Frailwords

As Twitter continues to grow at an incredible pace each day, the importance of the platform grows with it. Developing a strong social media presence and growing your network of followers demands being active on Twitter. Fortunately, there exist many tools out there that assist us in making our life easier and more efficient on Twitter.

Here are ten tools that will increase your efficiency, while allowing you to retain your genuine personality when tweeting.

“The work had better be good, I’m paying them enough.” Over the years I’ve heard this statement – or versions of it – from many different managers charged with getting creative work out of their teams. From a conventional management perspective, it probably sounds like common sense. But to anyone who understands the nature of creativity and what motivates creative people, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Have you wondered, “How often should I post articles on my blog?” or “How does my social media reach impact lead generation and traffic?” Two brand-new studies by HubSpot and Edison Research provide fresh insights on these important questions. Consider these five findings as you enhance your social media and blogging strategies.

There’s value in social media – I can trace real revenue to it, and I’m not the only one. The first 30 minutes are incredibly valuable – it’s the next 7 hours that are the problem. I understand both extremes – I once spent 24 straight hours on Twitter, and I’ve quit social media cold-turkey for 30 days twice. So, here are a few tips for adding Google+ to the mix without losing what little work-day you have left

Perhaps our generation’s greatest failing is how lazy we are. How many of my readers have sent me emails talking about how they want to change…how they want to improve their finances, or earn more, or get healthier…or even READ my book (which is sitting under their bed)…but they simply can’t find the motivation to do so?

Savvy entrepreneurs know there are a set of simple steps that can be taken in just about any gone-wrong scenario to help get – whatever disaster has befallen – back on track. Let’s explore those steps together.

The sales cycle of the typical popular book, for example, has a half-life of about two months After two months, the book will probably have made half of all the sales it will make in its entire lifetime. For an internet viral sensation, the half-life is probably closer to six hours, measured from the moment the traffic peaks.

many website owners have begun to develop a strategy for providing information and services to their mobile visitors. However, mobile strategies can vary massively from website to website, depending on what the company wants to offer visitors. For example, eBay’s strategy will be very different from an individual’s strategy for a portfolio website, which might simply be to improve readability for those viewing on a mobile device.

Becoming independent is going to be the best thing you’ve ever done for your career–if you do it right. Not everyone is meant for, or even comfortable with, working on their own. It’s important to figure this out before becoming enamored with all the freedom freelancing brings.

You don’t want to leave a good job and then realize too late that freelancing isn’t right for you. So, make sure you ask yourself these questions first in order to determine the answer to the most important question–should you freelance?

The following rhetorical tools enrich writing by eliciting a primal emotional response in readers. Be sure they have intrinsic value to the content and do not simply showcase your cleverness. Employ them in moderation, and be true to your voice and the tone of your writing.

Lately, I’ve heard of plenty of freelancers hiring virtual assistants or subcontractors based on the other side of the globe — choosing people based in places where $200 a month is a very respectable income. The general consensus among freelancers taking utilizing this is that it can be a great way to bring on help when you can’t fully afford someone locally. It’s a way to use geography to your advantage.

I’ve also heard plenty of people declaring that paying a designer or a virtual assistant or any other type of help less than they would make in the U.S, the U.K, Europe or Australia is morally wrong.

Most people are just treading water – logging the minimum monthly work hours to pay the bills and stay afloat. If you are a blogger or entrepreneur of any sort, you were probably seduced by the notion of being your own boss and thereby becoming a master of your own fate. Unfortunately, the hard reality is that most people in this position of independence work even harder than the norm for fewer results. The work ethic is certainly commendable, but many fail to ever develop real traction and therefore never get to live the lifestyle they envisioned.

Mentorship can help both new and established small business owners move on to the next step in their careers. Who better to help you get to the place you need to go than someone who’s already there? Mentors can help you move past a plateau, expose you to new clients, and generally help you get your foot in the door (and sometimes even help you step through). The key is finding the one that suits you and your career objectives and that means taking steps to plan for what you want out of the relationship.

Let’s face it. Using your computer to write can be so frustrating. There’s error messages, software updates and bugs. Plus, with new iThings coming out practically every month, how do you keep up? Have you ever noticed how there are people who never seem to have trouble with technology? Regardless of what’s new, they always ‘get it’ immediately without any no lead time. Unfortunately, we’re not all lucky enough to count ourselves in that group. Let’s forget about those “technology natives” for a minute and explore the source of your frustration- when you’re trying to get something done, and technology stands in your way.

With so much competition out there, freelance designers are always looking for new ways to stand out from the crowd. Some designers have used free resources to build their reputation. While it may seem counterproductive to give away resources that you have created, there can be significant benefits that make it worth your time. In this post we’ll take a look at 7 examples where giving away freebies has been beneficial to the business and career of designers.

Most of us operate in what could best be described as a “create on demand” world. We have to go to work each day and deliver consistently brilliant work, on demand, in order to keep our jobs. And though we relish getting to do what we love and earning a living at it, over time our passion and energy can wane if we’re only creating to earn a paycheck.

A major part of working freelance is using your time productively and efficiently. You might schedule your time as blocks of each day, or as random periods of time at any hour of the day or night. Regardless of our individual working patterns, all freelancers keep some sort of calendar, to-do, or scribble list. (If you don’t have some sort of calendar, you should start one today.) In this post, I’ll explain why an online calendar is better. I’ll also give you five tips for getting the most from your online calendar.

You’re a web worker and you’re all kitted out: You have your home office achievement cockpit with the latest smartphone and laptop complete with a well-researched array of apps, as well as a ninja-level system for time and information management. You’re ready to confront everything the world of remote collaboration throws at you, so why are you constantly so stressed?

Since the early days of communication, humanity has been captivated by the methods it uses to convey and preserve information. How we communicate with each other defines who we are and constitutes so much of what makes a culture and an individual unique.

Over the centuries, we have seen media evolve across a wide array of channels, from print to radio to television to the Internet. Each one of these channels, or media, has its own unique characteristics, much like the people who use them.

There’s plenty of information on the internet today, but it can still be difficult to find that one fact you need. Google can’t answer your questions directly, and if you do search for a question, chances are you’ll find some off-the-wall response on Yahoo! Answers. Not exactly what you were looking for.

Instead, today there are a number of niche question and answer sites that can make your search for an answer much more productive. These sites are designed to let users ask and answer questions, and usually let readers vote up answers that are the best. There’s several well known niche Q&A sites that you may already use, but keep reading to see the best places to get your questions answered that we’ve found.

Creatives need a detailed brief. Without it we are feeling in the dark, with little clue of our destination.

We need targeted information from our clients to deliver high quality finished work that meets the client’s expectations. We want to deliver polished work and we need the right information to do that.

It doesn’t take a genius to stroll around cyberspace and quickly find that the World Wide Web is littered with junk. There is a lot of “stuff” out there, most of which isn’t very good. On the flip side, though, there are still many amazing gems hidden beneath the rubble. The magical ingredient that marks the divide is creativity. Creativity isn’t just part of a fairytale that only children believe in. It really exists, and is the one thing that will polish you into a masterful blogger.

What’s it like when you remember a moment in time when you read a book or an article that made your heart sing? There was something about the writing that touched something deep inside and inspired you to view the world from a different perspective. Inspirational writing is something every writer is capable of. Yes, that means you, too.

You can’t connect a billion people without having them form some long-term habits for sharing and online interaction. We’ve all learned how to use Twitter and Facebook, so starting over with a new network can be daunting. Google+ has taken the world by storm over the past couple of days, and a number of people were able to get early access to it. After using it, it’s easy to see that Google has put an incredible amount of time and thought into designing their answer to Facebook. It brings many of the social features you’d expect from a network together in a way that just might make it the ideal network.

When was the last time you cleared up your clutter? I don’t mean office clutter (though you should probably take care of that; it’s been a while since the last time you tidied up). I mean mental clutter: ideas you’re never going to action.

It’s all well and good to tweet about what you had for lunch, or share party pics on Facebook, but what if you want to use social media to achieve a specific goal? Perhaps to garner support for a creative project, or build awareness about a product you’re launching. How then do you wade through all the social media speak and interact with people in a way that will make a difference to your mission, not just create more idle chatter?

No matter how brilliant a website’s design, no matter how elegant its navigation, sooner or later visitors will decide whether to take action because of something they read. In the end, the effectiveness with which a website converts visitors hinges on words. If a new website is going to hit all the right notes, its content must be just as well crafted as its design and programming.

As Twitter continues to grow, tools to enhance your Twitter experience and measure your influence are popping up all over the web. In this article, I’ll highlight five free tools that offer easy ways to keep track of your influence on Twitter and beyond.

In written composition, tone is often defined as what the author (rather than the reader) feels about the subject. (What the reader feels about it, by contrast, is referred to as the mood.) Tone is also sometimes confused with voice, which can be explained as the author’s personality expressed in writing.

There’s no reason why you, as a freelancer, can’t review your own performance. In fact, conducting a self-review from to time is a really good idea. In this post, I share fifty questions that you can answer on your own to evaluate your freelancing business.

Creatives need a detailed brief. Without it we are feeling in the dark, with little clue of our destination.

We need targeted information from our clients to deliver high quality finished work that meets the client’s expectations. We want to deliver polished work and we need the right information to do that.

It doesn’t take a genius to stroll around cyberspace and quickly find that the World Wide Web is littered with junk. There is a lot of “stuff” out there, most of which isn’t very good. On the flip side, though, there are still many amazing gems hidden beneath the rubble. The magical ingredient that marks the divide is creativity. Creativity isn’t just part of a fairytale that only children believe in. It really exists, and is the one thing that will polish you into a masterful blogger.

What’s it like when you remember a moment in time when you read a book or an article that made your heart sing? There was something about the writing that touched something deep inside and inspired you to view the world from a different perspective. Inspirational writing is something every writer is capable of. Yes, that means you, too.

You can’t connect a billion people without having them form some long-term habits for sharing and online interaction. We’ve all learned how to use Twitter and Facebook, so starting over with a new network can be daunting. Google+ has taken the world by storm over the past couple of days, and a number of people were able to get early access to it. After using it, it’s easy to see that Google has put an incredible amount of time and thought into designing their answer to Facebook. It brings many of the social features you’d expect from a network together in a way that just might make it the ideal network.

When was the last time you cleared up your clutter? I don’t mean office clutter (though you should probably take care of that; it’s been a while since the last time you tidied up). I mean mental clutter: ideas you’re never going to action.

It’s all well and good to tweet about what you had for lunch, or share party pics on Facebook, but what if you want to use social media to achieve a specific goal? Perhaps to garner support for a creative project, or build awareness about a product you’re launching. How then do you wade through all the social media speak and interact with people in a way that will make a difference to your mission, not just create more idle chatter?

No matter how brilliant a website’s design, no matter how elegant its navigation, sooner or later visitors will decide whether to take action because of something they read. In the end, the effectiveness with which a website converts visitors hinges on words. If a new website is going to hit all the right notes, its content must be just as well crafted as its design and programming.

As Twitter continues to grow, tools to enhance your Twitter experience and measure your influence are popping up all over the web. In this article, I’ll highlight five free tools that offer easy ways to keep track of your influence on Twitter and beyond.

In written composition, tone is often defined as what the author (rather than the reader) feels about the subject. (What the reader feels about it, by contrast, is referred to as the mood.) Tone is also sometimes confused with voice, which can be explained as the author’s personality expressed in writing.

There’s no reason why you, as a freelancer, can’t review your own performance. In fact, conducting a self-review from to time is a really good idea. In this post, I share fifty questions that you can answer on your own to evaluate your freelancing business.

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned is to cast a vision and stick to it. This lesson applies to freelance work, but it also applies to life in general. Casting a vision for your career is hard and can take years to fully develop, which requires sticktoitiveness. But, if you apply tenacity over time, you will find the end result is powerful and motivating in a way nothing else can be.

Imagine you’re driving a car. And the highway stretches in front of you straight as an arrow. Mile after mile of the same, same seems to suck you into vortex of yawns. Then suddenly you you see a curve in the road. The curve is the disconnector. It’s the thingamajig on the journey that jolts you back to life. You’re all alert. You’re all eyes and ears. And you’re paying close attention.

The bad news is that the ability to read a well-written sentence does not translate into the ability to write one. With more of our interaction taking place through emails, text messages, status updates, tweets, blog posts — heck, with more of us having to become writers — there are also more people in need of writing help than any time in human history. Thankfully, Grammarly can give us that help. For a price.

I have a bit of a problem with certain advice flying around these days, specifically the type of stuff that gives you backpats about hating marketing and sales. I think we’re all too supportive of people who dislike pitching and promoting – we should get a little more cold-hearted about things.

We should slow down on reading the stuff that discourages you from becoming true money-hungry marketers. There’s nothing wrong with marketing to make money. In fact, we should read more about how to be a little more greedy and rake in the cash. Forget the advice that teaches you how to build warm fuzzies with your audience – it isn’t getting you very far.

Almost every Web designer can attest that much of their work is repetitive. We find ourselves completing the same tasks, even if slightly modified, over and over for every Web project. Following a detailed website design and development process can speed up your work and help your client understand your role in the project. This article tries to show how developing a process for Web design can organize a developer’s thoughts, speed up a project’s timeline and prepare a freelance business for growth.

First of all, what exactly is a ‘process’? A Web development process is a documented outline of the steps needed to be taken from start to finish in order to complete a typical Web design project. It divides and categorizes the work and then breaks these high-level sections into tasks and resources that can be used as a road map for each project.

Our economy is almost entirely based on a Darwinian competition–many products and services fighting for shelf space and market share and profits. It’s a wasteful process, because success is unpredictable and unevenly distributed.

The internet has largely mirrored (and amplified) this competition. eBay, for example, not only pits sellers against one another, it also pits buyers. Craigslist makes it easy for buyers to see the range of products and services on offer, making the marketplace more competitive. Google, most of all, encourages an ecosystem where producers can evolve, improve and compete.

I think the next frontier of the net is going to use the datastream to do precisely the opposite–to create value by making coordination easier.

Do you want to build a following? Are you using free stuff to build your brand? Do you want to learn how?

From Lady Gaga to Oreo, brands have been using freebies to build a social media following for years. The details may change, but the approach is still the same—build a following by giving something away. In this article, I’ll cover five methods to grow your following using freebies.

Every masterful writer has a unique voice: Think James Joyce’s avant garde stream of consciousness, Mark Twain’s just-folks dissection of the human condition, Ray Bradbury’s nostalgic haze of poetic reverie, Bill Bryson’s mirthful menageries of adjectives and adverbs.

Great writers, whether literary giants or popular favorites, are the soloists of the writing choir. Most people, however, do not have, or have not yet developed, voice (otherwise referred to as mood, style, or tone), and are as yet relegated to the chorus.

That is Parkinson’s Law, first published in The Economist in 1955 to describe the tendency of British civil service to increase in manpower even when the amount of work remained the same. What does that have to do with freelancers? In this post, we’re going to explore how freelancers can use Parkinson’s Law to increase our productivity. If we accept Parkinson’s Law, then it follows that freelancers can get more things done by shortening our work days.

Our “workspace” is no longer just the place we sit while working, it’s come to mean the entirety of how we get our work done. Our offices, practices, devices and software. Note that “work” comes first in “workspace.” Tools and specific locations may be required to get the work done, but they are generally secondary to the work. Ideally, once we have designed a solid work practice, we don’t have to spend much time thinking about our tools as we get the work done. Thinking about tools means we aren’t working and being productive. We need a seamless workspace to be able to focus on our work; our tools and practices should allow the work to flow from activity to activity with as little disruption as possible.

In addition to FreelanceSwtich, there are a handful of blogs that stand out a cut above the rest, and are well worth reading for freelance blog writers. These blogs are dedicated to blogging, writing, utilizing internet tools and trends to maximize your freelance writing income, and more.

Gary Vaynerchuk, in his usual low-key, mellow way, said last month that 99.5% of social media experts are clowns. What interests me is what it takes to make that last 0.5%. What do the social media experts look like who aren’t clowns?

You’ve got plenty of great ideas, and you just can’t resist throwing yourself into them. Unfortunately, your motivation seems to vanish … and you’re left with a bunch of notes, outlines and first drafts that aren’t going anywhere.

No-one’s going to buy a half-written novel. No-one’s going to read a blog post that stops short after two paragraphs. So whether your writing aspirations involve hitting the New York Times bestseller list or living from the passive income from your ebooks, you need to finish what you start.

The major element in building your personal brand and setting yourself apart, so that you attract prospects, new and old, is in establishing a Unique Selling Point (USP). It is a very good idea to know what makes you unique and what people will remember you for, before going about promoting yourself.

I have always maintained that if it weren’t for third party apps, Twitter would never have been the cultural and social phenomenon that it is today. We use Twitter for a variety of personal and professional reasons and the platform by itself isn’t flexible enough for our needs. So we have compiled a list of 20 apps that fill a dozen holes in the Twitter platform. Come check it out!

After digging into the research, I learned that there are no hard and fast rules for decision-making. (If only!) There are, however, a number of interesting tendencies that play into how we decide, which we should all be aware of. Here’s a quick stroll through some of the key findings on the art of decision-making.

I’m a blogger now but in a former life I did SEO professionally. As a part of the industry I’ve seen first hand the insane amount of misleading information available. Even so-called “professionals” have been known to give out absolutely terrible advice.

That’s why I’m writing this article. I want to finally teach you bloggers the truth behind SEO and how to rank well in Google. Some of the following information might be obvious and some of it might seem strange, but stick with me. If you follow my advice you’ll be ranking number one in no time.

Many people ask me if I think their business idea is a good idea to pursue. That idea is usually based on what they love to do in their free time. Their passion. Their hobby. And in most cases, the answer to, “Do you think I could make money from this?” is…

The Web is full of creative and practical resources that we can use to improve our projects. Photography, fonts, music and code are perfect examples. Finding stock objects and existing implementations is often quicker, cheaper and more practical than producing your own.

Whether free or not, these resources normally come with a license to ensure fair use. For professionals, understanding the limitations of a license is critical; with this knowledge, you’d be surprised by what’s available. Understanding copyright and licenses allows us to do what we do best: be creative.

Lately I have been working some extraordinarily long days in front of the screen. Not only has it been exhausting it has made me think much more seriously about the importance of a proper office setup. Today I will share some tips and ideas for your office space that will make you more productive and keep the aches and pains away.

Here’s the skinny… Too many designers are sitting at home, talking about the elusive “portfolio” they plan on building or waiting for word of mouth to take them where they want to go. Here’s some tough love: what good is your portfolio if no one is talking about you or visiting your site?

Word of mouth can take you a long way if people truly are referring you to their friends, but instead of waiting around for others to do you favors, try putting the words in their mouth’s for them through collaboration marketing.

Do you want to attract more readers? Do you want to grab the attention of the big players in your industry and leverage their star power? Silly questions, right?

In this article I’ll share how you can grow a loyal and sustained fan base by working with the top experts in your niche.

Imagine being able to produce the same amount of writing you do now in half the time. Or even producing double the amount of work you do now in the same amount of time. It’s not only possible to do, but very simple.

I’ve written thousands of articles during the period I’ve been making a full time living online, and I’ve discovered that the only thing holding me back from writing faster is myself.

You see, we all have beliefs within that tell us what our writing speed limit is. As I’ve let go of these beliefs and blocks, I’ve found myself writing faster and getting into the writing zone effortlessly.

“Create a memorable experience.” That’s great advice for businesses and large retail chains, but you’re wondering how it applies to your blog. You probably started blogging because you know something about an industry like technology or writing. You want to share your information with the world and they certainly need it. In today’s blogosphere, there are hundreds of blogs for readers to visit and read about those subjects. What makes your blog so special?

When you think you control something, you’re wrong. It’s amazing how often we think we’re in control of something when really we aren’t. Control is an illusion, as I’ve said many times before.

Apple took the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone West for their opening keynote at WWDC this afternoon, announcing (or rather, reasoning in the first case) Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5 and their new service, iCloud.

iCloud is the successor to MobileMe, Apple’s previous set of web apps that synced directly with other devices, whether they be powered by Mac OS X, Windows or iOS. However, iCloud builds on those, providing a much more refined syncing environment for your devices in terms of both data and media.

Current neuroscience research confirms what creatives intuitively know about being innovative: that it usually happens in the shower. After focusing intently on a project or problem, the brain needs to fully disengage and relax in order for a “Eureka!” moment to arise. It’s often the mundane activities like taking a shower, driving, or taking a walk that lure great ideas to the surface. Composer Steve Reich, for instance, would ride the subway around New York when he was stuck.

How much are you paying for the privilege of having someone else tell you what to do? Example: if you go to your gym and work out for an hour, the cost of that session is zero. Hire a personal trainer to follow you around and give you instructions and that’s $70.

If you take a job as a freelancer writer doing short service pieces on assignment to a local paper, you might earn $3 an hour. Which is about 97% less than you’d earn if, like some writers, you dream up amazing pieces, write them on spec and turn them into blogs, books or films. This writer doesn’t wait to get hired. He hires himself.

When I think about the long run, I’m usually thinking about what I would call “retirement.” It’s a state I hope to reach in my fifties or sixties or so where I can spend my time working on projects that may or may not result in any sort of financial gain, but simply projects that I can enjoy. Almost every thought about the “long term” in my life leads to that point.

Have you noticed the tried-and-true forms of marketing are rapidly losing their luster? People aren’t responding. Prospects are harder to find. Customers are tuning out. As a marketer or business owner, what in the world can you do to grow to your business? I’ve struggled with these very issues.

There are countless posts online which explain why all freelancers should have a website. In short, it’s one of the most effective ways to showcase who you are and what you can do.

Of course, if you want to position yourself as an expert, you should seriously consider a blog too. Producing this kind of content is good not only for your reputation, but also for search-engine rankings.

One area I’ve been reading about quite a bit lately is leadership. How does a person who is a bit on the introverted side and is scared of leading a social group actually leap across that chasm and lead a community organization?

Usability and User Experience (UX) are two extremely important factors for developing a site or app that really stands out from the competition. With the increasing competition in sites and apps, there are also an ever increasing number of tools to help you make your site or app more usable, and to help you ensure you provide a great experience for your users.

We spend good part of our time in front of a monitor, most likely we have more than one computer, not mentioning iphones, graphic tablets and all the other ultra modern devilries that invade our desks. We are all part of the generation that need a mouse to leaf through an album with the family photos (goodbye to dear family albums with the pages left to yellow) and Facebook to send birthday wishes to a friend. 20 examples of great “sketch” inspired sites included!

It was not too long ago that Google announced their cloud based music player, Music beta by Google. After using Amazon’s Cloud Player for a while, I was excited to see what Google had to offer. I am after all, an Android user and I border on Google fanboydom. While I think the coup de gras of Music beta is tight Android integration, I decided to take a close look at the web app as a music player, much like I did for Amazon Cloud Player. Here’s what I found.

In this article we will be taking a closer look at some different, popular photography styles and techniques. We will also be presenting some great hand-picked examples of pictures in the respective photography styles.

There have been several scientific studies that have revealed that mindfulness meditation can actually change the structure of the brain ion a positive way. It is only now that we can more appreciate the positive benefits of meditation, since modern technology is allowing us to delve deep into the recesses of the mind.

By using textures in web design you can turn your websites into a masterpiece. Today’s article will showcase some amazing designs that utilize textures. Enjoy!!

As a freelancer, your business image isn’t just a reflection of your work, it’s a statement of your personal identity. With every project you complete, a portion of your personal design beliefs, creative insights and unique identity is woven into the results. These ties should be reflected in the freelance identity portrayed to your clients.

Facebook pages are a great way to foster user engagement and promote a brand. Over time, Facebook has added a lot of features to make business pages more functional and feature rich. Lot of brands are building cool and extremely interactive business pages on top of the world’s largest social network. One has to see at least a few of these designs to get a good idea how powerful Facebook pages can be.

With the advent of sophisticated and user-friendly content management systems like WordPress, textual content has become increasingly easier to manage. The architecture of these systems aims to deliver a well-formed code foundation; this means that if you are a good writer, then your content will be just as awesome as the structure and quality of the code that runs it.

The power of words never fails to inspire. Below are 15 of the best motivational quotes and a much needed early week pick-me-up.

Designers all over the world are on a constant search to find useful Photoshop brushes. This is because they know having a good collection of Photoshop brushes can save them in their time of need. Although there are countless brush sets are available for Adobe Photoshop that make finding Brush sets an easier task. But to find high quality brush sets, you have to browse through tons of web pages – a tedious task.

Many salespeople swear by cold calling. But the inherent problem with it? Interrupting people when they’re otherwise engaged. The person might be amenable – or might be turned off.

“We spent a lot of time cold calling or direct emailing,” said Craig Robertson, co-founder and CEO of ecycler.com. “We would catch people when they were busy and they didn’t want to talk to us.”

Freelancers wind up working everywhere: I’ve done my work at coffee shops, coworking spaces and even truck stops in in the middle of nowhere. But there are some big differences between using a general public space and an area built from the ground up for working.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is one of the top choices for photo editing software among amateur and professional photographers. In addition to editing photos, Lightroom also helps with organizing and managing your photos. You can also create slideshows and galleries to present your images.

Bookmarklets are special links that users can add to their browser’s favorites.

These special links include code (i.e. not just a target URL), and they trigger various kinds of useful functionality, allowing you to modify and extend any web page.

The design of an advertisement can have a huge impact on the level of success of the ad campaign. Being able to design attractive and effective advertisements will lead to better results for you and your clients.

In this post we’ll showcase 15 tutorials that will lead you through the process of designing an ad in Photoshop. Most of the tutorials are for designing poster/flyer type ads.

Do you find that you’re constantly up against the clock? Is managing your work / life balance an ongoing battle?

Freelancers frequently find the main barrier to developing and growing their client base is their own time. William Penn, businessman and philosopher said “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst,” few of us would argue with this sentiment.

A couple of days ago I watched a fascinating You Tube clip about mantras. Mantras are the things you say to yourself in your head, over and over again – and they have the power to impact how you feel and act in the short term, which ultimately impacts how your life turns out in the long run.

Most freelancers have an assortment of clients, ranging from high profile clients offering big paychecks to little known, lower paying jobs. Many seasoned veterans advocate cutting off low paying ‘bottom feeders,’ with the argument that they soak up time from your workday that you should spend on higher paying endeavors. That logic is true, but I’ve had many months where I welcomed those checks that trickled in from some of my smaller, tried and true customers.

Are you prepared to put your customers in charge of your brand… literally?

What would happen if you gave your customers the keys to your corporate social media channels? This article reviews the rewards and the risks marketers face as they decide how much brand control they’re willing to give up.

It’s expensive to train employees but it’s even more so to lose one. Figures don’t lie. Although employee turnover in the US is at a low 1.4 percent, the fact remains that the cost of losing an employee may cost a company 25 to 250 percent of his annual income.

In this article, we’ll review a few techniques that will help Web designers and UI professionals improve their error pages in order to engage visitors and improve the experience. As C.S. Lewis said, “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” Website designers should take this to heart.

Even though they’ve been late to the game, Safari’s extension support has spread like wildfire. People who are passionate about Safari are also passionate about making it the best in can possibly be. A robust community has formed here. And it’s my pleasure to bring to you, dear reader, a sampling of some of the latest and greatest Safari extensions available today.