http://ribbonsofred.com/journal A blog of inspiration. Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:34:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When I first started Ribbons of Red, it was my mission (and goal) to give a percentage of all my profits to charity. In fact, I wanted everyone who did business with Ribbons of Red (specifically my clients) to have the ability to choose which charity a percentage of their ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/charity-donations-available-this-year/ Ribbons of Red was entered in the monthly American Design Awards contest for the month of December. After nearly 60 days, the winners were chosen earlier this month. Out of the 546 applicants that applied, Ribbons of Red placed in the Top 10! The highest awarded score for the month ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/ribbons-of-red-wins-monthly-american-design-award/ Most small businesses go under within their first two years and only 1 in 10 make it ten years. Moral of the story: being successful is hard, not to mention scary. I know first hand what it's like to fear the self-employment leap of faith. I spent over a year testing ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/how-to-get-motivated-and-find-freelance-happines/ According to The United States Department of Labor, photographers hold over 122,000 jobs and nearly half are self-employed—a much higher proportion than most occupations. Photographers work in all areas of the country, but the majority are stationed in metropolitan areas. The employment of photographers is expected to grow rapidly through ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/10-great-photography-logo-examples/ When I left my corporate job to pursue life as a full-time freelance web designer, it became very apparent that while word-of-mouth and referrals were great for my business, I didn’t want to “hurry up and wait” for new projects to trickle in. I wanted (and needed) to be more ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/how-to-cold-call-email-effectively-as-a-freelancer/ The Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon is the third-largest, first-time marathon in the country. With 8 different races to chose from, the Flying Pig has something for every athletic level. Whichever race you choose will send you on a beautiful journey through downtown Cincinnati's streets and even over a bridge or ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/ribbons-of-red-enters-cincinnati-flying-pig-10k/ Park and Recreation websites are some of the most beautiful sites I've seen on the web. Unfortunately, there are countless park websites on a city, county, state, and even national level that are very out-of-date. One of the most important goals for any Park and Recreation department is getting visitors ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/how-to-create-the-best-park-website/ Gone are the days where Dreamweaver (or FrontPage) was required to keep a company website up-to-date. WordPress is all the rage these days and allows my clients, small- to medium-sized business owners, the ability to maintain their company website with ease. With over 3,000 WordPress plugins available, it can be overwhelming ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/essential-wordpress-plugins-for-small-to-medium-sized-business-websites/ This week, Ribbons of Red was featured on Smashing Magazine for releasing an iPhone Vector Pack Freebie. The vector pack comes with several buttons, six different iPhone interfaces, and three keyboards. You can download the iPhone Vector Set for free at Smashing Magazine. This is a great way to present ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/iphone-vector-freebie/ Earlier this week, I posted a review on the new project management system, FreelanceSuite. I purchased it for $69.00, after loving the demo, but since the purchase have been very dissatisfied with the lack of support and the product's bad functionality/usability. I requested a refund from FreelanceSuite, and it's very ... http://ribbonsofred.com/journal/freelancesuite-consumer-alert/