Ten Excellent Freelance Resources

Posted on 08. Apr, 2009 by Adam in Business, Websites

Whether you are a writer, web developer, graphic designer or virtual assistant; there are more and more online opportunities every day for freelancers who want to work from home–either full time or to supplement their existing income. Here is a list of 10 excellent online resources that you can use to start and operate a successful freelance career, regardless of your industry.

1. One Word: Google

You can literally manage your entire online business for free using all the apps provided by Google, including real time document sharing, blogging software, email and an interactive calendar. Granted, some of the stuff is simple and has limitations; but if you’re starting out and aren’t familiar with a lot of the other apps this is a great “one stop shop” for everything you need.

2. Taxes for Freelancers

A comprehensive tutorial for calculating the taxes you owe, including depreciation on your home office and protecting your losses.

3. Creative Commons

A site which lets you license your photography or graphic designs with various levels of permissions. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization and offers their licenses for free, making it simple to protect your work and share it with others.

4. You Send It

No need to take up space in your email when sending bulky files. You can instantly send files up to 2GB to your clients using this free service. They will receive an email with a safe link to download your file directly to their computer.

5. Protolize

Web designers and developers collaborate and rank the best web tools for their work.

6. Form Site

A service with several levels (including a free basic) which allows you to create web-based surveys and forms to gather valuable information or register your clients for services, appointments, etc.

7. Fax Zero

Free internet fax service to send signed documents to companies who require a paper fax.

8. Free Contracts for Freelancers

Includes free templates, how-to articles, and tips for drafting your own agreement, regardless of the type of work you do.

9. Freelance Switch

A massive freelance community that includes a job board and message board for making connections. Includes an informative blog that will keep you up on the news affecting the freelance market.

10. Zoho

If Google Apps had a big brother Zoho would be it. This service provides an enormous array of business management tools that Google does not (yet), including invoicing software, document management, presentation software, a database creator, a customizable wiki…and much more. Pricing is very reasonable starting at $12 a month for up to three users.

Most of the sites listed here are either free or available a nominal cost. However, for each item on this list, there are at least twenty more similar sites out there with a loyal following. I would love to hear some comparisons between these sites and the ones you are using. Do you have a favorite place to search for freelance job postings? Are you using another form-building site? Is there something you’ve used that you think everyone should know about? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Tags: Freelance, resources

14 Responses to “Ten Excellent Freelance Resources”

aquabot

08. Apr, 2009

I have used Freelance Switch and it is really a very good community for freelancers. Thank You so very much for this wonderful and comprehensive list.

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jujudellago

08. Apr, 2009

Nice list, I’ll put Freelance Switch a bit higher, being a huge fan of this site, as of the rest of envato network (blogs, templates, tutorials)

as form site I prefer http://wufoo.com/, to me one of the best user interface ever.

finally protolize used to be great, but for me when it comes to web tools, not updating a site for more than 12 month means the site is dead, there’s no posts since september 2007….

ah, maybe a last one, I still use yousendit sometimes, but recently really prefer dropbox http://www.getdropbox.com/ totally awsome when it comes to colaborative work !

cheers

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Jake

13. Apr, 2009

Jake here from the Office Live Outreach Team. Really helpful post on resources for freelancers. You mentioned in your introductory sentences that these days more and more opportunities to work from home present themselves, and a few of your listed items are tools designed to assist freelance workers with online document management. Have you ever tried using Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace? It’s a free online storage place where you can save and access your work documents. It also makes collaboration with co-workers and clients easy by allowing you to simply provide their e-mail addresses in order to allow them entrance into your own workspace, where they can then review and/or edit your documents (you get to choose what their privileges are). It makes it easy to collaborate with colleagues when you all work from separate offices (or garages!).

Check it out: workspace.officelive.com

– Jake
MSFT Office Live Outreach Team

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Walt Gordon Jones

13. Apr, 2009

Hi Adam,

Great post. I agree Creative Commons is a great resource, but it’s unfortunately not always simple. I’ve written a helpful guide for both content producers and users of Creative Commons content to help everyone have a better experience:
http://waltgordonjones.com/104/some-rights-reserved-a-creative-commons-survival-guide

I believe CC works better for everyone the more informed we all are.

Cheers!

Walt

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Makayla

13. Apr, 2009

This was a very useful post – I’d definitely like to look into some or those sites a little more. The one that most intrigued me was Zoho – I’d never come across it before. I just skimmed through there site and it seems like they offer quite an extensive list of services. I also thought I’d mention that a great resource for freelancers or anyone who has a small business really, that needs to get printing done, Digital Lizard offers a great service. You can set up an online store that your customers can access to order prints. For anyone who is interested, they’re located at: http://www.digitallizard.com/small-medium-business.php

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Joe Pym

11. Dec, 2009

We’ve also released a free tool that freelance designers are finding really useful.

It’s designed to make getting proof sign-off as fast and as easy as possible, with the minimum possible fuss. Have a peek at http://www.useapollo.com for more details.

Nice list though, we use quite a few of those in our own workflow.

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Harold Bream

24. Feb, 2010

Excellent topic. Web 2.0 has made freelancing available to everyone.
Selling items online, taking in qustionnaires & surveys, receiving applications
are all now possible for the average Joe. Here are a couple of form builder sites that fit the web 2.0 bill beautifully:

http://www.elbowspace.com
http://www.fospace.com

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