This is a guest post by Tom Walker. You can find out more about Tom at the bottom of the post.
Working as a freelance writer can be an amazing experience. It’s an opportunity to work at your own pace, set your own schedule, and choose your own clients. Unfortunately, these wonderful freedoms can become a horrendous nightmare for a freelance writer working without the proper tools. The guide below will provide the 10 tools that every writer needs in order to succeed in the world of freelance work.
- Basecamp (Project Management) – Managing your projects is an absolutely essential part of freelance writing. If you can’t meet deadlines and balance workloads, than you won’t last long in the freelance writing world. Base Camp can provide you with project managing tools that will help keep you on track.
- Harvest (Time Tracking) – It’s important that, as a freelance writer, you can track the time you spend on projects. This will help you log the hours that your clients need to pay you for. Get Harvest will help you maintain an accurate time log that will keep your invoice error free.
- Freshbooks (Invoicing) – All freelance writers need to have the ability to invoice. Fresh Books will allow you to easily create an accurate and tidy invoice sheet. If you can’t invoice properly, than you can’t get paid properly. This is an absolutely essential tool for the freelance writer.
- Skype (Communication) – It’s important that freelance writers are able to communicate clearly and efficiently with their clients. Skype is an excellent tool to keep you connected. Instant messaging is free on Skype and the user interface is attractive and full of customizable options. Phone calls can be made for a small fee.
- Open Office (Office Suite) – The word processor is the bread and butter of a freelance writer’s toolbox. When so much of your time will be spent in front of a blank word document, it’s important that the program is efficient and attractive. Open Office is excellent word processing software and best of all, it’s absolutely free!
- GIMP (Image Editing) – Sometimes the images for your project just aren’t exactly what you need. An important tool for the freelance writer is image editing software. Gimp is an excellent photo editor that will allow you to create the exact image that your project needs.
- Dropbox (Storage) – Freelance writers need to be able to submit their work online. This is where the Dropbox comes in handy. The Dropbox will allow you to submit your work online and it will allow your clients to easily access and download your work. There are many benefits to the Dropbox. One of the most important benefits is that the file limit is much larger than most email providers. Using the Dropbox will prevent files from being declared undeliverable, something that happens all too frequently with email providers.
- 30 Boxes (Calendaring) – As a freelance writer, you need to be able to manage your schedule. The website 30 Boxes provides calendar software that will allow you to budget your time and keep track of your projects. Freelance writers can pick up a lot of work with many different due dates. An excellent calendar system can help streamline the scheduling process and help you avoid missing any important deadlines.
- Phonebooth (Virtual Phone System) – When online communication is not enough, it’s important that you have the ability to contact your clients over the phone. Phonebooth is an online phone service that will help coordinate your phone calls and open the line of communication between you and your client.
- WordPress (Website) – A website can be an important tool for any freelance writer. The website allows you to display your portfolio online and display your contact information. The ability of clients to access your work experience and samples of your writing with one simple web address can be very appealing. Additionally, you may pick up clients who stumble upon your website. It also gives past clients an easy way to suggest your services to their friends, partners or acquaintances.
Tom Walker is a full time blogger who works for an online ecommerce store specialising in HP supplies as the lead editor and contributor on their design blog where he posts about advertising and design.
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Tom thanks for writing that awesome post. I had not heard of 30 Boxes before, but it sounds like exactly what I need! I’ll check it out during lunch today.
Hi Christie,
Hi Tom,
Full disclosure, I work at Nomadesk. I read this post with great interest and I’d like to put another essential tool on your radar.
Nomadesk is a virtual file server, allowing people on the go to stay connected, synchronized, productive and protected. For a nominal monthly fee, Nomadesk makes your data securely available from everywhere (online, offline, from a browser or mobile phone).
What makes Nomadesk different?
For $15/mo you get a Nomadesk drive on your desktop that allows you to share, backup, synchronize and store your files with an unlimited number of users and unlimited file sizes/space. Files are encrypted with the highest level of security. When accessing your files through a browser, your smartphone or iPhone or your laptop, you can synchronize your files in real time. When working offline, once you connect to the Internet all of your changes and files are synchronized. TheftGuard protects devices and allows users to shred data remotely or locate a stolen or missing PC or Mac. Best part, installation is easy and usage is drop drag simple.
Other cool features: There is a widget feature that allows you to post your folders or files to a website or blog site for the public to view. And, the company also recently launched a FolderLink and FileLink feature that lets users upload and download large presentations, photos, videos or graphics without having to attach an email, for anyone to access even if they are not a Nomadesk user.
There are many players offering parts of this backup, cloud storage, synchronization and collaboration equation (e.g., Dropbox), but no other company has ALL of these features. And no other company offers unlimited usage for such a low price point. Test drive Nomadesk with a free 30-day trial at http://www.nomadesk.com.
Kind regards.
I already use Zoho a lot myself, but I like the idea of your remote shredding – very cool! Also the widgets – sounds like it would be very useful for a freelancer with a blog or website.
Thanks for including Phonebooth.com in your tools!
If any of your readers want to try Phonebooth out, feel free to tell them to reach out to us on Twitter.
Best regards,
Chris Moody
@cnmoody
Phonebooth.com
@phonebooth
Why do you suggest tools to download to a computer, e.g. Open Office, and not those residing on the cloud, e.g. Google Docs? Just wondering.
.-= Ari Herzog´s last blog ..Why Social Media is a Stupid Term and How You Can Help =-.
I’ll let Tom address this question… I currently use Zoho for my docs. It has loads of features/apps, plus I never have to worry about which computer I’m on or where I left a document. Open Office is awesome though – to think it’s open source, while some people pay so much for MS Office!
Hi there, guys, thanks for checking out the post
@ ari – I guess there’s no solid reason, but it feels safer to have your main tools close at hand so you’re not so reliant on the Internet. I think it’s important to spread your tools out so that you’re not relying too heavily on one thing, just in case.
As a freelancer I must say I have missed a lot of the mentioned tools, about 60% I have never used at all. It’s good to see instead of the costly programs, freelancers actually have a lot of choices. Wordpress is no doubt by far my favorite.
Can’t imagine life without it or else I wouldn’t be here. Well done, Tom and thanks Christie for notifying me about this resourceful article.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
.-= Ching Ya´s last blog ..3 Important Things About Facebook ‘Like’ Button =-.
I often take Wordpress for granted while looking at smaller tools, but it’s definitely a huge factor in most all of our blogs and blogging. I’m thankful it’s open source – just think what some company could charge for something like that.
I’m a bit of a list junkie, so I always appreciate seeing what different people use. A couple more that I’d toss on the pile for people to take a look at:
http://www.workingpoint.com — All your business financial needs in one place
http://timeglider.com/ — Visual timeline for project management
http://www.deferredsender.com/ — Scheduling follow-up emails and activities to keep your pipeline of work full
http://vyew.com/ — A different collaboration suite
http://mailchimp.com/ — Email campaigns (free for small accounts)
https://signup.batchbook.com/account/signup/3 — BatchBook Social CRM’s free account
And, of course, any/all freelancers on the lookout for the ever-evolving suite of good tools, should keep their eyes on a few particularly good blogs with a knack for unearthing cool new treasures:
WebWorkerDaily.com
FreelanceSwitch.com
KillerStartups.com
Mashable.com
And, like Christie, I’m a huge fan of Zoho.
Very nice – I’m checking out some of these now, thanks!
Excellent list here, and I’d like to suggest another awesome free tool that I find to be more convenient than GIMP. At Pixlr.com, you basically have an online version of Photoshop and I find myself using that often. Like you mentioned earlier, it’s not always good to rely on online-based tools. But if you do have access to the internet where you’re working, I would prefer Pixlr.com over GIMP. (Btw, I am not in any way associated with Pixlr, I just really like it and wanted to spread the word about it.) -Max
I’m glad to have the suggestion, thanks! I’ll give it a try!
I’ve got my wordpress set up, and I’ve used all of the other pieces of kit you mentioned.. but never inline. I’m an avid writer, so I’ll start thinking about using softwares like this as professional tools instead of “just another way to muck about”.
Cheers to the OP. Inspiration++
.-= Steve at Bagsy´s last blog ..Transfers and fears =-.
Absolutely – it might open up a whole new world for you.
Definitely some good tools there. I used to use basecamp but haven’t touched it in a while. Like the other commenter above, I now use Google Docs for just about everything. So convenient, I just worry one day, Google is going to stick it to us and start charging for everything.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..I’m Giving Away The Farm — Read This If You Like Free Stuff =-.
Ooohh, wouldn’t that be awful. Maybe a good reason to download your content once in a while. Then maybe someone providing free software would have a good Google apps import utility.
I got tired of paying the stupid fees just to post a project, switched to GetExpert.net..you may want to check it out
good list of freelancer toolkit
Definitely some good tools there
Good list of freelancer tool. i used some of them but i did not used Fresh Books, Harvest and 30 box. let me try them first and reply with the experience.
i used most of them in my blog, i did not try freshbook and drop box tool and will try them out.
Phonebooth is the best tool i used for communication.
I agree with you Coil replacement Florida. i also use same tool and i found it very usefull and cheap.
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