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Wake Up Later: Freelance + Passive Income

A blog about freelancing, passive income, and my learning experiences with both.

Three Free Copies of 3D Spiral from FlashLoadedNovember 10

It's been a while since we gave away free stuff, so in partnership with Flashloaded (those fine purveyors of Flash components), we are giving away 3 copies of their new 3D Spiral Component (normally $49.95). I have personally purchased and used several Flashloaded compenents such as 3DWall and 3DEnvironment, so I can vouch for their usefulness and value.

What is 3D Spiral?
True to its name, this Flash component creates a rotating spiral image gallery that is interactive and easily customizable, both through actionscript and XML. A few screenshots linked to actual examples are below:

How to win:
Leave a comment telling me what music you're listening to right now. Ten days from now, I will randomly choose 3 commenters to receive a free copy (please use a real email address so I can contact you if you win).

How to lose:
Don't leave a co

Get Smart: 12 Free Educational Resources for Web WorkersOctober 21

Knowledge is a web worker's number one advantage in an industry where ideas and technologies move fast. Although the internet is full of sites promising such knowledge, there are few quality tutorials or lessons out there. And if you want such lessons for free, then your options are even fewer. Here are 12 multimedia resources for expanding your skillset and staying in front of your competition.

Always be learning -- especially with such great resources out there. (Photo by alextakesphotos)

1. iTunes U - iTunes has a good deal of free educational content, recently compiled and expanded under the name iTunes U. There have recently been some impressive contributing universities of late, including Oxford University and the University of California. Check out:

Falling Behind is Not an OptionOctober 13

Seeing that this blog has been dormant for several months, what better way to get back into it than a post about falling behind? The truth is, if you work in the design or technology industry, it doesn't take long for your skillset to become outdated or your design aesthetic to become stale. Every potential client job I've ever had inevitably asks either, "How well do you know ___________?" or, "Can I see a recent design example of ____________?" If you don't have solid answers to those questions, chances are you're not landing the job. In the same vein, basing your reputation on a blog that hasn't been updated in months is just as bad. Simply put, falling behind is devastating in the freelancing industry and here's why:

In the freelance web industry, falling behind can be a real problem. (Photo by Frankie Roberto)

Technology and Design Speeds Madly On
Unlike many other occupations, you probably aren't using the same knowledge base you used 5 years ago. Developers should not be using old versions of programming languages and designers probably shouldn't still be relying on heavy grunge overlays. When it comes to these fields, it is assumed, just by being part of this industry, that you keep up with your trade. Don't think that you're going the

6 Places that Flash Does Not BelongMay 4

It's recently occurred to me that I've been doing Flash sites now for 10 years and have seen it come a long way since Flash 4, where I first cut my teeth on Actionscript, tweening, and pixel fonts. Over the years, I've seen and done many projects, some of which utilized Flash in very useful ways, while others had no business using it. Sometimes, a Flash implementation hurt the company, detracted from the site's purpose, and had poor results (all the while costing them more to build the site in the frst place). So in a world where too many companies want Flash websites and too few designers use Flash very well, here is a brief list of places that Flash currently does not belong (with very few exceptions):

1. Website Intros
Let's get the obvious out of the way. Websites exist for their visitors, not the other way around. I see almost no use ever for a Flash intro (or really, any website intro), unless your website strategy includes annoying visitors and wasting other people's time. This isn't to say that you shouldn't have a decent preloader or a smooth transition into your site, but anything more than a second or two of Flash before the actual site is a bad idea.

2. Sites with SEO Objectives
Although it's possible to get semi-decent SEO rankings in certain situations for a Flash site, you're just not going to achieve the kind of SEO success for a Flash site that you can for an HTML equivalent. Granted, SEO isn't an easy game to pla

Deciding When to Use Project PricingApril 24

Billing by the hour is the most common way to make money in the freelance world, and it can be both safe and profitable. But it does have a few drawbacks. First, potential clients tend to balk at higher hourly rates, mainly because they're comparing you to other freelancers based solely on your rate (and not the talent or work that comes with that rate). Secondly, hourly rates offer little reward for the freelancer to be either fast or efficient. And as for the client, besides worrying about a freelancer who's freeloading, he will have a hard time pegging an actual cost and budget to the project. So for those reasons (and perhaps others), there are times when project pricing becomes a great way to make both parties happy: the client gets a fixed cost and the freelancer can earn more than he could hourly (without being compared to low-cost outsourcers).

So when should you go with project pricing? Consider these questions:

How large is the project?
For many, maintenance work or small projects are rarely worth the effort of putting together a formal scope/contract, and besides, most clients aren't keen on making a project out of a four hour job. Furthermore, if you "project price" small pieces of work, it's easier for clients to string you along with more and more edits. Plus, you don't want to become known as the freelancer who does "jobs for a couple hundred dollars" -- you'd much rather have an hourly rate and larger project pricing. S