Are You Using Gmail to Your Best Advantage as a Freelancer?
Many freelancers use Gmail but have you considered sprucing up your settings so that each email looks more professional? Wouldn’t you prefer to have your customers and clients receive emails from your name @ your domain name dot com instead? This is really simple to set up and gives your emails a much more professional look.
This article will show you how to add additional non Gmail addresses to your account, how to add labels and filters. Plus it will cover certain Add-ons that are available and will make using and organizing your account easier.
The final section shows you how to use Rapportive as a way of connecting with your prospective customers and getting some background information before making your initial contact. After all first impressions count and what could be better than knowing a little bit more about them in advance? Continue Reading
Join the FreelanceSwitch Newsletter!
We’ve just launched a free newsletter you can use to keep up to date with the latest news and articles from FreelanceSwitch. Every week you’ll get a digest of everything we’ve published over the past seven days, mailed straight to your inbox. If there’s a big announcement coming, newsletter subscribers will often be the first to know!
We’ll also be releasing an exclusive series of articles in the New Year, just for FreelanceSwitch newsletter subscribers.
The newsletter is free to join and ad-free. Subscribe now to make the most of this new way to easily receive the latest FreelanceSwitch content in your inbox, or read on for a preview of what to expect in our newsletter…
How to Get More Clients Faster With Templates
No matter how well you plan, there will be times when you’ll need more clients. During the “famine” periods of your feast and famine cycle, the best thing you can do is cut this time as short as possible.
To do this, you need a system for contacting leads, qualifying them, and converting them into paying clients as fast as possible. Communication templates can help you do this.
10 Simple Steps to Landing More Gigs
We know all about the rewards of working as a freelancer. Flexible schedules, a variety of projects, little or even no commuting. But this lifestyle doesn’t come easy.
Finding success as a freelancer requires a steady stream of paying gigs. Obtaining new business through referrals is great, but referrals alone won’t keep your schedule packed with paying jobs, especially when you’re just starting out.
Online classifieds such as Craigslist and the FreelanceSwitch job board are great places to generate new business leads. In this economy, the competition for work is fierce. To stay ahead, you must combine two key elements in your approach:
- Quantity: The more jobs you respond to, the more potential leads you create.
- Quality: Present yourself well and stand out from the crowd.
Here are some tools and tips to help you land more freelance gigs:
Getting Client Information — And Keeping It Organized
I have one client with a two-week cycle for invoices, who is always out of the office on Mondays. I have another client who pays invoices on a monthly cycle and wants copies of all projects sent to three different stakeholders.
Remembering these details about my clients are crucial for making sure they remain my clients, but I certainly have no hope of remembering all of it on my own. To make matters more complicated, getting these details in the first place can be completely complicated: how often do you have to rely on trial and error to find out when a client is actually in the office?
NomaDesk Review: Access Your Digital Workstation Anywhere
I am a big fan of the digital nomad lifestyle. Being able to take your laptop and do your work from anywhere has a lot of appeal for me. But living the nomad life is rarely as simple as just picking up your notebook bag and heading out the door. There are a lot of factors to consider. My biggest fear is leaving important files behind sitting on my desktop while I’m a thousand miles away with a client deadline looming large.
For that reason I was excited when FreelanceSwitch gave me the assignment to review NomaDesk, a virtual workplace for digital nomads.
Writing Email Copy That Turns Into Sales
For many of us heavily invested in eCommerce, the official economic recession of 2008 has one positive spin: it bolsters and quickens our culture’s direction online. We are increasingly moving to the Web not just for product research, but actual browsing and buying. This year, more shoppers are comfortably online for all the reasons we expect: 24/7 access, no lines, gas prices, convenience.
In terms of marketing, online sales success is also thanks to well-crafted offers and promotions like free shipping and discounts that quickly expire. These are delivered through the simple, workaday effort of links in emails. Despite issues with spam, email is still a hardworking champion for sales and currently the ultimate marketing delivery vehicle for an online audience.
50+ Ways to Improve Your Productivity as a Freelancer
Maximizing productivity is a never-ending task for most freelancers. There’s always some way that we can improve or some area that’s lacking the attention it deserves. This post serves as a guide and a reminder for ways that we can get more done and make better use of our time. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.
Freelancing 911: Turn Your Business Around with Warm Calls and E-mails
This past July, I outlined a five-step process that I’m using to turn my business around.
My July article covered cold calls and e-mails, and I suggest having it open in a separate browser window while you read this one. The same five-step process can be used for warm calls and e-mails. To recap, here’s the process:
- Create your Ideal Client Profile
- Find leads lists
- Script your calls
- Make the calls
- Have a follow-up system
5 Ways to Make an Editor Delete Your Email
I’m not a huge magazine editor. In fact, I typically imagine myself on the other side of the fence – where I’m frantically trying to say something and be employable at the same time. However, from working as the editor of NETTUTS.com, I’ve learned a few things. I’ve realized that, out of the dozens of inquiries I receive in a given week, 80% of them are deleted (usually after a standard form rejection response). It all comes back to Pareto’s 80/20 principle, doesn’t it? In this article, I’ll list the top five mistakes you can make when “selling yourself” to an editor like me.
Number 1: Don’t Make Me Work
How to Score a Job With a Web Magazine
I was recently involved with a web magazine that used the Freelance Switch job board to advertise for a few positions. The quality of applicants was fantastic, compared with those some other sources referred.
The positions were ideal for freelancers who wanted some of their work to be regular, without having a ‘job’ and losing the benefits of a freelance career. They involved doing some writing and self-editing two or three times a week, taking up maybe an hour at a time.
We got far more submissions than we had jobs to fill, of course, and I spent most of the week going through applications and sorting the best from the rest.
It wasn’t a particularly fun experience—writing and editing is what I do best—but I did learn a lot about why some freelancers aren’t getting the jobs they apply for. Here are some tips on landing them—a list based on the things that applicants at our magazine impressed us with and annoyed us with. Consider this practical feedback!
