If, as a designer, you’ve been looking for a little creative inspiration, then take a look at this article from Web Designer Wall on 2008 Design Trends.

I’m a big fan of those who go out of their way to put a unique twist, look or feel on their blog design and some of the designs are quite staggering in their display.

There’s a fantastic selection of themes ranging from grunge to handwritten notes, paper clips, retro and vintage designs, splattered ink layouts, watercolours, sketches and more.

Check the above link or alternatively check an even bigger collection at the Best Web Gallery.

It feels great to be inspired!

Popularity: 27% [?]

One question to ask yourself before embarking on a freelance career is “how well do you work on your own?”.

This can be looked on from two perspectives.

Firstly, when you’re left to your own devices, how likely are you to press on with work at hand. If you’re currently in an office environment or working with a group of people and you find you’re the only one in the room, are you likely to maintain you’re current work level or slack off a bit, starting browsing the web, maybe dip into an online game or two? Would you get distracted easily or look for a distraction?

Secondly, are you fond of your own company? While you might be able to press ahead with the work, are you too much of a people-person to be able to work on your own? Do you need the company of others around you, the human interaction?

Working on my own is something I adjusted to rather quickly and entering the world of work as a freelance anything (designer, writer, photographer), I think you’ve got to get used to working on your own a lot. It’s not a scare tactic to put you off working for yourself, but I’ve found over the last few years that you do spend a lot of time working by yourself.

Of course, if you do need the water-cooler morning chats, you could look at something like co-working or hot-desking in a local business centre.

When you’ve been a few days on a particular job and haven’t seen sunlight, you’ll want to hope you’re good company to yourself!

Me? My CD collection keeps me going.

Popularity: 24% [?]

After waiting a while for a beta account (to no joy), I was happy to discover at the weekend that QIK.com has been opened to the public (and has had a bit of a facelift since v1 of the site).

I’ve been following a number of bloggers via QIK over the last couple of months and have to say that I’m extremely impressed with what’s been delivered. At the core of things, QIK installs as an application on your mobile phone (I’m using the Nokia N95 8GB) and allows you to stream video direct from your handset.

For this it is recommended that you have either

• an unlimited data plan with your mobile provider
• or a WiFi internet access point

given the large nature of streaming video content.

Further to that, you can also tie in with online networks like Blogger, Twitter, Pownce, YouTube, Seesmic and others to cross-post your QIK videos, with Twitter being used to alert your followers that you’re currently streaming and invite them into the conversation.

QIK also supports comments on archived videos as well as live chat on streaming videos, so the longer you stream, the higher the chances of getting into a conversation or being able to to-and-fro on points of your video. They’ve also just been nominated as one of the best mobile application companies at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2008 awards. It also turns out you can run QIK from your iPhone.

At present I’m testing the service on a home/office WiFi node though an unlimited data plan would certainly make things more flexible for me as a potential long-term user. I’m also exploring options on using mobile video streaming to enhance the work I do with bands, gigs and the theatre. Let’s see how that goes.

Sign up for free and give it a try yourself at QIK.com or keep an eye on my profile here.

Popularity: 26% [?]

About ten years ago I was given a brilliant piece of advice…

If you don’t have confidence, fake it

The idea being that if you can’t be confident, at the very least you could pretend you’re confident. If success breeds success then confidence certainly breeds confidence. The more people can see from an outward perspective that you appear visibly confident in the work you do, the more confidence they have in you.

Eventually you’ll realise that you’re no longer faking it and you’re entirely confident in the work you do.

You’re not lying to yourself, you’re simply using other people’s confidence in yourself to build your own self-confidence. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Popularity: 20% [?]

I’m looking to put together a list of freelance Wordpress theme developers who have experience in or have developed music-centric themes for Wordpress, namely themes for bands or musicians.

You wouldn’t need to worry about content or anything that goes into the site, so long as you can deliver a theme based on a short brief from the band (colours, music genre, etc.) and make allowances for the MP3 player plugin of your choosing. Unless specific to your theme, you need not worry about additional plugins as they can be catered for after the fact.

If you fit the bill and would like to get your name on the list (the list would be used in conjunction with a project I’m currently working on) as a possible go-to designer then email me (ken at profreelanceblogger dot com), contact me here, or leave a comment with your details including

• 3-5 samples of previous work
• Expected turnaround (hours / days)
• Cost per theme

If you don’t want to disclose these details in public comments then I’m happy to get them by email.

Popularity: 24% [?]

If there’s something I’ve found effective for promoting for offline enterprises, it has to be custom tshirts. I’ve got no problem in walking down the street as a human billboard for my own wares - get a name on the front and my URL on the back and I’m sorted, especially in the summer.

For me it relates more to music and events that I organise. I’ll get the name of the event or organistation printed up on the front of the tshirt and the vitals on the back. Going for a front and back print at least I know that those walking in front of me and behind me have something to see!

Whats more is you’ll know you’re on a winner with your tshirt when someone comes up asking where they can buy some - now you’ve the possibility of a new revenue stream.

Where To Go For Custom Clothes

Two online services I’ve been using over the past few years are Spreadshirt and Cafepress, both of whom I’ve had great success with in the printing of custom tshirts. Outside of tshirts, both offer additional items like bags, cups, pens, clocks, mousemats, all the things you could give away (or sell) in promotion of your own blog, gig, book, business or event.

Both services offer an easy upload feature too for your designs, though I will admit I found Cafepress.com that bit easier thanks to the ability to upload PNG images for designs with no turnaround (uploading a vector image on Spreadshirt can take up to 48 hours for approval / denial).

You can also use the interactive designers on the site - drag and drop free custom images and designs, different styles of text and font and place your order once you’re done.

Find me at a gig or event or strolling around town in the run up to a gigI’m running then I’m likely to have one of my own tees on me. In fact, I’m already working on a new batch of tshirts for MyMusicPR. If you’re a social person and like to get out and about, then don’t overlook the opportunity using yourself as a walking billboard for your business!

Popularity: 25% [?]

I don’t subscribe to too many mailing lists (I prefer my content delivered via RSS) but one mailing list I do subscribe to is that of Marketing Mentor’s Ilise Benun who informs me that the first ever Creative Freelancer Conference is to be held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago this coming August 27-29. They’re also blogging about it here.

If you’re in the Chicago area, living in the States or up for a trip, this could be a conference to keep an eye on. I wonder did they see any of the coverage of Going Solo in Switzerland earlier this summer.

The conference itself is aimed at freelance designers, photographers, writers or anyone in the creative arts sector currently making a living or looking to make a living through freelance work and over the course of the Wednesday (27th) to Friday (29th) you’ll be treated to sessions on the likes of

• Secrets of a Successful Solopreneur
• How to Get Clients to Fall in Love With You (And Be Loyal Forever)
• How to Talk to Your Clients about Fees
• A Quick and Dirty Look at Proposals and Contracts
• How to Find the Time to Build Your Freelance Business
• Reaping the Rewards of Creative Independence

and more besides.

The conference is open for registration at present for the cost of US$435 (about €279), not bad considering it’s a three day event. Speakers over the sessions include Ilise Benun, Joan Gladstone, Lloyd Dangle and Dyana Valentine. There’s plenty of time for networking, breakfast roundtables, one-on-one sessions and critiques and it looks to be shaping up to be a pretty good event for freelancers in general.

I’ll be following the blog though I’d be hoping there would be some Twitter / Jaiku coverage live from Chicago over the three day period. Check CreativeFreelancerConference.com for all the details.

Popularity: 28% [?]

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve just put the finishing touches to My Music Artists International, which (well, is not quite finished) is operating in stealth mode for the next week or two. Last night I was able to mark the launch of My Music PR, another string to my ever increasing musical bow.

The fun thing about it is, a lot of the collaborative work on the project in terms of preparing press releases, contact lists etc. is being facilitated through Google Docs.

Why?

• We’ve got Google accounts already
• It’s free
• It’s very easy
• A number of us can update and maintain documents / spreadsheets simultaneously
• Platform independent and accessible from anywhere with a web connection

If those aren’t reasons enough for you to try it out, then I don’t know what is.

In the office / coffee shop / library / studio / sitting room (wherever I’m working from) we’ve got different operating systems, different versions of Microsoft Word or Apple Pages going. There’s lots of emailing back and forth to make sure everyone has the same document but there comes a point when you have to say “enough”.

The solution? Logging into Google Docs, setting up a new spreadsheet to work on and inviting everyone in to work on it.

Any documents or spreadsheets you’ve emailed to your Google account as well can also be opened within Google Docs, saved and exported again for working locally. Why we didn’t go this route for collaborative work before I’ll never know.

Give it a go by visiting Google Docs homepage.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The bank holiday weekend has come and gone and along with it comes some unexpected budgeting. Some things for this year I’ve already budgeted for - particular weekends, gigging, a holiday in October, along with all the usual things like food, petrol, rent etc.

Working for myself, I find I’m spending an increasing amount of time on the road during the week. Commercial vehicles here in Ireland are required to pass vehicle testing on an annual basis. Having passed with flying colours last year, I find I’ve failed mine this year, with flying colours. For me it means a full service, new tires, having some parts replaced, labour charges, VAT charges and more - it all adds up.

However, in working for yourself you learn to budget for the unexpected. So while I know how much money is going to be needed to cover holidays and annual living expenses, I’ve learned over the last few years that you need to keep some kind of a rainy-day account for yourself once you’ve gotten up and running.

Simple things like setting up a standing order to a savings account (I pass out €X per week that pretty much slips under my radar), opening a Credit Union savings account, or stuffing money in an envelope under bed - however you do it, it’s important to budget for the unexpected, making sure that the unexpected payments don’t have a negative impact on the costs you expect to incur on a weekly basis.

I’ve you’ve never thought of a simple savings account, maybe now is the time.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Here’s a little sneak of something that’s coming up through My Music, a project I’ve been working on since last September.

I’m expanding my work in the music scene and extending my reach out of Ireland with the setting up of My Music Artists International (that’s a MySpace link by the way), an artist agency aimed at promoting and working with emerging and established international acts visiting Ireland from overseas.

Having set up KilkennyMusic.com in 2005 to work with artists on a local and national level, two of us are extending the structure set by KKM to cross international waters, welcoming acts from the USA, Ireland and Australia into the country.

Being involved with music has opened so many doors for me both personally and professionally, including the door for ProFreelanceBlogger.com, having recently held the first ‘Blogging For Beginners’ event.

As My Music starts to grow (the official launch is a while off yet) I’ll keep you posted on the developments happening on a new journey into the world of music and another chapter in the book that has become ‘working for myself’.

Popularity: 18% [?]