Freelancing

A short video on how freelancers can profit from social media.

You don’t need to me to tell you how fast social media is growing. But you may not be aware of some of the actual figures…like how there are almost 700,000 updates being published on Facebook every 60 seconds.

Within the ongoing growth of social media, opportunities abound. And this is particularly true for freelancers who are, in many ways, ideally positioned to profit from social media.

To give you an idea of the scale of the opportunity for freelancers, I have created this short slideshow video…

The teleconference call mentioned in the video has come and gone, but you can learn more about my social media program here.

Think like Michelangelo: A freelancer’s guide to choosing great clients.

part of the sistine chapelHistorically, artists have always needed to find a patron. Sometimes the church, sometimes a nobleman or a merchant.

Without the support of a patron, artists wouldn’t have had the resources to do great work. We all have to eat.

And those patrons often gave pretty clear instructions regarding the topic of the art. For example, painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel wasn’t Michelangelo’s idea. The work was commissioned by Pope Julius II.

In fact, Michelangelo was reluctant to take on the project. He would rather have been sculpting.

But you know how it goes…what the client wants, the client gets. (Particularly when, in addition to being the Pope, you are also referred to as “Il papa terribile”.)

The thing being, the artist’s life isn’t so very different from the freelancer’s life.

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The $10,000 coaching call. Or…Why I love coaching.

freelance super heroI don’t work as a coach full time, but do thoroughly enjoy the clients I work with.

Why? Because coaching is a creative process. It’s about creating something new, something exciting.

Earlier this week I was on the phone with a client and were we talking about how she might best position a new direction for her freelance business.

Previously, we had figured out the general direction that she felt worked best for her. Now we had to find a way to position her service in such a way that prospects would feel enthused by the idea of working with her.

This is easier said than done. The mechanics of what she offered were not new. Hundreds of other freelancers in her field offer pretty much the same features and benefits.

So we had to dig and to find a way that would separate her from her competition, and would also make her shine.

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You can achieve freelance success if you really WANT it. Discuss.

Talk to almost any freelancer and he or she will tell you they really want to succeed.

But there are many different degrees of “wanting” something.

As a coach, working with freelancers almost daily, I often hear about how badly people want to succeed.

But the word,”want” is inadequate to the task of expressing what it really means to want something.

I want some ice cream for dessert.

I want to go away for the weekend.

I want my children to grow up healthy, happy and wise.

The degree to which I want ice cream is insignificant compared to how much I want my children to grow up healthy, happy and wise.

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If your freelance business website looks old, it will damage your brand.

nick usborne's freelance websiteLast year’s fashions look old. Last year’s smartphones look old. And last year’s websites look old.

OK, I’m exaggerating a little. Let’s make that 5 years.

Whatever the exact timeframe, there is no doubt that any given look and feel for a website eventually grows old.

As a freelancer, or for any business, you can’t allow that to happen. You can’t have a website that looks like it was last worked on back in 2005 or, even worse, 1998.

In some ways it’s odd that website design should be so susceptible to changes in fashion. If a particular look and feel works, why change it?

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Are your freelance copywriting services perceived as an expense, or as an investment?

cash registerMaybe you don’t think about your services in this way.

But your clients and prospects do.

As a prospective client looks at your estimate, she will perceive it in one of two ways.

“This is going to take a chunk out of my budget for this quarter. I wonder if this is really the best use of my dollars.”

Or…

“This is going to cost me a few bucks, but it’s going to generate a truck load of extra sales.”

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