Freelancefolder

Fire Them Up!

Posted November 29, 2007 in Uncategorized

You know, one thing I absolutely love about blogging and working online is you meet so many creative, talented and motivated people, it’s crazy!

Usually it happens in the comment section of a blog, but sometimes it’s ‘behind the scene‘ by e-mail. Not so long ago I got an e-mail from Carmine Gallo, a communications coach, author, speaker and columnist at BusinessWeek.com. Carmine asked me if I’d be interested in reading his new book, and he’d send me a copy.

To be honest, since I started blogging I must have received more than 25 e-mails from people who wanted me to read their book and write a little something about it on my blog(s), and none of them actually sent it to me. But Carmine did, and I’m happy he did because this book is just awesome! The kind of book you’ll want to read twice (I did). [Click Here to Read More...]

I Know You’re Out There My Friends!

Posted November 28, 2007 in Lifestyle

I just read one brilliant post titled ‘freelancer’s guide to sales: making friends‘. You guessed it right, the article is about building relationships and making friends, and it really is worth reading.

Here’s a quick excerpt from Shane’s article:

Most of our gigs don’t land on the initial contact, nor the second, not even the third. They come from having built a relationship with someone and being top of mind.

Think about it, how often do you get a gig ‘just like that‘? It didn’t happen to me really often. All the contracts I got, I got them because I took the time to network, make friends and build relationships, not even thinking about the business. Like Shane wrote in his post: sales is making friends. [Click Here to Read More...]

How To Prepare Your Business For A Kick-A$$ 2008

Posted November 26, 2007 in Business, How-To

While most people are winding down for the holidays, you should be making December an action-packed month to build your business so that you hit the ground running in 2008. Here are 5 great tips that will put you ahead of the competition on January 1 – and beyond.

Tip #1 – Plan Out Your Yearly Goals in December, and Look At Them Every Freakin’ Day.

Here’s a tip: “Do better this year” doesn’t count. If you want to tear into 2008 and take what’s yours, you need to be absolutely clear on what it is. Don’t settle for weak goals like “I want to make more money” (an extra quarter would fulfill that, but I doubt that’s what you really want). Get specific on dollar values. On number of customers. On list size, or RSS subscribers, etc. … in short, anything you can actually measure, rather than get warm fuzzies about. Then look at them every day to keep yourself focused and on track. [Click Here to Read More...]

2007-11-24 Saturday Links Folder

Posted November 24, 2007 in Uncategorized

Hello folks, I hope you had a productive week and a great Thanksgiving, it’s been an extremely busy week for me but still I took some time to read blogs and found many great posts that I think are worth reading. :)

Take a minute (or two, or three) to visit these blogs, you never know you might learn new things. Take that well deserved break, go grab a coffee (or tea, yeah tea is better).

I hope you will like these posts:

• 100 Resources to Keep You Productive When on the Move
• Like it Or Not, You’re a Marketer
• How C.R.A.P is your site design?
• Are You Using the Right Content Development Strategy for Your Website?
• 7 Lesser Known Ways to Increase Productivity
• bring people with you – a recipe for a small business revolution
• 6.5 Ways To Irritate Your Customers
• 10 Absolute “Nos!” for Freelancers
• Top 100 Social Media Sites
• The Importance of Taking Time For Yourself In Business

[Click Here to Read More...]

Happy Thanksgiving Fellow Freelancers!

Posted November 22, 2007 in News

Hey everyone, I’d like to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving!

I have to say I’m extremely thankful for all the comments on our posts, the thumbs up on social media sites, and I’m most thankful for all the questions you asked, the e-mails you guys sent, the tips you shared with us and fellow freelancers, and of course all the friends I’ve made, people I’ve met, and experience I gained since I started freelancing, especially since I started blogging.

I started blogging exactly 10 months ago, not really knowing what blogging was about, and man do I love it! Needless to say I learned a lot since the day I installed that thing… hum, WordPress I think they call it. :)

All this makes me a really happy freelancer!

Drive safe,
Happy Thanksgiving!

Jon

How To Meet Deadlines And Boost Performance

Posted November 21, 2007 in Productivity

Although some people think that deadlines kill creativity and hamper productivity, they can really help you streamline your energies and focus on the work at hand, especially when you work as a freelancer and have multiple projects to handle.

If you don’t set deadlines for your individual projects you will soon lose track of time and will never be able to deliver the projects on time to your clients, creating a bad professional reputation in the process.

If you want to be taken seriously by your past, present, and future clients, you have to take your deadlines seriously and respect them; when you respect your deadlines it means you respect your client’s time and also your own time.

But following deadlines can sometimes prove to be a really difficult task and this happens more often when you work on your own and there is nobody to supervise you or nag you in case you delay your work. [Click Here to Read More...]

3 Reasons Your Business Is Growing So Slowly

Posted November 19, 2007 in Marketing

We’d all like to believe that getting a full docket of clients and customers is as easy as flipping on a light switch.

But in real life it ain’t that easy… or is it? If you want to quit limping along the slow path, here are 3 smart tips to short-cut your way to the big time.

Reason #1: You’re Fishing For Customers, Instead Of Going To The Fish Market.

You could spend all your time looking for customers (rather than doing billable work for them), but ‘looking’ doesn’t put bread on the table. Instead of calling out into the world, waiting for a reply, why not find out who already has access to your customers, and strike a deal with them? [Click Here to Read More...]

Solo SEO Link Search Tool – Fast and Free

Posted November 18, 2007 in Uncategorized

There’s been a lot of talk on blogs about the PageRank update lately, may tools can help you get better rankings, some are great, some are not. Want to save some serious time and money? Try Solo SEO Link Search Tool, here’s how it works…

How?

You simply start by typing in a desired keyword phrase related to your website. Let’s take “Web Design for example. In just a few seconds, the tool returns numerous helpful links in 4 different categories for you to follow out to good ol Google. The tool returns information in the following categories Add/Submit, Advanced, Directories and Blogs/Forums. [Click Here to Read More...]

2007-11-17 Saturday Links Folder

Posted November 17, 2007 in Uncategorized

Hello everyone, hope you had a killer week, it’s the week-end again, time to take a short break, the to-do list will still be there when you come back. I read some really good posts this week, and I’d like to share them with you.

Here we go:

• Productivity Toolbox: 37+ Tools for Taking Action and Getting Things Done
• 23 Places to find freelance writing jobs and freelance blogging jobs
• Want More Professional Comments? Just Add Style!
• 30 Interview Questions You Can’t Ask and 30 Sneaky, Legal Alternatives to Get the Same Info
• Quitting the Day Job: Finding the Guts to Pursue Your Dreams
• Why Other Designers Are Not Web Designers
• What to Do When You’re Fresh Out of Ideas
• We vs. I
  
• Webmaster Essentials Checklist

[Click Here to Read More...]