Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Photoshop Concept Art Tutorial *For Beginners* : Sketching Simple Value - 2 - Jet

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How Can a Marketer Take Advantage of Facebook?s New Send Dialog?

Back in April, Facebook rolled out the Send button, a function that provided a simple and direct way for users to privately share content through the platform.

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Questions to Ask Yourself Before Becoming a Blogger

For the most part, being a professional blogger is a freelance position. It doesn’t matter how many different blog sites you are loyal to, even if it is your own, a blogger still has the option to have work published anywhere they feel. Unless you’re a corporate blogger who signed a contract with your company [...]

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How to Use Any Font on the Web

As a designer, typography is a very important aspect to my work. Now as far as print design, implementing any form of type isn't a problem, but when it comes to the web then there's only a certain amount of fonts you can use, right? WRONG.div class="feedflare"
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the New Solstice

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The Future Of Screen Typography Is In Your Hands

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Agenciart

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Laughing My Socks Off

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Monday, January 30, 2012

9 Steps to Starting Your Freelance Web Design Business

pa href='http://rss.buysellads.com/click.php?z=1259904k=f7b7931ec28da9e4ff2580bfd4eddb18a=23604c=368883210' target='_blank'
img src='http://rss.buysellads.com/img.php?z=1259904k=f7b7931ec28da9e4ff2580bfd4eddb18a=23604c=368883210' border='0' alt='' //a/pbr /pimg src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/laptop-in-open-fire.jpg" alt="" title="Laptop in open fire" width="550" height="414" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24157" //p
pSo, you want to be a freelance web designer? Ah, the glamor of it all. /p
pYour own boss, answering only to the call of your creative muse? get up, feel inspired, do some work, go for a walk, laugh knowingly with other freelancers who have also discovered emThe Secret/em of: high profile projects, the big bucks, expensive coffee, conferences in glamorous European cities, laughing at the corporate rats you#8217;ve left behind? enjoying the high life that you so richly deserve. Hurrah!/p
pOr? welcome to a world of uncertainty, of irregular income, of blurred lines between work and home. Where, instead of having just one boss telling you what to do, you have 20 bosses across 3 different time zones who a href="http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/"want their logo bigger/a now, dammit!/p
pThe truth lies somewhere in between, of course #8211; but you#8217;re more likely to achieve the success you would like (and the balance you strive for) if you can create a plan and structure for your freelance business early on./p
pIn this post you#8217;ll learn the main issues you need to consider to set up your freelance web design business. Up front though, I#8217;m going to make some assumptions about you #8211; I#8217;m going to assume that you#8217;re motivated to do this. It#8217;s not something you want to fall into by accident. /p
pI#8217;m going to assume that you have some basic skills in web design #8211; that you#8217;ve learned your craft and that you#8217;re ready to promote your services to potential paying clients. And I#8217;m going to assume that you have a little business savvy, a good amount of time, and a real commitment to doing this. Okay? Okay! Let#8217;s get started.span id="more-23604"/span/p
pa href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/05/how-to-become-successful-freelance"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/theguardian.png" alt="" title="theguardian" width="550" height="502" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-23646" //a/p
h4Resources: Are you ready to freelance?/h4
ul
listronga href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/05/how-to-become-successful-freelance"How to Become a Successful Freelance/a/strong #8211; Outsourcing and social media mean there#8217;s never been a better time to freelance. Check out these top tips to see if freelancing can work for you./li
listronga href="http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/04/20-reasons-you-shouldnt-be-a-freelancer/"20 Reasons You Shouldn?t be a Freelancer/a/strong #8211; Make an informed decision about whether freelancing as a web designer is really something you want to do in your career./li
listronga href="http://www.sitepoint.com/kits/web-design-business-kit"The Web Design Business Kit/a/strong #8211; This resource from SitePoint is the bible for many. It?s not cheap #8211; at $247 it may be your largest start up purchase. But people swear by it./li
/ul
h3Step 1: Calculate Start Up Costs/h3
pEverything has costs associated with it #8211; how much will a move to freelancing cost you? Make a list of the basic equipment you#8217;re going to need. At first, it might just be a computer and a phone. /p
pYou#8217;ll want to factor in the cost of registering your domain name and hosting your own website. You might want to get business cards printed, a dedicated desk, stationery supplies and so forth. You#8217;ll need new pajamas for sitting around in all day (optional)./p
blockquote class="pullquote"pI know people who hopped from one free trial to another for the first 6 months of their freelance career./p/blockquote
pWill you need new software? As you start out, download free trials of popular web design software #8211; like Espresso, Coda, Aptana, or Adobe Dreamweaver #8211; it#8217;ll give you 30 days to get familiar with it. I know people who hopped from one free trial to another for the first 6 months of their freelance career. When you have the money, purchase the one you liked the best./p
pDo you need health insurance? Do you need personal liability insurance (yes, if you are taking office space)? Do you need any other insurance, or to pay any kind of taxes before you start out?/p
pFinding a good accountant early on who can help you with this is essential. Most accountants won#8217;t charge you for an initial meeting, so meet up with a few local ones, and glean as much advice as you can up front as regards your tax position and any other liabilities you might have./p
pa href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/01/pf/saving/cost_of_going_freelance/index.htm"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Picture-1.png" alt="" title="Picture 1" width="550" height="550" class="alignright imageborder size-full wp-image-24131" //a/p
h4Resources: the cost of becoming a freelancer/h4
ul
listronga href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/01/pf/saving/cost_of_going_freelance/index.htm"Cost of going freelance/a/strong #8211; This article from CNN Money reviews some of the hidden costs of going freelance to consider before you take the leap./li
listronga href="http://freelancefolder.com/what-it-really-costs-to-be-a-freelancer/"What it really costs to be a freelancer/a/strong #8211; This comprehensive article from FreelanceFolder reviews the major costs of starting any freelance business./li
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/health-insurance-for-freelancers"Health Insurance for Freelancers/a/strong #8211; This article here on FreelanceSwitch goes in-depth into the costs and needs of health insurance for freelancers./li
/ul
h3Step 2: Establish Your Brand/h3
pHow are you going to brand yourself? Many freelance web designers use their name as their brand #8211; this is great and can lend real personal attachment #8211; clients know that they#8217;re getting an individual, someone who maybe has a bit more flexibility in their availability, someone they can hire probably a bit cheaper than a fully fledged agency./p
pAlternatively, like I did, consider using a more formal name for your fledgling business, especially if you envisage your business becoming more robust in the future. If you have plans to maybe turn yourself into a studio, with a couple of people working for you, you might want to start out with a more formal company name./p
pThink about how you would like to be perceived #8211; as an individual brand, or as a young company. Think about what your potential clients will read into this and ask yourself whether that fits in with your view as a freelancer. /p
pa href="http://rockablepress.com/minibooks/rockstar-personal-branding"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/rockstar-brand.png" alt="" title="rockstar-brand" width="550" height="480" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24138" //a/p
h4Resources: Developing your brand/h4
ul
listronga href="http://rockablepress.com/minibooks/rockstar-personal-branding"Rockstar Personal Branding/a/strong #8211; A professional and free branding book written by former FreelanceSwitch Editor Skellie #8211; go get it now!/li
listronga href="http://www.skelliewag.org/how-to-start-or-start-over-building-your-personal-brand-877.htm"Building Your Personal Brand/a/strong #8211; More thoughts on building your brand from the same author as the book above./li
/ul
h3Step 3: Create Your Own Portfolio Website/h3
pYou#8217;re going to need something to point people to #8211; to show off your expertise, to seal the deal, to? well, you know why you need your own website: who#8217;s going to buy a website from someone who doesn#8217;t have one? That#8217;s right. Nobody. /p
pYour website should at the very least clearly state the services you offer, provide a clear means for people to contact you, and wherever possible, showcase some of your work. #8216;Ahh,#8217; I hear you say, #8216;but how can I showcase work if I#8217;m just starting out?#8217;. #8216;Well, #8216; you hear me answer, #8216;let me count the ways?#8217; /p
blockquote class="pullquote pqRight"pI bet there are organizations or groups in your local community who could benefit right now from your services. /p/blockquote
pDo work for free. I don#8217;t mean take on spec work, or enter design competitions, or get your hopes up with the guy who says #8216;look, just do this one little project for me and I#8217;ll give you more work than you can handle in the future#8217;. (Put the phone down on that guy. Now.) /p
pI bet there are organizations or groups in your local community who could benefit right now from your services. Charity organizations, social clubs, church groups, community sports, local schools? whoever they are, they#8217;d likely be extremely grateful to you if you could provide them with a new website, a Facebook page, some banner ads, a blog, or whatever. You can do it for free or very low cost, you#8217;re helping a worthy cause, and you#8217;re generating a portfolio piece. /p
pDo 3 or 4 of these and suddenly your new portfolio is looking quite respectable. Nobody puts all the work they#8217;ve ever done in a portfolio #8211; so just having a few pieces in there might be enough for you./p
pa href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/04/creating-a-successful-online-portfolio/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/folio.png" alt="" title="folio" width="550" height="411" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24142" //a/p
h4Resources: Developing your own portfolio website/h4
ul
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/build-a-killer-online-portfolio-in-9-easy-steps"Building a killer online portfolio in 9 steps/a/strong #8211; Building your portfolio is easy. The hard part is making it good. A killer portfolio does more than just showcase your work. It transforms visitors into clients. Best of all, it?s an automatic work generator. In this post, learn how to take your online portfolio to the next level./li
listronga href="http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/10-solutions-to-easily-create-your-online-portfolio"10 Solutions to easily create your online portfolio/a/strong #8211; Here?s are 10 solutions for easily creating an online portfolio of your own, giving you the platform to showcase your work to the world. These are some great portfolio networks to tap into./li
listronga href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website"10 steps to the perfect portfolio site/a/strong #8211; Learn the key factors that will help yo answer the question of: what makes for a good personal portfolio website? This article on Smashing Magazine is filled with portfolio design tips./li
listronga href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/04/creating-a-successful-online-portfolio"Creating a Successful Online Portolio/a/strong #8211; Take a close look at 5 pitfalls that commonly plague portfolio designs. This article also delivers portfolio tips that, if carefully considered and well executed, will deliver quality results for your portfolio./li
/ul
h3Step 4 #8211; Figure Out How Much to Charge/h3
pThis is a whole separate debate in itself, but you need to at least have a framework for establishing your rates up front or else you#8217;ll end up working for peanuts, find it difficult to ever raise your rates, and it will take much longer for your freelance web design business to get off the ground./p
pFigure out your monthly costs #8211; rent, heat, power, phone bill, travel, insurance, tax liability, etc. Multiply that by 12. Add on what you#8217;d like your annual salary to be. Divide that whole thing by 48 to figure out how much you need to make in a week (allowing for 4 weeks vacation). Then, assume that you#8217;ll be able to do billable work for about 20 hours a week at first. That#8217;s a good place to start for your hourly rate./p
pYou should try and get as specific as you can #8211; although this can be difficult as you?re looking for your first client. But the resources below will help./p
pa href="http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/rates.png" alt="" title="rates" width="550" height="382" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24144" //a/p
h4Resources: how to bill and what to charge/h4
ul
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/rates"Freelanceswitch Rates Calculator/a/strong #8211; FreelanceSwitch developed this hourly rate calculator to give you an interactive guide based on your costs, number of billable hours and desired profit. This very handy tool will help you figure out how much you should be charging per hour./li
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/money/hourly-vs-fixed-pricing"Hourly vs. Fixed Pricing/a/strong #8211; Learn the most common ways freelancers charge their clients for work. Learn the benefits and drawbacks to hourly and fixed pricing with additional advice as well./li
listronga href="http://www.thesambarnes.com/web-project-management/estimating-time-for-web-projects-more-accurately-part-1"Estimate time for web projects more accurately/a/strong #8211; A two part guide from Sam Barnes #8211; goes into great detail about how to break a project down for pricing and is essential reading./li
/ul
h3Step 5: Develop a Sales Cycle/h3
pNotice how I haven#8217;t talked about the actual #8216;doing web design#8217; bit? That#8217;s because you#8217;re not really in the business of web design at all. You#8217;re in the business of selling. From now on, your only real job is to promote your services./p
blockquote class="pullquote"pBeing a fabulous web designer might make you feel all tingly inside, but it means nothing if you?re unable to sell your services./p/blockquote
pBeing a fabulous web designer might make you feel all tingly inside, but it means nothing if you#8217;re unable to sell your services. It won#8217;t put food on the table, that#8217;s for sure./p
pSo, you need to formalize a sales cycle: a process for finding prospects, cultivating your relationship with them, educating them about your services, offering your services to the right ones, fulfilling their expectations, and developing that relationship with them./p
pYou#8217;re going to need ways to find good prospects. Start by identifying your ideal client, who are they, what do they do and where do they hang out (either in person or online)? Start hanging out there too and engaging them in conversation. Work on your elevator pitch #8211; that little burst of information that explains clearly to potential clients how you can help their business and why they should hire you to do it./p
pUse your elevator pitch to summarize who you offer your services to, identify the biggest concerns facing those people, explain how you solve those problems, show how you#8217;ve helped similar people in the past. In conversation it might go something like this:/p
blockquotepYou know how small businesses often struggle to get the most out of their websites? Well, what I do is create websites that really engage browsers and work hard to convert them into customers #8211; with measurable results. One company I worked with recently was able to increase online sales by 40% over 3 months./p/blockquote
pYou#8217;ve told people your target market, and what their concerns are. You#8217;ve explained how you tackle the problem, and you#8217;ve given an example of how you#8217;ve achieved it./p
pa href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/56510"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/sales.png" alt="" title="sales" width="550" height="554" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24146" //a/p
h4LINKS: for building sales cycle, book yourself solid, etc./h4
ul
listronga href="http://www.bookyourselfsolid.com"Michael Port?s Book Yourself Solid Program/a/strong #8211; An incredibly helpful sales book, there?s free chapters on the website./li
listronga href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/56510"Create a Steady Sales Cycle/a/strong #8211; An oldie but a goodie./li
listronga href="http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/sales-marketing-machine/building-the-machine/"Building the Machine/a/strong- In no way freelancer specific (or web design specific for that matter), but an in depth look at the sales process that when implemented will boost your results./li
listronga href="http://www.sitepoint.com/what?s-a-buying-cycle-and-why-should-i-care"Buying Cycle/a/strong #8211; A SitePoint series that starts with understanding the buying cycle. This is part one, but covers the whole sales process./li
/ul
h3Step 6 #8211; Organize a Routine/h3
pYour day is going to need structure. It#8217;ll help you if you can have a consistent structure for your working day. Have a daily schedule mapped out which works around when you are most productive and when you are more likely to get things done. /p
pI try and group like tasks together #8211; if I have a bunch of phone calls to make, I try and do them all mid-morning (after my 2nd cup of coffee). Emails I typically handle mid-afternoon. If I#8217;m coding, I find that easiest to do first thing in the morning when my brain is fresh, and, oddly, last thing in the evening when I get a second wind. /p
pGo with whatever works for you. But being able to stick to a similar routine each day will help you./p
pa href="http://www.freelanceshack.com/the-importance-of-a-daily-schedule/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/daily.png" alt="" title="daily" width="550" height="466" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24149" //a/p
h4Resources: sticking to a routine/h4
ul
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/10-easy-ways-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-day/"10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Day/a/strong #8211; Learn to make your days great, and get the most out of them, by applying a few simple tips./li
listronga href="http://www.freelanceshack.com/the-importance-of-a-daily-schedule/"The importance of a daily schedule/a/strong #8211; This article focuses on four simple, useful strategies to help freelancers control their day and increase productivity with minimal effort and little change of routine./li
/ul
h3Step 7 #8211; Find Your Community and Work It/h3
pThe great thing about being a freelance web designer is that there is a tremendous community of professionals who can support you in what you do. It#8217;s a very open, communicative bunch of people. So start following people on Twitter, getting to know them on LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media hang outs. There are other people out there in similar situations and they have a lot to offer./p
blockquote class="pullquote pqRight"pBe sure to get involved in the communities where you customers are./p/blockquote
pLinkedIn offers a number of groups for freelance professionals. Many are great places to network. Answering questions on LinkedIn is another great way to network #8211; both with fellow professionals and potential clients. Sign up to receive RSS updates on questions from web development boards and spend 10 minutes each day helping out people in need. You establish your expertise and help people out who may be looking for your services./p
pBe sure to get involved in the communities where you customers are. If you#8217;re targeting a specific niche, what online forums do they use? Are there newsgroups that you should belong to? Are there regular meetups that you should be attending?/p
pImmerse yourself in the communities in which you operate and you#8217;ll build up a really strong network #8211; not just of other web designers but of potential clients and referrals./p
pa href="http://css-tricks.com/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/csstricks.png" alt="" title="csstricks" width="550" height="354" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24152" //a/p
h4Resources #8211; web design community/h4
pLook for any sites where the blog posts have a high number of comments and regular contributors. The following are some of the blogs I follow for that reason:/p
ul
listronga href="http://net.tutsplus.com/"Nettuts+/a/strong #8211; Nettuts+ is a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites. This popular tutorial site is part of our Tuts+ educational network./li
listronga href="http://css-tricks.com"Chris Coyier?s Css Tricks/a/strong #8211; One of the top sites for learning CSS and web design techniques, with articles, tutorials, and videos #8211; all excellent./li
listronga href="http://www.alistapart.com"A List Apart/a/strong #8211; Essential reading for people who make websites./li
listronga href="http://www.netmagazine.com/".net magazine/a/strong #8211; Always relevant with a strong community, active Facebook page, and great newsletter/li
/ul
pThere are too many others to mention, but look up the blogs of Jeffrey Zeldman, Dan Cederholm, Eric Meyer, Ethan Marcotte, Sarah Parmenter? they?ll all inspire you at one point or another. a href="http://www.freelanceswitch.com"Freelance Switch/a, of course, is a great resource, with daily posts publishing regularly and years worth of advice in the archives. /p
pOn LinkedIn, the following groups I?ve also found helpful:/p
ul
listronga href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1254407"LinkedIn Freelance Web Designers group/a/strong/li
listronga href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Designers-Talk-92232"LinkedIn Designers Talk group/a/strong/li
listronga href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Web-Professionals-Connect-3002424"Web Professionals Connect group/a/strong/li
/ul
h3Step 8 #8211; Sign Up and Use Learning Sites/h3
pThere are a wealth of web design conferences and other opportunities out there for you to keep on learning your craft. Fabulous resources with a wealth of information to share #8211; some free, some paid for. The important thing is to make time for yourself to develop your craft, to continue learning and to share what you learn with others./p
pSomething often overlooked though is to continue learning the art of freelancing itself #8211; not just web design. There comes a point where, for most of us, continuing to learn more about web design is #8216;only#8217; about our own professional and personal development. It becomes less valuable to the majority of our clients that we know XYZ about latest technology ABC. (It is still valuable to us, but the salable value of the skill becomes diminished). It is at this point that becoming a better freelancer is more important than becoming a better web designer #8211; so never stop learning that also./p
pa href="http://tutsplus.com/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/tuts.png" alt="" title="tuts" width="550" height="424" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24155" //a/p
h4Resources #8211; for developing your core skills/h4
ul
listronga href="http://tutsplus.com/"Tuts+ Premium/a/strong #8211; A Premium subscription based site offering: tutorials, eBooks, videos, courses and more. It covers advanced training in web design, web development, and numerous other topics. This site is a jewel in our network.
listronga href="http://teamtreehouse.com"Treehouse/a/strong #8211; Excellent subscription based video training with a library of well designed content./li
listronga href="http://codelesson.com"Code Lesson/a/strong #8211; This site provides hands-on, practical, online instruction to learn programming./li
listronga href="http://www.w3schools.com"W3 School /a/strong #8211; Well developed web design site for learning coding with ample free learning resources./li
/ul
h3Step 9 #8211; Get Set up with the Tools You#8217;ll Need/h3
pOf course, as you go on you?ll need more bits and pieces. I use software to track time, keep on top of task management, you might use tools for project management or for managing your finances. Here, I?ve listed out a few for each main category of my day to day freelance existence. Most are paid for services, but some are free or have very cheap entry level plans./p
pOne word of advice, take an audit of all your monthly web app payments at the end of each year (or every 6 months) You may well be surprised at how many things you?ve signed up for #8211; and how much it?s costing you!/p
h4Time Tracking/h4
ul
listronga href="http://stuntsoftware.com/onthejob"On the job /a/strong #8211; I use this to track time. It will also create invoices for you, but I personally don?t use it for that. I like this because it?s a stand alone app #8211; rather than a web service. I sync the data via Dropbox (although that is not officially supported, I?ve never had any problems with it) and so it?s available on all my machines./li
listronga href="http://www.getharvest.com"Harvest/a/strong #8211; Full featured online service for time tracking and invoice generation./li
listronga href="https://www.toggl.com"Toggl/a/strong #8211; A relatively new player, but it?s a smooth interface and looks cool with its iOS / Android apps./li
/ul
h4Finances / Invoicing/h4
ul
listronga href="http://www.freeagent.com"Free Agent/a/strong #8211; This is an impressive piece of software. Use it to track time, send estimates, send invoices, integrate with your bank accounts, make cups of tea. (It may not actually make tea). For me, I prefer to separate these processes, but I can see the appeal for many./li
listronga href="http://www.freshbooks.com"Freshbooks/a/strong #8211; Is more of a bookkeeping / invoicing solution. It does less than Free Agent and, in my opinion, is better for it./li
listronga href="http://www.xero.com"Xero/a/strong #8211; Another full online financial management and accounting system./li
/ul
h4Project Management/h4
ul
listronga href="http://basecamphq.com"37Signals products/a/strong #8211; I can?t go through this without mentioning 37Signals product. Basecamp, their project management tool, is probably their most popular./li
listronga href="https://company.podio.com/"Podio/a/strong #8211; This is my favorite solution, since it incorporates some CRM elements and, get this, is free up to 5 users./li
listronga href="http://teambox.com"Team Box/a/strong #8211; This is another good solution for team collaboration and project management./li
/ul
h4Task Management/h4
pMy favorite apps are always task management apps, and I?m genetically incapable of limiting this to just 3 items. Currently, I use three of the below #8211; Things, TeuxDeux and Omni Outliner. I?ve tried all the others though and they?re all fab. It depends on what fits your needs the best, but check them all out:/p
ul
listronga href="http://culturedcode.com/things"Things/a/strong #8211; This is Mac only but integrates nicely with iPhone and iPad apps. Not cheap, though very slick./li
listronga href="http://teuxdeux.com"TeuxDeux/a/strong #8211; Very simple, very effective, very free. It?s a simple to do list, and all the better for it?s simplicity./li
listronga href="http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnioutliner"OmniOutliner/a/strong #8211; Strictly speaking this is an ?idea organization tool? (no, me neither). Since it?s release OmniGroup have put out an app specifically for task management a href="http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/ "OmniFocus/a, but OO came first and it?s what I?ve been using for organizing to-do?s on projects for the past 5 years. I can?t fault it #8211; but I haven?t tried hard to./li
listronga href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com"Remember The Milk/a/strong #8211; This is a strong online task management tool. Another that benefits from the ?do one thing, and do it well? philosophy. Great integration with mobile phones and iPad./li
listronga href="http://tadalist.com"Ta Da List /a/strong #8211; A free product from 37Signals #8211; very simple online to do lists./li
/ul
pSo, there it is. A by no means comprehensive, easy to disagree with, guide to the things you?ll need to start your freelance web design business. Don?t take my word for it though #8211; get out and do it!/p
pemPhoto credit: a title="Attribution License" href="http://photodune.net/wiki/support/legal-terms/licensing-terms/"Some rights reserved/a by a href="http://photodune.net/item/laptop-in-open-fire/1339014"NexusPlexus/a/em./p
pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/yS2zrAtuhlDtnDLhRGySMdsOu7o/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/yS2zrAtuhlDtnDLhRGySMdsOu7o/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/
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a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:wF9xT3WuBAs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:wF9xT3WuBAs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:D7DqB2pKExk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=ajAN9eJnq_Q:mOeU5DU85qw:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"/img/a
/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FreelanceSwitch/~4/ajAN9eJnq_Q" height="1" width="1"/

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Colour Chronicles: Brilliant Blue

Welcome back to another colourful article, this time dealing with last month’s favourite, chosen by you! Just as last time, it includes a showcase of websites, artwork and palettes, so there is a little something for everybody. Basics Blue is one of the three primary colours and as such is also part of the chromatic [...]

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How to Take Good Sports Photographs

Shooting sports pictures can be very exciting and fulfilling experience, provided you have patience and necessary skills. A fundamental knowledge of the game definitely helps in sports photography. Browse a lot of sports magazines or photography websites to get an idea and feel of the game. Things Which are Important Camera Camera can be a simple one as long its limitations are clearly understood. A simple camera can successfully show scenes at the start of an event or overall view of the event, but close shots of runners or close shots of happenings at the goal-post in a football orContinue Reading

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The Figurehead

Site5 - Web Hosting for Web Designers

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How to Use Any Font on the Web

As a designer, typography is a very important aspect to my work. Now as far as print design, implementing any form of type isn't a problem, but when it comes to the web then there's only a certain amount of fonts you can use, right? WRONG.div class="feedflare"
a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=c5Dy5qfIVhA:a5sKADNkUEM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=c5Dy5qfIVhA:a5sKADNkUEM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?i=c5Dy5qfIVhA:a5sKADNkUEM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=c5Dy5qfIVhA:a5sKADNkUEM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=c5Dy5qfIVhA:a5sKADNkUEM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?i=c5Dy5qfIVhA:a5sKADNkUEM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=c5Dy5qfIVhA:a5sKADNkUEM:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a
/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheInteractiveWall/~4/c5Dy5qfIVhA" height="1" width="1"/

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Ad Swaps: A Smart and Easy Way to Get Free Traffic

After yesterday’s post on marketing without search engines, I decided to follow up with a strategy you can use to get quality free traffic. One of the easiest ways to get visitors to your web site is to spend money. Nothing is more effortless then paying for traffic. But if you can’t afford it or [...]



Ad Swaps: A Smart and Easy Way to Get Free Traffic

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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.#160; Installing one of [...]div class="feedflare"
a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=4ah-QNw6vRw:_N9IBbU2E2U:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=4ah-QNw6vRw:_N9IBbU2E2U:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?i=4ah-QNw6vRw:_N9IBbU2E2U:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=4ah-QNw6vRw:_N9IBbU2E2U:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=4ah-QNw6vRw:_N9IBbU2E2U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?i=4ah-QNw6vRw:_N9IBbU2E2U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=4ah-QNw6vRw:_N9IBbU2E2U:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a
/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheInteractiveWall/~4/4ah-QNw6vRw" height="1" width="1"/

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Designing The Well-Tempered Web

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9 Steps to Starting Your Freelance Web Design Business

pa href='http://rss.buysellads.com/click.php?z=1259904k=f7b7931ec28da9e4ff2580bfd4eddb18a=23604c=2072082430' target='_blank'
img src='http://rss.buysellads.com/img.php?z=1259904k=f7b7931ec28da9e4ff2580bfd4eddb18a=23604c=2072082430' border='0' alt='' //a/pbr /pimg src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/laptop-in-open-fire.jpg" alt="" title="Laptop in open fire" width="550" height="414" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24157" //p
pSo, you want to be a freelance web designer? Ah, the glamor of it all. /p
pYour own boss, answering only to the call of your creative muse? get up, feel inspired, do some work, go for a walk, laugh knowingly with other freelancers who have also discovered emThe Secret/em of: high profile projects, the big bucks, expensive coffee, conferences in glamorous European cities, laughing at the corporate rats you#8217;ve left behind? enjoying the high life that you so richly deserve. Hurrah!/p
pOr? welcome to a world of uncertainty, of irregular income, of blurred lines between work and home. Where, instead of having just one boss telling you what to do, you have 20 bosses across 3 different time zones who a href="http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/"want their logo bigger/a now, dammit!/p
pThe truth lies somewhere in between, of course #8211; but you#8217;re more likely to achieve the success you would like (and the balance you strive for) if you can create a plan and structure for your freelance business early on./p
pIn this post you#8217;ll learn the main issues you need to consider to set up your freelance web design business. Up front though, I#8217;m going to make some assumptions about you #8211; I#8217;m going to assume that you#8217;re motivated to do this. It#8217;s not something you want to fall into by accident. /p
pI#8217;m going to assume that you have some basic skills in web design #8211; that you#8217;ve learned your craft and that you#8217;re ready to promote your services to potential paying clients. And I#8217;m going to assume that you have a little business savvy, a good amount of time, and a real commitment to doing this. Okay? Okay! Let#8217;s get started.span id="more-23604"/span/p
pa href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/05/how-to-become-successful-freelance"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/theguardian.png" alt="" title="theguardian" width="550" height="502" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-23646" //a/p
h4Resources: Are you ready to freelance?/h4
ul
listronga href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/05/how-to-become-successful-freelance"How to Become a Successful Freelance/a/strong #8211; Outsourcing and social media mean there#8217;s never been a better time to freelance. Check out these top tips to see if freelancing can work for you./li
listronga href="http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/04/20-reasons-you-shouldnt-be-a-freelancer/"20 Reasons You Shouldn?t be a Freelancer/a/strong #8211; Make an informed decision about whether freelancing as a web designer is really something you want to do in your career./li
listronga href="http://www.sitepoint.com/kits/web-design-business-kit"The Web Design Business Kit/a/strong #8211; This resource from SitePoint is the bible for many. It?s not cheap #8211; at $247 it may be your largest start up purchase. But people swear by it./li
/ul
h3Step 1: Calculate Start Up Costs/h3
pEverything has costs associated with it #8211; how much will a move to freelancing cost you? Make a list of the basic equipment you#8217;re going to need. At first, it might just be a computer and a phone. /p
pYou#8217;ll want to factor in the cost of registering your domain name and hosting your own website. You might want to get business cards printed, a dedicated desk, stationery supplies and so forth. You#8217;ll need new pajamas for sitting around in all day (optional)./p
blockquote class="pullquote"pI know people who hopped from one free trial to another for the first 6 months of their freelance career./p/blockquote
pWill you need new software? As you start out, download free trials of popular web design software #8211; like Espresso, Coda, Aptana, or Adobe Dreamweaver #8211; it#8217;ll give you 30 days to get familiar with it. I know people who hopped from one free trial to another for the first 6 months of their freelance career. When you have the money, purchase the one you liked the best./p
pDo you need health insurance? Do you need personal liability insurance (yes, if you are taking office space)? Do you need any other insurance, or to pay any kind of taxes before you start out?/p
pFinding a good accountant early on who can help you with this is essential. Most accountants won#8217;t charge you for an initial meeting, so meet up with a few local ones, and glean as much advice as you can up front as regards your tax position and any other liabilities you might have./p
pa href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/01/pf/saving/cost_of_going_freelance/index.htm"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Picture-1.png" alt="" title="Picture 1" width="550" height="550" class="alignright imageborder size-full wp-image-24131" //a/p
h4Resources: the cost of becoming a freelancer/h4
ul
listronga href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/01/pf/saving/cost_of_going_freelance/index.htm"Cost of going freelance/a/strong #8211; This article from CNN Money reviews some of the hidden costs of going freelance to consider before you take the leap./li
listronga href="http://freelancefolder.com/what-it-really-costs-to-be-a-freelancer/"What it really costs to be a freelancer/a/strong #8211; This comprehensive article from FreelanceFolder reviews the major costs of starting any freelance business./li
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/health-insurance-for-freelancers"Health Insurance for Freelancers/a/strong #8211; This article here on FreelanceSwitch goes in-depth into the costs and needs of health insurance for freelancers./li
/ul
h3Step 2: Establish Your Brand/h3
pHow are you going to brand yourself? Many freelance web designers use their name as their brand #8211; this is great and can lend real personal attachment #8211; clients know that they#8217;re getting an individual, someone who maybe has a bit more flexibility in their availability, someone they can hire probably a bit cheaper than a fully fledged agency./p
pAlternatively, like I did, consider using a more formal name for your fledgling business, especially if you envisage your business becoming more robust in the future. If you have plans to maybe turn yourself into a studio, with a couple of people working for you, you might want to start out with a more formal company name./p
pThink about how you would like to be perceived #8211; as an individual brand, or as a young company. Think about what your potential clients will read into this and ask yourself whether that fits in with your view as a freelancer. /p
pa href="http://rockablepress.com/minibooks/rockstar-personal-branding"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/rockstar-brand.png" alt="" title="rockstar-brand" width="550" height="480" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24138" //a/p
h4Resources: Developing your brand/h4
ul
listronga href="http://rockablepress.com/minibooks/rockstar-personal-branding"Rockstar Personal Branding/a/strong #8211; A professional and free branding book written by former FreelanceSwitch Editor Skellie #8211; go get it now!/li
listronga href="http://www.skelliewag.org/how-to-start-or-start-over-building-your-personal-brand-877.htm"Building Your Personal Brand/a/strong #8211; More thoughts on building your brand from the same author as the book above./li
/ul
h3Step 3: Create Your Own Portfolio Website/h3
pYou#8217;re going to need something to point people to #8211; to show off your expertise, to seal the deal, to? well, you know why you need your own website: who#8217;s going to buy a website from someone who doesn#8217;t have one? That#8217;s right. Nobody. /p
pYour website should at the very least clearly state the services you offer, provide a clear means for people to contact you, and wherever possible, showcase some of your work. #8216;Ahh,#8217; I hear you say, #8216;but how can I showcase work if I#8217;m just starting out?#8217;. #8216;Well, #8216; you hear me answer, #8216;let me count the ways?#8217; /p
blockquote class="pullquote pqRight"pI bet there are organizations or groups in your local community who could benefit right now from your services. /p/blockquote
pDo work for free. I don#8217;t mean take on spec work, or enter design competitions, or get your hopes up with the guy who says #8216;look, just do this one little project for me and I#8217;ll give you more work than you can handle in the future#8217;. (Put the phone down on that guy. Now.) /p
pI bet there are organizations or groups in your local community who could benefit right now from your services. Charity organizations, social clubs, church groups, community sports, local schools? whoever they are, they#8217;d likely be extremely grateful to you if you could provide them with a new website, a Facebook page, some banner ads, a blog, or whatever. You can do it for free or very low cost, you#8217;re helping a worthy cause, and you#8217;re generating a portfolio piece. /p
pDo 3 or 4 of these and suddenly your new portfolio is looking quite respectable. Nobody puts all the work they#8217;ve ever done in a portfolio #8211; so just having a few pieces in there might be enough for you./p
pa href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/04/creating-a-successful-online-portfolio/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/folio.png" alt="" title="folio" width="550" height="411" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24142" //a/p
h4Resources: Developing your own portfolio website/h4
ul
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/build-a-killer-online-portfolio-in-9-easy-steps"Building a killer online portfolio in 9 steps/a/strong #8211; Building your portfolio is easy. The hard part is making it good. A killer portfolio does more than just showcase your work. It transforms visitors into clients. Best of all, it?s an automatic work generator. In this post, learn how to take your online portfolio to the next level./li
listronga href="http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/10-solutions-to-easily-create-your-online-portfolio"10 Solutions to easily create your online portfolio/a/strong #8211; Here?s are 10 solutions for easily creating an online portfolio of your own, giving you the platform to showcase your work to the world. These are some great portfolio networks to tap into./li
listronga href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/26/10-steps-to-the-perfect-portfolio-website"10 steps to the perfect portfolio site/a/strong #8211; Learn the key factors that will help yo answer the question of: what makes for a good personal portfolio website? This article on Smashing Magazine is filled with portfolio design tips./li
listronga href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/04/creating-a-successful-online-portfolio"Creating a Successful Online Portolio/a/strong #8211; Take a close look at 5 pitfalls that commonly plague portfolio designs. This article also delivers portfolio tips that, if carefully considered and well executed, will deliver quality results for your portfolio./li
/ul
h3Step 4 #8211; Figure Out How Much to Charge/h3
pThis is a whole separate debate in itself, but you need to at least have a framework for establishing your rates up front or else you#8217;ll end up working for peanuts, find it difficult to ever raise your rates, and it will take much longer for your freelance web design business to get off the ground./p
pFigure out your monthly costs #8211; rent, heat, power, phone bill, travel, insurance, tax liability, etc. Multiply that by 12. Add on what you#8217;d like your annual salary to be. Divide that whole thing by 48 to figure out how much you need to make in a week (allowing for 4 weeks vacation). Then, assume that you#8217;ll be able to do billable work for about 20 hours a week at first. That#8217;s a good place to start for your hourly rate./p
pYou should try and get as specific as you can #8211; although this can be difficult as you?re looking for your first client. But the resources below will help./p
pa href="http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/rates.png" alt="" title="rates" width="550" height="382" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24144" //a/p
h4Resources: how to bill and what to charge/h4
ul
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/rates"Freelanceswitch Rates Calculator/a/strong #8211; FreelanceSwitch developed this hourly rate calculator to give you an interactive guide based on your costs, number of billable hours and desired profit. This very handy tool will help you figure out how much you should be charging per hour./li
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/money/hourly-vs-fixed-pricing"Hourly vs. Fixed Pricing/a/strong #8211; Learn the most common ways freelancers charge their clients for work. Learn the benefits and drawbacks to hourly and fixed pricing with additional advice as well./li
listronga href="http://www.thesambarnes.com/web-project-management/estimating-time-for-web-projects-more-accurately-part-1"Estimate time for web projects more accurately/a/strong #8211; A two part guide from Sam Barnes #8211; goes into great detail about how to break a project down for pricing and is essential reading./li
/ul
h3Step 5: Develop a Sales Cycle/h3
pNotice how I haven#8217;t talked about the actual #8216;doing web design#8217; bit? That#8217;s because you#8217;re not really in the business of web design at all. You#8217;re in the business of selling. From now on, your only real job is to promote your services./p
blockquote class="pullquote"pBeing a fabulous web designer might make you feel all tingly inside, but it means nothing if you?re unable to sell your services./p/blockquote
pBeing a fabulous web designer might make you feel all tingly inside, but it means nothing if you#8217;re unable to sell your services. It won#8217;t put food on the table, that#8217;s for sure./p
pSo, you need to formalize a sales cycle: a process for finding prospects, cultivating your relationship with them, educating them about your services, offering your services to the right ones, fulfilling their expectations, and developing that relationship with them./p
pYou#8217;re going to need ways to find good prospects. Start by identifying your ideal client, who are they, what do they do and where do they hang out (either in person or online)? Start hanging out there too and engaging them in conversation. Work on your elevator pitch #8211; that little burst of information that explains clearly to potential clients how you can help their business and why they should hire you to do it./p
pUse your elevator pitch to summarize who you offer your services to, identify the biggest concerns facing those people, explain how you solve those problems, show how you#8217;ve helped similar people in the past. In conversation it might go something like this:/p
blockquotepYou know how small businesses often struggle to get the most out of their websites? Well, what I do is create websites that really engage browsers and work hard to convert them into customers #8211; with measurable results. One company I worked with recently was able to increase online sales by 40% over 3 months./p/blockquote
pYou#8217;ve told people your target market, and what their concerns are. You#8217;ve explained how you tackle the problem, and you#8217;ve given an example of how you#8217;ve achieved it./p
pa href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/56510"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/sales.png" alt="" title="sales" width="550" height="554" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24146" //a/p
h4LINKS: for building sales cycle, book yourself solid, etc./h4
ul
listronga href="http://www.bookyourselfsolid.com"Michael Port?s Book Yourself Solid Program/a/strong #8211; An incredibly helpful sales book, there?s free chapters on the website./li
listronga href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/56510"Create a Steady Sales Cycle/a/strong #8211; An oldie but a goodie./li
listronga href="http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/sales-marketing-machine/building-the-machine/"Building the Machine/a/strong- In no way freelancer specific (or web design specific for that matter), but an in depth look at the sales process that when implemented will boost your results./li
listronga href="http://www.sitepoint.com/what?s-a-buying-cycle-and-why-should-i-care"Buying Cycle/a/strong #8211; A SitePoint series that starts with understanding the buying cycle. This is part one, but covers the whole sales process./li
/ul
h3Step 6 #8211; Organize a Routine/h3
pYour day is going to need structure. It#8217;ll help you if you can have a consistent structure for your working day. Have a daily schedule mapped out which works around when you are most productive and when you are more likely to get things done. /p
pI try and group like tasks together #8211; if I have a bunch of phone calls to make, I try and do them all mid-morning (after my 2nd cup of coffee). Emails I typically handle mid-afternoon. If I#8217;m coding, I find that easiest to do first thing in the morning when my brain is fresh, and, oddly, last thing in the evening when I get a second wind. /p
pGo with whatever works for you. But being able to stick to a similar routine each day will help you./p
pa href="http://www.freelanceshack.com/the-importance-of-a-daily-schedule/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/daily.png" alt="" title="daily" width="550" height="466" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24149" //a/p
h4Resources: sticking to a routine/h4
ul
listronga href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/10-easy-ways-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-day/"10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Day/a/strong #8211; Learn to make your days great, and get the most out of them, by applying a few simple tips./li
listronga href="http://www.freelanceshack.com/the-importance-of-a-daily-schedule/"The importance of a daily schedule/a/strong #8211; This article focuses on four simple, useful strategies to help freelancers control their day and increase productivity with minimal effort and little change of routine./li
/ul
h3Step 7 #8211; Find Your Community and Work It/h3
pThe great thing about being a freelance web designer is that there is a tremendous community of professionals who can support you in what you do. It#8217;s a very open, communicative bunch of people. So start following people on Twitter, getting to know them on LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media hang outs. There are other people out there in similar situations and they have a lot to offer./p
blockquote class="pullquote pqRight"pBe sure to get involved in the communities where you customers are./p/blockquote
pLinkedIn offers a number of groups for freelance professionals. Many are great places to network. Answering questions on LinkedIn is another great way to network #8211; both with fellow professionals and potential clients. Sign up to receive RSS updates on questions from web development boards and spend 10 minutes each day helping out people in need. You establish your expertise and help people out who may be looking for your services./p
pBe sure to get involved in the communities where you customers are. If you#8217;re targeting a specific niche, what online forums do they use? Are there newsgroups that you should belong to? Are there regular meetups that you should be attending?/p
pImmerse yourself in the communities in which you operate and you#8217;ll build up a really strong network #8211; not just of other web designers but of potential clients and referrals./p
pa href="http://css-tricks.com/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/csstricks.png" alt="" title="csstricks" width="550" height="354" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24152" //a/p
h4Resources #8211; web design community/h4
pLook for any sites where the blog posts have a high number of comments and regular contributors. The following are some of the blogs I follow for that reason:/p
ul
listronga href="http://net.tutsplus.com/"Nettuts+/a/strong #8211; Nettuts+ is a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites. This popular tutorial site is part of our Tuts+ educational network./li
listronga href="http://css-tricks.com"Chris Coyier?s Css Tricks/a/strong #8211; One of the top sites for learning CSS and web design techniques, with articles, tutorials, and videos #8211; all excellent./li
listronga href="http://www.alistapart.com"A List Apart/a/strong #8211; Essential reading for people who make websites./li
listronga href="http://www.netmagazine.com/".net magazine/a/strong #8211; Always relevant with a strong community, active Facebook page, and great newsletter/li
/ul
pThere are too many others to mention, but look up the blogs of Jeffrey Zeldman, Dan Cederholm, Eric Meyer, Ethan Marcotte, Sarah Parmenter? they?ll all inspire you at one point or another. a href="http://www.freelanceswitch.com"Freelance Switch/a, of course, is a great resource, with daily posts publishing regularly and years worth of advice in the archives. /p
pOn LinkedIn, the following groups I?ve also found helpful:/p
ul
listronga href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1254407"LinkedIn Freelance Web Designers group/a/strong/li
listronga href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Designers-Talk-92232"LinkedIn Designers Talk group/a/strong/li
listronga href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Web-Professionals-Connect-3002424"Web Professionals Connect group/a/strong/li
/ul
h3Step 8 #8211; Sign Up and Use Learning Sites/h3
pThere are a wealth of web design conferences and other opportunities out there for you to keep on learning your craft. Fabulous resources with a wealth of information to share #8211; some free, some paid for. The important thing is to make time for yourself to develop your craft, to continue learning and to share what you learn with others./p
pSomething often overlooked though is to continue learning the art of freelancing itself #8211; not just web design. There comes a point where, for most of us, continuing to learn more about web design is #8216;only#8217; about our own professional and personal development. It becomes less valuable to the majority of our clients that we know XYZ about latest technology ABC. (It is still valuable to us, but the salable value of the skill becomes diminished). It is at this point that becoming a better freelancer is more important than becoming a better web designer #8211; so never stop learning that also./p
pa href="http://tutsplus.com/"img src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/tuts.png" alt="" title="tuts" width="550" height="424" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24155" //a/p
h4Resources #8211; for developing your core skills/h4
ul
listronga href="http://tutsplus.com/"Tuts+ Premium/a/strong #8211; A Premium subscription based site offering: tutorials, eBooks, videos, courses and more. It covers advanced training in web design, web development, and numerous other topics. This site is a jewel in our network.
listronga href="http://teamtreehouse.com"Treehouse/a/strong #8211; Excellent subscription based video training with a library of well designed content./li
listronga href="http://codelesson.com"Code Lesson/a/strong #8211; This site provides hands-on, practical, online instruction to learn programming./li
listronga href="http://www.w3schools.com"W3 School /a/strong #8211; Well developed web design site for learning coding with ample free learning resources./li
/ul
h3Step 9 #8211; Get Set up with the Tools You#8217;ll Need/h3
pOf course, as you go on you?ll need more bits and pieces. I use software to track time, keep on top of task management, you might use tools for project management or for managing your finances. Here, I?ve listed out a few for each main category of my day to day freelance existence. Most are paid for services, but some are free or have very cheap entry level plans./p
pOne word of advice, take an audit of all your monthly web app payments at the end of each year (or every 6 months) You may well be surprised at how many things you?ve signed up for #8211; and how much it?s costing you!/p
h4Time Tracking/h4
ul
listronga href="http://stuntsoftware.com/onthejob"On the job /a/strong #8211; I use this to track time. It will also create invoices for you, but I personally don?t use it for that. I like this because it?s a stand alone app #8211; rather than a web service. I sync the data via Dropbox (although that is not officially supported, I?ve never had any problems with it) and so it?s available on all my machines./li
listronga href="http://www.getharvest.com"Harvest/a/strong #8211; Full featured online service for time tracking and invoice generation./li
listronga href="https://www.toggl.com"Toggl/a/strong #8211; A relatively new player, but it?s a smooth interface and looks cool with its iOS / Android apps./li
/ul
h4Finances / Invoicing/h4
ul
listronga href="http://www.freeagent.com"Free Agent/a/strong #8211; This is an impressive piece of software. Use it to track time, send estimates, send invoices, integrate with your bank accounts, make cups of tea. (It may not actually make tea). For me, I prefer to separate these processes, but I can see the appeal for many./li
listronga href="http://www.freshbooks.com"Freshbooks/a/strong #8211; Is more of a bookkeeping / invoicing solution. It does less than Free Agent and, in my opinion, is better for it./li
listronga href="http://www.xero.com"Xero/a/strong #8211; Another full online financial management and accounting system./li
/ul
h4Project Management/h4
ul
listronga href="http://basecamphq.com"37Signals products/a/strong #8211; I can?t go through this without mentioning 37Signals product. Basecamp, their project management tool, is probably their most popular./li
listronga href="https://company.podio.com/"Podio/a/strong #8211; This is my favorite solution, since it incorporates some CRM elements and, get this, is free up to 5 users./li
listronga href="http://teambox.com"Team Box/a/strong #8211; This is another good solution for team collaboration and project management./li
/ul
h4Task Management/h4
pMy favorite apps are always task management apps, and I?m genetically incapable of limiting this to just 3 items. Currently, I use three of the below #8211; Things, TeuxDeux and Omni Outliner. I?ve tried all the others though and they?re all fab. It depends on what fits your needs the best, but check them all out:/p
ul
listronga href="http://culturedcode.com/things"Things/a/strong #8211; This is Mac only but integrates nicely with iPhone and iPad apps. Not cheap, though very slick./li
listronga href="http://teuxdeux.com"TeuxDeux/a/strong #8211; Very simple, very effective, very free. It?s a simple to do list, and all the better for it?s simplicity./li
listronga href="http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnioutliner"OmniOutliner/a/strong #8211; Strictly speaking this is an ?idea organization tool? (no, me neither). Since it?s release OmniGroup have put out an app specifically for task management a href="http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/ "OmniFocus/a, but OO came first and it?s what I?ve been using for organizing to-do?s on projects for the past 5 years. I can?t fault it #8211; but I haven?t tried hard to./li
listronga href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com"Remember The Milk/a/strong #8211; This is a strong online task management tool. Another that benefits from the ?do one thing, and do it well? philosophy. Great integration with mobile phones and iPad./li
listronga href="http://tadalist.com"Ta Da List /a/strong #8211; A free product from 37Signals #8211; very simple online to do lists./li
/ul
pSo, there it is. A by no means comprehensive, easy to disagree with, guide to the things you?ll need to start your freelance web design business. Don?t take my word for it though #8211; get out and do it!/p
pemPhoto credit: a title="Attribution License" href="http://photodune.net/wiki/support/legal-terms/licensing-terms/"Some rights reserved/a by a href="http://photodune.net/item/laptop-in-open-fire/1339014"NexusPlexus/a/em./p
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/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FreelanceSwitch/~4/ajAN9eJnq_Q" height="1" width="1"/

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9 Email Designs for Content-Heavy Newsletters

I’ve recently been working on a project to design a daily email newsletter that will be powered by MailChimp’s RSS to Email option. In some ways using RSS limits the design, however by automating the email campaign the site owner can focus on creating content rather than delivering content. The challenge for this email campaign [...]

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Links for 2011-04-21 [del.icio.us]

ul
lia href="http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials/54975/fancy-bling-effect-"http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials/54975/fancy-bling-effect-/a/li
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lia href="http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/01/07/awesome-jquery-techniques-to-create-visually-impressive-photo-galleries.html"40 Exceptional jQuery Photo Gallery and Slider | Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers/abr/
Opensource, Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers/li
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Marketing Your Website Without Search Engines

I’m not old enough to remember what the internet was like without search engines. Apparently,�there were lists of web-servers: they were manually updated and publicized in news updates like this. And then the search engines came crawling, indexing and sorting out�pages. As the web expanded with more users and businesses putting up websites, search engines [...]



Marketing Your Website Without Search Engines

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Starting a Freelance Business in 2012: Planning Ahead

pa href='http://rss.buysellads.com/click.php?z=1259904k=f7b7931ec28da9e4ff2580bfd4eddb18a=24042c=406598887' target='_blank'
img src='http://rss.buysellads.com/img.php?z=1259904k=f7b7931ec28da9e4ff2580bfd4eddb18a=24042c=406598887' border='0' alt='' //a/pbr /pimg src="http://freelanceswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/blue-sky-background.jpg" alt="" title="Blue Sky Background" width="550" height="361" class="aligncenter imageborder size-full wp-image-24075" //p
pWas your New Year?s resolution to start your own freelancing business? We?re five weeks in?how is it going? I found a href="http://www.freelanceuk.com/news/4001.shtml"this article on Freelance: UK/a that got me thinking about financial issues to consider before taking the big freelance leap. Here are some of their suggestions as well as some of mine.span id="more-24042"/span/p
h3Look Before You Leap/h3
pIf you are leaving a job where you get paid a set amount of money on a regular basis, it#8217;s important you have a solid plan in place. Starting a freelance career isn?t cheap. Freelance: UK suggests a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/start/freelance-fallback-plan/"testing the water/a by starting youra href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelance-news/case-studies/the-balancing-act-of-working-two-jobs-case-study/" freelance business part-time while keeping your full-time job/a, and I have to agree./p
pIf money isn?t an issue, you don?t really have a problem. Bust most of us need some sort of an income to pay our mortgage, put gas in our cars, and buy groceries. And as a a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelance-news/commentary-analysis/full-time-to-freelancing-hard/"new freelancer/a, steady income probably isn?t going to happen right away. Build up your savings with enough money to keep you afloat for at least 6 to 8 months./p
pSet goals for yourself before you take the leap. Where do you want to be in a year, two years, five years, and what are you going to do to make sure you get yourself there? I would suggest taking the time to put together a thorough business plan. It?s a great exercise in charting exactly what you want to accomplish and will help you answer some tough questions, like how much you will charge your clients and how a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelance-writing/financing-freelance-writing/"much money you need to make to break even/a./p
h3Get Your Books In Order/h3
pAs a freelancer, you are going to be responsible for all of your bookkeeping?unless you hire someone else to do it. Make sure you are using the right tools. You are going to need to keep records of all the money you have spent and earned throughout the year for your taxes. You may as well do it right from the beginning./p
pMeet with an a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/the-business-of-freelancing/avoid-irs-audits/"accountant/a and find out what you need to do and ask for suggestions on the best way to do it. There is a lot of software out there to help you keep organized?you will have to do a little research and find the ones you prefer to use./p
pDon?t throw all of your receipts a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/productivity/make-your-tax-preparer-happy/"into a shoebox/a and present the box to your accountant at the end of the year. It?s not the 1950s anymore. Get yourself one of those handy receipt scanners that will categorize all of your expenditures on your computer. Your accountant will thank you for it./p
pAnd while you?re at it, update your books on a regular basis. I know it?s not fun and can be time consuming, but it?s better than the alternative. Do it every week and you won?t feel overwhelmed. It?s a good way for you to look back and see where you stand money-wise. Are you spending too much money? You wont know unless you update your books on a regular basis./p
h3Forecast Your Cash/h3
pIf you are not making enough money, you wont be able to pay your bills. If your clients don?t pay you on time, you won?t be able to pay your bills, either. Decide your payment terms for your clients right away?and stick to them. /p
pIf you expect payment 14 days after you mail an invoice, make sure your clients know it. And if your clients are late, consider adding a penalty. Heck, if you?re late on your payments to the credit card companies, they charge you a penalty. They make money on your lateness!/p
pFor some of your clients, you may have to work around their terms of payment. I know that when I do work for a local university, I will not get paid for 90 days. That?s their rule and there is nothing I can do about it if I want to still work for them. I am sure to keep track of my payments so that I know when to expect a check to arrive in the mail. If payment does not arrive when I expect it, I make a phone call./p
pYou also want to have a plan on how you will chase down the a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/the-business-of-freelancing/client-will-not-pay-up/"clients who don?t pay you in a timely manner/a. What is your policy going to be? I highly recommend deciding on these things beforehand, and making them clear to your clients. That way, there is no misunderstanding. If you have a client who you have to consistently chase down, perhaps you will decide that it?s not worth your time working for them anymore?but you?ll never know unless you pay attention./p
pemPhoto credit: a title="Attribution License" href="http://photodune.net/wiki/support/legal-terms/licensing-terms/"Some rights reserved/a by a href="http://photodune.net/item/blue-sky-background/1242653"Subbotina/a/em./p
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a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:wF9xT3WuBAs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:wF9xT3WuBAs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?a=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:D7DqB2pKExk"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/FreelanceSwitch?i=An6BFzs6T3Y:8aX0epWCoTQ:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"/img/a
/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/FreelanceSwitch/~4/An6BFzs6T3Y" height="1" width="1"/

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5 Interactive JavaScript charts for your website

I'm starting to see a lot of these charts used on websites I frequently visit - such as Dribbble pro account page and Carbon Ads Dashboard. Here's a list of 5 popular ones worth checking out.div class="feedflare"
a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=nfEDPb2CtWM:l8JvNVIWNSI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=nfEDPb2CtWM:l8JvNVIWNSI:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?i=nfEDPb2CtWM:l8JvNVIWNSI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=nfEDPb2CtWM:l8JvNVIWNSI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=nfEDPb2CtWM:l8JvNVIWNSI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?i=nfEDPb2CtWM:l8JvNVIWNSI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?a=nfEDPb2CtWM:l8JvNVIWNSI:7Q72WNTAKBA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheInteractiveWall?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"/img/a
/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheInteractiveWall/~4/nfEDPb2CtWM" height="1" width="1"/

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Links for 2011-02-16 [del.icio.us]

ul
lia href="http://www.tutzor.com/screencasts"Screencasts | Tutzor/abr/
Best photoshop tutorials on the web that let you achieve amazing effects using various photoshop techniques./li
/ulimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/tutzor/~4/MrrD0je25rk" height="1" width="1"/

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50 Best jQuery Visual Tutorials Every Web Designer Must Look At

jQuery is a JavaScript Library. jQuery greatly simplifies JavaScript programming.This article contains 50 visual tutorials intended for web designers and newbies on how to apply effects with jQuery. There?s stuff all over the Web about jQuery, but finding the best tutorials to get you started can be tough. Here are Examples and tutorials from jQuery [...]


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The Most Powerful Way to Presell Any Product or Service

Preselling is the art of conditioning potential customers and making them more likely to buy products/services. It is usually performed at your website before you send the visitor over to the vendor’s store or landing page. The goal of all presell tactics is to get prospects into a frame of mind whereby they not [...]



The Most Powerful Way to Presell Any Product or Service

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