There’s a lot to be said for the advent of mobile applications and mobile software. Since I picked up a Nokia N95 earlier this year, I haven’t looked back. As a mobile phone it is solid, performs well under pressure, offers great audio quality and helps me to no end in my work with photos, video streaming, access to the web via WiFi etc.

If I have to change my mobile, or should I look to add an iPod Touch / iPhone to my collection, two applications I simply have to have are

• Google Mail
• Mail by Google for your domain

While the S60-based N95 boasts a massive selection of applications for download, these two applications alone allow me to keep up with so much and offer a terrific and efficient alternative to checking Google-hosted mail as opposed to logging in via the native phone browser.

I can access my inbox, spam folders, star conversations, grab attachments etc. as you would normally through your Gmail account. The easy thing about Mail by Google for your domain is that you simply need to enter your email address and password to log in, no having to visit your Google Apps homepage or your dedicated Google apps subdomain (if that’s how you’ve organised your addressing). A plus for me as I have Google mail set up for several different domains, including ProFreelanceBlogger.com.

If you have a Series 60 based mobile phone or your phone can run java based applications, then point your mobile browser to m.google.com and follow the links for Gmail (download) or see the included links above.

Popularity: 6% [?]

While I’ve been thinking of adding a ‘week in review’ of post I’ve been accumulating or marking with interest via Google Reader on a weekly basis, one post I’ll highlight for you today is this one from ProBlogger.

Intellectual Property Law Tips For Bloggers is a guest post by Mark Patterson of the Tough Money Love blog.

It looks at protecting your brand, protecting and licensing your content, the use of third party graphics and third party trademarks with the intention of boosting revenue from your blog.

Hope you enjoy your Saturday! (Or have enjoyed it!)

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’ve just finished my first freelance web job that did not involve in any way a single phone call. Considering I own four mobile handsets, three of them currently active and regularly buzzing - that’s not a bad feat. Emails, regular updates via GoogleTalk and no face to face contact with the ultimate end user have resulted in the job being completed.

It has certainly been an interesting one.

It is the first job in three years I’ve decided to take out of the county, opting to do so as there was a local contact for the project - again dealing via email, IM or the rare SMS.

But yet through all that and with no face time on the project, we’ve been able to see things through to the end. One of the joys of freelancing online. Because there are so many ways to communicate online and given I’ve been able to increase my accessibility through mobile broadband, it is becoming that bit easier to start accepting pure web-only freelance work - for me anyway.

Usually it’s phone calls, meetings, phone calls and plenty of face time. But when you’re taking work from overseas, or out of county as I’ve done in the past, the same tends to apply at least phone call-wise.

I don’t know what the end user looks like, what they sound like but I’m comfortable in the knowledge that we’ve taken the job to 100% and seen it launch well.

I certainly wouldn’t work every job that way - working as a freelancer the opportunity for personal contact on a job is often welcomed but I’m happy with how this one has worked out.

Does anyone working strictly online miss the personal contact? Do you need - at some point - to speak to or see the end user of your project?

Popularity: 6% [?]

Earlier in the year, I blogged a bit about Going Solo, as a wonderful opportunity for creative freelancers to get together in the fantastic surrounds of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Now, it seems the conference is about to hit the UK with Leeds and September 12th of this year being the location and time set for the event.

Organised by Stephanie Booth once again, Going Solo is

a one-day educational conference for freelancers and small business owners of the internet industry and beyond. It will cover topics such as setting rates, negotiating contracts, finding clients, balancing work and life, being productive without getting all stressed out.

Registration for the conference in Leeds is open at present and with the early-bird deadline for registrations having passed, the cost of the conference to you is £220. This is still a good price considering if you wait until the 10 days before the event, you’re entering into late-bird territory with the cost of the conference rising to the £300 mark. If you’re really leaving it late, you’ll be able to register on the day at a cost of £350. So at a saving of £130, it really does pay to register early!

Balancing work and life, tax, negotiation, marketing, networking, business realties and more are all set for discussion across the course of the day.

Check out the full lowdown at Going-Solo.net.

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I use the term “remote office” here rather loosely, as it is more about working remotely than from an office. This week (as you may tell from my late-night posts) I’ve found myself working from a theatre, getting my “office” work done there during the day (and repeating the same when I get home) as I have a new production opening tonight for the remainder of the week.

In working remotely, there are a few things I need in order to function.

1. Laptop with mobile broadband
   I can’t rely on a client premises or a remote location to have a network I can plug into or a wifi connection in the building so having the mobile broadband option (via Telefonica O2) allows me connect to the home and office server to pull out much-needed project files
2. Mobile phone
   A given really as it never leaves my pocket. I do, however, carry a second handset in the possibility that my primary handset might run out of juice. Especially if I forget point number three.
3. Mobile phone charger
   Vital ingredient, especially if you don’t have a second handset. I got caught out last week and wound up missing some important text messages and a particular call but I’ve had my charger with me all week.
4. Headphones
   I use Skype the odd bit during the week for connecting back to the office, joining a podcast call or sitting in on a video call. Not wanting those around me to hear what’s going on, I make sure to have a set of in-ear headphones handy in my bag.
5. A trailing socket / extension lead
   If you can fit one in your bag, I tend to have a gangway with me (4-way adapter). Sometimes power points can be a bit tricky, or limited. I might have the laptop plugged in, would need to charge the phone, maybe power a video camera - having easy access to power points in the one location is a great help, so I’ll usually have a 4-way in the van.
6. Pens & Paper
   An A4 spiral refill pad and 2-3 biros and I’m set. It saves you scrambling for bits of paper or using envelopes to get your ideas down.

If you’re unsure about the working and eating setup, you could also go the extra step and add some toilet paper / tissues / cup-o-soup packets to your bag of tricks, as I have often done in the past.

The great thing is that all the above fit into the one bag. Remembering to leave the house with everything is the trick though. Have you anything of vital importance you must bring with you when working remotely?

Stock photo from here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The majority of those I know working freelance choose to work from the home.

It saves on commercial rent, saves on parking fees, can save you from the distraction of ducking to the nearby pub or restaurant at lunchtime as you “just happen to be” in town. You can also write portions of your home electricity, rent, telephone charges etc. off against tax.

However, there’s more to a home office than just the kitchen table. I had mentioned last week about technology in the home of a freelancer, but are there certain things to watch out for when setting up a home office?

I had a discussion with a freelance journalist recently who was considering converting a spare bedroom in the house to a working office, something I’ve semi-attempted. I say “semi-attempted” as I wanted to have that professional feel, but didn’t want to have that stuffy, office-like feel either.

Powerhomebiz.com has seven simple rules for setting up a home office.

1. Establish your home office in a part of the house that has lots of light and air
   In choosing to convert a bedroom myself, I have two desks at opposite ends of a room with a large window in between. Plenty of natural light during the day and two small window panes that can be opened out be each desk. I don’t go for overhead lighting, preferring localised desk lighting and a standing lamp in the corner of the room, much nicer when working late at night.
2. Set-up shop away from the busy areas in your home
   With the possibility of people dropping in or the door bell ringing, I’m away from the busy areas in the house. No distractions in the kitchen, no distractions in the sitting room or from the TV and if the door rings, at least I have to get up out of the room and down a flight of stairs to get to it. The movement helps!
3. Organise your supplies
   This is something I do at regular intervals during the year. Online suppliers like Viking Direct will ship large boxes of pens, paper, refill pads, post-its, CDRs - whatever you need. Keep your regularly used office supplies to hand and tidy away everything else. With next-day delivery from most office supply companies you need not worry about getting caught short on supplies. I tend to buy own-brand pens, paper - they do the same job and keep my wallet happy.
4. Set up things so they function smoothly
   This relates to maximising your office space. Avoid clutter on the floor, avoid those piles of books, avoid moving one pile of papers off the desk to the floor - get a press for yourself or a filing cabinet. A clean desk for me is a must, the clear space around my immediate working area can have such a calming effect at times, try it for yourself!
5. Limit the things in your home office to items that you need for your business
   There is a temptation, I feel, to add a lot of “officey” things to your office. Some people I know have gone down the mini-fridge route, added a kettle, (when they already have a kitchen in the house) a mini TV, new stereo, a five-door filing cabinet instead of a 3-door… As their own post says “It is difficult to work in a place filled with stuffs irrelevant to your business”.
6. A home office does not need to be a separate room
   If you’re lacking on space, you can choose to establish your working area in the corner of another room. I’ve chosen to convert part of a room, lucky enough to have the space to set up clear working areas, but in converting a bedroom I chose to leave the bed there (it’s nice to be able to offer a visitor a place to sleep!) However, I’m comfortable knowing I have more than enough room to work in. Keeping the distractions to a minimum if working in other rooms is key.
7. Have a dedicated work area
   It goes without saying and should really be point number one. When the weekend hits, I tend to ramble around the house (wifi is a great thing). I could be blogging in the kitchen, emailing in the garden, browsing in the sitting room, but when it comes to work, I will return to my desk and get myself in “work mode”. While you don’t have to have a separate room in order to work, having a dedicated work area will add to that sense of purpose, increase your focus and productivity.

You can see the full post here.

If Feng Shui is your thing, then you might want to check this quick guide on eHow.com on using Feng Shui to set up your home office. I also have a post this year on “Are you using the right chair?”

Have you had any success or horror stories with your home office? Any photos you would like to share? Leave a comment or drop me an email.

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One of the great features of using Gmail or Gmail for your domain is the auto responder. This past week in particular, between training days and increased time spent out of the office, I’ve been using the auto responder to inform clients and regular correspondents that I’m away for a few days / hours and will reply to their mail on return.

What is an auto responder you say? It is an automatic response issue on receipt of an email. The sender of the original mail gets an automatic response from your mail host with a pre-set message, as outlined below.

Want to know how to set yours up?

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings along the top of any Gmail page.
3. From the General tab, select Vacation responder on in the Vacation responder: section.
4. Enter the subject and body of your message in the Subject: and Message: fields. If you’ve enabled a personalized signature in your settings, Gmail will automatically append it to the bottom of your vacation response.
5. Check the box next to Only send a response to people in my Contacts if you don’t want everyone who emails you to know that you’re away from your mail.
6. Click Save Changes.

While the vacation responder is enabled, you’ll see a banner across the top of any Gmail page, displaying the subject of your vacation response. To stop Gmail from automatically sending the response, click end now within the banner. Or, if you’d like to edit the response, click vacation settings. (via)

Working online, I rely an awful lot on email and email access. With a regular flow of content through my inbox and a regular line of people looking to contact me, I think it’s only good practice to let people know you’re unavailable to return their mail at a particular time. If you drop me an email and I’m unavailable you’ll have a quick automatic mail delivered telling you politely that I’m unavailable, telling you when I’m back and that I’ll reply to your email on return.

In dealing with a lot of journalists (who tend to go on holidays every now and again), one useful tip to include in your responder message is an alternative contact i.e. who (if anyone) to contact in your absence. That said you can use it for anything - include links back to your website, maybe simply use an autoresponder to thank people for emailing you or submitting a query from your website.

If you haven’t yet discovered the automatic responder / vaction responder in Gmail, give it a look today. It’s a very handy tool indeed!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Wordpress 2.6.1 is out of beta and has been released to the public as a full download. Those of you running Wordpress 2.6 on your own hosting should have seen the admin status message over the weekend revealing the availability of the next version of Wordpress.

To upgrade, simply grab a copy of the latest release and FTP it to your server, replacing the existing Wordpress files. If you’re in doubt about plugin compatibility, a helpful suggestion is to disable each active plugin on your blog BEFORE running the update.

When you have everything uploaded, simply go to www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php to call the upgrade script (where yourdomain.com is your actual domain name).

From the Wordpress blog…

With 2.6.1, we’re continuing our trend of releasing a maintenance release shortly after a major release in order to get fixes for the inevitable “dot zero” bugs into your hands without a long wait. If you’re happy with 2.6, however, keep on using it. You need not upgrade to 2.6.1 if 2.6 is getting the job done.

2.6.1 offers several improvements for international users. Styling of the admin for right-to-left languages is much improved thanks to the efforts of the Farsi and Hebrew translation teams, and a mysterious gettext bug caused by certain PHP configurations is now fixed. For IIS users, 2.6.1 fixes several permalink problems. Image insertion problems in the Press This feature experienced by IE users are also fixed. Of note to everyone is a fix for a performance bug in the admin where those with a lot of plugins would experience slowness on some pages.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Doing my regular weekend trip to the local book shop (and general magazine wonderland) I happened to spot the current edition of Computer Arts Projects magazine, a UK-based mag I used to read but have long since fallen out of touch with.

Until this issue.

If you’re working freelance or looking to embark on a freelance career then try and grab yourself a copy of the current issue, #114, as it’s all for the freelancer in you.

The mag includes lessons on freelancing from Dean Evans, tips on designing a logo to suit your freelance career, developing and maintaing a good looking online portfolio, dealing with tax and accounts setting up a home studio (based on a budget of £1,000, £5,000 or £10,000), networking, an interview with Matt Booth on the upside to being your own boss and a whole lot more.

There’s also a few accounting packages for Mac and PC users fired onto the cover disc with the current issue.

I grabbed mine for around €12. Check more details here or drop to your local newsagent to grab your copy before the next issue comes out (which looks to be about print media and print design).

Popularity: 6% [?]

One project I’m working on this week is sound design for a new theatre production, something I’ve walked into at relatively the last minute.

In the past I’ve hired sound designers for theatre productions - those who can source the sound effects, get the music right, get the cues sorted for the stage and leave us with a magnificent soundscape of pure audio delights.

This job also falls into my ‘free work’ category due to my continued involvement with and development of the theatre company.

What’s been making my job that bit easier are the samples available from Free-Loops.com. Over 5,000 of them in fact, with a lot of the samples covered by a Creative Commons. If you don’t want to go through the downloading process of single-clicking 3,000+ sound loops, you can contribute $20 to the site and get access to a single download file of the entire free loop archive.

If you’re working as a podcast producer, in radio, freelancing with some audio work then this is a solid starting point to explore. There is also a selection of free VST plugins you can download to integrate with your preferred audio editor along with some free standalone multimedia applications to help you with your work.

More Free Sound Loops

Another resource I picked up during the week was SoundSnap.com offering a multitude of free MP3 samples to download. The interface is a lot cleaner and certainly easier to navigate around with clips also available in WAV format (not all clips).

Then there’s the old reliable of SoundDogs.com, which I find to be hit and miss quality-wise depending on what you’re after but it’s always worth a look for short effects / sounds.. You do indeed have to pay to download samples from SoundDogs.com (or grab the MP3 links if you want a low-quality copy.) For commercial use and project use you must open a professional account. The previews, which are low in quality are for demonstration purposes only, with high quality samples available with a pro account.

As with any audio or video download, be sure and read any accompanying license agreements or terms and conditions if using samples in a commercial project or venture.

If you have any free audio resources you would like to add, just leave a comment and I’ll get it added to the list above.

Update 1: Try also, Free Sound Project

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