I’ve decided to update my website with a new design to boost its functionality (it’s a relatively small website dedicated to outdoor ads). I’d like to make it more colorful, reduce textual content, and add more visual content. Even though I can’t spend a fortune on images, I don’t want to use low-quality graphics as it can scare away prospective clients. While searching for a good deal, I stumbled upon depositphotos.com that offers free images. Depositphotos is  a relatively  small and new image library in  in comparison to microstock giants, but it is rapidly gaining momentum. It offers a free trial subscription that allows bloggers and site owners to download up to five images a day. In turn, you just need to do reviews and use links. The amount of free images depends on the number of your site visitors and its alexa.com rating. In addition, they are always ready to organize a mutual contest and give away free subscriptions.

I contacted them (you can send them an email to promotion@depositphotos.com), sent them a link to my site and received my free subscription in a couple of days. So, I’m currently downloading my free images and thinking about further cooperation with them. Being a new player in the microstock business, Depositphotos’ offers make it a good competitor to Istock, Fotolia, and others.

The will be designing his/her own business cards to his/her own liking. He/she can use UPrinting’s easy-to use online design tool or upload  his/her own design and get it printed. Cool, right? Below are the rest of the details of this great giveaway!

Giveaway Details

Sizes to choose from :

2 x 3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×2″ Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×3.5″ Leaf, 2×3.5

Rounded one corner, 2×3.5″ Half Circle Side, 2×3.5″ Oval, 2.5″ Circle

Paper to choose from :

14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated,

6 Business Days Turnaround

Free shipping

About UPrinting

UPrinting is a leading socially responsible online printing company. They serve thousands of on-demand printing using high-quality press printing and a robust yet simple and easy-to-use online ordering system. They offer a wide variety of products from business cards, brochures, envelopes, greeting cards, posters, canvas prints and many more. UPrinting is specifically proud of their high-quality and eco-friendly prints. They recycled paper types and vegetable/soy-based inks with lower levels of VOCs than traditional petroleum-based inks to reduce harmful carbon emissions.

How to Join

To win the business cards, here are the easy steps that you should do:

1. (Required) Leave a comment on this blog post saying how the business cards would be of help to you.
2. (Optional) Like UPrinting on Facebook and leave another comment once you did
3. (Optional) Follow UPrinting on Twitter and leave another comment once you did

That’s all! You have a total of 3 chances in grabbing this special prize. Giveaway ends April 30, 2012. Winner will be chosen randomly.  This giveaway is limited for 18 years old above.

Before us was Jon Phillips (the original founder of FreelanceFolder) and now, I’m excited and a bit nostalgic to say, we are handing off the torch yet again to a new owner. The actual transfer happened a bit before January, and I think the new owner is primed and ready to bring some new energy to this site.

It’s a bit sad to be leaving such a thriving community, but I think it is for the best. In the past five years we’ve written and published The Unlimited Freelancer, designed and coded The Client Machine, and spent thousands of hours creating a site where independent workers everywhere can hang out. After all of this, frankly, we’ve become a bit burnt out. It is my hope that our new owner will be able to take things from here and propel FreelanceFolder into 2012 with tremendous success.

As for me, I will be moving to work full-time on our other site MediaLoot.com. If you’re into design, you know I’d be ecstatic to see you on this new site, but it is no FreelanceFolder replacement — and you can bet I’ll still be around here in some format or another.

So. Enjoy the site, keep commenting and submitting articles, and continue to make this the best freelance community on the web. It’s been a great five years, and I want to thank all of you for being a part of our lives.

We will miss you,

– Mason and Natalie

See details and grab 100 downloads for $50 here: MediaLoot One-Day Mega-Sale →

Learn about The Client Machine

Those of us on the Freelance Folder team who are located in the U.S. are taking today off. We’ll be watching the parades, following some football games, and getting together to spend some quality time with our friends and families. We even hope to get a slice of yummy pumpkin pie. :)

If today is a holiday for you too, then Happy Thanksgiving to you. If you are working today, have a wonderful day as well!

Tomorrow, we’ll be back with our usual posting schedule. In the meantime, we’ll share our favorite Freelance Folder post about saying thank-you–Two Special Words That Will Make Your Clients See You Differently.

Image by SanFranAnnie

Don’t forget to look into the products offered by the great companies who support the Freelance Folder blog. It’s the support of these advertisers that allows us to provide you with great information year-round. We definitely recommend looking into these products and services.

Thank-You to Our Advertisers

activeCollab lets you work with a team, clients, or contractors in an easy to use environment with full control of your data. It lets you plan and track projects while controlling your data. activeCollab is a great project management tool that allows you to work effectively with your entire team. activeCollab also has a thriving forum community.

FreshBooks is designed to deliver fast and simple invoicing and time tracking services. It keeps your data safe, secure, and accessible to you using the latest security measures such as SSL encryption, firewalls, vulnerability testing, and more. Plus, everyone gets the latest upgrades so that your FreshBooks is always current.

Sprout Social is a great tool that helps you to stay engaged with your customers. It allows you to organize all of your social networks from a single place. You can even use Sprout Social to measure your success, monitor your brand, and optimize your social outreach. It intergrates with popular networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

P2H.com will convert your graphic web design in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and its extensions, and skins/themes/templates for various engines. A leader in their industry, they have over 50,000 clients to date. P2H.com accepts files in all common formats, including PSD, PNG, AI, and even HTML (existing markup). Be sure to check out their pricing packages.

Ronin helps you to track your time, invoice your clients, and create estimates. It can handle multiple currencies, recurring invoices, and more. You can use Ronin as a solo professional, or for a team. Gain more control over your cash flow through better invoicing with this powerful, but easy to use tool. Ronin is designed to make you look professional.

Shoeboxed helps freelancers and other creative professionals get organized with minimal effort. All a freelancer needs to do is submit their business documents (such as receipts and business cards) to Shoeboxed. Shoeboxed then organizes the data and makes it available for download and export into the appropriate tools and reports. Organize your expenses, bookeeping transactions, or professional contacts while eliminating paper clutter.

WebsiteTool>>Tester provides the tools you need to build a website without learning how to program. WebsiteTool>>Tester offewrs user-friendly content management systems (CMS) so that you can easily create your own unique full-service website. The website builder runs within the browser, so you can save a lot of time. WebsiteTool>>Tester can help you find the right websight builder for your needs.

Zoho CRM helps you strengthen your customer relationships. Zoho provides tools to help you manage your sales, marketing, and customer support activities. You can easily track leads, prospects, and business opportunities. Zoho includes analytic tools and your reports can be customized to meet your unique needs. You can also manage your inventory The Mobile Edition works with your iPhone to give you instant access to your data.

SimplyCast is a great email marketing tool that lets you do email marketing with a list of subscribers who have opted in to receive your email messages. You can divide lists into specific segments or set up custom fields and mail merges. It’s easy to track your return on investment with real time reporting. Choose between a wide variety of pricing plans to find the one that’s right for you and your freelancing business.

Facebook Champions is a company that can help you build your Facebook presence. An increase in Facebook fans can have many benefits including: increased traffic and sales, an increase of business value, and greater business credibility. Facebook Champions will help you build a dedicated fanbase and save you a lot of time and money doing it. They also offer a Money Back Guarantee. This is a limited time offer.

3to30.com is a micro marketplace that lets you find or sell services. Providers state what they are welling to provide and how much they will charge for it. All services are priced between $3 and $30 dollars. This is an international marketplace and can be a great resource for freelancers and for those who hire freelancers. It’s free to join and payments are held in escrow until the work is completed.

Fall is a great time to explore the offerings from the excellent companies supporting the Freelance Folder blog. It’s the support of these advertisers that allows us to provide you with great information year-round. We definitely recommend checking them out.

Thank-You to Our Advertisers

Ghostwriting Cash is a course that teaches you how to make money online. If you can write at the eighth grade level, this course can teach you how to write and sell content to marketers and others. This is not your normal make money online program. This course will give you what you need to make money writing. Learn how to create real value and exchange that value for money.

Depositphotos.com provides royalty-free photos or vector images. Buy or sell stock photos easily. The libraries are updated daily. Search the images by category, keyword, popularity, or by how new the download is. Right now you can get a free trial subscription today that allows you to download five free stock images every day for seven days.

SimplyCast is a great email marketing tool that lets you do email marketing with a list of subscribers who have opted in to receive your email messages. You can divide lists into specific segments or set up custom fields and mail merges. It’s easy to track your return on investment with real time reporting. Choose between a wide variety of pricing plans to find the one that’s right for you and your freelancing business.

activeCollab lets you work with a team, clients, or contractors in an easy to use environment with full control of your data. It lets you plan and track projects while controlling your data. activeCollab is a great project management tool that allows you to work effectively with your entire team. activeCollab also has a thriving forum community.

FreshBooks is designed to deliver fast and simple invoicing and time tracking services. It keeps your data safe, secure, and accessible to you using the latest security measures such as SSL encryption, firewalls, vulnerability testing, and more. Plus, everyone gets the latest upgrades so that your FreshBooks is always current.

Sprout Social is a great tool that helps you to stay engaged with your customers. It allows you to organize all of your social networks from a single place. You can even use Sprout Social to measure your success, monitor your brand, and optimize your social outreach. It intergrates with popular networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

Bigstock provides an inexpensive source for your stock photo needs with over 8 million files and vectors available. You can pay as you go, or purchase one of several credit packages. The more you buy, the more you can save. Bigstock images are provided under a royalty-free license. So, if you use images in your freelancing business, check out Bigstock today.

P2H.com will convert your graphic web design in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and its extensions, and skins/themes/templates for various engines. A leader in their industry, they have over 50,000 clients to date. P2H.com accepts files in all common formats, including PSD, PNG, AI, and even HTML (existing markup). Be sure to check out their pricing packages.

CodeMyConcept is a fast-growing company that can meet your PSD to HTML and CMS platform implementation needs. They take your designs and turn them into beautiful hand-coded and W3C standard compliant websites. They work hard to produce high quailty, quickly. All markup is compatible with Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Google Chrome.

Ronin helps you to track your time, invoice your clients, and create estimates. It can handle multiple currencies, recurring invoices, and more. You can use Ronin as a solo professional, or for a team. Gain more control over your cash flow through better invoicing with this powerful, but easy to use tool. Ronin is designed to make you look professional.

Donanza lets you create your own personalized freelance page so that you can impress potential clients. It features a search engine that allows you to find jobs that match your skills, interests, and desired pay from within the site or all over the web. If you own a website, you can integrate a Donanza job board with your site.

Preview and Download the Parallax Theme →

At Freelance Folder, we hope that you’re getting a chance to relax and get some rest today.

If you can, put away your work. It’s time to take a break and have some fun today instead. You work hard all year long, but today it’s time to rest.

Here at Freelance Folder many of us are also going to take this day off to relax and spend some time with our friends and families. We’ll be back with our regular schedule tomorrow. :)