The Free Creatives

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Crystal

FreelanceFolder recent came out with a post called What it Really Costs to Be a Freelancer. It shows the harsh reality to the common misinterpretation that freelancing is free to start up and maintain. Like said in the post, that is far from the truth. Many startup costs for freelancers are low compared to other businesses, but freelancing has plenty of expenses to deal with. Among these include computers, software, books, apps, business supplies, business cards, and more.

In fact, some of the most successful freelance businesses can spend hundreds a month just on maintenance. Check out the post more for other examples of how freelancers usually have to spend money. In this post, though, I wanted to look into some free or cheaper alternatives. Sometimes running a freelance business can live up to it’s original expectations of being maintained cheaply.

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Crystal

Freelancing is a work style choice, so it is only fair that we can mold that style into a happy one. Being happy in one’s career is the only way to stay productive and keep moving forward. Of course, it is important regardless of productivity or success to love what your doing.

In this article, let’s look into six ways freelancers can be happier today, and can set up a way to be happier in the future of their work. You have the power to shape your own freelance business, so know that you always have the power to create a freelancing business that will make you want to get out of bed in the morning.

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Crystal

When we read articles on productivity here or elsewhere, we think of those freelancers that always have a few clients on their plate at any given time. We think of those freelancers that always have too much to do and too many clients to please. For many of us, of course, we wish that was our biggest problem.

The truth is though that many freelancers, no matter how successful, have slow times. These slow times may consist of only one or two clients for awhile, leaving them with far too much free time, or no clients at all for months on end. In these slow times, it can be difficult to stay on track, and to stay productive.

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Crystal

CSS can be a fun thing, or it can be a daunting thing. It really all depends on how you go about it. Do you end up slowly coding your design, only ending up spending your time fixing error after error? Is getting your design to work nicely in all the top browsers constantly a problem?

If so, you may be going about CSS the wrong way. In this post we’ll discuss a few of my favorite tips and best practices for beginning a new design to code project in XHTML and CSS.

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Crystal

The great power of freelancing in this industry is that we can do it completely online. This is great for the many of us that like to work in our PJ’s, sleep in, and work when we want to. For others, online interaction can be a lot less stressful than face-to-face interaction.

So if we’re able to, why not base our entire business online? Seems like a valid choice, but this can be how many freelancers fail. It can also be the one cause as to why many freelance web designers don’t ever really get a good start in the first place. In this post, let’s discuss the pros and cons of offline clients, and of online clients.