All It Takes Is One.

www.26ideas.com

@26ideas

It has been a while since I last updated and created a new blog post. Thank you to all my suscribers, readers and those of you who have been supporting me.

As some of you may or may not have heard, I have left my company (and coaching) in hopes of moving to Seattle by November to gain more work experience or start freelancing with the talented Janette at Movement Studio.

Before I can make plans for either, I needed to start off fresh. It is a good idea to get organized before attempting to start anything new and that's what I did. I cleaned out my closet, threw away a lot of old things that have been collecting dust and reformatted old hard drives which I never use. Needless to say, this took up most of my day (and I'm still not complete).

My 'work' area looks more like a play area.

I am hopeful for what this month will bring. I read previously in a magazine about doing what you want and being rich but the first step that I needed to do was quit. Yes, I'm very apprehensive because the time might not be right with the economy, but truthfully, is there ever a 'right time'?

My goal is not to be rich and famous (okay, maybe it is) but I want to concentrate on doing what I want, when I want and enjoying it. I look back at when I first started doing web design and realized I am very fortunate to have a career that I am passionate about and something I enjoy doing.

I Finally Did It

I can now die a happy man. The other day, my coworker @michaelfolling aka SEO ninja told me that I was finally on the first page of Google (Bing and Yahoo! as well) for Hawaii Web Design for my personal portfolio, OtaDesigns.com.

I do have to thank Mike for opening the door and helping me achieve this feat. From what little I do know about SEO/SMM is that it is nothing easy to do and it is really time consuming. I spent a little under a year watching my site to see how it's rankings did. It was like watching grass grow.

Now, I won't be discussing how I did it or what tricks were done, but I do personally believe it has to do with a fine mixture of content, back links, HTML/CSS, and surprisingly enough, design. I throw design in the mix because I'm sure you've been told 'Hey, check out this website. It looks pretty cool.' The next thing you know, you forget the URL so you jump on Google to search what the site might be related to. This really helps indexing your keyword search.

Google+

Now that Google+ is slowly making it's way to the masses, I think this will affect SEO in someways:

1. Logged in constantly - You are now constantly logged into Google, thus saving your search history and putting pages you visited prior on top of your search results. If you searched Hawaii Web Design again and clicked on my portfolio before, you'll notice my page rank might jump a little higher.
2. DoFollow links - In your profile, you have the option of adding personal links to other sites aobut yourself. For some reason, Google leaves these as 'dofollow' links. Mike showed me a cool plugin in for Firefox called 'nodofollow' which highlights (in purple) links on a site that are dofollow.
   
   Granted no one visits my profile or is constantly clicking on my links, I think this helps with SEO backlinks a lot since it is coming from Google.
3. +1 - We all see how popular 'liking' something on Facebook has become. I fear the same will now happen with Google's search result. I hope people who are taking advantage of Google's +1 isn't just 'liking' any and every site they see. I assume this would have an effect SEO ranking as well.

In Closing

Thank you to all of you who actually read my blog and support me and my work. I try hard to do my best when I code to make sure every client I provide a website for gets a decent page rank for their keywords. In fact, I was very happy when I recently got my friend's site A Cake Life to rank on page one of Google as well for Hawaii wedding cakes.

If you like my articles, please visit and become a fan on my Facebook Fan Page, check out my web design portfolio, or follow me on Twitter for more updates!

Where Are You?

One question I have a problem answering is: "Do you know any other local (Oahu) web designers?"

Living on an island where the catch phrase is "This island is too small." and "Everyone knows each other.", I'm surprised by the lack of other web designers I know. My ultimate dream is to be a freelance web designer but I can't depend on my own raw talent to get me through life. I need feedback. I need inspiritaion. I need collaboration.

Reach Out

Hawaii web designers, this is for you: Please get in contact with me via email, Twitter (@chrisota), or Facebook and let's connect! I'm building a local database of web designers and it would be great to bounce ideas off each other or even share projects with each other whenever someone gets busy. If you know any other web designers, please reach out to them as well!

If you want to find out more about me, please check out my About.me profile. There might be something big planned in the future.

Thank you and I look forward to networking!

When coding my websites, I try to find ways to cut down the amount of images I have to use.

Gradients in web design is a very popular design element right now and for a while, I had to use images to create the gradients I wanted.

If I'm designing something like a button or an object that might need to be edited often, it is time consuming to open Photoshop, change the text and colors and upload your changes. By using CSS to incorporate gradients, it will not only cut down time to edit your design elements, but it will also speed up load time and make it possible to create design templates and easily change their colors without using images. It could be debated whether you should make an image or build everything by code. I guess it really depends on how ambitious (or lazy) you are.

The following is a simple way to add gradients to any page. It works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer 6 and up with no javascript or jquery.

First, set your original background color as a default in case your gradient doesn't work.

background: #ccc;

Next, set your gradient. I will start with Firefox.

background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ccc 0%, #666 100%);

Now I will add the code for Chrome and Safari bowsers.

background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, from(#ccc), to(#666));

Your code is going to get longer so be sure you keep everything organized. Next is the CSS code for Internet Explorer 6 and 7. HasLayout (zoom:1; *display:block;) is added so it renders correctly.

progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(GradientType=0, startColorstr='#ccc', endColorstr='#666'); zoom:1; *display: block;

Now the final section will be for Internet Explorer 8 and up. *Note: This will not work in Internet Explorer 9 with rounded corners applied*

-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(GradientType=0, startColorstr='#ccc', endColorstr='#666')";

Your final code:

#elementname{
background: #ccc;
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ccc 0%, #666 100%); /* Firefox */
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, from(#ccc), to(#666)); /* Safari and Chrome */
progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(GradientType=0, startColorstr='#ccc', endColorstr='#666'); zoom:1; *display: block; /* IE6 & IE7 */
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(GradientType=0, startColorstr='#ccc', endColorstr='#666')"; /* IE8 */
}

Although the code gets long, it is pretty simple to implement. If done correctly, it will save time using this CSS code vs. creating images for things that only need gradients. If anyone has any other suggestions or bugs, please leave comments below.

In part 2, I will explain the percentages and how to control the colors.

If you like my articles, please visit my Facebook Fan Page today and check out my web design portfolio for more updates!

To those of you who follow me on Twitter, I'm sure you enjoy my ranting and raving about what is going on at work. Although I would love to write pages of things that could be changed, I thought I should take my situation and reflect back on the positives. As they say, it is easier to complain than to say "thank you".

Being Passionate

Whether you are a designer or accountant, working extra hours is a must at any full time job. We all learn to put in extra time when deadlines are looming, sometimes with no overtime or bonuses. A good friend of mine, Doc, once asked me "what are you passionate about?" I didn't hestiate in answering web design (and swimming of course).

Being fortunate enough to work full-time for several years has taught me that web design really is my passion and I am fortunate enough to find it at such a young age. I don't usually have a problem working long hours in the office to see what I can contribute to the company and most importantly, my clients.

The Bigger Picture

"You learn more at your job than you will in school." That is a quote that is always repeated over and over again and a quote that I believe in. I have learned things from testing layouts in a wide variety of browsers to several types of CMSs ranging from Boonex, Magento, Joomla and WordPress. Although not all experiences are the best, it has shown me the bigger picture to see what tools are out there for others to use.

Handy Man

When people ask how much I charge to build a website, the first response I usually get is "wait, what?". Shocked by my price, most people don't understand how much work goes into launching a unique and personal site.

Purchasing your domain name, hosting your website, setting up your email accounts, coding, designing, SEO, social media, and maintanence are just some of the things required for a freelance designer to do. Without my past work experiences, I don't think I would have been fortunate to learn a lot of these things.

Partners In Crime

I have been blessed to meet and work with so many unqiue and creative individuals while working in the web design industry. From developers and designers, to creative directors and animators, everyone has something to teach you. People come in and out of your life for a reason.

Perhaps the two most influential people I have had the pleasure working with would have to be Ka'a Kihe and Michael Folling.

These two have not only kept my sanity throughout my working careers, but they have also kept fueling the fire for me to learn more about just exactly what I do. Whether it is development, technology, SEO or social media, these two guys are on it and not only show a passion for work, but they are passionate about everything and everyone around them.

Meeting and working with them is probably the best thing that has happened to me over the past few years of working.

Closing

There are a lot more things I could discuss and go one about like time management, clients, improving my execution in design, and learning new coding skills, but I felt like the things discussed above were the most important to me when thinking about my career.

Please help me by becoming a Facebook Fan and visiting my design web site for more updates on projects I may be working on.

In closing, when times get tough, it always helps to think about the positives.

"I guess that's what happens in the end, you start thinking about the beginning." - John Smith, Mr. & Mrs. Smith

This one is for you @mr_chops.

I never understood shoes and why some people were so obssessed with them.

The same can be said for my obsession with Kidrobot vinyl. More specifically, Dunnys. Why would anyone spend so much on these 'toys'? My arugment is that these little 3-inch vinyl toys inspire creativity since they are designed by other artists... art in the palm of your hands. I used to keep them in my cubicle at work for inspiration (and to retain my sanity).

The same can be for certain shoes. Although I am not a sneaker head, I slowly started to understand why some people stand in line in anticipation for some quick strikes.

Keeping myself busy by doing art is something I am trying to do. I was inspired to illustrate something related to shoes and spent some time on Behance, Dribbble and Envato looking for ideas. I found a designer who had fantastic illustrations and decided to try it myself.

Creating these pictures forced me to sort through 100s of images on shoes and made me realize shoes are an artwork themselves. Just like vinyl Dunnys, Munnys, Labbits, etc there are Jordans, P-Rods, Dunks, etc. Although I can't afford to be an avid shoe collector like some people I know, it is nice to learn about something and see what makes collecting shoes so popular.

I was very ignorant about it but now I am very humbled to learn more about it.

First round draft. I tried to aim for a playful logo since they do root canals.

I saw a web site and got inspired to create another variation of my logo. This isn't what I had in mind so I guess I'll consider this a first draft. It's funny how time flies when you are enjoying what you are designing.

Please help show your support by becoming a fan of my new Ota Designs Facebook page! I appreciate all of you viewers out there. Thank you!.