freelancing Archives

Business | Thoughts
How My Toddler Taught Me to Sell Results not Features
June 20, 2022
Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.
Yoda, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
That quote is from Master Yoda, as he’s trying to help Obi-Wan Kenobi try to find a missing planet. Obi-Wan let his assumption (“that’s impossible because only Jedi can access this data”) get in the way of the actual answer — which was given to him by a young Padawan.
Similarly, my son Louis, who’s 2 and can only say a few words and sentences, helped reinforce a very important sales lesson for me:
Don’t sell features. Sell the results.
See, I was trying to get my son to abandon the wide-open world of the front yard (and active road), for the safer, albeit less exciting back yard. First, I ask my son if he wanted to go to the backyard (or the platform/product). He said no. What can the backyard offer him that the front yard can’t?
So then I ask if he wanted to go on the trampoline (a unique feature of the platform). Again, he said no. Perhaps he didn’t realize what the trampoline was, or what it can do for him.
Finally, I asked him if he wanted to bounce (the results of using the feature), and he said yes.
Don’t sell your product or service by talking about features (or worse, how you made it). Sell what your product or services can do for your customers.
Business | Thoughts
What Prepared Plumbers Can Teach You About Winning Business
July 22, 2022
Recently, my wife and I noticed our faucet was leaking. Now, I’m not a DIY guy. I’m thankful that computers exist because I can’t do anything with my hands. But I decided to try to fix it myself. Long story short…it didn’t work. I brought the faucet neck to Home Depot and they were less than helpful. So we called two plumbers. One was the clear winner, and here’s why (and what you can learn from them).
Read More “What Prepared Plumbers Can Teach You About Winning Business”
Automation
How You Can Start Automating Today
July 21, 2022
Time is also the only thing you can’t buy, or get more of. Do things that will save you time, and you will grow your business. I truly believe that and one of the best ways to find time is by automating the things you personally don’t have to do. There are lots of tools out there like Zapier, IFTTT, and Siri Shortcuts on iOS to make automating these fast and easy. Here are a few tips so you can start automating today.
Read More “How You Can Start Automating Today”
Thoughts
Transitioning to Full Time Freelance
October 3, 2017
Note: this is an update to an article I wrote in 2010, when I went from college to full time freelance.
I started freelancing all the way back in 2002, when my church came to me looking for a website. As a junior in high school, I used
Frontpage, and GMail had yet to grace me with it’s presence. And this seemed like a really good opportunity for me to run
the business I always wanted. I freelanced all through high school and college. It was at the end of my senior year in 2007
that I realized I wanted to keep doing it. So I went to grad school to learn more about my trade, and better prepare myself full time freelancer. I stuck with it for a time but sought full time employment for 6 years before coming back to self-employment.
So what does it take to transition to full time freelancing (from school or employment)? Let me tell you what I’ve learned.
Read More “Transitioning to Full Time Freelance”
Business | Random Thoughts
When You Freelance, Make Decisions & Stick to Them
July 26, 2016
I almost called this one, “Trust and be Trusted, but don’t betray your business.” That’s the gist of the next two stories. It’s easy to make concessions when you’re freelancing, especially when business is slow. You need the work and you’re willing to bend your rules a little bit to move the chains, or bump the bottom line, or whatever metaphor you want to use for, “make more money.” But that might not always work out. I wrote this article in a notebook while on vacation, about 1 month before starting the book Start with Why. I’m happy to say this book reinforced the sentiments of what I’m about to share with you: When you make decisions for your business, stick to them. Read More “When You Freelance, Make Decisions & Stick to Them”
Thoughts
The Right Way to Explain Your Freelancing Career to Your Dad
July 11, 2014
Earlier this week I read an article offering advice on how to explain your freelancing career to your dad. It’s something a lot of young people, including myself, struggle with. However after reading the article, my thoughts were less than flattering. Not only was it bad advice, it was a demonstration of what not to do if you’re serious about a freelance career. If you’re really interested in reading the article, I will link it at the bottom. For now, here’s what I consider the right way to explain your freelancing career to your dad (or mom, or whomever).
Read More “The Right Way to Explain Your Freelancing Career to Your Dad”
Links
Links Round Up for 04/10/11
April 10, 2011
- Ice Cream = Google TV + Honeycomb + Gingerbread: This excites me.
- Firefox’s Slowest Add-ons [mozilla]: I run 2 of the 10, including Firebug. Must be why I don’t use Firefox that much anymore.
- The Honeycomb Lockout: How Open is Android [android.appstorm]: While I’d love a Honeycomb ROM, Justin makes great points here.
- MLB.com CEO: Android users less likely to buy, more likely to pirate apps [bgr]:Â 2 things with this- First, With more tablets, Android will become more profitable than iOS for AtBat. Second, I bought AtBat 2010. I’m not going to buy it AGAIN just because it’s a new baseball season. I didn’t want to buy it in the first place because I was already paying $100 for MLB.TV
- TravAlert Wakes You Up Before Your Stop [lifehacker]: This is pretty cool.
- Taxes: Writeoffs for Freelancers [freshbooks]: Tax Day is less than a week away! Are you ready?
I also did a couple of write-ups for Web.Appstorm.net about Amazon’s new Cloud services:
- Amazon Cloud Player Puts Your Music in the Cloud
- Amazon Cloud Drive: Backup and Access Anywhere
Links
Links Round Up for 03/28/11
March 27, 2011
- 2009 Called (xkcd): I will have to remember this one.
- .tel, .xxx, and .mobi are all pointless and idiotic: Agreed. There’s really no way to prevent sites that fall under these categories from purchasing the .comÂ equivalent, or vise-vera.
- The State of the Freelancer: I love me some nice infographics.Especially helpful ones.
- CBS will Remove some Showtime Shows from Netflix (bgr):Â Translation: People weren’t buying Californication or Dexter on DVD anymore. I guess I won’t become a Californication fan then…
- Friday by Rebecca Black- Cover by Matt Mulholland (youtube): Awesome. Thank you @joelmchale
- What we Have to See in iOS 5 (brg): He’s right on all account, especially that people are going to buy it anyway.
- Amazon.com lets you play with an Android virtual machine, try apps before you buy them (engadget): This is pure awesome. Couple that with the fact that they give an app away everyday, and you’ve got a really great Android Market competitor.
- 5 Things They Never Told You (cracked): This is by far the best cracked.com article I’ve ever read.
- 18 Million WordPress.com Websites Now Available in iPad Format (mashable): They are using a (free!) plugin called onswipe. It’s now being used on this site as well!
- The Path to Productivity: Short Hours, More Breaks (workawesome): I like to break my day down into tasks that I complete then follow with a quick break. However, if I am in a groove, do not disturb me!
Links
Links Round Up for 03/20/11
March 19, 2011
- Web Standards Sherpa: This website sets out to promote web standards through articles and feedback from the experts! If you’re a web developer, this is a no-brainer as far as must reads goes.
- Microsoft to Discontinue Zune (bgr):Â That is a damn shame, as the Zune is a MUCH better mp3 player than the iPod. Maybe if Microsoft ran an ad or two…
- Making Twitter More Secure: HTTPS: Twitter has now added an option to force all of your Twitter dealings to use secured browsing. I strongly recommend turning this setting on.
- You Have a Disease; Here’s the Cure (nettuts+): Just because the Internet is always on doesn’t mean we have to be too.
- Microsoft is More Ethical than Google, Apple, and Facebook: Take note, Fanboys (as a Google Fanboy, I am included)
- Android’s Browser is Way Faster than Safari on the iPhone (gizmodo): In the words of Steward Scott, booyahh.
- Over-the-Air iTunes Syncing now Free for Android (lifehacker): I’ve been testing Music WithMe- seemed shaky at first but it’s working now and is really awesome!
- Yanko Design: Some really inspiring & innovative product design here.
- Dabble.In: A new website that asks, “What do you Dabble?”
- 10 Tips for Working While on the Go (lifehacker): Pretty helpful stuff here- especially if you travel a lot.
- Why You Should Keep a Mileage Log (workawesome): This can save you quite a bit of money at tax time!
Links
Links Round Up for 02/27/11
February 27, 2011
- Anaheim school district handing out GPS trackers to chronically absent students (engadget): Having trouble with a student? Lojack them. I can’t see anything wrong with this.
- Know Your Way Around Facebook Privacy (web.appstorm): Web.Appstorm published an article of mine that serves as a pretty comprehensive guide to Facebook Privacy. You should check it out.
- MLB Dedicated to Educating on Tobacco Risks (mlb.com): My question is why are US Senators getting involved at all. Dear Representatives, it’s not your job to tell us what to do, or to prevent people from poorly influencing us, or to protect us from ourselves.
- 60 Beautiful Wallpapers for Your Android Phone (android.appstorm): Some really nice wallpapers here. I picked up a few myself!
- Apple to Announce iPad 2 March 2nd, WSJ Reports (bgr): Begin the tablet frenzy 2011. My money is on the Moto XOOM being a better device, but I’m a little jaded.
- 6 Bad Habits to Blame on Technology: Everyone should read this. Fact: It’s no OK to constantly text someone while you’re having a conversation with someone in real life. Get some damn manners.
- If Apple Made Bottled Water (image): “If you’ve been drinking the juice, you’re ready to drink the water.”
- The PHD Comics Guide to TA Office Hours (comic): That attendance graph is 100% true.
- The Likeability of Angry Birds (theoatmeal): Also True. I hate that green bird.
- How The Social Network Saved Mark Zuckerburg (wired): Really good read. I actually think the movie villainized the twins who sued him more.
- What Happens if Yahoo!Â AcquiresÂ You (37signals): This is the main difference between Google and other companies. It’s really a shame what Yahoo! does to great web apps.
- Visualized: Android activations mapped geographically, chronologically, breathtakingly (video, engadget): This, is a very cool video.
- Design and Develop a Complete Website, Part I (webdesigntuts): I think I’m going to do this just to try and change up my design process a little.
Also, I’ve created a Delicious account for Manifest Development. I’ll post tech/web dev/business related links there. Check it out. They also get automatically posted to @manifestdev on Twitter.

Stop Wasting Your Time Fighting the Tech Stack

Stop Wasting Your Time Fighting
the Tech Stack