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Freelance Folder

Freelancing Lessons from Tech SupportAugust 18

When I left my full-time job to strike out alone, I wondered whether the past couple of years had been a waste of time. Two years working in technical support didn’t seem like good preparation for a freelancing career involving writing and website creation.

But then I realized that a number of the “lessons learnt” during my time in tech support could help me in my freelance career as well. Dealing with clients is a priority in any business, and a lot of the tricks I learned from tech support apply to freelancing as well.

Here are a few client relationship lessons I learned from working in tech support:

Have stock email responses ready in a file

In my support team, we were used to some simple questions or problems coming up frequently (such as “Help, I’ve lost my password” and “I need to deactivate an account”.) There was no point typing out new replies to these each time. Instead, we created a file of stock responses to use.

As a freelancer, you’ll probably find yourself sending a lot of emails. Some will be very similar: applications for gigs, information about your prices, a quick run-down of the services you offer. If you find yourself typing out the same paragraphs repeatedly, create a “stock response file”.

Could You Compete In The Freelance Olympics?August 15

Like many around the world, I’ve enjoyed watching the 2008 Summer Olympics. From the elaborate pageantry of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing to the incredible perseverance of the Olympic athletes, the Olympics represent an ideal of what humans can achieve if they try hard enough.

Who hasn’t been touched by the struggles and triumphs if the Olympic Athletes? Even as the Olympics progress, superstars begin to emerge - athletes whose personal stories and dedication serve to inspire us all. Whether you are inspired by the perseverance of Michael Phelps (as he receives medal after medal for the U.S. team) or by the unprecedented repeat success of swimmer Dara Torres (who is returning to the Olympics for the fifth time), or by others - one can’t deny the hard work that goes into preparing for the Olympics. The Olympic athletes represent the “best of the best,” and few athletes are able to make it.

As a freelancer, I have to wonder: if there were a freelance Olympics, would you qualify? Could your freelance business be considered the “best of the best?”

Here are ten traits of winning Olympic athletes. See how your freelance business measures up:

1. T

Giving Away 250 Beta Invites To ThemeForestAugust 13

I’m sure if you are a designer or developer you’ve heard of Envato - the company behind massively successful sites like FlashDen or PSDTUTS and NETTUTS.

FlashDen - an open marketplace where you can sell and buy Flash components - has been around for about 2 years and they recently launched AudioJungle which is just like FlashDen but for audio. Hey, why stop there?

They are launching a brand new website soon called Theme Forest and it’s in beta right now. Huge thanks to Collis we have 250 beta invites to give away! :)

What Is Theme Forest?

Basically, ThemeForest is a site where you can sell website templates. From CSS/HTML templates to WordPress, Drupal and Joomla themes (and more). Templates will sell for between $5 and $75 and you can earn up to %50 of the selling price. You don’t have to deal with refunds, payment system or anything, they take care of all that and they do the marketing of the site, so all you have to do is create files.

I Want A Beta Invite!!

So, you’re a web-designer/develop

Freelance Folder Birthday Contest Winners!August 13

On July 23rd Freelance Folder turned one and we had a contest. We asked you folks to share your very best freelancing tips. As you can see in ‘The Massive List Of Freelancing Tips‘ post, a lot of people participated, either by leaving a comment on the contest post, writing on their own blog or via Twitter and even via StumbleUpon! It was great reading all your tips and tricks, I learned quite a lot! I hope you did too! :)

Now is the time to announce the winners!

…drum roll…

And the winners are:

• Asus EeePC 900 from Small Fuel – Dave McGahan
• $50 Amazon Gift Certificate from Meryl K. Evans – David Hepburn
• Fruitful Time Task Manager 2 Licenses – Ali Hale and Gayle Trent
• 1,000 UPrinting Business Cards – C

Massive List Of Killer Freelancing Tips By and For Our ReadersAugust 12

Freelance Folder turned one about 2-3 weeks ago and, for those of you who didn’t know, we had a contest to celebrate this! I’m very happy so many people entered the contest and took the time to share their own freelancing tips! :)

Before we announce the winners I thought it would be a good idea to have everything in one place and also give a link to everyone that entered the contest! So here we go:

The Massive List Of Freelancing Tips

Scott McIntyre

I strongly recommend spending the time to develop a brand strategy which outlines your branding as both an individual and also for your blog/ website if you have one associated with your efforts. This usefully takes the form of a document. If you take time to write such a document, then you find that all other aspects of your business activities flow from this.

These activities include: promotion, Social Media strategy, blog design, target audience aim, tagline creation etc. etc. The list of benefits to the freelancer setting out are immense.

Such a branding document helps focus all your business efforts as you don’t waste time or resources in pursuing goals which do not fit in with your strategy. A branding strategy document is a sure-fire way of streamlining your business activities right from the very beginning.

There are many resources (book, websites) available to assist in creating a killer brand s