While there seems to be chill in the air, things are pretty hot in the freelance world at the moment. We're seeing lots of traffic to the Freelancentral site and have had several emails recently from our members telling us about some awesome projects that their listings have brought them (one is included below). If you're a client, go and check out the new members on our site - from award-winning journalists to funky illustrators, we've had some very interesting new freelancers sign up recently.
issue 35 ::
July 2009
FEATURED SITE:
www.webmonkey.com
Webmonkey is a free, public resource for web developers. Builders, designers and programmers like you - the people who know best - write the articles, tutorials, code snippets and other contributions.
Got a resource you'd like to recommend to the Freelancentral community? Send your favourite blog or website links, book titles or software recommendations to info@freelancentral.co.za.
GET THE LATEST SENT TO YOU
Want the latest news, new member listings and placement ads sent to you as they are uploaded to Freelancentral? Simply sign up for our RSS feed - click on the link on our home page. If you don't already use a feed reader, we recommend Google Reader as an easy way of aggregating the latest posts from all the sites you read regularly.
SITE STATS FOR JUNE
Freelancers registered: 4,502
From Google Analytics:
- 2,997 visits
- 19,140 page views
- 6.39 pages per visit
- 39.61 % bounce rate
- 5:44 mins average time on site
- 56.72 % new visitors
PORTFOLIO CRITIQUE SERVICE
Are you selling yourself effectively in your Lite or Full portfolio? Wouldn't it be great to have someone give you an honest critique of your portfolio, and tips on how to improve it? For just R350 we will review your portfolio and send you a personalised report on how you can make it more appealing to clients. Just call the Freelancentral team on 021 780 1364 or email us.
GET 25% OFF YOUR NEXT FULL PORTFOLIO
Don't forget that if you send us your Freelancentral success stories and we publish them in our newsletter or on the site, you'll get 25% off your next month's Full portfolio. Submit your stories by sending us a mail.
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GARETH PIKE: Diary of a freelancer: Every day is civvies day
4:30am: Alarm goes off. Am horribly late to complete a brochure for an I.T. company. Was going to do it last night, but a new Xbox game, Top Bling and the Scotch scotched that. Re-set alarm.
5:00am: Re-set alarm. It's still midnight! Bugger that. Remarkably easy to convince self.
8:30am: Am finally roused by Mr and Mrs Pigeon, who are pecking on the bedroom window and furiously demanding their breakfast seed. Wife long gone to her office job. Feel brief stab of guilt. Three messages from I.T. company on cell phone. Immediate panic/dive for desk and laptop. Maid arrives, eyeing a large pile of ironing furiously. Read on for the rest of Gareth Pike's day.
CHRISTINE ONLINE: Myths about SEO Copywriting:
What SEO copywriters need to know about keywords
When many people think of SEO copywriting, or "optimised copy", they often think of keyword-stuffed text that makes for jarring reading. Notions about "optimal" keyword densities have been floating around for a long time. There are a number of myths which refuse to die about how best to optimise site content.
Generally, the best rule of thumb is to be honest and upfront. Structure your site and content well and don't show the search engines anything that a human user isn't seeing.
These days, it's really less about keyword counting and more about unique and quality content. Read on to find out more about SEO copywriting.
Domain name deliberations - by Gauteng freelance graphic designer Wilma Lensink
Freelance designer Wilma Lensink describes the challenges of naming her business - and finding a suitable domain name that hasn't already been taken.
"I always thought I was good at naming things - my animals, for instance. My small cross-breed poodle is called Maybe ("maybe we will keep her... maybe we won't"). Our brown cat's name is Really (as in "really nice") and the big fat ginger kitty is Very (as in "very nice") and then there's the infamous Almost ("almost on his way to Soweto").
So I didn't expect to be stumped when it came to naming my own company. Coming up with a good name proved to be a challenge. I wanted something short that would stand out. I wanted something that was easy to say, spell and remember. Of course it has to look cool as a logo too. Lastly the name needed to be easy to remember as a URL so that people could find my website easily.
So after many failed attempts I had a short list. The next step was to see if these names were available as domains. Alas..." Read on for more.
A short story - by KZN freelance writer Guy Mortimer
We weren't quite sure what Guy was doing sending us a short story, but it's the nicest we've read in a long time. Here's what he had to say (and no, we didn't pay him anything for this!):
"There are many websites out there that claim to market their client's portfolios effectively. However, until I signed up with Freelancentral it was my experience that these claims were grossly exaggerated as the results I experienced were rather poor.
However, within two weeks of signing up with Freelancentral with a full portfolio on display I picked up two excellent clients who are supplying me with regular assignments. As a result my cash flow has improved considerably and I am happier than I've been in years. I am now very optimistic that I can grow my client base even further and improve my income to a degree that I would never had thought possible if it wasn't for the effective marketing strategy employed by Freelancentral.
Freelancentral are a well-organised and professional organisation that obtain the right results and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a vehicle to market their portfolio professionally and effectively."
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Read how Freelancentral is helping South African freelancers
on our new Testimonials page - and do send us your success stories too.
If Freelancentral has connected you successfully,
whether you're a client or freelancer, we'd love to hear from you.
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