Time for a roundup of useful links from across this beast we call the world wide web:

JDs Blog has a great article about how to improve your Time Management Skills.

Our favourite productivity writer, Leo Babauta, gives us his Top 10 Ways To Reduce Your Work Week. Considering most of the freelancers I know (including me) work upwards of 60 hours a week, we should all probably read this one!

For those of us who need to make the occasional speech or pitch, Lifehack has 10 Tips from Lincoln on Writing a Kick-ass Speech.

We all have our bad days – we may have lost a pitch, had a row with a client, or have just realized we’re getting really fat from being at a desk all day eating Doritos (how good are Doritos?) When this day comes, you should go read Wisebread’s 10 Killers Ways to Feel Like a Million Bucks (Even If Your Bank Account Says Otherwise). My bank account does say otherwise, but that’s okay because I’m silently stretching my hamstrings (note: that will only make sense if you read the article.)

If you have decided to start a blog but don’t know how, there is a very easy to follow guide at How To Split An Atom. The only tip I’d add to that is to ensure you have some kind of USP. Simply recreating your favourite existing blog will not make much of an impact, unless you’re a literary genius.

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

By Leo Babauta. This article has been translated into Spanish by Juan Manuel Lemus from DotPress.

Freelancers are excellent at producing great work if an assignment takes less than a day to complete. But many freelancers (not all) are also notoriously bad at completing projects that take several days or more to complete.

We’re not always great at project management — and part of the problem might be that we don’t have a boss breathing down our necks, pressuring us at every turn and holding us accountable.

Another problem, of course, is that big projects are overwhelming and intimidating, and it’s easier to do a quick one-off job than to plod along at a project that could take a couple of weeks. Yet a third problem: we don’t always have a clear picture of how the project should look when it’s finished — a clearly defined desired outcome.

We’re going to address those problems in this guide to simple project management by modifying some project concepts from David Allen’s Getting Things Done — modified for freelancers. Actually, this method would work for regular employees too, but it’s especially designed for freelancers.
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Do the survey now!

The 2007 Global Freelancer Survey is online and we want you to take it!

Freelancers by nature usually work on their own, as such we often don’t really know what others are doing, charging and thinking. This survey aims to compile our collective knowledge for the benefit of freelancers everywhere! By taking part in the Global Freelancer Survey you will be rewarded in three ways:

1. Detailed Statistics. After the survey is complete we will be posting an abridged version of some results on FreelanceSwitch.com, however respondents who complete the survey will be emailed a COMPLETE set of information and data from the survey. I.e. you’ll get exclusive data that non-respondents don’t get!

2. Random Prize Draw. We have prizes. That’s right, fabulous prizes! We’ve put together the ultimate freelancer kit from Amazon for one lucky winner who will be drawn at random from the pool of respondents. The prize pack includes:

• A Balance Ball Chair from Gaiam. Balance ball chairs give you stability while encouraging proper posture. Plus they’re bouncy so you can burn calories while you work!
• A Microsoft Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000. This keyboard will help you fend off the evil RSI.
• Studio Monitor/dj Headphone. This headphone is a gem for anyone who needs to block out distractions, as it delivers superior sound while blocking outside noise. If you have kids, noisy neighbors, or an overexcited schnauzer in the house, you will love it.
• Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain. We all need a little creative wake up call once in a while, and this book is just the ticket.
• Western Digital 60 GB USB External Hard Drive. It’s sleek, black and sexy, and it also holds all your bits and pieces. Every freelancer needs some heavy duty back-up, and this baby will do the business.
• And finally, what I want for my birthday, a Nintendo Wii!!! These will provide not only a great break after a hard day’s freelancing, but will also get you off your butt after sitting on your balance ball chair all day long.

3. Satisfaction. By completing the survey, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping compile information to help freelancers everywhere, it only takes 10 minutes of your time and the sum of our collective knowledge will be huge!

The survey only takes a few minutes and will be a great resource for all of us – so take it now!

Less than 24 hours after putting them up, I’m bringing the TemplateMonster stuff back down. After a bit of dismay after the announcement, it seems templates are not going to be how we make this site profitable. Actually you’ll be amused to know I copped a bit of flak here at the office too, so evidently it was a doomed plan anyway.

In case anyone is interested this site is actually funded in part by some of the ads on the site, but mostly by our sister site FlashDen.net, so templates or not, there’s no danger of us running aground which is nice to know. Anyhow, I have plenty more tricks up my sleeve to try, please feel free to continue voicing your thoughts on them when they happen.

It costs a lot to provide so much free freelance goodness, so in our never ending quest to put FreelanceSwitch into the black, we’ve added a TemplateMonster subsite to our menu for anyone in the market for some templated goodies. You can browse through a gigantic set of templates on the site and if you do decide to purchase something, you’ll be happy to know that 20% of everything goes back into FreelanceSwitch!

For those of you who may not have heard of TemplateMonster, they’ve been around for years and years and put out a few new templates every day. The quality is pretty high, though sometimes they can feel a bit template-y so you have to choose judiciously and give them a bit of tweaking before delivery. I probably shouldn’t admit this but I used to use their site for inspiration when doing my own web designs In fairness though I have purchased a couple of templates and once a flash movie too. The quality of the files is good, the prices are very cheap, the service is quick and efficient and the company is based in New York, New York.

Anyhow so enjoy the templates, and don’t tell my old clients that I was getting inspiration from a template website of all places!

Interviewed by Robert Janelle

Tuan Nguyen

Getting an education is expensive. Tuition fees keep rising while government loans rack up interest along with limited time to work due to classes and assignments.

Tuan Nguyen, a 24-year-old senior studying photography at Savannah College of Art and Design, found freedom by shooting freelance.

Involved in arts since childhood, Nguyen started off painting but eventually became tired of the medium and moved onto photography.

After posting his availability on his school’s job board (possibly the most underused job search tool by freelancers) some work started coming in, including a gig shooting the cover and fashion spread for Key West Magazine.

Along with fashion photography, Nguyen does a variety of other work, including art projects, photographing 10,000 year old relics for an antiques dealer and helping aspiring models build their portfolios (along with his own.)

In the following e-mail conversation, Nguyen and I discuss word-of-mouth advertising, portfolio building and fair bit of photo-geek talk.
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If you’re like me, and you have a full-time job but do freelance work on the side, it’s difficult to find the time for that freelance work — and still have time to actually, you know, have a life.

It can be done, however. You just have to know where to look for that time.

Actually, the important step is not finding the time, but designating that time as sacrosanct — it’s for freelance work, and nothing else. Make it a commandment: Thou Shall Do Nothing But Freelance Work During This Hour. And never violate it, or you’ll never get any work done.

But how can you make that time in the first place? Here are some ideas (and I’ve done all of them):

1. Wake Early. I like to get up at 4:30 a.m., but that’s not necessary to find time in the morning. I find mornings are the best way to concentrate, but they’re not for everyone. The early morning is a quiet time, and can be very productive, as the craziness and chaos of the day hasn’t set in to destroy any of your best-laid plans. For tips on becoming an early riser, see my article on Zen Habits.

2. Lunch break. Take a brown-bag lunch to work (it saves you money and is cheaper anyway) and eat while you work. Or, if you’re not able to do work at your day job, take a laptop somewhere else and do your work, or go to a public library and use their computers and Internet connection. This may be the best option for people who don’t want to wake early and want their evenings free.
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Because I enjoy scouring the net for great resources, I’d like to share some with the freelance writers here. So I’ve rounded up some useful articles on the craft of freelance writing.

Angela Booth nails down the essentials of productivity in her article “Five Ways to Become a More Productive Writer.” In the article, she cites goal setting as a way to enhance productivity, along with tossing out worries over criticism.

Podcasting…for Writers? You bet. It’s essential to stay on top of your game—especially with marketing and corporate communications writing. Diana Huff tells all in this enlightening article about what she has learned about podcasting.

Bob Bly always has useful information on his website, www.bly.com. In this article, Why Clients Rewrite Your Copy—And How To Handle It, he explores a common issue with writers. I can’t get enough of things that tell me how to cope with the unique challenges of my job…having people re-write my work is one of them!
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Time for a roundup of useful links from across this beast we call the world wide web:

Image from iStockPhoto

Brett at Agency Byte tells us the 5 Things We Should Know About IT People. IT people have always aided me out of massive confusion, so I have nothing buy the highest regard for them, but if your aim is to understand them (rather than not even trying), then this is the article for you!

Aaron at Charisma18 ponders the The Good And Bad Of Small Business Growth. As somebody that expanded a freelancing business to a small business I can tell you that it’s all true! Be warned.

Communicating international clients? Daily Writing Tips tells us The 6 Foreign Expressions We Should Know. Eg. We reached a Cul-de-sac vis-à-vis my de facto awesomeness.

Our own favourite productivity guru, Leo Babauta gives us 15 Ways to Create an Hour a Day of Extra Time … for Solitude. In a recent poll on FSw, most of us said we worked harder now that we freelanced, so we could all probably use a little more “me-time”.

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

By Robert Janelle

Image from iStockPhoto

A common reason to choose freelancing is to be able to make a living doing work we actually enjoy. In my case, I write. I’ve been writing short stories since early childhood and later got heavily into essay writing.

The journalism thing came around because it seemed like a decent way to get paid for stringing sentences together.

But one of the pitfalls of freelancing is the blurred distinction between work and life. When the desk is only a few feet away at all times, it’s tempting to be always on, always chasing the almighty dollar.

There’s also the problem with turning a passion into a profession: it gets harder to enjoy your hobby unless there’s money in it for you. I don’t know if this happens to anyone else but lately my motivation to do pretty much anything has been limited unless someone’s dangling a cheque in front of me.

For example, I write about video games because I love playing them but now I rarely feel like picking up a controller unless getting paid to write a review.

But pondering this led to a realization: It’s probably healthy to take a break from client projects and work on something that’s just for you. The following are some examples I thought up for different fields:
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Today marks FreelanceSwitch’s three month anniversary and while the site is still a baby, it’s a bit of a milestone. In this quarter just past the site has put up 130 posts, received more than 3,000 comments, 9,000 subscribers, 750,000 visitors and most importantly it’s become the best freelancing site on the web (in my biased opinion). So congratulations to Cyan and all the writers, the commenters and the readers, you guys have been kicking butt and takin’ names!

FSw News
Yesterday I put together mockups of a new FreelanceSwitch design. This is always a scary process as people seem to quite like this current one, but over the last three months I’ve been seeing it’s various flaws and limitations. So since we are going to be introducing a new character set to replace the current stock ones, it feels like time for a new design – actually in my head it’s always time for a new design No word yet on how long it’s going to take me, but the mockups look pretty neat!
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