Articles by Freelance Switch from May 2012

I recently wrote a blog post sharing the news that The Times-Picayune out of New Orleans, Louisiana, will cease to produce a daily newspaper. Instead, the company will be printing three days a week an...

Ive been spending a lot of time working out of coworking spaces lately. Im a big fan of having a place I can just drop into and work from, especially if Im going to be away from my home office anyhow....

Part guesswork, part experience, part number crunching – how ever you look at it, determining your price is a difficult task. Here are nine factors to take into consideration when pricing your s...

If you do any work in the realm of journalism, you have probably heard, over and over again, that print is dying. Well, recently, part of it actually did.This fall, New Orleans will be the largest U.S...

Last week I had a brilliant idea: I would teach my 3-year-old son to use the digital camera! Then he would learn a valuable skill! And become a famous photographer!As you can tell, I was pretty excite...

Its that time of year when thousands upon thousands of twentysomethings don caps and gowns of every sort of color and graduate from colleges and universities around the world. They have a spring in th...

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? ...

A true professional understands that you can never stop learning. Keeping up with the current industry trends is an important way to maintain marketability in ever-changing creative professions. Freel...

While freelance writing is my main job, I also do some part-time work as a freelance photographer. Working from home and living in a tight space gets a bit hectic when I have cameras, bags, chargers, ...

I have a lot of mom friends who have decided to leave the typical workforce after having children.With daycare being as expensive as it is these days, many of these moms didnt make enough money in the...

Your reputation as a freelancer is pretty much the only thing you have to go on — your bread and butter.And your reputation is generally based on two things: the quality of your work, and how we...

I make a point of getting on the phone, going out to lunch, even traveling to see other freelancers. Its a good business habit to get into and it pays off well. There are a lot of reasons why you shou...

Online employment is skyrocketing across the globe, according to a recent study by Elance, an international platform for online employment. Even the most skeptical would be hard-pressed not to notice ...

A lot of freelancers get excited about international clients these days. But you can create a niche for yourself as someone local a freelancer just down the street who is happy to meet in person with...

The fact that you can learn anything from John Mayer might surprise you, but I learned a lot about how you can ruin your reputation through social media and interviews in this NPR interview with the m...

Do you dream of quitting your job and going it on your own? Not so fast. Building a freelance business while working a full-time job is difficult.It is possible though with some juggling and creativit...

One of the biggest challenges for freelancers just starting out is how to get more press and publicity for their business with few funds. As a one-person shop, you can’t spend a fortune employin...

There have been many blog posts here about how you, as a freelancer, can give your clients great customer service and why its important. Lets turn the tables for a minute and focus on how you, as a fr...

As a freelancer, you have a lot of issues to juggle – branding yourself being one of the least of your concerns most days. But your brand is a critical piece to your long-term success. You don&#...

Did you have a favorite Dr. Seuss book growing up? I sure did. It was Green Eggs and Ham. I could read that book over and over and never get tired of it.But beyond the “Whos” and “Th...

We’re looking for images of your freelance offices to be submitted to our FreelanceSwitch Facebook Group. This is for a post to run on FreelanceSwitch about Real Freelance Offices of FreelanceSw...

Networking events can be nerve-wracking. Youre in a room with a bunch of people you dont know and you have to make conversation or risk looking like a wallflower. But just because networking events ca...

Are you unhappy with the amount of freelance writing income you’re bringing in? The check account is looking bare, and the bills are piling up.You need more gigs — and you need them now.Fo...

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? ...

Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and c...

One of the fundamental principles of productivity is that in order to get things done, you gotta focus. And that necessary focus requires that you eliminate as many distractions as possible — no...

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.This week we look at How To Find Good Clients by FreelanceJam. F...

In March, I wrote a blog post about the importance of making your social media persona as true to real life as possibleespecially when looking for work.These days, people are more likely to lie on the...

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at getting clients and taking the leap. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you ha...

Summer is knocking on your front door, begging you for attention. Living in New England, where summer never lasts long enough, its hard for me to say no. But with a full-time job and my freelancing wo...

Freelancers often underestimate how they can use LinkedIn to build relationships with clients and colleagues. As a global professional network, boasting over 135 million people, LinkedIn becomes a vir...

As a journalist, I sometimes write columns and blogs that people dont agree with. Sometimes I feel so lambasted when people leave comments about what Ive written that I literally cant read them. I hav...

Signage, stationary and forms, oh my! Businesses can easily create enough visual material to fill up an ark. Theres a logo, of course, and everything it gets applied to, such as: brochures, catalogs, ...

I got a telephone call today at the office from the wife of a certified public accountant. She was pitching me on a story that her husband had just written about the benefits of creating an LLC versus...

Many freelancers work out of the house. But there are situations in which at least having access to office space is important: Maybe you need a place to meet with clients. Maybe you need a place where...

Networking is more than just attending events and swapping business cards. Freelancers, in particular, can find fellow collaborators, future partners, prospective clients, and a tribe of fellow freela...

School is coming to an end for another year, and many students will be participating in internships for the summer. An internship can be a real win-win situationthe hirer (you) gets low cost or even f...

Remember the good old days before 2008, when freelance writing gigs seemed to just fall out of the trees at you? It’s been a long slog through a tough economy since then, and there’s still...

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? ...

Imagine a quiet office space. There are only a few people around – not enough to distract you, but enough to ensure that you dont feel isolated from the world. Mostly they are freelancers, typin...

Freelancers have to step outside their comfort zone for a number of reasons. You might be offered a collaborative project with a larger team than you are used to working with, or asked to take on a fa...

Ive got a lot going on in my life right now. Im on deadline for our biggest magazine issue of the year, grades are due for the college class I teach, Im in two weddings this summer, my husband is inte...

If you’re a freelancer or if you sell a product online, you probably use email to find new prospects. Even in the age of Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, email remains an excellent way to genera...

Is one (or more) of your competitors copying your idea? Congratulations! You are not alone.As the co-owner of a niche publication, I look at copying as the best form of flatteryI have to! If I spent h...

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at an introduction to freelancing and contracts. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. ...

I dont know about you, but lately Ive been hearing about some pretty serious social media snafus that have been so bad that people have lost their jobs over them.Whether your Facebook page is set to p...

A career in Freelance Illustration is much more than drawing pretty pictures. While as much as you’d like to spend the entire day sitting in front of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or your other ...

Want to make money on that app you created? Youll have to spend money and time on marketing your app outside of app stores for success, according to a recent study conducted by App-Promo, a mobile app...

Are you sick of seeing job ads for blogging that only offer $20 a post or less? Scanning the online job boards, you might think there are no good-paying blogging gigs.But there are. I know because I&#...

Theres a reason you see a smattering of women in red business suits in the crowd when you watch the State of the Union address on TV. Red is a power color, and these are powerful women!The colors you ...

Have you been wondering if you could be a freelance writer?Well, despite all the rah-rah you hear on many freelance sites about just going for it, and all the excitement about the pluses of the freela...

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? ...

Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and c...

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.This week we look at Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, i...

An expo or a conference is a great way to network with other people who work in your industry, as well as a great place to reach a target market.I co-own and edit a wedding magazine, so Ive been to my...

Savvy freelance editors often have a preternatural ability to zero in on dream clients and to steer clear from troublesome ones. Ideal clients are those that are effortless to work with, straightforwa...

Im a sucker for a good study, and a team of Asian researchers have come out with one about how your social networking sites can accurately predict your personalitysomething you may (or may not) want t...

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at client communication and incorporation. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you...

Have you ever been stiffed by a client? Many freelancers haveand it sucks. More often than not, the cost to take the client to court is frequently much more expensive than the unpaid invoice. So whats...

In this day an age it’s not uncommon to hear bold statements such as “The business card is dead, it’s all about wireless vCard” or “I’ll email my contact details ov...

I was listening to the recording of The Renegade Writers Become a Confident Writer Teleclass and they mentioned that adage: Editors are just people.Now, I know from experience that theyre lyingbut Ill...

I couldnt help but chuckle at this recent story from The Boston Globe on the overuse of exclamation points.Remember when email first came into prevalence? I do. Suddenly writing in all caps meant you ...

Marketing is integral to the success of any freelancer, and the difference between mediocre freelancers and professional ones is often how smart they are at marketing.As a freelancer, you also need to...

All too often, freelancers look at their clients as one-off opportunities. They do a job, complete a project, and when payment exchanged, they wave good-bye and never look back. But regular contact wi...

Freelance business owners often struggle with the question of whether to hire a contractor or an employee. Many claim that contractors are the way to go, hands down; still others have only hire emplo...

The magazine I work for is looking to hire a part-time graphic designer to help the production department with creating print ads. The team has interviewed a few good candidates already, but nothing h...

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive? ...