Freelancefolder

Forum Talk: Copyrights, Late Fees, and Legal Issues

Posted February 27, 2009 in Business, Forum Talk 4 Rockin' Comments »

In the few months that we’ve had the forums here at FreelanceFolder there has been quite a lot of interest and a good amount of discussion. After reading through a number of really interesting forum threads, I thought it might be nice to highlight some of the more useful ones here on the blog for everyone to see.

For this issue of Forum Talk, I want to direct you to a particularly relevant discussion about Copyrights, late fees, and legal issues that was posted in the Finance and Legal forum.

The topic was posted by hrjansen, one of our forum’s most active users. He opened the thread with:

Something that I’m guessing we all wonder about at various times, are things like the subject explains so eloquently: Legal Issues. Specifically, that of copyrights and the like.
 
The one issue that I’d like to bring up, is do any of you charge a late fee for invoices that are past their due date?
 
I’m wondering if you do charge it, and if you do, how/what do you charge[...]

Several people quickly responded to the question, with some people charging nothing and others charging huge amounts for late payments. The discussion also delved a bit further into copyrights and some other related issues.

What To Do When You Don’t Get The Job

Posted February 26, 2009 in Business 26 Rockin' Comments »

There it was in bold print on one of my favorite blogs, the job I had applied for! The blogger had gotten MY GIG and posted about.

I had worked hard on this particular proposal. I had spent a lot of time. The client and I had been in multiple discussions about the project. They had even revealed some confidential details to me. I was absolutely certain that this job was going to be mine. Certain of it, that is, until I read that blog post!

Sooner or later, most freelancers will find themselves in this situation — losing a gig to one of their competitors. It’s something that eventually happens to almost every freelancer.

If not managed properly, losing a gig can negatively affect your morale and damage your productivity. And being envious of another freelancers (aka your competitor) can be just as bad, if not worse.

Here are some things you can do when you don’t get the job:

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7 Fresh and Simple Ways to Test Cross-Browser Compatibility

Posted February 25, 2009 in Programming, Web Design 181 Rockin' Comments »

This post is written for designers, developers, or anyone else who has struggled with testing their websites across multiple browsers.

As little as one year ago, there were almost no good options for testing cross-browser compatibility of websites. The tools out there usually had significant drawbacks — either in cost, capabilities, or time required. Lately, though, there have been a lot of newcomers to the browser testing world, some of which offer truly excellent services.

In this article we’ve listed 7 fresh and simple tools for cross-browser compatibility testing, tools that actually make this stuff pretty easy. Not only that, but every single one of these tools can be used for free.

#1 — Xenocode Browser Sandbox

The Xenocode Browser Sandbox is a game-changer for browser testing on Windows-based machines. With a single click of your mouse you can have an open and working browser without any installation. You can test in various IE versions, Firefox, Google Chrome, and even Safari. And really test, too, not just screenshots. To top everything off, the entire service is provide free of charge. Zip, nadda, nothing.

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Viral Marketing Techniques That Can Increase Traffic

Posted February 25, 2009 in freelancenews Add Comment »

Viral Marketing Techniques That Can Increase Traffic
There’s a ton of different marketing methods and once you get started it might be difficult to do a one-eighty if it turns out to be a poor alternative.

Gardening Tips That Can Grow Your Freelance Business

Posted February 23, 2009 in Business, Inspiration 22 Rockin' Comments »

Have you ever wondered how to grow your freelancing business?

If you have, you’re not alone. Getting a freelance business to grow is something that every freelancer struggles with from time to time.

As I was driving through the country the other day, I noticed that many of the trees and plants are already starting to bud. As the daughter of an avid gardener, I immediately thought of my father’s vegetable garden and the care that he took each year to insure that we had fresh fruits and vegetables in our home. Then it struck me.

Growing a freelance business is an awful lot like growing a garden. Many of the same principles that my father used to grow his vegetable garden also apply to my freelancing business and can probably help you grow your business as well.

Here are 5 gardening principles that can help grow your freelance business:

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Open Thread: Where Do You Get Health Insurance?

Posted February 20, 2009 in Lifestyle, Open Thread 41 Rockin' Comments »

One of the biggest challenges of freelancing is finding affordable health insurance that offers the coverage you desire. There are many options out there, and all of them seem to have different benefits and drawbacks. Most are very expensive.

Some freelancers choose to go on an ‘emergency only’ health insurance plan, where you would have high deductibles and relatively minimal coverage based on the idea that you would only use that coverage in case of extraordinary hospital bills. Of course, because of the minimal coverage, this option isn’t right for a lot of people.

Another common method of getting health coverage is to go through a group like NASE or a local chamber of commerce. In this way you can usually get into a plan and receive benefits closer to those that might be provided by an employer. The group rates also apply, so you can probably find something reasonably affordable too. The downside to this option is that you are putting a great deal of faith in the organization or group that you go through, and will need to do your research before selecting an organization.

Yet another choice is to open a Health Savings Account, or HSA, which would provide you with a way to save tax-free dollars towards your future medical expenses. This option has its own quirks, and in some cases doesn’t even come with insurance (though I’d recommend at least getting an emergency plan to go with it).

How do you get your health insurance?

Which one of these methods do you use for your health insurance? Are you satisfied with what is provided? Is it reasonably affordable? Any advice for newer freelancers?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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How To Position Yourself As An Expert

Posted February 18, 2009 in Business, How-To 53 Rockin' Comments »

Are you an expert?

If you’ve been freelancing for a while, odds are good that you have developed a level of expertise in one or more specialized areas. Since expert freelancers are usually paid more than generalists, it is a good idea to identify and promote any specialized knowledge that you might have.

You can’t be paid for your expertise if no one knows that you have it, so it’s important to position yourself carefully and present your expertise. In this article, we’ll look at a few ways to do that.

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Envato Launches TUTS+ and Combines All Tutorial Sites

Posted February 18, 2009 in News 5 Rockin' Comments »

Most of you are probably familiar with Collis Ta’eed and Envato, but for those of you who aren’t, they are the masterminds behind many of the web’s best freelance sites — such as FreelanceSwitch, PSDtuts, VectorTuts, and many others.

Well, as of yesterday they have made a very big move — they’ve taken all of their individual tutorial sites (5 of them) and combined them under a single domain, TutsPlus.com.

The new, unified domain has the content from all of their sites under one convenient interface. What’s more, they have unified the “Plus” subscription so that instead of paying $7 for each site you can now pay $9 and have access to all of the Plus content on any of their sites.

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The 8 Most Common Freelance Questions (With Answers)

Posted February 16, 2009 in Business, Lifestyle 51 Rockin' Comments »

This post is a direct follow-up to the open thread we ran last week where we asked for your freelance questions. We said to pretend that there was a panel of freelance-gurus who could answer anything about freelancing, and then asked you to post your top question in the comments.

While we don’t really have a panel of freelance gurus over at FreelanceFolder headquarters, we’re at least going to take a shot at answering some these questions. As forewarning, we’re probably also going to rely heavily on the community and other articles to help out with the answers :-)

Here are the 8 most common questions from our open thread, along with their answers:

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