Pseric is a typical freelancer. Now in his early 30s, he is the founder of FreeGroup, the largest free resources website in Taiwan. He has been writing articles since his school days about WordPress, free online resources, digital work tools and life on the cloud, attracting millions of page views to his website every month.
Experts estimate that by 2020 the percentage of freelancers in the U.S. workforce will have increased rapidly to 40 percent, which could amount to nearly 60 million people.
Some freelancers work independently on individual cases while some are engaged in temporary contract jobs or group projects. They include not only first-line service personnel, but also professional workers and consultants in various fields. Their work is highly flexible and free of conventional restrictions, responding to different market needs.
The trend toward independent work is mainly driven by a new type of cloud-based working model: one can work wherever there is an internet connection. Most freelancers are good at making use of all sorts of personalized devices as well as arranging online conferences or collaboration even when they are not in an office. They even rely on job-matching platforms to look for case-based work.
Pseric has to regularly produce one article a day, while also writing books and attending external meetings. He typically makes use of a lot of digital tools and cloud services to help finish jobs. He said that, though not everyone’s work is of the same nature, “using digital tools to finish what’s at hand more quickly” is increasingly common.
Freelancers can only count on themselves. So how do they increase efficiency in a manner that reduces workloads and saves money? The following are totally free digital tools that Pseric regularly uses.
WordPress: Building Your Own Website
In the future, the internet will be every freelancer’s portal to the world. One website and several social media IDs will be your best business card and resume.
Pseric began exploring WordPress in 2008. Given his need to manage and organize a lot of articles, Pseric created a personal website, storing most of his articles on the WordPress platform. This allows him to edit and publish materials online any time he likes. Also, he gets to store backup data on the cloud and does not have to fear losing many years of data if his computer breaks down.
As a cloud writing tool, WordPress has a function called “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG). When you add bolded or italicized words in the editing window, these changes are immediately shown on the webpage. Once you switch to the distraction-free writing mode (a full-screen mode that shows only the text and hides all other functions), what you have is one of the most convenient cloud article editors from all the website-building systems.
Evernote: A 24/7 Secretary on the Cloud
For freelancers who have to frequently arrange external meetings and collaboration or handle a large amount of data, what is most needed is a digital tool that facilitates data collection and even offers access to any file at a click. In this regard, Evernote serves as the cross-device personal secretary that Pseric resorts to most often. As he points out, Evernote, Dropbox and Google Drive have some functions in common, but these three are not quite the same. Evernote is helpful for collecting sudden inspirations and writing down meaningful words, and is especially useful when you have to organize articles or subject matters.
In order to keep up with the speedy advance of technology, Pseric reads a lot of related materials every day and is accustomed to saving articles in Evernote so he can finish reading them in his free time. Evernote thus serves as the source of inspiration for all his writings. Moreover, if he needs to collaborate with others, Evernote’s data-sharing mechanism allows him to make real-time changes and keep track of the progress.
Apart from its work applications, Evernote is also useful in everyday life. For instance, when traveling abroad on his own, Pseric often uses Evernote to record related travel information, like subway maps, train schedules, transportation and contact details for scenic spots, and shopping lists. Once you put all this information in Evernote, you can refer to it using your smartphone or tablet any time you want.
If you need an RSS function, Pseric recommends Feedly as a substitute for the internet service originally provided by Google Reader. He follows his favorite RSS sources directly through Feedly. However varied the sources are, Feedly can help organize them and list the latest updated content according to classification settings, very much like a methodical data scientist does.
In addition, Feedly combines third-party services like Evernote and OneNote. You can then store useful articles on the cloud or share them with your friends through such social media applications as Facebook and Twitter, adding a professional edge to your virtual identity.
Using pictures to make your project more attractive
A captivating picture can always add a final touch to an article or project. How can freelancers make picture databases work for them? Here are the three free picture databases that Pseric uses most often:
- Unspalsh.com—For people whose daily work requires images, getting high-resolution pictures usually means paying additional royalties. If you want to use big pictures without paying extra, Unsplash is the best choice.It specializes in providing Creative Commons Zero license, or public domain, high-resolution pictures. You can use them any way you want without having to specify the names of their creators. And these pictures can be used for both personal projects and commercial purposes. If you subscribe to the newsletter, you will receive 10 new pictures every 10 days.
- Google.com—Google’s picture search results include millions of historical pictures from the LIFE photo archive. When searching pictures using Google, try adding “source: life” and any other applicable words in your search string. These pictures can be used freely for personal or non-commercial projects.
- Flickr.com—The British Library has uploaded more than 1 million old photos and scanned pictures, and public reuse of these resources is encouraged. For professionals in design and culture-related areas, these old pictures are rich in cultural charm and can create a special aura for individual projects.
In addition to the aforementioned digital tools, Pseric also uses other cloud tools, such as the all-familiar Google Drive and Dropbox. What they have in common is that they are cross-platform and can be accessed on a computer, smartphone or tablet. Wherever you are, they can help you make use of extra bits and pieces of time and maximize your work efficiency.
Of course, a wide variety of tools are available and not all of them come in handy. Pseric suggests that users choose trustworthy digital tools that can be used in conjunction with other services so as to achieve the best results.
[By Wang Yan-wen/Translated by Hsieh Meng-tsung ]