Well – whether you like it or not, you have to be available. Clients like that sort of thing. Instant messaging is nice – but not everyone has a client installed or the ability to use that client. Plus, there’s cross-platform issues, blah blah blah.

Really, though – clients like being able to get in touch with you, and if someone is looking for a quote or proof that there’s a warm body out there behind your website or portfolio, instant gratification can go a long way towards making the sale or landing the gig.

So – Plugoo!

It’s a lovely little script that you can put anywhere on a page (it’s Flash, so Java can bite it) and it’s configurable and can be styled to match your site. It’s essentially an I.M. portal, and you can plug in your favorite messenger app and folks use Plugoo to talk to you. They stay on your site (which is ALWAYS a good thing) and communicate directly with you. If you set your messenger to unavailable, your Plugoo cuts off, indicating that you’re not around.

It can be used for tech support, chat, questions, community – anything. You can see our Plugoo below. Heck – if you’re reading this post, scroll down and say “hi.” I might even be cordial.

It’s sweet, it’s cute, it’s easy – and it’s free. Freelancers like free stuff, right?

Visit Plugoo to learn more…

I’ve been out of the blogging business for a while and in the business of doing business. My list of open projects is currently standing at 43. Some are large, some are small. Some are fun, and some of them royally suck.

But – I’ve been working – A LOT – and I’ve not had a tremendous amount of time to blog. So – sorry for that.

I’ve made myself a vow (and by posting it here, I’m making a vow to you, too) that I will post at least a couple of times a week. And there are a couple of reasons for that.

One – I’ll keep traffic flowing in, which is ALWAYS good.

Two – (and much more importantly) it gives me an outlet. With freelancing, it becomes so important to have an outlet for the creativity that you don’t get to use.

Yeah, we all work in the creative field. But truthfully, we don’t always get to do precisely what we want to do with our creative juices. If I had my preference, I would do a lot fewer logo designs and websites, and do more writing and drawing and painting and all the esoteric little things that seem to escape a large amount of my day-to-day projects.

I’ve got 43 open projects. They’re not all creatively rich, but they pay the bills. There are some fun ones – and I can inject my own personality and fun and humor into the majority of them, but I need to have an outlet otherwise.

So:

Nice to meet you again, outlet.

FreakinFreelance.com

It’s still under construction, but the functionality is there. You can sign up for a free blog and start going nuts.

The vision is to have a community where freelance designers can blog and connect with the other freelancers in the world.

Plus, it’ll offer a few cool features:

• Online portfolio
• Ecommerce built-in (make money!)
• Adsense built-in (make more money!) 
• KILLER SEO stuff (really)
• Tons of bells and whistles
• Lots of themes
• True Community Interactivity
• Easy-to-use
• Easy Domain Names (yourblog.freakinfreelance.com)
• Much, much more! 

And, of course, it will be all free. I think this can be pretty sweet – and I think we need more of this sort of discourse out there. One thing I’ve found is that a lot of freelance designers are kind of secretive about their businesses and practices – but I’ve also seen a lot of folks open up on blogs and share a LOT of great stuff, so having some of that in one place would be a boon to all of us.

So – GET STARTED! Blog now, blog often!

Which brings me to my point today. If you’re a freelance designer and you’re not blogging – WHY? It’s a great way to boost your visibility, and it’s a helluva lot more fun than message boards.

Plus, while the blog community might be a little saturated with weird and worthless sites, the opportunity to network with the few, the proud, the freelancers is real and really cool. I’ve gathered a lot of inspiration and some great tools that I use every day from blogs. There’s a tremendous amout of great content out there waiting to be discovered – and I know that there is even more out there just waiting to be published.

So – get out and do it!

As soon as the front end is ready, I’ll release the new site, and we can all start building an even better future for all things freelance!