Nowadays, there are plenty of freelancers around the web offering all kinds of services you can imagine. As a freelancer yourself, the question rises, which category of freelancing do I fall into?

Oh, but wait…

What kind of freelancers are there? From working with numerous freelancers, I find there are two categories it all boils down to.

1. Specialized Freelancers – Individuals in this category are highly specialized in one field of web development. This is usually in graphic design, a coding language, domaining, search engine optimization, or internet marketing.

2. Know-it-All Freelancers – These folks know just about everything you need and can create a website from start-to-finish all by themselves (or so they say).

The question I recently came across, is am I a generalist or specialist? This, I believe is a very important focal point in every freelancers ‘career’ and it is important to know which path you wish to take.

Let’s examine the advantages and disadvantages of each category.

Freelance Generalists

Advantages

• These guys can usually solve all of your web development problems quickly. They hold a large databank of knowledge of the entire development process and visualize the entire process from a birds-eye view.
• The end product may turn out better since the individual knows what they want the results to be and take only the necessary steps to achieve that goal. In essence, these people are very results-driven.

Disadvantages

• Do not know everything like they think. While they do know a little about a lot, the majority does not know everything at the level a specialized freelancer would.
• Development process takes a long time. Doing an entire website development project, for example, may be fairly time-consuming and even stressful at times. Breaking up the work between several specialized developers would be a much better approach.
• The end product may not turn out as excellent as a client would expect. This is due to the fact that an individual who works with all aspects of the development process tends to lose that creativity flow and some things become overlooked along the way.

Freelance Specialists

Advantages

• Highly specialized in one (or several) key areas. The folks I’m talking about are graphic designers, hardcore coders, internet marketers, and SEO guru’s. These guys and gals know their thing inside-out and their work is not disappointing.
• Their creative juice does not stop! They work hard and fast and know what they’re doing. I particularly enjoy working with designers who have absolutely no end to their creativity.

Disadvantages

• Do not always see ‘the big picture’. A naturally talented designer loves to design. It’s their thing. But sometimes you can over-do your job and add too many unnecessary elements to your design, that it becomes a hassle to code and does not serve any particular purpose to the user.
• Are limited to only what they can do. If you’ve got talent, sooner or later you’ll come across a client who will want more than what you can do. Knowing design is great, but knowing how to slice up a design and turn it into some structured XHTML is even better.

Final Thoughts

• There is no right way of being a ‘freelancer’. The only right way to success is being unique and consistent.
• To be most efficient and productive in the development process is to have one or two freelance generalists who see the big pictures, and a group of specialists who can develop flawless work. This structure will lead to a very successful and results-driven development firm.
• Personally, I found it inevitable to  be specialized in design only. I could never find a good enough PHP coder and while I have not had any formal training in coding, little by little I began to understand systems, databases, marketing, and so forth. I cannot say I am specialized in any of those areas because I am not, but the knowledge I gained from learning the core aspects of the entire development process has enabled me to know how to work with specialists in those areas and direct them effectively and explain the job in a language they understand.

I would really appreciate some input on this. This is something I have seen through my personal career and would like to know if others have gone through the same phase in their life.

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Often times as businessmen, we come in contact with other business people, individuals from other companies, executives, and other influential people. Therefore, it is important to know how to approach individuals in a manner in which you come off being an outstanding, credible, honest, friendly, and nice person.

The following are 50 tips to help you succeed as an expert communicator:

1. Great posture, heads up look, smile, direct gaze

2. Don’t smile immediately. Pause, look into the other person, then smile.

3. With ladies: eyes on them. With guys: eyes slightly sticky.

4. Posture: door frame

5. Talk with people as with an old friend.

6. Don’t fidget.

7. Track listener’s reaction and plan what to say (tapping horse).

8. Visualize yourself before you act.

9. Match people’s moods for a moment

10. Meeting people? Wear a “whatz that?!”

11. Want to meet someone? Ask “who’s that” to someone you know.

12. Want to get into a conversation? Eavesdrop.

13. When asked “Where are you from?” provide facts or cool things about you.

14. Asked about job? Don’t give bare answers.

15. Revive a conversation by being a word detective.

16. Have the spotlight on the other person.

17. Parroting: repeat what the person said.

18. Talk about positive things in your life.

19. The latest news: don’t leave without it.

20. Don’t say: “What do you do?” Instead: “How do you spend most of your time?”

21. Don’t say: “I’m a web designer” Instead: “I help people create successful websites to promote their business.”

22. Nutshell Resume – different oral resume to different types of people.

23. Find synonyms for ordinary words: smart, nice, pretty, good

24. Instead of wonderful, say splendid, superb, extraordinary

25. When you have something in common with someone, the longer you don’t tell them that, the more moved they’ll be when you reveal it.

26. CommYOUnication: use “Can you”, “You’ll see”, “You look great”…focus on you, not me or I.

27. Don’t use the same smile to every person you come across; distinguish them.

28. Never make a joke at someone else’s expense.

29. When someone wants to persist on an unwelcome subject, simply repeat the same answer every time.

30. Don’t slobber over celebrities. If complimenting, complement very recent work.

31. Never say just “thank you”. Elaborate.

32. If you want to speak the language of a certain profession, ask a friend who speaks the lingo.

33. Before jumping into a conversation, find out that industry’s latest buzz.

34. Get deals made by talking like an insider.

35. Watch how people move. Copy them and you’ll be of the “same class”.

36. Echo nouns, verbs, adjectives to act like “an old friend”.

37. Evoke listener’s interests and weave images around it. With footballers, talk in “football lingo”.

38. Employ emphasizers : don’t say “uhuh”, instead use complete statements.

39. Anatomically correct empathizers: speak in the sense the person understands best. If they’re visual, use “visuary” words.

40. Use “we” instead of “you and me”

41. Have an “inside joke” – a special moment between you and the other person. Use it in conversations with that person.

42. Compliment people through the “grapevine” rather than directly.

43. Be a carrier pigeon (carry on good news).

44. Give a few comments in a conversation that praise the person subtly.

45. Echo the other persons words; how they say things.

46. Put in a few comments that pre-assure something positive about a person.

47. Sneak in a praise into your sentence.

48. Killer compliments: unique, quality. Say in private, be credible, say only 1-2 times a year.

49. Praise people the moment they do something good.

50. Boomerang comments you receive.

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