Illustration: dh

Many people who work in home offices are freelancers of one sort or another, so I’ve been looking around for as many good resources for freelancers as I could find.  If you’re trying to make a go of it as a freelance writer, Web developer, graphic designer, consultant, photographer or whatever, I’m guessing you’re going to find something here that will be useful to you.  Here’s my list so far:

1. Freelance Switch

Freelance Switch not only sports a great line-up of articles and resources about freelancing, but they’ve also got a valuable (and inexpensive) job board.  The concept is brilliant: you can advertise a freelance job for free, and freelancers pay only $7/month to apply for any of the jobs on the board–pretty much an “everyone wins” deal.

2. Freelance Folder

Oriented towards freelancers and Web-workers, Freelance Folder is another source for helpful articles on a wide variety of topics–productivity, creativity, marketing, and the freelance life in general.  There’s a lot of good stuff here.

3. JD’s Blog

If you’ve got entrepreneurship coursing through your veins, you’ll probably profit greatly from hanging out at JD’s Blog.  You’ll find many articles about how to build better businesses, from virtually every conceivable angle–marketing, tips and tools for entrepreneurs, finances and investing, and a lot more.  (As of this writing, the last post to JD’s Blog was in October, so I’m hopeful they’re just on a brief hiatus–but there is still a ton of useful content there.)

The rest of the resources below are individual articles from a variety of blogs (including those mentioned above), but when you go to look at them, be sure to spend some time on these sites, because you’ll likely find other stuff that you can use.

4. 101 Essential Freelancing Resources

This Freelance Switch article is a very long list of all kinds of resources–tools and Web sites for things like time tracking, invoicing, project management, business tools, job boards, Web site and blogging tools, and advertising and marketing tools and resources.  “Essential” is the right word for this piece.

5. Freelancer’s Toolbox–30+ Online Freelance Resources

This article from Mashable.com is another great list of useful online resources for the freelancer.  Lots of great stuff to browse here.

6. 20 Resources for Freelancers

This article is from Tutorial Blog–there’s some duplication with the lists above, but you’ll find some other stuff here, too, and this site is definitely worth a look.

7. The Freelance Writing FAQ

Writing for newspapers and magazines is the bread and butter of many freelancers, and this article at Creating Marketing Solutions is a very helpful set of answers.  If you’re just starting out, do yourself a favor and get up to speed with this FAQ.

8. Tools for Freelancers

This Society of Professional Journalists article is a great source of information for the freelance journalist, and the resources referenced span a wide range of topics, from tax guidelines to professional organizations to writer’s conferences and such.  Put that j-school degree to work.

9. Ebook Writing and Marketing Secrets

Ebooks are all over the place, and people are buying them.  If you have what it takes to write them, you could stay pretty busy and do pretty well.  This site explains how.

10. Resources for Freelance Web Designers

Here’s a list of resources with a practical, nuts-and-bolts feel.  There’s stuff here about dealing with clients, protecting your work, online portfolios, social networking sites for designers, and more.

11. 53 Steps to follow if you want to become a freelance Web designer/developer

No-nonsense introduction to the process involved in becoming a good Web designer or developer–good stuff, and most of the steps link to resources for further reading.

12. The Ultimate list of Freelancing Resources (1-25)
The Ultimate list of Freelancing Resources (26-50)

These articles comprise a list of 50 articles about freelancing–a lot of helpful content here.

13.  25 tips by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs

This article contains a set of valuable tips–practical stuff–but be sure to check out the collection of articles on entrepreneurship at the end of the article.

If you know of other great freelancing resources out there that I’ve missed, please post a comment and a link.

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