Seems one of my favorite websites has released a mobile version. Not the kind of mobile version that allows you to view it on your iPhone or smart phone. AlternativeTo is a website that is dedicated to pairing applications to other applications.

The concept is pretty simple, but outstandingly useful. Take an application such as Photoshop, a great designers tool, but also very expensive. Search for Photoshop on AlternativeTo and it will present applications that are similar to Photoshop. Then you can sort them by type of operating system, online or offline and free or paid.

All in all it’s a really nicely put together website. Clean and straightforward, AlternativeTo well thought out website and a great resource to find those alternatives to other applications and now, mobile phone applications. Currently they support iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry and S60. Seems they’ve covered the spectrum pretty well.

When I initially decided to write an article on how I’ve organized my life, it started out simple and straightforward. Touching on the basics of organizing personal, freelance and work life. From this I’ve branched out into multiple articles and in the end decided it would be best to write a series on the entire process I’ve gone through and frankly still going through.

I’m going to start off with the most important aspect in my opinion and that’s synchronization and backups. I’m adding backups into the mix simply because it goes hand and hand with syncing files. I’ve tried to explain as much as possibly and in detail how everything is setup, while not getting to long winded. Simply because I will be going into more detail about each application and/or service that I’ll touch on below.

I will also be working on a full diagram that will be included sometime through the series. This diagram will be a much better representation of what I’ve setup, how it syncs back and forth and how all the backups work. It will also include all the hardware I utilize and where it is used.

Synchronization & Backups

So let us begin this series with the synchronization and backup applications that I’m using. I’ll try to include as much detail about each particular application and/or service and why I’m using it. I’m starting with these two types of applications and/or services for a good reason, this should be number one on everyones list to get in place and keep it working!

I have lost very important files in the past because I didn’t believe that hardware failure or data loss could happen to me. Guess what? It did and it can. Since then I have put barriers up to keep it from happening again and I’m happy to report that I haven’t lost anything in a very long time.

Windows Live Sync

Windows Live Sync (FolderShare) is a free application developed by Microsoft that allows for folder synchronization. This is your first line of defense against data loss, granted you need multiple computers for this. Currently I have a workstation at home (Mac Pro) and a mobile computer (MacBook) that I use while at work. Windows Live Sync is integral to my setup and a must have for daily operation.

A few things to note about this application/service.

• You can only synchronize 20 folders total.
• Each folder cannot contain more than 20,000 files.
• File size limit of 4GB
• Sync does not work with mapped network drives.

Currently Windows Live Sync supports:

• Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 or later
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later
• Windows Vista
• Mac OS X 10.5
• Mac OS X 10.6

With the above limitations it would appear that this might become a problem. Truthfully, I’ve been using it for over a year now and I haven’t had any problems with the limitations listed above. Microsoft simply put these in place to keep from killing the servers that Windows Live Sync run on, most will not need to exceed the above.

Back when it was FolderShare it had far more limitations than it does now, it would appear now that any file type can synchronize. When it was FolderShare I had many problems syncing PSD’s and other “uncommon” filetypes as Microsoft put it. I will go into more detail on Windows Live Sync later in this series, I’ll also go into what folders I sync, why and the benefits of doing so.

Dropbox

Dropbox has probably been one of the most useful application that I’ve started using. It’s a really simple concept and it only makes sense to utilize it. Now I know most of you are probably thinking, why use Dropbox if you’re using Windows Live Sync?

It’s simple, you’re not using up your 20 folders, you’re not tapping the 20,000 file limit, you’re creating a backup point and you’re also able to access the files anywhere. Windows Live Sync is more of a “configuration & database” synchronization solution. I don’t use Windows Live Sync to sync “work” files, such as documents and images.

Reasons why I’m Using Dropbox

• Works on the major operating systems; Mac, Linux & Windows. (No particular order here…)
• You can run it on all of the major operating systems and it will sync between them.
• Paid and free accounts.
• Automatically syncs, no starting or stopping. Run a small app all the time and it handles the rest.
• Backup point.
• Accessible online, anywhere with web access.
• Each referral grants 250MB more space.

*** Please use the link above if you plan on signing up for Dropbox. It helps to grow my free account so I won’t have to pay for an account, doesn’t cost you anything and helps me keep rolling. Thanks in advance. ***

Mozy (Free)

Mozy is a great backup solution. I’m mentioning this because I currently use Mozy for backups for work files. I do not prefer Mozy, or didn’t I should say. The application was clunky and didn’t seem to handle large backups (100GB+). I am using the free version which is limited to 2GB and it seems to be working just fine now, I haven’t needed to restore any files so I can’t attest to that just yet.

Basically I only backup my Dropbox with Mozy. The only items that go into Dropbox are related to my current full-time job. Which do not come close to hitting the 2GB limit. Mozy is similar to Dropbox with their referral program as well, for each person that you refer to Mozy you’ll get an extra 250MB’s of space added to your free account.

*** Again use of the referral link is very much appreciated. ***

Carbonite

Carbonite is my backup everything solution. They charge yearly, but so far have been well worth it. If you have multiple computers you want to backup with them, register for one first and they may give you a half off for another. When I first signed up, they did that for the two computers that I paid for. With Carbonite I simply backup everything on my Mac Pro and my wife’s iMac (Family photos & videos).

Carbonite is one of those backup solutions that you install, setup and forget. The $54.95 that they charge a year is for an unlimited amount of backups. Currently my Mac Pro has 280GB backed up with 150GB in queue. My wife’s computer currently has 100GB backed up, so that’s a total of almost 400GB backed up with Carbonite, with no problems thus far. I have more computers than my workstation and my wife’s iMac, so to get around having to pay for multiple accounts I use Crashplan on all my other computers and I have an extra 500GB hard drive installed on my Mac Pro specifically for my other computers. Which brings me to my next backup solution.

Crashplan

Crashplan is one of those setup and forget backup/sync solutions. I’m mentioning it because I currently use Crashplan as a backup point for my other computers that do not have direct to web backup accounts, such as Carbonite or Mozy. With Crashplan I can setup a “host” computer and then each computer that runs the Crashplan software can connect to the host and backup there needed files.

Crashplan allows for multiple backup points with as many computers as you’d like, these backups are all encrypted. So if there were three computers using Crashplan, all three could be a backup point for each other. Computer one would have two sets of backups on the other two computers in the configuration and vise versa. So in my case, my MacBook and my servers backup critical files to my Mac Pro. Those backups are then backed up yet again on Carbonite.

Crashplan also allows you to backup with your friends and/or family. So if your buddy that lives in another state installs the application, he can send you a friend code and you can backup to his computer. I do this with a buddy of mine that lives near me, this way I have another remote backup point.

Time Machine

Of course no backup system would be complete without a Time Machine setup. Currently I utilize two Time Machine systems at home. One is specifically setup for my Mac Pro and the other is attached to an Airport Extreme Base Station which services all the wireless macs in the house. My Mac Pro has an internal 1.5TB hard drive that is used to backup the dual 250GB RAIDED drives that the OS and applications run on as well as my 500GB repository drive where I store all my work files and downloads.

The drive that is hooked to the Airport is a 500GB My Book. The My Books are outstanding external backup drives, I actually own three of them; two 250GB and one 500GB. The 500GB that is hooked to the Airport services my wife’s iMac and my MacBook.

Xmarks

Xmarks is kind of a life savor in my opinion and probably one of the coolest applications I’ve used thus far. The reason that I’m mentioning this one is simple, I use bookmarks for everything. I also utilize multiple browsers, mainly for testing websites and how they look in each, but also for speed reasons as well; Safari being faster on my MacBook than FireFox.

With Xmarks you simply install a FireFox plugin, or download a small app for Safari and setup an account. Currently Xmarks supports the following browsers:

• FireFox
• Safari
• Chrome
• IE

As far as Chrome and IE are concerned, I’m not sure what is needed to sync those. I would assume it would be a standalone application such as Safari, but since I don’t normally use them I wouldn’t know. I would highly suggest visiting their website and going over their feature list. Xmarks is MUCH more than a bookmark sync application. This is the main feature I use of Xmarks but there are MANY MANY more things it can do, most of which you may find very useful.

Conclusion

In the next bits to this series I will be outlining in more detail how I utilize each of the applications/services above. I’ll also be going into more detail the small bits of my synchronization and backup system. This is the first of many articles to come on my entire setup.

It has been a very long time since I’ve written a blog entry. For that I apologize, I do have a small reader base and I haven’t been taking blogging seriously. That will be changing however, as I plan on putting a great deal of time into this blog. Which will include my portfolio and posting some projects that I’ve been working on. You know, those things that keep me from actually being able to blog, outside of my full-time job of course.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing some pretty cool entries dealing with how things have changed with me, in my work life, personal life as well as my digital life. I’ve recently acquired a new full-time job, which of course is taking 90% of my time. I’m also still in college for BA in Game Design & Animation, which roughly takes 40% of my time. So as you can see I’m spreading myself a bit thin trying to accomplish everything in life that I’d like to. Which does include writing on a successful blog.

I have a few tactics in place however that should allow me to manage full-time work, as well as full-time college workload, while still finding time to write on here. In the coming weeks I will be releasing some really interesting topics that I’m sure most of you will throughly enjoy.

I will also be writing about how my digital life has changed drastically, since I’ve made a major career change (Not working for myself anymore, more on this later.), in that I’m having to use my MacBook more and not being able to utilize my MacPro. How I’m dealing with moving files back and forth. How I’m keeping things organized and most importantly how I’m keeping my freelance work and my full-time work separate from each other, while keeping both of them separate from my personal life.

Starting Monday of next week I will be releasing entries on a more regular basis. My goal is at least three a week. So to start I’m going to start working on the blogging ideas I’ve been having and get them queued up to be released on certain days. If this method of blogging works for me I will continue to use it. Waiting to release entries until next week also lets me get ahead, giving me over a week to queue some great entries.

WordPress, we know what it is, we know what it does. But have we stopped to think of its use as a portfolio? That’s what I’ll answer in this piece; the perks, the faults, useful plugins and portfolio themes. Most of us look at WordPress and immediately think… blogging! And that’s correct, that is what WordPress is, designed for, functions as and is synonymous with, it’s a blogging platform.

But lets take a closer look at WordPress and how it can be used as a portfolio system. The pros, the cons and of course the hiccups involved. WordPress is great for blogging, but can it be used as a portfolio, can it be used for both and better yet, is it worth it?

So… What are some perks to using WordPress as a portfolio?

Using WordPress as a portfolio sounds like a good idea… right? But before that decision is made, let’s take a look at some benefits. Later we’ll look at some of the downsides to using it for a portfolio.

1. It’s Dead Simple!

The first and in my opinion the most important, it’s dead simple to use. WordPress has always excelled in this area and with each new release it only gets simpler. I remember back in the day… a year ago, each plugin that needed to be installed had to be done so manually. Now… simply search for it, install and there it is. This frees up valuable time that can be spent on more important things.

Publishing is also very simple to do, anyone that can fill out a form could publish something in WordPress. All the needed tools are right there and readily available, laid out in an easy to follow manor and very self explanatory. Every bit of information has its place and is easy to find when needed. Management is automated, backups can be setup to be automated as well, leaving only what truly matters, the content.

2. Content Management at the Core

WordPress’s CMS core is outstanding. Add a post, customize the look and feel with a built in WYSIWYG editor, add a few images, some links and publish. Sound simple? Not only is adding content simple, but managing content is simple as well. WordPress has made viewing, sorting and editing posts as quick and efficient as possible. There are numerous options that aid in managing content, even some bulk actions and quick edit features as well.

3. Expandability

Do a quick search for WordPress plugins and you’ll find millions of results on Google and thousands of available, up-to-date, ready-to-use plugins at your disposal. If there is a feature not already implement in WordPress, it’s likely that there’s a plugin for it. I’ll go over a few that might help with a portfolio blog later in this article.

4. Universally Supported

WordPress works with just about every server system out, every web host provider and even on your own personal computer. It can even be downloaded in self-contained Virtual Machines for personal development or sandboxing. There are plenty of places online to find support for WordPress, such as here, here and even here.

Perks are good, but could there be any downsides?

I’ve gone over four reasons to use WordPress as a portfolio. But could there be any problems with using WordPress as a portfolio? Here are four sound reasons why it might not be a good idea to use WordPress for a portfolio.

1. Is it just too much?

For some, finding a web host provider to support WordPress, paying for enough resources to accommodate higher traffic web sites, configuring everything needed, spending time on a design and layout, formatting every entry to fit within the layout and generally making it all work together; might just be too much for some. In the grand scheme of things, simplicity is usually better and a WordPress setup could potentially cause more problems than it could solve.

2. Speed and resource usage

With most dynamic CMS systems come the need for resources and sometimes a good amount of them. Just for a basic install of WordPress a bare minimum of 16MB’s of PHP memory is required, with a recommended 32MB’s for normal use, this doesn’t take into account heavily trafficked web sites. WordPress also requires a few services for it to even function properly, such as MySQL databases, mod_rewrite and safe_mode turned off (This isn’t required, but does cause issues while on). All this combined together normally rules out many free web hosting providers and limits most to a
hefty hosting package in order for their software to function at a speed reasonable enough for production use.

Note: Keep in mind that some web hosting providers keep a close eye on the amount of resources each client uses, crossing the resource line could cause interruptions in service.

Another consideration is plugins that utilize their own JavaScript libraries. WordPress by default uses jQuery, while other plugins may need MooTools, combining these two libraries together will cause unwanted conflicts. The amount of resources needed for one JavaScript library already puts a strain on most web sites, adding another just isn’t acceptable.

3. Project layouts and organization

Every pre-made theme that I located for WordPress that functioned as a portfolio required some custom formatting of projects or portfolio entries. Normally this required custom categories to be created; blog, projects, testimonials, etc… So a new category that would be used for the blog would have to be nested under the parent category. For a new install this might not be a problem, but for an existing blog switching over, this could yield a great deal of time and effort to setup correctly.

Projects are simply blog entires formatted in a specific manor and published to the projects category. In most cases this created an entry for the homepage, displaying a large image and a bit of information about the project. While this looks great on the homepage, the project page itself is left with little to no information other than the bit displayed on the homepage.

4. Custom theme?

For some a custom theme is a necessity, while for others it isn’t. For those designers that require something custom, creating a WordPress theme that also functions as a portfolio could be more than some care to deal with. For most, however, this isn’t an issue, there are plenty of free and premium themes available.

Most of these themes are straight forward to setup and configure, while some still needing custom configurations to function properly. But for those designers needing a custom identity, there are services that will take any PSD and convert it into a functional WordPress theme, potentially saving hours of development. This does however come at a cost. Prices start at $100 and go up depending on how extensive the conversion is.

Resources

I have gone over the good and the bad of using WordPress as a portfolio. Now lets take a look at some of the resources that are available, this will help to determine if there are even enough out there to utilize WordPress as a portfolio. I’ll start with WordPress plugins that can be used on portfolios, portfolio geared themes (free & premium) and some WordPress portfolios that are in use. This will give a better understanding of the available resources for use in a portfolio.

WordPress plugins for a portfolio, are there any?

1. All in One SEO Pack

All in One SEO Pack isn’t really a portfolio related plugin directly, but one worth mentioning in any case. SEO is one thing designers tend to overlook and the All in One SEO Pack helps to solve some of that. The newest feature of this plugin is one that is probably the most important, dynamic keyword generation, which will take tags and other relevant information directly from the post itself and inject it into the META data for that page. Dropping some of the work needed to make each entry more SEO friendly. Be sure to configure the Permalink Settings in WordPress to accompany
this SEO plugin.

2. All in One Video Pack

A full featured video management, editing and capturing plugin. Deal with video at all? This plugin will handle just about anything thrown at it, from using Kaltura’s online video editor, capturing directly from a webcam to importing videos from other video sharing web sites. Supports over 150 video, audio and image file formats and codecs.

3. Contact Form 7

Every portfolio needs a functional form for potential clients to utilize. Contact Form 7 provides just that and much more, including support for multiple forms, customization of created forms, AJAX submission with jQuery, spam filtering with Akisment and even CAPTCHA bot protection.

4. Flickr Gallery

Similar to other gallery plugins, Flickr Gallery takes a different approach by inserting a Flickr gallery into a singular page. Already have a Flickr account setup, full of photos or creative works? Flickr Gallery is the quickest way to add that gallery directly inside of WordPress in a professional manor, allowing visitors to few all of the photos without leaving the gallery.

5. Image Gallery Reloaded

Image Gallery Reloaded replaces the default WordPress gallery and replaces it with a sleek jQuery based image gallery tool. Each post can be configured with a singular image or a set of images, using Thickbox for zooming images. There are plenty of configurable options in this one.

Note: Fancybox plugin gives a cleaner zoom function and adds a few more sleek features to images than Thickbox. This plugin can be installed alongside and it overrides the Thickbox function in Image Gallery Reloaded.

6. Image Shadow

Want to add realistic shadows to images or artwork? Image Shadow does just that, directly through WordPress. Multiple options to change all aspects of drop shadows, from the opacity of the shadow to the direction of the light source. Simple, clean and easy.

7. NextGEN Gallery

In need of a full fledge image gallery management system? NextGEN has you covered with a flash slideshow option, extensive image management system and even a watermarking feature. Traditional gallery connoisseurs will surely enjoy NextGEN for their portfolio. NextGEN is written on jQuery.

8. Post Templates

Portfolio sites tend to post the same types of information over and over, especially for projects and case studies. Why not automate a portion of this work by creating a template for each type of repetitive information posted and simply fill in the blanks for each new entry? Post Templates does just that.

9. Sociable

Social bookmarking is becoming very popular and giving viewers the ability to bookmark works they may see, posts that interest them or even that tweet posted last week they liked, is a great way to drive more traffic to any web site. Driving traffic always correlates with more prospects and more prospects is always a good thing. Sociable adds social bookmarking to wordpress supporting over 99 social bookmarking web sites, simply select the desired bookmarking sites and an icon is added to the end of each entry with a properly built link to that particular web site.

10. WP Portfolio

WP Portfolio is a simple way to setup a singular page for created works. WP Portfolio creates a list of web sites along with a description and a generated thumbnail of each web site. A quick and simple way to produce a portfolio page of live web sites.

Free WordPress Portfolio Themes

Ascari
Demo - Download

Fotofolio
Demo - Download

Fullscreen
Demo - Download

ImPress
Demo - Download

Linquist
Demo - Download

Monochrome Gallery
Demo - Download

Sharpfolio
Demo - Download

Snapshot
Demo - Download

The Unstandard
Demo - Download

Work-a-holic
Demo - Download

Premium WordPress Portfolio Themes

Aperture ($75)
Demo

Aquila ($60)
Demo

Cassiopeia ($60)
Demo

Dark Pro ($25)
Demo

DesignFolio Plus ($30)
Demo

Folio Showcase ($30)
Demo

WpShowcase ($59)
Demo

MAGFOLIO ($59)
Demo

minimal. ($25)
Demo

Modern Portfolio ($30)
Demo

Thoughts?

WordPress as a portfolio seems to be very doable. It all boils down to the artist and if the time involved is worth the results. There seem to ample plugins to utilize and more than enough pre-made themes to select from, so is WordPress as a portfolio worth the time and effort? Is it a good idea or bad idea? Post a comment letting us know your thoughts.

I’ve been noticing the eCPM of my Google Adsense account going up and down in drastic amounts. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. From my understanding, this would be a good thing, meaning that are more people advertising than there were before. But there are still a lot of other factors involved with the eCPM for each web site, traffic, click count and so on, just to name a few.

I’ve ran Adsense on plenty of my other web sites for years at a time and I have never seen the fluctuation as I’ve seen the past week. If anyone has any comments on the matter or would like to add their two cents, please post a comment to this post. I’d love to hear more about what this could be from, so maybe I can keep it that high.