Freelance Jam

This episode is all about optimizing your website’s performance.  We welcome Bryan Jones, the creator of CodeKit, an amazing tool that handles much of the optimization work for you! We covered a lot of ground in this espisode!  From taking your CSS to the next level using SASS and LESS, to other website optimization techniques.  We also asked Bryan about his experience building a popular Mac App and how his business has evolved. Mentioned in this episode: CodeKit Less App SASS LESS Panic Episode Sponsor MightyDeals.com offers amazing deals for web professionals. Discounts up to 90% off!

In this long overdue episode, Brian and Dave discuss all of the apps that make up their freelance business workflow these days.  From code editors, to productivity and social media – we walk through why each app works for us, and why others didn’t make the cut. Mentioned in this episode: Code Editing:  Espresso, Coda 2, LiveReload, CodeKit Productivity:  Followup.cc, Apple Reminders, Hiss (redirects growl notifications to Mountain Lion notifications) Social Media:  Buffer, Clicktotweet, Hootsuite, Medium Tunes: Songza, Rdio, Radium Episode Sponsor MightyDeals.com offers amazing deals for web professionals. Discounts up to 90% off!

In this episode, we’re joined by Brad Tousnard, founder of WPAppStore, to discuss the balance between client work and working on a personal project or startup.  Brian shares his thoughts on the subject as well, as he’s been working on his startup, Restaurant Engine, along with client work. A few of the topics discussed in this episode: How to plan and prepare to invest your time in a startup (while paying the bills). Making the shift away from client work and setting a timeline to do so. How Brad came up with the concept for WPAppStore and how he made the decision to pursue it. How the day-to-day operation changes when doing client work vs. working on personal projects / startups. And other ramblings… Programming Note:  This episode was our first time using the new Google+ “On Air” feature, which allows us to simultaneously broadcast and record our Google+ Hangout and push it strait to YouTube.  It seemed to work out really well.  The audio and video quality is a bit lacking at times, but it held up nicely over our hour-long conversation.  This new setup saves us LOADS of time in production too. Episode Sponsor MightyDeals.com offers amazing deals for web professionals. Discounts up to 90% off!

How can a freelancer earn a living as a writer? If you’ve read any popular sites like CNET, FreelanceSwitch, GigaOM, and Lifehack.org, then chances are you’ve read something written by today’s guest, Thursday Bram. She is everywhere. In this episode she gives us insight into the world of freelance writing for the web. Thursday answers these questions and more: What led you to a career in writing?  Did you go to school for that? Did you always work for yourself or did you come from a FT job? What does a typical writing project is like?  What do you offer clients, and how do you deliver it? How does the business of blogging work?  What is the typical pay-scale for an article? How do you find paying gigs as a blogger? How do you market yourself and your services?  Does the exposure you get through writing help with attracting clients? How do you jump between writing on vastly different topics from gig to gig? What are some differences when writing for the web vs. writing for print?  Any tips for better web writing? Do you write from a technical/technology perspective at all? How do you make technical content non-boring & fun to read? Can you recommend any resources, books, sites, that could us become better writers, learn “proper” writing skills, etc.? How would one break into the world of professional blogging and getting paid as a writer?  Where do we start? Episode Sponsor MightyDeals.com offers amazing deals for web professionals. Discounts up to 90% off!

How do you create a screencast that really makes it enjoyable and easy for viewers to follow along? We asked screencasting pro Shawn Hesketh of WP101 and LeftLane Designs to take us through every aspect of creating a quality screencast. Shawn started working for himself as a designer back in 1988 and in this episode you’ll hear how his business has evolved over time, especially as his use of screencasting has increased in the past few years. These days, he’s known for his popular WP101 WordPress tutorial videos as well as his screencast work for other companies such as WooThemes and Jilion (SublimeVideo). Whether you are thinking about creating how-to screencasts for your clients or feature-overview screencasts for potential customers, you’re going to find a lot of great tips in this episode. Tune in as Shawn answers questions like: How did he first become involved in web? Where did the idea of WP101 come from? What makes a screencast worth watching? How do you create a quality screencast that isn’t boring? What is his screencasting setup in terms of hardware and software? Where should screencasts be hosted and served: YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon S3, etc? How does he plan and execute each screencast in terms of written scripts, video clips, editing, and sizing? What is his approach to finding, creating, and incorporating other elements such as music and text effects? Where should people go to learn more about how to screencast? How does he plan a screencast that is intended more for marketing versus a tutorial video for existing customers? How does he market his video production services? How has his business changed since he’s been screencasting in terms of primary services that he offers? Episode Sponsor MightyDeals.com offers amazing deals for web professionals. Discounts up to 90% off!

In this audio-only episode, Dave and Brian talk about the lifestyle of a freelancer.  ”A day in the life” if you will.  Dave and Brian have slightly different perspectives on the subject.  Dave balances family life with kids and works in a co-working space away from home.  Brian works out of a home office and structures his work schedule around a very demanding dog! We cover the morning routine, taking extended lunch-breaks, scheduling meetings and calls, lifestyle of a freelancer vs. that of a full-time employee, carving out late night and early morning work sessions, and other random tidbits. Solo App Contest Winner As promised, in this episode we announced the winner of the 1 year subscription to Solo App.  So if you signed up, you’ll want to tune in to see if you won! Episode Sponsor MightyDeals.com offers amazing deals for web professionals. Discounts up to 90% off!

In an attempt to spice things up around here, we’ve decided to throw in a few shorter episodes where we spend twenty minutes or so discussing topics that might be too specific for a full episode or interview. In the first of these “Freelance Jam briefs,” we discuss our personal project management workflows as they relate to client projects and our own projects. Brian has decided to move most of his project management process over to Google Docs, while Dave is holding strong on the super simple Basecamp app. Find out how and why we are each using the systems that we are. QUESTION: How do YOU manage your projects? Big Announcment Speaking of project management, there’s a new kid on the block and it’s called Solo: Beautiful Project Management for the Freelancer. We’ve teamed up with Solo to give one of our lucky listeners/viewers a ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to Solo. That’s a $120 value! To enter, all you have to do is sign up for our email list. That’s it. You’ll also be signed up for Solo’s mailing list automatically. You can cancel your subscription to either list at any time, just make sure you’re still signed up when we announce our winner in episode #21 towards the end of February. Good luck, and be sure to take a closer look at Solo especially in light of the topic we discuss in this episode. Episode Sponsor MightyDeals.com offers amazing deals for web professionals. Discounts up to 90% off!