Archive for the ‘News’ Category
My pledge to you
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
You may or may not have noticed that recently this blog has been dead. Dead like a donkey that’s rotting into the ground. But less smelly. So I hereby wish to make a pledge to you, a fellow freelancer (perhaps in the making).
At some point over Christmas, I am going to revamp this site. I want to give the site a fresh new look and re0aign some stuff I’ve never been happy with.
This seems like a good time to tweaking the branding and ease of use for both myself (when updating) and you, my treasured reader. So, as with any good community site, I want you to share your feedback with the site and help me in developing PFF 2.0. What do you like about the site. What sucks? Let me know, even if it’s just a sentence or two.
I know this site has been dead, but I want to get things really rolling. I’ll post lots of good, quality content. The podcasts can start up again. Everything is looking good for a quick but effective re-design. First things first though, I’d like your thoughts. Drop them into the comments below.
Thanks gang!
Posted in News | 3 Comments »
Is it time you went caffiene free?
Monday, June 1st, 2009
I love Coffee, Coca Cola and Red Bull. Unfortunately, these items are typically laced with caffeine. For those of you who don’t know, caffeine is the ingredient in these drinks that actually stimulates your brain (a psychoactive stimulant drug or central nervous system (CNS) stimulant) into giving off the effect of temporarily warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness.
Apparently (and I say this with a wicked big pinch of salt, as it was taken from Wikipedia), Caffeine is, unlike many other psychoactive substances, legal and unregulated in nearly all jurisdictions. That means your have access to one of the most subtle drugs around. And like other drugs, you do develop an addiction to the stuff, suffering headaches, nausea, migraines, eye pain and even temporary memory loss if you go without it! That, if you ask me, is a proper withdrawal symptom.
What is this post actually about?
Well, a few of you may remember that a while I go I posted about m wanting to give up Caffeine. And I’ve done it! I’ve gone nearly a month without the stuff. And, more importantly, I feel better for it. I cut down from several, super strong black coffee’s a day, to nothing, taking things slowly (with the odd Coke Cola to subside withdrawal effects). Let me tell you, I know feel:
- More alert, more of the time
- Sleep better
- Am less irritable, and more calm
- Feel less anxious (a side effect of caffeine overdose)
- Am able to stay awake later, and get up earlier because sleep quality is much higher
- Have in general, much more natural energy (including in the afternoons, where I would be partial to a nap before)
I totally think you should consider dropping Caffeine. I’d love to be able to tell you my income went up 22.3%, which I cant exactly, but I do feel it has improved my concentration and memory to the point of working harder for longer. If your a freelancer, who’s patrial to a little bit of coffee in the morning, or a red bull on those all nighters, I recommend you try dropping Caffeine all together. If you like, I can tell you how I did it. I can create an ebook, which will be available for $5 or so, should the demand be high enough. Anyway, that’s enough about me, on with freelancing… huzzahh!!
Tags: Caffeine
Posted in Caffeine, News | 8 Comments »
Announcing Penguin
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Every so often, an app comes along that everyone needs. Sort of like Basecamp. Everyone seems to have it. As a freelance dedicated blog, we felt it was time to have a crack at making an app (and that there was a gap in the market for our unique approach). Our app is Penguin. Penguin is the collaboration of several freelance minds to craft the most perfect crm software around. Whats CRM? Well, it allows you to track your clients. We call it client management.
- You can store your clients contact details, and pull them up wherever you are on your iPhone or laptop and get in touch with them
- You can store notes about meetings, phone calls and to-dos you might have related to that contact
- We have several other features that we are keeping top secret for now, until our launch this summer.
- Above all, they allow you to keep track of your clients, and be a much better / organized freelancer for it.
You can check out the site at: http://www.penguinapp.com
Here we have a small teaser page, with a link to our newsletter. This newsletter will allow you to get up-to-date news on the apps progress. You’ll also be able to get 5% discount at launch.
Penguin App is also on twitter at: twitter.com/penguinapp
Looking forward to your comments, and I’m here to answer any of your questions as always.
Posted in News, Penguin App | 3 Comments »
Podcast for Freelancers: Minisodes
Monday, May 18th, 2009
I’d like to a new series of mini-episodes (hence the name) of the podcast. These shows are under 3 minutes long, and feature tips, tricks and questions about general freelancing. We’ve done 4 already, and you can view them here:
http://audioboo.fm/profile/freelanceknight
Pff Minisode: 1 Portfolio Building
Posted in News | 1 Comment »
Quitting coffee. My goal for the next few months
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
I don’t like to admit it, but recently I’ve really become hooked on Coffee ( or caffeine really). I’ve been using it as an almost as an artificial sleep in a cup, to counter the long hours I’ve been doing. I’m starting to rely on it far too much. If I go 4 or 5 hours without the stuff, I start to suffer headaches and such. Its pretty bad. Coffee gives you mood swings, tiredness, disrupted sleep and funny breath.
So, I think its time we all give up. I’ve made it my goal to go cold-turkey and quit coffee. At Least blogging about it gives me a bit more support in my quest to quit coffee (nice alliteration). However, several hours into my campaign against coffee, I’m suffering. Lower concentration, a sort of fuzzy head. And a headache! Its been 4 days since my last cup! It just shows what a pull this stuff has, and the fact it is actually a drug. Maybe you’d like to join me and we can see the benefits of a low caffeine diet! Although, I don’t really recommend going cold turkey unless you are ready to experience withdrawal. No more red bulls either!
Stay tuned for another coffee quit update. 
Posted in News | 2 Comments »
Wanted: Freelance Collective Members
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
Hello all, and thanks for checking out Podcast for Freelancers. I have been wanting to set up a kind of collaborative team / collective of freelancers for a while to put together essentially an agency of freelance workers.
I think if we could build a team of freelance:
- user interface / front end designers
- front end coders
- developers (Ruby or PHP)
- iphone / mac developers
- SEM / SEO marketers
- Copywriters
Then we could mount a serious challenge to any large agency, with the benefits of having a team of skilled, hard working & talented freelancers.
How will it work?
Firstly, we’ll set-up a nifty site advertising our work (as a group) and availability for hire e.t.c, just like any other agency. This site will act as our main spear-head for marketing, and gaining new clients. I will act as project manager / designer as needed.
On top of client work, we will also work on inhouse projects (such as web apps, iphone apps e.t.c) with a view to sharing profits & revenue between the team. As we will have such a full and great team, we’ll be able to make some really awesome apps and projects. We’ll start with some that we’d like to have ourselves, and take it from there. I have several ideas I feel would work well as web apps, and would love to see these pursued.
Why join up?
In addition to getting some extra income from the client projects, you’ll also get to blog on the site and build up a profile for yourself. Each team member will get a section on the site to tell people about them and their respective companies.
I think it will be a great opportunity to join with several other talented consultants, and together create something really worthwhile. Its got bags of potential, and everything is totally flexible.
Anyway, if your interested in finding out more, send the following to hello@podcastforfreelancers.com:
- Name
- Experience in Freelancing field
- Link to portfolio
- Why you think you can help out & what you’ll bring to the team
Tags: collective, Freelance
Posted in Freelance Collective, News | No Comments »
Coming up! New site design, feedback wanted
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Every so often, I like to fill you guys in on the actual background goings on of the podcast & blog. And so, here we have another one of those posts. I find them fantastic in reconnaissance type feedback collection, so if you have any comments or thoughts, drop your pennies worth as they say in the comments.
New site design
I think its really important that a site looks its best. Everything has to be perfect, to make reading the blog a pleasant experience. When I originally designed the theme for the blog (about 5 months ago) it was only ever intended as a quick, stop gap to get the site out there. I feel its now time to start improving the design, fixing tweaks, and potentially giving the whole site a complete re-do.
You can influence the look of the site, by voting in this poll: http://twtpoll.com/r/8m09ke
Here’s a few things that I’ve shortlisted for improvement in PFF II:
- Improve HTML elements, such as blockquotes, lists, e.t.c to encourage me to use them
- Change the font to Georgia perhaps?
- Font color change to stand out more
- Altering the sidebar
- introduction of a comic
- Consultancy services for freelancers (whereby you can have a meeting with me about your freelance career)
- Improve the author page
- Encourage more guest authors
- introduce a forum, & community suggestion feature (so you can suggest topics to be written about and vote for them)
- Tidy the site up in general, giving it a fresh, more unified feel.
- Perhaps introduce a comic & job boards
- Competitions!!
If you have any suggestions at all, drop them in the comments below. I’m setting a perlimanary deadline of July 1st 2009. I will be gathering community feedback as we go through the design process.
And in other news
I’m looking for volunteers to help with the site, posting articles, moderating comments, creating shownotes, and appearing on the podcast. If your interested, shoot me an email at: hello@podcastforfreelancers.com
Whats coming next week?
Next week, we have the 3rd installment of the Passive Income Guide, another written interview with a *high* profile freelancer, more blog posts & the 3rd Podcast Episode, with a Q & A type show lined up.
That’s it for now, so stay tuned, and I’ll see thou in the comments.
Posted in News, Podcast | No Comments »
Site updates
Monday, January 19th, 2009
Ok, so the most observant of you may have noticed I’ve added some updates to the site. Then again some of you may not. Let me explain what they are and how they will improve the site.
Faster loading with cache
I’ve added a plugin that basically cache’s some of wordpress (and this themes) larger and more commonly used files. This means that the site should load faster, and use up less resources.
I’ve added some adverts
The boring old “Advertise here” images are gone, replaced with some ad’s to the brilliant Envato’s book store. Here you can purchase some really nifty books on freelancing, designing for wordpress e.t.c They also offer a great free pdf about branding for freelancers upon newsletter sign-up. So go ahead and check them out, and support them
Posted in News | 2 Comments »
Welcome freelancers!
Friday, December 19th, 2008
Welcome dear freelancers. You’ve found the brand new (literally minutes old right now) Podcast For Freelancers (with a blog). We’re currently bashing about the keyboard to finish things off, kicking up lots of dust and mess. Over the next few days things will get tidied up and updated.
So what can you expect from this new site?
Plenty of good stuff! This site is aimed squarely at those who are either freelancing now, or looking to freelance. It will provide you with help, advice, tips & tricks to improve your freelancing business or even just to make that leap. This awesomeness will be delivered by blog posts, and by a podcast, coming within the next week.
Can I join in?
The great thing about the web now is that it makes sharing and openness (is that a real word?) easier. You can use comments on this site to network with other’s, ask for help or just to chat. You can use the contact forms on the contact page to ask questions for the podcast, or suggest yourself as a person who’d like to be interviewed on the podcast / blog. You can also submit guest post’s to further promote yourself, and have your content featured here. Feel free to suggest any improvements or updates via the contact page.
Whats with the funky medieval theme?
Good question. Basically, its all inspired by the original origins of the word “freelance”. Apparently, a ‘freelancee’r” was a bloke (or blokette) with a free weapon for hire. I guess a lot had lance’s, and thus the term freelance stuck. Imagine them as the Boba Fett’s of Olde England :). Anyway, I took that theme, and brought in some castle’s, a cute little knight logo (also available as t-shirts) & a soon to be released evil baron (less cute). The theme also extends to the podcast.. which is coming next week hopefully.
All the stuff on the site (logo, blog theme design e.t.c) was created by me. If you’d like to hire meh, see the “Who are you?” section of this post.
Spread the word!
Ok, so you can tell Im excited. Or maybe not. But still, please go tell your freelance-friends, tweet about it, or do whatever you can to spread the news about this site.
Who are you?
In case your wondering who is this guy is, I’m a freelance web, logo, blog, email & icon designer from Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. I’ve been a knight, sorry “freelancer”, for 2 years now. I love macs, land rover’s, google & The last of the summer wine tv program. I freelance from: http://www.bengribbin.com. I’m currently available for hire, so do feel free to get in touch
Thats all for now, I’ll be back tomorrow with updates and new gubbinery.
Got any comments?
Posted in News | 4 Comments »
