After using Google Drive for the last few years (previously known as Google Docs), I learned a few things along the way to make organizing the layout and view in a web browser.

In this short walk-through I will show you how to get around the interface and tweak it based upon what you’re doing at the time. Using the search bar, filters, and sorting tools will help you find files fast. But the layout settings can help further when working with images and other visual-based files.

Every year, legions of writers start a blog with the idea of turning it into a moneymaker through ads, ebooks, or other passive-income strategies.

But there’s a faster way to use your blog to earn. It doesn’t require that you build a huge audience, either.

You can use your freelance blog as a portfolio sample to get freelance blogging gigs. That’s what UK-based freelancer Tom Ewer discovered — quite by accident — shortly after quitting his job and starting his blog Leaving Work Behind in mid-2011. He quit his full-time job in early 2012 to work full-time on his blog. Continue Reading

Social networking is all about staying in touch with friends and making new contacts. On Google Plus, you add friends by putting them into your circles. You meet new people by hanging out in Google Plus communities.

In this article, I give you a freelancer’s guide to who you should add to your circles, how to meet new people in communities, and how to use communities and circles as a marketing tool.

Let’s get started by looking at what circles are. Continue Reading

When you ask for someone’s email address, you’re asking for something that’s actually fairly valuable: you’ll be able to contact them directly if need be. It’s only reasonable to offer something of valuable in return. That includes valuable content inside your newsletter, but that’s just a start. As potential readers have become more savvy about newsletters, the norm often includes offering a big incentive in exchange for sign ups, like an ebook.

There are a lot of options on what incentives you can offer to potential readers. It’s important, however, to make sure that you’re offering something that matches closely with your audience — the people who could potentially become your clients. If your audience reads white papers, but not ebooks, you can guess what sort of incentive you should offer.

Before leaping in to creating any type of incentive piece, make sure you know exactly what will attract your audience. If necessary, survey a few of the people you’d most like to sign up for your list about what they really need.

Continue Reading

Jump to Hired Gun Part 1, Hired Gun Part 2, Hired Gun Part 3, Hired Gun Part 4, or Hired Gun Part 5 in this Freelance Freedom series.

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? Continue Reading

Once you have installed Google Drive, it can be a challenge to both find files and access your documents in other programs.

In this video I will show you how to make your files and folders immediately accessible in just about every program you might need them in when using Windows.

Continue Reading

Would you like to have a freelance blog that attracts clients? It’s a freelancer’s dream — you dash off short blog posts now and then, prospects read them, get impressed, and ring you right up.

Unfortunately, that often doesn’t happen. Instead, freelancers get into blogging because they feel they have to, and often end up frustrated.

In reviewing hundreds of freelance blogs over the years, I’ve found they tend to come in three typical flavors:

1. A blog about your freelance work that you hate writing and rarely update.
2. Several different blogs on various topics you started, but then quickly abandoned.
3. No blog at all because you “can’t decide what to write about.”

All of these types of freelancer blogs pose a big problem. If you’re investing precious marketing time in writing and styling up your blog it needs to get you clients. Continue Reading

So you’ve decided to take the plunge into Google Plus? Good for you!

The first thing you must do is set up your Google Plus freelancer account. In this article, I’ll guide you through the basics of setting up both personal and business Google Plus accounts. I’ll give some technical tips, but my general focus will be on marketing. For the most part, once your account is set up, I’ll assume you can navigate your way around Google Plus, especially given the guidelines and tips Google provides.

Let’s get going and fire up your freelance marketing with some Google juice! Continue Reading

Operating an email newsletter means that you need to plan on producing content (probably written) on a regular basis. You may be publishing weekly, monthly or on an entirely different schedule.

It’s important to plan out your content in advance. One of the hardest parts of writing a newsletter is getting in the habit of writing content regularly and making sure that it’s properly published. But you can make the process much more manageable with proper planning.

Continue Reading

Are you having trouble balancing your project time and pay?

As a freelance writer, I have a horrible tendency to spend way too much time on a single writing project. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I often catch myself still editing long after I should have finished. Simply put, most freelance writing rates simply do not allow room for this extra time. I have to learn how to write faster or be comfortable with my longer pay to time ratio on a given writing task.

Those of you in freelance journalism, and other freelance writing gigs, need to write faster without losing quality. After all, there’s no point in learning how to write faster if you can’t provide the quality of work that real writing jobs require.

The following 10 tips are an expansion of Leo Babauta’s list of ways to crank out articles. Hopefully between Leo and me, you will find which methods work for you in improving both the speed and quality of your writing. It’s time to earn more as freelance writers. Continue Reading

Jump to Hired Gun Part 1, Hired Gun Part 2, Hired Gun Part 3, or Hired Gun Part 4 in this Freelance Freedom series.

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? Continue Reading

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 Web Development, Video Production, PHP 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