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6 Ways Google+ Can Win you More Clients

Alex Mathers — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:19:38 +0000

This is a guest post by Alex Mathers, founder of Red Lemon Club, a self-taught illustrator and writer who believes that any freelancer passionate about work they are good at deserves to create a successful and thriving career from it. Alex recently released an extremely useful online course titled The Freelancer’s Guide to Winning Incredible Clients through Google+ Mastery

Google’s latest addition to the ‘social’ world, in the form of social networking platform Google+, appears to have divided people on how useful and how valuable it actually is. What it has so far shown, is a huge amount of promise and value through its use as a professional networking tool that can be used to expand business and bring professionals together.

Here are 6 ways Google+ can help you attract more and better clients:

1. You can engage with targeted prospects

Thanks to Google+ incorporating the much needed ‘circles’ element to the platform, you are not only able to very clearly define the feeds you see on your home screen depending on what circles you have defined and chosen to be revealed, but you can send out content to specific groups or individuals.

What this does is allow you to target your content so that it is seen by the right people.

On a web platform that could allow anyone and everyone to see all manner of content you post, this is really valuable, and to a professional like yourself, even more so.

2. Sharing more in-depth content

Google+ is brilliant for sharing expanded and varied content. Posts can be essentially any length you like, you can include animations, films, the ability to tag people in posts. Google+ displays pictures really nicely and picture editing is great, giving you plenty of control.

You could even treat Google+ as your own blog, like Kevin Rose, who has swapped his blog for his G+ feed.

3. Gives you the ability to more easily reach out to anyone, including ideal clients

Reaching out and interacting with people is a key element gathering support, exposure, fans, connections, and ultimately paid work for freelancers. Doing this online to complement your engagement in the ‘real world’ can be very powerful if done in the right way.

Google+ lets users connect with potential clients, key influencers and others who support your freelancing business in better and more effective ways.

Firstly, because the platform allows you to follow the updates of people without them requiring to accept a friend request ,as on Facebook, you are in a better position to attract connections by actually interacting with their content and mentioning their name appropriately through ‘+ tagging’ and so on.

Secondly, circles allows you to share specific information with the relevant people, which allows for the sharing of content in a much more focused way. This is very valuable when we are talking about relationship- building.

Thirdly, the highly superior search function within Google+ makes finding people, as well as content to share and engage with, much more easy. The extended circles feature will allow you to share your updates with people you follow who haven’t followed you back yet, bringing further connection-making ability to the system.

4. It provides a more professional, business-like environment

A more professional crowd appears to be being drawn to Google+, mainly for its features and benefits for businesses.

This is where freelancers need to be in order to make the most of being in close proximity to other professionals who can work with them and provide work for them. For the time being, Google+’s user-base is comparatively small (though still huge and growing!), which means being able to stand out more too.

5. Google+ showcases your work and business in greater depth

You have the capability to really turn your profile on Google+ into a place to showcase what you do, be that a visual portfolio, or something in written format, like your CV. You can utilise the great picture display and sharing options, such as albums, and images next to your profile picture on your profile page, as well as the ‘About’ area which can contain a great range of material, as well as links, details about where you’ve lived and contact details.

6. You are better able to get found in search

Being linked with Google+ means that everything that is associated with you, including your profile, and brand page, will attract preference from Google’s powerful search engine, so that you, your shared content, and your brand will be found more easily.

The value this presents for self-promotion is very clear. Google is very interested in material that is being shared socially, like it is on Google+, and will make sure that socially-shared content gains priority through their search engine.

Google’s introduction of the +1 button means that anything that receives a +1 (similar to Facebook’s ‘like’) will gain more preference through Google search.

Because everything shared in Google+, as well as images now, has a +1 button linked to it, there is a lot of scope for gaining a large amount exposure through this. As Google+ is still in its early stages of development, expect to see a lot of further improvement and added features that will benefit you as a freelancer or small business over time. I’d love to hear what you think of Google+ and what it could offer you as a freelancer in the comments section below.

This is a guest article from Alex Mathers, who has written a well-received e-course designed specifically for freelancers who want to use Google+ to win great projects and clients, called: ‘The Freelancer’s Guide to Winning Incredible Clients through Google+ Mastery’. You can read a free sample chapter from the course here, instantly downloadable.

You can find out more about the course here.

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6 Ways Google+ Can Win you More Clients

Meet Zero Bundle: The Only FREE Bundle Out There

Catalin Zorzini — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:59:52 +0000

Zero Bundle is an awesome set of resources, filled with free design goodies, icons, textures, UI kits, graphic elements and much more! You’ll want to get your hands on this one soon as it will only be available for a very short time!

What you get:

Larsson Patrik
A power pack of premium quality freebies that contains 12 premium elements (one of them is a Zero Bundle exclusive). Pack includes: Patricons v.1, PatriGlyps Set 1, buttons, login form, wood panel box, social buttons and more. For more freebies visit the authors’ website below and subscribe to his site for more exclusive freebies.

Ben Bate
The pack includes a variety of user interface elements, ranging from sleek navigation bars and login forms to site designs and icons. Included are a full Apple like menu, iPad icon, login form, and menu with notifications. Ben is a freelance designer from Plymouth, England who specialises in Graphic, UI and Web Design.

Purty Pixels
Here’s a set of PurtyPixels freebies that are crafted with oodles of fun and buckets of joy. There’s a bit of buttons (some of which are quite crazy), some author pro-esque buttons, a full fledged UI kit from the dark side and a fantastically super set of badges. PurtyPixels is a super awesome, fantastically free collection of PSD design resources designed by Richard Tabor.

+ tons of other digital goods from top notch graphic designers! Check it out and grab your free copy now!

WINNERS: 3 Packs of 250 Die Cut Business Cards from UPrinting

Catalin Zorzini — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:22:05 +0000

In December we teamed up with our old friends from UPrinting to give away 750 business cards to 3 lucky Inspired Mag readers. Scroll down to see if you won or you should stay tuned for the next freebie Friday edition (starting tomo).

What we gave away

3 sets of 250 die cut Business Cards

Glossy, UV, Matte or Uncoated Paper

Tastefully Thick 14pt Cardstock

Rounded Corner, Circular or Leaf Shapes

Who won

Monique

Jeff Drumgo

Jash Sayani

Congrats guys – someone from UPrinting will contact you very soon to hand you the prizes! And thanks everyone for entering the giveaway! We have a special edition of our Freebie Friday series tomorrow so Stay Tuned!

Inspired Giveaway: 5 Premium Subscriptions to Thrive’s Solo Project Management Tool

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:24:36 +0000

Freebie Friday again here @ Inspired Mag – a special Christmas edition brought to you by our friends from Solo – an all-in-one Project Management tool for freelancers that integrates basic financial business stats, time-tracking and invoicing, with a twist. Solo combines great functionality with beautiful design and focuses on maximizing your use of time and business data. We’re giving away 5 premium yearly subscriptions! Scroll down to see how to grab the!

Overview

Solo is an all-in-one, Project Management tool that allows freelancers to make the most of their business data.

Here at Thrive we know how easy it is for freelancers to get wrapped up in a project and push the financial stuff to one side. In a world of decreasing profit margins and increasing competition we need to be as efficient as possible. Solo integrates basic financial business stats, invoicing and time-tracking in an affordable package; making it the ideal solution for solo workers looking to save both time and money.

What stands Solo apart from other Project Management tools is that it’s tailored specifically for freelancers and small business owners. The app places a huge emphasis on presenting complex business data in a clean, visual form and it’s stunning design is what makes it so appealing among creative minded professionals.

Whilst the minimalist design of Solo provides a very natural user experience, this is achieved without compromising attention to detail. Solo’s beautiful project dashboard page allows you to easily keep track of the day-to-day things that really matter; making managing finances so much more rewarding than scouring through cumbersome spreadsheets. The data is at your fingertips. What you do with it is up to you.

Solo: Beautiful Project Management for the modern freelancer

here are some of the benefits:

Dashboard- YOUR BUSINESS OVERVIEW: The hub of the Solo experience. Allows you to easily keep track of the day-to-day things that really matter. Instant access to all of your core project data including; deadlines, daily tasks, hours worked and money earned.
Projects- STAY IN CONTROL: Keep on top of your projects with Solo. Intelligently track how much time you’ve spent and what you’ve spent it on. Graphs show a visual project breakdown. Quickly see your quote, time to deadline, project progress and project contacts.
Planner- BE ORGANIZED: Manage deadlines, milestones, meetings, tasks and to-dos all in one place. Keep up-to-date, you’ll never miss another meeting again (this isn’t a guarantee by the way). We’re also busy working on Apple iCal and Outlook integration.
Invoicing- GET PAID ON TIME: Send branded invoices to your clients, Solo lets you know when they’re due to be paid, are overdue or need to be sent. Quickly look at turnover for your current year, month or week. In the future we’ll be offering Sage and QuickBooks integration.
Contacts- STAY IN TOUCH: Easily import all of your contacts via vCard. Keep all of your contact details in one place. Attach a main contact to a project so they receive invoices etc. Store the contact data for all your clients, prospects and subcontractors.

WIN a 1-year Premium Subscriptions to Thrive’s Solo Project Management Tool

tweet this: win 5 premium subscriptions to @ThriveSolo project management tool from @InspiredMag
~~leave a comment telling us what would you use the subscription for~~

* Note: the giveaway is not available for current Solo subscribers.

~~We’ll randomly pick five winners and make the announce here next week. Good luck everybody!!~~

Winners:

Christopher – December 30th

Hamrath - December 28th

Nick - December 27th

Tabitha - December 27th

Gustavo December 27th

Congrats guys, you’ll be contacted by the Solo team later today. Stay tuned for more giveaways soon!

Inspired Giveaway: Two Yearly Pro Wibiya Plans

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:49:36 +0000

New week – new giveaway here at Inspired Mag. This time we teamed up with the guys at Wibiya – the Swiss army knife of website bars. Scroll down to see how you can enter the giveaway and win one of the two yearly pro plans offered by Wibiya.

What is Wibiya?

Wibiya provides a free, powerful solution that allows publishers to integrate popular web applications directly into their websites via a fully customizable website toolbar. The Wibiya Bar integrates a variety of free apps, social plugins, games, video & image galleries, and much more, enabling publishers to increase page views, boost user engagement, and promote their content. Wibiya also gives publishers the power to manage their bar’s performance in real time through the Wibiya user dashboard.

Why is it cool?

Works on any platform
Increases engagement & page views
Dozens of free themes and customization options
Website chat Integration
Robust analytics
Connect with your readers by creating a messaging campaign
Integrate Facebook, Twitter, and Google+
Earn money by adding monetized apps

How to WIN one of the two yearly Wibya

tell us (in the blog post comment section) on what website you’d like to use Wibiya
tweet this: Win Two Yearly Pro @Wibiya Plans from @InspiredMag RT to enter the giveaway!

We’ll randomly pick a winner next Thursday and make the announce here. Check out the email marketing policy details btw. Good luck everybody!!

Prepare for the Zero Bundle!

Catalin Zorzini — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:26:23 +0000

Just heard about the Zero Bundle today and subscribed instantly! Thought you might want to check it out yourselves.

One Day Left to Grab the MOJO Cyber Bundle!

Catalin Zorzini — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 12:03:45 +0000

This is just a quick reminder that the MOJO Cyber Bundle will not stay with us forever – it’s going away tomorrow and will only come back at the end of the … er, year in 2012. So this is your last chance to grab their 15 Premium WordPress Themes for only $29 (regular price $515!!)

Details Details Details

It takes place for 7 days only between the dates of November 28^th (Cyber Monday) to December 4^th. The Bundle includes 15 WordPress themes in all. 10 of them are most popular items within the marketplace. It also includes 5 niche WordPress for restaurants, landing pages, etc. You can get your hands on $515 worth of items for only $29!!

What’s in the bundle:

10 of the most popular WordPress items on the marketplace:

Easy Theme $37 (Magazine) – View Theme
Exciter $35 (Magazine) – View Theme
Mandrake $37 (Business) – View Theme
Complex – $37 (Business) – View Theme
MediaFlux – $35 (Magazine) – View Theme
LittleSmile – $37 (Business) – View Theme
Oddly – $35 (Business) – View Theme
Banter – $37 (Business) – View Theme
Box One – $32 (One-Page) – View Theme
Ampersand – $35 (Magazine) – View Theme

Bundle also includes some of our best niche WordPress Themes:

Chow – $35 (Restaurant) – View Theme
Launched Yet? – $18 (Landing Page) – View Theme
Fuse Music – $35 (Music) – View Theme
EStyle – $35 (Fashion) – View Theme
True North – $35 (Church) – View Theme

I bought the bundle on launch day and I must say I can’t congratulate myself enough. Already have a few plans for some of the themes and working as we speak. Get it while it’s hot!

WINNERS: 3 Subscriptions to Ultimate Designer Toolkit’s 60.000 Designer Items!

Catalin Zorzini — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:34:22 +0000

A few weeks ago we launched a special Freebie Friday edition, giving away a Subscription to Ultimate Designer Toolkit’s 60.000 Designer Items to three lucky readers. Scroll down the the bottom of the post to see the winners and check out the 50% exclusive discount for Inspired Mag readers if you’re not among them!

What is Ultimate Designer Toolkit?

Probably the biggest bundle for web designers & developers, sporting an astounding 60,000 items in one single pack:

As if 60,000 resources is not enough, your membership gives you 1 full year of unlimited access to download all the forthcoming goodies. Each week they add new premium resources that you can download, if you have the membership. Make sure you subscribe to their RSS feed to receive our latest updates.

WINERS

GlaucidiumGnoma, Caspy & David – congrats guys and thanks everybody for participating! We have another two new competitions opened at the moment so try your luck there as well!

Didn’t Win? Get it for HALF the price – only $49.9!

If you didn’t win this time but you’d still like to enjoy the 60.000 items right away, consider using the INSPIREDMAG coupon while checking out on their site and you’ll get a $50 discount! That’s tight, you get the same value for only half the price, thanks to your Inspired Mag buddies!

$0.99 Domain Deals and Super Cheap Premium Hosting

Catalin Zorzini — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:39:51 +0000

As I found you guys loved our Black Friday deals roundup we’re following up with a couple of new amazing offers from two of our favorite service providers: Namecheap and WebHostingBuzz. Scroll down to see the offers and how you can grab them wile the stocks last.

Namecheap: $0.99 Domains

Namecheap, voted the nr1 registrar by LifeHacker readers and my personal favorite for a long time, is offering deals throughout the holiday weekend, starting on November 25th (sold out) and running through November 28th. Click on this special Cyber Monday Deals Page link to see what they’re offering and when (Next Promo @ Mon 12 AM EST )! They’re including several offers for $0.99 com/net/org/biz registrations and transfers, plus a “Buy One, Get One FREE” offer for many SSL Certificates so don’t miss out. I have a list of domains for future projects myself that I’ll grab on Monday!

WebHostingBuzz: 50% OFF Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting and VPS

WebHostingBuzz is hands down the best hosting service we ever had (and believe me we tried everything). I can’t stress enough on how important it is to have top notch support and fast servers as a blog so give these guys a try when you need hosting for a new project or if you want to switch from someone else. Until Monday WebHostingBuzz is offering a 50% OFF discount on their Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting and VPS services. You only need to use the code TURKEY when checking out.

Freebie Friday: Free PSD-to-HTML Services Worth $500

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:50:10 +0000

It’s giveaway time again here on InspiredMag! This week one of our readers has the opportunity to win $500 worth of services from Markup-service.com. This means that the winner can order PSD to HTML conversion, CMS implementation, or select among the variety of other options on their website. Read on to see how you can enter the giveaway!

More about Markup-service.com

Markup-service.com provides front-end PSD to HTML coding, as well as email templates and WordPress, Joomla and Drupal themes, and more. Their in-house team of experts converts your design down to the tiniest detail into a clean, W3C valid, SEO semantic and fast loading XHTML and HTML5 markup which is compatible with all major browsers both on Mac and PC.
To get the idea of the quality service they offer, check out the examples of their work and what their clients have to say.

Why work with them

Quality code. They deliver the best quality markup and if necessary add JS functionality based on various JavaScript libraries.
Fast Delivery. They make sure to complete your projects at lightning speed. You can always choose the best turnaround time for your project, so if you need it completed fast, you can order express delivery.
Discount Opportunities. They offer discounts for bulk orders, non- profit organizations as well as partnership discounts.
Great communication. They can be easily reached via live chat and client area.

How to enter the giveaway

tweet this: win free PSD to HTML services worth $500 from @MarkupService & @InspiredMag http://su.pr/25FTcS RT to enter!
leave a comment telling us what you would use this credit for

~~We’ll randomly pick a winner next Friday and make the announcement here. Good luck folks!!~~

Winner

Congrats Josh – you won!! the Markup-service team will contact you on email later this week!

Thanks everyone for participating and stay tuned for more happy days!