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| Free Tools for Site Designs, Logos, and Prototypes Posted: 30 Dec 2008 04:00 PM PST A while back, a friend of mine and I had an idea for a new e-commerce web site we were thinking of launching. We eventually shelved the idea after digging up a couple of sites that were too close in spirit to the same idea, but one of the things I remember we worked hard on was mocking up a good looking design for the site, complete with a slick logo. This can be more dificult than it seems at first, but is an important first step in moving from your vision of a web site to execution. Here are some free resources that can make the process easier, and provide good prototyping results. Are you familiar with the free, open source applications Blender and Gimp? The former is one of the most respected 3D animation and graphics programs, and the latter is one of the best loved graphics programs. The web abounds with useful tutorials for creating slick logos in Blender as seen here, and here. You can easily learn to make animated or still logos for a web site with Blender. For Gimp, too, there are many tutorials for making slick logos. Try searching at Gimp-Tutorials.net for examples. You can also find free logos at LogoInstant. The site shares slick looking logos every day, and they’re free to use as either inspiration for a version that you modify, or you can just use the logos as they stand. Back in June, Mike covered Open Source Web Designs, which provides over 2,000 free web design templates that you can work with for free. Most of them are XHTML- and CSS-based. Finally, if you are collaborating with another web worker on a prototype for a site design, one of the best loved, free tools for doing so is JumpChart, which I wrote about here. It lets you build and save versions of your site through several iterations. The free version only gives you 10 pages to work with, but that’s usually enough for a basic prototype that you can build out from.    |
| Invotrak: Mobilizing Invoice Tracking Posted: 30 Dec 2008 03:00 PM PST
Feature-for-feature, Invotrak and Freshbooks seem almost identical, though the latter offers a wider range of price plans, the former does seem to enjoy a cleaner and clearer design. However, perhaps the ace-in-the-hole for Invotrak is its support for the iPhone, via a native App Store application, and its availability as a Dashboard widget for Macs. Released early last month, the iPhone edition of Invotrak is available for no charge - though users must still be registered and subscribed to one of the company’s plans. The app offers many of the functions of its parent web application, notably the ability to track invoices and and payments, but also more handily (for a mobile context) the ability to look up stored information about your clients.
Feature-wise, Freshbooks appears to be a stronger package, but Invotrak offers an interesting alternative for those who require flexbility rather than feature-complete services.   |
| 3 Free Resources for Freelance Writers Posted: 30 Dec 2008 02:00 PM PST
These resources can help increase your chances of finding freelance writing work. It’s important to remember that whatever romantic notions of the solitary writer you may have, being successful as a freelancer depends on community, and these resources provide a good starting point for building your own. The Freelance Writer’s Helper A fairly recent site, The Freelance Writer’s Helper is put together by Tim Beyers, a freelance writer who contributes to the investment blog The Mile High Fool. It’s a Google Notebook, which is perfect for the content, which is meant to be easy to search and be reference ready. Along the left side you can find the links to all of the page’s subsections. Each subsection contains links to useful external sites, followed by a brief description. If nothing else, Tim has done a nice job of aggregating a considerable amount of information valuable to freelancers hoping to write online in one convenient, central location. The Freelance Writer’s helper is a living document, and Tim is always happy to receive suggestions for additional links he can add to the site to make it even more useful. All Freelance Writing Keeping in the spirit of aggregated content, All Freelance Writing is an ongoing blog that features a lot of resource lists and link collections. The blog’s authors do a really good job of organizing this mass of information in meaningful ways. How-to articles are plentiful here, as are skill and trade refinement exercises, and professional development resources. There’s also a list of job offerings, which is updated once a week. Jeff Gaulin Job Boards Right away, you’ll note that JeffGaulin.com is a Canada-centric resource, but valuable nonetheless, especially if you find a job where you can work remotely, or if you’re willing to make a move in order to further your career. Jeff has somehow managed to make this site the go-to destination for journalists looking for work in Canada. Jobs are broken down by area and by category, and those advertising on the site include heavy-hitters like Adbusters and AskMen.com. So far, his online listings are kind of slim, but hopefully, as the sector grows, the site will shift focus towards that kind of work. There you go, three resources to make your freelance writing island a little less remote. It’s still a more isolated career choice than, say, working in a busy office, but you don’t have to do it without any help at all. Are there any freelance writing communities you belong to or participate in?   |
| From Thought to Paper (or PDF): Online Document Production Workflows Posted: 30 Dec 2008 12:00 PM PST One of the trickiest things to pull off when you’re working online is producing an actual document. There are any number of distractions, it’s harder to provide proofs and get feedback than if you’re working face-to-face with a client or stakeholder, and you often get the run around in terms of who you should be working with. I’ve done a lot of this type of work for a range of clients, and over the course of those efforts, I’ve arrived at a number of conclusions regarding how best to go about it. These tips won’t tell you exactly how you should manage your own workflow, but it will help you avoid some of the more common problems.
There’s nothing a client likes worse than switching horses halfway through the race. That means you should pick your applications, end products, etc. with them at the project outset. Make sure both of you know exactly what they want to get out of the project at the end. Details like whether or not they want the document to be editable, the expected shelf life of the document, whether it’s a living document or not will all be crucial in helping you decide not only what, but how you’ll be producing.
No matter how clearly you think you’ve determined your client’s desires at project outset, the chances that you will deliver exactly what they’re looking for, sight unseen, when it comes time to pony up at close. That’s why project milestones are important. It seems easy enough, but make sure there are check-in points, with percentage completion targets, or specific draft numbers or iterations of the document.
Revisions are necessary, and to be expected any time you’re producing something, be it for yourself or others. What’s not necessary is an endless series of revisions and rework, which can easily happen if you don’t establish a clearly defined production process at the beginning, with specific roles assigned to specific people. The hardest part of accomplishing this might be convincing your client to go along with it, but you need to make sure that only one or two quality assurance points exist. Those stakeholders involved should look at the work at predetermined points, and provide feedback according to predetermined procedure. Every new set of eyes that sees the work will want to add their own input, regardless of the product’s quality, just to feel as though they’ve contributed, which is why you need to set limits. These guidelines are broad, and shouldn’t be too hard to work into your existing project management practices. Probably the most important thing to take away from this article is that communication is the key to succesful delivery. Never hide anything from the client, and make sure both you, and they, are never in a position to be surprised.   |
| Does Your Web Business Include Recurring Revenues? Posted: 30 Dec 2008 10:00 AM PST Do you bill based on hourly work performed? Or are you working on a project basis? What are you doing about recurring revenues? With 2009 almost here, this is something I’ve been focusing on for my business. In a past post about Freshbooks benchmark data for business owners, I mentioned their report that showed 20% of businesses using Freshbooks had recurring revenues. That stat made me think about my own Web working business and how I was not only a little skimpy on the recurring revs, but I was also failing to properly designated the revenues that were recurring in my Freshbooks account, namely monthly retainers. As a long-time web worker who got my start with Internet marketing in ‘92, I’ve always been loathe to set my clients up so they have to depend on me to get things done for them online. I’ve always felt like I was ripping them off hoarding their web site updates when someone on their staff could easily do them. I believed that empowering my clients to be able to do everything in-house was a better practice. For many clients, however, time and technology limitations make my old theories on client empowerment unrealistic. I have to reframe my thinking to see that I’m actually helping my clients increase their efficiencies by doing what I do best for them and letting them do what they do best. A retainer is actually a good thing when they know what they are paying each month and getting in return, and as a business owner, I know what money I can expect even if my additional freelance jobs or contracts end. I turned to a few experts - including some of my fellow WWD bloggers - for their thoughts on recurring revenues. “Recurring revenues are the lifeblood of any business that expects to grow,” says Stever Robbins, the Get It Done Guy. “Without them, you’re starting from zero every year. With them, you have a financial base as your foundation.” Robbins suggests that web workers need to make some component of what they do a web-delivered service. Think: service contracts, forums to share high-quality or rare information, retainers, etc. Celine Roque shares her own recurring revenues strategy which is providing regular maintenance and updates for web clients and regular blog posts and newsletter updates for writing clients. Says Roque, “Oftentimes clients need long term work, whether they know it or not. It’s just a matter of identifying their needs and keeping in touch with them even when you’re not directly selling anything. That way, you’re the first person they remember when they need additional work done, even if it’s not related to the initial project you were working on.” Mike Gunderloy also encourages web workers to set up recurring revenues. “One of the biggest issues is to believe in yourself enough to invest time in coming up with a recurring revenue source,” says Gunderloy. “If you’re billing $xxx per hour, then it’s easy to think ‘every hour I’m not billing a client I’m losing $xxx.’ Focus on that too much, and you’ll never take any of your working hours to build something that might pay back more in the future.” Are you set for 2009 with a nice foundation of recurring revenues? If not, what are you doing about it?   |
| All You Can Surf UK: Pret A Manger Offers Free Wifi Posted: 30 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST Coffee shops with free wifi are the web workers’ digital oases, allowing us to flit from coffee to cake, sucking down bits and bites. For those without a home office, or access to a coworking community, such locations can quickly become our nomadic offices. So with this in mind, it’s great to hear the that last week, the UK’s Pret a Manger launched free wifi access in around 90% of its stores. ‘Pret‘ is well known for its ethical business practices and healthy, freshly made food, so it makes for a nice alternative to the usual Starbucks hourly charge (as much as £5/hour!) or the unappealing McDonalds environment.
Some analysts are predicting that, with the proliferation of cheap pay monthly and pay-as-you-go 3G mobile broadband options throughout the UK (as little as £10/month for HSDPA tarriffs), locations with paid wifi access will likely tend towards free access, making revenue from other sources. Pret executives have publically noted that the cost to their business is minimal - roughly £80k to setup nationally & £20k/month to operate - but the value to their 1.5m weekly customers is immeasurable. For other wifi location owners, it’s entirely possible free access could be tied to store purchases - at Cafe Ollo in Huddersfield, each purchase is accompanied by a 1-hour code issued as a WEP key for the cafe’s wifi network. As the UK has seen the failure of a number of municipal wifi projects (and FON!), pressure from 3G and creative revenue streams may mean that free public wifi will be an increasingly available public good. Oh, and as if Pret needed further geek credibility, the company has ‘open sourced’ its most popular recipes! (Image courtesy of Jon In 60 Seconds)   |
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You may be interested and motivated to become a freelance writer, but it’s hard to know where to start. First, you should write, but that goes without saying. How do you turn your passion into paid work? It’s not a simple process, and it involves a lot of searching, digging, and some luck, as well.
Determine Scope and Materials Up Front, in Detail
Set Up Project Milestones, Even For Smaller Projects
Too Many Cooks Spoil The Broth
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