Hello, there ! Hope you’ve had your coffee and another coffee for me as well.

I’ve just talked to Ge Henning, also known as @heerbol on Twitter. This was not your usual “Hey! what are you planning to do? Oh, a lot and I’m glad you can help” kind of Cif Talk session. Not by far.

Ge is a great guy, someone you can actually have a conversation with on Twitter and I knew he had an awesome blog  http://changingofmybrain.blogspot.com/ . I will not give you any spoilers, you’ll have to check it out. And say whatever you want, I really think it’s interesting to follow.

But Ge here is the first winner at the Who Is Cif contest whose project could not benefit from Cif2. Yes, that’s true and as I hate “aggressive marketing ” I did not want to push the issue further. He only has a simple blog, on which he posts updates about his work and whose attention he caught (as in University professors). I could have told him to switch platforms, because Cif2 does run faster and it’s a lot easier to post your articles on, but come on !

He simply did not need more then that, because he said he has his own methods of contacting university staff all over the world, so he only posted these for the people who followed him. He did not need to get huge exposure and such. 

Well we told him that he is still a Winner, so any time he needs our help with some other projects or such, he can contact us and we’ll help him. 

I can’t wait to hear more about his project and more from our other winners !

Hello everyone ! Hope you’re having an awesome and powerful start of the week and that you’re still closely following the Cif Talks.

I can tell you one thing that I’ve seen related to these Social Media… people are much more engaged on Facebook then on Twitter and this made it harder for me to get in touch with the other winners of the Who Is Cif contest.

But that doesn’t matter, because it’s still ongoing and I’ve talked to Doina Pirau regarding her future activity. I know she is a fashion designer, she actually has some really nice things made and you can see some of them on http://www.doinapirau.com

Her website isn’t finished, but you can still view them. The website is made in the oh, so very old Cifnet website builder, an older brother of Cif2 (an out-dated older brother :P.. compared to Cif2 of course).

This time my lucky guess was actually lucky because she would like to have her designer website made on Cif2. And that’s just great ! Because she’ll have much better apps to use in her website, including an awesome photo gallery, for much better display of her great work, she can have a blog ( I can haz blog 😀 ) and a simple to use design interface. And we’ll think of more 😉

By using Cif2 she will also learn how to promote her self made products and get some exposure, so they’ll all know what Doina Pirau is all about.

I’m really looking forward to learning more about our winner’s future projects ! 

Some of you may have heard of this, some of you may not, kickstarter.com is a place to fund your creative projects.

Seeing that it gained media coverage and stuff, I did a little digging about and saw that hey seemed to be serious. Now the question is: Were they ?

They may have been, for many people who had their projects founded there.

My problem is that I wrote the project for Cif2.net and really wanted to get it up there. I sent the written project to some people and they all said they loved the idea and would really need something like Cif2, that it would truly be a creative and useful thing.

It seems like that wasn’t the opinion of the kickstarter staff. I did not understand why they wouldn’t want to publish our project. I am very sure that many other people would have considered it very helpful and would have backed us up with some funding, so that we may manage to finish all the great tools and all the documentation and the training web show we have in store.

Only today, did I finally understand what the real reason was. I think it was because they’d seen we are a company, yeah they may have seen that it’s Cifnet Ltd. We’re not hiding that, why would we ?

So why did I actually write this post ? I wrote this to inform you that if you ever want to get a project up on kickstarter, you should make sure you do not present it as if it had anything to do with any company and that it isn’t a company project.

Yes, I know it sucks ! 

Guess they think people working at companies aren’t creative and don’t deserve a chance. Way to go !

Why buy ad time on national television, to showcase your new products in the old dull way, when you can throw people 8 great pieces of Youtube vids, for them to digest ?

Seriously, I think this is exactly how the PR guys @Philips thought this through. And I think that it’s seriously a very awesome and creative way to showcase your company’s product.

Instead of just telling people: “Go to the nearest store and buy our products !”, they wonderfully said: “Oh, yes, why don’t you watch that adorable blonde chick who’s testing out some of our products in a very fun-to-watch comedy mini-series ?” 

So instead of a dull commercial message, they actually have you watching a comedy and having quite a good time, while those shiny, tech-y little products make haste into your minds and hearts. 

A smart and creative move ! *applauds

Here’s the first vid from the series: (Am I going to get paid for this ? Probably not 😛 ) 

 

We’ve had our session 5 of Cif Talk, down @ twitter with April Todds, also known as @socialapril.

I was surprised to find out she was not going to do something related to webdesign. As most of you might know, she loves webdesign and coffee 😛 (that’s the DM she sends when you follow her).

It seems like she’s more into music right now and she has a very great plan, which I love and can’t wait to help her with it. We went all DM about it, because she was afraid someone might steal her idea and I had to respect her privacy, but to be honest I can hardly not give you details about her project.

However, she did mention that I could offer you a small hint, so here it is: It’s going to be about Twitter and Music !

Sounds weird ? It shouldn’t ! It’s gonna be awesome 😀 And it’s going to be just an example of what great stuff you can do with Cif2 😉

Well, see you 😀 

Hello, everybody !

I know it’s been a while since I last kept you posted about Cif Talk, but we’ve written a presentation on our Cif2 Project and tried to get some funding. As you probably know already we really really want to get this out there for you and for free.

Time will tell if the guys from kickstarter.com will do their job right, or just ignore a great project, without even saying why. They seem to be a serious thing. I hope they really are.

The last two sessions of Cif Talk were with April Todds and Doina Pirau. I will post about these two sessions in the following days.

Thus, our Facebook contacts have all been reached and the remaining sessions will be carried out on twitter.com

Have a great week ! 

For the fourth Session of Cif Talk we had Matt Sicotte on the line. He wishes to build an online presence and a steady income through it. 

I knew that Matt had a blog, http://umattr.info/ which really looks nice and has some great articles. He said that he’s been marketing the blog for almost a year now and asked for a few ideas on it. I gave them happily. Being the Lead Web Designer at Cifnet Ltd. for about 10 months now, I certainly could offer him some tips and hints on what he should  improve in the blog.

As every good businessman, Matt wants to find another idea for online revenue. I told him that when he comes up with the idea, we will be there to help and give him the right materials to build his business from.

He liked the fact that he’ll get free hosting and that he will be able to easily modify the content of the website himself, on cif2.net

I really look forward to seeing what he will come up with.

Yes, I’ve seen that most of my fellow web designers overlook the “basics” of getting more clients.

If a potential client orders a design from you (by e-mail, quotations, etc) and he wants it done fast, you call him back ! Yes, pick up the phone and do just that. Don’t let things in the air, like leave them be and see if they solve themselves, because they don’t. The webdesign sector is filled with a whole lot of web designers. Of course, only few of them actually know what they’re doing, but clients don’t know that. 

You have to call him back, because he will also call other designers. As I’ve told you, there are a lot of choices (no matter how good or bad they are). Especially, when the potential client wants the website done fast, you act immediately.

Great, you called him and had a little conversation over the phone. In a conversation over the phone, most clients cannot fully explain what they want. With time, you will get to figure each person out and be able to deal with them much better.

Still, if he is from your town, or just came to your town and wants to meet with you for further discussions, you leave your beer, your plans with the Xbox or whatever and try to have a meeting. Most people want to know who they actually work with, even if you’re a freelancer or a company (and no matter how old a company, most of the times). Think of it as a job interview, if you will. No pressure, right ? 😛

So you have a meeting at the office or wherever and he tries to re-explain how he wants his website. If you see he’s sanguinic, you let him talk and don’t try to look like you’re way smarter or skilled then he is. Trust me, he wouldn’t need you if you weren’t, so don’t show off unnecessarily.

That doesn’t mean that when you feel he needs a little guidance or asks for advice you shut up. No, that’s the moment in which you start talking and present all sorts of stuff you know. Example: He tells you “I wanna have the text look a little softer, I don’t like it that it’s black on white”. Here you don’t go like “Oh, but it looks great !” It’s either you lie to get the job done quicker, or you simply don’t know anything, which is WRONG ! You can even be geeky about it and say: “Yes, it’s 000000, pure black, we should try something more grey-ish, say like 333333 or 666666. I’ve seen that that’s what they use for this very popular online magazine, Mashable.com”.

Now just look at his reaction – He likes you – (it should NOT sound weird or anything). See? This way you begin to get under his skin and build a connection.

Keep doing small things like this one, offer some free professional advice, anything you can think of and don’t do it aggressively.

At the end of the meeting you should already have a contract signed and advance money in your pocket ! Keep working on your communications skills and you should get more done 😀 

Friday night I’ve held the 3rd session of Cif Talk, with Steven Lamb.

I couldn’t really get to speak to him during my time at work, so I said: Know what? I can even do this PR job from the bar :))

And that’s what I did, I took my Google Android Tablet with me in town, I’ve called the owner of Cleo Cafe and she said: Yes, we have a hotspot ! And there I went.

I talked a little to my friends and then went to the bar downstairs to catch the Wi-Fi on my device and @twitter awaited. So I finally managed to get in touch with Steven and we talked about his projects a little bit, to see where Cif2 and the Prizes might benefit him.

The website I saw he had is not something he would like to continue working on and he told me he really felt like trying to do something online. “I’ll put my thinking Cap on”, is what he said. Well i told him it was no rush and he could think of a very great project to develop, because we’re there for him, to help him build an online presence for the project and get some exposure to it.

He was excited of all this and I can’t wait to see what he’ll come up with !

Not the most “regular” place for PR activity, but it was actually great 😉