I’ve been blessed undeservingly by God, when it comes to my web design business and my life. Over the years I’ve hired some really talented web designers and they have helped in making my business what it is today.

I am often asked where I get my ideas for my websites as well as my content for my blog. The truth is, I’ve never had an original idea, they are started elsewhere and then I add my own little twist. A lot of the inspiration for this site comes from abduzeedo.

He has some really great artwork on his site and I use it for inspiration and ideas for my posting. He currently has a case study from a young Irish designer/illustrator Jonathan Wong on his site.

You can check it out here and the artwork below came from that case study as well.

Web design is more than just art; you have to have the artistic side along with the ability to guide your site visitor in the direction you want them to go.

The use of colors, fonts, and other things used to guide the site visitor can me learned. However, the artistic side is a gift given by God.

We often look at art, photos, shapes and much more to get ideas on the artistic side of the site.

There are those artists that look to others to be inspired and then there are those that inspire others.

Adam Hughes is one of those that inspire others.

In 1987, Hughes penciled two short stories and the first issue of the character Death Hawk, created by Mark Ellis. In 1988 Hughes’ work appeared in Comico’s Maze Agency with co-creator/writer Mike W. Barr, and stayed on the book for one year. When Maze Agency was canceled by Comico, DC Comics offered him a job on Justice League America. He did both covers and internal renditions on that series for two years, before switching to providing covers only.

You can check out his work in two places: DeviantART profile and his personal website.

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

I ran across what I thought was going to be a very good topic by Jordan over at WPW, however like most things on the web it fizzled out before ever hitting a high note.

This isn’t an attack on Jordan, as a matter of fact had it not been for Jordan I wouldn’t be writing this now.

I believe Jordan’s thread would have been a lot better had he tried new things as he went along. Other words, if something isn’t working try something different.
I currently make a decent amount of money online and have learned over the years that there are two important things when it comes to making money online.

They are the traffic and the sites ability to convert that traffic.

I’ve got sites that make me money day after day on some extremely boring topics. And even though the rest of the world is seeing problems in the economy, I think God that my business has continued to grow.

However, it’s not been without effort, I’ve changed directions more times than most people change their underwear. I’ve spread out into other areas to pull traffic back into the sites I’m trying to make money with.

Let me give you an example;

I’ve got a website selling silicone wristbands; November was the worst month we’ve had in a long time. In December we redesigned the site and hit a record breaking month however January and February sales started dropping off really bad again.

We decided to build a website about fundraising events and once again drove sales back up and hit an all time high in the month of March. As a matter of fact we broke records that had been set over the past years in that one month.

Why the rest of the world is dealing with a recession, I’m dealing with how to break records that were set last month. There are times in life when we have to change directions and try something new.