DTO: June 2009

12 Free Font Sites

Here is a great list of 12 free font sites. If you can't find what you're looking for here then I don't know what to tell you. The original article can be viewed here: The Lance Life be sure to RSS for all the latest updates. Enjoy!

1001 Free Fonts

DaFont

Urban Fonts

Search Free Fonts

Font Freak

1001 Free Fonts

Fonts O

Fontica

Free-Fonts

Fonts 500

Font Squirrel

Show Font

Jer and the Giant Peach

The Hard Truth About Getting Hired

I'm not entirely sure why I'm posting this. No one really wants to hear anything more about a recession, a depression or the economy. I will never give up. It's not worth it. I can tell you that it's not at all fun living in these times. If I didn't love what I do then I would have probably gone insane by now. Granted my knowledge is finite, there is zero to no opportunity in Florida. I continue to learn as much as I can, however, I often question what is that I truly want to do. No one can know everything. I have practical knowledge of print design and web design sans Flash which I am still learning and yet I still have difficult even securing an interview. It makes me lose my mind every day to work as hard as I do and have no profit. I do not feel vexed, but it is very obfuscating. I sometimes find myself walking around in a daze. I see people spend money lavishly and yet there is a "recession". I feel as if I am in The Matrix. I really loathe politics and the entire media is almost nothing but negativity or who has more money than someone else. The entire financial system in America is nothing more than a sham. While that may be true, money is a requirement to do things until this system is thoroughly fixed. It's not only the monetary system that needs to be reformed either, but I will save those thoughts for another day. There's no need to rant on a fruitless diatribe. In closing thoughts, if something is not done soon then this country is going to be in a state of utter disillusion and chaos. Feel free to share the article above on Twitter and/ or Facebook or MySpace. It reminds me of a joke: See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum... and one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. They decide they're going to escape! So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light... stretching away to freedom. Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend didn't dare make the leap. Y'see... Y'see, he's afraid of falling. So then, the first guy has an idea... He says "Hey! I have my flashlight with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me!" B-but the second guy just shakes his head. He suh-says... He says "Wh-what do you think I am? Crazy? You'd turn it off when I was half way across!"

How To Charge More For Your Freelance Projects

Featured, Marketing, Pricing

It should be a goal of every freelancer to maximize his/her profits without sacrificing the number of clients they service, and yes, the balance between price and amount of work is a very hard one to make, but it is paramount to understand as a freelancer that what you do is an art: so price is ultimately dependent on your skill in your field of expertise.
Your Skill is an Art

The main reason why freelancers need to remind themselves that what they do is an art, is because it comes with one major advantage. It’s as simple as this, the better you are, the more you can charge. This means, that you can in theory become an excellent designer/coder/writer in a short space of time with a bit of dedication, and then end up charging your clients much more as a result.

Too many times I’ve seen designing (especially) being treated as a sort of mechanical process. Take for example in the template industry. There are a lot of people out there offering unique, custom designs for sale, but treat it as though the more designs they make in the shortest amount of time, the more money they’ll make. This is a total lopsided way of thinking when it comes to an art. Time should be taken when making a design (in this example), and you should be concentration on the quality of your work over the amount of work you produce; that way you can charge more for the template at hand and not have to work as much. The key idea here is don’t undersell yourself, the market has had enough of it already.
Take pride in your work

The work you do for a client ultimately represents you. Your personality, talent, interests, are all definable by your work; and you should, therefore, be taking great effort and pride in the work you produce. Focus on quality, not quantity, and you’ll see a nature growth in the number of clients requesting work.

Taiyab Raja is a web designer and entrepreneur who runs an interesting, captivating freelance blog, designs awesome websites for 6creations.com. Be sure to RSS to Freelance apple for all the latest updates.

Originally posted on FreelanceApple

Say, Say, Say

Best Small Business Idea -- Get Focused and Get Going
ID: 332
Category: Business - Home Based
Author: Michael Clark
Article:
I used to give a talk titled, “10 Ways to Overcome Overwhelm in Business and In Life”. It was an excellent resource for getting into action and taking charge of your business. If you’d like a copy, just email me and I’ll send it to you. After I’d given this talk for awhile, I realized that getting out of overwhelm was even simpler. You don’t need 10 ideas. That’s overwhelming in itself. You just need one essential key. If you can master this one key, you can pretty much get whatever you want out of your business and your life. Here it is. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. Focus.

That’s right, focus. When you are entirely focused on what you are doing in the moment, you don’t have any attention left for being in overwhelm. Focus and overwhelm are opposites. Think about it. You are overwhelmed because you are thinking about all the things you’ve got to get done today, tomorrow, and the day after. You aren’t solidly focused in the present moment doing what’s in front of you. But when you are stuck in overwhelm, it’s really hard to get focused. So what can you do?

It’s actually very simple. Get back to basics. Go back to your core values, your mission statement, your vision. Stop right now and think about the vision you had for your business when you first started it. What did you want to accomplish? Why did you want to do it? Were you looking for freedom? Did you have a better way of helping people? Completely let yourself be absorbed in the dream you had. Feel how it was when you started. Now you are focused. Take this vision and write it down again. Go into detail about what you really want to do with your business.

Now from this focused state, get into action. It should be much more clear to you now what the most important tasks are. Focus your energy on those and get going. Any time you start feeling overwhelmed, stop and go back to your dream, your vision. Ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing. Really feel it and then start again. I guarantee you this will get you focused and get you out of overwhelm. Now you can get what you really wanted out of your business.

Start up business resource guide and consultant, Michael Clark has been crafting best small business ideas for over 20 years. Michael is a serial entrepreneur having opened multiple successful small businesses over the last 12 years. For more small business success stories and business resource groups, visit his web site at Business & Beyond.com.

This is a really great article. It's concise yet detailed. I haven't been focusing at all lately on actually designing and learning new material, albeit that is my ideal. I will never lose sight of my objective. I know what I have to do. It's all a matter of it coming to fruition. Lately, things have been as hectic as always with constant pressure.

I am willing to go above and beyond in order to succeed and I will do so at whatever the costs may be. I do realize that price comes with a fortune, and the road to success is not an easy path. I do not want it to be facilitated by any means. If you are not willing to give it 110% then it's not worth pursuing. I will never despair. You have to be as dedicated as Batman. If you have never read a Batman comic then you can never understand the pain of achieving an ideal. You have to strive for nothing less than perfection. It's a cruel world and motivation is the only force that will keep you from deviating. As Bruce said,
"People think it's an obsession. A compulsion. As if there were an irresistible impulse to act. It's never been like that. I chose this life. I know what I'm doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however, isn't that day. And tomorrow won't be either" - Batman

R.I.P.

Yesterday was one of the most melancholic days in history. Not only one, but two people passed away Farrah Fawcett & Michael Jackson. In reverence to their lives I am going to celebrate their passing by honoring the way they lived. Death should not be something that is looked down upon. They are now resting in a better place. In amidst of all the chaos and confusion there will no longer by physical suffering. Their souls are now at rest. Michael Jackson was a genius. He was the voice of a generation. He was what all artists desire to be. He mastered his craft. Having grown up in the spotlight he never had a childhood. He was a musical genius and the talent and charisma he held were unparalleled. Thriller holds a special significance for me because not only did I grow up listening to the album, but I was born in 1982 the year it was released. I regret having never seen him perform. His music will live on forever. For a complete bio, please refer to the Wiki: Michael Jackson He was The Last Samurai. R.I.P. The proper ending for a great life lived.
"EMPEROR
The Samurai is gone. The spirit
of samurai lives forever.
(a beat)
Tell me how he died.
Algren looks at the Emperor.
ALGREN
I will tell you how he lived."

In addition, he lived a lonely life and became so isolated. No one truly understood his pain. I am going to share a memorable quote from Nagato/Pein from Naruto because I think it elaborates on this: "...Do you understand pain a little now? If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them. But just because you understand them doesn't mean you can come to an agreement. That's the truth."

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

25 Must-Read Blogs for Freelance Designers

Over at Freelance folder they have recently composed a list of 25 must read blogs for Freelance designers. I haven’t heard of all of them & I do not read them everyday, but as often as I can. Abduzeedo is amazing and I think Smashing Mag has to be my personal favorite as they incorporate everything. These are the most consummate sites for designers whether you are a web designer, Ps designer, multi-media designer, motion designer, illustrator or photographer. You will find it all here. Be sure to RSS to their blog and follow them on Twitter @ FreelanceFolder!

AI Burn