Samantha M Flynn

Book Design In a previous post I talked about personal projects and why they are important. I just started a new personal project that I have found extremely relaxing and fun. I am a book junkie, I love reading. I love books of all different genres and topics, when I find a good book I can't put it down. When I was brainstorming different personal project ideas it seemed obvious that books should fall on the list somewhere. While trying to evolve this idea to design something including books the first thought was of course the cover and the layout on the inside, but I quickly felt skeptical about this idea because of the amount of time it would take to read the book and the amount of time that it would take for me to design the entire thing. After coming up with ideas and quickly dismissing them for about an hour I finally landed on my final project objective. Objective To relax and have fun while designing and developing book cover designs, while improving my illustration

Monthly trackers A monthly tracker is set up so that you can track habits throughout the month, in my bullet journal I am tracking healthy habits and I have an activity log. Benefits The trackers can be extremely helpful, you can track what you've done, when you did it, and what you didn't do. You can use the information you gather with the tracker to balance your time. For example, if you find that you are watching Netflix everyday in the month, but you have only written a blog post twice you can strive to cut back on Netflix time and increase your writing time. You can track a number of different things, here are some ideas to get you started: Activity Log Healthy Habits Log Personal Projects Log

Pricing Projects for Clients Things to know before you create an estimate and give a client a price The scope Functionality Requirements Timeline Ways to make creating estimates and developing prices easier Determine your hourly rate Create a list of how many hours you need to complete each task Save these lists and track your time as you work, to make the next estimate easier Giving Prices to client I would recommend giving your clients a flat rate rather than an hour estimate and an hourly rate If you choose to do it this way you should make sure to give your client a detailed list of what you are providing for them and then give the price.

Questions to ask Clients Client meetings can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you are just starting out. It can make things easier to develop a list of questions you have for your client before you go in to the meeting. Here is a list of a few possibilities. What functionality is required? What budget do you have available? What is your timeline? What platform is your website currently on? Do you want to stay on this platform? What design requirements are there? Does your current website use Google Analytics? What questions do you ask your clients?

Prepping for a Client Meeting When preparing to meet with a client for the first time it is important to be prepared. You can't know everything they need, but you want to make sure to have some idea. Here is a list of things you can do before the meeting to be prepare for a redesign. Communication Chances are you have had some communication with your potential client already, maybe they told you a general idea of what they want or maybe they gave you a lot of details. Either way it's important that you remember this information and have it available to you during the meeting. I would recommend creating a list of the needs and requests they have already given you before the meeting. Research: Part One Part one of research is to spend some time researching what you are redesigning, whether it's a website, magazine, or marketing materials. It's important to have an understanding of what they already have, if it's a website know what pages they have, find the abou

Writing a Design Proposal What to Include Project Objectives This is where you can break down the main goals of the project. If it's a redesign talk about why the redesign is necessary, be very specific. If it's a new design talk about the purpose of the new design, why it's needed and the goals of it. Submitting Deliverables In this section you will indicate how and when you will have meetings with your client and deliver progress. Process This is where you will layout your process and the different phases of the project for your client, the how and when you will do things. Here is an example of a phase description. Phase 1: Research and Concept Development This project will begin with research on the main goals of the redesign, the audience, the current website and competitors’ websites, and any other relevant information. This data will help in the development of successful design concepts. Deliverables A design brief describing the conclusions of

Get Google Analytics Certified Steps to get Google Analytics Certified Join Google Partners Join Google Partners here Find analytics exam under certifications When you are ready to take the exam this is where you can find it. Enroll in Analytics Academy Find Google Analytics courses here. Take Google Analytics for Beginners course Complete course materials and section quizzes. Once you complete the Google Analytics for Beginners course you can do one of two things, you can either go on to the Advanced Google Analytics course or you can take the exam. I chose to take the exam before completing the Advanced Google Analytics course because I wanted to get a feel for what kinds of questions would be on the exam. Take Google Analytics exam If you need to take the exam again you can continue on to step 6. Take Advanced Google Analytics course Complete course material and section quizzes. Re-Take Google Analytics exam

Social Media Marketing Guide Instagram Sizes Profile Picture Minimum of 110 x 110 pixels. Photo Thumbnails Minimum 161 x 161 pixels. Photo Size Minimum 1080 x 1080 pixels, appears in feed at 510 x 510 pixels. Tips You can now include up to ten images in a single post. You cannot include a link in a post, you can include a link in your bio. Twitter Sizes Profile Picture Minimum of 400 x 400 pixels, will display 200 x 200 pixels. Header Photo Minimum 1500 x 500 pixels. In-Stream Photo Minimum 440 x 220 pixels. Tips In-stream photos may be collapsed images to fit in a followers stream Facebook Sizes Profile & Business Profile Picture Minimum of 180 x 180 pixels, will display 160 x 160 pixels on desktops. Thumbnail profile picture displays at 32 x 32 pixels. Cover Photo Minimum 820 x 312 pixels. Shared Image Minimum 1200 x 630 pixels. Shared Link Minimum 1200 x 627 pixels. Highlighted Images Minimum 1200 x 717 pixels. Appears at

Photographs or Illustrations? Deciding between using a photograph or an illustration can be a tough decision. Both photographs and illustrations have their positives and negatives, one is not better than the other, making it that much harder to decide which to use. Photographs and illustrations can be used to send the same message, but there are some cases when one is more effective than the other. Photographs Pros There are many stock photo websites that provide either free or purchasable license for stock photos. Photographers can be hired to create a series of custom photographs to suit your needs. Using photographs of people or a product can make it more relatable for viewers. Cons Many stock photos are generic to cater to a larger audience It can be hard and time-consuming to find GREAT stock photos Custom photography can be very expensive and time-consuming Illustrations Pros There are a number of resources to find sets of free or purchasable illustration