Last week I outlined five kinds of online tools every freelancer needs; this week I'm back with five more. Online tools are especially valuable for freelancers because a) they tend to be affordable and even free, b) they are accessible from wherever you find yourself working, and c) they shift responsibility for security, backup, and upgrading from the lone creative professional with plenty of other things on his or her mind to the service's IT professionals. In essence, they allow you to "outsource" your technology needs to people who know technology best, so you can focus on the writing, designing, programming, or consulting that are your bread and butter.
File Sharing
There are many circumstances in which you may need to share files with a client, interviewee, prospective employer, or other freelancer working on a related project. While small files – a couple of documents, a few images, or source code for a software patch – can generally be sent by email, email isn't always up to snuff. Large files are often rejected by email services, attachments can be stripped off by corporate security scanners, and overactive spam filters can block email without anyone being the wiser.
Services like drop.io and Box.net allow you to upload large files and send a link to your recipient so he or she can download and view your files. You can use drop.io to upload files up to 100MB, adding password protection or an expiration date in the "Settings" if you wish. Once a "drop" is created, you can continue to add files through the web interface or by a host of other methods including email, Twitter, a Firefox add-on, even by telephone (to record voice messages). Box.net works slightly differently, offering 1GB of storage (for free accounts; paid accounts offer up to "unlimited" storage) and functioning as an online hard drive. In fact, you can even mount it as a virtual drive on your desktop. Box.net allows you to share a link several ways (email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more) and interfaces with other services like Google Docs, Zoho, FedEx Internet printing, and Salesforce. Plus, common file types can be edited directly in Box.net, allowing you to collaborate live.
If you regularly share files with someone you have an ongoing relationship with – a recurring client, for example – you may want to bypass the Web and share files directly using Dropbox. When you install Dropbox on your system, it allows you to create a folder that is linked to a folder on another system – say, on a client's desktop (of course, the client needs to be running the software as well). Once the folder pair is created, your Dropbox folder works like any other folder on your system; you can drag and drop, cut and paste, create and files, create and delete subfolders, rename, and so on. The only difference is that any change you make to a file in your Dropbox folder is automatically made in the linked folder on the other system. (PS I also use Dropbox to backup files from my netbook to my desktop computer!)
Calendar
Every freelancer needs a calendar, and online calendars offer many advantages – they can integrate with other online services, send reminders by email or text message, and sync with your phone. Although there are plenty of good ones out there, for my money the king of online calendars is Google Calendar. A natural-language interface allows you to enter upcoming events using phrases like "Lunch with Client X Tues 12:30pm at Mel's Diner" (of course, you can enter events the "old-fashioned way", by filling out a form, as well). You can create share your calendar with people you choose (like a business partner or spouse) and create different calendars for different purposes (like one with personal events to share with your family and one with business events to share with your partners). A growing number of online services, such as Facebook and Twitvite, allow you to save events directly to your Google Calendar, making it even more useful.
Notes
Having a centralized, digital place to store notes, plus the ability to access them from anywhere, is crucial for freelancers. Nobody likes their Moleskin more than me, but after losing a few, I sing the praises of backup-ready digital notes loudly and proudly. Online notebooks are perfect for taking notes during meetings with a client (or transcribing them after), capturing ideas that occur to you on the road (or in the bathroom…), or saving Web pages for later reading – the good ones are available to you wherever and however you have an Internet connection, whether through your own PC, a client's PC, a public terminal, or a web-enabled phone.
Two of the best online notebooks are the sound-alike Evernote and Ubernote. Evernote is accessed on your desktop through a dedicated client that allows you to drag and drop files into it; notes are synced online and to any other computers you run the client on. Ubernote is strictly online. Both allow you to send notes via email or instant messenger, as well as simply by typing directly into the application or site, and both will save text from the Web using a bookmarklet you drag onto your browser's toolbar. Evernote also allows you to add notes by Twitter and even by voice mail! Plus, Evernote analyzes text in images, making it searchable (although you can't otherwise use or manipulate the text). Both can be accessed through a mobile webpage, and Evernote also has dedicated applications for several smartphones including the iPhone. While Evernote is slightly more feature-rich, check them both out (they're both free) – each has a slightly different "feel" that may appeal to different people and different working styles.
Project Management
Note-taking applications are fine for sketching out ideas, but for anything really complex, a good project management system is essential. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of project managers (PMs from now on) out there, aimed at everything from personal use to coordinating entire corporations. As a freelancer, you can avoid the really complex stuff – all you need is a place to list your projects, lay out the steps involved, assign tasks, and schedule milestones and deliverables. Add the ability to attach files and access your plans and supporting materials from anywhere, and you're golden.
Basecamp has made a name for itself as the gold standard for online PMs – it's attractive, highly functional, and designed for day-to-day use by individuals and small teams. It's not free (there are remarkably few free online PMs around these days), but it's not expensive either. If you don't need the milestones (like me – most of my work involves projects with only one milestone, the completed piece) you might find a more individual-focused PM useful. Nozbe, for example, is designed around David Allen's GTD (Getting Things Done) personal productivity system, allowing you to assign tasks to both the projects they belong to and the context (at your computer, at the office, at home, etc.) where you intend to work on them.
Internet Printing
If you're on the go a lot, and don't want to carry a portable printer with you (or can't afford one), consider FedEx's unfortunately-named Internet printing service File, Print FedEx Kinko's. Yes, that's the actual name. You need to install a program on your PC, basically a print driver, and from then on, you just print from any application and select the File, Print FedEx Kinko's printer. A dialogue will pop up letting you select options like color or black-and-white and binding. You can pick up your print-outs at your closest FedEx office.
If you travel a lot, you might also look at PrintMe, a service that allows you to upload a document and print it to hotel business centers. They have quite a few places you can print to – there are 10 here in Las Vegas – and work worldwide. Many hotels will charge you to use their printers, however – and make sure to ok it with the hotel staff beforehand if you aren't staying in the hotel!
What Else?
These are online applications and services that I find useful, but what about you? What online applications could you not live without? Or what do you wish you could do online but haven't found the right app for yet? Share your favorites and your wishlists in the comments.
