Startup Next Door

At some point you’re going to want to add a phone number to your contact page.  And for those who want to give their contact page a more professional touch, a phone number helps you to look like a real business.

I’ve found a few services that will allow you to grow your phone system as your business grows.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not a member of the IEEE, but I have ambitions that someday I’ll speak with as much distinguished eloquence as these guys.

So here’s my fancy paper:

Abstract

Twitter is a valuable tool for marketing your business, but Twitter as a tool is a meritocracy, whereas only the most interesting of ideas will permeate concentric layers of user influence.

Read the rest of this entry »

When you’re working with a contractor to build your site prototype, or you’re just brainstorming your site and discussing with others, using a wireframe/mockup tool is helpful and saves time.

I’ve come across two mockup tools recently that I’m proud to recommend.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I went through 99Designs to get the logo for Startup Next Door, in my proposal I requested that the designers either provide a vector image or a layered PSD with a large DPI (at least 300). By requesting one fo these formats, I can be assured that I can use the image on large-format printing like banners and t-shirts.

Read the rest of this entry »

In my last post, I explained how 99Designs works. Now I’ll tell you a little more about how it worked for me, some advice on getting good results, and some of the controversy about using such a service.

My Experience

I had heard about 99Designs a while back, and wanted to try it out. When I first researched 99designs, I found a competitor called CrowdSpring. With a little more digging, I found the logo contest for CrowdSpring that was done on 99Designs. CrowdSpring still uses the logo from that contest. Looking around at the current contests, there was even a contest for a new logo for TweetPhoto.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I came up with the concept of this site in early 2009, I was coming across many services that effectively outsourced tasks that you would normally hire someone to do. One of these tasks is logo design.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of logo design sites out there. They work in much the same way a web design firm would. You give an idea of the type of design or concept or feeling you want your site to express, and they’ll create one or more designs for you to approve/improve upon. Not bad, but you’re limited to the designs they offer you and the skill of their set of designers.

Read the rest of this entry »

I used to run my startups anonymously, and made them seem somewhat corporate in order to gain credibility. I didn’t want anyone to know it was just a one-man show. So in order to cover my tracks I used anonymous domain registration.

Read the rest of this entry »