Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers from across the web. We present these articles here on various helpful topics. This week we have articles on powerful guest post tactics, agile methods, and how to charge more.

Tackling Freelance Projects Like a Software Developer

The trend is fueled by an approach to software development called “Agile”, which calls for compressing development projects into short pieces. It also includes daily stand-up meetings where everyone can update everyone else with what they are currently working on and any obstacles that stand in their way. I think it’s brilliant! I immediately started wondering how I could incorporate this way of thinking into my freelance life. I took a look at the Agile Manifesto and sought to translate it into something freelancers could use.

6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About

Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing.
His “blitzkrieg” strategy may come across to some as a triumph of quantity over strategy, but nothing could be further from the truth. He understands the key concepts that we will be exploring in this post, and executes them in a highly effective manner

6 Reasons You Need to Charge More

I’m a reluctant Capitalist. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money (my dad was a country preacher, and my mom was a schoolteacher), and the transition from academia to building a start-up and then running my own consulting firm has been rocky at times. The one thing I still hear almost every week is “You need to charge more,” and I preach the same message to new SEOs even as I try to remember it. This post is a reminder to myself (and to you) of why what you charge matters, and why it’s not just about greed.

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View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Ditching Basecamp for Project Management With Google Doc by Freelance Jam. In this video the Freelance Jam duo cover project management workflows as they relate to client projects and thier own projects. Brian has decided to move most of his project management process over to Google Docs, while Dave is holding strong on the super simple Basecamp app. Find out how and why we each are using the systems that they are. Continue Reading

Like many other freelancers, I have a hard time selling myself. It’s something I know I have to work on this year. But as a freelancer, we don’t have someone else out there selling our services for us. It’s up to us to land our own jobs.

I recently read an interesting article on tailoring your sales technique based on who you are selling your services to.

…Tailor your sales technique based on the primary reason your customer wants to buy. “We have our preferred selling style and it’s one we have built up with layers over time,” says Jeff Tanner, professor of sales and marketing at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. “I don’t always see entrepreneurs trying to understand the need from the buyer’s perspective.” —Entrepreneur.com

I don’t shop for a new car the same way I shop for a new sweater, so this advice hit home for me. Here are some tips from the article that I thought were very helpful.

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We talk a lot about marketing and securing clients here on FreelanceSwitch, but there’s another aspect to freelance life that comes as your business starts to flourish–being overwhelmed!

It’s hard to deal with, actually, because you spend so much time learning how to launch your business and probably less on learning how to cope with it when it’s running like a fine-tuned engine. Just because a business is successful doesn’t mean it can’t be stressful!

Here are a few tips on how to deal with business when the phones literally won’t stop ringing–and you need to buckle down and get to work! Continue Reading

Have you heard about the trend of standing room only meetings? Instead of having a team sit around a conference table, they’re made to stand up for short meetings instead.

The trend is becoming prevalent in tech companies, and is meant to eliminate long, boring meetings where no one pays attention. Some companies have even instituted a penalty for being late to a meeting—either through sheer humiliation or a small fee.

If someone is rambling on for too long, an employee may hold up a rubber rat indicating it is time to move on. Companies make exceptions to their no-sitting rules if a worker is sick, injured or pregnant—but usually not for workers outside the office telecommuting on Skype. —wsj.com

The trend is fueled by an approach to software development called “Agile”, which calls for compressing development projects into short pieces. It also includes daily stand-up meetings where everyone can update everyone else with what they are currently working on and any obstacles that stand in their way.

I think it’s brilliant! I immediately started wondering how I could incorporate this way of thinking into my freelance life. I took a look at the Agile Manifesto and sought to translate it into something freelancers could use. Here’s my attempt: Continue Reading

As many freelancers eventually realize, going into business for yourself means you actually take on two separate (very different) full time businesses. How’s that for a surprise when you originally thought that you could blissfully code away and somehow the money would start rolling in? Continue Reading

Working in the creative field means you are an open target for criticism. Someone doesn’t like your photography work, they think you’re a bad writer, or your prices are unfair. And as freelancers, it can be hard not to take criticism—no matter how well meaning—personally.

I read this blog post on Forbes.com on how to deal with really tough criticism, written for people who are business leaders. While I’m not necessarily the target audience for this article, I did take away some good lessons that I’d like to share for the freelance set.

The first thing we need to consider is that criticism in inevitable. But if we keep our defenses up and get overly emotional about what our critics say, we aren’t doing ourselves any favors.

Here’s a recent example from my own life. I am the editor of a yearly wedding magazine. We took a big risk this year and changed the paper stock for our cover. Instead of a glossy cover, we went with matte. Some of us in the office loved it and some of us didn’t—so we took the opportunity to ask our advertisers, featured photographers, and other industry leaders what they thought.

It turns out, many other people didn’t like the matte cover, either, and they let us know on many different levels—from plugging their noses to smiling and offering heart felt advise. And while we were totally bummed that we took a risk that didn’t garner the results we wanted, we learned a lesson. We want to give people what they want—so next year, we’re going back to our glossy cover. Had we not asked, we may have decided otherwise.

Here are some tips from the article that I thought were useful. Continue Reading

Valentine’s Day is probably not a holiday that brings your fellow freelancers to mind.

You may have made a point to recognize your clients during the December holiday season, so why not make February the time to applaud your fellow independents?

Spreading good karma always pays off in some manner, whether it be a new contact, lead, or networking opportunity. Here are some ways to get started. Continue Reading

A new study from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science called “Who Gives a Tweet: Evaluating Microblogging Content Value” has unveiled what we like to read, and what we don’t like to read, on Twitter. I have to say, the results aren’t all that surprising.

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Georgia Tech launched a site asking for anonymous feedback from people like you and me in exchange for rating their tweets. Users had to sign in to their website and rate 10 tweets before getting any feedback on their own tweets.

Luckily for these researchers, their project went viral. Sites like Mashable, TechCrunch, and CNN wrote about their study. The analysis of the study was taken from data received between December 30, 2010 and January 17, 2011. They had over 43,000 responses to work with. Here’s what they found: Continue Reading

It takes a lot of work to get a new client. Unless you have a regular stream of referrals coming your way, you may need to do all the legwork yourself by approaching potential clients, contacting them, and testing if they’d be interested in your services. This often requires a lot of research and preparation.

Still, you’re not sure any of these prospects will convert into paying clients – even if you know you did everything right. This is why, during a work famine, it may be easier to get hired again by people who already paid you before: your former and existing clients. Let’s take a look at ways to get started with earning more from current clients.

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Reporters at The Washington Post are now actively engaging their readers by posting comments in streams on the paper’s news stories online, something they’ve never done in the past. The paper switched to a new website platform called Echo, which has helped them grow their online community. Reader comments at the paper have shot up 142% since March, 2011.

This is new territory for many journalists. Never before have they been urged to take part in the conversations the public is having online about their stories. This type of involvement helps reporters fend off rumors, speculation, and flame wars, according to this article published on the Nieman Journalism Lab website. It also allows reporters to share more information, as well as prove that they, too, are real people.

For freelancers, this new trend at one of America’s largest newspapers just goes to show how important it is to engage with your community.

Show You Care

I try to comment on the blog posts I write for FreelanceSwitch—especially the posts that have gotten a lot of action from the readers. I really do appreciate the time people take to share their thoughts and opinions on my blog posts. Comments help me gauge a posts’ success and help me decide what to write about in the future. The best way for me to show the readers that I am paying attention, is to tell them so. Continue Reading

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? Continue Reading