Everyone has to deal with it on a daily basis. It’s the modern digital equivalent of black death. It’s Spam - and it’s not he kind that comes in a can. Through a simple search, there appears to be a multitude of low-tech, design unfriendly solutions to keep your inbox free and clear from unwanted solicitation. With your friends at elbowruminations battling Spam for our clients on daily basis, we would like to present these best practices in Spam prevention for Graphic Designers and Web Developers.

Don’t Publish
Whenever you are posting a comment, placing an ad, or using an online service like Flickr, make sure you don’t post your address. These kinds of places are the targets of spam spiders and other pesky creatures of the internet. Spammers use these spiders, which are automated computer programs, to scan web pages in an effort to find “mailto” links. If your e-mail address is publicly displayed, it is easy prey for spammers.

Presentation Counts
If you are thinking about including a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, or a PDF on a website for investors or potential clients. Be sure that your only contact information is a phone number or a link to the website in the form of a url. Spiders and Bots not only have the ability to index web pages but also other types of files as well. Be aware that anything you put online is potentially visible to spiders.

Encode your Address
As an alternative to inconvenient e-mail address hidden in image files, or the classic “me at domain dot com” text tricks, why not take advantage of some new advancements. By using java script or html you can hide your address in a way that won’t cut down on functionality. By using these tools, you can have the protection you need with the clickability everyone wants. For those mac users out there, here’s a nice widget that will do the job quite nicely. For PC users, here’s a site that offers the same service.

Use a Contact Form
Perhaps instead of using e-mail addresses as the primary contact method, consider a contact form instead. It’s easy and will stealthily protect your address without much hassle.

Search and Destroy
Finally, find out where e-mail addresses are already published by doing a search. Simply type your e-mail address into a search engine and see what comes up. If you find anything, track down the source and remove your address from that website.

Hopefully you find these tips helpful in waging war on inbox invaders. If you have any other tips to share, send us an e-mail. Just kidding, but feel free to leave a comment.

Hi there,

I’ve no real idea what I’m doing but came across this site looking for a way to promote my site as a graphic illustrator, designer and re-toucher. I switched from fine art six years ago and although I have a simple site up and running I have no real idea of where I go from here. Any help and comments, (positive and negative) would be welcome.

With thanks,
Vicky.

Thanks for the note, and for the link to your site! Your restoration of old photographs and your original illustrations were our favourite parts.

It can be hard to promote yourself on the web, but we’ve been learning a few ideas as we go along, especially as we try and promote Elbowruminations. Here are the five things we’ve decided are most important.

1. Decide on your website’s purpose: personal or commercial.
2. Make sure your site is professional designed.
3. Write great content so users and search engines can find you.
4. Hook up with other websites and blogs.
5. Tell people about yourself.

That’s a quick overview. Now we’ll go a little more in depth.

5 tips for promoting your work on the web

1. Decide on your website’s purpose.
Before you promote your site, make sure it’s ready for the public. Start by determining what its purpose is. Are you creating a website so you have a personal portfolio that you can tell your friends and colleagues about? Or are you hoping it will be the home base for your business? It’s important to know that from the start, because it will influence how you design it and what kind of content you include. If your website is for business, here are three things to remember:

• Include a page that lists your prices and services in an easy-to-read, detailed manner.
• Include multiple ways to contact you: email address and phone number.
• Make sure your site is professionally designed.

2. Make sure your site is professionally designed.

It’s important to have a website that respectfully shows off your work. If your site looks bad, many people will assume that your work is low-quality, too. If your main skills are in illustration, fine art or another field besides web development, there are a couple ways to create a well-designed site:

1. The first one is free: use a template to build your site. We like WordPress – it’s free web software that lets you use pre-designed templates, and makes it very, very easy to add, delete and edit pages. It would be great for your site. You can visit WordPress.com to sign up for a free account whenever you want.
2. The second option costs money, but would guarantee excellent results: you could hire a professional web developer to create a professional, easy-to-use website for you.

3. Make sure your site is optimized for search engines.

Search engine optimization (or “SEO”) can be intimidating, but don’t get thrown off by all the jargon and technical jabber spoken by most of the web. If you remember one thing, it should be to make sure your site includes lots of “keyword-rich” content. Your site should include text, not just images. Where possible, describe your work using the same terms you’d expect someone to type into Google to find your kind of work. For instance, if you do photo-retouching, include a paragraph that describes your services.

If you are interested in learning more, Darren Crowes, owner of a website called ProBlogger, has published some very helpful tips to assist website owners in getting their websites better recognized by search engines. Visit his article called Search Engine Optimization for Blogs, and scroll down to the heading called “On Site SEO Techniques.”

4. Hook up with other websites and blogs.

One of the best ways to promote your site is to have other people do it for you. If you can spread links to your site all over the web, people will have a better chance of finding you. Here are a few quick tips:

1. Find other websites that promote people who do your kind of work. For instance, if you’re an illustrator, see if you can connect with IllustrationWeb.
2. Include a section on your site for links to other sites. If you have friends or colleagues with websites, link to their sites in this section. The web loves reciprocity: if you link to one person, they will often link back to you.
3. Sign up for an account on Flickr, and post some of your work to your account.

5. Tell people about yourself

Don’t be afraid to promote your own work. It’s important that you are willing to talk about yourself and the work you do. Here are some ways to do that:

• Find other illustrators, designers or bloggers that you think would be interested in your work, and send them a quick email introducing yourself, and include a link to your site.
• Send out an announcement email or a newsletter to your friends, or tell them in person about your site.
• Include your domain name on your business cards.
• Leave a note with Elbowruminations and get featured in the Q&A section!

Q. I found a course that is offered through my local community college, and it is called “Desktop Publishing.” It offers Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Do you think this would be a good start for training for a career in Graphic Design?

Elbowroom says:
That course at your college will probably give you a good overview of the software. However, “desktop publishing” is kind an old-school term, and usually refers to fairly elementary layout tasks. It’s Graphic Design adapted for everyday, at-home or small-office uses, rather than Graphic Design for professional applications in a design studio. The course won’t be very advanced or cutting edge, but will likely give you a good start in the programs.