35 Online Tools That Make Your Freelance Career Easier
Posted May 14, 2009 in Productivity, Tools/Resources 107 Comments »
Over the years the appeal of freelancing has grown tremendously. Some are drawn to freelancing to enjoy the freedom of choosing their own work hours, some as a way to stay ahead during times of recession. Today, there are many individuals on the web pursuing their career as a freelancer. Bloggers, web designers, social media strategists and many others have found that freelancing is a great way to utilize their skills and sell their services through the wonderful medium we call the internet.
Although freelancing appeals to many, the stakes are quite high. I am sure most of you agree with me when I say there are a few sleepless nights, and work often seems to follow us wherever we go since most of us work from home. Like everything else, freelancing has it’s ups and downs.
The benefits of freelancing, however, certainly outweigh the pitfalls — and using the right online tools can help tip the scales even further. Gadgets and online apps are a freelancer’s best friend when it comes to being effective.
35 Tools That Make Your Freelance Career Easier
Here are 35 online tools that can help make your freelancing career even easier:
- Bubble.us : A brainstorming tool that lets you put your ideas into bubbles and save your mindmap as an image.
- Relenta : Helps you manage your contacts, emails, documents and other activities.
- Wridea : Idea management service and collection of brainstorming tools for writers.
- Slideshare : Create and share slide shows online.
- Toodledo : A web based to-do-list to help you organize.
- Mint : A very simple easy to use finance tool for personal use and to manage your freelance finances as well.
- eFax : Although you might think Fax is outdated we are pretty sure most of your clients still use it, especially the corporate ones. Use this site to make your life easier when it comes to faxes.
- Webnote : Allows you to quickly take notes using a web browser. You can save the notes using any computer and visit the site later to retrieve notes. Useful when using public computers.
- Box : Share files online with your clients and friends using this simple tool.
- ReadBag : A bookmarking service that lets you save links that you can read later in your browser, email, phone and even in an offline mode.
- Stock.xchng : Free stock photography for your blog, site or any other use that you might have for images.
- YouSendIt : Allows you to send files and folder that are upto 2GB without clogging your or your client’s inbox.
- WordFast : A translation tool that is compatible with any language supported by word.
- FaxZero : Lets you send free faxes to US and Canada.
- Copyright : Find everything you need to know about US copyright.
- RSS2PDF : Turn your RSS feeds into PDFs and read them even when you are offline.
- CentralDesktop : Helps freelancers collaborate, communicate and share files with clients and coworkers.
- FlightStats : Get up-to-date information on your flight so you can let your clients know about delays and know when exactly they are arriving if you have to pick them up.
- SiteKreator : Helps you create sites instantly, all you need to do is add content.
- InstaCalc : A web based calculator that includes spreadsheet capabilities, unit conversions and programming commands.
- BlinkSale : Lets you send invoices online, recurring templates and keep track of your invoices and purchases.
- Skim : Helps you take notes directly on a PDF file as you read.
- Icebrrg : Lets you easily build online embeddable forms.
- ConceptShare : Allows you to invite clients to take a look at your design work and get real time feedback while you work on the project.
- GoToMeeting : Setup online meetings with clients and colleagues using this popular meeting tool
- Wufoo : Another tool to help you build forms.
- Escrow : Use this service to protect yourself and clients when the stakes are high.
- XE : Most freelancers work with international clients and a currency converter is a must to determine the payment. This tool takes care of giving you up-to-date information on currency rates.
- ProjectStat.us : This tool allows your clients to view the status of a project using a token.
- CreativeCommons : This site provides free tools that lets freelancers easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry.
- ProofHQ : Lets you annotate a variety of document types – PDFs, PSDs, JPGs, Word, Powerpoint – and webpages.
- ProposalKit : An online tool that helps freelancers with proposal and contract management.
- SlimTimer : An online timer that helps you track time spent on a particular project and bill your clients accordingly.
- SpotRunner : Use this website if you are planning to build a TV advertising campaign.
- MonkeyOn : Allows you to create a to-do-list that you want other people to do.
Bonus — 5 Blogs You Should Subscribe To
If you are a freelancer or are planning to become one, here are five blogs you should subscribe to for tips and inspiration
- Freelance Folder : The blog that you are currently reading. Launched back in 2007, Freelance Folder is one of the best blogs on the web dedicated to helping freelancers.
- Skelliewag : Written and managed by Skellie, Skelliewag is a blog that you don’t want to miss. In Skellie’s own words “If you want to make a living from your passion, not AdSense, this is written for you.”
- Freelance Switch : A blog that is often referred to as the mother of all freelancing blogs. If you are looking for insightful tips and helpful advice from the veterans, FSW is for you.
- 43 Folders : Launched by owner and writer Merlin Mann in 2004, 43 Folders talks about finding time and ways to do your best creative work. A must read blog to keep your creative juices flowing.
- MenWithPens : Ranked no.2 among the best blogs for writers, MenWithPens offers tips and advice to take your freelance writing to the next level.
More Online Resources from FreelanceFolder
If you liked this list of online tools, you might also enjoy these other resource posts from FreelanceFolder:
- 5 Game-Changing Project Management Tools
- 15 Useful Twitter Tools For Web Workers
- 10 Essential Plugins Every Modern Wordpress Site Should Have
- 15 Firefox Add-Ons to Tame Social Media Addicts
- 15 Applications No Online Business Can Live Without
Add Your Thoughts…
I hope I was able to introduce a few new tools that can help your life as a freelancer. If you have a chance, please take a minute and share some of the tools that help you manage your freelancing career — they will probably be useful to others too.
Photo by Amir K.
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107 Comments
Franklin Bishop
May 14th, 2009 at 11:50 amThose online tools can definitely make your freelance career easier. Thanks for taking the time to create this article because many of them I have not used before.
Yana
May 14th, 2009 at 11:55 amI don’t see any advantages of using Wordfast as a translation tool. You still have to translate yourself, it just helps you manage what you’ve already translated.
Personnally, I find that Déjà Vu and MemoQ are much more convenient for translators, and Trados is much more popular.
Even the fact that Wordfast can be run under Linux doesn’t make it the tool to choose. It can’t handle office files that were created in other Office Suites than MS Office. So it’s kinda useless for open source geeks.
Susanne
May 14th, 2009 at 11:56 amWhat a great list! I’d add BILLINGS for invoicing/ time tracking and I prefer MINDMEISTER for brainstorming :)
Writer Dad
May 14th, 2009 at 12:10 pmI did not know there was a place for free stock photography. That is awesome. Thanks!
Melissa
May 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pmGreat list…thanks!!
Colin Wright
May 14th, 2009 at 1:32 pmWow, there were several I hadn’t heard of on here! I’ll have to give Icebrrg a whirl, though it will be hard to win me away from Wufoo.
Josh Breinlinger
May 14th, 2009 at 1:41 pmGood list, we’ve partnered with Central Desktop and it’s a great tool. I follow all of the blogs listed as well.
I’d recommend CarbonMade as well for freelance design portfolios. And PBworks for free wikis,
-Josh
ps. Find freelance jobs on oDesk
Ritu
May 14th, 2009 at 3:27 pmThank you for your feedback guys! I am glad you are finding the list useful
Nikhil
May 14th, 2009 at 5:07 pmWhat a great stuff!!!!!
Danh ba web 2.0
May 14th, 2009 at 10:34 pmMy favourite Online Tools in your list: YouSendIt, Box, Slideshare … Thanks for nice list
See more tool online for Web Designer in my blog: http://tr.im/lozL
Scott Galvin
May 15th, 2009 at 2:53 amGreat list many of these will come in very handy, but I don’t think Stock.xchng is a free.
Tommy of RogueStar
May 15th, 2009 at 3:44 amAnother very useful tool can be found at http://www.balsamiq.com this allows you to create mockups of user interfaces without having to worry about someone saying “I don’t like that colooor” everything is drag and drop and is locked into a grid. It’s very easy to use and an invaluable tool.
It’s free to try out (you just get an annoying popup every 5 minutes) or $79 dollars to purchase a license…they also have free licenses available if you’ll blog about the tool so if you get enough traffic and subs than you can probably get it for free…again very cool tool and the company behind it seems pretty chill too.
*Yawn* it’s another one of those sleepless nights for me.Thanks for the list…subbed bookmarked and favorited. Have a good night.
wonwor
May 15th, 2009 at 4:29 amThanks for nice list. I’m finding this list
Dianette
May 15th, 2009 at 4:29 amThis is a great list and even exposes further possibilities for being productive using these software. It would have been really nice if you could add programming IDEs, Frameworks, Tools, Libraries to give novice freelancers a better idea of whats happening in the real world freelancing. Buy anyway, it was a great list. Thanks
Johnny Teebag
May 15th, 2009 at 7:35 amWow, those are indeed some very useful tools!
RT
http://www.whos-watching.net.tc
Mandar
May 15th, 2009 at 8:24 amGreat Post! It is useful to everyone, not just freelancers.
K. L. Deig
May 15th, 2009 at 9:14 amit’s = it is
Jo
May 15th, 2009 at 9:16 amThanks for the post. Very useful.
Another one that I absolutely love is TeamViewer ( http://www.teamviewer.com ). A remote support / live desktop presentation tool, allowing you to share you desktop with clients. Helps cut those meeting times down considerably. Great for client design changes.
Jake
May 15th, 2009 at 10:20 amAs a freelancer you can never have too many resources to save to your bookmarks for future reference. I have to say, I love coming to FreelanceSwitch because I always find great lists like this to help out with my freelancing lifestyle. Thanks a bunch!
Frank Sedivy
May 15th, 2009 at 10:21 amYou can kill couple of those apps (billing, contact management, time tracking, taxes) by one very good one – http://www.freeagentcentral.com/?referrer=2hl5wzvn
Craig Williams
May 15th, 2009 at 10:27 amAm I going crazy or was Skype not on that list?
curtis
May 15th, 2009 at 10:52 amI recommend dropbox over box. the free account has more storage and the paid accounts are cheaper for more storage.
Boerne Search
May 15th, 2009 at 11:45 amGet resourse. Not just for the freelancer, but anyone starting a new business or venture. Good bookmark.
Julien Henzelin
May 15th, 2009 at 12:35 pmHello,
If you want something else than ConceptShare, you can try the nice-to-have-french-RoR-tool Upshot : http://www.upshotit.com
Jason
May 15th, 2009 at 12:36 pmI recommend outright.com instead of Mint. No question, Mint is fantastic for personal finances but I prefer keeping my revenue and expenses organized accordingly. outright does estimated taxes and P&L reports automatically; Mint isn’t meant for that.
@craig, not Skype but Google?? Not because of advertising but gmail, calendar, docs, and voice. All under your domain name and for free.
Tobbi
May 15th, 2009 at 12:53 pmThanks, great list.
Leonard
May 15th, 2009 at 1:07 pmCheck out http://www.netdocuments.com for online collaboration and document management. Used by tens of thousands of lawyers, accountants, financial service advisors, realtors, etc. use for storing all their documents for 24×7. Disclaimer: I work for the company.
dotcalm
May 15th, 2009 at 1:12 pmFreemind is a great free software from Sourceforge that can help you build mind maps with the capability to add links and attach files, as well as choose how to view the map – including creating an outline to publish.
Tatiana @ averygoodyear.net
May 15th, 2009 at 1:17 pmJust a note, the link to your Twitter page at the bottom of this article is broken :)
Ritu
May 15th, 2009 at 2:24 pmThanks everyone for your comments and sharing some of the tools that you use.
@Tatiana Thanks for pointing that out. I tried fixing it but it seemed ok in the admin section. not sure why it’s doing that.
Mitesh
May 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pmtremendous list – thank you for taking the time to compile.
Jared Walker
May 15th, 2009 at 4:20 pmGreat list. Usually these lists are full of tools I already know about, but there are a bunch of tools here that I hadn’t heard of and am going to check out. Thanks.
Kay
May 15th, 2009 at 4:58 pmAck! Gotta have http://www.webworkerdaily.com — it’s all about working from anywhere.
Karl S
May 15th, 2009 at 4:59 pmGreat list.
I would second the recommendation for Dropbox (getdropbox.com) but would also recommend Drop.io which has a lot of features designed especially for teams sharing and collaborating on files.
I would also recommend Audacity for voice recording (on a Mac) and Call Recorder (http://ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/) for recording Skype conversations.
Rudy
May 15th, 2009 at 6:24 pmYou may also want to add checkvist.com to the list. Let’s you share and handle multiple outlines. I use it to track the office to do. Whoever gets to it first, crosses it off.
Arun prasad
May 16th, 2009 at 6:16 amUseful links… Thanks a lot..
:-)
Devon
May 16th, 2009 at 11:41 amGreat post! Another good tool is LogMeIn.com. It’s currently only for Mac, but the free version allows you to log in to your computer and control your desktop from anywhere – or anyone else’s Mac who is signed up and gives you their login info. Great if you travel or need to help someone non-local troubleshoot.
And just for the record (in response to a previous comment), Stock.Xchnge does have free images, you just need to go to ‘Advanced Search’ and select ‘No’ on the ‘Restricted?’ drop down list.
Jack
May 16th, 2009 at 10:44 pmAs an Engineering student who’s attempting to start my own small business designing aftermarket tools and parts, this list is a Godsend. Thanks for compiling so many useful tools in one place!
Paramendra Bhagat
May 17th, 2009 at 2:50 pmMy first time at your blog. Great blog. Found you on Twitter.
Steave
May 18th, 2009 at 9:12 amWhat a great list! I’d add BILLINGS for invoicing/ time tracking and I prefer MINDMEISTER for brainstorming :)!!
joyologo design shop 2.0
May 18th, 2009 at 12:50 pmgreat helpful list for freelancer, thanks a lot..
Chris Beckett
May 19th, 2009 at 12:22 amDimDim (www.dimdim.com) – Free web/teleconferencing that really works. Includes whiteboard, document sharing, desktop sharing, group chat, webcam/microsoft, telephone bridge, etc.
EverNote (www.evernote.com) – Free multi-platform notetaking tool that auto-synchs with a hosted web service. Manage and synch your notes in your browser, desktop or mobile device.
Denise
May 19th, 2009 at 3:11 amThanks for sharing such a resourceful article. The list of tools is awesome. I would like to recommend the tool which I use the for online collaboration & managing projects – http://www.deskaway.com.
Aleksey
May 19th, 2009 at 8:21 amGreat List!
I think online service http://ganttzilla.com can be added to this list also. It’s viewer and collaborating tool around MS Project and Planner Gantt charts.
Mike Greene
May 19th, 2009 at 9:04 amGreat list; I use MyFax though for faxing, as it’s cheaper and doesn’t require a download.
Aaron Sperling
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:19 pmGreat article. I would like to suggest that the list includes more ways for freelancers to generate new business. Tools such as vFlyer, http://www.vflyer.com, provide a suite of services to generate business for freelancers. vFlyer enables freelancers to generate marketing content that is both automatically distributed to leading marketplaces but can be used on sites like Craigslist.
Bonnie D. Huval
May 25th, 2009 at 10:00 amI’ve been using Airset.com for a couple of years now, since it was just an online calendar service. It has added services since then. The free service is all I need at present. By setting up shared calendars, I’m able to coordinate my calendar with my partners (take that word in both the personal and business senses), business contacts and extended family. They and I need only look in Airset when we want to avoid a schedule conflict.
By using the free program for synchronizing my Palm PDA with Airset, it doesn’t matter which calendar I use to schedule an event or which contact list I use to take someone’s contact information. One click reconciles them.
I also make heavy use of the ability to set up reminders, and even use that to have email alerts sent to me when it’s time to do tax filings.
There may be something newer or slicker out there, but Airset has been just what I needed.
Dave Gardner
May 30th, 2009 at 2:49 amOh.
Thanks so much for this awesome list!
You did a very serious job here.
I would add:
1. PipeJump – Sales and Opportunity Management for Small Businesses
2. Campaign Monitor – The perfect email campaigns tool
D,
thomas
June 4th, 2009 at 3:28 pmGreat list. Another service similar to Box.net is http://contentcube.com . It is a bit more focused on presentation and professional image formats like photoshop and illustrator files.
Free Fax
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 amThis is a great list. Just want to share another free fax website here. GotFreeFax.com lets user send free fax online to the US and Canada. Plus, it does not add Ads to the fax, which makes it more suitable for faxing formal documents.
Philip Karklins
July 28th, 2009 at 5:00 pmSome decent links you got there.
harry
July 30th, 2009 at 1:11 amYou may also want to check out http://www.GoalsOnTrack.com, very nice web app to help you organize goals and manage tasks.
james
August 11th, 2009 at 12:46 amThis is a great list. Just want to share another free online classified website http://www.phinditt.com/ this website is great i spend all my time here posting free ads check it out
shannon
August 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pmGreat blog idea. Love ConceptShare, but if you’re a designer you should try http://contentcube.com
нeзaбyдкa
August 21st, 2009 at 2:28 pmПознавательно! Хотелось бы побольше таких же интересных сообщений
Website Design Newcastle
September 5th, 2009 at 9:34 amAn excellent list! Not a freelancer, but many of those resources are of particular use for writing in general. Very impresssed, thanks.
ben
September 30th, 2009 at 12:39 amthanks man! quite helpful!!
Rebecca
October 1st, 2009 at 4:53 pmFile Replication Pro is great for collaboration, because it operates in real time and uses the least possible resources. Everyone can work on the same files, and have them synchronized and up to date all the time.
Toggle is another tool that makes life easier — you can track your time and easily shift from one job to another as sudden urgent calls and emails arrive. At the end of the day, you’ll know exactly whom to bill for how much time.
Martin Smith
October 20th, 2009 at 8:51 pmGreat list of resources. thanks for taking the time to share these with us!
Priya
October 28th, 2009 at 10:20 amThanks for the post!
I use Simple Invoice for managing invoices.
Koby
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:37 pmEnjoyed reading the extensive list and for the effort you put into creating it. I noticed you touched on a couple of internet fax services (eFax and FaxZero). An internet fax resource that compares the various internet fax providers is http://www.faxcompare.com You may want to keep that website in mind if you’re considering a paid subscription fax service.
Social Suresh
November 25th, 2009 at 12:56 pmHyperOffice collaboration software would be another great candidate. Oldest in the business (1998) and has amongst the most comprehensive functions.
Mikogo
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 amHi Ritu,
Have you heard of Mikogo? It’s a free desktop sharing app free for both business and private use. With it, you can share your screen live over the Web with up to 10 others. It also includes such features as switch presenter, remote keyboard/mouse control, file transfer and more. If you like, please drop by our site for more info or feel free to contact me. Thanks!
Cheers,
Hsiang-Yi Cheng
Mary
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:34 amI was also a bit surprised at the exclusion of Skype, particularly as it has so many useful plug-ins. One of these is Yugma, another online meeting program, which is free for up to 20 participants.
Timothy
January 21st, 2010 at 3:05 pmNever forget the value of some good remote desktop software. These are the programs that let you log into your home computer from any computer or smartphone in the world. Perfect for grabbing a file off your computer that you may have forgotten, or never thought you would need!
Tig
January 27th, 2010 at 3:10 amThanks for the nice tools , I also like to introduce eZdia , a new freelancing site has brought in a change in freelancing never seen before. It allows employers to communicate with potential employers via a chat. A skype plugin has also been added to felicitate communication.
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