Online tools to make your freelance adventure shine
Part of being a freelancer in the modern age is truly getting your head around what you can use to get the word out, where to chase down the all-important work and what can make your life simpler.
This is a huge topic. And there are many moving parts to these equations I cover throughout the 100 days trek. This is your starting point of that journey.
What is listed below are a series of places, groups, directories and finally programs I suggest you investigate. It will certainly help you get a presence to investigate the following places. And you may find some cool time saving tools in the process.
NOTE: While I have made use of many of the suggested items listed below, I take no responsibility for your usage. You need to explore these options for yourself and work within the guidelines of usage of each service. That’s not to say they are evil icebergs waiting to happen. But I do need to put in disclaimers like this because my lawyer said so.
Some of them look daggy and boring. But then again, so is the approach of some of your clients to online. You need to be where those small business owners are. You need the SEO juice to your website that having a spread out presence and reputable back-links can give your website.
NOTE: While we’re on the subject of back-links, avoid cutting corners in this mission. Don’t buy into the crappy websites that will add you everywhere for a fee. This is bad (black hat) SEO and you will pay a penalty for it. Look for the trusted local places and if in doubt, leave it out.
Your first real homework assignment is to investigate and activate the following tangible touch points between you and possible work online. This work is direct through clients and through building a freelance referral network. Neither of which you can afford to do without if you’re going to survive as a freelancer.
You’re about to setup a bunch of profiles and join a bunch of groups. You’ll spend half a day reading about software (and probably feel rather bored by the prospect). It’s not glamorous work, but it’s worthwhile.
Business Directories
Business Directories help you gain exposure with potential clients. They also assist with boosting your SEO from trusted sites. I strongly suggest you make some time to do the boring and dry task of adding your business profile at the following places. If nothing else, it helps your rankings:
http://www.truelocal.com.au
http://www.webfind.com.au
http://www.livepages.com.au/
http://www.hotfrog.com.au
http://www.dlook.com.au/
http://www.localbusinessguide.com.au/
http://www.gumtree.com.au
http://www.aussieweb.com.au/
http://www.ineedto.com.au
http://www.aussiepages.com.au
http://www.startlocal.com.au/
https://www.sensis.com.au/sensis-free-listing?referrer=wwp
These directories have some merit but are not essential:
Four Square (costs $20 or $30 per year for proper listing)
This cracking blog by freelancer Chris Finnegan helps you ace adding your business to directories.
Blog Listings
If your blog is over 6 months old and has consistent content, it’s a good idea to add it to any blog directories you can find. It helps with SEO and also discovery.
http://bloghub.com.au/directory
http://www.ontoplist.com/
http://globeofblogs.com/register
http://blogchicks.com.au/add-your-blog/ (women only)
http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/add-your-blog/ ($9.95 for the year)
Blog-specific submission:
Submitting blog pages to the following assisted searches can help people discover your blogs. If they prove popular, it can also help with your SEO rankings. But pick your strongest pieces to avoid high abandon rates:
www.stumbleupon.com
www.alltop.com
http://delicious.com/
www.scoop.it
Profile Building
You should also consider having a presence on the following places to build your presence:
www.theloop.com.au – add a profile and work here (freelance specific) as well as browse job ads and discover other freelancers. It’s still one of our best (ethically paying) freelance market places.
http://www.artshub.com.au/ - mainly for jobs in the creative arts field. You can add ads and events as well as browse jobs. Paid membership is required to take full advantage and if you don’t regularly work with creative bodies (e.g. theatre, opera, arts council, art galleries etc) it’s not worth it.
https://www.kllective.com/ - can show the elements you add in collaboration on larger projects, which is great if you do a lot of agency contracts or group jobs.
Job Markets
http://www.creativefoyer.com.au/ - mainly for creative industry bodies (similar to Arts Hub but less narrow in focus)
http://www.adnewsjobs.com.au/ - mainly advertising and agency work. Paid membership required
http://www.ethicaljobs.com.au/ - as the name suggests, you can find various NFP, ethical and social justice jobs here
http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/ - the forums have jobs and you can also get membership that allows you to promote your services. This is a place with mixed success though. A lot of tyre kickers hang out here. Worth a trial, but don’t hang your hat on it
http://www.rachelslist.com.au/ - mainly writing and PR. Very occasional design job
http://www.locanto.com.au/Jobs/ - mainly contract and part time but useful for regional Australia if that’s where your based
https://weteachme.com/ - if you are selling your skills and courses, We Teach Me can be very beneficial in reaching new audiences, online and off
Australian Social media jobs https://www.facebook.com/groups/AussieSocialMediaJobs
You’ll note I don’t list eBidding sites (freelancer, eLance etc). It’s because in my experience, these are the places people go for dirt cheap labour. You may wish to investigate it for yourself, but most of the freelancers I hang out with have found the only way these sites are truly useful is by providing a place to refer tyre kickers with minimal budget.
Communities for jobs, support and general conversation (online and off)
There are a variety of different communities you can try where work is sometimes available. You can also find a sharing of tips, frustrations and find people to partner with on jobs at the following places:
Meetup in general has an amazing array of groups you can join for networking.
Wordpress Sydney http://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Sydney/
Speed Networking Sydney http://www.meetup.com/freespeednetworkingsydney/
Community Managers/Social media marketers (national) https://www.facebook.com/groups/australiancommunitymanagers/
Health Writer Hub https://www.facebook.com/healthwriterhub and HWH closed group https://www.facebook.com/groups/healthwriterhub/ (health specific- national with some OS)
The Freelance Jungle (online- national) https://plus.google.com/communities/108690994474126440326
The Freelance Jungle (meetup for Sydney, Brisbane and Wollongong) http://www.meetup.com/The-Freelance-Jungle/
Freelance Success, Sydney http://freelancesuccess.com.au/events/
Clever Copywriting (writers only- national with some OS) https://plus.google.com/communities/115839140464291823688
The Fetch. Discover events, ideas and more on a city by city level http://thefetch.com/
Women as Entrepreneurs (national) https://www.facebook.com/womenasentrepreneurs
Business in Heels (national) http://www.meetup.com/Business-In-Heels/
Australian Social Media Association http://www.meetup.com/Australian-Social-Media-Association/
Ideas Hoist – technically not a community, it’s still an awesome place to go for inspiring stories nationally (and also discovering clients you may wish to approach to work with) http://ideashoist.com.au/
Mainly support as opposed to jobs, but you can still make good connections helping people and asking questions:
Awe-Inspiring Australian Businesses https://plus.google.com/communities/116290972023653960381
Recipe for SEO Success (learning DIY SEO for business) https://plus.google.com/communities/103210058396324087963
Aussie Bloggers (warning: mainly a playground for non-professional bloggers, although job opportunities do come up on occasion for writers) https://www.facebook.com/groups/aussiebloggers
Blog Chicks (good for blogging tips- women only) https://www.facebook.com/groups/blogchicks/
Blog Society (good for blogging tips) https://www.facebook.com/blogsociety
Your online business setup
Here are a list of programs that help you as a business person save time and money.
PayPal – you can set this up as a payment method for courses, eBooks and your services.
Xero- you can do your accounts efficiently with this bad boy.
Google Analytics- track how well your website traffic is going with a free account. Use a plugin to add this bad boy to your Wordpress.
Google Webmaster – get in depth information and some extra special tools to help support your SEO needs.
Buffer- is a fairly low headspace, low price point social media scheduler that helps you schedule your Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter and LinkedIn content.
Schedugram- scheduling for Instagram posts.
Theme Forest – for fresh new Wordpress digs.
Google Docs- is a way for you to keep track of your files while sharing them with clients.
DropBox – back up the cloud easily.
Mailchimp (or Campaign Monitor) – the most powerful lead builder you will have is people who are willing to give you their email address. So make sure you have an account setup and email signup connected to your website as a priority.
Wordpress- you are going to hear me say a lot about why you need a website and why Wordpress is easier for freelancers later on. Needless to say, if you don’t have one, I suggest you get one.
PicMonkey and Canva- if you want to take the pain out of designing your own visual content for social media and marketing materials, these two programs are the bomb. PicMonkey is fun and cheap, Canva is pretty powerful in free mode.
Survey Monkey- never under estimate the power of using Survey Monkey to answer questions you may have, build exposure and/or grab email addresses for your email list. More on this later.
Social media- you need to have some kind of presence. More on this later, but start thinking about your social media critically. There are a few common pitfalls (and dirty tricks) we’ll discuss later.
Got to the bottom? Good for you. I think you deserve a cake. Maybe some wine. Maybe cake AND wine. This boring bit of work you’ve done is a great start. And I promise you’ll never have such unpalatable homework again.
The next thing we’re tackling is your terms and conditions (now, that's not as bad as it sounds).
See you Monday!