Success & The Law Of Attraction at 12:43

About a month ago I picked up and read a book entitled "The Secret". It's all about what's called  The Law Of Attraction - a law that's based on the theory that all thoughts have frequencies, and alike frequencies attract. This implies that if you think about money a lot, you'll attract money into your life. While this sounds like fairy-tale magic, there's quite a lot of evidence to back it up, especially with recent advancements in quantum physics. Actually, quantum physicist Dr. Fred Alan Wolf - narrator in 'What The Bleep Do We Know', a great documentary that I guarantee will blow your mind - backs the theory and even appears in the documentary and book. It's also said that many of histories great people have known about The Secret, such as Mother Teresa who once said "I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there." - One of the principles of The Secret is that negative and positive isn't acknowledged, so instead of thinking "I don't want debt" think "I want financial security and comfort" because don't isn't acknowledged, so you'll simply be attracting more debt into your life! Albert Einstein was yet another great who knew about the Law Of Attraction "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions." - Another key principle of The Secret is to visualize and imagine what you want as if you already have it. As you can see, this isn't some silly idea to be mocked, it's a theory supported by evidence and the backing of great minds. I wont go into anymore detail on how it works just yet.


So, how does this affect YOU as a business owner? Very much so! The Secret is something that you can utilize right now to bring wealth and success your way. You can start right now by creating a visualization board. I've seen the wonders that one can do myself. Two or three weeks ago I created a visualization board that looked like this: 

I set the image as my wallpaper, and ever since I've been getting a lot more work that usual. It was literally two days later that I opened my email and found multiple orders and inquires in my inbox! That number has been growing ever since. You could put it down to co-incidence, but I most definitely do not. I've had other positive experiences come from using The Secret in the past too. Why not make your own visualization board? You've nothing to lose!


The Law Of Attraction, fact or fiction? Let us know what you think in the comments below!


-Til Next Time
Andy

Dealing with Awkward Customers & Time Wasters at 17:39

In the design industry, it's very easy to come across time wasters. They're people who make what they want very unclear, ask for something then decide they want something else, place order then decide they don't want the work done anymore or even have you create a new design only to decide that they no longer need one! - it can become very frustrating trying to deal with these clients. Some people just can't be pleased. I was unfortunate enough to run into such a person quite recently. I wont disclose any names of course, but he was very awkward indeed. He placed an order, requesting that I changed the font on his site's logo - but he liked the background, so he wanted to keep it. I quote - "I like the background of the one on the site but I thought the text looked cheesy....I want the text font to be professional, but you can also play with it a bit to give it a little edge" Now, that's a completely reasonable request. I was happy to change the font to something less "cheesy", receive payment and be on my way , and that's exactly what I did. I took the logo, removed the text then added it again with a more professional, 'edgy' font and sent it to him. I quite received a reply a short while later - "cant you make like the "M" and "A" look cooler or something...like give it some design or something...." - Alright, a little vague, but I'll do it. So, as requested, I changed the M and the A to something a little more interesting and sent it off to him. Finally, I'm done! But wait, a reply - "I can simply change the fonts myself....that's all you're doing, I thought youd be able to design something." - Well yes actually, I am just changing the fonts because thats what you asked me to do.. in-fact, you specifically requested that I left the background alone! After slamming my face in my desk a few times I sent him a reply: "All of my other customers have been pleased with my work. You asked for  a font change - you wanted the background to be kept the same. I can create designs from scratch, but you asked for a new font - not a new design. If you can already do the work your asking for, there's no need to contact a graphic designer. I did as you asked. If you aren't happy, don't pay." Ok, now that I have him out of my hair, I can get on with work from another client - hold on, another response! "Ok, sorry. Just design one from scratch." Why he didn't just say that in the first place is completely beyond me. This is a classic example of a time waster/awkward client. He asked for a font change and got it, only to state "All you're doing is changing the font. I could do that myself, do a design from scratch."


Dealing with this type of client is a real headache, so it's best that you have a 'No BS' policy in place. Writing this policy is up to you, but I'll give you some tips. Firstly, if you find yourself with a customer who wants you to make an irrational amount of revisions to a perfectly good piece of work, you need to either drop the work - most of the time, the price isn't worth how much time you end up wasting - or tell them that you'll only make 1 or 2 more revisions before you start charging them for the extra time. Secondly, make sure that your client gives you as many details as possible about what they want done, including but not limited to: color schemes, images they want included, text, fonts, style (glossy, vintage etc), dimensions, their target audience, what the logo is being used for etc etc. The more details you have, the easier it'll be to satisfy a customer - if you don't get all of the details, there's a good chance they'll want you to make revisions, so get ALL of them the first time round. Thirdly, when you find yourself dealing with such a person, you need to assess whether or not the amount of time you're going to end up spending on one piece of work is worth the payment you'll receive when you're finished. If you're doing a small banner for $5, for example, it really isn't worth spending a good hour or two just doing revisions. If it isn't worth it, just tell the client that you'll make no more revisions - if they don't pay then at least you haven't wasted more time than you had to, you can move onto your next job. Keep these tips in mind if you end up in a situation similar to the one I mentioned above - they'll ensure that you don't spend hours working for next to nothing. Remember to be firm without being impolite.


Til' Next Time,
-Andy

What Is The Ipad Going To Become? at 14:25

When the iphone was first released it was initially regarded with contempt. People didn't think that anyone would buy an overpriced hunk of metal and then pay even more per month on a slightly ridiculous contract. Sure the web browsing was revolutionary but most anylsists thought that the iPhone would go the way of the dinosaur.

Now two years later the iphone has a significant percentage of the smartphone market second only to RIM. It has the more apps that any other smartphone on the market and has the most used mobile internet browser. What was key to this wasn't the initial release, but the yearly updates. Developers wanted to see how the device would perform in the wild before they committed themselves. Now a few years later apple's newest product has been released and again been regarded with sceptisism. I somewhat agree as it really does just look like a tortured ipod touch that won't even fit in your pocket. But consider it as a beta version, something that apple just wants to show off before it gets the real version underway.

It's for this reason that I won't be buying a 1st generation iPad.

But I have complete faith in Apple to work everything out.

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Luke

Photoframes and Battery Charges Spreading Viruses?! at 19:32

During the past few weeks, viruses have been discovered in digital photoframes, smartphones, battery chargers and many other USB devices. The fact that they can all be plugged into computers implies that they have the potential to infect your machine. In one of the cases, they found three viruses on a phone.

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a warning, informing users of a threat from a basic usb battery charger that came with "optional software" that contained a Trojan (a program that allows hackers to remotely control your machine). This optional software has been around for 3 years, which means that it's hard to tell how many users have been infected. The photoframe had the same issue.

The manufacturers would've most likely accidentally passed on the viruses without realizing. The chances are, the factory in China was putting malware onto the electronic devices accidentally due to bad virus detection in place (if any at all).

Have you bought a digital photoframe, smartphone or battery charger recently? You should probably scan it if you have! Better safe than sorry.

Til' Next Time,

-Andy

Twitter Client - Twhirl at 12:37

After setting up a twitter account and raising my followers to about 500 people, I decided that I'd get a twitter client to help me keep track of what's going on and post tweets quickly in a more efficient fashion. I looked around, read some reviews and decided to try out Twhirl, and so far it's great!
Overview:

• It runs on an Adobe AIR platform, so it's a cross platform program, available on Linux, Mac and Windows.
• The GUI is very elegant and easy to use which is a very important factor for me.
• It allows you to swap between accounts very quickly (in a mouse click, actually!)
• It divided into easy-to-use and effective panels such as home, replies, direct messages, archive and favorites so it's very ergonomic.
• It includes a 'shorten link' button, so you don't have to go to a different site to shorten a link before posting it.
• It has a 'share image' button, allowing you to quickly share images.
• It alerts you when you receive a tweet, direct message, there's a retweet with your name in it etc.
• Comes with a search function that allows you to search for keywords in tweets or twitter users - very good for freelancers/people wanting to gain more contacts.
• It's customizable - it has different themes to choose from.

The only downside is that, if you're following lots of people, it beeps a lot. It doesn't beep every time you receive a tweet, but ever 15 seconds or so it'll say that you've received x amounts of tweets, but it can be disabled so it isn't a big deal at all.


Overall, it's a great program that I definitely recommend trying out if you use twitter regularly.


Download it here:
http://www.twhirl.org/


Til' Next Time,


-Andy

Main Site Redesign at 04:02

Over the past week, I've been redesigning and developing a new version of the DreamwareStudios main site (http://www.dreamwarez.co.uk) and over the next few days I'll be finishing it and uploading to to the server. That means that you might experience some down time - not much. The new layout for the site is MUCH more efficient and easier to add content to. Furthermore, I'm in the process of creating 'premium tutorials' which we'll be selling at very good prices. You'll find out more when the new site is launched.


-Til' next time,
-Andy

Google Broadband at 14:48

So google have announced plans to roll out broadband at super fast speeds (1gbt) to "select areas of the United States." They say that they will be offering competetive pricing and for broadband that fast I can't see why anyone would turn them down. If this service ever comes to the UK sign me up.

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Luke