Project managers recognize five essential phases that every successful project has to develop through planning, initiation, realization, monitoring, and completion. Still, they are only the roadmap for a team, hence it is important to follow them when the project is commissioned. Long before this, the manager should establish a structure for individual team members to work and collaborate as a one before they can stay sustainable with a reliable project management tool.
Here’s why all creative teams should rely on PM software systems to provide both the basic framework and the advanced features needed for successful project completion.
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1. Task Management Made Easy 

Projects are full of insecurity, and there’s so much one can do to prevent failures. Regardless of the scope involved, managers need to find the best ways to deal with all the aspects of individual projects, from resources, budget, and timeline to actual organization of people and work.
This is where task management comes into play, when it enables a proper work breakdown structure on one side, and contributes in determining the fruitful allocation of roles on other side. Both are indispensable parts of the project management tools that are usually provided with the features like to-do lists and task dependencies.

l  To-Do Lists
Once the project breaks down into a number of manageable units typically like milestones. Then, these blocks of deliverables can be anatomized even further. The result is a daily to-do list that includes multiple tasks, each prepared to be delegated and assigned to individual team members.
Though it’s only a basic feature of project management tools. It is highly unlikely to know that teams would not be able to do their job efficiently without it. A to-do list is much more than a helpful reminder. It allows teams and individuals to prioritize and coordinate tasks without losing anything from sight.
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l  Task Dependencies
If two birds can be killed with one stone then efficiency is hundred percent guaranteed in that case. That’s why most project management tools offer a task dependencies feature and a convenient overview of consecutive to-do lists that give an insight of similar and co-dependent tasks. With one glance, teams can determine subtasks which they can work on at the same time and other sub tasks that require previous tasks to be finished first.

l  Assigning and Delegating Tasks
Let us return to the beginning and remind ourselves of the huge importance of proper role allocation in any project. It is the manager’s job to weigh the knowledge, skills, and abilities of individual members of the team before making the final decision on which tasks will be delegated to whom. A simple project management software allows you to do this with only a few clicks.
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2. Optimized Workflow Management

Task management features help teams to establish the workload, while automation, time management, and tracking enable them to determine their pace and manage their workflow. These features are considered to be true efficiency boosters, which is something that project production teams are always in great need of.

l  Automation
With so many tasks that need to be completed on a daily basis, creative teams get benefits from every kind of automation that comes with project management tools. Besides project templates and easy reporting, recurring tasks are arguably the most time-effective functionality within a PM kit. They allow you to schedule repetitive work for every day, week, or month and put it on autopilot so you can focus on creative and more challenging tasks instead.

l  Time Management
The project management arena is no place for procrastination. And to help teams uproot unproductive habits and remain focused on work, there are most PM tools available that include a time tracking feature to make work easier and convenient for people. The purpose is to motivate team members to be more efficient, measurable about their performance, and know gauge time needed for completing certain types of tasks.

l  Tracking and Control
A lack of control is one of the frequent reasons for project failure until and unless you employ a suitable project tracking software. It comes with all kinds of PM solutions that introduce transparency throughout the process. You will be able to stay on the top of the bigger picture and its individual aspects, overviewing the project status and progress in each step of the way.
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3. Real-Time Collaboration

​Why limit your team to a block of cubicles when you can equip them with a passcode for worldwide connectivity? Besides transparency and group calendars, immediate communication and unhampered knowledge exchange are crucial for creative teams and are both easy to acquire with collaborative capabilities of project management tools.  

l  24/7 Access
Your team members can be scattered all over the world and still participate in project production in real time. It is just one of many perks of modern-day cloud computing that enable teams to access PM tool regardless of wherever they are at the moment. They can receive instructions and proceed on with assignments for the day as if they were back in the office with the rest of the team. Project management tools are now mobile responsive with user-friendly features as well, which promises beneficial collaboration even on one go.

l  Immediate Communication
The same applies to all those sparks of inspiration that hit in the spur of the moment, compelling creative employees to share and discuss the newly formed idea with their teammates. Usually, this calls for a long email thread or an urgent meeting which can distract minds of the employees from their tasks and waste their valuable time. PM tools prevent this with instant messengers and team dashboards, both enabling productive real-time communication for everyone involved in the brainstorming process.
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l  Knowledge Exchange
The way, PM tools are becoming centralized platforms that can record and store the team’s collective know-how is quite impressive. File sharing is yet another convenient collaborative feature that allows immediate idea sharing and knowledge exchange, but not only to this extent. Since, cloud-based project management tools enable teammates to work on the same document at the same time, whether it needs to be created or edited. All updates are automatically saved, which gives teams a chance to make changes as they occur.
 
As project success rates continue to drop, creative teams need to think of new and more optimized ways for maintaining control over their daily tasks and continuous performance. Thanks to their task management features, workflow optimization, and collaborative capabilities, project management tools provide both the structure and the roadmap needed for a certain success. 

​Author Bio : David is a technical writer currently associated with ProProfs Project. Owing to his keen insight, he enjoys writing about emerging trends and associated learning in project management domain. He lives in Detroit, Michigan with his wife. In his spare time, David loves exploring the city, listening to Metal music and riding.

Gregory Ciotti
Bidsktch Blog

Ah, the life of self-employment.
It is certainly a rewarding one, but remember, it’s a jungle out there.
Here at Bidsketch, we feel your pain: the internet offers such a vast ocean of resources that it can be hard to tell which ones are actually worth using.
I’d like to believe that this post will alleviate a huge part of that burden.
While it took many hours to write, edit, and re-write, it took countless hours of me procrastinating from my work an1d trying out new tools! 
Let my many hours of exploration become your “cheat sheet” to the most worthwhile freelance and self-employment related resources on the web.
Not only that, I’ve grouped them all neatly for you, feel free to browse at your leisure and share this resource if you find it useful!

How to Avoid ProcrastinatingIt’s my personal belief that every massive list (especially one made for people that get things done) needs to come with a bit of a disclaimer.
My best advice for approaching large lists like this is to remember that you need theright resources, not the most resources.1
Don’t get caught in the trap of signing up for every service (or checking out every site) below, pick the ones that fill a hole, solve a problem, ease a headache, and then… get back to work! 
That being said, I hope you find some resources that make your life easier, it can certainly be to your advantage to keep up to date and informed on how to streamline your freelance business (or small-business team).
You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.5
{Join me in sharing this on Twitter, click here!}
The Grand ListIn order to make this list easier to approach, here’s the full thing broken down by topic for easy browsing:

1. Project Management Tools
2. Productivity Tools
3. Email Apps
4. Business Tools
5. Customer Support Resources
6. Customer Acquisition & Social Media
7. Blogs

Project Management Tools1. MindMeister
If you’ve ever struggled with brainstorming for large projects, this could be your savior. MindMeister is the best “mindmapping” application I’ve ever come across; before you give your next project a go, be sure to check it out.
2. FreedCamp
If you’re not quite ready to step-up to Basecamp (more on that below), be sure to give FreedCamp a try. It aims to be a project management and collaboration tool that’s free for all to use.
3/4. Basecamp / CampFire
This is necessary stuff for the pros who need to collaborate with other team members. This one-two combo will make sure you and your team (or contractors) are always up to date one what’s going on and what needs to be done.
5. Trello
Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and how far along certain projects are.
6. Google Apps
A must-use for almost anyone doing business online today, Google Apps for businesses has some of the best software on the web for keeping projects in line.
7. Oh Dont Forget
One of the simplest ways to send scheduled reminders to your phone. I use this when I have something that pops up on my schedule when I need a reminder (that isn’t big enough to warrant going on Google Calendar).
8. Remember The Milk
Stay on top with the things you need to do with this superb task management app. Also works inside of Gmail, so if you’re a user, be sure to check that out.
Productivity Tools9. Teux Deux
This is definitely my favorite to-do app because of it’s minimalist design and simplicity. It came recommended by Seth Godin as well. You can use it to easily keep your daily “to-do” in order without the excess clutter or bloated features.1
10/11. Focus Booster / Strict Pomodoro
Going hand-in-hand with the Pomodoro Technique, this is a must use set of tools for me. If you’re a Chrome user, check out the second offering: it’s an extension that allows you to block sites for a “Pomodoro block” (25 minutes) so you can get work done.
12. Toggl
Toggl is one of the best time tracking tools out there, and it’s simplicity makes it something that you won’t be scared to regularly use. You know that time is money, so make sure you’re utilizing your time to it’s potential.
13. RescueTime
This time-tracker, on the other hand, is to help you realize just where your time being spent in order to watch out for any slacking. You’ll feel guilt tripped about going to Reddit if you see that last week you sat there for 10 hours (for shame! ;)).
14/15. Evernote / Readability
These two tools (pick your favorite) are fantastic for hanging on to essential notes and articles. Freelancers need inspiration, but you don’t want to get caught off-track reading 10 articles in a row, so make sure you use one of these to save them for later.
16. 1Password
Maybe essential only after you sign up for all of these tools! Actually, 1Password can be a great way to save time and headaches by letting the app manage your passwords for you.
17. ZenWriter
Most of us online have to write at some point during there day, it’s not something that only freelance writers need to do. In order to get it done quickly and with minimal distraction, be sure to check out ZenWriter, a full-screen writing tool.
Email Apps18. FollowUp.cc
If you are always forgetting to follow up with clients (or hate having to remember all of those follow up dates), be sure to check out FollowUp.cc, where you can schedule such things automatically.
19. TheEmailGa.me
If you want to get through a massive inbox in the shortest amount of time, you should definitely give The Email Game a whirl: designed to make tackling your inbox a fun challenge rather than a tedious chore, it certainly helps speed up the process of getting to “inbox zero”.
20. SaneBox
A very interesting take on email that incorporates algorithms that determine the importance of each email, moves unimportant messages out of your Inbox into a separate folder, and then summarizes them all for you.
21. TextExpander (Mac Only)
If you find yourself typing out the same emails over and over and over again, be sure to check out TextExpander, which can help you create codes to generate generic templates in a single click.
22. Gmail Labs
I highly recommend you check out some of the tools available in Gmail Labs if you haven’t already. One that’s been a great mini-time saver for me is the “Send & Archive” feature, which allows you to archive all emails that you reply to (clearing out your inbox faster).
23. ContactMe
This tool is more for managing leads, but it integrates nicely with both Gmail (for messaging purposes) as well as MailChimp (for lead generation purposes).
Business Tools24. Bidsketch
Okay, so we have a little bias for this one, but we think you’ll agree that the typical proposal process could use a major overhaul. Bidsketch allows you to cut down the time spent doing proposals so you can get back to doing the work you love, plus your proposals will look professional, even if you aren’t a designer.
25. Freshbooks
Nothing can mess up your flow quite like billing hassles. Freshbooks makes billing clients a breeze, no more personal emails with hours and rate calculations, just input your time, your rate, the project name, and Freshbooks handles the rest. (Freshbooks also integrates with Bidsketch as an added bonus)
26. DropBox
Being able to do your work online is great, and one of the perks is location flexibility. Make sure all of your needed resources are available by syncing your computer, laptop and smartphone with DropBox so your files are always a click away.
27. Shoeboxed
Possibly the fastest way to turn your pile of receipts into digital data for effortless expense reporting, accounting, bookkeeping, and tax preparation.
28. Mint
If you are looking for a simple financial tool to help you keep track of expenditures and income, this is it! Not only is the design great looking and streamlined, Mint is also very easy to use.
29. Grasshopper
If you’d like to accept calls online and want to upgrade from Google Voice, be sure to give Grasshopper a go, it’s a great service with a hilarious marketing sense.
30. DocStoc
All sorts of documents for professionals to utilize… you’ll see below just how much I hate doing paperwork!
31. LegalZoom
The bane of people working for themselves HAS to be the paperwork! Outside of terrible customers, this is the most annoying thing there is. Cut down on your time spent by using LegalZoom.
32. BrainTree
A great service that aims to make accepting credit cards online as easy a process as possible.
Customer Support Resources33. Clarify
The perfect app for capturing and annotating screenshots to help customers when they run into problems.
34. SnapEngage
Great little live-chat solution to implement for customers who want to get in touch with you before their purchase or for support afterwards (to avoid excessive emails).
35. Hively
Getting useful, candid feedback can be tough. Hively seeks to solve this problem by adding a fun element to getting feedback and rewarding your co-workers and contractors.
36. Join.me
Join Me allows you to connect with customers (even if they don’t have an account) and show them what’s on your screen. Perfect for helping clients with tasks that may be over their head.
37. Help Scout
Disclaimer: I work for Help Scout.
Help Scout is an invisible help desk that allows you to manage support emails from an organized interface, while your customers don’t see anything but a personal email from you.
Customer Acquisition & Social Media38. WordPress
Blogging has come a long way since it’s inception on the web. Blogs today are useful tools for lead generation & for acquiring new customers as you show off your expertise with well written content relating to what you do.
39/40. AWeber / MailChimp
While there are many others, these are my two favorite email marketing tools. If you don’t know, you’ll find out now: more people buy through email than through any social network out there, so be sure that you’re creating leads through your blogging efforts.
41/42. Google Analytics / HubSpot
There are a number of great tools out there for analytics & measuring conversions on your homepage. My favorite as of late is the often underrated Google Analytics and the inbound marketing suite from HubSpot. If potential customers are hitting your freelance homepage or small-business site, make sure you are optimized for conversions and know who is sending you traffic.
43. Tweriod
Twitter can be a serious waste of time, especially if your tweets aren’t getting sent out when people will see them. Find out when your followers are online the most with Tweriod.
44. BufferApp
After you’ve figured that out, be sure to schedule your updates with the BufferApp to make sure you’re always sending out interesting content at the right times.
45. Pluggio
Pluggio is the tool to use to take back your time from social networks. Manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, schedule, drip, automate and even include team members, this app let’s you knock out all of your social media obligations at once.
46. Wistia
If you need to incorporate video into one of your projects (like how a former WordPress freelancer created WP101), Wistia is the go-to choice. Self-hosted videos with great analytics, and they are super reliable.
Blogs47. General Freelance & Smart Finance Blogs
These blogs cover the general topics of freelancing, moneymaking, networking and productivity. Great for beginning your side-hustle journey.
a.) FreelanceSwitch
The biggest freelance related site in the world, this Envato powered behemoth has freelance related posts that cover ALL aspects of being a freelancer. A must read for beginners.
b.) I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Ramit is a controversial personality, but his insights on utilizing social psychology and tested “scripts” when dealing with clients is incredibly useful.
c.) Pocket Changed
Caleb’s blog is not necessarily about freelancing, but is is about breaking away from the ties of the cubicle. I especially enjoy his podcast and the Get Paid Manifesto.
d.) PassivePanda
Authored by James Clear, this blog is all about making more money from your side hustle. James has some great posts in areas that aren’t usually covered very well; check out this article on networking tips as an example.
e.) WorkAwesome
WorkAwesome provides life hacks and tips and on how to be productive at work. Even if your work is conducted from your home office, this blog can be a great resource.
48. Writing Blogs
The following blogs all specifically pertain to making a living as a freelance writer or on improving the craft of writing (a useful skill for anyone to utilize).
a.) Make A Living Writing
A fitting name! Carol is a very prolific writer who I’ve seen on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes, and everywhere in-between. If you are looking to take your writing gigs from part-time to full-time, this is a blog you need to read.
b.) Young Pre Pro
Onibalusi has made an entire career out of his freelance writing endeavors. Not only is he a great writer, but he also knows how to acquire customers, and a lot of his content can help you in those areas.
c.) Leaving Work Behind
A blog told through the perspective of Tom Ewer on how he left his former world of work to pursue a life as a full time freelance writer. Tom shares a ton of great articles that cover numerous aspects of the freelance (and online income) lifestyle.
d.) The Renegade Writer
Linda Formichelli makes a living as a full-time writer, and to date she has written for over 130 magazines. Her blog covers how to break into being a better freelance writer, and what it takes to do it full-time.
e.) Write to Done
This is like the ZenHabits of writing blogs. Posts here focus on getting things done on your writing schedule, along with turning each of your articles into a more memorable read.
49. Web Design Blogs
Blogs on the art and science of great web design. From resources to creating beautiful designs that convert more customers, be sure to check all of these out.
a.) Design Break
This is Rafal Tomal’s design blog, and it’s awesome! Rafal works for Copyblogger Media, and as such, he has a great eye not only for good design, but also for designs that convert.
b.) Smashing Magazine (and related sites)
SmashingMag has turned into a large conglomerate of sites relating to web design, so be sure to check out these satellite sites in addition to the main site.
c.) Webdesigner Depot
This blog covers all the bases on the topic of web design. A great place to look for inspiration and new tutorials as well.
d.) Treehouse Blog
Formerly ThinkVitamin, this blog now focuses on skill-related posts in the areas of web design and web development.
e.) Premium Pixels
I mean, how can you not love all of those delicious freebies that Orman is always handing out? One of the best places for PSDs, graphics and more.
50. Marketing / SEO / Social Media
I know a few of the Bidsketch users are freelance marketers of all types. Even if you aren’t a marketer, these sites can help you understand how to better market yourself and acquire more customers.
a.) KISSmetrics blog
One of the better marketing sites that has an interesting focus on conversions, analytics, design, and even psychology.
b.) SEOmoz
If you’re interested in SEO or just want to figure out how to rank for “Web designer [your city]”, this is where you should get started.
c.) Social Media Examiner
For your social media fix. There are a lot of social media blogs out there, but this one is pretty consistent and by far the largest.

Becoming a freelancer nearly a decade ago was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my career. It gave me freedom, flexibility, and the chance to learn more about design and development (and marketing, social media, content creation, etc.) than I probably would have had I taken a job at an agency, or at a single company. Between various design and development projects I’ve worked on, plus writing for some amazing tech blogs, I got way more experience than I might have otherwise.
One thing that totally saved me when I started freelancing, though, was all the amazing tools and resources out there for freelancers. And today, there are even more resources than there were 8 or 9 years ago.
Stop using a spreadsheet for tracking your income and expenses. Stop creating proposals from scratch every time. Stop doing all of your social media and email marketing manually. And stop trying to manage your projects with paper to-do lists.
Instead, check out these amazing apps (50 that Meredith Lepore featured in her 50 Tools You Need To Get Your Freelance Business Started, plus 49 new ones!), communities, and blogs for freelancers that will make your life so much easier.
If you’re new to freelancing, be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to Going Freelance for tons of great advice and information on creating a successful freelancing career.
Project ManagementTo succeed as a freelancer, you need to be organized when it comes to your work, whether it is a solo project or you are working on a team of 20.
1. Podio
Podio is a completely customizable project management software that you can adapt for literally any kind of project you can imagine. If they don’t have pre-built modules for what you need, it’s super easy to build them! Use it alone or with a team.
2. LiquidPlanner
LiquidPlanner was developed specifically for tech teams. You can use dynamic project plans that adapt to the day-to-day capabilities of your team, rather than static plans that are a constant source of stress. It even instantly shows you the impact of changing around priorities or due dates.
3. Wrike
Wrike is a project management app that includes collaboration tools and document sharing, making it perfect for teams. Workflows can be customized for each team. It’s great for product development, marketing, and more.
4. Solo
Solo is a project and business management app built specifically for freelancers who work, well, solo. It includes time sheets, project analysis and management tools, invoicing tools, expense tracking, and more.
5. Asana
Asana is a game changer. This popular group collaboration tool is free to use for up to 15 people. You can also subscribe or unsubscribe to notifications regarding changes to the task so everyone knows what is going on. It looks beautiful and makes life easier.
6. Evernote
Everyone loves Evernote. Evernote can store notes, receipts, and other miscellaneous files associated with each project.
7. Trello
Get your collaboration on. For those of you who love to have a good organized brainstorming session, this is the tool for you. It is a free online collaboration tool that’s organized by boards, lists, and cards. You can attach files, images, etc., to each card and add as many people as you want on board for collaboration. Changes appear in real time.
8. Basecamp
One of the more popular project management tools. It starts at $20 a month for 10 projects at a time.
MoneyYou are nothing unless you can keep track of the money you are making and spending.
9. Shoeboxed
Shoeboxed lets you turn your receipts into data. Use it to scan and organize your receipts, as well as business cards. You can create expense reports, track mileage, and more.
10. Mint
Mint is great personal finance software, and perfect for freelancers who don’t need a full-fledged business accounting app. It helps you make sure your bills get paid on time, lets you track multiple accounts from one dashboard, and tagging and categorizing helps you keep personal and business expenses separate.
11. Square
Square lets you take credit card payments with your mobile device. What a lot of people don’t realize is that they also offer online invoicing of clients at the same low transaction rates.
12. PayPal and PayPal Here
PayPal makes it easy to set up online payments, plus it lets you invoice clients directly, and lets them pay via credit card (whether they have a PayPal account or not). PayPal Here lets you take payments via mobile, just like Square.
13. Stripe
Stripe is a great payment gateway service with an easy to customize API. Use it to set up an online payment form for your clients, or to sell products on your website.
14. Your Rate
Your Rate is a simple freelance rate calculator that helps you determine exactly what to charge. And it has a super easy to use user interface. It even adjusts how much you should charge to account for taxes and savings.
15. Wave Accounting
Wave is a Cloud-based invoicing, accounting, payroll, payments, and personal finance app for freelancers and people running businesses with nine employees or less.
16. Xero
This one offers online accounting, invoicing, billing, and banking. The most basic plan is $6.30 per month for the first 6 months and then switches to $9 per month.
17. FreeAgent
This is a bookkeeping and invoicing application specifically designed for small businesses and freelancers.
18. Outright
This is perfect for managing your small business finances. It lets you import data from your existing accounts, making setup quick and simple. It updates daily from your accounts, and automatically categorizes your transactions.
19. Invoice.to
A free invoice template for the web and mobile that syncs with Stripe.
20. FreshBooks
If you are a freelancer, invoices will become the bane of your existence. Some days will just be spent writing and organizing your invoices. A great and simple invoice system will be a godsend. FreshBooks has been a great resource for me. It is straightforward and free until you have more than three clients but totally worth the $30 per month.
21. Expensify
With Expensify, all you have to do is photograph your receipts and upload them. It works on iPhone/iPad, Android, WebOS/Palm, and BlackBerry phones.
Time ManagementThe most important currency for a freelancer is time.
22. Tomato Timer
If you use the Pomodoro Technique, then Tomato Timer is a super simple app for timing your Pomodoros. It automatically defaults to a 25 minute work session with 5 and 10 minute breaks.
23. FocusBooster
FocusBooster is another great Pomodoro-based app. It helps you maintain focus and avoid distractions, and includes dashboard reporting to let you see your progress and rhythm, and further improve your productivity.
24. Timely
Timely lets you simultaneously track and schedule your time. And it integrates with your existing calendar.
25. GetHarvest.com
Harvest offers pricing plans from free to premium and offers time tracking and invoicing. It works on iPhone, Basecamp, Beanstalk and has a WordPress plugin and more. Offers both time tracking and invoicing.
26. MyClientSpot.com
Keeps track of your billable hours, helps you stay organized, tracks leads, and more.
27. Tickspot.com
Allows you to keep track of your time spent on a project and even see how close you are to using up your client’s allotted budget. Also offers a free iPhone application.
28. Toggl
If you charge by the hour or often wonder how long it takes you to do a certain task, Toggl will help you keep track.
29. Klok
Klok allows you to easily keep track of your time spent on multiple projects. You can easily start and stop tracking by just clicking a button for each project. You’re able to generate multiple reports based off of this information.
30. Ora Time and Expense
Ora allows you to track expenses, keep a list of your tasks, run a timer on your tasks, etc.
31. OfficeTime
Freelancer Laura Shin swears by OfficeTime as it helps manage a freelancers’ most important asset: time. It allows you to see exactly how much money you are earning per hour. This is what every freelancer needs, especially in the beginning, because it is going to show you who is really paying you your actual worth.
32. Timr
A time tracker that can also track mileage and keep tabs on project budgets.
Finding a jobBut first you have to find work!
33. 25 Top Sites for Finding the Freelance Jobs You Want
Our own Skillcrush roundup of the best freelance job boards out there!
34. CloudPeeps
CloudPeeps is specifically for finding marketing, content, growth-hacking, and community-building freelance projects.
35. Authentic Jobs
Authentic Jobs lets you to search for freelance, moonlighting, and contract jobs, in a variety of tech specialties including design, development, and marketing.
36. Smashing Jobs
Smashing Jobs, from Smashing Magazine, is a great place to find freelance projects for designers and developers.
37. Working Nomads
Working Nomads has remote and freelance job listings from around the world, curated from the best listings on the web.
ProposalsIn order to get the client, you have to show off your goods.
38. Proposify
Proposify lets you build your proposals from a library of templates. You can save your case studies, fees, and more to reuse in future proposals.
39. Nusii
Nusii includes professional proposal templates, a notification system, proposal tracking, and online signing of your proposals. It comes with a 15-day free trial.
40. NiftyQuoter
NiftyQuoter includes professional templates (for both content and services/products) and themes, automatic PDF generation, and much more.
41. QuoteRobot
QuoteRobot makes it super easy to write proposals, invoices, and contracts, all in one place. It helps you know what to say and what to charge, get instant acceptance, get paid faster.
42. QuoteRoller
QuoteRoller has everything you need for proposals, quotes, and contracts in one easy to use app. It includes CRM (customer relationship management) tools for better automation of sales and documents.
43. Bidsketch
Creating a project proposal is a very important part of freelance life. But it can be a real pain if you spend hours working on a proposal for no money and then have it rejected. BidSketch provides you with a template which will half your time.
44. SlideShare
SlideShare, owned by LinkedIn, can be a great way to give your potential clients a visual proposal that’s user friendly from their perspective.
45. Balsamiq
This is a rapid wireframing tool that you can use to produce mockups and UI concepts. You can work with product managers, developers, designers and clients in real time.
PromotionGet your name out there!
46. Hootsuite
Hootsuite makes it simple to schedule your social media activity, including over 35 popular social networks. It includes analytics to give you better insight into which of your social media activities are actually working.
47. TinyLetter
TinyLetter is a great option if you want a super simple email newsletter. It lets you personalize your signup form, share your work, and more, all for free!
48. Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo lets you see which content is performing better for any topic (or competitor). If you want to know which influencers to target, Buzzsumo can give you that info.
49. Buffer
Buffer lets you queue up social media posts on a variety of networks so that they auto-post at the times you set. There are both free and paid plans.
50. Canva
Not every freelancer is a designer, but Canva makes it easy to create beautiful marketing materials, social media images and ads, infographics, and more.
51. ClickToTweet
Adding a ClickToTweet to blog posts or other things you share online can be a great way to get others to tweet your content with the message you want.
52. Edgar
Edgar automatically shares your best performing social media posts again and again (on the schedule you set). Just add updates to your library, set a schedule, and it does the heavy lifting for you.
53. SumoMe
SumoMe is a suite of tools for increasing your website traffic. It includes sharing tools, a heatmap, list building tools, highlighters, smartbars, and much more. There are both free and paid versions available, though the free version includes SumoMe branding.
54. PopupAlly
PopupAlly offers “polite popups” for your WordPress website. In other words, rather than bombarding your users with a popup as soon as they get to your site, it lets you trigger popups based on things like reaching a certain point on the page or when a user looks like they’re about to leave your site. There are free and paid versions of the plugin.
55. MailChimp
How do you get your work out there? By sending an email marketing newsletter of course. Keep your clients updated about a new post or product with this simple template platform. It offers a free plan which is a major bonus for those just starting out.
56. Aweber
This is a great service for launching an email campaign, which can help to maintain relationships with all your previous and current clients.
57. Behance
It looks a little like a Pinterest board. It enables designers to share their products and promote them as well serve as a source of inspiration.
Backup & StorageDon’t lose anything!
58. Amazon Glacier
Amazon’s Glacier service is a super low-cost service for long term archiving and storage for as little as $0.007 per gigabyte per month. It’s optimized for infrequently accessed data where a retrieval time of several hours is suitable.
59. BackBlaze
BackBlaze offers cloud storage that’s low cost and super easy to use. You can download individual files from the web if you need to access the backup, or get all of your files shipped to your door on a hard drive in the event of a total system failure (for an additional fee). They also offer a storage option more like DropBox if you aren’t looking for a total system backup.
60. Carbonite
Carbonite is a very popular backup solution that stores your files in the cloud. They offer both personal and business backup accounts.
61. BackUpWordPress
If you use WordPress for your website, the BackUpWordPress plugin is a great option for making sure your WP files are safe.
62. Mozy
If there’s one mantra freelancers need to have, it’s: backup, backup and backup. Mozy offers Cloudbackup solutions for individuals, small businesses and large corporations.
63. iCloud
Backup and sync all your devices using your Apple ID.
64. DropBox
DropBox syncs with your computer locally, so you don’t have to worry about manually backing up files or remembering to sync.
Self OrganizationIf you’re organized, your business will be organized.
65. TeuxDeux
TeuxDeux is a barebones but visually compelling to-do list app that is highly usable. It’s as simple to use as paper, lets you create recurring to-dos, custom lists, and even Markdown support. And there’s a mobile app so you can stay productive on the go.
66. 30/30
30/30 is a gesture-based task manager for your iPhone. Set tasks and a time limit (you can set them to repeat, too), and 30/30 will help you focus on that task. You can customize the label, time, icon, and color of each list item.
67. LightArrow
LightArrow has a complete suite of tools for freelancers, going way beyond just to-do lists or project management. It includes tools for managing events, client relationships, email productivity, income and expense tracking, organizing notes and files, and even a password manager.
68. Sunrise Calendar
Sunrise Calendar lets you link up all the calendars and other date-based apps you use in one central view. Combine Google Calendar, Asana, Trello, Facebook, and more to see exactly what you have going on across all the channels in your life and work.
69. Todoist
Todoist is a great to-do list manager, since it integrates right with your Gmail to easily turn your emails into tasks. There’s a mobile app for accessing your to-do list on the go, too.
70. Wunderlist
There is nothing more satisfying than crossing something off your seemingly impossible to-do list and Wunderlist provides you with the ultimate to-do list. It syncs across all different platforms. Plus, you can assign tasks to other people! Nothing better than that!
71. Time to Note
Track communications with customers, suppliers, leads and others. Keep your contacts in one place and shared, create to do lists for multiple users.
72. Remember The Milk
Remember The Milk reminds you to take care of important tasks! You’ll never miss a deadline!
73. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a web-based tool that allows users to organise their schedule, so you’ll always know exactly what you need to be working on.
74. Ta-da List
Show everyone what you have accomplished with this organizational app.
EmailWhen you are a freelancer your inbox becomes the hub of your business so it better be organized.
75. CloudMagic
CloudMagic is an email program from OS X, iOS, and Android. It offers integrations with a variety of other apps, including Evernote, Pocket, Trello, MailChimp, and more, to help keep your emails organized with your projects.
76. Sanebox
Keep that inbox under control with Sanebox. As we all know, your inbox is actually the hub of your business. It brings you joy, it brings you sadness and it brings you sadness. Keep it together with this organization app.
77. FollowUp.cc
Do you always forget to follow up after meeting a client? Then this is the app for you. This automatically does it for you.
78. Unroll.me
Clean up your inbox with a single click using Unroll.me to unsubscribe from all those email lists you don’t want.
79. Inbox
This new app for Gmail is a more graphical, more organized email communication center (it will automatically categorize your email into basic sections like travel, purchases, finance, social, updates, forums, and promos). It’ll also include built-in snooze buttons, attachment previews, automatic labeling and filing, and intelligent search. This is email nirvana!
Communities & ResourcesThere are a ton of amazing freelance communities online, many living on other sites like Reddit. But there are others that stand alone, offering support and resources for freelancers around the globe.
80. Freelance Lift
Freelance Lift offers products and a (FREE!) community for freelancers to help with the business side of freelancing. They have a blog, short ebooks, videos, and more, plus there’s a Pro Module for even more resources.
81. Freelancers Union
Freelancers Union advocates for freelancer interests, offers benefits programs (to help you find things like health insurance), events, and communities for freelancers. They also have discounts, job boards, and more.
82. Domino
Domino is a co-op community of freelancers with more than 1200 members so far. They help you connect with other freelancers around the world, learn from the community, find work, and get support from others in the same boat as you.
83. #Freelance
#Freelance is a Slack community for freelancers. It lets you connect with others from around the world, get support, share your stories and experiences, and more.
BlogsOne of the best ways for a freelancer to learn about how to run your business is just hearing stories and tips from others. These blogs have some of the most informative and helpful articles for freelancers.
84. The Middle Finger Project
The Middle Finger Project is a favorite among a lot of Skillcrush employees. Ash offers amazing, no-holds-barred advice to small business owners and freelancer in a super accessible, often hilarious way.
85. Under 30 CEO
Under 30 CEO is a blog and podcast that offers up all sorts of awesome business, productivity, and lifestyle design advice.
86. 99U
99U, from Behance, is a fantastic blog for creatives and has advice on building an awesome creative career.
87. Work Made For Hire
Work Made for Hire offers up creative business advice for creative people. They have articles on things like rates, negotiating with clients, productivity, and more.
88. Zen Habits
Zen Habits isn’t just a blog for freelancers, but since the founder, Leo Babauta, is self-employed, a lot of his posts are very applicable to freelancers. If you’re interested in a minimalist life, Zen Habits is definitely the blog for you.
89. Copyblogger
If you write anything online, then you need to read Copyblogger. They have tons of great resources for content creators, including freelance writers and marketers. But since so many freelancers also end up writing copy for their own website, emails, etc., their content is valuable for everyone.
90. One Woman Shop
This is the perfect site for someone who very much wanted to be their own boss. From the site: “You were never meant for the mundane. You prefer to decide your own self worth rather than allow an employer to put a price tag on your work. You light up from the thrill of deciding when to shift gears, challenge yourself, and kick it up a notch. You are a solopreneur. The site provides you with a community of freelancers and businesswomen who are taking risks and changing their lives everyday. “One Woman Shop is your safety net.”
91. BufferApp
When you think of Apps, you don’t necessarily think they would have an awesome blog but Buffer is an exception. It’s blog is clever, entertaining and super helpful for anyone with their own business. From articles on social media strategy to content marketing, you’ll learn something new here.
92. Seth’s Blog
If you’re interested in marketing, promotion, innovation, or community building, then Seth Godin’s blog is a wealth of valuable information. His blog posts give insight into all of those topics, with a strong theme of doing things differently than what “traditional wisdom” tells us to do.
93. Lifehacker
This site is exactly like it sounds. It features recent technology and profiles on innovative thinkers and daily life hacks. Looking for productivity advice? Lifehacker is your new best friend.
94. Webdesigner Depot
A mecca for freelance web designers. This site provides free web designer kits, as well as articles on social media, html, branding, contests, and more. The how-tos and tutorials on everything from email template design to parallax are a freelance designer’s dream. And everyone will pick up handy web design and user experience tips!
95. Fast Company
For a little bit of entrepreneurship inspiration, this is the go-to source. With articles written by business leaders and professors, as well as top entrepreneurs, Fast Company covers the gamut from how to get more done to advice on writing business plans.
96. Good
Good is “a place to share creative solutions for living well and doing good.” Share information on what you are working on with the community, and how your work integrates with your life and the impact on the world. The blog also has content on technology, books, lifestyle, and design and recommendations for organizations and entrepreneurs to follow.
97. Pro Blogger
For those of you who are not blogging experts, but need them for your business this is a great resource. From how to organize your Google updates to ideas for blog posts, Pro Blogger has content that will spark your creativity and give you structure for blogging. For that freelancer personal brand building!
98. LKR Social Media
Need some help with social media for your site, blog or business? This is your place. Laura Roeder is a social media marketing expert who runs a fantastic blog for creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. From designing an effective sales page to top tools to organize your work, she’s got you covered. Plus, amazing tips on building your (or your client’s) social media presence.
99. Contently
This blog seriously answers every question you have about freelance that you were too embarrassed to ask.
Whether you’re just starting out in your freelance career or you’ve been freelancing for ages, check out our Ultimate Guide to Going Freelance for tons of tips, tricks, and advice for an awesome freelance career!
Cameron Chapman
March 1st, 2016

Cameron is a staff writer here at Skillcrush, and spends most of her time writing and editing blog posts and Ultimate Guides. She's been a freelance writer, editor, and author for going on a decade, writing for some of the world's leading web design and tech blogs. When she's not writing about design, she spends her time writing screenplays and making films (and music videos for rock and metal bands!) in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Freelancer.com connects over 21,386,894 employers and freelancers globally from over 247 countries, regions, and territories.

Company Overview
Freelancer.com is the world's largest freelancing, outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and projects. We connect over 21,386,907 employers and freelancers globally from over 247 countries, regions and territories. Through our marketplace, employers can hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software development, writing, data entry and design right through to engineering, the sciences, sales and marketing, accounting and legal services.
Freelancer Limited is trading on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN

Provenance
Freelancer.com has acquired several outsourcing marketplaces including GetAFreelancer.com and EUFreelance.com (founded by Magnus Tibell in 2004, Sweden), LimeExchange (a former business of Lime Labs LLC, USA), Scriptlance.com (founded by Rene Trescases in 2001, Canada, one of the early pioneers in freelancing), Freelancer.de Booking Center (Germany), Freelancer.co.uk (United Kingdom), Webmaster-talk.com (USA), a forum for webmasters, Rent-A-Coder and vWorker (founded by Ian Ippolito, USA, another early innovator in the freelance marketplace space).

What kind of work can I get done?
How does "anything you want" sound? We have experts representing every technical, professional and creative field, providing a full range of solutions:

• Small jobs, large jobs, anything in-between
• Fixed price or hourly terms
• Specific skills, cost and schedule requirements

Just give us the details of your project and our freelancers will get it done faster, better, and cheaper than you can imagine. Your jobs can be as big or small as you like, they can be fixed price or hourly, and you can specify the schedule, cost range, and milestones.

How?

1. Post your project
   It's always free to post your project. Invite our freelancers to submit bids, or browse relevant freelancers and make an offer. You'll have replies to your job within minutes!
2. Choose the perfect freelancer
   • Browse freelancer profiles
   • Chat in real-time
   • Compare proposals and select the best one
   • Award your project and your freelancer goes to work
3. Pay when you are satisfied!
   Pay safely using our Milestone Payment system - release payments according to a schedule of goals you set, or pay only on completion. You decide, you are in control.

Skills Categories for you to place bids 

According to their Website:

"Our story begins with two leading pioneers in online work: Elance and oDesk. Each had created thriving global communities with separate paths to success. In 2014 we realized that we could do more together and merged to form Elance-oDesk, combining ideas, technology and resources.

As we formed a shared vision, we saw that our impact would be even greater if we focused on building one great workplace. With the oDesk platform as the foundation, we kept the best of both legacies and added new innovations. In 2015 we re-launched the company as Upwork, representing a renewed vision and commitment to creating the world’s best online workplace – for existing and future customers alike.

Today, Upwork is the premier platform for top companies to hire and work with the world’s most talented independent professionals. We’re creating a world of unmatched talent and opportunity, where global teammates who are thousands of miles apart can work together seamlessly."

​(*upwork.com About Us page)

How they explain their services:

What kind of work can I get done?
Anything that can be done on a computer – from web and mobile programming to graphic design – can be done on Upwork. Freelance experts can tackle a range of projects:

Big or small
Short or ongoing
Individual or team-based
Whether you need a writer to knock out a 500-word blog post or a full-fledged software development team to support your business, our tools and the expert freelancers in our marketplace can accommodate.

How do I hire the right freelancer?
Start by writing a clear and concise job post. Each freelancer submits a cover letter and link to their Upwork profile covering:

Skills, experience and portfolios
Client feedback
Language and communication skills
You'll get applications from independent professionals and receive our personalized recommendations within minutes. From there, just interview your strongest candidates and hire your favorite.

How do payments work?
Pay your freelancer per hour or per project, whichever you choose. For hourly projects, the freelancer bills you once a week, and we'll send a secure payment to your freelancer. For fixed-price projects, we'll release funds to your freelancer after they meet pre-set milestones. In either case, you're covered by Upwork Payment Protection, assuring that you only pay for work you approve.

All payments go through our secure system. Choose from the following billing methods:

Visa
Mastercard
American Express
PayPal

How do I know I'm protected?
Enjoy peace of mind with systems designed to provide a safe and trusted workplace, including:

Payment Protection. Upwork Payment Protection assures you that you pay only for work you've approved.

Dispute Resolution. If an issue ever should arise, we have programs to help fix the situation.

(* upwork.com How it Works page)

DevelopmentAid is a leading, innovative membership organisation offering services for the international developmental sector. According to their site, they bring together donors, consultancy firms, NGOs and experts working for international development.
They help development professionals raise the efficiency of international development aid by providing timely, reliable and relevant information.
Their principle is: information about the development sector should be accessible, accurate and comprehensive.
DevelopmentAid are constantly perfecting our services and are adding more value for our partners. For this purpose, we have a team of over 100 employees ready to support you with all your queries. For questions or feedback, contact them.

​(* developmentaid.org About page)

So how does it work?
DevelopmentAid is a tool - or a collection of tools - presented through their Web site where the Professional of different areas (they call "sectors") within the Government Public Sector where Funding Agencies (World Bank, European Union Commission) are providing grants for large scale development projects.
The Professional can register and choose free or paid subscription. The service provides access to hundreds of open and awarded bids where they can participate directly as individual or applying for the projects with the winning consortiums.
Projects are offered everywhere in the planet and it is a great option to build your pipeline of projects.

A nice post by Carl Dickson, from the Freelance Consulting, Independent Consultants, & Professional Services Management & Marketing group on LinkedIn moderated by CapturePlanning.com.

==> New app for freelancers

There is a new app for Android devices for you to try that will help you maximize your billability by filling your calendar. Actually there are two apps. Gig Pipeline is for consultants and Get Help Winning for companies that use them. Companies use the Get Proposal Help app to search for consultants and get in touch with them directly.

You can find out more about both here:

Gig Pipeline - For business development and proposal consultants
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mustwin.gigpipeline

Get Help Winning - To help companies find consultants and resources for winning
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mustwin.GetProposalHelp

At launch we’re providing support for consultants who help companies win business, including marketing, sales, business development, capture, and proposal consultants. We’re focusing on the US Government contracting market, because that’s what we know best. The platform we’re building has far, far more potential applicability. But we want to fine tune it before taking on the world.

Good things can come from simple beginnings.

Please take a moment today to post something in one of our groups and start a discussion. A simple question, comment, or observation is all it takes to be networking instead of lurking. Thanks for all your insights!

Carl Dickson,
CapturePlanning.com, LLC
[email protected]
http://www.linkedin.com/in/carlwdickson/