Best Practices

Apr 11th, 2007

Lessons Learned in the First 8 Months of Freelancing

One of the blogs I read regularly is that of AJAX designer Jesse Skinner. I’ve never had an extended conversation with the man, but he stands out in my memory in part because we started full-time freelancing at almost the exact same time. Naturally when he made a post about his first 2 months of [...]

Feb 28th, 2007

The Best Time Of Day To Work

Maybe there are people out there who have a consistent level of efficiency throughout the entire workday. If you are one of those people I salute you. For my own part, I’m reasonably efficient for most of the day, but I seem to have a sweet spot of a few hours in the late afternoon [...]

Feb 15th, 2007

5 Keys To Tell If You Would Be Happier As a Corporate Web Designer Or a Freelancer

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I want to talk a little about love (as it relates to this blog, at least). I love being an independent web designer. I love being my own boss. On rare occasions I’ll find myself wondering if I would love going back to a traditional job. I think it’s worth considering [...]

Jan 31st, 2007

Scheduling Projects

It’s easy to overlook the importance of budgeting your time because it seems so simple. You feel like you instinctively know whether or not you have enough time to do a project this week, this month, or at all. In the beginning as your practice is growing, you’ll almost always be right. Sometimes you may [...]

Dec 20th, 2006

The Motivation of Accountability

It’s been a little over four months since I left my 9 to 5 job to do freelance web development full-time. Since I became self-employed, I’m not accountable to anyone else for my work habits. Of course I’m accountable to my paying customers for the work I produce, but what about marketing, accounting, and all [...]

Nov 30th, 2006

Dealing With Unplanned Diminished Capacity

Your watch isn’t broken. Wednesday came and went without the regular Best Practices post. Normally I’ll think about ideas during the week, but not start writing the post until Tuesday or Wednesday. In most cases, there’s no problem with that system. Which brings me to the topic of this post: unplanned diminished capacity.
Any freelancer has [...]

Oct 18th, 2006

Lessons Learned in the First 2 Months of Freelancing

Exactly two months ago today was the last time that I spent my day inside a cubicle. A lot has changed since then. I write a lot more of my code barefoot. I’ve been spending a lot less money on lunch. Beyond these and other trivial (but awesome!) differences, I’ve observed a few things related [...]

Sep 20th, 2006

The “Bargain” Marketing Model Applied To Web Design

While not every marketing technique found in other industries can be applied directly to web development, there are a few that can. Case in point: the bargain. The idea is to promote something that’s a great deal to get people in the door. Once there, these customers are likely to notice other products and services [...]

Sep 13th, 2006

Time Management (Like Everything Else) Is Different For Freelancers

One of the many contributions that Stephen Covey has made to modern society’s corporate culture is the time management matrix. As shown in the example below, it divides the tasks that fill your day into quadrants, allowing you to apply rules about how much time should be spent on each activity. Spending time in quadrant [...]

Aug 2nd, 2006

Vital Software and Services For a Web Design Business

I was reorganizing my toolbars yesterday, and I grouped together the pieces of software that I use most frequently for my web design business. I thought it would make a good post of some “best practices” software. It made sense to add on a few online services that have been important to my business, too. [...]

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