As successful entrepreneurs and freelancers know, making a name for yourself online is all about content marketing.

Yet the landscape of content marketing can be confusing, as it is constantly shifting. Blogging is still the mainstay of an effective content marketing strategy, but in the past decade audio, social media and video have all been added into the mix.

Faster broadband speeds coupled with video cameras built into computers and smartphones have seen video become a key player in content marketing. Over 4 billion hours of video are watched every month on Youtube.

This trend towards video is set to continue. Both YouTube and Cisco have predicted that within the next couple of years, 90% of web traffic will be from video.

This is great news for freelancers, as video establishes trust and shows your personality and brand more quickly than the written word. Prospects and clients who watch your videos will feel like they know you as a friend. That means when it comes to selling your services, the hard work of building trust is already done.

But isn’t making videos a big headache? Don’t you need a ton of time and lots of specialist software to make a decent video?

Not necessarily.

With Google Hangouts on Air you can broadcast live from your office. When the broadcast is done, it gets posted to YouTube.

Making quality videos is as simple as making a video call. Continue Reading

Google Drive has more features than I could possibly list, but when it comes to using it for freelancing, there are certainly some highlights. I use Google Drive daily for key tasks that make my life a lot easier and my work more efficient. In this video, I’ll show you how I use Google Drive to:

• Backup my files in real-time
• Share my work with team members
• Collaborate efficiently when needed
• Search for files fast when I need to quickly update or share

Also worth mentioning here is that Google Drive is device agnostic – I can open and edit most files on my phone, laptop, desktop – accessing them from anywhere I have an internet connection. This comes in very handy as a freelancer who has to travel regularly and who has a terrible tendency to lose or break my gadgets. Continue Reading

Recently on Freelance Switch, I outlined the pros and cons of Facebook Profiles, Groups and Pages. My verdict was that Pages are the best bet for most freelancers.

In this five minute video, I guide you step-by-step through setting up a Facebook Page for your freelance business. I show you where you need to go on Facebook to create a page, and which Page types are most suited to freelancers. I also give a brief overview of Facebook’s rules for choosing a Page name. Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Ep 20: Taxes, Accounting, and Business Structures for Freelancers by Freelance Jam. In this video the Freelance Jam duo look at: How do you run a freelance business that is compliant in the eyes of the IRS? What is your legal business structure: LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation?

How do you handle paying taxes? Quarterly estimates… etc. Do you have a system for setting aside money for taxes? What types of expenses do you write off as tax deductions? How do you keep track of business expenses? Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Saving for Tomorrow, Tomorrow by Shlomo Benartzi.

It’s easy to imagine saving money next week, but how about right now? Generally, we want to spend it. Economist Shlomo Benartzi says this is one of the biggest obstacles to saving enough for retirement, and asks: How do we turn this behavioral challenge into a behavioral solution?

In this video Shlomo Benartzi uses behavioral economics to study how and why we plan well for the future (or fail to), and uses that to develop new programs to encourage saving for retirement.. Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Why Videos Go Viral by Kevin Allocca. He is YouTube’s trends manager, and he has deep thoughts about silly web video. In this talk from TEDYouth, he shares the 4 reasons a video goes viral. There are some funny videos here, very entertaining. You’ll also get some ideas (if you think laterally) for creating viral videos to promote your freelance businesses. Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at The Happy Secret to Better Work by Shawn Achor. We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk from TEDxBloomington, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity. Continue Reading

If you are a freelancer you most likely have your own website where you showcase your wares. Whether it is a service you offer, a showcase of your talents, or an actual product, video is a great way to engage your clients.

Video allows you to get more personal, it allows you to speak to us one-on-one, and is known to hold the viewer’s attention a bit longer than a page full of text. And because of the few barriers to entry, today producing your own video is easier and cheaper than ever. So, you already have a camera and maybe you’ve started making videos…but are they good videos?

Here are five of the biggest mistakes newbies make with their videos and how to correct these missteps. Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Our Brains are Mis-wired by Al Seckel. In this talk, Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it. Continue Reading

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at A Smarter Twitter Page in Under 15 Minutes by Adi Purdila. In this video learn to design a smart, vintage modern background to welcome visitors to your Twitter page. Discover layout considerations, then dive into Photoshop. Continue Reading

It was just a few years ago when the major bottleneck for websites was producing content — you had to be an expert in web design AND a good writer to put content on the web. Video production was even more difficult with bandwidth issues, dozens of formats to consider, and that doesn’t even include the cost of shooting, editing, and post-production.

Today is completely different. Content is incredibly easy to publish, both written and video. Now that’s not to say it’s particularly quality content, but it’s definitely easier than ever. And the biggest opportunity for freelancers is to start producing video.

Video content is much easier to get to rise to the top of Google rankings, especially when you post your videos to YouTube and use their code on your site. Give it a shot. Run any how-to search; if there is quality, relevant video available, these will be at the top of the results.

If you’re strongly considering getting going with some video work, here are some ideas to get you started, and don’t forget to check out the resource links at the end of this article, especially if you would like to try out any of the tools recommended inside.

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