What The Future Holds for Freelancers and What To Do About it!

We live in a wonderful era. Never has it been more accepted or as easy to become a work-for-yourself, freelancing, creative individual. We have opportunities that our parents and grandparents never had… to be able to work on some little machine from the comfort of our own homes and make as much or as little money as we are willing to work for. We don’t all wake up at 6:00AM, put on a suit or uniform and run out the door to meet the treacherous mundane tasks of the day. We are responsible for our own growth, our own wealth, and our own schedules. We run our own small businesses and we take greater care of our own personal lives (or at least we try to!). We are the no-boss, no-management, work at home generation… but will what we do today still be around tomorrow?

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Freelance Bootcamp #3: Setting up Your Professional Portfolio

In the last article we showed you how you could find your first clients, price them, deal with the deadlines, and then get paid. You should now have some work under your belt and now its time to show it to new possible clients. To do this, you’re going to need to set up your professional portfolio. You’re most important asset is your portfolio. The majority of the work you’re going to get from now on is going to most likely come straight from your portfolio.

In this article we’re going to discuss the right way to set up your portfolio as well as your options as to how and where you want to display your work online.

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How To MindMap a Web Design Project

Sometimes to get that idea across to the client (or vise versa) you need more then just notes, briefs, or even mockups. You need something visual but comprehensive as well. This is where mindmaps shine. A mindmap is basically a diagram that communicates notes, ideas, graphics, elements, lists (and more) in a visual and organized way.

As a web design freelancer myself, sometimes I feel lost in the documents, e-mails, and notes a client sends across. They seem so messy and all over the place and I find it hard to keep them structured. Sure, I could compile them all in one long document but that doesn’t seem organized enough. So for projects like these I fire up my web-based mindmap application and then compile all the information the client has sent across into something visually structured. I then send it across the mindmap to my client to make sure we are both 100% on the same page. Nothing else accomplishes this task as comprehensive as a mindmap! So today we will look at how we can create a mind map for an example Web Design project.

Keep in mind this information can travel into other freelance areas such as writing, coding, graphic designing and so on!
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How To Provide Excellent Customer Service

Providing excellent customer service as a freelancer is essential if you want to succeed. One thing that freelancers can offer over big design firms is personalized customer service. We should take pride in extent of support for our clients. It can set us apart from the crowd and be the one single aspect of our business that pushes us to the top of the food chain. Take care of your clients and they will take care of you!

How do you really provide great customer service? By understanding what your client wants and needs and keeping them updated and in tune to your work on their projects. Here are some tips and advice that should help you if you are having a little trouble in the customer service department. Read more

Freelance Success: Reaching The Boiling Point

How do you define success as a freelancer? Is it measured by the number of clients knocking at your door? Or is it just the fact that you’ve stayed a float by being able to pay your bills and take some time off here and there? When was the last time you were contacted to speak at a conference hundreds or thousands of miles away that relates to your industry? Is that considered success?

For many of us “success” means something entirely different. While some of us would be happy just being able to manage their bills, some of us want to be the next big thing. We want our names mentioned in every corner of the blogosphere, we want our expertise to be published in various editions of industry magazines, and we want to be wealthy of course.

There isn’t a lot of room on “the top” but some of us do succeed getting there. How does someone go from something like a moderate web designer to a hot commodity? They get there by reaching The Boiling Point.
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Q&A: How Do I Deal With The Stress of Multiple Deadlines?

Q: How Do I Deal With The Stress of Multiple Deadlines? – Pieter Keil

A: I know exactly where you are coming from Pieter! I will sometimes find myself so stressed out during a really busy week that I feel like going to work at the local gas station and leaving the whole world of freelancing behind! Luckily, I’ve learned to accept this and turn the stress and fear of missed deadlines into motivation and productivity… how? Read on…
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10 Places To Sell Your Work Online…

Whether you are a Web Designer, Developer, Graphic Designer, Logo Designer, or even a Freelance Writer, there are many places out there that you can sell your work directly online. And the best part about it all? You don’t have to deal with any clients!

If you’ve just dumped 5 mock ups on a client and they rejected every single one of them, all is not lost! You may be able to resell each one of those mock ups online and many times you can end up making more than you might have with that client. Be aware that if you signed a contract to make sure you still have the right to sell that work!

Either way this is a good way to make some extra income when times are slow. Or better yet, a perfect way for those up-coming designers or writers to get the ball rolling and find out if they’re talented enough to go out on their own!
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