I first heard about SkillPages when reading a blog post by a fellow garden blogger, in which he raved about SkillPages and advised all to sign up.  Creating my SkillPage profile was very easy. I was impressed with how quickly I was able to create a page fully showcasing all my work and skills, in as much detail as I could on my own website.

Finding Work

Within days of setting up my profile I began getting responses.  When I began popping up on the first page on Google search I started getting a number of inquires and even a potential offer of employment.

Sunny Wieler with the first stonework job he got through SkillPages

The picture above shows my first stonework job I got through SkillPages.  I asked the lady I was building the bench for how she found me.  She said that she had been looking for ages for someone who could build her something like this but was finding it near impossible.  Then one day when on Google my page popped up on her screen and she found exactly what she was looking for!

Finding Skilled People

More recently I also got to experience SkillPages from the position of the skill seeker – by posting a job opportunity.  I was seeking an accountant and within minutes of posting my first job opportunity I was receiving responses.  I must say I found it great to have people with the skills I needed actively seeking my business, rather than waiting to see if any of the companies I may have otherwise contacted would get back to me.  In my case I very quickly found myself an outstanding accountant, who I am sure I will continue to do business with for years to come.

Another benefit I got from SkillPages, that I was not expecting, was connecting with people of similar skills and interests.  Which resulted in skill networking and possible project collaborations in the future.

I think my story is a great testimony to what SkillPages is all about; one place to find people with any skill you need.  If you have a skill that you want people to find, then SkillPages is an absolute must for getting your talents and skills discovered by the people who need them.

Creating my SkillPage was the best advertising money I NEVER spent!

- Sunny Wieler, Stonemason

SkillPages FrontEnd Team - Xavier Torregrosa Jorques, John Hannon, Barry Delaney, Darren Mason and Enrico Foschi

1. Our coders understand our overall business

It sounds obvious but spending time talking about our mission and vision is utterly essential to developing great code that meets the needs of our members.  We make sure everyone knows why we’re doing one thing or another.  This keeps everyone on the same course and always knowing our destination.

Learning: Share goals and missions with your team and keep them in the loop.

2. We put users first

We don’t code for ourselves, or because we love the technology.  We code for our users.  We get a kick out of solving problems that real life people have.  Our total and complete focus is on making SkillPages useful for people, and perhaps more so, on making it usable!

Learning: Make sure your team members put themselves in the users’ shoes and don’t accept any compromise in usability.

3. We feel like we’re doing good for people

Coding for coding sake is fun.  But coding to change people’s lives is better.  All the team has been involved in various projects over the years but it’s great to work on something that has, at its core, the objective of unlocking new opportunities for people around the world.

Learning: Your team has to believe in what they do and why they do it. They need to feel part of the project.

4. Knowledge transfer

We always cross code and cross test.  Nobody is ever going to exclusively own a part of the code.  Far from having the traditional process of “we build it, someone else tests it”, we instead choose to work and test each other’s code.  One of the team works on and tests pretty much all my code and I do likewise for someone else.  This enables us to learn an incredible amount from each other and collectively progress the competence of the whole team.

Learning: Developers have to be responsible for their code, but don’t let them own it.

5. We never, ever compromise and we always code for the long term

Okay, so this one is perhaps the hardest to stick to. It slows us down, but not in the long run.  When we were in BETA, we cobbled things together, quickly.  We tested these things with our early users, always knowing we’d have to re-write for scale.  And so, since ending BETA, we started scaling and have had to re-write lots of code.  But now that new features are more certain, feedback is quicker from users and as a result we’ve shifted to taking more time to write scalable quality code.  A stitch in time saves nine!

Learning: Your team can code quick and dirty in the beginning for the sake of shipping fast, but keep in mind that sooner or later, you’ll have to do it the hard and proper way to survive.

6. We embrace the love

We see our community of users using the site, giving us feedback and getting value from what we do.  We might spend all day and night coding but it’s the feedback from users that gives us the boost to make things better.  Like a crowd cheering in a stadium, users talking to us and giving suggestion makes us realize we’re part of something bigger than just our team, and that is what makes things very, very exciting.

Learning: Don’t isolate your team from your users’ feedback.  Whether it’s good or bad, they need to see how their users feel and react to the project.

In conclusion, the most important reason why our team is so successful in SkillPages is because of the vision that goes beyond what we code: we know what we do, we know how we do it, we put ourselves in our users’ shoes and we listen to them in order to keep on improving the platform.

Thanks for being a part of SkillPages.  We hope you enjoy it and thanks for your interest.

We are now presenting over 100,000 people with new opportunities on a daily basis.  You can also have your say about who gets notified, by personally highlighting your job opportunity to selected members that you think will be most relevant:

All Types of Job Opportunities

As you can see in the example above we’re not just about full time positions.  You can post a job opportunity for all types of work; one off, contract, freelance, part time, full time and anything else you can think of – all for free!  So, whether you’re looking for a carpenter to build an exhibition stand, a Web Designer or anything in between, we have people to match your requirements.  Post a job opportunity today and let us help you find the perfect candidate!

Often it’s just a case of focusing on one area of your career that you enjoy the most.  You can easily use SkillPages to branch off in your current career.  Michael Stock, a Graphic Designer from England has done just that.  He works as a designer full time but also does lettering as a freelancer.  By adding examples of his lettering he can attract more work for himself.  As Michael says in his skill description, it helps to have a passion for your work:

“I am putting some of my graphic design skills to use in the medium of sequential art (comics) as a letterer, my knowledge of; legibility and readability, leading a viewers eye around a page and typography all come into play. A passion for the medium is never a bad thing either.”

Branching Into New Areas

SkillPages can also help you branch off into a completely new area.  By adding all your skills to SkillPages, not only the ones you are currently working with, you can find and create new opportunities for yourself.  Michael Van Koestveld is working as a ColdFusion Coder, but has a passion for acting and writing.  He’s using SkillPages to find actors for a film that he wrote and to showcase his recent acting debut.  By having these skills on his profile he will be contacted when relevant opportunities arise.

Another great way to use and showcase the skills that you are more passionate about, is to combine them with your current work.  Ruth Vilmi from Finland, owns her own translation company.  However, she is also an aspiring artist starting to give painting classes.  Recently, Ruth cleverly combined her two very different skills to create a personalized Christmas card to send to her clients.  Simple things like this really show where your passions lie.

By developing the skills you are passionate about you can integrate them more and more into your life.  If you put the time and effort into it you really can be doing something that you love.  Start now by adding your skills to SkillPages and we will notify you about relevant job opportunities.  Adding all skills, not just your core abilities, will help unlock new opportunities today!

Finding Skilled People

Sheuly Begum, a photographer and wedding planner in London, recently found a make up artist and models to work with her on a photo shoot.  Sheuly was delighted with the response she received and looks forward to doing more work in the future with other skilled people she’s connected with on SkillPages.  We are thrilled to hear that Sheuly thought SkillPages is extremely efficient for finding skilled people:

“I can’t believe I didn’t know about this earlier, I’ve been looking for models for 2 months and then actually found 7 in two hours!”

Finding a Job

Mwaush Ob has not only found one job but has received numerous writing jobs through SkillPages.  Mwaush mainly does research writing and was extremely happy to see so many relevant jobs posted for his skill.  Here’s what Mwaush said about SkillPages:

“I have been able to find, and in many instances, connect with other SkillPages members who have similar skills to me. I have also been updated on job opportunities through SkillPage’s members via their postings. It is a very resourceful site.”

Collaboration on SkillPages 

Malvik Majithia is a web developer from India and is often looking for various skilled people to work with.  Malvik finds SkillPages great for finding people with the right skill set:

“I am looking for freelance designers and commercial artists who I can join hands with on a project basis. SkillPages works for me because I am very clear about the kind of people I want to work with and the specific set of skills they should possess.”

Add your skills and job opportunities to SkillPages today and you could be the one sharing your success stories with us during 2012!

Often, the only thing stopping an entrepreneur is getting off that initial starting block.  Conferences can be great for the extra motivational boost that you need.  Surrounding yourself with like minded people, full of big ideas, can help get your first (or next) venture off the ground.

Here are some startup conferences over the next few months to choose from:

Europe 

UK – Growing Your Own Business
Birmingham – Feb 24-25 2012
London – Mar 16-17 2012
Free

Dublin – Startup Weekend
Mar 2-4 2012
Price: €50-€100

Amsterdam – The Next Web 
Apr 25-27 2012
Price: €590 early bird €999 regular price

London – Business StartUp
May 17-18 2012
Price: Free

USA

California – Growth Conference Long Beach
Jan 11 2012
Free

Stanford – BASES Start-up Career Fair Stanford
Jan 12 2012

Los Angeles – Startup Weekend Los Angeles
Feb 3-5 2012

Atlanta – Start Up Riot
Feb 17-20 2012
Entrepreneur/Startups $30

California – O’Reilly Strata Conference Santa Clara
Feb 28 2012 – Mar 01 2012

New Orleans – GrowCo New Orleans
Mar 5-7 2012
Early bird $595 | Full price $895

Texas – SXSW Accelerator Texas March
Mar 12-14 2012
$500 minimum check SWSX prices

Silicon Valley – Demo Silicon Valley
Apr 17-19 2012
Full 2 day $999 limited access $499

Michigan – The Michigan Lean Startup Conference
May 17 2012

Others

Africa
South Africa – My Business Conference & Expo 2012
Mar 29 2012
Members: Free | Non-Members: R150.00

Jamaica
Startup Weekend  Jamaica
Jan 27-29 2012

India
Startup City Chennai
Feb 25 2012

User Testing is one of the main roles in a User Experience (UX) department, and is the most effective method for evaluating the overall usability of your product.  Conducting user tests can take time and effort to set up, but the reward is definitely worth it.  You can’t predict how users will interact with your product until you see them in action.

It’s great to see user testing become more prominent and frequent, especially in web design.  As a result, many new jobs are created every day for people with UX skills.  It’s different for all companies – some may have a dedicated person or even a whole team working on UX, but for others it’s a small part of one person’s role.  Either way it’s a skill worth developing.

My advice is to dive in and get learning.  A great article to start with is this review of usability and user experience testing tools by Smashing Magazine.  Also, check out my previous post on the 7 essential steps for in-person testing.  Whatever process you choose, be sure to work with an experienced tester. They should be familiar with the overall process, and have a confident approach to the method.  Choosing your testers wisely will help produce very rewarding results.

Using SkillPages to collaborate with user experience professionals is a great way to learn from others.  When you are ready to share what you know, create a SkillPage for your relevant UX skill.  Keep it updated with work examples or anything that demonstrates your knowledge.  It really is worthwhile – after all I was hired because of my SkillPages’ profile!

For advice on how to manage your SkillPages’ profile, read the 8 tips to get your skills found.

Also, feel free to get in touch with me.

- Deirdre Kelly – User Experience Specialist at SkillPages

Browse the features:

Search opportunities, skills or people from the home page.

Find nearby opportunities related to your skills, and apply for a job with a single click.

Add job opportunities and find skilled people.

Add your skills and unlock new opportunities.

Check the latest news and updates from your friends and connections by visiting the news feed page.  Leave your comment and ‘like’ a skill update or opportunity.

Contact friends and connections or view their skills, opportunities, background information, etc.

Post updates to your SkillPage on the go.

Let us know what you think!

- Xavier Torregrosa Jorques, SkillPages GUI Developer

Your first option for measuring site performance could be to use Google Analytics – it’s free and can give you a high level sense of your site metrics.  In SkillPages, we’ve built our own comprehensive performance measurement engine that allows us to examine member behaviour at an exceptionally granular level.  This information enables us to refine the offering to our members, with the objective of ensuring that each member is gratified in a variety of ways – whether they’re looking for skilled people, seeking to get found for their skill or wishing to collaborate with similarly skilled people.

At SkillPages, we’ve adopted and adapted much of Dave McClure’s thoughts on Startup Metrics for Pirates.  This involves measuring member behaviour in 5 distinct ways:

1. Acquisition – Conversion metrics from various traffic sources and activity of new members during first time member flow.
2. Activation – It’s one thing getting someone to join the platform, but what do they do on the site soon after joining?
3. Retention – Measurement of member behaviour on multiple return visits to the site – we embrace cohort analysis, whereby members are grouped together based on when they joined the site, where geographically they joined from, which traffic channel they joined through, etc. – it’s worthwhile having a look at the Q&A with Evernote’s Phil Libin  at Le Web 2010 for how he embraces cohort analysis to successfully manage the business.
4. Referral – Much of SkillPages’ member growth comes from existing members referring the site to their contacts.  Viral growth must be nurtured and encouraged in social businesses – hence, the philosophy of REFINE, TEST, MEASURE and IMPROVE can deliver exponential results in member growth.
5. Revenue – Members must ultimately engage in some form of monetization behaviour on the site – measurement of the effectiveness of different monetization options is vital to drive the business forward.

Measurement of micro detailed metrics, as well as high level key drivers of member growth and engagement, allows you to uncover those nuggets of gold, those high potential members, those viral junkies, etc.  Devoting time and resources to properly building a comprehensive performance measurement system should get your business from A to well beyond B, and at a much faster pace, compared to trying to fly a half built plane with no instruments!

– Emmet O’Reilly, SkillPages CFO

1. Buy a Domain Name
   A domain name represents the unique web address of your website.  Choose your company name or one that reflects what the website will be about.  If you are a dance class provider, you might want to choose “www.danceclasses.com”.  For buying a domain, I would recommend GoDaddy – it’s cheap and the site is easy to use.  Expect to pay about $20 a year.
2. Web Hosting for WordPress
   A hosting company is necessary for your website to be accessible on-line. Choose a hosting company with a cPanel – the function that enables synching of your website with WordPress.  My advice is to use HostGator – they’re cheap and reliable.  You can expect to pay about $130 a year.
3. Set up WordPress
   HostGator makes it very easy to sync your website domain with WordPress.  Get started in just three minutes with this video tutorial on using the Fantastico function in cPanel.
4. Choose a WordPress Theme
   At this stage your site will look like a basic blog.  To make it more like a website, find a WordPress theme you like.  There are hundreds to choose from on their free themes directory.  This quick tutorial will show you how to upload your chosen theme to WordPress.

Now that you have your website set up, the final part of the puzzle is to get traffic.  If you have a budget to get visits, have a look at our recent post on setting up your first Google ad.

If you want a more advanced WordPress website, there are many WordPress developers on SkillPages to connect with.

– Carl Buckley, Internet Marketing Specialist at SkillPages