The first thing to do when you are going to shoot a video with the Canon EOS 2000D / Rebel T7 DSLR camera is to move down the icons on the MODE DIAL to video mode, which is the camera icon. This is because this is the only way you can enter the video modes and the only way you can record video. When you do, you will hear the mirror appear inside the chamber. This enables the live view screen on the back of the camera. This is the only way you can record a video, you can’t look through the viewfinder and record a video because you don’t actually see an image through the viewfinder. You only see it through the live view screen on the back. When you move it down to video mode, it also gives you the video MENU TABS when you press the menu button. It reveals that it has four VIDEO TABS that are specifically for recording videos.

The first thing you do when you are in those tabs is decide on your VIDEO SYSTEM. Video systems refer to the type of systems used by televisions in different countries. Thus, for example, in Europe the system was effectively called PAL and in the United States it was effectively NTSC. It is important to make them correct for your national and geographic area because it changes the frame rate. Go to VIDEO TAB 2 and at the bottom is the video system. Open it by pressing SET and you will see that you only have two options NTSC or PAL.

After setting up your video system, the next thing to look at is VIDEO FRAME SIZE AND RATE. This camera is pretty good – it will shoot 1080 at 30 or 25 frames per second and it will shoot 720 at 60 or 50 frames per second. Now 1080 is Full HD and 720 is standard HD and both are perfectly good for social media and even displaying on reasonably large screens. Go to VIDEO 2 TAB and look at the first one, under FILM RECORD SIZE, then you will have the option of 1920×1080 at 25 frames per second, 1920×1080 at 24 frames per second which is set as the film speed for cinematographic videography and then 1280×720 at 50 and then 640×480 at 25. Now the 640×480 wouldn’t bother me at all. It is so poor that it is not worth looking at. But I would look at the 1080×25 and the 720×50. 25 frames per second is about the speed at which the human eye can detect motion and that’s the standard.

25 frames per second is reasonable video quality in terms of how the video will look. 50 frames per second looks a bit smoother. Also, shooting 50 frames per second means you can use slow motion much more effectively. If you are in PAL, your options will be 25 frames and 50 frames per second. If you choose NTSC, the options you would have would be 30 frames per second and 60 frames per second. When you set up the video systems it’s the frame rates that change and really those are the only changes there are but it’s a good idea, I’d say shoot 1080×25 because you get the best frame quality if that’s what you’re looking for. for, or if you are looking for a certain smoothness or if you want to do slow motion videography, shoot it at 50 frames per second.

The third thing to look at is the EXPOSURE OF THE FILM. When shooting still images, you have a wide variety of options for exposure settings and the types of still images you’ll take. So you go from MANUAL, which doesn’t set the exposure at all, you’re responsible for the exposure, through semi-auto setting and then full auto, here where the camera decides what the exposure should be and then sets the parameters accordingly. When you are filming a video, you only have two options. Do you have an automatic or do you have a manual? Where you make that choice is in VIDEO TAB 1 at the top which is MOVIE EXPOSURE. Now, if you choose Auto, this camera will take really, really good video, you’ll decide on settings that are essentially the same as stills: ISO, shutter speed, and aperture, and the camera will produce really well-exposed video. But if you want to be a little more creative, you can choose manual.

The next thing to think about when shooting video with this camera is sound. Deciding how to record sound is very important. Now if we go back to the menus and go to the VIDEO 2 TAB, just below the movie recording size, it has SOUND RECORDING and if you click there you have three options. The first option is to disable. Now, I don’t recommend that you disable sound completely, even if you’ve decided that you won’t have any video sound in your final edit. This is because audio is useful for identifying clips. The other two options are AUTO or MANUAL. The automatic recording of this camera is quite good. The downside to this is that because it’s automatic and doesn’t know what particular sounds you’re trying to record, it will pick up a lot of ambient sound. Now, if you’re shooting something that has ambient sound, then that’s not a problem. But if you only want to pick up a specific sound, like someone talking, Auto might not be the right setting for you, in which case you want to go down to MANUAL. Manual setup allows you to set the sound recording level so that the sound you are trying to record is the sound this camera picks up. So you have to decide whether to set manual or Automatic.

The next thing you might want to look at is the autofocus method. The Canon T7 has two autofocus methods if you’re looking through the viewfinder then the system here is very fast and very sharp. If you’re looking through the LiveView screen then it’s a bit slower, but you do have some options and we can see them here. So if you look in the menu, if you look at VIDEO TAB 1 and go down to AF METHOD, you can see the options that you have here, you have three options, you have flexizone, live mode and fast mode. Flexizone is the same as the single AF method through the viewfinder, which means that if you press the shutter button halfway, the camera will focus, and the nice thing about it is that you can be recording live video and you can do it and it will. Still focus which is pretty good. The next one is called live mode and the advantage of that is that it has face recognition which means if you’re filming people it will automatically try to focus on one of the faces that are in the frame and that’s pretty cool and nice but useful of again to do it you need to press the shutter button. The third is fast mode. Now this doesn’t really work that well, even though it’s designed to be called quick mode because what it does is exit video mode, go into viewfinder mode, focus, and then go back to video mode again. You obviously can’t record video and use fast mode at the same time, so it’s not really as useful for recording video as you might think, although it may be a bit faster, it stops video in progress and means you have to. restart the video again but i would use flexizone for almost everything because even if you have faces in the frame it’s up to you to decide what you want to focus on you may want to focus on the face you may want to focus on something else and if when in on mode vivo there are no faces, so go back to flexizone anyway. But those are the AF options you have in Live View and those are the AF options you have for shooting video.

The next thing you’ll want to look at is the image style. If you have taken pictures with this camera before, you may be familiar with the Picture Styles option and these can increase contrast, increase saturation and make your images more vivid or they can desaturate your images and in one case make your image completely monochrome. Well, the same options apply for video and you might get skewed, like you do with your Picture Styles, since it’s leave it on auto, but I would recommend changing it so it’s on neutral. So if we go to the menus and to the VIDEO 3 TAB at the bottom you’ll see the PICTURE STYLE option and you’ll also see that it has the same options that you have for stills so at the top you have Auto and then standard and portrait etc and as I say I would choose NEUTRAL. The reason for this is that when you’re shooting video, you want it to be as flat as possible, without excessive saturation or excessive contrast, nothing that would really make it difficult to edit that video. You can add saturation when you’re editing, you can add contrast when you’re editing, but you can’t really remove those things very easily, certainly not as easily as when you’re using stills because you’re dealing with large amounts of information and 25 or 50 frames per second. So the goal really is to produce a really flat video and then add your style when you’re producing your video in Edit.

Finally, what I always look at when I’m shooting my videos is the white balance. If you are shooting in one location you may like to leave it on auto and the auto white balance on this camera is very good and there is no reason to want to change it but if you are shooting in different locations where the lighting may be slightly different and the color contrast and color tones can be slightly different then it is really recommended to set the white balance in each location and the reason for this is that you want a continuity through your video so you don’t move from one place to another and the lighting looks completely different. The option to change your custom white balance is in the menus and if you go to SHOOTING TAB 3, above the picture style, you can click on that and get the option to change the white balance, it’s not very hard. It’s pretty straight forward if you buy the manual I’ll show you exactly how to do it but I would recommend as I say if you change locations frequently when you’re shooting video to change that white balance and set that white balance to Every time you change locations If you want more information, you may not have a look at our manual, which has been written especially for this camera. In fact, we are giving away a sample of our manual. It contains 2 full course videos including the complete video on shooting movies with the rebel t7 all you have to do is click the link here or the description below and we will send it to you right away totally free. These are the best video settings for the Canon EOS 2000D/ Rebel T7.

There are many things to learn in Real Estate before you start investing. In fact, investing in Real Estate is much more complicated than investing in stocks. That is why real estate has become the common investment area for many people and has therefore become more popular over the years. One needs to have financial and legal knowledge before investing in Real Estate.

So here are five basic tips to help you get familiar with the basics of Real Estate.

1. Rent:

Location matters, which is an old saying that fits perfectly when we think about investing in real estate. The first thing to make sure when investing in or moving forward with a property is whether or not it is located in a good place.

If it’s the best location, it may be the worst house there, but that doesn’t matter as you can fix the problems or resell it to someone who wants a house in the best location. Professional real estate investors call this the Fixing and Flipping formulas.

2.Wholesale properties:

Being wise is also very important when investing. You must follow Warren Buffett’s formulas for stock investing that says “You must be greedy, while everyone else is afraid.” You should be on the lookout for wholesale properties that are offered at deep discounts to avoid paying full prices.

Using this technique, you can buy the property at a low price and keep the sale price double the purchase price, helping you maximize your return on investment.

3. Connect with local investors:

Hanging out with local investors and talking to them about the local real estate market will help you get to know things better. Ask them to show you their properties and take in every bit of information they give you.

4. Reading helps a lot:

There is a tremendous amount of information available online these days. You can also get information you may need in the field of property and investment. Buy and read books that give you practical knowledge about buying, investing, renting, and selling property.

5. Find a good real estate agent:

This is the best part. When you are all set and finally ready to invest in some property, then a real estate agent is the person to help you. And a good real estate agent who understands the concept of return on investment and has also sold several properties may be the best option.

Real estate investing can offer fabulous returns, but there are also people who go broke after investing in Real Estate. Everything is in your hands, so make sure and know everything related before investing.

This is a pretty simple yes or no answer to this question. I find many small business owners say yes to this question, but then share with me that their execution is weak.

They don’t use email marketing consistently, they don’t constantly add more prospects and customers to their list, they haven’t taken the time to learn how to use it more effectively, there isn’t a signup form on their website, etc.

Should I add email as a marketing channel?

Some people claimed that email would replace direct mail marketing because the cost was so cheap.

Email marketing was not meant to replace direct mail marketing, but it can definitely help cut some of your marketing costs and still be effective.

Always remember that you want to use as many marketing channels as necessary to market your business effectively.

Part of your effectiveness will be sharing relevant and interesting content with your readers.

I’m sure you have emails you receive from people you enjoy reading and others you remove or exclude from your lists.

Part of being relevant is not presenting products every time you contact your current and potential customers. You can present products and sales every time, but at some point your customers and prospects may decide they’ve had enough hype.

Keep in mind that this also applies to your industry. If you are a restaurant and you send out a weekly or special coupon, you can keep your email list alive by sending it out weekly.

What makes email marketing effective?

As a small business, your passion for what you do and the quality of your customer relationships are what separates you from the rest. When you use email, you’ll be able to strengthen those relationships and connect with your customers and prospects in a way no one else can, every time you hit ‘Send.’
Email marketing delivers bottom line results.

Email marketing offers you a fast and effective way to get your message across to current and potential customers and keep your organization top of mind. It is an innovative marketing tool that is as easy to use as it is powerful. But it doesn’t end there.

Your Email Marketing must have the following tools available

Your email marketing tool should also make it easy to integrate your social media channels. So when you send an email to your mailing list, you’ll be able to connect with a whole new audience of potential customers through social networking sites and generate even more new business.

You want to make sure that the email tool you use makes it easy to get the look you want quickly. Many of the Email Marketing tools have email templates designed for each type of communication (newsletters, promotions, etc.).

Make sure you can customize your emails with your logo, images, colors, fonts, and more. You want to keep your brand identity consistent across all of your marketing channels.

Also, see if you can find business-specific template options that are easy to use.

more to-dos

Consistently promote and link to your social media pages by inserting Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn icons into your emails.

See if the email marketing tool has an auto tweet feature to automatically post emails to your Twitter feed.

Make it easy for your current and potential customers to share your email message on their social networking sites with a Social Share Toolbar of some kind.

Make sure you can easily import and manage your entire contact list. Some email tools make this a huge headache.

You want to make sure that you can add people to your email marketing list directly from your website. When you can add to your email list directly from your website and Facebook page, it makes your life easier.

When looking at email marketing tools, see if you can schedule welcome emails or commonly sent messages with your email autoresponder.

A reputable email marketing company will make sure that your emails get seen. Good companies will have a delivery rate of over 95%. This will keep your emails out of spam folders.

A good email marketing tool will also have some sort of antispam checker.

They must also be reputable and follow permission-based email practices.

Your email tool should be able to track your results. If they have graphs of your email campaign results, including: open rates, clicks, and bounces, that’s even better.

Another nice feature in your email marketing tools would be the ability to measure your social media success with how many fans ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ your emails on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Your action steps

Go find a good email marketing tool. The most important part to remember is that this is just one tool in your marketing plan. Don’t pin all your hopes on one tool.

Think of your various marketing channels like the spokes of a wheel that are delivering your ideal prospects and customers to the hub in the center of your wheel.

Have a variety of spokes in your wheel for maximum efficiency, and use email as one of your most effective tools.

Go and conquer your market.

Earn money online with affiliate programs and the new ATM. When searching online for a work-from-home business, with little or no cash investment, a person will almost always come across affiliate programs. These are programs that different companies offer to help promote their products and increase sales, without costing them anything up front to do so. Basically, you become a seller of that company or that product, your commission depends on you making a sale. This is a legitimate business, it is possible to have great success with it, but affiliate marketing is not easy. However, Ewen Chia has created a program, the Newbie Cash Machine, which he claims is what all Internet marketing “newbies” need to be successful. The real question is “Can newbies make money with Ewen Chia’s ATM?”

Ewen Chia has been in internet marketing for ten years. So there’s some credibility to what she has to offer. Also, she tries to build her credibility by pointing out that there are scams out there, there are sites that claim to make you rich overnight, and she tells you that he is not one of those sites. There’s no promise of overnight success, though there’s a hint of what it might be when she says, “You might see some real quick cash.” Mr. Chia is also trying to set himself apart from others by telling you that he will actually show you how to run an internet marketing business. His program is the model he “must have” to earn the money he dreams of. He jokes that in his equation for success, he has the recipe for the “secret sauce” that he will only share with you if you buy his show.

Their blueprint is, in fact, the framework needed for a long-term successful business, and the silver lining to what the Newbie Cash Machine has is that once it’s on the go, it requires no childcare. As mentioned above, making money with affiliate programs can be very profitable, but it is not easy and requires work, while Cash Machine will automate it, so to speak. Ewen Chia emphasizes that it’s about building a business, not just making money.

Ewen Chia’s Newbie Cash Machine is so simple to follow that he doesn’t know how he can follow the steps and not make money. Again trying to “honestly” win over the potential buyer, he tells you that while other sites are worried that you might take a piece of their money, he’s not, there’s plenty to go around. We can all agree with that statement, there is a lot of money to be made on the internet and a lot to go around. Also, the point of being successful in your internet marketing is that you are offering something that your competitor is not offering.

The answer to the question of whether or not a newbie can make money with Ewen Chia’s ATM is probably. A person can earn money from affiliate programs, so if Newbie Cash Machine helps make the process simpler and more automated, he will be able to earn money from both affiliate programs and Newbie Cash Machine. It’s a small investment to start your own business, and for those already in business, it’s a small risk if you can increase your sales with what you’re already doing. Plus, Ewen Chia offers a no questions asked money back guarantee, all he wants you to do is buy it, try it and make a success story. After all, it won’t help your sales if there aren’t any success stories to brag about.

It is a tough and competitive business environment in which

live and it’s getting harder to achieve

your goals. You have to stand out from your peers.

and competitors. You have to work hard for the race.

promotion and better pay.

Whether you are a senior executive, an entrepreneur or

an employee, this book will show you the best way to

be successful, achieve your personal and professional goals,

Outshine your competition and differentiate yourself

of the package David F. D’Alessandro shows you how

stand out from the crowd by developing your own

“personal brand”; and provides valuable lessons in

the label of building reputation.

What is personal branding?

You must realize that success does not just come

hard work and playing the part properly.

To be successful in business and in your career, you

must be able to distinguish itself from the rest

the herd – you need to develop, build and defend your

reputation.

Personal branding is a way to manage your career or

business. It is a way of communicating that makes you

different and special. By using these qualities you

can distinguish himself from his peers so that he can

it can amplify your success.

There are 10 rules you can follow to build a

successful personal brand and maintain it:

Rule 1: Try to look beyond your own belly button – The biggest

obstacle in building a positive personal brand is your

own ego To develop an attractive personal image

brand, you need to have respect for yourself and you need

respect the people around you.

Rule 2: Like it or not, your boss is the co-author of

Your Brand – You must realize and accept the fact that

Early in your career, your boss will reap the lion’s share of

the rewards for the ideas you give, the money you brought

in etc This is how the business world works. Do

Don’t fight the power structure. Instead, learn to

play and live from it.

Rule 3: Put your boss on the couch – Not all bosses

It will help you. The best thing is that you recognize what type

of personality that your boss has so that you realize

what advantages and disadvantages this person may have

cause to your brand.

Rule 4: Learn What The Pickle Fork Is – Good Manners

are crucial to develop and improve your personality

brand. Manners have to do with consideration and respect,

knowledge and patience. Practice good business etiquette.

Rule 5: Kenny Rogers is right, even though it matters

so that you take advantage of the opportunity to build your brand,

it is equally crucial to know which battles to take. know

when to keep fighting and when to withdraw.

Rule 6: It’s always showtime – you have to realize that

reputations are generally not made with big events –

sometimes it’s those big events that stain your brand.

What builds your reputation is your day to day

behavior in the business environment, such as the way you treat

with people, how you make decisions, your work habits,

etc

Rule 7: Make The Right Enemies – Personal Bests

include courtesy, fairness, tolerance, self-respect, and

have good and correct manners. However, a small amount

of cruelty is good for your brand. your reputation

he will not suffer much if he fights against his enemies,

but it will suffer if you lose self-respect.

Rule 8: Try not to get swallowed by the bubble – Once you

are successful in building their brand and it is growing in the

ranks, keep an eye on the forest. don’t be too much

full of yourself that you will be swallowed by success.

It’s bad for your humanity and bad for your career.

Rule 9: The higher you fly, the more you’ll get shot at

In – Everyone makes mistakes. The higher you are in the

ladder of success, most likely your mistakes

will be highlighted. Accept that bad press is coming

leading in any field.

Rule 10: Everyone could have been a contender; make sure

Stay One – Prepare to be different from your peers.

As you are constantly compared to your peers,

Don’t be afraid to offer something unique or distinctive.

Don’t give up easily. Don’t throw in the towel right away

due to a mishap or two. Learn from your mistakes and

turn it into an opportunity. Do not lie, cheat or

steal. Be careful what reputation you are building.

Digital marketing can be used by startups to explore new techniques and also by individuals to expand their business. While creating a new effective campaign we have to build strategies and by analyzing the performance we can improve them for better conversions. In this guide we will see some of the most important tips to keep in mind before launching campaigns:

The most important thing is to understand the psychology of your buyer persona and the desirability of your product or service before designing an online marketing strategy and campaign.

As an advertiser, one needs to know what specific strategy to use to reach their target audience and market. After simplifying the objectives, you need to keep your target audience in mind, this will increase the interest of your audience. Your keyword must be used in content included on the landing page of ads so we don’t mislead our audience. We may use various options to publicize our campaign or advertisements using eye-catching images and we may also use videos to convey our message. Just make sure the image contains less than 20% text as per Facebook’s advertising policy. To increase reach and business growth on social media platforms like Twitter, which helps improve visibility and people can find your social media account.

In the case of Google AdWords, always remember to include negative keyword targeting, it helps to serve your ads efficiently and effectively, this drives better quality traffic and drives to your landing pages and improves your quality score. Don’t ignore your mobile user, let the mobile specific “call to action” speak directly to your mobile users, this will result in higher conversion rates and a positive user experience. Conversion tracking allows for data optimization and also gives you direct insight into the ROI of your campaign.

To create a successful campaign on Google, the keyword planner is an effective tool, which is helpful in building a strong keyword list and helps you start your PPC campaign; is a keyword ideation and bid estimation tool that can help you plan your go-to-market strategy. Display Planner is easy to use and provides a simpler user interface than Google Display Network Ad Planner; It also provides ideas based on your website’s landing page or categories that are of interest to your audience. It also offers the option to “Upload a plan”, which allows you to get more ideas on an existing plan.

When you plan to do SEO for your website, you’ll need tools to analyze, measure, and improve performance. While working on SEO projects, I came across many SEO tools that can be helpful in improving the performance of your website.

The most effective way to create a campaign is to perform A/B tests, which allows you to do short tests and helps to determine if the ads are working correctly or not, from this advertiser knows which campaign is efficient to generate more conversions.

Did you see Baron Davis dunk Andrei Kirilenko in the last playoffs? What about the dunk on Jermaine O’Neil and the one on Thielo Green at UCLA?

Everyone who has seen these dunks knows that they are impossible to forget. But a lot of people also wonder how a guy who is around 220 pounds and 6’3″ can jump that high. One thing is clear: you must have very strong leg muscles to lift that weight into the air!

Therefore, it is all about weight training. If you’re heavier like Baron, it’s actually about Olympic weightlifting.

The most important benefit of Olympic weightlifting is that it teaches the body to activate all the muscle fibers at once.

Different studies have shown the effectiveness of Olympic weightlifting. For example, a group of lifters did various Olympic lifts (high pull, power clean, and clean and jerk) and were compared with a group using vertical jump exercises (one and two leg hurdles, alternating hurdle jumps with one leg, etc.) After 8 weeks of training, the Olympic weightlifting group had significantly increased their 10-meter running speed and standing jump over the control group using standard vertical jump exercises (Tricoli, 2005).

Similarly, a 15-week study was also conducted with soccer players comparing a weightlifting program to an Olympic weightlifting program for athletic performance. After the 15-week study ended, the Olympic weightlifting group had significant improvement in the vertical jump and 40-meter dash over the weightlifting group (Hoffman JR, 2004).

But you can’t just focus on lifting weights because as a jumper you also need to be fast. So you also need to work on your quickness. How do you train that?

Five sets of wind sprints (50 meters) three times a week is a very effective exercise.

Another excellent exercise is jumping rope. Jump rope not only gives you explosiveness and calf strength, but it’s also a great way to build stamina and work on overall leg strength. Jump rope at least three times a week.

For more exercise tips and details, visit the following site:

As a social media strategist, I am fascinated by the power of this medium to generate all kinds of new and unexpected results.

Take the BP oil spill, for example. In the past, a company like BP completely screwed up, ruined the environment, and then covered up the whole thing through expensive advertising campaigns and propaganda. Not so this time. Enter a twitter page that tells us the truth and BAMB! BP is thrown in the trash, forced to admit its mistakes, and essentially (and rightly) vilified in almost every kind of media.

BP is a great example of how the Internet and the rapid spread of information are changing the way business is done. In my ever-optimistic brain, I hope that one day the use of social media will take all businesses to a higher level where “what’s in it for us” becomes “what’s in it for everyone.” But I’m a dreamer 🙂

I decided that I would offer my own social media experiment. While I spend most of my time providing value to others and preaching that providing value to the public is the cornerstone of a well-run social media campaign, I have to admit that this experiment was born out of a more selfish motive. that is, once again, owning my own home.

With that being said, I think by setting this up as an authentic and transparent experiment, I can bring a lot of value to other people who want to use social media to grow their business or help their nonprofit. The successes and mistakes made in the coming months will be well documented and should serve as a guide on what to do or what not to do to gain exposure. (I hope it’s the ‘what to do’ 🙂

Let’s start.

This is the back story: When I had my 2 daughters, 9 and 12 years ago, I was a housewife. She had a small photography business but, for all intents and purposes, she didn’t really work. When my marriage ended 3 years ago, I was lucky enough to get a great job as a recruiter for a video game company. Unfortunately, the Korean company we owned went out of business and I was left with virtually nothing in the worst economic crisis of my adult life.

We had to sell our house in June 2009. 6 months before or after we would have made about $50,000 more, but we had to sell it then and we took a big hit. My equity, after the debts were paid, was $19,000. I bought an $11,000 Volvo and used the rest to pay first and last and a pet deposit on a rental house for myself and my kids.

This story is not unique. far from there In the recent economy, both in the US and Canada, there are millions upon thousands of people with exactly the same story. I don’t even think it’s a sad story, it’s just the way things are for a lot of us and there are so many worse stories out there.

Adding to the circumstances that bring most of us to this point (not a bad point, just a point) is the fact that it’s very hard to get back into real estate on your own, especially with a couple of kids.

Spending choices become a major focus. Do you put your life on hold, no vacations, no movies, no skiing, etc., to save for a down payment on a house that costs more than 3/4 million dollars? That seems a bit crazy. And it’s not fair to children.

Most families, at least in Vancouver, have so many financial obligations that it would make your head spin, and if owning a house is a priority, it means you will have to sacrifice those things that make everyday life fun, like computers. sports. and summer road trips.

So what is the answer? Is it time for the top 10% to start finding ways to support the bottom 90% of society? I really do not know.

So I’m running this experiment to find out if there’s a way to take some of the pressure off this middle class who want to give their kids a head start, but don’t want to financially devastate their own futures in the process. .

I will be collecting and posting ideas that people come up with. One idea I had was a group of investors working with the “client” (which would be someone like me) who chooses a house and then comes to a rent-to-own agreement. In this way, instead of just paying the rent, the client has the satisfaction of working towards his own objectives.

What is your idea?

A big mistake that many people make is confusing usability with accessibility. Not only are the two very different, but the trend seems to be that one is considered less important than the other. Although both should be taken seriously, it is true that many of the ideals surrounding accessibility still apply to usability, and vice versa.

Optimizing the usability of a site will help make it more accessible, or at least provide a better framework to build on. If your broader audience finds the site difficult to use, it will almost certainly be problematic for people with disabilities or learning difficulties. Similarly, the degree of consideration that goes into addressing accessibility is equally valid when it comes to usability.

put the user first

If you remove all the fancy stuff from web design, the pages are ultimately built for people to use. Forget flashing every Flash trick you can muster from your repertoire or bombarding people’s browsers with bandwidth-busting images, and you’re left with the best content delivery service you can offer. Before you even start to brainstorm or start thinking about getting Dreamweaver up and running, you should be clear that usability is about putting the needs of the user first. Remember that designing anything from shoes to sites is judged on the performance of the final product.

This will help you accomplish one of the most important stages in most design processes and especially in software engineering: requirements elicitation. Most professional new media agencies will already be familiar with this procedure and will use it to establish a stable understanding of what the user expects to see, and the success of the project depends on following it. Whether you’re tasked with building a site for a specific client or hoping to launch something that will drive traffic more directly, learning what end-user expectations are will be an essential exercise.

Obtaining requirements

The key point to remember about understanding user requirements is that you are unlikely to get them right the first time. This means that a constant flow of communication throughout the design process is critical to getting as close as possible to your expectations. Talking to users, recording what they say, and trying to pin down exactly what they mean is the only sure way to meet their needs.

It’s also important to note that the people you’re designing for don’t necessarily know the kind of “developer language” you’d be comfortable with. This is where the production of graphical diagrams or descriptive case studies can be used effectively to represent how you see the project. Navigation flowcharts, example sitemaps, and perhaps data flow diagrams for eCommerce solutions are all good ways to present complex information without baffling others with technical jargon.

Likewise, there’s no reason you can’t achieve a shared direction the way visuals go with page mockups. Digital flat drawings of possible template designs can be presented and discussed, before a period of prototyping more sophisticated page elements, interfaces and navigation structures begins.

Professional Help

If you’re not too interested in doing generalized usability studies yourself, or perhaps realize that it’s not feasible, you can always rely on the services of others.

Professional consultancies or specialized agencies are common and offer a range of complete solutions covering all major processes. They will also usually give your site a preliminary evaluation to determine if it really requires the full usability treatment and how best to accomplish it all. then it all comes down to identifying what needs and goals drive the website, or establishing what it is expected to achieve. This can lead to a detailed analysis of what the target demographic will be, so that a cross section of the audience group can be studied.

Typically, a sample of ‘typical users’ will be asked to attend test sessions that will observe participants as they experience the site. This can range from simply asking them to freely browse the content for a certain period of time, to setting them certain tasks and scenarios.

While they are encouraged to ‘think out loud’ at all times, their comments are monitored and recorded by sophisticated tracking software or by video. Designers are encouraged to attend sessions and hear how users perceive the site and perhaps what improvements they may suggest. At the end, all participants are asked to submit their general impressions of the site during in-depth interview sessions. All the findings are then compiled into detailed reports that will form the basis for any future design reviews and new projects that arise from the findings.

Conducting user surveys

When gathering a sample of your users isn’t a realistic option, there are other ways to get feedback. Many sites will include email addresses or contact forms for visitors to submit feedback, but this does not guarantee that you will receive the kind of valuable feedback that you want. it may be more useful to provide electronic questionnaires that will measure user opinion more effectively.

Using a specialized program will allow you to publish sophisticated interactive surveys quickly and easily. The benefit here is that the results can be recorded on a server before more detailed statistical analysis can be processed and interpreted when managing any practical improvements. There are some off-the-shelf software solutions that will remotely assess user actions as they occur in real time. This kind of approach should be clearly made known to visitors before they engage, as covertly tracking their behaviors would compromise areas of data protection law and would certainly lead to mistrust if discovered.

However, some interesting facts related to areas of the site or the actual interface would be revealed from the way different people approach the content. By simply tracking link paths or cursor activity, you could determine how navigation was perceived and perhaps how effective visual cues such as menus, buttons, and anchors are in directing your audience’s actions.

This provides one of the most realistic images of user perception, because the subject is likely to behave as they would naturally when casually browsing the Web. When in more stringent ‘lab’ conditions, they may feel pressured by the environment or the presence of an examiner, or self conscious of the time it takes to perform. It would also have an adverse effect if they were to expect to use hardware, peripherals, operating systems, or navigation software with which they are unfamiliar.

By making judgments about how typical visitors interact with the site in their own homes or workplaces, it will help differentiate how the novice or experienced user fare without interruption.

With the anxious feelings of going into an interview, it can be easy to err on the side of not having the best manners. It’s not about manners like keeping your elbows off the table, but about good etiquette. In a job interview, it can be easy to make silly mistakes that could offend someone and, in turn, cost you the job. Here are some good ideas to help you keep your interview manners in check.

Show up early. Being late for an interview will make a lasting impression, but not a good one. Especially if you are not sure of the location, it is better to leave in plenty of time to find the right building and be aware of possible traffic jams. If you arrive more than 15 minutes early, simply wait outside or in the car before entering the building. It could be terribly awkward if someone has an interview before you and you’re still waiting in the lobby. This is true for both you and the other person. Be early, not less than 5 minutes but not more than 15 minutes. Think of it this way: if you’re late, it means to your potential employer that you can ALWAYS be late. Getting to work, and on time.

Have a great handshake. You don’t have to put on the jaws, but you don’t have to “dead fish” your potential boss either. Your handshake makes a good first impression, so make it count. A firm and confident handshake is the way to go.

Everyone deserves respect. You don’t just need to impress the person you’re interviewing with. It is very possible that the receptionist or someone sitting right next to the waiting area will participate in the decision making. Receptionists are often asked what their first impression of you was, so treat everyone with courtesy. You really never know who is watching.

Never be a no-show. If you find that you really aren’t interested, call to cancel. Don’t waste everyone’s time by just not showing up. You never know in your career who you will have to work with in the future, so it is better not to make enemies before they meet you.

To be prepared. Do your research and learn something about the company you are interviewing with. If you know something about the company, it shows interest and gives you a huge advantage. Don’t waste time interviewing if it really isn’t a company you can’t work for. Also, bring all your reference information, resume and portfolio. Make that preparation really work for you.