DesignQuote was recently mentioned in the Art Institute Alumni newsletter Freelanecing Ins and Outs:

http://www.aifl.info/alumni/newsletter/2009/freelancinginsouts.html

This blog is for Design Quote News. Browse Graphic Design Jobs and Web Design Jobs at DesignQuote.net

Graphic Design Lead For Logo for Modeling Agency
Posted: 07/02/2009

Graphic Design Project Description: My Industry: Modeling Agency Looking for something classy, yet sexy and very unique; an ideal logo would be of a woman and the words _______. I am looking for something very creativity and unique. This logo will be used for our website and business cards.

Graphic Design Details: My Budget is/is not Flexible: $100 Best time to reach me is: Anytime Best way to reach me is: emai...

Graphic Design Lead For Graphic Design for Local Magazine
Posted: 07/02/2009

Graphic Design Project Description: I prefer to work with designers local My Industry:52 pages-layout entire magazine with templates supplied. Also design about 15-20 ads monthly.This is a monthly magazine.Like most it is stressfull before going to print. Number of hours current design people work is forty to 50 hrs. per month with25-30 hrs just before publication.Last issue was an all nighter once and 2 -12hrs Saturdays -2 weeks in a row.

Graphic Design Details: Best way to reach me is: phone / email I prefer to work with designers local ...

Welcome New Members That Joined FreelanceDesigners.com Wednesday 07/01/09 DesignQuote Freelance Design Project Lead: 07/02/2009 Project: Website for Monograms and Screen Printing Bid on this project 7 Days Remain Budget: $1001 - $2500 Lead Details: 07/01/09 I prefer to work with designers located: local Nu… Client located in Conroe, TX. This lead is for sale on designquote.net

Graphic Design Lead For Ongoing Logo Development for Various Clients
Posted: 07/02/2009

Graphic Design Project Description: My Industry: dental This is an ongoing opportunity, as we receive clients interested in logo development (we've always got a few in the pipeline).

Graphic Design Details: Best way to reach me is: phone / email I prefer to work with designers located: anywhere ...

A note about clients: They seem to want everything done yesterday. So it’s no shock when a client will come to you with a “rush” project.

As freelancers, it’s easy to get excited about a new gig and want to automatically accept it, but you should set some boundaries to make sure you don’t get wrapped up in your client’s drama—or get yourself into a tizzy!

See if it’s a real “rush.” Some clients want to give you an hour or a day to complete something but don’t consider that a rush. Other clients will come to you stating that they have a “rush job.” My best piece of advice if the client doesn’t specify the job to be a “rush project” is to determine on your own if it’s a rush. That is, get the full scope of what’s entailed and ask the client for the deadline. (If they don’t have one, it’s likely not a rush, just something they want done promptly.)

If you need to decide if it is a rush job (to therefore charge a “rush fee”), you can do that by looking at your schedule to see if the project and its deadline will force you to hurry. If so, it’s okay to charge a rush fee. Make sure to include time for things like getting a signed contract or a deposit. Many freelancers sometimes waive these important must-haves in order to simply get the job. Then they simply get screwed.

Determine if you can make the deadline. You may want the job terribly but have other obligations in the way that you can’t rearrange. If you know in your heart that you are not sure if you can turn around the work by the client’s deadline, it is not fair to accept the job. I never take a rush job if I think I can’t complete it in time. I have to know that I can get it done, even if that includes a little overtime. I have to make sure I’m comfortable with the timeline, and I think all freelancers should do the same.

You don’t want to wind up fried—it’s not fair to yourself or the client. If you get too frazzled, the work will not be your best and you may not want to claim ownership of the project, not to mention the client will be ticked. Be fair to yourself and the client as to whether or not you can accept a rush project.

Set the “rush rules.” Let’s say that you’ve been told or have decided that the project is a “rush job.” Clients that come to you and know they’re pushing it will likely be more apt to pay a rush fee, while clients that just think they’re giving you a “tight deadline” may be more apt to put up a fight when you include a rush fee. I have found the best way to deal with these things is to establish open and honest communication with the client. If I think I can complete the project in the time allotted and want to accept the job, I let the client know all of my specifications and what I need from him or her to get the job done.

For example, if it is Monday and the client wants the content Friday and I know I can deliver it by then, I let them know if there will be a rush fee, how much it will be, and what time they can expect the first draft by on Friday. I also let them know that I will need the deposit by the next day, for example, and the contract faxed back that evening. (I always try to get the contract first if I know the money will be naturally delayed in the mail.)

You do not always have to let the client know there is a rush fee—you can simply add it into the quote and have the client approve it. It is, of course, up to you based on how you do business, but many freelancers include rush (or pain-in-the-butt) fees in their quotes. If the client asks why the fee is higher than normal, I let them know that I’ve included a rush fee based on their imposed deadline. I have never had someone ask what the fee is for, but if they did I would simply tell them that the fee ensures that I will stay up all night if I have to in order to deliver their project on time. I do not think I would get many arguments.

Take time for project processing. It’s important to allot time for project processing, as in, getting a signed contract returned to you and a deposit if you require one. If you find about a project on Monday that is due Friday and it takes till Wednesday to get everything you need to start, you really only have two days to finish when you thought you had four or five. Let the client know that you can complete the project by the deadline provided that you have everything you need (background material, signed contract, deposit, etc.) by a specific day.

This is why it’s important to assess the full scope of the project. If you’re waiting on other people to give you material in order to start the project, that could delay the project and you could wind up causing tension between you and the client. When you set the rules, be sure to let the client know about everything you need in order to get started and deliver the project on deadline—including the red tape.

Say no. If you have to say no, it’s okay to say it. You are not obligated to complete a client’s every request. Just be sure to give them a prompt response. If I need time to decide if I can take a project, I simply ask them when they need to know by. This is basic common courtesy. Being open and honest—even if you have to turn down a project—will likely earn you trust and respect with a client, which can be beneficial for jobs in the future.

So you’ve taken the rush job. You’ve got everything you need to start and the only thing ahead of you is to complete the task and submit the work on time. Now that everything is set, there’s one more thing you’re likely to need: coffee.

Kristen Fischer is a copywriter and author who lives at the Jersey Shore. To learn more about her, visit www.kristenfischer.com.

In our last Linkswitch, we had a look at a NY Times article on the “self-employed depression.” While it’s true that recent events have made making a living harder for many people who put themselves in the self-employed or freelance category, many freelancers are finding that business is as good as ever. A few days after, we published a piece by Martha Retallick on surviving the economic downturn. It’s clear that the state of the economy is an important issue for freelancers, as tiresome a topic it can get with the media milking it for all it’s worth.

So here’s what we want to know: how many of our readers are doing well despite it all, and how many of you are facing difficulties? Is the depressing and rather biased NY Times piece accurate or just another story written to sell? Cast your vote in the poll and then feel free to vent your economy frustrations in the comments.

Nice collection of photography resources:http://virtualphotographystudio.com/photographyblog/2009/06/30/10-tools-to-help-you-manage-your-photography-business/

When we started FreelanceSwitch back in April 2007, the site consisted of just a couple of blog posts and an about page. Over time we upgraded the design to v2, added forums, a job board, podcasts, resources like an hourly rates calculator, spun up a Twitter account and of course boosted the number of blog posts!

Today I’m very happy to unveil the latest iteration of FreelanceSwitch which introduces a bucketload of new features including a directory of freelancers complete with search facilities, profile pages for users, unified logins for the forums and the rest of the site, a resource directory and of course a fresh design for the whole site.

Accounts, Profiles and the Freelance Directory

The biggest change in version 3 is that we’re introducing a much more robust user account system. Previously we used to have forum accounts and job board accounts. We’ve now merged the two into a single FreelanceSwitch account system.

There are two types of accounts:

Free Accounts …

If you sign up to a free FreelanceSwitch account you’ll be able to:

• Chat on the forums
• Create a basic Profile page with contact details, description, external URL and a couple of skills tags
• Appear in the Freelancer Directory

Paid Accounts …

For $7 a month you get to:

• Apply for jobs on the job board
• Additional Profile features including extra URLs, extra tags, testimonials and work samples
• Appear at the top of any searches of the Freelancer Directory and have more details shown with a larger profile image

What the Profile Pages look like

You can see a sample profile page that I’ve made for myself:

The New Design

The new design is an evolution of the previous look and retains many of the same elements, just repackaged with a bit of freshness.

Some things you might be interested to note are:

• The whole site from forums to job board to blog has the same unified design now
• We’re pulling in fresh jobs into the sidebar
• We’ve got a fairly unorthodox comment layout which emphasizes big text for readability
• We’re using sIFR to render out the FreelanceSwitch font in our headings. It means a slight lag in page loads, but it just looks so damn neat!
• We’ve added a welcome panel to the homepage to help clients use the site
• The site is designed so it looks like the old site … but newer!

Here’s a little look at how FreelanceSwitch has evolved over the years:

New Forum Skin

6 months ago we moved the forums over from Vanilla (which was having some problems) to BBPress – a neat forum app made by the same people who make WordPress.

Because it was done in response to a sudden crisis, we didn’t have time to skin the forums. I wanted to take a moment to thank all our community for putting up with the bare bones BBPress theme for half a year!!

It’s taken us a long time, but finally we’ve got a nice new outfit for you all. And we won’t be reverting to the birthday suit ever again!

Resource Directory

Some of our most popular posts here on FreelanceSwitch are posts listing useful web resources for freelancers. That’s why we’ve compiled a special resources directory of useful links to services and sites that freelancers can benefit from.

We’ll be adding to it over the coming weeks to get it really complete. If you have a suggestion, feel free to Submit a Resource.

The directory is built using a custom WordPress plugin which we’ll be making open source via Nettuts+ later this week!

Features, Features, Features

Along with all our other changes you’ll see a few new minor features and tweaks including:

• Subscribe to Comments via Email
• Search Jobs, Directory, Forums, Resources or Blog Posts from the header
• Recent Jobs in the blog sidebar
• A Press page
• A listing of all our fantastic contributors and authors
• Tweet This counter on posts
• Better author profiles on posts
• Related articles that doesn’t break!
• Threaded comments

And doubtless there are a few more features that I’ve forgotten all about!

What We’re Working On Now!

While the new site is up, we are actually still working on more features and upgrades. In particular we’ll be working to integrate the blog comments system with the new account system. We’ll also be adding a little user badge system so you can figure out who has complete profiles, who is a writer and more.

You can also look forward to more features and utilities in the Paid Account system as we work to increase the value you get for your hard earned cash.

Bugs, Fixes, Feedback

If you notice anything which doesn’t appear to be working as it should leave a comment below, or send us a ticket. Because of the complexity of the site structure and the fact that we’ve had a 24 hour shift getting the site launched, there’s bound to be a few teething issues but we’ll get them within the next couple of days!

The Freelancers Who Worked On This

As it always has been FreelanceSwitch has been put together by a team of freelancers. So I’d like to take a moment to say awesome job to:

Derek Herman who coded up all my Photoshop work, the guys from Instinct who built the Resource Directory plugin and Mathias Meyer who is not only a FreelanceSwitch writer, but also a very good Rails developer!

The site is a really tricky mix of WordPress, WP Plugins, BBPress and Ruby on Rails, and it’s taken a very talented and dedicated team of freelancers spread over four different countries to pull it off!

Welcome New Members That Joined FreelanceDesigners.com Wednesday 06/24/09 DesignQuote Freelance Design Project Lead: 06/25/2009 Project: T-Shirt for Landscaping Business Bid on this project 5 Days Remain Budget: $100 - $250 Lead Details: 06/22/09 Number of pages (approx): My Industry: The shirt… Client located in Eagan, MN. This lead is for sale on designquote.net

We are building a new platform for DesignQuote, to start we have launched Photography Quote which features jobs for freelance photographers. We have photography jobs for protraits, weddings, commercial photography, band photos and more.



Once we get the new system complete we will be migrating DesignQuote into the new platform which is much easier to use and more flexible.

This blog is for Design Quote News. Browse Graphic Design Jobs and Web Design Jobs at DesignQuote.net

Happy New year ffrom Designquote.net - We posted over $4.5 million worth of Projects in 2008! We have a lot of great new improvements slated for 2009.

This blog is for Design Quote News. Browse Graphic Design Jobs and Web Design Jobs at DesignQuote.net