Photo by blupics.

Everyone with a blog, please raise your hand.

Alright, those of you with hands up can leave the classroom and hit the bar early. The rest of you, stay here, because this lesson is important.

Lets start with the quick summary of what a blog is. Short for Weblog, a blog is a website that displays posts by the author in chronological order. Their popularity is immense since most blogging platforms make it insanely simple for anyone to publish their thoughts on the web.

You’re reading one right now.

But why do freelancers need one? Continue Reading

Come hang out August 16th in the amazing coastal city of Santa Cruz, California (bring your beach towel)!

Freelance Camp is a place to discuss and explore the different approaches to running a successful freelance business / small service company. The event is FREE and we even feed you (thanks to our very cool sponsors). Come ready to learn, and if you are up to it, ready to talk!

The event is capped at 150 people, so sign up quick if you can make it.

More information after the jump! Continue Reading

Photo by NEOPIXX.

We all know the old saying, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” But is there anything wrong with being very good at one thing and not too bad at a few other things? As a freelancer, are you a specialist or a generalist?

In some countries, being a specialist is more honored, but I’m a generalist. As a freelancer, I think it’s a necessity to be a generalist. In fact, if you’re a web-working freelancer, it’s a key to freelance career success in a global market. It’s what will keep you out of the feast or famine phenomenon.

I’m talking about having one or two core skills that you are (or will) become very good at, and a few sub-skills that you pay less attention to for now. For example, if you write, it’s worthwhile to have another skill — maybe podcasting. If you’re a designer, learn to code blog platforms too. If you’re a coder, learn to be a technical writer or maybe create screencasts to teach the use of your code. If you’re a consultant, learn how to be a trainer, as well. Always prioritize your specialty skill first, but make sure you have other skills to fall back on. Continue Reading

Do you live in Chicago?

Could you get there?

The Creative Freelancer Conference, slated for August 27-29, 2008 in Chicago and presented by HOW Magazine and Marketing-Mentor.com, is the first business conference for “creative solopreneurs,” serving graphic, web and interactive designers, photographers, copywriters, illustrators and anyone else who is committed to making a freelance life work.

A panel of creative-business experts, led by Ilise Benun and Peleg Top, will share best practices for pricing, marketing, building client relationships, crafting proposals and contracts, maintaining a work/life balance and other skills critical to freelance success.

All in all, it sounds like a great excuse to get out of the house, learn some things and network (read: booze) with other freelancers!

Creative Freelancer Conference
August 27-29, 2008
Hyatt Regency Chicago
http://www.CreativeFreelancerConference.com
Early Bird Registration ends July 15th.

Check out the www.CreativeFreelancerBlog.com for tips and techniques too!

Want to turn your personal interests into a booming career? That’s what Ian MacKenzie had in mind when he started his career as a new media producer.

A jack-of-all-trades, Ian recently finished producing the web series OneWeekJob.com, where a friend worked one job a week for a year. He creates citizen journalism pieces for the new portal VancouverIAM.com, and completes freelance web development projects for companies as well.

The Vancouver resident also blended his love of travel into a profitable enterprise known as BraveNewTraveler.com. I found Ian’s zest for making his passion profitable to be refreshing. He also works from home with his wife, which I know is something that many freelancer’s grapple with.

Overall, I think you’ll enjoy his perspective on things! Continue Reading

Photo by mic_salak.

We’ve all said yes to freelance gigs that, in retrospect, we wish we’d said no to. Bad clients, bad pay, bad projects. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

We’ve also had great projects that make us thank goodness we’re freelancers: jobs that cause us to look upon the poor 9 to 5 lemmings with a mixture of pity and smugness.

But how do we tell the difference between the good projects and the bad projects? When the phone rings with a new gig our first instinct is to say yes, but how do we ensure that we’re making a wise decision? Continue Reading

The sixteenth episode of Freelance Radio, the official FreelanceSwitch podcast, is now available! It’s our third mailbag episode–all reader/listener mail, all the time!

Subscriptions to the podcast are available via iTunes and an archive of all podcasts will appear in the podcast section. We hope you enjoy it!

Continue Reading

Photo by visualpanic.

With the coming recession, I get a lot of questions about whether it will be increasingly difficult for freelancers to get new clients and, more importantly, projects that pay appropriately.

Over the past eight months, the following industries have proved extremely lucrative for freelancers. I categorize them into Spheres.

The Extreme Sphere

The industries in the extreme sphere are those that are currently crashing or booming. Why would a crashing industry be a good industry to find clients in?

If you’re a freelancer, you’re less expensive and easier to handle for a struggling entrepreneur or business than an employee would be. Additionally, if you provide marketing services or can help them secure a presence online, they need you. Continue Reading

Photo by adampiggott.

When I decided to start my freelance copywriting career months ago, one of the biggest obstacles I had to overcome was my lack of experience in the field I wanted to get into.

I decided to explore the idea of freelancing when several people from the office complimented my writing one after the other. My problem was that I had no idea what I wanted to do exactly. Yes, it was going to involve writing of some sorts. I discovered I had a knack for words (my boss even trusted me to write a press release about a new product we were launching — not bad for someone 6 months out of university!) but I had never been specifically hired and paid by others just to “write stuff.”

The biggest question running in my head was: who the hell was I to be charging people for a bunch of words I put together?

Luckily, I managed to push through that hump. Within a month or so, I went from being clueless about freelance copywriting to consulting with my first client over Skype.

If I were to summarize what I learned during that period, I would narrow everything down to these 5 steps:

1. Learn

Let’s face it — no matter what field you’re in, you won’t be able to get anywhere with your career if you don’t actually have any idea what you’re doing. Continue Reading

Photo by ragnar1984.

Getting started in business with little or no funds isn’t easy, but Mike at Bootstrapping Blog has some great advice in ‘How to: 10 steps to bootstrap your freelance career‘.

A real quick one: Ian MacKenzie makes us chortle with ‘The Home Office Fiction vs. The Home Office Reality‘.

Amy Lillard of Quiet Rebel Writer gives us ‘How to Be a Freelancer (And Still Respect Yourself in the Morning)‘ and asks how’s your writing esteem? And how do you protect it?

If you’re a freelance writer, have you thought of offering more than just text to your clients? Freelance Folder has a great post on the topic with loads of resources to check out.

The commenting King, James Chartrand wrote ‘When Do Bloggers Get a Break?‘. I’m sure if you’re a freelancer who blogs you’ll like that one! (and even if you don’t blog, there are some nice tips in there). James also wrote a post on CopyBlogger titled ‘Three Questions Your Copy Must Answer to Succeed‘.

Feeling poor and lonely? Internet Service Deals lays out ‘40+ Networking Tools for Freelancers‘. I usually like to find a filler link in these long lists and make fun of it, but I couldn’t. So enjoy. Continue Reading

Photo by notsogoodphotography.

A few days ago, Marie Baca wrote a wonderful and well-intentioned post called The Five Most Common Mistakes of Female Freelancers that turned out to be somewhat controversial in the comments.

So, why don’t we even the imbalance up a bit with the five most common mistakes that male freelancers make?

1. Your desk is not your home

“You men,” my wife once said, as I slaved over some copy late at night, “are so prone to workaholism.”

There’s no denying that women do this too, but for every workaholic female I’ve met, there have been five guys burning the midnight oil. Women are better at this thing called “having rational boundaries.”

That groove in your chair? That’s not meant to be there. Just because you work from home does not mean you have to check your email within five minutes of waking up, or stick around until midnight because your clients in other countries are only just waking up. Email exists for a reason. Continue Reading