Freelancefolder

What’s The Value Of Your Web Business?

Posted October 31, 2008 in Business, Writing 7 Rockin' Comments »

If you own a web-based business, no matter how small, then that business is worth something.

Traditionally, the net worth of a brick and mortar business is the value of the assets owned minus the value of the liabilities owed.

For a traditional business — which is likely to own equipment, inventory, and possibly even a building — the standard methods of valuation make a lot of sense.

For a web business, however, those methods of valuation may make little, or no sense.

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Free Giveaway: Freelancer At Work Door Hangers!

Posted October 29, 2008 in News 5 Rockin' Comments »

As most of you probably know, we just launched a major FreelanceFolder redesign earlier this week.

In order to celebrate the launch, especially the launch of the new forums, we’ve decided to hold a free giveaway :-)

What’s up for grabs are “Freelancer At Work” door hangers for anyone who wants to enter. Everyone who enters will win, and we’ll print/mail as many of these as we have to fulfill demand.

Okay, so they’re almost pointless, and kind of funny — but they are filled to the brim with freelance pride. Get yours today :-)

Rules and Details: The whole giveaway is taking place over at the forums, so if you’re interested just head on over and read the full post for more info and official rules.

7 Freelancer Stress-Busters You Can Use Today

Posted October 29, 2008 in Lifestyle, Productivity 11 Rockin' Comments »

Freelancers often give the “traditionally employed” plenty of grief about the downsides of having a boss: long hours, uncertain opportunities for advancement and being under the thumb of “the man.” 

But freelancing isn’t always a bed of roses, and in a lot of ways can be even more stressful than working for an employer. 

We’ve all heard the stories about hard-working freelancers burning themselves out (and in some cases, we’ve been the subjects of those stories).  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Before you burn out, tune in — and use — these time-tested tips to keep freelancing stress to a minimum.

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15 Key Elements All Top Web Sites Should Have

Posted October 28, 2008 in Tools/Resources, Web Design 211 Rockin' Comments »

There are a lot of details to consider when designing and developing a web site. In reality, it can seem like an endless list — but if you look carefully you’ll see that there are certain elements that are more important than others, elements that are used consistently among the most successful sites.

Once you’ve completed the Planning Stage of your website, the rest of the elements fall into broad categories ranging from User Interface Design to Content Creation to actual Development. Of course, there are also the issues surrounding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — but we’ll save that for another day…

With that in mind, here are the 15 elements that should always be included on any top web site.

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FreelanceFolder Redesign — What Do You Think?

Posted October 28, 2008 in News 42 Rockin' Comments »

We’re very excited to announce (and show you) our brand new FreelanceFolder design!

We’ve changed our color scheme, updated our logo, and reorganized some of our site elements — and we’ve also added a lot of new functionality to the site (including forums!).

So, what do you think? Does it rock? Just so so? Any ideas to make it better?

Check out the full post for a detailed list of what’s new.

[Click Here to Read More...]

Open Thread: How Do You Stay Sharp?

Posted October 27, 2008 in Lifestyle, Open Thread 24 Rockin' Comments »

Learning is one of those things that’s almost always critical to your success — especially as a freelancer.

From keeping up with new programming standards, to following the latest design trends, we all need to stay sharp in order to be competitive and provide valuable services to our clients.

It takes time though, all of that learning, and sometimes it’s a lot of time and often it’s hard to fit in. Also, it’s not like we have all of the needed resources at our fingertips (at least not always).

So, this week’s open thread is three-pronged:

How do you stay sharp?

How do you fit learning into your schedule?

Where do you find the best learning resources?

(we’ll continue in the comments…) [Click Here to Read More...]

5 Ways To Get More Exposure To Your Portfolio Site

Posted October 24, 2008 in Business, How-To, Marketing 21 Rockin' Comments »

You know the old advice:

Build it and they will come!

Right… if you just build it and do nothing, chances are nothing will happen.

Once you have your portfolio site up and running what you need is visitors, which may eventually become paying customers. How can you get more exposure and traffic to your portfolio site then? Let’s see.

Start A Blog

I know many designers and programmers will say they don’t have time for a blog and they prefer to focus on working on projects. Sure! But you already spend some time marketing your business, right? Why not set aside some time every week to write on your company blog? Even if it’s just 2 or 3 hours a week! [Click Here to Read More...]

7 Daily Time Wasters and How To Get Your Time Back

Posted October 22, 2008 in How-To, Productivity 22 Rockin' Comments »

No matter what job or business you have, time is always a critical resource. And most of us could use a little more of it.

Do you know how much time you waste every single day?

It may not be much, but it probably adds up over the long run. For those of you looking to improve your system, here are 7 common daily time drains and what you can do to get your time back.

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A First Hand Guide On How To Start Freelancing

Posted October 21, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »

A First Hand Guide On How To Start Freelancing
Jacen Nicely goes through the first hand personal experiences of becoming a freelance designer detailing the emotions and the three phases of the process of going from frustrated to a full time freelancer.