We’ve discussed the attraction of using paper planners in the past. Even though web workers have access to all sorts of cool to-do list and other planning applications on the web, there are times when getting everything down on paper is the best way to keep track of your day, especially when you’re mobile. Plus (might as well admit it) some of us still have a soft spot in our hearts for the classic Day-Timer and the like.
If you’re in the mood to try paper, one site well worth a visit is D*I*Y Planner. Started by Douglas Johnston and continued by a passionate community of paper-lovers, this is a great source for downloadable templates (in a variety of formats including PDF), all under a Creative Commons license that lets you use them as much as you want.
Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve given some advice for setting freelance hourly rates before, including a rough rule of thumb for those leaving more traditional employment (multiple your hourly pay as an employee by 2.5 to 3.0). But a new blog post from Pat Allan offers another way to think about this, and one worth running through if you’re new to freelancing.
There are basically three variables to juggle: your total income for the year, the number of hours you’re going to work, and your hourly rate. If you know what any two of them are, you can figure out the third. So, if the goal is to come up with an hourly rate, you need to determine your target total income and work hours.
Read the rest of this entry »
I’m planning to have a good 2009 – and this is going to be the year that I actually plan that. I’ve managed to muddle through the past couple of years of web working without any major plans, but like many of you, the economy has me worried. So I’ve set myself some quarterly goals of how I want my business to be doing – in terms of income stream and diversification – and my main resolution is to actually keep those goals in front of me and work towards them.
There’s plenty of debate about how useful resolutions are, or whether there’s some more productive way to spend the last or first day of the year. But they’re certainly traditional, and this is a good time to take stock. According to myGoals.com, you can increase you chances of following through by having a written plan – so why not share the resolution with the rest of us, as a first step towards writing it down?
2009 is the year you resolve to …
2008 is almost gone, and for most of us, this is a slack week at work – whether we’re self-employed or working for someone else (you may even be on voluntary or enforced vacation in the latter case). Traditionally, that makes it a good time for reflection, as well as catching up on some things you’ve just been too busy to do in recent months. Here are some suggestions as to what you should do this week:
1. Call your accountant. While some things (like HSA contributions) can be done after January 1, there are some serious tax deadlines at midnight on Wednesday. If you’re self-employed or have a complex tax situation, this may be your last chance to make course corrections that will affect your tax bill in April.
Read the rest of this entry »
A while back we looked at Blogo, a unified blogging and microblogging client. Now they’ve put out version 1.2, which extends Blogo to support new targets and adds some useful options as well. If you’re an OS X user who posts online frequently, it’s worth a look.
One of the big wins for those who really want to fine-tune their blog entries is the addition of an HTML source view to the already-strong visual editor. Combined with the ability to download your blog’s actual template for previews, this makes it possible to have a very good idea of what posts will look like before they’re uploaded. If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll also be happy to see the support for the new comments API.
Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve looked at note organizer Evernote before, and liked what we saw. Th combination of desktop and web clients, text recognition, and the promise of universal information availability, make it very useful as a general-purpose place to store, well, everything. A new feature, introduced just in time for Christmas, makes it even more useful: universal file synchronization.
Evernote already synchronized copies of its own notes across as many installations as you cared to have – Windows, Web, Mac, or mobile. But attachment synchronization was limited to a few file types that it natively understands, such as images and audio. Now, you can attach any file you like to a note, and have that file transported to every installation, as well as available through the web interface. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s been a lot of talk about what Twitter’s own monetization model will turn out to be – even though Twitter itself has been mum on the subject beyond saying that they do have a plan. But meanwhile, some of the communities on Twitter have taken matters into their own hands, and proven that money can flow into good causes based on the social capital that Twitter users build up in just chatting with one another. Whatever else you say about Twitter, it does seem to be bringing out the best in people and opening their wallets.
The most recent of these campaigns that I’ve run across is Well Wishes, an effort by prominent Twitter user Laura “Pistachio” Fitton to raise $25,000 for Charity: Water, two bucks at a time. She’s lined up some matching donations and hooked up with Tipjoy to handle micropayments; if you’re on Twitter, you can get involved simply by tweeting. So far, Well Wishes has raised thousands of dollars in this way.
Read the rest of this entry »
There are a large number of project management applications and service out there; we’ve looked at many of them in the past. Most of them are explicitly directed at coordinating a team working on projects for a client, and are a poor fit for a single freelancer working alone. That’s the market that Burden Butcher hopes to tap into, with a project management tool explicitly for freelancers.
After creating your account, you’ll be sitting at the Projects list. Creating a new project is streamlined: supply a name, a rate, a client, and optionally a deadline, and you’re ready to go. Choosing a project to work on is simple, as it should be. Each project contains four tabs in a web interface: Canvases, Milestones & Tasks, Time Tracking, and Invoice.
Read the rest of this entry »
