• The 10 biggest mistakes people make on Stumbleupon
• The 10 biggest mistakes people make on Twitter

Updating your profile once a month

One of the first mistakes I see (and have fallen to myself in the past) is setting up a facebook profile because everyone else has one and then never updating it. It’s fine to not have a social profile everywhere – stick to the ones you use most, and if you are going to set up a profile on facebook, use it.

Mass adding without any type of connection

My main rule of thumb here is to not randomly add anyone unless the facebook recommendations show 10 or more common friends between myself and the other person. This way, I know they’re a part of the circle I talk to in one way or another and I know that their input on things will be valuable. Plus, it doesn’t look so spammy compared to when you’re adding people who have zero common friends.

Not setting up a fan page for your site

If you run a website of any kind, setting up a facebook fan page, in my opinion, is a must. It not only allows you to promote your site throughout facebook, but it’s also a way to get your visitors interacting with you, signed up to a specific place where you can send out notices (similar to a newsletter) about your site, contests and freebies that people can’t get elsewhere.

Only sharing your own content

I’ve mentioned this before in our other posts about stumble upon and twitter, but it crosses over into facebook as well. I see people who sent out status updates with links to their sites, but never mention anything about any other sites they’ve visited. I assure you that your friends will enjoy reading content if it applies to them, so by sharing articles on facebook that relate to your website topic, they’ll gain more value from your updates and feel more comfortable clicking your links (including the ones to your site).

Updating your status 50+ times a day

Twitter is a place to update 50-100 times a day. Facebook isn’t. Facebook should be used as a place to hold longer conversations than 140 characters and not just a place to broadcast link after link (after link). Try your best to utilize facebook for what it should be used for – connecting with friends, discussing things and sharing what is up with you.

Forgetting that potential clients will be seeing your profile

Some people use facebook and forget that their potential clients can, or will, see what they’re posting on their walls and in their pictures. Yes, you should be yourself as much as possible, but if being yourself means losing clients because you’ve got half naked pictures on your facebook, you may want to rethink the business you’re in Also, if you’re designing websites for churches, you may want to tone down your atheist views – I don’t think it would be good for business. So remember, keep things light, but not bright

Running your blog posts through facebook’s notes

This is one that I don’t see many people talk about, but it’s a definite dead end when it comes to utilizing facebook for traffic and comments on your blog. What a lot of people do is run their RSS feeds through facebook notes and give everyone the ability to read their entire post right there on facebook. When they’re done reading, they move on and don’t visit your site. You’d be better off just sending out a wall update letting people know about the new post so the traffic goes to your site instead of your notes section.

Posting self-glorifying messages on your friends walls

This is one I’ve had to deal with numerous times recently. “Friends” who are utilizing facebook as a place where they can post a comment on your wall, discussing their site. News flash, that’s what your wall is for. If you write on someones wall, mention how much you liked THEIR article, not link to your own stuff. It’s unprofessional, rude and a bit annoying.

Sending advertisements to your friends through facebook messages

Another one that I’ve seen happen more lately is the unsolicited advertisement messages you receive on facebook. Something along the lines of “I just seen this and knew you’d like it” although, your name isn’t mentioned in the message and the topic is something you’re definitely NOT interested. Don’t do it anymore if you’re one of the ones doing it – people hate it.

We’re not facebook friends yet

So, in keeping up with how I’ve done the twitter and stumbleupon mistakes articles here, I thought I should mention this one here as well. I’m on facebook (click here to be friends) and I also have a facebook fan page for my start up, Giant Themes. Would you like to see a fan page for Guerrilla Freelancing? I think I need to set one up, especially after writing #3 above

There are a few reasons why blogging is good for your business, but there are even more reasons (if we dig deep enough) that shows why better blogging equals better business for freelancers. I want to look over a few of those reasons in today’s article. Feel free to leave your thoughts at the end of the article – I’d love to get your input on the topic at hand.

Open discussions with potential clients

If your freelance business is design related, by running a design blog that runs articles on the importance of great designs or articles that allow your readers to ask questions and ignite conversation, you’re instantly building a bridge between you and an entire world of potential clients.

Instead of having to send cold-emails to countless numbers of people, you’re able to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of people who just might be looking for the services that you offer. If your blog is receiving a lot of traffic from the design community and not a lot of potential clients, don’t worry, because those freelancers who are always reading your blog just may need to outsource their work and if they’re seeing you answer questions and engage with them on a regular basis, who do you think will come to mind first?

Increase traffic and search engine rankings

By being a better blogger, you’ll gain more traffic through social media outlets where people share your articles and you’ll also see an increase in search engine traffic from the people who link to your articles from their blogs. There’s a reason that people like Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk and Seth Godin receive countless links, tweets, wall posts and emails promoting their articles – they’re all amazing bloggers.

Build your readers trust in you

One of the benefits of running a better blog is that you will build the trust between you and your readers. This can benefit you in a lot of ways. One way being, you will find it much easier to link out to affiliate products you believe in, which in turn will be clicked and purchased by more of your readers because they trust your judgment.

Another reason why building the trust of your readers up is something you should be doing is because at some point, you may have an offer of your own that you want to promote, or a site you want to launch – by being a better blogger and building your readers trust, you’re able to promote your product/service/website without fear that you won’t get a healthy return from the promotion.

Showcase your knowledge to potential clients

This is one that I’ve personally seen be a powerful reason to become a better blogger. For those who don’t know, I’m a regular writer on Spyre Studios – a design blog run by Jon Phillips (we interviewed him here a while back). By blogging on his website, I’ve actually had people visit my site and hire me because of the articles I’ve written there.

Not just because they seen my post, but because they found value in the articles I wrote and because they realized that I knew what I was talking about. So, build a blog that will showcase your knowledge of a specific subject – maybe write articles debunking topics that your client base generally isn’t too knowledgeable about. They’ll thank you for it.

Showcase your talents to potential clients

So, you’re a copywriter? What better way to give out a resume of what you can do and what you’ve previously done than by running a well written blog? The same goes for designers. Be a better blogger and build up a solid reader base that you discuss design topics with, but also make sure that you’re showcasing your own talent in the blog – design your blog better than you’ve ever done any other website before, make a weekly round up of cool designs and include yours, showcase a case study of a design you’ve done from start to finish like PSD Fan does.

Shamelessly self promoting will turn off your readers, so make sure you’re adding value to what you’re saying and you’re not just using your blog as a bright and flashy billboard for you and you alone.

Showcase your generosity – give selflessly

The other day, I read an article by Chris Brogan where he talked about how much he charges for a day of his time and then seen a follow up article where he talks about the negative comments from his previous post. I didn’t understand why someone who gives away free content on his blog every day, releases free ebooks and has many other low cost items you can buy would get grief about a price he charges for a day of his time.

Regardless of how this made Chris feel, he’s still pumping out amazing content and giving it away for free. He’s generous. He’s not in it just for the money. The articles he writes are published because he loves blogging. It just so happens that by giving selflessly, he’s able to charge $22,000 for a day of his time, release best seller books and run a successful company.

How to Run a Profitable Freelance Business Through Your Blog

Skellie, from Skelliewag and Tutsplus+ fame has recently released an ebook on how to run a profitable freelance business through your blog (affiliate link). It’s an ebook with amazing value and it will definitely help you better your blogging efforts and turn your time into money.

Coming from someone who turned her blogging into a machine that launched her into being the manager of the tutsplus+ network from Envato, I’d say that she definitely has some authority on the subject of turning your blogging into a business. I linked to the affiliate url above for her ebook, but you can also follow straight to the article here (no affiliate link).

A few words about me, you and this blog

I don’t want anyone here thinking that I’m trying to make money off of you by including an affiliate link or two in my posts (I’ll always include the non affiliate link as well), it’s not what I’m here for. I write Guerrilla Freelancing to share my knowledge, help out the freelancers who are still in the trenches like I am and also leave a trail of breadcrumbs along the way so that one day, I can look back and remember where I came from.

Hopefully you’ll all be there with me at the end of that road and hopefully you’ve found value in this article and the future articles I write. I try to ensure that there’s value in anything I write – and if I don’t have anything valuable to say, I won’t write anything. You deserve better than a bunch of bullshit thrown together in order to keep up a blogs post count.

Jon Phillips

Twitter | Website
When I got started I used to do everything myself, it worked for a while till I realized that I could outsource a lot of the thing I didn’t enjoy doing and then spend time on stuff I enjoy. I wish I had known that when I started out, it would’ve saved me a lot of time and probably some headaches, too

Andy Sowards

Twitter | Website

• There are only 24 hours in a day. And you are most likely going to need sleep.
• Taxes Suck.
• Personal Project time suffers.
• No income is Guaranteed.
• When you have a big project to work on, your internet gives you issues.
• Having said all of that, I still love freelancing

Steven Snell

Twitter | Website
I wish I would have known that clients tend to not take a project very seriously if they are paying low rates. When I started out I knew that learning and getting experience was more important than making money at that stage, so I did some very cheap projects. I worked with several people who wanted a website, but it seemed that since they were investing very little into it financially, they just didn’t take it seriously and put in the effort on their end that is needed to have a successful web presence. Not only did that make it more difficult for me to do a good job, but it really did a dis-service to their business because their websites weren’t as effective as they could have been. I’m not sure exactly what I would have done differently because my services weren’t worth a whole lot at that point, but I wish I would have at least understood that people tend to not value or prioritize things that are cheap. I should have done a better job communicated with those clients that if their website is to be successful and useful for their customers/visitors, they must be involved throughout the process.

Sean Baker

Twitter | Website
Things I wish I knew before starting out as a freelancer

Tax Write-Offs
You’d be amazed at the amount of things you can write-off on your taxes being an independent designer. Aside from business expenses like hardware, programs and everyday tools like fonts, there’s a whole world of things that may qualify as “research” to your business. For example, your music/MP3, movie, magazine and coffee purchases are creative outlets that may be considered for exemption if they pertain to your business or a particular project. No kidding. I was always skeptical and afraid of potential audits when I did my own taxes, so I sought a local CPA to assist me in the handling of receipts. For a CPA in your neighborhood, check out http://www.accountantsworld.com/. Save all your receipts and don’t be afraid to ask questions come tax season — you may be pleasantly surprised at how much you can claim!

Strategizing Your Time
You’re closing up your meeting with a potential client. Everything went smoothly and you think you’re about to land the job. Said client asks for your hourly rate, in which you give and explain. Unless you’re underselling your talents greatly, their next question will almost always be: “Great, and how long will it take you?” Suddenly you’re in a corner… and you’re panicked. You don’t want to scare them away, so you feel implied to answer immediately, usually shorting yourself on time simply to appease. Congratulations, you’ve just pigeonholed this project. From here you’ll either be doing some free work or you’ll run the client off once they see a higher rate than you originally gave.

It’s critical to never give a time estimate without digesting and sleeping on the specs of the project. You need time to unwind and assess the details on your own. If a client asks for a final gauge in your FIRST meeting, cordially advise them that you need time to review in order to give a fair evaluation. Tell them you don’t want to jump to conclusions and “over-shoot”. They’ll respect the fact that you’re trying to keep money in their pockets, even if all you’re really doing is watching out for yourself. From here, follow up within a few days with a “thank you” and a working estimate/contract.

Amber Weinberg

Twitter | Website
When I first started freelancing, I wish I would have known that it wasn’t as insurmountable as everyone makes self-employment out to be. I spent a lot of time at a job I hated to save up enough money for “just-in-case” and once I went out on my own, I spent a lot of sleepless nights the first month and a half, freaking out because I had zero work. After that, it’s been a lot of hard work, but it hasn’t been nearly as scary as they want you to think.

Brian Yerkes

Twitter | Website
I wish I would have known (and been prepared for the fact that) not every client is going to like your designs / concepts / ideas. I’ve been freelancing for over 4 years now, and I still struggle with hearing “We don’t like it.”.

The problem is that when it comes to being a freelancer, you tend to put a serious amount of effort and personal pride into your work, and every time you complete a concept or idea for a client, you are confident that it is the the correct one. When a client says that they don’t like it, you have to understand a few things.

1. That the client is not always right. Seriously. They just aren’t. If I was having a house built I might ask my builder to use Play-Doh. Obviously, this would not be a good idea, and as the customer, I would be terribly wrong! The builder needs to step in and tell me what correct option is. That’s why the builder is a builder and I’m not. He/She is the expert at what they do. So, sometimes when the client says that they don’t like your work, you may want to consider having the cojones to discuss the reasons why they are wrong. Often, a professional client will appreciate your confidence and your dedication to the success of their project, but unfortunately there are times when a client will just get even more upset with you and continue to tell you that you are wrong. It just takes some good judgment on what way to respond to each situation.

2. Sometimes your work just doesn’t hit the mark for what the client is looking for and what is needed for the project. This can happen for many reasons, but the important thing is to recognize it, understand the value of it, and move forward to developing better concepts. Decent clients are able to tell you why your concept doesn’t work, and why they don’t like, and this may give you an even clearer brief from which you can work from for the next concept. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and clients need to understand this.

and finally

3. You have to ensure that you don’t take it personally, ever. This is the biggest thing that I personally struggle with. When a client emails to tell me that they aren’t happy with a design, it puts me in a bad mood for a few hours. It’s the number one thing that I try to deal with better every time it happens. Fortunately, 99% of the time, my clients are happy with my work, but you can never win them all.

So, to sum up, I wish I would have known that not every client is going to love your work. If I had known that, it would be a lot easier to deal with it internally when it happens!

Chris Spooner

Twitter | Website
I wish I had known how to put across my ‘professional’ opinion as a designer. In my early days if a client wanted a change or didn’t like a particular element. I’d simply cave in and agree, then I’d not feel as happy with the final design. Nowadays I don’t think twice about offering my opinion in return, and explaining how I think my solution would work better. Often a client will agree once they hear the underlying reasons behind a particular element. At the end of the day the client has a better end product and I’m happy and satisfied with the outcome.

Brian Hoff

Twitter | Website
Having started freelancing I wish I would have known and planned out better organization and maintaining a structured work flow. Its something that I still struggle with from time to time being a one-man-show. Often when you start freelancing you only thing of how to organize your actual design work that comes through, not details such as a better system for replying and saving emails, making it easier and more efficient to get contracts/proposals out the door, saving client information that show interest in your work, as opposed to those you only work with, in additional to other areas such as schedule time to market online using Twitter, Facebook, commenting on blogs, starting a blog or writing guest articles, etc — the aspects that you overlook many of times when it comes to online marketing, but can go a long way. I actually detailed a full article on some of the ways I organize my business that has helped in recent years, titled How to effectively organize, manage and maintain your freelance design business.

Sneh Roy

Twitter | Website
Things I wish I knew when I started freelancing.

1. Thou shall always create a logo in vector format
2. Thou shall not jump through hoops for a client.
3. Thou shall not be afraid to say “No”.
4. Thou shall not crumble, falter and surrender to your client’s whims and fancies.
5. Thou shall set a wide, comfortable time line for project completion.
6. Thou shall not have a life, or evening off, or proper eating hours in the first few months.
7. Thou shall never let someone else present your work.
8. Thou shall never bow down to corporate red tape.
9. Thou shall not be afraid to increase your hourly rates.
10. Thou shall not succumb to “Just make this one change, I promise that is the last one!”

Rob E. Bowen

Twitter | Website
I wish I had known before I started freelancing that there was such a rich and active community that existed online waiting to be engaged. A community ready to help with learning and invaluable advice. Collaborations and varying degrees of other opportunities woven within this expansive base of people all a part of a larger whole. It was really cool, and a little unexpected. The community made the entire undertaking more approachable and not as maddening as I had anticipated.

The community has played a large part in my freelancing growth and success, and I think that the trepidation that slowed my entrance into this forum would have been eased considerably had I known how inviting and welcoming the waters were. So much so, that the community actually altered my initial mission that I entered with. I initially got into freelancing for the opportunity to work for myself, and I found instead, that I am working for the community. Now what I mean by that is, that I found a purpose that fit and served me better. Not that it was like the community demanded it.

So I began to focus more on working to give back to that community, and along the way, ventured in directions that I thought followed in suit with those desires, but that actually were only in that vein on the surface. So I would have to re-adjust my course from time to time, always trying to be aware of what could best serve and give back to this amazing online collective. And allowing myself to evolve and be as fluid and dynamic as the community itself. This is something I never thought would happen before I started freelancing.

I never saw this job, evolving and changing me in ways. Becoming a career of communal collaboration and inspiration. And that inspiration reaching beyond the ‘job’ part and into my creative personal work and life as well. I never knew that freelancing was more of a way of life than simply another job where the boss wasn’t as much of an asshole as I was accustomed to.

Kostandinos

Twitter | Website
I don’t take on many “freelance” projects, but I wish I would’ve known that even with a signed contract, you still have to go through the court system and pay all kinds of fees to get the ball rolling if something terrible happens… like say a client cancels a check. After $160 in court/paper costs or so and no response from a loser client, I also wish I would’ve trusted my instincts. Which leads me to this: Don’t be afraid to say “no” to a project. If I could only pass along one small piece of advice to kids starting out, and even to those who’ve been at it for a while, that’s it. Sometimes it’s really not worth it… in more ways than one. Have a bad feeling about a client? Trust your gut and walk away.

One more thing: Sometimes the most important and best projects are the ones you do for yourself, including working on your portfolio and re-branding yourself. The devil is in the details… get out your pitchforks.

What do you wish you would have known?

Let us know in the comments if there’s things you’ve learned along the way that you can pass along to the first time freelancers who may be reading this post. I know we can always learn something new – new freelancer or old, knowledge never stops.

Additional Reading: Computer Arts has an awesome article, asking 11 freelancers (freaky, huh?) what their freelance secrets are. It’s really in depth and worth checking out. Read it here

Lets get to it.

This is an easy job and I can do this myself, but…

Really? You could really do this yourself, but you just so happen to want to give the pleasure of doing your work for you to someone else, for a much cheaper rate and, why? Because you don’t have the time? Because you don’t like doing these types of tasks? I know there are those of us out there who do outsource some work, but I can guarantee you that these words have never been said by someone with an actual skill set.

What they’re really saying: I’ve never done anything like this before, but I need to make myself look smart because I think that by doing so, you’ll be scared to give me your real prices and, well, I want to make this entire process as hard on you as I can – as long as it’s great for me.

If you can hook me up this time, I’ll send you all of my future work

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this one is what freelancers as a whole see most often – the good old ‘hook me up’ phrase. You’ve got to be cautious of this type of client because they’re never out for your best interests – they’re only looking out for their own.

What they’re really saying: Well, I don’t have much money and I don’t really know anybody, but I’m going to lie and tell you I have both because I want to get something for nothing. Are you dumb enough to fall for it? The lint in my pocket sure hopes you are.

This is the perfect project for your portfolio

Here’s a good one. This is the one where the client seems to think he knows what’s best for you and your portfolio. They just know that the work you’ll do for them will be so fantastic that you’ll want to feature it in your portfolio. This is wrong for a couple of reasons.

One, this is a red flag that they’re the type of client who thinks they know what’s best. Trust me, it only gets worst from here. This is also a red flag because they’re going to be expecting the type of work you’ll want to feature – killer work, but they’ll rarely have the budget to go with it.

What they’re really saying:Hey buddy, I know that you’ve got a good portfolio but I want you to bleed over your keyboard in order to make my work the best you’ve ever done. Oh, and did I mention that my budget is about half of what you’re used to? It’s ok though because the website will look really good in your portfolio.

It should only take an experienced person an hour

This is one of the things I see most often. I’m guessing there’s an unwritten rule somewhere that states you must put this in your job listing or initial contact email in order to ensure that you’re getting the best price possible.

What they’re really saying: I don’t really know anything about what I need done, but what I do know is that I want it done for really cheap, so I’m going to convince you that it’s only a small project – even though you know better.

I don’t have a large budget but I can help promote your site

This one is kind of a two-for-one when it comes to buzz kill phrases. They’re usually said all at one time like this, but don’t let them fool you if they’re said alone (I don’t have a large budget) and (I can help promote your site) are both individual phrases that should be avoided at all costs.

What they’re really saying: I want to get my work done for really cheap and in order to get that done, I’ll tell you that I know people and/or can get you tons of exposure.

What do you think?

Are there ones we’re missing? Let me know in the comments if you’ve ran across any of these buzz kill phrases before or if you’ve got some that aren’t listed – I know there’s got to be more.

How to secretly find your competitors pricing

If you’ve looked around online to find out what exact prices are that people charge for the work you do and haven’t found solid figures, there’s a couple of ways you can find out. The first way is to check out Freelance Switch’s Freelance Statistic’s Report. It cost $19.99 and has a ton of information inside of it.

But what if you’ve looked that over and you want a more real-world approach (ie: knowing what the person does for a living, their quality of work and the exact prices they charge for the same work you’d be doing)? It’s as easy as sending an email.

Here’s what you do

The first thing you’ll need to do is set up a personal email account – one that isn’t attached to your business. Do not reference your business in the email name or anywhere in the email (signature).

After you’ve set the email address up, think of a project that you’d like to find out pricing on. For web designers, get a few links together to websites you like and put together an email requesting something that looks similar to those in style. For logo designers and print designers, adjust your emails according to your profession.

Make sure your email is as close to what you’d be doing as possible, this way you can find out exactly what other people are charging for the same work.

Now, find 10-15 of the top people in your industry and send them the emails; then you wait. Once you get responses from them, you can go over their emails, read their quotes and find out what they charge. At this point, you’ve got a solid base as to what the others in your industry charge for the work you will be doing.

An example email you can send

Below is a sample email that you can tailor to fit your needs.

Hey (insert name),

I was just checking out your site and I love your work. I’ve been thinking of starting a website recently and I wanted to know what the pricing would be for something like this:

I am in need of a blog design that looks similar to the following websites

• Website Name
• Another website
• Third website name

The main idea behind my site is that I want to discuss (insert topic here) and would like to have some social media integration (insert other options here).

A price quote for something like this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
(insert name)

And that’s all there is to it. Within a week or so, you could get anywhere from 10-50 quotes, depending on how many people you actually contact.

What do you think – is this a clever idea or too ’sneaky’?

Let us know in the comments what you think. Some might think the idea is a bit too ’sneaky’ while others look at it like a clever opportunity to find out real world pricing for their projects.

This article is going to cover everything from the initial idea that I had inside of my over active creative mind, to the point of launch (just a few hours ago) and what I envision for the future of the start up. If you’ve launched a start up in the past, I would love if you could shed some light on your process in the comments and for those of you who haven’t launched a start up yet, any questions you have would be awesome to see in the comments.

The initial idea

Around June of last year I wrote a post on WP Guerrilla about the top 10 wordpress theme providers and mentioned that I was tossing around the idea of a wordpress theme site myself. Realistically, I had been thinking about it for about a year prior to that. I am a freelance blog designer and the transition into a wordpress theme start up seems like a logical move in expanding my revenue, so I thought about it; then quickly stopped thinking about it. A few months went by before I actually started really thinking about it and putting plans into action.

The brainstorming and planning

When I really started putting things into a notebook and started hammering out the details, I felt like I was on top of the world. I had a lot of ideas and a lot of special ways to make my site ‘different’ than the other theme sites. I bought a moleskine notebook and started using it – a lot. I planned out the domain name, which was an extension of the Guerrilla network I was trying to build. The original domain name, GuerrillaThemes.com was purchased, set up and had a splash page put onto it within a matter of a few minutes.

And then the waiting began. I got caught up in client work and lost sight of the site again. A month or so went by and I started really putting the marketing together. I planned a huge launch for January 1st 2010 and promoted it heavily via twitter, facebook and email. And then I got a twitter message that asked me why I was copying Gorilla Themes.

The first road block

After thinking things through and even though the Guerrilla Themes name was built off of the brand I was trying to establish, I realized that in general conversation, the two names were identical, regardless of spelling. I talked it over with Brian Gardner and also spoke with Carlos from Gorilla Themes and decided to make a transition into a new theme company name. After all, I hadn’t launched yet and there wouldn’t be much trouble moving things around.

I wrote a post on the WP Guerrilla site detailing my move from the old name to the new name and made sure to detail my reasons why. If you’d like to read more about that, you can head over to read it.

The (almost) early ending

After I set up Giant Themes and got the ball rolling with it, I slipped back into the normalcy of client work and forgot about Giant Themes. When the deadline of January 1st came closer, I realized that I wouldn’t have the time to launch properly – so I didn’t. January 2nd rolled around, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th. After the first week of January, I started rethinking it totally. I felt beat down. I felt like I lost any steam I had built up previously and started daydreaming about other projects. If this sounds crazy to you, you should read the comments on the over active creative mind article I wrote on Spyre Studios – I am not alone in this.

The rejuvenation & those who helped

After breaking down one night from all of the pressure and talking with my girlfriend for about 3 hours, just venting all of my frustrations and fears, I felt a lot calmer. It was a great feeling. I knew what I had to do at this point and Giant Themes was definitely a part of it.

After that evening, I spoke with Jon from Spyre Studios through email and vented a bit more – and I have to thank him for not laughing at me or calling me crazy, because I’m sure the emails I sent off to him were a bit haywire. After 5-6 back-and-forth emails, I had a 100% clear plan in mind. I had around 80-90% of the Giant Themes site done and knew that a good day’s work on it would complete it. So I did it.

The launch

I officially launched Giant Themes at Midnight on February 8th 2010. It was a great feeling. When I sent out the tweets and facebook messages, I immediately got feedback – all of it positive. It was an amazing feeling, one that I cannot describe to you. Within the first 12 hours, I’ve had 500 hits to the site and the page views are over 3 pages per person. I’m happy with this result. I didn’t expect 10,000 visitors in one day. I’m right where I expected to be.

The one thing that did kind of set me back emotionally was the fact that not one sale has been made up to this point. I know it’s a numbers game, and the more people who visit your site, the more chances you have of making a sale, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for a sale or two today.

The future…

My plan is to continue to grow the site, grow the available themes and also use the blog to generate traffic by releasing freebies (texture packs, icon sets, ect) and also writing tutorials for wordpress and xhtml/css in general. I’m hoping that this helps the traffic keep flowing and the sales start coming in.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I’d love to know your thoughts on Giant Themes and the iSocialize theme that I’ve got for sale.

It’s one hell of a ride, but one that I wouldn’t give back. The only thing I’d change is that I would have done this all a hell of a lot sooner. Lesson learned – if you want to do it, do it. It’s that simple.

Illustrators are some of the most talented people that I know. I’ve admired illustration work for years and I have dabbled in drawing since I was very, very young, but the quality of artwork that some of the top illustrators put out today is simply baffling. So, starting out as an illustrator, what can you do to get yourself noticed and slide into a top spot in the food chain? Today’s article is going to go over ten guerrilla marketing tactics that you as an illustrator can use.

Below you will find ten guerrilla marketing tactics that I have geared towards illustrators, but I am sure that even designers, writers and photographers could utilize some of them as well (for those who we haven’t covered yet, I promise you that the articles are coming).

1. Comic Strips – Why don’t you take a bit of time and build a free comic strip and release it online (daily/weekly/monthly)? You can see N.C. Winters work all over the Tuts+ network and I’m sure that he’s received a lot of additional work because of it.
2. Guerrilla Sticker Placements – Designing stickers can seem like it’s counter productive because your client base isn’t “into” stickers, but if you utilize them by placing them in off the wall places (ie: above a urinal for example), you can get recognized by more eyes than ever, as well as be featured in articles around the web that showcases guerrilla marketing examples (like, on this website for example).
3. Write illustrator tutorials – not only will you get paid (for writing articles for websites like vectuts) but you’ll also get your name out to thousands of people online.
4. Design Skateboards – Not only will doing this give you the opportunity to make some extra income, but it will also allow you to showcase your work in a lot of places (skateboards hit the town on a regular basis). Places like deck peck are great places to allow your designs to be sold on skateboards, with no effort on your end to make them (they do all of the heavy lifting).
5. Pick a niche and draw it – If you’d like more illustration work for your business and would like to grab someones attention, why not draw the top 5-10 people in a specific niche? Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Leo Babauta and others would be a good place to start. Run a series of them on your blog, and who knows who might see them and want your services.
6. Design a tattoo – This can work on your own skin, or the skin of a friend or relative. If you’ve designed an awesome tattoo, people are bound to ask questions about it when they see it – giving you the perfect opportunity to say “oh, I designed it because I’m a freelance illustrator – here’s my card”.
7. T-Shirts for Sale – This is another guerrilla marketing tactic for illustrators that also has the side benefit of making you some revenue through the actual pieces you create. Design By Humans, Threadless and many other t-shirt websites allow you to submit designs and sell your t-shirts while being noticed by an entirely new audience.
8. Color by numbers – Here’s an off the wall way to get people involved in what you do – create the line art for a color by numbers drawing that people can either digitally color, or color on paper by printing it out. Make sure your logo and website link is at the bottom of the page, and you’re sure to get people to check out your site.
9. Sell Stock Art – Why not? The more you sell, the more you make, the more people talk about you, the more work you get. It seems like a logical step, right? You could also give away free vector files on your own website, which will help send traffic in your direction.
10. Social Media Interaction – No, not twitter and facebook. I mean, places like DeviantArt, Flickr and other design related social media websites. Set up your profiles on all of them, chat with some people there and make friends, and constantly update your profiles with new illustrations you’ve done. Do not limit yourself to just your actual portfolio, generate a buzz in these places as much as possible.

What do you think?

Any of these guerrilla marketing tactics seem like something you can utilize for your business? Let us know in the comments. And make sure you keep an eye out for upcoming guerrilla marketing tactics articles for freelance writers, photographers and more.

I’ve been pushing around the idea of starting my own design blog for months now and decided to do a bit of research to see what the top design blogs actually make in revenue. Since I know that the blog will be focused on ad revenue and not just pushing my web design business, I wanted to gauge what types of money could be made with the blog and how much traffic I’d have to hit in order to get to certain cash milestones.

The trend I see in a lot of the top design blogs out there are the use of the service Buy Sell Ads – we even use it here on Guerrilla Freelancing (our listing is here). It’s a great service and it allows advertisers to find the sites they’d like to buy ads from, get approved and placed in front of millions of people.

The beauty of it for the site owners is that they don’t have to manually ad the codes in each time a new ad is purchased and remove them once the month is up. As a publisher, you earn 75% of the ad revenue, so you’re getting a great deal (in my opinion) because you no longer have to focus on selling the ads, managing them and so on.

Please bare in mind that these stats are only for the publicly sold ads on their sites and do not reflect their earnings from private advertising purchases, reviews and other forms of advertisements like feedburner links/ads, google adsense, and so on. So, lets get to it – what do these blogs actually make in revenue?

PSDTuts+

• Estimated Impressions: 6,230,000
• How many ad spaces?: 12
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 9
• Revenue: $9,893.25

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Abduzeedo

• Estimated Impressions: 5,999,000
• How many ad spaces?: 46
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 38
• Revenue: $4,650

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Hongkiat

• Estimated Impressions: 3,395,000
• How many ad spaces?: 12
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 12
• Revenue: $2,475

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Nettuts+

• Estimated Impressions: 2,225,000
• How many ad spaces?: 13
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 10
• Revenue: $4,785.25

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Creattica

• Estimated Impressions: 2,025,000
• How many ad spaces?: 10
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 9
• Revenue: $1,987.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Vectortuts+

• Estimated Impressions: 1,830,000
• How many ad spaces?: 11
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 10
• Revenue: $3,940.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Web Designer Depot

• Estimated Impressions: 1,660,000
• How many ad spaces?: 13
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 11
• Revenue: $4,181.25

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Smashing Apps

• Estimated Impressions: 1,630,000
• How many ad spaces?: 30
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 23
• Revenue: $1,991.25

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Six Revisions

• Estimated Impressions: 1,505,000
• How many ad spaces?: 12
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 9
• Revenue: $4,357.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Web Design Ledger

• Estimated Impressions: 1,415,000
• How many ad spaces?: 14
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 13
• Revenue: $3,225

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Instant Shift

• Estimated Impressions: 1,305,000
• How many ad spaces?: 11
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 10
• Revenue: $1,275.00

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Vandelay Website Design

• Estimated Impressions: 1,135,000
• How many ad spaces?: 12
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 12
• Revenue: $2,512.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

CSS Tricks

• Estimated Impressions: 1,105,000
• How many ad spaces?: 12
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 11
• Revenue: $2,887.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

1st Web Designer

• Estimated Impressions: 1,085,000
• How many ad spaces?: 21
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 14
• Revenue: $2,287.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Speckyboy Design Magazine

• Estimated Impressions: 1,080,000
• How many ad spaces?: 46
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 18
• Revenue: $2,251.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Tutorial9

• Estimated Impressions: 1,050,000
• How many ad spaces?: 21
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 19
• Revenue: $2,647.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Bittbox

• Estimated Impressions: 1,025,000
• How many ad spaces?: 6
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 6
• Revenue: $2,193.75

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

DesignM.ag

• Estimated Impressions: 855,000
• How many ad spaces?: 10
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 10
• Revenue: $1,275.00

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Web Resources Depot

• Estimated Impressions: 820,000
• How many ad spaces?: 4
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 3
• Revenue: $618.75

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Web Designer Wall

• Estimated Impressions: 815,000
• How many ad spaces?: 10
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 8
• Revenue: $2,775.00

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Blog.SpoonGraphics

• Estimated Impressions: 815,000
• How many ad spaces?: 9
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 7
• Revenue: $1,912.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Naldz Graphics

• Estimated Impressions: 520,000
• How many ad spaces?: 13
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 8
• Revenue: $693.75

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Marcofolio

• Estimated Impressions: 440,000
• How many ad spaces?: 9
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 8
• Revenue: $352.50

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

GoMediaZine

• Estimated Impressions:
• How many ad spaces?: 32
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 14
• Revenue: $903.75

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

Spyre Studios

• Estimated Impressions: 300,000
• How many ad spaces?: 8
• Total ads sold (as of 01/28/10): 7
• Revenue: $480.00

Website Link | BuySellAds Listing

What are you waiting for?

There’s a world of advertisers out there who are just waiting to place their ads on your site. Build it, put all of the passion you have into it and watch it grow. Do not expect to hit these numbers overnight – but in time, you can definitely top this list.

I’m sure every freelancer with a year or more under their belt can tell a horror story about how they’ve lost files, contacts or other important documents because they weren’t careful enough to back things up and make sure there was a security system in place for their business – myself included.

So in today’s article I want to discuss the many ways you can back up your freelance life – and why you should. We’ll be covering offline back ups, online back ups and back ups that are a mixture of technology and a bit of good old fashioned business sense. One of the main reasons I am writing this article is because of a recent issue I had, and a restless, sleepless night that followed, which caused me to jump into high gear and get things set up for myself and my business.

The peace of mind that comes with it is priceless, I assure you.

First, lets look at some offline backups

The first thing I want to discuss is the one item that caused me so much headache and worry – offline back ups of your files. You know, those important files like Photoshop designs for your clients, contracts, stock images you’ve spent months (or years) compiling, brushes, fonts and so on.

So, how can you back your files up and ensure that you’re safe, regardless of what happens?

External hard drives

Yes, I said drives with an S attached to the end of it. I recommend getting two, and here’s why. The first one you get can be the one you back up your files on every night. This one will be your main source of back up and will be somewhere close to your desk (I have mine sitting on my desk next to my speakers).

The second hard drive will be the one that you back up to weekly or even monthly if you want to, but you’re going to keep this one in a special place – inside of a fire proof safe. This way, if for some horrible reason your house catches on fire, you’re files are still safe. They’ve got water proof & fire proof safes you can purchase at places like Wal-Mart for pretty cheap (under $100) which is what I’d recommend doing.

As for the type of hard drive you need, this is the one I just bought recently (I still have to get my safe and second hard drive) – a WD My Book Essential 500GB – (no affiliate link). It’s awesome, easy to set up and use and is small, so it doesn’t clutter my work area at all. Of course, you’ll want to look around and see which one will be best for you, but I’ve heard a lot of positive reviews about this one.

Paper documents and filing cabinets

I’ve had a 2 section filing cabinet in my office for around a year now, and it’s been a junk drawer for the entire time. Last week, I emptied it out, bought the hanging folders with tabs for naming them and sectioned off 10-15 folders. By doing this, I’m able to save any sketches I create for client website designs, save documents and files that I’ve had to sign and also keep track of bills and other various items that come in paper format.

I also bought my filing cabinet from Wal-Mart (I’m from the country, what do you expect – we love this place) for about $40.00 and it’s been a great investment. You can get your filing cabinet from anywhere – IKEA, Office Max, or any stores in your local area. They’re inexpensive, but are great for keeping copies of all of your documents.

More back ups outside of your house

Do you have a friend or family member that you can trust? Why not get more back ups of your files (hard drives, paper documents, ect) and take them over to their house for safe keeping. You never can be too safe these days. If you don’t really want to entrust your friends or family with the files, you can always buy a storage container or a safe deposit box at a bank.

So where are all the online backups?

Now that you’ve (hopefully) taken care of the offline back ups, it’s time to look into backing things up online. Why do both? You can never be too safe, that’s why. You’ll be mad at yourself forever when your computer crashes and you lose 6-12 months worth of work and downloads. Trust me, it is not fun. Backing files up online can actually be pretty easy and there’s a couple ways you can do it.

Backup services

If you’re looking for a company that has an app for your computer that backs up the files for you automatically, this is the solution you’ll like the most. There are free solutions out there that can back up up to 2gb of files for you as well as paid options with much higher space. A couple of great companies to check out are found below.

• iDrive – 2GB for free / 150GB for $4.95 per month
• Spideroak – 2GB for free / $100+ GB for $10.00 per month

The beauty of these types of back up systems is that they have automatic back ups, so you’re able to set it for a time when you’re not on the computer (3-4am) and it will back up your files for you.

Your own hosting account

If you’ve got a good host and you’ve got a lot of extra space, this solution could be great for you. A simple way to back up your files here is to create a folder with a random name (something like 534dfdf56sdfg would work, as you can easily find it in your cpanel or ftp, but don’t need to link anyone to it or remember the exact name). Once you’ve created it, start uploading your folders if important items, just like you would if you were transferring them to an external hard drive or online storage service like we talked about above.

How do YOU back up your freelance life?

Now I turn it over to you, my kick ass readers (and 1,005 subscribers – we hit this milestone today – THANK YOU!) to see what you do in order to back up your freelance life. I know I can learn some things from you, so drop a comment and let me know what special ways you back up your freelance life.

The topics covered are of a wide variety (business, marketing, designing, networking, ect) and should be saved for a time you can sit down and read through them. They’ve given a lot of readers some valuable information and I want to bring them back to the forefront today to showcase them for the new readers here (and those of us who may have been here for a while, but have forgotten about them).

And now, for the list (in no particular order).

145 Must read FREE business related e-books

49 Motivational quotes to kick yourself in the ass

20 Branding tips using only social media

20 Freelance stereotypes: From personal to work life

Building your freelance design business for only $25.00

10 guerrilla marketing tactics for designers

15 draw backs to working as a full time freelancer

15 benefits to working as a full time freelancer

Marketing tips from Adolf Hitler

Information Overload: When is it time to start DOING and stop THINKING?

10 must have blackberry apps for web workers

Marketing tips from Charles Manson

The high school freelancer: $30K per year before graduating?

Profitable Passion: Getting paid to do what you love

10 things your college degree won’t do for your business

Business Basics: Managing your clients and money

10 guerrilla marketing tips using your business cards

Get paid more (per client) and work less hours

8 things you should know when starting your freelance business

5 similarities between freelancing and weight lifting

What’s your favorite?

Did I miss one that you liked, or is there one in this list that stands out the most to you? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from the readers here about what you’d like to read more of – so let me know what I need to write more of