What’s the worst thing you can do as a freelance writer?
While each of us can think of different horror stories, we can all agree that sending content to a client with technical gaffes and sloppy writing is the best way to ensure you will not be invited back for another gig. But unless you have an editor to review everything you write – which we can’t all afford to have – how can you be sure you’re catching it all?
Here’s where editing tools can make a dramatic difference. [Read more…]
Editor’s note: This post was written by S.E. Batt, a freelance writer and author from the UK. He loves cats just as much as he does writing, even though the two conflict with one another on a regular basis. You can follow him at @Simon_Batt on Twitter.
Freelance writers are known for being picky about their tools of the trade. From pens and paper to phone apps, we have a reputation for always having something on standby to scribble down ideas, inspiration, or even entire pieces on. One of the strongest workhorses in a freelance writer’s armory is the faithful word processor, which often finds itself taking on the mainstay of the work.
When offered the prospect of choosing a word processor, a lot of writers would trip up on the fact that you can ‘choose’ a word processor. Every writer out there just uses Microsoft Word, right? While a very solid and reliable choice, Microsoft Word is not the only word processor out there.
We’re not talking about Notepad and Wordpad, either; there is fully-fledged software out there that does just a good a job (and in some examples, an even better job!) than Microsoft Word, with the advantage of either being cheap or totally free. As for what you choose, however, that’s down to your own personal preferences and workload demands. [Read more…]
Editor’s note: This post was written by Kenneth Waldman, a freelance writer and English tutor. You can get in touch with him on Linkedin.
It is usually a goal for every writer to earn recognition for their work. By providing interesting and high-quality content to readers, you will gain more clients and followers. Whether you are a blogger, copywriter, or content writer, when it comes to writing for the web, competition continues to increase. But with the right tools, you can help save yourself time, money and effort. Writing can be hard, but writing on a computer is even harder with the many websites, notifications and all the other distractions hindering you from working. [Read more…]
Freelance and contract work has proven to be a viable job alternative for employees. However, not everyone is sold with the idea of telecommuting or working with a remote staff.
According to the statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor compiled in 2012, work offered to freelancers and contractors are expected to increase only by 3% within the next 10 years , which is considered slower than average. While freelancers can enjoy benefits that will make employees envious ,the problem lies in the inability of employers to find freelancers for their companies. Among the companies surveyed by Tower Lane Consulting:
Given these issues that aspiring freelancers will have to deal with, there are apps and tools that answer these problems to make your transition from office to freelance life much easier! Below are some of the best tools that you ought to use.
If you are looking to hire additional people to help you with your freelance gigs, the next step is managing the list and filtering the best freelancers for the job. This becomes difficult if you have fielded in hundreds and thousands of applicants and don’t have the time to sort out each.
Thankfully, Recruiterboxmakes this process much easier by creating custom sets of steps that candidates must take to complete their application. This tool also lets you collaborate with your clients so you can share feedback and notes about the screened candidates.
Read more: Best Tools for Screening and Hiring Freelance Consultants
One of the reasons why businesses look for freelancers is the supposed ease of getting the job done. Therefore, they will need a quick and easy payment system that allows them to receive invoices from freelancers and send the amount to them without complications. This is precisely what Hiveage does .
“For freelancers, its all about getting things done quickly and easily, and that’s exactly what our simple, intuitive user interface offers them,” says Hiveage CEO Lankitha Wimalarathna. “We’re sick of clunky applications that require learning, and much prefer our users to jump right in and start doing. If you know how to use a web browser, you’ll know how to use Hiveage.”
A concern among businesses when hiring freelancers is the time spent on projects given to them, especially if the freelancers are paid per hour. Because of this, different time management tools have been made available to track down their hours to be able to send to clients.
One of the best is Toggl, a lightweight and efficient software that lets freelancers track the time spent for work and generates reports for their employers. The tool allows you to add people to specific teams, allowing both employees to organize tasks for the different teams and freelancers to manage and bill for different projects at the same time.
Read more: 30 Essential Tools and Web Apps for Freelancers
Time Management Tip #3 Give the Query a Rest
Collaborating and getting stuff done has been made more convenient with Trello. This task management tools allow freelancers and businesses alike to set up cards of tasks to do for their projects. The cards can be moved to different columns on a page to indicate whether the task on the card is pending, on progress, or done. Its notification system will let people know when tasks are updated or need to be done immediately. More importantly, people can add members involved in the project to the board so everybody is in the know with regard to the project’s status.
What other tools or apps that you use to make your freelance life easier? Share them with us by commenting below!
Editor’s note: This post was written by Sharon, an author who likes to write on themes and issues related to project management software. Through her write-ups, she provides tips and suggestions for businesses, so they can better manage their projects and duly achieve their business objectives. You can also follow her on Twitter.
Freelancers need to communicate and collaborate with a variety of clients while working on multiple projects. This helps them to better understand clients’ specifications and convey to them exact progress achieved over projects. But such communication should be transparent and fast, only then they would be able to get quality results. For such enhanced communication, the best tools need to be used. These would enable freelancers to save their time, effort and costs as well as increase their productivity and profits. They would be able to deliver projects on time and as per their clients’ satisfaction. Happy clients would recommend their services to other people in their community which will boost their business prospects. [Read more…]
Editor’s Note: This post was written by Brie Weiler Reynolds, the Director of Online Content at FlexJobs and a contributing writer for 1 Million for Work Flexibility. FlexJobs is the award-winning site for telecommuting and flexible jobs, listing thousands of pre-screened, legitimate, and professional-level work-from-home, flexible schedule, part-time, and freelance jobs. Brie provides career and job search advice through the FlexJobs Blog. Learn more at www.FlexJobs.com.
The profession of freelance writing has changed tremendously over the last few decades. Though it’s easier than ever before to find writing gigs and actually create pieces, there are an overwhelming number of tools for freelance writers to consider. These seven tools are ones that my team and I can’t live without, and most are free or very reasonably priced.
Here are seven must-have home office tools for freelance writers.
If you’re going to be typing all day, every day, it makes sense to invest in a keyboard that you find comfortable, but one that’s also portable. Wireless keyboards allow you to to type in comfort wherever you might be, and today’s options are sleek, lightweight, and portable. A wireless mouse makes working from the coffee shop or even a park bench feel more like working from your office. My laptop never goes anywhere without my trusty wireless mouse.
If you’re a fan of making paper to-do lists, the Bullet Journal method takes them to a new level. The video on its site walks you through the simple changes that will make your to-do list a tool for hyper-productivity. You’ll never look at to-do lists the same way.
Being able to access the Internet is an obvious tool for freelance writers, but how reliable is your service? And if it goes out, do you have multiple backup options? Take a couple minutes now to research and make a list of places with excellent Internet service. Then, go a step further and see if your smartphone offers a mobile hotspot option, which allows you to turn your phone into a personal wifi hotspot wherever you are, as long as you’re connected to your phone provider’s network.
If you’re one of the unlucky many, you don’t realize how important this is until your computer crashes. Try to be one of the lucky few who reads this tip and takes action. Online file backup systems like Carbonite are easy to use and run constantly in the background, so even your most recent work is saved.
Signing contracts the old-fashioned way through snail mail or by printing and scanning documents can be incredibly time-consuming. Stop taking time away from writing to do these tedious tasks, and use an e-sign program to make gathering electronic signatures a breeze. Echosign and Docusign are two popular options.
Talk about multitasking! Speech recognition software has advanced tremendously over the last few years and makes it possible to “write” on the go. Whether you’re stuck in traffic, walking the dog, or making dinner, if you can speak, you can write with these handy programs. You might invest a little money in Dragon speech software, but smartphones make it possible to dictate documents for free using voice-to-text with pretty accurate results. If you have the Google Drive app, you can speak into a Google Document, which will then be saved and easily accessible the next time you open up your laptop. Which brings us to…
My team of freelance writers all use Google Drive to create and maintain documents. The Google Drive app makes it possible to access those documents on smartphones and tablets. Collaboration, sharing, and document creation are all much simpler when you can access your files regardless of your location.
Depending on the type of writing you do, these seven home office tools can help you be more productive, land more clients, stay better organized, and be more comfortable while you’re working. And since most of them are free, these tools are easy on the thrifty freelance writer’s budget.
Bring up the topic of green living and people think recycling and light bulbs. These are, of course, important parts of caring for the environment, but they are not the only things each of us can do to save, reduce and reuse resources.
The office presents several opportunities to lessen our personal impact on the world around us.
Put your money in green – products and services. There is a huge variety of recycled goods on the market for offices including file folders, organizers, calendars, etc. A little bit of research will go a long way to find products that fit in tight budgets.
Product control also means controlling the amount of energy electronic products consume. A quick way to keep energy usage low – plug all of your electronic devices into a power strip. At night, hit the switch and cut phantom energy use!
Waste Control
It doesn’t take a lot of effort or money to change your office into a green one. It’s almost as easy as putting on a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” pin.
What tips do you have for greening up an office?
There are a lot of free and cheap tools available online that freelance writers can use to make both their lives and work easier. Some make a simple task easier while others streamline processes so you can spend more time writing and finding new business and less time on busy work.
Following are a few of the free tools that consistently get great reviews from small business owners. I use (or have used) most of these tools and each offers its own benefits that may or may not be right for you. Since most are free to try, you can test them out and see if they meet your needs without investing a penny!
Freshbooks is a great tool for invoicing. You can track time, send invoices (by email allowing clients to pay via PayPal) or mail, add your logo to invoices to brand them for your business, automate some billing, and more. There is a free account that works for people with 3 or fewer clients and paid accounts for bigger businesses. There is also a free 30 -day trial. I’ve tested Freshbooks and know many small business owners and freelancers that use it and give it rave reviews.
Take a look at more billing software programs for freelancers that will make your workflow easier.
Do you ever need to email huge files to your clients but either your email or your client’s email can’t process large message or attachments? If so, then YouSendIt.com is a great option. YouSendIt.com offers a free account that allows you to send files up to 100MB as well as paid accounts. I have used the free option more than once to send large files to publishers and it works perfectly! The recipient receives an email message that includes a unique link that he or she clicks on to visit a special web page where the file can be downloaded with a click of the mouse!
Google Docs is perfect for projects that require collaboration. You can give multiple people access through Google Docs to word processing documents, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, or presentations. As long as you (and your colleagues — if you’re collaborating on a document) have access to the Internet and free Google accounts, you can access Google Docs as well as set sharing permissions!
If you’re not using Skype for business related calls and chats, then you really need to try it. Skype is incredibly easy to use and it’s an excellent way to make free calls with people around the world. If you and the person you’re speaking with both have webcams, you can even conduct video conversations. Not only is Skype a great way to speak with clients, but it’s also a great way to conduct interviews for pieces you’re writing!
There are many email marketing tools that enable you to send promotional emails about your freelance business or newsletters to help build relationships with your clients and boost your business. However, MailChimp is one of the few options that has both a solid reputation and a free account option!
What are your favorite free or cheap online tools that make your freelancing life or business easier? Leave a comment and share your can’t-live-without tools.
Image: stock.xchng
