I came across a post on Web Resources Depot the other day about a JavaScript library called mapper.js that lets you add a hover effect to any regular image map. mapper.js even lets you export your image maps as SVG files if you’re into that kind of thing.

This was kind of a convenient find for me because I had just gotten done building a simple image map for a client site. The exact map, with the hover effect, looks like this:

mapper.js works by taking the coordinates defined in the image map and drawing a corresponding shape on an element you have wrapping the image (like a div, for example). It’s compatible with Mozilla Firefox 1.5+, Opera 9+, Safari and IE6+.

I stumbled into freelancing pretty much by chance. While I was in college, working on a Computer Science degree, I would get local contract jobs here and there for a variety of clients with no real relation to each other except for one thing: they had all been referred to me by someone they knew. With each successful job I was generating more and more word of mouth about what I could do and it was leading directly to more leads. I never actively advertised any of my services and yet people were managing to find me.

My very first big time project after I graduated was with an area minor league baseball team. I heard they were taking bids on a re-design of their site and its content management system so I wrote a proposal, had a meeting and won the bid. After the new site was completed and launched I began receiving quote requests out of the blue from people who had either seen the site or had been referred to me by the team’s staff. One project eventually snowballed into the majority of my current client base.

I put together this dopey little graphic to help illustrate my point that you can take one successful job and spin into a lot of future work with a little bit of luck and good word of mouth. As a freelancer, you’re more than capable of making a living bidding on job after job but once people start talking about your skills your reliance on job boards will begin to dwindle away.

I switched from PCs to Macs a little over two years ago. Aside from a little time spent in Linux, almost all of my web development work is done on my Macbook. I thought I’d take a minute today to show you the four applications I use the most when I’m working. All of these programs are highly recommended by me, but if you have any alternatives or suggestions that I should check out let me know in the comments.

Coda

I’ve written about Panic’s Coda before but I just can’t say enough good things about it. It puts everything I want under one window: file editor, FTP, previewing and terminal shells.

Without having to switch between different programs to edit, upload, etc. I find it much easier to concentrate and focus on the specific task at hand. Coda has done wonders for improving my efficiency when it comes to building sites. I use Coda every single day and that’s probably the best endorsement I can give it.

On The Job

There are a lot of options to choose from when it comes time to track your billable hours. There are even online solutions but I’m personally a bit leery of trusting someone else with my sensitive financial information. After a lot of trial and error I eventually found On The Job from Stunt Software and I’ve been using it ever since.

On The Job has a simple interface and is really easy to use. That’s exactly the kind of program you should be looking for when you have to do a tedious but necessary task like writing invoices. The best feature of On The Job, aside from the basic time tracking, is the PDF invoices it generates based on your time entry. I can have all of my monthly billing done in short order thanks to this program.

MySQL Query Browser

If you’ve read just a few posts on this site you’d know that I’m a PHP/MySQL guy so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that I spend a lot of time using the MySQL Query Browser.

A lot of people like to use phpMyAdmin to interact with their databases and I think these people are insane. There are also other desktop programs to let you do MySQL work but none are as cheap (meaning, free) and as well put together as the MySQL Query Browser.

Paparazzi!

Paparazzi! is the type of small utility that I don’t use very often but when I do it’s a very serious timesaver. With Paparazzi! you can take high quality full-screen screenshots and thumbnails of any website.

I use Paparazzi! a lot when I’m sending comps to clients. It’s especially useful when they want to see how progress is coming but I haven’t worked out all of the quirks for a design in Internet Explorer yet. It’s a great utility.

I want to drop a quick note of thanks to Elliot Jay Stocks for his nice tutorial on getting PNGs from application icons. It was extremely helpful.

For those in the affiliate marketing game, there is apparently a decent amount of money to be made using the affiliate program provided by eBay. The U.S. eBay affiliate program (which you can sign up for at Commission Junction if you’re interested) pays when visitors you drive to the popular auction site meet one of these conditions:

So that’s a really basic and simple overview of the eBay affiliate program. This post is really about what you can do to convert with that program though. For most people, the easiest way to drive traffic to eBay through your affiliate account is to setup an “instant store” using the Build A Niche Store software. It’s better known as BANS.

BANS has become incredibly popular because it is simple to use and has proven successful for a lot of people in the eBay affiliate program. When you install BANS you choose what eBay categories you’re interested in making a store for and the software does the rest. You can see a list of stores people have created on the BANS site to get an idea of what the program is capable of. BANS costs $97 and comes with a lot of perks for that price. It’s especially well-suited for those who don’t quite have the technical knowledge to manipulate eBay’s RSS feeds on their own.

If you’re one of those people who might want a little more control over their own eBay store there’s an alternative in phpBay Pro. phpBay Pro is an API for PHP that wraps around the eBay RSS feeds and parses the results for you. It also encrypts links and images from eBay which is useful if you’re concerned about security in regards to your store and search engines.

With phpBay Pro you can make a store built around keywords as opposed to the pre-defined categories available on eBay. phpBay Pro is also cheaper than BANS with a $39 price tag for the API alone. For an additional $20, you can also buy a WordPress plugin that lets you embed eBay auctions directly into posts on your blog.

I purchased phpBay Pro for myself over the holiday weekend to use on an idle domain name I own (it’s Nintendo Wii related, so it’s probably a good candidate for this). To give you an idea of how easy phpBay Pro is to use here’s an example of what the code looks like to pull down Wii related auctions:

<?php
require_once("ebay.php");
$keywords = "nintendo wii";

// create an instance of the ebay class
$ebay = new ebay();

// set the number of listings to display per page
$ebay->eb_frpp = "10";

// create the listings content
$ebay->listings($keywords, $category);

// display the listings
echo $ebay->html;
?>

If anyone has any experience with either BANS or phpBay Pro I’d love to hear about it in the comments of this post.

I get this question all the time from Windows people: How can I make a PDF?

There are dozens of tiny shareware programs that you can buy that will handle building PDFs for you. If you’re looking for a cheaper and simpler way then check out CutePDF Writer. This program is freeware and isn’t very difficult to install but it does require a PS2PDF converter (a link to one is included on the CutePDF site).

Once you have CutePDF installed you’ll notice a new printer has been added to your system. Now when you want to convert a document into a PDF you simple “print” it through that new CutePDF printer. You’ll be prompted to save the new PDF file somewhere and CutePDF Writer does the rest.

The folks at Entrecard recently launched a small store on their site. The store allows users to buy a handful of perks for their listing by using their saved up credits that they’ve earned. If it becomes popular it should prove to be an effective way to keep the number of oustanding credits in the system down.

This becomes really interesting to me with the announcement on the Entrecard blog that they’ll be offering six users the ability to sell their own products or services on the store. They use examples like selling t-shirts or design services for Entrecard credits. Anyone interested in having their idea listed in the store must write a post describing what they would offer (and for how much) and then write a comment on the Entrecard blog with a link to their idea post.

So What Will You Be Selling?

I don’t know for sure if I would ever want to get involved in the store by offering design or programming services. My interest in the Entrecard store has to do with the outsourcing options it would offer. If the folks at Entrecard choose user ideas that involve simple graphic design or writing services from users (that’s the most obvious idea for most users, I think) then I might be interested in exchanging my credits for work like that.

I mentioned this is my review of Entrecard but it’s ideas like this store that make Entrecard a fun and interesting diversion for web site owners. I continue to be a big fan of the service.

Small Potato, the man behind the extremely popular WPDesigner site, was nice enough to answer my questions about premium WordPress themes.

The premium theme Small Potato currently sells is very different from the rest on the market. The theme, called Showcase, is built specifically for portfolio or design gallery sites and not your typical blog. It comes with a variety of color schemes and layout variations as well.

In addition to Showcase, Small Potato has released a large number of free WordPress themes and theme tutorials on his site.

What prompted you to begin selling your premium WordPress theme?

I wanted to try something new.

How do the number and type of support requests a premium theme is generating compare to the requests you receive for one of your free themes?

Initially, I expected to be bombarded with questions since my own premium theme was far from anything in the market, but so far I’ve been getting only one to two questions, every two weeks.

For premium theme authors out there or those wanting to get into paid/premium themes, a few support questions here and there every two weeks isn’t realistic. You have to keep in mind that I’m currently selling only one product with a very detailed ReadMe file.

Detailed ReadMe files or guides tend to help filter out the newbie questions.

I assume there’s a larger sense of responsibility when dealing with premium theme support. Do you sometimes feel like you’ve signed on with dozens of clients all at once?

Fortunately, no. Although, it’ll be like that in the future for every premium theme author if we don’t create detailed guides for the clients and encourage community support.

Premium theme support is not something you can easily outsource so the best help you can get will be from the users. Take the WordPress.org forums for example, the administrators and moderators don’t have to sit around all day to answer every questions. The users help each other troubleshoot.

Would a new level of commitment alter your plans for future themes in regards to features, release schedules, etc.?

Although my one and only paid theme is a success, I have no plans to continue selling individual themes that focus on function — themes that push WordPress blogs beyond their current limits.

What are your thoughts on the notion of an official theme marketplace that was mentioned by Matt Mullenweg at the beginning of November?

Actually, I wrote about it on my site.

With the crackdown on sponsored themes and sponsored links, do you fear the premium theme market will be flooded with WordPress designers looking to make back lost revenue?

I don’t think so. Selling sponsored links for a free theme is much easier than creating your own product for sale. You can quickly whip something up, but are people going to buy it?

Without giving away any personal trade secrets, what have you found to be the best methods of promoting your premium theme?

I haven’t promoted my theme at all, not even a dollar spent on it. I guess the secret is to build yourself from the ground up by releasing free themes and writing WordPress tutorials. Those two things are useful toward establishing trust. Your readers get to know who you are, what you do, and your level of standards. Eventually, those readers become customers.

Do you have any tips or words of advice for WordPress designers thinking about entering into the premium theme market?

• Do some research. Find out what will separate you from the rest of the premium theme authors.
• Create something that you can be proud of. “Be so good that they can’t ignore you.”
• Worry about how you license your products.
• Don’t pay someone else or an external website to manage your transactions and deliveries. There are lots of scripts out there that can handle digital products for you. For example, WHMCS (typically used for web hosting, but it works the same way.)
• Write detailed and thorough guides, installation instructions, and usage instructions.

As usual, I want to offer my thanks to Small Potato for answering my questions. Be sure to check out his site, WPDesigner, for excellent themes and WordPress tutorials as well as his premium theme Showcase. This was the fourth in a series of interviews with designers of Premium WordPress Themes. If you’re interesting in keeping up with them all I suggest you subscribe to this site’s RSS feed.