One of the great things about living in the internet age is that there is so much available free content out there.  Need a picture for your blog?  Someone else has probably already taken a great one that would work perfectly for you. Sometimes the challenge can be in finding media that has already been licensed to let you use it for this exact purpose.

So what’s the solution?   I’m you asked!  There are set of licenses that people can use when releasing content to the world in order to give them more freedom with how they use the content, and licenses these are called the Creative Commons licenses. Each license has different permissions and restrictions, but they are really easy to learn and once you know how they work you can even release your own content under them.

To top things off, leading online photo sites like flickr will actual let you search for photos released under serveral types of Creative Commons licenses. Simply go to the advanced options when doing a search and you’ll be finding great photos ready for you to use in no time.

Naming your web company can be a huge challenge to a new partners. Like naming your first child, you might go back and forth on names, argue over them, convince yourself one name might be the only one in the world for you and then change your mind the next day.

The one thing to remember is it’s not easy. But what can you do to make sure you don’t pull out all your arm hair trying to scratch out a good namesake? (more…)

You love your family, right? Well, some of you do. You give them cards on their birthdays. Hug them. Kiss them. All the right ingredients for a great relationship.

But what’s the golden rule when it comes to family and friends? Don’t involve money!

About 37 percent of couples rank monetary funds as their No. 1 argument starter, according to a study by online payment processing company PayPal of San Jose.

If money can do that those who promise to love one another for richer or poorer, imagine what it could to do friends and family who aren’t too interested in going broke together!

So why did the Optimal Webworks team, consisting of two cousins and one girlfriend, all jump into bed together and how do they expect to survive? How can any family business stay afloat? (more…)

Many of us have our heart set on launching a company with a couple of friends, drinking a few beers and then retiring by 35. And why not!?!?

We’re living in the era of web 2.0. Designers have become content managers. Data has become art. Photos of your neighbor’s two-year-old riding your golden retriever could end up on the front page of Digg.

With so many options for making money, it’s inevitable any 19-year-old with a half-knowledge of HTML and CSS will be collecting Hamiltons in no time, right?

Well, it’s possible. That is, if you can handle the heat.

(more…)

Hi everyone,

Welcome to POPtimized, the unofficial blog of Optimal Webworks.

We’re chronicling our progress from three separate dreamers to business moguls of the web design and marketing world.

We’re building a mountain of goodness in a mixed up web world, and you’re along for the ride.

We’ll share stories about challenges we face and hopefully we can help you work through your own start-up challenges with a little more ease.

Have some suggestions for us? Comment on an entry or email us.