first, sorry for parading your thread with so much words, I just love the topic.

Why is it that most webmasters are really not as rich as you would expect.

"who is a webmaster?" Okay. I would assume you're talking about "Web designers, front-End Designers, front-end developers, back-end developers and co. There are things people need to know concerning web design and development generally. It is never a field for someone lazy. It will never be a field where mediocrity would win over professionalism. It is a field where your skillset speaks louder and more effectively than your "certificate". It is a challenging field whereby people bring out new things everyday. It's a field you can't catch up if you 're a slow learner and it's a field you can just become the most sought after.  .  . if your skills are really tight!

Now why all these? maybe "gibberrish" or irrelevant. But No. Wait and think for a second what is it exactly I'm trying to pinpoint?

What I'm trying to say is most "webmasters" as you called them, don't know they are part of larger communities. I used communities cos designers dont just belong to "InfoTech" as, in my own opinion, amateurs designer say, we belong to larger and more effective communities like the field of "branding", the field of "Visual Communication", the field of "psychology". Most designers don't even know that what they are designing is a "product". . . and what sells a product is how it is "branded". You are designing with one clear goal, which is "pulling traffic" and nothing pulls traffic than a website beautifully designed and functionally responsible; Hence "visual communication". When users come to your website, you want them to come back. . . and the only way to make them come back is to give them a wonderful experience. A good designer/developer or whatever would put himself in the shoes of the user and design from that perspective. . . That is "Psychology".

A designer who is aware of all these, would never be poor! to emphasize that, NEVER HAVE A REASON TO BE POOR. A designer who can think like that, would be able to come up with a very good idea that generates money. I have met alot of designers/ developers, listened to video interviews and conference sessions and what I've realized is that, most designers or developers have one project or the other that they do online. The latest I've just seen is www.shiftedit.com . . . an IDE web application. That is innovation. Not just that. You can think of anything. The web is an open market. all you need to pay for is domain name and you are a potential billionaire.

It is only sad that in Nigeria, I have found it really difficult to see a distinct desginer or a developer. Most people just parade themselves with half knowledge and don't really know what this field is. A guy just reads one book or just jump on one WYSIWYG application and start calling himself a web designer. Brings out a cardboard made business card and start advertising himself. They come to nairaland and start shouting "Get web design and hosting for 10,000 Naira". It is just pathetic when I see the jobs they've done. I usually call it "waste of domain name". I would give them the advice Sean Parker gave Mark Zuckerberg in the movie "Social Network", about advertising on facebook at the early stage. "You don't know what it is yet!" So, don't kill your skill by chasing money without knowing what that thing really is. Check the history and know its state. Then you know where exactly you are.

SO all in all, Only when Designers know their role and know what skill is required of them that they can think of creating something that brings money home! I have met so many designers and no one needs to tell you they are doing great. But ofcourse, most of us are obsessed, with buying gadgets. from MACbook to Drawing Pad to some sophisticated Monitors etc. So, it's not about getting rich like Dangote (maybe try another career). Paul Rand was never as rich as Dangote but he was very wealthy. He made it from graphic design. Paula Scher (not sure about that name) is rich as a graphic designer. one of my favourite bloggers, Abduzeedo, now works with google, and i'm sure we all know that "no be beans".  So, the point here is You can't just be poor if you got your skills right.

I hope to see Nigerian designers and developers up the scale one day.  .  .

alleno:

Hi All,

Ok, so this is the latest brief i got from a client. What i want to know is what
features to integrate to make the jobs portal stand out from the rest. Just your
ideas and contributions will be ok and appreciated.

And [b]samples of good Job Portals in Nigeria [/b]would be cool. Thanks for your HELP!

First, forget that "Good Job portals in Nigeria". I haven't seen one. Then The issue with job portal is this. IF the client is willing to pay well, Think of spending much time on the "User Architecture". A responsive web design is what you are planning to do (What you should anyway). SO, try and spend time looking at the UA (as regards internet dummies). Your audience is not limited to people who know how to use internet, it goes farther than that. . . to people who just came online for the job search. SOyou want to keep the user expereince simple and straightto the point. Second is a Fullproof Serverside coding. . . then if you're a core developer, look for someone who's large on fron-end design and outsource it. Cos besides functionality, the Beauty is what would make it stand out of the ngierian job portals pack. Believe me there are lots of them but bad presentation is what they've all got.

and last but very important, Go large on you SEO, cos there are so many JOb portals in Nigeria. and you want to fight the competition, "Be google friendly"

For Inspiration on Job portal design, look for somethign outside nigeria, try search google for websites outside Nigeria!

this post is so serious to me, I would have to come back later to respond. I'm monitoring the election in Nigeria right now, . . .

*dhtml:

How about graceful degradation? Surely, you dont expect a beginner to use all that. Whatever happened to css 2.1 and co?

I completely agree with Viewport, Sematic Markup and Liquid layout. Fixed layout can cause some problems even on
regular desktop browsers.

But yes, generally you have made a good point sha. But for beginners, i will say all that is too advanced!

yeah! I quite agree but the point really is that the web design industry is moving so fast much that what you learnt in school lastweek might not be relevant anymore. . . for instance, it is really difficult for someone to start larning web design with table layout and all that. it's irrelevant and useless. So the best to do is to grasp the fundamental which to me is the "syntax and join the latest gist. cos there's a huge gap between html5 and previous versions of HTML.

It's easier with html5 and css3. instead of showing you methods, I will only tell you to read about these in reference to mobile web design:

1. Media Query in css3

2. Viewport

3. Semantic markup (HTML) and style (CSS)

4. Liquid layout or Fixed Layout

Reading about all these and few online tutorials would give you a solid background in design a mobile compatible website that displays effectively on mobile devices, Ipad and other tablets. Reading about these would also prepare you for the future of web design which is almost here!

wyldpytch:

http://snd.sc/dJyjgR

This joint wants to make me turn my sampler on and make a soulful beat,

Thanx.

javalove:

i'm sure u ain't surprised u got me. . eh?



#Javalove. . .unless otherwise stated. . .!

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! noooooooooooo, I'm not at all, U're one of the usual suspect. lol. I know Dammiecool, tosinadeda and so on must have been on this page too.

*dhtml:

yawatide is 200% correct here (still i wonder why these guys. . .)

- buenos dias y hasta la vista a todos

yeah! why these guy do what? why the ellipsis? finish your line bro.

yawa-ti-de:

I am afraid we can't move on, just because you say so. Sorry.
Well, There's nothing about "moving on" that we need to be egotistic about. It's a natural course that would happen. We would have to do that eventually either It is said or not.

yawa-ti-de:

I don't carry around my laptop everywhere I go. Also, not all clients you meet have access to a computer at the time you meet with them. In order to give those who fall into either category a "taste", I always have with me a binder showing the home page of every site I have done, in addition to a business card and a postcard. The latter 2 have information regarding how to access what I have done online, including functionality and design. I hope that explains it for you.

Anyways, at the end of the day, it's what works for you. so, there's nothing much to say.

yawa-ti-de:

A little advanced? I am trembling as we speak. My nit wit brain will probably not be able to digest then, I guess. Interestingly, I have been on the bandwagon of progressive enhancement and graceful degradation for quite a few years now.

Am sorry if my "little advance" insulted your sensibilities, I just made that in reference to the book not reference to whom am speaking with. I must tell you at this point that I only engage in arguments that I will learn from. . . and I don't argue to display my ego level. Instead of doing that, there are tons of positive things I can use my time with. It's good you've got Progressive Enhancement locked down. I like designers who know what exactly there job is.

yawa-ti-de:

Oh, by the way, referring to http://www.agcchicago.org/netpositive/, I scrolled down to "our reason", copied the first line, pasted it in google and as expected, the first result was that site. When I clicked, however, it stuck on the home/first page, without taking me to the section for "our reason". In other words, I would then have to spend some time, no matter how small, trying to figure out that section was. Again, more reason to read that book I recommended. It is not about me, or what I like or don't like. Obviously, every site, no matter how bad, has its place and audience but again, that doesn't make it right for all occasions.

You're right. No doubt. The "however point' I am making in this context is compromising the one page technique for SEO is not really important, in my opinion. There are other tons of ways to achieve SEO without comprising the technique. For instance, the 'pages' are wrapped in divs on that one page and so, there's a way to return to the results pointing to the actual url of the div you searched for. for example, searching for "whatever contact" might return a search result with url "www.whatever.com/index.html#contact" . My point is you can achieve an effective SEO without neccesarily breaking them to pages and the fact that it can't work all the time; we are talking about a site here and i think it's just suitable for it. There's no much to say on the webiste.

yawa-ti-de:

You agree then you disagree then you agree again. Then to top it all off, you just had to throw in "jerk". Okay o. Again, my simpleton mind at work. No worries. By the way, and you probably already know this: Google doesn't read images, even with text wrapped around it. It read the text (alt and title tags) associated with the images. If you code with that in mind, you don't need to do any CSS "effizy".

I do that because it's a polite argument. We're not bunch of kids that starts fight in the next second. You're making a point and I might agree in some part and think otherwise with some parts. That's how constructive argument works (I think) and I'm not assuming you've got "simpleton mind". IT's not about who's BETTER or sort of things like that. I'm just making my point here, that's all.

I never said it reads images. I said it would "indirectly" read it "if wrapped around, for instance "h1m h2 or whatever". I'm saying, to enhance your optimization, there are situation's where you might not be able to add "ALT or Title" (ask me why?) : I'm talking about "background images" that would be declared inside your stylesheet and not inline images. How do you make it search engine friendly? it's by writing something into its DIV in the markup. and applying the css effizy (dont know why u called it that) into the stylesheet. I'm talking about "text-indent:-9999". with that google reads that text and brings out the page where that background is in results and more effectively, it helps more in "Google or Whatever Image Search"

ruz:

Heeeeediot!!!

I would take it as a compliment!!!

You just love to see that name on a thread topic shaaaaaaa ! M O D E N I N E.

anyway, YOU ARE +1


(Sorry, Boredom!!!!)

Allow me to clarify: I don't "show my works" on online fora. Yes, I do have a website that features "my works" and if you are a potential client, in addition to sharing my url with you, I also visit you with an album containing a print out of same "works" but no, I won't display it on online fora. Also, if you YIM me privately, something many have done, I will show it to you but again, not on an online fora. I have my reasons. Better?

Well. . . I wouldn't go as far as asking a web designer what his ID is, in order to gain access to his previous works when I can view others with a single search in google (thinking the way real and powerful clients think) . That is why web designers, developers, anybody in the creative field, has an online porfolio for. . . "To show people". . an by the way, If I was interviewing a developer for a job, I wouldn't accept a "print out" as his portfolio. I mean, how do we access the functionality of the works? Except ofcourse he is applying as a front-End designer or a graphic designer Let's just move on from that. On to the next one.

1) The site you reference is not a 1-page site. Even if it were, I would prefer chazy's to yours.

2) At the end of the day, it is all about usability. There is a good book, now in its second edition that is called, "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug. I respectfully suggest that you read both editions

At first, that link was a mistake. I was trying to show this. http://www.agcchicago.org/netpositive/ . And none of them is my work. . . I just brought it up to show a one page site, which to me, is nice except you've got your own subjective reason to dislike a one page website. . . and that is totally welcome. And thank you so much for the book recommendation, I would seehow I can get hold of it digitally or the hard copy. Whichever way. and To reciprocate that, You can also try to read this, digitally though, "Designing With Progressive Enhancement" by Todd Parker et al. a little advanced but the best to meet up with the current design trend.

I would like to focus on the "eventually" part of this comment. These days, 80% of users, according to the last research that I read, don't even look past the 1st 5 returned results in google. "Eventually" no longer cuts it. Either you are in, assuming your site is aimed at generating income/donations, or u r out. Sorry.

Talking about SEO, I know my way around that to the level of my peers in the field so I can say a little bit about this. First, the research you are talking about is people searching based on "tags" (for example, someone searching for a web designer in Nigeria and types "Web Designer Nigeria" or "Web Designer in Nigeria". Yes, you are right. they just look at the first few results and X the page. These people never pressed second page. I can say for years also, I have never clicked Page 2 of Google.

However, If you aim at optimizing your website for this kind of search, splitting the site would not do jerk! It's a fact. What you'ld be looking at are the Inline elements of the website. We are talking about wrapping even images in headers like [<h1>Logo of Whatever<img src="wateva.jpg" /></h1>] and some css to hide the text so that even google would read the images or flash that it wouldn't on a normal situation.

I completely agree with your concern on the SEO capabilities of the website what I'm just saying is that what you suggested might not have any effect.

alleno:

Its funny, people on nairaland never cease to amaze me.
Its interesting looking up on the people that pass on here as designers.

Considering that this is one of Nigeria's most visited forums, the knowledge
on this site is sometimes appalling.

But then a one eyed man in a blind mans country is a king. To the Poster.
Do well to go through the comments and make changes where necessary.

To those praising the one eyed man, keep up the good job, he is a demi-god
here and its just normal that you do so!

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn !!!