Posted on 16 February, 2009 By
Kim Woodbridge
37 Comments
Using WordPress to Help Manage Your Freelance Business
Recently I wrote about finding freelance work with Twitter. Now that you are are landing freelance jobs you will want assistance in managing your upcoming business. There are a number of WordPress plugins and integrated features that can assist you with that. You might need a payment system, translations, an ecommerce solution or an affordable way to sent newsletters to your clients and potential customers. I have highlighted the 6 of the best ones below.
- MailPress – MailPress allows you to send html or text emails, based on custom templates, to your commenters, as a newletter, as a new post notifier, and for WordPress admin activities. I am intrigued by the newsletter functionality as newsletters are frequently generated by paid solutions, such as AWeber.
- WP-Invoice – This plugin allows you to create invoices from the WordPress admin area. Customer information can be stored in the WordPress database. It also integrates with a credit card payment system as well as paypal. I would like to test this on a new installation rather than on a live site first because I see the potential for security concerns. It would, however, be cool to send invoices right from WordPress.
- Sticky Posts for Announcements – Sticky posts are built into 2.7. Use WP-Sticky for earlier versions. With sticky posts announcements, discounts and specials can he highlighted for a period of time on the front page.
- WordPress e-Commerce Plugin – This is a shopping cart solution that is fully integrated with WordPress. It works with all the major payment systems, such as google checkout and paypal, and features a one page checkout.
- Static Front Page – If you are using WordPress for a business you may want a static front page rather than having your blog on the front page. I tested this when I started freelancing but decided that my blog highlighted my skills more than a services or about page did. That will not be true for all businesses.
- qTranslate – With this plugin you can translate your blog into many different languages, which allows your services to be available to an international audience.
Do you know of other WordPress features or plugins that would assist in managing a freelance business? If so, let me know in the comments.
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February 16, 2009 at 7:37 am
Pretty nice list Kim. I would have liked to add OIO Publisher to this list but you are talking about ‘free’ resources right? OIO is amazing actually… it’s just not about ad management but has got whole lot of features like selling your own custom products, downloadables, services etc. (Also have paid posts that’s integrated to the plugin)
Ajith Edassery´s last blog post – SEO – Link Building Series: Internal Link Building and Optimization
February 16, 2009 at 10:19 am
Hi Ajith – I was not specifically making a list of resources but I lean toward free solutions. I had not considered OIO as I do next to nothing with ad management. Thanks for the suggestion.
February 16, 2009 at 8:39 am
Nice list. Please let us know how WP-invoice works for you.
You know what would be nice, if there was a project management plugin… (Right now, I use a separate open source application: dotProject.)
Also, you might want to add a forms plugin like ‘cforms’ to this list.
Shirley´s last blog post – Would You Get A WordPress Tattoo?
February 16, 2009 at 10:20 am
Hi Shirley – I had cforms on the list and them removed it. Maybe I thought it was too obvious but you’re right – it should be on the list.
A project management plugin would be wonderful.
February 16, 2009 at 9:10 am
Very nice list indeed. But the static page plugin is no needed. You can setup whether the frontpage will be static or your blog from the WordPress settings…
stratosg´s last blog post – Member Of The Month: January
February 16, 2009 at 10:21 am
Hi Stratos – Gotcha! That is not linking to a plugin. It’s link to an older article of mine with the instructions for manually setting up a static page ;-)
February 16, 2009 at 10:28 am
Thanks for the list, Kim!
Is that picture from Peter Shen day?
Jim´s last blog post – Awareness Test
February 16, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Hi Jim – The photo is from around the time of the great
video card disaster. I decided to organize all my computer
software and get rid of stuff that was for older computers. I put everything into a series of organized piles and the kitty
decided she didn’t like things organized. ;-)
February 16, 2009 at 10:41 am
Ah, great! Thanks for pointing these out, Kim. I’ve been setting up a few sites on WP for friends and I think these will be useful plugins.
Mark Schoneveld´s last blog post – Running at John Heinz Wildlife Refuge
February 16, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Hi Mark – Great! I hope they help. I would like to know if you try any of them and how they work out – especially e-commerce and wp-invoice.
February 16, 2009 at 11:50 am
Thanks for pointing out “qtranslate”, I have been thinking of making translation of my website with such plugin, but main concern is will it translate nicely as many automatic translation tools does not translate good , native speakers might be annoyed reading robot translation with many grammar errors.
Chinese Girl´s last blog post – Wuyi Ramada Hotel
February 16, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Hi – I agree that a poor translation can be worse than no translation at all. I have not actually used qTranslate so I’m not sure what the output is like. Raju, in another comment, recommended Global Translator instead.
February 19, 2009 at 9:06 am
Thanks for the reply, I came back later to check the reply did not expected such quick reply, thank you very much, I will definitely
check the Global Translator.
Chinese Girl´s last blog post – Train Nanfen-Shenyang 6668
February 19, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Great! Let us know how it works.
February 16, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I would suggest Global Translator plugin instead. It has almost tripled my SE traffic since it forms a separate valid permalink for each language and adds itself to the sitemap. This would mean more people will find about you on Google.
Raju´s last blog post – Microsoft Offers $250 Million Reward for Downadup Creators
February 16, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Raju, I was contemplating adding this plugin to my blog… have you noticed any performance issues? ie. Is your website any slower? Have you noticed more errors in your stats? Thanks.
February 16, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Shirley – Sounds like we are asking so many questions that Raju is going to need to write a post about it ;-)
February 16, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Raju – How are the translations? How many languages does it do? Thank you so much for letting us know that it has increased your traffic – that’s wonderful!!
February 16, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I’m interested in the e-commerce plug-in. Do you use it?
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work´s last blog post – Fearless Living
February 16, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Hi Tom – I haven’t used it but it seems very well regarded for functionality and ease of use.
This review looks at the pros and cons. The free version seems to be good for very simple shops. The Pro version has a lot more features and some may be desired by many users. The comments are also worthwhile to read.
http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/wp-e-commerce-wordpress-plugin/
February 16, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I’d have to agree with Chinese Girl. My girlfriend is a freelance translator (English/Spanish to Swedish) and she can pick out translations done by machine or even by non-native speakers in no time flat. If you’re serious about doing translations, you need to have them at least proofread by a native speaker or else they’ll be full of awkward phrasing and embarassing mistakes.
February 16, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Hi Dave – Thank you for visiting and commenting. Translations can be worse than no translation at all. The ones I do through Babelfish usually don’t make any sense. I think the draw of the plugin is how many languages it can translate.
February 16, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Wow,
I had to scroll all the way down to the Fiddlebar to get to the comment post form. Hehe. ;-)
Nice stuff because at the end of the day anything that helps make the business end of things easier allows me more time to write, post comments, read other blogs, etc…
George
February 16, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Hi George – LOL at fiddlebar ;-)
Very true – and I find it intriguing to be able to use WordPress itself to manage parts of our businesses.
February 16, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I wasn’t familiar with any of these except for a static front page and sticky posts. Interesting!
February 17, 2009 at 8:16 am
Hi Vered – Most of them were new to me too. I keep track
of interesting plugins that I come across and realized that
all of these put together would make an interesting article
about freelancing.
February 17, 2009 at 3:38 am
Kim,
Thanks for sharing the free resources. The first one looks to me a really good one. Will check that out.
February 17, 2009 at 8:17 am
Hi Nihar – If you try it, let me know how it works. I have not tested it.
February 17, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Wow! This is a great list. I will definitely be using some of these when I get back into freelancing.
Carla´s last blog post – Save water, time and money in your yard
February 18, 2009 at 7:23 am
Hi Carla – Great. Let me know if you use any of them.
February 18, 2009 at 8:45 am
Lol the invoice thingy really makes online transaction so physical.
Ben Pei´s last blog post – Don’t You Want To Retire At 21?
February 18, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Hi Ben – I think full time freelancers need invoices for tax purposes.
If you are managing them yourself, it is probably easier. Although
there are programs to do that – it doesn’t have to be integrated with
WordPress.
February 23, 2009 at 9:02 am
i am into freelancing years before i launched my blog. i ll give your ideas a try..
Arun | BE Folks´s last blog post – How to avoid get rich scam sites
February 23, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Hi Arun – Let me know if you use any of these plugins or features.
I’m especially interested in WP-Invoice.
February 23, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Its sounds nice about wp-invoice. i ll give it a try in my test site and check it functions.
Arun | BE Folks´s last blog post – How to avoid get rich scam sites
April 17, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I am very curious about the mailpress plugin for newsletters. Using mailchimp now. Have you tried it?
I would also recommend the shopp plugin (http://shopplugin.net). I used it for my last project and it was really nice to work with! It is not free, but well worth the $55.
Had trouble with the wp-ecommerce plugin, but there has been a new version released since I tried it. Hopefully that one is working better.
Lori´s last blog post – WordPress eCommerce Plugins: Shopp vs WP e-Commerce
April 17, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Hi Lori – I have not tried it. I should start a newsletter but I haven’t.
Thanks for the shopp recommendation – I’ll have to check it out.