Freelancefolder

Typography Essentials – Part 2

Posted May 30, 2008 in Uncategorized 3 Rockin' Comments »

In my last article, I went over a lot of basics that we all tend to forget when we get to working out in the real world. But sometimes the real world leads us right back to the basic information we used as first year students.

I know, I’ve had a couple this week. Am I the only one hearing “I just want letters, no graphics” from some of my clients? And it isn’t because of the cost. My custom logos cost the same whether they have graphics or not. Some want color, some don’t but many of the small businesses in my area are voicing a growing consensus to keep it simple.

What those small businesses don’t realize is the number of fonts available to perform the simple concept they want to send out. As an educated graphic designer, I do. So, how can the correct font be found? Go dumpster diving of course! [Click Here to Read More...]

7 Essential Set Of Tools For Everyone Who Earns A Living Online

Posted May 29, 2008 in Uncategorized 55 Rockin' Comments »

If you are a full time web-worker earning your living through the internet, I am sure you would agree that for every task you can think of, there are more tools on the internet then you can imagine. Sometimes it can become really difficult to chose the tools that will do the job right.

Today we decided to list out seven such tools or rather sets of tools, which are essential for every web-worker no matter the area of specialization. So whether you are web designer, blogger, freelance writer or any other kind of web-worker, you could certainly use these tools to work more effectively and productively too. [Click Here to Read More...]

Knowing What To Do Versus Doing It – How To Handle The Information Explosion

Posted May 28, 2008 in News 20 Rockin' Comments »

As a freelancer, most of the time I’m surrounded with far more information than I can ever absorb, let alone use.

Not only does every newspaper, magazine, and television shows offer up their particular flavor of advice on how best to succeed – now there is also advice from the Internet to deal with. On the Internet new advice can appear practically every minute.

Much of the advice being offered is sound, too. It’s good advice, if only one had the time to put it all into practice. (Yes, I’m aware that there’s a lot of bad advice out there too. Discerning good advice from bad advice is the topic of a whole other blog post… )

What’s a freelancer to do?

You want your business to be successful. You want to work efficiently. You want to offer the best to your clients. But, there’s no way that you can absorb, let alone follow, all of the various pieces of advice that are currently available.

In fact, it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed by the information explosion that surrounds today’s freelancer.

You don’t have to let the information explosion leave you with a defeated feeling. There are ways to manage information to your advantage.

Here are four tips to help you not only absorb at least some of the information being provided, but also to put it into use: [Click Here to Read More...]

Promote Your Freelance Services With A Podcast/Vodcast

Posted May 27, 2008 in Marketing 12 Rockin' Comments »

Do you want to establish yourself as a subject matter expert in a niche? An excellent way to promote your skills as a freelancer is to create and publish a regular podcast about a select topic. By regular, I mean on either a daily, weekly or monthly schedule and sticking with it.

This podcast would appear on your professional website, where you promote your services. If it’s done well and is informative, it could help establish you as an expert.

Podcasting or vodcasting regularly also builds your public speaking skills, which could come in handy if you ever decide to give workshops or talks – a practice that can pad out your freelance income. [Click Here to Read More...]

The Violent Truth of Branding

Posted May 26, 2008 in Business, Marketing 25 Rockin' Comments »

You might not know it, but I was once a work-at-home mom.

For the better part of three years, I operated my freelance career as a Jewish woman living in Atlanta. I wrote for parenting and pregnancy web sites, I contributed to mommy blogs and I posted to work-at-home mom message boards.

I even entered into discussions about religion, politics and motherhood on a now-defunct moms message board. In my spare time. For fun.

Now, before you go all psychological on me and start making suggestions about how my mother must not have hugged me enough, let me assure you that my efforts were calculated, and they all contributed, in the end, to my writing career. [Click Here to Read More...]

The Value Of Networking – Offer A Wider Range Of Services

Posted May 25, 2008 in Uncategorized 8 Rockin' Comments »

How many times have you lost clients because you could not offer that one extra service they were looking for? Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? If you are an active freelancer you probably have a pretty good idea.

But with the economy circling the drain most of us can’t afford to expand our small businesses to include more personnel or equipment to offer a wider range of services. So what are we to do?

Create A Network

Create a network of businesses willing to work in cooperation for the better good of all. Many businesses are looking for one stop shopping and creating an effective network is a surefire way of keeping all your eggs in one basket while maintaining a budget you can live with.

But who do you pick choose and where do you find them? And once you find them, what financial arrangement is agreeable to all the parties involved? Or maybe you decide to make a reciprocating agreement in which everyone agrees to simply work together to provide a wider range of services to their client base. Let’s take a closer look. [Click Here to Read More...]

2008-05-25 – Sunday Links Folder

Posted May 25, 2008 in Uncategorized 5 Rockin' Comments »

Hello fellow freelancers, hope you’re having a great week-end and don’t have too much stuff left on your to-do list! I read some very nice posts this week, and of course I’d like to share them with you :)

Here we go:

• Steven from Vandelay Design put together a list of 50 designers to follow on Twitter (I’m on the list!). Thanks Steven!
• Our very own Bob Younce wrote a killer post on Freelance Switch titled High Octane Freelance Writing.
• Maki gave a very good post about Strategic Collaborations on DoshDosh.

[Click Here to Read More...]

Born To Be… A Freelancer?

Posted May 23, 2008 in Lifestyle, Open Thread 14 Rockin' Comments »

It’s an argument that’s been discussed on the Internet time and time again. Are the qualities that make for a successful freelancer part of one’s genetic makeup, or are they learned?

It’s the old nature versus nurture discussion brought to the freelancing roundtable for discussion: which is most responsible for the qualities that make a freelancer successful?

What do you think?

There are strong arguments for either position. [Click Here to Read More...]

Biting The Bullet: 5 Reasons Why Arguing With Unruly Clients Will Get You Nowhere

Posted May 22, 2008 in Business, How-To 47 Rockin' Comments »

We’ve all been there; putting out your best work, adding extra hours in just to be nice, giving multiple revisions even though the scope only called for 2.

Then it happens; you realize your client couldn’t care less about anything you’ve been doing for them and is just a plain $@#*& every time you turn around. Natural human instinct is to pounce into action and fight right back; but is it the smart thing for freelancers? I want to cover 5 reasons why biting the bullet and not arguing with unruly clients will do you much more good then if you were to spend your days arguing right back.

Feel free to chime in after the article in the comments if you’ve had a client, or two (or 20) like this before. [Click Here to Read More...]