I know that hotlinking images from another website without the owner’s permission is wrong, and chances are, if you are a regular reader, you know this, too.

In the past few days I have found a number of different sites hotlinking images off my sites. After taking a look at the sites that are “offenders”, I am relatively sure that the site owners are not hotlinking to be malicious, but I would probably guess they just don’t know better. They also don’t seem to be high traffic sites.

Should I approach these bloggers and gently let them know that what they are doing is not the best way to get images for their posts, then give them instructions on how to right click and save?

Have you come across this issue? How have you or would you handle it?

We have a Guest Blogger today!  Mike, a.k.a DevDad, is a web designer and SEO specialist from Tampa Bay, Florida. Mike writes at DevDad as a way to document his life as a stay-at-home dad, as a new business owner, and as a guy who is trying to figure out how to juggle more than he is used to.

One of the things I have struggled with throughout my entire career, whether working for myself or someone else, is whether I should focus on the things that make “bringing home the bacon” exceptionally easy, or those that I legitimately enjoy. I have always done web design, but don’t consider myself particularly gifted when it comes to the actual creation process, and more importantly, I don’t really enjoy it. What I love, however, is the internet marketing field as a whole.

I love writing and turning the basic text people throw on their websites into optimized, sales-driven page copy. Yes, it’s geeky, but besides my daughter, I literally live for making websites successful. I do not, however, live for making websites. There is something magical about turning a side project into a self-sufficient driving force for a client’s business. While the actual design process is obviously an essential factor in terms of success, it just isn’t where I shine. When success is quantitative, you can quickly and easily measure whether or not you are doing your job, which, for me anyway, is extremely important.

There are literally thousands of web designers out there who consider themselves SEO specialists - I was one of them, only the opposite. I have become an internet marketing specialist that is also a designer. If we could all face the facts about what we are and are not, we’d all have businesses that produce higher quality products, and as a result, are much more profitable. It took years, but I have come to the realization that I am not a web designer. I have an eye for good design, but I lack the interest, workflow, and at times, the ability to take on large-scale design projects. Sure, I’ve completed dozens of websites, and have overwhelmingly happy clients. I just don’t love it.

So, to all you designers out there who pretend to be marketing people, and marketing people who pretend to be designers, why not focus on what gets you hot? If it’s design, focus on design! If it’s marketing, focus on marketing! If it’s both, more power to you! For those of you that realize that you really enjoy or excel at one aspect of the internet “game”, I’m sure there are plenty of people who would love to collaborate on projects to make sure everything is completed quickly, properly, and passionately. I can even think of one guy that would love to work something out with a designer who is tired of doing the marketing on client projects!

Char speaking now! I agree with Mike. There are so many aspects to working in Web design and it is difficult to be good at it all, especially if you are interested in taking on larger projects. One of the biggest benefits to blogging and social media is the ability to connect with others in your field who have complimentary skill sets to your own.

Here are a few more of my favorite posts on finding your passion and putting it into play in your business:

• Finding your passion amid the hate - one of many great posts from Tony at Success from the Nest
• How business strategy can be about love - part of a back and forth series between Dawud and Liz
• What’s my passion? by Phil Gerbyshak the Make it Great Guy

Once you take on more that one client or more than you can keep track of in your own mental filing system, it is time to take a look at project management methods. For many years I have been able to get away with a combination of a MS Excel spreadsheet, paper to-do lists, and good communication. However, that is no longer the case and it is time for me to shop around for a project management system that will best serve my needs.

Microsoft Project is one product I have experience with and it gets rave reviews, however, I am not willing to pay the price, especially when there are much more affordable (free) products out there that will accomplish the same thing.

BaseCamp is a very popular collaboration and project management tool, and they do have a free 30-day trial, but by the looks of it, you really need to go with the Personal ($12 per month) or Basic ($24 per month) plan in order to get the type of functionality that will make the product valuable.

But everyone likes FREE, and those of us who are accustomed to web-based, open source applications like WordPress, tend to gravitate to similar products.

ActiveCollab is a free, web-based, open source collaboration and project management tool. Plus I can’t help but love a company that has learned the value of a blog and has the sense of humor to title a post “Eating Your Own Dog Food.”  There is no limitation to the number of products you can manage, you install it on your own server, and get this, it’s portable! You can install it on a flash drive and take it with you. I think I am going to give it a try. (Thanks to Liz for letting me know about it.)

How about you? What project management tools are you using? What would you recommend, what would you avoid? I’d love to know!