Photo by Andrew Whalley (Flicker)

For those freelancers in the States, there’s a little over a month left to go search out those receipts and get your tax returns filed on time. Plenty of time but, if you have been freelancing a while, you then know that the sooner done, the better.

No, freelancers don’t have the option of filling out that one-page 1040-EZ form either. So say hello to the “long form” 1040. I recently received the 1040 form with instructions by mail, too, just the other day which contains about 200 pages of forms and IRS business jargon.

Fun reading.

Good thing there is a lot of tax information available that specifically apply to freelancers. These have helped me out quite a bit and will help you get the most out of your deductions and reduce your tax liability. Or in other words, save you some cash you can use to replace that broken desk chair.

Filing The Tax Returns

The best option is to utilize a tax service such as H & R Block and have a professional accountant help you out with your returns for a nominal fee. A tax professional will be able to identify deductions that passed you by, and end up saving you more on taxes than the fees of their service. Not to mention, your risk of an audit is drastically reduced.

If you decide to go on your own, there are plenty of online tax services which make this task easy. Did you know, though, that, if your adjusted gross income (income minus expense and other deductions) is $57,000 or less, you can use a number of services for free?

If you qualify, the IRS website has a list of “Free File” websites to do your taxes. I personally recommend TurboTax since it’s incredibly easy to use and includes a check to reduce your chances of an audit.

Tax Deductions

It is almost guaranteed that there are deductions you can take that you probably haven’t considered. Did you know even PayPal fees are one of them? Check out these for a comprehensive list:

• Freelance Switch: A list of ten common (yet not-so-known) freelancing related tax deductions.
• WiseBread: Talk about a big list… 101 tax deductions for freelancers and bloggers.
• ProBlogger: There is a list of 46 deductions here, some of which overlap the above but will round out the possibilities.

The “Making Work Pay” Tax Credit

Every freelancer in the U.S. is eligible for a credit of 6.2% of his or her earned income, up to $400. All that has to be done is to file a Schedule M along with your return. For more information on this credit, visit the About.com page.

Other Tax Resources

For any other questions, advice or general curiosity in dealing with taxes, the following are very helpful in getting the answers you need.

• TaxGirl: A blog dedicated to just taxes with very informative articles. Try a search for any topic which you have questions on.
• H & R Block “Get It Right”: A community forum where you can look up tax questions by other users or you can ask a tax professional one of your own.
• Turbo Tax: Handy tax calculators plus comprehensive guides to taxes.
• IRS Self-Employed Tax Center: Normally I try to avoid anything IRS related, but there is great information on anything tax related for freelancers here.

Do You Have Other Suggestions?

Have any other tax tips not mentioned here? Leave a comment below and let us freelancers know!

Some Tax Help For All You (U.S.) Freelancers is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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• Freelance In 40 Days [Day 6]: Bookkeeping For Dummies

10. The need to contend for the employee-of-the-month title.

9. Freelancing plus the side gig at the Burger King wasn’t working out as you hoped.

8. Thought your old boss was actually kinda cool.

7. Access to the free coffee machine again.

6. Hourly wages rock!

5. Get to hear jokes again from the fat, smelly guy in the next cubicle.

4. You could use some new stolen software anyway.

3. You can finally stop eating ramen and raid the stale donuts and leftover birthday cake around the office.

2. Get back those medical benefits then get that nasty tumor thing looked at.

1. They wouldn’t survive a day without me anyway.

Top Ten Reasons For Freelancers To Return To Their Old Job is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Photo by Keraoc (Flickr)

Every freelancer could use a tip or two to become a little better in their careers. I know this isn’t the only list out there but I compiled my own of seven tips that have really helped me out personally and wished I learned a lot earlier. Oh well, live and learn.

1. Follow and interact with other freelancers in your field on Twitter.

After being on Twitter for about a year, I’ve come to realize one thing. There is always someone that knows how to do what you are doing, but a thousand times better. That’s not to say you aren’t good at what you do, but there are some really savvy freelancers out there who will amaze you with the work they do.

Those exact same users are more than willing to share their “secrets” if you follow and tune in. Make an effort to seek out and follow other freelancers in your field, check out their websites and other work and don’t hesitate to strike up conversational tweets.

Sure, not all will respond but the majority on Twitter are sociable. After all, that’s what it is about.

2. Limit your free time on the internet.

Yes, freelancers need to email, use Twitter and other social media, check their readers and visit blogs every day. When you add up all the time you spend on the internet related to freelancing, though, does it make sense to spend any free time you do have surfing around?

OK, we do have to keep up with our news, sports and whatnot. Try this out your next work day though:

• Make a log and record the times you are on the internet throughout the day. Then add up this time.
• Does this number surprise you? Could some of this time be better spent, say, outside in the sun?
• Can you really go without visiting those websites, games, etc. or reduce the time to a half hour or hour most a day?

Personally, I found a new hobby during my internet reduction… reading. Beats eye strain I say.

3. Record all your business related expenses using Outright.

At the start of this year I ran into an online accounting app, called Outright, that records all your expenses and  categorizes them for taxes. It is free, easy to use, and can be used in a number of currencies. Plus, it will keep you from scrambling to find those receipts come tax time.

Trust me on this one because I’m currently having brainstorm sessions to recall those expenses and find those receipts from last year that I need for my taxes this year.

4. Learn and apply something new each month.

I’m sure I share this situation with other freelancers but, when I’m busy and have a steady line of projects lined up, I have a tendency to complete them as quickly as possible. What’s the problem with this you ask?

While we are trying to be efficient, by finishing a project quickly to move on to the next project, we usually stick to only what we know when completing our projects. Over time, our knowledge grows stale and it becomes harder to grow in our fields and as freelancers.

Now, I’m not saying each and every project must be unique and has to be developed from new ideas. You can develop your skills further, though, just by setting aside a half hour to an hour a day to learn something new in your field or a new skill entirely. Then slowly incorporate this new knowledge into your new projects.

5. Blog

I can’t say enough on what blogging has done to my freelance career but I can say that if it has this effect on me, then it can for you too.  Here’s what it has done for me:

• It’s a creative outlet that clears my head so I can focus on work.
• I have to put into practice what I write. Being a hypocrite doesn’t bode well with me.
• It’s empowering to know people read what I have to say.
• Sometimes I forget my own advice so I check back here for it.

6. Have daily work goals.

I tried a bit of psychology on myself to see if it would improve my productivity. To my surprise, I was gullible enough to fall for it, but it worked out. Here’s the skinny:

• Each workday, write out your task list. Go a step further, though, and write, specifically, everything has to be done in detail for each task.
• Give yourself a time limit to do it all.
• Give yourself a little reward if you complete the list, say, an import beer or a pizza (or both).
• If you easily complete your tasks in the time you set, set the bar higher the next day with more tasks.

What I noticed was that on the days where the tasks weren’t completed, I would work harder the next day and complete the tasks I set out. This eventually becomes a habit which is the real purpose of this.

7. Work on a personal project.

Every freelancer has some kind of idea for a new app or novel, so why not start it.

Now.

Don’t worry if it will be a success or not. That’s not the point. Your passion in your career will grow with any personal project you do. Not only that but you may learn a thing or two along the way which only helps in your career.

* * *

What are tips you have to be a better freelancer… right now? Share one a comment below.

7 Things You Can Do Today To Be A Better Freelancer is a post from: The Freelance Rant

Photo by Mike Zienowicz (Flickr)

Scarcity causes you to do dumb things… sober!

Usually when it comes to reasons why some freelancers never become successful, things such as work habits, marketing and efficiency come to mind. In other words, the decision making that affect their businesses.

What doesn’t come to mind so obviously is a concept that freelancers take for granted each and every day. A concept that induces negative attitudes and actions that can, consequently, have negative results on a freelance career. That is, scarcity.

Scarcity is simply a shortage of anything when compared to the high demand for it.

To give an example of the power of scarcity, my favorite was in 1999 with the Y2K scare. Computers all over the world were supposed to crash as soon as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s day in 2000. Chaos was suppose to ensue with disruption of major services, riots starting up and food and supplies flying of the shelves of stores.

The funny part was that in this “holy shit!” scenario that was suppose to occur, overpriced survival kits consisting of one, three and six month supplies of freeze-dried and canned goods began to hit the marketplace costing thousands of (U.S.) dollars.

My landlord, who I lived with at the time, bought the six month variety for a family of three. He figured he would also throw in a few shotguns, in case things really got out of control. Surely, he wasn’t the only one.

Needless to say, no shortages nor riots occurred and boxes of non refundable pork and beans were there to prove it. There is still no word if the newly acquired shotguns were used on him by his wife or son.

If there is a lesson learned, those reactions to scarcity lead to an impulsive decision that may have seemed reasonable, even prudent, at the time. In the end, however, it became a mistake and a costly one too.

Scarcity has the affect of triggering negative emotions, primarily fear, panic and greed. It’s being backed into a corner and being forced to make a decision your life depends on (to varying degrees). When you think about it, though, do rational decisions every really come out of negative emotions?

When it concerns scarcity, the answer is no.

So what does this all have to do with freelancing?

For starters, we deal with scarcity when it comes to employment. The bad economy, layoffs, job shortages are always in the news and on our minds as we deal with our own employment.

It’s reasonable, too, that it should have that affect. After all, everyone has to worry about putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their head for themselves and their families.

These fears, however, can be detrimental to freelance careers in four ways.

1. Fear of not finding work

Whenever you have that belief that there is a scramble to find what little work is out there, then this is where the bad decisions begin. This surely crosses the minds of all freelancers, especially early in their careers, but it can lead to poor decisions on what kind of work you accept.

First, there is a tendency to take any kind of opportunity out there just to get income rolling in. This leads doing projects you would rather not be doing and, most likely, working for less than what you’re worth. It’s what I like to refer to as freelance “prostitution”.

2. Fear of not making ends meet

I know, this is a universal worry of nearly all freelancers early in their careers. Some, however, choose to ignore it and stomp out the worry and others decide to let it eat away at them day in and day out.

Our biggest fears and strongest emotions can come from worrying if we’ll make it to the next month and can lead to a situation, similar to the above, when not able to find work. This is often a breaking point for young freelancers, who may find it more appealing to return to the security of a paid position.

3. No growth or learning

If you work just to survive and pay the bills, and your mentality is set to that alone, then we have a situation where our career transforms into a regular J-O-B. What kind of passion is to be realized if you are constantly worrying about the rent at the end of the month? None at all.

Career fulfillment is a by-product of freelancing. You have the liberty to make your own decisions and grow in your career but, if you are stuck doing work you hate at a wage not ideal but gets you by, then you are really only treading water.

4. A too-competitive attitude

Sure, we need to compete for work amongst other freelancers, but viewing your fellow freelancers as the competition does no good in your business nor for your business ethics. In having the too-competitive attitude, some freelancers resort to undercutting or taking advantage of other freelancers to get their own work.

Not only can this be bad for your reputation but it hurts freelancers as a whole reducing the value of work in your industry. Plus you won’t make too many friends amongst your peers this way.

What eliminates scarcity from the freelancer’s vocabulary?

This one is easy. Change your attitude, which is best summed up through a passage from a post by Lite Cue 23:

What I have found myself doing lately is shifting my perspective from a debt oriented view to a wealth oriented view. In short, a shift from a scarcity mentality to an abundance mentality. The economy may be way down, we know this, but people are still hiring. Companies are still producing and lights still need to be designed.

There may be bad news happening in the employment world but there is still an economy and people out there working in it. Well, at least the last time I checked.

Another thing to do is to get involved in the community of your freelancing peers.

Anybody who has been on Twitter long enough, and follows other freelancers, knows that the community is very positive. Not only this but they share information about their trades and some even give you insight to how they run their own businesses with success.

You may then come to realize that the real scarcity concerning freelancers is the lack of them in the marketplace.

Scarcity: Fucking With The Minds of Freelancers is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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The Week In Freelance: February 19th is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Photo by Adam Rice (Flickr)

Not too long ago, I had a look around too see exactly who has been linking back to this blog and its posts. After visiting these sites, I began to notice that many of them were referring to this as a “writer’s” blog. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mind the label but it left me with a big “Whoa! What just happened?”

Now, I know what you’re thinking…  “Duh, you have a blog and write in it, stupid.”

Of course but, besides the obvious, this goes way back in what I like to call my own little internal joke.

For starters, I’m not a writer. Want proof? I’ll give you a rundown of my writing resume:

- Average grade in writing classes, 6th to 12th grade: C

- Average grade in writing classes, 1st – 7th years of college: F/withdrew

- College proficiency writing exam (needed to graduate): Failed

- Average grade in writing classes, community college: C

- Class grade for failers of college proficiency exam: Pass (out of pass/fail)

- Estimated number of writing assignments/papers prior to starting this blog: 150

- Last time I really wrote anything before starting this blog: 2001

With these kind of credentials, you might get the impression I haven’t outgrown the crayons (actually I use my two index fingers while typing). The truth was I never liked writing on topics I was made to to write about. To this day, I still have nightmares about “The Fundamental Flaws of Solipsism” piece of shit I wrote in college and turned in a week late.

OK, I see what you’re thinking… “How come you can write now if you suck so bad at it?”

It’s pretty simple. I had a goal to write a blog, unearth a little knowledge, rant a bit (hence the blog name) and hopefully one day be good at it. Well, that and make lots and lots of money as those blogging “gurus” promise in whatever ebooks.

Let’s just say that the money thing hasn’t working out as I hoped. I could care less either. I’ve come to enjoy writing and the fact that there are people reading what I have to say instead of handing me back a paper full of mistakes in red ink.

It’s a fact that, if you have something to say that you’re dying to get out, you can write about it AND on your own terms.

So, if you are thinking about writing your own blog (or dusting off your old one) or, hell, even starting up a career in writing, then take it from me. It is definitely possible. Know matter how “bad” you think you are as a writer, surely you can beat my resume in writing futility.

If you’re looking for advice on how to write, though, I won’t be giving it out here… ever. That I’ll leave for the real writers. Come to think of it, now that the cat is out of the bag, I think I just screwed my chances for that GQ gig I was hoping to graduate to.

Oh well, I’ll be content with the “writer’s” blog label for the time being.

I Can’t Write and So Can You is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Vandalism: That first website you created all by yourself would have to count here.

Curfew Violations: Stop working, step off of Twitter and get to bed already.

Disorderly Conduct: C’mon, look at your desk. Geez!

Money Laundering: Putting all that under-the-table cash towards that new Mac. Clever.

Insider Trading: Being nice and telling Mr Jones how to use Photoshop so he can save a couple dollars later is a real nice favor isn’t it?

Prostitution: How can you live with yourself after giving Mr Jones a website, new logo and writing all his page copy for $10? Shame on you!

Arson: Better watch out. Mr Jones has a vendetta ever since you burned that bridge some time back.

Shoplifting: Got a receipt for that new Photoshop CS4 I see there?

Murder: Killing off your real social life in cold blood so you can finally have that “other” social life on Twitter.

Tax Evasion: Bet you thought I was joking up until now, eh?

Top Ten Freelancing Crimes (You Probably Are Guilty Of) is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Photo by Foreverdigital (Flickr)

This is the second part of the series on Wordpress tips you really should know. The first part, backing up your Wordpress, is here.

Wordpress, as good as a software it is, has one definite drawback: it can be slow to load. Maybe your readers will sit and wait for pages to load on your blog but, if you can save them the extra seconds, wouldn’t they appreciate it more?

Luckily, there are ways you can speed up the page loads. Drastically as a matter of fact.

First, I’ll assume you are familiar with the following:

• FTP software to access the Wordpress files. Note that I’ll refer to FileZilla here (free to download for Mac and PC).
• phpMyAdmin to access and manage your Wordpress database.

So let’s get started!

The Need For Speed… Caching

Caching is a necessity for every Wordpress user. What it is it? Well, instead of generating a page through the Wordpress (and the wait), cuts to the chase and delivers just the HTML page code that is normally rendered. Therefore, your pages can load ten times faster or even more.

There is an awesome plugin, which handles just that, called W3 Total Cache. On this very blog, I’ve noticed that pages load super fast with it. So it gets a heavy endorsement from me.

To install, you will need to first set the permissions  of the /wp-content directory to 777 (see below).

Setting file permissions using FileZilla (right click, select File Permissions)

Now you can download, unzip and upload the w3-total-cache folder to the /wp-content/plugins directory and activate from the Plugins section in your Wordpress admin. The configuration can be accessed under Settings > W3 Total Cache in the Wordpress admin although the default settings should suffice.

Don’t forget to set the file permissions of the /wp-content directory to 755 once the plugin is installed.

Post Revisions Can Slow Things Down

Wordpress has a great feature, in theory, which saves each and every revision of every post as a means of backup. The problem with it is that, each time you edit a post to add a comma or correct a misspelling, an extra copy of your entire post is saved to your database.

The majority of the Wordpress database is composed of blog posts. So, for example, if you average around 4 revisions for every post, your database grows by nearly four times. After a while, it becomes a huge (and slower) database.

If you are like most and can do away with saving post revisions, then you can perform a couple hacks to turn this feature off:

In the /wp-config.php file, add to it this line of code:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false);

Then, using phpMyAdmin to access your database, click on the SQL tab and  run the following command to delete the current post revisions in your database:

DELETE a,b,c
FROM wp_posts a
LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships b ON (a.ID = b.object_id)
LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta c ON (a.ID = c.post_id)
WHERE a.post_type = 'revision';

Keep in mind that this will only delete post revisions and will not affect live posts nor post drafts.

Optimizing Your Database

Maintaining the Wordpress database is, fortunately, not a task you have to be on top of. It helps, though, to give it a little care, kind of like wiping the grime off of your computer screen. It has to be done once in a while.

The best tool for that is the WP-DBManager plugin which enables you to perform optimizations on your database tables. To use,  download, unzip and upload the wp-dbmanager folder to the /wp-content/plugins directory and activate from the Plugins section in your Wordpress admin.

You can then access the optimize tool from Database > Optimize DB in the admin and run it with just one click. Then once a month thereafter should do the trick.

Last One…

If you display posts on your home page and notice it loads rather slow, it helps to reduce the number of posts that show on it. You can change this setting by going to Settings > Reading and setting the number to show to a lower number. Normally the default is 10 showing but reducing it to 5 or so will speed up the loading.

* * *

Do you have any other tips to optimize the speed of your Wordpress blog? Drop them off in a comment below.

Wordpress Tips You Really Should Know, Part II: Speeding Up Your Blog is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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• Wordpress Tips You Really Should Know, Part I: Backups
• Freelance In 40 Days [Day 29]: Setting Up Your Own Blog
• Freelance In 40 Days [Day 19]: Why You Need To Blog As A Freelancer

The Week in Freelance: February 25th is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Photo by Eric M Martin (Flickr)

Many of us who have our own blogs also do all the maintenance on it. So while I could go on all day about how those nifty Twitter or image plugins can do this or that, you are better off with some tips that you really need to know if you are a do-it-yourself with Wordpress.

This will be the first part of three posts on the topic. So here we go.

First, I will assume you are familiar with FTP software to access the Wordpress files on your server. Note that I’ll be referring to FileZilla, which is free to download and can be used on all platforms.

Part I: Wordpress Backups

A couple months ago, I ran across a post from Coding Horror that raised my eyebrows. Here, we had a programmer who writes and maintains his own blog but ran into a server catastrophe and scrambled like mad to piece his blog back together again.

Now that I’ve apologized, it’s time to let the healing begin. And by healing, I mean the excruciatingly painful process of reconstructing Coding Horror from internet caches and the few meager offsite backups I do have. My first order of business was to ask on SuperUser what strategies people recommend for recovering a lost website with no backup. Strategies other than berating me for my obvious mistake. Also, comments are currently disabled while the site is being reconstructed from static HTML. Oh, darn!

Remember, this was A PROGRAMMER. If this isn’t a wake up call, I don’t know what is.

Luckily backing up your Worpress isn’t such a complex task and consists of the following which I’ll go over:

• Frequent backups of the MySQL database.
• Frequent backups of the /wp-content folder on your server.
• Having a copy of your entire Wordpress blog.

Backing Up Your MySQL Database

There is an excellent plugin called WP-DB-Backup which generates an SQL file of your entire Wordpress database that can be downloaded or, best part, emailed to you automatically at regular intervals.

Simply download, unzip and upload the wp-db-backup folder to the /wp-content/plugins directory and activate from the Plugins section in your Wordpress admin. You can then configure the backup under Tools > Backup in the admin.

Note that, to get this to work, you will need to set the permissions  of the /wp-content directory to 777 (see below).

Setting file permissions using FileZilla (right click, select File Permissions)

After you download your first backup, be sure to set the file permissions of the /wp-content directory to 755.

Backing Up Your /wp-content Directory

As of this writing, I haven’t found a reliable plugin to backup the images on the posts and pages. It’s probably moot anyway since those images would add up to a large backup file over time; likely too large to have it emailed to you.

In the meantime, its best just to do regular backups of the /wp-content directory which contains your uploaded images, plugins and themes. One great way to remember to do this, at regular intervals, is to configure a schedule in the WP-DB-Backup to receive the database backups by email.

Then, immediately after receiving each of those emails, you have a reminder to download the /wp-content directory onto your computer to keep that backup updated.

Downloading You Entire Blog

It’s very important that you have a copy of your entire Wordpress blog. This is especially true before upgrading your Wordpress or when those unexpected moments of breakdown happen to occur.

Since Wordpress files only change when upgrading this only needs to be done once, to have a current copy, then after each upgrade.

(One thing… be sure use the WP-DB-Backup to immediately download a backup file of your database before performing any upgrade.)

Due to conflicts with some plugins and themes, Wordpress is known to break down and give hell after upgrading. So better to be safe than sorry.

* * *

Coming next in this series:  Speeding Up Your Blog.

Wordpress Tips You Really Should Know, Part I: Backups is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Photo by Jeffjose (Flickr)

I’m really excited that I recently discovered a new “app” as a part of my social media arsenal. Yes, you got it; something new and different that rivals Twitter. OK, it’s no so new, but it is effective.

Don’t get me wrong; Twitter is a great tool and all, but sometimes I just want to cut to the chase and converse with those that are of interest to me as a freelancer and in my business. With Twitter, I usually get sidetracked enough with unrelated links that it somewhat defeats its purpose.

Besides, I’m a little tired of clicking on to pictures of cats and half-eaten breakfasts already.

So before I reveal what this incredible new tool is, let me give you some of its advantages over Twitter.

1. No follower counts (and insecurity with your unpopularity).

Finally there is no need worry that you have 136 followers while the average number of followers of those following you is somewhere in the tens of thousands. Not that it mattered anyway, but this is no longer an issue.

Ah, who am I kidding? We all look at that count each and every day and look up those users that hit the unfollow button on us. The swine.

Now, though, we can all be created equal and our fragile egos can be saved.

2. Communicate directly to the gurus and experts that would never consider following you.

Have you ever RT’d or sent a tweet to one of those “popular” users in hopes of getting his attention?

Then waited…

Not a thank you tweet in sight. Probably didn’t even notice. He still hasn’t followed you back for God sake.

Wouldn’t it be nice to send a message to him and then he gets back to you? Well, it may happen some of the time but better than being completely ignored.

3. No more 140 character limits.

You are free to write 141, 280, 560 characters or, gasp, multiple paragraphs. Finally say what is on your mind and don’t leave out one single detail. You can even throw in that photo of your cat eating breakfast (though not recommended).

4. Steal traffic from other websites to yours.

Sure, Twitter is a great way to bring traffic to your website. More traffic couldn’t hurt, right? It’s especially true if you can “borrow” it from other websites with a lot more traffic.

Yes, there is a little greed factor here.

5. Meet others with similar interests.

I personally hate following a user that seems to be interesting but finding only nothing but tweets about Jersey Shore and cats coming from his feed.

Booooring.

None of that here. Filter out the crap and save yourself the unfollow time.

So What Is It?

It’s nothing you haven’t heard of before. In fact, you may have used “it” but without realizing its full potential.

Introducing… [drumroll] the blog comment.

How many times of you read a really good blog post, bookmarked it, tweeted a link to it and printed it out but never left a comment telling the author how good it was along with a reflective thought?

Nothing flatters an author more (even the popular ones too) than noticing that his readers are influenced by his or her work. Plus you get a little something in return by leaving a link to your blog or website along with your picture (by getting a Gravatar).

Instant branding… just like with Twitter.

Just remember to be sincere and leave a thought provoking response. That might be just enough to get that author’s attention and have him visit your website. Maybe he’ll even like what he sees on your website and recommend you to his friends.

Sure beats waiting for him to follow you on Twitter.

Introducing A New Sort-Of Twitter (More Than 140 Characters Allowed!) is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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The Week In Freelance: January 29th is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Photo by Misiek_beauchamp (Flickr)

I personally don’t like unannounced visitors prancing around my apartment. OK, maybe with the exception of the lovely Marta on the third floor. But this one was particularly unwelcome… a cockroach so big that it probably scared off the rats safely chomping away nearby. Hell, the thing probably ate the rat for all I know.

I don’t know why my first reaction to seeing unwanted critters is to run and grab a can of bug spray when a quick squash with a foot would do just fine. Something about seeing the white and yellow bug guts just doesn’t go right with me.

Anyway, after unleashing a virtual swimming pool of Raid on the poor bastard and waiting and waiting some more, I got to thinking, hey, there could be a lesson in freelancing learned here. And indeed there was. Several as a matter of fact.

Death can probably come at any moment. Humans included.

I’d expect a bug spray to kill on the spot, like the good old foot. But in that minute or so while our invader was dying, I suddenly had that thought of my own mortality. You know, the one that makes you take up praying or give in to those Watchtower folks who pay a household visit once a year.

So, diligently thinking, do I want to leave a legacy of websites and a current half-built one for Mr Jones? Or do I want to leave a legacy where thousands of people were positively affected by my work?

Well, I also have that goal of one thousand fans on my blog. Let me check on it… 105, so nope to that.

Time to get to work.

Make like Custer, errr, Davy Crockett and fight to the end.

About a minute and a half passed while I watched the critter make every attempt possible to, well, survive. As I blocked his escape to the safety underneath the fridge with the foot (still too scared to crush the damn thing), I thought, man, is this one tough little bugger. No wonder they may take over human existence during the Apocalypse.

Then something crossed my mind again. Do I have that kind of fight in myself, especially in my freelance career?

In other words, am I learning as much as I can while being as productive in my work as I can?

After the nap and Twitter session I just had, that’s probably a negative as well.

Now it’s really time to get to work.

We’re not cockroaches, we’re human. Life can’t be that bad.

Cockroaches, depending on species, have an average life span between 3 months and two years. That’s plenty if you normally crawl around the sewers and kitchens of unsuspecting freelancers. That is, unless you’re unlucky enough to die by a healthy shower of insecticide.

I go through hard times just like anybody else. Some days, nothing seems to go my way. I can still afford the roof over my house, have the daily ramen to eat and the work flow has been good.

I’ll be sure not to not take these for granted while Mr Jones is yelling on Skype about his website being down for 15 seconds. Come to think of it, nor when someone decides that a typo on my blog is reason to unleash the reasons I’m going to hell.

I still got my five flavors of ramen sitting in the cupboard. My reasons for being.

Stick your head where it probably shouldn’t be.

I actually began to feel sorry for the poor sucker. Wrong place, wrong time. If you only laid low until my bedtime, you could have feasted on those breadcrumbs and two grains of rice. Like they say, curiosity killed the cat or the cat-like creature.

We’re not cockroaches, though, nor cats. We won’t die by scratching that itch we have doing that one thing that’s been on our mind forever. At worst, we’ll be embarrassed, humiliated and have deal with a bruised ego.

Better than swimming around in a pool of Raid I say.

Raid “kills bugs dead” but keeps freelance careers in perspective.

Valuable Lessons Learned From A Cockroach, A Can Of Raid And Some Spare Time is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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Photo by Queguenae (Flickr)

I’m fairly amused to live in Spain where the average workday is very atypical for that of the average freelancer or employee in English speaking countries. In fact, here is what would occur on a normal working day:

9:00 AM – Start work by checking email and chatting with the workmates.

9:30 AM – Break for a cup of coffee or beer (yes, this early) with the workmates down at the local bar.

10:30 AM – Return, begin real work.

1:00 PM – Break for lunch and a siesta (and maybe another beer).

4:00 PM – Return to work, chat with workmates (going back to bar optional).

4:30 PM – Continue with real work again.

6:49 PM – Hmmm, about 7 PM, time to go home.

Now, it’s probably a given that sticking to this kind of schedule would not get me too far as a freelance programmer. You might even go as far as to equate this as “treading water.”

Except on Mondays when it absolutely rules.

To explain, I always have it difficult on Mondays. You know, having to deal with the email requests that come over the weekend, thinking of something to write for the blog post, periods of sluggishness followed by moments of caffeine highs. Stuff just doesn’t get done like, say, on a Tuesday. I’m not even talking hangovers here either.

So I decided, screw it, I’m going all Spanish on Mondays from now on.

Sleep in an extra hour.

No more Monday deadlines.

Chat with my friends down the street over a beer (at 9:30 sharp).

Not bang my head trying to write THE blog post. Halfway crappy will suffice.

Nice long siesta. Now we’re talking.

Don’t get me wrong, I probably hover around 50 hours a week working my freelance projects, blogging and doing other personal projects. I’m not quite that lazy. (I know, I know, only 50 you say with a laugh)

But you know what? Tuesday thankfully come a lot easier now. All 18 hours of work that follows it.

I’m just hoping the day never comes where we have the morning beer over Twitter.

You Are Now Allowed To Give In To Your Mondays is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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10. Eliminate distractions while working: Your friends and followers on Twitter demand your full and complete attention.

9. Take advantage of social media for networking: Look, if you are going to stay cramped up in your house, working all hours of the day, you might as well have a social life, even if it is only (somewhat pathetically) online.

8. Keep your day job while starting out: That way if a client happens to tell you “Don’t quit your day job” then you can smugly reply “Hah! I didn’t.”

7. Always use a contract: We would have to keep lawyers in business otherwise.

6. Raise your rates periodically: A no-brainer… you have to keep up with the minimum wage hikes you know.

5. Never miss a deadline: You might, like, get fired or go to prison or have a hit put out on you. So bad.

4. Carve your own niche: Did you know there’s a market for sex-with-1973-Gremlin-mufflers dating websites? Sorry, that one is taken already.

3. Keep your portfolio up to date: Great way to get the hit counter to finally move forward on your website.

2. Consistently market yourself: Hey, someone will bite, even if it is your parents or that weird next door neighbor that does so.

1. Pay your taxes on time: Advisable if you do not want to be put on a no-fly or terrorist watch list.

Top Ten Rules In Freelancing You Probably Shouldn’t Break is a post from: The Freelance Rant

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