I’m a big fan of using Name.com for registering the majority of my domains due to their service and prices, so while looking for promos across the internet, here are some latest ones I’ve come across as of July 2, 2009:

ELAMEXE - For .COM domain registrations. Discount: $1.00

CORACAO - For .NET domain registrations. Discount: $1.50

If you’re registering both, .com and .net domains, you will need to place two separate orders as you cannot use the promo codes simultaneously.

Enjoy!

Recently I had the need to have a footer which would stick to the bottom of the screen when there wasn’t enough content on screen to keep the footer at the bottom of the page (aka a sticky footer) and rather than break my head over how to achieve this without the use of JS, I decided to do a quick Google Search. Here are some interesting results I’ve come across:

• Ryan Fiat’s Sticky Footer: Good sticky footer, except one problem. Unless a DIV does not have a height defined, the sticky footer fails to recognize how big the content DIV is and therefore we end up with overlapping DIV’s.
• CSS Sticky Footer: This sticky footer I’ve ran across before, and now checking it out again, this is a good sticky footer to use. However, the only issue it has is the fact it uses several hacks in order to be compatible with the major browsers it supports.
• …and Several More: While there are other attempts at figuring out the sticky footer issue, there really is no point to list them since none of them are perfect in terms of cross-browser compatibility.

That being said, I find the CSS Sticky Footer is currently the best way to address the sticky footer issue. While for some, this code’s use of CSS hacks isn’t quite ‘delicate‘, it still does the trick and therefore I recommend anyone who comes across this issue to use the 2009 CSS Sticky Footer. It’ll save you both time and frustration in your coding process.

Nowadays, there are plenty of freelancers around the web offering all kinds of services you can imagine. As a freelancer yourself, the question rises, which category of freelancing do I fall into?

Oh, but wait…

What kind of freelancers are there? From working with numerous freelancers, I find there are two categories it all boils down to.

1. Specialized Freelancers - Individuals in this category are highly specialized in one field of web development. This is usually in graphic design, a coding language, domaining, search engine optimization, or internet marketing.

2. Know-it-All Freelancers - These folks know just about everything you need and can create a website from start-to-finish all by themselves (or so they say).

The question I recently came across, is am I a generalist or specialist? This, I believe is a very important focal point in every freelancers ‘career’ and it is important to know which path you wish to take.

Let’s examine the advantages and disadvantages of each category.

Freelance Generalists

Advantages

• These guys can usually solve all of your web development problems quickly. They hold a large databank of knowledge of the entire development process and visualize the entire process from a birds-eye view.
• The end product may turn out better since the individual knows what they want the results to be and take only the necessary steps to achieve that goal. In essence, these people are very results-driven.

Disadvantages

• Do not know everything like they think. While they do know a little about a lot, the majority does not know everything at the level a specialized freelancer would.
• Development process takes a long time. Doing an entire website development project, for example, may be fairly time-consuming and even stressful at times. Breaking up the work between several specialized developers would be a much better approach.
• The end product may not turn out as excellent as a client would expect. This is due to the fact that an individual who works with all aspects of the development process tends to lose that creativity flow and some things become overlooked along the way.

Freelance Specialists

Advantages

• Highly specialized in one (or several) key areas. The folks I’m talking about are graphic designers, hardcore coders, internet marketers, and SEO guru’s. These guys and gals know their thing inside-out and their work is not disappointing.
• Their creative juice does not stop! They work hard and fast and know what they’re doing. I particularly enjoy working with designers who have absolutely no end to their creativity.

Disadvantages

• Do not always see ‘the big picture’. A naturally talented designer loves to design. It’s their thing. But sometimes you can over-do your job and add too many unnecessary elements to your design, that it becomes a hassle to code and does not serve any particular purpose to the user.
• Are limited to only what they can do. If you’ve got talent, sooner or later you’ll come across a client who will want more than what you can do. Knowing design is great, but knowing how to slice up a design and turn it into some structured XHTML is even better.

Final Thoughts

• There is no right way of being a ‘freelancer’. The only right way to success is being unique and consistent.
• To be most efficient and productive in the development process is to have one or two freelance generalists who see the big pictures, and a group of specialists who can develop flawless work. This structure will lead to a very successful and results-driven development firm.
• Personally, I found it inevitable to  be specialized in design only. I could never find a good enough PHP coder and while I have not had any formal training in coding, little by little I began to understand systems, databases, marketing, and so forth. I cannot say I am specialized in any of those areas because I am not, but the knowledge I gained from learning the core aspects of the entire development process has enabled me to know how to work with specialists in those areas and direct them effectively and explain the job in a language they understand.

I would really appreciate some input on this. This is something I have seen through my personal career and would like to know if others have gone through the same phase in their life.

When your posting frequency comes down to single digit numbers per month, you start to wonder what happened? Since my last real post earlier this year, I haven’t bothered to figure out why I don’t feel writing much anymore. Perhaps since I am so busy these days? Maybe I don’t have a sense of direction?

Now that I finally found the time and analyze things through, I feel the reason why I haven’t been posting is not because I am overloaded with work (although I am) and it is not because I don’t have a purpose or sense of direction (I do, somewhat). The real reason is probably because I lost that feeling of putting effort into sharing my ideas and experiences with others as well as being motivated by my own blog.

Blogs are supposed to motivate not just the readers, but the writers as well, and for some reason that’s kinda slipped a bit. I definitely don’t intend on shutting it down because I {heart} my blog, but somehow I want to do a reboot on here and get back to posting not once a month, but once a day.

Any suggestions?

Don’t you just love it when you thought you just finished doing a perfect coding job and then go to test it out in Internet Explorer, you find once again that %&$# browser simply does not display what you want it to.

Today is the official day Microsoft released their so-called “final” version of Internet Explorer 8. While I haven’t downloaded it yet, I have used the beta versions and I have to say, even though I have strong opinions about IE, there’s a few features I like about it. No, I don’t mean the InPrivate browsing :D, what I was referring to is the browsers better support of W3C Standards and parsing bugs that have been an annoyance to coders for too long.

I won’t list all the features of Internet Explorer 8, however, as we all know, Wikipedia is our #1 trusted source, so head over to the link below to read all the features of IE8.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_8

Here’s some advice my program director left for me today. It’s something I find very true and believe is something everyone should read:

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001