Thursday, May 20, 2010

What Is Freelancing?

The term freelancer was first seen in Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe in the late 1700s, from the words “free” and “lance.” Scott used it to refer to a medieval mercenary—a sort of roving soldier in the middle ages, who didn’t particularly care for morals, ethics, or even whom he fought. It’s probably not the ideal approach to a career nowadays, and this book hasn’t been written for those types, although it’s possible we’d all appreciate having some skills in jousting and swordplay up our sleeves when those projects go wrong.

Nowadays, a freelancer is defined as someone who sells his or her services to employers or clients without a long-term contract.

Freelancers often deal directly with their clients, or possibly work as a contractor to a number of larger businesses, which then on-sell the freelancer’s services to their own client base. In the main, working as a freelancer implies that you don’t have staff working for you, and that you frequently work for more than one client.

It’s fair to say that nowadays there are more freelancers working in diverse fields than ever before, and much of this explosion is directly related to the rise of the Web. The Internet has been responsible for a huge jump in the numbers of freelancers operating around the globe. The ease of electronic communication, ability to develop virtual teams among other freelancers online, and broad acceptance of freelancing has meant that over the past decade or so it has become a highly popular career choice for millions of people.

The most common industries in which freelancers dwell in abundance, apart from the Web, are knowledge-based professions such as copywriting, photography, business consulting, information technology, journalism, marketing, and graphic design. Many of these offline professionals have a role in our online sphere as suppliers or consultants, and many of the principles discussed in this book would apply to their world as well.

However, this book will discuss principles of successful freelancing as the relate specifically to the Web; if you are a web designer or web developer considering going it alone, this is for you.

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