My business typically sends out an email newsletter to a few thousand clients and contacts every second or third month. We believe it’s frequent enough for people to recall who we are while still providing real content to share, rather than just filler text.

Some newsletters I subscribe to are weekly and well-received, while others are even more infrequent than our own. The situation and the message really dictates how often you should send out a newsletter; however, I strongly suggest you aim for at least four publications per year. I tend to forget I even signed up for a newsletter if it’s less frequent than quarterly.

With the statistics and information we can collect using the latest tools, and the ease of setting up a subscribe form on our website, the biggest hurdle is ensuring that the information we provide isn’t too long or short, or worse still, irrelevant.

So, you’ve made your mind up to start a regular email communication. Here are a few tips and lessons I’ve learned along the way:

• Don’t spam. Ever. Make sure you have permission from every single recipient; if in doubt, refrain from sending.
• Consider what information you want to collect from the very start. Name and email are obvious, but perhaps ask for company name, position, telephone number, or “Where did you hear about us?”
• Send your newsletter on different days and at various times, and track opens by the hour to learn what works and what doesn’t.
• Personalize your sender address. Rather than just having the company name, use your own or an employee in a client-dealing role.
• Identify the email recipient. Statistics show that personally addressed email increases the chance of it being read.
• Extend this theory to the subject line. Instead of “Company News #141,” try “Miles, your Company News for February 2010.”
• Test and measure, test and measure. Never stick to just one formula without altering it. Email should be continually tested to improve open rates and clickthroughs.
• Don’t spam. It’s worth a second mention!

Some clients just keep asking for a little more: a four page website design can turn into a design plus copy or even a design plus copy plus marketing. It often happens just a little request at a time, as the scope of the project creeps ever larger. Scope creep isn’t always an entirely bad thing, of course. As long as your clients are willing to pay for the work that goes along with a bigger project, it can be beneficial. Depending on the situation, there are several responses you can offer to a client with a case of scope creep.

1. Glad to help — here’s a new estimate

If you can accommodate the changes, you’re more likely to end up with a happy client. However, since you also want to get paid for the time you work, it’s important to make sure that the client understands what an additional request will add to the bottom line immediately. That may result in the client changing his mind back to the original plan. It may also end with the client giving you the go ahead.

Mentioning a price up front is especially important when you’re working on a project with a flat rate. You don’t want to even run a risk of a client interpreting your response to mean that the cost of the changes are included in the original price.

2. I can’t meet the deadline

One of the biggest problems with scope creep is that it can wreak havoc on a schedule, sometimes to the point that you simply can’t finish the project by the deadline. And if you’ve got projects stacked up, even a small change in the deadline can cause you problems with your own schedule. In such cases, you have to offer the client some alternatives. Those can include changing the time table significantly, as well as bringing in a sub-contractor.

Some clients simply are on a tight deadline. It may be up to you to be the bad guy and tell them that extending the project’s parameters just isn’t an option due to the timing. While this is a problem that can be solved with more money, it’s typically very expensive — getting a sub-contractor up to speed or agreeing to work more hours for a rush fee can inflate a price tag quickly — and it may not be something you’re willing to do. There are only so many hours in a day, after all, and you may have other commitments that must come first.

3. Yes, but…

Sometimes, making both the price and time work is a matter of changing out other factors. While the idea of handling scope creep with even more changes can be scary, it can offer a compromise that makes the client happy and lets you get the job done. What changes is dependent on the project of course, but if can include decisions you and your client originally made when drawing up your initial agreement. For instance, one way to make a deadline work might be eliminating a round of revisions you initially agreed to.

If you’re willing to tackle the expanded project requirements, it’s important to figure out what changes they might force in the project as early as possible. The alternative can be a domino effect that turns a fairly easy project into something horribly frustrating.

4. No

It’s important to try to keep all communications about scope creep as calm as possible. While it’s easy to get frustrated at a client for piling request after request on top of an existing project, not all clients really realize that’s what they’re doing. Especially if you’re working with a client that is newer to working with freelancers or the type of project you’re working on, he may not recognize how much work his requests require. Furthermore, many clients are willing to pay to make the changes they want to their project — they’re just not clear on what those changes may require.

But sometimes clients want more than what the project originally called for, without having to pay more. If that point comes around, the only option you may have is to put your foot down and say no. It may not be the best option for maintaining a long-term relationship with the client in question — but losing a client who doesn’t consider your time worth paying for is probably not the worst thing that’s ever happened to you.

This is a great new infographic paint job on a Kulula Airlines (a South Africa airline) Boeing 737, informative and humorous.  With labels detailing many of the plane’s features, this looks like a a training plane.  See the high-res photos on Flickr.

“The Big Cheese” identifies the pilot seat, and Co-Captain is on the other side for the co-pilot.  “Jump Seat” is for “the wannabe pilots”.

Even the location of the Black Box is identified with the useful information “(which it’s actually orange).”  Who knew the loo was also the “mile-high club initiation chamber”?!?

From the Flightstory Aviation Blog:

In addition, the following descriptions of plane parts can be found:

• galley (cuppa anyone?)
• avionics (fancy navigation stuff)
• windows (best view in the world)
• wing #1 and #2
• engine #1 and #2 (26 000 pounds of thrust)
• emergency exit = throne zone (more leg room baby!)
• seats (better than taxi seats)
• some windows = kulula fans (the coolest peeps in the world)
• black box (which is actually orange)
• landing gear (comes standard with supa-fly mags)
• back door (no bribery/corruption here)
• tail (featuring an awesome logo)
• loo (or mile-high club initiation chamber)
• rudder (the steering thingy)
• stabiliser (the other steering thingy)
• a.p.u. (extra power when you need it most)
• galley (food, food, food, food…)
• boot space
• ZS-ZWP (OK-PIK) = secret agent code (aka plane’s registration)
• overhead cabins (VIP seating for your hand luggage)
• fuel tanks (the go-go juice)
• cargo door
• aircon ducts (not that kulula needs it… they’re already cool)
• front door (our door is always open … unless we’re at 41 000 feet)
• cockpit window = sun roof
• nose cone (radar, antenna, and a really big dish inside)

Photos were posted on Flickr by member shanairpic.  I found them through Nathan’s post on FlowingData and thanks to Jesse for sending in a link.

Financial Viewpoints, by Lisa Strausfeld

Financial Viewpoints, by Lisa Strausfeld

The above two images are from Lisa Strausfeld’s Financial Viewpoints project. (Click the images to see them full size.)

In 1994 Muriel Cooper presented work at the TED5 conference in Monterey, CA that changed the way designers thought of the possibilities of electronic media. The work, from her group at the MIT Media Lab’s Visible Language Workshop (or VLW), took typography, literally, into three dimensions — and gave it dynamics and interactivity that had never been seen before. Tragically it was just after this that she passed away.

I was a grad student in the VLW, and Muriel was my adviser — but I graduated several years before this work was done. When I saw it, I was immediately jealous! It’s not that the earlier work from the VLW was lacking — but shortly after I left, the lab got some new SGI computers that enabled these sorts of 3D typographic experiments. And once they started experimenting with them some amazing work developed.

For years I’ve shown carried around a VHS tape of this work. I’d show it to my students as an example of Muriel’s vision, the great work her students did — and, hopefully, as an inspiration to push boundaries and try new things. To be revolutionary.

The work is a beautiful demonstration of the ideas that Muriel had been pursuing for much of her career. Dynamics, interactivity, typography, and live data. For this video she used the titles “Designing and information landscape in time and space” and “The dynamic visualization of information in two and three dimensions.”

The video is a fantastic set of demos that addresses these themes. I’ve finally digitized the tape and now have posted it online. I’m so happy to be able to share it.

Janet Abrams wrote a beautiful piece for I.D. Magazine about Muriel and her work. And it captures her spirit perfectly. In this video check out the intro voiceover and the end video clip — where you get a glimpse of the impish version of Muriel. She could drive me crazy – but I miss her.

Bookkeeping is critical for maximizing tax deductions and monitoring the overall health of your business, but it’s a royal pain. In this post I’ll show you how to automate bookkeeping tasks so you can stay focused on existing jobs while marketing your talents.

Decide on a bookkeeping system

Many people still hand-write their income and expenses in a notebook or Excel spreadsheet and then type up invoices in Word or a similar program. This can work just fine if you don’t work a lot of jobs. If, however, you find yourself with multiple clients, invoices and expense reports, you will spend more and more of your time trying to keep everything together. A dedicated, automated bookkeeping system and/or bookkeeper is a necessity at this point.

For years Quickbooks has been the lord and master of small business accounting software. But for me it was just too expensive, too complicated, and not Mac-friendly. And for most independent freelancers without the need for payroll it’s just too big and bulky.

Use online accounting tools

After trying several Mac-based programs I decided to take my bookkeeping online. This was a big decision, since going online with something as private as bookkeeping meant possible exposure to the outside world. If you go this route, you must be confident in the security of the online solution and have a backup plan such as the ability to export whatever you enter into the system.

I’ve been using online invoicing software for three years and am very happy with it so far. I started with Blinksale, which was a good start. At the time all it did was create invoices and run simple reports. I still think it’s a great solution for anyone who wants an easy invoicing program that works.

Two years ago I moved over to Freshbooks. I wanted to integrate time tracking, estimates, richer reporting and some other features into my setup. A few friends were using Freshbooks so I decided to give it a try. However, I still needed a simple online cash accounting system. That’s when I found Outright.com.

Integrate before you automate

While Freshbooks includes expense reporting, it’s a little more involved than Outright. Outright integrates seamlessly with Freshbooks and has beautiful reporting features. I can run a profit/loss statement at the press of a button. I can run monthly, quarterly and annual reports just as fast. And I can quickly see who my highest paying customers are and where I need to cut expenses. In many respects, Outright has become the digital dashboard for my business.

And the best part is Outright is free. At least right now. Freshbooks and Blinksale are free to start, but as you get more clients/invoices you’ll need to pay a monthly fee. There are many other free and online options as well.

Automating the system

The biggest challenge with automating any software solution is actually getting the data into the system. How do you automate that? This is where a system plus a virtual assistant can really help.

I run my entire business using two dedicated credit cards and Paypal so there’s always a paper trail. At the end of the month I download my statements into an encrypted Excel sheet and send it to my VA for entry into Outright. Using this system, my total time each month for bookkeeping is about 15 minutes.

Is it perfect? No. Is it expensive? It depends on your perspective. The monthly cost of Freshbooks plus my VA’s time is around $35. For me it’s a great value. It’s cheaper than a bookkeeper, I can check the pulse of my business at any time and am free to pursue existing projects and opportunities.

These posters have been developed mainly on the basis of existing data from the GEO Data Portal.

Born from the German railway system

The history of the realist sans-serif known today as DIN goes back to 1905. At the time, the Prussian railway created a set of lettering with the purpose of unifying the descriptions on their freight cars. Following a merger of all German state railways in 1920, the master drawings of the Prussian railway became the reference for most railway lettering. Based on the master drawings, the D. Stempel AG foundry released the earliest version of a DIN face in 1923.

A country-wide standard

The typeface was adopted by Germany in 1936 as a standard known as DIN 1451 (DIN is an acronym for Deutsches Institut für Normung—in English, the German Institute for Standardization). The typeface became a standard for traffic signs, street signs, house numbers and license plates. Over the next decades the typeface also found use on various household goods and products, making it synonymous with German design.

Picked up by graphic designers

DIN…is the magic word for everything that can be measured in Germany, including the official German typeface, appropriately…called DIN-Schrift. Since it is available in digital form, this typeface has been picked up by many graphic designers who like it for its lean, geometric lines

-German typographer/designer Erik Spiekermann from Stop Stealing Sheep

DIN 1451 comes in two flavors: DIN 1451 Mittelschrift (the main typeface) and DIN 1451 Engschrift (condensed, which should only be used when there is not enough space to use Mittelschrift).

Redesigned in the 90′s

In 1995, type designer Albert-Jan Pool expanded DIN 1451 into a more polished form acceptable for graphic design and publishing, known as FF DIN. Today, FF DIN has been widely adopted for use in magazines, advertisements, the web, and corporate logos.

Usage

DIN in use (Street sign photo by WildVanilla on Flickr)

Variants

With renewed interest among graphic designers in the 2000′s, several modern variants of DIN 1451 have been surfacing. Notably, DIN Next (desgined by Akira Kobayashi of Linotype) and PF Din Display/Text (designed by Parachute), each with their own unique take on the classic German typface.

Great link for more info on DIN: click here