Being resourceful is critical to getting the job done. As web designers and graphic designers we are constantly looking at the latest tools and tips on how to push our craft and better our workflow.

This list is some of the tools and resources that I have been incorporating into my processes, whether it is something that is inspirational by way of geeky interviews that talk shop about hard/software used like The Setup or a website like Designers MX and Stereomood that fuel my creativity by stimulating my ears with fresh music. Dive in and please feel free to let me know what tools or resources help you and how by posting a comment!

Lorempixum

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. What? If you are a graphic artist or web designer and have to use dummy text or filler (or meat and filler) on a daily basis- you know. Lorempixum is that but with images and photos; a genius idea that allows you to specify what type of subject and size you want your filler image to be and it will generate an image for you to use. They even have a bunch of preset settings to choose from.

Little Big Details

User interface, the space where interaction between humans and machines occur, is everywhere. The Internet makes us, as users, appreciate the beautiful- intuitive- simplicity of a great interface, or leaves us feeling deeply annoyed and lost. I am always inspired by creative design in this area and Little Big Details is a Tumblr that shows off amazing examples to learn from and be inspired by. Definitely worth a follow.

The Web Font Combinator

The Web Font Combinator is a cool name for a site that lets you preview web font combinations and sizes instantly. Simple, helpful and to the point (or should I say pixel). Currently this tool only uses fonts supplied by the Google Font Directory, as well as a handful of common system fonts.

The Setup

Get your geek on at The Setup and read cool interviews with industry creatives and vanguards from all walks of life. They talk shop and get asked all the right questions from ‘setup’ of hard/software to inspiration. I love this: “Despite appearances, the site is not actually sponsored by Apple – people just seem to like using their tools. We’re a fan, too.”

Designers MX

Music is on almost 70% of my day when I am pushing pixels on the computer. It drives me when I need that boost and it puts me in that zone where I seem to loose track of time and look up at the clock and see that I have just spent the last 2 hours in Photoshop and forgot to blink. Designers love to make mixes of music. Designers MX asks creative leaders what music fuels their creativity. I love this concept and it is a great way to discover new music/ideas!

Stereomood

Piggybacking on Designers MX, here is another way to get inspired by music. The genius idea behind Stereomood is that you can pick a playlist to listen to based on your mood or emotion. Feeling happy, they have that. Feeling sexy… yep, that too.

What Web tools or online resources inspire you or make you more productive ‘on the reg’? I would love to hear!

The genius of savvyauntie.com lies in Melanie’s recognition of a deep hole in online communities and filling it – deep not only because of the amount of women who identify with it but also their financial power.

As such, we decided to interview her and gather high quality advice on how to start communities, monetize them, tap into niche opportunities and be a kick-ass aunt.

1 ) What originally gave you the idea to create such a specific niche community?

I’m an auntie myself, and I realized after my nephew was born that there were no modern resources for the cosmopolitan aunt. Everything seemed made for ‘old aunt Sadie’ (what we now call old-fashioned auntiques at Savvy Auntie).  So I knew there was a market gap. And when I researched how big the market was – nearly 50% of American women don’t have kids of their own – I knew I had a business too.

2 ) Ideas are often so hard to implement – tells us a bit about how you started and what were your first steps in creating the community.

Savvy Auntie was always designed to be a multi-platform lifestyle brand, so while developing SavvyAuntie.com was the first logical step, creating a sustaining brand was where I began. I am a traditional marketer and digital marketer by trade, so I met with former colleagues, studied niche communities, all while developing the brand. I knew I wanted to work with Syrup, a creative agency here in New York City, because we had developed a Webby Award-nominated Website a couple of years before when I worked at L’Oréal USA (We were nominated for a Webby Award for Savvy Auntie in 2009).

3 ) Could you share some tips on how someone would go about growing a niche community to the extent of Savvy Auntie?

Well they may have to go back twenty years and read dozens of books on the smartest companies and brand managers. That’s one of the things I did in preparation for Savvy Auntie. I’m not saying I knew when I graduated university that I was going to create an online niche community (I’m so ancient no one had heard of the Internet yet) but I did know that if I ever did want to start my own company, I’d have to learn from the best.  Don’t just save money for your dream, save knowledge. Other than that, create an authentic and trustworthy brand that is truly focused.

4 ) How did the opportunity to participate in “NBC’s The 10! Show” come about? How have these participations contributed to the development of your community?

NBC’s The 10! Show is where I got my start on TV in August of 2008, just six weeks after I launched! I’ve been on several times and thank Jami Osiecki at The 10! Show for giving me my start. When I first launched Savvy Auntie, I had some PR help for two short months. The 10! Show was one of the media opportunities they secured for me.

TV, even in a big market like Philadelphia where The 10! Show is based, is limited in its ability to drive traffic but no doubt the women who watch the show have now heard of Savvy Auntie and many became members of the “Auntourage.”  Since that first appearance on The 10! Show, I’ve appeared on TV and Webcasts many times. In fact, I’ll be on WNBC’s Weekend TODAY in New York this Sunday morning, December 19^th, with my Savvy Auntie Coolest Toys.

5 ) What is the main source of income for Savvy Auntie? Do you have any tips for creating profitable opportunities from new sites and communities beyond ad space?

I was never in the banner ad business. Unless you’re Yahoo or MSN, content sites need huge traffic, marketing dollars to attract that traffic, and a sales team to sell banner ads to make it a very profitable business model. My business is based on my “Three Little Pegs”: Strong Product – as I mentioned, Savvy Auntie was a Webby Award nominee for best family/parenting site 2009 and is one sponsors can be proud to be associated with; Powerful Niche – Savvy Aunties, or specifically PANKs – Professional Aunts No Kids – have discretionary income and time to spend on the children in their lives – and on themselves; Social Influence – I leverage Twitter, Facebook, TV and video to connect with the Savvy Aunties, sometimes on behalf of sponsors (always fully disclosed). There’s nothing more powerful than an influencer to help a brand connect with its audience.

6 ) What has been your main difficulty or barrier in running the site to date?
The basics: time; money; resources. I’m a bootstrapping ‘Auntrepreneur.’ What I earn goes back into my company. And as the company gets larger (my first book comes out this spring!) it’s harder and harder to manage it. But I do it. I work all the time, but I do it.

7 ) What are some of the most interesting forums you’ve seen develop on the site?
The most popular Savvy Auntie Forum thread is about whether or not Savvy Aunties want their own kids. “Childless” vs. “Child-Free” is as divisive a theme in the Savvy Auntie community as “Working Moms” vs. “Stay at Home Moms” is in the mom community. We always say that whether or not you choose to have children of your own, whether there’s a biological issue, or what I call ‘circumstantial infertility’ – one’s social or economic situation has led to no children, or whether one is just not ‘there’ yet to even think about it, all reasons are valid. Contributing to the American Family Village and being recognized and appreciated for that is the most important thing.

The posts on Facebook.com/SavvyAuntie, where today there are close to 30,000 fans, is even more active than the Website. The most popular question I asked (in a theme I call AUNTIE UP!) was about nicknames for your nieces and nephews. It garnered 150 responses. That was a fun one!

8 ) What is the structure behind the scenes – how many people do you have working on Savvy Auntie at the moment?

It’s amazingly run quite efficiently. I have no employees. I have a part time freelancer working on editorial and a developer when I need him. Of course, at HarperCollins there’s an entire team of people helping SAVVY AUNTIE: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids become a big success when it comes out in 2011!

Finally, Savvy Auntie is supported by the 14,500 Twitter Followers, 30,000 Facebook Fans, SavvyAuntie.com Community members and daily visitors…. They are the fuel that lights this fire.

9 ) Do you think having kids will affect the way you run the PANK community?

I don’t have any dates lined up, so right now it’s a moot question. That said, I have always been honest that I hope to have children one day. Because I’ve been authentic, and because so many women in the Savvy Auntie community want the same, I can’t imagine it will change anything. I’ve been a Savvy Auntie for over a decade, first by choice, then by relation. And I will always love those children more than I can ever say.

Gentlemen, that may be your cue to start lining up! Everyone else – this is your cue to remember that though the Internet seems all encompassing, the amount of potential niches to fill is infinite. Think of all the communities you participate in, even by default, and consider the opportunities for those online.

Have you seen any exciting, new niche communities out there recently? Let us know and we’ll go after the founder to harvest knowledge for you (as recommended by Auntie Melanie)!

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook for regular updates on social media and digital marketing!

Interview with Taylor Pratt and Jon Henshaw from Raven SEO Tools from 10e20 on Vimeo.

Chris Goward from WiderFunnel

Tell us about yourself. How did you get involved in Internet marketing?

I built my first website in 1994 and have been working to test and improve online and offline marketing since then. I also have a background in Analytical Chemistry, which may seem unrelated to web marketing, but I think my education in the scientific method set the tone for my marketing career. I believe that creativity and intuition are important to making leaps forward and that we need the rigour of measurement to prove our instinct.

Give us the WiderFunnel spiel – what they do, where they’re based, all that jazz.

WiderFunnel is the full service Conversion Optimization services company that guarantees results. We improve lead-generation and sales conversion rates for companies by testing in all industries for clients like eBay, Epson, BabyAge.com, SAP, and Google.

You recently wrote a couple blog posts about how to combine conversion optimization with SEO (see here and here). Do you think that conversion optimization is getting more widespread adoption/acknowledgement, or is it still being underutilized?

I would agree with both of those, Rebecca.

On one hand, conversion optimization is getting more awareness. A couple years ago we were convincing people that testing would help them. Now clients call us because they’ve tried testing and are disappointed with the results they’ve been getting with their internal or technology provider’s teams.

On the other hand, we’re still in the early stages of growth and a true testing and optimization organizational culture is rare. Most companies do not have the expertise in-house to support a continuous improvement strategy. It’s also rare to find an agency that knows how to develop an effective testing strategy.

The SEO concern is just one common misconception about testing. A well-designed conversion optimization testing plan is actually a powerful method to minimize risk.

What’s the biggest conversion mistake you see on websites?

There are many common mistakes and I couldn’t narrow it down to one, but here are a few typical issues to think about:

• Does your headline include a clear statement of your value proposition?
• How many products or pricing options are on the page? Can you reduce the options?
• Do you have white text on a dark background, gradient or image? Black text on a white background usually works better.
• An obvious issue that is still surprisingly common is very long lead generation forms. Are there any you can remove without compromising the required data?

You’re on the Landing Page Optimization panel at PubCon Las Vegas next month. Can you give us a sneak peek and share a quick conversion test businesses can try out?

At PubCon, I will be sharing recent tests we’ve run and demonstrate how to use the LIFT Model to get results on your site too. We use the six Conversion Optimization factors in the LIFT Model to drive all of our tests.

If a company hasn’t tested at all yet, the easiest way to try it out is a simple headline or button test on a landing page. It’s easy to run an A/B or multivariate test on Google Website Optimizer, and the tool is free.

Most importantly, keep it simple for your first test. Just test one element with no more than three variations and you’ll start to get a sense for the process that’s involved. You’ll be hooked!

Have you worked on conversion optimization for social media? If so, what have you discovered about converting social media efforts into sales?
Social media visitors generally have a different mindset than Search traffic visitors. People engaging with social media are generally looking for entertainment or connection rather than solutions. You have to be even more focused and relevant to get conversions from social media.
The best results we’ve seen with social media are for B2B companies using LinkedIn or Twitter to point to relevant case studies, webinars or product launches.
Ultimately, any traffic group, whether from social media or other sources, can be fed into a relevant conversion funnel and improved through testing.

What do you think is in store for Internet marketing over the next year? What shifts do you think will occur and what would you like to see happen?
Internet Marketing is surviving the recession predictably well. Research released recently by AAC shows that 92% of marketers are taking steps in 2009 to increase accountability for their marketing spend. Another study by eMarketer shows that many are increasing online marketing spend while making huge cuts to offline media.
We saw a dramatic spike in phone calls for Conversion Optimization services as of December, 2008 and it hasn’t slowed down.

As our neighbor to the north, what’s the biggest Canadian stereotype that’s fake and the biggest one that’s real?

• Canadians live in igloos – Not True.
• Canadians ride polar bears – Not True. Probably not even possible.
• Canada is covered in snow – Not True. Most of Canada’s population lives in a relatively moderate climate with hot, sunny summers. Where we are in Vancouver, for example, rarely has snow.
• All Canadians are hockey fans – True.
• Canadian beer is better – True.
• Canada has a high percentage of comedians, musicians and internet marketers – True.

Any interviews you’d like to see, or would you yourself like to be interviewed for the 10e20 blog? Tweet at us and let us know!