Educate to Dominate Your Competition: How educating your prospects will help you turn them into customers.

How to Create A Better Online Portfolio: A list of fifteen principles that will help you create a better portfolio.

40 Freelance Writing Blogs: oDesk has scoured the web for forty of the best blogs for freelance writers.

10 Tips for Becoming a Freelancing PowerHouse: Ten great productivity tips written by FreelanceSwitch research assistant, Ritu.

Going Freelance: The Pros and Cons With “The Top Designers”: Some well-known designers discuss the nature of freelancing, good and bad.

Freelancers’ Guide To Getting Paid – On Time: The Wall Street Journal offers a few ideas that’ll help you procure your payment from a less-than-punctual client.

Is It Time for You to Redesign Your Site?: Are you keeping your eye on the signs that it may be time to redesign? This article gives you a few pointers to help you determine when’s the right time.

Case Study: Can You Launch a New Site With Twitter Alone?: At Envato we’ve used Twitter to great effect when it comes to new site launches. Chris Garrett has done the same thing and discussed the strategy in this post.

Is Freelancing Right For You?: Does freelancing sound like a good option but you can’t make up your mind as to whether it would be the best move for you? Here’s a Harvard Business blog entry that discusses the various factors you need to consider before making such a large career change.

20 Tools For The Freelance Designer On A Shoestring Budget: Recently I set up a new iMac at Envato’s head office and found I was missing a lot of the software I’d acquired over the years at home. Though I ended up using the first item in this list, an article like this would’ve been handy a few months ago!

How To Get Featured By The Press (Repeatedly) Even If Your Blog is New: This article geared towards bloggers is still very useful to freelancers who want to generate some buzz. Learn how to use your blog (assuming you have one as part of your freelance business website) to attract media attention.

Continue Reading

30 Fresh and Inspirational Portfolios With a Twist: Running out of inspiration for your own freelance business portfolio site? Here are some unusual—yet interesting and appealing—portfolio designs others have come up with.

The 10 Rock Solid Elements of Effective Online Marketing: This is an in-depth report by Brian Clark of Copyblogger. It’s free and discusses online marketing that works.

15 Useful Twitter Tools For Web Workers: This Freelance Folder articles provides a compilation of Twitter tools that have capabilities useful for web workers in particular. Since Twitter is the only source of social interaction for some freelancers (I kid, but only barely!) having a dedicated app installed could be useful.

Continue Reading

40 Essential iPhone Apps For Your Business: This Sitepoint article lists a bunch of helpful iPhone applications for web designers that’ll help you do everything from running a server to browsing fonts, selecting a color palette and working with SQL servers while on the go.

Barnes and Nobles Offers Free Wi-Fi: Freelancers are always looking for a new place to work away from home to break the monotony, and Barnes and Nobles have joined Starbucks and McDonald’s as one of those places offering free connectivity to get things done.

30+ Principles To Better Landing Page Design: For many freelancers, the website is the most important marketing tool. This article from a brand new blog may help you ensure that those who find your landing page via Google have a better chance of becoming clients.

Continue Reading

100 Plus In-Depth Resource Collections For Web Workers: A collection of resources for web workers. Includes articles related to productivity, communication and collaboration, mobility, writers, designers, tools, etc.

10 Tips For Kicking Ass as a Freelance Writer: A list that features ten tips to help freelance writers get the most from their writing.

35 Tools That Make Your Freelance Career Easier: A list of online tools to help web workers get more done in less time. A productivity article based around online tools.

Continue Reading

Ryan Carson of A List Apart presents an interesting method of scheduling your work — The Four-Day Week Challenge.

Jonathan Fields looks at the consequences of the sedentary blogger’s lifestyle — which applies pretty much equally to most freelancers — in Fat Bottom Bloggers: Is Your Blog Killing You?

Our FreelanceSwitch Twitter man Roger Byrne found a few articles about keeping your sanity as a freelancer on Maxvoltar and No Sleep for Sheep.

The Roadmap To Becoming A Professional Freelance Web Designer on Smashing Magazine is an extensive look at getting started in the freelance field for web designers in particular, though those in other professions may find parts of the article useful as well.

Freelancers often work in multiple places and on multiple devices, and often working with other people, which can make keeping your notes and research in one place a bit difficult. Web Worker Daily has a look at using Evernote as your notetaking and collaboration software.

While freelancers don’t generally have to go through the interview process the same way prospective employees do, we still find ourselves in similar situations and it’s good to Know What Questions to Ask During a Job Interview.

Running out of inspiration? Find out how to get it back.

Could you be wasting too much of your marketing time on blogging? Find out.

FreelanceSwitch regular Susan Johnston published 5 Qs with Brigitte A. Thompson, Author of Bookkeping Basics for Freelance Writers.

Danny Outlaw provides 10 ways to beat the hell out of creative block.

Meryl Evans details eight ways to avoid overwhelming your Twitter followers — and perhaps in the process save yourself from alienating a potential client.

Freelance Parent has published an extensive list of 67 Freelance Niche Writing Markets You May Have Never Considered.

Do you leave blog comments with an ulterior motive, such as promoting your site or business?

If you’ve written or read an interesting article or come across a website that deals with topics relevant to freelancers, head on over to our tip line and let us know. Please be considerate and do not spam or promote products as the focus of each Linkswitch is on content.

Web Worker Daily writer Celine Roque asks the question, Do Email Newsletters Have a Place in Freelancing? The short answer is yes. Read the article to find out how to make it work for you. De-Ann LeBlanc offers a similar point of view, but with a twist.

Freelance Folder’s Glen Allsopp writes about narrowing your focus as a freelancer and earning more from it.

Here’s an interesting series of blog posts from a laid-off IT guy about his adventure in freelancing and enterpreneurship while looking for a job.

A great piece for web designers looking to streamline their workflow is 27 Must-Have Starter Kits For Web Designers.

There has been an influx of freelancers in the field lately due to widespread lay-offs. Have you thought about how your day job skills might translate into a sole proprietorship business?

MSN Money has a piece on making freelancing successful from a financial perspective, providing tips on how to cut expenditures while you get the business off the ground.

Here’s an interesting short piece on how Juliet Ulman, a book editor, successfully made the transition from working as an employee to working for herself.

Freelance Folder has a post titled 8 Tips for Success When Freelancing On the Road that those of you considering location-independent lifestyles may enjoy.

James Chartrand of Men with Pens discusses the swipe file, how it can save you time and help you build a better team.

If you’ve written or read an interesting article or come across a website that deals with topics relevant to freelancers, head on over to our tip line and let us know. Please be considerate and do not spam or promote products as the focus of each Linkswitch is on content.

In our regular Linkswitch piece we bring you interesting freelancing links from around the web. While we’ve published many Linkswitches before, we’ve started the numbering system today so that things are more organized from here on out.

There have been some interesting discussions on the FreelanceSwitch forums over the last few days: one of them is Client won’t approve designs. Can’t move forward. ADVICE?. Our forum members chimed in with some excellent advice.

Are you trapped in the wrong freelance profession? If you’re not comfortable in your work, it might be something to think about, and our friends at FreelanceFreedom have written about this here.

Here’s an interesting Web 2.0-style take on doing referrals: Refural.

TUAW published an interesting article called “The Freelancer’s iPhone: Productivity solutions for independent professionals,” a very interesting read for all iPhone-owning freelancers (thanks for the tip, Alex!).

We were featured in this article titled 100 Awesome Social Sites for Every Aspect of Your Life — thanks OnlineColleges.net!

The oDesk Blog’s Work from Home Tuesday post discusses freelance etiquette — this post could save your reputation!

Reader Michael wrote in to ask, “I am wondering if you might review and respond to this article. It paints a sad picture.” The New York Times recently published an article on the self-employed depression. In my experience as a freelancer who is friends with many freelancers, and the editor of this site, the picture painted is a skewed one, and it seems that there was no attempt made at all to see how many freelancers are still doing well or even doing better. Many freelancers have found that their businesses have only received more work and grown further since the start of the recession. While there are still the same old sad stories of failure, I’m hearing from people every day who’ve been laid off recently and found their new freelance venture to be successful.

I won’t deny that times are tough. There’s a recession, the economy is in bad shape, whatever: freelancers are still doing it.

As much as it can get tiring to see every second article begin with the words, “In this economy…”, dealing with recession from a business perspective is a serious issue for freelancers. Behance has an excellent article on the topic: Five Ways To Market Yourself During A Recession.

Personal finance is a topic oft ignored by people of all types, both freelancers and the employed. But it’s perhaps even more important for freelancers to be conscious of their personal finance habits because income fluctuates so much. Trent Hamm from the Simple Dollar has produced an excellent resource, Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page.

While we’re on the subject, here are 64 funny, inspiring and stupid money quotes from famous people — a funny read. “I used to have a drug problem, but now I have enough money.” – David Lee Roth.

Ever wondered why there’s a whole market of clients out there willing to pay top dollar despite the horde of professionals offering dirt-cheap prices? Jonathan Fields knows why — find out for yourself in Paying Not to Be First.

It can be hard to start a business as a freelance writer if you’re the type to resist the need to sit down and get started. Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project has thirteen tips for getting some writing done.

Chris Guillebeau recently released an ebook that will be helpful to the vast majority of freelancers in the creative field. It’s called the Art of Nonconformity and deals with marketing yourself as a creative through social media and creating a new career.

Snappy Sentences has a look at The Ultimate Freelancer, an excellent book which should be part of your collection.

Have a suggestion for the next Linkswitch? Let us know here. (Real content only please — we prefer not to promote products in these posts).

This week’s linkswitch focuses on the cosmetics of web development. Many readers of FSw are web developers (or web developers at heart), so hopefully this switch will satisfy your weekly craving for all things web dev.

Using technologies like CSS, javascript and some custom scripting, just about anything can be accomplished to spice up a web page. Here’s a few ways to really add some sizzle and pop to your pages, as seen recently around the Internets.

Continue Reading

Photo by weimeiweim.

Simplicity is a concept that we all desire, yet very few of us follow. Ironically, despite its definition, achieving simplicity can be extremely hard! We manage to get our stupid brains in the way. The two voices inside our head battle each other out until the selfish one wins. As a result, our job performance suffers and the quality of our lives diminish.

A simple life is vital if you want to maximize your creativity and productiveness. So how can we become simple when our lives our so complicated?

Step 1: Decide That You Want A Simple Life

You can’t expect to follow the forthcoming steps unless you, too, agree that a simple life is what you need. This decision can be harder than you might think. I struggle with it a great deal. On one hand, I love technology and make a living off of it. I’m constantly researching the newest gadgets and salivate when I watch the trailer for Resident Evil 5. On the other hand, I’m sickened by the fact that, by the time the “Indiana Jones” credits are rolling, I’m already checking my email from my phone. You know you do it too! How pathetic is that? Now, simplifying your life doesn’t mean that you ignore your responsibilities. It merely means that, by reducing the stress that fills up so much space in our heads, we can work on our projects with a much greater focus.

Continue Reading

Photo by frischmilch.

Most of us have heard the cliché about the single freelancer who works around the clock from their home, devoid of any social life and consequently a sense of real purpose and meaning. The nature of freelancing lends itself to late nights and long hours, and we tend to shut out the world around us. We focus all of our energy on clients and deadlines, but we lose focus on one of the essential pieces in the pie of life: social interaction.

I was that cliché freelancer. All I was concerned with was becoming successful in my freelance career. My time and energy was completely consumed by my projects. When I finished one project, my focus quickly moved on to the next. I felt empty. I had everything I could have asked for from a freelance career, but in the process I had left my social life in the dust. It came to a point that I couldn’t even remember the last time I had a meaningful conversation with someone who wasn’t paying me!

I wanted to keep my success, but I knew changes had to be made to live a more social lifestyle. One night I sat down in my office and came up with 4 simple guidelines that would improve my social life, while also maintaining my freelance success.

Continue Reading