Freelancefolder

Should You Spy on Your Competition?

Posted August 13, 2009 in Business, Marketing 27 Rockin' Comments »

Spy movies are great for entertainment.

I love how the excitement and suspense builds up as the main characters investigate the case. Typically, the main characters monitor, or observe, the suspects in the case in order to learn everything that they can about what the suspects are doing. They often endanger their lives in numerous ways just to learn a little bit more than they did before.

Does the same strategy work for a freelancers? Should we be monitoring our competitors to learn what they are doing?

In today’s wired world, nearly everyone is connected in some way. It’s fairly easy to read a competitor’s blog or even to discover how well said blog is doing in terms of popularity using free Internet tools. Social media provides another venue through which a freelancer can learn about his or her competitors. Most freelancers are active in one or more forms of social media.

However, just because we can monitor our freelancing competitors, does that mean that we should? Is it healthy for us to spy on the competition?

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Standing Out: How to Give Your Clients Extra

Posted August 5, 2009 in Business, Marketing 14 Rockin' Comments »

You might think that you just need to land more clients in order to grow your freelancing income, but often it’s about keeping those clients as well. I’ve had clients that only wanted odd jobs and never returned, but also companies who hired me for contracts that were six months in length.

When there is so much competition out there, getting a signature or verbal agreement rarely means that your new client will be sticking around. Instead, at times, you need to do things differently to set yourself from the rest so that they naturally come back to you.

Below I’ve listed some of the best ways to stand out from the crowd and keep your clients pleasantly surprised.

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5 Tricks That Make You More Attractive to Clients

Posted July 20, 2009 in How-To, Marketing 54 Rockin' Comments »

It’s been talked about over and over again — if you want to run a successful freelance business you have to find and win good clients.

In this article, I want to focus on the ‘winning good clients’ part. Specifically, I want to share a few tips that will make you more attractive to potential clients. Assuming you have a prospect or two that you’d like to work with, these tips should help you close the deal and get the check.

Winning a new client generally isn’t as difficult as it seems. Prospects usually only have a few specific needs to be met, and if you can handle them you’ll generally be good to go. In some cases, it can take a little bit extra — and that’s where these tips can come in handy.

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What Does Professionalism Look Like?

Posted July 15, 2009 in Business, Lifestyle, Marketing 24 Rockin' Comments »

Do you know what it means to be a professional? Would you recognize professional behavior if you encountered it?

For many, the image of being a professional is tied up in appearances. They see someone in a suit (and tie for men) and assume that this person is a professional.

For others, credentials are the essence of professionalism. They see a degree or professional certification and think, “there goes a professional.”

For still others, professionalism is an impersonal, almost clinical, “business-only” approach to both conversation and life.

I would submit that each of these images of what a professional is are lacking the true essence of professionalism. Quite simply, they miss the point of what a professional really is.

In this post, I’d like to discuss what professionalism REALLY is (and is not) and suggest a few ways that you can be more professional in your interactions with customers and clients.

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Retention During The Recession: 20 Ways to Get And Keep More Clients

Posted July 7, 2009 in How-To, Marketing 26 Rockin' Comments »

The recession is a scary thing. Mentioning the word recession makes peoples’ eyes bulge and their body language switch from open and happy to reserved and timid. Is it the fact that the super big businesses across the world are closing or filing for bankruptcy? Or could it be that the smaller businesses are closing shop and leaving entire strip malls across America vacant?

Whatever the reason behind it, I am sure the recession has scared all of us at one point or another. The nervousness we get when we look at our financial records and wonder if they’re going to be dipping to an all time low. The uneasy feeling we get when all of our leads have dried up and we do not know what to do next. Or the view of the freelance world from the outside looking in — the first time freelancer who doesn’t know if they should take the jump now because times are so hard.

Before continuing with this article, you should be sure that you want to freelance during a recession. From there, the steps in this article will feel a lot easier for you. My goal is to help calm all of those fears with ten sure fire ways to get more clients and keep them. The steps are simple — and in some cases, downright easy, however most of us have either overlooked them or have been too wrapped up in other things to apply them. Now is the perfect time to change all of that!

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Negotiating With Clients 101

Posted July 6, 2009 in How-To, Marketing 29 Rockin' Comments »

After freelancing for a while, many freelancers find themselves at a crossroads — asking themselves a single important question: how can I get better projects?

It’s an important question, but fortunately it’s also a question that is fairly easy to answer. You can get better projects, better pay, and better terms through negotiation.

Unfortunately, many freelancers just don’t negotiate. It’s much easier to complain after the fact, but it’s much more productive to negotiate better terms before even getting into a bad situation. Here are some of the most common complaints:

• “I don’t really have enough time to get my project done.”
• “The project was sure a lot of work — too much work if you ask me.”
• “I wish that could have gotten paid more for that work.”

Too often, we freelancers just accept the project terms that are dictated to us by the clients without question. However, accepting projects with too short a turn around, too little pay, or too much work can lead to freelancer frustration and burnout.

Freelancers needn’t be afraid of negotiating better project terms for themselves. In this post, we’ll show you why. We’ll also give you a few pointers that might help you start winning better projects.

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How To Be Genuine and Nice in a Web 2.0 World (and Why It’s Important)

Posted June 29, 2009 in How-To, Marketing 21 Rockin' Comments »

In the past, we’ve posted here about the importance of monitoring your online reputation. That post was mainly about knowing and responding to what others are saying about you, or about your business, online.

There’s a whole other dimension, however, of online reputation management that doesn’t often get discussed.

It’s the dimension of how you, as both a professional and individual, behave online.

It may surprise you to know that some of the worst hits to your freelancing reputation occur, not as a result of what others say or do online, but actually as a result of what you say or do online.

Sadly, the reputation damage that you do to yourself can often be more severe than the reputation damage that others do to you.

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How I Used Blogging to Land $20,000+ Worth of Clients

Posted June 18, 2009 in Freelance Stories, Marketing 26 Rockin' Comments »

There are numerous ways to expand your client base and increase the size of your portfolio. Common tactics used to do this include utilizing your contacts, taking part in relevant discussion forums, being active in freelance marketplaces and even watching industry specific job boards.

One idea that is implemented by some people but certainly not by everyone, is blogging. Sharing your abilities with the world in the hope that the right person finds what you have to offer. Through my experience though, quite a few people fail to have any success when trying to use this strategy.

Today I want to share my own story, and how I made over $20,000 in 4 months when my only source of clients were through blogging. To some, $20,000 might not seem like much, I really don’t know what your own income looks like. Yet, when I tell you I did this at 17 whilst working in my bedroom, it might make blogging look a little more promising.

Whether you run a blog or are considering starting one, I hope this post gives you a fresh look on some ideas you may have missed.

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How To Make Potential Customers Pick You Over ‘The Other Guys’

Posted June 9, 2009 in Business, How-To, Marketing 30 Rockin' Comments »

Worldwide, individuals and companies are tightening their belts. They are approaching new purchases cautiously — in many cases delaying, or even avoiding, new expenses.

Consumers and business buyers alike are looking to get maximum value for their dollar. The burning question at the back of every buyer’s mind is:

Why should I buy something from you instead of from your competition?

It’s more important now than ever to differentiate your freelancing business from other freelancing businesses. Differentiating your business is the key to winning clients from competitors.

To do this, you must first discover what sets your freelancing business apart from similar businesses. Once you discover what’s unique about your freelancing business you must express that information clearly and frequently to your customers and prospective customers.

In this post we’ll try to help you with both points.

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