If you’ve read any popular sites like CNET, FreelanceSwitch, GigaOM, and Lifehack.org, then chances are you’ve read something written by today’s guest, Thursday Bram. She is everywhere. In this episode she gives us insight into the world of freelance writing for the web.

Thursday answers these questions and more:

• What led you to a career in writing?  Did you go to school for that?
• Did you always work for yourself or did you come from a FT job?
• What does a typical writing project is like?  What do you offer clients, and how do you deliver it?
• How does the business of blogging work?  What is the typical pay-scale for an article?
• How do you find paying gigs as a blogger?
• How do you market yourself and your services?  Does the exposure you get through writing help with attracting clients?
• How do you jump between writing on vastly different topics from gig to gig?
• What are some differences when writing for the web vs. writing for print?  Any tips for better web writing?
• Do you write from a technical/technology perspective at all? How do you make technical content non-boring & fun to read?
• Can you recommend any resources, books, sites, that could us become better writers, learn “proper” writing skills, etc.?
• How would one break into the world of professional blogging and getting paid as a writer?  Where do we start?

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We asked screencasting pro Shawn Hesketh of WP101 and LeftLane Designs to take us through every aspect of creating a quality screencast. Shawn started working for himself as a designer back in 1988 and in this episode you’ll hear how his business has evolved over time, especially as his use of screencasting has increased in the past few years. These days, he’s known for his popular WP101 WordPress tutorial videos as well as his screencast work for other companies such as WooThemes and Jilion (SublimeVideo).

Whether you are thinking about creating how-to screencasts for your clients or feature-overview screencasts for potential customers, you’re going to find a lot of great tips in this episode.

Tune in as Shawn answers questions like:

• How did he first become involved in web?
• Where did the idea of WP101 come from?
• What makes a screencast worth watching? How do you create a quality screencast that isn’t boring?
• What is his screencasting setup in terms of hardware and software?
• Where should screencasts be hosted and served: YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon S3, etc?
• How does he plan and execute each screencast in terms of written scripts, video clips, editing, and sizing?
• What is his approach to finding, creating, and incorporating other elements such as music and text effects?
• Where should people go to learn more about how to screencast?
• How does he plan a screencast that is intended more for marketing versus a tutorial video for existing customers?
• How does he market his video production services?
• How has his business changed since he’s been screencasting in terms of primary services that he offers?

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In this audio-only episode, Dave and Brian talk about the lifestyle of a freelancer.  ”A day in the life” if you will.  Dave and Brian have slightly different perspectives on the subject.  Dave balances family life with kids and works in a co-working space away from home.  Brian works out of a home office and structures his work schedule around a very demanding dog!

We cover the morning routine, taking extended lunch-breaks, scheduling meetings and calls, lifestyle of a freelancer vs. that of a full-time employee, carving out late night and early morning work sessions, and other random tidbits.

Solo App Contest Winner

As promised, in this episode we announced the winner of the 1 year subscription to Solo App.  So if you signed up, you’ll want to tune in to see if you won!

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We must start this episode with two important notes:

1 – We are not accountants, nor attorneys. What we discuss in this episode should not serve as actionable legal or accounting advice. You should always consult your lawyer and accountant for that.

2 – We’re both based in the US, so what we talk about here probably won’t apply to our International audience. But maybe some general ideas might carry over to your neck of the woods.

That being said, in this episode we give our take on questions like:

• How do you run a freelance business that is compliant in the eyes of the IRS?
• What is your legal business structure: LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation?
• How do you handle paying taxes? Quarterly estimates… etc.
• Do you have a system for setting aside money for taxes?
• What types of expenses do you write off as tax deductions?
• How do you keep track of business expenses?

Don’t Forget About Our Giveaway!

That’s right, we’re giving away a subscription to Solo: Beautiful Project Management for the Freelancer. We’ve teamed up with Solo to give one of our lucky listeners/viewers a ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to Solo. That’s a $120 value!

To enter, all you have to do is sign up for our email list. That’s it.

You’ll also be signed up for Solo’s mailing list automatically. You can cancel your subscription to either list at any time, just make sure you’re still signed up when we announce our winner in episode #21.

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In an attempt to spice things up around here, we’ve decided to throw in a few shorter episodes where we spend twenty minutes or so discussing topics that might be too specific for a full episode or interview. In the first of these “Freelance Jam briefs,” we discuss our personal project management workflows as they relate to client projects and our own projects. Brian has decided to move most of his project management process over to Google Docs, while Dave is holding strong on the super simple Basecamp app. Find out how and why we are each using the systems that we are.

QUESTION: How do YOU manage your projects?

Big Announcment

Speaking of project management, there’s a new kid on the block and it’s called Solo: Beautiful Project Management for the Freelancer. We’ve teamed up with Solo to give one of our lucky listeners/viewers a ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to Solo. That’s a $120 value!

To enter, all you have to do is sign up for our email list. That’s it.

You’ll also be signed up for Solo’s mailing list automatically. You can cancel your subscription to either list at any time, just make sure you’re still signed up when we announce our winner in episode #21 towards the end of February.

Good luck, and be sure to take a closer look at Solo especially in light of the topic we discuss in this episode.

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Freelance web designer Chris Meeks recently re-launched his brand’s portfolio website (hatbox.co - we think it’s an awesome site!). In this episode, he joined us to talk about what went into that process and what he thinks makes a great portfolio website. We dive topics like where Chris finds inspiration, how he decided what to include and what to leave off of his site, how he is using his site to attract his target clients, and his decision to use a responsive web design approach for the site.

Be sure to follow Chris on Twitter and check out his personal website as well.

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Read:  Freelance Jam, One Year Later

With more and more people using WordPress (our favorite) these days, Pippin Williamson of PippinsPlugins.com is using that to build his business as a plugin developer. We chatted with Pippin as he shared some of his thoughts on the market for plugins, using a site like Envato’s Code Canyon versus selling through his own site, and how he provides support to his customers. Other topics that come up include The WPCandy Quarterly print magazine, Pippin’s famous Easy Custom Post Types plugin (it really is awesome!) and Font Uploader plugin, and his new membership-based WordPress development training program.

If you’re wondering what Envato’s approval & pricing process looks like, what makes a “good” plugin, and ways you can create your own functionality products, check out this informative episode with Pippin.

Unfortunately, we experienced an unsurprising Skype crash in the middle of this interview and lost the video recording. But the audio was safe so we’re still posting the video version. 

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Ryan Imel is the Editor-in-chief behind WPCandy.com, the leading hub for all things WordPress. We caught up with Ryan and found out what it takes to run a site like WPCandy which is updated on a daily basis and receives a decent amount of traffic. We also discussed some of the things that make WordPress the right choice to manage a website of this size and type.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Dave: @daveyank, Lift Development, CommonSpace, Anywhere Man
• Brian: @casjam, CasJam Media, Skipper app

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Toni Gemayel has a lot going on. That’s an understatement, actually. He’s a web developer for Two Giraffes (which features another Freelance Jam guest, Sean Farrell). He’s a full-time “startup scout” for Coloma Ventures which involves regular travel. He’s also someone who launches a lot of startups on the side, including ventures such as Fonadu.

How does Toni find the time to wear all these hats? What are some ways that we as freelancers can launch startups on the side of our freelancing day jobs? At what point do you pull the plug on a side project that just isn’t making any money? We ask these questions and more in this episode.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Dave: @daveyank, Lift Development, CommonSpace, Anywhere Man
• Brian: @casjam, CasJam Media, Skipper app
• Toni’s app for works registration: safescreenplayregistration.com

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