Hello, happy freelancers! I’m writing an article for Entrepreneur.com about the pros, cons, and WTFs of throwing your hat into the crowdsourcing ring on sites like Helium, 99designs, crowdSPRING, iStockphoto, and Threadless – and I’m interested in interviewing freelancers who’ve participated in the design contests, writing contests, or other crowdsourcing cattle calls on one of these sites.
Note: I’m not going to delve into project bidding sites like Elance, oDesk, and Guru in this article, just sites that feature content contests or otherwise require freelancers to create work on spec before money even enters into the equation. So please only respond if you have experience with these on-spec/contest sites.
Any takers? I’d like to hear about your experience trying to land work, clients, or money through these sites, be it good, bad, or downright fugly. I’d prefer to talk to you on the record, but I don’t necessarily have to say which site you’ve used if you’d rather keep that detail quiet and I don’t need your clients’ names. My deadline is Friday, 3/19. If you’d like to be interviewed, leave me a note in the comments or email me. Thanks so much!
March 14th, 2010
For some reason, Girl Scout cookie season has always screamed ”Love is in the air!” to me — way the heck more than Valentine’s Day ever could. (Yes, I have a bit of a Thin Mints issue. What’s it to you?)
In honor of this lovey-dovey-est of seasons, I recently went on something of a writing-about-couples-who-work-together tear (here, and here). I hadn’t given much thought to whether and when domestic partners in business together should reveal their coupledom to clients — that is, until one of these articles led me to interview spouses Kris Hoots and Steve Thomas, founders of Oneicity, a Seattle-area consulting firm that creates fundraising solutions for non-profit and religious organizations.
Kris and Steve initially opted to keep their relationship status on the down low until clients and colleagues got to know them better. But once they realized that many of the clients and vendors they worked with were also shacked up, they decided they could afford to be less tight-lipped about their personal partnership. While the couple doesn’t exactly come right out and flaunt their marital status in their company’s marketing materials, they have blogged about it on their business site.
How about you? What’s your take on mixing love with business — and letting your customers in on the nature of the personal relationship you and your partner share? If you and your sweetie are in business together, do you play up your relationship status in your marketing materials and new client meetings? Or do you go out of your way to cloak your personal relationship from customers, vendors, and colleagues? Has your relationship status helped or hurt your business image, or has it not made one bit of difference?
March 14th, 2010
