If you've read some of my speed tips, you know that you should put your CSS in external style sheets because those help your whole site load more quickly. But some people will then load two or more external style sheets, and this can negte the speed gains from using an external style sheet because of the extra HTTP requests. Learn why you should only use one external style sheet.

Speed Up Your Web Pages

• Use One External CSS File to Speed Up Page Downloads
• Put CSS in External Style Sheets to Speed Page Downloads
• Use CSS Text Instead of Images to Speed Page Downloads
• Remove Comments from HTML to Speed Download Time

Changing the color of a website is a great way to give it an update without making drastic changes. And while CSS makes it easy to change colors finding a good color scheme can be hard when all your styles are built. But this tool makes it easy. You just upload your style sheet and it pulls out the colors you're using. Then you just change them with the sliders to get a whole new look. (Remember that any images you might have as decoration on the site won't be included in the change.) What I love is that you can use this tool to test out vastly different color palettes. Like the site I used in the screen shot - I went from a green palette to a purple one in about 30 seconds.

• Change Your Color Scheme: CSSColorEditor
• Color Palettes
• Creating a Web Color Scheme
• Color Symbolism
• Is the Browser Safe Color Palette Really Required?
• Color and CSS
• See all the Software Picks
• Suggest Software for the Pick of the Week

January 18, 2011 is fast approaching, and have you prepared your quarterly taxes for fourth quarter 2010? If you are a freelance web designer in the United States, you may need to file quarterly estimated taxes to avoid paying a penalty. But if you don't know the dates they are due, you might be penalized anyway. Make sure you know the due dates for 2010 and 2011 taxes.

Taxes for Freelancers

• What dates are quarterly estimated taxes due for U.S. Freelancers?
• Freelance Web Design Taxes - How to Handle Taxes for Freelancers
• Estimated Taxes: How to Pay Your Estimated Taxes Quarterly
• Paying Estimated Income Taxes - Why and How

When I got my first job, I was very excited to get a box of business cards from the company as well. It was like I was finally an adult with a “real” job. But I never did anything with that box of cards. Then when I started freelancing, one of my first purchases was another box of business cards with my freelancing business information on them. This, too, made me feel very professional and in control of my business. But again, most of those cards sat in the box gathering dust. I used more of them than I had my first box, but still not very much. Now, this could be because I'm not good at networking, but I didn't lack for clients. Now, I have a design for business cards, but I only print out 10 or so at a time when I need them. How important are business cards in your business?