Freelancefolder

6 Ways to Liven Up Your Copy

Posted September 9, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »

6 Ways to Liven Up Your Copy
With marketing copy, short can mean 250 characters. It can be a challenge to write something interesting in such a short amount of space, so here are a few strategies to try.

Open Thread: What Was Your First Business?

Posted September 9, 2008 in Business, Open Thread 18 Rockin' Comments »

The road to freelancing is often very different for each of us. Some freelancers are just born with the entrepreneurial itch, and may have dozens of businesses under their belt. Others find their way to freelancing through lots of life experience, and may still be working on their first business.

No matter what the case — whether you’ve had ten businesses or are just starting — we want to hear from you.

What was your first business? Why did you start it? What did you learn?

The “Alfred Hitchcock” Guide to Branding

Posted September 8, 2008 in Business, Graphic Design, Marketing 8 Rockin' Comments »

If you think about the iconic movie director Alfred Hitchcock, the psychological movie thrillers The Birds and Psycho probably come to mind.

There’s a good reason for that. Not only were those two films made late in Hitchcock’s life (making them more recent), they also contain unforgettable scenes that will leave you riveted to your seat. Who can forget the shower scene from Pyscho?

Alfred Hitchcock had the well-deserved reputation as a master of suspense because he was also a master of branding.

If you look at how he earned his reputation, you’ll see that he did a lot of things specifically to enhance his brand. As a freelancer, there is a lot of value in examining what he did.

Here are a few branding tips that we can all learn from the “master of suspense.”

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How to Find Joy in Your Work

Posted September 5, 2008 in How-To, Inspiration, Lifestyle 9 Rockin' Comments »

If you don’t have enough happiness in your day-to-day freelance work, you’re not doing it right.

The fact of the matter is that whether you’re a writer, designer, or other sort of freelancer, there are plenty of different types of work you can do to keep your days from becoming too monotonous.

Still, there are times when you’ve got to do some mundane tasks. You might have a design gig for a client with no imagination. You might have to write 150 pages of SEO content on household cleaning. We all have to keep our books, deal with clients, and pay our bills.

I’ve found that one of the best ways to get through a drudge of a day is to insert some creativity in the process. Here are some things I’ve done to find more joy in my work, and make those everyday tasks just a little bit more enjoyable:
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The Lull Before the Fall (The Danger of Freelancing Complacency)

Posted September 4, 2008 in Business, Lifestyle, Marketing 9 Rockin' Comments »

We’ve all heard it said, “With freelancing it’s feast or famine.”

What the speaker means, of course, is that when you freelance you either have way too much work, or not nearly enough work. My own experience confirms that the saying is somewhat true. Getting your income through freelancing can be a real roller coaster ride!

The question that I want to address today is this: is the “feast or famine” cycle our own fault?

To some degree, I do think that we freelancers are to blame for it. Naturally, there are market and economic trends that are beyond our control. I’m not talking about those. What I’m talking about is plain old freelancer complacency.

See if the following scenario sounds familiar to you:

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Top 5 Web App Combos for Running an Online Business

Posted September 3, 2008 in Business, Tools/Resources 61 Rockin' Comments »

When it comes to freelancing and working on the web, few things are more important than the online applications that make it all possible. From project management, to invoicing, to contact management, and more — each of these apps play a critical role in running an online or freelance business.

At FreelanceFolder, we’ve been on a sort of quest to find the ‘holy-grail’ — A combination of web apps that completely fulfills a business owner’s needs without breaking the bank or over complicating things. We’ve organized our findings into the following top 5 web app combos:

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3 Freelancing “Bad Habits” That Cost You Money

Posted September 2, 2008 in Productivity 28 Rockin' Comments »

When you’re freelancing for a living, you’re trading time for money – so you want to make sure that every hour is time well spent. 

But those “little” bad habits you may have as a freelancer may be eating away at your time, making projects that should have only taken a few hours take much, much longer.  When that happens, your hourly rate goes down – way down – and each project becomes less profitable. 

Don’t let this happen to you.  Check out these 3 habits to break and start bringing your rates back where they deserve to be.
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Open Thread: Do You Want to Stay Small or Grow Big?

Posted September 1, 2008 in Open Thread 24 Rockin' Comments »

The decision to become a freelancer is often a very personal one. We all have our individual situations, preferences, and abilities. We all have our individual goals.

For some people, freelancing is a gateway to a larger business. Expanding and taking on more work is the name of the game.

For others, freelancing is about following an individual passion. The goal is to refine and improve a small business.

Both of these paths can be equally rewarding, but today’s questions is — which do you prefer? Do you want to stay small, or do you want to grow big?