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One of the biggest struggles for many freelancers is finding a way to stand out from the crowd of others providing similar services. In many cases there really is a huge difference from one freelancer to the next in terms of quality of work, quality of service, specific services provided, experience, and turnaround time.

However, potential clients often seem to have the perspective that we’re interchangeable and all created from the same mould. Therefore, they usually see price as the main point of difference between freelancers.

If this is something you’ve been struggling with, you may reap significant benefits from developing a plan to successfully differentiate yourself from others. If you’re finding the intense competition to be limiting your workload or forcing you to lower your rates, take a look at what truly makes you different from the other freelancers out there waiting to land your would-be clients. More importantly, be sure that whatever makes you different is clear to those potential clients.

Differentiation can help freelancers in a number of important ways. The obvious benefit is more business, but there is also the ability to help you to avoid competing solely on price. If you’re tired of pricing your projects too low in order to secure and retain clients, find a way to be different than the others competing for the business. If you really are different, price comparisons become less effective for the customer, because they know they’re not paying for the same product.

Personal branding is also one of the major benefits of differentiation. Corporations are always focused on branding themselves and creating a specific image in the minds of customers, but what about freelancers? We can benefit in the same way if we’re able to show clients what makes us unique.

Differentiation goes beyond simply providing high quality services. Even the most talented freelancers will always have plenty of competition from those who are comparably skilled. Effective differentiation requires something on top of the quality of service. Let’s take a look at a few possibilities and some real-world examples.

Specialization

One of the most effective ways to differentiate yourself is to specialize in a very specific area of work in your field. Rather than being a known as a general freelancer, take the area that you enjoy the most and that you do very well, and market yourself as a specialist in this aspect.

A good example of specialization is Adriaan (Adii) Pienaar who is a self-proclaimed WordPress rockstar (see Adii’s interview with Freelance Switch). Rather than promoting his services to clients as a freelance web designer, he has chosen to focus on designing WordPress themes for clients, and he’s doing a very good job of standing out with this approach. If you do a Google search for Freelance WordPress Designer you’ll see his blog/portfolio on the first page of results, and two of the top three results are articles written about him, including the Freelance Switch interview.

While Adii may not be the first freelance designer you think of, he has a good chance of being the first freelancer you’ll find if you want someone that specializes in WordPress themes. By labeling himself as a WordPress rockstar he’s also done a nice job of branding himself.

Localize

Many of us work in fields that allow us to serve clients all over the world. Freelance designers, developers, programmers, and writers can all work for a client down the street or at the other side of the world. That flexibility sometimes causes us to lose sight of the fact that we still have the option to target local clients.

Because of the opportunity to reach clients all over the world, we’re also competing with freelancers from just about anywhere you can imagine. Some clients will prefer to work with a local freelancer, who will have a sizable advantage over those who are not local. Many clients would prefer not to get online at all. Rather than barely competing on a global level you may be able to become a leading service provider in your locality.

Additionally, localizing your work can have benefits in terms of potential clients finding you through search engines. Maximum Designs uses the phrase “Freelance Web Design in New York City” in the title tag of its home page. While phrases such as “web design” or “freelance web designer” will obviously be extremely competitive and difficult to rank for, good rankings for local search phrases are more attainable. Maximum Designs also uses “New York City” a few times throughout the site, including in an H2 tag to help its chances with search engines.

Aside from organic search results, pay-per-click advertising can be set up to target local clients by only showing your ads in certain geographic areas and by bidding on search phrases with local keywords. Matt Griffin of Liquid Design Media told me recently that local PPC advertising is by far the most productive advertising he’s ever done.

Branding

I mentioned earlier that one of the main benefits of specialization is branding yourself. Rather than just being another freelancer, what do you want to be known for? I think a current example of effective branding is James Chartrand of Men With Pens. James’ writing seems to be everywhere, including regular contributions at Copyblogger and occasional posts at Freelance Folder. In my opinion James’ writing style has branded him as a go-to guy for blog and website content. If I was looking for a writer, he is one of the first people that would come to mind.

Another example of branding is Chris Garrett. Like James, Chris gets around, and that exposure has helped him to get his message out to a huge audience. In addition to writing, Chris offers blog consulting services, and by demonstrating his knowledge through his writing he has branded himself as a leader in the consulting industry. Recently Chris has continued to improve his branding by co-authoring the ProBlogger book with Darren Rowse. If you’re looking for a blog consultant wouldn’t you be impressed by someone who literally wrote the book?

Demonstration of Expertise

A standout portfolio is obviously a priceless asset for a freelancer. For obvious reasons, clients like to work with those who have demonstrated their abilities and their expertise. In addition to having a stellar portfolio, blogging about your area of work is becoming increasingly important for freelancers. By maintaining a popular blog you can consistently show readers the knowledge and expertise that you have, and in time you’ll build your name as a leader in your field.

One example of demonstrating expertise through a blog is graphic designer David Airey. There are thousands of graphic designers with incredible portfolios, but David goes a step further by writing insightful blog posts that have opened up new opportunities for him. His blog currently has over 4,000 subscribers and he’s frequently mentioned around the internet as being an excellent designer. With so many other graphic designers out there, it’s pretty unlikely that David would be having the same success with his business if he was not demonstrating his expertise through his blog.

What Are Your Doing to Stand Out?

What approach do you use to differentiate yourself from other freelancers?

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

It would be an understatement to say that I have agonized over this post. All for a good cause, though — it’s time to announce the winners of our three birthday prize-packs!

Before we start, I’ve got to scold you guys a bit. Firstly, for being so incurably enthusiastic (we received over 700 entries), and secondly, for being so compelling! Your entries were funny, heartwarming, tear-jerking, creative and refreshingly honest. While this made reading all 700+ entries a lot easier, it made the task of picking just three winners a whole lot harder.

In the end, I decided to compile a shortlist with my favorite responses for each prize-pack, and use a random number generator to pick a winner from each. In my eyes, all the entries that made the shortlist were truly equal, and nothing short of Lady Luck could separate them.

If neither you nor your favorites won, don’t be disappointed. Every single one of the entrants was a current or soon-to-be freelancer. We believe the spirit of Freelance Switch is freelancers helping other freelancers, and that same spirit lies behind this competition. When we improve the situation of one freelancer — even in a small way — we raise the standard of our entire community.

With the obligatory introduction out of the way I can move on to what you actually want to know. Who won?

The Writer’s Prize Pack winner is…

Kathryn!

Kathryn is a deserving winner because, so far, she’s a poster-girl for the right way to make the switch:

I’m pleased to say I have been doing my homework in preparation for my own switch to freelancing for some time, and this blog has been a great tool. I’ve cut back to part time in my regular job, convinced my boss to give me unprecedented flexibility by proving I can be most productive when I set my own schedule, cultivated relationships with a few clients to get things off the ground, and set aside sufficient funds to weather the financial ups and downs. I’m currently in the process of investing in some tools, so winning this prize pack could not come at a better time! I would love to celebrate the anniversary of this blog with my own “freelance switch.”

Happy Birthday to all!

Sounds like a dream start to me — the kind of approach we encourage all Freelance Switchers to aim for. The writer’s prize pack will help make sure Kathryn’s launch scores a perfect 10.

The Designer’s Prize Pack winner is…

Juan Javier Fajardo Figueroa!

Juan is a deserving winner because he’s an ordinary guy in Spain making a big move to Mexico City. What motivates an ordinary Spanish guy to move half-way across the globe? You guessed it…

In three months I have to relocate from Barcelona to Mexico City and I need to do a lot of freelance work in order to survive. And why the hell would one move from sunny Barcelona to monster Mexico city? Well, love. I’m going after the woman I love.

We’re romantics at heart here at Freelance Switch, and can’t say no to a good love story — particularly a Spanish love story. We’re also in favor of moving to new places and being able to, well, eat. We’re sure the Designer’s Prize Pack will help Juan make it big in the big city!

The Web Coder’s Prize Pack winner is…

Brian McMurray!

Brian is a deserving winner because he was the first to make a convincing argument for why he should win the coder’s prize pack… in code!

$prize_pack = “Web Coders”;

public function prize_justification($reasons:Array) {
if (count($reasons) > 0) {
return “This array probably has an infinite number of reasons for why I should get the Web Coder’s prize, but really Freelance Switch has been one of my biggest influencers in talking my sometimes-overly-pessimistic, super-worrying, perfectionist self into honestly and truthfully wanting to take a big jump off the fantasy isle of ‘job security’ and take a shot at finding happiness on my terms.”;
};
};
$myReasons = new Array();

while ( -1 < 1 ) {
$newReason = “insert generic reason here”;
array_push($myReasons, $newReason);
};

print prize_justification($myReasons);

I’m not a coder so I couldn’t say if the above is error-free, but if it’s not, that’s an even better reason why Brian should get the prize. All those informative books will help!

To the winners: you’ll be contacted before Monday to arrange shipping and cash substitutes if any of the items can’t be posted to your country.

To everyone else who participated: I found the answers shed a lot of light on the community behind Freelance Switch, where we are at in our lives and in our freelance careers. Hey: you wrote an argument for why you deserve something good. This is something most people don’t do nearly enough (or at all). It may have helped clarify some of the things you appreciate about yourself, and your ability as a freelancer. More than a contest entry, we hoped it would be a positive exercise. We hope you see it that way too!

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

Freelance Switch was launched in April 2007. This month, we’re celebrating our 1st birthday!

To mark the occasion and say thank you to the community for its unyielding support, we’re giving away three prize-packs (worth over $500 each) to three lucky winners!

Anyone can enter to win, and you can choose from one of three prize-packs best suited to your freelancing career. Keep reading to view the prize-packs and find out how you can enter in seconds.

In addition to lots of neat goodies, each prize-pack includes a one-year Shuttle Bus subscription to Freshbooks valued at $168. Freshbooks is an online invoicing and time tracking service designed with freelancers and creative professionals in mind, and it’s a service quite a few of the FSw staff use themselves. We appreciate their support in providing us with over $500 in prizes to give away!

1) The Writer’s Prize-Pack

* Laptop not included.
1. Olympus VN-4100PC Digital Voice Recorder
2. Cross Century II Black Fountain Pen With 23 Carat Gold Plated Appointments
3. Sennheiser PX200 Collapsible High-Performance Closed Headphones
4. Moleskine Large Notebook Ruled
5. Moleskine Large Notebook Plain
6. The Well-fed Writer: Financial Self-sufficiency as a Freelance Writer in Six-months or Less
7. The Renegade Writer: a Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success
8. The Wealthy Writer: How to Earn a Six-figure Income as a Freelance Writer (No Kidding!)
9. The Elements of Style (Illustrated) by Strunk and White
10. Belkin Cushtop Notebook Stand - Silver
11. Tensor Gooseneck Halogen Desk Lamp
12. One-year Shuttle Bus subscription to Freshbooks

2) The Designer’s Prize-Pack

* Laptop not included.

1. Genius MousePen 8×6 Graphic Tablet
2. Prismacolor Premier Double Ended Art Marker Set 48 Colors
3. Desk Pad With Wood Pencil Ledge
4. 12 Sanford Design Ebony Sketching Pencil
6. Moleskine Large Sketchbook
7. Belkin Cushtop Notebook Stand - Orange
8. Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors & Students
9. How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
10. One-year Shuttle Bus subscription to Freshbooks

3) The Web Coder’s Prize-Pack

1. Seagate FreeAgent Go 120GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive + Case Logic Small External Hard Drive Case
2. Sennheiser HD 215 Extreme DJ Sound Headphones
3. CSS: The Definitive Guide
4. Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook
5. Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design
6. Belkin Cushtop Notebook Stand - Chocolate
7. One-year Shuttle Bus subscription to Freshbooks

How to enter

1. Pick the prize pack you want.
2. Leave a comment on this post explaining why you deserve your chosen prize-pack. Be creative, funny, or simply honest — express yourself.
3. Fill out the ‘email’ form for your comment submission. This is so we can contact winners.
4. Wait until three lucky winners are announced!

***

Entries close 7 days from publish date of this post.

U.S. entrants will receive the prize-packs as stated.

International entrants will receive cash value for any items which can’t be shipped outside the U.S. from Amazon.com.

Mini-FAQ

Why not give away cash prizes?

We think these prize-packs represent the spirit of the site. We’ve built our reputation around helping freelancers build their careers, and these prizes are designed to do the same. We want to upgrade your career tool-kit.

And, let’s face it, getting presents in the mail is more exciting than getting a deposit in your PayPal account!

What if I’m a software programmer/book-keeper/event organizer/SEO consultant/etc. and none of these prize-packs suit me?

Enter for the Web Coder’s prize pack and we’re happy to replace the industry-specific books with cash or books of equal value more relevant to your career.

Competition closes 7 days from the publish date of this post.

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

One of the biggest challenges involved in freelance work is reaching and maintaining a steady workload. For many freelancers finding new clients can be a time-consuming process, which leaves less time for income-producing work. What if this effort could be reduced or eliminated? You could more completely dedicate your focus to earning money and doing a great job.

Increasing the amount of referral business you receive can be one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of time that is spent on no-income producing activities. Actively working to increase referrals from clients, friends, and family is often not a priority, as many freelancers feel that is not in their control. Instead, they just wait — and hope — that someone sends them a referral.

Reasons to Love Referrals

They Find You

Less work is required on your part to land new gigs via referrals. Less work for the same results is always good.

Trust

Those who are referred to you will have a higher opinion of your services and more trust for you because someone they respect has recommended you. The trust that they have for whoever recommended you is partially transferred to trust in you.

You Have an Advantage

If a client is talking to other freelancers in regards to their project, as a referral from a friend you will have an advantage over the others (all other factors being equal).

Free Advertising

Word-of-mouth referrals are essentially free advertising for you and your services. Not only is it free, but it’s actually more effective than just about any other type of advertising you can do.

They Snowball

The more happy clients you have, the more referrals you’re likely to receive. And the more referrals you receive, the more customers you’ll have spreading the word about your services. In most cases, the longer you’ve been around the more referrals you’ll get.

12 Ways to Increase the Number of Referrals You Receive

1. Provide Superior Quality

The best thing you can do to improve your chances of getting referrals is to provide a quality of work that blows clients away. Clients that get these results will be your best advertisements as they have had a great experience and can share their story with others in need of great service.

Without high quality work, you’re unlikely to get many referrals, if any. People simply don’t want to refer a friend to someone who won’t live up to their expectations. If you’re focusing too much of your effort on the other methods of growing referrals, your quality of work can suffer and your other efforts will be wasted.

2. Take Care of Your Customers

Customer service counts for freelancers, too. Focus on providing timely and clear communication, and always be professional. In many cases, the service provided is actually what satisfies the client more so than the work itself.

3. Under Promise, Over Deliver

It’s a bit of a cliche, but it is very effective in allowing you to keep your clients satisfied. Don’t promise them anything that isn’t likely to happen, and give yourself the chance to out-do their expectations. With this strategy they should never be disappointed.

4. Ask for Referrals

Sometimes you just have to ask for what you want. Many clients will be willing to refer you to friends or colleagues, but they may not even think about it unless you bring it up. Remind customers that referrals are a big part of your business, and ask them if they know of anyone that could benefit from your services. If you have done an exceptional job for them, chances are they will make an effort to help you in this way.

5. Distribute Business Cards

Whenever you get a chance, give a business card to a client or perspective client. If someone has your business card they can easily contact you and there is no need to search for a service provider: you’re right there for them.

6. Follow Up with Former Clients from Time-to-Time

Staying in touch with clients and former clients is essential to developing more referral business. If you’ve spoken with a client recently they are more likely to have you in mind when a referral opportunity presents itself. Those who are able to attract a significant number of referrals have found a way to stay in the forefront of the minds of clients.

7. Make it Easy for Others to Refer You

Let’s face it, clients are more likely to refer you if it’s convenient for them. Do they have to search for your phone number, email address, or website address? If so, you’re running the risk that they’ll refer someone else who has made it more convenient for them to do so. Distributing business cards helps in this way, as does periodic mailings or emails.

Real Estate agents do this very well by sending out things like magnets and calendars to clients (Our estate agent sends us a bottle of wine every Christmas! No phone numbers written on the bottle, though… — Ed). When someone is looking for their phone number, it’s easily accessible because of that magnet on the refrigerator. Having a memorable URL is another big help here. If they can’t remember your URL, they can’t tell their friends where to find you without looking it up.

8. Have Clearly Defined Services

Sometimes your clients may know exactly what type of service you have provided for them, but they may not know about some of the other services that you offer. If your services are clearly defined and easily understood, the client might see an opportunity for you to help someone else.

Your website is probably one of your key methods for communicating information about your services. How clearly defined are they? When a referral arrives at your website, will they be able to tell exactly how you can help them?

9. Ask Clients for Feedback

After you have completed a project, it’s a good habit to ask them for their thoughts on the service that you provided. Were they satisfied with your work to the extent that they would be willing to refer a friend? Are there areas that you can improve your work and your service? If you’re able to do a better job of satisfying your clients, you’ll get more referrals.

10. Have a Competitive Advantage

If your client is asked to refer a freelancer, what will make them choose you over someone else? Most of us have a great deal of competition with other service providers. Having an edge or a competitive advantage to separate yourself from the pack will pay huge dividends. Take the time to find something that sets you apart from the crowd, and make sure that it’s communicated through your marketing and promotion. As clients come to recognize your competitive advantage you will have a better chance of getting their recommendation.

11. Thank People for Their Referrals

When someone sends you a referral, take the time to let them know that you appreciate the fact that they thought of you, and let them know that it makes a real difference for you and your business. Friends, family, and clients will feel good about the impact that they’re able to have on your work, and hopefully they’ll look for even more opportunities to send business your way.

12. Grow Your Professional Network

In addition to relying on friends, family, and clients for referrals, developing a strong network of fellow professionals can make a world of difference. Those professionals may have clients that are in need of your services, they may have perspective clients that are looking for something they can’t provide, or the may just have more work than they can handle. In any situation, if they have a contact that they feel is qualified for the job, they’ll probably make a referral.

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

Yesterday here on FreelanceSwitch we put up a post about Jonathan Field’s Book Cover Competition. Lots of comments ensued and since then Jonathan has cancelled the contest. This morning when I woke up to read about the design contest, I thought I’d chime in with my own opinion, as a designer. While Jonathan’s competition is no longer running, the issue is an interesting one to discuss.

But first allow me to clarify one thing. FreelanceSwitch has always been a multi-author and multi-opinion blog. We’re proud to publish many different voices on many different topics. We welcome discussion and have even posted follow up posts presenting opposing cases in the past. We don’t censor any of our writers and we see everyone’s opinion as worthwhile. And that’s why I’m about to give you mine

Personally I think that most often they are bad news. And in this post I’m going to tell you why…

First though, let me state, that Jonathan Fields is a great guy, and though I don’t generally like the idea of design competitions, I’d very much like Jonathan to have a great book cover to go with his great book, and I know that everyone here on the site wishes him well. As I wrote to him this morning, I’m sorry he wound up in the middle taking some heat.

What’s a Designer’s Time Worth Anyway?

The main argument against design contests is that it trivialises the time, effort and client-designer interaction, needed to go into a design. By asking for designer submissions, the client is effectively saying that people should work for the hope of getting paid, that a designer’s time is only worthwhile if their work is actually used.

A few times I’ve had clients say things like "If I don’t like the design, do I have to pay for it?" This sort of question makes me run for the hills, and a design contest is essentially answering that question with a big ‘no’.

Like all things however, there is no real black and white here. However I do think that one can make a general case that the "design contest" paradigm devalues design. It encourages lots of people to practice their profession on the hope that they might get a job. On the worst end of the scale are places like Sitepoint’s Design Contests where I’ve seen clients even ask for changes from the entrants before choosing a winner, and the fees/prizes paid are usually miniscule compared to what most freelancers, let alone firms, would charge.

On a related note, a couple of days ago a new company called CrowdSpring launched that operates in a similar way to Sitepoint’s Contests department - people sign up and compete for contracts. Thinking to apply their own paradigm to their site, they are offering $5,000 for a homepage design for themselves to launch the site. Now you might be thinking, $5000, that’s not too bad - and it isn’t. Except when you hear that they actually paid just $200 for their own logo. All of a sudden it makes you realise it’s not design they value, it’s publicity.

"Prizes" and Prizes

Competitions are nothing new, and in most, competitors have to work pretty hard to win. Consider a competition to win a sporting cup, or a book competition. But in almost all instances of non-design competitions you think of, it’s the honor of winning that’s a major part of the prize. It’s so you can say "we won the so and so football competition" or "I won the 2006 Booker prize". Will anyone be competiting for the honour of designing the Crowdspring logo? I doubt it, and that’s what makes the $200 prize offensive.

In this instance people are perverting the idea of competitions into a way to get cheap labour. It’s using the promise of po