Photo credit: Rures on Flickr

Following on from my last post on Building Image, once you have completed the suggested excises, you should have a good idea as to who you are and how you want to present yourself to your future adoring public.

Perhaps you see yourself as an aspiring classical music sex symbol, a romantic Bohemian traveler or contemporary superstar. Whatever the case, I’m sorry to bring you down to earth with a bump but in the final analysis, in regards to creating a unique, memorable brand, take a quantum leap sideways for one moment and consider yourself as a box of washing up powder.

Why do people buy a well-known make as opposed to a cheaper supermarket brand even though the contents are often manufactured by the same company and the results identical? Continue Reading

A few weeks ago, we announced we were running an update to the Global Freelancers Survey. We asked readers to participate in order to make it successful – and boy, did you ever! When the poll finally closed, we had over 3,300 participants from every corner of the globe. That means we have a winner for our Grand Prize!

We used a random number generator to flip to entry page 41 and participant #24, which means Samuel from Kansas (United States) is our Grand Prize winner! Samuel will receive the grand prize package which includes a 32GB wifi Apple iPad, $100 in merchandise from MOO.com, a free copy of WPBids, and all the other fabulous prizes listed in the survey announcement. Please join me in congratulating Samuel!

The Global Freelancer Survey was a huge undertaking for us, and it was a project I was especially invested in. I’d like to thank everyone who participated. We really couldn’t do it without you! I’ll be digging through all the data in the coming weeks, but we’re already learning some interesting and sometimes surprising things about freelancers as a community! Some preliminary things we’ve learned include:

• Male freelancers out number female freelancers at a rate of more than two to one.
• Over half respondants identify themselves as a web developer or web designer.
• Of freelancers who have worked fulltime, most feel they are working more hours now than when they were an employee. (And yet the majority feel they have more time!)
• On average, freelancer writers are earning much more than their salaried counter-parts.
• Overwhelmingly, freelancers state they feel happier since they started freelancing.

Interested in hearing more? Stay tuned! All participants (with valid e-mails) will receive a complimentary copy of the survey results from Rockable Press. Additionally, Rockable Press will be publishing a comphrensive book (written by your fearless FreelanceSwitch Editor!) on the state of freelancing today, including in-depth survey analysis, interviews with top freelance professionals, and how to make the information work for you and your business! The book is tentatively planned for early next year, so watch FreelanceSwitch for updates. Once again, thanks to everyone who participated! Continue Reading

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Top 50 Accessories for a Geek Chic Desk

You spend a lot of time at your desk. Why not furnish it to suit your style?

While cluttering your desk with a ton of stuff is never a good idea, decorating it with the right stuff that keeps you productive and happy is important. Doing so also makes your desk both functional and fun and is a great way to keep your morale up when things aren’t going as awesome at work as you’d like.

Why Joe Client Doesn’t Care About Standards

Web standards should be a driving force behind the work of any designer or developer. They provide a scale against which to measure the quality, structure, syntax and methodology of design work.

To explain the benefits of web standards, I’ve compared on my own blog the landscape of the web today with that of 10 to 15 years ago. Continue Reading

photo credit: 96dpi on flickr

Hopefully the first part of our coffee guide got you thinking about the benefits of brewing your own cup of coffee. It’s a lot of fun developing your own personal coffee tastes, and there is no better way to experiment than brewing it yourself.

Today we’re going to look at the sexy French press as a great way to serve up your joe.
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credit: WTL photos on flickr

The holiday season is one of the best times to be a freelancer. Setting your own hours means steering clear of the malls come 5PM – the time when stores become filling with tired cube-dwellers anxious to shrink down their to-do list.

But on the flip side, stepping out to shop during the day can snag your productivity. Just how to balance the two? Continue Reading

Credit: joshuahoffmanphoto on Flickr

The end of the year is rapidly approaching and, for freelancers, that means that a few things need to get done. There are money matters that need to be handled before the year ends, as well as some planning for the new year. Just what needs to be done can vary a little, based on how well you’ve kept up with your administrative work over the course of this year, as well as where you’re based and what you do. No matter the details, though, there’s not that long left to close out 2010. Continue Reading

Before starting her copywriting firm, Market It Write, Mistina Picciano worked as Vice President of Communications at Guardsmark, a $500-million security services firm. But she was tired of the corporate grind and wanted to incorporate her career and her role as a mother.

“Back in college, I knew I ultimately wanted a mobile job that would accommodate a future husband and the ability to be available for children,” recalls Mistina. After more than a decade in the corporate arena, the time was right for her to take the leap. And since then, she’s experienced amazing successes, writing for clients including Pfizer, FedCap and eHealthSolutions. And in the next year or so, she’s planning to add full-time staffers. We talked to Mistina about what it takes to build client relationships long before contracts are signed.

How did you leverage your corporate-world experience when you started your freelance business?
My previous employer emphasized the importance of a professional image at all times. Even though I had a small start-up budget, everything I sent out–from business cards and stationery to proposals and client projects–had a consistent, polished look and feel. Also, I was used to working 12-hour days, so the time needed to build the business didn’t shock my system. Continue Reading

We were so excited to see the number of great entries we received in our ‘Redesign an Outdated 90s Website‘ challenge. To everyone who participated, well done! Each of you greatly improved the original design and brought our fictional friend Mario into the 21st century!

We hope you had fun honing your skills on this project and if you’re proud of your design, we encourage you to add it to your portfolio.

Of the 24 eligible entries, we asked the Design and Marketing team (Jackson, Christine and Larz) at Business Catalyst to select a shortlist of their 5 favorite designs. The same team voted on the shortlist, and were joined by Joel, Skellie and Amanda from FreelanceSwitch – six panelists in total. Each of us gave 5 points to our favorite design, down to 1 point for our least favorite on the shortlist.

Mario’s Catering design is a fictional business, but it wouldn’t be hard to find other businesses still stuck with designs from the 90s. It was up to our readers to bring the design into the present day. Continue Reading

When you think of iOS apps for freelancing you probably think of Time Tracking and Invoicing right? That’s what I think of, and while there are a lot of great apps for doing precisely those two chores, there are in fact a lot of apps to help you do a lot of other things too. Like what?

How about an app for scanning in business cards for filing? Or an app to turn your iOS device into a flash drive? Or maybe an app to let you control your machine remotely from your iPhone? You can do all these things, and a heck of a lot more.

Over on our sister site iPhone.AppStorm we’ve collected 90 Awesome iOS Apps for Freelancers that include those examples and many, many more. Head over and check it out!

credit: Spence Photo/flickr

Presenting designs to clients is a tricky part of the project cycle. You need to convince the client that your vision is worth following, and there’s a lot at stake. On one side of the outcome spectrum lies helpful feedback and renewed motivation; on the other side there are endless design iterations and versioning nightmares. (Ever named a file HomepageFinalForRealThisTimeVersion7.psd?) So how do you consistently land yourself on the better side of the project? The answer is simple: good communication. Moving a project forward without getting bitten later hinges on the ability to state your position clearly as well as listen to feedback from others. Here are some presentation tips that will improve your communication skills and make the design presentation a less harrowing experience. Continue Reading

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