Freelancefolder

Are You Guilty of T.M.I.?

Posted November 4, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media

Freelancers go to great lengths to build strong relationships with clients, so it should come as no surprise that they are sometimes guilty of sharing too much information (T.M.I.) online.

While it’s important to be authentic and genuine online, it’s also possible to overshare. There are some things that clients, colleagues, and potential clients didn’t really need to know about you.

Yet, oversharing happens all the time. I’ve seen it on nearly all of the major networks, and I’m sure you have too. In fact, some social networks have recently encouraged oversharing by suggesting that you use their network to document nearly every aspect your life.

While oversharing might be okay if you limit your fans/friends/followers/circles to a small group of individuals who are well-known to you, it flies against good sense if you are using social media to interact with clients and prospective clients for your freelancing business.

In this post, I’ll identify some bits of personal information that are better left unshared. I’ll also invite you to discuss online reputation and social media.

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Multivariate Testing for Freelancers

Posted November 3, 2011 in How-To, Marketing

Many freelancers have created and are selling their own products through their websites. Whether you’re marketing a WordPress theme, an eBook, a training course, or something else–if you’ve made the transition from selling freelancing services to marketing some products along with your freelancing services, then it is worthwhile to learn some internet marketing techniques and tools.

In this post, I’ll discuss one of those marketing tools. That tool is multivariate testing.

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Don’t Hate Me Because I’m a Freelancer

Posted October 23, 2011 in Managing Clients, Marketing

The freelancing lifestyle, while flexible, involves a lot of hard work.

But despite all that hard work freelancers get a bad rap sometimes.

So much so, that some freelancers have actually stopped using the word “freelance” to describe themselves because they believe that it has negative connotations. Instead they use terms like consultant, independent professional, and creative entrepreneur.

In this post, I’ll take a look at five common misperceptions about freelancers, explain why they are wrong, and take a look at the reasons why the misperceptions persist.

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10 Ways to Win Back a Former Client

Posted October 18, 2011 in Marketing

You may have heard this before: The fastest and easiest way to get work is with your former clients.

Makes sense. Assuming you’ve done your work well, your former clients already know and trust you. They no longer need to be convinced that you’re a good freelancer.

Unfortunately, clients don’t always come back to us with more projects. It happens for many reasons, but not all of them are beyond our control. Sometimes you just need to give them a little nudge.

Below, I’ve identified some of the reasons former clients don’t become repeat clients. I’ve also given ideas for how you can woo their hearts back. And none of them require going down on your knees.

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5 Elements All Effective Freelancing Social Media Profiles Must Have

Posted October 14, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media

Social media can be a great networking tool. Used properly, you can meet both prospective clients and colleagues on social media. You can also use it to communicate with family and friends.

Sadly, however, too many freelancers are not taking full advantage the social media tools that they have available to them. Yet, they wonder why they aren’t benefiting from their social media participation. You’ve probably heard their complaints:

• “Social media is a total waste of time.”
• “I’ve never gotten a client through social media.”
• “My clients don’t use social media.”

In this post, I’ll help freelancers optimize their social media participation by identifying the five elements that all freelancers should have in their social media profiles. Having an optimized profile should address many of the complaints that freelancers have about social media. I’ll also identify some characteristics of spam social media accounts so that you can see the difference.

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Money Here, Money There, Money Everywhere

Posted October 13, 2011 in Getting Clients, Marketing

For the first time, it’s almost as if there’s *too much* opportunity for freelancers.

There are lots of ways that you can make money locally, and there are even more ways to make money by connecting with people through the internet.

But while some freelancers are getting rich, others are struck by analysis paralysis, and don’t know where they should begin.

Let’s clear that up–starting by exploring where the opportunities for making money really are…

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Open Thread: Where Do You Find Your Freelancing Work?

Posted October 2, 2011 in Marketing, Open Thread

There are many ways for freelancers to get work. We’ve covered a lot of those methods on Freelance Folder including: direct mail, cold calling, social media, job boards, bidding sites, and more. Some freelancers even post advertisements.

Freelancers can, and do, find clients in all of those ways. We asked this question over two years ago (and we got some great responses), but as you probably would agree, the economy has changed in two years.

So, for today, we’d like to know:

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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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How Freelancers Can Brand Themselves Using Twitter Trends

Posted August 18, 2011 in How-To, Marketing

Trending on Twitter was a difficult undertaking just a few years ago. If you were a major celebrity who a lot of people liked, you would have a shot. If you were famous and said something really stupid, you had a fighting chance. If you were at any point a well known name and you suddenly croaked, you have an 80% probability of trending high on the social networking site.

With this in mind, it is no shock that businesses and especially freelancers have found it an almost insurmountable task that for many have been unwilling to even contemplate. Why set out to become a trending topic if there is such a tiny chance that they will manage to succeed? Especially now that the site is growing and there is more competition.

There is also a further problem now. A short while ago, Twitter began to tweak and change their algorithm that monitors trends. It is no longer enough to be a popular name, because it doesn’t register topics that are consistently being mentioned. Instead, it gives preference to sudden surges in specific events, because they are considered novelty posts. For example, Amy Winehouse’s sudden death became a huge Twitter trend as all at once people began tweeting links, condolences and speculations about the cause.

You might be wondering how there could be an upside to all of this. If it is so impossible to become a trend on Twitter, why go for it at all as a freelancer? That, my friend, is where things get interesting. Because finding public data and exploiting hashtags can really help you to brand yourself through trending topics on Twitter.

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