Branding is one of those super important, long term tasks that every freelancer needs to pay attention to. How you present yourself and how you are perceived can make a lot of difference to both how much work you get and how you charge for that work.

Thanks to former FreelanceSwitch editor Skellie, you can now get a free 20 page eBook on Personal Branding at our new Rockable Press website simply by signing up to the Rockin’ Mailing List. As well as the MiniBook which you’ll receive immediately, we’ll send occasional updates and discounts on new Rockable books.

The new site is a home for our almost 1 year old FreelanceSwitch book - How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer - as well as the Freelance Statistics Report and a couple of upcoming Rockable titles - WordPress Designer and Blogger. Click to Continue »

Freelancers are always on the lookout for the best way to do their billing, and you will often see the question come up on the FreelanceSwitch forum, “What is the best billing/invoicing software?”

For this reason FreelanceSwitch sent me out to review the software Bill4Time.

Bill4Time is a web-based time billing and project management tool. According to the website it is ‘designed to handle time and expense tracking & billing, project management, document filing, and scheduling for firms who bill for their time.’ But how does it stack up to the needs of the average freelancer?

Click to Continue »

Back in 2005, long before we started Envato and FreelanceSwitch, I came across a site called iStockPhoto and discovered I could sell illustrations there. Now I’m not much of an illustrator, but I do like experimenting with making money. So I set about creating some little icons and graphics - mostly leftovers from my design work.

I got rejected a lot (probably because my illustration work is so clumsy) but being persistent, I just kept making one or two things every day. Eventually I made about 60 items which are still there today.

In these three years I’ve made a consistent $200 or so every month. Today I checked the account to see how much had come in and I’ve just crossed $6000. And I haven’t actually done anything since way back in 2006 when I uploaded my last item. In fact the only thing I’ve done is to turn off the exclusivity program when we started FlashDen - otherwise that figure would be much higher by now. Click to Continue »

In the last few years we’ve seen an explosion in new awesome tools for freelancers including project management apps, invoicing apps, time management apps and to-do lists. One type of app that I think is particularly awesome is the collaboration app. These services allow you to upload images, documents and in some cases videos and flash, and then you, your client and anyone else working on the project can discuss and annotate the work.

When it comes to sharing concepts, particularly for freelancers working over the web, this is literally a revolution in feedback. There are 9 apps listed below, half are extremely feature packed with a few slimmer (cheaper) options and one coming soon app.

Backboard
getbackboard.com

Get feedback on documents (Word, Excel), Powerpoint, images (including Photoshop PSD files), webpages and free-form text. Backboard also features multiple versions of a project, email integration - just send an email with the file for review attached, desktop upload and SSL encryption.

Plans ranging from Free for one non-commercial account (unlimited "backboards") to $49 p/month

Click to Continue »

It’s hard to believe that in 1993, Adobe first released Adobe Acrobat for the Mac. Within a few short years, this new “.pdf” format became the standard. Although there were many who provided free and always interesting ways to create Portable Document Format files, Adobe continued to improve the technology, adding capabilities along the way that still had businesses and freelancers alike purchasing the original application. And now, in 2008, Adobe has released Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. Quite different than it’s humble origin, we’ve taken a close look at the new features and present our thoughts and findings for you.

Flash of Brilliance
While the feature list is extensive (check here for the full matrix), the one feature that really catches the eye is the new native Flash support. Now you can insert .flv or H.264 video for playback. Not just as attached files either. Part of the new portfolio feature includes the ability to use Flash as the welcome header. Personally, I can’t wait to see how this changes .pdf documents in the future (in both good and bad ways).

Thankfully, all the new functionality hasn’t caused a speed degradation. In fact, Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 is faster than ever. Click to Continue »

Photo by stop.down.

Having the ability to work from home rather than in a traditional office setting was probably one of the major attractions to freelancing for most of us. However, working solo from home can be a real challenge due to the lack of personal interaction. Although the peace and quiet of working alone is a great benefit, there are times when most of us would prefer to be around more people. If this is ever the case with you, here are ten things you can do to get more interaction as a freelancer.

Click to Continue »

Photo by annia316.

Whether you’re a part-time graphic designer or full-time web content writer, a freewheeling blog consultant or an outside-the-box marketing genius, you jumped into freelancing for one simple reason - and it wasn’t simply “the money.” There’s no doubt money was a motivator, but what you were really after was freedom. Freedom from a day job, freedom from financial stress, freedom to work wherever and whenever you want to … but are you really on the path to enjoy that freedom, or are you just fooling yourself?

Freelancing Should Be A Springboard, Not a Treadmill

Click to Continue »

As freelancers we are often in our element working as hired guns. Being the single point of contact from pitch to project-end certainly has its advantages. There are occasions though, that need may arise to put together a collaborative group of designers and developers - a freelance posse if you will.

For those who have suddenly found themselves in the position of Project Coordinator, it can feel a lot like being pushed into the deep end of the pool. Without an effective collaboration structure in place, you will soon be drowning in emails and out-of-control task lists.

Fortunately, there are currently several programs and software available for working collaboratively, each with their different strengths and weaknesses. FreelanceSwitch requested that I review one of these choices - activeCollab from a51 development.

Click to Continue »

Photo by woodleywonderworks .

Ever since my wife and I started our custom software development business, we’ve been making use of remote collaboration facilities such as VNC and Webex in order to give demonstrations to clients without having to visit their site, or have them come to us, as I described in my blog entry on Demonstrating Software on the Web. This has worked well: the majority of our clients are over 100 miles away, so visits in either direction are quite a lot of hassle. We still do make site visits or have clients come to us where desired or necessary, but the use of remote collaboration tools has certainly cut down on the level of travel we
would otherwise have had to do.

The various remote collaboration tools have various levels of cost and functionality. For example, we usually use TightVNC for demonstrations, as it is completely free to use, and just requires that the client has a web browser with Java support in order to use it. However, it does require that you know your IP address, and may require modification to your firewall to ensure that the incoming request is passed on to the VNC server.

Click to Continue »

Photo by creo que soy yo.

As you probably know freelance workers do much more tasks than just designing, writing or whatever it is you do to pay your bills.

So why spend time and energy sharing your knowledge?

These days altruism is not very common. We’re so stressed with our work that there’s little free time left, and we want to spend it on anything else.

But moreover, sharing what you know is risky. Someone could steal your ideas or your techniques. It’s even a little unfair! Why share what you learned by yourself, with so much effort and without help from anyone else? And what do you get in exchange? Isn’t it a risk for your business? Is it worth the effort?

Click to Continue »

Photo by Paul Worthington.

Most freelancers—I’d say at least 80%—work in a creative field. And most freelancers—I’d say at least 100% (even those whose jobs aren’t really “creative”)—eventually run into some kind of creative block, whether it comes from burnout, or just getting bored of doing the same kind of work day after day.

Usually, this doesn’t mean that the designer or writer in question is no longer capable of doing their job: it just means they are having a damn near impossible time coming up with new, exciting ideas to feed their clients with.

If these blocks meant the inability to turn an idea into a product, most freelancers would be out of business once a year (or so, or less). But fortunately, that’s usually not the case, and so big disasters can be prevented with a little foresight and a little discipline.

Click to Continue »