I was feeling pretty good about transitioning my e-mail from good ol’ POP into a Google Account. One account that you can control your e-mail, FeedBurner, Google Reader, YouTube and everything else through. What more could you ask for? I was feeling so good in fact that I was ready to delete the Gmail account that I have had for years… The Gmail account that I created back when you had to be invited to use Gmail by a friend and when you signed up it would send a top secret code to your mobile… The Gmail account that housed all of my Google Apps under it. After all, I only really had a Gmail account to control all of the Google Apps. I didn’t actually use it for the mail feature.

So the deletion process began. I exported my entire Google Reader feed list and loaded it into my new Google Account. Then I logged into every service that I signed-up for using my Gmail account and updated all of my e-mail addresses to my new one. I was ready! I started the step-by-step deletion process that Google walks you through, I even paused on the bit where it let me know that all of the Google Apps that were attached to my account would be permanently deleted. I was ok with this. I was ready. I already made the decision that I would recreate my Analytics, YouTube and FeedBurner account under my new Google Account, I just had to delete them all from my old account first. So I did it. My old Gmail/Google Account was long gone, to never resurface again.

After my old account was gone I logged into my new Google Account in order to reburn my feed and I got this big fat error.

What? How? Google specifically let me know that when I deleted my old Google Account that ALL of the Apps under it would be permanently deleted. How could my old FeedBurner URL be taken? This can’t be right! I visited my FeedBurner URL and what do you know…it was still active! I thought that it would probably just take a few hours to deactivate. Then days and days started to pass and my old URL was STILL active.

I spent hours and hours on Google searching for a solution. Nothing! Before I knew it weeks started to pass and I still was unable to gain access to my old feed URL. I submitted the Google Recovery form about 7 times in hopes that I would be able to reactivate my old Google Account so I could switch my feed to my new account but every time I submitted the form I would get the very disheartening automated e-mail from Google telling me that I didn’t enter enough information to recover my account.

There was no way I was going to create a new feed URL and lose all of my trustworthy subscribers and ask them to REsubscribe to my new feed URL, so I just let it be. I kept blogging and started to think I would just have to live with never knowing the statistics of my feed for the time being. Surely an answer would surface. Surely there were others out there who have had this same exact issue.

Then a glimmer of hope surfaced! On my way to work one morning I opened the app I have on my iPhone, Ego. Ego is amazing. It is a great way to quickly check your social media stats and I linked my FeedBurner to it over a year ago. In order to use FeedBurner via Ego you have to activate API Awareness. What do you know! My FeedBurner stats loaded! After not being able to check the FeedBurner stats for weeks I was finally able to see how many subscribers I had. So, for the next 2 months I would use Ego to check my FeedBurner stats. On the 60th day of not being able to login to my old FeedBurner account I opened Ego to see how my blog was going I got an Error. The first thing I thought was Google caught on to the loophole that their API Awareness option offered and now I was really out of luck! I visited my feeds FeedBurner URL and it no longer existed so just for kicks I thought I would try to burn my old FeedBurner URL using my new Google Account and what do you know…it worked!

So, what do you do in order to regain access to your inaccessable feed?

Wait. It takes Google 60 days to fully delete any service that you have deleted. After 60 days you will be able to reburn your lost feed to your new account. In the mean time you can check your feed’s stats through apps such as Ego. Unfortunately, if you did not have API Awareness enabled before losing access to your account you are out of luck and will just have to make it through the 60 day waiting period before you will be able to view your feed’s stats.

I hope this has helped anyone who is experiencing this issue. I had to shed some light on the issue because it drove me crazy not being able to find a solution to this problem. Even though waiting 60 days to regain access to your account won’t fix your issue, it will at least give you insight into the issue and hopefully help anyone who has considered creating a new URL for their feed and losing all of their subscribers.

I wouldn’t consider myself a seasoned blogger by any means. I have only been “actively” blogging for about a year and some odd months. Over the past year I found myself going from 1 blog post a week down to 1 post a month. Have I run out of things to blog about? This seems impossible as I wake up to my RSS reader being populated by at least 50 different posts a day. If all of these other designers are able to find things to write about why can’t I?

It comes down to quality. This blog has seen it’s share of useless round-ups and showcases beginning with a number (15 white websites….5 things a designer…). I have come to a point within the online design community where I want to read less round-ups and showcases and more about industry knowledge. If I am craving real design knowledge  surely other designers who read blogs regularly do as well. (Right?)

I haven’t run out of things to blog about I just haven’t invested enough time into thinking up quality posts.

What do readers and subscribers REALLY want to gain from reading design blogs?

Unfortunately, there is no black and white answer to this question. To help us better understand the purpose of a design blog we have to first understand the authors. Design bloggers can be classified into four common categories:

#1 Statistical bloggers
#2 Educational bloggers
#3 Inspiration bloggers
#4 Industry bloggers

Statistical bloggers

A statistical blogger may have many goals and ideas of what they would like to accomplish from the articles they write, but one of their main goals is to increase stats. These types of design bloggers are mostly interested in seeing a huge influx in their page views, retweets, clicks per minute, pingbacks, a spike in subscribers and many other analytics that they are able to generate from a single blog post. What is wrong with generating massive leads from blog articles? Nothing. The issue arises when design bloggers sacrifice quality for metrics.

Quality can be defined as useful information that is relative to the design industry. This information should be something that a reader can benefit from and bookmark for future reference. Statistical bloggers tend to overlook quality which is a key element in writing successful articles.

Statistical bloggers are good at what they do. They are able to take information irrelevant to our industry and make people look at it. This type of blogger has the potential of become very successful, but are they successful for all the wrong reasons? I think many designers who blog have fallen victim to a statistical post here and there. (I know I have!) These types of design articles are a surefire way to guarantee traffic to a design blog.

Educational bloggers

Educational bloggers are a must in the industry. These types of bloggers really give their readers a reason to read their articles and apply the information received to our professional life. Educational bloggers generally specialize in writing tutorial-based articles and/or usability tips.

Quality of an online design tutorial can be measured by:

Content – Is the tutorial easy to follow and well-written? Does it contain step-by-step images or video to support it’s copy?

Relativity – Is the tutorial relevant? Is it a tutorial that a decent portion of the online design community will benefit from? I can confidently say that I have seen too many irrelevant design tutorials. What portion of the design community wanted to know “How to draw a cartoon dragon in Photoshop” or “How to make a vector cat with a green mohawk in Illustrator”?

Originality – Has this tutorial been done before? If so, is your approach different? Is your approach better?

Educational bloggers provide a completely different source of online information for designers. Educational blogging is a real niche and if done correctly it can truly make it’s readers become better designers.

Inspiration Bloggers

Designers who blog about inspiration get it right 70% the time and wrong 40% of the time. Inspiration on the internet can be delivered in different forms. Whether the articles about inspiration are setup as round-ups, showcases or interviews they are all intended to inspire ones creativity.

The 70%: Authors who blog about inspiration do get it right the majority of the time. This 70% success rate doesn’t necessarily apply directly to the author who found 50 links on the internet and dumped them into a post. The success is indirectly awarded to the 50 authors who took the time to create the inspiration that has been shared.

The 40%: Inspirational posts fail 40% of the time for two reasons.

They simply aren’t very inspirational. I come across “inspirational” posts weekly that aren’t inspirational at all. “20 inspirational dark websites” Are the websites actually inspirational or did the author simply visit CSSMania, search for black websites, pick the first 20 websites that popped up and slap the word “inspirational” into the title to give the post meaning?

The delivery lacks an explanation. I find myself looking through many “Friday Fixs” and “Weekly Roundups” at the end of my week and the majority of the time I am trying to really figure out why each feature in the roundup was featured. Sometimes a title and a link isn’t enough. If an author truly finds something inspirational I want to know why in hopes that it will inspire me as well.

Industry bloggers

One would think that knowledge of the design industry is something that is spread evenly throughout the previous three types of bloggers and it is! However, when I say “industry bloggers” I mean the industry stand-outs. The design bloggers whose blogs ooze with creativity and knowledge. The bloggers who are industry professionals and are humble enough to share their experience and knowledge for free via an open online forum. An author who falls under this category frequently posts articles outlining their design process on chosen projects, critiques, analyzes and shares current design trends and news and is always provoking conversation amongst their readers.

A true industry blogger really puts the quality back into online design blogs.

To the fellow design bloggers: What traits from all four of these categories do you posses?

To my readers who do not blog: wWhat makes a design blog worth subscribing to?

Ok, I lied, this post doesn’t contain just round-ups. It also houses some of my favorite and in my opinion, some of the most inspirational blog posts thus far in 2010. I wanted to do this round-up because I’d like to think it can really be a great resource for a struggling designer looking for a flick of inspiration or a nudge of clarity. I keep all of these posts in my delicious bookmarks, which contains many more useful links for you to browse. If there is a round-up or article that has really inspired you, please share it in the comments. The more inspiration-rich content that can fit into this post, the better!

1. Responsive Web Design, A List Apart
2. Self-employment advice for designers, David Airey
3. The Psychology of Web Design, Web Designer Depot
4. Typography that moves you, Fuel Your Creativity
5. The Differences Between Good Designers and Great Designers, DRAWAR
6. Corporate identity design done right: 17 great examples, designer-daily
7. 86 Beautiful Book Covers, You The Designer
8. 33 Letterpress Business Cards for Inspiration, Vandelay Design
9. Negative Space in Webpage Layouts, a guide, Six Revisions
10. 10 Websites Every Web Designer Should Know About, Lee Munroe
11. The Most Relevant Identity Work of the Decade, Brand New
12. 5 Branding Basics Every Logo Designer Should Know, Six Revisions
13. 11 Design Strategies of the Next Decade, design sojourn
14. Whitespace: The Underutilized Design Element, Web Design Ledger
15. Michael Bieruts 5  Secret’s of Design, design sojourn

2010 has arrived and I haven’t really had any deep thoughts about any goals or aspirations for the new year. I do not even feel obligated to reflect on 2009 at all. I am really excited to look to the future and I am looking forward to a new year. I have never made a serious new year’s resolution in the past, but with a new decade I figure it is time to put an end to that.


Professional goals for 2010:

1. Find a studio/ firm that I am able to grow with professionally and creatively. I have been freelancing pretty avidly for the past year now and I think it is about time for me to find a company with friendly Creatives so I have the opportunity to learn and grow with others. I can honestly admit that I have never had an in-house job that I enjoyed. I blame myself mostly for just jumping at any job I was offered so that I was able to earn a dollar. This year I promise myself that I will not take up a job just because it is a source of income, but because it is a place where I can see myself succeeding.
2. No more Mrs. Nice Girl. This year I will not let any current/future clients of mine take advantage of my kindness. By this I mean no more chasing payments. When I first started freelancing my biggest mistake was being too nice and working on other peoples time and not my own. 2010 will be my year to completely dig myself out of the hole of mistakes I fell into when I began freelancing full-time a year ago. You learn from your mistakes.
3. I’d like to think of myself as a pretty organized person, but I can never be too organized. I will take the opportunity this new year has brought by reorganizing/updating all of my contracts, proposals, and billing/payment system.
4. Start making schedules. I have never made a schedule in my life. Sure, I do what needs to be done when it needs to be done and on time, but I’d like to take that mentality and one-up it. By scheduling my days I hope to gain more personal time and lose some of the stress that comes with the spontaneous life a freelancer leads.

Personal goals for 2010:

1. Fitness. Since I have been overseas I have fell out of the swing of every day life back in Florida. So, I plan on taking advantage of the beautiful Pacific Ocean and swim at least 4 days a week and if I am not swimming I will be running (which I hate by the way).
2. Health. Many of us go on random health kicks, and I am one of those people. This year I plan on cutting certain things like soda out of my diet, and putting more fruits and vegetables in their place.
3. Put myself into forced uncomfortable situations. Traveling has really opened my eyes and has taken me out of my comfort zone. This year I plan on purposely taking myself outside of my own personal comfort zone in hopes of meeting new people and experiencing things I couldn’t picture myself doing.
4. This is an important one for me. I plan on saving a certain amount of money each week and putting it aside to travel. Being in Australia is my first experience with being overseas. I think it is important for my well-being to get out and see as much of the world as possible why I still young and in good health.

What are some of your professional and personal resolutions and plans for the new decade?

Sydney Harbour Bridge, New Years Eve. (Taken by my iPhone)

For the next few weeks I will be writing from a new blog: Ant Does Sydney, to document my life here in Sydney. I will be going out and experiencing Sydney, Australia and then coming back here to share with everyone what I have gotten up to.

I know I have been slacking quite a bit lately, and I’d like to take this time to thank and welcome all of my new subscribers! Sorry that I haven’t had a chance to get anything up for you guys lately, but hopefully you will find this side project interesting and choose to subscribe to the Ant Does Sydney blog as well as keeping up with my Sydney Adventures by adding the Facebook app, Life Points! Every week I will put together a list of 5 Sydney activities that are within the Life Points app and will run a poll to see which activity readers would like me to experience that week.

I am always active on twitter! So, for those of you who aren’t following me yet, follow me here and hopefully we can keep in touch via twitter until I catch up here at the VelvetAnt blog!

On March 8th it was International Women’s Day. I actually had no idea such a day even existed. In celebration of such a day I decided to make a belated post honoring International Women’s Day. I have gathered a collection of females who design and/or blog to share with you. This is a collection of female designers I follow on twitter, subscribe to their blogs, and just create flat out amazing work! These females are not only inspiring to the small, yet growing community of female designers, but they are inspiring to the design community in general. The following sites designed and created by females can be used as inspirational outlets, as well as design resources. These sites are listed in no particular order.

Being freelance is tough ain’t it? Working in the comfort of your own home in your pj’s with the television on and taking a break whenever you want… sounds nice doesn’t it? Surprisingly, working from home is tough! If any of you are like me then you know that working in the comfort of your own home is nothing short of a horrible distraction!

I think freelancing is a beautiful thing. I love being my own boss and not having to be anyone’s boss. Freelancing is a test of self-motivation and it is not an easy thing. It is important to know how to freelance successfully and these are just a few things I do to keep myself motivated to stay on task when working from home.

1. Set an alarm. Monday-Friday I have an alarm set to wake me up roughly around 8:00am. I find that waking up early as if I am going to an office job helps me stay focused and allows me to start working on any projects I may have by a decent hour.
2. Morning routine. After I am up and awake I like to shower, enjoy a nice breakfast, get dressed, and make sure that I am sitting in front of my computer promptly by 9:00am.
3. You need a desk. Many freelancers have laptops, and working from the couch with their laptop on the coffee table is effective for them. I find it much easier to sit down at my desk with my computer and papers in front of me. Sitting at a desk opposed to the couch or the kitchen table makes me feel like I am actually at work and because of that it motivates me to work!
4. Contact your clients. By staying in touch with your clients day to day it lets them know that you are thinking of them and you are currently working on their project. This really helps me because I want to give my clients 100% satisfaction. Contacting my clients gives them hope that their project is in the works and that pushes me to work harder and finish up projects to keep them happy.
5. Allow yourself short breaks. Designing for long periods of time can damage your creative flow and strain your eyes, so allow yourself a short 15min break every couple of hours. I like to take a break from my work by doing little mindless hobbies such as reading some of the blogs I subscribe to, looking through inspirational and funny images on flickr, and checking my social networking profiles. By the time I am through with my break I feel reenergized.
6. Limit your phone and television intake. Those day time talk shows can really suck you in! I find it distracting to work with the TV on because that is not where my focus should be. I try to cut phone conversations short during my work hours. It really messes with my work flow to find myself yapping away for 10min and then when it is time to continue working I can’t remember where I left off.
7. Make a production sheet. Around 5 or 6 when it is quitting time for me, I like to type up a quick list of where my stopping point for the day was and where to begin when I wake up in the morning. This gives me a sense of accomplishment and helps me start my following day off quickly.

These are just some things that I do day-to-day to keep myself on task. Not all designers are all over the place like I am. I am definitely a designer who needs a set schedule in order to be and feel productive. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and on task when you are freelancing?

In short, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. By subscribing via RSS to your favorite blogs and news site, you save yourself a great amount of time while keeping yourself organized.

To learn more about RSS you can read about it here(whatisrss.com) or simply watch this quick video below.

Now that you have been enlightened, go ahead and subscribe to this blog using RSS or subscribe by e-mail. When you subscribe to this blog by e-mail you will automatically be notified via e-mail when a new entry has been posted.