Cast a Vision – and Stick to It

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned is to cast a vision and stick to it. This lesson applies to freelance work, but it also applies to life in general. Casting a vision for your career is hard and can take years to fully develop, which requires sticktoitiveness. But, if you apply tenacity over time, you will find the end result is powerful and motivating in a way nothing else can be.

Why Disconnectors Are Critical In Keeping Your Readers Awake

Imagine you’re driving a car. And the highway stretches in front of you straight as an arrow. Mile after mile of the same, same seems to suck you into vortex of yawns. Then suddenly you you see a curve in the road. The curve is the disconnector. It’s the thingamajig on the journey that jolts you back to life. You’re all alert. You’re all eyes and ears. And you’re paying close attention.

Improve Your Writing With Grammarly

The bad news is that the ability to read a well-written sentence does not translate into the ability to write one. With more of our interaction taking place through emails, text messages, status updates, tweets, blog posts — heck, with more of us having to become writers — there are also more people in need of writing help than any time in human history. Thankfully, Grammarly can give us that help. For a price.

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View awesome conference lectures, engaging how to discussions, and high quality freelance business advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch. This week we look at Secrets of Making Money Online by Darren Rowse.

In this video Darren discusses about how to strategically make money online and develop a long term business vision. Many of the ideas here could be applied to freelance business.

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I realize this may sound a bit absurd, but I don’t know Guy Kawasaki from Adam. In fact, I think I know Adam a whole lot better. So when the girl who was looking after our house mentioned that a book had arrived for me, and it was written by some “Apple dude”, my curiosity was piqued.

I’m happy to say that Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki is worth a read. Even if it was written by some Apple dude.

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As a freelancer, there will be times in your career where time is a lot easier to come by than cash. That means that trading some of your working time for something you need directly — rather than taking the long way around and trying to earn the money first — can make sense. Bartering some of your work for what you need can be a useful way to get it.

Bartering services can be especially useful when you’re just starting your freelancing career: if you need some help with a particular part of your marketing materials, approaching another freelancer and simply offering to trade can get the job done.

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With our Freelance Mac App bundle past 1000 copies sold, I wanted to take a quick moment to highlight the fact that as part of the promotion we have partnered with SmashingMagazine to give away completely free copies of their eBook: “Successful Freelancing”. All you need to do is send out a super quick tweet promoting the bundle and you’ll get your own copy of the book which normally retails at $5. It’s that easy!

Thanks to the wonderful guys at Smashing for allowing us to run this neat little promotion, and thanks to the hundreds of people who’ve already taken advantage of this offer!

Credit: Maine Maven

Starting a successful business is about more than hard work—it’s also about timing. Here’s the story of how one woman in the far northeast corner of the U.S. turned her weekly newspaper column into a retail store through the power of branding.

Kristen Andresen started working for the Bangor Daily News before her 1997 graduation from the University of Maine as a copy editor and freelancer. When a full-time feature writing position opened up, she was fortunate enough to land it. 

A year later, Andresen and her editor were looking for ways to jazz up the weekend style section. “One weekend it kind of hit me that in Maine, shopping is more than just buying things—it’s a form of recreation,” Andresen says. “And getting the best deal, whether on fishing gear or designer jeans, is sport.” In other places, people brag about how much they spend on things. In Maine, Andresen says, people brag about how little they pay. Andresen’s shopping alter ego, ShopGirl, was born.

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If you have more than one freelance specialty, one strategy is to dedicate a separate site (blog) to each specialty, develop strong targeted brands, and grow them independently across multiple social media. With this strategy comes the question of how can we manage all our sites, keep up with our branding efforts and handle our social media accounts (such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin) all at once?

There are pros and cons to having different social media accounts for multiple websites. It’s important to choose a social media promotion plan that fits your business structure and future goals best.

Though I’ve been writing for a long time, I started publishing when I discovered blogging is a wonderful way to share my interests, and build a portfolio along the way. However, it is also a demanding activity that requires one to be their own blogger, editor, web designer, marketer, SEO specialist, and social media manager. While I mostly enjoy these tasks, it is becoming harder to stick to my own deadlines while I am managing multiple sites. After all, I have an entertainment blog, a writing blog, and several others. Numerous blogs mean that all these tasks are multiplied.

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Credit: Yuri Arcurs on Photodune

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned is to cast a vision and stick to it. This lesson applies to freelance work, but it also applies to life in general. Casting a vision for your career is hard and can take years to fully develop, which requires sticktoitiveness. But, if you apply tenacity over time, you will find the end result is powerful and motivating in a way nothing else can be.

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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 Template Designer, 3D Modeling Animation, Developer 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!

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Every freelancer knows that a good tool can make a dramatic difference in productivity. And for freelancers productivity = earnings. That’s why I’m super excited to announce that the first ever AppStorm Freelance Mac App Bundle is now on sale and it’s packed full of Mac Apps, files and eBooks that is unbeatable value for freelancers!
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7 Top-Notch Blogs for the Savvy Freelance Blog Writer

In addition to FreelanceSwtich, there are a handful of blogs that stand out a cut above the rest, and are well worth reading for freelance blog writers. These blogs are dedicated to blogging, writing, utilizing internet tools and trends to maximize your freelance writing income, and more.

Are Social Media “Experts” Worthless?

Gary Vaynerchuk, in his usual low-key, mellow way, said last month that 99.5% of social media experts are clowns. What interests me is what it takes to make that last 0.5%. What do the social media experts look like who aren’t clowns?

How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers

You’ve got plenty of great ideas, and you just can’t resist throwing yourself into them. Unfortunately, your motivation seems to vanish … and you’re left with a bunch of notes, outlines and first drafts that aren’t going anywhere.

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