Freelance Switch

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 04:00 AM PDT

By now, thousands of freelancers tweet, growing their brand and connecting with others 140 characters at a time. It’s an important tool for promoting your freelance business. And one of the most powerful aspects of promotion on Twitter is to get retweeted (or RT in Twitterspeak).

It's the Twitter equivalent of forwarding an email or sharing a link you enjoyed in Facebook. RTs benefit freelancers by helping them spread content, grow their followers, and position themselves as experts. So, how can you help ensure that your tweets get retweeted and (hopefully) go viral? Follow these tips.

Focus on Quality

Just as people hate getting one of those email forwards with a silly story that has no relevance to their lives, people on Twitter appreciate tweets and links that offer useful and relevant insights. Yes, humor is a popular strategy but try to use humor to make a point instead of humor for humor's sake. Almost everyone on Twitter is interested in how to tweet better, so Twitter-focused posts are often widely shared. Ditto on posts relating to social media, although that topic may border on over-done these days.

Think in Headlines

In addition to the quality of your content, the other thing that gets people to RT is an intriguing headline. Lists are often popular. For instance, this post describes how an article called 10 Most Common Writing Mistakes was tweeted over two thousand times! That headline also proved popular because of its clarity, specificity, and its targeting of people who want to earn money writing.

Other popular techniques include writing headlines that include a question, quote, or provoke debate. But keep it relevant because readers don't appreciate sensationalism or headlines that promise something not delivered in the accompanying link. Throw in a few too many unrelated Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga references just to get clicks and you’ll lose credibility faster than Gaga changes looks.

Keep It Short

RTs usually include a string of people who've already shared that tweet (the Twitter method of attribution), so if you tweet something that's already approaching 140 characters, it's harder for people to RT with your Twitter name if they have to get creative and shorten your tweet. Not everyone has the patience for this, so do them (and yourself) a favor by staying closer to 100 characters. Shorten links using a service like ow.ly or tiny.cc. The latter allows you to choose a custom URL which can help brand your tweet with a keyword.

Ask for Retweets

Some people disagree with the idea that you should ask for retweets. But plenty of others will tell you it's a highly effective strategy. In fact, Dan Zarrella analyzed the top 10,000 most RT'ed tweets in his database and found that the "please retweet," "please," and "please RT" were among the most commonly RT’ed phrases. I'd use this strategy judiciously, though, asking for retweets on one or two posts per week that you feel have the most potential to go viral. That way you're not constantly asking followers for RTs, which could lose its impact.

Be Generous

If you RT the interesting and relevant content of others, they're more likely to reciprocate by sharing your content. The other benefit of RTs is that even if you're not the original creator of the tweet, your followers will often include your Twitter handle when they RT you. And if you have an interesting Twitter handle (for instance WebWizard2011 instead of JWSmith), their followers may get curious and follow you.

Want to learn more about RTs? Dan Zarella’s Science of Retweets presentation offers some interesting data, as does this graph showing the optimal times of day for RTs.

What’s worked for you? Do you agree or disagree with these tips?

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Gopal Raju.

Top Freelance Jobs from Job Board – Week 3, April

Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:00 AM PDT

Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and come from a wide range of potential clients. The job board is hand-moderated by dedicated staff and volunteers from the freelance community.

Each week, we’ll feature a selection of the best job opportunities posted for the week. This week, we’re featuring jobs in concept design, illustration, development and more!

To apply for any of these jobs, simply pick up a FreelanceSwitch membership for an affordable $7 a month. See something you like? Join now!

PSD Concept Designer

Budget: $10,000 +

We provide creative concepts in web design for several clients. We would like to add a PSD Concept Designer to our team. The PSD Concept Designer would provide website concepts in PSD format created from the client's expectations. The process would require the PSD Concept Designer to design a wireframe, once confirmed and approved the approach of the layout, the PSD Concept Designer would proceed to the PSD files design.

Once completed the PSD's would be converted by our web development unit. Most important is someone with a creative presence, good ideas, and a thinker. We need someone with excellent time management, can turn around a concept in a timely manner, and handle multiple design queries without stress. The only interest we have at the moment is a design specialist and current not looking for web development at the moment. So if you would like to inquire about more information provide your contact information, rates both per hour and per page would be adequate, a couple of examples to show your work, maybe a wireframe example or two would help.

Learn more & apply!

Talented Freelance Developers Wanted!

Budget: $1,000 to $2,500

Looking for talented, motivated and innovative developer to assist with several projects moving forward. I am not just looking for a contractor but someone to build a long term working relationship with. As a developer you will be expected to do quick turn around, and high quality work. You’re work will be reviewed and validated. Aside from that – fun and outgoing and creative in the technical solutions you develop for me.

This opportunity will start part time and will grow to full time – lots of potential if you take this seriously and want to grow with me and the team.

We are an firm looking to expand our talent pool of freelance web developers to work on projects.

Learn more & apply!

Photoshop/Illustrator Guru to produce high quality ads

Budget: $2,500 to $5,000

We need a Photoshop/Illustrator guru with extensive experience in marketing creative to produce high quality ads, not simply arrange assets. We are looking for someone to create approx. 100 versions of static ads over the course of 2 months for display ad networks and Facebook.

We are a social gaming company that is very data driven, so we’re looking for someone with experience creating ads that are optimized using rigorous multivariate testing and who can drive the creative process. We will be launching a game in early May, and will need some ads to launch with, and then we’ll need to iterate on the creatives as the data comes in.

Learn more & apply!

Full time graphic designer/artist needed for music software company

Budget: $10,000+

We are seeking a talented graphic designer/artist with software design experience. Help us design the next generation of cutting-edge, beautiful, and easy-to-use audio software! You will be working with a very geographically distributed company and have the option to work from your home. You do not have to move to Oakhurst, California and can still enjoy living in your current home and city.

Responsibilities

Create modern, sophisticated graphics for professional music editing and creation software, music tools, and other software for PC and Mac, as well as mobile applications and other platforms.
Create artwork and marketing campaigns for magazine advertisements, on-line advertisements, and our company web site.
Work directly with software developers, business partners, distributors, magazine publishers, etc. to create custom artwork for advertisements and marketing campaigns, and to design software and mobile app interfaces.
Manage the entire graphic spread and company brand from internal company documents to trade show booth coordination & design.

Learn more & apply!

Drupal Web Developer

Budget: $10,000 +

Know a thing or two about writing custom modules, themes, and creating websites with Drupal? Commercial Progression seeks a qualified Drupal Developer to join our team. This is a full-time position in Farmington Hills, MI with the flexibility of working remotely a couple days a week– we’re looking for a Drupal developer interested in creating new & cool websites, without worrying about looking busy while sitting at an assigned desk!

What This Job is All About

Our company is focused around Drupal 100%. We create websites, train students, support clients, and host websites. Here’s what we expect of you:

Understand the goals and strategy behind each project from conception through completion.
Write clean, well-engineered code that conforms with accepted standards within the Drupal community, and test it.
Communicate effectively with team members, as well as outside stakeholders.
Identify opportunities for process improvement and make constructive suggestions for change.

Learn more & apply!