Interview with Richard Carpenter creator of hv-designs.co.uk
We recently had a chat with Richard Carpenter creator of popular UK based web design tutorial site www.hv-designs.co.uk about how he got started, how he went about getting traffic to his website, how he makes money from the site and his sources of inspiration for new content and much more…
Can you give us some information about yourself and your website?
Hello my name is Richard Carpenter and I’m a freelance graphics designer / web developer from England. I’m 25 and have a strong passion for anything Photoshop. I’ve been using Photoshop for about 7 years and only 3 years ago i launched my first website (hv-designs.co.uk) aimed at helping others get into the industry of web development. You can follow me via twitter (twitter.com/hvdesigns) or view my portfolio (Richard-carpenter.co.uk).
How did you go about getting people to the site when you first got started and then have them engage with it enough to leave comments?
When launching hv-designs it was extremely hard to get the word out and get people to visit it, I had no source of income from the website so advertising was out of the question. I pretty much tried everything, until I came across tutorial submission websites.
Using these types of websites greatly increases your chances of getting targeted traffic without any cost too you. The main websites I used were “good-tutorials” (www.good-tutorials.com) and “pixel2life” (www.pixel2life.com).
What are the challenges and rewards of running such an active and popular website and what advice would you give to anyone approaching high traffic volumes?
I would say there are definitely loads of challenges to overcome and not all come with rewards. The main challenges for me are keeping the website up to date with new content so that the visitors keep coming back, general maintenance to the website and the overall dedication to keep writing.
Obviously the rewards are far greater than the challenges in the respect that there’s nothing more rewarding than helping other people and being appreciated for what you do.
You publish new articles every week, how do you find inspiration for them?
I get asked this question a lot!….. My inspiration comes from other designers, showcase galleries such as designbombs (www.designbombs.com) , creattica (www.creattica.com) and deviantart (www.deviantart.com). I also get inspiration from clients and general day to day activities.
How active are you within social media to promote your website and how do you see your involvement developing?
The only social media i use is Twitter (twitter.com/hvdesigns) and RSS Feeds (feeds2.feedburner.com/hvdesigns). I’m currently thinking about adding in new social media such as facebook, forums etc… in the future.
I think having some kind of social interaction in any website is nowadays vital as it opens so many new doors.
You run your ad inventory through Buy Sell Ads, why did you choose them and how have your experiences been so far?
I chose Buy Sell Ads (buysellads.com/buy/detail/439/) because i think it brought advertising to a new kind of level. I tried Google ad sense and other ad providers but found myself not making much money or breaking certain rules like having links next images.
With Buy Sell Ads you have so much more control over your ads in the way of setting your own prices and banner ad sizes. I also think Buy Sell Ads has a much more easily understandable user interface.
I’d recommend Buy Sell Ads to anyone who is thinking about monetizing there website, i can safely say there the best around (and no I don’t work for them ha-ha).
You have set up an ecommerce section of your website, what software are you using and why did you decide upon that one?
I’m currently using ecommerce software called “Cube Cart”, I didn’t really try out any others as Cube Cart was offered for free with one of my old hosting providers. I found the Cube Cart skins easy to edit, understand and make.
I’d definitely be open to trying other ecommerce software though as long as they didn’t carry a hefty price tag.
Turning to web design in general, what hardware and web design/ illustration software do you use yourself and why?
Well hardware wise my rig is nothing special, I’m running a basic quad core with 4 gig of ram on windows 7, all built by myself. I’ve thought about turning to a Mac but i don’t think there is any need to.
As for software I use pretty much adobe Photoshop cs3 for everything and adobe Dreamweaver for anything I need coding. I’ve tried using other packages like paint shop pro and coral draw but found the adobe suite has so much more to offer in the way of tools, it seems to be light years ahead of the rest.
Are there any common mistakes you see people making when they first start designing websites?
The main mistakes i see people making are “typography”, don’t mix too many fonts. People sometimes don’t see how fonts affect the design of a website and the people viewing it. Font sizes and colours are also an issue, i often see people using rather small fonts and font colours which don’t stand out.
Another common mistake is spacing. Spacing should be consistent throughout the website, for people who struggle with applying the right amount of spacing then I’d suggest a grid system like grid 960.
Are there any resources on the internet you use that you would recommend for beginners and advanced designers?
I’d recommend CSS-Tricks (css-tricks.com) by Chris Coyier for all your CSS tricks and tips, Six Revisions (sixrevisions.com) by Jacob Gube for all your articles, inspiration and more tips and finally probably the best set of tutorial websites on the internet, the Tuts+ Network (tutsplus.com).
Filed Under: Web Design
