At Last! An iphone app I can get behind!
Let’s face it, today’s job markets don’t look fantastic. With people getting laid off left and right it seems ludicrous to fight for work online, but it’s a fight that many people are putting themselves up to. With lucrative online positions available, the competition for the top internet jobs is heating up and professionals need to take every step possible to make sure that they land the big clients, get the great work, and create an online income that keeps them going.
These five strategies will keep your freelance career positive. Whether you need to boost your work input, allow yourself greater work/life balance or simply survive in a world that’s highly competitive, these strategies will get you running at the front of the pack and balancing a highly lucrative set of online clients. Read on and get ready to jot down your own freelance manifesto.
Strategy #1: Project Professionalism
The greatest business strategy you can take is to stand out. Marketing expert Seth Godin calls remarkable business and products ‘Purple Cows’. The thinking is that since they’re so unique — like a purple cow — they stand out from their competition and stay in your mind. When you can become one of these purple cows, you unlock a massive advantage over your competitors. When people think of an online worker, they think of you, not of the masses of people available on Elance or ODesk.
How can you stand out? Project professionalism. The online world is incredibly casual, often to the point where it seems uninviting and unprofessional. You wouldn’t believe how many proposals are crafted in all lower case and sent through to companies without any punctuation. Check, check and check again, and make sure to project professionalism and ability whenever you can. Not only can you command a higher price for your work, but you’ll self-select the most able and impressive clients out there.
Strategy #2: Don’t under-price yourself.
If there’s one mistake that freelance workers make, it’s this one. Look around any major freelance labor website and you’ll find workers competing to offer the lowest price around. There’s no point lying — this technique works. You’ll find yourself fighting off clients and ready to work 24/7. That’s not the problem.
The problem is that you’ll be working 24/7 for little reward. When you market yourself on price, that’s all you’ve got. You can’t market yourself on price and skill, you’ve ultimately bound yourself to forever being known as the cheapest provider on the block. Make sure you don’t make this mistake. When you’re determining your service rates and costs, think about the professional image that you want to project, not the cheap-as-chips rates that attract the least enjoyable clients.
This strategy achieves two things. Firstly, you’ll end up earning a much greater wage than you would if you under-price your work. Secondly, higher rates will attract larger, more valuable clients and set you up with long-term working relationships. Frugal goes where frugal is, but quality sticks around.
Strategy #3: Don’t be afraid to market yourself.
Look around any freelance website and you’ll see profiles that undersell their services. I’m not sure whether it’s modesty or timidity, but this marketing no-no achieves absolutely nothing. The simple fact is this — nobody is going to find you unless you put yourself out there. Simply making a profile on a provider website and listing your contact details isn’t enough. You need to work to promote yourself, let people know why you’re the best pick, and go the extra mile to make sure that you generate great work and pick up the most valuable clients.
How can you do this? Start with your profile and portfolio, and structure the entire thing to sell your services. Then, link to your online presence from social media, guest blogging and more. Don’t be afraid to put your name out there. It takes a leap of faith at first, but eventually it pays for itself in added clients, extra work and online opportunities.
Strategy #4: Do great work.
Sounds basic, but it’s a point that’s lost on thousands of online workers. The simple truth is that the online world is packed with mediocrity and incompetence. The number of ‘writers’ that can barely speak English is humongous, the number of ‘artists’ that couldn’t draw their way out of a paper bag is staggering, and the amount of ‘designers’ that complete their work in MS Paint is simply disturbing.
This is both a bad thing and a good thing. It’s bad because it paints everyone’s vision with skepticism whenever they need to search for an online provider. It’s good because it provides you with endless opportunities to impress. Go out of your way to impress a client, especially in the initial stages of a working relationship. Provide more than what’s asked for, and don’t ever think that you can get away with giving anything less than 100% quality.
There are ultimately two types of providers. The first is constantly fighting for new clients, endlessly wasting energy chasing the money down. The second is constantly turning work down, with a horde of satisfied clients desperate to use their services. Invest in quality and you’ll become the second type. Invest in short-term strategy and you’ll end up the first.
Strategy #5: Work to your strengths.
Nothing is less appealing than a jack of all trades. The internet gives employers immediate access to any set of skills that they need, be it a designer, a writer or a marketing strategist. Sure, you could try to satisfy all these markets at once, but that would mean working endlessly to do mediocre work in each. A much smarter strategy is to focus on the one thing that you’re very good at and absolutely master that field.
Say that you’re a good designer, but a great writer. While it seems good sense to market both of those skills, it’s really a failing strategy. You’ll pick up work in each field, but it’ll be unfulfilled, poorly paid and ultimately useless. Instead, focus on just the one skill that matters. Discard anything that’s external and dedicate yourself to the skill that’s the most lucrative, the most profitable and the most enjoyable. Then you’ll pick up the most valuable clients, earn the most impressive online wage, and enjoy a workload that doesn’t have you skipping from one program to the next.
These strategies aren’t the beginning and the end of freelance work, but they’re certainly a useful guideline for generating the work that you want, getting the rates that you deserve, and marketing yourself in a difficult job climate. Remember, the work is out there, but it’s never going to come to you. Get out there, start marketing yourself, and remember that opportunity only ever presents itself to those that know how to find it.
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The future is here. Silent velcro. Space travel. Fanless… fans. And one of them there doohickeys just miraculously showed up on my desk today. Should I dispose of it in a landfill? Should I convince people it’s a space beacon and I’m conducting a wild experiment communicating with aliens?
So, what’s awesome about it? It’s relatively quiet, easy to clean, and I wont chop my hand off reaching through it. What’s not awesome about it? I can’t do the Luke, you’re my father thing. Serious bummer.
The Dyson Air Multiplier™ fan works very differently to conventional fans. It uses Air Multiplier™ technology to draw in air and amplify it 15 times, producing an uninterrupted stream of smooth air. With no blades or grill, it’s safe, easy to clean and doesn’t cause unpleasant buffeting.
The Dyson Air Multiplier (or space beacon if you decide to call it that) costs $299 for the 10-inch model and $329 for the 12-inch. Smart dude, that Dyson guy is.
Found this Fail Harder mural done by Wieden + Kennedy 12. Over 100,000 thumbtacks were used over 351 hours to create this typographic mural that spells out Fail Harder, a message that underlines the importance of failure during the creative process. Thanks Tina!
I’m still hoping someone will start making Polaroid film again, but until that happens, I’m psyched about this Fuji Instax Instant Camera.
It prints credit card-sized photos on bold Fuji film, but retains a classic instant film look that everyone loves. Plus, you’ve got more control when you’re shooting: four exposure settings for indoor/outdoor shooting, a built-in flash, and a sweeping wide angle.
Went to W+K Portland on Friday and watched Tina Roth Eisenberg (a designer who also runs the blog Swiss Miss) give a great presentation. See W+K Studio presents swissmiss. I learned a lot about design, blogging and inspiration. Grounded and honest, she did a great job detailing the finer points of designing, blogging and working in the creative industry.
Are you awake now?! Is this enough coffee to carry you through the day? tumblir stream is a site dedicated to “coffee art”. If you prefer tea, this probably doesn’t do a whole lot for you, but as a coffee lover this will put a big smile on your face. Found via Simply Hue.
Harbor Freight’s hammer seems designed to ensure that alcoholic carpenters will never finish their projects. At least that’s what we thought, until we read the description: It’s actually intended to be used as a smashing implement to get those solid bags of ice ready for the beer cooler. Still, we would have gone with a slightly modified form factor–after all, hair dryers are shaped like pistols, but for obvious reasons look different enough that you wouldn’t mistake one for the other. Found via Core77.
LIFE has posted a gallery of 30 dumb inventions from the 1950’s & 1960’s, for example this cigarette pack holder from 1955.
