An Introduction To Social Network :

Social Networking are the “Web sites primarily designed to facilitate interaction between users who share interests, attitudes and activities, such as Facebook and MySpace”

Social networks can provide a range of benefits to members of an organization:

Support for learning: Social networks can enhance informal learning and support social connections within groups of learners and with those involved in the support of learning.

Support for members of an organization:  Social networks can potentially be used my all members of an organization, and not just those involved in working with students. Social networks can help the development of communities of practice.

Engaging with others: Passive use of social networks can provide valuable business intelligence and feedback on institutional services (although this may give rise to ethical concerns).

Ease of access to information and applications: The ease of use of many social networking services can provide benefits to users by simplifying access to other tools and applications. The Facebook Platform provides an example of how a social networking service can be used as an environment for other tools.

Common interface: A possible benefit of social networks may be the common interface which spans work / social boundaries. Since such services are often used in a personal capacity the interface and the way the service works may be familiar, thus minimizing training and support needed to exploit the services in a professional context.  This can, however, also be a barrier to those who wish to have strict boundaries between work and social activities.

Examples Of Social Networking Services

Examples of popular social networking services include:

Facebook: Facebook is a social networking Web site that allows people to communicate with their friends and exchange information. In May 2007 Facebook launched the Facebook Platform which provides a framework for developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features

MySpace: MySpace is a social networking Web site offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs and groups, commonly used for sharing photos, music and videos.

Twitter: Twitter  is an example of a micro-blogging service. Twitter can be used in a variety of ways including sharing brief information with users and providing support for one’s peers

Using Social Network Marketing To Promote Your Business

Most successful online business owners are using social network marketing to promote their business and this kind of marketing is one of the free methods to generate targeted leads for any business especially those based online. If you are looking to start any successful online business even if you have other promotion tactics in mind for the business, social network should count in if you are really looking to get the word out there and make your business popular.
Social Media:

Social media marketing have taken it’s big turn in business promotion, people now take advantage of this wild growing market to promote their business in a unique way. Unlike the traditional media promotion where you have to pay television stations hundreds of dollars just to place a tiny 30 second to 1 minute advert, you can now get your spot of business promotion the media way on the internet free. Top notch media sites like Youtube, Metacafe & Google videos allow its users to upload videos of any size or any length in other to promote their business or teach their viewer online.

Social Networks:

Social networks like facebook, twitter and myspace are used by business owners to promote their business by creating their business pages on this social networks, here you genterate more targeted leads by giving the users an option to join your page or not being sure that those who will join are potential customers.

Blogging:

They are different methods of social network marketing that you can use to get popularity to your business and some of them include Blogging

Blogging is a very essential web 2.0 tool for promoting business though on a fresh start, your blog might be getting low amount of visitors daily but when you use the right keywords and place your links carefully so that it encourages the seo of your blog, you will start big clusters of visitors on your blog after some time.

This tool is very powerful and most people do mistake it as websites which it’s not, blogs get higher ranking and will possibly get more traffic than a normal website when it’s optimized, some good blogging platforms that you can use to promote your business include wordpress, blogger amongst others.

Social Networking – A Route to Business Growth!

Interaction, communication, socializing, social networking, building contacts are the major benefits of online socializing. Social Networking develops an opportunity for your business to grow on a regular parameter. Implementing a careful communication with the new contacts you build enables you to make your business well known over the net.
Social Networking presents a picture where there is online interaction between the client and consumer. Hence, the product knowledge is shared and the doubts are solved instantly, increasing the tendency of business deal. There are various social networking sites such as Face book, Twitter, Linked In where business connections can be developed.

Moreover, there are open discussion forums where any and every business topic can be discussed.

Article Marketing

The World Wide Web is used as a source of reliable knowledge. So article posting helps in marketing your business. Write and post articles on topics related to your core business, adding links to your business website. Article Marketing also enables your business to gain prominence over the web.

Social Networking Sites – a costless business marketing tool!

When you join social networking sites, you get to meet new personalities globally. As you interact with these people, you can ask for their assistance to expand your connections. These people tell their friends; their friends’ friends disseminate the information as well. Your network will grow and will keep your expansion rising. Getting a lot of references is a good business strategy in order to be recognized in the market.

Spending on product information or advertising can be very expensive. With socialization, you can market and introduce your products without costs at all. You just need to relate them your products and services. It is a no cost marketing tool.

Social networking is an intimate encounter with anyone, who can either be a prospect or a link to a target customer. As you always come in contact with these people, you will realize that you have built a relationship with them which can be a venue for product or service promotion and learning their needs. It can build strong tie-ups with customers.

The goal of being able to give satisfaction to customers becomes easy for the reason that you are at hand with the needs that they have. A good business reputation will be the end result. Your products or services will speak for it.

Hence, it is a strategy of doing good and costless business marketing. The returns that every entrepreneur ever wanted will come for a short period of time.

Social Networking site generate higher business opportunity

Social networking sites, are common platform for different community people using same products or services, therefore, it is easier to create an activity, where everyone can participate and share different views.

It is ideal for communicating and sharing your website’s information in a big way. Members are also free to place their opinions through such networking.

This is for sure that time to time activities always interest people. Social networking sites help in creating links for the desired website and keeps members involved. Link building activity, produces higher results through social networking site because; it is more interactive and higher responding.

Similar interest people share the same social networking site. When more visitors add-up; then enquiries also increase. Higher number of enquiries produces higher publicity and in future higher business opportunity. Ultimately it is a win-win situation for both the Company and its members.

Conclusion

Go Ahead! Use the internet as never before, socialize, build contacts, promote your company, get listed in top directories and go on achieving heights in business on an unending pace.

The Company:

Way2Smile Solutions Private Limited is a total IT solutions company based in India and Canada. We have been in business since 2009 and have been active in providing quality and cost-effective IT solutions to our clients in many industrial sectors. Our core expertise is in providing software and web enabled business solutions. The company is promoted by professionals with many decades of IT experience in consulting, designing, developing and implementing innovative IT solutions globally. We have the capability to deliver solutions that match your needs and exceed expectations.

Our Vision:

Global IT consulting and Web services and solutions provider

Our Mission:

Our mission is to provide clients with a reliable & affordable web solution to cater to the needs of our clients. We provide IT solutions adapting the technologies of today and based on the realities of tomorrow.

Our Strengths:

• Experienced and Expert workforce
• Our customers
• Attention to detail and quality
• Rapid bespoke solutions
• Global solutions at affordable rates

Services we offer:

Way2Smile helps companies make the most of their investments from providing system integration solutions, application development and management service, and testing solutions.

Our services provide the built-in flexibility to adapt to constantly changing global market and the ability to strategize, develop and execute new initiatives with optimal speed to remain competitive. Contact us to discuss about custom solution for your enterprise specific needs.

IT Services

• Custom Application Development
• Application Management
• Migration and Re-engineering
• System Integration Testing
• Performance Engineering

E Business Services

• Ecommerce Implementation
• Search Engine Optimization
• E Marketing

Core Competencies and Industries:

Core Competencies:

IT Consulting

• Architecture and Technology
• Information Risk Management
• IT Process and Service Management
• IT Strategy and Governance
• Master Data Management
• Performance Engineering Solutions
• Quality Assurance and Testing

Enterprise Solutions

• CRM solutions
• Supply Chain Management
• eLearning

Business Consulting

• Business Process Management
• Change Management
• Program Management
• Ecommerce Management

Business Process Outsourcing

• Customer Interaction Management
• Customer Service Outsourcing
• Human Resources Outsourcing
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing
• Supply Chain Management

Industries:

Online & Media

Education & Training

Technology

Manufacturing & Retail

Graphics and Animation:

Macromedia Flash

Real Media

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe illustrator

Windows Media

Programming:

Microsoft .NET

VB .NET

J2EE

Java Swing

Software Tools:

Delphi

Power Builder

Oracle Developer

Coldfusion

Websites and Portals:

• Static Website Designing

ü  Static Website Design

ü  Website Redesign

• Dynamic Website Design & Development

ü  Dynamic Website development

ü  Web Application Development

ü  PHP Web Development

Integrated Web Solutions

• Web Portal Design & Development

ü  E-commerce & OS Commerce Solutions

• Web Support

ü  Website Maintenance

ü  Website Support

Custom Application Development:

• Integrated and comprehensive solution
• Customize existing solution
• Efficient and Cost effective business solutions

E-Marketing:

Search Engine Optimization Services:

• Pay Per Click Optimization
• Search Engine Submission
• SEO Management
• META Tag Set-up

Our Team

• Our team is a strong combination of knowledge and Experience thus it achieves the required target in a short time.
• Analyzing root causes.
• Well-structured team providing, different courses of action for solution of the problem.

Clientele:

Satisfaction has, as it usually does, worked both ways. We have derived immense pleasure from working with our clients. At Blaze, we love to do the work and our customers get the results as they desire.

Web Applications:

• http://buildingandconstruction.org
• http://www.tsspowersystems.com/
• http://www.customerneedz.com/
• http://way2rental.com/
• http://www.deepamalai.com/index.php
• http://veerappanandassociates.com/index.php

Performance Appraisal Tool :

• (http://co-ignite.com/)

Travel Portal:

• customerneedz.com

Online Chat Application:

• Imyouranswer.com ( Currently available in QA )

Project Management Tool:

A product by itself is in under development.

We’re happy to help you and could be reached at www.way2smile.com

If you have any queries on this, kindly do mail us at marketing@way2smile.com

Mobile Application Development

Today, mobile application development plays a key role in any kind of online business growth expansion.

Mobile application development is one of the application development services which handheld devices like personal digital assistants or PDA, mobile phones, and enterprise digital assistants or EDA. In some areas, it is also known as a palmtop computer. PDA is a mobile device that can be connected to the net and used as a personal information manager. EDA is used for data capture and handheld computer that derived from the PDA conception

.
The Hand-held Devices:

• Enterprise digital assistants
• Personal digital assistants
• Personal digital assistance
• Mobile phones

Benefits:

The mobile applications are downloaded by customers from different mobile software distribution platforms or app stores; however, they are found pre-installed in the mobile devices as well. By making online your own mobile applications, you can have a benefit of users who may download your application and get regular bases update from your organization. This is the easiest way to stay connect with your users with market news & details.

Smart Phones:

Mobile application development is a niche area of application development for the customized apps built for mobile devices. These mobile apps increase the phones popularity by adding a great deal of functionality, enhanced performance and user-friendly applications. These mobile devices are also called smart phones.

The popular smart phones are the iPhone, Android, Blackberry etc. Most of the phones are built on different hardware and hence, they require different platforms to operate. The task of mobile application development is designing applications used for different platform. This is very difficult because one has to take into account the customer preferences as well.

Mobile applications help the businesses to be in real time as well as to know the latest developments in the market. This is the age of swift communications, and the business can acquire the gain of having accesses to the communication before the competitors do.

There are two ways of business oriented mobile application development:

• Developing your mobile website
• Developing your mobile application

Nowadays, people buy products through a traditional way and everybody wants to make their life as promising as comfortable with less efforts. However, with the progression of technology, people utilize the internet to search out their products and order it directly from the home. So, latest version must be installed on your smart phone to get most recent with your market news as well as details.

Furthermore, when you are going to develop any mobile features for your business that time you require to understand the targeted audience because it will be very obliging for you in taking decisions about technology and design. Few people think that the drawback of the Mobile Application Development is its compatibility with a single operating system platform. However; there are technologies that facilitate the application to be attuned with all the operating system platforms. Moreover, this is the responsibility of the application development to keep swiftness with the newest technological development.

Platforms of Mobile Application Development:

• J2ME mobile
• iPad
• iPhone
• Android
• Windows mobile
• Symbian
• Blackberry

Playbook:

PlayBook is a tablet computer or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen. It often uses an onscreen virtual keyboard or a digital pen rather than a physical keyboard.

BlackBerry PlayBook:

Blackberry playbook is developed with great design and powerful features; hence users will definitely not have any issue regarding use of blackberry playbook. Blackberry playbook contains sleek design and appearance as it does not have any sharp corners and buttons, its colossal structure will allow you to turn its head whenever you are going to use blackberry playbook.

Exciting features of Blackberry playbook

Blackberry playbook has shiny design and very light weight which is very advantageous for the users. Good resolution of pixels in blackberry playbook allows you to view pictures and movies as they look alive. Blackberry playbook provides full length computer to compact into tablet format, blackberry playbook is very trustworthy because of the reason that its operating system is powered by QNX technology which is very effective and powerful.
PlayBook as a Business tool:

The major requirement of the tablet users is getting as much time saved as possible. This is just because of the fact that time is the most crucial resource in today’s life. Multitasking is no more a desire, rather it has turned into a necessity for almost all business class people. It is for this reason the PlayBook is blessed with the 1.0 GHz dual core processor that is giving tough competition with the Tegra 2 chipset. Thus providing you the edge over other tablets who are still stuck with the single core processing.

The memory management is a great relief with the PlayBook as there is options for everyone with the selection from 16 / 32 / 64 GB storage. The 1 GB RAM ensures that the data transfer and other memory operations are processed in high speed. The BlackBerry Tablet OS is providing the users with the optimum utilization of the resources available so that what you get is the best performance out of the gadget.

Fun with PlayBook:

At a recent MWC demo one of the RIM representing personnel announced that the PlayBook will also support Android apps. So this is the best possible news that the users can have this year. Thus providing them access to the huge Android app store. The best part being that almost a major number of these applications are available for free of cost. The display unit is specially designed in order to offer he customers the best of the high class visual pleasures. World of Internet is at your fingertips with the PlayBook. It serves the highest possible speeds of internet with the WLAN. So now wherever you find wireless network get connected to it to find the world wide web at your service.

Mobile Application Development Services:

Mobile applications developers communicate with their clients through custom application Development. They develop applications customer-friendly, easy and quick data processing. Applications are developed on these platforms. Mobile applications have engulfed almost all the fields.

Below are given few chosen fields mobile applications are playing pivotal role :-

• Advertising like corporate, coupon app and promotional
• Business like planning and management
• Communication and messaging
• Educational
• Entertainment, games and leisure
• Financial like money management, payment transferring
• Geo location
• Medical and fitness
• News
• Social networking and blogging
• Video and music

Mobile Application- Growing by Leaps and Bounds:

Most of the mobile companies are developing applications to enhance the customers’ business dynamically. That is how mobile applications development industry has been growing by leaps and bounds. Mobile application is making consumers well aware of the market to compare the prices. They connect to the internet and then browse through popular shopping sites. If they find a better price they can order the item online or physically go to the other store. Consumers are increasingly becoming more aware of prices. GPS system has proved a boon, helping you out to locate the exact spot. This is another application of mobile. The owner of the phone downloads a special program allowing his friends to know where he is and what he is doing.

These technologies have served the customers in a great deal by providing them a substitute for Laptops and Palmtops

Mobile application opens a new door, which brings your business, ideas & website to many more people further, it also gives the speed, agility by which one can increase the profit rapidly. With the affirmed growth in mobile users, mobile applications’ future is also on the pick. Whether it’s a simple game, software or utility, every application contributes in some way or the other to the end users.

Way2smile on Mobile Applications:

If you are wondering how you could get your own mobile application, the answer is very simple, we are here for the same.

Way2smile Solutions is a web application development company offering mobile application development solutions, java, j2ee web enabled mobile application development services & many more like windows 6.0 development.

We are also having extensive experience in developing such application using GPS, GPRS, WiFi,
Our Mobile Application Developers can enjoy developing applications for various mobile phones for different categories, including:

• Mobile Games
• Transportation and Trucking solution
• Internet Applications
• Multimedia Application
• Office/Business Applications
• Fun application
• Utility application

Our application development team has developed end-to-end wireless, mobile applications that integrate business transactions through mobile or wireless devices & content delivered systems to bring out a range of valuable information for both suppliers and buyers.

All your doubts & worries would come to an end if you assign your application development project to a reputed web application development company that is specialized in software application development like us. Our company that takes special care of project analysis, project documentation, test planning, project maintenance etc should be the chosen one for your project.

Discover the different, diverse and dynamic mobile application development that will open new avenues for your business

We’re happy to help you and could be reached at www.way2smile.com

If you have any queries on this, kindly do mail us at marketing@way2smile.com

Bugzilla is a “Bug Tracking System” that can efficiently keep track of outstanding bugs in a product.
Multiple users can access this database and query, add and manage these bugs. Bugzilla essentially comes to the rescue of a group of people working together on a product as it enables them to view current bugs and make contributions to resolve issues.

Its basic repository nature works out better than the mailing list concept and an organized database is always easier to work with
The bugzilla utility basically allows you to do the following:
1. Add a bug into the database
2. Review existing bug reports
3. Manage the content

Bugzilla is organised in the form of bug reports that give all the information you need about a particular bug
A bug report would consist of the following fields.

Product–>Component
Assigned to
Status (New, Assigned, Fixed etc)
Summary
Bug priority
Bug severity (blocker, trivial etc)
Bug reporter

A Bug’s Life:

Once a new bug is entered, it goes through a number of states before the issue is resolved. A bug’s life as we term it has the following states an transitions:

unconfirmed
new (this state is acquired once the bug is confirmed)
assigned (once a developer takes possession of the bug)
resolved (when the development with the bug is finished)
reopen (when the solution is not satisfactory)
verified (once the solution is verified and satisfactory)
closed
For a better understanding view: http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/2.18/images/bzLifecycle.png

Bugzilla Query Page:

The Bugzilla search page allows you to search for a particular bug. The search can be based on the product, status or description. To refine your search an advanced search option is available.

The result page lists the bugs based on relevance to the search.

Adding a new bug:

In order to add a new bug, or even query, you need to have an account which you log into.

Click on “Enter New Bug”. This takes you to a page containing the list of products.
Select the relevant product.
Now you can make your report more specific by selecting the component, target etc. At this point you are the “reporter” of that bug and the status of that bug is set to NEW.
You can assign the bug to a particular person and provide his email id in the “Assign to” field. Appropriately you can add people in CC also. Alternatively, you can use it as a reporting mechanism where you don’t assign the bug to anyone but just add the right people who could solve your problem in the CC list. Anybody who wishes to take it up can re-assign it to himself later.
Give a one-line summary and a short description of the bug.
It is a good practice to use the keywords listed.
Once finished, click on “commit” to file your report.

Managing your bug report:

If you want to resolve a bug that is assigned to, you need to first accept the bug and change its state to ASSIGNED. Then you can resolve it.
Commenting option is also available where you can make suggestions, if any.
If you want to resolve bugs not assigned to you, re-assign it to yourself and do so.

1. Speed of the response: Quick responses are needed for satisfying the customers. Mobile solutions are needed for making the response faster. There will be no lag times so that the productivity increases a lot. Email and mobile services are used for the customer satisfaction.
2. Flexibility of the work place: The work place flexibility can be achieved by using the technological innovations and even by using the wireless technologies which make the life easier. The flexibility in doing the operations can be achieved by using the current technologies which result in the customer satisfaction.
3. Giving the information at the right time: The information can be found out easily with the technologies present. The right information should be given to the employees at the right time which makes the productivity of the system reach the customer needs.
4. Productivity even at down time: The downtime productivity can be balanced with the employee’s productivity and even the present techniques which make the productivity easier.
5. Team coordination: The team member coordination also plays an important role in the productivity of any system .The members of a team will have their own opinions to improve the productivity. So, sometimes the productivity can be improved by the team members.

Way2smile solutions private limited is formed in the early 2009 with a vision to provide software solutions in affordable rates.

way2smile provides you with affordable website design and ecommerce web development services in a professional manner backed up with the best web designers, web developers with the best professional SEO experts. Every aspect of your website design and web development – design, content creation and streamlining, programming to complete development, web site hosting is done in a professional manner along with affordable web site design rates. way2smile also caters to your online brand building process by providing wide range of search engine optimization & Internet marketing services.

A professional website design and web development company does not limit its service in building up your website but also extends its services to proper strategic search engine marketing of your web presence to the potential online clientele. At way2smile we not only take pride in our low cost web site design and web development skills but also in completion of your job within the stipulated time. We provide you amazing services at very affordable prices.

Onshore and Offshore Development Centers:

Our development/management centers in Ontario, Canada, and Chennai, India allows us the ability to offer a 24-hour development environment and speed to market that was once only imaginable.

Technical Excellence:
We have great expertise across emerging and latest technologies. Our Web Applications Development team includes Sun certified Architects/ Professionals with years of experience in Java, J2EE, Jsp, Gwt, GXt, Mysql, oracle, PHP, MySQL, VB.NET, and all technologies.

We are expertise in:

Website designing , web hosting, Domain registration,
Maintenance, web design,top,flash websites,website design,web development,graphic designs,software development, Search Engine optimization, Web application , Mobile Application.

Technologies we use:
java / j2ee, Jasper, struts, jsp, gwt, Ruby and Rails
Photoshop, Html / css, Unix Server, ASP.Net with c# sharp. Sql Server.
Widgets ,IIS – windows, PHP, Apache Http server, Virtual host concept,
,Name server, SMTP, SVN.

Work Samples Portfolio:

Buildingandconstruction

Building and Construction is one of a kind magazine that highlights on building and construction industry. It covers the following sections, Real Estate, Building, Construction, Building Materials, Interior/Exterior, Home Loans. Building and Constructions acts as a keep pace and update ourselves with the international technology, our Building and Construction magazine has taken the onerous task of publishing news, views and clues in a comprehensive manner for the benefit of those in the realty industry. http://buildingandconstruction.org
Tss Power Systems
TSS Power Systems is specialized in the field of providing infrastructure support services in High Voltage Power Transmission Sector.With the Economy registering a high level of growth the associated infrastructure in relation to Power, Water and Transportation requires significant growth. TSS Power Systems specifically meets the needs of such an infrastructure growth in the Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Sector, and to undertake specialist Electrical Works as per the requirements of various Projects and Individual customers. Tss Power Systems under take work throughout India, Middle East (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE Oman), and Africa, http://www.tsspowersystems.com/

Customerneedz.com
The Bus ticket reservation system for CN is web-based whereby the customer can log on to our website and book his seats. He will get an instant confirmation / availability status on the click of a button. The payment gateway extends the online payment facility to the customer via debit / credit card. Utmost care has been taken to ensure the safety of the online transactions in the site and this is achieved by the tie up with India’s leading payment gateway (www.ccavenue.com) which use Secure Socket Layers (SSL) for data encryption. Using SSL ensures that the information exchanged in our site is never transmitted unencrypted thus protecting the information from being viewed by unauthorized individuals. In addition the credit card information is processed over secure gateways which are certified by Visa.
http://www.customerneedz.com/

Way2rental.com
iWay2Rental.com s a flagship product of Elysian Creations,LLC allowing every Indian to buy, sell or rent their residential / commercial property. We cover every pincode in the country and aim to make every area in the Indian real estate market viewable from your location. Also, the user can enjoy the Map view of the properties i.e., they can search and see their results in the Indian Map. All pin codes in India are being covered! It’s really cool. Uploading Images, video and the Smart Search functions are also available. On the whole it is a product, which helps Users to find their destination easily. This website is being marketed in other countries too making this information available to NRIs.
Property sites are becoming a major market in India and many online portals currently rule this market. This keeps brokers away and helps people to sell and rent their properties directly.. Welcome to Way2Rental, Your Real Estate Search ends here. Be a part of the discussions regarding Indian Real Estate issues and see the market’s ongoing trend. http://way2rental.com/
Deepamalai.com
The Deepamalai Groups was created in 2000 by Rajeshwari Rajendran in to spread spirituality and render social and community services to all. The principle followed by the Group is to – Service to Humanity is Service to God. It is often repeatedly said by elders, philanthropists and noble persons that “Charitable and welfare activities should be performed for the benefit of the down-trodden and upliftment of the poor and have-nots.” For such noble activities, Rajeshwari Rajendran ordained and founded the Deepamalai Groups to serve the community. The Group as a whole in its broadest perspective dedicates itself to the welfare of society at large by imparting Educational, Medical, Cultural and Social Services. http://www.deepamalai.com/index.php

Full-text searching is ideal for extremely large databases that contain thousands or even millions of rows. Computations are performed faster and rows can be ranked based on search relevance, which is returned as a decimal number by MySQL.
Noise words and any words that are 3 characters or less in length such as the, and, etc are removed from the search query. This means that more accurate results are returned. If you searched for “as the people”, then the noise words “the” and “as” will automatically be removed from your query.
In addition to simple searches, full-text searches can also be performed in Boolean mode. Boolean mode allows searches based on and/or criteria, such as “+person +Mitchell”, which would only return all records that contained the words person AND Mitchell. We will look at Boolean searches later in this article.
The query is case-insensitive, meaning that “cat” is ranked the same as “Cat”, “CAT” and “cAT”.

full-text searching is fast, powerful and smart

Fulltext search classifieds by two types.

Its have some restrictions.

Natural Language Search:
✔ MATCH (col1, col2, …) AGAINST (“query phrase”
[ WITH QUERY EXPANSION ] )
✔ is supposed to find documents (rows) that are about the topic
described in the query phrase
✔ the query is a phrase in natural human language (e.g. English)

Love what you do

If you work for a large company, it’s easy to clock in, do your job and then leave it behind at the end of the day. I’ve seen companies where the staff just don’t seem to care about what they do: either the projects they are working on or the profession in general. For them it’s just a day job and they wouldn’t dream of reading a web design book or going to a conference outside office hours.

To be a successful freelancer, you need to have a passion for what you do. Passion (with the aid of caffeine) will keep you working late into the night when the rest of your friends are down the pub or fast asleep. Equally passion will keep you focused, motivated and away from the TV when times are slow. It’s the driving factor that got you into the industry in the first place, and in all likelihood the reason why you chose to go freelance.

Passion is particularly important when dealing with potential employers, be they design agencies or end clients. As somebody who uses freelancers myself, being able to demonstrate your love for the industry is much more important than your experience or technical ability. After all you can teach somebody a new skill, but you can’t teach them to enjoy their work. Ultimately this passion will be contagious and will rub off onto your clients, prospects and the work you do.

Never stop learning

Web design is a multi-disciplinary skill that’s as broad as it is deep. Every day new ideas or techniques are discovered and sometimes it’s hard to keep pace. However the best web designers are endlessly inquisitive and always want to keep abreast of the latest trends and technologies. They will scour the web reading every blog post or article they can find, their RSS reader literally building under the weight of new content. Their Amazon wishlist will be full of the latest titles and they will always have a couple of unread books lying around just waiting to be digested. Simply put, the successful freelance web designer loves what they do and is constantly learning how they can do it better.

Specialise

Having a broad range of skills is vital as a freelancer as you never know what you may be expected to do. However gone are the days when you can get by being a Jack-of-all-trades. Now you need to specialise. Some skills are more in demand than others, but if you’re the top of your field in a particular language or skill, you’ll always be in demand.

Information Architecture is a hot field at the moment, as more and more companies focus on improving the user experience. Good graphic designers are also extremely thin on the ground, especially those who have an understanding of Interface design and the vagaries of CSS. And while on the subject of web standards, it seems that companies can’t find good standards based developers fast enough. Traditional programming languages will always be popular, particularly if you understand higher level concepts such as OOP and UML. However Ruby on Rails is the language du jour (OK, I know Rails isn’t a language), so if you happen to be a Rails expert, you won’t be short of a contract or ten.

It’s important not to specialise at the expense of your other skills. Clients and agencies like well rounded people with a wide set of interests. Your skills should resemble an inverted T. Generally very broad but with one (or preferably more) areas of deep knowledge.

Get a killer portfolio

As a freelancer, your resume isn’t worth the disk space it’s saved onto. Instead what you need is a killer portfolio. If you are new to freelancing, building up a portfolio can be quite tricky. The best way to do this is to contact friends and family and offer to build them a website. I’m not suggesting you do this for FREE as this is potentially damaging to the industry and can also leave you in the difficult situation where your work isn’t valued. If you must do something for FREE, consider offering your services to a charity or community group who just wouldn’t be able to afford the services of a professional designer. Alternatively, create your own personal project or sandbox where you can demonstrate your ideas. I’ve hired freelancers in the past based solely on the basis of their personal work.

If you’ve been working on the web for a while, don’t post up every project you’ve ever done. You’re only as good as your last couple of projects so put your best foot forward and showcase your most recent work. After all, Nobody wants to see a website you created back in 2002, no matter how good it was. People are very visual, so portfolios are a much easier prospect for designers. If you are a developer or Information Architect, case studies may be the better way to go. A good case study will allow you to explain your involvement with the project, justify the decisions you made and demonstrate how you contributed to the success of the project. Above all, be honest. If you didn’t do the design, or worked in partnership with another agency, let people know.

Network like crazy

As the old saying goes, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. This couldn’t be more true as a freelance web designer. The best way to get work is to use your contacts and network like crazy. When starting out, let all of your friends and family know what you are doing. Ask if they know anybody who needs a website and whether they would mind introducing you. If you are going directly after end clients, local business networking events are a great source of contacts. Events like the local chamber of commerce are a great way to meet potential customers or gain those all important referrals.

Targeting end clients can be very time consuming and costly. Instead, consider letting others do the work by contracting direct with a design agency. Agencies are always on the lookout for reliable freelancers, often at a moments notice. These agencies do the hard work of finding and managing clients, leaving you to get on and do what you’re best at. If you can hook up with half a dozen agencies in your local area, you should find enough work to keep you busy. One way to find potential agencies is to email everybody in your local area and let them know that you are available for freelance work. An even better way is to go where other web developers hang out. Geek events.

Going to pub meets, user groups and conferences is one of the best ways to make useful connections. On a basic level, people much prefer doing businesses with somebody they have met and feel comfortable with. Next time they need help on a particular project, they are much more likely to remember you and get in touch. If they know you are actively looking for projects, they are also more likely to recommend you to other people.

Networking sounds like a scary thing to do, but in reality it’s usually just a case of hanging out with people in your industry, sharing war stories and occasionally getting some work out of it.

Manage your time

As a freelancer, you need to make sure you manage your time well, and keep on top of all the administrate tasks you need to do. Many people expect to do less work as a freelancer then when they were in full time employment. However this couldn’t be further from the truth. As well as doing the work you get paid for, you also need to market yourself, manage your projects, do your accounts and everything else that’s involved in running a small business.

When you’re busy, it is very tempting to work all the hours under the sun. Even when you’re not rushed off your feet, the work you have always expands to fill the time available. To combat this you need to put some boundaries on your time and manage your work-life balance. This is particularly true if you work from home. Make sure people know the difference between your work time and your home time. Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you have time to do the dishes, clean the house and take out the trash. Conversely don’t participate in avoidance techniques like doing the chores, making snacks or watching TV. As well as putting on the pounds, you’ll end up spending twice as much time working as you really need to.

One of the benefits of being a freelancer is being your own boss, so make sure you’re both strict and fair. Feel free to be flexible with your hours, but if you email a client at 10pm, don’t be surprised if they phone or email you outside regular office hours as well. If you find your attention fading, rather than sitting in front of the computer take a walk or go down the gym for an hour. When you come back you’ll be refreshed and much more productive.

Build your reputation

One of the best ways of becoming a successful freelancer is to become the person people want to do business with. That way, rather than searching for new clients, they will come to you. To do this you need to build a solid reputation. You can do this by doing great work and turning past clients into new sources for referrals. You can also build your reputation by sharing your experiences and knowledge through writing articles, blogging and speaking at local events. By building your reputation as an expert, people will be happy using your services and recommending you to others. Blogging is a particularly good way of doing this and is something I highly recommend. When looking for a new freelancer I’ll get a much better sense of their interests and abilities though their blog than I’d ever get from reading a resume. It’s a great marketing tool, so if you don’t have a blog, you should set one up straight away.

So those were my “7 habits of a highly successful freelance web designer”.

The Web Site Design and Development Process

There are numerous steps in the web site design and development process. From gathering initial information, to the creation of your web site, and finally to maintenance to keep your web site up to date and current.

The exact process will vary slightly from designer to designer, but the basics are generally the same.

1. Information Gathering
2. Planning
3. Design
4. Development
5. Testing and Delivery
6. Maintenance

Phase One: Information Gathering

The first step in designing a successful web site is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.

This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for. It involves a good understanding of you – what your business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.

It is important that your web designer start off by asking a lot of questions to help them undersand your business and your needs in a web site.

Certain things to consider are:

• Purpose
  What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product… ?
• Goals
  What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information.
• Target Audience
  Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the “ideal” person you want to visit your web site. Consider their age, sex or interests – this will later help determine the best design style for your site.
• Content
  What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service, online ordering…?

Phase Two: Planning

Using the information gathered from phase one, it is time to put together a plan for your web site. This is the point where a site map is developed.

The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics, if applicable. This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. The end-user of the web site – aka your customer – must be kept in mind when designing your site. These are, after all, the people who will be learning about your service or buying your product. A good user interface creates an easy to navigate web site, and is the basis for this.

During the planning phase, your web designer will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as interactive forms, ecommerce, flash, etc. are discussed when planning your web site.

Phase Three: Design

Drawing from the information gathered up to this point, it’s time to determine the look and feel of your site.

Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. As part of the design phase, it is also important to incorporate elements such as the company logo or colors to help strengthen the identity of your company on the web site.

Your web designer will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. This is typically a .jpg image of what the final design will look like. Often times you will be sent an email with the mock-ups for your web site, while other designers take it a step further by giving you access to a secure area of their web site meant for customers to view work in progress.

Either way, your designer should allow you to view your project throughout the design and development stages. The most important reason for this is that it gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.

In this phase, communication between both you and your designer is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. It is important that you work closely with your designer, exchanging ideas, until you arrive at the final design for your web site.

Then development can begin…

Phase Four: Development

The developmental stage is the point where the web site itself is created. At this time, your web designer will take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the actual, functional site.

This is typically done by first developing the home page, followed by a “shell” for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Once the shell has been created, your designer will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

Elements such as interactive contact forms, flash animations or ecommerce shopping carts are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well.

This entire time, your designer should continue to make your in-progress web site available to you for viewing, so that you can suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.

On the technical front, a successful web site requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid XHTML / CSS code that complies to current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.

This is tested in the next phase…

Phase Five: Testing and Delivery

At this point, your web designer will attend to the final details and test your web site. They will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well last testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your web site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.

A good web designer is one who is well versed in current standards for web site design and development. The basic technologies currently used are XHTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). As part of testing, your designer should check to be sure that all of the code written for your web site validates. Valid code means that your site meets the current web development standards – this is helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility as mentioned above.

Once you give your web designer final approval, it is time to deliver the site. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the web site files to your server. Most web designers offer domain name registration and web hosting services as well. Once these accounts have been setup, and your web site uploaded to the server, the site should be put through one last run-through. This is just precautionary, to confirm that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional.

This marks the official launch of your site, as it is now viewable to the public.

Phase Six: Maintenance

The development of your web site is not necessarily over, though. One way to bring repeat visitors to your site is to offer new content or products on a regular basis. Most web designers will be more than happy to continue working together with you, to update the information on your web site. Many designers offer maintenance packages at reduced rates, based on how often you anticipate making changes or additions to your web site.

If you prefer to be more hands on, and update your own content, there is something called a CMS (Content Management System) that can be implemented to your web site. This is something that would be decided upon during the Planning stage. With a CMS, your designer will utilize online software to develop a database driven site for you.

A web site driven by a CMS gives you the ability to edit the content areas of the web site yourself. You are given access to a back-end administrative area, where you can use an online text editor (similar to a mini version of Microsoft Word). You’ll be able to edit existing content this way, or if you are feeling more adventurous, you can even add new pages and content yourself. The possibilities are endless!

It’s really up to you as far as how comfortable you feel as far as updating your own web site. Some people prefer to have all the control so that they can make updates to their own web site the minute they decide to do so. Others prefer to hand off the web site entirely, as they have enough tasks on-hand that are more important for them to handle directly.

That’s where the help of a your web designer comes in, once again, as they can take over the web site maintenance for you – one less thing for you to do is always a good thing in these busy times!

Other maintenance type items include SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SES (Search Engine Submission). This is the optimization of you web site with elements such as title, description and keyword tags which help your web site achieve higher rankings in the search engines. The previously mentioned code validation is something that plays a vital role in SEO, as well.

There are a lot of details involved in optimizing and submitting your web site to the search engines – enough to warrant it’s own post. This is a very important step, because even though you now have a web site, you need to make sure that people can find it!