Creative careers work in magical ways. Take Ed Gandia, for example. The Georgia resident was working in sales and always wound up working for companies with small or no marketing budget. He never thought that he could be the one creating the marketing collateral.

Then he fell into copywriting, and the rest is history. Now Ed, 36, runs his own copywriting business along with www.TheProfitableFreelancer.com to inspire other copywriters to make good money doing what they love.

Ed leveraged his strong background in sales to enhance his career as a copywriter. Prior to launching his copywriting and consulting business, he was a senior account executive with Constructware, an on-demand construction software company. During his five-year tenure there, he created and implemented a marketing and sales program that helped revive a software product and boost its sales by more than 500 percent.
Now Ed’s a copywriter and consultant specializing in technology—and he’s earning big bucks doing it. All the same, Ed has got a passion to help other creatives earn great money, and I wanted to find out how he’s doing it. Continue Reading

Photo by Jurvetson.

Please note: if you like this article, stay tuned: Kristen Fischer will be interviewing Ed tomorrow! — Skellie

I remember it like it was yesterday.

We were new parents and our newborn baby boy had a severe case of reflux. He was constantly crying and was waking up 6 to 8 times every night.

My wife had very little time for herself. She was exhausted. I was working long hours but did everything I could to help in the evenings and on weekends.

Around that time, my wife called one of her good friends to vent her frustrations.

She told her about how tired she was—and how she didn’t even have time to clean the house. She was on the verge of tears.

Then my wife’s friend said something I’ll never forget: “Why don’t you just hire a house cleaner? You’ll have one less thing to worry about.”

It was such a simple idea. But (I hate to admit this) we’d never thought of it! Continue Reading

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Why search through hundreds of articles to find the best when the friendly staff at Freelance Switch can do it for you? Admit it — that’s a very good (rhetorical) question. Unlike most rhetorical questions, this one has an answer:

Our favorite son, Steven Snell, has put together a list of 50 designers you can follow on Twitter. Start networking! (Segue way into discussion question: when does networking become stalking?)

I know many of our readers are designers, and some (many) of you are also bloggers. Up-and-comer Vinh Le wrote a great piece titled 5 Ways to Make Your Blog Design Unforgettable. These are great tips even for the non-bloggers.

How much would you be willing to pay for a logo design? Jacob wrote Why logo design does not cost $5! Great post with good examples. As a freelancer, you can start to have a bit of fun with this, for example: when a client asks if you’d write an article for $5, ask them if 30 words would be an OK length for the price. If you don’t want to say it, think it. Internal acts of rebellion are surprisingly satisfying. Continue Reading

Photo by Yves Lorson.

One of the best ways to increase your income as a freelance writer is not to market for more work (ie, new clients), but to get it from existing clients. This is an often overlooked marketing method and missing it is like throwing money out the window.

Employing the 80/20 Marketing Rule

There’s a time-honored, marketing rule of thumb that says 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your clients. Most of us spend 80% of our time chasing after new clients. Switching that algorithm, for example, spending 80% of your time massaging your existing client base, would be a much better use of time.

Following is a 3-step plan designed to get more work from your existing client base. Continue Reading

It’s that time of the year at the moment and over here at Eden HQ we’re launching sites by the bucketload. This time last year it was FreelanceSwitch, FaveUp and PSDTUTS. In 2008, we’ve got a much bigger stack of launches ahead!

Today though, we’ve launched probably one of our biggest sites in the form of AudioJungle which is a site where anyone can buy and sell music loops and sound effects. Over the coming months we’re going to be building this into a powerhouse audio community, to match our main FlashDen site.

Continue Reading

Photo by Vu Bui.

Performance anxiety is a part of life. We all have it. It drives us to work harder and improve at what we do, but too much of it can also kill your creativity, drain your energy and severely impact productivity.

Freelancing comes with its fair share of anxiety provoking conditions. The solo aspect of it alone can be scary, not to mention the variability in income, and if you’re new at it, the inevitable learning curve when it comes to business skills.

A healthy level of performance anxiety that gets your heart pumping and sharpens your attentiveness can be an asset if you know how to make the most of it. But how do you regain control when anxiety starts to run the show? Continue Reading

The fifteenth episode of Freelance Radio, the official FreelanceSwitch podcast, is now available! This episode, we talk about a number of topics, including elevator pitches and portfolios for not-so-public work. We also offer some suggestions to Andy (copywriter and editor, site up at Szul Edits Inc.) regarding marketing. Subscriptions to the podcast are available via iTunes and an archive of all podcasts will appear in the podcast section. We hope you enjoy it!
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Photo by Please! Don't smile.

Dear Aunty,

We’re halfway through a project and I think the Art Director is going to kill the Technical lead. We can’t get through a day without constant sniping, terse words or snippy emails cced to the whole office.

Yesterday, the technical lead poured his slush puppy over the art director’s head and unplugged his laptop in the middle of a presentation causing the art director to cuss wildly about the cost of his suit and the state of his hair. It didn’t help that the client was sitting in the meeting room watching the presentation at the time.

Is there any advice for this? I’m the PM by the way. Continue Reading

Artwork by Freeparking.

Maintaining enthusiasm, productivity levels, a sense of humor and general sanity can sometimes be a challenge for career freelancers!

Here are ten lessons that every successful freelancer has learned: lessons that will help keep you on the right track in the world of going it alone.

Have you learned these lessons yet?

If you haven’t, start today! Continue Reading

As more and more people turn to environmentally friendly solutions for their lives, more self-employed people are making this a focus for their businesses.

At just 25 years old, Angela Ferraro-Fanning has done just that with her graphic design business, 13thirtyone Design. As the Principal of the enterprise, this Hudson, Wisconsin, resident not only makes environmentally savvy choices for herself such as cutting out a commute by working at home, but she helps her clients find earth-friendly ways to do business.

If you’re looking to put a little green in your business, read on to learn how this innovative creative has succeeded in doing just that. Continue Reading

Photo by srboisvert.

So, you’ve got a good idea; a creative solution for a brief. Or you’ve just won a pitch. Fabulous. Now you’ve got to build the thing. If you can do that with the effortless lubrication of motivation from start to finish you’re lucky (and a bit unusual). If, like most of us, you find there are parts of the process where drive is a struggle, read on …

Take a look at these five key motivations for the creative process and work out where the force is strong with you. Tailoring your work to suit your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses can mean jobs become rewarding activities rather than laborious headaches.

Most people are strongly motivated by only one or two of the following. It might help to imagine recent projects from your own work. Think of examples where you were involved in the job from start to finish and see if you can spot any patterns. Continue Reading