This week’s featured freebie is Skype, another communication tool I found impossible to avoid. It took me a while to appreciate the benefits of Skype initially. I downloaded it and never saw any reason to use it until I got my first international client and she requested we conference via Skype. Skype allowed me to communicate with my client without any international fees. That’s when I realized the power of Skype and began to [...]

Freelance Freedom #48 by N.C. Winters featured on freelanceswitch.com and on ncwinters.com

In this fast paced world it seems that technology changes at a blink of an eye. Before you can get the packaging off  that brand new phone and finally learn how to use it there is a newer and better version hitting the stores. Best Buy has capitalized on this by offering its customers the opportunity to sell their old version to Best Buy and receive credit to purchase the new version from them. It [...]

Five years ago today development of what we know as Twitter began. According to Wikepedia Twitter’s origins lie in a “daylong brainstorming session” that was held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. While sitting in a park on a children’s slide and eating Mexican food, Jack Dorsey (@jack) introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. For some it is hard now to imagine a [...]

Interested in knowing how Americans are spending their St. Patrick’s Day. Lab42 conducted a survey of 405 social network users showing what plans they have on March 17th. (Image courtesy Lab 42)

Google Voice by far is my favorite freebie. I think so highly of it that I think this product could easily justify attaching a usage charge (although I hope they Never do). What Is Google Voice? Google Voice is a telecommunications service by Google launched on March 11, 2009. Google Voice had some 1.4 million users in October 2009, 570,000 of which used the service 7 days a week. The service is configured and maintained [...]

Search engine optimization (SEO) – as a new business owner you’ll soon hear about it (tada). You’ll hear about how wonderful it can be, and how it can solve all your online business woes (as in, “woe is me”) and whoa’s, as in: Whoa! One month on the Internet and still no traffic! Whoa! I spent all this time creating my site and nobody is staying! Whoa! I have no idea what’s happening on my [...]

Freelance Freedom #47 by N.C. Winters featured on freelanceswitch.com and on ncwinters.com

PSA’s will never go out of style. Where they make their biggest impact is still by way of television ads. Television is the one method the unsuspecting individual can be introduced to a visual lesson in life in the middle of zoning out to something mindless. Above The Influence has created a series of televisions spots focused on deterring teens and young adults from drug use and abuse. The Above The Influence ad campaign  was created [...]

While our branding profiles have normally focused on the elements that have contributed to the strength of a brand, this post is actually about how Domino’s has re-branded in order to stay relevant. In 2009 a survey of consumer taste testers ranked Domino’s Pizza last among national chains (tied with Chuck E. Cheese). In that same year Domino’s made the decision to totally reinvent themselves. Along with their reinvention they developed a television ad campaign [...]