Archive for May, 2008
When it comes to the summer, I love to have a good book around. I’m a thriller man myself so I’ll usually go for a John Grisham, James Patterson, Nelson DeMille type of read. However, since last summer I’ve started seeking books provoking thought through my work. I’ll go for graphic design books, blogging books, music books, something other than your regular holiday fiction.
If I’m shopping for books, I’ll grab something from Amazon.com or Play.com (free shipping if you’re living in the UK or Ireland).
Here’s a list of books I’ve been looking at recently. If you’ve got any suggestions or comments on the titles (if ou’ve read them), I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Books For Freelancers
- What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants
by Laurie Lewis for $19.95
- The Free Agent Marketing Guide: 100+ Marketing Tips for Free Agents, Independent Consultants, and Freelancers (Successful Independent, 2)
by Douglas Florzak for $18.95
- Going Solo: The Best Resources for Entrepreneurs & Freelancers
new from $8.95
- Freelancing Made Simple
by Larry E. Hand for around $1.90 (seems pretty cheap price-wise though there’s a bit of reading in it.)
- Six-Figure Freelancing
by Kelly James-Enger for $10.17
While I can get so much information from blogs, I’ll still find it nice (while we still have the chance) to shut off for a half hour and steal some time with a book. Want to help me pick one worth reading? Or failing any of the titles on the list, have you something I should add to the list for other readers? Let me know.
Popularity: 14% [?]
The title for the post comes from the track ‘In Every Sunflower
My reason for choosing is simple, but has nothing to do with books.
The fact is, my blogs have more draft posts than posts. In recent weeks, I’ve found myself starved for time here and there so I start a blog post, save it as a draft, but forget to come back to it or decide to hold off publishing the post until it is just right.
It is handy in a way, I can get so far into a post and save off as a draft (a feature which if rumours are to be believed, will be seriously enhanced in the release of version 2.6 of Wordpress thanks to the addition of post revisions as well as drafts), returning to complete the post at my leisure.
If an idea for a post springs into my head and I don’t happen to have my notepad and pen nearby (vital tools for a blogger or designer), I’ll fire open Wordpress, add a title to a new post, get all my ideas down in some kind of point form, then save to a draft.
Of course, it’s the coming back to publish the posts that is the problem. I had commented on a post earlier in the week (thanks Candy) how procrastination can be a nightmare when it comes to blogging and working online and I’ve got a full post coming out of draft form soon enough for that too. At times I feel the draft feature increases the opportunity for posts to be put “on the long finger” or gives rise to a new level of procrastination in writing.
On the flip side, it’s great to be able to log into your blog and see a massive array of posts and ideas building up, just waiting to bubble to the surface.
Want to grab a copy of the track? Click the link below to pick up the MP3 from Amazon. If you listen to the one track, you’ll want the whole album. Fantastic band and a fantastic album in the shape of ‘Music In Mouth’.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Today marks the fifth birthday of Wordpress, possibly the largest blogging platform on the web.
It all started back on May 27th 2003 with the release of version 0.7. It was about 12 months on from there that I started to use Wordpress on a regular basis myself, running a now-long-forgotten security blog. Having used WP from that early stage, it’s been fantastic to see the blogging platform change and evolve on all points aesthetic, technical and functional.
The Wordpress community continues to grow with more people than ever offering free themes and plugins, Wordpress support, while premium Wordpress development has been able to create steady income streams for many a theme developer.
If you’re new to Wordpress altogether, check Wordpress.com to sign up for a free hosted blog, or visit Wordpress.org to download your own copy to install on a server.
For those of you living in or willing to travel to San Francisco, there’s a 9pm kick off for a party at 111 Minna with more details available here.
Popularity: 49% [?]
I arrive back after a few days away, happily recharged and ready to approach another week. I couldn’t even let the fact that I had to travel to the Big Smoke (Dublin) for a day on Friday, drive to Mayo on Saturday, set up for (and perform) a packed gig on Saturday night and hit the road at 6:30am this morning sway me.
Why?
Because I got to spend time away from everything else - no internet, no laptop, a mobile phone on silent (though I did field one call and a few messages over the weekend) with the philosophy that “everything else can wait”.
I can’t stress enough the importance of and the value of taking time out for yourself. The opportunities that I’ve developed for myself over the past 3-4 years means I’m open to working around the clock - eight hours in the office, three hours in the theatre, time spent over music, promotions, gigs etc. I’ve been looking for an eighth day in the week but it’s just not happening.
However, making sure you take time out for yourself and yourself alone can make all the difference in allowing you to refocus your energies and get a firm grip on the weeks ahead. In my case I know that this weekend gone is my only “free” weekend until July at a minimum so I certainly made the most of it.
As a result, I’m heading into this week well rested, refocused and ready for the tasks ahead.
Some of those tasks include emptying my growing list of draft blog posts for Pro Freelance Blogger!
Popularity: 14% [?]
Switching off from the design work and letting the dust settle in the aftermath of Thursday’s blogging course, I’m taking off for the weekend and as reading I’m bringing with me a copy of Darren Rowse’ and Chris Garret’s (which I’ve mentioned before) new book, ‘Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income‘ which arrived in the post earlier this week. It was a relative bargain of a buy so you can’t really say no.
Provided I can find the time to read it, I’ll have some feedback on the book over the next week or two, see what all the hype is about.
In the last few months I’ve become more acquainted with the thought of taking time off for myself, away from work, away from clients, switching off the phone and getting out in the air. While I haven’t managed to sort out any kind of official holiday, taking a few days out this weekend should do me the world of good to recharge the batteries and tackle the extremely busy month of June that lies ahead.
Enjoy your weekend.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Smashing Magazine made a great post yesterday highlighting 40 free icon sets for web design and there’s some terrific icons and graphics included in the sets.
There’s plenty to choose from including
- Old School Icon Pack (82 icons)
- Circular Icons (100+ in 16×16 size)
- Social Web buttons (these look great, 20 in all)
- Bright! Icons (free for personal and commercial use)
- Monofactor Icon Set (25 scalable Illustrator format icons)
The above are some of my favourite from the collection published yesterday.
Check out the full post of icon sets on SmashingMagazine.com.
Popularity: 20% [?]
I was reading a post over at Direct Creative yesterday which echoes one of my own sentiments when it comes to work life, primarily that success begins with mindset.
Having been working for myself for a few years now, one of the most important things you’ll learn is that to be successful at the things you are doing, you’ve got to be in a successful state of mind and if this is something you’re not used to, you’ll need to find the way to put yourself in a successful state of mind.
That means approaching your work with confidence, visualising the route to the solution and visualising the rewards, whether personal or financial, that await you at the finish line.
There’s a post-it at home that someone (not me) left on my fridge. On it is the following, repeated many times around the world.
As you think, so you are. As you dream, so you become. As you create your wishes, so they create you.
If you think you will struggle as a freelancer, think that you will worry about the bills, worry about clients, obtaining work - then you will. But if you’ve got the confidence in your abilities to make that important move and go out on your own then you’re already a step ahead of the rest. If you believe that you will be successful at your work and you have the skills to make it happen then you’re further ahead again.
Yes, it can be daunting going out on your own and there’s times in the past where I’ve wondered how things will be looking 2-3 months down the road, or thought about where the next job is coming from. But I never changed my outlook on things that the road I was taking would be a successful one, again with great personal and financial awards.
As Dean says in his post, success begins with mindset, all you have to do is get yourself in the successful state of mind.
Popularity: 13% [?]
So this morning’s blog talk seemed to go reasonably well, or I would hope it went reasonably well anyway. I’ll have some feedback on the course later in the week when the dust has settled but it was great to get out and meet some new bloggers, particularly those involved in the arts.
As promised, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation and emailing out additional notes to those fifteen or so who had attended this morning’s session.
Here’s looking forward to the arrival of new blogs and futher development of existing ones in the coming weeks and months. Best of luck to you on your blogging adventures.
Popularity: 14% [?]
The Blogging For Beginners course I’m giving kicks off in just under two hours time. With an audience primarily of artists and creative types, several of whom will be completely new to the world of blogging, I’m looking forward to the run of the morning.
We’ve got ourselves almost four hours to talk about blogs and blogging, how they can benefit your creative practice, how easily you can get yourself set up with a blog, how to promote your blog, connect with other bloggers and lots more.
I’ll report back with feedback over the coming days and hopefully with a list of new arts blogs for my feed reader. I’ll also be publishing the course material I’ve put together to continue the ‘Blogging For Beginners’ series of posts to date.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Before the weekend, I discovered that SitePoint are giving away a free (as in forever - or at least for the next 23 days at time of writing) copy of Corrie Haffly’s ‘The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques‘.
Some of the tips included in the book are
- Design attractive web graphics
- Touch up photographs for web use
- Create web site mockups using Photoshop
- Improve your digital workflow
- Master menus, buttons and background tiles
- Use nondestructive editing techniques
I’m a lover of all things photoshop and when it comes to design I’ve been building quite a collection of ebooks so I’ve already added this one to my collection. If you’re a beginner to working in Photoshop or you’re a graphic designer looking to brush up on your Photoshop skills then give it a look. There’s more of an emphasis on working for the web rather than print as well which is a bonus in itself.
Who should read the book? As they say themselves - “Every web designer who uses Photoshop to produce web graphics needs a copy of this book. Whether you’re relatively inexperienced, or you already have a host of sites in your portfolio, you’ll find countless useful examples, techniques, tips, and tricks that you can apply immediately to your own designs in this book.”
You can’t argue with getting a 278-page book for free! Save yourself the bones of $30 and grab it while you can.
Click here to visit SitePoint for your download.
Popularity: 13% [?]
