FreelanceFolder

Know Your Clients: How To Build Loyalty With Customer Surveys

Laura Spencer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:23:47 PST

Do you know what do your clients think about you?

Many clients won’t even tell you if they are unhappy, instead they’ll simply stop using your services. You may never find out that anything was wrong.

Loyal customers are important to your success as a freelancer. Even if a particular client no longer needs your services, you want him or her to to speak favorably about your business.

One way to keep your clients loyal is to keep them happy — but how do you find out whether your clients are happy? The only real way to find out what a customer is thinking is to ask. That’s why customer surveys can be so important.

In this post we’ll show you how customer surveys can help build loyalty, and we’ll offer a sample.

Why Customer Surveys Are Important

Surveys, if done properly, can be sort of “magic bullet” for developing good customer service. Not only can they help you identify those clients who are happy, they can also make you aware of problems and potential problems, as well as give you an idea of what new products or services would be well received.

It’s important to know the strengths and weaknesses of your freelancing business. While you may think that you have a pretty good idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are, do you have the client’s perspective? Without it, you can’t really be sure that you are providing good service.

Conducting a client survey also shows the clients that you care about them. Many clients will appreciate the fact that you’ve gone to the extra trouble to ask for their opinions.

Now that we’ve established the importance of using surveys, let’s look at some ways to conduct a customer survey.

Three Ways to Conduct Customer Surveys

There are at least three ways that you can conduct a good survey:

Orally — An oral survey involves calling clients and asking specific questions. An oral survey can be used to contact all clients (particularly if you have a small client base), or just a sampling. (Make sure that you have permission to call.) With this technique, you may get answers from clients who would never otherwise take the time to fill out a survey.
Email — A survey can also be sent to your clients through email. (Make sure that you comply with laws pertaining to email spam.) An email survey may be one of the most convenient methods of conducting a survey. However, many clients will not take the time to return an email survey.
Anonymously — You can also conduct a survey anonymously. An anonymous survey could be mailed out to your clients or accessed through a weblink. The beauty of an anonymous survey is that clients might be more honest in their answers.

Now that we’ve discussed how to conduct a customer survey, it’s time to look at a few questions that should be included.

Fifteen Questions to Include on Your Next Customer Survey

The questions that you ask on your survey will vary depending on your specific business and your particular needs. Some sample questions include:

How did you learn about us?
Were you able to contact us easily?
Have you used our services before?
Was the work done professionally?
Was the work turned in on time?
Was the work done according to project specifications?
Was the work priced according to industry standards?
Did project communication between our company and yourself meet or exceed your expectations?
What did you enjoy most about working with us?
Do you have any suggestions to improve our services?
Would you use our services again?
Can we use you as a testimonial on our web page? (Not for anonymous surveys)
Would you like to stay on our newsletter and/or email list?
What additional products or services would you like for us to provide?
Do you know of any other organizations that could use our services?

Using Results From a Customer Survey

Now that you’ve created your survey and gathered your data, it’s important to make use of that information.

The biggest mistake that some companies and organizations make is to conduct a client survey and then ignore the results.

The next biggest mistake that companies make is to panic because they have received some negative responses.

Here are four simple steps to get the most from your client survey:

Compile the answers and study the results.
Look at what you are doing right in your business and ensure that these good practices continue.
Look at any problem areas that the survey identifies and take steps to correct them.
Consider any suggestions that your clients have made.

What Do You Think?

We’ve discussed the importance of client surveys and building loyalty, and we’ve also explained how to create, conduct, and use a customer survey. Now, we’d like to hear about your experiences with surveys.

Do you use client surveys in your freelancing business? What techniques do you use? What results have you found?

Share your answers in the comments.

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Five Useful Ways Dropbox Can Improve Your Business

Lexirodrigo — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:29:37 PST

What would you do if something happened to your computer? Say, it caught fire, was stolen, or got drenched in your latte?

If you were using a good backup solution you could just keep on working, otherwise you could be in a lot of trouble. For those of you who don’t already have a backup and file sharing solution in place, you’ll want to learn more about Dropbox.

A computer-savvy client introduced me to Dropbox a few months ago as a way to share huge files without having to compress and email them to me. However, I soon discovered that Dropbox can do so much more — making me a much more productive and efficient freelancer.

In this article, we’ll show you five ways Dropbox can help your freelance business.

What Is Dropbox?

Dropbox is software you install on your computer. It’s compatible with PC, Mac and Linux computers. It’s free to use and comes with 2 GB of memory in the Dropbox website. If you need more, you’ll have to get a Pro account ($9.99 per month for 50GB and $19.99 per month for 100 GB).

You can install Dropbox on any computer you own, as well as access your Dropbox account online through any computer or cellphone with Internet access.

Dropbox provides the following services:

data backup and storage
file synchronizing
file sharing

Because of these features, Dropbox is useful to freelancers who work in various locations or collaborate with several people. Here are 5 ways Dropbox can make you a better freelancer:

1. It keeps your files safe and secure.

As soon as you download Dropbox, a Dropbox folder appears in your computer’s file directory. Simply drag any folder or file to your Dropbox, and Dropbox will automatically back it up in its servers — in real time. You don’t need to schedule backups, because Dropbox automatically does so as soon as you save a file in your Dropbox and every time there are changes to the files.

Here’s a screenshot of my Dropbox:

So, no matter what happens to your computer, you’ll still be able to access all the files you’ve saved in your Dropbox (More on accessing files below).

Dropbox even protects your files from you. That is, if you delete a file and then later realize that you need it, Dropbox will still have a copy of that file in its secure servers. Dropbox will let you undo up to 30 days’ history. If you want to have an unlimited undo option, you’ll have to pay extra.

Clients sometimes unexpectedly ask for copies of files even months after a project is completed. They can’t find the files in their computer, or maybe they deleted them by mistake. Your clients will be very impressed if you can whip up their files at a moment’s notice. This is one way to be a superstar freelancer.

Aren’t you already breathing easier already, knowing your clients’ files will always be available to you, no matter what happens?

2. Share files with your clients quickly and easily.

Dropbox lets you share files with clients and collaborators — whether or not they use Dropbox themselves. One way to share files is to invite your clients to download Dropbox as well. Afterwards, you can share folders with them using the email address associated with their Dropbox account. The folder you’re sharing with them will simply show up in your client’s Dropbox folder.

Another way to share files is to put them in the public folder of your Dropbox. From there, simply right-click and copy the public link to the specific file. This will allow anybody — including non-Dropbox users — to access your file online using the public link you’ve provided.

This eliminates the hassle of emailing files to your clients, especially large files that don’t get through email, such as videos or graphics.

3. Collaborate with clients and others.

If your clients like to make their own changes on files, or if you work with other service providers on the same files, then Dropbox will make life easier for you. In this case, you and your clients and other collaborators should all be using Dropbox.

Then you can access each other’s files by sharing folders in your Dropbox. All of you will always see the latest version of the shared files. Dropbox will synchronize these in real time. Should you want to revert to an earlier version of a file, it’s easy to do so. Again, you can do this either on your computer’s file directory or via the Dropbox website.

No more saving several versions of the same file. No more emailing each other’s contributions on a file back and forth.

4. Work anywhere (almost).

Now that your working files are in your Dropbox, you can access them almost anywhere — from any computer where you’ve installed Dropbox. Or, from any other computer with an Internet connection. Or, from your iPhone or iPod Touch, through the Dropbox iPhone app. Or, from your cell phone with web browsing ability. Talk about mobile freelancing. Left your laptop at home? No problem, access your Dropbox account online and there you go.

Forget about saving files in USB thumb drives that either get lost or get broken easily. Stop emailing yourself files you want to access.

5. Access files faster.

The beauty of Dropbox is that it appears as a regular folder on your file directory — even the folders that originate from your clients’ Dropboxes are shared with you. You don’t have to go online to access these files. You can work on your Dropbox files even if you’re offline (however, Dropbox will only sync and backup files when you’re online).

But It’s Not Perfect

As useful and convenient Dropbox is, it isn’t perfect. For one thing, everything you put in your Dropbox will still be residing — and occupying space — in your hard drive. This means, you can’t use it to archive files if you want to free up some space in your computer.

Another downside is you have to be connected to the Internet for Dropbox to back up and synchronize your files. You also have to have enough memory allocation in your Dropbox account to keep files synced. I quickly filled up my free 2 GB of memory after saving all my client and work files in my Dropbox.

Alternatives to Dropbox
If you want to compare services before committing to one, here are some that have comparable features to Dropbox:

Sugarsync
FilesAnywhere
PowerFolder

I haven’t tried any of these tools, so I can’t give any comparisons. The best way to find out which one is best for your needs is to use the free trial of each service.

What’s Your File Security Plan?

Data security is important to any business, including your freelancing business. It’s worthwhile to explore the options available, especially because new ones come up all the time.

Now it’s your turn: What have you been doing to ensure the safety of your files? Do you have any solutions you’d like to share? Please post a comment below.

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Ten Signs You Need To Refuse That Project

Laura Spencer — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:16:43 PST

You’ve worked hard looking for a freelance project. Finally, it looks like all of your hard work is about to pay off. Someone offers you a freelancing gig. Now it’s time to breathe a huge sigh of relief and dig into the project. Right?

Well, maybe not… Unfortunately, not all freelance opportunities are created equal. It’s best to be cautious when accepting new work. Taking the wrong freelancing job can set you up for failure, or worse, damage your professional reputation.

In this post, we’ll show you what to do if you need more information about a freelancing project before deciding whether to take it. We’ll also identify some project types that you should avoid.

How to Pick Good Projects

In the past, we’ve taken a semi-humorous look at identifying good clients and bad clients. Now, we’ll take a more serious look at identifying good projects and bad projects.

The key to picking good freelancing projects is getting the right information. To get the right information about a project, I always follow the steps below:

Check the client’s reputation — Find out if the client has a website and take a look at it. While a professional website doesn’t mean that a company is legitimate (anyone can create a website), when combined with other positive factors it can be a good sign. Type the client’s name into a search engine to find out what people are saying about them. Also, if you are friends with freelancers who have worked for this client in the past you can ask whether they liked the experience.
Clarify the requirements — Ask questions until you are sure that you understand what the client wants. Remember, it is easier to do a project correctly from the start than it is to correct a project that has taken a wrong turn. Most clients would rather have you ask a few questions than guess at what they want.
Negotiate a better deal — If you feel that a project has unreasonable requirements, you can often negotiate your way to better terms before the project begins. Areas that are often open to negotiation include: scope of project, due date, and payment. If you are dissatisfied with what the client proposes in any one of these areas, suggest an alternative to the client.
Get an agreement — Before beginning a project always get a written agreement from the client. If you don’t have a written contract, at least make sure that you have an email from the client that outlines the terms of the project clearly. Never accept a project based solely on an oral agreement between you and the client.

In these tough economic times, a few freelancers may be tempted to take every single job offer that they receive. Having bills to pay and mouths to feed can certainly create pressure for a freelancer to take an undesirable opportunity.

The pressure to accept any and every project is perfectly understandable, but it is also a bit dangerous. Some projects are not what they appear to be. Accepting the wrong job may harm your finances, your reputation, or both.

10 Projects You Should Not Accept

There are some projects that you are better off turning down than accepting.

Here is a list of ten signs that you should turn down a freelance project:

You have absolutely no idea what the client wants — Despite your best efforts to get the client to explain what they need, you are still unsure of the project requirements. Your attempts to ask questions and get more information are ignored or answered in such a way that you still can’t tell what this client wants.
The client has a reputation as a scammer — There are many work from home scams targeted to freelancers. Even seasoned freelancers occasionally get taken in by one of these phony offers. If a job doesn’t seem quite right to you, there’s a good chance that it’s not. A good source of information about work at home job scams is available through the FTC.
The project involves you doing something unethical or illegal — Sadly, from time to time you may encounter a client who will ask you to do something unethical or illegal. When faced with such a decision, you should always say “no.” Not only could your reputation be damaged, you could face very real legal problems for accepting such a project. Even if you were never caught, you would still have to live with the knowledge that you did something wrong.
You are already overloaded and don’t have time for a project — While you may think that you are doing a client a favor by squeezing him or her into your schedule when you already have more work than you can handle, this favor could backfire. If you put less than your best effort into a project you may wind up with a very upset client. Worse yet, taking on too many projects could jeopardize all of them.
The client is asking you to work for free — With very few exceptions, you should never work for free. Most “clients” who ask you to work for free never intend to pay you for work anyway. Also, taking on too much free work can keep you too busy to accept better opportunities when they arrive.
The client is asking for too much for too little money — You’ve probably already experienced a client who takes up most of your time, but only provides a fraction of your income. If you know that a client will need all kinds of extra handholding during the course of the project, but isn’t willing to pay for the extra time that such handholding takes, you may be better off saying “no” to the project.
You can’t agree on the project terms — Never start a project unless you and the client have come to an agreement. If you’ve done everything in your power to try to negotiate more favorable terms and have failed, then you should walk away from the project rather than start to work without an agreement.
The work is completely outside of your field of expertise — As a freelance writer, I don’t do web design. If a writing client approaches me with a web design project, I refer them to another freelancer rather than attempt to do the project myself. That’s because I know that I don’t have the knowledge or experience that it takes to be a successful web designer. If a client approaches you with work you know that you can’t do, you should refer him or her to someone else who can do the work.
You know that what the client is asking you to do won’t work — Occasionally you may find that a client insists that you do a project in a manner that you know just won’t work. (I’m not talking about aesthetic differences here, but rather, practical differences.) If you can’t work out the differences between you, you may be better off turning the project down than setting yourself up for a failure.
The client behaves in a rude or hostile manner towards you — Just as a client should expect you to behave courteously and professionally, you should also expect courteous and professional behavior from your clients. You should avoid accepting work from a client who cusses at you, calls you names, or otherwise communicates with you in an unprofessional manner.

What Types of Projects Do You Turn Down?

Being cautious about the freelancing work that you accept is a good policy.

We’ve explained how to pick good projects. We’ve also identified ten types of projects that you should probably avoid.

Now we’re inviting you to share your experiences. What sorts of projects do you avoid?

Share your answers in the comments.

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FreelanceFolder Hits 20,000 Subscribers! You Get 50% Off :-)

Mason Hipp — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:19:17 PST

It makes me very happy to announce that FreelanceFolder has just hit the 20,000 subscriber mark! It might not seem like much compared to some other blogs out there, but for us it’s a pretty big deal :-)

In honor of hitting such a big milestone, we want to give something back to all of our readers — so for the next 7 days we’re cutting the price of The Unlimited Freelancer eBook by 50%. That’s just $14 for an in-depth 200 page ebook, and we’ll be running the sale all week.

We’ll also be giving out another big-ticket item next week for some more celebration (more details coming soon), so if you’ve already bought The Unlimited Freelancer then just hang on for a bit longer… In the mean time, if you haven’t bought the eBook, definitely think about checking it out as it really helps support the growth of FreelanceFolder and everyone involved in the site.

So, if you’re interested in grabbing a copy of The Unlimited Freelancer for an awesome price then head on over to the The Unlimited Freelancer book page for more information — and thanks for helping FreelanceFolder reach 20,000 subscribers!

Click here to get The Unlimited Freelancer for 50% off →

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How to Become a Freelance Web Developer: A Six Month Plan

Amber Weinberg — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:23:34 PST

Nearly every day somebody asks me about how I got started as a freelance developer. Many people recognize that they would like to branch off into freelancing, but most don’t know where to begin. It’s this fear and uncertainty that keeps them from taking the plunge.

Challenges like how to find clients, what to do about money, and how to set up your own site can be overwhelming at first — but the end result of having a successful freelance business is easily worthwhile. In order to help make your life easier, I’ve set up a simple month-by-month plan that you can follow to eventually achieve your dream of becoming a freelance developer.

This calendar starts six months ahead of time, but you can modify it however you need to fit your situation. Your first step towards freelancing is to choose the specific date you’ll start freelancing.

6+ Months to D-Day

With freelancing, there’s always the possibility you could go a month or two before you start making money. You should start saving as much money as possible now. Aim towards having three to six months worth of expenses in savings (or, at the minimum, one to two months worth). If you’re lax on your personal budget, now would be a great time to implement the popular envelope system. (I use Snowmint’s Budget program).

Why does the envelope system work? It works because you don’t have to stress as much about money in the beginning and can focus on your business and gaining clients. Also, it gives you time to figure out if freelancing really is right for you.

5 Months and Counting

Your portfolio site is going to be the most important asset to your business. Design, have designed, or buy a nicely designed portfolio. As a developer, you should spend some time adding awesome functionality and making sure your site has the cleanest code possible. Clients aren’t just going to look at your portfolio pieces, they’re also going to look at the quality of your own site, so spend some time making it right. Choose a design that’s both professional and personable.

Recent design trends in portfolios are:

Dark colors with bold, bright graphics
Bold graphical backgrounds
A large jQuery slideshow or featured section on the homepage
Larger portfolio pieces

Tip: Clients tell me that they love the fact that I include code snippets on my portfolio. Since we don’t design, snippets give the client a better view of the work we actually do. I also include a small snapshot of the actual site so they can see the finished product, as well as a link to the real website so they can test the functionality out.

Make sure you also install Google Analytics, or some other type of tracking software, so you can figure out how many people visit your site and where they’re coming from.

4 Months to Go

Now that your website is up and running, it’s time to set up your social media profiles, particularly Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Make sure you link to your new portfolio on all your profiles. Social media sites help to get your name out into the world before you start freelancing, which will help you to avoid the “Who are you?” mentality from potential clients.

Start twittering about relevant things to development such as:

Interesting articles, links and blog posts about web development. You should also comment on the blog articles you tweet about and leave behind your web address. You’ll get a good amount of traffic this way.
News dealing with anything web related
Your opinions on current web events
Projects you’re currently working on (keep these to one a day to avoid spam status)

Tip: You can check out our Freelancer’s Guide to Getting Started on LinkedIn and 5 Reasons Freelancers Can’t Ignore Twitter for great tips on using these tools to help your freelancing business.

3 Months Left

Begin a blog. Blog about interesting things in web development, helpful habits and tips, new technologies, and tutorials or special ways you code. Readership will be very slow at first, but if you keep writing and adding relevant content, word of mouth will slowly, but surely, spread. Set a goal to write a certain number of articles a week and stick to it.

Promote your blog by:

Tweeting about your new post
Updating your Facebook and LinkedIn statuses with your new post
Having retweet and social bookmarking buttons so readers can easily share with their followers
Submitting your articles to places like digg, Stumbleupon and other blogs, like Script and Style, that offer community links

Why blog? Blogging and social media help establish you as both a professional and an expert. When people see you on Twitter, and in a ongoing comment discussion on a popular blog, and they see you have your own blog — it keeps your name on their minds. It also shows that you really do know what you’re talking about, which helps you get hired. Blogging on your portfolio site also ups the relevant content and keywords and increases your search engine optimization.

2 Months…Almost There!

Shop for health insurance now because it normally takes them two months to start. I heard ehealthinsurance.com is great for finding deals.

Start quietly looking around job boards to get a feel for the types of clients asking for work and the rates they’re willing to pay. If you know some freelancers personally, you can also ask them what they charge. I wouldn’t ask strangers this question as some people like to keep their rates secret, but you could always try tweeting the question and seeing how many people answer.

It’s also important to consider your target market. Are you targeting other agencies or lawyers and doctors? You also need to decide if you want to charge hourly or by the project and figure out how you’re going to invoice and do your contracts. (Check out AIGA’s site for a sample contract.)

Tip: I personally use Paypal for invoicing. It’s quick, easy and free — plus 99% of my clients prefer to pay by Paypal anyway. If you want to get fancy you can create your own templates using a word processor, or you can use a paid service like Freshbooks.

1 Month…Home Stretch!

Go ahead and give your employer a full month’s notice. This will make them more apt to send you some work in the future as well as give you a good referral. Explain to your boss that you enjoyed the company and are thankful for the opportunity they gave you to work there, but that you’re ready to branch out on your own and become a freelancer. Many fellow freelancers I know had their old company as their first client!

Tip: Be careful when leaving, most places have a non-compete clause in place. Make sure you’re not looking to take their clients or use the work you did for the company in your portfolio.

D-Day

Congrats, you’re now officially a freelancer! On your first day, there are several heavy marketing tasks you should do:

Email all your friends, relatives. Send LinkedIn connections and Facebook friends a short email explaining that you’re now a full time freelance developer. Ask that if anyone needs a developer, to please keep you in mind. Do this only once or you’ll be labeled as a spammer.
Send out a tweet saying you’re freelancing full time and looking for development work
Look through freelance job boards and start applying for development jobs. Check out Dustin Brewer’s 8 Job Boards for Freelancer’s list for ideas of where to start.
Use search terms on Twitter to look for people who need a developer. You can save this search as an RSS feed to stay updated. Try looking OR need OR want OR hire developer OR CSS for a front-end developer.
Update your blog frequently to continue bringing in new traffic. Submit your tutorials to Nettuts and Script & Style. The goal is to continue bringing in traffic and building a name for yourself.

Clients appreciate both the speed and accuracy of a great freelance coder. Strive to get your projects finished ahead of time and always have a smile when talking to them on the phone — customer service is just as, if not more, important than the actual coding itself. Clients are more apt to forgive a coding mistake, but never a bad attitude.

Finding Extra Work

Here are some ideas to find extra work in the beginning:

Contact local and national web agencies to offer your services by email. Keep it short and sweet. Describe who you are and what you do.
Team up with a designer to sell Wordpress templates on sites like Themeforest, or create your own template selling site.
Write for other web development blogs. Many, like Nettuts, pay up to $150 for detailed tutorial articles and will happily give you a link to your portfolio as well. These blogs often have well over 10,000 readers, so it’s well worth the time!
Ask your new happy clients for referrals and a testimonial
Do some charity/pro bono work to help out the community, gain some nice portfolio work and some great exposure.

Being a freelancer isn’t without it’s quirks, but it’s a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. A little preparation and planning can go a long way to a successful business. What are some of the ways you prepared to become a freelancer? What’s holding you back?

Top photo by stuartpilbrow, modified by FreelanceFolder

The Facebook Fan Page Recipe — 0 to 1000 Fans In 35 Days

Ritu — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:24:55 PST

If you are a regular Freelance Folder reader, then you already know we recently created a Facebook fan page for Freelance Folder. Our fan page has been live since October 6th, 2009 — and on November 10th, about 35 days later, we reached the one thousand fan milestone. In this post we’ll show you how we did it (and how you can do it too).

Before I share some of the things we did to grow the fan page at such a rapid pace, the FreelanceFolder team would like to thank all of our readers for your support. The biggest reason for our success on Facebook is your interest and participation, and we definitely couldn’t have done it without you — Thanks!

Okay, let’s start with a quick guide to creating fan pages for anyone who doesn’t already know how, and then we’ll move on to some of the more growth-oriented stuff.

Getting Started With a Facebook Fan Page

To create a Facebook fan page you can simply visit the public page that allows you to create ads and pages. Click on Create a Page. You will be given three options:

Local
Brand
Artist, Band, or Public Figure

Choose the category that suits your business the most and follow the instructions.

Creating a fan page on Facebook doesn’t take more than two minutes, but building it and creating a thriving community within that page can take months.

Now that you’ve created a fan page for your business or site, let’s start growing it.

Get Your Closest Contacts Involved

Now that your Facebook page is ready to roll, it’s time to give it a little push.

The first thing you want to do to grow your fan page is utilize close friends on Facebook. I am not talking about online acquaintances, I am talking about people you probably have met or have interacted with on Facebook quite a few times.

Let your close friends know that you have created a fan page. Ask them to be a fan. It’s almost guaranteed that they will become a fan without hesitating.

This step really depends on how many of your close contacts use Facebook. The more the merrier. At this point, do not use the Suggest to Friends feature to contact random connections. Save the first few days for the close-knit group and then extend invites to a larger group.

It’s Time to Send Some Invitations

Now that you have asked your close friends to become fans, it’s time to send out invites to your acquaintances.

If you have a few hundred friends, do not send out invites all at once. You don’t want a spike of fans one day and be dead in the water the next day.

My approach to sending out invites for our fan page was to choose a set of first letters each day and only send out invites to those people. For example, the first day I sent out invites to people whose name begin with the letters A, B and C and the second day I sent out invites to people whose name begin with the letters D, E, F and G and so on and so forth.

This way you don’t end up getting fifty fans one day and nothing the rest of the days. The Suggest to Friends feature is on the left right under your fan page profile picture.

Make sure to spread out your invites. You want your fan page to grow faster, but you don’t want it to spike and die off suddenly. Send out a few invites each day for a couple of days to keep new fans coming to the page.

Now that you’ve sent out your invites, you need to decide whether to run an ad campaign to promote your fan page.

Run a Facebook Ad Campaign

I know that many freelancers are on a shoestring budget, but if you can spare $5.00 to $20.00 I highly recommend running an ad campaign. Facebook allows you to target your ads and gives you the option to pinpoint who sees the ad. You can target ads based on age, gender, location, profession, etc.

You can either pay for impressions or for clicks. I usually go with impressions because my main goal is to get the page seen by as many people as possible. Even if they don’t click and sign up when they see the ad, there is a possibility that they might come back later. It’s just one of the ways to take your dollar further.

To create an ad, go to public page that allows you to create ads and pages.

At this point, you can start promoting your fan page through your website.

Cross-Promote Your Fan Page

Now that you are done asking for help from your close group of friends and sending out invites, it’s time to kick it into high gear.

When we launched the FreelanceFolder fan page we didn’t announce it on the site for a couple days. We knew once we announced it, we would get a lot of freelancers signing up. Although we wanted to grow fast, we wanted it to be a gradual growth and already have some kind of community active on the fan page.

Once you have some activity going, talk about your fan page on your blog or your site. Grab a fan page box (like we have in the sidebar) and embed it on your blog. Anyone who missed your announcement post about the fan page can still see that you have a community rolling on one of the hottest social media platforms.

By now, if you have been active and updated your fan page regularly, you should already have a few hundred fans. (Please note that for these tips to work efficiently you need to constantly update your fan page and stay on top of the tasks.)

After you are done implementing the above tips, the main thing is to engage your fans. You can only ask so many people to become a fan. After a certain point, people need to come to your fan page organically. They need to find you without you having to call them.

Above all, make sure your fans are interacting. There is no point in having a fan page with thousands of fans where no one really interacts. So let’s see some of the ways to pull in people without really having to ask them to become fans.

You should follow the tips outlined below as soon as you get your fan page up and running.

Your Updates Should “Call For Action”

If you are a popular celebrity or a big brand, you won’t have a hard time getting your fans to engage on the fan page.

As freelancers, though, we often lack that sort of popularity. It is necessary to take measures to make sure there is interaction.

The key of having a fan page is to create a thriving community on a different platform other than your blog. Once again, the more platforms you can utilize, the better.

You will often see fan pages that have huge number of fans, but they often lack participation. Numbers alone won’t do the magic. We need people behind those numbers that are willing to engage and interact on your fan page with you and the rest of the fans.

One of the best ways to “call for action” through your updates is by asking a question. If you look at our fan page, we ask a lot of questions. We do this not just for the sake of asking, but because we value what our fans and friends think.

People love to voice their opinion and share their expertise. Make sure your updates ask them to do that. Simply linking to each article you publish on your blog won’t help you much as far as growing your fan page goes.

Also when you update, make sure you are asking your fans to do something. Make them feel they are an important part of your Facebook community.

Two of the best ways for your fans to interact are through the Like and Comment features.

Like and Comment Are Your Best Friends

The reason I say you want as much engagement as possible from your fans is because you want them to take action. That action can be either clicking the Like button or commenting on your update.

These Like and Comment features are extremely important to growing your fan page. Every time someone comments on your update or clicks the like button it shows on their feeds. Your fans’ friends see their profile or feed on the main page. They also see that one of your fans have been commenting on or using the like feature on your fan page. This can creates a viral effect.

If the update is good enough and really thought-provoking, those users who didn’t know about your fan page might join because they saw someone they knew on Facebook actively using it.

The key is to make sure your fans are participating and using those Like and Comment features so that it shows on their feeds. This is one of the best ways to get your fan page exposed to as many people as possible.

Now that we have explained how to use Facebook features to promote your fan page we will examine the use of third party apps.

Utilize Third Party Apps

One of the reason Facebook is so popular is because of all the third party Facebook apps that are out there. I am talking about the apps that actually add value to your fan page.

If you look at our fan page, you will notice two tabs at the top that are not default tabs for fan pages — News and Twitter. If you click on the News tab you will see our recent posts. If you click on the Twitter tab you will see our Twitter updates.

In essence, these apps allow us to make our fan page a single stop information source for our fans (you can find these apps at involver.com for free). Our fans can quickly check our Facebook updates, see what’s new on our blog, and even see what we are tweeting.

I personally think one of the best Facebook apps is the FBML application, also known as FaceBook Markup Language. You can use this app to create customized tabs, etc.

If you are good with HTML, the possibilities are endless. For example, you could create a custom welcome page so that anyone who is not a fan yet will land on the custom page rather than the wall.

Here is a good example of a custom welcome page created by AllFacebook for their fan page using FBML.

Conclusion

Following the steps outlined above will definitely help you attract more fans. However, do keep in mind that numbers alone don’t mean a thing.

Your fan page can have 50,000 people, but if they are not interacting it’s not really a community. Without an active community, neither you nor your fans will get any benefit out of your fan pages.

There are many other ways to utilize the fan page to gain more fans and make it an active community, but we will cover those when we hit the next milestone :) .

Your Turn

We’ve given a quick guide to creating a fan page and we’ve show you how to build a community around your fan page.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Also, do share your personal experience regarding Facebook fan pages.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook fan page. Feel free to list your Facebook pages as well.

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How Freelance Businesses Can Measure Social Media Results

Laura Spencer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:43:07 PST

There’s no question about whether or not freelancers are using social media. Log onto just about any social media platform and you’ll find at least a few freelancers.

A very real question that many freelancers ask is whether all this social media involvement really pays off for the average freelancer. While some freelancers are strong advocates of social media usage, other freelancers view it as just another waste of time.

Until now, there hasn’t really been a good way for freelancers to measure social media results. Measurement techniques that work for larger companies aren’t really practical for freelancers. In this post, we’ll give you some practical ways that you can use to discover how much your freelance business benefits from your social media participation.

Methods That Don’t Really Work for Freelancers

Many detailed methods of measuring social media work well for large corporations. They have the resources and staff to devote to a sophisticated analysis of their social media involvement. They may even have a dedicated social media specialist on staff.
Most freelancers don’t have those resources, though. Most of us work alone, or with a partner. Not only are we the social media specialist, we are also responsible for everything else that our company accomplishes. For practical reasons, we need to keep things a bit simpler.

Here are two ways of looking at social media return that generally don’t work well for freelancers:

Complicated metrics — Metrics can be very helpful in determining social media return, if they are the right metrics. However, if it takes a lot of time to compile and study the statistics on one’s social media usage, the reality is that many freelancers won’t be able to stick with the metrics method long enough to generate any useful information. To be really useful to freelancers, an effective means of measuring social media return should be easily integrated into their daily routine.
Opportunity lost — Some measurements of social media return look at the cost of participating social media as being equivalent to the hourly rate one would charge for his or her services. Under this way of thinking, a freelancer who would charge $50 an hour for his or her services should look at an hour spent on social media as costing $50. However, I believe that this approach is flawed. Most freelancers understand that they should not ignore a paying project to participate in social media. Also, ideally, your freelancing rates should include the cost of overhead expenses such as accounting, marketing (which includes social media participation), and other administrative costs.

Is there a better way to measure return on social media for freelancers?

I believe that there is.

Measuring Social Media Results (for Freelancers)

It is possible for a freelancer to determine whether his or her participation in social media is producing results. I recommend that any method that a freelancer uses to measure social media return include the following elements:

Determine how much time you spend on social media — You can’t begin to accurately measure social media results if you really aren’t sure what the true extent of your social media involvement is. I’ve experienced this problem personally because I like to use my social media tools as a “break” from my regular work. It took a little extra discipline on my part, but I’ve started to note on a spreadsheet the amount of time that I spend on social media and which tool I using.
Determine where each new lead comes from — It’s important to ask each new lead how they heard about you. If they give the name of another individual, consider how you know that individual — if it’s through social media, then that lead could be considered as coming from social media. If you don’t know where your leads come from, then you can’t really know what social media is doing for your business.

Over time, you should get a fairly accurate picture of how effective your social media usage is by comparing the two figures. (Don’t forget to also consider the dollar amount of the business that you get from each lead.)

If, for example, you find that you have spent 80 hours on social media over a six-month period and you’ve gotten six new leads through your social media contacts you have some idea of your social media return. You can also experiment with the amount of time you spend on social media to find your optimum social media usage.

Additional Tips for Getting More from Social Media

First and foremost, remember that social media usage is a long-term strategy. You can’t tweet today and expect to have a new client tomorrow. It just doesn’t work like that.

Also, remember to have a social media strategy that is related to your business. Spending an hour on Facebook taking quizzes to find out what song you are or playing YoVille may be fun, but probably won’t do anything to build up your freelance business.

On the other hand, using Facebook to connect with a former boss, coworker, or client could very well result in additional business.

For more helpful tips on getting the most out social media, be sure to read Social Media Basics for Freelancers.

There are also tools available that can help you measure your social media usage. Some of these tools are even available for free. Check out this Mashable post that discusses how to measure social media ROI for a partial list of such tools.

Tell Your Social Media Story

We’ve examined some popular techniques for determining what type of return businesses get from social media. We’ve also given you an easy way that freelancers can measure their own social media responses.

Now it’s time to hear from you.

Is your participation in social media worth it? How do you measure social media return?

Leave your answers in the comments.

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Does Freelancing Make You Happy?

Laura Spencer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:33:06 PST

Has freelancing made you happy?

Recently I read an article stating that the self-employed are happier than other folks. Was the article right? Does self-employment equal happiness?

If you are new to freelancing, you may not be able to answer that question. However, if you’ve been freelancing for a year or more, then you probably already have a pretty good idea of whether or not you are cut out for freelancing.

I can think of a lot of good reasons why freelancers might be happier than other people.

Happy Benefits of Freelancing

The freelancing lifestyle offers an amazing number of benefits for freelancers. Here are a few of the benefits and their happy consequences:

No commute = no morning traffic
Work alone = no clashes with colleagues or managers
Set your own hours = gives you back your time
Choose your projects = creative control
Dress how you want = no $$$ spent on work wardrobe
Determine your own rates = unlimited income potential
Work from home = no cubicle and maybe a window
No boss = no possibility of getting down-sized
No colleagues = no office politics
Providing services or goods = satisfaction from helping people directly
No rules = your pet can come to work
Multiple clients = a variety of different types of work
Internet = abundant information source

After reading that list you might be tempted to think that all those benefits meant that just about every freelancer is happy with their choice to be a freelancer. However, that’s not the case. Not everyone is suited to freelancing.

In fact, those who aren’t suited to freelancing can be pretty miserable. I read unhappy gripes and rants on freelancing forums and blogs nearly every day.

Sad Stressors of Freelancing

For those who aren’t well-equipped to freelance (but who find themselves freelancing anyway), there are plenty of aspects of freelancing to cause stress. In fact, for every happy freelancing benefit it almost seems that there’s a corresponding stressor.

Here are some factors that cause freelancers stress and their unhappy consequences:

Work alone = loneliness
Set your own hours = time management problems
Choose your projects = difficulty finding clients
Determine your own rates = uncertainty as to what is a fair rate
Work from home = additional distractions
No boss = trouble deciding what to do
No colleagues = a feeling of isolation
No rules = fear of making a mistake
Multiple clients = being overloaded
No company perks = no insurance or paid days off
Internet = information overload
Self-employment = bookkeeping and accounting tasks
Some clients = scams

So, Are You Happier as a Freelancer?

As you can probably see, there are plenty of freelancing benefits to make you happy, if you’re cut out for freelancing. However, there are also plenty of stressors associated with freelancing.

My take is that individual freelancers ARE happier than most people IF freelancing is right for them. (I, for one, would have a hard time giving my freelancing career up.)

For some individuals, though, the stressors are just too much and they would really be much happier in a traditional job (and that’s okay too).

Your Turn

We’ve discussed both the benefits of freelancing and the stressors of freelancing.

What do you think?

Are freelancers happier?

Are YOU happier?

Leave your answers in the comments.

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Talent Versus Skill — Which Leads to Freelancing Success?

Laura Spencer — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:00:27 PST

Which do you think is more important for freelancing success — talent or skill?

This topic is rarely discussed in freelancing circles, but most freelancers do have an opinion about which factor contributed the most to their success.

The question of whether talent or skill contributes more to success is a controversial debate for many in the freelancing world (and elsewhere). In this post, we’ll examine both sides of the debate and give you an opportunity to weigh in with your own opinion.

The Central Debate

What is talent? Or, for that matter, what is skill?

Here are some definitions:

Talent is the natural ability that you are born with.
Skill is a learned ability.

There are those who believe that just about anything that we accomplish, including various freelancing achievements, is a result of our skills.

There are also those who believe that most of what we achieve is because of the natural abilities that we were born with (in other words, our talents).

We’ll start out by examining the case for skill as the main contributing factor in freelancing success.

The Case for Skill

There’s a strong case to be built for skill as a crucial component to freelancing success. If you’ve ever benefited from a training class, then I’m sure that you can vouch for the value of good training.

One of my former bosses fits into this side of the debate. As an avid baseball fan, my boss firmly believed that he could have been a major league player IF ONLY someone had taught him to play the game at a much younger age (like around age four as opposed to age eight) so that he had more time to develop enough skill to become a professional ballplayer.

Do you think my former boss was right?

There are two key ways to improve your skills:

Training — being taught by others.
Practice — putting what you’ve learned into practice.

Other ways to build your skill in a particular area include finding an experienced mentor and reading information that is relevant to your area. By the way, while you are thinking about skills you may want to check out this list of 20 Not So Obvious Blogs for Freelancers. Reading the blogs on the list can definitely help you build up your skills.

That wraps up the case for skill. Now let’s look at the case for talent as the main contributor to freelancing success.

The Case for Talent

There is definitely a case for talent as the basis of achievements, particularly in some specialties.

For example, I know that no amount of training or practice would be enough for me to become a top ten recording artist. I simply don’t have a natural gift for singing. The same goes for art — while I can learn to operate software tools (and occasionally even come up with something clever), I know that drawing (especially by hand) just isn’t one of my strengths.

However, over the years I’ve met excellent natural singers with little or no training and some talented artists who can put a pencil to paper and come up with a great illustration nearly every single time.

Some points to consider:

Could naturally talented people benefit from training? In my experience, most gifted people are eager to use training to enhance their talent.
Do the gifted absolutely need training to be able to perform in their field? In many cases, someone with natural ability can become quite successful without training.

Now that we’ve looked at both sides of the issue, let’s examine the middle ground.

A Middle Ground

Which is really most critical for a freelancer to have — skills or talents?

This argument has been around for a long time, and there are many aspects to it. While I doubt that we’ll permanently settle this argument today on Freelance Folder, I would like to suggest a practical approach the question.

An old adage states, “It’s not what you could accomplish that counts, but what you actually do accomplish.”

From my perspective, I think the adage is correct. Effort counts for a lot. In fact, I think that someone with drive and determination can accomplish a great deal, regardless of whether they have talent, skills, or both.

What Do You Think?

We’ve looked at both sides of this debate and now it is your turn to weigh in with your opinion.

Is your freelancing business success based on your training and skills, your natural talents, or some combination of both?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

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The Freelancer’s Guide to Getting Started on LinkedIn

Laura Spencer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:56:35 PST

LinkedIn is a good tool for freelancers because it provides instant access to employers, clients, and colleagues. Maintaining these contacts is important because referrals are one of the top ways to get new freelancing projects.

By now, many freelancers understand the opportunities that social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook can provide. Most have already set up an account with one, or both, of these popular social media tools. What they may have overlooked is the value of having a LinkedIn account.

While some freelancers are already actively using LinkedIn, many others may be unfamiliar with this social media tool. Today, we’ll be looking at the basics of getting started with LinkedIn.

What Is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a social networking platform specifically designed for business professionals. It is actually one of the older social networking websites, originally launched in May of 2003.

While LinkedIn does not have as many members of the other popular social networking sites (a recent TechCrunch article put LinkedIn membership at 45 million), its unique business focus makes it useful to freelancers and non-freelancers alike.

LinkedIn consistently provides professional details about its members that other social sites lack. Whether you’re hiring a freelancer or deciding whether to accept a new freelancing position, LinkedIn is the place to go if you want to learn about someone else’s professional background.

When you click on an individual’s profile that is connected to you, you can see their past jobs, awards, and much more. Likewise, when you click a company name you can see profile information and statistics about that company.

Now that you understand what LinkedIn is and how it might be useful, let’s start creating your account.

How to Create Your Account

Before you create your account, you may wish to have the following information handy:

Resume, or list of previous jobs
Contact information for former colleagues
Educational background information
List of any awards or other recognition that you have received

At the main LinkedIn account, click the green Join Now button. The system prompts you to type the following information:

First name
Last name
Email address
Password

Be sure to choose a password that is unique and cannot easily be discovered by others. A combination of numbers and letters is usually best.

After you have created your LinkedIn account, you are prompted to build your profile

How to Build Your Profile

The professional profile screen appears. You should select the following:

Employment status (employed, business, owner, looking for work, working independently, or student)
Industry
Country

Also, type your zip code

At this point, LinkedIn allows you to import contacts from any email addresses that you may have stored in Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail, or AOL.

Finally, confirm the e-mail that you used to create your account from within that email. (Note: It may take some time to receive the confirmation e-mail.)

At this point, you have a basic LinkedIn account. You now need to set up your profile.

Developing a Basic Freelancer Profile

Once you have confirmed your account, LinkedIn prompts you to do one of three things:

Import email contacts — Add contact information
Establish your professional profile — Highlight experience accomplishments
Find experts, ideas, and opportunities – Connect with members who have similar interests

To build the most effective profile, you will eventually want to perform all three tasks. However, if you have your resume handy you may wish to start by establishing your professional profile since this is the option may affect how others search for you online. In particular, make sure that job title correctly describes what you do.

When you click on your name, you will see your empty profile. To change or populate a section of your profile click the next to the green plus sign and add the pertinent information.

Continue filling out the profile form until all information is included. Save your changes.

(Tip: You do not need to complete your LinkedIn profile in one sitting. It is possible to create a profile over several days, or even weeks.)

When your profile is complete, be sure to explore some of the more advanced LinkedIn features such as groups, recommendations, and plug-ins.

Don’t forget to come back and update your profile frequently whenever your experience or educational information changes or when you make new contacts.

Congratulations! Now you have a established a basic LinkedIn account.

Go Further with Your LinkedIn Account

LinkedIn offers a lot of features beyond just the basic profile. In fact, we could probably write an entire series of posts about advanced LinkedIn features.

Fortunately, while I was wrapping this post up I noticed a helpful post on Mashable that highlights some of the most useful LinkedIn features.

These additional features will help you get the most from your LinkedIn profile.

Share Your Own Experiences with LinkedIn

We’d love to hear your experiences with LinkedIn. I’ll start the sharing by telling my own story.

Personally, I avoided the LinkedIn social media platform for several years. I was intimidated by the amount of information that getting started seemed to require.

However, colleagues kept requesting to connect with me on LinkedIn. Several of these colleagues let me know that they preferred the LinkedIn social media platform for finding job opportunities and for professional networking. They wondered why I wasn’t already there.

Finally, I gave in and created my own LinkedIn account. Already, I can see that it is powerful tool for connecting with other professionals. I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of LinkedIn’s networking capabilities.

Do you use LinkedIn?

If so, share your best LinkedIn tip in the comments.

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