Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and come from a wide range of potential clients. The job board is hand-moderated by dedicated staff and volunteers from the freelance community.

Each week, we’ll feature a selection of the best job opportunities posted for the week. This week, we’re featuring jobs in technical writing, senior web development, graphic & web design, WordPress development and more!

To apply for any of these jobs, simply pick up a FreelanceSwitch membership for an affordable $7 a month. See something you like? Join now! Continue Reading

I hope you all have an amazing time with family and friends this holiday season. 2010 was truly an incredible year full of all sorts of growth and learning… and from the way things are lookin’, 2011 is gonna be even better! Thank you for reading FreelanceSwitch and being a part of our community. From our family to yours, “Here’s to a GREAT New Year!”
See our holiday wishes video from all of the Envato staff. Continue Reading

A few weeks back, in partnership with Adobe Catalyst Business, we held a contest to redesign a fictional pizza business website, currently in all it’s 90′s glory. We had a huge number of submissions, and it was an incredibly tough job for our staff to vote on a winner! There were so many great designs, I wanted to take the time to show off some of the runners up. It’s not often that you get to see more than two dozen different takes on the same concept from great designers.

To refresh your memory, here’s the original Mario’s Catering masterpiece…

How can you possibly improve on such brilliance? Read on to see some of the best of the FreelanceSwitch community’s ideas! 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

In order to gather enough data to fairly represent freelancers world wide, we’ve extended the run of the 2010 Global Freelancer Survey! We want to create a complete view of freelancers around the world–and we need your help. We need more responses in order to compare results to the success of the 2007 survey.

If you haven’t already, please take the Global Freelancers Survey and let us know what you think! We need YOUR help to spread the word and help out your fellow freelancer. You will be entered to win one of our many fabulous prizes, including a prize package from MOO and a 32GB iPad! All eligible entries will also receive an overview of survey results–find out what other freelancers are charging or finding clients!

Interested? Read the original post for full details. The survey will remain open until November 29th, 2010. Take the survey now! Continue Reading

Update: The Global Freelancers Survey is now closed. We’re contacting our winners and will have an announcement on the results soon!

The 2010 Global Freelancers Survey is online and we want YOU!

Freelancers by nature usually work on their own, as such we often don’t really know what others are doing, charging and thinking. This survey aims to compile our collective knowledge for the benefit of freelancers everywhere! The 2007 survey rendered great results with input from over 3,000 participants, but we need help to update it! By taking part in the Global Freelancer Survey you will be rewarded in three ways:

1. Detailed Statistics. After the survey is complete we will be posting an abridged version of some results on FreelanceSwitch.com, however respondents who complete the survey will be emailed a COMPLETE set of results and data from the survey. I.e. you’ll get exclusive data that non-respondents don’t get!

2. Random Prize Draw. We have prizes. That’s right, fabulous prizes! Everyone who participates in the survey is eligible for a drawing for the grand prize. We’ve put together a prize package worth over $1,000 with some pretty sweet stuff that will make any freelancer’s life easier:

• A 32GB Wifi Apple iPad. Laptop just too old fashioned? Keep up on your work (and play!) in style.
• A free copy of WPBids, the WordPress template for freelancers. Easily create hand-crafted proposals on the fly.
• $100 worth of awesome merchandise from the print experts at MOO! I especially love their business cards.
• $100 worth of credits for the Envato Marketplaces. Flash, video, web, graphics, print, music, 3d…need any kind of stock file fast? Grab it from sites like ThemeForest, ActiveDen, GraphicRiver, and more for your next project!
• A free copy of the up-coming e-book by Rockable Press which will include full survey results, analysis, and interviews from top freelancers in the industry!
• A one YEAR membership to FreelanceSwitch’s own job board. Find new leads and keep the work coming!
• A 6 month membership to Tuts+, Envato’s premier network of great tutorials, including sites such as NetTuts, PSDTuts, WebDesignTuts and more. Get access to the premium tutorials to keep your skills sharp or pick up new ones!

3. Satisfaction. By completing the survey, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping compile information to help freelancers everywhere, it only takes 10 minutes of your time and the sum of our collective knowledge will be huge!

The survey only takes a few minutes and will be a great resource for all of us – so take it now! All rules and nitty gritty included below: Continue Reading

The response to our recent competition for photos submitted to our FreelanceSwitch photo pool on Flickr was huge–we received over 1,500 submissions! Due to the high number of fantastic photos, I called in FreelanceSwitch’s resident forums moderators, Eliffio and Amber, to help pick the winners. Check out all the submissions in the gallery. Without further ado…on to the winners! Continue Reading

FreelanceSwitch has created our first FreelanceSwitch community Flickr group, and we’re giving away prizes to celebrate! Instead of regular ol’ blog images, we want to feature photos from our community on blog posts. Submit your photos to the Flickr pool, and if we choose your image, you’ll be credited in the article.

That’s the fame part, now here’s the fortune: we’re giving away a bunch of goodies: over $100 in swag for the best photos! Prizes include a hefty gift certificate to ThinkGeek, free membership, and awesome freelance-themed tees from TeeLance!

Like photography? Like winning loot and bragging rights? Read on! Continue Reading

During our recent review of The Money Book, we asked for your very best money-saving tips. The huge number of comments and savvy advice we received shows that our readership definitely knows a thing or two about saving pennies!

After careful consideration, Joseph and Denise, the authors of The Money Book, helped us pick the top money-saving tips from our readers. Each winner will receive a copy of The Money Book, directly from the authors.

Check out the winning money tips after the jump! Continue Reading

We’re very proud to announce the re-launch of our sister site, The Netsetter. As Joel describes in The Netsetter relaunch post, The Netsetter was a blog started by Envato’s CEO, Collis Ta’eed in 2009 as a place to discuss start ups. Today, we’re rebooting The Netsetter with the exciting new design and taking it in a new direction. It’s not a complete departure but the hard-working guys at The Netsetter have certainly made the site useful for a much wider audience. Continue Reading

Recently, the FreelanceSwitch community was asked what simple, one-line advice they would give newly minted freelancers. The result was a surprising and poignant mix of wisdom, humor, and insight on topics such as clients, money, marketing, and keeping one’s sanity. Read on for the best advice from the FreelanceSwitch community! Continue Reading