• SalesDogs Diagnostics: What type of salesdog breed are you? What kind of team do you have?
• Stationery Movie Quiz: Guess the movie from office supplies.
• Good Keywords: Free software for finding the right keywords. Also has a keyword primer for beginners.
• Get kid gift ideas by checking out Dr. Toy’s Best Products of 2007.
• We keep our lawn (front and back) as simple as possible. That way we don’t use up much water or resources to keep it in good shape. LessLawn provides tips on building a low-maintenance lawn.
• The 100 Tools Freelancers Can’t Live Without

While freelancing offers flexibility in terms of time and location, procrastinators and people who can’t motivate themselves will find it a struggle. Unlike a corporate job, “when you’re not working, you don’t earn money.” In the corporate world on a regular salary, you get paid during slow times even if it means you might spend that time chatting, playing games or surfing the Web.

Sticking to a schedule doesn’t mean creating a schedule like high school. First period: Blogging. Second period: Answering e-mails. It’s more flexible, but you do the same things around the same time every day.

I start my day by checking and deleting e-mails. Then I blog here and at InformIT. Next, I review my calendar and to do items to decide what tasks to complete for the day. This means picking one to three tasks that I can check off and feel a sense of accomplishment — NOT looking at the long list and pouting that I have too much to do.

Sure, on occasion, I might not blog until the afternoon. It’s OK to stray from your general schedule as things come up or you’re motivated to do something else. Having a schedule helps you make it a habit of getting specific things done each day and you tend to stick to it.

Do you have a craving or a feeling about things on specific days of the week? Days of the year? For instance, do you have a hankering for turkey or Mom’s famous dessert at Thanksgiving? Do you feel like swimming or grilling on Memorial Day, 4th of July and/or Labor Day? Because we get used to doing the same things on those holidays, it becomes a habit and a desire. Scheduling the same tasks each day works in a similar way.

I start my day with a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. Last week, when the newspaper didn’t show up for the first time in ages, we called the newspaper and they delivered it to my door by 9:00am. However, the “first thing” feeling passed and I was already deep in my work that I never read the paper that day. It felt weird not to start my day with the newspaper because of habit.

Anne of The Golden Pencil provides 31 Days of Freelance Writing Tips. Many writers wrote to her and shared their tips and she compiled them at the end of the 31 days. So if you missed them, you don’t have to wait a whole month to get them all. Or check out this index once a day to learn one new tip a day for the next month and then take Labor Day off.

Full-time freelancing: 10 more things provides a useful list of things he learned in his first year of freelancing full-time as a Web designer. Though it focuses on Web design, much of the advice if useful for other business. Here’s my commentary from a freelance writer’s perspective.

Speed: I try to work fast when doing freelance writing assignments, but it also leads to making mistakes. Of course, Web design work and writing aren’t equals.

Late payments: Definitely include in your signed contract or document it somewhere that the client will be penalized for late payments. This shows you’re serious about your business and that you don’t tolerate late fees. Most of the time when they see this, they pay on time.

Email: I am SOOO bad about checking email. I’m organized, but I just can’t stop clicking GET MAIL especially now that I work on stories with a few hours turnaround time.

Time: I read somewhere that it’s OK to take a little more than you can handle because things get delayed. This is true. Once your cup runneth over, then put a temp stop gap.

Play nice: I’ve worked with a few folks that touched almost every nerve in my body. I do all I can to keep things amicable. When one company decided to do the bridge burning, I bit my tongue as lashing out would do no one any good.

Self-motivation: When you’re on your own, you MUST have the ability to accomplish work without push from anyone. Though clients will push you to get things done now, now… there isn’t a boss behind you making sure you do so. Another way to look at it — if you can’t complete an online course, then you most likely can’t be in business for yourself.

Taxes: Not all of my clients require W9s. I pay quarterly taxes (1040-ES estimated tax for individuals PDF file) through EFTPS. The form looks more complicated than it is. I mainly linked to it so you see the four payment vouchers. When it’s time for a quarterly tax payment, add up what you’ve earned and multiply that by .15, .25, or whatever you need to take out based on how much taxes you paid last year. Of course, please consult with a professional accountant on this — this is just FYI.

Promises: Consistency is right. However, I do make an effort to “surprise and delight” the client where possible.