So I’m going through my rss reader, trying to prune some of the feeds I’m subscribed to in order to gain a narrow focus on things and free up some of the clutter (more on this in a future post) and I came across a tutorial from the Grafpedia site, titled “Create a special starry effect“. I clicked into it and the images looked strangely familiar. I knew I seen it before but I just couldn’t remember where.

I knew the style looked familiar and reminded me of Abduzeedo, but I couldn’t find the tutorial with a quick search of the tutorial category. However, when I typed in the url from Grafpedia into copyscape, it brought up the Abduzeedo tutorial that was posted back in November 2009!

Check some of the screen shots below of the Grafpedia article in case they remove it and then I’ll discuss why this is definitely bad for business – coming from a site selling memberships for design related files. Continue Reading

So, you’d think that being a web designer and having to rely on the countless psd files I create for designs, thousands of fonts I have download as well as the brushes, textures, stock images and other various files that help me run my business, I’d actually have a back up of them somewhere – I don’t.

Until today, that is.

I spent the evening last night (until about 6am) working and realized, what the fuck would I do if something bad happened and my computer crashed? I’ve got a few open client projects as well as my own personal projects that I don’t have any type of back up for, and would cost me a shitload of money if I were to lose the files. Continue Reading

This past week or so I’ve been trying to put together a new setup on my computer that allows me to track expenses, run my payments from clients into an accounting program, track my to do items and keep track of where I’m at in each respective client project. Today I want to talk a bit about the To Do app I’ve actually picked up – and fell in love with.

The simplicity of this web based to do app is what draws me to it the most, I think. It’s also free (they’ve got a paid plan for “extras” in the future, but what you use now is always going to be free) which is a plus for me as I’m always looking to keep my business bootstrapped where I can. Continue Reading

This article was originally a free e-book for my readers to download if they subscribed to the newsletter list. I have since thrown the newsletter out the window and decided to just give the book away for free here on iamMikeSmith. If you previously signed up to the email newsletter – thank you, and please know you’ll never receive an email from me through that newsletter. If this is your first visit, enjoy

Why Should You Network?

Your goal is to get ahead in your industry right? To make a substantial living and be able to provide for yourself and your family with your skill-set. To brush shoulders with the heavy hitters in your industry and become one yourself. To be remembered as someone remarkable that everyone should model themselves after. If any of these sound familiar, you’re reading the right e-book.

Following in the footsteps of the greats before you is one thing, but carving your own path can be hard to start when you don’t have a foothold in your industry to begin with. In this guide I hope to explain the importance of networking, how you can target the right niche and what you need to do in order to brush shoulders with the influential people in your industry. Continue Reading