Video – Paul Boag: Get Clients to say ‘Yes!’

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Paul Boag: Get Clients to say ‘Yes!’ by Paul Boag. This weekend we’re sharing a great talk from Carsonified. In this talk at FOWD NYC, Paul… read more

15 Valentine’s free fonts

15 Valentine’s free fonts

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Manage Your Money to Avoid Freelancing Failures

Business is always about monetizing one component from among a host of other important things. The reason behind every business is to make money or generate revenues. Given the inherent focus on revenues, when launching a business or a site, it is critical to understand how to manage finances, which… read more

Five Tips for Running a Successful Home Office

There are a lot of stories written about home-based businesses—trust me, I just did a Google search. Working from home has changed drastically over the years, thanks to technology.

If you think back not even 20 years about home-based businesses, you might envision a low-tech service business such as a… read more

Ask Freelance Switch: Building an Agency and Freelancing Internationally

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at growing into an agency and freelancing internationally. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to… read more

8 Things You Should Know Before Building a Mobile App

Seth Porges is a magazine editor and the creator of Cloth, an iOS fashion app for iPhone and iPod Touch. His Twitter handle is @sethporges.

App appeal is obvious. The barrier to entry? So low! The upshot of producing the next Angry Birds or beer-chug simulator? So high! Heck, with just… read more

How LinkedIn Gave A Former Pro Athlete A New Career [VIDEO]

While playing for the Tennessee Valley Vipers in the Arena Football League, and pursuing his dream of playing football professionally, Lewis Howes broke his wrist diving for a pass. He gutted out the rest of the season, playing through his… read more

Fair Wages for Freelance Writing

A recent story in The Australian caught my eye. The title of the piece is “Online magazine offers less than 2c a word to freelancers”. The name of the online magazine is Breathe Magazine Australia (BreatheMagazine.com) and it is scheduled to launch in April 2012.

The Australian journalists’ union, called… read more

The Euro Crisis Presents a Unique Opportunity for Freelancers

Unless you’ve been living underneath a very large rock for the past couple of years, you’ve probably heard that Europe is teetering on the brink of financial armageddon.

While there’s no shortage of doom and gloom in the the global outlook, it’s not all bad news – especially if you’re… read more

Making the Perfect Project Pitch

Freelancing offers you maximum flexibility to choose the projects that best compliment your skills, passions and interests. Without doubt, this is one of the most obvious advantages in becoming a freelancer. However, in this economic climate the ability to only choose the projects that most attract you must… read more

Freelancing Fear: What causes it and how to overcome it

Freelancing Fear: What causes it and how to overcome it

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Why Sleep is so Important for Freelancers

I love sleeping. Always have, always will. I was the kid whose parents had to wake up on Christmas morning. If I don’t get enough sleep—watch out.

Admittedly, sometimes I feel ashamed at getting nine hours of sleep at night. But when I read this article in Inc.com about how… read more

Best of Tuts+ in January 2012

Each month, we bring together a selection of the best tutorials and articles from across the whole Tuts+ network. Whether you’d like to read the top posts from your favourite site, or would like to start learning something completely new, this is the best place to start!

Psdtuts+ — Photoshop Tutorials

Create… read more

Top Tips for a Safer Client Contract

So you finally got a call back and that client is ready to move forward with working with you! Great! Now it’s time to get down to business.

How do you make sure you get paid for the work you do? We all hate this part, but … read more

Things My Clients Hate. What about Yours?

I have been a freelancer for almost a decade now and in the course of these years, I have had dozens of clients and hundreds of projects. While no two clients are the same, I have noticed some common things many of my clients hate. For truth’s sake,… read more

Experiments II the 7th Exhibiiton of Cosmosys

The group Cosmosys is a creative community focused around different forms of art, composed of artists from around the globe and they recently released their 7th exhibiiton with a beautiful gallery of different stunning pieces. I hope you will enjoy them!

Our goal is to provide artists with a community… read more

Finding Work on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter

I love a good infographic, and this one created by Jobvite (view full infographic post or view it at full size) is really cool. It shows how Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter help people find work.

This research looks at how people are using social media to look for and find… read more

20 Best Online To Do List Apps for Freelancers

To do list task managers and full productivity software is essential to a freelancers business. The style of design your looking for in a to do list app will differ based on the size of your small business, the nature of the services you offer, and your personal preferences.

You… read more

How to Choose a Good Bank as a Freelancer

When you’re looking at banking options for yourself as an individual, you need different things than you need as a freelancer. A personal bank account is usually part and parcel of building a larger relationship with your bank. After you’ve got the bank account, you’re likely to look at… read more

Keeping Yourself Motivated Throughout the Workday

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Centering your attention throughout the workday can be a difficult process. You need to truly love your work and cherish the time you spend. Unfortunately not all of us can feel this way 100% of the time.

Freelancers are often given tasks related to concepts they care… read more

Web designers, what to look for in a CMS

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Help Wanted: Websites For Finding Design And Programming Jobs

There are a lot of advantages to freelancing. You will have more flexibility over the hours you work, you won’t have to commute to work any more and best of all, you are your own boss. It can be hard work landing a job. Not to mention making sure a… read more

How You Should Use Google+ for Your Business

Chris Brogan is the author of the new book, Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything.

As a Google+ skeptic (heck, I’m skeptical of all new social media) I was interested to learn more, so I sat down and watched this video where Michael Stelzner of Socialmediaexaminer.com interviewed… read more

Top 10 Free Time Tracking Apps for Freelancers

Usually two words “freelancer” and “time” go together. Freelancers can’t juggle multiple tasks simultaneously and that’s why we need to allocate time carefully. Time is an essential source of freelancer financial success.

There are lots of web apps that help track time and create reports. If you use one of… read more

Freelance Freedom #243: Freelance Adventurer Part 4

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive?

Catch the whole Freelance Adventurer series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

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Daily Inspiration #1043

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

10 Cool and Creative Websites to Visit

10 Cool and Creative Websites to Visit

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Best of the Week #207

It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s… read more

Women Entrepreneurs, Example Not Exception, Video

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Women Entrepreneurs, Example Not Exception by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. In this inspiring video she gives examples of women entrepreneurs across the world. She argues that women running… read more

Daily Inspiration #1042

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Does Facebook Timeline Make Sense For You?

I have yet to adopt the new Facebook Timeline interface. I don’t want to. I’m comfortable with using Facebook the way it is, thank-you-very-much. When I found this post on mashable about how to revert back to Facebook classic, I knew I wasn’t alone in wishing some things would… read more

Interview with Freelance Marketer Danny Iny

Want to boost your profile? Add additional income streams to your freelancing business? Release your own self published book? It’s time to have a chat with author and freelance marketer Danny Iny.

He quit school at the age of fifteen to start his first freelance web design business. The only… read more

Managing an Organized Freelance Work Schedule

It takes a lot of time and dedication to build a freelance career. The hours are long, work can be tedious, and often you need to multitask like crazy. But the freedom of release from a regular work schedule can be fantastic.

In this guide I’d like to go… read more

Daily Inspiration #1041

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

10 Sources for Stock Photos

More often than not I find myself meeting with a prospective client and telling them one of the biggest keys to designing a stunning website are the images that you use. You can have the most elaborate interface, with parallax scrolling, fluid and responsive resizing capabilities, and the best color… read more

Make Time for YOU – Part Two

It’s the beginning of the year and things are slow. You are hustling to get work and the work that comes your way you don’t feel you can turn down. By the time summer rolls around, you have been working your butt off and let things—like life outside of… read more

9 Steps to Starting Your Freelance Web Design Business

So, you want to be a freelance web designer? Ah, the glamor of it all.

Your own boss, answering only to the call of your creative muse… get up, feel inspired, do some work, go for a walk, laugh knowingly with other freelancers who have also discovered The Secret… read more

5 Pros and Cons of Freelance Job Marketplaces

Online job marketplaces are billion dollar businesses today, ducking the recent recession and expanding at a tremendous rate. No wonder then that more and more sites open up every day catering to a small niche of freelancers.

The two biggest general online job marketplaces are Elance and oDesk, but… read more

7 mistakes developers make

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Daily Inspiration #1040

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

The Works of Freelance Illustrator Jack Tempest

The Works of Freelance Illustrator Jack Tempest

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Make Time for YOU – Part One

Many freelancers are stuck in a rut. We don’t dare pass up work because we aren’t confident it will keep coming in.

We forgo weekend plans and even vacations because we are busy. But guess what? All work and no play leads to burnout.

It’s important not to forget that… read more

Get TV Coverage for Your Freelance Business

Switched on freelancers know that publicity is good for business. Positive press coverage in newspapers, trade magazines and professional journals can raise awareness of your freelance business, create leads and even fill order books.

One way to reach a larger audience with public relations activity is to get television news… read more

Daily Inspiration #1039

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Starting a Freelance Business in 2012: Planning Ahead

Was your New Year’s resolution to start your own freelancing business? We’re five weeks in—how is it going? I found this article on Freelance: UK that got me thinking about financial issues to consider before taking the big freelance leap. Here are some of their suggestions as well as… read more

20 Fun & Lively Character Design Tutorials from Vectortuts+

Mastering the art of character design is something that takes both a lively imagination and a good understanding of drawing techniques. Today we have have bundled together a collection fun and lively character design tutorials from the Vectortuts+ archives. Covering a variety of subjects from sketching to rendering there’s plenty… read more

Outsourcing Sites for Freelancers

I’m often asked by others questions like, “Where do you get job leads?” “How do you find clients?” And, “What’s a good source for finding work online?” Those are all pretty tough questions to answer, as there are several different ways to do so. But there are certainly some resources… read more

When One Client Becomes Your Job

Here’s the scenario: you give up your job to take up freelancing full time. First, you work in grinding drudgery for a while, until you land a sweet client who not only loves your work, but wants you to do more and more, until you find yourself dedicating 40… read more

New Works of Adhemas Batista (I’m Selling Colors)

Adhemas Batista also known as I’m Selling Colors, is a self-taught visual artist from São Paulo City in Brazil but now based in Los Angeles, USA. With a package experience since 1996, Adhemas has worked with many huge brands including Adobe, Coca-Cola, Puma, Honda and of course Havaianas. I am… read more

Effective Ways to Start a Freelance Graphic Design Business

Effective Ways to Start a Freelance Graphic Design Business

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Is it okay to use templates and themes as a freelance designer?

Is it okay to use templates and themes as a freelance designer?

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How Sites Like Contently Aim to Help Freelancers Find Work

I had never heard of the freelance-writing online marketplace Contently until I stumbled across this piece of info from the Wall Street Journal:

Freelance-writing marketplace Contently has raised a $2 million Series A round led by Lightbank. Co-founder Shane Snow said he started the company to help resolve some of… read more

9 Tips for Working While Traveling

Every once in a while you need to do freelance work while you’re traveling.

Trying to stay on top of your freelance tasks while on vacation can be stressful, especially if you’re traveling with your partner or family. Trying to find a balance between work and play isn’t easy…. read more

Freelance Freedom #242: Freelance Adventurer Part 3

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive?

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Our favorite tweets of the week Jan 16-Jan 22, 2012

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Wallpaper of the Week 187 by Jeff Huang

The wallpaper of this week is an image created by Jeff Huang and featured on the Abduzeedo Book. Jeff is a freelance art director and illustrator based in New York who specializes in Creative Design, Abstract Art, Photo Editing, and 3D. He has been working professionally for more than 6… read more

How To Close The Books on Your Startup

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

In the life cycle of an entrepreneur, shutting the doors on a business isn’t necessarily a gloomy situation. The end of one venture often signals the start… read more

Top Freelance Jobs from Job Board – Week 3, January

Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and come from a wide range of potential clients. The job board is hand-moderated by dedicated staff and volunteers… read more

Antonio Bay Case Study by Falcon White

It’s always a great thing to see how a designer works, it’s a great way to learn and also to progress with your own skills. Now I wanna share a case study from Ralf Krause aka Falcon White, who did this piece for Desktopography 2011. I hope you will enjoy… read more

Design for Yourself: Pros and Cons

You are a creative person and you want a new look for your business—whether it’s a website, business cards, or whatever. Sure, you could do the work yourself—but should you?

For some odd reason, there seems to be a discrepancy of sorts when it comes to doing the work for ourselves. Some… read more

3 Rules to Freelance Consulting Success

When my father left his industry to become a consultant, he was as much of a business rookie as any of the new freelancers who visit this site. Since we’re talking about the early 1980s, business advice for solo practitioners wasn’t as plentiful as it is today.

So, my dad… read more

50 Inspiring Logo Designs

A logo is an essential part of branding your website and marketing it offline and online. Some logo designs feature simple, beautiful typography whilst others more are fun and colourful. However, all logos should be memorable and able to integrate with your website design effortlessly.

One of the best ways of… read more

Teach What You Know: How to Make a Living on Skillshare

Nate Cooper is an independent academic and co-organizer of Reboot Workshop, an un-conference for nontraditional workers.

Skillshare is a platform for instructor-led, in-person classes. You can search for classes to take or propose to teach a class topic.

As the name implies, Skillshare is a community of experts and entrepreneurs; therefore,… read more

10 Essential Guidelines for Freelance Collaboration

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Freelance collaboration is on the rise. Increasingly, teams of freelancers are now doing the work that in-house departments used to do. Graphic designers are now working on teams with writers and programmers.

But many freelancers are used to working alone. Collaboration definitely requires freelancers to make a… read more

SOPA: What You Need to Know

Did you happen to see the Google logo on the search engine’s homepage yesterday? If not, here’s what it looked like:

Did you try to look something up on Wikipedia only to see a black screen? You can thank SOPA for both of those blackouts.

SOPA, which stands for Stop Online… read more

5 SEO Trends Writers Should Target in 2012

Freelance writers need to deal with web content all the time, as more and more of publishing goes online.

Although the basic principles of good writing don’t change in the online realm, there are certain differences that writers should be aware of. One of the most important aspects of online… read more

Tips for Keeping Focused on Freelance Deadlines

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It can be a bummer when you’re stuck in a freelancing rut. Anybody who has worked this field will understand the grief of struggling to finish project deadlines in time. Often the work quality will suffer along with the accompanied mental fatigue. Rushing to the finish… read more

Video Inspiration #53

Video Inspiration is a weekly(ish) post where we either feature a specific artist or show a sort of “best of” list of videos we’ve discovered during the week. Everything here may not be brand new, but we felt it worth sharing with the community. If you have good… read more

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To AppleScript

AppleScript attempts to use plain English wherever possible to make coding extremely simple. Most commands in AppleScript are located inside a “tell block”. It’s called a “tell block” because you are “telling” a given application what you want it to do. For instance, the code above is telling the Finder… read more

Quick Look: Bunker App

Quick Look posts are paid submissions offering only a brief overview of an app. Vote in the polls below if you think this app is worth an in-depth AppStorm review!

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Bunker App. The developer describes Bunker App as the smoothest way for freelancers to manage… read more

Tips on Crafting The Perfect Press Release

The magazine I run is holding a contest, and we’ve been working hard with our PR consultant on creating the best press releases possible to advertise our event. It’s not as easy as one might think to craft a good press release—even if you are a professional writer. I… read more

6 Tips to Avoid IRS Audits for Freelancers

No one actually knows for sure what the logic behind the IRS audit red flag is. Over the years, accountants have seen commonalities within their client base and have noticed trends in businesses that seem to be audited more often than others. This article isn’t meant to scare you;… read more

Uber: A Responsive Portfolio and Business WordPress Theme

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At Theme Trust, we’ve just released our first WordPress theme of 2012, and we’re quite proud of it. This one is called Uber, and it’s a responsive business and portfolio theme perfect for freelance designers, photographers, or design firms. The portfolio section in this theme, with… read more

Simple Ways As A Freelancer To Make A Better Work Life Balance

Simple Ways As A Freelancer To Make A Better Work Life Balance

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Daily Inspiration #1034

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Why Having a Mentor is Important for Freelancers

There is only so much you can learn from a textbook. And with technology changing at break neck speeds—there is only so much you can learn in school before, inevetibally, technology changes again.

Internships are a great way for students to get hands on experience working in their chosen field—but… read more

Cheap But Effective Digital Office Solutions for Starting Your Small Business

Oh, where to begin? The cost of starting your small business can be expensive. Everything from office space, to business card printing, to a website all have to be purchased during the beginning years of your startup.

One of the expenses that you’ll deal with is computers and software purchases…. read more

Should designers do personal projects?

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Immortal Technique: A Quick Look at Minimalism

There’s a little bit of murmuring going on that the design technique, most affectionately referred to as minimalism, is dying and/or dead. I couldn’t disagree more. I believe that minimalism is not dead, mainly because people don’t quite realize what it is.

Unfortunately, it seems like people think of it… read more

21 Excellent Portfolios and Design Agency Websites

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It has been a while since we last showcased Design Related Websites here, so today we decided to check out how is it that design firms, designers, and other creative agencies are presenting their work. From design studios to brand firms and freelance designer’s portfolios, you… read more

Are You Making These 8 Marketing Mistakes?

It’s the beginning of a new year and you have decided to get serious about marketing yourself as a freelancer. Congratulations—that’s half the battle.

You have a lot of work ahead of you, and I found some tips in this article by Steve McKee for businessweek.com that will help… read more

4 Steps to Becoming a Freelance Copywriter

If you are reading this, chances are, you’ve already made up your mind that you want to be a copywriter.

However I do have to warn you, it isn’t easy!

Most potential copywriters wish to take up the vocation because they love writing. When you have to write… read more

DRIVE Poster Launch by James White

As you may have heard, James White designed his version from the movie DRIVE; one of the best movies of 2011. For those who still haven’t seen it, you don’t know what you’re stylishly missing. We are honoured to officially announce that James will put on sale his DRIVE poster… read more

Animals in Alphabet Illustrations

Casey Girard is a freelancer illustrator/designer from Massachusetts and she illustrated this amazing animals alphabet. Each letter of the alphabet was illustrated by an animal to represent it. The result is simply amazing, great illustrations and great alphabet letters.

For more from Casey Girard visit caseyg.com or @CaseyGirard

<br… read more

Freelance Freedom #241: Freelance Adventurer Part 2

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive?

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Daily Inspiration #1032

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

4 Tips to Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve in 2012

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Sure, having a website for your business serves a practical need: to draw net-surfing users to your product or service. However, it’s also much more than slapping… read more

Linkswitch #94, Attract Clients, Conduct Experiments, Remote Work

Every other week we roundup some of the highest quality articles and resources that benefit freelancers from across the web. We present these articles here on various helpful topics. This week we have articles on attracting clients without being too pushy, conducting freelance experiments, and working more effectively as… read more

5 Crucial Points Before Becoming a Freelance Web Designer

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A freelance career offers a plethora of opportunities and rewards for web designers like you, just itching to make it on your own. At the same time, it can lead to a lot of headache, even failure, if you don’t grasp a few basic skills… read more

Roger McNamee: Six Ways to Save the Internet, Video

View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch. This week we look at Six Ways to Save the Internet by Roger McNamee.

In this video The next big shift is now, and it’s not what you think: Facebook is the… read more

Best of the Week #205

It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s… read more

13 Sites Where Freelancers Can Find Work

13 Sites Where Freelancers Can Find Work

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Daily Inspiration #1031

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Shorthand Words to Eliminate From our Vocabulary…Now

I’m a writer. I like words. I also hate words. What people say in daily conversation rarely makes sense on paper. Using acronyms and emoticons are infuriating—especially to an editor.

Here’s an example: I teach undergraduate journalism courses at a couple of universities in the area. I once had a… read more

Make Your Time-Based Invoicing Easier with T:metrack

Invoicing is a fact of any freelancer’s life. With all of the “glamour” that comes from being self-employed and working with companies on a freelance basis comes the joy that is invoicing, often involving tracking time and logging it carefully.

T:metrack (which, for the sake of my fingers, is going to… read more

Discovering and Focusing on High Leverage Business Tasks

OK, I know, “high leverage” is a cliché, and I am sorry for using this term. But at the same time it’s the one that perfectly describes the message I have for you today.

And the message is: do what matters, quit the meaningless.

If you’re a freelancer, an online business… read more

Daily Inspiration #1030

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

Video Inspiration #52

Video Inspiration is a weekly(ish) post where we either feature a specific artist or show a sort of “best of” list of videos we’ve discovered during the week. Everything here may not be brand new, but we felt it worth sharing with the community. If you have good finds that… read more

Four Tips for Improving Your SEO

Search Engine Optimization—three words that can make or break your website. If you haven’t been paying attention on how to up your SEO by now, it’s time to start listening.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of your website in search engines. Go ahead and look… read more