Hey folks, one more off-topic post, but since it’s my birthday Cyan says I’m allowed as many as I want. Anyhow if you are into Photoshop tutorials, a few days ago I finished giving a makeover to a little-sister site of FreelanceSwitch called PSDtuts which funnily enough has Photoshop tutorials!

Oh and if you’re interested, that design is very similar to what FreelanceSwitch is about to become later this week! Yes the design is finished, and I’m busy WordPress-ing it into shape and Cyan is cracking the whip for me to have it up soon. Any day now …

By Steve Spatucci

A designer friend once criticized text I wrote for a brochure I’d been designing – he thought it was too friendly in tone and didn’t have a strong enough marketing bent. I was reasonably happy with my output, and besides – my client didn’t have the budget to hire a copywriter, so he’d asked me to assemble a few short paragraphs from a variety of bullet-pointed presentations he’d developed on his own.

So after my friend gave me his opinion of my writing skills, he added this zinger: “But it’s okay – you’re not a writer.”

I… guess.

I mean, I had the same English courses everyone else did at college, but it wasn’t my major. I’ve taken many screenwriting courses, but I haven’t sold a screenplay (yet). I’ve always enjoyed creative writing, especially when integrated with my own art and design (websites, comic books, animation – that sort of thing), but I’ve never had been paid JUST to write something – it’s always been part of a bigger design project.

So is it wrong that I still think of myself as a competent, passable, even “decent” writer? Or is that too cocky? I think not.
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Hey folks, I know we are a freelance site, but if any of you are interested … or know someone who’d be interested, Eden (the company that runs FSw) is looking for a Senior Rails Developer!

Oh and today is my birthday! Happy birthday to me

Dear Aunty Entity,
How can a freelance project manager make themselves indispensable to their new employers?
Signed, Daria

Dear Daria,
Let’s get one thing clear. No-one but no-one is indispensable in a workplace unless you own the company and even then you can be taken over, edged out or just plain fired if it’s big enough….

Freelance project managers are usually hired on a temporary project by project basis – when the project is over, so is your contract. To ensure you stay in their memory and get asked back, ask yourself the following:

• Are you comfortable with doing what has been asked of you?
• Are you generally fun to be around?
• Do you look like you belong there?
• Are you available when required?

…and probably most importantly:
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Time for a roundup of useful links from across this beast we call the world wide web:

Is some nasty piece of work stealing your online content? SEOMoz will help you seek retribution!

Photo Business Forum has a great article about subject headings for emails. If you’re like me and title every email “Hello!” then this may help!

Liquidcity at GoSquared has 50 Ways To Become A Better Designer. Even a seasoned designer can find ways to up their game in here.

Brett at Agency Byte helps us learn about Proactive Account Management (ie. anticipating your clients needs and guiding them to what you think is the ideal solution). Perfect for those of us who market ourselves as suppliers of superior service to clients.

If you have a useful link or article that you think FreelanceSwitch readers would be interested in, Send It In!

By Shaun Crowley

Freelance designers who specialize in marketing materials are in high demand. As a result, freelance promotions designers can make a lot of money. So what specialized skills do you need to be a publicity designer?

I’m a copywriter and I work with designers. I prefer to work with designers who understand the marketing aims of the graphic design assignment I hand to them. I tend not to call upon designers who design visuals that are unsuitable for the sales messages I am trying to communicate in my copy, however good the design looks.

That’s why the tips I reveal in this article are not really ‘design’ tips. They are practical tips aimed at giving you clarity when you interpret your brief. If you want tips on what colors or effects to use, this article isn’t for you. If you want ideas to help you plan your approach to publicity design, read on.
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By Leo Babauta

Freelancers, more than regular employees, must be effective in order to survive. Whether you are freelancing on the side of a normal job, or working completely for yourself, you don’t have the luxury of taking on wasted jobs or doing the unnecessary.

You can’t afford it.

To increase your effectiveness, you need to take everything you do — from projects and assignments to everyday tasks to emails and IMs — and identify the most essential. And then put your focus on those things, to the exclusion of almost everything else.

If you can do that, you will not only free up more of your time, you will be able to make more money and advance your freelance career. Let’s look at how to do it.

1. Projects and assignments. If you’re lucky, you’ve got more assignments than you can handle. That’s better than not having enough to pay the bills, of course, but it also creates the problem of not having enough time to do everything. And if you commit to more projects than you can possibly complete on time, you are decreasing your effectiveness, stressing yourself out, and hurting yourself in the long run. Clients will realize that you are overworked, and that either your quality is suffering or you’re missing deadlines.

Instead, focus only on the essential projects. That’ll be hard to do at first, especially if you’re overcommitted, but the key is to make it a habit to identify which projects are essential, and renegotiate the rest.

What’s essential? That will vary depending on your situation, of course, but the key question is: which project has the most long-term benefit for me? If you get more money writing an article for a small publication, but get more publicity though less money for writing for the New York Times (for example), I’d take the Times article. A little less money now is overshadowed by the huge boost in visibility and reputation that a higher-profile article will get you.

Focusing on essential projects will allow you to get the most benefit for the time you spend. It will eventually get you more money for each project, and reduce the number of projects you have to do. By focusing on essential projects, and not on the less important ones, you’ll also cut a lot of headaches and wasted time.

2. Routine tasks. The same concept applies to all the tasks you do. What other tasks do you do each day? Make a list, and put an asterisk next to the most essential tasks. Eliminate the rest if possible.
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Copper is an online project management and collaboration tool. It’s ideal for freelancers who want to liaise with contractors or partners, or even for hands-on projects with clients.

What’s fantastic about Copper is that you can collaborate with whoever else is on your team to create and revise project plans (perfect for big jobs), keep track of milestones, and share files, contacts and events. And most importantly, unlike other project management tools you don’t need a weekend workshop to show others how to use it. It’s nice and intuitive, so even your technology challenged client can use it.

Copper has a free trial so you can try before you buy, and if you want to get a feel of the company you should check out their blog, Elementale. Unlike most company blogs (most of which have little more than press releases), this blog is actually a great, varied read. Check out Food For Thought, which relates food technology to business and Speeding Up Your Thang, which covers Ben’s ability to write 180 emails a day – impressive.

Have a read of the blog and you’ll also see that these guys have a great sense of humour – so you can be assured that if you do need to contact support for whatever reason, their reply will be witty and entertaining.

So as I always say, if you like FSw and you want us to keep on keeping on, support Copper so they can keep on supporting us!

If you are confused about Adobe’s new offerings, you aren’t alone. Currently, one can not only purchase Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web and Design Premium, but also both variants in a Standard edition, plus Production Premium and the all-inclusive Master Collection. The Premium differences? Well between Web and Design Premium, the dollar difference is $200 USD. On the application side, Web Premium nets you Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Fireworks, Acrobat 8 Professional, Contribute, and Bridge. Design Premium has InDesign, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Acrobat 8 Professional and Bridge. So what you need to decide is: do you want Fireworks and Contribute, or InDesign?

Of course, there’s more to the decision than that. The real question at hand is should you upgrade (if you already have CS/CS2) or purchase Creative Suite 3. We’ll be taking a closer look at the individual products and the enhancements they’ve received in this newest version to help you figure it out.

Photoshop Extended

Let’s start off with one of the most recognizable members of the Adobe family, Photoshop. Right away, you are greeted with a new color scheme and the replacement of CS2′s Palettes with Panels. Each of the various panels can be grouped together, collapsed (individually or all together), docked, or even hidden. What this equates to is more available canvas area without losing easy access to your toolkit.

One of newest features that I’ve been using quite a bit is the new Quick Selection tool. Somewhat akin to the Magic Wand, but rather than clicking on areas that fit into the tolerance you set, one simply paints over the area, selecting as you go. You can then refine the edge transforming what was once a tedious process (for complex shapes) into something much simpler.

Been wishing for better control over your filters? Creative Suite 3 introduces Smart Filters, a new way to interact with your layers in a non-destructive way. And then, to make things even more interesting, once you’ve got a Smart Object (what a layer is converted into so that Smart Filters can work with it), you can stack multiple layers and produce even more astonishing results.
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By Leo Babauta

If you’re looking to be a freelance writer, your bread and butter will likely be submitting articles to magazines. And while the big names in the business usually have no problems in selling their articles, the less experienced writers have to work harder at it.

Working harder doesn’t necessarily equal success, however. It takes a smart approach to sell an article to a magazine editor. Smarts, along with a great article idea and persistence.

Follow these essential steps, and don’t give up, no matter how many times you’re rejected.

Choose the right magazine. You probably want to submit to magazines about topics you’re very familiar with — stuff you’ve written about or worked with before. If you go with topics you don’t know much about, you’ll be doing much more research, and your article will probably seem a little more amateurish. You’ll also want to choose magazines that match your tone and style, although if you’re just starting out you may not have that luxury — you might have to match your tone and style with whatever publication will accept you.

Trade magazines. If you aren’t that experienced, you might try and fail to get into a consumer magazine (the ones you see on news stands) … instead, you might want to start with trade magazines. Instead of a general computer magazine, for example, try for the computer trade mags. They’re generally a bit easier to get into as the competition isn’t as fierce.

Know the magazine and its market. If you try to submit an article to a magazine blindly, without knowing much about the magazine, you’re wasting your time. Your proposal should be tailored specifically for that magazine. And in order to do that, you need to do a little research. Start by reading back issues of the magazine — that will give you a decent idea of what the magazine’s about, and who their audience is. Find back issues in your local library or online. Look out to see if most of their articles are written by staff or freelance writers — if it’s mostly freelance, you have a decent shot. Also look for tone and style, how many quotes they use, and whether the articles are informal or filled with facts and stats.
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By Steve Spatucci

When I’m well into my septuagenarian years, I’d like to take a decade or so to devote to studying the idea of talent. I’ve been hearing the term for over thirty years now, and I still have no real understanding of what it means.

Trusted dictionary definitions of “talent” turn up phrases like “a characteristic feature, aptitude, or disposition” and “a special, often creative or artistic aptitude”. I can work with that.

But the thing is, I hear “talent” used all the time to describe what I think of as skill. I recently heard a friend described as a “talented database programmer”. That friend is truly great at his job, but I think he’d be better described as a very skilled programmer. His talent – the qualities he’s shown since youth – were probably more along the lines of organization, analysis, and structure. That was, I believe, the basis for him to learn his database skills. I daresay he was not hitting the code books while in preschool.
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