Even though Christmas has passed, I feel like I’m experiencing it all over again. Why? Because I’m excited to announce the winners of the Freelance Show’s Massive Holiday Giveaway! Our contest promotion was a huge success. Thanks so much to each person who took time to leave a comment, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Also, a heartfelt thanks to each of our sponsors, whose generosity allowed us to put together this Massive Holiday Giveaway of over $4800 worth of prizes.

We totaled everyone’s points and assigned a random prize to each of the top 28 points earners. Congratulations to each of the winners below!

We will be in contact with you with the details of how to redeem your prize. If for any reason we are not able to get in touch with you within the next two days, contact us.

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Also, a special note about one of our sponsors, shopHTML. They generously offered a one-time discount of 20% off their services to each person who entered! So even if you didn’t win a prize from below, if you entered, contact us for details on how to redeem your 20% discount to shopHTML!

Freshbooks

PRIZE:

1 year “Shuttle Bus” subscription
($288 value)

WINNER:

Eric Bannatyne

37signals

PRIZE:

1 year “Plus” subscription to any (1) of the following products (your choice!): Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack or Campfire
(up to $588 value)

WINNER:

Brandon Uttley

Campaign Monitor

PRIZE:

1 account with $200 worth of email credits
PLUS…3 free Campaign Monitor t-shirts to the winner (see the cool shirts here)
($200+ value)

WINNER:

David Wang

Things

PRIZE:

1 license for Mac
($49.95 value)

WINNER:

Josh Hemsley

Surreal CMS

PRIZE:

1 year “Designer Account” subscription
($275 value)

WINNER:

Rock Langston

Freelance Total

PRIZE:

1 year “Mega Plan” subscription
($600 value)

WINNER:

Kylie Larsson

FormSpring

PRIZE:

1 year “Business” subscription
($700 value)

WINNER:

Holly DeWolf

Client Spot

PRIZE:

Free 6 month “Basic” subscription
($60 value)

WINNER:

Brook Corwin

shopHTML

PRIZE:

1 Free PSD-to-XHTML slicing
PLUS— a one-time 20% discount to each person who enters!
($79 value)

WINNER:

iMattDev

Marketing Geeks, Inc.

PRIZE:

5 hour package for Virtual Assistant services
($189 value)

WINNER:

Trisha Everson Hadley

Jumpchart

PRIZE:

1 year “Super” subscription
($300 value)

WINNER:

Joseph Beedlow

Staction

PRIZE:

1 year “Super” subscription
($180 value)

WINNER:

May Chang

Bidsketch

PRIZE:

1 year “Premium” subscription
($288 value)

WINNER:

Jessica Kupferman

Elegant Themes

PRIZE:

1 year subscription
($19.95 value)

WINNER:

Ian M. Bridgeforth

CSS Edit

PRIZE:

(3) licenses (3 different winners!)
($130 value)

WINNERS:

1. James Costa (The Phuse)
2. Manik Rathee
3. Adam Majchrzak

Espresso

PRIZE:

(3) licenses (3 different winners!)
($260 value)

WINNERS:

1. Andrew Cohen
2. Brandon Cox
3. Kathryn V. Williams

Concentrate

PRIZE:

(5) licenses for Mac (5 different winners!)
($145 value)

WINNERS:

1. Vijay Padhariya
2. John Fuller
3. Drew Pocza
4. Barbara Holland
5. David Vosburg

Wesfed Hosting

PRIZE:

1 year “Pro” plan + 1 year Domain Registration
($135 value)

WINNER:

Enrico Bonardi

Moo

PRIZE:

200 Business Cards + 25 Greeting Cards
($100 value)

WINNER:

Renee Blair

Foxycart

PRIZE:

1 year Standard Plan
($228 value)

WINNER:

Garett Mayfield

Thanks again to all who entered as well as each of the sponsors!

In only the first two months of existence, the Freelance Show has received an overwhelming amount of support and positive comments from our readers. In appreciation of your interest and support, I have assembled a massive prize giveaway contest—just in time for Christmas!

We have some big things in store for 2010. By participating in this contest and following us on Twitter, Facebook and RSS, you’ll stay up-to-date on the latest happenings and help the Freelance Show continue to grow and become a resource of freelance advice.

A sincere and special thanks go to each of the generous companies who have contributed almost $4800 worth of prizes to this promotional giveaway.

_______________________________________________________________

Entering is quick and easy!

We have provided multiple ways to enter—each listed below.

Each time you enter, you earn points. The more points you earn, the better chance you have.

Simple enough?

When the contest ends, we will total everyone’s points and determine the top 28 points earners (that’s how many total prizes we have). Then those will be put into a random drawing to determine their prize.

You may enter each day from now until Thursday, December 24 at Midnight (EST). Winners will be announced here on the Freelance Show on Tuesday, December 29.

_______________________________________________________________

Ways to Enter…

We’ve made it quick and easy to enter in many different ways and earn lots of entry points! Remember you can continue to build points each day until the contest ends!

Follow us on Twitter (2 points)

______________

Become a Fan on our Facebook page (2 points)

______________

Subscribe to our RSS feed by email (2 points)

______________

Tweet the contest, using @freelanceshow and #fscontest in your tweet (2 points for each tweet*)

Here are some example tweets you can use to make it even more convenient.

• Great contest @freelanceshow! $4800 worth of great prizes donated by some awesome companies! http://bit.ly/7tTDCS #fscontest

• Just entered huge giveaway from @freelanceshow. Easy to enter and lots of great prizes! Check it out http://bit.ly/7tTDCS #fscontest

• Have you seen the Massive Holiday Giveaway by @freelanceshow yet? $4800 in prizes for freelancers: http://bit.ly/7tTDCS #fscontest

• I just entered the Massive Holiday Giveaway by @freelanceshow. Awesome prizes from great companies! http://bit.ly/7tTDCS #fscontest

______________

Post a comment below and list your biggest challenges or questions in freelancing
We will use these to form upcoming blog posts! (2 points total)

______________

Write a blog post about this contest (5 points**)

______________

Post a video about this contest to YouTube (5 points**)

_______________________________________________________________

The Rules…

There is a maximum of one prize per person. You will be randomly matched with a prize from the list below. No substitutions or cash value given. All decisions are final.

If you enter multiple ways, and your account names do not match, send us an email (or comment below) listing your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube account names so we can make sure to match them up when totaling your points!

* We do not encourage spamming your friends or followers. To that extent, we will only count a maximum of 10 tweets per day, per entrant. Any tweets beyond 10 per day will not be counted. Excessive entries derived from automated means (scripts for example) will be disqualified.

** If you write a blog post or submit a video to YouTube, you must either email us the link, or leave the link in the comments section below, by the contest deadline in order to have your points counted.

_______________________________________________________________

$4800 worth of prizes listed below!

Scroll down to see all of the prizes offered during our Massive Holiday Giveaway.

Freshbooks

PRIZE:

1 year “Shuttle Bus” subscription
($288 value)

37signals

PRIZE:

1 year “Plus” subscription to any (1) of the following products (your choice!):
Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack or Campfire
(up to $588 value)

Campaign Monitor

PRIZE:

1 account with $200 worth of email credits
PLUS…3 free Campaign Monitor t-shirts to the winner (see the cool shirts here)
($200+ value)

Things

PRIZE:

1 license for Mac
($49.95 value)

Surreal CMS

PRIZE:

1 year “Designer Account” subscription
($275 value)

Freelance
Total

PRIZE:

1 year “Mega Plan” subscription
($600 value)

FormSpring

PRIZE:

1 year “Business” subscription
($700 value)

Client Spot

PRIZE:

Free 6 month “Basic” subscription
($60 value)

shopHTML

PRIZE:

1 Free PSD-to-XHTML slicing
PLUS— a one-time 20% discount to each person who enters!
($79 value)

Marketing Geeks, Inc.

PRIZE:

5 hour package for Virtual Assistant services
($189 value)

Jumpchart

PRIZE:

1 year “Super” subscription
($300 value)

Staction

PRIZE:

1 year “Super” subscription
($180 value)

Bidsketch

PRIZE:

1 year “Premium” subscription
($288 value)

Elegant Themes

PRIZE:

1 year subscription
($19.95 value)

CSS Edit

PRIZE:

(3) licenses (3 different winners!)
($130 value)

Espresso

PRIZE:

(3) licenses (3 different winners!)
($260 value)

Concentrate

PRIZE:

(5) licenses for Mac (5 different winners!)
($145 value)

Wesfed Hosting

PRIZE:

1 year “Pro” plan + 1 year Domain Registration
($135 value)

Moo

PRIZE:

200 Business Cards + 25 Greeting Cards
($100 value)

Foxycart

PRIZE:

1 year Standard Plan
($228 value)

Thanks again to all of the sponsors for donating these great prizes. Good luck to everyone who enters! Remember, you can enter every day until Thursday, December 24 at Midnight (EST).

There are many good, web-based tools for freelancers to create and send invoices and track payments. Some are streamlined apps that simply get the job done and others incorporate a more full list of features such as time tracking, contact management, online payments and more. Many will let you customize the invoices and admin area to match your branding, which is important for designers.

For myself, I recently switched from being a long-time Quickbooks user to Freshbooks. I love how I can easily brand the system and invoices and how it integrates with so many third party apps.

I wanted to share several different invoicing tools for you to consider—as everyone’s needs and preferences are different.

In the end, the best tool for you is the one that you feel the most comfortable with using! Fortunately, most include either a trial period or a limited free version that you can use and then upgrade if you wish.

If you use any of these, please comment below about why you chose that particular tool. I know there are many not included here, of course, so feel free to comment on what application you use and why you like it as well!

1. Freshbooks
Freshbooks allows you to send, track and collect payments quickly. It’s great for teams, freelancers and service providers. You can brand the system and invoices with your logo and colors. Freshbooks can track expenses and allow you to re-bill clients on project expenses. Integrates with many third party apps. Accept online payments and even send snail mail invoices with a return envelope for the client’s convenience.

Free plan available (manage up to 3 clients)
Pricing: From $19 per month for 25 clients

http://www.freshbooks.com

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2. Blinksale
Blinksale makes sending invoices and tracking payments simple. Send elegantly formatted invoices. Customize invoices with your own CSS. Even import clients from Basecamp.

30 day free trial
Pricing: From $6 per month for 6 invoices/mo.

http://www.blinksale.com

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3. FreeAgent
Invoice your clients and track your expenses, and FreeAgent works out your accounts and what you owe the tax man. Track the time you spend on projects and generate flexible timesheet reports. Send professional, branded estimates and track their progress as they’re sent, approved and converted to invoices. Import electronic bank statements into FreeAgent’s online banking features.

30 day free trial
Pricing: $20 per month or pre-pay 12 months for the price of $10/mo.

http://www.freeagentcentral.com

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4. Less Accounting
Save time and frustration with Less Accounting. Create proposals and easily change them into invoices. Quickly view who owes you money in the dashboard. Track expenses with nightly bank data aggregation. Import your Quickbooks company file. Integrates with many third party apps. Invite your CPA, accountant or bookeeper to access and download your account.

Free plan available (limited use of invoices, expenses and accounting reports)
Pricing Plans: From $12 per month

http://lessaccounting.com

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5. The Invoice Machine
Simplify your invoicing with a beautiful and simple-to-use interface and professional looking invoices. Track your time with the built-in billing timer. Automatically send out thank you and reminder emails. See which invoices have been sent, paid or are due.

Free plan available (3 invoices)
Pricing Plans: From $12 per month for 30 invoices/mo.

http://invoicemachine.com

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6. Freelance Total
Freelance Total takes care of your clients, projects, time, invoices and sales so you can focus on doing work. Quickly get an overview of your clients and see what leads, projects and invoices are associated with each. Manage their contact information and make notes a client. Supports International currency and taxes and allows you to set tasks and reminders. Manage projects, track time and record expenses.

Free plan available (1 client) and a 30 day free trial on all plans
Pricing Plans: From $4.95 per month for up to 10 clients

http://www.freelancetotal.com

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7. Ronin
Simple online invoicing and time tracking for creative teams and solo freelancers. Manage clients, projects, invoices and estimates. Supports multiple currencies, recurring invoices and online payment.

Free plan available (2 clients)
Pricing Plans: From $15 per month for up to 30 clients

http://www.roninapp.com

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8. Invoice Journal
Invoice your clients for free. Send an unlimited number of invoices to an unlimited number of clients at no cost. Browse, sort and search all of your invoices quickly. Add custom taxes, fees and discounts to each item or globally. Send invoices in multiple currencies under the same account.

Cost: Free

http://invoicejournal.com

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9. Billings
Billings is a Mac OS X invoicing tool that generates professional looking invoices with your logo and contact details. Choose from 30 included templates. Track time and expenses using the convenient menu bar timer. Keep up with who owes you and send statements to your overdue clients. Set up recurring invoices.

Cost: $39.99 for 1 user ($25 for an upgrade from previous version)

http://www.billingsapp.com

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10. Zoho Invoices
Create, send and manage invoices, quotes and customer payments online. Supports multiple currencies. Track invoices, send reminders, accept payments online and acknowledge receipts.

Free plan available (5 invoices/estimates)
Pricing Plans: From $8 per month for up to 25 invoices per mo.

http://invoice.zoho.com

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11. Cashboard
Time tracking, invoicing, estimates and online payments done your way. Integrates with Basecamp. Fully customize Cashboard’s appearance with your own branding. Set up recurring invoices and accept deposits for work up front and easily apply the credit to your invoices.

Free plan available (1 client,  2 active projects) and 15 day free trial
Pricing Plans: From $10 per month plus a 25¢ per client invoiced per month (1 included for free)

http://www.getcashboard.com

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12. Ballpark
Ballpark centralizes communication with your team and clients into an easy use system that simplifies the process for everyone. Collaboratively send invoices and estimates, keep track of current and future projects and receive online payments.

Free plan available (3 estimates, 1 invoice) and Free 30 day trial
Pricing Plans: From $12 per month for 10 estimates and 5 invoices per mo.

http://www.getballpark.com

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13. Xero
Xero is an online accounting system that gives you and your advisors easy access to your bank transactions, invoices, reports anytime and anywhere. It supports multiple currencies and automatic bank feeds for easy reconciliation.

Free 30 day trial and a free demo version
Pricing: $29 per month or pre-pay for 12 months and save $59

http://www.xero.com

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14. CurdBee
A versatile invoicing tool that allows for your own branding, overdue reminders, thank you emails, online payments, SSL, taxes, discounts, multiple currencies and multiple contacts per client. There are some additional add-on modules available as well.

Standard version is free
Pricing: $5 per month for Pro version

http://www.curdbee.com

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15. Billing Boss
Billing Boss is a free online invoicing tool designed to easily create, send and track the status of invoices. You can even invite your accountant to share your data. Accept online payments and quickly see how much you’ve billed out, what is paid and which invoices are overdue.

Cost: Free

http://www.billingboss.com

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16. Intervals
Intervals is a web-based project management tool that streamlines time tracking, task management and invoicing. Upload files you need to manage your projects and tasks and quickly retrieve and share them. Customize the branding and tailor it to your business processes and workflow.

Free plan available (1 project) and free 30-day trial
Pricing: From $20 per month for up to 15 active projects

http://www.myintervals.com

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17. CannyBill
Easily create, send and manage invoices and accept payments online. Automate invoice and late payment reminders. Sell subscriptions, products or services using web-based order forms. Even allows you to sell domain names, SSL certificates and web hosting from within your account.

Free plan available (up to 5 active clients, 10 monthly invoices)
Pricing: From $16.27 per month for up to 25 clients

http://www.cannybill.com

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18. Net2Invoice
Track time, invoices, payments, estimates, contracts and clients with Net2Invoice.

60 day free trial
Pricing: From $6 per month for up to 15 clients

http://www.net2invoice.com

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19. Harvest
Track time, log expenses, invoice clients, keep track of accounts receivables and revenue with Harvest. Set yourself or your team up in just a few minues and instantly start tracking time and expenses. See your company’s resources in a visual, intuitive way with Harvest’s graphical reports. See how your business is distributing its time across clients, projects, people and tasks.

Free plan available (2 clients, 4 projects) and 30 day free trial
Pricing: From $12 per month for the Solo plan

http://www.getharvest.com

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20. Citrus
Create professional looking quotes and invoices online. Reduce the time to get paid by automating late payment reminder emails. Track time against different projects and generate invoices from timesheets and projects. Customize to match your brand.

Free plan available (to to 3 customers)
Pricing: From $7.50 per month for up to 100 customers

http://www.citrusbill.com

Well, hello there. Glad you stopped by. Let me tell you a little about this blog, what we will be covering and who is behind it.

The Freelance Show is here to offer tips, advice, articles and resources to graphic designers, web designers and other creative entrepreneurs who are new to freelancing—or who have haven been freelancing for a while, but want to grow their business.

My name is Neil Brown, founder of the Freelance Show. I have freelanced and worked as a Creative Director for a little over 12 years now. I now run my design business, Brown Advertising, full-time from my home office in NC. I cut my teeth in print design, getting in on the tail end of some archaic paste up duties involving a wax machine, layout sheets, an X-acto™ knife and border tape. (Man, in some ways, I miss those days!).

I am passionate and fascinated by the advances in web design and technology. I was a little slow to entering the web design arena but now it makes up the majority of my design business. I feel I’ve learned a lot about design—and a lot about business and dealing with clients.

One thing I that has been constant over my career is that I enjoy helping others who are just starting out, or really anyone who I can help. It’s certainly not to say I know it all, nor have encountered every situation because I am still actively learning and growing my business to take it to that next level myself.

I also enjoy teaching, which I do on occasion as an adjunct instructor in the graphic design department of my local community college. So the Freelance Show is the natural progression of me wanting to help and teach others and, in turn, continue to grow and develop myself. It’s a win-win combination of giving back to the community and getting in return.

I hope to offer a friendly, casual and helpful environment at the Freelance Show where designers and other creatives can throw out ideas, contribute to conversations and develop relationships. I try not to take myself too seriously and if I have an occasional typo, please forgive me—I don’t write for a living

So again, welcome, and I sincerely hope you return to visit and take a few moments to interact here by leaving comments and adding your points to the articles.

Here’s to your freelance success!

Cheers,

Neil Brown

…

Photo by Takomabibelot