(This is the fifth in a series of interviews with freelancers, telling us their stories on how they went freelance. The aim is to help others who are thinking of becoming freelance learn more about what it takes, as well as get advice and inspiration so they can get the confidence and understanding to find … Read more
Online privacy issues are currently difficult to understand. Amid media headlines about NSA, Prism and Snowden, terms such as encryption, Tor and HTTPS are used extensively with the average person expected to keep up with what they mean and understand how the issues affect them. For people who aren’t technically adept, the message about why online … Read more
I’ve written about my reading habits before, using apps like Tweetbot and Pocket as a system for saving interesting content to read later. So when the Cronycle team got in touch to offer me a test drive of their beta product, I was interested enough to take a look and see if it could be … Read more
Ah, networking. Otherwise known as "talking to other people about what they do" or "collecting as many business cards / twitter / LinkedIn connections as physically possible". Have you ever read an article about networking that wasn’t full of common sense points and cliché? They mostly describe networking experiences as working something like this: In … Read more
I’ve been looking at the products and services I use as a freelancer, so wanted to get some advice and other opinions on what freelance tools are the best to use. I’ve become a big fan of the Freelance Subreddit, which has a whole community of freelancers, so I asked "What’s your freelance stack?" to … Read more
Hello Bar is a popular WordPress plugin that inserts a highly visible notification bar at the top of your website or blog. Combined with a clear call-to-action button or sign up form, it’s a very effective way to direct people to a certain page on your site or get sign ups for your email newsletter. The Hello … Read more
Hello there! Now that you’ve completed the guide to going freelance, you can use this handy page to reference these emails anytime you like. If you learned from this series and want to share what you learned with a friend, that’s awesome (and clearly you’re a good friend). Make sure they get the latest series … Read more
Being a digital marketing consultant, it can often be quite easy to forget that the world was once dominated by paper-based communication – and in many places, it still is. As our global society moves increasingly to digital-first formats, the art of writing letters, sending postcards or simply sending a thank you note is becoming … Read more
Hello. I’m Ben Matthews, a friendly digital marketing consultant from the UK, living in London. You’ll usually find me talking about freelancing, marketing, running a small business, tech for good, travel and general London life. I run Empower. We’re a digital marketing agency for charities and nonprofits. My book Freelance in 30 Days is available in paperback and ebook from Gumroad. You can email me at [email protected]
You are lying on an exotic beach, drinking a fruity cocktail from a coconut shell, and enjoying the cool breeze. You open a laptop and start writing. It’s impossible not to feel inspired in such a location. Or, you are in a hip café in Prague, working on a project with the astronomical clock tower … Read more