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Freelancers in every field face a constant challenge to achieve and maintain a high level of productivity and quality in their work. One of the ways that you can improve your results is by development of systems or routines for various aspects of your work. Most likely you do some of the same things day-after-day and week-after-week. Having a proven system for getting these things done can bring several positive benefits. In this post we’ll look at why you would want to develop you own systems and some areas of freelancing life that lend themselves to systematization.

Why Use Systems? 1. Maximum Productivity

The biggest advantage to developing and using systems in your work is the potential for improved efficiency and productivity. We all have limited time available to work, and as freelancers that directly impacts how much money we make. Improved productivity can lead to more income or less working hours, both are good things.

2. Development of Good Habits

We all develop habits of some kind, especially when we’re doing similar tasks over and over again. It’s easy to develop bad habits, especially since freelancers usually have no one to keep them accountable in the same way that an employee has a boss. By consciously developing your own systems or ways of doing things you’ll be able to work on developing good habits instead of bad ones.

3. Better Quality of Work

Not only can systems help to encourage better use of your time, but they can also lead to a better product or service. You probably have a lot of experience in your field and you’ve learned some things over the years that help you to know what produces the best results. Systematically putting these things into practice can lead to a consistently high quality of work.

Different Potential Uses for Systems: 1. Handling Finances

For most freelancers, dealing with finances is one of the most dreaded aspects of the job. Tracking income and expenses as well as completing and managing client invoices can be a real struggle for many people. However, if you’re able to develop a system for handling your finances, you could easily save time in this area and avoid some potential headaches.

A system for managing your finances would of course include a method of tracking individual items, such as using a service like FreshBooks, or simply by using a plain old spreadsheet. Additionally, you could develop a schedule for performing these tasks on a regular basis. For example, you could set aside some time each Friday afternoon to record your income and expenses for the week, and to send out new invoices and to track those that are outstanding.

Without having a system in place it’s easy to overlook something that needs to be recorded, or to loose track of invoices that haven’t been paid yet. You may spend more time handling these duties sporadically and experience confusion about what has been done and what hasn’t. An effective financial system will reduce the amount of time you spend throughout the week or the month on these tasks, and you’ll be much more organized.

2. Pricing and Policies

Pricing services can be a difficult task. There is such a wide variety of services in most industries that it’s not always easy to know what you should be charging and what your potential clients will be willing to pay. If pricing is something you struggle with, you can easily spend way too much time working on quotes before the job is even secured. Of course, spending some time on pricing issues with potential clients is necessary, but too often this task sucks up more time than it should, and that means less time for income-generating work.

By setting some standard pricing procedures you can provide clients with quotes much faster, and you’ll be more confident that your work is accurately priced. Without a system it’s easy to get distracted by trying to figure out what the client will be willing to pay so you price the quote high enough without going out of their budget. With a pricing system you’ll know what your services are worth, and if they’re willing to pay, great, and if not, you can move on to another project. Without some established projects, each quote will be a labor-intensive guessing game.

In addition to just using a system to help determine what you should charge, it’s also helpful to establish your own procedures for when you expect payment and what forms of payment you will accept from clients. Most freelancers charge a portion up front before they’ll start working on a project, and this is something that is good to include in your systematic approach. If clients object it’s easier to explain the procedure by saying that it’s a standard policy that you use with all clients.

3. Time Management and Scheduling

On of the great benefits of freelancing is the flexibility and the empowerment to adjust your schedule more than you would be able to in a typical full-time job. However, too much flexibility and not enough consistency can lead to poor productivity and less-than-ideal use of your time. In order to increase your income or cut back on your hours you could develop a system for managing your time that leads to increased productivity.

For me personally, building some habits into my schedule has helped to allow me to accomplish more with my time. Scheduling certain tasks for specific blocks of time, creating and sticking with to-do lists, and taking advantage of your most productive times of the day can all lead to better results.

Everyone operates differently in these ways, but it’s important to know your own work habits and evaluate what you can do to develop a better system for your own time management. My system includes:

• Developing a to-do list at the end of each day for tasks that need to be done the following day.
• Scheduling a combination of “light” work such as responding to emails and blog comments, and more mentally taxing work such as working on a client’s website for each day to avoid overload.
• Checking the calendar each morning to make sure that I’m on target for any deadlines.
• Scheduling time to work outside of the home office (such as at a local library) to get a change of scenery and usually a boost in productivity.
• Planning time off in advance in order to prepare adequately.

4. Customer Service

Regardless of what type of services you’re providing as a freelancer, customer service is inevitably a part of your work. While it’s impossible and impractical to attempt to automate customer service, there may be some ways that you can use systems to improve in this area as well. For example, you may want to avoiding checking your email constantly throughout the day. Instead you could set specific times to check your inbox and to respond to any customer service issues that arise. Also, if you get a number of emails from customers that ask very similar questions, you could develop some email templates for responding to these issues that could then be adapted or personalized case-by-case.

Developing a system for customer service could be a sensitive issue. While it’s good to evaluate what you can do to improve your efficiency and effectiveness in this area, a freelancer needs to be personally approachable, and having too much that is systematized could lead to poor service.

5. Work Flow

So far all of the potential systems that we’ve looked at have involved different aspects of freelancing, but none have dealt with the income-generating services that keep you in business. In addition to systems for finances, pricing, time management and customer service, your everyday workflow most likely also includes some opportunities for systematization. These opportunities will depend on what you do (designing, writing, programming, etc.) and your current practices.

Designers, for example, could benefit from developing a system that includes standard procedures for getting information from clients at the start of a new project. They could also build systems into their workflow by developing habits that work well for them, such as starting a design on paper, moving to Photoshop, and then to coding. From a coding perspective, developing your own consistent practices or even creating your own CSS framework for use on your projects could lead to improved productivity.

To develop your own systems for your workflow, take a look at the steps that are involved with your typical projects. Where do you spend a lot of time and how could you standardize your approach in a way that would simplify your work or produce better results?

A Potential Downside to Systematization

With the emphasis on using routines and systems to increase productivity, it’s possible to almost become robotic in your approach if it’s taken too far. That will usually lead to a lack of satisfaction in your work and potentially more harm than good. When developing your own systems, use your own judgment to determine what is appropriate and what is not. Once your system is in place, be flexible and willing to tweak your system from time-to-time if needed. Don’t get in the habit of doing things just because it’s how you have always done them. Instead, remember that reasons behind systematization and that it doesn’t have to apply to everything you do.

What’s Your Approach?

I’m sure most of us use systems of some kind in our daily work whether we even do so intentionally or not. How do you use systems and what advice can you share with others?

Sometimes I find it hard to describe Picasa without sounding like a late-night infomercial for a multi-bladed thingamabob: "It's a photo organizer! A photo editor! A web-savvy photo sharing and management system in just one tiny package!"

We try hard to avoid hyperbole around here, but it's true that Picasa software, working together with Picasa Web Albums, can help with nearly every aspect of owning and operating a digital camera. And because many of us take pictures in order to share them, we try to make sure Picasa does a great job of getting your favorite photos online, where friends and family can enjoy them too. In Picasa 3, that means powerful new features like automatically syncing changes between the photos on your computer and what you're sharing online, useful privacy controls integrated into the software on your PC, easier notifications, and more.

And today, we're releasing Picasa for Mac. While we've previously offered both a standalone Picasa Web Albums uploader and an iPhoto plugin for Mac users, Picasa for Mac finally brings all of the advanced sharing and sync features of Picasa to the millions of Mac OS X users who use Picasa Web Albums. Not to mention the "it-slices-and-dices" feature list that covers everything from color balance to collages.


Picasa for Mac looks and works much like Picasa on other platforms, and offers trademark Picasa features — such as non-destructive editing, and the ability to keep track of photos anywhere on your hard drive, then automatically account for new images as you add them.

Right now, Picasa for Mac is still in Google Labs, but we very much wanted to get an early version out to folks attending Macworld (you can learn more about this beta release at the Google Photos blog). To run Picasa, you'll need an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 and above. We hope you'll give it a spin, and give us your feedback in person — members of the Picasa engineering team will be conducting demos at Google's Macworld booth all week (you can also check out the video tour below).



Posted by Susanna Leng, Software Engineer

Quick And Easy Setup For DomainKeys Using Ubuntu, Postfix And Dkim-Filter

This is a quick tutorial for setting up DomainKeys on Ubuntu (I used 6.06LTS - but should work the same on others) using dkim-filter with Postfix so emails from your domain will not constantly end up in Yahoo's spam filter.

Setting Up A High-Availability Load Balancer (With Failover and Session Support) With HAProxy/Wackamole/Spread On Debian Etch

This article explains how to set up a two-node load balancer in an active/passive configuration with HAProxy, Wackamole, and Spread on Debian Etch. The load balancer sits between the user and two (or more) backend Apache web servers that hold the same content. Not only does the load balancer distribute the requests to the two backend Apache servers, it also checks the health of the backend servers. If one of them is down, all requests will automatically be redirected to the remaining backend server. In addition to that, the two load balancer nodes monitor each other using Wackamole and Spread, and if the master fails, the slave becomes the master, which means the users will not notice any disruption of the service. HAProxy is session-aware, which means you can use it with any web application that makes use of sessions (such as forums, shopping carts, etc.).

Like so many others before me, I realized long ago that freelancing is the only way to take full advantage of life in a free society. We all want greater control over our own daily schedules and future accomplishments. But while many of us can plainly see the allure of never having to ask a boss if we can go on vacation (or take a nap at 2pm), we often don’t view ourselves as entrepreneurs in the traditional sense… you know, those dynamic people who can make a business hum along profitably whether it’s an ice cream parlor or a rubber band factory?

As a result, we often find ourselves excitedly enlightened about the existence of a better life as freelancers, but without the practical vision to get there. Additionally, we may lack the financial resources that we imagine are a prerequisite to launching a freelance business. As a result, fear of failure paralyzes us.

Years ago, my solution to this dilemma was to work really hard at making myself indispensable to people who actually did have that entrepreneurial aptitude, working alongside them as they launched various ventures on a shoestring budget. Although I eventually realized that this did very little to actually liberate me from the more burdensome constraints of life as a paid employee, it did allow me to witness a basic template for success emerge, one that I would personally put to use… twice.

Before I detail the particulars, I want to emphasize that I am not for a moment suggesting that this template represents a “good business model” in the formal sense. Business majors would be appalled by it, artistic purists all the more. What I am saying, because I’ve done it twice, is that it worked for me. It worked when I founded my first company, one that is still humming along nicely after 13 years. And it worked a second time four years ago, when I launched a freelance graphic design business from a home studio just weeks after moving two states away. Here’s the basic outline:

1) Prepare in advance. Then quit your old work life cold turkey.

While you’re still punching the clock at your current gig, make a list of the essential things you need to purchase. Buy only the most basic equipment and materials you’ll need to be ready to deliver finished work on day one of your new venture, preferably without borrowing any money. Cut back on your monthly expenses now, not later when circumstances require it. Then make a list of prospective clients you feel certain will use your services. When possible, approach them and secure their interest in advance.

When you’ve got a solid plan that you have strong confidence in, drop your job like a bad habit and don’t look back (unless your old employer is a prospective client).

When I was a kid, I used to stand at the side of the pool dipping my toe in, and then I’d slowly descend into the water an inch at a time, trying to avoid any abrupt change in temperature. Frankly, it was cowardly. How much better to dive right into the water, suffer the jolt of the new for a few brief seconds, and then get going? So it is with freelancing.

Do your very best on every job. Continually improve your skills. Make sure the only complaint your clients have is that they didn’t find out about you sooner. But nothing will ensure your success like having no other option.

2) Set your hourly rate where you really want it. Then quote only flat fees.

From day one, set your hourly rate at the figure that you want to be making when you’re successful. After that, never mention it verbally to your clients unless absolutely necessary.

Quote flat fees for each job based on multiples of your hourly rate, using some common sense discretion to offer a finished cost that will garner the work. When you bill it, break the quoted flat fee down into your hourly rate and show it that way on the invoice, even if it isn’t necessarily an accurate reflection of the time spent on the job. By doing so, you’ll accustom your clients to the hourly rate you really want and deserve, without scaring them off at the beginning.

As your business grows and you gain confidence, you can bump up those flat prices without raising your hourly rate. If clients see the hourly rate staying the same on invoice after invoice over a long period of time, and they know you deliver as promised, they likely won’t protest.

3) Do not turn down profitable work, no matter what it is.

You can get selective later, but for right now, if someone will pay you to pick the gum out of the bottom of their wastepaper basket, do it. Your goal is to get as much money coming in the door as possible, and to build a broad client base that provides a steady stream of paying work.

It’s a pretty cool feeling to tell people you’re a freelancer. What isn’t so cool is to tell people that you’re a wealth transfer machine. But if you can’t afford to fail, that is exactly what you had better be. Your immediate goal is to transfer money out of the pockets of others and into your own, and any job that accomplishes that aim is exactly your kind, at least for now.

4) Deliberately precipitate a crisis.

If you’re talented, if you’re delivering quality services for fair prices, and if you’re spending time promoting yourself and benefiting from healthy word-of-mouth, you’re going to be very busy. I rarely work weekends. I work late only one night each week, but I bust my butt to make sure my available work hours are absolutely packed.

I recommend that you work a set schedule to start, just like a “real job”, and if you’re done at 3:00pm, do low-cost email marketing (or something equally productive) until quitting time. Once you can barely get all the work done that you’ve got coming in, once you’re almost overwhelmed by it all, smile… you’ll be in the driver’s seat.

5) Steer your freelancing business in the direction you want to go.

Now you can get picky. At this point ask yourself one simple question: “Is my primary problem that I’m not busy enough, or that I’m not making enough money for as busy as I am?” That’s the only question you’ll need from now on.

If you’re not busy enough, go right back to step 4. If you’re not making enough money, raise your flat rate prices, which you can do without raising hourly rates for as long as you’d like.

Starting a freelance business isn’t easy, but it’s absolutely possible for anyone with a genuinely marketable skill. You don’t need a giant loan, you don’t need to live in your parents’ basement, and you don’t need an MBA… just confidence and talent, and a determination to get started right now.

What are you waiting for?

If you were formerly a cubicle dweller, it’s a good bet that someone else was responsible for making sure that the smoke alarms in your building worked, that all staff members knew CPR, and that the company had a business continuity plan in case of disaster. Now that you are on your own, disaster preparedness and all that it entails is yet another task that falls squarely on your shoulders—along with janitorial jobs, stocking jobs, mail room jobs, accounts receivable jobs, and all the other parts that make up your business. Being prepared for a disaster is not as hard as it sounds. Here are some tasks to get you started so that no matter what kind of disaster strikes, you’ll be ready.

Your office

Most likely this is in your home, although it may be in an outbuilding or a leased office space. Make sure that the location is secure by installing good locks on your doors and/or re-keying locks that others have previously had keys to. Any space you work in should have a smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector, and a fire extinguisher on the premises. In case of a long term power outage, be sure to have a few emergency supplies such as bottled water and some easy-to-prepare food on hand as well as supplies such as gloves, a mask, a crow bar, an emergency blanket, etc. that can help you survive a disaster.

Your equipment

There are two disasters that befall freelancers on a regular basis when it comes to equipment. The first is losing files when you turn on your computer and see the blue screen of death. The solution? Make sure you back up your files at least weekly. Even better—make two back up copies and leave one off the premises in case a fire or other disaster destroys both your computer and your back-up files. The second problem is loss of power. Say you are working on a critical project with an even more critical deadline. The client on the other side of the country will not care that your power went out and you couldn’t work. Always have a secondary source of power for your computer. This could be a laptop which can run off of its battery, a battery system to prolong the power to your desktop after an outage, or even a generator that will power your entire home. Don’t forget that your modem may not work if you lose power so having a secondary way to reach the internet is also good disaster planning. You may do this through a dial up service (phone lines often work even when the power is out) or through your cell phone.

Your supplies

Who hasn’t had the experience of working late into the night on a really important project and when you go to print out your masterpiece for an early morning presentation you find that the printer has run out of ink. Yikes. This type of disaster can be avoided by always having backup supplies in storage. Paper, ink, stamps, basically all of the office supplies you use on a regular basis should be well stocked for times when you can’t get out to re-supply, when you use more supplies on a project than you had intended, or when cash flow is running a bit tight and you can’t afford to go out and buy 200 stamps for the mailing you need to do.

Your money

You can survive just about anything if you have enough money. Crashed computer? Buy another one. Unlivable house? Rent an apartment for a couple of months. Major client skips town? No problem. Actually, without an emergency fund, all of these incidents can cause HUGE problems for your business. Everyone should have an emergency fund of six months to one year’s worth of expenses in the bank. This way, you will have a soft financial cushion to land on should something terrible happen.

Your insurance

Speaking of terrible things happening, you need to insure the most important parts of your business. Make sure you have adequate life, health, home, business liability, long term disability, and auto insurance in order to protect not only the most important part of your business—you—but also to provide protection from the financial catastrophe that could result if you are in a terrible car accident, your home burns down, or you die and your family is counting on the income from your business to survive. For young, healthy people, insurance is usually quite inexpensive (excluding health insurance which is astronomical but still very important) however this topic often gets pushed to the side in favor of more pressing financial commitments.

Your business continuity plan

What happens if your office burns down, an earthquake demolishes your town, or the storm of the century hits your area? If you have a business continuity plan in place, the answer will be much simpler to ascertain. Do you have a way to continue your business no matter what kind of disaster strikes? A business continuity plan includes things such as where you would work if you can’t work in your current office, what equipment and supplies you would use if your current equipment and supplies are damaged or destroyed, and what you would do if your major supplier goes out of business or your major client cuts their need for your services in half or in its entirety.

Basic disaster planning isn’t just for big corporation. In fact, big corporations often have the financial wherewithal to simply set up shop somewhere else and keep producing. Freelancers, on the other hand, need to maximize their planning and preparedness in order to meet, survive, and hopefully flourish no matter what emergency life throws at them.

Much to my wife’s disdain, talk radio not only keeps me awake during road trips it entertains me and helps to pass the time much more quickly as I drive. She on the other hand finds it mostly boring and doesn’t quite understand my attempts to argue with a medium that is incapable of hearing or responding to my points. Thankfully, during our recent return trip from holiday our little one needed her attention more than usual and I was able to argue, insult, agree and disagree with almost any talking head I wanted.

For a majority of the morning I spent listening to sports talk radio and realized that consecutive show hosts must not listen to each other nor are they required to go over their show points or line-ups in advance. Most of the issues covered on the early show were re-hashed and re-worded time and time again later in the day. Needless to say, my afternoon listening strayed somewhat from sports talk radio to other interesting topics I could find on my overwhelming number of satellite radio stations.

There was one section of my sports talk radio listening that stood out in my mind this morning and I have been thinking about it most of the day. The host spent a good portion of his time trying to get his listeners to understand that luck plays little to no role in the success of successful people. At first I thought his idea was just an extreme to rile some up but as he explained his points a little more with sports examples, I began to see it a little more clearly and ultimately wonder how much it plays into the life of a freelancer.

Lucky

Many of us often wish good luck on others before performances, life events and travels but when they finish the task we wished them luck for do we attribute their success to luck? I have a sister-in-law who makes the decision (for what reasons I cannot fathom) to push her body to the limit and run races in distances up to 26.2 miles. Before her race, I and many others wish her luck at her upcoming task. But is it luck that she finishes? No, it’s because she trains diligently and consistently for weeks on end prior to said race to prepare her body and mind for the task at hand.

Similarly, I don’t feel that my ability to find work and provide a living for my family is due to luck in freelancing. I have worked hard the last three and a half years to produce a quality brand, good work, and I make every attempt to be as reliable as possible to my clients. It wasn’t luck that when three new lodging companies opened in a certain area this year that they called looking for help promoting their businesses. They called because the quality of work I provide to similar clients in their field stands for itself. They called because others in town, when asked, mentioned my company as the only one worth working with and could attest to my meeting their needs.

Fortunate

Different from luck, but not necessarily different in nature, being fortunate isn’t usually the first answer either. At least in freelancing.

If your great-grandfather started a manufacturing plant in the 1930’s and then passed it on to your grandfather, father and ultimately your hands - you are fortunate. In almost every case, freelancers don’t have that fortune. We start from ground zero, working every day to polish and produce with the hopes of one day creating a fortunate instance for those who come after us.

I am a firm believer though that the harder you work at something, the more fortunate you become. Feel like writing for a living? Start writing. Write every day. Start a blog, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, write cards to your family/friends, and even write things nobody will ever read. You will not only get better at your writing but I firmly believe that somebody will notice you. It’s crazy (and humbling) to see emails and responses to stuff I’ve written from people all over the world who’ve stumbled across my writing in some form or another. From writing on my own and practicing my craft, my work has been found and opportunities have been afforded. That to me is hard work showing itself as good fortune.

Good

What we sometimes consider lucky or fortunate are by-products of being good at what we do. Am I fortunate to have a job that I don’t have to ask for time off or worry about whether I only have 3 vacation days left? Yep. Did I get it because I was lucky? Nope. I got it because I work hard at what I do and I work harder at getting better at it every day. By getting better at what I do, I create circumstances around myself for others to notice and hopefully gain from it.

The problem you will find as a freelancer is that you have to be getting better at every part of your business all the time. Building relationships, networking, selling, invoicing, client interaction, placing your product, marketing, PR, writing, designing, developing and so on. Though some may not be highlights of your day, each part of your business is integral to the whole. If your marketing is failing, more than likely your sales are dropping. If your development skills are lacking then your finished sites aren’t coming off as beautiful as your mocks were to the client.

Reputations and client relationships aren’t based on luck. CEO’s of big firms, top sales guys, athletes and entertainers rarely make their mark on luck. I would venture to bet that in almost every case of self-made successful people hard work paid dividends multiple times that of luck. Create your own good fortune with hard work and don’t fall into the trap of thinking that someone is doing better that you because they are just lucky.

Are you lucky, fortunate or good?

Christian Ross is a freelance designer/developer based in Grapevine, Texas. You can read his ramblings and/or follow him on twitter .

True or false: freelancers tend to be relatively adventurous people, given that they’ve eschewed a “regular” job to live a more free work/life style? I vote for “true,” so it wouldn’t surprise me if a large proportion of freelancers suddenly decided that they wanted to live the lifestyle of a Digital Nomad - a person who utilizes technology to combine work and travel.

FreelanceSwitch has previously published articles and interviews about traveling and freelancing. Another facet to prepare as a digital nomad is having alternate income streams to build overall reliable cash flow. The suggestions below come from my own research as I prepare to work and travel with my fiancee within the next year or two.

Reliable Cash Flow: Multiple Streams of Income

Call me financially conservative, but when you’re traveling long-term, the need for reliable cash flow cannot be overstated. For digital nomads, there’s the added cost of keeping gadgets/ tech functioning, and getting reliable Internet connections.

Consider building up multiple streams of income before you travel. Build both active and passive income streams. Passive streams of income are especially important if you want to take a real vacation, away from your computer. Otherwise you’re just working “at home,” from a different country. A few options are listed below. Obviously, some options require certain skills, though you’ll probably find something suitable.

1. Freelancing. Of course, if you’re reading this article, freelancing is probably already your bread and butter. If you can take the tools of your trade with you when you travel, then freelancing is an ideal income source for digital nomads.

2. Monetized websites. There are a number of ways that you can monetize your own websites:

1. Ad revenue. One work option for Nomadic Webpreneurs is of course blogging from anywhere in the world, and having ad revenue as one stream of income.
2. Paid reviews. There are a number of online services that allow businesses to buy a paid review of the their website, product or service. If your website meets entry criteria, you can join a pool of paid reviewers.
3. Affiliate marketing. Pick products or services you feel good about, because your reputation is on the line. Write about these products and services, and provide your affiliate member link in text links or ads. Each time someone visits the affiliate site, they become a “lead.” Some affiliate programs pay for each lead. Others require that the lead actually purchase something before you earn a commission.
4. Subscriptions. Maybe you have knowledge that you can use to produce “premium” website content, including special reports, ebooks, videos, etc. Monetize this premium content with monthly memberships.

3. SEO work. This is another web-based opportunity that can be performed pretty much anywhere that you have an Internet connection. Check out Aaron Wall’s seminal SEOBook ebook to learn more about SEO.

4. Ebooks, books. Write once, sell many times. Promote your (e)books online to produce semi-passive income.

5. Travel writing + photography. In addition to the typical newspaper/ magazine writing and photography, there are literally thousands of potential website clients. You might also find buyers of upscale restaurant and hotel reviews. (Try to negotiate a deal with an editor before you leave.) One semi-passive income option is to sell stock photography. Post quality travel pictures on one or more stock photo sites. This can turn into a significant passive income stream, provided you know/ learn what sells and can supply lots of that type of content.

6. Consulting, workshops, lecture circuit, speaking tours. If you have skills you can apply in the real-world, you have a big opportunity here, especially if you’ve developed a name. Workshops are one potentially lucrative option, and a simple numbers game. For example, 30 people at $100 each for a 2-hour workshop is $3000. Not bad for a few hours work (plus the preparation time and minus the cost of a place to offer the workshop). Do a couple of these each month, if possible, and you have a nice side income. If you’re traveling extensively, then you will always have a fresh audience.

7. Teaching English. This is an old mainstay occupation for world travelers. Of course, there are other languages you can teach, depending on your background and where you go, though English seems the most in demand geographically.

8. Tour guide. Stay long enough in one country and you just might gain the smarts to give paid tours to other visitors. Be forewarned that such activity sometimes leads to becoming an expatriate.

Note that if you are working exclusively online, you can often work in another country without a work VISA. (Many countries allow you to stay up to 6 months/ 180 days without requiring a VISA. There may be some conditions, so always research. You might need a “business” VISA or a work permit, for certain types of work.

If you want to learn more about this lifestyle, check out the quality Digital Nomads website. Do you have plans to work and travel? How are you preparing for such a lifestyle?

Every year right about now we round up our blogging activity across Google. Ready? Here goes.

This is our 368th post of the year on the main Google blog, which is 23% more than in 2007. In addition to more posts, we are thrilled to know that we have many more readers now — 78% more, to be exact. The number of unique visitors jumped from 6,738,830 last year to more than 12 million (12,000,723) in 2008. And readers are coming from all over: the UK, Canada, India, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Japan and beyond. The top non-Google referrers are Yahoo, Digg, Reddit, Lifehacker and Slashdot.

We posted quite a bit about new products (10) and new product features (56), but nothing caused as much excitement as our earlier-than-planned unveiling of Google Chrome. This post alone had 1,735,093 unique visitors and generated 12% of our total-year pageviews on the blog! There was also the much-anticipated announcement of the first Android-powered phone. And people enjoyed reading about our design philosophies. Who knew a little change to a favicon would generate such interest?

But it wasn't all just product news; there was much else to cover in 2008. To mark Google's 10th birthday, we took a moment to reflect on the enormous impact the Internet has had on people's lives since our founding. Some of our in-house experts shared their thoughts on how various technologies will evolve in the next 10 years.

Like many of you, we were on the edge of seats watching all of the U.S. election action. We posted 27 times about political subjects, providing information about voting tools, how the political process works, and what was top of mind on Election Day. It's clear that technology will be playing an even bigger role in politics in years to come.

Of course, we had some fun too: We kept our long-standing April Fools' Day tradition going with the announcement of Project Virgle; we covered new ways to get around the Googleplex and the masterminding of a giant Ferris wheel; and we raised our glass to a couple who got married with Google.

And the Google blog network keeps on growing: 44 new blogs launched this year, for a total of 127 active company blogs. A few highlights: eight new developer blogs (the Open Source blog is shining star, with 370,000 unique visitors since its start in February), and 22 new ads-related blogs, nearly half of which are in languages other than English (there are AdSense blogs in Traditional Chinese and Russian; and AdWords blogs in Danish, German, Turkish, French, Russian, Korean, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Spanish). There's even an Analytics blog in French. And we also welcomed three new regional blogs, for India, Africa, and the Ukraine. Sharing information with people wherever they are in whatever language they speak is a priority for us, and each of these new blogs helps us get a little bit closer to this goal. If the total number of Google blogs makes your head spin, don't worry. We've developed a new blog directory and gadget to help you more easily track news and updates from us.

We're looking forward to another robust year of keeping you informed of all the goings-on at Google. In the meantime, we wish you and yours a very happy New Year.

Posted by Susan Straccia, Google Blog Team

“Drat!” echoes in your mind. You’ve found superb sources for what you’re writing, chock-
full of information you would absolutely love to use. How do you paraphrase the
information?

First, why should you paraphrase? If you use someone’s information and its wording as if
it is your own, it is plagiarism. If you use someone else’s unique information and do not
credit it, it is plagiarism. Plagiarism is illegal. It also tends to have nasty side effects on your
reputation, be it for work or school.

A paraphrase pulls another person’s information into the writer’s own words. For unique
information (like, for example, a survey), a source should still be named, but much writing
involves research for facts the writer didn’t already know, and those facts must be presented
in a different way than the writer found them. As a common rule of thumb, four uncredited
words in a row from someone else are too many.

Paraphrases can also clarify something. For example, someone who understands medical
jargon might paraphrase the results of a medical study so the average non-technical person
can understand it. A paraphrase doesn’t necessarily simplify language, but it often can.
To paraphrase, take a source’s information and express the core concepts you want to use in
your own way. Just think of what you do when you’re telling someone you know about
something you’ve read or heard — that’s often a paraphrase.

Sometimes, particularly on a bit of information that is difficult to find, paraphrasing can be
difficult. The precise words we’ve read impress themselves on our retinas, and our minds
get stuck thinking along those lines. There are a few ways to pull out of this rut, and there’s
one technique to help avoid it entirely.

Skimming helps the most to avoid plagiarism. Keep track of which sources have the best
information for you, but make sure you only skim them. Skim at least four sources,
including some that are shallow on the information.

If you’re a visual learner from words and remember what you just read a bit overwell, wait
a few minutes before trying to write. Listening to a song with attention to the lyrics might
help at this point, to make the information a bit foggy in your mind.

Now, write! You won’t remember the little details of information, true, but don’t worry
about it. That’s why you previously kept track of your good sources. Write what you can
without going back for the details, and if necessary add notes to yourself to go back and
add in certain details. Once you have the basic thing written, go back to your sources and
fill in what was lacking.

All right, that might work if you haven’t researched already, but what if you’re already
stuck? Several techniques can be used to help unstick you. You might find one works best,
or perhaps you may sometimes find that you need them all.

Stop reading the sources your mind’s trying to plagiarize. It’s already stuck in your brain —
don’t add any more glue to the binding. Also, have a new computer document or a pen and
paper handy, whatever works best for you for note taking.

Consider the information you’re using. What are the most important details that you want to
include? Jot those down in as few keywords as possible. Read over the list, then rewrite it
to cut more words.

Is there a way to reorder or restructure the information? Try to find your own method of
organizing the data, even if it’s not as good as the sources. You can restructure it later after
you’re out of the plagiarism rut. Pick some detail near the end of the information you want
to use; is there a way to incorporate it into the beginning? That might spur you into
reorganization — and the rewording.

If your mind is still quoting those precise phrases, take the first active verb involved in your
mental quote and find a synonym. Where you get it doesn’t matter. Tweak the sentence to
add that synonym. If you don’t need to adjust anything when you add the synonym, find
another one for that verb or a nearby important word until you do have to tweak the
sentence. Start tweaking, and you might find yourself suddenly free to redo the entire thing.

There’s always the possibility that you’ll still be stuck at this point. Go and find other
sources that are even partially pertinent. If you can’t find any other pertinent sources, read
some of the same type, preferably by a different author. Read other sources until the
original ones become a bit foggy in your memory. (You may also find listening to a
favorite song’s lyrics helpful in producing that fog.)

Now, you should be able to write. Some details will be forgotten, but resist the temptation
to fill them in as you go. Finish the writing, then go back and fill in the details. If you must
review something, look at your previously-made keyword list.

Congratulations! You’ve pared the phrases down to a paraphrase.

The new year is always a good time to reflect upon your business practices of the previous year. Did you perform as well as you’d hoped as a freelancer? Or did you get rejected more often than you were expecting?

When you’re turned down for a freelance gig, how does it make you feel? It stings, right? Even when you have a few years of experience. It’s tough enough being a lonely freelancer, tougher still being rejected for a gig you were hoping for - or worse, counting on.

But this is purely a default reaction you’ve allowed yourself to have. If you detach yourself personally from the outcome, then it allows you to move on and try for another gig. The fact is, most of the time, being rejected has nothing to do with you personally.

Some Questions to Ask Yourself

To make it easier to deal with rejection in the future, ask yourself some questions about recent rejections.

1. Was this really a slight against me? Don’t take it personally. There are many reasons a freelancer does not get the job, and it’s not always about you. When you realize this, then it’s easier to be detached.
2. Did I deliver? Maybe it was about you. Was this an existing client? It’s been said that existing clients are your best source of work. The effort of getting additional work from them is typically less than for finding a new client and an active project. Check back with clients after a project has completed, to be sure that they received what they were expecting.
3. Was I qualified? Maybe someone was more qualified. Clients are going to be more conservative during a recession. Improve your skills for the next opportunity.
4. Were my rates confusing or just wrong? Were my rates too high for the client? Too low? Believe it or not, the latter might lead some potential clients to believe that you’re not offering very much. Or maybe you are way outside the range of your market without clearly explaining what you offer to justify your rates.
5. Did I make clear what I could do for them? If you don’t tell them that you can do “X”, don’t assume they know.
6. Did I communicate properly to the client? Don’t assume that a busy client understood everything. Communications in the digital age get rushed. Long emails or chat sessions might not get absorbed. Ask direct questions that solicit a response, instead of just stating something. Repeat unanswered questions in followup communications.
7. Was there a personal crisis? Personal situations sometimes come up, and a rejection is sometimes due to that or simply an oversight. By checking back with them or staying in touch, you might gain other work.

Does detachment make you insensitive? Not at all. Consider for a moment the philosophy that many creative people subscribe to: a single, feasible, great idea is the result of having dozens or even hundreds of infeasible ideas.

So photographers take dozens of pictures to get one good one. Inventors try thousands of ways to produce a functioning prototype. As they achieve efficiency of style and work flow, later efforts become easier. Likewise, as a freelancer, you might have to apply for/ bid on several gigs before landing one. This gives you the opportunity to learn skills for applying and/or bidding, and to become efficient at it.

Got the hang of it? Ready to face rejection head on? Check out The Golden Pencil’s Rejection Letter Oympics, where blogger Jenny Cromie challenges readers to go out and get as many rejection letters as possible. The more opportunities you try out for, the better your chances of getting a “yes” at some point. Not trying might save you from rejection, but it limits your opportunities.

Have you been rejected for a project lately? What did you do to get through it?

The holidays are a time for giving, and Googlers across the globe have found some creative ways to give back to their communities this season. From raising money and crafting greeting cards to building gingerbread houses and giving blood, Googlers from east to west have been busy spreading good cheer. We've highlighted just a few of these efforts here, and we're looking forward to many more opportunities to give back in the new year.

London
The UK engineering recruitment team started to plan its annual Secret Santa gift exchange. But as they began thinking about last year, they realized that hardly anyone on the team could remember what they'd received, let alone given. Instead of spending 10 pounds on gag gifts, they decided to use the money to make a difference. After discovering that a local children's hospital was in desperate need of gifts, they quickly raised enough money to buy a Nintendo Wii gaming console for one of the wards.


Mexico City
In the past, Google has held a "Doodle 4 Google" contest in the US, the UK, and Australia, inviting kids K-12 to submit a homepage doodle inspired by a particular theme. This year Mexico held its first such contest (theme: "the Mexico we want"). For each doodle submitted, Google donated to a non-profit that works to eradicate childhood malnutrition in Mexico. In total, more than 70,000 kilos (154,000 pounds) of food and aid were donated. Winner, Ana Karen Villagómez, was recently recognized in a ceremony in Mexico City; her doodle (pictured below) will appear on the Google homepage on January 6.


Boston and beyond
Boston Googlers delivered gifts to some very grateful students at a local school and spent the morning reading and playing with the children. The Chicago office held its first-ever holiday blood drive, donating 36 units of blood. And the Ann Arbor office held a "CANstruction" competition, creating sculptures out of canned food, personal items and baby items, which were all later donated.



We hope that your holiday season is filled with plenty of time to slow down and reflect on what's important to you, and that you too feel inspired to find ways to give back to your own community in the new year.

Posted by Eileen Duffy and Sarah Falck, AdWords Account Associates

Freelancing on the side while keeping a full time job can be a good way to test the waters and save money before plunging in full time. In fact, I freelanced part time for three years while building up the confidence and the clips to succeed as a full time freelance writer.

Though it’s often the sensible thing to do financially, it’s certainly not the easiest. Any part time writer, designer, coder, or other freelancer will tell you that it requires careful discipline and superior time management skills.

Here are several tips on tackling freelance projects while keeping a full time job.

Be selective about your freelance clients and projects

All freelancers should be selective, but it’s especially important when you’re not available during the day and you’re giving up personal time to finish freelance projects. Working for someone who expects you to be at their beck and call to answer questions or turn around last minute requests just doesn’t work for part timers. Ditto on setting up phone interviews or status calls with someone who’s a perpetual rescheduler. Cut these people loose. If you’re freelancing part time, then you’re probably not solely dependent on that income to pay the bills. Your time is limited, so give yourself permission to hold out for clients who respect your time and projects that truly interest you.

Use different time zones to your advantage.

If, for instance, you’re a freelance writer who’s on assignment for a general interest publication, then you may be able to find interview subjects in another time zone. If you’re in California, you could call an expert source in New York City at 10:30am EST and still get to your office by 9am PST. Those who are developers or graphic designers could apply this same principle to scheduling phone calls (if required - see #3) and choosing who they’ll work with.

Encourage people to contact you via email

Many editors, project managers, and web types are already email savvy, and this can be a huge help to those who freelance part time. Rather than listening to lengthy phone calls about website specs or word counts or playing phone tag during the work day, have the client email you the information so you have a digital paper trail. If you need to interview sources for an article, an email interview can sometimes do the trick (better yet, write something that doesn’t require interviews, like a blog post or an essay). No need to explain that you have a full time job, because you can simply say “I work better when I can read it in an email.” One caveat: checking your non-work email on a company computer could force you into full time freelancing sooner than you’d planned, so I wouldn’t recommend that unless your company has an incredibly lax internet policy and you’re simply being paid to be there.

Go mobile.

Once you’ve trained clients to contact you via email, a mobile device will make it even easier for you to stay plugged in. Yes, there are some not-so-nice stories about CrackBerry addiction, but using your own BlackBerry or iPhone will keep you in the loop without having to use your company computer. If you use public transportation, then you can catch up on email or RSS feeds during your commute (my BlackBerry even gets service in many of Boston’s subway stations!) and discreetly check it during lunch or other breaks. The added productivity will help offset the extra cost.

Request a compressed schedule

This is a tricky one, because you don’t want to raise any red flags with your employer. But depending on the nature of your job and your company’s policies, you may be able to work a few more hours four days per week and spend the fifth day focusing on freelance projects. Or if you’re able to work from home on occasion, you could use of the time you save by not commuting. My last employer was flexible enough that I could sometimes start my day a little earlier and run home a few minutes early to get ready for a phone interview. The important thing is to show your boss that you consistently deliver good work, even when you’re not working a traditional workday.

For those of you who freelance part time, what tips would you add? If you’ve already made the transition from part time to full time, how long did it take?

While everyone is finishing up their present wrapping and placing the milk and cookies out for Santa, I thought I would take this moment to wish a very merry holidays to the FSw readers. We are very blessed to have such an active, friendly and smart community behind this site. Thanks for all that you do!

Now don’t eat too many holiday cookies…

Glen

If you’ve ever wanted to see your writing on Freelance Switch, and get paid a cool $60 USD to do it, read the guidelines and send us your brilliant article pitch or a completed article for consideration. To get started, visit this page.

Keep in mind that when we open the contribute form we get a lot of submissions, so bear with Glen as he sorts through them. It may take a little while but we’ll get back to everyone eventually.

Good luck!

For many of us heavily invested in eCommerce, the official economic recession of 2008 has one positive spin: it bolsters and quickens our culture’s direction online. We are increasingly moving to the Web not just for product research, but actual browsing and buying. This year, more shoppers are comfortably online for all the reasons we expect: 24/7 access, no lines, gas prices, convenience.

In terms of marketing, online sales success is also thanks to well-crafted offers and promotions like free shipping and discounts that quickly expire. These are delivered through the simple, workaday effort of links in emails. Despite issues with spam, email is still a hardworking champion for sales and currently the ultimate marketing delivery vehicle for an online audience.

It follows that many marketers are in search of the magic-bullet email. Here are some simple, tested writing methods to help judge and enhance your email campaigns. These ideas offer a handful of successful approaches and considerations, depending on your audience, experience and needs.

Concentrate on the basics of email delivery to increase sales

First, it’s important to understand the vehicle, the medium, in which we are sending out our message. This is so basic, but many marketers and copywriters take this obvious step for granted. Often the marketing vehicle is established based on opportunity, but it might not be the right delivery mechanism for your audience and needs. We’ll assume we know email is the best direction for our offer and our online, Web savvy, surfing audience. Now let’s consider all the elements for a writer that make up email delivery.

From line: when receiving email, this is the first place most people look. If it’s a trusted source, from a friend, from a recognized name, from a site often visited, the chances of opening the email increase exponentially. This is why transactional emails—like to finalize a sale, to open a receipt, or to become a member of a site—have the highest open rates from businesses. In theory, your from line should remain consistent throughout your emails to engender trust and a modicum of brand awareness.

Subject line: Here we have about 50 character spaces that can make or break all your efforts. It’s a topic that requires its own chapter in the book of building better emails. To encourage readers to open your email, the subject line needs to be straightforward; and, to convert opens to click-throughs, the subject line must be truly representative of the content.

I like the axiom “tell don’t sell” for subject lines. Selling reads like spam. Try to be as simple and direct as possible. For a newsletter, a subject line like “Our Dec. Newsletter” actually tests quite well. The assumption here is that the reader subscribed for updates and wants your email. If possible, make your subject line relate to the reason someone joined your list. Was it to receive news or discounts?

If you can personalize and segment your list, it’s often helpful to inject this into the subject line, along with a sense of urgency. Deadlines and real breaking news work wonderfully. “Discounts for Jeff until Dec. 31st” promises results. But this also assumes you understand something about the relationship between frequency, relevancy, and audience. Together, these elements work to define your success.

Spam keywords: Every marketing delivery vehicle comes with challenges to overcome and with email it’s spam. As copywriters, we need to ensure we avoid spam filters by avoiding spam keywords. This is essentially a discussion of too many capitalized words like FREE repeated numerous times, followed by too many exclamation marks. If you write the way a sideshow barker yells to passerby on a summer beach boardwalk, you’ll need to tone it down. Otherwise you should be safe. Luckily, any decent email software system nowadays offers automated spam keyword checks prior to sending out a campaign.

Email writing style: This whole article informs your writing. But it’s also important to consider the general writing style in terms of this vehicle. According to most tests, people like writing about the length of their attention span; that is: short. Readers don’t generally look to the screen for lengthy prose. Keep your emails short and to the point. Brevity works, with headlines, sub-headlines, call-outs and bullet points that break up text for quick scanning. Try for simple, plain-sounding language sprinkled with action verbs.

Improved creative briefs lead to successful campaigns

When starting a writing project I always begin with a creative brief. Every ad agency has their version of the creative brief at the beginning of the process. The information needed is always similar. These are the essentials needed before creative development can commence—audience, intention, message, delivery… They are so basic. Then why are some of these ad aspects often ignored or misunderstood? Let’s take a closer look at some of the elements from a creative brief you’ll need to write email copy that turns into sales.

Audience

“The people who will receive my email” is not a definition of audience for a copywriter. In the case of email, you should be extraordinarily specific since segmenting a list with different offers is a simple matter of automation. Elements might include gender, age, nationality, family, location, likes and dislikes, purchase history, etc. Understanding the audience is one the building blocks and keys to all successful campaigns.

I believe it’s an imperative to fully envision the audience receiving the email. Who are they? Where are they? What are the circumstances? When did they open the email? What email client do they use? Are they at home or at work? Are their kids in the background screaming? Or are those voices just college roommates? How is this offer going to get this person to react?

Intention

What is the single clear intention of this email? I find it extraordinarily helpful to define the single clear intention, especially for larger organizations with a bureaucratic system of approvals. I want a singular purpose. In this case, what is the reason we are sending this email? “To make a sale” is too quick of an answer, unless your audience can finalize the sale in the email. Instead, the job of the email is to encourage people to click. Now what is the reason they will click? We want only one reason for an effective sales email.

A single clear intention for email might look like: “extol the virtues of our peanut butter as an organic product”. Be sure not to reduce the value of your product or service by suggesting people will click because of the offer – such as discount price point or free shipping. Equipped with this information, we can focus our writing and messaging. Often, any product information outside of the single clear intention I like strike from the email.

Offer

What is the tie-in and reason to purchase? Now that you have my attention with creative connected to the single clear intention, I need that extra nudge to encourage an immediate sale, especially for purchases that are based on emotional and impulse buying. This is the discount, the giveaway, the mega-sale, the deadline, the sense of urgency, the reason I will take action now.

Messaging

Often in broad-based campaigns the messaging has already been developed with a tagline and headline for the Web site, the print ads, or other marketing collateral. Often it may be tied into the product’s brand positioning or the unique selling propositions. Given our single clear intention, what are the words and ways that we use to define and describe our products or services? I’ve found for many small business owners, they have detailed knowledge of the messaging but it must be coerced from their anecdotes and experience. This is great area for writing exercises and exploration.

Call-to-action

This is basic and paramount for marketing: Ask for the sale. Click here. Call today. What are you asking your reader to do? What would it say in the vision of the horribly designed orange starburst at the top of the page? This is easy in email—usually we want more visits to our landing page. But I’ve seen this discussion lead to restructuring of an organization’s entire CRM system. How can a potential customer connect? Do you provide enough information?

Voice

The voice is an important element that must be defined before the writing begins. Usually voice has been established long ago based on the brand positioning and the audience. Voice defines the mood of the words as well as the layout and artwork. Is this “polite, professional, intelligent” or how about “witty and youthful”?

Voice for me often leads to a discussion of ad versus direct mail copywriting. Perhaps you’re struggling to extend your brand awareness and to make offers that read more like poetry. Or maybe you don’t care so much about winning creative accolades, but improved metrics and sales would be a welcome holiday bonus. Knowing this is extraordinarily helpful for the copywriter to define voice.

Engage, educate and empower your readers

There are many ad agencies that sell their services based on methodologies. This seems to attract large bureaucratic companies. One such approach that I learned was based on these three Es. You can examine your creative execution to determine if the email copywriting is working.

Does the copy engage audiences? This is the job of the subject line first, then the headline and the connection to artwork. Will it attract my eye given all the other offers and emails in my inbox? Does the copy educate—providing relevant information that this audience wants? And does it empower, with call to actions and links that lead audiences to the next step?

Crafting effective language takes time, energy, thought, experience, testing, editing and rewriting. This bears repeating, as many people I know go out of their way to express the fact that they are not writers. They maintain a fallacy that an effective writer pumps out nearly perfect copy in minutes.

For overall email success, please keep in mind that here we’re only covering writing aspects of your email campaign. There are many other elements to consider and connect, such as design, deliverability, HTML versus text, CAN SPAM laws, list procurement, timing, frequency… Ultimately, defining “effective” campaigns will be informed by your needs and determined through testing. But practicing and considering some of these ideas have helped numerous companies dramatically improve their odds. I hope you find the same success.

Jeff Selin has over 15 years of marketing experience and is an expert of ecommerce shopping cart software, email marketing, and other web software technologies.

When I look back on four years of tracking Old St. Nick on Christmas Eve, I can't help but smile. The Santa tracker has really come a long way. I always thought NORAD's Santa Tracker was a great holiday tradition, but I felt like it could have been even better if people could visualize exactly where Santa was on Christmas Eve. So in 2004, shortly after Keyhole was acquired by Google, we followed Santa in the "Keyhole Earth Viewer" — Google Earth's original name — and we called it the "Keyhole Santa Radar." The audience was relatively small since Keyhole was still a for-pay service at that point, and we hosted everything on a single machine shared with the Keyhole Community BBS server. We probably should have had three separate servers to host the Santa tracker — that first year, we had only a portion of a single machine. That night, about 25,000 people kept tabs on Santa and, needless to say, wreaked some havoc on our servers!

Over the next two years, our Santa-tracking efforts improved dramatically. By December 2005, Keyhole had become Google Earth and our audience had become much, much larger. Our "Santa Radar" team also grew: we used greatly improved icons from Dennis Hwang, the Google Doodler, and set up 20 machines to serve the tracking information. My colleague Michael Ashbridge took over the software and more than 250,000 people tracked Santa on Google Earth that Christmas Eve. In 2006, Google acquired SketchUp, a 3D modeling software that enabled us to include models of Santa's North Pole workshop and sleigh. We also incorporated a tracking feed directly from NORAD's headquarters, and we were now displaying NORAD's information in Google Earth. That year, more than a million people tracked Santa.

In 2007, Google became NORAD's official Santa Tracking technology partner and hosted www.noradsanta.org. In addition to tracking Santa in Google Earth, we added a Google Maps tracker and integrated YouTube videos into the journey as well. Now, we had Santa on the map and on "Santa Cam" arriving in several different locations around the world, with commentary in six different languages. The heavy traffic — several millions of users — put Google's infrastructure to the test, but with some heroic work by our system reliability engineers, the Santa Tracker worked continuously.

This year, Googler Bruno Bowden is in charge of the Santa software, and we have further upgraded our server capacity. We're hoping this version of the tracker will be the best yet. In addition to our "Santa Cam" footage, geo-located photos from Panoramio will be viewable in Google Maps for each of Santa's stops that don't include video. We've also included a few new ways to track Santa. With Google Maps for mobile, anyone can keep tabs on him from their mobile phones (just activate GMM and search for "norad santa"). You can also receive updates from "Bitz the Elf" on Twitter by following @noradsanta. And of course, be sure to visit www.noradsanta.org tomorrow morning starting at 6:00 am EST when Santa's journey begins. Enjoy, and see you in 2009!

Posted by Brian McClendon, Original Google Engineering Elf

Do you notice that Facebook is doing contextual ads triggered by images on the page? Notice the ads of FreeBSD on the right side and the two girls pic on the left side. The ads match objects in the photo. This is awesome.