Tips for Improving Your Social Media Presence

Before we get into tactics for improving your social media presence, it must be said that solid marketing is all about the ideas behind your product or service. These ideas need to be communicated on your website with clear messaging and visual appeal (which good creative advertising firms can help you with), as well as through a variety of channels. Social media is rapidly becoming a preferred channel for web users to communicate and share ideas, and should be a strong part of your web strategy. Here are some tips for improving your website’s presence as it relates to social media.
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Online Printing for Your Small Business

Even today in our virtual world of telecommuting, Skype, and home offices, freelancers still have to get professional materials printed on occasion. As an independent web publisher, I have to admit that most of my working relationships are virtual, but I still find value (and contracts) in local networking and industry events. Handing out business cards and logo-laden freebies is a tried-and-true method for leaving good impressions in face-to-face situations.

Online printing services like PSPrint.com are great for saving time and money, while maintaining quality. Their digital printing methods allow you to reduce both cost and waste with small-quantity orders. Also, those methods don’t involve as many steps as other printing processes or technologies, so less time is needed in producing your prints and the turnaround time is quicker.

Sure, you can say that many digital printers are using similar (if not the same) printing technologies. But the reason I chose PSPrint specifically, is actually the same reason why many freelancers can have lasting success. It’s due to their reputation for offering excellent and attentive customer service. In a world of comparable technologies, what better differentiator for success can a company have than to truly pay close attention to their customers’ needs?

TaskCity: Marketplace to Match Freelancers with Employers

As we all know, one of the toughest challenges for freelancers is to consistently find new projects and sources of revenue.   Marketing your services and finding projects is a major key to long-term success for any independent freelancer. Luckily for us, a number of project-matching web services have launched in the last few years, including TaskCity.com. These services are immensely helpful tools built specifically for freelance business development.

I took a look at TaskCity, one of the newer platforms for matching professional freelancers with outsourced projects.  This free market for freelancers and employer services is focused squarely on the following categories of work:

• Web Development
• Software Development
• Networking & Information Systems
• Graphic Arts & Design

I didn’t really find any projects related to writing, marketing or administrative services, so please note that this platform is not suited to every type of freelancer at this point in time. From browsing the site, the greatest number of existing project listings appear to be technical in nature.
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5 Internet Marketing Techniques You’d Be A Fool Not To Practice

Guest blogger Jimi Olaghere is a young business owner who runs Broke Tycoon, a blog and forum with advice for business and marketing techniques.

It’s no secret that the internet is a very saturated place. According to Archive.com, if you are planning to put some sort of content on the internet you have 85 billion competitors! Today’s internet users are nothing like the past, gone are days when the internet was used solely for informative purposes only. It should be no surprise to learn that today’s internet users want to be not only informed, but entertained as well.

So if you would like to learn a couple of outrageous marketing techniques that can keep you afloat while others are drowning, then read this article. But if your happy with the hopeless feeling you get when you check your web stats and don’t mind sinking to the bottom of the internet ocean, then why don’t you go ahead and click the red x button in the top right corner.
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List Your Services in Our New Business Directory

We’re glad to announce a new Freelance Business Directory on our site, where individuals and businesses are free to list their webite, description and contact information on FreelancerMagazine.com/business-directory.   All links are of the “dofollow” variety.  All that we ask in return for a listing is a backlink to our site, with the anchor “Freelance Advice and Resources”. Here are the current categories of businesses offered, feel free to suggest more in the comments:

• Web and Programming - PHP, SQL, .NET, HTML, Java, C, MySQL, CSS, ASP, Flash, Javascript, ASP.NET, AJAX, SQL Server, XML, Windows, SEO, XHTML, Linux, Joomla!, Web Services, WordPress, VB.NET, JSP, Perl, J2EE, Visual Basic, Unix, Drupal, PayPal, Apache, Adobe Flash, DHTML, Flex, Social Networking, osCommerce, Facebook

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How To Get More Freelance Gigs Using Viral Marketing

Many startup freelancers ask us how to get more clients – it’s the question that’s on everyone’s mind. While marketing and spreading the word about your services yourself is a good way to go about this, nothing beats getting others to spread the word about your services. Yes, it’s true, other people can and will market your services naturally, you just have to hit the right keys – and here are the keys you need to hit.

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The Freelancer Pricing Conundrum

Whether you’re looking to get into freelancing, or in the thick of it, there always exists the topic of rates a freelancer should charge for his/her work. People adopt various methods of pricing their service, from hourly rates to one-time project fees. But how do you price yourself just right so you’re not too expensive and you’re not too cheap? Should you undercut the current market and work in bulk, or should you charge a little higher and take on less projects? After all, two of the great successes in retail are ASDA (for you Americans, it’s owned by Walmart) which is a supermarket which aims to keep the lowest prices possible, and Selfridges & Co, one of the much more expensive luxury stores in the UK. Well, let’s dig a little deeper into the topic and see what we can uncover.

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