Before getting into today’s freelance link roundup, I wanted to give a quick heads-up about the Kindle Countdown promotion on the new Dr. Freelance Advisor Guide, Juggling on a High Wire: The Art of Work-Life Balance When You’re Self-Employed. The ebook is just 99 cents through Saturday morning, then steps up to $1.99 for the following two-plus days. Laura Poole has put together lots of strategic advice for solopreneurs who want to be more effective at task management, time management, and overall life balance. So check it out!
Now, on to the…
Freelance Link Roundup
How You Record Ideas May Impact Creativity
I’m a pen-and-paper traditionalist when it comes to brainstorming ideas—they just seem to flow more easily that way. This article takes an interesting look at how the new generation of touch screens are evolving to better accommodate the ways our creative brains work—helping users make those unexpected or new associations and connections. Pretty cool stuff.
Everything You Should Do at the End of the Year to Optimize Your 2015 Taxes
We’re awfully close to the end of the year to make any radical tax-saving changes, but this piece includes some good reminders and action items. For example, I just invested in a new iMac, in order to have the expense decrease my taxable income in 2015. (You should never spend money *just* to save on taxes, of course! I did it because it was time to retire my mid-2007 iMac, which has served me well, but was starting to act spooky and can no longer be upgraded.)
The Simple Tr*ck to Get a Client to Respond to Your Emails
I generally agree with this writer’s concept that being concise, keeping formatting simple, and using interesting subject lines will get better responses. These should not come as a surprise to anyone, I hope. But the reason I’m calling attention to this particular article is in the comments: The words “simple tr*ck” caused it to get caught in a lot of spam filters when the post was emailed out! It’s worth paying attention to and minimizing common spam trigger words to help make sure your messages are getting through.
I’ll likely be taking a blog break next week. I wish you a very happy and healthy holiday season!