Photo by SantaRosa OLD SKOOL.

“Drat!” echoes in your mind. You’ve found superb sources for what you’re writing, chock-
full of information you would absolutely love to use. How do you paraphrase the
information?

First, why should you paraphrase? If you use someone’s information and its wording as if
it is your own, it is plagiarism. If you use someone else’s unique information and do not
credit it, it is plagiarism. Plagiarism is illegal. It also tends to have nasty side effects on your
reputation, be it for work or school.

Continue Reading

Photo by riot jane.

The new year is always a good time to reflect upon your business practices of the previous year. Did you perform as well as you’d hoped as a freelancer? Or did you get rejected more often than you were expecting?

When you’re turned down for a freelance gig, how does it make you feel? It stings, right? Even when you have a few years of experience. It’s tough enough being a lonely freelancer, tougher still being rejected for a gig you were hoping for – or worse, counting on.

Continue Reading

Photo by cpt. spock.

Freelancing on the side while keeping a full time job can be a good way to test the waters and save money before plunging in full time. In fact, I freelanced part time for three years while building up the confidence and the clips to succeed as a full time freelance writer.

Though it’s often the sensible thing to do financially, it’s certainly not the easiest. Any part time writer, designer, coder, or other freelancer will tell you that it requires careful discipline and superior time management skills.

Here are several tips on tackling freelance projects while keeping a full time job.

Continue Reading

While everyone is finishing up their present wrapping and placing the milk and cookies out for Santa, I thought I would take this moment to wish a very merry holidays to the FSw readers. We are very blessed to have such an active, friendly and smart community behind this site. Thanks for all that you do!

Now don’t eat too many holiday cookies…

Glen

If you’ve ever wanted to see your writing on Freelance Switch, read the guidelines and send us your brilliant article pitch or a completed article for consideration. To get started, visit this page.

Keep in mind that when we open the contribute form we get a lot of submissions, so bear with Glen as he sorts through them. It may take a little while but we’ll get back to everyone eventually.

Good luck!

For Leo Babauta, the success of his blog, Zen Habits, has now expanded big time—into a book. The 35-year-old Guam resident opens up to us about growing ideas organically and, of course, the art of living simply.

Most people are fans of your blog, ZenHabits.net. How did that grow to be such a mecca?

Continue Reading

Photo by laffy4k.

We’ve reached the end of our series on New Year’s Planning. The previous three articles covered:

1. Next year’s tax bill
2. Next year’s budget
3. Next year’s client acquisition plan

Now we’re going to talk about you. Specifically, about making you into a smarter business person. Here, my rule of thumb is that it’s not enough to be in business. You must also be a student of business.

Continue Reading

Photo by audreyjim529.

As the new year is just around the corner, some of you might resolve to take a step forward into becoming a freelancer. According to what’s been written in the comments at FreelanceSwitch, there are those of you thinking about this.

With the way the economy has been, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the freelancer ranks grow in the next few months. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Continue Reading

It may be just two weeks away from the end of 2008, but we haven’t stopped working here at Envato HQ, in fact we have just launched a double header of motion related websites:

1. VideoHive – A Marketplace for Motion Graphics, Footage and Project Files for After Effects, Motion & DVD Menus
   This is our fourth Envato Marketplace, joining FlashDen, AudioJungle and ThemeForest. We’ve pulled over some 700 odd motion graphics files that were sitting under FlashDen, added an improved video player, new categories, a dedicated motion community blog and forums and packaged it up as the Hive! Right now the site is just getting started with the new sections added, but we know it’s going to be big!
2. AETUTS – Tutorials on After Effects and other Motion Graphics Packages
   After a long pause in between TUTS releases, we’ve now consolidated the sites with a TUTS manager (former FSw editor Skellie!), a strong editorial lineup and enough income to start expanding again. So just last night Skellie and new editor Lloyd Alvarez launched AETUTS – specializing in After Effects tutorials, motion graphics related articles and plenty more!

So if motion is your middle name, be sure to pay a visit and help us get video cranking at Envato!

FreelanceSwitch Updates

Recently we’ve had a few bits of downtime here at FSw, my apologies for the issues. After some hunting we worked out it wasn’t the blog that was the problem, but the forums which were dragging down the site. We’ve upgraded and scaled back plugins temporarily while we try to track down the problem permanently. Thanks to forum manager Casey for valiantly chasing us down to get the problem fixed!

Continue Reading

Photo by Just Add Light.

My youngest nephew, Will, is on the cusp of two years old—that adorably maddening tipping point between babydom and full-functioning Big Boy.  Sometimes he struggles to communicate his needs, at which point he defaults to a full-throated, full-fake cry; sometimes, he’s clearly and efficiently out-sentencing most reality show contestants.

And sometimes he switches from one to the other within no interval between the two.  Recently he was struggling to open a toy, and, seeing a facsimile of an Official Adult nearby in me, he wailed aloud.  I bent down to unfasten the latches for him. I might not be willing to endure labor, breastfeeding, and adolescence, but I can unlock the plastic stops on a Fisher-Price barn. Most of the time.

Continue Reading