Linkswitch: The Web for Freelancers
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.
Whether you want to learn while you work out or to make that commute useful, Freelance Radio is the place to hear all the tips, tricks and news of freelancing.
Freelance Radio
Actually my take is that people would always prefer to work with a freelancer (once credibility establIshed) its more like a direct interaction and you do not need to go through the company’s echleonic whirls. You are directly interacting with the person who is DOING THE WORK. Companies got expenses to match and they tend to be always on the rough side. So freelancing is here to stay.
Regarding the layoffs and failures, I think it happens to people that just take a straight dive without any planning or market-analysis. For me work is good nowadays, and it owes to years of trail and error and perceptions.
I’ve hit a stumbling block at least for now. The market’s tough. The problem is in getting leads, even when I pay for advertising.
The self-employed depression article sent me through the roof. The freelancers profiled were providing services that would fall into the category of “highly discretionary purchases.” Meaning that unless times are REALLY good, they’re going to be in Struggle City.
One thing I’ve noticed about my itty-bitty design/photo studio is that there is work to be found out there. You have to go prospecting for it because it’s not going to come to you. (And when did it ever do that? Methinks that “Getting Business to Come to You” is a nice-sounding book title, but nothing more.)
I’m really curious to see how well Refural works as a service. Anyone here try it out? They don’t appear to get a lot of traffic, so I’m a bit skeptical. Gonna give the other articles (which appear to be good reads) a go a bit later.
Thanks for sharing this linkswitch post.
“Refural” is going to be very interesting to watch.
Thanks for the post.
After the studio I was at went bust earlier this year I officially went full time in my own studio. My little design studio is doing wonderful, and I’m far better off. My only regret is that I didn’t do it until I was forced.
I tend to believe that freelancing is great provided you have a very strong network and are in touch with whats currently happening. Being a freelance designer myself I know how it is. But in spite of the recession and stuff I still have a lot work on hand.
Besides its not just your work but the kind of technology used by you. For instance I am using this content sharing tool ‘Uhuroo’ which is helps me stay in touch with my clients no matter where I am.
Bottom line I think freelancing is great cause it gives me the flexibility to work at my own leisure!
Michelle – thanks for sharing the information about ‘Uhuroo’; I will give it a test run with the free version. By the way, the link provided http://www.huuroo.com/ is incorrect; should be http://www.uhuroo.com/