We’ve been hinting at things happening around here for the past couple weeks (see our 11-11-11 post) and today we finally get to showcase the work that’s been going on behind the scenes.

So what’s new?

Well, if you haven’t seen the previous site design you can see how it looks below. As you can see, we rebuilt everything from the ground up. The logo has stayed the same but everything else has got a fresh coat of paint.

click the image for a larger view

As you can see, the new design is cleaner and more polished. It removes a lot of the visual clutter and adds more emphasis on the content that is written here. The old design was clean but it wasn’t clean enough. I also kept updating and tweaking the old layout to see what worked best so this new site design is a result of all of those tests.

What does this mean for the content?

The content will still be published without missing a beat (today’s article is going up in a couple of hours). The new design was created to give it the content a better dress outfit, it will not change the quality of the content at all.

If anything, coming here and seeing a new design will only inspire me to write more often, so keep an eye out for more great content being published.

The future of Guerrilla Freelancing

The truth is, this design is only one step in a series of events that are going to change the way you use this site forever. There’s a couple big things coming in the next couple of weeks and I’m even more excited about those than I am about the new design.

So take a minute and look around the site because you might even find a hint or two as to what’s coming (and trust me, you’re going to want to be a part of it).

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What, you ask? Well, I can’t tell you yet but it’s going to be big fucking gigantic.

If you’ve been following us on Twitter (@gfreelancing) you will have noticed a few tweets about things changing around here. No more comments, items in the design being modified, content taking a drastically different turn from some of the other stuff freelance blogs put out there, etc.

It’s all for good reason, I swear!

On 11.11.11 we will be doing something huge.

Something that’s never been done before on any freelance blog which will separate us from the other freelance blogs out there. And when I say separate us, I mean myself as well as you because you’re a part of this site too.

The things that will be going on are taking place behind the scenes at the moment, with a few little hints dropping through Dribbble (here & here) and then various twitter mentions.

If you’ve been watching, you might know where it’s heading, but if not don’t worry because it’ll all be revealed in due time.

As for the content on the site, tomorrow we’ll be posting new articles just like the ones we posted this past week:

• If you’re not pissing people off, you’re doing it wrong
• Guilty by association: Why your closest friends are killing your freelance business
• Social Media Ass Slapping Syndrome (SMASS™)

Get ready because things they are a changin’

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#1. Guerrilla Marketing

Unconventional. Unusual. Unique. These are just a few words that describe the type of marketing advice I post here. From the 50 guerrilla marketing tactics for freelancers to the various guerrilla marketing example posts, this blog has always been focused on the guerrilla marketing side of things for freelancers. The old freelance advice that’s being spit out to you from the other big freelance blogs out there is worn out, so my goal is to give you fresh and unique ideas on how to market your business.

#2. Networking Advice

A new category topic here on Guerrilla Freelancing, networking is essential to your freelance business, especially if you’re looking to grow your client base and expand your contacts. By having a solid rolodex of names, you’ll enable your business to grow through being able to upsell your current clients on other services. Networking with other freelancers will allow your to accept work that you normally wouldn’t handle because you’ve now got a pool of names to pull from. Hooking up another freelancer with work is one of the best ways to win over their heart because we’re all looking for a steady stream of work so it’s a win/win.

#3. Branding Tips

Having a killer portfolio is great. Knowing how to market your business is awesome. Brushing shoulders with the gurus of your industry is nice too. However, none of that matters in the long term if you’re not building a solid brand. Marketing efforts will wear out over time if you aren’t constantly working on them but a great brand will live forever and in the long run, this is what you want for your business because this means that your brand will eventually do your marketing and client attraction for you.

#4. Bullshit free business advice

Like I previously mentioned, the two other big freelance blogs might get by with their watered down content and recycled topics but that’s not what you’ll get here. You need – and deserve – bullshit free advice on how to build a solid freelance business, so that’s exactly what you’ll get here. I’ll explain the downsides to freelancing as well as the upsides of freelancing. I’ll let you know the truth about the amount of work and effort things will take. I’ll also give you actionable advice for your marketing and networking efforts. 100% bullshit free business advice, because you deserve nothing but the best.

#5. Motivation & Inspiration

Sometimes we all need a swift kick in the ass to restart our engines. This won’t be something that I’ll focus a lot on, but maybe once a week I’ll post up something motivational. Maybe motivational quotes or productivity tips. The goal of this is to keep you going after you see the realities of freelancing and you’re exposed to some of the downsides. It’s not all negative and that’s what these motivational and inspirational posts will focus on – building you into a positive powerhouse.

#6. HUSTLE

I know the title of the post says there’s five things listed here but I cannot let this one go. For anyone who follows me on Twitter at my personal account, @blogdesigner, you’ll know that I tweet a lot about hustle. Hell, I even write about hustle here on the Guerrilla Freelancing blog. That’s something that won’t change, but will only increase. I believe that having a hustler spirit is what will break you through to the next level as a freelancer, and trust me, if you’re going to put the advice that I post here into action, you’re going to need to get your hustle on to get it all done because you’re going to be very busy. The harder you work, the luckier you’ll get – it’s a fact.

So what’s next?

Now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way, we can get into the publishing of new content. More than just posting new content, I’m going to be publishing useful content. Advice that you can take and immediately put to use for your freelance business. If it’s not beneficial to your business, it’s not worth your time, so I will make sure that everything published directly pushes your business forward.

We’re in the trenches together and because of that I will always have your back.

A few more notes

A lot of people really like the Marketing Tips From series as well as the Social Media Mistakes series that I’ve been posting over the past couple years. I appreciate that but with the current direction of the site, these types of articles will no longer be posted on the site. Maybe there will be new items in each series sent out to the newsletter? Sign up to make sure you don’t miss them.

With that said, there’s a few series ideas that I will be starting that’ll fit within the above items and help send the blog into the right direction while keeping things closely tied together.

A lot of big things are coming in the pipeline and I appreciate you for reading and being a part of it all. Contact me any time if you’ve got questions about freelancing – I answer every email and could even turn the answer into a post which could give you some free publicity as well and that is always good for business

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#1. Fluff

Lately I’ve seen other freelance blogs really get by just publishing bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. Small, half ass attempts at quality articles. For every 1 round up post they publish 4-5 broad based articles with no real substance. So here on Guerrilla Freelancing I am making it a vow to only write about the important stuff. Things you can’t get elsewhere, because I’m in the trenches just like you and I know what you need in order to succeed.

#2. Legal Advice

Other freelance blogs do a lot of posts on contracts, taxes, etc. While those are definitely important to freelancing, I am not a qualified legal expert and I choose to stay away from those topics. Besides, an hour of time in a lawyers office would be much more productive for you instead of spending 2-3 hours reading blog posts on the subjects. The same goes for an accountant – they’re both worth paying for, trust me.

#3. Sugar Coating

The important part of the meal is the meat and potatoes, so that’s what you can expect here. The articles will not sugar coat the freelance life. It’s hard, takes extreme amounts of dedication and for a lot of the people who come across this site, it’s not for them. However, I know you can do it and I’ll be giving you bullshit free advice because you deserve the truth. This also means that there will be curse words spread throughout the articles to drive home certain points. If that language offends you, you might want to look elsewhere for freelance advice.

#4. Quick Reads

When you read this blog, you can expect that every new article posted will be over 1,000 words. This kind of goes with the fluff-free style and ensures that anything I’m talking about on this blog is in depth and gives you the most possible information on the subject I’m currently writing on. So if I post up an article with Guerrilla Marketing tactics, you’re not going to get an overview of various ideas without any information on how you can use the tips.

#5. Recycled Content

Like I mentioned in item #1, some of the other big freelance blogs out there are just publishing the same things they’ve said before. So instead of wasting your time and giving you the same things you’ve heard a million times from those blogs + other blogs around the web, it’s my personal goal to give you practical and useful information for your freelance business.

Still with me?

If you’re still reading, that’s good. It means you’re ready for a bullshit free experience that only gives you the quality, important information about freelancing that you need in order to grow and expand your business. That’s what I’m here for and that’s what you’ll be getting from now from this blog.

One more thing

There’s going to be some big changes around here in the next few weeks, starting with the new focus of content being posted. From there, you’ll start seeing visual changes happening because I’ve been quietly working behind the scenes on a new design for the site. This also goes in line with some more changes that are going to be happening, but for that news you’ll just have to keep checking in because it’s not time to reveal that yet

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Want more information on each of these guides?

Read the release post for the Guerrilla Guide here.

Read the release post for the One Man Army e-book here.

This deal has ended but you can still purchase each book at the above links. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy, I hope you really enjoy the books!

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If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so at the end of this post in the big “Get Your Free Guide to Guerrilla Freelancing” box. In exchange for signing up, you get the following:

• Our free “Guide to Guerrilla Freelancing” ebook
• Freelance articles not posted on this site
• A 50% discount code that’s being sent out at the stroke of midnight tonight

Have you signed up yet? If not, make sure you do it before midnight because the email with the discount code is only going out once & the discount code will only be valid for 72 hours.

I want take a second to also thank all of the Twitter followers, RSS Subscribers, Facebook fans & Newsletter subscribers. I truly appreciate you all and am happy to have you as a part of the Guerrilla Freelancing community!

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Are you a One Man Army?

What exactly is a one man army? It’s simple, a one man army freelancer is someone who does all of the work solo. You design, code and set up all of your clients websites. You write all of the content for them, you create all of their print work and you build all of their marketing materials.

No outside help, no outsourcing & no agency/company vibe. It’s all solo and it’s more than likely all being done in a spare room in your house. That’s what a #OneManArmy is, in a nutshell.

What’s the #OneManArmy book going to give me?

Besides giving you the comfort of knowing that you’re not alone (which I know we all have felt like at one point or another), the aim of the book is to help you manage your solo shop & grow it to the point where you’re performing at your maximum potential and getting the amount of work (and money) that you deserve.

Like the guerrilla guide we previously released it will give you insight into marketing and networking ideas for your business as well as resources and things you can put to use for your solo freelance business.

It will also feature a couple of worksheets for you that will helps you maximize your time and energy in order to turn your freelance business into a well oiled machine & give you peace of mind.

Another cool feature that will be in the book is a chapter on Solo Success Stories. These are little mini-interviews that I’ve conducted with various freelancers who are successfully running solo freelance shops and have built 50K+ per year in freelance business.

I’m really excited about these and I feel like they’re going to give you a ton of inspiration as well as insight from freelancers who are already knocking the socks off of their industries. I was inspired when I was reading over the replies, so I know you will be as well.

When is the #OneManArmy book coming out?

The book will be released on this Friday at midnight (eastern standard time). So on Thursday night if you’re up and working like other grave yard shift freelancers, you will see the book go live for sale!

There will be a discount code going out to newsletter subscribers so make sure you’re on the list if you haven’t already signed up (I mean, you get a free guide to guerrilla freelancing e-book + articles that people on the site don’t get, so why wouldn’t you want to sign up anyways?).

Are you as excited as I am? My hands are shaking as I type this (yes, literally) because I’m so amped up for this – plus I’ve drank two BFC Monster Energy drinks in the past 4 hours

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Tuesday: Four (more) words freelancers are scared shitless of hearing

In response to our first article on words that freelancers are scared shitless of hearing comes this post & four more words. I won’t tell you the words here but trust me, you’re going to be scared just reading them. For some reason the posts with curse words i the title always get the best response here. Mental note: write more shit like that!

Wednesday: Things you can learn from a yard sale for your freelance business

So I went out yardsaling (yeah, it’s a word) this week and couldn’t help but learn a thing or two about freelancing and marketing from the yard sales I came across so I thought that you’d like to learn some stuff from yard sales too. Since most of the stuff you get from yard sales is crap, I figured it’d be nice to get something of value out of the trip.

Thursday: Will Smith’s two keys to life & how they apply to freelancers

I’ve talked about Will Smith before on the blog and he’s making another appearance in the Thursday post because despite the whole “Fresh Prince” thing people remember him for, he’s actually a pretty intelligent guy and with the amount of money he makes & the quality of movies he’s in, there’s a few things we can learn from him.

Friday: The importance of being everywhere as a freelancer

Be everywhere. It’s a simple statement but I go into a bit of depth in the Friday post to explain what I mean and how you can be everywhere as a freelancer in order to market yourself to a wider audience and gain more clients.

Saturday: The Ultimate List of Freelancer Designers, Developers, Writers, Illustrators & More

As a way of giving back a bit as well as putting together a resource list for anyone looking for a freelancer, I opened up the comments on this post for anyone who wants to feature their information for potential clients to see it. There’s already a bunch of comments and if you haven’t added your information yet, get over there and do it now.

Sunday: Sunday Showcase: Invoice Machine

The second Sunday Showcase article features an invoice app that I love and use every day. Yes, most people who freelance swear by Freshbooks but there’s other options out there; better options that offer more for your buck & in my opinion Invoice Machine is the top invoice app out there.

Important Happenings

I’ve been dropping hints on Twitter about the #OneManArmy book that we’re releasing next week so I figured that I’d mention it here as well so you’re aquainted with it even if you’re not following us on Twitter (@GFreelancing).

This upcoming Friday (June 10th) we’re releasing our second guide, One Man Army. It’s going to feature a ton of information for the solo freelancers out there (myself included), covering topics of multi-tasking and wearing many hats, marketing, outsourcing and much, much more.

We’re going to have a couple posts next week about it and give away a discount code to newsletter subscribers so if you’re not subscribed yet, go ahead and sign up below so you can get the discount code for the new book as well as the free “Guide to Guerrilla Freelancing” ebook download.

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What others have said about the book

I just finally got around to reading this and I wanted to say thanks. Its a great guide with lots of good information. I won a copy but it is absolutely worth a lot more than the $17.00 price tag. Thanks! – Bill Ludwig

Just finished my copy. I loved it! The guide works well for other freelancers, too. I love how you break freelancing down into something approachable. It IS an option, and people need to know that. – Anna

just finished your book. Got a lot of positive things out of it. Great Job! Can’t wait to implement some of your ideas! – Aldo Secaida

How to enter

Entering is simple. Comment on this post with one reason why you believe building a freelance design business is the right life choice for you. It could be anything from supporting your family, working for yourself, etc.

Winners will be chosen at random on Friday.

Good Luck!

Contest has been closed – Thank you to everyone who participated

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The cards are 100% free (printing + shipping) and are very high quality. If you’d like to see a bit more about the All Business Cards business and what they do, you can check out their website here.

How to enter

You can enter this contest by simply tweeting the following Twitter message.

I just entered to win 500 business cards from @gfreelancing & @allbusinesscard – http://bit.ly/gpbaKn #freelance #giveaway

Contest rules

The contest is open to US & Canadian residents and the only way to enter is by tweeting the above message – multiple tweets will not up your chances, but it’s always nice to get a couple tweets

Contest has been closed – Thank you to everyone who participated

Use coupon code "GuerrillaFreelancing" and get your first month for 1 penny!