by Douglife on February 5, 2010
Why it’s important to take a day off as a Freelancer
As a freelance designer weekends are just another work day to me. I have clients who are only free on the weekends, and visa versa. In that situation, it’s difficult to schedule yourself a day off. Although working as a freelance designer has it’s benefits of working from home, working in your own enviroment, you can become too comfortable working a specific number of hours a day, every day, on the schedule that you feel fits best. Which can end up becoming a 7 day work week, and sort of defeats the purpose of being a freelancer in the first place.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t work at the best pace possible, I’m saying that sometimes you can become bogged down, burned out, and need a full day away from work.
Why you ask? It’s simple, the sleep deprived person may start to experience apathy, slowed speech and flattened emotional responses, impaired memory and an inability to be novel or multitask. Now, if you’re a freelancer, you know exactly what it’s like not getting enough rest throughout the week. This isn’t good, as your overall productivity will fall, and who will suffer? You and your clients.
Tony Page/Stone/Getty Images
Alright, so I will take a day off, but I don’t want it to be a waste. That’s fine, you don’t have to lay around all day feeling useless, but you shouldn’t attempt to do anything relevant to your line of freelance work. That means no e-books, RSS feeds, tutorials, or work whatsoever. Of course it is perfectly alright to contact a client, lead, or anything that is of necessity. You can’t run your business into the ground.
I suggest taking time out for you. Is it time for a haircut? Maybe it’s time to clean up the flowerbeds for spring? How about working on that empty room in your house that is your office, or possibly taking someone not work affiliated to lunch or dinner?
Like I said previously, nothing work related. That doesn’t mean you can’t get all of your other ducks in a row for the future. Whatever you can do to keep yourself relaxed, while still keeping your pride above average for the day.
Edit – Thanks for all of your love Comcast Photographer in the Menlo area, California!
Finally, be sure to do it on a day that is most convinient for you, and the things you want to accomplish on that day off. Don’t be surprised if you’re disturbed, but remember that you are on a day away from work, to regain strength and energy for the ensuing week ahead. Don’t become involved in the client’s problem too deep, as you many end up in the same situation tomorrow, tired, out of focus, and subject to making mistakes.
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by Douglife on February 1, 2010
SEO & SEM – Two Different Things
Yes, as much as you are lead to believe, they are two different things. This is a quick article for clients, pontiental clients, or anyone who is interested in factual information, as opposed to cleverly written sales tactics or personal opinions.
Updated Today as I was graciously corrected by two experts in the field Jill Whalen & Danny Sullivan, who were nice enough to not only correct me, but give me the viable information I was after in the first place.
A quote from Danny Sullivan:
I actually meant to desphinn this because Wikipedia is wrong, in my opinion.
SEO = free listings
PPC = paid listings
SEM = the combination of the two.
Geez, the Wikipedia page even sites me as helping to popularize the term search engine marketing as an umbrella term but then calls SEM all paid? Insane.
They both gave me some great articles on this already existing, you can find them at the links below.
What’s the Difference Between SEO & SEM – HighRankings.com
Some Great Tips from Search Engine Land – SeachEngineLand.com
Search Engine Optimisation
I found this to be the most accurate description:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence. – From Wikipedia
A very critical part of the explanation:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. The New York Times defines SEM as ‘the practice of buying paid search listings’. – From Wikipedia
Both of these are ever-evolving, always changing ways to promote websites. Do not be fooled into the “know all” “be all” tactics or services provided today, as they are usually just doing the same things your original web designer should have done at the beginning.
What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below!
Tagged as:
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