merch sales pick up. 

Mohit: How do you decide what strip should be added to the store? Do you take custom Orders?

Reza: I take the most popular comics and turn them into prints. That doesn't always work, though. Sometimes a comic will perform really well online, but people aren't necessarily interested in owning a physical copy of it. I'd like to be able to take custom orders, but at the moment I use a print shop that requires a base number of prints per order, so I need to make sure they'll sell before I have them made.

On Website

Mohit: Your initial website was created by Marco Segreto in 2008 then you moved to Danny Walcoff in 2011. What do you look in a Web Designer/Developer?

Reza: Both of those guys are close friends of mine who offered to design the site. Marco built PDL 1.0 when we were in college, and Danny put together the site you see now. So I guess what I look for in a developer is someone I went to high school with.

Mohit: For a comic website, search Engines like Google do not have a system to determine what is in an image however hilarious or popular. Blogs on the other hand are filled with text that give a lot to process and hence determine a website's worth. Doesn't it bother you?

Reza: I’m glad to have a site that doesn’t rely too heavily on search ranking or keywords. It’s cool to see how it’s grown just from people sharing it with their friends. 

Final Words

Mohit: Lastly, what advice would you give to budding enthusiasts?

Reza: Draw every day, write every day, and start building your web presence. There are so many avenues to get your work in front of people right now. This is an amazing time for creators.

Note 1. to the readers, the comic strips above this point are the recent favorites of Reza Himself. But, now its time for MY favorite comic strip. This one left me laughing on the floor, clutching my stomach with tears in my eyes.

Note 2. I am not including this comic to increase the length of my article. You would believe me when you reach the end.

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Readers have obviously visited PDL scores of times, but for the few and new, you can visit PoorlyDrawnLines to view some of the most ingenious creations of Reza.

If you need to get in touch with him or need regular updates from PDL, You can follow him at his twitter page, like his page at facebook or see the latest comics at tumbler.

That's all for today. Readers, If you have a question to ask our Guest, Kindly drop it in the comment box and we'll get it across.

Further

Codemakit had also conducted a really amusing interview with renowned cartoonist Chris McCoy of Safely Endangered recently. Be sure to check it out too.

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An Interview with JetBro from 'The Den'

Today we have a web design company which has crossed the boundaries of simple web design/ app creation. A company which has defied the conventional methods of professionalism and created an atmosphere which reeks of productivity and creative enthusiasm.

Jetbro is an Ahmedabad based company specializing in IT services and digital solutions. It's motto “Art with sense. We deliver what your mind thinks.” creeps up into the mind when you see its main/portfolio/about page.

I would not delay the imminent anymore. Let us see what 'The Den' has to offer.

The Story

Mohit: Let’s Start with the history of JetBro. How did you start? How did the group form?

Jetbro: Ours is a young team of passionate and dedicated coders, developers, designers, artists and professionals. Jetbro started its operation way back in the January of 2011, with a team of three including our two founders (Mr. Ishit Jethwa and Mr. Sharva Jethwa) who operated it from two separate countries, UK and Australia along with an intermediary in India to take care of the local business. 

Jetbro was self-funded by the salary that Sharva (Founder) earned then, working as a lone developer in an Australian firm. Ishit (Founder) in the meantime took care of the marketing and finally flew down to India, in the June of 2011, to set across a fully functional operational market that we claim today.

The initial days were rough, where we had to convince our clients on the market possibilities of getting online, while Ishit went on foot from one organization to other, understanding their business issues and offering them with digital solutions. Today, the Jetbro family banks on happy clients and a self-motivated team, proud of their work and projects and beaming with future possibilities of working towards to a digitally advanced tomorrow.

Mohit: You started in 2011, and some of your initial projects were Blue Lotos, Dakara Dirt etc. As a start-up how did you manage to bag the initial projects?

Jetbro: Finding good and exciting projects is difficult for a startup. We accepted that early on. But, we knew that nothing would come easy, unless you prove your worth.

The solution was to accept that and keep looking for opportunities, that justified what we stand for and striving across, to address issues in firms and organization that seek digital solutions. Our initial projects were those that we applied to and claimed online through leads available on several web portals.

The Den

Mohit: I reckon that from your website and the company profile, people see you as a hip, carefree group. Is it a mirage or is your 'den' actually as cool as it sounds like?

Jetbro: Cool? Well, we have so far refused to put any label on us. But yea, if “Cool” is something you feel that relates to us, then we’d rather go for the “Bloody Cool!” tag. We have always been like that. Bold and staying true to our professional values and what we believe in.

The Den is a special place. It isn't the usual corporate environment. It’s young, alive, brewing with ideas and rocking on some pretty heavy music. The Den is where the artists within our coders, designers and professionals come alive to stir across innovations that bank on futuristic digital solutions. 

On Works

Mohit: I especially found your BRTS app really useful. How important is making applications for mobile environment? Do you think that the future is slowly moving towards a world with "Lesser websites and more apps"?

Jetbro: Catering to the mobile environment is extremely important. But the notion that “the future is slowly moving towards a world with lesser websites and more apps” is untrue. The future isn’t restricted to mobile phones; it relies on a technology that caters to all devices.

Being a digital agency we believe any digital service that is futuristic should cater to every kind of audience and on every available platform. Be it on the web or the different kinds of mobile devices. Developers should never shy away from making their services adaptable to every screen in order to deliver universal digital solutions.

Mohit: Now a question regarding your website. Usually service websites are filled with information and data (including pricing, detailed description of works done etc), your website on the other hand focuses entirely on the aesthetic aspect of web design. Customers are supposed to extract this information from you through your contact page. Do you think aesthetics are better than functional information?

Jetbro: Aah! We are so glad you asked. We do showcase our work, but here’s why we haven’t put up any functional information.  Putting up a price on our solutions is another thing the Den refrains from, which has been discussed in our blog where we elaborate on why it’s a dilemma to put a price on the websites we build. Here’s the link to the same, How much does a website cost? We don’t want to be conventional and neither do we want our clients to expect “the conventional” when they approach the Den. 

Defining the services and putting a tag on them, makes them conventional. 

Defining the kind of solutions we offer, means the client already has a line of thinking on how things will get done and they’ll want us to stick to that routine. However, at Den we vouch for challenges and not routines. Every client project is tackled with a fresh set of ideas, designs and a whole new approach.

We might have done the same kind of project earlier but we don’t want this one to be a repetition of our earlier work. For us every new project demands a fresh zeal of enthusiasm and innovative outlook and that’s the reason we don’t define our ways. We love clients who are equally experimentative and looking to invest in “New Ideas”.

Mohit: Tell us something about your recent apps.

Jetbro: We pride ourselves on being the first ones who launched a BRTS app for Ahmedabad, while the rest followed. And as has been the tradition now, we've strived ourselves to deliver yet another app - Ahmedabad Otlo, dedicated exclusively to the beautiful city and people of Ahmedabad. Our goal has always been to make the lives of an everyday citizen easier using technology.

What makes us so proud with Ahmedabad Otlo is "Show Love", where we encourage users to share concerns regarding problems in their local area in Ahmedabad that needs immediate attention and garner "supports" for their cause among fellow Amdavadis and help us build a beautiful Ahmedabad. 

You can download our app Ahmedabad Otlo. We would love to know, what our fellow Amdavadis think of the app through this platform and encourage feedback from them, to help us improvise and deliver the best, to a city, that we love and cherish so much!

On Setbacks

Mohit: As a standalone firm offering variety of services to a variety of customers, you are bound to have some depressing days. How do you deal with them and how do you keep the morale of your employees high?

Jetbro: Yes! We all have those moments. But sulking ain't our style. We re-group, re-assemble, conduct brain-storming sessions with our clients and work on weekends if we have to; unless we are sure that the project has truly accomplished our client’s purpose and motive behind the same.

Client satisfaction is our ultimate “high” and burning midnight oil to serve that kind of satisfaction is just something that our professionalism calls upon. Ours is a bunch of self-motivated and driven individuals and that’s the reason why we never fail to triumph and find solutions even amongst utter chaos.

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Domain & server, Web design, Content creation in web Sphere; Tablet specific design, Branding & Logo in Design Sphere; Online and viral marketing; customized crm, data analysis, mining and modeling, phew! the list goes on but thankfully not the article. Visit Jetbro's website (At-least to see the about page section). Like them at Jetbro's original Facebook Page or follow them @jetbroden at Twitter.

Technomugs, The Official Blog at Jetbro, Young ideas, recent trends and everything from their coffee conversations to their new launches gets talked about there. 

Update

Though no one has ever attempted such a valiance before, but JetBro was the first firm, which actually took the liberty and the pains of writing an article about codemakit on their own blog. Take a look at this graceful Technomugs Article which depicted codemakit in a new way.

Further

An interview with an Indian firm is really interesting, but if you need something about an Indian web design personnel you can read an interview with Vinay at TechPrevue.

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An Interview with the people at LogoPeople

Today, codemakit presents to you, yet another exceptional design entity, which created codemakit's own logo in 2013. In the past codemakit has posted interviews with individual designers, but for the first time, we present an article with a design firm. 

Logopeople was created in 2009 and within just 4 years of its inception, the website brandishes more than 5000 satisfied customers from Australia and New Zealand. 

The motto of the company is to provide its client a logo which is unique, identifiable and captivating. With economic design costs and extraordinary products, the firm is one of the fastest growing graphic and web design firms in Australia. 

How do they do it?

The workflow for the company with respect to logo design is very simple indeed. Once you select the firm for your design works and place the order, You just have to fill up a questionnaire about your needs and aspirations about the project. 

Based on the questionnaire, expert graphic designers get to work and provide you with a variety of designs for your perusal. 

You are then required to submit suggestions on the design after which you will be presented with another improved and refined design. For most customers the process ends here. But if you're a fussy one, you can still ask for more changes and believe me the design team will happily oblige. 

After your final approval, the firm would deliver all the finalized vector based drawings to you in High Resolution.

In the Logo Design Order form, the website asks you several simple questions to get to know what you are looking for in the design. For example, the text of the logo, Taglines. 

You now will be presented with three choices of Logo design, (Text Only, Iconic or Text with graphics). 

Next your ideas will be asked, and then some information on the products and services the company is offering. Lastly for some design input from your end, you can provide some logo samples that you like. Then comes your color preferences (i.e. which color you like and which you despise). 

Once done, you just have to submit the form and let the logo People take care of your project. (Interested customers can place your order in the 'order form' provided at the website).

What's in it for me?

The Firm Logo People also has an affiliate program where people can have an opportunity to earn money without investment, The catch is simple enough, you just have to find graphic and webdesign projects for the firm and overlook the project from inception to end. You will receive commissions and hefty benefits along with total control over the project.

Something Personal

Mohit: Tell us about yourself, how did you start in the design genre in website development?

Logopeople: Creative graphic design has always been my passion. I always like to create something original for my websites. My aim is to get to the core of  an idea and then bring forth it essence in the form of original unique graphic designs for logos, website or print designs.

On Work Attitude

Mohit: From Engineering companies (Moon Engine), Sculpture Studios (Anne Anderson) to Wine Companies (Yarran Wines) Logo, You must have a string of impressed and satisfied customers (Including me). How do you manage such feat? Is it your fees, your way of working or something else? 

Logopeople: My first approach to any customer is to make them feel comfortable. The customers feel that they are with their friends. I discuss their requirements and give them practical and economical suggestions. I try to work within their budgets giving them the best quality work. I also do a lot of research so that I can give my clients the best and most trendy branding artwork.You can visit to our website for portfolio.

On Failures

Mohit: During your tenure in design, you must have had some setbacks too. Our readers would like to ask you, How do you deal with depressing days?

Logopeople: I deal with setbacks in 2 ways. First way is when client is not happy with my work.Then I have meeting with client and get as much criticism as possible from the client. This helps me immensely as it helps me to eliminate what is not liked by the client. After this bout of frank honest criticism , I  see light most times and I am able to deliver graphics to the client satisfaction. But sometimes , the case is hopeless and the communication with client is  a total breakdown. In such case ,  I say good bye on an amicable note and move on.

Mohit: Your Firm is very popular for website logo design but you are still into print designs too. Do you find the work flow of designing web logos any different from designing brochures or product labels?

Logopeople: Yes there is a marked difference. Logo is always more difficult as it is the starting point of any branding. Logo requires immense input in terms of ideas and artwork. Once the logo is approved , then designing and developing print design like brochure, labels , poster etc is easy as the theme and style of branding has been set by the logo design.

On Blogging

Mohit: Your Blogs at have always been filled with cleverly written articles on design philosophies which are maintained periodically. How important is a blog for any design company?

Logopeople: A blog is essential to any design company not just for SEO purposes but also for establish the image and reputation of the company. Informative and engaging blog not just attract visitors to the website but also help to develop public relations with clients. Many informative blogs act as a beacon of knowledge  for client.

And Finally.

Mohit: I have met scores of dedicated Graphic Designers and have found almost all of them using adobe based softwares for graphic development. What is it you find in Photoshop that you cannot find in other softwares like Corel Draw or Inkscape?

Logopeople: Photoshop is definitely most versatile of all the design softwares. It is numerous tools which give extreme flexibility to designing skills helping to create most unique and original designs

You can reach them at LogoPeople Contact page

For readers having doubts, you can view their testimonial page and see for yourself.

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An Interview with Veerle Pieters of Duoh.com

In this interview, we’ll peek into the design methods and techniques of design whiz Veerle Pieters. With her award winning website Duoh.com and her detailed blog, she is considered as one of the authorities in new age design.

Veerle Pieters was born near Bruges a left-handed who taught herself to be an ambidextrous. She began her career in 1992 in print, focusing mainly on logos, stationery etc and web Design 1995. She founded Duoh! In 2000 with her loving partner Geert Leyseele. Her dream is to be certain that I contribute in small but important ways to making the "interweb" a better place.

On Inspiration

Mohit: Your designs are always dripping with originality and detail, how do you manage to bring out such beautiful yet meaningful designs? What is your inspiration?

Veerle: My inspiration comes from what I see around me and from what I catalog on my Inspiration Stream. I try not worry about trends and just do my thing. When you start a project listening is an important part so you understand what the client needs and you have enough information to translate all that in a design.

On Favorites

Mohit: You have designed Web, CMS, Logos, Illustrations, Icons and even print. What is your favorite category for work?

Veerle: Print still has a bit of an edge because there is nothing that beats having what you created in your hands. The smell of print, the tactile feedback of paper etc. All in all I like the diversity in what I do. The fact that I can switch to coding when I hit a wall in a design for example.

On Social Networks

Mohit: I went through your entire website and found it hard to find your twitter link on your homepage, why did you avoid any link even when you had 1500 followers on twitter?

Veerle: There is a Twitter link on my homepage but it’s way down in the footer. For me personally Twitter was never about have a big amount of followers. I never actively promoted my Twitter so that people would follow me. For me this is just a channel to share what I am passionate about and a channel for helping people by sharing great resources. It’s simple really; if you have something interesting to say people will follow you.

On Work

Mohit: You have a string of impressed and satisfied customers, How do you manage this feat, Is it your charges or your work?

Veerle: I always try to do my best for every project. Not always easy but I assume that’s what clients appreciate. If you deliver great work and try to find solutions when problems occur clients will return for more. It’s a two way street and about giving & taking.


Mohit: You have been in design business for long, you must have had hardships. What is it that keeps you going?

Veerle: The first 5 to 6 years I really struggled to earn enough to make a living. Times were really different and the Internet wasn't around. You had to go out and find clients. Not an easy task if you became a freelancer right out of school because nobody would give you a job. There were a few things in my portfolio but I always heard the same excuse ‘lack of experience’.  That’s why I started my own business. Only problem was that I focused on the wrong clients, little shops that demanded a lot for very little money. Things only started to change when I got out of comfort zone and hit the road to visit business parks to introduce my work and myself. The only thing that kept me going was that I love what I do and that I knew this was what I love waking up for.

The Epilogue

Mohit: Last but not the least, what advice would you give to amateur designers?

Veerle: Don’t loose the passion for what you do even if you fail from time to time. Failing is all part of what we do everyday. Another important aspect is that the learning process never stops. That’s why you need to be really passionate. There is always something new to discover and you are never sure if what you learn today will still be around in a few months. The learning process never stops.

Read about her works in different spheres of Design below,

Graphic and Web Design, On CSS, HTML, Web design Concepts

Modern Home Design, where you'll be convinced that design extends beyond the web.

Belgian Graphic Design, filled with Belgian flavored print design

Connect with her on her twitter page

For More Information feel Free to visit The Company Website (Duoh.com)

Further,

Veerle's interview was both informative and fun, but another designer turns heads too. Check out the interview with Jacob Gube of Six Revisions. Oh and did I mention, his is a page rank 6 Website!

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An Interview with Steven Snell of Vandelay Design

Here is an excerpt from an interview with the brains of Vandelay Design. Meet Steven Snell, a design genius,  who has been in the field since 2007. 

A self made designer, Steven shares about his views on modern design methods and its mash-up with web. Also, find out the secrets of having a successful and financially viable blog. 

The complete interview has been divided into segments for better imparting a better reading experience to the readers. So sit back and listen to the founder of Vandelay Design.

General

Mohit: Your website’s about page is prepared like a highly efficient, professional e-commerce website which contains everything about your creation and nothing about you. Tell us something about yourself Steven and how did you start?

Steven: I got started in web design about 10 or 12 years ago, but I didn't do very much with it for the first few years. I had a basic web design and HTML course in college and that was really where I got started. For the next couple of years after college I experimented on my own and learned a lot by following online tutorials and reading books. In 2007 I started Vandelay Design and things took off pretty quickly. The blog has really been the key to the success as it has attracted a large audience and opened up a lot of doors over the years.

Commerce

Mohit: I have been to your website before, your ad spaces are always full, what would you attribute this to?

Steven: I've been very fortunate to have several advertisers that have had banners on the site for years. Elegant Themes, Wix, Clover, Ekklesia, Dream Template, and PSD2HTML - I think they have all been advertising for 3 years or more. Part of that is definitely pricing the ads well. I probably could charge a little more, but the ad turnover would be higher. I do, of course, have some ad turnover, but not very much. Getting a decent amount of search traffic helps with selling ads, as from what I have seen, these visitors are more likely to click on ads than your regular readers that visit the site a few times a week.

Mohit: You have a string of impressed and satisfied customers, how do you manage it? Is it your fees, your way of working or something else?

Steven: With our premium resources we try to provide the types of resources that will be truly helpful to our customers. There are a lot of places where you can buy good quality PSD files, icons, and these types of resources, so we (myself and the freelances who create many of the products) try to focus on products that people will actually use. We have a category of products that are career resources, and in my opinion they are some of the most useful products that we offer. Things like contract templates, marketing materials to help designers get more business, and info products like interviews with designers.

Social Networks and SEO

Mohit: Unlike usual blogs having a page informing about the copyright policies,  your website links to a comment policy page. Do you feel comment moderating is more important than copyright policing?

Steven: I don't think it's more important, but I do spend a lot of time moderating comments. Over the years the number of spam comments has really increased and Akismet only catches some of them. Other comments aren't necessarily spam, but they don't add anything. Comments like "nice post" or "thanks for sharing".

Mohit: You have 60,000 subscribers on feedburner in addition to more than 10,000 on facebook and near 50,000 on twitter. Garnering such social media attention is a herculean task for any website. I am sure many enthusiasts would like to know your secret.

Steven: Well, first of all, I should point out that I don't put much weight in the FeedBurner count, I'm not sure how accurate their numbers are. Regardless of the specific numbers, the focus with the Vandelay Design blog has always been to publish content that people like. I've made a lot of changes over the years to the types of content, some small and some more significant, to try and adjust according to what people are responding to. I was also fortunate to get started at a time when the design blogging industry was really just taking off, so there weren't as many other blogs out there at the time. 

With Twitter my approach is basically to share interesting and relevant links related to design/development. Of course, I share links to our own blog posts and to our new products, but I try to make sure that they are in the minority, and that I am sharing links to plenty of other relevant articles and sites so it doesn't seem like I'm only tweeting links to my own stuff.

With Facebook, when I launched the page there was an offer to download some free resources if you liked the page and that had a really big impact on the number of likes.

Conclusions

Mohit: During your tenure, you must have had some setbacks. How do you deal with depressing days?

Steven: I've definitely had setbacks! The best way for me to deal with challenging and frustrating days is just to keep working and moving forward. Working online is not as easy as many people want it to be, and it's tempting to give up when things get difficult because there is no one else to keep you accountable, but in order to be successful you'll have to keep going when you face a challenge. Sometimes it's good to take a little bit of time away from your work to refresh yourself, but you just always have to get back to work and keep moving forward.

Mohit: Having been in the Web Design atmosphere for so long, you must have seen the rise and fall of many webmasters and websites. What advice do you give to passionate amateur web designers?

Steven: My advice is to keep working consistently. I've known a lot of people over the years who have had dreams of being successful online and being able to earn a living from their websites, but most of them have given up way too easily. The biggest difference from the people I know who have been successful and those who haven't is just persistence.

Epilogue

Mohit: Last but not the least, Why Church and Photography websites only?

Steven: When I used to do client work I would get the most inquiries from churches and photographers. So when I decided to create some free WordPress themes I wanted to start with churches and photographers so that I would be able to help some of those people who were already looking for websites. There is a chance I may design some other types of WordPress themes in the future, I just wanted to try the types of themes that I thought would be appreciated and used.

Further Reading

Feel free to browse through the archives of Vandelay Blog,

You may connect with him on Facebook and Twitter 

If you’re looking for a new website, a redesign of an existing website, make sure you visit his Contact Page

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An Interview with Steven Bradley of Vanseo Design

Meet Steven Bradley Glicksman, a man endowed with a variety of talents. From a structural Engineer (like myself), to a brilliant  artist (like Vincent Van Gogh) to an exceptional web designer (like himself), he has been through everything under the sun. He specialises in building usable websites and marketing old ones.

The following is an interview with him, Read more as he narrates his journey and explains his secrets. Learn about the web sphere itself as he talks about programming, JavaScript, HTML5 and his favorite, web design.

General

Mohit- You have blogged about nearly everything under the SEO umbrella from social media, search engines, web Design, blogging, CSS, gadgets, Jquery to templates, themes and Social networks. What is the genre that interests you and is it different from the genre that your readers like to read?

Steven- I'm interested in all the topics you mentioned. I'm primarily a web design and developer so if I have to narrow down to a favorite topic it would be any that fall under design and development. I don't that I could narrow it further than that. When I first started blogging I tried a lot of different topics since I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about. The marketing and seo posts were easier for me to write at the time, so I wrote more of them. After a few years though I realized I should be writing more design and development posts and so now those are the ones I write the most.

I think the majority of my readers are most interested in the design and development topics, though I know some of my readers are from the days when I wrote more about marketing and seo. I still mix up the topics here and there since I think they're all connected and usually people interested in one of them are interested in several of them.

Mohit- You have a degree in History, How did you end-up with website design and development? Also what advice would you give to people like you, trying to steer their careers towards web sphere.

Steven- I do have a degree in History and also one in Civil Engineering. I wouldn't necessarily recommend people get either degree if they want a career in web design, though if they're interested in either there's nothing wrong with getting those degrees. When I was younger I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I started out as an Engineering student, changed to the History degree, and a few years later decided to finish the Engineering degree I had started. Within a few years of graduating I wasn't using either degree. 

I worked a series of jobs for a few years. Nothing special or related to the degrees or anything design related. Eventually I found myself working for a company that was producing ebooks long before anyone cared about ebooks. They were taking print books and putting them online and there was a lot or markup involved. The code wasn't html, but it was similar and I found it easy to read and search through.

This was in 2,000 during the dot com era and while I was working for this company the bubble burst. I could see before too long I probably wouldn't have a job so I began teaching myself how to build websites starting with html and css. At the same time I took some continuing education classes at the university here in Boulder and earned certificates in web design and c++ programming. Through the classes I met someone who got me a job testing software with his company. IBM later bought the company and since our office was working on a product that duplicated something IBM already had, the product and most of us were without a job.
A friend of mine lost her job not too long after and together we decided to start a freelance business. She eventually decided to do other things, but I really enjoyed creating websites and have stuck with it ever since.

On Blog Posting

Mohit- You have been blogging since July 2006, you must have had hardships. What is it that keeps you going?

Steven- There have definitely been hardships. I enjoy writing, but there have been times the last thing in the world I wanted to do was write a blog post. In fact some time in 2008 I stopped writing for awhile. I felt a little burnt out and didn't know what to write about. After a few month break I came back writing more about design and development and haven't looked back.

I have a process in place now (Read about steven's Blogging process) that pushes me to keep going even when I don't want to write. It helps me generate a long list of ideas and also helps me get a little bit ahead on my writing. When things are going well I'm usually 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule. That allows me to take some time off if I need to and still keep the blog running without anyone noticing my time away. However, I think what keeps me going the most is that I really enjoy writing. I get a lot out of it. I often write about topics I want to learn myself. By writing about these topics I can put my research and experimentation to use. It saves time while i get 2 things done at the same time.

I also like giving back. I try to write the kind of posts I wish were available when I first started learning. Hopefully some of the things I've written have helped others.

Mohit- What is your all-time favorite post?

Steven- I'm not sure I could pick a favorite or even have one. Oddly some of the posts I thought turned out really well ended up falling flat with my audience and other posts I rushed to publish and didn't like much were shared everywhere and continue to draw new traffic all the time. I wish I understood why that happens.

Right now this post on vertical centering is easily the most visited one on the site and I do think it turned out well. I wouldn't call it my favorite though. I think my favorite post is one I still haven't written yet, but here are links to 3 series I think turned out well. The first two I like more because of what I learned while writing them. The topics taught me a lot about design.

The last series is one I wrote last year sharing my experience in redesigning my site. I enjoyed being able to share some of my thought process for good or bad so my audience could get some insight into how I think. I wouldn't tell anyone my thought process is one they need to follow, but I think the industry could use more posts like these where people do share how they think about things

1. The elements of Design
2. The 7 components of Design
3. Redesign

Mohit- Your articles are always dripping with originality and detail. How do you get the ideas and organisation to write them?

Steven- One of the links above takes you to a series on my blogging process which will go into this in greater details. I'm always writing down ideas as they come to me. It doesn't matter how dumb the idea might seem, I collect it and create a blank post for it. Over time I add notes and resources to these blank files and fill them up with ideas for where the post can go. Sometimes I'll combine several ideas into one or break one idea apart into several. I'm not sure if they're always the most original, but I try not to write about the same things I see everywhere. I do get ideas from other people though and quite a few posts originated with an idea I had after reading someone else's post.

The more you collect ideas and periodically review them the more you connect various ideas into something new. The detail usually comes from a lot of research. I like to get in-depth when writing about something. Too many things I read leave out all the important details. You try to follow a tutorial and so many important details are missing they can't get to the end. Or sometimes people make a lot of assumptions about what you know and I often don't know the things they think I know so I get lost. I try not to have others feel that way reading my posts. I want to be thorough and before someone can ask the question I want to already have it answered if I can.

On Work

Mohit- You have a string of impressed and satisfied customers, How do you manage it? Is it your fees, your way of working or something else?

Steven- Don't tell anyone, but there has been the unsatisfied client here and there. I think my fees are reasonable, but I doubt they're the reason people walk away satisfied when they do. I think it's more than I try my best to leave my clients happy.

Usually while building there site we have a lot of contact. A few phone calls and a lot of email. I tend to give a lot of updates. I think all the communication it helps clients get to know me and me get to know them. It helps me do a better job because I my sense of what they want grows all the time making it easier to give them a site they're happy with. 

From their end I hope they can see that I am doing everything I can to give them that site.

Conclusions

Mohit- Having been in the blog atmosphere for so long, you must have seen the rise and fall of many webmasters and websites. What advice do you give to passionate amateur web designers?

Steven- I have seen a lot of people rise and fall. I think the most important thing to do is keep at it. Everyone is going to rise and fall. The best web designers will have weeks without work and months where they can't think of anything to write. You have to realize and accept it will happen and not let it stop you from continuing. I have a list of projects for myself I want to get to so when client work slows down I can put time into one of my projects or learning about a new topic. Learning something new always seems to revitalize me and working on projects for myself is fun, because I can usually experiment more than I can with a client project.

Know that you're going to have failures along the way and that's a good thing. Failure helps you learn for the next time. In fact the only time you really fail is when you fail to learn from your mistakes. See all the downtimes and opportunities to understand how to succeed better and keep improving a little each and every day.

Further Reading,

Feel free to browse through the archives of Vanseo Blog here,

Read about his works and his former clients.

You may connect with him on twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

If you’re looking for a new website, a redesign of an existing website you visit his contact page.

This was an exciting

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An Interview with Paul Crowe of SpiceUpYourBlog

Learn the basics of blogging and web development from the Guru himself, Paul Crowe. He started his first blog in 2006 and has not looked back since. A professional blogger with over 500 inspiring and helpful articles, He is the owner of the popular, 

SpiceUpYourBlog.com. With an impressive PageRank of 5 and a readership of more than 300,000, the blog is one of the most widely read blogs on the web.  

A non-computer guy from the start, he confesses “I have never taken a class even at school on computers never mind studying it”. The following is an interview excerpt on his methods and his story.

An introduction

Mohit - You have blogged about nearly everything under the web umbrella from AdSense, design, gadgets, Jquery to templates, themes and Social networks. What is the genre that interests you and is it different from the genre that your readers like to read?

Paul - At the start I focused a lot on Blogger and I learned blogger design so well I could almost write a template from scratch. So I do enjoy creating blogger gadgets or design edits. We also have a lot of readers that use Blogger so those posts are always popular.

On Blogging

Mohit - You have been blogging since July 2009, you must have had hardships. What is it that keeps you going?

Paul - "At the start it was just the fact I was helping people and learning so much along the way. I started the site just to do that, help people. For the first year I actually had no ads on the site at all, it was not about money. I actually think that helped the site grow at the start, the fact there was no ads.

Now I guess I rely on the income from my websites so money has become a small bit of the driving force but knowing you are helping people every day is amazing."

Mohit - What is your all-time favorite post?

Paul - Wow that's a tough question. I guess on Spice Up Your Blog the post that really launched the site was on How To Remove The Navbar on Blogger. It was one of the first posts published in September 2009 and it sent a lot of traffic which was great. So in a way it showed me that I could have a successful blog.

Mohit - You have a Google page rank checker on your website; in your opinion how important is a Google PageRank for any website?

Paul - You know a lot of people play down the importance of Page Rank and it is not something people should get hung up on. But it is still important; when it comes down to direct ad sales it's important. People looking to contribute posts to websites also look at Page Rank. 

So it has its place but I can honestly say when I see this question I checked our Page Rank and it's the first time I have in probably six or more months.

On Social Networking

Mohit - You have near 6000 followers on Facebook and 1300 in your Google+ circles, so how important is Social Media in comparison to Search Engine Optimization for a website?

Paul - For me SEO is more important, but the gap between the importance of each is closing all the time though.

Finally,

Mohit - Having been in the blog atmosphere for so long, you must have seen the rise and fall of many bloggers and blogs. What advice do you give to passionate amateur bloggers?

Paul - Simply be patient and take (even seek out) advice from experienced bloggers. But patience is the key; you won't have big traffic or make money from blogging straight away.

Further,

Paul was fun, but we have another blogger with an experience in non-English blogs, take the interview with Vinay at TechPrevue

This was an,

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