Back a number of months ago I started using this online invoicing and time tracking program from a company in Toronto, Canada called FreshBooks.

As a new user they offer you the use of the program for FREE and the only limitation on the free account is that it is limited to 3 clients.

This is perfect for me, as a freelance web designer, as I can now track the time I spend on each client and their project and the program automatically inserts that time into an invoice for the client.

You can choose to have the invoice emailed to the client or have it sent via snail mail. It is very customizable for each client, project, billing rate and you can even add your logos to the online program (as I have) to let your client log-in and view their invoices online in a custom site that you can design to have it look like it is your own online invoicing application.

It is pretty easy to set up, but if you want to customize the look it might take you a few hours to fully set up the site. The help section is easy to use and does actually help.

You can have it send late notices and create reports. It is a serious time saving application for the freelance professional.

Since I now have more clients I happily needed more than the 3 free clients and upgraded to the $14/month plan, which lets me control up to 25 clients at a time, all with unlimited number of invoices you can send, full customer support (M-F 9-6 EST), data backups, unbranded emails and more.

There also is a very cool Mac OS X widget that allows me to have the small widget open in Dashboard and log time for any client and project I want, then submit those hours to the online program, all without having to be logged into the online web site of FreshBooks. And you can start and stop this timer many times before submitting the hours worked.

I urge you to go to FreshBooks and test drive the program yourself. Yes, my links to it are affiliate links (I try to be up front about this), but this only costs them a portion of the signup cost (nothing if you are just trying out the free version).

I stumbled across a discount of 30% for the service by signing up for a membership at a freelance help site called Freelancer's Union. They have health insurance, a job board, events, freelancing advocacy and a directory of freelancers. You should join this just for these benefits alone. The discounts are a bonus to membership. So if you want to get 30% off any level of service you buy with this great freelancing invoicing and time tracking tool, go there and sign up first.

Note: I did wind up having to call to get them to give me a code to get the 30% off, but the customer service people at FreshBooks were so nice and helpful, it only took a couple of minutes for me to save about $50 a year off the service.

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Put your coins in here!

Got another possible job on the horizon. A good friend of mine, whom we call "Sleeper", told a friend I went to college with to call me about working on their companies web site.

I spoke with him on Friday and we are talking about the project. It is for a company that is involved in the coin laundry industry. i think they sell those big machines you see in a coin laundry.

I should know in a day or so if I will get the job or not.

It sounds like a fun project. It's always interesting when you get a job from someone you are friends with or know from your past. There is always that awkward part about dealing with the fee.

At times people you know expect some type of discount, other times it is all business and this never enters into the discussion.

This is my first post about my web design freelance experience.

I have seen over the last week an increase in potential. I kept getting these little feelers that a number of little jobs were about to start and today I find myself somewhat employed again.

Last week a referral from my sister Myra Moskowitz landed me a small job for the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation working on their web site fixing code and some design issues. I put in an afternoon there on Thursday with the promise of more later in the month after the busy/crazy period is over for them.

Last week there was another referral from my mom working for a friend on 3 small sites. I have done bit of preliminary work on that, but am waiting for the client to get me more material.

Last week I did a short software lesson with a guy I met at the Dallas eBaybes & eMales Meetup.com group I belong to. It was on a Mac shareware program called Garage Sale that I use for listing auctions on eBay. If you have a Mac and do eBay, check out the program as it has a number of excellent features. He gave my business card to a friend and tomorrow I am meeting with the friend to start a small site for an antiques business in Jefferson, TX.

And today my many emails to postings on Craigslist finally paid off. I am starting with a company in Euless, TX called TowerOS tomorrow for a 20-30 hour a week gig designing and coding ecommerce stores. The stores are ProStores, which is an eBay company.

I am also awaiting more work from a client, Joie De Deux, that I have been working for since I was still a student a few years back.

See, when it rains, it pours.

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The new free WordPress magazine style theme, by designer Andrew Lindstrom of the blog Wellmedicated.com is a sharp looking theme.

The theme, just released, is cross browser compatable, widget ready in the sidebar and footer, ad ready and validates in XHTML and CSS.

And did I say it was free.

Great work Andrew. This is the 2nd free theme of Andrew's that I have downloaded. The other one was his great theme Grass Roots, which I have already reviewd on my casual/family blog The Life of Buford.

I wish I had the time to create some of these free themes. It does look like a lot of fun coming up with these ideas. I might just have to take a crack at making one too.