issue 34 ::
June 2009

FEATURED SITE:
Laura Hooper Calligraphy

If typography and hand- crafted design are your thing, check out this LA calligrapher's beautiful site and portfolio. As we all seem to type now rather than use pen and paper, it's lovely to see that beautiful handwriting isn't completely a thing of the past. Inspirational.

Got a resource you'd like to recommend to the Freelancentral community? Send your favourite blog or website links, book titles or software recommendations to info@freelancentral.co.za.

GET THE LATEST SENT TO YOU

Want the latest news, new member listings and placement ads sent to you as they are uploaded to Freelancentral? Simply sign up for our RSS feed - click on the link on our home page. If you don't already use a feed reader, we recommend Google Reader as an easy way of aggregating the latest posts from all the sites you read regularly.

SITE STATS FOR JUNE

Freelancers registered: 4,369

From Google Analytics:

• 2,487 visits
• 15,345 page views
• 6.17 pages per visit
• 40.89 % bounce rate
• 5:17 mins average time on site
• 53.08 % new visitors

PORTFOLIO CRITIQUE SERVICE

Are you selling yourself effectively in your Lite or Full portfolio? Wouldn't it be great to have someone give you an honest critique of your portfolio, and tips on how to improve it? For just R350 we will review your portfolio and send you a personalised report on how you can make it more appealing to clients. Just call the Freelancentral team on 021 780 1364 or email us.

GET 25% OFF YOUR NEXT FULL PORTFOLIO

Don't forget that if you send us your Freelancentral success stories and we publish them in our newsletter or on the site, you'll get 25% off your next month's Full portfolio. Submit your stories by sending us a mail.

Must-read e-books for freelancers and marketing entrepreneurs

• How to be a Rockstar Freelancer (FreelanceSwitch) - all you need to know, from getting started to growing a successful freelance business, from the founders of the popular FreelanceSwitch blog. (Check out their other books too.)

• The Unlimited Freelancer: Unleash your True Business Potential (FreelanceFolder) - provides sound business advice for creatives who want to go out on their own. ** Their 'How to Start a Freelance Writing Business' quick-start guide goes on sale soon - look out for Freelancentral's review of it later this week.

• So you want to run an agency? (Mark Sherrington) - very thorough, comprehensive advice from the former co-founder and CEO of the Added Value Group and ex-group marketing director of SABMiller.

Our favourite marketing/advertising/design blogs

• Advertising Age's Power 150 is a list of the top marketing blogs, updated daily. Our favourites are:
  

• AdRants - interesting marketing/advertising news 'with attitude'

• Seth Godin's blog - nuggets of practical marketing advice, daily.

• CherryFlava - a South African blog which profiles innovative marketing and branding.

• David Airey - exceptionally talented freelance designer from Scotland, with a huge international following.

• Duct Tape Marketing - great marketing ideas for small businesses.

• The Dieline - a showcase of beautiful packaging design which is sure to inspire creativity.

• InstantShift - daily resources for web designers and developers.

• SEOmoz - search engine marketing tips and news.

And of course it's much easier to manage your blogs via a feed reader - we use Google Reader.

PIKE: Halfway there is better than nowhere at all

Pike takes a philosophical look at the mid-point of the year, with some good advice on how to prepare yourself for the downhill rush to December. Read more...

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Read how Freelancentral is helping South African freelancers
on our new Testimonials page - and do send us your success stories too.

If Freelancentral has connected you successfully,
whether you're a client or freelancer, we'd love to hear from you.
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