Photo by nez.

Keyboard shortcuts ... now 66% more profitable than your mouse.

Before you start thinking woopdey freakin’ doo … go ahead and multiply that 4 minutes a day by the 250 odd work days in any given year and you get: 1,000 minutes.    Now replace those mouse actions with much faster keyboard shortcuts — which I estimate are at least two thirds faster — and you’re on your way to an extra 660 extra minutes (11 plus hours)  in your life per year to spend doing something else than mousing for File > Save.

You’re welcome!

Feel free to correct my math, it’s never been a strong suit of mine.

Let’s begin. Note: I know you pros will be like “duh!” about these.  This post is and was inspired for beginners like Anna from Twitter; who asked me what my favorite short cuts were and why. I’ve gone ahead and listed as PC and Mac shortcuts, what I think are the top three keyboard shortcuts that everyone should know. These go a long way to improving your productivity and in the case of our first one, prevent you losing your mind by not losing data.

Ctrl-S / Command-S

As far as I’m concerned, Ctrl-S (for “Save”) is the undisputed King of keyboard shortcuts.  If you only ever learn one shortcut, learn this one and use it every single time you need to save. Do NOT save using your mouse (unless you’ve got food, drink, baby, cat or pistol in your keyboard hand).  Eventually your subconscious will absorb Ctrl-S and it will become a reflex action to the point you won’t even notice you are doing it anymore — and your data will be nice and safe.

Ctrl-Z / Command-Z

Undo is probably the next most useful. The ability to take a step back and undo our last action is incredibly helpful. Out of all the keyboard shortcuts I wish I could have on my mouth, this is one. (My woman will confirm this.)

Alt-Tab /Command-Tab

Fastest way to switch between applications is Alt-Tab. You can switch much faster than trying to mouse for the task bar or dock. I tend to “anchor” my left hand on these two keys while my hand is “idling” e.g. Not using a keyboard shortcut and laying at rest.

Between keeping your data safe with Ctrl-S, undoing your last action with Ctrl-Z and swapping between applications with Alt tab you’ll save minutes a day, hours in a year and just feel like an all round pro level geek.

Your favorites?

Those are my top three.  What about you … got any keyboard shortcuts you can’t live without?

P.S. Those of you who were having trouble with the RSS feed here at EliteFreelancing.com … it should be all good now.  Google ate … er, bought … FeedBurner and I’m one of many sites that experienced a couple small glitches in the transition.  Cheers.

It was a couple of years ago that I first joined LinkedIn and it’s been good to me. For those of you unaware, LinkedIn is a social network focusing on work and career with a reported membership of 25 million people strong.  Think of it as a place where you can build social network which revolves around your professional life. Now, LinkedIn is great for worker bees of all kinds but of particular value for us freelancers. Here’s why:

Feedback for the win

A long time ago, the powers that be at eBay understood that buying goods from a remote seller is a leap of faith. In order to make the leap smaller, they implemented the eBay Feedback system; where buyers could leave comments about their experience with their seller.

Whether some nice woman quickly shipped that handmade shaving bowl or some dude burned you when the  Zapotronic-Blowblaster you bought was busted; you could leave feedback and let people know what your experience was like which these sellers.

The result of all this feedback flying around is that we gravitate towards the eBay Powerseller; people who have a proven track record of successfully completing sales (deals) on eBay. These are sellers who have tons of positive feedback from satisfied buyers and this feedback is a powerful social proof mechanism which instills a ton of confidence in potential new buyers.

LinkedIn offers you the opportunity to become a power seller of your own by utilizing their “Recommendation” feature. Recommendations on LinkedIn are like feedback on eBay and benefit you in similar ways.

Advantages of LinkedIn recommendations

The Advantages of using LinkedIn are many.  The one we’re interested in right now is the ability to attain and manage recommendations from clients, partners, co-workers etc.  LinkedIn Recommendations

• Act as positive social proof in the same way eBay feedback does
• Lower barriers new clients might have in hiring you
• Give you an edge over your competition

It’s all about Trust

Whether it’s eBay feedback, LinkedIn Reccomendations or any similar mechanism, it all boils down to trust.  When a new client is looking to hire you, they essentially have a problem they need solved and to connect with someone they feel they can trust. By having visible recommendations from past clients on LinkedIn, you generate confidence in potential new clients.

The other benefit is you’ll always have a great stash of testimonials to use wherever you want, whenever you want.  Like this:

Danno is great to work with. He listens to what I want as a client and helps me understand what I really need. He has put together an awesome team of creative and technical experts that do great work. Danno is a strong leader who is building Graphics.net into one of the leading design firms in the world.
- Dave Bascom, President, SEO.com

A quick copy/paste and booya: I can show a potential new client that Dave digs me and they should too.

OK enough theory.  Consider heading on over to LinkedIn and taking it for a test drive. Create a profile for your professional life, use it, nurture it and make it a best practice to actively seek Recommendations. It takes time to mature your LinkedIn profile but it’s an investment that will continue to pay you back for years to come.

Photo by Powerdruns.

Smooth out the ups and downs of freelancing by selling your time in advance.

I completed this little project which turned out to be the catalyst for a great working relationship and over the next five years, this client would spend over a $100k with me, all from a small two hundred dollar project.

You see, not only do I always ask my clients for testimonials and referrals but I also check in with them every few weeks to see if they need a hand with anything.  Over a few months of doing this, my new client sent me more and more work to the point where they were using me regularly and directly and not bothering to post projects on Elance any more.

Now, they were a young company back then and growing at a steady rate.  I wanted to make sure that some other crafty web designer didn’t come and undercut me or worse still, have them consider to hire someone full time in-house.  In order to create a win-win situation for both of us, I offered them what I call “Studio Time” which gave my client the ability to hire me on retainer.

Here’s how I define and pitch Studio Time:

• Client gets to retain X number of my hours per month, every month (these hours are the Studio Time)
• Client gets to retain those hours at a discounted rate (e.g. bulk discount)

Some of the conditions for Studio Time are as follows:

• Client prepays for the Studio Time
• Client can draw upon retained Studio Time hours at any time
• Unused Studio Time hours only roll over from one month to the next
• Studio Time hours older than two months expire

Benefits of Studio Time

Studio Time is great for the freelancer because:

• It improves cash flow
• It can often be free money if the hours expire

Studio Time is great for the small to midsize company because:

• It’s cheaper and easier than hiring a full time employee
• It’s ultra convenient to have a designer “on tap”

Consider setting up similar retainer agreements with your clients to smooth out your cash flow and have more bankable hours every month.