Image Credit:  Scania Group

A problem for many freelancers is the impossibility of advancing in career, while in a web design agency a designer may evolve from entry level to senior or director positions a freelancer is his own manager and nothing more. This mentality, very widespread, isn’t totally valid and web design freelancers must embrace a whole new conception that is more beneficial for them. A freelancer shouldn’t be an individual that works cheaper than a company and quite probably is based on low standards of living countries. The new freelancer is only a stage from a normal evolution and there are few levels which must be passed in order to become a successful person. Here are the stages I imagined. Definitely, these aren’t rigid steps, the entire post is based upon the experience of other great freelancers but each individual is different. Please share with us any opinion, the more ideas; the more useful is the article.

1. Level one – working as a freelancer, not enough projects, try to offer the best

At this stage, the designer starts his career and he is searching for the first clients. Many people quit during the first months because of the few or no clients but there are some that resist no matter how difficult the situation is. The clients hire experienced people, thus the beginners are neglected. It’s unimaginably hard to find a good client from the posture of a new entry freelancer. Once gaining the first project, the situation improves, but, obviously, the projects are still few even the services provided are high quality and the fame as a good freelancer is created step by step.

Image Credit: Ed Callow

2. Level two – almost too  many projects, somehow bored and fully experienced

Reaching this stage supposes one to three years of activity; the respective freelancer is experienced and knows perfectly how to handle any difficult situation faced with bad clients. The experience and the brand created assure him a lot of clients and he usually selects the projects to do. Accomplishing many projects will make any person bored with and sometimes the power of will isn’t at its best just because of the repetitive tasks to do.

3. Level three – too much projects to do, the first thoughts of outsourcing

At this stage the pressure of too many projects is high and the freelancer rejects projects not because he doesn’t like them, he doesn’t have enough time to finish them all. The financial part is decisive and the consequence of the many offers is to raise the prices, only the best paying clients are taken into consideration. Some freelancers don’t want to lose the clientele that was created with so many efforts and sleepless nights and try to find solutions to this so much dreamt issue. One of the best solutions is to hire other freelancers that are available and skilled enough to satisfy the standards.

4. Level four – the outsourcing issues and the morality problem (optional)

The problem of hiring another freelancer when you are a freelancer is pretty difficult and many people are considering it as a moral dilemma. Is it fair to hire another person when you are hired to do it? Is it correct to ask for an amount of money and to hire other but paying him with less money?

These questions won’t ever have an exact answer but the majority is considering these OK, not very moral but correct. It’s quite probable my attitude is more pragmatic, but I am an adept of outsourcing. I see a freelancer as the core of a next agency. A boss shouldn’t be a manager, he can be a designer. The matter of managing consists in driving the organization on the best way and the diplomas or the titles of the manager are totally useless here.

In conclusion my idea is simple, the natural way of growing as freelancer supposes the outsourcing and maybe hiring a team. It is mandatory, not optional. Each human association needs to evolve and working as an individual means that after a time the maximum of potential is reached. From this moment, the progress is almost unnoticeable. On the other hand, by making a team, the possibility of making more clients content is higher and it means a higher profit. This stage is passed instantly by the more adventurous and pragmatic people and this is the reason of considering it optional for them.

5. Level five – the development and each one’s ability to be manager

This level is the final point of the complete transformation from a simple individual, glad of being hired for small jobs, to a manager, now emailed by big clients having very important projects. It’s a nice dream and I intentionally didn’t mention this: every each of these things is possible only by having a strong will & passion and working very hard.

Finally, I share with you my favorite quotation and meditate over it, “don’t wait for miracles, you are the best miracle you’ll ever met”. It’s true and don’t be afraid to want more!

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Building an attractive, user-friendly website is one thing. Adapting it to fit with the language and culture of other countries is quite a different thing.

Indeed, the very moment you launch your website into cyberspace you’re global. And it’s for this reason that you should make a few key considerations early on in the design phase, so that if you decide you need to adapt it at a later point, the process can be implemented a lot more smoothly.

Content is King

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It’s true to say that whilst the look and feel of your website is crucial; it’s the content that rules the roost. That is, the true value of your website is in what the site offers your visitors rather than how pretty it looks.

For this reason, it goes without saying that your English language website should be written professionally, read coherently and be of genuine use to your target audience. For online businesses that plan to target non-English language markets, you will at some point have to translate your website into other languages: 75% of the world’s population speaks no English whatsoever. Even fluent English speakers would prefer to communicate in their native tongue (if that isn’t English), so the need to adapt your site for other languages may prove unavoidable.

With this in mind, consider the following benefits of designing your website using UTF-8 character encoding for Unicode:

• Compatible with over 90 scripts (written languages)
• Repertoire of over 100,000 different characters
• Adopted by IT industry leaders (Apple, Microsoft, IBM etc)
• Supported by most common browsers and operating systems

Essentially, developing your website in Unicode will mean it’s far more flexible for future adaption. And, importantly, most of the common design tools such as Dreamweaver and Front Page facilitate development in Unicode.

Cross-Cultural Color Schemes

image by rintakumpu

Generally speaking, color is a very subjective thing in web design. What looks good to one person will look awful to someone else and there’s only so much you can do to please everybody.

However, whilst your color selection can be representative of your service-offering (e.g. ‘blue’ if you’re a water-sports company), it most certainly should reflect your target countries: colors mean different things to different cultures. Consider the following examples:

Red: Signifies danger or passion in western cultures, or ‘purity’ in India or ‘good luck/celebration’ in China.

Orange: Religious connotations (protestant) in Northern Ireland; ‘autumn’ (fall) or creativity in many western cultures

Purple: Depicts ‘royalty’ in the west, or ‘mourning’ in some eastern cultures (e.g. Thailand)

Interestingly, black is often used to represent ‘death’ or ‘funerals’ in western cultures, but white is used to denote this in many eastern cultures.

In short, colors can mean different things in different cultures. It pays to be wary of your color scheme if you plan to ‘go global’.

Website Way-Finding (Navigation!)

image by Sebastian Niedlich

Naturally, you want your website visitors to find their way around your site with ease. Navigation bars, scroll bars…there are best-practice guides that dictate the best place for navigational aids. But these are generally based on left-to-right (LTR) languages, e.g. English, French and German. However, many language scripts read from right-to-let (RTL), such as Arabic, which is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world.

It may be enough to simply switch the navigation bar to the other side of the site, but to minimize the amount of changes you need to make and for consistency, then a horizontal navigation bar might be the best option from the start. Regardless of what you actually decide, as long as you are switched on to these issues in the first place, your job will be made a whole lot easier later on.

And that’s the very basics of designing a multilingual-friendly website. Now it’s time to go global!

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So, you have decided it’s about time for you or your business to get a website, but where do you start? Below are some important things you should consider.

What is the goal or purpose of your website?

image by scottwills

This is the first and most important step to think about before contacting a designer. You will need to identify what you want your website to achieve – do you want to sell products? Advertise your services? Or just be a point for potential customers to gather information?

It would also benefit to know who your target audience will be. Once you have your goal(s) you can start to plan your website.

Do you need a content management system (CMS)?

image by Peregrino Will Reign

Dependent on your websites purpose, you will need a rough idea of how often you will need to update your website.

If your website doesn’t need to be updated regularly, then it would be more cost-effective if the is site updated by the company that built it – this would also save you time.

If you plan to change your website frequently (adding new products, updating your news feed etc…) then it would be in your interest to have your website with a content management system. A CMS will allow you to easily add and edit information on your site without having to have any technical knowledge.

Who will be hosting your website?

image by Tim Dorr

When choosing a company to host your website, there are a few things to look out for:

• Amount of web space – How big is your website? Do you have hundreds of pages? You will need to choose a package that will support your needs.
• Data transfer / bandwidth – Make sure you will have enough bandwidth. I would also recommend staying clear of companies offering unlimited bandwidth.
• Reliability and speed of access – A web host should not only be reliable and fast but they should also guarantee their uptime.
• Technical support – Make sure the company offers 24/7 support, as problems could arise at any time.
• Location – I would recommend that if your target audience and your company are based mainly in the United Kingdom, then your server should also be hosted in the UK.
• Features – Most hosts nowadays offer a fully featured control panel, which allows you to control your server easily (setting up email accounts etc…).

How to choose a domain name?

image by streetart

One of the most important steps to take when creating your online presence is choosing the correct domain name. Your domain name is your online identity and will represent your website and business.

Finding a good domain today has become a lot more difficult, with over 168 million domains registered worldwide and increasing each day. But don’t panic, there are still many domains out there that can benefit your company; you will just have to be more creative.

Some of the most important factors when choosing a domain name are:

• Keep it short and simple.
• Make sure it is easy to spell.
• Make sure it’s easy to remember.

I would recommend trying to keep your domain under 20 characters with no more than 3 words.

If possible, you should consider using a keyword in your name, e.g. if your website is about computers, then having “computers” in the domain name would be beneficial. Not only would it let potential visitors know what your website is about, it would also have a positive effect when it comes to search engine optimisation.

Now we know what to look out for in a domain name, it’s time to start brainstorming ideas.

1. Create a list of possible domains just using your business name (e.g. abcpc.co.uk, pcabc.co.uk).
2. Create a list of possible domains from the services you offer (e.g. computerrepairs.co.uk, pcrepairs.co.uk, fixmypc.co.uk).
3. Now try and mix the above together (e.g. abcpcrepairs.co.uk).

Now we should have a reasonably long list of potential domain names which we need to see if they are available. There are many websites that let you check a domain’s status, such as; http://www.whois.net, www.123-reg.co.uk.

If you’re still struggling to find a domain that suits your business and is available then try adding in your location; such as abcpcashford.co.uk.

Do you have a corporate identity?

image by dv_flick

If your company already has a brand, then this should be incorporated into your website. I would suggest giving your designer some off your literature and explaining the colours you want the kind of layout you like and any other comments you feel will help the designer.

By now you should have a strong understanding of what your websites purpose is and what kind of questions to ask your design company.

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The life of a successful freelancer is hard, but tremendously rewarding. Without 9 to 5 hours or a boss breathing down your neck, you can pretty much do as you please. You can work how you want, when you want, where you want: in an office, at home, or from a beach in Barbados, assuming you’ve got a laptop and reasonable Wi-Fi signal!

As glamorous as life as a top freelancer might seem, there’s no denying that lots of hard work and unflinching dedication are required to achieve success. With good ideas and tenacity, however, the returns can be massive, both in terms of earnings and job satisfaction.

Below, we explore the lives of 9 freelancers who have reached the top of their game. All have achieved success through the internet, mainly blogging, an avenue which is open to everyone with access to a computer (that means you!) Hopefully you’ll be inspired by their stories and respective achievements to start blogging yourself, or if you’re running a blog already, you’ll be able to learn from the best in the business.

1. Darren Rowse

Darren began his ascent into blogging superstardom back in 2002, when he started his own personal blog as a way to share and discuss things between friends and colleagues. Its popularity grew and it started to receive several thousand visitors each month. Soon enough, Darren started to earn a living from it, largely through AdSense and the Amazon Affiliate program. He quickly set about establishing over 20 different blogs to experiment with various income streams and advertising systems.

Today, Darren runs several extremely successful blogs, including Digital Photography School, his most popular blog, which receives over 1 million visitors each month. He also runs TwiTip, a blog for sharing Twitter tips, and b5Media, his most ambitious project yet, a blog network consisting of hundreds of blogs and independent bloggers. He’s also set up ProBlogger.net, a site for those who wish to learn blogging skills, and ProBlogger.com, a paid for site which promotes collaboration between professional bloggers.

2. Yaro Starak

Yaro has come a long way since creating, managing and selling his first website, MTGParadise.com, a hobby fan page devoted to the card game, Magic: The Gathering. He learnt his trade as an internet entrepreneur by setting up several websites in his native Australia, including BetterEdit, a proofreading service for students, and Student-Marketing.com.au, a university campus poster advertising service. He even ran an English school for many years.

Today, Yaro lives to teach others the secrets of his success. He does so through Becomeablogger.com, a great site packed with video tutorials teaching people how to create their own successful blogs. He also runs Blogmastermind.com, the next step for bloggers who are serious about making money, and Membershipsitemastermind.com, which teaches people how to create a successful membership site. Entrepreneurs-journey.com, another of his creations, ties all of his websites together and tells his own personal story.

3. Collis Ta’eed

Collis, yet another Australian entrepreneur, cofounded Envato, in 2006, with his wife Cyan. Envato is a factory of sorts, churning out hundreds of well-designed and profitable websites, specializing in marketplaces, communities, blogs and educational sites. Among Envato’s most successful creations is ActiveDen, a marketplace which specializes in the buying and selling of royalty-free Adobe Flash and Flex files. It is home to a large community of Flash designer and developer members as well as the largest Flash library on the web.

Other popular Envato websites include WorkAwesome (a resource for those who want to succeed in the workplace), FreelanceSwitch (a place for freelancers to share advice, chat, collaborate and look for work) and Creattica (an inspirational design work gallery). Collis’s huge success can largely be attributed to his wide skills set. Not only is he an ideas man, he’s an expert web designer and Photoshop user who can bring ideas to life.

4. Jon Phillips

Jon’s the lead designer and founder of SpyreStudios, a design agency based in Montreal, Canada. He founded the company back in 2007. SpyreStudios.com not only acts as a portfolio for Jon’s work, it is home to a very popular blog, which attracts clients and random readers alike. As well as collaborating with the best bloggers and social media strategists to create amazing websites, SpyreStudios offers a WordPress consultancy service for those wanting to build or boost the performance of their own blogs.

On the side, Jon also runs Design Newz, a site featuring a wealth of useful information and articles written by web design experts. It’s updated regularly with around five to ten new articles and tutorials each day. As if Jon couldn’t get any cooler, he also plays guitar in a great Montreal-based heavy metal band.

5. Jacob Gube

In 2008, when Jason Gube founded Six Revisions, a weblog for designers and web developers, he didn’t think for a moment that it would become the success that it is today. A designer and developer himself, specializing in front-end and PHP development, Jason has managed to drive traffic to his site and make money in the process by ensuring that everything posted is interesting, relevant and useful.

Jason keeps a close eye on his site’s comments section and reacts accordingly, offering tips, tutorials and resources that are in highest demand. He also gives away the odd freebie here and there, as his way of saying “thanks” to his loyal readership.

6. Vitaly Friedman

Founded in 2006, Smashing Magazine is a brilliant weblog for designers and developers with tons of information about the latest trends and techniques. Vitaly is not only Smashing Magazine’s founder, he’s the editor-in-chief, and is personally responsible for the quality of articles published on the site, all of which are manually hand-picked and quality controlled.

Just this year, Vitaly made a leap into traditional publishing with the Smashing Book, an in-depth guide to best practices in web design. Inside the book, you’ll find technical tips on coding, usability and optimization; advice on typography, colors and branding; as well as a look behind the scenes at Smashing Magazine. The book’s full of contributions from industry experts, including Jason Gube.

7. Chris Garrett

As well as being a self-proclaimed “web geek”, Chris is a UK-based professional blogger, internet marketing consultant, entrepreneur, new media industry commentator, journalist, speaker, trainer and author. In 2005, Chris founded OQIM, a company which helps individuals and businesses use online media more effectively. Chris is a prolific writer, posting regular articles on his own website (chrisg.com), his personal blog (chrisg.org) and various other sites including ProBlogger, FreelanceSwitch, Threadwatch and ASPToday.

When he’s not blogging, you’ll find Chris speaking at major internet marketing, blogging and new media events such as WordCamp and Affiliate Expo. Somehow, besides all this other work, Chris has managed to co-author a book with Darren Rowse entitled ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.

8. Brian Clark

Brian founded Copyblogger in January 2006. It’s since become a huge success, attracting 100,000 subscribers and 240,000 visitors each month. It was identified by The Guardian newspaper as one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs and gets glowing endorsements from BusinessWeek and Technorati.

Brian’s fantastic site is intended for those people wanting to boost the success of their website to get more traffic, attract links, gain subscribers and sell goods. According to Copyblogger.com, this can best be done through compelling content and copywriting, which anyone can learn by following the articles which are regularly uploaded on the site.

9. Chris Pearson

Chris Pearson is a WordPress master. He runs Pearsonified, a weblog devoted to helping people build and run successful WordPress blogs. Every article, trick and tip that Chris uploads is picked apart, discussed and analysed by a thriving online community. Chris also runs DIYTheme, a WordPress theme marketplace.

Unsurprisingly, Chris uses his vast WordPress knowledge to design themes, some of which are available through DIYTheme. Chris is big on themes which look amazing without skimping on usability. Currently, Chris is promoting his new theme called Thesis, which is used on such revered sites as Laughing Squid and Copyblogger. It offers excellent SEO and in-depth, user-friendly customisation.

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The life of the freelancer presents a unique set of challenges and demands. While you have the benefit of becoming your own boss, you must take responsibility of managing your time and maintaining lucrative client contracts. The aim of the game is to maximize your creativity in order to make the most of your earning potential. There are many tried and tested methods for increasing your productivity as well as simple ways to boost your output and reap the financial rewards of your freelancing opportunities.

1. Make To-Do Lists

One of the beauties of freelancing is that there’s no boss telling you what to do, but by the same token it’s up to you to take control and tell yourself what needs to be done. It’s very useful to draw up a to-do list at the outset of each project, at the beginning of the week and at the start of each day.

2. Make a Work Schedule

Once you have a list of tasks you can map out a work schedule, planning exactly what and when you need to do to complete each project and meet your deadlines. The work schedule should cover long-term objectives, weekly work patterns and a breakdown of daily targets. Try to keep to office hours; occasionally there will be times when you have to put in an all-nighter to get a project wrapped up, but try to keep to a regular program to maintain productivity.

3. Turn off Instant Messaging

Freelancing and working independently can sometimes make you feel a little isolated, so instant messaging is a great way to keep in contact with friends and maintain a virtual office environment. It’s also a perfect way to keep in contact with clients and make enquiries regarding ongoing projects. But chatting with IM can be enormously distracting and a source of procrastination, so while you’re busy working switch it off and only sign-in when you need to make a specific query, or during time set aside for communications.

4. Switch off the Phone

Likewise, the phone is an essential tool of the freelancer, but also a source of distraction. When you’re focused on a project the last thing you need is a cold-caller offering double-glazing solutions or your mates inviting you to the pub. Switch off the phone to maximize concentration during work time.

5. Allocate Communication Time

To avoid procrastination and make the most of the working day allocate communication time, periods of the day when it’s okay to switch on the phone and IM and have a chat with friends and family, and check your emails. Perhaps set aside half an hour for communication in the morning then again at midday. This will allow you to reduce the sense of isolation that sometimes comes with freelancing whilst maintaining productivity during dedicated work time.

6. Declutter

Decluttering your workspace will help promote a methodical and organized approach to your work. Remove all unnecessary clutter, untangle and tidy away all computer wires and adopt a minimalist approach to your desk and work area.

7. Make Your Workspace Practical and Ergonomic

Ensure that your desk and chair are comfortable and your workspace is organized in a practical and functional manner. Lighting design, a carefully chosen color scheme and the addition of posters and plants can all improve the quality of your workspace.

8. Close Your Internet Browser Whilst Working

Constantly checking emails, looking at news sites and reading irrelevant Wikipedia pages are typical forms of procrastination and work avoidance. Close your browser and only open it for essential reference, research and to contact clients and contacts for your current projects.

9. Take Regular Breaks

Make sure you take regular breaks to rest the eyes away from the computer screen and take your mind off work for some time. Once or twice a day have a rest and do something pleasant such as reading a book or taking a walk outside. You’ll return invigorated and able to review the day’s work with fresh eyes and renewed creativity.

10. Listen to Music

Many freelancers find it useful and inspiring to listen to music during the working day. While it may not suit everyone’s methods, carefully selected ambient music can helpfully influence the tone and pace of your work.

11. Invest in the Best Tools

There are plenty of applications available to make the life of the freelancer simpler and more efficient. To organize projects try out packages such as Backpack , while iOrganize collates ideas, notes and bookmarks in one place. Google Calendar is a great way to maintain an online schedule, and Neptune manages daily task lists.

One of the central aspects of maintaining a freelance career is the ability to manage your finances. FreshBooks takes the headache out of sending and tracking client invoices. For an overview of your financial management, useful business tools and help with monetary decisions join the online community at Wesabe, where you can benefit from the shared experiences of your fellow freelancers.

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Today everyone is experiencing the recession, be it in company we are working at or in our own business. This affects our freelancing work and our clients also. At that time it is very important for the freelancer to build his knowledge or to explore the field in which he is working on. Because as a freelancer one must keep reading, keep trying & keep creating new things again & again. So what to do when there is no client or work? Here is the list of things you can do in the meantime.

1) First and most important thing is keep reading. You can read anything like inspirational magazines, articles in the newspaper or the blogs. Actually a freelancer should have habit of reading anything related to his field. This helps in finding new ideas, building new concepts and most important is getting inspired.

2) Next thing is to keep writing. When you don’t have any work, updating your blog is the best idea. It increases your archive and also attracts the visitors to stick to your blog. You can get more information on blog over here. Also you can write for the local newspaper or for some popular blogs. This will increase your presence in the community & you will be in focus.

3) Another thing is to keep participating in the competitions. You can participate in the online competitions, so that you run for the creativity. Participation also helps in getting new ideas, other competitors have put for their entry. This increases your creativity library.

4) Also keep creating or experimenting with your own ideas, may be you can find one which will be your future project concept.

5) Have you experienced the recession period? What do you do when you don’t have any work or project in hand? Comment for the fifth point and more.

Other Must Read Articles:

How to Get Your First Freelance Project/ Work?

How to Create Memorable Business Cards

Turn Your Unused Client Work into Passive Income 

Getting Creative: Should You Start From the Big Picture or the Details?

What to do when You Don’t Get the Job?

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