This is the fifth in a weekly series showing freelancers and business owners ways to spend an hour per week building a basic marketing program. Last week we showed you how to figure out what your marketing needs to accomplish. This week we show you how to decide where to focus future efforts. These posts [...]

Productivity is how I get things done. If I’m managing other people, I can specify how we get things done together, but I can’t extend that over their entire lives. They have to work that out for themselves. Spoken like a man who has spent many years managing others. New managers try to micromanage methods [...]

This is the fourth in a weekly series showing freelancers and business owners ways to spend an hour per week building a basic marketing program. Last week we showed you How to Make Companies Beg to Be Your Client. This week we show you how to figure out what your marketing needs to accomplish. These [...]

I don’t really think it’s “cool” to go to a salon or a barbershop and wait for long periods. I don’t think it’s particularly “awesome” to spend $15 minimum to have someone else use a pair of scissors when I’m fully capable of doing it myself. As a fully functional human being, I’m quite capable [...]

This is the third in a weekly series showing freelancers and business owners ways to spend an hour per week building a basic marketing program. Last week we showed you how to identify your best customers and prospects. This week we show you how tell your story in a way that makes customers want to [...]

The Delegation Experiment is a living documentary of Aaron Mahnke’s journey to free himself from parts of his freelance design business that get in the way of doing what he loves. Part 1 dealt with finding the courage to let go. Part 2 centered around creating an inventory of tasks, responsibilities and time. And part [...]

Delegate or die: the self-employed trap. | Derek Sivers: Because my team was running the business, I was free to actually improve the business! I moved to California, just to make it clear that the running of things was up to them. I was still working 12-hour days, but now I was spending all my [...]

This is the second in a weekly series showing freelancers and business owners ways to spend an hour per week building a basic marketing program. Last week we showed you how to start tracking visitors to your site. This week we show you how to use your existing client list to discover your ideal client. [...]

In response to a particular blog devoted to pointing and laughing at how badly certain applications are designed, Jason Zimdars of 37 Signals wrote up a post entitled “There is no place for just shitting all over other people’s work.” The post created quite a stir on the Interwebs, and deservedly so. Jason sums up the [...]

Note from Andy: Susan Tatum is the latest addition to the Cranking Widgets writing team. She has over 20 years of experience working with technology companies and is currently a marketing consultant, and my partner, at Clicks ‘n Conversions. Susan believes, quite strongly, that any sustainable marketing program must be process-oriented and measurable. She’s been [...]