On August 15, amidst the fires raging in Santa Cruz California, over 220 freelancers braved the smoke and the flames to attend FreelanceCamp Santa Cruz. With dusty concrete floors, unfinished drywall, and flame retardant material hanging from the ceilings, this unconventional venue fit perfectly with the informal and unassuming conference.

Elance was a proud sponsor of the event, which is dubbed an “unconference” because it is almost entirely user generated. What's an "unconference" you ask? Someone takes the lead in coordinating the event (in this case Shane Pearlman), but all topics discussed are created and voted on by the attendees. Once the topics are decided, everyone splits up, huddles in various corners, and draws upon the collective experience of each other.

I ran one session on how to win new clients in an online marketplace. Starting out online with no track-record can be tough, so we discussed ways to win those initial clients. This included great discussions on topics like bidding early to get listed on top, asking relevant questions that demonstrate expertise and engage the prospective client in a dialogue, focusing your proposal and profile in a very specific niche where you can differentiate, starting small to get some early wins and feedback, and not necessarily competing on price as less than 10% of the overall spend on Elance was initially awarded to the lowest proposal – although it may be necessary to compete more aggressively at first.

We also studied some use-cases of providers that have established such a strong online reputation with great feedback and repeat clients that they receive many of their jobs directly from clients inviting them instead of through the competitive bid process. But the start-up phase can be tough and does require that up-front investment to get established. Another strategy discussed is bringing your existing clients to Elance to start building that track record and online reputation.

I also attended sessions and listened to the issues and challenges that freelancers face in their businesses on a day-to-day basis. Topics varied as widely as the attendees themselves; from marketing your services and finding clients to pricing to managing projects effectively to collecting payment when due. Other sessions focused more specifically on leveraging social media in your business, object-oriented programming, retirement planning, and taxes. It seemed every field was represented from web development professionals, to accountants, to writers and editors, to graphic designers, and many more.

As a Multimedia Journalism major way back in my college years, part of the required curriculum was to take a semester long course covering one single topic: Typography. At the time, I thought to myself, “A WHOLE semester? On just typography?”

I learned very quickly that there’s a lot more to learn in the world of typography than “Times New Roman” and “Font Size”.

With blogging and user-generated content constantly growing on the web at record pace, the importance of typography is grows as well. You could have the most relevant, pertinent information on the web, but if it doesn't look good (or at least half decent), no one will want to read it. Michael Owens over at Net Tuts+ recently published a fantastic article that provides a solid crash course on improving your web typography. Now, I won’t say this will replace a semester long course at your favorite alma mater, but this list is definitely handy for web developers or anyone else that wants to make their web text pop out a little bit more.

Here are my two favorite items from the article (via Net Tuts+):

1. Typographic definitions: This section covers a ton of the basic definitions and lingo you need to understand before moving forward. This section covers ascenders, baselines, cap height, descenders, kerning, leading, letter spacing, ligatures, line height, measure, rendering, weight, word spacing, and X-height. (Whew!) All these definitions should be etched into your memory, so break out the flash cards if you have to. Trust me, it’s worth it.

If you’re anything like me, you can’t help but smile at a good story, and boy do I have a story for you.

While stumbling around the Twitter-verse, I came across a story titled “How Jessica Abroms Made Thousands from an $800 iPhone App” (via Yappler). I clicked through, intrigued.

It turns out that the entrepreneurial Jessica Abroms had combined her Computer Science and Human Computer Interaction skills, 8 years of work experience at Pixar animation studios (yes, that Pixar), and a skilled provider on Elance to make one of her ideas for an iPhone app a reality.

The idea is a new, digital take on an old fortune-telling game many of us used to play in our adolescence: M.A.S.H. (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House.) While working on her project, she encountered a roadblock, and looked to Elance for some help.

From Yappler: “The interface was up and running after two weeks work, however Jessica says 'I was at a point where I was a little stuck and although I knew I could finish it, I figured it would be better if I got help.' This is when she went to Elance.com, a website where freelancers bid on projects, and placed an advert for a developer to help finish M.A.S.H.”

This is a continuation of the Hands-On With The Elance Work System by Matt Katsaros. To read the previous part, follow this link here: Hands-On With The Elance Work System: Part 2.

Review Process

Within just ten minutes of posting my job, I started to receive proposals (1) and messages from many different providers all over the world, and so my homework begins…

This step is extremely crucial in the process of getting your job completed. It can sometimes mean the difference between just getting it done and getting it done right, so do your research and fully qualify your provider before moving forward.

Since every project is different and has different requirements, what you want to look for in your provider may be a little different than what I may looking for, but there are a few common areas that you should look through. Here are some of the key things I look for in my provider. (For more tips on reviewing provider profiles, check out this blog post - How To Review A Provider Profile.)

Ahhhh, the life of a skilled contractor or freelance professional is a great one, but before you know it, things can heat up quick. Soon, you're getting awarded job after job from a crowd of clients ready and waiting to pay you for your skills. Sound hectic? Sometimes, it can be. Christopher Null, a freelance writer that contributes to Yahoo! Tech, Filmcritic.com, Drinkhacker.com, Wired, PCWorld, and more, gives us his tips on how he stays sharp and on top of his hectic work life.

In a perfect world, you'd take a single assignment, work on it for a month, collect your fee when you turn it in, and move on to the next job. But realistically that kind of stability is rare – and largely unheard-of – in the freelance world.

Jobs come in at unpredictable intervals, deadlines change, projects are abruptly postponed or canceled, and you're stuck in the middle of it, trying to figure out how to manage it all.

Managing multiple and complex projects can overwhelm some people, but it doesn't have to. With careful attention to organization, you can keep your assignments on track, hit your deadlines, make your clients happy, and still have time for the occasional cup of coffee.

Different techniques will work better for different types of workers, so I can't offer a one-size-fits-all solution to keeping multiple projects on track. Still, here are some strategies and technologies that have worked for me and which I hope will also help you.

Leveraging Your Calendar