Freelancefolder

The Mathematics of Freelancing

Posted August 31, 2011 in Getting Started

Whether you liked math in school, or not, there is a basic mathematics in freelancing that determines whether you succeed or fail.

If you’re a freelancer, it’s vital that you get this math right.

In this post, I’ll identify some specific areas of freelancing that are affected by math. I’ll also ask you to share your own stories.

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The 10 Best Books for Freelancers about Social Media

Posted August 30, 2011 in Social Media, Tools/Resources

It has come to this.

No freelancer today can ignore social media (click here for a definition of social media). In fact, if you find your clients through offline marketing or advertising only, you may find yourself soon left behind by your competitors who use social media.

They’re increasing their exposure, building their authority, engaging with prospects and clients with lightning speed, learning about new niches or markets to explore, and widening their influence.

And your clients probably want you to support their own social media marketing efforts. They want, not just a brochure, but a web page as well. Or aside from logo design, they want website and email branding too

The point is, freelancers need to understand social media–what it is, how it works, and how to use it to promote, not just our own freelancing businesses, but our clients’ businesses as well.

In this post, I’ve compiled ten books on social media, which will help freelancers do exactly that.

None of these books, unfortunately, were written specifically for freelancers. However, if you consider freelancing work as a form of business (which it is!), then it would be easy to translate what these books teach to your freelancing.

I’ve included books that talk about social media in general, as well as a few that focus on specific social networking platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a satisfactory book on Twitter.

Finally, because social media changes so quickly, I’ve included only those books that were published from 2010 onwards. I give you the following reading list in no particular order.

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My 12 Biggest Freelancing Fears That Didn’t Come True

Posted August 29, 2011 in Freelance Stories, Inspiration

Fear kept me from freelancing for a long time.

Colleagues and even acquaintances would comment on how my skills were perfect for becoming a freelancer and still I hesitated. I just “knew” something major and bad would happen if I left my comfortable corporate job for the uncertainty of freelancing.

Well, it turns out that I was wrong about something bad happening. I’ve been freelancing for over nine years now. Most of my biggest fears never came true at all.

In case your fears are keeping you from taking that next step, I’m sharing them here in this post.

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How to Deal with Bizarre Content Requests as a Freelance Writer

Posted August 28, 2011 in Managing Clients, Writing

While writers are often stereotyped as being antisocial and bizarre, sometimes the work writers are assigned is even more so.

As a writer, offbeat requests can include interviewing artists nonstop at a concert without any scheduled breaks, being asked to change a write-up of an interviewee just to keep the peace, writing about an uncomfortable topic, or writing about something you’ve never even heard of.

Still, if you are going to make a career of writing (and it can indeed be rewarding), you will need to be able to navigate the prickly, exhausting, and down-right ridiculous.

Here’s some tips for how to handle those odd and offbeat client requests.

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10 Steps to the Perfect Client Meeting

Posted August 26, 2011 in Managing Clients, Marketing

You’ve scheduled your very first client meeting and now you’re nervous. Will the meeting go well?

Of course, there’s no way to know for sure if your meeting will succeed, but there are some steps you can take to stack the odds in your favor.

In this post, I share ten (fairly) easy steps to help you prepare for the perfect client (or prospective client) meeting.

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The Accidental Blogger

Posted August 25, 2011 in Inspiration, Writing

Have you ever started something that didn’t seem to work out, only to later experience great success in that same area? Have you ever thought about blogging professionally?

If you answered “yes” to either question, this post is for you. It’s the true story, in her own words, of a professional blogger and how she got started.

Let’s begin. Here is Sharon’s story…

I sometimes describe myself as an accidental blogger. That’s because the first time I started a blog, it didn’t go so well.

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Top 10 Easy Ways to Squeeze Optimum Productivity from Your Day

Posted August 24, 2011 in Productivity

Do you need to squeeze more work out of your day?

Well, there’s some good news. By following just a few simple guidelines you can become more productive.

It may surprise you to learn that the answer to optimum productivity is NOT to work more hours each day. Read on to learn some simple guidelines that anyone can follow and start increasing your productivity today.

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Hot Google+ Tips for Freelancers

Posted August 23, 2011 in Social Media

If you’ve jumped on the Google+ bandwagon, you may be wondering, “Ok, what next?”

By now, you know it’s a lot like Facebook, but with some cooler features like Hangouts. Plus, unless you’ve gone crazy and added thousands to your circles, it isn’t as noisy as Twitter–yet.

So how exactly do you use Google+ to (a) make it a tool for finding clients, and (b) keep it from sucking up any more of the time you’re already using for social networking?

Below are some of the best tips for achieving both.

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Freelance Strategies for the Karma Economy

Posted August 22, 2011 in Getting Clients, Managing Clients

Nice guys finish… first?

That’s the question that we all wonder when we hear about phenomena like the “Thank You Economy”–does this mean that the best way to rise to the top is to be a nice guy?

Sure, we’ve all heard anecdotes about very successful people like Leo Babauta and Brian Clark, who have earned reputations as super-nice people.

And there are also examples like Donald Trump and Dan Kennedy, who have earned reputations as being… well… let’s just say “less than nice”–but they’re still very successful.

So should you be nice, or not? Who’s the exception, and who’s the rule? And how can we trust anyone’s example anyway–it’s just anecdote, right?

What we really need is to understand the mechanism: we need to know how the way that you treat people relates to your success.

All right then–buckle up, because it’s going to be an interesting ride!

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