Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers from across the web. We present these articles here on various helpful topics. This week we have articles on attracting clients without being too pushy, conducting freelance experiments, and working more effectively as a remote worker. Continue Reading

Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers from across the web. We present these articles here on various helpful topics. This week we have articles on productivity apps, simplifying your freelance business, content cycles, and more.

10 Leading Chrome Productivity Apps

As Chrome is in vogue among freelancers, the new Web Store collection is worth checking out. There are many entertainments tools, online games, utilities and productivity solutions. The last category of getting things done apps deserves freelancers’ attention. Chrome has free web applications like to-do lists, calendars, note takers to help you work faster, easier and more efficient. Let’s browse the top 10 productivity leaders in Chrome’s Web Store.

How You Can Simplify Your Freelancing Business

Simplifying your freelancing business and the rest of your life will give you more time and energy for what’s really important to you. How can you simplify your freelancing business? Let’s consider several areas of your business that you can examine and simplify.

Content Cycles – Make your Business Famous by Reinventing the Wheel

We all like to fool ourselves into thinking that we are covering new ground but the reality is that someone, somewhere has done it before. But is this a problem or does it actually present an opportunity? It depends on your outlook but for the wilier of you out there your mind should now be firmly locked onto the latter.

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Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers from across the web. We present these articles here on various helpful topics. This week we have articles on top apps for transferring big files, how Google+ can help creative freelancers, new guidelines for web designers, and more.

Transfer Big Files: The Top 7 Tools You Should Use

If you work online, and most of us do in some capacity, it’s likely that you’ll have to transfer big files from time to time. Usually, the quickest way to transfer big files or share your work with someone is to email it to them, which means you just attach it to the email … right?

10 ways Google+ is Better than Facebook for Creative Freelancers

People are understandably hesitant about using Google’s recent addition to social networking in the form of Google+. Surely having a presence on Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter and more, is enough for sharing content and promoting ourselves! Facebook alone can prove to be an enormous time-burner.

10 New Guidelines for Web Designers for 2012

To capitalize on the earning potential of web design industry there has been surge in the number of custom service web design providers. However, only a handful of freelancers are able to sense the change in the industry dynamics and add value to their creative ideas during implementation. In order for you to stay competitive, effective, and yet innovative with your web designs I propose the following ten guidelines.

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Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers from across the web. We present these articles here on various helpful topics. This week we have articles on getting going with top Facebook apps, grabbing productivity boosting tools, strategies for managing your tribe, and more.

30 Top Facebook Apps for Business

Facebook is a good place to communicate with friends and get new job offers. Freelancers should not miss an employment opportunity on Facebook. The social network app section is a real treasure box with multiple handy applications.

50 Online Tools That Will Help You Boost Productivity and Earn

One of the great things about the web is the number of useful tools that can aid you in keeping track of all that you have to do and manage. More importantly, many of these tools can be used to save time, increase productivity, and earn more money.

10 Writing Mistakes that Will Guarantee Your Blog’s Failure

You have the ability to project them well on your blog, and you are quite confident in your writing ability. Yet, unknowingly, you could be building a sinking ship, punctured by these ten writing mistakes that will doom any blog to failure. You needn’t be disheartened, however, as any blogger can avoid them. It just takes awareness of their existence, and a keen focus on giving the reader what they want, at all costs.
Do you make any of these ten fatal writing mistakes on your blog?

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Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers from across the web. We present these articles here on various helpful topics. This week we have articles on setting your freelance rates, the role of design in content creation, the power of persistence, and more.

Keys to Setting Your Rate Based on Experience

Instead of pricing yourself at a point that seasoned freelancers are getting, there’s nothing wrong with pricing yourself at a competitive wage that reflects your skill set. You can still make a good salary, plus you won’t be excluding the opportunity to build your skills and your portfolio.

The Role Of Design In The Kingdom Of Content

If content sits at the top of the food chain, why do we spend so much time talking about the finer points of design? Every day we debate, experiment with and discuss topics that easily fall into the category of aesthetics, enhanced functionality and layout; in fact, relatively rarely do we talk about content. Nevertheless, even though we should concede that content is king in this realm, this doesn’t mean that design should be devalued.

The Future of Self-Improvement, Part I: Grit Is More Important Than Talent

It’s not difficult to see how self-control would be predictive of success in certain spheres. It means trading short-term gratification for long-term goals, skipping the temptation to go to the movies and working on your novel instead. But that’s a relatively simple example — one that makes the decision to exercise, or not exercise, self-control easy to see.

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Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers. Today is a special edition of Linkswitch for Blog Action Day 2011. We’re taking some time out to consider this year’s topic, which is food.

Lack of access to food in some countries causes devastating famines; however, it’s the opposite end of the pendulum that many freelancer’s need to be wary of. Stress eating can devastate your health and lead to all kinds of problems. Yes these problems can negatively impact your mental energy, stamina, and the success of your freelance projects.

It’s important to learn to eat well, create long lasting healthy eating habits, while enjoying every bite. It’s also helpful to keep your budget in mind when planning your meals. The better we plan our grocery shopping, cooking, and eating habits, the more we can keep us hungry freelancers moving, without falling off balance. Let’s take a look at some helpful articles and resources that will improve your food consumption habits.

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Take Control of Your Web Presence with Ten Top Tips

Social media is a brilliant way to build your brand, which in turn grows your client base. But it can suck hours out of your busy day. And time is the one resource that we freelancers crave.

6 Lead Generation Strategies for Local Businesses

Small businesses advertising in their own local market often operate under the “big local lie.” It’s common to see small business owners who have tricked themselves into believing that they don’t need to advertise at all and can rely solely on referrals for lead generation and repeat sales.

How To Change Your WordPress Publishing Workflow For The Better

Running a blog has never been easier. Running a blog well is still a difficult task. Working with a team of people on a blog increases the challenge, so anything that makes that challenge a bit easier should be given a chance to show you its wares. I want to introduce you to two WordPress plugins which I now could not do without, and I’m certain have improved my writing workflow over the past few years. I’ll start with Pre-Publish Reminders and then move on to Edit Flow.

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Top 10 Note Taking Apps for Freelancers

A typical freelancer is an idea generating engine. New ideas spring up all the time. Suddenly, you may realize you have a perfect solution to a problem or get inspiration on the go.

Long-Term Considerations for Freelance Designers

Working as a freelance designer is appealing to a lot of people because of the flexibility and independence. Freelancing also can provide designers in a wide variety of situations with a way to earn a living, and in some cases the experience that is gained becomes just as valuable as the income. However, freelancing for the long-term presents some unique challenges that should be considered from the start.

9 Facebook Marketing Strategies to Build Super Fans

Are you looking to attract high-quality and loyal fans to your Facebook page? Without quality fans, your Facebook marketing efforts can fizzle out quickly. Keep reading to discover nine ways you can build loyal fans who’ll love your business.

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5 Reasons for Freelancers to Use LinkedIn

Many of the freelancers I know stay active on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +, but they ignore one of the most powerful professional networks out there: LinkedIn.

Dealing With Difficult Clients

Clients come in all stripes. But difficult clients come in archetypes: The Naysayer, The Answer Man, The Linebacker, The Xenophobe. If you can recognize them, you’ll be better equipped to create a rewarding, lasting, and headache-free client relationship.

5 Tips to Improve Your Marketing Mix

It’s not about one marketing piece, it’s about the whole thing. To be effective, your business needs a presence both offline and online. It needs to use print and digital marketing tools. It needs both advertising (paid) and publicity (free). It’s the marketing mix that gets and keeps your company message “out there” in front of your target audience.

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International Freelancers Day — It’s About Time!

International Freelancers Day (IFD) is a global initiative to celebrate independent workers, their entrepreneurial spirit and the tremendous impact they have on economic growth. The celebration will center on a free online conference of the same name.

Is Conference Pricing Out of Control?

You’ve surely experienced the letdown of registering for a conference, only to find that it costs $1,000 (or more) to attend (not including travel expenses). Isn’t that a bit extreme for two days worth of training? Then again, is that the only way the conference organizers can cover the high costs of planning such an event? Let’s see…

How to be a Leader: Practical Advice for the 99.9% of Us Who Aren’t Steve Jobs

I think it’s a given that we cannot be effective leaders if we first don’t understand how to submit to authority and follow leaders who are placed over us. Submitting to authority is an unpopular concept these days. But unpopular or not, it’s a reality we all live with. The true test comes when we tell our boss or client, “This is what I think we should do. Can we move forward?” and they say, “No.” When a client says that, it’s a lost sale. But when your boss tells you that … it’s a different matter entirely.

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Spark Your Freelance Business with Strategic Synergy

Are you trapped selling buckets of time? Bouncing from one freelance project to the next? There is a better way – develop a synergistic approach to your freelance business.

The Dark Art of Pricing

We found our first job. After a couple years we wanted a change of pace and found a new one. Things were good. Life was easy. Mornings were spent perusing cute overload before the coffee kicked in. We designed without ever having to really deal with clients, invoicing, negotiating—all the icky businessy stuff that bums everyone out. Our left-brain atrophied.

Vision Without Obstruction: What We Learn From Steve Jobs

In recent days, everyone has taken the news of Steve Jobs’ resignation and illness in different ways. For me, it has conjured up admiration and curiosity. More than anything else, I have always respected Jobs’ clarity. True, the man has always shunned the status quo, but I believe his rebel ways were only a consequence of his efforts to stay true to an original vision. Jobs didn’t “think different” just for the sake of it, he just refused to conform to traditional expectations and limitations.

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Freelance Help, 100+ Tips on Creating an Effective Online Portfolio

We all have to start somewhere with displaying our work. Whether you’re building your portfolio for the first time, or looking to improve your existing portfolio, some professional tips can save you loads of time and get you building in the right direction – upwards.

The 7 Essential Elements of Effective Social Media Marketing

So in the past few weeks, we’ve told you it’s a bad idea to be a digital sharecropper, building your business entirely on someone else’s land (like Facebook, Tumblr, or any other third party you don’t control). So you may be asking yourself — OK, what should I be doing with social media marketing?

Are You Selfish Enough to Succeed?

When you’re trying to change your life or pursue a dream, what you don’t do is often as important as what you do. We’re all given the same 24 hours each day. It’s easy to feel like there’s not enough time to do what you really want to be doing. After all the “have to do’s” there’s barely any time left for the “want to do’s.” But how many of those things that you take for granted as being requirements each day actually don’t have to be done at all?

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