Getting ‘rich’, well maybe not immediately, but could there be some true-tested ways for freelancers like us to generate some cashflow over days instead of months, especially in tough times?

Keeping the freelance money coming in at a steady pace is something I like to help out with on Red Lemon Club, but it can sometimes be tricky, especially if you are just starting out.

It’s inadvisable to quit your job before you begin to earn a regular income from freelancing, but from what I’ve learnt, and from people who have done it, there are a few ways to generate extra cash quickly, for support when you experience a lull, at any point in your career.

Each method will obviously depend on your own ability to put in the work, and I do mean work, motivation, and in some cases, the kinds of skills you possess. It is always best to work from your strengths, before choosing a method at random.

Here are 18 ways I’ve discovered that could earn you money quickly:

1. Consult

Think of what you know or what you are good at. People are out there willing to pay you for your knowledge.  You could set up a site or use an existing one to answer questions for a charge, for example. Set up a Paypal link and get paid instantly before sending over an answer.

2. Sell your stuff

Things you own that don’t really get used much, including things in the garage and your attic, can be sold online, on eBay, or even at a garage sale. The beauty of the Internet means you can your stuff within a few days.

3. Create a simple physical product and sell it

Consider what skills you have that would allow you to make quick products, people would like that could be sold at craft markets like Etsy or Ebay. You could create little characters made of bottles, pillows, small paintings, illustrations; the list goes on. Zazzle and Cafepress allow you to create products with your own designs on that they will make for you too.

4. Offer services through online classifieds and freelance sites

Use your existing skill as a freelancer or something else you’re good at, and offer your services online. Classifieds sites like Craigslist and Elance are places to place ads and to find people needing your services.

5. Do local, physical jobs

Put up an ad in your local area for services you can offer like cleaning, washing cars, raking leaves and walking dogs. You could also go around knocking on doors and asking.

You will be surprised at how many people are willing to pay you for doing some work, especially if it is on the spot for them.

6. Create a small downloadable product to sell

Put together a simple guide or ebook using pdf software, your knowledge, and/or even use previously written material with no copyright (known as ‘Public Label Rights’) that you can recreate into your own material. Sell the product via your blog or site, or partner with someone else who has access to followers, newsletter followers, and more.

7. Cut expenses

This is one of the best ways to not only make savings, but effectively create money by withholding on the things you normally spend money on day to day.

Have a look at what you spend money on and cut out what you don’t need, such as coffees away from home, eating out, magazine subscriptions, and gym memberships.

8. Resell stuff online

There are some great profits to be made on buying products for cheap somewhere and reselling them elsewhere, namely online.

Examples of this include buying physical things at a car boot sale at a bargain, and reselling them online to a more discerning market.

9. Create graphics and themes

You could create graphics including logos, templates, icons, buttons, web elements, wordpress or Tumblr themes, book covers, blog themes and illustrations for digital marketplaces like Graphic River or Template Sold. Decent designs on sites with busy marketplaces, can get you sales very quickly.

10. Advertise affiliate products on your blog

If you have a good means to market products, via a blog or to Twitter followers, or a mailing list, for example, you could sell affiliate products and earn a commission on each sold.

Clickbank and Amazon Associates (as well as right here in Red Lemon Club!) are places to go to find products to sell on behalf of others. In many cases, you can a earn a large share on each product, so selling to plenty of the right audience can be very fruitful.

11. Create basic sites for businesses or make basic sites and sell them

If you are good with designing websites, you could have a look for websites of companies that are relatively poor and suggest you redesign them for a fee.

Or, you can figure out what sites people are willing to buy as potential sources of income, build them (or buy them cheap and redesign), add some affiliate products and some content, perhaps a logo, and sell it on a site like Flippa. I’ve personally seen great results selling sites that people want to potentially make money from themselves, through doing this.

12. Write for other blogs or websites that pay

Many people do pay for decent quality written content. Have a hunt around for places that need you to write articles, ‘How-To’s’, tutorials, product and service reviews, stories, interview, and so on.

13. Earn through Youtube videos

Create videos for popular sites like YouTube and sell your own stuff, merchandise or affiliate products via links under the videos. You could, for example post reviews of popular products ou know about and sell the product itself and earn a commission when people buy this way.

If you have a really popular video, you can earn from the advertisements YouTube place next to it as well.

14. Tutoring people

Let people know of your willingness to teach people or groups of people for a fee in your local area. You can be paid immediately at the end of each class. Create a web page also, and even tutor people via Skype or Google Hangout.

15. Sell quick services on Fiverr.com

You could provide a service that doesn’t take too much out of your day via Fiverr, a site that costs users five dollars for jobs other members provide. Earning five dollars for a job may not sound like much, but if you plan carefully and assess the competition, it will build up, and you get paid instantly.

16. Skill brokerage

If you can help other people who provide services, like other freelancers you might know, for example, and come to an agreement on earning a commission on every job that you can get for them, you could earn some quick cash from this. As an example, you could set up a quick web design service site, and earn a commission of 25% for each job that this creates for your web designer friends.

17. Sell ad space on your site

If you have a site with a decent amount of traffic coming through it, ask around (people who know you first) for those willing to pay for a banner, text or other ad on the site. Buy Sell Ads is a great tool for automating this process, so that you place a box on your site, and the rest of the work is left to them, including being able to be searched for on their network.

18. Product/asset brokerage

Offer to help sell products and physical items like cars, furniture and computers for people that don’t know where to start, earning a commission that you negotiate on the item sold.

My dad, for example, had a large volume of valuable books that he wanted to get rid of, and I was able to sell them online and agree on a 25% commission on the value of the sale (What are sons for?!).

Other ideas, do post them in the comments below!

So much so, that I’ve compiled this handy little list, not intended to scare, just to get people thinking about what they might be missing out on by not throwing themselves into the Google+ social theatre. That includes you.

Here is that list:

1. Losing out on much better control

Google+ is just miles ahead when it comes to functionality. Every feature such as sharing posts, editing photos, and following feeds has a built in control that is very powerful, and puts you the user in control at every point during your Google+ experience.

Things like being able to share to certain circles, lock posts for re-sharing, view posts from particular geographic areas, dragging and dropping media into posts from elsewhere and more, allow you to really be on top of everything when it comes to managing how you engage with others, as well as your own content and data. This is important when it comes to using this for professional purposes and coming across as such.

One in depth example of the control you have with Google+ is through its picture tagging function. While Facebook doesn’t warn its users whenever a photo of one user is tagged in an album, Google+ deals with this by giving users the ability to choose which users that can tag you.

2. Not being part of a professional social environment

What is very evident from using Google+, is the sense of professionalism that the site creates in the way that its features and interface are designed, as well as in the attention to making things secure and private.

Google has made it easy to reduce clutter and noise on the platform through allowing users to restrict the content they see and take out elements within profiles themselves. This combined with the fact that the interface and overall design is cleaner and better designed, adds to the professionalism of it.

Google has been strict about security in order to reduce spammers and other unwanted characters that have a negative effect on the experience of its users. Facebook and Twitter have trouble with fake accounts and spamming, not to mention being overly busy (think endless farmville invites on Facebook) and this is something that Google is seeking to avoid.

Google is also proving to manage data much more effectively and has shown to in the past. Having also learnt from Facebook’s mistakes, Google+’s offering has shown itself to be very secure.

With the ‘Data Liberation’ tool, you can be very explicit about what gets shared, and where, as well as what doesn’t. There is total control for all your work, and all your information on Google+.

All of this combines to create an environment that is very preferential to professionals, including freelancers looking to engage with and build networks of great people.

3. Not targeting what you share to the right people

The ‘Circles’ function in Google+ is an excellent way of allowing you to share certain things with certain people that you have organised into specific labelled groups.

If you have had trouble with promoting your work on other social networks and elsewhere, much of it will be to do with the fact that you are sending out content to anyone and everyone without thinking about how something can be targeted. This is absolutely essential to promotion these days, and Google+ has cracked it in finding a way for you to do this.

Circles allows you to share work with people you want feedback from, for example, without concerning anyone else.

You might want to build up a circle of art director contacts, for example, and regularly show them updates of the work you have been creating, and engaging with only those people strategically.

4. Not taking advantage of better contact-building capabilities

Interacting with people is a crucial part of gathering support, fans, connections, exposure and ultimately paid work for freelancers. Doing so online to complement your engagement in the ‘real world’ can be very powerful if done correctly.

Google+ allows users to reach out to potential clients, key influencers and others who support your freelancing business in better and more effective ways.

Firstly, because the system allows you to follow the updates of people without them needing to accept a friend request, you are in a better position to attract connections by engaging with their content and mentioning their name appropriately through ‘+ tagging’, in a similar way to Twitter, so that you get on someone’s radar.

This means that people are more likely to begin to see your own value and add you to their circles. The open (yet secure) system also allows your updates to filter through the Google+ network (depending on who you want to share with) so that you pick up more fans and prospects as well.

Secondly, the circles tool allows you to share the right information with the relevant people, which allows for the sharing of content in a much more targeted way.

This is very powerful when we are talking about relationship- building. Thirdly, the highly superior search function inside Google+ makes searching for people, as well as content to share and engage with much easier.

This is not to mention the fact that profiles and brand pages, including yours will favourably appear in Google’s search engine results too. Fourthly, circles enables you to group your contacts easily and visibly, so that you can group people that need to be contacted, for example, or simply use circles to store contacts, like an address book.

The extended circles element will even allow you to share your updates with people you follow who haven’t followed you back yet.

5. Wasting valuable time by not using Google+ as your professional ‘social hub’

Google+ allows you to focus pretty much all of your professional promotion and engagement activity in one place.

For example, you can send updates that you post on Google+ automatically to Twitter and Facebook, so you never have to leave Google. Creative freelancers can use Google+ as their first port of call for showing prospects their secondary portfolio, as well as bio, collaborate through hangouts and grouped circles, and gain critical feedback on work, for example, all through the tools on Google+.

Being tied in to other Google products and services like documents and Gmail, means you can get a lot done from one place via the Google bar that shows up at the top of the screen.

What this all means is that you will be in a position to streamline your self promotion and engagement activities and bring a lot of your focus, including actually getting work done, into one place.

Many more features, including streamlining your network outside of Google+, will be revealed in our course on Google+ tailored especially for freelancing professionals.

6. Being forgotten by Google’s powerful search engine

Being associated with Google+ means that everything that originates from you, including your profile, and brand page, will attract preference from Google’s powerful, and well known, search engine, so that you, your brand and your shared content will be found more easily.

The value this presents for self-promotion is very evident.

Google is taking a very strong interest in material that is being shared socially, i.e. on Google+, and will make sure that socially-shared material gains priority through their engine.

Google’s recent introduction of the +1 button means that anything that receives a +1 (similar to Facebook’s ‘like’) will gain even more preference through Google search.

As everything shared in Google+, including images now, has a +1 button linked to it, there is a lot of scope for gaining huge exposure through this.

7. Failing to be part of Google+’s growth and integration

With 40 million users joining Google+ in its first four months of existence, there clearly will be no shortage of users that will serve to further drive and support it.

What you needn’t worry about is if Google+ failed to get anywhere close to Facebook numbers of users. It’s the quality of users it attracts that is important for freelancers, and with fewer users, the more you stand out as a professional in any case. Google+ has the benefit of being part of the Google family, and this means being able to integrate them into the system.

A lot is yet to come, but things like Google’s search engine, Gmail, Picasa for pictures, YouTube and Documents will bring big benefits to a presence on Google+.

As well as having an excellent mobile version of Google+, Google’s Android operating system is getting a lot of people very excited about the integration of app design within the Google+ system, so there’s plenty of opportunity there.

8. Missing out on Google+’s excellent collaboration tools

Collaboration, sharing and discussion is obviously a key requirement of a freelancing professional or independent worker.

Google+ provides a host of tools that allow this to be done smoothly and effectively. Adding people you want to collaborate with to a specific circle, if they do the same, allows you to send through updates that can be shared with the ‘team’ you are collaborating with.

Apart from chat, Google+ ‘Hangouts’ is another method for collaboration, which allows groups to discuss projects via a simple video feed. Many are saying that Google circles is just as effective a tool as Basecamp, a highly sophisticated project management and collaboration tool.

As Google+ is free, the benefits of this alone are clear.

Perhaps this little list has built up something of an appetite for wanting to try out Google+ for professional and fun reasons.

We’re about to launch a step-by-step course especially for freelancers on exactly how to use Google+ for winning clients and more. If you’d like more information on the course and to keep up with the launch, have a look here.

I’d love for you to share this post with your freelancer friends via the buttons below. That would be appreciated! Comments are welcome.

The great thing about working as a writer is that you can do it at a time that suits you, so that it complements anything else you are working on. There is currently a big need for quality written content, especially on the web, and you can take advantage of that need.

A fruitful place to find writing jobs that can provide some extra (or a lot) cash is online freelance job communities.

I’ve listed 19 good places that you can use to find the jobs that work for you:

Freelancewritinggigs.com

This site is a compilation of blogs, some of which post job leads.

Problogger.net

A site geared towards job postings for bloggers.

Poewar.com

Navigate through to the freelance writing jobs, where you will find jobs compiled from many sources in one easy to view screen.

Bloggerjobs.biz

Another site with a large listing of freelance blogging jobs.

Mediabistro.com

Narrow your search on this job listing site by checking “freelance” to obtain only the listings that are freelance based.

Freelanceswitch.com

This site includes a large listing of freelance writing job posting.

Sunoasis.com

Sunoasis provides links to a large volume of freelance writing opportunities compiled from many sources.

Journalismjobs.com

Under “Opportunities”, narrow your search down to just freelance writing jobs. There are plenty of opportunities on this site to view.

Allfreelancewritingjobs.com

This blog provides weekly links to several job leads. You can also view previously posted jobs and apply to those as well.

Wahm.com

This work at home forum lists many job openings; search through the listings to find those for freelance writers.

Online-writing-jobs.com

This site also offers freelance writing job listings.

Sologig.com

Under “Browse by Categories” select “creative”, and you will find a few writing jobs, and many freelance copywriting jobs.

Gofreelance.com

Go Freelance allows you to search by category. Sselect “writing” and view listing for freelance writing.

Freelancefree.com

A free site to register and find freelance work.

Freelancewriting.com

This is a comprehensive site that also lists freelance writing opportunities.

Indeed.com

At Indeed.com, search for “freelance” and you will find a multitude of freelance writing opportunities.

Virtualvocations.com

Virtual Vocations lists projects available for freelance writers.

Lancepost.com

Lancepost lists a feed of new job leads, sift through to find leads for freelance writing.

Worldwidefreelance.com

Through this site, check out the heading titled “markets”. You can view their free leads and guidelines and also sign up for a newsletter.

Please do comment on your results from these sites, and if you know of others!

As a freelancer, you’re a small business owner. Whether you’re a writer, a performer or a web site designer, all freelancers need to track their performance in monetary terms in order to make appropriate business decisions and to accurately report their income to the taxing authorities.

There are plenty of great accounting software packages available, but all you really need is a spreadsheet program like the free Open Office, or even just a pad of columned financial paper. Here are two of the essential items to track and how to document them.

Revenues

Of course you’ll want to keep track of how much money is coming in due to your freelancing efforts. Create a schedule with columns for the date, the customer, the amount and a description of the work it was received in payment for.

Create subtotals each month, then a grand total at the end of your fiscal year. Using a spreadsheet program will allow you to manipulate this data and find valuable information hiding within it.

For example, sort all your income by payer to find which of your customers are providing you the most income. You can now cater to these customers more closely, earning even more of their business and enhancing your income.

Expenses

Any expenditure made in the pursuit of your freelancing work needs to be tracked in the same manner as revenues. Many of these can reduce your tax liability, so you’ll want to be sure to capture everything.

You’ll need to set up your spreadsheet with columns for the date, the payee, the amount, an expense category and a description of what was purchased.

The trick is to find the right amount of categories for your particular business. You don’t need to classify everything so specifically that every payment gets its own category.

On the other hand you need enough categories so that the summarized information provides useful information. For example you won’t recognize that you may be paying too much for telephone use if you have those costs mixed in with your magazine subscriptions and your electricity bills.

One thing to keep in mind is what kind of categories will be necessary for your company’s income tax reporting. Consult with your accountant for this information. Setting up your categories along tax lines is a good starting point if you don’t have additional requirements.

Need an Accountant?

This report is meant to be an overview only, and you should consult a professional accountant for your business accounting needs. He or she can advise you on the best way to keep your books and assure your taxes and other reporting requirements are fully and accurately met.

Any comments, just add them below!

Sure, having huge numbers of cut price artworks available royalty-free to download sounds like it’s undermining the hard-work of professionals as well as the value of the work they produce. I personally believe people are missing the point when it comes to this topic and believe the positives outweigh the negative by far.

Those who decide to add work to these sites have much to gain by doing so, as I personally found out, including improving your own work quality, improving your perception on what work is commercially viable, increasing your visibility online for further commissions, as well as getting you passive income.

These sites are molding the industry, not undermining it, and creating an inevitably increased pressure to creative professionals who will succeed by producing work that really stands out.

For creatives not yet working professionally, stock websites can give you a good idea of industry standards, and be a good way to bulk up your portfolio, especially when you are not working on commissioned projects.

Here are 8 key tips for those of you keen on contributing to stock sites:

1. Do your research

Before adding images to sites like shutterstock.com and istockphoto.com, both of which are becoming increasingly packed full of varied work, make sure you can spot gaps in the market. Keywords like ‘handshake’ and ‘oil’ yield tens or even hundreds of thousands of results on stock image websites.

While there is a large reserve of these images because they are clearly relevant and popular, chances are you will be lost in the crowd. Some stock websites have stopped accepting images for the most over-populated categories. Stock sites are always providing contributors details on the kinds of work they need, and even though there seems to be endless stuff out there, there is still a lot of potential for a lot more for you to make money from.

2. Know the guidelines

Guidelines vary for different websites, and it’s best to check out the different specifications before you start work. In general though, there are a few points you should bear in mind.

Quality Some sites have minimum size/resolution requirements, or offer images for sale in variety of sizes.

Readability/style You know it’s a fish, but then, you drew it. Someone else might think it’s a vase of flowers. While style can help you stand out from the crowd, content is really important here.

Format Some sites only accept vector images, and then only a certain format. Don’t spend hours working on something beautiful only to find it’s unsuitable. If in doubt, check!

3. Make ‘stock’ friends

Spend some time in the stock site’s forums, getting to know people who use them a lot. You will be surprised at how helpful people can be within stock site communities, as I can personally attest for inside istockphoto.com, for example.

Having valuable contacts will provide you with all the advice you need to be a success. The more of a familiar entity you are within forums, the quicker you will find people helping you out, letting you know of useful events, contests, and so on.

Becoming known within stock communities will also benefit your sales indirectly. I’ve noticed that active site users tend to get featured, contacted and referred much more than those that sit on the periphery.

4. Promote our stock elsewhere

When you have a decent selection of stock images, it’s a good idea to regularly promote your work within the stock site, so that you not only promote your own work to potential clients, but also alert people that your work is available to buy royalty-free, so that you open up further opportunities for making stock sales.

5. Create a stock style

It is really important to develop a style that you become known for within stock sites. You will find people will return to you who have used your work before because they know your style. The more work you have, the more people who see your work will come back to you and bookmark to you, especially if it is a style that is commercial and ‘sellable’.

6. Do set aside time each week to create stock material

For those of you who really want to commit to stock imagery and want to earn regular income from it. It is advisable, at least initially, to set aside time each week, in the same way you would set aside time to eat breakfast, to commit to researching and producing work for stock.

With such a regime, you will find that over time, you can put together a sizable and lucrative portfolio of work.

7. Note down your ideas everywhere

Keep a note or sketchbook handy wherever you can. Great ideas for new stock comes in the least expected places. Make a point of taking a pen and paper to places where you know you will get inspired, like art galleries.

8. Dare to be different

Though it is wise to go for gaps in the market, choosing to produce work that you know will sell before committing time to producing it, it is definitely worth producing something a little different every now and then, to test the response. My experience is that often work you think will sell tends to do less well than work you think will not.

Good luck!

Places to go

There are plenty of stock websites out there and it’s worth looking at as many as possible before you start submitting. Below are three of the biggest, which should give you a good idea of industry standards.

Shutterstock – Rigorous submission process, guaranteeing high quality work. Read the guidelines carefully!

iStock Photo – One of the biggest and most popular. There is a great online community here.

Illutration Works – Deals purely with illustration, no photos.

Comments, as usual are welcome. What has your experience with stock sites been like?

This article should provide you with a large resource of software tools to help you block out distractions and get more done.

“Man must shape his tools lest they shape him.”

Arthur Miller

Keep in mind that these suggestions are not necessarily the solution to your lack of focus, but tools to help you build momentum in blocking out various distractions that can affect the quality of your work.

Here are 18 tools for beating distraction:

Mac

Freedom: An extreme tool, but an effective one that disables your entire Internet connection for a time period set by you. Perfect when you really need to focus for an hour or three at a time.

SelfControl: Disable access to mail servers and websites that distract you. For example, you could block access to Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and your favorite blogs for 90 minutes, but still have access to the rest of the web. Once started, you can’t undo it until the timer runs out.

Concentrate: Create an activity (design, study, write, etc) and choose actions (launch or block websites, quit applications, speak a message, and more) to run every time you concentrate. When ready, just click “concentrate.” All your distractions will disappear and a timer will appear to help you stay focused.

WriteRoom: One of the best, distraction-free text editors. Goes full screen so all you have is your text. No formatting, just writing text. Beautiful program, copied by many others.

OmmWriter: A beautiful app just for writing. Has a serene backdrop with background music, perfect for creating the distraction-free writing environment (especially if you use headphones).

Ulysses or Scrivener: Two great programs for writers, many more features than WriteRoom but great for longer works such as novels, screenplays, academic papers and more. Both feature full-screen text editors.

Megazoomer: A cool little app that allows you to put almost any Mac program into full-screen mode (ala WriteRoom) using a system-wide keyboard command or menu item. Requires you to install SIMBL — both programs are free.

Think: Little utility that will fade out everything but the app you’re working on at the moment. Allows you to focus on one document at a time, clearing the distractions.

Browser Plugins/Extensions

Leechblock (Firefox): Specify what sites you want to block in Firefox, and when to block them.

StayFocusd (Chrome): Choose certain sites to block, and you get 10 minutes total (by default) per day to go on those time-wasting sites. You can change the time allotted for time-wasting sites, and you can also “nuke” (block) all sites for a time you specify.

Readability (bookmarklet, Chrome extension): clears the clutter on any web article or blog post you want to read. Removes everything — ads, icons, widgets, and more — and just leaves the content in a nice, uncluttered, readable design. Quietube does the same for videos.

Windows

Dark Room: A WriteRoom clone for Windows.

CreaWriter: Distaction-free writing tool inspired by OmmWriter (above), with a peaceful background, full-screen writing, soothing ambient sound, and not much else.

Q10: Full-screen text editor with a timer for focused writing, typewriter sounds as you type if you want them. Freeware.

WriteMonkey: A new entry into the full-screen editor field. In the words of the makers: “Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.”

Other

Emacs: One of the classic text editors (vim is a good alternative and we won’t into which is better here), Emacs runs on all platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) and can hid the menu bar (M-x menu-bar-mode) and tool bar (M-x tool-bar-mode) in any operating system, and can hide also the window title bar in most Linux window managers.

Typewriter: A minimalist text editor that runs in Java (which can run on most operating systems – Mac, Windows, Linux). All you can do is type in one direction. You can’t delete, you can’t copy, you can’t paste. You can save and print. And you can switch between black text on white and green on black; full screen and window. Perfect for writing without stopping, and getting out that first draft.

Many thanks to ‘Focus‘ author, Leo Babauta for these resources.

Any other ideas or suggestions? Comment below!

As writer Louise Baker has kindly put forward, there are sites other than t-shirt shops, stock sites and sites selling merchandise like Cafepress, that can be used by designers to make money. Here are five places you can use to make money from your designs:

Graphic Leftovers

Graphic Leftovers provides a place where graphic designers can sell designs such as logos and icons to anyone that wishes to purchase them. You can provide your work for whatever price you want in the range of $1-$20, and you’ll get 52% commission of that.

You also keep the rights to all of your images, which means you are free to offer them on other sites if you choose to do so. This website is an excellent way to upload designs that you have already created and place then on the internet. Customers will browse the website according to categories to find what they are looking for or can search by keywords.

Themeforest

If you enjoy designing website templates and themes, this website is a great place to sell them to people.

You can sell your templates for anywhere from 40-70% commission. You are allowed to sell items that you have for sale on other websites, but you will receive a reduced commission rate. Be aware the payments are only made after you’ve made $50 or more, so if you don’t plan to selling a lot of designs it may take some time until you receive a payment.

Project4Hire

Instead of simply uploading your own work and hoping that people buy it, Project4hire allows you to design for specific companies or individuals. The person looking for designs will post what is required, and other designers will bid for how much they will charge. When the bidding ends, the person with the lowest offer will receive the job and will design whatever the company or individual has asked for.

Brandstack

This site offers several options for graphic designers. You can put up your logos or graphic designs for companies to browse and buy if they wish to. However, this website also allows you to create an online portfolio of your work.

Anyone looking for a custom design can view portfolios of designers, and then offer a job to any that they like. Here you have the opportunity to do custom work/requests or just sell what designs you already have.

MyFonts

If you like designing fonts, Myfonts is a great way to sell them. Just put up your font designs for customers to view and purchase.

If they buy your font, you will receive 50% of the price that it sold for. You also have some control over how your font is advertised, as you can add your own graphics to the page, write your own description, and create sales or promotions.

Comments and additional sites you know of are welcome in the comments!

Louise Baker blogs about getting an online degree at Zen College Life.

Therefore, I’ve got together some useful tips for dealing with the negative effects (including eye problems, weight gain, and repetitive strain) of working at your desk for long periods. Obviously I’m not a doctor, so only take these tips as suggestions and not official advice.

Sit Properly!

The most important tip for staying healthy at your desk is to maintain a correct posture.

Be sure that your body is directly in front of your screen, so you are not twisting your torso.  Keep your feet on the floor or on a footrest and try not to cross your legs. It’s easy to slip out of a routine in sitting well, so get something to remind you to sit up on your desk, like a big fluffy banana.

Invest in a Good Chair

The first step to achieving good posture is finding a good chair.  It is wise to invest in a chair known for it’s good support for desk-workers such as the Aeron.

Think of how it will help you in the long run. Be sure to choose one with plenty of lumbar support and one that has wheels so you can turn in your desk without twisting your body.

Get an Ergonomic Keyboard

If you’re working on a laptop, this won’t apply to you, but if you’re working on a desktop, take a look at the range of ergonomic keyboards on the market.

Ergonomic keyboards are designed to minimize muscle strain and reduce the chances of developing carpal tunnel syndrome, which can be crippling to some computer workers.

Stop and Stretch Regularly

A quick Google search will reveal a plethora of nutty exercises, exercise equipment, gadgets and other ideas that will help keep you fit at your desk.  The majority of them are fairly ludicrous and impractical.  However, the ideas are good and it is important to keep mobile at your desk.

The most important exercises you can do involve your feet.  Stop every hour or so and make circles with your feet to mobilize your ankles and do foot pumps for example. Place your toes on the ground and lift your ankles in a pumping maneuver.  It’s also a good idea to do circles with your hands a couple of times a day to keep your wrists supple.

Avoid Carpal Tunnel with a Wrist Pad

If you’re using a laptop and you are worried about carpal tunnel (yeah, I’d never heard of it either), or you have experienced this at some point, you should think about purchasing a gel wrist pad, which you place just in front of your laptop.

It will help to keep your wrists elevated and comfortable, thus reducing the restriction on the nerves in your hands.

Don’t Eat and Work

One of the greatest problems with desk-based jobs these days is that people are gaining weight through lack of activity and mixing food with working at our desks.  Constant grazing while working is a problem for many of us and the bottom line is we’re simply not burning enough calories to justify the amount of food we eat.

Keep eating separate from work, and you’ll find you eat less. Get out and breathe some fresh air on your snack breaks.

Breaks Away From the Computer

Every hour, stand up from the computer and have a short walk around.  Heck, throw on some music and have a five-minute dance about. It’ll cheer you up too and clear your head. Take advantage of large downloads or installs on your computer to take a few minutes away from the computer.

Just keep taking breaks at least once an hour. Seriously.

Avoid Caffeine

Pumping our bodies with caffeine may help us stay focused for short periods, but you’ll crash after it wears off and you’ll be inclined to keep drinking/eating more. Replace your intake with other things like juice, but ideally:

Drink Plenty of Water

Water is the fuel that will keep you best focused and feeling most vitalized, even though it doesn’t seem so. Water also helps your body stay strong and healthy and will reduce your appetite. Water is gasoline for humans. Drink it and drink it a lot.

Check Your Eyes

Eye health or lack thereof, is another issue facing people who use computers for long hours every day.  To ensure optimum eye health, visit your optician for regular check-ups.  Noticing deterioration in eyesight quickly is key in maintaining good optical health.  If you are prescribed glasses, wear them!

Good Lighting

Our eyes need good levels of light to be able to work properly.  Make sure the area around your computer is well-lit.  If you have access to natural light, use it, but light in addition to the screen is important too.

Look Out of the Window

Every thirty minutes or so, have a look out of the window.  If you haven’t the fortune of having a room with a window, get out and train your eyes on something in the distance to redress the balance of looking at things close up.

Combine this with your break if you can.  It’s important for you to refocus your eyes regularly to avoid eye strain.

Use an Anti-Glare Screen

Some people find that fitting their computer with an anti-glare screen can help reduce eye strain and headaches from computer use.  It will also reduce reflection, which can be a big plus, depending on your working environment.

If you have more ideas for staying healthy at your desk, give us a shout and leave a comment below!

I’m pleased to say I’ve had nothing but very positive feedback from everyone. Some of the responses I’ve received recently by people who have read the book are below.

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‘An absolutely fantastic book, Alex has provided an invaluable resource for any aspiring or established professional creative.

I have been working as an illustrator for nearly five years. After purchasing Alex’s book, I discovered exactly what I was doing wrong in regards to promotion and exposure of my work.

In the space of a few weeks of using Alex’s methods, outlined in simple steps, I have generated a massive amount of interest and even gained more client work, especially good during the current economic climate. ’10 Steps’ has refreshed my excitement for my career and work.’

Phil Dunne, Illustrator

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‘Alex Mathers’ ’10 Steps’ was the perfect guide for me as I kick-started my illustration career. In art school, I learned about how to create my best work, but this book helped me figure out how to get it in front of the right people. It includes numerous creative and innovative ideas for self-promotion.’

Anna Raff, Illustrator

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‘It is the clarity of your book that I find to be it’s most inspiring aspect. In the world of self promotion, trying to figure out how to pull all of the possible avenues of exposure together and to prioritise them can be one of the most confusing and down right headache inducing tasks facing anybody in this industry.

You offer really clear and concise steps and guidance on how to go about tackling this. I found the sections on Networking and Bringing in Targeted Traffic to be especially enlightening, offering up areas of promotion that I had never considered before. Plus, your chapter on Direct Marketing has really assisted me with my current promotional activity.

The resources section is also fantastic, saving the reader literally days of trawling blogs, forums and directories.

All in all, your book is very clearly written and is a valuable tool to anyone making their way in this industry. What a wonderful resource.

Thank you.’

Tom Redfern, Illustrator and Designer

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‘As a complete beginner, 10 Steps has given me a good overview of the different types of online marketing, and moreover, a useful structure to fit them into. Without the book I’d be completely lost, but instead I’m focused and productive.’

Alexander Markham, Entrepreneur and Teacher

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‘I finished reading your book about 4 months ago, and I found so many useful tips. Focusing on exactly what I wanted to do, helped me develop in the areas I wanted, which is t-shirt design. I learned and networked with the right people and it helped me earn credibility and more popularity amongst my audience.

The book really help me re-focus on things I wasn’t aware of; it guided me, it did not tell me where to go, but it laid down all the available options.

Thanks Alex for this wonderful book, it was worth every dime.’

Mercedes Crespo, Designer

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‘Alex’s book is packed full of interesting advice and is a good point of reference for online marketing. It’s a huge guide but it also contains lots of smaller tips and tricks that are easy to implement. It’s probably worth the money just for the massive list of resources!’

Ian Ball, Animator and Illustrator

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‘I think your book is great, I tell everything that needs it to buy it.

My personal situation requires a little more time to apply all your ideas, but the most important thing that I realized is that a blog should be thought about very carefully. Your book is very useful for learning about social networks, which can be a very confusing place for me. Thanks a lot for sharing.’

Barbara Zonzin, Professional Photographer

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‘As a new member to the freelance creative world, this book has really helped me, not only understand the various general processes of self-promotion, but the specific means and steps by which to achieve them.

The book is full of links, examples and resources that comprise a complete know-all package for anyone trying to create a stronger online presence.’

Matt Wills, Designer

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‘I found Alex’s ebook to be most informative and very well thought out. The section that I personally found most beneficial was on advertising. As an event photographer, I am constantly looking for new ways in which to advertise & market myself online.

Alex provided the names of several online directories that I had not previously heard of, like Splut, Talk Photography and Guru.

I shall certainly be registering myself with these sites in order to meet potential new clients. In short, Alex’s ebook has proved to be an invaluable source of ideas!‘

Catherine Plant, Event Photographer

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Anyone else read the book? Please add your comments and views on it in the comments below.

Finding contacts on the Internet is a good way of building a network, and having a large and relevant online network is very useful. Taking this a step further and actually meeting some of these people is really valuable because it will cement relationships and trust with others even further.

Particularly for independent professionals like many of you, meeting new people and expanding your physical social network can be hard to do if you don’t know where to look.  Here are ten ways of finding, connecting with and arranging a meet up with people who can take your career to higher levels:

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the major online networking tools for industry professionals, and used correctly, it can work in a very helpful way for you.  LinkedIn allows you to maintain a very decent level of privacy and emphasises the value of connecting with working professionals.

Using the site’s search tools can bring up a whole host of people to add to your network, who can turn out to be future clients, friends and colleagues. The messaging function on LinkedIn will enable you to talk to and build rapport with people that you could eventually meet further down the line. LinkedIn features job search options, tells you how many shared connections you have with people in different organizations and does all this while maintaining a very professional style.

2. MeetUp

MeetUp.com is a great online tool for any kind of social event planning, be it a business network or a friendly game of local tennis.  The site allows you to search by type of event and location.  A quick search tonight allowed me to find a plethora of activities from a “Free Networking Breakfast” in Chicago to a “Learning digital photography” social in London.

Pretty much anything you could be interested in, most anywhere in the world; you will find a group or event that fits the bill for you.

3. Facebook

Facebook is a great social tool, but many of us are only using it to keep in touch with our friends and not taking advantage of its many networking tools.  The Facebook search function is actually far more capable than you may realize, allowing you to search events and groups (the best networking tools on the site) by keywords.

Say, for example, you are a WordPress genius and you want to find online groups or physical events where you can meet other, likeminded WordPress-ites, a group search for “WordPress” leads you to a 4,000-strong group that discusses new plug-ins and themes while also promoting their services to other members.

A WordPress event search, on the other hand, helps me discover that there is a “Create a Free WordPress Site for Your Business” in Minneapolis, MN, that is totally free.  Perhaps offering a free course is the best way for you to promote your business and get new customers.

4. Trade Shows

Trade shows are happening all the time and they are a great opportunity for not only meeting people, but also for developing new ideas and finding new tools that will help you improve your business.  A trade show is your open invitation to introduce yourself to people who may well be in need of your services.

However, remember that trade show exhibitors are mainly looking to sell their services at trade shows, not to buy yours, so make sure you don’t take up too much of their valuable time: Simply walk up, introduce yourself, hand over a business card, explain your services and be on your way.

5. Twitter

Twitter is another brilliant networking tool if you are aware of the best methods to make full use of it, which is explained closely in my book on online self-promotion.  While you can set everything to post on your Twitter account automatically, I find that it’s the personal attention to Twitter that will see your Follower count skyrocket.  Find people with similar interests to you and start following them – they will often follow you back – and then start sharing news about your various activities with them and share useful links.

Then, here’s the most important part of Twitter, take advantage of the re-tweet options and create lists that include all your favorite friends or most relevant business connections – lists help you reach out to large groups without going public.

6. Stock Sites

For creative professionals especially, stock sites like iStockPhoto.com contain a wealth of creatives like photographers, illustrators and web designers that you could network with through the site’s message capability and forums. If you are a contributor, say of vector illustrations, you can find many other people who you share a commonality with. I know iStockphoto.com organise regular get-togethers for it’s photographer and artist contributors.

7. Gallery Openings, Launches and Exhibitions

A Google search will reveal plenty of gallery openings, exhibitions and other social events attended by creatives.  There are sites that exist like Artslant.com which provide information on various events like gallery openings that you could pencil into your diary and go to.

Facebook provides a particularly good source of exhibitions that are happening all over the world, and these can be searched for within the site. Exhibitions which showcase similar work to your own could attract the kinds of people you’ll want to meet, so go along with a friend, a business card or two and start up conversations with people.

8. Company Social Events

As an independent contractor or freelancer, you will not necessarily be invited to any of your own company socials, but if you can, try and get on a social level with the companies for whom you freelance, if they are local.

Do this by developing a strong relationship with them so they almost think of you as an associate.  You will also find good networking opportunities at company events of your friends and family, so if they’re looking for someone to accompany them to their social events, consider this a good opportunity.

9. Online Forums

Find a discussion board or forum online, such as DesignersTalk.com, and begin to engage in some of the discussions going on and make friends through there. You can nurture relationships here over time with other regular users of the forum and eventually arrange a meetup or social gathering. You can also use a forum to ask about events happening near you that others in your industry visit.

10. Business Networking Groups

A quick internet search will reveal plenty of networking groups in your area. Some will be industry- specific, like the many real estate networking events, while others will be more general. The great thing about networking events is that you know everyone is there for the same reason, so there’s no way you can be a nuisance, but you might find that there are too many freelancers like you and not enough clients to go around.

I know there are plenty of other resources that bring people together, so share those with us in the comments!