Klassen Communications Blog

This blog has a new home

2009-08-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

Some weeks back, I was exchanging e-mails with someone who casually mentioned that this blog should really be a part of the Klassen Communications site instead of existing separately on Blogger.

Ideally, this blog would have been a part of my site from the beginning, but I started this blog on a whim just to see what Blogspot was like and, well... over 100 posts and two years later it just seemed easier to keep things the way they were.

But as I looked into it more, I found I could easily incorporate a blog on my own site, and import all the articles from here to there.

So, to quote a bit of the lyrics from a popular TV show, I "loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly."

In this case, 'Beverly' is http://mikeklassen.com/blog/.

There's still work to do on the new blog, but it's to a point where it's ready for readers. And like virtually everything I do, the new blog will continue to evolve as I find the time.

If you're a regular visitor to this blog, please bookmark the new blog site.

Because articles on this site are linked from various sites, the past articles will remain here for the foreseeable future. All new articles (in addition to all the old ones here) will be on the new site.

I will leave you with one marketing tip...

Because I touch on a number of different topics on this blog within the realm of design, marketing and freelancing, it gets a decent amount of search engine hits from people who otherwise would have never found me.

As you know, hits are good. And that's why the gentleman I was talking to mentioned that this blog should be on my own site... so I'm getting the benefit of people who will not only see my articles, but are a bit more likely to see what I actually do.

Plus, it was a chance to learn something new (a new blogging system) which is always a plus.

See ya in Beverly...

8 Reasons Why You're Not Making as Much as You Could as a Freelance Graphic Designer

2009-08-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

I want to introduce you to Jeremy Tuber. I found him through Twitter and glad I did. Jeremy is a freelance graphic designer and author. I'm going to talk a bit more about him after this article. Jeremy and I did a "blog exchange" where he used one of my articles and I'm using one of his. But after today, you're going to want to bookmark his site and follow him closely.

So more on Jeremy in a moment. For now, here's what he has to say about why you're not making as much money as you could...

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From talking with designers over the years I've found a direct correlation between how much they make and several undeniable factors - many of them aren't related to their design prowess. Recently I'd see a post on another blog that listed the "Top 10 Things They Don't Teach In Design School", it inspired me to put this together.

If you asked 10 designers if they aren't making the money they want to be, 9 out of the 10, or in some cases 10 out of the 10 are going to say, "No". This got me thinking, "If they're not happy with the money they're making why don't they do something about it? Do they not have the talent? Are they just lazy, or are they uncertain what to do about it?"

In this post I'll address the later: designers that want to bring in more money but aren't sure why they aren't. For those designers who really (I mean really) want to start to bring in more money, the process starts with looking at what's going on now. Here are my non talent-based reasons why designers don't bring in the money they want:

They:

Weren't taught, don't care about or are scared how to market and sell their services. Can't market or sell? Better learn to do something else.
Don't understand that being an expert in Photoshop won't by itself bring in business. They don't get that clients don't care if you're a Photoshop expert.
Mistakenly feel like everything they need to know about freelancing they learned in school, can learn online for free or will just be able to figure it out themselves.
Invest way too many resources in "fun" things: picking up the latest Adobe CS, checking out the latest free tutorials, IMing, Twittering, etc... instead of focusing on expanding their business. They are unwilling (not unable) to invest any time, money or energy in growing their business...but they'll spend an extraordinary amount of resources if they are being entertained.
Don't have a mentor or someone that is willing and able to provide sound advice for the specific situations, challenges the freelancer runs into (no, buddies and freelancers on the chat rooms don't count...if the chat room freelancers were that good, why aren't they working on projects instead of wasting time in the chat rooms?)
Weren't taught and don't know how to communicate with clients in an effective, compelling way, so they end up working with the wrong clients, spending way too much time on them, not getting fairly paid for their talent and giving away free services.
Have difficulty understanding what clients truly want from them (it's not "good design"), so they end up talking about things clients don't care about...and the client decides not to hire them.
Fool themselves into thinking someday "it'll just happen". Here's an exact copy of a tweet I pasted directly from a designer on Twitter, "Being poor sucks, but... it... builds character????? I'm a "starving artist" myself. 1 of these days I'll be tattooed & rich!" What do you think his chances are?
Bonus one here that happened after I initially wrote this entry - on the 15th I had a user (both in the figurative and literal sense of the word) systematically went through every single page of this blog trolling for free information. Not only is this a snarky thing to do, it's really not going to help him/her become successful. In doing my own research on what's out there I've just found the free information I stumbled was stuff I already knew...and overly simplified as well. If freelancers really think they're going to find the secret to their success by rummaging the Internet for free tidbits are just fooling themselves...I should know, I tried this approach early in my career. I went through a marketing expert's blog and copied all of his entries, thinking I hit the jackpot...in the end, I didn't spend a lot of time on them and they didn't do a damn thing for me.

Pretty harsh stuff I know, almost like getting a cold bucket of water tossed on you. But for those of you out there that are thinking about freelancing, just starting out or in need of a boost, I would rather be honest with you rather than try to sugar-coat it, I hope that makes sense.

I know that most freelancers that read this will ignore it - that's cool. Over 75% of freelancing businesses don't make it after 2-3 years...and someone has to make up those statistics. But I also know there are a few of you who will see some wisdom in this and take action.

You can listen or you can ignore, the choice is all yours, my role is just to show you where the water is...your role is to decide to drink it or not.

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Thanks, Jeremy.

For the rest of you, head over to Jeremy's site, Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks.

Once you're there, bookmark the site. Next, do I like I did and spend a few hours pouring through all of the past articles. I like that Jeremy is brutally honest about things. I appreciate straight talk. But more important than reading the information is finding ways to apply it.

There are plenty of designers out there with blogs, but not so many have content that we as direct market design freelancers can relate to. Quite a number come from designers and artists who seem to be in the word of agency work and projects that are outside the realm of some of things followers of this blog are into.

After you've seen Jeremy's blog, do what I did... buy his book, his iTunes "album" and any of the other items that you feel will help you at this point. I just started reading Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks which I ordered from Amazon.com. It's 500 pages of good information, especially if you're totally new or relatively new and not sure what to do next.

As soon as my Kindle arrives this week, the first purchase is going to be Jeremy's book, Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers. (You can also buy a non-Kindle version.)

OK... it's up to you now. If you're serious about building your freelance graphic design business, you're going to look into what Jeremy is offering and find ways to apply his advice to your own situation.

My response for low-bid requests from clients

2009-07-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Some time back, I met a person through a forum who liked what I had to say on some topic. Turns out she needed a graphic designer for an upcoming project. Since she liked my attitude, she wanted to give me the job.

(For the record, I would hope she actually looked at my samples. I'm flattered that someone might hire me on personality alone, but that's a dangerous way to make decisions about freelancers. Anyway, back to our story...)

Just one thing... she had already chosen a designer for the job. But if I could beat his price by, literally, just a few dollars, I could have the job and she'd yank it from the other guy. (I'm not kidding... I think I just needed to beat the price by $5.)

The price the other designer had quoted was pretty low to begin with. But I declined the job for a number of reasons. Those reasons led me to keep handy an explanation that I can give when someone asks me for a low price, to compete against another quote they've already received, or when I get asked to lower the price after they see my quote.

I can cut and paste as required for the situation.

I'm going to share that with you now. If it's something you want to adapt for yourself, go right ahead.

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I respect your desire to get the best price possible. However, I will not be able to match/beat a lower price from another designer for the following reasons:

1. I don't compete for projects based on price. If you look hard enough, you'll eventually find someone to do your project for free. There are plenty of designers who are just starting out. For them, a portfolio piece is more important than being paid. I'd go out of business quickly if I were bidding just on price considerations.

2. While I could probably undercut any other designer just to get a project, ethically speaking, I don't feel that's the right thing for me to do. While the the quality of work I do is extremely important, it's equally important to me that my business maintain the highest ethical standards possible. Taking a job away from another qualified designer simply by under-cutting his or her price by a few dollars does not meet those standards.

3. Because of the standards I just mentioned, it's important to me to develop a trusting relationship with clients. I never view my clients as "disposable"... hopefully a first project is the start of many projects in the future. Over time, I want to know your business well enough to provide useful opinions that will help you reach your goals. But if I give you what I feel is a fair price for the work you need done, and then lower the price if I find resistance, we have eroded a certain level of trust before the project even begins.

4. Finally, a general thought about design. Quality design, like anything else of quality, takes time. And the tools used to create these projects - such as InDesign, QuarkXPress or Photoshop - require a skill level that many clients don't have. If they did, they'd simply do it themselves. Understanding design considerations like kerning, leading and tracking and host of other things come with time and experience. Since I do have that experience, I'm very comfortable with the rates I charge.

Having said all that, let me say again that I fully respect your desire to consider all your options. I would be thrilled to work with you on this project. But if it doesn't work out this time, hopefully we can work together on a project in the future.

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Let me be clear on a few points:

I'm not opposed to a true bidding process, and may the best designer win. I am opposed to playing the game where one person is pitted against another to whittle down the price. Some clients like to play that game, and that's fine. It's just not for me.

In fact, it's rare I even bid on projects if I know lots of other designers are also bidding. Nothing wrong with joining a bidding party, it's just not my thing.

I'm also not opposed to lowering my price if the client lowers the scope of the project. That happens when clients aren't initially realistic about what's involved. If they're willing to rethink the project, I'm willing to update my price based on that.

If you're just starting out and need work, you may question the wisdom of taking any sort of stand that might chase away a paying project. I understand and respect that. Always do what's best for you and your situation.

I simply share my opinions and hopefully give you some things to consider before you find yourself in similar situations. I can tell you there are clients out there willing to pay a fair price to a solid designer. You don't have to work for peanuts.

My "canned response" is really targeted toward the clients who are looking to play people off each other for the lowest price. That is the client's right, so I'm not complaining about it. Just explaining how I deal with it.

Article Writer - What might have been

2009-07-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

This year, I had an article published in a national magazine. The experience confirmed my decision way back when not to pursue article writing as a career.

When I decided that I didn't want to spend the rest of my working life at Microsoft, I tried to come up with a new career. I loved writing, and was working as a tech writer at MS, so I figured I try a career as a writer.

I was obviously familiar with technical writing. And I knew you could write books as either a fiction or non-fiction author. But I thought the only other type of writing career available, and most realistic to me, was writing articles for various publications.

I didn't know much about article writing, but what I did know was through stories I heard: You submitted an article or an idea, hoped someone would pay you for it, then saw how little money you made vs. the amount of effort you put in.

Thank goodness I stumbled across The Well-Fed Writer book and AWAI around that time. That got me pointed in a better direction where you'd write copy for marketing material and make more than "pennies per word."

Obviously, my career took another turn when I jumped over to design, but to this day, I still enjoy writing.

Between this blog and other outlets, I've developed an "article library" that I can offer to publications or other blogs. And since I don't depend on article writing for my income, I don't follow any "submission requirements" that a publication may have.

I simply send a quick e-mail with a pointer to the article library. If they find something they like, we take it from there. If they don't accept submissions in that manner, fine... I'll move on to someone else. I don't have the time or desire to go through a formal process.

As I said earlier, a magazine decided to run one of my articles. The process gave me a brief taste of how my life might have turned out. The folks at the magazine were fine, it's just that the article kept getting pushed back month after month due to space limitations or other issues.

After a while, I began to doubt whether it would ever get printed. It also illustrated what a full-time article writer must go through, at least in a small way. Can you imagine being at the mercy of so many things outside of your control just to get a small check whenever your article eventually ran?

I realize there are some article writers who make a good living because they've taken the time to establish themselves as one of the top few for their writing niche. But that leaves a lot of folks somewhere down where I was, battling against a lot of people willing to provide content for little or no money. No thanks!

I don't have any real lesson or take-away for you... just thinking "out loud" about how thankful I am that I ended up where I did. And also thankful that I was open to other opportunities that might not have been obvious in the beginning.

Twitter... The Journey Continues

2009-06-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned here, I joined Twitter earlier this month, albeit reluctantly.

I also mentioned that I would keep you updated because I know others are in the same position I'm in: Wondering if the hype can translate into work for a freelancer.

I'm certainly aware this is a process that takes time, so you're not going to read about all my job successes via Twitter today because there aren't any yet.

But I have learned a few things about how I need to approach Twitter and how some of my early assumptions were off-base.

One of the reasons I joined Twitter was not just because people I knew were having success finding work there, but also because I realized my beliefs about Twitter were not based on personal experience. Since Twitter accounts are free, it was easy enough to create an account and see things up-close for myself.

Remember, I'm doing this strictly for business reasons and there's a certain level of professionalism I want to maintain.

For that reason, one of the first things I wanted to do was ditch the horrid backgrounds Twitter offers, and create an icon that was useful.

First, the background. I did a search for "twitter backgrounds" and came across a great site that had Photoshop templates that you could alter. So this is what I ended up with: http://twitter.com/dmdesigner

I saw that other people did something similar. Sometimes the results were stunning, sometimes embarrassing. In my case, I wanted to provide useful information like how to contact me, my websites, what I do, and what my focus on Twitter is. (More about that last point later.)

It did also occur to me that making professional backgrounds for companies is a potential income source. When you see how simple a background template is, anyone with even minimal knowledge of Photoshop could crank these things out.

For my picture icon I created something incredibly simple that tells people what I do and clarifies my Twitter name: dmdesigner which is short for direct market designer.

Most people seem to use their personal picture which, in this case, isn't such a bad thing. But because most people seem to do that, easily readable text as an icon with a white background actually stands out in a stream of tweets that someone is looking at, filled with personal photos or complex images.

Based on numerous recommendations, I downloaded the free TweetDeck to manage my account. It's a separate program that runs independent of your browser. For me, it's far more efficient.

I'm still trying to find the best folks to follow. I do follow some colleagues and other "names" in the industry. I'm still a bit shocked over how some big names seem to pass along rather useless information, like what they had for breakfast that morning.

If my family and I, scattered all across the country, were following each other on a personal level, what everyone ate would be fine. But for business, I'm not so sure.

I was following one person whom I thought was going to be providing a solid stream of design-related info. He didn't. He seemed to have an obsession with one topic in particular. After about a week, I stopped following him.

I'm not sure, but I may be breaking protocol in not automatically following people who follow me. I do take the time to check out the people who follow me. If I see that they have something to offer that I can learn from, I'll follow them back.

But some people following me are simply on a mission to get others to sign up for their "get rich" product. I'm OK with a little selling, but when just about every message from you is a sales pitch, no thanks. Or, they seem to look at Twitter as a sport in that they want to have as many followers as possible.

I couldn't help but notice that some big names follow far, far fewer people than the number that follows them. Some type of lesson there, perhaps?

For some people who follow me, I have no idea what their Twitter purpose is. That's not such a great sin because there's no law that says you have to have a purpose. But if I'm going to follow someone, I want some sense of their focus.

That's why I include a "Twitter Focus" on my home site... I want people to know what to expect from me so they can make an informed decision about whether they want to follow me. I might be inclined to follow some of these followers if I had a clue as to what they're using Twitter for. (Although, it wasn't hard to guess the purpose when "hornie hottie" started following me. Thankfully, the account had been banned before I could even block that account from following me.)

One thing that I had originally wanted to stay away from was non-business chit-chat. However, I think this is an area where I was wrong about how to use Twitter. A great lesson I learned (which I'm sure you've heard before) is that people like to do business with people they know. And, frankly, some of this non-business chatting is one way of doing that.

So I've made some comments totally unrelated to business, but certainly useful in just bonding with people on a personal level. That is a good thing. And, honestly, it's a fun thing, especially for those of us who work from home and don't have much face-to-face interactions like people who work in an office.

Like most others, I'll still post links I find of interest, or some quote I find interesting. I wish I was providing something deeper, but I'm still new to this and can't say I've found my comfort zone yet. If you're just posting links and quotes, I think it's a little harder to build meaningful connections. At some point, you're going to want/need to actually have conversations with people.

Bottom line: Still learning, still finding my way, still finding the right people I want to follow, still trying to contribute something useful, no longer thinking Twitter is a complete waste of time, but not yet convinced it's as amazing as others do.

To be continued...

5 ways to deal with late-paying clients

2009-06-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

As is the case with just about everything I write, my advice today needs to be filtered through your own experiences, how comfortable you are dealing with client problems, and your specific needs when it comes to being paid on time. What works for me might not work for you and your situation.

One of my goals for this blog is to give you something to think about if you haven't experienced certain aspects of freelancing yet. Or to give you a different spin on something that you previously thought about in another way.

Today's topic fits into that mission.

It doesn't take long as a freelancer to run into some sort of payment issue with a client. Sometimes the client is being dishonest, but more often than not I've found that these issues occurred because of circumstances the client never intended to be in. Unfortunately, that can still be a problem for you.

I'm really only interested in "late-paying" here... "non-paying" is a more serious matter and an entirely different topic. (And, frankly, one that's probably better to discuss with a lawyer.)

And to fine-tune it further, let's say "chronic late-paying." Every client is going to have issues from time to time where payment is late. Try to give them some slack because chances are you're going to need some slack at some point when a project ends up a little late or you make a mistake that causes the client a little pain.

We all make mistakes and we all have bad days. You want to look at the big picture with the client. Solid clients are worth keeping and they're worth the benefit of the doubt when problems creep up from time to time.

However, when those problems seem to be the norm and not the exception...

1. Discuss the problem

I always like to assume the best. As I mentioned, this problem could be occurring because of things the client can't control. But it's still worthwhile to explain your position.

Sometimes, I'll address the issue like this: "I've noticed that recent payments are coming later than expected. I know you're slammed on your end, but is there anything I can do to help make the process a little easier for both of us? Like you, I've got financial obligations on my end and once I get the final project into your hands, I'd like to clear the account so we can move on to the next project and keep things rolling efficiently."

OK... you come up with something similar in your own words. My point here is to keep things positive and try to be helpful. And I'm hoping you actually have payment terms outlined in your client agreement or at least on your invoice. That prevents the client from saying, "Oh... I didn't know I had to get payment to you by _________."

2. Charge a late fee

I know late fees are common, but I hate them and never do it. It's probably just me, but my feeling is that if the client doesn't respect your "payment due" date on a regular basis, how likely are they to respect the late fee? And if you're having to charge the late fee on a regular basis, maybe you don't want them as a client.

I'm not convinced a late fee is worth the stress of having to confront the client over it and waste more of your time to collect. Again, that's just me.

3. Require full-payment upfront

I've had clients who started out as "prompt payers", then started getting a bit lazy. For some, I had not been requiring a partial payment up-front, so late-payment on top of that wasn't sitting well with me. I was feeling a bit taken-advantage of after being the nice guy and not requiring the partial up-front payment. (This issue of not requiring a partial up-front payment is something I'll tackle on its own another time.)

If ideas #1 and #2 don't work for you, consider requiring full payment up-front. The risk? Losing the client.

But I didn't care if I lost the client. You might not be in that position, so take this step after considering the worst-case scenario.

Believe it or not, some clients don't mind paying up-front. They know they have a habit of not doing things on time and feel bad about it. So not starting their project until you get paid is something they can understand.

4. Fire the client

Despite your best efforts to solve the problem and give the client all the help you can, nothing changes... payments are going to be late. There are two things you can do and the first is to simply part company with the client.

You don't have to be mean about it. When the next project comes in, say, "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to work on your projects any longer. Like you and your business, I need to be paid promptly for my services and that hasn't been happening. I enjoy working with you on your projects, but I need to put my time into projects where I'm being paid promptly."

Hopefully, the client snaps out of it and starts paying you on time. In the worst-case scenario, you get cussed out and the client tells everyone he knows that you're a dishonest business person. Hey, it's rare, but it happens.

What might happen, instead, is that the client is ticked off, but moves on to some other unsuspecting freelancer and treats him/her the same way. But at least he's out of your life.

5. Choose not to worry about it

This is the other side of the coin to idea #4.

There are some clients who will never be on time or prompt about anything. Why they are that way is a mystery. But I have had clients who see the "payment due" date on the invoice as unintelligible black ink and pay you when they get to it... usually about a month after you were expecting it.

These people are often solo operations where they're doing everything that should probably be done by a team of people. It's not that he wants to cause you stress, it's just the world he's in day in and day out.

If you eventually get paid for your projects, you enjoy the work, and the slow payment isn't causing you financial stress, you might simply decide not to worry about it as long as the check eventually gets to you.

To be honest, I can't say I recommend that. You deserve to be treated with respect and prompt payment is part of that. But it's a valid way to deal with the problem. If you're the non-confrontational type, this is something that probably appeals to you.

We could brainstorm and come up with more than five methods for dealing with this issue. But this is enough for now.

The main thing I don't want you to do is to get stressed when this happens. It's really easy to run it over and over in your mind, getting more and more worked up, but not taking any concrete, thoughtful steps to solve the problem. This is especially true with beginning freelancers who are hesitant to rock the boat and potentially lose a client.

But if you let clients take advantage of you, you suddenly find yourself with a calendar full of clients like that. It's just not worth the aggravation. Coming to some sort of final resolution, whatever it might be, allows you to move on and focus on building a successful career with high-quality clients.

Despite many doubts, I'm on Twitter

2009-06-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's not lost on me that in my previous blog entry, I said I have limited time, yet here I am telling you I'm on Twitter.

If there's an award for "Biggest Sucking of Time on the Internet", surely Twitter would be among the nominees.

However...

One of the things I love about freelancing is being able to dabble in a variety of things related to building a successful business. I can try just about anything and keep what works and discard what doesn't.

It's difficult to ignore the success some people are having on Twitter. I've been involved in a few discussions that have focused on the success angle rather than the "I just wasted an hour" angle. So I finally decided to stick a toe in the water and try it out.

But in my mind, just going on this adventure alone would be a bit wasteful. I might as well share what I learn along the way right here. So I'm going to explain today why I joined and what my goals are. As the months roll on, I'll provide some updates on this blog where I have more than 140 characters to explain myself.

First, let me give you the link: http://twitter.com/dmdesigner

I debated what "name" to use. My own name would have been the obvious choice, but it was taken. My business name, Klassen Communications, would have been the next logical choice, but it's too long. Instead, I went with my occupation: direct market designer, or dmdesigner.

For everyday folks, dm doesn't mean much. But for the people I want to talk with and market to, dm is well-known as direct market or direct marketing.

So when I get involved with people on Twitter, my feeling (hope?) is that dmdesigner will instantly signal what I do.

As of this moment, I'm only following one person. That will grow, but I want to be careful. One of my hesitations about joining Twitter is all the useless information that I've seen when I poke my nose around different Twitter accounts. I guess it is useful for someone, but I'm not there to socialize with family and friends. I'm doing this purely for business reasons.

So maybe your cat, Snowball, is sick and you're going to be late for work. Sorry to hear that, but I'm not really interested from a business point of view. Likewise, if I'm a little under the weather, do I really need to share that with the world? Probably not.

That led me to a handful of guidelines for using Twitter:

1. Maintain a professional image

If I'm posting original material, for now it will probably be links relevant to either designers, copywriters or marketers since that's the business I'm in. If I have something to sell (which is rare) that's OK, but I don't want my posts to be a stream of commercials. Like this blog, part of the reason for me being on Twitter is to help people. That's simply in my business DNA.

But this Twitter account is an extension of my business. I don't send e-mails to my clients telling them, for example, that my kitchen sink backed up and I needed to take apart the pipes to clear it. So why would I think it's OK to do something similar on Twitter? (Again, we're just talking about using Twitter for business, not personal Twitter.)

Some clients now spend a bit of time researching a freelancer's contributions on the Internet before hiring them. So I want to be able to stand behind the things that I say and have them reflect my beliefs about how I operate.

2. It's mainly about enhancing and generating business

As much as I enjoy helping people, I do have a business to run. For the most part, activities like LinkedIn and Twitter must have a business value for me. The people I've been talking to recently have been telling me about the business they're generating from these social media avenues, so I'm willing to give it a try. But if I find it's not holding any business value for me, away it goes. (That's basically what happened with my forum participation.)

3. Follow people that I can contribute to professionally

One big concern about jointing Twitter was that I'd have nothing to say on my own that would be relevant amongst all the other Twitter accounts. What value I can bring in my own original postings remains to be seen.

But the other side of the coin is contributing to what others are sharing. That, to me, seems far easier. This will be a bit of trial and error. Sometimes I won't know how useful my contributions will be until I've followed someone for a time. That might mean adding and dropping people I follow with more frequency in the beginning.

4. Use keywords

If there's one thing I've learned over two and half years from this blog it's that keywords bring more traffic to this site than people who know me from somewhere. And that's a good thing... I get people to this site that I'd never know to invite because they're not in the circles I normally run around in.

I want to transfer that keyword philosophy to Twitter. One of my first tweets (ugh... I hate that word) included a link to some really good free fonts. I happen to know that "free fonts" is a fairly popular search term.

So when possible, I want to make sure I'm using words that will generate relevant search hits to my Twitter site. That should help expose me to new people that I might not have met otherwise.

5. I won't get my feelings hurt if people stop following me

The thought of people following me and then dropping me after a few days makes me laugh... worth someone's time one moment, not worth it the next.

I don't pay much attention to how many people read this blog. It's here if you want it and if no one wants it, I'll keep writing anyway. It's just what I do as someone who needs to write.

But on Twitter, it's very clear how many people are following you and will be easy to see if people stop. In other words, how interesting you are is a bit more in your face and harder to avoid.

No matter, though. This is a bit of an experiment. I don't intend to take it personally. But if you're thinking of joining Twitter for business purposes, it is something to be aware of.

I guess that's it for now. I'll add more "guidelines" if necessary and will update my progress (or lack of it) here on this blog when appropriate.

AWAI's Graphic Design Success program

2009-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

A bit of an explanation is in order before I get into today's topic.

I'm not famous by any stretch of the imagination. But for various reasons, my name is known a bit related to AWAI and their Graphic Design Success program. I'll tell you why in just a moment.

Because my name is out there in connection with the GDS program, I get contacted a lot by people who are considering buying the program. When I was just starting out, it was no problem to answer questions about my journey to where I am now because I had the time.

For anyone who knows me, I'm not very good with short answers. My feeling is that if someone is sincerely asking for my help, I want to give them all the information I have. Thus, e-mails from me could be very long as I took a lot of time to address all the issues someone would ask me about.

Again, that was no problem when my schedule wasn't filled with projects. But that's not the case these days. My schedule is packed, so I can't get as involved in things like forums or e-mail conversations where I'm addressing the same questions over and over again.

That's one of the main reasons for this blog... to share when I can based on my schedule and hopefully reach a lot of people all at once. It's also why I wrote a book about going freelance... to address the same questions I was getting month after month.

That leads us to today's topic. One of the top questions I get asked is whether AWAI's Graphic Design Success program is worth the money. I'm going to lay it all out here, then when I get asked the question in the future (or when someone is doing a search related to the GDS program) I can send them here.

Full Disclosure: I'm now connected to AWAI in a variety of ways. I'm an affiliate for the GDS program, I do layout work for them, I'm on their Wall of Fame, I'm listed on their Meet The Pros site for the program, I've helped with a little bit of the content of the updated GDS program, I've been a teacher at their Bootcamps, etc.

You'll either read all that and think I'm as biased as anyone can be, which is a bad thing in your mind. Or that I probably have more useful knowledge about the program than lots of other people, which is a good thing. If you think I'm biased, fair enough. I completely respect that.

OK, time to get into it. (See? Look how much I've written just as a setup for this topic. Brevity: It's just not my gift.)

As many of you know, my plan was not to be a graphic designer. It was the writer's life for me. I outlined all that in the book. But I thought I might make more money as a copywriter who also had some design skills to offer.

I already knew of AWAI because I owned their copywriting program. Because of that, I knew they also sold a graphic design program. So a few years back when a potential job came up that needed both design and copy, I bought the Graphic Design Success program to learn about a topic I knew nothing about. I was fine when it came to writing, but totally clueless about direct market design.

I love to learn new things, so the GDS program was a lot of fun for me. Just about every page was teaching me something new. And when I'm into something new, I really try to throw myself into it. For example, the same day I ordered the GDS program, I made a trip to the bookstore to buy whatever books and magazines might be relevant.

On that note, here's one of those questions I get: Is there anything out there cheaper than the GDS program that I can buy to learn about direct market design?

Well, when it comes to things that teach "direct market design", it's pretty thin. I've lost count of the number of clients who have said something like, "I need someone who understands direct market design. I'm tired of getting burned by designers who can do all sorts of fancy stuff, but don't understand direct marketing." So it's certainly a specific skill-set and direct market clients know it.

In this case, I was probably lucky to know nothing about design because all the knowledge I was gaining from the GDS programs was just related to direct market design. In other words, I didn't have to "un-learn" the types of things they teach in college design programs. It's all good stuff, just not terribly relevant to direct marketing.

No doubt there are other resources out there, but I haven't run across much. And it is something I look for. There is a wonderful, out-of-print book called Designing Direct Mail That Sells. And there are good books that cover basics like setting up a grid. But an indepth look at direct mail design principles? A bit of an untapped market if you ask me.

There are books covering advertising, but they're more of what we call the "Madison Avenue" type of advertising. It's the type of stuff that is harder to track results for (something direct marketers hate) and seemingly designed more to get awards for the ad agency than actually making sales. That last point may be a bit harsh, but that's just my opinion.

So I'm not saying there's nothing else out there that covers this specific topic. I'm just saying there's not much that I've run across or that covers things so thoroughly.

Another "sub-question" is this: Does the program teach you how to use the software direct market designers use? Not really. Nor could it if you stop and think about it. Some DM designers focus in different areas such as print, illustration, website design, etc.

So consider all the software one might use: InDesign, QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Expressions, Flash, CorelDraw, Painter, Publisher. And then there are programs no longer made, but still on plenty of hard-drives and valid tools for DM designers: Adobe GoLive, MS FrontPage, Freehand and many more.

No program could cover every possible title someone might have. And if it did, you'd need a forklift to move the binder around.

(Quick Note: You don't need to learn every piece of software out there. I don't want you thinking you have to be an expert in everything. You don't.)

My suggestion to people in this case is to get a subscription to Lynda.com. It's not cheap, but for one price you get access to every program they cover and they cover a lot!

Here's another question I get: I have some design background, so is the program just going to teach me things I already know? Sorry, but I have no idea. Even if I had the time to hear about what you know, I wouldn't know how well you know it. Know what I mean? (But you can solve that dilemma on your own. I'll mention how in a minute.)

For a short time, I taught a continuing education class on copywriting at a local college. You teach the same content to a room full of people and some are going to take away more than others. So, for example, perhaps you did take a course on design, but I have no idea how much of that you really have a good grasp on.

Finally, when people tell me they're hesitant to buy the program because of the cost, I remind them that AWAI offers a 30-day, money-back guarantee. So you buy it, look through it, and if it isn't for you ask for your money back. I know getting a refund for anything can be a little inconvenient, but if you're not willing to exert some effort to get started in a new career, maybe you need to reassess whether you're ready for a new career.

Starting a new career is a challenge. I've worked hard to get where I am now. I didn't just buy the program and wait for something to happen. I soaked up everything I could from it while at the same time picking up information from any other source I stumbled across. Then, I applied that knowledge to what clients need. But at least with the GDS program, I had a solid foundation to build upon.

Notice how I italicized 'applied' in that last paragraph. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who read everything in sight, but never apply it. They confuse information gathering with true progress. Part of making progress is gathering information. But if you never apply it, what's the point?

There's a popular saying: "Knowledge is Power". But that's wrong. Some will say the use of knowledge is power. That's wrong, too. It's the use of accurate knowledge that's power. Of course, that doesn't work as nicely as a pithy saying. And in our case, power should probably be restated as career advancement.

In other words, you could buy the GDS program (or something else) and read it from beginning to end. But if you don't apply it, it's not going to do you any good.

I know I've sounded like a shill for the program. But here's the bottom line for me: The program got me started on the right foot and changed my life for the better. Simple as that. I'm writing this in the comfort of my own home-studio, living where I want to be living, working on projects that I enjoy, not projects that some boss tells me I have to do. I set my own schedule and while I have those moments where I'm working long hours, it really is my choice to do that.

I have bad days where it seems things aren't going right, but they're few and far between.

I'll end with my favorite quote from a freelancer in Daniel Pink's book Free Agent Nation:

“Working when, where, how much, under what conditions and for whom I want.”

As they say, That's the life for me!

(Now, for your own good, get up and stretch your legs a bit.)

Designing outside the box

2009-05-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

I've grown to dislike the phrase "thinking outside the box." When I was at Microsoft, that phrase was tossed around constantly, especially when it came to the type of people we wanted to hire. ("Mike, when you're interviewing people for our team, make sure they can think outside the box.") Like any over-used phrase, hearing it over and over begins to annoy you after a while and it loses it's impact.

But the phrase popped back into my head recently as I was reading an article about creativity. The article made reference to that classic 9 Dots puzzle which literally forces you to think outside the box to find the solution.

Like most people, I've known the solution to that puzzle for a long time. But for whatever reason, the article I was reading, along with the puzzle it referenced and the discussion about "thinking outside the box", hit me in a fresh way.

As designers (or copywriters) it seems a luxury to have any decent amount of time to really think through a new project before digging into it. Most clients, especially in the direct market arena, need it yesterday.

But I've been making an extra effort to come up with at least one "outside the box" idea for a project. It doesn't mean I'll use any of the ideas I come up with. I just want to enforce the habit of thinking of possibly off-the-wall ideas for each project I do.

Let me give you a simple example. I've been working on some sales letters for various clients. On a recent one, I tried to think of something different to do. The first thought was to lay out the sales letter horizontally. In other words, instead of a traditional 8.5 x 11 inch sales letter layout, why not make it 11 x 8.5 inches?

Well, here's why not: It's a rotten idea!! And it didn't take more than a second to figure that out. But that's OK. The exercise is to come up with ideas. Some will work, some won't.

If you've ever been a part of a group brainstorming session, you understand the goal. Everyone tosses out any idea that comes to mind without filtering it for fear that other people will think it's a dumb idea. Smart brainstormers know that a bad idea can be just the nudge that someone else in the group needs to mold it into a better idea.

As a freelancer typically working alone, you'll need to not only come up with some "dumb" ideas, but also be the one to take the time to shape them into something that will work.

While the idea of a landscape layout sales letter wasn't good, the idea could work for something like an annual report. In fact, as I investigated it a bit, there are quite a number of annual reports that have been done in landscape mode.

So my idea wasn't going to fly for the sales letter, but it was an idea worth filing away for another type of project. The point here is to get yourself into the habit of coming up with at least one new idea (if not more) for your projects no matter how much of a rush you're in. Then see how it might work into current or future projects.

.Tel me about yourself

2009-04-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

With the exception of the technology related to my work as a graphic designer, I'm usually a bit behind the technology curve when it comes to the big trends of the day.

For example, I have no desire to Twitter and I don't feel I need a Blu-ray player. I did jump on the iPhone bandwagon so I could claim to be cool at least once in middle-age, but that's about it.

However, I did do something this weekend that either makes me a "cool" early adopter or one of a handful of suckers who failed to see this will be a gigantic waste.

I registered my business on the new .tel domain. You can read more about it here.

In a nutshell, here's the idea behind it straight from the source:

The .TEL is a new top-level domain that allows the .TEL domain owner to store, publish and manage contact information and keywords directly in the Domain Name System (DNS), the global and powerful system that stores locations of all the websites in the world. This is the first service of its kind that enables anyone to use the DNS to store information other than the location of websites. It provides an exciting new use of internet infrastructure that will completely change the way we communicate and keep in touch with others.

That last sentence amuses me... a bit of hype in my opinion, but who knows?

Anyway, based on what I know about cybersquatting, where people buy a domain with the purpose of selling it to someone who might actually have some claim to it, I decided to buy: http://klassencommunications.tel/

I found a cheap, annual price for the domain (prices can vary from company to company) and I don't actually have to maintain the site design. Everyone's .tel site will look the same since you're just plugging in data. The design is kept simple so people on mobile devices can load it quickly.

I can see I'm not the only one who has done this. Some major companies like Google and Apple appear to have bought .tel domains. And I see cybersquatters have already grabbed "whitehouse" and "god". (God is apparently residing in Canada these days and filling his days by selling domains.)

There is a little part of me that thinks .tel is a dumb idea. Beyond .com, .gov, .edu, .net and .org, very few of the other top level domains are in the public consciousness, at least here in the states. And frankly, by this point if I needed Apple's contact info, for example, I'd type in apple.com without thinking about it.

Yet I can see a need for it. I've given up on printed phone books, but many businesses in my area don't have a website. So I'm left with the online Yellow or White pages and am not always thrilled with the results or how much time it takes to find what I'm looking for.

If businesses could easily set up a simple .tel site, a quick Google search should get me the contact info I might need. Of course, that assumes businesses (and individuals since it's also marketed to them) even know about .tel. Heck, I didn't know about it until I read about it in a magazine from the U.K.

I point all this out just in case you want to look into it. I don't know how these .tel sites will rank in search results, but I can't imagine it hurts. I was able to buy my domains (I bought two) for about $5 each for a year, so it's a small investment. Better to buy it now than find out later a cybersquatter has beaten you to the punch on your own business name.

What to do before hiring a mentor

2009-03-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

When starting a new career, like graphic design, or trying to get to the next level in your career, there's nothing like talking to someone who has already traveled the path you're about to travel. Learning from someone who has "been there, done that" is going to make your life far easier.

Sometimes, you can get that information for free from someone. Other times you might actually hire someone for mentoring sessions. I hired someone a few years back and it was money well-spent.

I've also offered mentoring sessions, but I try to talk people out of it first. Here's why...

What I've found is that beginning graphic designers often don't do what they know they should do. Or they're simply looking for someone to encourage them or give them a kick in the rear-end. But do you really need to pay someone to do that for you or could you do it yourself?

Let me give you an example that I run into often:

Beginning Designer: "I need some help... I'm not finding any clients. What should I do?"

Me: "How many calls did you make to potential clients yesterday or how many letters did you send out?"

BD: "Uhh, none."

Me: "OK... how about the day before?"

BD: "Well, part of the problem is I'm not sure who I should be contacting."

Me: "What did you do yesterday to figure out who you should be contacting?"

BD: "Well..."

Now here's a really quick answer to this particular problem. You need to do an inventory of what you're able to offer as a designer. Maybe you love doing brochures. Who needs brochures? Well, anyone who puts their brochures in a brochure rack at your local airport needs them along with quite a lot of businesses in your local area. But you're not going to know who needs you until you call these folks, let them know what you do, then see if there's a need now or maybe in the future.

You do not need a mentor for that insight. It's Business 101: Knowing what you do well and then leaving no stone unturned finding the people who need what you offer.

The other big issue is motivation. People want a mentor to help motivate them. I've got some bad news: If you need someone else to motivate you to push forward in a new career, you're in trouble.

You have to ask yourself: If I need someone else to motivate me or help push me along, is this something I really want to do? Or am I just in love with the idea?

I don't want this to sound too harsh, but some folks are expecting a little too much hand-holding when a little bit more individual effort on their part could propel them forward.

My theory is that a lot of us (and I do include myself in this) got used to being told what to do as employees. Someone told us what hours we'd work, what we'd do during those hours, how much we'd be paid, how much vacation we could have, etc.

Now, as freelancers, we're completely on our own to map out everything. But we've sort of lost that ability to think things through on our own when it comes to business because we had so many years of those decisions being made by someone else.

It's not that we're stupid... we've just gotten a little soft in areas. So as you're moving forward, don't get overwhelmed by all the decisions that may be in front of you. Just break it down into manageable pieces and start with the most basic thing you can do right now to move forward. Don't make it more complicated than it has to be... quite a bit of this is simply going to be common sense.

Once you've got all the common sense issues out of the way and you know you've done everything you can possibly do on your own, go ahead and get a mentor if you feel you need one. Mentors can help you refine some of your ideas and tell you what has and hasn't worked for them.

It's at that point where you're really getting the most out of a mentor relationship and the push you need to get to the next level of your career.

Adobe's Share My Screen feature

2009-03-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

Slowly but surely, I'm working Adobe CS4 into my workflow. I think I've mentioned before that for CS3 users, I don't necessarily view CS4 as a "must have" upgrade. Certainly there are lots of useful new features, but if your finances are tight, I wouldn't break the bank to get it.

That said, there are some new things in CS4 that designers will find valuable. One such feature is Share My Screen. This works in conjunction with Adobe's ConnectNow feature which you can read all about here.

In a nutshell, you can go into a CS4 application, such as InDesign, and choose File | Share My Screen. This connects you to the ConnectNow site and provides you with a URL to give to other people so, via their browser, they can see what's on your screen.

I did a quick test on my own, sharing my main monitor while watching what was happening in a browser window on my second monitor. (And I was happily surprised to see the ConnectNow app was aware I had two monitors and asked me which one I wanted to share.)

The whole thing was pretty slick. Whatever I was doing on my main monitor was showing up in the browser window.

There are actually a number of services for screen sharing, so it's not like Adobe has come up with an original idea. But for us designers who spend most of our time in Adobe products, being able to launch this feature straight from the CS4 apps is convenient (and free, at least at this moment).

And while I didn't confirm this myself, from what I read on one of Adobe's blogs, the URL that ConnectNow provides to you to give to other people is always the same based on your Adobe account name. (And Adobe accounts are free.)

I probably don't need to tell you how you could use this feature, but what the heck... you're here now, right?

There have been times where I've been creating a simple website for a client and it gets to be a mild pain making changes, then uploading them for the client to see in a browser. Or zipping the files to e-mail so they could see the complete site offline. Far easier to share out your screen and collaborate with client live if time is tight.

Or maybe you're wanting input from a number of people at once. There's nothing worse than getting conflicting feedback from everyone involved and having to somehow incorporate everyone's vision into the design. Perhaps it would be easier to get everyone together online and let them agree on changes while you incorporate them right there on the spot as they're watching. If everyone thinks blue would be a better color than green, you could change it and they could all decide for themselves right on the spot.

Heck, even sharing out your screen with another designer can be useful if you're trying to show them something that would take far too long to explain in an e-mail.

Again, it's not that there's anything new going on here with screen sharing. It's just nice that the feature is so easy to use within the programs I'm already using every day.

The myth of "working for yourself"

2009-02-12T10:56:00.001-08:00

The freelancer's life is a great thing. It's not that you're totally free of problems, but compared to the typical employee's work, the average freelancer does enjoy many more benefits.

But just a word of caution for those thinking of becoming freelancers: You are never simply "working for yourself."

Sure, you have more control over how you structure your time and career. But unless someone is hiring you, you're not exactly working, much less working for yourself.

So, obviously, freelancers do answer to "bosses", known as "clients" in this case.

In fact, one could argue that traditional employees have things a little easier if they're just having to answer to one person at work. A successful freelancer is answering to multiple bosses, all of whom have little interest in what your other bosses want or need at any given moment.

That can create some stress on your part as you try to juggle multiple projects. I experienced that first-hand late last year when I had about nine projects going at once. While it's nice for any freelancer to be that busy and in demand, you certainly come to a clear understanding that you are working for other people.

If you want to stay a successful freelancer, you'd better know how to keep all those bosses happy. And just to keep things interesting, each boss may define "happy" a little differently.

See what I'm getting at? You're not exactly "working for yourself" the way people think of it when say the word freelancing... you're still working for other people.

That comes as a shock to some people who go into freelancing thinking they can do things exactly how they want without taking into account the needs and expectations of clients.

Like I said, the freelancer's life is a great thing. Just be aware that you're still working for other people. And those people play a big part in whether you're successful or not.

Quick Tip: Archiving Web Sites

2009-01-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Before today's Quick Tip, a quick note about my last post on chamber networking events and why they're a waste of your time. I'll talk more indepth on this in the future, but for now I'll just say how interesting it was to see who was hitting this site.

Boeing hit the site in under 48 hours. (You'll recall I mentioned Boeing on how they're probably pretty smart about how they network... a lesson we could all learn.) Then there was a chamber in MN. No doubt they're wanting to publish my thoughts in the next issue of their newsletter. ;)

What I'll be talking about in the near future is tracking visits to your site and why you should be doing it.

OK, on to today's topic...

Some years ago, when CDs were becoming popular, I really wanted to buy an import CD from the U.K. But it was a bit pricey for a high school kid on a tight budget. My mom said, "Don't worry... it will be there when you have the money."

Turns out, she was wrong. The CD went out of print and didn't become available again for another decade or so. Suddenly, I had the money, but the CD wasn't available. (And this was pre-Internet, so finding it used somewhere in the world wasn't an easy option.)

I've relived that experience in my business when trying to find information on a website I bookmarked only to find that information is gone. Don't buy into the myth that once something is on the Internet, it never goes away.

If you're anything like me, you buzz around the Internet, finding great information for your business, and then bookmark it for later. More often than not, that works fine. But Murphy's Law says the bit of information you want most is the bit that someone is going to remove.

I solved this by making PDFs of sites that have great information I may want to refer to later.

In Adobe Acrobat, this is really simple and there are multiple ways to do accomplish it. Here's how I do it:

1. Copy the URL of the site you're wanting to save.

2. In Acrobat, go to File | Create PDF | From Web Page (I'm using Acrobat 8 Professional)

3. Paste the URL in the URL field and click Create. I don't bother with any other settings beyond the default, but feel free to play around with it.

4. Once the PDF is create it, save it with a descriptive filename and place it in a folder that you have easy access to.

This has solved a couple of problems. The most important is "disappearing information" I talked about earlier. The second is an out-of-control list of bookmarks.

So my suggestion is to either take my steps, or come up with your own, and start archiving some of this information yourself so you can find it when you need it.

Chamber of Commerce Networking Events Are a Waste of Your Time

2009-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Honestly, with my hand over my heart, I do not hate chambers of commerce.

In fact, my interactions with various chambers have been incredibly positive over the years. But note that I said "with chambers" and not "with chamber networking events."

Going back to my career in a small-town radio station newsroom, chambers were my lifeline to just about anyone you could think of when it came to putting together news stories.

Years later, when I became a freelance writer, I had the some of the best times of my professional life volunteering as a chamber Ambassador and getting involved in the community in ways I had never done before. Some of the people that I worked with on various committees remain good friends even though I'm no longer a member of any chamber.

So, again, I have nothing against chambers in general.

Having said that, I'm now going to say something that chamber folks won't like:

In my experience and the experience of other freelance colleagues, typical chamber networking events are not the most worthwhile use of your time if you're heck-bent on earning a great living as a freelance writer or designer. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that they are a waste of your time.

So now that I've pretty-much ended any chance of being hired by a chamber, let's continue...

Your local chamber is a business, just like you. Don't ever forget that. And like any business, they need money to keep going. They need to pay their staff, provide health benefits to the staff, pay rent, pay phone/electric/trash bills, keep the copy machine running with a continual supply of toner and paper, rent out a facility for special events, pay for food and drinks at various chamber events, produce marketing material for potential chamber members, keep the office computers running, pay the annual cost of the chamber website... the list is pretty long.

The money they bring in, besides covering their costs, are often used for things that help the member businesses... seminars, marketing opportunities, lobbying your local or state government on behalf of local business, etc.

You're helping pay for these things not only with your annual dues but also with other costs throughout the year. In fact, if I were being really cynical, I might say that becoming a chamber member simply gives you the "privilege" of spending more money to get full value of all the "opportunities to promote your business" that they'll throw your way.

And that's one of the things they'll try to hook you with as you consider becoming a member: you'll get lots of opportunities to promote your business. Unfortunately, that often means you'll be paying more than just your annual dues for those opportunities. That includes getting you to sponsor events, attend seminars, place ads in the monthly newsletter and, yes, attend the traditional monthly chamber networking event.

Keep in mind that there's nothing wrong with this setup. It works out just fine for lots of businesses and that might include yours. And if a chamber provides value to your business, there's nothing wrong with them making money for their efforts.

But let's not lose track of our very narrow focus here: the chamber networking event and whether it's the most efficient way to market yourself.

Obviously, I haven't attended every chamber networking event. In fact, given the number of chambers in the world, I've been to just a miniscule percentage of chamber events. But after years of working with chambers in different capacities, and talking with colleagues, I'm very comfortable with my observations.

The hook to get you to show up to the traditional chamber networking event is that you can market yourself and make sales. That's great because that's what you want... to make sales. But think about it for a minute. How is the event being marketed to everyone else? As a chance to buy your services? Nope... it's marketed to everyone as a chance to - say it with me - make sales.

Some chambers might go so far as to mention that you may meet people who have services you need. But in order to get you to pay for the event, and maybe even pay extra to have a table full of your materials, the selling point to everyone is primarily on selling, not buying. And that's the mindset most people have when they walk through the doors.

As a freelancer, I was a member of a chamber in a city of about 100,000 with even more people in neighboring cities. The city was home to a naval base, Boeing and Verizon. As a freelancer, any of those three would have been a great client. But do you know how often they showed up to the chamber "cattle-call"? Never.

And who could blame them? What is Boeing going to sell at a chamber event? A fleet of airplanes? Obviously they want to make sales, but they know where they need to focus their marketing efforts and it's not at a $12 breakfast once a month. (That alone should start to tip you off about how you should approach your own marketing.)

If I want to land Boeing as a client, for example, what should I be doing? More on that in a bit, but you probably know by now what the answer isn't.

So who does typically attend a chamber networking event? You can put most attendees into two categories.

The first is commissioned sales people. These are the folks who will leave no stone unturned to find a buyer. And while they might be able to recommend you to their boss or marketing department, your typical salesperson is not the person you really need to talk with to land a freelance job. Once the typical salesperson determines you're not a buyer, he or she is going to want to move on as quickly as possible.

That's not an insult to salespeople... it's actually smart business. To quote a line from the TV show MASH, "It's nice to be nice to the nice", but it's not the most efficient way to hit your financial goals. So you can't expect a salesperson to stand around shooting the breeze with you when they're trying to earn a living and there are other prospects in the room.

(Side note: One of the reasons beginning freelancers don't make it is because they don't take their business as seriously as they should. Successful business and sales people have learned that while networking is a good thing, they can't waste a lot of time on activities that clearly aren't making them money.)

The second category you tend to see at chamber networking events is small business owners or employees of the business. In fact, you can probably relate to them being a small business owner yourself. So it's easy to put yourself in their shoes. In their minds, if money were no object, it would be great to hire a team of marketing folks to write and design marketing material. Wouldn't you like to have that luxury yourself when it comes to enhancing your business?

But chances are your business isn't flush with cash. That's why you're attending networking events in an effort to drum up business. And that's the same situation most of the small business folks are in. They'd love to hire you, and they even understand the value of what you do. But money is tight and you're seen as a bit of a luxury. After all, most small business owners are smart enough to put together some basic brochures and business cards. And the local newspaper is more than happy to help them put together an ad. It might not be the greatest piece of marketing, but in their minds it's something and it will have to do.

Here's something else to keep in mind. For a number of small business people, the monthly networking event is simply a chance to socialize with friends. They know virtually everyone in the room and are realistic about their chances of making a sale that day. Personally, I enjoyed talking with my friends at these events. For some of us, it was about the only contact with non-family members that we got. But after a while, coming home without the prospect of a meaningful sale got old.

With that in mind, what are you left with after months of events like this?

More than likely, with very little hope for lots of high-quality sales. Maybe you'll get a few small jobs and that's better than nothing. But is it putting you on the fast-track to earn the income you want?

There is actually a third category of people who attend these events... the people who show up for the first time, quickly evaluate that the other two categories of attendees aren't what they need to be successful, and never return. It's not that they're anti-social or snobs. They're just very clear on what they're after will only stick around if there is sufficient value for them.

Let's consider a better way to network.

I mentioned before that my chamber had a membership that ranged from solo businesses like myself to big name companies with thousands of employees. While those large companies weren't represented at the monthly networking event, there was another chamber function where you could find them: the Board of Directors.

My local chamber board of directors included members from city government, Boeing, local banks, the local naval station, Comcast, one of the leading health and hygiene companies in the world, the area hospital, the local public utilities district... the list of names is a Who's Who of important people and companies in the community.

These were the people I needed to be talking to! But while my small business colleagues and I were eating a breakfast of questionable origin, the Who's Who group was either already hard at work or serving on boards and committees with other high-powered people.

Sadly, in my own case, I didn't wise up to this soon enough and squandered some great opportunities. And perhaps your chamber isn't such a hotspot for big business. Even more important, your chances of getting on a high-power board of directors might be slim.

But here's the important take-away: To network efficiently and to land projects that will help you reach your financial goals, you need to be where your best clients are. My guess is they're not sitting next to you at a chamber breakfast once a month.

Earlier I asked the question: If I want to land Boeing as a client, for example, what should I be doing? But let's replace "Boeing" with " "my ideal clients". You can define "my ideal clients" however you want, but I define it as clients whose projects will help me reach my targeted income and whose projects I actually enjoy working on.

The basic answer to the question from a networking perspective is that I should be at the same events my ideal clients are at. The answer is not, "continue going to the same events that aren't gaining me any real business."

Unfortunately, it's very easy for a beginner - not only in freelancing but in business as a whole - to naturally gravitate to a local chamber and their networking events. But there's a whole world of networking opportunities available if you'll ask questions and keep your eyes open.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

I was in the technology field prior to becoming a freelancer. In the local business journal, I read about a group that got together once a month to talk about technology and stay up-to-date on what each other was up to. The attendees were all folks from local tech companies. The event wasn't to do what I call "drive-by marketing." That's what you see when people network by giving out their card, spewing out their 30 second elevator speech, and then moving on to the next person when they sense you're not a buyer.

Instead, the technology networking event was primarily to share knowledge and talk about a similar passion. Since it wasn't a blatant marketing event, people were more relaxed and you had more time to learn about each company and what their needs were. It was also a group that had a better appreciation for the value of marketing material since their products usually cost a lot of money.

A colleague of mine was a website designer. She took things a step further and went out-of-state to an event that taught people how to develop products and then market them online. All these people had one major thing in common... they were going to need a website. As the only website designer in the room, she left the event with not only highly-qualified leads, but a handful of immediate jobs.

My point here is to illustrate that efficient networking happens when you put yourself in the position of meeting people who actually need you or at least are better qualified to need you. That often means digging a little deeper, or traveling a little further, to find these events.

It also requires you to think a little more creatively. Not everything is going to say, "Networking Event." Maybe it's a free talk about trade issues for importers and exporters. Maybe it's a seminar for CEOs. Speaking of seminars, you might check out SeminarInformation.com. Maybe you'll find something there, maybe you won't. But it's part of the process of researching what else is available to you beyond the obvious.

Note: As I mentioned last month, this is my 100th blog post and the blog's second anniversary. Thanks for reading!

A little bit of Sherlock Holmes can come in handy

2008-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've had a strange experience happen to me a couple of times regarding corrupted files that were sent by clients.

By putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat, I came up with what I think is the solution, but I still can't be sure I'm 100% correct.

But knowing this solution may save you, and the people you're working with, a lot of grief.

I was working on a lift note for a sales letter package. The lift note was going to be written by a third party and include their logo (and EPS file) and the author's signature (a TIF file).

The third party sent the files to my client and the client forwarded the files over to me, all via e-mail.

The trouble was, I couldn't open the files. Illustrator griped that the files weren't in a format it could read. I know Illustrator can read EPS and TIF files, so something was up. I tried opening the files in Photoshop as well, but no luck.

Well, it's not impossible for files to get corrupted, so I contacted my client to report back to the third party that there was a problem so we could get a resend.

On the resend, again through my client, the third party said they were using Illustrator CS3 which is what I use. They said the files were fine on their end. But again, I got the same error messages when opening the files.

I started to think of workarounds... maybe they could send the files in their native Illustrator format (an AI file) or maybe send them as JPGs or PDFs just to see if those would work.

But then I had a "lightbulb over the head" moment. I asked my client to ask the third party to e-mail the files directly to me so my client wouldn't have to forward them.

The third party did just that and the files opened on my end without a hitch.

So what was the difference?

When I got the forwarded files from my client, there were three files... the two graphic files plus a text file from some sort of automated virus checker. The text file simply said the files had been scanned and there were no problems.

But when I got the files directly from the third party, there was no anti-virus text message.

My theory is that my client had some sort of anti-virus software on their e-mail server. The third party sends an e-mail with attachments, the client's e-mail server scans those files, then passes them on to my contact.

Had my contact saved the attachments, then started a new e-mail to me and reattached the saved files, I think we would have been fine.

Yet somehow, the process of forwarding that e-mail after the attachments had been scanned corrupted them so that I wasn't able to open them.

It's just a theory on my part, but I had something similar happen a long time back where there seemed to be some corruption when files were forwarded. At that time, I didn't consider any type of anti-virus software getting in the way.

I tell you this story just in case you run into something similar. Maybe that will save you some grief and lots of back-and-forth with your client. (And this type of thing usually happens when you're right up against a deadline.)

Note: I suspect that between an extremely heavy workload and the holidays, this will be my last post of 2008. If that's the case, next year's first post will be both my 100th and the second anniversary of this blog. I've got something in mind for that post and I'll tell you now that your local Chamber of Commerce isn't going to like it. It's a topic I've touched on before in other places, but I'm going to expand on it in this space where I can rattle on without anyone editing me.

Building an efficient and useful swipe file

2008-10-29T09:58:00.001-07:00

A couple of months ago, I was reading a note by InDesign guru David Blatner. He was raving about a portable, dual-sided sheetfed scanner he was using.

While I have a single-sided flatbed scanner, it's a pain to have to manually put things down one page at a time. Thus, I wasn't using it that often.

So I've always been on the lookout for a good sheetfed option. There are tons of multi-function devices that do scanning, copying and faxing, but I didn't care to go that route. I don't need another bulky item for my work space.

So after the glowing review by David and the supporting glowing reviews by the folks at Amazon.com, I took a chance and bought the scanner David was talking about.

Wow! Really... Wow!

(I've put both the Mac and PC versions of the scanner in my Amazon Store in the Hardware category.

For someone using a huge flatbed all these years, moving to a simple sheetfed that only measures about 11 inches wide by 5 inches deep completely changed how I manage my swipe file.

First, a word on swipe files. Quoting Clayton Makepeace's Direct Response Glossary (which you should bookmark), a swipe file is, "A collection of successful promotions, ads and sales letters you use to get ideas from."

Every successful copywriter and designer I've met has a swipe file. So naturally, I started building mine long ago. (One of the shortcuts to success is to see what the successful people in your field are doing and do it, too.)

But what you find with a swipe file is that all those promotions take up space. It's not long before you can have a file cabinet overflowing with this stuff. And if you're a little sloppy about how you categorize the material, things get hard to find to the point where your swipe file is useless to you. You're simply not going to use it often if you have trouble finding what you're looking for.

Digitizing your swipe file helps to solve that. Mind you, I still keep some hard-copy material. And some of the larger size promotions are almost impossible to scan with a sheetfed.

But the majority of my swipe file is now digitized and can fit on a single DVD for backup purposes.

Now I want to go beyond telling you that I have a digital swipe file. I want to tell you exactly how I manage all the information.

1. On my hard drive, I created categories for various types of marketing material. I currently have 40 categories including obvious ones like sales letters, magalogs and envelopes to less obvious categories like tables of content, lift notes and subscription cards. I'm pretty much scanning anything that a designer might need to design because you never know what a client might need you to do.

2. With the scanner I'm using (and most scanners for that matter), the result is automatically created as a PDF, color or B/W depending on the setting you choose.

3. If there is some personal information on the material I'm scanning, like my name and address, I'll open the PDF in Acrobat and use the Redaction function to remove it. If you don't own Acrobat, no problem... you can use a marker to cover up the information before you scan. (Or, maybe you don't care if the info is there.)

4. The PDF is given a file name starting with a code (like SL for sales letter) and the name of the product or company that the material is talking about. From there, it's placed into the appropriate folder on my hard drive.

5. When I want to do a quick scan of my swipe file, I use Adobe Bridge. You can use something else but the key is that you want to use something that will show you an actual thumbnail of the material, not just the generic Adobe PDF icon. For example, if you were looking at a folder full of photographs, you'd want to see thumbnails of the actual photos, not some generic JPEG icon. By using something like Bridge, it makes it very easy for me to zero in on what I'm looking for.

And that's basically it. By making it so easy to see categories of my swipe file at a glance, I'm much more likely to use my swipe file. And more importantly, I'm much more likely to find what I need quickly.

A side benefit to having a scanner so easy to use (it doesn't have to "warm up" like my flatbed, so it's ready when I'm ready) is that I digitized important articles and tutorials in all the magazines that were piling up on my shelves.

Here's a perfect example...

I've been a subscriber to Photoshop User Magazine for a number of years. Each issue has great tutorials and tips. But after a few years, there's no way you're going to remember where a specific tutorial is if you can even remember about a tutorial you saw a couple of years ago anyway.

And, frankly, do you really need to save all the content in each magazine you get? Do you think you'll want to re-read product reviews for things that aren't even available any more? Unlikely.

So what I did was go through each magazine and pull out only the things worth keeping, mainly the tutorials and tips. Then, I can scan them and put them in folders on my hard-drive with descriptive file names that make it clear what the article/tutorial is about.

When you tear out only the articles worth saving long-term and compare it to what parts of the magazine you don't really need to save, you'll be amazed at the space you free up in your studio. I was awestruck by the pile "to be scanned" versus the pile "to be recycled."

So that's how I manage that aspect of my business. That scanner is one of the best purchases I've ever made for my business. If it broke down, I'd immediately buy a new one without giving it a second thought. If you have a swipe file that isn't digitized, you might want to consider finding a scanner that works best for your needs, and then start scanning.

Random thoughts on random topics

2008-10-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

If you didn't know how old you were, how old would you be?

I like questions like this. (A related one is, If you didn't know what day it was, what day would it be?)

The idea is that, if you didn't have the facts in a given situation (or relied on the opinions of others), what would your interpretation of that situation be based only on your gut feeling and personal experience?

The reason I've been thinking about this question is because, if I didn't know (through the media) that times were tough economically, would I know it based on how my freelance business is going? And the answer is no. I'm about as busy as I can be at the moment.

That's not to dismiss the true suffering people are going through in certain areas. But there is a lot to be said for creating a career where there's generally always some sort of need for your services, and where you have more control over the decisions that create success.

Sites you should know about

I've always had an appreciation for people who freely share some of their knowledge and experiences with others in their field.

Two blogs I've stumbled across recently are:

Direct Creative Blog - http://www.directcreative.com/blog/

ProFreelancing Blog - http://profreelancing.com/

Both are worthy of being added to your bookmarks.

Is the (design) world telling me something?

In the space of a couple of days, I've been talking to separate people about new ways to present material online that go beyond presenting that same material as PDFs.

This isn't new, just interesting that it has come up so often in recent days and may soon affect how I do some layout projects.

Sites like BlueToad and WebIOB offer reading experiences that, when used properly, can make reading material online more interesting and interactive. At the same time, it might help with some security issues that direct marketers have with PDFs they sell that can be easily passed around to people who didn't buy them.

There's a lot more that can be said on this topic. But my point is that, as a designer, you've always got to be ready to see how these technologies will affect what you do. Not to mention being tuned into what people are talking and thinking about in terms of different ways to present content.

To me, that's part of the excitement of this career... there's always something new to learn which means you'll rarely be bored.

And suddenly, five years have passed

2008-09-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

September 30th marks my fifth year as a freelancer. I've written about my journey from "employee" to "freelancer" in my book, but I'd like to reflect a bit as I judge things at this particular moment.

Despite seeming like a crazy idea leaving a "secure" company, becoming a freelancer gave me more job security. The reason is that I control everything. While I may part company with a client from time to time, there's never a situation where I have work one day and I'm totally out of work the next. That's the risk you run when you only work for one company. (And on a related note, the current economic situation as I write this actually confirms my decision that I did the right thing by taking more control of my career.)

I have far less stress in my life. This goes back to the issue of control. When too much of your working life is under the control and whims of other people, you're bound to have a bit more stress, especially these days given the economic situation. And that's to say nothing of the hours you might be forced to work, the traffic you might have to battle, or the location you might be forced to live in to work for some company.

There's never really any boredom with my career. Every job is a bit different and I'm always free to pursue new skills so I can take on new types of projects. Some companies offer this, which is great, but it often has to be approved in some way, or you can't dedicate the time you want to it because of your other responsibilities.

Honestly, there has yet to be a downside to freelancing. That doesn't mean there aren't challenges and frustrating days. But you certainly deal with them much better when you know that you're ultimately in control of the situation rather than some employer or market forces outside of your control.

Adobe CS4: Should you upgrade?

2008-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

This week Adobe gave a preview of the new Creative Suite 4 (CS4) which is due in October. One question I often get is whether a direct market designer should upgrade. They want to know whether the new features are worth the expense.

The "direct market" part is important since we traditionally don't need lots of fancy features. It's kind of like Word. For many years Word has been more than capable of handling your word processing needs. So the task for Microsoft is convincing you with each new version that there's some new feature worth upgrading for.

To a degree, that's Adobe's dilemma as well. To their credit, each new CS4 product has at least one really neat new feature. But whether it's enough to drop some serious money on is another matter.

It wasn't very long ago at all that CS3 came out. And it suffered a bit from not initially playing nice in some areas with both Leopard and Vista operating systems.

This time, that shouldn't be an issue... CS4 should work great with both operating systems right out of the box. But you really need to look at the list of new features for your favorite applications to see if an upgrade is worthwhile on release day.

This year, more than any other, I've been struck by how much I need to retain my ability to work with older versions of the Adobe titles. For example, I have one client who needs my files to be available in CS2 format. I create them in CS3, but I then have to save them as an INX file, reopen them in CS2 and save them as CS2 files. (Yes, I know... the client should be able to open the INX files in CS2, but it hasn't worked like it's supposed to.)

Thankfully, when I upgraded from CS2 to CS3, I was allowed to keep CS2 on my computer. And I expect that when I upgrade to CS4, I'm going to want to retain CS3. Also, you never know when some smaller print shops will get around to upgrading. So giving them files that include features their version of the software can't handle is going to be a pain.

I say all this just as a caution not to jump into the CS4 pool immediately. It's always tempting to get these new applications and start playing with the new features. But these days I tend to think it's better to sit back and see what the "early adopters" have to say and decide objectively whether the new features are ones you'll actually use as a direct market designer.

Personally, I see lots of great new features in Photoshop and InDesign (my two main tools), but I'm not seeing a lot that is going to significantly change the way I work. I'll eventually upgrade, but I highly doubt I'll be a "Day One" user.

How not to approach a potential creative partner

2008-09-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

It's always a good idea to make connections with other creative professionals. If you're a designer, find ways to meet copywriters and vice-versa.

Just as important, if you're a designer, find ways to meet designers who do what you don't do. For example, I don't do logos, but I have had requests for logo work in the past. Rather than simply say, "Sorry, I don't do that," I'd prefer to refer the person to someone who does do logo work... someone I know and trust. (Or maybe you take the job but outsource the work to someone you know while collecting a project management fee.)

Same thing applies if you're a copywriter. Maybe you just focus on financial writing but you get a request for some form of technical writing. If that's something not up your alley, be willing to refer that person to someone in your network who can handle that.

What got me thinking about this topic was the following e-mail I received from a copywriter. This is how not to approach a potential creative partner:

"I was impressed by your website, and I'd like to work with top copywriters like you to create direct mail control packages. Please take a minute to visit my new [...] website."

This person was referring to my main business website... the one that says "Direct Market Layout and Design." In fact, one line of copy on my site reads, "If you're in need of a writer, I can put you in touch with someone who will handle your copywriting needs."

So based on the e-mail and apparent visit to my website, I was curious how she got the impression I was a "top copywriter."

I can only guess, but the e-mail comes across as a form letter sent to people without much research into whether they're copywriters to begin with much less "top copywriters."

My intent here isn't to mock anyone, but to point out what can result in this sort of approach. I can only tell you how I felt about this, but I'm guessing I'm not alone. The e-mail didn't inspire me to want to work with this person. Fair or not, I'm doubting her ability to write great copy and put in the research that goes into great copy when she didn't really do much research into me and my business before contacting me.

And I really have no idea if she's only looking for copywriters, or was also looking for designers but forgot to change the copy in her e-mail to reflect that.

Let me give you what I think is a better approach if you're going to blindly solicit for creative partners.

1. Be clear in your own mind on why you're contacting people. Are you just desperate for work and hoping someone will throw some scraps you're way? Or are you genuinely trying to create a network that will benefit everyone involved?

2. Be clear in what you're looking for. Say you're designer and you're looking to connect with copywriters. Based on your own work, what types of copywriters might your clients have a need for? If you're working on magalogs, you may want to meet health and financial writers since that they are two of the biggest fields that use magalogs.

3. When you find a potential partner, take the time to really look at their work and read what they say on their site. Is this someone who, at least on the surface, appears like someone who has the skills they claim to have?

4. When you do make contact, refer to specific things they said on their site and work they've done. That shows you're paying attention.

5. Be clear to them why you're making contact. Understand that this person may have contacts who do the same thing you do. But extend the offer for them to look at your work or ask any questions they might have. You might also mention that they're under no obligation to respond.

That's just my ideas for a proper way to approach this. You might have a better way or do things slightly different.

The main point I want to get across is that with just a little extra time, you could be approaching someone as a professional yourself, and not someone who is blindly contacting everyone in sight. Not only does that usually fail to gain you anything, it can actually hurt your business and how potential partners perceive you.

What does work/life balance really mean to a freelancer?

2008-08-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

I was talking to someone who asked about work/life balance as a freelancer. It's something that's usually seen as a worthwhile goal, yet people aren't sure how to achieve it consistently, nor are they completely sure when they've achieved it.

Even a regular employee for a company faces this balancing act. But the challenge is usually assumed to affect freelancers more. The thought is that if you're a freelancer working from home, you'll have more difficulty separating your work life from your home life.

Of course, this assumes you actually want to separate it. I'm going to go against the conventional wisdom which says that, as a freelancer, you should set aside time only for work, and set aside time that is only for family or personal endeavors.

Balance is absolutely necessary. But I think some people take it a bit too far and stifle what should be one of the most important parts of being a freelancer, especially one that requires creativity like design and copywriting: flexibility.

For me, it's more of an easy flow between the things that I do whether it's working or spending time with my family. I might move back and forth between the two multiple times a day. That kind of goes against the usual advice of having fixed hours for your working time at home. And once you're done for the day, you don't come back to it until the next day.

But that's part of the joy of freelancing... moving between work and personal life as needed and on your own terms, not putting things into fixed hours or a set schedule. That's just a normal job where you're an employee.

I'm not a designer for X number of hours a day and a husband/parent for another set of hours a day... I'm all those things all the time and I focus on each aspect of what I need or want to do as appropriate. For some reason, that solved any problems of chasing after some undefined goal of "work/life balance".

I think people end up feeling too guilty (or made to feel guilty) if they can't have their life broken down into these very clear sections of time where they're either working or they're not.

I'm all for saying 'no' and not taking on more than is reasonable when it comes to work. I'm definitely not someone who over-books himself. And if you feel you're most productive by spending fixed time or hours handling certain tasks, by all means continue to work that way.

But as someone who works with people in different time zones or countries - and gets inspiration for projects at unexpected moments - I don't get hung-up on thinking that I should only be a business owner at fixed times of the day or only on specific days.

As the saying goes, "Your mileage may vary."

Designers: You're not a restaurant!

2008-08-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Not unlike the views I shared about rush fees, today's topic is likely to tick some people off.

A question came up in a discussion forum about whether designers should give clients their source files. For example, you do the layout of a magalog. The client approves it and you send it to the printer for printing. Then, the client asks for the files used to create the magalog. That might be your InDesign or Quark files, and any Photoshop or Illustrator files.

What do you say to that request?

Surprisingly, to me at least, some designers say no. I've tried to figure out why they say no, but I have yet to come up with anything other than fear.

Even worse, they use this "logic" as justification: Does a restaurant give you their recipes just because you bought the meals?

This has got to be one of the most baffling reasonings I've ever heard. Here's a little secret for designers... you're not a restaurant. You're not a mechanic either. Or a bank teller. You're a designer. So don't buy into this notion that what is done in some other occupation is what you're required to do.

If you're going to compare yourself with another occupation, you're obligated to take it all the way. Do you only offer some design services at certain times of the day like restaurants that have different menus for lunch and dinner? Do you offer Happy Hour pricing for your services if people hire you between at certain hours of the day?

Honestly, I think any excuse for not handing over your source files to a client is, bottom line, fear. Fear that the client will take those files and use them to do future jobs without you based on your work. Fear that they'll take those files and mess something up.

One of the joys of freelancing is not having to work with people again if they do things you don't like. So if they take your source files and mess things up before it gets to the printer, don't work with them again or have a clear understanding that source files are just for their archiving purposes, not to make changes.

Even worse than the "no source file" policy is when designers actually hand over the files if the client pays more to get them. So much for standing by your beliefs that source files are sacred.

Let me give you some reasons that I think you should be willing to hand over your source files.

1. With some jobs, you'll have to give the source files to the printer. You can't always just provide a PDF. At that point, if you've given the files to the printer, what is your justification for not giving them to the person who paid you to create them? Plus, your client could just get the source files directly from the printer if you're not going to provide them.

2. There are times when the client wants you to do about 98% of the work with the rest being handled internally. Are you going to turn down jobs like that? I've worked on a number of projects, totaling thousands of dollars, where I'm doing the majority of work with some details handled later by an in-house design team. Wouldn't it be silly of me to refuse to hand over the files? And it's not a valid argument to say that it's a different situation if you're hired to only do part of the work.

3. I've worked on many projects where the original designer is no longer available or has lost the files, yet the project needs to be updated. If I don't have the source files, I have to start from scratch. If you were in that position, wouldn't you hope that the original designer had made the files available to the client?

4. Sometimes, last minute changes need to be made to the layout once you've sent them off. This happens frequently in the financial arena. You've done the work for some project where the numbers being quoted in the copy are time-sensitive. Right before printing, the numbers need to be changed. These changes may need to be changed by the printer or the client. How often do you think the client is going to want to work with you if you have a "no source file" policy?

5. Your time is valuable. Let's say you do the layout of a book. A year or so later, the book needs to be reprinted with a different printer. Wouldn't it be nice if the client could forward those files to the printer instead of contacting you, making you stop whatever projects you're working on, dig up those files and get them sent off. A surprising amount of time can be spent revisiting past projects. (A topic I hope to tackle here on the blog in the future.)

Now there is at least one area to be aware of when it comes to handing over source files: font copyrights.

It's generally accepted that you can send the fonts with source files to a printer. It's not so clear-cut when it comes to sending those fonts to a client. So if you're going to provide source files, you'll either need to exclude the fonts, or make sure the client has the fonts you used on their own computers. You might even buy the fonts for the client and add that to the cost of the project. If there are other parts of the project that are copyrighted by a third-party, don't ignore those copyrights.

If you're going to have a "no source file" policy, fine. Just do yourself a favor and have a legitimate reason to give the client if they ask for the files. Please don't embarrass yourself by responding, "Do restaurants give you the recipe just because you bought the meal?" That kind of answer appears to make sense on the surface until you dig a bit deeper and realize that the two situations aren't the same in any way.

And if you have a reason for not providing source files that don't translate into fear, e-mail me. I'd be happy to include your thoughts in a future article here.

Standing out from other freelancers the easy way

2008-07-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

One of the first jobs I got as a freelance designer came about when, on a whim, I e-mailed someone whose website I stumbled across. He sold PDF informational products.

Since the only thing I knew how to do at that point was 3D book covers in Photoshop, I figured I had nothing to lose in introducing myself and explaining that I could handle his 3D book cover needs. (Those are the covers you see on websites that illustrate downloadable products.)

About a day later, I got a phone call from him. He liked the samples on my website, but here's why he decided to hire me instead of someone else: I had my phone number and my address on my website.

He said that it bothered him that some people he might use for design and copywriting didn't include that information. There was usually an e-mail link, or an e-mail form, but from his experience very few sites he visited listed a phone number or mailing address.

Sure, he might get that information after he e-mailed or hired the freelancer. But he felt that having the phone number and mailing address on the website said something about the freelancer. To him it said that you weren't afraid to be accessible if someone had an immediate question prior to hiring you.

Maybe he was old-school... not one who wanted to type out long e-mail messages and then wait around for answers or wonder if the e-mail got through a spam filter.

Of course, his feelings on the matter were just his opinion. Not having a phone number and address on your site doesn't mean you're an untrustworthy designer and it doesn't mean you'll never get jobs. It just meant that, in this particular case, I stood out simply because I had that information on my site.

If providing that information on your site could land you a few extra jobs here and there, would it be worth it to you?

And that's my point... sometimes we don't do the easy things that might sway a potential client in our favor. Was it hard to have my phone number and address on my website. Not at all! But we do have to take the time to thoroughly think through what potential clients are looking for when they visit our sites. It's not always just about displaying your design skills.

As I was writing this, I was contacted by a freelancer who was requesting some information. I went to his site and didn't see a phone number, address or even some indication of where he was located. That says nothing about his design skills, but there are people out there who want to see that information before they contact you. No, it doesn't completely make sense, but it's a reality for some clients and you'd be wise to take that into consideration.

Here's something I did a long time ago and I'd recommend you do the same. I looked at my website, my home page in particular, and asked, "What information is missing that a potential client may want to know?" And, "What information is currently there that really doesn't need to be there?"

In the end, I restructured my whole site to make it as lean as possible. My contact information, instead of being on a Contact page, is at the bottom of every page. I also knew that people thinking of hiring me would be in a hurry. So I made sure my home page had all the important information:

1. An overall view of what I do and my Unique Selling Proposition
2. A list of the types of projects I handle
3. A few samples of my work
4. My contact information

Now let me tell you a piece of information that I removed from my home page that I used to think had value: a list of some of the design tools I use. What I found was that, for the type of clients I target, there's already an assumption that I'm using professional-level tools and not doing something like magalog or book layouts in Word.

While the list of tools I use only took a sentence on my home page, it didn't meet the criteria of what I thought was the core information my target clients would want if they only had time to look at my home page.

These days, if they only look at the home page, they have a pretty good idea of what I'm all about, what my skills are, and how to reach me. If they need more information, a larger portfolio and testimonials are on sub-pages. Or, they can pick up the phone and call me.

Is your home page providing only the most useful information to your potential clients? Or are you spilling your guts and overloading people with more information than they initially need at first glance?

4 Ways To Increase Your Design Income

2008-07-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we get too complicated when it come to building our graphic design business. (And just so you know, what I'm going to talk about today applies equally to copywriters.) Instead, let's try to strip things down to some foundational ideas to increase income.

Here's a common scenario...

You actually get your business off the ground, but so far you're only landing small jobs or you make the rookie mistake of setting your fees far too low. You soon realize that you're not making enough money.

Combining some ideas from both Jay Abraham and Jim Rohn, here are four basic ways to increase your income.

1. Increase your fees.

This sounds so easy, but I don't say it without realizing that it's more difficult to do than it sounds for a lot of people. It shouldn't be difficult, but sometimes we worry about upsetting current clients or worrying that we'll never be able to land new ones at a higher rate.

Remember, you're a business and you need to operate like any successful business. To be successful, you need to set appropriate fees. We generally know when we're working for less than we should. And from my own conversations and personal experience lots of rookies under-charge. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that most beginning freelancers who under-charge could double their rates and still not be higher than other freelancers out there.

If you increase your fees with current clients, you do risk losing them, so it's not a step to be taken without a lot of thought. You could keep their rates the same and charge higher (and more appropriate fees) to new clients that hire you. But you don't want to get caught wasting a lot of your time working on low-fee projects when you have other people willing to pay you a higher fee.

At some point, you may have to fire your "low-fee" clients. (If you do decide to fire a client - a decision not to be made lightly - try to help them find someone to replace you so you're not leaving them in the lurch.)

The thing to always keep in mind is your financial goals and whether your clients and your fee structure are helping you to reach those goals. If not, you should probably consider making adjustments.

2. Increase the frequency that your clients need you.

This is the one thing that is the most out of your control. If you have a client who only needs a designer once a year for an annual report, you're not going to convince him to produce two annual reports just so you can make more money.

But with more projects from the same client who already knows and trusts you, the more money you make. And it's not costing you from a marketing perspective.

As it happens, many beginning designers leave money on the table, so-to-speak. I've written about this in the past about not being clear with your clients on all that you can do for them. Believe it or not, just because you did a brochure for a client doesn't mean they realize you could just as easily do a sales letter for them.

So while you have no control over the amount of projects clients have, you have total control over making your clients aware of all you can do for them.

3. Increase your client base.

Increasing the number of clients you work with on a regular basis not only increases your income, it helps protect you when other clients either have a long gap between projects or when they decide they no longer need your services.

Be careful... adding new clients at low fees leads to problems with you hitting your financial goals. The smart thing to do is add new clients at fees that are both fair to you and the client.

How do you increase your client base? First, you should be marketing to the types of clients that are compatible with your skills and your financial goals. Second, you should be seeking referrals from your current clients. A good word on your behalf by a trusted colleague is worth more to a potential client than your own unsolicited marketing efforts.

But until you're hitting your financial goals, you can't afford to leave any stone unturned. So continue to market on your own while seeking referrals from your current clients.

4. Increase your skills.

To put it simply, the more you know and can apply to a client's problems, the more money you can earn.

Let's say you love package design and have some clients in this design niche. Might you be able to earn extra fees by learning how to do product photography?

This is something I'm toying with since I do a number of projects that include a product photo. Unfortunately, in some cases, the product shots are taken in poor light or with some strange background, making it difficult to extract the product to place in my layout. I'm discovering that it would be much easier for me to take the photo myself just for my own sanity. But the added bonus is a higher fee for the photography.

Or maybe you're a print designer but thinking about adding web design skills to the mix. Wouldn't that open up new opportunities for you? Of course! Granted, adding a new skill takes time. But again, I'm going to recommend that you stay focused on your goals. Learning something new takes time and won't be a quick-fix.

Remember, this isn't a hobby... it's your career! If your current plan of attack isn't helping you hit your goals, you need a new plan. Use one or more of these four ideas to help lay a fresh foundation to reaching your goals.