Web design and development is a solid career choice. Businesses today, and for the foreseeable future, must have a quality, optimized website. This drives search visitors to their site so they can convert these visitors into repeat customers, long-term members and product/service sales. This increases the organization’s revenue and ensures its future. The critical staff members who accomplish these daunting tasks are the web designers, strategists, analysts, and related professionals who make websites “work” and “optimize” them for visibility.
The following types of individuals may be good candidates for a career in commercial web design and development:
Those who understand the importance of solid, optimized content. Information on a website should be relevant to the site and should target related site searchers. Students and professionals seeking a career change who are interested in website usability. The site should be user-friendly and incorporate a solid interface with simple, reliable navigation that attracts and retains visitors. Individuals concerned with the appearance of websites. Graphics and text should include style that’s engaging and that flows throughout the site, demonstrating consistency. This style should be professional, appealing and relevant, complementing both the organization’s brand efforts and site searchers’ goals. Web design and development students and professionals interested in site visibility. The site must be easy to find by search engines, advertising media, and site searchers. Once you determine website design and development is the field for you, you may want to begin your web development training by enrolling in one of the quality web development schools offered throughout the country.
ITT Technical Institute not only has an in-depth web development training curriculum that combines the technical elements of web design with human search elements, the institute also offers the option of taking certain required courses online, which makes it easy for you to balance your web development training with your work and personal life.
Since ITT Tech is one of the most highly credited and recommended web development schools, the web development training courses at ITT Technical Institute are well-respected by potential employers. Here, you will not only learn the fundamentals of web design and development, you’ll discover how to build, optimize and brand websites for organizations in virtually every industry-from the largest corporations-to the smallest home-based businesses. This makes the transition from the classroom to the real world much easier.
Whether you choose to get your entire web development training in person by attending classes at an ITT Tech campus or to supplement your education through online courses that suit your lifestyle, you’ll be on your way to a rewarding career in a progressive field that many economists feel may be virtually recession proof. Who knows, maybe you’ve got the ability to design a site for America’s biggest retailer, an automotive giant, or a needy non-profit center that’s giving back to your community. Even if your biggest goal is simply to enhance current websites, and not necessarily to design a site from the ground up, web development training from ITT can prepare you.
When it comes to blogging if you want to have a successful blog your going to have to do a few things to separate yourself away fromthe other bloggers on the internet.
First, you want to make sure that your blog is original. Even if you use free information on the internet to provide content for your blog, make sure that you add your own spin to it. If your posting factual news to your blog don’t change the content of the news but make sure you comment on the article that you just posted.
People like uniqueness, so just by adding a spin to your articles your already separating yourself away from all of the other blandness on the internet.
Second, you need to advertise your blog. It’s unbelievable how many people start blogs and don’t take time out to properly advertise them. If you want people to come to your blog you have to let them know about it.
A great way to send traffic to your blog is submit the articles that you post to your blog to article directories such as Ezine Articles with a link back to your blog.
You can also submit your blog to social bookmarking sites and post your articles on forums with a link to your blog in your signature.
Remember, without traffic no matter how good your blog is if nobody sees it, it basically doesn’t exist.
Third, provide valuable content to your blog visitors.
Whatever the subject of your blog is, make sure that you provide content relevant to it. For example, if your blog is about horses, make sure that you provide valuable information about horses on your blog. It’s okay to “rant” some of the time but don’t do it to much. Unless your starting a blog to promote yourself for entertainment purposes.
And last but not least….
If your starting a blog to make money, if your using Adwords and other pay per click ads to monetize your blog your already set. All you have to do is provide good content on your blog because you don’t have to sell anybody anything. You just have to put them in a position to click on the ads that are on your blog.
But if your selling your own products or promoting affiliate products, it’s imperative that you only promote good products. If you promote bad products the word will quickly get around and it will affect the performance of your blog. If you only promote good products you’ll have lots of success and turn your blog into a profitable business that you can duplicate as many times as you want with different products.
To learn how to expertly make money with your blog visit – http://www.seegarsproducts.com/bloggingonsteroids
I enjoy writing and building businesses.
Want to Work at Home? There are many ways to make money online working from home. Career blogging is one of those ways. Career bloggers are in high demand. Businesses realize the many benefits of a company blog. These companies are willing to pay you to blog, usually on a contract basis. In addition, there are numerous sites that pay you to host links and ads on your own blog or to provide a review of the site on your blog.
Getting Started as a Career Blogger
First you will need to create your own blog. This will serve as your portfolio or blogging resume. Two popular blog sites are blogger. com and wordpress. com. First you need to decide what to blog about. Since you will be blogging for businesses, you could show off your business-sense in your blog. If you are a marketer, you could blog about sales and marketing. Blog about a topic you are very familiar with or an expert in. If there’s a particular niche that you want to blog about for hire, show your expertise on the subject in your own blog.
Getting Your First Blogging Jobs
Now that you have your blog, you need to get hired. Use your About or Profile on your blog to advertise your availability as a career blogger. You can also Google blogger job or blogging jobs and browse the search results. You’ll likely find dozens of search results for blogging jobs. Other resources for finding blogging jobs are Monster. com, Careerbuilder. com and HotJobs. com. Just submit your resume and contact info to be contacted by companies looking for professional bloggers.
Get Paid To Blog
The following sites pay you to put links/ads in your blog or to place a site/product review for the company in your blog.
Bloggerwave. com
An opportunity awaiting all bloggers! Give your valuable feedback to advertisers with respect to their web sites, products, services, and companies and get paid for it.
blogitive. com
* Earn money with every posting
* Get paid weekly via Paypal
* No advertising required, just your opinions
* Only post the stories that interest you
* Create multiple blogs to earn more
* Does not conflict with ad campaigns on your site
PayPerPost. com
Get paid for blogging. Write about web sites, products, services, and companies and earn cash for providing your opinion and valuable feedback to advertisers.
BuzzByBlog. com
BuzzByBlog pays you to place ads on your website or blog. Just register as a blogger, receive offers, write, and get paid. They allow you to decide the minimum amount you will accept per entry, make counter-offers, and easy blog acceptance.
BloggingAds. com
Pays you to post an ad on your blog. Blogging Ads provides the ads and the money . . . you just place the ad on your blog. You must have a paypal account.
Blogsvertise. com
Get paid to write a review for advertisers in your blogs. Reviews in blogs create a buzz about a site or product and you’ll be getting paid to create this buzz in your blog.
CREAMaid. com
Place a widget on your blog and an ad and get paid via Paypal within 24 hours.
InBlogAds. com
With InBlogAds you can buy simple, direct HTML links on blogs. Increase both your traffic and natural search engine rankings. Get Bloggers to review your products or website. Generate buzz and get some links all in the same time.
ReviewMe. com
This new company was launched on Nov. 9! They pay between $20. 00-$200. 00 for a review! Submit your blog. Once you are accpeted and receive an offer, you must write a post with a minimum of 200 words. You can receive payment by check or paypal. They pay on the first of every month. This is the highest paying company!
LoudLaunch. com
Earn more with your blog. Get paid to independently review LoudLaunch Campaign Releases. You’ve earned your audience, now be compensated for your opinion.
Smorty. com
Get paid for blogging. Write your opinion about peoples products, services and websites on your blog. Get paid weekly. No advertising, just write your opinions
* Earn top $ with every opinion post
* Select the subjects that interest you
* Post in multiple blogs to earn more
* Build interesting, unique content in your Blog
* Get paid weekly by PayPal
PayU2Blog. com
Make money blogging. Earn quick money by completing easy assignments in your blog. They pay you to mention products, services and companies, on your blog.
WeblogsInc. com
Apply to blog for one of their 90 blogs or suggest a blog topic and maybe they’ll start a new blog! WIN bloggers are paid to blog as little or as much as they like, are unfiltered, and can shift from blog to blog within the network. Their only requirements are that you be totally honest with your audience and passionate about the subjects you cover. Talk to their editorial team if you’re interested!
CreativeWeblogging. com
Get paid to blog with Creative Weblogging! They are one of the largest blog networks, with over 90 blogs in five languages. They will help grow your online reputation, establish you as a thought leader — and pay you, too.
CreativeWeblogging. com Compensation Package:
* Monthly compensation: $225 (US) — paid via PayPal or Moneybookers
* 7 to 10 posts per week are required.
* Traffic bonuses for aggressively growing traffic are available, up to $50 per month additional.
* Access to their vibrant community discussion group with 80+ bloggers, where you can share tips and network.
* They take care of all the technology, with an advanced blogging platform.
* They also provide marketing support.
* Virtual shares program: blog with them for a year and you can earn virtual shares in the company.
BloggerParty. com
Welcome. Join the party, where people from around the world join together to share their thoughts, ideas, rants, daily journals, reviews, and lives with each other each and every day. Write about what you want, when you want, meet people, and have fun. Plus, make some money doing it, too.
b5media. com/b5media-music-channel/
b5media is looking for writers to cover a wide range of genres, geographic locations, bands and interests. They’re also looking to cover specific bands who are newsworthy and blogworthy such as U2, the Beatles and Justin Timberlake. How to apply: Fill out a blogger application at: b5media. com/jobs. Please be sure to include any URLs of your writing samples.
Suzanne Bucciarelli is the owner of Million Dollar Dame, a website which provides free articles and advice for people who want to start an online business. For more online business opportunities, articles and advice and tips, please visit: Million Dollar Dame
The type of website you need: static or DynamicThe first point of departure for the decision to build your website, is to decide whether you need a static or dynamic website. A static website is also sometimes a website “brochure. With a static website once all information is uploaded to the server remains the same. Changes only if you go make to the webmaster of the site and updates. So you can find all users same thing. It is very similar to traditional distributed a brochure. All clients see the same thing until you have built your brochure again. With a dynamic website, which provides the user to change based on their input and is thus a complicated and expensive nature of the site. A dynamic website requires advanced programming to work properly. The programs must run different results, which the user needs. A search function is a dynamic content in Web pages. Every e-commerce site is an example of a dynamic website. – Shape of the task of Web designers Web DesignerThe is to focus on the design and appearance of a site. You choose the color scheme and make decisions on how to display text and images. are you with the impression that the website offers its visitors and how visitors can browse the site affected. They tend to be skilled in Photoshop and other graphic software. Many web designers begin their careers as graphic designers and are available on the website to get the look and what you want. They create the image on the Internet. Web designers usually have the skills necessary for static websites to create their own. – Function DeveloperWeb web developer, on the other programmers. manage complex Typically, Web sites and learn various scripting languages. They will focus on all the interactive services on one site as a shopping cart e-commerce are Web site or a form for collecting or ordering. They are the services of a web developer need for a dynamic website. ChooseKnowing Cui, what type of website you need at the beginning is important because if you use a Web Designer To create your website, and not factors that qualify out of necessity to hire, for example, an advanced form multineedle you end up with a really nice page that does nothing for you. If you go in the opposite direction and a Web developer creating your site, you could end up with a site that seems to be very functional terrible. design is always considered secondary to a developer. If you need a dynamic website, and the person who you think is more of a project, the project can still be successful. Just be sure you have some websites that provide dynamic functionality to ensure that your work can handle built. If the person you are considering more than one developer, check your portfolio and ensure that the resources to produce, together with designers to create a site of high quality. If you are not sure which way to go, web designer or web developer, you would be better inclined to Web designers because it is deciding on the design of the most important first impression. The majority of Internet users within the first 3 seconds, even if they do not intend to have a website stay. The project will be successful, a web designer, provided They have a good web development, as their available resources. Usability – where form and function MeetUsability indicates how quickly and easily allows users to get what they want to do on your website. If the site is difficult and frustrating they will leave quickly. You need to get your site on your business objectives, and if not, then it is not a design issue, not a development is concerned, this is a problem of usability. Usability is the thread that links of form and function together. When you consider rental to be there for your site, web designer or web developer to build be aware that both have their strengths and weaknesses. A web designer you the right colors and the right look for your Web site and understand what give people respond. The developer of interactive elements, as your site has a shopping cart, a registration form or other dynamic features. However, the work planning and development to the customer to purchase the product or the user of your services, contact connect to. If the site is visually appealing, it allows the user to quickly and easily do business with you, then you have the perfect combination of form and function meet to produce a page that is characterized in terms of ease of use, which in translation success !
Kevin Kielty writes for internet marketing advantage in Raleigh,
NC. Web development and web design are their areas of expertise. Internet Marketing Advantage specializes in combining Web Design
and web development in Raleigh, NC.
Posted in Webdesign
Tagged "web designer vs web developer", Advanced, Always, Appealing, Available, Aware, Because, Begin, Better, Build, Business, Care, Career, Careers, Cause, Choose, Client, Clients, Combination, Commerce, Concern, Cons, Consider, Content, Could, Create, Creating, Custom, Decide, Decision, Design, Designer, Designers, Developer, Development, Different, Direct, Earn, Elements, Ever, Every, Expert, Fact, Factors, Features, Find, First, Form, Function, Good, Graphic, Hire, how to decide whether to build static or dynamic, Important, information, Internet, Know, Learn, Look, Main, Marketing, Most, Must, Need, Needs, Only, Page, Part, People, Perfect, Photoshop, Plan, Play, Portfolio, Project, Proper, Provide, Provides, Quality, Quick, Real, Really, Require, Requires, Results, Right, Search, Second, Server, Service, Services, Side, Site, Sites, Skills, Software, Some, Stand, Still, Style, Success, Successful, Sure, Terms, Their, there, this, Time, Times, Traditional, Understand, Update, Updates, Usability, User, Visit, Visitors, Want, Ways, Website, Websites, Whether, Work
Here is a web design theory are: websites like onions, you see, since websites layers. And ogres are like onions, since ogres layers. Web sites are created by web designers. Ergo – web designers are like ogres.
So why are the web-find designers like ogres.
First, we see why we say that sites such as onions, with levels in the first place – because that is the raison d’etre of my argument.
~ ~ Sites have an outer layer
This is the look and feel of the site. This is usually what most people think of when they refer to “Web Design”. To realize these common or your garden, man-eaters web design requirements to an artist’s eye and skill of a designer with tools such as Photoshop or Fireworks. Graphic design web has on display the latest styles, have web-design, it must be capable of the nuances and shades and blend in the performance of their Web-2nd 0 onion soup and seasonings. Preferably, not soup with eyeballs.
~ The second layer of a website is the property ~
The structure could be achieved by a method such as functional decomposition, where can the web designer with the function main (start page) and then break the site into manageable sub-sections, so that identified it ends with a clear idea of the scope of the site, internal structure. Here, your web designer should be some understanding about the basic principles of software engineering. To be married, but once again the main features of the site have been designed to function for graphic design, so that the system is suitable. Knowledge of the principles of good web design and usability (ala Nielson – http://www. Useit. Com/alertbox/20030825. Html), and a familiarity with the web site http://www. webpagesthatsuck. com / to learn, not to make mistakes such as “Mystery Meat Navigation” is essential.
~ The third layer of a website is dynamic and interactive ~
Frontpage and Photoshop can only so far. Your web design ogres can see that it simply to go and kill a couple of nerdy programmers, their manuals: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web pages, AJAX and PHP – Building Web applications that respond to steal. And he’d better know that Ruby on Rails is a jewel on a rail train.
~ ~ Then we come to content
The website should be supplemented with a good, quality content. Sometimes you have to get lucky and your customer, you have good content. Another time, it is best to start rewriting the techno-speak and corporate waffle and ask your customers if you can tell us, five services provided. Thus a good knowledge of the text and a command of the English language is not bad.
Therefore, we have the layers that make up a website. The core is, however, the marketing strategy.
Marketing Strategy ~ ~
We all know that it will build not just a case of “and”. The site must be marketed and may be marketed only if the basic principles of SEO has been taken into account right from the start – in other words, the links are easily followed by humans and search engines, all pages meaningful titles, tags are easily worked in the content of the pages. Other than that, someone has taken the marketing budget for the site (all pages have a marketing budget, is not it?) And used the marketing budget to get the best return on investment for the site – decide that the best strategies for internet marketing and traffic building and then go ahead and execute the strategy (that is).
Now my question: Is it fair is to expect a person to possess all these abilities, too?
Years ago, when I studied ‘Computer’, it was basically a way to seek jobs, and that “was Systems Analyst. If you worked for the very large companies could distinguish between system analyst and programmer at. (And it was also a career as a “punch operator, which is strangely disappeared from today all we have to do our own punching …) And yes, I think the” system analyst “was at the time, everything analysis to be done – to build, test, implement and support the system.
Ma. . Temperaments refugees. . . . “That was then, this is now.”
Today, there are a variety of careers available to budding math whiz-kid who is sitting for an aptitude test. Nothing of Business Analyst, Test Manager, Network Administrator IT Technician. . . .
And BTW, if you’re a COBOL programmer, you’re a COBOL programmer. COBOL know, that’s what you do. No one expects that the DNS entries to the corporate intranet server.
But the same specialization does not seem to be filtered by the arena of web design. I saw a job description just today for a “web developer” that will have the following skills: Photoshop, Fireworks, Flash, Swish. Net, C #, MS Access, experience in designing SQL, ASP, VB,. NET, HTML, DHTML, ASP, XML, CSS, Java Script and VB Script. And this poor guy is assumed that the network maintenance and troubleshooting Windows server. And wait to be paid – this comparison is an ogre web design, which in practice a minimum wage in the IT world. And this is in the business world, it is better to know where exactly, and where they afford to appoint specialists.
If you are a freelance web design work for you, you better be sure that you are experts in all the skills that are going into the construction of layers of a site. . . or is it better to build to start working on a project of strategic partnerships with external collaborators specialized. This allows a certain freedom of specializing in all aspects of web design you like best, and the opportunity for others to do the same thing to.
Christine Anderssen Orca is a web design from multiple talents. You can TM4Y in web design and internet web hosting available for South Africa. After 20 years in the corporate IT world has recently launched its web design and development company specializing in custom built web solutions for small businesses.
Posted in Webdesign
Tagged About, Account, Another, Argument, Available, Basic, Because, Best, Better, Between, Budget, Build, Business, Businesses, Care, Career, Careers, Case, Cause, companies, Company, Comparison, Cons, Content, Corporate, Could, Create, Created, Custom, Customers, Decide, Design, Designed, Designer, Designers, Designing, Developer, Development, Disappeared, Earn, Engine, Engines, Essential, Ever, Every, Everything, Experience, Expert, Experts, Features, Feel, Find, First, Five, Flash, Followed, Following, Form, Free, Freelance, From, Function, Good, Graphic, Host, Hosting, HTML, Internet, into, Know, Large, Latest, Learn, Level, Like, List, Look, Main, Marketing, Meaning, Mistakes, Model, Most, Multiple, Must, Only, Page, Paid, Part, People, Photoshop, Play, Position, Prefer, Project, Proper, Provide, Quality, Real, Require, Requirements, Right, Search, Second, Server, Service, Services, Should, Shrek, shrek design pages, shrek model, shrek modelization, Site, Sites, Skills, Small, Software, Solution, Solutions, Some, Stand, Start, Strategic, Strategies, Strategy, Style, Such, Suitable, Support, Sure, Take, Taken, Tell, Test, Their, there, These, this, Time, Times, Tool, Tools, Traffic, Turn, Understand, Understanding, Usability, Used, Website, Websites, Windows, Work, World, Writing, Year
It is considered by most experts believe that blogging is a financial mistake for most small businesses. Blogs are the most commonly used for news-oriented Web sites or sites “function later” or “the thought of the day.” However, blogging is a great add-on for success, the web site profitable. For this reason, we will examine how to look vs. a blogging site and how do you know if you start a blog. Many companies offer blogging software, bloggers, and is probably the most popular free blogging platform. Blogger, owned by Google, allows you to quickly understand a blog with its design-build templates. Other widely used blogging software WordPress and TypePad. blogs must updated frequently – several times a week to maintain if not daily or even several times a day – to the attention of the reader. bloggers have to carefully follow the golden rule of blogging: “You have to update too often.” This is a time consuming process read because the people who blog, a certain amount of new content expected at regular intervals – at least once a week – preferably several times a week. This does not apply for a theme-based website. blogging should in any case, in combination with other methods of marketing and. be considered in isolation, you should not be used to generate a dynamic career, because it is not right for everyone – especially if you do not share a strong point of view or information. blog post, as opposed wanting to have conventional sites, they any particular order. The software you need to implement company money in the reality (which is the real target). you connect to each other with enthusiasm, creating what they call “the blogosphere. Ultimately, simply by adding more new posts, one after another, without the old and without pull together articles related posts cohesion and fresh, theme-based content sites to develop and update the content on the complete articles, useful, coherent-called “Web pages swarming.” bloggers, such as blogs are “dynamic” and “promoting dialogue”, but many bloggers commenting off big! This medium of communication is strongly influenced by the media, both online and offline to follow, because “we” the concept. Of course, bloggers are part of the online media and is in fact a very small percentage of the population. It has become very popular in recent years and even non-technical netpreneurs more are now using a blog in order to promote their activities. Blogs have come a long way in a very short time has come, but once again, are not for everyone. A lot of people do not want to read her blog of your company. It must fit into the corporate culture. Blog about your company and your products like interest, but people are rarely in line with a point, unless blog there is more information of real value. Blogging might not be suitable for all small businesses, say experts in a blog of the New York Times. However, a simple way for family and friends are from different parts of the world to share stories, photos, videos and more to stay in touch.
Sharyce Arciaga is the author of this article and has a vast background of 20 years in sales and marketing. Find out how you know if you start a blog. Make your company will be a success. Take the Tour Video!
Posted in Web Hosting
Tagged About, Another, Article, Articles, Arts, Attention, Because, Become, Blog, Blogger, Bloggers, Blogging, Blogs, Build, Business, Businesses, Care, Career, Case, Cause, Combination, companies, Company, Concept, Cons, Consider, Content, Corporate, Course, Creating, Design, Different, Ever, Every, Expert, Experts, Fact, Find, Form, Free, From, Function, Generate, Great, Ground, Influence, information, into, Know, Like, Look, Main, Maintain, Marketing, Media, Methods, Money, Most, Must, Need, News, Online, Only, Ought, Page, Part, People, Popular, Post, Prefer, Profit, Promote, Promoting, Quick, Real, Related, Right, Should, Side, Simple, Site, Sites, Small, Software, Stand, Start, Style, Success, Such, Suitable, Take, Technical, Templates, Their, Them, there, this, Thought, Time, Times, Ultimate, Understand, Update, Used, Useful, Using, Value, Want, Website, WordPress, World, Year
Want to make a six figure income by you? Consider blogging for money, that is, to be writing blogs for businesses and well paid. Company love blogs because they offer them a greater presence in search engines and blogs to traffic, traffic and build sales. So, what does it take to blogging money? In this article discover three steps to success in blogging for money. You will notice that the last step is the blog mirrors, “ie, can the creation of blogs with the express purpose of selling these blogs, this add significantly to your income, making it a tactic to keep in mind from the very beginning of your Career blogging. 1. Create a “starter” blog, where PracticeYour first step is to create a blog. Do not get hung up on this step. Professional bloggers tend to have many blogs, often numbering hundreds. For more information www. blog-building empire. com erefore, there is no way to deal with this success. Just create a Blogger blog (Free.) However, before diving in deciding on a focal point for the blog. Focus your blog can be anything – a topic that intrigues you, like a particular sport, a hobby, or yourself – if you intend to use this blog as a blog portfolio. 2. Blog for others to see how other BlogsNow you make money starter her blog to advertise your availability to your blog for others on the blog. You can also advertise on other blogs, through advertising or pay-per-click. If money is tight, you can advertise for free ad sites or through article marketing. For more information www. Profit pulling toolbars. ce com start advertising, advertising continue their blogging services. As you increase your skills, you will be able to hire more highly paid jobs3 blog. Blog FlipNow you get to create blogs, it’s time to increase your income with blogs reflect. One of the benefits of blogging for others is that you learn a lot from blogging. Putting these skills to use and create blogs to sell. How much can you sell a blog have? Generated on the income of the blog is. E ‘possible to make five figures, to earn a blog that money. So there you have three steps to get attention to blogs.
www. your-own-blog. comwww. Blog-e-ping. com
Posted in Web Hosting
Tagged 3Steps, Advertising, Article, Attention, Availability, Because, Before, Begin, Benefits, Blog, Blogger, Bloggers, Blogging, Blogs, Build, Business, Businesses, Care, Career, Cause, Company, Cons, Consider, Create, Deal, Discover, Earn, Engine, Engines, Ever, First, Five, Form, Free, From, Generate, Great, Hire, Increase, information, Keep, Learn, Like, Love, Making, Marketing, Mind, Money, Much, Number, Over, Paid, Part, Portfolio, Presence, Profession, Professional, Profit, Search, Sell, Service, Services, Side, Site, Sites, Skills, Start, Step, Steps, Style, Success, Take, Their, Them, there, These, this, Three, Through, Time, Tool, Traffic, Want, Writing, Yours, yourself
