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Welcome to Freelance Blend!

Hello Freelancer,

Thank you very much for joining the premier freelancer

community in the Philippines, Freelance Blend.

We promise to deliver to your inbox valuable content in the form

of blog posts, videos, podcast episodes, events, webinars, meetups
an a lot more. If you haven’t done so, please add my email
address, marv@freelanceblend.com, in your address book so that
our emails won’t get thrown to your spam folder (not good ).

Meanwhile, as our way of saying “thank you” for trusting us with

your email address, we would like to give you this free e-book
showcasing the most awesome apps, tools and resources that you,
the freelancer, should have in your toolbox to become a more
sane and productive person that you already are.

Enjoy!

All the best,

Marv de Leon
Founder – Freelance Blend
@freelanceblend

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Productivity
As a freelancer, you would need applications that you can take
with you wherever you plan to work – at home, at the coffee
shop, at a co-working space, or at your neighborhood internet
shop.

Google’s apps are all based in the cloud, which means you can
work at different places during the day without skipping a
beat. It will also mean that your information is safe because it
resides in the cloud and will still remain there even if your
device gets lost or your hard drive becomes corrupted (knock
on wood).

Gmail (free) – Google’s web-based email application

that literally made Hotmail, Rocketmail and soon
Yahoo Mail obsolete.

Calendar (free) – Google’s web-based calendar

application that I use to schedule my life, set
meetings and create alerts. It can also sync with
your iOS and Andriod device.

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Chrome (free) – Google’s web browser that can

store the bookmarks of your favorite sites and your
browsing history in the cloud. You can also install
Chrome Extensions for extra functionality (see later
topic).

Sheets (free) – Google’s version of Excel but it’s free

and can be accessed and edited from your iOS or
Android device.

Docs (free) - Google’s version of Word. It’s also free

and can be accessed and edited from your iOS or
Android device.

Alerts (free) – Monitor and alerts you whenever a

word or set of words are mentioned anywhere in
cyberspace.

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Meanwhile, here are smartphone or tablet apps that you can

use to keep your life organized and make you ready to face a
variety of freelancer tasks for the day.

30/30 (free) – A task-manager app that helps

breakdown your day-to-day job into small tasks and
lets you time each task. You will feel accomplished
each day using this app.

Reminders (free) – An iOS app that comes free with

the device. It’s a simple checklist or to-do list app
that looks your binder notebook in highschool.

Wunderlist (free) – An upgraded version of

Reminders. It’s also a to-do list app that has a
stunning design and a share feature.

SimpleMind (free and paid)* – A mind-mapping tool

that I use for brainstorming ideas for my blogs,
podcasts, businesses and a lot more. It comes with
an iOS and Mac OS X version.

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St@sh (free and paid)* – A smart briefcase tool

where you can save confidential docs, pictures and
videos. Your spouse will hate this app.

IFTTT (free)* – An incredible app that let’s you

automate tasks, for example, automatically sending
tweets to Twitter from your Feedly account or
backing up your iPhone photos or contacts in
Evernote. The possibilities are endless.

Communication
Skype (free) – Long gone are the days of
international calls when this innovative app
appeared. Imagine spending thousands just to chat
with your client? This is a must-have for all
freelancers.

Hangouts (free)* – Google’s video group calling

service that will not only replace Skype soon but
other expensive online meeting and webinar
services like GoToMeeting. Great for face-to-face
collaboration with your team of freelancers.

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Design

Canva (free)* – A web-based design tool that lets

you create stunning graphic art for your Facebook,
Twitter and Google Plus cover as well as posters for
your blog.

Email Management

Followup.cc (free)* – Do you forward an email to

yourself just to remind yourself to work on that
email in the future? Followup.cc is an intuitive
email service that automatically sends “follow up”
emails to you or your contacts by forwarding an email to a
predefined email address (e.g. 2pm@followup.cc or
2pm@followup.cc). Really awesome.

Unroll.me (free) – Another email service that “rolls”

all your unwanted or read-later emails in one daily
email so that you do not miss your more important
messages.

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File Sharing

Drive (free) – Google’s cloud drive service that gives

you free 15 GBs of space. Very handy especially if
you are sending large files that cannot be emailed
to a client.

Dropbox (free) – A cloud drive service that provides

2 GBs of free space. You need to pay a monthly fee
for more space. You can use Dropbox once you
have used up your Google Drive space.

Finance

Paypal (free) – The default payment method for

freelancers and entrepreneurs alike. You just need
to enroll with your email address, link it to your
credit card, and then accept or send payments
online. Ka-ching!

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Note-Taking
Notes (free) – Apple’s note-taking application that
comes free with the iPhone, iPad and Mac. I use it
to jot down all my ideas while on the go in my
iPhone then sync it with Mac for post-editing of my
notes.

Evernote (free and paid)* – Notes on steroids. This

wonderful app allows you to compile all your notes
in a folder. Aside from text, you can also store
audio and images in the cloud, with a limit of 60
MBs per upload per month for the free version.

Chrome Extensions
Special apps called extensions are available in Chrome. These
apps appear in the toolbar whenever you fire up Chrome, even
in other devices as long as you are logged into Google.
Coolness. Here are some Chrome Extensions that you’ll love.

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LastPass (free)*– It is a password management tool

that securely stores all your usernames and
passwords in all the websites that you use and it
can also generate strong passwords for you. When
you go to a website, with just a click of a button, the username
and password magically appear.

Strict Workflow (free) – Based on the Pomodoro

technique, this extension lets you strictly focus on
your task for 25 minutes, all while disallowing
distractions by blocking Facebook, Twitter and
other websites. This app is as strict as your 3rd grade teacher.

Screencasting

Screenr (free) – A free web-based screen-sharing

tool. Let’s you share your screen instantly to your
team or client. Limited to only 5 minutes of screen-
fdf recording.

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Screenflow ($99)* – A paid screen-sharing software

for the Mac. Unlimited time to record your screen.

Social Media Management

Hootsuite (free and paid)* – This app allows you to

manage all your social media profiles in one screen
and also lets you automate posts.

fdf
Buffer (free and paid) – Like Hootsuite, this app lets
you automate your social media status updates. It
creates a “buffer” of posts that you can spread
throughout the day, with a maximum of 10 posts
per day for the free account.

Writing

fdf
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ByWord ($4.99) – A writing app for iOS and Mac. It

is a simple word processor without all the
distractions, which helps you focus on creating
excellent content.

Audio

Spotify (free) – I love music but there are times

when you run out of songs or playlists to play on

fdf
your media player. With Spotify, you just browse
through the pre-defined playlists according to
different categories – mood, workout, coffee shop, alternative,
etc. It’s like having your very own radio station.

Podcasts (free)* – Podcasts are my life. I listen to at

least one everyday. It keeps me updated on the
latest in freelancing, online business, social media,
sports and entertainment. It keeps me company
during the rush hour traffic. The iOS Podcasts app is my
bestfriend.

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Books
Kindle (free)* – I can’t remember the last time I
bought a physical book since discovering Kindle a
few years ago. Buying books has never been as
easy and efficient. And since the price is usually the

fdf
same or sometimes cheaper, it’s a no brainer to just download
an ebook from Kindle than go to a bookstore to buy one.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki –

This book changed by life and taught me
what real assets are from liabilities. A
few years after reading this book, I took
action and purchased a foreclosed house
to turn into a rental property.

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Multiple Streams of Income by Robert Allen

– After reading Rich Dad, I became
obsessed with finding supplemental income
sources and this book gave me all the
insights that I needed to create multiple
streams of passive income.

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss* – A

must-read for all freelancers. This book
gave me ideas on how to create a lifestyle
business for myself and is also full of tools
and resources which became my inspiration
for this ebook.

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The Lean Startup by Eric Ries – The concept of

the minimum viable product is something that
I try to practice in my online and offline
businesses.

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh* – I gave

this book as a gift to my business partner
because I admired Tony’s passion to provide
the best customer experience and I wanted
to ingrain that into our own company’s
culture.

* Items in asterisk are my personal favorites.

** Some links are affiliate links.

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Thanks for downloading this free ebook. For more tips,

resources and inspiration, please head on over to our website,
FreelanceBlend.com.

Join the Tribe!

Podcast -> FreelanceBlend.com/iTunes

Meetup -> Meetup.com/FreelanceBlendManila
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Twitter -> @FreelanceBlend
Instagram -> @FreelanceBlend

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