Free Online Web Applications...

As a web designer, I don’t need to tell you how awesome the internet is. You can truly find about anything you need on the net. It’s the wild west of the 21st century. As web designers, you also know how important web applications are. What’s better than just web applications for your projects, how about free web applications. Today, I have compiled a list of free design applications that you can use for your web design endeavors. It is important to note though, that these applications are not just for the hardcore designers, they are for everyone from managers, teachers, nurses, students or office workers. Though these applications are not very well known they are great for anyone interested in improving their work efficiency. Check them out!

One online application that is sure to help you in your web design endeavors is FreshBooks.  FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking utility that saves your business time and money.  This application will also make you appear more professional in the eyes of your clientele.

A great way to get an understanding about how your readership feels about your website is through surveys. Premiere Survey is a free survey application that allows online surveys, web surveys, and email surveys. It also offers customer satisfaction surveys, employee satisfaction surveys and market research surveys. So if you want to better fine tune your website for your market, surveys are they way to go.

The Doodlekit website builder is powered by a database backend. This means you get extra functionality that you won’t get with most other website maker tools. We help you make your website a success with: blogs, forums, shopping carts, custom forms and much more. Our free website builder is ever-expanding, which means the longer you own your site, the more new features and functions you’ll discover.

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced web user, Doodlekit’s website builder can help you create the perfect website for your business or personal needs.

Another great application for you internet business is Zapproved. Zapproved is a web tool that makes group decision-making more efficient and accountable. This unique solution introduces peer-to-peer and organization techniques to improve the process of building consensus.

A great application for your web design purposes is FileDropper. The great thing about FileDropper is its simple interface. FileDropper provides one click file hosting. To do this, you just click the upload button and select you file and the file is taken to the page where it is hosted. You can upload to a remarkable 5 GB.

W3Counter offers you website analytics, real time web stats and web counter. The best thing about W3Counter is that it’s free and that it answers the questions: who’s using your website, how did they reach you website, and what do the find attractive about it.

These free web applications should help every web designer out there who wants to work more efficiently and improve upon their website. In addition, these applications are also beneficial for anyone wanting to improve upon their quality of work. Check them out and delve deeper into these exciting programs.

Free and Open Source Alternatives to Photoshop...

For any web designer, Adobe Photoshop is a must on any wish list. Photoshop comes with a multitude of features that allow exceptional and professional photo editing. But the reason many designers do not use Photoshop is simply the price, which can be too expensive. Fortunately for designers, there are numerous open source and entirely free programs out there that do as much as Photoshop if not more.

Doodlekit is a fully hosted online free website builder and CMS (Content Management System) that helps you build a personal or business website. It’s perfect for anyone from first-timers to advanced web developers and web designers. Unlike other website creator tools, Doodlekit is all online. You don’t need to install any software on your computer, and you can use it from any computer, anywhere in the world that has internet access, at any time.

One Photoshop substitute is Gimp. GIMP is short for “GNU image manipulation program.” GIMP is one of the oldest and most popular alternatives to Photoshop.  GIMP does not have all of the features that Photoshop has but you will find the majority of features there. GIMP has a large community of support and it is also cross platform.

Cinepaint is almost designed specifically for video and it is often utilized to make animated feature films by major studios. Like Photoshop it has many capabilities and as a photo editor it can reach fidelity of up to 32 bit color.
Communities of web designers also use Krita as a Photoshop alternative. Krita is known for its easy learning curve and in 2006 won the Akademy Award for Best Application. Krita is a little less powerful than GIMP and Photoshop, but it also has many unique features.

Paint.NET has become the de-facto replacement for the popular MSPaint and has transformed into a fully featured open source image editor with large community of support. To run Paint.NET you will need Windows.

A design application that was designed specifically for the Mac is ChocoFlop. ChocoFlop is a pretty comprehensive design application. Thought this program will not always be free, at the moment it is in its beta version and is being offered for free download.

Pixia was originally designed in Japanese and was almost exclusively used for Japanese anime. Today, though, it has been re-designed for English and can be used as an editor in general. It does not have easiest learning curve out of all of the programs discussed but if you are serious about web design, it is worth a shot. Pixia is designed for application on Windows.

As a web designer, your pocket book may not always allow you to use the most ideal design programs, but with a little research and searching around, you will find that there are numerous alternatives to Photoshop that any web designer can use to make an excellent web site.

CMS Web Design: Is Yours in Need of an Overhaul?...

Your content management system has a major impact on your productivity. Some essentials of a successful business are obvious – positive cash flow, quality products, hardworking employees and loyal customers, to name a few. It can be easy to forget that content is at the heart of it all. All of that content is controlled through your content management system, making your CMS critical to the success of your business. An effective, user-friendly CMS web design allows your team to operate with maximum efficiency. If your current content management system is hard to use and incapable of keeping pace with your growing needs, then it’s time to update its design.

One sign of an outdated content management system is its inability to keep up with the content-related needs of a growing business. An out-of-date content management system can slow your progress down to a snail’s pace. In fact, outdated CMS web design can actually be more problematic than not having a system at all. As your business expands, you face an increased need to quickly create and publish updated content.

Productivity can also be hindered by a CMS that’s difficult to use. Workflow is slowed, and your team members are left feeling frustrated. Sorting through inconsistencies in the way content is organized, categorized and published wastes time that could be utilized more profitably. Your resources are tied up by avoidable obstacles to productivity.

Updating your website with timely information, such as product descriptions and press materials, is as important as any task your business performs. If you find yourself unable to keep up with the pace, your content management system could be to blame. A new CMS web design can provide your team with a wide array of tools that puts your subject matter experts behind the wheel. They will have the ability to create, edit and publish content without waiting for assistance from a staff member who knows HTML. That helps keep your content fresh.

Miscommunication can cause delays and mistakes. A poor content management system can fracture your road to success with potholes of missing information. It’s hard to operate as a team when some members can’t locate the content they need. Your CMS is in place to aid your team in accessing information, not just Internet users and customers. The right web design ensures that your team members have complete and accurate content at their fingertips.

A hallmark of superior CMS web design is that computer pros and newbies alike have no trouble adding, updating, editing and publishing content. Frequently, the people who need to access and adjust content are not the ones with technical software and computer training. An intuitive, user-friendly content management system interface enables subject matters to get their job done without depending on the availability of HTML-savvy team members. Each member of your team is free to focus on what they do best.

Your CMS web design should centralize content management and control. Rather than scattered pieces leading to missing and overlapping information, you have a “home base” of sorts. It operates to automatically identify and assemble content across the span of your organization. A good system allows multiple team members to work on content at the same time, simultaneously editing, adding and deleting from different locations. The result is a collaborative effort that ultimately increases productivity. Time isn’t wasted while team members sit idly by waiting for their turn to access content. And remember, time is money!

If you can relate to the content management woes outlined above, it’s time to take a critical look at your CMS web design. A more advanced web design allows you to take a variety of approaches to content management. Team members can work together or individually to add, change and publish the content that’s critical to the success of your business.

Good CMS web design provides for centralized content management. It enables all staff members to create, edit, update and publish content, no matter what level of technical knowledge they possess. If you find your progress being held back by an overly complex system and an inability to publish content in a timely manner, seek out and implement a new content management system. The boost in productivity, as well as team member morale, will be substantial.

The search for the best Free CMS and free website ...

As a web designer, I don’t need to tell you how awesome the internet is. You can truly find about anything you need on the net. It’s the wild west of the 21st century. As web designers, you also know how important web applications are. What’s better than just web applications for your projects, how about free web applications. Today, I have compiled a list of free design applications that you can use for your web design endeavors. It is important to note though, that these applications are not just for the hardcore designers, they are for everyone from managers, teachers, nurses, students or office workers. Though these applications are not very well known they are great for anyone interested in improving their work efficiency. Check them out!

One online application that is sure to help you in your web design endeavors is FreshBooks. FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking utility that saves your business time and money. This application will also make you appear more professional in the eyes of your clientele.

A great way to get an understanding about how your readership feels about your website is through surveys. Premiere Survey is a free survey application that allows online surveys, web surveys, and email surveys. It also offers customer satisfaction surveys, employee satisfaction surveys and market research surveys. So if you want to better fine tune your website for your market, surveys are they way to go.

The Doodlekit website builder is powered by a database backend. This means you get extra functionality that you won’t get with most other website maker tools. We help you make your website a success with: blogs, forums, shopping carts, custom forms and much more. Our free website builder is ever-expanding, which means the longer you own your site, the more new features and functions you’ll discover.

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced web user, Doodlekit’s website builder can help you create the perfect website for your business or personal needs.

Another great application for you internet business is Zapproved. Zapproved is a web tool that makes group decision-making more efficient and accountable. This unique solution introduces peer-to-peer and organization techniques to improve the process of building consensus.

A great application for your web design purposes is FileDropper. The great thing about FileDropper is its simple interface. FileDropper provides one click file hosting. To do this, you just click the upload button and select you file and the file is taken to the page where it is hosted. You can upload to a remarkable 5 GB.

W3Counter offers you website analytics, real time web stats and web counter. The best thing about W3Counter is that it’s free and that it answers the questions: who’s using your website, how did they reach you website, and what do the find attractive about it.

These free web applications should help every web designer out there who wants to work more efficiently and improve upon their website. In addition, these applications are also beneficial for anyone wanting to improve upon their quality of work. Check them out and delve deeper into these exciting programs.