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HOW TO SET YOUR FREELANCE RATES - A GUIDE FOR FREELANCERS & CONSULTANTSThere are many factors which business owners must consider on a daily basis as it relates to the running of their business. Things such as how to find good help, where to acquire supplies and how much to pay one's employees are all pertinent matters which must be addressed. There are a few ways to go about figuring out your rates when it comes to how much to charge the customers.Understanding Award Programs- Notes for award seekers.
by Eric Zabinsky
The World Wide Web has created a medium for individuals from all walks of life to come together and create the largest "community" on earth. Award programs started shortly after the birth of this new era and believe it or not, it has an agenda.
Fundamental beginning-
The plan: A web site.
The purpose: To share ideas (interest/hobbies).
The goal: Generate traffic (surfers/visitors).
The award program goal: A better Internet.Web sites are created by individuals to share views, interests, hobbies and beliefs. Some are selling ideas and products while others are just expressing an individual's creative being. Once a web site is up, what next? You need to generate traffic to the site by using whatever means possible. Search engines, link exchanges, like-minded affiliates and news releases to just name a few. Another such means is an Award program.
Award programs are in no way a one sided win-win situation. I have repeatedly over the years try to educate my family, friends and fellow webmasters on what it takes to run an "AP" and the vast amount of work that comes with an ethical awards program. The fine print, attention to detail and tedious nature of this beast cannot be captured in one article but here is a basic approach to understanding the general ideas.Why do we/they do it? Why do so many webmasters spend countless hours behind their computers perusing sites, reading code, checking content and grammar of other sites? Who are these people? They are evaluators for an award program. Some programs are created to generate the traffic that I spoke of earlier but an ethical program is created with one purpose in mind; To make the Internet a safer, more logical and informative community for the netizen as a whole.
Months are spent creating criteria, a scoring itinerary, disqualifying factors and a process that flows. Weeks are spent creating graphics that are aesthetically pleasing. These graphics are to be bestowed on web sites that surpass their specified criteria and the evaluators score sheet. More countless hours are spent putting it all together within a web site that has a navigation that flows. The AP's themselves then generally go through a rating and ethics society to give their programs more credibility and weight. Who wants a graphic on their site that means nothing? This is just the beginning.
Evaluating sites will eat up more hours than television or family matters over the next year for a typical evaluator. An evaluator is not there to pass or fail you. He wants you to succeed. The greatest honor you can give an evaluator is making sure your site is "ready." Read their criteria and run a checklist of disqualifying factors. Compare your site to this criteria PRIOR to applying for that award. If you are a serious award seeker then READ the criteria given in the AP. This will ensure a pleasant experience for your evaluator and enhance your chances of gaining the award.
How do you increase your chances of "winning?" After you check the criteria and disqualifying factors. Are you sure your site is ready? Check their "winners" list and compare. Not all sites are equal and the same goes for award programs. Many award programs have high expectations. The tougher awards generally provide the best feedback. Often this feedback is given upon request and it is invaluable to you as a designer. Use this constructive criticism to better your site and do not misconstrue its intent as being egotistical or derogative. Remember the purpose behind these award programs is to better our community.
A couple of quick hints when applying to award programs:
1. Make SURE you are C.O.P.P.A. compliant.
2. Make SURE your Privacy statement is intact.
3. Copyright (even if you think you don't need one.) On the other hand if the content you are using is not yours....get permissions and give credit. Adopt the old cliché, "When in doubt, don't!"
4. READ THE CRITERIA
5. Design, navigation, content, code, spelling, graphics, scripts, sound (ability to turn off).... all must be in order, squared away, error free and optimized.
6. Child safe and this includes external links. Get ICRA and SafeSurf rated.
7. Did you read their hints, checklist and criteria? This question is Never redundant. Months are spent preparing this for seekers. It is but a simple courtesy and can save an evaluator a trip to your site. It can also make all the difference in the score that your site receives.
If any of these items are in question, don't apply. Best of Luck in your endeavors. ...Happy Hunting.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Eric Zabinsky
webmaster@z3design.com
www.z3design.com
Owner/WebmasterEric is an accomplished webmaster and author of the book "Shoppers." He attended college at Texas Tech University as a music major and moved on to
the University of Maryland changing his major to business. After college he joined the armed forces where he served for nine years.Eric is skilled in several internet technologies such as HTML, ASP, CSS, Flash, Director and CGI. He is an active member in the awards community evaluating web sites for
two high profile award programs and writes articles on different aspects of web design for award indices.
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