Freelancefolder

What The Hell Are You Doing?

Posted January 13, 2008 in Productivity 15 Rockin' Comments »

It’s two weeks into 2008, and if you’re like many other people, there are a few things that were on your “I’ll do it this year” list for 2007 that didn’t see an inch of progress. Things that could have made a difference in your business that you just never got to because you “didn’t have the time.” Well, it’s time for a stern wake up call – If you don’t start doing something now, it’s likely you never will. Here’s a simple formula for following through on more (profitable!) action in the new year. [Click Here to Read More...]

2008-01-12 – Saturday Links Folder

Posted January 12, 2008 in Uncategorized 3 Rockin' Comments »

Hello everyone, I hope you had a very productive week and met all your deadlines. Now it’s time to take a little break (feels good sometimes, doesn’t it?), your to-do list will still be there when you’re done reading these posts.

First, I got an e-mail from Scott Shane telling about a quiz on entrepreneurship he put up on the Yale University Press website. Please take a minute to take the quiz and tell us your score. I got 60% (pure luck!), and learned quite a bit just taking the quiz. By the way Guy Kawasaki got a nice 40% :)
Here’s the link: The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By

Now this week’s list:

• Stupid Shit People Put On Their Resumes
• How To Be The Most Annoying Customer Ever
• Why (not to) use CSS Frameworks?
• Dealing With Design Theft
• 10 Steps to Become an Email Ninja
• 70+ Powerpoint and presentation resources and great examples
• 8 Common Misconceptions About Freelancers
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Content Creation

[Click Here to Read More...]

AnyWired – Skellie Does It Again!

Posted January 11, 2008 in Business, Tools/Resources 5 Rockin' Comments »

Yes, the very prolific and talented Skellie from SkellieWag just launched a new blog, AnyWired. And with a tagline as cool and simple as ‘Work Online. Work Anywhere. Live Free.‘ it has to be good, and in fact it is.

Skellie, to me, is the perfect example of a successful freelance blogger, she’s a staff writer at Problogger, FreelanceSwitch, Daily Blog Tips, North X East and many others (and eventually FreelanceFolder :) ), she has her own blogs, and SkellieWag.org is already quite popular. [Click Here to Read More...]

Online Marketing Is Great – But What About Traditional Marketing?

Posted January 10, 2008 in Marketing 15 Rockin' Comments »

When it comes to marketing and advertising your services, it really is a jungle out there. Although there are many different forms of marketing, lately everybody seems to be dancing to the tune of internet marketing not realizing the fact that traditional marketing isn’t out of beat yet, and I sincerely doubt it ever will be.

No matter what kind of freelancing you do or business you run, the traditional approach shouldn’t be undermined just because you offer something ‘internet related‘. That local flowershop in your town might be looking for an online store and a design for their site, would you want them to find somebody else on the internet or would you want them to find you? [Click Here to Read More...]

Avoid Freelance Horror – 6 Lessons from Stephen King

Posted January 8, 2008 in Business 13 Rockin' Comments »

Did you realize that Stephen King was an expert on the art of freelancing? Neither did I until I read Salem’s Lot. Surprisingly, King’s vampire novel has quite a bit to teach.

Warning: Mild spoilers ahead.

1. Trust the prickling on the back of your neck

When writer Ben Mears came to Salem’s Lot to write his story about the old Marsten house, looking at it gave him the creeps. Now imagine what the story would have been like if, instead of trying to investigate, he’d gotten as far away from it as possible. Not much of a horror story is it? Good. That’s what a freelancer wants.

2. When the locals say a house is haunted, don’t go ghost hunting

It turns out that besides giving Ben the creeps, the locals had lots of eerie stories to tell about the house at the top of the hill. Undeterred, Ben continued to investigate it. Don’t be Ben. People like Ben get into nasty situations by not paying attention to the warnings of others. Ben’s job in the book is to advance the drama. The freelancer’s is to cut the drama short if at all possible. [Click Here to Read More...]

3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Raise Your Rates

Posted January 6, 2008 in Business 21 Rockin' Comments »

I know, I know, I’ve been telling you over and over again that you should take your rates and pump them up. But after reading a few eye-opening blog posts this week, I realized that raising rates might not be the best idea for you … unless you’re willing to take on a personal demon or two. Read through these three danger signs and see if they apply to you. [Click Here to Read More...]

2008-01-05 Saturday Links Folder

Posted January 5, 2008 in Uncategorized 3 Rockin' Comments »

Hi all, I hope you had a productive week and didn’t find it too difficult to get back to work after the holidays. I read some really good posts this week that I want to share with you, even though the last ‘links folder’ post was just a couple days ago, it’s always nice to learn some new stuff.

Here we go:

• Selling Website Design: How to Overcome the 3 Most Ignorant Objections
• Top Ten Web Design Tips of 2007
• Tip: Generate Ideas In Moderation! – Really an awesome post, I especially really liked that part:
  

  Idea generation is an addiction. It is an engaging, brain-spinning indulgence that must be practiced in moderation

• Scientific Web Design: 23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies (found via Darren Hoyt)
• 5 straight steps to a unique site design
• Seth Godin’s Top 7 Tips for Becoming a Master Networker
• 7 Things to Consider When Choosing a Designer to Redesign Your Blog
• Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Career Break
• 5 Marketing Tools Every Startup Should Use

[Click Here to Read More...]

How To Unleash the Productivity Beast

Posted January 3, 2008 in Productivity 11 Rockin' Comments »

We all have a certain degree of commitment towards project we work on. But commitment alone won’t help us achieve our goals, being committed doesn’t mean you’re productive and it’s the degree of productivity we put into it that will help us move forward.

This is where we need to unleash the beast – the productivity beast. The word “beast” here refers to the amount of productive capability that you have within yourself that is waiting to be unleashed.

Here are some tips on unleashing that “beast”:

Set Limits

Although this might sound like an invalid argument when it come to being productive, this probably is one of the main factor why your productivity level hasn’t been where it should be. [Click Here to Read More...]

Got A FaceBook Profile? You May Find This Interesting

Posted January 2, 2008 in Business, How-To, Marketing 6 Rockin' Comments »

Yesterday I read a post on ZenHabits about a new Facebook app creator from BlogFuse and I thought I’d give it a try.

I have never created a Facebook app before, and honestly never really thought about it, till I read the post on ZenHabits.

Basically what it does is display your latest blog posts on your profile and your friend’s profiles, and it’s ridiculously easy to setup (really!), you just sign up on BlogFuse, add the developer package, answer a couple questions (and of course login to your Facebook account), enter some information on Facebook and voila! You’re done! Step by step. [Click Here to Read More...]