ThinkerPool.Com

Original post by N.C.

Recent changes in the Google Adsense program has many online website owners and marketers seriously concerned. Many have seen their Adsense profits and income flatline… seen their four or five figure monthly Adsense income disappear overnight. For many the Google Adsense bubble has burst. What happened?
First, Google made a change in its Adsense […]

Original post by Shane Pearlman

The main defense put forth by Google and supporters of its proposed
acquisition of DoubleClick holds that the two companies do business
differently when it comes to advertising.
One company sells ads, one delivers them. In a nutshell, that’s
Google’s view of the DoubleClick deal, and there isn’t any reason
for people to be so fired up about it.
In testimony […]

Original post by Buzz

By Robert Janelle

CorbySimpson.com

Corby Simpson in another jack-of-all-trades freelancer: flash animation, web site coding and even writing interactive CD-ROMs for corporate training, plus he’s done it all successfully enough to earn multiple awards. But there’s another twist - he manages to do all this for fairly large clients while maintaining a regular 9-5 job.

In this interview, we discuss switching gears - between Flash and interactive CDs, and between the 9-5 job and the freelance career.

RJ: You mentioned that work a full-time 9-5 on top of a lot of freelancing, how do you balance that?

CS: Balancing a full time job and freelance is like dancing on glass. You can do it… but you gotta be careful. I guess since I’m a workaholic it helps but even more importantly, I love what I do. I can’t turn it on and off. When I feel like doing something creative, I’ll do something creative! There’s no 9-5 around that. It also likely helps that I enjoy working in the evening (it sucks for my full-time job that I don’t like working in the morning). Anyways, I’ve managed to break it down what I feel impacts my ability to balance both best.

1. My wife is amazing. Without her support, I’d be burnt out by now. She’s like a really good engine oil. Lets the engine run forever! She’s been an amazing support throughout everything. When the baby starts crying, she’s there to make the noise go away. If I need a second set of eyes on spelling, she’s able to spend some time proofing (she worked in a lawyers office and is really, really good at proof reading). Basically, She’s the reason I can do what I do. You need to have a good support network (both those who you can rely on in the field and outside in real life)
2. I never, EVER take on work that would cause my full-time job to suffer. To me this is pretty much a given. The way that I see it is that the fulltime job provides the stability, security and emotional foundation to your life. Freelance is gravy. It lets you pay for a new toy or save for your 8 months olds University/College education. Don’t sacrifice your stability, security and emotional support for freelance gigs.
3. I never do freelance work at my full time job. This is like knowingly inviting your mistress and your wife to the same function. I think it’s just dumb. My goal is to keep freelance and the full-time job as far apart as possible. I once worked with a guy who “somehow” managed to give his freelance client his full time work number. Freelance client called his place of business and was yelling at his manager about a freelance gig! You can likely fill in the rest of that story…
4. I don’t take on too much responsibility. I once knew a guy who would freelance until 3am and then come into work crazy tired. He got fired. Most people can barely handle a full time job. It’s emotional, there’s office politics, crazy clients and by the time you get home you don’t want to see a computer. I actually turned down a very good freelance gig about three weeks ago. It was very difficult to do. The project was perfect, it was with a new client, but the truth is that I wouldn’t be able to put 100% of my attention in it. Too much going on and I’m glad that I did. You gotta know when to walk (or run) away.
5. I do it because I love it. I think that freelancers really need to love what they do to succeed. You’re going to be hunting, prepping and cooking your own projects. You’re gonna have a helluva time if you don’t like or believe in what you do.

RJ: Your website states that you do web design and interactive CD-ROMs, could you elaborate a little more on what it is you do?

CS: I do everything from CD-ROM design and programming, website coding, backend coding (Though not so much anymore), Interactive flash based video, Search engine marketing to you name it. Pretty much anything other than copywriting. I like to do it all and I’m very much a jack of all trades. I leave it up to my clients to decide if Jack of all trades, master of none applies. I just love the variety. In the last month at a freelance level, I’ve designed and developed two websites and provided the flash animation on another website as a “small portion” of its overall delivery. Additionally, I also completed a motorcycle training course, my wife and I are looking for a new home, we bought a new car, I bought a scooter (yeah yeah…) and my little girl started crawling and getting into everything so it’s go go go!

RJ: Being a jack-of-all-trades freelancer also requires it’s own juggling act, how do you manage that one?

CS: It’s rough. There’s so much technology and things change so fast. It can be fun but you’re always dealing with the fact that if you don’t keep up, you’re obsolete. But the balance is that you can waste a lot of time following things that don’t really matter. I remember back in the late 90’s I was totally involved in a company called Digiscents. I thought it was the next big thing. Your computer could make smells just like your speakers make sound. How cool is that!?! I wasted a lot of time on a technology that went belly up. That was a great experience and through that and almost 10 years of experience I’ve managed to build a process that works really well for me.

1. I keep a good short list of websites and resources. There are so many good places to look, but I tend to keep about 5-6 sites/blogs/forums that I read daily (including freelanceswitch) and they provide me everything I need to know about the state of the industry. The trick for me is to follow trends closely but don’t learn them until the need arises. This way I can keep up with what everything is and what it does (but not necessarily how to do it). As soon as I find a need or just want to learn it, I’ll incorporate it in smaller steps into client projects. For example, I know AJAX both as a technology and as a tool. I know the pro’s and the cons but I’ve never used it. So I don’t technically know how to code it. When I need to though, I’ll simply learn it.
2. As soon as I need to learn something new, I usually order a training CD or DVD on it from Total Training or Lynda (Lynda has a great yearly fee for all their training resource downloads). I find that these tools are a great way to give you the fundamentals really fast. For example, You can spend days going trough an After Effects book but you spend time trying to find tools and other menu items rather than focusing on the creative. With a training CD/DVD you can actually watch the interface right in front of you. It’s video and it’s like being in a classroom. When the presenter does something, you get to see it, hear it and understand it. Recall level is much greater and it’s more efficient. A while back I ordered a PHP training CD-ROM from Lynda. It went through the process of setting up WAMP. Took about 10 minutes for me to do it including MYSQL. It would have taken much longer by trying to figure it all out.
3. However, these tools are generally only good for the fundamentals and getting my feet wet. Once I’m done with the fundamentals then it’s time to get a good book and check out forums with any questions I have. Good forums with helpful people are amazing. This will become a great reference and will let you extend your knowledge. Also, give back to the community. Help those who are struggling as well with the questions you once had.

RJ: Why did you start freelancing on the side to begin with?

CS: I think that freelancing has been influenced by my upbringing, formal education and gypsy-like nature. I don’t like to sit still. Always need to be doing something (or 10 things).

My family is full of small business owners and entrepreneurs. My entire life I lived with self-employed parents and the ups and downs; Rags to riches to rags again. I even had two jobs when I was 11-years-old (Paper route and dish washer at the local fish food restaurant)… I was a hard workin’ kid! So needless to say my upbringing influenced me.

Then off to College I go.

I went to college for video production (3 years), after that a post graduate program in Interactive Multimedia (All at Sheridan College in Canada). When I graduated from the Interactive Multimedia course, I spent 5 -6 months freelancing 100% with a few different companies.

I got out of school thinking “I’ll be able to make my own hours, I’ll be able to work on what I wanna work on, etc etc…” I was SOOO WROOONG!!!

I was working 15 hours a day (sometimes on work, sometimes not but it felt like it!). If I wasn’t working I was worried about the next project. Where would it come from? How would I pay rent? How do I advertise? I need to update my skills! after 6 months and nearly a nervous breakdown, I got a fulltime job at a place where I was already freelancing.

Several years go by and I regain my sanity. I took some marketing courses as well to spice things up a little. I still did some small freelance gigs but didn’t look for them, they found me.

However, about 2-3 years ago my wife (girlfiend at the time) and I discussed our life in general and getting married and having a baby. We were both working at the time but if we had a baby, she’d get maternity leave and pay for 9 months but nothing after that. We’d be a single income. After that period, she would either need to get a part-time job and make $10-$15/hour OR I could focus more on freelance work and make a whole lot more. We chose the latter of the two and have been focusing on that, successfully I might add.

RJ: Have you ever considered quitting the 9-5 and freelancing full-time?

CS: Absolutely! Each and every day it pops into my head about 50-100 times. The mentality of a 9-5 job doesn’t work well with me. It’s good for some people who can simply go to work, do their job and leave to go home but that’s not me. I need excitement and a bit of an unknown. I need an adventure to keep me motivated. Standard 9-5 daily with no risk is a pretty boring thing.

So why do I keep working the full time 9-5? The hardest part is getting rid of the stability. If I went to 100 per cent freelance, I’d likely start thinking “Where’s the next project, how will I feed my family, how can we afford the bigger home?” Banks don’t like freelancers much either and they give you money for cars, houses and other important things.

I find that the stability of the full-time job combined with the freelance on the side is a great balance.

RJ: You’ve got quite the list of accolades, do they help bring in more business?

CS: Yes and no. The ones I thought would bring business didn’t and the ones I thought would not, did! For example, local newspaper stories and articles written in published magazines or books… Nothing. Awards shows were okay but were mainly filled with companies looking to hire full-time talent. The biggest surprise was about two months ago when my website was selected as a site of the week at coolhomepages.com. I figured that it would be mainly designers checking it out so wouldn’t bring anything. It resulted in about 5000 pageviews and 6-7 calls from actual business owners looking to hire me who found me through the site!

RJ: What other marketing techniques do you use when it comes to freelancing?

CS: I’m lucky as I’ve never had to make a single cold call to generate business. It’s all through referral. I have business cards, my website and a select amount of really good contacts. That’s it.

RJ: And what advice would you give to other freelancers, particularly ones who are also juggling the 9-5?

CS: Freelancing can be very frustrating and rewarding and the most important aspect is to understand how to make money doing it. It’s nice to think that we’re all in it for the love of it, but the love doesn’t pay the mortgage, the car, the bills and most freelancers sell themselves short. FSw has an excellent and accurate calculator. Look at it, Use it, Apply it!

For those juggling the 9-5 as well, stick with it but keep it separate from the full-time job. I know people who started as freelancers and those who juggled it with the full-time job. The jugglers are far better off today because they learned how to balance the two and manage their time efficiently.

I guess the last bit of advice would be to focus on client relationships and how you can best service their needs. Learn to be a people person and build confidence. This will get you the work. People generally hire people that they like and trust. Don’t become fixated on the awards or trying to be the best at something. It ultimately doesn’t really matter. After all, if only the best sounding birds sang in a forest, it would be a pretty boring place. I heard that recently and it really stuck with me.

Do you want to be interviewed on FreelanceSwitch? Let us know by filling in this form!

Original post by Robert

Now that you’ve designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it’s important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with […]

Original post by Buzz

There is no doubt that links from other websites to your website is vital for an ecommerce business. It all filters down to the Google Page Rank. This is the Google tool that is used to determine how important a website is to people surfing the net.
Google will balance the number of links, the PR […]

Original post by Buzz

Why should you even spend the time to maintain an email marketing list? Well, a better question is: why not? If your goal is to achieve business success, then you need to start with building a list of potential and current customers.

Email marketing can do wonders for your business in terms of profitability. It also helps in establishing client relationships - you can easily reach out to customers you would not be able to initiate contact with otherwise.

Email marketing is simple to begin, even for people who are not computer savvy. All you need to do is write what your business has to offer potential customers and how they can benefit by using your products and services, and put it into email format.

Below are some of the benefits of email marketing:

• Cost effective: Compared to other marketing strategies, email marketing is one of the most cost effective techniques available. By saving money on this type of marketing, you will be able to put your hard-earned money to other uses, such as expansion, and advertising.

• Reach a wider audience: Through email marketing, your business will appeal to a larger audience, thereby adding more customers to your client base.

• Building relationships: The main goal of email marketing is to turn potential customers into loyal followers of your products and services. This is possible only if you include up-to-date information about your products and the services you provide to attract their attention.

• Provides an edge: Email marketing gives you an added advantage over your competitors who are not using this strategy. By using new technology such as autoresponders, you have ability to reach more customers and respond to inquiries quickly.

Every small business owner who does business on the Web should do some email marketing.  It is a worthy investment that you definitely not miss out on.

Original post by Buzz

If your website does not create a sense of trust in your visitors, all your efforts will be in vain. Your online business will not succeed. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it is very easy to create and build trust in your online visitors. Below, I have […]

Original post by Buzz

Just about everyone has a website today. Certainly, if you’re in business one way or another, you have a website. And people have different objectives behind their sites. Some are content-driven. Others provide an online service and have sophisticated user interfaces. Others still are designed to entertain and amuse their visitors. But regardless what your […]

Original post by Buzz

This is the fifth day of our series on The Business Of Freelancing. This is the last day of the week, but don’t worry - we have another two series coming up over the next two months!

If you missed the previous posts, check out Saving For Taxes,You Are In Business To, Creating A Business Plan - How Will You Make Money, and Picking A Legal Form Of Business. For more, check out ShaneandPeter.com.

Bookkeeping, the Difference Between Profit and Loss

How do you make profit? It may sound silly – your goal is to make more then you spend. But how do you really know? You keep track, kind of like keeping score in basketball. A good business owner is constantly finessing their game. The score in business is measured primarily by two things:

• Cashflow (real cash on hand)
• Profit (how much you keep in the end)

I put enormous emphasis on bookkeeping in our business. Proper tracking and reporting allows me to measure the health of the business and make sound business decisions. For years, I truly hated bookkeeping. I’m not into details and felt the same dread about bookkeeping that I felt about cleaning my room. That was until Carla Sikand, the owner of BookkeepingPlus, during a course provided by the Small Business Development Center (an amazing free resource for all US business owners), sat me down and explained that bookkeeping wasn’t about details, it was about a system that could significantly increase my income if properly applied. I decided to try it and immediately learned a few things about what was working in business and what was not. My income doubled that year. I stopped offering a few services that I could now tell were not profitable.

Through proper bookkeeping and reports I had the knowledge to clearly test which activities were growing my income. It was like being handed firebug for business. My eyes were opened. Don’t get me wrong, I worked very hard, but I was working hard before that. Carla helped me work smart. I directly attribute a significant portion of our business growth to what I learned. We have doubled our gross revenue annually for the past 3 years and hope to accomplish it again for the 4th (on track).

So that’s my plug for bookkeeping. If you still won’t do it personally, then at least learn enough so that you can judge if you the person you hire is on the up and up.

NB. This information should augment, not replace advice from an accountant or lawyer. This information is mostly relevant to US citizens. While we would like to include information for more localities, because FreelanceSwitch readers hail from all over the world this cannot be accomplished.

So that’s it for the first week of The Business of Freelancing Series. There will be another one coming up soon, so stay tuned!!