Charlotte North Carolina: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Companies online spend much of their marketing budgets in developing their business websites as it is crucial for their business online. Lead generation campaigns are being created for generating leads to their landing pages which contains attractive content with beautiful Fonts. Some of the best fonts are used in these lead capture pages as they [...]

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Web Development from Scratch Video: Helpful Dev Web Apps

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

This week we look at Web Development from Scratch Video: Helpful Dev Web Apps by Jeffrey Way of Nettuts+. In this video (aimed at beginner web designers) Jeffrey takes a step back from coding just long enough to bookmark ten very helpful web apps that you should be familiar with. This is part of a video series on Web Development from Scratch.

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Weston: A Free, Friendly Rounded Slab Serf

Here’s a free slab serif with a quirky and friendly personality. Enjoy.

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Design Creative Holiday Gifts for Your Clients

As a freelancer, you are in charge of everything?from invoicing and collections to fun stuff like giving yourself an annual bonus. So, when it comes to giving holiday gifts to your clients, the choice is entirely yours. On the one hand, most clients don’t expect to receive gifts from small vendors or independent contractors. On [...]

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Raising the (Social Tool) Bar

I?m sure at some point you?ve all noticed a toolbar located at the bottom of a website. Sometimes I don?t like how they look, but I?ve personally used Wibiya on my own site, TheWebBlend.com because they do offer some great features that can dramatically increase your number of visitors and page views. Installing one of [...]

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Saturday, July 30, 2011

10 Colour-Inspired Buildings to Light up Your Day

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This is a guest post from Antonina of OpenBuildings – a community-driven and openly editable encyclopaedia of buildings from around the world. It’s a database of historic, contemporary and conceptual architecture that exists as a�website�and�application for iPhone�(and any moment now – Android) which enable users to find, learn about and share nearby buildings of architectural [...]

This is a post from Inspired Magazine. If you like it, you may want to subscribe to our RSS full feed to be updated on every article we're publishing. Also, it's highly recommended to follow us on Twitter!

10 Colour-Inspired Buildings to Light up Your Day

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10 Best Flickr Groups Featuring Original Toy Photography

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Love toys? Love photography? Have you ever considered combining the two? Toy photography has been a major source of photo inspiration for years. The look of a doll or stuffed animal captured in a certain way can have a major emotional influence, and we have seen examples of that in the prevalence of abandoned or [...]

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Freelancer, the Lazy Bum ? An Essay

Credit: Yuri Arcurs on Photodune

?Free? is both exciting and scary, always followed by skepticism. If something is free we wonder what the catch is, so no wonder the ?free? in ?freelancer? makes us shady people. I mean, how can we say we work if we don?t have jobs, if we just sit at our computers all day…at home! I mean, the only people who do that are lazy bums, right?

Freelancers are the black sheep of their circles,�idealist flakes, slackers who embrace laziness, and are sources of embarrassment to their corporate parents. In an article on annoying questions freelance writers get asked, right here on FreelanceSwitch, commenters mentioned what they go through as freelancers:

A freelancer and stay-at-home mom is asked, ?but you?ll go back to work once your daughter goes to school, right??
A guy’s wife thinks he?s playing computer games all day.
An author is excited about showing her mom a copy of her book not because she?s proud of her work, but just so she can show her mom that she works for a living and no, she doesn?t need to borrow $20, mom.

Why do people think we?re slackers for opting for freelance freedom? Freedom might be something we all say we want, but freedom is also highly feared and misunderstood.

Job as the Societal Norm vs. Freelance Slackers

Throughout history humans have been expected to abide by certain norms and in olden days (and even in certain societies today) if you were different you might even be killed so not to disturb the order, you know, by giving others any pesky ideas, such as the belief that one has the right not to be enslaved.

Freelancing isn?t a new idea, but the norm in modern societies is to have a job that you can go to every day, it’s just what people do. Even housewives who clean, cook, iron and take care of their children are traditionally thought of as non-contributing members of society (and seen as having it easy), as largely you?re seen as productive if you work for someone else and you?re considered successful when you have that corner office. Equating freedom to success makes you an idealist who will eventually ask your friends and family who have jobs for cash.

Mobile Freelancers Must be Lazy Vagabonds

In my case, as a mobile freelancer I?m seen not only as a lazy bum, but also as a loser for having chosen not to have a fixed address for some time. I?m asked why don’t I just get a job and settle in the same tone that someone might be asked, “Why don’t you put that broken arm in a cast?” But if I tell someone that I don’t want a job, that I like going where I want, when I want, their first reaction is ?you must be rich!? which is followed by an intense expression of envy in every one of their body cells.

If I tell them that I?m actually poor, that I like my life and that they too can do what they want with their lives I set off their defense mechanism, which releases a black cloud of resignation above their head.�?But I have a job!�I have responsibilities!? they’ll exclaim.

Explaining that I actually work though I don’t have a job�hardly has an effect, since people don?t have jobs because they want to work, they have jobs because they want secure paychecks – forget about explaining that I too have responsibilities, as they firmly believe I have a personal assistant who even feeds me magic grapes.

Humans Need Security, but What About Freedom?

But that word�secure… Mostly humans want security and that goes way back to when we were cavemen running from hungry tigers. This need for security is still with us today, if not instinctively then because of real danger, or because of made-up dangers found in the news.

Freedom on the other hand is not secure. You want to hear of the ultimate freedom? I used to volunteer with the homeless and once a former big-league college basketball player (yes, who?d become homeless) said to me, ?Don?t feel bad for me. I have to worry about getting something to eat, but I choose to be on the streets because this is where I can be free.?

I thought he was just crazy, but I came to understand what he meant when I started working with people who were enslaved by their paychecks, by their bills, by their fear of failure and of doing what they love; in fact, I became one of those people and only recently have I become comfortable with the idea that a job doesn?t imply automatic unhappiness.

Office Job, Not the Purpose of Life

Sometimes I actually consider going back to an office job, keeping in mind a list of things to watch out for and to ask for. But again I’m now living in Amsterdam, where work is not the purpose of life and where it’s common to work 32-hour weeks.

I mean, there are many perks to an office job. If it?s a slow day the job-holder can surf the web or take 25 coffee breaks. It doesn?t really matter because the company?s in charge of getting the work; whereas, the job-holder?s in charge of doing the work.

If clients don?t pay the company the job-holder still gets his paycheck, benefits, holidays and whatnot. Should the job-holder hurt his hand he?ll go on sick leave and still get a portion or all of his pay. In this sense, a job-holder relies on his ability to work, but not fully on himself to meet his needs, so trying to explain to him what it?s like to rely completely and solely on oneself for everything is usually futile.

Having a traditional job isn?t easy, but the preoccupations that come with it aren’t all comparable to those of a freelancer, who, like the homeless basketball player, can enjoy his freedom as long as he can get enough to eat.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Yuri Arcurs.

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Chop: A cool new way to share code snippets

“Paste code snippets. Add notes. Send to nerds” ‘? ‘nough said.

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33 Curious Uses of Periodic Tables ? Great Visualizations or Mendeleev?s Worst Nightmare?

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One of the first contacts we all have with a data visualization, in the early stages of our academic life, is the Periodic Table of Elements. I know, we do graphs and charts way before that, but, really, is there a more universal, and recognizable, visualization in the world?

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Jimmie Watson

Site5 - Web Hosting for Web Designers

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QR Codes: the Future of Marketing

Recently I was introduced to the unusual concept of QR codes. As this opened a whole new world to me I started looking for more information on the use and success of these mysterious codes.

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Harnessing The Power of Proposals

Credit: Pressmaster on Photodune.

Being a freelancer by nature, I?ve learned early on that producing great work is only half the battle. I couldn?t tell you how many times I?ve sat idly by clicking the refresh button on my email client, waiting to hear from the prospective client that my bid has been accepted.

If you don?t get the job, you don?t have any work. Although confident that my portfolio could convince even the most skeptic decision makers, too many exiting and interesting projects were slipping through my fingertips.

Rather than continuing to allow great prospects to drift over to an unknown competitor, I put my problem-solving abilities to work to correct a flaw in my business structure. What I discovered is that while portfolios are a good start, a well written proposal is the icing on the cake that seals the deal on sales, turning that hopeful shot in the dark into a trusting client that is excited to hire you.

While a good portfolio peaks a prospect?s interest in your work, they can often be left with a feeling of uncertainty if that is the only basis they have in choosing you. A customized proposal will show the client exactly how your work history applies to their specific needs.

How to Structure a Proprosal

By beginning with a Purpose Statement, your client will know that you understand their needs, and by listing the Goals that the client has for their project, you are providing convincing evidence that you and your client are on the same page. For good measure, include any Background Information that the client has provided you, even if only to prove that you?ve been paying attention.

Rather than aimlessly trying to convince a prospect that you?re their best choice, your proposal will provide a focused draft of how you intend to complete the project by stating the Scope, Deliverables, and Schedule for the project.

The Scope will identify the services that you are providing, and the Deliverables section identifies everything that you will provide the client in order to turn the end product over to them.

By providing a tentative Project Schedule, your client will know when to expect the work to be completed, so that they may understand how the turnaround fits into their timeline. By providing these elements, you are demonstrating to the prospective client that you are organized and have already begun identifying the logistics of their project for them.

After impressing a prospect with your organization skills and demonstrating your interest in their project, you can provide them with an Estimate of the costs they will incur. By following up with a Benefits Summary, you quickly shift their focus from the dreaded pricing section to an uplifting note about the value they will be receiving.

Benefits of Creating Custom Proposals

You can also provide any additional information and appendixes that are relevant to the project, and feel confident that the extra effort you put forth will leave an impression that builds client confidence in your work. It’s helpful to understand more about the request for proposal process as well, especially for larger projects.

While it may require a bit more time than pasting your resume into an email, a customized proposal will ensure that you receive less rejections and start every project off on the right foot. You?re organized, your client is well-informed? Now all that?s left to do is what you do best.