Credit: David Mottram, Smashing Magazine

Being a freelancer can sometimes feel like a solo venture into the unknown, an exciting but nevertheless daunting prospect! We all have our particular strengths and individual weaknesses, but few of us would decline a little help with some of the more practical aspects of being a freelancer.

While not every tool on this list will be helpful for every freelancer, its overall aim is to provide you with resources that could help you significantly increase your productivity (do more…), get organized, work more efficiently, plan your to do items better, and maybe even save some money!

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Photo by Sphinx the Geek.

Some professions can be dangerous to your health. These include fire fighters, oil riggers, those serving in the armed forces, and even electricians. These professionals don’t take the danger for granted. They use special equipment and procedures to minimize the risk.

As a freelancer, you also spend your days doing activities that risk your health: sitting on a chair, typing, using a mouse, and looking at a monitor. Fortunately, the risk of injury when doing these seemingly safe activities for a prolonged time is becoming better known. And like those more dangerous jobs, there is equipment and techniques that help you minimize the risk.

Ergonomics is the science of work. It looks at ways of fitting the work to the user, rather than fitting the user to the work. Chris Adam’s simple definition is that “ergonomics makes things comfortable and efficient.” He goes on to say, “Ergonomics is commonly thought of in terms of products. But it can be equally useful in the design of services or processes.” In this article, we will look at both products and techniques that help.

The science of ergonomics is a very young field, and is subject to a lot of variability. Every person is built differently so it is hard to develop universal guidelines. I’d love to have your input in the comments about what works for you and what doesn’t.

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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:

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Photo by mishahu.

When it comes to postal service, I really lucked out. The nearest post office is less than half a mile away. Every afternoon, when I reach the point in my day where staring at the computer screen any more is impossible, I walk over to the post office and collect my mail from my P.O. box.

As far as tools for freelancers go, I think a P.O. box is often overlooked: they’re useful and can even solve a few problems particularly for freelancers.

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In the last few years we’ve seen an explosion in new awesome tools for freelancers including project management apps, invoicing apps, time management apps and to-do lists. One type of app that I think is particularly awesome is the collaboration app. These services allow you to upload images, documents and in some cases videos and flash, and then you, your client and anyone else working on the project can discuss and annotate the work.

When it comes to sharing concepts, particularly for freelancers working over the web, this is literally a revolution in feedback. There are 9 apps listed below, half are extremely feature packed with a few slimmer (cheaper) options and one coming soon app.

Backboard
getbackboard.com

Get feedback on documents (Word, Excel), Powerpoint, images (including Photoshop PSD files), webpages and free-form text. Backboard also features multiple versions of a project, email integration – just send an email with the file for review attached, desktop upload and SSL encryption.

Plans ranging from Free for one non-commercial account (unlimited "backboards") to $49 p/month

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It’s hard to believe that in 1993, Adobe first released Adobe Acrobat for the Mac. Within a few short years, this new “.pdf” format became the standard. Although there were many who provided free and always interesting ways to create Portable Document Format files, Adobe continued to improve the technology, adding capabilities along the way that still had businesses and freelancers alike purchasing the original application. And now, in 2008, Adobe has released Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. Quite different than it’s humble origin, we’ve taken a close look at the new features and present our thoughts and findings for you.

Flash of Brilliance
While the feature list is extensive (check here for the full matrix), the one feature that really catches the eye is the new native Flash support. Now you can insert .flv or H.264 video for playback. Not just as attached files either. Part of the new portfolio feature includes the ability to use Flash as the welcome header. Personally, I can’t wait to see how this changes .pdf documents in the future (in both good and bad ways).

Thankfully, all the new functionality hasn’t caused a speed degradation. In fact, Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 is faster than ever. Continue Reading

Photo by mr brown.

You’ve got the blog going–great! Maybe you’re building readership from your customer base, or from others who are interested in what you do. That’s great, too! Now you’re thinking, “Maybe I should do a podcast…”. Maybe you should. And maybe you shouldn’t.

A podcast is a bit like a radio program–it’s an audio recording that is distributed in the form of a digital audio file, such as an MP3, that can be downloaded, transferred to a media player device, such as an iPod or a Zune or one of the others, and played back whenever the listener chooses. It can be a recording of a single person talking about a particular subject, providing information, dispensing opinion, or just making observations. Some podcasts are recordings of two or more people having conversations about the subject matter at hand. Other podcasts are more like interview shows. Some podcasts are like audio books, others are like music programming on the radio. Podcasting has been around for several years now, and it has flourished–chances are that someone is out there podcasting about whatever interests you.

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Photo by psd.

If you’re a freelancer, I’m pretty sure you know the importance of a USB thumb drive. At a basic level, it helps you store important data and transfer files related to your projects from one computer to another.

If you’ve only ever used your thumb drive for the entry-level tasks of storing and transferring data, it’s time to unleash the hidden potential of this tiny device. Whether you’re a freelance writer, web developer or a freelancer on the move, you should take a look at the following tools, all of which take this device to the next level and convert it to a power drive. Continue Reading