Freelancefolder

7 Reasons Why Your Business Card Gets Thrown In the Bin

Posted January 9, 2011 in Marketing

Did you know that your freelancing business cards say everything that anyone needs to know about you?

The design, messaging and feel of the business card are signals that help formulate public perception of you, your brand and/or company. After making a contact, your business card is the only tangible thing they have to remember you by. It is your identity, your chance to be remarkable and memorable for the right reasons.

Yet, the humble business card is often overlooked. Making a great first impression is the first step, but leaving a sloppy business card is like taking a date to a Michelin starred restaurant, then putting them on the night bus home. Let’s face it–an unremarkable card probably won’t result a second meeting!

As a freelancer, it’s so important to get the details right. We all collect business cards, and we all throw most of them away. So why do some cards make the cut, while others end up in the bin?

[Click Here to Read More...]

How Building a Community Can Help Your Freelancing Business

Posted December 20, 2010 in Accountability, Marketing

Do you have a community?

In this case, I’m not talking about where you live when I mention community. Rather, I’m talking about community in the sense of a closely knit group of people who form around a common interest.

If you’re a member of a community (online or otherwise), the benefits for your freelancing business could be enormous. In this post, I’ll explain why.

[Click Here to Read More...]

Making the Most Out of Unconferences

Posted December 6, 2010 in Lifestyle, Marketing

It’s my favorite time of year right now, not only are we in the middle of the holiday season, but we freelancers have another season to celebrate–unconference season!

If you’ve never heard of an unconference before, it basically entails Barcamp, Podcamp and WordCamp. Unconferences are informal get togethers where freelancers and web professional come together to network, attend informative 25-minute talks and come out with some neat swag.

Most cities offer these unconferences once a year and they’re the perfect place to get out there and meet your community. While I don’t go there expecting to get any work out of it, I find these are important events to attend–you never know when someone local will need your services. Plus, the cool swag and t-shirts are too awesome to pass up

So how can you make the most out of these unconferences and use them to your benefit?

Note–I recently attended WordCamp Louisville!

[Click Here to Read More...]

7 Tips to Help Freelancers Who Charge by the Hour

Posted December 1, 2010 in Managing Clients, Marketing

Freelance work is a numbers game. There’s only a tiny hourly cost margin between prosperity and ruin. It is a hard decision how you actually need to charge for your work. I don’t think there’s one answer to it. And neither do I think you should blindly follow anyone’s advice when it comes to how you should charge.

The best way to start is to look around and see what your competitors fellow freelancers in the same niche tend to offer–that’s what your client is likely to be used to. The next step is just trying different frequently used models. Knowing the market and knowing yourself can help you make smart choices about your hourly rate and income before you hang out your shingle.

Yes, there are many disadvantages in charging hourly, but I know from experience that in many cases you will still have to charge an hourly rate. So, in case you are trying to learn how to properly charge per hour, here are seven essential tips and tricks!

[Click Here to Read More...]

How Not to Be a Freelancing Diva

Posted November 29, 2010 in Getting Clients, Marketing

Are you too quick to turn down a potential client?

While it’s vitally important for freelancers to charge what they are worth, many freelancers move from being too timid to charge a fair rate to being too eager to dismiss a potential client because the work isn’t enjoyable enough or the pay isn’t high enough. In fact, a few freelancers are downright rude about the way that they dismiss inquiries that don’t their standards.

As you can imagine, this diva-like behavior can leave a pretty bad taste in a potential’s client’s mouth.

Of course, some clients really are tire kickers with no real interest at all in doing business with you. So, it does pay to be careful sometimes. (We’ve already provided a lot of information on how to screen clients, so this post deals with the other side of the problem–the freelancer who is just too picky for his or her own good.)

In this post, I’ll distinguish between being a careful business person and being a freelancing diva. I’ll also explain how not to be a freelancing diva when it comes to examining new client prospects.

[Click Here to Read More...]

Are You a Freelancer Or a Consultant?

Posted November 8, 2010 in Marketing

“Are you a freelancer or a consultant?”

That may seem like an odd question, especially since this blog IS called “Freelance” Folder.

In fact, many people confuse freelancers with consultants and vice versa. There is a distinction and it is an important one. It matters how you position and brand yourself.

[Click Here to Read More...]

Open Thread: Do You Already Have a Twitter Newspaper?

Posted October 31, 2010 in Marketing, Open Thread

It seems that Twitter newspapers are popping up everywhere these days.

Typically, a Twitter newspaper uses a service like Paper.li to compile tweets from a particular Twitter user’s account according to parameters defined by that user. The user can use popular Twitter features such as Twitter lists and hashtags to control what content appears in the newspaper.

[Click Here to Read More...]

Freelancers and Volunteering: Waste of Time or Valuable Marketing Strategy?

Posted October 11, 2010 in Marketing

Some freelancers swear by volunteering as a way to start getting paying clients. On the other hand, some freelancers say volunteering has been a huge waste of time, that they felt taken advantage of, and had nothing to show for it.

As with most things, volunteering can be good or bad. It depends on how you do it.

[Click Here to Read More...]

Why Freelancers Should Get Published

Posted October 5, 2010 in Marketing

At the recent International Freelancers Day virtual conference, one theme that struck me was the importance of creating and publishing content. Many of the experts discussed, in various angles, why getting published would be good for freelancers.

Anne Handley’s presentation, Content Rules, was in fact all about content and how to create it well. Day Poynter talked about writing a book and getting published. Other speakers such as Michael Martine and David Garland spoke about other forms of content that can do well for freelancers, such as blogs and web TV. Almost all the other speakers mentioned, in one way or another, the benefits of having your own content.

[Click Here to Read More...]