I can’t even call these teenagers real designers. They’re young immature 16 and 17 year old kids running around claiming to be professional designers charging clients outrageous prices only to end up proving these clients with rubbish.

One teenage Designer making the rounds lately on many design communities and news feeds is Julie Kapral, better known as JulieK. She’s 16, and talented, we also apologize for our previous comments about her work, we were in no position to judge her. Just goes to show that even though very few in number, there are naturally talented young designers out there. Thanks to Toni for dropping us an email and enlightening us.

But for the most part, how on earth do these kids get a hold of software like Photoshop and then fool clients into hiring them? We’ve said this before and we have to say it again, to all end clients, people looking for designers, these young designers can not be trusted and should not be taken serious. These kids think they can slap up a portfolio, a couple designs and people will take them seriously. They don’t respect deadlines, they don’t respect other designers work and they certainly don’t care about the quality that you end up getting.

The verdict? Don’t give these young impostors a chance, they’re fake designers for the most trying to make a quick buck to go spend on jelly beans and pink stuffed animal toys. Make sure they can do what they say they can do, and then after providing you with enough evidence that they’re capable, pay them, not before.

Technically the company, Bolidea, is not a boat, so it can’t really sink, but as Toni of SD was quoted;

they just boarded the Titanic

There’s nothing worse than a dishonest company, one lacking morals, any sort of Ethics, one that’s willing to lie, steal and cheat to save a few bucks and get their own way…wait, there is. A designer who’s hired by this company that has the same shameful traits as those listed above, David Pache of Dache. We could go on about how to avoid such companies but this time we’re going about it a different way. We’re going to share an article with our readers about this company, but please note that even after all this had taken place, they still argue that it’s their right to use the logo, they provided a flimsy excuse that doesn’t even hold water too.

So to learn more about how scammers might operate, how designers slip up and ruin their reputation, how ethics are thrown right out the window when it comes to money, have a read about Dache Screwing Bolidea, who by the way in turn tried to screw a bunch of designers. Very weak.

A well known Black Hat SEO - turned logo designer that goes by the nickname Tonfue (Toni) has dropped a bomb on a couple plagiarists, a popular logo designer that goes by the name Dache and America.edu

This is not the first time Logo Designers such as Toni and logomotive have had their work ripped and used off of Logo Pond, but with high profile individuals and Organizations/Institutes doing the ripping, one question begs to be answered; When will all this cyber crime, this cyber theft, this plagiarism end?

Hey guys, today we decided to touch up what you should and should not do when it comes to running a website and driving it to success, what you should think about design wise, why not to trust freelance designers, and how to better target your site to into clicking more.

With the roll out of a new website; the need for an experienced graphic designer is becoming more and more prominent as it relates to how your customers perceive your website, navigate within it and ultimately purchase from it. Following are some tips we have been able to put together to better position your website so it converts at a much higher percentage of the traffic that is being driven to your site:

The use of the term “Instant Affinity“: This is a term that we use for the “that’s what I’m searching for” reaction that customers sometimes have when then find new sites. It’s an important (albeit subjective) measure because many studies have shown that visitors make a judgment about a website in a fraction of a second; normally within 5-8 seconds of landing on a website. If you do not have INSTANT AFFINITY as it relates to your branding and a value proposition message; then you are not maximizing the use of your HTML CONTENT fields to drive home your message while instilling confidence in your visitors to continue to navigate/browse and ultimately purchase from your website.

In our experience, we have found that crisp, clean, well laid out looking sites, with an appropriate image related to your product offerings and a 7-12 value proposition, tend to work well together. We’d suggest shorter landing pages, so that no scrolling is required or at least very little; this is the norm in the industry; you want to keep your HTML CONTENT landing page images to a height/width that conducive in displaying a promo about a particular category WHILE still showing product above the FOLD (Above the fold = what customers see initially after clicking on a link without the need for said customer to scroll down to view product(s)).

Here is an example of a well designed landing page:

Next is Credibility. We’re all wary of scams (like the trafficcoleman.com scam) on the web and due to this it’s important that your customers equate quality of graphic design with quality of product so trust/loyalty can ensure to drive conversion. Thus a certain level of graphic design sophistication is needed so your site SCREAMS credibility! The chances are if your design was “homemade” then it also looks that way to your customers. Wed suggest using an experienced graphic design company when putting together any marketing materials; such as DSR related promo inserts to your eBay customers, HTML CONTENT execution on your website, email targeted campaigns, etc…

But here’s the tricky part, in doing so you don’t want to fall for a scam yourself. There are so many new designers popping up every day, any young kid with a free download of PhotoShop or similar graphic software considers themselves a professional designer, purchases a domain for $10 and sets up his online design company. Many then go to setup a portfolio that does not even belong to them, ripping designs left and right, logo’s from logo galleries, css sites from css galleries and so on. It’s appalling but sadly it’s strongly in effect as we speak.

Also, freelance designers force a 50/50 payment system where you pay 50% of the full project costs before they start, then the remaining 50% after everything is finished, many times they don’t finish it and you’re stuck chasing them and filing chargebacks on top of that wasting your time.

We suggest you don’t hire a designer that does not have a real contact page with address or phone numbers, or office details of some sort. Serious designers that wont give you a hard time wont mind providing their personal details for contact purposes. Use Escrow when you can so you’re safer when it comes to dealing with payments and please, whatever you do, ask to have the designer call you so you at least have a number and know they are really who they say they are.

Freelance designers are NOT the way to go, they’re for the most part untrustworthy so aim to deal with graphic companies rather than individual freelance designers. Companies may charge more but you get your monies worth!

Lastly is Focus. This feeds directly into ‘clutter’ and how customers perceive your site. If there is TOO MUCH going on in terms of links, flash animation, promos, animated .gifs, scrolling advertisements, etc…then you value proposition of who you are and why customers should shop or continue to browse your site; will be last in translation due to a cluttered site. Like Einstein said,

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.”

We’ve found that an effective concept in any number of web marketing areas (as mentioned above). We feel that graphic design should contribute to usability and simplicity by helping those customers determine where there next clicks are going to occur on your website; based upon what your customers are looking for. We’re huge fans of simplifying navigation options by predicting what the majority of your site visitors will be looking for via the use of KEYWORD reports from your Google Analytics account as well as by using your upcoming NEXTOPIA advanced search module which contains a REPORT section that delivers to you an even more robust list of search words by your customers; then act upon these finds and then offer visually prominent links to those items; for example the use of images on your BRAND menu.

With that, you’re one step closer to driving your site steady on the road to success, good luck!

At Kirupa forums, you’ll find some of the most talented flash designers around, it’s really an interesting place that we have checked out, lots of creative people there and the contests seem to be of the highest caliber. Thumbs up there! But, we are sadly reporting what seems to be a black patch, or is it a black cloud, that lingers over this great forum. Members, who believe it is ‘their’ forum, seem to have a venomous way with new members. Bashing them? Embarrassing them? Calling them names? There must be something wrong here. Time to find out I guess.

Are new members falling victims to cyber bullying and forum trolling/flaming by older members? Are Kirupa.com’s admins/mods allowing this to go on under the radar so as to keep older members happy? We’re not sure, but from the screen shots we were sent by one new member there, we’re sickened as to how things were left.

Threatened? Called names? Disrespected and ridiculed, some might think we’re exaggerating, but trust me, we’re not. Now we looked into it to see if this sort of thing has happened before, and to our disbelief, it has, several times. Why are people allowed to be offensive if it clearly states otherwise in Kirupa’s rules?!?!!? Come on Kirupa, do something about it, they’re messing up a beautiful and respectable forum there! Screenshots sent by the victim show comments such as “have you missed an additional zero perhaps” (for the budget) and things like, “Someone didn’t have their froot loops this morning…” as well as accusations of trying to cheat people and scam them, noting that some kirupa members look out for each other?! All this because someone had a low budget of $150?

The section highlighted above shows a topic in question, $150 for a simple edit of a tool it seems, this is the topic in question, the one that was deleted by request of the topic starter because he was slammed with hate comments for offering an on budget price? Are you kidding us? Why have a LOW PROFILE section if you expect people to pay $x,xxx!?

This is beyond being rude and offencive, maybe someone from Kirupa would care to enlighten us? Maybe explain how things are done there and why new members don’t feel welcome. We’re sad to report that a great forum with so much creativity like that is now on our black list of bad services.

If you want to look for help, advice, and not get hated on, Kirupa, sadly, does not seem to be the place for that.

We were SHOCKED to have recieved several detailed emails regarding Kim Hughes (an online real estate virtual assistant, owner of kimhughes.com). Kim Hughes has been accused of fraud, scamming users and we will explain exactly what these emails detailed and why we are in disbelief. (We will also contact KimHuges.com and ask for clarification on this serious matter)

The emails consisted of email snippets and screenshots, detailing conversations between clients (4 in total emailed us this week) and KimHuges.com (we wont disclose email address, screenshots, or private info until we have heard from Kim Huges on this matter.)

After the clients consulted with kimhughes.com about Branding and Marketing packages, one also asked about Blog marketing/design/installation, these clients were presented with a quote, for the fees. As per the emails received, that will go on record if need be, The clients were all asked to pay 30% of the sum to start off with, which they all did as they felt comfortable dealing with this online real estate virtual assistant! Suprise suprise, after that, their emails were ignored, calls ignored also and when someone did answer, they were informed that ‘Kim’ would get back to them, and to leave a message?? Come on people…are you serious? They would inform the clients that it would take time for their orders to be processed (right, how that is possible we don’t know) - only to wait several days with no reply.

This is not good news for the Online Real Estate Virtual Assistant community, because up until now they have held a clean record as being honest hard working individuals/companies. Never have we heard of such complaint.

We hope Kim finds the time to email us or comment back in a reply to these 4 individuals, who’s personal information we are only willing to disclose with Kim herself for clarification reasons.

A sad day on the web, to know that Scam’s happen in all fields online, not just the well known ones. Here I was thinking of hiring an online real estate agent next month.

The use of BlackHat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques is at an all-time high. More and more webmasters are practicing the dark arts of SEO. With Pay Per Click (PPC) being abused by blackhat SEOs, Pay Per Install (PPI) becoming more popular among BHers, and link dropping spreading like a plague, BlackHat SEO is very much alive and seems to be getting stronger. With every push from the Google spam team to stop these acts, more and more techniques come into play in an attempt to outsmart the Search Engines and the users.

Things like the Jessica Alba Sex Tape chain of fake sites trick users into clicking a download link, only to enter their email and make the site owners as much as $2 per lead. Sites like these get thousands of  unique hits a day. With BlackHats making this much money per site, it leads us to wonder what regular site and online business owners will do in the future. All that happens to these blackhats is they get de-ranked or banned from Google, but is that enough?

What’s stopping them from spreading on social networks and via email spam?

BlackHats, as we have mentioned before, really do come in many different shapes and sizes. Without knowing it, popular web figures arm blackhats with  potentially devastating knowledge. Do they care? Apparently not. ShoeMoney.com a popular SEO related website has in the past been a great aid for the Webmaster community. Then comes the post “How hackers areusing google to ‘pwn’ your site.” Sure, this is not a post telling people to go around and hack their competitors, but what it does, regardless of it’s intentions to spread awareness, is provide BlackHat SEOs/Hackers with another tool they may not have heard of or used. This, in our view, is a very irresponsible post and by showing off as many web figures do these days, Jeremy Schoemaker provided detailed links and the means for potentially troublesome individuals to use and take advantage of.

Not only has Jeremy Schoemaker been linked to a Cookie Stuffing scam executed by seofm.com as well as other related scams (including the ever so popular Fake Auction ads scam), but has, in the past, been accused of working for azoogle. All in all, what we’re trying to get at is BlackHat is a far greater issue than it is believed to be, even those who seem to denounce BlackHat ways seem to be involved some how.

Corruption is a way of life and there is no avoiding it, we just need to figure out a way to control it, and come up with effective measures that should be taken when it comes to penalizing these online criminals.

Online scams come in many different shapes and sizes! This is the case in todays review. We received several emails claiming that CSSAGlobal.com was an online scam. Details of what took place and sums involved were included as well as an online search query showing 4, maybe 5 instances where such claims were made public by what it seams to be the same person.

Now normally we would not have bothered with this as the evidence is not at all outstanding, and we focus more on enlightening the general web public and warning them of mass scale scams and pointing out BlackHat Tactics to watch out for. However further inspections by Jason himself lead us to focus on the issue at hand and as we delved into it moren things started to unravel and a nice evil little plot revealed itself.

Usually when you hear someone cry out SCAM online, people scatter in all directions away from the so called ’scammers’. After receiving an email from the so called victim, in which this person contradicted himself several times mind you, we were forced to use them as an example. Contacting CSSAGlobal only proved Jason right, the Scammer in this case, was the said victim himself. This happens, and it’s not uncommon for the victim to win such cases by claiming a scam has befallen them. The scammer (unhappy client) emailed CSSAGlobal representatives threatening that this defamatory crusade would continue and he would go on to calling them scammers till the end of time, if a refund was not issued, this of course was well after the so called ‘victim’ went public with false accusations.

… our stand has been fairly justified and despite a thorough grudge and unrealistic approach shown towards us - with racist comments and unjustified demands, we have not bowed down to threats - Mandar (original quote)

This is to simply show people, that it’s not only companies that turn bad, unhappy or unsatisfied clients can turn into scammers too. This individual tried to soil the reputation of a company that would not cave in to ridiculous demands, in return CSSAGlobal by simply standing their ground and denying all allegations made against them proved these scammers wrong.

This should be an example to all those scammers who believe that by threatening to defame a company online one will get what they’re after. It’s not so, innocent people don’t plead guilty because they’re afraid of a little name calling, innocent people stand tall and prove their accuser wrong!

Customer service and customer satisfaction is a big thing for us, we definitely do our lot - Mandar (original quote)

CSSAGlobal have handled this issue the way professionals would, thumbs up to them! - Jason (watshit.com)

The so called WhiteHat SEO blog has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, caught with their pants down, caught molesting cookies! They were caught cookie stuffing!
These so called professional WhiteHat Search Engine Optimizers were caught stuffing links to an affiliate they had an account with www.auctionads.com

[iframe src="http:///refer_f1ac5f82a479affb2274" name="Auctionads" frameborder="0px" height="1" scrolling="no" width="1"][/iframe]

The practice of cookie stuffing is as blackhat as you can get, and it’s illegal. SEOFM.com once called those that practice Black Hat SEO techniques Scum, what do we call them? Nothing, we just call them out on their illegal activities, and ask you to stay away from their site. The cookie stuffing attempts have been forwarded to Auctionads, hopefully they’ll do something bout it.

This is a fine example of a Scam site. It’s easy to see when you know what you’re looking for.  Antonio, so called owner of TrafficColeman.com, and African American college drop out, who can barely pronounce his name let alone discuss anything web related is your average pin up poster scammer. This site targets young people, and those that have less education in hopes of selling them the “Make as much money as me without spending ‘much’ in no time!”. Little do the users know that Antonio probably lives out of his parents place and works for a spam company selling books and working those affiliate links. This guy can really pitch a sale, he’s a fine example of why you SHOULD go to school and get an education. Check his video to the right!

The site layout itself is a known ebook selling, ad infested, iframe cookies stuffed template. Anything that looks like that should trigger off red flags and warn you of a potential scam or bad service. Don’t fall for the ‘You can do it too’ scam.