The 'Red Lemon Creative'. A 10-Point Manifesto for Successful Creatives Who Stand Out

Having now worked on Red Lemon Club for close to three years, there is so much I’ve learnt and so much that I yet want to explore, learn and share.

The more time I spend researching for posts and thinking about the ideas behind the site and the people that drive it, the clearer an idea is formed in my brain as to what it is that makes up who we are. We, being those people drawn to the ideas discussed here.

25 Ways You are Failing at Promoting Yourself, Your Products and Your Work

Self promotion. Whether the words stir up enthusiastic excitement or deep-rooted repulsion inside you, there is no doubt of its importance to those of you for whom attracting clients and buyers is important.

11 Easy and Efficient Ways to Build Knowledge, Self Teach, and Learn Every Day

I’m a firm believer in the massive benefits of ongoing self-teaching in contributing to not only increased knowledge as we progress through life, but in self confidence, creativity, improved imagination, memory and, ultimately happiness (or at least a glimpse of it!).

The 20 Most Useful Lessons I've Learnt as a Creative Blogger Over the Last Few Years

As you’ve no doubt seen me write about a good deal, keeping a blog* is one of the things I most consistently recommend as a means to so many fruitful things, including self-promotion, building credibility as an expert in something, and self-teaching/learning/discovery.

The Positive Way To Becoming More Creative, And Overcoming Creative Block

Our culture is populated with the stereotype of the tortured artist, who suffers emotional pains and struggle in the name of creativity. If we buy into this stereotype, we may be tempted to assume that by dwelling on negative emotions we are broadening our creative potential.

How Not Being Creative is Harming Your Very Survival

Creativity and survival are more closely linked than you might think.

I read recently that one of the things (and I think this is majorly important) that holds people back from enjoying life, seeing success and moving ahead, is a little thing known as reactivity.

21 Ways to Add Magic to Your Brand and Stand Out as a Creative

I like to talk about the importance of brand when it comes to presenting our products and services to our target market and the world.

It is vital that, in the current climate, where people are clambering over each other to be seen, independent creatives take deliberate action in modelling a clearly defined brand for themselves.

7 Crucial Things That Will Save You as an Independent Creative Over the Coming Years

As most of you will have noticed, the current economic climate isn’t particularly rosy when it comes to available work for us creatives.

Let me rephrase that. The current economic climate isn’t particularly rosy when it comes to available work for a large proportion of us creatives. There are many people out there who, for various reasons, still do earn a very good living from creative projects, and many who are doing better now than they ever have in the past.

On Why It's No Good to Try, You Must Do!

With the passing away of hugely influential science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury I wanted to cobble together a quick post to discuss one of my favourite quotes of his:

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”

Though the first part of the quote is hugely important, I’d like to take a closer look at the latter part (which relates to the first part anyway).

Why It's Ok to be Introverted, and an Interview with Writer Susan Cain

I’m someone who could be considered ‘in his head’ a great deal and definitely what one might call an ‘introvert‘. When Susan Cain’s book, ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking’, came along, I dove into it with some enthusiasm, possibly as a means to find some comfort in dealing with and understanding the ‘affliction’.

25 Pretty Quick Ways to Create Work Opportunities For You as a Creative

One of the biggest ironies of having a creative service that people need, be it mural painting or writing, is that through inaction, we deny ourselves, as well as others, the chance to actually use our skills and talents.

15 Reasons to Stay Focused on Developing your Craft

Let’s great straight into this idea of ‘craft’. What is it, and why is it worth pursuing?

My own thought on craft is that it is more a honed skill, style or application, than a tangible object. Craft is your technique; your brain’s neural connections, sculpted over hours of practice. Your craft is the way in which you apply paint to a canvas, how you think about a new musical composition or how you structure your written sentences in a short story.

25 Inspiring Quotes for Creative People

I find one of the most effective solutions to feeling unmotivated or disinterested in what I’m doing is to read a couple of quotes from others who have been and done it.

19 Reasons Your Online Portfolio Gets Barely Any Visits

You are a wonderful artist and you have a great, clean portfolio site featuring lovely new art and pictures you’ve been creating. You’d like more people to see your work and to hopefully get some paid work too.

12 Things You Are Doing That Are Stopping You Getting Paid

As many of us are self-employed, freelancing and/or independent workers in some way or another, the requirement for getting paid in a timely manner is paramount to our very professional existence.

How to Get Laser Focused by Designing Your Perfect Client

If you’re a creative professional, freelancer or business of any sort, one of the key parts of attracting regular clients, is in deciding on and determining a target market.

These are the people you are not only creating your finished product or service for, but the people you base your entire brand around. Your existence as a creative professional who earns good money from what you do depends on them.

How to Set up Your Self Promotional Kick Ass Newsletter

Are you a creative professional/freelancer/guru/genius without a newsletter (or whatever you prefer to call it)? Are you putting time most days into growing your mailing list to which you send this newsletter?

15 Reasons Creative Freelancers Need a Growing Twitter Network

You might have noticed that my sites ‘Ape on the Moon’ and this one have pretty large Twitter followings. This isn’t something that is down to the content of the sites on their own.

Red Lemon Club Motivation Tip #10 Leave School

Most of us have been through school, and experienced all the highs and lows that accompany those years. High school-level school is a period in everyone’s lives when one is impressionable and easily molded by the pressures to fit in and conform.