How to Make Your Portfolio Site More Effective by Adding a Blog by Steven Snell

Having a killer online portfolio is obviously invaluable to freelancers. The portfolio will show the quality of your work and get potential clients excited about what you can do for them. A great portfolio will sell you and your abilities–you just have to get people to see it.

Publishing a blog at your portfolio site can accomplish many of the same things, it just takes a different approach to get the results. Much like the portfolio, the blog will demonstrate your expertise, only it will do so by sharing knowledge instead of by displaying your work. Potential clients that have read the posts on your blog are likely to feel more comfortable with you and appreciate your experience and your abilities more than they would if they had never seen your blog.

How Can a Blog Improve a Portfolio?

Name Recognition

Freelancers typically work in relative obscurity, but building some name recognition can have a huge impact on your business. A well-known freelancer will generally get more work with less effort, and will be able to charge higher rates due to the increased demand.

Many clients like the idea of working with a freelancer that is well-known, and blogging is one of the easier ways to build your name recognition. If you’re a talented freelancer, most likely you have some valuable information that you could share with blog readers that would in turn help you to become recognized for your abilities.

Search Benefits

One of the biggest reasons to start a blog is the potential that it has for improving the amount of visitors that arrive at your site. A small portfolio site on its own is unlikely to ever draw a significant amount of search engine traffic. However, a blog that is regularly updated can easily improve that traffic exponentially.

Search engines love content, and blogs are all about content. Imagine this scenario. You have a small, five-page portfolio site that gets some search traffic to each of the five pages. If you add a blog and over the course of a year or two you publish 100 posts, you’ll have 105 pages all drawing a little bit of search engine traffic. Add that all together and you’ll have a much stronger presence in the search engines than you could ever have without the blog.

Additionally, blogs are one of the best ways to draw inbound links, which of course will improve the search engine rankings of your site as a whole. So not only will the blog posts be drawing search engine traffic, but the links to those posts are capable of improving the rankings of your home page and the other pages that aren’t even a part of your blog just by helping to build a stronger, more respected domain.

I’ve seen this firsthand at my own site. After about a year of blogging, it now contains a substantial amount of content and has drawn a decent number of links, which all results in a steady flow of search traffic. If I were to generate the same amount of search traffic through other means, like PPC ads, I would be spending thousands of dollars per month.

Visibility of Portfolio

By running a popular blog you will also have the opportunity to make your portfolio much more visible than it could be without the blog. Of course, you won’t want to use your blog as a means of pushing your portfolio onto readers, but you may be able to find ways to get them to see your portfolio while providing them with valuable content.

Graphic designer David Airey occasionally will publish a post where he explains his logo design process for a specific client (including sketches and drafts). This is an excellent practice because it gives us readers some excellent insight into what he does and how he makes design decisions that impact the end result. They’re very helpful posts to readers who want to understand more about graphic and logo design. However, they’re also good for David because they allow him to get his work in front of about 5,000 readers. How long would it take for the average portfolio site to have 5,000 people visit and look at the work?

Some web designers will use their blog to announce a new project and display a new design that gets added to their portfolio. Of course, you’ll want to make your blog a useful place full of content for readers, but it’s also provides a great platform for showing your work to a very targeted audience.

Instant Audience

Once you have a blog with a reasonably-sized audience, you can even use it to help you find work when things are a bit slow. If you’re finishing up a project and looking for some new jobs you’ll have the option and the ability to publish a quick post soliciting new work. While many of your readers may be fellow freelancers or other people working in your field, you’ll probably find that your readers include a number of people who are in need of your services.

Chances are you won’t even get to this point, because a popular blog will bring new clients without even asking for them…but it’s nice to know that the possibility is there if you need it.

Develop Relationships

You may find that your blog helps you to get to know people throughout the world. Some of those people may be in need of your services at some point. When they are, they’ll be likely to come directly to you rather than going out to find someone else that they don’t know.

Tips for Adding a Blog to Your Portfolio

Have Your Own Domain Name

Everything being written throughout this article assumes that your blog is hosted at your own domain as a part of your portfolio site. Don’t simply start a blog at Blogger.com or WordPress.com. If you’re going to devote time to building a blog for business purposes, host it at your own domain.

Develop a Schedule

As a freelancer, I’m sure you’re busy enough as it is without a blog. However, if the blog is going to have any impact on your business you’ll have to be posting to it. You certainly don’t have to publish something every day, but come up with a realistic schedule that will allow you to get all of your work done and still find time for blogging. Even posting just once per week can be enough to make a real impact.

The busier you are, the more you need a realistic schedule.

Without developing a schedule you’re likely to find yourself getting too busy with your other work to write blog posts. The next thing you know your blog will have sat without an update for two months. The busier you are, the more you need a realistic schedule.

Link Back to Your Portfolio

If the purpose of your blog is to attract new clients, be sure to link to your portfolio in prominent places from the blog that will lead visitors back to see your work. This is pretty obvious, but it can easily be overlooked when you’re focused on building your blog.

Don’t Hold Back

In order for your blog to be an effective tool, you’ll need to provide high-quality content that isn’t found at other blogs. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge with others and give what you’ve got. If you’re afraid to share your knowledge or help others, your blog probably won’t generate much business for you.

Focus on Relevant Topics

A good blog will be focused on the issues that are relevant to your line of work and to your potential clients. Running a blog that contains primarily personal posts will not do the trick.

Think about the issues that potential clients may be facing and what they may be searching for. Find ways to help them out through your posts and you’ll find that these posts are winning you new clients.

Use it as a Networking Tool

Top bloggers in an industry are always well-connected. Use your blog as a platform to get to know other influential bloggers in your niche. Make an effort to comment on other blogs, vote at social media sites, send an occasional email, and even write a guest post for someone else if you have the time. Networking can help freelancers of all kinds, and a blog will make the networking easier and more natural.

Get Involved at Other Blogs in Your Niche

One way to build your name recognition and to gain new readers is to get involved at other blogs. Leave intelligent comments that show your level of knowledge and experience and others are likely to click-through and read your blog.

What’s Your Experience?

Does your portfolio site include a blog? Have you found that it helps you to find new business or to build your own name recognition?

How to Effectively Tackle A $50,000 Freelance Project Justin Hartfield

Effectively taking on a huge freelance project can be daunting if you don’t know where to begin. This article shows that by breaking the project down into bite-sized deliverables, combined with leveraging the experience of outsourced, professional specialists, can yield positive results in terms of both quality of output and freelancer happiness.

The most treasured of all freelance consulting gigs are the ones that offer huge pay and high prominence. Successfully implementing one or two of these types of projects can be a huge boon to your portfolio and can help garner you even bigger and better contracts in the future.

Indeed, there’s really only one caveat when it comes to taking on a $50,000+ contract — you’ve got to do approximately $50,000 worth of work.

Of course, with big money comes big responsibility, and I know many freelancers who would balk at the thought of owing a cranky client $50,000 in outstanding work.

The following tips include some of the wisdom I’ve acquired working on high-dollar contracts with high-anxiety clients. I hope these tips help you avoid the potholes that bent my rims the first time I tried to drive through them.

“The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

My small consulting company was recently charged with the task of re-thinking an entire business from scratch, including completely redesigning the company’s website, logo, sales pitches, brochure material, proposals, business cards, letterheads and overall brand image.

Where do you start when there are so many conceivable starting points?

The answer is by creating a realistic milestone delivery sheet. Here’s what I mean:

(Click here to download the iD Brand milestone delivery sheet template. Feel free to modify and use for your own purposes.)

Your milestone delivery chart is your best friend when it comes to high-dollar web projects. Not only does it help you as a freelancer see when certain elements will be due, but it also gives the client some visibility as to what work is actually being performed on their site.

Make your client feel like you care about their peace of mind with a presentation.

For projects which take more than a couple weeks to deliver, it’s good to set aside at least one day every few weeks where you present to your client some finalized deliverable. A “presentation meeting” ensures that a) everyone’s happy with the design and direction of the current work, and b) placates the concerns of your client who’s almost certain you’ve taken their overly generous 50% up-front fee and fled to a penthouse at the Bellagio where you’re currently sipping on Absinthe with fifteen of your closest friends and the cast of The Girls Next Door. Letting your client see small, finalized chunks of your work along the way gets them excited about the end results and eager to work with you again.

Get it right, then get it in writing.

The milestone delivery sheet should be signed the same day as the contract, so it’s important that you put some initial thought in creating a delivery schedule that is both fair to the client and realistic to yourself. Always make sure to double or triple your initial delivery estimates if you’re working on a large project for the first time, or using unfamiliar software/technology. In addition, schedule presentation and due dates for the client (have revisions due two days after initial presentation) and make sure to include a note at the bottom of the delivery sheet that won’t hold you liable to make deliveries if the requirements are changed mid-project or if the client can’t make the scheduled presentation dates.

Outsource the things you aren’t great at to specialists.

Chances are that if you scored a huge web contract, you probably sold more than just yourself. You probably sold a team of people. Now, that’s great and is almost always a good strategy for a single freelancer looking to pick up a huge deal. However, when it comes time to actually doing the work, make sure you’re using your team to the best of your advantage.

Only do what you’re absolutely awesome at, let specialists do the rest.

Many freelancers are “do-it-alls” who are very proficient in many different fields. This is a good thing, don’t get me wrong and I consider myself to be such a freelancer. But when it comes to large, ultra-premium projects, it really pays to get quality people to help you over-deliver to your customer.

For example, if you’re the web development specialist, don’t try to “improve” on the art director’s user interface, even if you think you’re much better than average at web design. The art director should have final say on every website comp, logo design, color change or font variation (all should be delivered to the pixel). If you don’t have total trust in the vision of your art director, you should find one that you’re more confident with and subcontract out.

See, when a client drops five or six digits on some web work to outside consultants, they expect to receive only the highest quality work in return. This excludes a web designer acting as an online copywriter or the sales guy as the marketer.

Using the specialties of outside professionals to help you isn’t cheating — it’s smart business.

Personally, I’m passable as a web content writer but absolutely horrendous when it comes to all other aspects of web work (UI design, sitemap creation, wire frames, CMS implementation, code upkeep, security updates, maintenance, etc). So when I land a large project, the only hard deliverable I’m actually going to do myself is the writing part (and even then, I pay for at least one professional editor to clean up my mistakes). The rest of the project I outsource to a professional quality team I know and trust. (In fact, I’ve outsourced with the same team so frequently that we all recently got together and formed a consulting company!)

Outsourcing projects in this way leads to many desirable outcomes. I free up my time to find new contracts, work on other businesses, hang out with my friends, take a mini-retirement or anything else that seems interesting. Additionally, I create a huge network of talented, professional, and specialized contacts just like me that love what they do and are amazingly cool to work with. It’s not what you know, but who you know.

Now the only tricky part about this whole bit is getting the $50,000 project…

In summary, break down high-dollar, high-work projects into their deliverable elements, ordered by date. Be realistic, but fair. Include presentation and customer due dates in bold. Break down each step and outsource to your network of professional, specialized contacts. Over-deliver and politely ask for a short testimonial and permission to use their materials in your portfolio.

Bonus Tip: Template to deal with incessant e-mails and phone calls asking for a “status update”from a high-dollar, high-anxiety client

“Dear Pesky Client,

Thank you for your (presumably drunken) e-mail sent at 3:30 AM on Saturday morning asking for a “prgress reprot”. We are currently on schedule to meet our July 1 deadline, and we are looking forward to showing you all of the progress we have made during our presentation meeting on July 10th. In fact, we are diligently working on the X, Y & Z functionality as I type this.

I understand your concerns on a project of this magnitude, and I can assure you that you’ll be quite pleased with the materials we’ll be presenting during our meeting.

Sincerely,

Your Overworked and Under-appreciated Freelancer

Justin Hartfield works as a web consultant, specializing in copywriting, online marketing, social networking, SEO and usability. He has recently formed a consulting group with several other freelance web professionals called, Intelligent Design Branding Consultants.

The Benefits of Personal Outsourcing by Ed Gandia PART 2

A few months ago, I wrote a brief post about the benefits of personal outsourcing. I explained how outsourcing some of your personal tasks — specifically those that you’re not fond of AND those that someone else can do more cost effectively — can help free up some of your time and enable you to become a more profitable and focused freelancer.

Many of you commented on how helpful the ideas were. You even asked for more suggestions on other tasks that could conceivably be outsourced. So I was asked to write a second post with a more exhaustive list of potentially “outsourceable” tasks.

Glad to do that. But first, I want to clarify a misconception I often hear when the topic of personal outsourcing comes up: the claim that paying someone else to take care of your personal responsibilities is a sign of laziness.

The idea behind personal outsourcing is to farm out tasks that you do not enjoy AND add little to no value to your life.

That comment misses the point. The idea behind personal outsourcing is to farm out tasks that you do not enjoy AND add little to no value to your life. Tasks that, when outsourced, can add productive time to your busy week.

If you believe that having your kids mow the lawn without paying them will teach them about personal responsibility and hard work (and I definitely agree with that), then by all means, have them do it. If you don’t mind making runs to the post office because it gets you out of the house occasionally, then go for it!

But if you hate doing those things (or have no kids to mow the lawn) and know that you could be working on billable projects you truly enjoy, then … why not at least consider having someone else help you?

OK. Enough of that. Let’s get to our list.

Sales Leads

Do you find yourself putting off your marketing efforts because you hate prospecting? If so, you may want to consider hiring an experienced virtual assistant or prospecting expert to help you out. When it comes to lead generation for professional services, the best approach I’ve found is to use a combination of direct mail and phone.

First, send out your letters. Then have your assistant call all recipients to try to schedule an appointment (or phone call) for you. Not only will you save time, but you’ll be giving the task to someone who might be more experienced and effective. Plus, to some prospects, it can make your business appear bigger and more impressive.

Prospect Research

Similarly, when it comes time to assemble your mailing list for your marketing campaign, you can hire an assistant to help you collect the necessary information and even verify all the names and addresses for accuracy. This might seem like a waste of time, but if you’re trying to put together a very targeted campaign — or if you’re sending out an expensive dimensional mailer — list accuracy can pay off.

Mailing Campaign Help

When it comes time to assemble your letters or packages, why not recruit family members to help you out? You’ll get it done in a fraction of the time and they’ll be glad to contribute. Last year, we drove to Florida to visit some family. I took 300 letters, envelopes and postage stamps with me and had a group of 8 relatives help me fold, stuff, seal and stamp all 300 letters. We were done in 45 minutes — a process that would have taken me hours to do by myself.

Vacation Coverage

Go on vacation and forget about the scads of emails and voicemails that will be there waiting for you when you get back! A virtual assistant can check both your email and voicemail while you’re away. He or she can summarize and prioritize voicemail messages into one document and even respond to urgent requests, if needed. When you get back to the office, you return to a manageable environment, not chaos!

Gifts and Cards

We all want to show our appreciation to our good clients during the holidays. But taking time to find and ship (or personally deliver) appropriate gifts can be extremely time consuming. If you find yourself in this situation, why not get some help? Don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be a stranger. Ask your spouse or other family member to help you shop for and deliver your gifts. Provide spending guidelines, office addresses and driving directions. You can even ask him or her to address and mail your presigned greeting cards and run them to the post office.

Personal Tech Support and Help Desk

As writer and consultant, my laptop is arguably my most important physical asset. But that doesn’t mean I know everything about how it works and how to fix it. So I outsource my tech support to a remote help desk. And I’m about to outsource physical repair services to a local IT pro who does house calls. I don’t mind paying these specialists for their services because, again, we’re talking about a critical piece of equipment to my business.

Transcriptions

If you have to interview people for a living, it pays to record the conversation (with the other party’s permission, of course). Trouble is, going back to the recording to find specific information can be a hassle. That’s where a transcription service comes in handy. A skilled transcriber can convert a 1-hour interview into text in a day or two. And once you have the transcript, you can easily use the “Find” feature in your word processing program to locate key words and get to the information you need quickly.

Data Entry

If you need a lot of data entered, a typist with excellent data entry skills can take on the task for you, saving you countless hours and a ton of frustration. Maybe the information you need is only available in a printout, but you need it in a Word document. Or maybe you have a big stack of business cards that need to be entered into your Outlook database. In either case, a skilled typist can save you a great deal of time.

Scheduling Appointments and Reservations

Setting appointments and keeping up with a busy schedule can be overwhelming. And that’s one area where a good virtual assistant can help. He or she can schedule appointments for you (both personal and for business), handle schedule changes, make travel arrangements (or at least do most of the research for you) or even find a great restaurant and make reservations. Don’t knock it until you try it!

Personal Driver

My colleague Pete Savage recently told me a great story about how he managed to turn a bad situation into an opportunity. Turns out that his car broke down on the morning of a very busy day. He had a very important client meeting scheduled, followed by a doctor’s appointment he couldn’t cancel. So instead of bailing out, Pete paid his college-age nephew to be his personal driver for the day. Not only was he able to keep both appointments, but as his nephew drove him around town, Pete used the idle time to get caught up with his email and calls on his BlackBerry.

Home Repair/Handyman

My “honey-do” list grew out of proportion a couple of years ago. So I hired a very reasonable handyman to work on some of the higher-priority projects on that list. And recently, my retired father-in-law, who loves to work on projects around the house, has tackled some of the more labor-intensive jobs. He does great work and loves doing it, and my wife is happy that we’re (finally!) getting these projects done.

As you can see, the possibilities of personal outsourcing are only limited by your imagination. Again, do what feels right to you. Do only what will add value to your business and make your life less stressful. Keep the tasks that are core to your business or those that you enjoy doing. Bottom line: There’s no right or wrong. YOU make the rules!

I mean … isn’t that why you became a freelancer in the first place?

Ed Gandia is a successful freelance copywriter and co-editor of The Wealthy Freelancer blog. To get a free copy of his report, 7 Steps to Landing More Lucrative Freelance Projects, visit TheProfitableFreelancer.

11 Ways to Banish ‘Lonely Freelancer’ Syndrome Raj Dash

WAHFs (Work-at-Home Freelancers) have it tough. Sure, there’s freedom of work schedule, not having to sit in traffic or otherwise commute, eating a home-cooked meal and being able to watch soap operas or Oprah everyday. But for some of us it gets darn lonely working at home all day, every day. Combine the state of the economy, the Holiday season, or the start of the winter blues and the feeling of loneliness right now can be magnified manyfold. If you’re single, it’s even worse because working at home means it’s that much harder to meet people, even for casual conversation, weekly drinks or whatever. Here are some tips for weathering that “lonely freelancer” feeling that sometimes visits.

Banishing the ‘Lonely Freelancer’ Syndrome

1. Have a schedule. Working long hours by yourself just reinforces the idea that you’re alone. No matter how busy you are – and because of that – you always need time to yourself each day. Practice efficiency in fewer hours. Stop working at a certain time, no matter how much or little you got done that day, unless there’s an emergency. Just don’t let those emergencies get out of control. This will stop you from feeling that you’re constantly working, as well as give you time for family and friends.
2. Microblog. Use Twitter], Plurk, Pownce, or your Facebook status and spend a few minutes sharing your thoughts, a link or whatever. Just don’t let it get too addictive. (When I was weathering a downturn earlier this year, I spent 6 weeks on Twitter and mostly Plurk and Facebook, procrastinating.) An alternative to this is to post on other people’s Facebook Walls, which can stimulte a micro-conversation.
3. Participate in a peer forum. If you feel like writing something more than 140 characters, or want to bounce an idea of off a peer, join a forum relevant to your niche. There are often understanding people that’ll lend a digital ear to a lonely colleague.
4. Chat via IM. Some of my colleagues leave IM chat windows open to a few people all day long, especially if they’re collaborating on something. Unlike a phone call that ends as soon as you hang up, IM software allows you a permanent background connectedness to other people. If you need to ask a question or share something, it’s easy to do, get a response, and move on.
5. Call friends, family or colleagues. If you really need to hear someone’s voice, you have a choice of phone line or VoIP (e.g., Skype, Sightspeed) or VoIM (AIM, GTalk, Messenger, etc.).
6. Express it. You’re a creative person. Write about it the loneliness of freelancing, draw a funny cartoon, paint “happy” colors, take an inspiring picture or come up with a logo or web design that is uplifting. Find a way to express your feelings first, then counteract that with a positive action.
7. Step out. Fresh air really does do wonders for you. Just stick your head outside for a few minutes, or go for an extended walk around the neighborhood. Not only do you get fresh air and exercise, but a nice daily walk can relax you and stimulate your mental idea bank. Or go run your weekly errands early, if you need to be “around” people for a bit.
8. Take a course. Upgrade your skills and meet people at the same time. Alternately, teach a course, give a talk, attend a conference or workshop – all of which will allow you to network.
9. Network, socialize, speed date. Have an informal get together, or go to one. Or have a weekly coffee or drinks meet at a local pub. If you’re single, speed dating is an opportunity for busy professionals to meet, with no obligations. Consider throwing a “networking” cocktail party at your home.
10. Get visual input. Just a personal observation, but creative people tend to need a lot of visual stimulation. So look at a magazine or surf websites with lots of images. Use a Flickr app to browse through random inspiring images. Watch TV, particularly talk shows with lots of guests, not weekly dramas. Also watch “live” stage/ sketch comedies, not sitcoms – something where it feels as if a person is talking to you.
11. Interact with a pet. There’s a reason why single people with pets tend to live longer than those with out. We all need physical affection, and if you’re in a position to take care of a pet, they’ll give you back some of that affection you give them and more.

Have you had the lonely freelancer blues? What did/ do you do to dispel that feeling?

Top Ten Signs You May Be Charging Too Little by Jack Knight

Finding that pricing sweet spot where you make a great income without scaring clients away is one of the most asked about issues here on FreelanceSwitch. Today for your amusement, here are ten signs you might have gone the other way are charging waaay too little…

<p>.myTop10 { font-size:1.4em; line-height:1.2em; margin-bottom:20px; font-weight:bold; }</p>Number 10:
Your client mistakes your daily rate for an hourly one.

Number 9:
You’ve won every job you’ve ever pitched for.

Number 8:
Even though you work 80 hour weeks your income level qualifies you for welfare payments.

Number 7:
New clients are always asking what “the catch” is.

Number 6:
Clients pay your invoices in cash from their wallet.

Number 5:
Other freelancers regularly send you hatemail.

Number 4:
Your old clients don’t even bother asking you how much something is going to cost.

Number 3:
You never run out of work, yet you are subsisting on baked beans and 2 minute noodles.

Number 2:
Your 12 year old brother earns more spending cash than you flipping burgers.

…. And the number one sign you may be charging too little
Companies have been calling from India wanting to outsource their work to you.

Six Valuable Things Web Design Clients Won’t Tell You Ben Seigel

When running a start-up web design business, unless you have some kind of incredible good luck (or no competition), you’re always working hard to acquire new business. Sales leads are valuable, regardless of where they come from. The number varies, but for every ten leads you contact, you’ll be fortunate if two or three of them turn in to paying clients. This means you have to talk to a lot of people. Still, getting a new lead is exciting because it has the potential to be your next big sale, helping you pay your bills and getting you one little step closer to start-up success.

When talking to potential clients, always keep in mind this mantra: It’s all about the client (and what you can do for the client.) That means being a good listener, gathering project requirements and doing whatever you can, (within reason), to please your client. However, there are a number of things that even the best-intentioned clients will not tell you about themselves and their project. Here are five valuable things your clients won’t tell you, and how to deal with them.

1. “We’re not prepared”

Many clients will seek one or more designers to create a proposal for them. The client often has a general idea of what they want their web site to offer, and perhaps they will mention other sites where they like the look, content or functionality. Beyond this, though, you’ll often find that the client has not really thought through what it is they want, and what would support the goals of their business. This means you may not even get a site map or features list, much less a Request for Proposal (RFP). This is more of a problem with small businesses—large companies are accustomed to a more formal process, and may be better prepared to provide meaningful input..

2. “Our deadline is unrealistic”

When asked about web site completion deadlines, clients will often say “ASAP” or “We have to have it in a month.” If you’re running a start-up, and especially if business is slow, you may think to yourself “Great, I can start tomorrow and have the work done ahead of time. I’ll really impress them.” This is the right attitude, but you’ll find that most clients move nowhere near as fast as you. Clients often say they need something yesterday, but they’re rarely ready to move fast. Factors beyond their control (a key employee is out sick, construction on a building is delayed) can turn “ASAP” in to “we’ll get back to you in a few weeks.”

3. “Getting content from us will be nearly impossible”

Extracting good text and image content from clients is perhaps the number one challenge for a web designer. If you’ve done this before, you’ll note that “extracting” is the correct word. You can have every part of the client’s web site ready ahead of schedule, but the site will not be complete without content the client must supply.

4. “We’re not very computer-savvy”

No matter how user-friendly your design process may be, some clients will be unable to perform simple computer tasks, such as converting an MS Word document to PDF or cropping and resizing a photo. They may be confused by Gmail, puzzled by Flickr. A client may be online all the time, but not skilled enough to scale down the 2300X1250 jpgs they got off their daughter’s digital camera and send them to you in a ZIP file.

5. “Our expectations are unrealistic”

When you look at a 3,000-square-foot house with a three-car garage next to a 1,000- square-foot condo, you know intuitively that their values are roughly proportional to their size and features. When it comes to web sites, it’s often hard for clients to judge the complexity or cost of certain features. They may look at a site with lots of custom Flash, AJAX, and DHTML behaviors and think “That shouldn’t be too hard to make, I see it online all the time.” They may also fail to connect their business goals with a site’s features. For example, a small gourmet restaurant probably does not need enterprise-level e-commerce, user forums, or social networking features.

6. “We’re considering many other proposals”

However enthusiastically a client may respond to your sales pitch or proposal, they may simply be being friendly. People like to be liked and don’t like to say no, so they will often sound like they’re really interested in your proposal, that you really “get” their needs. You may think that you’ve nailed the deal, but save your excitement for when they sign a contract and send you a check. Anything before that is just speculation. Be optimistic, but be realistic.

With all these hidden pitfalls, you might be thinking it’s a wonder anyone makes a sale— ever. However, with these client issues, and with many others, you can both protect yourself and add value for your client by fine-tuning your approach. There are two aspects to this:

Turn your client’s ignorance in to an opportunity

Some clients need a lot of help determining what they want and what they need (not always the same thing), and how to build a web site that supports the goals of their business. When you talk to a client, ask probing questions:

• What is the biggest challenge in your business?
• What do you want your web site to accomplish?
• What kind of impression do you want your web site to make on new customers?
• What information would help your customers make more informed decisions about purchasing your products or services?

Brainstorm with the client—share with them, in non-technical terms, different web site features that might drive their sales or improve customer communication, like email newsletters, downloadable product manuals, or FAQs. If you can show a genuine interest in helping their business succeed, you may have an advantage over other designers.

Develop a solid, detailed contract that includes terms of development, terms of payment and project timeline

A common mistake of start-up designers is to jump on business without having a firm contract in place. Most designers who do this eventually learn, the hard way, what happens when your client, well-intentioned or not, fails to complete their side of a nebulous agreement that is not explicitly spelled out and signed. Get a solid contract signed and delivered before you begin work on a project. Include language that allows for various contingencies. For example, what happens if:

• The client is weeks or months late in supplying content.
• The client doesn’t pay.
• You can’t reach the client by phone or email.
• Changes in the scope of the project change, making it necessary for you to spend more time on the work than estimated when you developed the budget.

A good contract protects both you and your client by explicitly spelling out what you will do for them and when, and what happens if something does not go according to plan. It’s worth a few hours of a lawyer’s time to create a good contract, or you can talk to a fellow designer and see if they will share theirs or let you adapt it to your needs.

Finally, clients who balk at signing a contract are probably best avoided. Contracts are part of doing business, and are necessary whether you’re taking out a car loan, building an addition to your home or creating a web site. Without a written contract for your design work, you will have little recourse if something goes wrong.

AIGA has a detailed contract you can adapt for your needs. You can also read “Web Design Contracts: Why Bother?”.

In summary, there are a number of important things clients won’t tell you that can affect your ability to run your business efficiently and make a fair profit. While most clients don’t intend to mislead you, they’re often unrealistic about their needs, goals, computer Keep these things in mind when pitching your services, and use a consultative approach to add value to clients’ projects and hopefully get the gig.

Ben Seigel is the owner of exp design, a web design and development firm based in Madison, Wisconsin.

9 Tips for Brand New Freelancers Raj Dash

As the new year is just around the corner, some of you might resolve to take a step forward into becoming a freelancer. According to what’s been written in the comments at FreelanceSwitch, there are those of you thinking about this.

With the way the economy has been, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the freelancer ranks grow in the next few months. Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Build an emergency fund. This not only puts you at ease, it allows creativity to flow. What’s more, you won’t come across desperate to clients. Speaking from past personal experience, which includes both being dirt poor starving and comfortable with some savings, you want to live in the latter situation. (Not meaning to sound facetious.)

While I did manage to write 60 short stories and 900 pages of one computer programming book while I was freshly out of work for the first six months of 2002, as soon as my funds dwindled and I had to borrow money from family, I found it increasingly harder to write anything. (Of course, it didn’t help having to do 10-12 hour shifts of physical labor at crappy wages.)

2. Set a suitable work rate. Actually, set more than one rate, depending on the services you’re offering. You do not necessarily have to set a lower rate than others just because you’re a new freelancer. When deciding on your freelance rates – whether hourly or by the project, you should use a number of factors: your costs, desired profit, your skills and experience, your client, market demand and any others that are relevant to your niche(s).

3. Utilize the Web to the fullest. Most freelancers these days are “web workers,” but not all of them take advantage of the bounty available online. One benefit of running a freelancing business online is that you can bootstrap it with a blog/ website and social media sites for promotion. There’s also an incredible amount of free software for your operations, invoicing, managing finances, brainstorming (mind mapping) and more.

4. Choose the optimal work environment. Not everyone wants to work at home (to avoid lonely freelancer syndrome) or an office (expensive). You might consider using one of the many coworking spaces that are popping in larger towns and cities. They’re less expensive than an office and less lonely than working at home.

5. Network frequently. Personal referrals are the lifeblood of freelance work – at least while you’re starting up and developing your reputation. There are numerous resources for networking, both online and offline. Utilize friends at social media sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook, as well as people you know in person.

6. Track your performance. A successful freelancer tracks not just receipts and finances but performance, attitudes, skills, trends and more. Determine how quickly projects are being completed and your effective rate per hour. Then brainstorm ways to improve your work efficiency and thus your effective hourly rate. Just keep in mind that improving performance does not mean cutting corners.

7. Broaden your freelance offering. When you’ve achieved a daily work flow that you are comfortable with, consider expanding your services. Regardless of the type of freelance work you do, you’re probably capable of offering other content, including diagrams, screen snaps, slideshows, podcasts, screencasts, and more. At the very least, plan in the first year what you would like to offer in the second year of business.

8. Breakdown. If you do start taking on an additional work, big projects might be part of that. My casual conversation with  some freelancers suggests that a few might be secretly hoping NOT to get a large project. This type of work does come with more responsibility, but are far less intimidating when you break them down into parts and tackle them step by step. Outsource to other freelancers the work you’re not capable of doing well and/or in a timely fashion.

9. Outsource. As your freelance business grows, if you get to the point where you cannot accept all the work, consider outsourcing to other freelancers instead of turning the work down. If you’re a good “people person” and can manage other freelancers remotely, outsource could be a great business decision – especially if it allows you to expand your service offering.

One final tip: Remember that tough times come and go. Use that as a motivator to take advantage of the ebb and flow nature that freelancing work is regularly subject to. [Deal with what you can], don’t worry about what you cannot change, and plan for everything else.

Have you been freelancing for a while? Do you have any tips for new freelancers that you’d like to share?

10 Most Popular Content Marketing Today Posts of 2008

Our readers flocked to a broad range of content marketing-related issues over the past 12 months. In fact, the breadth of topics surprised me. Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of what you can find:

• Unlearn Traditional PR
• Transform website into sales machine
• The Secret to Online Marketing
• Authenticity at Starbucks
• Sexy Headline Secrets from Cosmo
• A Really Bad Website Concept
• 6 Reasons to Publish an eNewsletter
• 5 Reasons to Launch a Blog-powered Website
• 6 Ways to Survive the Recession with Content Marketing
• Is it Time to Abandon Yellow Pages Advertising

Read on for a quick take on the posts that readers like you made made most popular.

1. To Succeed Small Business Marketers Must Unlearn Traditional PR

Don’t get me wrong.  Public relations is still a critical component to any marketing strategy for companies of all sizes.

Nonetheless, I am convinced that we need to turn our notions of public relations upside down so that it functions within a content marketing context.

I was inspired to think again about the transformation of public relations by a recent post from David Meerman Scott in his WebInkNow.com blog.  He was sharing some top of mind ideas relating to successful public relations strategies for small businesses. Read entire article

2. How to Transform Your Brochure Site into a Round-The-Clock Sales Machine

If you are a solopreneur, you certainly have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Imagine how much more you could accomplish if your website was actively selling for you 24 hours a day seven days a week!

That’s exactly what Stephanie Diamond is helping solopreneur, Natalie Currie, to accomplish using a custom MindMap. Natalie provides training and consulting in the pharmaceutical and biotech fields. Because she is so busy working in her business, she has been challenged to work on her business.

That’s where Stephanie came in. The MindMap she created served as a kind of mini–business plan. It enables a Natalie to see visually exactly what she needed to accomplish to take her business to the next level. It helped her to think through both of this strategy at the 30,000 foot level–and the on the ground of tactics she needs to implement ASAP. Read entire article.

3. The Secret to Online Marketing in the 21st Century : It’s the Content, Stupid!

Billboard marketing is fine on Route 66, but it’s all wrong on the information superhighway

Your job as a marketer is to make it easy for your buyers to buy from you. But making it easy for them may be hard for you, unless you can execute an effective content marketing strategy.

Content marketing is the art of understanding exactly what buyers need to know and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way.  This extends way beyond product information into the realm of best practices, case studies, success stories, and more.

Why?  All the rules have changed.  You will need to relearn the marketing game with a brand new marketing mindset.  Those that can adapt will flourish.  Those that don’t…well… think of the fate of the dinosaurs. Read entire article.

4. Authenticity at Starbucks: Coffee and People, Yes. The Corporation, No!

Bureaucrats are bouncing baristas, as they move to shut down 600 Starbucks stores.

It may not be the same everywhere, but in our Southwest corner of Florida, Starbucks is shutting down nine of their stores.  This is likely to have an impact on their local reputation that may well be replicated around the country.

As far as I’m concerned, the Starbucks experience is as much about the people who look after you as it is about the coffee.

I might be wrong, but it looks to me like faraway bureaucrats have made decisions about their customers and about their employees that might have a short term positive affect on their stock price, but is not going to endear them to the communities in which they operate. Read entire article.

5. Sexy Headline Secrets from Cosmo!

What your blog should borrow from the classic woman’s mag and their newsstand cousins.

Sex sells.  And so do great headlines.

Imagine for a moment that your blog is on a giant newsstand something like what you might find in a Manhattan Barnes & Noble.  As a magazine you are competing with hundreds of other magazines for the attention of prospective readers who are browsing quickly through the racks. The right headline can make all the difference. It sure does for Cosmo!

As a blogger, you are competing with hundreds of thousands of other bloggers for the attention of online visitors with very little time to spend on any one article.  Thus, your article headlines are every bit as important as those of Cosmopolitan magazine.

The Cosmo folks need to sell zillions of copies from newsstands.  Great headlines do the trick for them and they can do the trick for you. Read entire article.

6. Really Bad Online Marketing Concept: Refuse to Tell Your Visitors How You Can Help Them Solve Their Problems

Give the home page of this website a 10 second review (no cheating–you can’t look at any interior pages). Then answer the following questions:

1. Who are their target customers?
2. What product or service are they selling?
3. How can those products or services solve customer problems?

Here’s the best I could do:

1. Somebody in public transit
2. Some kind of technology relating to transit operations management
3. I have no idea.

Actually, I was probably cheating because I spent more time looking at the site before I decided to write this post.  So I might not have picked up both one and two in a quick look at the site. Read entire article.

7. 6 Reasons You Should Publish an eNewsletter

If you aren’t delivering a regular eNewsletter to build your business, you should ask yourself why. You are probably missing the biggest and best opportunity to communicate in a consistent and meaningful way with your customers.

Of course, you need to generate regular content that brings value to your customers. But, with that basic proviso, an eNewsletter should become an integral part of your content marketing arsenal. Here’s why:

An eNewsletter is one of the most effective methods of delivering content to your customers. Think of it as the logical successor to traditional direct marketing. You might think that with all the spam on the Net that email and eNewsletters are no longer effective. Not so, Adriana Iordan, Web Marketing Manager at Avangate points out, citing recent research. Read entire article.

8. Five Essential Reasons to Launch a Blog-Powered Website Right Now

Too many people–and I used to be one of them–think of a blog as an out-of-control rant by a fanatic about some topic or other. Sure there’s plenty of that. However, today, business blogs are pervasive. They provide enormous value by delivering relevant content on a myriad of topics.

But, more importantly, an increasing number of what have been termed ‘blogs’ in the past are really websites. They are full-featured websites with as much capability is anything that could be built from scratch by talented programmers.

You no longer have an excuse to stick with the brochureware website that your sister’s cousin’s nephew built for you in some kind of JavaScript that nobody knows how to modify. Read entire article.

9. 6 Ways Content Marketing Can Help You Survive the Recession

Crank up your communications now.  Don’t dial back your efforts.

The knee-jerk reaction for most companies when faced with the recession is to reduce their marketing efforts. However, decades of research show that those who maintain or increase their marketing will blow past their peers once the recession is over.

If you accept this reality, you still may be faced with a shortage of spare cash to invest in marketing–particularly in traditional advertising.  What to do? You can and should focus on a content marketing strategy that will require a whole lot of thought and effort, but will not require a lot of money.

Here are 6 ways that content marketing will help get all of us through the recession.  Read entire article.

10. Is It Time to Abandon Your Yellow Pages Advertising?

Fundamental changes in buyer behavior suggests that, at a minimum, you should be reevaluating your print Yellow Pages advertising.

You may very well want to apply those marketing dollars to creating outstanding online content on your website or on a related blog.

I’ve been researching lately whether it makes sense today to invest marketing dollars in the Yellow Pages, particularly when you have a limited advertising budget.

This decision is critical because a strong Internet presence is fundamental to successful marketing strategies for even small businesses. If you have limited dollars, you must choose wisely by understanding some powerful trends that are rearranging the Yellow Pages landscape.  Read entire article.

60 More Places to Get Design Inspiration – Online and Off by Cyan Ta’eed

A few weeks ago we published a list of 34 places to get design inspiration online and off and it proved to be one of our most popular articles to date. So today we journey back out to the world of design inspiration to bring you many, many more places to get inspiration – 60 to be precise.

I have literally been combing the web and have unearthed so many great sites and places that I’d never seen. From advertising to architecture, graphics to web, art to design, there’s a bit of everything. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed finding them and that they inspire some of the great works of tomorrow!

39 websites packed with inspiration…

Desktopography

Desktopography.net

If you’re going to spend all day at your desk, you should have an inspirational wallpaper to blow your mind every time you close a window. Desktopography features some of the most visually stunning wallpapers around – all based on nature themes so that you can fool you eyes into thinking you’ve been outdoors sometime this month.

The Ad Generator

TheAdGenerator.org

Out of all the sites listed here, this is probably the most innovative. By pairing up words set in semantic structures taken from real slogans with related images piped through from Flickr, the Ad Generator is disturbingly good at generating clever little adverts. Made as a Masters Thesis project, I can only hope that Alexis Lloyd (the site’s creator) absolutely dominated his course that year.

FaveUp

FaveUp.com

FaveUp is a site that pares back to the very simplest of galleries, showcasing logos, business cards, CSS websites and Flash sites all in the same place. The site only launched last week but already has some 250 entries on it.

New Web Pick

NewWebPick.com

Part Magazine, part web portal, all inspirational goodness. NWP with it’s super little logo is an oldie but goodie of design portals.

StyleBoost

StyleBoost.com

Not everyone ‘gets’ Styleboost and certainly it isn’t your run of the mill inspiration gallery/blog, but thanks to Johan’s adept steering of the site since way back in 2001, the gallery has flowered into one of the best and brightest showcases around.

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You might be thinking what is iStockPhoto doing in this list, and though perhaps browsing stock photos could be a source of inspiration, rather I’ve included iStock for it’s rather useful Designer Spotlight. The gallery is categorized up into everything from Advertising to Annual Reports, Product Packaging to Television. Some of the design isn’t exactly crash hot, but there’s some good stuff mixed in there and a few of the categories I know of no other place to find examples of.

Ventillate

Ventillate.ca

This is one slick blog/gallery/link hub, built by Canadians with superior design taste, you’ll know you’re getting only top quality filtered goodies.

DesignFCKR’s List of Flickr Photo Pools

DFCKR.com

While DFCKR probably deserves to be in this list in it’s own right, I was actually more interested in this super list of 28 Flickr Photo pools as there is some really great stuff in there.

PhireBrush

PhireBrush.com

Can you say gorgeous? Because that’s what you’ll be getting at Phirebrush which these days is getting to be a veritable inspiration institution. With some spectacular digital art that will blow your socks right off, you’ll love Phirebrush.

UrbanFonts

UrbanFonts.com

You know those moments when you see a font and it just makes you want to design something to use it, well with UrbanFonts you can browse a huge collection of free fonts to do just that. While I do enjoy paying for a good font now and then, I just can’t help myself when it’s FREE, FREE, FREE

TextureKing

TextureKing.com

Literally hundreds of textures freely available – from the dirty to the elegant, there is sure to be a pattern to grace your next design.

Veer’s Wallpaper Collection

Veer.com/Ideas

I only learnt about Veer recently, but I must say they’re pretty cool and they seem to have been around for ages. The Veer Wallpaper gallery spans five years of designs and includes something for everyone.

IconBase

IconBase.com

Icons that will make your drool. And what’s more, there are pages and pages and pages of them. And if that wasn’t enough, they are free for personal and non-comercial use… Yay!

MoreInspiration

MoreInspiration.com

If your flavour of design happens to be product, then you are going to love MoreInspiration, a site hosting some thousand plus innovative ideas and products.

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Since FreelanceSwitch started, there is one question that I get asked more often than any other. How can a freelancer find more work and generate new client leads?

Well at FreelanceSwitch we don’t shy away from the pressing questions. So as the kicker for a new series on how to get more freelance work, we have put together an enormous list of ideas, ranging from ones that take 10 seconds to 10 days. There’s something for everyone to try and I guarantee there will be plenty of things you never thought of.

Over the next few months we will be publishing an article on EVERY single one of these topics, so if you need more explanation or examples on any of them, don’t worry they’re coming!

And now without further ado, here they are, your 101 ideas:

Word of mouth is the go

• Enlist your family and friends to spread the word about your services
• Send out an email to everyone in your address book, announcing what you do, where you are and what you can offer
• Ask your satisfied clients for referrals
• Offer free consultations to new referrals
• Consider a referral or finders fee

Love those clients

• Get in touch with past and current clients when you have a new service to offer them
• Get in touch with past and current clients when you have completed a flagship project
• Start a newsletter
• Take advantage of every outgoing email by using your email signature as a marketing tool
• Send promotions for services with your invoices
• Ask your clients to place a credit on your work in web, video or print
• Make a calendar featuring your work for clients to put up in their offices to serve as a constant reminder
• Make a poster for your client to hang up on their office wall

Talk the talk

• Go to industry events – conferences, association meetings, seminars
• Go to events in your client’s industry
• Sponsor a client event
• Join your local Chamber of Commerce and get involved
• Socialize and always have your card ready
• Do some pro-bono work for a charitable organization with industry links
• Get involved in social groups you’re connected to (church, school, university)
• Join an industry organization and get listed
• Contact people you used to work with and ask them to send you any run-off work they might have
• Offer to give a seminar to a local business group
• Practice an elevator speech about what you do and have it ready to go wherever you are
• Participate on online forums (using the forum signature line)
• Comment on blogs to draw people back to your freelance site

Promote Yourself

• Get car signage
• Get t-shirts made with your URL
• Try location based Google Adwords
• Advertise in a niche magazine or trade publication e.g. a magazine just for cafes
• List yourself in business directories or the Yellow Pages
• Research sites your clients are visiting and buy advertising there
• Advertise in online directories
• Take out an ad out in a local newspaper
• Participate in a trade show
• Holidays are your friend! Send a clever holiday greeting to clients showing your work
• Promote a free first consulation service
• Have a gimmick that makes you stand out
• Give something away for free
• Place an advert in an industry newsletter
• Offer branded pens and paper at industry events

Be an industry expert

• Pitch an article to an industry publication
• Pitch a story to a blog or resource website
• Offer to speak at industry and networking events
• Start a blog and publicize it
• Submit tutorials or how-to’s to websites
• Get on the radio
• Write an eBook or Report for your target market and promote it online
• Enter your work into competitions and awards… and win

Use the media

• Issue a press release about a story related to your services and try and get it into a local newspaper or magazine
• Pull a publicity friendly stunt (think Richard Branson)
• Run a contest which ties into your services

Job Boards

• Keep an eye on online job boards
• Check out Craigs List for your city
• Keep an eye on offline job boards
• Pin up a little advert on boards in your local area or community

Brrr – it’s cold in here!

• Find out how you could improve a companies business and profits and cold call them with your pitch
• Mail promo postcards to potential clients
• Mail fun promotional items to potential clients (calendars, toys, posters etc)

Help leads find you

• Search-optimize your website and get Google traffic
• Have a follow up conversation with all potential leads
• Make sure you’re listed in the Yellow Pages and White Pages business section

Get in bed with local business

• Contact your local internet service provider or printing house and offer them a commission if they refer work
• Establish contacts in larger agencies that can refer their run-off work
• Keep in touch with freelancers that will offer clients a complementary service to yours and throw each other work
• Create a local business directory and use it to get to know other business owners who might later need your services
• Cross promote with other businesses
• Ask if you can put your business cards or brochure in local stores
• Rent officespace shared with other businesses or freelancers

Industry Specific Ideas

And here are some ideas that are tailored to certain industries…

Photographers

• Enter your work into a gallery or run an exhibition
• Submit some work to stock agencies to attract attention
• Do a new series of work so you have a reason to show your portfolio to an old contact
• Send in your photography work to industry magazines to make a name for yourself
• Start an online photojournal
• Photograph an event or series and pitch it to a newspaper or magazine
• Get an Agent

Programmers & Developers

• Pitch your self as a developer who understands web designers, because most of them need a developer
• Write a small web app like ta-da list or jobpile and get some recognition
• Answer tech questions on forums and use a signature that says you offer freelance coding services
• Enter a programming contest like RailsDay
• Contribute to open source efforts and get known

Illustrators/Animators

• Start a comic strip blog – e.g. gapingvoid.com
• Make characters and create merchandise based on them – figurines, badges, tshirts etc
• Enter some competitons to get your illustrations in some famous places – snowboards, posters
• Create an awesome animation that wins you fame like Laith Bahrani
• Do stock illustrations for a site like istockphoto and have a portfolio site offering custom ones
• Write to big blogs and offer to do a cartoon strip (k10k)
• Send in your illustration work to magazines like computerarts.co.uk
• Create a promo Reel of animations or illlustrations and send it around/get it publicised
• Send your illustrations to gift card publishers

Writers, Bloggers, Journalists

• Pitch yourself at ad, design and web design agencies as a copywriter
• Find some photos on iStockPhoto and write some great ad headlines for each and make a mailer out of it
• Submit articles to article banks for sale
• Write opinionated, witty pieces and get them publicised on Digg with a blurb at the bottom about your services
• Pitch article ideas to editors, online and off
• Write a book and publish it with lulu.com

Designers

• Submit work to design compilation books and magazines
• Get your portfolio/profile listed on a site like Coroflot
• Design a great website and submit it to design galleries like CSSMania.com
• Build a great portfolio and submit it to design portals like DesignIsKinky.com
• Start a magazine, design portal or blog

So there you have it, lots of ideas! Do you know of any more? Add them in the comments and we’ll add them to the list…

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