Are you a freelance designer? Are you interested in boosting your credibility, building your client base and increasing your number of paying projects? The answer is obvious, but knowing where and how to get started can be daunting, especially during the periods of low client work (you know what I’m talking about).

Having worked with a ton of design and development professionals in the field, I’ve seen that some of the most successful, most productive and busiest contractors have a blog attached to their main website or portfolio. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. By not having a blog, you could be missing out on some serious contract work.

A blog could be one of your most powerful assets in getting your name out there and securing new jobs. In fact, considering how simple it is to get started, the extremely low startup costs and the minimum of time required to create compelling content, I’m baffled as to why designers don’t consider it a priority when running their freelance business.

Here are the top three reasons why you, the budding (or even experienced) designer, need to start a blog (and sooner rather than later).

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The trend of creating unique designs for each post on a blog is growing.

A few years ago the idea of creating a custom design for each post on a blog either meant you had to forgo traditional blogging software or hack the source code to allow for custom designs.

With the advent of WordPress plugins like Art Direction it’s now relatively simple for a designer to create a custom design for each post on their blog.

The sites below are some of the best examples of sites that use custom designs for many or all of their posts. Some play around with the general layout and color scheme of each post, while others create completely unique concepts for every post.

In either case, the posts are much more interesting because of their design and are reminiscent of magazine layouts (the term “blogazine” is often used to describe these types of blogs and posts). If you know of other sites with custom post designs, please share them in the comments area below. Read more

Do you want to enter the blogosphere like a quiet librarian enters a classroom, or do you want to rock the stage? I am definitely one to rock stuff out and in this article I will share a few tips to help you make an attention grabbing launch.

If you want to give your blog an exciting launch, your blog needs to be valuable to your target audience, otherwise your hard work will be in vain.

Ask yourself this simple question “Does my blog provide something that a thousand other blogs don’t?” If you don’t have something special to offer, no one will care when you launch or how you launch.

There will always be a certain category of blogs that will not qualify for a special launch and it is up to you to determine if your blog fits that category. Now let’s look at 10 ways that you can launch your new blog with a ‘bang’.

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Social media sites and technologies like Twitter and Digg are something that the tech savvy take completely for granted.  We just automatically assume that if you are on the Internet, you are using social media. This isn’t really the case. There are some very important people that are not yet aware of social media and what it can do – your clients.

Social media is definitely a source of new income for you as you have the opportunity to go back and update your old clients to current technologies.  The foundation-laying for social media came in 1999 when Rick Levine and others wrote the Cluetrain Manifesto.  This manifesto lays out simple rules for online markets and social media. Read more