No-Money Marketing Tips for Creative Freelancers
We are always marketing. From the quality of our work to how we talk about ourselves, we are constantly sending messages into the public square,
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ARTICLES.
Tips and Insights on Mission, Mindset, Mechanics, and Marketing for Freelance Creatives
The 7 Basic Elements of Your Brand Strategy
Simply creating graphic assets and promotional materials is not enough to manage your brand. You need a strategy — a plan, method, or series of actions for obtaining a specific goal or result. Here are 7 basic elements to get started.
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Skills You’re Not Taught In Design School
There ‘s a book in my library titled, 101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White. It’s full of truths that every designer
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How To Use Change Orders To Manage Freelance Projects
When I first learned about the power of change orders it changed everything in my workflow. When I implemented the practice, I actually began looking
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Who Hires Creative Freelancers?
[themeone_drop_cap letter=”T” color=”accent-color3″ /]he current mantra for creative freelancers, and for any independent business owner, is to create or define a niche and aggressively market
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Tactics for Better Business Networking
If you are a self-employed creative, business networking is a significant part of your marketing mix. While designers, illustrators and photographers naturally get together with other creatives for mutual support and trend
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Freelancing: In Getting Work, Relationship Counts More Than Ever
Clients have a choice when selecting creative services: They can go the cheap route and buy a logo through a crowdsource or contest web site where
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Try This Easy, 8-Point Tune-Up For Your Freelance Business
Every business needs regularly-scheduled tune-ups. Just like with automobile maintenance, tune-ups keep things running smoothly. They’re most effective in maintaining performance when they’re done regularly.
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Show Your Work: How Sharing Your Process Increases Your Value
When a client is looking for a creative firm, process and procedures are not obvious priorities in evaluating performance. The prospect is going to look
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Should You Display Your Pricing On Your Website?
Every project and every client is different. Freelance creatives need to consider the unique needs and objectives of each client when determining their fees.
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Self-Promotion Tips for Creative Freelancers
Self promotion is the practice of telling potential clients about what you do. With it you build your brand, engage prospects and find clients. As a
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From the Client’s Point of View
From the client’s point of view, there are two crucial criteria in deciding what designer is awarded the project: 1. Does the creative understand what’s
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Do You Need A Marketing Plan?
Q: As a freelancer, do I need a marketing plan or can I just wing it? A: Indeed, you do need a marketing plan. Marketing
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Doing Good Work and Working for Good
On his Dear Design Student blog on Medium, Mike Monteiro, design director at Mule Design, author and speaker, discusses designers and their ethics. He addresses
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Business Deductions For Freelancers
These are the freelance business deductions you can take for the 2025 tax year if you’re established as a sole proprietor or single member LLC,
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Does Formal Design Education Matter?
Aesthetic sense and talent are raw materials. They amount to nothing without discipline. Education forces you to add skill, discipline and expertise to your talent. And in order to meet project deadlines, you learn to steward your time.
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10 Proven Networking Strategies for Introverts (and Everyone Else)
Building a business requires connection with people: prospective clients, colleagues, mentors, customers, and sometimes even family members. When we connect, we share information, ideas and
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7 Reasons Why Freelancers Should Not Discount
With value pricing for design and illustration projects, I am able to custom-tailor my services and fees to fit each client and project. But even
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Unpaid Internships Are A Form of Spec Work
Why is spec work so prevalent in the design profession when it’s not in other professions? Increasingly, companies – creative businesses included – are offering
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Use the Socratic Method to Close the Sale
A key principle in successful use of the Socratic Method is that your work product is not the thing — the objective. It’s the thing that leads to the objective the prospect wants to make happen.
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Risk and Reward: How Taking Risks Helps Your Freelance Career
Risk. It’s a small word with big impact. Taking risks involves change and the unknown. We’re not all that comfortable with either concept. I was
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Do Freelancers Need Business Insurance?
One thing that’s great about flying solo as a freelancer is all the freedom you have in who you work with, where, when and how
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5 Reasons Why I Can’t Be Your Designer
I wish I hadn’t said, “Yes” to certain design projects. It’s not that the projects were a problem, but something about the clients’ approaches, actions or expectations
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Designing For Non-Profits
A significant percentage of my clients are non-profit enterprises. I have had many opportunities to design campaign materials, annual reports, and graphic assets for non-profit
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