Freeway Affiliate Program

You can give people the tools, but they’ll probably never be able to lay out a page or match colors as well as you can.

If all we have to differentiate ourselves from the visually inept is our tools then we have already lost.

Me, I’m delighted to point people towards Freeway; I know it will usually open new possibilities and make their lives easier. Because of what I do (senior lecturer at LCC, MacUser’s technical editor) I don’t think it is quite appropriate for me to take an affiliate role. Those who can, however, should just do so. Don’t fear the consequences, look forward to them. One future benefit of greater market penetration would be an increased budget for Softpress’s development…

k


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Hi,

Perhaps a sales link on the Freewaytalk pages might be a start. Given that a fair number of those using the trial visit the list, there isn’t a link even to the Softpress site. That said I do like the advert free nature of the list.

A Freeway ‘Contribute’ would be an idea or would that just be a repackaged WebYep.

Colin and Chuck… please don’t leave us. Your sound advice and input will be missed.

s


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On 4 Mar 2010, 10:45 pm, chuckamuck wrote:

That was the desktop publishing mantra also. Now everyone with a copy of Word or Powerpoint, or InDesign and Photoshop for that matter, think they can design.

This is true, but the point is they cannot compete with good design.

Good design always wins. As a designer you need to be confident that you are producing work that is better than half of what is out there, and as good as most of the rest.

To get more clients and make a living at this, you have to make sure that potential clients see this.

If badly designed work gets published (we’ve all seen it), it just shows the good designers in sharper contrast.

The technical side can be just as important.

As a print repro technician in the past a 90% of my job was tidying up what ‘designers’ had created and making it fit to send to the platemaker. Even good-looking design can be a nightmare to sort out technically, whether you’re sending a job to a platemaker or publishing it on the web.

Your client will rarely have the time to use any software for more than visualisation, but even if they do, you could have a role bringing the work up to standard for publication. Search Engine Optimisation is an obvious example.

As a freelancer, I have a couple of clients who create something rough in Word or PowerPoint and then hand it over to me to ‘build professionally’.

Your client wants to have an input into the creative process. If you can make that part of the process easier for them it makes it more likely that they will get what they wanted. With basic knowledge of the software, instead of supplying you with a written spec., they can actually show you what they want. And a happy client will come back to you for their next job.

There are two kinds of people who own guitars. Those who play guitar, and those who have a guitar under the bed. They are rarely seen on the same stage.

The more people out there using Freeway the better for all of us.


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This is true, but the point is they cannot compete with good design.

Actually, the point is no body cares about quality anymore. Quick, easy and acceptable is all that matters.


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Dear FreewayTalkers,

I’d like to thank you all for your input on our Affiliate program.

We’ve suffered over the years from hearing folks say “If everyone knew
about Freeway, I’d be out of a job!” It has contributed to Freeway being
one of the best kept secrets in the industry.

There is a cost though. Less revenue for us to invest in engineering
(and beer), and fewer new users - potential customers for the skills of
our highly-skilled stalwarts, as well as contributors to this great community.

As a company, we are dedicated to providing robust leading-edge
technology coupled with excellent support, and access to the widest
possible range of intellectual information - not only about Freeway and
web design, but the whole of our shared environment. The more users we
have, the richer (in all ways) our world will be.

The above isn’t just bunkum, we believe it and live by it.

Registering for the affiliate program isn’t compulsory or for everybody,
but I hope this ongoing discussion convinces more of you to consider it
as an opportunity. An opportunity to drum up trade, a way to work with
clients, or simply a way to celebrate your work and make a bit of cash.

Whatever you decide, it’s wonderful to have a family to discuss these
matters with…

Thanks again,

R


Richard Logan
Managing Director
SoftPress Systems Ltd

“You supply the creativity. Freeway handles the code.”

On 4 Mar 2010, 10:45 pm, chuckamuck wrote:

That was the desktop publishing mantra also. Now everyone with a copy
of Word or Powerpoint, or InDesign and Photoshop for that matter, think
they can design.

This is true, but the point is they cannot compete with good design.

Good design always wins. As a designer you need to be confident that
you are producing work that is better than half of what is out there,
and as good as most of the rest.

To get more clients and make a living at this, you have to make sure
that potential clients see this.

If badly designed work gets published (we’ve all seen it), it just shows
the good designers in sharper contrast.

The technical side can be just as important.

As a print repro technician in the past a 90% of my job was tidying up
what ‘designers’ had created and making it fit to send to the
platemaker. Even good-looking design can be a nightmare to sort out
technically, whether you’re sending a job to a platemaker or publishing
it on the web.

Your client will rarely have the time to use any software for more than
visualisation, but even if they do, you could have a role bringing the
work up to standard for publication. Search Engine Optimisation is an
obvious example.

As a freelancer, I have a couple of clients who create something rough
in Word or PowerPoint and then hand it over to me to ‘build professionally’.

Your client wants to have an input into the creative process. If you
can make that part of the process easier for them it makes it more
likely that they will get what they wanted. With basic knowledge of the
software, instead of supplying you with a written spec., they can
actually show you what they want. And a happy client will come back to
you for their next job.

There are two kinds of people who own guitars. Those who play guitar,
and those who have a guitar under the bed. They are rarely seen on the
same stage.

The more people out there using Freeway the better for all of us.


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I sort of agree with chuckamuck. We’ve had jobs taken away from us in the past so they can do the job “in house”. (We’ve always had great compliments on our work and our production, so it wasn’t a quality issue.) Which meant, someone talked them into buying an Adobe bundle and suddenly everyone was an expert.

Money comes before quality, as far as I’ve seen. Many times, these jobs come back to us later after they’ve failed miserably (with flattened PSD files, no less!) and we’ve had to clean up their mess, which of course they were still dickering with price over!

Bob


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I apologize for putting this discussion in a negative vain. My personal situation is of no importance to the big picture.

Softpress is entitled to make a profit and prosper for the benefit of all their users, and to use any marketing technique they feel is appropriate.

I am but a humble member of that users group with a simple interest in making designing easier, if perhaps a bit more vocal about it. Nothing more.


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Likewise, I never meant any negative intent - just tried to put few
pointers up for discussion. I hope that readers of the thread, who may
not themselves have commented, will see the value of the affiliate
programme overall.

At the least, the few who have been vocal will, I hope, have
stimulated some greater interest in and understanding of the need to
have a strongly growing band of Freeway users. For that will encourage
development and maybe the inclusion of some of those features from our
various wish lists. Perhaps even that CMS plug-in and/or cross
platform compatibility, please, Mr Logan!

Colin

On 5 Mar 2010, at 16:53, chuckamuck wrote:

I apologize for putting this discussion in a negative vain. My
personal situation is of no importance to the big picture.


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You know, it’s funny, but even though I struggle with Freeway Pro with some regularity (and seek help on the forum often), I “evangelize” about it constantly.

I did so recently in a soft-sell way in a client newsletter. And I just did about an hour ago in a feedback to a video about web design on Lynda.com. The video was great, up until the instructor got to one movie describing some of the best options out there for designers. He mentioned some Mac-specific programs, even one or two free ones – all of them HTML editors, of course – but it was as if he’d never heard of Freeway. I urged him to go to the Softpress site and incorporate Freeway into his tutorials. (The instructor, by the way, was even displaying a Mac during all of his presentations.)

Point is, I talk up Freeway to just about anyone who’ll listen. I don’t think I’d want to sell it on my professional site, but if ever I do a blog or something not entirely related to my client work, I’d be all for it.

Have you considered making this somehow work with Facebook?

Laura


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One more thought: Why doesn’t Softpress get someone to offer a Freeway course ON Lynda.com? I’m forever searching for Freeway videos, but I wouldn’t mind a from beginning-to-end course such as those available for Dreamweaver on Lynda.com


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I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t just post your affiliate link directly in your status. Quick and easy :slight_smile:

-katie

On Mar 5, 2010, at 2:28 PM, LauraB wrote:

You know, it’s funny, but even though I struggle with Freeway Pro with some regularity (and seek help on the forum often), I “evangelize” about it constantly.

I did so recently in a soft-sell way in a client newsletter. And I just did about an hour ago in a feedback to a video about web design on Lynda.com. The video was great, up until the instructor got to one movie describing some of the best options out there for designers. He mentioned some Mac-specific programs, even one or two free ones – all of them HTML editors, of course – but it was as if he’d never heard of Freeway. I urged him to go to the Softpress site and incorporate Freeway into his tutorials. (The instructor, by the way, was even displaying a Mac during all of his presentations.)

Point is, I talk up Freeway to just about anyone who’ll listen. I don’t think I’d want to sell it on my professional site, but if ever I do a blog or something not entirely related to my client work, I’d be all for it.

Have you considered making this somehow work with Facebook?

Laura


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One more thought: Why doesn’t Softpress get someone to offer a Freeway course ON Lynda.com? I’m forever searching for Freeway videos, but I wouldn’t mind a from beginning-to-end course such as those available for Dreamweaver on Lynda.com

Finger points at Danj

He’s already got a head start even.


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Exactly! I’ve got nearly all of Dan’s videos. They’re great. I just want more, more, more from anywhere I can get them. But the widest audience would be a place like Lynda.com. (So, Dan, go stick ‘em up there, too.)


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On 5 Mar 2010, at 13:30, Paul Hibbert wrote:

If badly designed work gets published (we’ve all seen it), it just
shows the good designers in sharper contrast.

My experience from the past year or so has been that people appreciate
a good designer but won’t pay them.

I know we’re getting a bit OT here, but bear with me while I explain.

At least three clients I’ve had dealings with employed the company I
worked for to rebrand and freshen up their public face. In each case,
although we spent a good deal of time working on and presenting
concepts, they inevitably gave us something their “8-year-old nephew
had done in Microsoft Word”.

So, we dutifully try and work that up into something professional. Of
course, this all takes time, and then they complain about how much it
all costs…

It’s one of the reasons why I’m moving away from design work. There’s
no joy in it when the client thinks they know better.

Sorry. Rant over. Back to the original topic. =oD

Heather


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If you are wary of putting a tool in a non designers hand because it will take the bread from your mouths and/or dilute even more design standards then maybe you should you desist from giving help to these same folk on this forum as well. I read a number of posts, and see samples of sites, from FW users who are clearly untrained in design or web site building. And many of them refer to clients! Makes me shiver to my bones to think that there are people out there paying money for the equivalent of listening to someone play a violin for the first time in their lives. (Or cook, or fix the car…) Is it only in art & design that we can pick up a brush, real or virtual, and justify the abysmal result by saying it is ‘different’ or ‘self expression’?

But I am optimistic that either these folk get better (or give up) or the clients see the light and everybody moves on. And if someone buys Freeway and does a job better than me (not difficult) then the world has improved. And I should work harder. And earn money from selling FW as well as using it.

Bon week-end

Richard


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Heather - If you are confident in your design work, don’t roll over.
We all gets spells of rubbish work and it pays to be persistent. True,
there seems to be more of it about at the moment, but as one client
told me, when his business was in a dark phase, the cream always
floats to the top. And it did.

Also, while I do not know you, I know something about you from your
posts and I believe you - like many on this forum, including some
relative newbies - have the tenacity to shine through the bad times
and find the good times seem so much better for it. (I’ve been there!).

Sure you have to pander to some of your clients’ whims, but do what
they ask you to, well, and you gain their confidence: then you can
educate them to better ideas. Ask them what they really like about
their “8 year old’s motif” and do they think a famous brand name
company would use it? In other words, teach them to be self critical.
But then I’m telling you things you already know, deep down.

Expand your own horizons, too, even if you have a main company that
employs your services. (Where is your own web site?).

And coming back on topic, use Freeway, explore Freeway, and encourage
it’s distribution amongst designers, so that standards are raised and
clients really see the difference from more than one quarter.

And, most important, don’t forget we need your helpful advice and
knowledge of Freeway, here.

Colin

On 6 Mar 2010, at 08:33, Heather Kavanagh wrote:

It’s one of the reasons why I’m moving away from design work.
There’s no joy in it when the client thinks they know better.


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Hi Colin,

One more tug at the OT before we let it get back into gear!

On 6 Mar 2010, at 10:44, Colin Alcock wrote:

Expand your own horizons, too, even if you have a main company that
employs your services. (Where is your own web site?).

I’m afraid I’ve been getting very stale over the past year. More than
once I have sat and stared at a blank sheet of paper and no
inspiration is forthcoming. For this reason I’m looking at photography
as an outlet, even though I know it’s a saturated market. I have other
irons in the fire, too.

My web site has been dead these past five years, really. No interest
in maintaining it, and it never brought me any business anyway.

In fact, I’ve used Freeway so very little in the past year I’ve almost
forgotten how to use it! (Not really true, but it’s a measure of how
quickly the web world moves on that what I considered fairly cutting
edge a couple of years ago is now deemed to be as ancient as Netscape
Navigator.)

Anyway, I’m currently on a design-free sabbatical to recharge my brain
cells and bank account. I may become enthused once more, but I’m not
banking on it.

=o)

Cheers

Heather


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It’s partly a confidence thing, Heather. It gets severely knocked when
bad client design overrules your good stuff!

Take that sabbatical and then rebuild your web site with the good
stuff: you’ll find it very therapeutic (though you might also find
some hair tearing in getting it just how you want it).

And share you result with FWTalkers.

I’ve tried other things, too: photography, web design amongst them,
but I always return to my roots. Copywriting.

Colin

On 6 Mar 2010, at 11:29, Heather Kavanagh wrote:

Hi Colin,

One more tug at the OT before we let it get back into gear!

On 6 Mar 2010, at 10:44, Colin Alcock wrote:

Expand your own horizons, too, even if you have a main company that
employs your services. (Where is your own web site?).

I’m afraid I’ve been getting very stale over the past year. More
than once I have sat and stared at a blank sheet of paper and no
inspiration is forthcoming. For this reason I’m looking at
photography as an outlet, even though I know it’s a saturated
market. I have other irons in the fire, too.

My web site has been dead these past five years, really. No interest
in maintaining it, and it never brought me any business anyway.

In fact, I’ve used Freeway so very little in the past year I’ve
almost forgotten how to use it! (Not really true, but it’s a measure
of how quickly the web world moves on that what I considered fairly
cutting edge a couple of years ago is now deemed to be as ancient as
Netscape Navigator.)

Anyway, I’m currently on a design-free sabbatical to recharge my
brain cells and bank account. I may become enthused once more, but
I’m not banking on it.

=o)

Cheers

Heather


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Agree totally with Helveticus. If Softpress could implement a very good CMS with Freeway that is drop dead easy and simple for site designers to addon to a Freeway site – killer! It must be different than what’s available now, and must be a purchased client to access the Freeway designed site. It must be very cool and easy for the user.

Think about it - Sell one copy of Freeway to Designers (That’s us). The Designers create 100 sites with the Softpress CMS imbedded into the site. All 100 customers then purchase multiple copies of “Softpress CMS Manager” within their corporations to maintain those sites while the Designer is retained with the backbone of the site in their hands. The residuals are huge for Softpress and for the designers who sell the CMS managers.

It’s a Win Win Win:

Softpress Wins - sales way up through the CMS Manager.

Designer Wins - sales and residuals way up by having a usable solution and owning the backbone of the site.

Designers Customers Win - Finally have the tools to do what is arguably the most daunting task of owning a website.


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No doubt the market is changing (and the recession has not helped) don’t despair Heather, for every lost market there are new opportunities opening.

The days of concentrating only on the visual design aspect of a web site is much, much harder to sell as clients have the tools to create sites themselves and don’t see any value in something they can do. This gives you a fantastic opportunity to do what they can’t do. This is something you as a designer have great experience doing.

Taking Care of their web site Content

Writing engaging search engine friendly copy.
Installing and styling blogs
Writing blogs ~ with graphics
Maintain clients Twitter marketing feeds
email Marketing and newsletters
Ongoing website maintenance for the search engines.
Adding CMS systems
Creating web applications ~ work with a developer like Walt :slight_smile:

It’s the content of web sites that are becoming much more relevant. Web designers are perfectly placed to take advantage of these new markets. Designers are losing out to PR companies and the like who are jumping on this kind of work.

Designers need to inform the client much better at what they can do, and what the client can’t do very well.

Wrapping up a content package with a good looking design makes it a no brainer for a client to buy.

My recent convert to Twitter made this issue very black and white to me. There are so many pushing these services. The old way of designing a pretty site for a client and thats it, has gone, kaputt. (yet this is what an average client still thinks how a site should be done :wink: And there is your new opportunity. We must all move on as the market has moved on.

Let the battle commence ~ think positive ~ don’t just tell the clients we make pretty sites, tell them they really need you to build a site that works and need ongoing work and good content to make it successful. Which is the truth.

David

On 6 Mar 2010, at 11:29, Heather Kavanagh wrote:

I’m afraid I’ve been getting very stale over the past year. More than once I have sat and stared at a blank sheet of paper and no inspiration is forthcoming. For this reason I’m looking at photography as an outlet, even though I know it’s a saturated market. I have other irons in the fire, too.


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